Apart from the cross correspondence scripts, several others have been closely analysed by the S.P.R., the most remarkable and convincing being that which has been named “the Ear of Dionysius.” It must be admitted that after the lowly and occasionally sordid atmosphere of physical phenomena these intellectual excursions do lift one into a purer and more rarefied atmosphere. The cross correspondences were too prolonged and complicated to ensure acceptance, and had a painful resemblance to some pedantic parlour game. It is otherwise with the Ear of Dionysius. It necessarily takes on an academic tone, since it is a classical subject, handled presumably by two professors, but it is a very direct and clear attempt to prove survival by showing that none save these particular men could have produced the script, and that certainly it was beyond the knowledge or faculties of the writer.
This writer, who chooses to assume the name of Mrs. Willett, produced in 1910 the phrase “Dionysius’s Ear. The Lobe.” It chanced that Mrs. Verrall, the wife of a famous classical scholar, was present, and she referred the phrase to her husband. He explained that the name was given to a huge abandoned quarry at Syracuse, which was roughly shaped like a donkey’s ear. In this place the unhappy Athenian captives had been confined after that famous defeat which has been immortalised by Thucydides, and it had received its name because its peculiar acoustic properties were said to have enabled Dionysius the Tyrant to overhear the talk of his victims.
Dr. Verrall died shortly afterwards, and in 1914 the script of Mrs. Willett began to contain many references to the Ear of Dionysius. These appeared to emanate from the deceased doctor. For example, one sentence ran: “Do you remember that you did not know, and I complained of your classical ignorance? It concerned a place where slaves were kept and audition belongs-also acoustics. Think of the whispering gallery.”
Some of the allusions, such as the foregoing, pointed to Dr. Verrall, while others seemed to be associated with another deceased scholar who had passed on in 1910. This was Professor S. H. Butcher, of Edinburgh. Thus the script said: “Father Cam walking arm-in-arm with the Canongate,” i.e. Cambridge with Edinburgh. The whole strange mosaic was described by one control as “a literary association of ideas pointing to the influence of two discarnate minds.” This idea was certainly carried out, and no one can read the result carefully without the conviction that it has its origin in something entirely remote from the writer. So recondite were the classical allusions that even the best scholars were occasionally baffled, and one of them declared that no minds with which he was acquainted, save only those of Verrall and Butcher, could have produced the result. After careful examination of the records, Mr. Gerald Balfour declared that he was prepared to accept the reputed as “the real authors of this curious literary puzzle.” The unseen communicators seem to have got weary of such roundabout methods and Butcher is represented as saying: “Oh, this old bothersome rubbish is so tiresome!” None the less, the result achieved is one of the most clear-cut and successful of any of the purely intellectual explorations of the S.P.R.
The work of the S.P.R. during recent years has not enhanced its reputation, and it is with reluctance that the author, who is one of the oldest members, is compelled to say so. The central machinery of the society has come into the hands of a circle of men whose one care seems to be not to prove truth but to disprove what seems preternatural. Two great men, Lodge and Barrett, stemmed the tide, but they were outvoted by the obstructionists. Spiritualists, and particularly mediums, look upon the investigators and their methods with aversion. It seems never to have dawned upon these people that the medium is, or should be, inert, and that there may be an intelligent force behind the medium which can only be conciliated and encouraged by gentle sympathy and thoughtful, tactful behaviour.
Eva, the materialising medium, came from France, but the results were meagre, and excessive exaggerated precautions defeated the end in view. The report in which the committee announce their conclusions is a contradictory document, for whereas the casual reader would gather from it that no results-or none worth recording-were obtained, the text is actually illustrated with photographs of ectoplasmic extrusions exactly resembling in miniature those which had been obtained in Paris.
Madame Bisson, who accompanied her protege to London, at great inconvenience to them both, was naturally indignant at such a result, and Dr. Geley published an incisive paper in the, “Proceedings” of the Institut Metapsychique in which he exposed the fallacies of the investigation and the worthlessness of the report. Professors of the Sorbonne may be excused for handling Eva with no regard for psychic law, but the representatives of a scientific psychic body should have shown greater understanding.
