1933
Feb 6 - Feb 24
Walter: "Could you take a photograph of the cabinet?"
T. G. H.: "Yes."
Walter: "Have you got everything in correct line?"
T. G. H.: "Yes."
Walter: "Good. Well, keep on singing, and keep your thoughts away from the photograph for you aren't going to get one."
Everybody laughs.
Walter (continues): "This man, this creature that comes and talks to you, talks a lot of Power; he is called Power, and he has got power ..."
T. G. H.: "Do you want us to continue to encourage him?"
Walter: "I don't care, except that it keeps back my work a little. I cannot control these kinds of people. I think they come because you have not got the same chance ... the same group as before; you have not got the same power of that other ..."
T. G. H.: "I know what you're going to say, I think, Walter."
Walter: "Oh, I must say it. I must be careful. Don't ... I have had quite a time with Dawn: she is in good condition now; give her a piece of candy when she goes out of the room; tell her if she is as good again she will get two next time. She has given up a lot to come here tonight. Have you got lots of time to give up to these people?"
T. G. H.: "Yes, lots of time."
Walter: "There are lots of things that are taking up attention. Just keep on singing, and I will keep on talking. (His voice is getting smothery), and if you cannot hear me, well, the powers of wisdom will just go unrecorded, that's all."
9:40 p.m. (Florence is making a noise; someone is thumping; there is clapping and rubbing all round.)
Mercedes: "I see Katie's lights."
Walter: "Keep on singing, damn you."
Lucy says she has got nothing to say. There you, (he seems to be speaking at Florence) I am going to give you an imperative command, there; let yourself go or keep quiet. I cannot have this going on all the time; I am sorry to say it has quite a disturbing effect upon the mediums. It is alright if you aren't trying to do anything in particular; but we are trying to give you something."
T. G. H.: "Will you have some canned music, Walter?"
(No answer. Music turned on, and plays for a while ... silence.)
9:58 p.m. Lucy: "Good evening. The conditions are not good at all; you must do something to slacken up this tension. It is terrible, terrible (after a while). It is a little better now, friends. I see our new friends are with us tonight."
T. G. H.: "Yes, the Chowns."
Lucy: "Well, you are keeping up vibrations wonderfully. I will give explanations to the Queen of Sheba."
Walter: "You don't need to go worrying yourself about it at all."
10:00 p.m. Lucy: "You know, friends, I want to say to you that it is sometimes very difficult to adjust, to know how to arrange your gatherings. Walter comes, and he sometimes says to you that power is being used for other purposes. I think that you should get a very clear statement from Walter as to whether he intends the other medium, or mediums, to take on controls of any kind while he is working here. This is Lucy speaking, and I am speaking independently from Walter and any other controls. Tonight your wires are crossed and in a great tangle; sometimes it is hard, too, when the controls come here. You should find out from him if he is going to work with Dawn alone. It would be better if you would stop the controls coming through the other mediums until this work is finished. He says that power is being wasted. I cannot think of anything else: he must mean it is other controls taking power from the instruments. When he comes through Dawn I would suggest that you stop them unless it is strictly understood Walter has given him or her permission to come. Have I made myself clear, friend, to you?
T. G. H.: "Yes, yes."
Lucy: "I do not want to speak to you through Mercedes; but these last few evenings there has been a lot of ... a lot of crossed wires; and if it is Walter's work that is going to be done in this room, then there must be a distinct understanding that no interference shall ..."
T. G. H.: "Do you think that Power's coming is interfering?"
Lucy: "I cannot say that it is; I think that, perhaps, the control is interfering, with mediums in other circles; he is a wonderful control, but he should not be encouraged in this circle; and if the medium has his message she would have to go elsewhere, she cannot give it here. I do not say that Walter is very displeased, but we must straighten out this matter or you will never get your picture.
Walter: "Those things come ...."
Lucy: "If he has a message to come through Mercedes, then he must come in other circles, not here.
Walter: "Big chief come."
Lucy: "You may have to sit a little longer than your ninety minutes tonight."
T. G. H.: "All right Lucy, we can do so."
Lucy: "I must have ... it is asked for. Good night."
10:15 p.m. Silence for a time ... singing.
Walter: "How long have you got?"
Lucy: "Close now."
Walter: "How long ..."
T. G. H.: "Well, did you hear the questions Lucy was asking as to whether we should exclude other persons ..."
Lucy: "My friend, repeatedly I have asked you to give me a time for myself; and if you wish these controls to come through, then give them a time. It is impossible for me to check them . They are of a higher power and very much stronger than I am, and I have to stand aside. I have no power or control over them . Repeatedly, my friend, I have asked you to give a sitting for themselves; but you have taken no notice whatever; you have just gone on. I realize how difficult it is for all. I cannot say anything, friend; it is not good for me or my work, but they will come when the opportunity presents itself."
T. G. H.: "Well, should we send them away?"
Lucy: "Oh, my friend, I am afraid that it would not be wise to send them away; they are wonderful controls. It would be better for you if you could get a group around you that they could work through; and have that apart from the group that has sat here. I have said that to you before."
T. G. H.: "But we don't know how to keep them out and still carry on the work."
Lucy: "If you give them an opportunity to work, they will work for you; their coming is interfering with me ... if you give them the opportunity to come alone ... Yes, he wants you to close. We cannot do anything, friend. He has asked you to close, you must close, you must close, my friend."
Walter: "You come with me."
Lucy: "I cannot, friend."
Walter: "Come with me, come with me."
Lucy: "I am sorry to disappoint you."
Walter: "You will come with me."
Lucy: "Yes, I will, anon."
Walter: "You will come with me."
Lucy: "I have no power whatsoever."
Walter: "I will give you my assistance; don't get disappointed ..."
(While the conversation on this page above was going on, the sitters were filing out of the room. Walter has been on the floor, but now he stands in a fury and says in a loud voice:)
Walter: "Will you either shut the door or go to hell. I cannot do anything when you go on like that. Can't you attend to things here? Now look what you have done to your medium! I didn't give you any instructions. That was your good friend who spoke to you."
