Mediumship in a glass of water One of our correspondents in Geneva gives us interesting details on a new kind of clairvoyant mediumship, that consists in seeing in a glass of magnetized water. This faculty has many connections with that of the seer of Zimmerwald, of which we have given a detailed account in the Spiritist Review of October 1864, and October 1865; the difference consists in that the latter uses an empty glass, always the same glass, and that the faculty is in some way personal to him; the phenomenon that is pointed out to us occurs, on the contrary, with the aid of the first glass that comes up containing magnetized water, and it seems that it would become popular. If it is so, clairvoyant mediumship could become as common as that of writing. Here the information that is given to us, and according to which each one will be able to try, by placing oneself in favorable conditions:
“The clairvoyant mediumship through the glass of magnetized water has just revealed itself to us in a certain number of people; for the past month, we have had fifteen seeing mediums of this genre, each with their own specialty. One of the best is a young woman who can neither read nor write; it is more particularly proper to diseases, and this is how our good Spirits proceed to show us the illness and the remedy. I'll take a random example: A poor woman who was at the meeting had received a nasty blow to the chest; it appeared in the glass absolutely like a photograph; she put her hand on the sick part. Mrs. V… (the medium) then saw the chest opening and noticed that coagulated blood was stuck at the place where the blow had been given; then the whole thing disappeared to make room for the image of the remedies that consisted of a white plaster and a glass containing benzoin. This woman was perfectly healed after following the treatment.
When it is about an obsessed, the medium sees the evil Spirits that torment him; then appear as remedies the Spirit symbolizing prayer, and two hands that magnetize.
We have another medium whose specialty is seeing the Spirits. Poor suffering Spirits have often presented to us, through him, touching scenes to make us understand their anxieties. One day we evoked the Spirit of an individual who had drowned voluntarily; he appeared disturbed in the water; you could only see the back of the head and the hair, half submerged in the water. For two sessions, it was impossible for us to see the face. We prayed for the suicides; the next day the medium saw the head above the water, and we could recognize the features of a relative of one of the people of the Society. We continued our prayers, and now the figure still bears the expression of suffering, it is true, but it seems to come to life.
For some time now, in the house of a woman who lives in one of the suburbs of Geneva, noises have been produced, like those of Poitiers, causing a great stir throughout the house. This lady, who did not know Spiritism at all, having heard of it, came to see us with her brother, requesting to attend our sessions. None of our mediums knew them. One of them saw, in his glass, a house in which an evil Spirit was messing up everything, moving the furniture and breaking the dishes. In the description he gave, this lady recognized her gardener's wife, very wicked during her lifetime, and who had caused her great harm. We addressed a few kind words to this Spirit to bring her back to better feelings, and as we spoke to her, her face assumed a softer expression. The next day, we went to the house of this lady, and the work was completed in the evening. The noises have almost entirely ceased since the departure of the cook who, as it seems, served as an unconscious medium to that Spirit. As everything has its reason for being and its usefulness, I believe that these rumors were intended to bring this family to the knowledge of Spiritism.
Now, here is what our observations have taught us about the way to operate: One needs a smooth glass, with an also smooth bottom; it is half-filled with water, magnetized by ordinary procedures, that is, by laying the hands, and especially the tips of the fingers, on the opening of the glass, aided by the sustained action of gaze and thought. The duration of the magnetization is about ten minutes for the first time; five minutes is enough later. The same person can magnetize several glasses at the same time.
The clairvoyant medium, or the one who wants to try, must not magnetize his glass himself, because he would spend the fluid that is necessary for him to see. A special medium is needed for magnetization, and there are some that are endowed with more or less power. Magnetic action does not produce any phenomenon in the water that indicates its saturation.
After this is done, each experimenter places the glass in front of him, and looks at it for twenty or thirty minutes at most, sometimes less, depending on the aptitude; this time is only necessary in the first tests; when the faculty is developed, it only takes a few minutes. Meanwhile, a person is praying to call for the help of the good Spirits.
Those who can see, first distinguish a kind of small cloud at the bottom of the glass; it is a sure indication that they will see; little by little this cloud takes on a more accentuated form, and the image emerges to the sight of the medium. The mediums can see on each other’s glasses, but not the people who are not gifted with this skill. Sometimes part of the subject appears in one glass, and the other part in another glass; for diseases, for example, one will see the illness and the other the remedy. Other times, two mediums will simultaneously see the image of the same person, each in their own glass, but generally in different conditions.
Often the image transforms, changes appearance, then fades away. It is generally quite spontaneous; the medium must wait and say what he sees; but it can also be caused by an evocation.
Lately I went to see a lady who has a young, eighteen-year-old employee, who had never heard of Spiritism; this lady begged me to magnetize a glass of water for her. The young girl looked at it for about a quarter of an hour and said: “I see an arm; it looks like my mother's; I see sleeve of her dress pulled up, as she used to wear. This mother, who knew her daughter's sensitivity, undoubtedly did not want to show herself suddenly, to avoid too great of an impression on her. Thus, I begged this Spirit, if it were the medium’s mother, to allow herself to be recognized. The arm disappeared, and the Spirit presented itself the size of a photograph, but with her back turned. It was still a precaution to prepare her daughter for the sight of her. She recognized her cap, a kerchief, the colors, and the model of her dress; deeply moved, she addressed the tenderest words to her, begging her to show her face. I begged her myself to attend to her daughter's desire. She then faded away, the cloud faded away, and the figure appeared. The young girl cried of gratitude as she thanked God for the gift she had just been granted.
