AND

Their Interpretation

BY

J. GODFREY RAUPERT, K. S. G.

Formerly a Member of the British Society for Psychical

Research

m:

AUTHOR OF “THE NEW BLACK MAGIC”; “HELL AND ITS

PROBLEMS,” ETC., ETC.

THIRD EDITION

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Spiritistic Phenomena
AND

Their Interpretation

BY

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction -- = ---- 5
I. THE FACTS 10

The Medium or Sensitive 15

What is Mediumship? 19

Spontaneous and Induced Phenomena 23

II. THE PHENOMENA .... 25
Ca) Subjective 25

(b) Objective 31

III. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PHE-
NOMENA ------ 32
Science ...... 33
Spiritism • - 35

The Spirits ----- 37
1. Impossibility of Establishing Identity - 39

2. Immoral Character and Aim of Spirits - 43

3. Dangers to Health Attending Evocation 51

4. Contradictory Character of Spirit-teaching 53

5. Dictates of Reason and Common Sense - 56

6. The Laws and Principles of the Christian
Life ------- 60

The True Interpretation 63



But ’tis strange:

And oftentimes to win us to our harm

The instruments of darkness tell us truths

Win us with honest trifles, to betray us

In deepest consequence.

Banquo in Macbeth..



INTRODUCTION

I

T is evident from our current literature and from

other unmistakable signs of the times that the

phenomena of Spiritism and the many allied forms

of Occultism are increasingly arresting public atten-

tion and interest. Information on this subject which was

formerly the possession of the few has, within recent

years, become the possession of the many, with the

consequence that questions are everywhere being asked

which are universally felt to be demanding an answer.

And, considering the immense significance of the subject

and its bearing upon the deepest problems of human life,

it seems desirable that the answer which is given to these

questions should, so far as this is possible, be the correct

one.

It is manifestly no longer possible or advisable to

ignore the subject, with a view perhaps to avoiding the

danger of introducing it to those who are not likely to

come in touch with it under ordinary circumstances.

Scientific men of world-wide reputation have not only

addressed themselves to a systematic and experimental

investigation of the phenomena in question, but many of

them are, by means of lectures and printed works, mak-

ing the results of their investigations known to the public.

They are, moreover, drawing inferences from these

results and are constructing theories which are seen to

run counter to long-accepted religious convictions and

beliefs. And these theories are being rashly accepted by

5



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

many very inadequately and inaccurately informed per-

sons, thus gravely imperilling the cause of religious truth,

and causing a vast amount of mental disquietude and

moral disorder.

The intensely fascinating nature of these investiga-

tions and phenomena, moreover, is leading a steadily

increasing number of persons themselves to venture on

experiments which, in view of their ignorance of the

dangers inevitably and admittedly attending them,

frequently if not always lead to serious and disastrous

consequences. It is often only when the mischief is

already done that the existence and nature of these

dangers is recognised.

Those of us who are more intimately acquainted with

the subject, and who have experimentally studied the

spiritistic and psychical movements in their various

phases are only too well aware that the evils attending

them are not only far greater and graver than is

commonly supposed, but that they are steadily on the

increase. They would seem, moreover, to be affecting

all kinds of minds and all classes of society.

The distinguishing characteristic of our age is admit-

tedly a kind of restlessness and indecision in matters

relating to religious belief and to the religious life. The

very foundations would seem to be out of course in this

respect.

Rationalistic thought has invaded the sphere of

Revealed Religion and has so powerfully affected some

minds that the most fundamental convictions of the soul

have come to be questioned and the central truths of

Supernatural Christianity to be rejected. The human

mind has thus once more been thrown back upon itself

and upon its own imaginings. It is once more seeking,

in various ways, to solve the perplexing problem of

6



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

human life and of human destiny. It is once more

seeking for some kind of anchorage as a safe resting-

place for the soul.

For this state of mind Spiritism and its phenomena

constitute the greatest possible attraction. They claim

not only to bring us in sensible contact with the spirits

of the dead and with the world beyond the tomb, but

also to give us new and truer information respecting

that world and their state, and respecting the rightness

and wrongness of our religious beliefs.

They thus claim to be not merely a new science but

also a new religious light in the world.

And thousands of very imperfectly informed persons

are attracted by the glamour of these claims, made, as

they often are, by men of standing and renown. They

are content to abandon their beliefs, or at least to adopt

a hesitating and waiting attitude of mind. Thousands

more are plunging blindly into the maze of psychical

and occult research in the hope of obtaining for them-

selves that evidence which is said to exist and for which

they are craving. Having lost their way to the revealed

and authorised front door of the palace of spiritual truth,

they are desperately seeking admission to it by a dubious

and forbidden back door—often to the hurt of their
moral life and to their mental and physical undoing.

I am profoundly convinced, from a long and many-

sided experience, that the only safe method of combating

this grave evil is to tell the whole truth about the matter.

The peril, in my opinion, lies in that partial and inac-

curate knowledge, however scientific, which rashly jumps

to conclusions and which leads the mind to form a one-

sided judgment. It is this kind of knowledge, which, as

science itself teaches, is so productive of false inferences

and of hastily constructed theories.

7



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

My published books are constantly bringing me
communications from persons who cannot find their way

out of the labyrinth of spiritistic research and who have

many questions to ask. It is difficult, if not impossible,

to answer these questions in a full and adequate manner.

To many the larger works dealing with the subject are

often either unknown or inaccessible. It has seemed to

me, therefore, that a volume of small dimensions, but

stating all the facts of the case, as the most recent

research has disclosed them, and drawing from these

facts the obvious and only possible inference, would meet

a deep and long-felt want.

Such a little volume would at least tend to show the

reasonableness of the arguments which can in fairness

be urged against the claims of Spiritism, and enable the

student to fully weigh and recognise both sides of the

question.

My one desire is that in this deeply important matter

the truth, so far as it is attainable, should be established,

every other consideration clearly counting as nothing

by the side of it. I have therefore taken exceptional

pains to consider and reconsider all the facts at present

known to us, and to look at the matter from every point

of view. A recent visit to the Australian Colonies and
to the United States of North America has not only

enabled me to collect much additional and valuable

information on the subject, but it has also brought me

in touch with well-known men, who have given much

time and thought to the subject and who have, in several

instances, freely expressed to me their personal views

and convictions.

With all this more recent material and information

before me I have found it impossible to come to any

conclusion other than that already expressed in my

8



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

earlier works, namely, that the phenomena of Spiritism

are not new discoveries of science, or a new light which

has come into the world, but a revival, in scientific

AND SYSTEMATIC FORM, OF THAT PRACTICE OF NECRO-

MANCY AND MAGIC WITH WHICH MOST PAGAN RACES

WERE AND ARE ONLY TOO WELL ACQUAINTED AND WHICH

WAS DISCONTINUED WHEREVER THE LIGHT OF TRUE

CHRISTIANITY FOUND ENTRANCE AND BELIEF.

I am purposely omitting an Index to this little work

as I am anxious that the reader should form his impres-

sions from the argument as a whole
,
not from its separate

parts or from isolated facts.



I

THE FACTS

I

T is an established fact that, under certain conditions

atid by means of certain practices, phenomena

occur which are abnormal in their character and

which are clearly seen to be due to the action o f

conscious and independent spirit-agencies.

The evidence for this has, in recent years, become sc

varied and abundant, that the most sceptical of modem

experimenters have been compelled to abandon their

attitude of reserve and to admit the fact.

Any theory, seeking to account for the phenomena

by excluding the action of conscious spirit-agencies, has

been found to present insuperable difficulties. Those

still holding to any such naturalistic explanation are

few in number; and their number is decreasing day by

day. They are for the most part those who have neither

a very accurate nor a very full knowledge of the sub-

ject. It must be borne in mind, that many scientific men

have never had opportunities of observing those more

complex spiritistic phenomena which establish the fact

asserted beyond all doubt. In this respect “the man

in the street” is often much better informed than the

trained scientist. Those who have observed the phe-

nomena have not hesitated to make their conclusions

known, and amongst them may be counted men who

enjoy a world-wide scientific reputation. And Whatf

they have observed and recorded has, in more unscientific

manner, been observed and recorded in all ages of the

world’s history. The form in which the phenomena

10



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

present themselves in different ages is apt to vary,

according to peculiar mental and moral tendencies and

characteristics; of their constant occurrence there is

ample record and evidence.

Science therefore has not discovered a new fact or

truth and is not exhibiting to us hitherto unknown

manifestations of mysterious forces, but is only confirm-

ing what observant, if less scientific, persons have

asserted in every age.

In view of these circumstances it seems unnecessary

to dwell upon what has been termed the subconscious-

mind-theory—the theory attempting to account for the
phenomena under consideration by the automatic action

of some hidden and occult powers of the human organism.

The theory had many adherents some years ago. It

has very few now. The best-informed investigators

have dismissed it for the simple reason that it cannot

be made to cover all the observed phenomena. The

agency, operating by their means, has been clearly seen

to be an independent and extraneous one.

The basal facts therefore of Spiritism are fully ad-

mitted.

It is certain beyond all doubt, that independent spirit-

agencies exist which, under certain conditions, can be

made to give objective and even permanent evidence of

their existence, and which, by means of various practices,

can enter into sensible communion with those seeking

and laying themselves open to, this intercourse.

The names of the older scientific students of the

subject who have arrived at this conclusion,* are well

known. I will here furnish a few statements from more

recent experimenters, who have made an exhaustive

study of the phenomena.

* Sir William Crookes, Prof. A. R. Wallace, Prof. Sir W. F.
Barrett, Prof. Zoellner, &c.

11



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

We see then [writes Dr. Venzano,f one of the
best of the Italian investigators] that for the execu-

tion of these manifestations a fresh personality and

also a fresh will must have intervened, independent

of our own and in manifest opposition to the will

of the medium
;

a will the genesis of which is

unknown to us, and for which, as we do not wish

to overstep the limits of admitted scientific possi-

bility, we abandon the search.

It was to be proved to me [wrote the late Pro-
fessor Lombroso in the Grand Magazine, Feb. 1907]
that nothing in our present stock of knowledge is

capable of furnishing a true explanation. ... It
was only subsequent to these occurrences and after

seances in which Eusapia, in a state of trance, gave

perfectly intelligible and even intellectual answers

in languages, such as English, of which she had

no personal knowledge, or in which she suddenly

modelled bas-reliefs, impossible to produce instantly

in normal conditions, especially for an uneducated

person of her description . . . that I felt myself

compelled to yield to the conviction that spiritualistic

phenomena, if due in great part to the influence of

the medium, are likewise attributable to the induence

of extra-terrestial existences, which may, perhaps,

be compared to the radio-activity which still persits

in tubes after the radium which originated them has

disappeared.

The Professor of Physics in the University of Naples

(Botazzi) writes as follows:

The results were very favourable because they

eliminated the slightest traces of suspicion or uncer-

tainty relative to the genuineness of the phenomena.

We obtained the same kind of assurance as that
which we have concerning physical, chemical or

physiological phenomena. Henceforth sceptics can

only deny the facts by accusing us of fraud and

charlatanism.

t Annals of Psychical Science, Aug. 1907.

12



. SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

Mr. Hereward Carrington, to whom the late Professor

Wm. James of Harvard University referred as perhaps

the best and most experienced and level-headed of

American students of the occult, writes :*

One strong reason for believing the spiritistic (in

contradistinction of any naturalistic) theory to be

correct is found in the fact that in many cases mes-

sages have been given through one medium and

broken off while incomplete, and afterwards finished

through another medium, in a different part of the

country, or even in a different country.

For example, in the case of the late F. W. H.

Myers, a message was given through a private

medium in England (a lady and a teacher in Cam-

bridge University) and finished three days later

through Mrs. Piper, in Boston, the spirit coming

back with the remark : “I am afraid I did not make

myself clear three days ago with reference to so-

and so; what I meant was this . . and the mes-

sage was completed in more intelligible form.

Mr.
J.

H. Hill, a member of the Society for Psychical

Research, says the following in his recent work on New

Evidences in Psychical Research:

I have never yet known, or heard of, any

inquirer who has followed up the research with

honest care and vigour without becoming convinced

that things do happen which “common sense” can-

not explain. What explanation the enquirer then
adopts, depends on his idosyncrasies.

The fact that the agency, operating in connection with

spiristic phenomena, is, in most instances, one inde-

pendent of and distinct from, the person of the sensitive

becomes apparent from the following circumstances

:

(i) The persistent and intelligent play of an inde-

* The Coming Science
,
p. 276.

L

13
t



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

pendent will, often in violent opposition to the will of

the medium.

(2) The display of knowledge (such as a foreign

language) or of information respecting events or per-

sons, which the medium can be shown never to have

possessed or to have normally acquired.

