A SUBSTANTIAL SPIRIT.

Auckland Star, Volume XXV, Issue 149, 23 June 1894, Page 6

A SUBSTANTIAL SPIRIT.

An interesting paper was read before the I'yychieal Research Society, Melbourne, by Mr D. M'Alpine, recounting that gentleman's experiences with a Prahran medium and one from Sydney, both ladies, and both capable of materialising spirits •whilsb you wait, 1 bo to speak. Ab one seance about a dozen spirits—those of men, women and children —were made visible, and a few of them musb also have been pretty tangible, since they ate Scotch cakes and chocolate, and conversed and shook hands with the mortals. The spook that devoured the cake was the immortal remains of a Caledonian named 'Geordie' Thompson, and he, or it, resided in Aberdeen when in the flesh. Geordie bad retained another mundane characteristic besides hia uppetite, and snoke with a decided Scottish accent. The figures wore the regulation ghostly raiment, the long, white, flowing robe, without which no respectable ghost has been known to show itself in company. After all, we mortals need not be very much ashamed of the pranks we play before high heavens, since the spirits of the dear departed do not appear to have a very lofty sense of dignity, or any intellectual parts superior to very ordinary sinners here below. These spirits to which Mr M'Alpine introduces us with earnest) assurances thab there is 'no deception, ladies and gentlemen,' grinned and grimaced, ate lollies and confectionery, and acted on the whole very like performing animals. In fact, the last efforts of the psychologists' seeking in this domain have only produced spooks thab are animated with a ridiculous desire nob to prove their spirituality, bub to demonstrate how very human they are. They eat cakes, write platitudes on slates, burn blue fire and talk small nothings. All this is very disappointing, and leads us to the inference that we are only in communication wifch the very lowest form of spirit) life, or that we have tapped a sorb of . intellectual Hades. Still, * Geordie ' Thompson, of Aberdeen, who ate the Scotch cake, affords material for interesting speculation. What became of thab bannock ? Did ib fall through his immaterial ribs on to the floor as he ate, or was it converted into merely spiritual sustenance by the process of mastication ? If a spirit) may eat ib may drink, Then is it possible that one of these evenings an irreverent humorisb may . send * Geordie' back over the borderland in an advanced state of inebriation, and led loose a drunk and disorderly Scotch ghoab amidst the peaceful and temperate spirits of the great subsequent ? ' .