Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • Page 50

OdfclanU Cribunc OHahToph Describes Spirit Moods Do ike Dead GbmumwicafewHh llie Ltvm SUNDAY MORNING IESES8CB9W3S 1 Herewith is an account of psychic phenomena by a writer whoso verac Ollah Toph, of Rare Psychic Powers, Takes Place Among Greatest Mediums of the Wbrld mBsssm of her gift. Dr, V'" 1 lit '-fit i 'Si 14 In i Si I- ,1 4i I I 1 i I Richard Hodg son, who had been acting as American representative of the Society for chical Re search (British) called the attention of scientists to her case and for a time she was the subject of investigation and heated controversy here and in Europe. Madame Palladino was many times branded as a fraud, hut her supporters clung to her to the end. Both Doyle" and Lodge believed in her. And now conies Ollah Toph, whose veracity and sin ccrity are beyond question and Ji possesses rare and a rtling '4 Psychic power.

She regards Iter power as a pift and gives the modus operandi in a i ning communication by the psychic herself. 9 ity and sincerity, are beyond ques lion. She is' Ollah Toph of Indian. ipoli.s, club woman and friend of liooth Tarkington. There have been mediums and mediums, but most of them have been classed as profes sionals in their, work and for that reason have been open to suspicion and subject to attack.

This woman, as her article attests, is not. She re-sards her powers as a gift, and she writes of them simply and convinc ingly. Her contribution is unique In the Spiritualistic Series in that she alone or tho contributors is a eecr. The Psychic Gift By Ollah Toph Since the war. interest in nsv- chisni ban risen almost to a cry for evinenco of the continuity of life, But though there are books of communication adduced as evidence that men to earth and return to say that they still live; though there are books of purported spirit-world communications, such communications invariably are given as the experience of investigators, scientific or otherwise, or as non-evidential experiment.

Nowhere, so far as dis- eoverable, has there been relation of the modus operandi in obtaining communication by tho psychic himself. I am a psychic, having the gift demonstrable through mental phases. I aju a clubwoman and a writer. So far as the limit of my understanding regarding the gift permits, shall tell how. My gift is not commercialized." Now, that is not to disparage com-j inercialized mediumship.

1 do not! expect a stranger to give me an I hour out of his day gratuitously. I But if I am so situated that I may give my time and wish to that is my affair. Only, I deprecate thoj necessity which exploits a wShderfuli gift. Since 1 do not put a price on; the exercise of my gift, I maintain; an independence which facilitates; its development; which excludes thej undesirable seeker after knowledge; or counsel more easily than were earning my living with such ex-j position. HARS CTKIOSITY SKKKERS As it is, I must necessarily refuse' many requests for interviews.

There is tho curiosity seeker. There is the usual dependent, the clinging vine that in Kingdom Come will be twining iiself about the throne of grace. There is' the type that, having exhausted -aJvisive counsel from friL ids htjre, would follow ufter friends gone forth, still with that which implores give! And tln-re is the idiot who wishes her fortune tuld. 1 seldom read for men. 1 iii.e men.

Socially, 1 get on with admirably. Hut in reading for ii. ym.il my conscious, normal self obtrudex I cannot subjugate the thinking self of me to the divining sense. Naturally, in this study and ex-; perimentation, I meet women of: varying degrees of intelligence I from that fearsome soul who solicits my time, but begs me not to mention the fact that, she is Interested, because it might jeopardize her position with her husband or her church otj her social circle, to that rare intelligence which sees behind even a feeble manifestation tho gleam of infinite souj possibilities. AliOI'T Till; SUIJJKCTS -i i lis of thought transmission least; but tory nerve.

Eut sometimes tho he form is beyond my control. Kym-voice wavers, as though a door bolism is a universal language. Its opened and closed with a wind allusion frequently spells perfect sweeping across it, and thus con- meaning to the recipient, while to TH WO ereat 1 niedium8 made istic history' in the memory of the present gen eration. They! were Mrs. Piper and 31 a a me Palladino.

The latter died recently in Italy; TMrs. Piper still I lives, near Bos ton. Th alleged powers of these two women were potent factors in converting Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to spiritualism and their names have i red prominently in the articles of a.V V. A. A uj Mm.