T. G. H.: "Yes."
Walter: "Look at your medium. (She is moaning). You had better take a look at her and see what has gone wrong; and then please keep quiet."
T. G. H. (Examines medium and says): "She is alright. Quite all right."
Walter: "Well, I will not be answerable for what comes through here if you do not take proper precautions. Your good friend was going to say "Good night" to you, but you didn't give him the opportunity. You started gabbling. If you had waited until he said "Goodbye" you would have got a smoother ending to your sitting; we are not in the habit of coming and speaking with you and going without saying "Goodbye", are we?"
T. G. H.: "Well, sometimes ..."
Walter: "I have control when I speak to the mediums; they come with me and don't interrupt. If you want to go out, go out quietly and let things take their course. I don't come here to give you any harm; these are the thing, that are the things that give a jar to all that has been attempted, when things go wrong like this.
"When things are going wrong ... can you not tell when things are going wrong and when they are going right? I am only half controlling this medium now, confound it. I had got good control until you came and spoiled it. She has got a good jar, I can tell you. Here. Where are you?"
(There is a long prayer here by Mercedes, some of it is unintelligible, but these are some of the phrases.)
"Pour oil on the troubled waters" - "Straighten out the tangles" - "Lay thy finger on the spot that is sore." - "Give us a clear understanding of what is wrong" - "We know we are not progressing as we should."
Walter: "Come, get to your feet."
Mercedes: "I get to my feet, yes."
T. G. H.: "Mercedes and Ewan standing."
Walter: "The power has gone. I came, my friend, to give you a message of encouragement."
T. G. H.: "Well, can you not give it?"
Walter: "I did not get the reception to which I am accustomed."
(Here there is some more talk about "blanks" and "jolts" and "jars" - some not understandable.)
Walter: "I was endeavoring to come through this instrument."
Mercedes: "You are not to blame, friend."
Walter: "Well, whatever happened, it took the power. I take great pride in your work. I take great power to some of those who come with me. I had to call on all of the resources I have got to get this girl to come; while I was calling upon this ... I could not do so, for interference took place."
T. G. H.: "That was unfortunate indeed!"
Walter: "It was in that moment near the last I was controlling this medium; but I was calling to someone else to come through. When I bring that woman, it is because of me she comes. She cannot come herself."
T. G. H.: "Can you call her now?"
Walter: "I have called her; she has come; she comes when I call."
T. G. H.: "Well, could you give us your message now?"
Walter: "Don't misunderstand me, friend. I must have quiet when I am controlling and for these forces to take effect, or great effort is lost. I cannot spare ... it would take great ... This man is quite right when he tells you that he cannot control those who have gone beyond him ... least of all can he control me ... I can give commands, but I cannot take them , if I would wish to do so. It is against the law of our nature that we can obey those who cannot see so far as we can that we would willingly do so ... to refuse to give obedience to a God-Man too we cannot obey those whose nature cannot understand what we can understand ..."
T. G. H.: "Then, they are inferior to you?"
Walter: "Yes, and no." (Silence)
Lucy: "Come, Master, they are calling you."
Walter: "They are calling me. I will come when I will come. I will come when the time is most propitious. I will not come to interfere with your work. I will only come to help your work. Who gives you the assistance that I do?"
T. G. H.: "These are the things that we cannot understand."
Walter: "My friend, you have got a mixed condition here. You have got those mediums who are accustomed to work with your good friend; and you have got those who are not developed so far as to be of assistance in that work."
T. G. H.: "Well, what would you recommend?"
Walter: "I cannot recommend that you keep them from coming into your circle ... try to keep them conscious of their own ... persons."
T. G. H.: "By what method shall be do that?"
Walter: "Give them my instructions to that effect."
T. G. H.: "That they are not to go outside themselves. Might I give them a wet towel, a damp cloth, to take in with them ...?"
Walter: "It will not require that, my friend. Tell them that I ... (voice trails off) .."
T. G. H.: "Ewan standing with hands both highly elevated.
Walter: "Tell them that I ..."
Lucy: "That girl is here; you must attend to her ..."
Walter: "Give them charge that they keep out."
T. G. H.: "To which mediums shall I give the charge."
Walter: "You are quite aware ..."
T. G. H.: "Very good."
Lucy: "She is going now ..."
Walter: "There will be no confusion if you keep this before you. Yes, we will come to you, friend."
T. G. H.: "Will that include Robert Louis Stevenson who speaks through Mercedes."
Walter: "Yes, and the other controls. I will give instructions to the group that is called Power that they shall not come while you are working with them , friend."
Lucy: "I saw Naida here."
Walter: "That has been his purpose in coming."
Walter does some talking about "Condition that exists here", pretty much a repetition, and "tension", and working against a stone wall; and he says there is no condition so deleterious to the good work as a condition of tension which is brought about by a "semi- control", and these people have not yielded themselves; not yet, and you must ask them to keep themselves to themselves."
T. G. H.: "Do you think a damp towel would be of any assistance?"
Walter: "If it will give you yourself any pleasure or satisfy you, you can do what you like. I must attend to this good woman, who is your main instrument, and Naida you can always call your own."
T. G. H.: "Yes, that means four then; very well, we will do as you say."
Walter: "Did I call farewell; I will give you one demonstration ...."
T. G. H.: "Ewan, standing, Arms are elevated and he is spinning. He bends his knees, his head bows to the west."
Naida: "To where the sun sets."
T. G. H.: "He bows the second time; his hands are aloft; he rises with hands crossed with those of Naida."
Naida: "It is to Pam (?) ... to Pam he is speaking."
T. G. H.: " ... comes forward, each palm facing to the outside of Dawn's head, as it were, rubbing the scalp."
Walter: "Get to your feet. (she rises). Give, give, give to me what is due. I am in the temple now; take your place among the worshipers."
T. G. H.: "Dawn rises; she stoops before him; she bows on her knees; her forehead is touching the floor; her crown is at the feet of the high priest of Zoroaster. Naida chants ... standing with palms meeting in the front; Dawn bows; she bows again; ten times she bows. Walter raises her, "Get to your feet ... go."
