The Ghost Hunters - Deborah Blum [149]
But the cross-correspondence study, as it came to be known, was to be managed strictly by the British SPR. Under that plan, Mrs. Piper would come to England for a series of experiments that began with a rather obvious difference between the two mediums. Mrs. Verrall was a scholar, trained in Greek and Latin. Mrs. Piper had a New Hampshire primary school education and no knowledge of the classic languages. But—and this was the key—the “spirits” in question belonged to men who did know those languages. So if Gurney, Sidgwick, or Myers were actually communicating with Mrs. Piper, they would understand Latin and Greek instructions even if she didn’t.
Following that logic, the tests would be conducted in the following manner: Piddington would wait till Mrs. Piper was entranced. He would then ask her, or her control, to give a message to Myers. Piddington would then read off a message in Latin, concluding with a request to relay its content to Mrs. Verrall.
If the message arrived, if they transcended the language barrier, it would be hard to avoid a conclusion that some intelligence greater than that of the mediums was working with them.
By December 1906, Mrs. Piper and her daughters were settled in London, and once the American medium and Piddington had learned to be comfortable with each other, the work began in earnest.
In mid-December, during several sittings, Piddington talked to Mrs. Piper’s Rector, asking him to pass along instructions to Myers and his friends. The instructions were given in Latin, each word pronounced slowly, syllable by syllable, and then spelled out for purposes of clarity.
Piddington’s message began with a compliment: “Diversis internuntiis quod invicem inter se respondentia jamjudun committis, id nec fallit nos consilium, et vehementer probamus.” (As to the fact that for some long time you have been entrusting to different messengers things, which correspond mutually between themselves, we have observed your design, and we cordially approve it.)
This polite opening was followed by a request, also in Latin: Could the Myers personality, once contacted through Mrs. Piper, send a signal to another medium (in this case, Mrs. Verrall)? And could he attach to that message a recognition device, some code words or symbols of his choice?
After several sittings, Rector replied to Piddington: “We have in part understood and conveyed your message to your friend Myers and he is delighted to receive it so far as he has been able to receive it.” Several weeks later, in early January 1907, Rector seemed to think that Piddington might need some reassurance as to the delay: “Hodgson is helping Myers with his translation.”
Two weeks later, Rector said he had a communication from Myers: “I should like to go over the first and second sentences of our Latin message.... I believe I can send you a message which will please you if I understand it clearly.”
By this time, Piddington had given further thought to the idea of a recognition device. He had a more specific suggestion, again conveyed in Latin: Could Myers please ask the medium at the other end to draw a circle and triangle as part of her response?
That night, Mrs. Verrall wrote: “Justice hold the scales. That gives the words but an anagram would be better. Tell him that—rats, star, tars and so on. Try this. It has been tried before. RTATS. Rearrange these five letters or again t-e-a-r-s ... s-t-a-r-e.”
Five days later, she wrote: “Aster [a star] ... the world’s wonder, And all a wonder and a wild desire/the very wings of her.... but it is all much the same thing—the winged desire, the hope that leaves the earth for the sky... Abt Vogler for earth, too hard that found itself or lost itself—in the sky. That is what I want, On the broken sounds, threads.”
She closed the message with a circle and a triangle.