When 13,000 Americans Petitioned the US Senate to Investigate Spiritual Manifestations

 In 1854 a newspaper account appeared of a petition signed by 13,000 petitioners and N. P. Talmadge, who served as a US Senator and the governor of Iowa.  The petition called for a scientific investigation into reports of spiritual manifestations, which had been begun in 1848 in the USA town of Hydesville, New York. By 1854 reports of the spiritual manifestations were arising abundantly in the United States and Europe, as documented in my posts here and here and here and here and here. The newspaper account gives this summary of the petition:

"In the Senate, on Monday, Mr. Shields presented a memorial from N. P. Talmadge and 13,000 citizens of the United States, asking the appointment of a scientific committee to investigate certain physical and mental phenomena of questionable origin and mysterious import, that have of late occurred in this country and Europe...He observed that a partial analysis of the phenomena attest:

First. An occult force, which is exhibited in sliding, raising, arresting, holding, suspending, and otherwise disturbing ponderable bodies, apparently in direct opposition to the acknowledged laws of matter, and transcending the accredited powers of the human mind.

Secondly. Lights of various forms and colors, and of different degrees of intensity, appear in dark rooms, where chemical action or phosphorescent illumination cannot he developed, and where there are no means of generating electricity or of producing combustion.

Thirdly. A variety of sounds, frequent in occurrence and diversified in character and of singular significance and import, consisting of mysterious rapping, indicating the presence of invisible intelligence. Sounds are often heard like those produced by the prosecution of mechanical operations, like the hoarse murmurs of the winds and waves, mingled with the harsh creaking noise of the mast and rigging of a ship laboring in a rough sea. Concussions also occur resembling distant thunder, producing oscillatory movements of surrounding objects, and a tremulous motion of the premises upon which these phenomena occur. Harmonious sounds as of human voices, and other sounds resembling those of a fife, drum, trumpet...have been produced without any visible agency.

Fourthly. All the functions of the human body and mind are influenced, in what appear to be certain abnormal states of the system, by causes not yet adequately under stood or accounted for. The 'occult force' or invisible power, frequently interrupts the normal operation of the faculties, suspending sensation and voluntary motion, and reducing the temperature of the body to a deathlike coldness and rigidity; and diseases heretofore considered incurable have been entirely eradicated by this mysterious agency....

The memorialists, while thus disagreeing as to the causes, concur in opinion as to the occurrence of the alleged phenomena, and, in view of their origin, nature, and bearing upon the interests of mankind, demand for them a patient, rigid, scientific investigation; and request the appointment of a scientific commission for that purpose."

The petition was presented to the US Senate by one of the two senators from Illinois, James Shields, who after presenting the petition gave a long diatribe denouncing the petitioners, and "poisoning the well" by shamefully trying to depict the witnesses as crazy or fools or evil people. He gave us an infamous example of what is now called gaslighting. His diatribe caused the petition to be ignored.  A scientific commission like the one that 13,000 Americans asked for was not formed until 1869, when the London Dialectical Society took up a long formal investigation of the phenomena that the 13,000 Americans asked to be investigated. After a long investigation, that society issued a report resoundingly finding in favor of the reality of the described phenomena. You can read about the report of that society in my post here.  The text of the investigation committee's report can be read here, where we read the following on page 7: 

"Since their appointment on the 16th of February, 1869, your Sub-committee have held forty meetings for the purpose of experiment and test.

All of these meetings were held at the private residences of members of the Committee, purposely to preclude the possibility of pre-arranged mechanism or contrivance.

The furniture of the room in which the experiments were conducted was on every occasion its accustomed furniture. The tables were in all cases heavy dining tables, requiring a strong effort to move them. The smallest of them was 5ft. 9in. long by 4ft. wide, and the largest, 9 ft. 3 in. long and 4.5 ft. wide, and of proportionate weight.

The rooms, tables, and furniture generally were repeatedly subjected to careful examination before, during, and after the experiments, to ascertain that no concealed machinery, instrument, or other contrivance existed by means of which the sounds or movements hereinafter mentioned could be caused.

The experiments were conducted in the light of gas, except on the few occasions specially noted in the minutes...."

On pages 8 to 10 of the report we read this: 

"Every test that the combined intelligence of your Committee could devise has been tried with patience and perseverance. The experiments were conducted under a great variety of conditions, and ingenuity has been exerted in devising plans by which your Committee might verify their observations and preclude the possibility of imposture or of delusion.

