Research source

SKETCH SHOWING SLADE’S SEAT AT THE TABLE, DIFFERENT POSITIONS OF SLATES, LOCATION OF SPONGE, AND MET

Date of account: Published 1924
Source: A Magician Among the Spirits
Reference: A Magician Among the Spirits · selected passage 4
Rights: public_domain
Language: English
Record updated: 2026-08-24

Record summary

In attending seances I have always made a pledge of honor with myself to banish all profane thoughts from my mind to the utmost of my ability

Published source text

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Source passage

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In attending seances I have always made a pledge of honor with myself to banish all profane thoughts from my mind to the utmost of my ability. I further pledge myself to concentrate. I have persuaded my whole soul, brain and thought to a point where the medium has my attention to such an extent that at the finish I feel as much exhausted as the medium who shows to those present the effects of great strain irrespective of its cause. Thus it must be seen that I am not a skeptic. However, it has been my life work to invent and publicly present problems, the secrets of which not even the members of the magical profession have been able to discover, and the effects of which have proved as inexplicable to the scientists as any marvel of the mediums, and I claim that in so far as the revelation of trickery is concerned my years of investigation have been more productive than the same period of similar work by any scientist; that my record as a “mystifier of mystifiers” qualifies me to look below the surface of any mystery problem presented to me and that with my eyes trained by thirty years’ experience in the realms of mystery and occultism it is not strange that I view these so-called phenomena from a different

Historical context

Contextual commentary · mention only

This source supplies historical scientific, skeptical or conventional context. Its terminology and conclusions may not reflect current scholarship.

Modern context

Contextual commentary · mention only

Lattice uses this as an alternative-explanation source, not as an automatic dismissal of testimony. Claims still need to be compared with the actual evidence and current knowledge.

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