How spirits materialize? Reader, have you ever attended a seance for full form
materialization? Have you ever thought you had met your dead relatives spirit at these
seances? If you have never had the pleasure of attending a seance of this
phase, you have missed a rare treat. The writer has assisted at many
a one and will relate to you some of the wonderful phenomena occurring at them
and the means used to produce them. There are hundreds of materializing mediums doing
business in this country who are swelling a good sized bank account. Their business
sometimes runs into the hundreds of dollars in a single week. This phase of
mediumship is considered by the spiritualists as the highest possible attainment, and if you
are a clever full form medium, your financial welfare is assured. Many and
various are the methods employed by the different mediums to produce this phase. It
is in Boston, New York, and San Francisco that it has worked the
finest. The full form seances most often met with are very simply worked and
easy of performance by the medium. You are usually given a seat and a
circle of chairs about the front of a cabinet made by hanging heavy curtains across
the corner of the room. If you are a stranger or one who looks
or acts as though he would grab the spirits, you are seated at the
farthest point from the cabinet, or if there are two rows of seats,
you will be given a seat at the back row. I made my way
to the materializing seance at which my friends hoped to materialize. I was admitted
to the seance room and found about twenty persons already assembled. I was seated
in the front row of chairs. The cabinet used was a closet about six
feet long and four feet wide. The ceiling of both the room and the
cabinet was of wood. After a thorough examination had been made of the cabinet
by all those who cared to do so, the sitters were rearranged to suit
medium. There were present now thirty five persons. The seance room was very
large. The door had been taken off the closet that served as a cabinet,
and in its stead were hung heavy curtains. The floor of the room
was carpeted with a dark carpet, as was the cabinet. The light was
furnished by a lamp placed in a box that was fastened to the wall some
eight feet from the floor. This box had a sliding lid in front,
controlled by a cord passing into the cabinet. By this means, the spirits
could regulate the light to suit themselves, without any movement on the part of
any of those in the seance room being necessary. When everything was in readiness,
the medium entered the cabinet, seated himself and was tied and so secured
to his chair that it was impossible that he could have any use of himself.
He was most thoroughly secure to his chair, and his chair nailed fast
to the floor by passing leather straps over the rounds in the side and kneeling
the ends to the floor. After it was shown to the sitters that he
was utterly helpless, the curtain was drawn. The manager now placed an ordinary
kitchen table in front of the door of the cabinet, so that it stood
away from it about two feet. The table contained no drawing. On the
table was laid writing materials, a guitar, and small bell. The manager
seated himself close to one side of the cabinet entrance and started a large Swiss
music box. Before it had finished the first air, the lamp was shut
entirely off, making the room achy dark. An illuminated hand and arm was
now seen to come from behind the curtain and play an accompaniment to the music
box on the guitar. We could see plainly the movement of the hand,
arm and fingers as it manipulated the strings of the instrument. It did not
appear necessary to finger the strings on the keyboard, although the air was in
a key that made it impossible to tune the guitar so that an accompaniment could
be performed without fingering. However, but one hand was visible and it was
picking the strings. After the tune was finished, the hand left the instrument
and moved out into the room to the front of the table, and from
the sound we knew it was writing on the tablet that had been placed there.
The arm was of bluish light and appeared to end just above the elbow
and to have no connection with the body. It finished writing and seemed to
float into the cabinet near the top. The light was opened, and the
manager requested those who had tied the medium to examine his condition and see if
the ropes had been tampered with. The examination was made and it was evident
that the fastenings were undisturbed. The communication was read aloud to those present and
contain the following quote. We are pleased to beat so many seecerts after light
and truth here this evening, and from the conditions as we sense them,
we will have a satisfactory and pleasant seance. The way to obtain the best
results is for each person to maintain a passive condition and take what we have
to give. You may rest assured that our best efforts will be put forth
to give you entire satisfaction. The control close quote. The writing was exactly
on the rule of the lines. Although written in absolute darkness. The hand
and arm, although luminous, did not give out a particle of light.
The arm had been at least five feet from the cabinet opening and seven feet
from the medium. Surely it was not he the message read. The light
was again shut down, and the music again started. Once more. A
hand appeared, and floating out to the table again began writing. Of a
sudden the hand disappeared, and after a few seconds I was astonished to feel
a hand thrusting a paper into my top coat. Pocket. Now appeared two
hands, and they played an air on the guitar. Now came three,
then four hands were visible, bright as the day. Two of them began
writing again, and when they had finished, two more sitters with the recipients
of sheets of paper. Soon the light was opened for an inspection of the
cabinet, which was made with the conclusion that the medium had not moved.
