That other world : personal experiences of mystics and their mysticism

THAT OTHER WORLD

THAT OTHER WORL

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF MYSTICS
AND THEIR MYSTICISM

BY

STUART CUMBERLAND

LONDON
GRANT RICHARDS LTD

ST MARTIN'S STREET
1918

BY

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OCT 2 3 1992

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rHINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD.. EDINBURGH.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER FAGK

1. BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION . . . 7

2. MONARCHS AND MYSTICS .... 22

3. CONCERNING " SPIRIT FORMS " . . -53

4. PHYSICAL PHENOMENA .... 65

5. CLAIRVOYANT CLAIMS AND CHICANERIES . 84

6. SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY . . . .114

7. TRANCE AND TRANSCRIPT MEDIUMS . .123

8. SUBJECTIVE VISIONS AND FALSE SENSORIAL

IMPRESSIONS ..... 138

9. THE POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES OF

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE . . .170

10. THE UNSEEN HAND IN THE UNSEEN WORLD ? 197

11. MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS .... 205

12. BY WAY OF CONCLUSION .... 244

CHAPTER I

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION

How came I to be first interested in the so-called
occult ?

Everything has a beginning ; and my interest
in the mysterious and the phenomena associated
with what were then termed " unknown forces "
early attracted my attention. Scotch connections
had told me of uncanny experiences associated with
what was designated as " second sight." More
than one claimed to have this gift or to know
someone who had it. It was, moreover, a gift
that I too might possess. In my youth I dreamt
of all kinds of wonderful things I should be able
to see and foretell. At that period one possesses
much enthusiasm, a high imagination, and precious
little logic and power of analysis. Experience
alone enables one to weigh, analyse, and discrimi-
nate with any approach to accuracy. And this
experience I certainly have had.

When spiritualism became a subject of general
inquiry I was an early inquirer ; and, in an ama-
teurish sort of way, sat with friends seeking for
the signs which were said to come to those who
sought them in the proper spirit and under con-
genial conditions.

8

I entered upon the inquiry not only with a per-
fectly open mind, but with not a little expectancy.
For I had been told of occurrences which were
certainly remarkable, and, upon generally accepted
principles, quite inexplicable. But I was soon to
learn that things seldom, if ever, occur exactly as
related. What was said to have occurred else-
where did not occur under the conditions de-
scribed at sittings I attended. Indeed, nothing for
which a spiritual origin could with any degree of
certainty be claimed ever really happened. The
things that did occur seemed to me to come from
within the sitters themselves, and that it was un-
reasoning expectancy that ascribed a supernatural
origin to them. I early saw that not only were
the most earnest and veracious people liable to be
self-deceived, but that they found comfort in the
self-deception. For, although I may not have in-
herited the seer's gifts of second sight and so forth,
the good gods have endowed me with a certain
clearness of vision and a becoming quantity of
sound common sense.

The little private seances I attended having
produced but negative results, I was induced to
pursue my inquiries at sittings where the spirit-
controlling genius was a medium of alleged wide
experience and great gifts.

From medium to medium I went, to find that
the chief basis of the movement was money-
making, and that whatever happened there was
the outcome of human agency pure and simple,
actual spiritual force or influence at such seances
having no existence. Whatever illusions may

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 9

have remained to me were knocked on the head.
Disgust at the chicanery practised and contempt
for the puerile manifestations claimed to be spir-
itual took the place of expectancy and earnest
longing for truth. I had indeed arrived at the
truth, but through methods which, at the com-
mencement of my investigations, would have
been unthinkable.

But it was one thing to put one's personal ex-
perience in the scale and, from that experience,
to denounce the whole thing as a delusion and a
fraud, and another to prove by practical demon-
stration the real nature and character of the
manifestations I myself had witnessed. To dup-
licate what was duplicable under precisely the
same conditions as those under which they were
presented as instances of genuine spirit force was
the one way to bring the expose home to those
who were really desirous of arriving at a correct
conclusion on the subject.

And so I set to work not only to find out how
the so-called spirit phenomena were produced, but
to reproduce them after the manner and under the
conditions governing the medium's productions.

I succeeded in enlisting the attention and
the support of such really scientific authorities
as Charlton Bastian, Crichton-Browne, Lauder
Brunton, Brudenell Carter, David Ferrar, Hugh-
lings Jackson, Ray Lankester, Croom Robertson,
Huxley, and Tyndall.

Ray Lankester, with the recollection of the
impostures perpetrated by the notorious medium
Dr Slade, whom he in conjunction with his friend

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Horatio Donkin so completely exposed, wrote me
the following letter : —

" Having had the opportunity of witnessing your
demonstrations of the mode in which so-called spirit-
mediums perform the tricks by which they attempt to
impose upon the public, I have great pleasure in saying
that I have no doubt that you have actually discovered
the methods used by those persons, and that your
lectures furnish a complete and thorough explanation of
the pretended marvels by which many men and women
have been cruelly deceived and swindled. I consider
that your lectures are likely to do a great deal of good
in showing in a convincing manner to those who attend
them, how simply the judgment may be misled and
erroneous conclusions formed when skilful fraud operates
upon credulous ignorance. You have my best wishes
for your success in what is, in my opinion, an important
EDUCATIONAL enterprise."

Having succeeded in securing the endorsation
of most of those who really counted in the scien-
tific world in London, I bethought myself of en-
listing the attention of the University authorities
of Oxford and Cambridge.

The following attestation I received from the
Oxford authorities speaks for itself : —

To STUART C. CUMBERLAND, ESQ.

DEAR SIR, — We have heard with pleasure of your
success in exposing the devices of " Spiritualism," and
of the satisfactory results you have already achieved in
dispelling popular delusions on the subject. From what
we have seen ourselves, as well as from the evidence of
many competent witnesses, we have no doubt of your
skill in producing, by explicable, natural means, the
phenomena ascribed to " Spirit-power " ; and we are
glad to hear of your intention to give in Oxford a

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION n

private exposition on the subject, which we think may
be really useful.

(Signed by)

B. JOWETT, M.A., D.D., Master of Balliol, Professor of Greek,

Vice-Chancellor.

T. H. GREEN, M.A., Fellow of Balliol, Professor of Moral
Philosophy.

R. B. CLIFTON, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Merton, Professor
of Experimental Philosophy.

WM. STUBBS, D.D., Fellow of Oriel, Canon of St. Paul's,
Regius Professor of Modern History, etc.

WILLIAM ODLING, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Worcester, Pro-
fessor of Chemistry, etc.

C. PRITCHARD, D.D., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of Astronomy.
HENRY J. S. SMITH, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Balliol, Pro-
fessor of Geometry, etc.

BARTHOLOMEW PRICE, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow of Pembroke,
Professor of Natural Philosophy.

JOSEPH PRESTWICH, M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., Professor of
Geology.

J. LEGGE, M.A., LL.D., Professor of Chinese.

F. MAX MULLER, Fellow of All Souls, Professor of Compara-
tive Philology, etc.

E. J. STONE, M.A., F.R.S., Radclifte Observer.

HY. W. ACLAND, M.D., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D., Regius Pro-
fessor of Medicine, etc.

W. W. MERRY, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln, Public Orator.

H. G. LIDDELL, D.D., Dean of Christ Church, Chaplain
Extraordinary to the Queen.

M. A. LAWSON, M.A., F.L.S., Professor of Botany and Rural
Economy.

MONIER WILLIAMS, M.A., C.I.E., D.C.L., LL.D., Professor
of Sanskrit.

THOMAS FOWLER, M.A., Fellow of Lincoln, Professor of
Logic.

J. O. WESTWOOD, M.A., Hon. Fellow of Magdalen, F.A.S.,
F.L.S., Professor of Zoology.

EDWIN PALMER, D.D., Canon of Christ Church, Archdeacon
of Oxford, etc.

EDWIN KING, D.D., Canon of Christ Church, Professor of
Pastoral Theology.

12 THAT OTHER WORLD

C. A. HEURTLEY, D.D., Canon of Christ Church, Margaret

Professor of Divinity.
E. RAY LANKESTER, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., Fellow of Exeter,

Professor in University College, London.
W. MARKBY, M.A., D.C.L., Reader in Indian Law, late

Judge Supreme Court of Calcutta.
WILLIAM ESSON, M.A., F.R.S., Fellow and Tutor of Merton.

For the purpose of this private demonstration
the hall of Christ Church College was kindly
placed at my disposal, and Sir George Sitwell—
fresh from his expose of the medium, Florrie
Coiner, who had succeeded in so completely
bamboozling Sir William Crookes — gave me able
assistance on the platform.

I afterwards went to Cambridge, under the
moral support of the following eminent Uni -
versity authorities : —

JAMES PORTER, D.D., Master of St Peter's College, Vice-

Chancellor.

W. H. THOMPSON, D.D., Master of Trinity College.
CHARLES TAYLOR, D.D., Master of St John's College.
RICHARD OK.ES, D.D., Provost of King's College.
GEORGE PHILLIPS, D.D., President of Queens' College.
ROBERT PHELPS, D.D., Master of Sidney-Sussex College.
THOMAS WORSLEY, D.D., Master of Downing College.
B. H. KENNEDY, D.D., Regius Professor of Greek, Fellow

of St John's, Canon of Ely.
W. WRIGHT, D.D., LL.D., Ph.D., Professor of Arabic,

Fellow of Queens'.

G. G. STOKES, M.A., D.C.L., F.R.S., Professor of Mathe-
matics, President of Pembroke, Secretary of Royal

Society, etc. etc.
G. M. HUMPHREY, M.D., F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy,

Fellow of Downing.
G. E. PAGET, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Regius Professor of

Medicine, Fellow of Caius.
E. H. PALMER, M.A., Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic,

Fellow of St John's.

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 13

J. C. ADAMS, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Professor of

Astronomy, Fellow of Pembroke.
J. A. LUMBY, D.D., Professor of Divinity, Dean of St

Catharine's.

P. W. LATHAM, M.D., Downing Professor of Medicine.
W. J. LEWIS, M.A., Professor of Mineralogy.
W. W. SKEAT, M.A., Professor of Anglo-Saxon.

Closely following this, there was held the
Church Congress at Newcastle, when one of the
chief items of the programme was a discussion
dealing with the question of the " Duty of the
Church towards Spiritualism and Infidelity."

Despite my extreme youth — for I was by far
the youngest speaker there — I was permitted to
address the immense audience overflowing the
great Town Hall. The reception I received
highly gratified me, and I was encouraged to
give public meetings with practical demonstra-
tions of the manifestations, passed off as spiritual,
and accepted by the credulous as such, all over
the country.

In my crusade against the pernicious craze and
the vulgar impostures associated with it, I received,
in addition to scientific approval, the cordial sup-
port of the leading dignitaries of the Church.

The Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr Tait) was
good enough to invite me to breakfast at Lambeth
Palace, where afterwards I had the privilege of
giving some illustrations of the way in which
" spirit " phenomena were produced. The pre-
sent Archbishop was one of the company ; and
with him I illustrated the fallacy of Zollner's
contention of the existence of a " Fourth Dimen-
sion of Space." Of this form of spirit belief,

i4 THAT OTHER WORLD

consisting of the passage of matter through mat-
ter, I speak in the chapter bearing upon this
phenomenon.

I found everywhere a hearty support amongst
those of light and leading who really counted,
and the common-sense public was unquestionably
with me.

A more deeply religious and earnest man than
the late Earl of Shaftesbury probably did not
exist ; and this is what he said, as chairman, in
moving a vote of thanks to me at the conclusion
of one of my public representations :—

" I am sure no one will deny that we have had an
evening of great amusement and instruction, and, as
such, we are deeply indebted to Mr Cumberland.

" The mental and physical powers of Mr Cumberland
are simply wonderful, and I certainly am both surprised
and delighted at the really marvellous things he has
shown us.

" If there had been any doubt in my mind, before
coming here, as to the utter humbug of this spiritual-
istic quackery, I must confess that it would have been
at once removed by the clear and thorough expose which
our friend has given us.

" I think it a great thing that a gentleman of such
ability and such gifts should be found willing to come
forward and lay bare the shams of a craze which is
harmful to the last degree."

With the approval and support — as I may put
it — of all sane and right-thinking people, what
mattered the disapproval, not unmixed with abuse,
of the self-interested or blindly ignorant few ?

I continued my work, with the firm conviction
that what I did was of no little public value.

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 15

At the same time I continued my investigations,
with the hope that I might yet find just one grain
of wheat amongst the chaff. That one grain,
however, has ever eluded me. I have come across
wilful impositions in various shapes, and a goodly
crop of illusions honestly conceived but altogether
lacking the corroboration or logical analysis that
make for certainty. And my investigations have
taken me the world over.

Of them I shall speak as I go along, relating
as briefly as possible the incidents which seem to
me to call for particular attention and reasons for
the well-considered conclusions I have arrived at.

I would say here that up till some twelve
months ago I had ceased to take any further
active interest in the subject, which had appar-
ently lost its hold upon the imagination of the
credulous public.

But, as an outcome of the Great War, there
has, I am grieved to say, come a revival of the
craze in its most pernicious and soulless form.

To many who have husbands, sons, brothers,
or near male relatives out at the Front, daily and
hourly facing danger and death, there has come
a natural longing to know something of their
welfare ; and when death has snatched them from
them, the desire to be put in touch with them in
spirit form has become only too insistent.

Some of these sign-seekers, as a result of their
longings and expectancies, have had what they
assumed to be a first sign direct, which has sent
them to a medium — professional or otherwise —
for further signs and communications, which these

1 6 THAT OTHER WORLD

mediums — mostly for a mundane monetary con-
sideration— have not failed to supply.

Seeing the mental risks which these sign-seekers
ran, and the rich harvest a number of questionable
practitioners were making out of the sorrows and
pious longings of their clients, I was moved to issue
public warnings on the growth and danger of the
craze.

The following, from an article of mine in the
Daily Mail of 5th January 1917, clearly expresses
my views on the subject. I have the satisfaction
of knowing that since then the law has stepped
in, and that certain of the more flagrant of the
practising mediums have been laid by the heels,
and that credulous folk may expect reasonable
police assistance against a very heartless and
harmful form of imposture : —

" In this advanced, enlightened twentieth cen-
tury it does indeed seem wonderful that the old-time
spiritism, with its unsound pretensions and palpable
little tricks, all of which the hard-headed had come
to accept as things of the past, should flourish so
strongly in our midst.

" But the hankering after the occult, the desire
to lift the veil and peep into the future, has ever
been with us and never really dies.

" With some it is an honest, deep belief, amount-
ing almost to a religion ; with others, just a pose
or a mere money-making game. It is this deep
conviction of the true believer which has given
tone to the movement and, at the same time, made
possible much of the chicanery attached to it.

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 17

' No argument will convince the out-and-out
believer that this or that manifestation alleged to
have occurred in his presence or through his own
mediumship is merely the outcome of expectation
or false deductions. With him the difference be-
tween facts and inference from facts has no actual
existence, and as he has convinced himself of the
genuineness of the manifestations which he alleges
have been personally vouchsafed him, he declines
to see trickery in other directions, and resents as
an attack on his own genuineness of belief the
unmasking of other people's trickery. In my en-
deavours to arrive at the truth in connection with
so-called 4 spirit manifestations ' I have, it goes
without saying, incurred the condemnation of
those worthy folk whose aims and convictions have
my profound respect instead of receiving their
approval in weeding the cause of its palpable
impostures.

" In a word, I have never yet in any land or with
any medium or adept discovered any alleged occult
manifestation that was not explicable upon a per-
fectly natural basis, and which in the majority of
instances could not be humanly duplicated under
precisely similar conditions. This, as the true
believer would say, has been my misfortune. But
there it is. So inherent is this hankering after
the supernatural in human nature that many would
much rather seek for a supernatural than a natural
explanation of what may seem mysterious or out
of the way to them.

" It is just this longing in human nature upon

2

1 8 THAT OTHER WORLD

which these professional psychic frauds are prey-
ing to-day.

" To-day, with its heavy death toll and fateful
uncertainty so closely affecting every section of the
community, is indeed the moment for the practi-
tioners on the shady side of spiritism. There is
a natural desire among the bereaved, or those in
doubt as to the actual facts surrounding the 'miss-
ing,' to seek for news and guidance unobtainable
through the ordinary channels. These credulous
folk are told that this or that medium is a real
wonder who has given such and such person the
most astounding revelations. So what has been
vouchsafed others can quite as well be revealed to
them. Hence the run upon the plausible 'crooks,'
who so readily trade upon their credulity.

"Thefoolish, credulous dupes neverforamoment
consider the utter incongruousness of the associa-
tion of their beloved dead or missing with these
professional ' spookists.' It never enters their
heads that if the spirit of anyone dear to them
could return at all, it would be to them direct that
his return would be manifested, and that to have
to go to some strange c crook ' and part with
money for the privilege of being put in touch with
the spirit is the height of absurdity. They are
told that they themselves are not mediumistic^ and
that it is only through the truly mediumistic are
such communications possible. Besides, it is the
fashion or ' the thing ' to go to these mediums,
who, c poor dears,' must live and who are entitled
to payment for the exhaustion they frequently
undergo in getting in touch with the spirits. No

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 19

labourer, in fact, is so worthy of his hire as one
in the spiritual vineyard.

" And the wine he presses as he rakes in the
notes is the flow of tears from the sorrowful and
distressed.

" It is not only a shady business, but it is a mean
and cruel one, and should be put an end to. If
the foolish cannot or will not protect themselves,
they must be protected against their own folly.

" General Smith-Dorrien's crusade against vice
had for its object the well-being of the young
soldier ; but the vice, in all its alluring naturalness
of which he complains, is, to put it quite bluntly,
mild in its injurious effects as compared with
the possibilities of harm arising to these soldiers'
sorrowing relatives in their pursuit of the un-
natural. Any mental authority will testify to the
mental dangers associated with such practices.

" There is not space for me here in which to
relate my impressions and experiences of spirits I
have known, together with other phases of the
so-called occult. It forms too long a story. I
would, however, like to say that I am desirous of
extending my knowledge of spiritism and occult-
ism so as to include the latest exponents of the
mystic art. I am quite open to conviction, and
should rejoice to find something which, under
proper test conditions and with due investigation,
proved itself beyond question the outcome of spirit
power. A manifestation which is capable of being
demonstrated can alone be beyond question when

20 THAT OTHER WORLD

done under conditions from which all chances
of trickery are eliminated. There are apparently
other forms of ' spirit power ' which, while not
depending upon outward and visible demonstra-
tions for their proof, claim to give the inquirer
glimpses into the past, present, and future. They,
too, clipped of their patter and ungraspable
ambiguousness, are interesting in their way as
showing on what lines certain spirits alone can
or will work.

" Honestly, the whole of my inquiring, investi-
gating soul goes out to all : the bootless material-
ised form in white, the three dead friends on the
slips of paper, the passing of matter through matter,
the sepulchral voice that comes from the Beyond
finally to find escape through the medium's own
mouth, the clutching spirit-controlled hand that
scribbles endless messages from the other world
regardless of the shortage of paper in this. Yes,
I am ready and eager to become closely acquainted
with them all, and to make known to the world
the truth that in them is."

To the opinions expressed above I have nothing
to add. I am still seeking for proofs, still anxious
to be convinced. To my request for enlighten-
ment I received upwards of one hundred letters ;
but although I was again and again assured that
such and such a thing had undoubtedly occurred,
there was no corroborative evidence of its occur-
rence and no willingness to have the manifesta-
tion repeated under proper test conditions. This
inability to guarantee a repetition of an occur-

BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION 21

rence which has caused bewilderment or intense
personal satisfaction, according to belief or tem-
perament, is mderstandable from the fact that
such visitation i ;.s in all probability nothing more
behind it than is contained in the mere mind's-eye
form of proof.

But in these purely subjective, as distinct from
objective, occurrences certain men prominent in
Literature and Science profess to see a proof of
a life Beyond, and of the ability of that spirit life
to make itself seen, known and understood. In
support of this contention not an atom of actual
proof is advanced ; and it simply serves to give
a wholly unnecessary fillip to a movement which
might, to the moral and mental well-being of
those who are disposed to follow it, be left
severely alone.

The harm that may be worked amongst such
followers, too ill-equipped mentally to correctly
diagnose and appraise the real value of the pheno-
mena associated therewith, causes me to place my
experiences and conclusions in the present form
before the public.

CHAPTER II

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS

THE hankering after the uncanny, the dabbling
in the so-called occult, is by no means confined
to emotional women and mentally ill-balanced
men with more time on their hands than they
know what to do with, and more inner longings
than they know well how to check or control.

Their beliefs, if they do not bring them a
salutary disillusion, end generally in dissatisfaction
or disappointment. That is their own affair.
But it is quite another thing when the mystic
art casts its spell over a country's rulers, in-
fluencing their interior and exterior policies, to
the general injury and danger.

It is beyond question that mystic influence
had not a little to do with the downfall of the
Romanoffs and the great upheaval in Russia.
The dabbling in the supernatural at the Russian
Court is by no means a new thing. It dates back
years. It came in with the visit of D. D. Home,
and went out with the removal of the unspeak-
able Rasputin.

Home succeeded in capturing the society of
more than one European capital ; but I fancy he
did best in Petrograd. He finally managed to

22

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 23

impress a Russian princess, a goddaughter of the
Tzar Alexander II., to the extent of getting her
to give him her hand and fortune.

His social success here in London was not
inconsiderable.

Home gave a tone to Modern Spiritism, and —
to use an Americanism — was looked upon by the
faithful as quite a " tony " medium. His bag of
spiritual tricks included materialisation and de-
materialisation ; but his chief card was " levita-
tion." There were two noble lords who, in their
mind's eye at least, saw him float in and out of an
open window in a west-end London house, and duly
testified to the fact. Nothing, I believe, would
convince them of the fallacy of the pretension.
In these days of the conquest of the air, how
useful the floating art might have been made,
especially if Home, as claimed, could make him-
self invulnerable !

Whilst in Petrograd — so at least a famous
diplomat assured me when I was there — Home
did a feat of dematerialisation before the Court
which, had it not been for the favour in which
he was held in high places, might have curtailed
his liberty for a period.

He had demateralised a splendid row of emeralds
lent the " dear spirits " for the purpose of the
test ; but up to the time of his departure from
the seance, the emeralds, for some occult reason,
had declined to materialise and thus be handed
back to the confiding owner. They were, of
course, in spirit land engaging the attention of
the spooks, who seem to have a pretty taste for

24 THAT OTHER WORLD

valuable jewels. But the chief of the police had
not that faith in spiritual probity generally ac-
cepted at the Court, and, before leaving the palace,
Home was searched, and — so the story came to
me — the dematerialised emeralds were found
materialising in his coat-tail pocket. They had
been placed there by an evil spirit, of course.
But the police chief impressed upon the medium
that the climate of the Russian capital might
not be good for his health — that an early depar-
ture would probably benefit it. Home took the
hint and his early departure. To his dying day,
I think, he regretted the interference of the evil
spirit. It would have been so much more satis-
factory for the jewels to have remained dema-
terialising in spirit land, to be materialised at will
with no interfering police around, for they were
of great earthly value.

History has an odd habit of repeating itself
even in connection with spiritualistic affairs.

During the crisis associated with the approach-
ing abdication of the Tzar Nicholas, it was im-
possible to get in touch with ministers who
counted, on account of their being engrossed in
a spiritualistic seance. How ill the controlling
spirits at this seance advised the sitters, and failed
to get in proper celestial touch with the to-be-
dethroned monarch, events have shown.

During my first visit to Petrograd there was
another crisis in the air, which, if it had come to
a head, would have had very far-reaching effects.
To my great surprise I found that hardened
diplomatic old sinner, Count Peter Shuvalow,

sitting with a number of high ministers of state
at a round table consulting the " dear spirits " as to
what could happen, and so forth. His Excellency
affected to be surprised at my disbelief in the
powers of the spirits to manifest in the manner
anticipated by the sitters. But, all the same, I
was distinctly of the private opinion that at heart
his belief in the reality of such phenomena did
not exceed my own. He was, I conjectured, but
playing a game, just because it was at the moment
diplomatic to so play it.

Whilst ambassador in London he played the
game of make-believe to an extent never yet ap-
proached by the diplomatic representative of any
other country attached to the Court of St James.
Well I remember Mr Henry Labouchere im-
pressing upon me, on the eve of my departure for
Russia, the wisdom of studying closely the ex-
Ambassador, who, shortly after his return to
Petrograd, had been appointed head of the dreaded
Third Section.

" As a subject," added Labby, " you will find
him the hardest nut you have ever tried to crack.
To judge him by appearances, or to accept any
statement as indicative of his actual thoughts, is
to make the greatest mistake possible. I have in
mind the critical days of the Russo-Turkish war,
when the goody-goodies of Society thought how
deplorable it was that so gifted a man, holding so
distinguished a position, should drink so heavily
and take so little trouble to hide the fact from
those with whom, in accordance with his position,
he associated. But it was all a game ; and, I

26 THAT OTHER WORLD

must confess, he played it remarkably cleverly.
It enabled him to eavesdrop without being sus-
pected, and to let out grave secrets whilst seem-
ingly in his cups, which, instead of being an act
of grave indiscretion, was just a part of his little
game. I always had my suspicion that he painted
his nose at times in order to more completely
look the part."

Labby, from his at one time connection with
the British Embassy in Petrograd, knew the
Russian diplomatic world pretty well ; but his
knowledge of Russian diplomats did not, I fancy,
include General Ignatieff, the author of the
famous San Stefano Treaty. I had ample oppor-
tunities of studying both him and Peter Shuvalow ;
and in the matter of mental deception and verbal
unmeaningness the ex-head of the dreaded Third
Section was a guileless child as compared with
the treaty-drawer.

Count Paul Shuvalow, Peter's brother, whom
I saw frequently in Petrograd, and subsequently
in Berlin, where he was the Tzar's ambassador,
leaving there to succeed General Gourko as
Governor-General of Poland, had not only a real
belief in the occult, but was convinced that he
himself was genuinely psychic. In diplomatic
circles in Berlin it was generally assumed that
his Excellency was not quite all there. But his
seeming absent-mindedness and funny little ways
were too, I am sure, just a part of his own game.

Rasputin would never have flourished or have
exercised the slightest Court influence had he been
up against Paul Shuvalow. Had it been necessary,

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 27

in order to have effectively combated that un-
speakable person's evil influence, he would, I have
no doubt, have boldly declared himself a medium
controlled by celestial beings of the highest pro-
bity, who not only denied Rasputin's alleged
powers, but most strongly condemned his habits
and practices. Count Paul was a gentleman as
well as an astute man of the world. He knew
by instinct the right card to play in mysticism
as well as in diplomacy, according to the audience
he sought to impress.

Tzar Alexander III. had no great faith, if any
at all, in mystic phenomena ; but at times he had
moods of religious mysticism. In those moods
he would retire within his own shell, as it were,
and be more or less unapproachable by anyone.
Spiritualistic practices had to cry a halt at the
Russian Court during his reign.

But the Tzar Nicholas II. was a man of a
different mental and physical fibre from that of his
father. From an early period he had a leaning
towards mysticism, and in the end mysticism got
the upper hand, which is its way with weak
natures, whether they wear a crown or the
orthodox headgear of middle-class respectability.

The ex-Tzaritsa had this leaning too ; but it
arose, I fancy, more from the exactions of her
position than from any inner promptings. I have
always had the impression that; had she been born
in the Middle Ages instead of the prosaic nine-
teenth century, the Tzaritsa, by temperament and
instinct and sincere religious convictions, would
have made a really first-class saint.

28 THAT OTHER WORLD

I never forgot the impression she made upon
me at our first meeting. It was at Darmstadt ;
and I had the honour of being presented to her
by her father. She was then quite young, very
spirituelle, and seemingly most ingenuous. I had
but recently returned from Russia, where, I
gathered, my work had been followed with in-
terest at the Hesse-Darmstadt Grand Ducal Court.

Said the Princess to me — and I use her words,
of which I took a firm mental note, reciting them
again and again during the years that followed —
" Now, you have been to Russia, and have, I
hear, met and read everybody. Do tell me quite
frankly what is your real opinion of the country
and its people ? "

I told her, with but few reservations.

" I thank you very much," she replied. " I
did so much want to know your real and honest
opinion ; and you have had such a striking
experience."

" You know," she added, as I was bowing my
farewell, " that Russia is a country I never really
wish to go to. My sister is, I think, one of the
most unhappy women in the world."

This was long before the assassin removed the
husband of her sister, the Grand Duke Serge, from
a world which he had so constantly outraged. He
indeed was a coarse, evil degenerate.

With her betrothal to the heir to the Russian
throne, fate destroyed the girlish hopes of Queen
Victoria's grand-daughter.

I am strongly of opinion that, in becoming be-
trothed to the Tzarevitch, she was just as much a

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 29

necessary victim to policy as was Brieux's Egyptian
Maiden, thrown to the crocodiles so that, the gods
being appeased, the Nile would rise. Faith —
blind, unquestioning faith — influenced the Egyp-
tian. Duty — unquestioning Duty — influenced
the German Princess. At the moment Duty called
for what she considered the sacrifice ; her heart,
one may take it, was no more in the making
of a home in Russia than it was that night she
laid bare her thoughts to me on the subject in
Darmstadt.

The sense of Duty, stern, relentless Duty, went
with her to Petrograd, surrounded her, absorbed
her, obsessed her. In her heart, no doubt,
she asked why Fate had called upon her rather
than upon anyone else to make the requisite
sacrifice. At the same time she buoyed herself
up with the assurance that she was but obeying
Duty's demands, and the deeply religious strain
within her took some comfort in the fact that the
ways of Providence are inscrutable, and that it is
not for mortals to reason the why or wherefore of
Providence's decrees. But that germ of mystic
instinct — more of a religious foundation than any-
thing else — that was early inborn in her grew and
grew, until the inclination came to take a peep at
the Beyond, to discover what Providence really
meant by placing her in the position she was
occupying. There were not failing those about
her who played upon this religious mystic instinct.
But recognised ecclesiastics, who came with their
consolations, were too orthodox, too commonplace,
in fact, to satisfy her cravings for an insight into

30 THAT OTHER WORLD

the unknown. Then came the temptation to see
what professed occultists could do. Those around
her told her fairy tales of this or that mystic, whose
powers were as divinely inspired as his mani-
festations were astounding. Her Majesty had
not the strength to resist the temptation, nor
the necessary training to discriminate the false
from the true.

This preliminary dabbling in the mystic through
the well-remunerated agency of insinuating im-
postors paved the way for the entrance on the scene
of the much-talked-of medium, Philippe. How
any sane person could have attributed supernatural
powers to a man of his type passes all under-
standing. He was an unmitigated poseur^ possess-
ing boundless self-assurance and an elementary
knowledge of sleight-of-hand. He affected silk
stockings, silver-buckled shoes, and velvet shorts.
Another impression he conveyed to me was, that
any spirits he might control would have their
spiritual home in some Montmartre cabaret, rather
than in the celestial regions from which they are
supposed to be drawn. But Philippe came from
Paris to Petrograd not only with a reputation as
a mystic, but as one who, whilst being a darling
of the gods, was at the same time the darling of
his fair devotees in the French capital.

It made one sick when news reached one of the
tremendous fuss that was made over this oily fraud,
and I was for going hot haste to Russia to expose
the impostor, as I had some years before caused
the bringing to book of the medium Bastian, when
he was in Vienna trying to rope in the Crown

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 31

Prince Rudolph. I had previously exposed this
same medium masquerading as a spirit at a seance
in London, and I knew it went without saying
that the spirit forms he could produce in the
Viennese capital could not be any more the real
thing than the one I laid by the heels here. Of
this worthy and his manifestations I have some-
thing to say in the next chapter.

Philippe, according to accounts which reached
me, reaped quite a golden harvest whilst in the
Russian capital. And the bounder, at one time,
was thankful for any small loose change when
he had " demonstrated " before me.

His reputation as a lady-killer, which he brought
with him from Paris, stood him in good stead with
the highly placed fair sex in Petrograd. It was
discovered that he was not only very fascina-
ting, but there was something about his appear-
ance which was quite apostolic. Fancy an apostle
in velvet knee-breeches and silver-buckled shoes,
and with an up-to-date boulevardier leer !

But the apostolic card was a good one to play.
How he must have inwardly blessed the fatuous
female who made the discovery ! It was the means
of bringing him into close mystic, spiritual touch
with the Tzaritsa. From impressing her and her
entourage with his mystic gifts, which, truth to
tell, were, as demonstrated, of no high order and of
but little originality, Philippe gradually assumed
the role of a prophet. It was one he particularly
fancied himself in, and one which his women
admirers who had discovered the apostolic look
thought became him perfectly.

32

At that time the Tzaritsa was hungering for
prophecy ; and who so likely to successfully gratify
her as this gifted being in such close touch with
the spiritual world ?

It is only those closely associated with her
Majesty at that period who knew how near
to her heart was the wish to have a son, and
how she sought for spiritual confirmation of
her hopes.

Philippe, it goes without saying, turned his
prophetic utterances in the direction desired. Her
Majesty would assuredly give birth to a son. So
it was written, and so it would be — at her next ac-
couchement. But it happened to be a girl on that
occasion. Nothing daunted, Philippe had another
try ; but, alas for his reputation as a prophet, there
was another girl.

The failures of Philippe in the prophetic line
made room for Rasputin, a far more sinister and
dangerous impostor than the one he supplanted.

Rasputin was brought into touch with the
Tzaritsa through her sister, the Grand Duchess
Serge, who since the assassination of her disreput-
able husband had more or less retired from the
affairs of the world and had embraced religion
with both arms, as it were, by way of consolation.

I have already said how the Tzaritsa as a girl
had expressed her belief in her sister being the
unhappiest woman in the world. A year ago a
very distinguished lady journalist and traveller,
who came to interview me as a psychologist for
a great American newspaper combination, and to
whom I related this fact, replied, " I have seen the

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 33

Grand Duchess since you have — quite recently,
in fact. Unhappy ? That to-day falls far short
of my reading of her. She is the most tragic
figure, I think, I have ever seen."

And her introduction to Rasputin was the first
step in the tragedy that was to follow.

The tragic Grand Duchess caught at any straw
that floated in the murky atmosphere of her re-
ligious obsession. She saw in Rasputin a golden
bridge on which she could walk with certainty of
getting into close touch with the unknown. This
religious obsession blinded her to the creature's
manifest ignorance and unmitigated commonality.
He was the one who, being in such direct com-
munion with the other world, would be able to
give the true prophetic utterance her distressed
sister was so much in need of.

Rasputin was a loathsome person, but, with
women, there was about him a certain hypnotic
force that exercised a peculiar sway. Men, who
did not feel this hypnotic force, utterly failed to
understand his influence ; but he worked through
the women, and they smoothed down the opposi-
tion amongst the men. A photo I had shown
me, taken but a few weeks before his " re-
moval," showed Rasputin seated with a number
of women followers grouped about him. The
lecherous look on most of these women's faces
was disgusting, and the dreamy, hypnotised ap-
pearance of others altogether pitiful.

His role when at Court was not so much to
work miracles after the fashion of Philippe and
other mystics who had preceded him, but to pose

3

34 THAT OTHER WORLD

as one especially endowed with grace, a sort of
holy man thrown amongst humans for their moral
exaltation and spiritual advancement. The Tzar-
itsa was in the mood to be taken in ; and taken
in by him she assuredly was. The pity of it !
And when his prophecy came off about the birth
of a son, succeeding at the first shot where Philippe
had twice gone wrong, her faith in the impostor
became unshakable.

Many stories have from time to time reached
me about the man's libertinage, and the grave
danger he had become to many a highly placed
household ; but his amorous adventures — beyond
the fact that they afforded me one more proof
how soft morally women can become when they
mentally succumb to mediumistic imposture — did
not particularly interest me. I must, however, con-
fess to some personal satisfaction over his dramatic
removal from this earthly sphere, coupling with it
the regret that it had not taken place long before.

Could the Tzaritsa's eyes have been opened to
the true character of the man ? Maybe, if one
had been on the spot and had practically demon-
strated the hollowness of his pretensions, or if the
Tzar Nicholas had been a stronger man with the
mental astuteness and strength to see the falsity
of the rascal's claims, and the physical determina-
tion to put his foot down and summarily banish
him from the Court. But, instead of rejoicing at
the impostor's removal, the Tzar, I am given to
understand, strongly resented the steps that had
been taken, and the actors in the tragedy came
within his severe personal displeasure.

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 35

As it was, an ignorant and depraved mystic,
who was said to have been in German pay, was
certainly indirectly, if not actually directly, the
means of ending the Romanoff dynasty. Shade

of the Great Peter !

i

But while the Romanoff dynasty has ceased
to exist, it is not the only European dynasty that
has been severely shaken through association with
mystic adventurers.

During the reign of the late King of Wu'rtem-
berg an American spirit medium exercised an
extraordinary influence over that monarch's mind.
He became a great power in the land, and gravely
interfered with the nation's internal affairs. He
was, indeed, so much the power behind the throne
that plots were made by the disgruntled loyalists
to abduct him or to remove him by means that
permit of no return journey. But, despite the
intense disgust the King's favouritism towards his
unworthy protege caused amongst his people of
all ranks, his Majesty refused to cast him off, and
declared his firm belief in the man's claims to
supernatural powers.

