a Pipey Leavera 1857-1950 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 1 of 9 SurvivalAfterDeath.org News and articles on Mediumship, Psi and Survival every week Mediums Homepage About Us Latest News & Events Leonora Piper 1857-1950 Biographies Articles OF BOSTON, the foremost trance medium in the history Experiments of psychical research, to whom is due the conversion of Sir Photographs Oliver Lodge, Dr. Richard Hodgson, Prof. James Hyslop and many other intellects to a belief in survival and communication Theory with the dead. Online Library When eight years old playing in the garden, "suddenly she felt a Links sharp blow on her right ear, accompanied by a prolonged Recommended Books sibilant sound. This gradually resolved itself into the letter S. which was then followed by the words "Aunt Sara, not dead, but Contact and Feedback with you still.' The child was terrified. Her mother made a note of the day and the time. Several days later it was found that Search Aunt Sara had died at the very hour on the very day. A few weeks later she cried out at night that she could not sleep because of "the bright light in the room and all the faces in it," and because of the bed that "won't stop rocking." Discounting occasional experiences of this kind, her childhood was normal. At 22 years of age she married William Piper of Boston. Soon after this she went to consult Dr. J. R. Cocke, a blind professional clairvoyant who was attracting considerable attention by his medical diagnoses and cures. She fell into a short trance. At the second visit to the clairvoyant's circle, held for effecting cures and developing latent mediumship, when Dr. Cocke put his hand on her head, she saw in front of her "a flood of light in which many strange faces appeared." In trance she rose from her chair, walked to a table in the centre of the room, picked up a pencil and paper, wrote rapidly for a few minutes, and handing the written paper to a member of the circle she returned to her seat. The particular member was Judge Frost, of Cambridge, a noted jurist; the message, the most remarkable he ever received, came from his dead son. The report of Judge Frost's experience spread and Mrs. Piper was soon besieged for sittings. She was not at all pleased by this sudden notoriety and apart from members of her family and intimate friends she refused to see anyone. However, when Mrs. Gibbins, Prof. William James' mother-in-law applied for a sitting (she heard of the strange things through servant gossip) for some inexplicable reason her request was granted. Her own, and subsequently her daughter's experience, the marvellous story which they brought back induced Prof. James to play the esprit fort before his family. But his impression of supernormal powers on the part of the medium was so strong that he not only continued sittings, but for the next eighteen months virtually controlled all séance arrangements. Referring mainly to this first period of his http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm 8/29/2007 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 2 of 9 experiences he wrote in 1890 in SPR Proceedings, Vol. VI.; "And I repeat again what I said before, that, taking everything that I know of Mrs. Piper into account, the result is to make me feel as absolutely certain as I am of any personal fact in the world that she knows things in her trances which she cannot possibly have heard in her waking state, and that the definite philosophy of her trances is yet to be found." When Prof. James began his experiments, a soi disant French doctor, Phinuit, was in exclusive control of the sittings from the other side. He appears to have been inherited from Dr. Cocke. He was known there as Finne or Finnett. His manifestation was not immediate. The first control of Mrs. Piper was an Indian girl of the strange name: Chlorine. Commodore Vanderbilt, Longfellow, Lorette Penchini, J. Sebastian Bach and Mrs. Siddons, the actress, were next encountered with as communicators. Phinuit had a deep gruff voice, in striking contrast with the voice of the medium. His exclusive regime lasted from 1884-1892 when "George Pelham," a friend of Dr. Hodgson, who died in an accident, appeared and manifested in automatic writing. The trance speaking was left for Dr. Phinuit and the control, speaking and writing, was often simultaneous. In 1897 the Imperator group took charge of the séance proceedings. Phinuit disappeared and Pelham became relegated to the role of a minor communicator. While Phinuit had much difficulty in keeping back other would-be communicators, the advent of the Imperator group of controls made the communications freer from interruptions and from the admixture of apparently foreign elements. They excluded "inferior" intelligences, whom they speak of as "earth-bound" spirits, from the use of the light. Under the new regime the communications assumed a dignity and loftiness of expression, as well as a quasi-religious character, which they had heretofore entirely lacked. Moreover, the passing in and out of the trance state which in the earlier stages had been attended with a certain amount of difficulty and discomfort, now, under the new conditions, became quiet and peaceful. Prof. William James called special attention to the point that the Imperator group of controls not only exhibited characteristic personalities, but they could divine the most secret thoughts of the sitters. As a lasting influence of this regime in later years Mrs. Piper showed remarkable development as spiritual adviser in her waking state. "It is almost," writes Alta L. Piper in 1929, "as if, since the trance state has been less and less resorted to, the cloak of Rector has fallen upon Mrs. Piper herself, and the good that she has been able to do along these lines, during the past nine or ten years, is almost unbelievable." Mrs. Piper did not exhibit physical phenomena, except one single manifestation: she could withdraw the scent from flowers and make them wither in a short time. To establish rapport with http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm 8/29/2007 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 3 of 9 her spirit communicators she utilised psychometric influences, usually asking for an object which was about the person of the departed. Prof. James succeeded in hypnotising her and found the conditions of the hypnotic and medium-trance entirely different. He found no signs of thought-transference either in the hypnotic condition or immediately after it. Of the earliest trances there is no contemporary record. When, owing to other duties, Prof. James relinquished direct control of the Piper séances he wrote to various members of the SPR of the puzzling and remarkable facts of the mediumship. It was the result of these representations that Dr. Richard Hodgson arrived in America for the express purpose of continuing the investigation on behalf of the SPR. With his advent there began the most famous period of Mrs. Piper's mediumship. Dr. Hodgson was the keenest fraud-hunter, the most pronounced sceptic and he took every precaution to bar the possibility of deception. For some time Dr. Hodgson engaged the services of a detective to follow Mrs. Piper and watch possible attempts to obtain information normally. On the first three days of the week, when sittings were given, Dr. Hodgson forbade her to see a morning newspaper. He arranged the sittings without communicating the name of the sitter to Mrs. Piper. The sitters were in most cases unknown to her and were introduced under the pseudonym "Smith." The sittings were often improvised for the benefit of chance callers of whose very existence Mrs. Piper could not have been aware. She was usually weakest precisely where the pseudo medium is most successful. She was vague about dates, preferred to give Christian