MARK
TWAIN
SOON after I had published a review
of the work of Patience Worth, I learned from one of the persons
connected with that work, Mrs. Emily Grant Hutchings, that she was
getting Patience Worth through another psychic. Just as the interest in
this fact was beginning to grow, and when I had formed my plan for a
cross-reference experiment to see whether I could get Patience Worth
myself, the whole work of this new psychic changed. She began to get
communications purporting to come from Mark Twain.
The psychic in
the case was a Mrs. Hays, of St. Louis. The circumstances, however, were
such that Mrs. Hutchings was as necessary to the phenomena as was Mrs. Hays.
Both ladies had to hold a hand on the index or planchette part of the ouija,
otherwise it would not move. The interest in this fact lies in the
attempt to measure the probabilities that the subconscious of both
ladies could act harmoniously enough to spell any word whatever, to say
nothing of writing books characteristic of a man whose works only one of
them had read. Under these conditions two volumes were spelled out.
Both ladies are
in private life, Mrs. Hutchings being a writer on art for the St. Louis
"Globe-Democrat," and Mrs. Hays a writer for various papers. No
pecuniary reward was involved in the work, except such as might come
from the risks of publication. No taint of professional mediumship is
contained in either case and all ordinary objections may be discounted
at the outset. The mediums are open to any investigation of character
that skepticism may adjudge desirable. The first question to occur to the curious inquirer would
be whether the work was not done as a literary adventure merely pretending
to come from Mark Twain, a sort of
jeu d' esprit
[spirit playing] to help in the
advertisement of the work by the claim that it came from the
celebrated humorist. The one fact which might arouse this suspicion is, that
both ladies are writers and are not in a trance when the work is done.
But students know that automatism is not limited to trance conditions.
It is quite common in normal consciousness. Any question on this point
must be answered by the critic's own study of the two ladies.
Mrs. Hutchings
had not read anything of Mark Twain's until after much of the work had
been done. Mrs. Hays was more familiar with his work. There are four sources for a theory
of subconscious memory to account for the phenomena. (1), Mrs. Hays had read something of Mark Twain's work. (2) She had expressed the desire that
he would communicate, thus providing the condition for a Freudian
explanation for his appearance. (3) She has a very keen sense of humor
herself, with a tinge of Mark Twain's drollery, though with less compass
and depth. (4), She also, like Mark Twain, possesses a vein of
melancholy, though without his irony. Perhaps it would favor the same
interpretation to add that Mrs. Hays has psychic powers in other
directions, which favor the dissociation necessary to produce work of
the kind.
The suspicion
that subconscious fabrication might be the explanation made it necessary
to experiment in a decisive manner. The conditions just mentioned were
ideal for the theory of subconscious production, and without experiment
for cross-reference it was idle to maintain that the work was
supernormal. There was absolutely no internal evidence of the
supernormal, except little incidents and references in the work, and
perhaps its general character involving a better digest of his writings
than was normally probable. These suggested independent origin, despite
the general presumption that prior knowledge inspired the main subject.
But these points would not be conclusive to the hard headed skeptic;
hence it was necessary that I should try experiments for cross-reference
for evidence that Mark Twain
was at the bottom of the affair.
After about
half the sittings were over, Mrs. Chenoweth one day remarked to me that
she had recently felt impressed that she should read Mark Twain, adding
that she had never read him, but thought she ought to know something of
the great American humorist. It thus appears that she was quite ignorant
of his work.
Nothing that had
reached the knowledge of Mrs. Chenoweth had been published about the case. A western
paper or two had mentioned it, but the one that had said most about it is
not a daily and has a very small circulation in the East. But it would
not have helped her any to have known the facts. My purpose and the
identity of the persons concerned were effectually concealed from her.
She had never seen nor known the ladies and did not know that I
intended to experiment with them. Moreover they were taken separately to the
sittings. In her normal state she did not even see either of them, and
she could not see them in her trance, because they sat behind her, being admitted
to the room after she had gone into the trance. Every precaution was taken to
conceal their identity from her. Under these circumstances ten sittings
were held; I then continued the experiments after the ladies had
left Boston. I took Mrs. Hays first because she was the less prominent of the two
ladies and was evidently the main psychic. Mrs. Hutchings then followed
with her five sittings. At intervals between the sittings with Mrs.
Chenoweth I had sittings with the two ladies themselves, using the ouija
board, with a view to giving suggestions at these sittings as to what I wanted
with Mrs. Chenoweth, so that I could remain silent in the main
experiments, and also with some hope that these sittings might help in the effort to
get cross-reference.
Evidence of the
supernormal appeared at once, but there was very little hint of Mark
Twain until several sittings had been held. The kind of work he had done
was obscurely indicated, but not until the fifth sitting did specific
evidence of his identity appear.
At the first
sitting for Mrs. Hays the first sentence was: "The Girl is a light."
This was not only a correct hit, but the use of the word "Girl" was
especially significant, as it was the name by which Mark Twain called
her with Mrs. Hutchings in the ouija board experiments. Immediately the
control remarked that "her sensitiveness was of interest" to me, which
was especially true, and the first time that so prompt a recognition of
such an interest had taken place. In a moment an allusion was made to
her father, who is dead, and
his desire to communicate indicated, and then
some diagnosis of her powers followed. Immediately reference was made to
"hands and visions," with the remark that she "sees things sometimes."
Mrs. Hays is quite clairvoyant and has pictographic visions in one type
of her work. Evidently the allusion to "hands" was a fragmentary
intimation of the ouija board
work, but it was not further developed at the time. It was said that some of these experiences
were "written to make clear to some one else that they occurred." If
this referred to the work of Mark Twain it was correct. It was
specifically stated that these experiments were "not coincidences,"
which is particularly true of Mark Twain's work, which consists of
posthumously written stories. It was stated that this work has, "a real
purpose."
Allusion was
then made to the mother and to an Aunt Elizabeth; the former was dead
and it was not known whether the latter was dead or not, though such a
person and relationship were correct. Then came an intimation that a
little boy was present, a child of the sitter. She had lost a stillborn
boy some ten years previously. The sitter was said to be quite nervous.
This was true.
When I asked
who it was that was doing the work at home, understanding of my desire
was indicated, with the intimation that identification would have to be
established by messages "given through another source," implying the
need of cross-reference. As the reason for this need, there was made
what was tantamount to the admission that the subconscious might color a
personality in the transmission: for the communicator said that "there
is often a play of imagination to contend with, not always in the mind
of the girl, but within the minds of the others," suggesting that more
influences than the subliminal of the medium are likely to affect the results.
Reference to
her father followed, and to his lack of interest in the subject, which
was true in his lifetime. An allusion to the trance of the sitter was
not correct, though there were signs of an incipient trance in some
tendencies to anaesthesia and numbness. There followed a reference to an
aunt and to some prophetic power of the sitter. The latter point is
correct, but the identity of
the aunt was not indicated. In a moment came a statement about "Jess," which
suggested vaguely what I wanted to ascertain; namely, the influence of
Mark Twain; but it was not developed into anything definite.