And he was but an ordinary medium after all,
with just a full bag of commonplace mediumistic
fakes. The King in his patronage of his pet seer
went from blunder to blunder, the culminating
act being his appointment as a Councillor of State,
with the title of Count. With this one of two
things had to happen. Either the King or the
Count had to go ; upon this all that was influential
in the kingdom of Wurtemberg was determined.

36 THAT OTHER WORLD

It ended in the King remaining and the Count
leaving, with, I understand, the patent of nobility
and as much wealth as he could collect in the
brief period allowed him for collection.

What has finally become of this astute Yankee
medium I do not know. When he left Germany
he returned as quickly as possible to the land of
his birth, there to relate to a rigid democracy
what blithering idiots some monarchs can be.
Out of his Wurtemberg spoils, I have, however,
heard, he acquired a ranch somewhere out West.

Amongst the European Courts to which I had
the honour of being invited was that of Wurtem-
berg ; and, in another work, I have related how
good a " subject " I found the present King, who,
by the by, has none of those little crankisms
which distinguished his predecessor of spiritual-
istic proclivities. Between moments of puffing
at and partly chewing the end of a most unattrac-
tive-looking black cigar, his Majesty interjected
some exceedingly strong but certainly common-
sense ideas as to the rascality of professed mystics
and the incalculable folly of their dupes. He
was seemingly much interested in my views of
the mystic art, and my expositions of some of the
phenomena for which supernatural agency had
been claimed.

" This mystic business is a lot of d non-
sense," he concluded ; with which conclusion I
was in full agreement.

Napoleon III. was mystically inclined, and in
the first instance was disposed to look upon

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 37

Home as a celestially endowed being far above
the common.

But the medium put his foot in it, and, at the
same time, himself out of Court, when he under-
took to " materialise " Napoleon I. The form
of the Great Napoleon was duly " materialised "
— in the dark — at the seance which the then
Emperor of the French attended.

The Emperor — so the story has come down to
me — was anxious for physical proof of the form's
presence. A grip of the hand, a friendly pat on
the shoulder, a kiss of kinship, anything to prove
that the form claimed to be hovering near, was
substantial in its materialisation, and not a mere
shadowy, optical illusion.

The proof came, but not in the way his Majesty
either expected or desired.

In rising, better to greet the spirit form — so
the story continues — he felt himself kicked in the
darkness — yes, he, the Destiny of France, actually
kicked from behind, and with no light foot either,
and in a place which prevented him from sitting
down in comfort for the rest of the evening.

Needless to say, the Emperor did not seek a
repetition of his great relative's materialisation ;
and he had no further use for Home or his alleged
mediumistic gifts. But for that mat a propos kick,
Home, cementing his influence at the Court, might
have shaped the Emperor's policy better than he
himself shaped it. Who can say ? That is just
one of those might-have-beens to which subse-
quent events can provide no conclusive reply.
From France Home went to Italy, and shortly

38 THAT OTHER WORLD

after he himself became a spirit, but I have not
heard of his spirit form materialising at a seance
for the delectation of his admirers and followers
whilst in the flesh.

Home was before my time, so I can speak of
his mystic wonders only at second hand. How,
by the by, Home's flying art would have inter-
ested Lord Northcliffe, and what a big fat cheque
would have been his if he could have afforded
material proof of his art of conquering the air to
that enterprising nobleman's satisfaction !

The Sultan Abdul Hamid was himself of a dis-
tinctly mystic temperament ; and he had an in-
born hankering after the mystical. His fancy,
however, did not run much in the direction of
Western magic or its exponents. But within my
personal knowledge his Majesty made one strik-
ing exception. The seer was a German, and he
came to Constantinople claiming to be " the
world's greatest magician." German intrigue was
rampant on the banks of the Bosphorus at that
time ; and the magician was taken up by the
German .Embassy for purposes best known to his
Excellency the Ambassador and his inner ring
of officials. A seance was procured for him at
Yildiz Kiosk, for the modest fee of one thousand
pounds, Turkish. He was, as skilled " magicians "
go, a poor exponent of the magic art ; but his
thin little sleight-of-hand tricks found favour with
the gloomy, jerky-minded potentate. It was, I
afterwards discovered, a part of the Ambassador's
little plan that this made-in-Germany specimen

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 39

of the magic art should not appear to be too deep
or skilful. It was enough for him to demonstrate
what his Majesty could easily follow and discuss.
To have bewildered the Sultan or given him cause
for serious reflection would have collided with
the German policy then being worked. For the
Sultan's favourite soothsayer had impressed upon
his Majesty the possible advent of a "wise man"
from the West, who, according to tradition, was to
greatly menace the safety of the reigning Padishah
and be the signal of the ultimate overthrow of the
Ottoman Empire. That this wise man could
possibly be of German origin was of course un-
thinkable.

The chief Dragoman of the British Embassy
duly acquainted my Ambassador, with whom I
had had a somewhat close personal acquaintance
extending over a period of years, of this tradition
with which the Sultan was obsessed, and added
that it was generally accepted in Court circles
that I and no other was the veritable incarnation
of the prophecy. This afforded his Excellency,
personally, considerable amusement ; but at the
same time he cautioned me not to take the matter
too lightly.

" Be most careful in what you say or in what
you do, for every room here, no matter how
hermetically closed, has both eyes and ears,"
was his seriously meant advice.

At a little dinner at the Embassy, at which the
German Ambassador and other members of the
Corps Diplomatique were present, the subject
turned on mystics and mysticism, and the " wise

4o THAT OTHER WORLD

man " tradition. Said my Ambassador jokingly,
" So, it appears that this terrible wise man is
British after all, and the mantle of the prophecy
has fallen on our young friend's shoulders," in-
dicating me and looking, as I thought at the time,
somewhat pointedly at Germany's diplomatic
representative. "Well," he went on, "I have
known him for some years, and this is the first
time I am expected to view him in the light
of a wise man."

" No, sir," I replied, " anyone more foolish or
powerless does not exist in all Pera."

There was an all-round laugh, and the subject
dropped.

The Introducer of the Corps Diplomatique,
with whom I had some acquaintance, was a man
with considerable knowledge of the working of
the inner circle at Yildiz Kiosk. Outwardly he
was one of the most charming men attached to the
Court, and he went by the sobriquet of " Sugar
Pasha." Oh ! that sweet smile of his, when,
one evening, at a little festivity at his palace, I,
in the course of an opportune aside, asked him
what I had done to be designated the wise man
of the prophecy.

" You ? my young friend, you ? Impossible ! "
and he waved away the thought with a gesture
that was most becoming, if not altogether con-
vincing. " No, my dear friend, some evil-minded
person has spread this report just to annoy you.
His Majesty, I happen to know, thinks highly
of your art, and has set you down for personal
distinction."

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 41

How beautifully Sugar Pasha could lie !

At my public meeting my attention, by some
one in the know, was drawn to the fact that the
hall contained a large number of the Sultan's most
trusted secret agents, some of them being hidden
under the seats of the gallery at the back, taking
furtive notes of everything I said and did ; in
such personal esteem did his Majesty hold me.

Amongst my acquaintances at Constantinople
was a certain Bey who, through his position, was
in closer touch with the Sultan than any other
official I knew. So far as it is given a Westerner
to directly understand the true workings of the
Oriental mind, I had arrived at the conclusion
that the said Bey was not unfriendly disposed
towards me, and that, so far as his training and
mental reservation would permit, he could be
fairly frank with me. Amongst other European
languages he spoke English excellently, and to be
able to converse with him direct in one's mother
tongue was certainly an advantage. The Bey's
functions at Yildiz Kiosk were to communicate
to his master on their arrival at any time in the
night the contents of all special cables and tele-
grams that might arrive there. The Sultan's
personal telegraphic correspondence was both ex-
tensive and peculiar. In this way the Bey came
into very close touch with his august master and
saw him in his varying moods and mental twist-
ings as few others saw him.

To him I repaired one evening, the day follow-
ing a Selamlik at which I had been present and
where I had had a highly interesting though

42 THAT OTHER WORLD

obviously brief conversation with Von der Goltz
Pasha, whose opinion, by the by, of Abdul
Hamid was not exactly flattering. He had no
patience with the Sultan's almost puerile super-
stitions, and his lack of mental straightforward-
ness and both physical and moral courage were
not appealing factors to this eminent soldier, who,
I believe, had suffered from his Majesty's vacil-
lating policy.

I had to wait some time before I could be re-
ceived by the Bey, and I did the waiting in a long
passage, up and down which people seemingly of
little or no importance constantly flitted. At last
I got into the Bey's presence. He was quite
alone, although I had been assured he was neck-
deep in engagements.

Said he in a low voice, as the door closed upon
my entrance, " Did you notice anyone particular
outside ? "

" No, only your brother," I replied.

"And he is the most dangerous of the lot."
His voice was a mere whisper by this time.

" Come in here," he added, offering me a
cigarette. Being Ramazan, and many hours from
sunset, he did not himself smoke.

We passed into an adjoining room which
happened to be his bedroom. He quickly closed
the door, tried the handle of the door opening on
to the passage, gave a hurried glance round the
room, then stooped and looked under the bed.

" Afraid of ghosts ? " I asked, with some
curiosity in my voice.

" Sh ! " and his finger went to his lips.

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 43

" Ghosts, no. They can't hurt ; it's the
living who can. One never knows who may be
listening."

" But the coast seems pretty clear now."

" Yes ! I think we can talk now," but as he
said it he gave another quick, furtive look around
the room. " And in what way can my poor
services be of use to you ? They, as you know,
are entirely at your disposal."

I bowed my acknowledgments, and then, as
deftly as I could, brought up the subject of that,
to me, thread-worn prophecy concerning the wise
man from the West. The Bey shrugged his
shoulders almost pityingly.

" But you, whose vocation it is to combat
superstitions, put no faith in prophecies ? "

" Prophets as a rule," I replied, " are more
human in their errors than ordinary mortals.
But the prophet responsible for this particular
prophecy would appear to have had being untold
years before my existence could ever have been
thought of.''

" You ! surely no one associates you with the
prophecy ? " His kindly, sympathetic look which
accompanied the words was most touching.

" You ! of course not ; you are an enlightened
man, and stupidity of this kind does not go
with enlightenment. But, leaving me out
of the question, you, I suppose, like the rest,
believe there may be something after all in the
prophecy ?

" And you, who read minds as an open book,
ask me what I think, what I believe ? " This

44 THAT OTHER WORLD

with a gentle reproving air, tendered with obvious
flattery.

" Well, then, I read that you are not without
a certain amount of belief."

" And at the same time you read, it is not
always well and wise to let the tongue give ex-
pression to the thought."

" That at least is frank."

" My friend, whenever was I not perfectly frank
with you? And never was I more so than now."

Which perfect frankness, to use an American-
ism, did not cut much ice with me.

And as to the careful watchfulness of official
" observers " at my public meeting ? That, I knew,
was a matter that would come well within the
Bey's knowledge, and in a way indirectly associ-
ated with his personal supervision.

Oh ! that little matter. Again came out that
old tag. It was just like his Majesty's close
interest in me and my work. Having this deep
interest, he, obviously, was anxious to have a full
and correct report of what I did, and how I did
it, from the public as distinct from the private
point of view. And who so well able to furnish
this report as trained, trusted observers whose
observations and reports could be relied upon ?

" What, my friend, we have to guard against
in this world is the lying and underworking of our
enemies. How I have suffered from it ! "

The look which followed these words was that
of a martyr.

" And you, my friend, are, I fear, a victim of
the same evildoers, but they will be confounded,

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 45

and upon my friendship you can rely." Out went
his hand, and his face beamed friendly regard of
the highest order.

" My little affair is of too little moment to
occupy your attention. But, Bey, can it by a
stretch of imagination be associated with some-
thing political ? The ways of political purpose
are often devious, and, to the unwary, are full
of pitfalls."

" Politics ? They are no concern of mine. The
laughing whisper of a pretty woman is of far more
interest to me than the gravest utterance of the
most distinguished diplomat."

" And yet every message which comes over the
wires bringing requests or answers that may affect
the political affairs of kingdoms come first into
your hands."

" True, but I see nothing with my own eyes.
I am but a conduit pipe, and blind as a bat whilst
making the conveyance. And again, I have a
shocking memory. The tongue cannot repeat
what the mind does not remember. My enemies,
who work ceaselessly for my undoing, may say
otherwise ; but truth always prevails in the end."

He was in that moment the embodiment of
Truth.

I was not to see my friend the Bey again, as
shortly after I took the boat to Varna, on my way
to obtain a closer acquaintance with the Balkan
peoples and their rulers.

Whether the " Wise Man from the West " stunt
had a real place in prophecy or whether it had
origin in the inner consciousness of the Sultan's

46 THAT OTHER WORLD

pet soothsayer, I am unable to say with any
definiteness. As put to him, Abdul Hamid, I
fancy, believed it to the letter. His was a mind
that was steeped in superstition, and the mystic
vapourings of his soothsayers had without doubt
considerable influence with him.

I fancy I was picked out as the wise man of the
alleged prophecy on account of an incident that
had happened a short time before in Cairo. A
Prince of the Druses had by special request taken
me to see a very learned Sheikh, whose word,
as a sort of holy man, had great weight in the
Mahommedan world.

The Sheikh expressed curiosity as to my powers
of reading thoughts, but his curiosity was, I could
see, heavily fringed with suspicion and hostility.
But I made the attempt at reading his thought.
He was not a good subject. This, considering
his mental attitude at the start, did not surprise
me. I had previously successfully experimented
with the Druse Prince, which success apparently
neither interested nor surprised the Sheikh. It
was his own thoughts he wished to have read.

The test with him consisted in finding some-
thing he had previously hidden in another room
to the one in which we were assembled. I took
the Sheikh and roamed with him about that
gloomy old palace of the first Abbas, without
getting any indication as to the place on which
his thoughts were supposed to be concentrated.
He seemingly thought of everything and every-
where but the particular locality. As a matter of
fact, his mental antagonism gave me the very clue

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 47

he was anxious not to disclose. We had arrived
in a room in which was a table, and upon it was
lying a fairly massive book. I could feel that
that book was in his thoughts, but that he did not
wish me to go to it. Indeed, he almost dragged me
from it from time to time. This was my indica-
tion. I placed my hand upon the book and quickly
threw it open. Between the leaves — indeed,
piercing a particular verse — was the object, a pin
previously taken from his own garment. The face
of the Sheikh at that moment was indeed an in-
teresting study. Perplexity and anger were clearly
outlined thereon. I put the perplexity down to
his doubts as to my ability to read his thoughts,
and the angry end of it to my having succeeded.

But I afterwards knew that the book in question
was the Koran, and that the pin had been stuck
in a passage containing an injunction against magic
and evil-doers.

Now, my success should have proved beyond
doubt that the passage did not apply to me. But
this conclusion was not accepted by the Sheikh,
who was supposed to be a really great logician.
Apart from his own mental attitude towards me,
he thought the precaution that, according to his
religious belief, he had taken would in itself have
negatived the possibility of a successful issue to
the test.

An account of the experiment, which seemed
to my friends to have exceptional interest, was sent
to the vernacular press in Constantinople, but the
order went forth that nothing on the subject was
to be printed, and not even the Levant Her aid ^

48 THAT OTHER WORLD

so the editor courteously informed me, could
mention it in English.

Now, one can understand how the lip-serving
soothsayer, having started the hare of prophecy,
turned, as it were, the hunt upon me. I was fair
game because I was British. The Sultan un-
doubtedly believed in the prophecy, and in his
fear-racked way was dreading the falling shadow
of the coming Wise Man from the West.

All this happened but a comparatively short
time before the visit of the German Kaiser with
his fantastic dreams of Eastern Empire, which I
dealt with in a somewhat lengthy article at an
early stage of the present war.

The German diplomatists and their agents were
busily doing the spade-work preparatory to this
visit. They spent money lavishly and lied with-
out stint. The Kaiser on his arrival was highly
gratified at the success of the pro-German propa-
ganda. I think I may be permitted to say that
those in the inner diplomatic ring, such, for in-
stance, as M. Paul Cambon, who then represented
the interests of France at the Sublime Porte, as
he to-day so ably represents them here at the
Court of St James, and that brilliant diplomat,
Sir Arthur Nicolson, then attached to the British
Embassy, were well aware of the subtle activity
of this propaganda, and one may take it they
acted accordingly.

Sir Arthur understood German psychology as
well as the German on his part failed to under-
stand that of Sir Arthur ; and the official German
dislike of the British diplomat who has done SQ

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 49

much to upset Germanic plans is not surprising.
On his retirement from the Permanent Under-
Secretaryship of the Foreign Office the inspired
Berlin Press gleefully shouted with one voice,
" There goes the bitterest and most prejudiced
foe Germany has ever had."

To return to the " wise man " business. Shortly
after I had left Constantinople, an event happened
which terribly jarred upon poor Abdul's nerves.
A bridge over which he was passing on his way to
a special service at the mosque collapsed. Whilst
he himself got safely over, several lives were lost,
and it was generally considered that the Sultan
had had a lucky escape.

I was in Bucharest at the time, and, obviously,
although I had no more connection with the
event than the man in the moon, I was sincerely
congratulated by more than one person on the
fact of my being absent from the Turkish capital
at the time.

Personal observation and experience cause me
to pin very little faith on so-called prophetic utter-
ances. There is to my mind far too much of the
after-the-event atmosphere about them, as a rule,
to carry conviction.

But, frankly, I am inclined to place more cred-
ence on that particular Turkish prophecy than
any that has been brought to my attention.

Events subsequent to its having come first
within my knowledge seem distinctly to point
to the coming of a man from the West who was
to work the undoing of Abdul and the downfall
of the Turkish Empire. That man was the

4

50 THAT OTHER WORLD

Kaiser. His coming brought bad luck to the
Sultan. He lost his throne, and the downfall of
the Turkish Empire, as Abdul Hamid knew it, is
equally certain. If the occult agency through
which the seer influencing Abdul Hamid worked
had been worth its salt, it would at once have put
its finger upon the Kaiser William as the danger-
spot. But these occult agencies, these seers, these
all-wise interpreters of prophecies never really do
anything worth doing, not even when the stability
of a despotic monarch and the integrity of a con-
siderable Empire are at stake.1

......

Whilst, it is true, there are few things indeed one
can with justice place to the Kaiser's credit, I do
think in perfect fairness he may be credited with
the wisdom of not dabbling in common occultism
or in being influenced, as some other monarchs
have been, by personal mystics and arrant spiritual-
istic impostors.

But, on the other hand, it must be said, when
the Kaiser is there, there is not room for two at
the same table, and this, I take it, may apply to
a celestial as well as a terrestrial personage.

The Kaiser, in a word, is his own medium. He
would scorn working through any other medium,
no matter how mystically endowed. By his utter-

1 Since this was in type, Abdul Hamid has joined his
fathers. In Shadeland he possibly may gain a more accurate
knowledge of the value of prophecy than was vouchsafed him
on earth. In the fullness of time he may be able to compare
notes as to their earthly past with William of Hohenzollern,
who will, one imagines, be translated to the same plane as that
adorned by the ex-Sultan.

MONARCHS AND MYSTICS 51

ances one can tell how much he is in direct touch
with the other world, and the air with which he
says it is conviction itself of his personal belief
in its reality.

And yet one day even he may be caused to
"manifest" at some mean back-room seance
through the mediumship of some needy prac-
titioner who sees money in him as a spirit star
turn.

Far greater men than the Kaiser, when they
have become spirits, have suffered a like indignity
at the hands of those professing to be in touch
with the other world.

The Emperor Carl of Austria, whose father, by
the by, evinced considerable interest in my work,
has, I understand, spiritualistic tendencies. These
he has acquired from his mother, who is very
superstitious and disposed to consider herself pro-
tected by other world influences. She saw in the
events leading to the placing of her son on the
throne the hand of Fate. I wonder if she has
read the hand of Fate as to the future of the
Hapsburg dynasty ?

So far the Kaiser Carl has not taken to his
bosom a professional occultist to be his guide,
philosopher, and friend in the matter of statecraft.
In such a matter, Kaiser Wilhelm would certainly
have something to say. Whatever guiding there
is to be done, his alone must be the brain and the
hand to do it — alike in mundane and other-world
affairs.

52 THAT OTHER WORLD

King Ferdinand of Bulgaria is another monarch
who has mystical tendencies. He is a nervous
creature, afraid of his own shadow, and has a
habit of " seeing ghosts." It is said he is
haunted by the shade of Stambuloff, the " Bis-
marck of the Balkans," whom, it is alleged, he
indirectly caused to be done to death. The last
time I saw StambulofF, a little while before his
assassination, he had a sort of premonition that
his days on earth would not be long. What a
difference between the two men — the ruler and
the minister ! StambulofF had a mental grip and
force of character that never failed to impress any-
one with whom he came in contact. Ferdinand
has a shifty mind and about as much strength
of character as a jelly-fish. StambulofF, who, I
gathered, did not hold Bulgaria's ruler in any
high esteem, was far too dominant a person to
suit the envious, feeble-purposed Ferdinand.

CHAPTER III

CONCERNING " SPIRIT FORMS "

IN the early days of modern spiritualism the
sitters expected somewhat strong fare in the
matter of spirit phenomena ; and the mediums
gave it them in the shape of noisy physical
demonstrations and the materialisation of spirit
forms. But this side of the business, whilst
lucrative, was at times somewhat risky ; and after
numerous exposures of the methods by which
these physical wonders were worked, and the
capture of incautious mediumistic controls mas-
querading as spirit forms, the mediums deemed
it wise to drop a phase of phenomena attended
by such obvious risks, and to adopt a phase of
the supernatural which eliminated risks of this
character and was just as sure a money-getter.

One of the first mediums to be tripped up in
London whilst masquerading as a spirit form was
an ingenious young lady named Florrie Corner.
Her captors were two young friends of mine,
undergraduates of Christ Church, Oxford. As
the spirit had next to nothing on when she came
within the investigators' grasp, the modesty of
her youthful captors suffered a rude shock.

Now this medium was a shining light in

53

54 THAT OTHER WORLD

spiritualism, and had been endorsed by an eminent
scientist, of whose belief in spiritism much is
made even to-day.

This scientist evidently found the medium
most convincing, and in his writings he went
into quite unscientific raptures over a spirit which
used to materialise under her control for his
scientific undoing. He tells us how this spirit
came to him with all the entrancing charms of
celestial existence, and he goes on to ask what
else could he — or any other mortal under such
circumstances — do than take this lovely spirit in
his arms ? What indeed ?

But, as I said on the stage of the Savoy, which
theatre Sir W. S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan, and
Mr D'Oyley Carte had placed at my disposal,
at the time of the confession of this touching in-
cident, a scientist who indulged in philanderings
of this nature — however great the provocation
— was much too far gone for proper scientific
investigation, and, to my mind, aroused strong
doubts as to his strictly scientific impartiality.

For my own part, I have not yet folded a lovely
spirit in my arms, and so cannot at first hand
say what the sensation is like. But I have at
seances seen male sitters embrace feminine visitors
from the other world, and, so far as I have been
able to judge in the dim light prevailing, the
pleasure has been reciprocal. But then in each
instance the embracer has been — so at least it was
given out — related to the embraced. In the case,
however, of the eminent scientist and his winsome
spirit no relationship whatever existed. It was

CONCERNING "SPIRIT FORMS" 55

just a case of spiritual affinity. If it be possible
for such a condition of things to have existence
in that other world of the spiritists, this particular
" cuddleable " spirit would appear to have been a
somewhat forward young thing.

Round about the time my young 'Varsity friends
tripped up the winsome spirit " Marie," material-
ised under the Corner mediumship, I was myself
engaged in attending seances where materialisa-
tions were a feature.

A very prominent medium for this class of
" manifestation " was a German-American named
Bastian. I thought the manifestations produced
under his mediumship somewhat "thin " ; but in
the eyes of the faithful they were considered
exceedingly "powerful." The thinness of them
I was able to practically demonstrate ; and these
are the methods I adopted.

Previous observation had convinced me that if
an inquirer ever succeeded in grasping an appear-
ing form there was every possibility of its break-
ing away during the prevailing excitement, and
with the active assistance of the protecting faith-
ful. So, before going to the seance, I took with
me a ring syringe rilled with liquid cochineal. My
idea was to squirt the colouring matter into the
face of any form that might appear, at the first
favourable opportunity, arguing that a " form " so
coloured, should it escape my grasp, would, if a
genuine spirit, simply return to its celestial habi-
tation, with, I hoped, as little personal resent-
ment as possible.

But if it were — as I frankly expected it would

56 THAT OTHER WORLD

be — the medium himself, masquerading as a spirit,
then the escape of the form from my grasp would
make no difference to the result, as the medium,
presumably lying in a " trance condition " behind
the thick black curtains, would, on examination,
be found to bear traces of the colouring matter
on his own face.

It all happened as I anticipated. The form
appeared and was duly cochinealed. It escaped,
and then followed the examination of the medium,
whose face bore distinct traces of the red matter
thrown on that of the spirit.

Mr Punch at the time neatly summed up the
incident as follows : —

" COTCHING A SPIRIT.

" Bravo, Mr Cumberland !
Spirits are as slippery as eels to feel,
So would you cotch a spirit-cochineal ? "

The faithful, reading my account of the affair,
published first in the Daily Chronicle, and duly con-
demning my cruelty and irreverence, did not deny
the correctness of my claims. " Anyone who
knows anything about the subject," they argued,
" must know that a form to be materialised has to
borrow the materio-spiritual atoms of the medium
with which to build up its materialisation, so that
any colouring matter thrown on the face of a
form would, on that form's dematerialisation, be
carried with that dematerialisation back to the
body of the medium, from whom the component
parts of the materialisation were borrowed."

In just the same way, I suppose, a highly

CONCERNING "SPIRIT FORMS" 57

classical spirit — Dante, to wit — who, on its appear-
ance at an American seance, trod on the business
ends of some tin-tacks scattered on the floor of
the seance room, carried, on its dematerialisation,
the tacks with their excruciating mundane pres-
ence back to the feet of the controlling medium,
who, under the influence of the pain caused by this
dematerialisation process, altogether forgot for the
moment that he was manifesting as Dante. His
cursing, admittedly excusable under the circum-
stances, was not, however, in the pure Florentine
to be expected, but burst forth in broad and lurid
Yankee, which was the medium's own mother
tongue.

Mediums, surely, ought to be able to talk the
language of the forms they profess to material-
ise, as well as possess a reasonable degree of
artistic accuracy in connection with the out-
ward make-up.

I had begun to look upon Bastian as a back
number in the spiritistic world,when news reached
me that he was in Vienna, and that the Crown
Prince Rudolph, who had heard of my experi-
ence with the man, was anxious to know what
steps to take to guard against imposture.

My answer was : " Take the necessary pre-
cautions to ensure the capture of any spirit form
that may appear, and, with the capture of the
spirit, you will have the medium."

The outcome was the holding of a seance in
the palace of the Archduke Johann (John Orth,
of tragic fate), at which the Crown Prince was
present. It was so arranged that, when a spook

58 THAT OTHER WORLD

should appear from behind the curtains cloaking
the anteroom into which the medium was to
retire for the purpose of working up the material-
isation, a string should be pulled, fastening the
door suddenly behind it with a snap. All the
other doors being closed, and the windows
fastened, there was no possibility of any appear-
ing form escaping, unless it chose to vanish into
thin air, in accordance with historic custom. A
form did appear ; snap went the spring on the
door, and the spirit felt itself trapped. It ran
wildly about the room, vainly seeking for some
avenue of escape. I am assured that it cut an
exceedingly pitiful figure. It goes without say-
ing that the spirit was the medium, and, having
demonstrated the fraudulent character of the mani-
festations, the Imperial captors had to decide what
to do with the exposed medium. Eventually it
was decided that he should be released, and ejected
he was, with his cowering spirit-honours full
upon him, with the scantiest ceremony. Bastian
wasted no time in leaving Vienna, and a becoming
respect for the police authorities caused him to
give the Austrian capital a wide berth in future.

So hurried was the hapless medium's departure
from the palace that he went in his socks, leaving
behind, in the anteroom, the boots he had doffed
when coming forth as a noiseless "spook."

These boots, I would add, remained for a long
while after at the Hofburg, and when I was there
the Crown Prince and Crown Princess begged
of me to exercise my powers of thought-reading
in the direction of finding the " spirit," and

CONCERNING "SPIRIT FORMS" 59

having them returned to him, as the medium,
for obvious reasons, was not himself a caller for
the lost property.

As the Crown Princess Stephanie added with
a smile, " Poor thing, it might get chilblains in
this dreadfully cold weather without them ! "

The old Emperor, Francis Joseph, was exceed-
ingly annoyed at the publicity given to the expose.
He thought it undignified for a Hapsburg to
receive a medium, who certainly was not court-
worthy, in order to produce a spirit who might
be equally uncourt-worthy, according to strict
Austrian court etiquette. It was, I believe, the
attitude the independent and impetuous Archduke
Johann assumed over the matter that gave rise to
the first difference between him and the Emperor.
Spiritualists have professed to see in the unknown
end of the Archduke and the tragedy of Myerling,
with the mystery attached to the death of the
Crown Prince, the vengeance of the gods over
the outrage offered the manifesting spirit at the
archducal palace.

These worthy believers prophesied a sad fate for
me too when I exposed the same medium. But,
in my case, there was much more to answer for.
I did get some tell-tale red marks on my spirit,
whereas the Austrian princes simply annexed their
ghostly visitor's boots, which had been hurriedly
left behind as being of no further use.

Under the blessings or curses of those who have
resented my exposes I have continued to exist,
and^long enough, too, to write this book.

60 THAT OTHER WORLD

A cigarette case, lying on my table as I write,
recalls an incident of importance connected with
the Myerling tragedy. The cigarette case was
a present from Baron Nathaniel Rothschild, of
Vienna, and was a souvenir of a distinguished
artistic gathering I attended in the Austrian
capital. At this reception I met for the first
time the young Baroness Vetsera, who was to
exercise such a fateful influence over the heir to
the Austrian throne. She did not make any
great impression upon me ; and, to tell the truth,
I could not quite understand the Crown Prince's
infatuation, which was then in the bud. In
appearance she was just an ordinary type of
Viennese " flapper," of a somewhat dreamy,
romantic temperament. In the experiment I
performed with her, she did not indicate any
great mental concentration or fixedness of pur-
pose. Indeed, as a " subject," she did not
favourably compare with the Crown Princess
Stephanie, with whom, at the Hofburg, I
had successfully executed some interesting
experiments.

The Crown Prince and Crown Princess were
never a well-matched pair. They had not two
thoughts in common. She, a tall, well-developed
blonde, seemed, as she stood by his side, to
physically overshadow him. Mentally he was
undoubtedly her superior ; but he had not her
animal spirits or her latent will power. Whilst
mentally lazy, she was active physically. It may
have been the contrast in the two women that
caused the Crown Prince to lean towards the

CONCERNING "SPIRIT FORMS" 61

weaker-willed and more supple Vetsera girl.
The attachment awoke fierce resentment on the
part of the Crown Princess, who appealed to the
Emperor, who, for once in a way, was disposed
to side with her.

It was this fierce opposition that brought about
the final tragedy. Had it been left to run its
course, that course, I am inclined to think, would
have been comparatively brief and uneventful.
And the truth about that tragedy ? Has the true
story ever been told ? Not in print, so far as I
have read the various highly imaginative and con-
tradictory reports which have found their way
into newspapers and books. All the talk about
political plots, of masked plotters, of hired assassins,
and the revenge of an outraged wife, are so much
rubbish.

The only person who knew the true story first
hand and brought it to England and related it to
King Edward (then Prince of Wales) was Prince
Philip of Coburg. Just before this the same
story had reached me from Vienna. It was to
the effect that, at this farewell meeting at Myer-
ling, the young baroness had taken poison and the
Crown Prince had shot himself.

About the time of Prince Philip's journey of
communication Mr Joseph Sebag-Montefiore was
giving a house-warming at his newly erected
residence near Broadstairs, and, together with
Sir Henry Irving and others famous in art, science,
and literature, I had the honour of being invited.
Sir Henry and I stayed at the Grand Hotel,
Broadstairs, as the house itself was full. We had

62 THAT OTHER WORLD

many talks together on that occasion ; and one
had reference to the Myerling mystery, around
which discussion still raged.

Sir Henry asked me if I, from my somewhat
close acquaintance with the principals interested
therein, heard the true story of the tragedy. I
told him how the story had come to me from
Vienna.

" And that is the true one," he said. " I had
it yesterday from H.R.H., and he had it from
Prince Philip of Coburg, who was present at
Myerling."

In Providence, Rhode Island, I once saw a
credulous old gentleman present a spirit with a
magnificent ring for conveyance to his wife in
Spiritland. The next day I saw the medium,
who, to my mind at the time, had borne a
remarkable likeness to the " form " that had
appeared, wearing the same ring on her own
hand. I reckoned that it had never left the
finger on which the dear old widower had so
confidingly placed it the night before.

On another occasion the spirit-wife herself
appeared, and sat for a moment upon the
mundane knees of the credulous husband. His
arms, in the dim light, as in the case of the un-
scientific scientist I have mentioned, were soon
around her. It may have been all right for the
favoured believer, but it was somewhat embar-
rassing for the other sitters. Personally, I felt
exceedingly uncomfortable, and thought such

CONCERNING "SPIRIT FORMS" 63

demonstrations should be reserved for private
consumption.

I have no hesitation in saying that materi-
alisations of this character under professional
mediumship are rank imposture and form an
exceptionally cruel phase of deception. No one
knows better than the mediums themselves the
full extent of the imposture. Knowing this,
they have ever resented the adoption on the
part of investigators of precautions which would
either lay bare their chicaneries or prohibit the
productions altogether.

It surely should be a matter beyond question
that if a spirit could effect an appearance on
earth, it would appear to those nearest and
dearest to it, and not through the agency of
a professional or non-professional medium, of
whose existence such spirit, whilst previously
in earth life, presumably had no knowledge
whatever.

With those who claim to have had a first sign
direct, and who consult mediums with the object
of obtaining further signs and information, it is
just a matter of self-deception. The sign-seekers
mistake subjective forms for objective. And that
is really all there is to it.

Of this psychological phase of spiritism more
anon.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who, somehow or
other, has managed to get in touch with a
feminine spirit, for whose veracity he vouches,
claims, on the testimony of this spirit, that the
other-worlders have physical feelings and enjoy-

64 THAT OTHER WORLD

ments, not the least of which, to the female section
thereof, is the wearing of clothes.

The information in this direction so far
furnished does not go far enough.

For instance, I would like to know if, allow-
ing the existence of physical feelings in celestial
form, there is production of population in that
other world into which the distinguished novelist
has been permitted to obtain so close a glimpse.

I do not ask this idly. From what has been
advanced by spiritualistic enthusiasts, one would
like to know if the bigamy laws ruling here are
run on similar lines in that other world.

In making a point of this, I have in mind the
solemn assertion of an ecstatic American believer
that not only has his wife returned to him from
Spiritland, but that materio-spiritual offspring —
on the Gilbertian basis of half a human and half
a fairy — have been the outcome of such visits.
And there are those in the movement who agree
with the possibility of it.

After this the curtain.

CHAPTER IV

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA I TABLE TAPPING, SPIRIT
RAPPING, SLATE WRITING, AND OTHER MORE
OR LESS NOISY FORMS OF " SPIRIT MANI-
FESTATIONS "

MODERN spiritism came in with an atmosphere
that was far more material than spiritual. The
phenomena associated with the earlier seances
were invariably crude, and frequently somewhat
vulgar, in character. Table tipping and rapping
were the most affected forms of communication
between the two worlds.

After sitting under various more or less minor
mediums for manifestations of this character, with-
out receiving one convincing bit of evidence of
the spiritual origin of the manifestations vouch-
safed me, I considered myself fortunate in securing
a special sitting with Mrs Fox-Kane, the High
Priestess of the " New Dispensation." The sitting
took place in my apartments at the Everett House,
New York, and people well known in literature,
science, and society were present.

It was the same old thing over again, with the
accepted code of signs and communications, with
its one rap or tip of the table for No ; two raps
or tips for Don't know or Doubtful ; three for

65 5

66 THAT OTHER WORLD

Yes or Affirmative ; and five signifying the call
for the alphabet, when, from A to Z, questions
were put to the dear spirits.

The proceedings at the seance worked out
something like this : —

Inquirer : " Dear spirits, are you here ? "

One rap or tip, evidencing the fact that the
celestial controls were not there. But how a
spirit could signify its absence by a physical
indication of its immediate presence has always
been beyond me. This form of contradiction
is emphasised by the spirit's reply with two tips
of the table or two raps in answer to an inquiry
as to its presence. Surely the spirit should know
whether it was present or not. There ought to
be no indefiniteness on this point. And the
reader may well comprehend one's disappoint-
ment, not unmixed with surprise, when, on asking
if a spirit be present, he gets, in spirit language,
the information that it doesn't know.

