1926
Feb 28 - Apr 28
"I saw Livingstone and he had a rifle and was shooting at someone ... a black ... it was no animal ... a nigger or something. Then I went to a town and I did see some sights ... I saw a whole lot of women and their hair had never seen a comb. They had a kind of colored skirt affair down to their feet and they were dancing ... their skin was like a copper color and such music. They danced and danced ... but you never saw their feet getting off the ground ... I went through a town ... some very pretty houses and some little small ones. I saw children ... lots naked or with only a little strap on. I saw other white men and I got his name ... maybe I have given it to you."
"It was real hot there ... oh my, it was hot. They danced singly and running up almost against one on other. It was men made the music, and the kids were holding their women's skirts. I can't remember that man's name ... it is quite a common name, too.
Comments:
"In the vision the "dashing appearance" is transferred to the women, making the scene dramatic and vivid to the medium's eye.
R. L. Stevenson writes after the David Livingstone scripts:
"His writing covered a dreary waste", coupled with a vision of a moor.
Screen test for table movements was negative.
Raps gives message.
Medium unable to produce camera phenomena.
March 1, 1926.
J. Malcolm Bird, Research Officer for the American Society of Psychic Research, New York, present.
First Trance - (compound) - R. L. Stevenson in two themes.
Second Trance - (single) D. Livingstone.
R. L. Stevenson.
First trance script:
A. "He says he was unsuccessful ... he strove over again ... unsuccessful ..."(pause).
B. "He lazed ... adventure ... and for years where by his wife he slumbered ... he thought of home..."
First trance vision:
"I was in a city. I came to a house and went through a hallway and up a stair and got into a room where R. L. Stevenson was. He seemed awful down about something ... one foot on a table and an elbow on a table and hand on cheek and chin. Long dark hair. He was writing and stopped, *that was the position he got in. He seemed real troubled, anyway."
"Then I left that place and got to the house on the face of the hill. I got R. L. Stevenson and his wife and the boy. He was just sitting talking when I came down from there. I crossed a little burn on stepping stones. I saw a little house over the face of the hill and little green bushes and trees between. He was talking to me at the house."
Verification:
"Whenever I read a book or a passage which particularly pleased me ... I must sit down at once and set myself to ape that passage's quality. I was unsuccessful and I knew at, and tried again, and was again unsuccessful ..." from "A College Magazine". ("Memories And Portraits", page 57).
"His spirit re-adventures; and for years, where by his wife he slumbers, thoughts of that land revisit to him. He sees the eternal mountains beckon, and awakes, yearning for that home that might have been..." (See "Underwoods", page 107.)
Trance II.
David Livingstone message and vision both poor.
Writing difficult to read; something about black tribe.
Vision meaningless.
Second trance vision:
"I was in a very nice place amongst fruit trees ... I saw a few people. They gave me some names ... awful names whether of places or people. I saw them planting little trees and I saw oranges and figs growing. They had on long light-colored coats and belt almost to their feet ... others had on dark coats, no belt ... but Livingstone had a belt. He had a turban on his head. They were all busy at this field or garden. I did not notice a house unless I saw several places before I reached where this garden was. I can't remember the names of the places he told me ... David Livingstone I never noticed till before the sky there is an awful pretty deep blue. That is all, except I cannot find in these big names he gave me.
Table levitated and was photographed.
Complete Levitation and Inversion. March 1, 1926.
[ Photo of complete levitation and inversion - Malcolm Bird in corner ]
In the corner is J. Malcolm Bird, at that time Research Officer for the A.S.P.R. and assistant Editor of the Scientific American Magazine. He had been invited to be our house guest for a few days when he came to Winnipeg to lecture on the Margery mediumship.
Here, he had passed the table through a loop of rope, a routine procedure by which he satisfied himself that no strings or wires of any kind were attached to it.
Before he could pull the mesh curtain across the cabinet opening, the table bounded forward and over-turned. The psychic force was very explosive; in most cases the table was hurled back to the floor as rapidly as it had been levitated.
Mr. Bird regarded this speed as extraordinary. In his opinion this was true telekinesis. The table had lifted and turned itself AFTER Mrs. Poole had removed her hand.
Rapid sideways ejection of the table, following the usual "charging".
[ Photo of levitation and inversion ]
When any object is raised by muscular force, there is an expenditure of muscular energy, resulting in minute electro-chemical changes in the muscles, causing a slight degree of fatigue.
Dr. Hamilton noted that when the table was raised by psychic force, the medium experienced a marked degree of exhaustion. Moreover, some of the sitters suddenly felt extremely tired, a secondary phenomenon often noted in telekinetic experiments.
When the action was even more violent, Mrs. Poole appeared to lose consciousness briefly. This suggested to Dr. Hamilton that she might indeed be in a near-trance condition.
Similar observations had been reported by earlier investigators - Crawford, Crookes, Osty, Geley, Schrenck-Notzing, Mme. Bisson and Crandon.
In hundreds of table movements which occurred in our seance room, never once was any one struck. Now it is ridiculous indeed to suggest that a table, of itself, possesses any will or choice.
However, the energy produced in a levitation did disclose a form of intelligence which determined the direction of the table movement. This was our first confrontation with the enigma of intelligence, ever present in this work.
