Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

PHENOMENA OF MODERN SPIRITISM 37
"Katie King"
With Sir Wm. Crookes, Miss Cook was the medium,
and for three years she materialised, in Sir Wm.
Crookes' house, at intervals a, being, "Katie King,"
whom Crookes closely examined. She spoke to
him and his scientific guests, and walked about with
them; then suddenly disappeared. Crookes, with six
or seven other eminent scientists, saw "Katie King"
and the medium side by side, and then, under three
gas-jets, watched "Katie King" slowly disappear.
She was photographed, and Crookes counted her
heart, which beat at seventy-five, when the medium's
was ninety. She had ordinary flesh and bones, and
he was convinced that her body (at any rate) was
not the medium's.* When she finally left she went
with Sir William to the cabinet, and bent over the
medium and said: "Wake up, Florrie, I must leave
you now." Miss Cook then woke up, and begged her
to stay a little longer. "No, dear, I can't. My
work is done. God bless you." Crookes then helped
Miss Cook to rise, and, when he turned, "Katie
King " was gone. Other materialisations seem more
or less open to doubt. I
must point out here that no
amount of materialisation, or of movement, or
levitation, however wonderful, true, and inexplicable,
constitute, either separately or collectively, any
evidence whatever of a spirit world or of life after death.
Any evidence of this is wholly psychical, and conies
by raps which spell the words, or by writing, more
or less automatic. Both of these means are
very easily fraudulently produced; but there seems
*
He seems in some doubt about the spirit.