Fifty years in psychic research : a remarkable record of phenomenal facts

Front matter

TO I : aun " ae ae Fa

Ta ee oe oe Pees Cee eR

toe sect as

Dedication

In fitting recognition of the comforting ministrations of his numerous spiritual inspirers, and their gifted psychical instruments for the past half-century, the writer respectfully submits the following evidential experiences to surviving kin and friends and all others who are interested in their own individual future.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES:

You do not know what plague has fallen on the practitioners of theology? I will tell you, then. It is Spiritualism.

Preface

HE reader of this volume, whether skeptic or believer, must pardon the personal nature of the following numerous and uncommon messages and facts, from many different sources, as necessary for consistency and corroboration, after lapses of

many years between their deliverance. |

With all these evidences, and with ordinary faith in the honesty and intent of the careful relator, it is hoped they will be received with due interest concerning a paramount subject which everybody must eventually consider and respect.

Separations, in time of war or peace, by accident or disease, are inevitable, and no class of humans, editors, preachers, or others, can nullify this universal truth. But so generally diffused today is phenomenal information in scientific, religious and domestic life, that wide acceptance of super-normal facts is no longer considered deserving of ignorant prejudice, nor indicative of mental incompetence.

A few of the many inspiring lessons conveyed and suggested by these ministrations I think are the following:

That personal communications vary in thought and expression according to the mentality, cultivation and desire of the speakers, and the timely needs evoking them.

That spirit people are still natural and human, the same distinct individuals in mind and heart, with a counterpart body surprisingly light and relieved of all former pain and deformity.

That it is part of our future education and pleasure, with intensified soul sense, to continue our identity and affection for our earthly friends, and to seek every possible avenue for recognition by impression and speech.

That future change in spirit life is a gradual emergence and growth into better states, without shock or grief, after close of mortal ties.

That the highest permanent law of life and happiness is Service; that the only fateful arbiter is Conscience, and proper thoughts and deeds.

That there is no material Hell, without or within the globe, for graded deserts; that life’s ill-conduct, injustice and memories, alone create the fires of mental distress; that we begin where we leave off, and hunger for self-redemption.

That the greatest inspiration for hopeful living is satisfying proof that death does not kill, is not a dreadable enemy, but the friend of human evolution.

That spirit communications are not necessarily august and unnatural, but the only conclusive evidence of human survival, affection and progress.

An unproven question is reincarnation. But what progress is there in a constant repetition of accidental physical conjunction and infantile ignorance?

Does not reason deny the need of a wandering shapeless consciousness searching for human embodiment? Do not the spiritual facts prove continual opportunity and desire for progress? Should they not convince us that the bottom is knocked out of the bottomless, that the future life is but another free gift, that the Omnipotent Father is not a pitiless Warden of an eternal prison, that the “resurrection” of all bodies of the past, present and future, does not depend upon the blast of a Gabriel horn for orderly huddling of human bones after indefinite ages of delay and decay?

Many of these regular verbatim talks were discontinued for a time during the great World War, from communicators like Thomas Paine, Horace Greeley, and Henry Ward Beecher, who declared they were needed missionaries to the wounded and dying boys abroad. But since the close of this half-century record, the same courted privilege of frequent communion with kin and friends and others has continued, and promises to continue as long as life and its conditions and devotion remain; especially through the mediumship of my gifted psychic wife, and myself, in private life.

CASSADAGA, VouusiA Co., FLA.

Contents

New York Psychical Society , ‘ : ‘ , ; E . 469

Chapter I

INCE my voluntary retirement from all S business over thirty-four years ago,

and after patient and careful study and faithful record for fifty years, from 1873 to 1923, of the varied phenomena of so-called Modern Spiritualism, with its rational and hopeful philosophy and facts, I was compelled to acknowledge their truth and value, in spite of previous skeptical scorn, or stultify reason and common sense.