As did the above-mentioned earlier investigators, Dr. Hamilton surmised that the probable cause of these violent movements was due to teleplasm in an invisible form, extending as a cord from the medium's body, to materialize after it had reached the table. He also thought that some sort of storage, or accumulative process was going on, either in the wood of the cabinet, or in the wood of the table, a storage process which would be the source of the additional energy that helped to bring about these remarkably speedy and powerful actions.
As I mentioned at the beginning, Dr. Hamilton had to conduct his experiments for the first five years "under cover", so to speak. Yet his medical and legal and literary colleagues shared his interest; and inevitably, to satisfy a growing curiosity, he was invited to speak.
Reluctantly, but with great courage, he gave his first address to the Winnipeg Medical Society in 1926. That started an avalanche of invitations to speak.
March 2, 1926.
First Trance (single) R. L. Stevenson.
Second Trance (single) D. L. speaks and writes.
First trance script:
"Will he accept this ... although owing money ... for his dedication? ... One that is not ungrateful ..."
First trance vision:
"I think I was in this place afore. (Skerryvore home) The sea was at my left hand side and I saw a lighthouse. I did not go over to it, but stood at the shore and looked at the lighthouse. It was out well into the sea on the top of rocks. I was back, up into a storey-and-a-half house and R. L. Stevenson was there. He did not look well. He was talking, telling me something. R. L. Stevenson had white pants on and a white cap and it had a black peak at the front. It was a lovely place ... summer. I was talking to him but I don't remember what he said. I was drawn to the lighthouse. I stood longer looking at it."
Verification:
"But one name I have kept on purpose to the last because it is a household word with me, and because if I had not received favors from so many hands and in so many quarters of the world, it should have stood up on this page alone: that of my friend Thomas Bodley Scott at Bournemouth. Will he accept this, although shared among so many, for a dedication to himself? And when next my ill fortune brings him hurrying to me when he would fain sit down to meat, or lie down to rest, would he care to remember that he takes this trouble for one who is not fool enough to be ungrateful." (Last paragraph of "Dedication to Underwoods.")
David Livingstone:
Second trance vision:
"I was away ... it was a good big stretch of country and there were a lot of black tribes ... little ones awful black and others copper colored. 1852.
"There was men there and some were mending boats ... I am getting somebody by the name of Nelson and the little kiddies running around barely nothing on them. I saw Livingstone and another British man white. I saw some bushes ... coconuts grow on ... I saw in them hanging; I don't know that much more ... some houses seem of mud with two or three poles out of the top, and they were round tents ... like not square. They must be living there, for there is where the little niggers are running round. I was drawn to those workers and huts. Then I was at a different place ... I got the name of it ... I can't place the latter.
March 3, 1926.
First trance script:
"Holophotal light ... A louvre-boarded screen - optical instrument.
"Thomas Stevenson was never harsh ... atonement."
First trance vision:
"I was in the old home and in a room heavily draped with curtains. Stevenson was a boy of 10 or 11... his father was giving him a good lecture. The boy's hair was long and he had on a tweed kilt and jacket."
Verification:
"Storms were his sworn adversaries ... many know his louver-boarded screen for instruments ... but the great achievement of his life was, of course, in optics as applied to lighthouse illumination ... and though the holophotal revolving light ... still remains his most elegant contrivance, it is difficult to give it the palm over the much later condensing systems with its thousand possible modifications ... "(from the essay "Thomas Stevenson, Memories and Portraits", page 127-8.)
Comment:
The imagery centers around the relationship between son and father. Thomas Stevenson exercised parental authority but was never harsh. It appears now that the R. L. Stevenson who survives death wishes to acknowledge that fact, and thus make atonement, for the too frequent references in his letters and essays about his disagreements with his father. This newer point of view is very significant.
Trance II.
David Livingstone speaks:
"Lebe ... confluence ... Limbze ... many hunters ... Manwbowa ... under Masikae ... hippopotamus ... buffalos ... caught water turtle ... great many eggs."
Second trance vision:
"I saw a kind of prairie and a lot of men out shooting with funny coats of skin, and a lot of dried meat. The men were dressed kind of funny with horns on their head. The horns belonged to the skin ... I saw I don't know how many kinds of animals. I saw David Livingstone and he opened up something, some kind of living creature, and he took out eggs, and he pressed them and they did not break. This thing had a head like a toad and poor legs ... he took out some of the innards (viscera) and he looked real well pleased ... I saw them eating the dried meat ... they seemed not to cook it."
Verification: "
"... A short distance below the confluence of the Lieba and Luambze we met a number of hunters belonging to the Manbowa tribe, who live under Masipo. They had dried flesh of hippopotamus, buffalo and alligators. They stalk the animals by using a cap made of the skin of a Poku's head, having the horns still attached ... they presented me with three very fine water-turtles, one of which, when cooked, had upwards of 40 eggs in its body. The shell of the eggs is flexible; the flesh, and especially the liver, is excellent." ("Missionary Travels", page 418.)
Comment:
Here the matching up of selected memories with the imagery in the trance vision is a very successful demonstration of the power in this mediumship of the psycho-hypnotic method of communication. E.M. sees with arresting accuracy.
March 4, 1926.
Impromptu sitting held at home of H. Shand following lecture by Malcolm Bird.
First trance vision:
Stresses father's wish for his son to follow the family profession. R. L. Stevenson is seen as a lad in a workshop with his father. A picture of a lighthouse on the wall.
