The Spiritualist newspaper > No.136, April 2nd 1875

April 2, 1375.
THE SPIRITUALIST.
165
and so on are all spiritually represented in the other world.”
All my chemicals have to be kept in the dark room, and the
spirits use them by what Dr. Woolley calls “ association.” I
asked them if they could bring out a picture on the plate with¬
out my putting the plate in the camera, and they said “ No.”
They say that even the wood of the camera is charged with a
special influence.
TRANCE AND PHYSICAL MEDIUMSHIP OP MR. PARKE S.
In the earlier days of my development I had raps, table
manifestations, and spirit lights; at the present time I get
direct spirit writing occasionally. Once at a dark seance at
the house of Mr. Reeves I was entranced, and on awaking
found that I had left the table, and was stealthily creeping
round the room on all fours ; this gave me a severe fright, for
I saw at once that if I had been discovered I should have been
charged with attempting imposture. I asked the spirits
“ why they did it ?” They replied that it was “ necessary for
my development.” However, after that I never sat at a dark
circle without my wife holding my hand, to see that I kept
my place. Still, they got me away once after this, ’• and when
a light was struck, I was found praying in a corner of the
room.
THE SPIRIT GUIDES OF MR. PARKES.
The first spirit-guide who communicated to me, called him¬
self Bill 'Jones. He introduced himself by raps through the
table at Mr. Reeves’, and as soon as I commenced being en¬
tranced, the higher spirit, “ the teacher,” spoke by my instru¬
mentality. Shortly afterwards Dr. Woolley commenced con¬
trolling me, and several others have occasionally spoken through
me, and most recently one stating his name to be Jonas Nash.
It is with very great difficulty that I have been able to get any
account from them of their earth-life; they seem ever to give
evasive replies to questions on this point, and assert that they are
members of an association of which it is a rule never to look back,
but to direct their energies forward, the effect of which is that the
memory of the past fades away from them whilst the light of
the future dawns the more brightly on the present. Never¬
theless the spirit Zephaniah Stent (who used to preside over
the physical phase of my earlier mediumship), has stated that
the “ teacher ” was Edward the Confessor; that Bill Jones is
the son of a wheelwright, who was a Yorkshireman, his
mother was a Lancashire woman, and that he was born whilst
his parents were on tramp—that is waiting about to get work;
his spiritual name is Leader, both he and the Teacher have
peculiar robes which they wear occasionally. Jonas Nash was
a native of Bishopswearmouth where he died about fifty years
ago, at about fifty years of age, he has given some description
of the place, &c., but has since declined referring further to
the subject of his past life, and I will here state that I have
no recollection of any spirit speaking through me in a way
that I was enabled to identify him with the pastlife of any person;
and it is a curious fact, that those relatives who these spirits
have informed me are about me, and whom 1 have frequently
seen, never wrote or sppke through me excepting in one in¬
stance, which was by writing and was certainly very character¬
istic, both as to the diction, hand-writing, and signature of a
lady relative.
One point in connection with these photographs may
hereafter prove to be of exceptional value in philoso¬
phical research. For a long time it has been known
that the occasional presence at a seance of a particular
person exercises a good or bad influence over the mani¬
festations, which influence is felt more or less at subse¬
quent seances, when the individual in question is no
longer present. In the pictures by Mr. Parkes, some
of the effects of .such influences are photographically
registered, and brought somewhat within the region of
exact observation.
The W. Wallace Testimonial.—The honorary Secre¬
tary of the Dalston Association of Inquirers into Spiritualism
has received the following subscriptions in aid of the above,
and requests an acknowledgment in our columns, viz.:—Mrs.
Amelia Corner, 2s. 6d.; Soht Notylb, 2s. 6d.; R. Pomeroy
Tredwen, 2s. 6d. ; Alfred E. Lovell. 2s. 6d. ; George Robert
Tapp, 5s.; Mrs. Edward E. Corner, 2s. 6d.; J. Tozeland, 10s.;
total, £1 7s. 6d. Many of the members paid their contribu¬
tions direct to the treasurer, Mr. H. Biefield, some time before
any official intimation about the testimonial was received by
the Associatien.
