50 York St[reet]
Baker St[reet]. W
Jan[uary] 30/1901
Dear Sir,
Kindly excuse me a stranger writing to you for information. I understand you have investigated some of the phenomena of spiritualism.
I have recently discovered that spirits can talk through me without my going into any sort of trance or under any sort of control; and I desire information as to the accuracy of the statements they make. They state in the first place that this form of mediumship has never occurred before.
Have you ever known or heard of a similar one?
[2] They state that all previous modes of communication with the Earth plane have been most unsatisfactory: very little spiritual being able to filter through — the results being nearly ass human — that they have tried hypnotise trances again & again (with the medium both conscious and unconscious) with the same poor results — so that no just class intelligences would trust them and they were left to inferior and evil sprits which sometimes masqueraded under great names.
Would you kindly let me know whether spirit literature is generally of the unsatisfactory nature?
Some of their statements are rather interesting. Having only their minds and not their brains, their recollection of Earth life is somewhat vague rather like a dream — They do not think that things and conditions on the Earth plane are [1 word illeg.] to those on the spirit plane. They have no language or vocabulary — and state we shall need a new vocabulary to describe things and conditions on the spirit plane which do not exist on the Earth plane.
They deal with material [1 word illeg.] and spirit photography in an equally remarkable manner.
I must apologise for writing you and thanking you in anticipation
I am | Yours faithfully | Herbert Blythe [signature]
P. S. They state any reasonable request will be granted task what we want. I am utterly at a loss what to reply.
Status: Draft transcription [Letter (WCP2618.2508)]
For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon
Please cite as “WCP2618,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2618