SCIENTIST AT SEANCE

Shannon News, 16 October 1928, Page 1

SCIENTIST AT SEANCE

DR. TILLYARD’S STORY

DEAD MAN WHO SWORE

MASCULINE VOICE - DISTINCT FROM MEDIUM’S.

The claim that a series of seances have proved the survival of human personality after death is made by Dr R. J. Tillyard, a scientist of. some note, whose mother lives in Worthing.

Dr Tillyard is Assistant Director and Chief of the Cawthron Institute, Nelson, New Zealand, and honorary vice-president of the National Laboratory of Psychical Research, London. He is also a Fellow 7 of the Royal Society, the Geographical Society, the Linnean Society, and the Entomological Society, and has published 150 scientific papers dealing w 7 ith insects. Detailing his experiences at, one of the seances —they were held in Boston, (Muss.), and all were attended and controlled by him—Dr Tillyard describes how 7 a man named Walter Stinson, w 7 ho died in 1912, “evinced a personality independent of the medium by speaking in a distinct masculine voice, whistling and sw-earing, and also left his thumb prnts in dental wax in the dark more quickly than an ordinary man could do them in the light. “My ow r n conclusion,” writes the doctor, ‘ ‘ is that Stinson has fully proved in a scientific manner his claim that his personality has survived after physical death.”

This amazing story is told by the doctor in “Nature,” a scientific journal of wide repute, which analyses Dr Tillyard’s claims in a leading article of several columns. Its conclusions are that the evidence on which the doctor bases his claims is not strong enough to justify them. The seance : at which the fingerprints of the dead man are alleged to have been reproduced was held on June 1 of this year at the house of Dr. Mark Richardson, of Boston. Besides Dr. Tillyard himself there were present in the seance room: The medium, Mrs. L. R. C. Crandon, the wife of a doctor, and sister of the dead man. Walter Stinson, who was killed on August 8, 1912, in a railway accident. Captain Fife, the finger-print expert of the U.S. Navy Yard. Man on Guard. Mr J. W. Evans, B.A. (Cantab), a young ctomologist, guarded the door of' the room from the outsi i. A red shade was placed over the electric light. Previous to the seance a number of pieces of dental wax called “Ivcrr, were, in the absence of the medium, marked secretly by Dr. Tillyard and Mr Evans; a number given to each, and a piece broken off the side. Other implements for marking thumb prints were als9 provided. Describing the dead man's operations, Dr Tillyard writes:-- ‘ ‘ With the red light frequently turn.ed on to verify the position of the pieces of 1 Kerr, ’ to remove each one from the cold water when ‘Walter' (the dead man) reported- it done, oi to put a new piece in the hot watei when he asked for it, we had a most extraordinarily quick and accurate performance by ‘Walter’ of the technique of making thumb-prints.

Seven Good Prints. “In taking Marjory’s (Mrs Crandon), Capt. Fife’s and my own thumbprints —winch I did within bright light within a few minutes of the end of the seance —considerable difficulties were met with, especially ow r ing to the wax melting too much if the w r atcr were too hot.-' “I timed Captain Fife, a linger print expert, taking his own thumbprint, and it took him ten minutes. “ ‘Walter’ did seven good prints in the dark in about half an hour, remarking that it was easy for him, as ho “carried his cold about with him.’ “On one occasion he said ‘No’’ in a loud voice, as I was about to put some ‘Kerr’ into the dish. Dead Man Speaks. “On a second occasion,” continues Dr. Tiliyard, “while I was looking straight at the medium, he said, ‘Go ahead.’ “I noted that neither the medium’s lips nor her larynx moved at all. “When doing the fourth print ‘Walter’ said that it would prove to be a mirror image of his ordinary thumb-print. This we verified as correct- later. During the seance I rvas frequently touched and stroked by ‘Walter’s’ tdeplaatic terminal, and water was sprinkled over me. “Altogether, ‘Walter’ made seven clear right thumb-prints, all of which were markedly different from the thumb-prints of any of those present.” The ulnar area of the prints, adds the doctor, agreed exactly with the same area of a thumb-print found on Stinson’s razor, w'hich he used on tno morning of the fatal accident. Humour From Beyond. Summarising ..he result of two seances, Dr. Tiliyard says:— “The ‘personality’ of ‘Walter’ is shovrn to be independent of that of the medium by the possession of a distinct masculine voice arid, strong whistling powers, these never proceed

dug from the mouth or larynx of the l; medium; by his alert mental powers, tendency to impatience, and the use of swear words; by a marked sense of humour, a Canadian accent, and many other qualities which cannot fail to produce in a sitter the definite feeling that he is dealing with an independent personality. “Besides this/’ he adds, “ \yalter shows that he has the power of smell, can see in the dark, can handle delicate objects and place them accurately in the dark without doing any dam- - age. ’ *