firm
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES
 
 A CLOUD 
 OF WITNESSES 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNA DE KOVEN 
 
 (MRS. REGINALD DE KOVEN) 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 JAMES H. HYSLOP, Ph.D., LL.D. 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 
 FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH 
 
 NEW YORK 
 E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 681 FIFTH AVENUE
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY 
 E. P. BUTTON & COMPANY 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
 Firit printing February, 1980 
 
 Second printing March, 1920 
 
 Printed In the United States of America
 
 IN ORDER THAT SHE 
 THO' DEAD, MAY YET SPEAK 
 
 THIS BOOK 
 HER MEMORIAL 
 
 IS COMPILED BY ONE OF THE 
 MANY WHO BEAR HER 
 
 IN 
 PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE
 
 It will be proved in the future, I do not know 
 when or where, that also in this life the human 
 soul stands in an indissoluble communion with 
 all the immaterial beings of the spiritual world, 
 that it produces effects therein and in exchange 
 receives impressions ffom them, without how- 
 ever becoming conscious of them as long as all 
 stands well. It would be a blessing if such a 
 systematic constitution of the spiritual world 
 as conceived by us had not merely to be inferred 
 from the too hypothetical conceptions of the 
 spiritual nature generally, but would be in- 
 ferred or at least conjectured as probable from 
 real and generally acknowledged observations. 
 
 Immanuel Kant.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 IN giving the records of what I believe to 
 be actual communications from relations and 
 beloved friends who have passed from the earth, 
 I am moved by a profound conviction that any 
 facts which tend to prove that the soul is im- 
 mortal should not be withheld. I think it my 
 duty to present them and leave it to the judg- 
 ment of my readers as to their significance and 
 to their imagination to account for them. In 
 promulgating the possible analogy between the 
 formula of materialized organisms, as stated 
 by Dr. Geley, with the "mentally manipulated" 
 substance of the other world I wish to disavow 
 any assumption that it is scientifically proved. 
 Again, in quoting Sir William Crookes' hypo- 
 thesis regarding the peculiar organization of 
 the nerve ganglia of the sensitive, I state only 
 that Mrs. Vernon's method of receiving the 
 communications which I publish seems to con- 
 firm his hypothesis. 
 
 This hypothesis, which suggests the impact 
 of thought waves upon peculiarly organized or 
 developed nerve ganglia, is, however, in defi- 
 
 vii
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 nite accord with the universal wave theory of 
 the transmission of light and heat and sound, 
 and hence can be received without undue in- 
 credulity. Possessed of no explanation which 
 can lead to a refusal to believe that my friends 
 have sent me these messages, and constrained 
 by the expression of their desire that they 
 should be published, I obey their behest. 
 
 That the inexpressible joy which this proof 
 of their continued and happy existence has 
 given to me may bring comfort and hope to 
 others, is the object of this book and my pro- 
 foundest desire.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 INTRODUCTION BY JAMES H. HYSLOP 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. "LA CARAVANS PASSE, MALGR^ LES 
 
 ABOIEMENTS DBS CHIENS" .... 1 
 
 II. MRS. VERNON 37 
 
 III. "LOVELY AND BEAUTIFUL IN THEIR LIVES, 
 
 IN DEATH THEY WERE NOT DIVIDED" 43 
 
 IV. "ON EARTH THE BROKEN ARCS" . . 53 
 V. "!N HEAVEN THE PERFECT ROUND" . 106 
 
 VI. THE INVESTIGATORS 171 
 
 VII. MB. EDWIN FRIEND 191 
 
 VIII. OLD ACQUAINTANCES 227 
 
 IX. A RECORD OF MATERIALIZATION . . . 239 
 
 X. AND OUR LAST ENEMY Is DEATH . 249
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 BY JAMES HYSLOP 
 
 I PEBSONALLY knew the chief parties involved 
 in this record. Mrs. de Koven's father I knew 
 as a member of the Board of Trustees of Lake 
 Forest University, when I was a teacher there. 
 Her mother I knew at the same time, and Mrs. 
 de Koven herself as a student there. The per- 
 sonality involved in the record, I also knew at 
 that time. These facts enable me to assure the 
 reader that the author is no ordinary adven- 
 turer or curiosity monger, in the field of psychic 
 research. She is the author of a "Life of Paul 
 Jones" which has a place on the shelves of biog- 
 raphy, and she is the wife of Mr. Reginald de 
 Koven, the composer of well-known operas. 
 
 These statements suffice to give the proper 
 setting to what follows in this book. Mrs. de 
 Koven seems to have had no interest in psychic 
 research until the death of her sister, to whom 
 she was devotedly attached, and the shock of 
 this loss, as in thousands of other cases, brought 
 her up at once to the realization that she had 
 no philosophic or religious view of the world
 
 xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 that would enable her to reconcile herself to the 
 order of things. She set about trying to find 
 if there was any reason to believe that the ob- 
 ject of her affection survived death, and the re- 
 sults of her inquiries are recorded here. She 
 has not shirked the notoriety that such a de-^ 
 cision imposes, as outweighing her duty to the 
 public and to those who seek consolation for a 
 like loss. The book is the result of profound 
 convictions and is not subject to any impeach- 
 ment unless the rigid scientific sceptic chooses 
 to dispute its findings. Its motives and sin- 
 cerity cannot be questioned. 
 
 I personally know, also, Mrs. Vernon, the 
 psychic or automatist involved in the record. 
 She is a private person receiving no payment 
 whatever for her services, but giving her time 
 and effort as a labor of love. She is the wife 
 of a business man in New York City and passed 
 through a very trying ordeal in the development 
 of her psychic powers, as is often the case. No 
 taint of professionalism can touch her, and all 
 the ordinary suspicions that have attached to 
 this subject and its mercenary votaries are 
 wanting in this instance. The only thing that 
 readers have to consider is whether the data are 
 explicable by chance coincidence, guessing, or 
 normal knowledge casually acquired and thrown 
 out subconsciously without any personal recog-
 
 INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 nition of its source. Mrs. Vernon's entire igno- 
 rance of Mrs. de Koven for some time after the 
 experiments began, and the nature of the facts 
 in most instances are quite ample security 
 against the suspicion or reproach of even casual 
 knowledge on her part. So the reader has at 
 least something supernormal to explain. The 
 author does not need to go farther than to state 
 the facts and to leave them to the consideration 
 of the sceptic, whose business it will be to offer 
 evidence for a*ny theory he may entertain. 
 
 The evidential incidents will commend them- 
 selves to readers as excellent, at least in many 
 instances. Their meaning can be mistaken only 
 by the most determined sceptic, bent on not ac- 
 cepting anything supernormal. This is not the 
 place to illustrate incidents having evidential 
 interest, but those not known by Mrs. de Koven 
 and afterward verified by her will pass as giving 
 trouble to believers in telepathy, even though 
 that be conceded for what she knew. The per- 
 sonal identity of the communicator is clearly re- 
 flected in incidents which the record relates 
 and explains, and I would assign appropriate 
 value to them in any scientific judgment of their 
 character. 
 
 I would not endorse the philosophical ideas 
 expressed through Mrs. Vernon, and suggested, 
 though not asserted, by Mrs. de Koven. Nor
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 would I oppose such views if adequate evidence 
 were adduced for them. Mrs. de Koven states 
 explicitly In the Preface her own attitude to- 
 ward them. Any one has the right to think of 
 them as he pleases. The important part of the 
 material is the evidence of supernormal phe- 
 nomena, and there the emphasis may be laid, 
 while we wait for more light in the future. Mrs. 
 de Koven does not assert any philosophic con- 
 clusions, but only wonders, like many others, 
 whether they might not be a hint in the right 
 direction. 
 
 The stress of readers, however, should be on 
 the facts and their evident pertinence to the 
 doctrine of survival. That is the crux of the 
 problem and there is no reason why we should 
 not regard the record as a valuable contribution 
 to the evidence of survival.
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 LA CABAVANE PASSE, MALGRE LES ABQTJIEMENTS 
 DBS CHIENS. Arab proverb. 
 
 THE bourne from which no traveler re- 
 turns'* is no longer impenetrable, no 
 longer silent. Authentic voices have spoken 
 from behind the veil; travelers have returned, 
 visiting not only by the light of the moon, but 
 facing by full daylight the recognizing gaze of 
 those who knew their earthly forms and speech. 
 Is there proof of this? Are the human hopes 
 of immortality about to be confirmed? The an- 
 swer, based on the testimony of numberless 
 truthful witnesses, is affirmative. 
 
 Beaching in its slow development the age of 
 reason, humanity has turned the eyes of science 
 and of practical investigation upon this ac- 
 cumulated testimony, discovering not only new 
 powers in the incarnate soul, but learning that 
 those powers are significant of an endless exist- 
 
 i
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ence, a destiny of ultimate perfection, of unim- 
 aginable bliss. 
 
 The resolution of what have, from uncounted 
 ages, been considered as miraculous or super- 
 normal manifestations of human faculties into 
 normal perceptions and normal correspondences 
 with natural laws, has been the effort of the last 
 fifty years. 
 
 Yet evidence of what are called supernormal 
 phenomena exists in the earliest of human rec- 
 ords. Out of the deep night of time the dim 
 traditions of our barbaric ancestors glimmer 
 with fiery portents and tell of powerful spirits 
 of good and evil. Religion, in some of its earli- 
 est phases, is based on the manifestation of so- 
 called supernormal powers in man. Criticism 
 of the unsatisfactory behavior of a trance me- 
 dium is found on an Egyptian tomb. The 
 Pythian clairvoyants threatened and instructed 
 the Greeks from their subterranean Delphic 
 caves. Our own American Indians, near to the 
 heart of nature, often encountered the shades 
 of their returning chieftains in the painted au- 
 tumn forests or amid the deep snows of winter. 
 Their belief in an endless life was intuitive, 
 familiar, and expressed in many legends of 
 poetic beauty. 
 
 The Oriental study of the supernormal phase 
 of human perception, of the celestial autonomy
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 3 
 
 and of the progressive evolution of the soul 
 has grown into an imposing mass of theory. 
 Centuries in advance of the western world, the 
 adepts of ancient India learned to manipulate 
 the non-material part of the human organism 
 until natural laws were defied and normal 
 physiology nullified. That part of the human 
 organism called asttral has been voluntarily 
 separated from the fleshly part, and projected 
 into space. Living bodies, buried for weeks, 
 have emerged to resume their former activities. 
 
 Plotinus, the Neo-Platonist, the seer and 
 prophet, projecting his spirit through his power 
 of ecstatic vision, into the supernal realms, re- 
 turned to instruct the earth dwellers of his 
 philosophic day, regarding the life of the liber- 
 ated soul. Swedenborg, the omniscient, in a 
 library of volumes, not only revealed his intui- 
 tive knowledge of many of the later discoveries 
 of science, but in similar ecstatic voyages, fol- 
 lowed Plotinus into the infinite, returning with 
 information similar and illuminating as to the 
 superior and universal laws of the supernal 
 regions. 
 
 The legends of the Roman Catholic Church 
 are full of recorded miracles which now fall 
 into the categories of Psychic Phenomena. The 
 Sacred Word itself laid the foundation of the 
 modern belief in immortality upon the super-
 
 4 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 normal phenomenon of the resurrection of 
 Christ. 
 
 Why, then, with all this testimony, with all 
 this proof of the deathless spirit in man, has the 
 world groped so long in a darkness, relieved 
 only by the flickering beacon of the intuitive be- 
 lief in immortality? Why has it seemingly 
 preferred that darkness? Why has it hugged 
 close the agony of death, believing it to be utter 
 separation ? Why has it lingered by the closed 
 portals of the tomb? Because of the slow 
 growth of the reasoning faculty in man. Be- 
 cause also of a determined repugnance to ac- 
 cept evidence in apparent disagreement with 
 religious doctrine, and with the material inves- 
 tigations and the ever changing conclusions of 
 science. 
 
 But Science itself, with its development of 
 the reasoning faculty and a like growth in ex- 
 actitude of observation, had at last provided an 
 equipment for the examination of supernormal 
 phenomena. The rise of modern spiritualism 
 in the United States, due largely to the "Hydes- 
 ville Knockings" and the automatically in- 
 spired writings of the unlettered sage, Andrew 
 Jackson Davis, was coincident with the state- 
 ment of the evolutionary theory as promul- 
 gated by Darwin and Wallace. The represen- 
 tatives of this triumphant evolutionary mate-
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 5 
 
 rialism were summoned by the English public, 
 infuriated by the pretensions of the abhorred 
 spiritualists, to refute their statements and to 
 put to naught their doctrines. 
 
 In the year 1872, Sir William Crookes, then 
 young and in the full tide of his brilliant career 
 of important scientific discoveries, essayed to 
 put the pretensions of the celebrated English 
 medium, D. D. Home, to the test of a rigid 
 examination in his own laboratory. The re- 
 sults were startlingly different to what had 
 been confidently expected by the incredulous 
 public. Not only did Crookes assert that Home 
 had actually performed his miracles of levita- 
 tion, of the handling of live coals, and of other 
 supernormal feats before his own eyes and 
 those of many witnesses, but in experiments 
 with a medium, Miss Cook, also in his own 
 laboratory, he asserted that he had seen a 
 materialized individual appear who walked and 
 talked with him and his witnesses. Her pulse 
 was taken by Sir William; he was photo- 
 graphed, standing between Miss Cook and the 
 new individual, Miss King, and these photo- 
 graphs exist to this day, together with the later 
 testimony of Sir William as to his unaltered 
 conviction of the reality of what he had seen 
 and recorded. A storm of invective broke over 
 the head of the honest and courageous scientist,
 
 6 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 and the inventor of the Crookes tubes, the fore- 
 runner of the X-rays, the discoverer of Thal- 
 lium and other chemical elements, was forced 
 to a cessation of his psychic investigations, be- 
 lieving, probably with reason, that his splendid 
 powers would achieve better results in an un- 
 challenged field of operation and experiment. 
 
 The storm of invective still raged, and was 
 by no means abated by the publication of the 
 accounts of the examination of psychic phe- 
 nomena undertaken by the Dialectical Society. 
 This company of scientific investigators also 
 announced their conviction of the authenticity 
 of these phenomena. Thus Science investigat- 
 ing was repudiated by Science protesting, with 
 purely a priori arguments, and the public was 
 left to its helpless incredulity and dismay. 
 
 Other results of the modern coincidence of 
 developed reason with developed observation 
 were at this time beginning to make themselves 
 felt, forcing an examination of the historic 
 foundations of the long accepted doctrines of 
 the church. The mass of literature, embodying 
 what is called Modern or Higher Criticism of 
 the Bible, flooded the universities and sapped 
 the foundations of the belief in the verbal in- 
 spiration of the Bible, altered the chronological 
 sequence of its evangels, and disturbed the faith 
 of centuries. In the University of Cambridge,
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 7 
 
 Mr. F. W. H. Myers, the poet, the elegant classic 
 scholar, the devoted churchman, submitted to 
 the acid test of this disintegrating exegesis 
 with an agony of doubt. In his distress he was 
 moved at last to consult with his friend, Prof. 
 Sidgwick. Walking down the English lane 
 one starry night, he revealed to his companion 
 his despair of the scheme of things, his unwill- 
 ingness to contemplate it, deprived as he was 
 of his cherished belief in the validity of the 
 doctrines of the Church of England. "Was 
 there," he asked Prof. Sidgwick, "one hint of 
 the survival of the soul in the unsavory phe- 
 nomena of the clairvoyants, one ray of light in 
 the mass of repugnant spiritualistic doctrine! " 
 Admitting a repugnance as profound as that of 
 his friend for the deeply discredited clairvoy- 
 ants and the equally despised spiritualists, Prof. 
 Sidgwick 's conscientious accurate mind could 
 not deny that, in his opinion, such a hopeful 
 possibility might exist. A hint, he said, 
 the barest hint there might be, of the proof 
 his friend desired. To Mr. Myers it was a 
 question of life or death ; nothing less than the 
 life eternal or the death eternal of the soul. 
 To the search in the evil smelling haunts of all 
 discoverable mediums, to the examination of 
 the scientific institutions for the study of patho- 
 logical phenomena such as hypnotism and som-
 
 8 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 nambulism, he determined to devote himself. 
 Eminent as was the collection of distinguished 
 men who were his associates in the English So- 
 ciety for Psychical Research, which was found- 
 ed in the year 1882, Mr. Myers was the inspiring 
 element of that organization. His work entitled 
 ''Human Personality and its Survival of Bod- 
 ily Death/' is the epoch-making text-book of 
 the new science. In the opinion of the great 
 Genevan psychologist, Prof. Flournoy, it is its 
 first authoritative statement. "If the veil 
 which Myers lifted does not fall," says Flour- 
 noy, "he will, by this book, take his place as 
 the last of the triad of the discoverers of the 
 law of the universe, beside Copernicus who 
 discovered the cosmological law, by Darwin 
 who revealed the biological law." 
 
 The structure of his philosophy rises in five 
 closely connected stages. First, experimental 
 telepathy is established. In his conclusions re- 
 garding what now seems to general intelligence 
 as a frequent form of communication, Mr. 
 Myers referred to the many rigidly conducted 
 experiments leading to the establishment of this 
 human faculty, conducted by his co-workers in 
 the Society for Psychical Research. Many 
 thousands of experiments with hundreds of in- 
 dividuals were conducted with mathematical 
 calculations as to the possibility of coincidence
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 9 
 
 in the experiments. Mr. Podmore and Mr. 
 Gurney, who, with Mr. Myers, published the 
 first labors of the Society, in the book called 
 "Phantasms of the Living," considered that 
 the transference of an idea or image from one 
 individual to another without visible means was 
 established beyond any doubt. Telepathy, as 
 represented in their first investigation, was 
 called "experimental" because it was the con- 
 scious effort of individuals, both aware of the 
 significance of the experiments, to communicate 
 their thoughts to each other. 
 
 The second stage in the argument for sur- 
 vival which Mr. Myers presents in his book is 
 called "transitional telepathy" or transfer- 
 ence of a thought or image to another uncon- 
 scious and unaware percipient, as when an in- 
 dividual projects his own thoughts or even his 
 own exteriorized image into the presence of a 
 distant friend. Rigidly tested incidents of the 
 manifestation of this faculty in man, exercised 
 voluntarily in certain cases at the request of 
 the experimenters of the Society, were recorded 
 in "Phantasms of the Living." The third step 
 in Mr. Myers' argument is "spontaneous te- 
 lepathy," as in the numberless recorded in- 
 stances of the appearance of an individual, 
 through a projected hallucination or otherwise, 
 to those nearly related, at the moment of danger
 
 10 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 or death. The fourth stage is called "partial 
 invasion" of one mind by another, as in hyp- 
 notism. Lastly, ''complete possession" of a 
 human organism by a discarnate spirit as in 
 the case of trance mediums, such as Mrs. Piper 
 of Boston. When these spirits succeed in prov- 
 ing their identity, the last and crowning proof 
 of survival and communication is attained. In- 
 formation furnished by the possessing spirits 
 when absolutely new to both medium and sitter, 
 and afterwards verified, is called veridical. In 
 the mass of information provided by Mrs. Piper 
 alone during the twenty years in which she 
 manifested her remarkable powers, this proof 
 was furnished with an overwhelming quantity 
 of detail. The perfection of her integrity was 
 recognized by such witnesses as Prof. William 
 James of Harvard, and the completeness of her 
 unconsciousness during trance was unbroken 
 even through the cruel application of acid to 
 her tongue. 
 
 The labors of the English Society for Psy- 
 chical Research were directed primarily in 
 amassing proof of telepathic communication 
 between incarnate minds, in the study of hyp- 
 notism, somnambulism, crystal gazing, psy- 
 chometry, and other so-called supernormal 
 human faculties, as well as in the examinations 
 of ghostly appearances, hallucinations, and in
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 11 
 
 the apparitions of both discarnate and incarnate 
 personalities. This method of procedure was 
 both conservative and constructive, laying the 
 foundation for the comprehension of the powers 
 of the liberated spirit upon that of the veri- 
 fied supernormal activities and powers of 
 the still incarnate human individual. The 
 manifested powers of Mrs. Piper provided im- 
 portant evidence of the possibility of communi- 
 cation between the incarnate and the discarnate, 
 and not only all the English investigators of 
 psychic phenomena, but also those in Europe 
 and in Russia were quickly aware of their cru- 
 cial significance. Mrs. Piper had demonstrated 
 her powers for the American Society for Psy- 
 chical Research for many years, and was finally 
 invited to England to permit an investigation 
 by the members of the English Society for Psy- 
 chical Research. This investigation was con- 
 ducted with all possible tests, and before the 
 most eminent witnesses, and the records are 
 part of the subject matter of the Journals of 
 the Society. They invariably attest her integ- 
 rity and the reality of the phenomena which she 
 presented. 
 
 A very interesting phase of proof growing 
 out of the establishment of the several societies 
 for psychic research in England, France and 
 America is that furnished by their members
 
 12 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 who have died and in their discarnate form 
 have cooperated with their former associates 
 in establishing the possibility of communica- 
 tion. The method adopted by the late Mr. 
 Myers, by Professors Sidgwick, Verrall and 
 Butcher, all of the Cambridge group, showed 
 the utmost ingenuity and proved the persistence 
 of their characteristic traits and the retention 
 in their entirety of the stores of classic erudi- 
 tion which had been accumulated during life. 
 Never before had such a united and intelligent 
 intention been observable in communications 
 from the unseen. A system called that of 
 "cross correspondence" was initiated by these 
 invisible collaborators. One bit of unintelligi- 
 ble information was given to one medium, which 
 was later completed and made intelligible by 
 further information given to another medium. 
 A riddle based on the most erudite classic 
 knowledge, communicated in cryptic fragments 
 during several years and to as many as three 
 different mediums, was the invention of the 
 surviving intelligence of Prof. Butcher and 
 Prof. Verrall. The record of this finally com- 
 prehended riddle was published by Mr. Gerald 
 Balfour in a recent number of the Journal of 
 the English Society for Psychical Research, 
 under the title of the * ' Ear of Dionsyius, ' ' and 
 represents one of the most satisfactory and
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 13 
 
 successful example of "cross correspond- 
 ence. ' ' 
 
 The striking expression used by Sir Oliver 
 Lodge, in regard to the cooperation of his col- 
 laborators on the other side, expressed the ex- 
 ulting conviction that the proof of survival was 
 actually at hand. ' * Like excavators engaged in 
 boring a tunnel, from opposite ends, amid the 
 roar of water and other noises, we are begin- 
 ning to hear now and again the stroke of the 
 pickaxes of our comrades on the other side." 
 
 One of the most impressive of the communi- 
 cations which Sir Oliver relates in his book 
 "Raymond" is the capping of this sentence 
 by Mr. Myers to Lady Lodge, at her first an- 
 onymous visit to a medium after the death, of 
 her son. ' ' Tell him, ' ' said Mr. Myers, speaking 
 to the entranced medium, ' ' that he can not only 
 hear the sound of our picks on the other side of 
 the tunnel, but we have made a big hole. ' ' 
 
 It is well known that Dr. Hodgson, the late 
 deceased secretary of the American Society for 
 Psychical Research, first visited Mrs. Piper 
 with the intention of exposing the falsity of her 
 claims to mediumistic powers and that he was 
 transformed from skeptic to an ardent convert 
 to the reality of psychic phenomena and the 
 possibility of communication by his conversa- 
 tions with the discarnate spirit of his friend,
 
 14 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 George Pelham. These communications in Mr. 
 Pelham's own voice, speaking through Mrs. 
 Piper's entranced organism, were of such start- 
 ling naturalness and proffered such indubitable 
 evidence of his identity, that they not only 
 served to convert Dr. Hodgson, but remain as 
 classic evidence of the power of the discarnate 
 spirit to speak through borrowed vocal organs. 
 They may be compared in their evidentiality 
 with the records of Sir William Crookes in re- 
 gard to the phenomena of materialization. 
 
 Although the intention to apply scientific 
 methods of observation to the investigation of 
 psychic phenomena had been avowed by the 
 Psychical Research Society of England at the 
 outset of its organization, this method has been 
 for the most part applied to the examination of 
 the so-called supernormal powers of the incar- 
 nate mind, such as telepathy, and the recording 
 of what are termed the mental manifestation of 
 these powers. The investigation of psychic 
 phenomena called physical has been, since the 
 year 1906, very actively pursued by distin- 
 guished experimenters in Italy, France, and 
 Germany. The physical manifestations of the 
 celebrated Italian medium, Eusapia Palladino, 
 aroused the most intense interest, and investi- 
 gations of her powers, pursued by such men 
 as Sir William Crookes, Mr. Myers, Sir Oliver
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 15 
 
 Lodge, Lombroso, Prof. Flournoy and Dr. Max- 
 well, were followed by books of several of the 
 investigators, in which the authenticity of these 
 powers was admitted, and various theories pro- 
 pounded in explanation of them. The works 
 of Flournoy, Maxwell and Lombroso record 
 their admission that Palladino could and did 
 move heavy objects without contact, but the 
 principal object of their consideration was to 
 explain the formation of the temporary mate- 
 rialized organisms which they had all seen at 
 the Palladino seances. Prof. Flournoy de- 
 clared his conviction that a force, proceeding 
 from the medium which he called " psycho 
 dynamism" produced these temporary organ- 
 isms. Dr. Maxwell shared in this opinion, but 
 the enunciation of this hypothesis was the sum 
 of their conclusions. They were, however, only 
 the forerunners of later and more fortunate 
 investigators who not only again promulgated 
 the existence of such a force, but who have an- 
 nounced a definitive hypothesis of the creative 
 process of these organisms. This hypothesis 
 points precisely in the direction along which 
 Dr. Maxwell and Prof. Flournoy were proceed- 
 ing, to the coordination between so-called su- 
 pernormal phenomena and those called normal. 
 To ultimate knowledge, nothing is miracu- 
 lous. Every manifestation is actually in strict
 
 16 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 conformity with universal law. From new ex- 
 periments conducted recently in both France 
 and England, facts and conclusions have been 
 deduced which have this important significance. 
 They also point to a new theory of matter. An 
 astonishing fact leading to this ultimate con- 
 clusion was recorded in Dr. Maxwell's book 
 called ' ' Metapsychical Phenomena," published 
 in Bordeaux in the year 1906, several years be- 
 fore the decisive experiments in England and 
 France were conducted. This indication was 
 minute, smaller indeed than the tiny .flower 
 whose mysterious origin Tennyson thus apos- 
 trophized. 
 
 "Flower in the crannied wall, 
 
 I pluck you out of your crannies; 
 I hold you root and all in my hand 
 
 Little flower, but if I could understand 
 What you are root and all and all in all 
 I should know what God and man is." 
 
 What was this indication pregnant with pos- 
 sibilities so incalculable? What was this por- 
 tent which promised nothing less than the uni- 
 formity of all law and the unity of all matter? 
 It was the sound of a thread scraping on a china 
 statuette. Dr. Maxwell heard this sound and 
 recorded the fact. He did not recognize its 
 significance. Where did this thread come 
 from? It issued from the body of his friend,
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 171 
 
 M. Meurice, a non-professional medium, who, 
 from his chair, moved by this invisible but not 
 inaudible thread, the statuette upon the mantel- 
 piece. M. Meurice found that tables moved up- 
 wards towards his hands when he held them 
 suspended over them. M. Meurice stated that 
 a substance like threads seemed to emerge from 
 his hands when the table rose towards them. 
 Dr. Maxwell recorded the movements of the 
 table and the statements of M. Meurice, as he 
 recorded his own aural perception of the scrap- 
 ing thread upon the statuette. This was the 
 sum of Dr. Maxwell's observations. 
 
 Another indication of the agency of these 
 threads in the movements of tables and other 
 objects, appears in the accounts of the experi- 
 ments with Eusapia Palladino. She stated that 
 she felt the presence of these threads upon her 
 hands when she moved tables, heavy wardrobes 
 and other objects in the view of her very emi- 
 nent scientific investigators. Later experiments, 
 which revealed the emission of a substance 
 sometimes resembling these threads from the 
 body of a medium, were conducted in Paris by 
 Madame Alexandre Bisson, in connection with 
 the Baron Schrenk-Notzing. These experi- 
 ments were of vastly greater importance, for 
 the experimenters saw and photographed the 
 substance as it emerged from the body of a
 
 18 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 young woman called Eva C. The medium, un- 
 dressed first, and then clad in a single garment, 
 was rigidly examined by Prof. Schrenk-Nb'tzing 
 and the experiments were witnessed by as many 
 as one hundred other French scientists and phy- 
 sicians. She was placed behind curtains which 
 were, however, left open, the medium's hands 
 holding them apart and grasped firmly by the 
 hands of the experimenters. The appearance of 
 the substance usually announced itself by the 
 presence of luminous spots varying in size, 
 which were scattered over the left side of the 
 black smock of the medium. Further emissions 
 of larger extent appeared, coming from the 
 crown of the medium's head, from the breasts, 
 mouth and from the ends of her fingers. 
 The substance had three colors black, white 
 and gray. Sometimes it issued in threads, 
 sometimes in thick cords or flat ribbons. 
 A remarkable membranous form with fringed 
 edges and swellings closely resembled the 
 caul. Sometimes the amount of this sub- 
 stance was small and sometimes it issued 
 in a mass of disorganized material like 
 protoplasm, and covered the medium like a 
 cloud from head to foot. The substance 
 could be felt. It was cold and damp and some- 
 times slimy. Sometimes when it took the form 
 of cords it was hard and dry. The threads
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 19 
 
 were stiff but elastic. The substance was mo- 
 bile. Sometimes it appeared and disappeared 
 instantaneously. It was sensitive and when 
 touched by the hand of an observer, caused pain 
 to the medium. It was sensitive to light. A 
 strong light caused the medium to cry out, but 
 she could sometimes support full daylight and 
 a magnesium flashlight which permitted photo- 
 graphs to be taken, could be borne, altho it 
 caused her to start violently. 
 
 The most remarkable property of the sub- 
 stance, however, was its tendency to assume 
 forms. It seldom remained in a disorganized 
 mass, or in the shape of threads or cords. It 
 tended rapidly to assume organic forms which 
 appeared enmeshed in it, and then as if manipu- 
 lated by the hand of an unseen sculptor, it took 
 the shape of admirably molded hands and feet, 
 of heads with thick hair upon solid skulls, of 
 complete and sometimes beautiful faces. Com- 
 plete figures also appeared and presented every 
 appearance of the living human being. The 
 materialized organs were not inert, but were 
 apparently alive and grasped objects with in- 
 tention. Sometimes the organisms were less 
 than life size. Sometimes they were flat and 
 assumed the natural dimensions under the eyes 
 of the observers. 
 
 In the several volumes published by both
 
 20 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Madame Bisson and Prof. Schrenk-Notzing, in 
 the year 1909, a great variety of photographs 
 were presented, showing not only the admirably 
 molded hands and feet and faces, but also the 
 imperfect forms. Dr. Geley, former surgeon 
 of the Lyons hospital and Laureate of the med- 
 ical faculty, in recent experiments with the 
 same medium, has observed precisely the same 
 phenomena which Madame Bisson and Prof. 
 Schrenk-Notzing have recorded. His account 
 of these experiments was presented in a dis- 
 course to the members of the General Institute 
 of Psychology in the Theater of the Medical 
 College of France on January 28, 1918. 
 
 Although in his preface to Madame Bisson 's 
 published account of their mutually conducted 
 experiments, Prof. Schrenk-Notzing asserts 
 their common ignorance as to the creative 
 process of these materialized organisms, Ma- 
 dame Bisson had, in fact, arrived at one im- 
 portant hypothesis from the experiments, 
 namely, the unity and identity of all matter. 
 Dr. Geley 's experiments led him to coincide 
 with this hypothesis, but he went still further, 
 for he promulgated a complete formula of this 
 creative process. The title of his discourse at 
 the College of France was : * ' The So-called Su- 
 pernormal Phenomena of Thought Sculpture. ' ' 
 The French term ' ' L 'ideoplastie " indicates, in
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 21 
 
 a word, his hypothesis of these remarkable phe- 
 nomena, 
 
 "I would like, ladies and gentlemen," he 
 said, "to prove at the outset of this discussion 
 that there is no supernormal any more than 
 there is anything supernatural or unknowable. I 
 would like to show you that the marvelous, 
 mysterious, and contradictory appearances ob- 
 servable in psychic phenomena come solely 
 from our ignorance or our misunderstanding of 
 the primal and essential laws of life. I wish to 
 prove that normal physiology and so-called su- 
 pernormal physiology are equally mysterious. 
 They do not present two problems which de- 
 mand two different solutions. There is one 
 problem, one alone and identical, the problem 
 of life itself. " 
 
 Nothing is more familiar than the function- 
 ing of our organisms. Nothing seems more 
 simple to the ordinary mind, and nevertheless 
 nothing is more mysterious. Dr. Geley com- 
 mented upon the hopeless and disconcerting 
 failure of all scientific efforts to solve the prob- 
 lem of the origin of life. He then stated the 
 conclusions which he had drawn from his ex- 
 periments. 
 
 "Before our eyes," he declared, "we have 
 seen a single substance exuding from the body 
 of the medium and we have seen that substance
 
 22 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 transforming itself into hands, faces and com- 
 plete bodies, possessing all the attributes of 
 life, of flesh and bone. Then we have seen 
 these forms dissolve and reenter in an instant 
 the body of the medium." 
 
 Dr. Geley announced that his conclusion was, 
 that there existed in these materialized organ- 
 isms no actual muscular or nervous substance, 
 but only one substance which assumed these 
 forms. This substance, he declared, was the 
 primordial substratum of all these temporary 
 organisms. In normal physiology, he also de- 
 clared, there is also but one substance. That 
 this fact is less apparent in normal physiology 
 Dr. Geley admitted. He asserted, however, that 
 in certain cases there is proof that this fact is 
 observable. In the protecting encasement of a 
 chrysalis, an insect form exists, shut out from 
 light and air. At a certain period in its devel- 
 opment, this insect dissolves into a creamy 
 primordial mass, precisely similar to the proto- 
 plasm which exuded from the body of Madame 
 Bisson's medium. Then this substance reor- 
 ganizes itself into an entirely different entity. 
 
 The analogy between the creative process of 
 these materialized organisms and that of the 
 insect in the chrysalis points, in Dr. Geley 's 
 opinion, to the conclusion that all living forms 
 are essentially constructed from one single sub-
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 23 
 
 stance. No valid difference can be maintained 
 to exist between normal and so-called super- 
 normal physiology. This was the first of the 
 conclusions which Dr. Geley and Madame Bis- 
 son drew from these experiments. 
 
 In regard to the flat and incomplete organ- 
 isms, Dr. Geley declared that he believed they 
 were due to a defective organizing power. He 
 compared them to incomplete forms occurring 
 in antenatal organisms. "As in normal physi- 
 ology, so in physiology called supernormal, 
 there are perfect and also aborted forms, mon- 
 strosities, and so forth. The parallelism is com- 
 plete." 
 
 Dr. Geley considers that the sensitiveness 
 shown simultaneously by the exuded substance 
 and by the medium, prove that the substance is 
 the medium herself partially exteriorized. The 
 incident of the dematerialization of the body of 
 a medium as recorded by M. Atsakoff, confirms 
 this hypothesis. In all cases, even when forms 
 have originally appeared without apparent con- 
 tact with the medium, the observers have seen 
 them dissolve and reenter her body. 
 
 Two other conclusions of equal importance 
 with the first were drawn by Dr. Geley. The 
 second pertained to the directing force which 
 formed these temporary organisms. What is 
 this directing force I The term "psycho-
 
 24 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 dynamism," invented by Prof. Flournoy, indi- 
 cated solely that there exists some force, which 
 he concluded to be an emanation from the body 
 of the medium. The term itself was only 
 vaguely explanatory. Dr. Geley states only 
 the necessity of admitting the existence of this 
 superior dynamism, but insists that ' ' this neces- 
 sity arises from the sum of knowledge pos- 
 sessed by man of all physiological processes. ' ' 
 
 This accumulated knowledge has one univer- 
 sally concordant significance, which is, that 
 this force dwelling in a higher degree in the 
 body of a medium, but actually existing in 
 every living organism, is magnetic or elec- 
 trical. 
 
 In this connection, the experiments of Dr. 
 Crawford, professor of Applied Science in the 
 University of Belfast, present definite and illu- 
 minating information. In his book, "The 
 Reality of Psychic Phenomena," Dr. Crawford 
 has stated that he perceived by touch an emis- 
 sion of a thready substance from the body of a 
 medium. The substance formed itself into a 
 flexible rod and took the form of a cantilever 
 which attached itself to the under surface of a 
 table. In its flexible form it did not suffice to 
 lift the table, but under the action of some in- 
 visible force it became hard and stiff and then 
 not only lifted the table, but could make sounds
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 25 
 
 as if from a sledge hammer. Dr. Crawford 
 could not see this cantilever, which he called a 
 psychic rod, but he was able to photograph it. 
 The photographic plate showed also other rods, 
 connecting the bodies of all the experimenters 
 present with the body of the medium. Dr. 
 Crawford concludes that these rods are stif- 
 fened by a molecular force allied to electricity, 
 and that this electricity or magnetism is con- 
 tributed by all the living organisms present, giv- 
 ing added power to the medium. 
 
 Dr. Crawford's opinion is that the substance 
 is supplied by the medium alone, while magnetic 
 or electrical power is also supplied by the other 
 human beings present. This magnetism is there- 
 fore an agent in the stiffening of the psychic 
 rods as well as an increment in the magnetic 
 force employed by the medium. Electricity, 
 then, seems to be the superior dynamism to 
 which Dr. Geley refers, the implement by which 
 the protoplasm is molded into forms. 
 
 In his latest book, "Experiments in Psychi- 
 cal Science," Dr. Crawford states that when, 
 at his request, an increment of weight was 
 placed upon the table by the unseen collabora- 
 tors in his experiments, an important de- 
 crease of weight in the medium was recorded on 
 the weighing machine on which she was placed. 
 Dr. Crawford declares that he believes this loss
 
 26 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 of weight in the medium was due to the extrac- 
 tion of substance from her body. He also states 
 that he discovered a material substance, viscid 
 to the touch, which resembled the substance ex- 
 uded from Madame Bisson's medium, on the 
 under surface of the table, where his psychic 
 rods had been attached. 
 
 The experiments of Dr. Crawford are thus 
 seen to agree in several important points with 
 those of Madame Bisson and Dr. Geley, as well 
 as to throw light on the origin in the bodies of 
 the experimenters of at least a portion of the 
 energy or superior dynamism employed in the 
 formation of the materialized structures. 
 
 The third and most important of Dr. Geley 's 
 conclusions regarding the creation of these or- 
 ganisms is that the directing dynamism must it- 
 self obey something still higher. This higher 
 controlling power is the idea, the thought, ini- 
 tiating and creating, which conceives the form 
 of these organisms. 
 
 Here, then, is the last of the three elements 
 in the formula of creation as observed in his ex- 
 periments. First, the single primordial sub- 
 stance; second, the magnetic dynamism; third, 
 the creative idea. 
 
 "Ladies and gentlemen," declared Dr. Geley, 
 "we have here a total reversal of material phys- 
 iology. The living being can no longer consider
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 27 
 
 himself a simple complex of cells; the living 
 being is a product of psychic force molded by 
 a creative idea. Thus, in spite of the many 
 guesses at the origin of life which the idealistic 
 philosophy of to-morrow will develop, the so- 
 called materialistic theory of the universe is 
 seen to be false. " 
 
 As to the idea which forms these materialized 
 organisms, it is Madame Bisson's opinion that 
 it does not originate in the active mind of the 
 experimenters; rather, it is her belief, that it 
 operates through their subconscious minds, 
 obeying some exercise of superior intelligence. 
 
