SPIRITISM EXAMINED BY WILLIAM JUDGE

(This is chapter seventeen of William Q. Judge's book "The Ocean of Theosophy," I added subheadings to make it easier to read.)

In the history of psychical phenomena the records of so-called "spiritualism" in Europe, America, and elsewhere hold an important place. Advisedly I say that no term was ever more misapplied than that of "spiritualism" to the cult in Europe and America just mentioned, inasmuch as there is nothing of the spirit about it.

The doctrines given in preceding chapters are those of true spiritualism; the misnamed practises of modern mediums and so-called spiritists constitute the Worship of the Dead, old-fashioned necromancy, in fact, which was always prohibited by spiritual teachers. They are a gross materializing of the spiritual idea, and deal with matter more than with its opposite.

This cult is supposed by some to have originated about forty years ago in America at Rochester, N.Y., under the mediumship of the Fox sisters, but it was known in Salem during the witchcraft excitement, and in Europe one hundred years ago the same practises were pursued, similar phenomena seen, mediums developed, and seances held.

For centuries it has been well known in India where it is properly designated "bhuta worship," meaning the attempt to communicate with the devil or Astral remnants of deceased persons.

This should be its name here also, for by it the gross and devilish, or earthly, parts of man are excited, appealed to, and communicated with. But the facts of the long record of forty years in America demand a brief examination. These facts all studious Theosophists must admit. The theosophical explanation and deductions, however, are totally different from those of the average spiritualist.

A philosophy has not been evolved in the ranks or literature of spiritualism; nothing but theosophy will give the true explanation, point out defects, reveal dangers, and suggest remedies.

As it is plain that clairvoyance, clairaudience, thought-transference, prophecy, dream and vision, levitation, apparitional appearance, are all powers that have been known for ages, the questions most pressing in respect to spiritualism are those relating to communication with the souls of those who have left this earth and are now disembodied, and with unclassified spirits who have not been embodied here but belong to other spheres.

Perhaps also the question of materialization of forms at seances deserves some attention. Communication includes trance-speaking, slate and other writing, independent voices in the air, speaking through the physical vocal organs of the medium, and precipitation of written messages out of the air.

Do the mediums communicate with the spirits of the dead? Do our departed friends perceive the state of life they have left, and do they sometimes return to speak to and with us?

Do mediums communicate with deceased humans?

The answers are intimated in foregoing chapters. Our departed do not see us here. They are relieved from the terrible pang such a sight would inflict. Once in a while a pure-minded, unpaid medium may ascend in trance to the state in which a deceased soul is, and may remember some bits of what was there heard; but this is rare. Now and then in the course of decades some high human spirit may for a moment return and by unmistakable means communicate with mortals.

At the moment of death the soul may speak to some friend on earth before the door is finally shut. But the mass of communications alleged as made day after day through mediums are from the astral unintelligent remains of men, or in many cases entirely the production of, invention, compilation, discovery, and collocation by the loosely attached Astral body of the living medium.

Objections

Certain objections arise to the theory that the spirits of the dead communicate. Some are:

I. At no time have these spirits given the laws governing any of the phenomena, except in a few instances, not accepted by the cult, where the theosophical theory was advanced. As it would destroy such structures as those erected by A.J. Davis, these particular spirits fell into discredit.

II. The spirits disagree among themselves, one stating the after-life to be very different from the description by another. These disagreements vary with the medium and the supposed theories of the deceased during life. One spirit admits reincarnation and others deny it.

III. The spirits have discovered nothing in respect to history, anthropology, or other important matters, seeming to have less ability in that line than living men; and although they often claim to be men who lived in older civilizations, they show ignorance thereupon or merely repeat recently published discoveries.

IV. In these forty years no rationale of phenomena nor of development of mediumship has been obtained from the spirits. Great philosophers are reported as speaking through mediums, but utter only drivel and merest commonplaces.

V. The mediums come to physical and moral grief, are accused of fraud, are shown guilty of trickery, but the spirit guides and controls do not interfere to either prevent or save.

VI. It is admitted that the guides and controls deceive and incite to fraud.

VII. It is plainly to be seen through all that is reported of the spirits that their assertions and philosophy, if any, vary with the medium and the most advanced thought of living spiritualists.

From all this and much more that could be adduced, the man of materialistic science is fortified in his ridicule, but the theosophist has to conclude that the entities, if there be any communicating, are not human spirits, and that the explanations are to be found in some other theories.

The materialization of "spirits"

Materialization of a form out of the air, independent of the medium's physical body, is a fact. But it is not a spirit. As was very well said by one of the "spirits" not favored by spiritualism, one way to produce this phenomenon is by the accretion of electrical and magnetic particles into one mass upon which matter is aggregated and an image reflected out of the Astral sphere.

This is the whole of it; as much a fraud as a collection of muslin and masks. How this is accomplished is another matter. The spirits are not able to tell, but an attempt has been made to indicate the methods and instruments in former chapters.

The second method is by the use of the Astral body of the living medium. In this case the Astral form exudes from the side of the medium, gradually collects upon itself particles extracted from the air and the bodies of the sitters present, until at last it becomes visible.

