HOW TO CONDUCT A PSYCHIC SEANCE FOR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES

 A MODE of procedure for the scientific seance I outlined some years since, to assist the many inquirers who came to me in the American Society for Psychical Research. With the approval of James H. Hyslop, the head of our Society, these suggestions were printed as a leaflet and given to prospective sitters to prepare them for experiments with psychics in private sittings. (See loose folio.) It embodied a series of eleven points of instruction which, with the addition of a twelfth point, we shall now proceed to discuss.

 1. Use an assumed name, or no name at all, until you have secured good evidence. Go alone.

 The assumed name is not advised for the sake of mystifying the psychic worker, but in order that all the evidence received of the names of relatives may be the stronger. Complete anonymity is simpler when it can be arranged agreeably. If the initial "A" is given you as referring to some communicator and you have already confessed to the name of "Adams" you feel a natural question rising in mind. But if you are anonymous or known only as "Brown" the "A" is a good hit, and you are quite right in accepting it as a good beginning. Merely reply, however, that you would like to hear further about "A" and do not enter into conversation as to whose name it can or can not be.

 Keep your anonymity. This is much easier when you go alone to a sitting. Leakage of names is too easy when two who are acquainted are present together. Inadvertently we use the name in addressing a friend and may readily fail to make note of the fact. But the ear of 3 the psychic may catch it and hold it in full consciousness or trance consciousness, where it may cause actual confusion.

 Mediums sometimes "hear" clairaudiently the name of a well known public person or of a personal acquaintance of their own. They explain that it is probably given to indicate not the presence of any such character as Abraham Lincoln, let us say, but the presence of one whose initials are A. L., or possibly one whose name is Abraham. It simplifies matters not to have suggested any names whatever to the medium, oneself.

 Even in the effort to understand what is received, the same reticence should be observed. Simply accept what comes, saying "I'll make a note of that. It will interest me when I am thinking this over later." This you will find satisfies any sincere worker and keeps the flow of communications running.

 2. Be prepared with several sharp, soft lead pencils or a fountain-pen and a thick note-book or pad whose leaves you can turn quietly. Take verbatim notes. Include your own remarks or questions in parentheses, verbatim.

The recording of your work is most important. Those who are not shorthand writers will do well to employ a competent stenographer who should be instructed to note every word uttered in the room, from the entrance to the exit of all concerned. The dramatic play should be noted when and as it occurs. For there is often some trick of manner, a gesture, or a sigh, or a shiver, stertorous breathing, or a chuckle, which may be entirely out of character for the psychic himself or herself and utterly convincing and natural for the purporting communicator. These items often clear up some doubts as to which of two persons of the same name may be intended. Memory cannot be trusted to hold and place all such details correctly after a seance is ended.

 A plentiful supply of paper and pencils makes interruption unnecessary and no avoidable noise of rattling or sharpening disturbs the even flow of the work. To inclose in parentheses all 'remarks by anyone save the psychic clearly indicates who was speaking at any point. If two beside the psychic are present as sitters—which is permissible on rare occasions for special reasons only—initials should precede their individual contributions.

 Sometimes an entranced psychic is in rapport with only one person and any communicators are deaf to the responses of anyone else in the room, which have to be relayed. This is a curious experience.

 3. Every word should be noted, in the language in which it is given, whether its significance be or be not understood.

The very manner of expression is essential to a proper study of the record afterward. Do not edit to suit your own judgment at the moment. If the psychic says, "I hear the name of Thomas," it is not enough to jot down "Thomas." "I hear" is quite as important; for the hearing may mistake Thomas when Jonas is actually fitting. On the other hand, if the psychic says, "I see the name Thomas," there is little likelihood of such an error for Jonas. Yet again, the psychic worker might misread Thomas for Thomson. Thus an error might be found to be wide of the mark in the one case (of clairaudient hearing), which in the other (of clairvoyant seeing) would be a comparatively close approximation.

 The very sequence of the material throws light on a record when it is studied, complete. Initials and references, totally rejected or even denied at their reception, become sometimes pellucid in meaning, on study.