Plner'a- mediumship, ac cording to her supporters, was one of the most perfect ever dis covered. She was, however, a poor subject for the hypnotist. In 1882-3 she! liail serious illness, a circum stance which led to the discovery my sense of direction is good. sometimes determine direction bv symbolism presented, but frequently I feel myself poing east or west or north or south. Where you have been, there I go.

It is as easy to go to Kngland or Ireland or Holland things the voice says help to es- THE LAW Editor Spirit World, care OaUUuil TRIBUNE. There seems to be no doubt In the minds of eminent scientists that there is a means of wireless communication human beings when far apart near by. Mr. Thomas A. Kdison.

in a Cleveland paper, of September 1S15, gave his opinions as regards thought transmission. Here are some of his opinions: "Psychic forces are merely words for perfectly natural things which as yet we do not understand. "Wireless messages, known only to the sender and receiver, may be big portant riding on the. very air we breathe, and yet unknown to us. "The human brtffn, without doubt, will do in the future which it Is incapable of doing now.

"Great forces are already at work, and exist right around us which we cannot discern with our five senses." Mr. Edison connected the heads of several men with wires through which he passed an electric current, to try to find out if it would assist tho flow of thought impressions. It did not seem-to make any difference. The law of mental telepathy hns been discovered. This, discovery I makes plain many spiritualistic phenomena.

Nearly ever)' boy understands the workings of wireless teleg raphy. Briefly, it is merely an in telliaent noeratnr that onens nnd closes a circuit of electromagnetic flow. The time of making and 'y 't and light from the street flooded tho room. I became suddenly conscious of an unknown, sweet and penetrating perfume, and vaguely wondered at it. An arm and a hand that held a bunch of blue corn flowers (that have no perfume) passed over my face; the flowers brushed my cheek and rested an instant on my pillow.

Surnrised I turned my head and looked straight into the eyes of my son, and on his face rested the smiln that, when hn was pleased, I knew so well. In-' stantlv tin will ran tv mln1 am lay suffering on that night, was far ftWIIV from Corn flntt t-i i ,1 ever associated them with hint. Hut they had proved to me lis presence. In my back garden I had cultivated a bed of bluo corn flowers we both loved them, and he had been in the habit of bringing the blooms to my room befors he left in the morning' uu, ififiiiuig tm ms vuai. Bay goodbye.

Hoon after, I went to a sanatorium. to go through a painful ordeal, owing to my weakened condition, without the relief fforded by an anaesthetic; and shrinking from the unknown pain, I tried half-heart-edlv to brace mvself. As the doctor stepped to my bedside, tho face of a young woman appeared, lookiiuj over his -shoulder. My thoughts back to my girlhood. I vaguely wondered were it possible that my m'ui ni.wi urvn i virauru uiiu et I 1 .1 looking at my' own body that seemed strangely young again.

Then came uiiuuicr lace. 1 hiiw men. mat -ua mother who went I was too young to have even a memory of her, had coma with mv child to give me courage and fortitude. Never before nor since have I known her spirit ear. Several years have passed nice I last saw my son.

uut oiner loved ones from the beyond, many times are with me, although I d. not always see them. I am not taei diumistic; the ouija board and chette never respond to me nor have I ever been able to write automatically. Many helpful thoughts come to me whence I know not raster than my lingers can work. Often I have spent hours in hopeless effort to revise a tangled paragraph of five lines, to have it untangled; whiia I sleep.

Mr. C. W. Shaw's idea that in tho transition called death, goes the intelligence, accords with mine. But also, go the piritual attainment and wisdom gleaned during probation, here.

Just where we lay down the old life on this plane, we begin the new, on the next. It lies wholly with ourselves according to our progression here what plane we shall attain In the next stage of exigence. Wo are never too old to learn. MRS. M.

V. H. DELANO. 1709 Encinal Alameda, Cal.t Wilcox Talks? personality Mrs. "Wilcox to us.

"I wish he multitudes who lovs, her could understand how very eagerly, how very wontsVrfiiMy and beautifully she came to rue. Shs came in so unexpectedly, so suddenly, when I was just about to le iv my friend, and when our minds weia centered on other matters entirely. There was no mistaking thnt great-hearted, great-soul4 personality. "There are several reasons why Mrs. Wilcox should have come Ut me.

