People from the other world

Front matter

GopyrigM0 _

COPYRIGHT DEPOSm

PEOPLE

Preface

The volume which .is now laid before the reader will be found divided into Two Parts ; of which the First is devoted to a detailed description of the strange things seen, heard, and felt by the author at the Eddy Homestead, in the township of Chittenden, Vermont; and the Second, to a report of a series of original investigations made by him in the city of Philadelphia, into the alleged materializations of John and Katie King, under test conditions ; to an account of the Compton " transfiguration ;" and to a copious Bibliography of the Occult Sciences.

It has been no part of the author's plan to discuss modern Spiritualism in its moral aspect ; but, on the contrary, to treat its phenomena only as involving a scientific question which presses upon us for instant attention. It is written neither as a defence of, or attack upon Spiritualism, or Spiritualists. It is a truthful narrative of what befell in the Eddy Homestead, from the latter part of August to the first week in December, 1874. It was observed, by a leading New York journal, of the first, and by no means the most interesting letter written by the author from that place, that it was " as marvelous a story as any to be found in History." Its interest lay in the striking and highly sensational manifestations, of alleged spiritual origin, which it described ; the equal of which will be found in every chapter of this book.

Twenty-seven years have elapsed since the Rochester rappings attracted the notice of the world, and we are

PREFACE. V

apparently not much nearer a scientific demonstration of their cause than we were then. Such consideration as men of scientific training have bestowed upon the evervarying forms of manifestation, has been mainly of a desultory character ; and, while numerous converts to the new faith have been made among this class, the great body of their colleagues have held themselves aloof from the subject, as if it were something to be avoided as subversive of the established, and hence respectable, order of things.

As early as 1857, the Faculty of Harvard University pronounced the opinion that "any connection with spiritualistic circles, so called, corrupts the morals, and degrades the intellect ; " and they even had the effrontery to say that they deemed it " their solemn duty to warn the community against this contaminating influence, which surely tends to lessen the truth of man, and the purity of woman." (!) In 1869. we find so little progress made that Mr. Huxley, one of the first scientific men of England, writes to the London Dialectical Society that he neither has the time to devote to art investigation of the subject, nor does it even interest him. " The only case of ' Spiritualism,' " says Mr. Huxley, " I ever had the opportunity of examining into for myself, was as gross an imposture as ever came under my notice." The average reader will, of course, see the syllogism : Mr. Huxley never saw but one case of ' Spiritualism ' ; that case proved a gross fraud, and no Spiritualism ; therefore, Spiritualism is a fraud ! This is given as a fair specimen of the self-complacent disdain with which our scientific men view the question of the day. The American Association devoted hours of its Hartford meeting, last summer, to a discussion upon the social habits of the tumble-bug, and to the important fact that the Saraccnia variolaris (pitcher-plant) catches bugs ; but the members have no time to waste in investigating the astounding phenomenon of "materialization," the demonstration of whose verity would not only prove the immortality of the soul of man, but, as the Scientific American recently observed :

" If true, it will become the one grand event of the world's history ; it will give an imperishable lustre of glory to the Nineteenth Century. Its discoverer will have no rival in renown, and his name will be written high above any other. ... If the pretensions of Spiritualism have a rational foundation, no more important work has been offered to men of Science than their verification."

Vi PREFACE.

Mr. Crookes, after completing his first series of experiments with the medium Home, filed his papers with Professor Stokes and Professor Sharpey, the two secretaries of the Royal Society, June 15th, 1871. The behavior of those gentlemen was what might have been expected. The first impulse was to rid themselves of it; the second, to smother it. These proving unavailing, they gave it the cold shoulder in a " Report on Mr. Crookes' Paper," of date August 7th, 1871, in which the writer, Professor Stokes, says :

" I don't see much use discussing the thing in the sections* crowded as we already are ; but if a small number of persons in whom the public would feel confidence, choose to volunteer to act as members of a committee for investigating the subject, I don't see any objection to appointing such committee. / have heard too much of the tricks of Spiritualists to make me willing to give my time to such a committee myself."

