Nogales international. [volume] (Nogales, Ariz.) 1926-1979, 1931-11-25
FIRST INSTALMENT

The rather extraordinary story re
vealed by the experiments of tn
Neighborhood Club have been unit
now a matter only of private record
But it seems. to me, as an active par
ticipant in the Investigations, that the,
should be given to the public; not 81
much for what they will add to thu
existing data on psychica1 research
for from that angle they were no
unusual, but as yet another explora
ton into that still uncharted territory
the human mind
The psycho-analysts have taught u:
something about the individual mind
They have their own patter, of com
plexes and primal instincts, of the I'M
conscious, which is sort of bonded
warehouse from which we clandcs-
timely withdraw our stored thoughts
and impressions. They lay to this I'm
conscious mind of ours all phenomena
that cannot otherwise be labeled, and
ascribe such demonstrations of power
as cannot thus be explained to trick
5 cry, to black silk threads and folding
rods. to states with false sides and
a medium with chalk on his finger
nail.
In other words, they give us sub
jective mind but never objective mind.
They take the mind and its reactions
on itself and on the body. But what
about objective mind? Does it make
its only outward manifestations
through speech and action? Can we
ignore the effect of mind on mind,
when there are present none Of the
ordinary media of communication? l
think not. a
In making the following statement
concerning our part iii the strange
case CT Arthur Wells, a certain allow
ancc must be made for Our ignorance
of so-called psychic phenomena, and
also for the fact that since that time,
just before the war, greet advances
have been made in scientific methods
of investigation. For il..ance, we did
not place Miss Jeremy's chair on a
scale, to measure for any loss Of
weight Also the theory Of rolls Of in
visible matter ernanating from the me-
diun's body, to move bodies at al
distance from her, had only been
evolved; and none of the methods fol |
calculation of beverages and strains
had been formulated. so far as / know. |
10 be frank, am quite convinced |
that, even had we known or these So
called explanations, which in reality |
explain nothing, we would have
ignored them as. we became. involved i
in the dramatic movement 81 the rev
Citations and the personal experiences
which grew out Of them. confess
that following the night after the Erst
seance any observations of mine would
have been of no scientific value what
ever, anu. believe Can speak for
the others also.
Of the medium herself I can only
integrity. The physical phenomena
occurred before she went into trance,
and during that time her forearms
were rigid. During the deep trance,
with which this unusual record deals,
she spoke in her own voice, but III a
querulous tote, and Sperrys exam
ination of her pulse showed that it
went from eighty nomal to a hun
dred and twenty and very feeble.
With this preface | come to the
death of Arthur Wells, our acqualnt-
ance and neighbor and the i1vestiga-
ton into that death by group of six
earnest people who call themselves
the Neighborhood Club.
The Neighborhood Club was organ
lied in my house. 1t was too small
really to be called a club, but women
have way these days of comforting
a titular dignity on their activities,
and it is not so bad, after ALL The
Neighborhood Club it really was, COM
posed of four of our neighbors, my
wife, and myself.
We had drifted into the habit of
dining together on Monday evenings at
the different houses. There were Her
bert Robinson and his sister Alice
not young woman, but clever, alert,
and very alive; Sperry, the we'll
known heart specialist, a bachelor
still in spite of much feminine activity
and there was old Mrs. Dane, hope
lessly crippled as to the knees with
rheumatism, but one of those glow
ing and kindly souls that have a way
of being neighborhood nucleus. 1t
was around her that we first gathered,
with an idea of forming for her GER
tain contact points with the active life
from which she was otherwise cut
off. But she gave US, | am sure,
more than we brought her, and, as
will be seen later, her shrewdness was
an important element in solving our |
mystery.
In addition to these four there were
my wife and myself.
1t had been our policy to take UP
different subjects for these neighbor-
hood dinners. Sperry was reformer
in his way, and on his nights we gen
orally took up civic questions. He was
particularly interested in the respon-
sibility of the state to the sick poor.
My wife and | had political" eve
nings. Not really politics, except in
their relation to life. | am a lawyer
by profession, and dabble a bit in
citv government The RObinsOnS had