At the next
sitting the first communicator gave no evidence of his identity or of
the supernormal, but on a change of control an allusion to "voices and
sounds" was made, which was not especially important, though relevant,
as raps had once been heard just before the death of the sitter's
daughter. "Voices" do not form part of the psychic experience of the
lady, but Mark Twain's daughter is a vocalist. A reference to "dexterous
movements of the hand" was made, probably representing an attempt to
speak of the work on the ouija board. Then came an allusion to music
which was very pertinent, whether it meant something in the mind of Mark
Twain or of the lady, as the latter is passionately fond of music and
often hears it, as it were, in the form of auditory hallucinations, and
the former stated later that music was referred to in the interest of
establishing his own identity, as the living member of his family is a
musician. But I am not sure that this later statement by him referred to
this special incident. I denied, in the course of the communications,
the pertinence of what 'was said, not knowing the meaning of the
allusion to music.
It is possible
that the allusion to music was a confused attempt to mention his
daughter and her husband, the former of whom is a singer and the latter
a pianist.
We had not yet
any distinct hint of what I wanted. The supernormal had been vaguely
indicated, but nothing that would lead me to believe that Mark Twain was
present.
At the next
sitting the first thing that occurred was an indication that Mark Twain
was present and that the course of affairs had changed. His initial "M"
and possibly the second letter "a" came at once, and then a message
about his purpose, which was amply confirmed in the work at both places;
namely, to help the world on a vital matter. He had signified this
purpose in the work with the two ladies. He referred to the difference
between his work at the present light and with the ladies; and to a
"manuscript," in a statement which represented its nature well enough
and coincided with what had
just been done by the ladies, who had submitted it to a publisher in Boston. He described the work
as "philosophical," which is not strictly correct, though "allegorical"
would have described it. I had not seen the work and could not tell its
nature, nor had I at that
time been told its character.
For some time
the communications continued to be pertinent though fragmentary,
containing an evident attempt to give his name. "M two" or "M 2," which was very significant,
came at once. Then the attempt resulted only in a possible reference to
Stainton Moses, which I interpret "Moms" to be, and then Myers, both of
whom often help in such crises. But "Ma" came clearly enough and then
the subliminal made a prolonged effort to get the full name. "Ma" came
first and then "S. T.," which were initials of his name, the first of
his real name and the second of his assumed name. Then followed "Mark,"
whose meaning is apparent, and the initial of his second name. But the
subconscious evidently supposed that Saint Mark was meant and alluded to
"Saint." Then the name Mark was spelled out, though the subconscious
evidently thought that Mark Hanna was intended, as Mrs. Chenoweth asked
me if I knew any woman by the name of Hannah. The next day Mark Twain
alluded to this mistake in a humorous way. But the most significant
indication of his identity was the "M two," as it came before the subconscious had
any hint of his identity. This expression was a correct indication of
his name, which he had adopted after his experience as a pilot on
the Mississippi River. It came in full later, but from this time on the case was
clear. It is important that he thus established his identity with Mrs.
Hays before Mrs. Hutchings took her place at the next sitting.
At the next
sitting the most interesting phenomenon is the deviation from the usual
course, which is for only relatives of the sitter to appear. Instead,
Mark Twain came at once. First he tried to give his real name rather
than his nom de plume, which,
whether intentionally or not, is especially significant, as it did not
exactly continue the effort with which the sitting of the day before
closed. I got first the capital letter "S" and then "Sam," followed by "Cl," his name, as everyone knows, being Samuel
Clemens. From the confusion with Mark Hanna on the day before, it is
evident that the subconscious
had not yet any inkling of his identity. With the failure of the effort
to get the full name came the following statement: "Funny man cannot
write his own name without so much fuss, but when one assumes so many
titles one must inevitably make a mark in the world of literature, even
if that literature assumes the ponderousness of Psychic Research or
Christian Science."
This last
sentence is packed full of marks of his identity. Evidently the use of
the word "mark," especially in association with the reference to "titles," was intended as a play on his pseudonym; the allusion to
Christian Science is to the
title to one of his works. We must remember that the subconscious had not yet caught on
to the real name. Immediately after the sentence quoted he referred to "Hartford" and the statement added: "Place, not person. To think that any one
could take a Connecticut Yankee for an Ohio Statesman. Joke lost on you.
To think a man of my superior hirsute growth should ever be mistaken for
the bald and baby face of him who ruled a President."
Here again is a
statement packed full of evidence of personal identity. It refers to
Mark Hanna, who had the reputation of ruling President McKinley. Mark
Twain had a very bushy head of hair and Mark Hanna was bald and clean
shaven. Mrs. Chenoweth, of course, knew of Mark Hanna and possibly of
Mark Twain's old home at Hartford, Connecticut. But she did not know normally that he was communicating nor that his
presence had any connection with the sitter.* Immediately came the
following spontaneously,
connecting the present with the previous sitting:
"The 2 Marks, my
name, exactly fits the case, the 2 Marks. Never mind. You know who I am
now and it is all right for me."
(I knew it all along, but we stubborn scientific men have
to get it on paper.)
"I forgive every
Scientist except the Christian, and that is a matter of principle with
me."
* Reference to his
"A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur" is also probably
intended, and was "lost on" J. H. H., being noted by Miss Tubby, his
secretary, when reading proof of this record.
The reader can
see the point of this from the remark above that "2 Marks" came from his
experience as a pilot, and from his relation to Christian Science, which
he treated contemptuously.
He then
referred to his living in New York, whither he had gone after leaving
Hartford. He then explained, after indicating why music had been
referred to before, that his return had the importance of being intended
to show that he "was not a
dead one." He then stated that this was not his first appearance, and that he had It
practiced some through the hand of the girl," this term "girl" being the name by
which he had called the two ladies in his work with them. He then compared his
work with that of Frank Stockton, remarking that the latter had better
look after his laurels. The whole passage was full of humor.
After this
humorous account of his purpose he turned to the .serious aspect of it
and remarked: "I have a way of making light of it only that I may better
keep hold, but it is the vital matter of creation." This reflected the
serious aspect of his nature, which was not so well known as the
humorous, the serious trait being known only to a few, or to those who
could read between the lines. Mrs. Chenoweth had not read any of his
works.
He took up the
humorous vein again in a passage too long to quote and not otherwise evidential. But he returned to say that he had been
somewhat familiar with the
general subject of psychic research before his death. I knew this to be
a fact and asked him to give an instance or two. He referred to a
"vision like a mist rising and forming a picture before me," and then to
conversation with some friends. I had in mind his experiences in "mental
telegraphy," as he called them. But he did not mention these. The
sitting terminated with a reference to "Samuel," his first Christian
name, too well-known to be evidential.
At the next
sitting Mark Twain began with the effort to get the name of his living
daughter, which I did not know at the time, and succeeded in all but the
letter "a" in Clara, which he completed later. He gave the name Mark in
connection with it, and then made an effort to give the password which he had agreed on in St. Louis,
but in which he did not succeed at the time, though he got the first letter
of it, which I did not acknowledge. I did not under stand it until he
explained what he was trying to do. He went at it in a roundabout way. The following long
passage shows what he was doing:
"It is not a safe
thing for a man to go to a foreign land without his passports and I
begin to think this is worse than any customs a traveler passes through,
for passports are not enough. He must give his ancestry and his
innermost purposes to a hard headed wretch who sits in command of the
light. By the way why do you call the automatist a light?"
(It was originated
by the Imperator group beginning with Stainton Moses and the Piper case,
and I followed suit.)
"It may be to keep
light craft away, as the rocks and shoals make havoc with all except
strong swimmers."
(I understand. Do you remember the password?)
"You are referring
to work done at another place which was to be repeated here s... or anywhere, if
I found myself able to come."