names to surnames and mostly concentrated on the description of diseases, personal idiosyncrasies and character of the sitters. She fished out significant and trivial details from their past of which a fraudulent medium could least have got hold of. On the other hand, she often failed to answer test questions. The spirit of Hannah Wild manifesting through her could not describe the contents of the sealed letter which she wrote before her death and the names which Stainton Moses gave as the names of his earthly guides were in each case incorrect. The hypothesis of fraud has been discussed in its every aspect by Dr. Hodgson, Professor William James, Prof. Newbold, of Pennsylvania University, Dr. Walter Leaf and Sir Oliver Lodge. In 1898 Prof. James wrote in the Psychological Review: "Dr. Hodgson considers that the hypothesis of fraud cannot be seriously maintained. I agree with him absolutely. The medium has been under observation, much of the time under close observation, as to most of the conditions of her life, by a large number of persons, eager, many of them, to pounce upon any suspicious circumstance for (nearly) fifteen years. "During that time not only has there not been one single suspicious circumstance remarked, but not one suggestion has ever been made from any quarter which might tend positively to explain how http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htn 8/29/2007 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 4 of 9 the medium, living the apparent life she leads, could possibly collect information about so many sitters by natural means. The scientist who is confident of 'fraud' here must remember that in science as much as in common life a hypothesis must receive some positive specification and determination before it can be profitably discussed, and a fraud which is no assigned kind of fraud, but simply 'fraud' at large, fraud in abstracto, can hardly be regarded as a specially scientific explanation of concrete facts." He added, at a later period: "Practically I should be willing now to stake as much money on Mrs. Piper's honesty as on that of anyone I know, and I am quite satisfied to leave my reputation for wisdom or folly, so far as human nature is concerned, to stand or fall by this declaration." In 1888-89 Prof. Hyslop joined the investigation. On the first two or three occasions he took the extraordinary precaution of putting on a mask before he got out of the cab, removing it only after Mrs. Piper was entranced, and resumed it before she awoke. Twelve sittings were sufficient to convince him of the untenability of the secondary personality hypothesis. He declared, without hesitation, that: "I prefer to believe that I have been talking to my dead relatives in person; it is simpler." His first report was published in Proc. SPR, Vol. XVI. and concluded: "I give my adhesion to the theory that there is a future life and persistence of personal identity." In unabated zeal, Dr. Hodgson was seeking for still more stringent precautions and experiments and conceived the idea of removing Mrs. Piper from her normal surroundings and placing her in a foreign country among strangers. This is how Mrs. Piper's first visit to Britain came about. She arrived in November, 1889. She was met at the station by Prof. (Sir Oliver) Lodge and escorted next day to Cambridge by Myers at whose house she stayed. "I am convinced," says Myers, "that she brought with her a very slender knowledge of English affairs and English people. The servant who attended on her and on her two children was chosen by myself, and was a young woman from a country village, whom I had full reason to believe to be trustworthy and also quite ignorant of my own or my friend's affairs. For the most part I had myself not determined upon the persons whom I http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm 8/29/2007 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 5 of 9 would invite to sit with her. I chose these sitters in great measure by chance; several of them were not residents of Cambridge; and except in one or two cases where anonymity would have been hard to preserve, I brought them to her under false names - sometimes introducing them only when the trance had already begun." Mrs. Piper gave, under the supervision of Myers, Lodge and Dr. Walter Leaf, eighty-eight sittings between November, 1889, and February, 1890. Wherever she stayed in Britain her movements were planned and arranged for her and even when shopping she was accompanied by some member of the SPR. Lodge even exceeded Myers in caution. Prior to her stay in Liverpool his wife engaged an entire new staff of servants. Lodge safely locked away the family Bible and, throughout the duration of her stay, all of Mrs. Piper's correspondence passed through Sir Oliver Lodge's hands who had permission to read it in almost every instance. In his first sitting his father, "Uncle William" and "Aunt Ann" and a child of his who died very young, were described. There were some flaws in the descriptions which were later rectified. Many personal and intimate details of their lives were given. In subsequent sittings the names of the dead relatives were communicated in full and supernormal knowledge of the history of the whole family was generally exhibited. Sir Oliver Lodge's report was published in 1890 with an introduction by F. W. H. Myers, who concluded: 1. That many of the facts given could not have been learnt even by a skilled detective. 2. That to learn others of them, although possible, would have needed an expenditure of money as well as of time which it seems impossible to suppose that Mrs. Piper could have met. 3. That her conduct has never given any ground whatever for supposing her capable of fraud or trickery. Few persons have been so long and so carefully observed; and she has left on all observers the impression of thorough uprightness, candour and honesty. The second part of the report was contributed by Dr. Walter Leaf. A letter from Prof. William James was appended in conclusion. Sir Oliver Lodge enumerates thirty-eight cases in which information, not within the conscious knowledge of the sitter, was given. In only five instances did the sitter acknowledge that the facts were at one time known to him. Considering the extraordinary familiarity of Phinuit with the boyhood days of two of his uncles Lodge was curious how much of this knowledge might be obtained by normal means. He sent a professional inquiry agent to the scene for the purpose of making full and exhaustive inquiries. http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm 8/29/2007 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 6 of 9 "Mrs. Piper" wrote the agent "has certainly beat me. My inquiries in modern Barking yield less information than she gave. Yet the most skilful agent could have done no more than secure the assistance of the local record keepers and the oldest inhabitants living." In his summary Lodge states: "By introducing anonymous strangers and by catechising her myself in various ways, I have satisfied myself that much of the information she possesses in the trance state is not acquired by ordinary common-place methods, but that she has some unusual means of acquiring information. The facts on which she discourses are usually within the knowledge of some person present, though they are often entirely out of his conscious thought at the time. Occasionally facts have been narrated which have only been verified afterwards, and which are in good faith asserted never to have been known; meaning thereby that they have left no trace on the conscious memory of any person present or in the neighbourhood and that it is highly improbable that they were ever known to such persons. She is also in the trance state able to diagnose diseases and to specify the owners or late owners of portable property, under circumstances which preclude the application of ordinary methods." Further he says: "That there is more than can be explained by any amount of either conscious or unconscious fraud - that the phenomenon is a genuine one, however it is to be explained - I now regard as absolutely certain; and I make the following two statements with the utmost confidence: 1. That Mrs. Piper's attitude is not one of deception. 