Psychic Phenomena Part 3

Mr. W. Stainton Moses thus describes the formation of the lights at a sitting on 9th August 1873:--

"I witnessed the formation of some eight or nine very beautiful spirit lights. They formed quite close to me, and near my left hand, about a foot from the floor, floating upwards till they reached the level of the table and became visible to Dr. Speer. They were expressly made at my side, instead of, as usual, at my back, so that I might see them. They seemed to develop from a very bright speck, about the size of a pea, until they attained the size of a soda-water tumbler, and showed a soft luminosity like pale moonlight. They seemed to be covered with drapery and to be held by a hand. They faded slowly out, remaining visible about thirty or forty seconds, or perhaps a minute. The largest would be about eight inches long."[20]

On 14th April 1874, Dr. Speer and Mr. Stainton Moses held a sitting by themselves. Mr. Stainton Moses thus describes what happened:--

"To-night lights commenced again, but of a quite different character to any we had seen before. They darted about like a comet, coming from the side by the harmonium, or near the fireplace. They were evanescent, and apparently of diffuse luminosity, within which was a nucleus of light, not, however, visible to me. We had some ten or twelve of these, some more brilliant than others, some visible both in the looking-gla.s.s and in the gla.s.s of the book-case, and they were showing a trail of reflected light on the table, when suddenly there arose from below me, apparently under the table, or near the floor, right under my nose, a cloud of luminous smoke, just like phosphorus. It fumed up in great clouds, until I seemed to be on fire, and rushed from the room in a panic. I was fairly frightened, and could not tell what was happening. I rushed to the door and opened it, and so to the front door. My hands seemed to be ablaze, and left their impress on the doors and handles. It blazed for a while after I had touched it, but soon went out, and no smell or trace remained. I have seen my own hands covered with a lambent flame; but nothing like this I ever saw.... The lights were preceded by very sharp detonations on my chair, so that we could watch for their coming by hearing the noise. They shot up very rapidly from the floor."[21]

This sensational experience must conclude the evidence respecting the lights, for the present. One more selection has, however, been made, which is deferred to the special chapter on Mr. Stainton Moses'

experiences as a whole. The present chapter must be read in connection with that chapter. It is admitted that the testimony quoted with regard to the Lights does not reach the level of scientific evidence. At the same time, when due consideration is given to the existing contemporary records, and to the careful way in which Mr. Myers examined the whole case, it is difficult to avoid the conviction that the Lights were objective phenomena, not produced by any known physical cause. It is much to be regretted that efforts were not made to secure a critical study of the Lights by a competent scientific man.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] Vol. ix. pp. 245-352, and vol. xi. pp. 24-113.

[16] See ibid., vol. ix. pp. 273-274.

[17] See _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. ix. p. 276.

[18] See ibid., pp. 276-277.

[19] _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. ix. p. 290.

[20] _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. ix. p. 319.

[21] _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. xi. pp. 44-45.

CHAPTER V

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA ALLEGED TO HAVE OCCURRED IN THE PRESENCE OF DANIEL DUNGLAS HOME

Scientific evidence of the reality of the Physical Phenomena alleged to have occurred in the presence of D. D. Home is scarcely to be looked for in the two volumes written by himself, nor even in the two volumes published after his death by Madame Home. The alleged phenomena failed to attract the attention of more than a very few men of science during Home's lifetime. Of these the most eminent is Sir William Crookes, F.R.S. With regard to Sir William Crookes' evidence the reader is referred to two paragraphs on page 124.

THE REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE DIALECTICAL SOCIETY.

Again, the Report of the Committee of the Dialectical Society, or rather the doc.u.ments which accompany it, supplies some good evidence. Home had four sittings with one of the Sub-Committees, but the phenomena were of a trifling and inconclusive character. This was attributed to the state of Home's bodily health. He was on the eve of a severe illness. Several persons subsequently sent to the Committee statements of what they had seen and heard in Home's presence. The only one of these which can be said to possess scientific value is a report of a seance held with Lord Lindsay--now the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres--and Mrs. Honywood, and two other persons. The report is as follows. It is written by Mrs.

Honywood, and Lord Lindsay adds a few words, his own personal testimony.

"I met Mr. Home at the house of a friend on the 17th March 1869.

We sat down, five in number, at a round table in the back drawing-room. There was an oil lamp on a table in the front drawing-room, and fires in both grates. After a while Mr. Home became entranced, walked into the front room, and stood on the hearth-rug. He began to dance slowly, raising first the one foot and then the other, his hands hanging loosely as I have read of Easterns and Indians, moving in time to music. He then knelt down, rubbing and clasping his hands together in front of the fire. I asked, 'Are you a fire worshipper?' He nodded and looked pleased. 'Are you a Persian?' He smiled and nodded a.s.sent, after which he rose and placed four chairs in a row near the folding doors, signing to us to sit there. He now went to the table on which stood the moderator lamp; taking off the globe, he placed it on the table, and deliberately grasped the chimney of the lamp with both hands; then, advancing to the lady of the house, he asked her to touch it, but she refused, knowing it was hot.

