The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism

by A. Leah Underhill

“After a time, the mediums and a few others being at the table, raps were heard, mostly on the floor (or rather upon a three or four inch platform covering the stuffed or deadened floor), while a few gentle ones were felt and heard as if made on the table. Afterward, when Mrs. Brown stood by a large wooden box, and put first her finger and then a common pencil against the box, the raps were heard there as on the box and near her hand. Again, when she stood upon a covered stool, the sounds seemed to be made beneath her on the platform. Again, when the two mediums were both standing on the stuffed seat of a sofa, the persons near them remarked that they heard sounds as from the wood of the sofa, and also from the wall against which the sofa stood. My position was distant from the sofa, and I only state what others who were near remarked. Many of the raps upon the platform and one or two upon the box were quite distinctly heard in most parts of the room.

“Near the close of their sitting, Prof. Agassiz stated that the production of such sounds could be referred to known laws, and said, ‘Before the investigation is over we will explain to you how they may be produced.’

“When about to separate, Major Rains expressed a wish that all would stop and compare notes, and come to an agreement as to what had actually occurred or been exhibited. A few sentences as to the propriety or importance of this course were exchanged between him and Prof. Pierce, when the Professor said, with a very ironical and discourteous tone and look, ‘We thank you, sir, for your advice,’ and bowing, hastily left the room. This occurred while a portion of the company were about leaving the room—while nearly all were standing and ready to go—while promiscuous conversation was going on—and it is not probable that many heard or saw what is here described. I was standing by the side of Major Rains, and saw and heard the whole most distinctly. Mortified and ashamed at the tones and looks of this representative of Alma Mater and of Science, when addressed to a gentleman stranger, and a man of science, I turned silently away, and was not surprised when, shortly after, Major Rains said to me, ‘There seems no occasion for me to remain here because of any knowledge or skill which my experience in such investigations may have given me; there is no attempt, no purpose, to have an investigation of the general subject. I had better return home.’ And soon he did go, as then proposed.

“Now the ‘change came o’er the spirit of my dream.’ At the next gathering I asked, privately, and learned from both Prof. Pierce and Mr. Gould, that they considered the money question as still before them, and that they were but judges and not investigators. From that time my relations to them and to that particular trial became relatively unpleasant. I had little to do or say, and nothing to hope for, because of the necessary antagonism in the room.

“At their next sitting Mr. Redman was the medium. Raps and tipping of the table did not come as they usually do with him; yet he asked those at the table to write the names of deceased friends and roll up the slips. Prof. Pierce commenced writing in a book. Prof. Agassiz, in the meanwhile, was standing near his back, frequently changing his own attitude and position, and looking very intently upon Redman, although he said to Prof. Pierce, ‘Throw that one out,’ meaning the slip just written upon. There was the appearance of much mental disturbance in Prof. Agassiz, as shown by his attitudes, his changes of position, his wild gaze, and his tones when he spoke. No raps came, nothing claiming to be Spiritual was done by or through Mr. Redman in the public room. At some time during this sitting Dr. Gardner drew attention to the points of disturbance, through strong mental action and intent use of the eyes. Mr. Lunt was understood to say that he had been using both mind and eyes intently, and with much effect; but I was on the opposite side of the room from him when he spoke, and may not have taken in the exact import of his words.

“Similar want of success attended the other mediums, at all the subsequent sittings up to the meeting of the Davenports, on the last evening. These boys, or young men, were intrusted almost entirely to the management of the Committee, and those of us who were but spectators are not so informed as to make it proper to state in advance of the Committee what was attempted nor what the success. We do know that at the close Prof. Agassiz held up a small, short piece of thread, which he said had been ‘broken,’ and that that was the test. Having uttered these words in a very rough tone and emphatic manner, he, in a similar tone, said, ‘Good night, gentlemen,’ and hastily left us.

“Prof. Pierce then said to Dr. Gardner, ‘I suppose you are through with us.’ The Doctor replied, ‘No, you have promised to show us how the raps were made.’ ‘Not as a Committee,’ said Prof. Pierce; ‘Mr. Agassiz made that promise as an individual.’ And thus the affair closed—we as much disappointed at the failure of Agassiz to keep his word and unveil the mystery of rapping, as at any one failure during the sittings.

“The Investigation, in fact, was a trial of the correctness of the statements made at the preliminary meeting, viz., ‘that it was in the power of the gentlemen there present to make the trial a failure, by ejecting certain forces from their own minds and eyes.’ In this they were successful.

“Two of the gentlemen, Prof. Agassiz and Mr. Lunt, omitted throughout all the sessions to comply with invitations to sit in the circle around the table, and there was not, in any instance or at any point, any opportunity for Dr. Gardner to exercise ‘the determination of all the accessory circumstances.’ The former gentleman, it seems, was permitted to exercise his own choice as to being in the circle, but not so the latter. Dr. Gardner’s friends have been disappointed, and the chief disappointment was at the manners and actions and mental and emotional states of two of the Committee and a representative of The Courier.

“No chickens were hatched on this occasion, where the hen was kept in perpetual agitation, and was often driven from her nest during the period of incubation; but it does not follow that eggs never contain a vital principle. Let the proper conditions be observed, let natural laws have legitimate play, and the latent vital principle will take form and embodiment and come forth from the shell a thing of life and power. It is easy to prevent the hatching of an egg, for the Committee did that with very little trouble. But many hens ‘steal to their nests,’ and in secluded spots, where natural laws are conformed to, the hatching processes still go on in spite of human science.