Your Committee have confined their report to facts witnessed by them in their collective capacity, which facts were palpable to the senses and their reality capable of demonstrative proof.

Of the members of your Sub-Committee about four-fifths entered upon the investigation wholly sceptical as to the reality of the alleged phenomena, firmly believing them to be the result either of imposture or of delusion or of involuntary muscular action. It was only by irresistible evidence, under conditions that precluded the possibility of either of these solutions, and after trial and test many times repeated, that the most sceptical of your Sub-committee were slowly and reluctantly convinced that the phenomena exhibited in the course of their protracted inquiry were veritable facts.

The result of their long-continued and carefully conducted experiments, after trial by every detective test they could devise, has been to establish conclusively :

First: That under certain bodily or mental conditions of one or more of the persons present, a force is exhibited sufficient to set in motion heavy substances, without the employment of any muscular force, without contact or material connection of any kind between such substances and the body of any person present.

Second: That this force can cause sounds to proceed, distinctly audible to all present, from solid substances not in contact with, nor having any visible or material connection with, the body of any person present, and which sounds are proved to proceed from such substances by the vibrations which are distinctly felt when they are touched.

Third : That this force is frequently directed by intelligence."

On pages 10 to page 12 we read this:

"At thirty-four out of the forty meetings of your Committee some of these phenomena occurred....In less than a minute the table, untouched, moved four times ; at first about five inches to one side, then about twelve inches to the opposite side, and then, in like manner, four inches and six inches respectively....The table was then carefully examined, turned upside down and taken to pieces, but nothing was discovered to account for the phenomena. The experiment was conducted throughout in the full light of gas above the table.

Altogether, your Sub-committee have witnessed upwards of fifty similar motions without contact on eight different evenings, in the houses of members of your Sub-committee, the most careful tests being applied on each occasion. In all similar experiments the possibility of mechanical or other contrivance was further negatived by the fact that the movements were in various directions, now to one side, then to the other ; now up the room, now down the room — motions that would have required the co-operation of many hands or feet ; and these, from the great size and weight of the tables, could not have been so used without the visible exercise of muscular force. Every hand and foot was plainly to be seen and could not have been moved without instant detection.

Delusion was out of the question. The motions were in various directions, and were witnessed simultaneously by all present. They were matters of measurement, and not of opinion or of fancy.

And they occurred so often, under so many and such various conditions, with such safeguards against error or deception, and with such invariable results, as to satisfy the members of your Sub-committee by whom the experiments were tried, wholly sceptical as most of them were when they entered upon the investigation, that there is a force capable of moving heavy bodies without material contact and which force is in some unknown manner dependent upon the presence of human beings."

But how many witnesses were there in support of such phenomena? In the Dialectical Society's report we read the following summary:

"1. Thirteen witnesses state that they have seen heavy bodies — in some instances men — rise slowly in the air and remain there for sometime without visible or tangible support. 

2. — Fourteen witnesses testify to having seen hands or figures, not appertaining to any human being, but life-like in appearance and mobility, which they have sometimes touched or even grasped,

and which they are therefore convinced were not the result of imposture or illusion.

3. — Five witnesses state that they have been touched, by some invisible agency, on various parts of the body, and often where requested, when the hands of all present were visible.

4. — Thirteen witnesses declare that they have heard musical pieces well played upon instruments not manipulated by any ascertainable agency.

5. — Five witnesses state that they have seen red-hot coals applied to the hands or heads of several - persons without producing pain or scorching ; and three witnesses state that they have had the same experiment made upon themselves with the like immunity.

6 — Eight witnesses state that they have received precise information through rappings, writings, and in other ways, the accuracy of which was unknown at the time to themselves or to any persons present, and which, on subsequent inquiry, was found to be correct.

7. — One witness declares that he has received a precise and detailed statement which, nevertheless, proved to be entirely erroneous.

8. — Three witnesses state that they have been present when drawings, both in pencil and colours, were produced in so short a time, and under such conditions, as to render human agency impossible.

9. — Six witnesses declare that they have received information of future events, and that in some cases the hour and minute of their occurrence have been accurately foretold, days and even weeks before."