"1. She was interested in my own literary work, being the first or.s In the professional field of letters to encourage me. "2. She was from my narive stata Wisconsin. "3., We were born under tha sama astrological sign.

"I had been thinking of her great deal- since her death, for tJ me, as to many others, ii secmel like so great a personal loss tiucli world-gap has been left by hrf passing. I believe, as she believed, ia the -continuity of 'life, tha there no death, that the re, -are no dead. She is more alive than ever, un- i i when I was too young to find Claims Spirit Kditor Kplrit land TRIUUNK: World, care Oak Inasmuch a my beliefs harmonize with those of Mr. C. W.

Shaw, I hae read with in terest his letter in Tho TIt-lIH'XE ofl December 14. I'ntil about twenty-two years ago, I regarded spiritualism as something refutable, and abhorrent, and spiritualists, although I have never personally known one, nor ever have seen a medium, seemed to me un canny and demented. manifestations by rapping, I believed positively Impossible and absurd. Hut during many years I had frequent and varied ps.v chic experiences. These began in about 1881 by telepathy the first recognized message coming from across sea, accompanied by startling clairvoyant vision.

Although I know of one instance only, when a message was.rxsceived from me, I have received many that have influenced my life. Hut all these experiences were with mortals. tate, bursting, luminous revealing Illumination is the town of revela tion. I know three degrees of clairvoyance, (clear seeing. There are voyanoe (cleor seeing).

There nre see the persons who have entered into a recipient's lire but be they IMng or dead, they arc like act- ors on a. screen. They may be Wild, changeful, but I ant not on a plane with them. Rut on that plane where dead men call Imck to earth: "We live!" It is different! They appear suddenly, us if evolved from shadow. They are more or less distinct.

Sometimes 1 can tell the color of eyes, of hair; the comparative height; the, griu-e of movement or halt or Infirmity which was theirs on earth. A woman (in spirit) has turned her back to me to show the length and beauty of the hair lie war vuin of ui earth; and then she has shown me that lieatity ravaged by sickness. Xot that one suppose life beyond or aboxe or mound, or wherever it lie, to bo a loosening and a binding of the hair. Hut it nerve as identification. Whereas, in the first expression of vision, the folk were pictures; in this expression they are really folk radiant, pulsing with life, with all i "Tlie psychic gift fell to me the sense of clear hearing (clalr-audience).

I tho singing of the wind In the tall trees. At this window there was an apple tree that brushed the pane. And gradually the ecene opens to my senses collectively. And there dance in many things. Gay associations of youth and tender associations of love; or maybe there is the cry of memories of a room in the house under tho pines.

I enter that room. I find the chest or the trunk or the box of mementos. 1 pick them out one by one. I describe them. Here Is a withered rose.

And the rose reveals to mo the romance of the tragedy of your life still poignant or outlived. SYM HOLISM. As to symbolism: I like that form me, the percipient, the meaning is obscure or hiuden entirely. And that is as it should be. For I hold myself from intrusion on the psychic plane as I do on the physical plane.

I recall an instance in which symbolism revealed to me the name of the dead daughter of a woman directed to me because she, was worn and troubled and had failed to find comfort elsewhere. My well-meaning friend thought I could give the strange old lady soma message of consolation. The name of the daughter was Rone. The mother listened unmoved but acquiescent as I described things pertaining to Rose, And at the conclusion of the seance she asked might she ask a question. I told her I did not think much of questions, but she might try.

And then the sorrowful mother of Rose voiced excitedly; "Will 1 get a tenant for my house?" I am not a fortune teller! Clairsentience (clear feeling) is spiritual discernment through that avenue of Intelligence which is even less material than the ctheralixed other senses. I feel sense one's innate qualities Or activities. I had tho gift which he has, but which is bidden; and the longing which is unexpressed. I find color perception and music harmony which tho world does not suspect. And so often beauty under forbidding exteriors, that I wonder why our eyes are blinded and that we sit in judgment on our fellows.

