1923
May 13 - Dec 6
[ Editor's note: There are some 400 sheets of paper with automatic writing on them. Many of them have not been deciphered. Only a few of them appear in the University of Manitoba Archives photos. Many of the messages that were deciphered by Lillian Hamilton are included in the text of the notes.
The images can be found in the original notes from boxes #14 to #17 and also in a file named "HAMILTON IMAGES - AUTOMATIC WRITING - COPIED FROM PHOTOS OF NOTES" . These images are found on the disc along with the "T. G. Hamilton Files" in the HTML format as prepared for the internet.]
On May 13, 1923
there were references to "The Grave." There was a vision of a gravestone and a vision of a visit to the grave of a friend. (To F. J. S.)
The hand message was: "I read, dear friend, in your dear face."
Verification: The hand message appeared to come from a poem "To F. J. S." in the Underwoods Collection. The meaning was not clear. "F. J. S. were the initials of Mrs. Sitwell, Robert L. Steveson's dear friend in his early manhood. Her son had died of tuberculosis. The connection here was not understood.
At the May 20, 1923,
seance the medium awoke from her deep trance sleep and described her vision:
"I saw an old church the nicht. The door was closed. The people couldna get in. I tried to look in. I saw a lady and a gentleman dressed like long ago. They couldna get in. And that young man was there with a fine nose. Who is he? He is very nice."
By hand message came: "The kirk is filled ... the door was steeket ... pulpit keeked."
Verification: After some research, the text was found to be based on lines selected from verse 8 of the poem "The Scotsman's Return from Abroad: (See Underwoods Collection, P.165)
"The Kirk was filled, the door was sticeked; Up to the pu'pit ones I keeked."
This example shows how great care has been taken to match the imagery with the main basic idea of the selected passage. Both have the filled the church, the closed-door, and "keeked" (looking); the overflow congregation and the young man - the Returned Scot.
(The poem was written by R. L. Stevenson in 1881 after his return to Scotland from the USA with his bride, the former Mrs. Osbourne.)
A strictly new idea has been introduced: In the poem a young man does the "keeking"; in the medium's (entranced vision) she "keeked" - she tried to look into the church.
At the seance of May 24, 1923,
a friend's grave is visited.
E.M. (Elizabeth Poole) said: "I was away back where I was last time. I was in the cemetery. I got a look into that church this time, but my attention was more on a lying-down gravestone.
That young man was there and he was looking at this grave. He did not speak to me."
By hand slaps came the message:
"I keeked... old friends, the grave is the place to find them..."
(Note: The idea of trying to get a look into the closed church was taken up in another output many months later.)
Verification: Hand text followed a slightly condensed and changed excerpt from a second poem written in Scot's vernacular:
"... but the nearest friends are the auldest friends, and the grave's the place to see them." (Underwoods, P.74). The imagery - vision ideas match the text ideas - "keeking" in both; a friend's grave in both." A new factor in the image: the original text is abridged, and the word "seek" is changed to "find", a much stronger word, and in agreement with the new R. L. Stevenson outlook.
In the vision, the grave is now the dominant theme, not the filled church. With the added pantomime, the vision does duty for two unrelated themes.
Over the years, beginning in 1923 and continuing for the next five years, Dr. Hamilton studied the trance states of Elizabeth Poole and he sometimes recorded his observations on graphs. Since the graphs are mainly undated they are reproduced here in one group; but it should be remembered that they were drawn over several years.
On May 27, 1923,
Stevenson's last illness was illustrated. The conditions were poor.
In the vision, the medium traveled and finally arrived at an unknown village where she saw a man being welcomed by much handshaking.
The hand-text mentions Mrs. Stevenson's premonition, and R. L. Stevenson's gay chatter.
Two names given: "Weir of Hermiston" and "St. Ives".
Verification: The vision was not understood. For the premonition, and the names of two books R. L. Stevenson was writing at the time of his death, see biographies.
During the seance of May 29, 1923
both the vision and hand-text message were poor, and did not complement each other. The vision and the message were not understood. The sitting was considered a failure.
At the seance of May 31, 1923,
Stevenson's funeral was the topic. This time the work was brilliant work. E. M.'s trance was very deep.
Of the vision, Elizabeth said:
"I was at a funeral; there was lots of flowers everywhere, on the casket and outside... I saw two ministers. One had on something white like a coat; the other was in dark clothes. I followed the casket to the foot of the hill and then I lost it... One of the ministers lead in prayer. Oh, I could see it all so plain! I could see the sun shining so bright! Such a cluster of people about it! I bowed my head in prayer."
Verification: All the details of the imagery are correct; the day was exceedingly bright, flowers in bloom everywhere. There were flowers in the Great Hall brought by Samoan friends and two ministers were present, one an Anglican, the other Presbyterian. The hill (Vaea) on which R. L. Stevenson was buried.
Hand text: It does not deal with Stevenson's death directly. It places emphasis on the relationship between prayer and goodness of the human personality, and it does this by quoting something R. L. Stevenson said as a child - "You cannot be good unless you pray."
In the vision, prayer is twice enacted, first by the minister, and then by the medium. In the text, prayer and goodness and death are interwoven. It was, in its essence, a sermon preached from beyond death!
On June 4, 1923,
Elizabeth, in a vision, visited Stephenson's grave on Mount, Vaea. The inevitability of death was recalled by a sentence written in a letter to R. L Stevenson's mother in 1868.
The communication in mind occurred very early in the work, in fact at this sitting of June 4, 1923, at the time when the medium's faculties for trance-writing had not been developed. The message, as delivered by the slaps struck on the table, read:
"That will come like grey hair or coffin-nail." When the medium awoke from her trance sleep she related her experiences in these words:
"OK , I've been among rocks. I saw a woman at the rock. But mind you, I went one way but I didna come back that way. I came back by a narrow footpath between rocks ... I went along a road that wound around the hill, in and out. It seemed to be an island. Then I came to this lady beside the big stone. It came up past her waist. It was kind of bluish-grey. It seems to be peaked at the top and long.