Sometimes it will resemble the medium; at others it bears a different appearance. In almost every instance dimness of light is requisite because a high light would disturb the Astral substance in a violent manner and render the projection difficult.

Some so-called materializations are hollow mockeries, as they are but flat plates of electrical and magnetic substance on which pictures from the Astral Light are reflected. These seem to be the faces of the dead, but they are simply pictured illusions.

Points to consider

If one is to understand the psychic phenomena found in the history of "spiritualism" it is necessary to know and admit the following:

I. The complete heredity of man astrally, spiritually, and psychically, as a being who knows, reasons, feels, and acts through the body, the Astral body, and the soul.

II. The nature of the mind, its operation, its powers; the nature and power of imagination; the duration and effect of impressions. Most important in this is the persistence of the slightest impression as well as the deepest; that every impression produces a picture in the individual aura; and that by means of this a connection is established between the auras of friends and relatives old, new, near, distant, and remote in degree: this would give a wide range of possible sight to a clairvoyant.

III. The nature, extent, function, and power of man's inner Astral organs and faculties included in the terms Astral body and Kama. That these are not hindered from action by trance or sleep, but are increased in the medium when entranced; at the same time their action is not free, but governed by the mass chord of thought among the sitters, or by a predominating will, or by the presiding devil behind the scenes; if a sceptical scientific investigator be present, his mental attitude may totally inhibit the action of the medium's powers by what we might call a freezing process which no English terms will adequately describe.

IV. The fate of the real man after death, his state, power, activity there, and his relation, if any, to those left behind him here.

V. That the intermediary between mind and body — the Astral body — is thrown off at death and left in the Astral light to fade away; and that the real man goes to Devachan.

VI. The existence, nature, power, and function of the Astral light and its place as a register in Nature. That it contains, retains, and reflects pictures of each and every thing that happened to anyone, and also every thought; that it permeates the globe and the atmosphere around it; that the transmission of vibration through it is practically instantaneous, since the rate is much quicker than that of electricity as now known.

VII. The existence in the Astral light of beings not using bodies like ours, but not human in their nature, having powers, faculties, and a sort of consciousness of their own; these include the elemental forces or nature sprites divided into many degrees, and which have to do with every operation of Nature and every motion of the mind of man. That these elementals act at seances automatically in their various departments, one class presenting pictures, another producing sounds, and others depolarizing objects for the purposes of apportation. Acting with them in this Astral sphere are the soulless men who live in it. To these are to be ascribed the phenomenon, among others, of the "independent voice," always sounding like a voice in a barrel just because it is made in a vacuum which is absolutely necessary for an entity so far removed from spirit. The peculiar timbre of this sort of voice has not been noticed by the spiritualists as important, but it is extremely significant in the view of occultism.

VIII. The existence and operation of occult laws and forces in nature which may be used to produce phenomenal results on this plane; that these laws and forces may be put into operation by the subconscious man and by the elementals either consciously or unconsciously, and that many of these occult operations are automatic in the same way as is the freezing of water under intense cold or the melting of ice under heat.

IX. That the Astral body of the medium, partaking of the nature of the Astral substance, may be extended from the physical body, may act outside of the latter, and may also extrude at times any portion of itself such as hand, arm, or leg and thereby move objects, indite letters, produce touches on the body, and so on ad infinitum. And that the Astral body of any person may be made to feel sensation, which, being transmitted to the brain, causes the person to think he is touched on the outside or has heard a sound.

Mediumship

Mediumship is full of dangers because the Astral part of the man is now only normal in action when joined to the body; in distant years it will normally act without a body as it has in the far past.

To become a medium means that you have to become disorganized physiologically and in the nervous system, because through the latter is the connection between the two worlds. The moment the door is opened all the unknown forces rush in, and as the grosser part of nature is nearest to us it is that part which affects us most; the lower nature is also first affected and inflamed because the forces used are from that part of us.

We are then at the mercy of the vile thoughts of all men, and subject to the influence of the shells in Kama Loka. If to this be added the taking of money for the practice of mediumship, an additional danger is at hand, for the things of the spirit and those relating to the Astral world must not be sold.

This is the great disease of American spiritualism which has debased and degraded its whole history; until it is eliminated no good will come from the practice; those who wish to hear truth from the other world must devote themselves to truth and leave all considerations of money out of sight.

Considerations

To attempt to acquire the use of the psychic powers for mere curiosity or for selfish ends is also dangerous for the same reasons as in the case of mediumship.

As the civilization of the present day is selfish to the last degree and built on the personal element, the rules for the development of these powers in the right way have not been given out, but the Masters of Wisdom have said that philosophy and ethics must first be learned and practiced before any development of the other department is to be indulged in; and their condemnation of the wholesale development of mediums is supported by the history of spiritualism, which is one long story of the ruin of mediums in every direction.

Equally improper is the manner of the scientific schools which without a thought for the true nature of man indulge in experiments in hypnotism in which the subjects are injured for life, put into disgraceful attitudes, and made to do things for the satisfaction of the investigators which would never be done by men and women in their normal state.

