WHEN “GHOSTS” ARE PUT ON TRIAL.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 99, 8 April 1911, Page 2 (Supplement)

WHEN “GHOSTS” ARE PUT ON TRIAL.

LONDON’S STRANGEST BUSINESS. '•TTw London Spiritualist Alliance. Limited,'’ is 07c of the -* rankest busier-;* ventures in existence, for it is a commercial concern which has to do scWy with inhabitants of another world. Furthermore. unlike most registered companies engaged in tradrng. the members of this strange al-lian'-e for the inrestiga ion of spirit phenomena are prohibited from receiving anv profit from -the operations of the company. Stranger still, this peculiar business has prov.-d a financial The London Spiritualist Alliance. Limited, is perhaps the queerest business organisation in existence. Though established as far back a* IdSI. it has worked practically and literally “in the dark.” invest igating. tabulating, recording, and photographing spirits, “thought-forms.’ wraiths, double personalities, apparitions: in fact, -’spooks’’ of every description, in job and assorted lo». IN THE SEANCE ROOM. The Alliance has the finest occult library in the world. It also runs a clever little weekly paper called "Tight,” which has an enormous circulation. not only among spirt-ualists, but philosophers, students, and other thinkers who wish to keep informed concerning spirit phenomena. It goes withort' saying that in ‘ Spookland” there ar* “fake*,” frauds end tricksters galore. But woe to the professional medium who engages in eentroversv with the Spiritualist Alliance in London, thinking to achieve an easy triumph over the credulous uen's of this organisation. In the seance room of the Spiri -uslist Alliance there has just been constructed a cage a little larger than a telephone booth, toe tour sides and top of which are composed of the finest mosquito netting. The frames of this cage are screwed together by deep thumbscrews, and when once the medium is inside it would Iw utterly impossible, without '•ollusion on the part of someone outside, to produce any phenomena of a ‘ tricky’’ character. SC REWED LN A CAGE. The simplicity of this scheme is its greatest recommendation. It i* nothing more nor less than a pet cage, built up of four panels and a top. During a seance the cage is placed in the centre of a room and is surrounded on all swles by members of the committee of tl»e Alliance, who perform .-.he tests. The medium is placed inside this cage, and literally screwed in. The cage itself is screwed to block.- placed in the floor. Many mediums have been able, up to this time, to perform wonderful feata when ■bur. np behind a pair of curtains. The curtains have bulged out and done all sorts of curious things: Lot there has al way* been a question in the minds of certain scep.ics as to why these curtain* hare acted in this strange manner. The medium ha* not. as a rule, been visible to the sitters at all times and this is where the element of doubt has crept in. Wt to the cage here spoken of. however, it, is quite easy to see the medium at all "times, and even photographs may be taken through the net. SPOOKS ALWAYS ’STALK.” At most scann s spirit* are supposed to eome out and walk about among the andirnee, but there is always a doubt whether “apooks” claiming to be aisterw. cousins, and aunts are not the medium rigged up to personate the -departed. Or course, there have been cases where *he curtains of the cabinet have been drawn and where the mwlium has beer, seen sitting tn a chair in the space occupied by the cabinet while the spook i* stalking abroad. Spooks always "stalk abroad.” by the way. I> is far more ‘creepy” than just walking. v«m know.

For some time past the London SpiritKft’isr Alliance has concent racd on the problem of devising a simple method tor giving mediums the chance they want in order to exhibit their powers. Expert conjurers who hare been able to produce marvellous “materialisations”—such as spirits, flowers, birds, and other things in the seance room, hare frankly acknowledged themselvei incapable of producing the same results •n the “snook cage." which now await* any medium who proffers him-elf for -oxaminmiou by the council of the Spiritualist Alliance. WHERE SPIRITUALISTS MEET. The weekly journal devoted to the spiritualist cause railed '■ Light” which belongs to the Alliance cirerfn*'* widely among the 3>.ft.o profe>aed spiritualists of England, and gives its columns up to scathing indictments and exposures of mediums who attempt »o bambooale the public. C'irious’v enough, spiritualists are snppxsed to represent a type of the eredntnus in hnir.iv affairs, wliereas most member* of ibe Spiritualist Alliance ro demand rra-onnble tests and sciksib’e explanations of all ’.he curi- '•>.»* phenomena jrcs nud by modern spiritiiabs.D. The Alliance, in spite of its strange vocation, may be described as a livelv and ‘ 'gninz c>-n .rn ' It occupies a •suite of .several large and ehs-erfnl looms in a big htiiMin-r at 110. St. Mart'll'-. Lan', just r»3 i the corner From the Na’inml Callery. Several of th* rooms are given up to a splendid circulating .ibr irv w hicri i.- the largest of i's kind in the world, having over 2 500 book* devoted to a'l phases of spiritual an ! rsirhit d te.-ear«h. In adliticn to this library 'Jure are •••'on s .-levot.-l to sold d« velnp. meni. so to .«p.-ak. where < !j.—for pj-ychio tin fold men- are hold two or three fir us a w-e!:. Even the rr.o-t prejudiced nn’-'!i--vef ran find ent at the offi.s-- of th ' Spiritualistic AHiam .- wb.-i her l-.e has a $•>«! or not. PROGRE-S OF THE MOVEMENT.. ATI things con. id --red. the can-e of «yTritua?i*m i* making great progress »r England. As nt thU pr. -gre-r it might be mentioned that q:>r. e a mtnihe:- of spiritua’i-tic churches have •p*wng ni> in various parts of the country. There t- 3 very jr.rm’g Spiritna!rt* lr--. ■ > '-1.,,.,whi1e London on Sun lav* iiia 'lie privilege of attending S'ro l -al_diurf’’e, given up entirely to spiritualism. Tn entv-foiir years j_o * hero normt n>rre than hn-f-a-dea.-n -j.iri’n.’’rttic -omn:unities in 'h • « !;> !>• of Engii.nd To-dnv th're are upwards of thirty-fire di« net m-iritnalistic «nm—to «.w n-.th'.-'g «»: several spiritualwtr,~ churrb.x. the total numUr of whose membership is said to approximate *o.ce 1