CHAPTER XXIII

CONCLUSION—STRIKING INCIDENTS RELATED BY WELL-KNOWN WITNESSES

IN submitting to our readers such startling incidents as the following we make no claims whatever for the narratives, which are simply inserted at the close of this volume as contributions from the highly respectable narrators who vouch for what they describe over their respective signatures. All honest testimony deserves consideration.

New York City, March 10, 1906.

MR. W. J. COLVILLE,

Care of Banner of Light, Boston, Mass.

My dear Mr. Colville:—Having read your request for authenticated evidences of Spirit-communion in the Banner of Light of recent date, I take great pleasure in sending you herewith a few of our many experiences, and to assure you that you may make such use of this letter and its contents as you may see fit, using my name in full. Our small circle awaits with eagerness the publication of your book, to which we have had the pleasure to be among the earliest subscribers.

To those who may doubt the truth of the statements made below, I wish to say that if they will apply their time and money to the investigation of these and kindred phenomena with as much liberality as they devote to purely material pleasures, devoid of any mental, moral or spiritual advantage, they will find the truth of the purpose of a more spiritual than material life and truths and marvels much greater and purer, than are contained in any system of theology or philosophy. I simply state facts and leave it to the reader to make his own deductions.

With best wishes for your welfare and an enthusiastic reception of your book, I have the honor to remain,

Yours very sincerely, DR. V. VON UNRUH.

MATERIALIZATION

Two seances were held at our own house with two well known media. There being present our little circle, consisting of my friend, Dr. H. and his wife, my wife, myself and my wife's sister, who were all well known to the media, no strange influence was expected to disturb the phenomena.

The remarkable incidents worthy to be mentioned were the following: I was called in front of the improvised cabinet by the medium and saw his wife seated in a chair inside the cabinet in a deep trance. Around her feet there were two distinct accumulations of what seemed to be lace, interwoven with sparkling lights, and presently growing larger, stouter and taller until suddenly they were lifted up as if by invisible hands, and assumed the shape of a toga, within which I beheld at the same moment the shape and figure of a man and a woman, who then stepped out of the cabinet. This all was done by the light of a small red photographer's lamp, which we always used during our seances and which gives light enough to distinguish the pattern of the wall paper eight feet distant. Then there appeared a form, strange to us, who swinging her hands and arms above and around her head and occasionally rubbing the palms of her hands together, began in this way to weave out of the air a piece of lace, increasing in size every moment until it was about six by eight feet square. We were then told to grasp it at the margin and span it tightly across the space between the cabinet and our semicircle in front of it. Then slowly we let go of the lace which the spirit gathered in in the same manner as described before, and finally showed us her empty hands. We were anxious to retain a piece of such lace and asked for it; but were told that such lace made out of the air would soon disintegrate, yet if the spirit were given some silken fabric she would take out of it one thread and make a piece of lace which would keep forever. I gave the spirit my necktie from which she took one thread, still standing outside of the cabinet and began the same manipulations as before and after about thirty seconds handed back my necktie within which was enclosed a piece of lace, which is still in my possession, mounted between two slabs of glass. That there are spirits who lack the politeness of better-bred earth folk was also shown us at this seance. The medium outside of the cabinet received a sudden slap in the face, which was audible as a loud handclap all over the room; we did not know what to think of it until the medium said, some foolish spirit had slapped him in the face, but that he took such things good-naturedly, because resenting had done no good in the past and the evil-doer always apologized stante pede; but as the medium’s spectacles had been broken I thought that such pranks were altogether out of place. Then we witnessed several materializations and dematerializations outside of the cabinet. In the seance room then appeared directly at our feet a small cloud of light, dangling and dancing as it were, on the carpet, then around that cloud the luminous and sparkling lace and the two uniting folding over a form in less than half a minute. After greeting and a few private remarks the spirit, claiming to be that of my friend’s mother, stepped back about two feet and collapsed, her feet disappearing first and her head bowing down forward touching the carpet after which all disappeared into nothingness.—An Indian, “Little Eagle Eye” who came to me at every seance told me, that he would like to have a pair of moccasins to take them to spirit-land. I bought a pair and wrote on the sole of each moccasin “Little Eagle Eye” in ink which at writing showed up blue, but which turned black after a day or two. I gave them to him at this seance, four days after. When he appeared he said to me, “What you got for me? Me know, me see you write my name on them, blue like war paint.” He at once put them on, and when he dematerialized they also disappeared and I have never seen them since. On a subsequent occasion I asked him what he had done with the moccasins, he replied that he had taken them to spirit-land.—There also appeared for me a man, wearing a high cone-shaped hat which was so illuminated as to dazzle one. He said he was “Pardee,” lived under the second Egyptian dynasty and came to tell me that he was my musical guide. In this connection I wish to narrate what will be to Non-Spiritualists a very remarkable incident. A young gentleman acquaintance who came to dine with us one evening, fully a year after the aforementioned seance, and for whose entertainment I was playing the piano, turned suddenly to me and said: “Do you know anybody by the name of Pardee? I see him standing by you and he turns to me and says: I am Pardee,—and then he points with his hand towards you.” We had not seen this young man for more than a year and by no possibility could he have known of the aforementioned seance or the name of Pardee. This did not astonish us, as we knew the young man to be a clairvoyant. This could not have been Telepathy, for the young man’s description of the appearance of the spirit agreed with our knowledge of the materialized spirit Pardee.—I must relate one more incident that happened at our seance. “Lucy,” the guide of the medium came out of the cabinet first as usual and then disappeared for quite a long while, perhaps twenty minutes. When she appeared again she said, “Friends, I must tell you something very funny; I have just been over to Mr. X’s house in Brooklyn, where they were getting ready to begin their seance; when the medium in the cabinet was about to seat himself in his chair he tripped and fell on the floor and all the sitters were laughing.” Lucy herself seemed to be quite amused. The next morning my telephone rang and the unfortunate medium asked me whether Lucy had told us about it and I answered that she had. He then said that his fall had been a quite painful one and that he had difficulty in walking.

