Phychic Tests

The tests given to me and to my fellow-investigators through the six

sensitives who so ably assisted us during our seven years of

experimental work in this little-known field of research--the tests have

been so numerous, and were of such a varied character, that I find it

somewhat difficult to know which to select out of the hundreds which

were recorded in our books officially and elsewhere, the ones which will

prove o the greatest interest to inquirers; but I have made extracts

from ten of these records, and these, with a few taken from Sir William

Crookes's reports on the experiments conducted in his presence, will, in

my opinion, be sufficient to prove that we who have witnessed these

marvels are neither hallucinated, insane, nor liars when we solemnly

affirm that we have both seen and handled the materialized bodies built

up for temporary use by entities from another sphere; all the statements

made here being true in every detail, to the best of my knowledge and

belief.





EXPERIMENT NO. 1



Place--Lyndhurst, New Forest, Hampshire. Sensitive A, male, aged about

46.



As an example of a simple but exceedingly severe test, I would first

record one given to me and a fellow-investigator on the outskirts of the

New Forest, one for which no special preparation of any kind whatever

had been made.



The sensitive, a nearly blind man, was taken by us on a dark night to a

spot totally unknown to him, as he had only just arrived from London by

train, and was led into a large travelling caravan, one which he had

never been near before, as it had only recently left the builder's

hands.



During the day I had made a critical examination of the interior of the

caravan, and had satisfied myself that no one was or could possibly be

concealed in it. I then locked the door, and kept the key in my pocket

until the moment when, on the arrival of the sensitive, I unlocked the

door and we all passed into the caravan together. I then locked and

bolted the door behind us.



As I have already said, no preparation of any kind had been made for the

experiment. It was merely the result of a desire to see if anything

could be produced through this sensitive, under extremely difficult

conditions--conditions which we considered as so utterly bad as to make

failure a certainty.



We did not even possess a chair of any kind for the sensitive or

ourselves to sit upon, so we placed for his use a board on top of the

iron cooking-range which was fixed in the kitchen-portion of the

caravan, whilst we sat upon the two couches which were used as beds in

the living-portion of the caravan. There was no music, no powerful

"human battery" in the shape of a number of picked sitters; in fact, the

conditions were just about as bad as they could possibly be, and yet,

within ten minutes of my locking the door behind us, the figure of a

tall man stood before us, a man so tall that he was compelled to bow his

head as he passed under the six-foot high partition which separated the

two sections of the caravan.



He said, "I am Colonel -- who was 'killed,' as you say, at the battle of

-- in Egypt. For many years during my earth-life I was deeply interested

in materializations, and spent the last night of my life in England

experimenting with this very sensitive; and it is a great pleasure to me

to be able to return to you--strangers though you both are to

me--through him. To prove to you that I am not the sensitive

masquerading before you, will you please come here and stand close to

me, and so settle the matter for yourself?"



I at once rose and stood beside him, almost touching him. I then

discovered that not only were his features and his coloring totally

different from those of the sensitive, but that he towered above me,

standing, as nearly as I could judge, six foot two or three inches, and

was certainly four inches taller than either the sensitive or myself.



Whilst thus standing beside him, and at a distance of about eight feet

from the sensitive, we could both hear the unfortunate man moving

uneasily on his hard seat on the kitchen-range, sighing and moaning as

if in pain.



The entity remained with us for about three minutes, and his place was

then taken by a slightly built young man, standing about five feet nine

inches, one claiming to be a recently deceased member of the royal

family. He talked with us in a soft and pleasing voice, finally

whispering a private message to my companion, asking him to deliver it

to his mother, Queen --.





EXPERIMENT NO. 2



Place--Peckham Rye, London, S. E. Sensitive A, male, aged about 46.



An almost equally hopeless task was set this sensitive by the owner of

the caravan and myself when we experimented with him at midday on a

brilliant morning in July, with sunlight streaming into the room round

the edges of the drawn down window-blinds, and round the top, sides, and

bottom of the heavy window-curtains, which we had pinned together in a

vain attempt to keep out the sunlight during the experiment.



And yet once again, and in spite of the conditions which we regarded as

utterly hopeless, the figure of a man appeared in less than ten minutes,

materialized from head to foot, as he proved to us by showing us his

lower limbs. He left the side of the sensitive, walked out into the room

and stood between us, talking to us in a deep rich voice for nearly

three minutes. As he stood beside us we could hear the sensitive, twelve

feet away, moving uneasily on his chair and groaning slightly.



Five minutes after he disappeared the same (alleged) recently deceased

member of the royal family walked out to us and held a short private

conversation with my companion, and sent another message to his mother,

Queen --.





EXPERIMENT NO. 3



Place--West Hampstead, London, N. W. Sensitive B, female, aged about

49.