My first supernormal evidences were found in frequent interviews with gifted professionals outside of many exposed pretenders, but the most extensive and conclusive of all convincing tests were furnished under fraud-proof conditions in private life, through long-tried friends and my own unexpected development, as shown in the numerous remarkable happenings related in this book.

For a long time many interested friends among the thoughtful, religious and scientific, urged its publication, and in all these years I have kept a true account, stenographically and otherwise, of the more important psychical phenomena, but until now have declined to assume the labor, even with proffered manual help; but more recent appeals, in view of intensified public interest in the deeper problems of life, so generally created during and since the great World War, impel me to attempt the task in the hope that those concerned in the inevitable may find some tangible comfort in modern revelations of personal and general application.

My first interest in this curious and important study began a few years after the Rochester craze. My father was a Methodist minister and temperance advocate in and about Richmond, Va., a ready speaker on public occasions, yet occasionally we wondered at the antics and independent intelligence of the family table. Naturally I imbibed the religious faith and feelings of my parents, and neglected the usual advantages of association with the corner boys, and was a failure in the accomplishments of dancing, smoking, chewing, swearing, drinking and playing cards, contrary to the habits of a son of a preacher.

Later, after tuition in private schools, I entered Lynchburg College, Va., was advanced to sophomore wisdom at once, and in 1860, in competition with eleven other graduating students from different States, I was publicly awarded by half-a-dozen lawyer judges the prize gold medal for a competitive speech, on the Criminality of Duelling; yet the following week the college president, a brilliant and eloquent minister, was arrested in the act of fighting a duel with a politician.

Soon after the outbreak of the (un) Civil War I became private secretary to Surgeon- General Samuel Preston Moore, Confederate States War Department, and was thus denied the privilege of youthful exposure to the weather and the enemy’s bullets, a sample of which I later enjoyed.

On the fall of Richmond I entered the City’s First National Bank of Richmond, and afterward accepted an invitation of its president, Hamilton G. Fant, and General Thomas Ewing of Washington, to promote a business enterprise of theirs throughout the Union, which led to my permanent settlement in New York City.

Antedating this removal to New York, and while choir leader of the Union Station M. E. Church in Richmond, the father of its modest contralto singer, Josie Clark, informed me one day that his daughter had the gift of automatic writing, and was often impelled to write strange messages and names unknown to her but recognized by others. This aroused my testing curiosity and I called at her home for a personal trial. As desired, I wrote a question, beyond her observation, simply asking if any invisible friend of mine was present. I folded the pellet several times, retained it and awaited reply. In a few moments the young lady slowly wrote a line of joined letters, which disconnected read: Thomas Jefferson Edwards Fox. This was the full name of a former co-worker with me in the

War Department, wholly unknown to the scribe, and who removed to Baltimore two years after the war and died there.

My next concealed question was: What about my future? The answer was: You are going North to live. When? I asked. The answer named many months ahead, the day of the month and the day of the week. While unable to account for the full name, I had no faith in the prophecy and disclaimed the idea of leaving my Southern home and father, mother, sister and friends.

Several months later, forgetting this incident, I unexpectedly received the offer to traverse the States and accepted it because it afforded me my first chance to combine good business with extensive sightseeing.

Arriving in New York after tarries in the intervening cities, I stopped at Lovejoy’s Hotel, Park Row. A few days after while sitting in the reading-room, feeling very lonesome and home-sick, like a flash came the memory of the strange prediction, and sure enough I had left home on the day and week of the month as prophesied.

This was blow number one, surprising and pleasing, long to be remembered and revived years afterward by other identifying visits from the same good friend through stranger psychics in New York and other places. Naturally this initial experience whetted my appetite for more.

In Boston a few days afterward, in a public meeting of the Banner of Light office, Fannie Conant the official medium, I enclosed a question in a sealed envelope, endorsed it with private mark, and placed it on the stage table with several hundred others. Entering the hall in shut-eyed trance the medium seized each envelope in rapid succession and wrote upon it a hurried reply. Recovering my own at close of meeting, it displayed a pertinent answer. My hidden question was: When should I return home? The reply was: Your friends will be glad to see you in your own time.

