. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM
HEREWARD CARRINGTON
BF 1261 C318P 1920 00930180R
NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE
' SURGEON GENERAL'S OFFICE
IvIBRARY.
Section
No. 113, No. .^.J9f..M..
8-613
THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM
THE
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM
FRAUDULENT AND GENUINE
BEING A BRIEF ACCOUNT OP THE MOST IMPORTANT HISTORICAL PHENOMENA; A CRITICISM OP THEIR EVIDENTIAL VALUE, AND A COMPLETE EXPOSITION OF THE METH- ODS EMPLOYED IN FRAUDULENTLY REPRODUCING THE SAME.
BY
HEREWARD CARRINGTON. Ph.D.
Author of Modern Psychical Phenomena,'^ "Psychical Phenomena and the IFor," "The Coming Science,'" etc.
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD k COMPANY
1920
Copyright, 1907 By Herbkrt B. Turneh & Co.
CopyrigU, 1020 By Dodd, Mead & Compamy, Inc.
Third Edition
PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION
THIS book — which was first published in 1907, and which has been out of print for several years — is now re-issued, since I have felt that — owing to the widespread interest in psychical research at the present time, and the great number of persons who are visiting mediums, clairvoyants, astrologers, palmists, numerologists, etc., — it is high time that the warnings and advice contained in this book should again be placed before the public — by way of cautioning them against the too-ready acceptance of many of the "phenomena" which are produced at public seances, and offered in the name of "spiritualism."
The majority of sitters who attend seances are entirely unfitted either to judge the value of the evidence presented or to dis- tinguish fraudulent from genuine phenomena — and this is in no sense an insult to their intelligence. It is utterly impossible, as a rule, for the sitter — no matter how sceptical he may be — ^to detect many of these tricks, without a knowledge of the actual methods employed; for they are practically undetectable. Only a wide general knowledge of legerdemain and the psychology of deception will render this possible. The methods of trickery are so numerous and so clever, the daring and the ingenuity of the pseudo-medium are so remarkable, that it is small wonder that the average sitter fails to detect the modus operandi; and hence comes away convinced that he has, in truth, seen genuine "phenomena," whereas he has seen but clever tricks and blatant fraud. The actual methods which are resorted to, by fraudulent mediums, in order to produce these seeming "miracles," are herein explained in full.
The reader must not draw the conclusion, from all this, that the author is a confirmed sceptic, or a complete disbeliever in genuine phenomena. On the contrary, I am fully convinced that genuine physical phenomena — even materializations — occur in a genuine manner. I myself have seen such phenomena, beheld such materializations — but such phenomena are rare; and today I believe as fully as when I wrote this book that "ninety-eight percent of the physical phenomena are fraudulently produced," and on re-reading the book I find scarcely a sentence which I should wish to alter, or even modify, were I to write it today.
V
vi
Preface
This I say in spite of the fact that, since this book was first issued, I have seen Eusapia Palladino, and witnessed what I believe to be many genuine and remarkable physical manifesta- tions. In spite of that fact, I am as fully persuaded as ever that, if the reader insists upon running about, from one pro- fessional "physical medium" to another, he will encounter, in practically every case, precisely the sort of fraud herein described; and it is in the hope of warning him against this that the present volume is re-issued.
Two passages in the present book I should, however, wish to modify, in view of later developments. The first is that on pp. 11-14, relating to Eusapia Palladino. I now believe that the extremely sceptical tone adopted regarding this medium was unfounded. Nevertheless, in view of her undoubted fraud — especially in America — and my final words — "If Eusapia pos- sesses genuine mediumistic gifts, it ought only to be a matter of time and sufficiently careful experimenting in order to establish that fact" — I am glad to leave the passage as it stands — illus- trating as it does, my former sceptical but (I hope) open-minded attitude toward this case — which later personal investigations have led me to believe largely genuine.
The second reservation relates to the so-called "Blue Book," mentioned on pp. 314-16. Subsequent investigations conducted both by Dr. Hyslop and by myself have led me to believe that the evidence for the existence of such a "Blue Book" is extremely doubtful — though something of the sort unquestionably existed. The last word upon this subject has not, however, as yet been said !
I offer this new edition of my book to the public with the hope, and in the firm conviction, that "by clearing away many of the obstructions that exist — in the shape of fraudulent phenom- ena— this book may help to lay the foundations of such a science" — as Psychical Research.
H. C.
PREFACE
One or two words of a prefatory nature are necessitated by the publication of a book such as this. Many persons will doubtless consider it an unnecessary attack upon spirit- ualism and the spiritistic creed, but I beg to assure my readers that such is by no means the case. It is because I believe that such phenomena do occasionally occur, that I am anxious to expose the fraud connected with the subject, — since it is only by so doing that we can ever hope to reach the genuine phenomena which are to be studied. " Caution " is the most important factor in the investigation of all psychic and spiritualistic phenomena, and a knowledge of the fraudu- lent methods employed by mediums is of prime importance to the investigator of these problems.
The investigations of the Society for Psychical Research (hereinafter referred to, in this book, as the S. P. R.) have demonstrated the fact that supernormal phenomena do occur; but whether the " physical phenomena " are to be considered as such is a question that remains still undecided. Certain it is that much fraud exists in the production of spurious " marvels " of the kind, and the chief object of this book is to expose in full the methods that are employed in fraudu- lently reproducing the genuine phenomena — if genuine phenomena there be.
I have quoted extensively throughout from books on slciffht-of-hand, — since works of this character are not read as a rule by the public — even the interested public ; and especially from a work entitled The Revelations of a Spirit Medium, which contains much valuable information, but which is now practically unobtainable, owing to the fact that a certain number of spiritualists (with a genuine love
viii
Preface
for truth!) bought up and destroyed all the copies of this book — together with the plates — so that, unless one should be fortunate enough to possess a copy, it is unlikely that the book will ever make its way into the investigator's hands, and hence the contents be lost to the reading public forever. I make this my excuse for quoting from the book at greater length than is customary in such cases.
One word as to the arrangement of this book. Because it is divided so sharply into two sections — " The Fraudulent " and " The Genuine " — I do not thereby intend to assert dogmatically that all the phenomena mentioned in the first part are fraudulent, nor that all the cases quoted in the second part are genuine. My reason for dividing the book in this manner is to make (so far as the evidence seems to warrant) a tentative division of the phenomena into two classes — without thereby committing myself to belief, for or against, in either case — which question must be settled by the actual facts, in any event. The division is merely tentative, and made with the object of simplifying and clari- fying the problem, which is, at best, highly complex.
I wish to hereby acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor James H. Hyslop, to Miss Louise W. Kops, and to my friend, Mr. Herbert B. Turner, for much valuable assistance in the preparation of this work.
H. C.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Preface vii
Glossary xiii
PART I— The Fraudulent
I. The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism ... 3
II. The Slade - Zullner Investigation .... 19
TIT. The Psychology of Deception 48
IV. Table - turning and Table - lifting .... 64
V. Raps 77
VI. Slate -writing Tests 84
§ 1. Methods with a Single Slate (Prepared) . . 91
§ 2. Methods with a Single Slate (Unprepared) . . 102 § 3. Methods with a Double Slate (Prepared) . .118
§ 4. Methods with a Double Slate (Unprepared) . . 127
§ 5. Miscellaneous Tests 138
VII. Rope - tying Tests 143
VIII. "Spirit" Posts, Sacks, Handcuffs, Etc. . . . 168
IX. Holding Tests 186
X. Miscellaneous Physical Tests 196
XI. Spirit - photography 206
XII. The Paraffine Mould Test 224
XIII. Materialization 230
XIV. Materialization (continued) 255
XV. Sealed -letter Reading 276
XVI. Mind -READING Performances 291
XVII. Trance, "Test Seances," Etc 312
PART II— The Genuine
XVIII. General Observations 321
XIX. Raps 340
XX. Telekinesis 358
XXI. The Mediumship of D. D. Home :
§ 1. Miscellaneous Phenomena 372
§ 2. The Levitation 377
ix
X Contents
CHAPTEK PAOB
§ 3. Elongation 394
§ 4. Thk " Fire Tests " 399
XXII. Trance — The Case of Mrs. Piper 410
XXIII. Summary and Conclusion 415
Index 419
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
To face page
Obtaining Knots in Endless Cords 44
Obtaining Knots in Endless Cords {another method) ... 46
Trick-slates and Slate Manipulation 104
Rope-ties, Sacks, and Handcuffs 164
Releasing Hand from the Finger-hold 188
Releasing Hand from the Wrist-hold 190
Dr. Hodgson's Experimental Photograph 212
Imitation Spirit-photograph 214
Spirit-photo — Showing Marks of Manipulation .... 216
Alleged Spirit-photo — Containing Various Items of Interest 218
Trick-envelopes and Sealed-letter Tests 284
GLOSSARY
Automatism. Self-moved, automatic. An " automatism " generally signifies a movement made without conscious thought and will on the part of the person by whom such movement is made.
Clairvoyance. Literally " Clear Seeing." It signifies the supposed power, possessed by some persons, of viewing distant scenes as though present in the body ; or of beholding objects invisible to the normal eyesight.
Crystal- Gazing. The act of looking into a crystal glass ball, or other speculum, or reflecting surface, with the object of inducing hallucina- tory pictures. The person doing so is called a seer or scryer. The pictures, of course, exist in the mind and not in the crystal.
Levitation. a raising of objects from the ground by supposed supernor- mal means.
Premonition. A supernormal indication of any kind of event still in the future.
Parakinesis. The production of physical movements where the contact
observed is insufficient to account for them. Poltergeist. Literally, " Noisy Spirit." A house is said to be haunted
by a poltergeist when bells are rung, furniture upset, crockery broken,
etc., by no apparent, normal means. Retrocognition. Knowledge of the past, supernormally acquired. Subliminal. Of thoughts, feelings, etc., lying beneath the ordinary
threshold (limen) of consciousness, — as opposed to supraliminal,
lying above the threshold. Supernormal. Beyond the level of ordinary experience, — supplanting
the word " supernatural," which is held to be meaningless. Telekinesis. The alleged supernormal movements of objects, not due
to any known force. Telepathy. The communication of impressions of any kind from one
mind to another, independently of the recognized channels of sense. Tel.esthesia. Perception at a distance. Practically the same as clair- voyance.
Telurgy. a name for a hypothetical force or mode of action, concerned with the conveyance of telepathic impressions, and perhaps with other supernormal operation.
ziii
PART I THE FRAUDULENT
THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM
CHAPTER I
THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM
At the outset of our discussion, it is necessary that the terms used should be distinctly understood by the reader, and I must begin by calling attention to the difference between " spiritualism " and " spiritism," — which terms are made convertible in the minds of most persons. The word " spir- itualism " is really a philosophic term, meaning the opposite of materialism, and hence, strictly speaking, every one who is not a materialist is a spiritualist — but not necessarily a spiritist. The term " spiritism " means the communication of the living with the spirits of the departed — usually through an intermediary termed a " medium." Thus, a spiritist means one who believes that it is not only possible, but that it is an actual fact, that we can get into communica- tion with the spirits of the departed at seances, and at various other times, spontaneously. As a matter of fact, however, these distinctions are not preserved in the public mind, and the word " spiritualism " is used a synonymous with " spirit- ism." Hence, it is in this popular meaning of the term that the word is used throughout this book — the expression, " Modern Spiritualism " having become too deeply rooted in the language to be easily changed. It is accordingly treated, throughout this book, as implying spiritism, when
3
4 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
the term " spiritualism " is used, — unless it is otherwise stated.
Spiritualism, in the pure sense, has, of course, existed from the very earliest times. A most interesting resume of the beliefs of various ancient nations on this subject will be found in Elbe's Future Life in the Light of Ancient Wis- dom and Modern Science.^ " Modern Spiritualism," on the other hand, did not come into existence until 1847, when the " Rochester Knockings " startled the world, and founded a new era in the world's religious thought. The antecedents of spiritualism were, as Podmore clearly shows,^ the so-called " poltergeist " cases, on the one hand, and the early mes- merists, with their " clairvoyant " and " ecstatic " cases, on the other. These " poltergeist " cases I have briefly referred to on pp. 361-3; while a full account and discussion of the mesmeric side of the question will be found in Podmore's book, above referred to, Moll's Hypnotism, Braid's Hypnotism, and many other works of a kindred nature, in which the historic side of that question is thoroughly discussed.
It will now be seen that, if the definition of spiritualism given above is the true one (and I think it may be con- sidered so — one of the representative spiritualists writing: " By spiritism is meant a connection, or intercourse with the spiritual world "^), the theory and the philosophy of the belief have nothing whatever to do with physical phenomena — which, theoretically, belong to a different category alto- gether. Physical phenomena take place in, and belong to, the material world, and have nothing to do with communica- tion with a spirit-world. Many persons, seeing unaccount- able physical phenomena happening in their presence, are apt to attribute these movements or phenomena to the action of spirits — especially if intelligence is connected with the phenomena. They may or they may not be so caused, but the point to bear in mind is that, whether the explanation
' V. also Howitt, History of the Su-pernatural ; Ennermoser, History of Magic; Thompson, Proofs of Life after Death, etc.
* Modern Spiritualism. 2 vols.
* Spiritism, by Edelweiss, p. 54.
The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism 5
of these phenomena be spiritistic or physical, or whether they are ultimately shown to be nothing more than the results of fraud, that would not in the least influence the evidence for the existence of the spirit-world, — which evidence is obtained from mental and other tests, and hence their disproof would in no wise influence the central problem of spiritualism, — which is, as stated, the possibility of communication with the spirit-world, under certain circumstances and conditions. It is important that these facts should be kept carefully in mind, since it is necessary to impress upon the popular con- sciousness the fact that, even should the whole of the physical phenomena of spiritualism turn out to be nothing but fraud- ulent, it would in no wise influence the real problem at issue; the " real problem " yet remains, being altogether inde- pendent of the evidence aff'orded by the physical phenomena.
It is evident, therefore, that I cannot discuss at any length the " real problems " connected with spiritualism — the scientific proof of life after death — in a volume such as this. I have briefly discussed this evidence on pp. 410-14, and there referred to those passages in other books and publications where the evidence will be found very fully discussed. The object of the present volume is, of course, to consider those physical phenomena which — rightly or wrongly — have been attributed to spirit agency by thousands of persons who have witnessed them: to con- sider their character, the historical evidence in their favor, as well as that which tends to show that all these phenomena are the results of fraud, and are seldom or never genuine in character; and, finally, to show the actual methods that are employed by fraudulent mediums in producing the phenom- ena by that means. I hope that, by describing the actual methods in considerable detail, I shall, in some degree, fill a gap in the history of the subject, which has too long stood empty. My book differs from that of Mr. Podmore in that he showed, in that work, how certain phenomena might have been produced, on certain historical occasions; while I have confined myself, almost entirely, to showing how these phenomena actually are done on a great number of
6 The Physical Phenomena of SpirituaHsm
occasions — from which the reader may, if he choose, draw his own conclusions about the possibility of the liistoric phe- nomena having been done in the manner described, or in some very similar manner. I have undertaken to criticize, in some detail, one or two of the most famous historical cases (pp. 19- 47), but have confined myself entirely to the description of the fraudulent methods employed, a task for which I am, per- haps, because of long training in these lines, entitled to dis- cuss most fully. In the present volume, therefore, the prime object has been, throughout, to give a clear and a detailed description of the methods employed by f raudulent mediums ; and it is hoped that this part of the work will be of assistance to the investigator by placing him on his guard against the various methods by which the medium usually tricks his unwary sitters.
Turning, now, for the moment, to the historical side of this question, we find that there is scarcely a medium pro- ducing physical phenomena who has not, at one time or an- other, been exposed in the grossest kind of fraud, and that the whole history of the subject — so far as the physical phenomena are concerned — is bespattered with evidences of fraud, and the worst " moral mud " and intellectual mire im- aginable! It presents an almost unbroken chain of evidence, showing that fraud and nothing but fraud has been prac- tised throughout, by mediums; and presenting scarcely any evidence whatever that they are ever genuine, or did really happen, as stated. Mr. Podmore's book, so often quoted, may be referred to, in proof of these assertions. We find that, in practically all cases that have been recorded, fraud has afterward been proved to exist; or the nature of the evidence is such as to strongly suggest that fraud was em- ployed, — only undetected. Let us glance, very briefly, at a few of the historical cases, by way of illustrating the statements here made.
To go back to the historic cases of " clairvoyance," it is certain that the evidence is, in almost all of these cases, most defective, and that the experiments were conducted under con- ditions which the average psychical researcher of to-day would
The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism 7
deem anything but " good conditions " — the natural igno- rance of the laws of conscious and unconscious suggestion frequently discrediting the cases — as affording any evidence for the supernormal. " Burdin, a member of the Academy (of Medicine) offered a prize of three thousand francs to any one who could read without the use of the eyes. The offer was open for two years and subsequently the time was extended. Considering the large number who had claimed this power, few offered themselves for examination; and these either clearly failed to meet the test (being detected in the manipulation of the bandage, and the hke), or those who had the somnambulists in charge refused to conform to the conditions required by the examiners; and so the prize was never awarded." ^
Doctor Hodgson, a man who has done more than any other in the detection and exposure of fraudulent mediums, conclusively proved that it is almost an impossibility to blindfold a shrewd person so that he cannot see a little from under the bandage.^ As this very limited amount of vision was all that was required, in the vast majority of cases, it is certain that the evidence for these cases is slight indeed, the testimony of the Seybert Commission going far to prove the statements here made.^
Those mediums who undertook to read sealed letters, etc., have all been detected in fraud at one time or another; while the great number of methods that could be employed, in order to deceive the sitter, would render it next to impossible for him to detect the method employed, — unless well in- formed of the possibilities of fraud in this particular field. The medium who gained the greatest reputation in this line was Charles H. Foster, a full account of whose life and doings will be found in a book entitled The Salem Seer, by George C. Bartlett. Though the author of this book is evi- dently a firm believer in the powers of Mr. Foster, it may be said that the cases he narrates are very easy to explain
* Fcu;t and Fahle in Psychology, p. 205. 'Journal S. P. R., Vol. I., pp. 84-6. » Report, pp. 128-47,
8 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
as the result of trickery with one or two exceptions. The accounts of seances held with Foster, printed in Owens Debatable Land, pp. 386-390, 443-7, are again anything but convincing, and clearly show that, although Mr. Owen was doubtless a clever man and a fine collector of evidence for the supernormal, he was anything but a good ob- server.
That Foster was an impostor there can be no doubt. A careful perusal of many of the reports of seances strongly suggests this, in the first place; and when we read the accounts of the seances held with him by John W. Truesdell there can remain no doubt in the average person's mind that Foster was nothing more than a clever trickster. Mr. Trues- dell was, in fact, enabled to see the actual method that Foster employed, in reading his sitter's ballot, under his very nose, and thus interestingly describes the process in his Spiritual- ism, Bottom Facts, pp. 137-8:
" I had noticed at each interview that Mr. Foster, who is an inveterate smoker, had a great deal of trouble to keep his cigar alight. Half a dozen times, during each sitting, he would strike a match, and, holding it in a peculiar manner, as if he was in the open air, where a strong wind was blow- ing, would take a whiff or two, and then allow the cigar to go out again. After carefully comparing notes with several reliable persons, who had held seances with the same medium, I came to the conclusion, deducted from their experience as well as my own, that Mr. Foster invariably changed the bal- lots, and that, while the duplicate blanks lay upon the table before his victims, and he was engaged in the troublesome task of relighting his cigar, he was, at the same time, read- ing, by the aid of the very match so carelessly employed, an open ballot held in the palm of his right hand ! "
Mr. Truesdell then goes on to describe how, suspecting the manner that Foster accomplished this test, he, at the next sitting, suddenly seized the five ballots lying on the table before him, and found every one of them to be a blank — though they were, of course, supposed to be the ones con- taining the questions his sitter had written on the pellets.
The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism 9
That the ballots had been substituted was, therefore, clear. Apparently, Foster then broke down and confessed the whole trick,^ as Slade did at a later date (p. 23).
I have referred thus at length to the case of Foster be- cause I do not remember having read an expose of this me- dium's operations, outside of Truesdell's book — which is now out of print and scarce. Moreover, the " ballot test " is one very frequently employed by mediums to-day, and it is as well to point out the fact that the medium who gained the reputation of being the greatest medium in the world, in this particular line, was a fraud! Various other methods of reading ballots, sealed letters, etc., will be found on pp. 276-90.
