Mrs. Piper & the Society for Psychical Research

-The hypothesis of thoug

t this world of woe. It will not be difficult to give the reader a specimen of them. At least one half of the fourteen or fifteen hundred pages dedicated to the Piper case in the Proceedings of the Society fo

use it is peculiarly interesting, but because Professor Lodge's published re

speak of the same things. They are not spirits." This conclusion would perhaps be too hasty. I do not assert that they are spirits or that they return from another world. I know nothing abo

ask them to prove their identity by relating as large a number of facts as possible concerning their life upon earth. The investig

t, though he does so sometimes. When he is giving information which he says he has received from other spirits he sometimes talks in the third person; sometimes, on the

Lodge. The latter takes notes. The phrases between parenthes

at as I came[14] I met the medium goi

ed from her children for a few days an

ut on my hand just before sitting) given over to you. And Olly dear,[15] that's one of the last things I ever gave you. It was one of

I remember

f there has been anything special about them. I tell you, my boy, I can see it just as plain as if I were in the body. It was the last thing I gave you, for her, through you, always in remembrance of m

tell you I'm living, not dead. Th

elighted to s

beginning, but it can be ground down fine. You'll know best and correct (?). It can only come thro

t bad for t

a series of rooms with candles at one end. Must use analogy to express it. When you need a light you use it, when you have finished you put it out. They are like transparent windows to see through. Lodge, it's a puzzle. It's a puzzle to us here in a way, though we understand it better than you. I work at it hard. I do. I'd give anything I possess to find out. I don't care for material things now, our interest is much greater. I'm studying hard how to communi

en my Uncle Jerry,

while ago-a very clever man-had

t of person is

very curious ideas about things and people; he receives a great deal about people from themselves (?), and he gets expressions and phrases that one doesn't care for-vulgar phrases he picks up by meeting uncanny people through the medium. These things

.! Glad to have ha

oice reapp

r Uncle Jerry tells me to ask.... By the way, d

ve had a long

mbers Bob killing the cat and tying its tail to the fence to see him kick before he died. He and Bob and a lot of the fellows all together in Smith's field, I think he said. Bob knew Smith. And the way they played tit-tat-too on the window pane on All Hallows' Eve,

"Don't

Mr Clark-a tall, dark

"I thi

explaining things to him. Uncle Jerry says he will tell all the facts, and all about families near, and so on, that he can recall. He says if you will r

dling; not

iper knew it.] "William[23] is glad. His wife used to be very distresse

Yes, ve

nds, and think and think and think." (This was at his office.) "He has grown younger in looks, and much happier. It was Alec that fell thr

"Yes,

-to sister Fanny, he told me especially. He tried to say i

yes, we jus

to-day. Tell Ike I'm very grateful to him. Tell Ike the girls will come

Mr Stevenson you gave me a m

e took his knife once and made some little marks with it up here, up here near the handle, near the ring, some little cuts in the watch. Look at it afterwards in a good light and you will see them." (There is a little engraved lands

th truth and errors; finally, there are certainly some which are entirely untrue. For this reason these transcendental conversations very much resemble the conversat

ould be supposed to construct marionettes so perfect, so life-like, that a large number of sitters leave the sittings persuaded that they have communicated with their dead relatives. If this were true, the fact alone would be a miracle. No genius, neither the divine Homer, nor the calm Tacitus, nor Shakespeare, would have been a creator of men to compare with Mrs Piper. Even were it thus, science would never have met with a subject more worthy of its attention than this woman. But th

hey never could have known. Consequently she must read them instantaneously in the minds of persons, sometimes very far distant, who do know

every reason to suppose they had never known, or which it was impossible they should ever have known. This list contains forty-two such incidents. To give my readers some idea

ly complaining of pain in his heel when he walked. The doctor consulted had pronounced it rheumatism, and this was vaguely running in Dr Lodge's mind. However, some time after

h got drowned. Tried to swim the creek, and we fellows all of us got into a little boat. We got tipped over. He will remember it. Ask Bob if he remembers that about swimming the creek; he ought to remem

set, but the two young Lodges, Jerry and Robert, on getting out of it, began some horse-play on the bank, and fell into the

hat he didn't feel very well. Professor Lodge knew nothing of this fact, or, if he had once known it, had so completely forgott

his brother Frank, who is still living, expresse

near named Rodney. He pounded one of their boys named John. Frank got the best of it, and the boy ran; how he ran! His father threatened Frank, but he escaped; he always escaped. He could crawl through a small

Lodge wrote to him to ask if the above details were correct. He replied, giving exact details: "I recollect very we

asked to describe it, to prove her power of seeing at a distance. Phinuit, when questioned, replied, "She is sitting in a large chair, she is talking to another lady, and she is wearing something on her head." These details w

of these sittings see P

f a sea captain. Phinuit, who was rather fond of nicknames,

entered the med

reporting in the first person words

a futu

; he had appeared at a preceding sitting and had offered proofs of his identity, which were verified later. Prof

tigation into

th a statement previo

ising. If there is fraud in the case, Mrs Piper must be

., still

Mrs L

Lodge's s

ived in, and unknown to us, do what they were accustomed to do, are

nt in a previous sitting, but without being able to explain

t farther and farther by degrees from our universe, in accordance with time, and th

f S.P.R., vo

bid. p

f S.P.R., vo

bid.,

. of S.P.