Transcript

Appendix · The Land of Mist

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Chapter eighteen of the Land of Mist. This is a LibriVox recording. All
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LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by Amanda Leung, The Land of Myst
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by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Appendix note on chapter two. Clairvoyance in spiritualistic
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churches. This phenomenon, as exhibited in spiritualistic churches or temples as the spiritualists
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usually call them, varies very much in quality. So uncertain is it that
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many congregations have given it up entirely, as it had become rather a source
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of scandal than of edification. On the other hand, there are occasions the
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conditions being good, the audience sympathetic, and the medium in good form,
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when the results are nothing short of amazing. I was present on one occasion
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when mister Tom Tyrrell of Byburn, speaking at in a sudden call at Doncaster,
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a town with which he was unfamiliar, got not only the descriptions but
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even the names of a number of people, which were recognized by the different
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individuals to whom he pointed. I have known mister valut Peters also to give
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forty descriptions in a foreign city Liege where he had never been before, with
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only one failure, which was afterwards explained. Such results are far above coincidence.
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What their true weison d'etrus may be as yet to be determined. It
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has seemed to me sometimes that the vapor, which becomes visible as a solid
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in ectoplasm, may in its more volatile condition, fit the hall, and
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that a spirit coming within it may show up as an invisible shooting star comes
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into view when it crosses the atmosphere of the earth. No doubt the illustration
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is only an analogy, but it may suggest a line of thought. I
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remember being present on two occasions in Boston, Massachusetts, when Clergyman gave clairvoyance
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from the steps of the altar, and with complete success. It struck me
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as an admirable reproduction of those Apostolic conditions when they taught not only by words
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but also by power. All this has to come back into the Christian religion
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before it will be revitalized and restored to its pristine power. It cannot,
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however, be done in a day. We want less faith and more knowledge.
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Note on Chapter nine earth Bound Spirits. This chapter may be regarded as
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sensational, but as a fact there is no incident in it, for which
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chapter and verse may not be given. The incident of nell gwyn mentioned by
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Lord Roxton was told me by Colonel Cornwallis West as having occurred in a country
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house of his own. Visitors had met the wraith in the passages, and
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had, afterwards, when they saw the portrait of nell Gwynn, which hung
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in a sitting room, exclaimed, why there is the woman I met?
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The adventure of the terrible occupant of the deserted house is taken with very little
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change from the experience of Lord Saint Audrey's in a haunted house near Torquay.
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This gallant soldier told the story himself in the Weekly Dispatch December nineteen twenty one,
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and it is admirably retold in Missus Violet Tweedale's Phantoms of the Dawn.
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As to the conversation carried on between the clergyman and the earth bound spirit,
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the same authress who described a similar one when recording the adventures of Lord and
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Lady Winfrid and Glomma's Castle Ghosts I have seen page one seventy five. Whence
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such spirit draws its stock of material energy is an unsolved problem. It is
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probably from some mediumistic individual in the neighborhood. In the extremely interesting case quoted
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by the Reverend Charles Mason in the narrative, and very carefully observed by the
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Psychic Research Society of Rayzevik in Iceland, the formidable earth bound creature proclaimed how
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it got its vitality. The man was in life a fisherman of rough and
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violent character who had committed suicide. He attached himself to the medium, followed
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him to the seances of the society, and caused indescribable confusion and alarm until
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he was exercised by some such means as described in the story. A long
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account appeared in the Proceedings of the American Society of Psychic Research and also in
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the organ of the Psychic College Psychic Science for January nineteen twenty five. Iceland,
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it may be remarked, is very advanced in psychic science, and in
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proportion to its population or opportunities, is probably ahead of any other country.
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The Bishop of Raysedevik is president of the Psychic Society, which is surely a
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lesson to our own prelates, whose disassociation from the study of such matters is
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little less than a scandal. The matter relates to the nature of the soul
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and to its fate in the beyond. Yet there are I believe fewer students
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of the matter among our spiritual guides than among any other profession. Note on
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chapter ten, Rescue Circles. The scenes in this chapter are drawn very closely,
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either from personal experience or from the reports of careful and trustworthy experimenters.
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Among the latter are mister Tozer of Melbourne and mister MacFarlane of Southsea, both
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of whom have run methodical circles for the purpose of giving help to earth bound
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spirits. Detailed accounts of experiences which I have personally had in the former circles
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are to be found in chapters four and six of My Wanderings of a Spiritualist.