There can be no doubt, then, that the history of spiritual- ism is saturated with fraud, and that the vast majority of the phenomena obtained through mediums are fraudulent in character. A very fine resume of the credulity on the one hand, and knavish trickery on the other (so common a few years ago), will be found in Mr. F. W. H. Myers's paper on "Resolute Credulity," in Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. XI., pp. 213-34. There is also a very interesting article on " Spurious Mediumship " in Journal S. P. R., Vol. III., pp. 199-207. The net result of the investigations conducted by the Society for Psychical Research was to produce the con- viction that no results obtained through professional mediums were to be trusted, so long as the conditions rendered fraud possible; and, further, that practically all professional mediums are frauds ! " There does not exist, and there never has existed, a professional medium of any note who has not been convicted of trickery or fraud," says J. N. Maskelyne.^ And, in case Mr. Maskelyne may be considered a preju- diced witness in such matters, it may be stated that the Amer- ican S. P. R. was unable to find any medium who could pro- duce satisfactory phenomena under test conditions, and stated that " it is, in their opinion, inadvisable to undertake further investigation in regard to professional paid materializing mediums, inasmuch as all the materializing seances yet at- ' Bottom Facts, pp. 140-1. * The Supernatural? p. 183.
10 The Physical Phenomena of SpiritiiaHsm
tended by them Imve been held under conditions which ren- dered any scientific investigation impossible." ^ A very fine letter on "Professional Mediumship " — which is of much interest f rom the psychological point of view — will be found in the Journal S. P. R., Vol. III., pp. 120-8. But the most convincing testimony, in this direction, is that supplied by the author of The Revelations of a Spirit Medium, — who, after all the actual contact he must have had w ith mediums, as one of them, can write: "Of all the mediums he (the author) has met, in eighteen years, and that means a great many, in all phases, he has never met one that was not sailing the very same description of craft as himself. Every one; no exception" (p. 95). And on p. 322 occurs the following sentence:
"... His own career and the fact that he has met no other professional medium, male or female, in his long expe- rience and extensive travels, who were not ' crooked,' leads him to the conclusion that, from the professional, you are to expect nothing genuine."
Whether these statements are accepted as true or not, cer- tain it is that the history of the physical phenomena of spir- itualism bears them out to a remarkable degree. Especially is this obvious whenever the mediums came into contact with members of the S. P. R. ; when more exact conditions and careful " tests " were insisted upon. It may almost be said that the S. P. R. has never succeeded in obtaining evidence for a single genuine physical phenomenon in its whole career, while the number of fraudulent mediums it has unearthed is amazing! They have been no more successful in their day than the Seybert Commission was in its — and it is certainly a suspicious fact that, so soon as strict and reliable " tests " are insisted upon, and no opportunity given the medium to produce the phenomena by fraudulent means, the phe- nomena altogether cease! The inadequacy of the tests upon which the average spiritualist was wont to rely has now clearly been proved ; and, if no phenomena are ever forth- coming, under conditions that would preclude the possibility * Amer. Proceedings S. P. R., p. 230.
The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism 11
of fraud, the physical phenomena of spiritualism must always rest under the cloud of the blackest suspicion.
The newer evidence, indeed, is precisely on a par with the old, the same uncertainty being present. Let us take, for example, the case of Eusapia Paladino.
I cannot now stop to consider at length the history of the Paladino case — interesting as that case is, in more than one respect: a very brief resume must here suffice. (For a detailed account of this medium's career, v. Podmore's Mod- ern Spiritualism, Vol. II., pp. 198-203, etc.) This medium, Eusapia Paladino, has been investigated almost entirely by European savants, — no Americans nor Englishmen having had an opportunity to observe the phenomena occurring in her presence, except in the " Cambridge Sittings," to be mentioned presently. Outside of the S. P. R. investigations, this medium's career has been one of almost uninterrupted triumph. She succeeded in convincing the Continental sa- vants who investigated her powers, that genuine phenomena were produced in her presence, and I think I am right in asserting that the majority of them still continue to think so — despite the supposed exposure at Cambridge. The majority of the reports are to be found in the Annales des Sciences Psychiques; a review of M. Richet's " Notes," " Experiences de Milan," and the " Milan Commission " will be found in Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IX., pp. 218- 25. The phencMnena occurring in this medium's presence were most striking — mostly telekinetic phenomena of a re- markable type, apparently — and baffled all those who wit- nessed them; nor could they, in any way, account for them by fraud. So important did the S. P. R. and the Continental scientists consider this case, indeed, that M. Richet invited Professor Oliver J. Lodge, Mr. Myers, and Professor J. Ochorowicz (the author of a very remarkable work on Mental Suggestion, among others) to visit him at his own house, on the He Roubaud, a small island in the INIediter- ranean. On this lonely island, a new scries of experiments was conducted, the net result of which was to convince all those present of the reality of the phenomena. A full Report
12 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
of these sittings was afterward printed in the Journal S. P. R., Vol. VI., pp. 306-60 ; and very extraordinary they appear. Doctor Hodgson, however, " returned to the charge," and, in a very remarkable paper, pubHshed in the Jcmrnal, Vol. VII., pp. 36-55, he pointed out what he con- sidered many defects in, the evidence, and asserted that the whole of the phenomena were probably due to fraud and fraud alone. His criticism of the Reports is detailed and, as stated, very remarkable. It brought forth replies from the four in- vestigators whose Reports were criticized' — Messrs. Myers, Lodge, Richet, and Ochorowicz all replying in detail to Doctor Hodgson's criticisms (pp. 55-79). The replies did not convince Doctor Hodgson, however, who still contended that fraud was practised, and that the Reports pubhshed were not convincing. A discussion ensued, the outcome of which was that Doctor Hodgson went to England, and there took part in the famous " Cambridge Sittings." In these. Doctor Hodgson succeeded in discovering the manner in which the medium was in the habit of releasing one of her hands; and showed that — so far as that series of sittings went, at any rate — fraud and trickery were practised, and was thus enabled to account for all the phenomena then wit- nessed. " Mr. and Mrs. Myers, Miss Johnson, Mrs. Sidg- wick, and myself (Professor Sidgwick), as well as Doctor Hodgson, unanimously adopted the conclusion that nothing but trickery had been at work in the Cambridge series of experiments." ^
The S. P. R. consequently decided to " drop " Eusapia, and to have nothing more to do with her. She had been detected in trickery, and, according to the standards of the Society, that was enough to condemn her from future pub- licity, so far as they were concerned. In one sense, this is a very wise course to pursue, since the eyes of the scientific world are centred on the S. P. R., and it is impossible for them to make any exception to their high standards of evi- dence, without damaging their reputation, as a scientific society. On the other hand, this course was a very unfor- » Journal, Vol. VII., p. 159.
The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism 13
tunate one, since the Continental investigators, convinced that the medium did not always practise fraud of the kind dis- covered by Doctor Hodgson, continued their researches, and (apparently) showed that phenomena were produced when trickery was not possible — at least trickery of the sort Doctor Hodgson detected. So strong was this new evidence, indeed, that Mr. Myers and Professor Lodge retracted their former beliefs, and became more than ever convinced that supernormal phenomena did occasionally happen in Eusa- pia's presence, while perfectly willing to admit that fraud had been practised at Cambridge, and would account for all the phenomena there witnessed.^ The Continental observers were also convinced anew that supernonnal phenomena oc- curred in Eusapia's presence.
A lengthy criticism of the Hodgson (Cambridge) sittings is to be found in Doctor Maxwell's Metapsychical Phenomena, in which he states that Doctor Hodgson discovered nothing that was not already known to the Continental savants; but that his " explanation " had been found by them inadequate to cover all the facts. He criticizes the position of the S. P. R. with some bitterness, and ends by asserting that, " My testimony contradicts formally and explicitly the conclusions of the Cambridge investigators. Eusapia does not always defraud; with us, she rarely defrauded" (p. 417). When this book was reviewed for the Proceedings, Miss Johnson added am editorial " Note," replying to some of Doctor Max- well's criticisms, and pointed out that it was only after the me- dium has refused to submit to any of the conditions proposed, that they adopted the course they did (of allowing her " free play," so to speak, and catching her in the act of producing the phenomena fraudulently, — ^ rather than controlling her so that their production was impossible), and this course was pursued because of the fraud they felt was being prac- tised.^
And thus the matter stands — one-half of the world con- vinced that Eusapia is a fraud, and the other half convinced that the phenomena witnessed in her presence are genuine ! » Journal, Vol. IX., p. 35. » Proceedings, Vol. XVIII., p. 501.
14 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
What the ultimate verdict will be it is hard to foresee, but it is certain that the case, as it stands, is not convincing to the scientific world, and fresh evidence must be forthcoming if the case is ever to be decided in her favor. If Eusapia possesses genuine mediumistic gifts, it ought only to be a matter of time and sufficiently careful experimenting in order to establish that fact.
It is unnecessary for me to consider the evidence for the supernormal in the case of William Stainton Moses, — for the reason that this survey work has already been done with admirable care and discretion by Mr. Myers and Mr. Pod- more, the one arguing for the genuineness of the phenom- ena, the other against their reality — or at least against any interpretation of them which would render it necessary to suppose any supernormal powers at work.^
Briefly, the case is this: A minister, a teacher in one of London's largest public schools, a gentleman of refinement in every way, suddenly finds himself gifted with remarkable qualities which he discovers are mediumistic in character, — though he has never taken any interest in the subject hereto- fore — except, indeed, to be rather annoyed and bored by it ! The phenomena occurring in his presence were, inter alia, telekinesis, " apports," levitation, musical sounds, lights, — in fact, practically the whole range of mediumistic phenom- ena. If these phenomena were genuine, his is undoubtedly the most remarkable case on record. Unfortunately, it can now never be settled whether they were genuine or not, for the reason that Mr. Moses shrank from all publicity in the matter, allowing none to attend his seances but a few per- sonal friends, and refusing to submit to any " test con- ditions," such as were imposed on public mediums. Certainly Mr. Moses did not produce the phenomena in the usual
'See Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IX., pp. 245-354, and Vol. XI., pp. 24-114; Studies in Psychical Research, pp. 116-33; Podmore's Modern Spiritualism, Vol. II., pp, 280-8; Journal S. P. R., passim; Spirit Teach- ings; Spirit Identity; Lilley's Modern Mystics and Modern Magic- Human Personality, Vol. II., pp. 223-37, 540-1, 546-9, 551-4, 583-7, etc. The case will be found discussed at great length in the above mentioned works.
The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism 15
fraudulent manner — his social position, both public and private, forbids our considering such a thing for a moment. His object was certainl}^ not notoriety, for the full accounts of his seances were never published during his hfetime, but were edited and published by Mr. Myers after his death. If he had sought notoriety, he certainly would have publicly proclaimed his mediumship, and published an account of his seances during his life; and that is the only conceivable rea- son for producing the phenomena by fraud — if they were so produced. Mr. Moses' private character had always been irreproachable and he was beloved by all who knew him. There is, of course, the possibility that the sitters, and the medium, too, were hallucinated at some of these seances ; but then again the nature of the evidence prevents us from ac- cepting this as the true explanation of phenomena that oc- curred. The case is a most baffling one, and deserves the reader's careful perusal. As Andrew Lang said, the choice of beliefs is between " the moral and the physical miracle," and, like him, " I can accept neither " — I am content to have no explanation at all. I cannot conceive that the phe- nomena were fraudulently produced by Mr. Moses; and, on the other hand, I cannot conceive that the phenomena were genuine! The value of the evidence in the case must be estimated by each individual for himself ; it proves nothing to those who do not know Mr. Moses, or the phenomena, for the simple reason that no " test conditions " were ever allowed to be imposed upon the medium. There the matter stands.
I wish to add a few words to clear away, if possible, the great misunderstandings that exist in the pubhc mind as to the relations of the S. P. R. and the Theosophical Society. It must be understood that, although the present relations of the two societies are anything but pleasant and friendly, they were not always so by any means — quite the con- trary. Colonel Olcott clearly shows in his Old Diary Leaves that Mme. Blavatsky was at one time a sincere spiritualist (or at least sincerely interested in the subject), and was in
16 The Physical Phenomena of Spirituahsm
close touch with the S. P. R. during its early progress. Mr. Sinnett, Doctor Hartmann, and others were, in fact, mem- bers of the Society, and in hearty sympathy with its general aims and methods. The first Report issued by the Society was, if anything, most favorable in its tone, — rather assum- ing the genuineness of the phenomena recorded — pointing out the close relation and correspondence of these phenomena with apparitions and other kindred phenomena which the Society was investigating; and, while the Report was en- tirely unbiassed one way or the other, it inclined to the atti- tude of belief rather than to that of skepticism. This Report was privately printed for circulation among members of the Society, however, and is now quite out of print and unobtain- able. The point I wish to make clear is that the initial atti- tude of the Society toward the recorded phenomena was that of scrupulous fairness and impartiality.
Their sincerity should be apparent from the very fact of their sending Doctor Hodgson to India to investigate the phenomena at first hand, for it is hardly likely that they would have done so if they had thought the phenomena any- thing but of the very greatest importance. Doctor Hodg- son spent three months in India, investigating these reported phenomena with the greatest care, at first hand, and it was his entirely unfavorable and smashing Report that made the S. P. R. change its attitude toward the phenomena, and pro- claim its belief that they were nothing but cleverly devised tricks, the supposed phenomena being produced by trickery from start to finish. The detailed Report may be read in full in Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. HI., pp. 201-400. I would refer my readers to that Report for all particulars. Natu- rally, this caused a great stir in the ranks of the Theoso- phists. Mr. Sinnett resigned from the S. P. R., and wrote a pamphlet, The Occult World Phenomena and the Society for Psychical Research, in which he attacked the Report fiercely, and was backed up by Mrs. Annie Besant, and other Theoso- phists of less note. This called forth a reply from Doctor Hodgson, in which he reviewed these criticisms, and, to the mind of most persons (not Theosophists), literally tore them
The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism 17
to pieces. His paper, " The Defence of the Theosophists,'* will be found in Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IX., pp. 129-59. This article was never answered satisfactorily by any Theoso- phist, and there the S. P. R. let the matter drop, feeling that any further evidence of fraud was unnecessary, and re- fused to occupy itself any longer with phenomena that had long ago been shown to be fraudulent.
I say the Society let the matter rest there. Other individ- uals, however, continued to publish damning evidence, which completed the story, so far as the phenomena were concerned. This evidence will be found in The Religio-Philosophical Journal (Aug. 10 - Sept. 7, 1889); A Modern Priestess of Isis, by V. S. SolovyofF ; Isis Very Much Unveiled, by Edmund Garrett, and other publications. These conclusively prove to any sane mind, it seems to me, that the phenomena obtained in Mme. Blavatsky's presence, in India, were fraud and nothing but fraud.^
Now, the point I wish to impress particularly upon my reader is this: That the S. P. R. has no quarrel whatever with the Theosophical Society, except in regard to the phe- nomena. The " philosophy of Theosophy," so to speak, may be true or false — that is of no interest to the Society, and it has never concerned itself with it. The attack of the S. P. R. was levelled entirely against the phenomena observed, and not at all against the philosophical system that Theos- ophy taught; and that is the fact which the public has never, apparently, grasped. The phenomena and the philosophy must be kept strictly separate, and the man-in-the-street may accept every word of the Society's Report as truth, and yet continue to believe in the philosophy. To be sure, it would be very illogical for him to do so, since the philosophy is,
' I suggested what seemed to me a possible explanation of some of the " Mahatma Miracles " in a magazine devoted to the interests of the con- juring fraternity, entitled Mahatma (Vol. III., No, 3), part of my criti- cism being quoted in an article in The Cosmopolitan Magazine for Decem- ber, 1899. I had not at that time read Doctor Hodgson's Report in the Proceedings ; when I had done so I saw that my (hypnotic) explanation was not needed — simple trickery accounting for the whole of the ob- Berved phenomena. I now beg to withdraw, consequently, the explana- tion I there put forward, and to state that I no longer consider it the correct one.
18 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
in a sense, inseparably bound up with the phenomena, and dependent upon them ; but, nevertheless, he would be quite at hberty to believe it if he saw fit. The position of the average person, who has carefully studied the evidence m the case, will probably be well summed up in the following quotation from Doctor Hodgson's paper, in Proceedings, Vol. IX., above referred to, which deserves wider publicity. It is:
" In a final word I must remind my readers that I have been dealing in this paper, as I have dealt throughout, with the phenomena alleged by Madame Blavatsky in support of the tenets which she preached, and not with those tenets themselves. Of those streams of superhuman knowledge I will only say that I prefer to tap them at least one stage nearer their fountain-heads. I lay claim to no vast erudition. But the sources which were good enough for Mme. Blavatsky are good enough for me; and so long as Bohn's Classical Library and Triibner's Oriental Library are within reach of a modest purse, I shall prefer to draw on these useful repertoires for my ideas of Platonic and Buddhistic thought, — even though I should thus be obliged to receive those ideas in a bald, old-fashioned shape, un- spiced with fraudulent marvels, and uncorroborated by the forged correspondence of fictitious Teachers of Truth."
CHAPTER II
THE SLADE - ZOLLNEU INVESTIGATION
The whole history of modern spiritualism presents three, and only three, cases of remarkable physical manifestations such as cannot, very readily, be accounted for by fraud, by one or the other of the devices and methods described in this book. These three cases present many remarkable phenomena, and it is necessary that they should be considered in a work of this character at some length. I refer to the accounts of phenomena published by Doctor Hare, Professor Zollner, and Sir William Crookes. Sir William Crookes's experiments will be found noticed at some length on pp. 372-409. The experiments of Doctor Hare I must also pass over with a mere mention, and this for two reasons: first, because of lack of space to consider them in the detail that would be necessary ; and, second, because they are not really worth this detailed examination. I agree with Doctor Hyslop in his opinion that " Hare's experiments . . . were not so good as Zollner's," ^ and with Mr. Podmore when he wrote, " Doctor Hare does not seem to have realized the possibility of fraud . . . and the character of his book generally, con- sisting as it does largely of dissertations on theology and cosmology, founded on spirit revelations, is not such as to in- spire confidence in his judgment."^ While, therefore, I do not deny the value of the evidence collected and presented by Professor Hare, it will be more profitable for us to examine the more scientific and terse accounts of the phenomena wit-
' Borderland of Psychical Research, p. 237. 'Studies in Psychical Research, p. 49.
19
20 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
nessed by Professor Zollncr. This I shall accordingly pro- ceed to do in some detail — since it is necessary that the chief historic phenomena should receive a careful and critical ex- amination, in the light of the fraud and possibilities of fraud which this book lays bare.
Zollncr's accounts of his seances will be found in his book, Transcendental Physics (translated by C. C. Massoy), in which Professor Zollner, in addition to recording the phenom- ena that occurred at the seances, attempted to demonstrate his theory of " space of four dimensions." This theory he adopted in order to explain the phenomena observed in the presence of the medium, and it may be said frankly that that is as likely a theory as any other, — provided the facts are such, in reality, and not mere frauds. There is nothing inherently impossible in the theory ; ^ the only thing lacking is the evidence of its reality ! The question, then, before us is, as usual, are the phenomena facts, or are they merely the simulation of the facts they appear to be? That can only be settled by a careful examination of the evidence in the case since we cannot, unfortunately, repeat the phenomena at this late date. We can only carefully study the records that are left us, and see whether their perusal points to the fact that the phenomena observed were genuine, or whether they were merely clever tricks ; — the result of the medium having deceived the investigator, and caused him to believe that the phenomena really occurred, as reported. The medium, in this case, was none other than " Dr." Henry Slade ; and we must, accordingly, hastily glance at this medium's previous history, in order to get a clue to the personality of the man we are considering.
The career of Slade, outside of the Zollner sittings, was indeed not creditable. A brief resume of this medium's ex- ploits will be found in Podmore's Modern Spiritualism, Vol. II., pp. 87-90. The Ray Lankester prosecution, which neces- sitated Slade leaving England in a hurry, was a heavy blow to his reputation. Mrs. Sidgwick, further, had ten seances with Slade, the general net impression of which was to make 1 V. The Seven Follies of Science, by John Phin, pp. 117-25.