2. No conceivable deception on the part of Mrs. Piper can explain the facts." After Mrs. Piper's return to America Dr. Hodgson took charge again. His first report was published in 1892 in Vol. VIII of the SPR Proceedings. In an excess of caution he refused to consider, on the available evidence, the acceptance of the spirit hypothesis as justified. Yet his inner self was wavering. He was torn with doubts. But not for long. In 1892 a notable evolution was witnessed in the Piper phenomena in the quality of trance communications by the development of automatic writing and by the advent of Pelham as control. Hodgson's second report, which appeared in SPR Proceedings, Vol. XIII, in 1897, ended http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm 8/29/2007 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 7 of 9 with the adoption of the spirit hypothesis. His statement was very firm: "I cannot profess to have any doubt but that the 'chief communicators I are veritably the personalities that they claim to be; that they have survived the change we call death, and that they have directly communicated with us whom we call living through Mrs. Piper's entranced organism. Having tried the hypothesis of telepathy from the living for several years, and the 'spirit' hypothesis also for several years, I have no hesitation in affirming with the most absolute assurance that the 'spirit' hypothesis is justified by its fruits and the other hypothesis is not." It is interesting to quote here the following note from Alta L. Piper's biography of her mother: "During the latter years of his investigation I more than once heard Dr. Hodgson say, ruefully, that his amour propre had never quite recovered from the shock it received when he found himself forced to accept unreservedly the genuineness of the so-called 'Piper phenomena." A third report which Dr. Hodgson intended to publish was cut short by his unexpected death in 1905. Mr. J. G. Piddington came over from Britain and a committee was formed to dispose of the material on hand. The reports were filled with intimate and personal data concerning the sitters. They trusted Dr. Hodgson but would not trust anybody else. Finally, over the valiant fight of Prof. Hyslop all these reports were returned to the original sitters and the valuable material was lost. Mrs. Piper remained under the jurisdiction of the SPR and the sittings were continued under the charge of Prof. Hyslop. In 1906 Mrs. Piper made a second visit to Britain. It was mainly devoted to elucidate the mystery of cross-correspondences. Several famous investigators (Myers, Edmund Gurney, Hodgson, etc.) died and communications of an intricate nature were purported to emanate from their surviving spirits. Seventy- four sittings were held with Mrs. Piper. Many others with Mrs. Verral and Mrs. Holland. The result was summed up and analysed by Mr. Piddington. According to his findings the coincidences of thought and expression in the various messages were too numerous and too detailed to be accounted for by chance. In 1909 Prof. James published his report on the Hodgson communications in the Britain and American SPR Proceedings jointly. He felt the presence of an external will, but could not commit himself. On the Myers, Gurney and Isaac Thompson communications in the same number of Proceedings Sir Oliver Lodge wrote: "On the whole they (messages) tend to render certain the existence of some outside intelligence or control, distinct from http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm 8/29/2007 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 8 of 9 the consciousness, and, so far as I can judge, from the subconsciousness also, of Mrs. Piper or other mediums. And they tend to render probable the working hypothesis, on which I choose to proceed, that the version of the nature of the intelligences which they themselves present and favour is something like the truth. In other words, I feel that we are in the secondary or tertiary touch - at least occasionally - with some stratum of the surviving personality of the individuals who are represented as sending messages." All this while it only happened once that aspersions were cast, in public, on Mrs. Piper's character and phenomena. On October 20, 1901, the New York Herald published a statement of Mrs. Piper, advertised as a confession, in which she was quoted to say that she intended to give up the work she had been doing for the SPR as fourteen years' work was not enough to clear up the subject and summed up her own views as follows: "The theory of telepathy strongly appeals to me as the most plausible and genuinely scientific solution of the problem I do not believe that spirits of the dead have spoken through me when I have been in the trance state It may be that they have, but I do not affirm it." According to the inquiries made by the editor of Light Mrs. Piper forbade the publication of the article as soon as she learnt that they advertised it with the word "confession" above it. She received a telegram from the New York Herald assuring her that the word was used for advertising only and would not appear in the article. On October 25, 1901, Mrs. Piper stated in The Boston Advertiser. "I did not make any such statement as that published in the New York Herald to the effect that spirits of the departed do not control me My opinion is to-day as it was eighteen years ago. Spirits of the departed may have controlled me and they may not. I confess that I do not know. I have not changed I make no change in my relations." As Sir Oliver Lodge points out, her honesty was not in question and the New York Herald spoke of her throughout in laudatory terms; "since little value would be attached to her opinion in favour of the spiritistic hypothesis, it cannot fairly be urged that her opinion on the other side would weigh with us. Mrs. Piper in fact is not in a more favourable, but even in a less favourable position for forming an opinion than those who sit with her, since she does not afterwards remember what passes while she is in trance." http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htm 8/29/2007 ISS: Biography of Leonora Piper Page 9 of 9 The management of Mrs. Piper's work during 1908-09 was a grave mistake says Mrs. Piper's biographer. Instead of being carried on along systematic and evidential lines it was devoted largely to private and personal sittings of which inadequate or no records were kept. The sitters also undertook to make certain physical tests and experiments of an unwarrantably harsh character. According to Alta L. Piper this had an important share in the temporary withdrawal of power. In October, 1909, Mrs. Piper made her third visit to Britain. Prostrated by a heavy cold she was not able to give her first two or three sittings before late spring and early summer of 1910. These sittings were supervised by Sir Oliver Lodge. The return from the trance state was very difficult. Both the sitters and the controls were disturbed by the conditions and at a sitting on May 24, 1911, a coming suspension of mediumship was announced. The last sitting was held on July 3. After the appearance of a new control, "Mme. Guyon" it was closed by Imperator. In the years that followed communications by automatic writing remained intermittent but the trance state did not make its appearance until 1915 when the famous Faunus message, relating to the