(3) The manifestation, through the mediumship of

children and young persons, of a mature mind, indicat-

ing and presupposing a prolonged process of education

and a wide knowledge of the world.

‘(4) Cross-references, such as are referred to on p. 13

indicating the consistent supernormal action of an inde-

pendent mind, deliberately seeking to furnish proof of

that independence.

(5) The emphatic declaration of the operating agency

itself.

(6) The occurrence of physical phenomena of a com-

plex kind, and intelligently directed, without the knowl-

edge or wish or consent of the medium.

(7) The teaching of the operating agency, often

violently opposed to the accepted ideas and beliefs of

the medium and the experimenters.

(8) Permanent physical traces, such as impressions

of hands and faces, or as drawings, paintings, writing

and photographs, beyond the capabilities of the medium,

and produced with a distinct aim and purpose.

The occurrence then of the phenomena of Spiritism

is admitted. It is also admitted that these phenomena

are, for the most part, due to the action of independent

spirit-agencies, for whom these occult practices consti-

tute “open doors/’ by means of which they find it pos-

sible to establish contact and intercourse with incarnate

minds and with the sense-world. This fact will become

quite evident when we come to consider the various

14



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

forms of modern spiritistic practices and the methods

which these agencies adopt with a view to this inter-

course. But much misconception will be avoided and

many difficulties will vanish away, if we first of all

consider the part which the medium or sensitive plays

in these practices.

The Medium or Sensitive.

The questions which are most frequently asked by

those drawn into spiritistic practices, but not acquainted

with the results of the more recent study of the subject,

are: How can a spirit-being manifest itself in such a

manner as to become sensibly or objectively visible in

the material world? Whence does it obtain the physical

force or power by which it accomplishes the familiar

results? What precisely is the modus operandi in the

production of spiritistic phenomena?

Prolonged investigation and observation have shown

the process to be as follows: The sensitive, in order to

elicit objective spirit-manifestations, passes into a state

of insensibility or trance. Consciousness is partially or

entirely suspended. The will is in abeyance. The mind

is in an attitude of submission or passivity. Its thought-

activity is brought to a standstill. In this state of sus-

pense and passivity the operating spirit-agencies with-

draw from the sensitive’s organism a kind of semi-

material substance or force, of the precise nature of

which very little is known at present. A lesser amount
of this delicate matter is also withdrawn from the

organism of those taking part in the spirit-evocation.

By means of this “astral”* matter it becomes possible

for the spirit-agencies to objectivise themselves and to

* A purely conventional term.

IS



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

produce most of, if not all, the familiar phenomena.

They manipulate it in a variety of ways and for an

infinite variety of ends. They use it to produce abnor-

mal lights and sounds, abnormal writing, drawings and

paintings; or to fashion human faces or entire bodily

forms, often very closely resembling the faces and forms

of the dead. Indeed, there would seem to be few

abnornlal effects which cannot be produced by means

of this subtle force. From what part of the organism

this semi-material and highly plastic force or substance

is withdrawn we do not know. Observation points to

the brain as the chief organ involved, but since there is

considerable loss of weight on the part of the sensitive

while the spirit-manifestation is in progress, it is

evident that other organs too are drawn upon. In pro-

portion to the state of passivity attained by the sensitive,

is the power displayed by the spirit-agency and does its

existence as a separate entity become established. Some

modern students have tried to explain some of these

astonishing phenomena by assuming the existence of a

kind of double of the medium, detaching itself in a

state of trance and, dominated by the thoughts and

beliefs of the medium, automatically playing the part

of an independent spirit. But more accurate observa-

tions have shown the untenableness of this assumption.

The entire character and aim and tendency of the mani-

festations have proved the action of an independent

entity which, for intelligent purposes, unknown to the

medium, borrows force from his organism. And, as

the late Professor Lombroso pointed out, “to borrow

force from the medium is not the same thing as to be

identical with the medium/’

The claim to be spirits of the dead, and independent

of the medium, is continually being made, even where

16



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

the experimenters are antagonistic to this conclusion

and are seeking to disprove it.

The existence of this “astral” force or matter and its

manipulation by the agencies for the purpose indicated,

is now admitted by all experts. Occultists have always

known of and asserted its existence, even though they

may have given it different names
;
modern science alone

has denied it or has ignored the evidence in favour of

its existence. Recently observed spirit-materialisations,

however, have dissipated all doubt. Of these material-

isations the French Professor of Physiology (Richet)

writes: “I cannot say in what they consist; I am ready

to maintain that there is something profoundly mys-

terious in materialisation which will change from top

to bottom our ideas on nature and on life

We have evidence of the existence of the “astral”

matter and of its withdrawal from the human organism

in the following facts

:

(i) The sensitive loses weight while the spirit-

manifestation is in progress.

During the experiments in Milan it was found

that the medium lost weight in a manner that could

in no way be accounted for. The medium and the

chair in which she was sitting were placed upon the

scales, and their combined weight was carefully

measured. She was then watched carefully, to see

that she threw nothing away and also to see that she
derived no support from the surrounding surfaces

—

the floor, &c. Nevertheless, in the course of from

12 to 20 seconds, Eusapia lost about ijy2 pounds
in weight. At the fifth sitting a similar reduction

was observed, under conditions that the investigat-
ing committee considered perfect.

f

* Annals of November, 1905.

t Mr. Hereward Carrington in his article: Eusapia Palladino
the Despair of Science.

17



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

Professor Lombroso testifies to the same fact:*

Experiments with the medium Miss Wood re-

vealed the fact that the weight of the phantasm

amounted to the half of that of the medium. This

same medium was weighed by the balance of Black-

bourne before and during the seance. Before, she

weighed 176 pounds. With the appearance of a

phantasm this weight diminished to 83 and after-

wards to 54 pounds. The phantasm weighed the

difference.

The medium herself, Eusapia Palladino, has made the

following statement :f

I have been asked many times for my own expla-
nation, but I have none. I know only that I can feel

the force; that it seems to flow out of me; and

that I obtain it in part from others. When the
chain of hands is broken I can do nothing. Strong

men give me added power. The movement of

objects corresponds to the movements of my body
and to the director of my will before I have sunk
into the deep sleep. After that, as I have said, I

know nothing. Perhaps some day we will know all

about this force. Only God and His people know

now and perhaps—the devil.
(2) The sensitive suffers great physical and mental

prostration at the conclusion of the experiment—an
effect which, in most instances, ultimately wrecks the

entire physical and moral constitution.

At the conclusion of a seance, [writes Mr. Car-

rington] she (Eusapia) is faint, dizzy, nauseated,

extremely weak, occasionally vomits and remembers

little that has occurred during the seance; while

her face becomes deeply lined, greenish yellow in

colour and appears to be shrunk almost to half its

size.J

* What I think of Psychical Research— (Hampton’s Magazine.)
+ My own story.

t E. P., the Despair of Science.

18



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

Professor Lombroso makes the following statement :f

Towards the end of the trance, when the more

important phenomena occur, she (Eusapia) falls into

true convulsions and cries out like a woman who is

lying-in, or else falls into a profound sleep, while

from the aperture in the parietal bone of her head

there exhales a warm fluid, or vapour, sensible to the

touch. . . . After the seance she is overcome by mor-

bid sensitiveness, hyperaesthesia, photophobia and

often by hallucinations and delirium (during which

she asks to be watched from harm) and by serious

disturbances of the digestion, followed by vomiting

if she has eaten before the seance, and finally by

true paresis of the legs on account of which it is

necessary for her to be carried and to be undressed

by others . . .

Nor are these morbid phenomena peculiar to

Eusapia; they may be observed and verified by all

the mediums.

As a rule, [writes Professor Sir William Barrett]

I have observed the steady downward course of

mediums, who sit regularly.J

What is Mediumship?

It has been maintained by some modern students of

psychical phenomena who are anxious to raise Spiritism

to the dignity of a science, and it is of course maintained

by professed spiritists, that mediumship may be regarded

as a natural gift which, like any other gift, such as

painting, poetry, or music, may be legitimately exercised

for the good of mankind. Some scientific men, too,

have allowed this impression to be created. Numbers

of persons have, as a consequence, come to regard the

cultivation of mediumistic powers as lawful exercises,

which they have a right to encourage, and which have

t After Death— What

?

t Necromancy and Ancient Magic.



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

their legitimate place in the progressive development of

the race. The actual facts, however, do not substantiate

the truth of this assertion. It contains one of those half-

truths, which are such dangerous things, seeing that they

are calculated to lead to so many false and perilous

inferences.

The real truth is that some persons are bom with

peculiarly sensitive natures and constitutions, and are

possessed of very weak wills—conditions which render
them susceptible to spirit-invasion. Abnormal powers,

consequent upon these conditions, should therefore be

discouraged rather than encouraged. The physical

constitution should be improved and the will-power

should be strengthened; the entire man should aim at

invigoration and at the development of character. The

circumstance that such abnormal powers (when first

observed) almost always disappear when physical and

moral health have been improved, is evidence that they

are not normal and natural gifts.

Mediumship, on the other hand, consists in the

deliberate and systematic development of these morbid

states. No really evidential spirit-phenomenon can be

obtained without such a preceding and often long-

continued development. The medium must diligently

practise and constantly induce, a high state of subjec-

ivity and passivity. The admitted disastrous moral and

physical effects of the practice of mediumship in itself

establishes the truth of this statement.

But I have taken much trouble to ascertain the facts

of the case from personal research and inquiry, and I

can say without fear of contradiction, that there is no

case on record in which true objective and evidential

spirit-phenomena have been successfully evoked without

a previous systematic development of the medium. I

20



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

have quite recently secured personal interviews with the

two most famous mediums of modern times, both of

whom have admitted the fact of this development. Mrs.

Piper of Boston is believed by many to be a “natural”

medium, and I have come upon statements respecting

her in scientific books which would admit of such an

inference. What Mrs. Piper herself told me is this:

After the birth of my first child I suffered much

from internal pains. I was taken by my father to

a clairvoyant. In his presence dark shadows seemed

to fall over my eyes and I passed into a trance-state.
The medium made passes over my face but without
success. I was with difficulty awakened from the

trance. I felt very sick and faint and did not wish

to go again. But my father persuaded me and at
the second sitting the same thing occurred. I went

again and again and, after a while, the pains left

me. After this I acted as a medium at sittings held

by personal friends. I cannot sit oftener than twice

a week without suffering great physical exhaustion.*

In her article, “My Own Story,” Madame Palladino

gives the following account of the history of her

mediumship

:

As a child I knew much hardship. My mother
died soon after my birth. When I was about a year
old I had a fall. A dent was made in my head, and
over this dent the hair has always been white.

People have told me that when I am in the trance-
sleep a current of air comes from the dent and that

it has a connection with the things that happen

during the seances. It may be so; I do not know.
A man who had been my father’s friend took me to
Naples and found a home for me. But I did not

please the people. [She goes on to relate that she

ran away, tried to find her father’s friends and in the

search for him met with some people who took her
to their house and employed her as a domestic

* From notes taken immediately after the interview.

21



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

servant. Being of strange and violent temperament

it was proposed to put her into a convent, but she

made up her mind not to go. The turning point in

her life came one night when her employers, who

were spiritualists, called her in to assist at a seance.

What occurred there she describes as follows:] I

began to have a half dizzy feeling. My arms and
body seemed to stiffen and shake, as if from a burst-

ing force pushing for relief. It was almost pain

at first. But relief came. I breathed easily again

and looked up at the others. A gentleman was
saying: “It is amazing; it is a miracle.” Nearly

every evening (after this) we sat around the table

and many times, after I had forgotten where I was,

they told me that the table had risen, that objects

had floated in the air, &c. My powers grew stronger.
I will tell you why. An English lady knocked at
my door one morning and asked for Eusapia Palla-
dino. She said that a message had come to her

from the spirit-world and this message was that

“John King” desired to incarnate himself in the

body of the Medium called Eusapia, if she was

willing. It was the first time I had heard of “John

King,” but I welcomed him. He was with me at
the next sitting and since then he has never left me.

I could not do without his aid. My life became
crowded. Learned men and journalists began to

come from distant places. I travelled. [Thus by

constant sittings, in all parts of the world, was her

mediumship developed in a systematic and deliberate

manner.]

Before a seance [she continues] I may be indif-

ferent, but when the people are around me I have
a strong desire to accomplish what is expected of

me. It affects my body. I have a feeling of numb-
ness. Goose-flesh rises. In the small of my back
I feel the flowing of a current. This ascends to

my arms. I move them constantly because motion
on my part seems to help, and that which is desired
takes place. It is now that I feel relief. There are
thrills. I rest easily, comfortably. Afterwards,

22



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

when I allow myself to sink into the deep sleep, I

feel no more, but when I wake up I am depleted

—

almost powerless even to lift my hands. And all

the next day I must rest.

