John Day - Biography of Mrs. J. H. Conant, the Worlds Medium of the Nineteenth Century

Entered, according to Act of Congress, In the year 1872, By WILLIAM WHITE & CO.,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Electrotyped By B. F. Morgan, Everett, Mass.

BY ALLEN PUTNAM

The accompanying biography is so simply and lucidly told, that it will explain itself to the reader, and needs no comments in advance.

A few words relating to its authorship and the circumstances of its production, may properly come from one who read it while in manuscript, but was in no way connected with its production. I am told, and believe, that spirit Theodore Parker outlined and dictated its essential substance, and may be deemed its responsible producer.

Mr. John W. Day, a reporter at the Banner of Light office, listened on many occasions to utterances through Mrs. Conant while she was under control by Parker, and minuted in shorthand what that spirit desired to put forth as a biography of his medium. Subsequently, Mr. Day wrote out in full under the guidance of memory and impression, aided by Mrs. Conants statements while in her normal conditionby facts and reminiscences furnished by Mr. Colby, chief editor of the Banner and by the diary of Mrs. Conants physician. The style of composition is probably that of the amanuensis, while the arrangement and leading facts and reflections should be ascribed to Parker.

The peculiar properties, gifts, utterances, labors, sufferings, and fame of its subject give to the work its chief interest. It is a simple, straight-forward narrative, even though a dead man here describes the life lines of a living woman.

Prophets and seers, through all the ages, have generally had singular and hard experiences. This Worlds Medium furnishes no exception to the general rule.

Objection was made to styling Mrs. Conant the Worlds Medium on the title page. The reply was that for many years the doors of her circle room have, tri-weekly, been thrown freely open to the world to all comers whatsoever, and that it is in this sense onlyviz., her accessibility by the world, and the extent to which the world has approached her, that she is here called the Worlds Medium. She has been the channel through which more than ten thousand different spirits have sent messages to their kindred and friends on earth. No claim is made here, even by implication, that she is the worlds greatest or its best medium but only that she has been put more at the service of the broad world than any other.

Wherever mediumship exists, its germs have been in its possessor from the hour of conception they are innate and not special gifts to their possessor because of some moral excellencies which the past life has manifested. - Like the poet, the musician, or the mathematician, a medium is born possessor of all the faculties that are ever afterwards unfolded in the organism.

The biography of an eminent medium need contain no words which imply that the subject possesses in marked degree either intellectual, moral, or religious properties or qualities. Such characteristics are no more essential to success in mediumship, than in music, painting, or any line of art or any occupation. Therefore, whatever excellencies, acquirements, or blemishes his subject may possess as a woman, the essential author of the following pages has made no attempt to give them publicity. She is presented only as a medium, through whom light and information from the spirit world have more or less directly reached the minds of millions upon earth, and of whose mediumistic life hundreds of thousands will be glad to learn.

PART I.

Introduction. Early Lite and Manifestations.

Section I. Birth and education. II. Who are the angels, mother? III. You have lost your way, little one. First knowledge of spirit guardianship, and the nearness of those called dead. Epimenides. IV. Her severe illness. She prescribes for herself while entranced. Her case is examined by many physicians, and declared to be a new disease of the brain, with which the Faculty are unacquainted. V. The angels will be father and mother to you. Clairvoyant view of death. VI. Priestly intolerance vs. the Christ spirither mothers minister refuses to attend the funeral, because of Mrs. Crowells dealings with the devil while alive. Fannie is led by spirit direction to a liberal clergyman. VII. Leaves home, and resides in Lowell, Mass.; marries John H. Conant. Is informed by spirits concerning her line of descent

PART II.

She becomes a Public Medium-

Section I. Removes from Lowell to Boston. Dr. Kittredge vs. Dr. Tobey. A vision of heaven. II. Her long illness and threatened dissolution. Why dont you try a medium? Her first attendance at a seance. Dr. John Dix Fisher. III. She is sent by Dr. Fisher to reside with Mrs. M.E. Cates. IV. Singular manifestations. She gives her first sittingher first patron. V. The spirit physician and his power over contagions diseases. The dead doctor vs. the living. Nature will settle the case in two hours. Mrs. Conant treats, while herself entranced, many small pox patients, neither contracting the disease, nor transmitting it to others. VI. Physical manifestations. Clearly defined spirit hands and forms are seen at her circle room. She is lilted up and carried across the apartment by spirits. VII. Mischievous spirits. VIII. The seven mysterious investigators; they come in disguise, but by the requirement of Dr. Fisher are obliged to remove it, after which a highly successful seance ensues. They ask for a sitting in some room and house other than the one she inhabits, and she acceeds. Astounding manifestations. Big Dick. She is lifted with a heavy table till she writes her name on the ceiling overhead. Parley with undeveloped spirits

PART III.

BE MARKABLE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS.

Section I. The writing phase of her mediumship. The intelligences treat of different subjects at the same time; the one through her right, the other the left hand. She discovers hidden things and recovers stolen property. Where am I going? The tempted Soubrette reclaimed. What we tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light. II. Aunt Betsey White and the spirits. You have bewitched me, child. III. A work basket thrown upon the floor, and its contents scattered by the spirits, is replaced on the table, and the articles gathered one by one, at the request of Mrs. Conant, in sight of herself and a visitor. An undeveloped spirit and his works. Mrs. Conant is attended by spirits while sick, who minister to her wants as desired. IV. She removes her residence to Mrs. M. A. Popes on Tileston Street. Colonel Pope is cured by the agency of Dr. Fisher.

V. The missing skein. VI. The combat in the dark. VII. The abstracted pistareens. A disturbed toilette. VIII. She becomes acquainted with Luther Colby, future editor of the Banner of Light, and William Berry, its business manager. IX. She commences giving seances at the residence of Mr. Berry, North Cambridge, Mass. The Battle of Monterey

PART IV.

SHE IS EMPLOYED BY THE BANNER OF LlGHT AS BUSINESS AND CIRCLE

Medium.

Section I. The Banner of Light appears for the first time. Her predictions concerning it. It is primarily managed by spirit foresight and direction, as communicated through her organism. II. Captain (Pirate) Gibbs. Her mysterious visit to New York. You'll anchor before 10 oclock. The averted conflagration. III. The magnetic vampyre. She removes from Boston to North Cambridge. Engages an office in the city, on Central Court. Invisible teeth. The double. N. P. Banks elected Speaker. IV. She removes to the National House, Boston. Dr. Fisher and the law-maker. V. The Banner of Light preliminary circles are organized. What constitutes a battery as used in a Spiritualistic sense