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

(1) I may have to return to Maggie Gaule presently. In the meantime I will attempt todescribe a visit which I paid the following day to Miss Dora Hahn, a trance medium in New York.I was, of course, absolutely unknown to her. We sat in the dark, about four feet apart. She gaveme a precise description of my state of health, and the precautions necessary, which I believe werecorrect, but would not interest my readers. She then accurately described certain spirits around,some of whom I had not given a thought to for years, and she gave their names. She then went intotrance, and was taken possession of by an Indian spirit called “Lark” who, in a voice quite differentthat that of the medium said, “Where do you wish me to go to?““Is the spirit of Iola present?”Lark: “Yes; she is here with me.”“Well, go to the house of my mother.”Lark: “I will go to the house of your mother. It is a long way, ever so far off, across theocean; it is not in London but near it.” (Then followed a description of the house and the membersof the family attending upon my mother, which was correct.)Lark: “Where shall I go now?”“Go to my house at Southsea.”Lark: Where is Southsea? B----- Square, R----- Square? (London).“Why do you say R---- Square?”Lark: “Well, Iola says she lived there are one time, but the bog hotel on one side was notthere then. Some buildings have been pulled down, and the hotel has been built in their place.”(Correct).“Now Lark, what is the Square like? You have squares here – Madison square and so on.Describe R------- Square.”Lark: “It is a sort of park.”“Any trees?”Lark: “Oh yes! Plenty; and you have to open the gate with a key.” There were furtherdetails all of which were correct.“Now Lark, go to Southsea, near Portsmouth; you know, the naval town.”Lark: “All right; I see plenty of ships and soldier about. You have something to do withthem. Golly! What a lot of cars! You are getting on in the old country. A good description of myhouse followed; also a good account of my son-in-law, my daughter and their children, who lived ina neighbouring street.“All the information given in this interview” the sceptic might say, “was obtained fromyourself. Dora Hahn told you nothing you did not know before you entered the room.” This maypossibly be true; but, remember, we were in the dark. But now to close the séance.The light was lit. I laid a packet of fifteen photos on the table, and, taking care to get out ofview of them, asked the medium to pick out the portraits of any spirits she had seen on this evening.While she was considering she handed me a photograph of my wife, saying: “Iola has just told methat this is your wife, and she says there is another one of her here”. She then gave me a secondpicture of Mrs. Moore. I should like to know how any theory of telepathy can explain this away.Could the medium have obtained this information except from the source she claimed – that is tosay, Iola?The next day I visited Mr. and Mrs. Hermann, two psychics in a remote part of New York.They discovered my name pretty quickly. I tried the photograph test. Mrs. Hermann gave aconvulsive movement, and shouted: “Who is the little girl? A spirit is saying in my ear ‘Give himthe little girl.’ “ There was only one little girl in the collection of photographs; it was the carte-devisiteof my wife at the age of fifteen, in a short dress.Good tests were given at this séance, but that just mentioned was one of the best. Knockswere going on all around the room, and vigorous taps on the table testified to any true piece ofinformation. No person who had been present could have failed to recognise the activity ofintelligence’s which do not belong to this state of existence.On January 2 I lunched with Judge Dailey in Brooklyn. My hostess was clairvoyante; andthe well known Rev. May Pepper, of the First Spiritualistic Church of Brooklyn, was one of the23