Glimpses of the next state : (the education of an agnostic)

Front matter

BOSTON

PUBLIC

LIBRARY jwwf.Tr^y

Preface

Six years ago I published a small book called The Cosmos and the Creeds. It was an inquiry into the alleged finality of the Christian faith. Incidentally was implied disbelief in immortality as generally understood. At that time I thought that such immortality as man possessed lay in the influence his actions, words, or writings had upon those who were his contemporaries, or who came after him ; but that he himself, as an individual conscious entity, disappeared for ever, not to be recognised again. The theory of what happened after death was not an essential part of that which I set out to demon¬ strate. It was a mere appendage to an argument for a broader conception of the Bible. My book was an attack on the outworn dogmas of the Churches and the presumptuous, hurtful attitude of the priests, who, in my opinion, are misleading the children of this country. The Bible appeared to me then, and appears to me now, to be a compilation of great worth that has been grossly misinterpreted. It con¬ tains books of very unequal value, full of fable, poetry, and romance, giving a fragmentary history of the evolution of one branch of the Semitic race during a

period of some thousands of years, and the partial

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IX

X

PREFACE history of a holy man called Jesus Christ, whose short ministry effected a striking change in the ethics of a large portion of the human race. That man, I averred — and I have not changed my opinion — was not God, was not born of a pure virgin, and was not raised in his natural body from the dead.

Directly my book was published I began to feel misgivings as to my agnosticism regarding a future life, for I had not investigated the evidences of those who called themselves “ Spiritualists.” True, the teachings of the parsons were feeble ; but had I exhausted all sources of evidence outside the narrow confines of the Churches ? I determined to go into the matter. To be brief, I found that the deeper I went into the study of spiritism the more apparent it became that, whether he wished it or not, man’s individuality was not extinguished at death. I read books, visited clairvoyantes, and attended seances for materialisation. Through all I was constantly reminded of the existence of a near and dear relative, older than myself, who passed away thirty-seven years ago in the prime of her life. Her continued reappear¬ ances could only lead me to one conclusion : I was being guided to a reconsideration of the problem of immortality. At last I have come to the absolute conviction that what we call “ death ” is a mere incident, a door to a higher life that is, in reality, more substantial to the senses we shall hereafter possess than the one we set so much store upon here.

The near relative who has proved to me this valuable

PREFACE xi truth is called in this volume “ Iola,” a spirit name which she has herself adopted to avoid the unpleasant complications that may arise from disputes as to her identity among those of her friends and relatives who are not educated in spiritism.

The greater part of the information here given has been published in skeleton form in Light , Broad Views , and Reason.

The plan I adopted for recording phenomena was as follows : —

I carried about with me a small note-book, in which were written down at the time, or directly the sitting was over, the headings and order of events. Within twenty-four hours these brief notes were expanded into a record of what took place, from memory, assisted by the headings. Where light prevailed all the time, as at the Bangs Sisters, the record is naturally more complete than at dark seances, or where half-light was allowed.

The terms “ medium,” “ sensitive,” and “ psychic ” are used indiscriminately, but the first is not applied to non-professional psychics.

Where there is any probability of my remarks being mistaken for the continuation of a dialogue, they are enclosed within brackets.

The word “ spirit ” is used throughout as indicating a discarnate entity. It is a loose term, but the one that is in general use, and therefore convenient. There are good reasons for believing that the soul of man, or what is called by the psychic St. Paul

Xll

PKEFACE the “ spirit body,” is composed of extremely refined matter.

Those incidents which I consider as specially good evidences of spirit power or manifestation are pre¬ ceded by a number.

I desire to express my indebtedness to my pub¬ lishers’ press reader for many suggestions and corrections.

W. U. M.

8 Western Parade, Southsea.

September 1, 1911.

When I commenced my investigations into spiritism, no desire for consolation attracted me to the study. For thirty years I had only lost one near relative, my father, and he had passed over nearly twelve years before, at a good old age. In this respect I have been unusually fortunate ; but the most power¬ ful incentive . any man can have to delve into the occult was absent in my case. I wanted to know the truth. “If a man die, shall he live again?”— this was the problem to be solved.