(Yes, exactly.)
"And I have known from the first that I must get that through in order to
prove that I
was the same spirit who has been doing some things at home." (Yes, exactly.)
"Now I referred to passports with that in mind and I intend to make good
my plan to
help them. You know whom I mean, the girls." (Yes.)
Much
of this explains itself. It has been true in recent years, though not
before his death, that a traveler has to give his ancestry and purposes
to custom officers or government officials, as well as a passport. Mrs.
Chenoweth knew absolutely nothing about this. The query about the use of
the word "light" turned out to
be especially relevant. Mrs. Hutchings told me that Mark had used the
word "automatist" in his work with her and Mrs. Hays. He is only the
second person who has ever used the term through Mrs. Chenoweth, the
other being Mrs. Verrall, who used it regularly in life. The word
"light" or "medium," usually the former, is the one used in the work of
Mrs. Chenoweth.
It was a fair hit, not necessarily
implied by my query about the password, to refer to work elsewhere and
then ask me if I knew what he meant by "the girls." The word "Girls," as
already explained, was the one used by him to denote the ladies. The
letter "s" is the first one in the password. This came later, but the
consciousness of its importance is clear in the passage here.
There followed at
once a reference to the sitter's mother as one who helped with the work. Mrs. Hutchings's mother was dead, and in a moment
she apparently took control,
but the sequel showed that Mark was the intermediary. The only
evidential incident in her message was a reference to her head being
dizzy. She had died from diabetes and during the last months of her life she had been very
dizzy much of the time. The reference to a child was not clear until a little later. Mark Twain assumed
control for a time and then the mother came and tried again but got only
the initial "S" of Mark
Twain's real Christian name. Then the subliminal came on for a time,
during which the allusion to the "child," now said to be "a little
brother" of the sitter, made
it evident who was meant in the first reference. The sitter's mother had lost a
little boy, who was, of course, a little brother to the sitter. She then made a
reference to "Two Sams," which was very important, though wholly unknown
to me. Sam Jones and Samuel
Clemens, Mark Twain, had both come to the ladies in St. Louis.
The automatic
writing then returned with an attempt to give the initials of Mark
Twain's real name; they were given as "S. C. C.," which were incorrect,
though I did not know it at the time. Later he spontaneously corrected
the error. He then alluded to some experiences as he was dying, stating
that he had seen his wife while he was in a semi-conscious state. After some non-evidential remarks he
tried to correct the mistake in "S. C. C.," but failed. He then compared me
to P. T. Barnum, saying under oral control that I "had an elephant on my
hands in the work."
At the
beginning of the next sitting it was evidently the mother of Mrs. Hutchings who occupied the time at
first, though her communications were invaded by an effort to get the name
Clara, which was that of Mark Twain's living daughter. It was evident
throughout that the communications were an interfusion of the mother and
Mark Twain, as they combined the mental attitude of the sitter's mother
with some of the affairs of Mark Twain connected with the dictation of
the two volumes through the ladies and the ouija board. The mother was
probably the intermediary.
There was an allusion to a picture, said to be a photograph of himself, in the room where the work
was done.
This reference to a photograph has
considerable interest. The record shows that it was associated with his
daughter Clara. Now Mrs. Hutchings had a picture of Mark Twain in the
room where she and Mrs. Hays did their work. It was a photograph
taken at the time when he made his lecture tour around the world, his wife and
daughter Clara with him. In the communications he had always used the
word "home" to mean the place where the communications were made to the
ladies. He was evidently
referring to his daughter in this connection in order specially to
identify the picture, as
there were many photographs of himself besides this one.
Then came a
reference to the "writing board," which definitely implied the ouija
board, and then an effort to tell the nature of the work done, which was said not to be "personal
messages, but more like editorial," with emphasis on the word
"editorial." So far as this went it was correct enough, and also the further statement that
the work was now almost complete. The following is the message on the point
just mentioned:
"You have both been
so careful to eliminate all that would mar the beauty of the pure
expressions he wished to use."
(I understand, and
do you know the name of...?) [Writing went on.] "Book." (Yes.) "Of
course I do, for was it not a part of the plan over here to have the
complete
work, name, title, size, description given to you about the make up,
etc."
(Yes.) [Sitter nodded assent.]
"It is not a joke at
all, but a very earnest endeavor to make an addition to literature, a
sort of posthumous work, see?"
(Yes, perfectly.)
"And the fact that
the style and the form may be well-known to you does not make it less
valuable spirit autobiography."
(I understand.)
"I feel that it is
right to have this go on, because it will wake up some of the
sleeping friends who
had no idea of the possibility of such contact.
"I want the love we
feel to be the incentive to further effort. Harpers people may help. You will
know best what to do about that."
This is a very accurate description
of what went on in the ouija board work. The dictation delivered through
the board was often in incomplete and abbreviated sentences and these
had to be filled out by the ladies. There was no doubt of what was
meant, because the abbreviated sentences were clear, though unessential
words were often omitted. The name, title, etc., were taken up and
decided. The book, though abundant in humor, I understand, has also a
serious purpose, and though its evidential value is marred by Mrs.
Hays's knowledge of Mark Twain's work, it is said to be very
autobiographic in respect to characteristic features in it. I had not
seen it. The allusion to "Harpers" is very significant because the
Harpers were the publishers of Mark Twain's works. Mrs. Chenoweth knew
nothing of this.
The
communications continued in the same vein, with characteristic and
pertinent statements which do not require to be quoted at length. But a
definite allusion was made to the "cracked sentences that had to be
pieced together," which I
mentioned just above. When asked what share he would have in the royalties, the reply was that it would be a "share of
heavenly percentages," which was exactly the answer he had given to the
same question through Mrs. Hays. He then gave the initial letter of the
title to the first of the two books, though it is not stated that the
initial was so intended.
At the next
sitting he began the automatic writing with general communications that
were interspersed here and there with evidential touches. He spoke of
the work as having been undertaken with a purpose to help the whole
world, which was an avowed object in the work with the ladies, and he
spoke of it in an interesting manner as "keeping up the connection in a
natural and supernatural way," meaning the contact with the material
world. He showed that he was well aware of the pitfalls of fraud in any
effort to do his work through the professional type and stated that he
had given them a "sign password which would give the clear idea of my
presence." It was not exactly a password, but was a sign to prevent
successful impersonation by others who had tried to palm themselves off
as Mark Twain, either in
their work or elsewhere.
He then
indicated, what was true enough, that one message was not sufficient to
prove his case, and that the work which had been done at the other center was the kind he wished
to put in the foreground, and remarked that he "sometimes found the flow of
words very easy to start for her and then sometimes I have to wait a
little, even when she gives me opportunity." Mrs. Hutchings recognized
that this was correct. He then spontaneously corrected the error made
previously about the initials of his real name, giving them now as "S.
L. C." instead of "S. C. C." as before. I did not know or recall that he
had a middle initial. I knew him only as Samuel Clemens. I had not read
any of his works but two, and
these some thirty-five years before.
He then turned
to some personal matters and gave correctly the name of his living
daughter Clara. Among his personal statements were references to his
love of the old home in Hartford and his choice of New York for its
opportunities, speaking of Hartford as the place where he "had so much
happiness and pain," alluding probably to the loss of members in his
family, as well as financial losses. He then mentioned a ring with some
detail, but the daughter could not verify it. Some further statements
were made about his desire to continue work through the ladies, and he
then closed the communications with references to his interest in this
subject when living. But while it was true that he knew something about
it, the special incident stated could not be verified by the daughter.
