The Vital Message
By SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

APPENDICES

[A] DOCTOR GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS


Nothing could be imagined more fantastic and grotesque than
the results of the recent experiments of Professor Geley, in
France.  Before such results the brain, even of the trained
psychical student, is dazed, while that of the orthodox man of
science, who has given no heed to these developments, is
absolutely helpless.  In the account of the proceedings which he
read lately before the Institut General Psychologique in Paris,
on January of last year, Dr. Geley says:  "I do not merely say
that there has been no fraud; I say, `there has been no
possibility of fraud.'  In nearly every case the materialisations
were done under my, eyes, and I have observed their whole genesis
and development."  He adds that, in the course of the
experiments, more than a hundred experts, mostly doctors, checked
the results.
  
These results may be briefly stated thus.  A peculiar whitish
matter exuded from the subject, a girl named Eva, coming partly
through her skin, partly from her hands, partly from the orifices
of her face, especially her mouth.  This was photographed
repeatedly at every stage of its production, these photographs
being appended to the printed treatise.  This stuff, solid enough
to enable one to touch and to photograph, has been called the
ectoplasm.  It is a new order of matter, and it is clearly
derived from the subject herself, absorbing into her system once
more at the end of the experiment.  It exudes in such quantities
as to entirely, cover her sometimes as with an apron.  It is soft
and glutinous to the touch, but varies in form and even in
colour.  Its production causes pain and groans from the subject,
and any violence towards it would appear also to affect her.  A
sudden flash of light, as in a flash-photograph, may or may not
cause a retraction of the ectoplasm, but always causes a spasm of
the subject.  When re-absorbed, it leaves no trace upon the
garments through which it has passed.
  
This is wonderful enough, but far more fantastic is what has
still to be told.  The most marked property of this ectoplasm,
very fully illustrated in the photographs, is that it sets or
curdles into the shapes of human members--of fingers, of hands,
of faces, which are at first quite sketchy and rudimentary, but
rapidly coalesce and develop until they are undistinguishable
from those of living beings.  Is not this the very strangest and
most inexplicable thing that has ever yet been observed by human
eyes?  These faces or limbs are usually the size of life, but
they frequently are quite miniatures.  Occasionally they begin by
being miniatures, and grow into full size.  On their first
appearance in the ectoplasm the limb is only on one plane of
matter, a mere flat appearance, which rapidly rounds itself off,
until it has assumed all three planes and is complete.  It may be
a mere simulacrum, like a wax hand, or it may be endowed with
full power of grasping another hand, with every articulation in
perfect working order.
  
The faces which are produced in this amazing way are worthy
of study.  They do not appear to have represented anyone who
has ever been known in life by Doctor Geley.[8]  My impression
after examining them is that they are much more likely to be
within the knowledge of the subject, being girls of the French
lower middle class type, such as Eva was, I should imagine, in
the habit of meeting.  It should be added that Eva herself
appears in the photograph as well as the simulacra of humanity.
The faces are, on the whole, both pretty and piquant, though of a
rather worldly and unrefined type.  The latter adjective would
not apply to the larger and most elaborate photograph, which
represents a very beautiful young woman of a truly spiritual cast
of face.  Some of the faces are but partially formed, which gives
them a grotesque or repellant appearance.  What are we to make of
such phenomena?  There is no use deluding ourselves by the idea
that there may be some mistake or some deception.  There is
neither one nor the other.  Apart from the elaborate checks upon
these particular results, they correspond closely with those
got by Lombroso in Italy, by Schrenk-Notzing in Germany, and by
other careful observers.  One thing we must bear in mind
constantly in considering them, and that is their abnormality.
At a liberal estimate, it is not one person in a million who
possesses such powers--if a thing which is outside our volition
can be described as a power.  It is the mechanism of the
materialisation medium which has been explored by the acute brain
and untiring industry of Doctor Geley, and even presuming, as one
may fairly presume, that every materialising medium goes through
the same process in order to produce results, still such mediums
are exceedingly, rare.  Dr. Geley mentions, as an analogous
phenomenon on the material side, the presence of dermoid cysts,
those mysterious formations, which rise as small tumors in any
part of the body, particularly above the eyebrow, and which when
opened by the surgeon are found to contain hair, teeth or
embryonic bones.  There is no doubt, as he claims, some rough
analogy, but the dermoid cyst is, at least, in the same flesh and
blood plane of nature as the foetus inside it, while in the
ectoplasm we are dealing with an entirely new and strange
development.


[8]  Dr. Geley writes to me that they are unknown either to him
or to the medium.