March 7, 1926.
Mrs. Poole was at this time perturbed over the fear that some sitters are tired of R. L. Stevenson's messages. Wants to "quit".
R. L. Stevenson.
First trance script:
a) Such is possible to those that practice an art ... never to those who drive a trade ... (pause).
b) "Do not fear, my little friend, for in spirit, not a ghost ... discretion tested by hundred secrets."
First trance vision:
"I had a wonderful picture: I had him standing here quite close, and his hand on my right shoulder and he spoke right out."
"Then I was away and I saw his wife drawing in color on an easel. Then I seemed to come back and he was standing here beside me. I don't know what he said. He wasn't cross with me; he was pleasant; he was different than in a picture: he seemed purer. I don't know when anything was so soothing as going under. I remember another head and form over my head; I tried to knock it off but it did not go altogether - but it came back and was very pleasant."
Verification:
"Generosity such as is possible to those who practice an art - never to those who drive a trade ..." ("Dedication to Underwoods".)
Comment:
The striking feature about this R. L. Stevenson transmission is E.M.'s awareness of R. L. Stevenson as an actual personality, not just as a mind giving her pictures. From time to time she had insisted that there was a real R. L. Stevenson and the man she saw in her pictures, a man she sensed was a picture and nothing more, although she could not put her impression into words.
Now, here, while she was in her trance sleep, was a real being who stood beside her and spoke to her, telling her not to fear, for he was not a "ghost", but a spiritual being whose knowledge of the intercommunication process was not a secret, but used with discretion.
This suggests that this personal message to E.M. of re-assurance had been prompted by E.M.'s earlier signs of nervousness, both during the production of physical phenomena (table levitations and inversions) which had been very strong, and in some of the trance visions which had been unpleasant. Now she found her fears vanishing, and taking on trance became a more pleasurable experience.
Trance II.
David Livingstone speaks:
"Good evening. Bonguata (Banangwta?) Hills. Through the Unicorn Pass. Honorable English gentleman. Gordon Cumming ... Bushmen carry water."
Second trance vision:
"I was away in some hills when I went along through a clear pathway. There were some blacks and two British gentleman; Livingstone was with them. We went away on and we came to the funniest women; I think they were carrying water. The gentleman went forward and drank out of something."
Another version of the second trance vision:
"I was away in some hills when I went away along through narrow pathway ... there were some people blacks ... and two British gentleman ... Livingstone and another with them ... we came away on and I saw the funniest women ... I don't know what they were carrying, I think it was a water ... I don't know. I think I saw ostriches, too. Some big birds anyway. The women were carrying the water on their backs and a gentlemen came up ... they went forward and turned on the water and drank out of something they had in their pockets. It was wooden ... it wasn't glass or tin."
"I don't know how they turned on the water. The water bag was about the size of the women's back ... the women had awful looking heads. They never had a comb through I am sure."
Verification:
"In passing through these hills (Bangawato) on our way north we enter a pass named ... Unicorn Pass. They (English hunters) paid their guides and assistants so punctually ... (the natives) knew so well that an Englishman would pay that they depended implicitly on their word of honor. Mr. Gordon Cumming among the hunters. The bushmen supplied them with water." (See "Missionary Travels", page 132, 133, 135.)
March 9, 1926.
Impromptu sitting at home of W. B. Cooper.
Trance I.
R. L. Stevenson.
Vision and Script:
R. L. Stevenson refers to his father and his tinge of melancholy. (See essay on Thomas Stevenson.)
Trance II.
D. Livingstone. Red flowers. Not verified.
Poor. E.M. complains that the vision was "cloudy".
March 11, 1926.
First trance script:
"He did not drink - Montaigne - Baudelaire" (See "College Magazine.")
Trance II.
D. Livingstone. Reference to snakes "eight feet long." ("Missionary Travels", page 126.)
March 14, 1926.
R. L. Stevenson.
Three separate trances.
R. L. Stevenson. Foreigner at home. Poem "To My Mother."
First trance script:
"The crowded classroom, the great quadrangle ...Bell booming ... traffic ... city ... the college lads coming in ..."
First trance vision:
"I was away in a school room and that room was just crowded. I could hear the bell ringing all the time. They were fine lads ... they were in their teens. I was taken to the ... R. L. Stevenson was there, like a walking cane ... he was that thin! I did not see the teacher; it was the boys I was attracted to. I could hear the bell ringing ..."
Verification:
"At an early age the Scottish lad begins his greatly different experience of crowded classrooms, of a quaint quadrangle, of a bell hourly booming over the traffic of the city ..." (From "The Foreigner at Home: Memories And Portraits", page 17.)
Comment:
R. L. Stevenson spent part of his 13th year in the English school at Spring Grove. The actual school is not indicated: it is an abstract idea of a school. (See Masson, page 44.)
R. L. Stevenson.
Trance II.
Second trance script:
"And you, my mother, may read my rhymes
For love of unforgotten times;
And you may chance to hear once more
The little feet along the floor.
Second trance vision:
"It was good. I saw R. L. Stevenson. I was in a room with him and he came and handed his mother something. He read it to her and then he handed it to her and she read it and seemed pleased. He would be in his teens. He looked at me; he seen me ..."
