The Shadow World

s the formula-her "odic force" is the final chemical which permits precipitation. Sometimes her will to produce, her wish to serve, hinders rather than helps. Often when she is most persistent noth

Mrs. Smiley. The house was strange, our attitude intensely critical, and she was very anxious to succeed. It would be remarkable, in

ntleman. I am sure he will not insist on any experiment which will injure your health or give you n

tly, "but it is always harder to sit for tests. Tell

te; you will like her at once. I

raid of sceptics; I have no fear of those who do not believe; but each person brings such diverse influences, and these influenc

imself met us at the door, and, after greeting us cordially, ushered us into his library, which was a small room at the back of t

began; and turning to Mrs. Smiley, I ad

she answere

miley's own type), entered the door and greeted us both, the psychic

were hung with shawls, and a worn hickory chair stood with arms wide-spread to seize its victim. After surveying the room, Mrs. Smiley turned to me with

ve sitting. You tell 'Mitchell' that Miller is decidedly worth converting. I wa

ld me this morning that he would yet convince you of the reality of the spirit world. He i

o get that assura

indicating the hickory chair, whic

edly on the wings of the chair. "I like this chair

tape about your ankles. We mean to take every precaution in order

untying them absolutely impossible, I drew the two ends of the long ribbon back under the psychic's chair and tacked them

time, and gave the spool to Miller, while retaining the loose end of the thread in my own hands. The psychic could neither touch the tips of her fingers together nor lift her arms an inch from the chair. She was as secure as if bound with a r

They will do. I would like to have li

, "but the work is always weaker in the l

ley. I was at her right. Miller, after turning out

d, the room being narrow, Miller's chair pretty well filled the space between the table and the window behind it. The action of a confederate was excluded by reason of the bolted door. To enter the room b

caution. "Mrs. Smiley, I would like to pin over your dress a newspaper, so th

guides will do anything they can to meet your wishe

r her knees and tacked it securely to the floor in front of her feet. The corne

d on the psychic's left and touched fingers with Mrs. Miller. I did the same,

insisting on the normal character of these phenomena. Whatever happens to-night, Mrs. Miller, please do not be alarmed. There is nothing inherently uncanny or unwholesome in these phenomena. No one kno

stery by a deeper m

emonstrations' are intensely human and absorbingly interesting as dramatic material, and yet I hope I am sufficiently the scientist to be alive to the

asked Mrs. Miller, with a n

ason of my own experiments; but leaving one side my personal investigation, I must believe that Crook

lead to if not to spiritu

a survival, and they may prove of value in the evolution of the race. That is why I want to enlist men like your husband in the work. Mediumship needs just such critical attention as his. Nothing l

sked Mrs

al department of a denominational college would investigate spirit phenomena! It was much the same way in England during the early part of last century, but they are far in advance of us now. The first notable step in the right directi

Professor Morgan, president of the Mathematical Society. This committee, after careful investigation, reported voluminously to this effect: 'The phenomena exis

m saying that spiritism w

to be verified by some other scientist. They suggested Sir William Crookes, who was at this time in the early prime of his life and a renowned chemist-just the man for the work. This

" said Miller, with humorous intent-"of al

eriments were careful and searching, and drew the line squarely between the supernatural and the natural. He said, positively, 'The agency is not supernatural; it is physical, and determined by the will of the sitters,' and may be called the Charles Darwin of the subject. A year later Professor Marc Thury, of Geneva, added hi

he world to me," said Mrs. Smiley.

tudies of these unknown forces, and for a long time fought the battle alone i

e: "Yes, but Flammarion has always had the reputation

ch for the truth. I am persuaded that he has been a genuine pioneer all along. I cannot see but that he has examined very critically the scores of psychics who have come under his observation, and his reports are painstaking and cautious. His work must be considered by every student of this subject. It won't do to neglect the words of a man who has seen so

been done?" ask

helmeted soldier on several plates. Crookes photographed 'Katie King' and her medium once or twice, and Fontenay has succeeded in getting clear-cut images of the 'spirit' hands which play round the head of Paladino. But it

old and began to flutter. At last she threw my fingers away as if she found them scorching hot. Miller's hand was similarly

came upon the table, and I ask

ap, ta

sittin

swered the force, in a

per held in the air, on pencils, on a strip of cloth, on an open umbrella-under every possible condition. Maxwell secured them by pinching his own ear or by squeezing the arm

ller. "In the dark-or in the light-these obscure sounds may

moments, and at last I ask

the psychic, apparently issuing from her lips. "Mr. Mitchell wo

'Maud?'

ll wants to try some experiment. He wishes yo

ompromise measure I was willing to grant it. "If you

ur test. I don't understand

a little later. I have found that by apparently meeting the forces half-way at the beginning we of

about twenty-six inches from the utmost reach of the psychic's hands. Miller di

s a bit irritating. I knew exactly what was in his mind. "I've fixed her now," he was exultantly saying to himself. "She can't do a thing; even her request to

die" spoke complaining of the thread on her mother's right wrist. "It's so tight it stops the blood

that I would surely know at the end of the sitting if it had been disturbed. The table, I observed at the time, was more than two feet from her fing

to the lower end of the table; and although Miller thought this permitted too much liberty of action

