The History of a Strange Case

📖 The Scoop

MR. DAVID P. ABBOTT, the author of the book "Behind the Scenes of the Mediums," is probably the most uncompromising exponent of the popular doctrine that there is nothing in spiritualism but fraud. In his book he devotes over three hundred pages to setting forth the innumerable devices which, he maintains, are used by mediums for the purpose of deceiving their dupes. Mr. Podmore, Mr. Piddington, and even Miss Johnson all rolled into one would not constitute so formidable a mass of evidence as Mr. David P. Abbott. However, the Open Court for May contains an article by him, entitled, "The History of a Strange Case: a Study in Occultism."It is the first part of a narrative in which Dr. Abbott records the memory of a remarkable experience which, he says, among all the cases of his investigation stands unique and alone, entirely in a class by itself. The weird and dramatic effect of this experience, he says, will remain with him through life. This is not surprising, as he confesses himself "unable to explain what appeared on the surface to be voices of the dead talking with him, and exhibiting an intimate knowledge of his family history, - but there is really nothing in the least strange or unusual in what he has to record. Its only importance arises from the fact that the story is vouched for by a champion unbeliever.AN UNUSUAL METHOD OF COMMUNICATION.Apart from this, the story is chiefly interesting because of the curious method by which the voices from the invisible were made audible to the sitter: -"The medium is Mrs. Elizabeth Blake, an elderly lady in Bradrick, a little town in the State of Ohio. She uses two little tin horns or trumpets, each 14 in. long, 2 1/2 in. in diameter at the large end, tapering to 1 in. at the smaller end. The large end of one horn is so made as to slip tightly into the large end of the other. On the smaller or outer end of this double trumpet are soldered saucer-shaped pieces large enough to cover a. person's ear. Mrs. Blake first seats herself beside the sitter, each allowing the trumpet to rest with its ends in their adjacent palms. After a time the trumpet begins to increase in weight, and then one end of it attempts to rise to the ear of the sitter. The sitter then places one end of the trumpet over his car, while the medium puts the other end of the trumpet to her ear. Sometimes she only holds her palm against it; on other occasions she allows her end of it to be placed against her back. Sometimes she will permit two sitters each to hold an end, while she merely touches the centre with her fingers. She can use a glass lamp-chimney, or any closed receptacle, in place of the trumpet. There is no mechanism in the trumpet, but as soon as the saucer-shaped end is placed to the ear of the sitter, he hears the voices of his dead relatives whispering to him, and sometimes speaking loud enough to be heard by other sitters in the room. These messages Show, on the part of the communicator, an intimate personal knowledge of the family history of the sitters. It is in vain that strangers come under assumed names. The voices address them by their correct names."....‒"The Review of Reviews," Vol. 3

Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit / Occultism (fancy, right?)