LETTER FROM RAYMOND TO THE MOTHER OF AN OFFICER FRIEND OF HIS WHO HAD BEEN KILLED
- Date of account
- Published 1916
- Source
- Raymond; or, Life and Death With examples of the evidence for survival of memory and affection after death.
- Reference
- Raymond; or, Life and Death With examples of the evidence for survival of memory and affection after death. · selected passage 48
- Rights
- public_domain
- Language
- English
- Record updated
- 2026-08-24
Record summary
A table sitting is not good for conversation, but it is useful for getting definite brief answers--such as names and incidents, since it seems to be less interfered with by the mental activity of an intervening medium, and to be rather more direct
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 onlyA table sitting is not good for conversation, but it is useful for getting definite brief answers--such as names and incidents, since it seems to be less interfered with by the mental activity of an intervening medium, and to be rather more direct. But it has difficulties of its own. The tilting of the table need not be regarded as a 'physical phenomenon' in the technical or supernormal sense, yet it does not _appear_ to be done by the muscles of those present. The effort required to tilt the table is slight, and evidentially it must, no doubt, be assumed that so far as mechanical force is concerned, it is exerted by muscular action. But my impression is that the tilting is an incipient physical phenomenon, and that though the energy, of course, comes from the people present, it does not appear to be applied in quite a normal way (XIV, Pt.
Historical context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThis comes from historical psychical research. Methods, witness handling and standards of evidence differ from present-day research and should be assessed from the cited passage and edition.
Modern context
Contextual commentary · mention onlyThe passage can support a history of claims and recurring descriptions. It does not establish a paranormal mechanism, and competing psychological, social and physical explanations remain relevant.
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