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

168“The lilies in the valley will wither,The flowers in the forest decay;True love lasts for ever and ever,When all else fades away.“You have formed a chain.”Mr. Stead: “Have you any word for my daughter?”A.: “Best wishes, tell her, from Dante.”Q.: “I do not understand. Do you mean the Italian poet Dante?”A.: “Oh! It is well.”Another Voice: “It is better for her to take the step and break the link. Remember, there is acoming day, not far away.”Iola now manifested to me. I introduced Mr. Stead to her; they greeted one another.Mr. Stead: “Do you know Julia?”A.: “I love her.”A member of the circle said: “Rupert was speaking to us through the other trumpet at the sametime.” Mr. K—— : “Dr. Quain is here, and says ‘that the power is getting exhausted. Close yourcircle.’”In a few minutes we turned up the lights and went downstairs to supper. While the meal wasgoing on raps and thumps were experienced all over the room; in the table, on the floor, and on thewalls. I sat at the end of the table, and the only way that I can describe the noises under my chair isthat they appeared to be like the blows of a hammer shoring up the floor from underneath.After supper we sat round and listened to clairvoyance from Mr. K , and clairaudientmessages from the same source; the percussive noises had ceased.So ended what was, perhaps, the most convincing of all the public experiences in my education.Mrs. Wriedt had been under Mr. Stead’s roof thirty-two hours; she had given four successfulsittings, and all doubt as to the exhibition of her gift in the English climate vanished into thin air.How long it will last is another matter. Mr. Stead sat next to her the whole evening.On the morning of Thursday, May 25, 1911, a doctor from South Africa came to Mr. Stead’shouse by appointment. He had been introduced to Mr. Stead as a gentleman sorely in need ofcomfort, owing to the sad loss of a sister who had been killed in an accident some two monthsbefore. He was three-quarters of an hour late, which distressed him very much. He got nothing.After sitting with him for twenty minutes Mrs. Wriedt ran down to me (I had just arrived), andasked me to come up to the seance-room and help, which I was only too glad to do. We three sat forhalf-an-hour talking of the conditions required, passivity, and so forth, and directing thegentleman’s attention to certain salient points which we considered indispensable to a person in hisposition if his desire to get into touch with his relative was to be achieved. So far as phenomenawere concerned the sitting was a failure.It so happened that Mr. Stead had, with great consideration, said to me on my parting withhim the previous night: “To-morrow, ask anybody you like.” I therefore cordially invited thedisappointed sitter to return at 6.30 p.m., telling him that Mrs. Wriedt had never known two blanksin one day, and it was highly probable that he had been made to arrive late on purpose so that wecould meet.The afternoon was spent by Mrs. Wriedt and me in London. We went to the LondonSpiritualistic Alliance rooms, then to a well-known doctor (A. W.) in Harley Street, finally to theRoyal Academy and my club. Directly she entered Dr. A. W.’s consulting-room she began correctlydescribing his friends and patients, together with the various diseases of the latter. Dr. W. is aninvestigator into psychic phenomena and a nerve specialist; his room is charged with psychicinfluences, and it is a common thing for loud raps to occur when he is discussing spiritism with hisfriends. I was hardly prepared, however, for this involuntary s4ance; at last I tore the psychic