The attack upon Mr. Hope, the psychic photographer, was examined by a strong independent committee and was shown to be quite unsound, and even to bear some signs of a conspiracy against the medium. In this ill-considered affair the society was directly implicated, since one of its officers took part in the proceedings, and the result was chronicled in the official JOURNAL. The whole history of this case, and the refusal of the society to face the facts when they were pointed out to them, leave a shadow upon the record of all concerned.
Yet when all is said and done, the world has been the better for the existence of the S.P.R. It has been a clearing-house for psychic ideas, and a half-way house for those who were attracted to the subject and yet dreaded closer contact with so radical a philosophy as Spiritualism. There has been a constant movement among the members from the right of negation to the left of acceptance. The mere fact that a succession of the presidents have been professed Spiritualists is, in itself, a sign that the anti-spiritual element was not too intolerant or intolerable. On the whole, like all human institutions, it is open to both praise and censure. If it has had its dark passages, it has also been illuminated by occasional periods of brightness. It has constantly had to fight against the imputation of being a purely Spiritualistic society, which would have deprived it of that position of judicial impartiality which it claimed, but did not always exercise. The situation was often a difficult one, and the mere fact that the society has held its own for so many years is a proof that there has been some wisdom in its attitude; and we can but hope that the period of sterility and barren negative criticism may be drawing to an end. Meanwhile the Psychic College, an institution founded by the self-sacrificing work of Mr. and Mrs. Hewat McKenzie, has amply shown that a stern regard for truth and for the necessary evidential requirements are not incompatible with a human treatment of mediums, and a generally sympathetic attitude towards the Spiritualistic point of view.
CHAPTER IV
ECTOPLASM
From very early days Spiritualists have contended that there was some physical material basis for the phenomena. A hundred times in early Spiritual literature you will find descriptions of the semi-luminous thick vapour which oozes from the side or the mouth of a medium and is dimly visible in the gloom. They had even gone further and had observed how the vapour in turn solidifies to a plastic substance from which the various structures of the seance room are built up. More exact scientific observation could only confirm what these pioneers had stated.
To take a few examples: Judge Peterson states that in 1877 he saw with the medium W. Lawrence “a fleecy cloud” that seemed to issue from the side of the medium and gradually formed into a solid body.* He also speaks of a figure forming out of “a ball of light.” James Curtis saw with Slade in Australia in 1878 a “cloud-like, whitish grey vapour” forming and accumulating, preparatory to the appearance of a fully materialised figure. Alfred Russel Wallace describes seeing with Dr. Monck, first a “white patch,” which then gradually formed into a “cloudy pillar.” This same expression, “cloudy pillar,” is used by Mr. Alfred Smedley of an appearance with the medium Williams, when John King manifested, and he also speaks of it as “a slightly illuminated cloud.” Sir William Crookes saw with the medium D. D. Home a “luminous cloud” which condensed into a perfectly formed hand. Mr. E. A. Brackett
saw with the medium Helen Berry in the United States in 1885 “a small, white, cloud-like substance” which expanded until it was four or five feet high, “when suddenly from it the full, round, sylphlike form of Bertha stepped forward.”** Mr. Edmund Dawson Rogers, in his narrative of a sitting with Eglinton in 1885, speaks of seeing emerging from the medium’s side “a dingy, white-looking substance” that swayed and pulsated. Mr. Vincent Turvey, the well-known sensitive of Bournemouth, tells of “red, sticky matter” drawn from the medium. Particular interest attaches to a description given by that wonderful medium for materialisation, Madame d’Esperance, who says: “It seemed that I could feel fine threads being drawn out of the pores of my skin.”à This has an important bearing on the researches of Dr. Crawford, and his remarks on “psychic rods” and “spore-like matter.” We find, too, in The Spiritualist that while the materialised spirit Katie King was manifesting herself through Miss Florence Cook, “She was connected with the medium by cloudy, faintly luminous threads.” ***
* “Essays from the Unseen.”