Verification:
Poem written to R. L. Stevenson's mother, when he was an adult, not a schoolboy. This vision-script was to be repeated later, with different twists.
David Livingstone. Female chiefs. All excellent.
Trance III.
David Livingstone speaks:
"Female chief, Nymoona ... kindred Shinta, Balanda ... big chief Kambolop."
Third trance vision:
"I saw women beautifully dressed; two were all stuck with feathesr and all colored things. One had rings in her years. I saw one and then both together. They sure seemed to make a fuss over these women. I saw no white people. The two ladies were outside of a tent. I did not speak to them. They must have seen me."
Verification:
"On the sixth of January, 1854, we reached the village of another female chief, named Myanoang, who is said to be the mother of Mananko (female chief) and sister of Shinte or Kabomo, the greatest Balonda chief in this part of the country. ("Missionary Travels", page 238.)
Comment:
Note how David Livingstone transmits some of the basic memories by using new words ... 'kindred' and 'big chief'.
March 18, 1926.
R. L. Stevenson.
First trance script:
"He was delighted with the sunflowers before Oscar Wilde ... collected old furniture ..."
First trance vision:
"I saw sunflowers and then I saw R. L. Stevenson and then some other people. They seemed to be among the old furniture. R. L. Stevenson seemed pleased and interested; he was showing the furniture to the others. There was an older man with him. R. L. Stevenson was in his teens."
Verification:
"He had excellent taste, though whimsical and partial; collected old furniture and delighted in sunflowers long before the days of Mr. Wilde ..." (See Essay, "Thomas Stevenson. Memories And Portraits", page 130.)
Jack Barnes seen in the second trance.
D. Livingstone speaks and writes and gives vision.
R. L. Stevenson and David Livingstone use same trance. Share Second Trance.
Second Trance. David Livingstone first - R. L. Stevenson.
Trance II.
David Livingstone speaks:
"Makalolo ... sheep". Speech hurried and breaks off.
Second trance vision:
"My, David is in a hurry the night! I saw an awful funny bird and it was walking on the water. It did not seem to have webbed feet but it had awful long toes.
(Wait till the perspiration breaks. After the perspiration of Elizabeth Poole broke she usually felt better.)
He had an awful lot of sheep around and he was telling me about them. And I saw a lot of black men ..."
"Then I saw nothing but blackness (picture fades) and then it came back to me ... the same bird and the same sheep and the same black man ... I was quite a while watching the bird. I was more taken with watching it on the water. It had great long toes ... I can't describe it properly because it was the feet walking on the water that seemed to be taking up my attention. The blacks seemed to be herding the sheep. I lost my picture after ..."
Verification:
"The Para Africanna runs about on the surface (of the water) as if walking on water, catching insects. It has long thin legs and extremely long toes ...enabling it to stand on the floating lotus leaves and other aquatic plants ..." ("Missionary Travels", page 221.) (Sheep not verified.)
Comment:
This is one of the few visions that stands alone and tells its story unaided by any script.
[Note: E.M. frequently said that she felt better when "the perspiration broke." This is true.]
Both T. G. H. and L.H. often felt E.M.'s forehead, and found it bathed in sweat. She was still a little dazed, and not fully normal. She accepted this like a little child, and never complained.
Jack Barnes writes in third trance.
March 21, 1926.
David Livingstone and R. L. Stevenson successfully share one trance.
First Trance: Trance In three divisions - large writing (R. L. Stevenson), small (David Livingstone.) followed by large again. ( See Report Book IV)
I. R. L. Stevenson. Mother's devotion, keeps R. L. Stevenson papers,
First trance, first script:
"So devoted was his mother that ... she ... paper he had ever sent her ..." ( True. See Balfour.)
2. David Livingstone. Color of the Makololo.
First trance, second script:
"The majority of the real Makololo - fever - Baki - Bohara - Boyun (?) Makalolo sickly hue ..."
3. R. L. Stevenson.
"I saw it two or three places. I'm trying to think ... the first one was where I saw his mother sitting in the old home reading letters. She tied a lot together with a mauve ribbon. It was awful writing. I could not read it."
David Livingstone.
"Then I was near some mud huts and in one of them the niggers were all sick. They told me what kind of fever they had. There was an awful lot of it. Livingstone was carrying water to them and giving them drinks. He told me a lot of names: Butoski or Butaki ... I can't just recall it and I forget the others ..."
When the sitting was over and the double script studied, we found each script cleared up the significance of the visions.
Verification:
"The majority of the real Makalolo have been cut off by the fever ... they were more subject to the febrile diseases of the valley ... than the black tribes they conquered. In comparison with the Barotse, Balaka, and Bonyeti, the Makolo have a sickly hue. ("Missionary Travels", page 161).
Comment:
Note again that while pretense is used, fact is indicated by the imagery. D. Livingstone is writing of the past, yet now he is present in that past, carrying water for the sick, as he did in his travels in this unknown country. The "play" is the thing. E.M. always follows where imagination plans.
March 26, 1926.
One trance - used by both communicators.
R. L. Stevenson.
First trance script:
"Cummie read out loud to ease her conscience ..." ( D. Livingstone enters script. Confusion.)
First trance vision:
"I had trouble with one of them ... Stevenson came first and then David butted in ... I was in the family house. I saw the boy R. L. Stevenson, he was eight or nine and his nurse was reading to him."
