Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-03-22


created more excitement than did Spirit
ualism subsequently under the Fox Sis
tiers. Proclaimed in public halls it I'M
derwent the fiery opposition of skeptics
as the prince of humbugs. Its advocates
were either magicians, Wizards, or dew
ilish imposters. A man could read print
blind-folded, and tell the time denoted
by the watch without eyesight, or the
ages of people, and names by preternat-
ural means. A man to keep.a clean rep
utation must not be mixed up with it, So
if one wished to crafty his curiosity and
test its validity to invade the old order,
he must work secretly, or get in bad rep
utation.
1t was much easier to believe in the
Plotomeic system of astronomy, and that
the sun revolved every day around the
earth, than that any such occult power
could control human organisms. The
town lived in was much exercised over
the seeming super-human power mani
tested. My preceptor during my studies
was somewhat agitated and indignant at
the mountebank with his tricks, still if
he could only secretly do it, he would
venture an experiment away among
strangers on the mountain. So daring,
he took me as witness. will describe
the phenomena. He placed himself be.
side his nervous patient on the bed, and
looked sleep at her; manipulated as he
had seen done, and willed her to be SON.
ulent for some time, but she would not.
1 sat quietly looking on, beside a strange
girl of 20 years; ignorant, unlearned and
somewhat pretty!
The show promised to be a failure,
and guessing there might be a chance
between us whose affiliations might be
stronger, with her consent, l modestly
took hold of her hands, and looked her
in the eye for about a minute, and told
her mentally she had better go to sleep
without her night dress, and she did,
just as l bid her. Her eyes rolled up,
her hands became cold and she was OBJ
IYiOus to all passing events. There was
but one person in whom her soul was In
terested; unwittingly l had conquered
one womanly heart, and the two beat as
one, and no other could manage the heart
whose strings were entwined about me.
was in love, of course, with one who
had placed herself so completely under
my control. We talked together I'M
molested, and she revealed to me all her
were unbounded. Sweet things were sour
to her and sour things sweet: she sung,
she calculated, she prayed, she laughed,
she cried; tried to do things she could
not do; she was obedient to all my wish
es. She would talk freely to me, but no
one else. She said she would ride with
me, 1 agreed, and we in imagination
journeyed on, stopped at several places
and she described them. At last we
stopped beside a two-story house, and l
said we will go in here; she assented and
we entered. She described with accur-
acy the room in all its minuteness; said
there was no one in the room, presently
she says, now there is, which was true,
woman in rocking chair not doing
anything? no, nothing, which afterward
was learned to be true.
Will you as physician, examine this
lady? Yes. l was curious to see her
method. She felt her own pulse. She
placed the thumb and fingers of one hand
of her own, below the thumb and index
finger of the other. She went thoroughly
over her own body, respiration, heart,
etc, until she got her hand on the dis
eased spot, when she exclaimed she had
found it, Her mind was much exercised
as she described the symptoms of cancer
of the breast with minuteneSs and accur-
acy. She seemed to decipher from ar.
dent mental thought in her own person
the condition of another, whom in the nat
ural state she knew nothing about. The
source of her knowledge was miracle to
the company, and the power that moved
her was great wonder, and while some
of it might have come in some inscruta
BILE way from me, in others it was utterly
impossible. had got into new world
of thought, and the revelations of this
unsophisticated girl, convinced me of
the existence of a power here tofore I'M
known, and 80 years have not effaced the
impression then made. The hardest of
the struggle was to wake her and get her
mind again into its natural state, but
=. i I i
seen her since. feel that the strongest
impression ever made on any females
mind was made then and there, in that
lonely place on the mountain, before
credible witnesses. Skepticism was
gone from all. S. Z. X.
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