forthcoming death of Sir Oliver Lodge's son, Raymond was given. Between 1914 and 1924 no regular work was done by Mrs. Piper. The failing health of her mother to whom she was very devoted, made increasing demands upon her time and strength, Further, no suitable supervisor for her work was found. In October, 1924, Dr. Gardner Murphy conducted a series of sittings at the end of which the SPR agreed that Mrs. Piper should sit with the Boston SPR during the season of 1926-27. She complied. Mrs. Piper's work cannot be sufficiently appreciated. For several decades her powers were tested to a degree which no other medium had approximated. Psychical research owes a debt to her which cannot be discharged. Bibliography: Sage M.: Mrs. Piper and the SPR, 1903; Anna Manning Robbins: Both Sides of the Veil, 1909; Alta L. Piper The Life and Work of Mrs. Piper, 1929. Source (with minor modifications): An Encyclopaedia of Psychic Science by Nandor Fodor (1934). Some parts of this page © The International Survivalist Society 2004 contact@survivalafterdeath.org http://www.survivalafterdeath.org/mediums/piper.htn 8/29/2007 (Ref. 8/20/18, STUDIES see IN SPIRITISN XViii Interactions, Spring 1909, BY nycit, between GBD, AMY E. TANNER, PH.D. G.S. Hallofcark U., of Dr. Hodgson. Chap. 10 -> . See re GBD: PFOLIAN Pp WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY Sp 266F Pp.190f G. STANLEY HALL, PH.D., LL.D. P 201E Pp. 246f Pp. 390+ NEW YORK AND LONDON See ch 2 on War D. APPLETON AND COMPANY James first 1910 exposure Mrs piper tatro. by G.S. Hell. Describes GBD as Piper's "Manager" Xviii Note: This chapter represents in part the FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER extent of DORR'S involvement. see Brackets indicate our own comments. Blank spaces indi- other chapters for additional content. cate illegible words. RIEEPP Mr. G. B. Dorr met us at the station and, as we walked over to Mrs. Piper's apartment, explained various things to us about the management of the sittings When we went CHAPTER X in we were first introduced to Mrs. Piper's daughters, that SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: FIRST SITTING they might know us in case we ever should come without Mr. Dorr, and then we were introduced to Mrs. Piper her- (IN the following chapters is given an account of the self and taken to another room where the sitting was to sittings which Dr. G. Stanley Hall and myself had with be held. Here Mrs. Piper sat down in a large chair be- Mrs. Piper in the spring of 1909. Dr. Hall was the inter- fore a table with some pillows on it, and we had some desul- locutor and myself the note-taker. Mr. G. B. Dorr was tory conversation. Dr. Hall introduced himself under his present at the first ones, but after we learned how to man- own name, and after a little she asked if he were Stanley age conditions he no longer came. Hall, and seemed somewhat impressed by his visiting her. No attempt was made to get the exact words of the He told her that he had once sat with her years before, and sitters because we believed that it would be impossible to had tried to arrange with Dr. Hodgson for a series of sit- get everything unless we had two stenographers, and we tings but had not succeeded. There was no attempt to could not arrange to have even one. Our tests, accordingly, conceal identity because we were convinced that if Dr. were planned so as to be independent of the exact words Hall had given an assumed name and the control had told used, and even of the exact order of events in each sit- his real one, we should only have believed that either the ting. Before each sitting we planned carefully the tests control or the waking Mrs. Piper had recognised him. which we wished to make, writing out rather full notes After a few minutes of conversation Mrs. Piper's eye- and questions which Dr. Hall followed carefully during lids began to droop; then a fixed stare came, growing more the sitting, and which I checked up with the writing of the fixed until the eyes closed. Her face worked convulsively, control during the sitting, writing out additional notes at her breathing became laboured, and her hands worked the time and directly afterward, either the same night or slightly. They were lying on the cushions in front of her, the next morning. almost on a level with her head. Then her head sank on I read the handwriting as the control wrote, and had the pillows, with her nose almost buried in them; the little difficulty after the first sitting, contrary to what seems breathing became snoring, and Mr. Dorr raised her head to be the usual experience. This I consider largely due to and placed it so that she could breathe freely. This la- the fact that our chief aim was to understand as we went boured, snore-like breathing continued through the seance. along what the control was trying to do, that we kept our The face became quiet, and the right hand began to grope voices deliberate and slow, and asked for repetitions of for a pencil. what we could not read, as a matter of course. Mrs. Piper's head was turned toward the left. At her Throughout the sittings Dr. Hall is the speaker, unless right was placed a low table with writing pads and pencils it is otherwise indicated, his words being in parentheses. on it. The sitter sits at this table and beside Mrs. Piper, 167 166 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER SO that he can read the writing. Dr. Hall occupied this Of course I do. Were you just You never place, I was at his right, and Mr. Dorr most of the time could read my writing. See if it is better now. knelt between him and Mrs. Piper deciphering the words (Oh, yes, it's better than mine now.) which Dr. Hall could not make out. Throughout the ses- Capital. sion there was considerable desultory conversation among How are I should say so. How is everything with the three of us, but as there was nothing evidential in the you? First rate? sitting this probably makes no important difference in the (Yes. Mr. Dorr, you see, has given me the sitting which you wouldn't let me have.) value of the report. I found it extremely difficult to get Glad of it. I am right glad of it. Delighted to see you. any where near all that is said, and doubt if even a stenog- Hurry up Tell me about the problems of life. rapher could do SO. Have you solved any of them yet? Mrs. Piper began to write at about 10.50 (the exact time (I have solved one very important one- the Watseka Won- was unfortunately not noted), and at this time her pulse der that you investigated.) as taken by Dr. Hall was 84. Glad I am you are (She proved not to be genuine. Her motive was that boy [Presently the hand groped for the pencil, and began to she wanted to meet.) write.] I told you so. I told you so. I had my doubts, had my HAIL. We greet you friends all with peace and joy. (R.) doubts. I remember well. Capital. I am glad you UD. I am Do not place clouds over my vision. (R.) in the myself old keep at it and I wish you would speak to me. I am Rector, servant of I will help. Hello George. [to Mr. Dorr.] God. I am here to greet you to-day. [Mr. Dorr asks if he shall leave, and Hodgson says,] Tell Helen I am better off as I am if she can Never mind. I will go on. Tell me about yourself as our UD my meaning. life here is too short not to get at something definite. Speak to me. Yes. Myers greets you and says he was very (I have just seen Mrs. Tingley at Point Loma. She is very much interested in voice. Dydeis. Ovid. Be within call. glad you exposed Madam Blavatsky.) (Rector, is Dr. Hodgson within reach?) [Dorr.] Amen. I thought she would be if she ever got her senses. Yes. (I was much surprised. I thought she would be a bitter (Will you tell him Dr. Stanley Hall is here, and see if he enemy of yours, but she's your friend.) can't come and conduct the sitting on your side?) [Dorr.] I