The Missing Link in Modern Spiritualism

by A. Leah Underhill

“While it was touching me thus, Mr. Underhill said, ‘Can you fill the goblet you brought to Mr. Owen with water?’ There was a rustling but no footstep, a slight noise in the pantry, and then the sound of something dropped into the goblet; but, putting my hand in, I felt no water. In doing so I broke the circle only for a moment. Then, just behind me, I heard a sound as if the glass of the clock on the mantel-piece were touched and shaken.

“All this time there was no word spoken except by those at the table; but, once or twice, there was a whistling sound in the air.

“When, soon after, we were bidden by the raps to relight the gas, I found three door-keys on the table, the goblet also, and within it a lump of loaf-sugar. Both the room doors were closed, but on trying them I found that neither was locked. Two of the keys on the table fitted them. The door of the pantry, which the third key fitted, stood open, and the cover of the barrel of sugar was pushed partly off. The left-hand upper portion of the blind, at which we had seen and heard the figure, was open.

“These are facts, all briefly noted down the same evening on which they happened, and written out in full the next morning.

“The allegations, by the raps, were that the Spirit present was that of a daughter of Mrs. Fox, who had died young, and that other Spirits were present (among them an Indian Spirit), aiding her to show herself to our circle. Emily—that was the girl’s name—had been Mrs. Underhill’s favorite sister, long mourned over, and had lain, during the last hour of her life and at the moment of death, in Mrs. Underhill’s arms. Mr. Underhill stated to me that he had seen the same Spirit, as distinctly, several times before; and that he had been able to distinguish the features. He appeared also, on this occasion, to have perceived the whole figure, and especially the features, more distinctly than I did, though my natural sight has always been keen, and, except within ordinary reading distance, is still nearly as strong as it was thirty years ago. With these exceptions, all present, so far as I could judge by comparing notes with them during and after the sitting, seemed to have seen and heard the succession of phenomena here described just as I myself had done.

“Up to this time, never having witnessed any such phenomena as these, I had often doubted within myself how I should be affected by witnessing an apparition, or what I had reason to consider such.

“It seemed to me that I should experience no alarm; but of this in advance of actual experience, I could not be assured. Now I know just how far I can trust my self-possession. Awe I undoubtedly felt—awe and intense interest; but, in looking back on my feelings throughout that wonder-bringing hour, I feel certain that a physician might have placed his finger on my wrist, even at the moment when that dimly illuminated Presence first bent over me, with scarcely six inches intervening between its veiled face and mine—its hands placed on my head, its lips touching my shoulder—and not have found the beatings of my pulse unduly accelerated; or if he had detected acceleration, it could not, I am very sure, have been justly ascribed to any tremor or fear, but solely to the natural effect of solemn and riveted expectation. If a man, under such circumstances, may trust to his own recollections not twenty-four hours old, I can aver, on my honor, that I was not, at any time while these events were in progress, under other excitement (though it may be greater in degree) than a chemist might be supposed to experience while watching the issue of a long-projected and decisive experiment, or an astronomer when the culminating point of some important observation is about to be reached.

“I beg it may not be supposed that I mention this as boasting or courage. There was, in truth, nothing of which to boast. The preceding and attendant circumstances were such as to preclude alarm. I was not alone, nor taken by surprise. I was expecting some phenomena and hoping that they would be of a phosphorescent nature. And though I had not any expectation of seeing an actual form, yet, as the allegation was that a deceased sister, beloved by one of the assistants, was present, and as all the demonstrations were gentle and seemingly arranged by friendly agencies to satisfy my desire for the strongest evidence in proof of Spiritual appearance, I was under very different circumstances to those which have often shaken the nerves even of the boldest, while encountering for the first time what is usually called a ghost.

“I state the fact of my equanimity, then, merely as one of the attendant circumstances which may be fairly taken into account in judging the testimony here supplied in proof of the appearance, in visible and tangible form, of an alleged Spirit of a deceased person. It is often assumed that a man who believes he sees an apparition is (to use a common expression) frightened out of his senses, and so, is not entitled to credit as a witness.

“If it be objected that, before the sitting closed, the doors were unlocked, I reply first, that all the remarkable and interesting portion of the phenomena occurred before this happened; and secondly, that, as the keys of the locked doors were left in them, they could only be opened from the inside. If, in reply to this last, it still be urged that Mr. Underhill, deserting his post for a few seconds, might have opened one of the doors, I reply that I happened to be conversing with him at the moment we first heard the key turned. I add that during the next sitting, when still more wonderful phenomena occurred, I took a precaution (as will be seen) which made it impossible that either Mr. Underhill or any of the company should leave their seats, even for a moment, without my knowledge.”