The Lodge of the Masters does not care for Science unless it aims to better man's state morally as well as physically, and no aid will be given to Science until she looks at man and life from the moral and spiritual side. For this reason those who know all about the psychical world, its denizens and laws, are proceeding with a reform in morals and philosophy before any great attention will be accorded to the strange and seductive phenomena possible for the inner powers of man.

And at the present time the cycle has almost run its course for this century. Now, as a century ago, the forces are slackening; for that reason the phenomena of spiritualism are lessening in number and volume; the Lodge hopes by the time the next tide begins to rise that the West will have gained some right knowledge of the true philosophy of Man and Nature, and be then ready to bear the lifting of the veil a little more. To help on the progress of the race in this direction is the object of this book, and with that it is submitted to its readers in every part of the world.

HENRY SLADE DESCRIBED BY BLAVATSKY

(Henry Slade was an American medium who was examined in Germany by Professor Zöllner between November and December 1877, and who the following year published the book "Transcendental Physics" * relating his experiments, and Blavatsky wrote the following article speaking about it; and I added subheadings for ease of reading.)

TRANSCENDENTAL PHYSICS

As was remarked last month, the now world-known work of Professor Zöllner, on his experimental inquiry into the theory of a fourth dimension of space, with the aid of Dr. Henry Slade, the American spiritual medium, is one of the most valuable that have ever appeared in connection with the mediumistic phenomena.

Modern spiritualism has spawned almost as many books as a female herring does eggs; and out of the number all but a few might as well have never appeared. But now and again the enquiry into this subject has begotten some work that is a permanent contribution to the progress of science. And Professor Zöllner’s is of that class. It is the record of a series of sittings, or séances, with one of the most strangely endowed “psychics” of our times.

Slade is a man who seems to be surrounded with an aura, or magnetic atmosphere, capable of so saturating the objects about him as to make them subject to disintegration and reintegration at the caprice of some intelligent power which hears, consents, wills, and executes.

He fancies it is the hovering soul of his deceased wife which, however, is believed to yield its place momentarily to other “spirits” to write their own messages to their own (surviving) friends, in their own languages—languages which neither Slade nor she ever knew.

Most mediums have some one or two forms of phenomena peculiar to themselves.

• William Eddy produces walking, and sometimes talking, figures of dead people.
• Mesdames Thayer, of America, and Guppy-Volckmann, of England, have showers of flowers.
• The Davenports showed detached hands from their cabinet window, and musical instruments flying through the air.
• Foster has names in blood-writing ooze up under the skin of his arm, and picks the same names out of a lot of written ballots strewn on the table.
• And so on.

Slade’s chief specialty is to get automatic writing upon slates under perfect test conditions; but he is also, sometimes, clairvoyant, has vaporous figures appear in the room.

Professor Zöllner's theory

Under Professor Zöllner’s observation, he produced a series of novel and astounding phenomena illustrating the passage of matter through matter.

This Leipzig savant, it must be noted, is one of the most eminent among astronomers and physicists. He is also a of Germany. He had long surmised that besides length, breadth, and thickness, there might be a fourth dimension of space, and that if this were so then that would imply another world of being, distinct from our three-dimensional world, with its own inhabitants fitted to its four-dimensional laws and conditions, as we are to ours of three dimensions.

He was not the originator of this theory; Kant, and, later Gauss, the metaphysical geometer, had forecast its conceptibility. But, the experimental demonstration lacking, it remained as a mere intellectual speculation until Zöllner was enabled to solve the problem, and to convince his great colleagues Weber, Fechner, and Scheiber.

The publication of these experiments has created an intense interest throughout the world of science, and the discussion between the parties of progressive and conservative thinkers is actively and even angrily proceeding.

Our space does not permit a very exhaustive review of Prof. Zöllner’s book, and as it should be in the library of everyone who pretends to hold intelligent opinions upon the subjects of Force, Matter, and Spirit, the reader must be left to seek in its pages the major part of its wonderful contents.

The phenomena that Slade produced in the presence of Professor Zöllner

Briefly, then, the facts are these: Zöllner started with the proposition that, granting, for argument’s sake, the existence of a world of four dimensions with four-dimensional inhabitants, these latter ought to be able to perform the simple experiment of tying hard knots in an endless cord.

For the fourth dimension of space—or, shall we say, the fourth property of matter—must be permeability. So, when he knew that the medium Slade was coming to Leipzig he took a cord, tied the two ends together, and sealed them with wax which he stamped with his own signet.

Slade came and the Professor sat with him at a table, in broad daylight, their four hands laid upon the table, Slade’s feet in sight, and the endless cord with the sealed end lying on the table under the Professor’s thumbs, and the loop hanging down and resting upon his lap.

It was the first time Slade had heard of that kind of an experiment, and no one had tried it with any medium. In a few seconds the Professor felt a slight motion of the cord —which no one was touching— and upon looking, found to his surprise and joy that his wish had been gratified. Only, instead of one knot, four had been tied in his string.

To a scientific mind like his, this result, though infinitely less sensational than hundreds of mediumistic phenomena, was as conclusive and important a proof of the theory of four dimensions, as was the falling of a single apple to Newton in corroborating his immortal theory of gravity.

Here was clearly an instance of the passage of matter through matter, in short, the cornerstone of a whole system of cosmic philosophy.

