Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1897-12-23

but Is INDUCED TO 90 on with tine ShoM.
There is no more intelligent lady
in Lancaster than Mrs. Amy Edwards
Conant, widow OF DR.. John Conant,
late of Prairie du Chen With a rare
courage to Investigate and remarkable
ability to understand things real and
unreal the lady possesses sensible
balances of mind sufficient to prevent
her being carried away by uncanny
performances of over-zealous half
imposters; but at the same time adj
] hitting such discoveries in advanced
science as are capable of rational
explanations.
A few days ago Mrs Conant was in
Chicago. With lady friend she Wis
tied a boss spiritualist, who is said
by those who know him to be an
''honest medium" Mrs. Conant was
visited yesterday Icy the HERALD
reporter and induced to relate her
experience with the man who calls up,
or down, the spirits of the dead, and
we relate it here, thinking it may be
interesting to those Of our readers
who have not the opportunity to in
vestigate such things for themselves.
Before giving these facts. however,
the reporter will hastily relate some
other matters bearing on the same
subject
Almost everybody knows something
of the beliefs and claims OF spiritual
lists, mediums. materializers, divine
heaters, hypnotists, and lot OF other
peculiar spectators who claim to be in
the front rank Of scientific reform
1t is no easy task to single these out
and label them properly, because one
belief is so closely allied 10 the other
and all claim to be governed more or
less by the supernatural. So some OF
Us tumble them all up together and
dismiss them, perhaps AL too hastily,
with the name, 'lunatics."
just now everybody is familiar
with hypnotism. 1t Is form Of
somnambuhsm or sleep brought on
by artificial means, in which there is
! an unusual suspension of some pow
ers, and an unusual activity Of others.
1t is induced by an action upon the
nerves, through the medium of the
senses, as in persons of very feeble
organization, by gazing steadily st a
very bright object held up before the
eyes, or by pressure upon certain
points on the surface OF the bedy.
The reader can satisfy himself that
hypnotism is possible by the follow
ing experiment:
Catch a chicken and sooth it into
quietness by holding in bend Of ann
and smoothing neck feathers with
free hand. Then bend its head into a
natural position beneath its left wing.
Hold the wings down on each side sc
that it cannot get its head out, nor
fiutter, and then rock it gently back
and fourth in the air for one or two
minutes. Set the chicken on the
ground and very quietly take your
hands from its side. The fowl will
continue so sit there for time, fast
asleep. The length of time it remains
asleep will determine your power as
a hypnotizer. The longest the writer
was ever able to keepa chicken asleep
was about three minutes. Another
test is to hold a fowls head close to
the floor, force it to look at chalk
mark for space, when it will some
times follow the mark as far as il
goes. Make short mark first, and
hypnotic control draw the chalk
slowly along the floor and the bird
viii follow with It's eyes on the mark.
Have no rough or noisy persons about
you while experimenting and never
handle your subject roughly. The
chicken will sleep until dead ii you
keep your hands on its wings-if you
possess great hypnotic power--in
the first test mentioned.
Some weeks ago the HERALD re-
porter attended Faith Cure meeting
held at the residence of Mr.. and Mrs.
Frank Wagner in the city. Of Lancas-
ter. Thirty-fiye persons were pres
ent and the meeting was presided
over by an eminent Divine Healer Of
Chicago. We soon learned that near
" every person present was in hearty
sympathy with the speaker, and when
an opportunity was given 70. person