The first hooks I read on the subject were some of the reports of the Society for Psychical Research, and Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism , by W. Crookes, to which my attention was directed by Mr. A. P. Sinnett, the well-known author and theosophist. This work, now unfortunately out of print, has been the means of bringing hundreds of thoughtful men to a knowledge of forces exercised by invisible intelligences. Numbers of hard-headed thinkers in this country, in Europe, and in the United States, who had turned wearily away from the Christian eschatology, found here something upon which to fix their faith. “Was it possible,” they argued, “for this celebrated chemist and physicist,

Xlll

XIV whose powers of close analytical observation were so well known, and who had entered into the investiga¬ tion with the same detachment that he had exercised when searching for a new metal or any other of Nature’s obscure facts, to be wrong in his estimate of the manifestations he witnessed when in the presence of D. D. Home, and the other psychics with whom he sat? Was there not reason to suppose that, if he were not sure of his ground, he would have held his hand, and, like so many scientists before his time and since, ‘ sat upon the gate ’ until other men of his intellectual calibre were ready to support him in his startling views?” — for in 1874 the general public were far more unprepared for a new truth than they are now. Mr. Crookes’s report was most unpopular, and brought upon him odium which is only now beginning to disappear. One of the most comical episodes in the history of psychical research is the much-talked-of “ conversion ” of the hon. secretary and one other member of the Council of the S. P. R. in 1909 to a recognition of the facts of telekinesis and materialisation — when we reflect that these were scientifically proved by Crookes thirty-seven years ago.

In September, 1904, I sat in Portsmouth with Mrs. Crompton, of Bradford ; she clairvoyantly saw a spirit form near me that answered very nearly to Iola as I remember her, and Mr. Yango described her to me two or three times, giving her name. These were the first intimations I received of the desire of my relative to get into touch with me.

xv

In November, 1904, through the kindness of Miss Katherine Bates, I was introduced into some wellconducted private stances in London ably managed by Mr. Gambier Bolton, who devoted a large portion of his time, as honorary secretary, to make them a success. The blind medium, Cecil Husk, the psychic most frequently engaged for these seances, was then at his best. The phenomena which took place were the materialisation of the heads and busts of discarnate entities, spirit singing, whispers, and the flight of a musical instrument round the rooms, over the heads of the sitters, all the while playing a definite tune. The rooms engaged were lofty, and afforded full scope for the singing. In the rooms * (there were two in different parts of London) there were an organ and a table capable of comfortably accommodating thirteen sitters. Husk sat in the circle at the table in every case. I soon saw and heard a number of things that could not be explained away by any system of juggling or deception of any sort. The principal control or familiar spirit of Husk is the famous buccaneer of the time of Charles II., Sir Henry Morgan, who now calls himself “ John King.” Often have I heard his stentorian voice and seen him materialise above the medium’s head and dematerialise through the table. The seances were held in the dark. When a spirit materialised it showed itself by aid of an illuminated slate, prepared and lying on the table. Sometimes they spoke while in sight, but more often in the dark after they had xvi dropped the slate ; when in sight, the lips could be seen to move. Except in the case of John King, who was life-size, the faces and busts were about two-thirds of life-size. The singing was remarkable ; the voices would join with us, and also execute solos. I have heard as many as eight different male voices, irom tenor to deep bass, singing at different times during one seance ; and, at different stances, I have heard twelve languages spoken in the direct voice.

One night a face presented itself to me that I could not recognise, as it was swathed round the mouth by a. white bandage. After I had made two wild guesses, the head, hitherto facing me, suddenly swerved round to the left until only the profile could be seen. I then knew it, and named the relationship ; three hard knocks sounded close in front of me on the table. It was Iola ; this was her first materialisation.

It may be mentioned here that no seance at which I have been present in Husk’s house can compare with the seances I have attended in these lofty rooms.

Bulwer Lytton, the mystic and novelist, in his letter to the Dialectical Society’s Committee, February 28, 1869, says with reference to psychical phenomena: “In these constitutional idiosyncrasies, whether the phenomena exhibited through or by them be classed under the name of clairvoyance, spirit manifestation, or witchcraft, I have invariably found a marked com¬ parative preponderance of the electric fluid ; and the phenomena are more or less striking in proportion to •the electricity of the atmosphere. Hence the most xvn notable exhibitions appear to have been obtained in the dry winter nights of New York.” I had heard from Miss Bates of her personal experiences in New York and other parts of the States, and determined to go there in December, 1904 ; I arrived on Christ¬ mas day, a Sunday. That evening I attended a materialisation seance ; Mr. de Witt Hough was the medium. The female figures were veiled, but one appeared at the opening of the cabinet, after some six or seven materialisations had taken place, which was precisely the right height and figure of Iola, and gave her earth name. I approached the cabinet ; the figure advanced to meet me with outstretched hands ; she was trembling excessively, and could utter only a few words. I saw her twice after that through Hough’s mediumship, and communicated with her many times through psychjcs in New York and Boston. On one occasion she said : “ I did not know I was dead until I saw someone cut off a lock of my hair from behind my right ear.” I was ignorant of this, as I was in the Indian Ocean when my relative died in Scotland ; but, on inquiry, I found the state¬ ment to be correct: after her death a lock of hair had been cut off from behind her right ear.

