Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania Part 8

The Medium: No, not to-night, for it takes quite a little while before we feel those things.

Mr. Furness: Do these raps always have that vibratory sound--tr-rut--tr-rut--tr-rut?

The Medium: Sometimes they vary.

Mr. Furness: As a general rule I have heard them sound so.

The Medium: Every rap has a different sound. For instance, when the Spirit of Mr. Seybert rapped, if the sound was a good one, you would have noticed that his rap was different from that of another. Every one is entirely different from another.

Mr. Furness: Do you suppose that the present conditions are such that you can throw the raps to a part of the room other than that in which you are?

The Medium: I do not pretend to do that, but I will try to do it.

Mr. Furness and Dr. Leidy station themselves in the corner of the room, diagonally, and most remote from the pine table, at which their a.s.sociates remain seated, with their hands upon the table, and 'their minds intent on having the raps produced at the corner indicated,' as requested by the Medium, who also remains at the table. The Medium asks, 'Will the Spirit rap at the other side of the room,' and, after twelve seconds, and again after forty-three seconds, repeats the inquiry. No response is received. The experiment is repeated with Mr. Furness and Dr. Koenig at the corner, but with a like negative result.

At this point the attention of the Committee was again directed to the attempted production of the rappings with the Medium standing upon the gla.s.s tumblers. The lady proceeded to the s.p.a.ce between the side-board and the wall where the last preceding test had been made, and there the tumblers were again arranged. The Medium resumed her position upon them, with Doctors Leidy and Koenig, and Messrs. Sellers and Furness facing her.

The Medium: Will the Spirit rap here?

Twenty-three seconds elapse.

Dr. Leidy: Is any Spirit present?

An interval of thirty-nine seconds here followed, when the attention of the Committee was momentarily diverted by an inquiry addressed to Mr.

Furness by Mr. Sellers, viz.: Whether a gla.s.s plate of sufficient strength to bear the weight of the Medium was procurable. At this moment the Medium suddenly exclaimed: 'I heard a rap. You said, "Get a gla.s.s,"

and there was a rap.'[A]

[Footnote A: No one but the Medium heard this rap.--G.S.F.]

The Medium (repeating for the information of Mr. Furness): Somebody proposed a gla.s.s and there were three raps.

Dr. Koenig inquires of the Medium whether the meaning intended to be conveyed by the sounds is that the Spirits desire to have the gla.s.s plate procured.

The Medium: I do not know. I know there were raps. (Turning to Mr.

Sellers, the Medium adds): They may have been made by your heel on the floor but certainly there were sounds.

Mr. Fullerton: Then it was not the regular triple rap?

The Medium: I could not tell.

Just before calling attention to the alleged rap or raps the Medium grasped with her right hand the woodwork of the side-board as if for support. It was then that she stated she heard the sounds. They were apparently not heard by any one but the Medium.

Mr. Sellers (addressing the Spirit): Will you repeat the raps we heard just now, a.s.suming that there were some?

Ten minutes elapse without a response.

The Medium: There is no use of my standing longer, for when they come at all they come right away.

Mr. Sellers (after scrutinizing the position of one of the feet of the Medium, remarks): The edge of the heel of the shoe rests on the back tumbler. (a.s.suming a stooping posture for a more prolonged scrutiny, he adds): We will see whether the raps will be produced now.

The Medium now proposes that all members of the Committee shall stand up and join hands.

Mr. Sellers and his a.s.sociates accordingly stand, facing the Medium, with hands joined. Changes in their positions were made by some of the gentlemen from time to time, as suggested by the Medium, Mr. Pepper and Dr. Koenig being the first to exchange places. This occurred after a silence of thirty seconds without any response.

The Medium: Now, Mr. Seybert, if your Spirit is here, will you have the kindness--I knew Mr. Seybert well in life--to rap?

Fifteen seconds elapse.

The Medium: No, he does not seem to respond.

At the suggestion of Mr. Sellers, all the gentlemen approach the Medium for the purpose of inducing some acknowledgment by the Spirit, and inquiries similar to those already stated are repeated without result.

The Committee then temporarily abandon this test.

All present (except the Stenographer) having been seated at the large circular table in the centre of the room, Mr. Pepper addressed the Spirit of Mr. Seybert, as follows: 'Harry, will you communicate with me as you promised to do?'

(Three raps--given slowly and deliberately--are heard.)

Mr. Sellers: Will you communicate with Mr. Pepper by raps or by writing? (No response.) Will you communicate by raps?

The Medium (to Mr. Sellers): Well, my hand does feel like writing. Will you give me a piece of paper?--and maybe they will give me some directions.

Mr. Fullerton (to the Medium): How does your hand feel when affected in that way?

The Medium: It is a peculiar feeling, like that from taking hold of electrical instruments. I do not know but that you might possibly feel it in my hand.

The lady here extended her right hand upon the table toward Mr.

Fullerton. The latter placed his left hand upon the extended hand of the Medium, and subsequently remarked that the pulsation of her wrist was a little above the ordinary rate.

The Medium, ostensibly under Spirit influence, with lead pencil in hand proceeded to write two communications from the Spirit of the late Henry Seybert. The first of these covered two pages of paper of the size of ordinary foolscap. The Medium wrote in large characters, with remarkable rapidity, and in a direction from the right to the left, or the reverse of ordinary handwriting. The writing, consequently, could be read only from the reverse side of the paper and by being held up so as to permit the gas-light to pa.s.s through it.

The communications, as deciphered by Mr. Sellers, with the aid of Mr.

Fullerton and the Medium, were as follows: "You must not expect that I can satisfy you beyond all doubt in so short a time as you have yet had.

I want to give you all in my power, and will do so if you will give me a chance. You must commence right in the first place or you shall all be disappointed for a much longer time. _Princiipis Obsta Sero Medicina Paratum._

Henry Seybert.

"Mend the fault in time or we will all be puzzled.

Henry Seybert."

The foregoing were understood to be directed to Mr. Pepper, in accordance with the a.s.surance given by the Spirit that it would communicate with him.

Subsequently, when the trance condition had apparently disappeared, the Medium complied with a request to write, as it would be read to her, the Latin phrase at the end of the first communication. Using the pencil in her right hand, she transcribed slowly and in the usual direction from left to right. The style of her handwriting was small and comparatively neat. Apparently in every particular her writing in this instance was the exact opposite of that made by her while in the alleged trance condition. She here stated that, ordinarily, she wrote in the same manner in which people generally write, with her right hand and from left to right. With respect to her inability to transcribe the Latin words until these had been spelled for her, she explained that she was not at all familiar with Latin.[A]

[Footnote A: Mr. George S. Pepper, who was present, said that Mr.

Seybert knew no Latin.--G.S.F.]

A member of the Committee, commenting upon a defect in the spelling of the first of the Latin words in the Spirit communication, suggested that the error might be accounted for on the hypothesis that Mr. Seybert, in life, was accustomed to the use of poor Latin.