CHAPTER VII

ERRONEOUS, CONFUSED AND IRRELEVANT MATTER

I SHOULD not like this short account to be published without reference to the erroneous and confused matter which has occurred from time to time in the scripts.

It was necessary, for the sake of clearness, to collect the evidential messages, with their verification, and record them without the addition of the confused matter, which in some cases accompanied them.

The amount of this confused matter varied in every case; in a certain number of messages there was none; in others there was a considerable proportion; whilst in one case the evidential matter resolved itself into three correct statements only, verified by a friend of the communicator; these were picked out from a mass of irrelevant matter, and were as follows:

(1) "My very old golf boots are pathetic to see...do let them go...leather to leather."

(2) "I had money and spent a good deal in travelling."

(3) "I loved the sea above everything.."

In this case the connecting link was of the slightest; a reader of Light had seen an article of mine, and wrote to ask if I could obtain a message from a friend of hers, who had died some years before.

In another case I received a letter from an officer known to me only by name, asking if I could get a message from a friend of his, whose brother had been killed in the war.

The result was a failure, as none of the script was recognised. The causes of partial or complete failure, in my own experience, are to me generally obscure, although I have noticed that those who have long "passed over," or who died at an advanced age, are as a rule more difficult to get into touch with, unless their minds are exceptionally flexible.

Another very great difficulty consists in the inability of some minds to deal with evidential matter when it is presented to them; in their estimation, evidence must necessarily consist of clear answers to definite questions, names correctly given,-references to incidents which "X- would most certainly remember," etc.

The two former are exceptionally difficult to obtain, for reasons unknown.

It often happens that the evidence given is not on these lines at all, but is of a more subtle and indirect nature.

To give a hypothetical instance.

A certain script purports to be written by John Graham, who asserts that he was born at Southend, and collected old china. He had travelled a great deal in the East in his youth...had a clear recollection of a certain old garden, and liked to give expensive presents.

This script would be sent to Mrs. John Graham for verification, and her answer would quite possibly be: "I do not think it can be from my husband, as his name was Clarence, not John, and he had never travelled in the East."

A second letter to Mrs. Graham would elicit the facts that her husband had travelled a great deal in his life, although he had not been to the East; that he had at one time lived in a house which had a beautiful old garden, and that it had been his great pleasure to give expensive presents.

In some instances the only verifiable part of the message lies in the fact that it is characteristic of the personality of the writer, and this is not at first recognised, owing to the expectation of a different kind of evidence. I have had one very interesting example of this, too long to reproduce here.

Two very curious cases occurred, in which incorrect statements were made; both referred to the supposed deaths of men serving in the war; in each case the death was quite definitely asserted, and circumstantial details given; in each case the very existence of the, man was previously unknown to me, and verification of the statement was delayed.

An unusual feature of these scripts was, that it was alleged that a man named Meller, described as an enemy, had confused the messages, and that be had some connection with the death of one of these men. This was obviously not a point that could be proved.

In the case of extreme illness, assertions have been made as to the death or recovery of the invalid; in two cases of the former kind, it was announced that the patient would shortly die; in both cases the patient recovered, although one had been at the point of death for some days, and had been pronounced by the doctor to be past recovery.

In one case in which recovery was prophesied (an officer dangerously wounded) his condition

was reported almost daily in automatically-written messages, and these reports tallied with the medical bulletins received later from France. At the time when his recovery was confidently asserted, his condition was most critical and no hope was given by the doctor.

In this case the patient recovered completely.

The messages sometimes contain a good deal of confused matter, illegible words, and fragmentary sentences; this is specially noticeable towards the end of a long sitting, or when I myself am tired.

An example of irrelevant communication is given in the following, reproduced exactly as it occurred:

A name was written: "Lieut. Muriontel," followed by "my brother has been hit by my death...write to him...fetch frere...Monte..."

I answered: "I am in England."

He replied: "Madelle, Oui, mais je ne jamais" (scribble).

I said: "Try a French medium."

The answer was: "Are you not French?"

I replied: "No, English."

He answered: "Oh...ah je...adieu."

Another rambling communication, also purporting to come from a Frenchman, was given at the end of a message from someone else.

No name was given; it ran as follows:

"Your England been (or being) beaten...Mon pays...Mon (sic) femme a quitter (sic) la France lorsque je Mon femme...you will help her Comment?"

I have thought it best occasionally to receive such messages, when they came unsought, as it seemed inhuman to refuse; but I have had no time to pursue either of the above cases, and there was no clue whatever to their identity.

Note.-It may be worth mentioning that my name is of French extraction, and this may have supplied some slight opening for a French communication.

Another example of irrelevance occurred while writing automatically in an old house, which had formerly been an inn.

I had spent the night in this house, and had noticed in the room in which I. slept an almost overpowering smell of ether, which came intermittently and was quite unaccountable.

The following morning I enquired of a spirit-guide what was the explanation of the smell, and the words were written:

"Ether was dying...has been buried without my wife."

I explained that I could not write for strangers, and the question was written:

"What say?"

Then followed the name "Roger Gunner," who asserted that he was a railway guard, killed in an accident some fifty years previously; he said that he often slept in this inn. He gave copious details to prove his identity, but in spite of many enquiries we were unsuccessful in tracing him.

It may be that some messages which I have deemed wholly irrelevant have had significance which I could not trace; the chief difficulty in preventing interruptions and confusion is the ignorance which prevails concerning the laws which govern this method of communication; increasing knowledge will probably do much to eliminate disturbance of this kind.

A knowledge of human nature, and a power of discrimination can, even at this stage of imperfect knowledge, safeguard to a considerable extent those who attempt to receive messages by these means.