** “Materialised Apparitions,” p. 106. “Beginnings of Seership,” p. 55. “Shadow Land,” p. 229.
*** THE SPIRITUALIST, 1873, p. 83.
As a pendant to these abbreviated references, let us give in detail three experiences of the formation of ectoplasm. One of the sitters in Madame d’Esperance’s circle supplies the following description:
First a filmy, cloudy patch of something white is observed on the floor in front of the cabinet. It then gradually expands, visibly extending itself as if it were an animated patch of muslin, lying fold upon fold, on the floor, until extending about two and a half by three feet, and having a depth of a few inches-perhaps six or more Presently it begins to rise slowly in or near the centre, as if a human head were underneath it, while the cloudy film on the floor begins to look more like muslin falling into folds about the portion so mysteriously rising. By the time it has attained two or more feet it looks as if a child were under it, and moving its arms about in all directions, as if manipulating something underneath. It continues rising, sometimes sinking somewhat to rise again higher than before, until it attains a height of about five feet, when its form can be seen as if arranging the folds of drapery about its figure. Presently the arms rise considerably above the head and open outwards through a mass of cloud-like spirit drapery, and Yolande stands before us unveiled, graceful and beautiful, nearly five feet in height, having a turban-like head-dress, from beneath which her long black hair hangs over her shoulders and down her back. The superfluous white, veil-like drapery is wrapped round her for convenience, or thrown down on the carpet, out of the way till required again. All this occupies from ten to fifteen minutes to accomplish.*
* “Shadow Land,” by E. d’Esperance (1897), pp. 254-5. “Life and Experience,” p. 58.
The second account is by Mr. Edmund Dawson Rogers. He says that at the seance, exclusive of Mr. Eglinton, the medium, there were fourteen persons present, all well known, and that there was sufficient light to enable the writer of the report “clearly to observe everybody and everything in the room,” and when the “form” stood before him he was “distinctly able to note every feature.” Mr. Eglinton in a state of trance paced about the room between the sitters for five minutes, and then —
He began gently to draw from his side and pay out at right angles a dingy, white-looking substance, which fell down at his left side. The mass of white material on the floor increased in breadth, commenced to pulsate and move up and down, also swaying from side to side, the motor power being underneath. The height of this substance increased to about three feet, and shortly afterwards the “form” quickly and quietly grew to its full stature. By a quick movement of his hand Mr. Eglinton drew away the white material which covered the head of the “form” and it fell back over the shoulders and became part of the clothing of the visitor. The connecting link (the white appearance issuing from the side of the medium) was severed or became invisible, and the “form” advanced to Mr. Everitt, shook hands with him, and passed round the circle, treating nearly everyone in the same manner.
This occurred in London in 1885.
The last description is of a seance in Algiers in 1905 with Eva C., then known as Marthe Beraud. Madame X. writes:*
* “Annals of Psychical Science,” Vol. II, p. 305.
Marthe was alone in the cabinet on this occasion. After waiting for about twenty-five minutes Marthe herself opened the curtain to its full extent and then sat down in her chair. Almost immediately — with Marthe in full view of the sitters, her hands, head, and body distinctly visible — we saw a white, diaphanous-looking thing gradually build itself up close to Marthe. It looked first of all like a large cloudy patch near Marthe’s right elbow, and appeared to be attached to her body; it was very mobile, and grew rapidly both upward and downward, finally assuming the somewhat amorphous appearance of a cloudy pillar extending from about two feet above the head of Marthe to her feet. I could distinguish neither hands nor head; what I saw looked like white fleecy clouds of varying brilliancy, which were gradually condensing, concentrating themselves around some-to me invisible-body.
Here we have an account which tallies in a wonderful way with those we have quoted from seances many years previously.
