Edward T. Bennet - Psychic Phenomena: The Appearance of Light

Psychic Phenomena: The Appearance of Light

Edward T. Bennett

Varla Ventura

Paranormal Parlor

A Weiser Books Collection

This ebook edition first published in 2012 by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC.

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Copyright 2012 by Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. All rights reserved.

Excerpted from Psychic Phenomena by Edward T. Bennett. New York: Bretano's, 1909.

eISBN: 978-1-61940-096-2

Cover design by Jim Warner

As a fan of horror and ghostly things, I am lucky to have stayed in more than one shady grove or hallowed hallway. Among the freakiest overnights I've spent with one eye open, chasing shadows and recording EVPs, was one in the Preston Castlean old boy's reform school in Ione, California. It looms above the sleepy little gold rush town, peering down upon the vineyards and scraggly pines with half-shuttered window-eyes and a toothless brick grin. When we arrived, the moon was on the rise, nearly full, and streaming through the holes in the roof to the floorboards below. Bats swept in and out of the rafters just below the nest of white barn owls that screeched all evening long. Hair pulling, whispers, orbs of light, and words of warning were but a few of the delights we encountered that night. As midnight approached, we waited in breathless anticipation to see what wonders the witching hour would unfold.

The most amazing aspect of this night was actually not what we saw with our naked eyes in the moment, but rather the bodies of light that appeared in our photos when we browsed through them the next day. A giant pink orb hovered over the empty pool in the basement (What, an empty pool in the basement? How horror can you get? Did I mention it wasn't a swimming pool, but a dunking pool where they deloused and bleached out the incoming orphans?) and the hallway was littered with little balls of light that seemed to follow us everywhere. Were these just moonlight and dust, or were they bona fide evidence of ghostly activity?

When I first read some of Edward T. Bennett's work on psychic phenomena, I wasn't entirely sure which side he was onwas he a skeptic, or a psychic? In Psychic Phenomena, The Appearance of Light, we explore the light bodies that manifest out of thin air and beams of color that streak across the room, all in a time before photographs were widely used as evidence. Our guide, Bennett discusses several events and investigations. What does he conclude? Read on! You may find you really need to answer that question for yourself.

And tonight, when you lay your little head down upon the pillow, don't be surprised if the darkness is not all that is surrounding you.

HAPPY HAUNTING!
VARLA VENTURA
SAN FRANCISCO, 2012

The appearance of Lights at Spiritualistic circles, apparently not due to any physical cause, is very widely asserted. The character of the Lights is as varied as it is possible to imagine. Faint, cloudy, indefinite luminous appearancesbrilliant stars which move or hover among the sittersglobes or balls of light, like illuminated ostrich eggs, or spheres of mother-of-pearl lit up from withinpillars of lightare some of the many forms which this manifestation takes. But anything approaching to scientific evidence of the reality of the phenomenon is singularly scarce. And I am not aware that anything has ever been done towards testing or endeavouring to ascertain the nature of the light. One reason for this is, no doubt, that to investigate light phenomena, the exclusion of other light is obviously requisite. Hence the necessity for dark seances. The objection to a dark seance in itself can of course have no scientific basis. But a strong feeling against dark seances has arisen from the abuses to which they have led. It is possible that the extent of the evil has been exaggerated, and has thus produced an exaggerated prejudice against darkness as a condition. It is, however, safe to say, that, even if promiscuous seances are ever useful or wise, a promiscuous dark sance should never be sanctioned by an earnest inquirer.

Orthodox science has not yet condescended to bestow any attention on spirit lights. I had the privilege of private acquaintance with Dr. Tyndall, and once acted as his assistant at some lectures he gave in a country place. I remember sending him a report of some rather remarkable manifestations of light witnessed at a private sance in London, under fairly good test-conditions. Dr. Tyndall was at the time engaged in some special optical investigations, and I asked him to spend five minutes in reading the notes enclosed. Dr. Tyndall's reply, in his laconic, jocular style, was to this effectI have spent five minutes as you desired, and it is a long time since I spent five minutes so badly!

The best series of light phenomena, both as regards their varied character, and as regards the observers, and the care with which records at the time were made, occurred in the presence of Mr. W. Stainton Moses. I will deal with the phenomena of lights here, and make this the only illustration of this branch of the subject. The following pages are taken, by way of either extract or abstract, from two articles on Mr. W. Stainton Moses by Mr. F. W. H. Myers. They thus have the advantage of Mr. Myers' moral certificate, so to speak, as to their value. The articles were published in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research.

Mr. Stainton Moses says that the first occasion on which large luminous appearances were seen at the circle consisting of Dr. and Mrs. Speer and himself was on 7th June 1873. They had become familiar with floating masses of luminous vapour; and on several occasions, the masses condensed, so to speak, until a distinct objective light was formed. On that evening, however, a number of cones of soft light similar to moonlight appeared in succession. There was a nucleus of soft yellow light surrounded by a haze. They sailed up from a corner of the room and gradually died out. They seem to have been carried in a materialised hand, a finger of which was shown at request, by placing it in front of the nucleus of light.

Subsequently they saw another kind of light altogether. It was apparently a little round disc of light which twinkled like a star. It flashed with great rapidity, and answered questions by the usual code of signals. On about half-a-dozen occasions a bright scintillating light apparently resting on the mantelshelf was seen. It was about the size of a pigeon's egg, and looked like a large diamond lit up with strong light.

Mr. Stainton Moses gives a description of a most remarkable light, of quite a different kind from any that he had ever heard or read of. It appeared six times, diminishing in brilliancy on each occasion. Mr. Stainton Moses says: The light was first observed directly behind usa tall column about half an inch or rather more in width, and six or seven feet high. The light was of a bright golden hue, and did not illuminate objects in its neighbourhood. For a minute a cross developed at its top, and rays seemed to dart from it. Dr. Speer, who had been watching the strange phenomenon with absorbing interest, asked permission to examine it more closely. Leave being given, he went to the light, put his face close to it, and passed his hand through it. He detected no odour, and the light did not disappear. No warmth came from it, nor did it perceptibly light up the room. It remained visible until the sance was concluded.

The following graphic description shall be given in Mr. Stainton Moses' own words:

The room, which had been filled (especially round me) with floating clouds of light, grew suddenly dark, and absolute stillness took the place of the previous loud knockings. It would have been a strange scene for an ear-witness. The table, isolated, with no human hand touching it, giving forth a series of mysterious thuds of varying intensity, some of which might have been made with a muffled sledge-hammer, all indicating intelligencean intelligence that showed itself by deliberation, or eagerness, or stately solemnity according to the nature of the communication. Around the table three persons sitting with a hush of expectation, and faces (if they could have been seen) of awe-stricken earnestness.... The room shrouded in darkness, except at one end, where shifting masses of luminous vapour now and again gathered into a pillar which dimly outlined a form, and again dispersed, and flitted round the head of one of the sitters. No scene could be imagined more calculated to strike a novice with awe, none more solemn and impressive for those who participated in it.