Glimpses Of The Next State.Pdf - Spiritualists' National Union

111When it was opened by him in London, he found my piece of pointed wood inside the letter. Ithad been dipped in ink, and one word at the beginning had actually been written with this bluntinstrument. The letter itself was feeble.The concomitant evidence of the fact that no mortal had anything to do with the replies tomy letters is strong. Several times references were made to conversations that took place across thetable while the writings were in progress.The following incidents will suffice to close the subject(79) On Wednesday, March 3, from 11.15 a.m. to 12.15 p.m., I sat with May Bangs for areply from Hypatia. During the sitting I told the medium that some gentlemen in England haddiscussed with me the possibility of discovering if the ink on the slates was the identical ink used inthe replies, by measuring the diminution of ink in the pot. My opinion was that we could notdetermine the question in this way, and May Bangs agreed with me. We were not using slates onthis occasion, but had put the sealed letter under a stretched canvas; this was covered over by acloth tucked in all round, and the ink was on top, not covered up. Immediately after Mary Bangsspoke (her hands were quite three feet from the ink, and we were sitting in full light), the ink fell inthe pot. When the reply was finished, I found a communication from my guide outside the envelopereferring to a matter, not the ink, which the psychic and I had been discussing a few minutesbefore. When I took away my letter, I was directed (through taps on the slates) to bring someflowers in the afternoon.I must mention here that, after I began bringing my own materials, the slates used forcommunications by taps from the unseen were the Bangs’ own slates. It is very necessary to makethis clear, for the casual reader might suppose that the psychic and I held the slates whichcontained the sealed letter.(80) At 4 p.m. of the same day I returned with another sealed letter, a tea-rosebud, andtwo pink carnations; these flowers I put into a glass vase nine inches high, nearly full of water. MayBangs and I sat for the reply to my letter at 5.10. It was broad daylight. My letter was under astretched canvas, which was covered over with a red cloth tucked in all round. On top of it I placedmy own little open tin pot full of common ink, bought in Van Buren Street two hours before, andthe corked ink-bottle.The rosebud opened soon after we sat down. At 5.30 the flowers began to jump aboutspasmodically in the vase, and worked themselves halfway round the rim. At 5.35 the tea-rose andone carnation were pulled down by invisible power towards the letter. Constant commotion wasgoing on with the flowers in the water; ultimately the rose nearly wriggled itself out of the glassvase.At 5.40 I said: “I never heard of any phenomenon of this kind being done if the eyes of theobservers were concentrated on the object.” The Bangs’ slates were held between us, and themessage rapped out, “Look out of the window.” We both turned our heads simultaneously towardsthe window; instantly the vase upset away from the letter, the water was thrown upon the carpet,where it soon dried up, and the flowers disappeared.At 5.42, as the light in the room was fading, I asked May Bangs to light the gas behind her;the window blind was still kept up.At 5.48 my little pot of ink was nearly empty. I filled it up, by request, from the parent inkbottle.At 5.52 the ink bubbled away again. The pot being empty, I filled it up a third time. We werethen told by impression, or by taps on the slate, to examine the parent bottle. I put some of theliquid in it on a piece of paper, and found that the essence had been extracted from it and that itwas very watery. and lower; at 6.0 it was dry. I filled it up for the fourth time.At 6.5 taps announced that the letter was finished. On the outside of the envelope waswritten: “The remaining pink I claim to take with me, Iola.” I slit open the letter at the top, andfound inside the envelope (a) my letter; (b) reply of six pages, in which there was an allusion to theflower phenomenon described above; (c) the tea-rose, one carnation, and some leaves. Not a signcould I find in the room of the second carnation. I poured the ink from the little pot back into theink-bottle, and again examined the contents of the bottle; there was nothing but dirty water. All the