Now this is the Committee that the author of this work had in view when it was begun. His aim has been to gather together into its pages, such a number of facts observed by him at Chittenden and Philadelphia, as may induce a few men ' in whom the public would feel confidence' to volunteer and form a committee to take up a philosophical inquiry into the phenomena, and pursue it until the now occult force behind them shall be discovered and demonstrated. He is not without hope that his object will be attained, for he is in receipt of information going to show that the subject is now the burden of correspondence between professors in certain universities The attention of the scientific body is, for the first time in twenty years, seriously attracted, and we will not have long to wait before the debates of the American and British Associations will be devoted to worthier problems than some that now vex them.

How some of the "crowding in the sections" is caused, may be learned by any one who will look at the Association's volumes of Transactions. These, for instance, among many others of like commanding importance, will be found in the Report for 1871, the most recent volume at hand : A Paper " On the ciliated condition of the inner layer of the blastoderm in the ova of birds," by B .T. Lonne ; "The minute anatomy of the stem of the screw pine (Pandanus utilis)," by Prof. Dyer ; " On the Essential oil of orange peel," by Dr. Wright and C. H. Piesse ; " On a fat woman

PREFACE. vil

exhibiting in London," by Sir D. Gibb ; " On Conservation of bowlders," by E. Milne-Home; "On the contents of a hyena's den, etc.," by Rev. W. S. Symonds.

At the Hartford meetingof our American Association, besides the nonsensical debates upon the fly-catching flower, and the social habits of the tumble-dung beetle, the intellects of the members were taxed to consider how the lobster {Homarus vulgaris, — to be entirely respectful), casts its shell ; the nature of the generative organs of the shark; a new way of illustrating the vibration of organ-pipes; the wings of Pterodactyls; a notice of a pair of trap-door spiders; how the young birds peck out of the shell ; and the wonderful fact that a louse was used, in the Dismal Swamp, as a compass by a surveying-party ; that creature, or, at any rate, the one in the Swamp, having the habit of turning its head to the North, under all circumstances.

Nice subjects, these, to be used as excuses for declining to observe and analyze the facts of modern Spiritualism ! How much more important to Science to know about lobsters and lice, orange-peel and fat women, blastoderms and hyenas' dens, than to explain how the law of gravity can be temporarily neutralized by some other, and unknown, force; how "death does not kill a man ;" how the resurrected spirit can reclothe itself with an evanescent, material form, by the power of its will over the sublimated earth-essences, suspended, invisible, in the air ; and what are the occult laws by which the pulse of this shadowy body can be made to beat, the lungs to respire, the lips to speak words thought by the mind within the frail tenement, which waits only the further exercise of its creator's will to redissolve into the impalpable atoms of which it was, a moment before, composed !

Much as the author desires to see this subject inquired into by men of scientific attainments, he could regard it as only a misfortune if they should set out with a disposition to prescribe impossible conditions. Before they reach the point where they would have the right to dictate their own terms, it would be necessary for them to make many observations, collect many data, and inform themselves about many things of which they are necessarily ignorant. They should realize the fact, succintly stated by Mr. Crookes, that Psychology is a branch of science as yet almost entirely unexplored,

Vlll PREFACE.

to the neglect of which is to be attributed the strange fact that not only the spiritual phenomena, but also the nerve or psychic, force, as it has been termed by that gentleman, "has remained untested, unexamined and almost unrecognized."

Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, to whose eminent attainments as a scientific man the British Association has paid its hearty tribute, observes, in his pamphlet entitled " A defence of Modern Spiritualism," that :

" The discussion in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1868, and a considerable private correspondence, indicate that scientific men almost invariably assume that, in this inquiry, they should be permitted, at the very outset, to impose conditions ; and if, under such conditions, nothing happens, they consider it a proof of imposture or delusion. But they well know that, in all other branches of research, Nature, not they, determines the essential conditions, without a compliance with which no experiment will succeed. These conditions have to be learnt by a patient questioning of Nature, and they are different for each branch of science. How much more may they be expected to differ in an inquiry which deals with subtle forces of the nature of which the physicist is wholly and absolutely ignorant ! To ask to be allowed to deal with these unknown phenomena as he has hitherto dealt with known phenomena, is practically to prejudge the question, since it assumes that both are governed by the same laws."

The researches of Professor Hare, Judge Edmonds, Mr. Crookes, Mr. Wallace, Sergeant Cox, Dr. Guppy, the astronomer Flammarion, and many others, prove that perfect test conditions are attainable ; but, at the same time, they show that the occult forces which play a part in the production of these phenomena will not subject themselves to the same identical limitations as chemical experiments, or others with which the scientific world is already familiar. Each has its own laws, and each demands of the student a line of research peculiar to itself.