D. Livingstone. The women of the Makalolo
Second trance script:
"... The women of the Makolo don't have to work. Indeed, the families of the nation are spread over the country, one or two in each village as the lords of the land."
Thy all have leadership over great numbers of subjected tribes. (See "Missionary Travels", page 162.)
Second trance vision:
I saw an awful lot of women ... they seemed to be better dressed, than some of them ... I got Stevenson back after the blacks. He was a young man and he spoke to me. That picture ( D. Livingstone's) was not nearly so good as the one before. (R. L. Stevenson.)
Comment: This is the first time R. L. Stevenson enters the David Livingstone trance.
[ Photo of non-contact levitation and inversion ]
March 28, 1926.
First trance script:
"Youth ... to shine athwart the shores of the ocean ... literature to cast a blaze ... to warn the ships of the rocks ..."
First trance vision:
"I saw something good, you would all like to see it. I saw ships out at sea and I got on a hill and I saw the ships send out a great blaze of light now and then with darkness in between. I never saw such blazes of light.! And there were great rocks there. And Stevenson came to me and took me by the hand. The light came from above the rocks. We stood together watching. It was very beautiful."
Verification:
The communicator's meaning is unmistakable; he, the surviving R. L. Stevenson, makes it known that underneath all his striving - and his sinfulness at times - lay this all-consuming desire, to help by his literary work to make men better and happier.
This was to be his blaze of light. Not the light built by the engineer, noble as that calling was. So we find in his writings a warning against selfishness, gloom, the unkind act, depravity, smugness, intolerance, lack of faith in the eternal goodness of things under the hand of God.
The vision of the blazing light seen over and above the great rocks suggesting the lighthouse, is singularity well matched by the imagery of the first verse of "The Lightkeeper", "New Poems", page 236.
"The brilliant kernel of the night,
the flaming lightroom circles me.
I sit within a blaze of light
Held high above the dusky sea."
Here the symbol stands as R. L. Stevenson's message to man. One marvels at the communicator's imaginative skill, and E.M.'s ability to pick up and hold his fancies fast, without any notion as to their significance. (L. H.)
David Livingstone: "Sekeletu and his wives."
Second trance vision:
"I was in two different places. Stevenson came back there. I saw Livingstone amongst a lot of Negroes. One big dark man had seven or eight wives. I saw children."
"Stevenson came in there. He had a small book and he was writing in at. He was away in a kind of moor ... other young fellows were standing a bit off. Stevenson would be well in his teens. The young men were well pleased with his lecture."
Second trance script:
David Livingstone.
A. Makololo - Bechuan system of the Bechuanas, possession of his father's wives ... adopted children of these wives ..."
(R. L. Stevenson.)
B. "He is writing ... covered a dreary waste."
Verification:
David Livingstone:
"Skeletu, according to the system at the Bechuanas, became the possessor of his father's wives, and adopted two of them ... the children of these women are termed brothers." ("Missionary Travels", page 161.)
Verification:
R. L. Stevenson. The Barren Man (Moor?). R. L. Stevenson makes still another reference to his early method of learning to write; the book in which he is seen writing represents his statement in "A College Magazine".
( "I had always two books with me - one to read - one to write in.), and his "aping" of literary masters - a subject which he had already treated.
In utilizing the imagery set up by the moor and the garden in the poem "The House Beautiful", he makes clear his opinion that his early writings are dreary. And again there is a hint that others do not approve of this method of learning to write. (True).
[ Photo of table - Exhibit - sideways ejection ]
[ Photo of table levitated at an angle ]
[ Photo of preparing table for movement behind screen ]
April 2, 1926.
Impromptu sitting at the home of Professor W. T. Allison, 600 Gertrude Street, Winnipeg.
R .L. Stevenson.
First trance scripts:
Script: A. "I principally cannot... this time... when I grew to learn... "
Script B. "I cannot well allow another person, undesired, in your circle."
R. L. Stevenson:
(a) Script and vision not understood.
(b) direct message to group: "cannot well allow another person, undesired, in your circle." In vision R. L. Stevenson appears very angry.
First trance vision:
R .L. Stevenson is awful mad over something, something you must not do. There he is standing with a book in one hand, and the other on the table. He came back for this picture and is very angry. I could see his hair falling over one eye."
Note: re R. L. Stevenson. Unexpected criticism. At their regular sitting, April 1, a very powerful, partially developed a male medium was placed in the cabinet for a short time for experimental purposes. The telekinetic power was extremely vigorous; loud blows were struck on back cabinet wall. All were interested; not R. L. Stevenson!
David Livingstone:
Second trance vision:
"Lion in David Livingstone's garden."
"The Country where my residence was.
Second Trance.
Only the word "Bechuanas" deciphered.
"I was among some houses. I saw a real nice red house. It was his place. D. Livingstone. He came out of it. They're nice (.........).
"Leaves at top - all kinds of curious vegetables in that ..."
[This has to be the writing of David Livingstone - he was known as a poor penman.]
Medium speaks.
"David - Put away animals ... in my cart ... in my garden."
Second interval or trance.
"I cannot will allow ....another person ... undesired ... in your ..."
[ Photo of Experiment F - Apr. 1, 1926 ]
[ Photo ]
[ Photo ]
April 4, 1926.