Completing my mission in the different States, in 1871 I concluded to settle down for life in the little cosmopolitan village of New York, and while engaged in other interests as reporter and writer until 1908, including a profitable connection with the pleasant officials of the Standard Oil Company, 26 Broadway, during and since that time my opportunities for psychical investigation were numerous and fortunate, but especially give I thanks for the wonderful assistance of “Mother Wakeman,’> through whose remarkable gifts I received extended and most convincing proofs of the return and positive identification of numerous departed kin and friends. In 1873 really began this experience and chronological record, and the privilege of a restful home for many years with this respected psychic mother and her devoted son and daughter.

Mrs. W., although uneducated grammatically, was an uncommon woman. Her spiritual gifts included clairvoyance, clairaudience, unconscious trance and prophecy, all improved by exercise and freely given for the comfort of the bereaved and needy. Even in childhood she was singularly endowed, and all through her long life every one who knew her acknowledged her magnetism, practical wisdom, and kindly charity. She practiced what she preached, and proved what she taught, but her decided development of mediumship was not fully manifest until after the death, on July 4, 1873, of a foreign woman, whom she had befriended and who was first to control her brain in trance. To enhance this novel experience we visited well-known public and private psychics.

August 12, 1873, we called, as strangers, on the famous Henry Slade, and received a message between a pair of clean slates untouched on a table between us, in bright sunlight, the writing heard in the act of execution, signed with the name of the above mentioned foreigner, who expressed great gratitude for kindness extended her in life. My chair and self were drawn around by some invisible force, and another appropriate message followed.

August 17, I called alone on Dr. Slade. Between two slates, in the light, was written an audible communication referring to certain pertinent circumstances entirely unknown to the medium. The centre-table, in bright sunlight, was whirled around with vehemence, and the large table at which we sat, at my request was lifted to the ceiling, turned over and settled quietly on my head, then arose again, reversed itself, and gently returned to the floor between us. I remarked upon the incredulity of others if told of these facts, when immediately, on clean slate in centre of table, scratching was heard with the following impromptu words: My friend: Do not mind what others may say; be true to yourself. Alice Cary. (See fuller accounts at end of book.) This and other results were a combination of physical and mental phenomena on our “tables of stone,” with recognized names and statements wholly unknown to the psychic.

On the same day, for the first time I interviewed another prominent intermediary, Dr. J. V. Mansfield, called the spirit postmaster. His method was to ask the sitter to address some one in spirit and fold and paste the paper together. He then approaches, places his left forefinger upon the concealed writing, with pencil in right hand, ready to answer letter by letter the telegraphic motions of the finger. In this way, replying correctly in the name of the party addressed, pointed reference was made to my visit to Dr. Slade only an hour before, giving my name, the name of the spirit invoked, and many personal matters. Was asked to call again, without charge.

August 24, in like manner through same psychic, the foreign spirit referred to her friends of earth, and remarked: I have seen your friend Fox several times, meaning the friend who startled me seven years before in Richmond, Va.

The reader need not conclude that spirit people are always able to write for themselves just after death. The manner of departure, by accident or disease, the strong desire to return to satisfy the calls of friends, and the time required for convalescence, determine their ability, and many times the message is managed by the medium’s familiar guide. But psychography, or independent writing, appeals alike to the skeptic and scholar, the scientist or the dunce. Just as mental control of a mortal subject is determined by the mind and will of the mesmerizer, so is trance control affected by the ability of the spirit operator, and the physical and mental state of the subject. And because we know that modern spiritual scripture is a fact, we have reason to infer that possibly a Moses obtained his writings in a similar manner.

In this progressive narrative I shall give facts more than conclusions, for acceptance of obvious truth and rejection of anything that can be ascribed to natural agency.

