Experiment No. 1

Place—Lyndhurst, New Forest, Hampshire.

Sensitive A, male, aged about 46.

As an example of a simple but exceedingly severe test, I would first record one given to me and a fellow-investigator on the outskirts of the New Forest; one for which no special preparation of any kind whatever had been made.

The Sensitive, a nearly blind man, was taken by us on a dark night to a spot totally unknown to him, as he had only just arrived from London by train, and was led into a large traveling caravan, one which he had never been near before, as it had only recently left the builder hands.

During the day I had made a critical examination of the interior of the caravan, and had satisfied myself that no one was or could possibly be concealed in it.  I then locked the door, and kept the key in my pocket until the moment when, on the arrival of the Sensitive, I unlocked the door and we all passed into the caravan together.  I then locked and bolted the door behind us.

As I have already said, no preparation of any kind had been made for the experiment.  It was merely the result of a desire to see if anything could be produced, through this Sensitive, under extremely difficult conditions—conditions which we considered as so utterly bad as to make failure a certainty.

We did not even possess a chair of any kind for the Sensitive or ourselves to sit upon, so we placed for his use a board on top of the iron cooking-range which was fixed in the kitchen portion of the caravan, whilst we sat upon the two couches which were used as beds in the living-portion of the caravan.  There was no music, no powerful "human battery" in the shape of a number of picked Sitters; in fact, the conditions were just about as bad as they could possibly be, and yet, within ten minutes of my locking the door behind us, the figure of a tall man stood before us, a man so tall that he was compelled to bow his head as he passed under the six-foot (high) partition which separated the two sections of the caravan.

He said, "I am Colonel —— who was 'killed,'  as you say, at the battle of —— in Egypt.  For many years during my earth-life I was deeply interested in materialisations, and spent the last night of my life in England experimenting with this very Sensitive; and it is a great pleasure to me to be able to return to you—strangers though you both are to me—through him.  To prove to you that I am not the Sensitive masquerading before you, will you please come here and stand close to me, and so settle the matter for yourself?"

I at once rose and stood beside him, almost touching him.  I then discovered that not only were his features and his coloring totally different to those of the Sensitive, but that he towered above me, standing, as nearly as I could judge, six foot two or three inches, and was certainly four inches taller than either the Sensitive or myself.

Whilst thus standing beside him, and at a distance of about eight feet from the Sensitive, we could both hear the unfortunate man moving uneasily on his hard seat on the kitchen-range, sighing and moaning as if in pain.

The entity remained with us for about three minutes, and his place was then taken by a slightly built young man, standing about five feet nine inches, one claiming to be a recently deceased member of the royal family.  He talked with us in a soft and pleasing voice, finally whispering a private message to my companion, asking him to deliver it to his mother, Queen ——.

Experiment No. 3

Place—West Hampstead, London, N.W.

Sensitive B, female, aged about 49.

Persons of middle age or older who happened to be in England a few years ago at the time that two lawsuits were brought against a celebrated conjurer by the clever young man who had succeeded in exposing one of his most mystifying tricks, will well remember the sensation caused by the giving of both verdicts against the conjurer; and the young man—to whom I shall refer as Mr. X.—at once became famous as the man who had beaten one of the cleverest conjurers of the day.

A friend of mine, who had been present on several occasions when Sir William Crookes' Sensitive—Florrie Cook (Mrs. Corner), referred to above as Sensitive B—had produced materialisations in gaslight at my house in London, asked her to visit his house at West Hampstead one evening to meet several friends of his, and to see if it were possible for any entity to materialise in my friend's own drawing-room.

She at once accepted his invitation to sit there under strict test conditions; and talking the matter over with some of his friends a day or two before the one chosen for the experiment, he told me that they had arranged to have the Sensitive securely tied to her chair, to have strong iron rings fastened to the floor-boards, through which ropes would be passed, these ropes to be securely fastened to the Sensitive's  legs; all knots of every size and kind to be sealed, so as to prevent any attempt on her part to leave her chair and to masquerade as a materialised entity.

One of his friends happened to know the celebrated Mr. X., and as he had so recently succeeded in beating so notable a conjurer, he was invited to be present and to take entire charge of the tying up, the binding and sealing arrangements, in order to render the escape of the Sensitive from her chair an impossibility.

When I joined the party in the drawing-room, Mr. X., to whom I was introduced, was busily engaged in tying the Sensitive up with his own ropes and tapes, sealing every knot with special sealing-wax and with a seal provided by our host.  The room was a large one, and a portion at one end had been cleared of all furniture, and in the centre of this space only the Sensitive seated upon her chair, and Mr. X. busily at work, were to be seen; and the latter, after another fifteen minutes of real hard labour, was asked by our host if he was thoroughly satisfied that the Sensitive was fastened to her chair securely.  He replied that so securely was she fastened, that if she could produce phenomena of any kind whatever under such conditions, he would at once admit their genuineness.

The Sensitive was all this time in a perfectly normal state, and not flurried in any way, her one anxiety being lest we should lower the lights, as she was so terrified at the thought of darkness.

