Chapter 2

THE MOVEMENT OF OBJECTS WITHOUT ANY APPARENT PHYSICAL CAUSE

THE COMMITTEE OF THE DIALECTICAL SOCIETY

So far as I am aware, the first systematic or scientific attempt to investigate the alleged phenomenon of the movement of objects without any apparent physical cause was made by the London Dialectical Society in the year 1869. On the motion of Dr. James Edmunds, a Committee was appointed "to investigate the Phenomena alleged to be Spiritual Manifestations, and to report thereon." The names of twenty-eight members were proposed. Three of these declined to act. Eight more names were added, so that the Committee, as finally constituted, consisted of thirty-three, three of whom were ladies. Among the best-known names were H. G. Atkinson, F.G.S.; Charles Bradlaugh; E. W. Cox, serjeant-at-law; Rev. C. Maurice Davies, D.D.; Charles R. Drysdale, M.D.; James Edmunds, M.D.; Robert Hannah; H. D. Jencken, barrister-at-law; William Volckman; and Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace, F.R.S. It is believed that Robert Hannah and Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace are the only survivors.

In order to investigate the phenomena in question by personal experiment and test, the Committee resolved itself into six Sub-Committees. In May 1870 the Committee appointed an Editing Committee to prepare a joint report, based solely on the evidence that had been before it. A month later the Editing Committee presented a draft report, which with some trifling verbal alterations was adopted _nem dis_. A resolution was then carried that a copy be forwarded to the Council of the Dialectical Society, with a recommendation that it be printed and published. This the Council declined to do. Upon this the Committee met and passed the following resolution:--

"That the Report be referred to the Editing Committee, and that they be requested to prepare it for publication, together with any supplementary or counter reports that may be received from members of the Committee, and appending thereto the reports of the Sub-Committees, and the evidence, oral and verbal, that has been collected; the entire work, when ready for publication, to be submitted for approval to the Committee."[1]

Such is the origin of the volume from which the following extracts are made.[2] Considerations of space necessitate dealing with the work of one Sub-Committee only. The essential part of the REPORT OF SUB-COMMITTEE NO. 1 is as follows:--

"Since their appointment on the 16th of February 1869, your Sub-Committee have held forty meetings for the purpose of experiment and test.

"All of these meetings were held at the private residences of members of the Committee, purposely to preclude the possibility of pre-arranged mechanism or contrivance.

"The furniture of the room in which the experiments were conducted was on every occasion its accustomed furniture.

"The tables were in all cases heavy dining-tables, requiring a strong effort to move them. The smallest of them was 5 feet 9 inches long by 4 feet wide ... and of proportionate weight.

"The rooms, tables, and furniture generally were repeatedly subjected to careful examination before, during, and after the experiments, to ascertain that no concealed machinery, instrument, or other contrivance existed by means of which the sounds or movements hereinafter mentioned could be caused.

"The experiments were conducted in the light of gas, except on the few occasions specially noted in the minutes.

"Your Committee have avoided the employment of professional or paid mediums, the mediumship being that of members of your Sub-Committee, persons of good social position and of unimpeachable integrity, having no pecuniary object to serve, and nothing to gain by deception.

* * * * *

"Your Committee have confined their Report to _facts_ witnessed by them in their collective capacity, which facts were _palpable to the senses, and their reality capable of demonstrative proof_.

* * * * *

"The result of their long-continued and carefully-conducted experiments, after trial by every detective test they could devise, has been to establish conclusively:--

"First: That under certain bodily or mental conditions of one or more of the persons present, a force is exhibited sufficient to set in motion heavy substances, without the employment of any muscular force, without contact or material connection of any kind between such substances and the body of any person present.

"Second: That this force can cause sounds to proceed, distinctly audible to all present, from solid substances not in contact with, nor having any visible or material connection with, the body of any person present, and which sounds are proved to proceed from such substances by the vibrations which are distinctly felt when they are touched.

"Third: That this force is frequently directed by intelligence.

"At thirty-four out of the forty meetings of your Committee some of these phenomena occurred.

* * * * *

"In conclusion, your Committee express their unanimous opinion that the one important physical fact thus proved to exist, that _motion may be produced in solid bodies without material contact, by some hitherto unrecognised force operating within an undefined distance from the human organism, and beyond the range of muscular action_, should be subjected to further scientific examination, with a view to ascertaining its true source, nature, and power."[3]

One selection is now given from the Minutes of this Sub-Committee, illustrating the nature of the Evidence that came before them:--

"EXPERIMENT XXXVIII., Dec. 28th [1869].--Eight members present. _Phenomena_: Rapping sounds from the table and floor, and movements of the table, with and without contact. The alphabet was repeated, and the following letters were rapped: 'A bad circle--want of harmony.' At the letter f, the table tilted three times, and at the letters a, r, gave several forcible horizontal movements, tilting at either end.

