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

142(101) The last experience I had before leaving America was with Mr. P. 0. Keeler, thewell-known medium for slate-writing, who lives at 1362 Parkwood Street, Washington, D.C. Hewas, at that time, paying a visit to Brooklyn. The interview was on Friday, February 24, 1911, 3 to 4p.m. The window near which the table was placed has a western aspect; the sun streamed in andflooded the table and room with light.We sat opposite to one another at a small table two feet broad. After cleaning the slatestogether, Keeler asked me to take a pad off the table, tear off slips, and write the names of spirits onfive or six of the papers; each little slip was to be folded up in any way I thought best, and thenames were to be written as I would address the person in earth life. I rose from the table, turnedmy back to the medium, and wrote seven names—five of women, two of men; two of the pelletscontained the name of one spirit, my guide, one giving her earth name and the other her spiritname, “Iola “; only six individuals, therefore, were indicated. These pellets I laid in a heap on thecentre of the table. Keeler said: “Nothing will happen for a quarter of an hour or so, as the spiritshave to be summoned.” After an interval of ten minutes he touched the outside of each pellet withthe tip of his finger, but did not handle them nor draw them closer to his side of the table. Fiveminutes or more passed, and he seemed worried that nothing happened, and became restless andjerky. It must have been twenty-five minutes from the time I had put the pellets on the table whenhe was impressed to say: “Add the names of one or two gentlemen; they say that, among thesenames, there is more than the right proportion of ladies.”Following my invariable custom of not purposely deceiving a medium, I had already toldKeeler that two of the pellets contained names of the same individual, my guide; I added that, as Ihad talked with her in the morning, I had reason to believe that she was present (which I have sinceheard she was).In my lap, as I sat facing the medium, out of his view, I wrote the names of two men, andadded these pellets to the others on the table; before doing this I had drawn the heap of pelletscloser to me than they were to the medium. Keeler did not have his hands on the table while I wrotethe two extra names.Soon after this the medium warned me that, when the slate writing began, it would go oncontinuously and rapidly. He touched the new pellets with the tip of his finger, and after a fewminutes was impressed to write a name on a spare slate. He said, “What is this ?” I looked, and sawthe name of my brother, Alldin ; then, one after another, he wrote six names on this slate. Eachname he wrote I had to search for among the pellets, which I did in my lap, where it was impossiblefor him to see the writing. When made up again, each pellet that had been opened and re-closedwas put upon a pair of slates, kept ready for the purpose between us (with a bit of slate pencilinside), and these were not fingered in any way by the medium.In time six pellets, containing the names of six individuals, were collected on top of the pairof slates. We had sat for about forty minutes, when Keeler suddenly lifted the pair of slates with onehand at each of the two corners nearest to him, thumbs on top and fingers below, and gave me theother end to hold, which I did in like manner, pinching the two slates together. The writing beganimmediately, and could be heard plainly; there was no downward pressure while it was going on.As soon as he was impressed that one slate was full, the medium put it down on his right withoutlooking at it, picked up another, placed on it a bit of slate pencil, covered it with the original topslate upon which the pellets were lying, and gave me the other end to hold; the writing again washeard proceeding very rapidly. Precisely the same happened to this slate; a third was taken up, andso on, until five slates were covered with writing by eight individuals. The medium was thenimpressed to write the word “All” on a spare slate. He told me this meant that the seance was over.The following points must be noted :—One spirit manifested who was not named at all. It was the son of the gentleman who hadmade the appointment for me the previous afternoon.One spirit manifested whose name was in a pellet on the table, but not on the slates.One slate, full of close script, had two letters on it at right angles to one another in different handwritings.When one of these was finished, Keeler was impressed to move the slate to a rectangularposition; we seized the slates at opposite corners, my left hand being where his right had been, andso on. The letters on the slates are very close together.