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that this mind may, in the simpler cases, simply be the mind of the
unconscious medium. We forget sometimes that we are ourselves spirits,
and that a spirit in the body has presumably similar powers to a spirit
out of the body. In the more complex cases, and especially in psychic
photography, it is abundantly clear that it is not the spirit of the
medium which is at work, and that some more powerful and purposeful force
has intervened.
Personally, the author is of opinion that several different forms of
plasm with different activities will be discovered, the whole forming a
separate science of the future which may well be called Plasmology. He
believes also that all psychic phenomena external to the medium,
including clairvoyance, may be traced to this source. Thus a clairvoyant
medium may well be one who emits this or some analogous substance which
builds up round him or her a special atmosphere that enables the spirit
to manifest to those who have the power of perception. As the aerolite
passing into the atmosphere of the earth is for a moment visible between
two eternities of invisibility, so it may be that the spirit passing into
the psychic atmosphere of the ectoplasmic medium can for a short time
indicate its presence. Such speculations are beyond our present proofs,
but Tyndall has shown how such exploratory hypotheses may become the
spear-heads of truth. The reason why some people see a ghost and some do
not may be that some furnish sufficient ectoplasm for a manifestation,
and some do not, while the cold chill, the trembling, the subsequent
faint, may be due not merely to terror but partly to the sudden drain
upon the psychic supplies.
Apart from such speculations, the solid knowledge of ectoplasm, which we
have now acquired, gives us at last a firm material basis for psychic
research. When spirit descends into matter it needs such a material
54
basis, or it is unable to impress our material senses. As late as 1891
Stainton Moses, foremost psychic of his day, was forced to say, "I know
no more about the method or methods by which materialized forms are
produced than I did when I first saw them." Were he living now he could
hardly say the same.
This new precise knowledge has been useful in giving us some rational
explanation of those rapping sounds which were among the first phenomena
to attract attention. It would be premature to say that they can only be
produced in one way, but it may at least be stated that the usual method
of their production is by the extension of a rod of ectoplasm, which may
or may not be visible, and by its percussion on some solid object. It is
probable that these rods may be the conveyers of strength rather than
strong in themselves, as a small copper wire may carry the electric
discharge which will disintegrate a battleship. In one of Crawford's
admirable experiments, finding that the rods were coming from the chest
of his medium, he soaked her blouse with liquid carmine, and then asked
for raps upon the opposite wall. The wall was found to be studded with
spots of red, the ectoplasmic protrusion having carried with it in each
case some of the stain through which it passed. In the same way
table-tilting, when genuine, would appear to be due to an accumulation of
ectoplasm upon the surface, collected from the various sitters and
afterwards used by the presiding intelligence. Crawford surmised that the
extrusions must often possess suckers or claws at the end, so as to grip
or to raise, and the author subsequently collected several photographs of
these formations which show clearly a serrated edge at the end that would
fulfil such a purpose.
Crawford paid great attention also to the correspondence between the
weight of the ectoplasm emitted and the loss of weight in the medium. His
experiments seemed to show that everyone is a medium, that everyone loses
weight at a materializing seance, and that the chief medium only differs
from the others in that she is so constituted that she can put out a
larger ectoplasmic flow. If we ask why one human being should differ from
another in this respect, we reach that barren controversy why one should
have a fine ear for music and another be lost to all melody. We must take
these personal attributes as we find them. In Crawford's experiments it
was usual for the medium to lose as much as 10 or 15 lb. in a single
sitting-the weight being restored to her immediately the ectoplasm was
retracted. On one occasion the enormous loss of 52 lb. was recorded. One
would have thought that the scales were false upon this occasion were it
not that even greater losses have been registered in the case of other
mediums, as has already been recorded in the account of the experiments
of Olcott with the Eddys.
There are some other properties of ectoplasmic protrusions which should
be noted. Not only is light destructive to them unless they are gradually
acclimatized or specially prepared beforehand by the controls, but the
effect of a sudden flash is to drive the structure back into the medium
with the force of a snapped elastic band. This is by no means a false
claim in order to protect the medium from surprise, but it is a very real
fact which has been verified by many observers. Any tampering with
ectoplasm, unless its fraudulent production is a certainty, is to be
deprecated, and the forcible dragging at the trumpet, or at any other [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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that this mind may, in the simpler cases, simply be the mind of the
unconscious medium. We forget sometimes that we are ourselves spirits,
and that a spirit in the body has presumably similar powers to a spirit
out of the body. In the more complex cases, and especially in psychic
photography, it is abundantly clear that it is not the spirit of the
medium which is at work, and that some more powerful and purposeful force
has intervened.