Perhaps when Hr.ierson said Kverv man is a poet, in that he hath the' germ of poetrv in him," he knew. KROM OI TMK SH ADOWS. Clairsentience is sensitized touch. A hand reaches to me out of the shadows. I feel without Boeing its contour, the hollow and softness or hardness of the palm, the slendec-liess or bluntness of the fingers.

And from tho hand I feel my way to df-seription nf characteristics of the person, and from characteristics feel my way to character and personality, and so on to associations in the life fif the person which establish his identity or pcrhupw declares his re- lation to you. Impersonation frequently conveys information which cannot traverse other channels of communication. That is, I "act" for. tho jnoment become the person, living or dead, of whom some one in the Veiled World wihrs speak, or who (if dead) wishes to speak for himself. To me that is tho most Interesting phase of my gift.

For, having suddenly assumeu a posture or some ono necking identification, it seems a performance staged wholly outside my personality. IXXKU Ii.M MIXATIOX. Then, there is that inner illumination whi Is a blending of all- the which fHime the. avenues of is, indeed, the light of the spirit. Its descent to.

the valley of normality, where I abide. Is not' a matter of stray gleams ombrold-erlng shade. No, it is precipitate, burstniisslon least; but the form cipl- contriijutjiiE.torces in a nianl-lor Kussia as to your little home festation arc: You, who listen, who. town in the Middle West and far if you Sre discreet, tell me nothing,) more interesting, but let me tell you: who, if you are SHIES AT PKOPIIKCY honest, admit the truth of something! Then there is prcvisiom Now, I I tell you, even though the admis-1 constantly weigh supernormality uion be unpalatable; who just as with normality. As.

to prophecy: readily deny if you cannot recognize. If it become fulfilled I am glad. Hut the truth of the assertion; you who I deprecate the prophetic message, do not hedge who do not I am timid. I am afraid of emana-hoping foolishly thus to push wider tions of the conscious mind. 1 may the mysterious door; ytu who may not know the limitations of the combe sceptic (and scepticism need not riunicator beyond the veil ethcreal-militate against the production of ized me or a presence but I may be results), but who, if iftitagonistic, painfully disquieted, may as well go forth and come no I have a voice.

It is deep, it is more. For there is nothing for you. light, it is smooth, it is cracked; There is a force beyond me, suave, insolent, abrupt, tender, in-opcrnlins; through me -it mav be at gratlating, mellow. The voice words for the ccetacy I of Son Spoke Later, I came In touch with the spirit world. Twenty-two years ago, my on of seventeen passed tragically from mortal.

I was then, and had been for years, an Invalid. Two days before the ucc'ident, on his return from business, in the evening, he came to my bedside to tell a grievance an act of Injustice against him. He seemed greatly depressed1, and, after a long confidential talk, he mentioned a personal matter in connection with his possible death that stnrtled mo. To comfort him, 1 nromised him Hint in event of the highly Improbable happening. In would make effort to have his wishes in the matter carried out.

Often, since, I have thought from his very earnestness that he had a barely defined premonition. Always in physical pain, I at last, went to the border land myself. I tterly discouraged, I one night lay with my face turned to the wall, praying for relief. A window was tlnulty of life, not only to cry out me iruin -10 ueai is Though dead, yet doth he live! Hut to discover to each soul its wonderful potentialities; to open, In never so little degree, that Shining Gate which hinders us from, tho Great Self, waiting just beyond that gate. To hold to men a torch which shall reveal a world undreamed within themselves: Cum ristit.

Metropolitan S'e i-papfc Service, New York. Nfilt Wek, Sinclair Leu-is, "Bpirttumliit VaudeTille," by Ella Wheeler NEW Jan. 3--s It is reported here today that within two days after her death, the spirit of Elhi Wheeler Wilcox, the poet and psychic, was in communication with a woman friend living in lirrMilyn. While this might be surprising to some, the announcement is not Surprising to occultists. Mrs.