It will be seen to be of the utmost importance that

the fact here stated should be clearly and constantly

kept in view, bearing so strongly as it does upon a right

understanding of the origin and nature of these pheno-

mena, and of their correct interpretation. The spirit-

manifestations, here under consideration, are not

phenomena which spontaneously and unsought-for in-

trude themselves upon our notice, nor are they the

normal result of the exercise of any natural gift or

constitutional power, but they are phenomena deliber-

ately invited and invoked by means of unwholesome and

physically-disastrous practices, and by the purposed sub-

mission of certain individuals to agencies constantly

seeking their production.

Spontaneous and Induced Phenomena.

Indeed it is of the utmost importance in this matter

that we should clearly distinguish between spontaneous

and induced spirit-phenomena. A forgetting of this
distinction is often the source of a vast amount of

misapprehension and mischief, and it is apt to lead to

wholly erroneous conclusions and inferences.

In their writings and lectures, both spiritualists and

scientific experimenters are apt to maintain that the

psychical phenomena observed and studied in modern

times are identical in their aim and origin with those

observed and recorded in other ages—in the times of
Christ, for instance, or in the lives of saintly persons

or in those of more obscure individuals. It is pointed

out how similar they are in form and character, and

23



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

how identical are the laws which they appear to obey.

The inference from this apparent identity is that all

these phenomena are normal occurrences, the character

of which modern science is justified in taking note of

and which it has a right to study and investigate. What

is not pointed out is that, while modern spiritistic

phenomena are invoked and induced by the formation

of “the circle” and by the development and employment

of mediums and sensitives, the phenomena referred to

are spontaneous in their character and take place accord-

ing to laws and conditions which are beyond our control

and wholly beyond our ken. It is pure assumption

therefore to assert that an apparent identity in form

implies identity in aim and origin.

From the moral point of view there may surely be

all the difference in the world between the spontaneous

phenomena occurring by some act or command of God

and those deliberately invoked and invited by man. The

agency directing and producing the former may well

be believed to be a vastly different one from that direct-

ing the latter. Spontaneous spirit-manifestations in any

case almost always occur with some definite moral aim

and purpose; induced phenomena are brought about to

gratify human curiosity. As an example compare the

records of the history of Joan of Arc with that of

“John King” and the modern “spirit-control.” It is

utter folly surely to assert the identity of the two.

But since it is of the utmost importance at the present

time that our knowledge of this subject should be full

and accurate and that the indubitable fact should be

recognised that spirit-agency acts by means of the

simplest as well as the most complex instrumentality, it

is necessary to give a brief account of the various forms

which characterise the necromancy of modern times.

24



II

THE PHENOMENA

M
ODERN Spiritism distinguishes, roughly
speaking, between subjective and objective

phenomena.

(a) Subjective Phenomena

Under this term are classed those abnormal maniicsta-

tions which are invoked by the exercise of the experi-

menter’s own mediumship, and which may be infinite

in degree and variety as regards form and character

and evidential value. The operating agency works from

within, not from without. It does not exteriorise “astral”

matter to produce visible effects away from the medium

;

but it makes an automatic use of the organism of the

medium. It “controls” the mind, the tongue, or the

hand, as the case may be, causing these to perceive

things or to speak or manifest in writing of what the

mind can often be shown to have no knowledge normally,

and the truth of which can only be ascertained by

inquiry. It is therefore from the contents of any such

communication rather than from the fact of the com-

munication itself that we learn whether or not an

extraneous mind is at work.

In subjective phenomena the medium is not generally

entranced. He remains conscious or at least semi-

conscious, passively yielding himself to the controlling

agency.

The subconscious Mind .—A word should here be said
about a theory which held the ground some years ago

and by which it has been attempted to find a natural

explanation for some of these subjective phenomena.

25



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

This theory assumes the existence and action in these

experiments of a secondary consciousness, living a sub-

merged kind of life in the experimenter himself, but

automatically collecting and yielding up a certain amount

of information, or perhaps telepathically receiving such

information from other minds. This theory has still

some supporters and it does no doubt account for some

of the abnormal information obtained by subjective

experiment. But the best experts have recognised that

it fails to account for all the information thus conveyed,

and for the manifest display in these cases of a distinct

and independent mind and will which so often char-

acterises them. With the abundant material now before

us we would, on the telepathic theory, have to assume

powers in the human mind which are wholly inconceiv-

able, and which, in some instances, almost amount to

omniscience. The theory has had to be discarded for

good and valid reasons, and the chief objections to it

may be stated as follows:

(1) If telepathy or thought-transference of this form

be a law of our mental life, the human brain would

have to be regarded as the recipient of vibrations not

only from one’s friends and relations and “affinities,”

but from numerous other brains in the universe. The

building up of an individual mind and character would

thus become a practical impossibility. We could never

be sure what particular portion of our mental treasure-

house is our own.

(2) Assuming, however, the possibility of such a

telepathic influx in the case of the passive medium, the

material received would form an indescribable chaos

from which it would be quite impossible, for either a

primary or secondary personality, to select the particular

elements needed for a particular occasion. And how

26



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

can we suppose this secondary consciousness to discover,

in a moment of time, just that particular mind in the

world which possesses the information needed, and to

abstract it from it while that mind itself is unaware of

the process. There would, moreover, be the further

difficulty of intelligently connecting the ideas abstracted

and constructing them into a consistent whole.

Even granting the possibility of such telepathy,

[writes Mr. Carrington,*] and that it is powerful

enough to abstract from any consciousness any-

where in the world a certain fact and convey it as

it were to a medium’s subconscious mind, then such

a power would be practically omnipotent and tele-

pathy should be enabled to obtain facts from the

minds of practically any person in the world—and
not only trivial facts, but important and personal

and detailed evidence—and this is precisely what
has not been obtained.

(3) If the subconscious mind be the operating agent,

how are we to account for the circumstance that it

always claims to be the spirit of a deceased person, even

in cases where the medium’s normal mind is antagonistic

to a belief in spirits.

Observe [writes Mr. Andrew Lang] that if it

be the subliminal self, it is a cunning and deliberately

fraudulent self, attempting to produce belief in the

survival of death by the spirit of Mr. .

(4) We can suppose the subliminal mind to be auto-
matically re-producing fragments of a language tele-

pathically received, but never normally acquired
;
we

cannot, however, assume its intelligent use and manipu-

lation of such a language so as to know the meaning of

words and to be able to correct expressions used. The

latter, however, is a phenomenon frequently observed

in subjective experiments.

* The Coming Science.

27



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

The late Judge Edmonds wrote of his daughter:*

She knows no language but her own and a little

smattering of boarding-school French; yet she has

spoken in nine or ten different tongues; often for

an hour at a time, with the ease and fluency of a

native. It is not unfrequent that foreigners con-

verse with their spirit friends through her in their

own language.

Other insuperable difficulties and objections might be

urged
;
but this book is to be of limited size. The above

will suffice to show how little those who speak glibly of

telepathy and thought-transference as explanations of

phenomena observed, realise the inadequacy of such a

theory.

Telepathy moreover in itself is no explanation at

all. It is merely a term signifying a connection of

some sort between two minds, which connection

itself requires explanation.!

Under subjective phenomena are classed:

(a) Clair-voyance (abnormal seeing).

(
b
)

Clair-audience (abnormal hearing).

(c) Automatic writing (either by means of the ouija

board, planchette or the pencil, without the conscious

operation of the mind, and on subjects lying wholly

or partly outside the mind’s sphere or knowledge).

(
d) Trance-oratory or the speaking with tongues (the

delivery of speeches on subjects unknown to the mind,

* Quoting from A. R. Wallace, f Carrington.

N. B.—The phenomena of clairvoyance and clair-audience, &c.,
are not due to a kind of “extended” faculty of the medium’s mind,

but to what may be termed spirit-hypnotism. The medium does

not actually see the scenes and persons described, but sees mental

pictures of them produced by spirits in much the same way in

which a nypnotizer produces images in the mind of his subject.

These pictures, formed by the spirits, have no more objective

reality than those formed by the hypnotizer. “The whole matter

of spirit seeing,” declared one of these agencies on one occasion,

“is an imposition upon the credulity of the public. We have

been able to work miracles by these means.”

28



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

or the intelligent use of foreign languages never normally

acquired)

.

(e) Crystal-gazing—the ability to see reflected on a
polished surface the images of persons or of places or

of events taking place at a distance.

(/) Psychometry—the power to describe from the
touch of some article the place and mode of its manu-

facture, its age and general history, the persons and

their characteristics to whom it has successively belonged,

and the nature of its past and present environment.

It is not possible, in a little volume of this kind, to

enter into a detailed description of the manner in which

the spirit-agencies can be made to operate and communi-

cate by these various forms of subjective mediumship.

It must suffice here to state that, simple and innocent

though these forms may appear, they are beyond all

doubt “open doors” by which abnormal knowledge and

information are conveyed, and by means of which inter-

course is established with unseen spirit-agencies who

claim to be the surviving spirits of the dead.

It is more than probable that in many instances

automatic sub-conscious mind-activity suffices to account

for the effects produced and for the knowledge conveyed.

But such a cause cannot reasonably be assumed where the

effect transcends the capacities of the cause, and where

knowledge is conveyed or things are seen or heard, or

information is imparted, which are found to lie wholly

beyond the mind’s reach.

An increasing cultivation of mind-passivity always

ultimately ends in “spirit-control,” the incipient stages

of which are often quite unperceived by the operator.

Experience constantly proves, and indeed ordinary

reflection should suggest this, that by reason of this

mind-passivity a grave danger lurks behind these appar-

29



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

ently simple and harmless practices. And it is not neces-

sary, in this connection, to introduce the question of the

real nature and aim of the spirit-intelligence. This

matter will be more fully discussed hereafter. It is

sufficient to know that it operates and can only operate

by dethroning the will and by invading, and interfering

with, the normal mental machinery of the operator.

This invasion progresses in proportion to the frequency

of the experiment and the degree of passivity attained.

When that passivity is complete we have all the

symptoms of obsession and possession. It is then found

that the mystic door, so carelessly opened, cannot be

shut and that the “spirit-control” is the master of the

house. The process itself is often so subtle and silent

that the experimenter himself is wholly unconscious of

what is going on. From the very nature of the process

a partial control is always a necessary result of subjec-

tive spirit-evocation. It will be seen, therefor^, that even

occasional experiments of this kind are apt to lead to

mental disorder and confusion of ideas, the mind being

unable to exercise, in the manipulation of its material,

that selective and discriminative power which consti-

tutes mental health. Suggestions are apt to invade the

mind, the unfitness and unwholesomeness of which the

mind has lost the power of recognising, and as a con-

sequence the moral nature itself, after a time, becomes

affected. The fascination of these practices is so great

that the warnings which reason, and conscience, too, are

apt to utter remain unheeded, and the mischief is often

not discovered until it is too late. It is not easy to

energise a will whose power of resistance has, by slow

but progressive stages, been broken down. Experience,

alas! is constantly teaching the inevitable ultimate end

of these practices.

30



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me not so long ago and told me of instances
which had been privately communicated to him

and which had caused him such alarm that he

was anxious to enter upon an active crusade

against spiritistic practices and teaching.

4. The general moral and physical effect of

spiritistic practices upon the sensitive and the

investigators is a disastrous one. It is now
known that the objective phenomena cannot be
obtained without the aid of a certain vital or

“psychic force” which is drawn from the or-

ganism of the sensitive and which constitutes

the raison d’etre of mediumship. The frequent

repetition of the process leads to complete

physical prostration and to an entire break-

down of the constitution. I have come in con-
tact with persons who have been invalids for
years in consequence of spiritistic practices and

who have only very gradually recovered their
equilibrium. With but few exceptions the con-

sequences of frequent sittings for physical

manifestations are fatal. As to the moral
effects of these practices a big volume might he

written, and even then the half would not have

been told. I have in my possession communica-
tions from former spiritists which throw a lurid
light upon the subject and which suggest the

gravest possible considerations. As far back as
1877 the late Dr. L. S. Forbes Winslow, a

famous English mental specialist, wrote in

“Spiritualistic Madness”: “Ten thousand un-

fortunate people are at the present time con-

fined to lunatic asylums on account of having

tampered with the supernatural. ... I could
quote many instances where men of the highest
ability have, so to speak, neglected all and fol-

lowed the doctrines .of spiritism only to end

their days in the Lunatic Asylum.” And grave
and weighty are the warnings more recently
given^ by Prof. Sir .Willijim Barrett, a former
pi’vioiucia c Go. me uuuiutyiH a sycmeai ivetieiu.cn,
and by Dr. Van Eeden, a Dutch physician, who
has devoted much time am labor to the study
of psychical phenomena. The latter tells us that

“in}fhis unexplored region lie risks of error

more serious than in any other department of

science, and not merely of error, scientific and

intellect <al, but also of moral error.” And it
is this which seems to him “to justify the ortho-

dox religions in condemning the evocation of

spirits as immoral, as infringing upon secrets

hidden from man by the Eternal.”
It is much to he regretted that, while the in-

tensely interesting and phenomenal aspect of

the inquiry is unceasingly dwelt upon, these

voices, crying in the wilderness, are left un-

heeded and the warnings they convey are dis-

regarded in the insane craving for fresh evidence

and phenomena.

