person whom he had never seen. No details however seem to have been given which could not have been derived from the mind of the widower.
More generally, however, messages of this kind, purporting to emanate from the dead, are received either when the "medium" is in a state of trance, or if awake, through some form of automatic action. The simplest form of automatism, and that which seems the easiest to cultivate, is the movement of the table in tilting out messages by means of the alphabet, or the movement of some instrument like Ouija, with a pointer and a dial. An instrument of this kind, consisting of a sliding rod and an alphabet board, was the means of communication in the following case. The account was procured by the American Branch of the Society.
No. 63. From Judge W. D. Harden[1]
Major Lucius B. died at Savannah, Georgia, on the 1st April, 1888. His widow sent on the 16th April the following statement to Judge Harden.
"In compliance with your request I will state: After my honoured husband Major Lucius B.'s departure from this life, I was in distress of mind that none could understand but one surrounded by similar circumstances. Of his business transactions I knew but little. After a week or two of stunning agony, I aroused myself to look into our financial condition. I was aware that he had in his keeping a note given by Judge H. W. Hopkins to some several hundred which was due, and I searched all the nooks and corners of his secretaire, manuscript, letters, memorandum-books, read several hundred letters; but all for naught. For two months I spent most of- ↑ Proceedings, S. P. R., vol. viii.. pp. 239–41.
