THE TRUTH A

THE S:4DLER CLASSICS BY

THE MOTHER AND HER CHILD. Mothers, fathers, and everyone who has to do wirh the care of the child should read WILLIAM S. SADLER, M. D., F. A. C. S. this book. Illustrated. 12mo...... $2.50

WORRY AND NERVOUSSESS; OR, THESCIENCE OF SELF- MASTFRY.The treatment described in these pages, for those Fellow of the American College of Surgeons; Senior Attending Surgeon to Columbus bugbears of modern living, nerwes qnd worry, are the methods Hospital; Formerly Professor at the Post Graduate hledical School of practiced in the clinic, the hospital, and the private consulting Chicago; Director the Chicago Institute of Research and room. and Recised illustrated. 12mo. 22.50 New Edition .. Diagnosis; Fellow of the American hlcdical .Association; THE PHYSIOLOGY OF F.4ITH AND FEAR; OR, THEhfIsD hlember of the Chicago hledical Society, IN HEALTHAXD DISE.ASE.Contains an interesting discussion on the Illinois State hfcdical Society, the fundamental laws and principles of mental healing. hfany original diagrams and iliustrarions add to the value of the work. the American Public Health New and Recised Edition. 1 Imo...... S2.50 Association, ctc., ctc. THE CAUSE AND CURE OF COLDS. Everyone knows by experience rhe serious inconreniences caused by il cold. hIany do not realize it is the foundation for tuberculosis and pncu- monia. All should learn how to prevent these deadly diseases. iVem rindRevised Edition illustrated. 12mo...... $1.50 THE SCIENCE OF LIVING; OR, THEART OF KEEPING\{’ELL. The final chzprer alone is xrorth the price of this book. It con- sists of 200 classified, pointed paragraphs, presePrdng the essential requirements of every phase of hygiene and the prevention of disease. A’ewandReaisedEdirion with many drawings. 12mo. $2.50 HOW TO REDUCE AXD HOJV TO GAIN. Folks who are fat -and folks who are thin, will find in this work a boon. \J”ith descriptive illustrations. Svo...... $2.50 RACE DECADENCE. An esamination of the causes of racial degeneracy in the Ucited States. Svo...... $2.50 A. C. McCLURG & CO. CHIC-AGO CHIC-

ORE than twenty-five years ago, I began the M study of spiritualism, and down through the years these investigations have been continued along many different lines. From time to time, I have had under my professional care clairvoyants, mediums, trance talkers, automatic writers, and other sorts of so-called and sensitives. As the result of years of observation and treatment of these peculiar individuals, as well as by attendance upon the seances of many Copyright mediums in this country and in Great Britain, I came, years ago, to form certain definite opinions regarding A. C. McClurg & Co. the phenomena of spiritualism, and accordingly, about 1923 a dozen years ago,. began to give public addresses Published November, 1923 touching upon the various phases of the phenomena and philosophy of spiritualism. Copyrighted in Great Britain Owing to the great interest in this subject following

,--7 I4 -- /,?g-T-/ the World War, my publishers, A. C. McClurg & Co., have asked me, in addition to my larger work on 'SpirituaZism, to revise and prepare the manuscript of my lecture on spiritualism for a briefer and possibly more popular presentation of the subject for the aver- age reader. Those wishing to pursue this subject further, are referred to the larger work previously mentioned, in which will be found a far more complete and full presentation of both the physical phenomena and the philosophical or psychologic aspects of the manifestations of modern spiritualism. WILLIAMS. SADLER. 533 DIVERSEYPARKWAY, CHICAGO.

Printed in lh uniled states of America September, f923. 'To be issued in 1924. -:

I

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE I Why Is Spiritualism?...... 1 I1 Preparing the Public Mind...... 22 I11 The Modern Spiritualistic Movement...... 65 IV Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism...... 83 V The Psychic Phenomena of spiritualism.. .. 121 1'1 The Moral and Ethical Aspects of Spiritual- ism...... 167 VII The Conclusion of the Whole Matter...... 193 j- TheTruthAbout Spiritualism'

CHAPTER 1 WHY IS SPIRITUALISM HAVE written this to tell about my experience with spiritualism, an experience which covers a quarter of a century; and at the very beginning it behooves us to pause and seek for an answer to the question as to why many people are so intensely interested in spiritual- ism. Why are we so captivated with the theories and claims respecting the ability of :he dead to return to this world and communicate with the living? In a word, why is spiritualism ? In explanation of the popular interest in modern spiritualism, there are a number of different reasons :

1. IMhlORT.4LITY - A USIVERSXL HOPE The belief in immortality, the desire to li~eagain, is a well-nigh universal instinct or longing of mankind. It seems to be inherent in the majority of the human species. This hope for life beyond the grave seem to be a part of the average man's mental equipment. The primitive savage, as well as the cultured men and women of x higher civilization, all entertain, in v~rv;nmApmrppc th;c hnnp nf cllrxAwQ1 QCtpr rlogth thic 2 The Truth About Spiritualism Why Is Spiritualism 3

natural longing for immortality. And so it seems that, have become a part of men’s lives; and so, no matter except for those cases of the intellectual stoic, those what may be the real origin of our spiritual instinct educated and disciplined minds who have so exten- and the desire to survive death - I say, no matter sively trained themselves in artificial channels of what may be the real beginning of these beliefs in a thought - I say, except for these products of modern future existence, it would seem but philosophic con- education, all mankind intensely desires to live again. sistency to believe that the all-wise spiritual forces of Just as self-preservation seems to be the first law the universe must, in all consistency, have made some of Nature, the longing for immortality seems to be the adequate provision for the satisfaction of these spiritual first hope of the unfolding and expanding intelligence longings which are so deeply implanted in the hearts of

of the human species. To preserve our lives is the con- I mankind. summate desire of today, but to survive after death is The Belief in Spirits. Let me make it clear, at the the supreme hope for the future. very beginning of this book, that I am not a materialist, ,, All primitive peoples believe in and worship a deity I am not a fatalist, as these terms are commonly under- ‘of some sort. No matter what may be the philosophic stood. I must freely admit my belief in the existence of !nature of their beliefs in immortality, all the tribes invisible and spiritual forces, though I realize that the ! and races of mankind indulge their faith in a Happy frontiers of science are being constantly advanced ’, Hunting Ground, in Paradise and Purgatory, so that - that many things which we once regarded as spiritual ‘, in some form or other they have acquired a belief in we now regard as natural. Nevertheless, I believe in ‘.an existence of some sort in the Great Beyond on the the existence of spirits, but that has nothing directly to \ other side of the grave. do with the claims of spiritualism regarding the return In this connection it is interesting to note that we of the dead to our world, to communicate with the do not find any great and dominant instinct, any uni- living. Just because I admit the fact that I am not a versal appetite or longing, hunger or thirst, which has materialist, does not in any sense make me a spiritu- become a part of human life, without at the same time alist, as regards these matters pertaining to the return discovering that means have been provided for the of discarnate spirits to cqmmunicate with the living. satisfaction of these natural longings and biologic In all my professional career I have never witnessed instincts. We find at hand the means to satisfy our what might be called a Godless deathbed scene. I well physical, social, and sex cravings, those longings which remember the Irishman who proposed to die cursing 4 The Truth About Spiritualism Why Is Spiritualism 5

God, but when, in the small hours of the morning he “If a man die, shall he live again?” is a question as was told that he would probably never live to see the old as Job. Great minds in all the past: have tugged sun rise again, and when this verdict was confirmed by away to demonstrate the immortality of the soul. two consulting physicians, then he ordered us all from From the days when the Egyptian priests consulted the room and directed his nurse to send for the priest. the oracles of Isis, and the Greeks sought truth from In our every thought we figure out that this life, if Eleusis, there has been a belief in the evocation of that is all there is to it, is not worth while - it is too the spirits of the dead. tragic. The struggle is too short and bitter, the goal is too disappointing. That such a marvelously wrought 2. SPIRITUALISM LIKE FALLING IN LOVE mechanism as the physical man, and such an intricate The belief in life after death seems to be just about and surpassingly wonderful thing as the human mind as natural to human beings as the tendency to “fall in - to say nothing of man’s higher moral and spiritual love,” and I find it is just about as hard to reason with nature-should all be created and assigned just to people in the one case as in the other, simply because traverse this “vale of tears” for “ three score years and in both cases we are dealing with a deep-seated and ten,” and then that should all end terminate in a it - fundamental human emotion. I find it just about as never-ending sleep - I say, it seems to the average profitable to argue with a real spiritualist as I do to I individual that a Mind, Power, or Force that was able argue with a young couple who are in love and deter- to qualify as the architect and builder of the universe mined to get married. ll’hen a young couple tell me - even the little that we know of it - that the Intel- they are going to pray over their love affair, I always ligent Energy which functions as the Supreme Up- tell them to save their time and go ahead, because I . holder and Director of the world in which we live have found that when a couple of infatuated youths and its associated planets; it seems only reasonable to pray about their love affairs, the Lord always answers believe that such a Power would be too aI1-wise to be yes. And so I find it with the spiritualist, once a guilty of such uneconomical conduct, such wasteful believer alwnys n believer; no matter what happens, they extravagance, and such short-sighted planning, as would excuse the blunders of their favorite medium and go be the case if death were the goal of life-if death on believing. were but the entrance into one long, black, impene- The spiritualists develop the same infatuation for trable and never-ending state of unconsciousness. their belief in the return of the dead that a young 6 The Truth About Spiritualism Why Is Spiritualism 7

