Delicate Devices of Inventors to Weigh Spirit Powers
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Delicate Devices of Inventors to Weigh Spirit Powers Hereward Carrington (in oval) is convinced that the mooted question of the existence of spirits and their messages from Beyond will be Doctors Matla and Psychical Force Given proved by various mechanical devices. Photography has been called into show brain pictures-the Cross is said to be one of these pictures, taken from the mind of the man shown in the seance. Van Zeist of Holland Off by Mediums to mfmmm Weighed a Ghost Be Measured and /• < < and Found It Tipped Dark Seances Photo Scale at Two and graphed by Ultra II ï.vS 'A One-quarter Ounces Violet Ray Ing a cardboard drum shaped cylinder <if about two-flfths the size of an average adult By HERBERT ASBURY. m m human body represented their progress. T is generally admitted that Aristotle This was placed in a small structure spe possessed the greatest single intellect cially built, and with a concrete floor, and so Ithat the world has ever known; yet constructed that earth vibraUons could not account for any phenomena demonstrated. almost any high school boy of to-day knows The cylinder was hermetically sealed and more of the structure of our universe than fitted with a thermometer that registered the did Aristotle and has a more comprehensive displacement of air in the cylinder, denoting idea of the energizing forces of nature than the presence of liquids or solids accounting had the great Greek philosopher. The reason â for such displacement. for this is not, of coursé, that the modern W. m The form of their acquiring what they school boy is an intellectual giant; it is : regarded as being the result of direct effort solely because science has more fully pene U on the part of manifesting "spirits" con trated the secrets of nature, and mankind firmed their faith in having invisible assist now knows approximately the constitution m » ants in their remarkable experiments, who J of matter and a great deal concerning life • i at their request could manifest by entering and mind. Mu the sealed cylinder and, as the erratic move Pages of nature's great book that were m ment of the alcohol in the thermometer tube closed to Aristotle are now wide open to be recorded, contract or expand at the "will" of read, and this progress has been possible m v the manifesting force. through the improvement of the mechanical m vy* With the progress of their experimenting means by which uature is studied. Man fn this direction larger cylinders were em would never have arrived at his present posi wm'>< s ••S ployed until finally one corresponding to the tive knowledge had it not been for the deli size of a fully grown adult was used. With cate and sensitive instruments which are to the thermometer recording that the entire day employed by the chemist and the physi m Wn i m m ' interior of this cylinder was occupied by cist in his laboratory. m m something other than the air it contained at Dr. Hereward Carrington of 504 West the commencement of the experiment a lllth street, one of the foremost psychical method of weighing the cylinder and its in investigators of the United States, believes visible occupant was applied, with the result that much of the same law will be found that the experimenters deduced that the to apply in the realm of what is commonly weight of their (purported) discarnate com called psychics. He believes that until defi municant was approximately two and a nite laboratory methods can be applied and quarter ounces. psychical phenomena studied by means of y It would seem that this stage of their physical instruments far more delicate than unique undertaking encouraged experiment the human senses the present state of things /té. ing in the direction of providing their ghost —a state in which the world is divided inr;> ly cooperators with the means to demon opposing factions of belief and disbelief in strate their respective individuality and in the possibility of life after death and com telligence—in other words, to prove that the munication with the spirit world—will con force behind the contraction and expansion tinue to exist. But he believes that were a before, and on examination the electroscope action the established churches would take of the occupant of the cylinder had the laboratory fitted up with suitable physical the medium's weight, unknown to her, at all was found to be completely discharged." should that success determine—as he him knowledge of a human being and the intelli and electrical apparatus for the study of times dnring the seance, the fluctuations in The problems that immediately confront self has expressed it—either that spirit gence to manifest that knowledge in a man promising cases of psychic or mediumistia weight, if any, to be recorded on a revolving an investigator who is called upon to solve communication is possible and can be sys ner that would conclusively prove the suc phenomena scientists would be able to ar drum. It would also include means for such problems as this are the physical tematized scientifically or that it has never cess of the instrument as scientifically solv rive at some definite conclusions within ten studying the pulse, temperature, muscular miracle itself and the nature of the intelli vet been actually experienced by any human ing the problem of communication between years. exertion, breathing of the medium, and the gence lying behind and directing or con being and never will be. The dominant note this and other spheres. This does not mean that Dr. Carrington lighting of the test room would be carefully trolling the manifestations. This latter is of the assertions accredited to the greatest believes absolute and unquestioned commu attended to and capable of almost infinite Weighing the Spiritual Collaborator purely a psychological question, which living inventive genius is his regarding the Showed Him or Her at Ounces nication with the dead could be established gradation. There would also be such instru though immensely important, dues not enter result of his own experiments and investi within that time; it means that in his ments and devices as X-ray and radium into the physical problem. It may be noted that Drs. Matla and Van gations as a definite and incontrovertible so Zeist have reputations for scientific skill opinion—the opinion of a man who has sp=r: tubes, high frequency currents and a delicate "It will be at once apparent," says Dr. lution field *f electrical force, together with in of "life after death" problems and and personal integrity in Scandinavian Eu twenty years in psychical research work Carrington, "that physical and electrical ap even to the extent of the possibility of his and who has written more than twenty au struments fur testing the ionization of the paratus have played an important part in rope on a parallel with those of Sir Oliver air in the immediate vicinity of the medium. preparing to assert that "death" is but an Lodge, the late Sir William Crookes and, thoritative books on the subject—the world such investigations in the past and are cer other word for "annihilation" of the human in Dr. Carrington believes that photography fact, any known scientist. Their belief in would be able to have some definite informa tainly destined to piay a far more important being, physically and spiritually. tion as to whether there is such a thing us would also play an important part in t lie their having been assisted in a practical way part in the future. These curious phe Edison Is Neutral, Taking Sides a spiritual world. equipment of such a laboratory. Means nomena. like all others in our world, depend by the communicating entities with whom could readily be provided for taking moving upon invisble forces or energies for their Neither With Science Nor the Church. they sought contact in the course of some Special Instruments Must Be pictures of the medium and her audience a' production. Those interested in electricity It may be taken for granted that each and hundreds of recorded instances of purported Invented to Weigh Psychic Phenomena all times during the seance, and if the sit should realize, more than all others, the every word published in Mr. Edison's maga "correspondence" was duplicated in the in tings were held in darkness these photo power of the invisible; and the fact that the zine interview had been carefully weighed stance of the late Dr. Crawford of the "We should then," says Dr. Carrington, graphs could be obtained by means of ultra "know something about the laws and the invisible is the real. Anything we see con and analyzed before being submitted to print Queen's University, Belfast, Ireland, whose violet rays, with which the room could be r.X Â* * j Jj| sists merely in a bundle of phenomena—of to the end of there being no possible misun monumental works on the subject of sci conditions under which telepathy, clairvoy flooded, and quartz lens would be used in ance telekinesis (the movement of objects some interesting results have been obtained effects. The real cause is always b?nind, derstanding of his assertion that the instru entific investigation of the occult detail the stead of glass. There would also be appa in the use of the electroscope by Dr. W. J. and is always invisible. ment he is presently engaged upon will help he received from the invisible, as he without contact), &c., operate, and not until ratus for making thought photographs simi we do know something about these laws and Crawford.