5. The .teaching imparted by the intelli-
gences is wholly contradictory in character. I

have, in recent publications, summarized this

teaching from the works of famous spiritists

and the result is ludicrous in the extreme. “lOne

cannot imagine any rational creature,” writes

“Truth,” “continuing to believe in the revela-

tions of spiritism who reads the bewildering
contradictions of its chief oracles.”

On the contrary, I am thoroughly convince
that a terrible deception lurks behind thes

phenomena and that a grave and daily grof
ing peril is menacing society. A danger^
and subtle enemy is silently creeping into c
homes and families, and the astonishing thi
is that so few seem to be conscious of I
fact that little or nothing is being done
warn the people. I am personally strongly con
vinced that the policy of silence on the subject

so frequently adopted with a view to the avoi<

ance of greater perils, is no longer a safe and

wise one, seeing that our literature is teemini

with the subject and that the general results i

recently observed phenomena are becomin|
known to “the man in the street.” In my opinio
our safeguard lies in taking every opportunil’

of conveying accurate information and in, abov
all things, stating all the facts of the case. It

the one-sided presentation of the subject that

doing all the mischief and that is hourly i
creasing the spread of the evil. Let it once/.

clearly and fully known that these “

friends” on the other side of life ruin/

desolate homes, that they drive men and w)
J

to destruction and to the madhouse, that the

undermine religious faith and confidence,,

that, in a thousand instances, they bring abou

an utter weariness and detestation of the dutie

of the present life, and thinking men will aban
don the intercourse with such beings and wil

seek for the interpretation of the problems else;

where than in scientific records. I have, during

the last ten years, spent much of my time
answering the inquiries of persons whose live:

have been shipwrecked by spiritistic practices
and it is upon painful facts and incontrovertibli

evidence that I base my conclusions
opinions.

I am strongly persuaded that the '({me
cuiue when an earnest note of whining 'Sluiull
be sounded and when the grave perils altendin,
this fascinating form of scientific vesearcl
should be clearly and emphatically pointed out
I cannot but think that, in view of the suspiciou!

circumstances, so admittedly and universally a

eompanying all spiritistic manifestations, and c

the general moral effect which they are knowi

to produce, this warning will not remain alto

gether unheeded.

hr.-

The Toiler
By Lucy Gertrude Clarkin

In merry jest and laughter sweet

—

With eager glance and lilting song.
In shim’ring silks and dancing feet.

They pass the beaten road along.

Unburdened, free—they hold the way.
I, Iadened down and travel worn,

Must walk the broken sod each day,
Unshod, my garments stained and torn.

Sweet, rebel yearnings stir my blood,
I, too, would sing a merry lay

—

Would spurn the path of stones and mud.
And put my irksome load away.

'T'HERE is unanimity on one point only and
A that is as regards the fundamental doctrines
of the Christian faith. It is as a medium, or

seer, or human being of exceptional power and
degree of psychic development, that they seek

to exhibit Christ, and it is at the subversion of

faith in Him as a divine Person that the spirit-
messages ultimately aim. The truth of this

statement is fully established by the writings

of the best of our modem spiritists. From
personal letters which are constantly reaching

me, it is evident that the writer had, in each

single instance, lost his faith Christianity and

was suffering the keenest grief and disappoint-

ment in consequence.

It is, for the reasons thus briefly stated, that

I cannot share the popular riew respecting the

interpretation of the phenomena of spiritism.

Nay! let them pass—the laughing train.
I, craven hearted, may not 'flee

From One who walked the way of pain-
Who bore a cross and died for me.

Divine Providence

By S. M. Emmanuel

God’s grace, like a mighty torrent,

Has borne me upon its breast,
Safe thru the day and the night of the storm

When my soul tossed in pain and unrest.

It has held me close—as a mother
It has carried me in its arms,

It has soothed my sorrows—calmed my joyi
It has banished vague alarms.

It has lifted me high and upheld me
When dizzy and faint with fear!

It has blessed my heart with the peace of

It has taught me that GOD IS NEAR!



UXJk.\SJO.\ W.-R \Xlih tot.

The Spirits
Really Coinmunicating?

By J. GODFREY RAUPERT, K. S. G.

Author of “Modern Spiritism,” “Spiritistic Phenomena and Their Interpretation,” “Hell and Its Problems,” Etc.

C is daily becoming more evident that

of the many problems that are at

present agitating the public mind,

the one presented by spiritism and

by the results of modern psychical

research is having the pre-eminence.

Interest in the subject, although for obvious

reasons not very apparent in the surface move-

ments of life, is nevertheless a keen and wide-

spread one and it is growing in intensity day

by day. In view of the unhesitating testimony

given by savants of high standing and of in-

ternational reputation, increasing numbers of

sceptically inclined persons are reluctantly

abandoning their attitude of reserve and are

beginning to realize the seriousness of the sub-

ect and its far-reaching issues. The conse-

uence is that the study of occult matters and the

arch and craving for “phenomena” are gi'ow-

s apace, and that a voracious appetite for

lerature, in any way bearing upon these sub-

ects is being created. In thousands of families

lie
'

“spirit-circle” is becoming an honored in-

stitution, and the reception of “messages from

departed friends and relatives” is becoming an

everyday occurrence. How very deeply these
practices and the results flowing from them are

affecting the mental and moral life of the com-

munity is known only to those who are in-

timately connected with the movement, and who

have opportunities of looking behind the scenes.

And it must be admitted that, strange as such

a phenomenon may appear at first sight, it is

one that we cannot be very much surprised at.

When pne bears in mind the natural tendencies
'and cravings of the human heart, the innate

desire Wf most men to have some definite answer

to the whence? and whither? of human life, the

doubts, on the other hand, which recent non-

Catholie research has thrown upon the veracity

of the Christian documents, and the general

tendency of modem rationalistic thought to

destroy belief in the supernatural, one can

scarcely wonder at a universal and growing in-

terest in phenomena increasingly believed to be

Ti means by which the age-long questions of man

will be answered and by which the fact of a

fpture life will be established on a sound seien-

ic foundation.

Now what, briefly, are the facts of the case

it the present time?

MODERN science, it is well known, has,broadly speaking, given its verdict. We
have it on the authority of men whose veracity

cannot be doubted and whose scientific authority

can reasonably call in question—who,

moreover, have risked their reputation in giving

their testimony

:

1.

That the much disputed phenomena occur

and that many of them are of an objective and

tangible character.

2.

That they are often governed by intelli-

gence—intelligence, in many instances, ex-
traneous in its nature and operations.

This testimony is being added to day by day

by the published writings of eminent foreign

scientists, and it is being confirmed by the ex-

perience of thousands of intelligent spiritists

and of private investigators all the world over.

“The alleged facts,” writes Prof. A. R. Wallace,

“which the scientific world scouted and scoffed

at as absurd and impossible, now, one after an-

other, prove to be real facts and, strange to say,

with little or no exaggeration, since almost every

one of them, though implying abnormal powers

in human beings, or the agency of a Spirit-

world around us, has been strictly paralleled

in the present day and has been subjected to

the close scrutiny of the scientific and sceptical

?ith little or no modification of their essential

ature.” Doubt, therefore, as to the phenomena

themselves, must, as another scientific man has
recently said, be henceforth taken as an indica-

tion of ignorance rather than of superior in-

tellectual attainment. While it is fully admitted

that in numerous instances the phenomena are

subjective in origin and character, and may be
accounted for by the action of the subconscious

mind and the faculties lying beneath the thresh-

old of the normal consciousness, the fact re-

mains that there are phenomena which cannot

be thus accounted for, and that in connection

with them the operation of extraneous intelli-

gence-must be admitted. It was, of course, to

be expected that testimony of such a character,

and coming from such unlikely quarters would

powerfully affect the public mind and would,

in the course of time, give rise to questions of

the gravest possible import. The greatest of

these questions, and indeed the one which may

be termed the burning question of the hour,, is

the one which has reference to the nature and

aim of the intelligence which is thus displaying

itself. Is it human in character—in other words,

are the dead communicating and are we by these

means receiving demonstrative evidence of

human life in the world beyond the grave?

It is impossible for those who are familiar

with the subject and with the results of the

most recent investigations, to doubt that science

is steadily tending in the direction of an affirma-

tive answer to this question. . If a certain

learned reserve still characterizes some official

statements, it is difficult not to read between

the lines and to see what the ultimate verdict

is likely to be. The pronouncements of in-

dividual scientists, intimately acquainted with

the subject, can ieave no room for doubt in the

matter. And the cry which they have sent forth

has found an echo in thousands of human miuds

and has given ai impulse to the spiritistic move-

ment, the effect! of which are but too plainly

and painfully visible in every sphere of our

social life. Indeed, so strong are the impres

sions created that the utmost impatience, is ex

hibited towards those who would raise a note
of warning and who cannot join in the exulting
cry of the multitude. Ignorance, prejudice

religious bigotry and narrow-mindedness are the

epithets applied to persons who, while admitting

the actuality of the phenomena and the extra-

neous intelligence directing them, nevertheless

deny that it has been shown to be that of the

dead.

And yet it is manifest from the evidence

at our disposal that there are incontrovertible

facts pointing in this direction, and that this

is an aspect of the subject which should awaken

in thoughtful minds the most serious considers

tions.

TT is impossible, within the space of a maga

zine article, to deal with these considerations

in an adequate and satisfactory manner. I

can but briefly indicate what an experience of

over twenty years has taught me and why 1

cannot share the popular view as to the nature

of the mysterious phenomena in question.

1. It is quite certain that the identity of

the communicating intelligences has not been

established. Although it is admitted that, in

practically every instance, these entities claim to

be the spirits of departed men and women, il

|

is certain that that claim has invariably broken
'

down in the presence of real test conditions

The most recent psychical research in this direc-

|

tion has yielded wholly negative results. Thosi
1 whose names were best iknown in spiritistic an'

/psychical research circles, and who have prat

jtically spent their lives in the search for sue]

'evidence, have, after 'death, been unable to

’furnish it themselves. They have not found i

{possible to supply what may be termed the miss-

ing link in the spiritistic hypothesis.

2. It is a known and admitted characteristic

of the intelligences that they often successfully

impersonate deceased individuals. Indeed, so

constantly does this characteristic display itself

that it constitutes the chief difficulty in the way

of satisfactory investigation. We meet with
fraud and trickery on every side, and with the

most heartless deception that the imagination

can conceive. The most trusted “spirit friends

or relations,” sometimes after years of inter-

course and often on their own admission, turn

out to be masquerading entities who have culled

the information needed for the impersonation

from the passive minds anfl memories of the

experimenters and who, by some slip or some

unusually bold maneuver, in the end turn the

tables against themselves. In view of what re-

cent research has revealed as to the possibilities

of the “subliminal” mind, it is not difficult to

see to what length such deception can

carried. There are few experimenters who have

not had painful personal experiences bearing

upon this point. I have documentary evidence

of the most startling character in confirmation

of this fact.

3. Again, the moral character of. the manifest-

ing intelligences is invariably of a low order.