This experiment he frequently, and in the presence of several witnesses, had repeated. As a further test he be-thought him of having turned two rings out of solid pieces of wood of different species —one of oak, the other of alder wood— which he strung on a cord of catgut. He also put on the string an endless band, which he had cut from a bladder. He then sealed the ends of his cord as in the previous experiment, and as before, held the seal on the table under his two thumbs, letting the loop with the two wooden rings and the endless band or ring of bladder, hang down between his knees.

Slade and he sat —again in full daylight— at two sides of the table, with all their hands in view, and the medium’s feet where the Professor could see them.

Just near the farther end of the table stood a small, round-topped stand, or teapoy, with one stout pillar to which the top was permanently attached, and three branching feet.

After a few minutes had elapsed a rattling sound was heard at the small stand, as of wood knocking against wood, and this sound was thrice repeated.

They left their seats and looked around; the wooden rings had disappeared from the endless catgut cord; the cord itself was found tied in two loose knots, through which the endless bladder band was hanging uninjured. The two solid wooden rings were — where?

Encircling the pillar of the small stand, without the slightest solution of the continuity of their fibres or those of the pillar! Here was a permanent, most undeniable proof that matter could be passed through matter; in short, to the vulgar a “miracle.”

Numerous other like phenomena were obtained during the thirty sittings which Professor Zöllner had with Slade. Among them the abstraction of coins from a hermetically-sealed box, and their passage through the table onto a slate held flat against the underside of the tabletop; while simultaneously two fragments of slate pencil laid on the slate at the commencement of the experiment, were at the close found to have passed into the sealed box.

Again, two separate endless bands of leather laid loosely under the hands of Professor Zöllner on the table, were under his very hands, made to interlock, one with the other, without the breaking of the seals or any injury to the fibre of the material.

A work, taken from the library shelf and laid upon a slate which Slade held partly under the edge of the table, disappeared, and after the sitters had vainly searched for it for the space of five minutes all over the room, and then reseated themselves at the table, it presently fell straight from the ceiling of the room onto the table with violence.

The room was light, the séance was at eight in the morning, and the book fell from the direction opposite to that in which Slade was sitting; so no human hand could have thrown it.

The phenomena that occurred with a table

The small table, or stand previously referred to, on one occasion, no one touching it, began to slowly oscillate. What further happened we will let Dr. Zöllner himself describe:

« The motions very soon became greater, and the whole table approaching the card-table laid itself under the latter, with its three feet turned towards me. Neither I nor, as it seemed, Mr. Slade, knew how the phenomenon would further develop** since during the space of a minute which now elapsed nothing whatever occurred.

Slade was about to take slate and pencil to ask his “spirits” whether we had anything still to expect, when I wished to take a nearer view of the position of the round table lying, as I supposed, under the card-table. To my and Slade’s great astonishment we found the space beneath the card-table completely empty, nor were we able to find in all the rest of the room that table which only a minute before was present to our senses.

In the expectation of its reappearance we sat again at the card-table, Slade close to me, at the same angle of the table opposite that near which the round table had stood before. We might have sat about five or six minutes in intense expectation of what should come, when suddenly Slade again asserted that he saw lights in the air.

Although I, as usual, could perceive nothing whatever of the kind, I yet followed involuntarily with my gaze the directions to which Slade turned his head, during all which time our hands remained constantly on the table, linked together (über-einander liegend); under the table, my left leg was almost continually touching Slade’s right in its whole extent, which was quite without design, and owing to our proximity at the same corner of the table.

Looking up in the air, eagerly and astonished, in different directions, Slade asked me if I did not perceive the great lights. I answered decidedly in the negative; but as I turned my head, following Slade’s gaze up to the ceiling of the room behind my back, I suddenly observed, at a height of about five feet, the hitherto invisible table with its legs turned upwards, very quickly floating down in the air upon the top of the card-table.

Although we involuntarily drew back our heads sideways, Slade to the left and I to the right, to avoid injury from the falling table, yet we were both, before the round table had laid itself down on the top of the card-table, so violently struck on the side of the head, that I felt the pain on the left of mine fully four hours after this occurrence, which took place at about half-past eleven. »

(p.90-92)

English translation by Mr. Massey

The English-reading public is under many obligations to Mr. Massey for his translation and synopsis of the German edition of Dr. Zöllner’s work [1880].

His self-imposed and entirely disinterested (he reaps no pecuniary profit from it) task was the more difficult inasmuch as he was almost entirely self-taught in German, and his satisfactory rendering of his author is all the more to be admired.

In a preface of some forty pages, Mr. Massey introduces us to the several personages concerned in the ever-memorable Leipzig experiments, and shows their evident good faith and credibility; while in an appendix of twenty more, he handles with able lucidity the question of the two sides of the proposition that evidence, to command assent, should be proportioned to the probability or improbability of the fact to be proved.It will interest our readers, and perhaps the public, to learn the circumstances which led to Mr. Slade’s visit to Europe in 1877, from which such startling results have happened.

Past events 

In the Winter of 1876-7 the professors at the Imperial University of St. Petersburg, Russia, determined —under the pressure of very august authority— to form a committee for the scientific investigation of the mediumistic phenomena. The Hon. Alexandre N. Aksakoff, Russian Imperial Councillor, and now an officer of the Theosophical Society, having long studied the subject, was invited to lend his help.

