THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM

 THE alleged physical phenomena of spiritualism consist of several types of real or apparent exception to the ordinary laws of matter. One of the most striking is telekinesis, the alleged movement of physical objects without visible normal contact, and without the intervention of any physical medium or agent. Raps, or the production of sounds without contact, is a second type. Levitation is another, but this is only a form of telekinesis. The production of lights is another. Alteration of weight by supernormal means is still another but infrequent type. Materialization is another type; but the term is so confusing that the alleged phenomena require separate treatment.

 Stories of such events have been told from time immemorial and are plentiful, it seems, among all races. Familiarity with records not often mentioned by historians shows that among the Greeks and Romans there was as much of this sort of narrative as in modern times, awakening the same interest, though the resistance to belief was less obstinate then than now, because minds were not so saturated with the idea of fixed laws of nature as they are to-day. In modern times the interest broke out anew with the work of the Fox sisters. The missionary zeal of their movement centered attention on them and their phenomena; their spectacular career also helped greatly to emphasize the impression. But the phenomena were no different in kind from those known to the Greeks and Romans and to every race before and since their time. All this I have briefly touched upon in an earlier chapter. We are at present interested not in the history of such phenomena, but in their relation to the problem of psychic research.

 The extravagant interest in physical phenomena supposedly caused by spirits or some unknown force, would be strange were it not the natural heir to the traditional interest in miracles. The scientific man cannot see why spiritualists attach so much value to physical phenomena as evidence for the existence of spirits. But the point of view is not difficult to understand. To the ordinary man all mental phenomena are equally mysterious, and he is slow to realize the exceptional character of any mental fact. Since all phases of mental life are inexplicable, telepathy or clairvoyance is no more to be wondered at than a funny dream. But these minds can easily perceive that certain physical phenomena are exceptions to their experience. They are familiar with the general laws of motion, especially with the law of contact; and, as they regard as a miracle anything that represents a violation of the law of contact as the cause of motion, they easily refer supernormal physical phenomena to spirits as a cause. This is the natural tendency of a mind brought up to believe in miracles. In the psychological field, telepathy and other instances of the supernormal are not to be specially wondered at, as they are no more exceptional than other idiosyncrasies of mind. But it is otherwise with physical phenomena. The rising of a table without contact at once appears inexplicable by any ordinary laws of experience. Common minds can see the unusual character of such phenomena, and, being accustomed to find in Christian doctrine physical miracles cited as proof of divinity, they easily resort to the spiritualistic interpretation of levitation. They are not often nice in their application of explanations, and make anything mysterious a signal for the appeal to spirits.

 But they reckon ill with the problems of evidence. Levitation, raps, lights, and other physical phenomena are no more evidence for the existence of spirits than is the fall of a tree. The movement of a physical object through space without contact is in no way evidence for the existence and action of spirits. It may be accompanied by such evidence, but it is not itself this evidence. Proof of the existence of spirits requires not the mere occurrence of inexplicable phenomena, physical or mental, but facts of a supernormal character, evincing the continued personal identity of the dead. The phenomena must be explicable only as the acts of intelligence, indicating the presence and action of discarnate beings, as displayed in the transmission of messages or in the production of phenomena that show purpose. This indication of purposive intelligence, not the mechanical movement of objects, constitutes the evidence. There is no scientific excuse for the spiritualistic contention that physical phenomena prove the existence of spirits. Unaccompanied by mental phenomena they are useless. For telekinetic phenomena are among the most common in nature—magnetism, wireless telegraphy, and gravitation are illustrations. Intelligent scientific men will admit the possibility of telekinesis; it is merely a matter of evidence, not of a priori limitations to nature. But they can still maintain that, while the occurrence of supernormal physical phenomena may be entirely possible or even proved, these alone are not evidence for the existence of spirits.

 The case might be very different if there appeared also mental phenomena, especially such as are unmistakably supernormal and reflect the personality of the dead. If the levitation of a table, for instance, were accompanied by mental phenomena involving the personal action of some one dead, it would have some interest for the skeptic asked to believe in the power of spirits to cause motion in physical objects. But if it occurred without indication of intelligence, incarnate or discarnate, it would be only a curious event.