Mr. Home said, 'Have you no faith? Will you not trust in Dan if he says it is cool?' She replied, 'Certainly,' and placed her finger on the gla.s.s, exclaiming, 'Oh, it is not at all hot!'

This was corroborated by Lord Lindsay and myself, who in turn both laid our finger on the gla.s.s several times to test it. Mr.

Home laughed and said, 'I will make it hot for you, old fellow,'

and holding it towards Mr. ----, he turned, apparently addressing some one, and said, in a sad tone of voice, 'It is necessary to confirm the faith of others that the gla.s.s should be made hot for him.' Mr. ---- now touched it, and exclaimed, 'You have indeed,' shaking his hand and showing me a red mark.

So hot was the gla.s.s when a fourth person touched it, that it raised a blister, which I saw some days subsequently, peeling.

I leave it for the scientific to determine how the heat was re-imparted to the gla.s.s, after being withdrawn.

"Mr. Home now returned to the fireplace, and thrust the chimney into the red-hot coals, resting the end on the top bar; he left it there about four or five minutes, then, lifting it, he clasped it in both hands, went to the table, took a lucifer match from a box, and handing it to the lady of the house, desired her to touch the gla.s.s--the match instantly ignited; and having called our attention to this fact, he observed, 'The tongue and lips are the most sensitive parts of the body,' and thrust the heated gla.s.s into his mouth, applying, especially, his tongue to it. He once more returned to the fire, and again placed the chimney on the upper bar, the end of the gla.s.s resting amidst the red coals. He left it there and walked about the room, selected a small fern-leaf from a vase of flowers, and raising the chimney, placed it within, and replaced the chimney among the coals. After a few moments he told us to observe very carefully, as the experiment would be very pretty. Mr. Home now held up the gla.s.s, and we perceived the fern-leaf within apparently on fire. He replaced it after a few seconds, and holding it up again, exclaimed, 'Is it not pretty?' The fern appeared red-hot; each little leaf edged with gold, yet flameless, like clouds at sunset--rich glowing crimson tinged with molten gold. After we had all looked at it and admired it, he advanced to Mrs. ----, and laughingly shook it out on her muslin dress. I expected to see it crumble away; but no, it was still green, though dry and withered. Unfortunately it was not preserved.

"Again Mr. Home returned to the fire, and once more placed the gla.s.s on the coals, where he left it, and walked about the room; going to the lamp, he pa.s.sed his hand slowly backwards and forwards through the flame, not an inch from the wick; returning to the fireplace, he lifted the chimney, and moving the coals about with his hand, selected a small flat red-hot coal, and placed it in the chimney--shook it up and down, and advancing to us, playfully said, 'H----, here is a present for you,' and threw out the coal on her muslin dress. Catching it up in dismay, she tossed it to Lord Lindsay, who, unable to retain it in his hand, threw it from palm to palm till he reached, the grate and flung it in. While we were all looking at the muslin dress and wondering that it was neither soiled nor singed, Mr.

Home approached, and in a hurt tone of voice said, 'No, no, you will not find a mark; did you think that we would hurt your dress.' Mr. Home then selected a small spray of white flower, and going to the lamp, he pa.s.sed it two or three times through the flame, then carried it to the grate, and held it first in the flame and then in the smoke above the coals, moving it gently about. He now brought it back to us, asking us to look at it and smell it, calling our attention to the fact that the flower did not smell of smoke, and that it was unchanged by the heat and flame of lamp and fire. He then bid us notice that his hand which held the flower smelt of smoke, while the flower remained uninjured. Then addressing us, he said, 'The spirit now speaking through Dan, and that has enabled him to show you these curious fire-tests, in which he hopes you have all felt interested, is the spirit of an Asiatic fire-worshipper, who was anxious to come here to-night, as he had heard of seances held here. He now bids you farewell, as he will return no more.'

"After this Mr. Home awoke.

"BARBARA HONYWOOD."

"I was present at this seance, and can corroborate the truth of the above statement.

"LINDSAY."[22]

[NOW EARL OF CRAWFORD AND BALCARRES.]

TESTIMONY OF THE EARL OF DUNRAVEN.

Lord Dunraven--then Lord Adare--had a number of sittings with Home. He printed a small volume--for private circulation only--under the t.i.tle of "Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr. D. D. Home." This volume is exceedingly scarce.

AN INQUIRY BY PROFESSOR W. F. BARRETT, F.R.S., AND MR. F. W. H. MYERS.

