The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1869-06-15 00:00:00

THE DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS, TUESDAY, JUNE 15, 1869.

CUED )1.18 EVIDENCE ON SPIRITUALISM.
On Teeslay night the committee of the London Dia-
lectical Society and • number of visitors mat at No. fi.
Fitzroy-square, to resume the taking of evidence no
spiritual manifest ‘tioos. After some discussion as to
• ether the proceedings should be reported for the
preoa, several Spiritualists objecting to publicity
without revision, it was .greed that names should be
witheld if required. Dr. Edmunds occupied the
The first witness was Mr. Shorter. He said be bad
been Investigating this subject for fifteen years, and
had published the r-sults of his investigation is the
Yorkshire Spiritual Teleprapk. Mentioning some of the
phenomena which had come under his own observation,
e said he bed repeatedly seen a table incline forward
at an angle 01 45 degrees or more, the candle or lamp.
watersbottle, and inketood remaining on the table as
if they were part of it. At other tmes be had seen the
table rim perpendicularly from the floor, and tenons
who held it drown up after it. A person who jumped 1
on the top was (tarried round the room. He bad seen
'young lady raised from the fioor, notwithstanding the
efforts of two stout men to hold her down. He had
more then once seen • table move without any human
being touching or o Mng in wasted with it. The MOM
and ages of persons locg dead had been given when those
names and ages were known to no one present. These
and other revelations which he gave were made in day.
light or gaslight, and were not carried on by preforming:is'
or public meetings, but among his own friends, and in
Ms boom or in theirs. On one occasion, when Dr. D.
bad ben playing the concertina and laid it aside, it
began playing again, and the table roes and danced to
the tune.
In reply to questions by members of the committee.
witness said he believed these manifestations were
produced by intelligent, non-materid, but substantial
beinp.
Mr. Manual Ryre said his experience of Spiritualism
hod extended over 16 or 17 years. His attention was
first attracted to the subject at Philadelphia, in the
home of the AttomerGeneral. The Attoiney-Oeneral's
sister bad been up to that time a perfect Atheist,
and bad treated Spiritualism with ridicule; but
ridicule was not argument, and now through
Spiritualism she had become happy in the belief of •
future stato. At Buffalo • large piano began playing
when no one was near it sod moved about the room
until the lady of the house was afraid it would be
broken. He was one requested to obtain the registry
of the baptism of a person who died in London ninety
or • hundred year. ego. He went Into Cambridge.hire
and Yorkshire, and took the necessary steps to find it,
but without snores; At length, although be had an
aversion to public mediume, be went in 1862 to Ars.
Mar.ball, in Red Lion-street. " When I went into the
room," continued witness, ' she was sitting as it might
be in that corner, ond I sat down as it might be il2 this
corner. A large round table from the further corner
came and fell into my lap. That was the arm cone.
munication I received." Avoiding farther collision, he
wrote a certain number of questions, asking where he
should find the register of the baptism he eosin search
of. The table rapped, and Mrs. ILarshail, as her
manner was, "blotted" out Stepney Church. He had
never heard of Stepney Church. but • few days after-
wards be went there, and after spending about •
week he found the registry of the baptism he had
been in search of for three months. Ten years
ago, at a circle in Ohio, Mrs. M. was told that she
could meet her friend Mrs. N. again in England but
that she would then be • widow •nd in painful circum-
stones& About that time Mrs. IL gave an entertain.
usent at Camberwell Lunatic Asylum, where, as it
proved, Mrs. N. was undor restraint, her husband
having died and left her in pecuniary difficaltim so
great as to affect her intellect. She remembered, how-
ever, the pretietion of the spirit, and re-called the en,
cum.tanee to the memory of Mrs. N. He we. satisfied
that there is intelligence of this kind, which cannot be
accounted for in any other way than by communication
with the spirit-world In which we lire.
In reply to Mr. Atkinson, witness said that the more
noisy the manifestations are, the lower is the mind
from which the manifestations come. Commencing

•
with rapping LS the a, 6, is, the manifestations go on to
writing, speaking, and those more useful demonstra-
tions which he believed are intended to be of direct
service in our intercourse one with another in this
world. He knew • lady who net an hour a day fir 12
months before ste received spiritual manifestations,
but from that time abs was developed as a spittial
medium.
In answer to further questions, witness said he was
never mesmerised, but he had spoken on subiscta
which he knew nothing about. Lest night a gentle-
man called upon bce, and he gave him • diagnosis of
the &seam from which he was suffering with the course
of treatment necessary to cure him. In those cases he
was isonscious of the action of his own mind labouring
in obedience to what might be styled • mesmerised
influence.

....
The Chairman: You are conscious of a dominant and
dictatorial power in your own mind
Witness: Yes.
In reply to other questions, witness 1114 that there
have hoes caste of Imposture; but in those wise. the
table is jerked, wherem the spirits gave it an undillaa
leg movement that eannot deceive. In the village of
Wokeettuig he saw • walherwornan upon whose arm
writing would appear without any human aid. The
characters rose on the arm like welts, and in Glom
imitation of the handwriting asked for. A committee
sat to investigate the matter at Milwaukee, but arrived
at no conclusion. The woman became highly popular
as • Unitas medium. She appeared to write, but her
finger was • foot or more from her arm, and her sleeve
was over her arm.
Captain Webber said that be had bad writing te his
arm and breast performed by a medical man, to show
that it was possible this could be done in the natural
world.
The Chairman, sneaking for a lady present, said that
the Spiritualistic writing disappears in ten minutes, but
if done with • painted instrument it would lase an
hour, and would be difficult to do without sciratddng
the akin.
A gentleman, who stated that he is a 'merchant in
the City, said that after some study of magnetism,
biology, god mesmerism, he began to experience
muscular, manual, and pedal contreatione H. bad
toned himself 'peaking • language he did not under.
stand. He had seen ladies end gentlemen of high
position in society and most refined in manner similarly
affected. He bad seen them set at defiance the rules
of etiquette, and act as free and unrestrained as wild
Indians of the woods, penoesting them in their war
denote and comp life, and speaking in • strange
language One day he went home with amen, and had
same conversation with him, when quite on • sudden
he fell on his lap and addressed 'Amin the most endear.
log terms. On recovery he asked the man whet it
meant. The man told him he had given him • gratify-
ing visit in personifying his dear sister then in the
spirit land, who, he was sure, had controlled him at
at.. time to menifrst her neurones and speak to him as
if else were still In this terrestrial sphere. Od another
occasion he entered a hydropothie establishment. An
old gentleman followed him. As moo as the old gen-
tleman walked up to him he felt ailments in his
system. He told the old gentleman to sit down, ran
round him, waved his hands over him for fifteen minutes.
The old gentleman got up and said be felt relieved.
Another pompon was pat in the same plum and was
also relieved.

In-anse-er—to ululation' witness Wowed these phew.
omens were spiritual, not rossinerle. Tbe latten•P
TM that of lb. North American Indians, whom he had
owes beam amongst. The words fall from him by a
power wideli he wield not understand; bat he had aa
bias of what arm otesat.