 It is in reality the ensemble of phenomena, the complex situation, that has impressed the spiritualist. This situation usually includes the presence of mental as well as physical phenomena: this association, not the Physical phenomenon, justifies the suspicion of spiritistic agency. Unfortunately most people appeal to the physical "miracle" instead of to the mental phenomena, which appear to be less miraculous. Though, taken alone, physical phenomena have no evidential import whatever, we have to discuss them, partly because tradition has associated them with spiritism, and partly because mental phenomena of much significance have often occurred in connection with alleged physical events of an inexplicable nature.

 If we should ever succeed in proving the existence of genuinely supernormal physical occurrences, definitely connected with supernormal mental occurrences, and so have reason to assign to both of them the same cause, we should have a result of very great cosmic interest. To find that extra-organic intelligence can move matter without the intervention of normal human agency, even though mediumship be usually associated with the movement, would be to raise the question of the relation of intelligence to all mechanical action. If we once establish the fact of telekinesis by intelligence alone—that is, the movement of inorganic objects by discarnate agencies, without contact, we open the way for considering the question of the priority of intelligence to all mechanical movement in the universe. The materialistic theory has so long accustomed us to think of physical movement as mechanically caused, and not as possibly caused directly by intelligence that we are not prepared to admit any but mechanical causes in the physical universe. This has been the tendency of philosophic thought from the time of the earliest thinkers of Greece. They sought to remove intelligence from cosmic action; and, though they sometimes admitted the existence of spirit or spirits, they relegated them to the intermundia, where they could exercise no influence on the course of physical events. But once let it be proved that the discarnate can be efficient to produce motion in inorganic objects, materialism will be forever dislodged from its stronghold. Consciousness will have been proved capable, in an extra-organic existence, of producing more or less direct effects on inorganic matter; and no one will be able to assign to this ability any limits save such as experience may define.

 This larger aspect of the question is the phase of real interest in the problem of telekinesis as associated with intelligence. But the prospect of accomplishing results that will illustrate or prove this larger view is very remote. We have hardly started on the way. We are still too doubtful of the occurrence of the phenomena in any form to begin drawing inferences from them. However, in the mental field, facts to prove the existence of spirits are multiplying; and, their existence once conceded, there will be more probability of our discovering that they are influential in determining events. We may therefore soon be on the road to solving the larger questions of telekinesis.

 The historical records in support of supernormal physical phenomena are not very impressive, unless we except those of Robert Hare and Sir William Crookes. Robert Hare was professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania. His volume on his experiments and inquiries has been quoted by spiritualists as more or less conclusive in their favor. But his mere academic authority is all that spiritualists have emphasized; they have not been able to reproduce his alleged results. Moreover, examination of his work reveals the justice of Mr. Podmore's criticising it, at least of his accusation of defectiveness in the account of experiments and inquiries. Mr. Podmore, however, was so obsessed with his belief in fraud that he could recognize neither its limits nor the significance of hysteria and other abnormal mental states in honest subjects. No doubt Professor Hare erred in the opposite direction, though this error may be more apparent in his writings than in his actual investigations. Unfortunately the latter are so imperfectly described that the critic is free to make all sorts of accusations that cannot be refuted if false, nor proved if true. Some of the apparatus he invented was good, but we know far too little about the exact conditions of his experiments. He merely states in a description of his apparatus that he succeeded in registering a pressure of eighteen pounds under conditions, as he thought, that do not permit of normal explanation; but he does not describe insufficient detail the manner of experimenting. Like all investigators of that period—1850 to 1860—as soon as he was convinced of his theory he accepted all sorts of phenomena and mediumistic statements without any criticism. He went elaborately into the revelations of another life, as if the mere fact that these revelations came from spirits attested their credibility. But he shows us no reason to be assured that many of the statements had any transcendental source whatever. We may urge in his defence that at that time nothing was known about the subconscious. The most natural thing in the world, after being personally convinced of the honesty and veracity of the medium, was to take the communications at their face value, even though they might be unprovable and perplexing. He seems not to have thought of such a thing as careful sifting and criticism of the evidence for spirit existence, much less to have established any criteria for determining the validity of statements about the spiritual world. He cannot be quoted by any scientific or intelligent man in support either of the existence of spirits or, if they exist, of the truth of their communications.