I leaned over this rock with this lady. It might have been split rock. Then she came to me and talked to me but I could not tell what she said. But after we left the stone the lady went ahead and went down a footpath. I didna want to go at first for I couldn't see any path at all - just rocks everywhere. It was dreadfully difficult; if you could have seen those rocks you would have thought so. If you were going up you certainly would need chains to hang on to. The path had to go around big rocks.
After a while, I came to a little stream. I seemed to lose the lady. Then I could see a house. My! I like my pictures! I don't know whether they are correct or not but I see them so clear. The sun was so bright."
The vision setting was a fairly simple matter, it was a recognizable representation of the top of Mount Vaea in Samoa where Stevenson and his wife are buried.
But two years passed before the source of the sentence was revealed. It was found to be a condensed version of the sentence in a letter which Stevenson had written to his mother when he was eighteen years of age, from Wick, Scotland, where his father had taken him to give him some practical instruction in harbor engineering. In this letter Stevenson described his own artistic appreciation of a storm and commented on his father's practical point of view of the same scene.
"I can't", Stevenson wrote, "look at it practically; however, that will come, I suppose, like grey hair or coffin nails."
The interpretation of the quotation is of course obvious; its theme is the inevitability of death, Stevenson's burial place seen by the medium in hallucinatory form serving as a fitting illustration of this idea.
That he, the alleged Stevenson, believed himself to be the deceased Robert Louis Stevenson is clear. Some of the communications, which were more factual in that they were less marked by the play-acting which we have seen, reminded the observers that he was "marred by sickness in his youth" ; that he "seemed to have gaiety and because of this his ailing body was praised"; that in his literary aspirations he had had "a thousand projects."
Was this from Stevenson? We did not know. But two years later Lillian accidentally found the answer. The phrase had been taken from a letter written by R. L. Stevenson to his mother in his 18th year, from Wick, Scotland, where he was studying harbor engineering with his father. There had been a great storm, and the high waves had damaged the new construction. The young R. L. S. did not see the storm as an engineer, but as an artist. He is aware of his failure in this way, and speaks of it: "How could he (father) appreciate a storm at Wick? It requires a little of the artistic temperament, of which Mr. T. S. possesses some, whatever he may say. I can't look at it practically; however... that will come, I suppose, like gray hair or coffin nails... Your affectionate son, R. L. S."
Well, death had come, and now, looking back, R. L. Stevenson, the communicator, recalls this youthful flippancy and logically associates it with a picture of his own resting place on a mountaintop in Samoa.
Lillian makes the comment: "We had no doubts whatever, that through EM's trance the mind of the living Stephenson had somehow contacted us. Everywhere the case pointed to the impact of a supernormal mind on the mind of the simple, motherly, unlearned little woman." (See copies of her letters to Lillian.)
The nature of her trance appeared to be related to the trance of deep hypnosis; the flow of literary and biographical data were totally unknown to her. The constant planned output showed matching ideas in vision and message.
In short, almost from the first, T. G. H. and L. H. saw that what came was a type of cross-correspondence between two brain (or mind) centers, which occurred beyond the knowledge of any incarnate man. The sensory center and the motor center, in each case, were made to show some form of correspondence. To account for this, there had to be postulated the existence of an independent mind, widely and deeply acquainted with all the multiplicity of details of R. L. Stevenson's life. The ultimate verification of the "coffin nail" phrase, as with many others, solidified further such a hypothesis. As a footnote to the above seance, the following extracts from Laura Stubbs' book, "Stevenson's Shrine" (Musson Book Co., Toronto), may be compared with the medium's description of her vision: "... the mountain top and the grave are before me, and I am in the forest on my way thither. ... Over an hour had elapsed before we gained the summit, and the latter half of the ascent was by far the most difficult .... The path zigzagged through the forest until it ended in a slender, fern-grown, almost imperceptible bush-track. More than once it led over the f ace of the solid rock, but branches of creepers, by which it was easy to swing one's self up, were abundant, though still the top appeared to recede and to become more and more unattainable.")
On June 10, 1923,
Stevenson referred to his method of learning to write.
Elizabeth had a vision of an old church. She entered the church and heard the minister preach on the text "For God so loved the world."
By hand-slaps came the message:
"I... always two books with me... one to read... and one to write."
Verification: Here the imaginary is relatively unimportant; it only serves to remind the communicator of Scotland. The hand-text was soon placed "... I always was busy on my own private ends, which were to learn to write. I kept two books with me in my pocket, one to read, one to write in." This was found in "A College Magazine", page 55 in "Memories and Portraits."
At the seance of June 17, 1923,
Elizabeth had a vision of R. L. Stevenson as a child, reciting to his elders. They were having family worship.
The hand-text was poor.
Following the trance, table levitated three separate times, without hand contact.
On June 23, 1923, there were more memories of childhood. The vision was not clear. The communicator seemed to have in mind "A Child's Garden of Verse."
The following is from a letter from Flora Jane MacDonald of Minneapolis, Minnesota, written after a June 25, 1923 sitting held at the Hamiltons: "... I attended, on the evening of June 25, 1923, for the first time, a séance at the home of Dr. T. Glenn Hamilton of Winnipeg. Three others were present at the sitting. "After a few minutes of the complete circle I saw the table in the center of the room lifted high in the air by some unseen power. Try as I would, I could not push this table down again.
