THE SPIRITUALISTS’ HOPE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1232, 14 April 1914, Page 4

THE SPIRITUALISTS’ HOPE.

LONDON' PAPER AS "APPORT.” The question (says Sydney Sun) which naturally iotms on the lips of the man who is told that the inhabitants of that world which is “across the bar - ’ are able to and do trans:er objects from one end of the earthly world to another is, “Why then, don't they give conclusive proof by producing in Australia a copy of the Loudon Times of the same day ?” That would, of course, silence even the most scornful unbeliever, and Charles Bailey, the medium whose Sydney seances last week attracted so much attention, was asked recently why the spirit did not give the world that convincing evidence.

“There is a reason,” he said. “The people on the other side control everything. They hold that there is a time for everything, and they say that the psychological moment for that revelation has not yet arrived. But we are working up to it, and we confidently believe, from what we understand, that on the occasion of the visit of the delegates to the science congress in Australia next year some great revelation of that nature will be made. We have been led by the people on the other side to expect that that is the time and the hour. Supposing the revela lion were made now at an ordinary silting, it would excite a great amount of curiosity, but it would not be anything more than a nine days’ wonder. The world would not be satisfied. All doubt would not be dispelled. But if it took place in the presence of the world’s leading scientists it would have such an advertisement that everybody would know of it, and the certainty of life after death would be established beyond any doubt.”

TRANSLATING TABLET CHARACTERS.

Whether or not the scientists will see that miracle performed, it is likely that they will be asked to translate the characters on certain tablets which are being collected in Melbourne, so that the translation may be compared with the wording that Dr. Robinson (declared to be a noted Egyptcxjx in the spirit world) announced to a Melbourne audience through Mr Bailey. They have not been inspected by local experts. They are in the possession of Mr Standford, of the southern capital, one of the most prominent investigators among psychists, and they are in the form in which they are said to have been removed from the ruined cities, thickly coated with clay. I’RKI'ARKL' TO GIVK PROOF. Mr Bailey, who 15 years ago an operative at a Collingwood shoe factory, is a quiet, uervous looking man, about 40 or 45 years old. He is full of confidence, and he is quite prepared, it satisfactory arrangements can be made with Mr Standford, before whom he weekly appears, under perpetual engagement, to demonstrate to scientific Sydney that he —or the spirits through him —is able to produce specimens which have been transferred through space and matter. He says he has nothing at all to fear, and he hopes to remain in Sydney long enough to prove his genuineness. MUSKUM OUT OF SFACK. Mr Standford • has a museum which is said to be made up entirely of the apports “dropped out of space.'’ They include live birds of varied plumage from India, Malay Peninsula, aud elsewhere (some of which no ornithologist in Australia can name), tablets from ruined cities, and African fetish composed of a human thigh bone, a leopard skin 6ft. long, fish, stones, beads, a flag used in the battle of Omdurman, Chinese and other coins, tapestry, costume of a Chinese mandarin, flowers, plants, pictures from a native hut in India, a skull said to be from the body of an American soldier killed in the Philippine war, a nest of eggs, gold dust aud

hundreds of other things. A Sydney doctor also has a collection, though it is not nearly of the same dimensions. But at one sitting a shovel-nosed shark about a foot long was declared to have dropped on to a table close to the medium, while on another occasion a handful of coins of .he particular denomination he desired were dropped,apparently from the ceiling behind him. NOT A MONEY-MAKING BUSINESS. An object, Mr Bailey explained, may be dematerialised as well as materialised. For instance, at some of his sittings at Mr Standlord’s humming birds have been produced. That is a type of bird which will not live in any but tropical regions, aud when Mr Standford found that he could not keep them they were given back to the people on the other side to be returned whence they came. Seeing that Mr Bailey claimed to have been made the means whereby gold and precious stones have been whisked through space like a wireless message, it was suggested to him that he might become the richest man iu the world if he directed his guardian spirit to make more frequent - calls with the jewels. The motive actuating these unseen intelligences. he explained, is to demonstrate to the people on the earth that they survive the ordeal of death, and that there exists another world—a world of moral, intellectual aud spiritual activity. They demonstrate, but they do not allow the mediums or anyone else to profit by the power to materialise objects. They will allow a medium to live, but not to grow rich. “Therefore,” Mr Bailey said, “though in one Sydney seance a hatful of Australian gems was brought into the room, aud went into the possession of someone present, I cannot hope to ever learn of the whereabouts of tint gem country or to build up a huge bank account with which I might derive from gems sent by an unseen agency.” Mr Bailey further explained that materialised spirit forms of the nature seen at Leigh House on the memorable night that the cry of “Fraud !” was raised become tangible for a time aud as they are always draped in some form or another it would be possible to clutch their dress aud to handle them. There are cases, be said, where a lock of the visitor’s hair has been obtained as well as a sample of the dress.”

PARTICULAR SPIRITS

A correspondent puts forth a novel view of the tastes of disembodied spirits. He points out that it is necessary to have sympathetic vibration to build up a materialised form, and he said it was easy to see that such a state of harmony and sympathy did not exist at the seance where the disturbance occurred, How, then, he asked, could Mr Bailey be expected to produce perfect forms ? Anybody who expected exalted spirits to come into a room which was dilapidated and out of repair—such as the room Mr Bailey had to “sit” iu—showed that their experience iu spiritualistic phenomena was very slight.