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

24guests. It was one of those charming family gatherings for the celebration of the New Yearwhich those only can appreciate who have experienced true American hospitality.(8) In sat during the meal on the left of May Pepper. When about half-way throughlunch, she said to me: “Your father has been in spirit life twelve years; your mother is still in earthlife, but she has one foot, so to speak, in spirit life, and she is not long for this earth – she will neversee another Christmas.” These facts were correct – may father passed out twelve years before andmy mother died at the age of ninety, on December 8 following this incident.After lunch the hostess called me on one side, and said “Your father stood behind you atlunch, and a man who I am sure was your brother; his name commenced with the letter ‘A’ –Albert, or Alfred, or something of that sort. There was also a sister of yours, whose name is soand-so.”(The information as to the names was correct; they were Alldin and Catherine.)I should have mentioned that when I was introduced for the first time to Mrs. Dailey, anhour before the above incident, she said: ”A sailor has come here; he is dripping with water, and Ifeel that he was drowned while under your command. His name seems to be Leroy.” I could notthink who this was; but when I got back to England I hunted through my journals, and found thatin June 1873, when I was a young lieutenant in a sloop in the Indian Ocean, an accident occurred.We were under sail alone – no steam available – and during the passage from Socotra to theMaldives experienced the usual gale, called the south-west monsoon. One evening we were takingin the third reef in the topsails when a young seaman called Carey fell from aloft, and, striking therigging in his fall, plunged into the sea. The lifebuoy was let go. I jumped into a boat, and, withfive volunteers, went to his assistance. The sea was high, but a keen-sighted man in my boat sawthe buoy when we rose to the top of a wave. When we got up to it, we found Carey on the buoydead. He had managed to swim to the buoy (how I cannot conceive), but this supreme effort hadkilled him; and there he was, with his arms around the upright standard of the buoy, drowned.We got on board again before dark, not without considerable difficulty; and I believe this was theyoung man who had returned from the other side in some feeling of gratitude for the efforts thathad been made thirty-one years before to save his life. Everyone knows the difficulty psychics havein reading these names in what is called the ‘astral light’. Observe: this lady could not read Alldin,but she said “Albert or Alfred, or some such name”. The names Leroy and Carey have threeletters in common; both ended with a ‘y’ there are the same number of letters in both, and ‘r’ isthe centre letter of each word.When the party went into the drawing-room, after lunch, Mrs. Pepper, who before lunchhad refused to give me a sitting that day, because she was tired after the Sunday evening services,she was suddenly controlled by an Indian spirit called “Bright-eyes” who seized my hands, and, in avoice totally different to that of Mrs. Pepper, said “You have brought a parcel with you; will you letme look at it?”(9) In my breast-pocket was the packet of photographs (entirely out of sight) and two orthree closed letters to spirits. One of these was worded thus: “Please impress the medium to pickout such-and-such portraits” (mentioning four of the collection). Not a soul in the house, nor inNew York or Brooklyn, for that matter, knew that these photos were on my person, nor could anymortal have been aware of the contents of the closed letters.I handed the packet to Mrs. Pepper (or perhaps I should say to “Bright-eyes”), who laid thephotos faces downward on her lap. In this position I was entirely unable to distinguish one fromanother; to telepathy (the bogey of spiritualism) had not a chance to spoil sport. Within fiveminutes three out of the four portraits were handed to me.At lunch I sat next to Mrs. Pepper, and it is possible that, with her marvellous intuition shehad read my mind correctly as to the nature of the test I was most desirous to obtain; but I wouldlike to know by what means she was able to select the portraits, unless it was through the agency ofsupramundane intelligence I had requested to intervene, and who was familiar with thephotographs I required. On coming out of trance Mrs. Pepper was much vexed to have failed indiscovering the fourth portrait.I am writing now to give my own experiences of psychic phenomena, and not to relate theexperiences of others; but I cannot properly bring before the reader, in sufficiently distinct light,the powers of the Rev. May Pepper without giving at least one instance of the exercise of her gift