man develops for his sweetheart, and both the young their hearts and not by their heads. We are emotional lover and the devotee of , fired by these psychic creatures, and there is no greater emotion in human phantasies born of their unconscious wishes, become experience than the desire to live again. blindly devoted to the object of their affection and are 3. THE REACTION TO MATERIALISM quite oblivious to all reasoning on the one hand and inconsistencies of philosophy on the other. We cannot close our eyes to the fact that during In a word, one of the explanations of our devotion the past fifty years materialistic tendencies have made to modern spiritualism is what the psychologists call great progress in the minds of the more intelligent and f‘the will to believe.” Even primitive, prehistoric men thinking elements of society. And in view of this it is were more or less religious, and indulged in the hope not strange that the World War should have pre- for immortality, as we discover when we dig up their cipitated the present day reaction of spiritualism. The skeletons and note that many of them practiced some channels of religious consolation patronized by the last sort of burial ceremonial, indicative of their belief in a generation have been more or less blocked to the future existence. thirsty souls of today. This change in the spiritual The hope of surviving death is the desire of the ages, complexion of the people is probably due to three dis- and so there has grown up in mankind a sort of instinc- tinct causes: tive will to believe this thing. a. A general breakdown in the religious tendencies The instinct to live is so intense, is so biologic and and authority of former generations. innate, that it extends over and beyond the span of b. The spread of socialism and kindred teachings our natural life on earth, and seeks to lay hold of which are devoid of a spiritual background and setting; another life beyond- seeks to merge life on this earth and with that of a future existence. And I have found this c. The rapid spread of materialistic tendencies, due desire existing in varying form in all classes of my to the enormous development of the physical sciences. patients, from the humblest and most ignorant patient Science starts out with the theory that the mind found in the dispensary to the most highly educated has nothing in it except that which enters through the and intellectual men and women of private practice. physical senses; but sooner or later even the scientist We must not forget, even in the case of our modern himself is brought face to face with intellectual phe- civilized men, that human beings are controlled by nomena which it is difficult to explain on the theory 8 The Truth About Spiritualism Why Is Spiritualism 9

of alcoholism. Truth About Spiritualism Why Is Spiritualism 19 formers ofThe the last generation had been former victims certaintyof life, then the doors are open for spiritual- ism to come in and supply this consolation which bve are further told b Y the psychologists that much onof whatOur Part we callto escape religion a Senseis a defense of insecurity reaction-an that atteeffort religion has failed to give. this life, and that in this connection spiritualism And in this connection, it is important to emphasize defense reactions. Our defense reactions are largely un- come in as a sort of substitute for Old-fashioned re- &on; that spiritualism goes a step farther in Some themconscious, and enjoyinstinctive, them, andwe automatic.don't stop to doe just much indulge rea- longings,respects thanin that religion it not onlyused takesto, to the satisfy place our ofdeclini spiritual W religious authority on the one hand, but that it Serves soning about them: And so, if spiritualism is a defense

street 'will not indulge in much logic about it. The prevalencein Some degree Of modern at least materialism. as an antidote And SO for the the psychol- undue ogists are wont to interpret this inner urge-this emotional woman will not rationalize much about her curiosity and attraction which leads to the Seance experiences in the seance room. r00m-a~ a sort of defense reaction which so many People are u"c0nsciously indulging as the result of th

. It would7. SPIRITUALISlLf seem, from someAN AKCIENT ancient PRtlCTICE accounts, that the modern mediums hnd nothing on the *leCrOn7ancersof loss of religious authority over the masses by the thee- old. The ancient mediunls \\-ere able to produce prac- logic dogmas and creeds of the present day. And SO today, just as the ditch digger craves his room, sucil as lights, sounds, voices, and other physical Sport, as the means of obtaining relief from the tedium tically all the manifestations of the modern Seance aIcoM, and the grocery clerk seeks his OUt-of-door manifestations. They likewise had wonderfu1 trance of daily life, SO in 'this day of materialistic philosophy tens of thousands of people are turning away from de- >

cadent religioll to seek consolation and confirmation of earliest records of spiritualism are probably those of

their beliefin a future existence at the hands Ofmodern the performance of Egyptian nlediums, and the Bible of tells us something of the esperiences n'Ioses and

Spiritualism. The moment orthodox religion ceases to ners of old Egypt. ;uPPlY consolation as a defense reaction to the un- The farther back we go in the study of the history 20 The Truth About Spiritualism Why Is Spiritualism 21

of civilization, the more we discover of this confusing will perish,” and on the strength of this he went for- and debasing superstition, having to do with spooks ward to battle, was defeated and drowned when and spirits, and other sorts of fantastic conception of returning to Rome, little realizing that the spirit the probable causes and explanation of commonplace, message might be true, no matter who was defeated. everyday phenomena. Careful study serves to disclose In the days of Valens, two politicians sought to se- that the roots of spiritualism are deeply sunk in aatiq- cure information from a supernatural source as to what uity. These dark teachings are found with the race at their fortunes might be in the succeeding dynasty, but its earliest historic dawn, and there is abundant evi- through regular channels of espionage, without any dence that superstitions of this sort were a part of the supernatural aid, “the powers that be” got next to beliefs and practices of even the prehistoric peoples. the machinations of these politicians, and dragged two The Greek historian,Herodotus, tells us manyinterest- of them, Hilarius and Patricius, into court, where, after ing things about the performance ofmediums in his day. much punishment, they revealed the source of their in- The early Samarians and Babylonians were steeped formation and the methods of securing it. It all sounds in mysticism, ranging from astrology to their numerous very much like a present day Ouija board seance. .attempts by various methods to communicate with the And so it would appear that the practice of spirit- supernatural spirits of the invisible world, as well as ualism- the pretense of establishing communication with the spirits of departed humans. These practices between the living and the dead - is a very ancient were prevalent all down through the centuries imme- one. From the earliest dawn of history down to the diately preceding the Christian era, and were well crys- beliefs and practices of the ,American Red Man, we tallized and had attained the dignity of a cult, or system, find the continuous record of the efforts of living nien to by the time we reach the early years of Roman history. get in touch with the disembodied spirits of their de- An illustration of the ambiguous nature of spirit parted friends - to communicate with the discarnate communications, of how mediums always play safe in entities of the wise men of past ages. There is, then, prognosticating the future, is well shown in the case nothing new in the professions and claims of modern of the message which the Sibylline oracles sent to spiritualism. As a practice, as a belief, a doctrine, it Maxentius, who inquired as to what the probable for- seems to be just about as old as the race. At least, we tunes were in his oncoming contest with Constantine. find it present in the philosophic teachings of the olden The oracle replied: “On that day the enemy of Rome races of all historic times. Preparing the Public Mind 23

tendencies toward spiritualism after the fashion of our CHAPTER I1 public school system, so our first group of spiritistic tendencies will be called the Kindergarten of Spiritism. PREPARING THE PUBLIC MIND

INCE the desire for immortality is well-nigh uni- 1. CHILDLIKE CURIOSITY S versal in the human species, and since there exist The very first step in the kindergarten preparation numerous well organized and quite well known sys- of the human race to be mistaught and deluded by the - tems of religious belief and other teachings which sophistries of modern spiritualism, consists in that uni- definitely assert their ability to place living beings in versal human attribute of inquisitiveness. Curiosity is communication with their dead and departed friends, the fundamental and basic psychologic trait which and since human beings are the most highly curious enables the exponents of both theologic and commer- and investigative of all animals; we must recognize cial spiritism to gain their first firm and secure hold that the stage is ideally set to favor the promulgation upon the human mind. and spread of the dogmas of spiritualism, or any other Without credulity, spiritualism would make little cult which claims to be able to draw aside the veil headway. It is pathetic - yes, it is even tragic - to which separates this life from the next, and thus in a see with what childlike innocence strong minded, measure to satisfy the combined craviilg for immor- highly educated men and women will, without ques- tality on the ofie hand and the curiosity which seeks tion, and almost without reason, swallow the flimsy to penetrate the mysteries of the futurs and the un- evidence and accept the unproved pretentions of seen world, on the other hand. spiritualistic mediums, clairvoyants, fortune tellers, And so, at this time 1 want to call your attention to and other sorts of soothsayers. the conspiracy of influences and tendencies which so Intelligent men and women, who, in their profes- effectively work, consciously and unconsciously, to pre- sions and business callings, would require that suitable pare the mind of the average individual for favorable evidence be offered in support of any and all proposi- disposi tioii toward spiritualism. tions submitted for their acceptance or endorsement,