. During this period of waiting I told stories of my experience and the curiou

ed any materialization

xed idea' of the mediums, and their persistent, almost insane, attempt to produce the phenomena desired by the circle. You can understand how this would be if there is anything at all in hypnotism. Sometimes it all seems to belong to the realm of hypnotic visions. One medium helps another to build up this unreal world. Early in my career as an investi

to embrace the intangible. It was, indeed, such a revelation of human credulity as might well have overpowered a young novelist. From the warm, pine-scented afternoon air I crept into one of these tiny cabins, and sat with my hands upon a closed slate in order to receive a messa

agine any reasonable person beli

s do," I

eated Mrs. Miller. "

o say, writing on the inner surfaces of closed slates. Up to this moment I was profoundly sceptical, but I could not doubt the reality of what happened. I took my own slates-the ordinary hinged school slates; but whether they were my own or not made no difference really, for the fin

sed growing interest.

hic smiled, shrugged her shoulders, and replied: 'I'll try, but I don't believe they can spell it.' 'Draw a straight line, then,' said I. 'I'll be content with a single line an inch long.' She laughingly retorted: 'It's hard to draw a straight line.' 'Very well,

ditions? Was it li

e called, exultingly. I opened the slates myself, and there, drawn in yellow crayon, was a small circle with a zigzag yellow line crossing it exactly as I had dictated, and under Mrs. Rose's hands in the corner of the slate was a gayly colored bunch of pansies. There were messages also, but I paid very little attention to them.

en asked: "You're sure it was done

in of it as I

t for it? Of cours

late-writing which were almost as inexplicable, and Crookes and Wallace and Z?llner, as you remember, were quite convinced by evidence thus secured. Crookes saw the pencil at work. I have ne

s considered slate-writing a cheap trick, but I don't quite see

my palms a sentient force. I felt as Franklin must have felt when he played with the lightning in the bottle at the tail of his kite. Once I heard the writing going on in a half-opened slate, but I did not see the pencil in motion. Some of these cases of 'direct-writing' are the most convincing of all my experiences. People ask me why I didn't talk with the spirits about heaven and angels. I was not interested in their religious notions. I kept to this one line-I wanted to see a particle of matter move from A t

t under my hand," s

go after it," I retorted,

Tell us more. Have you had other mes

It was a 'new one,' as Howard would say. Old Mr. MacVicker told me one day that there was a woman on the

let of water?" i

themselves to us as befits their wider knowledge of the laws of the universe, and especially is it their business to outdo the most skilful conjurer! Hence each man insists on locked slates and sealed letters. These the poor psychics are forced to grant. To be just to them, I must say that I have found most mediums fairly willing to m

lump person, evidently from Kansas, in manner somewhat like the humorous wife of a prosperous village carpenter. I remember that we were rather sympathetic on various political questions. After so

. "Always in the dark or under the table. No wo

of an 'astral' who can't ab

eory, but I ca

mit the photograp

the goblet lightly touched the under side of the stand. The psychic was all accounted for, except the hand which was resting outspread on the under side of the slate. We sat for several minutes in this way, while she explained that 'they' would probably take words out of our conversation as a

to listen as if to voices inaudible to

under the table, and while holding it as before, I said:

plainly the scratching of a pencil, at the same time that the psychic's left hand and both of her feet were in full view, and at the same time that her hand was outspread, apparently

the one who could not spe

out, and a moment later a decided tapping on the to

ened. The glass remained in the middle of the slate as before, with the water undiminis

the barrier of the glass where

" exclaimed

was there as she drew the

The glass of water prevented that. And yet she did it in some occult way. The transaction remains unexplained to me. I am perfectly sure she willed it, but how she caused the writing-the physical change-is quite another problem. Z?llner (I believe it was) secured the print of feet on the inside

believe a miracle like that, even on y

nting all the rest of the great investigators, and then crumple up like a caterpillar at the first touch of The Invisible Hand when it comes to him directly. This same young man gave me the most convincing demonstrations of materialized forms I have ever seen. In his own li

d it loo

ce, but it was certainly not a 'dummy.' But come, let us see what the forces can do

the song, and we a

sty watch-dog," remarke

to a paroxysm at last; then silence fell for a minute or two-absolute stillness; and in t

light, this is a very good demonstration of movement without control. Every m

," confessed Miller, "and yet

cannot reach the table with her knees and her feet secured by tape nailed to the bookcase. You cann

iller admitted; "but anyth

eceive our senses, but the si

on the part of the psychic, being followed a few seconds later by absolute silence. It was in these moments

his?" I asked of the

he raps

are confronting a case of telekinesis-not as convincing as Flammarion's, but still inexplicable. I

p of the table, began to rock on its base, and a pencil which lay beside it was fumbled as if

time you suspected Howard, now here you must suspect the psychic. The movement of tha