Those of us receiving communications were afforded an opportunity to read them. We found
them nicely written as before, and all contained tests. After the light went
out again, more hands were seen. The table was floated about over the
heads of the circle, as was the music box, which weighed at least
fifty pounds. Another examination of the cabinet was made, and everything found satisfactory.
This time the light was not put entirely out, but a very dim
light was allowed. The music box was again set playing, and while yet
it was played the first tune, a tall figure robed in creamy white,
with gleaming sparks in her hair and on her head a sort of crown issued
from the cabinet. She was recognized by a gentleman present, a spiritualist,
whose spirit guide she was and who addressed her as my queen. She stood
a few seconds behind the table, and then stepped out in the open space
between the sitters and the table. The gentleman now arose from his seat,
and standing beside her, holding her hand, conversed in a whisper with her
for some seconds. This was most assuredly a lady if appearisons go for anything.
Her hands were quite small and were warm and lifelike, as several including
myself, can testify, having been permitted to shake hands with her. At
last she started to the cabinet, and as she went appeared to grow shorter,
until as she disappeared between the curtains, she was not much taller than
the table. The manner now explained that the spirit had remained out rather too
long and came near dematerializing before she reached the cabinet. Now came the spirit
of a young man dressed in a light suit of clothes, who gave his
name and said his mother was present. She was, and had a few
words of conversation with him. When he disappeared into the cabinet. The lady
said that it was unmistakably her son, but there was something that was not
as he had been but what it was she was unable to describe. The
next spirit to present itself was my son Eddie. He came out from the
cabinet, calling Papa, Papa. The manager asked, who is your papa,
and he replied mister Smith. All this time he stood between the table
and the cabinet, and only his head and shoulders could be seen. The
manager told him to step out where he could be seen. When he came
round to the front of the table, it was rather dark, but I
could swear it was my son. He was just the right size, with
long flaxen hair and a very pale face. He wore a light colored waist
and darker knee breeches and stockings, with a large black bow at his throat,
just as I remembered seeing him last in health. While Eddie was still
standing in front of the table, a large man came out and shook him
by the hand. Eddie spoke, saying, must I go back? Grandpa?
The farm turned toward me, saying, my son, this is a
great pleasure to us, but we must not long remain, as it is
our first attempt at materializing. He turned to go when the manager said to
him, if the gentleman, is your son, you are to give him
your name. The name of the child is Eddie. In my own is
j a smith, replied the farm. As they vanished into the cabinet,
the manager suggested that it would be well to examine and see whether the medium
had been out or not. The cabinet was examined, and everything found satisfactory.
Spirit after spirit came from the cabinet, one or two at a time
for an hour. Some of them came to friends, and others were controls
of the medium. Many of them were recognized by different ones of the sitters
in the room. I, for one, could swear to the identity of
my own son, Eddie, while my father was plainly recognizable. The room
was again made dark. Suddenly there appeared on the floor in front of the
table a light about as large as a baseball. It moved about in a
circle of perhaps a foot in diameter and grew larger. It soon lost the
shape of a ball and appeared to be a luminous cloud. Seemingly we could
see into and through it. In the course of thirty seconds, it had
become as large as a six year old child. Still there was no definite
shape, only a fleecy cloud like mass, turning, twisting and rolling.
At the end of perhaps a minute, it was the size and shape of
an adult person. The face could not be seen, but light luminous spots
visible, as though the hairs and ears were decorated with gems. The shape
spoke and requested light. As the light was turned on, the luminousness disappeared,
and we beheld a beautiful young lady clothed in a dazzling white costume.
Her arms and shoulders were bare, and about her neck there was a necklace
of what appeared to be very brilliant diamonds. Her feet were encased in white
slippers with straps across the inn step in. Her ears and hair glistened and
shimmered beautiful diamonds. Her face and arms were as alabaster, and altogether she
was one of the most beautiful women I had ever beheld. She was recognized
by a lady and gentlemen present as their daughter. They had met her here
before. They were from the east and were wealthy. The spirit requested that
they come to her, which they did, and were each kissed and embraced
by it. They held a moment's conversation with her and resumed their seats.
When the lamp was slowly turned down. As the light became dim, the
spirit became luminous, The face and arms disappeared, and the body became as
a cloud, again, turning and twisting and growing smaller, until it was
nothing but a small light spot on the carpet, which of a sudden disappeared
entirely. Immediately after this manifestation, an examination of the medium and cabinet was
made, and it was certain the medium had not been away from his chair.