 The coordination of the three elements in 
 the formula of the creative process of these ma- 
 terialized organisms is the great contribution 
 which Dr. Geley has made to the new Psychic 
 Science. Madame Bisson had reached the con- 
 clusion that there was one original substance in 
 matter. M. de Eochas, in experiments con- 
 ducted with the utmost scientific accuracy, had 
 proved the existence of a fluidic magnetic force 
 in human organisms. Prof. Flournoy and Dr. 
 Maxwell had added their conclusions as to the 
 agency of a magnetic force in the formation of 
 these organisms. Dr. Crawford's experiments 
 add confirmation to the conclusions of Dr. Max- 
 well and Flournoy. Altho Sir William Crookes, 
 in his new classic record of his experiments in
 
 28 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 materialization, attested his belief in the reality 
 of such phenomena, he made no attempt to ex- 
 plain their creative process. The great Alfred 
 Russel Wallace also, altho actually observing 
 the formation of these organisms, and in one 
 case seeing the substance emerge from the body 
 of a medium, failed also to form any definite 
 theory as to the process of their creation. 
 
 It remained for Dr. Geley to confirm the hypo- 
 theses of his predecessors and by adding to the 
 two elements already discovered the most im- 
 portant element of all, " controlling mind," to 
 arrive at a formula which, in his opinion, makes 
 a basis for the coordination of all physiological 
 processes, nothing less than a new theory of the 
 universe. No more difficult problem has surely 
 ever been presented for scientific investigation 
 than that of materialization. 
 
 The fact recorded by Sir William Crookes, 
 that a lock of chestnut hair, cut from the head 
 of Katie King, remained in all its unaltered 
 brightness in his possession, adds a singular 
 proof of her actual, altho temporary, existence 
 in her materialized form. That molds of ma- 
 terialized hands and feet, plunged voluntarily 
 into bowls of melted paraffine, should be seen 
 and preserved by many observers of the phe- 
 nomena of materialization, provides added 
 proof of their reality.
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 29 
 
 The present writer has now the privilege of 
 adding a suggestion to the all-important con- 
 clusions of Dr. Geley. It is this: Ether, or a 
 primordial substance, manipulated ly means of 
 a force allied to electricity, by controlling mind, 
 is not only the creative process of these materi- 
 alized organisms, but the creative formula of 
 the other world. 
 
 A year's experience of communication with 
 the so-called dead has revealed to me nothing so 
 satisfactory as this. 
 
 " Ether manipulated mentally" is the phrase 
 which, through telepathic thought vibrations, 
 has been given from unseen communicators to 
 the remarkable medium whose powers have 
 been exercised during the past year in my be- 
 half. All truth is allied. Every fact and con- 
 clusion deduced from the experiments of 
 Madame Bisson, of Dr. Schrenck-Notzing and 
 of Dr. Geley finds its illustration and amplifica- 
 tion in the information given to her regarding 
 the creative processes of the other world. In 
 the visible world, we know, manual manipu- 
 lation aids the creative process of all the objects 
 which we see and use. In the other world, 
 thought operates upon primordial substance 
 independently. 
 
 It is an astonishing fact that photographs of 
 a similar process of thought manipulation have
 
 30 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 been taken and that the process itself has been 
 many times observed by the eyes of living ex- 
 perimenters. 
 
 Thus, we have not only a new hypothesis of 
 material life, but a formula of life eternal. 
 Landscapes, so it has been stated, are evoked by 
 this process from the ether which is itself an 
 "efflux from Divinity." Temples of learning 
 and of music are constructed by the masters 
 who have perfected their powers of plastic im- 
 agination through eons of experience. The arts 
 and crafts are followed by those whose earthly 
 tastes had adapted them to these pursuits. 
 "The musician has his music; the painter has 
 his colors ; the athlete has his games, " so I have 
 been told. 
 
 Nothing exists on earth which has not its 
 counterpart in the other world. So spake Plo- 
 tinus, so affirms the shade of Sir Oliver Lodge's 
 son Raymond, in testimony which, in the light 
 of this new knowledge, no longer seems incredi- 
 ble or absurd. Proof may fail us until we see 
 and know these things by the light of heaven 
 itself, but at least through the analogy of the 
 seen process of materialization, with the de- 
 scription of the ethereal process we may appre- 
 hend the construction of the other world. 
 
 One means of communication between both 
 worlds we may also apprehend. The transfer-
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 31 
 
 ence of thought messages by electrical vibra- 
 tions through the ether to the nerve ganglia of 
 the brain of a sensitive is the invariable state- 
 ment given to me as one method of communica- 
 tion from the unseen. ' * The nerve ganglia," so 
 it has been further stated, "are larger in the 
 brain of a psychic than in ordinary brains." 
 The sheath of the nerves is also thinner, due to 
 some nervous history or inheritance. Thus sup- 
 plied with larger and unusually exposed nerve 
 wires, the brain of the psychic is prepared to 
 receive the vibrations more rapidly than those 
 of light, which bring thoughts and images from 
 the unseen. Sir William Crookes, in a discourse 
 delivered before the English Society for Psy- 
 chical Research, in the year 1897, propounded 
 the theory that these waves are similar in char- 
 acter to those of the #-ray. Then, in striking 
 agreement with the information regarding the 
 peculiar organization of the brain of the psychic 
 as given to me, he observed : " A sensitive would 
 be a man with ganglia of reception and trans- 
 mission so developed or so exercised as to ren- 
 der him peculiarly sensitive to the waves in 
 question." 
 
 The ouija board, in all probability, mag- 
 netized by the human operators, is moved, 
 sometimes by thought vibrations from their 
 own subconscious minds and sometimes by in-
 
 32 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 visible communicators. So the tipping table 
 moves often at the command of the subconscious 
 vibrations from the living and sometimes at the 
 authentic bidding of discarnate beings. 
 
 The analogy of thought vibrations in the 
 ether with the etheric waves of the wireless tele- 
 graph is so striking that it cannot fail to per- 
 suade the mind to an easy acceptance of the in- 
 formation as to this means of communication 
 between incarnate and discarnate minds. The 
 similarity of nerve energy to electricity has 
 been asserted by Herschel, who spoke of the 
 brain as the ' * required electrial power for mus- 
 cular motion." Faraday, altho declaring that 
 he was not sure that nerve energy was solely 
 electrical, still asserted his belief that this en- 
 ergy was inorganic and might be allied to elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 Volta and Galvani long ago demonstrated the 
 existence of electrical currents between regions 
 of unequal physiological activity in living tis- 
 sues. The characteristic electrical sensitivity 
 in living tissues itself indicates that the chief 
 means of controlling and correlating cell pro- 
 cesses are electrical. Does this mean that liv- 
 ing organisms are vitalized by this indwelling 
 electricity, plus the element called mind or 
 soul? 
 
 This query suggests another bearing crucially
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 83 
 
 upon the similarity of the creative process of 
 the ethereal world, as given to me, with that of 
 the materialized organisms observed by Dr. 
 Geley. Is the protoplasm exuded from the body 
 of the living medium a modification or condensa- 
 tion of the primordial substance of the uni- 
 verse? And if so, is this the " mentally manip- 
 ulated ether" of the unseen world? The latest 
 discoveries of science assert that electrons form 
 the basic stuff, the raw material, so to speak, 
 out of which all objects known to man are com- 
 posed. It is further stafed that electrons are 
 " specks of modified ether." The term "elec- 
 tron" was originally suggested for the unit of 
 electrical energy. It was later applied to the 
 ultra-atomic particles carrying charges of nega- 
 tive electricity. The infinitely small particles 
 into which atoms have been subdivided the 
 electrons are thus seen to be not so truly 
 "modified ether" as electrified ether, in other 
 words, specks of matter, molded or reenforced 
 by electricity. Here may we assume that we 
 have precisely the two first elements of the cre- 
 ative formula of the materialized organisms, as 
 observed by Dr. Geley? The existence of the 
 third element, "controlling mind," in the crea- 
 tive process of the ethereal world, is not difficult 
 to postulate. 
 
 In all probability, the difference between the
 
 34 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ' l thought sculpture" observed in these mate- 
 rialization phenomena and that employed by 
 the inhabitants of the other world is that in the 
 first the protoplasm is furnished by the living 
 being, while that of the other world is a free and 
 universally disseminated substance, in its abso- 
 lute primordial form. 
 
 In the light of the lately published experi- 
 ments of Einstein, which seem to nullify pre- 
 vious experiments, bearing upon the calculation 
 of the velocity of light through the substance 
 hitherto called "ether," and to indicate the pos- 
 sible non-existence of the ether itself, we are 
 compelled to revert to the certain presence of 
 nebulous tracts in the heavens for our belief 
 in the existence of forms of matter in the uni- 
 verse in stages of progressive condensation. 
 Ether, the noun of the Greek verb to undulate, 
 is seen to be but a term, employed by Science 
 for the medium through which light is trans- 
 mitted. The material, existing at least in the 
 spheres of the planetary bodies, may be pre- 
 sumed to have a definite existence, and may be 
 the malleable substance, employed by the dis- 
 carnate entities, who without exception testify 
 in transcendental communications that they do 
 fashion the appurtenances of their world by the 
 power of thought. As to the presence of mag- 
 netism or an electric dynamism in the human
 
 LA CARAVANE PASSE 35 
 
 frame, no possible doubt remains. The hy- 
 pothesis of Sir William Crookes, as to the pe- 
 culiar constitution of certain brains which 
 adapts them to receive communications from 
 the unseen, is illustrated in the case of the 
 "sensitive" who has transmitted a volume of 
 veridical messages to me. She experiences 
 what she describes as "mild electric currents" 
 when these messages reach her exquisitely re- 
 ceptive nerve ganglia. Thus by thought waves 
 electrically borne we may have the strongest 
 reason to believe that communication does ac- 
 tually take place between both worlds. 
 
 To the established facts of survival and com- 
 munication we may now apprehend the means 
 of that communication. We may also imagine 
 with what increased powers the liberated soul 
 fashions for itself, through its inherited divin- 
 ity an environment expressive of its ultimate 
 possibilities of imagination. With what flood- 
 ing increase of knowledge and of delight must 
 it not contemplate those fields of Asphodel? 
 Voyaging with the rapidity of light rays from 
 earth to heaven, speaking that universal thought 
 language, the ultimate Esperanto of human 
 communication, it reads all the thoughts trans- 
 mitted and recorded eternally upon the cir- 
 cumambient ether. 
 
 And at last, we of earth may apprehend
 
 36 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 through the slow increment of experimental 
 knowledge that unity of force, unity of sub- 
 stance, unity of origin in the one Supreme 
 Mind, exists in our phase, as in all phases of 
 life eternal. 
 
 So we approach by scientific investigation 
 the theories of metaphysics and of philosophy. 
 So we confirm the revelations of ecstatic vision 
 and the intuitions of those who have had 
 glimpses of universal law. So thins the veil, so 
 breaks the light eternal.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 MBS. VEENON 
 
 "A sensitive would be a man with ganglia of reception 
 and transmission peculiarly sensitive to thought waves." 
 Sir William Crookes. 
 
 T N contributing the statement of my own con- 
 * viction that communication is possible, un- 
 der certain conditions and by certain methods, 
 to the similar statements already published, I 
 assume that it is pertinent to state the basis of 
 that conviction and to relate the manner in 
 which I reached it. 
 
 Although refraining from a skeptical atti- 
 tude regarding the many current anecdotes of 
 ghostly appearances, of reported messages 
 from the unseen through the physical media of 
 the planchette, the ouija board and the mov- 
 ing table, I had never seriously investigated 
 them. I had never visited a clairvoyant; I 
 had never read a book or an article on the sub- 
 ject of Psychic Phenomena until the Spring of 
 1918, when my sister was suddenly taken from 
 this earthly life. In the agony of my grief, I 
 
 37
 
 38 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 was led by the entirely voluntary agency of a 
 friend to visit Mrs. Vernon of New York. This 
 lady, who never accepts professional remunera- 
 tion for the use of her remarkable powers, is 
 only willing to employ them for the assistance 
 of those in sorrow or for the pursuit of psychic 
 research. 
 
 A study of ten years, combined with per- 
 sonal investigation and experiment, had con- 
 vinced my friend that communication was pos- 
 sible and knowing of Mrs. Vernon, through Dr. 
 Elwood Worcester of Boston, he acted on the 
 belief that I might be assisted in what was, 
 at that time, a critical condition of health, by 
 an interview with her. 
 
 When I first visited Mrs. Vernon, less than 
 a week after my sister's death, I was not in- 
 troduced to her by the friend who had arranged 
 the meeting. She had never seen me or any 
 likeness of me; she knew no fact of my life; 
 she did not know that a relative of mine had 
 recently died. 
 
 Unaware, as I was at that time, of any of the 
 methods of communication, I was warned that 
 I should avoid asking any question or making 
 any remark which could furnish any informa- 
 tion as to my identity or that of any one living 
 or dead connected with me. 
 
 Although the messages received were defi-
 
 MRS. VERNON 39 
 
 nitely characteristic of my parents and my 
 sister, although information then given to me 
 was in some important particulars quite new 
 to me and evidential in a very high degree, I 
 did not have the opportunity of verifying it 
 until some weeks had passed. The verification, 
 when it was obtained, was so complete, the con- 
 ditions of my anonymity were so perfect, and 
 the ignorance of Mrs. Vernon regarding my 
 sister's death so undeniable, that I was led to 
 continue my meetings with her. 
 
 Since that week of April, 1918, I have seen 
 Mrs. Vernon regularly and have written down 
 with verbal accuracy the messages she has re- 
 ceived for me. They are of such startling im- 
 portance from the viewpoint of their evidence 
 of survival and communication, as well as of 
 information concerning the conditions of the 
 other world, that I consider it my duty to give 
 them to the public. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon 's mediumistic gifts consist in 
 what is called clairvoyance and clairaudience. 
 Not clairvoyance in its commonly accepted 
 meaning of fortune telling, but the power of 
 seeing with a clearness denied to ordinary hu- 
 man beings, projected images, symbolic or de- 
 scriptive, and sometimes what seem to be the 
 actual forms and familiar gestures of surviv- 
 ing personalities. Clairaudience is the allied
 
 40 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 power of hearing verbal messages. Without 
 attempting a categorical statement that the 
 method by which Mrs. Vernon is able to regis- 
 ter these messages is indeed that of Sir William 
 Crookes* hypothesis, it is possible to assert 
 that there are many indications which point to 
 the high probability that she has precisely the 
 peculiarly constituted brain ganglia which give 
 her this power. Owing to the illness of her 
 mother, who only survived her birth by a few 
 years, she was born with the peculiar nervous 
 organization of the so-called psychic. 
 
 Although evidence of clairvoyant powers was 
 not lacking in her early youth, her normal en- 
 joyment of life, for which she is eminently 
 fitted, prevented any desire to use her gifts 
 until some ten years ago. 
 
 Conscious at last of the accuracy of the mes- 
 sages she received and of the invaluable service 
 she was fitted to render, through their use, to 
 those in hopeless sorrow, she invited a rigorous 
 medical examination by a distinguished neurol- 
 ogist. The conclusion regarding her gift, as 
 announced by the physician, was that it was "as 
 natural to her as her speaking voice, and an 
 endowment of undoubted importance, not to be 
 questioned or decried." Emerging from the ex- 
 amination with this invaluable indorsement, 
 Mrs. Vernon applied herself to the practice and
 
 MRS. VERNON 41 
 
 perfection of her gifts. Her success has justi- 
 fied the patience whiqh she has expended, for 
 now, like an accomplished musician, she knows 
 her instrument. She can distinguish the mes- 
 sages from beyond from the thoughts of her 
 active brain with almost faultless accuracy. The 
 result of this exquisite accuracy is to preserve 
 the form of the messages in all their minutest 
 details. Literary style, sometimes of a high 
 order, characterizes many of the messages, and 
 the precious bloom of personality is also pre- 
 served with all its convincing charm. 
 
 It is possible, in my opinion, to assert that 
 in this accuracy Mrs. Vernon is preeminent 
 among all sensitives endowed with similar gifts. 
 Although capable of automatic writing, she 
 finds her powers of clairaudience and clairvoy- 
 ance more reliable. She never is entranced, 
 nor does she ever lose a perfect consciousness 
 of herself, or her keen interest in the use and 
 demonstration of her powers. She sits in her 
 charming house and patiently listens to the mes- 
 sages, repeating them precisely as if she had 
 received them from a telephone. Tact and can- 
 dor, her native traits, are part of her equip- 
 ment for that extraordinary service, never fail- 
 ing her or those who benefit by her kindness. 
 So, simply, and with no paraphernalia of mys- 
 tery, the phenomenon of communication takes
 
 42 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 place before the enthralled spectator. Grati- 
 tude is too poor a word to express the apprecia- 
 tion of the benefits rendered by this truly dis- 
 interested servant of those who mourn.
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 "LOVELY AND BEAUTIFUL, IN THEIR LIVES, IN 
 DEATH THEY WEEE NOT DIVIDED." 
 
 AN inherited incredulity regarding the pos- 
 sibility of communication between the liv- 
 ing and the dead lies deep within the minds of 
 men. That incredulity is persistent, yielding 
 neither to the reliably reported evidences of 
 such communications nor to the hitherto pub- 
 lished discoveries of Psychic Science. 
 
 The subconscious reservoir holds ancestral 
 denials, emotional refusals, which rise in floods 
 to submerge the slowly growing edifice of be- 
 lief. Personal experience, many times repeat- 
 ed, alone leads to personal conviction. 
 
 But in this slow process of conviction that 
 communication does actually take place between 
 the invisible and the visible world, no element 
 is so effective as the recognition of the char- 
 acteristic thoughts and modes of expression in 
 the messages which seem to come to us from 
 
 43
 
 44 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 the departed. This evidence is cumulative in 
 its convincing power and provides a potent 
 solvent for the subconscious or emotional in- 
 credulity. 
 
 To communicate to the greatest possible ex- 
 tent, the impression of dramatic verity in the 
 messages which it has been my privilege to re- 
 ceive from my sister and my parents, I will try 
 briefly to describe their characters, their per- 
 sonalities and their lives. 
 
 "She smiled and the shadows departed; 
 She shone, and the snows were rain, 
 And he who was frozen hearted 
 Bloomed up into love again." 
 
 John Addington Symons. 
 
 To describe my sister, of whom it has been 
 said that she was the most regretted, in the 
 places which knew her, of her generation, passes 
 my powers, nor can I put on paper the radiant 
 loveliness of her, whom just to meet in pass- 
 ing, made the spectator think that life after all 
 must be good and happy. Such was the tes- 
 timony of a stranger, such the influence of her 
 presence, which, to all who had the joy of her 
 affection, was a recompense for every ill. 
 
 My sister and her twin brother were the 
 latest born of the children of her family. Her 
 brother, by the fatal falling of a dead limb of 
 a tree, died after a little more than two years
 
 "LOVELY AND BEAUTIFUL" 45 
 
 of their infantile existence, passed almost lit- 
 erally hand in hand. 
 
 My sister, after a happy childhood in her 
 country home, flowered at sixteen into a very 
 remarkable beauty. With a well-nigh flawless 
 sweetness of disposition, which had its source 
 in a deep fountain of humanity, and a keen and 
 vivid intelligence, she was the comrade of one's 
 dreams. Was there a word of appreciation to 
 be uttered, she never failed to express it. In 
 her sympathy, her method was rather to silence 
 complaint and point the way to sunshine. Thus 
 she built for happiness. She sat at the mart 
 of joy, receiving and giving lavishly, from the 
 early springtime of her life until, in uncon- 
 sciousness, that life went out. 
 
 Although between her, the youngest and my- 
 self, the eldest, child there were separating 
 years, a certain similarity of understanding, 
 certain likenesses to our father made a spon- 
 taneous sympathy which drew us together in 
 a deep intimacy. 
 
 Her clarity of thought was a natal gift, in- 
 herited from our father, also her kindness and 
 simplicity, which was never altered by a tinge 
 of affectation through all the years when com- 
 pliment and even adoration were offered to her 
 like an incense. If a voice expresses person- 
 ality, then hers, in its clear ringing timbre,
 
 46 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 expressed her courage and her unfailing opti- 
 mism. If a laugh tells of sincerity or of af- 
 fectation, then hers, gay and genuine as that 
 of a child, told of unspoiled enjoyment and a 
 fearless contentment with life. 
 
 She was very tall, with a rounded slender- 
 ness, and carried her head high and nobly, like 
 our father. Eyes of clear hazel, under level 
 brows, looked out with an always attentive, al- 
 ways comprehending gaze. The rare modeling 
 of feature which makes for beauty of a high 
 order was hers, but her perfect mouth, with its 
 exquisite smile, expressed her best. Beauty and 
 charm like hers are opportunities for learning 
 human nature, but the human nature which she 
 saw was always lovable, not only because she 
 drew forth love in abundance, but because she 
 saw by preference only the best in men and 
 women. Thus she rarely, if ever, encountered 
 disappointment or suffered from a lack of sym- 
 pathy or appreciation. 
 
 Married the day after she had finished her 
 school, she traveled widely and enjoyed the 
 brilliant opportunities which were offered to 
 her reigning beauty. To her children she was 
 all of life. From their childhood it was their 
 custom to wait patiently at her closed door 
 for the earliest morning moment when, at the 
 sound of the turning key, they would rush into
 
 "LOVELY AND BEAUTIFUL" 47 
 
 her presence, feeling that the day could then, 
 begin. 
 
 Her life among people drew her to outdoor 
 sports and to a never-ending series of per- 
 sonal relations, offered to her in many places 
 and at all times and seasons. Her beautiful, 
 firm hands worked exquisitely in many kinds of 
 needlework. She sympathized and participated 
 in many charities and projects for civic bet- 
 terment. She was an intelligent observer of 
 politics and politicians. She loved poetry and 
 romance in their literary expression, and she 
 was her husband's ablest critic. But above all, 
 she was a joy giver and her principal work 
 was her own life of helpfulness, through joy. 
 In her latter years, unconfessed personal char- 
 ities have materially helped many whose testi- 
 mony alone revealed what she had done for 
 them. Thus, living until her forty-eighth year, 
 in almost unaltered beauty, she never saw the 
 twilight shadows of approaching age. To her 
 latest hour, love and admiration were given to 
 her, and in the West, where, after a week's ill- 
 ness, she passed from the sight of sun and flow- 
 ers, flowers cover her grave by the unchanging 
 sea; sunlight unchanging shines on sea and 
 flowers. 
 
 To me, who was so quickly led to hope that 
 she could and did send messages of her con-
 
 48 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 tinned existence and her unchanging love, the 
 chance that it might really be she who spoke 
 was enough to lead to a full experiment of com- 
 munication. Since that first desolate week after 
 her departure, I now believe she has spoken 
 with me in intimate mind to mind confessions, 
 uncomprehended by Mrs. Vernon, of facts un- 
 known to me. She has argued with me in her 
 interpretation of traits of character in those 
 known to us. She has given me test after test 
 of her identity which conform to the strictest 
 rules of evidence. Unhappily, many messages 
 containing the most convincing proof of her 
 identity are of too intimate a nature to be pub- 
 lished, but much remains. Enough to show that 
 she has also wished to speak with me. That 
 suffices me, and would lead me on in my search 
 for her, would sustain me even in the darkness 
 of persistent doubt. "We shall never be sepa- 
 rated," she tells me; "we are nearer in some 
 ways than we ever should have been able to 
 be on earth." I can confirm these words. I 
 can say "I have not lost her," and so thinking, 
 I can await the certainty of reunion. 
 
 Our father had his part in the history of 
 his country. His life which began in the east 
 had its full development in the' west, where 
 as an active agent in the business and political 
 growth of an important city he merited the re-
 
 "LOVELY AND BEAUTIFUL" 49 
 
 spect of his fellow citizens and served as their 
 elected representative in both houses of Con- 
 gress. His equipment for this honorable and 
 useful career was, first, marked clarity of 
 thought; next great humanity towards all who 
 were connected with him and a peculiar tender- 
 ness to the poor and lowly and to children. 
 A truly intrinsic taste, flowering unaided in the 
 busy western city, led him to the perception of 
 the simplicity of beauty and the beauty of sim- 
 plicity. This expressed itself in a brevity of 
 phrase, a remarkable electicism of language. 
 Although surrounded by friends and relatives 
 who accepted so-called evangelical religion in 
 its Methodist form, he very early revolted from 
 the faith which was so satisfying to them and 
 assumed an attitude of doubt, of determined in- 
 vestigation which he maintained until his death. 
 His library, collected during the early years of 
 his prosperity, contained all the translations of 
 the books of the ancient religions which he was 
 able to obtain. The irreducible minimum of 
 ethical truth, it was his object to discover. 
 This minimum, long pondered and finally re- 
 duced to an individualized collection of briefly 
 stated rules of conduct, he followed with a truly 
 religious sincerity and constancy. Such was 
 our father, whose personal appearance with his 
 marked dignity of bearing, his tall, well-bal-
 
 50 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 anced frame, the statesman's head, the clear 
 and steady eyes, well expressed his innate no- 
 bility. 
 
 Onr mother, a descendant from ancestors who 
 oame with "Winthrop to New England, was al- 
 most perfectly typical of its colonial society. 
 Growing up in the shadow of Williams Col- 
 lege, she assimilated the intensest form of as- 
 piration, both for religious and educational de- 
 velopment. In a village community dominated, 
 as in the early Plymouth days, by the influ- 
 ence of the church, its social as well as civic 
 center, religion was not only duty but delight. 
 Although she rose at dawn to study her "Vir- 
 gil," by the winter candle light, her chief pleas- 
 ure was in her church, where her deeply reli- 
 gious and imaginative nature was exalted by the 
 weekly services and particularly by the annual 
 sessions of fasting and prayer, when services 
 were daily held. In a letter to a sister she 
 wrote, on one occasion, that "she had never 
 enjoyed a more delightful season of refresh- 
 ment. ' ' Her letters, preserved with her youth- 
 ful journals, are written with an exquisite 
 chirography, as delicate as her flower painting 
 and her needlework. 
 
 Equipped for her chosen occupation by 
 studies in the classics, pursued in company with 
 President Mark Hopkins' daughters, she first
 
 "LOVELY AND BEAUTIFUL" 51 
 
 was a teacher in vine-covered Maplewood at 
 Pittsfield, later in Kinderhook, and finally in 
 the western city, where she soon met and mar- 
 ried our father. 
 
 The deepest earnestness in the practice of her 
 religious duties, in solitary meditation, in the 
 daily circle of family prayer, controlled and 
 guided her during all her life. 
 
 Fluent in speech and eloquent in prayer, she 
 was known to be by those who joined with her 
 in intimate circles of religious sympathy. Thus, 
 religion, as she had conceived it in a Puritan 
 village, dominated her inner and her outer life. 
 But her love for her children, passionate and 
 anxious, for five died in early youth, was an 
 accompanying and equally controlling motive 
 power. 
 
 Gentle of speech, ardent in her affections, and 
 possessed of a distinguished appearance, she 
 had also a widely ranging imaginative faculty, 
 a keen interest in history and public affairs, and 
 a delightful humor. This humor it was her 
 principle to suppress in the never relaxing 
 effort to lead her children in the path her feet 
 had trod. But the never idle imagination, the 
 tender sympathies, broadened as the years went 
 on, so that at last when she felt that her work 
 was done she gave full expression to her play- 
 fulness and her sense of comradeship. The
 
 52 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 once earnest instructor became a witty, gra- 
 cious sympathizer in pursuits and aims, widely 
 different from those which had been her life- 
 long preoccupations. 
 
 Only two years separated her from her hus- 
 band and by only two years she survived him. 
 Dying at eighty, both of them, on golden Sep- 
 tember days, her one desire was to rejoin her 
 husband on the anniversary of his death. Two 
 days only past the year she lingered, and then, 
 with a smile of farewell, radiantly confident, 
 she slipped into the unseen. 
 
 Clairvoyant vision was hers during her last 
 months, and a singular emergence from the life- 
 long opinions and forms of speech which had 
 expressed her earthly incarnation and environ- 
 ment an evidence that while still lingering 
 in her fragile body, her soul was already 
 clothed in immortality. A confidence in an end- 
 less life was the shining gift she left her chil- 
 dren in the manner of her death.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 EARTH THE BBOKEN AECS " 
 
 T N transcribing the messages received for me 
 -* by Mrs. Vernon, I wish first to comment 
 upon the fact that with almost perfect uniform- 
 ity they bear indications of an origin external 
 both to her and to myself. Telepathy from my- 
 self is almost if not entirely absent. This may 
 be due to my practice, followed after the first 
 month, of asking definite questions which 
 elicited definite replies regarding matters of 
 which I was necessarily ignorant. 
 
 I should also refer again in this connection 
 to my complete ignorance of the history of 
 Psychic Science, of any of the recorded inves- 
 tigations of the Societies of Psychical Research, 
 or of any of the literature of Psychic Phenom- 
 ena at the time when I began my sittings with 
 Mrs. Vernon. The experiments in materializa- 
 tion, for instance, were entirely unknown to me 
 until the summer of 1919. The information re- 
 garding the construction of the ethereal world, 
 which was received by Mrs. Vernon, was there- 
 fore quite new to me and no suggestion from 
 
 53
 
 54 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 my own mind could have influenced Mrs. Ver- 
 non, alike ignorant of these experiments, or of 
 their illuminating significance regarding this 
 unsolved and deeply mysterious subject. 
 
 I assume no conviction on the part of my 
 readers of the possibility of communication or 
 of the facts of survival. But, to avoid the 
 prolixity and repetitions of constantly recur- 
 ring attempts to prove that these communica- 
 tions are messages from those who purport to 
 be speaking to us, I will proceed on the assump- 
 tion that they are actual messages from beyond. 
 
 The marked lucidity of my sister's mind, in- 
 herited from our father and evidenced through- 
 out her life, is shown in all her messages. The 
 intense desire on her part and on mine to com- 
 municate with each other has apparently pro- 
 vided a direct cable from her mind to mine. 
 
 The first sitting was at Mrs. Vernon 's house 
 in New York on April the llth, 1918, from four 
 until half-past five in the afternoon. There 
 were present Mrs. Vernon, the friend who had 
 arranged the meeting and myself. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon (looking at Mrs. de Koven) : 
 "Health, somebody's health is in question. 
 As you came into the room I felt greatly de- 
 pressed, as if somebody's health was in ques- 
 tion." 
 
 (What was the matter?)
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 55 
 
 "A limited amount of endurance, very lim- 
 ited." 
 
 (That is right, I think; we tried to send out 
 thoughts of assistance. Were they received?) 
 
 " Certain barriers to be penetrated in order 
 to get through. To protect something or some- 
 body, some one tries hard to protect some one 
 from something as if something threatened. 
 The communicator is anxious about it. It is 
 some one's health which is suffering as the re- 
 sult of a certain action and the communicator 
 wants to protect the person. F a capital F 
 he seems to want to shake hands. He goes 
 through the motions. It's just that. I hear 
 the word 'hands.' F. I hear again. Now I 
 have that condition of discouragement again, 
 just as it was when you first came in. Some- 
 body holds a torch, as if to light the way to 
 show which way to turn to some one who does 
 not know. 
 
 4 'Perplexity and confusion. They seem to 
 wish to disclose, to show me something ; it looks 
 a little like a map or a patchwork quilt fancy 
 work like a cover. Anyway, it's in pieces, 
 they are telling me, not one big piece, but some- 
 thing patched together." 
 
 (What does the communicator wish to have 
 done with it?) 
 
 "Take it away from where it is now. You
 
 56 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 take it; you to have it; I want you to take it. 
 It's a woman now; she made it and wants you 
 to have it." 
 
 (Is it she who is suffering the perplexity 
 which you spoke of?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "Now I must listen very care- 
 fully. She starts off with a sentence. ' In pur- 
 suit of spiritual advancement there is peace.' 
 She told me to say that. She evidently gets her 
 peace from that. The perplexity was earthly 
 conditions not there she sees others in per- 
 plexity on earth." 
 
 (What person is she most anxious about?) 
 
 "Something surrounds a person she loved 
 which does not satisfy her. She holds out a 
 cornucopia a horn of plenty, and separates 
 some jewelry, little pieces to be distributed, in- 
 terwoven pieces. She is trying to tell me some- 
 thing identifying. It is just that a horn of 
 plenty, that is symbolical, which holds some- 
 thing to be distributed. It was all together and 
 she pours out the contents and distributes it, 
 her personal possessions different things for 
 different ones, not of great value; one looks 
 like a brooch in the shape of a knot ; she is pick- 
 ing this out for you, I think. I see 'M' the 
 capital letter *M.' Did anybody's name begin 
 with 'M'!" 
 
 (No.)
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 67 
 
 " There is somebody connected with her over 
 there. She says : ' The sitter must remember 
 M.' It's somebody else now, I hear Mother. 
 
 "She was insistent that I should keep at it 
 with the name Mother, as if with parental au- 
 thority. 'Something was sudden.' She tries to 
 demonstrate, to tell about somebody else. 
 'Soon over, premature, before it should have 
 been. ' They seem to be together. M. is trying 
 to help put their communications over to me. 
 She says: 'Somebody is awake at last.' F 
 they show me F. again, together with M. and it 
 seems to be natural that M. should be in charge. 
 I hear the word 'brooch.' It seems as if that 
 were it. It's not exactly a trinket, 'small, 
 woven.' She evidently was fond of you and 
 reaches out both her hands. She would like 
 you to have these things that were closely asso- 
 ciated with her a piece of jewelry some one 
 thing that she wore, beside the patchwork that 
 she made with her own hands and wants you to 
 have also. She refers to 'separation and re- 
 union.' " 
 
 (Oh! does she?) 
 
 "I don't know whether she means previously, 
 on earth, or now." 
 
 (Will you ask if she felt assistance on 
 Wednesday the 3rd and was better, and, if so, 
 why the help was discontinued?)
 
 58 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 " When you asked that before, she said 'bar- 
 riers' and she says 'barriers' again, the 'dif- 
 ficulties of being sure.' ' 
 
 (I want to know if she felt that the help that 
 came to her was from the thoughts of her dear 
 ones. Was she conscious that we helped her?) 
 
 "It may take time to get an answer to that. 
 She says: 'Spasms of apparent response, ral- 
 lies, frequently take place in the dying. They 
 are simply the last flickers of a burnt-out taper 
 which responds to the passing breath of a 
 zephyr.* She shows me a taper that is burnt 
 down, but if you blow it gently responds a little. 
 She felt the force of your united efforts to 
 restore her, but 'remember this,' she says, 
 'as undying as the fountain of youth is the 
 force of sincere affection directed to her where 
 she is now as on earth.' There is a certain 
 buoyance and happiness in spite of separation. 
 Time does not mean much to them. The spirit 
 counts for more over there. They feel the be- 
 reavement, but there is an uplift over there 
 that we do not get over here. I will listen a 
 minute about the trinket she wanted you to get. 
 Something about it 'corresponds to something 
 that you have. It corresponds to something or 
 resembles something that somebody else has. 
 There are two and it corresponds to another 
 piece of jewelry. It's like a memento. Not so
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 59 
 
 much for the value it would bear, but you would 
 like to have it because she owned it.' I hear 
 the word ' cracked' something is cracked. 
 Again I get the impression that there is some 
 one about whose health she is worried ; it is the 
 health of someone she has left behind. 'Dis- 
 heartened.' " 
 
 At the end of this first sitting I was intro- 
 duced to Mrs. Vernon, who has since told me 
 that such a rush of emotion, such strong vibra- 
 tions of love filled her mind as I entered that 
 she dared not look at me. 
 
 The reference to "health" and the danger 
 which threatened some one as a result of a cer- 
 tain action, I think, concerned my husband who 
 was, at that time, contemplating, unknown to 
 me, an electric treatment for his persistent 
 gout, which was applied a week later, with al- 
 most fatal results. The " perplexity and con- 
 fusion" was a quite accurate perception, on the 
 part of my sister regarding the condition of 
 health which apparently was not subject to any 
 improvement by medicine or otherwise. I did 
 not, at the time of the sitting, realize, however, 
 that it was my husband's health that concerned 
 her, as I was ignorant not only of his intention 
 to try electricity, but of any possible harm 
 which might ensue therefrom. The capital let- 
 ter "F" conveyed no certain meaning to me
 
 60 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 at first, but as it appeared later, in connec- 
 tion with our mother, I realized that it was 
 our father who sent out a vision of greeting 
 to me, and indicated that he and her mother 
 were accompanying my sister. In subsequent 
 sittings it is also by the signal of this capital 
 "F" that he announces his presence. Her 
 mother's reference to the sudden and prema- 
 ture death of her youngest child is entirely 
 characteristic, expressing also the value which 
 is put on a full earthly experience, the regret, 
 even in heaven, when it is cut short. The mes- 
 sages descriptive of my sister's new condition, 
 her new comprehension of that spiritual ad- 
 vancement in which she should find peace, the 
 long and beautiful sentence about the flickering 
 taper, are very characteristic of the accuracy of 
 Mrs. Vernon's method of transmission and of 
 the symbolic form of many of the messages 
 from beyond. 
 
 In asking the question, if she had felt any 
 assistance on Wednesday, two days before her 
 death, I wished to know if indeed the improve- 
 ment on that day was due to the agonized con- 
 centration of thought and prayer which I and 
 others had sent out to aid her. 
 
 The most notable point in this first sitting is 
 that of the description of the "cover" of 
 "fancy work." Of this I had no knowledge
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 61 
 
 whatsoever. It was a large cover for my sis- 
 ter's own dining table in . It 
 
 was made of strips of linen and of lace, still "in 
 pieces," as she stated, as it was unfinished. 
 She had never made an article of this kind, hav- 
 ing shortly before learned the Italian stitch, 
 which finished the linen borders, from another 
 sister. The table cover was in the West and I 
 was in New York. Mrs. Vernon had never 
 heard of my sister, did not know me or my 
 name, knew nothing of the table cover. The 
 proof of my sister's identity is as perfect as 
 any proof could be. If the strained hypothesis 
 is urged that some knowledge of this object 
 existed on the earth plane which, by some en- 
 tirely unexplained and unexplainable process 
 could be transmitted to Mrs. Vernon, no hypoth- 
 esis can account for the idea of its altered des- 
 tination, for those who knew of it at my sister's 
 home, her sister and her daughter, definitely 
 intended it for the latter, who meant to learn 
 the stitch and finish it for herself. What more 
 natural than that my sister should indicate the 
 objects she wished me to have as souvenirs of 
 her? The other object, very accurately de- 
 scribed, was a brooch in the form of a bowknot, 
 woven of small pearls. I knew of this bowknot 
 naturally, as she often wore it, and recognized 
 her meaning when she said that I had a brooch
 
 62 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 that resembled it. I have a jeweled bowknot, 
 but did not know that she wished me to have 
 hers, which was, in fact, left with all her other 
 ornaments to her daughter. 
 
 Aside from the comforting assurances of her 
 happiness and of ultimate reunion, and of her 
 companionship with our father and mother, 
 there is, in this first communication, absolutely 
 evidential information unknown either to me or 
 to Mrs. Vernon, and there is a prophecy fulfilled 
 of a danger awaiting my husband totally unsus- 
 pected by me. 
 
 The first confirmation of the information 
 about this table cover came from her friend, 
 Mrs. Stillman, when she came to see me in New 
 York about a fortnight after my sister's death. 
 I asked her if she knew if my sister had been 
 making a table cover. "Why, yes, indeed I 
 do, ' ' she said, ' ' she spoke about it in the post- 
 script of her last letter to me, written the day 
 before she went to the hospital." In all prob- 
 ability it was therefore the subject of the last 
 sentence penned by her hand. 
 
 In the second short sitting of the 18th of 
 April, two important facts emerge; the first 
 Mrs. Vernon 's power of receiving messages 
 through what in Psychic Science is called the 
 ' * Pictographic Method" and the fact that my
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 63 
 
 sister, during those first days, was often near 
 me. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "I hear a word which sounds 
 like Braid, but now I see a water and a lawn 
 with trees. It is a place and now I hear the 
 word 'Kented.' The name now sounds like 
 Brady, but I may not have the name correctly. 
 Sh*e is looking at some rugs, Turkish rugs, and 
 shakes her head; she says 'they were offensive 
 to her tenant.' 
 
 ' ' Now I see her pointing to some paper with a 
 black border and she says 'No comparison.' 
 Do you know what she means by that?" 
 
 (I cannot think what she means.) 
 
 "She repeats it over and over 'No compari- 
 son; no comparison.' Now she says 'I was 
 there.' " 
 
 My sister's place in the country was rented to 
 a Mr. B who did in fact make some objec- 
 tions to the furnishing of the house which she 
 was not able to understand. The evocation of 
 the place with its lawn and trees and its view 
 of the lake was very accurate. The mention of 
 the rugs was an evident attempt to furnish an 
 identifying point to me. 
 
