Mabel was popular in her circle, a tall, graceful woman with auburn hair and a delicate colouring. She looked younger than her age throughout her life. And on embarking into married life she felt her brain was atrophying. In these circumstances it was not at all difficult for Robert to persuade her to attend séances. Mabel became a renowned medium herself. In later years she became violently opposed to spiritualism as her experiences while working as a medium and in attending the séances of others led her to believe that the practice was highly dangerous.
In 1878 Mabel described how a procession of priests appeared as her inspiration and that she wrote the first seven chapters of Idyll automatically. She saw a face within Cleopatra’s Needle while looking from her window and was aware that it was an Egyptian face. Soon after long processions of white-robed priests came in at the door of the house and up the stairs and into her room. This happened constantly and she grew accustomed to it.
On one occasion while she was working on a novel her sister in law was present and noticed Mabel change in her my appearance, becoming rigid, and with her eyes closed Mabel wrote on until she opened her eyes. Mabel found that she had written the prologue and first chapter of the Idyll of the White Lotus. The experiences continued until Mabel had seven chapters completed and this writing was originally published as part of Cobwebs in 1882. It was during 1884-5, when Mabel was ill and there was “much trouble” in her life that the work was finally finished.
The text of Light on the Path was acquired in a similar manner where Mabel described being taken away from her body to a hall where the wall was covered in jewels. She found that these were words and memorised what she could to write down on returning to her body. The two experiences differed in that the second time Mabel was actively attempting to attain a different condition of consciousness. She continued for many years to repeat these experiences, particularly in 1893, when she states she was almost constantly out of her body.
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