The Slade - Zollner Investigation 21
her feel that " the phenomena are produced by tricks." ^ The investigations of the Seybert Commission were not only unsatisfactory — being given under no real " test " condi- tions,^ — but the actual process of reading and answering the messages were distinctly seen by the sitters on several occasions. " Every step in the process," says the Report, pp. 11-12, "we have distinctly seen. In order to seize the fragment of pencil without awakening suspicion, while hold- ing the slate under the table, the slate is constantly brought out to see whether or not the spirits have written an answer. By this manoeuvre a double end is attained: First, it creates an atmosphere of expectation, and the sitters grow accus- tomed to a good deal of motion in the medium's arm that holds the slate ; and secondly, by these repeated motions, the pencil (which, having been cut out from a slate pencil en- closed in wood, is square, and does not roll about awk- wardly) is moved by the successive jerks toward the hand which holds the slate, and is gradually brought up to within grasping distance. The forefinger is then passed over the frame of the slate, and it and the thumb seize and hold the pencil, and, under cover of some violent convulsive spasms, the slate is turned over and the question read. At this point it is that the medium shows his nerve; it is the critical in- stant, the only one when his eyes are not fastened on his sitters. On one occasion, when the question was written somewhat illegibly in a back hand, with a very light stroke, and close to the upper edge of the slate, the medium had to look at it three several times before he could make it out.
" After reading the question, it may be noticed that Doctor Slade winks three or four times rapidly ; this may have been partly to veil from his visitors the fact that he had been looking intently downward, and partly through mental ab- straction in devising an answer. He evidently breathes freer when this crisis is past."
But the most conclusive evidence of fraud, in the case of Doctor Slade, is probably that furnished by Truesdell, ^Proceedings, Vol. IV., p. 56. ^Report, pp. 56-9.
22 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
in his Spiritualism, Bottom Facts. Here we read that the author detected Slade producing " telekinetic " phenomena with his foot (p. 145); that he saw the movements of the tendons in Slade's wrists when he (Slade) was doing the writing (p. 146) ; that, by purposely leaving a forged letter in his overcoat pocket, he thereby deceived Slade — receiving messages from the supposedly dead friends and relatives of this non-existent person (p. 150-1 ) ; he tells how he discov- ered a slate in the corner of the medium's seance-room con- taining a message already written out, waiting for some future sitter to receive it (p. 151)! and how, finally, Slade made a full confession to him, evidently stating, under bond of secrecy, just how all his manifestations were produced (pp. 156-7). This confession is most remarkable and apparently little known, though it is not the only one that Slade ever made. Mr. Furness stated to the Seybert Com- mission (p. 70), that when last he saw Slade in Boston, " he eagerly beckoned me to come in, and, as I settled myself in a chair, I said to him : ' Well, and how are the old spirits coming on ? ' Whereupon he laughed and replied, * Oh, pshaw ! you never believed in them, did you ? ' "
Going back to Truesdell's exposure of this medium, we read that on several occasions Slade's foot was seen in the act of producing movements of objects and other phenomena under the table (pp. 286-9) ; and, at another time, of how the writer shared his bed, and caught Slade in the act of producing manifestations of various kinds — including touches — with his feet! When both his legs were held fast to the bed, by means of his companion's legs being placed across both of them, and his two hands held at the same time, no phenomena of any sort followed !
In relation to the slate-writing phenomena, I cannot re- frain from quoting the following passage, which is, to my mind, one of the most amusing passages in the whole history of the subject — though many funny things have happened at the various exposures ! Truesdell had entered Slade's seance-room, and found it empty. In one corner he found, however, a slate, upon which was a message already pre-
The Slade - Zollner Investigation
23
pared, as before stated. Picking up this slate, the future sitter wrote, under the first message, the words : " Henry ! look out for this fellow — he is up to snufF! Alcinda." (This was the name of Slade's deceased wife.) Soon after this the worthy doctor appeared, and the usual seance was given. Then came the climax ! After describing the prepa- rations for slate-writing, etc., as usual, he goes on: "A mo- ment later the table began to tremble violently, and Slade appeared much agitated, when we distinctly heard the spirits writing upon the slate ! The sound was unmistakable ; even the crossings of the t's and the dottings of the i's could be easily distinguished. This was the grandest victory of my life ! Inaudibly I exclaimed, * Eureka ! Eureka ! ' After years of fruitless search for proof of the immortality of man, at last I had found it! There we were, face to face, as it were, with our spirit friends, communicating with them as in earth life, with the unimpeachable testimony of our eyes and ears to establish the fact. At the conclusion of the writing, the doctor raised the slate and turned it over in a triumphant manner, when his eyes fell upon the two messages. He seemed appalled! Had a thunderbolt from heaven fallen at his feet, he could not have been more astonished. For several minutes he continued to gaze upon the slate in blank amazement — then, suddenly turning to me, his countenance livid with rage and excitement, he exclaimed, ' What does this mean ? Who has been meddling with this slate.? ' ' Spirits,' I coolly repHed. A moment later this manipulator of unseen forces was as mellow as a ripe apple. Fully and freely we conversed together for an hour or more upon the all-important subject of my visit. If I had heretofore been suspicious of the doctor, now every shadow of doubt was expelled! The science of spiritualism was more thoroughly discussed between us than I had ever before heard it, — the doctor taking especial pains to explain to me many of the mysterious methods adopted by the spirits in order to reach those who are yet in the phys- ical form. . . ." And so on, with delightful irony. Indeed, the book is written with such a tremendous amount of veiled
24 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
sarcasm that many persons doubt if the author really believes what he says, or not !
It will be seen from all the foregoing, therefore, that the previous career of Slade was anything but free from sus- picion— actual fraud having been proved against him in many instances. Such a record would naturally make us sus- pect that such a medium would not be likely to produce gen- uine phenomena — at least if there is the least possible loop- hole left open by which trickery could be practised. In con- sidering the Zollner seances, however, we must not let these considerations warp our judgment, for two reasons: partly because mediums who produce genuine phenomena on occa- sion also cheat at times, if the phenomena fail to occur, — as has now been abundantly proved ; and partly because we must consider every phenomenon that is presented for our consideration, in the domain of psychical research, as though it were an isolated phenomenon, independent from any that have gone before, or any that are to follow after. Each phenomenon must be judged on its own merit, that is; and, in the Slade-Zollner investigation, we must accordingly set aside all the previous testimony for or against Slade, and examine the seances themselves as though they were the only ones recorded. The extent to which the previous history should influence our minds is this : that, if the opportunity of fraud is shown to exist, and the only bar to the assumption that the medium did produce the manifestation in that way is the moral objection (as in the Moses case), then we must be willing to set that consideration aside, as valueless, and as constituting no valid evidence in favor of the genuineness of the phenomena.
I must confine myself to a very brief resume of the experi- ments mentioned in the book, and shall choose those which are the most extraordinary, and apparently the hardest to ac- count for by normal means. At least this will not bring upon me the charge of being unfair, in my handling of the case, for it may fairly be said that if the most extraordinary phenomena can be accounted for and explained (as fraudu-
The Slade - Zollner Investigation 25
lent), then, surely, the more simple experiments of the same order may well be explained in a similar manner.
The experiments with the slate need not detain us long. Slade used the method of writing described on p. 104, beyond a doubt — though he often used other methods too. The tests described on p. 60, and elsewhere throughout the book, are easily explainable by some one of the methods described in this volume, and the evidence all goes to show that Slade did actually use the methods described. Mr. Carl Willmann, a manufacturer of magical apparatus at Ham- burg, made a careful examination of Slade's double slate, and found that the seals were not by any means in so perfect a condition as has been supposed, and aroused strong sus- picions that the seals had, in fact, been tampered with. He found that while, to a superficial examination, the seals ap- peared perfect, yet a closer examination showed the unmis- takable evidences of finger-prints, and Mr. Willmann sug- gests that the slates were opened by means of a thin, heated wire, which was passed under the seals on the slates — the seals being afterward replaced. The examination he was enabled to make strongly suggested that this was, in fact, the method used. An illustration of this process will be found in The Old and the New Magic (p. xxvi), where many valuable criticisms of these experiments are published, — to some of which I shall have occasion to refer later.
The experiments with the compass are interesting, and, while they are not difficult to explain as the result of trickery, if we assume a certain amount of malobservation on the part of Zollner (which we are entitled to assume, as we shall presently see), they are the only ones that would seem to in- dicate that Slade did, in reality, possess some supernormal power. The experiment tried was the following:
"... Arrived at my dwelling, my friend asked whether I had a compass at hand. I brought a celestial globe in the stand, to which a compass was fixed, and placed it on the table. At our request, Slade moved his hand horizontall}' across the closely fitted glass cover of the magnet case. The needle remained immovable, and I concluded from this that
26 The Pliysical Phenomena of Spirituahsm
Slade had no magnet concealed beneath his skin. On a sec- ond trial, which was made immediately afterward, in the manner stated, the needle was violently agitated in a way which could only be the result of strong magnetic power,'' (pp. 52-3). On p. 62 Zollner gives an account of some experiments in which a knitting-needle was immediately mag- netized when placed on a slate — the slate being held under the table by Slade " in the usual manner as for writing. " (See also the account on p. 50.)
It is not hard to conceive that Slade had the opportunity to exchange this needle for another which was magnetized, at the time the slate was held beneath the table; nor that Slade carried a magnet about with him after the first day of such experiments (when he found out the sort of tests to which Zollner intended to subject him), and that he found an opportunity to use this magnet to good advantage dur- ing the course of the experiment. It may be said, in fairness to Slade, however, that this experiment may have been per- fectly free from fraud, since the same effects have been ob- served elsewhere, apparently, where no professional medium was concerned. Reichenbach obtained some very similar results with his " sensitives ; " and there is a case recorded in the Journal S. P. R., Vol. I., pp. 254-6, which would seem to confirm the results obtained by Zollner. As, however, these results have not been duplicated of late years (so far as my information goes), and as it is not hard to account for the experiments on the basis of trickery, as suggested, we must at least hold our judgment in suspense and await further details and further experiments before accepting these results as in any way scientific facts.
The only other experiments described that have any sem- blance to reahty, and are not obviously conjuring tricks, are the telekinetic phenomena and the cases of levitation men- tioned on pp. 54, 56, and pp. 190-1, respectively. In the first of these we are told that " a small note-table, fixed to a door-post by a movable iron support, began suddenly to move, and so violently that the chair standing in front of it was thrown down with a great noise. These objects were
The Slade - ZoUner Investigation 27
behind Slade, and at least five feet from him. At the same time and at the same distance, a bookcase, loaded with many books, was violently agitated." If this phenomenon was not genuine (which, in the light of the other tests, we are not entitled to think), it is probable that the table and bookcase were both moved by a heavy black thread — that device so often employed by conjurers to such good effect. The trick, as described, would certainly not prohibit this interpretation of the facts observed, while the experiments described on p. 179, 184, and elsewhere, are obviously performed in this manner, or by means of the medium's hand or the toes of his foot. Truesdell ^ describes a seance in which he himself em- ployed this device undetected, and with great success. As to the "broken screen incident" (p. 51<), — where a strong wooden screen was, apparently, wrenched apart in the middle of a seance, with a " violent crack," falling in two pieces, the screws and other fastenings being wrenched from their sockets, — I would ask : what proof have we that this tear- ing apart was not done before the seance, and the two parts merely tied together by means of a piece of thread, which could be pulled off later, allowing the two halves of the screen to fall apart as stated? There was plenty of time for Slade to "fix" anything he liked before the seance, from all ac- counts, and there is nothing in the reports which would forbid our assuming that such an interpretation is the right one.
The levitation case is a little more convincing. It is not recorded by Zollncr, as it happens, being merely quoted by him, in his book. The seance at which this levitation oc- curred was one conducted by Hcrr Schmid (May, 1878). The account reads : " When I was sitting a little distance from him (Slade), he likewise sitting, he stretched out his arm and laid his hand on the back of my chair. All at once I was raised, with the chair, swaying in the air about a foot high, as if drawn up by a pulley, without any exertion what- ever by Slade, who simply raised his hand, the chair follow- ing it as if it were a magnet " (p. 190).
This " test " was doubtless performed in the same manner > Bottom Facts, pp. 197-8.
28 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
as it was on the occasion when Slade " levitated " Professor Fechner, As described, the events arc certainly mystifying. " However, when we carefully compare Professor Fechner s account, we come to the conclusion that the whole proceedmg is no longer miraculous, but could be repeated by prcstidigi- tateurs. Fechner states that, at the request of Doctor Slade, he himself (Professor Fechner), who was slim and slight, took the place of Professor Braune. Doctor Slade turned round to Professor Fechner and bore his chair upward in a way which is not at all inexplicable by the methods of leger- demain. Professor Fechner does not mention that he hovered for some time in the air, but it is obvious that Doctor Slade made the two professors change seats because he would scarcely have had the strength to lift up Professor Braune." * Of the phenomena mentioned many others hardly deserve our detailed consideration. The case on pp. 184-5, in which Zollner held the medium's hands while certain phenom- ena occurred, is certainly a mere variation of the " release" described on p. 189. The "accordion test" (pp. 57-8) was obviously worked as described on p. 200. (The difference in the methods of observing and recording this test adopted by Zollner and Crookes should be carefully noted.) The streams of water that appeared out of the atmosphere were obviously produced by means of a small pocket syringe, dexterously operated by the skilled hand of the medium. The malob- servation present in these experiments is patent to any one reading the reports carefully. The account of the table that vanished from the room of its own accord, and afterward descended gracefully from the ceiling (" the hitherto in- visible table with its legs turned upwards, very quickly float- ing down in the air upon the top of the card-table"), that experiment I cannot explain, if it occurred as stated. I have strong doubts whether such an event ever transpired, how- ever, — either Zollner experiencing a visual hallucination, or malobservation and defects in recording have much to answer for. Perhaps the explanation is to be found in a combination of these two factors.
• The Old and the New Magic, pp. xxiv-xxv.
The Slade - ZoUner Investigation 29
In tlie cases in which coins were abstracted from sealed boxes, the experiments are rendered absolutely inconclusive by the fact that Slade had every opportunity to duplicate these boxes, — having examined them before the crucial seance took place (pp. 139, 140-5). It is also conceivable that Slade managed to open the sealed boxes themselves, abstract the coins, and seal them up again, without detection, — as actually happened in the case of the sealed slates (p. 25). Slade might have pried up the edge of the seal with a sharp pen-knife, cut the string passing round the box under the seal, opened the box, abstracted the coins, again closed the box, pushed the cut end of the string under the seal, gummed it in place, and replaced the seal by slightly melting the under surface of the seal, thus pried up, with a heated knife blade. The trickery could not be discovered, in such a case, unless the seal were pried off, and the box opened. So long as the box remained sealed, however, the trickery could never be detected.
The impressions of naked feet, obtained on sooted paper, placed on the floor under the table, could easily have been done by Slade, and there are strong indications that they were produced by him (pp. 67-8, 71, 131-2). It may be true that the impression of the foot obtained was shorter than that of Slade's foot, but this could have been produced, as Zollner himself points out, " by not putting down the heel and the fore part of the foot at the same time." Slade himself probably made the majority of the impressions in this manner. Zollner asserts that he at once examined the foot of the medium to see whether any soot or other marks were left upon it that would indicate that Slade had done it himself, and states that he found none. We must accept the statement with extreme caution, however, that Zollner at once examined the medium's foot. It is highly improbable that he did so, in reality, and it is more than likely that Slade had the opportunity to wipe off the telltale marks, and re- place his feet in the socks and shoes (low cut) that he wore. The examples of malobservation to be referred to presently will amply justify our doubting the accuracy of this part of
30 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
the report. In any event, there was nothing to prevent Slade fromi using celluloid impressions, which might have been secreted about his person. Mr. Willmann, in his study of the Zollner sittings, calls attention to the fact that the foot- prints were made from feet whose stockings had been removed but a few moments before, for they still showed the meshes of the knitting which quickly disappear as soon as the skin of the foot grows cold. " Professor Zollner did not see such trifles, and yet they are important, even if it were for the mere purpose of determining whether the spirits wear stock- ings made in Germany or America ! "
Zollner describes (pp. 102-9) a most remarkable test, in which two wooden rings were apparently passed on to the leg of a small table, — under conditions which would, from all accounts, appear to be quite beyond the bounds of trickery. The two rings had first passed through them a piece of cat- gut, the ends of which were tied together and sealed. Medium and sitter then sat quietly together for some time, when a sound was heard from the small table, placed some distance from the medium, and, upon examining the table, it was found that the rings were encircling the leg — it being, ap- parently, impossible for them to have been placed there by any nonnal means, since they were no larger than the leg it- self, and this central leg terminated at its lowest extremity in a tripod, three small legs branching off in various direc- tions in order to support the table, and the upper end fastened to the table-top. Both ends of the leg on which the rings appeared were thus much larger than the rings them- selves, and we should have to suppose, either that the rings were split in some manner, in order to get them on to the table-leg (which we know was not the case, as the rings were examined after they were on the table-leg and found to be sound), or the top of the table must have been taken off and the rings slipped on the table-leg, and the table-top replaced. That this could not have been done at the seance is evident. The catgut at the conclusion of the seance was, needless to say, minus the two rings.
This is a very remarkable manifestation, from any point
The Slade - Zollner Investigation
31
of view whatsoever. I have carefully read the report of this phenomenon, and am convinced that it could have been man- aged by adroit trickery. I venture to suggest the following explanation of what transpired on that memorable occasion, — it appearing to me that this theory of the phenomenon is not contradicted by the account, as it stands.
Slade had the opportunity of examining the two rings prior to the seance at which they were " miraculously " passed on to the table-leg, as above described. He had exact dupli- cates made of these rings, and, at some convenient moment, exchanged these for the originals — all this transpiring before the seance was held, and possibly at some earlier time on the very day of the seance. Slade now unscrewed the top of the small table, and passed on to the leg the two original rings. He then fastened the top of the small table in place again. These two rings he now tied together by means of a piece of black silk thread, fastening both rings, thus secured, to the table-leg, immediately under the top of the table, — so that, unless the sitter should deliberately stoop down and look under the table, they would be invisible to him. To the thread fastening the two rings together was also attached a long thread (several feet in length), this being coiled up and attached to the table-leg in some manner, so as to be readily grasped by the hand, and arranged so that it would unwind, as pulled.
Zollner would now have fastened the two duplicate rings together by means of the catgut, and Slade could either have abstracted these rings in the process of fastening the catgut ends together, or have substituted another piece of catgut, without rings, at some time during the course of the experi- ment— say, when he Avas entertaining Professor Zollner with clairvoyant visions of hghts, etc. (p. 109).
It may be presumed, since there is no evidence to the con- trary, that Slade himself placed the tables in position. When placing the smaller table in position, then, he secretly gained possession of the silk thread, and carried one end of it with him to his seat. The seance then proceeded as described. At the proper moment, Slade pulled the thread with a quick
32 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
jerk, breaking the thread passing around the two rings (that which fastened them together, and to the under side of the table-top), and allowing them to fall down on to the table-leg itself — into the position described. When all eyes were turned in the direction of the table, Slade would have had an opportunity to pull away the black thread, — thus con- cealing the last traces of the modus operandi.
Such a version of this experiment is, I suggest, most prob- ably the right one. Zollner apparently never thought of ex- amining the under side of the small table just before the seance, when the rings were in position. He never thought, in all probability, that the two rings he placed upon the catgut were other than his own two rings, as he did not exam- ine these at that time, either. He assumed that they were the same, because he never thought of there being any others. Slade could easily have manipulated the rings so as to make them disappear, at some time during the seance. He would not have ventured to allow Zollner to place his own rings on the catgut, and place the duplicates on the table-leg, as he knew that the critical examination of the rings would come after the seance, when the rings were in place, on the table- leg, and then substitutes would have been easily detected. He accordingly adopted the bolder plan of substituting the rings earlier in the seance, as suggested — this enabling the real rings to be found on the table-leg, and trusting to chance that Professor Zollner would not make too careful an exam- ination of the rings just before the seance. This bolder method was successful, — the result being a brilliant success, as shown. I offer this explanation of the phenomenon, be- lieving that it may possibly be the correct interpretation of the puzzling facts narrated.
There are one or two facts which would seem to bear out this interpretation of the case, more or less indirectly. The records do this for one thing, though I cannot go through them all here, for such confirmatory proofs. There is, of course, the 'presumption that any such a test as that described could not be possible — the passage of matter through mat- ter, " apports " — being scientifically almost unthinkable,
The Slade - Zollner Investigation 33
though not quite so. There is the evidence, too, that all such cases have hitherto been unable to withstand too exact a scrutiny, as illustrated in the case of the medium Haxby, who came before the S. P. R. with an iron ring upon liis arm, apparently too small for it to have been placed there by any normal means. ^ A close investigation showed, however, that, by etherizing the hand, and rendering the patient insensible for the time being, the ring could be made to pass on or off the medium's arm — though the committee did not feel jus- tified in conducting the experiment. The history of the sub- ject gives us no similar case of the successful passage of rings, etc., on to legs or arms, human or otherwise, that can- not be explained as the result of fraud.
