Ghosts in Solid Form  - FOREWORD

As scientists in many parts of the world to-day are turning their serious attention to the question of the origin and the (possible) continuity of Life, I feel that the time has now arrived when a text-book on the subject of the phenomena, known to investigators as Materialisations, should be issued to the public, in order to assist inquirers, both scientists and laymen, in their endeavour to solve these vitally important matters ; as, in my opinion, it is by no means improbable that in Materialisations we may find the clue which will eventually enable us to solve the question, asked by each cradle, "Whence ? '' and by each coffin, “ Whither ?”

This text-book contains, in plain and simple language, the results of a series of experiments carried out during a period of seven years.

With the exception of a few conducted by that master scientist Sir William Crookes, President of the Royal Society, London, and referred to in Chapter III. (to which mine were in the nature of a sequel), all were carried out in my presence ; and the reports on these experiments have been collated from the official records kept by my three research societies in London.

Psychic Force

During any meal with Mrs Elgie Corner [Mrs Cook], in one’s own house and whilst she herself is engaged in eating and drinking – both of her hands being visible all the time - the heavy dining table will commence first to quiver, setting all the glasses shaking and plates, knives, forks and spoons in motion, and then to rock and sway from side to side, occasionally going so far as to tilt up at one end or at one side; and all the time raps and tappings will be heard in the table and in many different parts of the room.  Taking a meal with her in a public restaurant is a somewhat serious matter.

Ghosts in Solid Form 

The meaning of the word Materialisation, so far at least as it concerns our investigation, I understand to be this : the taking on by an entity from a sphere outside our own, an entity representing a man, woman, or child (or even a beast or bird), of a temporary body built up from material drawn partially; from the inhabitants of earth, consolidated through the agency of certain persons of both sexes, termed Sensitives, and moulded by the entity into a semblance of the body which (it alleges) it inhabited during its existence on earth. In other words, a materialisation is the appearance of an entity in bodily, tangible form [i.e  one which we can touch], thus differing from an …. apparition, which is, of course, one which cannot be touched although it may be clearly visible to anyone possessing only normal sight.

Ghosts in Solid Form 

that under certain known and reasonable conditions of temperature, light, etc., entities, existing in a sphere outside our own, have been demonstrated again and again to manifest themselves on earth in temporary bodies materialised from an, at present, undiscovered source, through the agency of certain persons of both sexes, termed Sensitives, and can be so demonstrated to any person who will provide the conditions proved to be necessary for such a demonstration.

Ghosts in Solid Form 

Looking back to the seven years of my life which I devoted to a careful and critical investigation of the claim made, not only by both Occidental and Oriental mystics, but by well-known men of science like Sir William Crookes, Professor Alfred Russel Wallace, and others — ‘that it was possible under certain clearly defined conditions to produce, apparently out of nothing, fully formed bodies, inhabited by (presumably) human entities from another sphere’ — the wonder of it still enthrals me; the apparent impossibility of so great an upheaval of such laws of Nature as we are at present acquainted with, being proved clearly to be possible, will remain to the end as " the wonder of wonders " in a by no means uneventful life. ………………  When these claims were first brought to my notice I realised at once that I was face to face with a problem which would require the very closest investigation ; and I then and there decided to give up work of all kinds, and to devote years, if necessary, to a critical examination of these claims………………..
And, as I have said, the result has been that the apparently impossible has been proved to be possible; and I accept them whole-heartedly, admitting that our working hypothesis has been proved beyond any possibility of doubt, and that these materialised entities can manifest themselves to-day to any person who will provide the conditions necessary for such a demonstration.

Who they are, what they are, whence they come, and whither they go, each investigator must determine for himself; but of their actual existence in a sphere just outside our own, there can no longer be any room for doubt.