SCEPTIC AT A SEANCE

Evening Star, Issue 17924, 21 March 1922, Page 2

SCEPTIC AT A SEANCE

TRUMPET THAT MOVED. .MEDIUM'S PREDICAMENT. The results of a personal investigation into the claims of Spiritualism were recently described in tho ' Saturday .Review ' by Mr Filson Young, the well-known war correspondent and writer on naval matters. His conclusions are indicated by the' title of his article, ' Hymns and Humbug.' The occasion was a 'seance at a houso at Hightrato, to which Mr Filson Young was invited by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. " My mind on tho subject was open and sympathetic," he writes, " and it would not 1)0 ,too much to say that I believed it possible that I was oil tin: threshold ol an experience which might change my whole outlook on life." He adds that the room was dark, and' that he sat next to the electric light switch. Tho peoplo at the seance sat in a circle 12ft in diameter, and in the middle of the circle before tho seance began, standing on its broader end, w r as a zinc trumpet about 4ft in length. "Through this wo were told the spirit voices would speak." Tho proceedings opened with the repetition of> tho Lord's Prayer, followed in turn by a hymn, a gramophone selection, and a musical box. "In the intervals between the singing soino of the ladies, to judge by their conversations, wero in a rather norvous state; ono of them cried out and said something had touched her, but her neighbor immediately apologised, and explained that she had moved her foot. Ono said alio saw lights; but there wero none. Wo were like a 'party of fishers waiting for a bite. Personally I was still sympathetic, perfectly attentive, awaiting a sign, but conscious of no religious influence or of anything but the fact that I was sitting on a rather uncomfortable cliair in a dark room iii the .suburb of High.ga.to, singing choruses with peoplo whom I had never met before, and awaiting a revelation." THE VOICE OF DAVID. " Presently, during the tune on the gramophone, a man's*voice was heard. 'All! That must bo .David,' said somebody ; ' turn off tho gramophone. Is that you, David?'- 'Aye,' replied the voice in .a Glasgow accent, and some trivial conversation ensued between this voice and the medium's, fragmentary and meagro on the part of the spirit, voluble on the pari of the initiated who joined with the medium in interrogating it. They spoke to the spirit in a patronising way, like people at a prayer meeting encouraging a pet convert. The voice came as though squading through tho tube of the trumpet, which seemed to be waving about in the air, and the tapping of finger nails on its metallic surface could ho distinctly heard. These sounds were in different positions, now high, now low, but the impression I had was that they did not move beyond the radius of about six or eight feet. . . . I was convinced that one of half a dozen very simple natural agencies, was at work, and determined to put my conviction to the test."

Ad the request of the medium more hymns worn £iwg, and then a low voice was heard in front of the lady seated ncjfb to Mr Young. "At once people said: 'Someone is trying to speak to you; it is evidently someone who has never been through before; the voices are very faint at first; wo must make more noise.' So once more the gramophone was wound up and tho flagging voices of the company were urged into 'Jingle Johnny.' This timo I aid not sing, but listened attentively. During the song no voice of the trumpet came ou L . of that black darkness, but as soon as it was over tho faint voice was heard again, apparently addressing my neighbor, saying ' Js that you, dear?' and similar phrases of recognition or greeting. The lady besido me was obviously moved and entirely credulous. 'Perhaps it is my mother,' she said. 'ls that you, darling? Speak to me, mother. Oh, 'do speak to me; I am not in the least afraid.' The kind of conversation exchanged was generally very vague, consisting of references to health or remarks such as: 'lt is all right now, dear; I am quite happy'; at any rate, quite unimportant remarks which might have been made by anybody. ' Encourage her,' said the medium. ' Perhaps she will touch you.' TOUCHED BY A " SPIRIT."

"It was at this moment that I began to put my.theories to the test. I touched, lightly, the lady on my right, on tho knee and on tho arm and on her dress, and the effect was remarkable. In an extremely emotional voice, shaking all over, sho told

her mother that she could feci her touch and her presonce, that she recognised her, nnd that she begged her to speak tojior more. I confess that I was not a little shocked, and did not repeat the experiment. But the voho sounding still quite near, at about the level of one's knee, I put out my hand in the dark and gently grasped what proved to be the broad end of trio trumpet. The other end of it was pointing out toward tho right baud of the circle, near where tha modi-.rn sat. It was supported horizontally at its other end, and when T grasped it the .ither end was immediately 'et go. With immense care, avoiding making any noise or movement on my chair, I slowly raised the trumpet at arm's length, lifted it over the head of the lady, and gently laid it on the floor behind Sir Arthur Doyle's chair

" There were no more spirit voices that afternoon. The voice had immediately ceased on my seizing the trumpet, and was heard no more. I confess that I shrank from having to explain the presence of the trumpet behind Sir Arthur's chair, and also felt sure they would ''say that the trumpet ninst be ' within tho circle of influence'; so I tool;: the opportunity, during the last verse of tho hymn, at. some risk of discovery, to twist round again, fish for it in the davit, lift it owr the heads of my unsuspecting neighbors, and deposit it carefully within the circle —out of reach of the medium. When Eomeono said tho spirits liad gone away, wo wero told that that was unlikely, as tho signal for, their departure was that they dropped the trumpet with a bangj on the ground; but I knew that that signal would not be given; that they could not drop the trumpet, because they could not reach it. At last they began to see that the spirits would not come back, and I was requested to torn lon uhe light, There lay the trumpet where I had put it. Tho medium said nothing. " In hie prefatory remarks before the seance, Sir Arthur said : ' This is either the most solemn thing in the world or the greatest blasphemy.' Most of my readers will, I think, agree with him."

MOB.E FAIRY PHOTOGRAPHS.. ALIENISTS CYNICAL YTEW. A lecture was recently delivered at the Ealectic Club, in Regent street, London, by Mr William Marriott, the critic _of spirit photography, to a, large gathering oi both spiritualists and anti-ernritualista, who had been invited by the club. Mr Marriott confined his impressions of thirty years' experience among spiritualists to relating a list of exposure*} of famous mediums, and th« way in which be had been able to reproduce their manifestations beforo witnesses by admittedly fraudulent means. Hie triumph, he said, was complete when he produced a spirit photograph of a ring of fairies dancing round' tho head of Sir Arthur Con an Doyle —fairies which were subsequently recognised by an outsider as exactly similar to those in a night-light advertisement. Dr Norman, in chargo of the Camberwell Asylum, eaid ho saw people every day who declared that they had messages from dead and distant friends, who heard voices, and so on. Ho worked in an asylum. The only thing about ourselves of which wo could bo certain was that we were subject to illusions.