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I may add that in my own domestic circle, under my wife's mediumship,
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we have been privileged to bring hope and knowledge to some of these unhappy
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beings. Full reports of a number of these dramatic conversations are to be found
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in the last hundred pages of the late Admiral Osborne Moore's Glimpses of the Next
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State it should be said that the Admiral was not personally present at these sittings,
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but that they were carried out by people in whom he had every confidence,
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and that they were confirmed by sworn affidavits of the sitters. The high
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character of mister Leander Fischer, says the Admiral, is sufficient voucher for their
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authenticity. The same may be said of mister E. G. Randall,
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who has published many such cases. He is one of the leading lawyers of
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Buffalo, while mister Fisher is a professor of music in that city. The
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natural objection is that, granting the honesty of the investigators, the whole experience
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may be in some way subjective and have no relation to real facts. Dealing
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with this, the Admiral says, I made inquiries as to whether any of
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the spirits thus brought to understand that they had entered a new state of consciousness
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had been satisfactorily identified. The reply was that many had been discovered, but
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after several had been verified, it was considered useless to go on searching for
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the relatives and places of abode in earth life of the remainder. Such inquiries
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involved much time and labor, and always ended with the same result. In
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one of the cases cited opposite, page five twenty four, there is the
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prototype of the fashionable woman who died in her sleep, as depicted in the
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text. In all these instances, the returning spirit did not realize that its
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earth life was over. The case of the clergyman and of the sailor from
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the mom Monmouth both occurred in my presence at the circle of mister Tozer.
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The dramatic case where the spirit of a man it was the case of several
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men in the original manifested at the very time of the accident which caused their
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death, and where the names were afterwards verified in the newspaper report, is
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given by mister E. G. Randall. Another example given by that gentleman
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may be added for the consideration of those who have not realized how cogent is
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the evidence, and how necessary for us to reconsider our views of death.
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It is in the dead have never died, Page one O four. I
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recall an incident that will appeal to the purely maturalistic. I was one of
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my father's executors, and after his dissolution in the settlement of his estate,
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speaking to me from the next plane, he told me one night that I
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had overlooked an item that he wanted to mention to me. I replied,
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your mind was ever centered on the accumulation of money. Why take up the
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time that is so limited with the discussion of your state. It has already
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been divided. Yes, he answered that. But I worked too hard for
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my money to have it lost, and there is an asset remaining that you
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have not discovered. Well, I said, if that be true, tell
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me about it, he answered. Some years before I left, I loaned
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a small sum of money to Susan Stone, who resided in Pennsylvania. I
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took from her a promissory note, upon which, under the laws of that
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state, I was entitled to enter a judgment at once without suit. I
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was somewhat anxious about the loan, so before its maturity, I took the
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note and filed it with the Profontory at Erie, Pennsylvania, and he entered
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judgment, which became a lean on her property. In my books of account,
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there was no reference to that note or judgment. If you will go
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to the profittori's office. In my books of account, there was no reference
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to that note or judgment. If you will go to the Profonatori's office in
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Erie. You will find the judgment on record, and I want you to
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collect it. There are many things that you don't know about, and this
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is one of them. I was much surprised at the information thus received,
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and naturally sent for a transcript of that judgment. I found how it entered
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October twenty first, eighteen ninety six, and with that evidence of the indebtedness
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I collected from the judgment debtor seventy dollars with interest. I question if anyone
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knew of that transaction besides the makers of the note and the prothonatory at Erie.
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Certainly I did not know about it. I had no reason to suspect
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it. The psychic present at that interview could not have known about the matter,
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and I certainly collected the money. My father's voice was clearly recognizable on
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that occasion, as it has been on hundreds of others, and I cite
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this instant for the benefit of those who measure everything from a monetary standpoint.
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The most striking, however, of all these posthumous communications, are to be
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found in Thirty Years among the Dead, by doctor Wickland of Los Angeles.
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This, like many other valuable books, of the sort can only be obtained
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in Great Britain at the Psychic Book Shop in Victoria Street, Southwest. Doctor
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Wickland and his heroic wife have done work which deserves the very closest attention from
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the alienists of the world. If he makes his point and the cases strong
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one, he not only revolutionizes all our ideas about insanity, but he cuts
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deep also into our views of criminology, and may well show that we have
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been punishing as criminals people who were more deserving of commiseration than of censure.
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Having framed the view that many cases of mania were due to obsession from undeveloped
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entities, and having found out by some line of enquiry which is not clear
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to me, that such entities are exceedingly sensitive to static electricity when it is
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passed through the body which they have invaded, he founded his treatment with remarkable
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results upon this hypothesis. The third factor in his system was the discovery that
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such entities were more easily dislodged if a vacant body was provided for their temporary
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reception. Therein lies the heroism of missus Wickland, a very charming and cultivated
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lady who sits in hypnotic trance beside the subject ready to receive the invader when
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he is driven forth. It is through the lips of this lady that the
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identity and character of the undeveloped spirit are determined, the subject having been strapped
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to the electric chair. The strapping is very necessary, as many are violent
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maniacs. The power is turned on, it does not affect the patient,
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since it is static in its nature, but it causes acute discomfort to the
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parasitical spirit, who rapidly takes refuge in the unconscious form of Missus Wickland.