The lady was very anxious to see for herself; the next day we had a session with her that was full of good lessons. After uselessly looking in the glass for half an hour, she said, “My God! if I could only see the devil in the glass, I would be happy! But God did not give her that satisfaction.
The unbelievers will not fail to put these phenomena to the account of imagination. But the facts are there to prove that in so many cases the imagination has absolutely nothing to do with it. First, not everyone sees, however much one may wish; I, myself, have often overexcited my mind for this purpose, without ever obtaining the slightest result. The lady I just mentioned, despite her desire to see the devil, after half an hour of waiting and concentrating, saw nothing. The young girl was not thinking of her mother when she appeared to her; and then, all these precautions to show oneself only gradually attest to a combination, a foreign will, in which the imagination of the medium could have no part.
To have an even more positive proof of that, I carried out the following experiment. I spent a few days in the country, a few leagues from Geneva, in the home of a family with several children; since they were making a lot of noise, I suggested a more peaceful game to keep them busy. I took a glass of water and magnetized it, without anyone realizing it, and I said to them: "Which of you will have the patience to look at this glass for twenty minutes, without looking away?" I was careful not to add that they might see something there; it was just a pastime. Several lost patience before the end of the test; an eleven-year-old little girl was more perseverant; at the end of twelve minutes, she uttered a cry of joy, saying that she saw a magnificent landscape, that she described to us. Another seven-year-old girl, wishing to look herself, fell asleep instantly. For fear of tiring her, I woke her up immediately. Where is the effect of the imagination here?
This faculty can therefore be tried in a meeting, but I do not advise to admit hostile persons to the first experiences; the faculty will only develop more easily with the necessary calm and meditation; when it is consolidated, it is less likely to be troubled.
The medium only sees with his eyes open; when he closes them, he is in the dark; at least that is what we have noticed, and that denotes a variety in clairvoyant mediumship. The medium only closes their eyes to rest, something that happens two or three times per session. The medium can see both at daylight and at night, but at night one needs light.
The image of living people shows up in glass just as easily as that of dead people. I asked my familiar Spirit for the reason, to which he replied: “It is their images that we present to you; Spirits are as skilled at painting as they are at traveling. However, the mediums easily distinguish a Spirit from a living person; there is something less material.
The medium for the glass of water differs from the somnambulist in that the Spirit of the latter is detached; he needs a conducting wire to find the absent person, while the first has his image before him, that is the reflection of his soul and his thoughts. He tires less than the somnambulist, and he is also less likely to be intimidated by the sight of evil Spirits that may show up. These Spirits can tire him, because they seek to magnetize him, but he can escape their gaze at will, and in fact he receives a less direct impression.
It is with this mediumship as with all others: the medium attracts to himself the Spirits who are sympathetic to him; inferior Spirits readily present themselves to the impure medium. The way to attract good Spirits is to be driven by good feelings, to ask only for just and reasonable things, to use this faculty only for the good, and not for trivial things. If we make it an object of amusement, curiosity, or traffic, we inevitably fall into the mob of lighthearted and deceptive Spirits, who have fun presenting ridiculous and misleading images."
Observation: As a principle, this mediumship is certainly not new; but it is drawn here in a more precise way, especially more practical, and it is shown in specific conditions. It can therefore be considered as one of the varieties that have been announced. From the point of view of the
Spiritist science, it enables us to penetrate further into the mystery of the intimate constitution of the invisible world, of which it confirms the known laws, at the same time as it shows us new applications. It will help us understand certain phenomena still misunderstood in daily life, and by its popularization, it cannot fail to open a new path for the propagation of Spiritism. People will want to see, people will try; they will want to understand, to study, and many will enter Spiritism through this door.
This phenomenon offers a remarkable peculiarity. Until now we have understood the direct sight of Spirits under certain conditions; the remote sight of real objects is today an elementary theory; but here it is not the Spirits themselves that we see, and who cannot be lodged in a glass of water, any more than houses, landscapes and living people.
Besides, it would be a mistake to believe that this is a better way than any other for knowing everything that one wishes. Clairvoyant mediums, by this process or any other, do not see at will; they only see what the Spirits want them to see, or have permission to show them when it is useful. We cannot force either the will of Spirits or the faculty of mediums. For the exercise of any mediumistic faculty, the sensory apparatus, if one can say so, must be in an operational state; however, it does not depend on the medium to make it work at will. That is why mediumship cannot be a profession, since it could lack at the time it would be necessary to attend the client; hence, the incitement to fraud to simulate the action of the Spirit.
Experience proves that the Spirits, whoever they are, are never at the whim of men, in the same way and even less than when they were in this world; on the other hand, simple common sense says that serious Spiritist could not answer the appeal of the first one to call for trivial things, playing the role of acrobats or fortune tellers. Quackery alone can claim the possibility of having an open office for trading with the Spirits.
The skeptical laugh at the Spiritists, because they imagine that the latter believe in Spirits confined in a table or in a box and that they are maneuvered like puppets; they find it ridiculous and they are a hundred times right; they are wrong in believing that Spiritism teaches such absurdities, when it positively says the opposite. If, at times, they have encountered some with a somewhat too easy credulity in the world, it is not among the enlightened Spiritists; now, in their number, there are necessarily some that are more or less, as in every science.
The Spirits are not definitely lodged in the glass of water. What is it in the glass? An image, nothing else; image taken from nature, that is why it is often accurate. How is it produced? That is the problem. The fact exists; therefore, it has a cause. Although we cannot yet give a complete and definitive solution, the following article seems to throw a great light on the issue.