He spoke of feeling the presence of her mother, his wife, after her
death and his endeavor sometimes alone to have her come to him. It is
not known whether this is true or not. The sitting ended with the name
Margaret coming in the subliminal recovery. It was the name of Mrs.
Hutchings's deceased mother.
At
the next sitting Mark Twain began by expressing approval of all such
efforts and made a humorous allusion to substituting communication with
the dead for "Catholic masses
for the repose of souls," and then went on to give a very characteristic message:
"I
am quite serious about this, although I have always had to labor about
being taken seriously. If I
preached my own funeral sermon with tears rolling down my back, no one would
think I was at all serious about it, and some one would begin to cheer for the
funny things I was saying, but I really have the revolutionary spirit
in my bones, and it is with me now, and I think that the work that I
have done at home and shall continue to do will help to revolutionize some ideas of
my friends, if it does no more."
"W."
This passage, I
understand, represents many actual experiences in his life. He was often
cheered for humor when he was serious and he had to tell his audiences
so. I never knew this and Mrs. Chenoweth knew less than I did about him.
The
communicator then turned to a personal matter and reiterated that his
wife's face was the first one he saw when he died. This, of course,
cannot be verified, but it is a phenomenon that has been verified in a
few other instances.
There then
followed a long set of communications intermingled with evidential
hints, and characteristic throughout. The ouija board or "planchette"
was indicated as the method of his work through the ladies. Then an
allusion to an "old spirit who now and then shows such a look of age on
her face drawn and worn," with further reference to the mother of Mrs. Hays, coincides with the change
in Mrs. Hays's face when her mother may be present. What was said about
the personality exactly fitted her mother and described her
characteristic facial expression in life.
In the
subliminal Mrs. Chenoweth saw a man in white clothes. This exactly
described the habit of Mark Twain. He used to wear a white suit a great
deal. Mrs. Chenoweth told me that she knew nothing about his manner of
dress.
The ladies left
Boston after the sittings which I have just summarized and further
experiments were conducted in their absence. At the first of these
sittings Mark at once recognized that the ladies were not present, a
fact not normally known by Mrs. Chenoweth, and after getting adjusted
remarked how "good a receiver the little lady was," evidently referring
to Mrs. Hays. This was correct, as the books will show, though it may be
doubted if she could do systematic work of the evidential type as well.
At an earlier sitting, as well as at a sitting with Mrs. Hays, I had
asked Mark to give me the name of the personality who had preceded him
in his work with the ladies. I had Patience Worth in mind, but I gave no
hint at these sittings with
Mrs. Chenoweth of what I specifically wanted. I did not know that Mark had been preceded by others
as well as Patience Worth. He immediately referred in the present
sitting to this request of mine and after some confusion he said: "just a
little patience," and paused, and then wrote.
This was almost the name
Patience Worth in an indirect and oracular manner. The interest in it is
the fact that this is the first time in the history of my work with Mrs.
Chenoweth that the word "patience" has been used in the sentence asking
me to wait. It has always been "just a moment," "just a minute," "Wait a
moment" or "Wait a minute," so that it looks as if "patience" had been
used as he had used the word "mark" to identify himself without making it a name.
But immediately following this effort he said the "W" was wrong and
evidently tried to give the name of "Rector," getting the first three
letters of it, and then in the confusion got "J," which was the initial
of the name of the book I wanted mentioned. The effort, however, ended
in confusion. After a subliminal interval the automatic writing tried it
again and got nothing more than the "J."
At the opening
of the next sitting came the letters "Br," the first two letters in the
title of the second volume received by the ladies, but it was not stated
that they were so intended.
At the next
sitting Mark Twain came with oral control at the outset. He spelled the first three words by letters and then spoke the words as
wholes. He closed by giving
his full name and address with great ease: "Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
Hartford, Connecticut." Neither Mrs. Chenoweth nor I had ever heard his middle name. I knew
the rest. But the chief
significance lies in the ease with which proper names came in this
instance of oral control. It
suggests that, if we could eliminate the pictographic process usual with
Mrs. Chenoweth, we might use clairaudience more effectively in getting
proper names. It remains to prove this possibility in practice.
At the next
sitting another communicator came and it was several sittings before I
was able to get his name and identity established. It was Washington
Irving. He claimed to have helped Mark Twain in his work with the two
ladies. But there is no evidence of it in the record of the material for
the two books. But on several occasions a friend was present who called
for Washington Irving and he purported to communicate. As a cross
reference this is not strong. But apart from this there was some evidence, not at all striking, that
Washington Irving was helping
in the work with Mrs. Chenoweth. Whoever it was certainly knew about the
facts more or less.
He referred to
something begun and discarded, which I learned to be true, and then to
the trance, which was incorrect. He then referred to Robert Ingersoll
and indicated that he had been present at a sitting, but did not say
that he had communicated. Inquiry showed that a few days before the ladies started for Boston, they had a sitting in
Columbia, Mo., and on a
question being asked about him were told through the ouija board that he
was present and had come out better than Henry Ward Beecher. As Mr.
Beecher was a communicator here a few sittings earlier, this association
of the names has some
coincidental value, all the more when we know that Beecher and Ingersoll
were personal friends, a fact not known to Mrs. Chenoweth. A pertinent
allusion was made to religion in connection with him and a correct description of his
facial appearance, but Mrs. Chenoweth knew enough of Ingersoll's
connections and appearance from pictures to deprive the facts of
evidential importance. In the passage about religion a comparison of the
different sects to the rainbow induced me to inquire of his biographer
whether he had ever used this simile in his lectures or writings. The
reply brought out the fact that his biographer knew of three separate
instances in which he had used the simile, but not in connection with
religion. Mrs. Chenoweth has never read any work or lecture by him
and does not like his views,
thinking they were too negative.
Mark Twain
followed with some communications, but they were not evidential enough to find a place in
this summary.
Washington
Irving apparently came again the next day and possibly tried to get his
name through, for George Pelham was referred to as apparently helping
him. The interesting thing is that George Pelham's real name was given
by the communicator whom I suppose to be Washington Irving, as has been
done by other strangers who would not naturally know that the pseudonym
of Pelham was the regular one employed. An effort was then apparently
made to tell me where I had gotten the password before. But it is not clear enough
for me to be sure of it. Two or three coincidences suggest it, but an
allusion to a phantom rather tends to nullify the hypothesis.
The next day
Washington Irving evidently came again, but he did not get anything
through that can be clearly described as evidence either of identity or of any special incidents in the work of Mark Twain. The
capital letter "C" and then
"Ch" which came were not intelligible at the time, but probably refer to Charles Dickens,
who reported later.
The next day
Mark Twain got the name of Washington Irving through and cleared up the
perplexity of previous sittings in that respect. "Travels Abroad" were
mentioned evidently in an attempt to mention "A Tramp Abroad" or "Innocents Abroad." When
Washington Irving came himself he finally got the name of Rip Van
Winkle through. Mrs. Chenoweth did not know or recall who created Rip,
and associated him only with Joseph Jefferson, who played him. She might
have heard about it and forgotten it. She had, however, never read it or
any other work of Washington Irving, though she knew that he had written "Bracebridge
Hall."
At the next
sitting Charles Dickens was mentioned in the subliminal entrance into
the trance and then followed automatic writing by Washington Irving.
