Mediumship in the glass of water.

— One of our correspondents from Geneva conveys to us interesting details about a new kind of seeing mediumship, which consists in seeing within a magnetized glass of water. This faculty has much in common with that of the seer of Zimmerwald, of whom we gave a detailed account in the Review of October 1864 and October 1865. The difference is that the latter makes use of an empty glass, always the same one, and the faculty is in a certain sense personal to him; on the contrary, the phenomenon now reported to us is produced with the aid of any glass containing magnetized water, and which seems to be becoming widespread. If this is so, seeing mediumship could become as common as that of writing. Here are the pieces of information given to us, according to which anyone may experiment, provided he places himself in favorable conditions:

— “Seeing mediumship through the magnetized glass of water has just revealed itself among us in a certain number of persons. In one month we have fifteen seeing mediums of this kind, each having his own specialty. One of the best is a young lady who can neither read nor write; she is more particularly suited to illnesses, and here is how our good Spirits proceed in order to show us the ailment and the remedy. I take an example at random: A poor woman, who was present at the meeting, had received a sharp blow on the chest; she appeared in the glass exactly like a photograph; she raised her hand over the injured part. Mrs. V… (the medium) then saw the chest open up and noticed that there was coagulated blood in the place where the blow had been struck; afterward everything disappeared to give place to the image of the remedies, which consisted of a plaster of white resin and a glass containing benzoin. This woman was perfectly cured after having followed the treatment. “When it is a matter of an obsessed person, the medium sees the evil Spirits that torment him; next there appear, as a remedy, the Spirit symbolizing prayer, and two hands that magnetize.

“We have another medium whose specialty is to see the Spirits. Poor suffering Spirits have often presented to us, through her, moving scenes, in order to make us understand their anguish. One day we evoked the Spirit of an individual who had voluntarily drowned himself; he appeared in murky water; one could see only the back of his head and his hair half-submerged in the water. For two sessions it was impossible for us to see his face. We offered the prayer for suicides; the next day the medium saw the head out of the water, and it was possible to recognize the features of a relative of one of the persons of the Society. We continued our prayers and, although the face still showed an expression of suffering, it seemed to recover life. “For some time now noises similar to those of Poitiers had been occurring in the house of a lady who lives in the suburbs of Geneva, and which caused great agitation throughout the house. This lady, who knew absolutely nothing of Spiritism, having heard it spoken of, came to see us with her brother, asking to attend our sessions. None of our mediums knew them. One of them saw in his glass a house, inside which an evil Spirit was putting everything in disorder, disturbing the furniture and breaking the dishes. From the description given, that lady recognized the wife of her gardener, very wicked in life, and who had harmed her a great deal. We addressed to the Spirit a few benevolent words, in order to bring it to better sentiments, and as we spoke to it, its face took on a gentler expression. The next day, we went to the house of that lady and in the evening the work of the previous day was completed. The noises ceased almost completely, ever since the departure of the cook who, it seems, served as an unconscious medium to that Spirit. As everything has its reason for being and its usefulness, I think that such noises had as their aim to lead that family to the knowledge of Spiritism.

— “Here now is what our observations have taught us as to the manner of operating:

“A smooth glass is needed, quite even at the bottom; it is filled halfway with water, magnetizing it by the ordinary processes, that is, by the laying on of hands and, above all, by the tips of the fingers, at the mouth of the glass, aided by the continuous action of the gaze and the thought. The duration of the magnetization is about ten minutes the first time; later five minutes suffice. The same person can magnetize several glasses at the same time.

“The seeing medium, or the one who wishes to experiment, must not magnetize his own glass, for he would consume the fluid that is necessary to him for seeing. For the magnetization a special medium is needed, there being, for this, those endowed with a power that is more or less great. The magnetic action produces in the water no phenomenon that would indicate its saturation.