"Raps, with slight tiltings of the table, beating time to the measure of a song. Two or three poems were recited, to the measure of which there were loud raps from the table and floor, and the table also marked the metre by various horizontal movements and tiltings.

"Hood's Anatomy Song being repeated by one of the members, the knocking, rapping, and tilting sounds, with various horizontal, trembling, and vibratory movements of the table, accompanied it, in exact harmony with the measure, added to which were strange movements, in accordance with the character of the verses. In one instance the table shifted its position several feet, the tips of the fingers only being in contact with it.

"MOVEMENTS WITHOUT CONTACT.--Question: 'Would the table now be moved without contact?' Answer: 'Yes;' by three raps on the table. All chairs were then turned with their backs to the table, and nine inches away from it; and all present knelt on the chairs, with their wrists resting on the backs, and their hands a few inches above the table.

"Under these conditions, the table (the heavy dining-room table previously described) moved four times, each time from four to six inches, and the second time nearly twelve inches.

"Then all hands were placed on the backs of the chairs, and nearly a foot from the table, when four movements occurred, one slow and continuous for nearly a minute.

"Then all present placed their hands behind their backs, kneeling erect on their chairs, which were removed a foot clear away from the table. The gas also was turned up higher, so as to give abundance of light; and under these test conditions, distinct movements occurred, to the extent of several inches each time, and visible to every one present.

"The motions were in various directions, towards all parts of the room--some were abrupt, others steady. At the same time, and under the same conditions, distinct raps occurred, apparently both on the floor and on the table, in answer to requests for them.

"The above-described movements were so unmistakable, that all present unhesitatingly declared their conviction, that no physical force, exerted by any one present, could possibly have produced them; and they declared further, in writing, that a rigid examination of the table showed it to be an ordinary dining-table, with no machinery or apparatus of any kind connected with it. The table was laid on the floor with its legs up, and taken to pieces so far as practicable."[4]

TESTIMONY OF W. F. BARRETT, F.R.S., PROFESSOR OF PHYSICS IN THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE FOR IRELAND.

No endeavour appears to have been made by any of the members of the Committee of the Dialectical Society to follow up the results which they had obtained. The individual members who had previously been active in such matters continued to take an interest in them, but there is no evidence that a single new inquirer was gained. The next event of any importance, in the direction of scientific inquiry into the subject, was the reading by Professor W. F. Barrett of a paper before the meeting of the British Association at Glasgow in 1876. This paper was entitled "On Some Phenomena Associated with Abnormal Conditions of Mind," and dealt mainly with what was subsequently designated "Thought-Transference." Professor Barrett also referred to some "physical phenomena" which had come under his notice. He says: "I am bound to mention a case that came under my own repeated observation, wherein certain inexplicable physical phenomena occurred in broad daylight, and for which I could find no satisfactory solution either on the ground of hallucination or fraud."[5]

In a paper read before the Society for Psychical Research in 1886, entitled "On Some Physical Phenomena commonly termed Spiritualistic, witnessed by the Author," Professor Barrett describes in detail the phenomena he referred to in the paper read ten years previously at the British Association, and the circumstances under which they occurred. The following paragraphs give the important features:[6]--

Mr. C., a solicitor, with his wife and family, had come to reside for the season in the suburban house of a friend and neighbour of Professor Barrett's. He was an Irish country gentleman who had an utter disbelief in spiritualism. Professor Barrett was therefore not a little amused on making Mr. C.'s acquaintance, to find that he had in his own family what appeared to be spiritualistic phenomena then and there going on. Mr. C. gave Professor Barrett every opportunity of close and frequent investigation. The sittings extended through the months of August and September 1875. There were present besides Professor Barrett, Mr. and Mrs. C., and their young daughter Florrie, a bright, frank, intelligent child, then about ten years old. They sat at a large dining-room table, facing French windows, which let in a flood of sunlight. Shortly, scraping sounds, raps, and noises resembling the hammering of small nails, were heard. Florrie's hands and feet were closely watched, and were observed to be absolutely motionless when the sounds were heard. Besides knocks, there were occasional movements of the furniture. Seated one day at a large dining-room table in full sunlight, Florrie, and Mr. and Mrs. C., and Professor Barrett being the persons present, all their fingers visibly resting on the surface of the table, three legs of the table rose off the ground to a sufficient height to allow Professor Barrett to put his foot easily beneath the castor nearest him. The importance of the comparatively small amount of "movement" phenomena in this case is increased by their association with "sound" phenomena of great variety and frequency. These will be fully described in the next chapter.

