DISCOVERY 



A MONTHLY POPULAR 

 JOURNAL or KNO^WLLDGE 



No. 8. AUGUST 1920. 



PRICE 6d. NET. 



ledge. 



Edited by A. S. Russell, M.C, D.Sc, 4 Moreton Road, 

 Oxford, to whom all Editorial Communications should be 

 addressed. 



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DISCOVERY. A Monthly Popular Journal of know- happened at a seance, there would be no need of 



curtains and screens, or occasion for screwing down 

 the gas. Deception it is, and it has been going on for 

 fifty or sixty years. If anyone is sufficiently interested 

 in the subject to wish to know how these deceptions 

 and frauds may be brought about, let him read a 

 report of thirty years ago, the Report of the Seybert 

 Commission on Spirituahsm,' which has been reissued 

 this year. 



The Seybert Commission met in Philadelphia — the 

 City of Brotherly Love — from 1884 to 1887. Its object 

 was to find out what it could on the subject of the 

 truth of spiritualism, and to come to some definite 

 conclusion, if possible, on the matter. The funds which 

 defrayed the commission's expenses camefrom abeliever 

 in spiritualism, who, illogically enough, chose to die 

 before his commission set to work. The members of 

 the commission were carefully chosen, so that an 

 unbiassed judgment might be arrived at, and through- 

 out they behaved generously and v-ery courteously to 

 the mediums whom they examined. They said to 

 these people in effect : " You say that wonderful things 

 happen at seances : that spirits write messages on slates, 

 that you, through them, read messages inside of 

 envelopes, that they send messages to earth by lights, 

 by raps, and other means, that they show themselves 

 in material form or on photographs, and so on. All 

 right, go ahead, get busy, let all these things happen, 

 but let us sit beside you next time, so that we too may 

 see these strange things ; or, better still, come down to 

 our house, be our guests, and let us all share the fun 

 and the excitement." 



* ♦ • * * 



And what was the result ? The result was in every 

 case that the manifestations at the seances were found 

 to be fraudulent, and due merely to a little elementary 

 conjuring, and to tricks so crudely performed that 

 conjuring is too good a name to describe them. Ghosts 

 were produced by dressing up somebody as a conven- 

 tional ghost. Mediums disclosed the contents of sealed 

 letters by removing the seal, opening the letter, reading 

 ' Published by Lippincott. 6s. 



Editorial Notes 



Last ^-car there was something of a boom in spiritu- 

 alism. The subject was always before us. In news- 

 papers and magazines, in debating societies and in 

 private conversation, it was discussed and argued 

 about at great length. There is no doubt that the 

 subject has taken grip of the popular mind to a greater 

 extent than in past years. The war is the cause of 

 this awakened interest, and for a reason too obvious to 

 require description. Many who do not wish to believe 

 in spiritualism are disturbed by the adherence to the 

 cause of several men of high character and unquestioned 

 ability, distinguished in their walks in life. Further- 

 more, there are reports of occurrences which, if they 

 be reported truly, should leave no doubt in the mind 

 of an impartial judge that there is a queer game going 

 on in the universe, of which at present we have hardly 

 more than a glimmering. 



***** 

 It is well to bear in mind, before going further, that 

 most phenomena associated with spiritualism at the 

 present time have nothing whatever to do with what, 

 in our best moments, we imagine spiritualism to be. 

 Most of the phenomena are undoubtedly due to tricks 

 played by people called mediums on their circle under 

 the very best conditions for deception, namely con- 

 cealment or darkness. Surely, if anything real 



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