The one person with whom certainty on this
point would rest would be the medium ; but with
credulous or ingenuous sitters uncertainty is quite
a good card to play. It arouses expectancy, and
makes room for the more definite indications
which may follow.

There is no indefiniteness about the indications
when the spirit elects to declare its presence.
Then the raps are loud and rapid, unless the spirit
be very young or old, when there is less vigour
about the demonstration. There is quite an
appropriate piano touch to the rappings of im-
mature or aged spirits. The mediums insist

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 67

upon this distinction, and your true believers
accept it without question.

Now, in the case of the High Priestess of the
New Dispensation, as with the lesser mediumistic
lights whose seances I had attended, no new facts
were brought forward, no proofs of genuine spirit
power were in any way demonstrated.

The tipping of the table was the outcome of
the conscious or unconscious pressure of the hands
placed upon it. It responded to that pressure
and gave the indications which were assumed to
be the outcome of spirit presence or influence.
It was all most material.

And the spirit rapping ? The spirits had no
more to do with the sounds produced than had
the man in the moon. They, as some not be-
lieving in spirit power would assume, were not
the outcome of mechanical appliances hidden in
the room or manipulated by the medium or a
confederate or secreted on their person. The
rappings, though decidedly non-spiritual, were
directly associated with the medium, and were
of materio-mediumistic as distinct from spirito-
mediumistic origin. Mrs Fox-Kane had certain
physical qualifications which enabled her to pro-
duce sounds which were attributed to spirit
power. The dislocation of her ringers, with the
elbow resting on the table or against the wain-
scotting behind acting as a sounding-board, was
one, and the displacement of the peroneus longus
muscle of the foot or the ball of the big toe on
the floor under the table was another. I, pos-
sessing very similar physical qualifications, have

68 THAT OTHER WORLD

both in private and in public demonstrated this
evidence of " spirit power " in the same manner
and under precisely similar conditions to those
governing the spirit manifestations of this descrip-
tion as produced through the mediumship of Mrs
Fox-Kane and other gifted beings claiming to be
endowed with spiritistic powers.

I am fully aware that those who are out for
belief alone will not accept this explanation or be
convinced by a practical demonstration thereof.
But with those who are superior alike to logic
and common sense there is no arguing.

These worthy folk will gravely assure you
they have heard raps when no medium has been
officiating, and the sounds they have thus heard
can alone have been the outcome of spirit power
or spirit presence.

There is nothing so deceptive as sound ; and
the hearing of voices and other sounds, for which
a supernatural origin is frequently claimed, is an
only too frequent form of hallucination. By a very
simple experiment it is quite easy to demonstrate
practically the impossibility of anyone, no matter
how keen of hearing, locating the exact direction
of sound unless the eye is able to see what causes
it. This I have demonstrated the world over,
blind people being the only ones who have located
the direction with anything approaching accuracy.

With respect to table tipping, one meets people
who assert with much positiveness, and occasion-
allv with no little heat, that there has been no

J

pressure on the table on their part, the table in
its movements acting through a force quite out-

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 69

side themselves. So at least, being honest folk,
they really think. But they are self-deceived.
The muscular pressure on their part is there,
but it is done quite unconsciously. In such
matters the result of unconscious pressure is the
same as that of conscious pressure ; but whilst
with the former it is easy with those that way
inclined to invest the movements with a super-
natural origin, the purely mundane character of
them is obvious in the case of the latter.

Many years ago an eminent medical friend of
mine worked out with me the construction of a
simple little machine which duly registered on a
tell-tale smoked glass plate every unconscious
movement betrayed by anyone who might avow
that he had exercised no pressure or given any
physical indication when engaged in tests associ-
ated with such manifestations as table tipping and
turning. I had a diagram of this machine with
explanatory notes printed in the Pall Mall
Gazette^ at which period Mr W. T. Stead, its
editor, had not " gone over " to spiritualism.
Indeed, Mr Stead, who detested shams and pre-
tences of any kind, was an indignant opponent
of the chicaneries and hanky-panky only too fre-
quently associated with spiritistic practices. He
was a man who was for ever trying to get to the
bottom of things, and his enthusiasm was liable
to get the better of his judgment.

As a psychologist I think I had some interest
for him, and he followed my work with close
attention and much kindly appreciation.

On one occasion he sought to put my thought-

70 THAT OTHER WORLD

reading experiments to the most exacting tests,
and invited to the old Pall Mall Gazette offices
a number of eminent people, including Sir E.
Ray Lankester and Mr Andrew Carnegie, to
supervise the experiments. One of the tests
was to take a member of the audience and find
something thought of that was quite away from
the building. Mr Grant Allen, the novelist,
was the subject for the experiment, and, blind-
folded, I led him from the room out into the
street through a wondering crowd of mixed
humanity. We paused at a house. A loud knock
brought a woman to the door. On opening it,
and seeing a blindfolded man grasping another
man by the wrist attended by a small nondescript
following of men, women, and children, she
apparently wondered what was up, and muttered
something about fetching a policeman. But
someone assured her it was all right, and we
entered the passage, and I took my " subject "
upstairs, and, in a box in a room there, I found
the object thought of. It turned out to be the
well-preserved piece of workhouse bread the late
Mr Greenwood had received when filling the
role of the " Amateur Casual." I took the trophy
back to the Gazette office, and no one was more
warm in his appreciation of the success of the
experiment than Mr Stead.

The next morning, as I was sauntering by
Charing Cross, a street arab looked at me with
evident admiration.

" See that bloke ? " said he to a small urchin
by his side.

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 71

" Yus."

" Know 'im ? "

" Naw."

" Well, that's the cove as broke inter that
'ouse over there and pinched a bit o' all right
as 'ad bin planted there."

" Did 'e, now ! — an' what did 'e get ? "

" Nothin', yer silly. It was all play-actin'."

This story highly amused Stead, who used to
say that had I lived in the times of the Inquisi-
tion I would for a certainty have ended my days
at the stake, and that I was lucky to have been
born in an age when Science understood and
endorsed what was so perfectly natural, but
which an ignorant past would at once have
classed as black magic.

And this liberal-minded, highly intelligent
man went over to modern spiritism, with its
incentives to self-deception and possibilities of
false sensorial impressions ! The pity of it !

With this temporary diversion I return to the
subject of physical phenomena.

I have frequently been assured by those who,
whilst their judgment might be open to question,
were by nature veracious, that they had seen a
table indulge in movements when not in contact
with the human form, such movements being the
outcome of its own strange volition or the re-
sult of spirit influence. The late King Edward
used to tell a highly-amusing story respecting
the fantastic movements of a table while under
so-called spirit influence. The telling of it, in
cold print, would spoil it.

72 THAT OTHER WORLD

Tables have ever declined to manifest in this
mysterious manner in my presence alone or when
those who claim to have been previously favoured
in this direction were present. This I have
always thought to be somewhat uppish on the
part of the tables themselves, or distinctly unkind
of the spirits who were assumed to influence
them. There has, therefore, been nothing left
me, in the absence of the direct proof required
of its actual occurrence, but to raise my eyebrows
wonderingly at the extent of some sign-seekers'
imagination. True, I have seen a table glide
across a room, seemingly without human contact.
It at first puzzled me, as the agency responsible
for the movement, although surely not spiritual,
was certainly not visible. The table, I noted,
went only one way — in the direction of the
medium. That was accounted for by the fact
that the medium was the only one in the room
who controlled the spirit influence, and to her the
table, feeling the influence, obviously would move.

I agreed that the medium was the attraction.
Indeed she was, but not in the way the believers
figured.

The table came to her because she was con-
nected with it by a piece of invisible Chinese
silk thread. At each end of the thread was a
bent pin. One pin was attached to her shoe,
and the other was fixed to the table when she
passed her hands over it invoking the influence
of the dear spirits. When she sat down and,
covered by her skirts, manipulated the thread, the
spirits worked and the table moved on its castors.

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 73

A castorless table would have done a wobble,
but the spiritual glide would have been off.

This was bold, bad conjuring; and, as far as
possible, the most conscienceless professional
medium avoids mere vulgar sleight-of-hand aids
in working his phenomena, with the conse-
quent risk of being tripped up. But to move
tables without contact a little conjuring has to
be brought in.

Knowing, as they do to the full, that no re-
liance whatever can be placed upon spirit assist-
ance in the matter of the production of physical
phenomena, the professional medium has to rely
solely upon his own ingenuity and adroitness.
That is why the manifestations are of such an
earthly character. Being, as they are, the out-
come of human conception and manipulations,
they could not well be otherwise.

If even the most credulous of sign-seekers had
for a single moment given this aspect of the
phenomena which have been provided for their
delectation, they, I think, could not but arrive at
the one conclusion, that spirits should be better
employed in that other world of theirs than in
visiting this in order to demonstrate their spiritual
existence by methods which would be more ap-
propriate to a booth in a country fair.

These professional mediums have produced
phenomena according to their lights, making as
much as possible out of their dupes in the pro-
cess. It, therefore, would be unfair to blame the
spirits for the vulgarity and sheer banality of the
manifestations provided at so many seances, with

74 THAT OTHER WORLD

which "manifestations " they, as a matter of fact,
have neither connection nor knowledge.

Oh, those vulgarities, those banalities, how
they have wearied me, angered me, and dis-
gusted me !

There was at one time a prominent medium
who held forth in the Bloomsbury district. He
specialised in dark seances ; and the chief " spirit
guide," who manipulated under his control, was
one John King. In earth-life John King, accord-
ing to his own story, had followed the calling of
a buccaneer, and though since his transformation
to Spiritland he had become refined, he still
retained a good deal of that roughness of voice
and manner which one would be disposed to
associate with his earthly existence. It is not
impossible that he may have been the ancestor of a
piratical U-boat commander. He, so far as I am
aware, never indulged in "full form" materialisa-
tions at these seances, contenting himself with a
mere profile visitation on such occasions as this
limited aspect of materialisation was considered
safe. A " spirit photo " of him full face showed
him to be of swarthy complexion, with a full
black beard, and a sort of white turban headgear.
But a sight of even this abbreviated portion of
his engaging spiritual personality was denied me
at every seance I attended, although on more than
one occasion there were those present who vowed
they could see him, a phosphorescent glow in
the darkness, as well as feel his strong spiritual
presence. But on several occasions he signified
his presence by speaking through a paper tube,

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 75

placed upon the table by the medium for the
purpose, in a singularly husky and surly voice.

The first time he " manifested " in this way
I was told in a whisper by a lady sitting next
me that the spirit of John King was present.

" Are you John King ? " I asked with becoming
solemnity.

" I are," replied the spirit. In questioning
this form of reply one must take into considera-
tion that on earth John King's education had
been neglected, and that he had not at that period
apparently gone through that phase of spiritual
progress — which I assume is educational as well
as physical — spoken of with such certainty by
your true believer.

A distinguished scientist who had accom-
panied me to the seance was highly tickled at
the spirit's lapse in grammar, and his laugh, in
its heartiness, was, I must admit, singularly in-
appropriate for a dark seance devoted to obtaining
manifestations from the other world. Before the
sitters had recovered from the shock caused by
his hearty laugh my friend broke in with, "John
King ? No, my dear spirit, you are not John
King ; you surely are Jo King."

Needless to say, this disturbed the harmony of
the seance to the extent of bringing it to an abrupt
termination. We were told by the medium in
solemn, injured tones there would be no more
manifestations that night. The spirits, it appears,
resent anything approaching levity, although
" John King " on more than one occasion banged
sitters on the heads with the stiff paper tubes,

76 THAT OTHER WORLD

through which he was allowed to speak, after
the manner of a hardened knockabout.

At these sittings there was always music on
tap, produced through the instrumentality of a
large-sized musical box, which the manifesting
spirits wound up — in the dark. This musical box
was carried round the room by, it was alleged,
" spirit power." One could hear it bumping
against the ceiling or knocking against the walls
and door in its passage round the room. I was
much concerned as to the fate of the sitters
should the heavy box slip from the hands of the
officiating spook and drop in the darkness in
their midst. In such case it was a moral certainty
that the " evil spirits," who creep into these circles
when an investigator, as distinct from a believer, is
present, would have taken note of my own position
in the circle. It was therefore some relief to
my conjectural apprehensions when the floating
musical box was carried out of the room by the
officiating spirit. One could hear the music it
provided growing more and more muffled, until
in its faintness it seemed to be outside the room
altogether. Then the box would return to the
seance room by degrees in the same muffled-up
way, and finally, with a loud bump, would be
re-deposited on the table from whence it, in the
first instance, had been removed by the spirit
power prevailing at the sitting.

Then the lights went up, and one was at
liberty to gaze at will upon the box, which in
spirit hands had, in its aerial flight, so gravely
affected the safety of the sitters.

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 77

In these days of air raids, when one sits in a
darkened room wondering if the murderous enemy
airman will drop a bomb upon us, one's thoughts
go back to that dark seance, with the musical box
bomb poised above one's head ; and as one to-day
eagerly awaits the " All clear " bugle, so in those
past days did I with not unnatural eagerness
welcome the word " Lights I " and the letting in
of light upon our darkness.

It goes without saying that neither John King
nor any other visitor from the Beyond wound
up the musical box or carried it in its bumping
career around the room. It was all due to purely
human agency — that of the medium. He wound
up the box at the start, lifted it up and whirled
it around to represent its movements by spirit
force. In the darkness one could not see what
was being done ; one could only hear and make
the best calculations under the circumstances as
to the direction of the sound.

The medium was a cadaverous, dour-looking
person, but he had a big hand and a strong
wrist. This was in his favour when it came
to lifting and making movements with a heavy
weight, such as was that particular musical box.

When the box was supposed to be carried out
of the room by the spirit the medium commenced
sitting upon it ; and when its muffled, far-off
sounds indicated that it had left the room, the
medium was sitting full upon it. Anyone with a
musical box can reproduce this phenomenon
under precisely similar conditions to those laid
down by the medium and accepted by the

78 THAT OTHER WORLD

believers as guaranteeing the existence of spirit
control.

After several sittings, during which I discovered
how the medium freed his hands from those who
were confident they were in close physical contact
with him the whole time, in order to manipulate
the musical box, I determined to so arrange
matters that the proof of the power winding up
the box and what followed would be placed
beyond question. So, after the turning out of the
lights on the sitters clasping hands round the table
on which had been placed the box preparatory
to the commencement of the manifestations, I,
in the darkness, smeared some lamp-black on the
handle of the box. It was wound up, and the
customary meanderings around the room followed.
Seldom before had I followed a spirit manifesta-
tion with such interest. How I longed for the
word " Lights ! " in order to see the outcome of
my plan ! How I trembled at the thought of
the spirit making a discovery of the little trap I
had set, and by way of recognition of my zeal
dropping the heavy box on my head ! At last
there was light on our darkness, and upon the
medium's right hand, which was lamp-blacked
to an extent that would carry conviction to the
blindest as to whose agency the winding up of
the box was due. But that was not all. The
surface of the box itself was smeared through
contact with the black greasy hand, and some of
the stuff was on the seat of the medium's trousers,
where he had sat upon the instrument during its
disappearance from the room under spirit control.

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 79

Were the believers convinced by this un-
answerable expose '? Not a bit of it. An evil
spirit had crept into the circle and had sought
to injure the poor medium — a good old con-
vincing tag to trot out is the " evil spirit "
theory. As for myself, boiling in oil would be
a minor form of punishment according to my
deserts. I was lucky enough to leave that seance
in safety.

But investigating the occult I have found at
times somewhat hazardous, and more than once
my life itself has been in danger.

At Boston, in America, a leading light of
the spiritistic cause, one Dr Bliss, drew a gun on
me for interfering with the smooth working of
one of the most fraudulent seances I have ever
attended. In the course of a violent struggle
one of my assailants had his skull cracked and I
got a dislocated ankle. For some time I lay in
bed under very kindly medical supervision with
the dislocated ankle reposing in a pillow cradle,
during which period the medium and his associates
bombarded me with notes written in red ink, in
which the early close of my earthly career was
predicted. The final note contained the rough
drawing of a coffin — studded with red nails, by
the by — with the explanation that this was the
sort of box in which alone I should leave my
hotel. The police were called in, and during my
public representations at the Tremont Temple
which followed, I, in a way, was under police pro-
tection. In this country such a man as Dr Bliss
would have been promptly arrested for threatening

80 THAT OTHER WORLD

to murder ; but in the States, being a Britisher, I
was in the eyes of the law an alien, and, being
an alien, I was required to find very substantial
bond in connection with a prosecution of this
character. How the " dear spirits " must have
rejoiced at the dilemma in which I found my-
self ! They were free to carry on their highly
profitable little hanky-pankyisms without interfer-
ence from me, lying hors de combat at the hotel ;
and the law, as I was due to appear in Canada and
so could not furnish the bond required, was
unable to help me.

But to even the hopelessly sinful, such as myself,
there comes earthly satisfaction at times. It came
eventually in the arrest of the bellicose Bliss. My
expose of his fraudulent practices as a medium
had drawn the attention of the police to him,
and investigations which followed disclosed that
his seance room was a den of iniquity. It had
been the road to ruin of many a young and inno-
cent schoolgirl. For his offences against society
Bliss received a sentence of ten years. I don't
know if the spirits he controlled whilst at liberty
to extract money out of dupes and lead youth to
its moral undoing gave him a helping hand whilst
in prison. By this time he is doubtless himself
a spirit ; and, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle lays it
down that evil humans, when they are transferred
to Spiritland, take with them all their evil charac-
teristics, it would be rough on any self-respecting
spirit to have to associate for even the briefest
transitory period with the spiritual part of so evil
a character as Bliss.

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 81

Slate writing, like rope tying and cabinet mani-
festations, has gone out of fashion in the spiritistic
world.

The exposure of the notorious Dr Slade by
Sir E. Ray Lankester and Sir Horatio Donkin
killed the former phase of spirit phenomena in
this country, and Sir Henry Irving and Mr John
L. Toole's expose of the tricks of the Davenport
Brothers destroyed any lingering belief in the
genuineness of this class of physical manifestation.

The last time I met Dr Slade was in a small
town in Ontario, where he had been exposed by
an intelligent young Canadian journalist.

Slade worked the slate-writing oracle by chang-
ing the slates. It is generally performed on a
basis of legerdemain. He knew well the art of
distracting attention whilst arranging the changes,
and he could simulate the scratching, supposed to
be the work of the pencil point guided by spirit
power, between the locked slates, to perfection.
He was a clever artist, and in these days, when
spirit messages are so much in favour among the
sign-seekers, would have so arranged his tactics
to meet the new conditions as to have taken in
those sign-endorsing folk, whose policy seems to
be to accept without proof anything that comes
along as an instance of spirit existence.

Whilst modern spiritualism, as we know it,
came in with the two Fox girls, the mediums
who followed drew upon the Red Indians for their
inspiration in the production of the more rough-
and-tumble physical phenomena.

The medicine men of the various tribes out

6

82 THAT OTHER WORLD

West were adepts at the game long before the
centres of art and culture were asked to witness
demonstrations of spirit power.

In order to impress the tribe in accordance with
its mystic leanings the medicine men elected to
be bound by the strong men of the tribe in such
a fashion that no known earthly method could
release them. When the officiating medicine
men had succeeded in releasing themselves, they
demonstrated the fact by noisy illustrations inside
the tepee in which they were bound. Instruments
were blown and objects thrown through open-
ings in the tent. This the onlookers accepted as
evidence of magic.

I have, whilst out West, seen demonstrations
of this character, and I thought it very good
" magic." Indeed, as a magic show it surpassed
the very best illustrations of so-called spirit power
displayed through the mediumship of the most
gifted being claiming association with the other
world. And the test conditions prevailing at the
seances on the prairie were certainly more stringent
than those appertaining to an avowed spiritistic
sitting.

As will be seen, the tepee of the Red Indian
became the cabinet of the spirit medium, with
kindred manifestations for the bewilderment of
the onlookers. But no medium ever admitted
that he had borrowed his tricks from the Red
Man ; and it will, I fancy, be somewhat painful
to the out-and-out believers in modern spiritual-
ism that manifestations which so convincingly
reflect evidence of spirit existence in that other

PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 83

world of theirs had their origin on terra Jirma^
with pagan Redskins as the exponents thereof.

The spirit mediums of the West, in the matter
of mysticism, have much to learn from the East.
There is a wide difference between the super-
naturalism of the West and the occultism of the
East, and in character and pretence they have
no place in that other world of spiritualistic
imagination.

On another occasion I may deal expressly with
the occultism of the East, which I have somewhat
closely investigated.

CHAPTER V

THE CLAIMS AND CHICANERIES OF CLAIRVOYANCE

CLAIRVOYANCE has ever formed an important
branch of occultism, and to-day, in connection
with so-called " spirit " manifestations, is quite
a leading feature.

I have had an exceedingly wide experience
of the gifted beings — of both sexes — claiming
clairvoyant powers ; and here, too, I must say I
have not been fortunate enough to witness any
one illustration that was not explicable on a basis
widely removed from supernatural agencies.

Some of the features demonstrated for my
delectation have been rank imposture, whilst
others had their origin and their finish in mere
conjecture.

In the early days of the spiritistic movement
the " clairvoyant reading " of names and messages
written on slips of paper folded up into squares
or placed in closed-up envelopes was a common
item at seances, and mediums on the make still
practise this form of chicanery.

It was an effective feature when skilfully
performed ; but as it was the outcome of un-
diluted trickery, the mediums ran the risk of
being bowled over whilst ringing the changes of

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 85

the slips, on which the names of the " departed "
had been written by the inquirer. It was not
long before I discovered the modus operandi of
this form of " clairvoyant power," and I was
able to duplicate the feats by the same means
and under the same conditions as those under
which they were produced as genuine instances
of supernaturalism. This was one of the many
duplications of spirit manifestations I satisfactorily
demonstrated with the eminent scientists and
others referred to in my opening chapter, and
which I have demonstrated in public before
very large audiences in various parts of the
world. Whilst a commonsense public has seen
in this illustration an unanswerable expose of
supernatural pretensions, there have not been
lacking out-and-out believers in spiritism who
have claimed for me a gift like that of the
mediums whom I sought to overthrow, and that I
preferred my way of demonstrating because it had
the advantage of being more popular. Others
of the cult, whilst admitting my possession of
the mediumistic or clairvoyant gift, explained
my own ignorance of its possession to my gross
materialism and wilful perversity.

But to be both grossly materialistic and wil-
fully perverse appears to me to have distinct
moral advantages over fraudulent pretences, no
matter by whom practised or by whom be-
lieved in.

At times I had not a little fun at these seances ;
for, when one is convinced that the whole thing
is mere hanky-panky, it is surely permissible to

86 THAT OTHER WORLD

give the more humorous side of things a show,
it being for the spiritual influences controlling
the sittings to separate the wheat from the chaff
as might be considered best. So, when I was
asked to write the names of departed spirit friends
with whom I would like to be placed in com-
munication, I was, at times, moved to write those
indicating certain Scotch and Irish spirits with
whom I had been out of touch for many years.
In that sense they were among the departed.

On touching with the end of her pencil the
pellet containing, for instance, the name of
Johnny Walker, the medium would ask, " Dear
spirit, are you here ? " And if the one rap reply
came, signifying " No," it obviously brought
disappointment ; with the two raps — " Don't
know " — would arise a desire for greater certainty
on the spirit's part ; whilst with a three rap —
"Yes" — rejoinder one's thoughts would run in
the direction of the immediate materialisation of
a tumbler and siphon.

In connection with my inquiries as to my
Scotch and Irish spirit friends, in not one instance
did a medium ever succeed in accurately describ-
ing the age or particulars of the spirit evoked,
although he or she, by the process I have named,
had managed to get at the name 1 had written
down.

Poor Johnny Walker ! how sadly he has been
caricatured in the descriptions furnished by
the mediumistic clairvoyantes, who have pre-
tended to get in touch with a spirit of that name,
and who, with all their clear far-seeingness, were

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 87

unable to give the faintest likeness of the engag-
ing personality of one whose pictorial present-
ment would be so familiar to even the most
short-sighted amongst dwellers on this mundane
sphere. But in justice to these mediums it
should be said that they doubtless did not recognise
in the name I had written the much-advertised
" Spirit of the Future " !

From experience, I should say that spirit con-
trols have little sense of humour ; or, as I am
decidedly of opinion that the real spirit world
has no part in the hanky-pankyism prevailing
at professional seances, and as everything that
occurs thereat is due beyond question to human
agency and human ingenuity, it is presiding
mediums themselves who are lacking in the
saving sense.

Whilst now and again a medium in the manipu-
lation of the papers upon which the names of the
departed are written may display an originality
that causes a momentary perplexity, the basis of
manipulation, as a general thing, is applicable to
all seances adopting this form of mystification.

But on one occasion, in New York, I came
across a medium who adopted entirely new
methods, and who for a time puzzled me ex-
ceedingly.

His success as a spirit-clairvoyant had caused
quite a sensation in the Empire City of the States,
and sceptics looked to me for an explanation of
the seemingly inexplicable phenomena,

88 THAT OTHER WORLD

To a seance held under his auspices I took
with me two hard-headed investigators of a great
daily newspaper. They came to scoff, and re-
mained to pray. For the medium succeeded in
every instance with all three of us. In the tests
with him the little slips of paper upon which
the names were written were not merely folded
up in four, and so readily available for mediumistic
substitution, but were rolled up by the writer
himself firmly into pellets. It was permissible,
moreover, to write the names of the living as
well as the dead upon the slips ; and when the
pellets were mixed together in a little heap by
the writer himself, it, to the ordinary observer,
seemed impossible to say with any certainty
which was which, let alone read the names therein
contained. Yet the medium picked out the
living from the dead and read their contents with
accuracy, though at times somewhat hesitatingly.

My companions were impressed, and I was
greatly puzzled. The old solution did not apply
to this new form of clairvoyant reading. It was
not, I felt assured, the outcome of some real
clairvoyant gift. There was abnormal ingenuity,
well-conceived hidden trickery somewhere ; —
but where ?

The newspaper men went to their office to
detail the events and write up the mystic. I
returned to my hotel to think deeply all night
over the matter and to find a solution. But no
satisfactory solution presented itself. The fact
that we were asked to put a -f against the names
of the departed as distinct from the names of

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 89

the living seemed to me to provide a form of
help to the medium, but the point did not go
very far in the way of solution.

The next day we all three, as arranged, attended
a further demonstration of clairvoyant power.
The medium's manner on receiving me, whilst
the reverse of hostile, had a pitying sarcasm
about it that was not exactly agreeable ; and
then, the attitude of my journalistic companions
was anything but consoling. They had seen the
things the medium had done, and had expressed
their views according to how the feats performed
had impressed them. As I had not been able to
straightway furnish a material explanation of how
they were actually performed, they were disposed
to back the clairvoyant and look upon me as a
solver of mysteries of this character on mundane
lines as a failure.

The clairvoyant chuckled inwardly at the
impression he saw he had made upon these in-
vestigators, and his attitude towards me became
increasingly patronising. He suggested I should
write down some more names, and, at the same
time, take every precaution against his overlook-
ing what I was writing.

The clairvoyant, by the by, had the most re-
markable eyes I had ever seen in a human face.
They were exceptionally large, and projected
somewhat. There was a seemingly luminous
touch to them, which suggested mesmeric influ-
ence as well as abnormal powers of observation.
To make the tests more convincing, he suggested
that the names should be written on slips of

9o THAT OTHER WORLD

paper on a table in an anteroom at the end of
the seance room in which we were standing.

My companions went there separately and did
the writing, and then returned with slips of paper
rolled already into pellets, and placed them, one
by one, on the table in the seance room. There
was no chance of the clairvoyant overlooking the
writers, as I stood by his side the whole time the
writing was done, and I had dismissed from my
calculations any possibility of confederacy, re-
flection, or the use of tracing paper, associated
with some seances of my experience. Yet the
medium, by merely touching the pellet with the
point of a pencil correctly described its contents.
He was, it was true, not so quick as when the
names had been written in his presence, and in
two instances I noticed that the name was wrongly
indicated, although the name itself was there,
but on a pellet other than the one at first indicated.
He got it all right in the end ; but your true
clairvoyant ought not in such matters to have
two shots at a target. Either he knows what
a folded-up piece of paper really contains, or he
doesn't. It is not enough, to convey absolute con-
viction as to clairvoyant powers, to say what a
man has written, but it is for him to clairvoyantly
reveal with absolute correctness the actual con-
tents of each pellet he sets himself out to decipher
through his assumed clairvoyant gifts.

This little blunder caused me to seriously re-
flect. I saw in it the first stage in a solution of
the phenomenon, indicating, as it did, a lapse of
observation somewhere.

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 91

My time came to write names at that table
in the other room. I wrote one and folded the
slip of paper into a pellet and set it aside, and
then another. When it came to writing down
a third there flashed across my mind the re-
membrance of a thought-reading experiment I
had successfully performed with a subject who
had thought of a word in Hebrew. The word
was Moses ; and so I would give the name of
the ancient Lawgiver, as I had done in my own
experiment, in Hebrew characters.

With my task finished I returned to the outer
room, and laid on the table the pellets in the
sequence in which they had been completed.

The clairvoyant read out the first without any
hesitancy, and then the second, but when he
came to the remaining pellet he paused. "This,"
he went on, " is the name of one who has long
since passed away. He is a very powerful
spirit/' His voice struck an almost reverential
note, and his Hebraic countenance took on a
look of additional enthusiasm. " The name you
have written is Moses. Is that right ? "

" Quite right," I replied, picking up the pellet.

" And now are you convinced ? " asked the
medium as we were leaving.

" I think," I replied, " you have the most re-
markable powers of observation and the gift of
a trained adjustive memory beyond anything I
have ever witnessed."

As I said this he gave me a deep, inquiring
look as if searching to find how far I had fathomed
his clairvoyant methods.

92 THAT OTHER WORLD

But I said no more, and passed out with our
fellow-inquirers.

" Well," asked one of them, " are you any
nearer the solution than before, or have you
decided to give him best ? "

" Yes, I think I've got the hang of it at last."

" How do you make it ? "

" Well, that man has no more real clairvoyant
powers than you or I. He has wonderful eye-
sight and a most retentive memory. He worked
the oracle by watching the movement of the top of
the pencil with which the names were written.
This must have entailed a constant and lengthy
practice."

" But how about picking out the names from
the pile correctly ? "

" You will remember you placed them one by
one first in the order they were written. He
would remember more or less the position of
each ; when he didn't, he stumbled."

" But that Moses touch was, I should have
thought, a poser. You've got the pellet with
you, haven't you ? I would like to reproduce
it in my account."

I handed him the pellet, which I still retained
between my thumb and finger. He opened it.

"Why," he said with marked surprise, "there
is nothing written on this slip. It's a blank."

" Exactly," I replied, taking from my pocket
the slip on which I had written the word Moses.
I explained how, after writing the name, I had
substituted the blank pellet for . the one I had
transferred to my pocket, being convinced that

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 93

the medium would have observed by his system
of observation what I had written, although the
writing, being in Hebrew, would be from right
to left, and not, as with the other two written
in Latin characters, from left to right, and that
he would assume the Moses pellet would be in-
cluded in the three placed by me on the table.
Had he been a genuine clairvoyant he would
have seen that the pseudo-Moses pellet was a
" dud," and so have declared it ; but he was
going on astute observation and on memory,
and not upon clairvoyance. Neither observation
nor memory failed him, but his boasted clair-
voyant powers had apparently taken a holiday
for the moment.

I never saw this clairvoyant medium again,
but the experience I had gained with him
enabled me to guard against the application of
similar gifts exercised by any other member of
the mystic fraternity.

Some mystic seers, it should be added, did not
claim mediumistic powers together with their
clairvoyant gifts, and did not profess to be in
that direct touch with Spiritland so boldly
asserted by the whole-hoggers of the medium-
istic craft. It was enough for them to pose as
something mystic, something out of the common,
in order to impress the credulous and make
money at the same time. They were not so
dangerous to the community as the spirit
mediums trading upon the sorrows and longings
of the bereaved. But whilst, as a rule, they

94 THAT OTHER WORLD

did not do any particular harm, they, it must be
confessed, did precious little good. No clair-
voyant, within my personal knowledge, has
ever told us anything with respect to the un-
known that was of any material advantage.
Were the gift of clairvoyance real, it, in the
possession of an honest, worthy practitioner,
might be productive of no little good, telling us
something that we might really want to know, and
warning us against unseen dangers and disasters
untraceable by generally accepted means. But the
seers claiming the gift altogether fail us in direc-
tions where it might be really usefully employed.

But then the clairvoyant gift, as claimed by
some demonstrators and accepted as such by the
illogical and impressionable, has no actual exist-
ence. Miracles cannot be accomplished in the
absence of that force which alone permits of the
accomplishment of the miraculous.

It must be admitted that the belief in clairvoy-
ance in some form or other is far more general
than a belief in spirit manifestations ; for whereas
the former rests the more firmly upon the indi-
vidual belief that he or she is more gifted than
the ordinary, and that things do happen for which
no satisfactory explanation outside of the posses-
sion of such a gift is apparently forthcoming,
outward and visible signs of the latter's existence
are apt to be demanded before belief and accept-
ance can be secured.

The medium of to-day, knowing the risks of
exposure attending the production of material
manifestations in proof of spirit existence, gives

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 95

that phase of spirit power a well-earned rest ; and,
knowing well his market, adopts the safer plan
of spirits — clairvoyant revelations, which, whilst
almost as convincing to the expectant sign-seeker,
are infinitely safer in that form of presentation.

No risks are entailed in the ecstatic attitudes
struck by the medium when contact with that
" other world " is being established, or in the
volume of wordy piffle giving a description of
the life Beyond with the establishment of that
contact, beyond the obvious suspicion upper-
most in the minds of anyone not obsessed by
expectancy and belief that the medium is likely
to be more loquacious than veracious, and that
he or she is under the suspicion of, as it were,
" talking through his hat."

For this line of business female mediums are
more effective than male. By nature they are
better actors for this particular r6le ; and where
closer logical sequence and less irrational
meanderings might well be demanded of a male
seer, such points would not be the subject of a
similar demand in the case of a gifted female.
Just as with the medium it is the female element
as devotees who count, so in the seance room it is
the female control who scores. Whilst we boggle
over Woman's Rights in this world, woman's
infinite superiority in that other world would
appear to be an accepted fact ever since modern
spiritualism and all that went with it came in.

Needless to say, the finest and " most convin-
cing " results to-day obtained in connection with
other- world communications come through female

96 THAT OTHER WORLD

mediums, possessing, as claimed, clairvoyante as
well as mediumistic gifts.

Through such a medium Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle has obtained information anent the doings
of a highly veracious spirit named Dorothy
Postlethwaite. This young lady, being of a
highly modest disposition, wears clothes, as do
apparently the spirits in the circle in which she
mixes. But whether she affects pre-war attire,
or that with its high-heeled boots, transparent
stockings, and superabundance of furs and
jewellery which mark these days of extrava-
gance in feminine adornment, is not stated. This
is an omission to be regretted. And whilst
Dorothy, or the medium through whom she
manifested, was about it, she might have told us
how, for instance, Mother Eve was herself attired.
It, I think, would have been more satisfactory
to have been told that, on translation to the
celestial sphere, the feminine mind discarded such
mundane weaknesses as dress and fashions.

Another medium with a rich Ouidaesque
imagination has, through the agency of that
gifted writer Mr Max Pemberton, told us of
the spirit of a young officer, killed on the field
of battle, who is having no end of a good time
in that other world of the controlling medium's
imagination. He, we are told, bathes in scented
water in an alabaster bath, roves through groves
of spreading trees, reclines on a luxurious sofa,
or takes his ease in a most comfortable arm-chair.
Ouida in her most flamboyant fancy never drew
a picture of one of her young heroes' earthly

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 97

enjoyments that could equal those enjoyed by Mr
Max Pemberton's spirit creation. Frankly, I
would like to know more about the doings of
this spirit. One has been favoured with just
enough to whet one's appetite for further ad-
ventures and revelations. They smoke, too, in
Spiritland — brands not stated, however. Con-
sidering the shortage of tobacco in this world, it,
verily, is enough to make the inveterate smoker's
mouth water to be told there is an abundance of
the weed that soothes in that other world, with,
apparently, no vexatious Tobacco Control regu-
lations to run one's spiritual head against.

These " seeing mediums " are truly wonderful
beings, and it is indeed a thousand pities that
one cannot see with their eyes the wonders of
the other world which they assert are made so
visible to them. The next best thing, according
to how you view it, is, I suppose, to accept with-
out question all they tell us as being made so
clear to them. But the best plan of all, from
the sheer rational, common-sense standpoint, is
to decline to believe that this alleged insight
into these other-world happenings has any real
existence. View the utterings as mere verbal
vapourings based upon a highly imaginative and
none too scrupulous temperament. In not one
instance does the " seeing medium " produce a
single scrap of convincing evidence of the exist-
ence of the occurrences so glibly depicted.