  One circumstance, however, which Mr. Podmore quotes with an apparent sneer, is not indefensible. Professor Hare invented an apparatus for spelling out messages, in which the dial and hand were so concealed that the observer, but not the medium, could see where the index pointed. He records that results were more difficult to obtain, and failures more frequent under these conditions. When the spirits were taken to task for these failures, they replied that, since the medium could not see the face of the dial and the index, the spirits had to see them through Dr. Hare's eyes. This reply Mr. Podmore evidently thought a preposterous subterfuge. But it is quite conceivable that the spirits must see what they are doing. It may be that they cannot always or easily see physical objects without the use of sensory organs.

 Strange as it may seem, I have some evidence that this claim is more or less justified. I have not proved it even to my own satisfaction. I have been too busy trying to get more important questions solved and to secure evidence of survival rather than evidence of the character of intercommunication between the physical and spiritual worlds. But I have noted some important facts bearing on this very question. Their significance is determined entirely by the fact that supernormal information justifying the spiritistic hypothesis was obtained in connection with the phenomena which I shall here detail.

 (1) At one time in my experiments with Mrs. Chenoweth I used a head­rest to support her head when she was in the trance. Her eyes were buried in the pillow. Once, when the automatic writing was going on and Dr. Hodgson was purporting to communicate, she turned her face over so that her eyes, though closed, were exposed to the light. The communicator, apparently not knowing what had happened, remarked that he could almost see. Supposedly the light penetrating the eye-lids had affected the communicator so that he could use the sense-organs. This incident, of course, is not conclusive, as we may explain it by supposing that the light passing through the eye-lids was appreciated by the subconscious impersonating the communicator. I do not dispute that explanation it is probably correct enough. But it does not stand in the way of supposing that the discarnate, if it exists and is capable of using the nervous organism of a living person may have perceptions as claimed. At any rate, the incident quoted is of a character to support that claim, if it were otherwise justified.

 (2) I have often noticed that one of the controls in the work of Mrs. Chenoweth, Jennie P., can always avoid superposing when communicating for herself; but, when she is trying to get messages from others, she has to be watched for this mistake, and I have to regulate the sheet of paper to prevent it. All the while, Mrs. Chenoweth is in the trance and her eyes are not only closed, but are often turned away from the paper. Superposition would probably occur if any normal person tried to write at the same time that he had his head turned away in order to listen to some one talking. If communication involves the visual interpretation of symbols used by the communicator to transmit his thoughts or messages to the control, we can realize how Jennie P. has to act under the circumstances.

 (3) More directly in support of the statement recorded by Dr. Hare is the following fact. Since the development of Mrs. Chenoweth's trance into what we may call either a deeper state or a further dissociation of the subconscious, I have frequently noticed that I must keep my eyes on the sheet of paper to prevent superposition. If I turn away to reach a new pad or to make notes, superposition is sure to begin; I may prevent it by keeping my eyes on the paper, even when I do not have to move the pad in order to prevent the occurrence. Apparently my own visual picture of the paper is immediately transferred to the control and he or she can regulate the writing accordingly.

 To prove this contention will require much more evidence than I have adduced. It is my purpose here only to state a problem and to note that Dr. Hare has recorded a statement of some interest, at which we need not sneer, though I should have done so myself if I had been in the same position as Mr. Podmore and thousands of others during the earlier stage of the investigations. With the practice of restraint and tolerance, we may some day find a satisfactory explanation of apparent absurdities in many statements that have long passed as genuine communications from a transcendental world, even though we do not accept the revelations at their superficial value.