The light was again turned out and the music box started. When two
bright spots appeared on the carpet, one at either end of the table.
These went through the same process of development, until when the light was turned
on there was another beautiful female spirit at one end of the table, and
a child of perhaps eight years of age at the other. The child was
recognized by a lady present as her daughter, while the adult spirit was recognized
and rapturously greeted by a gentleman who sat near me on my left as his
darling angel Guardian. They had quite a long conversation in which they made use
of very endearing language, each to the other. I supposed it was the
gentleman's wife. The spirits did not disappear as the first one had, but
when the light had been turned off, the luminous shape revolved a few times,
and on two occasions assumed the garb in shape of men. And when
the light was turned on again there stood the men with beards and men's forms.
After some eight or ten of these materializations and d materializations before our eyes,
the last couple completely disappeared. The light was again turned down, and
a luminous shape came from the cabinet, followed by others, until seven of
them stood on the floor. The light was turned up until we could see
the seven spirits. Five were females and two males. They were of different
sizes. The curtain at the door of the cabinet had been pulled aside,
and we could see the medium sitting in the chair in which he was bound.
The farms now filed into the cabinet again while the music box played.
After they had disappeared, the light was turned up, an investigation made of
the cabinet, and the seance was over. Their reader is a truthful description
of what can be witnessed at the seances of mediums who are artists. None
of your bungling amateur work here. The work of such a medium is always
satisfactory, for the reason that if a man feels sure that the medium is
a fraud, he has been so well entertained that he does not regret the
money paid for the opportunity to witness him. This is the class of medium
also, who frequently succeed in getting large sums of money from wealthy persons they
have converted to spiritualism. Did the writer not give you the true explanation of
the matter in which these things were produced, You would probably say it was
conceived by a very fertile imagination. If you believed that he saw these things,
you perhaps offer the preacher's explanation by saying it is the work of the
devil, or that of the scientists by asserting that it is the mesmerist power
over your mind, or the operator has discovered an odd force in nature,
or go off on a long dissertation on hypnotism and fourth dimension of space problems.
However, it is not the work of the devil, neither are there
any but natural laws necessary to its production. The seance described actually occurred and
was described in writing by mister smith in the language used, although it was
not printed, and the writer was one of those who assisted in its production.
We will now proceed to explain this particular seance. It will be remembered
that the room and cabinet were carpeted with a dark carpet, and that the
ceilings were of wood. The ceilings were decorated by being put on in panels.
The ceilings of the cabinet would not have been like those of the room
had the closet been a part of the architect's plans of the house. It
was not, but was made by the medium. He simply built a lath
and plaster partition from the corner of a wide chimney to the wall, thus
enclosing a space of six by four feet. The panel in the ceiling of
the closet was twenty inches square. This panel was doctored and could be displaced,
leaving an aperture large enough for the spooks to get through with perfect ease.
A light ladder, which reached within three feet of the floor of the
cabinet, was hooked fast above and furnished the means of getting down and up
again. There were eight persons connected with the sails described by mister Smith seven
upstairs, and the medium in the cabinet. Of course, it was not
necessary that the medium get out of his fastenings, and the facts are that
he did not. The table was placed across the cabinet door, not to
lay the instruments on, but to be very much in the way should anyone
make a rush and grab for the materialized forms. In case this occurred,
the spooks above would close the light, making the room perfectly dark, and
the manager would do his utmost to turn the table on end or side with
the legs out in the room. Before the grabber could get the lay of
things and get past it. The spooks would have gone through the trap,
closed it, pulled up the ladder, and the grabber would have found the
medium writhing and groaning and bleeding from the mouth. The bleeding was for effect
and was caused by sucking very hard on his teeth and gums. The table
also served a convenient purpose in the materialization and de materialization through the floor.
You now know where the spooks came from in this particular house, and how
they got in and out. Now let us see how they managed the materializations
and the properties used to produce them. The trap and ladder were practically noiseless
in their operations, but the music box made assurance doubly sure that the least
sound from the cabinet should not be heard in the seance room. When the
box began its first air, the trap door was opened, and down the
ladder came a young man clad in a suit of black tights. He was
entirely covered with black, with the exception of his right arm, which was
bare to a point a little more than half way from the elbow to his
shoulder. The bare arm glowed with a luminous bluish light. This condition of
things was brought about by powdering his arm with pulverized luminous paint. If you
are not told the method of transforming the sticky paint to powder, you will
not be able to do it, and will conclude the rider was romancing.