Walter: "Woman, we accept the things that are done; go back, oh, woman, and talk to those as one who knows, give ..."
Walter: "You are going back."
T. G. H.: "Are you ready to come, Dawn?"
Walter: "Take her out" - (take her from the room)
"Don't talk of these things; I have come to give you this command. Remember I am not a common man as others who come to you; I have gone great ages ago, and I charge you that you give no word of this to those who sleep. I will not come again until you have got that picture which you are anxious to obtain. I will give you my blessing and be gone. Naida - (she answers, yes), come with me.
T. G. H.: "Her right hand is elevated - his hand is resting on her head - she stands before him now with hands clasped."
Walter: "They are completely under my control if you wish to take a few tests ..."
T. G. H.: "His left hand is hanging at his side; there are conditions of almost rigidity, fixed, hands interlocked, head bowed, resting upon her interlocked knuckles."
Walter: "I am only helping you because I know you are curious of such things."
T. G. H.: "His hands are in the attitude of supplication now."
Walter: "You may take your usual examination if you wish."
T. G. H.: "I will. There is no sensation to a sharp needle point; I have tested their hands and arms and there is no sensation; I have felt the muscles at the back of his head and there is a pronounced spastic condition at the back of his neck also. His jaw is fixed; so is the jaw of Naida; very rigid; her head is quite spastic, quite rigid."
Walter: "I don't think you have ever observed these conditions before."
T. G. H.: "The tongues and lips were being well-controlled. Would you object if I took a photograph?"
Walter: "I don't think you should do so. If you have got any inquiries to make I will be glad to answer them when I come again. I ..."
T. G. H.: "I thank you very much."
(His hands relax, he grabs her by the shoulders, she is now relaxing; her head is elevated, her hands are falling limp.)
T. G. H.: "Goodbye Naida. What shall we call your good friend?"
Naida: "Goodbye. Call him ... call him "Master". It would not do for him to be known by his real name. May the sun shine bright on you always."
Walter: "May the great flame keep burning."
Mercedes: "You are here, I see; she is gone."
T. G. H.: "He is standing in posture exactly as before his salutation, with the right-hand elevated, his left hand hanging ... he bows, he stoops with forehead on the floor. Obeisance to the west; he rises; hands elevated vertically, and now horizontally."
Mercedes goes out.
T. G. H. is called out to her.
Secretary "escapes."
T. G. H. returns for Ewan and takes him out.
Sitting ended.
February 9, 1934.
Jack MacDonald; Lillian Hamilton; Margaret Hamilton (recorder).
Sterge, as usual, comes first, speaks briefly and then Robert comes to talk with us.
Robert: "Have ye ever been in love? Well, I have. I've had all the variations of the disease, from puppy love to palpitations, and from suicide-contemplation to visions of angels - I've had it all. I think perhaps it's very fortunate that most of the time I loved and lost. Ye ken out of every lost love so much good comes that I've been tempted to lose them all. It's the grandest tonic and stimulation ye could have; that is, speaking from the point of view of work produced, my work at least.
"I ken well a wee lassie I loved once. She had one attraction; she had the bonniest pencil ye ever saw - it was that long and it was sky-blue and it had a purple band on it; and oh, how I coveted that pencil! I loved her to get the pencil, ye ken, a very low form of love, I assure ye."
"Mistakes in very early youth, once recognized, are milestones gained; mistakes similarly, in old age, are millstones with which one burdens one's self. To repeat a mistake is a sure sign one is living in a fatal circle and a sign that we are being propelled by some force stronger than ourselves and which we have allowed to shove us as it will. To really dominate one's life one must not make the same mistakes twice, unless one is incapable of learning by experience. I am not one of those who believes that the unexpected always happens. It's not that way in life at all ... these things I give you now and have been giving you the last few minutes are but arrows shot in the air, hoping they will strike; they are but wee streams diverted from the main stream, hoping that the larger floods will follow. I bend the Willow, so it be supple. Perhaps too much of each of these little diverted streams seems to trickle through the Earth and disappear. But be sure they will crop up again and their effort is not lost although the effort is lost sight of.
"Prayer, while it seems to me is definitely an inward concentrative effort to reach the divine mind, most of all is a focal point for the highest and best that we can express as being within us. More than that, prayer is the great purgative, concentrating our highest spiritual desires and marshaling them and mentally projecting them on the screen of our own soul. So strong does the upward stream of higher, deeper, more exalted spiritual thoughts become, so less and less come the weaker thoughts, the lower aspirations and the corroded contacts. Prayer, earnestly directed toward the highest in word, thought and deed become a glass such as the mariners use, with two ends; looking in one end, the larger, we see more clearly concentrated before us of the things we should do, the things we truly know we ought to do; and viewing through the other end of the glass, it serves as a mirror held up by our soul before us in which we may critically survey ourselves; and seeing portions of ourselves out of moral and spiritual alignment with the rest of our makeup, we are so made conscious of them, and we see them in all their ugliness. So we abhor them and set about immediately to right this deformity.
["A prayer - a supplication." - handwritten]
"Within my moral bedchamber, O God, the night has been dark, long, lonely, and lowering. My pillow has been fevered, frenzied at times, and the seat and enthronement of the desire to be evil. With each pulse-beat came a whisper soft, insidious, persistent, assailing my ears, driving into the very citadel of my soul. Mine eyes have seen mimes, devilish mimicry. I have seen evil evolved from out myself and remaining, digging in as maggots do, to rot my soul. All these things, and many more, have I witnessed and the night has crowded in even more darkly.
"O God, exhausted, weak and weary, struggling but stifled, we wait the dawn. With straining eyes we turn toward that East from whence the light and all light to the world has come."
"O God, speed the dawn on its silver wings, for we are weak, weary, worn, and we are tempted. It is near the hour of the first cock-crow; we have yet not denied, O God, but we hesitate to affirm. Send Thou the dawn! The light that lifts as nothing else does lift; the light that is strength and sustenance and courage!
"Send Thou the dawn, O God, send Thou the dawn!"
