I
It is hardly surprising that Spiritualists should differ among themselves as to the nature of the controls, for some of these controls are very curious people. Let us consider, for instance, the group which appears in “Raymond.” One of the most active is “Moonstone,” who tells inquirers that he was a Yogi, who lived as a hermit on earth, “a good life, but a selfish one.” He now desires to help humanity, “and so that is why I came back to my Medie, and try to bear through him the sorrows of the world.” Another control is “Redfeather,” who is apparently of North American Indian origin, though this is not distinctly stated. At one point the spirit of the supposed Raymond says, “Chap with red feather helping.”[12] “Redfeather” remarks when first taking command, “I come dis little minute to try experiment. If we succeed, all right; if we don’t, don’t mind.… Who could help better than me?… Long ago I was killed.”[13]
To relieve the tension of a strongly emotional scene which follows, an old Irishwoman named Biddy takes control. She begins: “Sure it’s meself that has come to speak. Here’s another mother.… I come to help to soothe the nerves of the medium.… I was a washer-woman, and lived next a church, and they say cleanliness comes next to godliness! One of my chains is to help mothers.”
Most singular of all the controls in “Raymond” is the Oriental girl “Feda,” who in her broken language talks of “Yaymond,” and pronounces three-syllabled words in a careful and drawn-out manner. The controls, as Dr. Jacks says, are often remote people, and he mentions the case of an Egyptian priest belonging to the time of one of the Pharaohs.
What are we to think of “Dr. Phinuit,” that singular control of Mrs. Piper, who described himself as a French doctor born at Marseilles about 1790? He gave particulars of his birth, education, and life in Paris, where, according to his own account, he died about 1860. Enquiries failed to reveal any trace of his existence. He gave no indication of possessing any scientific knowledge of medicine. More surprising still, his knowledge of French appeared to extend only to a few simple phrases, which might have been familiar to the medium. As Mr. J. Arthur Hill remarks, “The French doctor spoke no more French than Mrs. Piper herself might be supposed to know.”[14]
How many Spiritualists believe to-day that William Grocyn, the teacher of Erasmus, acted as a control to Mr. Stainton Moses? Or that the group of Broad Church controls—Imperator, Rector and the rest—who inculcated their theology through the mediumship of Mr. Moses, afterwards invaded the personality of Mrs. Piper?