A. THE KINDERGARTES OF SPIRITUALISM will, in the presence of alleged spooks and spirits, ac- cept, as satisfactory, evidence which will in no wise I have thought best to classify these predisposing stand the least bit of critical scrutiny. 22 24 The Tru h Abo t Spirit1 alism Preparing the Public Mind 25 certain sudden, shrill noises- but ignorance, compara- Curiosity, then, we will put down as the chief ele- tively speaking, is also wellnigh universal; and fear ment in the soil which the spiritualists cultivate, in plus ignorance equals supers ti tion; and sz4perstition, which they sow the seed that so successfully and fasci- which is so widespread among the common people, natingly misleads so many thousands of honest but added to the innate curiosity of the race, still further illogical and superficial truth seekers. We must recog- serves to prepare at least ninety per cent of the so- nize thzt the average human being does not possess a called civilized races for the sophistries and deceptions well trained, disciplined, and logical mind. The ma- of spiritualism. jority of mankind are not trained in the science of the Intelligent and supposedly well educated persons sit laws of evidence, and they are not highly gifted with down in my office every day and tell me how they will discriminating judgment and sublime reasoning powers. not start a journey on Friday. They also tell me of They, therefore, constitute readymade, ever-receptive, dozens of other little superstitions, fears, phobias, and and easily misled mentalities, which in every way lend obsessions which they indulge, showing that we are a themselves to becoming easy victims to the super- long way from freeing the popular mind of the notion natural claims and spectacular phenomena of modern that horseshoes bring good luck, that breaking a look- spiritualism. ing glass causes seven years of bad luck, or death in the

2. SUPERSTITION - FEAR PLUS IGNORANCE family, not to mention the ill omens of black cats, walk- * ing under a ladder, etc., etc. The second, and another universal human trait which I well remember being reared in an intelligent com- the spiritualists utilize in their conscious or uncon- munity in the State of Indiana, and, as a little shaver, scious business of preying upon unsophisticated hu- wearing about my neck a bag of asafetida and sulphur manity, is that psychologic trait which seems almost which was warranted to keep off disease. And well second human nature, and which we commonly desig- might it enjoy this reputation, if the bugs themselves nate by the termfear. Fear is a thing which takes root, possessed an olfactory sense! But it was merely a slight springs up and flourishes in the human mind, like a shifting from the superstition of the charms which weed does in a garden. Ignorance is the powerful fer- were worn by some of our not too remote ancestors to tilizer of fear in the soil of the human mind, and not drive off devils, which, in their day, were supposed to only is fear in a measure inherent - for we-find that be the instigators of disease. children are born with the fear of falling and the fear of .. 26 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 27 serves to lay the foundation in the minds of the cam- As long as the basis of so much of our theologic be- '- lief is fear, so long as heredity dooms so many of us to mon people for- their- blincJlbb_elref. inL.;he dogmas of spiritism and for their easy dgcq-tion by the phenomena be more or less weakminded, and modern education - .- .-- does so little to train the brains with which inheritance of sp@ tualism. does endow us; then must we expect to find prevailing It does not occur to the average person that the in the average mind a sufficient amount of fear and spiritualistic medium might be perpetrating an out- ignorance which, combined, create that superstitious rageous fraud upon their unsuspecting minds. It does state of mind which so beautifully prepares the indi- not occur to the common people that the soothsayers vidual of its indwelling to become a willing dupe and may be practicing deception upon them, and it is still ready victim to the curiosity-satisfying and supersti- more remote from the cogitations of the man in the tious-appealing delusions of spiritualism. street that this self-same spiritualistic medium may be self-deceived. At any rate, there is manifest a wide- 3. HUMAN TRUSTFULNESS spread disposition, on the part of mankind, to lend Not only is the human mind innately curious, and themselves as willing, trusting and confiding victims to this whole propaganda that centers itself about the the human being naturally superstitious, but strange to ' record, the average human being is over-trustful. pivotal theme of putting this generation of the living Many individuals, long since attaining their majority, into communication with the souls of those who have still possess that trustfulness that characterizes the passed on into the Great Beyond. child, particularly when it comes to matters religious 4. .f_C~O&~~CEOF JLAT_UBALLAW and supposedly supernatural. Not only are we cu- One great influence which contributes to the per- rious, fearfuI and ignorant, all of which conspire to make - - -- us more or less superstitious, but we are also danger- petuation of supewon.. in the minds of young people ously trustful. as thqy grow up toward maturity, is the inability._- or unwillingness of their elders properly to instruct them ---I-..---___...I_ We- ___ have------been -- taught to~ believeb-thoxsvho- teach- ----.- -- in the., ----- domain ,- . of natural___c law-in the reJm of Na- us in__ ___I___CC_.the name of~ I.religion __ ---J _._-those--.-- wha. speakjmpired ex calhedru, those who are the mout,hpiece-o_f God to ture s commonplace phenomena. their day andgeneration. And so the very trustfulness Every oppor.tunity should be embraced to disabuse of religious faith and loyalty to the theologic creed the mind of the growing child of the notion that the 28 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 29 natural -s-arld_is.jogging along in a haphazard manner, We should so educate the rising generation that when controlled more or less by arbitrary influences.”*- - Thun- it beholds a material phenomenon it will first start in, der and lightning, rain and wind,sunshlne and vege- logically and analytically, to seek to find the explana- tztion, earthquakes, volcanoes, and floods, should all tion in physical laws. Our minds. - ._^i should--.. be so trained - -- be accounted-- - for in< ---C__.___.CI accordance *with_____- the la\-s of physics in the science of logic and the art of analysis as to refuse -._--- -c .,-.I --, and chemistry as they operate in the control and direc- to asta spiritual explanation for a phEical phe- tion of the natural world. In this way much of th nomenon until every known resource of scientific check h__ on which superstition so largely acts in the case has been exhausted under the most fair conditions of primitive peoples, when it still persists in the mi experimental control and critical observation. Such the so-called civilized races, can be greatly reduced s a state of mind on the part of the observer would pre- that the mind of the modern man will come to be dom clude the possibility of the commonplace, everyday de- inated more by the notion that he lives in a world of ceptions now perpetrated by fraudulent mediums by law and order, a realm controlled by the precise laws means of their cunning tricks and trumpery. of physics and chemistry; and thus a mental attitude of self-confidence, assurance, and stability, will take 5. HOBGOBLINS AND OTHER CHILDHOOD FEARS the place of those states of fear, apprehension, and inse- The fears of early childhood are greatly augmented curity, all of which, as applied to the problem of spirit- by the careless words of thoughtless parents, v;ho, in ism, spell superstition. tliclr unthinking methods of discipline, and ignorant Much can be done to antidote the youthful tendency tecl:iiique of child-cul ture, constantly threaten their litt!e ones with “hobgoblins” and “ bogiemen, >> as an toward credulity and superstition, and subsequently ~ the leanings toward spiritualism, by the proper teach inducement to improve personal conduct and correct ing of physiology, psychology, and heredity, not general misbehavior, which is such a natcrril part of mention the physical sciences of physics, chemistry a the experience of the earlier developmental periods of geology. Both religious andsed.aamUt childhood. It is a crime to friEhten a child by taking it v their po\v~~~t~d~r~~~l~e~ng._o_f-i---he rising gen to the window at eventide and exclaiming“ boo-dark.” eration as to render it far______less susceptible- - .- to~- the sophis What unnatural and unfortunate states of mind are - -- -___I--_I___ tries of spiritualistic propaganda when it shall hav early initiated in the youthful brain by such unthinking . --._- - .- grown up to maturity. remarks as, (C The policeman will cut your ears off,” 30 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 31 “the bogieman will get you if you don’t look out,” “if you are naughty the Bad Man will come and get you,” there was added to this ghost- the stories of rap- pings on the bed, shifting of tables, and other hair- etc., etc. These thoughtless remarks by older members I of the family not only contribute to the building up of raising and heart-agitating tales, all of which were unwholesome and unnatural fear-complexes in the more or less believed by those who told them. mind of the growing child, but they also very early sug- True, the ghost story has sometimes been told as gest to its tender and susceptible soul the idea that such, but it is a fact that it is all too true that much of things unusual and extraordinary lurk in the dark; that this nonsense has been believed by the average citizen; beings- inhuman and superhuman stalk about on earth at any rate, these narratives serve to make a profound during the night season; that supernatural spirits impression upon the youthful mind and they serve to abound in this realm--LL. and thatareliable tq9;nce complete the thorough preparation of the soil and sub- upon us if_. we__ depart,. _.-- more or less from__--- thg conventional soil of the human intellect for subsequent spiritualistic and orthodox pathway of life. tendencies. A .-- * -- ,. -..^-