have a letter saying she didn't care for me but Yes. Came this minute. We UD better now. We UD I care for I know and UD all. their tricks. Do you remember better. [undecipherable and repetition called for] Wolcott? [Here the handwriting became very heavy, marking Hodg- (Yes, very well indeed. He died about three years ago.) son's advent.] He is here. Hello! I am Hodgson. Who are you? (Ask him what he has to say to me.) (Stanley Hall.) He is perfectly dumfounded at seeing you here, but says he Stanley whom? Stanley whom is glad George. Give me my influence if you [Dr. Hall gives it again, and asks something about whether can. It will help to keep my thoughts clear. Hodgson remembered the plans they had made just before his [Mr. Dorr leaves the room and presently comes back with death for sittings and investigations.] a black sweater formerly worn by Hodgson. This is placed in 168 14 169 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER the right hand, which feels it for a minute and does so at in- Davis means well and I have more respect for him, but tervals later.] Podmore is I am really glad to see, really glad to see you again and hopelessly conceited, hopelessly. Hop he doesn't count for much. so is Wolcott. (Have you followed what Abbott has done with Mrs. Blake, (Has he any message for his wife? She's just gone to or anything else of his work out west? Europe.) Yes, more or less. I do not favour it much, neither do I Yes. Tell her if any from this side. He favour her in the least. has helped her. Sends his love to all. [undecipherable] all. (Do you favour Hyslop's recent work?) Sends kindest remembrances to you. He says you helped him Fairly well. He is conscien, conscien, conscientious c-o-n- greatly in one way [undecipherable word] but your life seemed s-e-i-e-n-t-i-o-u-s and well meaning also but a little too credu- pretty full most of the time. Tell me about philosophy and lous for his own good. I must pull him up a little. your in belief in it. [Heavy long dash here.] (I hope you'll do that. Have you followed what James has Philosophy. Any ideas of to advance about reincarnation or been saying lately about other things?) any other nonsense. Yes. I do not like the idea however of his giving the im- (I think the subconscious is everywhere coming to the fore pression that I said that ring was stolen. I did I don't now. That's the main thing.) like the idea of his giving the impression that I said that ring Science. was Ring (Yes, a new science every way. You would be interested was stolen. I never, never dreamed of say- ing such a thing. I saw it my pocket in my to know what has been done in the last two years.) that's Splendid. [Heavy dash. Clutches the sweater.] and However, we won't discuss that. if the subconscious and is all more want [Mr. Dorr said at this point that two days before this he to prove it and wants to prove it also, from But if I know I am he. I am not playing and James had been looking over some proof of sittings in tricks either. I did enough of that over there, over there. which this matter was discussed, and that Mrs. Piper could [To Mr. Dorr.] Hello, are you still there? Tell me about not have known about it. Mr. Dorr also reminded Hodgson that this matter was not one in which Dr. Hall was interested the [undecipherable] advance regarding subconscious. (I think everyone is coming to think that's the main thing, and was not to the point, to which Mr. Hodgson retorted,] Read my last words once more, but I am pleased on the whole in disease, and so on. It is nine-tenths of all the mind we over what James has been doing. have.) Amen. [Very heavily written and underscored.] What (Do you like the criticism of all that sort of thing from Witmer and the Philadelphia people ?) passes in the normal certainly is registered upon registered on Yes, I don't mind him in the slightest. subconscious and we in turn on our side act directly upon (Yes, but they are having great influence I am afraid.) it also. They do not count. Very temporary, as truth will (Tell me, what do you think of Podmore's new work? He's getting rather sceptical about some things.) (Could you find two people for me, either Mr. Clark or my niece, Bessie Beals? I think as I have always thought. He is too conceited to One or both. Has your niece got a mother there handle a subject successfully. Conceited. (No, her mother's here.) (Do you think Davis is right? He's been saying some sav- No, I mean in the body there. I know her. I think I know age things about you.) I have heard her speak about her mother there and say she 170 171 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER wished she I could prove that she was living to her. (Yes, I remember he said that a great many times.) I think I saw her. Did she not have a sister? I am looking for him. Here is Clark. Hurry up, hurry (No, no sister.) up while light lasts, while light lasts, while light lasts. Who came here in infancy (Yes.) (I think not.) [Mr. Clark speaks.] Yes, she did. Hardly lived. Scarcely lived at all in the Do you remember my saying you didn't UD the body. I'll tell you about her if I see you again. I'll subject? Do please answer as quickly as you can. I am de- (I wish you could tell me something that happened between lighted to meet you again. us, our plans, etc., just before you died.) (I think we should agree very much better on all those All right, I will. I will certainly later, later I topics now.) will see and have a talk with her. Indeed so do I. Indeed. You were rather prejudiced and (Do you think you could ever find Mr. Clark very positive, rather over prejudiced and positive, but if you I have no doubt about it. I'll Do you re- have at last caught my ideas, it is a comfort to hear you say so. member Hackley, Hackley (Haven't you come to my ideas, too, in some things?) (Hackley ? No, I don't just now.) Of course, true, I admit it, I have. I admit it I admit it. I found him recently. You had some excellent ideas and I didn't wish to advance (Wait a moment What's that man's name? Oh, what them, but on the whole you were prejudiced was that fellow's name?) (Are you with Mrs. Clark where you are now I wanted to speak about that letter you wrote me on the What a question What would you naturally suppose? I society, and your indifferent attitude until they were published. have been trying to find you for ages, but where you tried to (Can you tell me something about that?) find light there seemed SO little it was scarcely worth while. Yes. I was much annoyed with you at the time but I see [Feeling face.] Those sounds were all around and made me you meant well better now. Annoyed, annoyed. feel like leaving. Do you I see you trying to find me you knew SO little about it. As I remember, I told you it was where there were terrible sounds going on. Sounds. I did useless to try to down a subject of which a man not like it. knew little or nothing. Mr. Dorr speaks: (Dr. Hall does not want a long sitting (That's very apropos indeed. That's the most characteristic and would also like to question about a diagnosis. Would that yet. I can't think of any Hackley though.) be better through the voice or the hand?) [Dr. Hall here noted on the paper that Mr. Clark was speak- [The hand shakes in dissent to voice and bows to hand.] ing, which led to the question from me, and after some dis- I am not a physician, but I will find some one who can. cussion Mr. Dorr asked who was writing. The hand meantime [Hand feels Dr. Hall's back.] had been writing and gave the following,] Not there. Not there. Let I R. H. [Clark speaks again.] Let me say those sounds at [Which came as the answer to who was writing.] were not at all congenial to me. Do you UD If so, I'll be (Good. I thought it was Mr. Clark. I'll have to read it off. Good-bye. Glad to have seen you for a moment. More all over again.) later. Can't you I understand my point a I saw your own father a moment ago. Good-bye. little better. Do you remember my old argument with you [Mr. Clark seems to leave and the hand feels Dr. Hall's about this. back.] 172 173 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER Health? Yes I'll tell you, but light is going out soon. (That's good advice.) Soon. Here's a friend who will have a look at you. More later. [Handwriting becomes much fainter.] Light (Can you tell me more about my condition of health? going. Hodgson going also. Good-bye and good luck to you. Heart trouble not so. Heart trouble not so. No difficulty. Adieu. And Heart trouble, oh no. Heart. Heart trouble? Oh no. Oh no. + We cease now and may the blessing of God be on Not so. Oh No. you R.