Spiritual Alchemy by S. A. Peters

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 20, 1858

Spiritual Alchemy.

By S. A. Peters

DR. HARE TURNING COPPERS TO GOLD—MAGICAL PERFORMANCES.

Correspondence of the Spiritual Telegraph.

Philadelphia, April 18th, 1858.

BEING in this city on a visit from the State of Missouri, I embraced the opportunity to call on Professor Hare, to see what new developments or discoveries he was making in Spiritualism. My main object in writing this letter is to state what I was witness to myself. The manifestations that are taking place before the analytic mind of Dr. Hare, in his laboratory, are certainly the most extraordinary, and of a kind the world has never seen or heard of, which will force conviction upon the minds of those who are even determined not to believe, for the very reason that, under the circumstances, it is impossible for mortal man to do them. I will, however, state some of the manifestations the doctor told me have taken place within a short time past.

A common manifestation, or one that is frequently made by Dr. Hare, is the changing of a copper cent in a few minutes’ time into a piece of gold. The doctor has quite a number of pieces of gold, all of which have been made by the spirits from copper cents. He showed me a solution of Russia platinum, made from the ore by the spirits. Also a piece of pure silver, weighing 3,980 grains, which had been converted into a fluid state by the spirits, and then changed back to the original solid mass. He placed at one time a number of coins of different kinds—gold, silver and copper—into a glass jar, closely corked, and then put the jar containing the coins into an empty wooden box, which was then also closed. In three minutes—the doctor standing by with his watch in hand—it was changed into a two-and-a-half dollar gold coin. After he had examined it, and placed it in a jar, and then in the box, in five minutes it was converted into the same kind and number of coins he had put in. On another occasion, he placed a number of coins of different kinds, in like manner, in a jar, and had them converted into a solid mass in a few minutes. The spirits then changed this solid mass of metal into the same number and kinds of coin he had put in.

Many other extraordinary manifestations have taken and are still taking place in the doctor’s laboratory, and have been witnessed by others.

I will now state what I saw myself. Dr. Hare, the medium, M. Aug. Ruggles (a young man, eighteen or nineteen years of age, to whom I was an entire stranger when I entered the laboratory,) and myself were all who were present. The medium seated himself before the spiritoscope, which was upon the table in the center of the room, Dr. Hare and myself being seated on the opposite side, and near the table. After a few minutes the spirits said, through the spiritoscope, “Let Dr. S. A. Peters put two glass tubes and two pieces of Russia ore in the box.” Dr. Hare then left his seat and got me two glass tubes about six inches in length and about a half an inch in diameter, hermetically sealed at the ends, and also two pieces of Russia platinum, each about the size of a common bullet. The box into which I was to put them I examined. It was on the table before me. It was in the shape of a writing-desk, two feet or more in length, and a foot and a half in breadth, and from four to eight inches in depth, having a sloping lid, with hinges and a clasp. In this box I placed the two glass tubes and two pieces of platinum—nothing else being in the box—and closed it. Dr. Hare and myself then took the seats we had occupied before, and the medium [M. Ruggles] continued to remain at the spiritoscope. After waiting 55 minutes the spirit said, through the spiritoscope, “We have a present for Dr. S. A. P.; let him go to the box and get it!” I then went to the box, which was only a few feet from me, opened it, and found the two pieces of Russia platinum inside of the two hermetically sealed glass tubes. S. A. PETERS.