The New York herald., 1921-10-09

probable origin of certain psychic
phenomena together with a record of
striking personal experiences. BY Ter
tium Quid. With a preface by Miss
II. A. Dallas. T.. p. Dutton & Co.
After the death of r w. H. Myers,
president of the English Society for
Psychical Research, twenty years ago
a number of new evidential devices in
the transmission of psychic messages
ployed, supposedly initiated by Myers
himself and designed to reduce the
number of alternative explanations,
such as coincidence, cosmc mind, and
especially telepathy, as necessary ele-
ments in explaining the phenomena.
A first success in this more elaborate
evidential direction was the system Of
CROSSE correspondence. This was the
obtaining of similar or corresponding
messages almost simultaneously
through three or -four different medi-
ums, unacquainted with each other
and often ignorant of the meaning of
the messages they We're transmitting.
They were usually instructed by the
communicators to send any unintelli-
gible script to the central office of the
Society for Psychical Research in Lon
don, where an investigator, whose duty
it was to collate and interpret these
disjointed fragments, often found that
the stray bits joined together gave
evidence of unmistakable conference
int tat ,t-
Ingenious and cautious system has re-
suited in some wonderful psychic
finds" in the other world, so to
speak.
Later a still more interesting and
conclusive means of communication
was employed and is now the most
generally accepted and widely used
of all methods of confederation in
seeking to prove the authenticity of
messages from the other side. This is
known as the Book Test, and it's method
is most ingenious. The message comes
in such form that it is unintelligible
TO everybody, including the receiver,
until it has, so to speak, been decided
through book specified by the sender
of the message.
Thus A" in the other world sends
| through the medium directions to find
certain page (number usually ac-
curately given) in a certain book in
dicated only by its numbered place on
given shelf in q bookcase whose
position Is described, in a house to
which the medium has no access. but
usually well known to the receiver of
the message. On this page of the
book is to be found a passage. often
fairly well outlined by the communi-
Gator. containing the message he
wishes to get over.
Here, of course, is room for the play
of imagination i'm the mind of the re-
clplent. room also for chance coinci-
dence to operate. and for possible clair
voyance on the part of the medium.
And yet, so frequently all these agen-
cies can be confidently eliminated as
to leave a residue not to be explained
by any theory in the domain of psy-
chology as it is now explored. unless
one accepts that of authentic spirit
communication. This is what is
frankly done in "a new book called
THE Earthen Vessel" by Pamela
Glenconnor.
Lady Glenconnor is one of the beau
tful Wyndham sisters who married
Edward Lord Tennant, the brother of
Margot Asquith, and the messag ges. all
of them book tests" which are re-
corded in this volume. are mainly from
their son, Edward Wyndham Tenant
Cknown in the family as Bim). who
was killed in the war. They came
through noted medium, Mrs. Leon
ard, who is TO the English Society for
Psychical Research what Mrs Piper
was so long to the American branch.
Bear in mind that Mrs. Leonard
speaks even in her trance, not as her
self but as the medium through which
"a control" from the spirit world" 10
use their own phraseology. speaks.
This control is known as "Feda." and
"Feda" speaks for BIN" i'm the other
world. using Mrs. Leonard as a kind of
telephone, just as an obliging Opera
tor on long distance" might try to
help person who was trying to get
a message through on an imperfect
wire
We quote at random from the vol
ume before us. "Feda: Now, he (Bim)
says FOR the book-tests. He has two.
both for his mother. and a third that
he would like taken as a message to
all all Of them. He can't get
this through very well, but he repeats.
It is message for good many people
he knows. The first one is
among some books near stars--on the
left hand side OF some stairs."'
Now II Ieda had said steps instead
of stairs we should have understood
instantly. AS IL was, we who were lis
tening and taking down the notes were
entirely bewildcred. One of us said.
There are no booksAelves on the
stairs. What can it mean? Feda an
swered. BIN says that room that isn't
used now, you know, with stairs in it,
Then we recognized my room upstairs
that, owing to the air raids. had been
disused for some time. A small book
shelf hangs on the wall TO the left of
the entrance.
"Feda resumes. Now them he saws,
that you have got tho room, look for
a book I'm gray cover. one of the
books I'm the row has a bit torn off It's