Medium mutters unintelligible syllables, and then the following is given, apparently by a different control:
"Woe is come up on the world! He has been taken from us; from our midst He has gone into the mists, and woe has fallen upon our world! ... I ... I come, but come by forces that decidedly hinder me to have contact with you ... It is all right, I come by permission ... they know, they do know, indeed ..."
Medium become silent and falls back in chair and sighs, then whispers, "Stephen, Stephen Foster ... Foster ... Yes ... yes ... tired, tired."
Robert then speaks:
"I'm back now. He (referring to previous control) was a friend who's been here a long time, wanting through. He's got a lot of fine work done. He's much beloved over here. He still writes his songs as he always did ..."
"The little people are around thick here the night. They are the most aristocratic little folk you ever saw. They think nothing of tickling you or pulling your hair. They're little de'ils! They're such little penny-weights ye've got to be careful. Some of them resemble the flowers very much. I think most of them must be flower-babies or the souls of flowers. Their beauty is quite flower-like and their bodies at times very much so."
"That'll be all for now. Good night. That, that I gave you, was a supplication."
Sterge returns. I asked him about one of his instrumental trios. He says:
"Can you imagine perhaps a flower perfume floating through the air by the impetus of a slow sleeping wind? It is just like that, I try to make it a little like a vaporous melody, indistinct, yet coherent ..."
He goes then, after saluting us in his usual charming way.
February 10, 1933
" ... Most of our lives are spent in jail: we are shackled down to duties, barred in with convention and sentenced by necessity to live and strive and die towards an extremely practical, useful and very often monotonous end. The writer, perhaps one of the freer of the free peoples, might be compared to the bird outside of all this humanity who, free like the sunlight and the clouds, goes where he will, and who, alighting on the window-niche of the cell, gives cheer and inspiration, hope and freedom, to the shackled being within. He is the bird singing to the prisoner in Chillon's dungeons; he is the warbler who recites of the wind, the trees, the mountain tops and the eagle poised motionless in the air above. He sings of creaking pines and the rushings of waters, and the heavy surge of wind across a fearful bay, and the heeling of the live ship under men's feet, and the sting of salt spray, the surge of spicy smells from foreign ports, the hard stinging welt of frozen rope in the hand. He brings an intimate reality to the impotent being within - the joy of fighting tremendous, vital, primaeval forces. He brings too, romance, swathed in silk, laden with perfume and ushered in with singing violins. He unlocks the gates to forbidden gardens, gives the imprisoned being freedom to walk down glamorous paths past magical flowers, through mazes of beautiful dazzling gardens, to invade the halls of beauty and sit at the seat of power.
"And the subtle magic of it all is but in a word, for the man, the reader, knowing he cannot go, still has within his reach the magic carpet of romance and adventure, folded up within two covers, one on either side around it. He has but to place himself on it and he is where he wills, he is what he wills ..."
For Light
"O God of sweet and swift comfort, draw Thy hands close to the sealed eyes of They blind child.
"Hear my plaint, O God of man, draw near to me as I kneel in that eternal darkness in which I wander.
"Life to me is light denied, save that Light that came from Thee, and through which I may see all things.
"O God of Grace, place Thy cool fingers on my forehead and let me feel Thy healing hands. Touch Thou my eyes as Thou hast touched my heart. Cleanse, O God, this sealing night which encompasses me. With Thy strong arms, for mine are weak, draw forth for me from its scabbard they sword of faith, and cleave the shameful curtains drawn round about me, as when Thou dids't make the "lame walk, the dumb speak, the deaf hear, and the blind to see. Bring to this Thy child the light of vision.
"Faith I have, O God, but I lack Thy magic touch, which is Thine to give.
"Draw aside the veil of darkness and let me see the light!"
The lighthouse builders.
[Sitting with Jack MacDonald, T. G. H.; Lillian Hamilton; Margaret Hamilton (note taker)]
Sitting commences at 7:55 p.m.. In about two minutes the medium was under control. Arthur Hamilton purported to speak. He greeted the sitters, remarked that his father was present this time and after about two or three minutes conversation he left, giving place to Sterge.
Sterge: "That was a gift to you (meaning Arthur's presence). The old man was so dumb that he didn't know it! We have to use your boy to help us and we are letting him practice. He knows where you are." (to T. G. H.).
R. L. Stevenson next speaks in dialect: "I'm here with you again. I was not very good last week. It was not as bad as it might have been but not as good as it could be. He (the instrument) was a little tired. It's easier to handle him tonight.
"Ye ken the Stevensons were all a family of engineers - lighthouse builders from away back. In fact, I shouldn't be surprised if it was not one of the Stevensons that used to kindle fires on the top of the mountains of Israel. But if there's been a Stevenson to help out the Israelites when they were trying to get Baal to light the fire, why he'd have done it! The Stevensons were all great men for lighting beacons in high places.
"My grandfather was a great man. The lighthouse man, he was. He built a lot in the north. They are grand places. They must still be going. He has them built over every place there was a rock. It was a passion, a tradition handed down. As long as there were lighthouses to be built a Stevenson would build them. "Stevenson" and "lighthouses" were synonymous with "Eve" and "temptation".
"But I was not one of those at all - not like the others - and not only because of my poor chest and my weak body. I could admire them in the abstract but I wanted to build something that could be a flashing beacon to men's souls, that would turn its searchlight into men's minds and with its stabbing finger point them the way to go. I hoped to establish a literary lighthouse from which, with my wandering pencil, my wandering pencil of light, I could warn folk of the shoals, flash the signal of the rocks to the weak and unguided and point a high ... finger of light to the strong and the greatly daring. Those were my aims - to warn, to guide, to direct men on the sea of life with such ships as they had under their command, they being the captains of their souls. To those tossed about on the waves of unrest I hoped my light would beam peace. To those becalmed in sterility of mind and soul I hoped that the light flashing on the horizon would beckon them ever on as a call direct to their heart; and to those on the placidly heaving sea of common existence I hoped to stand, founded firmly on a rock, shedding a clear penetrating light, rearing my head to the heavens, but ever keeping my feet on the ground. And when, through the dimming cloud of time they look at my light, it will flicker and search them out, pointing directly to depth and truth within them, too cheer, to guide, and to act as a landmark with the functions of the lighthouse and the literary light."