The work of Sir William Crookes, is more impressive. He was not himself responsible for the form in which it was published in this country. He wrote only brief accounts in the "Quarterly journal of Science," in which he was conducting a controversy with critics of his paper, read before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and these brief accounts were reprinted in this country without his revision or authority. Enough, however, was included to give a fairly clear idea of part of his experiments; those connected with the movement of physical objects without contact and with increase of weight have never been satisfactorily explained. William Huggins, a scientist of no mean repute, witnessed some of the phenomena and attests them; but scientific men generally refused to accept the challenge to investigate with him. The reception of his report led Sir William Crookes to abandon the subject, though he has maintained the convictions which his work established, and reiterated them after more than thirty years.

 Strange to say, the incidents which spiritualists and the public love to quote most frequently, almost ignoring his best experiments, are those connected with alleged materialization. These, however, are poorly reported and their import depends solely on the authority of Sir William Crookes. While that must have weight, we should have had a detailed account of the experiments and results.

 The report on materialization is the least impressive in the whole work; but to the public it is interesting precisely in proportion to its incredibility. If emphasis had been laid on the experiments with D. D. Home, though suspension of judgment has to be applied to some of them, the work would have received a more respectful hearing. It is significant in this connection that many years afterward, Sir William Crookes in his presidential address before the Society for Psychical Research, confessed to the wish that he had studied the mental phenomena before he announced his conclusions. If he had done so, he might have found the clue to his materialization phenomena.

 This discussion offers the opportunity to explain the confusion connected with this term. When we say "materialization," meaning the alleged appearance of a spirit, the scientific man understands us to assert that a physical body has been created apparently out of nothing, or, as some spiritualists maintain, out of the surrounding matter. In either case the hypothesis is, that a physical body is formed without any apparent source for the substance and properties manifested. This conception is incredible. We have no precedent in scientific work for the sudden and apparently miraculous production of organic beings and their disappearance in a few moments like the "baseless fabric of a dream." The spiritualist may just as well admit the difficulties and not try to explain them by suppositions more far-fetched than the main theory.

 But I have observed many times that people in reporting materializations do not mean the creation of physical organisms. They even speak of apparitions as "materializations "; this usage shows what they really mean by the term. Apparitions are phantasms, not physical substance. They may be veridical, and prove quite as much as any materialization would prove, without the intellectual difficulties attaching to the materialization theory. If they are called phantasms or apparitions, though the description may be incomplete, it expresses a proved fact. Whatever other elements are present can then be the subject of further investigation. We should not ask the mind, especially the scientific mind, accustomed to employ its terms with great accuracy and clear definition, to believe in so improbable an event as the creation of matter out of nothing, or the formation of inorganic matter into organic and its disintegration, independent of the usual process of dissolution. I have known instances of apparitions thus appearing in the presence of mediums. They occurred during the presence of Mrs. Catherine Paine Sutton with Mrs. Piper. They occasionally occur with considerable vividness to Mrs. Chenoweth. They are a constant phenomenon with Mrs. Chenoweth when the pictographic process is employed for communication. But the phenomena are either mere mental pictures or veridical phantasms. The simplest course is to treat them as apparitions, acknowledging the possibility both of collective phantasms and of synesthetic apparitions. These, of course, are also hard to accept, but they conform to what we know of phantasms.

 When Sir William Crookes said that he wished that he had investigated the mental phenomena first, he admitted the possibility that the phenomena of Katie King might possibly be brought under that classification, and if so, would be more easily credible. But incredibility apparently attracts the average spiritualist, who, instead of fixing his attention on the best attested accounts of Sir William Crookes, concentrates his interest on the least probable of the phenomena. We may well admit that something unusual happened, without accepting the first explanation that comes to hand. We have a right to pause before accepting so incredible an occurrence as that described, especially as no detailed account of the facts accompanies the statement and as Sir William Crookes has himself publicly stated that he is not responsible for the book as published in this country.