Wilcox for several years had claimed to be in communion with tho spirit of her husband, Robert Wilcox. The name of the Brooklyn woman who received the communication from Mrs. Wilcox Is withhf Id, but the circumstances of the communi- cuiusts ol the genuineness of the Phenomenon. or purposes of pub- nctty, the Brooklyn woman signs "A Progressive Thinker" to a leti-r in whiui she details the experience. Thn lattor from "A Progressive Thinker" waa called forth by another letter in which the writer the belief that Robert Wilcox and his wife, who had spent an almost perfect life together for thir yrs, had been reunited in life after death.

The writer of the: I i a is times a ra relied self, it may be at ity there just as when the voice times an extraneous personality. I spoke to you on earth. With tho do not always know just what the 'description of that voice, or iniila-mystic touch is which transports of the throat defect. a rasp, a me to fajr lands which I have' never, ccmstant hard swallowing, a nervous, seen, which imparts verifiable in- irrigating cough breaking syllables Iftablish identity. If that voice speak an endearment none other used to you what If, say, a young woman but three days dead stepped out of the shadows on a 'quiet Sabbath evening and nodded to you in a friendly way, having known you slightly; and the voice trailing its lisp said: "Tell ray mother I am all right.

And 1 must have the ring." And if, in the silence of your chamber, other voices purporting to call names of dead friends, of that girl (and of whom you had never heard 1 had spoken of things that happened in her childhood what then? Well, the next morning I went to tho mother. She told mo the little story, of the dead girl's ring. She. verified other information. And she was glad to hear that lisping assurance of "all right," which added crown of faith.

I know- two degrees of clalrau-dience, or clear hearing. These are nrr-bahly degrees. Beyond any physical ear is ji hearing more acute, more delicately discrimi-' nating than physical hearing. In the first degree the voice, is clear, hut apparently from within the brain rather than through the audi-i OF MENTAL -By D. W.

STARRETT- breaking the. circuit in each instance and their relation to each other, constitutes the Morse Code. The difference between the wire and the wireless systems is in the mechanism. The principle is the same, in the wireless system there is the power, a wire, circuit with a Cap across which the current jumps after it is shaped to the Morse code, by the operator. This tof the purpose powerful sound waves.

All sounds are reproduced by the Hertzian waves or similar vibrations. Therefore, when on'b produces round waves through the use of his vocal chords, audible or inaudible, he causes waves to pass outward in nil directions a.t the rate, of miles per second. Each person has a wireless sending and recelylner instrument always with him. The cells of the nerves, muscles, and cords, of the speaking instruments of the throat have been taught to stretch the vocal cords to shape sounds in accordance with u. code.

The same Is true of the Inaudible process of thinking, for one may pronounce words whilst he holds his breath. The space between the chords la comparable with the gap in the wireless system. Here the spaco ia varied to produce the code, while in the wireless the space remains the same and the operator regulates the time of flow of current across tho gap. Each person has about five thousand miles of nerves (wires) stretched from the "tooles of his iusea tne resonance, or a voice, speak- lng to me from another room. In such moments- of instability the degree of cluiraudience supervenes.

The voice speaks more closely, as though lips were held to my ear. And returning to that borderland beyond which I may jiot follow, "(rood by" floats back faintly and from afar. SPIRIT VOICi: THAT MIMICS. One such voice mimics delightfully. I am not a mimic.

I have never known such a fascinating personality as this expressed solely by a voic but a voice which runs through all human' emotions from gayety to sorrow. There is laughter in that voice, and anger and tears; wit and wisdom and love. I approach a place within your remembrance a place whose associations of persons and fateful events perhaps I shall detail. before I see. the house or the garden or the winding walks I smell the dominant flower or tree fragrance.

It may be the smell of pines or cinnamon roses, or maybe i approach through TELEPATHY feet to the top of his head. It is known today that the most efficient way is to hang the antenna more or 'Ims parallel with a "spoke" of the earth, in the wireless system; and, strange to say. Nature has hung the human nerves in thlft manner. Tho cunimorcial wireless system rarely has over one thousand Teet of copper antenna hanging on poles, say two hundred feet high, whiTo Nature has equipped man with over live thousand miles of supersensitive nerves hanging tautly in the proper manner on a framework something less, 'than six feet high. In each case the antenna filled with' I'll electromagnetic fluid.