This fact must be and is admitted by all unpreju-

diced inquirers who have an accurate knowl-

edge of the subject and who have themselves

observed and experimented for a sufficient length

of time. In numerous instances, of course, this

moral depravity is not immediately apparent—

indeed, it often remains hidden for years under

a mass of platitudes and of high-sounding

phrases, but it almost always discloses itself

in the end. I know of instances which are

appalling in character, and a recent publication

of mine has placed material in my possession

strongly confirming and illustrating the truth

of this statements A great ecclesiastic sent for



Id me of instances

jimunicated, to him

such alarm that he

an active crusade

|and teaching.

physical effect of

[e sensitive and the

Is one. It is now

lenomena cannot be

a certain vital or

Irawn from the or-

which constitutes

|ship. The frequent

leads to complete

lo an entire break-

r have
come in con-

|e been invalids for

ritistic practices and

fally recovered
their

[

exceptions the con-

nings for physical

As to the moral

Ibig volume might be

jhalf would not have

Dssession communica-

which throw a lurid

which suggest the

Ions. As far back as

Forbes Winslow, a

|

specialist, wrote in

“Ten thousand un-

ie present time con-

fn account of
having

_iatural. ... I could

|*e men of the highest

Jneglected all and fol-

['Diritism only to end

IAsylum.” And grave

[rnings more recently

im Barrett, a former

3a unqna»
ORSUI [EUOIJ
I[S3q 3UBqg
>UB XBpjinQ

W ‘suoqqiQ

On the contrary, I am thoroughly
convince!,' “°j

that a terrible deception
lurks behind thes^njoi

phenomena and that a grave and
dai’y gro

ing peril is menacing society.
A dangero —

and subtle enemy is silently
creeping into o

homes and families, and the
astonishing thn

is that so few seem to be
conscious of

s;i
..

fact that little or nothing
is being done U muuoDtQ

warn the people. I am personally
strongly con .xwnnb

vinced that the policy of silence
on the subject

so frequently adopted with a
view to the £3

-

ance of greater perils, is no
longer a sate ana < t <<M3ia9H

wise one, seeing that our
literature is teeming

with the subject and that the
general results o.

•

recently observed phenomena
are becoming

known to “the man in the street. In
my °Pini(

^

our safeguard lies in taking
every opportim:it

of conveying accurate
information and m, abov l||

all things, stating all the
facts of the case. It i|

the one-sided presentation
of the subject that 1

doing all the mischief and that
is hourly

creasing the spread of the evil.
Let it

clearly and fully known that
these <

friends” on the other side
of life rum

desolate homes, that they drive
men

to destruction and to the
madhouse,

undermine religious faith and
eonfidenc'^

that, in a thousand instances,
they brim

an utter weariness and detestation
ox tr^

of the present life, and thinking
men v

e *

don the intercourse with such
beings

^

seek for the interpretation
of the pro

where than in scientific records,
l b j

fQ
f

the last ten years, spent
much of :0p

P

answering the inquiries of Pef
s(mfj

y?0 .
,

have been shipwrecked by
spmtr^- /

and it is upon painful facts and P*

evidence that I base my
Moiaedng

0P
i

n

am strongly persuaded that A%uodlki

‘UBMBjqn
OJJ ,,MOU2

'aouiAojj

?01iaraoo



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

(b

)

Objective Phenomena.

(Phenomena which take place at some distance from

the medium and which are induced by the withdrawal

and use of the astral matter.)

(1) The movement of bodies

,

with or without contact,

but without mechanical exertion (these movements

being mostly carried out in response to suggestions made

by experimenters and by way of furnishing proof of the

independent nature of the spirit-agencies). Photographs

of heavy bodies suspended in the air have recently been

obtained in Italy.

(2) The production of abnormal sounds (such as those

produced by knocks, by the noise of footsteps and the

striking of notes on the closed and locked keyboard of a

piano—these sounds being made in response to requests
and for the purpose of conveying, by means of a given

code, intelligent communications).

(3) “Direct” writing, i. e., writing obtained without

the contact of a material hand, and often in a moment

of time, the handwriting not that of any person in the

room.

(4) The “direct voice,” i. e., a voice distinct from those

of the medium and the experimenters, soft or loud, as

the case may be, and often speaking in a variety of

foreign languages.

(5) Luminous appearances, called spirit-lights, which

no natural cause can explain and by means of which

intelligent communications are often flashed out.

(6) The “materialisation

”

of faces, hands, or of com-

plete human forms, possessing for the time being all the

characteristics and organs of living human beings, and

frequently bearing a remarkable resemblance to the dead.

31



Ill

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE

PHENOMENA

F
ROM what has been said thus far it will be seen
that no rightly and fully informed person, who

has carefully weighed all the available evidence,

can doubt that in spiritistic practices, both sub-

jective and objective, agencies are evoked which are

extraneous in their character and distinct from the

medium and the experimenter. Any other explanation

would, in view of such papable facts, involve the mind

in utterly hopeless perplexity. And since this fact is

now admitted by all those who have a right to speak

with authority on the subject, there is no need to dwell

upon it at fuller length. Indeed the burning question

of the hour is not: are the phenomena observed due to

the action of spirits, but: what is the nature and char-

acter and the aim of the spirits who respond to these

evocations? It will be admitted that this question is a

very serious one and that grave and far-reaching issues

are involved in its answer. It is therefore of the utmost

importance that the answer which is given to it should

be the correct one, in strict accordance with all the facts

known to us and in keeping with the claims of reason

and the dictates of our moral nature. In the matter of the

right interpretation of modern spiritistic phenomena we

cannot allow prepossessions of any kind to cloud our

minds and to affect our judgments. Who are these

spirits who, in our day and generation, are so increas-

32



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

ingly invading human life and influencing human

thought ?

SCIENCE

,

it is often boldly asserted, is by means of

spiritistic and psychical experiment, increasingly demon-

strating the survival of the human soul of physical

death. Scientific men, therefore, it is argued, may be

regarded as believing these spirit-agencies to be the

spirits of the dead. This familiar statement, however, is

not an accurate one. It contains one of those half-

truths with which one meets so constantly in this sphere

of research. It is true that there are some prominent

scientific men who, by word of mouth and by their

writings, assert this to be their belief. But the most

experienced of scientific experimenters adopt a far more

cautious attitude and one far more in accordance with

the facts observed. While they state it as their convic-

tion that independent agencies must be admitted to be

responsible for the phenomena, they do not venture to

express an opinion as to the nature of these agencies.

They are spiritists therefore in the wider* not in the

narrower sense, and it is clearly both dishonest and mis-

chievous to quote their names in connection with

spiritistic teaching and propaganda. Thus Sir William

Crookes, who is a spiritist in this wider sense, wrote in

18744 at the termination of his prolonged researches:

I have observed some circumstances which seem

conclusively to point to the agency of an outside

intelligence not belonging to any intelligence in the

room. [To which he added, twenty-four years later,

before the British Association at Bristol,] I have

nothing to retract. I adhere to my already published
statements. Indeed I might add much thereto, &c.

* In the sense that independent agencies are at work, but

without attempting to define of what nature they are.

\ Quarterly Journal of Science
,
vol. vii.



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

The French astronomer, Professor Flammarion,

says :*

As to beings different from ourselves—what may
their nature be? Of this we cannot form any idea.

Souls of the dead? This is far from being demon-

strated. The innumerable observations which I have

collected during more than 40 years, all prove to me

the contrary. No satisfactory identification has been
made.

The published statements, however, of many scientific

men justify the view that they recognise in these

phenomena the action of the spirits of the dead, and

that they consequently regard these actions as evidence

in favour of human survival. Some of them indeed

claim that they have, in this sphere, made discoveries

calculated to revolutionise human thought and to vitally

affect human belief
;
and from this point of view they

not merely justify but positively encourage, spiritistic

practices and evocations. But we are here again face

to face with rash statements containing more half-

truths. What they can claim is that these phenomena

are for the first time receiving scientific attention. What

they cannot claim is that, in eliciting them, they have

made new discoveries.

A few scientific men go so far as to draw from these

phenomena certain manifestly quite unwarrantable

deductions—(that they may be explained on the theory
of evolutionary development, or that by their means

we shall be able to find “natural” and “reasonable”

explanations of the recorded phenomena of Christianity.

They thus attempt a kind of reconstruction of dogmatic

Christianity on the basis of the supposed new truths.

In this sense these scientists play into the hands of

professed spiritists, to whose teaching and propaganda

* Psychic Forces

34



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

they give substantial support. And they thus lead thou-

sands to engage in spiritistic practices without making

them aware of the many grave dangers to physical,

mental and moral health which inevitably attend these

practices.

SPIRITISM makes claims of a similar, although far

more extensive, nature. It is a system of thought

which, basing itself upon the statements and disclosures

made by the spirit-agents, presents to the world what

may be regarded as a new philosophy of life. It main-

tains that these spirits have a specific mission to this

age and generation. That mission is to rescue the

human mind from the fetters of a rigid and false dog-

matism, to disclose the true facts respecting the life

after death, the relation in which man, in his present

state, stands to this spirit-world, and to reveal to him

the means by which he can here and now obtain sensible

and demonstrative proof of its existence. It claims that

the teaching of the spirits supersedes, and is an advance

upon, the teachings of the Christian Church, which has

misunderstood and misinterpreted the statements of

Christ and of the teachers and saints who came after His

time, and that Christ Himself was nothing more than a

sensitive of a high order, Whose work and aims have

been entirely misunderstood by the world.

It is on the ground of these claims, that modern

Spiritists not merely commend and justify the evocation

of the spirits, but that they carry on, in all parts of the

world, an active propaganda for the diffusion of what

they believe to be the true light.

The teaching of Spiritism therefore will be seen to

largely adapt itself to the peculiar thought- tendencies

of this age and also to harmonise with certain scientific

theories and assertions. It is a teaching which does

35



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

not merely modify or supplement certain traditional

religious beliefs, in the sense that it can be assimilated

by the Christian Church, but it completely subverts the

constant teaching of that Church and is wholly revolu-

tionary in its character.

This fact is often obscured and kept in the background

by some spiritistic writers, and it may be that it is in

some instances not fully realised by them: but it is

emphatically admitted by those who may be regarded

as the best representatives of the spiritistic cause. It is

confirmed by the personal attitude of spiritists them-

selves.

That attitude is perhaps best expressed in the words

of Mr. Stainton-Moses, the father of modern English

Spiritism.

Spiritualism is revolution, hot simply reform. It

is no time for polite patching up; we are in the

very dust and din of spiritual strife, in the thick

of a great spiritual conflict, the effects of which we

shall try in vain to escape, and it is no time now

to go about deprecating noise, and timidly sprink-

ling rose-water to quench the powder fumes of

battle. The battle is upon us and it is waste of

time to grumble at its smoke and din.

Or, as he wrote when the spirits first responded to

his evocation, and his mind was still in conflict with

the new ideas conveyed in their teaching:

I could not get rid of the idea that the faith of

Christendom was practically upset by their issue.

I believed that, however it might be disguised, such

would be their (the teachings’) outcome in the end.

The central dogmas seemed especially attacked and

it was this that startled me. . . . Then came the

doubt as to how far all might be the work of Satan

“transformed into an angel of light,” labouring for

the subversion of the faith, &c.



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

THE SPIRITS themselves always and everywhere

assert that they are the spirits of the dead who, by

means of the practices described, have found it possible

to communicate with the sense-world and that they are

making united and sytematic efforts to cause man

increasingly to cultivate this intercourse with a view to

his better instruction and enlightenment.

They declare that the passive mind of man becomes

for them an “open door,” by which the closest possible

access can be had, so that teaching can be conveyed to

the world, and the mind itself can be effectually con-

trolled and impressed.

They confess that the process described on p. 15 (the

abstraction and manipulation of the “astral” matter)

is the process which they employ for the production

of the objective manifestations. In many instances they

give elaborate instruction as to the manner in which

this process can be improved and fascilitated.

The essence of Modern Spiritistic teaching is summed

up by Professor Alfred Russel Wallace in the following

words,* from which it will be seen that here too we are

confronted by a mere half-truth:

The universal teaching of Modern Spiritualism

is that the world and the whole material universe

exists for the purpose of developing spiritual

beings—that death is simply a transition from
material existence to the first grade of spirit-life

—

and that our happiness and the degree of our

progress will be wholly dependent upon the use

we have made of our faculties and opportunities
here. It is urged that the present life will assume

a new value and interest when men are brought up
not merely in the vacillating and questionable belief,

but in the settled indubitable conviction, that our

existence in this world is really but one of the stages

* Chambers' Encyclopaedia.

37



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

in an endless career and that the thoughts we think
and the deeds we do here will certainly affect our

condition and the very form and organic expression

of our personality hereafter.

The teaching of the spirits, more directly bearing

upon the traditional belief of the Christian Church, may

be gathered from the disclosures of a well-known spirit-

control, of whose existence, as a conscious independent

entity, no reasonable doubt can be entertained.

There must be many to whom the Gospel given
of old is satisfying yet and who are not receptive

of further truth. With these we meddle not. But

many there are who have learned what the past

can teach and who are thirsting for further knowl-

edge. To these it is given in such measure as the

Most High sees fit. . . .

We would have you know that the spiritual ideal
of Jesus the Christ is no more like the human notion,

with its accessories of atonement and redemption,

as men' have grasped them, than was the calf

ignorantly carved by the Hebrews like the God who

strove to reveal Himself to them. . . .

We claim our authority to be divine and await
with confidence the acceptance of our mission when

the times are ripe for our teaching. Time will

come when all men will admit the beauty of our

Creed.