 It is to be hoped that Sir William Crookes has recorded the facts in full, and that they may some day see the light. Meanwhile we have only the letters to the "Quarterly journal of Science." We can describe only one of his experiments here, and even that cannot be made as clear as the printed account, because the complex apparatus employed cannot be here represented. The purpose of this experiment was to get evidence of the existence of raps and of their objective nature, whatever their source. Raps are often said to occur without contact of the hands or other physical object. Sir William Crookes sought to demonstrate that they do occur in this manner and are really objective physical phenomena.

 The apparatus contained an elastic membrane on which was placed a small piece of graphite, which would be thrown upward by the slightest jar to the membrane. The psychic was brought into the room without having the nature or object of the experiment explained, and was asked to place her hands on a board, that contact with the elastic membranes might be prevented. Sir William Crookes held his hands on those of the medium, in order to detect any conscious or unconscious movement of her hands. Soon sharp, percussive raps occurred, and the piece of graphite was projected upward from the membrane about one-fiftieth of an inch. The apparatus contained also a lever so arranged that its point would register in curves the amount of mechanical energy employed.

 Perhaps physicists would find flaws in this experiment, and we should certainly want to be assured that tension of the lady's hands under those of Sir William Crookes on the board could not produce the effect. But this objection could not be urged against his experiment in adding to the weight of an object, which we cannot detail here. An experiment with D. D. Home and an accordion, even Dr. Hodgson found no means of explaining away. The accordion was held in one hand inside a wire basket, so that neither the hand nor foot of Home could touch the other end of the instrument, which moved and played music. There were other experiments equally puzzling.

 But I do not cite them as absolute proof. They are of a type to challenge attention and to require further investigation. The scientific man is entirely within his rights in demanding that they shall be repeated, and Sir William Crookes himself recognized this need. The fundamental condition of scientific proof is not merely a crucial experiment, but a large number of experiments, conducted by different people in different parts of the world. Hence we quote Sir William Crookes's experiences, not as final proof, but as a challenge to experiment on the subject, and not to reject phenomena as impossible because they are unusual and apparently inconsistent with ordinary experience. Copernican astronomy was inconsistent with preceding theories and with ordinary observation. The motion of the earth round the sun contradicts the most natural inference from sense­perception. Telekinesis, especially since it has analogues in magnetism, wireless telegraphy, and gravitation, should not be regarded as a priori impossible. At any rate Sir William Crookes has challenged the scientific world; and, as similar phenomena have been produced since his experiments, we are not in a position to ridicule his conclusions.

 Dr. W. J. Crawford, a man of some scientific standing and a lecturer in mechanical engineering in Queen's University at Belfast, Ireland, has performed a more recent series of experiments in levitation, under conditions and with results that make them of unusual interest. The description of his work has been published and is readily accessible. A family of spiritualists were conducting experiments in the levitation of a table and in communication with the dead by raps. Dr. Crawford learned of their efforts and was admitted to the circle. The room was sufficiently light for all persons sitting about the table to be seen, at least after a little time when the eyes had become accustomed to the dimness. The sitters held hands; all were at least eighteen inches away from the table. Without any contact, the table rose into the air and remained poised there for some time, often as high as one or two feet. The suspicion that some of the party, consciously or unconsciously, might have raised it by hands or feet was set aside by the following facts. (1) While the table was in the air, Dr. Crawford could walk all round it, except between it and the psychic. (2) He observed that she was not touching the table. Sir William Barrett, Fellow of the Royal Society and was professor of physics in the Royal College of Science in Dublin, reports his own observations on one occasion when he was permitted to be present. His statement is taken from his work on "The Threshold of the Unseen":

 "I was permitted to have an evening sitting with the family, Dr. Crawford accompanying me. We sat outside the small family circle; the room was illuminated with a bright gas flame burning in a lantern with a large red glass window, on the mantelpiece. The room was small, and, as our eyes got accustomed to the light, we could see all the sitters clearly. They sat round a small table with hands joined together, but no one touching the table. Very soon knocks came and messages were spelt out as one of us repeated the alphabet aloud. Suddenly the knocks increased in violence, and, being encouraged, a tremendous bang came which shook the room and resembled the blow of a sledge hammer on an anvil. A tin trumpet which had been placed below the table now poked out its smaller end close under the top of the table where I was sitting. I was allowed to try to catch it, but it dodged all my attempts in the most amusing way; the medium on the opposite side sat perfectly still, while at my request all held up their hands so that I could see no one was touching the trumpet, as it played peep-bo with me. Sounds like the sawing of wood, the bouncing of a ball and other noises occurred, which were inexplicable.