 As to the black border on the writing paper, 
 this was of course symbolical of mourning. 
 The remark ' ' No comparison, ' ' which I did not 
 at first remember or recognize in its proper
 
 64. A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 connection, was instantly recalled, when she 
 said "I was there." The evening previous to 
 this meeting with Mrs. Vernon, I had gone with 
 a friend to hear Dr. Jowett, when for the last 
 time he spoke to his people at the Wednesday 
 evening prayer meeting. On the way home in 
 the motor I said to my friend, "I lost my dear 
 parents but they died in the fullness of their 
 years and wished to go. That grief was no com- 
 parison to this." 
 
 If indeed the impression of that thought was 
 recorded in my memory, the idea that my sister 
 had been with me and had heard my words was 
 no part of my then comprehension of the fre- 
 quent presence with us of those whom we have 
 thought and called "departed." 
 
 The 28th of April was Sunday, and in the 
 morning I sat with Mrs. Vernon when soon my 
 sister's thoughts were sent to me in a message 
 which proved that she had received my own 
 thoughts as they went out to her. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "Frankincense and myrrh 
 wafted to me by zephyrs is the emanation of 
 my sister's deep affection for me." 
 
 Then immediately in a happy mood she re- 
 called to me a golf match we had played to- 
 gether in Aiken, describing the golf course, and 
 referring to an unusual recollection on my part
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 65 
 
 of a particular ground rule, which had enabled 
 us to win the match. 
 
 This unexpected turn in the contest she called 
 a trick, a reference wholly incomprehensible to 
 any one but myself. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "She asks if you remember 
 when you and she 'scrambled together over 
 rocks and sand, and where there was also occa- 
 sional water.' She speaks of a 'trick.' 
 
 Then followed a reference to a very pleasant 
 function of each Spring and Autumn when she 
 would show me the collection of hats she had 
 made for the coming season. The sight of her 
 lovely face in its various frames would have 
 delighted a less affectionate spectator than my- 
 self, who never discovered any hint of reserva- 
 tion of a like appreciation of my house and 
 furniture. 
 
 Mrs, Vernon : ' ' I see her pointing to a pretty 
 sailor hat and she is smiling. She says: 'You 
 were always so sympathetic about my hats in 
 which I was much interested, much more sym- 
 pathetic than I was about your furniture. You 
 have a different trend of mind from mine. I 
 liked your house but I like to see things finished ; 
 I could never go to the foundation of things 
 or study their ethics as you do. I might have 
 been more sympathetic about your more serious 
 pursuits. '
 
 66 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "I hear N.E.D. Is there a Ned?" 
 
 (Yes.) 
 
 ' ' She says : * Ned was very complimentary and 
 appreciative. ' 
 
 This short statement has an evidential qual- 
 ity. Ned is a relative who lives so far away 
 that I rarely see him, yet I had seen him a day 
 or two after my sister's last visit to me. At this 
 time occurred an incident which aroused this 
 complimentary and appreciative attitude and 
 which was, in my conviction, due at this time 
 only to this incident. When I saw him again, 
 some six months later and asked him if he had 
 spoken of it to my sister, he stated that he had 
 and expressed great surprise that I should have 
 been aware of their conversation. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon : * ' I see her holding out a check 
 book showing three blank checks and she holds 
 up three fingers and says 'Transaction.' This 
 refers to the necessity at this time of three 
 checks being sent to pay for the memorial win- 
 dow to her parents in the Church. 
 
 "I hear the word 'Papa,' Is her father 
 dead?" 
 
 (Yes.) 
 
 "She says, 'Papa's resentment,' and then 
 with her hands she makes a gesture of blowing 
 something from her lips." 
 
 With this characteristic gesture, my sister
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 67 
 
 told me that our father's long unhappiness due 
 to a disagreement with a business associate 
 had vanished in the other world. 
 
 Like a "tall flower,'* Mrs. Vernon said my 
 beautiful sister appeared to her, at this delight- 
 ful meeting, as she blew these charming 
 thoughts from her lips and filled the room with 
 her own atmosphere of lightness and of gayety. 
 
 "A long interim, ' ' Mrs. Vernon heard in fare- 
 well, like a sigh of lament over what must ap- 
 parently be our long separation. 
 
 The fourth sitting on May the 2nd was in the 
 boudoir of my own house in New York. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "I hear the word 'ransack' and 
 she shows me a box not like a jewel box it is 
 larger. Now she is opening it and taking some- 
 thing out of a flap, which looks like a paper. It 
 can 't be a letter because it is typewritten ; I can 
 see the letters through the paper. 
 
 (I wrote to my sister with a typewriter.) 
 
 "Ah! then, it is a letter and she says, 'I en- 
 joyed that letter very much indeed; I appre- 
 ciated it.' 
 
 This is a very evidential point for it told 
 me that my sister had taken the last letter I 
 had written her to the hospital in her letter 
 case. 
 
 When long months after her death I asked
 
 68 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 the old servant who had prepared her effects 
 for that last journey if she had known what 
 my sister had done with the last letter she had 
 received from me, she said, "Oh, yes, she told 
 me that she was taking it with her, and would 
 answer it as soon as she had recovered from 
 the operation." 
 
 "Now I hear the word Tea over and over; 
 what can it mean? Is it teacher or teaching! 
 She will not go to anything else. (After a 
 long pause of at least twenty minutes) Now 
 she wants me to look at those roses on the table, 
 and now she says ' They must be in full bloom 
 now.' " 
 
 The roses were tea roses in a vase, given to 
 me by her, and standing on the table. What 
 was the significance of this word "tea"; what 
 that of the remark ' ' they must be in full bloom 
 now"? Only that she was in the room beside 
 us, seeing the tea roses and thinking that in 
 this month of May they were in full bloom in 
 
 distant . No hint of the thought in 
 
 her mind of the connection of the word "tea" 
 with the roses dawned in Mrs. Vernon's mind 
 for that long period of waiting; none was in 
 mine. But finally her magnetic force, exerted 
 after long delay, invincibly turned Mrs. Ver- 
 non's head to the table and the roses.
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 69 
 
 "Tell her that I am with her a great deal 
 I have not left her, I will develop as she will 
 develop, don't let me go; we shall never be 
 separated." 
 
 During all the days which had intervened 
 since her death, and the fifth sitting which oc- 
 curred on the 9th of May, I had constantly dic- 
 tated to my grief the thought that it was well 
 for her to leave life when she was still lovely 
 and beloved. I had recalled her declaration 
 made in the height of her youth and beauty that 
 she did not wish to live after the best of life 
 was over. These thoughts she had received and 
 had prepared this elaborately constructed reply. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "I hear Turgenieff. I hear 
 something like the passage or the flight of time ; 
 she is making some sort of quotation from Tur- 
 genieff, I think : 
 
 " 'The years from twenty to fifty are the 
 flowery years. Those after fifty, as I have 
 often told you, seemed to me very dull and 
 not worth living. I do not think so now. 
 Women like you two may find the years after 
 fifty just as blooming, if you have the staff of 
 some occupation or interest. In this way 
 you will avoid the deep grooves of the mind 
 and will not acquire mental rust. You will 
 still have magnetism.' "
 
 70 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 At this point I asked Mrs. Vernon to write 
 these words. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon : ' ' Now they are dictating. ' The 
 years beyond fifty may retain the flowery as- 
 pect of the period before from twenty on to 
 fifty. Women like you two should find as much 
 bloom in maturity as in youth due to the mental 
 and spiritual staff provided by this philosophy. 
 Interests of this kind prevent grooves and the 
 decline of vigor which indicates rust.' 
 
 At this point I asked Mrs. Vernon if she 
 thought that my sister could hear me if I spoke. 
 On her affirmative answer I said: 
 
 (Dear, do you hear me? And do you know 
 that the thought that you might develop more 
 quickly on the other side has been my one con- 
 solation?) 
 
 "Tell Anna that as a direct answer to her 
 thought I have tried to put through this com- 
 munication." 
 
 My next question was about my husband's 
 health and her replies, characteristically humor- 
 ous and playful, show how closely she had been 
 watching him; how anxious she was to help. 
 
 (How about Reggie?) 
 
 "Reggie's system has been renovated, house- 
 cleaned; and there is no reason why, provided
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 71 
 
 he follows wise and prudent methods, he should 
 not be permanently alleviated. " 
 
 (Are you busy; have you anything to do?) 
 
 "As yet my chief interest has been these peri- 
 odical lapses into the human again, preventing 
 the despair of absolute inscrutable separation. 
 Later on my induction into spiritual life will 
 begin, but the solace administered by the cour- 
 teous and patient efforts of you two to trans- 
 late my messages has assuaged my grief ten- 
 fold." (Again reverting to my husband) "Im- 
 portune Eeggie, divert his attention from 
 cracked ice. Try a substitute." 
 
 "She is showing me bottles of mineral water 
 and I see her squeezing the juice of a lime into 
 a glass. She says to use 'the sharpest kind 
 of mineral water. He will say it is a poor 
 drink but wholesome. His feet protruded but 
 now they are on the floor. Reiterate the fact 
 that calmness will help his complaint. The 
 difficulty is not fatal or serious but might be- 
 come so if not mitigated. ' ' ' Accompanying this 
 was a medical diagnosis of one symptom of my 
 husband's condition, quite accurate, as was the 
 perception of its cause. The reference to his 
 feet being at last on the floor was also accu- 
 rately perceived, as only the day previous to 
 this sitting had he been able to walk. 
 
 The reference to the solace administered to
 
 72 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 her by her communications with us, was the 
 first of many expressive of the same gratitude. 
 
 On May 12th, in my boudoir there was evi- 
 dence for the first time of the presence of the 
 group of discarnate members of the English 
 Society for Psychic Research, which is directed, 
 in their control of communications from the un- 
 seen, by the famous Imperator of Mrs. Piper's 
 demonstrations. 
 
 In this connection it is pertinent to refer to 
 the fact that a personality also appearing under 
 the name of Imperator communicated the very 
 important messages by automatic handwriting 
 and otherwise to the Kev. Stainton Moses, 
 who under the pseudonym of M. A. Oxon, pub- 
 lished them in a famous book called "Spirit 
 Teachings." Much confusion in the minds of 
 the students of Psychic Phenomena has arisen 
 in regard to the identity of Imperator. His 
 real name, as borne on earth, and given to 
 Stainton Moses, was not confirmed in the lat- 
 ter 's communications after death. A state- 
 ment of my sister indicates that Imperator 
 is a title such as Judge or Doctor, which is used 
 by the ancient masters in the other world who 
 control or guide the communications between 
 that world and ours.
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 73 
 
 "Imperator dictates. Specified communica- 
 tors provide the subjects. 
 
 11 Mother appears, she shows a sort of cold 
 frame, such as covers flowers, and appears to 
 lift it as if to disclose the flowers beneath. She 
 uses the word 'Reticence' which she says kept 
 her children from completely understanding 
 her. She says also that this Reticence has 
 passed." 
 
 (Our mother came of Puritan ancestors and 
 felt that it was wrong to praise her children 
 overmuch.) 
 
 "I was not so much of a Puritan but that I 
 could attend to having good food and look after 
 the wants of others." 
 
 This avowal was surprising to me, in view 
 of her entire lack of enjoyment in the pleasures 
 of the table, and her omission to mention any 
 particular intention of ministering to that en- 
 joyment in others. No want was ever neglected 
 in her household, but a confirmation of her 
 statement, subsequently to this meeting with 
 Mrs. Vernon, was found among some family let- 
 ters, in many little blank books, containing 
 cooking recipes and carefully preserved in her 
 own delicate handwriting. 
 
 "Cousin John is with me." 
 
 This Cousin John was a very distant relative, 
 characteristically sought by our mother, who
 
 74 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 was always most careful to preserve all family 
 connections. 
 
 I then asked her why she had not told her 
 family about the Nathan Dexter document. 
 
 "I had a certain parental hesitation to dis- 
 close the primitive or elemental conditions con- 
 cerning his life and occupations. This was not 
 exactly snobbish as we were nearer those con- 
 ditions than you are now. People feel differ- 
 ently about those things. It was stupid and 
 unnecessary. ' ' 
 
 I then brought into the room a photograph 
 of her house in South Williamstown and put it 
 before Mrs. Vernon, asking the question. 
 
 (Did grandfather buy this house or did he 
 build it?) 
 
 "He converted to our use the sturdy relic of 
 a predecessor." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon (after a long pause) : "She is 
 making me look at the window at the back over 
 the kitchen." 
 
 (This means that the little addition was the 
 kitchen, a fact that I did not know.) 
 
 "She says: 'That was the window' and she 
 says it many times. Now she is showing me a 
 letter or letters thrown against the window. 
 I can't imagine what she can mean." 
 
 It was quite plain to me, finally, for I under-
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 75 
 
 stood that this must be the window of her old 
 bedroom where, on the first day of her occu- 
 pation of it, she had written with a ring upon 
 
 the glass, "In this room M E S 
 
 passed many happy hours." The premature 
 declaration had always amused her sisters, and 
 the little incident had been repeated by her to 
 her family as many as forty years ago. 
 
 I append the Nathan Dexter document, an in- 
 teresting patriotic declaration of a soldier in 
 the Revolution, discovered long after her death, 
 among the family papers. I have no means of 
 knowing what this ancestor's "elemental occu- 
 pation" might have been. I find in it, however, 
 an unconscious literary quality and a fluency 
 of language, the source, in all probability, of a 
 like fluency in her gracious speech. 
 
 At Lanesboro, Mass. September the 19th, 
 1843. 
 
 ' ' This short narrative is wrote at the request 
 of my great granddaughter M. E S and 
 I am the sixth generation from Gregory Dexter 
 who came from England and settled in Provi- 
 dence in Rhode Island in 1643. I was born in 
 Smithfield in Rhode Island on July the 22nd, 
 1759. And when at the age of sixteen I slung 
 my pack and shouldered my loaded gun in the 
 defense of my dear country which was infested
 
 76 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 by a cruel and destructive inimy for seven 
 years. When at the word of God and the 
 Swoard of Washington they were made captive 
 and drove back to their Infernal Den. I from 
 my youth have stood firm in the shoes Democ- 
 racy and may God bless my dear country with 
 peace prosperity and happiness until time shall 
 be no more. 
 
 "The above lines wrote by the aged infirm 
 and trembling hand of Nathan Dexter in my 
 eighty fifth year." 
 
 At the seventh sitting on the 15th of May, a 
 friend, Mrs. Horton who quite unexpectedly 
 then exhibited a psychic power of a very distinct 
 order, accompanied me. My sister came at once, 
 with, to me, a heartbreaking reference to our 
 golf playing on the links at and an ex- 
 pression of regret, the only one in all her com- 
 munications but deeply poignant, for the lost 
 summers of our constant companionship. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard: " Flowers near a stream 
 in the country far away, Indian name. ' ' 
 
 (This must be the golf links in our old home.) 
 
 "This pleasant summer weather makes me 
 think of it." 
 
 Suddenly at this point, a new presence made 
 itself felt overwhelmingly, the husband of Mrs. 
 Horton, who received messages and visions 
 which completed and confirmed those received
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 77 
 
 by Mrs. Vernon. It was very curious to ob- 
 serve this double registering of thought waves. 
 One saw a vision of a club lawn, the other the 
 vision of some one playing a game ; the evoca- 
 tion of an identifying vision of a ball game on 
 fete days, in the old home of Mrs. Horton and 
 her husband. The electric currents which Mrs. 
 Vernon describes were experienced by my 
 friend with great intensity, giving a very clear 
 example and confirmation of the electrical wave 
 method of thought communication. 
 
 On the morning of the 20th of May, I had, in 
 a telephone conversation with a friend, re- 
 marked that it would be most interesting if 
 we could hear from a mutual friend of ours, who 
 had died a few years ago. Between the hour 
 of this conversation and eleven, when Mrs. Ver- 
 non came to my house for the eighth sitting, 
 Mrs. Horton, who had been present at the sev- 
 enth sitting, entered my room saying, "I have 
 a feeling that you will hear from a new person 
 this morning and that you will be very much 
 pleased and interested." 
 
 When Mrs. Vernon arrived she observed that 
 it was sometimes difficult to demonstrate for 
 men, that they were apt to dictate the conduct 
 of the sittings and that there were certain "mas-
 
 78 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 culine inhibitions ' ' which were difficult to over- 
 come. 
 
 The first word she heard when she applied 
 herself to "listen" was the last name of the 
 friend, of whom I had spoken that morning on 
 the telephone and whom she had never known 
 or ever seen. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "I hear the name S . Don't 
 
 tell me the first name. Now, I hear the capital 
 letter (mentioning the initial of the friend's 
 Christian name.) Now, I have the impression 
 of laughter and gayety, of a very brilliant 
 sparkling personality and she says, 
 
 " *I am laughing at the unsatisfactory condi- 
 tions down there. I used to laugh in a sort of 
 cynical way ; I still laugh, but not in exactly the 
 same way. I have expanded.' " 
 
 (We have missed you so much.) 
 
 "I really believe they did. I was usually the 
 instigator of the fun and nonsense. It is just 
 as much of a comfort to talk to Mrs. de Koven 
 as it always was. I have wanted to come be- 
 fore, but have kept off because I felt that her 
 sister needed her." 
 
 (Have you seen my sister?) 
 
 "Why, of course, she is here. She is as 
 beautiful as ever. I always admired her but 
 preferred Anna's dignified charm." ( t) 
 
 (What is my sister doing?)
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 79 
 
 "She is aiding in the transportation of mes- 
 sages and exchanging ideas with those who 
 perform this service over here." 
 
 (Can you give us a test?) 
 
 "My vegetable garden has been enlarged, en- 
 croached. ' ' 
 
 This refers, as I have since been informed, 
 to certain improvements in her place in the 
 country. 
 
 (Have you a message for f the friend 
 
 with whom I have talked over the telephone.) 
 
 * * Tell my old friend that I am so thankful to 
 see that she is so much better. Well done! 
 Fine! so pleased." 
 
 (What about her brother?) 
 
 "He is surrounded with a jumble of papers." 
 
 This was correct, as I was later informed, as 
 this brother had lately begun to write for the 
 newspapers. 
 
 "I was amused when I heard you speak of 
 masculine inhibitions. Your sister has been 
 very patient this morning; my only excuse is 
 that you called me. ' ' 
 
 (Tell my sister that there is not one moment 
 when I am not thinking of her.) 
 
 "Perennial affection like my sister's lights 
 the way through eternity." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon : * ' She is thanking me for my 
 'patience and courtesy.'
 
 80 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Some day you yourselves will know what 
 this has meant to me. Mamma is much softer 
 with me than she was and not quite so firm with 
 me. I do not want yet to see much of Cousin 
 John. They tell me I will in time. (She seems 
 very humble and gentle.) I find him uncon- 
 genial. There are so many others here. It 
 does not make any difference if he was related 
 to me on earth. I have no resentment. I just 
 don't want to see him yet. I am so glad that 
 Reggie is doing better. I saw him laugh at 
 the 'cracked ice.' Reggie with his charm is 
 more congenial to me than Cousin John. (She 
 laughs.) Why should I be with Cousin John? 
 I would rather be around here and do whatever 
 good I can, so they let me. I have not reached 
 the holy stage where I can agree to seeing 
 Cousin John. Mamma is still struggling with 
 me spiritually, she will win out in time. I see 
 Mrs. Vernon has to go (she waves good-bye) 
 I shall always be on hand at the sittings even 
 though I do not always communicate." 
 
 The impression of dramatic verity in these 
 communications from my friends, was exceed- 
 ingly strong, and would be to all who have 
 known them. The instant response to my 
 
 thoughts of Mrs. which brought her to me, 
 
 as if by a telegram, was most surprising to me, 
 with my then total ignorance of the rapidity
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 81 
 
 and certainty with which thought messages are 
 carried. 
 
 It is also interesting to note, that Mrs. S 
 
 heard Mrs. Vernon's remark about " masculine 
 inhibitions" as my sister had heard my hus- 
 band laugh when I repeated to him her tactful 
 warning against "cracked ice," indicating that 
 he should avoid the beverages forbidden by his 
 physician. 
 
 On May the 24th, the statement in the sixth 
 sitting that Imperator and his group were con- 
 trolling Mrs. Vernon's communications was 
 confirmed. In the group of those members of 
 the English and American societies for Psychic 
 Eesearch who apparently immediately recog- 
 nized the determination on the part of myself 
 and my friend to communicate and had there- 
 fore assisted her, are Mr. Myers, Dr. Hodgson, 
 Mr. Pelham, and Edwin Friend. 
 
 Mr. Friend was in the act of carrying records 
 of Mrs. Vernon's communications to the Eng- 
 lish Society when he was lost with the Lusi- 
 tania. He had therefore known Mrs. Vernon in 
 life, and is often the spokesman of this group. 
 Mrs. Vernon states that since his interest in 
 thesemattershasbeenprosecuted from the other 
 side, she recognizes his control of the com- 
 munications which she receives and the com-
 
 82 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 municators who approach her. He has made 
 himself her guardian, perfectly protecting her 
 from intrusion by the strange and mischievous 
 personalities who often attempt to disturb and 
 arrest the communications of other psychics. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard my sister : ' ' The contribu- 
 tion of the family collectively to the war tax 
 represents a fine memorial to Papa. Earthly 
 achievements indicating conscientious and up- 
 right effort teach us over here even after our 
 passing through the medium of telepathic com- 
 munication. Papa's upright efforts there di- 
 rect toward him a great many appreciative 
 thoughts which reach and affect him here. 
 Thought is a power, more so over here than 
 with you. I am touching a little upon this phi- 
 losophy because I know my sister's mind." 
 
 (Does she know my thoughts?) 
 
 "Absolutely whenever I choose. (Resum- 
 ing her previous subject.) Those thoughts do 
 not pander to egotism ; not in this connection do 
 we value them, but they contribute to and up- 
 hold the value of integrity. ... It is difficult 
 to describe how the viewpoint changes over 
 here. We have a different idea of proportions. 
 In the company of benign spirits, the object 
 seems to be individual development (I should 
 say in this company) the obliteration of sel- 
 fish and egotistical desires, and above all an
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 83 
 
 almost divine toleration of human weaknesses. 
 I am learning or trying to learn these things. 
 When the curtain goes down on a play one 
 does not disturb oneself about what goes on 
 behind the scenes. As far as I am concerned 
 the curtain is down, my little play is over. 
 Anna thought that I played the star role, and 
 I must say that I regret not being able to finish 
 my career, but I am learning with your ( !) 
 help to give spirituality its proper weight. Our 
 sister must of necessity in the near future read 
 and think a great deal, and I would like to in- 
 terest her more in this phase of existence as it 
 is like a sturdy raft to a shipwrecked mariner. 
 I can almost hear them, saying that she must be 
 changed to be like that, but this is a reflection 
 from those who are teaching me. This is what 
 I am being taught, I still have a good many 
 human traits, an abiding detestation of funere- 
 ally religious people. Over here there is none 
 of it. Not a bit of it not in the particular 
 group with which I have been associated. 
 There is merriment and happiness and light- 
 heartedness with the greatest possible degree 
 of spirituality. All spirits are not like that; I 
 am in contact with a group of very high devel- 
 opment. ' ' 
 
 (Do you sleep and what do you do?) 
 
 "We divide time between consultations as
 
 84- A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 to the best methods of communication and re- 
 joicing over satisfactory results. And what we 
 call charitable incursions to other planes to up- 
 lift and console despairing and lonely souls. 
 This group which has control of these veridical 
 communications is a very ancient one, and 
 therefore only privileged newcomers are al- 
 lowed to enter it. There is no taint of dishon- 
 esty, of a desire to pose, of material gratifica- 
 tion. Also no intellectual inhibitions in the 
 group around me. This group of controls is 
 a wonderful group. It is the Imperator group, 
 and it has been supplemented by such a man 
 as Frederick Myers and Edwin Friend whose 
 youthful vigor of mind has inveighed against 
 untoward influences." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard Frederick Myers : ' * Mrs. 
 de Koven's sister seems to have grasped the 
 meaning of affairs, with unusual lucidity. Has 
 resigned herself to conditions and is con- 
 forming herself in every possible way to 
 methods which will enhance her spiritual de- 
 velopment. With amazing lucidity she has 
 grasped the conditions. Most people who come 
 over suddenly would say * I will still try to exert 
 my influence, I will not leave the earth.' That 
 would be human. Not she her intellectuality 
 has grasped that it would be a waste of time to 
 attempt it."
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 85 
 
 Mrs. Vernon remarks that it may be egotistic 
 but that she thinks that this opportunity to 
 communicate has helped her. 
 
 Frederick Myers : "It is not egotistic; there 
 is no doubt but that you have helped her very 
 much. ' ' 
 
 The first message in this sitting regarding 
 the "collective contribution of the family to 
 the war tax" has a high evidential significance. 
 Unknown to me the directors in the Chicago 
 Company in which I am a stockholder had pur- 
 chased, just before this sitting, a large number 
 of Liberty Bonds. My first knowledge of this 
 came from my sister. 
 
 At the tenth sitting, on the 28th of May, my 
 sister conversed with me in a language of such 
 deep intimacy, that it not only removed my last 
 lingering subconscious doubt but convinced a 
 number to whom I read this record and who 
 had known her well, of the possibility of com- 
 munication. In this interview, she discussed 
 certain traits of character in those connected 
 with us, and disagreed with me in her conclu- 
 sions, finally convincing me by references to 
 incidents which proved her argument. Mrs. 
 Vernon knew nothing of the persons discussed 
 nor did she understand the significance of my 
 sister's words. Unfortunately it is only possi-
 
 86 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ble to relate this incident, without giving the 
 details. The fact in regard to which all testi- 
 mony agrees that personality is at first com- 
 pletely unchanged, was very clearly shown. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "C excels in motherly 
 
 duties and approves I have not mentioned the 
 others. I have concerned myself in proving 
 my existence to you. Tell Nan that I have a 
 little idea of Maine's disapprobation of me. I 
 was not spiritual, I wielded a great power, and 
 it was a temptation to use it. Mamma did not 
 understand me, as she never held the power 
 that I had ; it would not have been human not to 
 use it. She was not beautiful as I was. I am 
 simply stating facts. It isn't egotistical now 
 that I am gone. I am simply talking it over 
 with you and Anna. This is also characteristic 
 of me." 
 
 (Do you remember that during our long inti- 
 macy I have made two remarks that were cal- 
 culated to hurt you? And do you know how 
 much I regret them?) 
 
 "But yet it was a perfectly correct statement. 
 I grew to think so many years ago. In both 
 cases Nan. was right. Her influence directed 
 me in the decision which I took. I never ad- 
 mitted it, but it was so." 
 
 (Does she know my love for her; how I think 
 of her every moment?)
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 8T 
 
 ' ' Emanations from that affection have upheld 
 and comforted me through what would other- 
 wise have been a period of anguish." 
 
 (Was not the intimacy between us always 
 very deep and satisfying?) 
 
 * ' Two blossoms on the same stalk may vary ; 
 we did not ; we were like twin roses on the same 
 stem; we were so in accord; if the wind blew 
 roughly over me she felt it. ' ' 
 
 In my sister's statement that she had "many 
 years ago ' ' grown to agree with the first of the 
 remarks I had made to her, was so expressed 
 that it was perfectly certain that she knew what 
 the remark was to which I had referred, and 
 this admission was the first knowledge that I 
 have ever had of that agreement. The remark 
 was made over twenty-five years ago and never 
 referred to but once between us. Her refer- 
 ence to the second time when I had wounded 
 her did not concern the remark I had in mind 
 when I asked the question. It did refer to an 
 incident made perfectly clear in her expression, 
 and her statement contained information quite 
 new to me. Mrs. Vernon has never had any 
 idea of the significance of the conversation. 
 
 The first message in this communication re- 
 ferred to a member of her family who was, soon 
 after her death, taking care of the younger chil- 
 dren. The approbation of a certain course of
 
 88 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 proceeding of which she had known was cor- 
 rectly stated, as was the care of the children. 
 In this case, as in many others, it is she who 
 has first informed me of the thoughts and oc- 
 cupations of members of our family who are 
 distant from me. 
 
 * 
 
 At the sitting of the 4th of June my sister's 
 deep depression over the unhappiness of those 
 she had left behind was very evident. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "I am very unhappy over the 
 children. They are so unhappy somebody cry- 
 ing on a little tear-stained pillow. The con- 
 dition is so unhappy, I have to express it. So 
 much unhappiness in my family, I cannot help 
 but be weighed down by it. Hardly equal to a 
 test." 
 
 (Tell me if your twin brother has grown up?) 
 
 "He presents a radiant aura, he defends me 
 from impertinent spirits, he paraphrases my 
 thoughts for me ; it is all so different here and 
 experience counts for a great deal. He is in 
 loving attendance on me now. In a way we are 
 really very happy, because it is so peaceful. 
 No social amenities to speak of; no social ene- 
 mies at all. One 's development determines one 's 
 surroundings, and the only snobs ( !) are those 
 who dislike spiritual regulations. They thrust
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 89 
 
 their egotistical auras before them and are 
 easily eluded." 
 
 (Is it like the world at all; are there hills and 
 streams?) 
 
 "Every physical and material manifestation 
 is plainly discernible from here, inviting those 
 whose choice leads them to hills and streams to 
 indulge it. There are symbols of hills and 
 streams. It is a world of symbols, very difficult 
 to describe to the material mind. The psychic 
 symbol is the nearest approach to it of any- 
 thing the human imagination is capable of. 
 Eemember it is the life of the soul, and there- 
 fore intangible, but nevertheless exquisitely 
 lucid, not indistinct, one might almost say lurid. 
 Therefore it is advisable to be very careful 
 what symbols you choose. Undeveloped souls 
 are transported by symbols of wine glasses and 
 material gratifications. They derive an almost 
 material gratification from these. More devel- 
 oped inhabitants here prefer to dwell upon 
 mental pictures of an uplifting character, the 
 glory of spirituality pervading the universe, 
 with beneficence in which they bask. ' ' 
 
 (Is there a special locality to which they re- 
 turn?) 
 
 "We do inhabit the ether, we are ethereal 
 beings, we can preside at the conjunction of sun, 
 moon and stars if we choose. The earth at-
 
 90 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 tracts most of those in my realm because we all 
 have loved ones there, but more ancient souls 
 prefer the Hebrides, Pleiades, Hesperides." 
 
 (Are you happy?) 
 
 "We float in the ether." 
 
 (Can that be a happy condition?) 
 
 "It is a superlatively happy condition to 
 those who have found their souls, not surely for 
 the materialists." 
 
 (Is there a spiritual body!) 
 
 "We can assume at will the semblance of our- 
 selves. Mrs. S told you that because she 
 
 knew it would please you she remembered how 
 proud you were of my looks. Seeing the im- 
 portance of spiritual development over here, 
 we marvel at the neglect of it over there. The 
 intelligent ones recognize it and attempt at 
 once to develop. The stupid ones hang on to 
 the earthly symbols." 
 
 (Do you know what Summerland is which 
 Raymond speaks of?) 
 
 "Do you remember one day when we were on 
 the lawn, and the children were playing, and 
 when we had no idea of anything in the future 
 but happiness ? It is like that. It is like youth 
 and childhood, and the faith in a happy future. 
 I have seen a place like that but as yet it 
 seems empty. When whole families come over, 
 when they are all united, there are all sorts of
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 91 
 
 pleasant conditions. The air is filled with a sort 
 of happy expectancy. I am not ready for it 
 yet." 
 
 (Will you be happier when I come?) 
 
 "Oh my! yes, that would mean companion- 
 ship, the uplift of affection, the tie of associa- 
 tion, the assuaging of the grief of separation. 
 Mamma is still severely pursuing spirituality; 
 Anna and I would pursue it with a little bit of 
 humor. She is good as gold, chastened and 
 everything which is pure and highly developed. 
 Papa beamed a welcome, and held out hands as 
 if to support; has supported me much more 
 than Mamma, a perfect rock." 
 
 (Did Papa like the book I wrote after he 
 died?) 
 
 Instantly Mrs. Vernon perceived my father's 
 presence and heard : 
 
 F: "I always said that Anna The book 
 
 made its impression there but other achieve- 
 ments have made their impression over here." 
 
 (Do you like my house?) 
 
 "A beautiful structure, filled with many 
 beautiful things, a tribute to her taste. Tell 
 Anna that I consider that in the game of life 
 she has scored well and that her great affection 
 for her sister has been one of her greatest com- 
 forts over here." 
 
 (Can you tell us about the war?)
 
 92 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Around Toul lies the solution. Britannia 
 may rule the ocean, America will rule the land. 
 Not dominions, but America's high principles 
 in this war will make her a power greater than 
 she was before. Otherwise criss cross (hands 
 moving back and forth) . The Americans should 
 not get all the credit, the others have borne 
 the brunt. It should be a hand shake all 
 around. Persistency wins and Heaven knows 
 we are all persistent enough." 
 
 The date of this communication was the 4th 
 of June, 1918, before any advance of the Amer- 
 ican forces. The reference to the concentra- 
 tion of Americans at Toul is notable as well as 
 the statement of his intense interest in the 
 progress of the war and the apparent coopera- 
 tion with the efforts of his countrymen. 
 
 
 
 A month elapsed between the eleventh sitting 
 and the twelfth when I saw Mrs. Vernon at the 
 Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston, first in the morn- 
 ing and again in the afternoon of the 6th of 
 July. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard my sister : ' ' The compen- 
 sation was great for my lack, for whatever was 
 lacking in my life I had a compensation in the 
 affection which Anna gave me. She was like 
 a rock. I could always know that she was there. 
 (Shows an image of a swimmer.) But although
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 93 
 
 I sometimes floundered I always came back to 
 her and rested my feet upon this rock. She 
 knew that it was not so much that I swam away, 
 but there were currents and eddies which en- 
 ticed me and so I floundered about, but after 
 a while I came back. 
 
 "Even after my passing her interest in this 
 provides the rock for me to stand on. (Shows 
 a picture of a lovely wide and sunlit beach.) 
 There were other bathers who called me and I 
 enjoyed myself for a while, but I tired of it 
 finally and came back. The frivolity of it en- 
 ticed me and I indulged myself in it, but she 
 was always there, as firmly established as 
 ever." 
 
 (Does mother see her children who died long 
 ago?) 
 
 "Difficult to describe conditions. Children 
 who die like that are in a different realm. One 
 can visit it; you can see them. (Points a long 
 way off.) They have not been compelled to 
 strip themselves of earthly guile. You must 
 strip yourself of earthly attributes to spend 
 much time with them. Mamma can, as she had 
 fewer earthly attributes. I can sometimes, but 
 as yet I have been occupied with communica- 
 tion. I have not spent as much time with 
 Mamma as you would have thought. Mamma 
 gravitates between the children 's realm and me,
 
 94 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 She is a sort of derrick. I must say that she 
 has been a wonderful help. But she is not as 
 much interested in these transcendental com- 
 munications as I am." 
 
 (Do you see Dr. Hodgson, George Pelham 
 and the others of the Psychical Kesearch 
 group?) 
 
 "Yes, indeed, I see that group. They allow 
 me to spend all the time with them. ' ' 
 
 (Do you know that I do nothing but read 
 about the subject?) 
 
 "Yes, I have seen her. Anna's interest is 
 wonderful and she has a great place to fill in 
 spreading this knowledge. Her interest does 
 not surprise me. To paraphrase the old ex- 
 pression 'Handsome is as handsome does.' 
 Anna does as Anna is." 
 
 (Did you speak to me in the Library?) 
 
 "I did my very best; hers is a peculiar phase 
 and I had to use an entirely different set of 
 vibrations. ' ' 
 
 This refers to a message given me by an offi- 
 cial of the Public Library in Boston, who had 
 often occupied herself in searching references 
 for me. This official has certain mediumistic 
 powers and did apparently get a message from 
 my sister, who told her that she was very near 
 me. She heard my name repeated many times
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 95 
 
 and finally asked me if this was my Christian 
 name. 
 
 In the afternoon I asked two questions which 
 our sister had wished me to send through Mrs. 
 Yernon to the mother of a friend. This mother 
 has been dead for a number of years. The ques- 
 tions were unintelligible to my sister, to Mrs. 
 Vernon and to me. The original propounder 
 of these questions was also unknown to Mrs. 
 Vernon and to me, and she was in California. 
 I had no hope that any replies could be ob- 
 tained, but Mrs. Vernon thought otherwise. 
 The questions were: 
 
 1. How shall I communicate with my 
 mother ? 
 
 2. How shall I fulfill my promise to my 
 mother? 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard the answer to the first 
 question : 
 
 ' ' Through a developed psychic, through Mrs. 
 F. if she goes through Chicago." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard the answer to the second 
 question : 
 
 "Something overturned, since this promise 
 was made. (Vision of the crank of an automo- 
 bile turning; something turning over; an auto- 
 mobile turnover.) Tell Mary to patch it up 
 and go; she will understand if you say this."
 
 96 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 The two replies were transmitted by letter 
 immediately to my sister, who in turn sent them 
 to her still anonymous friend. The replies 
 were both significant, particularly the second. 
 The lady in question had in fact been over- 
 turned in her automobile, which had rolled over 
 twice, exactly as Mrs. Vernon had seen it. She 
 had been driving it herself and with her daugh- 
 ter was severely injured. The concluding sen- 
 tence, "Tell Mary to patch it up and go," was 
 the direction as to how she should fulfill her 
 promise to her mother, as it concerned her hesi- 
 tation to go to visit a family connection with 
 whom her relations had not been harmonious. 
 This explanation was sent me by another sister, 
 who stated that her friend was entirely satis- 
 fied with the result of her attempt to reach her 
 mother and to receive her advice. 
 
 It is superfluous to observe that "thought 
 transference" is eliminated from this incident, 
 in its popular interpretation. Thought trans- 
 ference it certainly was, from a mother to a 
 daughter, through three intermediaries, totally 
 ignorant of the significance of at least the sec- 
 ond question or its answer. 
 
 My sister died from pneumonia, following an 
 operation for appendicitis. She had a slight 
 cold at the time the operation was performed, 
 which seemed of imminent necessity. A recur-
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 97 
 
 ring infection of the antrum, which was, how- 
 ever, not acute at the time, was, according to 
 the following message, an element in the devel- 
 opment of the pneumonia. 
 
 (If the operation had been delayed until you 
 had recovered from your cold, would the result 
 have been the same?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon : * ' Functional sections were in- 
 fected, causing improper circulation which 
 caused my death. But surgical pneumonia is 
 one of the vicissitudes of surgery. Don't grieve 
 over the spilt milk, but rather rejoice at the 
 discovery of a permanent reunion. It might 
 have occurred without the antrum. " 
 
 (Are you really near me?) 
 
 ' ' I am in the air with you. I am in the same 
 ether. It is like being in a room above another ; 
 if one is listening for messages one may per- 
 haps hear them. It is as difficult to communi- 
 cate as to hear from one room to another some- 
 times. The fact of the awareness of the two 
 helps. If you had not been waiting and listen- 
 ing, I could not have made myself heard. "We 
 like the word awareness." 
 
 (You said that Dr. Hodgson would manifest 
 in the library; will you tell me what that 
 meant?) 
 
 "The same group of controls tries to catch
 
 98 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 the attention of every medium and this name 
 stuck in the psychic's mind." 
 
 (Who is Imperator ?) 
 
 "Psychical researchers there, here they hang 
 out the shingle Imperator. Psychical re- 
 searchers on earth compile volumes, look 
 through volumes; that means research. The 
 Imperator group deduct and dictate, but only 
 by means and through the medium of thoughts, 
 and as no material records are kept, they can- 
 not be researchers." 
 
 (I think that my sister would like to see 
 W. E.) 
 
 Again almost instantly the wireless message 
 was received and the friend with whom I had 
 discussed matters literary, during a brief visit 
 to this country, over 25 years ago, came at our 
 call, with his old phrases, his old similes, even 
 his old trick of holding his head to one side 
 while "considering." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon saw the vision of a crystal ball, 
 in a walled garden, beautifully clear, yet reflect- 
 ing all the colors of the spectrum. 
 