Nothing was given to prove his own identity except a casual allusion to
John Jacob Astor, saying that he, Washington Irving, was present when
Mr. Astor communicated with his wife, and then an allusion to the older
John Jacob Astor. There was no hint of his presence when the John Jacob
Astor, who went down on the Titanic, communicated with his wife, which
was several years ago. But I turned to the "Life of Washington Irving" and found that he
had been intimately acquainted with the elder John Jacob Astor, a fact
about which Mrs. Chenoweth knew nothing. But Washington Irving was not
present to prove his identity. He was explaining the object of Mark
Twain's work, and he well summarized it in the statement that a group of
literary spirits had felt that it was time to abandon rappings and
knocking furniture about and to give some mental phenomena which might
more effectually prove to the world what could be done by spirit
communication.
He characterized
Mark Twain's object and work in an excellent manner and it is impossible to give a complete conception of it without reading
the detailed record. He
continued this subject in the next sitting and discussed Charles Dickens
and Shakespeare, indicating that their work had been influenced by
transcendental agencies, but denying that his own work and that of Mark
Twain when living were so affected.
At the next
sitting Mark Twain came, announcing his presence by his real name,
Samuel L. Clemens, and then remarked what is probably true, that, with
the ladies he was Mark Twain and with Mrs. Chenoweth he was Mr. Clemens.
He had difficulty saying what he wished, but assumed oral control again
after it had broken down once and mentioned in a peculiar way the title
of the most of the books he had written. He gave them in the form of a story in which the heroes
of them played a part.
The next day
Charles Dickens came and indicated that he had taken part in the work
with the ladies, but if this be true it was as a silent partner. There
is no trace of his presence there. He admitted that he had tried to
finish "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" after his death and told where he
had done so. After some difficulty I found that this was true in detail.
Though Mrs. Chenoweth was very fond of his works and had read many of
them, and knew that he had
left an unfinished novel, she refused to read it and had never heard of
any attempt to finish it after his death. But there was no evidence of
his personal identity that I could treat as probably supernormal, except
that Mrs. Chenoweth, just before she came out of the trance and for some time afterward,
yawned a great deal. This was only the second time that such a phenomenon
had ever occurred in my work with her and I suspected that Dickens was
tired when he died. I went to
Forster's biography of him and found that the symptoms of his
approaching death were great weariness.
At the next
sitting Mark Twain made the attempt to give his password. He failed by
the direct method and Jennie P. came in with George Pelham to try the
indirect method. She first mentioned the word "Tramp," which was not correct, but was the first
word in the title to one of his books. Then the name "Susy" was given, which was
the name of one of Mark Twain's deceased daughters. I did not know the fact and had to ascertain it
from the living daughter. Then Jennie P. said: "Do you know about two
words; that is a compound word, which is apparently one which he wishes to
give as the password. It is something like O p e n S e s a m e."
Sesame
was the password which he
had given me in St. Louis and which a few days later he had given me in Toledo through Miss Burton, (on whom
I had reported in Volume V of the "Proceedings.") In her case I got
it written in letters of
fire, so to speak, in the air. She was in a trance and I was the only person who could read
it, which I did not do aloud. It was in pitch darkness. I mention it
only because of its relation to the present cross-reference. It came
spontaneously in Toledo and without my asking for it and without any
possible knowledge of Miss Burton that I had been in communication with
Mark Twain. Mrs. Chenoweth was equally ignorant normally of the facts.
Before the
trance came on at the next sitting I happened to be talking to Mrs.
Chenoweth about the unethical action of falling in love with married
people or taking liberty with the moral law generally in such matters,
and mentioned Petrarch and
Laura, and Abelard and Heloise, thinking of Mark Twain and his comments on the latter
two in "Innocents Abroad," but being very careful not to mention
Mark Twain in my remarks. Immediately on his beginning the automatic
writing, Mark Twain referred to the subject and spoke of me as a good defender of
his belief and referred to the case of Abelard and Heloise by name, saying
that he did not mean Petrarch and Laura. I asked where he had mentioned
it and after some difficulty and mentioning first "Travels Abroad," he
got the correct title of "Innocents Abroad." On inquiry I learned that
Mrs. Chenoweth had never read any of Mark Twain's works and had not seen
"Innocents Abroad," and did not know that Mark Twain had ever referred
to Abelard and Heloise. She, as a child, had heard her parents reading
"Roughing It," but was too young to understand the humor of it.
At the next
sitting Mr. Myers opened the communications with some general remarks, saying that the
oral work would be stopped for
a time and then be the next step in the development of Mrs. Chenoweth's
work. He then made some evidential statements about Sir Oliver Lodge's
family and his own. They are not relevant to the present matter. Then he
was followed by Mark Twain, who referred to Mr. Beecher and Dr. Funk
relevantly, and made some statements about smoking which repeated more
or less what he had mentioned long before in a message. But he got
through nothing else, though I suspected that he was trying to give the name of the
book, which I wanted.
At the next
sitting another communicator, who did not reveal his identity, referred
to the Harpers as publishers of his books, and made a very pertinent
observation about their character as publishers. He then mentioned Mr.
Howells, who was an intimate friend of Mark Twain, saying that he might
have chosen him to deliver the message, but that trained minds would so
influence the work as to make it lose all personal distinctiveness, and
that he had chosen the ladies because they would affect it less. This
was a correct conception of the problem and an admission that the
subconscious or normal consciousness can deprive a message of its
individuality. After indicating, perhaps in jest, a possible title for
another book by Mark Twain, the communicator began the effort to give
the name of the book I wanted. I got "Jo," which was incorrect, and then
"Jul," which was also incorrect. It was the Fourth of July and
firecrackers were being shot off outside, so that noise disturbed the
sitting. Finally "Jim" and
"Jerry" were given, both wrong, but found later to have a relevance which at the time I did not recognize. Then the oral control
came and I got "Jack", "Jas,"
and then "Ja," when Mrs. Chenoweth recovered normal consciousness and said she
kept hearing "Jappy." As "Jap" was the name I wanted I thought this wrong, but I later learned it was especially
relevant and in fact correct.
At the next
sitting, after some general communications which were quite characteristic, the attempt to give the name of the book was resumed. I
got "Jack." again, and
"Jasper," both of which I thought were wrong, and then "Jap" followed by
"n," which is the last letter in the second part of the name.
I
afterward learned from Mrs. Hutchings that incidents were much more evidential than I had
supposed. "James Jasper Herron" was the name of the character who gave
the name "Jap Herron" to the book. "Jacky" was the name of the father,
and Jasper had been called "Jappy" or "Jappie" by one of the characters
in the book. I had known nothing save that "Jap Herron" was the title of
the book to be published.
An interval of
two weeks followed, during which Professor Muensterberg occupied the
time, appearing suddenly and without suggestion on my part. It was
apparently a part of a scheme of the controls to have him communicate at a certain
crisis of present events and his own conversion to reason in regard to
the war. At the end of this time Mark Twain took his place. As soon as
he got control he took up the matter of cross-reference and compared his
position in it to the Colossus of Rhodes requiring that he should have a
foot at each place of communication while his head was in the clouds
watching events beneath. The comparison was not natural for Mrs.
Chenoweth, though I cannot make it specially evidential. I gave him a
statement to report in St. Louis through the ladies, asking him to say
that I was a cabbage head. I employed this phrase for a double reason.