I gave him my left hand, and sitting thus, with all hands accounted for, we ente

present,

tap

moving th

tap

t of reach of

tap

a book had been brought and thrown upon the table. A shower of others followed, till twenty-four were piled about the cone. They came whizzing with power,

er fell upon the table. "Suppose we ask 'Wilbur' t

on a shelf back of Mrs. Smiley. It is quite out

st immediately the box was placed on the top of

I remarked, and 'Wilbur' drumme

with surmise to permit of speech. (He told me afterward that he was perfectly sure the psychic had

"Are you still wi

pped smartly

t doing this, can't you hold up a book betwee

ld see two hands in silhouette plainly and vigorously thumbing the volume,

id, excitedly,

nswered; "but I

in profound excitement: "I can see a large hand against the window, and, strangest part of all, the spread fingers are pointing tow

ot!" he answ

It is still at least four feet from the psychic. Oh, for a flash-light camera now! I was perfectly certain that

voice of "Wilbur" came from it life-like-almost full-toned, and with a note of humorous exultation r

ately laughed at his quaint conceits or pondered the implications of his casual remarks. It was precisely as if a rollicki

ame. My family n

ouched him on the cheek farthest from the psychic. At my request he covered Mrs. Miller's ear with the large end of the horn, then reversed and nuzzled her temple with

Wilbur'?" I asked. "Who are you

a sol

e Civi

es

hich

stion," he answered,

now, the w

e. I am Jeff. W. Thompson.

ere you

to Jefferson City, a

to be 'guide' to

tracted to her," he said, and

Garland, and will afford you all the aid in our power. It is hard to meet your tes

e how any psychic coul

ning those of the invisible host whose names were familiar to her.

do it?" he exclaimed several times. "To touch Mrs. Miller means that the psychic must not on

can touch you on the nose, eyelid, or ear, softly, without jar or jolt. It came to me just now like a sentient thing-like something human. Such unerring flight is uncanny. Could any trickster perform i

hrough the cone.

an you

t are all the

hand. "Prove it; touch my

hand, which was farthest from the psychic, and a voice

st the cone took flight again, and moved about freely among the heap of books and over Miller's head, while a variety of voices came successively from it, some of them speaking to Mrs. Miller and some to me. Several of the names given were known to Mrs. Miller, and a few were recognizable by me. They all claimed to be spirits of the dead with

end of the table, where she had been placed at the beginning of the sitting. None of these movements occasioned the slightest rustling of the newspaper. When the cone was moving no sound was hea

we could have detected it. Intelligent forces were plainly at work on the table, and writing was going on. So far as I was concerned, I was convinced that the psychic had externalized her power in some o

ecisely as we had last seen her. Her eyes were closed, her head leaning against the back of her chair. Her hands were fastened

o her bonds; and if she first returned to her bonds, how could she, then, have pushed the table away? The two things are mutually exclusive. Her feet are nailed to the floor, and the newspaper still on guard. Are we n

ncealed it. "She may have sho

feet? How about the broad hand which I saw? How about the candy-box which was moved from a point seven feet away? How could she slip

ot admi

n you da

"The poor thing! It is a shame! Unfast

d Miller, inexorably. "I

at long intervals, and each throb was followed only by a feeble fluttering. Her skin was cold, her arms perfectly inert a

distant and a little above the psychic's shoulders. It was true she could have reached them with a free arm, but she had no free arm! The pad in the middle of the table w

e said, "and so are my feet. My 'guides' say that if you will put one palm to my foreh

if in receding excitement. I thought of Richet's observations (that in cases of materialization the psychic see

s of groaning and

. I am told I do make a great fuss, but

deal happene

in quiet sa

d have been a shame to disappoint him. If you will only

at 'Mitche

hands. "You must be v

that will soon pass a

atch. "Great Scott! It

siness, isn't

her away to bed, leaving us to measure and weigh and surmise. It seemed absu

e could have freed her hands," Miller repeated, as h

tion, "that woman did not lif

did not, is to admit the preposterous. I w

imbs! Suppose Flammarion is right? Suppose that the psychic can extend her arms beyond their normal proportions? You should be ready to give a year, ten years, to demonstrating a single one of these physical effects. If I am any judge of character, this little woman is as honest and as wholesome as Mrs. Miller herself. It isn't this one performance alone which proves it. It is the implication of a dozen other sittings,

e that. He sat like one who h

it-I can't believ

nter successively three stages of hypnotic sleep. In the first stage the 'spirits' speak through her own throat-or she impersonates, as Mrs. Harris did. Her second and deeper sleep permits of the movement of the cone-'te

rd of it! It is all i

out the tacks, the threads, the tapes that bound her?

atural in my world. She seems a nice, simple little woman, and yet this very simplicity may be a means of thro

tacks, will you believe in

hold her and the cone

lf. I've been all through it. You can't believe until some fundamental

s devise some other plan to make ourselves d

aid good-night, and took my

d old theory of the permanence of matter is a gross and childish thing? Do the dead tell tales, after all? I wish I could believe it. Perhaps old Tontonava was right. Perh

pite of the astounding phenomena which I have witnessed, I have still a trace of doubt-doubt which is weak, indeed, to-day, but which may, perchance, be stronger to-morrow. Yet such doubts, if they come, will not be