Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University of Pennsylvania to Investigate Modern Spiritualism / In Accordance with the Request of the Late Henry Seybert

by University of Pennsylvania. Seybert Commission for Investigating Modern Spiritualism

When two slates only are used, the prepared slate is usually lying on the table when the sitters take their seats. No attention is called to it, and some little time is taken in conversation, and in the spasmodic jerking caused by 'electric currents'; in a few minutes the slate pencil is placed on the slate; no offer is made of showing both sides, which would be quite needless, since the side which is exposed is perfectly clean, and it is on that side which the Spirits are expected to write; the slate is kept almost constantly and wholly in full view and but very slightly inserted beneath the table. After an interval of waiting, during which, by constantly looking at the slate as though impatient for the writing to begin, whereby his sitters become accustomed to the appearance and disappearance of the slate, the Medium reaches for a second slate, ostentatiously washes both sides, lays it on the table, removes the pencil from the first slate to the second, and places over it the first slate with its prepared message, face downward, and the trick is done. The two slates are held for a minute under the table, and are then held to the ear or on the shoulder of the sitter on the Medium's right hand—never to any other sitter, since to do so would reveal the scratching of the Medium's finger-nail on the rim of the slate, whereby the writing of the pencil within the slates is counterfeited. I have distinctly, three or four times, watched the motion of the Medium's finger while thus scratching; as I sat facing the window the fingers which held the slate and made the fictitious writing were sharply outlined against the light. And here let me say that he who sits on the Medium's left hand, the side to which he turns almost his full back, has the best position for observation. He told me many times that he did not like to have three sitters, but much preferred only two; at the third side, when unoccupied, wonderful manifestations occur, such as a chair's elevation, or being thrown down, or the appearance of the unsupported slate, etc. These manifestations are executed by the Medium's foot, and lest its motions under the table should be detected, the longitudinal cracks where the two table-leaves join, were carefully stuffed with paper, although, to be sure, he once explained to me the presence of this paper as necessary to keep 'the electricity from flowing through.'

Although Dr. Slade had agreed verbally in New York that the last séance of the series should be in the presence of all the Commission, he flatly refused, when in Philadelphia, to hold any in the presence of more than three at a time.

On one occasion, when the Medium was very sure of his sitters, he placed the prepared slate, face downwards, on the table, with his fingers resting on the upper surface, then in a few minutes the slate was lifted up and the writing displayed, as though just made by Spiritual agency. Generally, however, when the writing is thus exhibited, it is in answer to a spoken question, and the reply is written by the Medium in his lap and the slate turned over before it is placed on the table. Manifestly it cannot occur as an answer to a written question, unless the written question is exposed on the upper side of the slate.

How the scratching of the slate pencil is produced when the slate is lying on the table (I have been told that the sound is heard then) I cannot possibly explain, for the plain reason that I am too deaf to hear it, and I was, therefore, never on the watch for anything unusual. (Nor did I ever hear the sound of writing when the slate was held on the shoulder of my opposite neighbor, but I could see, and I knew what was going on, for the slate had once been placed on my own shoulder.)

When three slates are used, the third, and prepared, slate, is either on the little table behind him or on the floor resting against the supports of this little table. In either case he seizes the opportunity when his sitters are engrossed with an answer just given to a question, to substitute one of the slates which he has been using, and which he has just before ostentatiously washed on both sides, for the prepared slate. This I have distinctly seen him do twice, and once when I had arisen from my seat to read an answer on the slate, held by Mr. Sellers, I noticed when I resumed my seat that a certain slate which I had been watching was gone from where it had been resting against the leg of the little table, and we then immediately had the long message between closed slates. [This was the 'inferential' substitution referred to on page 59 of this Appendix.] The slate which we have preserved and had photographed I saw him take from the table at his back.

Next, as to his answers to questions. I became so familiar with his methods in this department that I could have told at almost any instant what he was doing.

After the question has been written the slate is handed to him face downward. A piece of pencil is then placed on the slate near the edge of the slate farthest from the Medium's hand as it holds the slate; of course, as the writing is to be done under cover of the table, and as the Medium's hand or wrist is supposed to be always visible, the pencil must be far under the table. The awkwardness, therefore, must be overcome of having to reach or grope after it before the slate can be turned over, which it must be in order to enable the Medium to read the question on the under side. This difficulty is surmounted by constantly bringing out the slate and looking at it to see if any answer has appeared. By this manoeuvre a double end is attained; first, it creates an atmosphere of expectation, and the sitters grow accustomed to a good deal of motion in the arm that holds the slate; and secondly, by constantly moving the slate the fragment of pencil (which, be it noted, having been extracted from those slate pencils which are enclosed in wood, like lead pencils, is square in shape and remains stationary on the spot to which it is moved), this pencil, I repeat, is moved up to the side of the slate within reach of a thumb and finger; when this is done, it is dexterously seized by the Medium, who is in turn at that instant seized by violent 'electric shocks,' under cover of which the slate is turned and generally placed between his knees, only once I think did he rest it on his knee, and once I think he pressed it against the table; then he reads the question. And here he shows his nerve. It is the critical instant of the sitting, it is the only instant when his eyes are not fastened on his sitters, and I confess that his coolness won my admiration. On one occasion, when the question was written in a back-hand with a very light stroke and close to the upper edge of the slate, he looked at it three several times before he could read it. Moreover, it was a question out of the common, relating to the species of a hawk and not to a Spirit, and required an intelligent and definite answer. The hastiness of his reading may be inferred by the frequency with which merely the initials of the Spirit friend are given in the answer. After reading the question, I noticed that Dr. Slade winks rapidly three or four times in a sort of mental abstraction, I suppose, while thinking out an answer, but he always breathes freer when this crisis is passed, and the violent convulsions are over, which attend his hurried writing and the re-turning of the slate. His eyes can now be fixed in turn on each of his sitters, and he can rest a minute or two. (One one occasion I saw the slate as he held it between his index and second finger, his index-finger and thumb held the slate pencil.) Presently, the slate is held near to the edge of the table, and a tremulous motion is given to it as though the writing were then going on.

On one occasion, when I knew he was about to use the prepared slate (Professor Thompson will remember what I am about to relate), I suggested that we should use a perfectly fresh pencil, so that we could be sure that that very pencil had done the writing. I was very curious to know how he would evade the test. The slate was held close to the under side of the table (the new pencil debarred him from using the double slate); when the writing was finished the slate was slapped violently against the table, and was drawn from underneath it—apparently with very great difficulty, and almost perpendicularly—and the little pencil, of course, slipped off, and in the excitement of reading the message from the 'Summer-land,' who would think of looking for the pencil? It was so clever I wanted to applaud him on the spot.

The other tricks, such as tossing the pencil from the slate and playing the accordion, can be perfectly explained and repeated by Mr. Sellers. Dr. Slade's fingers are unusually long and strong, and the accordion, which has but four bellows-folds, can be readily manipulated with one hand.

At our last séance I noticed what were evidently two prepared slates resting against the support of the table behind him, where his prepared slates usually stood. I inferred that he would like to have some extraordinary slate writing on this occasion, and, therefore, kept a sharp watch on these slates. Unfortunately it was too sharp, for one second the Medium saw me looking at them. It was enough. That detected look prevented the revelation of those elaborate Spirit messages. But when the séance was over and he was signing the receipt for his money, I passed round behind his chair and pushed these slates with my foot so as to make them fall over, whereupon the writing on one of them was distinctly revealed.