The doctrine ‘of good spirlts and~. evil, _.- spirits ~ --_ ~ is very From earliest memory, children recall that their early inculcated into- .. the childls,,-,J mind in the average elders manifest a peculiar fear of dead persons. They household of civilized peoples, and thus most fittingly have so many times heard the statement by some one is the foundation laid for their subsequent excursions of the family or their friends that they “would not for into the realms of supposedly applied spiritualism, in anything in the world remain in the room, alone, with a dead person. >9 The average boy or girl grows up with their efforts to communicate with the dead and to tap the intellectual storehouse of the unseen world. such an exaggerated fear of death and dead people that they often can hardly be persuaded to touch the body 6. GHOSTS - FEAR OF THE DEAD of a dead person. And all this unnatural awe and arti- Hard it would be indeed to find the individual who ficial fear of death and dead bodies which has been cul- cannot remember the cold shivers travelling up and tivated, from time immemorial, serves to develop, in down the youthful spine as they sat about the fireside the growing mind of our youth, a basic psychology on long winter evenings and listened to “ghost stories,” which most admirably serves the purpose of the spirit- as their young minds had indelibly impressed upon them istic propagandists. This uncalled for fear of the dead the narratives of haun ted houses; and as the years passed produces that state of mental awe that so readily con- tributes to that credulity and superstition which is so 32 ?‘ix Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 33 essential to preparing the mind, in later life, for the which the patient, without understanding anything of deceptions and delusions of spiritualistic phenomena. the laws of cause and effect, would swallow in ignorance and with more or less reverent awe, and straightway The belief in ghosts,... then, is the final step in the kindergarten of spiritism. It serves to round out those espect to get well - expect a sudden, mysterious, and influences which will invariably tend to make spirit- almost miraculous change of symptoms. ualism attractive to the shallow and unthinking e The superstitious awe and reverence with which the ments of our population. When you believe in ghos family physician, in a passing generation, was held in you are about ready, psychologically speaking, to ge esteem by the average household, while beautiful to out of the kindergarten class of spiritualists, and ar recall and sublime to contemplate, was, nevertheless, qualified to take up your further course in the grade but a perpetuation of that tendency of bygone times in of what might be calied the“Common School of Spi which the common people were priest-ridden, grossly itualism.” 9 misled, shamefully dominated, by the shrewder and more sagacious elements of their day and generation, B. THE COMMON SCHOOL OF SPIRITUALISM who assumed the prerogatives of religious teacher and Having passed through the kindergarten stage o medical practitioner, and in these combined roles di- curiosity, ignorance, supersti tion, childhood fears rected the management of their sufferings on earth and ghosts, and the fear of the dead, the average human sought to control their spiritual destiny when they had being is well qualified to begin the nest steps in the passed on into another world. commonplace and conventional training of the grow- The medical profession is just beginning to rid itself ing mind to become a believer in, and a victim of, , of these unfair practices and superstitious tendencies. spiritualism. Today the physician is becoming more of a teacher, instructing his patients in the laws of living, as they I. MEDICAL SUPERSTITION pertain to the realms of mind and body, thus pointing Unfortunately, we doctors, in the past, have been the sick toward the stability of natural law as the se- unconscious contributors to the credulity of our pa- curity and source of cure, leading them away from the tients. We have been wont to look wise and act tendencies of self-drugging and devotion to patent solemn, to write mysterious prescriptions in unknown medicines. Latin for supposedly powerful and potent medicines The doctors of this and corning generations can do 34 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 35 much to antidote the conventional tendency to pro- grade in the common school of preparation for spirit- duce, in the popular mind, those states of psychology ualism, magnetic healing may be said to constitute the which so easily lend themselves to unfounded and second grade. We commonly hear certain persons (C credulous beliefs in spiritualis tic phenomena. The spoken of as having a magnetic personality.” Here doctor can do much to teach his patients a proper un- our ignoranceof the laws of psychology and the means by derstanding of the laws of life, to have them under- which one person influences other persons, leads to an stand that pathology is but perverted physiology, th erroneous belief that certain persons possess some sort of disease is but the phenomenon of health manifestin influence which is commonly spoken of as “ magnetism.”

3. PALMISTRY AND ASTROLOGY. 2. “MAGNETIC HEALING9’ If medical superstition, or fear and ignorance regardS The belief that some extraordinary individual can ing ordinary medical practices, constitutes the first ’, gaze into the palm of your ha-nd and then proceed to 36 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 37 delineate character, diagnose disease, and foretell in farmers who are wont to plant their potatoes in the detail all the exigencies and emergencies of the future, light of the moon, and we still meet with the sad-eyed, not to mention the pretension of prophesy relating to downcast youth who feels that his adventures in either business affairs, love, marriage, and divorce - all but business or matrimony are doomed to failure because serve to indicate the inherent credulity of mankind, he was born under the sway of an adverse starry con- and to show just why the average man or woman is so stellation. easily imposed upon by the flimsy pretenses and per- And the net result of all this thing is but to serve the formances of spiritualism. purpose of further preparing the human mind for its The ease with which some apparently intelligent per- continued enslavement to the superstitious fears and sons are led to believe that their life, career, and eternal dogmas of past ages, and to pave the way for the subse- destiny are controlled by the juxtaposition of the starry quen t appearance of the more colossal spiri tistic de- hosts at the time of their birth constitutes still further ceptions and delusions, involving not only the health evidence of human gullibility, and indicates how willing of man’s body and the pence of his mind, but unsettling most people are to be deceived and misled by common- his intellectual equilibrium, and even jeopardizing his place superstition and the claims of those who make eternal welfare. their living by foisting upon the public the delusions of supernatural sophistry. 4. FORTUNE TELLING. , Just when astrology got mixed up with medicine is As our youth progress in the modern maze of super- hard to say, but it was certainly a prominent part of stitious deceptions and psychic delusions, they soon both the healing art and religious worship, back in the arrive at the fourth grade of the common, or prepara- earliest Chaldean periods. But the peculiar part of- tory school of spiritism, and find there their teachers, the wliole belief is its persistence down to the present the fortune tellers, all ready further to upbuild and day. There is sufficient public interest in this thing foster these credulous complexes and still further to to lead Metropolitan dailies to carry a regular column enslave their ignorant minds to beliefs in mysticism devoted to astrology, just as they do one devoted to and fears of the supernatural. health, beauty hints, cookery, baseball, etc. In the practice of my profession, I am constantly Ancient superstition lingers long in the human mind. meeting with apparently intelligent individuals whose In spite of our agricultural colleges, you can still find whole careers have been wrecked and ruined by the Preparing the Public Mind 39 38 The Truth About Spiritualism We ,*ave been taught, as a part of our theologic up- fears and misgivings generated at some time or other bringing, that in times past the Supreme Being spake in their lives by contact with a. fortune teller, who to holy men of old. We have been taught to respect predicted that some dire calamity or devastating catas- and reverence the prophets and to believe their proph- trophy would overtake them at some future time. ecies. What more natural drift of human reasoning, in The state of mind and emotion that dominates the its superficial channels, than to conclude that if men average person as they go into the presence of the for- of ancient times could contact with the supernatural tune teller, the trumpery of the environment, the dim- sources of knowledge and communicate with the fount ness of the light, the whole atmosphere of the occasion of supernatural wisdom, that perhaps after all there is such as to appeal to these primitive fears, and arouse may be some truth in the claims of those who profess the lingering superstition that still pervades the human to peer into the future, and who will, if their palms mind; and thus every influence of this sort serves but are crossed with silver, deign to divulge their vision to to strengthen those latent superstitious leanings of the us; and thus might we be able to occupy a position of race, and also to divert these tendencies into those vantage, being in possession of knowledge extra-human channels of thought and avenues of emotion that tend and wisdoni supernatural. to make them more and more susceptible to the notion The fortune telling craze is a very integral part of of getting information from a supernatural source, and the life of the common people. It is not merely the of securing advice and guidance through extraordinary quaint, brillian tly-garbed gypsy who indulges in this and unusual channels. art, but it is more or less of a serious pastime in many The fortune tellers are all advance agents for spirit- circles of societv. ualism. They are the forerunners of the medium, and 5. CLAIRVOYASCY it is but one step from seeking unearned knowledge at the hands of the fortune teller, to crossing the street to But the fortune tellers were but the commonplace get a more dependable and higher class of information - preliminary to the next step, the fifth grade of our from the medium who professes to be able to put us common school of preparatory training for the decep- in communication with the savants and sages of a tions of spiritism - the clairvoyan ts. These mystic, departed age; who claim to be able to bring up for our psychic souls, the seventh daughters of seventh sons, instruction and guidance, the dead and' departed of our these shrewd and sagacious psychic pro5 teers, born own day and generation. 40 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 41

with a veil over the face, are regarded with super- gifted in analytical reason and more reliable in mature stitious awe by tens of thousands of otherwise seem- judgment; but woman, because of this fact that she ingly intelligent men and women. How often we hear has a superior posterior lobe of the pituitary gland, has a well educated person speak of some other individual more ability when it comes to sizing up and pi-ognosti- ’ as being a “psychic.” How common is the belief of cating human character. At any ;-ate, most of the clair- one part of the race that the other possesses some extra- voyants are women, and the majoritv who have been intellectual source of information regarding human under my professional care have been able to offer but affairs in general, and individual destiny in particular. little explanation regarding their supposed abilities. I have had under my care, at one time or another, Indeed, it is very difficult sometimes, in these clair- many clairvoyants, psychics, and other of these sup- voyant cases, to determine and judge between those posedly extraordinary individuals. In most instances who are insane and those who are merely victims of I have found them to be mediocre individuals of little some minor dissociation disturbances or some major education, but who possessed an inherent sagacity, an disorder of personality. inborn shrewdness, not to say ability, that conspired to give them a peculiar and sometimes intuitive insight 6. CRYSTAL GAZING AKD SHELL HEARING into human nature. They are often good judges of lye are wont to smile at the crystal gazers and the temperament and character, and they, like the palmists, shell listeners. But they are still with us. Just as sometimes when looking into the plantar surface of the surely as there are to be found a class of people who hand, indulge in frequent and searching ...glances at the are natural born gamblers - and not at all a small face. As one clairvoyant told me: “We hold the hands clxss, by the way - persons who still confic!entlv expect 79 but we read the face. to obtain their fortune by chance, u.110 will never be It will be observed that most clairvoyants are women, weaned from the idea that you can, if 170~1are shrewd for it is a well known fact that women usually possess enough, get something for nothing; who will live and more of this intuitive ability to discern human nature -% die ever risking their fortune on the wheel of chance; as compared with men. Some of the specialists in the. so we have a natural born group of men and women, study of ductless glands tell us that this is because v-ho, instead of siibjecting their minds to rigorous women have a larger posterior pituitary; that man training, stern discipline; who, ins texl of gaining an possesses a larger anterior lobe and is therefore more education by laborious study aiid long-con tinued appli-