Tho cells of the muscles are forced to draw in and exhale the air which a.s it passes through the cords pro'. luce a shaped sound. This sound is at once duplicated by the etheric or Hertzian or similar waves, w'hich fill all space around tho earth at the rate above mentioned. It impinges upon the antenna of the human body and at once is conveyed to the brain where it is segregated and sent to the proper departments to bo understood, either consciously or subconsciously- The writer can receive these Waves consciously with regard to the colors and their shades red and black. It Is merely a matter of education to understand and interpret all waves, as in the matter of teaching the liner vibrations of musical sounds.

Coryrlgnt by D. VV. STARRETT 1 that life meaps; understanding, ate such as to convince oc- foimiOicm which' 1 at the time do! not know. It fell uH)n mo long ago, when I was too young to tint) words for the ocslnsy in which I found a far land and an alien people. It foil on me long ago, when I was awakened in the night by a voice calling my name.

Then, too, contributing to a manifestation, there is my normal self, which however honest, however anxious for clarity, will sometimes obtrude. The obtrusion of normality is always the presage of mistake. It is only as the conscious, reasoning self is in abeyance "that satisfactory messages or communications aro obtained. I nm chairman of an. investigating committee of the Psychic Research section of the Woman's Department Club of Indianapolis, and also vice-chairman of the section.

Mrs. Ovid Hutler, Jameson, sister of Booth Tarkington. is the chairman. In manifestations, employ the senses Kiibicctlvcly. That Is, beyond my physical sight Is a vision keener, clearer, with more deli-eate perception of detail I liuve found llttlo soar t.r bffmihh on face slewed physically.

The recipient had not noticed such war. But her attention being directed to it, she has found it. One will tuy that her eyes had noticed the scar subconsciously niiil that I had read from her-mind. However, theories get no further thun the stopping; plaor! Of clairvoyance thtre is reirov'l-sion and prevision. I glimpse back into your life, to events, to persons (living or dead); perhaps back of you fo a vanished generation, with the folk of nn olden time appearing to be In quaint dress, showing to 'me heirlooms, documents; pantomiming things which you understand.

Normally, I am almost without the ncnso of direction. I am constantly wandering north when I should be going south I have been getting lost since a child. But psychically perhaps more finely, appreciation; action. They are, oh, so inl'inite'v more alive, than when they walked among us. Would 1 might make you see! The most brilliant person 1 know seems dull in comparison.

Therein lies the t.ud of promise, which psychic research perpetually holds 01M. Not only do we live again, but we live more fully. From such ful- ness we cad back a measure of iden-i ity. And from this plane is harked back communication. These folk Bee ine as I thorn.

DEAD ARE SEEN. In the third degree of clear seeing, the person always the dead stands forth boldly, corporeally. There is no enveloping shadow or background. This person I feel 1 might actually take hold of. Yet he is only visible to me; none other sees.

I have experienced this phase only a few times. My development has been a matter of over twenty years. And the gift Is still in the developing, the expanding stage. In those years I have grown normally, I hope. I feel that 1 am getting us much from my gift as I give.

Cul bono? Not only to prove con- r.wu nau i utterahlv happv in her reunion wii i no real ailment at the time of htr'her husband, Robert Wilcox still death and had merely gone on In aglow with thatgre.it desire to help response to the summons of her hus- her fellow man. ba" "She wants the world to kr, nv mts-sllSe received from Mrs. how happy she is in the ntw lite; Wilcox is not made public In its en-; how' happy she was to be able ttrety, but Itke all. 'first messages" communicate she did. it expressed happiness.

"She broke in right in the Extracts from the letter written of "some opinions 1 was expresstn by Progressive Thinker" follow: about one of the most serious 'As you are aware, Mrs. Wilcox lems confronting the Vnited States passed away at 2 o'clock Thursday mo-nlng. October 30. "Iler work een here on this eai "Two-days later. Saturday.

Novem-j plane is not done let me assure ber 1. between 5:30 and 6 in thej you of that. Let me assure JVmeri afternoon, she communicated with ca, and the entire world i nhich the writer through a friend who is she Mas also a cittren tio extremely psychic one who is re-i great universal spirit Koch fined, truly honorable and spiritual Wilcox shall be heard from e.uii a worthy instrument for such ajand yet again." i.