69. The experience of tens of thousands of persons, in every country, left no
doubt as to the reality and intelligence of these communications; but this intelligence
was generally supposed to be that of the medium, the questioner, or the persons
composing the circle in which they were obtained. When it was ascertained that the
raps were not made by the medium, it was suggested that they must be made by his
thought; but the idea of intelligence reflecting itself; so to say, in a piece of wood, of
thought producing raps and motions in a table, was felt to be an explanation even more
astounding than the phenomena themselves, and the latter speedily showed it to be
inadmissible. For, as previously stated, the communications were often directly
opposed to the opinions and sympathies of the medium, or beyond the grasp of his
intellectual faculties, and were sometimes conveyed in a language of which the medium
was ignorant, or referred to matters unknown to the whole party. Such instances have
now become so numerous that almost all of those who have had even a slight
experience of spirit-communications could probably adduce a great number of them.
We will cite, in this place, only one instance of the character now alluded to; a fact that
was related to us by one of the persons who witnessed its occurrence.