 For example: the relative with whom I secured the scratching sound from "Chas." (Page 142) had never attended a seance given by any other psychic. One was arranged for her. For the first thirty minutes she shook her head repeatedly, not understanding the messages. I, conducting the seance, kept saying "All right, I'll make note of that and we'll see the meaning later when we go over the record," though I did not understand at the time. The second half-hour yielded some easily recognized matter from her husband, which she expected, but none more vitally pertinent than those early, unrecognized messages.

Such an experience negates theoretical telepathy. It proved that they identified the sitter's brother, whom I had scarcely known: his initials; the cause of his death; the locality of his death; the fact that he died away from home; that he was transferred from one house to another during his last illness; the initials of the man who thus befriended him. The medium was a total stranger to the family. The brother had predeceased the husband by about fourteen years, and his death, her first deep loss, had been a real grief. So many deaths had followed that, without the verbatim record, this valuable bit would have been lost entirely.

 In an experience covering twenty-five years in which this writer has taken notes for hundreds of single sitters and for many long series of sittings for herself and others, the proportion of total failures is, at a rough estimate, one-third of one-half of one per cent—one in two or three hundred sittings. But this could never be safely assumed or granted to be true had one not kept accurate note and studied thousands of verbatim records. It is far too easy —and lazy—to throw away the gold with the waste. Many •good sitting has no doubt gone into the discard and left a lazy sitter railing at "chaff" and "stuffing" when he should have berated himself for a sloth and a dullard.

 4. Speak little. Mention no names or personal affairs in conversation with the medium, at any time. Only thus do you preserve the value of that evidence of identity you receive from communicators.

It is so natural to the consciousness, whether of the psychic himself, or of the communicating intelligence, to follow a line suggested by others, that one must seal the lips in the seance laboratory and listen attentively to gain the utmost from the effort that is being made, whatever its origin may be supposed to be.

 It is illuminating to imagine what would happen, in a telephone conversation, were the instrument capable of joining in the conversation. How it would cut things up if it could interpolate, "Oh, I think you must mean George and Anna not Georgiana!" The two concerned in opening up their conversation would have their minds and time consumed with explanations and counter­explanations, denials, reassurances that they knew what they were talking about—and so on, tiresomely.

 Speak little.

 5. When asked a question by the psychic, respond noncommittally. Give no unnecessary information. It confuses the medium and the communicators to have you do so. Parry with a counter question or a word of encouragement to draw out the reason for the medium's inquiry. Show yourself courteous and interested.

 If you do not understand the meaning of what is asked you, say so in a way to lead the communicators to explain further. In short, treat the matter with the open-minded courtesy you would show to a long-distance inquirer by telephone, trying to introduce himself or herself to you.

 When you do speak, use judgment: a well-devised question is of ten provocative of excellent evidential matter. It can be so worded as to be crystal-clear to a presumed communicator and yet devoid of all suggestion as to the correct response. An even tone, laying no stress upon any aspect of the matter of the inquiry, leaves an open line for the reply. Many a communicator, through a medium, stands out with a stoutly maintained assertion even against the positive denial of a sitter who has later to confess his own error of memory or information. But it takes a well-trained, experienced psychic to stand up to a fire of negation without flinching.

 6. When a correct fact is given, tending to identify the communicator, recognize it frankly and express your gratification, but do not state its bearings. More may come spontaneously. Do not spoil evidence by gratuitous information.

It often occurs that one seance whets the appetite for a sequence of several with the same psychic, especially after a careful study of the record of the initial experiment. Do not discuss your results and your affairs after the sitting, when the psychic is still in semi­rapport with the communicating intelligences, lest you lose some final impression which, though only a word or two, would prove far more valuable than any possible element in your own garrulities. And in addition, every word volunteered by the sitter is just so much obstruction to a clear field for any further work that may be undertaken. It is utter foolishness, a bore to the psychic worker and a trespass upon his or her time and energy.

7. When you do not understand a reference, do not deny its pertinence, but make a note of it and try to find out the meaning later. It is often thus that the best identifications are obtained.

 For example: Medium: "Do you know somebody by the name J? I don't know whether it's J-a-y or J for Joseph or some name beginning with J."

