Materialisation (2)

Upper Picture: Materialised form of Bien Boa, one of Elisabeth D'Esperance's guides.
Lower Picture: Materialised form of Katie King with Sir William Barrett, famous phycisist.

This has been seen by many persons as though given off from the side of the medium. It is evident that the physical bodies of mediumistic persons lend themselves more readily to the process of emanation, but they are not alone in this, for it is a quality common to each and every one. The medium who is being used is certainly the centre of attraction for the material gathered from the circle. It is absorbed by him, some say, while others maintain that it is only changed in its character by admixture with that given by the medium himself, in much the same manner as that in which steam is changed and made visible by being condensed as it comes into contact with the outer air. This, being generally the first noticed by the inexperienced observer, has given rise to the supposition that it is the medium alone who contributes the material. Instead, however, of being the first process of manipulation, it is almost the latest. From this point it becomes a separate, independent, individualised object, gathering itself into a mass on the floor, rising and increasing in height and volume until it reaches the stature of a human form. Constant movement is seen to be going on within the mass, as though some living creature were actively engaged within a dense cloud, which is agitated by its movements, causing it to resemble a rolling, waving, ebullient volume of steam. In a short space the outer covering of this moving mass becomes an unmistakeable veil of more or less fine texture. This will be thrown off, revealing the form of an individual to all appearance as solid and material as any person in the circle, yet which each person in the room has seen evolved from that omnipotent no-thing to which he or she has contributed.

How has it been done? The work has in many cases been performed before the eyes of the sitters; they have watched the whole process from the beginning, but they can no more understand the mysterious development of the living, sentient creature in their midst, than they can understand other and commoner phenomena constantly being manifested before them; the development, for instance, of a plant from a tiny seed, the intelligence it displays in extracting the necessary gases from the air for its nourishment, and the advantage it takes of every opportunity to attain its object without considering the welfare of its neighbours, in a manner almost human in its selfishness. (laughter)

This process of materialisation is slow in the tree, but there is another common manifestation which is analogous to that of the séance room; that is the covering, of objects by the minerals held in solution in certain waters. There are springs, common in every country, the waters of which are clear, pellucid and tasteless. There is nothing in appearance to distinguish them from other waters, yet if a flower, or a leaf, or any delicate object be suspended for a few hours in those springs, it becomes covered with a grey, stony mass, hard and brittle, as though carved in stone. It is perfect as to form, but the beauty of colouring is hidden by the coarse material substance with which, by some natural affinity or attraction it has clothed itself. This transformation has always seemed to my mind to be a fair illustration of the process of materialisation by a spirit at a séance, and the observations of other investigators are to a great extent confirmatory of my own.

There is more to follow tomorrow.