In this case, the most essential thing to you will be to know where
you can procure this paint. The rider has been unable to procure it anywhere
except of a devout and company of New York City. It is put up
in a package resembling six ounce jelly glasses, and you will get six of
them for five dollars in order to reduce it to powder. Thin the contents
of one of the glo glasses with one pint of turpentine. When it is
thoroughly cut and incorporated into the turpentine, soak strips of muslim in it and
hang them out to dry. When thoroughly dry, you can shake the powder
from the cloth. In order to powder one of your arms, gather one
of the cloths in your hands and use it as a powder puff on your
arm. You will not be able to get all the paint out, but
the pieces will make luminous crowns, slippers, stars, and luminous decorations for
your robes. You will be under the necessity of perfuming your robes each time
they are used, for the odor of the turpentine will always remain to a
greater or lesser degree. To illuminate a robe or costume, the mediums always
say robe. You proceed the same as in the powdering process, except add
to the pint of paint. You will add a wine glassful of damar varnish,
which will prevent its falling or being shaken off as powder. You are
not to make the robe of muslin, but of white netting. Every lady
will know what netting is. It is the lightest, thinnest material the writer
ever sold in a dry good store. Ten yards of it can be put
into your vest pocket. Do not scrimp the material, but get as much
of it into your robe as possible. When he of the luminous arm steps
from the cabinet into the dark room, no part of him is visible save
the arm. He picks the strings of the instrument with the illuminated hand and
fingers the keyboard with the other. He makes the sound of writing on the
tablet and tears off a leaf, which he conceals, and, drawing a
long black stocking over the luminous arm, places in the pocket of the sitter
a communication that has been written upstairs in good light. This accounts for the
even beautiful writing supposed to have been done in the dark. He covers the
luminous arm so that anyone so inclined could not locate it in arder to grab
when he is near enough. By mounting the table, that luminous hand and
arm can be made to show as though it was floating about near the ceiling.
When four hands were visible, there were two spooks at work with two
arms illuminated, you can readily understand the forces that floated the music box and
table above the heads of the sitters, and then explanation is useless. When
the first female spirit appeared, it was in reality a young woman dressed in
a gargious white costume without paint. Hence the light was turned up instead of
down in order that she be visible. Rhinestones and sumatra gems being cheap,
she was plentifully supplied with diamonds. Although many of those who are the queens
are spirit guides of controls of wealthy spiritualists, fanatics wear real diamonds the gift
of their wealthy charge are King, as they usually call him. When she
started for the cabinet, she used her hands to keep her robe from under
her feet, and as she went stooped lower and lower, until as she
disappeared in the cabinet, she went on her hands and knees. This is
what caused the appearance of de materialization. When mister Smith's son Eddie came from
the cabinet, he was represented by a boy of about eight years of age,
the son of one of the female spooks upstairs. He receives two dollars
a night for his services, the same as the largest spooks. He was
powdered until he was very white, a blonde wig put over his brown hair,
and dressed as most boys are at the age mister Smith's son died.
Mister Smith recognized him by his size, his light complexion, and flaxen hair,
and the fact that he called him Papa and gave his correct name.
His father was made up from the description given by the medium and acknowledged by
mister Smith as correct. Of course, he knew his own name, for
it was given him by the slate writer. We now come to a part
of the phenomena that all spiritualists who have witnessed it will swear by. What
is referred to is the materializing and de materializing of the spirit from the floor
and before your eyes. In this you see first a small light which grows
larger and larger, until there stands before you a fully formed female or male
spirit, as was described in mister Smith's experience. In order to accomplish what
he witnessed, the same spook, who had before been recognized by a gentleman
as his queen, prepared herself in the following way, divesting herself of all
clothing. She donned a simple long chemise that reached her shoe tops. She
drew on a pair of white stockings and over them a pair of white slippers.
Into her hair and ear, she put rhinestone diamonds, and around her
neck a necklace of the same beautiful but valueless stones. On each year lobe
and around her neck were put small spots of the luminous powder to represent the
diamonds. While it was dark, her face was powdered and her eyebrows and
eyelashes darkened, while a dark line was drawn under each eye. She now
took a black mask that covered her head and her robe in her hands,
and went down to the cabinet. Arriving there, she put the black mask
over her head to prevent the luminous diamonds being seen until the proper time.
She carried her robe in a black bag. Crawling from between the curtains and
under the table, she exposed on the floor a small part of her robe.
