Mrs Paton Melbourne Aus Apport Medium C.1876

From the Facts of Psychic Science & Philosophy A. Campbell Holms 1925

"361. Mrs. Paton of Melbourne, Australia, was a remarkable medium for apports, she was unprofessional and accepted no fees. Her phenomena occurred mostly between 1872 and 1878, and some good records will be found in Denovan's Evidences of Spiritualism (p. 265 seq.), which include the author's personal experiences and citations from Australian Spiritualistic journals. The apports produced at her seances were remarkable for their unexpected character. and in many cases they were identified as having been brought from places at a distance. Unlike other mediums she
was not normally entranced during her apport phenomena, but she was often markedly convulsed. She worked under strict test conditions having been searched by ladies just before a seance, she was completely enveloped in a large mosquito-net bag, which was tied and sealed, The apports were placed on the table in the dark, and were found there and examined in the light; on exceptional occasions they arrived in bright light.
.Miss Finlason, a well-known resident of Castlemaine, describes in the Harbinger of Light a seance held in her house at which the most remarkable apport was a cup and saucer, the former full of tea. The china was at once recognised by the medium as belonging to her, the tea was a cupful she had made at home two miles away just before leaving for the seance, but had forgotten to drink. Before it came she had mentioned to one of the sitters the fact that she had made, and forgotten it. At a previous sitting the most remarkable apport was a soup-plate containing twenty eggs, which Mrs Paton had left in her house two miles away. A further instance of eggs T brought as apports is given below. (See General" Lorrison's " circle.)
At one of Mrs. Paton's seances on April 6th, 1874, an iron wheel. weighing 16and a half lbs., fell with a crash on the table; it had been brought from the yard outside. On another occasion, two glasses were found on the table brimful of dark wine. The glasses and the wine were recognised as coming from a house about a mile away; there were none of the kind in the house of the seance. The glasses were perfectly dry on the outside and looked dusty.

356
THE FACTS OF PSYCHIC SCIENCE
Mrs. Paton gave three special test seances in February and March, 1876, at Mr. W. H. Terry's house in Melbourne, in the presence of six well-known people whose names were published in a descriptive article in the Harbinqer of Light, for March, I876.' There was no furniture in the room except a harmonium, the chairs and a table. The room was searched and all openings closed. The medium was searched by ladies, and the sitters were mutually examined. At the first seance a stone from the sea shore, weighing 14 lbs. fell on the table, and then a mass of wet seaweed with living shrimp-like creatures among it. At the second seance a six-pound dumb-bell (brought from the medium's lodgings) fell on the table and rolled off it to the floor. Just before the third seance, as an additional test, the medium was weighed, and again a dumb-bell was brought, its coming causing no variation in the medium's weight.
It will be observed that many of the apports were things brought from the medium's house, and which she had probably handled. This is quite usual and to be expected, because when articles are more or less saturated with the medium's " magnetism" or influence, they are more easily manipulated by the spirit controls (r86, 292, 359). "

Interesting number of assumptions the book is that of a believer who will make almost any allowances for the errors in seances or lack of truth from "controls'. Still a nice offset to many in Psychic Research who declared fraud when their "test" seances failed to conclusively prove this.

Mrs Paton is interesting as she come chronologically before the next Australian Apport Medium Charles Bailey who also came from Melbourne. She is also connected with W. H. Terry's one of the founders of Victorian (Melbourne) Spiritualism. I love the use of an "Unprofessional Medium" purely meaning she earned no money from it.

Cool, is good to hear of aussie mediums.Duncan

Campbell Holms book is a tremendous source of information although I am not sure how much of it he experienced himself.

I saw a copy of Denovan's 'Evidences of Spiritualism' when I visited the VSU in Melbourne some years ago - a fascinating book.

Z

Elusive book that Z thanks for the lead. I am not sure he experienced too much himself and I just feel the tone of the book is to far in support of some events that rationally were not capable of support.

Any idea where he came from, he obviously followed the Australian Harbinger of Light closely or else he picked up references to it from others writing.