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Dr Funk Sees The Spirit Of Beecher

Scary Books: The Best Ghost Stories
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(New York _Herald_, April 4, 1903)



While he will not admit that he is a believer in spiritualism, the Rev.

Dr. Isaac Funk, head of the publishing house of Funk & Wagnalls, is so

impressed with manifestations he has received from the spirit of Henry

Ward Beecher that he has laid the entire matter before the Boston

Society for Psychical Research, and is anxiously awaiting a solution or

explanation of what a
pears to him, after twenty-five years' study of

the subject, the most remarkable test of the merit of the claims of

spiritualists that has ever come within his observation.



Although he has resorted to every means within his power to discover any

fraud that may have been practiced upon him, he has been unable to

explain away not only messages to him from the great minister, but the

actual appearance to him of Mr. Beecher in the flesh.



Dr. Funk and Mr. Beecher were intimate friends, and it would be

difficult to practice deception as to Mr. Beecher's appearance. When the

apparition appeared to Dr. Funk at a seance a short time ago Dr. Funk

was less than three feet distant from it, and had plenty of opportunity

to detect a fraud if it was being perpetrated, he believes.



"Every feature stood out distinctly," Dr. Funk said yesterday, in

describing his experience, "even to the hair and eyes, the color of the

skin and the expression of the mouth.[1] lines of the body, but it was

still light enough to make the face plainly visible. I had a short

conversation with the embodied spirit, and then it appeared to sink to

the floor and fade away."



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