they were in science, their action in this respect was
most unscientific and dogmatic, while the action of
those who studied the phenomena and tried to find out
the laws that governed them, was following the true
path which has given us all human advance and
knowledge. So far I had got in my reasoning, so my
sceptical position was not so solid as before.

It was somewhat reinforced, however, by my own
experiences. It is to be remembered that I was working
without a medium, which is like an astronomer working
without a telescope. I have no psychical powers
myself, and those who worked with me had little more.
Among us we could just muster enough of the magnetic
force, or whatever you will call it, to get the table
movements with their suspicious and often stupid
messages. I still have notes of those sittings and
copies of some, at least, of the messages. They were
not always absolutely stupid. For example, I find that
on one occasion, on my asking some test question, such
as how many coins I had in my pocket, the table spelt
out: "We are here to educate and to elevate, not to
guess riddles." And then: "The religious frame of
mind, not the critical, is what we wish to inculcate."
Now, no one could say that that was a puerile message.
On the other hand, I was always haunted by the fear of
involuntary pressure from the hands of the sitters.
Then there came an incident which puzzled and disgusted
me very much. We had very good conditions one evening,
and an amount of movement which seemed quite