 Answer: "I shall be glad to hear further about J." Not: "O, of course everybody knows a J, that doesn't indicate anything definite enough to be sure of," etc., which would discourage anyone even in ordinary life from giving further communications, even though he had something important to say.

 Medium: "Well, I don't get the name, but I am seeing a lady, now, who has lots of light hair and wears it high on her head. I don't know whether the J. belongs with her or not. She smiles and nods her head." 

Answer: "Yes, I see the meaning of that. Go on." Not: "O, yes, that's my daughter Jennie," etc. etc. Or if the meaning is not clear, just let the evidence come freely, merely remarking: "I'll make note of it, and find out later about it." Such an instance as that of Georgiana points the moral most clearly. (See point 4.)

 8. Do not be disturbed at physical symptoms of pain or distress in the medium when at work. These are but the dramatic play which represents as in a living picture, and for the moment only, the remembered physical experiences of one or another of your communicators.

Recalling the past naturally brings up memory of a last illness, failing health, or the like. State that you know why the psychic reacts in such a way, and that it need not continue, as the physical suffering is over now—and it will pass in a short time. Communicators are not always aware of the effect they are producing until we note it in this manner in the seance.

 The dramatic play in a seance is not to be taken at its face value. It has no more effect upon the living psychic medium than your image has upon the structure of a mirror. No matter how often you are mirrored in a glass, you do not wear it out. The mirror exposed to light continuously must reflect images, pleasing or distressing, grave or gay, bright or sombre, and it is not impaired. Very much the same is true of psychic mediumship, when it mirrors smiles or a bad cough or paralysis. Apparently the nervous system is merely manifesting a borrowed consciousness for a short time; the psychic's own consciousness being involved in no sense in the literal meaning of that term. The mistake would be to recall the medium's consciousness suddenly, mirroring one's own alarm or fear in the psychic's mind thereby. Even to mention the occurrence afterward would be foolish. In many cases it is evident that psychic communication is by direct block impression of idea much more vivid than any wordy explanation can render it. I have seen many such instances in studying pathological psychic influence, when the communicator may be totally unaware that he is producing physiological reflections of his own memories, or even that he has died and become a communicator. These abnormal cases throw a flood of light upon problems of health and upon the wise procedure in normal mediumship.

 9. Do not touch the medium unexpectedly while at work. The shock may disturb the worker. In physical phenomena hand and foot control must be arranged and maintained continuously.

 If you have an article to hand the medium for psychometric purposes, bring it carefully wrapped to hide its character, and before you hand it over state that you are about to do so. But choose a time when there is no apparent counter-current. Able communicators prepare their work, oftentimes. Do not interrupt a flow of messages which might prove as valuable as anything received in response to your special stimulus. The nervous mechanism of the "instrument" is in a special state of responsiveness to stimuli whose origin is obscure to us. A sudden interruption or infraction of the responses of the psychic's nervous system to supernormal stimuli, by the interposition of a stimulus affecting the sensory system, plays havoc with both lines of response.

 There is a classic instance of such foolhardiness in the abortive and ignorant attempts of the late Stanley Hall to work with that impeccable psychic, Mrs. Piper. The honesty of her trance had been thoroughly verified years before by the sagacious Dr. Richard Hodgson. Nevertheless, the misguided Dr. Hall, on Hodgson's death, in a series of trance seances with her, applied "tests" of the crudest and most inexcusably foolhardy order which, for years thereafter, as she personally informed me, impaired her senses. Nothing new was learned, no discoveries made that had not already been made by the expert Hodgson.*

 There is no need or excuse for causing inconvenience of more than the most passing character to any honest psychic.

 10. Do not move about the room during a seance. Sit still and be quiet mentally and physically. Wait for the seance to end itself. Do not shake or try to rouse the entranced or resting medium, whose guides will see to closing the sitting at the proper time.

 Every psychically endowed individual appears, on analysis, to be attended by one or more invisible helpers, "guides" whose function it is to lead the psychic to correct information from various possible supernormal sources, linking up the inquirers or "sitters" in our "living" world and communicators "alive" or "dead." Some guides name themselves. Some claim recognized family or historic names, but frequently their identity is too remote to be proved.

