vy bodies with contact, but
without mechanism or exertion, percussive and other sounds, etc. He
remarks,--

"I have had these sounds proceeding from the floor, walls, etc., when
the medium's hands and feet were held, when she was standing on a chair,
when she was suspended in a swing from the ceiling, when she was
enclosed in a wire cage, and when she had fallen fainting on a sofa. I
have had them on a glass harmonicon. I have felt them on my own shoulder
and under my own hands. I have heard them on a sheet of paper held
between the fingers by a piece of thread passed through one corner. I
have tested them in every way that I could devise; and there has been no
escape from the conviction that they were true objective occurrences,
not produced by trickery or mechanical means." Intelligence is
manifested by these sounds, "sometimes of such a character as to lead to
the belief that it does not emanate from any person present."

He records numerous instances of the movement of heavy bodies when not
touched: "My own chair has been twisted partly round while my feet were
off the floor. A chair was seen by all present to move slowly up to the
table from a far corner when all were watching it; on another occasion
an arm-chair moved to where we were sitting, and then moved slowly back
again (a distance of about three feet) at my request."

"On five separate occasions a heavy dining-table rose between a few
inches and one and a half feet off the floor, under special
circumstances which rendered trickery impossible.... On another occasion
the table rose from the floor, not only when no person was touching it,
but under conditions which I had prearranged so as to assure
unquestionable proof of the fact."

As to the power of overcoming gravity, he tested it by the use of a
weighing-machine specially constructed and very delicate in its
operation, being so arranged that its extremity could not possibly move
downward without external pressure. Yet it did so move downward when the
medium's fingers were held over it without touching it. This experiment
was conducted in a way that renders it absolutely certain that some
force beyond those visible to the persons present was in operation.

He also describes the lifting of human bodies without visible external
aid: "On one occasion I witnessed a chair, with a lady sitting on it,
rise several inches from the ground.... At another time two children, on
separate occasions, rose from the f