He, therefore, asked Colonel Olcott and the Conductor of this Magazine, both then in America, to select out of the best American mediums one whom they could recommend to the Committee.

A careful search was accordingly made and Mr. Slade fixed upon for the following reasons:

1) His phenomena all occurred in full light;

2) They were of a character to convince scientific men of the real presence of a force and the absence of charlatanry and sleight of hand;

3) Slade was willing to be placed under any reasonable test conditions and assist in trying scientific experiments—the importance of which he was intelligent enough to appreciate. So, after he had submitted himself for three months to an enquiry by a Special Committee of our fellows, expressly chosen by President Olcott, out of the skeptics in our Society; and the Committee had favourably reported,

Mr. Aksakoff was recommended to engage him. In due time the choice was ratified, the necessary money to pay Slade’s passage was sent to us, and the medium sailed from New York for Russia, via England.

His subsequent adventures, including his arrest and trial at London upon a malicious charge of attempted fraud, release, and triumphant vindication of his psychic powers at Leipzig and other European capitals — are all well known.

_  _  _

It is not too much to say that in this one case the agency of the Theosophical Society was productive of an effect upon the relations of exact science with psychological research the importance of which must be felt for long years to come.

Not only was Slade originally chosen by Theosophists for the European experiment and sent abroad, but at his London trial he was defended by a Theosophist barrister, Mr. Massey; at St. Petersburg another Theosophist, Mr. Aksakoff, had him in charge; and now Mr. Massey has bequeathed to future generations of English readers the full story of his wondrous psychical gifts.

Notes

* Transcendental Physics. An account of experimental Investigations, from the Scientific Treatises of Johann Carl Friedrich Zöllner, Professor of Physical Astronomy at the University of Leipzig; Mem. Royal Saxon Soc. of Sciences, etc., etc., translated from German, with a Preface and Appendices, by Charles Carleton Massey, of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister-at-Law (Vice-President of the Theosophical Society)

** The movement of heavy objects without any possible contact by Slade was so common that we looked on the movement of the table as only the beginning of a further succession of phenomena. [Footnote by Zöllner.]

(This article was initially published in Theosophist, Vol. II, No. 5, February, 1881, p.95-97. And later in Collected Writings of HP Blavatsky, Vol. III, p.14-20)

OBSERVATION

Several researchers and illusionists have argued that Henry Slade must have used tricks in these experiments, and historical evidence suggests that Henry Slade was probably a liar who managed to deceive Professor Zöllner and the Theosophists who examined him.

LEVITATIONS PERFORMED BY MEDIUM COLIN EVANS

Colin Evans was an English medium who lived in the first half of the 20th century and claimed that during his seances he and various objects were lifted into the air by the spirits.

Evans  performed in darkness during his seances, and  flash cameras took photographs showing objects or Evans floating in the air. 

He did this on several occasions in London.

One such occasion was at a séance he held at Wortley Hall, Finsbury Park, in 1937.

He held several séances organised by the spiritualist association The Link at the  Rochester Square Temple, Camden Town, one on 12 March 1938, another on 7 May 1938.

Another séance was held at North Gate Mansions, Regent's Park, on 27 May 1938. But this time the audience was not satisfied and he had to return the money to those who had paid him.

In this regard, researcher Harry Price commented in his book "Fifty Years of Psychical Research" (1939):

« Another unsatisfactory séance was that held at 61, North Gate Mansions, Regent’s Park, on May 27, 1938, with Mr. Colin Evans. This medium claims that, in complete darkness, he is ‘levitated.’ Mrs. A. Peel Goldney, Mrs. Henry Richards and others were convinced that at this particular test no levitation took place and the cheque paid to the medium was returned to the sitters. » 

(p.199)

Another session was at Conway Hall in June 1938, and on this occasion a photographer from the Daily Mirror was present.

PHOTOS

Below are some of the photographs taken during their seances that have appeared in various publications:

PHOTOS TAKEN AT A THE LINK SESSION

The Link was a spiritist organization that promoted amateur mediums, and the following photos show floating objects:

The text says:

« This infra-red photograph, which proves the existence of a psychic law unknown to orthodox science, taken by Leon Isaacs at The Link séance, shows the trumpet levitated above the head of the medium. An exposure of a fiftieth of a second was used, which would be sufficient to show the movement of the trumpet if it had been thrown into the air. The background of the trumpet has been "touched up" to give a clearer reproduction. »

PHOTO TAKEN IN ANOTHER SESSION

In this photo you can also see a bugle floating in front of Colin Evans::

PHOTOS TAKEN AT CONWAY HALL

In the following photos you can see Colin Evans levitating:

(This photograph appeared in the British newspaper Daily Mirror on June 13, 1938.)

Another photo taken during that session from another angle:

PHOTOS TAKEN IN ANOTHER SESSION

In the following photos you can see ectoplasm fluttering around:

And in the following photos you can see Colin Evans levitating:

A close-up of this photo:

Another photo taken from another angle:

LIFE

This article appeared in Life magazine on July 4, 1938:

The text says:

« London Medium snaps his own levitation.