The question then to which we have to address

ourselves is: Do the facts, fairly and fully considered,

justify the above interpretation of the phenomena? We

have seen what science asserts, what spiritism teaches,

what the spirit-agencies themselves assert and claim.

We have also seen that these claims, especially in their

relation to religious thought, are revolutionary in their

nature and tendency. Must their fairness and reason-

ableness nevertheless be conceded?

38



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

The categorical answer is and must be: No! It is

a false and mischievous interpretation of the phenomena,

to which some isolated facts give a certain measure of

support, but which an honest explanation of all the facts,

as well as common sense and ordinary morality, must

emphatically repudiate. The popular interpretation of

spiritistic phenomena and the claims of some scientists

and of the spirits themselves must be rejected because

it has been found utterly

1.—Impossible to Establish the Identity

of the Spirits.

The statements made by individual experimenters

have, of course, no evidential value. They can only

come into consideration where test-conditions have been

observed and where the possibility of hallucination,

fraud or trickery, and access on the part of the medium

or the spirit to information contained in some living

mind, have been excluded. Wherever this has been the

case the experiment has failed and the spirit-agency has

disclosed itself as a personating and lying one.

All the more recent scientific attempts in this direction,

carried on under real test-conditions, have proved dismal

failures, so that the standpoint of the Society of

Psychical Research is, in this respect, that of twenty-five

years ago.

The spirits are able to give some facts or circum-

stances relating to a deceased person with whom they

claim identity. But these facts are generally of a super-

ficial and trivial character, and are apparently gathered

from the minds of the experimenters themselves. The

spirits cannot give important and evidential facts which

might at least tend to establish their identity. Their

39



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

operations and possibilities would seem to be limited in

this respect.

The resemblance seems never to be perfect and to

consist of fragments of similarity, or even identity,

rather than of a strong general presentation of the

whole being.*

An experienced scientific investigator found that the

errors which he detected in a spirit’s attempt at estab-

lishing identity were “always in the details that he did

not know himself and that he was not able to correct

at the time.”

All the available evidence to-day tends to show that

the material presented by the spirits, with a view to

identification, is not their own property, but is drawn

from living minds or at least from extant and accessible

sources of information. This is proved by the fact that

:

(a) They confuse and misplace such information,

connecting for instance an event with the life of a

deceased wife, when it is part of the life of a deceased

mother. Or giving the supposed life-history of a person

which, on examination, is found to be made up of the

life histories of two separate persons, bearing the same

name, living in the same locality perhaps, and having

departed this life about the same time.

A case is reported of a relation of Prof. Hyslop where

many details were given. On inquiry, these were found

not to apply to him, but to “a man of the same name,

who had lived in the same county, and whose name figured

in a local history
”

(
b
)

It is further proved by the confession, frequently

made by the spirits themselves, when detected in false-

hood and trickery, that such is the source of their

knowledge.

* Mrs. De Morgan.

40



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

A writer in a Psychial Research Journal, reports a

case where, after a spirited defence, the “control” ulti-

mately admitted that “it had personated all the alleged

communications”

It is obvious that a single instance, in which appar-

ently conclusive evidence has been given, but in which,

on the spirit’s own confession, all the information con-

veyed had been acquired from other minds, practically

destroys the very possibility of establishing identity. It

shows what natural sources of information are open to

the spirits. And this kind of personation is not only a

constant occurrence, but is admitted by both spirits and

scientific students, to be the shady side of the spiritistic

theory.*

The attempt, on the part of some scientific men, to

account for this confusion and misapplication of infor-

mation by attributing it to the defects of mediumship

or to a sort of somnolent condition in which the spirit

may find himself on “the other side,” and to other diffi-

culties attending the process of communication, must be

regarded as a failure.

It is a well-known fact that, in the case of developed

mediumship, the spirits communicate without difficulty

and often cause surprise by reason of their mental alert-

ness and the quickness and preciseness of their replies.

Imperfect mediumship and a state of semi-consciousness

are only asserted when strictly evidential information

is asked for, and crucial tests are imposed. In view of

the claims the spirits make as to their mission we have

a right to expect them to furnish us with incontro-

vertible proofs of identity before all things.

Again it is a circumstance frequently observed that

* The theory in the narrower sense—that the phenomena are
due to the spirits of the dead.

41



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

even though certain facts and names may be given, those

subtle characterisations “which convince as soon as seen”

are wanting.

Handwriting too is no evidence of identity. “A

hypnotised subject,” wrote the late Mr. Myers,* “can

frequently imitate any known handwriting far more

closely than in his waking state; and that consequently

we are bound to credit the subliminal self with a mimetic

faculty which may come out in these messages without

any supraliminal guidance whatever on the automatisms

part.” And what lies within the power of the hypno-

tised subject surely lies within the power of the con-

trolling spirit, who can and does in any case use the

knowledge which is in the entranced medium’s and in

other minds.

A well-known spiritist reports a case in which the
writing obtained “exactly resembled that of his deceased

wife, but was, almost without exception, extremely

blasphemous and vulgar.”

Likeness in photography, too, is no proof of identity.

One person present almost always has the picture in his

mind, and it is according to this mind-picture that the

image is constructed. We have abundant evidence that

the image varies in accordance with the medium’s or

with some experimenter’s memory of the forms and

features and even of the clothes worn by the deceased

personality presented.

We may sum up this part of the argument in the

words of a well-known spiritistf of wide and varied

experience which are to the effect that he has found

“no proof of identity in the case of any spirit, once cele-

brated either for goodness or talent, returning after

centuries, to enlighten or reform mankind.”

* Proceedings of Soc. for Psych. Research,

t Mr. D. Owen.

42



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

To the many learned investigators of the Society for

Psychical Research, deceased within recent years, and

during their life-time intimately acquainted with the

intricacy of these problems and with this flaw in their

theories, we are still looking in vain for evidential com-

munications and proofs of identity!

We must further reject the popular interpretation of

spiritistic phenomena by reason of

2.—The Proved Immoral Character and Aim
of the Spirits.

It is, of course, an admitted and well-known fact,

that many of the communications received from “the

other side” are of a high and lofty character. This is

especially the case at the beginning of the experiment.

And where these exalted moral ideas correspond with

those entertained by the experimenter or the medium,

the high tone of these communications is often long

maintained.

But it is also a demonstrated fact that in practically

all cases this high tone gradually and often imperceptibly

undergoes a change. This generally takes place when

confidence in the communicating agency has been estab-

lished. A suggestion is then thrown in here and there.
It is hinted, for instance, that “the time is ripe for

forming wider and more liberal ideas of things.” “What,

after all, is morality?” “Is it not a mere matter of con-

ventionality?” “What are marriage relations?” “Are

they not mere human contracts, often carelessly and

thoughtiessiy formed?” “Were not certain instincts

implanted in us in order to be gratified?” “Should not

the higher law of soul-affinity supersede the lower and

purely human law?” Reason and common Cense and

instinct are appealed to, and often in such persuasive

43



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

manner, that the mind is confused and perplexed, and

unless it be unusually stable and alertr begins to enter-

tain and to accept the ideas suggested and to look with

a kind of disdain upon the “narrow and old-world”

ideas of the ignorant multitude.

As the mind-passivity of the experimenter increases

and the messages multiply, the spirit’s access to the mind

itself becomes a closer one. The mind is directly

impressed with the truth and reasonableness of these

ideas. It loses the power of distinguishing and, after a

while embraces, and acts upon the teaching. The

personal life is then invaded. Hints are given respecting

certain persons, husband or wife, as the case may be,

and the mind, by slow but certain stages, passes under

the permanent “control”* of the agency involved. The

experimenter in the end becomes its easy prey and play-

thing.

I have, in my earlier writings, used guarded expres-

sions with regard to this matter, speaking merely of the

frequency of this occurrence. Years of further experi-

ence, in various parts of the world, have convinced me

that what I have described takes place in all cases of

systematic spirit-intercourse. The rapidity with which

the ultimate result is achieved depends solely upon the

peculiar temperament and constitution of the experi-

menter. The spirit-agencies are crafty and cautious to

a degree. They scarcely ever precipitate matters, but,

as they themselves declare, “they loosen the ropes one

* Here is the picture of one of these “controls.” “Mr. Eglinton

(a once famous medium) then retreated to a sofa, and appeared to

be fighting1 violently with some unpleasant influence. He made the

sign of the cross, then extended his fingers towards the door, as

though to exorcise it; finally he burst into a scornful, mocking

peal of laughter that lasted for several minutes. As it concluded

a diabolical expression came over his face. He clenched his hands,
gnashed his teeth, and commenced to grope in a crouching posi-

tion towards the door.”

44



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

by one.” Scarcely a week passes without the most

painful instances of this kind coming to my notice. And

no mind seems to be proof against this kind of persistent

bombardment. All forms of automatic writing especially

lead to the result described, which is to be attributed

to the circumstance, that the experimenter directs

his attention to the question of identity and to the contents

of the messages received, and wholly disregards the

thereby steadily increasing passivity of his mind.

I have before me records of cases in which this

passivity had ultimately become so great that the spirit-

agency had an entirely free hand and could compel the

victim to write day and night. The frequent end of

these experiments therefore is the sanatorium or the

asylum. They always wreck the moral life and the

physical constitution.

Unhappily most cases of this kind are of so painful

a nature that the unhappy victims shrink from publicity.

But permission to publish was given with the following

account

:

. . . After such a beginning, which came to be

natural, I made the wrong move of going to a

spiritualist medium with the most remarkable

results; and there I was told that I myself was a

medium and could write automatically as a means

of communication with the spirit of the person I

was seeking. I sat alone in my bedroom and almost
immediately the pencil moved of itself, and in a

very short while I was writing, without my volition,
rapidly. As first all went well and I firmly believed
I was in communication with the spirit I will

call A. The personality at first was correct (it

must have taken the information from my
thoughts)

;
after a while it altered and the char-

acter became quite different to what A. had been.

The advice given was invariably bad and got me
into trouble of various degrees. The moral tone

was bad and got worse and worse. I asked for

45



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

tests of identity
;

all were false
;
nothing but lies

were told. I am not a liar myself and it could

not be my own subconscious self. I thought of “the
liar from the beginning” and got afraid. I sat one

night, determined to solve the problem and taxed

the control with lying and deception. At first soft

words and cajoling and vague, long-winded expla-

nations. I remained obdurate and said: “You have

got to prove your identity to-night,” and I asked

a question of a crucial nature. No answer; then
excuses : “bad conditions,” “better not write to-night

as you are not well, &c.” Then I said : “I am tired
of humbug and of being deceived and misled; I am
not, a fool

;
you are not A.

;

you don’t love me

;

you seek always to lead me wrong.” I reminded
it of all the lies it had told me. And then I said:
“I know you are a devil.” The pencil was gripped

in my hand with superhuman force and I could
not unloose my hand. It wrote the most vile lan-
guage and the most terrible curses. It was just a

thunderstorm of hatred and obscenity.

When it had done I threw the pencil out of the
window and burnt all the writing. This was episode

No. i. After that I wrote to Mrs. , got to

know her, and joined the Society.

In 1907, I was in great sorrow and bethought

me of the automatic writing, and half believed the

theosophical explanation, i. c .—of the neophyte and
the evil that bars the way and has to be overcome.

So arguing I sat for automatic writing again, and

a dreadful thing happened to me. I got possessed

with a strong delusion and lost my mental balance.
This is a great secret and nobody knows it except

the daughter who was living with me at the time.

The outsider couldn’t know. I appeared to be in

a great affliction
;
but it was this delusion that was

making me so miserable. . . .
It is the horrible that is the real and, of course,

there are wicked spirits “who wander through the

world for the ruin of souls” and by practising any

form of what is called Spiritualism, we open the

door to them and let them in.
46



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

In the matter of specifically religious ideas and beliefs,

the spirits adopt the same method. Here, too, “they

loosen the ropes one by one.” They confuse the judg-

ment, unbalance it by false seemings and by weighing

things revealed and supernatural in the scales of “reason”

and “common sense.” They appeal to the “natural” man

and his sentiments and instincts. “Christ was a good

man, but He could not have been divine except in the

sense perhaps that we are all divine.” “His miracles

were not such extraordinary events : they have been

reproduced by spirits times without number.” “They

would not be regarded as miracles to-day.” “His words

and teaching were excellent, but they have been mis-

understood and misinterpreted.” “He did not really

mean the things which the early Christians and genera-

tions of the holiest men thought they meant.” “In

fact He has been spoken to on ‘the other side’ and He

has distinctly said this.” “The world is tending towards

a mere ‘liberal’ view of Christian teaching and we

(spirits), increasingly gaining access to the world, are

bringing this about.” “A new and glorious morning will

soon be dawning upon the world.”

