The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-04-05
MY SUPERNATURAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
SOME TRUE STORIES OF STRANGE VEN


current OF thOught, ana lta reply ID y SUIT
prise. In pursuance of the theory Of sun
mind and memory for tho source Of plan
chette's remarks. with nc very satisfactory
results. Besides, admitting that the con-
tents Of your memory, n the springs Of
your character, lie open to planchette, to
make therefrom such selections and combi-
nations ne it chooses, how does it do itp
How do the contents of your mind get into
the piece of tobacco box. and how does 1t
c~ontrive to write them out?
/ have spoken of the attraction of a mag
net. If you hold a small piece of iron close
to Il strong magnet, you feel a slight pull.
The pull the planchette gives to your fin
gers, when it proceeds on its perigrinations,
is very similar to this. But, in writing out
a word, it pulls in a dozen different diree-
lions within the space of a few seconds.
Th effect is not like that of a machine,
however complex. or of a body obeying
fixed and inevitable laws, but of an indie
pendent personality, endowed with intelli-
gence, purpose and memory. For it remem-
bers what it has said and done in the last,
| and knows what it is about to do. Our
planchette, in answert to questions suggested
by its own answers, related to us, i'll daily
installments extending over three weeks, a
long story comprising upwards of ten
Thousand words. 1t was SO good a story
that it was afterwards accepted and pub
lished by a leading periodical. word for
for word as it was originally written down,
and from beginning to end there was not
an Inconsistency. Nor was it all written
through the mediumship of one pair of
people. A dozen different couples, at diff
ferent times, sat down to the work, and the
tale proceeded uninterruptedly. In short,
the complete story must have been stored
up in planchette's 'mlnd' before it began
to write it.
After we have become accustomed to the
thing II familiar with it's ways many
queer peculiarities are noticed. Planchette
has no morality and no regard for truth.
Ii we ask it a question as to II matter of
fact, or about something III the future, it's
reply is always ready and generally very ex-
plicit. but never true save by accident. BY
far the best method is to let it take the
planchette?' "Yes." ''Well. who is writ
ing?:' John Smith Cor any other imagi-
nary person.. You now proceed to question
John Smith on any imaginable detail OF his
person, his life, death, occupation. desires.
recollections, purposes and sentiments. BY
and by, John becomes a human and recog-
nizable individual to you: and you are even
able to tell, by the preliminary sensation
in the nerves, whether it Is John or someone
else who is about to write the next SEN
tence. Planchette never confesses its own
dramatis pereonae. Sometimes three or four
different persons Ito call them that will
each NElUS Il S0uLeuCo Ouo dlU6E uliOLuoIS
but the sentences are all characteristic i'll
style and conception. Occasionally | have
seen two communicates contend for the
possession of planchette, jerking it away
from each other, tripping up each others
writing, lighting, in a word, like two angry
children, and in one instance breaking the
pencil in their struggle. Planchette often
betrays faults of temper, vanity, mirth,
cynicism, scorn-all manner of human
foibles. "Tell Mary" it once suddenly
wrote, breaking. in upon some yarn 1t was
spinning, "that she had better shut up"
Now Mary did not have her hands on PLAN
Ghetto, but she was sitting at the table, dis
tracing our Attention by making frivolous
remarks. Planchette always wants the
whole attention of everybody in sight, and
is apt to grow surly or abusive if this is not
accorded.
1t only does it's best work in fact, when
the general interest and curiosity OF the
spectators is at its height. We also found
that other things being equal, it wrote bet
ter on a warm day than on a cold one, and
that the hands of those who are working it
should be warm. The best wood to make
it out of WAS the resinous varieties. The
proper shape was that of the heart Con a
playing card) and the dimensions sever
inches BY five. Wheels are not necessary
on the legs, it writes more steadily without
them.
1t will do other things besides write. Let
some one hide an object, say a key or q
glove somewhere in the room, and let two
others who don't know where it is hidden
take up a planchette and let it rest on their
right and left hands respectively, the fore.
finger hooked on the legs of the instrument,
Now tell it to find the object Il you will
Immediately find a slight pressure of the
legs against your fingers indicating the di'
rection i'll which planchette wishes to 90
You step in this direction carefully needing
and obeying the pressure. Sometimes thelt
will also be an upward and downward pres
sure. Thus you will be led all around the
room and in three cases out of five per
haps the object will be found.
If one take it out doors il will act hk'
the witch-hazel of tradition-it will dil
very perceptibly in passing over certain
places. Whether. underneath these places
there was water, or gore, l never made il
~vestigalion, but the movement WAS Away
repeated at the same spot. Planchette will
perform such feats, however, only after j
has become thoroughly domesticated, so t,
say, and of course n of the person.
handling the instrument must be
Observation-Disclosures that may mean
About one person in five, according to my
observation, has more or less of this fac
ultv, and one out of twenty will nave it il
a marked degree.
Having thus in some measure prepared
the way, | shall relate next time an expe
rience of our own with planchette which is
so far as | know, unprecedented.
JULIAN HAWTHORNE.