+ [The hand was repeatedly asked here to rewrite, as the writing was very illegible.] SUBLIMINAL Mr. Dorr again says, (Can't you tell Dr. Hall the symp- toms ?) The hand ceased to write now, at 12:11. The face was [Hand feels eyes, face, and back.] Indigestion, but one much flushed and mouth open, with saliva dripping slightly. of general health, and do not worry about digestive trouble. The eyes opened very slowly, without winking, with a fixed A trifle anemic. Anemic. Yes. A trifle so. Indigestion. stare. After two or three minutes, there were one or two whis- [Touches abdomen.] Indigestion. General, not specific. Do pered words which we could not catch, and then, as nearly as not get it on your mind. Not enough air. Rest. Rest. we could understand, the following, with considerable pause as your heart better not. indicated by the dots: (No.) Mother mother yah don't worry about me Nor kidneys. Fred [as if speaking to some one in the spirit world,] He (No.) is here too oh Take your glasses off and they'll know But anemic but you are you better. [Spoken quite abruptly and more loudly. As I (I dare say.) am the only one with glasses on, I take them off.] Come along But you are anemic. You certainly are. No organic dis- Elizabeth Elizabeth Elizabeth [I ask the ease. Organic. This I know. others, Elizabeth who? And Dr. Hall says, my niece, isn't it?] (How about my general health ?) Tell my mother Don't worry about me Better so Depression, fatigue, tired, lack of energy. Right, right, Go along there now and tell her [Then in a much changed right. How about sleep? tone, apparently Mrs. Piper's normal self speaking,] O-o-o-oh, (Not enough.) Awful!! [A shudder.] I hate it! [Looking at Mr. Dorr with I Do not take the universe upon your loathing.] Ain't you ugly! Oh, ain't you ugly ! Ain't you mind upon UNIVERSE when sleep is needed. Let the world ugly! [Then, still more normally and speaking to Dr. and its problems rest. Hall,] Did you hear my head snap? (That's good.) The brain works unceasingly at every turn and wears on Mr. Dorr then said that this marked the end of the the nervous system. That's the greatest trouble with you. (That's true.) trance proper, and that she would remember what she said You ought to remain in the body a good while if you only from then on. Dr. Hall then took her pulse, time 12:22, take care of yourself. That is a fact. and it was down to 76. (That's good news.) We stayed about twenty minutes longer, having desul- But you must not burn the candle at both ends as you have tory conversation in which Mrs. Piper joined, although she been doing. Stop and rest. looked sleepy, her eyelids drooped a little, and her articu- 174 175 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER lation was slightly indistinct. She said that she always felt Another feeler is thrown out in Hackley, which again heavy, not much like walking, and Mr. Dorr added that if strikes no responsive chord. she stays in the trance too long she has no appetite for The diagnosis is amusing. Dr. Hall is emphatically dinner. She also said that if she has too many sittings she not anamic, nor was he at that time fatigued, depressed, feels exhausted all the time. or lacking in energy. He was working overtime, and SO curtailed his hours of sleep at times, but was not sleepless COMMENTS ON FIRST SITTING or worrying as the diagnosis implies. In the subliminal more feelers are thrown out, namely, It is interesting to see how quickly personalities multi- Fred, Elizabeth, and my mother." ply at the opening of the sitting. First comes Rector; One of the most interesting things is the control's adop- almost at once is a message to " Helen," presumably from tion of Dr. Hall's suggestion through manner, etc., that some friend of hers; then Myers greets us; and barely have they knew each other pretty well while alive, and his ref- we time to refer to Hodgson when he is there with a bang. erences to arguments, etc. As a matter of fact Dr. Hall He fires out questions of a general nature which Dr. Hall knew him so slightly that he cannot recall at all how Hodg- answers as best he can on the spur of the moment, testing son looked, and he is not sure that he ever saw him more Hodgson by inventing purely imaginary situations, all of than once. They exchanged a few letters at different times, which Hodgson recalls readily. In Hodgson's report on but that is all. the Watseka Wonder there is no hint that he ever suspected Dr. Hall's own state of mind is best given in his own that a boy was the object of the girl's behaviour, and yet words, written within two days after the sitting here he repeats emphatically, I told you so." Then the right hand waved and groped, and Mr. Wolcott might refer either to a former governor, whom Dorr placed a pencil between the first and second fingers, Dr. Hall had met once, or to the husband of a friend, whom and the hand wrote rapidly he saw but once, on his wedding day. The reference to Hail! We greet you friends all with peace and Dr. Hall's helping either of them is inexplicable, and their joy. R. + Do not place clouds in my vision. R. I am appearance to him quite mal-apropos. Rector, servant of God. R.' The conversation on the subconscious, etc., is of course " This was indeed the great control, Rector, of whose entirely general, while that between Mr. Clark and Dr. deliverances we had read SO much, who had honoured us Hall is open to the same criticism. by his advent from the world of souls with an angelic salu- The niece, Bessie Beals, was a fictitious character that tation. Had we been believers, devotees, burning to learn we had previously tried on another medium with marked tidings from the world of the dear or great dead, this would success, and here it works equally well. Hodgson takes up have been a culminating moment. Somewhat confusing the suggestion with avidity, and proceeds in the approved was the wish that I, who had expected to be rather silent, way, with the suggestion that she had a sister, but when should speak to Rector. Then came the first message: Dr. Hall cannot recollect this he tries to put it so far in Tell Helen I am better off as I am.' the past as to create doubt as to whether Dr. Hall may have Helen who? Quick, how stupid I am! Some Helen heard of it, though it is true. that I ought to know might give all she possessed to re- 176 177 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER ceive this message of the eternal complacency of some one may work out even better than that of the potency of the dear to her, and to know that he or she was not dead but mighty soul-compelling and shepherding power of Rector. gone before. No wonder we experience a touch of something like stage- Now comes not the request but the command, Speak fright as the realisation shimmers up that we are, as it to me.' were, translated into a certain part of the vast immeasur- 'Speak to whom Helen's friend or Rector And able creation with thronging souls on every hand about us. what can I say when I am uncertain I have come to hear But we must lay aside this throng of