It has already been remarked that this work was not written from the spiritualistic standpoint. It is intended to show the progressive reflections of a mind (unbiased, of ordinary intelligence, anxious for the truth at any cost of preconceptions or prejudices), which is brought into relations with a series of unfamiliar and striking phenomena. It aims neither to display the trained shrewdness of the juggler, the profundity of the scientific investigator, nor the acuteness of the police detective ; but to reflect the careful and patient method of the average layman, whose sole object is to get at the facts, that he may have the means of forming an opinion for

PREFACE. IX

himself upon matters for which he finds no explanation at the usual sources of knowledge.

It was the author's intention to embody in Part II the full text of certain remarkable documents, which show the attitude of affairs with respect to the conflict between Religion and Science, as well as the tone of the public press, in this country and Europe, in its discussion of the phenomena of spiritualism. But the limits of the volume were reached sooner than expected, in the arrangement of the original matter, and he was forced to confine himself within narrower bounds. Moreover, just as he was completing the last Chapter of Part I, he received, through the Hon. Robert Dale Owen, an invitation from the Holmes' of Philadelphia, to investigate their mediumship and the so called " Katie King materializations," under test conditions; and the importance of the subject, with the astounding developments which resulted, demanded that every remaining page of space should be devoted to it.

It is safe to say that in whatever light the Holmes affair is viewed, it must be regarded as one of the most sensational stories in history. Whether we consider the perfectness of the supposed materialization, the circumstances under which it occurred, the attendant phenomena, the scientific completeness of the tests given, or the pretended exposure of the alleged fraud, in the interest of Religion and good morals, it will be hard to find a parallel to the case.

Nor will it escape the notice of the intelligent that the Philadelphia tests go far towards corroborating the Chittenden experiences; for, if " materialization " can occur in one place it may in many, and, hence, the supposition that real ghosts were seen at the Eddy house is made to appear only half as improbable. The cheerful alacrity shown by the Holmes' to submit themselves to crucial test conditions, makes the behavior of the Eddy boys appear in a correspondingly unfavorable light. It was alleged, as an excuse at Chittenden, that the author's magnetism was so positive and repellant to the spirits, as to prevent their bearing his near approach ; whereas, the fact appears to be that they can allow him to handle them, to gaze into their faces from a distance of six inches, and otherwise to come to closest quarters, without causing them the slightest inconvenience. What a

X PREFACE.

waste of golden opportunity the unfriendly behavior of the Eddy boys has caused !

And yet, if one may judge from a recent letter written by Horatio to a mutual friend, they entertain no personal dislike to the author, but were compelled to act as they did by the " spirit-bahd " controlling their circle. Horatio remarks that, in this matter, they were the slaves of the powers behind the phenomena, who, having gotten themselves into antagonism with the author, forced him and his brothers and sisters to share that feeling for the moment.

The relation of mediums towards their controlling spirits is perfectly denned in this letter from one of the most noted mediums — they are slaves. While 'under control,' their own will is set aside, and their actions, their speech, and their very consciousness, are directed by that of another. They are as helpless to do, or say, or think, or see what they desire, as the subject of the mesmerist, whose body is a mere machine governed by a will external to and dominant over itself. The 'materializing medium' must even, it appears, lend from the more ethereal portions of his frame, some of the matter that goes to form the evanescent materialized shapes of the departed. The observations of Mr. Crookes indicate that, in some cases at least, an enormous exhaustion of the medium's vital forces is caused by the exercise of his medianic function, and it is one of the problems before us to discover the extent and cause of this exhaustion, and whether any system of diet, exercise, repose and mental regulation will reduce it to a minimum without interfering with the phenomena.

The seers of the Bible, the fakirs of India, the priests of Isis, and the vestals of Rome fasted and prayed, for longer or shorter periods, before entering the ecstatic condition. Should our modern mediums do likewise? And would fasting and prayer insure us against the pranks and deceptions of poltergeists^ or the malice of returning murderers, suicides, and drunkards?