The fact that US college textbooks and US professors  fail to mention the results of this investigation of the London Dialectical Society is a fact that should shake your confidence in the credibility of  academia, which to such a large degree is enclosed inside a "filter bubble" echo chamber in which observations contrary to prevailing dogmas are senselessly suppressed and censored. Why is it that no academia researcher has attempted to try water photography experiments like the ones I did for years, which produced on so many different days massively-repeating-pattern anomalies so very dramatic and mechanistically inexplicable, as you can see in the free online book here? I suspect because such researchers are afraid of finding results that might shake the dogmas they smugly hold, by revealing signs of an unfathomable agency. The experiments can be performed using the protocol described here, which requires an investment of less than $1000.

Below is one of the photos produced through such a technique, with only pure clean water being photographed:

Postscript:  The petition to the US Senate described above was presented by  N. P. Talmadge, who served as a US Senator and the governor of Iowa.  A newspaper account of the previous year (1853) has a letter by Talmadge in which he discusses the kind of observations that caused him and others to submit the petition or sign it. Talmadge describes a seance in which there were communications claiming to be from the then-deceased US senator John Calhoun. He describes movements and levitations of a heavy table, which very many respectable witnesses claimed to see during this period. Talmadge states this:

"During the above communication of Calhoun, the table moved occasionally, perhaps a

foot; first one way and then the other. After

the communication closed, we ail moved back

from the table, from two to four feet—so that

no one touched the table. Suddenly the table

moved from the position it occupied some three

or four feet, rested a few moments, and then

moved back to its original position. Then it

again moved as far the other way, and return

ed to the place it started from. One side of

the table was then raised, and stood for a few

moments at an angle of about thirty-five degrees,

 and then again rested on the floor as us

usual.

The table was a large, heavy, round table, at

which ten or a dozen persons might be seated

at dinner. During all these movements no person 

touched the table, nor was any one near it.

After seeing it raised in the manner above mentioned. 

I had the curiosity to test its weight

by raising it myself. I accordingly took my

seat by it, placed my hands under the leaf, and

exerted as much force as I was capable of in

that sitting posture, and could not raise it a

particle from the floor. I then stood up in the

best possible position to exert the greatest

force, took hold of the leaf, and still could not

raise it with all the strength I could apply. I

then requested the three ladies to take hold

around the table, and try altogether to lift it.

We lifted... and did not raise it a particle. We

then desisted, fearing we should break the table. I then said, 'Will the spirits permit me

to raise the table?' I took hold alone, and raised it without difficulty.

After this the following conversation ensued:

'Q,. Can you raise the table entirely from

the floor? A. Yes - '

'Q. Will you raise me with it? A. Yes;

get me the square table.'

The square table was of cherry, with four

legs, a large size tea table. It was brought out

and substituted for the round one, the leaves

being raised. I took my seat on the centre;

the three ladies sat at the sides and arms resting upon it. This, of course, 

added to the weight to be raised, namely, my own weight

of the table. Two legs of the table were then

raised about six inches from the floor, and then

the other two legs were raised to a level of the

first, so that the whole table was suspended in the

air about six inches above the floor. While thus

seated on it, I could feel a gentle vibratory motion as if floating 

in the atmosphere. After being thus suspended in the air for a few moments, the table ... let down again to the floor....

I was then directed to put the guitar on the

drawer. We were ail seated as before, with

our hands and arms resting on the table.

The guitar was touched softly and gently,

and gave forth sweet and delicious sounds like

the accompaniment to a beautiful and exquisite

piece of music. It then played a sort of symphony, in much 

louder and bolder tones. And

as it played these harmonious sounds, becoming

soft and sweet, and low, began to recede, and

grew fainter and fainter till they died away on

the ear in the distance. Then they returned

and grew louder and nearer, till they were

heard again in full and gushing volume as when

they commenced.

I am utterly incapable of giving any adequate

idea of the beauty and harmony of this music.

I have heard the guitar touched by the most

delicate and scientific hands, and heard from it

under such guidance, the most splendid performances. But never did I hear any thing that

fastened upon the very soul like these prophetic strains drawn out by an invisible hand from

the Spirit World."

The account by Talmadge has further astonishing details, such as the mysterious production of a line of text, written in handwriting matching Calhoun's.  You can read the rest of the account using the link here:

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88064476/1853-06-11/ed-1/seq-1/

Accounts like the one above were very commonly given by many distinguished witnesses at this time, as you can read about by reading my posts   here, here, here, here and here.  Accounts like the one above were often the best type of testimony, and often appeared as newspaper accounts published a small number of days after the claimed observations, accounts signed by multiple witnesses, often more than four.