 "F. We were great friends (vision of writ- 
 ing). She wrote to me. Suddenly it snapped. 
 (His death from heart failure.) She always 
 encouraged me ; never said it was poor stuff. * ' 
 (His poetry.) 
 
 (Are you happy!)
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 99 
 
 "Yes, very happy, but would have been hap- 
 pier had I finished it out. The symbol de- 
 scribed our friendship. F wonderfully pure, 
 
 yet vivid and full of color. We do have regrets 
 if we do not finish our work. I could have done 
 better work, a little bit of alloy in the otherwise 
 pure golcl." 
 
 (Have you anything to do?) 
 
 "Oh! yes, I am occupied all the time. One 
 can teach, do missionary work. If you go over 
 as a poet, you train poets, and come back to 
 try and inspire poetry. We do not do any con- 
 crete thing; we try to make people happy, and 
 our condition depends upon our spiritual de- 
 velopment. ' ' 
 
 (Shall I send a message to your sister?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon saw him holding his head to one 
 side and "considering." 
 
 "I have been very unhappy; earthly career 
 unsatisfactory. Just missed it ; adored mental 
 companionship. I would like to express again ; 
 so others feel, whose earth careers were un- 
 satisfactory." 
 
 (Is there reincarnation?) 
 
 "There is an inextinguishable vital spark, 
 which while partaking of the universal whole, 
 separates itself at intervals for the purpose of 
 gleaning and acquiring; this effort is called re- 
 birth."
 
 100 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 (Do we remember in the final state all our 
 successive existences?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard the continuance of the 
 subject of his last sentence. 
 
 "This accounts for the preeminence of some 
 and the insignificance of other souls. After the 
 receding of the whirlwind we gaze with dismay 
 upon the debris ; if one wishes to reinstate one- 
 self, and correct errors one is given the oppor- 
 tunity. I have not paused long enough to put 
 this in more beautiful language. After the 
 whirlwind you go out to repair. 
 
 (Do those who are satisfied go back?) 
 
 "It is not given to all to choose, the repair- 
 , ers go back." 
 
 In answer to the question as to the final 
 memory of the past reincarnations "If the in- 
 terest holds or the intellect " 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard my sister, who here joined 
 in the conversation. 
 
 "Just imagine Anna De Koven reading 'Old 
 Mother Hubbard' for an afternoon's amuse- 
 ment. You will not find it interesting to go 
 back. When you are a fully developed seventh- 
 heaven individual, all things are possible. Very 
 few people are interested or care enough to look 
 back over the past when they were undeveloped 
 souls." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon said at this point that she was
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 101 
 
 conscious of the presence of a group of person- 
 alities. They were, in fact, together : my sister, 
 my poet friend, and finally, entering with a 
 laugh, in which Mrs. Vernon said she felt in- 
 clined to join herself, the same friend, Mrs. 
 S , who had come at my call in May. 
 
 * ' Tell Anna that I have undertaken to super- 
 intend children, Ardente Studente. I did not 
 like children, but for the discipline of my soul, 
 I have undertaken to teach these children. 
 Anna would laugh. I always liked to do un- 
 usual things, but this time have descended to a 
 platitude. ' ' 
 
 The information as to this witty friend's oc- 
 cupations was expressed in a highly character- 
 istic fashion. Her dislike of children, who in 
 fact bored her, will also be remembered by 
 those who knew her. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard my sister: "Anna knows 
 that I am with her most of the time. Try the 
 automatic hand writing; get a large piece of 
 paper and turn your head. Anna's ponderous 
 mind sometimes gets in the way (laughs) 
 hand goes round and round. Don't mind if the 
 messages are unsatisfactory, the contact will 
 help." 
 
 (Has she a good-by message for me?) 
 
 "I tried already to tell her when I spoke 
 about the rock. I am like a person just learn-
 
 102 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ing to swim over here, and so much helped if I 
 can feel that I can just get the end of my toe on 
 the rock. Tell her I have my lovely memories, 
 that go back farther than husband or child, and 
 with them I comfort myself. 
 
 On August the 1st, a totally unexpected ap- 
 pearance, that of the Late Dr. Polk of New 
 York, announced itself, for the reason that my 
 sister's eldest son had at that time been warned 
 that an operation for appendicitis might be 
 necessary. She had apparently consulted him. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard: "An older person than 
 your sister who obtrudes himself for the pur- 
 pose of adding a superscription to the list of 
 names. I was a doctor. Her son an opera- 
 tion, not the same operation; analogy in the 
 cutting. You will hear of it. I came to report 
 
 because it was in my line. Frank P (the 
 
 name of his son). 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard my sister: "Captain 
 
 How good looking he is!" 
 
 (Is this your son?) 
 
 "No, a contemporary. Anna did not take 
 this seriously. Just a little test; they like to 
 see that we are happy. ' ' 
 
 (Do you know what your second son is do- 
 ing!) 
 
 ' ' He prevailed, anxious to do it and has sue-
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 103 
 
 ceeded; got permission (shows him turning 
 over something) . I know that he has said that 
 he wished that I could see him. (Shows some- 
 thing heavy across his arms; he pulls some- 
 thing, like a strap ; it comes across his chest ; a 
 cup-working, looking up, hands active. Dressed 
 in brown like khaki; like a uniform. Shows a 
 vision of an American flag waving.) Patriotic 
 going to France. (Gesture of pushing as of 
 departure) my boy the other tries to please 
 me. I am gratified at his wish to contribute 
 to his country's cause. I am happy at his 
 thought of me." 
 
 I was not informed that my sister's eldest son 
 had contemplated an operation until some eight 
 months after this meeting with Mrs. Vernon. 
 My sister's exclamation about the good looks 
 
 of Captain referred to an afternoon's visit 
 
 paid to her by an officer from Camp Upton 
 on the occasion of her last visit to me in New 
 York in December, 1917. He was not a near 
 acquaintance but distinctly deserved her en- 
 comium. 
 
 Her second son had gone to work in a muni- 
 tion factory. I had been informed of this fact, 
 but not that he had been compelled to persuade 
 his father to permit him to enter the factory 
 nor was I aware of any of the details or char- 
 acteristic motions in the execution of his work.
 
 104 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Her eldest son was on the eve of his departure 
 for France with his company. The operation 
 was only contemplated and was finally found 
 to be unnecessary. 
 
 Two weeks later on the 15th of August, I saw 
 Mrs. Vernon at the Copley Plaza in Boston. I 
 began the conversation by speaking aloud to 
 my sister, telling her of my appreciation of the 
 lucidity of her messages. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard : "I grasp the significance 
 without the necessity of words but expressing 
 it focuses the ideas. (Shows an image of a 
 glass, filled with clear and sparkling water.) 
 This philosophy is like pure water. (Pouring 
 a rosy liquid into the glass.) Its purity and 
 brilliancy is warmed and colored by the friend- 
 ship existing between you (Mrs. Vernon and 
 myself). 
 
 (Could you get assistance from Dr. Hodgson 
 and George Pelham in furnishing tests and 
 other material for publication?) 
 
 "Almost anything which can be a test is of 
 scientific value. Make little anecdotes, short 
 as possible, with as many witnesses as are able 
 to give names. Too much verbosity in the 
 records supplied by the Psychical Kesearch in- 
 vestigators."
 
 "THE BROKEN ARCS" 105 
 
 (Are you still with me?) 
 
 "Oh! Yes, and I have seen your depression. 
 Take an inventory of the tests ; you have quite 
 a number, and more will be given."
 
 CHAPTER V 
 "IN HEAVEN THE PERFECT ROUND." 
 
 npHERE was a long interim between the last 
 meeting with Mrs. Vernon and that of Oc- 
 tober the 2nd, which occurred at her house in 
 New York. I was on the eve of a visit to our 
 old home and my sister asked certain things 
 of me, indicating what I should say to certain 
 members of her family. 
 
 (Do you feel the separation less; are you 
 happier?) 
 
 My sister : ' ' Calmer but not happy yet. Not 
 gay. But it is quiet and peaceful. I am under 
 instruction. ' ' 
 
 (All gayety is over for me.) 
 
 "I do not know what Anna would have done 
 without this. I am learning serious things, not 
 gay; but I know that it is right that I should 
 learn them." 
 
 (Will you help us and send us messages all 
 this coming Winter when I shall see Mrs. Ver- 
 non continuously?) 
 
 "The messages will be as brilliant and spark- 
 
 106
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 107 
 
 ling as a circle of gems. (Gesture of putting 
 Mrs. Vernon's hand in Anna's and then putting 
 her own hand over the clasped hands.) Indis- 
 soluble. A wonderful combination, because 
 you and Mrs. Vernon have that quality, sup- 
 posedly masculine, of frankness. Will accept 
 nothing but truth ; no pretense. ' ' 
 
 On October the 26th after my return from 
 my journey, my sister commented upon my oc- 
 cupation while there, of examining and sorting 
 certain family papers. 
 
 ' ' Anna is a procurator of pedigrees. Papers, 
 letters." 
 
 (Have you a message for Edith?)" 
 
 "Why! who is Edith? I feel such a rush of 
 affection ; she is holding out both arms and she 
 says : ' Tell Edith that I would like to give her 
 a big hug. Edith really loved me. ' ' ' 
 
 (Have you seen Henrietta?) 
 
 "I see much of Henrietta. She has been 
 much interested in my spiritual development; 
 has been a real rock of support. Salt of the 
 earth." 
 
 (I hope that I am not retarding your develop- 
 ment by occupying you with these earthly com- 
 munications?) 
 
 1 * Occupation is salutary for every one. Tell 
 Anna she is not taking my time, but she is pro-
 
 108 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 viding me with an occupation. Perseverance 
 will disclose the fabric of our ethereal exist- 
 ence, overshadowed as it is by the orbit of 
 materiality. (Shows a vision of a figure of a 
 man walking down a sunlit road; his shadow 
 behind him.) Sunlight plays over his figure, 
 and a shadow follows it. The ethereal world 
 is a shadow of the material. The two lives are 
 as inseparable as shadow and figure." 
 
 (Is the material world in shadow and the 
 ethereal world in the light?) 
 
 "No, both alike are illuminated by the sun." 
 
 (Are your ethereal symbols as definite to you 
 as our material symbols are to us?) 
 
 "We construct our own symbols." (Shows 
 bubbles rising in the air.) 
 
 (Is the world which surrounds you an emana- 
 tion from the Divine mind?) 
 
 "The power of construction is of divine ori- 
 gin. We can construct but our creations do not 
 clutter up. They vanish when we are finished 
 with them. Our bodies being unlike material 
 bodies have not the wants of material existence. 
 But if we wish to produce an arm chair for 
 instance, and look at it, we can do so. Our 
 bodies are of light ether which float in the 
 heavier ether near the earth." 
 
 (Are there buildings for assemblages?) 
 
 "If we wish to symbolize a hall of learning,
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 109 
 
 we can do so. People over here have to be in 
 harmony.*' 
 
 (Would several people have to combine to 
 construct these halls of learning?) 
 
 "People over here must be in harmony with 
 the conditions ; newcomers could not construct. 
 Tyros toil to no purpose, hence the advantage 
 of instruction. The masters who have served 
 through probation and initiation up to fulfill- 
 ment can direct the construction single 
 handed. ' ' 
 
 (Is nature over there or what corresponds to 
 nature here, the emanation from the mind of 
 God?) 
 
 ' * The map is provided by a Divine efflux ; the 
 scheme is provided, but the partitions are made 
 by the inhabitants here. The Universe remains 
 the same." 
 
 (Do you mean that the ethereal world is last- 
 ing; that it holds?) 
 
 "This world does hold, the universe holds; 
 but the appurtenances vanish like the foam in 
 the wake of a ship." 
 
 (Do you see the S.P.E. group still?) 
 
 (Shows a picture of two letters closely inter- 
 twined as in a monogram, enclosed in a laurel 
 wreath. One letter is brightly illumined, the 
 other is darker.) "My twin brother is even more 
 spiritually developed than mother. His teach-
 
 110 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ings are more sympathetic than mother's. I 
 need no other teacher. ' ' 
 
 (That must be very lovely, that companion- 
 ship.) 
 
 "It is more lovely than human conception." 
 
 (Are you not happy in this?) 
 
 "Very happy and fortunate. A good deal I 
 give you is from him. He entwines his spir- 
 itual tendrils around my soul and has promoted 
 my welfare through insisting upon my enlight- 
 enment. He reveals the intricacies of disen- 
 tanglement from earthly ties. (Shows a sym- 
 bol of a chestnut burr, falling open and reveal- 
 ing the beautiful clear nut beneath.) He says 
 that if sound at the core, all exterior defilement 
 will fall away. ' ' 
 
 (Must you disentangle yourself from all 
 earthly ties?) 
 
 "As the magnet to the steel, so does our love 
 ever bind us, and mutual development will re- 
 sult therefrom but never separation. ' ' 
 
 (I feel the separation just as bitterly as ever; 
 so bitterly at our old home.) 
 
 1 ' My emotional stress is just as great as her 
 own. I must collect myself. (Shows herself 
 with hands over her eyes as in weeping.) I am 
 supported by the words of wisdom of the de- 
 veloped souls about me while you have only 
 this philosophy."
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 111 
 
 (Are you near us in your own spiritual body 
 or do you communicate from a distance?) 
 
 "We project ourselves from a distance. It 
 is just as if there were a central telephone office, 
 with an operator who calls up a number, and 
 the personalities are allowed to speak along 
 the wires; without this operator we would be 
 impotent. You also have to have a psychic. 
 After the communication is established it is my 
 magnetism which you feel." 
 
 (Are you near sometimes?) 
 
 1 ' Sometimes I am in the same ether, but even 
 if it were only from the next house, without 
 the medium here and there, we cannot com- 
 municate. The spiritual proximity may be of 
 the closest character, but even through the wall 
 there cannot be clear communication without 
 the telephone, no matter how close it is. This 
 is the exact condition." 
 
 (Who is the operator now?) 
 
 "Groups of beings who might almost be 
 called overcharged electrically, overcharged dy- 
 namos, sensitive, magnetic. It is a peculiar 
 nervous organism, like psychics on earth, who 
 are not necessarily very spiritually developed. 
 Over here the most successful are those who 
 have this magnetic development in conjunction 
 with the light of spirituality. ' ' 
 
 Edith and Henrietta were both very intimate
 
 112 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 with my sister. Edith is Mrs. Stillman of 
 Chicago, who received the letter from my sister 
 about the table cover. Henrietta, also of Chi- 
 cago, was Mrs. Strobel. She died about ten 
 years ago. 
 
 The intimate association of my sister with 
 her twin brother who died in infancy is here 
 most beautifully symbolized. 
 
 Her statements about the construction of ob- 
 jects and landscapes in the ethereal world, are 
 up to this point all illustrative of the process of 
 projection or evocation by thought alone. 
 Later messages very clearly point to another 
 process, which includes a manipulation of ether. 
 
 The method of communication described so 
 clearly, as similar to that used in a central tele- 
 phone office, with specially endowed operators 
 at both ends of the wires, is very interesting 
 particularly in the statement that the spirit 
 operators have peculiar nervous organisms. 
 Does then the "peresprit" or spiritual body 
 possess nerves? and do these nerves, vitalized 
 by electricity, represent a thought-conducting 
 apparatus similar to that of the incarnate 
 psychic! 
 
 
 
 On Wednesday, the 31st October, which was 
 the nineteenth sitting, my sister for the first 
 time gave information regardiHg thought vibra-
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 113 
 
 tions which operate upon matter. The nature 
 of this matter is not explained at this time. 
 This reference to " constructional vibrations" 
 is the only one as yet recorded in transcen- 
 dental communications. ' ' 
 
 My first question was : 
 
 (Do you construct houses?) 
 
 My sister : ' ' Starts sets of vibrations, which 
 much be rhythmical, then we construct. (Turns 
 the handle of a machine). These are construc- 
 tional vibrations and they differ from thought 
 vibrations as in telepathy or thought trans- 
 ference in communication. The thought trans- 
 ference and telepathy vibrations are entirely 
 emanations from the brain. When we wish to 
 build a house, these constructional vibrations 
 which we use correspond to our physical man- 
 ual efforts on earth. (Shows a symbol of a 
 machine like a coffee grinder from which a sub- 
 stance like ground coffee comes.) Brain di- 
 rects, but the matter must first be originated. 
 Matter falls into shape without manipulation 
 by hand." 
 
 Here then is a very clear statement that in 
 the construction of houses some form of matter 
 is employed. It is interesting to note that the 
 possession of a brain by these ethereal opera- 
 tors is also distinctly stated. 
 
 (Do you live in a house yourself!)
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Figure to yourself a beautiful landscape, 
 intersected by a sparkling shaded stream, on 
 the banks of which recline two figures, my twin 
 and I. There amidst verdant fragrance I re- 
 ceive my instruction daily. Vincent unfolds to 
 me the glories of spiritual upliftment and occu- 
 pations, condemning gently but firmly the viru- 
 lence of wasting one's time in degrading pur- 
 suits. He wrestled with my combativeness at 
 first, and overcame my arguments with regard 
 to the nature of certain earthly amusements to 
 which I clung. He said he had better food for 
 me. I resented being deprived of these things. 
 To this his plane and to this beautiful place, the 
 fabric of his imagination, I am allowed to as- 
 cend for my spiritual instruction. It is a higher 
 region, so we speak of going up to it. The 
 higher one goes the more harmonious are the 
 conditions. When we are less developed we 
 have to force our way through uncongenial 
 surroundings. ' ' 
 
 The process of evocation of landscapes by 
 thought alone, as here quite clearly indicated, 
 is in definite contrast with the process of 
 manipulation of matter as described in the fore- 
 going message. 
 
 (Where do you go when you come back after 
 this daily instruction?) 
 
 "I come back to a sort of hall, a far more
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 115 
 
 material place, a sort of community house. 
 There is confusion there and much coming and 
 going. We convert to our uses the discarded 
 constructions of those who have gone before us. 
 The only way to work up to harmonious condi- 
 tions is through spiritual development. We 
 use these discarded houses as people in a city 
 live in houses built by others, but when we grow 
 in spirituality, we can build for ourselves beau- 
 tiful domains. I can go up to Vincent for my 
 spiritual instruction, but I cannot stay there. 
 I must develop out of the conditions in which 
 I am now." 
 
 (Is this house like a hotel?) 
 
 "A place for transients. They come in num- 
 bers and they go on. (An impression of hurry 
 and confusion as before.) There are material 
 abodes provided for the requirements of mate- 
 rial souls to whose brains the earth images are 
 still clinging." 
 
 (Do you see anyone you know in this house 
 of transients?) 
 
 * * If we do see friends we are so anxious about 
 where we are going next that we hardly speak. 
 Here the more highly developed spirits come to 
 lend a hand to those they love. They transport 
 them to other realms adapted to their develop- 
 ment. They eject trespassers and that, I may 
 say in passing, is one of the great problems here
 
 116 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES . 
 
 as well as in earth life. There are curiosity 
 seekers, and scoffers and mischiefmakers, who 
 have to be guarded against. The guides attend 
 to that." 
 
 To my next question as to whether she had 
 gone to a place like that when she first went 
 over, my sister replied in a narrative of her 
 first moments after her death when she awoke 
 in the other world. This narrative, as it seems 
 to me, is quite unique in its beauty and clarity 
 of description. 
 
 "Food is given to material spirits; a sort of 
 flaky stuff like snow was given to me. (Shows 
 a vision of her body prostrate, with someone 
 bending over her, feeding her this snowy mix- 
 ture.) A blow, as if I had been knocked down, 
 prostrated. This revived me and enabled me to 
 collect myself. Prostrated by the shock of go- 
 ing over suddenly. ' ' 
 
 (Who gave you this food?) 
 
 "A man with a gray beard, and clad in a 
 white garment. He chose to assume this vener- 
 able appearance because it was more comfort- 
 ing. The first thing I saw was this venerable 
 man. Then to my restricted vision there ap- 
 peared relays of benign spirits whom I first 
 took to be nurses as they were clad in white. 
 They bent over me and ministered to me in 
 words of ineffable sweetness and wisdom, ex-
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 117 
 
 plaining that death was like birth, entailing a 
 separation from previous conditions, a wrench. 
 I rebelled against the necessity of the separa- 
 bility of the soul from the body. I tried to 
 express my unwillingness to accept this, my 
 horror at the operation, in a vain pantomime. 
 Then in instant response to this mute appeal 
 appeared my parents and my brother. They 
 bent over me and at first I thought they were 
 whispering. Then I perceived strange delicate 
 sounds, liquid, yet vibrant, which did not strike 
 upon my auditory nerves but pierced to the 
 center of the brain. They were like no earthly 
 sounds, and I perceived that they revealed their 
 command over the telepathic means of com- 
 munication. ' ' 
 
 (Did you recognize them at once!) 
 
 "Yes, they did not seem changed. They had 
 assumed their earthly appearance or I would 
 not have recognized them. ' ' 
 
 (Do you usually wear this spiritual body; is 
 it a garment like the material body?) 
 
 "We like to be recognized by our spiritual 
 characteristics. We can assume our earthly 
 form at will. Faces remain somewhat the same 
 in the ethereal body in which we ordinarily 
 appear."
 
 118 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 On November the 7th, the group of Mrs. 
 Vernon's controls manifested themselves, in 
 answer to my opening remark that I hoped that 
 my sister would go on with her narrative. 
 
 Controls: "This is an individual case which 
 illustrates the universal process. The souls 
 are always greeted by their loved ones. Mary 
 and Thomas (Mrs. Vernon's grandfather) 
 make known their presence." 
 
 (Is this the Society for Psychic Research 
 Group?) 
 
 "We take turns. Myers, James, Hodgson 
 we came over tremendously interested in this 
 thing and we keep at it still as it is the only 
 thing which lasts." 
 
 A tentative description of a psychic telegraph 
 was here interpolated by Edwin Friend. 
 
 Controls: "If you wish you can go on with 
 your narrative. Edwin Friend has passed on 
 to his pursuits. Just dropped in to talk about 
 the instrument. It is good for the psychic to 
 have certain lines out when the fishing is good. 
 Does not get stale. According to the rules of 
 courtesy the psychic should receive the mes- 
 sages when he has the time to speak. Your 
 sister has a .hand in it. All these communica- 
 tions are handled by the same group of controls. 
 Those who wish to communicate say when they 
 wish to communicate. Must take into considera-
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 119 
 
 tion the conditions. Your sister tells us what 
 she wants to say. Good minds yours and Mrs. 
 de Koven's, and her sister's mind also. A good 
 combination which clarifies the forces. This 
 combination is sympathetic to us. The process 
 is always the same. Mrs. Vernon is the psychic 
 and we are her controls, the only variant com- 
 ing from the diversity of the communicator and 
 the sitters. We are going to put it through 
 with you and Mrs. de Koven. We have at last 
 got the proper conditions. It is the same group 
 of controls. These men are in the Imperator 
 group. Ancient and wise spirits who can do 
 this from many aeons of experience. Imperator 
 is a control. In your sister's experience we 
 brought you up to the reunion period. Process 
 of separation of body and soul." 
 
 (Was it in mercy that my sister was permitted 
 to communicate with me so soon?) 
 
 My sister: "Messengers attend to that." 
 (Shows a vision of a religious procession carry- 
 ing something which looks like a sacrament.) 
 The Ceremony of Allotment. Relatives met me 
 but they could not stay with me. I was led 
 where I could develop in this procession sup- 
 ported by my relatives. This is where the 
 masses for the dead of the Roman Catholic 
 Church are so wonderful. They do seem to 
 reach up."
 
 120 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 (Mary and Minnie [her old servants] did 
 have a mass said for you.) 
 
 "Yes, I knew it. It helped me. It reached 
 me. Thus we proceeded to the realm of rest- 
 less souls, who quiver with a desire to return 
 and resume their accustomed habits. These 
 souls prevent their own development by contin- 
 uously clinging to lost joys. Myriads here are 
 in this condition, but permanency retains its 
 hold upon few. Most are fortunate enough to 
 develop out of it. Wisdom and mercy prevail, 
 through the efforts of divine masters, who en- 
 courage the interest and desire for spiritual 
 growth." 
 
 (Do you want to come back still?) 
 
 "No, for I realize that I cannot come back 
 and I have accepted the inevitable. One must 
 go on, else one sinks into ineffable despair. 
 The promulgation of spiritual growth is our 
 greatest occupation over here, interspersed 
 with mental occupations such as music." 
 
 At the next sitting on November the 17th, 
 before my sister was permitted to go on with 
 her narrative, the controls reverted to their 
 previous discussion of the means and methods 
 of communication, adding some observations 
 concerning the origin of the peculiar powers 
 of the psychic. Prefacing their discussion by
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 
 
 the statement that human magnetism arises 
 from the action of opposing currents of elec- 
 tricity, they added that each personality pos- 
 sesses a projecting or psychic force. Although 
 this force is the non-material part of the or- 
 ganism, and therefore spiritual, it is not neces- 
 sarily religious. It does, however, tend to vivi- 
 fy the mental powers. Some discarnate and in- 
 carnate personalities possess this force in a 
 peculiar degree. It gives them control of the 
 psychic forces which surround the earth. The 
 universe is regulated in an order of rhythm 
 and harmony, to which these circumambient 
 forces are attuned. Highly developed souls 
 are in harmony with these forces. Does not 
 this agree with the statements of the peculiarly 
 organized human beings who assert that they 
 are "in harmony with the higher forces" and 
 that by controlling and evoking them, they are 
 able to work miracles of healing? And as elec- 
 tric currents are known to pervade the earth 
 and its atmosphere, is not electricity, as dis- 
 tinctly suggested in the opening sentences of 
 the following argument, the universal conduc- 
 tor of these psychic forces, of both physical and 
 mental energy? 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard: "Electrodes produce 
 heat through the friction of opposite currents. 
 Thus human magnetism receives its vital quali-
 
 122 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ties through the interpolation of various oppos- 
 ing currents. Each personality contains all the 
 elements of a projecting force which vivifies 
 the mentality to a greater or less degree, ac- 
 cording to the spiritual development a refine- 
 ment or development of psychic force which is 
 the non-material element of a personality, not 
 necessarily religious. It does not follow that 
 psychics are good or that spirits are high- 
 ly developed, but they have control over 
 certain of these psychic forces. These forces 
 or elements surround the earth, and upon 
 these the psychic has control as in tele- 
 pathic communication. These forces exist in 
 the universe unheeded by the majority until 
 development awakens an interest in them. A 
 material soul thrust suddenly from its earthly 
 habitation may be passed by the harmonious 
 and rhythmical personalities unless they take 
 on the self-appointed task of caring for these 
 wanderers. The universe is regulated in an 
 order of rhythm and harmony. The developed 
 souls conform to this harmony and they go on 
 their way unheeding their newcomers unless 
 some voluntarily elect to take care of them. 
 This service is optional over here as it is on the 
 earth. Fortunately for your sister, her brother 
 has elected to convey glad tidings and to act as
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 123 
 
 a messenger for hope to her, bewildered by new 
 conditions." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard my sister: "It is veri- 
 tably a withdrawal of the curtain like a rent in 
 the clouds. (Shows a vision like the last act 
 of Faust with angels ascending.) Indescrib- 
 able, unspeakable light. The light was so won- 
 derful! but the prostrate body attracts one at 
 first, until custom reveals that the pulsing soul 
 departs to regions of rarefied ether where 
 neither heat nor cold nor hunger or thirst pene- 
 trate. (Shows a vision of a globe like the earth 
 with a wire netting around it.) Souls are 
 borne along on these currents to different de- 
 grees, going round and round." 
 
 (Are you still in that house of transients?) 
 
 "Yes, first I was a novitiate, but now I am 
 an interne. I am now helping the unhappy, 
 and now I am helping others. It is almost like 
 a hospital of sick and homesick souls. I have 
 finished my restlessness and go up to see Vin- 
 cent every day for my instruction. ' ' 
 
 (Is this hospital the first station near the 
 earth?) 
 
 "Yes, the first passenger station or hospi- 
 tal." 
 
 (Do your parents come to the hospital to see 
 you?) 
 
 "Yes, they have reverted to their young days
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 when they were first drawn together. They 
 come hand in hand together to see me, with 
 happy expressions on their faces, and they are 
 interested in what I am doing. Mamma is no 
 longer disgruntled with me. I am a good little 
 girl, and doing all I can. (Vision of our mother 
 with her hand on my sister's shoulder.) I want 
 to proceed. I want to move on away from here. 
 I do not think that I could ever do missionary 
 work. That would not suit me. Mamma does 
 missionary work and Vincent does missionary 
 work, also, but Papa does something mental. 
 
 (Do families not live together over there?) 
 
 "It is more like fraternities. Like draws 
 like." 
 
 (Who are you with? Are you still associated 
 with the S.P.R. group?) 
 
 "Yes. I am still associated with them. My 
 chief interest lies with them. Mamma's inter- 
 ests do not. Without them I should have lan- 
 guished for a word from the earth. Psychics 
 provide meat and drink for languishing souls 
 over here as well as for those on earth. This 
 is what she (Mrs. Vernon) did for me, in bring- 
 ing me in touch with Anna. The homesickness, 
 the longing for those we love, that we leave on 
 earth, is what hurts us. This is the psychic's 
 mission, for we are just as hard pushed over 
 here as those on earth. (To Mrs. Vernon.)
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 125 
 
 Never belittle your task. If you could see the 
 group over here, and the satellites attracted by 
 the glow, agonized for just one word. Many 
 have waited for years to hear just one word 
 from those whom they have left. One word 
 is enough for those who have longed for years. 
 Then they can go on with their development." 
 
 (Will you please look up T. and G., for their 
 mother wishes to speak with them to-morrow.) 
 
 * * T has the exaltation of achievement. A 
 
 cloud arises from these dead soldiers. It is a 
 beautiful atmosphere and peculiar to those who 
 have achieved something. Those who have 
 done nothing do not have this aura. This ex- 
 altation of achievement helps them very much. " 
 
 (I have no fear of death.) 
 
 "When all things have righted themselves, 
 Anna will come to me and in the glow of spir- 
 itual and mental intercourse will our days be 
 passed. (Showing a vision as of looking 
 down a long lane through an opera glass.) But 
 Anna has work to do. She must complete this 
 work and through this work she will escape 
 being overwhelmed in the labyrinthine prob- 
 lems which overwhelm so many souls when they 
 come over here. Strive to entertain the idea 
 that spiritual advancement is without exagger- 
 ation laying up for yourself treasure in 
 heaven. ' '
 
 126 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard Mother: "I am very 
 much pleased with our darling's development. 
 (Vision of my mother advancing and my sister 
 running away.) I also see her mistakes. 
 I should not have .expected a child to develop 
 before her time. Some people are children up 
 to the age of eighty-three. I still have Anna's 
 spiritual development at heart." 
 
 (Have I progressed in my own way?) 
 
 "Yes, you have progressed a great deal. 
 Your spirituality is more material than mine. 
 It deals with more projects than mine does. 
 Your sister misses her sewing, but they have 
 tried to supply this want with other things. One 
 can sew over here, but it seems futile." 
 
 (What have you been doing?) 
 
 "I seek out those with distorted spiritual 
 viewpoints. I try to state plainly that common 
 sense and wisdom lead to spiritual development 
 in the end. Anna will laugh to hear that I 
 discourse on these subjects sometimes." 
 
 (Do you and your husband live together in a 
 house?) 
 
 ' ' Just think ! We disport ourselves together. 
 We reside when we choose under the same por- 
 tico, but our different occupations separate us 
 at periods reclaiming and protecting us from 
 differences of opinion. Compulsory conditions 
 are what create unhappiness. There is a tie
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 127 
 
 which unites us which does not always unite 
 those who have been married. Anna may not 
 understand that there is a tie between us which 
 does not always exist." 
 
 The characteristic trials of my sister and her 
 mother are very plainly evident in these mes- 
 sages. The reunion of our parents and their 
 return to the earliest days of their companion- 
 ship, in which they indulge with mutual delight 
 in the midst of their varied occupations, gives 
 an idea of heaven which to our human compre- 
 hension can hardly be enhanced. 
 
 At the next sitting of November the 22nd, I 
 asked to be informed as to the occupations of 
 our father. Mrs. Vernon's controls replied to 
 this question: 
 
 "Your father supervises the outgoing souls 
 on the mission of projecting schemes for the 
 immersion of the material into the mental." 
 
 (Does this mean that our father is working 
 for the improvement of the earth souls, or for 
 others who have passed on?) 
 
 "Earth souls when sufficiently sensitive re- 
 ceive transmissions from across the Gulf, im- 
 proving them mentally and diverting (assist- 
 ing) them in various attainments." 
 
 (Has our father's experience in controlling
 
 128 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 men in his political career helped him in this 
 occupation?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard F: "Anna must not ex- 
 aggregate (modestly). I only did my bit, but 
 what experience I gleaned on the earth has 
 been of great value in my welfare work here. ' ' 
 
 Asking now of my sister if her statement 
 that "the universe held" coincided with her 
 other statement that her twin brother's land- 
 scape was the passing construction of his imagi- 
 nation, she attempted again to explain what 
 then seemed to me contradictory information. 
 She enlarged upon the imaginative method and 
 made a statement about the mind as being in 
 the last analysis, the origin of all forms. This 
 recalls Dr. Geley's hypothesis of the creative 
 process of materialized organisms and his opin- 
 ion that all seemingly material appearances are 
 only representations of such appearances, 
 evoked and constructed by mind. 
 
 My sister: "It is like going to a moving- 
 picture show and seeing them reel off a film. 
 (Shows a picture of a cinematograph in opera- 
 tion.) Very difficult for you to understand how 
 the real thing according to your ideas is after 
 all the only figment of the imagination. As for 
 instance, you think that the active mind is the 
 real thing and the subconscious mind the imagi- 
 native, while really the subconscious is the
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 129 
 
 real thing and the active is the unreal. Over 
 here ideas and images do take form. It is a 
 mental manipulation of matter and not a man- 
 ual, employed by those whose development at- 
 tains thereto. These laws are almost beyond 
 the comprehension of terrestrial beings and 
 recently arrived souls over here, as they depend 
 for their manipulation upon thought control. 
 Vincent's landscape depends for its existence 
 upon the mind's eye of the giver. It is there 
 when presented to our view by a powerful 
 thought current." 
 
 (We want to think that there is a tangible 
 world and one that does not pass away.) 
 
 ' ' The universe does hold. It is like a clouded 
 slate. One must know how to rub away the 
 cloud or one cannot see the picture underneath. 
 There are others over here who have a sort of 
 befuddled vision. There is a realm, a very 
 vivid, sustaining and abiding realm, but one 
 must be developed to be able to look into this 
 realm. There is such a veil between and so 
 thick a cloud, one must have an abiding faith 
 that the realm is there. The realms themselves 
 are manufactured through the desire for good 
 and beautiful things of the evolved souls. Jesus 
 says : 'In my father's house are many mansions 
 and I go to prepare a place for you. ' Evolved 
 and highly spiritual souls must go before to
 
 130 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 prepare these places. The spiritual desire for 
 beauty and harmony is the mortar from which 
 these realms are made." 
 
 The profound significance of the statement 
 that the active mind is the unreal and the sub- 
 conscious the real, cannot be overlooked. It 
 would seem to indicate that the subconscious 
 is the eternal part of us, already existing in 
 the infinite unseen, while what we think are our- 
 selves, are dreaming ghosts of our real person- 
 alities, spinning out a brief earthly existence 
 among sights which are themselves figments of 
 the imagination symbols adapted to our earth- 
 ly perception. 
 
 In my next question I asked my sister if she 
 was conscious of the presence of the Christ 
 spirit. 
 
 "The Christ spirit pervades the universe 
 from the darkest depths of the earth to celes- 
 tial spheres." 
 
 (Do any souls see Christ?) 
 
 "None that I have ever met have seen him." 
 
 (Do souls go to other planets?) 
 
 "Encircling each zone like the crust of a 
 pie ( !) are layers of impenetrable though lumin- 
 ous liquid matter conveying more or less read- 
 ily the electrical currents which connect the 
 planetary system. By means of these currents
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 131 
 
 this system is held together. Is this plain to 
 Mrs. Vernon?" Mrs. Vernon said "Yes." 
 
 (Are there spiritual zones around each 
 planet!) 
 
 "The requirements, atmospheric and other- 
 wise, of each zone create indigenous beings. 
 The passage into eternity or the hereafter 
 varies according to the planet but upon recep- 
 tion into spiritual realms coordination and con- 
 version into ethereality occurs. ' ' 
 
 (Do souls go from one planet to another?) 
 
 "Simultaneously Mercury, Venus, the Earth 
 and Mars disgorge into eternity. The earth 
 contains rarer specimens of mental exuberance 
 than planets in the descending scale from the 
 sun. Hence the origin of the sun and light wor- 
 shippers. The means of transit afforded us 
 through loss of corporeal clogs enables us to 
 detect the advantage and superiority of the 
 earth dwellers. Ethereal beings may enjoy a 
 plunge through the orbits of various planets 
 but earthly development makes unnecessary a 
 sojourn upon another planet." 
 
 (Do these less developed souls rise as they 
 go to the ethereal existence?) 
 
 "Some very quickly, but some take a very 
 long time." 
 
 (Is the Christ spirit active in the other plan- 
 ets?)
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Yes, it pervades all the universe for, after 
 all, the Christ spirit is spirituality. It appears 
 and reappears in individuals. You exhibit the 
 Christ spirit if you do a kind deed like a spark 
 fanned into flame or extinguished according to 
 the individual's wish." 
 
 At the close of this sitting I asked my sister 
 if she had seen any one else whom she liked to 
 be with besides her parents and her twin 
 brother. As if in answer to this question Mrs. 
 Vernon was moved to look at some painted 
 cupids on a screen in my boudoir in which we 
 were sitting. My sister showed children danc- 
 ing and said that she has many diversions. 
 
 At this point other personalities manifested 
 themselves as they did at the sitting following, 
 so that it was not until a fortnight had passed 
 that I was able to ask her what she had meant 
 by showing the vision of the children dancing 
 and pointing to the cupids on the screen. 
 
 My sister: " Festival of the Renaissance." (A 
 second vision of little children dancing, bound 
 with garlands which connect them together.) 
 
 (It is now nearly a year since your last visit 
 to me. I hope you know that I treasure the 
 recollection of every moment of it.) 
 
 "Tell Anna that I feel what she says tele- 
 pathically. Pattering of little feet, festival of 
 the Renaissance. A festival celebrating indi-
 
 "THE PERFECT SOUND" 133 
 
 vidual spirituality. Each soul is fettered with 
 material bonds. When the soul finally makes 
 up its mind to rid itself of these bonds it has a 
 festival of spiritual rebirth, the festival of the 
 Kenaissance. Before the soul comes to earth it 
 is spiritual; on earth it collects material clogs 
 which cling when the soul first passes over, 
 but when finally purged (freed) from these 
 bonds and imbued with the desire for spiritual 
 advancement it has this festival of the Ben- 
 aissance. When a soul has burst these bonds 
 and turned its back on all earthly ties it is cel- 
 ebrated with all sorts of youthful symbols. One 
 must verily become as a little child." 
 (Did you see the cupids in the screen?) 
 ' f In order to impart it to you we have to make 
 the medium see it." 
 
 (Did you see it yourself I) 
 "We sense things." 
 
 (Are you near us when you point out things 
 like that?) 
 
 ' ' To quote the Scriptures ' Nearer than hands 
 or feet. ' Put this in brackets for Anna 's amuse- 
 ment. Mamma gives me these quotations from 
 the Scriptures." 
 
 (Is Mamma with you now?) 
 ' * Yes, Mamma is here this morning. ' ' 
 Mother : "I have learned that religion is not 
 of necessity serious. I come to you now with a
 
 134 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 playfulness difficult for you to understand. I 
 have learned to commingle religion with toler- 
 ation and now I am going to make an epigram. 
 (Hearing the word epigram.) Not epigram but 
 aphorism. I can make epigrams also. Be- 
 sprinkle the fertile soil of your soul with the 
 ingredients of unselfishness and devotion to 
 humanity. ' ' 
 
 (Do you know and approve of the work I am 
 now doing towards furthering patriotism?) 
 