 "Then the table began to rise from the floor some eighteen inches and remained so suspended and quite level. I was allowed to go up to the table and saw clearly no one was touching it, a clear space separating the sitters from the table. I tried to press the table down, and though I exerted all my strength could not do so; then I climbed up on the table and sat on it, my feet off the floor, when I was swayed to and fro and finally tipped off. The table of its own accord now turned upside down, no one touching it, and I tried to lift it off the ground, but it could not be stirred, it appeared screwed down to the floor. At my request all the sitters' clasped hands had been kept raised above their heads, and I could see that no one was touching the table—when I desisted from trying to lift the inverted table from the floor, it righted itself again of its own accord, no one helping it."

 I am not concerned with any explanation of these facts. Let each reader apply his own hypothesis. But Dr. Crawford performed further important experiments which help to show the genuineness of the phenomena. He weighed the table and also the medium. Then he placed the medium on scales while the experiment with levitation was made. While the table was in the air, all of its weight, except two ounces, was transferred to the medium on the scales, though she was not touching the table. He then placed one of the other sitters, slightly psychic, on the scales, and accounted for the remaining two ounces. He then placed scales under the table; when they were under the center of the floating table, the scales registered appreciable weight, though the table was not touching them. He noted also that, when a light cloth was placed under the scales, 'hardly any levitation occurred. He put a dark cloth under the scales, and the levitation became normal. He found that he could throw light from a bull's-eye electric lamp upon the top of the table without disturbing the levitation; but, if he threw it under the table, the latter immediately fell to the floor. Hence in these experiments he found that light prevented the occurrence of the phenomena. I found this to be true also of the phenomena of Miss Burton. The most obvious explanation is, that the light prevented playing the trick; but the observer was able to see that no hands nor feet were in contact with the table.

 The transfer of the weight of the table to the medium would be quite in accord with well-known laws of mechanics if any visible energy extruded itself from the body of the medium and raised the table. This is the theory that Dr. Crawford, being convinced that there was no physical contact, advanced. The experiment should be repeated, before the scientific world can be impressed, but the authority for the facts is not to be summarily dismissed.

 A later and very important experiment was performed by Dr. Crawford. He made a table with four small wings attached by a hinge to a central piece and resting on springs which, when the hands of four persons pressed as much as two pounds upon them, would cause metallic contacts and the ringing of a bell. The whole was suspended three or four inches from the floor to scales attached to the ceiling. Under these conditions the scales registered as much as 26 1/2 pounds more than the weight of the table without the ringing of the bell. That is without a pressure of two pounds by the hands the table registered 26 1/2 pounds more than its own weight.

 The experiment is important as showing that unconscious muscular action will not account for the whole result. We may explain it as we please. The fact establishes limits to the explanation by unconscious muscular action in such cases, though it neither excludes it nor prevents the hypothesis that external influences may even affect unconscious muscular action.

 My own experience with physical phenomena has been limited to raps and lights. I had a very striking series of experiments with a young lady some years ago. She was not a professional. All that she could do at that time was to produce raps and spell out messages by means of raps, and, by the same means, answer "Yes" and "No" to questions.

 Her physician brought her to me at a city club where she had never been before. I first asked for raps on different sides of her chair; these were produced. Then I took her to a very large table, on which I had her place her hands. Very distinct raps were heard on the table, though no motion of her hands or fingers was observable. When I put my ear to the table, while still watching her hands, I could feel the vibration of the table as well as hear the raps. I then had her move her hands, one at a time, from the table, and saw that her feet did not touch it. The raps continued as before and the vibration in the table was perceptible. Having heard that she had made a piano-string ring, I took her to the piano. The piano was closed; she sat down near it as if to play, and in a few minutes loud raps were audible in the piano, making the string or wire ring. I then asked her to remove her hands one at a time and to put her feet back from the piano. She did so, having her feet as much as eight inches distant from the piano and her hands more than a foot. The raps and ringing of the string went on as before. All this was in broad daylight. There was nothing to hinder observation.

