So

So --- You Are Going To A Séance

This booklet is prepared for you in the hope it will assist in your investigation of Spiritualism, of natural law, of spirit manifestation. It is not by any means to be considered as an exhaustive treatise on the subject for such would fill volumes and still leave much to be written,

It is suggested that the investigator find books which have been prepared by impartial scientists and others who have spent years in the study of the subject. This is not an attempt to convince the skeptic, but to guide the searcher. It is recommended that no one neglect the study of spirit phenomena written of in the greatest of all books, the Holy Bible. To keep away from any stigma of bias, no other books are specifically recommended

It is to be hoped that your investigation into the field of psychic science will prove fruitful in many ways. The truth of life after death is but one part of the Great Truth and there are many benefits awaiting him who will use the teachings which are handed down to us from the mansions of the soul

The Spiritual Episcopal Library Department

Table of Contents

For Best Results 1

Investigate Sincerely 1

Scientific Investigations Already Conducted 2

Mediums and Mediumship 2

Where to Begin 3

Clairvoyance 4

Trumpet 4

Ectoplasm 4

Electronic Energy 5

Tone of Voice 5

The Sitters' Responsibility 5

Necessity of Right Thought 6

Special Séance 6

Spirit Photography 6

Materialization 7

Purpose of Phenomena 8

For Best Results

Well, then, put yourself in a frame of mind to get the best results! It is not important whether you believe in Spiritualism, but it is important whether you adopt a courteous, honest and cooperative attitude toward those whom you meet in the séance.

Be open-minded; forget your prejudices; relax, and enjoy the experience. There is nothing funereal, nothing gruesome, nothing frightening about a séance. On the contrary séances are frequently quite jolly affairs, and why shouldn't they be? The are often merely a reunion of friends and loved ones who laughed and talked together before the Separation. Why should we not all be happy to do the same thing now?

Realize that the spirits who come to you are essentially no different from yourself, that you are a spirit, too, as much as they. You inhabit a physical body; they do not. They have laid theirs aside.

Don't worry because you can't understand it all. Nobody else does, or even a minute part of it. When you stop to think of it, you don't understand exactly how you see with your eyes how you hear with your ears, how you feel with your fingers, or how you convey thoughts and ideas by speech. You just know that you do and let it go at that. The commonest phenomena of everyday life are things that we do not really understand.

Investigate Sincerely

Any intelligent person who investigates Spiritualism honestly, prayerfully, sincerely and in good faith, will surely come to believe in it. But don't be too eager. Don't jump to conclusions. Weigh everything carefully and use your own best judgment.

Psychic science is the most elusive of all sciences. It can be grasped only by those who are spiritually ready for it. A study so remote from the beaten paths of everyday thought requires time to germinate and grow in the mind of the individual. This does not happen overnight. It is not merely a matter of , "believing." And is not at all a matter of , "proving," anything to anyone. A "show me" attitude will almost invariably result in failure,

Every phase of Spiritualism, which includes metaphysics, philosophy, and psychic phenomena, is a serious study. It is a tremendous and far-reaching science. No one thinks of passing judgment on any of the sciences unless he has a background of study in one field or another. He wouldn't step into a chemistry laboratory, view experiments with an untrained eye, and say, " I believe this,: or " I don't believe that." No one would dare discuss the matter of the fourth dimension without having years of education in higher mathematics. If he did, his comment wouldn't be worth a thing,

Scientific Investigations Already Conducted

Psychic science is probably the most intricate and complicated of any of the sciences. Some of the finest minds of two continents, men who have achieved world acclaim in their respective scientific fields, have devoted twenty, thirty and forty years to intensive psychic research before they were willing to announce their conclusions to the world as being authoritative. Of course, it is not expected that many can devote such a period of years to this study, it isn't necessary, for that ground work has already been laid.

However, it is true that after an individual has attended one, or a few, séances he is not capable of passing judgment on the whole field of psychic science. The many experiences encountered in only a few séances are but a minute speck in the broad realm of psychics. In all kindliness it may be said that until one has had many experiences, until he has had considerable study of the literature and has gained a knowledge of the laws that make a séance possible, his opinion regarding these matters cannot be worth very much.

Spiritualism and psychic science deal with phenomena in spiritual fields, hence the spiritual approach is all important. Be relaxed and mentally at ease. Under these conditions the best results will occur.