This is a seance held early in June in London´s  Conway Hall. The bearded man in the air is Colin Evans, an amtaeur medium. To squelch skeptics of his ability  to be levitated by spirits of the dead, Mr.Evans pemitted a London newspapaer to set up its camera in the dark seance chamber.

When the spirits hadsupposedly lifted him hight out of his chair, medium Evanspressed a button at the endof the wire in his hand, which turned on an infrared light which exposed the photograph you see here.

(Infrared light does not disturb psychic vibrations.)

Magicians point out that Evans' blurred feet indicate that he has  simply jumped high into the air. His shoes are unlaced for relaxation. At this momentn every body is  singing "Tea For Two". Some feats of psychic levitation bafle scientists, but not this one. »

(p.35)

ANALYSIS

The seances that Colin Evans organized seem more like shows where he charged people to entertain than real spiritist seances. 

And although Evans claimed that the spirits suddenly lifted him up, the positions he and his clothing were in when he was photographed suggest that Evans stood on the chair he was sitting on and jumped forward slightly to make it appear he was levitating. It doesn't give the impression that he was lifted up paranormally.

And some observers point out that the proof that he did in fact jump is his feet, which he couldn't always keep still, and that's why they appear blurry in some photographs. Which is possible.

And it should be noted that in some photos a cable appears coming out of his hand, and Evans himself indicated that with this device he himself turned on the flash, after which the photographer (usually Leon Isaacs) prepared the camera so that he could take a new photo.

But that made it easier for Colin Evans to be photographed whenever he saw fit.

They were supposedly "infrared" photographs, but the photos appear to have been taken with normal flashes.  

Some people wonder how Evans managed to avoid hurting the people standing next to him when he hit the ground, but they can see that there was enough space for him to avoid stepping on anyone else's feet.

Others question how people didn't notice his trick, but I remind them that the session took place in the dark.

Others say that even if the room was dark, you would still be able to hear the sounds Evan made when he jumped, but it seems like he got  the audience  singing along, which masked the sounds he made.

As for the objects, it's very likely that there was also a trick, for example, an accomplice lifting them using a very thin bar.  And the ectoplasm could have been a very fine fabric.

 

TESTIMONIALS

And for those who want to delve deeper into this matter, below I transcribe the descriptive articles I found about those sessions.

1

The spiritist magazine Two Worlds of March 25, 1938, reports on a séance with 200 people that took place at the Rochester Square Temple on Saturday, March 12, 1938:

_ _

The two ladies seated one each side of the medium then announced that he was “going up.” He seemed to float upwards from his chair, while they held his hands, until they had to stand on their chairs and stretch their arms upward to retain hold of his hands, which were drawn slowly but irresistibly right out of their reach, so that they had to let go.

(Colin Evans must have stood up in his chair.)

And a moment or two afterwards, sitters in different parts of the circle at some distance felt his feet drop fairly heavily (Mrs. Jackie Kruze said very heavily —others, not heavily enough to hurt them, but heavily enough and long enough to be distinctly felt and recognised) on to their heads and then float upwards again.

The two ladies who occupied seats next to his, and who had been holding his hands till he “floated” up beyond their reach, were then made to take each other’s hands, while still  standing on their chairs in order to strengthen the power by completing a circle of linked hands.

At this point an infra-red flashlight photograph was taken, which proved to be a picture showing him apparently about to be returned to his chair, but in the meanwhile “suspended” some distance above it in front of the two ladies’ linked hands.

Immediately after the flash, the medium was felt separating the ladies’ hands and taking their hands again himself and a moment later falling downwards gently into his chair again.

2

On May 7, 1938, also at the Rochester Square Temple, the May 14, 1938, Psychic News magazine reported assistant editor A. W. Austen as follows:

SITTERS SEE HIS BODY FLOATING IN THE AIR

An unwelcome intrusion of light provided visible proof of the medium’s levitation at The Link “mass séance” at the Rochester Square Temple, North London, on Saturday.

At previous seances, Colin Evans has frequently been lifted into the air but, as the sittings are held in the dark, the evidence has hitherto been inconclusive. Sitters have felt the medium’s feet touching their heads, those sitting on either side of him have felt their hands raised as he was lifted, until his hands were dragged out of theirs.

But, while these experiences went a long way to convincing those concerned of the genuineness of the phenomena, other people could quite easily imagine the results to be obtainable in other ways. Perhaps, for instance, Evans put his shoes on his hands and touched the heads of the sitters. Perhaps he was able to raise his hands above his head and give the impression his whole body was being lifted.

DAYLIGHT LEAKS IN

These objections were effectively answered on Saturday. As it was still light when the seance started, daylight leaked in through the glass in the roof. This fact enabled me, when Evans was levitated, to see his body floating at a considerable distance from the ground — I should think about ten feet. Others saw him too.

(I suspect that is a lie.)

Before the séance, the medium had put on the soles of his shoes some luminous tape, so that it was quite easy to follow his movements in the dark. He went up several times and on one occasion, just as he was coming down, an infra-red picture was taken simultaneously by two cameras. These pictures clearly show him in the air, his feet about three feet from the floor, and some distance in front of his chair.