Sept. 18. Mrs. W. reported that to-day, about 3 o’clock, she heard a rustling at her door, and said: Walk in; when she saw a brown shadow of the form and features of the aforesaid Julia enter the room, and the figure jumped into her lap with the weight of a mortal, as at Dr. Slade’s.

The same evening we called on Charles Foster, a well-known modern seer, who said: A spirit says that Julia is with you; is that correct? Then we asked for the exact words on the slab over her grave in Greenwood cemetery, and Foster repeated them literally, as follows:

Torn from her home, Toss’d by the world, Haven’d with God.

I next wrote a hidden question in short-hand, and Foster remarked: She says she cannot read short-hand. (Any message to Mrs. W.? When and where?) At Mrs. W’s. Then the medium seized a piece of paper and pencil, rushed them under the table-edge and immediately produced the name, terminating with the diphthong a and e, as written in life. Where did you communicate before? Named the places correctly, and the word “slates,” followed by showers of raps, loud and gentle, upon and around the table. (See account under Independent Writing at end.)

Sept. 23. Heard repeated rappings on different pieces of the house furniture. Attended circle of a Mrs. Reed. Said she saw a light from several directions and a pen before me, meaning I would yet publish something new. Skeptical and for fun I rapped with my foot under table, then seriously desired a genuine manifestation. In a moment Mrs. W. hung her head, breathed heavily, and with blanched face exclaimed excitedly: I did not want Ulrica to come. This referred to a sister of said Julia, named Ulrica, who was summoned from Germany. Mrs. Reed also personated the spirit perfectly.

Sept. 30. Mrs. W. and I visited Foster for the second time. As soon as seated he said: Madam, you have lost a son who died suddenly. His name was Daniel. His middle name began with W. (AIl correct.) Then addressing me he said: Billy Mc- Gee, a brother of yours, who died in infancy, is here. (True.) Other past facts followed and concluded the sitting.

About this time I called on the venerable Judge John W. Edmonds, of the Supreme Court of New York, who had published several able works on his experiences in Modern Spiritualism. I still imagined that, notwithstanding his high legal position, there might be a loose screw in his mental machinery; but, after narration of many remarkable evidences through himself and his gifted daughter, I respectfully reversed the’ suspicion.

Jan. 1, 1874. Just returned from my Virginia home. Mrs. W. in trance. Said Julia remarked: I have been present with her since you went away, and have preserved her from danger when she was not aware of it. She was nearly run over a short time ago, and by the greatest chance I was present, and the horses were frightened another way. In an instant more she would have been crushed to death. After recovery from trance the medium for first time spoke of her narrow escape from run-away horses corner Broadway and 14th Street. (See similar deliverance of my later wife as recorded Sept. 11, 1911.)

We sometimes join the rational doubter when he asks: Why is it that all persons in danger are not warned or protected? Probably because everybody is not susceptible to spirit impressions, or does not heed them when received, and it may be as difficult to convey them as to receive them.

The same industrious spirit reported she had attended me on my Virginia trip, attempted control of the little medium who predicted my removal to New York, and mentioned my call on Professor Nicol in Richmond; two facts entirely unknown to the New York medium. Another test was her mention of my narrow escape from death by a railroad accident in the night near Washington, just before reaching a burned bridge. Not noted in the papers.

Jan. 4. A Mr. Reed, a former friend of Julia, entranced and said: I have very few friends that call for me; but very few believe in this after-life, but they will know hereafter in the day they pass away. If they do not believe, I do not trouble them. I look down upon them, watch over them, and guard them as far as lies in my power, and know that they will soon pass away and then they will know all for themselves. That is all that can be done, sir. They have been so differently educated they will not believe, therefore it is no use to cavil with them.

Jan. 22. Met a Mrs. Tripp, who named and described the Julia and others, with identifying messages. Next day an old friend of J. called on Mrs. W., before whom she wept bitterly in memory of other times.