"Following this performance, the medium, whose right hand I was clasping, saw a vision. I recognized the scene described, as a snapshot photograph of a birds eye view of one section of the town where I had been teaching during the preceding nine months and which I had left on June 14, 1923.
"The description, in the words of the medium, went something like this:
"I feel a moving sensation. I am on a train. The train stops, though not at the station, rather at a kind of siding. There are elevators on either side... I see a street. There are no people in it, but there are houses on the lower end. On the upper end there are none, except one large house on the left hand corner.
"There is a schoolhouse at the end of the street. I see windows, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight... rows and rows of windows, nothing but windows. In the center of the building a pole sticks straight up in the air. It has nothing on it. Steps lead up to this building, only a few, perhaps two. Around it is beautiful shrubbery...
"I see another street - there's a building at the corner, it is a store, it has a window but there is nothing in it. I see farmers down the street... the picture is fading... it is gone."
"The description is a 'flash' photograph that a chance visitor would get coming into town on the railroad. Such was my own impression when I went there to teach for the first time. One does pass the elevators and the siding before reaching the railroad station. There is a schoolhouse at the "top" of the quiet street. It is a building of "windows, and nothing but windows". A flagpole does shoot up into the air, a flag flying from it only on state occasions. There are houses at first on this street, but none near the school building, except the one larger one, and that is on the left hand corner. Perhaps two steps lead up to the building, and the campus is lovely with small pine trees and other shrubs. This is the street upon which farmers always congregate.
"There is too, the store, one front window of which never has anything in it.
"To me, who had never heard anything of the like before, the picture was startling. During the medium's narration I gave no inkling whatsoever that I had recognized any part of the description. She knew nothing of the appearance or even the whereabouts of the town in which I had taught, nor did any of the others present. Indeed, on the contrary, my announcement at the end of the séance that I had recognized the description caused somewhat of a sensation. Surely there must be some psychic law with which we are as yet unfamiliar to account for such an occurrence?"
(Signed) Flora Jane MacDonald, 1308 Seventh Street, Southeast, Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A.
During this seance there were also memories of what purported to be R. L. Stevenson's childhood. The reference was not clear.
On July 1, 1923,
the script was a tribute to Stevenson's wife and references to the success of marriage. The velvet coat appeared in the vision, and R. L. Stevenson was wearing the coat.
With Stevenson was a lady - presumably his wife.
The hand-text was:
"It was best work I did ... was married ... "
Verification: In life, R. L. Stevenson wrote:
"As I look back, I think my marriage was the best move I ever made in my life." (Balfour, volume 1, page 76.)
The following is an account by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of his experiences at the Hamilton home around the beginning of July, 1923.
Note: Sir Arthur and Lady Doyle were brought to the Hamilton home on July 4, 1923, to attend a seance and to witness the brilliant telekinetic phenomena which manifested with the medium Mrs. Elizabeth Poole. This visit was written into Doyle's book "Our Second American Adventure."
At this time Dr. Hamilton received the gift of "Our American Adventure", inscribed by Sir Arthur - "To Dr. Hamilton, from Arthur Conan Doyle, July 4, 1923."
In the front of this book Lillian Hamilton has written:
"Sir Arthur and Lady Conan Doyle were brought to our home by Professor W. T. Allison. They observed the Elizabeth Poole phenomena at first hand. Non-contact movements were very powerful and were repeated many times, with the table brilliantly illuminated in good red light.
Doyle writes of these experiences in his book "Our Second American Adventure.", which is found in the Kelvin Library, Winnipeg."
"On our first night in Winnipeg we attended a circle for psychical research which has been conducted for two years by a group of scientific men who have obtained remarkable results. The medium is a small, pleasant-faced woman from the Western Highlands of Scotland. Her psychic gifts are both mental and physical. The circle, which contained ten persons, including my wife and myself, placed their hands, or one hand each, upon a small table, part of which was illuminated by phosphorus so as to give some light. It was violently agitated and this process was described as "charging it". It was then pushed into a small cabinet with an opening in front. Out of the cabinet the table came clattering again and again entirely on its own with no sitter touching it. I stood by the slit in the curtain in subdued red light, and I watched the table within. One moment it was quiescent. A moment later it was like a restless dog in a kennel, springing, tossing, beating up against the supports and finally bounding out with a velocity which caused me to get quickly out of the way.
"Many of Crawford's Belfast experiments have been duplicated by this group of scientists, which is the more important in view of Dr. Fourrier d'Albe's failure to get the same results."
Dr. Hamilton later wrote the following as a general description of the work done during the latter part of 1923.
"During experiments which took place in the autumn of 1923, an ordinary lead pencil, suspended from an overhanging arm of wood, attached to the séance table as it stood in front of the medium, moved some eight or nine times without known contact, leaving behind it what seemed to be quite good evidence that it had been moved by something of a materialized nature, operating under the direction of an intelligence of the human order. These markings were in few words, badly written; a few digits well made; and in one case, notes of music evidently traced with some considerable care.
"Following this came experiments designed to make known, if possible, something as to the nature of this materialized product; this moving about within the confines of the séance room that did not seem to emanate from anyone within the room normally.
"A violin, contacted by the medium, left her hands and was carried up into the air above our heads; Elizabeth, in the meantime, with her hands held, was sitting in the chair beside me. While in the air, the violin was repeatedly heard to thrum, these pluckings of the strings occurring both spontaneously and on our request, thus giving evidence that the materialized form possessed something in the shape of fingers able to perform this task.
"To gain still more light as to the nature of the forces at work, we turned our attention to experiments carried out with melted wax along lines indicated by Dr. Gustave Geley in his experiments with the Polish medium, Frank Kluski, in his laboratory in the Meta-Psychic Institute in Paris. Our preliminary procedure covered the following points:
"To maintain the wax (ordinary paraffin wax) at proper temperature, that is, slightly above the melting point, assisted by Mr. H. A. Reed, I prepared a container on the principle of a rice boiler; that is, an inner container which held the wax, and an outer container which held the water. An electric heating element was placed at the lower part of this outer vessel and immersed in the water."
