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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 3a

Mr. Cromwell Varley, F.R.S — Striking Evidence of a Great Electrician

Mr. Cromwell Varley, F.R.S

Striking Evidence of a Great Electrician.

In the course of my investigation of this subject I was greatly impressed by some of the evidence on psychic phenomena contained in the Report of the London Dialectical Society published in 1871, and the witness whose testimony produced the greatest effect on my mind was no less a celebrity than Mr. Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S., the distinguished electrician who has won enduring fame by his association with the brilliant feat of laying the Atlantic page 27 cable. At the outset of his evidence before the specially-appointed Committee of the Society named he said—"I was a sceptic when these matters first came under my notice in 1850." He then proceeded to narrate many marvellous phenomena he had witnessed in the course of his investigations and spoke of their production as being the results of the operations of the spirits of men who formerly lived upon the earth.

"My authority for asserting that the spirits of kindred beings to ourselves do visit us," he said, "is (1) I have on several occasions distinctly seen them. (2) On several occasions things known only to myself and to the deceased person purporting to communicate with me, have been correctly stated, while the medium was unaware of any of the circumstances. (3) On several occasions things known only to our two selves, and which I had entirely forgotten, have been recalled to my mind by the communicating spirit, therefore this could not be a case of mere thought-reading. (4) On some occasions when the communications have been made to me I have put my questions mentally, while the medium—a private lady in an independent position—has written out the answers, she being quite unconscious of the meaning of the communications. (5) The time and nature of coming events, unanticipated and unknown both to myself and the medium have, on more than one occasion, been accurately made known to me several days in advance. As my invisible informants told me the truth regarding the coming events, and also stated that they were spirits, and as no mortals in the room had any knowledge of some of the facts they communicated, I see no reason to disbelieve them,"

In concluding his voluminous testimony he added—"I have now told you about as much as I am able : what I have stated is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth; I have been most careful to believe nothing until unbelief became impossible; I firmly believe from the facts I have alluded to that we are not our bodies, that when we die we exist just as much as before, and that under certain conditions we are able to hold communication with those on earth."