At this point general conversation took place, L. H. remarking that Stevenson was gaining better control, not only of the instrument, but of himself. Stevenson then resumed:
"Writing is one of the really creative arts, one of the permanent things under heaven. Poetry, verse of all kinds, prose pleasant and polished, all is creative, the most creative thing I know.
"We stand as guide posts in the centuries: Nineveh and Tyre are dust; David, the Jewish poet; Omar the poet of the desert - they are with us today. Their lips are to our ears and our voice is as their voice; our beauty is as their beauty; deep down within we echo to their song of creation and back come the echoes full and strong through our lives and through the lives of those about us. Men in direct opposition in schools of thought - David the sweetest Hebrew singer and Omar, the Arab of the flowing bowl; one the man who thought, as he wrote, of all time; and the other who cried to all time that "time is no more. Take, while time is." You may remain, you may live, in the fountain of their spirit, in their soul as it wells in our hearts."
Again in a few moments of general conversation in which, in answer to a question from L. H., Stevenson told us that the material he was dictating was all prepared as was his earlier work with Elizabeth M. He then said: "Do ye ken David Balfour? Do ye ken Ballantrae?"
Then the voice and style of delivery changed and became very sneering and ugly: "So I can change my personality, eh? Who would suspect that this gentlemanly Dr. Jekyll could be Mr. Hyde? Ha ha! Ha!"
Apparently Stevenson was acting, for at once the normal voice was heard: "Personality is so interesting. To change one's personality, one's make up, to alter one's life, to alter the lives of others, that's ... I think I had better keep away from Mr. Hyde tonight. It's difficult. I cannot do it because to be Mr. Hyde would be to disturb the atmosphere I have created. Tonight it has been a "flaming atmosphere". I would have to mix Mr. Hyde in with that. Thoughts are things. We do not want Mr. Hyde to remain, therefore we will not bring him. I've brought a friend of mine; he's been here before several times - Burns, the Scots poet. I know he feels he is welcome.
"We aft ha'e paddied in the burn
Frae early daen tae dine."
Do ye ken Colin?
"Mary Jane commands the party
Peter leads the rear,
Fleet in time, erect and hearty
And each a grenadier."
[Reference to 'A Child's Garden of Verse']
Now, will you take that back to two weeks ago. You'll find that's what I put through. That's all!" (This last was shouted)
In a second or two Stevenson calmed down and apologized for getting a bit excited.
The medium then stood up, patted each sitter on the head and said "Thank you. That's all. Good night!"
Sterge returned, talked a few minutes on subjects relative to work in other groups and then said "Au revoir".
Sitting concluded at 8:40 p.m.
February 12, 1933.
Mrs. Poole; Mr. Reed; T. G. H.; Ewan;
Dr. and Mrs. Chown; Haywards; Dawn; L. H.; Mercedes.
[David's Statement]
Dear Mrs. Hamilton;
You have asked me to write down what I know of Stevenson. I am going to give you every detail of his life and works that I know.
He was born in Scotland, when or where I do not know. I understand his family had been engineers connected with lighthouse building. What his father did, I am not aware.
He was a delicate child and spent most of his boyhood in bed. Where he lived, went to school, and how long he was ill, I do not know.
Beyond knowing that he went to Samoa (I think) and that he visited the United States, I know little else about his life. He died, I know, in Samoa. What I know of him being in the states, you have told me.
He has written:
Treasure Island
Kidnaped
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
A Child's Garden of verse
The Master of Ballantrae
Short Stories and Articles and Essays.
I have read Treasure Island, Dr. Jekyll, and the Verses. I think I read the Master of Ballantrae. I have read "Markheim" and one or two essays which I have forgotten.
As most of these books were read around the age of ten or twelve I have forgotten the greatest part of them. I cannot recall the "Master of Ballantrae" at all, and what I know of " Treasure Island" has been recalled by the same play featured here by Bransby Williams. "Markheim" is the only one I really know.
Of the verses, I think:
The Wind
The Swing
Little Tokino, Cree or Crow.
The Land of Story Books
Dark Brown is the River
, are all I can recall and those largely only in bits here and there.
Since you mention it, I believe I recall a poem about "Great and Hearty Grenadier". That is about all I remember.
I also know his "Requiem"
I know he wrote plays in collaboration with his wife, since I saw a book in Eaton's entitled "Plays" by Mr. and Mrs. R. L. Stevenson. What they are I do not know.
This, I think, contains practically every word I know of his, or about him. At the best my knowledge is very superficial regarding his works, and I have only hazy outlines of it in my mind.
If I recall any other details I shall send these to you.
Sincerely, Jack MacDonald (David)
February 16, 1933
Talk given at Institute of Civil and Electrical Engineers:]
Historical References.
History sacred and profane
Mythology
Language
Religious customs and beliefs
Ancient Philosophy
Mythology Period
Mesmeric Period
Spiritistic Period
Scientific Period
The Photo Electric Cell
Infra-red light
Thorium Sulphide
Multiple beams of light
Mirror reflections of
Filtration with 87 Wratten Filter
Absorption by photo electric Cell
Amplification of cell output
Galvanometer Oscillations of
Respiratory Rate
Absorption of Infra-red by Teleplasm
Movement of object by
February 18, 1933
[From Winnipeg Free Press]
Problems of Psychic Research to Be Told of by Local Doctor
What happens after death? Is there an unseen world around us? Is there a spiritual world which struggles to get in touch with us, to prove its existence to those whose only experience has been life as we know it? What proof have we that this unseen world exists? What methods does it use to get in touch with us?
These are among the problems of psychic research, and these are the subject of a series of articles which Dr. T. Glenn Hamilton, a Winnipeg physician, has written for the Free Press. The first of these will appear in the Free Press Monday.