It is not easy for any man to recall the exact date when he came to a definite understanding with himself as to the certainty of a consciousness that a new proposition is, to him, a matter of belief ; but I think I may say there was one evening during this visit to New York when I was able to say to myself :

xviii

“ Mistakes there may be ; fraud there is, occasionally, no doubt, as in all other matters on earth ; but I now know that this spiritism is worthy of careful investi¬ gation, as I have evidence that there is reality behind it.”

(1) It was on December 30, 1904, and the medium was a young woman called Dora Hahn. I am sorry to hear that she passed over six years ago, and that I shall not have the pleasure of meeting her again on this plane of consciousness. She had never seen nor heard of me in her life. We sat down opposite to one another in the dark. She first described a form near me, and gave the earth name of Iola ; then went into trance, and an Indian girl called “Lark” assumed control. Lark, accompanied by Iola, then went on a voyage for me ; the particulars I shall describe in their proper place in another chapter. After about half-an-hour or so Lark departed, and the psychic came out of trance. The lights were lit, and I pro¬ duced a packet of fourteen cartes-cle-visite from my pocket, laid it down on the table, and retired suffi¬ ciently far away to avoid giving any suggestion by looking at the pictures. I said : “ Please pick out the portrait of Iola ; you described her to me before you went into trance.” She took some time over this ; but while she was looking through the photographs she took up one and brought it to me with an air of perfect confidence, saying, “ Iola says this is your wife ; and she tells me that, among these others, there is another one of your wife. I will get it.”

xix

She then returned to the table. I followed her back, and she handed out a second portrait of Mrs. Moore. Both were correct.

Bemark the following particulars. These two por¬ traits had been taken, one in 1865 and the other in 1871 ; the former was as a little girl in a short frock. When she was in earth life Iola not only knew these pictures well, but she knew all the cartes in the pack except one, as she was closely associated as a young woman with my wife. I had no one in my mind at the time but Iola.

I have discussed this incident with many people, and tried to spoil it ; it is wise to do this after any apparent manifestation by invisible intelligences. But in this case everyone who attempted to give a normal explanation asserted something which is more incredible than the spiritistic hypothesis. To me there is only one rational explanation : Iola was in the room, and impressed the psychic to pick out these two photographs and to present them to me as those of my wife. The portrait of Iola herself was not selected at first shot. Two were brought to me first; one of these was a near relative, and con¬ sidered by the family to resemble her.

On this occasion I remained in America one month, and saw and heard quite enough to convince me that those whom I had thought of as dead were very much alive. I returned to England in a frame of mind ready to receive the truths of spiritualism if I could find them in any honest quarter.

XX

I now made a mistake. I endeavoured to persuade others that this spiritism was no vain delusion, but a hypothesis which had come to stay, and was not to be disregarded. I caused cards to be sent to my friends for our private seances, and, after they took place, discussed the matter with them. The men and women selected were people of good social standing, and intellectually above the average. There were Fellows of the Royal Society, soldiers and sailors who had distinguished themselves in their profession, engineers, country squires, and others whose common sense and capacity were not to be disputed. I found they could not see as I did ; could not hear as I heard. Their minds were unpre¬ pared. Some were considerably impressed at the moment, but the next day thought themselves the victims of jugglery on the part of the medium or some confederate ; they could not, and did not, sus¬ pect that the rooms were prepared, or that I and my friends in the circle were imposing upon them ; but, speaking generally, their view was : “We are not experts in juggling, and we do not know what may be possible in that line ; this is contrary to all human experience ; we cannot believe it.” I remember, especially, one electrical engineer and one lady who could see or hear hardly anything. They were both hostile to the subject, and their eyes and ears were open only to what their minds expected — which was nothing, or fraud.