Thus, by such a gradual and progressive method, by

a hint or a suggestion, a judicious quotation, an appeal

to reason, are the foundations of supernatural religion

undermined and is the religious life of the experimenter

destroyed. The devilry of it consists in the circumstance

that we have instances on record in which, by reason

of the discovery of other fraudulent devices, both the

method and its aim were freely admitted and confessed

by the spirits.

And it should surely be clear to reflecting minds, that

we cannot possibly establish the moral integrity of an

individual from the kind of things which he may say or

47



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

write, especially if the writer and speaker himself be

invisible. Evidence therefore of this character must,

by itself, be regarded as quite worthless.

Experimenters are sometimes apt to lay stress upon

the circumstance that some spirits will ask for prayers

for themselves and for others. Can such spirits, it is

asked, be immoral? Here, too, experience unfortunately

compels an unfavourable verdict. The request for

prayers is a familiar trick of these spirit-agencies by

which they often succeed in securing the confidence of

the unwary, especially in cases where suspicions have

been aroused. The oldest and perhaps most experienced

spiritist living* confirms this and reports the following

spirit-communication

:

When you say spirits have asked you to pray for
them, you ought to know that they were appealing

to your pious beliefs and practice and were thus

striving to win your favour. If you could just then

have seen their faces you would have seen some

good acting.

Respecting the character of the spirits evoked by

physical and objective practices and the dangers attend-

ing these I cannot do better than to quote the words of

Sir William Barrett, whose leanings to the popular

spiritistic interpretation of the phenomena are well

known.

For my own part it seems not improbable that
the bulk, if not the whole, of the physical mani-

festations witnessed in a spiritualistic seance are

the product of human-like
,

hut not really human,

intelligences—good or bad daimonia they may be

—

which aggregate round the medium, as a rule drawn

from that particular plane of mental and moral

development in the unseen which corresponds to

the mental and moral plane of the medium, &c.

Moreover, if there is any truth in the view sug-
* Dr. Peebles.

48



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

gested (above) of a possible source of the purely

physical manifestations, it seems to me that the

Apostle Paul, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, points

to a race of spiritual creatures, similar to those I

have described, but of a malignant type, when he

speaks of beings not made of flesh and blood inhab-

iting the air around us and able injuriously to affect

mankind. Good as well as mischievous agencies

doubtless exist in the unseen
;

this, of course, is

equally true if the phenomena are due to those who

have once lived on the earth. In any case, granting

the existence of a spiritual world, it is necessary

to be on our guard against the invasion of our will

by a lower order of intelligence and morality. The

danger lies, in my opinion, not only in the loss of
spiritual stamina, but in the possible deprivation of

that birthright we each are given to cherish, our

individuality, our true selfhood; just as, in another

way, this may be imperilled by sensuality, opium or

alcohol.

An American scientific experimenter* utters the same

warning

:

It is a terribly dangerous mistake to think that

there are no evil spirits. There are great hosts of

them. They come at times without formal invita-

tion of the medium or of the circle, and control to

the hurt of the members of the circle and to the hurt

of the medium.

The familiar theory that the spirit-agencies obey a

certain law of affinity according to which immoral spirits

are attracted by the immoral nature of the medium or

experimenter himself, and that he must be held account-

able for these disastrous occurrences, has now been

exploded by the spiritists themselves. The veteran

spiritist Dr. Peebles writes:

The soft palliative sometimes advanced by the

psychically uneducated, that an evil-inclined spirit

* Dr. Funk.

49



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

can harm no one unless there is active or latent evil

within, attracting the evil from without, is not only

false and illogical, but absolutely silly.

And of these objective manifestations themselves he

says

:

They should be shunned as one would shun the

dens of slimy adders. They constitute the very

essence of witchcraft under a more polished name.

But the fact of an at least frequent invasion of evil

spirits admitted, the following question must necessarily

present itself : Can the spirits of the dead, the spirits of

the noble and the good, our own dear friends and rela-

tives, be credited with any of these performances—with
in any case exposing us to grave and constant moral and

physical dangers?

Would they not be the very first to guard us against

these dangers and to warn us against these practices?

They themselves can only come to us through the

open door

—

mind passivity. But that door, once opened,

confessedly admits all kinds of agencies. Would they

therefore be likely to cause that door to be opened under

any circumstances?

From this point of view therefore, too, experience and

reflection compel us to reject the spiritistic interpretation

of the phenomena.

And does not this interpretation really condemn itself

in the end? The better class of occultist and spiritists

admit (often only incidentally, it is true) that the

“higher” spirits are in a sphere whence they can no

longer communicate with earth, this being possible

only to those who are still in the lower spheres and

earthly-minded—still full of earth’s passions and desires.
Must we not therefore conclude that in any case earth-

bound spirits only (whatever their nature) are admitted

by the open door?

50



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

The legitimacy of the claim of the spirit-agencies and

of modern Spiritism is further disproved by the

3.—Admitted Dangers to Health Attending
Evocations.

In the description of the part which the medium plays

in spirit evocations, a brief account has been given ol

the morbid symptoms which attend the process. See

p. 19. The very life-forces of the sensitive would seem

to be utilised for the purpose and in a manner and under

conditions which render any kind of control or check

on his part impossible. The loss of consciousness, with-

out which the “astral” matter cannot be abstracted,

leaves the medium a helpless and passive instrument in

the hands of the spirits. This is in itself a circumstance

which must awaken misgiving in the minds of all right-

thinking men. There are many who may have no hesi-

tation to expose strangers to these perils in order to

satisfy their curiosity; but there are few who would be

disposed to see a son or a daughter in this condition.

But all recent scientific testimony proves conclusively

that the exercise of mediumship is attended by a morbid

state of the constitution and by symptoms and mani-

festations which are repulsive in the extreme. And it is

equally certain that the drain upon the medium’s vital

forces is a severe one and, in the course of time, becomes

irreparable. This again accounts for the steady moral

and physical “downward course of mediums who sit

regularly.”*

It is a significant circumstance that the scientific habit

of mind leads some experimenters to make confessions

which are in many instances fatal to their own theories

and interpretations. I will in this connection give

* Sir W. F. Barrett.

51



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

references from the printed works of two scientific men,

the weight of whose testimony cannot very well be

questioned. And it is interesting to note that the state-

ment of one of these, who experimented forty years ago,

corroborates that of one who studied the phenomena

within recent years. Sir William Crookes wrote this

:

After witnessing the painful state of nervous and

bodily prostration in which some of these experi-

ments have left Mr. Home—after seeing him lying
in almost fainting condition on the floor, pale and

speechless—I could scarcely doubt that the evolu-
tion of psychic force is accompanied by a corre-

sponding drain on vital force.

Professor Lombroso’s statement has been given on

p. 19. It may be supplemented by the following:*

When she (Mme. Palladino) is about to enter into
the trance state, she lessens the frequency of the

respiratory movements, just as do the fakirs, pass-

ing from 18 inspirations to 15 and 12 a minute,

while, on the other hand, the heart-beats from 70

to 90 and even to 120. The hands are seized with

jerkings and tremors, the joints of the feet and

hands take on movements of flexure or extension

and every little while become rigid. The passing

from this stage to that of active somnambulism

is marked by yawns, sobs, perspiration on the fore-

head, passing of insensible perspiration through the

skin of the hands and strange physiognomical

expressions. Now she seems a prey to a kind
of anger, expressed by imperious commands and

sarcastic and critical phrases, and now to a state

of voluptuous-erotic ecstasy. In the state of trance

she first becomes pale, turning her eyes upward and

her sight inward and nodding her head from right

to left
;
then she passes into a state of ecstacy, exhib-

iting many of the gestures that are frequent in

hysterical fits, such as yawning, spasmodic laughter,

frequent chewing, together with clairvoyance and a

* After Death—What

f

52



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

word often extremely select and even scientific and

not seldom in a foreign tongue with very rapid

ideation, so that she apprehends the thought of those

present even when they do not express it aloud or

utter it in a mysterious manner. . . .

Such are the statements of science, seldom alas! made

known to the public in the more popular works on

Spiritism. This is no doubt due to an instinctive feeling

that, rightly regarded, they must be seen to be utterly

fatal to the popular spiritistic interpretation. It is wholly

inconceivable that the spirits of our beloved dead could

avail themselves of means, attended by such disastrous

consequences to health, to make their presence known

to us—for the most part in order to make some trivial
and worthless communication. If these spirit-agencies

are human beings at all it is evident that they must be

beings of an extremely low moral order, possessed of

no conscience or sense of responsibility. From no point

of view can rational men regard a spirit-intercourse of

this kind as a part of the constituted order of nature,

or as a means by which new fields of knowledge, either

intellectual, moral, or spiritual are being opened up to

the world.

The facts here asserted, and borne witness to by

thousands of wrecked lives and homes all over the world,

are in themselves sufficient to explode the preposterous

claims of the spirits that they are coming to the world

on a mission of benevolence and enlightenment!

Another circumstance disproving the reasonableness

of the spiritistic theory is

4.—The Admittedly Contradictory Character of
the Teaching of the Spirits.

There is perhaps no aspect of the spiritistic theory

which is more utterly destructive to its claims and which

53



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

so forcibly illustrates its untenableness and futility. We

look in vain for anything even approaching oneness of

idea or principle in the teaching emanating from the

spirit-world. All is contradiction, chaos, and confusion,

and often one spirit emphatically asserts what another

just as emphatically denies. It is consequently quite

impossible to construct from the material before us any-

thing like a universally admitted fact or truth. Some

spirits, for instance, teach re-incarnation; others eagerly

contradict it. The spirits speaking in France, England,

Germany and America teach mutually contradictory

religious doctrines and give information on a hundred

other matters which they could not possibly have drawn

from a common and identical source. One band of

spirits, when confronted with these contradictions and

absurdities, will accuse another band of inaccuracy or

of base lying and imposture. The mind, seriously

attending to these communications, ultimately becomes

so hopelessly perplexed that it abandons the search after

truth altogether and finds its consolations in the inter-

course itself, contenting itself with the thought that it

is at least demonstrative proof of the certainty of a life

after death. It becomes then a matter of going from

seance to seance with a restless craving for further

phenomena and yet with the craving never wholly

appeased. And the probable ultimate aim of the spirits

is thus effectually attained. The mind lapses into that

pure naturalism and subjectivity in religion, from which

the objective truths of Christianity were to deliver it. It

passes into a condition of “ever learning but of never

coming to the knowledge of the truth.”* And this mental

attitude again is in harmony with the tendency of the

times and flatters the intellectual vanity of the experi-

menter. * I St. Tim. iii, 7.

54



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

A scientific student of the subject has summed up his

observations*!* on the matter of spirit-teaching in the

following words

:

Another not less surprising fact is the facility

with which the spirits adapt themselves to the tastes

of their clients. It might be said, like the ancient

Pythoness, who suited her oracles to please King

Philip, so to-day the spirits are partial to the pro-

fessed opinions of those who consult them, pious

with the pious, affectionate with the affectionate,

political with politicians, business-like with mer-

chants, learned with the lovers of learning, thought-

less with the gay, vulgar and gross with the vulgar.

For this reason in England the spirits are sceptical,

discursive and cautious
;

in Germany, mystical

speculative, and transcendental
;
and in France, licen-

tious, generous, thoughtless and frivolous. In the

United States of America they are positive, dog-

matic, and bold, and proclaim metempsychosis,

whilst elsewhere, especially in Italy, they declare

themselves to be pantheists, atheists, materialists.

Among the Mormons, and in Utah, they approve
and praise polygamy; and then where abortion is

commonly practised, they declare it to be both law-

ful and a duty. In Russia they praise the ortho-

dox religion, and at the same time encourage the

nihilistic propaganda. In Spain, on the other hand,

they demand that all spiritistic societies shall be

incorporated with the Freemasons, declaring that

spiritism has common cause with the latter with
regard to principles and the chief foundations of

doctrine, &c.

It should be borne in mind that this hopeless confusion

and contradiction of ideas displayed in “the teachings”

conveyed by the spirits claiming to be on a mission of

enlightenment to mankind, has been observed by almost

all occultists of past and present times. I will here quote

only one, Swedenborg, who, it is well known, practised

+ The late Dr. Lapponi in Hypnotism and Spiritism.

55



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

automatic writing. But he writes: “the spirits have

sometimes, indeed often, directed my hand when writing,

as if it was quite their own—showing, however, regret-
able disregard of truth—for almost everything they say
is made up by them and they lie.”*

And the fact itself is, of course, fully admitted by

the spiritists of the better kind. Dr. Peebles himself

explains these contradictions “by obsessions—obsessions
by evil spirits, often termed demons,” against whom he

tells us, “certain protection is to be had by sincere prayer,

pure desire, and real faith in the ‘upper’ universe.”

