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

48At 6.40 p.m. I posted a card to Mr. Henry Crookes, at the Carlton Hotel, Southsea, askinghim to make a note of his doings between 3.40 and 4.40 p.m. that day. He did not receive the cardtill the morning of Wednesday, the 21 st , when he wrote the following from memory :—Between 3 and 4 p.m. (on Monday, 19 th ) I was sitting in an arm-chair in the recreation-roomat Carlton Hotel, Southsea, reading the Express. At about 3.40 I felt rather sleepy. I tried tokeep awake, but could not. At about 3.45 I dozed off for five or ten minutes. Was awakened bythe waiter clattering teacups and plates…….At 4.0 p.m. I, in company with my wife and four otherladies, walked to the Mikado Tea Rooms in Palmerston Road, where we had tea, and remainedthere till about 5 p.m.The description of Mr. Henry Crookes given by Mrs. Endicott is very good ; better than shehas ever given me of any other spirit except Iola. Her tells me that the allusion to the eyes issignificant, and that his spectacles are constructed to obviate the inconveniences of different formsof astigmatism in the two eyes. This peculiarity is not now noticeable to a casual observer, onaccount of the glasses ; and I was entirely ignorant of any difference between themI returned to Southsea from Devonshire on the afternoon of Thursday, August 22 ; and at6.0 p.m. the description in my note-book was read to Mr. and Mrs. Crookes. After this I openedhis notes, which I had not before seen, and read them.The night previous to the appearance of his astral I had been discussing with Mr. Crookesmy photograph test with Dora Hahn in New York.Before getting to Eastleigh on the morning of the 19 th , I had completed my notes of a séancewhich I had attended with Mr. Crookes on the previous evening ; and my thoughts did not dwell onhim during the run down to Brixham. It was no “thought-form” that Mrs. Endicott saw ; she hasoften told me that she can distinguish thought-forms from astral or spirit-forms.In subsequent conversation Mr. Crookes has told me that he never sleeps in the afternoon,and that on Monday he dropped off into a deep sleep at the time mentioned, and against his owndesire. His glasses were not in place.Remarks by Mr. Henry Crookes.My eyes are both astigmatic ; the cylindrical axis of the right spectacle-lens is nearlyvertical, while that of the left lens is almost horizontal. I have been wearing glasses two and a halfyears only ; and, until a few years ago, I could not read ordinary print at all with the left eye. Mr.Juler, the oculist, tells me that, with the naked eye, my sight is only 1/10 th (one-tenth) of normal.This allusion to my eyes is certainly significant, as nothing special is noticeable to a casual observer.Another point to be mentioned is that, when my eyes are closed, they go out of accommodationnearly vertically, instead of horizontally, as is the case with most people.With regard to my sleeping in the afternoon, it is not at all a habit of mine ; and this was theonly occasion on which I have done so during my visit to Southsea.H. C.(37) After this we sat down to the same table, as on previous occasions. Iola made herselfknown, and gave a correct description of what she saw me doing two days before in my library. Abrother-in-law came, and identified himself by name. I then put a packet of forty photographsinto Mrs. Endicott’s hands, told her to open it herself and select the picture of Iola, taking up aposition several feet distant, with my back towards her. The packet contained some of thesephotographs used for a similar test the previous year, and many new ones. She had never seeneither of the two portraits of Iola that I had inserted among them. In less than five minutes one ofthese was handed to me over my shoulder, and shortly afterwards the other (no preliminaryguesses).