Mr. X., after stepping backwards to have a final look at the result of his labours, then walked close to the spot where the Sensitive was sitting in gaslight, and put one hand up towards the top of the curtain, and was in the act of drawing this round her to keep the direct rays of the gaslight from falling upon her, when a large brown arm and hand suddenly appeared, the hand being clapped heavily upon Mr. X  shoulder, whilst a gruff masculine voice asked him in loud tones, "Are you really satisfied?"

I have witnessed some strange happenings in connection with my investigation of occult matters, but to my dying day I shall never forget the look of blank astonishment on Mr. X's face at that moment.

Quickly recovering himself, however, he at once examined the Sensitive—a little woman, far below the average height, having small hands and feet, as we could all see quite clearly—and declared that every seal and every knot was unbroken, and just as he had left them not sixty seconds before.

Amongst other entities who materialised that evening was a young girl of about eighteen years of age, who stated that when she left her earth-body she had been a dancer at a café in Algiers.

She came from the spot where the Sensitive was seated, laughing heartily, stating that the hand and arm belonged to an old English sailor, whom she spoke of as "the Captain."  She said, further, that he had been standing with her watching the tying-up process from their sphere, and laughing at Mr. X's vain attempt to prevent the production of the phenomena.  The Captain had very much wished to materialise fully, so as to surprise Mr. X. as he stepped back from the Sensitive; but finding that he could only get sufficient "power" to produce a hand and arm, he was in a bad temper.  And this was evidently the case, for during the ten minutes that the girl remained talking to us we could now and then hear the gruff voice of the Captain rolling out language which can only be described as "forcible and free."

The experiment lasted for nearly an hour, and at its conclusion Mr. X. examined the Sensitive, and once again reported that every seal and knot were just as he had left them at the commencement of the experiment.

Experiment No. 5

Place—My house in London.

Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.

One of the two female entities referred to in Experiment No. 4, a tall and particularly graceful woman, apparently about twenty-five years of age, was walking amongst the Sitters, talking to them, and showing them her beautifully modeled hands, the fingers being unusually long and tapering.

Stopping in front of one of the male Sitters (Mr. D.), whose thoughts at that moment she must have clearly read, she asked him to lend her his gold signet-ring.  He admitted afterwards, that in spite of all that he saw for himself that night, he still half believed that the male Sensitive had escaped from his chair, and was masquerading cleverly as the female entity.

With considerable difficulty Mr. D. took the ring off his little finger, and she then held up both her hands, and in the presence of the fifteen other Sitters, she dropped his ring quite easily over, not only each of her eight fingers, but over both thumbs as well.  He then put the ring into his waistcoat pocket, and at the conclusion of the experiment, we stood round him whilst he tested the ring on the hands of the Sensitive, and he was altogether unable to pass it over the second joint of any of his fingers on either hand, and could not get it on to his thumbs at all.

Experiment No. 9

Place—Eaton Square, London, S. W.

Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.

Materialisations of both beasts and birds sometimes appeared during our experiments with this Sensitive, the largest and most startling being that of a seal, which appeared on one occasion when Field-Marshal Lord Wolseley was present.

The first time that this occurred was in a private house in Eaton Square, which the Sensitive had never entered before, the owner of the house being a complete stranger to him at the time.

During the experimental meeting we suddenly heard a remarkable voice calling out some absurd remarks in loud tones, finishing off with a shrill whistle.  "Why, that must be our old parrot," said the lady of the house.  "He lived in this room for many years, and would constantly repeat those very words."  This was at once confirmed by her daughter, and also by the lady's governess, who were present as Sitters.

As this was the first occasion on which I had ever even heard of such a thing as the materialisation of a beast or bird, I was completely nonplussed for the moment, I confess; but one of the entities explained the matter to us,* (*See p. 95.) and after that evening we occasionally witnessed materialisations of some of the badly-named "lower orders" of creation.

Both scientific and lay critics, who up to this stage of our investigation had merely termed us hallucinated cranks (just as they had termed Sir William Crookes), now stated boldly that we were either descendants of Ananias and Sapphira or else as mad as March hares.  But the results of the next experiment which I will record disposed of these criticisms finally, for I was able to prove the truth of my assertions by ocular demonstration to many of our would-be critics.

A small wild animal from India—the at one time pet of a lady present on the occasion to which I shall now refer, an animal which had been "dead" for three years or more, and had never been seen or heard of by the Sensitive, and was known to only one other Sitter—suddenly ran out from the spot where the Sensitive was sitting, breathing heavily and in a state of deep trance, the little creature uttering exactly the same cry which it had always used as a sign of pleasure during its earth-life.  The entities told us not to be alarmed at its appearance, as it would take on its old conditions, and would be quite harmless.

It had shown itself altogether on about ten different occasions, staying in the room for not more than two minutes at a time, and then disappearing just as suddenly as it had arrived upon the scene.  But on this occasion, the lady who had owned it during its life called it to her by its pet name, and it then proceeded to climb slowly up on to her lap.

