PSYCHIC PHENOMENON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 3741, 14 January 1928, Page 1

PSYCHIC PHENOMENON.

DR, TILL YARD'S OBSERVATIONS. The Auckland Herald’s Loudon correspondent states that in the spring of 1926, Dr. R. J. Tillyard, of the Cawthron Institute, ‘Nelson, visited Boston and accepted an invitation from Dr. Crandon to be present at two seances. At one of these “Margery” (Mrs. Craven) was the medium, and all the usual phenomena were performed. Dr. Tillyard has .not been able to suggest any way in which these phenomena could have been produced normally.

On another occasion there were two mediums present —“Margery” and Dr. Hardwicke, from Buffalo — when “Walter,” the control, was alleged to have. produced a psychic glove. This wax glove was taken by Dr. Tillyard to Nelson, where he formed a committee to examine and report on the subject. It was the glove that formed the subject of a paper written by Dr. Tillyard, and read by a inember of the National Laboratory Fjfychical Research, London, a fewa nights ago. I Dr. Tillyard explains thlt both mediums sat free in tliei* chairs, except that he was on fchaleft of Dr Hardwicke and had control of toth liis very large hands,fand also of Margery’s much smaller left hand. “Margery herself,” Dr. Tillyard continues, “sitting on Dr. Hardwicke’s right, had her right hand partially controlled by my wife, and also had complete control* of Dr. 'Crandon’s right hand and partial control of his left. Dr. Crandon occupied his usual position on the immediate right of his wife, and my wife was next to him; this will explain how it was that her control of Margery’s right hand and Dr. Crandon’s left can only be described as partial. “Assuming for the moment the role of sceptic, it will thus be seen that the weakest links yi this chain of control were Margery’s right hand and Dr. Craiidon’s left, which might, conceivably, have slipped away from partial control long enough to dip themselves into the bucket of paraffin wax. As the ‘psychic glove’ produced was that of a right hand, this suspicion must be narrowed down to Margery’s right hand. I wish, however, to follow this supposition no further at present. I bring no charge of fraud against either Dr. or Mrs. Crandon, or Dr. Hardwicke, in connection with this case; I only wish to record ■the fact that control was out perfect, and that it is conceivable that the glove might have been formed by normal means, during one of the long periods of darkness. “That mpment at which I noted lack of control of Margery’s left hand was some little time before the first appearance of teleplasm on Dr’. Harwicke’s head. I wish to repeat that, so far as one can be humanly certain, I had control of all three hands in my charge during the whole of the operations in the hot and cold buckets, while, at two critical points when splashing was going on, my wife assured herself of the position of the three hands in her charge.” Dr. Tillyard goes on to speak of the formation of the glove. He s ays.—«i as ked ‘Walter’ first for a complete thumb, and later on, after he had already got to work, I changed my mintl and asked for the whole hand. The resulting glove clearly showed the effects of this change of plan; the thumb was far better formed than the rest of the hand, and was covered witty a thicker coating of wax. The specimen shows quite clearly that, however the operation was performed, only a thumb was being dipped when I had asked for a thumb, and that the same thumb, plus the rest of the hand, w as dipped after I changed my mind. . . •” Some time after this seance, Dr. Crandon made an astonishing statement. He said that the finger-print of the control “Walter” had been found on the real Walter’s razor case which he had used just before, ho was killed in a railway accident long ago. A finger-print expert had found a part of the thumbprint of the owner of the razor and had compared photographs of this with photographs of the thumbprints from two psychic impressions made on the wax of the gloves. These impressions he had declared identical. Dr. Tillyard arranged foi" Dr. Crandon to send photographs of the alleged thumb-prints of the spirit control. These had arrived in Nelson when Dr. Tillyai’d finished his paper. He had handed the photographs unopened to his “Nelson Committee,” and they were comparing them with the plaster cast which had been taken of the inside

of the wax glove in Dr. Tillyard’s Tossession.

A sequel to the actions of the “Nelson Committee” was seen at the meeting in London. It appears that one member of the “Nelson Committee” produced three perfectly formed paraffin-wax gloves -fitting his wife’s right hand; all of which were far superior to * the “Walter” glove. In the presence of a number of members of the London society the same process was followed. A double saucepan was used, the .inner container holding melted wax, the outer container holding the hot water which kept the wax molten. On the table beside this saucepan was a bucket of cold water. A tourniquet was fixed round a lady's upper arm and presently her hand was sivollen with blood. She then dipped her hand into the wax and then into the water. The process was continued until the wax glove was of Sufficient thickness. The tourniquet was then removed, and immediately the hand contracted. As it had been previously smeared with glycerine it was possible to get the hand out of the wax, leaving the glove intact. Dr. Tillyard, concluding his paper says:—“Our new discovery must inevitably strengthen whatever doubts we may possess, and we must call for greater efficiency in the controls used in all experiments in which ‘psychic gloves’ are the object of attainment. We must insist, from henceforth, upon much more stringent control in such seances, and we ought more particularly to aim at a visible record of some of the more critical parts of the performance, either by.the turning on of strong red light, or possibly by the taking of flash-light photographs.”