There is one very clever " test " that is sometimes per- formed, which would seem to show that something of this sort is accomplished. It is, however, nothing more than an in- genious trick, and this might be a good time to explain its modus operandi. The general effect of the illusion is this: The medium requests some one to assist him in an experiment in which he is going to attempt to pass " matter through matter." As the test is one in which a confederate might easily be employed, he is very careful to choose some person who is well known, or whose character is above all suspicion. If this were not so, the entire effect of the test would be lost upon the investigators. Having secured his assistant, he hands him, for examination, a solid steel ring, just large enough to slip on and off the hand and arm easily. The ring is perfectly solid, and may be examined by any one desirous of doing so. When this part of the performance is finished, the medium and his sitter then join or clasp their right hands (as in handshaking), and the sitter is instructed not to release the hand for a single instant. To " make assurance doubly sure," however, the hands are fastened together in any way the sitters may desire ; the hands being tied together with tape, e. g., and the ends of this tape tied and the knots sealed. The tape connects the wrists and the hands of the medium and his sitter, and this tying may be made as secure as possible. * Proceedings, Vol. III., pp. 460-3.
34 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
A piece of thick clotli is now thrown over the two hands and the lower part of the arms, — conceahng them from view. With his disengaged hand, the medium now takes the iron ring and passes it up under the cloth, so as to bring it in con- tact with his own arm. He holds it there for some time, but ultimately snatches off the covering cloth, and reveals to the eyes of the astonished audience the ring — ■ now encircling his own arm — in spite of the fact that the ties are still in statu quo, and the sitter never let go his hold for an instant. The ties and the ring may again be examined, if desired, be- fore the hands are separated.
This is an exceedingly effective test, and has every appear- ance of being genuine — indeed, it is hard to see where trick- ery can come in, and for this reason is far better (because far more under the control of the sitters) than such a test as that of Zollner's, discussed above. The trick is one of the simplest imaginable, however, and is performed in the follow- ing manner.
The medium has provided himself with two rings exactly alike; one of these the audience is free to examine, the other the medium is wearing on his right arm, under his coat. When the two hands are clasped together, therefore, it is a simple thing for the medium, under cover of the enveloping cloth, to slip the duplicate ring down his sleeve, and on to his own hand, and that part of the " miracle " is accomplished ! It remains only to explain what becomes of the first ring. The cloth thrown over the arms is very thick and stiff, as stated, and the inner side of this contains a double partition, or sort of bag, into which the medium slips the duplicate ring. The cloth may now be shown on both sides, without disclosing the ring, and the medium makes away with it as soon as possible, in order to avoid detection.
It will be observed that, in the above test, duplicate rings are employed ; the first being in place before the experiment commences ; and it seems to me that a very similar explana- tion might suffice to explain that most puzzling of all Zoll- ner's " tests." The presence of the duplicate ring is cer- tainly never suspected in this case, — even when the sitters
The Slade - Zollner Investigation 35
are more than ordinarily acute; and, that being the case, it is surely not too much to suppose that Zollner may have been deceived by some very similar method.
I come, lastly, to a consideration of the most famous of all the Zollner tests — the rope-tying experiments, in which knots were apparently tied in a cord, the two ends of which were sealed together very securely, Professor Zollner plac- ing his signet on the knots in each case. These were the experiments that caused Professor Zollner to conceive his theory of space of four dimensions in order to account for the knots appearing in these cords. Without considering the theory, however, let us at once turn to the experiments, and see whether they are of a probable f raudulent or genuine character.
Zollner thus describes the preparations of the cords for his famous experiments. He took a hempen cord, tied the ends together in an ordinary knot, fixed this knot to a piece of paper with wax, sealing the wax carefully, and cutting off the paper round the seal. The ends of the cord were thus securely fastened to the card, besides being tied and sealed themselves. The account goes on (p. 42) :
" The above described sealing of two such strings, with my own seal, was effected by myself in my apartments, on the evening of December 16th, 187T, at nine o'clock, under the eyes of several of my friends and colleagues, and not in the presence of Mr. Slade. Two other strings of the same quality and dimensions were sealed by William Weber with his seal, and in his own rooms, on the morning of the 17th of December, at 10.30 a. m. With these four cords I went to the neighboring dwelling of one of my friends. . . . The seance in question took place in my friend's sitting-room immediately after my arrival. I myself selected one of the four sealed cords, and, in order never to lose sight of it, before we sat down at the table, I hung it around my neck, — the seal in front always within my sight. During the seance, as previously stated, I constantly kept the seal — remaining unaltered — before me on the table. Mr. Slade's hands re- mained all the time in sight; with the left he often touched
36 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
his forehead, complaining of painful sensations. The por- tion of the string hanging rested on my lap, — out of my sight, it is true, — but Mr. Slade's hands alivays remained visible to me. I particularly noticed that Mr. Slade's hands were not withdrawn or changed in position. He himself appeared to be perfectly passive, so that we cannot advance the assertion of his having tied these knots by his conscious will, but only that they, under these detailed circumstances, were formed in his presence without visible contact, and m a room illuminated by bright daylight."
Such is the record. It is certainly remarkable that, under the conditions named, four knots were formed in the cord before this seance was concluded — knots such as could not possibly have been tied unless the ends of the cord were free. The test is, apparently, so perfect that it would seem almost impossible to show that it contained flaws of such a character as to render the evidence quite valueless, from a scientific point of view. Such, however, is the case, as it now becomes necessary to show.
The possible methods that might have been made use of by Slade, in obtaining knots in this manner (or at least under very similar conditions), will be described in detail presently. For the moment, I desire only to draw attention to the imperfections in the report itself, and point out the loopholes and possibilities of fraud that Professor Zoll- ner overlooked, in drawing up his report. The actual ex- planations (if such they are, indeed) will come later. Let us pave the way for such explanations, then, by a consideration of the report, — thereby showing where such possible methods of trickery as those suggested might, perhaps, have been practised. This critical work has been done in such an excellent manner in the quotations that follow that I cannot do better than to give them to the reader verbatim. This I do accordingly ; after which discussion we shall probably be in a better condition to consider the methods that might actually have been employed in these famous seances. First, then, there is the most important criticism made by Mrs.
The Slade - Zollner Investigation 37
Sidgwick,^ viz., that Zollner omitted mention of certain most important events that had happened, and which formed, in a way, the clue to the mystery. Thus :
"... In describing the seance on December 17, 1877, when he obtained four knots in a string of which the ends were tied and sealed together, he omits to mention that the experiment had been tried and failed before. We learn this was so, accidentally as it were, from his mentioning it in another place and in another connection,^ where he tells us that it was a long time before the spirits understood what kind of knot was required of them, and that, before they did so, he obtained knots, but not such as he wanted — knots, I infer, which could be made by ordinary beings without undoing the string. Now this fact obviously affects the value of the experiment, for it makes it possible that Doctor Slade may have prepared a string similar to Professor Zollner's at home, and brought it with him, and, notwithstanding Professor Zollner's watchfulness, have changed it." Mrs. Sidg^vick suggests that the time when trickery was most probably employed was at the period of arranging the ropes on the table — a very good guess, as we shall presently see. For the present, I am, however, concerned with an examina- tion of the defective nature of the record, and not with sug- gestions of how the feats were actually performed. Let us proceed with our examination of the evidence, therefore, considering only the character of the record, as such.
Besides the above defects in the account, then, Professor Hyslop has pointed out eleven possible sources of error, — any one of which would have facilitated fraud, while, taken together, and in conjunction with the previous criticisms, they leave hardly a shred of respectable evidence for super- normal phenomena in these famous Zollner-Slade experi- ments, which have been paraded before the skeptical world for these twenty years. I quote Professor Hy slop's criticisms at length, as they seem to me very fine indeed.
" (1) We should note the disproportionate amount of
' Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IV., p. 65. ' Abhandlungen, Vol. II., p. 1191.
38 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
detail in the description of the preparations for the experi- ment and in the experiment itself. This is the natural habit of the phjBicist, who either imagines that the preparation is the main thing, or leaves to others the verification of his work. But the point where he should have shown the most care and the most minute description was during the per- formance. (2) He does not say anything whatever about the history of the other three cords which he took with him. We should know where they were put during the performance, and what became of them. (3) We are not told anything to show that he had compared the cord with the knots in it after the seance with the cord as taken to Slade. It ought to have been accurately measured after the performance to see if any difference between it, then and before, could be detected. In other words, Zollner should have assumed the possibility of substituting one cord for another, which he thought he had excluded. (4) He does not tell us whether he examined the paper afterward on which the wax seals were pasted. Whether a substitute cord was possible or not, this examination should have been made, as an evidential precaution. (5) He says nothing about any careful exam- ination of the seals to show that they were identical with those he had put on the knotted end of the cord. (6) He does not say a word about the amount of time employed in the experiment or the tying of the ' fourth dimension knots.' . . . (7) He does not give any details that went on between the time of sitting down at the table and the final tying of the knots. Here was a crucial moment when the most minute account of the experiment should have been made. (8) He does not say when the account of the experiment was written. To give it value, it should have been from notes made on the occasion and written out immediately afterward. (9) Though very careful to give the dates on which the cords were prepared, no care is taken to tell us when or on what dates the experiment was performed. (10) We are not told whether Slade touched or examined the cord in his own hands or not. (11) No indication is given regarding the chances
The Slade - Zollner Investigation 39
that Slade may have had to examine the friend's cord and to be prepared for a reproduction of Zollner's." ^
In addition to all the foregoing objections, I would point out the following sources of error, and examples of mal- observation which practically invalidate the experiments, so far as scientific proof is concerned. (1) The experiments were seldom those asked for, but usually one planned by Slade, or one that happened spontaneously. (Zollner admits tliis on p. 110.) This would seem to indicate that the tests planned by Zollner were too difficult for Slade, and he had to get out of the difficulty by performing others. (2) In speaking of the slate-tests, where writing was obtained on slates placed on a table, and untouched by Slade, he says: " They (the slates) were laid on or close to the corner of the card-table" (p. 60), without saying wlio placed them there. If Slade placed the slates in that position — as he very likely did — then it should certainly have been so stated, for it is highly probable that the opportunity for fraud occurred just at that moment. In all seances of the kind, in all ac- counts of any supernormal phenomena, in which a profes- sional medium is engaged, it is quite useless to state that " the slates were placed on the table," etc. — without saying who placed them there. In reading over accounts of slate- writing seances, it is very seldom that we find it specifically stated who performed each action, though this is the very crux of the whole case. This same lack of observation of important details is observed in Professor Wagner's Report (p. 131). (3) Slade was often allowed to suggest the ex- periments that were to be tried himself (p. 61). He would doubtless have suggested tests for which he was amply pre- pared. (4) Slade frequently diverted the sitter's attention from the real issue by turning aside either to try some other experiment (p. 66), or by diverting the sitter's attention by such devices as clairvoyant visions, etc. (p. 109). (5) The sitters followed the direction of " the spirits," when told, e. g., to leave the slates on the table for four seances (p. 131), though this obviously is absurd, in the case of a me- » Borderland oj Psychical Research, pp. 235-7.
40 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
dium like Slade. It deprives the writing obtained ultimately of all evidential value.
In addition to the foregoing objections, there are the very grave ones made by the Seybert Commission, printed in their Report, pp. 104-14. Finding their own evidence so nega- tive, yet impressed, to a certain extent, with Zollner's book, Transcendental Physics, the members of the commission were uncertain what course to pursue with regard to this inves- tigation, when they received a detailed account from one of their number, Mr. George S. Fullerton, of personal inter- views with the four professors who endorsed Slade's phenom- ena— Zollner, Fechner, Scheibner, and Weber. This account clearly shows that both Fechner and Scheibner were partially blind at the time, and depended more on what Zoll- ner told them was taking place than on what they could see for themselves; while Weber was, in many ways, an incom- petent witness of such phenomena. As to Zollner, the cliief narrator, it was found that he was of slightly unsound mind (though all his associates admitted that this did not impair his capacity as an investigator or observer) ; that he was bent on proving his theory of space of four dimensions; that he was, in many ways, an incautious observer and believer ; and, lastly, and by far the most important point of all, is the fact that neither he nor any of his three colleagues knew any- thing whatever of conjuring or the possibilities of deception. With such a mass of evidence against him, it seems unneces- sary to insist upon the fact that the testimony of such an observer is practically valueless, so far as it is intended to prove the supernormal character of facts such as these.
It may be replied to all this that we have the evidence of Bellachini, court conjurer, that the phenomena observed in Slade's presence were not due to trickery, or explainable by any of the devices known to conjurers (pp. 213-4). This evidence does not weigh very heavily against the more posi- tive testimony, however, for several reasons. In the first place, very little was known in those days of the tricks of mediums, even by conjurers themselves. It is only of late years that the information has leaked out and become
The Slade - Zollner Investigation
41
more or less public property. Then, too, we learn that Bellachini was (at that time, at least) entirely ignorant of the methods of fraudulent mediums.^ Many conjurers were and are entirely ignorant of the methods employed by fraud- ulent mediums, and, as Mr. Davey pointed out,^ in this par- ticular branch of investigation they are often no more in- formed than the ordinary person — or were, as this is not true, nowadays. We must remember, finally, that both Robert Houdin and Harry Kellar were convinced that the spiritualistic performances they witnessed were genuine, though both, afterward, retracted their opinions and even succeeded in duplicating the medium's performance by f raudulent means ! Kellar's " Open Letter," stating that he could not account for the manifestations observed at a seance (Eglinton being the medium), is to be found in Psychic Notes, Calcutta, February 10th, 1882. Houdin's statement is in Mahatma, Vol. I., No. 6, August, 1895.
It is hardly necessary to review, further, the historical evi- dence in the case of Zollner, as it has already been shown to be open to so many objections that further proof is unneces- sary. I shall, accordingly, turn to the discussion of the probable actual methods that Slade employed in procuring the knots on the endless cord, and discuss, incidentally, several methods of obtaining such knots in ropes, which may be of interest in the present connection.
I think we need have no hesitation in asserting that the method Slade followed, in producing the knots in the cords that were sealed by Zollner and brought by him to the seance, was the following, which can be very easily done, pro- vided the sitters are not too sharp-witted and acute, as we are tolerably sure Zollner was not ! We know that Slade had the opportunity to examine the ropes before the seance, since (although Zollner omitted to mention this fact in his Transcendental Physics) the experiment had been previously tried and had failed {v. p. 37). Slade, then, knew the char- acter of the experiment that was to be tried, and had every
* V. Round the World with a Magician and a Juggler, p. 168. » Proceedings S. P. R., VoL IV., p. 411.
42 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
opportunity to examine the length, character, etc., of the rope used for the experiment, and to duplicate it in the in- ter^^al. He had also, beyond doubt, the opportunity to have made a duplicate seal, — exactly similar to Zollner's own, — and to seal up the ends of the cords after having tied them in the same manner as the original cords were tied. He now had a duplicate set of cords, exactly similar to those of Zoll- ner's. Just before the seance, Slade secreted in his right sleeve one of these duplicate cords, so arranged that the seal came just within his cuff, and could be readily reached by the fingers of either hand at the opportune moment. On this cord there were, of course, the four knots, already tied, this having been done before the ends of the cord were sealed.
Now, when the seal and ends of the cord were being ar- ranged on the table, Slade extracted the duplicate seal from his right sleeve, and placed it on the table, at the same mo- ment covering the seal of the original cord with one of his hands — ■ " palming " it, in fact — so that we now have the trick half -accomplished ; the seal having been exchanged for that on Slade's own cord, and that being the one now in sight, while the loop of the rope still visible was the original of Professor Zollner's — Slade's being still secreted in his sleeve (see Fig. 1, p. 44). Slade now gathered up the cord into a bundle, preparatory to handing it to Zollner, and, at the same time, he gradually pulled his right arm backward, thereby extracting the duplicate cord which was hidden in his sleeve, until this was all extracted, and in his hands. It now became merely a question of secreting the original cord of Professor Zollner's, for it would have been impossible to have distinguished the fact that there were two cords rolled up together, the tangled mass rendering this quite im- possible. Slade now had both cords in his hand, therefore, and he let his hand sink below the surface of the table for the fraction of a second, in handing the cord to Professor Zoll- ner, allowing the original cord, in that instant, to drop into his lap, where it was at once seized upon by the disengaged hand and thrust into a convenient pocket. Zollner now had,
The Slade - Zolbier Investigation
43
in his hands, the cord on which were the four knots, and the trick was virtually done. Slade had to prevent ZoUner from discovering this fact, however, and assisted Professor Zollner in arranging the cord around his neck — a courtesy that Zollner doubtless gracefully accepted. Slade saw to it, in this arrangement, that, while the seal rested on the table, in full sight of all, the portion of the rope containing the knots fell under the edge of the table — that part of the loop which Zollner admits was not within his sight. It was on this portion of the cord that the knots were found, it must be remembered — also that four knots were formed, instead of only one, as requested (p. 41). It is obvious that the trick is now done — all that remained for Slade to do was to triumphantly disclose the knots at the proper moment.
All that we have to assume, in order to accept this explana- tion of the facts as the true one, is that there was a very slight amount of malobservation and lack of memory present on the part of the recorder of the seance, and, in view of the evidence printed above, it will surely not be difficult to assume that such was, in fact, the case. Whether the above explana- tion of the facts is the true one or not, of course I cannot say; but there is nothing in the evidence which would pro- hibit us from thinking that such is the case, and I accord- ingly offer this explanation to my readers as a possible way out of the difficulty.
I shall now give one or two methods of obtaining knots in cords by other means than those described above, but which will be of especial interest to us as illustrating the possibili- ties of fraud in this connection. The first of these " tests " is very similar to that of Zollner's, except that the rope is, in this case, sealed to the table-top. The two ends of the rope are laid on the table, and sealing-wax applied in the usual manner. It may be sealed, if desired, as in Zollner's experi- ment. The lights are now lowered for a few moments, at the end of which period they are again turned up, and, lo and behold! the rope contains two, three or more knots, though the seals on the table are undisturbed and unbroken. This
44 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
is a very clever test and is worked in practically the same manner as the last one. The medium has, secreted up his sleeve, a duplicate cord, and, when the two ends of the rope are placed upon the table to be waxed over, he substitutes the two ends of his own cord for those of his sitter, and these are the ends that are sealed to the table-top. The loop of the skeptic's cord is hanging down in full sight of the sitters (the ends being concealed by the medium's hand, which is holding the other rope to the table), while the rope contain- ing the knots is quietly reposing in his sleeve. When the lights are turned down, therefore, all the medium has to do is to pull out the hidden cord from his sleeve, allowing it to fall into its natural position, and hide the duplicate cord in his pocket. The cord, seals, etc., may now be examined to the sitters' hearts' content — since they have not, in reality, been tampered with in any way.
There is a clever test, in which a number of knots are obtained in a cord which has just been coiled up before the sitters' eyes, — after having been examined and found to be free from preparation. The medium takes the rope, coils it up, gives the two ends of the rope to some sitter to knot and seal in any manner he may see fit — he being allowed to take the rope into his own possession in order to do this, if desired. There is no trickery about the knotting and sealing of the ends of the cord, since this is done altogether by the sitters themselves ; and it would be impossible for the medium to substitute another cord, in this instance, since the cord may be marked in any way desired. The lights are lowered, while the medium holds the rope in his hands, and, though they are only extinguished for a few seconds, nevertheless, when the room is again illuminated, the cord is found to con- tain a number of genuine knots, the seals still being intact, and the rope the same one knotted by the sitters, as an examination will show. This test is very mystifying, and is, in many respects, far superior to the test that Zollner wit- nessed through the mediumship of Slade.
