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

15these scratches were going on the voice of Uncle was heard warning the spirit not to make such anoise. He was answered by a voice from the centre of the table calling “Chuprao, Chuprao!” (shutup, shut up!).Before he departed Uncle came to each person in the circle, addressing them by name, to say“Good night”. The voice sounded to me as if coming from below my knees. In all subsequentséances the voices have all appeared to come from one and a half to two feet above the table. Icannot account for this; it may have something to do with the peculiar build and supports of theround table, which we never used afterwards.During the evening, Craddock’s guide “Sister Amy” was seen by clairvoyantes standingbehind him. She had several conversations with her medium and his neighbours. During thesinging of “Abide with me” I heard a very audible “good night” and learnt that it came from Amy,who was going away. She was unable to hear the singing, and the abrupt interruption was quiteunintentional.When this séance was over I was much astonished. I later attended some séances with Huskthat were far more fruitful of phenomena and better in every way; but this was my first, and I feltgreat surprise that such manifestations should be neglected by scientific men, and that they werenot better known to the public. The singing, materialisation’s and direct voices all appeared to bequite genuine. I was not particularly affected by the spiritualistic aspect of the séance, though Isaw one or two touching incidents of meeting with departed friends; the thing that disturbed mewas the apparent indifference of the outside body of thinking people.The next séance I attended was in the Psychological Society’s Room, 67 George Street,Portman Square, on November 22, 1904, the medium again Husk, and the circle composed ofsixteen sitters. The manifestations were very similar to those in St. John’s Wood, but I saw JohnKing several times plainly. He materialised the face and bus life-size and came to me four times;once two feet above my head. It was a strong face and very dark. I estimate the distance from theplace where he materialised above my head to Husk’s body in the chair in the circle to be four feetacross. Admiral T. came to me quite distinctly and spoke a few words; it was a fair likeness. Themysterious stranger who presented himself before also came, but I was not to know his identityuntil later. Cardinal Newman, as before, gave the ”Gloria in Excelsis”, and pronounced theBenedictine in the Italian style, as if there were an “h” after “c”; this I found, on enquiry, was hiscustom in life. Two of three materialised heads and busts presented themselves to each sitter, who,as a rule, identified them as departed friends. A lady sitting next to me identified her son, andwhen the illuminated card (slate) was dropped had a conversation with him. At the end of theséance there was a chant of Greek pre-sets that we did not hear on the previous occasion; it wasvery melodious and effective.On November 29 th 1904, I sat with Husk again in the same room with fifteen others in thecircle, including, as on two previous occasions, the medium and his wife. The first manifestationwas a series of cold wafts over the backs of our hands, which were connected to our neighbours’ allround the table. The Cardinal came as on previous occasions, bestowing his blessing collectivelyand individually; on arriving and departing he exhibited a bight cross in front of each person. Wesang “Lead, kindly light” as usual, one deep bass voice and two tenors joining in. The a fine voicesang part of a solo, “Rock’d in the cradle of the Deep”. It collapsed, apparently through want ofstrength, before the second verse was finished. I said “That is Foli”. Immediately three taps cameon the table in front of me, indicating assent.John King made himself known with the stentorian “God bless you all”, and greeted eachsitter individually. His deputy, “Uncle” always comes at the beginning of the séances, and goesround to each member of the circle. The materialisation’s began soon after John arrived. Healways presents himself first, and is never satisfied until each sitter has seen him clearly. Aboutthirty-five or forty spirits shoed themselves in form. They were all smaller than life-size, but mostof them were recognised. The face of a woman came to me, the lower half of the face swathed in abandage. I said, “Are you a relative?” (emphatic bow of the head). “Are you my ---?” mentioneda relative (no movement). Then the head swerved suddenly to the left. I knew it by the profile andcalled out the relationship. It collapsed and three knocks came on the table directly in front of me,indicating assent. It was Iola.