PSYCHIC SCIENCE

Evening Star, Issue 18052, 21 August 1922, Page 8

PSYCHIC SCIENCE

MR HORACE LEAF’S FIRST LECTURE. PHOTOS OF THE DEPARTED. Mr Leaf conics to ms as the nominee of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—an all-availing introduction that ensured him a welcome and a respectful hearing. Now that he has been heard ho may be quite sure of success on his own merits. The audience at Smith’s Hall on Saturday night included many persons who have dived more or Jess deeply into psychic science, and are therefore qualified to judge a lecture on the subject, and it is not risking much to state that‘these students and others present who are mere inquirers were at one in, listening attentively to what MV Leaf said and in scrutinising very eagerly the photographs which he selected from what Doyle has called “the finest collection of psychic pictures in the world.” From the moment that ho walked unattended to the platform and commenced to speak he satisfied the hearers as to his sincerity and as to his competency, though he .uttered no word on his own behalf, being content with the announcement that he was touring in the interests of the Doyle propaganda fund by means of which it Is proposed to despatch other lecturers to various parts of the world. It was at first intended, Mr Leaf said, that he should lecture on ‘Ghosts in Solid Form,’ thereby going straight to the great subject of materialisation, but the plan had been changed, and his present address would be simply of a preliminary nature, leading through the elementary to the higher results obtained by research. He began with a series of "pictures, which he explained were perfectly non-committal so far as spiritualism was concerned—pictures of those sub-human beings known as fairies, gnomes, salamanders, and so on. The exhibits under this heading consisted of photographs taken by two sisters, one aged fourteen, the other a little older. The scenes were somewhat like those that artists have produced to illustrate ‘ A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ land other poetic works. Elegant fairies, of about a foot in stature, were seen disporting in dwarf herbage that was to them as a forest. These views are certainly very pretty. A little further on Mr Leaf showed some wonderful results in telepathy, using for the purpose diagrams explanatory of the investigations conducted by Sir Oliver Lodge. ’ A blindfolded lady was set the task of showing on paper the object that Sir Oliver was thinking about, not a word being spoken on either side. Sir Oliver purposely steered away from common objects, such as keys and rings, and for the occasion conjured up images of unnameable forms. He drew his imagining on a piece of paper, and the medium instantly drew her picturing of it. Mr Leaf showed half a dozen or more of the results, the original and the reproduction being in each instance shown on the one sheet; The similarity most convincing. 'The lecturer remarked that such experiments had a direct hearing on the possibility of communicating with the other world, because telepathy showed that there can be communication without matter, and that was what Spiritualists claimed—that after the change called death communication could be had by the means of telepathic law. Mr Leaf next showed photographs of drawings and paintings, and stated in outline the evidence upon l which it was affirmed that they were produced I by the direct influence of artists who bad passed away. David Duguid, one of the mediums through whom a spirit operated, was bound in a chair and had boxing gloves fastened on his bands, and in sixty seconds, working in the dark, he reproduced a famous landscape, the paint wet. Levitation was also briefly discussed by Mr Leaf, and he exhibited photographs showing a violin, a trumpet, and a compass in the air, whilst in another photograph the audience saw a pencil in writing position with no hand near it. Bodily levitation was dwelt upon l at length, and in this branch of the subject Mr Leaf went into (particulars concerning the experiments of Dr W. J. Crawford, a New Zealander, who after study came to the conclusion that levitation was subject to natural laws, and that what was accomplished was in obedience to the Newtonian principle. The lecturer described some of the experiments in detail, and gave reasons in support of Dr Crawford's conclusion that the force which lifted a table against downward pressure proceeded from the medium’s body about five inches above the ankle. This force was named ectoplasm. It exuded from the body, and was a material substance that could he handled. Mr Leaf described it as pliable and rough. On the photographs it looked sometimes like wool, sometimes like drapery, but it was established that this was the agent that in levitation acted as a strut and could lift heavy bodies as on a pivot. Other pictures shown were photographs of faces of the departed, these being as published by the Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures. One face was said to bo that of an English lady who desired to inform her husband that she was not dead, but existing in another state, and to establish that as a fact sho superimposed her likeness upon, a photograph of two strangers who were haying their likenesses taken and 1 had no idea that a spirit was joining them. The early part of the lecture dealt with the ABO of the study ; the latter part was astonishing even ito advanced students, since it embodied the latest discoveries.

Questions were invited, but only one wa put, and that of a non-controvexsial character.

Mr E. F. Girvau announced the arrangements in connection with Mr Leaf’s visit, and Mr Leaf remarked that he was not taking one penny out of the proceeds of the lectures.