exciting impressions and have nothing I desire to impart, and indeed I cannot to be remembered and dealt with later, for Hodgson is think of anything apropos. While I wait, a little dazed curious and insistent with a volley of brisk questions. He and confused, comes the message: Myers greets you,' with must first identify me surely by my first name; then apolo- something added about a voice, Ovid, and Dydeis. gises for his writing, which is execrable, and asks first: This must be the Corypheus of the English Psychical How is everything Hurry up. Tell me the prob- Research Society. What has become of Helen's friend, or lems of life; have you solved them yet is it he? And which of these personalities shall I speak to Thus challenged, I trump up patter about the Wat- for now there are five-Rector, Helen's friend, Myers, Ovid, seka wonder, whom Hodgson investigated and of whom a Dydeis-and perhaps the voice is another, and meanwhile later, more sceptical student suggested a solution, the very we cannot escape a little feeling that we are conversing hint of which Hodgson immediately accepts though it makes with a modification of Mrs. Piper's own personality. But ducks and drakes of his own study of the case while on in this tangle Mr. Dorr intervenes, calling for Hodgson, earth. Again summoned to tell something, I blunder into who comes on the instant. What immediate command of the stupendous and very compound falsehood about Mrs. the spirit world! How space is annihilated and how the Tingley. Hodgson's intense hunger for news must be fed. spirits crowd about a medium of communication with earth, What have his friends been doing that he is not better as if they were constantly pushing each other from the informed? And back of all in my consciousness is the mar- yonder end of the wire! Perhaps all these are talking di- vel how he can possibly accept the absurdest gaff I can rectly through Mrs. Piper or even through Rector, who may think of with such implicit and immediate faith. Surely operate this wireless for each in succession. all his life and since he must have been used to dealing " How can he summon individuals from all the vast with people who treat spirits with implicit honesty, and his clouds of the spirits of the dead? If it is my presence with acceptance of my involuted lie fills me with qualms of con- the medium that attracts my own friends in the next world, science. But I am a detective in quest of truth, and the I must be the real battery of potency But it is plain end must justify the means. Strange, too, that he should that those nearest and dearest to me are not most attracted, be so glad to meet me, stranger and critic though he knew while some apparent strangers seem to be drawn my way. me in the flesh. But, poor soul, he must have lost intimate This seems to require the assumption of a wide spacial touch with earth and, as a traveller in a far-distant coun- diffusion of spirits, so that there is another function besides try feels like falling on the neck of the veriest stranger, that of the strength of friendship, viz., the proximity to no matter who he be, from his own native land, SO Hodg- me of the celestial region in which they are. This theory 178 son's pleasure and his familiar greeting of me as old chap 179 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER is moving evidence of the breadth of the chasm that would of my world than I of theirs. My news-letter to them completely isolate this and the other world, were it not would be luridly yellow, even where it was most truthful, for the few wireless stations which have been erected in but now all is eagerly devoured. They must be drawing the souls of mediums. me on to fill up to the brim the measure of my falsity. But I am left no time to yield even to remorse at my But I go on with abandon now, for there could be no base and clumsily trumped up fabrication. Indeed a new more unpardonable sin against the Manes than I have and cogent evidence of the sagacity of the denizens of the already committed; and so very subtly and cleverly I call spirit world is just here revealed. An instant call for for a fictitious name along with that of a man whom I knew Wolcott at this point must be the way in which, according very well. Both are present on the instant. The pseudo- to well-bred spirits, the subject is politely, if abruptly, personality, Bessie Beals, was accepted and she immedi- changed when they detect mendacity in the depths of the ately appeared. What could this mean? Possibly there communicator's soul. As I better understand the etiquette was a soul to be thus named awaiting birth, or one who of the celestial spheres, I shall realise in what a masterly had lived and was awaiting reincarnation, if transmigra- manner my lie was drawn fully out by the method of pre- tion is true. Here is indeed a plump and astonishing new tended acceptance, and that I was given to understand in fact, and I must later reconstruct my astral psychology at this delicate way that I was completely seen through. my leisure. To complete the confusion, a relative within But Wolcott, when I thought I had identified him, three days mentioned to me incidentally one Bessie Beals, was a surprise. How could so mundane a man have joined still living, as a friend, whom I may have heard her speak the spiritual circle above? And is he talking directly to of before. If so, the control read the name registered in me, or does he tell Hodgson, Hodgson tell Rector, and Rec- my subliminal mind. I hope that she will not be told, for tor tell me through Mrs. Piper's hand? Probably Wol- such an incident might seem an uncanny prognostication cott himself is at the phone, because it was at this point that she will soon join the spirit forces. Is it possible to that Hodgson's sweater was needed and brought to bring construct a phantom spirit out of the stuff that dreams are him back. But where is Rector, and what is he doing? I made of And, on the other hand, could I have invented a cannot even know whom I am communicating with but name, with ever SO much labour, which no one ever bore? must prattle on, after charging my memory with Wolcott's If not, my contemplated strategy can never be conclusively message to his living wife, to be delivered when I can. negative. How heartily he accepts all my platitudes about the uncon- I am asked of her mother and told of a tiny baby scious and Davey, kindly ignoring my error in calling him sister whose existence I deny, but I am informed that she Davis, about Mrs. Blake, Abbott, Hyslop, James, Witmer- died when very tiny. I wonder how small? Perhaps SO these are references to the latest literature on the subject long before birth that even her mother did not know. The on which the controls, whoever they are, are remarkably spirits must be infallible and such things do happen, as well informed and up to date. To be sure, their responses medical literature tells us. But, hold! All is fictitious. to my information are vague, but they make up in hearti- She would be the sister of nobody, SO my refutation is im- ness and emphasis. It seems to me that they are making possible, for there is nothing but my own verbal image, for me do too much of the talking and are learning far more I have not invested Bessie with any traits whatever. She 180 181 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER is vox et praeterea nihil. The control sees through all this too, death may lurk nearer than I dream; yet I confess and I am punished aright. A fool is answered according my courage is buoyed up by a feeling that I am SO sarcous to his folly. But the spirits are delicate as well as subtle that I cannot entirely escape the physical plane, and a not to overwhelm me with more open confusion. partial sense that I am submitting to the mortal arbitra- Clark now has his innings, and