T. G. H. absent. On train going to Toronto. Medium's hand guided by Dr. J. A. Hamilton.
First trance script:
"They made him a sharer in the designing of a university magazine: maiden number."
First trance vision:
"I was away in a school, a university ... they were too old for school. There were several girls in their teens.
R. L. Stevenson was laughing, quite pleased about something. He had been shown a paper and asked to sign it. He wrote on it and seemed very pleased. It was the Old Town I have been in before."
Verification:
"This book may preserve a memory of James Walter Ferris and Robert Glasgow Brown ... they were all on fire with ambition; and when they called me in to them, and made me a sharer in the design, I too became drunken with pride. We were to found a University Magazine." (See "A College Magazine, Memories and Portraits", page 67-9.)
Comment:
The significance of the vision is seen when read in the light of the script and its source: the Old Town is Edinburgh; the University is Edinburgh University; R. L. Stevenson is the youth; he is pleased about something; that "something" is suggested by the paper on which he wrote. We take this to be a bit of action which pantomimed the design and writing for the projected magazine. The reason for the presence of the girls is to be given later. (April 8, 1926.)
David Livingstone. Makalolo slaves sold to Arabs.
Second trance script:
"Taking the tribes away from Behe and separating the Bechuana ... my boy Robert is very sick in 1850 ... country full of fever ..."
Second trance vision:
"I was away in the wilderness and they were driving the children along like cattle; they were divided ... one went one way and one went another. It was like a prairie; I saw some mud huts."
"I saw Livingstone with a little boy; he was patting him on the head. There was something wrong with this little boy."
"The children were playing when the slavers came and took them away. There were 30 or 40 children."
Verification:
"Many of the Makalolo had garments blue, green, and red baize, and also of painted cotton; on enquiry, we learned that these had been purchased in exchange for boys, from a tribe called Mowbari, which is situated near Behe." ("Missionary Travels", page 79.)
"The Makalolo are the most northerly of the Bechuanas". ("Missionary Travels", page 174.)
Comment:
The vision is simple but complements the one idea- natives trading children as slaves. The idea of a "division" is well represented. Script is confused on one point: the Makalolo boys had gone to, not away from, Behe, to a tribe living near Behe.
The Livingstone children were ill with fever in 1850. ("Missionary Travels", page 65). Name "Robert" not verified.
Seven tremendous blows on cabinet wall. Mr. D. B. MacDonald much exhausted. Perspires freely.
Strong contact table movements. Two sitters perspire and feel very exhausted.
[ Photo of chart of trance states Apr., 1926 ]
April 6, 1926.
First trance script:(sleep.)
"My, I had an in the picture the night! I saw a young couple sitting on a stone beside the water. The girl had on a tight bodice and a sun-bonnet; the young man was wearing knickers and a velvet coat. His hat was peaked back and front and he had a soft collar over his coat. I came down the slope and saw them, but a tree got in my way for seeing them. R. L. Stevenson stood off a bit, he was watching them, too!"
Verification:
"It is the season now to go
About the country, high and low,
Among the lilacs, hand in hand,
And two by two in fairy land.
The brooding boy, the sighing maid.
Wholly fain and half afraid,
Now meet along the hazel'd brook
To pass and linger, pause and look.
A year ago, and blithely paired,
Their rough-and-tumble play they shared;
They kissed, and quarreled, laughed and cried,
A year ago, at Easter-tide."
("Underwoods", page 100).
Comment:
To E.M. the lovers come alive out of a poem for her delight and our instruction; with the author looking on at the tableau he created long ago ... the water, the meeting ,... and in keeping with romance ... romantic clothing for these newly created beings. Obviously, R. L. Stevenson is having fun. Not only does he re-create the pair, and give them a new-old setting, but he allows them a bit of privacy: a tree prevents E.M. from looking on too closely, and R. L. Stevenson stands a distance off. One could scarcely devise a more delightful and telling bit of whimsy.
"The brooding boy ... they kissed ... and quarreled ... laughed and ... cried a year ago ..."
Raps give personal message to D. B. MacDonald:
David Livingstone does not appear.
"Steady company ... steady people ..."
[ Photo ]
[ Photo ]
[ Photo ]
[ Photo ]
[ Photo ]
April 8, 1926.
[T. G. H. absent]
Mary M. present and manifests first deep trance - has R. L. Stevenson vision:
Hand of medium guided by Mr. Cummings.
First trance script:
"Magazine emerged ... yellow cover ... maiden number ... edited ..."
First trance vision:
"I saw the prettiest hall all done in silver. I saw some girls. They were very old fashioned. One had her hair in a net. They had on long dresses and one had lace mitts. They were four girls and they all had books. One of them opened her book and gave a kind of smile. They were like magazines - paper-covered; the covers were yellowish cream. Oh! It was so pretty! Stevenson was in his teens. He was just looking on."
Verification:
"... The magazine appeared in a yellow cover which was the best part of it, for at least it was unassuming; it ran for four months in undisturbed obscurity, and died without a gasp. The first number was edited by all four of us with prodigious bustle; the second fell principally into the hands of Ferris and me; the third I edited alone! And it has long been a solemn question who it was that edited the fourth ... poor harmless paper so clumsily defaced with nonsense! ... I had sent a copy to that lady with whom my heart was at that time somewhat engaged ... and she, with some tact, passed over the gift and my cherished contribution in silence ..."