  
It is not possible to define exactly what occurs in the case
of the ectoplasm, nor, on account of its vital connection with
the medium and its evanescent nature, has it been separated and
subjected to even the roughest chemical analysis which might show
whether it is composed of those earthly elements with which we
are familiar.  Is it rather some coagulation of ether which
introduces an absolutely new substance into our world?  Such a
supposition seems most probable, for a comparison with the
analogous substance examined at Dr. Crawford's seances at
Belfast, which is at the same time hardly visible to the eye and
yet capable of handling a weight of 150 pounds, suggests
something entirely new in the way of matter.
  
But setting aside, as beyond the present speculation, what
the exact origin and nature of the ectoplasm may be, it seems to
me that there is room for a very suggestive line of thought if we
make Geley's experiments the starting point, and lead it in the
direction of other manifestations of psychomaterial activity.
First of all, let us take Crookes' classic experiments with
Katie King, a result which for a long time stood alone and
isolated but now can be approached by intermittent but definite
stages.  Thus we can well suppose that during those long periods
when Florrie Cook lay in the laboratory in the dark, periods
which lasted an hour or more upon some occasions, the ectoplasm
was flowing from her as from Eva.  Then it was gathering itself
into a viscous cloud or pillar close to her frame; then the form
of Katie King was evolved from this cloud, in the manner already
described, and finally the nexus was broken and the completed
body advanced to present itself at the door of communication,
showing a person different in every possible attribute save that
of sex from the medium, and yet composed wholly or in part from
elements extracted from her senseless body.  So far, Geley's
experiments throw a strong explanatory light upon those of
Crookes.  And here the Spiritualist must, as it seems to me, be
prepared to meet an objection more formidable than the absurd
ones of fraud or optical delusion.  It is this.  If the body of
Katie King the spirit is derived from the body of Florrie
Cook the psychic, then what assurance have we that the life
therein is not really one of the personalities out of which the
complex being named Florrie Cook is constructed?  It is a thesis
which requires careful handling.  It is not enough to say that
the nature is manifestly superior, for supposing that Florrie
Cook represented the average of a number of conflicting
personalities, then a single one of these personalities might be
far higher than the total effect.  Without going deeply into this
problem, one can but say that the spirit's own account of its own
personality must count for something, and also that an isolated
phenomenon must be taken in conjunction with all other psychic
phenomena when we are seeking for a correct explanation.
  
But now let us take this idea of a human being who has the
power of emitting a visible substance in which are formed faces
which appear to represent distinct individualities, and in
extreme cases develop into complete independent human forms.
Take this extraordinary fact, and let us see whether, by an
extension or modification of this demonstrated process, we
may not get some sort of clue as to the modus operandi in
other psychic phenomena.  It seems to me that we may, at least,
obtain indications which amount to a probability, though not to a
certainty, as to how some results, hitherto inexplicable, are
attained.  It is at any rate a provisional speculation, which may
suggest a hypothesis for future observers to destroy, modify, or
confirm.
  
The argument which I would advance is this.  If a strong
materialisation medium can throw out a cloud of stuff which is
actually visible, may not a medium of a less pronounced type
throw out a similar cloud with analogous properties which is not
opaque enough to be seen by the average eye, but can make an
impression both on the dry plate in the camera and on the
clairvoyant faculty?  If that be so--and it would not seem to be
a very far-fetched proposition--we have at once an explanation
both of psychic photographs and of the visions of the clairvoyant
seer.  When I say an explanation, I mean of its superficial
method of formation, and not of the forces at work behind, which
remain no less a mystery even when we accept Dr. Geley's
statement that they are "ideoplastic."
  
Here we have, I think, some attempt at a generalisation,
which might, perhaps, be useful in evolving some first signs of
order out of this chaos.  It is conceivable that the thinner
emanation of the clairvoyant would extend far further than the
thick material ectoplasm, but have the same property of moulding
itself into life, though the life forms would only be visible to
the clairvoyant eye.  Thus, when Mr. Tom Tyrrell, or any other
competent exponent, stands upon the platform his emanation fills
the hall.  Into this emanation, as into the visible ectoplasm in
Geley's experiments, break the faces and forms of those from the
other side who are attracted to the scene by their sympathy with
various members of the audience.  They are seen and described by
Mr. Tyrrell, who with his finely attuned senses, carefully
conserved (he hardly eats or drinks upon a day when he
demonstrates), can hear that thinner higher voice that calls
their names, their old addresses and their messages.  So, too,
when Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton stand with their hands joined
over the cap of the camera, they are really throwing out a
misty ectoplasm from which the forms loom up which appear upon
the photographic plate.  It may be that I mistake an analogy for
an explanation, but I put the theory on record for what it is
worth.
 

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