Apport

For the benefit of those, who distrust professional mediums, I will give an account of one of our own family-sittings, composed of myself and wife, our two children, aged ten and eleven, and my friend and his wife, all living under the same roof. On December 31, 1905 (Sunday), we held our usual weekly seance. Soon after the beginning of our seance I felt something touching my hair and mentioned this. A few minutes after my forehead was touched by a small, hard object, which instantly dropped on the glass cover of the music box in front of me. On examination we found it to be a genuine case of apport, the object being a solid gold cross in the form of an Egyptian crux ansata, surmounted by an Ibis. The dimensions of this object are about two inches in height and one inch in breadth.

V. VON UNRUH.

New York City, March 10, 1906. 857 Lexington Ave.

Dr. von Unruh is a dentist established in New York many years with a large and influential practice.

A SPIRIT HAS HER PORTRAIT PAINTED

When my book, “In the World Celestial,” was in press I met the heroine of it, Pearl, at a seance. She assured me that the scenes and conditions of the spirit world, as described in the book were substantially correct, and that the story as a whole, is true to life. I said to her, “My dear Pearl, I should very much like to have a portrait of you for the book.” She replied, “I will try to have one painted for you.” She did not succeed, however, in getting a satisfactory likeness until the fourth edition of the book was about to be issued. On the evening of January 25, 1905, Pearl met me at a trumpet seance and made an appointment with me to meet her at the home of two sisters, famous psychics, the next day, where she felt confident we would succeed in getting a portrait of her. My wife went with me to that appointment, and will sustain the statement of facts I herewith submit. The two sisters and ourselves entered the seance room, at three o'clock in the afternoon. I selected from a number of others an artist’s canvas on a stretcher, twenty by twenty-four inches, which was placed in front of a south window, through which the sun was shining. One of the sisters seated herself on one side, and the other on the other side of the window, and each grasped the edge of the stretcher next to her with one hand. My wife and I seated ourselves immediately in front, and within easy reach of the canvas. We kept our eyes steadily fixed upon it to carefully witness any phenomena that might be presented. In about three minutes a cloud passed over the canvas and settled upon it, forming a pearl gray background for the picture. A few minutes later the outlines of a form appeared. This grew gradually more distinct until in about forty minutes, from the time we had taken our seats, the picture was complete. It was the portrait of a beautiful woman, in the full bloom of mature womanhood, with golden hair and blue eyes, a perfect blonde. I had known Pearl when she was a girl, and this portrait bears a striking resemblance to her as I remember her. I have met her at seances since, and she has assured me that the portrait is a correct likeness of her, as she appears in her present development. I had her picture reproduced for the fourth edition of my book, in the style known as photogravure, a new process by which photographs are made direct from the negative on white plate paper.

This experience settles the matter, with us, that spirits can have their portraits painted, by some occult process which is beyond the ken of mortal artists. Art critics who have seen this picture pronounce it above criticism as a work of art, and they are puzzled to know by what process it could have been produced, as it is different from any style of painting with which they are familiar.

T. A. BLAND.

Dr. Bland is Secretary of the American Medical Union. Address, 231 Hayne Ave., Chicago.

Oneonta, N. Y., March 9th, 1906.

The soul-inspiring truths of Spirit-return, wafted on the wings of love after the transition of my dearly beloved mother Julia Pond, have been a well-spring of joy to us. Being isolated from all people of this cult, and never having been in sympathy with the thought of Spirit-return, not having read any literature of that nature; my experiences have been phenomenal, first conceiving it imaginary, subsequently developing clairaudience. We feared dementia, not consulting a physician, but prostrated for several weeks, after which unconscious entrancement, when my husband apprehended death (as we interpreted transition). After a hard struggle, the vision was made clear, highly developed instructors were brought, embellishing me with gifts which I of myself have never sought. Singing in all voices where mortal voice of its own volition has never reached. Instruments coming through the vocal organs, also inspired writings. These manifestations proving to us the continuity of life, and the thin veil between the two worlds interpenetrating each other's lives like one great family. This innovation in our lives has been an education as well as inspiration to reach out after the aggrandizing truths which are given us through the realm of Spirit.

ROSE B. HELM.