Preparing the Public Mind 45 dy thereon, while in this same way seeking deliverance. Barnum spoke the truth when he said,“The people Our sane and sober ancestors believed that to kiss like to be humbugged.” Now, it is true that our boys the temple floors whereon the saints had trod was sup- alld girls, as they grow up, learn that much of what the posed to confer extraordinary healing power. Of course Inagician does is by sleight-of-hand technique, by leger- c it will be argued that we are more intelligent in this day , &main. At the same time, the magician always carries and generation. But are we? Ethnologists tell us that about him, by his very personal appearance, his adver- the &Ian of Cromagnon’ had just about as mu Old tising posters, and some of those things which he says brain capacity as we have. And while, on the wh and does during his performance--I say, he suggests the we have made great progress in material a skill idea and portrays the atmosphere of the supernatural. mechanical cunning, the average man, from the rec One magician advertises his performance by a poster tests made in the United States Army, is shown to b which shows a little red devil whispering in his ear. only about twelve or thirteen years of age, mental The magicians are unconscious purveyors to cred- and therefore is not possessed of any extraordin ulity, superstition and belief in the possibility of com- reasoning power or analytical ability which would caus monplace contact with the supernatural, even though him to stand out as in any way superior to his ancesto many of them sincerely intend just the opposite. The of even a remote age. very fact that our youth are able as they grow up, to

8. THE hlAGICIANS duplicate some of the magician’s tricks, but cannot duplicate others, tends to raise the question of the Who does not enjoy spending an entertaining evenin possibility of the utilization of some of the unknown watching;,L. and being fooled a master magician? by, or supernatural forces in the perpetration of the more From childhood, we have enjoyed the spectacular, the elaborate of the magician’s stunts. There are a great elusive, the mysterious. From our earliest mernor many earnest people who will not go, even today, to we recall those moments of keen anticipation and ine a magician’s performance, because they believe he is pressible joy as we watched the magician pluck coin in league with devils - that there is something dan- out of the air or drag forth wriggling rabbits from th gerously unchristian about the whole affair. coat collars of our embarrassed townsmen. The magicians must, of course, keep the technique 1 The Cro-Magnon type lived in South Western Europe at least 25, of their tricks secret, or they would not fascinate and years ago. allure the public. We do not enjoy seeing a trick per- Preparing the Public Mind 47 petrated upon us if we understand the details of its C. THE HIGH SCHOOL OF SPIRITISM performance. It is our ignorance o~-~~e-te_chnique-that Having methodically studied those influences of attracts aiid entertains.~ I?-us. We are not allured by the earlier life which contribute to the mystic tendencies obvious aiid the commonplace. of the human mind, it will nest be in order to consider It is interesting, in this connection, to note.. that the .. Sane of the influences of a more advanced nature, rnaglclans of olden times belonged to the priesthood-. . - which likewise predispose their students and practi- that the modern magician is a sort of secular descendan tioners to the nefarious teachings and tendencies of the the sacredotal workers of a bygone age. The of occult sects.

ancient wonder-workers claimed to_- be - able- __ to.>-- reliev 1. DREAhfS AND THEIR ZNTERPRETATIORS suffering and cure- .disease-. _- by- superna-tural msthod Alexander the Great is said always to have had There can be little doubt that, from the earliest dawn __ ___.- I_---- of these medicine men connected with his staff, a of reason the phantasms of the dream world have had Nero was an ardent pupil of the Magi of his day. much to do with shaping human thought andqhilos- It must be clear that not one but many - and be ophy in its waking moments. Undoubtedly, the vague we have finished, we shall show still others - influence symbolism, the mystic atmosphere, and the unreality and agencies are at work which, all taken toge of many persons and objects recalled from the dream serve to create a mental state easy of approach by experience, has had a great deal to do on the one hand technique employed by spiritualistic mediums. T with the evolution of primitive religion, and has exerted after having discussed those kindergarten or an undoubted influence on the other hand toward pre- influences so basic in the psychology of man, as em- disposing mankind naturally to incline, in his philos- braced in fear, superstition, curiosity, and trustfulness, ophy, toward a belief in the reality and existence of

we have come on down through a group of eightu co spirit beings who inhabit an invi,si~!e_worl_d-.a~~utus; monplace practices which we have called the comm and thus it required but the suggestion subsequently or preparatory school for spiritualism, ending with to lead us to believe that these invisible beings might magician; and next we will proceed to a further st be disembodied spirits of our departed friends and along these lines, by taking up a group of influen neighbors. And this would not seem altogethey new

which we may appropriately denominate the " or unnatural, since we commonly dream of seeing per- school of spiritism. 2) sons who have long since died, and we frequently hold

. .. 48 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 49

converse with our departed friends in our dream experi- the last analysis, the net result of this ancient and even ences- and thus it seems very likely that the basic modern tendency to attach undue significance to our psychology of spiritualism had its early suggestion and dreams has been to further the cause of spiritu a 1'ism - remote origin in the phantasies of the dreani life of the to strengthen our belief in the probability of the exist- race, which were carried over from time to time into ence of spirits, unseen personalities surrounding us and a state of consciousness and vividly recalled to memo hovering about us as we journey through this vale of at the termination of the slumber period. tears. Still further, as we study the subject of dreams, learn that as far back as historic records are accessi 2. FUNERAL SERMONS there early came into existence a cult or priesth Not only is the young and growing mind destined to who specialized in the inter, ..tation of dreams. T be plagued with the pfi*hlemof deciphering its dreams, dream book is as old as the hills. Every syrnbolis and troubled with thkirobable interpretation thereof; every fancy and imagination of the dream life w but for our second year of high school training, pre- supposed to have a literal significance, and constitute liminary to the college course in spiritualism, we can an effort on the part of the invisible world to co appropriately consider the suggestive--- influence and municate warnings, advice and information to th psychologic impression made upon the mind of an I __ - living. It is not always clear just what was the exa adolescent youth who, in the course of human events, philosophy or theology of this belief in dreams. Th is sooner or later called upon to attend an orthodox is, as to whether dreams were controlled by super- funeral-service, and listen to the conventional fungal _. ~. natural forces, good demons, angels, or n-hat not- sermon. p ow, I im not making flippant criGIcism of who all the while were trying to make themselves things religious or spiritual. But I feel it incumbent manifest to us during the night season; or whether, upon me sincerely and critically to analyze every factor was the belief in more recent times, it was the spir in the preliminary psychologic preparation of the minds of the dead and departed who were trying to eo of men which tends to ripen and prepare them for the back, and through the symbolism of the slumber seaso deception of spiritism, and therefore, honesty requires were trying to communicate superior wisdom or imp that we deal with these things frankly and fearlessly, dire warnings to their loved ones. but kindly withal. Whatever the philosophy of the thing may be, I well remember the first funeral sermon 1. ever 50 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 51 heard - my readers will probably recall a similar ex- such-o.ccasions is solemnly taught that our departed perience, What more impressive occasion, when in friends are not in reality dead; but that tkky have the presence of our beloved dead, as we listen to the passed-on to a greater sphere; that they have but exhortations and admonitions of the shepherd of the entered upon an enlarged existence; that even while faithful flock who endeavors, in his well-meant efforts we mourn their loss they are able to I,ook down in supreme happiness from their heavenly place in the to utilize the- . occasion- - .- I _-__of sorrow_- ~ and Abere.avsz9Lan ..~* - ,__ ------.-----.------the presence of the dead, to impress upon&ose pKese sprrrt world; and we are told that, as they behold us, their solemn obligations to righteous conduct ‘ an they long to comfort our sorrow, and console us in our - .-.------r---;---* higher living.. __ - The clergyman’s. . ..---- ms

departed relatives hovering over me. I was fearful t ‘ goes through the audience examining coins, touching look up or to either side, lest my eye should meet objects, and otherwise designating those things which apparition from the spirit world. the blindfolded mind reader more or less accurately