Since the spiritualistic movement has acquired such force and breadth that it cannot be stayed, how long must we wait for the wise men to tell us how we can enjoy the communion of the saints, and escape the assaults of the powers of darkness ? We ask them for

PREFACE. XI

light, and they give us no response. Our homes are seemingly invaded by an invisible host of good and evil spirits, and we turn in vain to scientific men for instructions as to how the one class may be detained, and the other expelled. They bend in laboratory and study, over wriggling insects and squirming reptiles, insensible of the glorified beings who stand perhaps, behind them, and blind to the magnificent field of research that lies before them in the direction of the Inner World. They leave us to grope our own way toward the Truth, and if we fall into error, we have the right to hold them accountable, for they are the custodians of knowledge, our teachers, and guides. If they do not help us, we must search for ourselves. We cannot remain ignorant, for we are all urged on by :

" The wish to know ; — th' insatiate thirst

That e'en by quenching is awaked ; And that becomes, or blest, or curst,

As is the fount at which 't is slaked.'

No. 7 Beekman Street, New York City, January, 1875.

H. S. O.

Chapter I. The Eddy Family

Chittenden. — Its people. — First impressions. — Self-expose' of the Eddys. — The Author's reception. — History of the family. — The mother. — Hereditary witchcraft. — Children hired out as mediums. — Cruelties practised upon them. — The Homestead. 17

Chapter V. Portents And Marvels

Trials of mediums. — Magnetism and mesmerism. — Universal belief in spirits. — Ancient mediums. — Animals as mediums. — Three wise men at sea. — Hostility of the church. — The Phantom Carriage. — Death portents. — Other marvels 68

Chapter VI. Wonders In The Eddy Family

Living three lives. — Shadow of the father. — The lady on the white horse. — Story of Miranda Eddy. — Francis Lightfoot Eddy. — A child's death averted. — Records of warnings and portents. — The Spinning Ghost 89

Chapter X. Many Thantom Visitors

Bright Star, Daybreak, Santum and other Indian ghosts. — Spirit of Col. Reynolds, of Utica, N. Y., brother and nephew. — Wm. Brown, over 6 feet high. — A Hartford family reunited. — Baby ghosts. — Spirit dissolves. — Imperfect materialization. 140

Chapter XI. Are They Personations ?

A review of William and his cabinet. — His education. — Reexamination of the cabinet. — Four hundred spirits. — A bogus investigator. — A dealer in thunderbolts 154

•CHAPTER XII.

IS IT AN OCCULT FORCE?

Closest investigation demanded. — Spontaneous generation. — Psychology and Mind-reading. — Many questions. — A light-circle. — The baby-hand. — Mystery of mysteries. — Whence comes the power ? 169

Chapter XIII. Full Of Strange Things

Responsibility of Scientists. — A social dance. — Little Charlie. — A German spirit. — Ten spirits measuring heights — Table of time. — The malicious barber. — The smoking squaw. — Two voices at once. — Disappointed visitors. — Independence of the Eddys 1 S4

Chapter XIV. The Dark-circle

Mayflower's story. — The Sailor ghost. — A Hurly-burly. — A strong test. — Wonderful result. — A musical performance. — A Clairvoyant's view. — A multitude of spirits 205

Chapter XV. Philosophical Tests

Ringing a table gong. — Ten spirits at a seance. — A light-circle. - — Card writing. — Picture drawing. — Heights of the spirits. — The scale test. — Weighing Honto. — A spirit's explanation. — Discoverers ridiculed 225

XIV CONTENTS.

Chapter XVI. Startling Phenomena

A good test. — A spirit orator. — Strength of spirits tested. — The ring test. — Spirits welding copper. — Eccentric habits as tests. 247

Chapter XVII. A Chapter Of Marvels

Responsibility of the Author. — Spirit of an Arab. — Five Indian spirits. — Weighing spirits. — Diagram of platform. — Seance in another room. — Ground-plan of this room. — Thorough examination.— Shawl manufacturing by Honto.— Spirits of woman and child. — Various spirits. — Mysteries 269

Chapter XVIII. More Wonders

The Witch of the Mountain. — What a lawyer saw. — A new arrival. — A Russian Lady. — Russian ghosts. — Georgian and Canadian spirits. — Georgian music. — A merchant's letters. — Mr. Peebles' certificate. — Spirits dissolve. — More Arabs.. . . 289

Chapter XIX

A dark-circle. — Letters from spirit-children. — A wounded hand. — A Khourdish " Nouker." — Spear and plumes. — Nine talking spirits. — More shawl making. — Old Mr. Brown 314