Mediums and Mediumship

Séances are held in the presence of mediums. A medium is one who has the faculty of establishing communication between spirits and mortals. A commonly given illustration is that the medium acts much the same as a radio " attuned " to catch the " vibrations" from the Spirit World and is able to transform them to frequencies recognizable by mortals.

The phenomena of mediumship fall naturally into two groups: mental and physical.

Mental mediumship is the phase in which the communicating spirit works through, and makes use of, the mind of the medium.

Physical mediumship is that phase which produces physical manifestations involving material things.

Mental Mediumship Physical Mediumship

Platform Messages Billet Reading

Healing Direct Voice (Trumpet)

Telepathy Independent Voice

Subjective Clairvoyance Levitation

Objective Clairvoyance Apports

Subjective Clairaudience Etherialization

Objective Clairaudience Materialization

Clairsentience Transfiguration

Conscious Trance Healing

Deep Trance Slate Writing

Unknown Tongue Spirit Drawings

Prophecy Luminosity

Psychometry Spirit Raps

Impression Table Tipping

Inspirational Painting Ouija Board

Inspirational Speaking Planchette

Inspirational Writing Divination

Inspirational Singing Telekinesis

Inspirational Music Skotography

Improvising Poetry Spirit Photography

It is difficult to make hard and fast classifications of mediumship. In the above table some, perhaps, are omitted while others overlap.

Where to Begin

One does not study algebra before mastering the multiplication table. Then do not first choose a materialization before you have witnessed some of the simpler forms of mediumship. The beauties and comforts of Spiritualism have become lost to many people because of an ill - advised approach to it.

It is recommended that one who is not familiar with Spiritualism make contacts in this order;

Church Service

Platform Messages

Clairvoyant Reading

Trumpet Circle

Specialized Dark Circle

Materialization

Spirit Photography

In the church service the uninitiated will learn something of the religion and philosophy of Spiritualism. Messages from spirits to mortals are usually given in church services by the mediums of the church. These are called platform messages.

Clairvoyant readings are given to individuals by mediums, usually with only the two being present. The medium tells the "sitter" what his "inner vision" sees, tells what spirits are present and what they have to say. Identification of spirit persons is sometimes made by name, sometimes by description, and sometimes merely by the nature and character of the message they bring. Frequently the spirit will have words of advice and may even foretell (to some limited extent) what events may be expected in the future, just as the spirits who came to Biblical prophets of old advised the people and prophesied for them.

Trumpet circles are held in total darkness. It is inadvisable for one to sit in one of these circles without some preparation through experience with the forms of mediumship described immediately above. Darkness is necessary for the phenomena manifested in these séances for precisely the same reason that some photographic materials must be handled in darkness. Light has a deleterious and destroying effect upon ectoplasm, a substance employed in producing the phenomena of this phase of mediumship. A trumpet is used to amplify the spirit voices exactly as we would use a megaphone for the same purpose. A trumpet is an aluminum horn, usually about three feet long. During the circle it floats or "levitates" in the air above the heads of the sitters.

Ectoplasm is drawn from the body of the medium and sometimes from the sitters to make these manifestations possible. Ectoplasm is a material substance and may be described as the ethereal counterpart of protoplasm. It flows out from the body in such form as to be invisible under most conditions and yet under other conditions can be felt, can be weighed and can sometimes even be photographed. Ectoplasm can be molded and manipulated by spirit forces in various ways. In the trumpet circle the spirit in charge forms a "voice box" from the medium's ectoplasm and other spirits are able to use it to create sound vibrations in the atmosphere audible to our ears. One of the distinguishing characteristics of mediums is that they have the faculty of making the ectoplasm of their bodies available to spirit forces.

Another substance often used by the spirit force is electronic energy. In some manner, unknown and unexplainable to us, it is used to change the rate of vibration of spirit persons enabling them to materialize in their actual present spirit bodies; it is used to levitate the trumpet and to carry the voice sounds; it is used in spirit healing and in many other types of spirit manifestations. Similar to ectoplasm, it is made to flow from the medium, usually from the solar plexus and extremities of the body, and from the sitters of the circle.

Sometimes sitters expect the voice of spirit to sound exactly as it did in life. This will seldom be the case and the voice frequently takes on the voice quality of the medium, which is to be expected, as it is formed from either the ectoplasm, or the electronic energy, taken principally from the medium. Remember that the earthly voice box of the spirit has disintegrated with the rest of his body. Identification can be established from mannerisms of speech, by the things that are said and the way they are said, but usually not from the sound or quality of the spirit's voice.