Another case which Professor Barrett cites in the same paper may be thus summarised as far as phenomena of movement are concerned:[7]--

The sitters were Mr. L., a well-known photographer in Dublin, his niece, Miss I., and Professor Barrett. While noticing the raps and knocks, Professor Barrett observed a frequent uneasy movement of the entire table, which was a moderately large and heavy one, four feet square. It sidled about in a most surprising manner. Lifting their hands completely off the table, the sitters placed themselves back in their chairs, with their hands folded across their chests. Their feet were in full view. Under these conditions, and in obedience to Professor Barrett's request, the table raised the two legs nearest to him off the ground eight or ten inches, and then suspended itself for a few moments. A similar act was performed on the other side. Then a very unexpected occurrence happened. To quote Professor Barrett's own words:--

"Whilst absolutely free from the contact of any person, the table wriggled itself backward and forward, advancing towards the armchair in which I sat, and ultimately completely imprisoning me in my seat. During its progress it was followed by Mr. L. and Miss I., but they were at no time touching it, and occasionally were so distant that I could perceive a free space all round the table whilst it was still in motion. When thus under my very nose, the table rose repeatedly, and enabled me to be perfectly sure, by the evidence of touch, that it was off the ground, and further, that no human being, consciously or unconsciously, had any part in this movement."

Professor Barrett, with his accustomed caution, comments thus:--

"The results, it is true, were very remarkable and unaccountable; but though I had not the slightest doubt of the good faith of Mr. L. and Miss I., yet I do not adduce this evidence as unexceptionable. I should have preferred to have taken precautions which were not so easy to impose on a lady, and I should also have preferred to have had the seance at my own house."

This latter objection was met by Mr. L. and Miss I. going to Professor Barrett's house shortly afterwards, no one else besides Professor Barrett being present. Some remarkable sounds were again heard. Then, this happened--again quoting Professor Barrett's own words:--

"Suddenly, only the tips of our fingers being on the table, the heavy loo-table at which we were sitting made a series of very violent prancing movements (which I could not imitate afterwards except by using both hands and all my strength); the blows were so heavy that I hurriedly stopped the performance, fearing for the safety of the gas chandelier in the room below. Here, too, I cannot avoid the conclusion that the phenomena described are inexplicable on any known hypothesis."

After discounting the "pious platitudes" spelt out by the tilts of the table, and the possibility, and even probability, that "unintentional muscular movements" were the cause of these, and after recognising the impossibility of keeping up a continuous vigilant watch on the hands and feet of any person, and after supposing that Miss I. had some ingenious mechanism concealed about her person, whereby she could produce the sounds that were heard, Professor Barrett says: "This would fail to account for the undoubted motion of a heavy table, free from the contact of all present. After giving due weight to every known explanation, the phenomena remain inexplicable to me."

TESTIMONY COLLECTED BY FREDERIC W. H. MYERS.

Next in order of time come two papers by Mr. F. W. H. Myers, under the title of "Alleged Movements of Objects without Contact, occurring not in the Presence of a Paid Medium." They are published in vol. vii. of the _Proceedings_ of the Society for Psychical Research.[8] The first article goes over most of the ground traversed in the earlier part of this chapter, but devotes twenty lines only to the Report of the Committee of the Dialectical Society, and refers only to Professor Barrett's cases as having been already published. A number of other cases are, however, described in detail. The evidence in these scarcely comes up to the level of scientific, and unless it had been sifted by so careful a critic as Mr. Myers, who convinced himself of the reality of the facts, could hardly be considered of much value. The two following cases in the first article present the strongest evidence.