Chapter XX. The Dead Alive

Spirits. — A relative shocked. — A bogus Lord Byron. — An African juggler. — Wonderful feats. — Tape-climbing. — The horned jugglers of Egypt. — The maiden and lover. — Story of a bull. — Wonderful Eastern magic 326

Chapter XXIV. Pseudo-investigators

Mayflower. — How are these things done ? — Spirit-wreaths. — A Dark-circle explained. — Wiseacres. — Ignorance and prejudice of writers. — Effects of investigations. — The Holmes phenomena.— John Brougham's views — The returned darling. — Value of tests. — The Eddys' standpoint 374

CONTENTS. XV

Chapter XXV. The Shakers As Spiritualists

What Mr. Evans says. — Manifestations among the Shakers and Mormons. — Degrees of Spiritualism. — Oneida Community's report. — Mediums everywhere 392

Chapter XXVI. Summing Up

The great conflict. — Science and Religion. — Narrative of facts. — Results. — Uses of Spiritualism. — " Murder will out." — Farewell to Chittenden 406

Part II. The Katie King Affair

THE COMPTON TRANSFIGURATION.

MISCELLANEOUS.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page.

1 The Old Homestead {Frontispiece)

2 The Eddy Brothers 19

3 The Mother 25

4 The Eddy Home (side and rear view) 31

5 Tests by Committees 33

6 Sufferings of Mediums 41

7 The Dining Room 48

8 Above and Below 51

9 Graves of Mus. Eddy and Santum 59

10 Konto's Cave 63

1 1 Indisputable Materialization 74

12 The Phantom Carriage 81

13 Hidden Treasures 85

-14 Buried Knife 101

15 The Spinning Ghost '. 103

16 The Ci ecle Room 110

17 Inside of Cabinet 113

18 View and Plan of Cabinet 117

19 Honto Making Shawls and Blankets 138

20 The Reunited Family 145

21 Spirit-Form Dissolving 149

22 Wm. Eddy (full length portrait; 156

23 Tim Sleeping Medium 162

24 Matkrialized Spiiiits 165

25 The Light-Circle 178

26 Contrast in Hands 181

27 Well-known Forms 189

28 The Smoking Squaw 195

29 An Evening's Visitors Grouped 200

30 Dix and Mayflower 207

31 The Dark-Circle 212

32 A Noted Medium 215

33 A Clair voyant's View 221

34 Freaks of a Young Squaw 227

35 Spirit Card-Writing 232

36 Fac-Simile of Spirit-Writing 235

37 Fac-Simile of Spirit- Writing 236

38 Measure and Weight 240

39 Mrs. Eddy Addressing the Audience 251

40 The Balance Test 255

41 The Ring Test 261

42 Comparing Heights 265

43 Picture for the Artist 280

44 Spirit-Forms 285

45 Witch and Caucasian 296

46 A Side Show 300

47 A Merchant and Nurse 311

48 Card, Fao-Simile 317

49 Card, Facsimile 318

50 A Strange Visitor 822

51 A Spirit from Africa 329

52 Tiie Buckle and Medal 357

53 Arab. Russian, and Indian 361

54 A Musical Spirit 372

55 Spirit Wreaths . 377

56 Table and Glass 381

57 The Lost Darling 388

58 The Murdered Woman Materialized 421

PART I.

THE EDDY MANIFESTATIONS.

Chapter I The Eddy Family

SEVEN miles north from Rutland, in a grassy valley shut in by the slopes of the Green Mountains, lying high above the tide-water, is the little hamlet of Chittenden. There is nothing about it worthy of notice, and its sole claim to notoriety lies in the fact that it is the nearest post-town to the homestead farm of the Eddy family of spiritual mediums, whose fame has spread over the whole country. The people of the vicinage are, apparently with few exceptions, plain, dull, and uninteresting, seeming to know nothing and to care less about the marvellous things that are happening under their very eyes, or even the history of their section. Inhabiting a rugged country which exacts much hard labor for small pecuniary returns, they go the round of their daily duty, and trouble themselves about nothing except to get the usual modicum of food and sleep. Their rare occasions of enjoyment are the days of the county fair, the elections, " raisings," huskings, and like country assemblages. Their religion is intolerant, their sect Methodist ; within the pale of which body all persons are good, without which all are

1 8 HORATIO AND WILLIAM.