("A College Magazine, Memories And Portraits", page 69-70.)
Comment:
A very brilliant piece of planned pantomime. By adding the word "Maiden number(s)" to the script, the communicator stressed the basic memory, and laid the foundation for a playlet which most cleverly and whimsically covered that memory. Actually it is a play on the word "maiden" but so designed as to represent these main memories as well.
1. The four maiden numbers are depicted by four maidens holding magazines.
2. Yellow covers - "yellowish-cream covers."
3. R. L. Stevenson as past editor - R. L. Stevenson present editor.
4. The smile - the tact and silence toward the lady held in memory.
Comment:
R. L. Stevenson is still the literary designer, in the world beyond death. There appears to be no other explanation or hypothesis that will account totally for the amazing outflow, through an illiterate woman who returns from trance-sleep with no memory, whatsoever, of what the R. L. Stevenson memory was.
Never before, in the history of mankind, have mental phenomena appeared which demonstrate so irrefutably, transcendental mind impact. One's mind therefore must make that one final leap and accept the fact that a living R. L. Stevenson is functioning.
The same attitude is valid for the Livingstone outflow. (Note: T. G. H. was absent for this sitting of April 8, 1926. L. H. was note taker in his place. His absence in no way interfered with the manifestation of the script-cum-vision phenomena.)
David Livingstone does not appear.
Mrs. Poole vision:
" ... bare mountain top with stone ... natives marching up and down guarding it."
April 11, 1926.
First trance script:
"The boy was too young; he was afraid of tales Cummie taught ... told nightly ..."
First trance vision:
"Stevenson was only a little boy and his nurse was with him. His nurse seemed a bit smart with him. He and his nurse were busy writing. Now I see another picture flashing before my eyes."
Comment:
This fact has not been verified, but Cummie's "boogey" stories were probably too much for the mind of the sensitive child. (See introduction to "A Child's Garden of Verse", by Mrs. Stevenson (wife).
Second trance script:
"They asked Skeletu where to sleep. "Come and I will show you." I covered him with my body to save him from the blows - from the assassins."
Second trance vision:
"I had a peculiar man at the last, he was angry too ... I don't know at whom ... I was away where there was Livingstone ... on top of the man to prevent. A higher man and then these others were giving the man an awful blow, but David laid down and covered the man.
There were two men up the palm tree and two were into the tree ... away up ... and they seemed to be picking trees. I saw no white men ... I got another man ... he seemed angry. He had a stout face and whiskers and big eyebrows and hair on his head. He was talking ... not gray-headed ... I never saw him before. He seemed as if making a speech with much emphasis on words ... Twice I saw a fellow chasing a monkey ... it was running fast. Like the fellow I saw standing ... they were among trees.
Verification:
"I happened to sit down between the two (Skeletu and his enemy Mpepe) in the hut where they met ... I asked Skeletu where I could sleep and he replied: "Come, I will show you." As we rose together I unconsciously covered Skeletu's body with mine and saved him from the blow of the assassin."
Comment:
The vision gives a much more dramatic rendering of the event.
Another version of the second trance script:
They asked Skeletu where to sleep: "Come and I will show you". I covered him with my body to save him from the blows - from the assassins.
Another version of second trance vision:
"I had a peculiar man at the last ... he was angry too ... I don't know at whom ... I was away where there was Livingstone on top of the man to prevent. A higher man and these others were giving the man an awful blow but David laid down and covered the man ... there were two men up the palm trees and there were two into the tree ... away up ... and they seemed to be picking trees."
"I saw no white men ... these men were ... I got another man he seemed angry ... he had stout face and whiskers and big eyebrows and hair on head: he was talking not gray headed ... I never saw him before. He seemed as if making a speech with much emphasis on words ... Mrs. Poole ... man had a beard."
"Twice I saw a fellow chasing a monkey ... it was running fast, like the fellow I saw standing ... they were among trees.
Verification: page 158 and 159.
"I happened to sit down between the two (Skeletu and his enemy, Mpepe) in the hut where they met ... I asked Skeletu where I could sleep and he replied: "Come, I will show you." As we rose together I unconsciously covered Skeletu's body with mine and saved him from the blow of the assassin."
Loud blows on cabinet wall.
April 13, 1926.
R. L. Stevenson and David Livingstone in one trance.
First trance script: (R. L. Stevenson.)
"Leaves of Grass tumbled the world upside down at this period."
David Livingstone.
"Regions of iron in Bang ... tribes."
First trance vision:
"I saw both of them there at once the night. I saw R. L. Stevenson in some university room; there was an awful lot of books; everything was topsy-turvy with papers and books."
Second trance vision:
"Livingstone's picture was mixed with it. They were melting iron, I think. I heard Livingstone giving different names to the men. They were all working at this kind of iron. I saw iron dust and I saw them at pulling it out of a great big bed. I got the two (R. L. Stevenson and David Livingstone) mixed up. Livingstone talked to me; Stevenson was on my right side. Stevenson was not cross at Livingstone's presence."
Two communicators in one trance. Some confusion, but imagery well planned and representative of each.
April 15, 1926.
Professor Dick Fleming present.
R. L. Stevenson. (Two themes.)
First trance - two parts - R. L. Stevenson in both.