The articles as a whole reveal the nature of some of the extraordinary phenomena which Dr. Hamilton has personally observed and which have led him to believe that we are now standing on the threshold of a wonderful new sphere of knowledge which psychical science will still further open up. Some of the questions which his discoveries will suggest will be these: are we warranted scientifically in believing that death is not the end of everything? Has survival experimentally been shown to be certain? Is the veil between the so-called dead, and the so-called living, a thin one? Can this be torn down? Will the future make it more and more easy to achieve this end?
Lengthy Research
Fifteen years ago, Dr. Hamilton began his explorations in the field of psychic research here in Winnipeg. In those years he has become an international figure, well known, familiar and respected in all those centers where men and women have settled into the supremely difficult task of investigating phenomena which have been known to mankind for many centuries, but which only in the last 60 years have become the object of scientific inquiry.
Not so long ago, psychic research, known, mockingly as spookology, familiarly as Spiritualism, was the object of almost universal derision. This attitude was increased by the large number of unscrupulous swindlers and charlatans who made fat livings from their fakings for credulous victims from whom they extorted sums of money. Time and again, promising experiments have been shown to be false. Time and again, honest investigators have fallen unwittingly into the hands of mediums who have, by clever impersonations, built up a massive falsity that has destroyed months of work. All this has militated against the advance of the real study.
Tells of Experiments
Dr. Hamilton's articles, modestly written, without sentiment or emotion, as objective in style as if he were discussing some problem of surgery, give the results of some of his experiments here in Winnipeg.
The first articles deal with telekinesis. In this case, to use the term most commonly known, it is "table turning", or "table tilting,." Astonishing experiments, these, in which a table, motivated by - who knows what? - some agency or other, flings itself about a room, or thumps its signals on the floor according to a decipherable code.
From these experiments, Dr. Hamilton passes to a description of "teleplasm," the mysterious bodily, unbodily substance, which makes itself manifest at certain séances; and which, Dr. Hamilton believes, is a result of unseen and unknown forces, agencies, personalities, working through the medium.
Lastly, Dr. Hamilton describes some of his amazing results in teleplasmic photographs. Pictures will be reproduced showing the teleplasm in which photographs of known persons, now dead, were found. To these are added original photographs of the persons before death, with close comparative views of the séance photographs.
[There is a photo of Dr. Hamilton - with the caption below: Dr. T. Glen Hamilton]
February 19, 1933.
L. H.; Mrs. Poole; the Chowns; Ewan; Haywards; Mercedes; Dawn; Ada Turner.
February 20, 1933 Monday
[Article in the Winnipeg Free Press]
[First Article]
[The Free Press today publishes the first of a series of articles by Dr. T. Glen Hamilton, of Winnipeg, noted investigator of psychic phenomena. The Free Press disclaims any advocacy or opposition to the views put forward, but believes the phenomena described merit the attention of the public.]
Article I
Movements of physical objects by "psychic force"
By Dr. T. Glen Hamilton
Among the many unusual facts established by psychical research during the past sixty years or more, none are more startling from the purely scientific viewpoint than those which show that material objects may move when not in contact with anything of a known physical nature to cause that movement. That this class of phenomena has been established again and again, those acquainted with the reports of Sir William Crookes, the great English physicist, Flammarion, the noted French astronomer, Dr. W. J. Crawford, of Belfast, Dr. L. R. G. Crandon, of Boston, and within the past few months, those sent out by Dr. Eugene Osty of the Paris Metapsychic Institute, know.
Extraordinary Speed
In the accompanying photograph he may be seen to be standing to the right of the medium, the table levitation and inversion in this case being a notable one. Immediately prior to this experiment he passed the table through a loop of rope to satisfy himself that no strings, wires, or attachments of any kind were connected with it. He was convinced, he said, that the movements were true telekinesis. The speed of the levitation he regarded as extraordinary.
It may be of interest at this point to quote from a report on these phenomena made by the later Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and published in his book "Our Second American Adventure." He says:
"On our first night in Winnipeg we attended a circle for psychical research which has been conducted for two years by a group of scientific men who have obtained remarkable results. The medium is a small, pleasant-faced woman from the Western Highlands of Scotland. Her psychic gifts are both mental and physical. The circle, which contained ten persons, including my wife and myself, placed their hands, or one hand each, upon a small table, part of which was illuminated by phosphorus so as to give some light. It was violently agitated and this process was described as 'charging it.' It was then pushed into a small cabinet with an opening in front. Out of the cabinet the table came clattering again and again entirely on its own, with no sitter touching it. I stood by the slit in the curtain in subdued red light, and I watched the table within. One moment it was quiescent. A moment later it was like a restless dog in a kennel, springing, tossing, beating up against the supports and finally bounding out with a velocity which caused me to get quickly out of the way.
"Many of Crawford's Belfast experiments have been duplicated by this group of scientists, which is the more important in view of Dr. Fourier d'Albe's failure to get the same results.
So much for some types of telekinetic phenomena witnessed in this city from 1921 on.
In my second article I shall endeavor to deal with the question of the unseen intelligences which lie back of some of these supernormal movements of material objects and also, with still another type of telekinetic phenomena known as 'psychic rappings'. We shall see that to establish the actuality of these things is only to begin to touch the fringe of the problems which investigators of this nature bring to light.
[Photo of Mr. J. Malcolm Bird with levitating table. Second photo of Dr, Hamilton and another investigator with a medium being drawn across the floor by a strong force.]
[Top caption of photo reads: "Psychic Force whirls table about at seance"]
[Bottom caption: "The left-hand view shows J. Malcolm Bird, official investigator of the American Society for Psychical Research, snapped in a flash light photograph at a local seance. He is seen jumping back as the table whirled upwards. The white cord seen in the picture is a loop of rope placed by Mr. Bird to assure himself that the table had no strings attached to it. To the right is another flash light describing a scene at a seance in which the medium (right), Dr. Hamilton (foreground), and another investigator were being drawn across the floor by some invisible force which was stronger than any pressure the investigators could exert to keep the table in position. The photographs have, in both cases, been re-touched and lined-in for purposes of reproduction here. But in no instance has anything been re-touched which did not appear in the original print.]