Since that time I have become convinced that all xxi propagandism is useless. It is the duty of those who have the privilege of being shown the effects of the higher and more delicate forces of nature to state in plain terms what they have seen ; it is not their duty to seek to make converts. No man can give to another the understanding to assimilate facts new to ordinary human experience. Nor do I imagine that science will prove anything in either the mental or physical aspects of spiritism. Mortals know of only three dimensions. They may suspect that, outside their ken, there are beings operating in four or more, but all they see is the effect of these operations. The effects of gravity have been reduced to law ; but, so far, nothing is known of gravity itself. When it comes to the passage of matter through matter, and others of the higher forces of spiritism that can only be wit¬ nessed under favourable mental and atmospheric con¬ ditions, it is difficult to see how science can prove anything. Every man and woman must search indi¬ vidually for the truth. If all who have the time do this according to their opportunity, and communicate their experiences to their fellow men, a body of irre¬ sistible testimony will be collected upon which faith can be reasonably founded.

But to resume. By 1908 I had seen every pheno¬ menon worth seeing in England. I had read every book worth reading on the subject of spiritism, and a good deal of trash, including The Confessions of a Medium , which bears internal evidence of being written by an anti- spiritualist, and which, though pure fiction, xxii INTRODUCTION

has been put forward as a true narrative. I knew that, owing to our unfortunate climate, it was useless to pursue my inquiries further in this country ; and I resolved to return to America to complete my study in December, 1908. This time I determined to go inland, where I was wholly unknown ; and I spent two and a half months in Rochester, N.Y.; Toledo, Ohio ; Detroit, Michigan ; and Chicago, Illinois. The evidence I obtained in these cities convinced me that I had been in direct communication with Iola, and with many relatives and friends through her influence, by the mediumship of professional and non-professional psychics. The phenomena consisted of automatic mirror-writing, materialisation, direct writings, pictures precipitated by invisible intelligences, and the direct voice. The correlation of the evidence through different psychics who did not know one another, and in some cases had not even heard of one another, was striking, and — to me — conclusive of the genuineness of each; I left the United States with an impression, not likely to be easily removed, that there was only one alternative to the spiritistic hypothesis — that of the continual presence of per¬ sonating demons, able to read every thought of mortals, and to construct at will dramatic situations that answered every doubt and uncertainty in the mind of an investigator. This is the Roman Catholic doctrine. I reject it, not only because of its intrinsic improbability, but on account of the consideration of many incidents of a strictly private nature that cannot be here related.

xxiii

During a third visit to the United States in 1910 I obtained abundant proof that all I had previously seen and heard in that country was true ; and I received further evidence of spirit return of a startling character.

There are two classes of investigators — first, those who think of and treat every psychic as a juggler endeavouring to perpetrate fraud, until they find them, after repeated trial, to be genuine ; second, those who believe every psychic they sit with to be genuine until they find them out in intentional deceit. Supposing two people, one of each of these classes, to be doing their best to find out the truth, and both are equally acute, there is no doubt as to which will be the more successful. The mental attitude is an important factor in the situation ; it is he who belongs to the latter class who will derive the most benefit. Manifestations through a good psychic who is sur¬ rounded by hostile minds are impossible. Unbiassed, open-minded expectancy, founded on the reports of previous investigators, affords the best chance to psychics and their spirit controls. Passivity is neces¬ sary during the actual sitting.

There is a great deal of fraud in the practice of spiritism — fraud intentional and conscious, and un¬ conscious fraud. There is no doubt that the trickery imposed here and in America has deterred thousands of people from investigation of the subject. Some instances will be given in the body of this book.

In the following pages I shall make an attempt to

XXIV contribute my share to the general stock of informa¬ tion on the subject of spiritist phenomena by record¬ ing those of my experiences which I have every reason to believe were genuine manifestations of power exercised by discarnate beings who once lived on this earth plane.

I OLA

I

Chapter I

Fraud — Temptations of professional mediums — Mediumship not the only profession in which fraud is practised — The worst frauds — The psychic or medium only a telegraph office — Used on account of his peculiar organisation — Personal character does not, apparently, have any connection with the gift — What is a medium? — Fraud and genuine phenomena frequently mixed at a seance — Under favourable conditions professional mediums do not commit fraud — Evil of promiscuous seances — The only cure for fraud — Rejection of evidence obtained through a medium who has been convicted of fraud on some previous occasion, a mistake — Every stance with professional mediums should be judged on its own merits— Dark¬ ness sometimes beneficial for tests — Effect of a hostile mental attitude in the sitters — My first seances — Reasons for and against the entire genuineness of Husk — My departure for New York.