Professional mediums wilfully deceive without
stint for appropriate monetary considerations,
wilful deception being a leading item of their

7

98 THAT OTHER WORLD

stock-in-trade. Non-professional mediums are
out for kudos. They, in the main, must know that
they themselves do not possess the powers they
are credited with possessing ; but without the
assumption of such powers they would be just
ordinary folk, and, when a spiritualistic wave is
on, to be considered merely ordinary is being
out of it. To the mystically inclined, with the
powers of self-deception and the ability to im-
press others abnormally developed, such a position
would be altogether unthinkable.

Whilst the evidence of spirit communications
through professional mediumship may well be
looked upon as tainted, that arrived at through
non-professional mediumship, if less open to
question on commercial grounds, to speak quite
frankly, is none the more reliable. For such
mediums furnish no proof whatever of their
being in possession of powers denied the rest of
humanity. In the absence of the proof of the
possession of such powers, what reliance can be
placed upon the communications they allege are
made through this non-existent mediumship ?

All in all, it simply amounts to this : the
majority of " spirit " communications from the
other world come through human agency, and,
beyond the bare assertion of humans, carry with
them no direct evidence of spiritual origin. No
wonder the communications bear traces of the
human touch, both in construction and ex-
pression.

So much for mediums who rope in the spirits in
association with their alleged gifts of clairvoyance.

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 99

But a note or two with respect to those who
pose as clairvoyants pure and simple, without
tacking on spiritistic pretensions.

Some operate as crystal-gazers, some as palmists;
and there are others who discard crystals and
cards and other fortune-telling adjuncts, and go in
for reading the past, present, and future through
sheer inspiration.

I have met many who have deceived themselves
in assuming a belief that they possessed gifts beyond
their fellows, and others who have claimed to have
obtained results by means which they themselves
knew quite well were the outcome of trickery.
• » • • .

There was once a youth up North who had
gained considerable local reputation as a clair-
voyant, and I was asked to investigate his
claims and furnish an explanation of what — out-
side of clairvoyance — was said to be altogether
inexplicable. Dick, the " Pitboy Clairvoyant,"
I found to be a very ordinary youth, with about
as much clairvoyant power as might reasonably
be expected to be contained in the interior
anatomy of a Dutch oyster. He was stated to
be clairvoyant through his eyebrows, and, in
blindfolding him, care had to be taken that his
sight-seeing eyebrows were left uncovered. Of
course those eyebrows had nothing whatever to
do with depicting objects placed over them whilst
the blindfolded seer was evoking his clairvoyant
powers.

He had funny, cunning little eyes, which, for
the purpose of the test, he had the useful knack

ioo THAT OTHER WORLD

of turning upwards and so seeing over the rim
of the blindfold, and thus getting at what was
placed above. Great practice had enabled him
to work the oracle with ease and effect. Whilst
leaving the eyebrows free to work out their clair-
voyant mission, my plan was to so obscure the
eyes that the upward movement would be of no
avail. A little wadding in each eye-cup, covered
by a penny, with the bandage over all to keep
the covering in place, completely disposed of the
clairvoyant gift.

What the eyebrows described with accuracy
before the eyes were so covered, they quite failed
to get even the faintest inkling of when my
system of blindfolding was adopted. There was
a good deal of guesswork on the part of the clair-
voyant under these conditions, but he was unable
to tumble on to anything approaching a correct-
ness of description any better than the most ordi-
nary individual similarly blindfolded.

The failure of Dick to work the oracle under
proper test conditions promptly disposed of his
claims as a clairvoyant ; and the hard-headed, if
somewhat tender-hearted, Northumbrians resented
the way in which they had been tricked. It will,
I fancy, be some time before Northumbrian miners
in the locality which knew and still remembers
its Pitboy Dick will be subscribing for garlands
with which to deck the brows of local claimants
to supernatural powers.

I was once asked to visit Cornwall to see quite
a heaven-sent young seeress, who had succeeded

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 101

in convincing her unsuspecting father, amongst
others, of her possession of extraordinary clair-
voyant gifts. Poor father ! I don't think I have
ever seen anything quite so cunning in a claimant
to occult powers as was personified in this very
youthful clairvoyante.

She had all the outward airs of refreshing
innocence and truth. It, at first sight, would
have seemed a crime to have suspected such a
person for a single moment. And yet no one
practising the art of occult deception was more
deserving of suspicion or required more careful
watching. She made every possible, and in certain
instances quite extraordinary, use of those simple,
truth-speaking eyes of hers in arriving at her
clairvoyant conclusions. But when I adopted
the sight-obscuring methods, as employed in the
case of Dick the Pitboy, nothing but failure was
encountered.

She was a very petulant young lady, and her
attitude towards me at the employment of these
little commonplace methods, in order to set aside
the use of gifts other than strictly clairvoyant,
was somewhat vixenish. Dear, simple, innocent-
looking young thing, this new attitude, however
natural, did not become her.

When her father was out of the room, and she
felt it better to drop the air of injured innocence,
she frankly confided to me that she knew as well
as I did she did not possess clairvoyant powers,
but that it was so nice to be thought gifted in
this way. One then was no longer ordinary ;
and to be merely ordinary in life was being really

102 THAT OTHER WORLD

nothing. Some girls were considered out-of-the-
way on account of their proficiency in music, art,
or literature — all of them merely normal qualifica-
tions. But clairvoyance was outside of the normal ;
and, by associating herself with it, she possessed
a local interest beyond the common. Her vanity,
evidently, was not a little flattered at the local
successes she had achieved.

And her father honestly believed in her gifts,
and through him chiefly that belief had obtained
credence in the locality in which they resided.

In answer to my query why his gifted daughter
had not exercised her art in the direction of
giving valuable information in connection with
certain mining enterprises with which he was
associated : " This is just what she has done,"
replied this trusting Cousin Jack. " I had been
searching for a missing lode below the third
level without success, when she clairvoyantly
located it."

And that wholly unsuspecting mine manager
would rather believe in the impossible through
his daughter — who in this direction at least was
unworthy of a moment's credence — than that
his own knowledge of mining plus persistent
exploration had resulted in the ultimate location
of the missing lode !

By far the cleverest palm-reading clairvoyant
of the professional kind I met in the course of
my investigations into professional clairvoyance
was the original Cheiro, who had attractive
chambers in Bond Street. His lowest fee was

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 103

one guinea, and I believe he frequently received
much larger sums from those with curiosity to
satisfy and cash to part with.

Cheiro was a man of the world, and of a really
engaging personality. Young girls found him
" quite nice," and more elderly dames " most
fascinating." He certainly had great success
with the fair sex, and the fascination he un-
doubtedly exercised over them went a long way
towards building up the success he achieved in
Society. But whilst women formed the majority
of his best-paying and most enthusiastic clients,
he succeeded in impressing quite a number of
well-known and hard-headed public men. The
bulky visitors' book, containing the impressions
of people of note who had received guidance or
uncanny readings at his hands, was quite an
interesting volume. I studied it with much
attention, and, finally, after his reading of me,
wrote therein my impressions of his mystic art.
With me he dealt chiefly with the Future — a
fairly safe form of prophecy. But this Future, as
I pointed out in my letter of impressions, was on
the lap of the gods, unreadable by any human
being. As a matter of fact, his prophecies with
respect to the future did not come off ; and, as
the time limit has expired, there is no possibility
of their subsequent fulfilment.

Cheiro knew me as he sat peering over my
hand, and was well acquainted with my psycho-
logical work ; and it was not difficult for him to
particularise in certain instances with some
certainty, as well as indulge in those more or less

104 THAT OTHER WORLD

vague generalisations which, by a little stretch
here and a repression or gliding-over there, can be
made to fit in with most people's past, present,
and future.

I quite frankly told Cheiro that I did not
believe in palm-reading as a means of arriving
at the unknown, and that the lines of the hand
afforded no more indication of what was hidden
from the ordinary eye than those of the left big
toe or the sole of the right foot.

His semi-scientific exposition in re the palm,
with its lines of Life and Death, Love and Hate,
Good Fortune and 111 Fortune, and so forth, was
quite good patter, and the sort of thing that would
go down well with the impressionable ; but, alas !
it did not impress me. But the seer's method
of fishing for points, his clear reading of facial
expression and interpretation of physical indi-
cations, made no little impression upon me.

He was a shrewd reader of character ; and an
intimate knowledge of human nature enabled
him to arrive rapidly at conclusions with some
outside accuracy. But where these outward
readings ended there was no power of inside
reading to carry him on, and he fell back upon
vague conjecture and elastic generalities.

For Cheiro, the physiognomist and astute homme
du monde, was no clairvoyant. In his heart he
knew this as well as I myself did. But it was
his profession to pose and assume. And, truth
to tell, he did the posing and assuming remark-
ably well. He succeeded in impressing a con-
siderable number of my friends, both before and

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 105

subsequent to my investigation, with the fact
that he was a most remarkable man with quite
uncanny powers.

Amongst the bad shots Cheiro made in my
case there was not one more wide of the mark
than the assertion that I was both artistic and
musical to a most gratifying extent. This, by
the by, is an error into which most clairvoyants
with whom I have come in contact seem to fall.
For, as a matter of fact, I am not at all artistic ;
my very best pavement effort would earn me
the well-deserved contempt of the least critical
daub-swallower that ever compassionately threw
a penny in the curbstone hat. And my musical
attainments are limited to the extent of barely
being able to distinguish the difference between
Beethoven in B and Yankee-Doodle.

Cheiro loved to invest his engaging personality
with an air of mystery, which went well with
the more impressionable section of an extensive
clientele who hung upon his utterances. He was
half a Greek, half an Oriental, and of noble birth
to boot. Like the king of mystics, Cagliostro,
who, according to his story, had his origin some-
where where the East and the West meet, Cheiro
sought to convey the impression that, whilst
having imbibed the occultism of the East with
his mother's milk, he had in later years acquired
a knowledge of the more up-to-date mysticisms
of the West. His linguistic gifts were con-
siderable, and evidently he had read a good deal ;
but his readings of human nature were, I am of
opinion, more extensive and comprehensive than

io6 THAT OTHER WORLD

his book-learning. But what his fishing queries
did not elicit or his character-reading obtain was
rilled in with information collected by outside
confederates with knowledge of the affairs and
inside history of the clients consulting him.

Whilst in London, Cheiro, so far as I am aware,
did not dabble in spiritualism. The palm-reading,
clairvoyant art was enough for him. It brought
him all the money plus the feminine favours he
required. And then, in the heyday of his fame
there was not, as there is to-day, a spiritistic
boom on.

To-day, with its rush of sign-seekers anxious
for anything that will tickle the emotions, Cheiro,
subject to non-intervention on the part of the
police, would have become a most fashionable
and successful medium.

It was, I believe, chiefly owing to police in-
quiries that Cheiro thought it advisable to leave
London and take up his residence in Paris. There
he speedily made a big success. As a clairvoyant
mystic and man of the world he was quite the
vogue in good society in the French capital. The
much-talked-of seeress, Madame de Thebes, it is
understood, was a pupil of his. Cheiro, who was
after money as well as kudos^ saw in his popularity
his chances, and he made the most of them.
He became a financier, and his clients greedily
swallowed the scrip he caused to be manu-
factured. As a financier, the Count — for he
found the assumption of a title useful in the realms
of finance — became quite a personage. Who,
with his wonderful clairvoyant gifts, should know

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 107

what was what in things financial like this seer
adviser ? Who indeed ? But the heaven-sent
clairvoyant carried the financial pitcher once too
often to the well of credulity. It fell ; and
down with a crash came the financial house of
cards, erected on bucket-shop lines. What the
Count saved from the wreckage I do not know ;
but it goes without saying there was very little
left for those who had been induced to part with
their savings under his inspiration and guidance.
I have lost sight of Cheiro for some time.
The last time I saw him prosperity had caused
him to put on flesh ; and a too plump seer
is not so attractive to the feminine eye as one
who retains slimmer proportions. The financial
adversity through which he has passed since
that occasion may have caused him to lose
some of that superfluous flesh, which did not add
to his personal attractiveness, and can hardly have
increased his clairvoyant powers.

One of the most effective bits of clairvoyant
fake, from the out-and-out fake point of view,
I have yet encountered was demonstrated on
shipboard by an American passenger, who, in the
role of an amateur, also was out alike for money-
making and kudos.

His spe'cialite was in telling from the backs
thereof the colour of cards held up at some
distance from where he stood.

His success was immediate, and, except in
such instances where he pretended failure in
order to add to the prevailing excitement and

io8 THAT OTHER WORLD

increase the amount wagered on the event, he
never once made a mistake.

This feat he could do with a new pack of
cards with the outward cover intact, directly
obtained from the bar-tender, who was not in
league with him.

The employment of this new " deck " did
not impress me as it impressed others, as I was
convinced that his readings were not made of the
cards contained in the unbroken packet obtained
from the bar-tender, but that, as in the case of Dr
Slade and his slate, it was exchanged for another
pack seemingly intact, which he had already mani-
pulated for the purpose of the demonstration.

But how were the cards so manipulated that
he could so readily distinguish them, with such
unfailing accuracy ? It, I confess, puzzled me
exceedingly, and the comments of the amateur
seer were not exactly gratifying to my amour
propre. The more I thought it over the more
puzzled I became. On retiring to my cabin I
closely, but vainly, studied pack after pack of
cards in the desire to arrive at a solution.

Then as I lay in my bed musing over the
various illustrations of the mystic I had witnessed
during my travels and investigations, my thoughts
went back to an Indian seer, who had done
wonderful things in the clairvoyant reading line,
particularly in the matter of cards. His success,
I had determined, was due to the correct inter-
pretation of apparently meaningless points of
reflection.

But how could reflection be applied as a

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 109

solution to this fake ? There was no mirror to
be manipulated, as in the case of the Kattywar
seer. In this case it was all plain sailing. You
simply held up the back of the card, and he
answered "black" or "red," as the case might be,
without a moment's hesitation. He apparently
had nothing to guide him beyond his eye, and
what was unreadable to the ordinary eye was
perfectly clear to his. He could not see the face
of the card, as the colour did not show through,
and it was by observing the backs that he arrived
at his conclusions.

What was on those card backs ? How were
they so faked as to become so unhesitatingly
readable ?

Eureka ! I was out of bed in a second. Up
went the electric light, and a fresh pack of cards
was in my hands. I carefully separated the
black from the red, and made two decks of them
— one black, one red. Then squeezing the
former tightly together, I ran a sharp knife up
each side of them. This, I felt, would denote
the difference beween the two sets of cards when
held up in the light. I commenced testing my
theory, and found that the shimmering edges of
the cards I had scraped were clearly defined in
the light. Again and again I made the test, so
that I could with the greatest ease distinguish
the black from the red, for the latter, being un-
scraped, showed up smooth in the light, minus the
shimmering edges appertaining to the black cards.

I took my knowledge with me to the smoking-
room that evening and awaited developments.

no THAT OTHER WORLD

The amateur seer was particularly sarcastic in
his comments upon my inability to discover
how the oracle was worked.

" Decided to give it best ? " he went on, with
a self-satisfied smile.

" As you like," I replied. " But it does seem
odd that what is apparently so simple to you should
be a matter of impossibility with everyone else."

" Why don't you have a try ? You never
know your luck. It might come to you as
readily as it comes to me. Say, you stand here
and have a shot at what I hold up."

I agreed.

He held up a card ; but I, of course, was
unaware which suite he had " readied " for the
occasion, so my first declaration would have to
be based purely upon guesswork.

The edges of the card held up were frayed,
but whether a black or a red, there was at that
moment nothing to indicate.

" I'll bet you a dollar you don't call it cor-
rectly first shot."

I nodded, and called out " Red."

" Well, it happens to be black, and you are
out a dollar. Have another try."

I assented, and he held up another card. That
had not been scraped.

" Oh, that," I said, with an air of firm con-
viction, " is another black."

" Wrong again ; for this time it happens to
be a red, and you are out two dollars. Shall
we have another dollar on this ? "

" Make it five."

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES in

" Five it is ; and the colour is— - ? "

" Red."

" And red is correct, and I owe you three
dollars. Shall we make it six, or nothing ? "

" Yes ; and the card you now hold is another
red."

" And that makes it nothing, for this parti-
cular card happens to be a black. Shall we have
five on the next ? "

I nodded, and correctly described the next card,
and the next, being thus a winner of ten dollars.

" A final one for twenty," he said, selecting a
card from the pack he held.

That I too correctly designated.

The seer so far had not arrived at the know-
ledge that I was aware of the manner in which the
oracle was worked, and put my conclusions down
to mere chance guesses accompanied by luck.

" Bit lucky, aren't you ? " he asked. " Well,
let's try your luck for something worth trying
for. I will lay you fifty dollars you don't cor-
rectly guess the colour of the next half-dozen
cards I hold up." The man was a sport.

Being quite sure of my ground, I accepted the
wager, and won the fifty dollars, which the seer
paid up, together with what had gone before,
with quite good spirit.

" Say," said he afterwards, " how did you
tumble on to it ? I thought I was quite safe.
You won't give the show away whilst on board,
or I shan't have any money or reputation left by
the time I land."

I did not give the show away, as the seer,

ii2 THAT OTHER WORLD

whilst doing no harm, had succeeded in tickling
people's interest and curiosity to an extent out
of the common. As a professional medium or
clairvoyant he might well have been a real
danger, as he had a sleight-of-hand knowledge
beyond the ordinary, and a plausibility that the
most conscienceless professional mystic might
well have envied.

I fancy most of the folk on board the boat
were convinced that this dapper young American
not only had genuine clairvoyant powers, but
that it was a pity he did not devote his time
to developing these powers in order to follow
the art professionally.

Another so-called clairvoyant, whom I met in
the East, was also an American, although claim-
ing relationship with a goodly number of the
British aristocracy. He did not go in for showy
fakes, or do little tricks that might readily be
found out. His clairvoyant flight was of a
much higher order. He specialised in locating
hidden treasure and lost jewels ; and, in his
capacity as a seer, was a persona grata at more
than one native Indian Court. I believe some
money and a fair quantity of jewels were re-
covered under his auspices ; but these finds, one
may safely say, were due more to human assist-
ance than to clairvoyance. He posed as a traveller
of means, and, when he was in funds, he certainly
did things en prince. For due monetary con-
sideration it was not difficult to get native hire-

CLAIRVOYANT CHICANERIES 113

lings to secrete jewels for him to find. Before
leaving India he had collected some valuable
stones, the real ownership of which no one
exactly knew, maybe not even the collector him-
self. He was well received at somewhat exclusive
Residences and Agencies, and one most particular
Governor of a Province found him both accept-
able and entertaining. His collection of jewels,
with the tales of origin and adventure his fancy
invented, was everywhere admired. Towards
the end whispers got around, and inquiries were
being made as to his bona Jldes^ both as a clair-
voyant and traveller of means. When asked my
opinion of him and his powers, my reply invari-
ably called forth the remark that I was prejudiced.
I was not prejudiced ; but the man from the first
made a distinctly unfavourable impression upon
me, although he certainly did his best to make
himself agreeable to me. I read him for what
he was — an ingenious pretender.

He got safely away from the East by giving
an expensive banquet at Colombo to which every-
body who was anybody was invited. But the
host himself did not attend that banquet. By
the hour of its commencement he was well on
his way back to the States ; and thus he went
out of the life of those who once had made
much of him.

With the exit of this dabbler in the clairvoy-
ant art I close my chapter on the claims and
chicaneries of clairvoyance.

CHAPTER VI

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY

HAVE I ever photographed a spirit ? No !

Have I ever seen a spirit photographed ? No !

Do I believe a bona fide spirit ever has been
photographed ? No ! And yet there are those
who claim to have photographed spirits, and
others who have brought themselves to believe
that they have had in their possession photo-
graphic presentments of visitors from the other
world.

With such folk argument is futile. They
prefer to believe and disdain to examine. Critical
examination would but serve to upset their belief,
and this is about the last thing they desire.

Just as people have been known to cling to
spurious banknotes, with the pious hope that
one day they may be realised at their face value,
so do the unreasoning faithful cling to their
equally spurious spirit counterfeits, with the
belief that they are genuine and must eventually
be accepted as good tender.

Nothing could be more convincing than a bona

fide photograph of a spirit in proving existence

in that other world as pictured by the believers

in modern spiritism and the power of the spirit

existence to manifest itself in this.

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 115

But where is the proof that such photographs
have been taken ? Mere assertion is not proof.
Belief, no matter how earnestly held and fervently
expressed, in the absence of outside proof fails
to carry with it conviction. It is not enough
to confirm the belief of those who are already
believers, or to provide conviction for those who
wish only to believe without due examination.

I have seen what purported to be photographs
of visitors from the other world ; but, in the
absence of direct evidence as to how and when
the visitation was made, and how and when
what was claimed to be a genuine photo of such
visitation was taken, I have always reserved to
myself the right of having my doubts.

The first " spirit photo " I had the privilege
of seeing was one of an Indian brave named
Skiwaukee. The spirit form of this Indian was a
feature at a seance which he honoured with his
presence, and, as became a Redskin of renown
in earth life, his spirit manifestations belonged
to the " powerful " order of physical phenomena.
Whilst the old Adam scalping instinct, it was
given out, was not altogether dead within him,
there is, I understand, no record of his having
scalped any one of the admiring sitters during
his visitations, although self-sacrifice on the part
of the more spiritually exalted amongst the faith-
ful would possibly have freely permitted such
a catastrophe. For how could the momentary
earthly pain of a ravished scalp-lock weigh with
the sublime proof of spiritual power contained
in the conveyance to that celestial wigwam in

u6 THAT OTHER WORLD

the other world of this mundane trophy com-
memorating his visit to this mundane sphere of
his previous existence ? And, again, what direct
evidence of this visit the hairless scalp of the shorn
one would disclose ! Unanswerable, quite !

I have had a fairly wide acquaintance with
Red Indians ; and when I was writing my book,
The Queen's Highway from Ocean to Ocean, describ-
ing Canada from the Pacific to the Atlantic, I
pitched my tent for a while with them out west ;
but outside of the Six Nations' chief I had never
come across such a perfect picture-book brave as
the spirit photo represented Skiwaukee to be.

I had a grave suspicion that the photo was
that of one of Buffalo Bill's "Wild West" braves
taken previously to his retirement from the earthly
show business. Whilst the brave thus depicted
for spiritual conviction made, I must confess,
quite an attractive spirit photo, the make-up
was distinctly earthly, and the whole thing was
earmarked with photographic fake.

I knew Buffalo Bill well, and I mentioned
my suspicions to him.

With that sunny, big-hearted laugh of his, he
said : " Skiwaukee ! he wasn't one of my outfit.
Possibly he went to the Happy Hunting-grounds
before I took the road. But, for fake purposes,
any name's as good as another for an Injin. I
would have liked to have had a sittin' with this
Skiwaukee. I guess I'd 've put him through his
pacings." I guess he would, and that it would
not have been an altogether pleasant experience
for the manifesting brave.

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 117

Buffalo Bill had no great faith in a Redskin's
translation to a celestial sphere, but guessed that
when they passed in their " earthly checks " they
were done with, and that, even allowing their
celestial translation, they would be too much
occupied in chasing buffalo shades in Shadowland
to be at the beck and call of any dollar-snatching
medium who might fancy he had a " rake-off"
on a seance manifestation.

" Red Shirt," that prominent chief of the Wild
West show, might well have sat for the spirit-
portrait of the departed " Skiwaukee." But this
brave in real life was too much of a handful to
contemplate as a spirit manifesting amongst the
scalpable at a dark seance.

I once had an interesting experience with him
at a luncheon at the Welcome Club at the Earl's
Court Exhibition. I was asked to read his
thoughts. I made the attempt. The first thing
he did was to think of a carving-knife lying on
the table ; and the next for me to draw it across
the throat of the manager, with whom, through
some fancied grievance, he was seriously dis-
gruntled. Obviously I did not allow him to give
effect to this method of wiping out old scores.
Then his thoughts centred upon a beautiful and
stately duchess sitting at the end of the table.
To her I went, and passed my left hand over her
perfectly-coiffured head. There was a tremulous
eagerness in his right hand grasping the knife.
The dominant idea in his mind at the moment
was to relieve her of her hair. But actual scalp-
ing has not yet been included in my illustrations of

n8 THAT OTHER WORLD

reading unuttered thought. It was sufficient to
anticipate the desire and to prevent its accomplish-
ment. But in passing my hand over the fair
victim's hair a piece of transformation came
away; and whilst this act seemed to give a mollified
sort of satisfaction to my " subject," the look the
dear duchess gave me did not convey an equal
satisfaction, although she graciously murmured
" Wonderful ! " when she was informed that Red
Shirt had had her in his mind and no one else.

A photo of a spirit Indian in the act of scalping
a mortal, to me at least, would be more interest-
ing and convincing than that of one merely posing
to make a pretty picture.

Other " spirit photos " I have seen since my
first introduction to spirit photography have been
more shadowy and less clearly defined than that
depicting Skiwaukee; but, to my mind, they have
been just as much a fake. The fake art is not
unknown in photography, and a skilful photo-
grapher, unburdened with scruples, would experi-
ence little difficulty in producing fake spirit photos;
and, given a portrait of the one whose spirit form
was to be produced to work on, an acceptable
likeness of a shadowy character might very well
be arrived at.

" But," will answer the out-and-out believer,
who is unable to question and who finds convic-
tion in blind acceptance alone, " what about the
photos of spirits taken by members of the family,
to whom alone they have directly appeared ? "

Yes, indeed, what about them ? What in-
dependent witness saw the appearance and saw

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 119

the photo taken, and had his eye and hand on
the plate up to the close of its development ?

In response to my public inquiries for proofs
of spirit identity, the nearest approach in the
shape of evidence in connection with spirit
photography has been the offer to show me
photos which are alleged to have been taken of
appearances made within the knowledge of those
who possess the exhibits. This is not the form
of evidence that would bring with it the conviction
I am in search of.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I gather, claims to
possess evidence of spirit appearances which have
provided material for photographic reproduction.
But my earnestly expressed desire in a recent letter
in the Daily Express (which virile paper, as one
may well imagine, has, in connection with the
craze, been on the side of sanity and common
sense) for a convincing manifestation of this de-
scription remains unsatisfied.

Am I never to see a spirit that can be photo-
graphed, or a snapshot taken of such a palpable
visitation ?

Next to the impossible wish of myself seeing
her and getting her photograph under my
personal observation, there is one spirit of whom
I would like to possess a really authentic photo-
graph. I refer to the White Lady of Potsdam.
She is the wraith, the banshee, of the House of
Hohenzollern; and her appearance denotes a dire
fatality to the head of that august family.

This lady of woe has not, I understand, put in
an appearance since the Emperor William I. was

120 THAT OTHER WORLD

called to his fathers. I was in Morocco at that
time, and consequently was unable to personally
investigate the claims then current as to her
visitation.

As a visitor from the other world this White
Lady would have special interest for me. I have
successfully read the thoughts of two German
Emperors, and other shining lights of the House
of Hohenzollern ; and this has made me long
for the opportunity of reading the mind of that
dead spirit, whose earthly visits are associated
with such portentous happenings. I would like
to get at first hand who she really is, what ails
her, and why she is forced or impelled to return
to earth as a messenger of woe.

The Kaiser, although with but little leaning
towards supernaturalism, is not, I believe, alto-
gether superior to the generally accepted super-
stition respecting this family ghost ; and the mere
rumour that she was said to have been seen on
the occasion of his visit to Vienna in connection
with the funeral of the Emperor Francis Joseph
was, I am informed, sufficient to cause him to
hurriedly leave the Austrian capital, where, amidst
the prevailing political unrest, his life was thought
to be in some danger.

The Emperor Carl's little weakness in the
matter of superstition includes a belief in omens ;
and he, I understand, conveyed his forebodings
and fears to the Kaiser, who deemed it advisable
to return, with scant ceremony, to Berlin, to the
satisfaction of the mystically inclined mother of
the Emperor, at whose mystic belief it has fre-

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 121

quently pleased the Kaiser Wilhelm to poke fun.
I would say that, with the grip she has upon her
somewhat nerveless son, the Empress-mother is
to-day the real ruler of Austria.

When I experimented with the old Kaiser
William he had in his mind the figures 1861,
and I wrote on a blackboard '61, which repre-
sented the year of his coronation as King of
Prussia. As his Majesty afterwards said, " What
else should I think of ? That is uppermost in
my thoughts."

The present Kaiser gave me the impression
that '7 1 and the Versailles event would have been
a more fitting thought on the part of his august
grandfather, and, curiously enough, there ran
through his mind at that moment the figures
1917. They had no significance for me at that
time ; but subsequent events have caused me to
wonder if premonition gave birth to this passing
thought, and with what this premonition might
be associated.

For a time I wondered if the White Lady would
elect to put in an appearance during the year
1917, foreshadowing an immediate or early event
of world-wide moment. But the year 1917 has
run its course, and so far there is no sign of the
White Lady. It may have been that the figures
1917, forming the Kaiser's thoughts, may have
been based upon some event as yet undisclosed, or
he may have anticipated something by a year or so.

When, however, the White Lady does appear,
I trust occasion will be taken to photograph her.
It is one that should not be missed.

122 THAT OTHER WORLD

I will gladly pay >Tioo for an authentic spirit
photograph of this lady, preferably for one bear-
ing her autograph in her own spirit handwriting.

Such an offer does not, I take it, come within
the regulations bearing upon trading with the
enemy ; but the snapshot of the " other- world "
visitor could be taken by a neutral possessing
spirit-seeing gifts, and the attestation of any two
of the representatives of the neutral Powers still
resident in the Prussian capital as to the genuine-
ness of the production would satisfy me.

CHAPTER VII

TRANCE AND TRANSCRIPT MEDIUMS

ALL the trance mediums I have seen have been
exceedingly good actors, with quite an abnormal
gift of the gab. Whilst " under the influence "
they have been ready to talk upon any subject ;
but not one has ever told me anything worth
knowing, no matter by what spirit he or she
was for the time-being controlled. When
the controlling spirit has been that of some at
one time ordinary mortal desirous of communi-
cating with this world, too high expectations of
the intelligence conveyed through the mouth of
the medium would have been unreasonable. But
when the spirits of the classic dead are roped in to
utter meaningless drivel that could have had no
place in their thoughts when on earth, the effect
produced upon any sitter, beyond those ready and
willing to swallow anything in the shape of
" spirit communications," is one of sheer disgust.
Admitting — a proposition to me quite impossible
of acceptance — that it is indeed the spirit of some-
one once great on earth who speaks, the sad fact
is brought strikingly home to one of the mental
deterioration that takes place on translation to

the spiritual sphere. And, judging by what I

123

i24 THAT OTHER WORLD

have heard, the longer the residence in the other
world, the greater the deterioration.

It is monstrous that the spirits of the classic
dead should be roped in in this fashion just to
provide unscrupulous mediums with dollars, and
the sign-seekers forming the audience with
" convincing evidence." But one may rest
assured that the spirits who are alleged to con-
trol the mediums have no part whatever in the
sorry entertainment. The voice is that of the
medium, as are the uttered thoughts. According
to the knowledge and education of the officiating
medium, so do the illuminating spirit utterances
shape themselves.

To hear the medium, whilst under this alleged
control, change his or her voice to fit in with
the role assumed is more diverting than con-
vincing ; and the physical emotion displayed by
the medium is no evidence whatever that it
emanates from the invisible controlling spirit.

When I have seen that rolling of the medium's
eyes, that twitching of the mouth, wringing of
the hands, and other physical contortions, I have
invariably arrived at the conclusion that the
spirit's lot could not have been a particularly
happy one, and that it was unkind in the
extreme to get him to " manifest " under such
distressing conditions.

In a lunatic asylum one expects exhibitions of
this kind with patients who have worked them-
selves into the belief that they are possessed by
devils or some such disturbing influence. One
humours these poor creatures, and takes precautions

that they do themselves no personal injury. But
in professional spiritualism, seemingly sane sitters
find in the ecstatic raptures or facial contortions
of the medium direct evidence not only of spirit
presence, but of the mental and physical condition
of the spirit prevailing at that moment. And they
gladly pay for the privilege of being fooled.

Now and again it may happen that an extra
neurotic medium may work herself up to believe
that she is really mediumistic, and the rest follows.
To the extent of this self-assumption the posses-
sion is genuine ; but the possession is no more
spiritual than that which begets similar demon-
strations on the part of obsessed inmates of an
insane asylum. But professional mediums, as a
rule, are free from this phase of self-deception.
They are out to deceive and to make a position
and money out of the deception. It is just a
bit of acting, overdone mostly, but here and
there with little touches that are quite artistic.
But the artistic side, considering the grave char-
acter of the demonstration, is lost sight of in
the pretence and fraud knowingly practised.

An unexpected pin-prick, if it be deep enough,
will straightway cause the medium to throw off
his or her trance, thus emphasising the superficial
hold the spirit influence has upon the medium.
At the risk of inflicting pain upon the controlling
spirit, I have been a party to this surely per-
missible physical test. In not one instance
within my remembrance has the spirit, who had
addressed us with such volubility through the
officiating trance medium, received — so far at

126 THAT OTHER WORLD

least as one could discover — the faintest scratch ;
although it has brought his visitation to an
abrupt close.

One is always warned at such seances not to
disturb the medium for fear of inconveniencing
the spirit. Spirits are exceedingly touchy sort
of folk, and, whilst their disembodied selves are
inside the human envelope provided by the
presiding medium, resent any mundane interfer-
ence with this sympathetic human covering.

These visitors from the other world resent
also anything approaching even the mildest of
hecklings. I must confess to having heckled
more than one manifesting spirit when, as it
were, I found him " talking through his hat."
True believers have found me in this " most
unreasonable." The crime of my unreasonable-
ness has consisted in putting little posers which
the spirit has been either unable or disinclined
to answer. On several occasions he has retired
hurriedly in a tiff, and the medium in a corre-
sponding tiffish mood has declared the mani-
festation over.

Foreign spirits, affecting a language assumedly
foreign to the medium whom they have chosen
as their earthly mouthpiece, get their rags out
with distinctly human quickness when those
who know their tongue take exception to the
grammatical correctness or otherwise of the
subject-matter of their discourse.

" Dear things 1 " I have heard feminine be-
lievers consolingly say by way of explanation ;
" they have been so long absent from earth that

TRANCE & TRANSCRIPT MEDIUMS 1 27

one can understand them forgetting their own
language. There is nothing so easy to forget as
a language one has no occasion to speak in " ;
which goes to say that foreign spirits drop their
mother tongue when they pass over the Border,
unless, when they elect to reappear in this form
of visitation, they speak through a medium who
is conversant with the tongue in which they
would be expected to speak. Language efficiency
on the part of the medium makes for correctness
on the part of the spirit, just as inefficiency leads
to incorrectness and difficulty in the matter of
response.

There are those, however, who aver they have
been the recipients of most extraordinary informa-
tion through mediums who were not of the
professional class. These gifted beings were in
every way above suspicion, and the trance con-
dition into which they were thrown, whilst
under spiritual influence, was wholly unsought
by them. Some of these gifted folk have been
the channel chosen for the most illuminating
" communications," of which they themselves
could not possibly have had the faintest personal
knowledge. And again, they have spoken in
tongues entirely foreign to them.

But beyond the mere statement that it was
as related, there was furnished no evidence in
confirmation of the statement, and it is just
this independent confirmatory evidence that is
wanted, and that invariably is lacking. So long
as people in private life like being deceived and
are blind to their own self-deception, so long

i28 THAT OTHER WORLD

shall we hear of mystic wonders being performed
in the family circle, the truth and honesty asso-
ciated with which are beyond question.

And though such people profess to have greater
faith in the spiritistic illustrations emanating from
their own mediumistic friends and relations than
in those coming through professional mediums,
they seldom fail to give the professionals their
support ; indeed, it would be difficult to see how
those adopting spiritualism as a money-making
concern could thrive without them. This sup-
port they have accorded to professionals of ex-
ceedingly shady reputation, of whom not a few
have eventually met with well-merited exposure.
My memory goes back to two trance mediums
who were much in favour amongst the elect in
the earlier days of the movement. They in the
end came to grief ; but before exposure overtook
them they collected a big following and much
money. Fletcher was their name, and they
hailed from America. They gave public dis-
courses on Sundays ; and it was considered quite
the correct thing in the spiritualistic world to
attend them. I sat at the feet of the Fletchers,
and I was not enlightened by what I saw or heard.
The man was an obsequious creature with the
appearance of a mute. His get-up was most
funereal, and his mock solemnity, attuned to suit
the tastes of his sign-seeking followers, to a simple
inquirer like myself was positively oppressive.

Like other professional mediums, they carried
the leaky pitcher of imposture once too often to
the well of credulity. A duped follower kicked,

TRANCE & TRANSCRIPT MEDIUMS 129

and a prosecution followed. Mrs Fletcher was
found guilty, and the career of the Fletcher
couple as professional mediums, so far at least as
this country was concerned, was ended.

But they still found sympathisers and believers
who maintained that the conviction was unjustly
obtained and that the prosecutrix had displayed
a vindictiveness that was most reprehensible.
What was the loss of money compared with the
injury to the medium's health and consequent
loss of her spiritistic powers ? Money could be
replaced ; but mediumistic power, once destroyed,
was lost for ever. No great loss to the world,
truly !