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Then follow the amazing conversations which are chronicled in this volume. The spirit is
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cross questioned by the doctor, is admonished, instructed, and finally dismissed,
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either in the care of some ministering spirit who superintends the proceedings, or relegated
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to the charge of some sterner attendant who will hold him in check should he
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be unrepentant. To the scientist, who is unfamiliar with psychic work, such
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a bald statement sounds wild, and I do not myself claim that doctor Wickland
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has finally made out his case. But I do say that our experiences at
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rescue circles bear out the general idea, and that he has admittedly cured many
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cases which others have found intractable. Occasionally there is very cogent informs. Thus,
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in the case of one female spirit who bitterly bewailed that she had not
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taken enough carbolic acid the week before, the name and address being correctly given
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Oppsite, page thirty nine, it is not apparently everyone who is open to
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this invasion, but only those who are, in some peculiar way psychic sensitives.
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The discovery, when fully made out, will be one of the root
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facts of the psychology and jurisprudence of the future. Note on chapter twelve,
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The experience of the young Frenchmen and the letters or messages quoted are extracts from
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a long series in the curious little book called La Livre Practique de Sprit.
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It has been introduced because I have endeavored, in drawing a sketch of spiritualism
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as I have known it, to introduce the less pleasing shadows which intrude occasionally
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into the light. Such practices, I need not say, would be condemned
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by any ordinary spiritualist, but it cannot be denied that their possibility is disquieting
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and opens up unpleasant lines of speculation. They are, however, so exceptional,
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that it may well be doubted whether the Frenchman was not self deceived,
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even if he was not drawing upon his imagination. Note on chapter thirteen doctor
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Mapui's experiment. The doctor mapuis of the narrative is, as every student of
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psychic research will realize, the late doctor Gilly, whose splendid work on this
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subject will ensure his permanent fame. He was a brain of the first order,
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coupled with a moral courage, which enabled him to face with equanimity the
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cynicism and levity of his critics with rare judgment. He never went further than
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the facts carried him, and yet never flinched from the furthest point which his
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reason and the evidence would justify. By the munificence of mister jean Meyer,
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he had been placed at the head of the Institute Metaphysique, admirably equipped for
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scientific work, and he got the full value out of that equipment. When
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a British jean Meyer makes his appearance, he will get no return for his
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money if he does not choose a progressive brain to drive his machine. The
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great endowment left to the Stanford University of California has been practically wasted because those
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in charge of it were not Gillies or Richets. The account of Pithecanthropis is
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taken from the bulletin des Institute Metaphysique. A well known lady has described to
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me how the creature pressed between her and her neighbors, and how she placed
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her hand upon his shaggy skin. The account of this seance is to be
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found in Gill's Lactoplamisi et la Clairvoance Felix Alcieux, aged three forty five.
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On page two ninety six is a photograph of the strange bird of prey upon
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the medium's head. It would take the credulity of a macabe to imagine that
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this is all imposture. These various animal types may assume very bizarre forms.
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In an unpublished manuscript by Colonel Shurowitz, which I have been privileged to see,
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some new developments are described, which are not only formidable, but also
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unlike any creature with which we are acquainted. Since animal forms of this nature
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have materialized under the mediumship both of Kluski and Guzik, their formation would seem
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to depend rather upon one of the sitters than upon either of the mediums,
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unless we can disconnect them entirely from the circle. It is usually an axiom
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amongst spiritualists that the spirit visitors to a circle represent in some way the mental
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and spiritual tendency of the circle. Thus, in nearly forty years of experience,
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I have never heard an obscene or blasphemous word as a seance, because
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such sciances would have been run in irreverent and religious fashion. The question therefore
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may arise whether sittings which are held for purely scientific and experimental purposes without the
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least recognition of their extreme religious significance, may not evoke less desirable manifestations of
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psychic force. The high character, however, of men like Richet and Gilly,
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ensure that the general tendency shall be good. It might be argued that
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a subject with such possibilities had better be left alone. The answer seems to
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be that these manifestations are fortunately very rare, whereas the daily comfort of spirit
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intercourse illumines thousands of lives. We do not abandon exploration because the land explored
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contains some noxious creatures. To abandon the subject would be to hand it over
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to such forces of evil as chose to explore it, while depriving ourselves of
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that knowledge which would aid us in understanding and counteracting their results. End of
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Chapter eighteen, End of the Land of Myst by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle