Seen and Unseen

NS IN AMERIC

have recourse to my notes taken at the t

eventful or at all marked, any fairly developed clairvoya

such visits, paid several thousands of miles apart, might almost be

o puzzle them much more. There was apparently nothing to lay hold of,

itation, and in every single instance the sketch was remarkably truthful, and ye

say that such trances were in no case genuine, but the remarks made during them were frequently of a tentative nature, and the slight

n spirit, and six times her name was given to me, with some difficulty in one or two cases, b

s of Philadelphia-a very pleasant, good-looking, healthy woman, quit

y: "Well, don't come if you don't feel like paying that; but I never alter my prices. But I won't take your money if I don't give you satisfaction. Some get satisfacti

Mrs Parks did not at all press me to come, and fr

factory interview

h were singularly appropriate, and finished up by saying: "Your mother does not wish you to go to mediums or mix yourself too much up with such

age. I am a perfect stranger to you in this city. I have told you that I am making some little stay here, and as you

honest woman, and I am bound to give you the message that is

and having received personal proof that money alone was not her consid

ack to it, as if I were refusing to use the powers that had been given to me for the help and comfort of my fellow-creatures. I name a higher price than others, to limit my work and to keep away those who would only come from idle curiosity." She also told me that sometimes she had to give ord

h this period of my investigations, because it

bly went on to say that the female spirit was further on in development than the male spirit. Now there were circumstances which made this statement, viewed from this world's standpoint, not only absolutely mistaken, but

by, rules out telepathy as an explanation of these special experiences. It certainly seemed strange that after giving accurate descriptions of the

ious day, when wandering about Colorado Springs, my friend and I had come across a lady doctor by chance; and having asked some trivial question, we were invited into her pretty little house,

and who had during the previous two years suddenly developed strong mediumistic power, but was in no way a professional. She begged us to ca

here this young woman lived, and called at the house mentioned. The lady was not at home, and a friend who received us explained t

ce after dinner that evening, I heard a gentleman inquiring for me by name, saying he had brought his wife to see me. I explained that I was the lady he asked

hen continued very simply: "I do not know whether I shall be able to help you at all, but it seems there is something I have to tell you or explain. When

ending up by the description of the relatives mentioned, and by ma

y that you have made one cardinal mistake, but I am also bound to say that five or six professional mediums have done just the s

nswered; "perhaps the

some explanation which did not cover the ground of her own experience, and then s

a man of strong creed; he clung to his creed here, and cannot quite free himself from it even now, although he has advanced very much in spiritual perception. Now his wife had a very sympathetic, apprehending nature. She can therefore receive spiritual light more fully and freely. That is why

ck, decided way, and witho

of the term "clergyman of the Church of England," for the word is almost unknown in America, where they s

rms. When I pointed this fact out she said a little impatiently, as though we were wasting time in quibbling: "Oh, well,

lous state of mind. She described "an uncle," apparently over the heads of two of my friends, and gave the further

ectly untrue and without a g

ortified, but turned to others in the c

id quietly: "But surely you remember, my dear children, hearing of your Uncle Robert, who was drowned years ago, before any of y

of truth. These young girls had doubtless heard of their uncle, but the fact had possibly escaped their memories for the moment, and

an experiences in the years 1885 and 18

more than once that a guardian band of six spirits was forming round me, and would be later supplemented by another

not being able at that time to make the further trip to Alaska. After a very stormy voyage of two or three days we reached Victoria one morning about six a.m. There

t once suggested the effects of liver after a sea voyage so tempestuous as ours had been. For the first few moments I was inclined to agree with her, and said so; but very shortly my opinion was altered by the fact that

call them. About six months after their first appearance in the pure, clear atmosphere of Victoria (Vancouver), I was driving across the Blackheath Common on a very bright, frosty day, and looking out of the open wi

, has some symbolical meaning. Near the anchor I see a sacrificial altar, with flames rising up from it; then a triangle, with loops at the corners, which I was once told was the sign of Nostradamus. Then an old-fashioned mirror in a quaintly-shaped frame, and finally a long staff, with the sign of Aries at one end. I have since realised that this is very much like the "Staff of Faith" found on the top of many of the tombs in the Roman catacombs. All these latter emblems come together as a rule, with a connecting thread binding them to each other.

than just now!-there must be someth

bent forward eagerly, saying:-"Do l

t up, and suggested going home to luncheon. She added na?vely: "I thought they must have

ilure to be absolutely convinced tha

were to separate after a year's constant travel together. She was going back to San Francisco to take steame

had not realised how much less lonely one would have felt had my journey East corresponded more closely w

the idea of being left behind and alone in the very centre

not horizontally as before, but perpendicularly. At the end of this little string was a tiny bird, even

nately, I found a pencil, and made a rough sketch at the time, or I might have been tempted to imagine that I had never seen it at all, for the trio never appeared a

the brother who has been mentioned in the Introduction to this book. Was it another case of mental affinity which had induced him unconsciously to choose a gold br

ved, but I have always looked upon that brooch as a mascot, and h