Nevertheless, the net-I_c result._-- of these popular funer describes, and the general impression is given to the sermons is to impress____ --- upon-the -young. mind ve audience that she is reading their minds, or at least the vividly and directly, and under emotional conditio mind of her working partner. There prevails at the destined to make such impressions indelible and li present time a general belief on the part of the common people, that certain individuals are “mind readers. >> long-I say, the young mind at such times and 52 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 53 wireless and in radio we are dealing with more or less It is but a step from this commonplace belief in the well known physical laws, and that they work irrespec- existence of ‘‘mind readers” to the more refined phil- tive of person and other human influences, being regu- osophy of telepathy. Telepathy is the alleged psychic lated by known laws and favored or hindered by ability to send and to receive messages, independent known physical and material conditions. of the ordinary organs of sense. Now, it is plain that if one human being, a human entity, can send through 4. THE OUlJA BOARD the ether a mental message to another materialist’ As the last grade of the high school of spiritism, we human being, by means of telepathy-then eve may consider the Ouija board, that queer little three- material beings possess an immaterial, or at least legged contrivance, and its table base, that is regarded supersensory mode of communication with each 0th by some earnest souls as being the mouthpiece of Once granting this, how easy it would be to take Satan, and by others as being the channel of Divine next step, and conceive that the material mind mi wisdom for God’s erring creatures on earth. be utilized merely as a feasible receiving or send We have witnessed a veritable Ouija board craze in aerial over which the spooks and spirits of the invisi the United States in recent years. Drug store windows world could initiate and register vibrations which cou and notion store counters have exhibited these sup- be picked up by those in tune - en rapport - and who posed mediums of communication between this world would thus be in a position to transcribe these messages of the other world to the -open-mouthed spiritual and the next in endless profusion. As a result of all the philosophic and psychologic preparation and pre- plebeians of the material world, much as the wireless liminary religious training which-_ serve to foster super- or radio operator would receive the ticks and dashes of stGion and favor deception, to which the growing minds the Morse code by a wireless wave and then translate -.-.- - of our boys and girls have been subjected, as we have them to the “common herd.” heretofore noted, the time has now come when they And the wireless telegraph and telephone, the present are ripe to do a little experimental work on their own day popular radio craze, serve the purpose in many account,.and a few pennies or some kind neighbor, for minds of confirming their belief in the fantastic and the mysterious. For they reason that here is a common this purpose, will supply the Ouija board. This con- traption, whose name means “Yes, yes Board” appears communication passing right through space fro to have got this name by a corruption of the words sender to receiver, but they overlook the fact that in

I Preparing the Public Mind st I ne I rum NDout 3piritualism 55 least conscious thought of seriously regarding the which are the equivalent of yes in the French and messages which ]nay by chance come to them from the German Ian gu ages. manipulation of this harmless-appearing Ii t tle tripod; My attention was first directed to the influence of nevertheless, credulity, fear and supersti tion operate the Ouija board several years ago, when I was called with such unerring certainty and with such inherent upon to attend a highly nervous, much wrought up power, and since they have been so thoroughly prepared patient, an excitable woman who had recently lost a by a hundred and one influences, extending from the daughter, her only child, and who had been experi- ghost story of their childhood days down to the phil- menting somewhat with spirit mediums, but more osophic con tent of a recent touching and solemn funeral with the Ouija board, and who, as the result of her sermon, they not infrequently succumb to the psychic experiments on the frontiers of spiritland, had become treachery of this specious deception. unbalanced - had, plainly speaking, gone crazy. And So we are prepared, in becoming expert and enthusi- I have come in contact with no small number ofcases astic Ouija disciples, to graduate from our high school since that day in which the Ouija board and its associ- preparation for spiritualism, and can be considered now ated ideas have contributed much to the overthrow of full-fledged candidates, with proper qualifications, to reason in the mind of some soul predisposed to these take up the more advanced studies and adventures things by hereditary nervous and mental instability. which we shall next consider as the college course of Of course, I well understand that many people take ... spiritism. up the Ouija board as a diversion, as a means of parlor amusement, They outwardly proclaim their disbelief D. A COLLEGE EDUCATION IN SPJRITIShf in the whole spiritualistic proposition, but at the same We have reviewed the experiences of the average time they overlook the fact that they have, from the civilized youth from childhood up through the kinder- earliest dawn of reason, been unwittingly prepared by garten of spiritism, the common school of superstition their elders, up through a graduated and progressive course of psychic training, which predisposes them, in and credulity, into the years of the adolescent high school experiences things occult, mysterious, and certain conditions and under favorable circumstances, in supposedly supernatural; and we are now ready to to be unduly affected by these mystic and spiritistic take the study of what might called a college influences. And so, while they start out upon their up be course in the occult. believe agree with me Ouija experiments innocently enough, and without the I you will Preparing the Public Mind 57 56 The Truth About Spiritualism human beings who are possessed of unusual powers and that the pre-college training has been thorough-going who are able to utilize their psychic gifts in such a and adequate, and that by the time the average manner as to exert this peculiar influence over their individual has reached the age of young manhood or fellows. While I distinctly regard the hankering for young womanhood, they are quite thoroughly grounded hypnotism and the undue interest in all of these pseudo- in those essentials which are requisite for the making k& psychic sciences as an indication of that state of the of a good candidate for a college course in spiritism. ,%. public mind which is bent upon seeking those things

1. HYPNOTISM which are spectacular and supposedly supernatural, at the same time I recognize that hypnotism is unduly While, to the psychologist, hypnotism is a science!< feared in many circles, and I believe that it has little more or less well understood, and one which is, largely. or no value in the treatment of ordinary nervous dis- at least, based upon the known laws of psychology an ' eases. physiology; nevertheless, to the man in the stree hypnotism has always stood for the mysterious, an 2. CHRISTIAN SCIENCE AND THEOSOPHY represents a performance that, in the opinion of the Many well-meaning and earnest Christian Scientists average citizen, borders on the supernatural. If yo will no doubt resent my opinion that the practices and are able to hypnotize your fellows, they are going dogmas of the cult tend indirectly to gather recruits look upon you with more or less awe, and feel that yo for the cause of spiritualism. M'e do not necessarily are in possession of powers entirely beyond the range mean by this that many who have embraced Christian of the average human being. Science wiil in turn become spiritualists. That is not While it is true that much of the commercial hyp- always the way in which the influences which make for notism exhibited in public stage performances is en spiritism... work. As we have already seen, there are so tirely fraudulent, and the amusing antics of the subject many presen t-dav tendencies which unconsciously pre- but represent the doings of a confederate for a pay, pare the minds of average individuals to be favorably the same time, there are to be observed a sufficie inclined toward spiritism, while at the same time such number of real demonstrations of hypnosis now an an object was very far from the intents and purposes then to keep the subject alive the popular mind, an in of those responsible for these various agencies and to contribute directly to the further confirmation oft activities which constitute the conventional and ortho- belief of mankind in the existence of estraordinar 30 I LAC: I 1 ~’ciifiuouc apiriruallsm Preparing the Public Mid& 59 dox training of spiritualistic candidates. It is not that in Christian Science, after all,” and though they liever+1- LC so many Christian Scientists are destined to become join the Christian Science church they are directly or spiritualists, but rather it is the spiritistic tendency ‘ indirectly influeliced in the belief that the spirit world of the whole Christian Science system which exerts that is able to mnnipulate the material world; that health influence upon its immediate communicants and the and disease of the body are regulated by the mental public in general, that leads them to expect so much state and controlled by spiritual forces; and the net from exclusive spirit agencies. result of all this psychic drif

over-emphasis upon the spirit. It is quite in keepin Spiritualism both thrive on the same sort-.I- ,. of human -- with the inherent tendency of the race to explain ev curiosity, thrit same sort of willingnessTo accept as the material manifestations of nature by ancient spirit -- - .--*-+-- true- ..----.--,a host of theological fallacies and unproven pre- .-.. 1_ __-.. _c ---. -. .__, is tic theories. tensions. The very fact that, let us say, a million people ar As if Christian Science were not enough to have willing to believe that all is spirit and nothing is matter precipitated upon the present age in the nefarious -and presume there are many more who lean I scheme of preliminary spiri tis tic preparation, we must toward this sort of philosophy- this very fact serves needs have a revival, in our day and generation, of to impress the subconscious public mind with the notion theosophy and other Hindu mysticism with all their that, after all, the important thing in life is spirit and numerous phantasms, ranging from the idealism of spirit connections; that human suffering is a figment Berkleyisrn to the transmigration of the soul. And of mortal mind; and that evil aild sorrow are but vain these occult and mystic propagandas are cited in this imaginations. there a psychologic reflex Now is from connection only to complete the list- to finish the all this propaganda, on the public mind, which exer story of the spiritistic... tendencies of modern times- a pernicious influence upon tens of thousands of to recite how things old and new are being utilized viduals who never become formal communicants o in the culminating influences of the twentieth century Christian Science cult. They frequently make a j designed to enthrall the minds of men with ancient remark about something that has happened in t superstition, and enslave the modern intdlect n-ith the neighborhood, saying, “Well, there must be something dogmas and delusions of witchcraft and nec7.s 60 The Truth About Spiritualism Preparing the Public Mind 61 3. hlIRACLE SEEKING - DIVINE HEALING given a tremendous boost to the cause of occultism by There exists today the same willingness on the part the advances which they have caused to be made in of the people to be misled and deceived as was found the psychologic sciences. Society is beset on all sides in the minds and hearts of our forefathers, and t with books, magazine articles, and other forms of

