The Confessions of Medium.—Spiritualistic Phenomena Explained on Theory of Telepathy.—Interesting Statement of Mrs. Piper, the Famous Medium of the Psychical Research Society.
The subject of spiritualism has been very thoroughly investigated by the Society for Psychical Research, both in England and this country, and under circumstances so peculiarly advantageous that a world of light has been thrown on the connection between hypnotism and this strange phenomenon.
Professor William James, the professor of psychology at Harvard University, was fortunate enough some years ago to find a perfect medium who was not a professional and whose character was such as to preclude fraud. This was Mrs. Leonora E. Piper, of Boston. For many years she remained in the special employ of the Society for Psychical Research, and the members of that society were able to study her case under every possible condition through a long period of time. Not long ago she resolved to give up her engagement, and made a public statement over her own signature which is full of interest.
A brief history of her life and experiences will go far toward furnishing the general reader a fair explanation of clairvoyant and spiritualistic phenomena.
Mrs. Piper was the wife of a modest tailor, and lived on Pinckney street, back of Beacon Hill. She was married in 1881, and it was not until May 16, 1884, that her first child was born. A little more than a month later, on June 29, she had her first trance experience. Says she: “I remember the date distinctly, because it was two days after my first birthday following the birth of my first child.” She had gone to Dr. J. R. Cocke, the great authority on hypnotism and a practicing physician of high scientific attainments. “During the interview,” says Mrs. Piper, “I was partly unconscious for a few minutes. On the following Sunday I went into a trance.”
She appears to have slipped into it unconsciously. She surprised her friends by saying some very odd things, none of which she remembered when she came to herself. Not long after she did it again. A neighbor, the wife of a merchant, when she heard the things that had been said, assured Mrs. Piper that it must be messages from the spirit world. The atmosphere in Boston was full of talk of that kind, and it was not hard for people to believe that a real medium of spirit communication had been found. The merchant’s wife wanted a sitting, and Mrs. Piper arranged one, for which she received her first dollar.
She had discovered that she could go into trances by an effort of her own will. She would sit down at a table, with her sitter opposite, and leaning her head on a pillow, go off into the trance after a few minutes of silence. There was a clock behind her. She gave her sitters an hour, sometimes two hours, and they wondered how she knew when the hour had expired. At any rate, when the time came around she awoke. In describing her experiences she has said:
“At first when I sat in my chair and leaned my head back and went into the trance state, the action was attended by something of a struggle. I always felt as if I were undergoing an anesthetic, but of late years I have slipped easily into the condition, leaning the head forward. On coming out of it I felt stupid and dazed. At first I said disconnected things. It was all a gibberish, nothing but gibberish. Then I began to speak some broken French phrases. I had studied French two years, but did not speak it well.”
Once she had an Italian for sitter, who could speak no English and asked questions in Italian. Mrs. Piper could speak no Italian, indeed did not understand a word of it, except in her trance state. But she had no trouble in understanding her sitter.
After a while her automatic utterance announced the personality of a certain Dr. Phinuit, who was said to have been a noted French physician who had died long before. His “spirit” controlled her for a number of years. After some time Dr. Phinuit was succeeded by one “Pelham,” and finally by “Imperator” and “Rector.”