A pretty argument, I will admit. But the
" dear spirits " should not go out of their way to
enrich the mediums through whom they elect
to manifest ; and to drag in the dear spirits in
order to cajole money out of dupes is, I take it,
an uncommonly low-down thing.

There is, however, generally money some-
where in the case when a medium is caught
breaking the law of the land.

It was also so with that specious seeress, " The
Swami," and her degraded husband, Jackson.
They mouthed about the occult and impressed
the ignorant with their claims to miraculous
powers ; at the same time, however, they were
out for making all they could, not overlooking
even the scullery-maid's hoarded savings. The
trial of these low-down charlatans disclosed
a scandalous state of affairs : trickery of the
lowest type, immorality of the grossest. And

9

1 30 THAT OTHER WORLD

yet before the exposure came " The Swami " was
looked upon by a certain section of the credulous
as little short of "heaven-sent"; and that co-
partner of hers in chicanery and immorality was
said to have gifts that were as spiritual as» they
were miraculous — and they were neither.

The term of imprisonment they underwent
for their crime, considering the extent and char-
acter of their offences against society, did not err
on the side of severity. This world has no use
for such depraved impostors, whatever the next
may have to say on the matter.

I do not see, moreover, what use this world has
for any professional trance mediums of any type.

Of all the phases of spirit phenomena, that of
spirit writing, under the conditions in which it
is produced, is the most unsatisfactory and in-
conclusive. It also lends itself readily to self-
deception and chicanery.

" I feel myself controlled," says the medium,
having convinced himself that he is mediumistic,
" and I write at the dictation of my control."

Good ! But wherein lies the proof that spirit
influence has any connection whatever with the
scribbled sentences that the writer puts down
with his own hand ? The writing may vary from
his own handwriting and take a form approach-
ing as near as possible that which he has worked
himself up to believe the spirit itself might adopt.
But the writing and the text of the message,
whatever form assumed, come through his own
hand.

TRANCE ©"TRANSCRIPT MEDIUMS 131

It is not enough to say that he feels himself
controlled, and that his hand, whilst "under this
influence," takes a part unconscious of its own
volition. Something more than this is needed
to establish a proof that the writing is the out-
come of spirit power.

When that visitor from the other world mani-
fested at Belshazzar's feast, the hand was clearly
visible to the awestricken king and his carousing
guests as it traced its message in letters of flame
upon the wall. It remained there long enough
for all to read and for Daniel to interpret it.

Now, it is up to celestial visitors of to-day to
show their own hand in writing messages such
as they are able to convey to an expectant world ;
and if it should happen that the message so
written is unintelligible to those favoured with
the communication, then it might remain in
evidence until someone able to correctly decipher
and interpret it could be brought to the scene.
But any hand, great or small, any writing in any
language momentarily readable or otherwise — no
jugglery being possible — would in itself constitute
a proof of spirit visitation.

To this the only-too-ready-to-believe-anything
spiritist will doubtless retort : " Is it not enough
to have such a message come through the hand
of one in whom I have implicit confidence ? Is
it not enough for the message to come through
my own hand, written with my own pencil or
upon my own typewriter ? "

No, it is not enough.

It may satisfy your out-and-out believer, but

1 32 THAT OTHER WORLD

it fails to satisfy me. And in this there are, I
hope, others who will think with me.

Let the spirit signify its presence and its
desire to make a written communication by
taking up a pen or pencil in its own hand, and
not operate through that of a mere human who
may claim to feel the influence of the presence.
Let the spirit manipulate the typewriter itself,
wholly independent of human manipulation
thereof.

If, as it may be pleaded, the spirit may be
ignorant of the working of a typewriting machine,
then, in the absence of a training-school in the
other-world of modern spiritism where the visitor
in the interval of his earthly visits could acquire
a knowledge of the typewriting art, lay on
a spirit who on earth life had mastered a
typewriter. For the purposes of such a con-
vincing proof this little matter might well be
arranged.

It is just this convincing proof, however, that
the votaries of spiritism seem most reluctant to
furnish. To convince themselves and those who
think with them is apparently all-sufficient, and
so we get no "forrarder."

The mania for giving expression to messages
from the other world is, I am inclined to think,
strongest with those with a natural itch for
scribbling. With them it is so easy to dash off
messages and label them spiritual ; and it is not
difficult for them to convince themselves that the
writing was actually the outcome of spirit control
and not the result of their own mental vagaries.

TRANCES? TRANSCRIPT MEDIUMS 133

I have seen writers, whilst under the belief
that they have been spirit-controlled, scribble
for dear life on sheets of paper in front of them,
trying to look and to feel parts appropriate to the
spirit in control. The phase of mentality of the
spirit writer is precisely on all-fours with that
of the trance medium. Only, the one lets off
spiritual steam with his hand and the other with
his mouth ; and under the circumstances in which
these other-world manifestations are presented,
there is nothing tangible or convincing about
them.

And, amongst these writing mediums, there
are undoubtedly those who have no part to play
in the alluring game of deception : men who
honestly believe in the existence of a spirit
control and in the accuracy of their statements
associated therewith.

Such a man was Mr W. T. Stead. He was
a perfervid, emotional man, but absolutely
honest. He had his own way of thinking
things out and of carrying them out, but any
conclusions he might arrive at were honestly
formed and fearlessly held. Whilst it was always
easy to admire his ability and feel some of his
enthusiasm, it at times was exceedingly difficult
to see eye to eye with him in his reasonings and
accept his conclusions.

The latter-day conclusions in connection with
so-called spirit phenomena at which he arrived
were, obviously, not within my acceptance.
We had many talks over the occult ; and, whilst
I found him ever anxious to probe mysteries

134 THAT OTHER WORLD

and get at the bottom of things generally, he
showed no distinct tendency towards accepting,
as being of mundane origin, occurrences which
had no better basis for acceptance as supernatural
than that they had been labelled as such.

He had, however, a highly impressionable
temperament, and, the chord of belief once
touched, there was no knowing to what extent
he might bring himself to believe.

The last time I saw him was at his office off
the Embankment. He had asked me to meet a
queer " card " who had travelled a little and, in
my opinion, assumed far too much.

Amongst these assumptions was the claim that
he could tell the height, weight, character, and
thoughts of a man by merely studying his foot-
print from behind.

This assumption apparently impressed Stead,
and he was pleased to say that his visitor had got
ahead of me in divining thought from a footprint.
Indeed he had.

Another claim of this unconvincing Yankee
was that he had mastered monkey language to
the extent not only of understanding it, but of
being able to converse in it. For the purpose of
pursuing his investigations and carrying on con-
versations with these jabberers of the jungle he
had had a cage constructed which was set up in
places most frequented by them. The spectacle
of the learned professor squatting in the cage
carrying on an argument with various missing-
link species must have been singularly instructive
and not a little humorous. The humorous aspect

TRANCE & TRANSCRIPT MEDIUMS 135

of the situation was the one most to impress me.
But the professor was intensely serious over it all,
and the reason, maybe, why he somewhat resented
my mental attitude on the subject was that he
was devoid of the saving sense of humour.

The question of monkey language interested
me exceedingly, and I explained to Mr Stead
and his friend the naturalist how my special
interest therein arose.

At a durbar at Bhavanagar a learned pundit
had composed some yards of learned twaddle
chiefly bearing upon myself, which he read at
length to the native prince and his entourage^
apparently to their edification and interest.

Two gems stood out in association with this
lengthy oration. One was that it was established
beyond question that the gods had bestowed upon
me the power to read the human mind and know
the human character, but this power did not
extend to reading that of the monkey. Neither
did it permit of my restoring to them their lost
language. It was explained that at one time the
monkeys had an intelligible language ; but for
an offence against the gods, that was taken from
them, and, until the gods should choose to take
off the ban, the animals, for all understandable
purposes, would remain as they were.

It was most kind of the gods to endow me
as it was alleged they were good enough to have
done ; but I am glad they did not increase their
gifts to the extent of restoring to the monkeys
their lost tongue.

Now, if it should happen that the monkey

136 THAT OTHER WORLD

recovers his speech, what known language, think
you, would it most resemble ?

I have arrived at a fairly definite idea on the
matter ; but as the people whom I have in mind
might resent my conclusions, I shall keep them
to myself. It, however, is open to anyone to
mentally speculate on the point.

That the power to read monkey-mind was
withheld from me by the gods is, I would say,
slightly inaccurate.

I have read the thoughts of a monkey, and a
remarkably easy experiment it was.

He had hidden an orange, after fooling about
with it, as is a monkey's way, and I took him as a
subject. It was a thousand to one that his entire
thought for the moment would be concentrated
upon the hidden fruit. It was, and I at once
went to the place where it lay perdu. That was
sufficient for my test ; but the monkey was not
out for satisfying me, but himself, and when I
stooped to annex my find he promptly annexed
my hand with his teeth. Failing to convey a
verbal understanding to my jabbering subject,
I administered a physical one, which sent him
flying across the room.

I have often wondered whether monkeys in
the primordial, missing-link, or latter-day stage
find translations to that other world so freely
drawn upon by professing mediums ; for some
of the manifestations I have witnessed have been
of the most monkeyish description, and such as
the spirit of no self-respecting human would ever
demean himself by demonstrating.

TRANCES? TRANSCRIPT MEDIUMS 137

I did not put this point to the American ; but
had I done so, I feel pretty confident that
all his peculiar and exclusive knowledge of
monkeys and monkey-land would not have
enabled him to reply to it with any degree of
certainty.

I think one may date Mr Stead's first leanings
towards the supernatural from coming under the
influence of this exceedingly plausible person.
Then came further beliefs and temperamental
questionings, and the final obsession — Julia.

CHAPTER VIII

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS AND FALSE SENSORIAL
IMPRESSIONS

THE common error with spiritualistic devotees is
to mistake purely subjective for objective pheno-
mena. " I know what I have seen," will say
the vision-seer, " and nothing will convince me
that it was a mere hallucination." Nothing, I
fear, outside of an earthquake will convince folk
who argue from this standpoint. The vision
they affect to have seen is, with them, as actual
as a fleeting neuralgic pain. There is no need
to question their veracity on this point ; it is
their inability to properly weigh and adjust
matters which is at fault. They see what they
aver they have seen, all right, but probably
neither at the time nor on the occasion fixed for
the occurrence, and then certainly never more
than in the mind's eye.

In a word, the vision is of the subjective and
not, as they assume, of the objective order of
spirit phenomena.

This seeing of visions is quite a common
occurrence with those who are out to receive
proofs of that visible life Beyond in accordance
with their anticipations and desire. I have

received many letters on this subject from people

138

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 139

undoubtedly sincere in their convictions. These
visions, they go on to say, have been the direct
outcome of their own observation and not
through a medium. Where, therefore, they
ask, does trickery come in ?

Although, in the first instance, the medium
has no direct part in the accepted visitation,
trickery of a kind does come in, all the same.
It is the senses which are tricked. And later
on, maybe, when the vision-seer, seeking for a
further sign and additional proof, has recourse
to a medium for that purpose, nine times out of
ten he will be tricked with intent. But as he
is only looking for confirmation, he finds it in
any far-fetched assumption mediumistic ingenuity
and plausibility may advance.

One of the most typical cases of the un-
questioning acceptance of a purely subjective as
distinct from an objective vision, and how visits
to mediums serve to confirm a longing that
apparently was solely looking for confirmation
irrespective of logical reasoning, and with a
proneness to accept, without due examination,
mere inferences from facts for facts themselves,
is contained in a statement contributed to a
recent number of the London magazine. My
attention was called to this article on its publi-
cation by a valued literary friend of mine, who
has given some thought to the subject of spirit-
istic phenomena, asking for my views on the
matter. These I briefly gave him, and he wrote
saying that I had made quite clear what at first
had been really difficult to understand.

1 40 THAT OTHER WORLD

At the same time the editor of London was
good enough to ask me to write him an article
on the subject. This I did ; but my views, which
had made matters so clear to my inquiring friend,
apparently collided with those already adopted by
the editor. But, in view of the interest aroused
in the statements published in London, I give in
this chapter my reply thereto as written for
publication in that popular magazine.

Mr Richard Wilkinson is not the only one
whom the war has caused to think. It has
brought with it, too, feelings and longings which
previously can well be said to have had no con-
scious existence. Fathers, mothers, for the first
time in their lives, have had all their thoughts
and feelings centred upon their loved ones, facing
danger and death away from their side. This in
itself is sufficient to beget a condition of mental
exaltation that permits of their seeing, hearing,
and anticipating things that had had no previous
being in their everyday lives. And after the
arrival of that fateful War Office message, it is
indeed hard for them to believe that this side of
the grave there shall be no further communica-
tion with the young life thus suddenly cut off.

I am frequently asked by those who them-
selves claim to have had experiences of seemingly
inexplicable phenomena, or who relate those said
to have been experienced by people for whose
good faith they can vouch, to explain these
alleged occurrences.

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 141

They, in the majority of cases, have already
satisfied themselves that the occurrences, being
to them inexplicable, must perforce be of super-
natural origin.

Now, in such matters the wisest course to
pursue is to first exhaust the natural for an
explanation before rushing to the supernatural
to furnish a solution of what, from previous
experience, seems to be inexplicable.

So, starting upon the hypothesis of the super-
natural, what explanation would be satisfactory
that did not materially accord with the already
accepted theory of origin ?

One is expected to agree and accept without
criticism — which, frankly, I cannot — or furnish
offhand, without data, an explanation, which in
its turn would be ruled out as not being appli-
cable to the particular phenomena in question.

Now, I ask, is it reasonable to expect a man,
no matter what his experience has been or what
attention he has devoted to the subject, to explain
offhand the why and wherefore of alleged mani-
festations of which he himself has not been a
witness, and of which admittedly there is very
little, if any, really independent corroborating
evidence ?

Ordinary things in this world very seldom
occur exactly as related. And when it comes
to phenomena which cannot be weighed or
measured by generally accepted standards, the
relation, in the desire to impress the inexplic-
ability thereof, does not as a rule err on the side
of exactness. Little gaps are bridged over, and

1 42 THAT OTHER WORLD

times and dates are altered in order that the
narrative may span or fit in the better. All this
may be done in perfect good faith, and without
the slightest intention to exaggerate or deceive.
But the tendency to get things, which in reality
are allied neither in time nor in circumstance,
to run on all-fours with the dominating desire
of the seeker after the sign plays havoc with
memory, and causes the requisite detail and
sequence to be matters of but little moment.

Mr Wilkinson's narrative in the October issue
of London is plain and straightforward enough
to suit the most exacting critic. He evidently
writes direct from the heart and with full con-
viction. As he has given his experiences to the
public, and those to whom I have referred as
having communicated with me have not, I
will, at this stage, confine myself to dealing with
the occurrences he has made known to the readers
of this magazine.

By far the most striking of them, and the one
which in itself, if it were indeed a reality, would
furnish an unquestionable proof of spirit visita-
tion, is the instance of the son's appearance after
death to his mother.

But consider the conditions under which the
appearance was made. Mrs Wilkinson was
nursing her dying father at Brighton, and in
the very nature of things her thoughts and
longings would go out to the son she unhappily
had but recently lost. It would not, therefore,
be difficult to conjure up a vision of him. That
Mrs Wilkinson believes she saw what her husband

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 143

states cannot of course be questioned for a single
moment. And that she actually saw the form
may also be admitted. But it, I take it, was
of a subjective and not of an objective nature.
It was in the mind's eye right enough, but no
more. And had Mrs Wilkinson placed her
hands over her eyes, she, according to my belief,
would still have seen the form. Had there been
no form in front of her, with her eyes thus
covered, the inference would be that it was ob-
jective rather than merely suggestive. It is a
simple test ; but those to whom such assumed
visitations are desired would, I fancy, hesitate
to shut out by the application of this test so
welcome a vision for even so brief a space.

Years ago, whilst staying at Clopton Manor,
near Stratford-on-Avon, I was located in a ghost-
haunted room. The blood of the spirit — who
on earth-life was a victim of the Civil War —
still stained the anteroom leading off the bed-
room. The spirit manifested by my bedside
one night. But, prior to testing its substantiality
by hurling a heavy silver candlestick at its head,
I bethought myself of covering my eyes with
my hands. The form was still there. I had
heard much of this ghostly visitation during my
stay at Clopton Manor ; and I would like to
know if Joan had mentioned the fact of her
having seen Roger " under conditions which
placed out of bounds the possibility of its having
been a dream " to Mrs Wilkinson before she her-
self had that vision of her son. The relation of
such an experience, it goes without saying, would

i44 THAT OTHER WORLD

increase the inherent longing and expectancy
which are all-important factors in the creation
of subjective visitations.

That Mrs Wilkinson's letters were in Roger's
sachet, is to say they were in the very place in
which they might well be expected to be found ;
and it is far more reasonable to assume that she
had overlooked them than that spirit influence
obtained through a medium, with whom she
had previously been unacquainted, had indicated
their whereabouts. As to the coin incident,
one may assume that its existence had been for-
gotten. Subconsciousness has much to answer
for in such matters. But it is apparently easier
to give the credit to the supernatural than to
discover a slip in the natural.

As to the " Edward " incident. The name
of the fourth attendant spirit might well have
been given by the medium as, say, Tom ; and in
the family somewhere or other a departed one of
that name might presumably have been found to
fit in with the information. The second medium
whom Mr Wilkinson consulted, although men-
tioning Elizabeth, John, and William, seemingly
omits any mention of Edward. This is under-
standable, as Edward was but twelve weeks old
when he departed this earth ; and, unless he had
developed with extraordinary rapidity, it is diffi-
cult to understand how he could have been an
attendant spirit on Roger on his entry into spirit-
land unless he were carried by Elizabeth, John,
or William, who were already grown up.

Having had, as it appears to them, a slight

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 145

lifting of the veil giving an insight into the
Beyond, it is but natural that receivers of these
signs and portents should seek in every way
possible for further signs and confirmation of
the new belief that has sprung into existence.
But any really direct communications are scarcely
likely to be obtained through the agency of a
medium, professional or otherwise.

It, I take it, should be clear to the most out-
and-out believer that if a spirit be able to mani-
fest, that manifestation would be made direct
to those nearest and dearest to it in this world,
and not through the mediumship of someone
of whose existence or habitation it, on earth-
life, would, presumably, have had no knowledge
whatever. It, therefore, is unreasonable to
assume that manifestations through such sources
can be accepted as convincing realities. But
with seekers after signs, plain, matter-of-fact
reasonableness is invariably ignored. It is the
sign or the further sign they want. That, with
them, is all that matters.

And, whilst no further indication of spirit
existence may come to them direct, the medium,
having duly measured the longings and beliefs
of the seekers, will invariably provide — for a
monetary consideration or otherwise — the intelli-
gence for which the inquirer is in search.

But it is not of mediums and their ways, of the
chicaneries I have exposed, and the alleged " spirit
forms " materialised at their seances I have un-
masked, of which I will speak here. It is too
long a story.

10

146 THAT OTHER WORLD

I confine myself to dealing with that higher
phase of the belief in the supernatural which
is closely associated with those who, although
in my opinion self-deceived, really believe. But
I repeat my warning about such real believers
having recourse to mediums. In that way possible,
and indeed probable, deception lies. Mediums
of the unprofessional class, who hug the kudos
associated in certain quarters with alleged medium-
istic gifts, and those of the professional class, who
are out to make all they can out of their oppor-
tunities, cannot very well be expected to be on
the same spiritual plane as their inquirers, how-
ever much they may be willing to help or oblige
them, according to their lights.

I must be excused if I question the accuracy
of the statements, as a rule, made of the results
obtained at such mediumistic consultations. To
more properly judge of their value and relevancy
one would need to be present at such consulta-
tions, to carefully observe the emotional indica-
tions which may be quite unconsciously conveyed
by the inquirer to the medium, and to equally
carefully note question and answer and other
running verbal communications passing between
them. In this way one would be able to form
a more accurate opinion of how the medium
arrived at his or her conclusions, and the conse-
quent conveyance of information from Spiritland.

I lay particular stress upon this, as I notice
there seems to be a fairly general opinion that
the results may be the outcome of telepathy,
the thoughts of the inquirer being unconsciously

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 147

conveyed to the medium. As one who has given
some study to the subject of thought-reading,
and has put in practice the art or the gift, which-
ever you care to term it, with " subjects " of all
nationalities, I must say that I cannot accept this
theory as an explanation of the phenomena.
Thought cannot be conveyed one to the other
in this fashion. Thought itself is an immaterial
quantity, and has no method of affording read-
able expression other than through the physical
system. A look, a touch, a sigh, or any other
emotional indication may tell much ; but beyond
this, thought tells nothing that is really readable.

Just as the seekers after spirit-signs mistake
inferences from facts for facts, so do those who
affect to believe in psychic force mistake intuition
for clairvoyance, and the intelligent interpretation
of facial signs and other physical indications for
readings of the mind itself. Through the body
the mind can, and does, express itself, but that
is not enough for the "psychic forcers." They
prefer the brain-wave theory. It is so much
more soul-satisfying, or " tony," as the Americans
would say.

Mr Wilkinson concludes with the trite asser-
tion that " no one of us has a monopoly of truth,"
adding, that by searching the beliefs of others
we may find that which answers our greatest
need.

To this, by way of conclusion, I would say,
and no one of us can have a monopoly of these
supernatural indications. If visitations from the
other world indeed be possible, then, in the

148 THAT OTHER WORLD

interests of truth — where such visitations would
be a welcome and a consolation — let them be
universal. In this way would the truth be brought
home to those who are unable to accept as realities
isolated instances, occurring in circumstances and
under conditions of which they have no immediate
knowledge.

Mr Arthur Machen, who, judging by his
publicly expressed opinions on the subject, has
not, apparently, quite made up his mind as to
where we really are in connection with the so-
called occult, but who, sensible man that he is,
refuses to accept every wild-cat statement that
comes along, is, I gather, inclined to the belief
that thought transference may have played some
part in connection with Mr Wilkinson's medium-
istic experiences. I certainly am not with him
there.

I had not intended to have touched upon the
subject of thought transference in connection
with a work dealing with so-called other-world
manifestations ; but the fact that a great number
of people not only associate telepathy with the
alleged marvels, but, in certain cases, find in it
a direct, or indirect, explanation of them, deter-
mines me to deal with the question. So, in the
following chapter, I have at some length set forth
my views and experiences in connection therewith.

I would say here that what is termed sub-
consciousness is apt to play a not unimportant part
with respect to certain phases of the phenomena.
The reflex action of the brain is a wondrous

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 149

thing, and its workings, if properly understood
and given due credit, would, in ordinary, every-
day life, go a long way towards making explicable
what is apparently inexplicable.

One depends too much upon conscious memory
without taking into consideration that which
exists in a latent form, but which, in the recol-
lections of the present, is overlooked.

It is astonishing how positive we can be that
we have never heard of such and such a person
or thing until a chord of recollection is touched,
and the mind goes back, and that, which seem-
ingly had no previous existence in one's remem-
brance, comes to be remembered.

On the other hand, how easy it is for some
folk to believe in occurrences which, in the first
instance, have had no more reality than that
contained in a highly inventive imagination !
Constant reiteration of the fictitious occurrence
and the personal part played in connection there-
with serves to make them real and personal to
themselves.

It was said of my friend with whom I stayed
at Clopton that, having purchased with the manor
the portraits of members of the ancient family
who were his predecessors in possession of the
property, his constant association with these por-
traits and his description of them to his many
visitors had finally caused him to look upon them
as those of his own family, and that the Cavalier
ghost who was reported to walk was, by sequence,
an ancestor of his. Now, my friend was a blufF,
kind-hearted man of the world, without an atom

1 5o THAT OTHER WORLD

of side, and if such a conclusion existed at the
back of his head, as it were, as hinted at, then
it arose from verbal usage rather than from un-
warranted assumption — which in fact, with him,
would have been altogether unthinkable.

It was different with another friend whom I
first met in Calcutta. He was just off tiger-
shooting in the Himalayas. The season for tiger-
shooting was over, but he assured me he was
promised some good sport, and was determined
to have it. He departed, and was away some
weeks. On his return he related his adventures.
They were of a somewhat startling character,
and, in the end, he displayed for my admiration
the skin of a tiger he had shot. It seemed to
me not to have that freshness one would associate
with an animal so recently slain, but, in my
admiration of its real beauty, I let that pass.
And then his story of his adventure was so
realistic, and told with such evident conviction !

A few days later an enterprising merchant,
from whom I had already made a few purchases,
came and asked if I would like to buy a tiger-
skin. I was not a buyer. With that insinuat-
ing, not-to-be-refused air peculiar to the East
the dealer pressed me for all he was worth. It
was a beautiful skin, the most beautiful in all
India, of course. It was even finer than the one
he had just sold my friend, the sportsman in the
room opposite, and which I had seen. He said
this with his finger to his lips, as if imparting a
secret of the utmost importance. In the end the
skin was unfolded for my inspection. It was

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 151

indeed a splendid skin, finer even than the one
my friend had undertaken such a hazardous
expedition to obtain.

But I was not a buyer. I had neither the
desire nor the ability to rival my friend in the
matter of tiger-hunting stories, so, in finally
refusing his tempting bargain, I delicately hinted
that before again offering it in the same hotel he
should wait until my friend had departed with
his dearly-prized trophy. He took the hint, and
my friend left Calcutta without the remotest
suspicion that I was aware how he really obtained
that skin, or the price he paid for it.

Some years afterwards I happened to be in a
Midland town where my tiger-shooting friend,
who had then received the honour of knighthood,
resided. He was good enough to invite me to
dinner. In the course of the evening my hostess
said, " Oh, I had almost forgotten, but there is
an old friend of yours which you must see before
you go." And she took me to the study, where,
perfectly mounted, with the finest glass-eyes
imaginable, spread before the fireplace, was the
identical tiger-skin I had seen in Calcutta.
Several people were standing around, and one
said to me, " Oh, you were with Sir William on
that expedition, and know all about it."

I said nothing, but looked inquiringly at Sir
William, who was leaning against the fireplace,
legs astride, calmly puffing at a huge cigar.

" Quite so," he replied ; " but it's hardly fair
to bring him in, as he, you know, had the first
shot, and failed to kill. It is true it was a most

1 52 THAT OTHER WORLD

difficult shot, but no one likes to be reminded
of a failure of this kind."

" And you, happily, were more successful,
dear," put in his wife, with admiration in her
eyes ; " a wounded tiger is, I should say, a
dangerous beast."

" It was a near squeak, wasn't it ? " said my
host. He drew hard at his cigar as if seeking
further inspiration.

"Never mind," he continued ; "all's well that
ends well, and here's the beast's skin as a lasting
memento. He was a hard dier, anyway."

And so the story had put on fresh fringes, of
which it appears I was one. And, without
doubt, in the course of the telling Sir William
had come to believe in the truth of it. He was
a hard-headed man of business, of the strictest
probity, and one whose word in ordinary matters
could have been taken unhesitatingly. But this
tiger story had become an obsession, and it is
difficult to say what sort of mental shock or
surgical operation would have put it in its true
light.

This phase of mentality is not uncommon
with a certain number of what are called " True
Believers " in spiritism. They, like Sir William,
who went out to bag his tiger and could not
bring himself to return home empty-handed,
in their desire for a sign, set out in life
to bag something associated with the other
world. But whereas Sir William did manage
to annex a skin by way of showing what he
had convinced himself he had accomplished, the

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 153

sign-seekers, in making their claims to having
succeeded in their spirit quest, fail to produce
the slightest material proof of what they lay
claim to. If one of those garment-attired
spirits, so dear to the heart of a recent convert,
would, on the occasion of her terrestrial visits,
leave behind in the hands of the vision-seers
the smallest article of celestial attire — even a
spiritual bootlace — that would be something to
go upon in the way of definite evidence. I trust
the eminent novelist who advances the dress
theory will see to this. As my tiger-hunting
friend experienced no difficulty in getting his
desire for a skin to exhibit to his friends satisfied,
so, I fancy, would those vision-seers be able to
obtain through professional mediumship any
article they might wish as an outward and
visible sign of the celestial visit they assert has
been accorded them. A medium who has not
hesitated to produce for the delectation of the
faithful a fully materialised spirit form surely
would not boggle at producing equally convinc-
ing spirit garments — at a price. They, no
doubt, would be careful enough not to make a
transfer of articles bearing a tell-tale earthly
trade-mark.

Whilst there are those who at the beginning
know full well that the supernatural phenomena
of which they claim to have had actual experi-
ence have had no existence beyond expectation
and the desire to be considered favoured above
their fellows, and who in the course of constant
reiteration come themselves to believe in the

154 THAT OTHER WORLD

actuality of the alleged occurrences, there are
others who are firmly convinced that they have
experienced what they relate. They are quite
honest in their beliefs, but also quite mistaken.
They do not set themselves to examine, but seek
all around them for confirmation, not explanation,
of the phenomena which they, themselves not
understanding, ascribe to supernatural causes.
With time, following only this line of argument,
conviction becomes more firmly established, and
through this conviction others, equally unable
to weigh and judge matters in this connection,
become impressed. Folly is catching, and no
form of folly is so infectious as this craze for the
supernatural. And of all infectious diseases
human nature is subject to, there is none more
mentally disturbing, more physically debilitating,
or more morally harmful than this one.

I thought it would come, and it has. Spirit
airmen and spirit aeroplanes have been met with
aloft ; so runs the latest story. It was to be
expected in connection with the present super-
natural wave. If the sea provides its sea-serpents,
its Flying Dutchman, and other strange pheno-
mena, why should not the skies provide their
quota of the weird ? So it comes about that
airmen in their flights have encountered winged
air-dragons and mysterious shapes presumably
possessing a supernatural affinity with the much-
canvassed monsters of the deep. The Flying
Dutchman of the sea has its counterpart in the
mysterious, unclassed phantom-ship of the air.

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 155

What can't imagination cause some folk prone
to self-deception to see, wherever they may be ?
And with them, of course, there is no argument.
You simply have to accept their statements as
related, without question, or, as they put it, doubt
their word. One doesn't wish to question their
veracity. Give them all the credit for believing
the accuracy of what they state, but, at the same
time, question the correctness of their con-
clusions. It is not enough for them to believe
to bring conviction. Something more than the
description of what at the most has been a
purely subjective vision is surely necessary.

Before modern spiritism came in with spooks
at call at seances where so-called mediums pre-
sided, that other world of the supernaturally
inclined provided mild excitement in the shape
of ghosts that walked on such occasions and in
such localities as seemed best to them. As a
rule they attached themselves to the families of
the aristocracy, but here and there a mere plebeian
visitor from Ghostland, it is alleged, has put in an
appearance, and in localities and under conditions
which would have seemed to be uncongenial to
ghostly visitations. This may be accounted for
by the fact that those who have affected to see
or hear them have themselves been somewhat
low down in the social scale ; besides, in these
democratic days, why should the blue-bloods
have the monopoly of ghosts ? Anything so
thoroughly reactionary is quite unthinkable !

Within a very few minutes' walk from the
cottage on the Hampden estate where I write

156 THAT OTHER WORLD

this is located, according to tradition, the scene
of a ghostly visitation. It takes the form of a
funeral cortege slowly wending its way up the his-
toric glade to the church wherein John Hampden
lies buried. Some say it is the ghost-burial of
the great patriot, who after receiving his fatal
wound on Chalgrove field was taken to Thame
to die, his body afterwards being brought home
to be buried.

I have not myself seen this ghostly procession,
neither have I come across anyone who will
claim to have done so ; but there are several old
inhabitants who state that there must be some
truth in the story which has been carried down
to them first, second, or third hand, and, with
much wise wagging of the head, they ask what
one makes out of it. One story runs to the
effect that a company of soldiers on the march
encountered it, and, impressed with its reality,
stood aside to let it pass. It, of course, is claimed
that the soldiers previously knew nothing of the
alleged ghostly visitation, and halted and stood
aside in the full belief that it was a bona jide
native funeral procession. Tradition, in handing
down the story, omits to furnish any evidence on
this point.

An adjacent estate — that of Lord Dormer —
furnishes another ghost story. The visitation, it
is alleged, takes the form of a ghostly lady, who,
when she does happen to manifest, gives the
vision-seer an exceedingly disagreeable shock.
She gibbers and flits menacingly across the road,
disappearing in the direction of the house. On

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 157

such appearances she has had a bad effect upon
horses and dogs as well as human beings. I have
not been favoured with a sight of her, neither has
my faithful companion and fellow-spook-seeker,
my dog Peter. But I have met one man who
claims to have seen the ghost, and, with great
emphasis, he explained the shock both he and the
mare he was driving had received when the visita-
tion took place. I am inclined to the conclusion
that he firmly believed what he said. Indeed he
displayed great anxiety to hurry away from the
hotel in Wycombe, where the narrative was made,
before it got too late. "The ghost," he said,
" came in with the moon as a rule, and the horse
he was driving was very nervous and shy." A
friend of mine who, whilst he had not himself
seen the apparition, was well aware of the local
belief therein, told him plainly not to be an ass,
and suggested that the double whisky he was then
lowering before closing time would be the only
spirit he would see from then until he reached
home. We offered to accompany him, but he
refused. Later we drove over much the same
ground as he had taken, but the apparition did
not elect to put in an appearance. This was dis-
appointing, especially, I fancy, to " Peter," who
had no touch with the invisible beyond that
afforded by a rustling rabbit in the undergrowth
and the distant bark of a predatory fox — both very
old and material indications of earthly visitations !
I never saw the ghost-seer again, and, for some
time past, I have heard nothing about the ghostly
lady's further appearances in the neighbourhood.

158 THAT OTHER WORLD

But ghosts, or spooks, or whatever you may
choose to call them, have a habit of haunting
this or that place as best may suit them, relying
upon frail, gullible human nature to see justice
done them in the matter of giving currency to
their visitations.

They have odd ways, too, of manifesting them-
selves or of giving indications of their supernatural
presence. The very latest, I should imagine,
would be the outbreak near Folkestone, of which
mention has been made in the press. These
mysterious occurrences, one is given to under-
stand, are engaging the serious attention of a
distinguished novelist and an impressionable
scientist who have identified themselves as believers
in spiritualism and occult phenomena.

But the occurrences in question display no
particularly new features. Things fly about, and
sometimes people get hit. This has all happened
before, and, spasmodically, has gone on merrily
until the humans who worked the wonders have
owned up or been tripped up, when the " pheno-
mena " have ceased. If the eminent persons
referred to in the newspapers were to employ
their great talents in discovering the human
agency causing the alleged phenomena, they
would, I take it, arrive at an explanation more
quickly than in seeking for a supernatural solution
of them. But the highly imaginative gentle-
man who, in connection with these occurrences,
sees a common or garden pickaxe go for him,
after the pugnacious fashion of a Bolivian fight-
ing snake, gets one completely !

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 159

It is a supernatural item full of dramatic
possibilities, and as a turn at the Halls would
draw all London. But since, one may expect
to be told, a London atmosphere, or indeed any
atmosphere outside of that where the pheno-
menon has its origin, would not suit, then I would
willingly arrange for an audience to be brought
to the spot, the proceeds to go to some deserving
War charity. All I should require before making
arrangements for a public demonstration would
be a private rehearsal providing the necessary
proof that the phenomenon had an existence
beyond that furnished through the illusory
imagination of the narrator.

Meanwhile, what may we not next expect in
the matter of subjective phenomena which to
the seer of them, and those too who lay them-
selves out to think with them, are so thoroughly
convincing ?

• •••••

So much for mental eccentricities, with the
proneness of the dabblers in the occult to ex-
aggeration and erroneous analysis. Now to the
physical side of the emotions, as dealing with what
one may termfalsesensorial impressions, where one
is at once on firmer and more productive ground.

Repeatedly have I heard it stated by " sitters "
at seances I have attended that not for a moment
have they released the hands of the medium
they have assuredly been holding during the
occurrence of manifestations for which a spiritual
origin has been claimed. In making this
statement, such sitters have done so in the full

160 THAT OTHER WORLD

belief that the sitting was held under the con-
ditions related. But they are mistaken. The
medium had got his hand free without their
knowing it. The sitter felt the medium's hand
upon his, but it was not the same hand with
which he was in touch at the beginning of the
seance. In the dark it is the easiest thing in
the world, by a series of nervous twitchings and
convulsive movements, to draw the hands nearer
together and to substitute, say, the left hand
for the right or the right for the left, as the
case may be, without the change — unseen by
the eye — being observed. In this way con-
tinual contact may readily be declared to have
existed during the whole of the seance. With
one hand thus freed, however, the medium is
enabled to work his wonders at will. I have
known them get both hands free, and thus
double the wonders of " spirit force." With
a hand thus free and a conveniently-got-at pair
of lazy tongs, objects can be manipulated at a
distance beyond the medium's ordinary reach,
and persons in the circle given that thrilling
touch so eagerly accepted by the faithful as a
special sign of spirit selection. A bit of sponge
dipped in phosphorus oil at the end of an adjust-
able telescopic-rod will provide the floating
spirit lights, and the finger of the medium fresh
from insertion in a bottle of ether afford that
cold, conclusive spirit touch so much sought after,
and appreciated, when on tap at dark seances.
Of course, the chief thing is for the medium to
temporarily free himself without the knowledge

of those sitting on either side of him being aware
of it. With this freedom much is possible in
the matter of wonder-working. Without it, or
failing the assistance of a helpful confederate,
there could be no manifestations. The spirits in
this direction can only do what the medium
himself can do, and when opportunities are
afforded him of so doing it.