THE PAINTING MEMUMSHIP OF MR. DUGUID, OF
GLASGOW.
BY WILLIAM OXLEY.
On Thursday evening (March 25th), by the'arrangements of
our kind friends “ within ” and “ without,” I was privileged to
witness a phase of spiritualistic phenomena, unique, so far
as I know, namely, the production of oil paintings in the
dark, and without any action whatever, by embodied human
beings.
There were five present besides the medium, in whose house
we met at 8 p.m.; being asked if we had any choice as to the
character of the manifestations, we replied that we left it
to our invisible friends to do what they thought the best.
A prepared or grounded card, about 18 by 9 inches, was then
arranged upon the easel, and Mr. Duguid was soon off in an
unmistakable trance. I do not think it would be possible for
any one to imitate this; the pupils of the eyes are turned
high up above the centre line, and the upper lids drawn over
so as to exclude all light from the optical parts, the white
part only being exposed on the under side; in this position
they are fixed till the influences are removed, and the medium
is restored to his normal condition.
The medium then placed himself at the easel, and prepared
his pallet and colour-box. When the gas was turned off, and
the room was in total darkness, we heard the pencil scratching
for a few minutes, when the raps from the table instructed
Mr. Bowman to turn on the lights ; we then saw the outlines
of a landscape in strong, bold marking ;> this preamble occu¬
pied about three or four minutes. The gas jet was then left
burning, when the medium dashed off—or rather on—the
colouring, and in about twenty minutes the painting was finished,
the medium’s eyes being fixed all the while as before mentioned.
The painting itself was a very fair production, being a lake
scene, with three mountains in the distance, and bold rocks in
the foreground, with trees on the right.
“ Steen,” the controlling representative spirit, now ordered
that the medium should be tied in his chair, which was done
by Mr. Bowman, both arms being fastened by kerchiefs, and
the wrists as well, all firmly knotted, so that the medium
could not possibly use his hands. Before being thus fastened,
six plain cards, carte size, were placed on the table, when a
piece was torn off the corner of one and given to one of the
sitters; the gas was then turned off. It was afterwards ordered
to be turned on again, and Mr. Bowman was told to do the
same to a second card, the piece torn off being given to me;
the gas was then turned off again. We sat in darkness for
about three minutes when the raps announced that the gas
should be lighted (in the darkness the sitters all sat with
locked hands); the two cards were not to be seen; in fact
they had disappeared, the medium being fastened' in his chair
just as he had been tied. The gas was again turned off; we
sat in total darkness for about five minutes, when the raps
ordered the gas to be lighted. To my astonishment the two
missing cards were now on the table, the one with a miniature
landscape, the other with the bust of a young girl, with golden-
coloured hair and a blue dress, the oil paint being quite wet,
and the medium exactly as he had been fastened. That Mr.
Duguid could not have done them is certain from the fact that
he had not moved, and the painting utensils had previously
been all put into the box, and all the paint cleared and scraped
off the pallet; that none of the sitters could have done them
was equally certain from the fact that every hand was clasped,
and seeing that the whole was done in pitch darkness, even if
they could have done it, the feat would have been none the less
wonderful. The gas being once more turned off and the
medium fastened as before, two musical boxes, one a small,
the other a large one, started off playing alternately, and the
small one floated away to what appeared to be a considerable
distance, the effect of which was very fine. We each were
then favoured with perfumes, the aroma of which was simply
exquisite, being a combination of the rarest eastern spices.
Steen was now asked if he could say who the portrait repre¬
sented, to which he replied that he did not know, but that the
“ old ones ” were telegraphing to me. The “ ancient one,”
Hafed, the Persian magician, one of the “wise men of the
East,” then told me through Steen who it was to represent,
and he further gave me some particulars respecting the com¬
munications he had given through the medium, but which I
forbear to note, as they would not at present be understood.
The communications, which have been taken down by Mr.
Nisbet, as they were uttered through Mr. Duguid, the medium,
—the accumulation of five years,—purport to be a history of
the earth-life and spirit-life of Hafed, Prince of Persia, and