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The Salem Seer – George Bartlett

The New York Era.  

And now the questions naturally arise, What does this man Foster do ? And how does he do it ?

With regard to the second question with reference to the " how " — the modus operandi of the phenomena — nothing can be definitely known. Mr. Foster says unhesitatingly that they all take place through spirit agency, of which agency he is a mere instrument, and that he does not cause the phenomena any more than he could prevent them.

He says candidly that the spirits come to him, and take possession of him, and communicate with him, and that all he can do is to submit to their influences, to do as he is told, and to tell others what they tell him. He certainly seems to be sincere in what he says, and resorts to no clap-trap whatever. There are no trances, no darkened rooms, no spirit faces, no music in the air, no feeling of hands and legs, etc., no charlatanism or trickery of any visible kind. He sits during a seance in a well-lighted room, beside a small table with no apparatus upon it and extremely simple ; he holds nothing in his hands, smokes a cigar, and converses on the ordinary subjects of the day at intervals.

He claims that the spirits appear to him, or else whisper in his ear, and that their communications to him are all " external "—made from without — entirely independent of his own volition or mentality. It may be that all this is not true ; it may be that there is some trickery in the matter ; but, if so, from the very nature of the case, it is so skillfully done as to amount to a positive miracle of skill ; and certainly no one, as yet, has been able either to expose the trickery or to explain the phenomena.