Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-09

which purports to furnish evidence
on a basis of scientific investigation
of the reality of ,physchic pheno-
mena, raps. levitation," etc. Being
the first work that have heard of
which records the results of direct
measurements of ''phychic force"
by means of physical instruments,
such as weighing machines, ball
ances, monographs. electric bells
and manometers, and the author be-
ing doctor of science" and an in
structor in mechanical engineering
in the Municipal Technical Institute
and the Queens University at Bel
fast, Ireland. l naturally took up
the book with keen, if unsettled ex-
pectation.
of the sort of thing that various
mediums and 'sitters' regard as
communications from the dead.
One would like to retain n respect
for the dead. which would be i'm
possible if their alleged utterances
at spiritual seances'. were ac-
cepted for genuine. But the prom
Use held forth by this book seemed
to rest on totally different founda-
tion. and l opened it with eager
curiosity. Now, at last, l said to
myself here is q real test of these
mysterious phenomena by verifi-
able scientific methods, and the
prospect gave me lively satisfaction.
But when 1 looked at the preface
with which the author, DIR. w. J.
Crawford, opens the book my antic-
! ipations dropped like the mercury
in zero weather. 1 found there this
sentence: II do not discuss in this
book the question of the identity
of the invisible operators. That is
left for another occasion. But in
order that there may be no misap-
! prehension I wish to state explicitly
that 1 am personally satisfied they
are the spirits of human beings who
have passed into the Beyond"
There! At those words the scales
dropped from my eyes, and l saw
! that this was, after all, not true
scientific investigation of the sub
! ject. for observe that DR.. Crawford,
with strange futility, begins by
| begging the whole question, and
that without any advantage to his
case, but with the certainty of
awakening skepticism on the part
of the thoughtful readers for whom
his book was presumably prepared.
He sets out, ostensibly, to make a
strictly scientific investigation of
the nature of the force that causes
raps and levitates tables, and then
| instead of holding his mind open
and confining his attention to the
| observation and accumulation OF
unuuestfonable facts he starts with
! an assumption-viz., that spirits of
the dead are the operators" of the
phenomena under investigation.
1t is apparently this unfortunate
preliminary step which has forced
IL 70 a
unnecessary theory concerning the
supposed mechanism by which the
phenomena are produced-viz., the
theory of a "cantilever" action be
tween the medium and the table
or other levitated object. All
through the book the eXperlmenter
and the operators" exchange COM
munications by the well-known
methods of such things.
Nevertheless, DR.. Crawford mas
succeeded in recording some ex-
ceedingly interesting facts, Whlch
may eventually lead to very i'm
portant conclusions, If followed up
by investigators who do not start
out with the assumption that some
other source of psychic force" is
concerned in the manifestations
than that included in the bodies OF
the medium and her coadJutors IN
the circle
1t seems, for instance, an impor-
! tant point of knowledge gained
when DR.. Crawford's weighing ma
chine, on which the medium sits dur
i ing the experiments. invariably
shows an increase of her weight al
most exactly equal to the weight of
! the table suspended in the air before
her. In other words, as the table
rises from the floor its weight seems
to be added to the weight of the
medium. as it would be If she simply
lifted it with her hands or feet.
DR.. Crawford assures us that she
did not touch the table in any way;
and if we accept his statement on
this point, then the increase OF the
mediums weight when the table IL
levitated becomes certainly an ex-
ceedingly1 ana suggestive
fact. Quite as curious is his state
ment that whenever the table was
moved in some other way-for in
stance, drawn horizontally over the
floor by psychic force''-the weight
of the medium was Increased
though by a much smaller amoun'
than when the table was raised bod
lily into the air.
The experiments with compress
sion balances, electric bells, etc., pS
means of which Dr. CraWioru ZEN
onstrated to his satisfaction that tnt
mysterious force operated mainly
under the table. but did not reac,
upon the floor; that it emanatee
principally from the lower part o.
the mediums body, and could be de-
tected both as q force directed away
from her and one directed upware
when it came beneath the table
that its intensity varied usually
from twenty-five thousandths tt
four hundredths of a pound pei
square inch, rising in one speeia
case to several pounds per square
inch, and always attended by
change in the weight of the medium
all these things, it must be admit.
ted, are extremely interesting, and u
DR.. Crawford's results are verified
and corroborated by other investi-
gators, much more serious attention
will have to be given, to psychic
phenomena" than they have hitherto
IL