“This done, each experimenter places the glass before him and gazes at it for twenty or thirty minutes at most, sometimes less, according to aptitude. This length of time is only necessary in the first attempts; when the faculty is developed, a few minutes suffice. During this time, a person offers the prayer to call upon the assistance of the good Spirits.

“Those who are apt to see distinguish, at first, at the bottom of the glass, a kind of little cloud; it is a sure indication that they will see. Little by little this cloud takes on a more pronounced form, and the image is sketched before the eyes of the medium. Among themselves the mediums can see in one another’s glasses, but not the persons who are not endowed with this faculty. Sometimes part of the subject appears in one glass and the other part in another; for illnesses, for example, one will see the ailment and the other the remedy. Other times two mediums will see simultaneously, each in his glass, the image of the same person, but generally in different conditions. “Often the image is transformed, changes aspect, then disappears. In general it is quite spontaneous; the medium must wait and say what he sees. But it can also be provoked by an evocation.

“Lately I went to see a lady who has a young worker of eighteen years and who had never heard Spiritism spoken of. The lady asked me to magnetize a glass of water for her. The girl gazed at it for about a quarter of an hour, and said: “I see an arm; one would say it is my mother’s; I see the sleeve of her dress, rolled up, as was her custom.” That mother, who knew her daughter’s sensitivity, no doubt did not wish to show herself suddenly so as to spare her too great an impression. So I asked that Spirit, if it were that of the medium’s mother, to make itself known. The arm disappeared and the Spirit presented itself the size of a photograph, but turned with its back to us. It was still a precaution to prepare the daughter to see her. She recognized her bonnet, a fichu, the colors and the designs of her dress. Keenly moved, she addressed to her the most tender words, asking her to let her face be seen. I myself asked her to comply with her daughter’s wish. Then she faded, the disturbance came about, and the face appeared. The young woman wept with gratitude, thanking God for the gift He had just granted her. “The lady herself greatly desired to see. The next day we held a session at her house, which was full of good teachings. After having gazed in vain into the glass for about half an hour, she said: “My God! if only I could see the devil in the glass, I would be content!” But God did not grant her this satisfaction.

— “The unbelievers will not fail to credit these phenomena to the account of the imagination. But the facts are there to prove that, in a number of cases, the imagination has absolutely no part in them. First, not everyone sees, however much desire he may have. I myself have often kept my spirit overexcited with this aim, without ever obtaining the slightest result. The lady of whom I have just spoken, in spite of her desire to see the devil, after half an hour of waiting and concentration, saw nothing. The young woman was not thinking of her mother when the latter appeared to her; and, furthermore, all those precautions so as to show herself only gradually attest to a combination, a will foreign to her, in which the imagination of the medium could in no way take part. “To have a still more positive proof, I made the following experiment. Having gone to spend a few days in the country, a few leagues from Geneva, there were, in the family where I found myself, several children. As they were making a great deal of noise, I proposed to them, in order to occupy them, a quieter game. I took a glass of water and magnetized it, without anyone noticing, and said to them: “Which of you will have the patience to look at this glass for twenty minutes, without turning your eyes away?” I refrained from adding that they might see something in it; it was by way of a mere pastime. Several lost patience before the end of the trial; a girl of eleven years was more persevering; at the end of twelve minutes, she gave a cry of joy, saying that she saw a magnificent landscape, the description of which she gave us. Another girl of seven years, having in her turn wished to look, fell asleep instantly. For fear of tiring her, I soon woke her. Where is the effect of the imagination here?

— “This faculty can therefore be tried out in a gathering of persons, but I advise that, in the first meetings, hostile persons not be admitted. Since calm and recollection are necessary, the faculty will develop only more easily; once formed, it is less liable to be disturbed.

“The medium sees only with the eyes open; when he closes them, he is in darkness. At least that is what we have observed, and this denotes a variety in seeing mediumship. The medium closes his eyes only to rest, which happens to him two or three times per session. He sees as well by day as by night, but at night light is needed.