This she shook and moved about, allowing it to escape from the bag
until it was all out. She was now from under the table and on
her knees, and it was time the head show on the farm. So
getting close to the robe, she threw off and under the table the black
mask. The shape was now the size of an adult. She adjusted the
robe to her person and rapped for light. As a matter of course,
when any light was made, the luminousness of robe was drowned, and she
appeared in simply a white costume. The necklace and ear drops could now be
seen, but when the light was such as to reveal them, the loos
when of spots had disappeared, leaving the spectator to think the ones he now
saw were the ones he had seen in the dark. The process of de
materialization will now be apparent, and the description will only tire the reader.
One small spook was all that was required, as he could be made to
represent boy or a girl as was desired by clothing him in the garments of
Edith's sex. At the close of the seance, the full force of spooks
came into the room. After disappearing, they shinnied up the ladder, drew
it after them, closed the panel and the trap in the floor above it,
replaced the carpet and pushed over the place a heavy bedstead, from which
they took the castors. They now carried the letter downstairs and concealed it in
the coal house as they went through it on their way home. They will
get their pay next day. Should ever so close an examination of the cabinet
be made, you could not find anything wrong. This particular medium has taken
investigators into the cellar beneath the cabinet and the room above it scores of times,
yet nothing was discovered. You are not always to search for the trap
of the ceiling, nor yet in the floor. A trap is not possible
in the ceiling, except a closet is used as cabinet and the ceiling is
of wood. Where this condition of things does not exist, you must search
elsewhere. The floor is a very likely place when it cannot be made in
the ceiling. If you do not find it there, examine the base or
mop board. If it is in the mop board, you will find upon
examination that there is a joint in it near the corner of the cabinet.
But you will find it solidly nailed, with about four nails each side of
the joint. This appearance of extraordinary solidity will be absolute proof that it is
not solid. The nails are not what they appear, but are only pieces
about one half inch in length and do not even go through the board.
The piece is fastened on the other side with a couple of bolts that hold
it very firmly in place. There is a corresponding opening in the mop board
in the next room, although no attempt is made to so carefully conceal it,
as no one is ever admitted to it. Through this trap, the
spooks into the cabinet by crawling and wiggling. It is not a very desirable
trap, for the mop board is scarcely ever wide enough to permit of a
trap that the spook could get through in a hurry. Besides, they must
assume their costumes after they get into the cabinet or tear them to pieces.
You can see how this would make it very inconvenient. If the room is
wainscotted, the spook will have all the sea room necessary in his trap,
for it will extend from just below the molding on the top of the wainscotting
to the floor behind the strip of quarter round. It is next to an
impossibility to detect these traps by examining in the cabinet. They were constructed to
avoid discovery, and no pain spared to make them so absolutely perfect that not
one chance in a million is taken. The proper place to seek for traps
is in the adjoining room, upstairs, or in the cellar. One is
foolish to undertake to find a trap by thumping the walls or floor, for
if you happen to thump one, the medium who is smart enough to make
use of a trap is also sharp enough to make provision for its being thumped,
and your sounding method goes for nought. Bear in mind that when you
are examining the cabinet, you are seeking at the very place that is prepared
most effectively to withstand your investigations. Do not forget the manager in your search.
He or she is never searched, or never has been up to date,
which has been the cause of many a failure to find the properties of
the medium. When the sales was given in a room and cabinet furnished by
a stranger and skeptic, do not be deceived into a belief that all of
the sitters are strangers to the medium. There may be one to five persons
present who pay their money the same as yourself, and who may appear to
be the most skied gyptical of anyone in the room. They will generally be
the recipients of some very elegant tests, and weep copiously great grief fladen tears
when they recognize the beloved features of some relative. They are the most careful
of investigators, and when the medium's trap is located in the door, jam
will pound the walls and insists on the carpet being taken up. When they
will get upon their hands and knees and make a most searching examination of the
floor. They are the closest and most critical of the investigators, but they
are very careful to examine everywhere except where the defect is located. Because one
or two men seem to be making such a critical investigation, do not allow
that fact to prevent you making one on your own responsibility. Wait until they
have finished, and then examine not only where they did, but more particularly
where they did not. Their examination is only for the purpose of misleading others.
Their tests are received in a way to cause those about them to think
they admit them very unwillingly, are because they were so undeniable that they could
do nothing else. A great many will probably deny that confederates are ever employed.
They are not by mediums who are not smooth enough to produce that which
appears so wonderful as to make a good business for them. The writer could
advise those mediums who give such rank seances to employ a few floor workers they
are easily obtained, and see what a difference it would make in the amount
of business they will do. Get good ones those who know human nature and
know when they have said all that is necessary. Most of them are inclined
to say too much, thus causing the ordinary man to suspect that they are confederates.