On July 15, 1923,
Elizabeth reported a vision:
"I have been traveling the night. I was choking with the smoke. I got into a city; a very poor old place. Then I seemed to be on the edge of a hill. There was too much smoke."
Hand-text: "There are about 40 Balfours ... all cousins of R. L. Stevenson."
Verification. This claim was not validated until 1934, when Mr. H. A.V. Green kindly procured from Edinburgh Balfour's Unabridged Edition of R. L. Stevenson's Life.
There is a footnote in volume 1; "... He had more than 50 cousins in all, 40 being on his mother's side ..."
In her remarks on this verification, Lillian wrote:
"We were non-plussed by the nature of the evidence thus disclosed. We had been using the abridged edition of Balfour, which did not contain this footnote.
"Query - was the communicator familiar with the unabridged edition? We did not know these facts, nor did E.M.
"Further on we were to find much evidence that R. L. Stevenson and all surviving individuals do live objectively in the second state. Life appears to them to be natural in every way. As for the "smoke" - was this a subtle bit of hypnotic suggestion? Edinburgh is called "Auld Reekie" - "Old Smokey". R. L. Stevenson remembers."
In the seance of July 22, 1923,
the carrying power of Elizabeth's trance sleep expanded.
She had two visions:
In the first vision E.M. saw R. L. Stevenson as a baby; then, in a later vision she saw him as a man on a boat. This was the first time that two ideas were used in one trance.
On July 27, 1923,
Elizabeth had a vision of a visit to R. L. Stevenson's Samoan home.
There was an error in the vision.
In the vision E.M. saw an animal skin hanging on the wall of the Hall at Vailima. This appears to be incorrect. Lillian H. wrote to Mrs. Lloyd Osbourne regarding this, and according to Mrs. Osbourne only Tapu cloth hung on the wall. This mistake in interpreting what she saw was one of the few mistakes that Elizabeth made. However, this error persisted whenever E. M. was shown a picture (vision) of the R. L. Stevenson home. It became a fixed idea.
The hand-text was poor.
The seance of July 29, 1923,
was held at Victoria Beach, with sitters Dr. and Lillian Hamilton, Elizabeth M., and Mr. D. B. MacDonald
The vision as reported:
In it E.M. plays the part of the Returned Scot; this time she gets into the church, which is still full!:
"I was in a full church. They sang one of the Psalms, and a hymn, too. I saw the precentor. I met somebody who knew me and shook hands with me and made quite a fuss over me. I saw this church afore. This time I got in."
Verse 8 continued: "It is the minister hisself. Right glad to see his face ... and grace."
Comment: Who is it that remembers all of this former pretense, carried out in imagination in the poem? Not E. M., for in her waking state she does not know what her hand has given. Nor does she know that the poem even exists. As for the sitters, no one knows what message is coming.
At the sitting of August 3, 1923,
the table moved with great power.
There was a second excerpt from the Dedication.
The spelling was poor and the vision without special significance.
On August 5, 1923,
the topic was memories of childhood and Cummie teaching R. L. Stevenson to pray.
On August 12, 1923,
the script includes the word "Smout." This was R. L. Stevenson's nick-name.
There was also a vision of the Stevenson's Lighthouses.
Elizabeth reported that in her vision: "I was on the water and in a lighthouse; it seemed to be a higher tower. Who is Smout? I heard it two or three times s-m-o-u-t. I heard the older man call the younger man "Smout." The one called Smout was sitting, writing"... I was in a big steamer and then in a small boat, and went off to the lighthouse ..."
The hand-text given just before the medium awoke; of it she had no memory:
"Scarcely less renowned, perhaps more famous, is the lighthouse in Argyleshire ... built by an uncle of R. L. Stevenson."
In a comment on the verification, Lillian says: "Although this point is not quite clear, it is likely that the communicator has in mind the Ohu Heartache lighthouse built by David Stevenson on a reef off the island of Mull (of Argyleshire). This is a very famous lighthouse. (See essay in Encyclopedia Britannica , 11th edition. Also R. L. Stevenson essay, Memories of an Islet."
The word "Smout" means "little fish." It was Thomas Stevenson's pet name for Louis when he was a child. Here, in imagination, the father applies it to the author Stevenson.
At the sitting of August 15, 1923
there were some Quotes from poem "In the States". The vision was poor.
On August 22, 1923,
there was a short script from "Dedication to Underwoods."
By hand-text came the message: "Many as remember me ... pardon ... inadequate ..."
In the vision R. L. Stevenson was shown ill in bed. This image in keeping with the basic idea of the "Dedication", which was to the doctors who had attended him.
The seance of August 23, 1923,
included a script - a brief excerpt from "Dedication to Underwoods." The script is not reproduced here.
On September 13, 1923,
There was reference to childhood prayer.
The hand-text was poor. The letters were mixed up.
The vision was poor.
The seance of September 16, 1923,
included an excerpt from "Dedication":
"One name have kept to the last... because household word."
The vision was poor, a mixture of memories of Bournemouth and Samoan homes.
On September 23, 1923
there were broken references to the poem "Skerryvore"
Hand text: gives something about "To plant a star ... This cot... a name of strength ... tower ..."
The vision was vague and meaningless.
Verification: This was later found to be an attempt to give part of the poem "Skerryvore".
Physical phenomenon were a very powerful.
There were non-contact table movements.
For first time, the strings of a violin, held high above the sitters were strummed by an unknown force.
1. Ten pound table moves non-contact with great force, after E.M.'s hands have been removed and are being held by T. G. H.