First trance script:
"The Lamp-lighter down the street."
First trance vision:
"I was in a house and R. L. Stevenson was there, and I saw a man with a torch lighting lamps on the street."
Verification:
The lamp lighter, "A Child's Garden of Verse", Page 27.
Comment:
Prior to the Stevenson trance, there had been strong, rapid table levitations. Did the "power" of this movement somehow affect the Stevenson output? It appeared to be so. Professor Fleming of United College, Winnipeg, was present.
Second trance - David Livingstone.
Complete non-contact levitation.
Professor Fleming, in the corner behind Mrs. Poole, had categorically stated to one of his university colleagues, Reverend E. G. D. Freeman (Minister of our church), that there was no such thing as telekinesis.
[ Photo of Telekinesis - Professor Fleming in the corner ]
[ Photo of table sideways inversion ]
Reverend Freeman, a close family friend, brought Professor Fleming to the seance.
Seated in the corner with his hands up is King Gordon, son of the late Reverend Dr. C. W. Gordon.
Our church is now named Gordon-King Memorial, in his memory, and that of his wife's father, Reverend John King, for whom our guest was named.
What Professor Fleming had to say after seeing this picture is not recorded."
April 18, 1926.
R. L. Stevenson.
First trance script:
"God's good gift to me." (wife.)
First trance vision:
R. L .Stevenson talking to a woman, presumably Mrs. Osbourne, later his wife.
David Livingstone speaks:
"Sir Gordon Cathcart ... Kellawain ... Juilanna ... Construction ... a sample of work ... Gordon Cathcart."
Second trance vision:
"A big man with a mustache was there with Livingstone. There was a foundation of a house and they were telling them how to do it. I saw the black men carrying lime(?). That David was talking to me. I did not like the other man."
Verification:
"They (natives) constructed for him the handsomest house in Kilimone, the woodwork being all of country trees." ("Missionary Travels", page 566.)
Letters of light ask for the hymn "There is a Home for Little Children."
(Baby Luise dies two days later.)
April 25, 1926.
R. L. Stevenson.
First trance script:
"Edinburgh ... the marines ... father ... mother ... flit in a chosen way ... none can stay at home ... all must follow ... all must wait ..."
First trance vision:
"I saw R. L. Stevenson and his carpet bag. He was going on a boat. I was down at the shore. It was not in Scotland. He had on a coat with a cape on it. He went and looked at his trunk. He did not look too bad the night. A few were saying goodbye to him. I saw him going on the gangway and going into the steamer ..."
Verification:
"... Through the willows, flits a dream;
Flits, but shows a smiling face;
Flees, but with so quaint a grace,
None can choose to stay at home,
All must follow, all must roam."
(See "The Amateur Emigrant", page 51, 111, 238, 225, 237, 241, 268.)
Note: the literary origins of some of the 317 phrases discovered by Lillian Hamilton, 20 years after they were received through E.M.
E.M. was wrong on one point. R. L. Stevenson sailed for America from Glasgow.
Verification:
"... I am under way. It is a bleak, cold day in Glasgow; my portmanteau is aboard; and tomorrow I am on the seas. Fanny seems to be very ill, at least I must try to get her to do one of two things: I hope to be back in a month or two, but indeed God alone knows what may happen; it's a wild world ..." (From a letter to Charles Baxter, August 6, 1879.)
For further information re his parents' opposition to R. L. Stevenson's love for a married woman, see "The Life of R. L. Stevenson" by Rosalie Masson, page 178.
Trance II.
David Livingstone. Poor. Something about "trees" and "engineers"; vision shows natives planting trees.
Not verified.
April 27, 1926.
R. L. Stevenson.
Trance I.
References to Jekyll and Hyde and to Master of Ballantrae.
"attributed to the passing of ..."
Notes mislaid.
Trance II.
David Livingstone. Output poor.
Unverified.
Loud raps.
[ Photo ]
April 28, 1926.
New male medium present. Both control's do not want him. David Livingstone less upset than R. L. Stevenson.
First trance vision:
E.M. gets a picture of the alleged past of a new powerful male physical medium present - an experiment.
Picture intimates a drunken past. (Later this is found to be true.)
Very loud blows are struck on the back wall of the Cabinet.
R. L. Stevenson and David Livingstone do not "get through", although David Livingstone is less upset by this incident than R. L. Stevenson.
Later - David Livingstone manifests:
Second trance script:
"Present of beer and milk ... chief (oxen?) divided ... scores of them to his ..."
Second trance vision:
"I was away and saw like a picnic. They were all getting something to drink. I saw milk ... I don't know whether it was all milk."
"Livingstone put up a prayer before they took the food. He took off his hat and stood with bare head. And the man I have seen before was there too. They had music too; they had like can-lids that they were knocking together. I saw an awful lot of oxen. There were crowds and crowds traveling."
Verification:
"The Makalolo greet their guests with pots of beer and pots and bowls of milk. They have a great abundance of cattle and the chief is expected to feed all who will accompany him ... the animals are killed ... he apportions them ...the whole is rapidly divided ... ("Missionary Travels", page 180)
Comment:
In the picture, the prayer offered by David Livingstone is not indicated in his book. However, it was his custom to do so. As in other earlier examples, we find a communicator using his imagery as he wills. He is never bound to the letter of the incident.