power of these modern humbugs_cI -.LII of heal% is foun literature, not to men tion popular lectures, special to consist in their ability apparently to cure diseas classes, etc., dealing with psychic themes, applied psy- Having relieved physical pain and seemingly cure chology, mental efficiency, new thought, mental science, bodily disease, the teachers of these systems force th and so on, ad infiniturn. religious and ethical v.i ews-ap~~~heirc-onver ts--?s The psychologist has been occupying the center of price of retaining ,he-albg.-qndjegai&ngJ:al t h. the scientific stage for some time, though he is being This is certainly the day and generation of mirac seriously crowded at the present time by the bio- seekers, as well as thrill chasers. The thoughtless an chemists with all their recent lore respecting the endo- frivolous bend every energy and pursuit to diversio crines of the ductless gland system. Nevertheless, the and amusement. The solemn and serious go in que psychologist has exerted a master influence over the of the spectacular and unusual in theologic lines an minds of the public for the past two decades, and no in occult circles. In the end we are all looking for t doubt this psychic tendency of modern science has,

same thing. We---- want to be .startled , ~ and thrilled, no both directly and indirectly had much to do with to mention amused and entertained. It is the same old helping to focus the attention of the public mind upon

inherent human curiosity,-. the spirit of adventure, the the more mystic and occult phases of psychic phe- motive of the explorer. We have just about explore nomena. the entire face of this planet, well-nigh mastered t If the human mind can have such a tremendous physical laws of earth, sea, and sky, and now man influence over health and disease, over happiness and inquisitive nature must turn itself toward the real prosperity, the unthinking individual reasons, perhaps of the invisible and the worlds of the supernatural the spirits may have a still more powerful influence. A study of true psychology would be the surest pre- 4. THE PSYCHIC RESEARCH SOCIETIES ventative, the quickest cure, for spiritualistic tendency, It seems that modern civilization is passing throug but the study of a good deal of this half-baked pseudo- a psychic age. The psychologists have unwitting1 psychology only tends to foster superstition and increase Preparing the Public Mind 63 62 The Truth About Spiritualism themselves to the more pretentious modes of investi- confidence in the mystic and mysterious. Quack psy- Qation- carried on by the various societies for psychic chologists are in league with the mediums of spiritual- research. At least these organizations go through the v ism in that they unconsciouslk- lead their students and joriii of investigating spiri... tistic phenon~ena,and they followers away from a recognition of natural law as 11nve contributed a great deal, mioi?g the more intelli- c the explanation of the phenomena of life, and lead them gent circles, the better educated cIasses, to stimulate unduly to lean toward, and depend upon, invisible an interest in psychic affairs and directly promote the psychic and fictitious spiritistic explanations to acco cause of spiritism. for commonplace experiences, and ordinary, every While these societies for psychic research have done phenomena. much to eliminate the more palpable frauds, they have Too bad that we cannot have more real psycho1 at the same time, performed a valual>le service to the taught the common people; that we cannot have spiritists, in that they have served the purpose enor- of it in the schools, Unfortunate, indeed, that mously to advertise the more pretentious and high not better teach our boys and girls and our college clnss mediums. As one encyclopedia sa)-s, ‘‘ Its work students those principles of psychologic and physical has tended to put limits to the claims which have been law that would... make thein largely immune to the made for communication with the discarnate, though sophistries of spiritism. But perhaps it is too much ’ it has at the same time tended to strengthen the belief expect that even such a thorough-going scienti by giving it better scientific credentials than it has training could prevent certain psychic souls from being Ixretofore possessed. ” In other ivorc1s, the society for attracted by the occult, since so many men of science, psychic rescarch has sought to pro\.e itself n sort of men at least who had a reputation for-scientific ac- I?un and Rrudstreet for the n-l;c;lespiritistic ... movement, curacy, have been led to commit themselves, mind, gix-ing the la!-men, as it were, n sort of psychic rating soul, and body, to the cause of spiritism. on the various classes of mediums and pseudo-mediums. And now, if the students of the occult and the And so, as we wind up our study in ,this, what we “spook seekers” have not been able fully to satisfy have for the sake of comparison denominated the their longing for adventure in the psychic realms of senior year in our college course in spiritism,... we see mysticism; if perchance they have to some small that we have had a progressive training in mysticism, degree a scientific bent of mind, then they can with credulity an3 sliperstition, from the early years and more dignity and some feeling of consistency turn he Truth About Spirituaii,,,-

y frights of childhood, up through the quest

jsterious and the seeking of the supernatural Lhr A* 5 of fortune teilers, clairvoyants and the Ouija THE MODERN SPIRITUALISTlL :o our actual contact with trance mediums, , and the apparent demonstration of the ability Y RESEARCHES have led me to believe that disease in answer to prayer and the touch of M themodern cult of spiritualism, as we understand Rho are supposed to be representatives of divin it and recognize it today, really had its origin with the teaching and doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg (1688- d now what is the net result of all this? Si 1772). Swedenborg was a physialogist of more or less nd the minds of men away from natural law note, who lived in Stockholm. His first published true explanation of the life phenomena of works dealing with philosophy and theology appeared .let. To lead honest minds away from a set in 1734, and it was about at this time that he began 1established belief in the orderly procedure of a his extensive researches in physiology and anatomy OUT world and from the fact that, commonly spe for the purpose of locating the human soul, and h{ lg, matters of health and disease, happiness and pros- published numerous works dealing with his researchc a jerity are dominated arid controlled by reign along this line. He claims to have had Divine revel natural law. The net result of all our repeated exc tions in which were revealed to him the philosophy sions into the occult, and our tampering with th the spiritual world, and he published numerous wo mystic, is to make of us potential spiritualists- to containing these alleged revelations. educate men and women to look to and depend upon, the unseen for information, comfort, and consolation; and to seek to obtain by unearned and short-cut extra I, THE human methods, wisdom, information and skill, While it is probably true that Swedenborg w father of modern spiritualism, American spiri ti as a spectacular phenomenon, seems to have-' origin in Hydeville, near Rochester, New York, hTearthis little village there lived a farmer by t 65 66 The Truth About Spiritualism The Modern Movement 67 of John D. Fox, He had a family of six children, two saqes- were received from what purported to be this of whom (daughters) were living at home. It seems dead man Rosma’s spirit returned to the scene of his that the Fox family, who had but recently moved into murder. It is claimed that many of these messages this home, were early disturbed by peculiar nocturnal lvsre verified, and Margaret Fox began to develop very noises. These strange sounds were attributed to rat extraordinary occult ability as time went on, and many and mice, loose boards, and what not, but ere 1 remarkable seances were held by her with the rapping appeared that these noises were more or less sy spirits. Scores of people who attended these seances atized, and so it is recorded that on the night of M were led to believe that the Fox girls were really in 1, 1848, when the parents and the two daughters cor?imunication with the spirits of dead and departed gone to bed in the same room, these noises, or as souls. These raps were always clearly associated (with Ct were later called, rappirigs,” became unusually VIO the two daughters, Margaret (aged fifteen) and Kate lent. It would seem that Mrs. Fox became inordinate1 or Cathie (aged twelve). A third, a married elder sister, interested in these phenomena, and she embarked upon named Leah - at that time hh. Fish, and later hfrs. a prograni of further acquaintance and experimentation T~iderhill- came to Hydeville, and, on her return to with this strange force or intelligence which had so Rochester, took Margaret with her. Leah herself was przsently a << medium. >7 The excitement in the neigh- unceremoniously invaded her quiet and unpretentious home. According to report, it seems that hlrs. Fox borhood was intense. Throughout the whole country succeeded in eliciting the information that these rap- mdiums sprang up 011 everv side, and the Foxes 11.9..Ll L> in such demand that the\’ could soon charge a ping forces purported to be the spirit of a dead man by the name of Charles B. Rosma, and as time went on ciloilx- a sitter. The <( spirits, )Y having at last dis- the spirit communicated to IbIrs. Fox the information corcred a way of communicating with the living, that this man Rosma had been murdered several years rapped out all sorts of messages to the sitters. before in the house in which these manifestations were 2. SPIRITUALISM IN AMERICA taking place. By this time the other members of the Fox family -4s near as I can ascertain, the concrete, organized, had resumed interest in these manifestations, and for spiritualistic movement in the United States had its miles around the news of the “rapping spirits” and the origin and spread from this hTewYorli episode. Spirit- Fox sisters had spread, and as time went by many mes- ualism, it should be known, is similar to socialism, in 68 The Truth About Spiritualism The Modern Movement 69 the very profitable business of spirit-rapping. The raps that there are many ramifications and branches of the and other phenomena of the Spiritualist movernen t cult, while there are tens of thousands who believe in were, Mrs. Kane said, fraud from beginning to end. its essential tenets who are not formal comniunicslnts She gave public demonstrations in hTew York of the of the organized movement. Later on, the phenomena way it was done; and in October of the same year her of spiritualism were so enlarged as to include such younger sister Cathie confirmed the statement, and stunts as table tipping, slate writing, and subsequent1 said that Spiritualism was “ all hum buggery, every lit to the actual materialization of alleged spirit entitie So the real pioneer of American commercial mediu of it” (Herald, October 10 and 11, 1888). They agreed that their sister Leah, (Mrs. Underhill), the was Leah, (Mrs. Underhill), the eldest of the three founder of the Spiritualist movement and the most sisters who virtually founded American Spiri tuali prosperous medium of its palmiest days, was a monu- She was an expert in fraud and a woman of busin mental liar and a shameless organizer of every variety Until her own sisters gave her away, forty years aft of fraud. That a wealthy Spiritualist afterwards in- the beginning of the movement, she was never exp duced Cathie to go back on this confession need not and even an exposure by her sister in the public pr surprise us. and on the public stage in New York made no differenc She was the Mme. Blavatsky, the M in her carrer. 3. SPIRITUALISV IN GREAT BRITAIN Eddy, of Spiritualism. In 1869 she first produc “Ghosts” at her sittings. Her sister Katie (so Katl Spiritualism, in its earlier history in England, was given a great impetus by one I%. F. IT7.H. hlyers, later confirmed) impersonated the dead wife of a New who took it upon himself, in connection with the York banker. Psychical Research Society, to collect together evi- Confession of the Fox Sisters. Margaret Fox married dences of moving objects, noises, lights, etc., in con- Captain Kane, the Arctic explorer, who often urged her to expose the fraud, as he believed it to be. In nection with spirit seances. It was he that reported the famous Armstrong case where the tables pranced 1888 she found courage to do so. York Herald, (New about and on one occasion came down with such September 24, 1888.) She and Katie, she said, had discovered a power of making raps with their toe: destructive force that the legs were broken. He also gave publicity to extraordinary bell-ringing, and other joints, and had hoaxed Hydeville. Their enterprising stunts which were supposed to be of spirit origin. elder sister had learned their secret, and had organiz