When we examine the descriptions of the appearance of ectoplasm in Spiritualistic circles forty and fifty years ago, and compare them with those in our own day, we see how much richer were the earlier results. Then “unscientific” methods were in vogue, according to the view of many modern psychical researchers. At least, however, the earlier researchers observed one golden rule. They surrounded the medium with an atmosphere of love and sympathy. Discussing the first materialisations that occurred in England, The Spiritualist in a leading article* says:
* 1873. pp. 82-3.
The influence of the spiritual state of the observers finds optical expression at face seances. Worldly and suspicious people get the feebler manifestations; the spirits then have often a pale ghastly look, as usual when the power is weak. [This is a singularly exact description of many of the faces at seances with Eva C.] Spiritual people, in whose presence the medium feels thoroughly happy, see by far the finest manifestations. Although spiritual phenomena are governed by fixed laws, those laws so work in practice that Spiritualism undoubtedly partakes much of the character of a special revelation to special people.
Mr. E. A. Brackett, author of that remarkable book, “Materialised Apparitions,” expresses the same truth in another way. His view will, of course, excite derision in so-called scientific circles, but it embodies a deep truth. It is the spirit of his words rather than their literal interpretation that he means to convey:
The key that unlocks the glories of another life is pure affection, simple and confiding as that which prompts the child to throw its arms around its mother’s neck. To those who pride themselves upon their intellectual attainments, this may seem to be a surrender of the exercise of what they call the higher faculties. So far from this being the case, I can truly say that until I adopted this course, sincerely and without reservation, I learned nothing about these things. Instead of clouding my reason and judgment, it opened my mind to a clearer and more intelligent perception of what was passing before me. That spirit of gentleness, of loving kindness, which more than anything else crowns with eternal beauty the teachings of the Christ, should find its full expression in our association with these beings.
If anyone should think from this passage that the author was a poor, credulous fool upon whom any fraudulent medium could easily impose, a perusal of his excellent book will quickly prove the contrary.
Moreover, his method worked. He had been struggling with doubt and perplexity, when, on the advice tendered by a materialised spirit, he decided to lay aside all reserve and “greet these forms as dear departed friends who had come from afar and had struggled hard to reach me.” The change was instantaneous.
From that moment the forms, which had seemed t
o lack vitality, became animated with marvellous strength. They sprang forward to greet me; tender arms were clasped around me; forms that had been almost dumb during my investigations now talked freely; faces that had worn more the character of a mask than of real life now glowed with beauty. What claimed to be my nieceoverwhelmed me with demonstrations of regard. Throwing her arms around me, and laying her head upon my shoulder, she looked up and said “Now we can all come so near you.”
It is a thousand pities that Eva C. could not have had a chance to display her powers in the loving atmosphere of an old-fashioned Spiritualist seance. It is quite certain that a very different order of materialisations would have been the result. As a proof of this Madame Bisson, in a private family circle with her, secured wonderful results never obtained with the thumb-screw methods of scientific investigators.
The first materialising medium who can be said to have been investigated with scientific care was this girl Eva, or Eva C., as she is usually described, her second name being Carriere. In 1903 she was examined in a series of sittings at the Villa Carmen in Algiers by Professor Charles Richet, and it was his observation of the curious white material which seemed to be extruded from her person which led to his coining the word “ectoplasm.” Eva was then in her nineteenth year and at the height of her powers, which were gradually sapped by long years of constrained investigation. Some attempt was made to cast doubt upon Richet’s results and to pretend that the materialised figures were in truth some domestic in disguise, but the final answer is that the experiments were carried on behind locked doors, and that similar results have been obtained many times since. It is only poetic justice that Professor Richet should have been subjected to this unfair and annoying criticism, for in his great book, “Thirty Years of Psychical Research,” he is most unfair to mediums, believing every tale to their discredit, and acting continually upon the principle that to be accused is the same thing as to be condemned.
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