Imperial Valley press., 1937-03-28


curious powers and with her he conducted
prolonged series of tests.
First, he gave her small specimen of car
boniferous formation millions of years old. The
specimen was wrapped in paper which she held
in her hand. Her eyes closed, and she immedi-
ately described jungle swamps and life which
existed ages ago. Continuing, he collected
group Of different specimens, wrapped each OF
them in paper, dropped them in hat and shook
them up . so that neither he nor his wife
could distinguish any object Among these was
Mexican silver, antimony mined in Borneo, and
a specimen of meteorite. She picked out one of
the objects, and said: II perceive what seems
to be mist, and in it are stars and planets
1 am going far away through space, whirling in
the sky :. going up" Unwrapped, the object
was his meteorite.
Other objects in the hat, when held in her
hands, seemed to take her dozen into the
earth. Each of them she described in detail, with
an uncanny exactness. His precautions, he was
convinced, outlawed the possibility of mental
telepathy. Similar results he obtained from his
mother a sensitive woman who did not believe
in Psychometry. His sister then grew curious,
took a specimen from his hat and described
a flow of lava, an ocean which seemed to boil,
a tremendous eruption Of heat. The specimen
in her hand was a piece of lava taken from
Kilauea in Hawaii
Most mediums have this faculty but many
people not interested in phenomena perform
equally strange feats by Psychometry. The
method followed is simple. letter, piece of
clothing, watch, or any small object, is held
in the hands or against the forehead and
with eyes closed, it is often possible to picture
scenes appropriate to the specimen No abnormal
state of mind is necessary, sem-trance is
ordinarily required Professor Denton found that
a surprising number of his friends could tell
of I1tfoy
but (nore rarely something of what the letter
contained. 1t was not unexplainable, admitting
the truth of Dr. Buchanan's theory any more
than the facts about Photographic plate before
development. Such plate, after picture is
taken, conceals within itself the outline of the
object snapped The picture remains invisible
until the plate is properly developed. impress
sions, he believed with DR.. Buchanan were
actually (by some unknown process) stored
inside Of objects, some story of the past which
could be sensed by the person reading fairly
clear symbols. In the case OF Psychometry, OBJ
iects are developed" by human methods instead
of chemical the process is different but the
result very much the same
Such process is certainly Tin way which
we do not completely understand) the working
of natural laws. Spiritism makes no claims that
this is evidence of the supernormal
Startlingly different is another type of test:
Post mortem letters =. test designed to elimi-
nate telepathy and all human knowledge. A
living man-let's call him Mr. BroWn-writes
a letter and sends it forthwith to the Society
for Psychical Research, where it is placed In
the safe No one but Mr. Brown knows its con-
tents In good time Mr.. Brown dies and some
what later supposedly communicates through
medium giving the exact contents of his
letter If and when this occurs, 1t appears to
be sound evidence that Mr. Brown from some
where in space is active and capable of inteIh-
gent thought and direction. Possibility of fraud
has been eliminated. Many such conclusive tests
have been held. but nearly all have failed to
reproduce the wording of the letter. Several Mr..
Browns" have seemed TO "send through mes
sages and ideas strikingy like those contained
in a letter, but this remains indefinite and in
conclusive.
Research and experiments continue in Europe
and America with increasing interest in
Iapan and on the Pacific Coast Facts are not
proved by statement but by growing record
of annotated evidence gained through fraud
proof methods.