In this case, the trick consists almost entirely in the method of coihng the rope. The cord is not exchanged, and the
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
The Slade - Zollner Investigation 45
seals are not unfastened. It is not necessary. The medium takes the cord in his right hand at a distance of about one foot from the end, in the manner shown in Fig. II. The left hand now takes up a loop of the rope in the manner shown in Fig. III., and passes this over the hand as shown in Fig. IV. He does this with every loop made, and it will now be found that, at the conclusion of the coiling, when the end of the rope is reached, if the original end, first held in the hand, be passed through all the loops, as shown in Fig. V., the effect will be to tie as many knots in the rope as there were loops made. The trick is already done, for all the medium had to do, under cover of the darkness, was to pull out the rope to its full extent — thereby knotting it — and coil it up again as it was before. This might even be done under the table in full light, if desired. The success depends al- together on the air of ease and naturalness with which the medium performs every action, and his impressing upon the sitters that the important part of the test does not commence until the sealing is begun, — when the experiment apparently begins. In reality, that is where it ends, for the trick is already done!
There is another ingenious test in which knots are obtained in a cord that is attached to the wrists of two of the sitters — being sealed on to them, if desired. Each end of the cord is securely tied to the wrist of some sitter, and sealed. The two sitters are now requested to stand up at some distance from one another, while the lights are lowered. The rope is quite long, in this case, and is coiled up in a heap, and placed be- tween the sitters, on the floor of the seance-room. When the lights are again turned up, there are several knots on the rope, though the sitters declare that the ends of the rope have remained firmly fastened to their wrists throughout.
This " test " is worked in the following manner. When the lights are extinguished, the medium picks up the coil of rope, and holds it in his right hand. Going up to one of his two sitters, he now slips it over his head, and allows it to drop to the floor, — all unknown to the sitter, as the medium has taken special pains to see that the rope did not touch him
46 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
in its passage to the floor (v. Fig. VI.). The medium now requests this sitter to change his position a few feet, and guides liim to some place where he will be free from the ropes. It will now be seen that the whole body of one of the sitters has passed through the loops of the rope, and there are, accord- ingly, a number of knots formed in the rope — the number depending on the number of coils made in it. As in all other cases, the trick is done under the sitters' noses, and in a manner which they would in no wise suspect.
There is a method of obtaining a knot in a short, single piece of rope, which the medium merely tosses into the empty cabinet with one hand. When picked up, however, some sec- onds later, it is found to contain a knot loosely tied in the middle of the cord. This is done in the following manner, by the medium himself. The trick is performed in the act of throwing the rope into the cabinet. The medium takes hold of the rope near one of its ends, the rope passing across the palm of the hand. The long end of the rope is allowed to hang down, the short end being grasped between the thumb and the finger of the hand. The hand and arm are now given a kind of circular sweep, this causing the long or lower portion of the rope to swing under, then over, the wrist, and across the fingers of the hand. This end is then seized be- tween the fingers and drawn through the loop just made; at the same time the loop is dropped off the wrist as the rope is tossed into the cabinet. This all becomes one quick action, after a little practice — I myself have performed it in such a manner that a close observer could scarcely detect the action on my part, though knowing the secret of the trick, and what to look for.
I conclude this chapter by giving a very clever test, described by Robinson, in his Spirit Slate Writing, pp. 84-5, in which a knot is made to disappear from the centre of a piece of string, where it is tied, the ends of the string being sealed together.
" A single knot is tied in the centre of a piece of string ; now the ends are tied together and the knots sealed. The lights are turned down ; on their again being turned up, the
Fig. G
The Slade - ZoUner Investigation 47
knot in the centre of the cord has disappeared. The mo- ment there was darkness, the medium started to work, and kept shpping the knot along the string until it joined the rest at the top of the string, where there is not much fear of its being seen. To further protect himself he uses the following plan : He chews gum colored the same as the seal- ing-wax used. Now, in the dark, when he has the single knot up against the others, at the end of the string, he covers this knot with part of the chewing gum, and blends it with the sealing-wax."
CHAPTER HI
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF DECEPTION
There is so much to be said in connection with this question of the " psychology of deception," that the present chapter will have to be merely a brief resume of the subject, indicating the most important points to bear in mind relative to the par- ticular phase of the subject we are considering — the psy- chology of conjuring deceptions and fraudulent mediumistic tricks. The object is to enable the reader to see, more easily, how it is that the watchful observer is deceived into believing that a thing is so, when in reality it is not, and vice versa; and also to give an idea of the various methods employed by the medium in order to accomplish his results.
I must first of all call the reader's attention to one or two rules which every conjurer learns at the commencement of his study, and which he learns to apply so constantly that it becomes second nature to him. The first is: never let the eyes rest on the hand that is performing the " sleight," but always on the other hand, or on some object on the table or elsewhere, as this will have a tendency to draw the eyes of the audience to that point also. The sitters or audience will always look at the point closely watched by the magician, — their eyes have a tendency to follow his, and wherever he looks, there will the onlooker look also. Needless to say, the magician makes use of this fact, and many tricks and illu- sions are dependent upon it for their successful accomplish- ment. Whenever the magician or medium looks intently at one hand, therefore, the other hand should be watched, as it is a sure sign that that is the hand which is performing the trick.
48
The Psychology of Deception 49
Another fundamental rule that is observed by all sleight- of-hand performers is : never to let an audience know before- hand wliat is to be done ; i. e., the nature of the trick that it is intended to perform. If the spectator knew what was forthcoming, he would be on the lookout for movements of the performer at certain critical times, — just at the periods when close observation is least wanted, — and would quite pos- sibly detect the performer in the act of executing certain movements which would show how the trick was performed. But not knowing what is coming, the spectator is unable to watch closely at the critical moment — not knowing what that moment is — and so is unable to detect the trick, his at- tention being diverted by the performer, just before this movement is made, to some other object or movement.
The methods of diverting the spectator's attention are various. There is the use of the eyes, as before shown. Then there is the spoken word, the performer telling the onlookers to observe some certain object or action, and the effect is to cause them to watch it, as they are told. They follow the line of least resistance. The combined effect upon the spec- tator of the spoken word and the eyes together is generally irresistible.
Another important factor is this. A performer should always let any suggestion, right or wrong, soak well into the spectator's mind before attempting to change it. This is for two reasons. In the first place, if the suggestion is cor- rect, if, e. g., the performer really does place an object in his left hand, and it is shortly found to have vanished from that hand, he is annoyed by hearing some one say that he was not really sure it was there in the first place, as " it was covered up so quickly." If, on the other hand, the suggestion given was a false one, if, e. g., the performer says he has placed an object in his left hand, when, in reality, he has not done so but has palmed it in the right, then it is still necessary to allow a certain time-interval to elapse between the performing of the action which apparently placed the object in the hand, and the showing of the hand empty, for this reason. If the hand into which the object is supposedly placed is immedi-
50 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
ately shown empty, the natural conclusion of the sitter is that the object was not in reahty placed there at all, but was re- tained in the other hand, which would be the fact. If, how- ever, the performer allowed some time to elapse, between the action of placing the object in that hand (supposedly) and the showing of the hand empty, he, meanwhile, keeping his eyes fixed on the hand, suggesting to the sitters that the object is there, and in every way acting as if it were there, the idea will gradually gain a firm hold on the minds of the spectators that the object is there, in reality, and they are correspondingly surprised to find it ultimately vanished. It is just such a knowledge of " the way people's minds work," as a friend once said to me, which enables the conjurer to deceive the public ; and it is precisely the same cast of mind that the medium possesses. He is, in fact, a good judge of human nature.
Another fact that must be borne in mind is that, when once a spectator has seen a movement made two or three times in the same manner, he frequently " sees " the per- former make that movement on another occasion, when the performer had, in reality, only started to make the move- ment, and suggested the rest. Thus, if the performer throws a ball up into the air two or three times in succession, and on the fourth occasion merely pretends to throw it up, really retaining it in the other hand, the great majority of the spectators will really " see " the ball ascend into the air on the fourth occasion, and will so state, on bein^ asked. We here depend upon association and habit.^
Professor Jastrow summed up this portion of the psychol- ogy of deception very well when he said : ^
"He (the conjurer) must dissociate the nati>ral factors of his habits, actually attending to one thing while seemingly attending to another ; at the same time his eyes and his ges- tures and his * patter ' misdirect the attention to what is apparently the essential field of operation, but really only
' A very similar illusion is mentioned by Professor Hyslop, v. Border- land of Psychical Research, pp. 228-9, in which pellets were apparently placed in a box, really being palmed in the medium's hand.
' Fact and Fable in Psychology, pp. 124-5.
The Psychology of Deception
51
a blind to distract attention away from the true scene of action. The conjurer directs your attention to what he does not do ; he does not do what he pretends to do ; and to what he actually does, he is careful neither to appear to direct his own attention nor to arouse yours."
Prof. Max Dessoir, in a very fine article on " The Psychology of Conjuring," writes as follows: "By awaken- ing interest in some unimportant detail, the conjurer con- centrates that attention on some false point, or negatively, diverts it from the main object, and we all know the senses of an inattentive person are pretty dull. . . . When causing the disappearance of some object, the conjurer counts one, two, three; the object must really disappear before three, not at three, because, the attention of the public being di- verted to three, they do not notice what happens at one and two. ... A specially successful method of diversion is founded on the human craze for imitation. . . . The con- jurer counts on tliis in many cases. He always looks in the direction where he wants the attention of the public, and does everything himself which he wants the public to do. ... If the trick is in the left hand, the conjurer turns sharply to the person to his right, presuming correctly that the spectators will make the same movement, and will not notice what is going on in the left hand. . . . Every sharp, short remark will, for a moment, at least, divert the eyes from the hands and direct them to the mouth, according to the above mentioned law of imitation."
The successful conjurer has carefully studied beforehand every movement that is made, — every word that is spoken, — during a conjuring performance, and has seen that these all fit naturally into place, and help conceal the real workings of the trick. The right and left hands must be trained to operate independently, and without the need of looking at either. Many conjurers practise doing two separate things at the same time, one with either hand; and the ability to do this is essential. Above all, the performer must be full of conscious self-possession, and feel himself to be master
62 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
of the situation, no less than to feel the ability to cope with any emergencies that ma^' arise.
Turning, now, to a consideration of the seance, we find that many of these psychological rules still hold good, and their operation enables the medium to perform many actions which would otherwise be impossible. A certain suggestion is given to the sitters, and imagination and inference do the rest. " Our conclusions as to what we see or hear are always founded on a combination of observation and inference; but in daily Hfe it is seldom necessary to distinguish between the two elements, since, when the object and its mode of presenta- tion are familiar, our inferences are generally correct. But it is different when, owing to circumstances, such as a bad light, we have to infer more in proportion to what we per- ceive than usual; or when some one, e.g., a conjurer or a ventriloquist, is trying to deceive us by presenting one object under the familiar aspect of another, and suggesting false inferences. It is not uncommon to find people at seances encouraging each other in the belief that they see, say, a living human figure, when all that they actually see is some- thing moving which is about the size of a human being; the rest is inference," ^ How true these last remarks are is demonstrated by the statement, made in The Revelations of a Spirit Medium (p. 92), that an old wire mask frequently used at materializing seances had been recognized " by dozens of persons as fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, cousins, sweethearts, wives, husbands, and various other relatives and friends. None but the medium knew that it was only a fifty- cent wire mask, hence none but the medium could enjoy the humor of the occasion.'*
One of the most instructive incidents I know, in relation to this question of the psychology of deception, is the one given by Doctor Hodgson,^ — the case of the officer and the Hindu juggler. In this case, a trick was performed before an Enghsh officer and his wife, and Doctor Hodgson hap- pened to overhear this officer telling some travellers of the
» Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IV., p. 63. * Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IV., pp. 385-€.
The Psychology of Deception 53
experience at dinner that evening. " Referring to the move- ments of the coins, he said that he had taken a coin from his own pocket and placed it on the ground himself, yet that this coin had indulged in the same freaks as the other coins. His wife ventured to suggest that the juggler had taken the coin and placed it on the ground, but the officer was emphatic in repeating his statement, and appealed to me for confinna- tion. He was, however, mistaken. I had watched the trans- action with special curiosity, as I knew what was necessary for the performance of the trick. The officer had apparently intended to place the coin upon the ground himself, but as he was doing so, the juggler leant slightly forward, dexter- ously and in a most unobtrusive manner received the coin from the fingers of the officer, as the latter was stooping down, and laid it close to the others. If the juggler had not thus taken the coin, but had allowed the officer himself to place it on the ground, the trick, as actually performed, would have been frustrated.
" Now I think it highly improbable that the movement of the juggler entirely escaped the perception of the officer; highly improbable, that is to say, that the officer was abso- lutely unaware of the juggler's action at the moment of its happening ; but I suppose that, although an impression was made on his consciousness, it was so slight as to be speedily effaced by the officer's imagination of himself as stooping and placing the coin upon the ground. The officer, I may say, had obtained no insight into the modus operandi of the trick, and his fundamental misrepresentation of the only patent occurrence that might have given him a clue to its performance debarred him completely from afterward, in reflection, arriving at any explanation. Just similarly, many an honest witness may have described himself as having placed one slate upon another at a sitting with a medium, whereas it was the medium who did so, and who possibly effected at the same time one or two other operations alto- gether unnoticed by the witness."
In reading through descriptions of slate-writing seances, we very seldom find the statement made as to who placed the
54 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
slates on the tabic, or under the table, etc., generally the account reading " the slates were then placed on the table," without any qualifying statement as to tcho placed them there. Accounts of this kind are absolutely worthless, from an evidential standpoint. We must at once ask ourselves: who placed the slates in that position? and if it was the medium, — as it probably was in the vast majority of in- stances,— then that test, in all probability, ceases to have any evidential weight. Any one can read over a number of accounts of slate-writing performances, and verify these statements, if he chooses to do so. Frequently, the state- ment is made that the sitter did actually place the slate on the table, when in reality the medium did so. This error is quite unconscious on the sitter's part, of course, but the account is falsified, nevertheless. Mistakes of this kind are very common, the sitter thinking afterward that he (the sitter) must have placed the slates on the table himself!
It will be seen from the above that there is a great differ- ence between what actually transpired, at any given seance, and what the accounts say transpired. The general public cannot get that all-important fact too strongly rooted in its mind: that the events which transpired at a seance may not be reported accurately, so that the report of the seance may be altogether wrong and erroneous, though the sitters, and those who drew up the report, may have been thoroughly honest in their belief that the report is accurate in every respect. The effect of all this is very great indeed. Many spiritualistic seances are quite inexplicable as described, but the description is not a true report of what took place at the seance in question. The facts are distorted. Conse- quently, the person taking it upon himself to explain what took place at the seance is called upon to explain a num- ber of things which, in reality, never took place at all. We must remember, in this connection, that a number of conjur- ing tricks, as described, would be quite impossible to explain by any process of trickery. The description of the trick was not correct.
JiCt me make this still clearer, and at the same time illus-
The Psychology of Deception 65
trate the difference between what apparently occurs, and what actually happens, by the following example. A con- jurer places a coin (say a quarter) in each hand, and closes his hands. Another quarter is now placed upon the fingers of each hand, so that there is now one quarter in each hand and one quarter on the fingers of each. The magician announces that, by simply opening and closing his hands, — which are held at some distance from each other, — he will thereby transfer one of the coins from one hand to the other, so that there will be three coins in one of the hands, and only one left in the other.
Now, if the sitter were writing out an account of what happened, it would most certainly read as follows:
" The magician then tried the experiment, — of opening and closing his hands rapidly, and causing the coin to be transferred, as promised, — but failed in the attempt, the coins from the back of each hand falling on to the table in rather a clumsy manner. They were, however, again placed upon the backs of the magician's hands ; the movement was repeated, and this time successfully. The coins disappeared from the backs of both hands, in one of which was now found three of the coins, while the other hand contained only one."
Such is precisely the description of the trick, as it would be given by the average person, on seeing it, and it would represent his honest opinion of what occurred ; as it stands, it is quite inexplicable by trickery. Needless to say, the ac- count is not a true statement of what actually occurred, as the following explanation will make clear.
The first time the coins were dropped on to the table, the movement was not so " clumsy " as might have been sup- posed. It was, in fact, intentional, being the principal factor in the accomplishment of the trick. What actually trans- pired at that time was this. The magician, by a quick move- ment, dropped both coins from one hand on to the table, at the same time dexterously opening the other hand a trifle, and allowing the second coin, on that hand, to fall into the interior of the hand itself. Thus, while both hands are still seen to be closed, one is empty, and the other contains two
56 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
coins. It is obvious, therefore, that, when a coin is placed upon each of the hands again, the magician has only to repeat the opening and closing movement, and there will be three coins in one of the hands, and only one in the other.
This trick illustrates, in a very simple and striking manner, the possibility of reporting a fact in an entirely erroneous manner, quite unconscious of the fact that this error in re- porting has been committed. Just in this same manner, are many slate-writing and other phenomena misreported, and hence an explanation of the seance, reported, rendered impossible. The trouble is that the " report " does not really report what actually occurred.
Thus, to revert to the famous Davey-Hodgson seances, mentioned on pp. 87-90, it must be borne in mind that many of the effects there witnessed would be absolutely inexplicable by trickery, provided the accounts were accurate. Yet we know that these slate-writing seances were the result of fraud throughout. " Writing between the conjurer's own slates, in a way quite inexplicable to the conjurer; writing upon slates locked and carefully guarded by witnesses; writ- ing upon slates held by the witnesses firmly against the under surface of the table; writing upon slates held by the wit- nesses above the table; answers to questions written secretly in locked slates ; correct quotations appearing upon guarded slates from books chosen by the witnesses at random, and sometimes mentally, the books not touched by the medium ; writing in different colors mentally chosen by the witnesses, covering the whole side of one of their own slates ; messages in languages unknown to the medium, including a message in German, for which only a mental request had been made, and a letter in Japanese, in a double slate locked and sealed by the witness ; the date of a coin placed by the witness in a sealed envelope correctly written in a locked slate upon the table, the envelope remaining intact; a word •written between slates screwed together and also corded and sealed together, the word being chosen by the witness, after the slates were fastened by himself, etc. And yet, though 'autographic' fragments of pencil were 'heard' weav-
The Psychology of Deception 57
ing mysterious messages between and under and over slates, and fragments of chalk were seen moving about under a tumbler placed above the table in full view, none of the sit- ters witnessed that best phenomenon, — Mr. Davey writ- ing.'"
Doctor Hodgson pointed out four factors that were opera- tive in vitiating practically all reports of slate-writing phe- nomena, these faults being found in practically all the reports examined. They were omission, substitution, trans- position, and interpolation. He says : ^
" Suppose that we are considering the testimony of the witness to his own separate and complete examination of a slate immediately previous to the apparent production of writing. Then, according to what I have been saying, we have, with a perfectly bona-fide witness, four possibilities to consider, besides the one that his impression is correct. It may actually be that no examination at all was made by the witness (interpolation) ; it may be that, although made, the examination was not made in the perfect manner now de- scribed (substitution) ; it may be that the examination, al- though faultless and made at the sitting, was not made on the occasion alleged (transposition) ; or it may be that, al- though the examination was made as described, and on the occasion alleged, events, perhaps unnoticed or regarded by the witness as insignificant, intervened between the examina- tion and the apparent production of the writing (omission)."
Many of my readers may feel somewhat insulted at this accusation that they cannot detect such obvious trickery when it exists, and that they are liable to make such mistakes in recording a seance as those here mentioned. They may comfort themselves with the thought, however, that it is no disgrace to make mistakes and errors of this kind; for, as Professor Jastrow pointed out:^
" The matter is in some aspects as much a technical ac- quisition as in the diagnosticating of a disease. It is not at all to the discredit of any one's powers of observation or
• Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IV., pp. 388-9. ' Fact and Fable in Psychologrj, p. 148.
58 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
intellectual acumen to be deceived by the performances of a conjurer; and the same holds true of the professional part of mediumistic phenomena. Until this homely but salutary ti'uth is impressed with all its importance upon all intending investigators, there is little hope of bringing about a proper attitude toward these and kindred phenomena."
It must be remembered that the observer, at a spiritualistic seance, is not in a normal state of mind, but is in a condition of more or less suppressed excitement, induced by the condi- tions of the seance itself. It is only natural that it should be so. There is a certain mysterious atmosphere about a seance — and particularly a dark seance — calculated to disturb the nerves of the most hardened. The darkness, the intense expectancy that something will happen, we cannot say what, the quiet, the playing upon the emotions — it is all calculated to take the sitter out of his workaday world into another, and, to just that extent, render him an uncritical judge of what transpires, and incapable of detecting what fraud the medium may be disposed to offer in the name of spiritualism. Needless to say, therefore, this attitude of mind makes it easy for the medium to entrap his sitters, and to impose upon their credulity to a far greater extent than would be the case were they in possession of their full critical faculties. To just that extent, therefore, the medium has an advantage over the conjurer, since, in the latter case, the spectators already know that the effects they see are merely the result of fraud, and come prepared to detect the trick. In the case of the medium, on the other hand, the sitters are not assured that the effects they see are the results of trickery; they may be the results of some genuine supernormal power. The very possibility of the fact that it " may be " the latter puts them off their guard, to a certain degree, and so renders the task of the medium so much the lighter.^ Just as the ob- server, of old, was awed by beholding some phenomenon, pro- duced in the presence of the necromancer, so is the modern
* " A medium of experience can always outwit a looker-on. even more than a conjurer, because a conjurer would not be allowed to play the antics which we can." — Confessions of a Medium, p. 139.