The flash that is necessary to take the pictures always upsets the psychic conditions to the extent of causing him to fall. On this occasion he came down in the middle of… [Unfortunately the rest of the text is missing.]

3

Below is the full report of the séance attended by Billy Austen, assistant editor of Psychic News magazine.

The report is by Mr. I.S. Byerley, vice president and secretary of "The Link," and was published in the spiritualist magazine Two Worlds on May 13, 1938:

THE LINK TRIUMPHS AGAIN

300 PEOPLE SEE COLIN EVANS FULLY LEVITATED. MATERIALISATION, SPIRIT LIGHTS, DIRECT VOICE, INFRA-RED PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN WITH TWO SEPARATE CAMERAS BY LEON ISAACS. GRAMOPHONE RECORDS OF SPIRIT VOICES.

Further advances in the scientific control and recording of physical mediumship were made at the May monthly gathering of the “Link” Association of Home Circles, held for the third time at the Rochester Square Spiritualist Temple, Camden Town, London, on Saturday, May 7th. Photographs were taken from different angles and gramophone records made.

Some twenty-odd people, including experienced investigators, formed an inner circle, in which sat Colin Evans between two ladies, one a well-known platform clairvoyante (Mrs. Orme), and the other an experienced psychic investigator, who is also a business woman, proprietress of two important textile and dress-making firms, while other sitters close to the inner circle included the well-known medium, Bertha Harris, and an eminent West End consulting physician, and the Vice-President and Sec. of the “Link,” Mr. I. S. Byerley and Mr. Jay. Experienced sitters placed immediately behind Colin Evans included the Assistant editor of a London paper.

Several luminous trumpets and a luminous slate were placed on the floor in the centre of the circle.

Owing to the large attendance, about three hundred people, and the amount of space that had to be cleared to make room for the placing and operation of sound- recording apparatus for making gramophone records of voices, and of two cameras placed at widely different angles—one directly in front of the medium at a sufficient distance to take in almost the whole hall, and the other directly to one side of the medium, at an equal distance, but placing him in profile to the lens, and of the infra-red lighting apparatus by which photographs were taken, seating was very cramped indeed, and the sitters in the inner circle, including the medium were “almost on each other’s laps,” their chairs pressed close together, so that no movement was possible without the full knowledge and even disturbance of adjacent sitters, while the second circle of chairs outside the inner circle was crowded in equally close to the backs of the chairs of the inner circle, again allowing no movement of any sitter in the inner circle or of the medium to go unfelt by sitters in the chairs behind.

Unfortunately, recent weather conditions had largely washed away the black paint which some months before had been put on the glass roof of the Temple to exclude daylight, and this was only discovered at the last moment. A man was sent for to restore this, but when the lights were extinguished it was found that a great deal of daylight came through various patches and streaks of clear glass that had been left, and a guide during the seance complained that all this white light pouring right down on the inner circle necessitated a much greater drain on the medium’s and sitters’ powers to produce the same phenomena and prevented the production of more and stronger phenomena. As it was, however, this unwanted light did incidentally serve the purpose of giving visual confirmation usually not so clearly given of levitation, etc., that occurred in spite of it.

The movement of the luminous trumpets commenced almost immediately the sitting began (a few minutes later than the advertised time of 7.45 p.m.), actually during the opening prayer (given by Mrs. Bertha Harris). Then, while the medium’s and all the other sitters’ hands were controlled, one trumpet. liberally daubed with luminous paint, was levitated to a great height above sitters’ heads, and moved freely all over the inner circle and for some distance outside it, as far as the third row of seats outside the inner circle, and for a long time waved in time with the singing, etc., and also went in the direction of, and up to, sitters to whom other sitters asked for it to be taken, tapping several sitters at a great distance from the medium as well as near him.

Then the trumpet moved towards a sitter and addressed him by what he recognised as the Gaelic form of his Christian name, and a woman’s spirit, in direct voice, speaking through the trumpet, carried on with him a brief conversation in Gaelic, which the sitter (a medical man, whose family belong to the Scottish isles, and who speaks Gaelic, which was the only language spoken by his grandparents) was able to understand, and reply to, but failed to get her name through or to identify herself definitely, the trumpet falling as she was making the attempts. Neither Colin Evans nor any other sitter who could have been used for this communication has any knowledge of Gaelic or any Celtic language. The name “Colin Evans,” by the way, is only a platform name, adopted for public work by this medium, who has no Celtic blood or connections, and has no knowledge even of Welsh, which might be of help in getting the kindred Highland Scottish tongue through his mediumship.

On this occasion, strips of gummed paper painted with luminous paint had been affixed to the medium’s shoes, outlining the shape of the feet, to make levitation easier off observation for sitters at a distance.

He was several times levitated for short distances from his chair, and then twice for prolonged periods was bodily levitated to such a height that his feet were seen to be about twelve feet above the heads of the sitters, where he appeared to float about for some distance all round the inner circle and outside it as far as the second or third rows scats, sometimes upright, sometimes it a sitting posture as if seated on an invisible chair, and sometimes apparently extended in the air horizontally, his body being visible to a number of people, including the London journalist already mentioned seated just behind the medium’s chair, when it came against the gaps in the black paint on the glass roof and showed up against the daylight filtering through these parts of the roof.

