ANOTHER LETTER FROM MR MOODY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1240, 4 September 1875, Page 7

ANOTHER LETTER FROM MR MOODY.

Mr H. H. Moody, formerly of Dunedin, has addressed the following letter to a friend in Dunedin i— Greenfield, Mass., June 7, 1875. Mr dear -I perceive that you have published that portion of my last letter relating to the Eddy Brothers, Some of my Dunedin friends, judging from the tenor of their comments, are evidently of opinion that I have either been duped ov have lost my reason. Neither one nor the other, my friend, I assure ■ you. I never was wider awake In my life than i on the occasion of that visit, and I made too good use of my senses, and had too many tests, to doubt for a moment the genuineness of the manifestations. So well assured was lof the reality of all that I saw and heard that, with a near and dear friend of mine, I have paid another visit to the house of the Eddys, and have talked, laughed, and shaken hands with the fully materialised forms of our deceased friends. We left Greenfield on the 10th of May. and remained at the Eddy homestead in Vermont nearly three weeks. During that time I attended fourteen seances, and saw no less than two hundred and twenty materialised forms, many of them in full light. They conversed with, us, laughed, sang, danced, and smoked as naturally as we do in' the flesh.' The seances are held in the same room as before. The cabinet in which the materialisations take place is 2ft. 3in. wide, 6ft. long, and 7ft. high. Usually, from 12 to 23 spirit forms appear in the space of an hour. The room is partially darkened at the commencement of a seance, as that is one of the conditions under which force is more easily gathered. To explain how it is that the spirits collect from the medium, the circle, and the atmosphere — the materials for the formation of flesh and habiliments like our own— it would be necessary for me to understand spiritual science. This, I confess, I do not understand-; I have not a scientific turn ; I have to rely upon the evidence of my senses. I take hard facts and the evidence of my senses aa I find them, .without being abte to account for them— either physi-c-illy or spiritually. Crookes and Wallace have all that they can do to account for what they see and hear. If I meet an intimate friend in the street, I know him from the cut of- his countenance and the rig of his coat. Well, I have seen here, in full light, my old friend, Mr C. Redding (well-known in Dunedin), twelve times, He spoke to me one evening ; called me by my name, and requested me to tell his wife that he was happy, and wished her to come and see him. He came out, dressed in five different suits, similar to those he used to wear when living here on earth. I knew him ; I could not be mistaken. There he was, as natural as life. I lived in the house, which was scantily furnished. I knew every nook and corner in it ; and I was certain that no human being, resembling Redding in every particular, could have been concealed there. What hallucination could there be about it? I saw my own father four times, my sister six times, my old Ballarat partner, Rufus Smith, once. All these I saw in full light, and how could I be mistaken, or how could the Eddy Brothers personate them ? An old lady (Mrs S.) and her daughter, from Romeo, Michigan, came while we were there. After they had been there a few nights, the spirits asked the old lady to take a seat on the platform, close to the cabinet. Soon after taking her seat, the form of an old gentleman walked out of the cabinet and shook hands with her, and she palled him " father." He retired, and in a few minutes a young man appeared, and shook hands with her ; and then a young girl, and soon afterwards another young man. Each shook hands with the old lady. After the seance was over, I asked her if she was sure those were her friends. She said she could not be mistaken. The first was her father, the second her son, the third her granddaughter, aud the fourth a man who used to work for her. I ask any reasonable being if that is not good evidence? Another night the spirit of Mrs Eaton appeared and invited the same lady to dance with her on the platform. Mrs Eaton apologised for not being able to dance very well, as she said she was more used to praying when in this world. She was eighty .years old when Bhe passed on. Her old pastor, she said, would think it strange that she should come back here to dance. There was another old lady the spirit of a Mrs Brown, who used to come' out and dance with the lady from Michigan Mrs Brown's grandson, Edward.Brown, attends the circle every night. He married one.of the Eddy sisters. Does it riot seem rattier comical that an old lady about eighty, who has been so

called deadsome years, cornea baok materialized, so that she is recognised by her own relations, and trips it on the "light fantastic" with another old lady about seventy, who we know ia here in the flesh ?

