"SPIRIT CONTROL"

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 102, 2 May 1930, Page 10

"SPIRIT CONTROL"

AGED WOMAN'S DRAWINGS. ORIENTAL IN CHARACTER. AUTHOR SAID TO BE PERSIAN. (By Telegraph—Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, this day. The cables a few weeks ago repotted the case of W. H. Atkinson, formerly of Auckland, who drew extraordinary pictures which he said were the result of spirit control. What is said tow a similar occurrence is reported from Linwood. According to Mrs. M Chapman of Nursery Road, Linwood, the pictures which she produces are drawn by her hand while it is under the control of the spirit of Hyrziel, whom she believes to have been a Persian. An extensive range of pictures, mostly of considerable size, cleverly drawn ana coloured, bear testimony to the delicacy and surety of touch that created them, but Mrs. Chapman says she cannot draw. She has never studied art, yet when her hand is "controlled," as "she terms it, pictures of graceful contour and charming colour are evolved. 'They are carried out in pencil and crayon. In the selection of crayons, as in the shaping of designs, Mrs. Chapman declares she has no port. Her hand gots blindly to the box containing the crayons, and the desired colour is up. Designs are practically all Oriental in character. Mrs. Chapman does not know what it is she is drawing, nor has she the slightest knowledge of the significance of the symbols that are often incorporated. General dissatisfaction was expressed by councillors who remarked that the inspector was sent down to view the grounds, not photographs. Mrs. Chapman is 74 years of age. Without the aid of glasses she cannot see to read or sew, yet when drawing , designs that contain a vast mass of most delicate tracery she does not wear her glasses. The picture takes shapo under her hand without her being able to see what it is*