Being in Two Places at Once

     In his 1942 book, Life Now and Forever, Arthur J. Wills, Ph.D., president of the U.S. College of Psychic Science and Research, tells of his own experiments with out-of-body travel and then goes on to tell the story of an experiment carried out by Mary C. Viasek  and Mrs. Z. J. Allyn, a materialization medium.

       Mrs. Viasek, who had learned to travel out of body, told Mrs. Allyn that she would attempt to visit her circle on September 28 while she was traveling by train from California to Toledo, Ohio.   At the time of the séance in Los Angeles, the train was in Utah.   After leaving her body, Viasek willed herself to Allyn's circle in Los Angeles.  The circle was already in progress and Viasek entered the materialization cabinet, where she found Allyn entranced in a chair and a number of spirits waiting to materialize.  The "cabinet guide" told her that she was welcome to observe but because she was mortal she could not participate.

      Viasek then observed three "spirit chemists" collecting something.  Looking closer, she saw a band of light, of bluish-grey vibrations, resembling heat waves, passing around the circle and into the cabinet. "The stream of vibrations started from the medium's husband, Mr. Allyn, who sat by the right side of the cabinet, and gradually increased in size as the various members of the circle contributed their vibrations to it," Wills quoted the report, going on to explain that the stream was about two inches in width and six inches in depth and increased in size as it passed around the circle and then into the cabinet, at which time it was about a foot in width and 18 inches in depth.   It was further noted that not all of the sitters contributed to the stream, as it appeared to go around a couple of them.

       Once the stream reached the cabinet, a spirit chemist took it and appeared to pour it into the back of the head and neck of the medium.  At the same time that the light, bluish-grey vibrations were being poured into the medium, a white substance (not named, but apparently ectoplasm), began to emanate from the medium's chin, throat, and chest. This emanation was then taken by another spirit chemist and put over the spirit to be clothed.   As he was pouring the substance over the spirit, he said in a firm positive voice:  "Think your features!  Think your face!  Think your eyes! Think your form!  Think positively!  Think your form as you were on earth!  Think your arms!"  As the spirit thought these things a form gradually built up over him. 

      All the while the circle members were singing in order to establish and maintain harmonious vibrations.  When they finished one hymn and before starting another hymn, the materialization failed as "the substance fell from the spirit."  The spirit chemist then began attempting to clothe another spirit and it also failed when the hymn was abruptly changed.  Viasek noted that the vibrations changed when the singing changed and interfered with the manifestations.

      During these failures, Viasek was in the cabinet but could not get her feet on the floor. When the group members started singing Shall we gather at the river, her feet touched and she found herself standing in front of one of the chemists.  He said, "You are mortal.  You cannot go," but she appealed to him and he then consented.   The chemist then turned her around with her back toward him and began pouring the substance drawn from the medium over her, while saying:  "Think your features positively, just as you are!  Think your hair! Your eyes!  Think your form!  Think your arms!  Think your hands!  Think your feet!"

     Then the chemist placed some substance over her to form her dress, a garment of white lace. "This was a creation of the chemist, not of her thought."

       When Viasek stepped through the curtain into the circle, she felt that she was blind for several seconds, but her sight then came to her.  However, she found she could not speak.   As one of the sitters approached her, she received "strengthening vibrations" and was able to speak.  As she began to talk to the group, something happened to upset the vibrations of the circle and Viasek felt as if her breath had been knocked out of her by a blow to the solar plexus.  She stepped backwards toward the cabinet and seemed to lose consciousness before regaining it again and observing other materialization successes and failures. She could not discern exactly when the forms began to materialize, but she noted that they began to dissolve outside the cabinet.   What little of the substance was left when the materialization dissolved flowed toward the incoming stream of light, bluish-gray vibrations.

       Members of the circle confirmed Viasek's materialization and it was noted that her "breathing" problems began when Dr. H. H. Turner, one of the circle member, increased the light in the room so that he could make a note of the time and record Viasek's words.