In the year 1889, Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers undertook an "Inquiry into the Evidence for the Mediumship of D. D. Home." They collected the testimony of a large number of persons who were witnesses of the Home phenomena, carefully examined its evidential value, and summarised it in a Joint Report. This was printed in the _Journal_ of the Society for Psychical Research for July 1889.[23] It is to be regretted that the Society has not seen its way to publish this Report in a form accessible to the general public. It is true that in his great work, "Human Personality, and its Survival of Bodily Death," Mr. Myers gives a brief summary of the Report; but he condenses the thirty-six pages of the original Report and its appendices into four pages of "Human Personality," which are quite insufficient to convey an adequate idea of the Report itself. Also, the cost of Mr. Myers' book debars from it the ma.s.s of readers. This Report was followed up a little later by a brief article by Mr. Myers, forming an important supplement.[24]

In the Report itself its joint authors say: "We propose the question--Have Home's phenomena ever been plausibly explained as conjuring tricks, or in accordance with known laws of nature? And we answer--No; they have not been so explained, nor can we so explain them."[25] In commenting on the Joint Report, by Professor Barrett and himself, Mr. Myers puts the problem as to Home in this form: "There is thus a considerable body of evidence as to Home, which enables us to discuss the three questions: (1) Was he ever convicted of fraud? (2) Did he satisfy any trained observer in a series of experiments selected by the observer and not by himself? (3) Were the phenomena entirely beyond the scope of the conjurer's art?"[26]

In the Joint Report the writers say--(1) As to fraud: "We have found no allegations of fraud on which we should be justified in laying much stress. Mr. Robert Browning has told to one of us the circ.u.mstances which mainly led to that opinion of Home which was expressed in 'Mr.

Sludge, the Medium,' It appears that a lady (since dead) repeated to Mr.

Browning a statement made to her by a lady and gentleman (since dead), as to their finding Home in the act of experimenting with phosphorus on the production of 'spirit lights,' which, so far as Mr. Browning remembers, were to be rubbed round the walls of the room, near the ceiling, so as to appear when the room was darkened. This piece of evidence powerfully impressed Mr. Browning; but it comes to us at third-hand, without written record, and at a distance of nearly forty years.

"We have received one other account from a gentleman of character and ability, of a seance in very poor light, when the 'spirit-hand' moved in such a way as to seem dependent on the action of Home's arms and legs.

This account is subjoined [in the Report] as Appendix D. We may add that few, if any, of the lights seen at Home's seances could (as they are described to us) have been contrived by the aid of phosphorus.

"There is also a frequently repeated story that Home was found at the Tuilleries (or at Compiegne, or at Biarritz) to be using a stuffed hand, and was consequently forbidden the Imperial Court. We have tried in France to get at the fountain-head of this story, but without success."[27]

(2) "With regard to our second question--whether his powers were tested by competent observers"--Mr. Myers says: "Home in this respect stands pre-eminent; since we have the evidence of Sir William Crookes, corroborated by the testimony of the Master of Lindsay (now Earl of Crawford and Balcarres), himself a _savant_ of some distinction, and the privately printed series of careful observations by the present and the late Lords Dunraven.[28]

(3) "As to our third question--whether the phenomena could have been produced by conjuring"--Mr. Myers says: "Many of them, especially the fire-tests, and the movements of large untouched objects in good light, seem inexplicable by this supposition. The hypothesis of collective hallucination on the part of the sitters seems very improbable, because, in most cases, all those present saw the same thing; and often without receiving from Home any audible suggestion as to what was about to happen."[29]

In the Joint Report by Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers, a considerable s.p.a.ce is devoted to a discussion as to conjuring being the explanation of the Home manifestations. It is dismissed as utterly inadequate. In conclusion, the authors of the Report say: "And we find that experts in conjuring (several of whom we have consulted), however little they may believe in Home's pretensions, are disposed rather to reject wholesale than to explain in detail the more remarkable records."[30]

Professor Barrett and Mr. Myers proceed to quote thirty-five cases of the identification of alleged communicating spirits from Madame Home's book, ent.i.tled "D. D. Home, His Life and Mission." They remark, "This list of identifications is a long one, and quite unique in the history of Spiritualism."[31] After a.n.a.lysing this list of cases, they say near the conclusion of their Report, as implying their final verdict: "If our readers ask us--'Do you advise us to go on experimenting in these matters as though Home's phenomena were genuine?'--we answer, 'Yes.'"[32]

In the supplementary article above referred to sixteen more cases of identification are added to the thirty-five.

In Appendix E to the Report is given some striking testimony to the reality of the "fire-test." The following letter from Mr. W. M.

Wilkinson, the well-known solicitor, is included:--