Dark seances were invented by the mediums
for the purpose of affording them the desired
facilities for providing the manifestations sought
after. And again, sitters had a weakness for
seances held under these conditions. To have a
spirit thrill in the dark was far more fetching
than to receive one in broad daylight or under
the glare of the gas. Of course, when it came
to " form materialisations " a gentle, subdued
light was far more appropriate than total dark-
ness, under which latter conditions it would not
be possible to recognise " appearances " with
certainty.

Spirits, so far as I can gather, have ever shown
a rooted dislike to materialising at seances in
full light. Materialising mediums, it goes with-
out saying, lay down the conditions in accord-
ance with their own convenience and ability to
work the oracle without detection, under which
visitors from the other world are able, and willing,
to appear. The spirits themselves, as manifesting
at these seances, sad to say, have no voice what-
ever in the matter.

It is astonishing how the senses can be falsified
when the eye cannot see what produces the effect.

ii

1 62 THAT OTHER WORLD

In the dark, all sorts of false sensorial impres-
sions are possible ; and, with blindfolded eyes,
similar impressions can be obtained in the light
by anyone conversant with the methods of the
mediums and their ability to duplicate results
obtained by them for which a spiritual origin
has been claimed.

Again and again have I publicly demonstrated
the possibility of this ; and whilst vast audiences
have seen me get a hand free and work the
miracles after the fashion adopted by the spirit-
controlled medium, the blindfolded sitters, not
seeing how and when it was done, have stoutly
averred that not for a single moment has my
hand left theirs.

Some years ago a very learned German scientist,
Professor Zollner of Leipzig, made — according
to his own claims — a new scientific discovery,
viz. a Fourth Dimension of Space. This per-
mitted of the passage of one solid matter through
another solid without damage or destruction to
either. It was due to this that an iron ring
placed upon the medium's head could be taken
therefrom by spirit power and placed upon the
Professor's own arm whilst firmly holding the
two hands of the medium. By no other process
than that of matter passing through matter could
such a phenomenon be explained. I had the
marvel demonstrated with myself — in the dark,
of course. And I was at once convinced that
not only did no spirit-hand remove the ring from
my head, but that it was that of the medium,
although to all sense of touch his hands when

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 163

once upon mine seemingly never left them, and
when my hands were firmly grasping his I felt
the ring on my arm. When the light went up
I examined the ring and found it solid enough.
But how did it get on my arm ?

It certainly did not pass through it, neither
had the ring temporarily dematerialised to permit
of my arm passing through it.

A Fourth Dimension of Space ? Another
unjustified conclusion by an otherwise learned
and presumably sane scientist ! Just another
mediumistic fake, nothing else ! It was the old,
old game of a false sensorial impression. The
medium so managed it as to impress upon the
sitter that both his hands were on his, whereas,
at any moment he desired it, he could, whilst
the impression lasted, free one hand, get posses-
sion of the ring, slip it on to his own arm, and,
when the sitter grasped the hand with all the
force he knew how, the ring slid on to the arm
of the sitter.

And this is precisely how matter passed through
matter.

After my experience of the " phenomenon "
I at once set myself to duplicate it under exactly
the same conditions, and have managed it with
unvarying success on, I should say, quite a thou-
sand occasions. I can do it with a blindfolded
person in the light fully as well as in the dark,
only of course the expectancy, under such condi-
tions, that spirit power has a part in it is absent.
But the false sensorial impression desired is created
all the same, and the ring gets on to the arm

1 64 THAT OTHER WORLD

without the least assistance of supernatural force.
It is quite an interesting experiment, either in
private or in public ; and the solemn assurance
of the one with whom it is made, that not for
a second does a hand leave his, generally affords
considerable amusement.

People should really not be so positive as to
what they feel when they are not aided by their
sight, neither should they be so confident as to
the direction of sound. We are so apt to look
about when a sudden or unexpected noise occurs,
trying to find out with the eye what has pro-
duced it, that we depend more upon our sense
of sight than that of hearing in determining the
location of sound.

It is much the same with animals as with
humans. My Scotch terrier " Peter," who is
himself a bit of a thought-reader, the most
sagacious animal I have ever known, is sixteen
years old, and was with my R.E. son at Cambridge.
His hearing is still exceedingly good, but his sight,
I am grieved to say, is failing. Now, when he is
called, he tries to gauge the direction of the call
by sight ; but failing to see any great distance, a
bewildered, helpless look comes into his highly
intelligent face, and he wanders aimlessly about,
until by some process of deduction he acquires a
sort of knowledge of his position. But his sense
of smell remains practically unimpaired, and by
scent he will follow unfalteringly in the country
in my footsteps for miles. This same sense of
smell or a dog's power of deduction is not given
to humans, who, when they hear spirit voices and

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 165

fail to locate the invisible forms, have nothing
beyond the sense of sight to fall back upon to
determine the location of the ghostly guides who,
obviously, are not visible to the eye.

In a little experiment I publicly introduced
many years ago for the purpose of testing the
accuracy of the most acute of hearing in locating
sound when the eye could not see the exact
location of the sound produced, I have not yet
found anyone, outside the blind, who has given
anything approaching a correct indication of the
locality. The blind seek to locate sound by sense
of hearing and not by sight.

In the early days of my investigation of the
occult there was, in Paris, a very prominent
savant, Dr Charcot, who, scientifically and other-
wise, had brought the art of suggestion in con-
nection with the treatment of patients at his
hospital to a more effective point than hitherto
had been accomplished. But he permitted his
enthusiasm to warp his judgment, and, despite
his scientific attainments, not infrequently arrived
at exceedingly erroneous conclusions.

His greatest successes were with female
patients, and amongst them were some whom he
claimed to be affected and influenced to an ex-
traordinary extent by their contact with different
metals. For instance, a band of gold placed over
the arm would beget a condition of exaltation,
one of silver severe depression, and one of copper
intense horror. I saw the tests, and noted the
various facial expressions and physical emotions
produced by the metals' application. There was

166 THAT OTHER WORLD

no questioning the results, but, to me, they did
not appear to be the outcome of what was claimed
for them. Given a similar expectancy, a similar
belief, and the application of any other metals, in
my opinion, would produce kindred effects. I
laid emphasis upon this point of expectancy, and
upon the knowledge of the patient of the nature
of the metal with which she was brought in
contact. This was met with the assertion that
the most severe tests had been employed, and
that it was the touch and feel of the metal itself
which alone produced the emphatic mental and
physical emotions indicated.

Just as some were abnormally affected and
influenced by colour, so were others similarly
influenced by metallic touch. With this asser-
tion I was inclined to agree ; but, at the same
time, I ventured to point out that the sense of
sight played as important a part in the matter
as the sense of touch. The patient had become
obsessed with the belief that certain metals pro-
duced certain effects upon her. Her eye saw
what metal was to be applied, and her expectancy,
operating through a neurotic temperament, did
the rest. When the patient could not see what
ring of metal was placed over her arm, no result
similar to that obtained when there was sight to
assist was definitely demonstrated. There were
mental and physical emotions, it is true, but they
were frequently out of place, and showed that the
patient was indulging in guesswork, and judging
as much as possible by the weight of the encir-
cling ring. It proved beyond doubt that the

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 167

emotions were ever ready for the customary
display, but that to be displayed in proper order
they depended upon their cue, and the cue
was the sense of seeing what the metal really
was before the appropriate emotion could be
awakened.

To logically demonstrate this I had rings,
similar in shape and of the same weight as the
metal circles actually used, moulded in plaster of
Paris, painting them with solvents to represent
the genuine metals. The patients being unaware
of the manipulation, and seeing what was placed
upon their wrists, proceeded to give off the
anticipated emotions appropriate to the original
tests.

Some of these patients were natural actresses,
and the display of the emotions was not only
well done, but naturally done. And, to this day,
I am of opinion that they really believed they
were subject to varied metallic influences, and
that the emotions they displayed were the con-
sequences of this influence.

That some people are materially influenced
by colour — different colours producing different
results — is unquestionable. In no place, accord-
ing to my observation, was this feeling more pro-
nounced than in Petrograd. But in the old days,
in what was then the higher society, the belief
was apt to assume an occult form, which, of
course, was absurd.

Associated with this aspect of the matter I
have in mind a most interesting meeting with a
little circle of highly intellectual Grand Dukes.

1 68 THAT OTHER WORLD

and Grand Duchesses at Baden-Baden. One
Imperial Highness, at whose palace I was to
be entertained on my arrival in Petrograd, and
who had maintained considerable interest in my
work, was anxious to know how colour affected
me ; but his curiosity in this direction was appar-
ently far greater as to how it affected my relative,
Miss Phyllis Bentley, who happened to be present
on that occasion. His Imperial Highness was
under the impression that she possessed some
mysterious magnetic gift, although it had been
placed beyond question that she had no such gift,
and made no sort of claim to it. On the con-
trary, her duplications of the alleged magnetic
phenomena of " Georgia Magnet " were simply
a scientific application of the Diversion of Force.

But when that superstrong man amongst
monarchs, the Tzar Alexander III., had, at that
historic gathering of royalties at Castle Bernstorff,
Copenhagen, failed to lift Miss Bentley from the
ground, although exerting his full strength, the
Russians, knowing their ruler's physical powers,
were inclined to believe there was something
magical or magnetic about it. The Tzar him-
self had no such illusions. He knew his strength
had been diverted, but that it was through a
scientific knowledge of how force could be
diverted, and was not due to some special
magnetic power.

But, apparently, what his Majesty clearly
understood, others very closely associated with
him did not understand.

So this particular Grand Duke went through

SUBJECTIVE VISIONS 169

with Miss Bentley the various colours and the
effect he had already determined, according to
his assumption of her possession of magnetic
powers, they would have upon her.

This was interesting enough in its way ; but
his Imperial Highness had arrived at a further,
and quite impossible, conclusion in the shape of
her being equally influenced at a distance by a
colour which she could not see, but the peculiar
personal attributes of which would be magnetic-
ally conveyed and felt.

He suggested that, the next morning, he should
call her up at the telephone, and she could tell
him what colour he held, and the effect produced
thereby. " I will not," he concluded, " hold up
a yellow, as that colour, I am convinced, would
most adversely affect you."

The dear old gentleman ! one could but humour
him, and the test was conducted as he desired.
But, it goes without saying, it was not a success.

Miss Bentley at the other end of the telephone
had not the remotest idea what colour his Im-
perial Highness was handling, and was not, in
the remotest degree, influenced thereby.

CHAPTER IX

THE POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES OF
THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE

WHEN I set out to write this book on " other-
world " phenomena and the various false premises
and wilful impostures that went with them, I
had no intention of touching upon the mind-
reading aspect of the question. To this subject
of mind-reading, with which I have been closely
associated for very many years, I have already
devoted much space in other works I have in-
flicted upon the public. The tendency, however,
in certain quarters to provide an explanation for
certain phases of the supernatural, arising out of
" otherrworld " manifestations, causes me to go
into the matter at a length which I hope will be
found excusable.

I would at once say that I have no more belief
in the marvels of so-called thought transference
than I have in supernatural phenomena. Thought
transference has its limits, and, beyond a certain
point, there is nothing doing.

There are inquirers into the supernatural who,
whilst disinclined to accept spirit influence as an

explanation of certain phenomena, are disposed

170

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 171

to find a solution in telepathic communication
between medium and subject. Such telepathic
communication does not, and cannot, take place,
and it therefore in no way provides a solution of
that which the inquirer erroneously assumes is
open to no other explication. The acceptor of
the thought-transference theory builds up a
wonderful idea of waves of thought carrying with
them, subconsciously, illuminative details from
the investigator to the seer, assumedly whilst in
touch with the other world.

It is just as possible for such a passage of thought
as it is for the earthly visitation of a disembodied
spirit. One is as impalpable and ungraspable a
commodity as the other.

It is not the subconscious thought relying upon
a message-carrying brain-wave that conveys the
desired information to the medium.

The medium is not on the look-out for such
non-existent brain passages. He is incapable of
receiving them, or interpreting them had they any
existence. He is quite content with the old, old
game of putting fishing questions, of hazarding
statements and watching the effect produced.
Mediums, as a rule, are remarkably wide-awake
individuals — even when in a trance condition —
and exceedingly good judges of character. Ex-
perience enables them to immediately weigh and
appraise facial and other physical indications
unconsciously manifested by their sign-seeking
clients. The clients give them physically clues
which non-existent brain-waves are incapable of
conveying.

172 THAT OTHER WORLD

Why will people mistake keenness of percep-
tion and the ability to read character for the
possession of some abnormal mental gift enabling
the possessor thereof to get at the hidden inner
thoughts of his fellows as readily as the out-and-
out medium can establish communication with
celestial denizens of the Unseen World ? The
mind of man can be read, but not on the basis
of what is termed telepathy. Study the subject,
pursue it night and day, anywhere, everywhere,
and you will never get beyond a certain point.
The mind is encased in matter, and readable only
by and through that matter. You can no more
hold and analyse a brain-wave than you can a
sunbeam, which, for its part, however, is more
substantial to the extent of having for the time
being a visible existence. Believers in thought
transference will tell you how they visualise
things, and that this visualisation is seeable and
readable between two minds beating as one.
Sheer phantasy ! It is all very well for a visualiser
to, as he terms it, visualise things, but such
visualisation conveys no decipherable picture to
another. At the commencement of the mind-
reading furore an exceedingly astute Yankee,
who spoiled his chances of success by unjusti-
fiable claims to powers which he certainly did
not possess, claimed to read in the retina of his
" subject's " eye the mental picture such " subject "
had centred his thoughts upon. This, and pre-
tences of a similar character, got the back up of
the scientific world, and he was severely criticised
accordingly. Dr Brudenell Carter, the eminent

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 173

oculist, was an exceptionally bitter critic. As
he explained to me, the retina was as incapable
of containing, or conveying, a mental picture
as, for instance, a lump of coal.

Mr Henry Labouchere, too, was moved to
wrath over the American seer's pretensions, and
trounced him severely in Truth. A libel action
was the outcome of these attacks, but the plaintiff
thought fit to withdraw therefrom before it came
on for hearing. I was subpoenaed as a witness by
my very good friend Sir George Lewis, acting on
behalf of Mr Labouchere. In connection with
the serving of this subpoena an amusing incident
occurred. The emissary of Messrs Lewis thought
fit to serve me at the Princes' Hall, Piccadilly,
where I was giving a public representation. My
chairman that evening was the Marquis of Lome.
There was generally assumed to exist a strong per-
sonal resemblance between the Marquis and my-
self ; indeed, in Court circles I was known as " the
Double." So, during the interval, the represen-
tative of Messrs Lewis & Lewis, mistaking the
Marquis for myself, politely desired to present him
with the subpoena and a guinea caution-money.

" No, no," said the Marquis laughingly,
" honour and the guinea to whom they are due !
This "(indicating me) "is your man. Now, had
you been a thought-reader like my friend here,
the superiority and difference would have been
quite clear to you."

One of the last letters I had from the late
Duke of Argyll, oddly enough, had reference to
this likeness. He wrote :

174 THAT OTHER WORLD

" MY DEAR BUT SUPERIOR DOUBLE, — A very queer
thing happened last night. A man whom I didn't know
from Adam persisted in nodding to me and seeking to
draw me aside into conversation. At last I said : * My
dear sir, I am afraid you have -made a slight mistake,
for really I haven't the pleasure of knowing you.' To
this he replied with some warmth : c Not know me !

why, d it all, man, you, Stuart Cumberland, to say

you don't know me \ ' '

A further mix-up of personalities oddly enough
occurred at another meeting of mine at Princes'
Hall. My chairman on that occasion was Mr
J. W. Lowther (later to become the Speaker),
and I announced that fact.

With this announcement a horsey-looking man
got up from his seat and, with an indignant snort,
exclaimed : " Tell us another. That Jimmy
Lowther ? not much ! I know him too well to
be taken in like this."

" I am indeed James Lowther," said my chair-
man with a smile, " and sometimes, I fancy, I am
called Jimmy, but I am not the Jimmy you have
in your mind. I happen to know him too, and
I can well understand your disappointment in not
finding the man so much after your own heart
occupying the post of prominence this afternoon."

There was an all-round laugh, and the man sat
down, but in his heart I felt sure he would much
rather have seen the Jimmy Lowther of sporting
fame occupying Mr Speaker's chair on the plat-
form than any experiments I had to present to
the audience.

To return to the Yankee mind-reader. When

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 175

Mr Labouchere had taken so decided a line
antagonistic to thought-reading, I felt that the
only way to convince him of what was really
possible and genuine in the art was to take him
as a " subject." With this object in view I called
on him at his residence in Queen Anne's Gate.

" And so you wish to read my thoughts ? " he
remarked, as he leant against the fireplace smok-
ing a cigarette.

I told him that I not only wished to do so,
but that, with his permission, I was going to have
a good try to succeed.

" Go ahead. What am I thinking of now ? "

" Well, in the first place, I should say you are
thinking that I cannot succeed."

" Not a bad shot," was the cynical rejoinder,
" and one which required no thought-reading
powers and preconceived ideas to arrive at."

" Quite so ; but," I added, " if you will con-
centrate your entire thoughts for a moment upon
some concrete object in this room, I will en-
deavour to indicate what you have fixed your
mind upon."

" It is done," replied Labby.

I therefore took him, and succeeded in finding
the object thought of. Mr Labouchere did not
prove an ideal " subject " ; indeed a more placid,
emotionless one I had never previously experi-
mented with. But he was quite honest about the
test, and frankly admitted that thought-reading,
as I illustrated it, was genuine enough.

As I was removing my blindfold there was a
knock at the door, and a grimy apparition stood

176 THAT OTHER WORLD

hesitatingly in the doorway carrying a coal-
scuttle.

" I beg your pardon, sir, but I've come to make
up the fire," said the slavey, regarding me with
unfeigned curiosity.

" All right, go ahead. Now," added Labby
to me in an aside, " here's your chance. See
what you can make of her. She has never heard
about nor read about thought-reading, and has, I
dare say, about as much mental concentration as
a cockroach. It will be interesting to see what
you make of her."

Then turning to the maid, who had deposited
her coal-scuttle by the fireplace, he remarked :
" You see this gentleman. Well, he has been
finding things I had hid in this room, and telling
me things I thought no one but myself knew.
Have you any idea who he is ? "

" No, sir."

" Can't you guess ? "

" He ain't a burglar or a detective, is he ? "

" No, no, my girl ; worse, far worse than either,
although he doesn't look it. He is what they
call a magician. You've heard of magicians, I
suppose ? "

" Them as can turn a person into a black cat,
and swaller 'ot coals as if they was lollipops. I've
'card on 'em, sir."

" No, this gentleman is a new sort of wizard,
my girl," replied Labby. " He sort of turns you
inside out before you know where you are, and
tells you just what you are thinking about and
all that sort of thing."

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 177

" I am sure I've nothink to 'ide," broke in the
girl. " I 'ad the best of characters from my last
place, and whilst I've bin 'ere I think, sir, I've
given every satisfaction."

" Quite so," said Labby soothingly. " But
will you think of something that you would like
my friend to try and find for you ? "

"That I will, sir. I find I've just lost
somethink, and perhaps 'e could find it for
me."

" But she must know where it is," I put in,
"as I can't find what she doesn't know."

" I can give a pretty good guess, sir, where it
dropped."

I took the girl, and found a little brooch which
had fallen in the coal-scuttle she had been
carrying.

" Thank you, that will do," said Labby, as the
poor little trembling subject stood agape, fearing
she might after all be turned into a black cat,
and the maid beat a retreat, to relate downstairs
the " wonder " she had experienced in the room
she had just left.

In the course of other experiments subsequently
performed with Mr Labouchere the editor of
Truth became not only fully convinced of the
possibilities of getting at thought on the basis of
my experiments, but he became one of my most
enthusiastic supporters in my crusades against
shams and impostures, and endeavours to advance
scientific truth.

It was he who arranged for me that historic
seance in the House of Commons, at which the

12

178 THAT OTHER WORLD

then Premier, Mr W. E. Gladstone, was the
principal " subject."

The seance was held in the smoking-room, and
representatives of all parties were present. As
the Premier crossed over to me on entering the
room, Mr Tim Healy, who was sitting with out-
stretched legs in a chair close by, arose with
alacrity and, with marked politeness, offered Mr
Gladstone his seat. This, however, the Premier
politely declined. Considering the tension then
existing between the Government and the Irish
party, the act of Mr Healy, which arose solely
from natural courtesy, was, I remember, much
canvassed at the moment. Indeed, an illustrated
paper in illustrating the seance had a sketch of
the brilliant Irishman offering his seat to his
political oppressor, with the headline, " Extremes
meet."

The most interesting experiment I performed
with Mr Gladstone was in putting down on a
sheet of paper pinned to the wall some figures
upon which the G.O.M. had centred his
thoughts. I began with a 3, which my subject
said was correct. This was followed by 6 ; also
correct. The next figure thought of was 5 ;
but no sooner was it on the paper than I noticed
that Mr Gladstone had changed his mind, and
that he had replaced in his mind the 5 by a 6.
I therefore struck out the 5 and put down the 6,
declaring the figures thought of to be 366.

This my subject admitted to be perfectly
correct. I asked him why he had changed his
original thought of 365 to 366, and he said that

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 179

at first he had thought of 365, the number of
days in the year ; but, when I had got the 3
and 6, it dawned upon him that I might by
sequence guess the remaining figure ; but, re-
membering it was leap-year, and that there were
366 days in the year, instead of 365, he had sub-
stituted the final 6 for the 5. "And," he con-
cluded, with some enthusiasm, " you successfully
read both phases of thought."

Mr Gladstone was a singularly emotional man,
and physically felt and expressed every dominating
idea. He had a remarkably magnetic personality,
and the influence he at times exercised over others
was almost mesmeric. It was his habit to visualise
things, as it were ; but he frequently made the
mistake of thinking that what under such condi-
tions was perfectly clear and visible to him, should
be equally clear and visible to others. And it
often was not so. It was his habit, too, to dive
deeply into things, and his general inside know-
ledge was indeed extraordinary. He was a sort
of mental mercurial plate, absorbing all golden
grains of information and knowledge with which
he came in contact. Mentally, however, he was
inclined to be somewhat in the cloud, with one
end of his rainbow-like intellect touching terra
firma^ and the other losing itself in nebulous
inconclusiveness.

Mr Gladstone was proud of being called the
People's William ; but as Mr Labouchere, who
after the seance discussed my reading of the
Premier, remarked, " He lacks that touch of
practical human nature that makes for complete

i8o THAT OTHER WORLD

understanding and popularity. If, for instance,
like old Pam, he would only put a straw in his
mouth and go to the Derby, he indeed would
be the People's Idol, with no one to rival him."

It has been hinted that Mr Gladstone was a
believer in spiritism. With me he never discussed
the subject, and, from personal knowledge, I am
unable to say what truth, if any at all, there was
in the suggestion.

Mr Gladstone was a deeply religious man, of
highly strung temperament, with a leaning to-
wards the idealistic rather than the practical,
and not unlikely to be carried away by his
momentary emotions.

He, I do know, was somewhat superstitious,
and not a little nervous.

He was good enough to take an interest in
my writings, and I sent him an advance copy
of a weird little story called A Fatal Affinity^
which, in connection with the mystic vein that
ran through it, I fancied might have some
interest for him.

I received a post-card thanking me for the
book, but nothing more. Some time afterwards
I happened to meet Mrs Gladstone, who met me
with a charming smile but a reproving shake of
the finger. " Oh, you dreadful man ! " she said
banteringly. " That perfectly awful book you
sent my husband has made him look under the
bed every night before retiring ; and he hasn't
done such a thing for years."

I don't suppose Mr Gladstone for a moment
anticipated seeing the crouching astral form,

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 181

figuring in the romance, underneath the bed ;
but in the early days of his boyhood he may
have acquired that habit in association with
spectral fancies, and it had stuck to him through
the years, to be reawakened by the trend of the
story I had sent to him.

I am, by the by, inclined to regard the late
Mr Labouchere in the role of a cynic as some-
what of a poseur. He was at heart a most kindly,
helpful man, and countless untold good deeds
stand to his credit.

He hated shams and pretences in all branches
of life, and was a fearless and relentless critic of
those who carried on any form of imposture.
His exposures were good for the public, however
crushing they may have proved to those who
traded upon public credulity. Were he alive
to-day, he would be with me in laying bare the
pernicious claims to the supernatural which,
unfortunately, have found such ready acceptance
in certain quarters so sadly lacking in proper
discrimination.

As he used to say, with withering sarcasm,
of the second-sight and clairvoyant fraternity :
" They can describe with marvellous clearness
what has never happened at the other end of the
world, and see through a brick wall as clearly
as through a sieve, and yet not one of them can
lay his hands upon the thousand pounds I am
prepared to pay for the reading of a name written
on a slip of paper placed in a sealed box."

Labby knew the full powers of these pre-
tenders to occult gifts when he made this wager.

1 82 THAT OTHER WORLD

I may mention in connection with this meet-
ing of the " extremes " that Mr T. P. O'Connor,
who was present at the seance, had sent an
account of it to the Irish papers with which he
was associated, gracefully referring to the innate
courtesy of the Irishman which permits him to
put politeness before political antagonism. This
little flash of geniality was, I believe, misunder-
stood, some going to the length of assuming that
what Tay Pay meant to convey — and nothing
was further from his thoughts — was that Tim
Healy's display of natural politeness was an out-
ward and visible sign of bowing the knee to the
Sassenach Premier.

The years went by, until one night I was
dining with Mr T. P. O'Connor at the House,
and on our way to the smoking-room he was
referring to my experiment with Mr Gladstone
and to the meeting of the G.O.M. and Mr
Healy, about which he had written. When we
arrived in the smoking-room I said to my host,
pointing to a particular part of the wall, " It
was there I put up the paper upon which I
wrote the figures thought of by Mr Gladstone."

" That's so ; I remember it well," replied Tay
Pay.

And as I glanced around me, seated in the
same place from which he rose to offer his seat
to Mr Gladstone was Tim Healy.

Now, those occultly inclined will see in this
a striking instance of thought transference, or
the interposition of some out-of-the-way power
not to be explained by ordinary means. And it

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 183

was but a curious coincidence — that, and nothing
more.

These professors of the occult invariably break
down when put to the test. Occultism is built
too much upon shadows to satisfy practical ex-
amination or conform to logical common-sense
tests.

And yet people, as a rule, would much rather
ascribe a mysterious, unknown force to things
which happen, or which they assume have
happened, than seek for an explanation of them
in the purely natural. This has always aston-
ished and frequently amused or annoyed me. It
has b.een astonishing to find so much credulity,
amusing to come across so much flimsy cock-
sureness, and annoying to find argumentative
stupidity contradicting the plain findings of
convincing common-sense.

So very often have I found folk crediting me
with powers that not only I did not possess, but
that I never had the remotest idea of laying
claim to.

From the beginning I was content with such
success as I achieved through gifts common to
many and by means open to anyone. To claim
or imagine there was anything uncanny about
the matter never once entered my head. I knew
I had an exceptional delicacy of touch and a
somewhat abnormal keenness of perception.
Added to this, I have been blessed with a truly
remarkable memory, which has enabled me to
draw upon my recollections at opportune
moments for the correct interpretation of indi-

1 84 THAT OTHER WORLD

cations and the fitting in of conclusions previously
derived under similar conditions and with similarly
mentally constituted " subjects." I had, too,
complete faith in my star, and the will to win
under every conceivable condition. This em-
boldened me to take, as it were, my tent and set
it up in the high places and low places of the
great world, drawing my subjects and my audiences
alike from the high-born and the lowly. I have
been to countries where I have not spoken a
word of their language and have had to make
myself understood to miscellaneous audiences,
frequently of vast dimensions, through the
medium of an interpreter — often a faulty and
never a wholly satisfactory form of elucidation.
I have written down words in characters that at
the time have been wholly unintelligible to me,
just because the subject thought it was how they
should be written. I have experimented with
men of all ranks, nationalities, and colours ; and
whilst in the main I have found human nature
very akin, different races have not only different
ways of thinking, but also diverse ways of giving
physical expression to their thoughts. For my
purposes I have found the Chinese and the Red
Indians the most emotionless of "subjects," and,
consequently, the most difficult to obtain accurate
physical indications from.

With all my experiences with so many peoples
in so many lands, it should go without saying
that had there been any direct way of getting at
thoughts other than by obtaining indications of
them through physical contact or making deduc-

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 185

tions from physical expressions I should most
certainly have seized it, if only to have saved
myself trouble and exertion. But my experience
has taught me there is no such royal road to the
mind as the believers in telepathy would appear
to imagine ; and the silly talk about thought
transference, and the assumption of occult powers,
by way of accounting for what at best is happy
guesswork or the outcome of some phase of
curious coincidence, irritates me exceedingly.
Nothing breaks down one's patience so much as
stupidity's false conclusions.

The proneness of human nature to claim some
mysterious, abnormal gift, and to see such gifts in
others, is indeed remarkable. There is, apparently,
something unsatisfying in the purely natural,
and the stronger fare of supernatural pretence is
required to tickle the appetite and satisfy the
emotions. With such miracle-ruling folk I,
obviously, in no way fill the bill. In what I do,
I neither assume nor pretend enough. To say
one reads thought only through physical expres-
sion, is to put what they would term mental
wonders upon too commonplace a plane. The
twaddle about thought transference and tele-
pathic tall-talk are more congenial and con-
vincing.

In their desire to invest everything with magical
attributes, people will see in quite a commonplace
occurrence proof of abnormal powers. Of this
the following provides a very striking instance : —

Sir W. S. Gilbert, who was my chairman as
well as one of my " subjects " at a representation

1 86 THAT OTHER WORLD

I gave at the Prince of Wales's Theatre, thought
out a little drama in which he cast himself as the
villain of the piece. In fancy he was to commit
forgery and to fly with the proceeds to some
distant and more or less inaccessible spot.

The amount Sir William went for was
jT i, 000,000, and the place he elected to take
his plunder to was the Seychelles. I readily
got at the amount, and, without difficulty, located
the place on an enlarged map of the world fixed
at the back of the stage. " Quite correct," said
Sir William when I had finished. Then, with
one of those sudden flashes of wit with which
his conversation was frequently illuminated, he
added, " Had I known my geography as well as
Mr Cumberland I should have chosen a more
home-from-home spot to which to retire, as I
now notice the Gilbert Group is conveniently
close, and for a moment Mr Cumberland, I
observed, hesitated over stopping there."

What happened was this : in passing my hand
over the map I noticed the minute dots thereon
described as the Gilbert Group, and immedi-
ately I thought what an appropriate spot for a
Gilbert to choose as a hiding-place ; but Sir
William until that moment had not given the
group a thought, having solely concentrated his
mind upon the Seychelle Isles.

But this simple explanation, I found, did not
satisfy those who saw in it the tapping of an un-
conscious hidden thought through the reading of
a mental picture formed by my subject.

It was useless to say that I saw no mental

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 187

picture, there being no mental picture to see,
and, as a matter of fact, the Gilbert Group never
once entered Sir William's mind until I moment-
arily paused at its position on the map.

Yet one more, and concluding, instance of the
assumed mental picture theory advanced in associa-
tion with my experiments. It arose out of a test
with Mr Cecil Rhodes. The " Empire Builder "
had thought of a place the name of which he
desired me to write down. I wrote " Thebes,"
which was correct. But, after I had written
down the name, I found my " subject " thinking
of some hieroglyphics, and these I drew roughly
beneath the name I had written. Mr Rhodes
had recently visited Egypt, and in thinking of
Thebes, his thoughts ran on the quaint hiero-
glyphics associated with Egypt's ancient grandeur.
I got no mental picture of this passing thought.
I simply felt that Mr Rhodes had in his mind
something to convey beyond the mere name of
the place selected, and the hand I held conveyed
the impression and the form of the characters I
set down on the paper.

I would repeat that I am not responsible for
the powers with which the mystically-inclined
folk think fit to invest me. The credulous must
think as they like. However, at all my public
meetings and in all my writings I have clearly
stated the basis upon which I operated, and
which, in my opinion, was the only one by
which results with anything approaching scien-
tific accuracy could be arrived at.

At an early period of my career I published an

1 88 THAT OTHER WORLD

article in the Nineteenth Century clearly defining
my views on the matter ; and although I have
travelled much since then, and have added con-
siderably to my illustrations of thought-reading, I
have not advanced a single step further in getting
at thought by any other means than those I had
at that time adopted.

Whilst practice certainly enables one to form
a more complete opinion of man's mental com-
plexity, the ability to successfully perform the
experiments does not weaken with disuse. I had
not given any public illustrations for many years
until last year, when my friend Mr Oswald Stoll
kindly arranged an agreeably successful seance
for me at the Savoy Hotel. I afterwards gave a
public representation before a monster audience
at the Palace Theatre, Leicester, in aid of the
War Seal Fund, in which deserving charity Mr
Stoll has deeply interested himself.

In my time I have been associated with certain
somewhat delicate political and diplomatic matters,
and I certainly have found my knowledge of
character of real use in this direction. It is
curious how even the most hardened prevaricator
and astute manipulator of words used for the
purpose of conveying deception will give himself
away by some unconscious little physical in-
dication that belies his utterances. The eyes,
the mouth, the hands, even (as with bootless
peoples) the toes, have a tale to tell, and are
readable by those who know how to interpret
such indications or make correct deductions
from them.

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 189

It is these physical indications unconsciously
given off by sign-seekers under the close. scrutiny
and pumping process adopted by mediums which
enable the mystic fraternity to occasionally cor-
rectly tumble on to " other-world " information.
People, as a rule, never seem to know how liable
they are to give themselves away in this manner,
and, consequently, how frequently they do so.

To assume that telepathic communication takes
place between the sign-seeker and medium is to
assume what is not only improbable, but impos-
sible. Communicative brain-waves no more pass
between medium and client than between pro-
fessional artists engaged in a " thought transfer-
ence " music-hall turn. When these artists do
not claim psychic powers, and in such a way feed
the cravings of the credulous for injurious mystic
fallacies, they provide a show that is both enter-
taining and attractive ; but there is no more
transference of thought about the exhibition
than passes between the conductor and his band.
He provides the cues which his band interprets,
just as the entertainer in the audience conveys
the cues either by verbal or physical code to the
interpreter thereof seated on the stage.

It is a business that requires considerable in-
telligence, a great deal of practice, and unlimited
patience plus a most retentive memory. It is a
pity that believers in the occult should advance
the results achieved in this direction as proof of
thought transference, as it goes towards antago-
nising science against an attractive, and at the
same time puzzling, entertainment that, free

1 9o THAT OTHER WORLD

from mystic pretensions, is innocent enough in
all conscience.

A few words as to the psychology of nations,
about which political quidnuncs write so volumi-
nously and understand so little.

We will agree that Germany does not under-
stand the psychology of the Allies ; and this
doubtless, in a measure, accounts for the misread-
ing of our purposes and aims, and the stupendous
blunders they commit in consequence thereof.
But what nation, alien in blood and language,
really understands the psychology of another ?

The two nations, of all the nations of the world,
best able to understand the psychology of each
other are the United States and ourselves. We
think on the same mental plane, and give utter-
ance to our thoughts in a language at once under-
standable to each other.

With other nations thought has only too often
to go through a process of translation before a
common understanding is arrived at ; and, in the
course of translation, adjustments of mental re-
servations and other fitting-in of ideas have to
be fixed up, all making for delay. Between the
Americans and the British all is plain mental
sailing from the start, and no phase of translation
enters into the conversations and negotiations that
take place between them. It is one thing for a
man to be able to speak your language, and quite
another for him to think in it. What he invari-
ably does is to think it out in his own language,
then to mentally translate it into what he assumes

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 191

to be the equivalent language he is about to put
into words.

The psychology of nations has had a supreme
fascination for me, and how hard I have tried
to fathom and understand that of each with
which I have come in contact ! Whilst in many
lands I have had to get along with such scant
knowledge of their languages as I might possess,
or get my views publicly presented there through
the medium of an interpreter — never a wholly
satisfactory proceeding outside of our own Over
Sea Possessions — the United States is the only
country where I have been able to speak my
mother-tongue with the certainty of being fully
understood.

And as it has been with peoples as a whole, so
has it been with representatives of these peoples.
For instance, whilst I have successfully read the
thoughts of men of prominence of different
nationalities, such as Moltke, Alexandre Dumas
fils, the ex-Khedive, Rubinstein, and Sagasta, each
one understanding English, not one thought in
my language, but in the one that came the most
natural or the handiest to him. Whereas, when
I first visited the States and experimented, for
instance, with Henry Ward Beecher, J. G.
Whittier, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Boyle
O'Reilly, they not only spoke in my language,
but thought in it too. There is that psycho-
logical affinity between Americans and British
which has no like existence between any other
two peoples on earth. It is an affinity of feeling
as well as of understanding.

i92 THAT OTHER WORLD

I have been in more than one tight corner in
the course of my travels, and my first thought
if I had needed help would have been to have
asked if there were a Britisher present to stand
by me, and, failing him, an American, with the
certainty that no cry of mine would have fallen
on American ears unheeded. The thought of
calling upon any other national outside of these
two never occurred to me.