February 21, 1933
[Article II - by Dr, T. Glen Hamilton]
Psychic Rappings In Experiment of Doctor Described
[The Free Press today publishes the second of a series of articles by Dr. T. Glen Hamilton, of Winnipeg, noted investigator of psychic phenomena. The Free Press disclaims any advocacy or opposition to the views put forward, but believes the phenomena described merit the attention of the public.]
In my first article mention was made of the fact that many investigators of experience and standing are well aware that an object may be moved under certain conditions by an invisible structure or force having its origin in the human body - the individual supplying this structure or force being usually referred to as a telekinetic medium. I also hinted that back of these phenomena, in many cases, unseen intelligences appeared to be at work, the real nature of which constitutes one of the great problems of psychical research.
The main facts in this regard as observed with the Winnipeg medium, Elizabeth M., are as follows:
Intelligent Table Movements
[Photo of table levitated and inverted with the cabinet and doctor Hamilton in the foreground and the medium in the background.]
[The top caption is: "Table that obeys orders."]
[The bottom caption reads: " Here is another flash light photograph of a 12 ½ pound table rearing up in the air under apparently its own volition, or under the influence of some unseen force. It was taken at one of the seances held here in Winnipeg under the leadership of Dr. T. Glen Hamilton, experimenter in psychic phenomena. In the accompanying article he describes how, on occasion, this table has obeyed orders when suggestions as to its movements were made by those present. At the right of the picture may be seen Dr. Hamilton himself."]
February 22, 1933
[Winnipeg Free Press article]
Doctor Describes Teleplasm Found In Psychic Study.
[The Free Press today publishes the third of a series of articles by Dr. T. Glen Hamilton, of Winnipeg, noted investigator of psychic phenomena. The Free Press disclaims any advocacy or opposition to the views put forward, but believes the phenomena described merit the attention of the public.]
Article III
Discovery and nature of teleplasm by
Dr. T. Glen Hamilton
In addition to discovering that non-contact movements of objects occur: that these are due to an invisible emanation from the body of the medium, and that they sometimes manifest intelligence, metapsychic science has also brought to light many facts regarding a second great class of psycho-physical phenomena - those strange white masses seen in the presence of genuine materializing mediums, and now generally called teleplasm.
Professor Charles Richet, mentioned in the preceding article, and who, I may say, was the winner of the Noble Prize in 1913 for his discovery of anaphylaxis, was the first researcher trained in the science of medicine to observe these astonishing manifestations. This was in 1906, in Algiers, with the French medium later known to fame as Eva C.
He found that they came from the body of the medium while she was in the sleep of trance; that they usually appeared first as a whitish cloud and that out of this cloud there sometimes appeared fingers, hands, faces, and even what appeared to be full human figures. He admitted that these things were "monstrously extraordinary", but facts nevertheless. He called this white emanation "ectoplasm" - a term already in use in medicine.
Could Take Photos of It
Three years later Mme. Bisson, a lady well known in the artistic circles of Paris, in experimenting with the same medium, was the first to discover that ectoplasm was definitely a substance and that it would stand being photographed by flash light. Baron von Schrenck-Notzing, an eminent doctor in Munich, experimenting both in collaboration with Mme. Bisson, and independently, published an account of his findings in 1913, accompanied by some two hundred illustrations of the Eva C. manifestations. Bitterly attacked on all sides, but vigorously supported by Professor Richet, Professor de Fortunay and other continental scientists who had had experience in these matters, he stood his ground, insisting that these phenomena were not due to fraud but to some unknown creative power possessed by the medium.
Further Proofs Offered
Coming to this side of the water, Dr. Crandon and Dr. Richardson in Boston, experimenting with the medium Margery, and in Winnipeg, Dr. William Creighton, experimenting with a Mrs. Y, and the writer, experimenting with Mary M., found also that under certain conditions these white masses of mysterious origin did at times appear and could be photographically recorded.
What Is Known About Teleplasm
It has been found that rarely do these masses appear except when the medium is in the sleep of trance - a sleep much more profound than ordinary sleep, and showing many features of an abnormal type - loss of normal consciousness, anaesthesia of the skin, disturbances of the heart and respiratory rate, and other changes of too complex a nature to be discussed in an article such as the present one.
These "symptoms" vary with different mediums and with different types of materializations; and, as we found in the case of the telekinetic phenomena, go to show that something is happening to the medium outside her normal control.
Regarding the teleplasms themselves, they possess many features of great interest and significance from the standpoint of biology. First of all, it is now known that the materializing substance issues mainly from the eyes, nose, mouth and ears. Occasionally it has been seen to come from the finger tips or other parts of the body surface.
Vaporous or Solid
It is known, also - and Geley and Richet both vouch for this fact from repeated observations under conditions of good visibility - to be either vaporous or solid in its initial stage, the former usually quickly condensing to form the latter. Fingers, hands, arms or faces may appear within either type, but more usually within the solid. Frequently both varieties become self-luminous, their light resembling the light of the glow worm.
Unorganized teleplasm, in the more of less solid state, may take on various aspects - fine threads, rods, thin membranes, masses of wool-like appearance, or again masses revealing the fact that the substance appears to have taken on a paste-like quality.
As an example of the latter, a teleplasm photographed by the writer by a number of cameras simultaneously under conditions which entirely ruled out all possibility of fraud - may be seen in the illustration accompanying this article.
Masses very like this in make-up have been recorded by Geley, Schrenck-Notzing, Crandon and others.
Attached to Body by Cord.
Particularly interesting to the medical man is the fact that many of these formations are seen to be attached to the body of the medium by a thin cord, supplying excellent evidence that these extrusions probably derive their sustaining energy from the life forces of the medium.
The disappearance of a phenomenon is as extraordinary as its initial appearance. This may take place in any one of three ways: it may break up and disappear almost instantaneously into the air; it may, especially when exposed to white light, gradually disintegrate and finally vanish; or it may return to the body of the unconscious medium through his or her mouth or other body opening.
