The Shadow World

k eyes, was awaiting us. She was perceptibly abashed by the keen glances that the men directed upon her, but

rn, Mrs. Smiley?" I asked, t

rry that just as a fiddler carries his

e. I took it, but turned it over to Miller. "Here, open this parcel yo

t, truncated cone of tin was disclosed, with another smaller one loosely held within it. The two sections, when adj

with that?" as

irit voices are very faint, and cannot be heard without this horn. I a

ay spirits speak

at is my

Isn't it rather absurd to expect an immaterial mouth

uppose it seems so to you,

ed a plain oaken table, which had been procured specially for the sitting. On this I stood t

We have had many sittings. We understand each other perfectly. I am going to treat her as if she were an unconscious trickster. I am going to use every effort to discover how she accomplishes these mysterious results, and Miller is to be notably remorseless. We are going to concede (for the present) the dim light required. I don't like this, but Mrs. Smiley

well?" aske

dicine. He is a noted experimenter with psychic forces. Indeed, he has the power himself. Now, Mr

u may padlock me, or put me in an iron ca

s almost impossible to untie, even in the light, and to break it, we will agree, inv

he answered, "and as a scientist I am goi

Let each wat

r, and could not raise her wrists an inch from the chair. Next, with the aid of Mrs. Cameron, I looped a long piece of tape about Mrs. Smiley's ankles, knotted it to the rungs of the chair at the back, and nailed the loose ends

keep you from jumping upon the table. Miller, you are to sit at her left; I will keep watch and ward at her right; the others of the society may t

the doors, I asked him to turn down the light, whic

o have more light later on. And now, while we are all getting into a harmonious frame of mind,

ile my father became sure that I was the cause of these disturbances, because everywhere I went raps were heard: the movement of small objects near where I sat made me an object of aversion or of actual terror to my school-mates. So finally my father asked me to sit. I didn't want to do so at first, but he told me it was my duty. T

k to you dire

y, but generally through this

" asked Howard. "Do you mean t

s you or any on

aste; you will all know from actual

n these forces at

as Home used to do, and while the playing was going on I just believed if I looked under the table I could see something. So I lifted the cover and peep

y did this to punish

ave you look directly at t

hy

er was punished agai

me if I were to pe

ey refuse to 'work' whi

t is sus

but that is the

e 'they' ar

I have been sitting now for over thirty years, and these friendly

ries of experiments, and if her health does not fail I think we shall be able to rival the doings of Florence Cook and Daniel Home, whose mediumships were the basis of Crookes's report. Now let each

sh folly, but we'll

rst, Mrs. Smiley?" asked Mrs. Ca

hing happens. Please don't expect much of anything to-night: my first sittings in a new place are seldom very good, and

est distraction or mental unrest defeats everything. If the medium is paid for her work she is too eager to serve, and everything tempts her to deceive. Furthermore, it has been proved that the psychic is in the very nature of the case extremely liable to suggestion, and the combined wills of the sitters focussed on one desired phenomena becomes an almost irresistible force to certain psychics. On the other hand, the best observers say

psychic's breath became labored, and in the pauses of the song she moaned. At length she drew her

as we are for a while, and if the 'guides' are dissatisfied, they will order a change. Generally speaking, the 'controls' are very notional, and when we get into fu

in case of hypnotism from

ixed rules to the g

from the naturalistic side), Maxwell deduces certain helpful rules: 'Use a small roo

ic having cold feet now and

te light deters phenomena, he uses green, violet, or yellow screens for his lamps. 'Any kind of a table will do for the raps, or for levitation,' he says, 'but one with a double top seems to give best results.'

s sandwiching of

g a director and asking for only one thing at a time. Keep the same people in the group for at least six sittings. Sit in a circle and touch hands. Be patient and good-tempered. A worried, irritated, sullen medium is a poor i

Mrs. Quigg. "After seeing Mrs.

might have been spared many hours of tiresome sitting. Maxwell is, indeed, an ideal investigator-he has made a great advance in methods, and his conclusions, though tentative, are most suggestive. No unprejudiced reader can finish h

the medium and his 'guides' the fre

dium is a very precious instrument, and he does not begin by clubbing him-or her-into submission. For all their wondrous powers, the people who possess these powers are very weak. They are not allowed to make anything more than a liv

throbbing?"

