EARLY PSYCHICAL RESEARCHER WAS DIRECTED TO BIBLE PASSAGES

     Among the early psychical researchers was New York Senator Nathaniel P. Tallmadge, a former Governor of the Territory of Wisconsin. Initially Tallmadge considered all reports of mediumship as just so much humbug, but upon hearing of Judge John Edmonds’ favorable report on various phenomena, Tallmadge decided to conduct his own investigation.

     At sittings with a number of mediums, Tallmadge received communications purporting to come from the spirit of his old friend, John C. Calhoun, a former vice-president of the United States who had died in 1850.  “They have been received through rapping, writing, and speaking mediums, and are of the most extraordinary character,” Tallmadge wrote in a letter to Helen N. Whitman, a celebrated poet from Rhode Island.  After a message that came through direct-writing, whereby a pencil was held by an invisible hand, Tallmadge found it to be “a perfect facsimile of the handwriting of John C. Calhoun.”  He took the message to General and Mrs. Hamilton, who had many private letters from Calhoun.  They too pronounced it to be Calhoun’s handwriting and further commented that the terse style was very much Calhoun’s, including the fact that he always used the contraction “I’m” rather than writing “I am,” as was more common then.

     Like Edmonds, Tallmadge wondered about the purpose of the communication and asked Calhoun to explain.  “It is to draw mankind together in harmony, and convince skeptics of the immortality of the soul,” Calhoun responded.

     At a sitting with Margaret and Kate Fox, Tallmadge, General Hamilton, and General Waddy Thompson were directed by Calhoun by means of the slow rapping method (one rap for each letter of the alphabet) to go to the Bible and read St. John’s Gospel, third chapter, verses 8, 11, 19, and 34.   They did so and found:

     Verse 8:  “The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it cometh or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the spirit.”

     Verse 11: “Verily, verily I say unto thee, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen, and ye receive not our testimony.”

     Verse 19: “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.”

     Verse 34: “For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God; for God giveth not the spirit by measure.”