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Home D. D. – Bodily elongation experiments 03 – Lord Adare’s testimony
Identifier
024250
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Friar Herbert Thurston - The Physical Phenomenon of Mysticism
…. let me now turn to Lord Adare's account of the seance [mentioned on 01]. It is given in a letter to his father, the third Earl of Dunraven, written a few days after the occurrences described. The letter occupies several printed pages, and it must suffice to quote the passage which refers to the elongation.
Home [wrote Lord Adare] stood up and said: "He (the guardian spirit) is very strong and tall," and standing there beside me, Home grew I should say, at least six inches. Mr. Jencken, who is a taller man than Home, stood beside him, so there could be no mistake about it. Home's natural height is, I believe, 5 feet 10 inches. I should say he grew to 6 feet 4 inches, or 6 feet 6 inches. I placed my hands on his feet, and felt that they were fairly level on the ground. He had slippers on, and he said: "Daniel will show you how it is," and he unbuttoned his coat. He was elongated from the waist upwards; there was a space of I suppose, four inches between his waistcoat and the waist-band of his trousers.
He appeared also to grow in breadth and in size all over, but there was no way of testing that. He diminished down to his natural size, and said: "Daniel will grow tall again." He did so, and said: "Daniel's feet are on the ground." He walked about and stamped his feet, but returned shortly afterwards to his natural size.
Neither in this nor in Mr. Jencken's account is anything said about the light, but they were certainly not sitting in complete darkness, for not only are Home's movements and gestures described in detail, but Mr. Jencken took long notes on the spot, recording the speech delivered by Home immediately before the elongation began. Moreover, in Adare's description of some five or six other elongations occurring in similar conditions, there is definite mention in one case of the gas being lighted, in another of a fire that was brightly burning, and in a third of such measurements as would have been quite ridiculous if there had not been sufficient illumination to be able to see distinctly.