't fee

e of this psychic force-such as movement

and resilient liquid, and when I pressed upon it, it oscillated, in a curious way, as if the power were applied from below and in the centre of the table. The psychic was a young girl, and I am certain played no trick. I co

ired all the 'patter

For instance, when I want to use 'those who have passed on

e up on that. "Can

ders-that I have proved very conclusively. In all my experience I have never had

' could read one

han above the average. 'They' always seem very fallible, very human to me, and nothing 'they' do startles me. I have no patience with those who make much of the morbid side of this business. To me it is neither 'theism' nor 'diabolism,' and is neither destruction of an old religion or the basis of a new one-But all

he is a

not stir up controversy. Miller's 'suggestion' is adverse to the serenity of the psychic, that's all

esence of any unusual power. Part of the time Mrs. Smiley was awake and sorely grieved at her failure. She understood very well the position in which I seemed to stand. To Miller I was a dupe, the victim of a trickster. He himself afterward confessed that at the time

ing on top of the piano, just behind Miller. "Hooray, here they are!" I exclaimed, with

swer, by means o

I ri

swered t

s, "Don't know," "Will try," or any other doubtful state of mind. One has, of course, to guess at the precise meaning;

nge with Mil

aps made affi

tirely out of reach of the psychic, and at my request the drummer kept time to my whistling. After some minutes of this foolery "the force" left the piano abru

interested now, and some of the women were startled. A sharp, pecking sound came upon the cone. I called attention to the fact that this took place at least six feet from the psychic, and a moment later, with intent to detect her in any moveme

d "Yankee Doodle," and at length I said to "the spirit": "You m

ble, and a deep, jovial, strong whisper came from

e you?"

r Thom

u've found a voice; I felt rather helples

rig

do for us to-night? C

" he whisp

other 'spir

; ma

write their na

of writing began in the middle of the table. Wh

sper, a fainter voice, answered: "Ye

a tone of disgust: "That is of no value. It is so easy for Howard, or

rust one another for

gasping in such evident suffering that Mrs. Cameron cried out

say so, but, remember, Mrs. Smiley has been through these paroxysms hundreds of times. It appears very painful and

remorseless scientist, remarked: "I'd

it," I replied. "It is said to be dangerous

ht be inconvenient," remarked

veral of the group became restless. "What

Please be patient a little while lon

hear the three taps

le to do someth

iven apparently

the agency of any known form of force, is as important as the fall of a mountain. It heralds a new day in science. Is every hand accoun

d over the shoulders of the sitters and fell with a c

dy clasp hands now. Here is a chance for a fine test

ps were given slowly, and I understood

e are having as good a demonstration as we could expect, barring the absence of l

the carpet, and a moment later bumped down upon

le came from the horn: "Ha, ha! Th

with horror. "Don't let it t

en, called out: "Frank Ho

Are you not holding one hand and Miss Bru

National Academy of Science. I do not believe the psychic's hands have moved an inch, and yet, unless some one of

me, and "Wilbur" answe

ientific people here to-night, and I wa

e voice, and the cone dropped with a bang

esh!" remarked "Wilbur," w

. "Go down and shake up young Howard at the foot of the table

ed out: "The blooming thing

of trained animal, "the cone is now at least six feet from th

d," said Mil

n we meet in the street. I am telling the square-toed truth. I

us of one another, we might just as well give up the sitting. If e

aid, with measured and precise utterance. "We come with the best tests of a supremely important revelation; we come as scientists from our

in your indignation," I re

e earth-plane

d your rebuke is deserved. I, for one, mean to proceed i

beyond her strength." He spoke with the precise and rather pedantic accent of an old gentleman nurtured on the classics, and pr