 "Yes, but the only real uplift is charity 
 towards mankind. The only thing that has 
 value over here is lending a hand. Entirely 
 apart from intellectuality. If charity and men- 
 tality go not hand in hand it profits the soul 
 nothing. ' ' 
 
 My sister: "Does Anna understand the im- 
 portance of my festival. Mamma has worked 
 very hard over me." 
 
 (Yes. I am so glad for her happiness.) 
 
 "A very important occasion for it indicates 
 spiritual advancement. From now on I can 
 really be more with Mamma. ' ' 
 
 (I realize it must be happier for her.) 
 
 "Yes, greatly happier; we can be more to- 
 gether." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon said that she felt a lighter at- 
 mosphere, an expression of happiness quite dif- 
 ferent from that which she had perceived in the
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 135 
 
 earlier sittings when my sister had not reached 
 this stage of her development. 
 
 (You said that you had diversions, such as 
 music. What kind of instruments do you have 
 and what kind of music?) 
 
 "All the instruments that you have and more 
 besides, not made by hands. Contrived through 
 methods of mental vibrations." 
 
 (Do not these vibrations construct a certain 
 kind of matter?) 
 
 "How can I describe it? It is more as when 
 one dreams something; as in a dream every- 
 thing seems real. You see people playing on 
 instruments or following their various lines. It 
 is just as if you departed from your waking life 
 and came to live in a dream. ' ' 
 
 (And yet the spiritual body is made of ether, 
 is it not?) 
 
 "Yes, and so are all of our images, manipu- 
 lated ether not manually, manipulated men- 
 tally. We discard these images like the shell 
 of a locust, like the first model of a sculptor in 
 clay before marble. We call them realities here 
 because they are the first impressions. Nothing 
 can take form without first being thought out. 
 Therefore the thought forms seem to us the 
 realities. The originating thought is the idea, 
 not the result." 
 
 (Do you assemble in halls and hear music?)
 
 136 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Indeed we do, without the discomfort of 
 draughts and bad air." 
 
 (You did not like music much on earth.) 
 
 ' ' There are as many trends of mind over here 
 as there. Music lovers have their music; art 
 lovers their art; but all must qualify spirit- 
 ually. " 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard Mother: "Anna will re- 
 joice that we are together. We once were far 
 apart. It will please Anna to know that we are 
 quite close at last." (Sends a vision of patting 
 Anna on the shoulder.) 
 
 (Could I have a message of love from them 
 both!) 
 
 Mother: "We aim our love laden darts 
 straight at Anna's heart." (Showing a vision 
 of both of them with bows and arrows in their 
 hands aiming at Anna.) 
 
 (I am much happier.) 
 
 "Balm comes from above." (Pointing up- 
 ward with her bow) "We are happy; it has 
 gladdened Anna's heart." 
 
 
 
 In the interval between the last sitting of 
 November the 27th and the ensuing one of De- 
 cember the 10th my husband's brother had died 
 in England. Two sittings had already been 
 entirely occupied with messages from deceased
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 137 
 
 members of my husband's family. At the end 
 of the second sitting, Mrs. Vernon heard my 
 sister's name. 
 
 (Is my darling here?) 
 
 "Yes. Has Anna got her question?'* 
 
 (Is the ethereal landscape formed by the Di- 
 vine mind?) 
 
 "Dominion over matter is a Divine prerog- 
 ative and the conformation of the landscape 
 occurs as the result of ethereal manipulation by 
 superior intelligences endowed with the ability 
 to conjure their own geographic emplacement 
 by what the Kaiser called the divine right of 
 Kings. The attainment of this privilege is ac- 
 complished through aeons of individual aspira- 
 tion for spiritual growth, eschewing the idea of 
 reward of merit, simply aiming straight at the 
 goal, through service to one's fellow-beings." 
 
 (Is it in these landscapes that newcomers 
 live?) 
 
 "Privileged newcomers like myself attain 
 glimpses of glorious realms through the efforts 
 of solicitous relatives sufficiently evolved. Tell 
 Anna as in the case of Louise's openings, to see 
 is to desire. Over here they show us these beau- 
 tiful landscapes so that we may desire them." 
 
 (Are you still in that house of transients?) 
 
 " Oh ! No, not since my awakening.
 
 138 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Rippling streamlets play, 
 Here are sunbeams bright and gay, 
 Those you love are here together, 
 Never menaced by the weather. 
 
 Just to vary it a little. ' * 
 
 (Who do you mean by those I love!) 
 
 "Mother and F, my brother and I, all here." 
 
 (Are you living with our parents under the 
 same portico?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon saw a vision of a chariot race, 
 as in "Ben Hur," or the pictures of Aurora in 
 her car. Three beautiful figures are pulling this 
 car, a single beautiful figure in the car, clad in 
 a Greek robe. "Papa and Mamma and my 
 brother are pulling the chariot. They convoy 
 me, teaching and protecting me." 
 
 (Are you very happy now?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon saw a vision of a very radiant 
 being. * ' They conduct I have to be carried. I 
 do not direct ; do not hold the flower reins ; they 
 pull me along." 
 
 (Are there seven spheres in heaven?) 
 
 "With their ramifications there are seventy 
 times seven." 
 
 (In which sphere do you live?) 
 
 "Ehyme and reason; this is why I spoke in 
 verse. There is one sphere where everything is 
 rhythmical and in rhyme. Seven planes but in 
 each of these planes there are variations of
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 139 
 
 development. Tell Anna. Reggie's folks" 
 (gesture of pushing the brother gently away). 
 
 (Have you helped him to communicate?) 
 
 4 'No, I have my turn." 
 
 On December the 17th I continued my ques- 
 tions to my sister asking her what kind of 
 clothes she wore. 
 
 "My garments envelop me with a richness be- 
 coming and lasting, yet ever changing colors 
 and perfumes pervade their enveloping folds." 
 
 (Are they white flowing garments?) 
 
 "Yes, yet not severe; swinging folds like 
 chiffon, not as severe as the classic Greek lines. 
 
 The soft breath of the pine trees and salt from the sea, 
 Commingle their essence when wafted to me." 
 
 Assuming, we may imagine, her own lovely 
 guise and surrounded by the loveliest images 
 of human imagination, evoked by the angelic 
 spirits of the heavenly hierarchy, my sister cele- 
 brates her rebirth in a new world, amid flower- 
 bound children, dancing in a round. And again 
 like Aurora, she voyages through the clouds, in 
 a flower-decked chariot, convoyed by the radiant 
 spirits of those who so loved her. In her little 
 rhymes, she expresses her harmony with a har- 
 monious world, and in her delight in music, in 
 the perfumes of pines and the sea, she shows
 
 140 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 her enjoyment of all the pleasures of sense and 
 of sight. Still seeking to learn more of the 
 mysteries of this lovely existence, I asked her 
 if the world evoked by the masters was eternal, 
 if it endured. 
 
 My sister : " So difficult to explain about the 
 power of thought! The landscapes appear at 
 the behest of the individual. They are perma- 
 nent. If there is no table, and we want a pretty 
 table we think of it and it will appear. If we 
 want pink roses, they also appear. If you want 
 to go to the mountains and are sufficiently de- 
 veloped, the mountains come to us. What sym- 
 bol can I use? The mountains came to Ma- 
 homet. He conjured them up. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Vernon observed that it would be awk- 
 ward if I wanted to go to the mountains and she 
 wished to go to the seashore. 
 
 11 Don't be ridiculous! If Anna and you 
 wanted to go to the seashore you would go to- 
 gether. If you want to hold communion you 
 would have to decide whether it would be the 
 mountains or the seashore. People must be in 
 harmony. The guides instruct the newcomers. 
 What your aspirations and desires are, is de- 
 termined by your trend of thought." 
 
 (Can you see and hear?) 
 
 "We sense things."
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 111 
 
 (Yet the ethereal body is a form of matter, is 
 it not?) 
 
 "Yes, but it is so different; it does not have 
 to eat or sleep." 
 
 (But you had food at first, did you not?) 
 
 "Yes, the automaton needs lubrication for 
 its performances during a certain time. When 
 the body and soul are still somewhat together 
 at first, but when they become thoroughly de- 
 tached no such replenishment is necessary." 
 
 (Is the aura of the same material as the 
 ethereal body?) 
 
 "The aura represents the fragmentary evo- 
 lutions of ethereal matter in process of form- 
 ing a celestial encasement." 
 
 (Has the ethereal body weight?) 
 
 "Infinitesimal, but tangible as the off-giv- 
 ings of the pine trees, if collectible would have 
 weight. * ' 
 
 Mrs. Vernon got an odor of pine trees. 
 
 (Are you with me and do you see me?) 
 
 "Often, and thought will always bring me." 
 
 (Do you know how much I am missing you 
 all these days?) 
 
 * ' Yes. I have tried often to reach you, but the 
 mechanism is not right. The mechanism is not 
 quite right for these mental communications. 
 Periwinkle shells contain their quota of imper- 
 ceptible matter, but communication with them
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 is impossible except at moments when they 
 choose to protrude this sensitive substance. 
 The process should be an intuitive or involun- 
 tary application of natural laws rather than a 
 determined or vigorous effort. Be on the alert ; 
 on guard for these intuitive onslaughts but 
 never attempt to force one. Shifty, evanescent 
 and spasmodic. Fleet as Artemis must be the 
 brain to detect them." 
 
 At this moment Mrs. Vernon pointed to a 
 stream of sunlight coming through the window 
 and the brighter more distinct ray which lay 
 upon the floor and as she spoke heard: "This 
 stream of sunlight and the ray reflected on the 
 floor are like body and soul, as near an explana- 
 tion as I could give you." 
 
 Evidently matter in the other world is Pro- 
 tean, taking on visibility, weight, color and 
 form at the behest of all powerful mind. So in 
 the materialization experiments bone could be 
 instantly supplied to the arm of the being whom 
 Sir William Crookes photographed when its 
 absence was observed by an experimenter. 
 
 In Dr. Crawford's experiments the exuded 
 substance was invisible, except to the photo- 
 graphic plate. The statement that immediately 
 after death, body and soul are still not entirely 
 separated would seem to indicate that the ethe- 
 real body, already existing in the material body,
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 143 
 
 has absorbed somewhat of the heavier but still 
 dissolvable substances of which that material 
 body is composed. From these heavier ele- 
 ments the ethereal body in its celestial form 
 must be detached, and until this detachment is 
 complete, some form of food is supplied. The 
 occasional protrusion of periwinkles from their 
 shells would seem to be mentioned as an anal- 
 ogy in nature to the protrusion of the ethereal 
 body of the medium, and an enhanced receptiv- 
 ity resulting therefrom. It would also seem to 
 indicate that the ethereal body, possessed by all 
 human beings, must also conform to this condi- 
 tion if transcendental messages are to be per- 
 ceived. 
 
 * 
 
 On December the 31st, my sister, in a mood 
 of deepest humility and self-reproach, declared 
 her disapprobation of her own character, her 
 perception of the effect of her own beauty upon 
 her earthly development. The contrast between 
 this avowal and her earlier declaration that "it 
 would not have been human" not to use the 
 power that beauty gave her, is so indicative of 
 her development that I dare not suppress it. 
 That her self -judgment was far too harsh would 
 not only be recognized by all who knew her, but 
 its severity is commented upon by her mother. 
 
 * ' Carve out of marble a beautiful statue, im-
 
 144. A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 hue it with life and animation but neglect to 
 inspire it with a soul with all humility this 
 was, but is not I." 
 
 (I am happy about your spiritual develop- 
 ment, but don't forget how much I miss you.) 
 
 "Ephemeral, fragile, evanescent, corporeal 
 beauty, trending continually earthward, tram- 
 meling the soul with clogging chains of earthly 
 desire. Blessed are those who escape these 
 snares.*' 
 
 (What are your occupations?) 
 
 * * My occupation is developing the soul and it 
 proceeds by logical stages ; first I learn the de- 
 tonations (vibrations) or vocabulary of thought 
 transference. (Shows a vision of ripples 
 around a stone thrown into water, vibrations of 
 air coming from stones clapped together.) 
 There is so much to be learned. (Hands to head.) 
 I have had to accommodate myself to the idea 
 of spiritual standards instead of material 
 standards. The life is entirely mental and spir- 
 itual which is very difficult for you to follow. 
 I am going to school, paying more attention to 
 it than many others are doing. ' ' 
 
 (Are you still instructed by your twin 
 brother?) 
 
 "He supervises my education and sets my 
 tasks, which I prefer to perform myself." 
 
 (What kind of tasks?)
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 145 
 
 * ' Self -development ; I hear music if I want to 
 but I did not have that trend, and over here we 
 follow our trends. ' ' 
 
 (On earth you were fond of making people 
 happy, fond of sewing and fond of sports.) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon sees a vision of panels of em- 
 broidery, with little painted figures such as are 
 put on lampshades. "That is my amusement, 
 but I was referring to the serious side of things. 
 My occupations not my amusements. My 
 occupation consists chiefly in learning to de- 
 velop myself. ' ' 
 
 (What tasks does your brother give you?) 
 
 "He told me to hand on my first lesson to 
 some one else. It is never well to hand on one's 
 instructions to those who do not want it. It 
 was difficult for me to learn this wordless com- 
 munication. He gave me my first lesson in 
 this wireless communication. He told me to 
 teach it to some one else I did so and I re- 
 turned somewhat elated over my success. ' ' 
 
 (Whom did you teach?) 
 
 "A friend of a humbler station than myself. 
 (Shows a woman bending over a washtub.) 
 She is the one I helped. In my earth life I 
 was willing to help those people, but not at close 
 hand. I returned elated and my brother said: 
 (Shows a book with Lesson I on a page.) 'You 
 have learned Lesson I; now you must learn
 
 146 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Lesson II.' * (Turns over a page and points to 
 Lesson II " Garnering the Golden Grain of 
 Patience.") 
 
 (Are you making those pretty little things for 
 your house?) 
 
 "It is all much humbler than Anna can im- 
 agine. I had to go back to the laundress and 
 teach her a second time. Vincent said I had to 
 continue it until I liked it. When I found I 
 could not stand it any longer, I was permitted 
 to regale myself with this artistic needlework. 
 It is artistic and constructive and therefore has 
 its value. In my house not built with hands 
 but which nevertheless is on a firm foundation. " 
 
 (Did you make that house?) 
 
 "I conjure that house when I want it, and 
 by and by I shall have a finer mansion, not 
 spurious and subject to decay as earthly dwell- 
 ings are, but I shall have constructed it, I hope, 
 with infinite patience and a gentle persistency, 
 the combination of which qualities conquers all 
 things." 
 
 (Do you live alone in your house?) 
 
 ' * Solitude is sometimes desirable but I prefer 
 the indication of gentle presences which dispel 
 the shadows." 
 
 (Who are they?) 
 
 "Sometimes my mother, sometimes my 
 brother, sometimes members of the band of ex-
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 147 
 
 quisite creatures who exult in the emancipation 
 of the soul." 
 
 (Are you far away usually!) 
 
 "I inhabit the ethereal realm revolving 
 around the earth and am borne by my desires 
 near or further as the case may be. When I 
 communicate I am in the room. ' ' 
 
 (Do you see where I am sitting?) 
 
 "Tell Anna, I am right behind her with my 
 hand on her shoulder, but yet to her I appear 
 very far away. The psychic feels my presence. 
 To any one who is not psychic I might as well 
 be a million miles away. ' ' 
 
 (I love her all the time.) 
 
 "The separation is very hard. (Nods her 
 head gravely.) I feel that I did not always 
 appreciate what Anna tried to do for me. I 
 could feel very badly about it sometimes if I 
 would let myself. Now it stands out like a guid- 
 ing star." 
 
 * 
 
 On Jauary the 14th, pursuing my questions, I 
 asked my sister about the government in the 
 other world. 
 
 "One of the first laws is that of harmony. 
 There is no progress without harmony and even 
 argumentative discussions flow harmoniously 
 over here. The functional system whereby we 
 live is a sort of circumlocution or general cir-
 
 148 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 dilation of ideas, generated by a Divine Dy- 
 namo, which propels through the universe the 
 principles of truth, life and spirituality. A 
 harmony with these forces, being one of the 
 first lessons which we learn." 
 
 (Are there centers of influences like Univer- 
 sities or Government institutions?) 
 
 "Temples of learning are presided over by 
 professors or masters who have conquered the 
 problems of existence." (Vision of a temple 
 such as the classic temple of Art at Bar Harbor, 
 with spirits coming and going in classic gar- 
 ments.) 
 
 (Have these temples a permanent existence?) 
 
 "If you have a simple house and want a bet- 
 ter one or a small automobile and can buy a 
 larger one, you can discard the old ones. So 
 it is over here. For the individual there is no 
 permanency, it is all progress. But the tem- 
 ples remain for those who want them; to this 
 extent they are permanent. The individuals 
 go on developing. Certainly the temples re- 
 main for those who come after. I am taking 
 the case of an Individual and in this there is 
 no permanency." 
 
 (You keep that house and the fancy work 
 for a while?) 
 
 "We create things as we want them and we 
 frequently look back on the things we have once
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 149 
 
 desired as children look back upon their dolls." 
 
 (Have you any advice about my life, as you 
 watch me?) 
 
 "I feel that I can get quite near you; you 
 do not obtrude your opinions; your attitude 
 has been so humble that you have got much out 
 of this communication. The receptive attitude 
 has particularly pleased Mother. Mother was 
 quite assertive herself about her spiritual at- 
 titude when she was on earth. In order to 
 learn one must assume a humbler attitude than 
 she had." 
 
 (I am very grateful for their commendation, 
 but I want to know what more I should do. I 
 have so much sadness to counteract.) 
 
 Mother: "Go on with your writing; push it 
 on but do not overtire yourself. We see that 
 you are writing. Go on with your preparations 
 for these weekly meetings." (They nod their 
 heads and show two books.) 
 
 (My thoughts are always with you; my last 
 thought at night, my first in the morning.) 
 
 My sister: "Tell Anna that her warm 
 hearted affection has helped me, her devotion 
 has sustained me." (Shows a vision of a 
 book.) "The book of my life romance not 
 instructive towards the last I upheld my self- 
 esteem by a certain degree of kindness and pa- 
 tience. (Holds out the book to her mother.)
 
 150 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Even Mamma was pleased with my work to- 
 wards the end. ' ' 
 
 (You are so severe with yourself; your gay- 
 ety and sympathy were of unspeakable help to 
 so many!) 
 
 "That was not voluntary; it was an emana- 
 tion of personality and having that I should 
 have done more with it. Having this spontane- 
 ous gift, I do not take any credit to myself for 
 it." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard: "Lucy taut (something 
 wound tightly around something, like some- 
 thing on a reel). (Gesture of despair.) 
 
 (Are you happy yet?) 
 
 "I still want the fleshpots, but I am calmer. 
 Tell Anna I am calmer and Mamma and my 
 brother have been of infinite help. There is a 
 great central force and if one is in harmony 
 with these sublime ejections from this central 
 dynamo all is well. But when one does not re- 
 volve in harmony, but buffets the currents dis- 
 cord arises. The meaning of 'Thy will be 
 done' is, that one must be in harmony with 
 these sublime forces. It is exactly like learn- 
 ing the rules of a game, as if you insisted on 
 playing tennis as if it were croquet, using your 
 racquet as if it were a mallet. It does not 
 minimize one's individuality to learn the rules 
 of any game, or of this life any more than it
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 151 
 
 would to learn how to play tennis. Harmony 
 with law and progress in accordance with law. 
 Good prevails and evil vanishes, burned up by 
 its own poisonous emanations." 
 
 (Speaking to our mother, I then asked if she 
 were happy when she first went over.) 
 
 Mother: "I had to forget some prejudices, 
 my religious doctrines were cut and dried, hard 
 and fast. I had to learn a broader philosophy. 
 I have learned that out of evil good comes. I 
 would not have admitted it on earth. Some 
 people have to learn in that way." 
 
 (She had a few temptations.) 
 
 "I led my domestic life in comfort. My de- 
 sires were gratified; and there was a situation 
 of financial solidity, but I worried over my chil- 
 dren. I had to unlearn a good deal. I have 
 more humor now. I can look back and laugh at 
 my spiritual debauches. They were really 
 funny. Exhorting and rhetorically pinioning 
 people to hear all that I thought was the word 
 of God. I had to learn a broader doctrine. 
 Until the wonder and the profundity of it sank 
 in, I had a hard time. Charity to all men is the 
 rule of common sense after all. Terrible as 
 it seems wrong doing is of use, as thus some 
 learn. Never mind me. Our darling is doing 
 beautifully. She would not say it herself." 
 
 (Are you happy?)
 
 158 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Radiantly so. So will she be although she 
 would not say so now. She has to effervesce at 
 times ; so she did on earth ; but she is pure gold. 
 (Vision of a glass of champagne.) Like the 
 color of champagne, her heart is pure gold, inno- 
 cent, this effervescence." 
 
 The date of this, the thirteenth sitting was 
 January the 14th and the message about 
 "Lucy" was quite unintelligible to both Mrs. 
 Vernon and me. Its significance was only too 
 clear on the first of February when my faithful 
 maid Lucie died after an operation for appendi- 
 citis. The message with its "gesture of de- 
 spair" was prophetic, and was also distinctly 
 descriptive of the condition of the appendix 
 which was in fact "taut," having grown around 
 other organs, exactly as it was described in the 
 message. 
 
 On the morning of the Tuesday after her 
 death, which was the day of her funeral, I saw 
 Mrs. Vernon, who heard Lucie and my sister. 
 
 My sister: "Dear little Lucie. (Vision of 
 fastening something around Lucie 's neck like 
 a clasp.) To be buried with her. A novitiate 
 myself, I am glad to help Lucie. Am taking 
 charge of Lucie, who preserves her attitude of 
 respect. I am doing my best to help put through 
 the messages." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard: "Lucie. Revenir."
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 153 
 
 Then followed a very intimate discussion 
 about my household, with a request that I 
 should be careful to whom I entrusted the key. 
 The message about the clasp is very evidential ; 
 a cross bearing the image of Christ had, un- 
 known to me, been placed upon her breast, to be 
 buried with her. 
 
 On the morning of January the 29th my sister 
 advised me in regard to my participation in a 
 project for civic betterment which I had been 
 asked to support. The meeting which I was 
 to attend was fixed for the afternoon of this 
 day. My conclusions and observations tallied 
 exactly with my sister's prognostications. 
 
 "Anna does not know whether to enroll in 
 this or not. (Shows a woman sitting over a 
 desk.) Tell Anna not to enroll in this. " (Pen- 
 cil in hand striking out a name here and there.) 
 1 1 Not worth while output of energy not worth 
 while. Output outweighs the outcome, hardly 
 worth while." 
 
 (Do you know that I have seen your friend 
 M.S. and that I agree with you about him?) 
 
 * * Fifty. I hated to be fifty ; this friend knows 
 how I hated it. The replies he always made 
 were consolatory. He said I had not grown old, 
 so why should I grow old I Yes, I know that you 
 have seen him. This is a little test."
 
 154* A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 The conversation here referred to took place 
 between my sister and this admiring and loyal 
 friend of her early youth not once but many 
 times, according to his testimony. It had never 
 been repeated to me. 
 
 On February the 16th Mr. Edwin Friend, 
 whose communications will be transcribed later, 
 appeared and gave several very important 
 tests. I then addressed my sister, saying that 
 I hoped that she was receiving the thoughts of 
 love which I was constantly sending to her. 
 
 ' ' Tendrils of a flower, my garden ; not all sun- 
 light, some shadow, more sunlight than shade, 
 the garden of my memory. The shade repre- 
 sents regrets; the sunlight represents the suc- 
 cesses; among those successes I regard the 
 holding of Anna's affection as preeminent. It 
 was involuntary on Anna's part, given without 
 measure; I perhaps wandered afield." 
 
 (Do not ever be sorry again.) 
 
 "I can never think of any other simile. 
 Anna's love and affection are like a bulwark to 
 me now. If I were back with the enlightenment 
 I have now I never would have wandered afield. 
 True love and affection do surely outweigh any 
 exterior diversities. ' ' 
 
 (What are you doing now?) 
 
 "These tests are important; they are very
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 155 
 
 important ; therefore, I have stood back. I am 
 preparing a sort of reception hall for other re- 
 cruits like myself, and remember it is all figura- 
 tive, all mental, all spiritual; all milestones in 
 the soul 'B development. It seems as if we must 
 always lend a hand to some one beneath us; 
 that is what I do." 
 
 At the next sitting, Mr. Friend again com- 
 municated and in answer as to whether my sis- 
 ter would be permitted to resume her narrative 
 of her life after death he replied. 
 
 "Pertinent to your sister, let me explain that 
 her development has been augmented by her 
 terrestrial communication, as it supplied her 
 with the zest and interest which is frequently 
 lacking in a newcomer. She is learning to pull 
 wires herself, and is particularly proficient in 
 the science of symbolic manifestations such as 
 retinal hallucinations." 
 
 My sister: "I would like to have you show 
 Anna mirror writing. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Vernon then got a mirror and wrote in 
 reverse script a message. She wrote with great 
 rapidity and without any knowledge of what 
 she was writing. When the message was com- 
 pleted she gave me the mirror and I read a 
 most amusing and startlingly characteristic 
 little note, unfortunately too intimate to be pub- 
 lished, regarding matters of which Mrs. Vernon
 
 156 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 was completely ignorant. It was signed: "I 
 send you all my love ' ' a very frequent method 
 of ending her letters. 
 
 (Are you making pretty things for your 
 house?) 
 
 "Mamma forf ended and saved me much time 
 by planning for me a spiritual existence coin- 
 cident with my tastes. For Anna she should 
 
 arrange differently, for S differently again. 
 
 Believe me that it is a help to have those who 
 love us go before. Mental trends direct our 
 ethereal existences. When materiality holds 
 sway to the utter exclusion of all spiritual as- 
 pirations, which is rare, there is a hopeless 
 downward trend even here, which requires aeons 
 of time to overcome. Such cases appear here 
 seldom and are immediately withdrawn from 
 our view, as the power of example is insidiously 
 effective." 
 
 Mother: "Our darling, is learning symbol- 
 ism. The philosophy gave her an occupation. 
 I decided to direct her along new lines ; making 
 pretty things, doing useful things too." 
 
 (What are they?) 
 
 My sister : ' 'I am trying to teach in my turn 
 spiritual tasks to others." 
 
 (Have you learned enough to build a house?) 
 
 "It is a good deal as when you planned your
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 157 
 
 house; you thought it out. If we are expert 
 enough our thoughts materialize." 
 
 (What kind of a house have you made for 
 yourself?) 
 
 "A very simple one as yet. I am again like 
 a child under a father's roof. This thought 
 realm is very difficult to translate into material 
 ideas." 
 
 Between the sitting of February the 13th and 
 that of the 18th, the announcement of Mr. 
 Friend that my sister had become expert in 
 4 ' retinal hallucinations" was illustrated. In my 
 bed at night, with all lights extinguished for 
 half an hour, I was waiting for sleep, when a 
 medallion, small as a gold coin, bearing the ex- 
 quisitely drawn image of her face appeared on 
 the retina of my eyes. In a flash it was there, 
 in an instant it was gone. It appeared to be 
 definitely localized, exactly as when one has 
 gazed on a bright light, and an image of that 
 light has remained on the retina after the light 
 has been extinguished and the eyelids are 
 closed. On the following night I saw my own 
 face, with equal distinctness and equally local- 
 ized. Since that time I have seen musical in- 
 struments, flowers in a garden, childishly drawn 
 profiles and again many times my sister's face, 
 although far less distinctly, and once her name 
 in illuminated Roman script.
 
 158 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 When I saw Mrs. Vernon on the 18th of 
 February she told me that she also had seen 
 these medallions on the retina of her eyes and 
 for the first time in her experience. 
 
 When questioned regarding these medallions 
 during one of the sittings when Mr. Friend com 
 municated, he said, "Retinal sensibility is the 
 most alert, as one might call the optic nerve one 
 of the peripheries, therefore more easily 
 reached. So it seemed worth while to us to 
 attempt this form of addressing ourselves to 
 Mrs. de Koven as other signals failed to reach 
 her and in order to corroborate her statements 
 we showed them to you. Your sister is learning 
 under the direction of the scientific minds who 
 assume authority in these proceedings. Some 
 in this group you would call of the ancients. 
 Skepticism in regard to this Imperator group 
 is quite unfounded, as without them and their 
 interest, these methods would never have been 
 perfected. Moving-picture screen, with a lan- 
 tern, so we throw pictures on your retinas." 
 
 
 
 At the next sitting, after a lengthy communi- 
 cation from Mr. Friend, Violet again appeared, 
 showing herself in a very radiant guise, seem- 
 ing very happy, and dressed in a beautiful gown 
 of the Louis XV period, with petticoat and 
 paniers. This description followed Mrs. Ver-
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 159 
 
 noil's vision, which was very minute in detail. 
 (Are you happy, darling?) 
 
 My sister: "I am happy over C (one of 
 
 her children). If C can be made to see it 
 
 over there, she will be spared a good deal of 
 delay over here. I wish that Anna could see 
 how lovely I look. (Mrs. Vernon remarked upon 
 the blue and pink of her dress.) I am showing 
 her my dress just as I used to show you my 
 lovely things. I want you to know that I am 
 much happier. I am interested in the pursuits 
 over here, in the things they do. I also like the 
 easy locomotion." 
 
 (Won't you go on with your narrative?) 
 * * I just came to say that I am happy, just as 
 I used to be when I had my pretty things about 
 me." 
 
 (Have you anything more to say?) 
 "I have things to say ad infinitum, but it is 
 better to be brief. I have reached the stage 
 when the spiritual effluvia envelop and support 
 me along their courses. Even Mamma is satis- 
 fied and says that I have not done so badly. 
 Papa protests, against too much duress as I 
 am trying to do my best. Anna will remember 
 how he would occasionally plead for us as chil- 
 dren. 'Don't discipline the child too much; 
 she is doing the best she can.' I am. I have 
 tried very hard and I have learned in a childish
 
 160 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 way to manipulate the symbols. My first handi- 
 work is this pretty dress. Highly fortunate in 
 having highly developed masters. This is the 
 power of a good background, tradition never 
 belittles these things. Background of good 
 sturdy character, people of high spiritual 
 ideals, this counts for more over here than 
 Anna and I thought. This is what counts here. 
 It is more important than the other kind (of 
 ancestry). The trouble with human kind is 
 that they value the things that do not count. 
 In conclusion I will say that Anna's present 
 purposes are particularly congenial to us." 
 
 At the next sitting I asked that my sister 
 would continue her narrative and tell us what 
 she is doing. 
 
 "I am picking up my loose ends and weaving 
 them into a fairly presentable design. In other 
 words I am trying to correlate a diversity of 
 interests and planning them along spiritual 
 lines. Due respect is paid over here to mental 
 trends. Therefore my weaving may take the 
 form of manufacturing pretty things for the 
 benefit and pleasure of others as well as for 
 myself. If one's tastes are musical it is per- 
 mitted to extract sweet strains from symbolical 
 insfrtuaients for the emtertamment of those in-
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 161 
 
 terested. If one writes that attainment may 
 be perfected over here." 
 
 (Are there libraries?) 
 
 ' * There is the library of the universe, the cos- 
 mos to draw from. It all depends upon one's 
 inclination, with the big element of self elimi- 
 nated. ' ' 
 
 (What have you been doing the last twenty- 
 four hours, can you tell me?) 
 
 ' ' I have mastered the intricacies of a weaving 
 machine, from which I have extricated a very 
 involved design. I worked it out with patience. 
 The patience was necessary to extricate the 
 design. In this way spiritual development is 
 interwoven. Concentration in your writing 
 will stand you in good stead. Bearing of dis- 
 appointments will also help. You asked me 
 what I had been doing ; this is what I have been 
 doing. A combination over here, by allowing 
 us to continue our mental trends. If these 
 trends are entirely material then Heaven help 
 them over here. Mental, spiritual and moral 
 effluxes directed by Divine instruction. 7 ' 
 
 (Is the sense of God's personality clearer 
 than here?) 
 
 "Much clearer, as we are nearer the source. 
 Except in the case of those who are striving to 
 return to the earth." 
 
 (We have difficulty in realizing it.)
 
 162 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "A sort of Divine effulgence, penetrating the 
 very fibers of those who are aware of its exist- 
 ence and leaving untouched those who deny its 
 existence. 'Seek ye first the Kingdom of God 
 and his righteousness and all these things shall 
 be added to you. ' It is like this. ' ' 
 
 (Personality is so important here in our 
 earthly training; there must be a source.) 
 
 " Where we stand we feel the Divine efful- 
 gence and that is all there is to it. ' ' 
 
 (You do not seem to wish to be with people 
 as much as you did on earth. You seem prin- 
 cipally to be with your own family.) 
 
 1 'I played around with people a good deal. I 
 am not with my family all the time. I am with 
 masters and teachers who are willing to serve ; 
 they teach me.'* 
 
 (Have you seen soldiers?) 
 
 " Indeed, I have; they inhabit a realm pre- 
 pared for them. The reason why the earth is 
 inhabited by material people is because it is 
 filled with people who have wanted to come back 
 until they have developed to a certain point, 
 then they do not wish to come back." 
 
 (Do you want to come back?) 
 
 "I did very much at first; now I am not so 
 sure. Mamma's early training was really right. 
 Her manner of delivering it was not as accept- 
 able as it might have been, but she was right.
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 163 
 
 Behold a caravan of exiles in a desert, white- 
 garbed, sandal-footed, illuminated faces turned 
 towards the east, with no more thought of their 
 raiment than King Solomon's lilies. Trusting 
 in Providence to provide manna, offering up 
 prayers of thankfulness when an oasis appears 
 in sight, with water and nourishment. These 
 are true prophets, but extremists. Now the 
 tableau changes and we present a woman 
 clothed in the latest fashion, treading the prim- 
 rose path of life, beloved, admired, envied per- 
 haps, for her power, beauty and possessions, 
 but with a soul as free from earthly entangle- 
 ments as the crusaders of the first picture." 
 
 (Is this you, dear?) 
 
 ' ' No, this is not I, in all humility ; my soul was 
 not free from earthly entanglements. It is pure 
 fancy. We simply meant to illustrate that one 
 can have a soul free from earthly entangle- 
 ments in the midst of earthly surroundings just 
 as well as if one went wandering in the desert. 
 No need to be extreme. Mamma was." 
 
 During the progress of my sittings with Mrs. 
 Vernon I occasionally tried the ouija board. 
 Sometimes authentic messages seemed to be 
 received, often subconscious vibrations were ap- 
 parent, and sometimes only the magnetic force 
 from the operators moved the board with no 
 intelligent intention whatsoever. On the 22nd
 
 164 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 of February my daughter and I received what 
 seemed to be a message from my sister. I 
 record it, not because the subject of the message 
 was very evidential, but because the rapidity of 
 the motion of the board was very marked and 
 definite and because my sister referred to her 
 presence in a later sitting with Mrs. Vernon. 
 First the board made circles, very rapidly. 
 This sign, according to Margaret Cameron in 
 her book the "Seven Purposes," indicates 
 union and love. "Is this a message of love?" 
 I asked. The board moved instantly to "yes." 
 "Is this you, dear?" I asked. Again it traveled 
 rapidly to "yes." Then referring to her bust 
 in bronze which stands on a marble column in 
 the corner of the library, I asked if she could 
 see what was in the corner. The board then 
 spelt out "bust." "Dear Ethel," "dear An- 
 na," was then spelt out, and "Farewell." 
 
 On February 25th, after a preliminary com- 
 munication from Edwin Friend, Mrs. Vernon 
 heard my sister's name. 
 
 "I have brought my narrative up to date. I 
 am progressive ; they say quickly. I will soon 
 be able to impress or imprint words directly. 
 (Shows a column and her own hand pointing 
 to it.) I am glad Anna got my message of 
 love." 
 
 (Shall I go on with the ouija?)
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 165 
 
 "Yes. She will know that it is I, but don't 
 be disappointed if the messages are inaccurate. 
 Yes, I tried. Feel that I am there and be pa- 
 tient with my efforts." 
 
 (Does it make you happier to feel that you 
 can make your presence felt directly?) 
 
 "Oh! the difference would be as great as if 
 one was obliged to travel along in a tunnel and 
 see only the roof instead of the blue sky. The 
 difference in speaking to her directly is like a 
 little bird, as if the little bird had a broken 
 wing instead of being perfect and normal and 
 could fly." 
 
 (Are you happy now?) 
 
 "Yes, much happier. You can consider that 
 I am happy. At least I am calm." 
 
 (Have you companionship which is pleasant 
 to you?) 
 
 "I enjoy the fleeting moments with my 
 brother, the long talks with my mother, the rec- 
 ords of my father's peregrinations, all these. 
 Then I have the privilege of watching the tapes- 
 try weavers and the lace makers." 
 
 (Do these tapestries and laces last?) 
 
 "As long as we want them. You can hold the 
 thought and they remain. I was more inter- 
 ested in these things than in music or art. 
 There is a diversity of spirits who entertain
 
 166 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 and beguile with their pleasant personalities on 
 earth. So they do here." 
 
 (Is the ethereal world which you inhabit near 
 here or is it very far away?) 
 
 "Near or far as thought travels. I have not 
 departed from the terrestrial ether. My inter- 
 est lies here. Later I will explore and enter 
 the penumbra of the other planets. I will take 
 up my narrative later. ' ' 
 
 On March the 15th I asked my sister if she 
 played cards in the other world. 
 
 " Games of that description lose their test 
 when we can read our opponent's minds. It is 
 like outgrown children's toys, outgrown child- 
 ish things. They are good for the brain on 
 earth. I am more interested in these little me- 
 dallions. (Shows one to Mrs. Vernon.) You 
 might almost call me a numismatist. Don't be- 
 little cards, but over here we can read each 
 other's minds and over here there are things 
 much more interesting. ' ' 
 
 (I am very grateful to have the opportunity 
 of expressing your thoughts which I intend to 
 do later.) 
 
 ' ' Anna 's monument to me. My memorial. ' ' 
 
 (If I have helped you over there by continu- 
 ing these communications it is my greatest joy 
 and consolation.)
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 167 
 
 "Yon have, indeed, and with the greatest rev- 
 erence I bow before such serious effort. I 
 would never have had any patience with it on 
 earth. The convolutions of destiny are so curi- 
 ous. That one should without intention have 
 helped their fellows, without really consciously 
 intending it. You have helped me because you 
 and Mrs. Vernon are so interested. I have 
 helped you. So we are interwoven." 
 
 (I do not feel as if I had been separated from 
 you, darling; I have tried to live with you.) 
 
 "So it has really transpired that we have 
 been together. I have been brought to see that 
 commerce in souls is the offshoot of an unde- 
 veloped condition, and therefore not to be 
 harshly criticized, but prevented when possible, 
 as it leads nowhere and causes a really serious 
 disintegration. It seems frivolous, it is more 
 than that; it really is more serious. Anna 
 understands that she should prevent it when 
 possible. She has prevented it. In a way I am 
 almost glad that I came over here. I don 't know 
 if Anna can really understand that it is I, when 
 I say that I am almost glad to have come over 
 here. I see the meaning of it all. At first I 
 could not say it, I longed so to come back, but 
 now I am almost glad to have come over here. ' '
 
 168 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 On March the 25th I spoke aloud to my sister 
 saying that our other sister was missing her 
 very much these days. 
 
 ''She misses me. I know she misses me." 
 
 (If I could only see you or feel your presence 
 directly.) 
 
 "I preside at the ouija, too, but cannot al- 
 ways control the conditions. Anna has not 
 seen the medallions lately." 
 
 (I have tried to see them; what is the mat- 
 ter?) 
 
 " You have to grab at them. Sometimes con- 
 ditions are favorable, sometimes not. I knew 
 Anna was disappointed; that is why I spoke 
 of them. ' * 
 
 (Where are you now; in what part of the 
 room?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon said that she had perceived my 
 sister seated in the chair next to her, while she 
 was communicating. Now Mrs. Vernon said, 
 "She is standing near the lamp, running her 
 fingers through the fringe. Now she has come 
 to the table where you are writing; is leaning 
 over it with both hands resting on it." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard : ' ' Dear Anna, her hand 
 gets so tired, but she goes on just the same." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon saw tears in my sister's eyes 
 and saw her putting her hand over mine. 
 
 (I would not be separated from you.)
 
