Research source

But it is not easy to understand how any intelligent investigator, who has given the subject any considerable…

Date of account: Published 1885
Source: Materialized apparitions: if not beings from another life, what are they
Reference: Materialized apparitions: if not beings from another life, what are they · selected passage 42
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

Published source text

Read the available text below. Archive transcriptions may contain OCR errors; later context is labelled separately. A recorded claim is not a finding that it happened.

Source passage

Source text · mention only

but it is not easy to understand how any intelligent investigator, who has given the subject any considerable attention, should come to the conclusion that the forms are automatons, and that our friends from the other side never take possession, or control them, as they would a trance-medium; that they are merely effigies,[B] or lay figures, built up to mock us, and play with the most sacred feelings of our natures; and, what is more diabolical, that our spirit-friends are near by, enjoying the base deception! If this view is correct, what a fearful amount of lying there must be in every seance! Such a conclusion would be impossible from what passed before me at this sitting.

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This is a historical account assembled under the reporting and publishing conventions of its period. It may preserve testimony, hearsay, retelling and editorial interpretation together.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

A modern comparison can identify recurring descriptions and possible explanations, but the account is not treated as independently verified evidence merely because it appeared in print.

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