Researches in the phenomena of spiritualismJ. Burns, 1874 - 112 pages |
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accordion action animal magnetism apparatus appear cabinet cage Carpenter chair Coleman Sellers committee conclusion Cook's copper vessel Council Crookes's curtain evidence examine exerted experimental explained fact Faraday favour feet friends fulcrum give glass vessel heard Home Home's hands Huggins impossible imposture inches inquiry instrument intelligence investigation Journal of Science Kate Fox Katie Katie King Katie's letter light luminous mahogany board manner mechanical medium mediumship ments mis-statements Miss Cook move movements muscular nature object observations occasions occurred opportunity paper person phenomena planchette present pressure produced Professor Stokes Psychic Force published Quarterly Journal Quarterly Review reason reference Royal Society scientific séances seen Serjeant Cox Sir Charles Wheatstone sitting speak advisedly Spiller Spiritualism spiritualist tells spring balance statement table-turning test conditions test experiments Thallium theory tion trick trickery truth unconscious weight whilst WILLIAM CROOKES witnessed writing
Popular passages
Page 4 - Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature ; and in such things as these, experiment is the best test of such consistency.
Page 90 - There are at least a hundred recorded instances of Mr. Home's rising from the ground, in the presence of as many separate persons...
Page 110 - Round her she made an atmosphere of life. The very air seem'd lighter from her eyes — They were so soft and beautiful, and rife With all we can imagine of the skies, And pure as Psyche ere she grew a wife — Too pure even for the purest human ties; Her overpowering presence made you feel It would not be idolatry to kneel.
Page 107 - Holding one of Miss Cook's hands in mine, and still kneeling, I passed the lamp up and down so as to illuminate Katie's whole figure, and satisfy myself thoroughly that I was really looking at the veritable Katie whom I had clasped in my arms a few minutes before, and not at the phantasm of a disordered brain. She did not speak, but moved her head and smiled in recognition. Three separate times did I carefully examine Miss Cook crouching before me to be sure that the hand I held was that of a living...
Page 105 - Katie was then standing before me clothed in her usual white robes and turban head-dress. I immediately walked into the library up to Miss Cook, Katie stepping aside to allow me to pass. I found Miss Cook had slipped partially off the sofa, and her head was hanging in a very awkward position. I lifted her on to the sofa, and in so doing had satisfactory evidence, in spite of the darkness, that Miss Cook was not attired in the " Katie " costume, but had on her ordinary black velvet dress, and was...
Page 32 - Testimony has been so abundant and consentaneous that either the facts must be such as they are reported, or the possibility of certifying facts by human testimony must be given up.
Page 23 - Science is bound, by the everlasting law of honour, to face fearlessly every problem which can fairly be presented to it. If a probable solution, consistent with the ordinary course of nature, can be found, we must not invoke an abnormal act of Creative Power.
Page 93 - I have retained one of these hands in my own, firmly resolved not to let it escape. There was no struggle or effort made to get loose, but it gradually seemed to resolve itself into vapor, and faded in that manner from my grasp.
Page 112 - ... should bear the strictest scrutiny, should be willing to be searched at any time, either before or after a seance, and should meet with even better success in my own house than at that of her parents, knowing that she visited me with the express object of submitting to strict scientific...
Page 18 - The results appear to me conclusively to establish the important fact, that there is a force proceeding from the nerve-system capable of imparting motion and weight to solid bodies within the sphere of its influence. I noticed that the force was exhibited in tremulous pulsations, and not in the form of steady continuous pressure, the indicator moving and falling incessantly throughout the experiment. This fact seems to me of great significance as tending to confirm the opinion that assigns its source...