The Psychology of Deception 59
investigator similarly awed by the production of phenomena produced in the presence of a medium.
An example of the effect of this mental attitude is found in the following passage, which is an account of a material- izing seance, and what took place there. " We cannot doubt that many a spiritualist has found his convictions confirmed at some seance by displays of the most paltry impostures, who would, had he attended the seance under the assurance that he was about to witness a conjuring performance, have detected the modus operandi instantly. I may give an in- stance which came under my own observation. At a mate- rialization seance given by Firman, at which I was present, a supposed ' spirit form ' appeared, draped in a semi-trans- parent flowing robe, so transparent, in fact, that Firman's bare arm was visible behind it, waving it to and fro. When the figure retired to the cabinet, the door was closed upon a portion of the robe. The door opened again slightly, and the end of the robe was drawn into the cabinet. Most of the sitters perceived this clearly, but one, a ' believer,' averred conscientiously that the fabric was not withdrawn, and that he saw it slowly melt away." ^
If these defects are to be found in the individual observer, they are to be found more strongly developed in a crowd, as such, whose opinion is always worth far less than the opinion of each individual in that crowd. G. Le Bon showed this very clearly, in his remarkable work. The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind. Here he sa\^s:
" A crowd, perpetually hovering on the borderland of unconsciousness, readily yielding to all suggestions, having all the violence of feeling peculiar to beings who cannot ap- peal to the influence of reason, deprived of all critical faculty, cannot be otherwise than excessively credulous. The im- probable does not exist for a crowd, and it is necessary to bear this circumstance well in mind to understand the facility with which are created and propagated the most improbable legends and stories. ... It is not necessary that a crowd should be numerous for the faculty of seeing what is taking ' Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IV., pp. 389-90.
60 The Physical Phenomena of Spirituahsm
place before its eyes to be destroyed, and for the real facts to be replaced by hallucinations unrelated to them. As soon as a few individuals are gathered together they constitute a crowd, and, though they should be distinguished men of learning, they assume all the characteristics of crowds with regards to matters outside their specialty. The faculty of observation and the critical spirit possessed by each of them individually at once disappears. ... In the collective mind the intellectual aptitude of the individuals, and in consequence their individuality, are weakened. . . . The characteristics of the reasoning of crowds are the association of dissimilar things possessing a merely apparent connection between each other, and the immediate generalization of particular cases." See also, in this connection, the chapter on " The Atmosphere of Assemblies," on pp. 48-9 of Psychic Studies, by Frankhn Johnson.
These remarks will make it clear to us why many men of science have been deceived by very simple tricks and fraudu- lent devices, while investigating spiritualistic phenomena — their scientific culture is no guarantee that they are any more capable of detecting fraud than is the man-in-the-street, ■ — in fact their training has made them very much less capa- ble of detecting fraud than the average person, who comes more in contact with the world, and is an acuter judge of character and human nature. Unless the other qualifications of a man of science entitle his judgment to especial respect in this particular field, therefore, we should not give it any greater weight than the opinions of any other investigator, merely because he is a scientific man. As Mr. Podmore pointed out, "... men of general culture and even men of science are not specially qualified to detect conjuring tricks. . . . It is pertinent to point out that conjurers, even eminent conjurers, have themselves admitted the genuineness of some of these suspected manifestations." ^
I have insisted that the account of a spiritualistic seance is generally valueless for the reason that lapse of memory renders the after-account defective, just as malobservation * Modern Spiritualism, Vol. II., p. 204.
The Psychology of Deception
61
renders the memory picture of the events erroneous. It may be rephed to this that the accounts of many seances are not open to this double objection, for the reason that the after- account was written from notes made at the time. I would reply to this that these " notes " have been made in very few instances, so few, indeed, as to be entirely omitted from con- sideration, when taking into account the whole history of the subject. But, even in these few cases, where notes were taken, it is impossible to take notes of this character, while the phe- nomena are in progress, and have them accurately represent what is transpiring. Either the note-taker must take very brief and ineffectual notes of the phenomena in progress, which would be of very little assistance to him in drawing up a detailed report of the seance, or the notes may be full, and in that case, the note-taker must, necessarily, have missed observing some of the phenomena, or some of the movements of the medium in producing the phenomena, while taking the notes ; and, in that case, too, the notes are of little assist- ance in telling us what actually transpired at a given seance. Professor Hyslop found what a difficult task it was, — this attempting to take notes at a spiritualistic seance, — and says : ^
"... I went prepared to take notes, which I did. But I came to the conclusion that I could take but a very small part of the notes necessary to give a clear and full account of such performances. I moreover concluded also that five minutes after the performance of any trick my memory was not good enough to recall important facts which would be necessary to tell the story rightly and fully to one who had not observed it. But the most important conclusion was that many things took place which I could not observe at all, as the sequel showed to be true." How widely the accounts of a trained and an untrained observer may differ, when describ- ing the same event, may be seen by comparing the descrip- tions of Sir William Crookes and Miss Florence Marryat, e. g., of a certain materialization. Crookes's account is to be found in his Researches; Miss Marry at's in her book. There > Borderland of Psychical Research, p. 226.
62 The Physical Phenomena of Spirituahsm
Is No Death. The accounts are compared in Joivrml S. P. R., Vol. XII., p. 268.
In addition to all the above methods of deception, there are, of course, numerous others which the professional medium employs in order to deceive his sitter. It would take too long for me to enumerate all these here, but I must mention one or two others that are in frequent use, for the reason that they are of more or less general application. The first is that the medium often assumes a certain ignorance of events and languages, etc., so that when these events are given through " the spirits," at a seance, they will have the appear- ance of being supernormally imparted information. Many mediums, again, have a smattering of several languages, but will state, on being asked, that they know only English. The reason for their doing this is that, when messages are written on the slate, e. g., the sitter is all the more dumbfounded, for the reason that he now has two " miracles " to explain, in- stead of only one — the writing on the slates and the con- tent of the message. The author of The Revelations of a Spirit Medium asserts (p. 14) that this is very frequently done by mediums.
If the sitters, at any given seance, are more than usually acute and watchful, the medium is sure to notice this, and, in all probability, the result will be a " blank seance," no phenomena at all being forthcoming. The medium always goes on the principle that it is far better to have a blank seance than an exposure, and in this he is, of course, quite right. An exposure is irredeemable, while a blank seance may be attributed to bad conditions, indisposition, lack of power, and what not. Mr. Davey wrote, in this connection: " If the performer has any reason to think that any part of his trick will be seen, he can take refuge in a blank seance; nor would it generally be the case that if the trick were partly performed the observance of strict conditions by the sitter would result not merely in failure, but in exposure. ... I have several times had to deal with this danger, and have always been successful." The author of The Confessions of a Medium stated that " it does good to have an occasional
The Psychology of Deception 63
failure" (p. 89), while we know that, in the case of Eglin- ton, at any rate, the seance was continued, in spite of an " exhaustion of power " (so the medium stated), and the spirits induced to continue the phenomena by means of a double fee ! " The medium yielded without hesitation, and ' the spirits ' continued to give excellent manifestations." ^
It would be a thankless task to continue this chapter further. The interested reader will find the subject of the psychology of deception ably handled by Professor Norman Triplett in The American Journal of Psychology, XI., No. 4, July", 1900, in an article entitled " The Psychology of Conjuring Deceptions." The whole subject is there treated in a very full and exhaustive manner.^ My object, in the present chapter, is to show that the medium employs very much the same devices and artifices in his production of mediumistic phenomena, and to elucidate the problems: why persons, otherwise acute and intelligent, should be so easily deceived by such simple tricks and illusions. I trust the reasons for this deception are now made a trifle more clear, and that the reader will feel that, after all, he may have been deceived by the simplest devices possible. As soon as this possibility is realized, we may expect many more exposes of fraudulent mediums than are now forthcoming.
• Proceedings S. P. i?., Vol. IV., p. 364
* See also Sidis: The Psychology of Suggestion, etc.
CHAPTER IV
TABLE - TURNING AND TABLE - LIFTING
Probably no phenomena are more intimately connected, in the pubhc mind, with the spiritistic movement than those of table-turning and table-lifting. The reason for this is not, I think, hard to find. There can be no doubt that a large part of the phenomena, at least, are genuine, however we may choose to interpret them. I mean by this that the table does, in very many cases, actually rise from off the floor; and, whether the ultimate explanation be fraud, un- conscious muscular action, electricity, spirits, or what not, a large share of the public's attention is inevitably bound to be directed toward phenomena that do actually occur, since the vast bulk of these table-turning experiments have been conducted in private home circles, where fraud was practically excluded, to all appearances. Before we proceed further, then, and in order to avoid misunderstanding, I shall briefly describe the phenomena that are observed, and state the explanations that are generally accepted by the sci- entific world, by way of accounting for the phenomena which it agrees to consider genuine.
A number of persons sit around a table, small or large, as the case may be ; in the light or dark, as the case may be. Each member of the circle places his hands gently on the table-top, and leaves them there quietly for a longer or shorter time, as may be necessary, before the phenomena begin. After a time, the table is seen to tremble, quiver, and, generally, it will move about the room, under the sitters* hands, without any one apparently pushing it in the least ; in fact, if the sitters are questioned, they will, almost invari-
64
Table-turning and Table-lifting 65
ably, state that the table is pulling and pushing them about the room ! In this belief the sitters are, in all probability, perfectly honest. The feehng is exactly as if the table was possessed with an intelligent force of its own, and had gotten beyond the control of the sitters. The facts (these phenom- ena) science no longer doubts. That tables do act in the manner described (apparently, at least), she no longer denies. The sole difficulty lies in the interpretation of the facts; in the explanation that is given of the phenomena observed.^
It is not within the province of this book to study the his- torical evidence — this will be found fully discussed by Mr. Podmore, in his Modern Spiritualism, Vol. II., pp. 1-21. The whole subject is there treated in a very masterly fashion, though one feels that the writer is, perhaps, at times, a little prejudiced.^ As a typical example of what a table apparently does, at seances of the kind, I quote the following account of a seance (at which he himself was present), contributed by Professor W. F. Barrett to the Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. IV., pp. 25-42, the paper being entitled " On Some Phenomena, Commonly Called Spiritualistic, Witnessed by the Author." The account reads, in part, as follows:
"... Whilst noticing these facts, I observed a frequent uneasy movement of the entire table, and now it sidled about in a most surprising manner. Lifting their hands completely off the table, the sitters placed themselves back in their chairs^ with their hands folded across their chests; their feet wei^ in full view, and, under these conditions, and in obedience to my request, the table raised the two legs nearest to me com- pletely off the ground, some eight or ten inches, and thus suspended itself for a few moments. Again a similar act was performed on the other side. Next came a very unex- pected occurrence. Whilst absolutely free from the contact of every person, the table wiggled itself backward and for-
' " The Phenomena are genuine. The hypothesis which spiritualists en- deavour to btiild on these phenomena is altogether another thing." — The Philosophy of Spiritualism, by F. R. Marvin, M. D., p. 24.
' I particularly had in mind Podmore's criticism of M. Gasparin's ex- periments (Studies in Psychical Research, p. 47) when writing this. His conjectures seem to me — in the face of the existing evidence — some- what unwarranted.
66 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
ward, advancing toward the armchair in which I sat, and ultimately completely imprisoning me in my seat. During its progress, it was followed by Mr. L. and Miss I., but they were at no time touching it, and occasionally were so distant that I could perceive a free space all round the table whilst it was still in motion. When thus under my very nose, the table rose repeatedly, and enabled me to be perfectly sure by the evidence of touch that it was off the ground, and, further, that no human being, consciously or unconsciously, had any part in this movement. . . . Suddenly, only the tips of our fingers being on the table, the heavy loo table at which we were sitting made a series of very violent prancing movements (which I could not imitate afterward except by using both hands and all my strength) ; the blows were so heavy that I hurriedly stopped the performance, fearing for the safety of the gas chandelier in the room below " (pp. 34-5).
Now, in reading over the above account, it will be seen that two facts stand out with special prominence. (1) That the table moved without any contact whatever, at times when none of the sitters' hands were upon the table at all ; and (2) that the table appeared to possess a power or force of its own, and even greater, in strength, than that possessed by the sitters. The first of these points I shall reserve for con- ^deration later on; for the present I desire to centre our Intention upon the other consideration, viz., that the table appeared to possess a force independent of, and even exer- cised in opposition to, the conscious intentions of the sitters through whose agency the table moved at all. Further, this force appeared to be equal to, or even greater than, any mus- cular force that the sitters could themselves exercise.^
It was only natural, when these phenomena first appeared, and when so little was known of subconscious muscular action and the power of suggestion, that the readiest ex- planation should have been the one accepted, and that " spirits " should have been given the credit for such phe- nomena, especially as spiritualism was just then coming into • See Dodd's Spirit Manifestations.
Table-turning and Table-lifting 67
prominence, and other phenomena of a like nature were attributed to their agency. Some force was at work, that was certain; and that force was frequently an intelligent force ; of that fact there was no doubt either. The spiritistic explanation was the one that would most naturally be adopted by all persons who had no a priori objections to spirit, as such. As the scientific world had such objections, they began to search elsewhere for a cause, and were not long in finding one that partially explained the facts observed, at any rate, and without recourse to spirits, or even to anything super- normal whatsoever.
The first step toward a scientific explanation of the ob- served phenomena was taken by Professor Faraday, who invented a little instrument which would register the uncon- scious muscular actions of any person placing his or her hands upon it. By means of this Httle instrument. Professor Faraday was enabled to show that all persons exercised a more or less powerful " push and pull " action, they being quite unconscious of such muscular exertion; and Professor Jastrow further conclusively proved, in a careful series of experiments conducted some years ago, that not only is this action present and operative in all normal individuals, but that this push and pull corresponded invariably with the expectation of the sitter, who had his hands on the board.^ Unless the evidence in the case renders this hypothesis un- tenable, therefore, we must always assume that unconscious muscular action is the true and sufiicient explanation of the phenomena of table-tipping, of ouija and planchette writing, and all kindred phenomena.
Of course, such muscular action is not by any means al- ways unconscious. It may be perfectly conscious — inten- tional fraud. That this has been practised very frequently, in such cases, cannot be doubted. Thus, Truesdell tells us, e. g., that he detected one medium in the act of tipping a table by observing the unnaturally white appearance of the medium's finger-nails, " the unmistakable evidence that she was bearing heavily on the opposite side of the table." ^ But
• Fact and Fable in Psychology, pp. 307-36. ' Bottom Facts, p 37.
68 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
I wish it to be understood that this muscular pressure, wliile it may be conscious and fraudulent in many cases, is not necessarily so, and, when the evidence in the case, or the moral character of the medium, renders this assumption im- possible or repulsive, it should not be urged, as wnconscious muscular action will perform precisely the same marvels, without the knowledge of the medium, and this is the explana- tion that should be adopted. As will presently be shown, the real problem only begins when this is assumed and granted !
There is a great deal of evidence that goes to show that this unconscious muscular force is frequently stronger and more powerful than the individual could consciously control or summon. (Perhaps the fact that the vital functions of the body are under the control of the "unconscious mind " may be the explanation of this fact?) At all events, we know that in moments of extreme fear or excitement, when the conscious mind is largely in abeyance, many acts are per- formed which would be quite impossible to the normal in- dividual, being beyond his normal muscular ability. Car- penter gives an example of very much the same thing in his Mesmerism, Spiritualism, etc. (p. 128), stating that, " Braid (in my presence) enabled a man so remarkable for the pov- erty of his physique, that he had not for many years ven- tured to lift a weight of twenty pounds, to take up a weight of twenty-eight pounds upon his little finger, and swing it around his head, with the greatest apparent ease. Neither Mr. Braid nor his son, both of them powerful men, could do anything like this ; and I could not myself lift the same weight on my little finger to more than half my own height. Trickery in this case was obviously impossible, since, if the subject had been trained to such feats, the effect of such train- ing would have become visible in his muscular development."
Additional and very convincing evidence is afforded by a careful study of the phenomena of " dowsing," i. e., the movements of a forked twig or branch, in the hands of a " dowser," when he walks over underground water, metals, etc. Let us assume, for the sake of argument, that there is " nothing in it " beyond the movement of the twig, which is
Table-turning and Table-lifting 69
undoubted. Let us further assume that this movement of the twig is due to the unconscious muscular action on the part of the dowser.^
The interesting point is this: that the rod frequently manifests a tremendous force, quite beyond the will or control of the dowser, and frequently in direct opposition to his will and belief. I quote a few cases by way of illustration. On pp. 278-9, Proceedings S. P. R., Professor Barrett gives a number of cases (mentioned in his previous report, in Vol. XIII.), of which the following are samples. Mr. Enys, F. G. S., who is an amateur dowser, states " the rod broke off short in front of my hands, and did so a second time in the same place." ]\Iiss Grantham (daughter of Judge Grant- ham), describing what occurred with the Rev. J. Blunt, an- other amateur dowser, states : " So strong was the impulse, that we found unless Mr. B. relaxed his hold, the twig broke off near his fingers." Lady Milbanke, also an amateur dowser, had the same experience (p. 42). Similar cases could be quoted ad libitum. The point is that none of these persons, in the normal state, could consciously produce these phenomena, by any muscular action on their part, and we have no evidence that any of them were in an abnormal con- dition when the experiments were progressing. They could not voluntarily and consciously bend the twig in this manner, and produce the phenomena observed. The obvious conclu- sion to be drawn is that the body can unconsciously exercise a far greater amount of energy than the conscious mind can control; as Professor Barrett says, "in hypnosis, somnam- bulism, hysteria, etc., subjects can perform muscular feats impossible to them in their normal, self-conscious state " (p. 278, Vol. XV.). If this fact be granted, the mystery of
' This is. in fact, the theory held by Professor Barrett, who contributed to the Proceedings S. P. R. two lengthy reports on the subject, in Vol. XIII., pp. 2-282, and Vol. XV., pp. 130-383. respectively, — though the evidence conclusively proved to his mind that the faculty of dowsing really existed, being, probably, somewhat akin to clairvoyance in its char- acter or essence. That, however, is in answer to the question. How did the knowledge of when to (unconsciously) bend the twig enter the dowser's mind? As before stated, the actual movement he considered due to un- conscious muscular action.
70 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
table-tipping, ouija and planchette, vanish, whenever con- tact is allowed, i. e., whenever the sitters are alloAved to place their hands on the table, ever so lightly.^
Having now (I hope) estabhshed the fact that the move- ments of a table, however violent and however much beyond the control of the sitter, may be due solely to unconscious muscular action, whenever contact is permitted, we pass to consider another aspect of the problem.
The fact that the table moves so frequently in direct oppo- sition to the will and expectation of the sitter or medium would seem, at first sight, to disprove the arguments (above referred to) of Jastrow and others, viz., that the table or object always moves in the direction in which the sitter's attention is focussed: in short, in the direction in which it is expected to move. But, rightly considered, the facts do not prove this, as can be readily shown.
That part of the mind which moves the table, in these ex- periments, is the subconscious, the " subliminal conscious- ness," or at least one stratum of that consciousness. Now, it has often been proved that the thoughts uppermost in the conscious mind are not by any means those uppermost in the subconscious mind — far from it. The two minds ^ may be running in entirely opposite or different grooves. Consequently, the conscious mind may be expecting one thing — that the table will move to the right, let us say ; and, at the same time the subconscious mind may be expecting the very opposite — that the table will move to the left ! The
' In this connection, I would refer the reader to the very interesting account of the Japanese " possessions," given by Mr. Percival Lowell, in his Occult Japan. He states that, in all cases of possession, a wand is used, called the Gohei, held in the right hand, which is supposed to act as a kind of intermediary between the man and the god. It is interesting to note, in this connection, that the rod is always moved first before the worshipper is consciously affected, and that the wand soon becomes uncontrollable (like the divining rod), until it appears " as if the wand shook the man, not the man it " (p. 6). This is like the tail wagging the dog !