Feb. 4. Talked with Andrew Jackson Davis, the author and seer, who introduced me to a friend of Mrs. De Long, wife of U. S. Minister to China. She recently received through Charles Foster a message from her father directing her to certain property that belonged to him, about which neither she nor her husband had any knowledge. Following directions, they traced it to the father’s former partner who was keeping shady. The property was restored and was worth $25,000. Many such interventions would make mediumship very popular.

Mr. Davis was well known for his lofty inspirations and prophetic gifts. His boyhood trance addresses while working for his father in the cobbling business attracted the attention of Professor Bush, Rev. Wm. Fishbough and other New York scholars, who tested his utterances on profound subjects and published them to the world. It was a great pleasure to enjoy his genial wit and wisdom, and to purchase about twenty-five volumes of his works.

As an illustration of his uncommon receptivity, one day I saw him in a Broadway omnibus going up-town. I was walking dewn-town, and to test the question of thought-transference, when two blocks away I said intently: “Mr. Davis, get out of that bus and come to me.” Immediately, while invisible to him, he suddenly seized the stage strap, got down to the curb, looked about him as if bewildered, then started to walk directly towards me. I managed to escape him, and never mentioned the experiment.

The next morning, as it was necessary to be at my office early, I requested a spirit ai friend to wake me at six. Exactly at that hour I heard loud raps on the desk near my bed, which continued until I arose, and then ceased.

Feb. 14. I received a letter from Staunton, Va., advising that my father was ill and not expected to live. I said nothing to the medium, Mrs. W., but her control entranced her promptly and said:

I see your mother on her knees, I see the tears on her cheeks. She is praying, and around your father is a mist. She cannot believe in the faith which you have adopted, and her heart goes out in prayer for you many, many times, that you may be brought back into her religion.

On reaching the office down-town I received a telegram from the family saying: “Father is dying. Come.” I left at once, and by traveling from Washington on a coal train I arrived in time to be recognized by a shake of the head, but he could not speak. While the rest of the family were weeping, I said: Father, if what I have been writing about spirit return be true, will you come to me in New York and say: It is True, it is True? With great effort he raised his head and nodded affirmatively. Three hours later he was taken. We buried his form in Thornrose cemetery; but I could not weep, as I felt I should certainly hear from him.

Four days later, after my return to New York, I sought a sitting as usual with Mother Wakeman, who was deeply impressed by an influence endeavoring to control, rubbing the chest, shaking the head, and struggling in vain to speak. The medium’s control then said:

He is too feeble to talk. Very feeble and excited. He came and wanted me to make way for him. I have done so, but it has overcome him and he cannot speak. He has retired, but we hope he will become strengthened and be able to come and talk. All these many hours has he wanted to come, that he might say something to you. When he is recruited, progresses and gets his strength, he will come and talk for himself. We cannot look upon the afflictions of - those on the lower sphere without being moved by them. I see so much of it, and when anything happens to my friends it makes me feel that my affections still cling to the earth. But be comforted. It is much better for him; he is at rest now, and in a short time he will recruit and be able to talk, and I have no doubt he will be very happy here, now that he has laid off the shackles of earth. Your mother grieves much for him, is broken in spirit and weeps a great deal. But how much better it is to rejoice when the spirit passes away. Angels of a higher order will take charge of him.

Feb. 22. (To control: Have you seen my father?) He was here, but extremely feeble. They tell me he has gone away where he will rest and obtain strength. I think he will yet be able to control the medium. It was with great difficulty that the spirit left the body. It was present for some little time and it passed away in great weakness. He said he wanted to talk with his boy.

With some exceptions, the communications for many years were given through the same venerable psychic, Mrs. Wakeman. In all her trances her eyes were fixedly raised upward, for an hour more or less, showing only the white of the eye, without any motion.

