Medium may be brought into Spiritual relationship with the sitters,
contact with the Medium is necessary, and the sitters are therefore
requested to place their hands, palms downward, in the middle of the
table; on these hands the Medium places his own and the séance begins.
Before long, the presence of Spiritual power becomes manifest by raps on
the table, or by vibratory movements of the table, more or less violent,
and by spasmodic jerkings or twitching of the Medium's arms or body.
When sufficient Spiritual power has been generated, the Medium takes up
the slate, and, still controlling with his left hand the hands of his
sitters, places on it a minute fragment of slate pencil. No offer is
made to show both sides (the prepared message is on the hidden side),
the side in full view is perfectly clean, and it is on that side that
the Spirits are to write with the slate pencil; there is no need of
showing the other side. With his right hand the Medium holds the slate
under the edge of the table, barely concealing it thereunder, and
drawing it forth every few seconds to see if any writing has appeared.
After waiting in vain for five or ten minutes, the Medium's patience
becomes exhausted, and he reaches for another slate from the table close
behind him, and, ostentatiously washing both sides of it, lays it on the
table in front of him (still controlling with his left hand the hands of
his sitters), and removes the pencil from the first slate to the second,
and on top of the second so places the first slate that the prepared
message is underneath, on the inside and next to the other slate. The
trick is done. All that now remains for the Medium to do is to hold the
two slates under the table for awhile, or rest them on the shoulder
close to the ear of the sitter on the Medium's right, and, by scratching
with the finger nail on the frame of the slate, to imitate the writing
by the Spirits with the enclosed pencil. When there are two or more
sitters it is only the one on the right of the Medium who is privileged
to hear the writing. To apply the slate to the ear of any other would