First I wanted to see the reaction and secondly I wanted to see what it
might be possible to say about it at the other end of the line. I knew
it would be a rude message to deliver, but it was one that was
calculated to appeal to his sense of humor, and it did. His reply at
once was: "How do you expect me to be so blunt. That message shows no
consideration for cabbages."
This answer could not be surpassed for humor and is Mark Twain to the core. Mrs.
Chenoweth is not capable of it. She never indulges in humor, though she
enjoys it when presented.*
*
Circumstances which cannot be explained here, the matter being too
personal, have prevented my getting the cross reference in this
instance. The experiment could not be made as I desired.
On the evening of
January 26th, 1918, I had a sitting with Miss Burton, 800 miles from New York.
Without any hint of what I wanted, not mentioning a name or asking a question, I received three cross-references. Among them was
the word cabbage given several times and accompanied by the word
mark. These
were written in the air in letters of fire. The seance was held in pitch
darkness. The words were purposely not recognized until written several
times, as I wanted to
avoid mistake in
reading them. When I read them aloud, three raps signifying that I was correct were
given.
At the next
sitting the attempt was renewed to get the name "Jap Herron" after some
general communications by a friend who came to help in this very work. I
got "Jap" and "Jappy" and then "He," but no more at this sitting. In the
midst of this I got "C" and "CL," which were a part of his name, but
spontaneously denied as incorrect. "B" came, which was the initial of
the name of the second book, "Brent Roberts," but was spontaneously said
to be incorrect, which it was for the book he was trying to name, but correct for what I also
wanted. Two other letters came which are not clearly conjecturable.
Only
occasionally had Mark Twain tried to identify himself to the remaining
member of the family, already mentioned. He had mentioned a ring which
the daughter could not recognize and as the situation made the incident
rather equivocal, I resolved to broach the subject when I could and see if my conjecture about it was
correct. The response was immediate and my supposition was supported.
In the original
statement the name of the daughter Clara was given and in a few minutes allusion made to
"Mamma's ring," which was said to have been given to the daughter, worn a
while, put aside and then to have been in the possession of the
communicator himself. The context shows unmistakably that the most
natural interpretation was as I have stated it. But on the denial of the
daughter that it had any meaning for her I put the matter before the
communicator to have it cleared up, but without hinting at what I
suspected and without telling anything more than that it had no significance to the daughter. The
communicator then said that his wife was helping him in that message and that
he was referring to
her
mother and his wife, her daughter. As Mark Twain's living daughter would not reply
to inquiries I appealed to Mr.
Bigelow Paine and he ascertained from the living sister of Mrs. Clemens,
Mark Twain's wife, that Mrs. Clemens's mother had a beautiful emerald
and diamond ring which she specially bequeathed on her death-bed to Mrs.
Clemens, who constantly wore it and for some reason not known it
disappeared, the sitter thinking that it was lost. The incident thus turned out to
be true substantially.
However, I took
occasion to ask what the attitude of his daughter was toward the
subject, just to see the reaction. At first she had shown cordial
willingness to answer questions, but finding the incidents trivial she
had revolted against the matter and requested me not to communicate with
her about it again. I had said nothing of this to the psychic either in
or out of the trance, and hence I wanted to see what reaction I would
get by asking what her attitude toward the subject was, In general the
reply was correct, as I could easily see from her two attitudes as
revealed to me. But as she did not reply to further inquiries I cannot
be sure of details. Mark Twain, however, evidently saw the situation and
resolved to press upon her some evidence of his identity. He mentioned
her by name in one sitting and inquiry of Mrs. Chenoweth showed that she
not only did not know that there was such a person but that she did not
know that Mark Twain had any children at all. In a desperate effort to
impress her in the last sitting he gave the following message:
"It is to speak
now of some foot trouble—that is, some little difficulty, which was his
in the last years of his life when he could not walk as much or as well
as he used to, and it was a source of annoyance to him. It was not
simply growing old, but something had happened to his foot which made it necessary to be more careful in walking and in the choice of
shoes, and as he had always
been a great walker, very active and interested in all things out of doors, it was more or less of a cross to him.
"That
is one thing he wishes to speak of, and another is a small article, a
watch charm, and it had some
special reference to some group or body of people. It seems like a charm
which may have been a symbol of some order, but he did not use it all
the time, and as he shows it here to-day, it seems like a gift which he
now and again looked at and felt some pleasure in the possession of."
The first incident about the foot difficulty seems quite clear. The
daughter failed to reply to my inquiries to say whether it was either
true or false, but inquiry of
his biographer, Mr. Albert Bigelow Paine, brought the information that it had at least a
modicum of truth. It is not exactly stated. Mark Twain always had tender
feet that made it important to be careful in the choice of footwear. It
was not due to old age, but, so far as Mr. Paine knows, it gave no special trouble
near the end of his life, though he did not walk much during the last year, so
that the record is not quite accurate at this point, and yet near enough
to be significant.
Mr. Paine,
however, writes that Mark Twain did have a watch charm as described,
which was presented to him by the Yale Greek Society. Whether he took the emotional
interest in it mentioned is not verifiable.
He then took up
the effort of completing the name of the book I wanted and succeeded in
getting
Jap Herron through the
subliminal, after failing by the direct method. The experiments stopped
at this point and there was no opportunity to try that of
Brent Roberts
and I had to remain content with
the previous hints of it that came involuntarily as I thought at the
time. But as Brent Roberts was one of the minor characters in
Jap Herron
its association with the effort to get the name of Jap was very natural.
This
cross-reference was tried and was more or less successful with another
psychic, Mrs. Salter, who has not been mentioned since the study of the Thompson-Gifford case. While I
was carrying on my experiments in Boston with Mrs. Hays and
Mrs. Hutchings, I wrote my secretary, Miss Tubby, in New York, whom I
did not inform of my work in Boston, to arrange for sittings with Mrs.
Salter. I mentioned no names even to my secretary and she was as
ignorant as the psychic of the persons whom I wished to see Mrs. Salter.
Again they were taken separately without introduction, Miss Tubby not
knowing Mrs. Hays at any time until after the sittings, and not knowing
that Mrs. Hutchings was to have any sitting until that of Mrs. Hays was
finished. As there was but a short sitting for each, the results were
not so striking for our purposes as those of Mrs. Chenoweth. The best
evidence for the supernormal in these sittings was irrelevant to the
Mark Twain incidents, but in the course of them the initials of several persons
connected with the case were given and the word "Jap" came. Correct names of places
were given connected with both the story and the home of the ladies.
While the initials given were often intelligible, they were not as
evidential as is desirable. But the name "Jap" was an unmistakable hit of some interest. Considering that this
immediately followed what occurred in Boston, though it was fragmentary
and did more to prove the
difficulty of communicating
than anything else, the coincidences must be accorded some weight,
though taken alone their meagerness would deprive them of scientific
value.
It will be
interesting to find some incidents from Mark Twain long before the
experiments were made to test his relation to Jap Herron. He came
spontaneously to Mrs. Chenoweth in February, 1913, and when the subconscious of Mrs. Chenoweth asked
me if I knew any one by the name of Mark, I replied that I did, not
thinking of Mark Twain, but Mark Hanna whom I might expect to be
mentioned by a recently deceased friend of my own. When the automatic writing began
the following came:
I ought to tell
you first who I am for fear you might be under the impression that you
are talking to Saint Mark, or some other great ones. I am S. C. and
think it about time I dropped the
nom de plume
which gave me a following;
namely, Mark Twain.