Mar. 1. Medium personating and speaking very slowly and feebly:—Don’t you know me, my boy? I did not think that you could not recognize me. I cannot talk much. There is no cause for weeping, no cause for sorrow, my boy. Here, in this sphere of loveliness and beauty I lay aside the cares of earth. Tell your mother not to weep nor mourn, for after a while she will come to us, where all is peace, and where earthly care cannot reach her, here in these immortal regions, where the attractions of earth are as nothing. Here we wait to be taken up to other spheres. Progression is the watchword of life. I see the cares that overcome the partner of my life. It is not right; she should have more faith, more trust. I see her in her solitude. It causes me concern. These scenes are new to me, these places, these spirits. Many of them I knew on the earth. The first to welcome me was old Dinah, our faithful servant for many years. Many, many others. John, the aged father of my wife, I have met, but he has passed on. We meet and are recognized, but they go from us. My own children have met me, my children here in the spirit world, waiting after the past years to see their father who gave them life in the lower world. They have been with their grandfather. They came with him and cling to him. I cannot talk much. I am suffering with feebleness.

The medium reflected the symptoms of consumption, the usual law of first control. Those thrust from earth without disease manifest sooner and with more ease. The Dinah was a family servant who trod on a nail and died of lockjaw. Reported many times through strangers.

Mar. 8. Control, referring to Dinah, said: She has been struggling to see if she could speak to you, and it was quite an effort to drive her away, but she dangled you on her knee when a boy. She said: Tell him I have seen his father, that he has improved some in spirit life, is not so feeble as he was, and not so excited; he is in a different sphere from us, more exalted. She wants me to tell the Missis not to mourn, for Massa is all right; she has no reason to weep and mourn for him, for he is here and very happy, and says all his earth trials are over. He repents his mistakes in the lower sphere, but hopes to rise higher and become better, and later his partner will come and share his joys with him. She mourns, too, over Joe, and Mollie worries her considerably, but tell her to keep up courage, be comforted, cheerful and happy. This is about what Old Dinah says.

Mar. 28. Julia said she noticed I had erected a stone over the grave of my father in Virginia. Another spirit took possession, spelling perfectly on her fingers as a dumb girl, named Lulu, cared for by the medium after falling down stairs in Newton, Conn., ten years before, becoming blind and partly dumb.

April 12. Thomas Fox: Oh, Joe, you thought I had forgotten you. (Who is this?) Fox. (When did I hear from you last?) Through your friend you sent me a message some time ago. We do not want you to come away from the lower sphere, but I hope to meet you here some of these days. (This is different from our old theology.) Oh, yes—well, you know, you have to pass over before you know better. Religion is good if you only have enough. I have sent my wife several messages by Burton, whose wife lives in her neighborhood, but she has no faith in it. You have a good medium. Glad of it, old fellow. (His old-time expression and manner.)

Auntie: This woman, this medium, was a child of my adoption. A long time has passed since I have been in the spirit world. She was one I took from her infancy. She lived with me for many years, until her father took her from me. Many times I have desired to come and talk with her. She always called me Auntie. Ask her if she remembers when we killed the muskrat between the rocks near the little house at the foot of the hill. She will tell you who I am. Oh, I am so thankful to be permitted to come, and to tell her to persevere, to keep up good heart. How well I remember when she stood by my coffin, and the bitter, bitter tears she shed. I little thought then I would be permitted to come back and talk in this way. All my family are here, in this land of glorious light and love and liberty.

April 19. Control very dignified, mouth puckered, stroking chin: How do you do, sir? I come for a moment. Our friend here wishes it, and says you are exceedingly desirous to know the truth, and constantly wanting tests. I now perceive that in reviewing the hundreds of recorded talks, the labor of transcription can be lessened in many cases by repeating the thoughts and evidences in the third person. In spirit life names are given according to attributes. For instance, Julia says her name is Fiery, and her medium’s name is Faithful. Conditions of mind change the individual more than location.