2. Violin raised about four feet above E.M.'s head. Strings strummed by invisible fingers.
Lillian's Query: Did the production of powerful telekinesis divert the psychic energy necessary to give clear R. L. Stevenson phenomena? We believed it had to be so; but did not interfere with the program of spontaneous events.
Lillian's conclusion: It appears that psychic energy is necessary for both physical and mental phenomena. The two kinds appear to be closely related.
On September 27, 1923 came the hand-text: (A reference to a poem on the title page of Underwoods.)
"Like my title ... not mine ... from another man ..." Vision fails to complement this. Verification. See Dedication to Underwoods.
At the seance of September 30, 1923,
there was a reference to Stevenson's father's melancholia.
Elizabeth's trance vision was poor. Among the physical phenomena was the supernormal lifting of a violin into the air above the seated medium's head and well beyond her reach; and supernormal plucking of its strings while in this position, were manifestations of relatively short duration, lasting from September, 1923 to January, 1924.
Verified by a number of Dr. Hamilton's medical confreres, these in turn led to the experiments which gave some twenty wax impressions of what they had every reason to believe were records of supernormally produced fingertips, a materialization phenomenon which Dr. Hamilton, reported quite fully to a well-known member of the American Society for Psychical Research.
These wax forms he also photographed and later filled with dental cement. Their record is therefore permanent. The alleged identity of these it was impossible to verify, but two of the claims were interesting at least.
The October 7, 1923,
seance contained a reference to the reconciliation with his parents, of R. L. Stevenson, following his marriage, which they had opposed.
Hand-text: Three years after lived in South France ... stepson ... parents' blessing ..."
The October 14, 1923,
seance contained the vision:
"I have been traveling all night. A young couple went with me, and a boy with the young couple. I went over the Forth Bridge. I went back to a house where I've been before and saw an old couple here. And a great hugging and kissing went on. I could see the young couple put their grips and carpet bags down.
Mind you, both the father and the mother put their arms around them. The old lady had an afternoon cap on. Such a lot of smoke when I was going in on the train!
Verification: Excellent. These facts are confirmed in the biographies and R. L. Stevenson letters. Good matching.
On October 18, 1923,
came: "Graham Balfour, I thank you."
The October 21, 1923,
seance contained a criticism of "Master of Ballantrae."
By hand-slaps came: "Author of Master of Ballantrae has no psychology nor women."
Elizabeth's vision showed R. L .Stevenson writing.
On October 28, 1923
came by hand slaps:
"Eighteen-ninety; abode Samoa Island ... Hill over Apia ... thirty-three years ..."
Elizabeth reported her vision: "I was on a mountain. I climbed up that same path I came down. It was very steep. I was on a square level place where the stone was, but it was not there tonight. I sat on a rock while coming down."
Verification: "Returning from Sidney at the end of October, 1890, Stevenson and his wife at once took up their abode in the cottage which had been built for them in the clearing at Vailima during the months of their absence, at Sidney and on their cruise at the Equator.
Also: "The Vailima property was two miles behind and six hundred feet above the level of the town of Apia.
October 28, 1923,
the day of the seance at the Hamiltons, was almost 33 years, to the day, since he had taken up his abode on the "hill over Apia".
From the "other side" R. L. Stevenson purported to be keeping track of earth time.
At the November 1, 1923,
seance there were satirical references to his own (R. L. Stevenson's) death and fame.
( R.L.Stevenson died November 3, 1894)
Hand-slaps: "After four years ... prominent ..."
Vision purely symbolic. E.M. sees R. L. S. standing by a flagpole, take a book out of his pocket, read, and then write."
From an unpublished paper by Dr. T. G. Hamilton referring to the notes on the seance of November 1, 1923:
"Non-contact table movements; raps, direct writing by E.M. in trance.
"So far the visions presented are those which brought to mind only facts of the distant past. Now we are to encounter one that the recipients believe had to do with facts true at the time. The verifier in this case writes a most interesting letter which I shall now quote:
"Reviewed in summary form, it will be apparent that these examples of psychic picturization of past scenes as revealed to the medium Elizabeth M., disclosed a number of interesting and informative facts:
(a) that the memories aroused by an Elizabeth-vision might belong to a regular sitter, to an occasional sitter, or to a guest
(b) that the memory thus invoked might belong to a past near at hand or to a past in time quite distant;
(c) that the memories thus represented might be based on the sitter's own experiences, as in cases B, D, C, F; or on facts which the sitter knows about through hearsay only, as in cases A and E;
(d) and finally, that where the fact to be recalled could be represented by a symbol, there that symbol was sometimes used.
"All this being so, it will be evident that we were bound to ask ourselves a number of important questions: how did the medium's supernormal faculties reach out and lay hold of these
(a) tonight,
(b) tomorrow night,
(c) the next night, and so on?
"Who, or what, decided that this or that fact or event would be represented by a "still" picture, certain other images by means of moving pictures, and still others by way of a symbol? Who was this intelligent intelligence, selecting and arranging these programs with such skill and attention to detail?
"To say that through the thoughts of the medium alone came these phenomena, and that her subconscious mind arranged these in so challenging a manner, was a far from adequate explanation to our queries.
"On the other hand, to suggest that the minds of the dead were perhaps back of these events, and the evidence in many cases pointed in that direction, was also far from being a satisfactory explanation, for the very good reason that this was largely speculative, not positive.
"By themselves, the phenomena appeared to be satisfied by one explanation: they apparently were due to the functioning of the medium's own cryptesthetic powers, operating on a plane of consciousness and knowledge as yet closed to us.
"However, when we met the vision phenomena of the deep trance, the opposite hypothesis offered the more logical explanation - namely that outside, autonomous, personalities were engaged in purposive action by way of trance script and trance vision."