No account of experiences in spiritism is of any use without a few remarks on fraud by the narrator ; if he neglected to touch upon this disagreeable subject, he would be rightly deemed ignorant of the history of the movement. It is desirable that he should demonstrate to his readers that he is aware, and has been always aware, of its prevalence. It is the canker which destroys his peace and darkens his hours of observation and reflection. More than half his time is occupied with searching self-questions — “ Could this or that have been done in a normal manner, and, if so, by what means?” This is the worst feature in the study. Psychical research is full of perplexities and difficulties, even if one is satisfied that the medium is honest ; for, all the time,

B we are dealing with invisible beings who appear to be operating in more than three dimensions ; every manifestation is outside of ordinary human experi¬ ence ; not one can be explained by the ascertained laws of nature ; and when, in addition to these obstacles, we have a doubt as to the fidelity of the medium, the task of investigation is hard enough to make many a man turn back in disgust from the quest. Fraud has been painfully common among professional mediums.

It is, however, no use complaining because, when it comes to physical phenomena, public mediums have to be employed. There are few private psychics who will undergo the exhaustion that is the inevitable accompaniment of manifestations of telekinesis and materialisation. Mental phenomena are inconclusive; no man of ordinary critical judgment will be satisfied with that alone. Thomson Jay Hudson and writers of his type will sweep it all away by dwelling on the powers of the sub-conscious self; and these powers are acknowledged among all classes of investigators. So it comes to this, that he who would peer into the mysteries of nature, and endeavour to discover, experi¬ mentally, if life extends beyond the grave, is obliged to employ professional mediums. The temptations of these psychics are great ; whatever powers they possess are sporadic and cannot be summoned at will ; they find this out early in their development, and, in order to maintain regular seances, they learn the arts of jugglery to “help out” their particular gift at times when they feel they have not their usual power. People travel long distances to sit with them. They have not the moral courage to say, “I have little or no power to-day; come another

MEDIUMS NOT THE ONLY FRAUDS time.” Possibly they do not know how much power they have, nor how far their guides can assist them, until they go into trance. If they turn their patrons away from the door, a murmur is soon circulated that they are not reliable, and sitters fail to attend ; their income, never large, dwindles away, and they are stranded without means of a livelihood. Having surrendered themselves for two or three years to the trance condition, they cannot adopt any of the ordinary wage-earning occupations of life, and they become destitute. Competition is keen, and they see others prospering by keeping up their stances with artificial assistance. Though we cannot defend, we can at least understand the causes of fraud in mediumship.

And remember, those who possess the gift of mediumship are not the only members of society who fraud. Let us look the matter squarely in the face. Every minister of religion who repeats the Apostles’ Creed and yet does not firmly believe in the birth of Christ from a pure virgin, His resurrection in His natural body, and His ascension into heaven in the same, is a fraud. Every physician who pays an unnecessary visit to a patient and charges for it is a fraud; every barrister who accepts fees for going into court on behalf of a client and does not attend is a fraud. Fraud is rampant in trade ; in the shipping interest ; in municipalities ; and, indeed, in some governments of so-called Christian countries. It is always outrageously apparent during war, when strict supervision has to be relaxed ; and in peace it is only limited by the amount of supervision exercised. It is idle, therefore, to talk about fraud as if it were peculiar to mediums.

Some of the worst frauds, in my opinion, are those who profess to be able to tell us “hoto the thing is clone” who account for every manifestation by normal jugglery. These persons require good looking after. It is becoming a lucrative profession to write books describing how all the phenomena of the seance room can be produced by normal means ; for such works are popular. One word against spiritistic manifesta¬ tion has more weight at the present time than fifty words in its favour, and the large majority of people in the Western world are antagonistic to any new idea which implies that there are things about us we cannot see, influences that we cannot class, beings whom we cannot sense, by our known organs. A man who is known in his suburban villa only to his tradesmen and a few neighbours, and who would otherwise die in the obscurity his social rank and official importance entitle him to, is called a “ savant ” if he writes a book calling into question the scientific observation of a Crookes or the truthfulness and honour of a Stainton Moses. I have been told by friends that such books are useful, as they lay before us various tricks which may assist us in detecting fraud in the apparently genuine manifestations of mediums. I deny it. Most of the plausible explana¬ tions are simply efforts of the imagination, and not only do no good, but actually throw us off the scent. In my investigations I have not been assisted by any of these armchair detectives. Nothing that they write about has tallied with what I have seen. By diverting our attention from the real evils of spiritism they are a public nuisance. For a concrete instance of the foolish suggestions put forward by one of these ignorant “ know-alls,” I would point to a recent