Note 15 — Chapter XXIV · EXPERIENCES OF ROBERT DALE OWEN THROUGH THE MEDIUMSHIP OF THE AUTHOR.

This is literally exact that Mr. Owen “looked under the table,” but it omits to say how; and I the more readily supply that omission, because he himself, after his book was published, expressed regret that, in his cultivation of brevity, he had not explained himself more fully. To speak of having looked under a table rather suggests the idea of having stooped down for that purpose. The following was exactly the way in which it passed. Mr. Owen desired to look under it and thought of so doing, when the table, which was an extension-table, opened itself, its two halves being drawn apart, so as to enable him to see through as well as under it, through the wide opening thus made—evidently by the Spirits who had seen his thought. As this was a distinct phenomenal fact (and one not without its interest) Mr. Owen regretted afterward that he had not stated it precisely as it had occurred.