In the Hamilton home were a copy of "A Child's Garden of Verse", and a copy of "Treasure Island". They knew only such facts as were printed in newspapers and magazines of the 1920's. The Hamilton family library held books by other literary giants, but nothing else of R. L. Stevenson, or David Livingstone. These communicators were nothing more than names to them.
When R. L. Stevenson first appeared late in 1923, and began what was to be a seven year weekly series of complex communications, the Hamiltons had to resort to the books in the Winnipeg Public Library Reference Department, and then buy or order books, in their search for clues which might verify these intermingled complexities.
As the manifestations continued to embrace ever-widening points of reference, the Hamiltons built up their own Stevenson and Livingstone Library.
And whenever possible, information was sought from private sources, which helped to verify very obscure points which appeared to have been put through deliberately, as certain proof that he, R. L. Stevenson, was very much alive and aware of what he was doing - from a post-mortem state.
The work of verification began in 1923; in the next six years some fifty-odd books were acquired. To these were added newer publications as they have appeared.
Identifying the literary-biographical puzzles that came by way of the dual automatisms of trance-writing and trance-vision was a chancy effort - like looking for the proverbial "needle-in-the-haystack".
When the combined script-vision messages were fairly simple, their meaning could be found fairly quickly. If, however, the output was very complex, the search for the facts for verification might take weeks, months, and in some cases, years.
The November 6, 1923
references were not clear.
On November 11, 1923,
The vision-script references were to his ( R. L. Stevenson's) last illness and its suddenness.
Text and vision referred to R. L. Stevenson's final seizure. E.M. was very startled by the suddenness of it all. She saw him propped up in a chair.
Verification: True. He was placed in a chair at first. (See biographies.)
On the November 13, 1923,
sitting there were NO telepathic influences from the sitters.
A special sitting was held on Stevenson's birthday. No birthday memories appeared, and he showed no signs of remembering that it was his birthday; only a second vision of his final illness appeared.
The dying man spoke to E.M. and called her 'mother'.
This was all pretense.
On November 18, 1923,
death and the poem "Requiem" were associated.
Elizabeth's vision:
"I was at the funeral again the night. I was in the same house. I was in a big room ... there were two busts ... I saw a corpse on a table; the casket was on the table. Eight or ten men arrived and carried him out. I went too; I went to the hill. The lady didn't go, mind you. The lad went. The road was a made one."
By hand-slaps: "He laid where he longed to be". (From the poem, "Requiem".)
Verification: Busts in Big Hall at Vailima. True. The corpse was on the table.
"Placing the body on our big table." (See "Intimate Portraits" by Lloyd Osbourne. Page 148.)
Two ministers. True.
Eight or ten men carried him out:
"At two o'clock the coffin was brought out by a dozen powerful Samoans who led the way up the mountains." (See "Portrait" page 152.)
In Elizabeth's second trance for the sitting there was a 'Good-bye' to Cummie.
At the sitting of November 25, 1923,
there came a vision-script of Cummie, the Dramatic Teacher.
The notes record:
E.M. awakes from profound trance sleep and describes her vision:
"I was on a long journey the night ... I landed in the old place but by a different road ... I passed a big gate ... I think it was a way into an estate ... I got up into the city and the house where I have been before ... I went into a room.
"There was a boy there in his teens. He was telling a woman something. She had a black dress and a little white apron. I saw a desk where he had been doing his writing. He was telling her something, but she wouldna take it in. She stampit her foot at him!
"He had no collar on his coat ... very baggy trousers. The room was awful close. He was thin ... had dark hair ...
"As I was coming into the city I saw the milk carts ... the people came out to get the milk with dishes".
Hand-text: "Me, Master ... Never put in Playhouse ... my life."
Verification: Cummie was full of life and merriment, and she read to him most dramatically. The last time she saw him, she tells him that in a roomful of people he said:
"It's you, Cummie, that gave me a passion for the Drama." "Me, Master? I never put a foot inside a playhouse in my life!"
"Yes, woman" said he, "But it was the grand dramatic way ye had of reciting the hymns!" (See Balfour.)
Verification and analysis: Here fact and fancy are inextricably woven:
1. The old city represents Edinburgh;
2. The Stevenson's house;
3. Cummie, dramatically stamps her foot, refuses to "take in" what?
She inspired her lad with her dramatic instinct; the scene is transferred from youth to manhood.
4. R. L. Stevenson's room was stuffy, and badly ventilated. True. (His old nursery was now his study.) (See Mrs. Stevenson's Introduction to "A Child's Garden of Verse," Scribners). 5. Milk carts. True. Memories of childhood and Cummie are skillfully blended with the addition of this bit of simple imagery:
"... If any one should know the pleasure and pain of a sleepless night, it should be I. I remember, so long ago, the sickly child that woke from his few hours slumber ... to lie awake and listen and long for the first sign of life among the silent streets ... it was my custom, as the hours dragged on, to repeat the question "where will the carts come in? until at last the sounds came in, that I have heard this morning." (From "Nuits Blancha", by R. L. S.)
"She was more patient than I can suppose of an angel; hours together she would help and console me ... till the whole sound of the night was at an end with the arrival of the country carts ... that ... pounded past my window ... "(quoted by Balfour, volume 1, page 35.)
Note parallel imageries between life-facts and vision.
On November 27, 1923,
there were more childhood memories of R. L. Stevenson in Edinburgh.
At the seance of November 29, 1923,
writing began: "My message as man to man."
In these words Stevenson was giving his specific reasons for communicating.
Note: At this point R. L. Stevenson began a new work.
