“Mr. Harris, his wife and a friend, who happened to be a medium, were just about to sit down to a mid-day meal when the medium, a man named Wilkinson, was suddenly ‘controlled.’ He fought hard against this unexpected behaviour of his Spirit control, but to no avail. In his unconscious state he jangled money in his pocket, then pointed to a cigarette box which was lying on a shelf in the opposite corner. In that box, it seemed, was the sum of 17s, 6d. Mr. and Mrs. Harris were wondering what this all meant, when suddenly the box virtually flew from the shelf, passed through the closed door, and was gone. Mrs. Harris immediately left the room and tried to find trace of the box. SHE FOUND IT UPSTAIRS UNDERNEATH THE PILLOW ON THE BED. The money was intact.” (An Amazing Seance and an Exposure, by Sidney A. Mosley, page 21.)
At a seance held on February 15, 1919, at the home of Mr. Wallace Penylan at Cardiff, by Mr. Thomas, there were present Sir Arthur, Lady Doyle, and others, numbering about twenty in all. “Thomas, speaking from his chair (apparently still under control) then asked, ‘Is Lady Doyle cold?’ Then Lady Doyle said she felt ‘a little bit shivery’ and Thomas said, ‘Oh, you’ll be warm soon,’ and in a second or two something fell on her lap. At the close of the seance, this was found to be the Holland jacket which somehow had been removed from the medium.” (An Amazing Seance, page 51.)
Most mediums to-day have perfected the art of levitating tables and chairs and other pieces of furniture, though I doubt if any of them have ever reached the mark of perfection attained by Palladino with her years of experience, inscrutable face and uncanny knowing when to seize opportunities to fool her investigators, but you are also asked to believe that Daniel Dunglas Home, floated out of one window, over the street, and rushed through another one into a different room.
Col. Olcott asks in “Communication” What is this performance compared with the experience of Webster Eddy (a younger brother of the Eddy Brothers) when a grown man, in the presence of three reputable witnesses, was carried out of a window and over the top of a house and landed in a ditch a quarter of a mile distant?
“William Eddy was carried bodily to a distant wood and was kept there three days under control and was carried back again.
“Horatio Eddy was taken bodily three miles to a mountain top and was obliged to find his way home alone the next morning.
“In Lyceum Hall, Buffalo, Horatio was levitated for twenty-six consecutive evenings, while bound to a chair and he and the chair were hung on a chandelier hook in the ceiling. He was then lowered safely to his former position.
“Mary Eddy was raised to the ceiling in Hope Chapel, in New York City, and while there wrote her name. Her little boy, Warren, was floated many evenings in dark circles and squealed lustily all the while to be let down.
“Since 1347 authenticated reports prove that similar experiences occurred to Edward Irving, Margaret Rule, St. Philip of Neri, St. Catherine of Columbine, Loyola, Savonarola, Jennie Lord, Madame Hauffe and many others.”
Col. Olcott omitted mentioning myself. I stand ready to vouch for the fact that I personally floated in the air and levitated many times and marvelled at the ease with which I did it, but I woke up later in the night.