Resting there quietly for about half a minute, it then attempted to return, but in doing so caught one of its legs in the lace with which the lady's skirt was covered.  It struggled violently, and at last got itself free, but not until it had torn the lace for nearly three inches, as was afterwards discovered.  At the conclusion of the experiment, a medical man (Dr. A. C.) who was present asked everyone to remain in their seats whilst he made a careful inspection of the torn lace.  He reported that there were five green-colored hairs hanging in the torn lace, which had evidently become detached from the little animal  leg during its struggles.  The lady at once identified the color and the texture of the hairs, and this was confirmed by the other Sitter—himself a naturalist—who had frequently seen and handled the animal during its earth-life.

The five hairs were carefully collected, placed in tissue paper, and then shut up in a light-tight and damp-proof box.  They were shown to several scientific and other investigators in London; but after a few days they commenced to dwindle in size, and finally disappeared entirely, owing, we assume, to the action of the actinic rays given off by the daylight and the gaslight when they were being inspected by inquirers.

It was those five little green hairs which settled the sneers of our would-be critics finally.

Permission has been given occasionally by the entities to cut off with scissors a portion of the drapery so generally worn by them when making use of a materialised body; and if carefully preserved in a suitable box, it has been found possible to keep it for a short time, provided that the drapery was examined only in a non-actinic light.  But in spite of the box being locked up in a safe, the material has always decreased in size, eventually disappearing entirely, and in consequence of this, I do not believe that it has ever been possible to make a scientific examination of it.

Experiment No. 10

Place—My house in London.

Sensitive B, female, aged about 49.

The results of this experiment were, so far as I am personally concerned, the most wonderful, and at the same time the most convincing of all the tests which I have obtained.

Experimenting with a picked set of Sitters in my own room (with Sir William Crookes' Sensitive), the French dancing-girl was standing fully materialised from head to foot, barely six feet away from me, three or four feet away from the Sensitive, and directly opposite the gas-bracket; the flame being turned up to its full height, the light being only slightly shaded with a piece of yellow paper, in order that the direct rays from the gas might be somewhat softened before falling upon her, as otherwise her features would soon begin to melt and to run, exactly in the way that soft wax will melt in the presence of heat—an extremely painful and unpleasant sight to witness, as I know by experience.

She had been talking to us for five minutes, and showing us as usual her hands and arms, feet and legs, as she was evidently extremely proud of their beautiful modelling—when she turned to me and asked me to leave my seat and come and stand beside her.  I did this, and she at once moved up quite close to me and rested her little head upon my right shoulder. I noticed that, although her features appeared to be smaller than those of a normal young woman of her age on earth, she was considerably taller than the Sensitive, then a rather short and stout woman of nearly fifty, and the mother of two grown-up daughters.  Her complexion was beautifully fair, whilst that of the Sensitive was very dark, the hair in each case following the general coloring.  Her ears were unpierced, while the Sensitive always wore earrings.  These things satisfied me that the entity and the Sensitive were two absolutely separate beings.  But not content with this, I, for the first and only time during the seven years which I devoted to this investigation, broke conditions: but the desire to settle the great problem once and for all so overmastered me that I very gently passed my right arm completely round the entity, and found that I was clasping the thin waist of a young girl, which felt both warm and firm to the touch through the white drapery with which it was covered; the measurement certainly not exceeding fifteen to sixteen inches, whereas the waist measurement of the Sensitive that night was twenty-four inches.

In this way, then, I received my final test, a test so absolutely convincing that I never asked for another one; and although I continued my investigations for several years longer, and with five other Sensitives, no entity ever gave me such a test as this, nor did I consider it necessary to ask them for another one.

But our red-letter evening was not yet over by any means, for instead of displaying anger at my breaking conditions so deliberately, the entity merely smiled at the Sitters as I held her firmly in my grasp for half a minute or more, and did not attempt to take her head from my shoulder until I had released her from my grasp.  I then apologised to her for what I had done, and thanking her for giving me so wonderful a test, I returned to my seat.

She then invited a lady to take her stand beside her, singling out one who up to that moment had always candidly admitted that she regarded this special Sensitive as a fraud.

The lady left her seat, and stood close to the entity, who at once rested her head upon the lady  shoulder, permitting her to place her arm round the girl's waist; and a very charming picture they made, the lady being dressed in a modern evening costume, the girlish form of the entity being clad in flowing robes of dazzling whiteness.  They stood like this for nearly a minute, when we heard the entity ask the lady to turn her head round, and to look at the spot where the Sensitive was sitting in deep trance, only about four feet away.

She did this, and stated that she could see the Sensitive distinctly, her head drooping upon her chest, her arms and hands hanging loosely at her sides, and her body clothed in black velvet; for she always insisted on wearing not only a black dress during our experiments with her, but black underclothing throughout, even giving to us her pocket-handkerchief just before she passed into trance, so that no one could ever accuse her of masquerading as a materialised entity clad in white robes.