SOME TIME before I had the pleasure of meeting
Miss Showers, I heard, through
friends living in the west of England, of the mysterious and marvellous powers
possessed by a young lady of their acquaintance, who was followed by voices in
the air, which held conversations with her, and the owners of which were said to
have made themselves visible. I listened with curiosity, the more so, as my
informants utterly disbelieved in Spiritualism, and thought the phenomena were
due to trickery. At the same time I conceived a great desire to see the girl of
sixteen, who, for no gain or apparent object of her own, was so clever as to
mystify everyone around her; and when she and her mother came to London, I was
amongst the first to beg for an introduction, and I shall never forget the
experiences I had with her. She was the first private medium through whom my
personal friends returned to converge with me; and no one but a Spiritualist can
appreciate the blessing of spiritual communications through a source that is
above the breath of suspicion. I have already written at length about Miss
Showers in "The story of John Powles." She was a child, compared to myself,
whose life had hardly commenced when mine was virtually over, and neither she,
nor any member of her family, had ever had an opportunity of becoming acquainted
with even the names of my former friends. Yet (as I have related) John Powles
made Miss Showers his especial mouthpiece, and my daughter "Florence" (then a
little child) also appeared through her, though at long intervals, and rather
timidly. Her own controls, however, or cabinet spirits (as they call them in
America) - i.e., such spirits as are always about the medium, and help the
strangers to appear - " Peter," "Florence," "Lenore," and "Sally," were very
familiar with me, and afforded me such facilities of testing their medium as do
not often fall to the lot of inquirers. Indeed, at one time, they always
requested that I should be present at their séance, so that I considered myself
to be highly favored. And I may mention here that Miss Showers and I were so
much en rapport that her manifestations were always much stronger in my
presence. We could not sit next each other at an ordinary tea or supper table,
when we had no thought of, or desire to hold a séance, without manifestations
occurring in the full light. A hand, that did not belong to either of us, would
make itself apparent under the table-cloth between us - a hand with power to
grasp ours - or our feet would be squeezed or kicked beneath the table, or
fingers would suddenly appear, and whisk the food off our plates. Some of their
jests were inconvenient. I have had the whole contents of a tumbler, which I was
raising to my lips, emptied over my dress. It was generally known that our
powers were sympathetic, and at last "Peter" gave me leave, or, rather, ordered
me to sit in the cabinet with "Rosie," whilst the manifestations went on
outside. He used to say he didn't care for me any more than if I had been "a
spirit myself." One evening "Peter" called me into the cabinet (which was simply
a large box cupboard at one end of the dining room) before the séance began, and
told me to sit down at the medium's feet and “be a good girl and keep quiet."
Miss Showers was in a low chair, and I sat with my arms resting on her lap. She
did not become entranced, and we talked the whole time together. Presently,
without any warning, two figures stood beside us. I could not have said where
they came from. I neither saw them rise from the floor nor descend from the
ceiling. There was no beginning to their appearance. In a moment they were
simply there - "Peter" and "Florence" (not my child, but Miss Showers' control
of the same names).
"Peter" sent "Florence" out to the audience, where we heard her speaking to them
and their remarks upon her (there being only a thin curtain hung before the
entrance of the cabinet), but he stayed with us himself. We could not see him
distinctly in the dim light, but we could distinctly, hear and feel him. He
changed our ornaments and ribbons, and pulled the hair-pins out of our hair, and
made comments on what was going on outside. After a while "Florence" returned to
get more power, and both spirits spoke to and touched us at the same time.
During the whole of this séance my arms rested on Miss Showers? And she was
awake and talking to me about the spirits.
One evening, at a sitting at Mr. Luxmore's house in Hyde Park Square, the spirit
"Florence" had been walking amongst the audience in the lighted front
drawing-room for a considerable time - even sitting at the piano and
accompanying herself whilst she sung us a song in what she called "the planetary
language." She greatly resembled her medium on that occasion, and several
persons present remarked that she did so. I suppose the inferred doubt annoyed
her, for before she finally left us she asked for a light, and a small oil lamp
was brought to her which she placed in my hand, telling me to follow her and
look at her medium, which I accordingly did. "Florence" led the way into the
back drawing-room, where I found Miss Showers reposing in an arm-chair. The
first sight of her terrified me. For the purpose of making any change in her
dress as difficult as possible, she wore a high, tight-fitting black velvet
frock, fastened at the back, and high Hessian boots, with innumerable buttons.