 I arranged to meet her again at her uncle's house, in order to try some further experiments. After getting raps under her feet, I had her stand on a very thick cushion. When she was standing on the cushion, which was at least six or eight inches thick, the raps occurred exactly as before, with the same quality of sound. If made by the joints, the raps would have been muffled when the feet were on the cushion. I then had her stand with a foot on each of my hands, which rested on the cushion, and the raps occurred apparently on the floor, with the same quality of sound as when her feet were on the floor. I then tried the steam radiator some distance away, and the rap had a metallic ring, as if on iron. I then tried the piano experiment again. This time I had her hold her hands on a large book of music, on which were a dozen or two dozen sheets of music. The piano was closed. The raps were very loud, and made the string ring so that the sound could be heard perhaps a hundred feet away. I again had her remove a hand at a time and stand away from the piano. Though not quite so loud, the raps continued as before.

 Though we might suppose that there was some apparatus on the body for making raps like those on the floor, we cannot so easily explain the ringing of the piano strings without any contact. I had no means of applying mechanical tests to the case. I needed apparatus for excluding the hypothesis of mechanical means concealed on the body. But in the absence of opportunity for such tests, I had to vary the experiment so that whatever hypothesis applied to one instance would not apply to another. The results favored the acceptance of the genuineness of the raps.

 I got raps with Miss Burton also, while she was holding both hands and feet away from the table. Moreover, some of the raps under these conditions were not on the table, but on the windowsills ten feet distant. On one occasion the raps sounded on the window-sill, which was about eight feet distant and in the light. I then stood near the window, within a foot, and the raps were repeated many times, while Miss Burton, in a trance, was six or eight feet distant, in the light, not moving her hands. Questions were intelligently answered by these raps; by them we were even directed how to manage the girl in the trance when one of the personalities accidentally got "locked up," as it were.

 I have given elsewhere a detailed account of the production of independent lights by Miss Burton. It is too long to here quote in full. After taking every precaution against her having apparatus about her person for making lights, and while holding her hands, I saw very large lights. They were of a kind that cannot be made by either phosphorus or electricity. The conditions excluded artificial methods. It is very probable that some, but not all of them occurred on the tips of her fingers. Some were six feet distant, as the illumination of a phonograph showed.

 Later I received messages by means of these lights. The messages were written in letters of fire on the air in pitch darkness and gave cross­references with other psychics. They had to be read sometimes a letter at a time, and repeated until I could be certain of them.

 Professor James reported an instance of physical phenomena in an article published in the "journal" of the American Society (Vol. III, pp. 109-113). He witnessed, in a private circle of people, a brass ring moved without the contact of any hand. The details cannot be given here. The case rests on the authority of Professor James.

 I have said nothing of the Palladino case and shall not quote it, as the public has long accepted the verdict of some investigators in this country, among them Professor Muensterberg, who condemned the case as fraud. I think they had no evidence of fraud; but I hold this opinion because I should treat the case from the standpoint of hysteria, which, though it furnishes a normal explanation, excludes fraud. Palladino should have been studied, as. Miss Burton was, from the point of view of abnormal psychology. In contradiction of the verdict in this country, the English Society obtained striking results in levitation, and other investigators found mental phenomena of some interest, with, in one or two cases, significant apparitions. Continental investigators also vouch for genuine physical phenomena in her case, though admitting that she sometimes practised fraud. I shall not defend the case here, in as much as public opinion generally accepts the verdict of trickery. I may say, however, that one of the men who signed the negative report did so under protest; another confessed to me that he had witnessed phenomena in the experiments not so easily explained; and one distinguished scientific man stated privately his personal conviction that some of the phenomena were genuine. The case, however, is too debatable to be used in evidence of supernormal physical phenomena.