I am complimented by ment of Mrs. Piper, and that, though a potent ghost-com- his partial concession that in some disputed points he now, peller, she is at least in this first interview on the whole with his clarified insight, acknowledges that I was right, SO favourably disposed toward me that her disposition will although in others he still confutes me; therefore, in these be that I may live on, and that will weigh something toward I must be wrong. But what are the points of present agree- a favourable verdict. Perhaps, if she had fully realised ment and disagreement? Here again the spirits leave us my true sceptical attitude, I might be condemned to early just at the point of the most tantalising will-to-know. I dissolution; but my prophetic soul is right in this case, must henceforth remain in ignorance, even of the meaning and so with what joy do I learn that, if I do not overwork, of a few words, because utterly illegible, in his oracular I may hope to live and work for a yet goodly tale of years. sentences; and others I could torture and compose into as You ought to remain in the body a good while yet many kinds of meanings as the sibylline leaves. But he if you only take care of yourself. That is a fact.' has had his turn and must yield. " And now came the benediction: Then comes my dear father, but how agonising He Adieu, and may the blessing of God be with you. only presents his card as a present and says good-bye; but is his farewell merely for the moment? Can he be Rector disappeared and we are again in the world of recalled, or is his farewell for this world or possibly even mortals. for the next? How the sitter is tormented with hind-sights How vastly harder and longer for the medium to re- that came an instant too late! What will the spirits think turn from the other shore than to get there! How reluctant of a man who will let the seconds of possibility of com- and how slow is the recessional! How painful the way munion with his father slip by, not showing that he even back and down! So ecstatic has been her condition, that wishes to meet him, and turn to the selfish questioning con- contrast intensifies the agony of it all. Her face is pathet- cerning his own health? ically marked by the embroidery of the pillow and the This, too, is reckless temerity. Some people are re- folded towel; her hair is dishevelled; her eyes are bleary luctant to submit to thoroughgoing medical examination, and vacant, and her mouth slightly drooling. How all her to test for incipient but not yet recognised diseases of heart, womanly instincts must be outraged by our keen observa- lungs, kidneys, brain, nerves; but with due trepidation, I tion and even our presence as she recovers from the psy- even sought the infallible X-ray diagnosis of the immor- chic operation which she has undergone! She murmurs tals. Will they give me a clean bill of health or am I to almost incoherently snatchy and disconnected phrases, and live henceforth under a sentence of impending dissolution we place our ears close to her mouth to hear them. Her Do I really want or dare to submit my physical condition staring eyes catch a glimpse of the face of Mr. Dorr, which to their omniscience? Alas, I am growing a little tense she recognises as the first land-mark on the nether shore to in the mood of a plunger, and I must know. At my age, which she is doomed to return; and, although he is not bad- 182 183 STUDIES IN SPIRITISM FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER looking, she cries out thrice and with loathing Aren't you revelations that have been vouchsafed us in this momentous ugly So entrancing have been the dreams of the bourne hour. Perhaps the lengthened span of life the spirit has from which few travellers return, but from which she is allowed me may suffice for suitable adjustment; yet there is making perhaps her five-thousandth laboured land-fall, no time to spare, for it must be an au rebours conversion that her poor soul must feel expelled from Paradise for, and should have come earlier in life. Yet better, far better, although she must have glimpsed it in her communion with late than never. At any rate, of all the variations of the its denizens, the hour of her permanent translation has not memory symphony of these ninety minutes in the former yet come. We should be stony-hearted indeed, did we not critical or negative mood, this variant, with the stop of share the pathos and pity of it all. sympathetic faith pulled full on, is registered as the most " Indeed it is sad enough for us, for now we must go harmonious of all. Indeed, this interpretation is more con- home and devote ourselves to the laborious decipherment of sistent with the remarkable will-to-believe, which coincides sixty pages and subject them to exhaustive tests; but the most exactly with the deep, hereditary impulsion from an oracle itself is done. What is written is written. We can immemorial past, back it may be to the Cave Dwellers, only wait until this remarkable middle-woman shall again who believed essentially thus. It is the easiest, fondest, consent to re-open the celestial world for us, who can mean- most popular, comforting view-point. And SO let the stern while only rehearse our recollections and re-peruse our laws of nature and science, that are SO hard on such invet- script, and remember how our hearts burned as our ac- erate credulities, dear though they be to the heart, mellow quaintances in the spirit world spoke to us and left our a little. The Memnonian lips of the Sphinx, hitherto so souls SO hungry for more complete impartations. All was silent as to the destiny of the soul, are at last parted a SO appetising yet so baffling, and we await on tip-toe of ex- little and whispering to tell us that though man dies he pectation the renewal of the heavenly rapport. Everything shall live again. Or is it only the murmur of the sea-shell, indicates that intelligence somehow travels very rapidly up giving back to the ear the entaural susurrus of the circula- yonder, and next time perhaps the dear departed will hear tion of its own blood? Videant consules, which means pay that we have found a way for them to reach us; and, realis- your twenty plunks and take your choice." ing that they can do so, they may anxiously await the re- opening of the line of communication and throng about its terminal, charged with messages of love and assurance, pneumatically discerning and tenderly making allowance for our dulness and-perhaps also realising that next time it may be well for them to bring better credentials of their identification. " But how grossly mundane and material we have been all these years in our fleshly tabernacles, and how incred- ulous and inhospitable to realities and personalities above, and with what toil and moil of soul must we now recon- struct our poor philosophy of life to make it fadge with the 184 15 8/22/2018 Leonora Piper - Wikipedia WIKIPEDIA Leonora Piper Leonora Piper (née Leonora Evelina Leonora Piper Simonds; 27 June 1857 - 3 June 1950) was a famous American trance medium in the area of Spiritualism. Piper was the subject of intense interest and investigation by American and British psychic research associations during the early 20th century, most notably William James and the Society for Psychical Research. [1][2] Researchers and scientists who studied Piper's mediumship have described mentalist techniques such as cold reading, muscle reading and "fishing" she may have used to gather information about séance sitters. [3][4][5][6] Science writer and mathematician Martin Gardner dismissed Born June 27, 1857 Piper as a "clever charlatan. "[7] Died June 3, 1950 Occupation Trance medium Contents Biography Career Investigators Controls Dean Connor 1901 Statement Skeptical reception Piper's maid Tricks See also References (seefall article)