(Thank you. I know.)
I see so little to
make me better comprehend what the meaning of it all is that I am not in the least tempted to mount a pulpit and preach to the
lost. I only know that I am
saved and that I have a few choice friends along with me and we are not
worrying about the state of the rest of the world. It is most wonderful
to be able to see so much at once. That is the one thing that stands out
more clearly to me. It seems as if we had gained a double capacity to see. Do you understand
what I mean by seeing?
(No, not exactly. Explain a little.)
Two worlds instead of one. We see
double, in other words, and no one seems intoxicated either.
(Does the old physical world look as
it did before passing?)
Sometimes it looks
pretty much the same. It depends on where you float. Wall street looks very much like—shall I say what I think—(Yes) Inferno.
It seems to have no saving grace as an atmosphere about it, but it
always does look like that to a man who is not on the inside. I find a
smoky atmosphere plenty good enough for me.
I
think I ought to file a protest against some of the malevolent
criticisms that have been made in my absence. Do you know how I have
been hashed up since I died?
(No, I do not. I suppose I shall be
done up when I get over there.)
So we are in the same boat. Let's
take a pipe and smoke away our trouble.
(What made you choose the simile of
a pipe?)
Nothing
particular, only because I knew you would not smoke and I would do it
all myself. You may learn when you get over here. You never can tell how
soon a thing like a great truth may dawn upon a poor benighted man.
(Well, I hope it will not be one
kind of smoking.)
I have not yet
seen the sulphur pit, but I presume that there is one. Most of us would
be glad of a chance to toss an enemy in on the sly, but so far I have restrained my desire and made a
great effort to keep the peace and not to mar the joy of heaven.
The
communicator then, after some further statements, went on to mention Mr.
Howells, who had been his friend, and spoke of their relation to each
other in rather affectionate tones and then tried to mention some incidents in proof of personal
identity, but was not successful. The passage quoted above, however, is
characteristic of Mark Twain in its humoresque features and it is given for that
reason rather than for the forcefulness of its evidence, though it has this
characteristic: for readers must remember that at this time Mrs.
Chenoweth had not read a line of Mark Twain's!writings. She merely knew
that he was an American humorist. His allusion to smoking will be understood by
readers who knew his habits in that respect, and not known to Mrs. Chenoweth. He
was an inveterate smoker and, knowing that, I put my question as I did
to see the reaction. It was characteristic and humorous enough. He used
to say when living as reported
of him, that he never smoked except when he was not asleep.
The
discussion of this topic need not be detailed. The problem is not the
general one of spiritistic
explanation, but the connection between the experiments with Mrs.
Chenoweth and the work of Mrs. Hutchings and Mrs. Hays. The introduction
showed that the evidence for the presence of Mark Twain in the work of
the two ladies would not be 'accepted by the scientific students of
psychology. They might be wrong in saying that Mark Twain was or is not
the author of the volumes claimed, but their skepticism would have the
defence that Mrs. Hays's subconscious memory might be adequate to the
production of the result assuming that her moderate reading of Mark
Twain might endow it with the material for the work. The believer would
certainly have to contend and to prove that this reading and desire on
her part for Mark Twain to communicate had not impressed the subliminal
with the subject matter for both reproduction and fabrication of the
results. The skeptic would undoubtedly have the advantage in the
argument from this point of
view, and it was this fact which made my experiments so necessary for
the purpose of limiting the claims of destructive criticism.
It is true that
there may be incidents and general characteristics in the books that
transcend any knowledge conveyed by Mrs. Hays's reading. Only a patient
comparison of her work with that of the works of Mark Twain while he was
living would discover any such evidence of his independent influence,
and even then this view would represent largely, perhaps, the opining of the student
skilled in the detection of fine points of internal criticism. But we should
always be without a criterion of the limitations of Mrs. Hays's
subconscious mind. That of Mrs. Hutchings can be excluded because she had not read
Mark Twain until after he had done much of his work through the ouija
board. But the mind of Mrs. Hays cannot thus be exempt from suspicion.
Her reading and desires offer the skeptic all the leverage he wishes
for an excuse against foreign intelligence and in favor of any amount of
credulity about the subliminal. But he has to be refuted.
I have called
attention to one consideration which this argument of subconscious
reproduction and fabrication ignores. It is the fact that neither lady alone could move the
ouija board and that it would move only when each had a hand on it at the
same time. This increases the improbabilities that the two subliminals
would act harmoniously toward a given result in any other sense than as
passive media for the influence of outside intelligence. But the
advocate of subconscious origin must face and solve this problem
evidentially prior to his assertion of his own hypothesis. Nor will it
suffice to say that this harmonious action is conceivable. That may be
true. What we must have is
evidence that it is a fact and it will not be easy to produce any
evidence for it, perhaps not any easier than for spirits. I shall not
dwell on this, however. It is
a vantage ground to which we may return when we require.
I
said that the primary problem was not regarding the existence of spirits
in the work of Mrs. Chenoweth.
I have said many times that I regard this as proved. Here we are
concerned with the question whether the books by Mrs. Hutchings and Mrs.
Hays have the same explanation as the work done through Mrs. Chenoweth.
Whether spirits are the first thing to consider is a distinct question,
and we have first to decide whether the same explanation applies to both
results. If you insist that secondary personality or subconscious
memories explain the work of the two ladies, you cannot apply that
hypothesis to the work of Mrs. Chenoweth. If you account for Mrs.
Chenoweth's work by telepathy you cannot apply that to the work of the
two ladies, Mrs. Hutchings and Mrs. Hays. Neither one of these hypotheses covers the ground.
Besides, you would find that telepathy does not explain all of the facts
in the Chenoweth records, so that you have an independent difficulty in those
alone. In any case you have to reject both secondary personality and
telepathy from the explanation of the whole. You cannot combine them for
the whole, for telepathy will not explain 411 of the records in the work
of Mrs. Chenoweth. You might speciously say secondary personality in the
work of the two ladies and telepathy in that of Mrs. Chenoweth, but you
would be confronted by the fact that telepathy will not explain the
latter and that secondary personality may have its limitations in
certain characteristics and details of the books. Consequently, if you
are seeking a single hypothesis to cover the ground you must find it in
normal sources; namely, in conscious fraud on the part of the ladies and
a similar hypothesis in regard to my own work with Mrs. Chenoweth. I do
not object to this theory. I shall only demand scientific evidence for
it. The slightest investigation into the character and work of the ladies will dispel illusions
about their relation to it,
and though I may not be able to vindicate myself from suspicion, I am
open to, investigation.
The fact is
that there is only one hypothesis that covers the ground without
complications, and that is the spiritistic. The influence of Mark Twain would explain the work of the
ladies, whether you have the proof of it or not. The communication of
Mark Twain is the only explanation of the work of Mrs. Chenoweth. You cannot
import telepathy, inference, and suggestion into it to account for the
whole of it, and whatever explains it will explain the work of Mrs.
Hutchings and Mrs. Hays. There is one hypothesis that explains both, and
so far as I can see only one hypothesis explains both sets of phenomena
consistently. That is the spiritistic and the one that has all the superficial
claims to application. There should be no doubt in any intelligent mind
that the spiritistic explanation is the more natural one, and that all
sorts of devices would have to be accepted to evade the application of
it. I shall not further summarize the evidence for this conclusion. It
has been vindicated in so many other cases that it requires little
further evidence to sustain it and I take it for granted in the nature
of the phenomena.
