SCIENTIST AT SEANCE

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6735, 11 October 1928, Page 12

SCIENTIST AT SEANCE

DB. TILL YARD’S STORY.

DEAD MAN WHO SWORE,

MASCULINE VOICE DISTINCT FROM MEDIUM’S.

The claim that a series of seances have proved the survival of human personality after death is made by Dr E. J. Tillyard, a scientist of some note, whose mother lives in Worthing. Dr, Tillyard is Assistant Director and Chief of the Cawthron Institute,' Nelson, New Zealand, and honorary vice-president of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, London. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Geographical Society, the Linnoan Society, and the Entomological Society, and has published 150 scientific papers dealing with insects. Detailing his experiences at one of the seances—they were held in Boston, (Mass.), and all were attended and controlled by him—Dr Tillyard describes how a man named Walter Stinson, who died in 1912, “evinced a personality independent of the medium by speaking in a distinct masculine voice, whistling and swearing, and also left his thumb prats in dental wax in-the dark more quickly than an ordinary man could do them in the light. ‘‘ My own conclusion, ’ ’ writes the doctor, “is that Stinson has fully proved in a scientific manner his claim that his personality has survived after physical death,” This amazing story is told by the .doctor in'‘-‘Nature,” a scientific journal of wide repute, which .analyses Dr Tillyard’s claims in a leading, article of several columns. Its conclusions are that the evidence on which the doctor bases his claims is not strong enough to justify them. The seance at which the fingerprints of the dead man are alleged to 'have been reproduced was held on June 1 of this year at the house of Dr. Mark Richardson, of Boston. Besides Dr. Tillyard himself there were present in the seance room: .. The medium, Mrs. L. B. C. Grandon, the wife of a doctor, and sister of the dead man. 'Walter Stinson, who was killed on August 8, 1912, in a railway accident. :'j : Captain Fife, the finger-print expert Of* the U.S. Navy Yard. Man on Guard, Mr J. W. Evans, D.A. (Cantab), a young etomologist, guarded the door of the room from the outsi-.0. A red shade was placed over the electric light.,; - Previous to the seance a number of pieces of dental wax called “Kerr,” were, in the absence of the medium, marked secretly by Dr. Tillyard and Mgr Evans; a number given to each, and a .piece broken off the side. Other implements for marking thumb prints were also provided. Describing the dead man’s operations, Dr Tillyard writes: — ‘ ‘ With the red light frequently turned on to verify the position of the pieces of ‘Kerr,’ to remove each one from the cold water when ‘Walter’ (the dead man) reported it done, or to, put a new piece in the hot water when he asked for it, we had a most extraordinarily quick and accurate performance by ‘Walter’ of the technique of making thumb-prints. Seven Good Prints. ‘‘ln taking Marjory’s (Mrs Grandon), Capt. Fife's and my own thumbprints—which I did within bright light within a few minutes of the end of the seance —Considerable difficulties were met with, especially owing to the wax melting too much if the water were too hot. 1 “I timed Captain Fife, a fingerprint expert, taking Ms own thumb;print, and it took him ten minutes. ■ ■ ’‘ ‘Walter’ did seven good prints in the dark in about half an hour, remarking that it was easy for him, as ho “carried his cold about with him.’ “On one occasion he said ‘No” in a, loud voice/ as I was about to put some‘Kerf’ into the dish. Dead Man Speaks. “On a second occasion,” continues Dr. Tillyard, “while I was looking ■straight at the medium, he said, ‘Go ahead.’ “I noted that neither the medium’s lips nor her larynx moved at all. ‘ ‘ When doing the fourth print ‘Walter’ said that it would prove to bo a mirror image of his ordinary thumb-print. This wc verified as correct later. During the seance I was frequently touched and stroked by ‘Walter’s’ te-leplaatic terminal, and water was sprinkled over me. “ Altogether, ‘ vValtcr ’ made seven clear right thumb-prints, all of which were markedly different from the thumb-prints of any of those present.” The ulnar area of the prints, adds the doctor, agreed exactly with the same area of a thumb-print found on Stinson’s razor, which ho used on tne morning of the fatal accident. Humour From Beyond. Summarising .ho result of two seances, Dr. Tillyard says;— . “The ‘personality’ of ‘Walter’ is shown to be independent of that of the medium by, the possession of a distinct masculine voice and strong whistling powers, those never jprococding from the mouth or larynx of the medium; by his alert mental powers, tendency to impatience, and the use of-

swear words; by a marked sense of humour, a Canadian accent, and many other qualities which cannot "fail to produce in a sitter the definite feeling that he is dealing with an independent personality. “Besides this,” he adds, “ Walter’ shows that ho has the power of smell, can see in the dark, can handle delicate objects ancLplaco them accurately in the dark without doing any' damage.”