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

30positive is the complement of the medium. A battery is formed, and the necessary vibrations areset up, which enable the psychic to become of use to the band on ’the other side’ who desire tomanifest or to help the sitter’s friends to do so. A ‘positive’ seldom, if ever, has any receptivepower. His spirit body is not sufficiently separated from his natural body to enable him to see‘clairvoyantly’, to hear ‘clairaudiently’, or to feel ‘clairsentiently.’ He can, however, and oftendoes, give out an extremely tenuous form of matter that assists in building up the materialisation’s;he does not fall into trance; his senses are on the alert, and he is a useful recorder of what goes on.If psychics are necessary, the positive is no less so; it is essential for him to be present is the bestresults are to be obtained. The attenuated matter which emanates from him can be seen undercertain conditions. I have often laid down on a sofa facing a dark red flannel screen which anelectric stove behind me, and watched a faint substance streaming away from my side across thebackgrounds. It resembles the gaseous appearance seen over a sandy plain when the sun is wellup.It is a known fact that one psychic can seldom obtain messages or descriptions when sittingalone with another psychic. Both are negatives. You might as well expect to obtain a current byimmersing two plates of zinc in acid or water; the battery is not complete. Communication withthe next state will some day be proved to be due to natural law, and only an extension of wirelesstelephony, the instrument of propulsion being the forces inherent in the invisible spirit bodies ofboth the earth spirit and the discarnate spirit.All psychics are in danger of losing their power at a séance from the mental action of hostilesitters. They are usually in a state of self-imposed hypnosis. A man sits down in the circle andimpresses them with a perpetually recurring suspicion, “You are going to deceive me.” Eventuallythe thought becomes an active dynamic force, and the medium senses strongly, “I am going todeceive him.” If he has in any way prepared for deception before entering the room, he will, underthese circumstances, assuredly endeavour to commit fraud. It is unwise to condemn any mediumuntil you yourself have ascertained that he has in the room within reach, or about his person,articles which clearly prove his intention to deceive, before putting himself into hypnotic trance.In materialisation the medium and the form are connected by a spirituous cord. This canbe seen, as I have been told, by good clairvoyants. As the form advances further and further fromits parent, the cord naturally becomes thinner. It is on record that some mediums always feel animpulse to leave the cabinet and follow the figure. This would be natural enough if we can believethat, by doing so, they diminish the tension of the cord.Some investigators imagine that if a medium is in trance he cannot commit fraud. This isan error. If the intention is in his mind before entering the hypnotic state, he may or may notcarry it out. Somnambulism is a kind of trance or hypnosis; it is notorious that, of the sleepwalkerhas formed a distinct purpose of performing some act before he lies down, he will be likely to carryit out after he goes to sleep. A relative of mine, a psychic, was a somnambule for several years.One night, while returning to my house late, he imagined that he would be locked out, and mighthave to ring the doctor’s bell, which communicates with the second floor. He found out that hecould let himself in in the usual way; he put out the lights, went upstairs and to sleep in his room atthe top of the house. About ten minutes later he descended (in his pyjamas) the sixty-eight stairs,opened the inner door of the hall, descended five more stairs, unlatched the front door, whichnecessitated turning two handles simultaneously, and went out into the street (four more steps).He then came back, rang the doctor’s bell and entered the house. By this time the gas had been liton one landing, and my wife was standing on the next landing above. He took no notice of eitherthe light or my wife, whom he passed at a distance of one foot. Steadily going upstairs, he enteredhis room, went all the way round the bed in the dark without stumbling, turned in, and reposedpeacefully as before. After locking up the house, I went to him and woke him up. He was entirelyoblivious of what he had done, and declared that he had never left his bed.If this can be done by a somnambule, why should we suppose that, if they have thecontingency in view whilst in their normal state, mediums should not commit fraud in trace?Craddock is a man about forty-five years of age. He has several familiar spirits – Graem, aCanadian doctor who is alleged to have lived late in the eighteenth century; Red Crow, a NorthAmerican Indian; Sister Amy, a Canadian nun of about the same period as Graem; Alder, and