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

113of what appeared to me to be a man—a friar. Fortunately, I said nothing to betray my belief inthe sex of the person whose portrait was before me. I had a short conversation with the two men.Both were highly pleased at their success in obtaining good portraits of their wives just as they werein earth life. They accepted the pictures, and went away delighted.In recent times no psychics have been so long and so constantly under fire of criticism as theBangs Sisters. I record the fact, but entirely without surprise. The manifestations which appearthrough their mediumship are of such a startling nature as to render it in the highest degreeimprobable that anyone, however experienced he may be as an investigator, can credit the accountsof what takes place, unless he has actually seen the various phenomena that occur. Many have beenthe efforts to show that what happens in their presence is the effect of pure conjuring on their ownpart. All have failed. It was for some years supposed by critics that pictures were preparedbeforehand, and concealed by a chemical process, the envelope, so to speak, disappearing onexposure to light. It is now quite certain that such a process does not exist; no painting of thesubstance of the Bangs’ pictures can be covered over so as to be invisible. The only possible meansof fraud is to substitute a ready-made picture for the second canvas (that furthest from the sitter),and then bring it by degrees slowly to approach the first canvas (that next to the sitter). Even if thiswere done, we have not got very far, for the finished portrait eventually is found on the further sideof the canvas which is next to the sitter. To achieve this it would be necessary to turn both canvasestogether right round. How, in the name of common sense, could this be done without the sitter, whois between the two mediums, detecting the swindle?But there are two considerations which clinch the matter: (a) Where a big picture isconcerned, such as “Cleopatra,” which measures forty inches by thirty inches, the only possiblemeans of making the alleged substitution is through the window—and the window is never opened.I have been left alone in the room for an hour at a time, and have examined it; it is a burglar-proofsash window, the two halves lifting up and down in the usual way. Moreover, it would be impossiblefor the sitter to be ignorant of the opening of the window, especially in winter, for it is only two feetnine inches from him; it would also be impossible for him to be blind to the shadow that the allegedsubstituted picture would throw upon the other canvas or canvases. (b) Under these supposedfraudulent conditions, how could the likeness be obtained ? The second picture of Iola produced isa faithful, though etherialised, portrait of her at about the age she passed over. It is true thephotograph which most resembles this picture was in my dollar-pocket, inside my waistcoat; butthe psychics could not, and did not, see it normally.I am confident that no fraud was practised on me by these sisters. This being so, I pass on tothis important question: What part do the psychics take in the process of precipitation? Asmediums they assuredly have their allotted share.I believe they (or one of them) are mirrors. They are clairvoyantes, and do see thephotograph in my pocket; and it is through them that the invisible artists are able to get the likeness.The spirit is present, no doubt, but the artist is much assisted by the photo.Mr. William Marriott, the conjurer, has made a study of these Bangs pictures, and has cutstrips from the corner of one of my portraits of Iola. He finds that the material basis is tempera,and this is worked upon with pastel, chalk, paint, and airbrush. If these are not the identicalmaterials, they are, at any rate, the nearest counterpart to those which were used by the invisiblesat Chicago.We had two important experiments in December, 1909, to ascertain if he could copy theBangs manifestations without his methods (admittedly conjuring) being detected. Both were cleverand amusing attempts, but unsuccessful. He proved this, however: that a rough picture can bemade in the space of one hour and a-half from the time of possessing himself of the photograph,and that a very good finished portrait in freehand can be accomplished in two working days.The theory of fraud set up to account for the replies to letters in sealed envelopes is that theletter is got out from between the slates or from under the stretched frame; passed out of the closedroom under a door; opened; answered normally by Lizzie Bangs or some other confederate, andreturned the same way. The ink is likewise conveyed from the room. I say that, under thecircumstances in which I sat with May Bangs, such a feat of conjuring was impossible. In eight