(1) THE ARMSTRONG CASE.--Mr. George Allman Armstrong, of 8 Leeson Place, Dublin, and Ardnacarrig, Bandon, writes an account dated 13th June 1887. After vouching for the perfect good faith of the small group of experimenters, he describes in detail the movements of a table. The "rising" was generally preceded by a continuous fusillade of "knocks" in the substance of the table. When the knocks had, as it were, reached a climax, the table slowly swayed from side to side like a pendulum. It would stop completely, and then, as if imbued with life, and quite suddenly, would rise completely off the floor to a height of twelve or fourteen inches at least. It nearly always came down with immense force, and on several occasions proved destructive to itself, as the broken limbs of the table used at Kinsale could testify. The table was a round, rather heavy walnut one, with a central column standing on three claw legs. Mr. Armstrong says that on several occasions he succeeded in raising the table without contact. It rose to the fingers held over it at a height of several inches, like the keeper of a strong electro-magnet.[9]

(2) A BELL-RINGING CASE.--Mr. Myers, in introducing this case, says: "The usual hypotheses of fraud, rats, hitched wires, &c., seem hard to apply. The care and fulness with which it has been recorded will enable the reader to judge for himself more easily than in most narratives of this type. Our informant is a gentleman [Mr. D.], occupying a responsible position; his name may be given to inquirers."[10] The detailed report of the occurrences occupies no less than twelve pages, the greater part of which consists of a long letter addressed by Mr. D. to the Society for Psychical Research. He explains that he is writing in the main from notes taken at the time and not from memory. The following is an abstract:--

On Friday, 23rd September 1887, he took his four pupils to a circus, his lady housekeeper also going, leaving two servants at home. They left at about 2 P.M. All but himself returned about 5.30 P.M. The two servants were on the doorstep, telling the boys not to go in by the area door--the kitchens being below ground--and explaining that all the bells were ringing violently, no one touching them, and that they had been doing so almost ever since half-past two. When the master of the house came home, he found the same state of things, the servants almost in hysterics and the bells ringing. Nine bells hung in a row just inside the area door, opposite the kitchen door, and there was one bell--a call bell--on the landing at the top of the house.

Mr. D. frequently saw several of these bells ringing at once, the ringing being sudden and very violent, louder, he believed, than they could be rung by pulling the handles. One bell was more than once pulled over, so that it could not return to its normal position. Several of the upstairs bells had no bell-pulls. The bellhanger was several times summoned to the premises. He showed that the wires could not have been entangled, and entirely agreed that it would be an utter impossibility for any animals, such as cats or rats, to ring the bells as they were rung. The house was quite a new one, standing alone, surrounded by unoccupied plots of building land.

As to the question of trickery. There seemed no possibility of that being the explanation. The phenomena occurred when the housekeeper and pupils were all away; also when the cook was away; also when only the two servants and the master were in the house, and both of them in his sight. For instance, he says he stood in the passage in front of the nine bells watching them ring, with both the servants close by. Once in particular he watched the housemaid on her knees in the middle of the wash-house scrubbing the tiles, while the front door, area door, and bath-room bells were pealing violently. The ringing was also heard by tradesmen, and by men working in the gardens near. The wires of the bells were distinctly moved, not only the bells and the clappers. The bell-handles were never observed to be moved. The ringing lasted between three and four weeks, and then ceased. Knockings in considerable variety were also heard, and a few cases of the movement of chairs and small articles, without any contact, also occurred.

Mr. D. was at one time disposed to think that the housemaid was in some way connected with the disturbances, but he could trace no evidence. She was a young girl who had not been out to service before. She got into such a state of nervous excitement about the occurrences, that brain fever or something serious was feared. She had only been in the house a few weeks previous to the commencement of the manifestations, and nothing occurred after she left. Mr. D. was, however, perfectly convinced that she had nothing to do voluntarily with the bell-ringing.[11]

The second paper by Mr. Myers is devoted exclusively to some "strange experiences" which occurred several years previous to 1891, at the village of Swanland, a few miles from Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The evidence is that of John Bristow, who states he was an eye-witness. There were no intellectual phenomena, nothing but the apparently meaningless throwing about of pieces of wood--directed, however, by some intelligence, so as to attract attention without doing harm. Here again what value the case has rests almost solely on its having received the critical study of Mr. Myers.[12]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Report of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, p. 228.

[2] Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, together with the Evidence, Oral and Written, and a Selection from the Correspondence. Two editions have been published. Both are out of print.

[3] Report, &c., pp. 7-13.

[4] Report, &c., pp. 390-391.

[5] _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. i. p. 240

[6] See _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. iv. pp. 29-33.

[7] See _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. iv. pp. 33-35.

[8] Vol. vii. pp. 146-198 and pp. 383-394.

[9] For full account see _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. vii. pp. 159-160.

[10] _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. vii. p. 160.

[11] See the full account in Part XIX. of the _Proceedings of the S.P.R._, which part is included in vol. vii., and may be obtained separately for 2s. 6d.

[12] See _Proceedings S.P.R._, vol. vii. pp. 383-394.