But she now appeared to be shrunk to half her usual size, and the dress hung
loosely on her figure. Her arms had disappeared, but putting my hands up the
dress sleeves, I found them diminished to the size of those of a little
child-the fingers reaching only to where the elbows had been. The same miracle
had happened to her feet, which only occupied half her boots. She looked in fact
like the mummy of a girl of four or six years old. The spirit told me to feel
her face. The forehead was dry, rough, and burning hot, but from the chin water
was dropping freely on to the bosom of her dress. "Florence" said to me, "I
wanted you to see her, because I know you are brave enough to tell people what
you have seen."
There was a marked difference in the personality of the two influences
"Florence" and "Lenore," although both at times resembled Miss Showers, and
sometimes more than others. "Florence" was taller than her medium, and a very
beautiful, Woman. "Lenore" was much shorter and smaller, and not so pretty, but
more vivacious and pert. By the invitation of Mrs. Macdougal Gregory, I attended
several seances with Miss Showers at her residence in Green Street, when these
spirits appeared.
"Lenore" was fond of saying that she wouldn't or couldn't come out unless
I held
her hand, or put my arm round her waist. To tell the truth, I didn't care for
the distinction, for this influence was very peculiar in some things, and to me
she always appeared 11 uncanny," and to leave an unpleasant feeling behind her.
She was seldom completely formed, and would hold up a foot which felt like wet
clay, and had no toes to. it, or not the 'proper quantity. On occasions, too,
there was a charnel-house smell about her, as if she had been buried a few weeks
and dug up again, an odor which I have never smelt from any materialized spirit
before or after. One evening at Mrs. Gregory's, when "Lenore" had insisted upon
walking round the circle supported by my arm, I nearly fainted from the smell.
It resembled nothing but that of a putrid corpse, and when she returned to the
cabinet, I was compelled to leave the room and retch from the nausea it had
caused me. It was on this occasion that the sitters called "Lenore" so many
times back into the circle, that all the power was gone, and she was in danger
of melting away before their eyes. Still they entreated her to remain with them
a little longer. At last she grew impatient, and complained to me of their
unreasonableness. She was then raised from the floor - actually floating just
outside the curtain - and she asked me to put my hands up her skirts and
convince myself that she was half-dematerialized. I did as she told me, and felt
that she had no legs, although she had been walking round the room a few minutes
before. I could feel nothing but the trunk of a body, which was completely
lifted off the ground. Her voice, too, had grown faint and her face indistinct,
and in another moment she had totally disappeared.
One evening at Mrs. Gregory's, after the séance was concluded, "Florence" looked
round the curtain and called to me to come inside of it. I did so and found
myself in total darkness. I said, "What's the good of my coming here? I can't
see anything." "Florence" took me by one hand, and answered, "I will lead you!
Don't be afraid." Then some one else grasped my other hand, and "Peter's" voice
said, "We've got you safe. We want you to feel the medium." The two figures led
me between them to the sofa on which Miss Showers was lying. They passed my hand
all over her head and body. I felt, as before, her hands and feet shrunk to half
their size, but her heart appeared to have become proportionately increased.
When my hand was placed upon it, it was as leaping up and down violently, and
felt like a rabbit or some other live animal bounding in her bosom. Her brain
was burning as before, but her extremities were icy cold. There was no doubt at
all of the abnormal condition into which the medium had been thrown, in order to
produce these strong physical manifestations which were borrowed, for the time
being, from her life, and could never (so they informed me) put the whole of
what they borrowed back again. This seems to account for the invariable
deterioration of health and strength that follows physical manifestations in
both sexes. These were the grounds alone on which they explained to me the fact
that, on several occasions, when the materialized spirit has been violently
seized and held apart from the medium, it has been found to have become, or been
changed into the medium, and always with injury to the latter-as in the case of
Florence Cook being seized by Mr. VoIckman and Sir George Sitwell. Mr. VoIckman
concluded because when he seized the spirit "Katie King," he found he was
holding Florence Cook, that the latter must have impersonated the former; yet I
shall tell you in its proper place how I have sat in the same room with "Katie
King," whilst Miss Cook lay in a trance between us. The medium nearly lost her
life on the ' occasion alluded to, from the sudden disturbance of 'the
mysterious link that bound her to the spirit. I have had it from the lips of the
Countess of Caithness, who was one of the sitters, and stayed with Miss Cook
till she was better, that she was in convulsions the whole night after, and that
it was some time before they believed she would recover. If a medium could
simulate a materialized spirit, it is hardly likely that she would (or could)
simulate convulsions with a medical man standing by her bedside. "You see," said
Miss Showers' "Florence," whilst pointing out to me the decreased size of her
medium under trance, "that 'Rosie' is half her usual size and weight. I have
borrowed the other half from her, which, combined with contributions from the
sitters, goes to make up the body in which I show myself to you. If you seize
and hold me tight, you are holding her, i.e., half of her, and you increase the
action of the vital half to such a degree that, if the two halves did not
reunite, you would kill her. You see that I can detach certain particles from
her organism for my own use, and when I dematerialize, I restore these particles
to her, and she becomes once more her normal size. You only hurry the reunion by
violently detaining me, so as to injure her, But you might drive her mad, or
kill her in the attempt, because the particles of brain, or body, might become
injured by such a violent collision. If you believe I can take them from her (as
you see I do) in order to render my invisible body visible to you, why can't you
believe I can make them fly together again on the approach of danger. And
granted the one power, I see no difficulty in acknowledging the other."