On one occasion, in a foreign land, a quarrel
was forced on me, and a challenge to a duel was
the outcome of it. There was no Britisher at
hand to stand by me ; but an American consul,
who, from his official position, could not act for
me, thoughtfully, and very kindly, provided
seconds for me in the persons of his two sons,
who, as he said with due naivety were visiting
him " quite unofficially."

One of the most interesting psychological
studies known to me in the New World is
undoubtedly Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

To understand Sir Wilfrid's attitude over the
Canadian Military Service Act, which has aroused
such deep and mixed feelings, one must understand
the psychology of the man. He is mentally and
physically emotional, easily read from the surface,
but an inside reading of whom is by no means
so easy. I have known Sir Wilfrid many years,
and he was one of my earliest " subjects " amongst
Canadians. The psychology of the man interested
me immensely, and I was greatly attracted by his
magnetic personality. Then he was just mount-

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 193

ing the ladder to prominence and popularity.
His verbal fervour was indeed remarkable, added
to which was a personal magnetism of exceptional
force and charm.

But all these gifts for the most part were
centred in the interests of French Canada, with
but a passing thought for the claims and aims of
the rest of the Dominion. While this brought
him into direct political conflict with the great
Imperialist Sir John A. Macdonald, it, at the
same time, obtained for him vast popularity and
a practically unequalled influence amongst his
fellow French Canadians.

Sir Wilfrid of the " silver tongue " speaks
equally freely and eloquently in English and
French. I have heard him in both languages
many times, but never once have I found him
thinking in English. He thinks always in
French — the French of Louis XV.; and his
spoken English is the verbal outcome of a rapid
mental translation.

Throughout his political life his creed has ever
been " Canada — my country — first." But with
him, be it understood, " my country " begins and
ends with the purely French thinking and speak-
ing sections of Canada as distinct from that greater
portion which goes to make up the Dominion.

With this mental outlook it has scarcely been
possible for Sir Wilfrid Laurier to " think Imperi-
ally." But it would be a mistake for a moment to
question his loyalty to the Mother Country, or to
assume that he harbours any antagonism to the
Imperial idea. He is all for the Empire having

'3

i94 THAT OTHER WORLD

the first place in the sun ; but, at the same time,
that section of it, comprising the Province of
Quebec, should have the benefit of the fullest
extent of warmth to be derived from the sun.
This idea ever causes him to put French Canada
in the limelight. The rest just fits in with the
picture he mentally draws.

It governs him in everything. When I wrote
my descriptive history of Canada, The Queen s
Highway from Ocean to Ocean^ Sir John A.
Macdonald was pleased to say, " Your work
deserves the lasting gratitude of the people of
Canada"; but Sir Wilfrid, who was otherwise
personally well disposed towards rne, felt I
had made too much of the west and too little
of French Canada. In a word, I was too
Imperialistically expansive.

This absence of the expansive idea in Sir
Wilfrid's temperament and mental outlook must
not cause him to be bracketed with M. Henri
Bourassa, who is really antagonistic to it. This
political firebrand is politically and psychologi-
cally a French-Canadian Valera ; and as long as he
can rule the roost amongst his French-Canadian
Sinn Feiners, the welfare of the Empire as a
whole is, I fancy, a matter of complete indiffer-
ence to him. He began waving the red flag of
revolt over Canada's suggested contribution to
naval defence, and to-day Sir Wilfrid, unless he
has strangely changed of late, cannot hold with
Bourassa in his indifference to Germany's aims
of conquest and domination. I say this, having
in memory what Sir Wilfrid Laurier said to me

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 195

in London shortly after the Kaiser's dispatch to
Kruger : " Little Willie," said he, " has a bad
fit of swelled head, and has got to be put in his
place ; and I guess we'll do it."

The recent action of Sir Wilfrid, at an ex-
ceedingly critical period of the war, with the
whole civilised world longing for the putting of
the Kaiser in his place, surely was not the way
to expedite it.

But then, again, one must understand the
psychology of the man.

I have already referred to Sir Wilfrid's personal
magnetism. A word as to his electrically charged
physical system. When I was staying at the
Russell Hotel, Ottawa, it was a familiar after-
dinner amusement to see what electric discharges
one could produce by coming suddenly in physical
contact with each other. Frequently I have lit
the gas through Sir Wilfrid acting as the con-
ductor, with his finger over the jet. The plan
adopted was to run quickly across the room,
whilst Sir Wilfrid stood on a chair, the finger
of one hand over the gas jet, and to touch his
other hand with one's ringer at the end of one's
run. I have produced the same effect when a
chain of hands has been between me and the
distinguished French-Canadian politician.

There was nothing spiritistic about this ; and
the effects produced had no connection with other-
world manifestations, although doubtless illogical
sign-seekers would have seen in the occurrence

196 THAT OTHER WORLD

direct evidence of supernaturalism. Anyone,
more or less, could bring about similar results.
It was the outcome of intense cold without and
a highly heated atmosphere within the hotel.
To come suddenly in contact hand to hand with
another person in the room was to create a spark
with a pin-prick feeling going with it. It was
the same if the lips met or noses touched.

I did not try the process of rubbing noses, a
form of affection in vogue with certain tribes of
primitive love-making instincts ; but I am free
to confess that the reminder of the thorn-protected
rose is mild indeed as compared with the prick-
ing spark emanating from the electrically en-
vironed kiss.

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CHAPTER X

THE UNSEEN HAND IN THE UNSEEN WORLD ?

Is there anything underlying this latest spiritual-
istic movement beyond that provided by the
emotional longings arising out of the Great War
and mediumistic desire to make money out of
the craze ?

Can it by any possibility be that the enemy
has been making use of the movement for its
own purposes ?

The Hidden Hand, it is generally assumed,
has been at work in this country as well as in
those other countries where drastic unmasking
has taken place. Germany, for political and
military ends, uses strange tools, and turns to
her advantage every possible opportunity.

With the opportunities which may from time
to time present themselves in association with a
craze of this character, the employment of the
Unseen Hand in the Unseen World does not
appear to be entirely out of the question.

One knows that the enemy made every use of
that mystic impostor Rasputin, and that informa-
tion of the first importance was obtained through
this channel, whilst, in addition, this mystic tool,

through the influence he possessed owing to his

197

198 THAT OTHER WORLD

claims to supernatural powers, was able to convey
impressions and bring about results desired by his
Teutonic instigators.

At the time of writing, f affaire Bolo and
P affaire Caillaux — Caillaux, the "Man of Destiny"
— are much in evidence in association with enemy
intrigues ; but, obviously, one would not be justi-
fied in anticipating any decision relating thereto.
That rests alone with the authorities.

Just as the Germans made use of the seer
Rasputin and the vicious mystic circle sur-
rounding him, it would, however, be permissible
to inquire as to the subtle propaganda worked
by the enemy through mystic circles in Paris
and Rome.

Some of the personages prominently associated
with the two affaires have mystic temperaments,
and have had associations with alleged occult
wonder-workers.

The ultra-patriotic Madame de Thebes, the
much-discussed Parisian devinette, wielded con-
siderable influence in French political and finan-
cial circles, besides being a pet of high society.
To her went statesmen and high military and
financial authorities for prophetic information,
and, doubtless, in the course of such consulta-
tions unconsciously vouchsafed more information
to the seeress than she was in a position to give
them.

Madame de Thebes specialised in war
prophecies ; but, as she possessed no more power
of correctly divining the future than the silver-
seeking clairvoyante of a London suburb, her

THE UNSEEN HAND 199

prophecies had a habit of going wrong. They
were based upon what she wheedled out of her
clients, or what they lightly and unguardedly let
fall, and her natural astuteness did the rest.

Oracular utterances, based upon nothing more
than human deductions, are sadly fallible ; and
Madame de Thebes, whilst she succeeded in
imposing upon the credulous, and at the same
time, presumably, did remarkably well out of her
mystic pretensions, was anything but infallible.
Now that she has left this world for that other
world of her imaginings, she may acquire a
more correct and intimate knowledge of the
mysteries upon which she so successfully traded.

If, as it has been assumed, the enemy was not
slow to turn to account the opportunities afforded
by adroit manipulation of mystic materials to
hand in association with Madame de Thebes'
consultations, similar opportunities to be worked
through mystic channels in this country would
not be altogether neglected.

The Hidden Hand of the enemy is difficult
to trace, and one would scarcely look for it in
association with the spiritual world. But the
spiritual world in this mundane sphere is made
up of human follies, human weaknesses, vanities,
and greed. Credulous folk seeking consolation,
advice, or information through the medium of
the supernatural are none too wise in their
inquiries nor guarded in their utterances.

It will have been very easy for German agents
or sympathisers to have obtained useful informa-
tion under such circumstances. Service men

200 THAT OTHER WORLD

and the relations of those connected with the
Services have formed a very considerable pro-
portion of the professional mystics' clientele,
and nearly all the inquiries and sign-seeking
instincts of these people have had reference
to matters associated directly or indirectly with
the war. Given such a clientele^ providing the
necessary elements of credulity, silliness, and
tactlessness, what then could be easier, on the
part of an astute medium, than the exploitation
of such material for all it was worth ?

I have seen the possibilities in such a situation
and the possible dangers connected therewith. It
has, however, been a matter for the authorities.

They, I take it, have not been indifferent in
the matter ; and if, as I am given to understand
is the case, considerable care has been taken in
the matter of supervising, restricting, and even
prohibiting the circulation outside of the United
Kingdom of certain so-called occult literature,
then the authorities must have felt there was
something to be considered.

Spiritism is one of those illogical, emotional
crazes which collects around it the loose human
ends and mentally crooked sticks of other weak-
kneed isms, such as Conchyism and Pacificism —
well-meaning, maybe, in the main, but certainly
not over wise, exact, or ardently patriotic.

Folk of this mental calibre will do lots of
irregular things so long as the doing of them
squares with what they consider to be their
conscience or is attuned to their emotional
vagaries.

THE UNSEEN HAND 201

Visitors from that other world, which provides
a good living for professional earthly practitioners
and a mild mental excitement and comforting
physical emotions for illogical humans, are drawn
presumably from all nations, and, in the general
mix up, individual patriotism is scarcely a domi-
nant feature.

The sign-seeker, out for a sign, would welcome
a message from any spirit, of no matter what
nationality. What his nationality might have
been previous to his translation to the celestial
sphere would not be a matter for consideration.
Whilst a stern, parental Government prohibits
delegates in the flesh from meeting enemy envoys
at Stockholm, Berne, or any other neutral meet-
ing place, the passportless delegates can come at
will from the other world and exchange views
with sympathetic mortals with whom they
desire to be in communion.

So the most case-hardened, unrepentant enemy
spirit can manifest to our pacifists, exchanging
views entirely in accord with their own, which,
with the spiritual backing behind them, will
spread like wildfire amongst the votaries of the
spiritistic cult having similar inclinations or
holding similar views.

Surely a most fruitful field for the Unseen
Hand to till !

And we take infinite pains and go to untold
expense in the matter of a war-aims propaganda
amongst thehard-working, hard-thinking elements
of the population in order to combat the insidious
poison of the pacifist movement, whilst this sort

202 THAT OTHER WORLD

of thing, far more subtle, and consequently far
less apparent, yet, maybe, more dangerous, goes on
unmolested in our midst.

The enemy has ever been fond of using art,
science, and public characters for its purpose.
The way that fascinating Dutch Batavian dancer,
who a short time back met her death as a spy
at the hands of the French military authorities,
was manipulated by her German paymasters for
German ends will be fresh in the memory of my
readers. With artistes of this type and tempera-
ment the enemy has worked extensively, and, from
his point of view, with highly successful results.

Years ago there was a Russian princess who
was in the pay of Germany for political purposes.
She was known to the outside world as a snake-
charmer, and, following her ostensible profession,
she went everywhere, and into the best society
too, collecting much information, and generally
aiding the schemes of her political employers.

She was a weird, fascinating creature ; and as
it happened that I was enabled to render her at
one time a little service, she by degrees un-
folded her life-story to me. And what a strange,
mysterious story it was, and what an intense
human document ! It is too long a story to tell
here, but one day I shall relate it.

It was the personal magnetism of this snake
princess, and the weird fascination surrounding
her vocation, that made her so useful to the
Germans for their purposes. In her way she
did work equal to that of the mystic Rasputin.

I have already pointed out how German

THE UNSEEN HAND 203

diplomacy manipulated the mysticism associated
with Abdul Hamid. It, from the point of
German diplomacy, was a good card to play,
and no opportunity is missed of playing a similar
card with advantage. There is so much crass
stupidity, so much illogicality and weakness of
purpose, associated with the dabblers in the
occult, that they unsuspectingly dance to the tune
set them by those who know how to touch the
right chord. From gathering useful information
through their fatuous gabble and making valu-
able deductions from their queries, to moulding
them, in their weak-kneedness, to advance ideas
suitable for their purpose, the enemy, I fear,
will have struck oil in playing the Unseen Hand
in the coteries obsessed by the mania of getting
in touch with the Unseen World.

An American authority, who has given a close
study to the question, states that the world is
" literally a-crawl " with spies of Central Europe.
These spies, it should be clearly understood, are
not confined to German-born subjects. They are
recruited from all nationalities, and work from
different motives and for widely different rewards.
Some are patriots, and their sense of patriotism
finds gratification in carrying out schemes they
think may be of service to their country, no
matter how devious the methods employed.
Others are out for an ultimate political or com-
mercial "pull," and there is very little unblemished
patriotism about their operations. Then there
are those who seek for social advantages, with an
eye to decorations that a grateful Kaiser may feel

204 THAT OTHER WORLD

disposed to bestow upon them. The common,
or garden, secret agents, of both sexes and of
varied nationalities, who are paid in hard cash
for their work, according to its estimated value,
are a numerous tribe ; but they are not so
dangerous as those workers in the enemy's in-
terests who are more highly placed and work
from different motives, and are all the more
likely to carry on unsuspected.

Our Home Secretary also draws attention to
the fact that the spies in Germany's interests are
not confined to those of enemy origin, but are to
be found amongst neutrals of nearly all countries.
So we have Bolos at work in England — Bolos
in finance, politics, and society ; but the possi-
bility of a Bolo in spiritism, apparently, has not
come within the Boloism reckoning. It seems
to me, however, to offer a phase of possible evil
requiring careful watching and following up.

Bolo himself, I believe, is a bit of a mystic,
with a belief that — in the Eastern way — he can
read, with a stick in the sand, the riddle of life.
I have frequently seen the past and the present
read in this fashion, with more or less accuracy.
But shots at the future have been by no means
so successful.

I wonder if Bolo has read correctly his own
future ?

CHAPTER XI

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS

So far as possible I have dealt with the various
phases of the so-called occult in chapters to which
they would appear to have special application,
but there remain over little sidelights — odds and
ends, as it were — which do not directly fit in
with any one of these descriptive titles. Indeed,
there is really no end to the instances which
runners after the occult are for ever bringing up
for one's refutation or confusion. Each man's
personal experience is a law unto itself ; and to
throw light upon the darkness of his perplexity,
or to disprove the erroneousness of his con-
clusions, carries neither weight nor conviction
with others who hug their superstitious fallacies
with a kindred tenacity. Life in this world is
too short to permit of a reasoned explanation
being given of every phase of supernaturalism
with which the more or less impressionable person
one comes in contact with is for the moment
obsessed. I will content myself, therefore, with
just a few instances which have come under my
personal attention, and which, in my opinion,
seem to call more than others for particular

notice.

205

206 THAT OTHER WORLD

In the early days of my investigations into the
occult I was brought much in contact with a
young Irishman, who afterwards gained consider-
able distinction at the criminal bar. He had a
somewhat romantic temperament, with, at times,
a dreamy mental outlook on life ; but, ordi-
narily, he was level-headed, with close reasoning
powers, and his knowledge of human nature
was quite considerable, and, in the main, accurate.
Whilst laughing at the claims of spiritualists,
describing the manifestations upon which they
based their belief in another world as mostly
noisy and altogether non-celestial, he professed a
belief in phenomena which could alone be the
outcome of occult agency or some mysterious
force of which no satisfactory explanation, so
far, was forthcoming. He had, he claimed,
experienced the outcome of this mysterious
force, and had witnessed demonstrations so con-
trary to the recognised laws of nature that he
was bound to believe in the reality of occult
agencies. A learned Indian who had been read-
ing with him had caused phenomena to be pro-
duced that baffled all explanation on any other
basis. For instance, a dagger held in his hand
over a bowl would gradually lose its rigidity and
become as pliable in his hands as putty, eventually
dissolving into an impalpable nothingness. He
had not only seen this done but had himself
commenced obtaining similar results. By this
time the Indian student had returned to the " Land
of Peacocks," so I was unable to witness a first-
hand demonstration ; but again and again my

MYSTIC ODDS AND^ENDS 207

friend promised to personally demonstrate his
own powers, so far as they went, in this direction.
One evening I visited his chambers in the
Middle Temple for this purpose, full of curiosity,
tempered, I may add, with just a little healthy
scepticism. In the course of the evening the
dagger was produced. It was a weird, antique
weapon, handsomely chased with quaint figures
and symbols. With it, I was told, a murder had
quite recently been committed out in the Far
East, and I don't think one would have been
casting too severe a reflection upon its character
by crediting it with more than one little peculi-
arity of this kind. It was a weapon made to
kill, and, in the hands of one bent on killing,
would not, I fancy, have disappointed.

My friend took the dagger and held it over an
antique, curiously worked silver bowl containing
rose leaves. He raised it upwards and pressed it
downwards, moved it this way and that, with
many a little fantastic twirl, muttering slowly
but earnestly a sort of incantation. I took no
hand in the matter, merely sitting still and
watching. So far as I could see, no change was
taking place in the form or substance of the
dagger. But the movements and incantation
went on. At length I ventured to ask how the
experiment was progressing. My friend paused
in his movements, and the far-away look in his
eyes died out. There was disappointment in his
voice as he replied. This time the oracle wasn't
working on the hitherto approved plan. He
couldn't quite make it out. Perhaps it was

2o8 THAT OTHER WORLD

through not having got the words of the invoca-
tion quite right. A word missed, wrongly
placed, or incorrectly pronounced would make all
the difference. And it was not an easy formula
to remember and enunciate. To me it was all
so much meaningless gibberish, given forth
though it was with all earnestness. Finally my
friend, on laying down the dagger, explained
that he generally obtained the best effects in the
stillness of the night, and the hour was yet young.
Anxious as I was to meet him in his faith in
the miraculous in every way possible, I said
that time was no object with me, and, if agree-
able to him, I would remain all night to see the
thing through. And so we sat for hours smoking
countless cigarettes, and refreshing ourselves with
spirits of a more visible and potent character than
those which were merely en fair^ so to speak.
And yet, after all, the wonder-working did not
come off ; and when I finally left, the weapon
was lying on the table in precisely the same con-
dition as when it was first taken up.

Subsequent to this sitting my friend took pains
to impress upon me the necessity of having the
correct atmosphere in association with such
phenomena. He was too sensible to mouth the
old tag that my sceptical personality was bound
to provide an antagonistic element. It was not
my presence but the absence of that of the adept,
through whom the marvel was originally pro-
duced, that was the cause of the failure. When
it had come off with him alone he had felt the
astral presence of the adept, which, in his opinion,

r£i

'!

'tin; ..^

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 209

accounted for the result, for not for a single
moment did he claim for himself occult powers
capable of working wonders of this character.
This adept, he informed me, had assured him of
his ability to project at will his astral presence.
That this projection on various occasions had
taken place he was convinced, as he not only had
felt the presence but had seen it. At this I began
to ask myself if he had not seen the astral form
in much the same way as he had seen the gradual
dematerialisation of the murderous weapon over
which he had made the weird chant the previous
evening. But he was so terribly in earnest over
the matter that I really did not like to express
the full extent of my scepticism. I, however,
begged of him to furnish me with a further
sitting, in the hope of securing the astral form's
attendance. This further sitting was accorded
me. We began at a later hour than on the
previous occasion and at a moment when my
friend said he felt the influence of the astral
presence — the same movements with the dagger,
the same gibberish, and the far-away look in the
eyes, but, so far as I could judge, no perceptible
change in the weapon held above the bowl. Yet
my legal friend declared he felt the change occur-
ring ; " And," said he, " you see the form of the
adept there opposite me ? " And he stared with
a sort of ecstatic satisfaction into the corner of the
room on my right. " See," said he : " it is only
a blue outline, the rest is as a cloud." I followed
his eyes, but I could discern neither blue outline
nor astral shadow. The only cloudy substance in

idfiul****

2io THAT OTHER WORLD

the room apparent to me was the outcome of
tobacco smoke. My companion thought me
blind. My failure to see what he saw arose
from a lack of the highly-attuned imagination
by which he was himself influenced. This lack
of imagination, I fear, cuts off many of those other-
world wonders so distinct to those who possess it.
I did not attend any more dagger-dissolving
sittings ; but my friend, to the day of his death,
I am sure, felt convinced that the phenomenon
had actually occurred in the manner and under
the conditions described. So be it !

The possibility of this astral-form projection
is firmly believed in by many who have a leaning
towards Eastern occultism. Personally, I have
never seen an astral form, although on various
occasions I have known adepts for whom this
projective art, amongst other mystic gifts, has
been claimed. Moreover, amongst my own
personal acquaintances there have been those
who have expressed the belief that I myself must
surely possess a similar power or gift, or whatever
goes to make up the force necessary to separate
the spiritual from the material of one's earthly
composition, and frequently I have been asked
to will that my astral self should appear to such
and such a person at such and such a place. More
than once I have tried the experiment, willing
with all my might, thinking with an intensity
that begat severe headaches. In accordance,
moreover, with the rules laid down in connec-
tion with the subject, I have, for the purpose of

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 211

obtaining the desired result, fasted and been
generally ever so good ; but not once have I been
conscious of having effected the spiritual separa-
tion from the material, although I have been
assured that my astral presence has been felt at
the time I was putting the projection to the test.
But, alas ! beyond the mere assurance that my
astral presence had been felt, what proof was
there of such projection having taken place ? The
statement of those to whom the alleged visit was
made would be based upon expectation and the
fulfilment of a desire. Outside of this, what
other proof ? Now, if the one to whom my
astral form had appeared had, for instance, cut
off a lock of hair and retained it as a memento
of the visit, that, at least, would have been some-
thing substantial in the direction of evidence.

The only occasions when I have had seemingly
personal evidence of any passing dematerialisation
of myself have been during a severe bout of
malarial fever, when, lying on bed or couch
with an abnormally high temperature, I have
watched my head leave the trunk and go bump-
ing around the room, the knocks received by the
astral head being felt by the burning material
head still remaining on the pillow.

For the purposes of romance one may make
use of astral forms ; indeed, in my little shocker,
A Fatal Affinity r, I made extensive use of a creation
of this character. But, so far, according to my
personal experience, the evidence is all against their
having any being in this everyday world of ours.

That one may be able to influence another at

212 THAT OTHER WORLD

a distance is not improbable ; indeed, under certain
conditions it possesses the elements of possibility.
The person influenced must, however, desire to be
influenced, and must know that the impressionist
at that particular moment is seeking to establish
that influence. It is not enough for one to wish
and think with all his might. Thought and
wishes will not travel on Marconi-like electric
waves, and the thinker and would-be receiver of
them would have no proof of their receipt outside
of their own anticipations. The impression in
such matters comes from within, and not from
without ; and one may safely say that it is this
inner feeling which, in the case of astral forms,
is mistaken for outward presence.

The feminine temperament is more ripe to
feel impressions of this kind than the masculine,
and the more ready to make false deductions
therefrom. Sentiment and temperament are
closely allied to the mystic.

A very dear lady of my acquaintance, who has
decidedly mystic leanings, strengthened by a long
residence in the East, is strongly of opinion that
she and I met in some form or other in the dim
ages of the past. The opinion, or the feeling, as
she puts it, came to her the first time we met,
gathering conviction with further association.
For my part, I, who have no evidence what
any pre-existence of mine might have done in
the past, or whom it may have known, can only
say that the affinity of the present may very well
preserve the affinity of a past, provided such a
past permitted of a previous acquaintance.

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 213

Feelings and beliefs of this kind are very
common, and amongst those, too, who know
nothing about the reincarnation theory.

How often have I heard people say that they
feel, after a first meeting, as if they had really
known this or that person before ; and how very
common is the expression, " We seem to have
known each other all our lives," although the
knowledge in reality may have been of but short
duration ! The affinity of the present is prone
to draw upon the may-have-been of the unknown
past. There is some naturalness about this, and
some pleasure too. Were the assumption not so
pleasant, it, I take it, would not be so readily
assumed.

All this sort of thing, of course, is based upon
mere assumption. For who can say what and
who we were in the dim ages of the past —
provided, indeed, we had any previous existence
at all?

From the standpoint of pure reasonableness
on an evolutionary basis the theory of spiritual
reincarnation may well be said to be ahead of
spiritism. For, with the spiritistic creed, often
we, in spirit form, may serve to provide some
fraudulent medium with funds and fail to furnish
those that are nearest and dearest to us with
absolute proof of that other world to which it
is claimed we have been translated.

Against this reincarnation theory stands the
protest that one term of earthly tribulation is
enough for any mortal to undergo. Earthly
tribulation, however, is a matter for the body

2i4 THAT OTHER WORLD

rather than the spirit. The Old Ones of ancient
Egypt held that Thoth weighed the souls and
not the bodies of those who passed from earth
to the Judgment Seat. The physical remains of
those appearing for judgment lay wrapped up in
their mummy-clothes where they had been de-
posited, and what was found wanting in the
spiritual part when it was placed upon the scales
was entered up against it. Earthly judgment
had already sat upon the transgressions of the
body, and the lengthy screed describing the many
virtues of the deceased placed with the mummy
was for human consumption only. The findings
of the God of Truth were a lasting record, and
were in most cases possibly greatly at variance
with the earthly estimate in which the departed
had been held. Presumably Thoth, in weighing
the soul when released from another earthly shell,
noted any improvement or deterioration it may
have shown since the last weighing, just as the
earthly case, duly mummified, would have its
earthly record chronicled as usual. That, surely,
is as much as any mortal or spirit can expect !

Apropos of astral projection, a mystic friend of
mine, who has travelled much, and has a know-
ledge of many peoples and their languages, holds
very pronounced views in connection with pro-
jection possibilities. He does not go the length
of asserting that it is possible to appear astrally
in one place whilst remaining in proprta persona
in another. But he emphatically asserts his ability

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 215

to transport an intelligible message at a distance
to anyone en rapport with him. This, I gather,
is not so much the outcome of occult powers as
the result of concentrated thought and will power.
He claims to have first acquired the habit of con-
veying such messages whilst in Thibet, and he
has furnished me with numerous instances of the
success he has achieved in this direction. I have
no means of testing the accuracy of his statements,
and, in the absence of such a test, I must content
myself with accepting them as related for just
what they may be worth. But, in my own case,
I can speak with some definiteness. My friend,
from the first, was of opinion that by temperament
and affinity of thought I was an ideal subject for
such transmission, and begged me to put the
matter to the test. I willingly assented, and
undertook to conform to the conditions he might
lay down.

They were to the effect that on retiring to bed
I should concentrate my entire thought upon re-
ceiving a message he would cause to be sent me.
Whilst doing this I, with wide-open eyes, was to
gaze into the darkness of the room for the sign.
It would come in the shape of a faint blue circle,
and within the circle would appear the message.
Knowing the man's linguistic versatility, I asked
him if the words would be in a language I could
understand, and if it would be written from left
to right or from right to left. He thought a
moment, and then said it would be in a lan-
guage I could understand, and the writing would
run from left to right. The suggestion inter-

2i 6 THAT OTHER WORLD

ested me not a little, and I rigidly obeyed the
instructions laid down. How I gazed into the
darkness of my bedroom! how I lay still waiting
and hoping for the appearance of that blue circle,
thinking hard all the while ! The minutes went
by and the hours, until it was past the appointed
time when the message was to reach me. Still
I kept my thoughts concentrated upon the hope
that it would at length be made visible to me. . . .
A flash of blue across the window, penetrating for
an instant the drawn curtains ! Was that the fore-
runner of the mystic circle ? No, it was but the
tail-end of a searchlight. Quite an old acquaint-
ance these raid nights ! It was, however, the
only blue light I was to see that night. A short
time afterwards the night's stillness was broken
by exploding shrapnel and the thud of falling
bombs. A raid was in full swing.

In that raid my astrally-conveyed message
must have lost its way ; or maybe it omitted to
take shelter, and came to grief through running
its head against shells of purely mundane origin !
Anyway, it failed to reach me, and I had all
my waiting and watching for nothing. It was
discouraging, but I was willing to admit that
the raid might have upset its arrangements, and
that it might fairly claim to have not had a fair
sporting chance. My mystic friend, when I saw
him the following morning, adopted this view.
But, as I pointed out, the raid, so far as my
mental concentration was concerned, did not com-
mence for an hour or two after the time agreed
upon for the receipt of the astral message. To

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 217

this he replied, with an air of some superiority,
that as an outcome of the raid the atmospheric
conditions would probably be disturbed for some
time previous to the actual overhead firing ; and,
under such disturbed and unexpected atmospheric
conditions, difficulties would be placed in the
way of the proper conveyance of a message of
this character. My friend is an electrical and
mining engineer as well as a linguist of mystic
inclinations, and he advanced a number of
scientific reasons for the failure of the test under
the conditions then prevailing. " Leave it at
that," was my reply. But, being anxious to
give the test a fair trial, I asked how long it
might be following the raid before suitable
conditions might with certainty be anticipated.
He explained that the conditions generally were
most favourable during full moon. As this
period, however, is the one considered most
favourable by the raiders, I suggested that we
should wait a while, till, say, the birth of the new
moon. To this he assented. Finally, he agreed
upon a night when another attempt should be
made to convey the message to me.

Again I lay awake and thought and stared ;
but there came no blue circle, no writing therein.
And there was no raid that night, nothing, so far
as I knew, to disturb the atmospheric conditions
so dear to occultly-conveyed messages of this
character. Frankly, I was greatly disappointed.
It was one of those convincing objective signs
for which I had been seeking, and the certainty
of which had been assured me. All my friend

218 THAT OTHER WORLD

could say in explanation of the failure was that
the fault lay with me. He had placed himself
en rapport with me, and had willed the message,
but that I had lacked the requisite mental con-
centration, or had let other outside thoughts
usurp the place of the central idea.

I promptly negatived this explanation. Con-
centration of thought is a matter which I feel
I can carry out with some degree of perfection.
Years of effort have made it all the easier for me.
The explanation of the failure of the test was,
therefore, not to be found in this direction. I,
moreover, was in no way antagonistic to the re-
ception of such a message as my mystic friend felt
he was able to convey. On the contrary, I was
really quite desirous of its success, and, accord-
ingly, was disappointed at its failure to materialise.
My friend either overestimated his powers in this
direction, or miscalculated my suitability from the
point of affinity to be the recipient of messages
of this character. We will leave it at that.

He assured me, however, that sooner or later he
would get a message through to me, maybe when
I least expected it, as it was impossible to lay down
hard-and-fast rules in matters of this kind. He
instanced the case of a man to whom he had sent
a message from Thibet. This man at the time
was somewhere in Southern China, and he had
not heard whether the message had made itself
known. The circumstance, he assured me, had
been forgotten until, some years afterwards,
happening to meet the man to whom the com-
munication had been made, it; was suddenly

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 219

recalled. And the man, he went on, began with
describing how the message became visible to
him, and then repeated the words making up the
message, words which in themselves were at the
time meaningless to him.

After this there is hope in my case too.
When the message originally sent me has grown
tired of wandering aimlessly around, it may elect
to pay me a visit for my information and convic-
tion. It may happen also that further messages
which my friend promises to flash me may find
me at the moment more en rapport with the
sender, and at the same time will enjoy those
atmospheric conditions which would appear to
constitute an element to success !

I have already pointed out how people have
credited me with gifts to which I lay no claim,
and assume I must have powers which — con-
sciously at least — I certainly do not possess.
This is unavoidable, and one gets used to being
misunderstood. But it is a horse of another
colour when people, claiming to be my pupils,
indulge in mysticisms altogether foreign to my
practices and antagonistic to my contentions.
I could cite countless instances of this kind —
diverting and otherwise. One of the most1
diverting is contained in a story told by Lord
Shaughnessy, the President of the Canadian
Pacific Railway. And how well he tells it !

His predecessor in office was Sir William van
Home, with whom in my earlier visits to Canada

220 THAT OTHER WORLD

I was brought much in contact, especially in
connection with literary work associated with
Canada, on which I was then engaged. Sir
William was interested also in my psychological
work, and, on my leaving Canada, claimed that
my mantle had fallen upon his shoulders. But,
it goes without saying, the master was not in it
with the pupil, who professed to be able to do
what certainly was quite beyond me to accom-
plish. A very astute man was Sir William, and
he worked his little mind-reading fakes with con-
siderable skill and effect, and afforded his associates
no little bewildering amusement.

One day, according to Lord Shaughnessy, Sir
William with other C.P.R. directors was travel-
ling on the official car from Ottawa to Montreal,
when the ex- President gave the company a display
of his mind-reading powers.

" Say, Van," said one of the company, " you
seem to be in such good trim this evening that
you might read the number of my watch.''

" I guess you're too late this evening," replied
Van Home, assuming an appropriate weary and
worn-out expression. " I'm tired out now.
Another time with pleasure." So the test was
left for that other time. It came a week or
so later, when the same company was making
another journey in the official car. Again there
were more mind-reading illustrations, and the
mind-reader was reminded about telling the
number of the watch.

" I guess I can fix that little matter up now,"
said van Home, " as I am feeling in just the

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 221

mood for it. So fetch out your watch, and let
me have a shot at it."

The watch was produced, and the mind-
reader, with an appropriate far-away look in his
eyes, placed it to his forehead. Slowly he gave
the number, describing the last figure as being
blurred and difficult to decipher.

" Well, how's that ? " he asked with an air of
triumph.

" Wonderful," said the owner of the watch ;
" and the description of the blurred last figure
is a masterpiece. But, Van, your description
covers the watch I carried last week. This is
another one I'm wearing for the first time."
Tableau !

• • • • • •

To have attributed to you powers which you
in no way possess, however flattering it may be
to the Old Adam of vanity which has its place
in the composition of most men, is calculated to
absorb a good deal of one's time, and to exhaust
most of one's patience. I have had people seek
me out with an attitude that was intensely mystic,
merely to gratify a momentary whim. Once,
in Paris, a very distinguished and charming
lady simply haunted my hotel in her efforts to
find me disengaged and willing to grant her an
interview. She would leave no message and
would not put her query in writing. The
matter in question was of too delicate and im-
portant a character to reach me second-hand.
It had to be put to me personally — and alone.
At last chance favoured her, and she succeeded

222 THAT OTHER WORLD

in catching me when I was alone and disengaged.
I shall never forget the intensity with which she
put her query into words, and the longing look
in her eyes as she awaited my reply. And all it
amounted to after all was, would I find her lost
Planchette ? Great stress was laid upon the fact
that Planchette was a " lady dog," and had a
curly tail. Every effort had been made to dis-
cover the whereabouts of the missing pet. She
had exhausted all the usual channels, and had had
recourse to clairvoyantes without avail, so in her
despair she had come to me. Money was no
object, and she would not be lacking in gratitude.
She was a very graceful, charming lady, and
gratitude from her in itself would have been a
rich reward. But, alas for her peace of mind !
I had to tell her that the mission of finding lost
dogs in either the " lady ': or " gentleman "
category and with or without curly tails was
not mine. I advised her to stick to her mystic
guides, who, even if they did not succeed in
finding the missing Planchette, would certainly
supply her with encouraging and consoling in-
formation so long as she was ready to pay for it.

The lady left me, I fear, in something
approaching a " pet," and, in her disappoint-
ment, was disposed to consider me more of an
unsympathetic brute than an all-discerning seer.