 These aides take the initiative: they bring on a trance, if one does occur; they interpret the identifications offered  by waiting communicators who are trying to get in touch with sitters; they close the seance on request or when they find the "power" exhausted so far that further effort would be blurred and ineffective. The behavior of worn-out radio tubes gives a sort of analogy for this, though I am not to be construed as meaning that the wave-energy involved is the same as that of the radio. We do not know, yet, what wave-lengths are involved, therefore we must rely upon the intelligences producing the effect to use their judgment as to when to stop.

 It is disturbing and injurious to the feelings of the psychic to be jarred after a seance by rough handling or loud talking. There is no occasion for anxiety if the trance ends slowly. Nervous tension in the environment is to be avoided. A quiet mind in a quiet body is the best assistant in the seance room, and everyone present should thus assist.

 11. After the seance do not repeat what the medium said while in trance or while at work, saying that this or that was the case in your family, et cetera. State your satisfaction, if you feel it, at having heard a number of facts you could recognize, but do not discuss the facts. Be grateful, not garrulous.

 This rule will save you much valuable evidence for the future, will save the psychic's subconsciousness from repletion with a store of what does not concern him or her, and will save everyone's time.

12. Make mental appointments with those from whom you would be interested to hear, if it were possible, when you book for a mediumistic experiment.

 Regard the mental call for presences as a part of the experiment and watch the results. Do not mention the matter to the psychic, of course, for that would ruin the evidence to start with and clutter up the psychic's mind with preconceived ideas. Merely to jot a date and hour in a notebook without thinking of the possibilities of getting into touch with some supernormal communicators is to make no real appointment for a sitting. I have seen this illustrated dearly more than once. Two instances stand out: those of very busy professional men, one a university professor and the other the rector of a large and busy parish. The latter had a very efficient secretary who kept track of his engagements for him regularly, as they were crowded and numerous. He reached the appointment on time, but was so weary—or possibly himself so psychically approachable—that he nodded and fell asleep while work was in progress. He found almost no value in the record afterward on reading it over with me. The other gentleman was evidently a somewhat absent-minded professor. He had engaged to be present at three or four seances in a series. One he forgot, one he reached forty-five minutes late, interrupting the work, first by his arrival and thereafter by interposing a question at a very finely adjusted point in the communications, thereby shutting off the climax of the morning's work which never again was taken up and properly completed. One sitting he cancelled in favor of meeting a ship and arriving guests from abroad. Manifestly, he had no concept of having made engagements with any invisible forces at the seances. They seemed to him "merely interesting exhibitions of what a medium might do under properly safeguarded conditions of work. He is a professional psychologist of high repute who makes no secret of his interest in the study of psychics. His purpose was sincere, but he had no conception of the communicator's adjustments for psychic work.

 The contention is often made by apologists for mediumistic failure that the adverse or critical judgment of the sitter is a bar to the best work or to any work at all. This is plain foolishness. The workers who have secured the best work, such as Hodgson and Hyslop, started out in utter scepticism of results, yet their results have blazed a wide trail for those who come after. They followed the method of making appointments with "communicators" even when they were entirely unsure of the nature of those same intelligences, not having sufficient evidence at the start to imagine that they could be in communication with any other than layers of the medium's own subconscious or subliminal mind. The method worked, and in science that is a test of method.

 The proper purpose of a scientific seance is not merely to collect proof or disproof of survival. Scientifically speaking, that has already been settled. Survival is abundantly proved by such work as that of Hodgson and Hyslop, and by the collective evidence of the many organizations that for years have been at work upon the problem. No one can seriously study that evidence and remain unconvinced, if the study is made without prejudice and bias. The perplexing questions that remain concern the process involved in mediumship and the possibilities of improving our method and the results. Light is often thrown on this aspect of our research by the communications we receive from those who are working on the other side of the screen with conditions and apparatus of which we are mainly ignorant. A thoughtful and studious reception of what we do receive is our best means of progress. Personal interest, while a powerful motive, must not be allowed to overshadow the broader issues.