ell,' but of course this is not a rigid test. Will

, "but do not worry the instrument to-night. Narrow your circle; be

e who you were on

he father of the ins

speak. "That is a fine piece of ventriloquism, any way you look at it," sa

e kept my ear close to the psychic's face), Mrs. Smiley has not moved

vement on the part of the psychic," he replied, "but of course I can't answer for the rest of the company

spirator of us all, our dire

udeville stage to-morrow. I give you my word I am acting in entire good faith. I am

ling with it, and at last it swung feebly into the air, and a whisper tha

?" she asked, in a voic

but a sibilan

are

the

moving lips in the air just before me. "Who is it?" I asked. Like a little, hopeless sigh the answer came: "Jessie." This was the na

was heard by every one at the table. "Good-evening, everybody. I am Mau

'Maud,'" I answered. "Are t

mamma so that she will not be sick. Some one is here to see you,

manly little girl, whose voice and accent formed a curious silvery replica of the psychic's, and yet I could not say that

fingers on the tin; and though I leaned far over, and once more placed my ear close to the psychic's lips, I could not trace the slightest

nd thrown upon the floor-a movement, I had learned

may turn on the gas, but do so very slowly. Mrs. Smiley s

The cone was lying not far from her chair, separated into two parts. The threads that bound her to her seat were to all appearance precisely as at the beginni

es, and, smiling rather wanly, a

'Wilbur' came, and 'Mau

he answered, with a

to her pityingly.

ime. My wrists hurt; your thread is very tight. My

but I deferred the moment of her release till Miller had examined every bond. I used a small pair of scissors to cut the thread out of the deep furrows in

think it is a shame the way y

'm like the old man's chickens (you've heard the story?): he had moved so much that the chickens

to the dining-room for a cup of tea, the

of us did th

see how she could have had any hand in it," sa

m to be suspicious of one another, I propose that we resort to a process of elimination. I shall take 'Mi

rd. "That isn't fair. I

eing a prest

othing to do with

Mrs. Smiley go to Miller's house, with no one present but Mr. and Mrs. Cameron and Mr. and Mrs. Miller. If we secure

being left out, and

had said that these 'dark

Professor Miller has any share in the test,

? That's a nic

cold, calm, merciless scientist

f we get anywhere in this campaign we must begin with the smallest possible

right; and, to show my own scientific temper, I rule Mrs. Cameron and myself ou

together, pondering deeply on the imp

not for an instant, and yet to believe that she did not have a hand in what took place is to

eceived. The fact that she is willing to put hers

her appearance, and yet I wish she had

eeps his head and goes on patiently investigating. He has had more experience than even Crookes or Lombroso. For forty years he has been searching the dark for these strange forces, and yet he says: 'We create in these séances an imaginary being; we speak to it, and in its replies it almost always reflects the mentality of the experimente

your own belief?" asked Mi

e will, but of evidence, and the evidence is not yet sufficient to bring me to any definite conclusion; in fact, in the broad day, and especially the second day after I have been through one of these astounding experiences, I begin to doubt my senses. Richet speaks of this curious recession of belief, and admits his own inability to retain the conviction that, at the moment of the phenomenon,

and then asked, abruptly: "What is the real reason that you ke

Flammarion suggests, nothing but a subtle adjustment of our 'collective consciousness' to hers. Can't you see how necessary it is that we should proceed with her full consent? After an immense experience, following closely Crookes, de Rocha

does he mea

facts of nature. 'Therefore, in the critical state of research, the scientific problem, it seems to me, is not whether spiritism be true or false, but whether metapsychical phenomena are real or imaginary. Some future Newton will discover a more complete formula than ours,' he pro

condition of mind? An astronomer with his eye to a telescope is a highly specialized and competen

these illusive and disturbing problems. These phenomena, as Flammarion says, introduce us into uncharted seas,

of fact, I'm a very poor sail