He now learned to write using E.M.'s hand while she was in a very deep trance. Up to this point, all memories had been given by the hand automatically slapping the table, spelling out the desired words letter by letter. A laborious but efficient method of communicating. E.M.'s response was purely automatic, as she had no memory of this activity. When she returned to a normal waking state she recalled her "visions" with remarkable clarity, although she forgot them quickly.
"There is another isle in my collection, the memory of which besieges me. I put a whole family there, in one of my tales; and later on threw upon its shores, and condemned to several days of rain and shellfish on its tumbled boulders, the hero of another. The ink is not yet faded; the sound of the sentences is still in my mind's ear; and I am under a spell to write of that island again."
This extract tells in a manner which surpasses cold description the inter-relationship found to exist between the visions and scripts in many instances, and the role which the Stevenson entity apparently played in their production.
For the communicator was telling us that he was the director of the visions which contained puppets of Stevenson's past. As director, he might place in the scene a puppet which was the image of himself as a young boy or as a child. For example, we find the medium stating that she saw "Stevenson as a child and playing in a pool of water", or "helping a lamplighter" - both ideas being taken from "A Child's Garden of Verses".
Or she saw Stevenson as a young man on board a ship with a number of ruffians. In this case the puppet Stevenson was identified with Jim Hawkins, the hero of "Treasure Island". Thus the director might show Stevenson in puppet form as a boy, a young man, as a student, a writer in France, in America, or as an ailing man in Samoa.
The medium could not distinguish between the puppet which represented Stevenson in relation to his past and the puppet which merely represented one of the characters in his novels. Long John Silver of "Treasure Island" was as real to her as any Stevenson puppet actor. But there are clues in her speech which show the distinction between the Stevenson director and the Stevenson puppet. She might say "Stevenson was there but he stood off a bit", thus showing that he appeared to the medium as someone who was bringing about the performance.
There were memories of Queen Street Gardens, Edinburgh.
Elizabeth's vision:
"I was away in the old house in a room with a boy with dresses on. He might have been about five or six ... I was looking out of a window; the boy was looking out, too.
"He wanted me to get some flowers. I didn't want to go; they didna belong to him; they were public gardens'; they seem to be on the street. But I went out among the flowers, but I didna pull any. It didna seem right. They didn't belong to him. It was a very big garden."
By hand-text: "Looked back ... window ... green garden".
Verification: "My ill health principally chronicles itself by the terrible long nights that I lay awake, troubled continually with a hacking, exhausting cough. It seems to me that I should have died if I had been left there alone to cough ... in the darkness ... How well I remember her (Cummie) lifting me out of bed, carrying me to the window and showing me two lit windows up in Queen Street, across the dark belt of gardens!" (Quoted by Balfour, volume 1. Page 33)
Output now increased. R. L. Stevenson now began to use a second trance state more often. In one he wrote his message; in the other he indicated it by using the hand-slap. He now passed on his memory-bearing ideas and this fanciful ploys in three ways:
1. Automatic hand-slaps;
2. Automatic hand-writing;
3. Imagery.
To the experimenters this indicated that R. L. Stevenson felt he had come to a more important stage in his work.
It was in the second trance that he wrote these impressive words:
"My message as man to man. R. L. Stevenson."
Note: Hand writing and hand-slaps were used alternatively at each sitting for the next seven months. Then the hand-slaps stopped, and deep trance writing was used almost entirely.
The December 2, 1923,
seance recalled memories of Thomas Stevenson, the father of Robert Louis Stevenson.
The memories of the father's scientific inventions were given by slaps and a script:
By slaps: "Noble, simple years of father."
By script: "Holopolate ...Louver board ..." This refers to father's inventions concerning lighthouse illumination, and meteorological instruments.
By vision: Father and son were in a lighthouse. The father is worried over his son.
At the seance of December 6, 1923,
there were
Hand-slaps: "Louver boarded screens - optical influence."
And a vision: Stevenson in a lighthouse. Young Stevenson angry ... refuses to do what the older man wants him to do. (Apparently a reference to R. L. Stevenson's trouble with his father over his choice of profession.) (See Balfour, and R. L. S. writings.)
There were also references to the fame of Robert Stevenson (R. L. Stevenson's grandfather), who built Bell Rock Lighthouse. This last reference took place in a fourth trance.
On December 6, 1923,
[Dr. Hamilton received a receipt from the A. S. P. R. regarding his membership.]
That same day he also wrote a letter to Dr. Walter F. Prince at the A. S. P. R. in New York. This letter contained quite a detailed account of Dr. Hamilton's work with wax molds of fingertips and toes.
Dear Dr. Prince:-
Re Production of Wax Molds
"In December, 1923, I prepared equipment for experiments aimed at securing wax molds of hands, etc., such as are reported by Dr. Geley of Paris.
"For this experiment it is necessary to maintain the wax slightly above melting point, and to have adjacent a cold water bath in which the wax form can conveniently be immersed with the object of solidifying it by chilling.
"To maintain the wax at proper temperature I had prepared a double container on the principle of the rice boiler. The inner container in which the wax is placed is a glass fish bowl 8x12 inches at top and about five inches deep. This holds about six pounds of ordinary parowax. By addition of a small quantity of water within the same (container) the wax surface may be brought nearer to (the) top if desired.
"The outer container, in which water is placed surrounding the glass bowl, is made of galvanized iron and at its lower part has an electric heating element immersed in the water. The sides of this galvanized bowl are about one third inch lower than the level of the top margin of the glass bowl within, and these sides of iron are continuous over the top of the water until they approach closely to the glass, at which point they are continuous downward for about two and a half inches, forming a metal cover and partial wall just outside the wall of the glass bowl.