“The image of living persons presents itself in the glass as easily as that of dead persons. Having asked the reason for this of my familiar Spirit, he answered me: “It is their images that we present to you; the Spirits are as skilled at painting as at traveling.” Nevertheless, the mediums distinguish without effort the Spirit of a living person; there is something less material about it.

— “The medium of the glass of water differs from the somnambulist in that the Spirit of the latter detaches itself — he needs a conducting thread to go in search of the absent person, whereas the former has his image before his eyes, which is the reflection of his soul and of his thoughts. He tires less than the somnambulist, and is also less exposed to letting himself be intimidated by the vision of the evil Spirits that may present themselves. These Spirits can indeed tire him, because they seek to magnetize him, but he can, at will, withdraw himself from their gaze, receiving from them, moreover, a less direct impression.

— “It is in this mediumship as in all the others: the medium draws to himself the Spirits that are sympathetic to him; to the impure medium impure Spirits present themselves willingly. The means of attracting the good Spirits is to be animated by good sentiments, to ask only things that are just and reasonable, to use this faculty only for good, and not for futile things. If we make of it an object of amusement, of curiosity, or of illicit trafficking, we will inevitably fall into the throng of frivolous and deceiving Spirits, who delight in presenting ridiculous and fallacious images.”

Observation. – As a principle, this mediumship is certainly not new [See Mediumship through the glass of water in 1706]. But here it is sketched in a more precise manner, above all more practical, and shows itself under particular conditions. It can therefore be regarded as one of the varieties that had been announced. From the point of view of spiritist science, it makes us penetrate further into the mystery of the intimate constitution of the invisible world, whose known laws it confirms, at the same time as it shows us their new applications. It will help to understand certain still incomprehensible phenomena of daily life and, through its popularization, will not fail to open a new path to the propagation of Spiritism. Those who wish to see will experiment; those who wish to understand will study, and many will enter into Spiritism by this door. This phenomenon offers a notable particularity. Until now one understood the direct vision of Spirits under certain conditions, the vision at a distance of real objects: it is today an elementary theory; but here it is not the Spirits themselves that are seen, and they can no more come to lodge themselves in a glass of water than do houses, landscapes, and living persons.

Moreover, it would be an error to believe that here was a means better than any other of knowing all that one desires. The seeing mediums, by this process or any other, do not see at will; they see only what the Spirits wish to make them see, or have permission to make them see when the thing is useful. One cannot force the will of the Spirits, nor the faculty of the mediums. For the exercise of any mediumistic faculty whatever, it is necessary that the sensitive apparatus, if we may so express ourselves, be in condition to function. Now, it does not depend on the medium to make it function at his will. This is why mediumship cannot be a profession, since it could fail at the very moment when it was needed to satisfy the client. Hence the incitement to fraud, in order to simulate the action of the Spirit. Experience proves that the Spirits, whatever they may be, are never at the caprice of men, no more than — and even less than — when they were in this world; and, on the other hand, simple good sense says that, with all the more reason, the serious Spirits could not come at the call of the first comer for futile things and play the role of mountebanks and fortune-tellers. Only charlatanism can claim the possibility of keeping open a stall of commerce with the Spirits.

The unbelievers laugh at the Spiritists, because they imagine that the latter believe in Spirits confined within a table or a box, and that they manipulate them like marionettes. They find this ridiculous and they are quite right; where they are wrong is when they believe that Spiritism teaches such absurdities, when it says exactly the contrary. If, at times, in the world, one has found some of a very easy credulity, it was not among the enlightened Spiritists. Now, in that number, there are necessarily those who are more or less so, as in all the sciences.

The Spirits do not lodge themselves in the glass of water; this is what is positive. What, then, is there in the glass? An image, and nothing else; an image drawn from Nature, which is why it is often exact. How is it produced? That is the problem. The fact exists, therefore it has a cause. Although a complete and definitive solution cannot yet be given to it, the following article, it seems to us, throws a great light upon the question. [See item 3 of the following article.]