It frequently happens that people sitting in a circle for the first time are disappointed because they expect too much of the spirit who comes to them. It must be understood that if this is the first experience of the sitter in a circle it probably is also the first experience of the spirit. The spirit is definitely handicapped for he is operating on a plane of existence that has become foreign to him. It is a new experience and he does not know just how to do it. If the sitter will answer promptly to a greeting, in a normal tone of voice, it will be noticed that the spirit's voice will take on added power and perhaps go immediately from a faint whisper to a voice of perfect clarity. But whispers will beget whispered responses, and silence will beget silence. The sitter, himself, has much to do with the kind of contact he is able to get from his loved ones on the other side.

Our spirit people come to us out of the ether -- the ether with its certain rate of vibration. The saying that "thoughts are things" is a literal truth and nowhere is this demonstrated with greater clarity than in the séance room. It may be said that our thoughts are emanations which go out from you (they have also been photographed) and effect the vibration of our immediate atmosphere. Everyone knows what it is to enter a room and sense a certain "air" of joy, depression, or tenseness. This is because the thought quality of the people in that room has been impregnated upon the atmosphere. In the séance room it is possible for a person with a very skeptical or antagonistic thought to create a density or wall in the ether which is impossible for the people from the other side to penetrate. You will remember the Scripture, " And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief " The person who sits in a séance, tense and on the alert for flaws, is apt to get flaws, and they will be flaws for which he is responsible. The more relaxed and mentally at ease those attending a séance may be, the more successful will be the results.

Sometimes trumpet séances are given over to a group of spirits trained to work together to produce certain types of manifestations. In these specialized séances one can witness the phenomena of apports, spirit drawings, etherialization, instrumental or vocal music, slate writing, and communication with the American Indian or Oriental guides. These séances are entertaining and instructive but are not particularly for the purpose of communicating with one's relatives or friends in the spirit world.

One of the rarest phases of mediumship is Spirit Photography. In this phase images of spirit people are placed on the photographic film by mental and chemical action or by actual photographing. Employing an ordinary camera and stock photographic materials, the medium with this gift produces a photograph of the sitter surrounded by a number of spirit faces. Usually one and sometimes all of the faces can be identified. The manner of exposure and development of the film varies not at all from the usual procedure. Many people, not mediums, have made exposures upon which spirit faces appear, but the phase is seldom developed to a high degree.

Materialization is a phenomenon produced in partial darkness of about the same degree as that of the photographer's darkroom. Ectoplasm from the medium's body is often utilized by spirit power to mold a figure in human form which closely resembles the body formerly inhabited by the spirit or the one which he now inhabits in the world of spirit. The spirit temporarily animates this temporary body, moves it, walks, talks, and appears to have all the characteristics he possessed in his earth life.

This manifestation is produced in subdued red light. Like the photographer's materials, ectoplasm will withstand a limited degree of red light, but beyond this point it is seriously affected and is instantly shot back into the medium's body causing a great nervous shock.

Conversations with materialized spirits can be carried on, but usually so much power is used in materializing the form that conversation must be limited. The length of time a spirit may animate his ectoplasmic body is also limited.

Sometimes electronic energy is used in place of ectoplasm in producing materialization. Then the actual present body of the spirit is changed in its rate of vibration so that it may appear to the sitters. Naturally this body would not look the same as the earth body of the person did perhaps many years ago.

In materialization séances the medium occupies a "cabinet" which usually consists merely of a dark curtain hung across a comer of the room. In this darkness the medium's band of spirit guides draw out the necessary ectoplasm or electronic force and assist the materializing spirit to use either the substance or the force in stepping forth from the curtain, visible to all sitters.

Results in materialization séances depend upon many factors other than the degree of the medium's development. Singing is used to " build up the vibrations." A harmonious group of sitters, responsive and courteous, will usually produce splendid results.

The phenomena of Spiritualism are for many great purposes: to prove the continuity of life, to prove that man does not die but lives on in a higher plane of existence; to bring to all mankind those teachings which will help him on his quest for understanding of Universal laws; to bring health and courage; and to bring about spiritual progression. These are but a few of the benefits which await the open minded investigator and the searcher for a better way of life, here and hereafter. The same phenomena described above may be found in many Biblical passages--- they have been tried and proven in many modem scientific laboratories--- they are in accordance with the laws of God and are ordained for your benefit.