 "THE PERFECT ROUND" 169 
 
 "And so here I am. It is an anniversary 
 time and therefore a little more soul stirring 
 even than usual. You have tried so hard to do 
 everything just as I would have done. I thank 
 you for your devotion." 
 
 On the 1st of April, I asked my sister if she 
 would come some night and speak with Mrs. 
 Horton and me with the ouija board. 
 
 1 'Any night when you and Marguerite are 
 together. I will try. ' ' 
 
 (How do you send for any one? Mrs. B.'s boy, 
 for instance!) 
 
 "Thought waves; currents of concentration 
 of the waves and currents. Controls around 
 a medium sense approaching conditions. The 
 sitters bring their friends." 
 
 (Is it because you can read thoughts that you 
 can prophesy?) 
 
 "On the plan that coming events cast their 
 shadows before. The embryo must form some- 
 where, and we see the process." 
 
 (Do you mean the embryo of thought?) 
 
 "Yes. The embryo of thought when the 
 event is planned as a snowball has to be formed 
 into a ball. The recipient gets the ball without 
 thinking of the process of formation." 
 
 (These are the days of our agony when you 
 were passing from our sight.)
 
 170 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ''You must forget them and think of my 
 resurrection." 
 
 (It is a great grief.) 
 
 "Yes, also affection. I could point out the 
 compensation that exists in the correlation of 
 individuals, which creates happiness or unhap- 
 piness for our brothers and sisters. We can- 
 not rid ourselves of our obligations to each 
 other. We do not suffer alone. When we 
 spread happiness it is not alone. Your love 
 which has brought us together has not stopped 
 there. You have spread it and humanity bene- 
 fits does not stop in a selfish gratification. All 
 your love for me is of use. Try and see the 
 broad side of it even in this. The poor soul 
 who came here yesterday went away with com- 
 fort." 
 
 This refers to the comforting messages re- 
 ceived by a friend from her son, and to the fact 
 that I had arranged the meeting with Mrs. 
 Vernon.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE INVESTIGATOBS 
 
 DUEING the month of April, Mr. Friend 
 communicated to the almost entire exclu- 
 sion of my sister. At the end of the sitting of 
 May the 1st, on the eve of my departure for 
 Hot Springs, Va., she very sweetly expressed 
 her concern for my health. 
 
 "Let me say 'Au revoir,' dear Anna; do not 
 exhaust yourself reducing, let it come gradu- 
 ally." 
 
 (Are you happy now?) 
 
 ' ' It is cumulative ; it grows as it goes, so they 
 tell me, until one reaches the acme of bliss." 
 
 At Hot Springs, the medallions often ap- 
 peared upon my eyes and I received a message 
 from my sister, through a friend, who has the 
 gift of automatic handwriting. The message 
 is so characteristic of my sister and so indica- 
 tive of her development, that I include it in my 
 records. The guiding control of this friend 
 first moved her hand, which wrote with great 
 rapidity and without correction or hesitation. 
 
 "You have been able to open up a different 
 
 171
 
 172 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 vision to Mrs. Anna de Koven. She has fol- 
 lowed a very definite line, which has been laid 
 down by her guides and her loved ones to help 
 her, as her clear point of view will help you. It 
 is our desire that all the circles should at some 
 time merge into one. At the present that is 
 difficult, as it is extremely hard for the human 
 brain (not the immortal mind) to grasp this 
 great truth, that every point of view, every 
 message, and every belief that is guided from 
 this side is not diverse in its teachings, but 
 merely a part of the great whole and necessary 
 to make the circle complete. We of your circle 
 and those of Anna de Koven 's circle are beside 
 you now and the current is extremely strong 
 and easy. You are all surrounded by great 
 love. 
 
 "I have a message to deliver to Anna de 
 Koven from her sister. 
 
 "Since you have been down here you have 
 allowed your heart to grow in grief. Try, 
 dearest, to shake off the feeling of blankness, 
 for I am content in the aura of your love, and 
 altho you cannot see me except at moments 
 (this may mean the pictures of her face on the 
 medallions A. de K.) surely you realize my 
 nearness. Not only that, but you have been 
 much favored by the great souls in the work 
 which has been given you to do, and you can-
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 173 
 
 not do it justice with a sore and aching heart. 
 Feel your soul expand with love and tenderness, 
 not only for those so near and dear to us both, 
 but for every living creature you are going to 
 benefit by your hand. Exude love through 
 every word of the coming book. Let the light 
 of real faith shine forth from your eyes. It is 
 a challenge, dearest Anna, from the masters, 
 'to arms/ If you wish to stand behind our 
 words, you must by your joy in my release, for 
 it was strictly that, show your happiness in my 
 nearness. It is always a positive fact that in 
 communications through a conscious or an un- 
 conscious mind our words are somewhat col- 
 ored by that mind and we must needs use the 
 instrument, such as vocabulary, etc., to express 
 ourselves, but I speak, and you must and do 
 recognize my words. I send greetings to you 
 M - and thank you, D , for your hand; 
 it is a great pleasure to write for you. I shall 
 benefit by the acquaintance of the masters of 
 this circle, as there is unlimited knowledge 
 over here on all subjects, and the more I learn, 
 the more I shall have to give you, dearest 
 Anna. Once more, I want to warn you not to 
 be sad, for you make me sad in your sadness. 
 There is much for you to do in life and we are 
 co-workers, and nearer in many ways than we 
 should ever have been able to be on earth. God
 
 174. A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 bless you, darling, I love this and could con- 
 tinue, but have said my say. (In answer to a 
 question about my grandchild.) Do not be 
 distressed about him. He is being helped by 
 one of the Investigators, and when I am not 
 with you I see him and of course glimpse the 
 others, too. He will be better soon, but you are 
 not to worry. You must strive to realize that 
 God's love and knowledge is better and far 
 wiser than even mine with its growth of vision 
 here on this plane. Embrace the love of God. 
 Your love makes a pure ray of light straight 
 from your heart to mine, no matter where I am 
 or what I am doing. I am always conscious 
 of your love and that is why it hurts me when 
 I cannot make my love as concrete to you as 
 yours is to me. God bless you, darling; be 
 brave, for you have much to do. ' ' 
 
 The evidential point in this message is con- 
 tained in the reference to the "Investigators" 
 and their care of my grandchild. The group 
 of four men who call themselves the "Investi- 
 gators," includes Mr. John L. Ticknor of 
 Bridgeport, New York, who is, in Dr. Hy slop's 
 opinion, a medium of very remarkable powers. 
 He possesses clairvoyance and clairaudience 
 in a very high degree, and in trance has given 
 a volume of important information and mes-
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 175 
 
 sages of proved veracity. Some one of the 
 group of Ms "controls" has, according to this 
 message, undertaken to watch over my grand- 
 child. This idea was not a part of my con- 
 sciousness or of the friends who received the 
 message. She had never heard of the "Investi- 
 gators. ' ' 
 
 Founded for the purpose indicated by their 
 name, the small "Society of Investigators," 
 who are all business men holding positions of 
 trust, has had a remarkable experience through 
 association with Mr. Ticknor, who was at one 
 time an assistant manager of a railroad and is 
 now a bond merchant. Mr. Ticknor, who is the 
 son of an Episcopal clergyman, inherited his re- 
 markable powers from his mother. Since 
 childhood he has seen discarnate spirits, and, 
 unaware that others were unable to see them, 
 was warned by his mother against mentioning 
 his powers to his companions. At an amateur 
 seance, conducted by one of his friends he fell 
 asleep and rising to his feet delivered an elo- 
 quent discourse regarding the constitution of 
 the other world to his amazed companions. 
 The spirit of an officer in the Civil war, Col. 
 Horace Clark Lee, had for the first time en- 
 tranced Mr. Ticknor. 
 
 Col. Lee was found to have existed in the 
 flesh, and to have occupied an official position
 
 176 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 subsequent to the war at Springfield, the home 
 of one of the Investigators. Col. Lee's signa- 
 ture, as given by himself, while in possession 
 of Mr. Ticknor, has been identified. It is pre- 
 cisely similar to that on the public documents 
 at Springfield. 
 
 Busy and successful as Mr. Ticknor is in his 
 worldly occupations, he can only spare two 
 evenings in each month for the practice and 
 demonstration of his remarkable powers. One 
 of these evenings is fixed for the middle of 
 each month in Springfield and the other for the 
 first Saturday in each month in New York. I 
 was present at the March meeting in New York 
 and again on April the 5th. I saw Mr. Ticknor 
 fall into trance, and rise to his feet as Col. Lee. 
 In life Col. Lee possessed considerable orator- 
 ical gifts and on both occasions when I have 
 heard him discourse, he has discussed the state 
 of the soul before and after its earthly incarna- 
 tion. The complete change of personality, the 
 use of long and carefully composed sentences, 
 the characteristic pauses and gestures of the 
 trained orator were extremely impressive to 
 me, who had never before witnessed the phe- 
 nomenon of trance possession. 
 
 After the conclusion of Col. Lee's discourses 
 another personality possesses Mr. Ticknor, 
 Black Hawk, an Indian, who has given a strik-
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 177 
 
 ingly picturesque account of his earthly life in 
 Canada. Unlike Col. Lee, Black Hawk never 
 discourses about the problems of eternal life, 
 but conveys to those present at the meetings 
 messages from numbers of spirit visitors, who 
 come to speak with their friends. That no 
 knowledge of these two personalities was pos- 
 sessed by Mr. Ticknor prior to their appear- 
 ance in this extraordinary invasion of his own 
 organisms, is as indubitable as Mr. Ticknor 's 
 unquestioned honesty, as attested by all who 
 know him. Black Hawk is humorous, speaks 
 with a curious accent, borrowed from the 
 French Canadian woodsmen, and is quite as 
 definite a personality as Col. Lee. 
 
 The small current expenses of the Society of 
 Investigators are borne by the four men who 
 compose it and their only desire is that those 
 who attend the meetings should do so in the 
 spirit of honest investigation which they them- 
 selves exemplify. 
 
 Mr. Ticknor himself with Mr. Fell and two 
 brothers Button are the four members of the 
 association, and neither Mr. Ticknor nor his 
 friends of the society accept any remuneration 
 for his demonstrations for any purpose what- 
 soever. A very large number of "tests" of 
 the truthfulness of the messages received 
 by him are contained in the records which
 
 178 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 are stenographically taken at each meeting. 
 
 At the meeting of April the 5th held in my 
 own house, my sister and our parents appeared 
 and the former's message to me was given by 
 the voice of Black Hawk, with a striking imita- 
 tion of her own accents of tenderness and affec- 
 tion. 
 
 Black Hawk: " There is a spirit here, your 
 sister " (pointing to me). 
 
 (Yes. How does she look?) 
 
 Black Hawk: "She goes to you and she says, 
 'Anna, do you remember this day last year?' 
 
 (She knows that I remember.) 
 
 Black Hawk: "She says, 'What a wonderful 
 year it has been for me, this last year. I am 
 satisfied.' " 
 
 Black Hawk: "She fades away. She is a 
 woman, not like you, older." 
 
 (She is younger.) 
 
 Black Hawk : "Her hair is grayer than yours. 
 The same eyes." 
 
 On April the 7th, when I asked through Mrs. 
 Vernon if she had been present on the 5th of 
 April, which was in fact the anniversary of her 
 death, my sister replied: 
 
 4 ' Yes, of course, I was there. He got it mixed 
 up. He saw Mamma ; he got my message cor- 
 rectly; we were both there; he described 
 Mamma. ' '
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 179 
 
 On April the 20th, in a private sitting with 
 Mr. Ticknor at Bridgeport, my sister spoke 
 with the utmost freedom and with apparent 
 pleasure in the easy mode of communication 
 through the entranced medium. 
 
 This method is apparently easier than that 
 which Mrs. Vernon's mediumship provides, 
 probably because of the immediate presence of 
 the possessing spirit, with whom the communi- 
 cator can speak directly. 
 
 Black Hawk: "Your sister is here; she says, 
 'You sent a messenger for me. I was in my 
 home in the West. So nice that we can speak 
 in this way. A year ago I could not speak, and 
 now I am here and I can speak, not directly yet, 
 but I will be able to do so later. Father and 
 Mother are with me and we are happy together. 
 What month is it!' " 
 
 (It is April.) 
 
 "Oh, yes! It was in April that I died. It 
 has really been a wonderful year. It was so 
 wonderful when I died. I want you to know 
 about my illness. The operation was delayed 
 too long. He soon told me and then it was too 
 late. It developed into pneumonia. It was 
 not that which caused my death. It was due to 
 septic poisoning due to many things which I 
 should not have done. ' ' 
 
 (Was it the antrum?)
 
 180 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Yes, it was that." 
 
 (Oh! my darling, why did you neglect it?) 
 
 "Do not think any more about it. It was 
 harder for me than for you. Now, what I 
 want to say, it is all over and I am just getting 
 to be at peace. I wish you could have been 
 with me at the end. I knew I was going, I felt 
 it through me, I hated it. The weather was so 
 exquisite and I loved my sea-side home." 
 
 (How does she look, Black Hawk?) 
 
 Black Hawk: "She is about forty-seven or 
 forty-eight. Yes, my girl, I have guessed your 
 age. She is tall and slender. Her hair is 
 lighter than yours and her eyes. She has a 
 very pretty nose and a pretty mouth. A lovely 
 woman. She is dressed in a light sport 
 sweater; she gave me that, I would not have 
 known what to call it." 
 
 (I love you always.) 
 
 "Don't cry any more at night. I would like 
 to talk about your books. Make it in two vol- 
 umes, books of an ordinary size. Put in one 
 the messages you have received from me and 
 the others in the second. Make a running com- 
 ment. If something happens one day and the 
 next week something happens which agrees 
 with it, explain it." 
 
 (Where are you living?) 
 
 "In a house like our old home. Much like
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 181 
 
 it only the grounds are more extensive. I am 
 living there with Papa and Mamma." 
 
 (Who built this house?) 
 
 " Papa built it." 
 
 (Is it very far away?) 
 
 "Not very far. I am getting weaker now 
 and must go. Not up or down; it is out. I 
 don't know exactly where; when I leave you I 
 go there." 
 
 Black Hawk: " There is a man here and he 
 says his name is F., and he wants to speak to 
 Anna." 
 
 F. : "I am very much pleased. Your sister 
 is with us and is doing very nicely." 
 
 Then follows some advice about a book I had 
 been writing, ending with the characteristic 
 advice to "try it" in a small place first, on the 
 principle of trying it on the dog. 
 
 (Are you with me often?) 
 
 "Yes, your house seems large to me. You 
 know my taste was simple. Not exactly my 
 idea of a home." 
 
 (I do not find it so. I built that big room 
 for musicians.) 
 
 " It is a fine room. 
 
 (What are you doing?) 
 
 "I am organizing a scheme of commerce. 
 America should rule the world. Germany's 
 power is finished. I belong to a committee of
 
 182 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ten, six of whom are Illinois men. We are plan- 
 ning commercial relations with Canada and 
 Mexico. There is also a large field in South 
 America. The United States must rule. Your 
 sister is happy. She came suddenly, unexpect- 
 edly even to us. Suddenly even to us. She is 
 doing well. I was fortunate in having beauti- 
 ful children." 
 
 The attitude of special kindness to the poor 
 and lowly which my father always maintained 
 was in some way perceived by the strange 
 speaker in this remarkable interview. 
 
 Black Hawk : ' ' That is a very fine old gentle- 
 man. People don't want to speak with an In- 
 dian, but not this man. He be kind to Black 
 Hawk and Black Hawk remembers. Remem- 
 ber, God came to the poor man. The God of 
 Love came from above to help the working man. 
 Love alone you cannot buy. God and love you 
 can always have." 
 
 After my father's departure, the father of 
 the friend who accompanied me came to speak 
 with her, and when he also, saying that he was 
 getting weaker and could not stay with us, de- 
 parted on his way, Black Hawk appealed to us 
 to speak with him. 
 
 Black Hawk: "I want to talk with you. It 
 is pleasant for me to talk. Ask Black Hawk 
 some questions."
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 183 
 
 (Tell us about yourself.) 
 
 "My father was a chief, and his squaw was 
 of the Hurons. They went south to the Huron 
 country. My father was killed and my mother 
 came back a long way, carrying me when I was 
 a little red baby. She reached over to get 
 some water, leaving me on the bank of the river. 
 She fell in and was drowned. Some braves 
 came along after a while and found me. They 
 saw the sacred mark on my body of the chief- 
 tain's child and took me, after a while, to my 
 father's country, where I was brought up." 
 
 (Where is that country?) 
 
 "It was called Fort Gerry, up north, what you 
 call Winnipeg. I grew up tall and strong, and 
 one day I made a journey to a post, and there 
 by the house I saw the factor's daughter, Alice 
 McDonald. Her father, a Scotchman. He 
 did not want to do with Indian, but she loved 
 me (Black Hawk strikes his breast), and we 
 were marry. We went to live in a bungalow 
 together by the side of a lake. ' ' 
 
 (You were happy then, Black Hawk?) 
 
 "Yes, but after a while she died. I buried 
 her at night by the side of the lake. The moon 
 was shining over the mountain. I got a soldier 
 to cut her name on the wooden cross. 'Alice 
 McDonald, Black Hawk's Squaw, Little Com- 
 rade.' I covered her grave with moss and
 
 184 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 stones and it is there yet unless it be taken 
 away. Little comrade, little comrade! Then 
 I went back to nature, and nature took me. No- 
 body ever took Black Hawk but nature. I had 
 a disease called Tuburcu Hemo you know, I 
 coughed blood. I did not want to live, I used 
 to strike my breast to bring them on, and so I 
 died. I was Indian and I tried to be something 
 else and I was nothing, nothing! 
 
 "Huron or Athabascan, the Indians have vi- 
 sion, but they are not strong enough to put it 
 through. My people have the vision but no 
 strength (gesture of much force and eloquence), 
 no force to put it through." 
 
 ("We know that you have a kind heart, Black 
 Hawk, and that you like to help us.) 
 
 Black Hawk (modestly) : "I have learned to 
 speak better English. At first, when I took 
 what you call 'possession* of this man, I could 
 not make myself understood, but now I have 
 learned. ' ' 
 
 (Is it by speaking with the people of the 
 earth?) 
 
 "Yes, and I go to school also. I have helped 
 in this war by talking English to those soldiers 
 who were with the Canadians." 
 
 (Will the troubles in the Old World ever fin- 
 ish?)
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 185 
 
 "Yes, everything changes, nothing lasts. 
 Everything must change." 
 
 (There is so much cruelty; so many poor peo- 
 ple killed.) 
 
 4 'I do not know whether that is cruel. It is 
 not so bad to be rid of a poor garment. Do 
 not think that that is so bad." 
 
 During this long conversation with the living 
 dead, my friend had continually called for her 
 husband. Her grandmother and great-aunt, 
 whom she had not known in If e, came and prom- 
 ised to send for him. Her father also was 
 asked to help in the search, and still he did not 
 come. Finally, speaking in Indian, Black Hawk 
 ordered his messengers, who he said were al- 
 ways near him, to go out and find him. He 
 asked for the exact number of the street in 
 which he had lived and the number and street 
 of my friend's present residence. Then at last, 
 after a few more minutes of waiting, he ex- 
 claimed with delighted satisfaction : 
 
 "Now, I see a man. He is like " 
 
 Then followed an exact description of the 
 earthly appearance of my friend's husband, 
 who had at last answered to the call. The con- 
 versation which ensued between this husband 
 and wife was far too intimate to be recorded by 
 me, who was the reverent listener to protesta- 
 tions of undying love, a love as fresh and ardent
 
 186 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 as in life and expressed in careful and authori- 
 tative answers to questions as to the health and 
 training of their children full of help to their 
 mother and showing that he never was uncon- 
 scious of their varying conditions, never re- 
 laxed his watchful care. So ended this won- 
 derful meeting in which, whatever may have 
 been its source or origin in whatever mysteri- 
 ous laws, we felt that we had really been talk- 
 ing in perfect familiarity with the departed. 
 
 On the 28th of June I saw Mrs. Vernon in 
 Manchester, Vermont, when my sister again 
 communicated, telling me more of her develop- 
 ment. 
 
 "I am very different from what I was when 
 I last spoke to you. I see now that the things 
 I cared most about are not worth while. I 
 would have laughed if any one had said so when 
 I was alive. I have not lost my humor, but I 
 am getting an idea of the purpose of creation. 
 Mamma's conversation now interests me; Anna 
 would be amused. It is not as it was in the 
 old days when I would not listen. I have a 
 profound gratitude to Anna, she provided me 
 with an occupation. She kept me in touch with 
 the world I had lost. One cannot lose all one 
 held dear so suddenly. It was like looking 
 down into a great dark cavern. I was lost ; sud-
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 187 
 
 denly out of the dark, Anna appeared. It was 
 my salvation. ' ' 
 
 (It was mine also.) 
 
 ' * There is a group here who are interested in 
 this communication, but the majority of people 
 over here are just as ignorant of it as those on 
 earth. It is of infinite as well as of finite im- 
 portance." 
 
 (Did you send me that message through Mrs. 
 C and Mrs. W at Hot Springs?) 
 
 "I did try and they did well. Different me- 
 dium and different method." 
 
 Another message from my sister remains to 
 be recorded. It came through Black Hawk, 
 when at the July meeting he spoke through Mr. 
 Ticknor. I was not present at this meeting. 
 
 1 'My knowledge is increasing daily in this 
 wonderful place, this wonderful land. 
 
 "I have been here little over a year now. I 
 have communicated on several occasions with 
 my loved ones, particularly my dear Anna. She 
 was very precious to me. 
 
 "I assisted in the writing of several books 
 of travel, of description, and here I am in this 
 wonderful land, seeing wonderful things, really 
 a new Heaven and a new Earth. I am anxious 
 to write a book and tell the people of your world 
 of all the wonderful things, strange and mar- 
 velous sights and scenes which I know about.
 
 188 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 My husband enjoyed the credit for the books 
 and rightly so. 
 
 ''Sometime I wish to be the author of a book 
 which is read in your world and which people 
 may enjoy." 
 
 Question: "When would you like to write 
 it!" 
 
 Answer: "I am getting notes together now. 
 I would like to give it to Anna." 
 
 Question: "Can Mrs. de Koven do auto- 
 matic writing?" 
 
 Answer : * ' Not now. I may be able to com- 
 municate with her otherwise. Father did well 
 by us. He was always very kind to us. Dear 
 Father is with me now. Tell Anna that I love 
 her and that I have sent word through you to 
 her now." 
 
 (We will write out what you have said and 
 give it to her.) 
 
 ' ' Thank you. Good night. ' ' 
 
 The high evidentiality of this message rests 
 with the fact that Mr. Ticknor was absolutely 
 ignorant, as were all but the immediate mem- 
 bers of our family, that my sister had assisted 
 in suggestion and criticism in the writing of 
 her husband's books. 
 
 The development in my sister both mentally 
 and spiritually since her residence in the other 
 world must be evident to all readers of her
 
 THE INVESTIGATORS 189 
 
 communications. I cannot too often insist 
 upon the clarity of her mind. It was in fact 
 the foundation of her excellent judgment, of 
 her impatience with undue complaint, which 
 rendered her advice on all matters which were 
 brought to her of invaluable worth. 
 
 Her self-reproach for her life of helpfulness 
 through joy, expresses her present rigidly clear 
 perception that she had been too occupied in 
 the happiness of her wonderfully unclouded 
 years to develop her mental powers. The 
 school she learned in was that of happiness, but 
 those lessons were by no means used for her 
 own personal gratification solely, but were ex- 
 tended to each and every one who came within 
 the radiant circle of her acquaintance. At early 
 morning she was at the telephone arranging, 
 during many hours, for the occupations and 
 pleasures of those who looked to her for daily 
 direction, so that sometimes she was far more 
 exhausted than she realized. Decision, firm and 
 lucid, she brought to the training of her chil- 
 dren. As a mother she was well-nigh faultless, 
 both in sympathy and control. One and all, 
 those who knew her were content to share her 
 sunlight, feeling that one hour with her was 
 worth any sacrifice of other occupations, and a 
 willing compliance with her desires. 
 
 So she lived through her earthly existence,
 
 190 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 and now in this new and continuing life, she 
 prepares, according to this last message, to ex- 
 press the hitherto undeveloped powers of mind 
 and spirit which are part of her remarkable 
 endowment.
 
 CHAPTEE 
 ME. EDWIN FRIEND 
 
 THE reason for the adoption of Mrs. Vernon 
 as a medium for the transmission of their 
 messages, and an approved agent for the pros- 
 ecution of their purpose of establishing the fact 
 of communication by the group of discarnate 
 members of the Societies for Psychical Re- 
 search in England and America, does not seem 
 far to seek. The friend who accompanied Mr. 
 Edwin Friend on his fateful voyage on the Lusi- 
 tania had been closely associated with the Amer- 
 ican Society and was a friend of Dr. Hodgson. 
 Edwin Friend had been prepared to devote his 
 whole time to the interests of the American 
 Society, and was, as has been before stated, in 
 the act of carrying a large number of Mrs. Ver- 
 non 's records to the English Society when he 
 was lost with the Lusitania. 
 
 Only once, when Mr. Myers made his appre- 
 ciative comments about my sister, has any mem- 
 ber of this group other than Mr. Friend com- 
 municated by name with Mrs. Vernon, although 
 
 191
 
 192 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 on peveral occasions they have said that Dr. 
 Hodgson and Prof. James and Mr. Myers were 
 always present to aid in the communications. 
 They have also said that they ' ' came over tre- 
 mendously interested in this thing and have kept 
 at it as it is the only thing which lasts." 
 
 They have also commented upon the favor- 
 able condition arising from the intense and mu- 
 tual desire of my sister and myself to keep in 
 touch with each other. They, apparently, im- 
 mediately adopted her into their delightful cir- 
 cle of " merriment and light-heartedness, " 
 teaching her how to speak along the electric 
 thought wires they knew so well how to estab- 
 lish and have warmly praised her as a "won- 
 derful communicator. ' ' 
 
 Their messages, which I will now transcribe, 
 are given in an invariably scholarly style and 
 contain much valuable information regarding 
 the methods of communication, the construction 
 of the ethereal world, the process of trance pos- 
 session, and the phenomenon of materialization. 
 
 Mr. Friend is always the spokesman. 
 
 A few days prior to the sitting of January the 
 29th I had visited Dr. Titus Bull, in his office. I 
 had never before seen him and he did not inform 
 me of his acquaintance with Mr. Friend or of 
 any connection or personal interest in the Amer- 
 ican Society for Psychical Research.
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 193 
 
 Edwin Friend: "Dr. Bull, Obsessions, which 
 Dr. Bull treats. Tell Dr. Bull to pull wires on 
 which he has laid hold. He is trying to build 
 up an organization, an institution. I think he 
 will be able to bring this about. Reports, super- 
 numerary. 
 
 "I was considered a supernumerary. (Humor- 
 ously not satirically.) I want you to tell Dr. 
 Bull that the supernumerary is working just as 
 hard from his side as he (Dr. Bull) is from his." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon remarked at this point that the 
 language used by Mr. Friend was much more 
 simple than that which his wife heard when she 
 received messages. 
 
 ' ' Now, if you want big words. The subjective 
 or subliminal is paramount to the active con- 
 sciousness in cases where the nerve ganglia ex- 
 ceed or outweigh tissue in the penumbra of the 
 brain. ' ' 
 
 (Is the other world entirely idealistic, or is 
 it a world where ideals work creatively on the 
 ether?) 
 
 1 'Your world is matter manipulated by brains. 
 Look at the forests. Wood has to be cut from 
 them to make houses and furniture. Look at 
 the coal mines. Coal has to be dug to cause 
 heat. These are manipulated by thought and 
 all these elements exist in the ether. Look at 
 this perfectly warmed room heated by coal.
 
 194 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Nothing is manipulated without the force of 
 mentality. ' ' 
 
 (Do the ether forms make a practically solid 
 world!) 
 
 ' ' In your world our brains control our hands 
 through manual effort. In our world here, brain 
 force acts directly on matter." 
 
 (Why is there not inextricable confusion 
 when so many people are creating things?) 
 
 1 * There is such a thing as an individual orbit, 
 and in that orbit appear only those things which 
 the individual desires. Remember, we are 
 speaking of developed souls. Undeveloped 
 souls have very little ability to create. They 
 are led and guided." 
 
 (Do the houses and temples of learning made 
 by the advanced spirits remain for the use of 
 those who are less advanced?) 
 
 "The most ancient of earthly antiquities is 
 modern in comparison to this." (Shows a vi- 
 sion of a Greek temple, with many beautiful de- 
 tails, such as scrollwork and carved capitals.) 
 
 (Do the landscapes made by the advance^ 
 spirits also remain for indefinite periods?) 
 
 "We have at our disposal the landscapes of 
 all the planets. But the sun shines for all, the 
 sea sparkles for all, and the swaying trees give 
 forth, or contribute (correction by Mr. Friend), 
 their essence to the cosmos, awaiting the divine
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 195 
 
 touch of the manipulator. Don't worry over 
 the lack of permanency. We have these as long 
 as we want them. They are more permanent 
 than on earth. Desire makes the permanency. 
 Shows the importance of controlling our de- 
 sires. Desire the right thing and keep it." 
 
 Dr. Bull has treated certain nervous cases on 
 the assumption that they were obsessed or ac- 
 companied by evil or earthbound spirits. His 
 success has been great with the class of patients 
 who manifest marked abnormal tendencies, and 
 he has, in certain instances, been able to iden- 
 tify these evil entities, when he has brought his 
 patients into the presence of a certain well- 
 known medium, who has been able to see them 
 clairvoyantly. 
 
 Sometimes the evil personalities have been 
 persuaded to leave the patients and cure has 
 been effected. Dr. Bull's experiments have an 
 important bearing upon the cases of so-called 
 multiple or disassociated personalities, and 
 illustrate the theory, now held by some, that 
 certain types of insanity are actually traceable 
 to the influence of evil spirits. 
 
 To found an institution for the treatment of 
 these cases is Dr. Bull's desire, as Mr. Friend 
 stated. The message of Mr. Friend contains 
 two excellent "tests." Neither Mrs. Vernon nor 
 I had any knowledge that Dr. Bull had known
 
 196 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 him in life, nor did we imagine what the refer- 
 ence to the "supernumerary" could mean until 
 Dr. Bull quite clearly explained it. 
 
 On February the llth on the eve of a visit to 
 Boston, where Mrs. Friend now lives, I said to 
 Mr. Friend that I would be glad to take a mes- 
 sage to her. 
 
 "It would be an ineffable comfort to Mar- 
 gery. The baby, rompers buttoned tightly 
 around the waist baby growing fat, blooming. 
 Thank some one for the good care taken of the 
 baby. Proud of something Margery has done. 
 Investment. Dr. Worcester hurried into a de- 
 cision to sell something; can't he turn the lock? 
 These tests are important, although differing 
 from the scientific discussions sometimes given 
 to Mrs. Vernon. You can write these scientific 
 things, we can give them to you if you want 
 them. But in this philosophy the most scien- 
 tific things are the tests." 
 
 When in Boston I saw Mrs. Friend and her 
 mother as well as Dr. Worcester. All the 
 "tests" were successful. The baby's waist- 
 band had grown too tight, the nurse deserved 
 the father's gratitude, Mrs. Friend had made 
 an investment in Life Insurance, and Dr. 
 Worcester admitted that he had sold something 
 he valued, and had on more than one occasion
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 197 
 
 left his front door unlocked with dangerous con- 
 sequences. 
 
 Having seen at Dr. Bull's office a photograph 
 on an X-ray plate, taken in total darkness and 
 without any apparatus, which recorded ad- 
 hesions in the body of a patient, I was curious 
 to know if radio-activity in the human body 
 could make photographs. This idea led to the 
 question which I put to Mr. Friend at the sitting 
 of February the 21st. 
 
 (Is an excess of radio-activity added to the 
 excess of nerve ganglia in the brain of a psy- 
 chic?) 
 
 "A certain displacement in the psychic's 
 brain which does not occur in ordinary brains. 
 Water-nebulous material-penumbra, more of 
 this in ordinary brains than in the psychic's 
 brain. Less penumbra and more solid sub- 
 stance. Nerve ganglia cannot run through the 
 penumbra unprotected; they are covered with 
 matter, protected, insulated like an electric wire 
 in a house. So the ganglia are protected by 
 matter. In a substance like calves' brains go 
 the ganglia. As there are more ganglia in a 
 psychic's brain, therefore there is more matter 
 to protect the ganglia. Therefore the brain 
 is heavier in a psychic. If more nerves, then 
 more matter in the brain." 
 
 (Is there more radio-activity?)
 
 198 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 11 There is more radio-activity, more concen- 
 trated radio-activity, more concentrated in the 
 psychic's brain. The same amount in all brains. 
 All the qualities exist in the magnet but they 
 attract only steel. Therefore the quality in the 
 psychic's brain we will try to define. Two 
 pieces of wood struck together give no result; 
 two pieces of stone struck together and we have 
 a spark. (Shows a piece of silver tarnished as 
 if it had stood before a furnace.) Set this piece 
 of silver in the window and it gives very little 
 radiation, but rub it up, and it gives forth tre- 
 mendous light in the sun rays. The psychic- 
 nerve ganglia have been rubbed down by extra 
 nervousness until they become reflecting or re- 
 sponsive. Excessive alcohol drinking causes 
 brain deterioration ; this is well known. There- 
 fore the pursuit of pleasures exhausting to the 
 nervous system results in the burning up of the 
 tissues surrounding the ganglia and therefore 
 the protecting encasement wears thin, exposing 
 the sensitive vibrating nerves to passing vibra- 
 tions." 
 
 (Is thought a form of electricity?) 
 "Electricity is the conductor of thought." 
 (What is the difference between the conductor 
 and the thought?) 
 
 ' * Thought is the essence of spiritual and men- 
 tal activity, playing upon the physical or the
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 199 
 
 natural, the brain by means of electrical cur- 
 rents, there not here. It plays upon the phys- 
 ical part of the brain, transported by electrical 
 currents. ' ' 
 
 (How are you getting along with your ma- 
 chine?) 
 
 This was the psychic telegraph of which a 
 partial description has been several times given 
 to Mrs. Vernon. 
 
 "Alas! that machine, I can only put ideas 
 about that machine in other people's heads." 
 
 Then as if to explain the difficulty of impress- 
 ing incarnate brains with his ideas, he said : 
 
 "Subconscious effort depends either upon 
 the entire withdrawal of the active conscious- 
 ness, as in sleep or trance, or upon the rarest 
 form of concentration found in geniuses or 
 psychics." 
 
 (The tests were all good, in the messages you 
 sent to your wife and to Dr. Worcester.) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon: "He holds out his hand to you, 
 and says, 'Thank you for taking the message 
 and also for understanding when Margery had 
 to leave. ' ' ' 
 
 This polite little message recalled the fact 
 that I had only been able to speak with Mrs. 
 Friend for a moment in the corridor of Dr. 
 Worcester's church. But the idea that Mr. 
 Friend was also present had not occurred to
 
 200 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 me. It accords with the evidence that we are 
 indeed often accompanied by those who care 
 for us. 
 
 Pursuing my questions regarding the meth- 
 ods of communication and anxious to hear 
 about that celestial medium who must always 
 have a hand in all communications, I asked 
 Mr. Friend about the organization of the ethe- 
 real psychic. 
 
 "It consists first in the wish to do, the desire 
 to accomplish a certain thing. Thus will is sup- 
 ported or propelled by a force which is exerted 
 by the concentrated mental efforts of the group 
 whose aim it is to establish communication. 
 The psychic over here is chosen for his tenacity 
 of purpose, his absolute veracity and his choice 
 of this occupation. These attributes are all 
 ingredients of the psychic's qualities, and we 
 have to tell you of these. They are all in his 
 mental development. The mental trend deter- 
 mines the character of the psychic. The psy- 
 chic composition over here consists more in 
 mental trends and traits and inclinations." 
 
 (Are you communicating directly with Mrs. 
 Vernon?) 
 
 "I am employing the usual means or route 
 which consists of pathological explorations by 
 means of telepathic currents conducted over 
 here by a group who have vainly sought for
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 201 
 
 years to find a brain without the usual inhibi- 
 tions. In most human brains there are such 
 inhibitions that it is impossible to deal with 
 them. There are certain other physical inhibi- 
 tions in the brain, such as an excess of the fleshly 
 substance in the brain or an excess of the 
 penumbra, but when the proportion is balanced, 
 they can get through. They cannot get through 
 this sort of sweet-bread substance, because the 
 nerves are too thickly encased or protected." 
 
 (Do you communicate directly with Mrs. Ver- 
 non!) 
 
 " Terribly hard to explain. Not exactly the 
 same as when Mrs. de Koven and Mrs. Vernon 
 speak together. "When the messages come to 
 Mrs. Vernon they have to use an intermediary. 
 The intermediary speaks directly to Mrs. Ver- 
 non. There is always some one who is consti- 
 tuted to be a control. When the control is of 
 high order then the results are good, and when 
 the control is of a low order the results are not 
 so good, even though the medium is of a high 
 order." 
 
 (Are you satisfied with my questions!) 
 
 "Oh, very interesting, very interesting. 
 They want Mrs. de Koven to begin her book 
 while the interest is alive." 
 
 (Does Mr. Friend know how many people I 
 have seen in Boston?)
 
 202 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 "Oh, yes. Yes. Thank Mrs. de Koven for 
 seeing Margery. Mrs. Vernon should look over 
 the records. Certain spots may not be exactly 
 what she wants." 
 
 (Mr. Friend hears Mrs. Vernon 's daughter 
 playing on the harp in the adjoining room.) 
 "Pathological exploration consists in playing 
 on chords as upon a harp, playing upon chords 
 which vibrate in tune with our thoughts." 
 
 (Does not my sister's language contain good 
 metaphor?) 
 
 "The style is that of the controls. Make no 
 mistake. Get this right, now, right now. You, 
 Mrs. Vernon, know that is the language of your 
 controls. Get the truth. By their words you 
 shall know them. Your sister is a wonderful 
 communicator and the deep affection between 
 her and her sister makes the desire to com- 
 municate. ' ' 
 
 (Are they not her own words?) 
 
 "Yes, they are, but sometimes altered by the 
 central control. A central telephone office, and 
 in that sits a scholar, a most scholarly man, and 
 he it is who directs. To him come others who 
 wish to communicate. They impart to him their 
 own metaphors, which when good he sends to 
 the medium, and when inferior he transforms 
 into the style she knows. This is very impor-
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 203 
 
 tant. Mrs. Vernon knows them by their lan- 
 guage, which is elegant and pedantic." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon then explained to me by way of 
 illustration of Mr. Friend 'a statement, that she 
 knew her controls by their language, that when, 
 for instance, she looked out of the window when 
 it was raining, she would think, "It is a rainy 
 day." If she hears in her mind, such words as 
 "Atmospheric conditions produce a preponder- 
 ance of moisture," she knows that she is get- 
 ting a message, that her controls are speaking 
 to her. 
 
 My own statement, based on more than a 
 year's regular meetings with Mrs. Vernon, that 
 her mind is singularly free from any tendency 
 to elaboration in thought, may be taken on my 
 own authority, and it will also be confirmed by 
 those who know her. Her concepts are clear 
 and simple, as is her language in speaking and 
 in writing. Her crystal candor is one of the 
 charms of her character and a most favorable 
 condition for the transmission of the messages 
 which she receives. No clearer or more sharply 
 denned differentiation between dissimilar men- 
 tal products could exist than that which char- 
 acterizes Mrs. Vernon 's individual thoughts 
 from those she receives from her controls. By 
 intention she refrains from reading the litera- 
 ture of Psychic Phenomena, and in her daily
 
 204 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 life of constant occupation with her children, 
 she strictly avoids any prolonged conversation 
 on the subject. 
 
 She has marked temperamental talent, ex- 
 pressing itself in music and in her brilliant in- 
 tuitions. This suggests the possession of that 
 enlarged subconsciousness resident in the psy- 
 chic brain ganglia whose corresponding enlarge- 
 ment, according to Mr. Friend, represents the 
 physical cause of such an extension. 
 
 Taking up Mr. Friend 's reference to my sis- 
 ter in the foregoing messages, I asked if she 
 would be permitted to continue her narrative. 
 