bad. The liberalizing influences that in more thickly settled localities have, for the past ten or twenty years, been leavening the whole religious world, seem to be unfelt in this secluded region. Towards the heterodox these people have no yearning bowels of compassion. Their weapons are both spiritual and carnal ; and I judge from the sad story of the Eddy children that these zealots, if suddenly driven out of their beloved church, would feel more at home under the wing of Mahomet than elsewhere, for when prayer has failed of conversion they have resorted to fire and the lash to bring the lamb within the fold. I recently visited this place in the interest of the New York Sun, and spoke of the relations between the Eddys and their neighbors in the following terms :

" There is nothing about the Eddys or their surroundings to inspire confidence on first acquaintance. The brothers Horatio and William, who are the present mediums, are sensitive, distant, and curt to strangers, look more like hard-working rough farmers than prophets or priests of a new dispensation, have dark complexions, black hair and eyes, stiff joints, a clumsy carriage, shrink from advances, and make newcomers feel ill at ease and unwelcome. * * * They are at feud with some of their neighbors, and as a rule not liked either in Rutland or Chittenden. * * * They are in fact under the ban of a public opinion that is not prepared or desirous to study the phenomena as either scientific marvels or revelations from another world." * * *

When I first began to write about these mediums, I became convinced that they had never done anything to deserve the reprobation of their neighbors, for a number of reports reflecting upon their character, upon being sifted, were discovered to be untrue. I could see prejudice so ill concealed by the narrators, and ignorance of the domestic life, to say nothing of the mediumistic

F ~

20 DISHONEST MEDIUMS.

faculty of the members of the family, so plainly revealed, that perhaps I went to unnecessary lengths in my defence of their reputations. But since I began the work of revising my matter for this volume, I have met a former citizen of Chittenden, and a man of good character, now a resident of a distant city, who is knowing to the fact that some seven or eight years ago two of the Eddys gave an exhibition, or exhibitions, of certain of the commoner tricks of mediums, themselves included ; and I was furnished with the names of witnesses who can corroborate the statement. It is not surprising, therefore, that a simple-minded people, prejudiced against everything that smacks of diabolism, and looking upon the Eddy ghostroom as a Chamber of Horrors, should hastily adopt the opinion that if they were false in the lesser " phenomena" they must be in all ; and conclude that a family who could publicly confess their dishonesty, for pay, had good reason to adopt a forbidding aspect to strangers, especially those who would be likely to discover the trickery which furnishes them a support. I am not, I am happy to say, of that class of pseudo-investigators which rejects the chance of finding truth in these marvels because mediums occasionally cheat. It has often, and justly, been said that the circulation of counterfeit coin is no proof that the genuine does not exist, but the reverse ; and the reports of most intelligent writers agree in the statement that nearly all public mediums occasionally simulate their phenomena when, from any cause, they cannot produce the real ones. Judge Edmonds and Mr. Robert Dale Owen both told me some years since that they had detected one of the best physical mediums in the United

MEDI UMS NO T FREE A GEN TS. 2 1

States, in trickery, thus corroborating my own experience with the same person ; and a well-known artist in Hartford says that he discovered Home, one of the greatest mediums ever known, in acts of deception, both before his departure for Europe, and during a subsequent visit to this country. As to this matter of the Eddy self-exposures, the parties interested tell me that their exposure was a mere pretense, resorted to for the purpose of raising money when they were in a very needy condition. In a word, they cheated the public with a sham exposure when it would not come to see them in their character of mediums. There can be but one opinion of such behavior as this ; and, therefore, while my narrative will contain all that can be said on behalf of the remarkable mediumship, or apparent mediumship, of these boys, the reader will find that I shall not rely upon any of their manifestations that could be imitated by them, in working up my conclusions as to the reality of the phenomena. Such a course would be a waste of time and thought.

I separate the medium from the man, considering him beyond a certain point an irresponsible being ; that is, if there is any such thing as mediumship. In neglecting this I think most investigators have hitherto erred. If it be true that persons of certain temperaments i-n this world may be controlled by persons in the other, then the mediums, being ccnitrolled, are not free agents, but machines. A person of this kind may, therefore, be a very bad man but a very good machine. Furthermore, if the medium's actions while serving as such are beyond his control, he may, unless he be entranced, observe them just as any spectator, and, observing, may learn to