Experimental investigation of the spirit manifestations, [electronic ...

THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS. 89the door panel, similarly to the holding of the flute, the rapping was againheard.*14*2. I have much reason to confide in the disinterestedness of themedium through whose assistance these facts were observed. She wouldnot allow me even to make a present to her child; and her sitting for mewas deemed prejudicial to her comfort and health, so that by the adviceof her physician it was finally discontinued. Her parents believed themanifestations obtained through her influence to be caused by spirits.143. Sitting at another mansion, in company with an able lawjer, (anunbeliever in Spiritualism,) as well as an accomplished female mediumand two other persons, sounds were heard like those above mentioned.The lawyer alluded to, though from his profession accustomed to distrustand to scrutinize evidence, admitted that he found it utterly impossibleto account for these sounds by any visible agency.144. In order to make my narrative of the evidence upon the subjectof rapping continuous, I would state that during the evening of my firstvisit to the circle of spiritualists, as above mentioned, while grasping withmy utmost energy a table at which I was seated, two female media, bymerely placing their hands upon the surface of the table on the oppositeside, caused it to move to and fro, in despite of my utmost exertions.145. Visiting another circle under the influence of another medium, Ifound that tilting a table was substituted for the sounds as a means ofmanifestation. As one rap signifies no, two, doubtful, and three, affirmative,so is it with the motions, or tippings, as they are usually called.146. Passing the fingers over the letters upon an alphabetic pasteboard,like those to assist children in learning their letters, when it comes overthe required letter, its selection is indicated either by a tapping or tilting.By this process, when the medium's eyes were directed to the ceiling, asindependently observed by the legal friend above mentioned, as well asmyself, the following communication was given147. ^^ Light is datcning on the mind of ^our friend; soon Tie willspeak trumpet-tongued to the scientific tcorJd, and add a new link to thatchain of evidence on which our hope of man^s salvation is founded."148. The lawyer declared that he was utterly unable to conceive how,by the human means apparently employed, such sentences could be elaborated.Legerdemain on the part of the person who took down the manifestationwas the only way to get rid of this evidence without resortingto the agency of some invisible intelligentbeing, who, by operating uponthe tables, at once exercised physical force and mental power.* I have since been assured by my spirit friends, that there was no deception on thepart of the medium here alluded to. It has since been alleged by them that it was myown father who made the raps on the small table above mentioned, when I sat at it betweenthe two media. It was my spirit friend, William Blouget, who rapped when theflute, tubes, and rod were held against the door, or when the rapping appeared to bemade against the partition between the parlours.