One day Mrs. Showers invited me to assist at a séance to be given expressly for
friends living at a distance. When I reached the house, however, I found the
friends were unable to be present, and the meeting was adjourned. Mrs. Showers
apologized for the alteration of plan, but I was glad of it. I had often sat
with "Rosie" in company with others, and I wanted to sit with her quite alone,
or rather to fit with her in a room quite alone, and see what would
spontaneously occur, without any solicitation on our parts. We accordingly
annexed the drawing-room for our sole use, locked the door, extinguished the
lights, and sat down on a sofa side by side, with our arms round each other. The
manifestations that followed were not all nice ones. They formed an experience
to be passed through once, but not willingly repeated, and I should not relate
them here, excepting that they afford so strong a proof that they were produced
by a power outside and entirely distinct from our own - a power, which having
once called into action, we had no means of repressing. We had sat in the dark
for some minutes, without hearing or seeing anything, when I thoughtlessly
called out, "Now, Peter, do your worst," and extending my arms, singing, "Come!
for my arms are empty." In a moment a large, heavy figure fell with such force
into my out stretched arms as to bruise my shoulder - it seemed like a form made
of wood or iron, rather than flesh and blood - and the rough treatment that
ensued for both of us is almost beyond description. It seemed as if the room
were filled with materialized creatures, who were determined to let us know they
were not to be trifled with. Our faces and hands were slapped, our hair pulled
down, and our clothes nearly torn off our backs. My silk skirt being separate
from the bodice was torn off at the waistband, and the trimming ripped from it,
and Miss Showers' muslin dress was also much damaged. We were both thoroughly
frightened, but no expostulations or entreaties had any effect with our
tormentors. At the same time we heard the sound as of a multitude of large birds
or bats swooping about the room." The fluttering of wings was incessant, and we
could hear them "scrooping" up and down the walls. In the midst of the
confusion, "Rosie" was whisked out of my arms (for fright had made us cling
tighter than ever together) and planted on the top of a table at some distance
from me, at which she was so frightened she began to cry, and I called out, "Powles,
where are you? Can't you stop them?" My appeal was heard. Peter's voice
exclaimed, "Hullo! here's Powles coming!" and all the noise ceased. We heard the
advent of my friend, and in another moment he was smoothing down the ruffled
hair and arranging the disordered dresses and telling me to light the gas and
not be frightened. As soon as I could I obeyed his directions and found Rosie
sitting doubled up in the centre of the table, but the rest of the room and,
furniture in its usual condition. "Peter" and his noisy crowd had vanished - so
had "Powles," and there was nothing but our torn skirts and untidy appearance to
prove that we had not been having an unholy dream. "Peter" is not a wicked
spirit - far from it - but he is a very earthly and frivolous one. But when we
consider that nine-tenths of the spirits freed from the flesh are both earthly
and frivolous (if not worse), I know not what right we have to expect to receive
back angels in their stead.