But on what grounds, we may surely ask, can man

hope for such protection from the ‘upper’ universe when

by his own deliberate folly and unlawful procedure he

has admitted the evil into his life? It is by reason of

considerations such as these that Sir William Barrett

exclaims : “Every one outside a lunatic asylum must

revolt from the hideous nightmare of a spiritual realm

such as is depicted by the quasi ticket-of-leave ghost

met with in the physical and form-manifestation of the

spiritualistic seance.”

The unprejudiced student of the subject would add:

And in every other kind of spirit-manifestation known

to us! Another writer admits that we have “beyond

all doubt tapped the other world,” but it seems to him

that “we have tapped it at the Lunatic Asylum end.”

5.—The Dictates of Reason and Common Sense
moreover must pronounce against the spiritistic inter-

pretation of the phenomena. Such at least is, with few

exceptions, the view of those who have not themselves

fallen victims to the fascinations of the seance-room and

of the spiritistic philosophy. No other view is thinkable

* Spiritual Diary

56



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

where all the facts of the case are accurately known.

We cannot credit a man of sound judgment and of right

moral feeling with the belief that God could by any

possible chance have made the entranced hysterical

medium and the seance the means of enlightening man-

kind respecting truths of the deepest possible import,

thereby setting free forces and agencies calculated “to

ensnare the feet of even intellectual giants.” Reason

revolts against any such idea. It would in any case be

strangely at variance with what we know of the method

of God’s action in either the moral or the material

universe. The circumstance that thoughtful men, in

the scientific and the spiritistic spheres, can seriously

propose such notions for our acceptance must be ascribed

to the fact that their minds are “held” by prepossession

in favour of the spiritistic theory, which prepossessions

come to be created by the spirits themselves in the

process of continual experiment. The history of modern

spiritism furnishes numerous examples of the strangest

possible aberrations on the part of the men who, in the

ordinary affairs of life, are conspicuous for their good

judgment and common sense. But, prompted by the

spirits, and under their direction and unconscious

influence, they will do and say things which under

ordinary circumstances, they would be the first to con-

demn. There is unhappily no limit to human folly in

this respect!

Many investigators, too, strongly affected by the

mental reaction consequent upon these unexpected dis-

coveries, become possessed of a sort of scientific craving

to prove man’s survival of death by means of these mani-

festations, and this craving would seem to deprive them

of the power of rightly weighing evidence and of looking

at the other and less favourable side of the picture. They

57



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

are thus quite unable sometimes to perceive what is plain

and apparent to most other minds. The late Professor

Lombroso may be cited as an instance 'strikingly illustrat-

ing this point. In his last work, published a very short

time before his death, he gives the following account of

what took place at one of his seances:

I myself had the opportunity [he writes] of

examining a similar apparition in Genoa in 1903.

The medium (Mme. Palladino) was in a state of
semi-intoxication

,

so that I should have thought that

nothing would be forthcoming for us. On being

asked by me, before the seance opened, if she would

cause a glass inkstand to move in full light, she

replied in that vulgar speech of hers; “And what

makes you so obstinately stuck on such trifles as

that? I can do much more. I can cause you to see

your mother to-night. You ought to be thinking

of that!” Prompted by that promise, after half an

hour of the seance had passed by, I was seized

with a very lively desire to see her promise kept.

The table at once assented to my thoughts by means
of its usual sign-movement up and down, and soon

after (we were in the semi-obscurity of a red light)

I saw detach itself from the curtain a rather short

figure like that of my mother (at that moment
Eusapia was certainly held by the hand by two

persons and her height is at least four inches greater

than that of my poor mother, of whose appearance
she had not the faintest idea) veiled, which made

the complete circuit of the table until it came to me
and whispered to me words heard by many, but
not by me, who am somewhat hard of hearing. I
was almost beside myself with emotion and begged

her to repeat her words. She did so, saying

:

“Cesar, fio mio!” (/ admit at once that this was

not her habitual expression

,

which was, when she

met me: 'mio fiol”
;
but the mistakes in expression

made by the apparitions of the deceased are well

known and how they borrow from the language of
the psychic and of the experimenters) and, remov-



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

ing the veil from her face for a moment, she gave

me a kiss.

After that day the shade of my mother (alas! only
too truly a shadow) re-appeared at least twenty

times during Eusapia’s seances while the medium

was in trance : but her form was enveloped in the

curtain of the psychic’s cabinet, her head barely

appearing, while she would say : “My son, my
treasure,” kissing my head and my lips with her lips,
which seemed to me dry and ligneous like her

tongue.

We have, in this remarkable narrative, an illustration

of the degree in which the reasoning powers of the

scientific mind are affected when that mind is under the

spell of the fascinations of the spiritistic seance. For

what are the reflections which the learned Professor’s

narrative suggests?

For centuries sorrow-stricken man has stood by the

open grave, into which he has had to place what he has

loved best in this world. His heart has been wrung by

bitter anguish and his mind tormented and harassed by

doubt. He has besought God unceasingly to give him

one little sign, however faint, that the soul has survived

the death of the body and that the beloved one is still

alive in some other and better sphere of existence. The

best and noblest of mankind, presumably most dear to

God, have prayed and hoped and yearned for some

such sign, their religious faith failing them because of

the sharpness and severity of their pain. * But there has

been no response to such prayers. For reasons wholly

beyond our ken, the heart has been left uncomforted.

And yet we are asked to believe that at the will of a

half-intoxicated and hysterical woman, by no means

renowned for exceptional moral uprightness, and amidst

the repulsive “conditions” of the seance-room, the long-

craved-for sign has been given and is constantly being

59



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

given! Must we not on such an assumption either

surrender our belief in the all-wise God or condemn

the phenomenon as a display of the forces of the night-

side of nature?

The spiritistic theory finally stands condemned by

6—The Laws and Principles of the Christian Life.
It is asserted by spiritists and by some scientific men

of the bolder sort that Christ was really a superior and

unique sort of sensitive—so delicately organised that
He was in constant and sensible touch with the unseen

world and that His knowledge of occult forces enabled

Him to effect the wonders and miracles which have been

recorded. A sort of identity and parallelism is thus
established between the miraculous acts of Christ and

the phenomena of Spiritism. It is suggested that they

differ from each other in degree only. A “natural”

explanation of Christianity and a sort of reconstruction

of Christian teaching is thus made possible and is actually

being attempted. This attempt again works hand in

hand with certain religious thought-movements of our

time. Spiritism therefore is being welcomed and encour-

aged by many official teachers of religion as a valuable

aid in the fight against the Historic Faith. Some of

them defend it openly and attempt to embody its teach-

ings in the pseudo-Christian system which their imagi-

nation has created.* Numbers of unwary persons are

drawn into this labyrinth of errors—frequently to the
entire undoing of their religious life. It is often only

after much moral suffering that the fraud is detected.

For the similarity spoken of is, of course, an apparent

and superficial one only. When the matter is carefully

* See a lecture recently given by the Rev. Arthur Chambers,

Vicar of Brockenhurst, England.

60



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

examined no identity whatever is found to exist between

the miraculous works of Christ and His teaching, and

those of the spirit-agencies. The latter are seen to be

bad imitations of the former—mere travesties and cari-
catures of them, devoid of any element of religious or

moral import.

Christ worked all His miracles in the light of day,

with a full consciousness of the power which was in Him,

and with an entire absence of any sense of uncertainty

—

by virtue of His unique one-ness with the Father. His

effects were obtained by the mere word of His mouth,

by the touch of His hand, by contact with His person.

He required no spirit-circle, no medium, or sensitive,

no darkness or any other kind of “conditions” or

“states”; He did not cause tables to dance, pencils to

write, or “astral” force to be withdrawn from uncon-

scious and convulsed persons. He did not display any

magical powers to convince or impress the sceptical

teachers of the people. He healed the sick, cleansing

the leper, restoring sight to the blind, awakening the

dead to life again (not restoring them, be it observed,

in some kind of “astral” or semi-material body). And

all was done with calmness and dignity and with—cer-
tainty, for a noble and moral end and to persons for

whom these things meant an inward and moral renewal.

When spirits, speaking in human language, addressed

Him, He did not hold intercourse with them, suggesting

means of their progression and promotion to “higher

spheres,” but He rebuked them and cast them out and

warned those who had been “controlled” by them against

the dangers of a further invasion. He did this even

when they seemed to indicate a knowledge of His divinity

and His supernatural character and mission. Never, in

any single instance, did He refer to these spirits as

61



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

anything but evil spirits and those “controlled” by them

as victims and sinners.

And, even regarding Christ for a moment and for

argument sake from the spiritistic point of view, how

are we to account for the fact that He (the highest and

presumably most experienced medium), knowing the

cravings of the human heart, did not indicate by a word

that this craving could be so easily satisfied, since the

beloved dead are so near and so ready to give sensible

evidence of their presence. He never referred to the

possibility even nor the legitimacy of such intercourse,

nor pointed out by what means this intercourse could be

safe-guarded and evil spirits kept away. We cannot

even associate such an idea with the tone and teaching

of the New Testament.

And all this surely applies in equal measure to His

Apostles and disciples and to all those who worked

miracles in His name and after His time. The man

therefore who can detect anything but dissimilarity and

contrast here is the very man “to believe in the spirit-

revelations, to mistake evil for good, and darkness for

light.”

Is it necessary to add that there is nothing in Christ’s

teaching even remotely supporting the notion of an end-

less progression of the soul of an evolutionary kind, or

of a probation after death? ,, From all His emphatic state-

ments, whether believed or not, the very opposite surely

must be and indeed has always been inferred. And

mark the difference between the practices of the spirit-

ualists and their mediums in accordance with the instruc-

tions received from the spirits, and the laws and principles

of the Christian life!

The systematic practice of mediumship, as all admit,

exhausts and demoralises. It enfeebles the will, weakens

62



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

the character and creates a host of moral and social dis-

orders. The habitually passive mind becomes the play-

ground of immoral and masquerading agencies, who

dethrone reason, confuse the judgment, and fill the

mind with ideas often revolting to natural feelings and

instincts.

Christian submission and a legitimately passive atti-

tude towards God, on the other hand, spiritualise and

elevate all these natural feelings. They tend to

strengthen the will and the character, to enrich and

ennoble the mind, and to form the soul in the likeness

of Christ. Prayer and meditation and the most sustained

and persistent cultivation of this state and attitude, so

far from injuring the subject, intensify all these

beneficent effects and draw the soul into closer union

with God. They tend to make a man healthier and

happier, ready to bear suffering and life’s manifold

burdens, and to adjust, in a proper manner, all the

various relationships of life.

Who, one may justly ask, but the wilfully blind can

trace anything resembling identity or even likeness

between the latter state and the former?

For these and a host of other reasons, to which the

limitations of this book make it impossible even to refer,

Christianity utterly condemns the spiritistic theory and

repudiates the claims of the spirit-agencies.

What then must be

The True Interpretation of Spiritistic Phenomena

according to all the facts known to us, according to the

dictates of common sense and morality, and of right

Christian feeling and belief?

The reader will have gathered the answer to this

question for himself from what has been set forth in



SPIRITISTIC PHENOMENA

the preceding pages. And it will have been seen that

the statements made are not dictated by mere personal

views or perhaps by peculiar religious prejudices and

prepossessions. They have been supported by scientific

testimony and, in many instances, by the admissions of

experienced and thoughtful spiritists themselves. The

inference is a painful one and one that is scarcely likely

to be welcome to some minds.

But the inference is nevertheless inevitable when all

the facts are taken into account and when they are fully

and fairly considered.

The occult Phenomena, evoked and observed and

studied in modern times, are no discoveries by science

of hidden but normal powers in man which may be

legitimately utilised and cultivated, and by means of

which the spirits of the dead can be made to furnish

proof of their survival and by which they can impart

useful knowledge to the world. Their induction is a

revival, in modern form, of that ancient Necromancy

and Magic, which was and is to-day practised by most

uncivilised or partially civilised races, and which both

the legislators of the Jewish race and the teachings of

Christ and of the Christian Church, in every age, and

in the most emphatic terms, rigidly condemned.

It is a movement of thought, in violent and bitter

antagonism to the Revealed
,

Supernatural Truths of

Christianity
,
tending to separate the human soul from

the supernatural order and reducing it to that state of

helplessness and naturalism from which Christ came

to set it free.

Its appearance, in our time, is a literal and startling

fulfilment of remarkable words of prophecy and warning,

uttered nearly two thousand years ago.*

* See I St. Tim. iv, 1-3; I St, John iv, 1-3.

64



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