The important
thing is the light which it throws on cases which would otherwise be
referred to secondary personality. The value of crossreference for
establishing the nature of such cases is unmistakably reinforced by the present one. It
adds one more instance to the class which might have been doubtful before. It
confirms again what was supported in the case of Doris Fischer, though
not as an instance of multiple personality, but as one which the
psychiatrist and psychologist would refer to dissociation. Without the
experiments in cross-reference, the work of Mrs. Hays and Mrs. Hutchings would
be referred to secondary personality and to this explanation only. But we
cannot suppose that the work of Mrs. Chenoweth has that explanation,
because of the conditions under which the results were obtained. The
facts sustain the hypothesis for the work of the ladies which applies to
that of Mrs. Chenoweth and the confident a priori speculations of the
psychologist must be challenged. The main lesson is that we begin a
generalization which may alter the judgment in regard to all such
phenomena. Secondary personality can no longer be dismissed as requiring
no further investigation and
we cannot be allowed entire freedom in theories of brain cells as
sufficient to account for the facts, though they are always complicated with any other
causes. Psychology will have to revise either its theories or its facts.
At any rate a doubt is established about the dogmatism of the
psychiatrist and the student of normal psychology. The ramifications of
the conclusion will prove as great as in the Doris Fischer case, to say
nothing of the possibly extended influence of discarnate agencies on the living where they
care to exercise it.
One warning,
however, I must issue against all critics of the spiritistic theory. In
this instance, as in all others where I defend it, I am not unconscious of the objections which
these critics will bring in regard to the characteristic nature of the
messages. There is a prevailing belief that a man's personality or
personal characteristics should be clearly reflected in the
communications. This assumption is held alike by lay believers and
scientific critics, more frequently by the latter. I usually find laymen
more sensible about this matter than the scientific man. But at least
for a chance to criticize, the skeptic seizes on uncharacteristic
incidents or expressions for disqualifying the evidence. But if he
supposes that I do not concede such features in the record when
advocating the spiritistic hypothesis, he very much mistakes my
position. I can excuse the illusion in laymen, but not in scientific
minds. No doubt we have, and perhaps must have, something characteristic
of the communicator, if only in the veridical character of the incidents
told in proof of personal identity, but tricks of language and style need not be
present at all. The skeptic who assumes that the lack of characteristic phrase and
style is against the spiritistic interpretation does not know his
business. The fundamental assumption of the theory is that the discarnate
personality is subject to the limitations and modifying influence of the
medium through whom he gets expression. And there is more than this. He also is
subject to the influence of other minds than that of the psychic. Not only
must all messages pass through the mind of the medium and be subjected to the
coloring effect of her organic habits of thought and language, but they
must also often pass through or be affectedby the mind of the control,
and in some instances by two or three other minds acting as helpers or
intermediaries. The result on which we base our conclusion is a compound, an
interfusion of two or three, or even half a dozen minds. No critic
should approach the subject without recognizing that it is this that he has to refute
and that he cannot do it by remarking that messages are "uncharacteristic." They
are always this to a certain extent and rarely reflect the personality
of the communicator in its purity. It should not be expected. Only an
ignorant person would assume its purity, after investigating the facts.
It
will be found that the subconscious of Mrs. Hays affected the contents
of the book and that the
subconscious of Mrs. Chenoweth affected the contents of Mark Twain's
messages. This is unavoidable. Several minds are probably involved in
both products and an expert student of the phenomena would easily
discover this interfusion of personality in the result. It is the
prominent evidence in the case that escapes explanation by the
subconscious alone; even though it may be colored by that influence. The
same law is discoverable in the language and thought of any normal
writer who is appropriating style and thought of his past reading. Hence
I shall make the critic a
present of any objections based upon the impurity of the communications. The spiritistic
hypothesis is based upon the incidents which transcend explanation by
the mind of the medium alone., even though the result is highly colored
by it.
I must warn
readers, however, against assuming that the story itself has anything to do with the conclusion
here adopted. I do not care whether it is a good or a poor story, whether it
has literary merits or not, whether readers of it can detect Mark Twain
in it or not. It is probable that some who are very familiar with the
man, his style and habits of thought, and perhaps scenes of his boyhood,
may find traces of the man, but the circumstances prevent us from
attaching any special weight to these. My own knowledge of Mark Twain as
a writer is too small to pronounce judgment on these points and I
should regard them merely as corroborative and secondary evidence if I found
them. But the telling facts for any hypothesis must be the
cross-references which unmistakably associate him with the books. It is in Mrs.
Hutchings's introduction to
the story that we find psychological traces of work which only trained
psychic researchers would
recognize, and then the cross-references add the rest. The one thing that must dawn on
us is the repeated evidence that cases which superficially show no
traces of supernormal influences yet yield to experiment proving that
superficial indications cannot be trusted and we may have to allow for
supplementary influences from another world where we least suspect them.
Authorities
differ in regard to the
vraisemblance of the story
to Mark Twain. His biographer, while conceding that the Introduction
contains incidents like Mark
Twain and some unlike him, sees absolutely nothing in the story of Jap Herron that would
remind him of Mark Twain. The
reviewer in the "New York Times" finds some things like Mark Twain, but
regards the story itself as
inferior to his work. It is probable that people would differ widely on
these points, sometimes according to bias one way or the other about the
alleged origin of the story, but more frequently because of the unavoidable
differences of conception which people have of any man whatever. But, as remarked
above, this makes no difference to the hypothesis defended here. We are
neither asserting that the story is like Mark Twain nor assuming these
conditions in the communications that would make it probable that his
characteristics would be reflected in the story. In the contrary, we
assume that the story would be greatly influenced in the transmission by the
subconscious of the medium and also by the mind of the control and of any
other helpers in the process of transmission. It might actually lose all
the specific features by which we should recognize him. Through Mrs.
Chenoweth he said he simply had to think and that his thoughts had to be
interpreted
by the medium. This
process of interpretation would greatly alter any message transmitted,
and the man who does not allow for this aspect of the hypothesis is not
discussing the problem we have
before us, but some
a priori product of the imagination with which we are not concerned. We may be
wrong, but the hypothesis here advanced is the one we ask to be met, and
that is that the subconscious of the medium is an important factor in
the results, and that the
evidence from cross-reference fits in with this, even to the extent of
supposing that the stimulus
may be wholly spiritistic while the contents may be wholly subliminal. We have no
proof that this is strictly true in this special case, but the fact that no
trace of Mark Twain may be visible to most readers, or even all of them,
does not affect the hypothesis here advanced. It would affect it if the
process of communication were as simple and direct as the expectant
reader assumes, though in normal life a story, unless reported verbatim,
will undergo modification when transmitted through another mind. With a
symbolic or a new method of transmission or communication, and a number
of minds to reckon with in the process, we may little expect to find
clear characteristics of the person alleged to be the chief
communicator, while evidence that cross-reference supplies may force us
to admit the origin of the facts, though we have to discount their
purity because of the complex conditions affecting their communication. This is fully
illustrated in the Doris Fischer case. Personal characteristics of the
communicator, while they added to the proof, did not determine it, because cross-reference
makes us independent of that aspect of the problem. Hence the important
thing here is the repetition of cases which tend to show that phenomena
otherwise assignable to secondary personality may be proved to have a
supernormal origin by the method of cross-reference.
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