"The object and effect aimed at by this construction is to prevent unnecessary splashing about of the water. An air vent is supplied to permit of the water rising to its proper level beneath the otherwise closed metal cover of the water container when filled. "With this equipment the water surrounding the wax container to a height of about three quarters inch from the top keeps the temperature practically constant but subject to variation according to the amount of current allowed to pass through the heating element. This current is regulated by a rheostat conveniently placed on the wall of the room.
"The wax heating unit is placed on one end of a board about 18x30 inches in size, and the other portion of the board is occupied by an ordinary fiore pail full of cold water for use as a chilling bath.
"Surrounding the upper part of the pail and of the glass bowl is another board 18x30 inches cut out comfortably to fit down over the edge of each and in that way supply a platform about the top equal in extent to that of the board foundation on which the group is placed.
"Our first attempt at securing wax finger molds, etc., was made during the closing few minutes of an experimental session on December, 1923, unfortunately at a time when the psychic power seemed much spent. Nothing resulted from this effort.
"Our second attempt, one week later, occupied about twenty-five minutes at the close of our evening's session, and was wonderfully successful.
"Lights being all extinguished, we sat for about seven minutes all holding hands in chain formation. During this time the medium and Mr. R. presently experienced a "tightening" sensation which in a few minutes relaxed. (This subjective sensation we have learned to recognize as frequently accompanying production of phenomena.)
"On turning on the red light after the relaxation, a small fleck of wax was found floating on top of the water pail. This form of wax consisted of a small, scale-like portion bearing the skin markings of a normal finger on one side and with a lengthy droplet of wax clinging to the other side.
"(Photo 1-a) For another period of about six or seven minutes the experiment was repeated, and again during this period the "tightening" was experienced by the medium and Mr. R., at the end of which, when the red light was turned on, another form of wax, this time a piece about half an inch long and one third inch across, was found floating upon the water. (Photo 1-b).
"Again the experiment was repeated for a similar period; a wax scale corresponding to a finger end was secured. It was about half an inch long by two fifths of an inch wide, concave in form, as if corresponding to the pad of a finger. (Photo 1-c).
"A fourth time that evening the experiment was tried resulting in a wax form about three quarters of an inch long and half an inch wide, an almost complete thimble shape, having a concavity, and a very definite reverse of the nail, together with the soft tissues in outline some distance about the nail. (Photo 1-d).
"This wax form I filled with dental cement and after the cement became hardened the whole was dipped into hot water melting the thin shell of wax and leaving a form which would appear to be that of a human little toe. It certainly does not possess the outline of the finger of any of those present. Indeed, at a glance, one would declare it to be the form of a little toe. This concluded our first evening of experimentation with wax.
"On the second evening of this experiment a few days later the wax had been melted previously, and during the earlier part of our evening work was standing with the water on a table within the cabinet while other experiments were under way.
"During this period the medium went deeply into trance and a lengthy message by hand signals was received, following which she recovered consciousness and related her trance vision.
"A short interval of intermission was then taken, during which the red light was turned on, and we proceeded to remove the table and equipment from within the cabinet to a location within the circle, when to our surprise a large number of wax fragments were found already floating upon the water. (Photo-2). We removed these as usual by dipping out with a tumbler a quantity of water with the wax forms floating thereon.
"Again the red light was turned off and our experiment continued, with the result that three additional wax forms were obtained that evening. (Photo-3).
"On the next occasion we obtained a wax form of exceptionally fine form. Photo 4 shows the palmar aspect of this. It is very thin, and by its own weight, probably before it had become sufficiently chilled, became partially closed, as will be noted in the photograph. The reverse, or dorsal, aspect of this form shows a beautifully formed nail and all the natural striations and other skin markings. The form I have submitted to a number of medical men and the unanimous opinion is that it is a little toe.
"From our next attempt at securing wax molds the material had been melted, and, with water, was placed in the entry way to the cabinet, and all lights were turned off. We awaited developments, holding hands, at first, in chain formation around the circle, with the exception of the medium on the right side of the cabinet, and Mr. R. on the left side of the same.
"These two placed their hands upon the cabinet wall on their respective sides. In course of time the medium went into a deep trance and a message by hand signals came through after which she returned to consciousness and related her vision as impressed while entranced.
"We then proceeded to await further development of phenomena, hoping particularly that further wax forms would be forthcoming. At this stage the medium sensed what she described as a presence which, in a minute or so she informed us she, could clearly see in the form of a dark individual who shortly appeared to become more clearly perceived by her clairvoyant faculty; and she gave a minute description of his appearance, dress, etc., and named him as having been known to several individuals within the circle, including the medium and myself, many years ago.
"This intruder we have had described by five or six different mediums and on many occasions, and always as possessing considerable of the disturbing and undesirable, though frequently very evidential, features. "On the present occasion our whole group was suddenly startled by a sudden splash within the pail of water resulting in a quantity of the same being thrown upon our group. The medium, on the instant of this occurrence, suddenly jumped from her chair over toward me, sitting on her left, as if seeking protection.
I turned on the red light to ascertain whether an unusual wax form had been produced and its immersion was responsible for the splash. But there was nothing to be found. Lights were again extinguished and again the medium described the undesirable presence as being there, and in about two minutes the water was suddenly again splashed upon the group.
"I made inquiry and found that eight of the ten persons present were recipients of the unexpected water, most of them receiving a double dose.
"I inquired of the medium's right hand as to whether it was wet, but found it to be dry. The only explanation for the incident was that a materializing something was responsible for the splashing. Certainly no person in the room was responsible.
"Lights were again turned off, and we proceeded to await further development. Again the medium informed us of the presence of the individual, whom I addressed in the following words:
"We are here for serious business and if you are disposed to assist us, we shall be glad, but if not so disposed, understand we want no interference, and ask you to withdraw.
"In (a few) seconds the medium reported the individual as disappearing, and in about fifteen seconds she said he had entirely vanished.