 "Yes, she has brought it up to date, but I 
 wish to say one more thing about the central 
 office. There sits the scholar in the central of- 
 fice, always there at his desk. Once in a while 
 he will accept the service of a substitute, but he 
 always looks over what has been done. ' ' 
 
 (How can any records be kept of these com- 
 munications?) 
 
 "Let us try once for all to explain that there 
 are such things as thought formations and these 
 persist and therefore we can look over the rec- 
 ords. Into the central office come the communi- 
 cators, those who understand the work and are 
 interested in its growth. Acumen and effort 
 and the result is assured." 
 
 (Mrs. Vernon saw people coming and going,
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 205 
 
 a head officer and an assistant.) "Like a central 
 office with different people coming in who have 
 messages to send. Mrs. de Koven will say to 
 herself, 'How beautiful my sister looked in that 
 blue dress ! That is it. The mental image re- 
 mains. Thoughts and aspirations which are 
 laid bare.' " 
 
 Nothing of all the astonishing information 
 which I have received from these transcenden- 
 tal communications was more impressive to me 
 than Mr. Friend's reference to my thought of 
 my sister in her blue dress. It was, in fact, her 
 image in the dress she had worn just before she 
 left me on her last visit, that I had constantly 
 brought to my mind since her death. This 
 image, then, Mr. Friend, whom I had not known 
 in life, and who had been dead these five years, 
 had seen and had recalled to me, as an example 
 of an enduring thought form. The significance 
 of the idea that we may and do put forth 
 thoughts which have a visible form is illimit- 
 able. In the interesting records of the auto- 
 matic script, regarding the chapel at Glaston- 
 bury, the monk Johannes says that he reani- 
 mates the thought forms which he had left in 
 the places he had inhabited. So, created char- 
 acters in fiction may have a visible existence in 
 the cosmos. Thought forms as seen by clair- 
 voyants have color and their own special sig-
 
 206 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 nificance. An image when simultaneously 
 thought of was actually photographed by the 
 combined effort of two psychics (recorded by 
 Dr. Funk). 
 
 Evil and good thoughts are recorded on the 
 circumambient ether for all the ethereal inhab- 
 itants to read at their will. In a recent book, 
 "Letters from the Other Side," a communica- 
 tor calling himself Philemon thus explains the 
 reanimation of his remaining thought forms: 
 "Where I have lived in the body, spoken, 
 thought and prayed, I have, in common with all 
 living beings, left images, pictures, that may 
 be galvanized into the semblance of life when 
 I direct my thought or attention to the old per- 
 sons and places. But much that is regarded as 
 coming from me is merely the cast-off effete 
 resultant of past activities, only slightly per- 
 meated with my living, vital, ascended self. 
 Some of the communications received are 
 largely due to past associations much clogged 
 and hampered by self -directed thought. When 
 writing here (that is with this particular me- 
 dium) Ijhis objection does not hold good, to any- 
 thing like the same extent ; the quality is purer. ' ' 
 In the light of this enormous extension of the 
 agency of thought forms in communications, the 
 importance of information strictly new, or re-
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 207 
 
 lating to conditions in the other world, cannot 
 be over-estimated. 
 
 At the sitting of March the 6th, following the 
 one whose messages I have above recorded, Mr. 
 Friend announced his presence immediately by 
 addressing me directly : 
 
 "Good morning, Mrs. de Koven! In the im- 
 passe in which I found myself after death, one 
 gleam of light shed its radiance and that was 
 caused by the electric rays emanating from the 
 psychic organism of so-called living mediums. 
 This emanation vibrates in harmony with 
 rhythmical currents which bear it through the 
 ether. My wife's 'light' differs from Mrs. 
 Vernon 's only in degree, as their planes or de- 
 velopment correspond somewhat. She is less 
 psychically developed." 
 
 (Have you communicated with her directly?) 
 
 "Yes, but she has not worked over it, com- 
 munications not finished. This is important 
 for Mrs. de Koven to know. Science should 
 attack the problem from the pathological stand- 
 point, but eliminating the popular idea of per- 
 version. The sensitiveness may be induced by 
 any excess of emotion such as grief, joy, love, 
 all of these. But the sensitiveness developed by 
 these emotions should be under good control. 
 After great sorrow, one may emerge in a psy- 
 chic condition, but this is useful only when the
 
 208 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ego is discarded and the emotion held well in 
 hand. Any such emotion creates vibrations in 
 the ganglia. The force so created may be di- 
 rected in another channel. This condition may 
 be passed down and children of psychics may be 
 psychic. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Vernon here referred to the prenatal 
 history which induced this quality in herself 
 and in others of her family. 
 
 "Yes, they have got it. Back somewhere, you 
 will always find that there has been an excess 
 of some kind of emotion. With reference to 
 static currents they are like subdivisions of a 
 main current and we suffer from them too. 
 They disperse or deflect our cablegrams and 
 are almost entirely atmospheric, not depending 
 upon the condition of the medium." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon here remarked that on Fridays, 
 which have this winter often been rainy, she 
 has not been able to get good currents, which 
 her Friday sitter has observed. 
 
 "When there is almost complete possession, 
 as in the case of Mr. Ticknor, the effect of mois- 
 ture is less, the difficulty is less apparent. But 
 Mrs. Vernon is like a tightly strung violin. We 
 pick on these strings. Mr. Ticknor and Mrs. 
 Vernon are as unlike as the poles. He does not 
 have these difficulties."
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 309 
 
 (Was Mr. Friend there last Saturday night 
 at the meeting of the "Investigators"?) 
 
 1 * Yes. I am apt to accompany this medium. ' ' 
 
 (Who was Col. Lee?) 
 
 "Col. Lee depends for his mental sustenance 
 upon his reading the lives of various statesmen 
 such as Lincoln, and also some personal con- 
 tact with Eappallier ( 1 ) . " 
 
 (What did he do in his life?) 
 
 "He had no earthly fame, no military fame, 
 although he aspired thereto, but won some lau- 
 rels as a speaker." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon announced at this point that she 
 saw Col. Lee and, having remarked upon his 
 very distinctly northern accent in his delivery 
 of his discourse at the meeting of March the 
 1st, asked him how he lost his Southern accent. 
 
 Col. Lee : "That accent doesn't come through 
 very well, but near Mason and Dixon's line it 
 is not so pronounced." 
 
 Mr. Friend : " He is an adept at trance, has 
 much power." 
 
 An illustration of Col. Lee's power to en- 
 trance the medium was then and there provided, 
 for Mrs. Vernon nearly went under his control. 
 She said that she felt exceedingly sleepy and 
 that her hands and feet felt "inert"; she re- 
 sisted the influence, however, very strongly and 
 the sensation passed.
 
 210 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Col. Lee : "I got a furlough and on that fur- 
 lough I proceeded to die." 
 
 Mr. Friend : * ' Col. Lee is a kind and simple- 
 hearted southern gentleman, has tremendous 
 power, which he uses for good. Lost his accent, 
 as he did not come from very far South, away 
 from home a good deal. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Vernon said that she was at this point 
 conscious of a stop in the proceedings, the 
 group of her controls apparently taking charge, 
 and preventing Col. Lee from going on with his 
 messages, and at the same time she heard the 
 name of my sister, as if she had been waiting 
 for her turn to communicate. 
 
 Mr. Friend: "Col. Lee is a delightful old 
 soul, but does not figure on our program." 
 (Laughing good-naturedly.) 
 
 Then my sister appeared and sent messages 
 which have been already recorded. 
 
 At the next sitting, I asked Mr. Friend if Mr. 
 Ticknor was communicated with directly, with- 
 out the aid of controls. 
 
 "Mr. Ticknor 's condition corresponds to that 
 of the wireless instrument which is operated by 
 experienced and trained experts in the subject. 
 Therefore he can be said to come in direct con- 
 tact without the aid of controls. But all who 
 communicate with Mr. Ticknor must have a cer- 
 tain knowledge of the methods else they would
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 211 
 
 be obliged to use a control. These experienced 
 spirits control conditions, the wires and so 
 forth, as much as the regularly attending con- 
 trols, but these others, through their knowledge 
 of the vibrations and methods, can communi- 
 cate with Mr. Ticknor." 
 
 (Is Mr. Friend interested in our present 
 plans for the pursuit of Psychic Besearch?) 
 
 "Franklin's 'Almanac* would be a good 
 sample to go by." 
 
 This refers to a proposed pamphlet to record 
 "The Ticknor Seances," which had been under 
 discussion. 
 
 "Be terse and brief, no long-involved sen- 
 tences. Very anxious about this, not verbose 
 sentences, clear free style, short sentences." 
 
 (Are fabrics such as tapestries and laces pro- 
 cured by the inexpert from those who know 
 how to make them? Do they purchase them 
 from shops, for instance, to furnish their 
 abodes?) 
 
 "The only currency is an interchange of fa- 
 vors, brought about by a desire to be courteous 
 to each other." 
 
 (If I, for instance, should wish to surround 
 myself with lovely things, would any spirit 
 friends supply me with them?) 
 
 "If a genuine desire to please you exists on 
 the part of those who have the power to make
 
 212 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 these things. Hence the Bible expression. 
 'Lay up for yourselves treasure in Heaven.' 
 If you want to do for people, they will want to 
 do for you. ' ' 
 
 (Does the ethereal body possess organs?) 
 "Not in the last analysis. A quoi bon? as 
 the French say. There is no physical function- 
 ing. " 
 
 (How are you known to each other? What 
 appearance do you assume to each other?) 
 
 "Women adopt the outline of the female 
 form, minus the furbelows of fashion. Men re- 
 tain the masculine representation, but envelop 
 themselves ad libitum. (Shows a collection of 
 beautiful stuffs of many colors.) They can 
 wear anything they prefer, can use beautiful 
 colors and flowing vestments; can have their 
 choice no restriction as to price. Greece, with 
 her classic garments, more clearly interpreted 
 our costumes than any other nation." 
 
 (Is there animal life in the ethereal world?) 
 "Anything evolved enough to possess the 
 semblance of a soul "has its counterpart here. 
 The differentiation is comparatively subtle be- 
 tween animation, automatic animation, and en- 
 teric vitality. Anything which has enteric vital- 
 ity is represented in the ethereal world. The 
 soul of a jellyfish is not evolved enough. When 
 evolved enough it gets its enteric vitality."
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 213 
 
 (What is the difference between objects made 
 by the action of mind alone and those made of 
 ether?) 
 
 " Preconceived ideas create images, images 
 create objects, objects are matter. Now reverse 
 it. Matter was embryo, embryo was thought, 
 thought was a mental projection, therefore the 
 core of all things lies in the mind." 
 
 (When my sister said that Mahomet makes 
 the mountain come to him, what did she mean? 
 Are the mountains merely mental images? Are 
 all landscapes merely mental? A. de K.) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard, "Let us proceed to the 
 mountains. We have arrived. WTiat brought 
 us? Not alone the vehicle of transportation. 
 What propelled the vehicle of transportation? 
 The will or desire to go, formulated in our 
 brains. Everything is the product of our men- 
 tal machinery. Where there is no difficulty in 
 transportation, one is where one wants to be. 
 Terrestrial conditions necessitate manipulation 
 of matter, whereas so-called celestial ones re- 
 quire only mental operation such as your ret- 
 inal hallucinations. When Mahomet came to 
 the mountain, it originates right here." (Some 
 one pointing to his forehead.) 
 
 (What objects are made of ether and what 
 are purely mental?) 
 
 "You make a chair of ether by mental force. ' '
 
 3U A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 (But there must be some difference between 
 the purely mental projections and objects such 
 as chairs? A. de K.) 
 
 "The process is the same." 
 
 (But you have told us that there was a ma- 
 chine by which constructional vibrations were 
 used to form a sort of collection of ether, which 
 was used to make houses and objects such as 
 tables, chairs, flowers and so forth. We are 
 told also of purely mental vibrations such as 
 take place in thought transference.) 
 
 "Mrs. de Koven is right. There is a differ- 
 ence. The differentiation lies in the adaptabil- 
 ity of the thing desired, or the use to which it is 
 put. One sojourns in the mountains, but one 
 sits on a chair. Therefore the method of pro- 
 duction varies somewhat as with you. It is all 
 manipulation of the ether in a way, but objects 
 of virtu require what you would call a different 
 kind of conjuring from that of transportation. 
 There is a classification, headings under which 
 these different methods of projection are com- 
 prised. When you want to travel there is a 
 method of projecting yourself through space. 
 When you desire to create, you concentrate, as 
 you do on your hands when you fabricate on 
 earth. Transposition of phrase, the same 
 whether Mahomet came to the mountain or the 
 mountain came to him. Not so difficult to un-
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 215 
 
 derstand if you eliminate matter as you know 
 it on earth." 
 
 In this connection Col. Lee's statements re- 
 garding the same subject are interesting. I 
 had asked him whether the ethereal world was 
 entirely one of ideals or ether manipulated by 
 mind. 
 
 "The latter, Madame," he replied, "obvious- 
 ly so." 
 
 Pursuing my questions, I asked if there were 
 houses made by the spirits in which the lesser 
 spirits dwelt. To this he answered: 
 
 "Yes, we care for our own. We have cities 
 in our realm of life, infinitely fairer than yours 
 and of necessity." 
 
 "Who makes the landscapes," I asked him. 
 
 1 ' The Divine Father makes them ; that Spirit 
 real, yet intangible, a part of all that is and 
 running through all that doth exist. As far 
 as perfecting his handiwork, we in our world 
 are able in some particulars so to do, as indeed 
 in your world the natural resources are beauti- 
 fied and perfected under a professional manipu- 
 lation." 
 
 To my question if individual spirits were 
 able to project landscapes, he replied: 
 
 "Yes, for we live in a world of projection, as 
 I told you a few moments ago ; your life in this 
 old world of labor, tears and trade is merely a
 
 216 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 projection of another life, which you really en- 
 joy in another and fairer realm." 
 
 In the discourse of March the 1st, from 
 which these quotations are made, Col. Lee 
 stated that the "subliminal ego which has for 
 centuries been passing through a state or states 
 of evolution becomes 'centered' until it is able 
 to become a part of human life. And so I say 
 that you do not actually live in this world, for 
 your spirit certainly cannot live in a material 
 world, but must exist in another dimension of 
 life at all times. The projection of life which 
 you consider your real being is not really that, 
 remember, but merely a waking dream, given 
 to you to perfect those senses most necessary 
 to your development." 
 
 Here then is an amplification of my sister's 
 statement that the subconscious or subliminal 
 self is the real and enduring part of us, and an 
 illuminating extension of our comprehension of 
 the character of that self and of its continuous 
 connection with the life eternal. 
 
 In the discourse delivered on the 5th of April 
 a question was answered by Col. Lee as to the 
 proximity of our world to theirs. 
 
 "This question has been asked before and 
 as near as I am able to determine may well be 
 answered by saying that our world exists within 
 yours. Remember we live in the fourth dimen-
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 217 
 
 sion of existence, you in the third. You can 
 pass through our buildings, they are nothing to 
 you. They mean nothing in so far as physical 
 touch or feeling is concerned. In this way your 
 buildings appear as naught to us. Our build- 
 ings on the other hand are real and tangible to 
 us, as yours are to you.'* 
 
 At the sitting of the 15th of April I asked Mr. 
 Friend if there were ethereal houses near us 
 and if we could walk through them. 
 
 " There are realms within realms like the en- 
 folding shell of a snail and as apparently unre- 
 lated as the quality of the meat is to the shell. 
 The meat of the snail represents the terrestrial 
 existence, which is perishable and subject to de- 
 cay. The shell possesses the enduring qualities 
 of the ethereal existence, of course minus the 
 qualities pertaining to the ether or air. For those 
 who desire them, houses are provided, but have 
 no permanency as with you, unless the demand 
 or desire persists. The locality of their world 
 envelops yours, as the shell envelops the meat, 
 and they could without any confusion or ap- 
 parent incongruity transform your dwellings 
 according to their needs, without the formality 
 of asking permission. No conflict between our 
 houses and yours. We can erect a house right 
 here if we want to. We do not see this house,
 
 218 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 if we do not wish to. As the soul pervades the 
 body so does our ethereal existence envelop and 
 pervade yours. The workings of nature you 
 can follow to their source by means of com- 
 parisons. Take body and soul, take ethereal 
 house, take material house. If we choose to 
 erect a house on your sidewalk you do walk 
 through this house without seeing it." 
 
 (Do these houses belong to the first stage of 
 development?) 
 
 ''They belong to all stages of development, 
 since what is the prerogative of the lower order 
 of spirits is also the prerogative of the highly 
 developed ones if they wish to use it. The 
 higher privileges belong to the higher order, 
 but there are no privileges which the higher 
 order cannot have." 
 
 
 
 At the next sitting I continued my questions 
 regarding the interpenetration of our world 
 with the ethereal world. 
 
 Mr. Friend (showing a vision of a beautiful 
 scene of mountains and a lake at sunset) : ''The 
 inhabitants are near this beautiful scene. We 
 can come down if we like and communicate with 
 the inhabitants, or enjoy the landscape at close 
 range if we desire. We are a good deal like 
 aerial observers who soar about enjoying the 
 panorama either from a height or from a land-
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 219 
 
 ing place. But like the aerial observers being 
 unlike the inhabitants until they discard their 
 paraphernalia. ' ' 
 
 (Where does your ethereal world begin?) 
 " According to development or desire. Either 
 close to the earth or myriads of miles away. 
 Earthbound spirits reside in a cloudy ethereal 
 substance resembling the exudations from a 
 sweating horse, unable on account of its pol- 
 luted condition to rise very high. Other souls 
 more developed inhabit a pure grade of ether 
 qualified by its buoyancy to develop into greater 
 heights of eternity. ' ' 
 
 At the sitting of May the 1st, I asked about 
 the exact nature of telepathic messages, for the 
 reason that I had seen a long communication 
 from Mr. Myers in the Journal of the American 
 Society for Psychical Research, in which he had 
 stated that long-distance messages were carried 
 to psychics by spirit messengers. 
 
 Mr. Friend : * ' Two people tossing a ball, ball 
 goes through the air ; that is what thought does. 
 The passage of the ball or thought through the 
 air is called telepathy ! ' ' 
 
 (Does thought proceed through waves?) 
 
 "Thought is borne on waves. The dynamos 
 are in the brains of the senders. Telepathy 
 varies, voluntary and involuntary, directed or
 
 220 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 aimless. Projected towards an object or 
 ejected into space, according to the desire of the 
 individual. In other words, you may fasten 
 your thoughts with a purpose or eject them into 
 space without any particular concentration. " 
 
 (Are these waves of ether?) 
 
 "They agitate the ether. These waves par- 
 take of the nature of electricity, coming from 
 th6se mental dynamos. They agitate the ether. ' ' 
 
 (Are distant messages brought by spirits?) 
 
 "Those which psychics receive usually are 
 brought by spirits. Those which others receive 
 may be tinged with transcendental nuances. ' ' 
 
 (How are very distant messages from one 
 continent to another carried?) 
 
 "Superimposed electrical currents upon ethe- 
 real substance. An electrical current blended 
 with matter. A live wire insulated by ethereal 
 matter. Otherwise the wire would burn out. 
 Brains, which are the dynamos, send out the 
 messages." 
 
 I then related that on one occasion in London 
 I was suddenly made aware that I should that 
 evening see a friend with whom I had had no 
 communication for four years. I did see 
 the friend, and have always been curious to 
 understand the possibility of prophecy as illus- 
 trated by the incident.
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 221 
 
 (How was this message given, was it by a 
 spirit?) 
 
 * ' Not necessarily. ' ' 
 
 (Who gave me the message?) 
 
 ' ' There is a differentiation between telepathy 
 and transcendental communication. Telepathic 
 explosions of the description to which Mrs. de 
 Koven has just referred, need not savor of the 
 mesmerical variety. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Vernon remarked at this point that Mr. 
 Friend probably meant by his use of the word 
 " mesmerical," that the controls of a medium 
 use a certain sort of "mesmerical" or "mag- 
 netic" power, when in the act of communicating. 
 
 "We do mesmerize the medium to a certain 
 extent. The friend caught the magnetic ema- 
 nation from Mrs. de Koven 's personality. This 
 form of communication does not savor of the 
 messages borne by spirits. With Mrs. de 
 Koven these emanations had blended before. 
 When Mrs. de Koven was in London the impact 
 of those emanations took place renewed." 
 
 (Why did that impact announce that I should 
 see this friend!) 
 
 "To that extent coming events cast their 
 shadows before. She caught the embryo." 
 
 Here, then, is an explanation, bearing upon 
 the already stated presence of electrical cur- 
 rents surrounding the earth, of the numberless
 
 222 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 announcements of letters or of meetings with 
 friends, which are of almost universal experi- 
 ence. 
 
 Our own electrical or magnetic emanations 
 are sent out apparently into the ether, coming 
 in contact with those of the friends who are re- 
 lated closely to us, and registering prophetic 
 messages upon our nerve wires. 
 
 The next question which I asked Mr. Friend 
 was as to how spirits were able to rap. 
 
 " Physical phenomena are the combination of 
 the electrical emanations from certain human 
 or animal organisms, acting upon some resonant 
 substance such as wood. It has to be wood or 
 glass, some resonant substance." 
 
 (When I heard the raps two weeks ago, 
 while Mrs. Horton was with me, was she the 
 medium?) 
 
 "Mrs. de Koven can get them equally well." 
 
 (Does the magnetism combine with the ether 
 in the room to make the rod which the spirits 
 use?) 
 
 "Yes. An implement, not necessarily in the 
 form of a rod. Kod is a good term, a psychic 
 rod. It is important to recognize two forms 
 of telepathy. All telepathy is not borne by 
 spirits. Combination of magnetic emanations, 
 which result in communication. ' '
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 223 
 
 (Why do not Mr. Myers and Dr. Hodgson 
 communicate with us?) 
 
 "We are all here but because Mr. Friend 
 knew Mrs. Vernon, we allow him to speak for 
 us." 
 
 Then taking up the subject of materializa- 
 tion, lately discussed in the Hibbert Journal, 
 following Dr. Geley's experiments I asked if 
 materializations were exudations from the body 
 of a medium. 
 
 ' ' Not alone. Materialization is a process in- 
 volving the combination of unseen magnetic 
 forces, visualizing the exudation of the me- 
 dium. ' ' 
 
 (Are there materialized spirits?) 
 
 * ' They are like the shell of a locust, manipu- 
 lated temporarily and enabled to perform cer- 
 tain actions resembling the activities of the de- 
 parted one. Shell automatically moved." 
 
 (Does the spirit of the departed one inhabit 
 this shell?) 
 
 " Sometimes it does, and makes use of the 
 shell, as you would of an automaton, but it 
 lacks the physical sensations which you have." 
 
 Between the date of this message (April the 
 15th) and June the 28th, when I saw Mrs. Ver- 
 non at Manchester, I had given some considera- 
 tion to the subject of materialization, in con-
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 nection with its bearing upon the construction 
 of the ethereal world. My conjectures were 
 not based upon any opinions other than my own. 
 The answers to my questions at this last sit- 
 ting furnished information exterior to my own 
 thoughts, but in general they confirm my de- 
 ductions. 
 
 (Is the exuded substance from the medium a 
 form of ether? A. de K.) 
 
 "Ethereal promulgations and exudations de- 
 pend upon the dispensation or diffusion of mag- 
 netic force in connection with elemental fluidic 
 matter." 
 
 (Is the fluidic matter the same as the ether 
 of the universe?) 
 
 "Only to the extent that they commingle. 
 The exudations and the ethereal matter do 
 mingle, but they are not the same. ' ' 
 
 (Is there a single material substance in the 
 universe?) 
 
 "Human beings are all flesh and blood but 
 they are not the same. ' ' 
 
 (The conclusion of Dr. Geley is that there is 
 a single primordial substance in normal and 
 supernormal physiology.) 
 
 "We would rather say there are two, like 
 body and soul. Like substance and vitalizer. 
 When the vitalizer leaves it the substance dis- 
 integrates, like a decaying body."
 
 MR. EDWIN FRIEND 225 
 
 (Is there one substance in the last analysis?) 
 
 Edwin Friend: "A factory, rags that come 
 out paper, fat that comes out soap. Very differ- 
 ent, altered, but really the same substance." 
 
 (Is the formula of the creative process in the 
 ethereal world like that of the materialization 
 experiments?) 
 
 "Yes, that is the formula for physical demon- 
 stration. " 
 
 (Is this the formula for the creation of ob- 
 jects in the ethereal world?) 
 
 "Yes, that is the formula plus the individ- 
 ual." 
 
 (I am trying to think that the threads and 
 other forms, although varying in their mani- 
 festation, are all modifications or condensations 
 of one primordial substance.) 
 
 "Yes, over here we manipulate first hand. 
 There it is second hand, or through the body 
 of the medium. ' ' 
 
 (Are electrons modified ether?) 
 
 "Not modified; vitalized or electrified ether, 
 reenforced by electricity." 
 
 (Ether then is a form of matter extending 
 through the universe?) 
 
 "Pervading, penetrating, enveloping and fi- 
 nally taking form. Thin air, small particles 
 forming, whirling about, finally taking form. I 
 want to support the theory of molecular attrao-
 
 
 226 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 tion, up to a certain point. An old-fashioned 
 theory. Momentum does not do it alone. Laws 
 of gravitation and momentum provide the im- 
 pact but not the animation. Molecules could 
 remain passive, after the impact, without the 
 electrical sparks. "
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 OLD ACQUAINTANCES 
 
 THE several members of my husband's fam- 
 ily who have communicated with me 
 through Mrs. Vernon have sent extremely char- 
 acteristic messages. On October the 1st, 1918, 
 his father, the Rev. Henry de Koven, announced 
 his presence by a gesture of blessing, the same 
 gesture with which he had bade me "Farewell" 
 when I saw him for the last time in the villa 
 in Florence where my husband and I had spent 
 the first month of our marriage. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard: "Reggie and Anna" and 
 said, "This is not your sister; it is an older 
 communicator. ' ' 
 
 (Is it my father?) 
 
 Mrs. Vernon said, "No, but I hear the word 
 'Father.' " 
 
 Recalling then this gesture of blessing, I 
 asked if it could be my father-in-law. 
 
 "Outskirts of a small town, practically un- 
 known. Fastened in that town therefore un- 
 known. 
 
 227
 
 228 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 1 'Proofs : (Shows a hand clasping the throat.) 
 B d revitalized." 
 
 I was convinced after this communication 
 that it was my father-in-law, for the descrip- 
 tion of the small town and the statement that 
 some one living there had been "practically 
 unknown" could in my opinion concern only 
 my brother-in-law, Capt. de Koven, who had for 
 many years lived in Hove near Brighton, in 
 declining health and seeing very few people ex- 
 cept the members of his family. 
 
 (Have you seen my father?) 
 
 "Hunted me up. He is more forcible than 
 I am ; more likely to hunt me up than I to hunt 
 him up. I was inclined to have things done 
 for me. He was more executive." 
 
 (What have you and Uncle James done in the 
 other world?) 
 
 "James has the fulfillment of his heart's de- 
 sire. He has cut the bonds which held him to 
 the earth. James evolves, supplants inferior 
 ideas by suggestions. James from his superior 
 sphere can look down and can see spirits strug- 
 gling with sordid ideas and dispels them or 
 supplants them with higher thoughts by the 
 magnetism of his spirituality. James is like a 
 dynamo. Myriads of undeveloped souls have 
 responded to James' vibrations." 
 
 (What is it like over there?)
 
 OLD ACQUAINTANCES 229 
 
 "The best description you can give is that 
 they try to raise undeveloped souls most of the 
 time. Musicians have their music, painters 
 have their colors, athletes have their games, 
 but the better part of the time is used in this 
 uplift work. ' ' 
 
 (Is that world clear to you as this is to us?) 
 
 "As a superfluity of resonance reveals the 
 limitations of your aural powers, so the com- 
 plexities presented to the vision would over- 
 tax the perceptivity were it not for the elasti- 
 city of the soul." 
 
 To those who can remember the gentle and 
 extremely distinguished Dr. Henry de Koven 
 and his more famous brother, Dr. James, or 
 have heard of the latter 's eloquence, of his 
 compelling magnetism, of his unrivaled power 
 of influencing the pupils in Racine College, of 
 which he was the founder, these communica- 
 tions will furnish convincing examples of that 
 dramatic verity which is so large a part of the 
 proof of survival. The gesture of a hand clasp- 
 ing the throat, communicated at the same time 
 as the word "Proofs," indicates that Dr. de 
 Koven 's knowledge of my brother-in-law's fatal 
 malady of the throat was given as a "proof." 
 The remark about the "revitalization" of his 
 other son, after a long illness, is in natural 
 proximity to his reference to the approaching
 
 230 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 death of the younger. A characteristic exam- 
 ple of his distinguished vocabulary is found in 
 his statement about the complexities presented 
 to the vision of discarnate souls. This is the 
 only communication received by me which re- 
 fers to the elasticity of the soul and its resulting 
 ability to perceive the multiplicity of projected 
 images in the ethereal world. 
 
 On December the 3rd, after the death of my 
 brother-in-law, Captain de Koven, an elder 
 brother, LeEoy, who died over twenty-five years 
 ago, appeared. Kindly, a little curt in his 
 humor, and very popular in the world of Flor- 
 ence where he lived for many years, he reap- 
 pears in this communication precisely as I re- 
 member him in life. 
 
 He was interested in the establishment of a 
 model dairy farm for supplying pure milk to 
 the Florentines at the time of his death. His 
 occupation of supplying food to those lately 
 dead seems to conform to his earthly trends, 
 as my sister has so often said is the rule in 
 our continuing lives in the other world. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard: ' ' Franzipanni, Italy 
 some one in the entourage of diplomatic cir- 
 cles." 
 
 (Is this LeBoy, for if so I am glad to hear 
 from him. A. de K.)
 
 OLD ACQUAINTANCES 231 
 
 "Placed by the sea, he was anchored there 
 like a ship with this result." 
 
 (Recognizing the reference to Captain de 
 Koven's residence in Hove near the sea, I 
 asked again if this was not LeEoy.) 
 
 "Anna has guessed it." 
 
 (Are you busy over there?) 
 
 "Busy? Yes. Lots of fun after one gets 
 acclimated." 
 
 (Have you met Bertie? Is he awake yet?) 
 
 * * Bertie is exhaling his superfluous fiber, and 
 retaining in his system the effusion I offered 
 him. A transformation accompanying disso- 
 lution. (Laughs.) The Bed Cross isn't in it 
 with us. (Vision of people standing around 
 ready to administer the necessary nutriment.) 
 Earthly trends are indicative of celestial pur- 
 suits. (Shows a vision of Reggie and himself 
 together. Pats Reggie's shoulder.) Fulfill- 
 ment came with opportunity. Reggie had the 
 opportunity, then the fulfillment came." 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard Alice, LeRoy's wife: 
 "Tell Anna that we rest in peace amiably to- 
 gether, the family, and I really enjoy myself." 
 
 (Hasn't Reggie's mother been proud of what 
 he has done in music?) 
 
 LeRoy: "We consider Reggie's accomplish- 
 ments stupendous (!) and rejoice at the im- 
 provement in his health. Mother relates how
 
 232 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Reggie vanquished objections and sowed the 
 seeds of his original musical accomplishments. ' ' 
 
 The preference of the members of the de 
 Koven family for each other's society, to the 
 exclusion of outside friends or acquaintances, 
 seem to continue in the other world, to their 
 mutual satisfaction. 
 
 Mrs. de Koven 's reference to my husband's 
 "vanquishing of objections" concerns his per- 
 sistence in pursuing his musical studies in spite 
 of his father's opposition to the adoption of a 
 musical career. 
 
 The loyalty of this family to each other was 
 curiously shown by the appearance of LeEoy, 
 on the occasion of my last meeting with Mrs. 
 Vernon at Manchester. Shortly before this 
 meeting I had received, through the ouija 
 board, very disquieting messages from very 
 powerful mischievous spirits, who moved the 
 board with such unexampled force that I could 
 with difficulty control it. The messages con- 
 cerned my husband's health and purported to 
 come from his mother. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard : * * Florence a sudden de- 
 parture." 
 
 I remarked that this must be LeBoy who had 
 died very suddenly in Florence. I also ob- 
 served that I thought that he had probably 
 come to reassure me about my husband.
 
 OLD ACQUAINTANCES 233 
 
 "You have hit it. That is why I came, one 
 good turn deserves another." 
 
 (I don't think that I ever did much for you, 
 dear LeEoy.) 
 
 "You have helped us all, all the de Koven 
 family, and one good turn deserves another. 
 I thought it was better form to come than 
 Bertie. So I came." 
 
 (Was it your mother who warned me?) 
 
 "We saw your alarm. It was mischief- 
 makers who got in." 
 
 (Who were they?) 
 
 "I do not know. I will explain about the 
 ouija board. When Anna looks at Mrs. Vernon 
 through her reading glasses she does not see 
 her face plainly, does she ! It is like that, con- 
 fused, inaccurate. It is as if you were trying 
 to look at something far away, as one of these 
 mountains. We are distant, and in between 
 these others come in and make believe. We 
 cannot help it. There is no immediate danger, 
 Anna can be reassured. ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Vernon heard my sister: "I was there, 
 but I could do nothing. They had great control 
 of the conditions; only the masters could con- 
 trol them." 
 
 At this meeting I was sitting, facing Mrs. 
 Vernon, while I made notes of the messages and 
 wore my reading glasses. Around us plainly,
 
 234 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 seen through the windows, were the Vermont 
 mountains. Was my brother-in-law in the 
 room? Did he see me with my glasses? Did 
 he see the mountains I I leave it to my readers 
 to reply. 
 
 One more visitor came to speak with Mrs. 
 Vernon, announcing herself by the appearance 
 of a star. Mrs. Vernon was suddenly deeply 
 moved and tears filled her eyes. It was thus 
 that a dear friend lately torn from her adoring 
 family announced her presence. Star was her 
 middle name, and only by this signal was she 
 able to speak to her friend. Then came Mr. 
 Friend again, accompanying her and saying: 
 ' ' We are a strange band, we who have been torn 
 away from those we love. There is a strong 
 bond. We call ourselves by our Christian 
 
 names. Violet, Anne, Edwin There is 
 
 plenty of work for the charitably inclined. " 
 
 That Paradise is no state of immediate bliss, 
 we have been told again and again. Separation 
 is agony there as here. But companionship, 
 that chiefest joy of humanity, is an inalienable 
 privilege, and a deep consolation, together with 
 charity, which suffereth all things, even in the 
 midst of the labyrinthine mysteries of the here- 
 after. Unconsciousness, Mr. Friend has else- 
 where said, may endure for a long period, not 
 unconsciousness of self, but a lack of compre-
 
 OLD ACQUAINTANCES 235 
 
 hension of the meaning of the universe and the 
 necessity of spiritual development. In that 
 dim Purgatorial state souls may linger long, 
 if on earth they have refused to recognize that 
 inevitable destiny. Here is an example of the 
 loneliness which awaited a soul to whom life 
 was an almost unmitigated pleasure. 
 
 "Have you seen Mr. ?" I asked my sister 
 
 one day, mentioning the name of a brilliantly 
 handsome and witty friend who had died some 
 twelve years ago. 
 
 Mrs. Vernon saw my sister laughing, and saw 
 the evocation of a dancing scene. Mrs. Vernon 
 saw also a vision of beautifully dressed women 
 as at a garden party, with parasols and fans 
 and talking together with gayety and laughter. 
 She said that she felt an emanation from an 
 individual of social tastes, and saw a man of 
 "polish, breeding and birth, with a marked 
 courtesy and distinction of manner." 
 
 Then Mrs. Vernon heard: "Louise has lent a 
 hand. Tell ray wife that Louise has lent a 
 hand. Louise followed me up. I wanted to 
 come back, but Louise pushed me forward. I 
 was homesick, oh, so homesick. I missed my 
 wife's devotion." 
 
 (Are you busy!) 
 
 "Getting myself tidied up," he replied, and
 
 236 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 showed a vision of a valet taking off his coat 
 and putting on another garb. 
 
 "I am divested of my earthly habiliments 
 and trying to take on a semblance as well as the 
 fabric of spirituality. ' ' 
 
 That he would try, in his manly way, to adapt 
 himself to the new and strange conditions, I 
 could not doubt, but that he was not wholly 
 successful in this effort, he plainly admitted, 
 when I asked him if he was happy. 
 
 "Not particularly," he answered. "I liked 
 my other clothes better, but as they are appar- 
 ently permanently discarded, I have gone to it, 
 with Louise's help." 
 
 The name of his gentle sister-in-law was in- 
 correctly transmitted, but in a later sitting he 
 returned to give it again and then with better 
 success. Still later he has informed his wife 
 that he is a " citizen of heaven, ' ' in which loyal 
 attitude we may leave him with hopes of ulti- 
 mate and increasing contentment. 
 
 An instance of the constant watchfulness of 
 our so-called departed loved ones occurred 
 when in December of 1918 I had an attack of 
 pain from what appeared to be gallstones. 
 
 On the morning following a night of very 
 severe pain, Mrs. Vernon visited me and heard 
 my sister say that she had been with me during 
 the night but had been ' ' so helpless. ' ' She also
 
 OLD ACQUAINTANCES 237 
 
 said that there was "now a void where there 
 had been occupation. ' ' 
 
 On the Monday following December the 9th, 
 an X-ray examination was made to discover 
 the presence of gallstones. 
 
 On the morning of December 10th I saw Mrs. 
 Vernon, who heard the following message : 
 
 " Punctilious but estimable (character of my 
 physician), refutation of dogmas. Portentous 
 enquiry (the X-ray) discloses null and void 
 protuberances." 
 
 On the afternoon of the 10th of December my 
 physician announced to me that "the X-ray 
 showed no gallstones. ' ' 
 
 I am informed that gallstones are not always 
 perceptible by the X-ray, but the information 
 as to the fact that none were disclosed ante- 
 dated the announcement of the physician. 
 There have not been since that time any fur- 
 ther evidence of their presence, altho without 
 question they were the cause of the attack. 
 
 The hint of irony at the "portentous en- 
 quiry" shows that our friends have by no means 
 lost their humor in their new phase of existence. 
 
 Assuming that it is true that our friends are 
 often with us, it is not surprising that their 
 chief suffering arises from their helplessness 
 to manifest their presence to those not psychi- 
 cally endowed, particularly when, as Raymond
 
 888 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 relates, they see their dear one plunged in 
 hopeless sorrow. 
 
 A striking incident suggesting strongly my 
 sister's presence in my house during a conver- 
 sation between my husband and myself was 
 indicated by herself during the private seance 
 with Mr. Ticknor. 
 
 "What about the Excelsior?" asked my sis- 
 ter. "R. was very angry. Did he say the in- 
 strument gave pain?" 
 
 On my explanation of the trouble with the 
 management of the " Excelsior" company and 
 my assertion that my husband's published 
 criticism of one of their instruments was justi- 
 fied, although it elicited a protest from the ad- 
 vertising department of the journal in which 
 he published it, she replied : 
 
 "I did not say he was wrong. I knew he was 
 right but I wanted to understand it. Who is 
 S e?" 
 
 The reason why my sister failed to under- 
 stand the cause of my husband's annoyance was 
 that she did not read the letter handed to me by 
 my husband, which was the cause of this annoy- 
 ance. Hence she was unable to understand the 
 meaning of our conversation. I was ignorant 
 of the name of the President of the Company, 
 which she gave correctly, as I was afterwards 
 informed.
 
 mOWAEDS the end of the year 1919, I re- 
 1 ceived through Mrs. Vernon certain re- 
 plies to questions regarding the ether, which 
 I append as adding further testimony to that 
 already recorded in communications from be- 
 yond regarding the existence of some form of 
 matter which is manipulated by the discarnate 
 and forms the essence of their ethereal encase- 
 ments. 
 
 Mr. Friend: " Ether is a term for this matter 
 or substance. This surrounding ethereal sub- 
 stance is acted upon by electrical radiations. ' ' 
 
 (Is the ether itself originated by force or 
 mind!) 
 