' Two minds. I have used this expression pro tern, for convenience — not because I accept the Hudsonian " two mind " theory in principle. In writing this book, I have had to assume that a large portion of mv readers are unfamiliar with the theories held on these subjects, and have chosen forcible language purposely, even though the finer psychological distinctions are sacrificed thereby.
Table-turning and Table-lifting 71
table, of course, moves to the left, in accordance with the law ; but, since the conscious mind did not direct the movement, it is apparently in direct contradiction to the law, whereas it is, in reality, in direct accordance with it. I am unaware that this aspect of the problem has ever been worked out in detail before.
Thus far Science is willing to go, but no further! She is willing to admit that certain phenomena occur, which are comprehended within the above outhned theory. But when she is confronted with phenomena requiring an explanation, such, e. g., as the levitation of a table without any contact whatever, she refuses to consider them, calmly asserting that they are impossible, and consequently do not occur at all! This is hardly the scientific attitude in which to ap- proach the subject, it is true; but it is the one adopted by most scientific men, nevertheless. They explain all they can of the phenomena, and the remainder they assert do not exist. The position of the scientific world is summed up, perhaps, by Professor Binet, when he says:
" As for the table-turners, it has long been demonstrated and that, too, by the most exact researches, that they turn simply from the impelling influence of the hands." ^
All this is very good and very logical, so far as it goes; the trouble is that it does not go far enough. Granting all the above to be correct, it can readily be shown, as I stated before, that the real problem has only just begun. The scientific explanation does not take into account, or attempt to explain, any cases where the table has been raised off the ground without contact, and there are very many instances on record, one case being quoted above. How are such phenomena to be explained.'* It is useless to deny them, merely, as that does not satisfy any fair-minded man. Doc- tor Carpenter attempted this method, and was mercilessly flayed alive, so to speak, by Andrew Lang, in his Cock Lane and Common Sense, pp. 319-21. (See also his Historical Mysteries, pp. 185-8.)
But it will be obvious that the great unexplained problem * Alterations of Personality, p. 327.
72 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
still remains. To the scientifically minded psychical re- searcher, the puzzling question is, not what moves the table, but does the table give any information unknown to the sitters? The interesting problem is not a physical but a psychological one, so far as the proof of spiritualism goes, that is. Many spiritualists are quite willing to admit that the movements of the table can all be accounted for by un- conscious muscular action, but the question is, does the table (by raps, tilts, etc.) impart any information which was not in the minds of the sitters, at the time of the experiments? If so, then it is obvious that the explanations at present in vogue do not explain, but that we must search further, if we are to account rationally for the phenomena observed.
These remarks apply equally to all automatic phenomena ; to ouija and planchette writing, to regular automatic writing, etc., as well as to table-tipping. Many persons have an idea that the phenomena are " explained " if once it is shown that the planchette or ouija board, or the table, is moved by the unconscious muscular action on the part of the medium. But it is evident to any one who thoroughly understands the problem, that the difficulties only begin when all this is granted. Granting that the board is pushed, or the table tipped, etc., by unconscious (or conscious) muscular action on the part of the medium, the real question at issue then arises, viz., is the imparted information within the knowl- edge of any of the sitters, or must it have been obtained in some supernormal manner? That is the real question to be solved.
It was necessary for me to go into this detail, when con- sidering the phenomena of table-tipping, as these automatic phenomena are much misunderstood by the public, and I have chosen the phenomena of table-tipping to illustrate a general principle, applicable alike to all automatic phenomena. When once the real problem in the case is adequately under- stood by the public, much of the hard feelings and misunder- standings of the past will disappear.
It will thus be evident that there are two distinct problems for us to consider, apart from the phenomena which science
Table-turning and Table-lifting 73
admits as genuine. (1) The alleged movements of objects without contact; and (2) the evidence of knowledge pos- sessed by " the table," unknown to the sitters, and apparently supemormally acquired. I cannot stop to consider either of these questions in this place, however, but will return to them later on. On pp. 358-71, and pp. 410-14, respectively, they will be found discussed at some length. In the present chapter I shall accordingly dismiss that part of our inquiry and turn to a consideration of the various methods in which a table can be made to tilt, and even to be entirely levitated from off the floor, by fraudulent means. The measures that have been adopted to obtain this result, — the means em- ployed in fraudulently producing the phenomena, — I shall now discuss in detail.
Let us suppose a number of persons seated around a table. The table rises up, first on one side and then on the other, until, finally, all four legs are off the floor at the same time. Occasionally, though not always, the sitters' hands are now removed, and the table is seen to be suspended in space, without visible support. How are these results accom- plished.? By very simple devices, in the majority of cases; the actual means employed depending on the circumstances of the case. The principal methods employed are the follow- ing:
If the seance is held in the dark, or in semi-darkness, of course the medium's task is easy enough. If he is work- ing alone, without confederates, he has only to press heavily on his side of the table, in order to cause an upward tilt on the side opposite to him, or, he may place his feet under one or both of the table-legs, and, by elevating his legs, and at the same time steadying the table with his hands, he can cause the table to be " levitated " in a very remarkable man- ner. By merely pushing the table about in various ways, an endless variety of phenomena can be produced. By raising the knees, the table can be levitated in much the §ame manner, the table being steadied by the hands. If the medium has a confederate, they work in pairs, the confederate being placed at a point diametrically opposite the medium, so that
74 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
the table is directly between them. The knees may then be employed with tremendous effect. Another method that could be employed in a dark seance is for the confederate to lift up his side of the table with one knee, while the medium raises his side by placing his head under the table, and lifting it up with his neck and shoulders. His hands can be left on the table, during this manoeuvre, and held by members of the circle on either side. This, when well executed, is a very convincing " Icvitation." Of course medium and confederate can reverse the roles, if desired.
All the above methods are primitive, however, and would hardly be employed by any professional medium, as being too obvious. The majority of mediums who profess to tip tables employ more or less apparatus, the principal methods employed being the following:
Suppose a small, light table is to be levitated. This the medium does by placing his hands upon the top of it. The table is now seen to follow the hands of the medium, and may be hfted off the floor and swung about at will, adhering to the medium's hands throughout. On removing his hands, they and the table can at once be examined, but no sticky material or other device is found to explain the mystery. The secret is this. The medium wears a ring on one of his fingers, a plain, gold band. In one side of this ring has been cut a slit, extending about half-way across it. When the medium's hands are first shown, this section is slipped around to the back of the hand, but at all other times the slit side is turned inward, toward the palm. In the centre of the table is driven an extra stout pin, having a wide head, and all the medium has to do, in order to successfully " levitate " the table, is to slip the niche in his ring under the pin-head, on the table, and, on lifting up his hand, it will be found that the table adheres to it closely, and that the hand may be moved or waved about in almost any direction, without the table becoming detached. When the table is again placed on the floor, the medium presses upward strongly with his hands, thereby extracting the pin from the table, which may then be examined. A twist of the ring on the medium's
Table-turning and Table-lifting 75
finger, and his hands may be examined also, the pin having been dropped on to the floor or elsewhere in the interval. This is a method much employed, and always with good effect.
There is a variation of the above method sometimes era- ployed, in which the pin is dispensed with. In its place the medium employs a Httle rubber " sucker," to the centre of which is firmly attached a short, broad-headed pin. The medium slips the niche in his ring under the head of the pin, as in the last instance, and the suction of the moistened rubber cup will lift the table off the floor. This method is the one that is sometimes employed in " levitating " a bowl of water.
When a large table is to be levitated, the medium gener- ally employs an assistant. Both he and his confederate wear, strapped to their wrists, under the shirt-cuffs, a stout leather band, to which is bolted an iron rod, extending beyond the leather cuff^ about an inch. When they take their places at the table, both medium and confederate slip the projecting portion of the iron rod under the table, and, as the hand rests on the top of the same, it will be seen that a vice-like grip can be obtained in this manner, and practically any- thing done with the table, so far as tilting and levitation are concerned, without any fear of detection ; an examination of the feet of all present may be allowed when the manifesta- tions are at their- height. Sometimes the table may be levi- tated without the use of this piece of apparatus, the linen cuffs of the medium and his confederate answering every requirement.
Another method is for the medium and his assistant to have cords or leather straps passed around their necks, to one portion of which is attached a sharp hook. Of course the strap is worn under the clothing. The hook is nonnally sus- pended just above the bottom of the waistcoat, but when the medium bends forward, this hook falls below the waistcoat, and may be hooked to the under side of the table. By merely straightening or standing up, the medium and his assistant
76 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
can now cause the table to be "levitated" in a very fine manner ! ^
There is a conjuring trick known as the " floating hat." The efFect of the trick is this: the performer borrows a hat, and, placing his fingers (the tips only) lightly on the crowTi of the hat, it is seen to adhere to them, and the hand may be moved in any direction, the hat following them, ap- parently drawn by some force of attraction. The secret is this: the performer has a loop of black silk thread, about three feet long, passed over his head, and hanging down in front. The performer has only to secretly introduce the borrowed hat into this loop, and press the hat against it, and he can move the hat in any direction he sees fit. Some such device might doubtless be employed in the case of tables, a loop of blackened catgut, e. g., being used for the purpose.
If the medium has full swing of the seance-room, he can cause a table to rise and float in the air without touching it at all. This is done by stretching two black threads across the room, these passing under the table. The threads are in the hands of assistants, who have only to raise the threads in their hands in order to " levitate " the table. The medium may freely pass his hands over and under the table, during the levitation, thus showing that it is not suspended by any normal means!
' In Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. X., p. 23, Sir Oliver Lodge made the remark that he would rather trust to his own powers of observation, in an experiment of this kind, than any number of printed records, backed up by any number of photographs. In this he was, I think, very wise. On p. 113 of Around the World with a Magician and a Juggler will be found a photograph of a table levitated by fraudulent means — it is impossible to see how.
CHAPTER V
RAPS
Inasmuch as raps were the first phenomena ever observed in the history of modern spirituahsm (being the first phe- nomena produced through the agency of the first mediums, the Fox sisters), their consideration becomes of great im- portance to us, if only from this, historic, standpoint. At this late date it is impossible to say whether the raps ob- tained through the Fox sisters were genuine or not. In many respects, it would appear from the evidence that the raps were at first genuine. As we shall see later on that the evidence for genuine raps occurring in the presence of certain individuals is practically overwhelming, and inas- much, also, as this fact of the occurrence of raps is not, when rightly considered, such an extraordinary phenomenon, I do not believe that we shall go far wrong in thinking that the raps observed in the presence of the Fox sisters were at first genuine. If raps have ever occurred at all, I can see no reason for believing that the raps, in this instance, were fraudulently produced.
Be that as it may, however, we have positive evidence that the raps observed in their presence when they became pro- fessional mediums were fraudulently produced. This evi- dence will be found in full in a book by R. B. Davenport, entitled The Death Blow to Spiritualism. In this work will be found a lengthy historical and critical resume of the phe- nomena observed in the presence of these mediums, which I cannot now even attempt to summarize. Here we find a sum- mary of the famous report on the two mediums by the " Buf-
77
78 The Physical Phenomena of Spirituahsm
falo Doctors," — Drs. Austin Flint, Chas. A. Lee, and C. B. Coventry. Their report is inconckisive, it is true, since fraud was not directly proved; but, inasmuch as the rappings took place only where fraud was possible, and altogether ceased as soon as strict test-conditions were imposed, the phenomena obviously prove nothing. An investigation by several Har- vard professors was also inconclusive in results (p. 147). It must also be remembered that the investigations of the Seybert Commission were entirely unsatisfactory.^ But the real evidence of fraud was supplied by the mediums them- selves, both of them furnishing a written statement to the effect that the rappings observed in their presence were due to fraud (z^. pp. 25-38, and 53-9), and stating that the raps were produced by the joints of the toes and feet (p. 38).^ But, as before stated, the evidence counts for nothing, from a scientific standpoint, and must be altogether left out of account. Whether raps occur or not is a question that can be settled to-day, without referring back to the case of the Fox sisters, which has no evidential value whatever. My object, for the moment, is not to consider the historical cases, and their evidential value, but to consider the raps themselves, and the methods that can be, and are, employed in fraudu- lently reproducing them. To this aspect of the problem I accordingly turn.
It is scarcely necessary to remark that, in cases where the raps are obtained on the medium's own table, etc., the table should be subjected to a thorough examination, since there are tables made, called " rapping-tables," which contain a hidden mechanism for producing raps, this being under the control of the medium.^ So skilfully are these contrivances concealed, however, that it is practically useless to attempt to find them without taking the table to pieces, and a far
* See Report of the Seybert Commission, pp. 32-48.
2 It is only fair to these mediums to state that one — if not both — recanted their " confessions " before dying (See Journal S. P. R., Vol. III., p. 360 ; Vol. IV., pp. 15-16). The statements of mediums of this char- acter evidently cannot be relied upon — vmless proof of the statements made be forthcoming.
^ A full description of the construction of one of these tables, with illus- trations, etc., will be found on p. 101 of Hopkins's Magic, Stage Illusions, etc.
79
simpler method would be for the sitter to request raps on other articles of furniture — chairs, walls, etc. Even here we can have no guarantee that the chair is not a " rapping- chair," and that confederates of the medium are not busy knocking on the floor, ceiling, and walls of the room, which has, in fact, often been done. Raps in the liome of the pro- fessional medium can, in fact, be obtained in so many differ- ent ways that they are of no evidential value whatever, and I accordingly pass to a consideration of the methods em- ployed by the medium to obtain raps in the sitter's own home, where mechanism or preparation may be considered out of the question, generally speaking.
One very simple method of obtaining raps is the following. The medium places his boot-heel against the table-leg, press- ing firmly. By gradually slipping the heel along the table or chair leg, a sharp " rap " will be the result. The medium must exercise a certain amount of care to ensure his foot slipping only the right distance, for otherwise several suc- cessive raps would be produced, more than the medium wished for, in fact! This degree of pressure cannot be explained, but it can be very easily felt by any one making the experi- ment for himself, and generally is acquired very easily. The rap is located by the medium as occurring on the top of the table, and is consequently heard there by the sitter ! This inability to locate sound correctly is a peculiar fact which I have discussed at some length on p. 101, in the chapter on " Slate-writing," and consequently shall not repeat the ar- guments here.
Another method of producing raps is for the medium to slightly moisten his fingers, and press them firmly on the table-top. Now, by simply sliding his fingers very gently and slightly over the table, distinct raps are produced, of a very convincing character. The same method of precaution is necessary here that applied in the last case.
Still another method is for the medium to place his two thumb-nails together, pressing them finnly against the wood of the table. By slightly slipping one nail up or down, a
80 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
vibratory impulse is imparted to the tabic, which exactly reproduces the genuine rap.
A very similar method is that of obtaining raps by a gentle rubbing of clothing or linen, especially the shirt-cuffs. Such raps as these may, of course, be obtained by a medium unconsciously, and in all good faith. Raps, more than any other physical phenomena, perhaps, may be fraudulently produced by a medium without that person being aware of the fact. Leaning more or less heavily on a table (especially if it be of Hght build) will induce a number of creaks and sounds resembling raps, especially if the medium says that thej are such!
I have already spoken of the method of obtaining raps by means of the toe or knee joints, the method employed by the Fox sisters.^
Again, mediums occasionally employ a little instrument which will produce raps when a button is pressed on the outside of the box in which it is kept. I have known a medium who employed a very ingenious apparatus of this kind, worked by electricity. The battery was in his pocket, and the box was fitted with a clamp which enabled it to be fastened to the under side of the table. Wires connected the two. In a dim light the medium was now enabled to retire some distance from the table, on which intelligent raps would occur, nevertheless.
Mr. D. C. Cook describes a method somewhat similar to the electric device spoken of above.^ In this case, however, the hammer of the apparatus strikes on the boot-heel, which is made hollow, in order to form a sounding-box. By press- ing the heel against the table-leg, very fine raps on its " sur- face " can be obtained.
The following is a very ingenious method of obtaining raps, for which I am indebted to Mr. Henry Hardin, who published it in Mahatma, Vol. II., No. 10, April, 1899.
> M. Petrovo-Solovoyo succeeded in producing raps in this manner under better test conditions than the Fox sisters. He completely deceived all his sitters (See Journal S. P. R., Vol. VI., pp. 120-1). I have been un- able to produce these raps myself, though I have repeatedly tried to do so.
' Mahatma, Vol. IV., No. 10, April, 1901.
*
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81
" Have a piece of tubing a foot long and about the size of a lead-pencil, fitted with a piston, which, on pulling a black thread attached to the bottom of the tube, will rise out at the top about two-thirds of its length, and, upon releasing the pull on the thread, will sink into the tube again. This piston should be, in reality, a long, heavy and sharp-pointed needle. Now you have a little hammer made of lead, just the shape of the rubber top on your lead-pencil. The bottom of this should be hollowed out and fitted with a small cork. It is evident, now, that this hammer-head may easily be stuck at will on the point of the needle-piston, thus forming a ' rapper.' The piston should be adjusted to the right leg, just below the knee, under the pants, with the sharp end up. It must be placed on the side next the left leg, and the end of the black thread should come out through a small hole in the seam and have a bent black pin attached to it. To get the manifestations, you seat yourself at a table with several friends, all of whom join hands. Before doing this, however, you reach under the table, and hook the bent pin on the left leg of your trousers. Now, if this is the right length, you can, by separating the knees, cause the long needle- piston to force its way up through the pants, and, if you then press the little hammer-head, cork side down, on to the needle-point, you will have a spirit ready, when you move your knees further apart, to rap loudly upon the under side of the table. If your friends wish, at any time, to investi- gate, you have only to pull off the little hammer-head, unhook the thread from the left knee, and the needle-point will sink down through the surface of your pant leg, and disappear; and you may get up and walk about with impunity while they search for the ghosts."
Another method of producing raps is for the medium to sit close to the table, so that his knee touches the table-leg. Now, by pressing against the leg of the table with the knee, and slipping it up or down very slightly, a variety of raps may be produced. " Professor Manville " states that this method is extensively employed.^ A very simple method is • Spiritualistic Phenomena, etc., p. 9.
82 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
for the medium to tap the table-leg with his boot-heel. He locates the sound on the table-top, and his sitters do the same !
There is one further effect I must describe, before leaving this section on the fraudulent production of raps. Some up-to-date spirits have conceived the original idea of com- municating by means of the electric telegraph! They em- ploy the Morse or some other system, and the messages are ticked out in the regular manner, the instrument being safely placed in a wooden box, and no human hand being near the key at the time. The seance is conducted in full light, the medium transcribing the message on to paper, as it is ticked out by the instrument. The test is surely ingenious, and it is highly effective.
Now for the explanation of this apparent marvel. It was stated that the instrument was placed in a wooden box, and about this there is no trickery. The lid of the box is hinged, so that, when it is closed, the instrument is entirely shut off, and no human hands can touch the key without opening the box. This is supposedly to prevent fraud, but it does, in reality, render it possible, being one of the chief agencies in the production of the ticks! To make this clear, a further explanation is necessary.
The telegraph key is, of course, provided with a tension- screw, enabling the key to be elevated or depressed at will. Before the seance begins, the medium carefully adjusts the key so that it will just touch the lid of the box, and so that, if the lid of the box is " pressed home " from the outside, the key will be depressed sufficiently to cause a click, pre- cisely as if the key were pressed by the fingers. The hinges are so adjusted that the box will just not close of its ovm weight, a slight pressure being required to close the lid tightly. For this reason the key is not pressed down by the weight of the box-hd, and until the medium presses on the lid with his fingers. This he does by allowing only the edge of his palm to touch the box-lid, a slight downward pressure being all that is required to force the lid down, and cause the instrument to " click." The sitter's attention is absorbed
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83
in the translation of the message by the medium, and his writing it on paper. The transcription is merely to divert attention.
The only objection to this ingenious piece of apparatus was that a slight contact with the lid of the box in which the instrument is enclosed was necessary. Various mediums con- sequently set to work, trying to improve upon the old method by obviating this necessity. Finally they succeeded — they devised an instrument through which it is possible to obtain messages without any contact with the box-lid at all. This was effected by concealing a powerful electro-magnet in the table-top, the current being closed or broken, as desired, by pressing upon a button concealed on the under side of the table. The medium could press this button with his knee, thus enabling him to display both hands on the table-top, and disposing of the necessity of touching the lid of the box.