Persons of middle age or older who happened to be in England a few years

ago at the time that two lawsuits were brought against a celebrated

conjurer by the clever young man who had succeeded in exposing one of

his most mystifying tricks, will well remember the sensation caused by

the giving of both verdicts against the conjurer; and the young man--to

whom I shall refer as Mr. X--at once became famous as the man who had

beaten one of the cleverest conjurers of the day.



A friend of mine, who had been present on several occasions when Sir

William Crookes's sensitive--Florrie Cook (Mrs. Corner), referred to

above as Sensitive B--had produced materializations in gaslight at my

house in London, asked her to visit his house at West Hampstead one

evening to meet several friends of his, and to see if it were possible

for any entity to materialize in my friend's own drawing-room.



She at once accepted his invitation to sit there under strict test

conditions; and, talking the matter over with some of his friends a day

or two before the one chosen for the experiment, he told me that they

had arranged to have the sensitive securely tied to her chair, to have

strong iron rings fastened to the floor-boards, through which ropes

would be passed, these ropes to be securely fastened to the sensitive's

legs; all knots of every size and kind to be sealed, so as to prevent

any attempt on her part to leave her chair and to masquerade as a

materialized entity.



One of his friends happened to know the celebrated Mr. X--, and, as he

had so recently succeeded in beating so notable a conjurer, he was

invited to be present and to take entire charge of the tying up, the

binding and sealing arrangements, in order to render the escape of the

sensitive from her chair an impossibility.



When I joined the party in the drawing-room, Mr. X--, to whom I was

introduced, was busily engaged in tying the sensitive up with his own

ropes and tapes, sealing every knot with special sealing-wax and with a

seal provided by our host. The room was a large one, and a portion at

one end had been cleared of all furniture, and in the center of this

space only the sensitive seated upon her chair, and Mr. X-- busily at

work, were to be seen; and the latter, after another fifteen minutes of

real hard labor, was asked by our host if he was thoroughly satisfied

that the sensitive was fastened to her chair securely. He replied that

so securely was she fastened, that if she could produce phenomena of any

kind whatever under such conditions, he would at once admit their

genuineness.



The sensitive was all this time in a perfectly normal state, and not

flurried in any way, her one anxiety being lest we should lower the

lights, as she was so terrified at the thought of darkness.



Mr. X--, after stepping backwards to have a final look at the result of

his labors, then walked close to the spot where the sensitive was

sitting in gaslight, and put one hand up towards the top of the curtain,

and was in the act of drawing this round her to keep the direct rays of

the gaslight from falling upon her, when a large brown arm and hand

suddenly appeared, the hand being clapped heavily upon Mr. X--'s

shoulder, whilst a gruff masculine voice asked him in loud tones, "Are

you really satisfied?"



I have witnessed some strange happenings in connection with my

investigation of occult matters, but to my dying day I shall never

forget the look of blank astonishment on Mr. X--'s face at that moment.



Quickly recovering himself, however, he at once examined the

sensitive--a little woman, far below the average height, having small

hands and feet, as we could all see quite clearly--and declared that

every seal and every knot was unbroken, and just as he had left them not

sixty seconds before.



Amongst other entities who materialized that evening was a young girl of

about eighteen years of age who stated that when she left her

earth-body she had been a dancer at a cafe in Algiers.



She came from the spot where the sensitive was seated, laughing

heartily, stating that the hand and arm belonged to an old English

sailor, whom she spoke of as "the Captain." She said, further, that he

had been standing with her watching the tying-up process from their

sphere, and laughing at Mr. X--'s vain attempt to prevent the production

of the phenomena. The Captain had very much wished to materialize fully,

so as to surprise Mr. X-- as he stepped back from the sensitive; but,

finding that he could only get sufficient "power" to produce a hand and

arm, he was in a bad temper. And this was evidently the case, for during

the ten minutes that the girl remained talking to us we could now and

then hear the gruff voice of the Captain rolling out language which can

only be described as "forcible and free."



The experiment lasted for nearly an hour, and at its conclusion Mr. X--

examined the sensitive, and once again reported that every seal and knot

were just as he had left them at the commencement of the experiment.





EXPERIMENT NO. 4



Place--My House in London. Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.



On numerous occasions this sensitive has been seen by all present, in

gaslight shaded by red paper, seated on his chair in a state of deep

trance, and was heard to be breathing heavily, whilst two materialized

entities stood beside him; or with one beside him, and the other

standing five to eight feet away from him and close to the sitters.



Again, two female entities were seen simultaneously when this male

sensitive was experimenting with us, one of them inside the half-circle

formed by the sixteen sitters, and talking to them in a low sweet voice,

at a distance of about eight feet from the sensitive; whilst the other

female entity passed through or over the sitters, and, walking about the

room outside the half-circle formed by the sitters, came up behind two

of them, and not only spoke audibly to them, but also held a short

conversation with the entity inside the ring, both speaking almost

instantaneously.