THE EXPERIENCES OF RE‘LW S TAINTON - MOSES. ~ EWHMYERS. From "THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH." it-éé-té’k-l: -2:- ***%**%***%%%1~*%%**%*%*%** Classified and Bound By C.A.GEORGE NEWMANN Minneapolis,minn.Jan l, 1 9 3 6 . C O N T E N T S 1 Experiences of W.Stainton-Moses. Quotations from nis " Researches in spiritualism. N) rerfumes & Waves of Scent-laden Air. -Statement by Mr. PerciVal - State ment by Dr. Speer - Automatic wri ting with illustrations. 5 Data re-Daniel Dunglas Home the famous American Medium. neference to the equally famous Mrs. Guppy. 4 More About Daniel Dunglas nome and His Phenomena. 5 Collective nallucinations scien tifically considered - 6 aupplement - A Review of the noted study of alves, Fauns, and Fairies. COLLECTOR'S NOTE:- This book is note worthy in that it tells the truth about the Rev. Stainton-Moses without fear of favor and at the same time gives us a splendid picture of the per formances of the most noted mediums of that period. The work whould be read with care and due thought be given to every statement therein in order to under stand why people of assured position sometimes stopp to harmless chicanery in matters considered “supernatural.” 125 pages ----- four half tone cuts Many line illustrations. 1 II, I . The-Experiences of W. Stain-ton Moses. 245 If I 5' Z. 3 'Mfifie II. THE EXPERIENCES OF W. STAINTON-MOSES.—I. BY FREDERIC W. H. MrsRs. Mr. William Stainton Moses, who departed this life on September 5th, 1892, entrusted by will his unpublished manuscripts to two friends as literary executors—viz., Mr. Charles Carleton Massey, barrister-at-law, and Mr. Alaric A. Watts, late one of the Assistant Secretaries to the Board of Inland Revenue. These gentlemen, at my earnest request, have permitted me to undertake the task of selecting passages from the MSS. of our common friend, which passages they allow to be printed in the first instance in the Proceedings of the S.I’.R. In an obituary notice of Mr. Moses, already published in Proceedings, Vol. VIII., p. 597 (and to which I would beg to refer my readers), I have indicated the reasons which have for nearly twenty years led me to attach high importance to these records of his phenomena, and to desire earnestly that they should be placed before the public in sufficient detail to enable them to be rightly appreciated. Mr. Moses himself was for a long time averse to any full publication of the documents, which do, indeed, contain much matter of a private and personal nature. But in his later years his view changed; he had himself begun (in 1892) to publish them in Light, and his statements to intimate friends leave no doubt that this posthumous publication (with certain reserves to be mentioned hereafter) of the essential part of his records is in accordance with what would have been his own desire, as it is the desire of his trusted executors. The materials here available for the exposition of Mr. Moses’ unique experiences are of four kinds—viz. : (1) his own printed works ; (2) his MS. remains ; (3) the written and printed statements of witnesses to his phenomena, and (4) oral intercourse with himself 3 and other friends. 1. Among his printed works the most important for our present are— Ln» purpose This was m l. Researches in Spiritualism. unfinished work pub lished in Human Nature—a periodical now extinct—in 1874-5, and not reprinted. It is now difficult of access. 2. in This work also has been YLLM) Spirit Identity, published 1879. for some years out of print. 148 52.2525 Jun] 246 .Mr. F. W. H. llfyers. 3. Spirit Teachings, published in 1883, is also at present out of print ,' but a new edition, with a biography by l\Ir. Charlton Speer, is now in preparation. Two other volumes, Psychograph-y and Higher Aspects of Spiritualism, contain little which bears on our present theme. Besides these books, Mr. Moses wrote much in the weekly periodical Light, of which he was for some years the editor. II. Mr. Moses’ MSS. entrusted to me, and of which I have made 'use, consist of thirty-one note-books, ranging frOm September, 1872, to March, 1883, and various letters. The note-books may be divided as follows ;— Twenty-four books of automatic script, numbered 1-24, and extending from March, 1873, to March, 1883. Four books of records of physical phenomena, September, 1872— -January, 1875. These books run concurrently with the books of auto matic script. The first book of this series (April-September, 1872) is missing. Those which remain I have numbered 2 B, 3 B, 4 B, and 5 B. Three books of retrospect and summary, which I number 25, 26, .27. Books 25 and 26 recapitulate physical