This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1893 edition. Excerpt: …of the reality of a spiritual world. They merely arrest the attention. The reason is led to accept a belief in the spiritual by its own operations, aided by the subtle influence of unseen causes after the mind has been directed into this channel by occurrences which cannot be explained by so-called
natural laws.‘ About twelve months after commencing our sittings, we heard of a party of investigators at Bed worth, and found on paying a visit that one or two of their number had developed into
mediums. A medium–it may be explained–is a person through whom, as through a channel, spirits can communicate or manifest themselves by speech, writing, or other means. None of our party showed signs of development in this direction. At one of the first seances attended at Bedwortli a spirit writing through the medium, who was in a trance, announced itself as
Satan. With the bravado and self-consciousness characteristic of a youth with a smattering of the sciences, I was bent on discovering and exposing imposture, and said, You are just the chap I want. I defied the spirit to do its worst, and was about adding that if it could show itself tangibly I would begin to think there was something in it. I had not finished the sentence before I was apparently transported to the frigid zone; I felt like a statue of ice, every fibre in my body being frozen and rigid–a most horrible sensation. Fearlessly and defiantly exercising my will power, which had been momentarily paralysed by the suddenness of the occurrence, I freed myself from this uncanny condition. Another member of the party felt a similarly chilling influence. Other manifestations occurred at this seance which need not be particularised. Not being able to discover the faintest suspicion of…