Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 225 pages of information about Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism.

Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 225 pages of information about Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism.

Mr. Sellers:  Are those the shoes which you usually wear?

The Medium:  I wear all kinds of shoes.

Mr. Sellers:  Are the sounds sometimes produced in your room when you have no shoes on.

The Medium:  More or less.  They are produced under all circumstances.

Following the suggestion of the Medium, all present proceed through an intervening apartment to the library where the Medium selects various positions—­standing upon a lounge, then upon a cushioned chair, next upon a step-ladder and finally upon the side of a book-case—­but all with a like unsuccessful result, no response by rappings being heard.

Upon an intimation being given by a member of the Committee that the Medium may be wearied, the further prosecution of the Investigation is temporarily deferred.

* * * * *

After the examination of Mrs. Kane, and after the Stenographer had left, the Commission held a conference, and commissioned Mr. Furness to lay before Mrs. Kane the question of continuing or closing the investigation, so far as she was concerned.  If she were sanguine of more satisfactory results at another seance, the Commission was willing to prolong the investigation.

GEO. S. FULLERTON,

Secretary.

Below is given the letter from Mr. Furness, explaining why the investigation of Mrs. Kane was not continued.  The decision to discontinue it came from her.

My Dear Fullerton: 

You remember that the members of The Seybert Commission separated last evening with the understanding that we should meet Mrs. Kane again this evening, if Mrs. Kane desired it, and that they requested me to lay the question before her for her decision.

Accordingly, I had an interview with her this morning, of which the following is as accurate an account as I can remember.

I told her that the Commission had now had two seances with her, and that the conclusion to which they had come is that the so-called raps are confined wholly to her person, whether produced by her voluntarily or involuntarily they had not attempted to decide; furthermore, that although thus satisfied in their own minds they were anxious to treat her with all possible deference and consideration, and accordingly had desired me to say to her that if she thought another seance with her would or might modify or reverse their conclusion, they held themselves ready to meet her again this evening and renew the investigation of the manifestations; at the same time I felt it my duty to add that in that case the examination would necessarily be of the most searching description.

Mrs. Kane replied that the manifestations at both seances had been of an unsatisfactory nature, so unsatisfactory that she really could not blame the Commission for arriving at their conclusion.  In her present state of health she doubted whether a third meeting would prove any better than the two already held.  It might be even more unsatisfactory, and instead of removing the present belief of the Commission it might add confirmation of it.  In view of these considerations, she decided not to hold another seance.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.