At one time when my sister Blanche (who was very sceptical as to the possibility
of the occurrences I related having taken place before me) was staying in my
house at Bayswater, I asked Miss Showers if she would give us a séance in my own
home, to which she kindly assented. This was an unusual concession on her part,
because, in consequence of several accidents and scandals that had occurred from
media being forcibly detained (as I have just alluded to), her mother was
naturally averse to her sitting anywhere but in their own circle. However, on my
promising to invite no strangers, Mrs. Showers herself brought her daughter to
my house. We had made no preparation for the séance except by opening part of
the folding doors between the dining-room and study, and hanging a curtain over
the aperture. But I had carefully locked the door of the study, so that there
should be no egress from it excepting through the dining-room, and had placed
against the locked door a heavy writing-table laden with books and ornaments to
make "assurance doubly sure." We sat first in the drawing-room above, where
there was a piano. The lights were extinguished, and Miss Showers sat down to
the instrument and played the accompaniment to a very simple melody, "Under the
willow she's sleeping." Four voices, sometimes alone and sometimes all together,
accompanied her own. One was a baritone, supposed to proceed from "Peter," the
second, a soprano, from "Lenore." The third was a rumbling bass, from an
influence who called himself "The Vicar of Croydon," and sung in a fat,
unctuous, and conceited voice; and the fourth was a cracked and quavering
treble, from another spirit called "The Abbess." These were the voices, Mrs.
Showers told me, that first followed her daughter about the house in Devonshire,
and gained her such an unenviable notoriety there. The four voices were
perfectly distinct from one another, and sometimes blended most ludicrously and
tripped each other up in a way which made the song a medley-upon which each one
would declare it as the fault of the other. "The Vicar of Croydon" always
required a great deal of solicitation before he could be induced to exhibit his
powers, but having once commenced, it was difficult to make him: leave off
again, whereas "The Abbess" was always complaining that they would not allow her
to sing the solos. An infant's voice also sung some baby songs in a sweet
childish treble, but she was also very shy and seldom was heard, in comparison
with the rest. "All ventriloquism!" I hear some reader cry. If so, Miss Showers
ought to have made a fortune in exhibiting her talent in public. I have heard
the best ventriloquists in the world, but I never heard one who could produce
four voices at the same time.
After the musical portion of the séance was over, we descended to the
dining-room, where the gas was burning, and the medium passed through it to the
secured study, where a mattress was laid upon the floor for her accommodation.
"Florence" was the first to appear, tall and beautiful in appearance, and with
upraised eyes like a nun. She measured her height against the wall with me, and
we found she was the taller of the two by a couple of inches, my height being
five feet six, the medium's five feet, and the spirit's five feet eight, an
abnormal height for a woman. "Lenore" came next, very short indeed, looking like
a child of four or six, but she grew before our eyes, until her head was on a
level with mine. She begged us all to observe that she had not got on "Rosie's"
petticoat body. She said she had borrowed it on one occasion, and Mrs. Showers
had recognized it, and slipped upstairs in the middle of the séance and found it
missing from her daughter's chest of drawers, and that she had been so angry in
consequence (fearing Rosie's honor might be impeached) that she said if "Lenore"
did not promise never to do so again, she should not be allowed to assist at the
seances at all. So Miss "Lenore," in rather a pert and defiant mood, begged Mrs.
Showers to see that what she wore was her own property, and riot that of the
medium. She was succeeded on that occasion by a strange being, totally different
from the other two, who called herself "Sally," and said she had been a cook.
She was one of those extraordinary influences for whose return to earth one can
hardly account; quick, and clever, and amusing as she could be, but with an
unrefined wit and manner, and to all appearance, more earthly-minded than
ourselves. But do we not often ask the same question with respect to those still
existent here below? What were they born for? What good do they do? Why were
they ever permitted to come? God, without whose permission nothing happens,
alone can answer it.
We had often to tease "Peter" to materialize and show himself, but he invariably
refused, or postponed the work to another occasion. His excuse was that the
medium being so small, he could not obtain sufficient power from her to make
himself appear as a big man, and he didn't like to come, " looking like a girl
in a billycock hat." "I came once to Mrs. Showers," he said, “and she declared I
was 'Rosie' dressed up, and so I have resolved never to show myself again." At
the close of that séance, however, "Peter" asked me to go into the study and see
him wake the medium. When I entered it and made my way up to the mattress, I
found Miss Showers extended on it in a deep sleep, whilst "Peter," materialized,
sat at her feet. He made me sit down next to him and take his hand and feel his
features with my own hand. Then he proceeded to rouse "Rosie" by shaking her and
calling her by name, holding me by one hand, as he did so. As Miss Showers
yawned and woke up from her trance, the hand slipped from mine, and "Peter"
evaporated. When she sat up I said to her gently, "I am here! Peter brought me
in and was sitting on the mattress by my side till just this moment." "Ha, ha!"
laughed his voice close to my car, "and I'm here still, my dears, though you
can't see me."
Who can account for such things? I have witnessed them over and over again, yet
I am unable, even to this day, to do more than believe and wonder.
Source:
"There is no Death" by Florence Marryat (London: William Rider & Son,
1917).
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