Personally, the author is of opinion that several different forms of
plasm with different activities will be discovered, the whole forming a
separate science of the future which may well be called Plasmology. He
believes also that all psychic phenomena external to the medium,
including clairvoyance, may be traced to this source. Thus a clairvoyant
medium may well be one who emits this or some analogous substance which
builds up round him or her a special atmosphere that enables the spirit
to manifest to those who have the power of perception. As the aerolite
passing into the atmosphere of the earth is for a moment visible between
two eternities of invisibility, so it may be that the spirit passing into
the psychic atmosphere of the ectoplasmic medium can for a short time
indicate its presence. Such speculations are beyond our present proofs,
but Tyndall has shown how such exploratory hypotheses may become the
spear-heads of truth. The reason why some people see a ghost and some do
not may be that some furnish sufficient ectoplasm for a manifestation,
and some do not, while the cold chill, the trembling, the subsequent
faint, may be due not merely to terror but partly to the sudden drain
upon the psychic supplies.
Apart from such speculations, the solid knowledge of ectoplasm, which we
have now acquired, gives us at last a firm material basis for psychic
research. When spirit descends into matter it needs such a material
54
basis, or it is unable to impress our material senses. As late as 1891
Stainton Moses, foremost psychic of his day, was forced to say, "I know
no more about the method or methods by which materialized forms are
produced than I did when I first saw them." Were he living now he could
hardly say the same.
This new precise knowledge has been useful in giving us some rational
explanation of those rapping sounds which were among the first phenomena
to attract attention. It would be premature to say that they can only be
produced in one way, but it may at least be stated that the usual method
of their production is by the extension of a rod of ectoplasm, which may
or may not be visible, and by its percussion on some solid object. It is
probable that these rods may be the conveyers of strength rather than
strong in themselves, as a small copper wire may carry the electric
discharge which will disintegrate a battleship. In one of Crawford's
admirable experiments, finding that the rods were coming from the chest
of his medium, he soaked her blouse with liquid carmine, and then asked
for raps upon the opposite wall. The wall was found to be studded with
spots of red, the ectoplasmic protrusion having carried with it in each
case some of the stain through which it passed. In the same way
table-tilting, when genuine, would appear to be due to an accumulation of
ectoplasm upon the surface, collected from the various sitters and
afterwards used by the presiding intelligence. Crawford surmised that the
extrusions must often possess suckers or claws at the end, so as to grip
or to raise, and the author subsequently collected several photographs of
these formations which show clearly a serrated edge at the end that would
fulfil such a purpose.
Crawford paid great attention also to the correspondence between the
weight of the ectoplasm emitted and the loss of weight in the medium. His
experiments seemed to show that everyone is a medium, that everyone loses
weight at a materializing seance, and that the chief medium only differs
from the others in that she is so constituted that she can put out a
larger ectoplasmic flow. If we ask why one human being should differ from
another in this respect, we reach that barren controversy why one should
have a fine ear for music and another be lost to all melody. We must take
these personal attributes as we find them. In Crawford's experiments it
was usual for the medium to lose as much as 10 or 15 lb. in a single
sitting-the weight being restored to her immediately the ectoplasm was
retracted. On one occasion the enormous loss of 52 lb. was recorded. One
would have thought that the scales were false upon this occasion were it
not that even greater losses have been registered in the case of other
mediums, as has already been recorded in the account of the experiments
of Olcott with the Eddys.
There are some other properties of ectoplasmic protrusions which should
be noted. Not only is light destructive to them unless they are gradually
acclimatized or specially prepared beforehand by the controls, but the
effect of a sudden flash is to drive the structure back into the medium
with the force of a snapped elastic band. This is by no means a false
claim in order to protect the medium from surprise, but it is a very real
fact which has been verified by many observers. Any tampering with
ectoplasm, unless its fraudulent production is a certainty, is to be
deprecated, and the forcible dragging at the trumpet, or at any other [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]