One night the two materialized spirits, old Mrs Brown anc j Mis Eaton, had a champion dance. They came out four times each. Mrs Eaton appealed to the audience to know who who was the best dancer, and we decided that j both were equally good. One night we* heard a baby crying in the cabinet. Soon a lady appeared holding a baby_ in her arms, and judging from the noise it made, it had Bplendid lungs, and no mistake. Honto, an Indian maiden, frequently danced. One evening she came to the floor where we i were seated, put her hand on the railing and jumped back to the platform. Stooping, she seemed to pick up something, and snaking it out, it was a large shawl. She made nine of them, 3xsto 4 x 9ft. She plucked a white rose from a bouquet on the platform, and beckoning to me, I went up, and she gave it to me out of her own hand, which I felt. One night a young lady, about twenty, and a little girl about two years old, appeared, and were recognised by a man from Maine, as his two daughters. He called them by name, and the eldest took the younger in her arms and walked Eartly across the platform. The little one held er hands out towards her father, and they both seemed pleased to see him. A good many Indians appeared in the full light and remained out for some time. An Indian girl " The Lady of the Lake," was one of the most beautifully formed beings I have ever seen. She was dressed in white tights, with a snow white tunic that reached almost to the knees, a belt, and long black hair. She came to where we were sitting and danced across the floor several times, Mrs Eddy, the mother of the Eddy family, came out and thanked the lady from Michigan, Mrs S., for her kindness to her (Mrs Eddy's) daughter. Two gentlemen fromUtica, New York, fully recognised their brother, who passed on about a year since. A Mrs Cleveland, a near neighbour of the Eddy's, lost her husband last February. He came back several times, and was recognised by several in the room. He was the one over whose corpse a materialised spirit delivered a funeral discourse in the presence of about twenty of the neighbours, X had this from the lips of a doson reliable persons who were presont, One old lady, called " The Witch of the Mountain," materialises quite often, and sometimes talks for half an hour. I heard her several times. She lectured us once for fully fifteen minutes. 1 have only given a slight sketch of the many marvellous things to be seen at the Eddy Homestead, If you would like to learn more about the3e wonders, get Col, H. T, 01- ' cott's book, just published by the American Publishing Company, Hartford, Conn, It is a volume of 402 pages, entitled " People from the Other World," and is profusely illustrated, The volume is divided into two parts. The first is devoted to a detailed description of the strange things seen, heard, and felt by the author at the Eddy Homestead ; and the second to a report of a series of oriorinal investigations made by him in the city of Philadelphia into the alleged materialisations of John and Katie King, under test conditions. Touching the Katie King expose, in Philadelphia, I might mention that it is proved on excellent axithority, that the Holmeses are genuine mediums, and that the woman White was paid by the Young Men's Christian Association 1000 dols.to tell that story. Whether it is true or false, Ido not*know or care, Ido know, however, that the Eddy manifestations "are genuine, and that I have seen and recognised my friends who have been dead some years ; .and thousands have done the same, It will not be many yearebefore all will be compelled to believe, for there is little doubt but we will have spirits addressing public audiences in broad daylight. There are now many materialising mediums, and already another medium, in the presence of whom phenomena | even still more wonderful than those of the Eddys, take place. This is the (/^materialising medium : — Mrs Elizabeth J. Compton, *of Havana, Schuyler County, New York. For particulars, seeCoL Olcott's book. The weak point in the various religious sys- \ terns of the earth is that they take their premises for granted. Spiritualists, on *the; contrary, have, in the phenomena, the great Truth of Immortality actually demonstrated, and have their teachings direct from fellow-crea-tures who have had experience in the other world. Materialisation, the latest phase of spiritpower, is sure to lead to great results. It will demonstrate to the entire world, with scientific certainty, the fact of immortality. As the Scientific American recently observed :—": — " If true, it will become the one grand event of the World's history ; it will give an imperishable lustre of glory to the nineteenth century. If the pretensions of Spiritualism have a rational foundation, no more important work has been offered to men of science than their verification."