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

I made passes in the cabinet to bring the medium to. Graem talked to me for some time, andbefore he left the body of the medium. Sister Amy and Joey said “Good night” to me fromdifferent places in the cabinet.37(26) On February 25, 1906. At. Pinner. Circle of six. All sitters, except one, mediumistic.Sister Amy told me that she had been in my room at Southsea, when I was sorting papers into abureau. (An American bureau had been given to me a short time before, and I had spent the bestpart of half a day sorting papers into it.) She also said that “the Doctor” (meaning Graem) was inmy room when A. and I were discussing astralations. The Doctor thought we had made a mistakein one thing. (A. and I had often discussed both materialisation’s and astrals in my room.)This evening there were no less than forty materialisation’s. As many of them came out with arush and showed immediately after one another, at one moment there being two faces showing totwo sitters simultaneously, it is impossible they could all have been personations by Craddock. Ihave no doubt that most of them were genuine spirit forms.(27) On March 8, 1906. At a private house. Circle of fourteen. I sat next to the curtain ofthe cabinet at one corner. The curtain use in this house is one continuous piece of stuff, and opensonly in the middle of the front to admit of the ingress and egress of the forms.After some delay, alleged to be necessary for the accumulation of power, the materialisedforms (or what purported to be such) came out, apparently in a batch. Two faces showed to twositters eight feet apart simultaneously, and there appeared to be other moving in the centre of thesemi-circle. The presentation of faces followed one another with great rapidity up to the numberof six or seven. I heard the medium rubbing himself in the cabinet at intervals while these formswere out.The French spirit, Cerise, spoke to me from just inside the corner of the cabinet. I askedher to take my hand. She said I was “too masculine”, but she grasped my hand with the curtainbetween us. I asked her to take the hand of the lady on my left, and guided the lady’s right handwith my left towards the corner of the curtain; her arm was touched, and her bare hand stroked bythe bare hand of Cerise. I regarded this at the time, and do so now, as an instance of the passage ofmatter through matter; for there was no opening in the curtain through which Cerise could havepassed her materialised hand. Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace mentions similar cases which cameunder his own observations in America.On March 17, 1906, in my library at Southsea, I held a table séance with A. alone. Iolamade herself known, and gave a message implying doubt as to her being present at a séance to beheld on Thursday, the 22 nd , at a private house in London,Joey made himself known, swaying the table about in his usual violent manner. Not longafter this A. experienced a sort of electric shock down his right arm, and said he felt impelled towrite automatically. This was the first time he had felt such an impulse. The writing was illegible;the first words might read “Will you inquire?”, but these words are not clear, the rest is scrawl. Atthe time we put the attempt at writing down to the influence of Iola, who had come earlier, and wedid not connect Joey with it/Sunday March 18, was the day of the exposure of Craddock. About twenty minutes beforethe medium was seized I asked Joey: “What were you doing last night between 9.30 and 10o'clock?” He replied “I was down in your room trying to make A. write.” (Under no conceivablecircumstances could Craddock have known, normally, of A. ’s attempt at automatic writing theprevious night.)The exposure put an end to the projected séance at the private house which had beenarranged for the following Thursday. Thus, Iola’s doubt was explained.The items I have recorded here are not a quarter of those in my notes made at the time,which convince me that Craddock possesses the gift of mediumship. Every man or woman whohas sat with this medium ten times could furnish similar evidences if they have jotted down theirexperiences within twenty-four hours of each séance; but if postponed to a later date, their notesare of no use.