Probably because the materializing substance bears so close a relationship to the basic life-energies of this human body, it is exceedingly sensitive to light, especially in its early stages. Like the seed in the ground, or the chick within the egg, it appears to require darkness for its initial development. But like the chick and other forms of animal life, it can and does stand exposure to light in its latter stages, although it is still much more sensitive than a normal growth.
Can Stand Certain Lights
It has been found, however, that teleplasm can, with powerful mediums at any rate, stand two kinds of light without causing the medium undue reaction - red light of considerable strength, and a very bright white light of exceedingly short duration. The former discovery has enabled some investigators to observe these formations from the beginning to the end of their appearance; the latter has enabled them to employ flash light photography as a means of recording their presence.
Richet, writing his great work "Thirty Years In Psychic Research", after summing up the evidence of reputable investigators from the time of Crookes on, says this: "There is ample proof that experimental materializations (teleplasmic) should take definite rank as a scientific fact." Backed by so eminent an observer, the hostility of inexperienced critics becomes a matter of little or no concern.
Are Nature's Products
Of still greater importance, however, is the fact, as Geley has already pointed out, that these phenomena in all their essential characteristics, agree. No matter who the medium or investigator may be, or in what part of the world they appear, they all show the same reaction to light, come from the same parts of the medium's body, take on the same aspects and show much he same internal details.
Genuine teleplasms are nature's products and cannot be duplicated by the cleverest tricks.
[There may be something missing here:]
In succeeding articles I shall bring to the reader's attention some further facts which have come under my notice, facts which throw considerable light on the various functions which this mysterious substance may fulfil.
Incidentally, we shall find once more, as in the case of the raps, that unseen personalities largely dominate this particular scene of action.
[Photograph of medium with teleplasm around face and mouth with top caption: "Teleplasm" appears during trance.]
[Lower caption: "White masses of mysterious origin often appear from psychic mediums when in trance, the picture shown being the result of one of Dr. T. Glen Hamilton's seances here. Teleplasm, as it is called, is a product of nature, Dr. Hamilton states, figures, hands and faces often appearing in it. Unseen personalities, Dr. Hamilton says, dominate these appearances, just as they appeared to dominate the mysterious rappings described yesterday."]
February 23, 1933
[Article IV - published February 23, 1933]
[The article goes with IMG(457/5737) - By Dr. T. Glen Hamilton]
Self-Ringing Bell Reported Feature of Psychic Study
In the three preceding articles we have seen that metapsychics has been able to establish the actuality of two types of psychical phenomena - supernormal movements of objects and supernormal formations known as teleplasms. In the present article we shall give our attention to a type which appears to be a union of these two. Incidentally, in considering it, we shall be obliged to come face to face with the problem of the trance beings which direct and appear largely to control these things.
All investigators find that these have to be reckoned with. Some investigators, notably Richet and Schrenck, held the opinion that they were probably secondary personalities of the medium.
Geley, Crawford, Crandon and others have been willing to examine the other hypothesis - namely, that in some cases these unseen directors may be what they claim to be - discarnate human beings endeavoring to prove the fact of their existence.
[Copy of article printed in Winnipeg Free Press, 1933 ].
[Handwritten at bottom of page: Margaret's 24th birthday.]
Article II
Psychic Rappings
By T. Glenn Hamilton, M.D.
[Photo of medium and bell]
[Top caption of photo reads: "Psychic bell ringing"]
[Bottom caption of photo reads:" Top left of this photo taken during a seance by Dr. T. Glen Hamilton under conditions explained in the accompanying article is a bell box. Two teleplasmic cords are seen stretching from the medium to the bell-box, and the ringing of the bell, which took place, did so under the direction of a 'trance personality' talking to the experimenters through the medium, who is in trance sleep.
This picture has been retouched for purposes of newspaper reproduction. The teleplasmic cords were faintly visible in the print given by Dr. Hamilton to the Free Press, and also in the negative, but would not have appeared under conditions of newspaper reproduction without retouching."]
February 24, 1933
[Letter from Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry - Valley of Winnipeg - letter to thank for acceptance of the invitation to speak on March 23 at Rose Croix Chapter of the Lodge - speak at 8:45pm.]
Also:
[Article V by Dr. T. Glen Hamilton - Free Press - February 24, 1933
Research Shows Many Functions For Teleplasm
[The Free Press today publishes the fifth of a series of articles by Dr. T. Glen Hamilton, of Winnipeg, noted investigator of psychic phenomena. Saturday there will appear a summary of the findings made by Dr. Hamilton, together with some questions which have arisen therefrom.]
Article V.
Human Faces in Teleplasm.
By Dr. T. Glen Hamilton
The functions of teleplasm have been found to be many. That it is, in all probability, used to convey energy from the body of the medium to move inanimate objects at a distance, was discussed in the article immediately preceding this one.
Many times during the past four and a half years in our experiments with the medium, Mary M. the supporting group of sitters and auxiliary mediums, we have listened to a "throaty" voice speaking to us which many tests showed was not being produced by the normal speech organs of the medium.
As Dr. Crandon had found in his experiments with the so-called direct voice, there was reason to surmise that these sounds had a teleplasmic structure of some sort as their basis. Like him, also, we had the good fortune to be able to obtain photographic proof of the actuality of this "talking machine," a flash light photograph being taken at the moment the voice was speaking; and, as it happened, giving directions for the flash to be fired. The materialization, thus recorded, is seen, by the nature of its structure, to be an abnormal "growth" which could not possibly have been fraudulently produced. Whatever the hidden laws back of its appearance, nature, - and I here use the term in its widest sense - alone, was the author.
As we saw in article 3, still another function of teleplasm is that of being able to take on the appearance of the physical body.
Missing Faces Seen
Regarding phenomena of this type, witnessed with the French medium, Eva C., Dr. Geley writes:
Some observers (Crookes and Richet, among others) have described complete materializations. These were not phantasms, but actual persons, having for the moment all the characteristics of life. It has not, unfortunately, been my lot to observe such perfect phenomena; on the other hand, I have very often seen complete representations of a face, a hand, or a finger.
I have seen a living head; I have seen well-formed and living faces. In many instances these representations have grown under my own eyes from the beginning to end of the phenomena.