 "Hind must have something to act upon to 
 manipulate with. How can a carpenter work 
 without wood and nails? How can a musician 
 play without a piano? Thought force must 
 have material to play upon. Call it smoke. It 
 resembles smoke. Look at that cigarette smoke 
 between you and the light. The air is filled 
 
 239
 
 240 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 with a substance like that smoke only more 
 refined. Einstein has formulated only one step 
 of the way. He has not gone the whole way. 
 You can call this substance smoke, or ether, or 
 fog, or simply atmosphere. The starry theory 
 is right inasmuch as meteoric bodies contain 
 their modicum of magnetism. Currents of me- 
 teoric magnetism attract the output from the 
 earth and other stellar bodies and the revo- 
 lution of these bodies in their orbits molds and 
 forms this substance, without any particular 
 direction unless a brain should be back of it. 
 In other words, emanations go round and round 
 aimlessly but when the brain says, 'I will make 
 a table,' or any other object that is when the 
 substance takes form." 
 
 On December 9th my sister, communicating, 
 said that she had been " tremendously inter- 
 ested in her development, learning the A, B, C 
 of self-control and what it is to be serious in- 
 stead of frivolous and what it is to be a con- 
 tainer of spiritual essences, permeated with 
 spiritual essences. The organisms we possess 
 must be thus permeated or it means disintegra- 
 tion." 
 
 (What is that organism?) 
 
 "Why does Anna worry so much about 
 whether you call it ether or not? That organ-
 
 MATERIALIZATION 241 
 
 ism is what you call a composite formation con- 
 taining virtually all of the molecules compris- 
 ing a magnetic emanation. ' ' 
 
 (Is there any material or matter combined 
 with this magnetism?) 
 
 1 1 Call it ether or atmosphere. This magnetic 
 or meteoric magnetism works or molds a certain 
 kind of matter. Creatures of flesh and blood 
 inhabit the earth. Creatures of magnetism and 
 matter inhabit the ethereal realms." 
 
 (Are there ethereal realms around the stellar 
 bodies?) 
 
 "Yes, there are. Like an aeroplane which 
 swoops down and swoops up again we can enter 
 where we choose. As the penumbra of the 
 brain enfolds, surrounds, encloses, each plane 
 has its penumbra emanations peculiar to each 
 planet. You can call that penumbra ether, air, 
 atmosphere. 
 
 "Meteoric substances which are thrown off 
 are simply matter acted upon by magnetism 
 acted upon by the gradations of the air, by heat 
 or cold, it becomes hard or soft. Get your de- 
 ductions from Nature. Get an example and 
 follow it straight through. ' ' 
 
 Here then in these messages from my sister 
 and Mr. Friend we have at least three state- 
 ments of an illuminating character. First,
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 there is a substance indeterminate in its name 
 but a substance which has an existence. Sec- 
 ondly, we have the statement that it is acted 
 upon by magnetic forces and also by thought. 
 Third, we have a statement that the substance 
 exists in the penumbra or spheres of the stellar 
 bodies. 
 
 Is the ethereal realm around the earth the 
 habitat of those lately departed? There are 
 many testimonies from what we call the ''be- 
 yond" which would indicate this. In the little 
 book entitled "Gone West" which contains the 
 automatically written messages from the late 
 Dr. L. S. Mitchell of Minneapolis, he says that 
 our "worlds are really one. We see the astral 
 or real side of the same objects you behold and 
 even enjoy many of the same pleasures, notably 
 music, though our ears are attuned to many 
 higher vibrations of sound which are not re- 
 vealed to you." Again he says: " 'Here' and 
 'There' are so interrelated that there really 
 is no separation." 
 
 Such statements as these combined with the 
 photographic impression of a crowd of spirits 
 as reproduced by Mr. Hereward Carrington 
 from Mrs. Dupont Lee's photograph in his lat- 
 est volume, "Modern Psychical Phenomena," 
 would strongly suggest the interpenetration 
 of the first spiritual realm with our own world.
 
 MATERIALIZATION 243 
 
 In this realm, as in other planetary spheres, 
 some substance existing in the air or atmos- 
 phere is manipulated by the discarnate, it would 
 appear. As to the formation of the ethereal or 
 spiritual body out of matter and magnetism, my 
 sister's statement definitely illustrates the ex- 
 periments of Col. de Kochv~:r, who was able to 
 isolate and photograph the magnetic emana- 
 tions from the living human body. 
 
 Correspondences between the statements of 
 the discarnate and the experiments of living 
 investigators are numerous. The thought 
 forms, beautifully drawn and colored, which 
 have been published by Mr. Leadbeater and 
 Miss Besant are precisely those which trans- 
 cendental communicators describe. Dr. Mitchell 
 relates, for instance, "that he had been having 
 regular lessons in the use of thought force. 
 First I was shown how one could see thought 
 forms. They are colored vibrations. Next I 
 was given experiments in using the power to 
 materialize objects." Dr. Mitchell describes a 
 concourse of heaven dwellers in a temple who 
 sent out a mass of golden thought over the 
 battlefields, and over Turkey, there finding just 
 the red and purple thought emanations of ha- 
 tred and violence which represent those pas- 
 sions according to the records of Mr. Lead- 
 beater.
 
 It now devolves upon me to record a recent 
 experience of my own in witnessing the phe- 
 nomena of materialization. 
 
 On the 18th of December, 1919, I went with 
 the Eev. Elwood Worcester and his nephew, 
 Rev. Worcester Perkins, to Concord, Mass. 
 There lives William Foss, well known to the 
 late Prof. James and a man of unquestionable 
 repute in Concord, where he has spent his long 
 life of nearly sixty-eight years. There were 
 present at the sitting, which took place in Mr. 
 Foss's house, his wife, who is blind, but en- 
 dowed with dafrrvoyant vision, his son and 
 daughter-in-law, the Rev. Mr. Garrett, and my- 
 self. A table, nearly six feet square, occupied 
 a large part of the kitchen and around it were 
 wooden armchairs which on two sides were 
 closely set between it and the walls of the room. 
 Two persons sat at each end of the table and 
 on either side of the table. Mr. Foss and Mr. 
 Garrett sat in two chairs between the table 
 and the wall; Dr. Worcester and his nephew 
 sat in the two chairs at the end of the table; 
 next the wall Mrs. Foss and her daughter-in- 
 law sat in the chairs at the side of the table op- 
 posite Mr. Foss and Mr. Garrett; Mr. Foss's 
 son and I sat at the end of the table opposite 
 Dr. Worcester and Mr. Perkins. We all held 
 each other's hands during thfe sitting. After
 
 MATERIALIZATION 245 
 
 the singing of some songs a cold breeze blew 
 through the room ; then the table, the chairs and 
 the entire room shook as if on a rocking boat. 
 Then as a first evidence of materialization, 
 warm and living hands touched my hair, my 
 shoulders, my face, in many repeated caresses. 
 Mrs. Foss, through her clairvoyant vision in- 
 formed me that she saw a woman whom she 
 announced was my sister. A bit of chalk had 
 been put in the middle of the table. Soon 
 there was a sound of writing and then a signal 
 to turn up the light. I had previously asked 
 my sister to try to write something in her own 
 handwriting. When the light flooded the room 
 I saw, written directly in front of me, the name 
 she called herself as a child. This name was 
 known to no being in that room except myself. 
 I affirm that I was holding the hands of Mr. 
 Foss 's son and his wife, and that I did not touch 
 the chalk. After the name was written my 
 hand was grasped and the chalk put into my 
 fingers. Another written message from my sis- 
 ter in answer to a mental question of my own 
 was : ' * We are happy. ' ' 
 
 I then asked her if she could write a message 
 in regard to my husband in her own handwrit- 
 ing. She attempted to do this, writing my 
 husband's name very clearly and directly in
 
 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 front of me upon the table, but interfering with 
 her message were two lateral series of Hebrew 
 characters some ancient spirit having evi- 
 dently intervened. 
 
 Later, I asked my sister if she could go to 
 Chicago and tell me something about my hus- 
 band. The message she left upon the table in 
 answer to this was "Proof. I will try." After 
 a half hour had passed by my hand was grasped, 
 rapid knocks were made upon the table, writing 
 was heard and again the chalk was put into my 
 hand. When the light was turned up again, 
 directly in front of me upon the table we saw 
 the two words "Sold to-day. " The satisfac- 
 tion expressed in the character of the knocks 
 and the way my hand was grasped and turned 
 over were justified by the success of the test, 
 which she was able to bring to us. 
 
 On my return to New York on Friday, De- 
 cember 19th, I was informed that my husband 
 had sent a telegram from Chicago accepting a 
 proposition for the sale of a piece of property. 
 
 Very soon after this, a curious sound of sob- 
 bing was heard in the air and the blind Mrs. 
 Foss declared it was my sister expressing her 
 emotion at being able to make her presence 
 known. Again when another communicator 
 mischievously refused to carry out some of the 
 requests of the sitters I said, "Will our kind
 
 MATERIALIZATION 247 
 
 friends be good enough to hasten, for I am very 
 tired? I have come a long journey and must go 
 again early in the morning to New York." 
 Then distinctly a voice said, * ' God bless you for 
 coming. ' ' 
 
 During the sitting a very loud sound of writ- 
 ing was heard with the chalk, and when the 
 light was turned up a message from Prof. 
 James was found with his signature recognized 
 as accurate by Dr. Worcester. Then again 
 in the darkness his hand, recognized by Dr. 
 Worcester, grasped his hand giving him the 
 Phi Beta Kappa grip. Upon Dr. Worcester's 
 statement that he had recognized the form of 
 Prof. James' hand and the old college grip, 
 three loud affirmative knocks were heard upon 
 the table. 
 
 Other personalities appeared at this remark- 
 able seance but nothing so evidential as the two 
 tests which my sister was able to give to us. 
 
 Mr. Foss has been possessed of this remark- 
 'able materializing power since early youth and 
 relates examples of materialized formations 
 and communications from individualities long 
 known to him, which, according to him, are far 
 more remarkable than the manifestations which 
 I witnessed. No comment is necessary to em- 
 phasize the impression of my sister's actual
 
 248 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 presence. Her emotion at being able to speak 
 with me, her words, her gentle touch upon my 
 brow bring it to me as never before the convic- 
 tion that there are indeed no dead.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 AND OUR LAST ENEMY is DEATH 
 
 rpHREE objections are commonly advanced 
 1 by the ignorant and inexperienced against 
 an acceptance of the possibility of communica- 
 tion. The first is that it is due to ' ' telepathy. ' ' 
 The second, that messages purporting to come 
 from the beyond really proceed from the ' ' sub- 
 conscious mind." Third, that if the messages 
 are actual communications from the so-called 
 dead, they are too trivial in character to com- 
 mand respectful attention. 
 
 In regard to telepathy, it is pertinent to quote 
 its exact definition as demonstrated by the Eng- 
 lish Society for Psychic Research. * ' Telepathy 
 is the transference of thought from one mind 
 to another without visible means of such trans- 
 ference." Telepathy, used as a refutation of 
 the assertion of the possibility of communica- 
 tion between the discarnate and the incarnate, 
 presents no valid argument. Rather does it 
 expose the undifferentiated thought of the mul- 
 titude. Allowing that such a means of com- 
 munication does exist between incarnate minds, 
 
 249
 
 250 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 it does not deny an apparently similar process 
 of communication between the discarnate and 
 the incarnate. Bather does it present a work- 
 ing hypothesis of such communication. 
 
 Again, the transference of thoughts from the 
 subconscious mind of the medium to his active 
 mind or from the subconscious minds of the ex- 
 perimenters, is urged as an explanation of all 
 messages of apparently supernatural origin. 
 As in supernormal telepathic messages, so in 
 these subconscious emanations, one test and 
 one alone is crucial, as to their origin. Do they 
 convey information absolutely new to both me- 
 dium and experimenter? If they do and this 
 information is capable of verification, then we 
 must deny their normal or human origin at 
 least until some hitherto unsuspected human 
 faculty is discovered, which can account for 
 their reception. 
 
 To the last objection as to the triviality of 
 the messages, is it pertinent to enquire if it is 
 not the most natural, nay, the inevitable method 
 of attempted identification, to refer to definite 
 occurrences or objects known commonly to 
 both the unseen communicator and the experi- 
 menter! Would it not be the ideal method to 
 supply information unknown to the experimen- 
 ter and of such definite and practical signifi- 
 cance as to permit of verification?
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 251 
 
 Those who are acquainted with the literature 
 of the subject and with the records of the 
 various societies for Psychical Eesearch are 
 aware of a large number of published messages 
 from the illuminated inhabitants of the Other 
 World, which contain instruction of a highly 
 spiritual character, and of a mass of material 
 still unpublished, for the reason that it does not 
 contain this evidential and so-called trivial 
 material. 
 
 Was the significance of the first message of 
 the Morse telegraph considered to be impor- 
 tant 1 ? Was not the fact that the message was 
 transferred and its transference verified all 
 important? As to the transference of thought 
 waves from the subconscious mind of the me- 
 dium to his active mind, and from the subcon- 
 scious minds of the experimenters to the con- 
 scious or the subconscious mind of the medium, 
 it is indisputable that such transference does 
 very frequently take place. In the immediate 
 and even distant environment of the medium, 
 endowed apparently with a receiving apparatus 
 capable of registering thought waves, various 
 entities, incarnate and discarnate, may exist, 
 each sending out these waves, each speaking a 
 wireless language. What then seems more cer- 
 tain than that such an apparatus in the brain of 
 the psychic should register all or any of the
 
 252 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 thoughts thus propagated? Because, then, a 
 living being speaks in this involuntary projec- 
 tion of thought waves, is it not possible that a 
 discarnate being should also thus speak, vol- 
 untarily or involuntarily? 
 
 The subconscious mind, which has long been 
 the particular province of Psychology, has been 
 adopted by Psychic Science as a promising 
 field of exploration, as the repository of unsus- 
 pected and so-called supernormal powers in 
 man, as a means of communication with the 
 "cosmic reservoir," as the guardian of all 
 memories, as the larger and enduring part of 
 the human soul. Through the open door in this 
 subconscious mind, do floods of inspiration pour 
 in from the infinite? Such is the theory of Mr. 
 Myers, who, in an illuminating chapter, defines 
 genius as a "subliminal uprush." 
 
 From artists, poets and musicians, from in- 
 ventors and from cordons bleux comes the in- 
 variable testimony that the inspiration of their 
 best accomplishments is dictated to them. 
 Sometimes with exaltation, sometimes with an 
 atmosphere of serene solemnity, this inspira- 
 tion comes, and the sensation of the smooth 
 and uninterrupted current of suggestion aris- 
 ing from the depth of the subconscious to the 
 active executing brain, is one which is experi- 
 enced by every individual possessed of creative
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 253 
 
 imagination. The very word inspiration in 
 its universally accepted significance, defines the 
 process. Are the faculties resident in this 
 mysterious indefinable and uncharted region 
 of the human spirit intrinsic? Are the powers 
 not rather commanded and utilized by super- 
 normal guardians and masters, whose dwelling 
 is in infinite knowledge I Does the subconscious 
 mind lie open to those influences? So the meta- 
 phor of Sir Oliver Lodge, who compares it to 
 "an iceberg whose submerged and larger part 
 is subject to the ocean tides," would indicate. 
 Although subconscious, this part of the hu- 
 man mind is apparently never idle, but sends 
 out constant waves of thought which are regis- 
 tered, not only upon the surrounding ether, but 
 inevitably upon the receiving apparatus of all 
 psychics. The possibility that the messages 
 are thus received by their peculiarly organized 
 brain ganglia, must therefore be fully recog- 
 nized and the significance of all messages ex- 
 amined in the light of this possibility. Un- 
 conscious dramatization, even impersonation of 
 character, infinitely mysterious and most dis- 
 concerting to the experimenter, must also be 
 recognized as a faculty of this perplexing por- 
 tion of the human organism. From the deep 
 recesses of this unfathomable part of us, for- 
 gotten or fortuitous records of facts may
 
 254 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 emerge, so that no proof of any communication 
 from beyond is acceptable, unless it contains 
 information absolutely new to both medium 
 and experimenter. Fortunately for the in- 
 creasing numbers of believers in survival and 
 communication, a large volume of information 
 of this crucial order exists and can be examined 
 by any honest inquirer. 
 
 In pursuing such an investigation, the honest 
 inquirer should beware of the possibility of an 
 altered attitude regarding facts of such illimit- 
 able importance; for they are facts, no longer 
 subject to denial or contempt. It is not beyond 
 the scope of definite assertion to declare that 
 no investigator of intelligence, approaching 
 this subject without prejudice and prepared to 
 use his reason, has ever emerged from such an 
 examination a determined skeptic. No more 
 rigid method of proof and investigation can be 
 devised than that already applied to these phe- 
 nomena. It has remained for the elite of the 
 intellects of all civilized nations to attack these 
 mysteries, and their united affirmation regard- 
 ing their reality and their testimony regarding 
 their high significance cannot be disregarded. 
 
 Mr. Arthur Balfour and his brother Gerald, 
 their sister, Mrs. Sidgwick, and her husband, 
 Myers, Sir William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge, 
 Sir William Barrett, Buskin, Wallace and Sir
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 255 
 
 Conan Doyle in England, are witnesses who 
 must be heard. In France, the names of Eichet, 
 Bergson, Janet, Flammarion, de Eochas, De- 
 lanne, Boirac, Maxwell, Kardec, Schrenck-N6t- 
 zing, Geley and Madame Bisson. In Italy, Lom- 
 broso, Morseli and Schiaparelli ; in Switzer- 
 land, Prof. Flournoy; in Holland, Profs. Malta 
 and Van Zelst; in Eussia, Atsakoff, swell the 
 distinguished list of scientific investigators. In 
 America, Prof. Hare of the University of Penn- 
 sylvania, the leading chemist of our country in 
 his day; Prof. James of Harvard, Judge Ed- 
 munds, Mr. Epes Sargent of literary fame, as 
 well as Drs. Hodgson and Hyslop, have adcled 
 their records of investigation and personal ex- 
 periment to the mass of testimony. If is a 
 testimony wonderfully similar in its main lines 
 of deduction and of theory, based on scientific 
 investigation and the concordant information 
 from beyond. 
 
 Certain facts emerge clearly from all the rec- 
 ords of communication. First, the individual, 
 immediately after death, is entirely unchanged. 
 Growth in spirituality is the inevitable road 
 which each soul is destined to follow. Environ- 
 ment is determined by the degree of develop- 
 ment. The discarnate spirit is possessed of 
 powers of creative construction increasing with 
 practice and experience. It is a world of spirit,
 
 256 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 but not of spirit alone; spirit is so supreme 
 that more insistence is placed upon its supe- 
 rior activities than upon the fact that it has 
 something material to act upon. That material 
 has been called the ether, and out of it all 
 objects known to the ethereal world are com- 
 posed. But it can be manipulated with infinite 
 ease and all objects retained for aeons or dis- 
 carded in a moment according to desire. There 
 are purely mental vibrations and there are 
 ' ' constructional vibrations ' ' of ether, according 
 to information given to me through Mrs. Ver- 
 non. These ' ' constructional vibrations ' ' corre- 
 spond, as I have also been told, to manual ma- 
 nipulations of matter on the earth. But upon 
 ethereal matter, these vibrations operate with- 
 out hands. 
 
 A correspondence with this method is observ- 
 able with the geometrical patterns formed in 
 sand under the impact of sound waves. Pos- 
 sessed, however, of unlimited powers of pro- 
 jecting images the inhabitants of the other 
 world can fashion temporary environments 
 wholly out of their own imaginations or mem- 
 ories, it would seem, which have a reality quite 
 as definite to themselves and to each other as 
 objects made out of the ether, or as our objects 
 are to us. A published incident, which seems 
 to illustrate this power in the discarnate, is re-
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 257 
 
 corded in the book called "An Adventure," 
 where two ladies walked into the Park of the 
 Petit Trianon of Marie Antoinette's memory, 
 as she might have projected it. There were 
 the old walks, and lakes and trees ; there were 
 the wheelbarrow and the gardener of her day; 
 there was the Queen herself, in the simple dress 
 in which it had been her pleasure to clothe her- 
 self in that lost garden of her dreams dreams 
 so vivid and so potent that the eyes of strangers 
 found them more real than its modern and 
 actual appearance. 
 
 Thus there appear to be two distinct methods 
 of creative activity in the other world ; one, an 
 entirely mental projection of images ; the other, 
 a mental manipulation of the "ether." These 
 two distinct methods probably account for the 
 apparent disagreement in the testimony from 
 beyond, regarding the construction of the other 
 world. 
 
 All knowledge is not immediately given to 
 souls discarnate, who still seek, at least in the 
 earlier stages of their evolution, for the solution 
 of the secrets of creation. The practical and 
 material minded individualities such as Ray- 
 mond, rejoicing in a solid-seeming world, pro- 
 pound the theory that some sort of matter is 
 utilized in the making of that world. Others 
 see only the agency of the spirit. Spirit, al-
 
 258 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 ways the supreme agent, seems to be the har- 
 monizing basis of both processes, that which 
 utilizes purely mental vibrations, as well as that 
 which uses the constructional vibrations, which 
 seem to collect or condense the substance called 
 ether for use in the formation of temples of 
 learning, and of music, or the houses intended 
 to serve a more permanent use perhaps, than 
 the vanishing projections of pure imagination. 
 We are told in all transcendental communi- 
 cations that the body of the discarnate soul is 
 made of this ethereal substance, but that the 
 soul can fashion for itself its earthly appear- 
 ance and habiliments at will. Is this the spir- 
 itual body of St. Paul, the non-material part of 
 us which we already possess? Science itself 
 has opened the door to this hypothesis. When 
 the statement of Haeckel that the brain atoms 
 had properties which initiated or exuded 
 thought was denied, when scientists themselves 
 asserted that between the brain atoms a space 
 existed, filled with so-called "mentiferous 
 ether," then indeed, we were permitted to im- 
 agine the essence of the ethereal body and its 
 incarnate existence. When, then, this ethereal 
 body escapes from its material encasement, 
 does it not, like the Psyche of the Greeks, fly 
 into this ethereal realm, its proper element and 
 home?
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 
 
 Possessed still of all its earthly memories and 
 loves, manipulating that telepathic power, now 
 proved to belong to the self-incarnate, would 
 not that unchanged self send thought vibrations 
 to those ready and waiting to receive them? 
 Illustrating the analogy of this means of com- 
 munication with the universal wave theory of 
 heat and light and sound, would not the vibrat- 
 ing thoughts of those lost to our sight seek 
 often and sometimes find the organisms pre- 
 pared to receive them? 
 
 The messages I have received are published 
 with the hope that they may add versimilitude 
 to this analogy and help to confirm the resulting 
 hypothesis, that by this method the dead indeed 
 do speak, and by permission and in strict ac- 
 cordance with universal law. 
 
 While ignorance and indifference present bas- 
 tions of solid opposition to the advancing 
 torches of the new-old truths of spiritual con- 
 tinuity, Science and Religion go forth to give 
 them battle. The priests of Padua who refused 
 to look through Galileo's telescope, have been 
 followed by those who fought the beneficent 
 agent of anesthesia, who denied the phenome- 
 non of hypnotism, and those who first derided 
 telepathy, only to use it later as their chief 
 arm, with which to combat transcendental com- 
 munication.
 
 260 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 The last and most tenaciously held hypothesis 
 of those who would, at all sacrifice of logical 
 reasoning and of probability, deny the facts of 
 communication and survival, is that the mind 
 of the psychic can take up messages from the 
 air or ether as does the wireless telegraph. To 
 perceive the messages which bear information 
 unknown to both psychic and sitter, they as- 
 sume that the psychic must possess a selective 
 power by which, out of all the illimitable num- 
 ber of thoughts which are recorded in the 
 ether of the earthplane, the exact message des- 
 tined for the sitter may be singled out. Not 
 one attested incident has been hitherto re- 
 corded, which proves that such a power, prac- 
 tically omniscient in its extent, is possessed by 
 any medium, and no attempt by the skeptics 
 has yet been made to explain the method by 
 which this power can be exercised. "An ex- 
 tension of telepathy" is the expression which 
 represents the effort of such distinguished in- 
 dividuals as the editor of a serious magazine 
 and the bishop of an English see, to explain all 
 messages which come from the earth plane by 
 means of this wholly hypothetical "selective 
 power" of the medium. This, they assert, is 
 an "easy explanation" of the reception of in- 
 formation, altho it is unknown to both psychic 
 and sitter. In this attempt to account for such
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 261 
 
 messages their reasoning seems to proceed 
 somewhat in this manner : 
 
 If the mind of the psychic possesses this se- 
 lective power, then this power would account 
 for messages bearing information unknown to 
 both medium and experimenter. Therefore the 
 psychic does possess this power. To such lacu- 
 nae in logic does the determination not to ac- 
 cept the glorious facts of communication and 
 survival force these distinguished gentlemen. 
 
 Their attitude resembles that of a fugitive 
 driven to the last ledge over a precipice. Above 
 him are impassable heights, below him is the 
 yawning chasm. Thus, driven to a last extrem- 
 ity, the hunted man utters unreasoning cries 
 of distress and resorts to any desperate move 
 which offers a last chance of escape. Yet, if 
 the fugitive should fall into the chasm, what 
 would await him? The wings of angels would 
 bear him up to that very immortality which 
 has been the teaching of the bishop, we may 
 believe, since he first assumed the office of a 
 teacher of the Gospel. 
 
 When, then, shall the pealing of every church 
 bell, the echo of every hymn, the symbol of the 
 cross, the mounting spires of every shrine, be 
 accorded their eternal significance as fortified 
 and a thousand times over proved, by the dis- 
 coveries of the new Psychic Science ! How long
 
 262 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 will facts of such incalculable importance, from 
 the viewpoint of their own teaching, be denied 
 by these teachers ? 
 
 As to the assumption of a harmony in thought 
 currents analogous to those of the ether waves 
 of the wireless telegraphy, it must be proved 
 by many attested examples before it can be used 
 as a basis for this easy explanation of an ' ' ex- 
 tension of telepathy." 
 
 The impact of physical emanations of mag- 
 netism may give rise to a simple concept, or 
 vague sensations such as the " warning" of 
 the imminent meeting with a friend, and might 
 present a partial analogy to the method by 
 which wireless messages are transmitted. This 
 analogy, however, is incomplete, in that these 
 messages or warnings amount only to sensa- 
 tions, wordless and undifferentiated, and wholly 
 unlike the elaborate phrases by which definite 
 information is conveyed to the psychic. 
 
 As before stated the most rigid tests of the 
 origin of apparently supernormal messages 
 must be satisfied before certainty of transcen- 
 dental communication is attained. That no 
 knowledge of the information in a message 
 should be possessed by any living being on 
 the earth plane, should be certain, in the face 
 of the enormous significance of the possibility 
 of communication. Among the multitude of
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 263 
 
 messages which by no possibility could have 
 emanated from any individual on the earth 
 plane, consider that received by the late Mrs. 
 Verrall of Cambridge, by automatic handwrit- 
 ing, of the English Society for Psychical Re- 
 search and afterward quoted by Maeterlinck in 
 his book "L'Hote inconnu." 
 
 At eleven o'clock one evening, Mrs. Verrall 's 
 hand wrote, in Latin, Greek and English, a mes- 
 sage which informed her that at last a proof 
 would be given her which would satisfy her, 
 and through her, would convince many others 
 that communication was possible. The proof 
 would come from "the chalk upon the feet." 
 The message was signed by a drawing of a bird 
 walking. 
 
 At half past two the following morning, that 
 is, four and a half hours later, two men, who 
 had heard that in certain chambers on the other 
 side of London strange occurrences had taken 
 place, had prepared to investigate them. They 
 covered the floors with scraped chalk. Then 
 they extinguished the lights. They were alone 
 in the rooms. After several hours of waiting, 
 they turned up the lights and there, plainly seen 
 in the chalk, were five tracks of bird's feet. 
 Mrs. Verrall had never heard of these experi- 
 menters ; they had never heard of her. We can 
 hardly deny a considerable ingenuity to the
 
 264 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 Latin and Greek writing spirits, who devised 
 this extraordinary test. 
 
 No impact of thought waves from the earth 
 plane could account for this prophetic announce- 
 ment. Nor an extension of telepathy. 
 
 The fact that Mr. Myers failed to send, after 
 his death, the correct sentence, which, before 
 death, he had written in a sealed envelope, is 
 often quoted; while an incident of the success 
 of a bef ore-death test, recorded in Myers ' own 
 book, is by preference, apparently, omitted. 
 This incident will be found in the appendix of 
 his " Human Personality and Its Survival of 
 Bodily Death. " 
 
 The reason for the failure of Mr. Myers is 
 suggested by Miss Dallas in her book, "Mors 
 Janua Vitae," where she ascribes it to the 
 subconscious suggestion of Mrs. Verrall's own 
 mind, combined with an incorrect assumption 
 that another message, really from Mr. Myers, 
 but unconnected with the letter, was the mes- 
 sage in the letter. No notice, moreover, has 
 been taken by those, who seem to rejoice at Mr. 
 Myers' apparent failure in this case, of the re- 
 markable tests of his surviving intelligence, ob- 
 tained by Mr. Dorr of Boston, through Mrs. 
 Piper, and recorded in the book of Miss Anna 
 Hude, as well as in the Journal of the Ameri- 
 can Society for Psychical Research. Mr. Dorr,
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 265 
 
 conceiving that he might obtain important reac- 
 tions from Mr. Myers if he read aloud while 
 Mr. Myers was in possession of Mrs. Piper's 
 organism, certain passages from books known 
 in life to Mr. Myers, read ten lines from Dry- 
 den's translation of Virgil. Instantly Mrs. 
 Piper 's directed hand wrote the two lines which 
 in the original text followed the quotation, but 
 in Mr. Myers' own translation. The first two 
 lines of the Dryden quotation were also given, 
 but again in a translation from the original text 
 which was apparently retained in its entirety 
 in Mr. Myers' memory. Again ten lines from 
 Shelley's translation of the "Cyclops" of Eu- 
 ripides were quoted by Mr. Dorr. 
 
 "You read well," wrote Mrs. Piper's hand. 
 
 "Now," said Mr. Dorr, "see if you can tell 
 who made this translation?" 
 
 "Did he write the 'Ode to the Skylark!' " 
 answered Mr. Myers. 
 
 Upon Mr. Dorr's exclamation of satisfaction 
 at this reply Mr. Myers wrote, "Thank you! 
 If I am not Myers, who am I?" 
 
 The retention in the discarnate memory of its 
 stores of information and of learning has no- 
 where a more startling example. 
 
 As to the confirmation of all the so-called 
 miracles in Holy Writ, they furnish such in- 
 dubitable examples of the so-called super-
 
 266 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 normal powers in man, that their explanation, 
 in the light of the investigation and classifica- 
 tion of these powers, should fill the empty 
 church benches and diminish the activities of all 
 higher critics. 
 
 The many incidents of slate writing, for in- 
 stance, where the writing has appeared with 
 lightning rapidity on both sides of the slate si- 
 multaneously, might furnish illuminating sug- 
 gestions as to the method by which the ten 
 commandments were written on both sides of 
 the tablets. 
 
 So, may not the Jewish law, as well as the 
 Christian revelation, both originate in direct 
 intervention and actual inspiration from on 
 High? All the after-death appearances of 
 Christ ; the miracles of healing, the materializa- 
 tion of the loaves and the fishes, the levitation 
 of Christ's body as he walked upon the waves, 
 prove, not only, that phenomena now called 
 psychic were used as powerful agents in the 
 formation of the Christian sect, but that Christ 
 himself, a son of God, was the worker of these 
 miracles, through his control of matter and its 
 laws. 
 
 The reviving belief that man is of a tripar- 
 tite organism composed of body, soul, and spir- 
 it, is definitely stated by St. Paul. Such has 
 been the belief of the ancient races. The Kar
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 267 
 
 of the Egyptians is the Latin Imago, and the 
 Greek Eidolon. In the Ishtar tablets (B.C. 
 2250) there is a record of materialization. 
 
 "The spirit of Heabani, like glass, transpar- 
 ent from the earth, arose. ' ' 
 
 The rejection by some modern schools of 
 philosophy of the notion of two soul essences, 
 a spirit and a spirit body, has the portentous 
 and fatal significance of reducing the spirit, 
 when once deprived of its material encasement, 
 to an indefinable, abstract and indivisible prin- 
 ciple, having neither extension, form, nor con- 
 ceivable substance. Upon the tripartite con- 
 ception of the human organism all hope of the 
 preservation of identity depends. Deprived of 
 its ethereal incasement it sinks like a drop of 
 water into the ocean of infinity. This philoso- 
 phy is reactionary, reversing the intuitive wis- 
 dom of the ages, disagreeing with the great 
 masters of antiquity, such as Plato and Aris- 
 totle, and with the records of tablet and scroll, 
 found not only on the Egyptian stones but in 
 the ancient parchments of so-called revealed 
 religion. 
 
 Now, indeed the old theory of an ethereal 
 body arises again with many proofs of its def- 
 inite and independent existence and activities 
 even before the dissolution of its material 
 envelope.
 
 268 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 In the legends of the ' * Doppelganger " we 
 have the proof of the German belief in the 
 ethereal double, and now with a characterist- 
 ically accurate power of making a term of per- 
 fectly descriptive significance, we have the scien- 
 tific French statement of a belief in the spiritual 
 encasement, in the word ' * Peresprit. " 
 
 M. Delanne, in his book "L'Ame est Immor- 
 telle,'* relates an attested incident of a woman's 
 voluntary and prearranged projection of her 
 peresprit into a photographic gallery. There 
 not only was the peresprit photographed; but 
 while the photographer was in his cabinet in the 
 process of developing the negative, the pere- 
 sprit, by what power one cannot know, was able 
 to throw the photographic apparatus upon the 
 floor.* 
 
 Normal activities, such as are possessed by 
 the material body, do not seem to be lacking 
 in the ethereal double, as is proved by the in- 
 cident related by the well-known Dr. Vittoz of 
 Lausanne, who, by intention, traveled in this 
 ethereal dress to a cafe in Berlin. There he 
 took his place at a table, with one companion, 
 and then after some conversation returned to 
 Lausanne. 
 
 A few weeks afterward while walking in a 
 street of Lausanne, he encountered a man who 
 
 Published by Mr. Stead in "Borderland," April, 1896.
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 269 
 
 seemed strangely familiar. While he was try- 
 ing to recollect where he had seen him, the 
 friend of the Berlin cafe walked up to him, say- 
 ing that he was pleased to have again met him 
 and was anxious to renew their agreeable con- 
 versation. There are thus, it would appear, 
 various phenomena which will not be explained 
 by ' ' an extension of telepathy. ' ' 
 
 In the long journey from half -conscious ani- 
 mal to the cloud-reaching heights of conscious 
 Divinity, man's knowledge of the secrets of 
 creation may be an attainable goal. We may 
 even now, in this remarkable age of human 
 progress and change, be entering a new stage 
 of evolution. Powers unclassified, although 
 long manifested, now have their accepted names 
 and significance. By telepathy we know we can 
 speak ; by projection some human beings travel 
 to distances, away from their still living ma- 
 terial forms. A voice may be photographed 
 and, by the telephone, heard across oceans and 
 continents. Wireless vibrations carry messages 
 and voices over miles of intervening ether. 
 Thought images can be photographed. Thought 
 can move electric needles. The X-ray sees 
 through solids and the cinematograph records 
 objects in motion, even the infinitesimal crea- 
 tures which swim in the drops of water. We 
 have conquered the air. Surely the boundary
 
 270 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 betwixt matter and spirit grows wonderfully 
 thin. We know now that the matter of which 
 we are made is dissolvable and that it is manip- 
 ulated by thought. The enormous significance 
 of this discovery points to an amazing and, as 
 yet, scarcely realized extension of our under- 
 standing of the constitution of matter and of 
 our own ultimate destiny, when finally possessed 
 of a full knowledge of the laws of the universe. 
 
 The dissolvable quality of the matter of which 
 our bodies are made was proved, not only by 
 the experiment of Prof. Schrenck-Notzing and 
 Dr. Geley, but also by those of Dr. Crawford, 
 when at his behest his unseen colaborators re- 
 moved a portion of the weight of his medium. 
 If this is possible, according to the observa- 
 tion of these unquestionably reliable witnesses, 
 may not the time arrive when complete de- 
 materialization of the human body may also 
 be possible? 
 
 Would this be the manner in which, accord- 
 ing to St. Paul in that truly inspired chapter in 
 Corinthians, "we shall not all die, but be 
 changed"! Is this the "Far off divine event 
 towards which the whole creation moves"? In 
 this way perhaps death, the last enemy, shall be 
 conquered. Thus, perhaps, when they have 
 learned all that it is intended that they shall 
 ultimately learn in this earthly existence the
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 271 
 
 sons of men shall put on immortality. Thus, 
 fashioned after his likeness out of one sub- 
 stance, dissolvable and mutable under Divine 
 law, our remote descendants may change, "in a 
 moment, ' ' into the shining garments of eternity, 
 and, to the sound of the trumpet of triumphant 
 attainment, may scale the heights of heaven. 
 ( We know already what our destiny is, for it is 
 explained to us in every whisper which comes 
 to us along the heavenly wires. It is spiritual 
 development and this is the inevitable law of 
 this upward progress. The mystic realization 
 of " harmony with law" is the word of life 
 _eternal. This realization is purely ecstatic, as 
 all who have experienced it will testify. "Un- 
 derneath me are the Everlasting Arms ' ' is only 
 another expression of the rapture of conscious 
 union with all laws, which are themselves the 
 expression of God's will and design. So to the 
 mystic, incarnate or discarnate, all nature is 
 harmonious; to him the far horizon beckons; 
 with flowers and music he is at one. At one, 
 also, with all souls who glimpse the wonder and 
 profundity of the ever unfolding plan of Divin- 
 ity. 
 
 No longer is he solitary in the limitless uni- 
 verse whose wonders are his inalienable in- 
 heritance. 
 
 Such we may imagine is the inexpressible joy
 
 272 A CLOUD OF WITNESSES 
 
 of those who in heaven 's own light "bask in 
 the glory of spirituality, pervading the uni- 
 verse with beneficence" of which my trans- 
 lated sister has told me. 
 
 As to the varieties of man-made doctrine, 
 themselves derived from the aspirations of hu- 
 manity towards God, they will not be main- 
 tained, we are told. Not those which have, 
 through the long ages, lost the simplicity of 
 the early revelation. In the recurring circles 
 of human thought, scientific investigation has 
 brought the present comprehension of Christ's 
 early teachings and his miraculous deeds nearer 
 to the original circle of primitive Christian 
 revelation than since the days when He first 
 walked in Galilee. 
 
 "I venture now a bold saying," said Fred- 
 erick Myers, in his published book. "I predict 
 that in consequence of the new evidence all rea- 
 sonable men, a century hence, will believe in the 
 Resurrection of Christ; whereas in default of 
 the new evidence no reasonable man a century 
 hence would have believed it. ' ' 
 
 What matter if doctrines must pass, when we 
 know that in all the stars of heaven the Christ 
 spirit is supreme; when the essential truth of 
 the religion which he taught pervades with 
 thunders of overpowering light the remotest 
 regions of eternity?
 
 OUR LAST ENEMY 273 
 
 In messages from beyond, the glorified spirit 
 of Frederick Myers has spoken of Christ as the 
 " Highest spirit known to us," and again he 
 calls him "The Living One." So to humanity 
 ascended, Christ is still Lord, and descending 
 from those infinitely far heights of contempla- 
 tion beside the throne of God, He still lives 
 to instruct and to aid the spirits of men in- 
 carnate and discarnate. In Him the personality 
 of God has its eternal and supreme incarna- 
 tion. 
 
 "Religion, or religions," so speaks a spirit 
 teacher, "are tutors of young souls; images 
 given to those incarnate during the infancy of 
 their evolution, in order that in their memories, 
 conduct, and duty alike shall persist, in the 
 pursuit of that progress whose laws they obey. 
 But like the child who leaves his parents ' arms 
 as soon as he feels that his limbs will support 
 him, the incarnate soul escapes from the bonds 
 of dogma, as soon as it feels that it is strong 
 and courageous enough to fly alone and unaided 
 towards its eternal abode." 
 
 Message by automatic handwriting received by Madame 
 de W. and published in her book, "Ceux qui nous quittent." 
 Paris, 1917. 
 
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