Observations placeholder
Gambier Bolton, Robert – Ghosts in Solid Form – Experiment 09 Test with a deep trance Sensitive, resulting in the materialisation of both beasts and birds – a seal
Identifier
028668
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
EXPERIMENT No. 9
Place — Eaton Square, London, S. W. Sensitive D, male, aged about 34.
Materialisations of both beasts and birds sometimes appeared during our experiments with this Sensitive, the largest and most startling being that of a deceased seal, which stayed long enough to tear some lace and which appeared on one occasion when Field-Marshal Lord Wolseley was present.
The first time that this occurred was in a private house in Eaton Square, which the Sensitive had never entered before.
At the conclusion of the experiment, a medical man (Dr A. C.) who was present asked every-one to remain in their seats whilst he made a careful inspection of the torn lace. He reported that there were five green-coloured hairs hanging in the torn lace, which had evidently become detached from the little animal's leg during its struggles. The lady at once identified the colour and the texture of the hairs, and this was confirmed by the other Sitter — himself a naturalist — who had frequently seen and handled the animal during its earth-life.
The five hairs were carefully collected, placed in tissue paper, and then shut up in a light-tight and damp-proof box. They were shown to several scientific and other investigators in London ; but after a few days they commenced to dwindle in size, and finally disappeared entirely, owing, we assume, to the action of the ‘actinic rays’ given off by the daylight and the gaslight when they were being inspected by inquirers.
It was those five little green hairs which settled the sneers of our would-be critics finally.
Permission has been given occasionally by the entities to cut off with scissors a portion of the drapery so generally worn by them when making use of a materialised body; and, if carefully preserved in a suitable box, it has been found possible to keep it for a short time, provided that the drapery was examined only in a non-actinic light. But, in spite of the box being locked up in a safe, the material has always decreased in size, eventually disappearing entirely, and, in consequence of this, I do not believe that it has ever been possible to make a scientific examination of it.