Solid Proofs of Survival

Are mediums frauds? The Bible didn't think so..... Read of the spirit manifestations of one of the 'valid' spiritualists of the early 1900s. A lot of 'food for thought' here.

From the Introduction

It is quite incomprehensible to me how an impartial person can belittle such proofs as are included in this book. To do so would mean that those who attested the genuineness of the phenomena, and had so many opportunities to observe them, were either conscious and deliberate liars, seeking to mislead their fellow-creatures, or possessed of intelligence much lower than the general level of human common sense if they have allowed themselves to be led astray. Amongst those witnesses are many educated people and some well-known scientists. There is no reason to suspect that these witnesses were not honest people.

It might be different if Mr. Nielsen's phenomena were something unique in the world. There would then be more reason for suspicion. Similar phenomena, however, have been verified by celebrated scientists in all the great civilised countries. No impartial man who has knowledge of the matter, doubts that ectoplasm really exists. There are different opinions from whence this phenomenon derives. Some think it is entirely of spiritualistic origin; others believe it is animistic; and still others suppose that it is a mixture of both. But amongst those people who have studied the problem there is no diversity of opinion about the existence of the phenomenon. Why reject the witness of Danish men and women?

For my part, I do not need any corroboration. I have had as many opportunities as I have desired to observe Mr. Nielsen's phenomena. On these occasions I have co-operated with men as experienced as judge P. Einersson, Professor Gudm. Thoroddson, Dr. Halldor Hansen, Professor Har. Nielsson, and Minister and President of the Parliament Kristiarn Danielsson, etc. The three first-named gentlemen have, before the Court in Reykjavik, witnessed their testimony on oath. I hope nobody will suspect that these gentlemen were so lacking in general common sense that they were not able clearly to observe the phenomena they witnessed under the strict control measures they themselves stipulated.

Excerpt:

Six months later, at a seance, a female entity came out of the cabinet, went straight to him and said: "I am your first wife, Bertha, whom you deserted. You left me alone with our child, and after great sufferings I died. My body is buried in the cemetery of H., and our daughter lives in great misery in L. Try to find her and help her; in that way you may compensate the wrong you have done." Then she vanished, dematerialising in the midst of the floor. She was one of the last entities who appeared that night, and soon afterwards the seance came to an end.

After the seance I had great difficulty in returning to normal, and, when I at last succeeded, I staggered to a divan to get a rest. In the meantime, Mr. A. tried to explain away to the other sitters his matrimonial experiences. His first wife had been insane as she died, and that was perhaps the reason why she talked now as she did. He had heard that people awoke in the same state as that in which they had died, and so on. While he talked, I felt that somebody stood at my side, and I clairvoyantly saw a young lady. At once I fell into trance, and the young woman began to talk through me, and said, "What he is saying is not true; he left me." If Mr. A. had been moved during the first message, he was much more moved when he heard her protest, and instead of continuing his explanations he fell silent.

I did not hear from him for some days, but then he came to me and spoke of his youth, about which he had been thinking, and about which he was quite sure nobody knew anything. He had not thought for a moment that his wife could materialise. Now it had actually happened, and the experience had been so convincing that he had to acknowledge the fact that it was really she. He told me about his youth, how at the age of twenty he had married a good and nice girl as young as himself, but that soon afterwards he began to lead a wild life, to drink with his friends and spend money on his lady friends. He wasted the money his father had given to him just before his wedding, and he neglected his business. His wife had wept and prayed him to fight against his passion. He ought to have remembered that in a few months' time their first child was going to be born.

One day, discovering that he was ruined, he went away and did not return home. After many years he came back as a well-to-do man and got news of his wife. She had sold her furniture and, after her little girl was born, she had secured a position as housekeeper in a widower's house. She was taken ill with tuberculosis, but was allowed to keep her position as long as she could do her work. Two years after the birth of her child, she died in a hospital, and no friends attended her funeral at the small village cemetery. The little girl was educated by strangers. Now she was married in L., but had to struggle hard for her living. He had not yet met her, but wanted to do so.