\
CHAPTER VI
SLATE - WRITING TESTS
If we were to read carefully through the historical evi- dence for the phenomena of slate-writing, we should find it to consist in one long and practically unbroken series of exposes of fraud and trickery, with no real evidence worth mentioning for the genuine manifestations of any supernor- mal power, nor any indication of any force or agency what- ever at work beyond the muscles of the medium.
In short, there is no good evidence, in the whole history of spiritualism, for the occurrence of writing on slates by other means than such as might have been produced fraudu- lently by the medium; and I have gone carefully through a vast bulk of spiritualistic literature before making this statement. To any one who knows or realizes the innumer- able methods that may be employed to trick the sitter, the records that are in print are entirely inconclusive, with hardly a single exception. The actual methods that are employed, this book is intended to expose ; a very fine resume of the historical evidence will be found in Podmore's Modern Spiritualism, especially p. 240 (Vol. I.), and pp. 204-22 (Vol. II.). To this discussion I would refer my reader. Also to the Report of the Seybert Commission, pp. 6, 8, 11-12, etc.
In the present book, I shall only touch upon the historical evidence available in the case of two of the most famous slate- writing mediums in history, partly as " sample cases," and partly because the evidence is instructive in more senses than one. For, if the two most prominent slate-writing mediums that figure in the history of the subject are shown to be
84
Slate -writing Tests
85
frauds, it is at least highl}' probable that the cases of slate- writing occurring in the presence of mediums of lesser note were produced by the same means as they were in the pres- ence of the more famous mediums. I shall, therefore, con- fine myself to a consideration of the cases of Slade and Eglinton, surely two of the greatest slate-writing mediums in the history of the subject. The evidence in the case of Slade has been discussed on pp. 19-47, and in the present chapter I shall, accordingly, confine myself to the phenomena obtained through Eglinton's mediumshlp.
Though Eglinton was never caught (I believe), in any case, in the act of fraudulently producing slate-writing " phenomena " (though he was detected in producing fraudu- lent " materializations "), his whole life-history is, neverthe- less, clouded over with suspicions and doubts. In the early days of his career, he collaborated with Mme. Blavatsky in the production of a "phenomenally produced" letter,^ which, it was afterward ascertained, was fraudulently produced.^ Many other suspicious circumstances are to be noted in the career of Eglinton, not the least of which is his persistent refusal to meet Mr. Maskelyne, of London, or allow him a sitting.^ I now turn to the more definite evidence obtained by the S. P. R., a study of which is most interesting.
Typical seances occurring in the presence of this medium will be found recorded in Proceedings, Vol. IV., pp. 35-8 ; Journal, Vol. I., pp. 399-400, and elsewhere. The first sys- tematic effort to test the alleged powers of this medium, how- ever, was made in 1886, when a ver}'^ extensive series of sit- tings was held by members of the S. P. R., principally, the reports of which will be found in Journal, Vol. II,, pp. 282-334. While these sittings were striking in many re- spects, they were, in reality, anything but convincing; so much so that Mrs. Sidgwick, in summing up the evidence as a whole, stated that she had " no hesitation in attributing the performances to clever conjuring" (p. 332). This expres-
' For an account of this see Psychic Notes, Calcutta, p. 60. 2 See Proceedings S. P. R., Vol. III., pp. 254-6. ' The Supernatural f p. 196.
I
86 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
sion of opinion naturally brought down upon her head, and indeed upon the S. P. R, in general, a storm of criticism from spiritualists and others who believed in the reality of the phenomena occurring through Eglinton's mediumship. But the phenomena were certainly anything but conclusive in character. Podmore points out several defects in the evi- dence in his Modern Spiritualism, Vol. II., pp. 212-3. Further doubt was thrown on the supernormal nature of the phenomena by the publication in the Journal, Vol. II., pp. 362-75, of a very fine paper by " Professor Hoffmann," on " How and What to Observe in Relation to Slate-writing Phenomena," and several additional letters by Mrs. Sidg- wick. But these sittings were ultimately shown to be entirely devoid of any real evidential value by Doctor Hodgson, who, in a magnificent series of articles, literally tore the Reports to pieces, and showed just how fraud might possibly have been practised in every single case.^ So that, although no proof of fraud was obtained, the evidence to scientific and cautious minds, for the supernormal, vanished.
But more definite evidence of fraud was forthcoming. In Proceedings, Vol. IV., pp. 338-80, will be found recorded a series of sittings by Prof. Carvill Lewis, in one of which the whole process of trickery was seen through, Pro- fessor Lewis practically detecting the entire process by which Eglinton obtained his information and produced the writing on the slates. Prof. Carvill Lewis writes:
" Mr. Eglinton places the book on the table with the open side toward him. His thumb is not visible, his whole hand being under the table. I purposely do not look directly at him, but busy myself with these notes. The moment I begin writing, the manifestations begin. He breathes heavily, sighs, moves, and rattles the slate, puts his right arm far below the table, withdraws his body slightly forward, and then loolcs downward intently in the direction of the slate. I suddenly look up, and immediately he also looks up with a very distressed expression of countenance. I look at my notes and again he looks down intently, and for some time, * See Journal, Vol. II., pp. 409-30, 461-7, 489-520.
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apparently, at what he is holding beneath the table. From the position of his arm, I judge that by this time he has lowered the slate to perhaps eight inches below the table, ( even his elbow being sunk out of sight. He now jerks the slate several times, breathing loudly. I look up again, when he says that he is tired, and brings up the book and slate, laying them on the table. . . ." And so on. The whole performance was so obviously conjuring to a skilled observer that the wonder is that it could ever have been thought any- thing else.
The spiritualists still insisted, however, in spite of the strong evidence to the contrary, that Eglinton's phenomena were genuine, and challenged the skeptical world to bring fonvard any other person, who, by the aid of trickery, could duplicate Eglinton's seances, under the same conditions as his were given. This was the strong position of the spiritu- alists at that time: they could always challenge the skeptical world to produce a conjurer who could duplicate the phe- nomena observed, and, so long as this individual was not forthcoming, there was at least a certain amount of rational- ity in their belief that the phenomena were genuine. The only way to prove that they were in the wrong was to produce a conjurer who, by unaided trickery, could exactly duplicate the phenomena witnessed in Eglinton's presence.
Realizing that this was the only thing left for them to do, the S. P. R. endeavored to find some one who could, in some measure, duplicate the Eglinton seances by fraud. But me- diumistic secrets were closely guarded in those days and the Society had great difficulty in finding any one to undertake the task. They were extremely fortunate, however, in ob- taining the sendees of a young man, S. J. Davey by name, who had come to the conclusion that the slate-writing per- formances of Eglinton's were all trickery, and had succeeded in duplicating most of his methods by sleight-of-hand means, and adding several new effects of his own. So far from Mr. Davey being an unsympathetic critic at the commencement of his investigations, he was, on the other hand, at first prac- tically convinced of the reality of the phenomena he observed.
88 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
and a series of his sittings with Eghnton was recorded on pp. 431-9 of the Journal, Vol. II., which was written froin the standpoint of a virtual behever. At the time of their publication, however, Mr. Davey had been convinced for some time that they were of no evidential value, and so stated (p. 431). I cite this merely to show that Mr. Davey was not by any means a prejudiced or partial investigator.
As stated, Mr. Davey had succeeded in duplicating the slate-writing performances of Eglinton to such a close de- gree that he and Doctor Hodgson planned a daring line of attack upon the position of the " believers," which was cal- culated to silence all opposition. Davey was to give a series of test slate-writing seances free, members of the S, P. R. and others being invited to be present and witness the phe- nomena on the condition that they supplied the Society with a written record of the seance, while Doctor Hodgson was to be present for the purpose of taking notes. The majority of the sitters did not, of course, know that the phenomena were to be produced altogether by trickery. The object was twofold: to illustrate in a practical manner the possibilities of malobservation in seances of this character, and to show the close parallel between these seances and those of Eglin- ton, — the fraudulent and the supposedly genuine.
The plan worked to perfection. Not only did the sitters fail to find out the trickery in the phenomena produced (and even refuse to believe that it was trickery when they were assured of the fact!) but they unconsciously afforded the world an opportunity of obtaining possession of the most valuable documents that have ever been forthcoming relative to this subject of malobservation, lapse of memory, and the psychology of fraud in general. The documents must be read for any one to realize the extent to which these mis- statements are made in all good faith. In fact, deliberate mis-statements are made of facts that actually took place, and it is frequently asserted that certain things happened which did not take place at all. All these mistakes were such only, and were not due to any conscious myth-making on the part of the sitter. They merely illustrate, in a marvellous
Slate-writing Tests 89
degree, the possibilities of fallacy, in observing phenomena of this character, and the extent to which undetected and even unsuspected fraud may be carried. I have discussed this aspect of the problem on pp. 48-63 ; for the present I wish merely to call attention to the other aspect of this series of sittings ; viz., that the phenomena occurring through Eglin- ton's mediumship were so nearly duplicated that not one of the sitters was enabled to distinguish the phenomena, and to tell which was fraudulent and which genuine.
The net result of all this was to raise the strong presump- tion that the phenomena observed in Eglinton's presence were fraudulent also, and the Society was enabled to turn about and say, " If there is any difference in these seances, show it to us, for otherwise we are surely entitled to assume that the phenomena occurring in Eglinton's presence are fraudulent also." The last prop of the spiritualists had been effectually knocked away, so far as their defence of the slate- writing phenomena went, for where was the evidence of the genuine.? Indeed there was no difference in the manifesta- tions at all ; but, with inconceivable inconsistency, the spirit- uahsts placed the cart before the horse in their interpretation of the Davey-Hodgson seances, and insisted that they showed, not that Eglinton was a fraud, but that Davey was a medium who would not admit the fact!! Could anything be more irrational.? The correspondence in the Society's Journal, about this time, waxed fast and furious ; the dispute was bitter, and culminated in a challenge to Doctor Hodgson to show, in detail, just how the phenomena were produced, if they were nothing but fraud. It must be understood that, in the early reports of these sittings,^ the actual methods employed had not been stated, partly because it was not con- sidered necessary, and partly because Mr. Davey objected (very naturally) to having his methods made public in this manner. So long as Mr. Davey lived, therefore, this revela- tion was never made, but his death ended the chief objection to the expose of the methods employed, and Doctor Hodgson accordingly contributed to the Proceedings S. P. R. (Vol. * Journal, Vol. III., pp. 8-44; Proceedings, Vol. IV., pp. 381-495, etc.
90 The Physical Phenomena of Spintuahsm
VIII., pp. 253-310) a detailed exposition of the methods Mr. Davey employed. It is most interesting reading, and forms a chapter in the history of the psychology of deception hardly less valuable than the original.
This complete expose was calculated to silence all reason- able opposition, and, though several noted spiritualists still continued to believe that both Eglinton and Davey were mediums, the doubt in the minds of the vast majority van- ished completel}'.^
I close this brief resume of the society's work and investi- gations in slate-writing by stating that the only new cases they have recorded have both been obvious frauds. The
' It is curious to note, in this connection, that so acute a critic and thinker as Doctor Maxwell should have entirely missed the point of the Davey-Hodgson series of sittings; i. e., their psychological import. On p. 399 of his Metapsychical Phenomena he accuses Doctor Hodgson of too readily jumping at conclusions, and superficiality in reasoning. Here is his charge:
" I wonder how a man of Doctor Hodgson's intelligence could have based his judgment upon such superficial observations as those of the experimenters he cites. Here are men, without doubt honorable and well educated, who hold stances with the object of obtaining direct slate- writing through Mr. Davey. Instead of taking the elementary precaution of never abandoning their slates, they allow the medium to manipulate them, permit him to leave the s6ance-room for a moment, consent to allow other slates than their own to remain on the table at the same time as those which are used for the experiment, and lastly, when they exam- ine, only examine it on one side. (These were some of the cases of mal- observation observed.) This is not malobservation, it is absence of ob- servation. (See R. Hodgson: ' Mr. Davey's Imitations by Conjuring of Phenomena sometimes attributed to Spirit Agency; ' Proceedings, VI. [evidently a misprint for VIII.], 253.)"
That is precisely the easel It was absence of observation. But the point was this: that this amount of absence of observation was possible, and in fact actually the case, without the sitters knowing or recognizing the fact, and writing their Reports in evident belief that they were correct in their main outline, and that they did not contain the errors and omis- sions afterwards pointed out. Where the superficiality comes in it is hard to see. Doctor Hodgson's main object in conducting these experi- ments was to illustrate the possibilities of malobservation and lapse of memory in such slate-writing performances, and to show, further, the close parallel between the seances of Davey and those of Eglinton. In both of these objects he succeeded perfectly, and I cannot see how Doctor Maxwell's charges are to be sustained for a moment, when the object of the stances is made clear. Admitting that it was " absence of observa- tion " that was observed during these sittings, their object was to show that just such absence of observation was possible, all unknown to the sitter. In this Doctor Hodgson succeeded admirably. Still, Doctor Maxwell had a bone to pick with Doctor Hodgson over the Paladino case, and that may have somewhat warped his judgment in the Davey sittingsl
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method of the one medium (" Palma ") was actually exposed in detail,^ while the methods of the famous " Bangs Sisters " were also detected and exposed.^
I now turn to a consideration of the actual methods em- ployed in producing slate-writing phenomena by fraudulent means. I have divided the methods into five sections, and shall first consider the various
§ 1. Methods with a Single Slate {Prepared)
One of the commonest methods employed, both by con- jurers and mediums, is what is known as the " flap method." In order to perform this experiment we need a specially pre- pared slate, which is made as follows. First, an ordinary slate is procured, having a rather wider rim of wood than is usually the case. Into this frame is fitted another piece of slate, fitting loosely into it, so that it will fall out easily, if the slate is turned upside down, i. e., if the side contain- ing this flap is turned downwards {v. Fig. VII., p. 104). One side of this flap is left blank, while the other is covered with cloth of a dark color, and exactly matching the table-cloth. Now, when the flap is in place, it will be impossible to tell that there is any false flap, so long as it is held there firmly by the fingers, and, of course, no examination be allowed. And, when the flap is lying on the table, bottom side up, it will be practically invisible, if the light be not over-abundant and it is more or less quickly covered up with other slates, etc. The slate is prepared by writing on the slate itself (not the flap) and then covering this writing with the flap above mentioned. The slate will now present the appearance of being clean on both sides, and may be freely shown, cleaned with a sponge, dried, etc., to show that there is no preparation! At some convenient moment, the flap is dropped on to the table ; the
^Journal, Vol. XI., pp. 8-11.
' Journal, Vol. X., pp. 5-16. By the Rev. Stanley L. Krebs; with an Introductory Note by R. Hodgson.
92 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
slate, still being held ^mtten-side downward, is put into " position," a piece of slate-pencil slipped underneath, the sound of writing imitated (by one or other of the methods to be hereafter described), and, at the proper moment, the glate is turned over, and lo ! the under side of the slate is covered with writing. The slate may now be examined to the heart's content, and nothing suspicious will be dis- covered. The flap has by that time been disposed of, and everything is secure.
Another method of " working " this slate is to write on the flap itself, leaving this on the table, written-side down, until required. The slate itself is now, of course, unpre- pared, and may be examined, cleaned, etc., by the investi- gators. The slate is placed for a moment on the table (while the medium breaks off a piece of slate-pencil, let us say), and when it is again lifted up, the flap is lifted with it. All that has to be done, now, is to disclose the writing at the proper moment, which will not be until the regular " for- mula " for writing has been gone through. The slate, in this instance, cannot be examined by the investigators after the writing has been produced, and for that reason is, generally speaking, an inferior method to that first described.
There is an ingenious variation of this flap method made as follows. Instead of the slate flap there is a flap made of slate-colored silk, fitting tightly over the slate, and kept in place by pellets of wax at each corner. To one corner of this flap is attached a cord. This cord passes up the sleeve, across the back, and down the other sleeve, to the left hand, constituting what is known to conjurers as the " single pull." Both sides of the slate can be f reely shown ; the slate cleaned and dried, and placed on the table, face downward. The writing can now be produced at any moment required. This is a very effective method indeed, for, by simply holding the slate in the air, and in full view of every one, or by merely waving the slate about, it instantly becomes covered with writing! Moreover, the slate can be at once handed for ex- amination, and will be found perfectly devoid of any kind of trickery. The great drawback to this method is that the
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slate cannot be examined in the first place, and for that reason would not do for serious investigators, trained to observe carefully, and who would demand " test condi- tions." But, apart from the fact that the vast bulk of persons who visit slate-writing mediums are not careful, scientific investigators, this test can frequently be intro- duced " impromptu," so to say, as follows. The medium first attempts two or three experiments with Mwprepared slates that are examined; after which the medium suddenly picks up one of the slates, apparently at random, cleans and dries it quickly, as though in disgust, shows, in a care- less manner, that both surfaces are clean, holds the slate in his hand, imitates the sound of writing, and in due time (after adroitly pulling the flap up his sleeve by straight- ening the arms), produces the slate covered with writing! It is more than probable that, if the investigators had examined all the other slates before the writing was pro- duced, they will say in their reports that this one was exam- ined also, especially as this slate was examined directly after the writing took place, thus heightening the illusion of having examined the slate both before and after.
Still another method is the following. A slate is shown on both sides and carefully cleaned before the investigators. Nevertheless it instantly becomes covered with writing, which fills the whole side of the slate. In this method the supposed " slate " is no slate at all, but merely a hollow frame, in the two short ends of which are inserted rollers or rods, which revolve freely. Round these rollers is passed an endless band of slate-colored silk, the ends of which are firmly glued together. Where the cloth is joined there is inserted a little stud or button ; this catches in the f rame of the slate when it reaches one or the other end of it, and prevents it from being pushed round too far. One side of the slate is now covered with writing and laid on the table, written-side down. When it is picked up, the upper side is first cleaned and dried, and, in turning over the slate, to clean the other side, the stud is rapidly pushed to the other end of the slate, which will, of course, bring the writing to the side of the slate
94 The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism
just cleaned, and leave the side to he cleaned clear of any sign of writing. The message can now be produced when- ever desired.
Before describing single trick-slates of other patterns, I shall insert, just here, several methods of using the flap- slate, that do, nevertheless, appear to the uninitiated to be entirely distinct and dilTerent " tests." This will serve as an example of how the same trick, in the hands of an expert operator, may assume various forms, apparently, and appear to be separate and distinct tricks. The following will serve as an example.
The medium requests his sitter to write a question on a sheet of paper, fold it, and put it into his pocket. A slate is then shown blank, and thoroughly cleaned on both sides. The medium then takes the pellet of paper with the question on it, places it under the slate, the sound of writing is heard, and in a few minutes the slate is turned over, and the under side is found to contain a correct and relevant answer to the question written on the paper. This is a very favorite method among mediums, and, in the hands of a cool man, is sure to prove convincing.
It will at once be seen that there are two distinct parts to this test — obtaining a knowledge of the contents of the folded paper, and the writing of the answer thereto on the slate. Owing to the fact that the medium cannot prepare his answer to the question before he knows what that is, it would appear impossible, at first sight, that he should be enabled to use the flap method in this test, as I have said he does. That is the explanation, nevertheless.
The medium first obtains a knowledge of the contents of the sitter's folded-up paper. This he does by any one of the methods enumerated on pp. 276-90, and need not detain us now. Supposing, then, that our medium has gained this in- formation, the question is: how does he contrive to write an answer thereto without the sitter seeing him do so, since the slates are not concealed under the table in this test, but are kept openly in the light? Well, that is where the medium's
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cleverness comes in ; he does contrive to write the answer on the slate, and this is how he does it.
The medium takes a slate-pencil in his hand, sajing, " I shall ask the spirits whether they will answer your question at this sitting or not, and shall ask them to write their an- swer to that question on this slate ; we shall then know how to proceed." So saying, the medium takes pencil in hand and writes on one side of the slate, apparently under spirit con- trol, and then on the other side. The message is read, and it says the conditions are very favorable, and, no doubt, there will be most satisfactory results. The medium then shows the slate with both sides covered with writing, the question asked on one side, and the answer thereto on the other. The slate is now thoroughly cleaned on both sides, and placed on the table. The paper containing the question is placed under the slate, together with a bit of slate-pencil. Immedi- ately the sound of writing is heard, and, on turning over the slate, it is found to be covered with writing, forming a reply to the question written on the sheet of paper.
But the reader is still in ignorance of the way in which the reply to the sitter's question came to appear on the slate. It was in this manner. On one side of the flap, above mentioned, the medium writes, beforehand, a part of the message that was apparently written