The guides, however, did not allow the flash of light necessary for the taking a photograph till he was brought down to a safer distance from the floor, when a photograph was taken showing him suspended in the air some distance in front of his chair and with his feet some feet above the floor, where he was apparently suspended for a moment motionless, from the dead-sharp appearance of the photograph showing no movement in the upper part of his body, though the lower limbs seem to have been twitching slightly with a slight convulsive tremor common in the trance state.

A large number of sitters in the inner circle and in seats some distance outside the inner circle were touched firmly and for appreciable lengths of time, and their heads stroked and shoulders patted, by materialised hands, while the medium’s and all other sitters’ hands were controlled and held.

Several attempts were made at visible materialisation, which were partially successful, the luminous slate being several times raised and moved about in the inner circle and once or twice carried outside the inner circle to more distant sitters, to show materialised hands of small child-like form, and an arm in a sleeve or draping of white gossamer-like shimmering material. The spirit draperies which, without any clearly seen bodily form, were repeatedly seen by the light from the levitated luminous slate, were, at sitters’ spoken requests, taken from one sitter to another in different parts of the hall, and allowed to be felt.

The lady seated next to the medium, who by many years of business connection with textile fabrics has a wide expert knowledge of dress and other fabric, reported that when handled by her this ectoplasmic drapery was quite unlike any fabric known to her, feeling more like a very finely woven fabric of some such substance as spider’s webs are composed of than like any silk, cotton, or woollen texture known to her.

In a position close in front of and between her and the medium himself, there was built up one apparently complete materialisation, which moved round from sitter to sitter for a little distance round the inner circle, raising the luminous slate at intervals, but only one or two sitters were able to see the face at all clearly, and they were unable to identify it except as a clean-shaven face.

Direct-voice messages spoken through the trumpets on this occasion were more fragmentary and less evidential, in most cases, as to their contents, than on other occasions when Colin Evans has sat with the “Link”—One woman spirit, however, called to a “Doris” at some distance in the audience and was claimed.

During the seances of Colin Evans’ circle it is customary to sing secular songs with a quick, brisk rhythm to keep up light vibrations to assist physical phenomena, but a request had been made that songs with a war time association should be avoided. Somebody, however, started singing “Keep the Home Fires Burning” and almost immediately a trumpet went up into the air and a rough but very powerful, somewhat Cockney male voice (the clearest in enunciation of any of the voices produced through the trumpet on this occasion) cried, in tones of some bitterness and apparent irony, “That’s right, practise it! You’ll need it to keep you going that extra mile or two when you’re ready to drop, before they blow you to - - - bits! Practise! You’ll need it, soon enough.”

SPIRIT LIGHTS

Very striking objective spirit light, first shaped apparently like a small globe or little “golf ball” seemed at one moment to come from some point in the medium’s body—rested a moment on his lap and then (while all hands, including the medium’s, were controlled) floated to a good height overhead, and moved about from sitter to sitter, changing its shape and elongating into various shapes, strips and tongue-shaped filaments, and heart-shaped parches, and every now and then, being apparently extinguished to flash into luminosity again a moment later. This was immediately followed by two objective lights of greater intensity, but much smaller and more compact form —almost points, like tiny eyes— which moved about simultaneously with great whirling rapidity, sometimes about three feet apart, sometimes only a few inches apart and circling about each other like gnats or fireflies in rapid motion.

Three separate exposures were made in two cameras together each time, giving six pictures in all; the first a Guide through Colin Evans, described as the nearest they had ventured or managed to get yet to allowing and enabling a photograph to be taken showing the actual process of materialisation; the second, the medium levitated, and the third when apparently no supernormal phenomenon was in progress, but concerning which, the same Guide said they wished to take it as part of an experiment which might then be more interesting to them (the spirit operators who were experimenting) than to the sitters, but he hoped they would not grudge them the plate used for it! It apparently shows a partial attempt to transfigure over the medium, by a Chinese Guide was really a Guide attached to a young medium now in spirit and who was a friend of Colin Evens.

BENEDICTIONS

Colin Evans’ French Priest Guide, “The Abbé,” speaking by trance control, gave a little “sermonette” of apparently a rather reproachful nature to those who were “prepared to crowd a hall in their hundreds to see a tin trumpet beating time to a silly tune in the air without physical means, but not more than a dozen or so of whom would trouble to come if the same amount of power were used to enable spirit friends to communicate abundantly and clearly through the much easier forms of mental mediumship” but added: that nevertheless, the physical phenomena were legitimate and useful, otherwise the spirit operators would not be allowed and encouraged to co-operate in their production.

The seance was closed with Catholic, Buddhist (or Sikh) and Jewish benedictions by the Abbé Ram Lal Singh and Rabbi Davids, three controls of Colin Evans, and the Abbé then ordered Colin Evans to leave the seance immediately even if other sitters liked to continue a little longer for other mediumship, Colin Evans was greatly exhausted and faint, attributed to the effect of the white light coming through the glass roof.

I.S.B.

(These articles were compiled in Psypioneer revue, August 2014, but I am suspicious of these testimonies because I feel they are biased.)