phenomena, with reflections. Book 27 is entitled The Identity of Spirit, and contains, in briefer form, much of the evidence first printed in Spirit Identity; which work, indeed, this later tractate may have been intended to supersede. Some of the letters also are of value, but mainly as adding contemporary con firmation to facts already to be found in the note-books. III. Among the records made by friends the most important are Mrs. Stanhope Speer’s “ Records of Private Séances, from notes taken at ‘the time of each sitting.” Over sixty instalments of these records have now (October, 1893) been published in Light. They begin in 1872, and go down to l881—considerably beyond the date (1875) at which Mr. Moses’ extant records of physical phenomena obtained in his .séances cease. As will be seen later on, these independent and con temporary records are evidentially of capital importance. Dr. and hirs. ‘ Stanhope Speer were Mr. Moses’ most intimate friends ; and they, often with another intimate friend, Mr. F. W. Percival (Barrister-at-Law and Examiner in the Education Department), were theuh‘abitual mem bers, and generally_the only members,_o§ the smalrgroup who witnessed mattresses}; about beidescribe'd. Wacmif'flie‘iiié'mTspeer, Mr. W. H. Harrison, and. Dr. 'Thomson, and the late Mr. Serjeant Cox have at different times printed short first-hand records of certain of Mr. Moses’ phenomena, and Mrs. Garratt and Miss Birkett took some contemporary notes of sittings at which they were present. ; Two note-books and other MSS. by Dr. Speer have been placed in The Experiences of W. Stainion Moses. 2&7 my hands, and contain independent contemporary records of much: evidential value. IV. In estimating the evidential value of oral intercourse as to Mr. Moses’ phenomena, the character of my own friendship for him is an item on which I am bound to be explicit. Friendship it might truly be called, for it was based upon a consciousness of common pur— suits of great moment, and I felt for him much both of gratitude and 0f esteem. He responded to my unfeigned interest with a straight forward intimacy of conversation on the experiences of which I cared so much to learn. But there was no such close personal attraction as is likely to prompt me to partiality as a biographer ,' and, indeed, both. Edmund Gurney and I were conscious in him of something like the impatience of a schoolmaster towards slow students ,'—natural enough in a man whose inborn gifts have carried him irresistibly to a con viction on the edge of which less favoured persons must needs pause and ponder long. I am bound to add that the study of his note-r books, by making him more intimately known to me as he was in his best days, has brought me nearer to the warm and even enthusiastic estimate implied in the letters of various more intimate friends of his which lie before me. More important, however, than the precise degree of attractiveness, or of spiritual refinement, in Mr. Moses’ personal demeanour are the fundamental questions of sanity and probity. On these points neither I myself, nor, so far as I know, any person acquainted with Mr. Moses, “ has ever entertained any doubt. However perplexed for an explana tion,” says Mr. Massey, “the crassest prejudice has recoiled from ever suggesting a doubt of the truth and honesty of Stainton Moses.” “I believe that he was wholly incapable of deceit,” writes Mr. H. J. Hood, barrister-at law, who knew him for many years. The people who assumed that he must somehow have performed the phenomena. of his dark séances himself ,'—who asked, triumphantly, “ Where was Moses when the candle went 0ut’l”—even these never, so far as I know, suggested anything beyond unconscious fraud in a trance- condition. A brief record of Mr. Moses’ life, with some estimates of the work done by him in ordinary professional capacities, will help the reader to form something of a personal judgment on his character. On the events of his life the Speer family, who were his most, intimate friends, and are well acquainted with his nearest surviving relatives, are my main authority. Their importance as witnesses of the phenomena is so great that I must be pardoned for inserting a. “testimonial” to the late Dr. Speer (M.D. Edinburgh); which shall not, however, be in' my own words, but in those of Dr. Marshall Hall, F.R.S., one of the best known physicians of the middle of this - 248 Mr. F. W. H. Myers. century. Writing on March 18th, 1849, Dr. Marshall Hall says (in a “ printed collection of similar testimonials now before me): I have great satisfaction in bearing my testimony to the talents and acquire ments of Dr.