In Madrid a young lady, noted for her beauty
and musical gifts, whom I had met on several
occasions at the British Embassy, paid me a visit
in company with her duenna in order to ascertain
something very near what, I presume, she would

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 223

have termed her heart. The stately duenna waited
discreetly in the anteroom whilst my fascinating
visitor, with impassioned volubility, declared the
object of her visit. It was just this : Two
young bloods of Madrid were very much in
love with her. On family grounds one was as
acceptable as the other, and, personally, she really
had no preference. She could not marry both,
but, eventually, would surely marry one of them
— but which ? Would I advise her ? Would I
make the choice for her ? Alas ! what had I to
do with other people's little love affairs ? And
what man has yet been born who could safely
and wisely take upon himself such a momentous
decision ? Obviously I promptly declined the
r6le cast for me. But she resented my refusal
with the prettiest possible display of petulance.
I explained that in my country when in doubt
we frequently tossed for it, letting the spin of
the coin determine our decision. It, I added,
would possibly collide with her conception of
things to toss a coin with " Heads — Jose ; tails
— Juan." She agreed that it would not be a
convincing decision. It, to tell the truth, was
much too matter-of-fact for her romantic dis-
position. There is chance, but precious little
sentiment, associated with the tossing of a coin.
Finally, I suggested that as she was uncertain in
her choice, and as, presumably, it didn't really
matter much either way who was the successful
suitor, she should let Fate or chance decide for
her. This suggestion made a direct appeal to
her sentimentality. And she left me determined

224 THAT OTHER WORLD

to accept the one — whether Jose or Juan — she
happened first to meet after departing from my
hotel. As I left Madrid the next day, I was at
that time unacquainted with what chance had
decided for Clarita. Indeed, I have never had
the pleasure of since seeing the lady and receiv-
ing her congratulations or reproaches which she
surely would have meted out to me, deservedly
or otherwise.

But in the years to follow I was to hear again
of Clarita and her love affairs. My Ambassador,
who had been her host in Madrid, had become
Ambassador at Constantinople. At the Embassy
one day the topic of conversation turned upon
events in the Spanish capital. Said his Excel-
lency to me, with mock severity :

"That, my friend, was an unfortunate choice
of yours about Clarita."

"How so, sir?"

" Oh, didn't you hear ? Well, after leaving
you, the first man she met happened to be Juan ;
and, having let chance decide for her, she favoured
that worthy young man in preference to all others
— and, finally, married him. And what an un-
happy marriage it turned out to be ! The dear
Clarita, I am afraid, blames you and not her
own choice, as if you had anything to do with
regulating Fate's chance meeting. It is just
possible that if it had been the other way about,
and Clarita had first met Jose instead of Juan,
the marriage might have been equally unfortunate,
and you would have been blamed all the same.
That is woman's way."

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 225

"And Jose, sir?"

"Oh, he, it was said, was searching for you
with a knife or something unpleasantly aggres-
sive, as it had got about that Clarita in her
choice had acted upon a suggestion you had
made her. Woman-like, she didn't keep the
suggestion to herself. She told everyone — in-
cluding myself — how she was in Fate's hands.
That, again, is woman's way. Now you will see,
mon ami^ what comes of giving women advice in
connection with their love affairs : an unhappy
wife, a fearfully jealous husband, and an im-
petuous, indiscreet lover. And divorce is so
difficult in Spain ! "

Since then, as becomes a penitent, I for my
sins have taken unto sackcloth and ashes — an
unbecoming and uncomfortable garb when worn
even merely metaphorically.

Boulanger, of whom I saw a good deal in Paris
in the height of his popularity, and later in exile
in London, had mystic instincts. He was de-
cidedly of opinion that he was the " Man of
Destiny " ; and he, I am afraid, was disappointed
at my inability to prophesy that future for him
which his ambition and instincts had caused him
to map out for himself. He was a man who
said little but who thought a good deal, and,
being of an emotional disposition, was apt to let
his emotions get the better of him, frequently
giving himself away without really knowing it.
M. de Blowitz, the Paris correspondent of the

IS

226 THAT OTHER WORLD

Times, took occasion to telegraph an account of
a seance I had had with le brav general which
teemed with indiscretions, mostly, I should say,
having their origin in the fertile imagination of
M. de Blowitz himself. It did Boulanger a bad
turn, but maybe, as matters eventuated, France a
good one.

Le brav* general stood at that time for all that
France aspired to in the direction of revanche.
And when it became known that the dominant
thought in his mind as my " subject " was
Stuttgart as the objective of an imaginary cam-
paign, the idea was received with acclamation,
although, after all, it was purely a phantasy, and
the circumstance was not intended for publication
and in no case to be taken seriously.

It is at least a somewhat curious circumstance
that the Wurtemberg capital should in these
days of actual warfare have been the objective
of French attack, but by an arm of warfare
undreamt of in Boulanger's time.

About the time Boulanger was looking to me
for psychic confirmation of his mystic ideas, a
clairvoyante, who had read his hand, told him
that he ran the risk of coming to grief through
a woman. But at this he had only smiled.
Boulanger had too great a faith in his star, and,
as a confirmed ladies' man, too much confidence
in himself where the fair sex was concerned, to
give the prophecy serious consideration. And
yet a woman was his undoing ; and anyone who
saw his infatuation for the woman who brought
it about, and the extraordinary influence she was

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 227

gradually but surely establishing over him, need
not have had even the faintest claim to prophetic
powers to have concluded what the inevitable end
would be unless a breach occurred,

Boulanger was a man of some parts, and he
possessed a certain personal magnetism that was
quite attractive, but he lacked grip and deter-
mination. He allowed himself to be run instead
of dictating how others should be run. The one
man around Boulanger who best understood him
was Count Dillon. Had he strictly followed
his advice, and at the same time broken with
Madame de Bonnemain, there might have been
a different end from the sadly tragic one enacted
over that grave in Brussels.

Arabi was another of life's failures who had
mystic instincts, and whose vaulting ambition
was spurred by an occult forecast. He had
been told by one of those weird fortune-tellers, so
numerous in his native land, that a great future
was in store for him as a sort of political mahdi.
In his dull way he began to believe in his star,
and to work out the methods of reaching the
goal foreshadowed in the prophecy. The out-
come of his political activities is ancient history.

I visited Arabi when he was in exile in Ceylon.
A more subdued, ambitionless, patriotic firebrand
it would be impossible to imagine. True, the
humid climate of the island did not suit Arabi,
but it did not altogether account for the man's
utter spiritlessness.

228 THAT OTHER WORLD

He was anxious for me to give him some
illustrations of thought-reading, such as I had
demonstrated with the Khedive in Cairo. I did
so, and successfully too. But Arabi was anything
but a good "subject." He was keen on my
telling him what the future had in store for him.
I explained that no man could say what the
future would bring forth, that I could read only
what a man himself knew, and, as he himself did
not know about his own future, there was not
furnished a readable proposition. His one hope,
I gathered, was to go back to Egypt, to die
if not to live. He was now a man of peace,
without ambition, and from whom nothing
more need be feared.

I came to the conclusion that the subdued
Arabi's estimate of himself was correct, and that
all the prophecy nonsense had been knocked out
of him, and I wrote home accordingly.

I would mention that I looked in on Arabi in
Ceylon from an extended visit to India, during
which I had been the bearer of a congratulatory
message from the Khedive Tewfyk to Lord
Dufferin on his appointment as Viceroy. Lord
DufFerin suggested that it would be quite in-
teresting to see what I made of Arabi psycho-
logically.

In connection with this message, when I next
visited Egypt — Tewfyk Pasha had joined his
fathers, and his son Abbas reigned in his place—
his Highness was. good enough to show me
some attention, and, carrying out what appeared
to have been the wishes of his father, conferred

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 229

upon me the Commandership of the Medjideh,
and created me a Bey.

In connection with my presentation to Abbas
on my arrival at Cairo I found awaiting me at
my hotel a message from a high official at the
Abdin Palace saying that his Highness would
be pleased to receive me the next day at noon.
Upon this I went to Lord Cromer and asked
him if, as a British subject, my presentation
should, as in the case with the Khedive Tewfyk,
come through him. Lord Cromer at once
replied that it was better to let the matter go
through in the way his Highness apparently
desired it. In fact, he pointed out that he wished
it that way too, adding, I should in all probability
get closer to the real thoughts of the Khedive if
brought in touch with him unofficially. "And,"
he added, " one would much like to know his
real thoughts. He certainly is the most per-
plexing psychological study I have ever come
across." From time to time, subsequent to this,
I gave Lord Cromer accounts of my reading of
his Highness. About this time, I would add,
the relations between the young Khedive and
Lord Cromer were somewhat strained. His
Highness entered upon his position as Khedive
in much the same way as a spoiled child enters
into possession of a new toy — a toy to be done
with just as the momentary whim may take him.
Verily, he was hall-marked with the petulancy of
the spoiled child. Vienna society had done its
best to spoil him, and had succeeded beyond,
maybe, its expectations. In addition, his associa-

230 THAT OTHER WORLD

tions with the most aristocratic Court in Europe
had instilled in him autocratic notions which
did not go well in Egypt, following so closely
the liberal-minded ideas of his father. In tem-
perament and ambition his Highness, I was
assured, more closely resembled Abbas I. than
any other member of the Khedivial family who
had preceded him.

I particularly noticed that his Highness,
although he spoke English perfectly, preferred
to speak in German ; and he certainly thought
in that language, even when he was conversing
in English.

I must say that I found Abbas an exceedingly
interesting " subject." He too appeared to take
an interest in me, not on account of my being
British, but as a man who had travelled and had
received some attention at the Courts upon which
he would much have liked to model his own.
Abbas certainly did not understand the psychology
of the English. The bad taste only too frequently
displayed by a certain class of Cook's tourists he
had come to accept as typical of the English
nation ; and he complained to me personally of
the " side " of these bumptious, moneyed non-
descripts, who flaunted it at the fashionable hotels,
and chipped mementoes off Sphinx and Pyramids.
"They give themselves the air of conquerors,"
he concluded, with much bitterness. And at
the back of his head, I fancy, there became a
fixed idea that Lord Cromer not only represented
the British nation with all its dominating influ-
ences, but that he was the wood itself out of

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 231

which these objectionable types which so aroused
his Highness' ire were actually cut. The two
men eventually understood each other better,
but there was a pretty long spell of give-and-
take before this was arrived at. Abbas was too
prone to get the bit between his teeth ready for
a bolt ; and Lord Cromer, knowing his super-
sensitive nature, had to drive with an exceedingly
careful hand.

One thing his Highness resented above all
others was the official attitude adopted towards
a little liaison of his with an attractive young
lady he brought with him from Vienna. With
that goody-goodiness which so distinguishes us, we
lifted our official eyebrows and pursed our official
lips in an attitude of censorious superiority over
the matter. And, after all, what had Abbas' little
love affairs to do with us — officially ? He never
could understand that it was just the English
way — this outstanding moral superiority over
every other nation under the sun. He took it
as another instance of being sat upon and kept
under. His proud and impatient spirit revolted ;
and one may safely assume that the young lady
in question missed no opportunity of fanning the
flame of discontent and adding fuel to his grow-
ing hatred of all things English. I wonder if
this Viennese light-o'-love had a political part to
play after all ? Was it affection that brought her
from the Austrian capital to Cairo, or something
with a deeper-lying object ? It cannot be said
that the Khedive at that time was pro-German,
although Austria — as distinct from Germany —

232 THAT OTHER WORLD

was undoubtedly his "spiritual home." There
were Germans, however, in Cairo who were
talking much and thinking more, and the most
prominent and active amongst them was the
notorious Dr Carl Peters. Of all the men I
have ever met, Peters stands first in his un-
disguised anti-British sentiments. The origin of
this feeling it was not difficult to discover. It
had, I should say, its being in jealousy. Peters had
a petty, jealous nature, and it was gall and worm-
wood to him to see what Great Britain had
accomplished as a world Power, and how well
received was a Britisher who had done anything
for his country, wherever he might go. One
night at Cairo I was invited to a little festive
gathering composed mostly of Germans of note.
It was purely a social affair, and had not the re-
motest connection with anything political ; but
on the chairman proposing my health in a com-
plimentary little speech in excellent English, Dr
Carl Peters got up and vigorously protested
against the use of a language foreign to the
company when German — especially as I under-
stood it — was the proper language to use. " We
hear quite enough English wherever we go in
Egypt without having it drummed into our ears
here," he added, as he sat down in high dudgeon.
There were loud protests ; and when I explained
that the sincerity of the welcome had been brought
all the more clearly home to me through being
so perfectly expressed in a language which I best
understood, the approving shouts of the company
made the militant Peters look very small indeed.

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 233

The following night there was a bal masque at
the Opera House, which Peters excused himself
from attending. An American visitor of my
acquaintance suspected that an intrigue with
"madam" covered the excuse, and on the way
to the Opera House asked me, after unburdening
himself as to the suspicions that were troubling
him, to "stand by him." My acquaintance was
a reckless, shoot-at-sight sort of man ; and as I
had no wish to see blood spilt over one who, in
my opinion, was scarcely worth risking life or
reputation for, I willingly assented, determining
to take every precaution against a fatal encounter.
After a brief stay at the ball the American took
me aside. " I'm ready," he said ; " will you
come ? " He slipped unnoticed from the crowd,
and, keeping close in touch with him, I followed
him quickly to our hotel. At the entrance
he significantly touched his pocket. I saw the
butt-end of a revolver sticking out. As he
mounted the stairs I managed to relieve him of
that weapon. As events turned out, the revolver
would not have come into play that night. The
gallant doctor had met with an accident, badly
breaking his leg, and was confined to his room,
which he was unable to leave for weeks after
M. et Madame had returned to Yurrup.

Dr Peters, amongst other phantasies in con-
nection with colonial exploration, was obsessed
with the idea that he had discovered the veri-
table Land of Ophir ; and, what doubtless was of
even greater personal satisfaction to him, succeeded
in getting his credulous countrymen to swallow

234 THAT OTHER WORLD

this belief to the extent of buying shares in
companies he formed for the purpose of exploit-
ing his discoveries.

According to Peters, mystic influences, in
which wild and untamed monkeys took a part,
guided him in his finds. Those hairy denizens
of the wilds would come down to the river bank
in the morning and talk with him, and point out
where to prospect. " They were good friends
of mine," Peters once assured me. About, I
should say, the only " good friends " Dr Carl
Peters ever made in German East Africa the
whole time he was there.

Egyptian magic of to-day is but a poor sort
of thing as compared with that ruling in the
land at the time of the Pharaohs. Then, one
is forced to conclude, it is only too true that
the magicians in high places — as with the seers
of our own later day — resorted to trickery,
mechanical and otherwise, for their effects.
None, in reality, may have possessed super-
natural powers ; but the mental and other gifts
of some were none the less remarkable, and
they achieved results which might well have
been considered miraculous. For instance, that
famous servant of the gods, I-Em-Hotep, High
Priest of Ra, had not only considerable scientific
knowledge, but possessed powers of suggestion to
a most remarkable extent. Recent discoveries of
mine have caused me to write a book around this
great man and his times. It is pure romance,

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 235

with, however, a background of scientific possi-
bilities. I have already found a title for it —
The Servant of the Master — and it will be my next
publication.

To-day in Egypt one has to content oneself
with the mental and physical hysterics of
dancing dervishes and the speculative inaccura-
cies of fortune-tellers — readers of the hand or
through signs drawn in the sands.

I have in mind a prominent sign-reader and
fortune-teller of this class who, whilst getting
fairly near to facts covering the past and present,
made — as events turned out — woefully bad hits
with respect to the future. His name was
Abdul, and he did very well out of visitors
with curiosity to be satisfied. In later years he
pitched his tent in Paris and London. Here the
law bade him pack it up and make tracks for a
more suitable site. At the first consultation with
Abdul there were three ladies with me — one
English and two French. At the English lady
he shook his head. He could make nothing of
her. This I put down to her obvious matter-of-
factness. But with the French ladies the seer
was exceedingly voluble, and described the past,
present, and future of each without the slightest
hesitation. One was never to get married or
have children, but was to go on her " lonely," as
it were, the world over in single blessedness. But
the other was to marry late in life, and quite an
old man at that. And she was to have one child
— a boy. But he in his turn would not marry.
When asked why he wouldn't marry, the seer

236 THAT OTHER WORLD

answered that he would not marry because he
could not, but why he could not was left un-
explained. Maybe by the time he arrived at
marriageable age the stock of marriageable girls
would have run out !

In the result, the lady who was to marry late
in life is still unmarried, and very much in the sere
and yellow leaf of disappointed old maidism ;
and, as far as anything is certain in this world,
one, I think, can safely assume that no old man
will in the end be found coming along to offer
her his hand and fortune.

As to the other lady, doomed to feverish travel-
ling unrest and unwedded loneliness, she has been
more or less a fixture in one place, and the last
time I saw her she was walking hand-in-hand
with a boy in knickerbockers — her son.

As to myself, I was to experience a spell of
varied years of health and prosperity — in periods
of seven lean and seven fat. So far the fat ones
have not materialised. Maybe they are merely
waiting till after the war !

The last time I met Abdul was in a West-end
cafe. He had dropped his white headgear and
flowing robes, and was dressed in sombre black
— a far less picturesque figure than in the old
days. In the course of conversation I reminded
him how much astray his prophecies had gone.
He solemnly shook his head, and explained with
many gestures that many unforeseen things hap-
pened in life to make things otherwise certain
become uncertain ; and, with respect to the
ladies, he, in his broken English, went on to

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 237

add, " French ladies verra unsure about marriage
and children," which, to his mind, I suppose,
sufficiently explained the matter. Asked how
he was getting on in London, the seer explained
that the London atmosphere was " verra bad "
for his work, and that the police were " verra
bad men." For latter-day necromancers the
police, I am free to admit, are not exactly good.
And, generally speaking, it is just as well they
are not.

From invoking spirits from the other world
to dealing with the shades of the under-world
is with certain mentally constituted folk but a
short step. Your neurotics and crooked mental
sticks are for ever seeking after something un-
canny and out of the common, a something that
is sour to the palate of the healthy-minded. I
have more than once during my travels come
across those who have indulged in a little Satanic
worship on the quiet. The followers of this
form of uncanniness are a furtive set, working
mostly in secret and in the dark. In more than
one European capital little coteries have been
formed who have embraced the devil-worship
cult and, within the circle containing the
followers thereof, have openly practised certain
mysterious devilish rites. The followers have
been mostly women, but the chief of the
circle has invariably been of the male sex. He
generally has managed to work himself up into
the belief that he is something exceptionally
devilish, and to impress upon the hysterical

238 THAT OTHER WORLD

following that he is a being to be feared as well
as obeyed. To obtain from him powers to do
as much mischief as possible in this world has,
I believe, been the dominating reason with the
perverted following for remaining members of
the cult. I have been asked to attend a gala-
night seance with the chief on his throne and
with all the rites in full swing, but I have
never had the stomach for such adventure ; and,
in any case, I would never have gone alone or
without the stoutest dog-whip I could lay my
hands on. The dog-whip well laid on is about
the only antidote for such blasphemous folly.
On one occasion, however, I gave an otherwise
highly intelligent and deeply read young man,
who had gone over, or was on the verge of going
over, to the crazy movement, an hour or so of
attention whilst he unfolded his views on the
subject. He was of opinion that it was far
easier to work evil than good in this world, and
that the devil, the chief worker of evil, was the
more powerful influence this side of death.
Satan, he opined, was ever destructive and never
by any chance creative ; but there was one anti-
dote against his destructiveness, the secret of
which he possessed. He ended by opening a
case and fetching from it three peacocks' feathers ;
one he placed in each of my hands, passing the
other over my brow and tickling me with it
behind my ears, reading the while from a black-
letter MS. in front of him. It sounded strange
in the stillness of that room ; but of the actual
meaning of it I had not the remotest idea, as the

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 239

words were in a language utterly unknown to
me. In the end I was declared to be immune
against Satanic machinations ; and, at the same
time, the offer was made to enrol me as a sort of
Grand Master to render equal immunity to others.
Now, that young man was not mad in the
ordinary acceptance of the term insane, but he
was a decidedly queer case, and, without doubt,
terribly in earnest. He has passed out of my
life, and the mystic peacocks' feathers served as
pipe-cleaners, thus doing probably more effective,
useful work than that which they were intended
to perform.

A phase of the mystic which greatly impressed
me the first time I witnessed it. I was very
young at the time, and not up to all the little
tricks of the trade. It consisted of writing
appearing in letters of blood upon the arm of
the seer whose hand I was holding. The letters
gradually formed themselves, until the whole word
was clearly visible and readable, slowly fading and
disappearing, leaving the arm perfectly normal
again. The mystic, in a second attempt, suc-
ceeded in bringing out in a like manner a name
and date I had first written on a piece of paper,
which I afterwards concluded he must have seen
or got at in some way unknown to me. Later
I was to discover how easy it was to get at what
an inquirer might convey to paper. But the
writing, how was that managed ? Having got
name and date, the next thing was to get the arm
to speak. But there was no spiritual agency or

240 THAT OTHER WORLD

mystic art known to me which would produce
such an effect. The writing had, therefore, to
be impressed on the arm by mundane means.
I commenced writing names and dates on my
own left arm and watching the effect. I made
a sad bungle of it at first. Either the stylus I
used was too pointed and bruised the skin, or
was pressed too deeply and was too visible at the
start. But after some practice, and having at
length adopted a stylus of the right pointedness,
I managed it all right, and was able to repro-
duce naturally what was alleged to be the out-
come of an obliging supernaturalism.

I gave a demonstration to that eminent
physician Sir James Paget, who made some
interesting comments upon the peculiarity of my
skin, the composition of which so well permitted
me to carry out the experiment. It would appear
that differently constituted flesh would not furnish
means for the production of similar results. I
am glad that the writing fades into nothingness,
leaving no after-marks of what has been there ;
or my arm, after the illustrations of the mystic
art it has been called upon to furnish, would
indeed be a sight for the gods ; and what a police
clue, too, in case one were " wanted " !

As I say elsewhere, the supernaturalism of the
West does not go with the occultism of the East.
The two things are apart, and my detailed
experiences of Eastern occultism are for another
occasion. But, before closing this chapter, I

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 241

may include just one mystic item peculiar to
India.

There was not so long ago a very-much-talked-
of mystic whose marvels, which created almost
a sensation, were the subject of the widest con-
troversy. A distinguished Indian Political of my
acquaintance gave me a description of an incident
which had occurred in his presence, the hang of
which he frankly admitted was beyond him.

There was a little tea-party in the hills to
which he had been invited, but which at the
time he felt he would be unable to attend. But
it so happened that at the last moment he found
himself able to put in an appearance. His
attendance being unexpected, he found on his
arrival they were a cup and saucer short. This
did not, however, in the least disconcert the giver
of the feast, for was not the almost divine mystic
there, and would not she in some way or other
make good the shortcoming ? But how ? Cups
and saucers were not taken from the air after the
fashion of conjurers' coins ; and even if they were,
who would dare to associate this gifted being with
such vulgarities as mere sleight-of-hand tricks ?
No, madam had another and more convincing
way of working the oracle. The usual far-away
look, the familiar gibberish and mystic movements
of the hands, and, lo and behold ! the problem was
solved. An invisible astral form had indicated
where a cup and saucer would be found ready
for use. It was embedded in the solid earth at
their feet. Dig, and they would find. And the
digging commenced, solid undisturbed earth being

16

242 THAT OTHER WORLD

removed and cast away until, some distance down,
the diggers came upon the articles desired.

" I am convinced," said my friend, " there was
a fake somewhere, but where it came in puzzles
me. The earth from the surface downwards
until we came upon the cup and saucer had been
undisturbed, so, obviously, they had not been
planted there beforehand. The trickster certainly
did his work very cleverly, however he did it."

Knowing something of the way in which
these miracles were worked, I put the following
questions to him : —

" Were the cup and saucer of the same pattern
as the rest of the set ?

" To whom did they belong ?

" And if not the property of the mystic, could
she have had previous access to them ? "

The answer to question one was in the
affirmative ; and to question two, that the owner
was the giver of the tea-party, with whom the
mystic was temporarily staying.

My friend also admitted that it would be of
considerable indirect advantage to the mystic to
have had him present at the gathering, especially
if he left it mystified.

" There," I said, " we have the milk in the
cocoanut ; and it would be worth getting the
little surprise ready in case you, after all, managed
to turn up. If you hadn't done so, then prob-
ably there would have been nothing doing."

I explained that whilst I was quite ready to
accept as perfectly accurate the circumstance as he
had related it, yet as it had appeared to me some-

MYSTIC ODDS AND ENDS 243

thing might have been left out, some trifling
thing which would have furnished the desired
clue. One thing was quite certain, that the cup
and saucer had not been placed there by mahat-
maistic influence, but was the work of human
hands. Whose ? Now, the mystic had associ-
ated with her a very cunning young Indian, who
had been very useful in working other miracles ;
and if he were with her on the occasion of the
tea-party incident, he, in all probability, had a
hand in that too. Further examination of the
incident put me in touch with the key to the
mystery. The tea-party had taken place on a
tableland at the edge of a precipitous cliff; and
it struck me that an explanation would be found
in the probability of someone having been
previously lowered over the cliff, and thus en-
abled to make a tunnel under the tableland,
depositing the cup and saucer at the end of this
tunnel, so that lateral digging would go through
solid earth until the hidden objects were reached.
An examination proved the correctness of this
surmise. The little tunnel and the footmarks
where the excavator had clung on to the face of
the cliff with his toes, after being lowered from
a rope made taut on the ground above, were
distinctly traceable. The young man who did
the trick was the same young man I had in my
mind ; and I believe he afterwards owned up to
the part he played.

With this, ye mystic odds and ends, adieu !

CHAPTER XII

BY WAY OF CONCLUSION

THE preceding chapters will have shown what
my personal experiences in the realms of the
mystic have been, what my observations have
noted and my examinations discovered. I could
have added to them materially, but to have done
so would have entailed not a little overlapping
and tiresome reiteration. There is a familiar
family likeness associated with these so-called
occult phenomena, they, more or less, being
hewn from one parent piece of wood. I think
I have said enough to convince all common-sense,
right-thinking people of the purely natural aspect
of much that has been erroneously labelled super-
natural. I am, however, quite sure that what I
have said will not bring conviction to those who
are not out to be convinced, and, with not a few,
that I shall arouse a condemnation unqualified by
the faintest sense of appreciation.

One is up against a strange phase of mentality
in dealing with the phantasies to which the out-
and-out spiritist is wedded. Instead of being
appreciative of any action which serves to lay
bare imposture, or to establish beyond cavil the

spuriousness of phenomena ascribed to spirit

244

BY WAY OF CONCLUSION 245

forces, one finds the spiritist adopting an attitude
of resentment not unmixed with abuse. This
attitude leaves me perfectly calm ; but, neverthe-
less, it is a somewhat absurd one to adopt. Being
built that way, the spiritist cannot help himself,
I suppose.

I do not accuse every believer in the occult
of conscious deception. Far from it. Most
emphatically I would say I have no doubt that
very many are perfectly sincere and honest in
their beliefs, however one may question the
correctness of the conclusions arrived at. But
alas ! they themselves will not admit the possi-
bility of self-deception or erroneous deductions
having part in their conclusions.

I do not believe in spirit phenomena, through,
in the first place, being of the firm opinion that
the natural covers everything associated with
them ; and, in the second place, that my personal
experiences have tended to cement beyond question
this conviction.

True, as I have already said, I may have been
singularly unfortunate in my experiences, but in
such matters it is chiefly by one's own experi-
ence that one is best qualified to arrive at an
approximately correct conclusion.

This brings me to the attitude adopted by so
many who are prone to believe without examina-
tion, and who resent the findings of those who
have examined.

They say in effect : " You do not answer this
or explain that " ; and there are advanced for ex-
planation illustrations of spirit power which are

246 THAT OTHER WORLD

said to have been experienced or witnessed by
themselves, or by others in whom they have the
utmost confidence.

Now, what direct evidence have I that such-
and-such a manifestation has happened under the
exact conditions claimed for them ?

How can I furnish an explanation of what I
myself have not witnessed ?

Not believing in the possibility of spirit mani-
festation, I cannot but assume that the alleged
occurrence is a figment of fancy rather than an
objective instance of reality.

I have yet to learn that it is possible to dis-
prove a negative ; and, in my opinion, in furnish-
ing an explanation of subjective phenomena of
this description, I should be dealing with a purely
negative proposition.

I would lay emphasis upon the fact that whilst
I do not accept the phenomena ascribed to spirit
power as being of the nature claimed for them,
I in no way deny the existence of another world;
this other world of my hope and belief, however,
being of a character very different from that
depicted by the credulous, unscrupulous, and
unscientific.

Death is certain, and a life after death may
be equally certain, but what so far is lacking is
demonstrable proof thereof. It is not likely that
proof will come through the agency of those
who, on the one hand, seek to make money out
of dupes, or, on the other hand, through those
who are gratifying an abnormal mystical instinct.

I have always felt the spirits of the departed

BY WAY OF CONCLUSION 247

must be too worthily occupied in the celestial
sphere to which they have been translated to
return to this world to indulge in physical antics,
and gabble or scribble volumes of meaningless
nonsense wholly unworthy or unbecoming of
a celestial visitor of no matter what grade of
spiritual development.

At the moment of writing I note the Kaiser
has outstepped even himself in the matter of
blasphemous assumptions, putting entirely in the
shade the claims of the most outrageous amongst
mediumistic impostors. This megalomaniac
German Emperor now claims not only the
certainty of the God of Battles being on the side
of the Central Powers, but that the Almighty
personally directs the Central Empire's affairs
to the confusion and undoing of the Allies. The
Kaiser, one may take it, in his disordered vision
sees the Almighty fighting side by side with the
Germanic forces in much the same way as the
Romans saw Castor and Pollux and the ancient
Egyptians their god Osiris. As with the pagans
of old, the god of the Kaiser will be a material
deity, with whom he is able to have direct com-
munication.

It would, I fear, be as useless to argue with
the German Kaiser on the subject of his hallu-
cination as it would be to try to convince
the minor vision-seers that the celestial beings
with whom they claim to have established con-
nection are mere figments of the imagination.

Prior to the claim advanced by the Kaiser, the
greatest extent in the direction of blasphemy

248 THAT OTHER WORLD

the most shameless amongst mortals had gone
had been found in the outrageous assumption of
an American medium that he had formed an
Apostolic Circle for materialisations. I had
attended a so-called " Classic Circle " ; but an
Apostolic one ? No ! That was far too much
for me !

The Kaiser is indeed a weird, complex character.
He is mentally constructed on a plane different
from that of any other of this world's inhabitants
whom, as a psychologist, I have done myself the
honour of studying. His colossal vanity is an
outstanding feature, and his excessive touchiness
another.

From the beginning I knew to the full that
I had unconsciously made myself a persona non
grata to his Majesty through operating with my
" subjects " chiefly by contact with the left hand,
thus making experiments of this kind with him, in
consequence of his infirmity, far too conspicuous.
I do — as in tests requiring the drawing of a picture
thought of by the subject — take the right hand,
unless, of course, the artist be left-handed ; but,
as a general thing, I find it easier and more satis-
factory to operate through the left hand.

After the Kaiser's blasphemous references to
his celestial partnership, an experiment through
his right hand, requiring me to depict on a
drawing-board his conception of the celestial
result he had in his mind, would, I fancy, pro-
duce a glorified portrait of himself, probably with
heavenly wings, and certainly with a halo. In

BY WAY OF CONCLUSION 249

arriving at this conclusion, I am strengthened
by the information which came to me on the
occasion of his Majesty's visit to the Holy
Land. It was to the effect that it was with great
difficulty he was prevented entering Jerusalem on
an ass, and from essaying an ascension in a captive
balloon which was to have been included in the
baggage taken with him to the Holy Land.

I trust the Kaiser will do me the favour of
reading this book. Apart from the regulations
prohibiting intercourse with the enemy in time
of war, the conditions governing the receipt of
a work by an author other than a German subject,
by the Head of the Hohenzollerns, prohibits my
sending him a copy.

Many crowned heads and other rulers have
done me the honour of accepting copies of my
works ; and, for my sins, may have read them.
But the Kaiser, Wilhelm II., has not done me
a similar honour.

On the publication of A Thought-Header's
Thoughts I sent a copy to Count Hatzfeldt, the
German Ambassador in London, with the request
that he would do me the favour of forwarding
it to his Majesty for his gracious acceptance. I
was well acquainted with his Excellency, who
was present on the occasion of my reading the
thoughts of the Kaiser's grandfather, Wilhelm I.,
and he duly despatched the book to Berlin. My
King and Queen had been graciously pleased to
accept a copy of it, and so had other august per-
sonages. But his Majesty the German Emperor
was not disposed to be similarly gracious.

250 THAT OTHER WORLD

Back came the book unopened^ with the curt
information that it was contrary to the rigid
Prussian Court etiquette for his Majesty to accept
the work of an author who was not a German.
I called upon Count Hatzfeldt, and he explained
to me that a foreign author must have the pro-
posed presentation of his work made through his
own Ambassador, resident in Berlin. Upon this
I wrote to my Ambassador, who, in return, in-
formed me that before he could submit my book
for his Majesty's gracious acceptance I must
get the permission of the Foreign Secretary in
London for him (the Ambassador) to make the
presentation.

Well, the red-tapeism of all this did not
appeal to me. I decided that the Kaiser might
get his copy — should he so desire — in his own
way, and I retained the returned advance copy,
bearing my autograph, as a memento of the divine
restrictions that doth hedge in a Hohenzollern.

I had had a previous experience of the divin-
ity that doth hedge in the cast-iron etiquette
of Hohenzollernism. Prince George of Hohen-
zollern— the only member of the family, so far
as I know, who had a weakness for spiritualism
— had expressed a desire to receive me, and, ac-
companied by my secretary, a German- American,
I attended at his palace at the hour appointed.
My secretary, I noticed, was attired in evening
dress, with a quantity of decorations — which he
was rightly entitled to wear or otherwise — pinned
to the left breast of his coat, whilst I was wearing
a frock-coat. The mardchal-en-suite received us

BY WAY OF CONCLUSION 251

with marked courtesy ; but there was a critical,
deprecating look in his eye as he took a from-
top-to-toe glance at my attire. He called my
secretary aside, and then it was politely pointed
out that my costume, however suitable it might
be for London, was not de rigueur in Berlin so
far as a member of the Royal House of Prussia
was concerned, and I was asked if I minded
returning to my hotel and exchanging it for a
more appropriate get-up.

I explained that I was dressed exactly as I
should have been had I been calling privately on
the Prince of Wales at Marlborough House, and
that, however much I wished to fit myself in
with the rigid demands of his Royal Highness,
I had a conscientious objection to appearing in
broad daylight in the garb of a waiter out on
a " beano." So, in the end, I returned to my
hotel without having an audience of the Prince,
whose amour propre^ I was afterwards to learn,
had been greatly offended.1

1 I would say that the strict Hohenzollern etiquette
governing male attire ruled at the Rumanian Court as well
as in Berlin. At an official reception accorded me at the
royal palace in Bukarest, I, on my arrival, discovered that,
whilst the ladies of the gathering were in morning dress —
hats and bonnets and all that sort of thing — the men were in
uniform or in evening dress. Back I rushed to my hotel to
change and to make myself duly presentable. This made me
late. On explaining matters to King Carol he graciously
remarked that, in my case, it didn't matter in the least j and
Queen Marie (then Crown Princess) amiably added that people
were there to see what I was pleased to show them, and not
how I was dressed. King Carol, by the by, added the insignia
of Officier of the Crown of Rumania to the decorations I was
expected to wear on that occasion.

252 THAT OTHER WORLD

I am wondering if the Prince, on his trans-
lation to that other sphere where, according to
the author of Sherlock Holmes^ the inhabitants
wear clothes, will insist upon presentations being
made to him in the attire which whilst he was
in earth life in Berlin was alone acceptable.

I might mention that in connection with
A Thought-Reader s Thoughts another odd thing
happened. The book had been prohibited in
Russia, and, together with other works of mine,
was on the official black list. However, when
the Tzar Alexander III. was one of the family
party, on the occasion of the celebration of the
King and Queen of Denmark's golden wedding,
at Castle BernstorfF, near Copenhagen, an august
lady, to whom I had given a copy on its publi-
cation, placed it on a table by his Majesty's
bedside, so that he could read it at his leisure.
I think he did so. Anyhow, he evinced consider-
able interest in my experiments, whatever he may
have thought of my outspokenness in connection
with Bureaucracy's misrule — an outspokenness
which succeeded in getting the book black-listed.
It was very thoughtful of the august lady in
question to let the Tzar of All the Russias see
with his own eyes what his underlings would not
permit to enter any part of his vast dominions.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has thought fit to
rebuke me (and apparently those who think with

BY WAY OF CONCLUSION 253

me) for my levity. As I pointed out at the time
in the Daily Express (a paper which, by the by,
in connection with the craze has been on the
side of sanity), I was entirely with him in agree-
ing that spiritualism has something more than its
comic side. One cannot overlook the tragic side
of the movement, with its grave risks of mental
derangement and moral undoing. The craze is
an unreal, unhealthy one, and the following of
it furnishes neither compensation nor results.

If in this book I have been the means of
making the more understandable what, to many,
may hitherto have seemed inexplicable, — if I
have brought home to others the unrealities,
follies, and chicaneries of the whole business, — I
shall indeed be glad. And if I can be of service
to anyone in doubt or in search of a natural ex-
planation of what may seem to be supernatural,
I shall be still more glad.

For years 'past I have ceased to give public
demonstrations on the subject ; but as they pro-
vide the means of bringing more directly home
to people than any other method the falsity of
the claims of the mediums and their dupes to
the supernatural origin of certain demonstrable
phenomena, I should be disposed to return to
the platform to demonstrate in the cause of
scientific truth, and at the same time benefit such
charities as may feel disposed to make use of
my services.

PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.

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