:’c,iz . .. .. 70 The Truth About Spiritualism The Modern Movement 71 It should be stated that, as far back as 1874, Sir wards, is reported to have had a vision one evening, TVilliaiii Crookes became attracted to spiritualism and,. shortly after retiring, after which he said to the family: read papers and made many addresses concerning his “I have seen Edwin. He died three days ago. ” And experiences with alleged mediums. His interest,in the two or three days afterward word was received an- movement considerably anti-dated that of Sir Oliver nouncing the death of his companion. Lodge. From now on ensue a succession of marvelous events, demonstrations, etc., much to the displeasure of his 4. HOME -THE PATRON SAINT OF SPIRITUALISM aunt, who was a member of the Church of Scotland, D. D. Home seems to have been the central characte and who opposed her nephew’s Wesleyan connections around which spiritualism in Great Britain had it so much that he finally joined the Congregationalists origin some fifty or sixty years ago, and Sir A. Cona as a compromise. These events, it should be borne in Doyle elevated him to the pedestal of the Patron Sain mind, are occurring about two years after the famous of Modern SpiritGalism. knockings of the Fox sisters at Rochester had attracted so much attention. Home was born near Edinburgh in 1833, of 3~. Scottish family that is reputed to have had a traditional “second It would seem that Home, after all, created much sight’’ as a part of its heredity. Home’s mother is:: more of a stir in England than he had in America. iJ - supposed to have been a sort of clairvoyant, or to have There were no Fox sisters there to share attention been otherwise endowed with second sight. He was a with him. He was the whole show in Great Britain. delicate child, of highly nervous temperan1en t. He The best of society took an interest in Home’s manifes- was raised by an aunt, who, when he was nine years of tations; earls, lords, and what not became his patrons, age, immigrated to America. and while Home does not seem to have sought to com- Home’s spiritualistic experience seems to have ha mercialize the immediate seance, it is evident that he its origin in 1845, when he and a young companion received liberal support from numerous sources. It out in the woods reciting a ghost story, and they agr would require a book twice the size of this little volume between themselves that whichever one should die first to reproduce all the letters from prominent people who he would subsequently reappear to the surviving mem- were willing to swear to the remarkable things they ber of the duet. They were soon separated by Edwin’s saw at the seances conducted by Home from time to parents moving away, and Home, a few months after- time. In the years that followed, Home visited Italy, The Modern Movement 72 The Truth About Spiritualism 73 his writings suggests that there is indeed a great pau- France, and Russia, where he conducted many seances, city of “leading lights” in the modern spiritistic mow- and became a fast friend of Alexis Tolstoi. merit - or else the present day sponsors for this new.- From 1859 to 1861 he seems to have been back and reIigion would hardly settle upon such a character as forth between the continent and England, holding Home for its Patron Saint. His whole career was seances for the highest society and royalty, and it was “fishy” from first to last; though notwithstanding the about this time that the scientist,, Faraday, contem- unsavory lawsuit and the adverse judgment of the plated an investigation, but it seems that his conditio British courts, directing him to return the fortune he were not altogether acceptable to the medium and had secured from Mrs. Lyon under the guise of spirit the test never came off. By 1860 a number of in messages from her dead husband - notwithstanding ential converts to spiritualism had been made in the utter preposterousness of the impossible claims and land. assertions of Home - his fanatical followers believed In London Home met Mrs. Lyon, who subsequent1 in him to the end, and today they wouId commemo- took a fancy to him, adopted. him - he changing his rate him, in the words of Doyle, as “the basis of the name to Home-Lyon - and settled upon him twenty- true modern spiritualism. I’ five or thirty thousand pounds at first, and subse-

quen tly another thirty thousand pounds, all of which 5. REV. STAINTON MOSES ended in a lawsuit which detracted much from Home’s About the time that Home was in vogue in England, popularity, as Mrs. Lyon claimed that the money was the Rev. Stainton Moses was occupying the center of extracted from her under spiritualistic influence. She the stage in America. Reverend Moses seems, like claimed that her deceased husband’s spirit, speaking Home, to have made little attempt to commercialize through Home as a medium, directed that she give thi his seances, but he was one of the earlier and more pre- money to Home. The courts decided against Ho tentious advocates of spiritualism in America. The and ordered the money returned to Mrs. Lyon. seances of Reverend Moses are said to have been par- It seems that in the later years of Home’s life ticularly characterized by whispering voices in the received the majority of his communications in a st magic circle, as well as by numerous lights which ap- of trance. Home died of his lung trouble and 0th peared from time to time. The voices are reported to affections on June 2, i886. have sometimes, blended into a quartet or a choir which The careful study of Home’s life and the perusal The Modern Movement 74 The Truth About Spiritualism 75 her husband, the ColoneI, and she practiced and pros- could be heard in gentle meter as if the music were be- pered until one time an accident occurred in one of her ing wafted to the hearers from a considerable distance. performances which was attended by Mr. Podmore, Of course, these manifestations always took place in a and he made the discovery of just how she liberated perfectly dark room. The majority of the seances of herself. She had perfected a method of fastening the the Reverend Pl4oses were conducted for his friend, tapes that bound her hands together, so that she could Doctor Spear. liberate herself at will and carry on the numerous Like Home, the friends of Moses claim that he stunts, all of which, of course, were done in a perfectly frequently lifted off the ground, or that he told them dark room. A London Museum proprietor also subse- experiences in which he had been levitated. So-c quently exposed Mrs. Fay, and her income as a (‘rapping” were often associated with this medi medium was so reduced that she offered, by letter, to but his chief spirit pursuit seemed to pertain to au go on his stage, for a fee, and show how all of her matic writing. From his hand, by automatic writi tricks and those of other mediums were done. This there would ensue a flood of elevating and interestilig, sort of thing becomes a real tragedy when we come to but always more or less inaccurate, material. As pre- think that by this time she had been the means of con- viously noted, lights were frequently seen floating about verting hundreds, if not thousands, to the cause of the room, and on one occasion the medium was so spiritualism and influencing them to become devout fortunate as to drop and break a bottle of phosph believers in the supernatural. whose fumes soon penetrated the whole atmosphere The Interesting Mrs. Piper. Mrs. Piper is probably the darkened seance room. I one of the most interesting specimens of

6. LATER SPIRITUALISTIC LIGHTS that ever attracted attention in America, or who was ever investigated by anything like what could purport During the half century that spiritualism has been to be a scientific commission. Mrs. Piper was even masquerading in this country and Great Britain able to take in the shrewd and critical Mr. Podmore; vast number of leading lights have come and g although Podmore would not accept the hypothesis of Among this number may be mentioned: ‘(spooks” or “spirits,” he was disposed to grant the The Case of Mrs. Fay. A few years back the wo genuineness of some of her performances and to ex- was entranced by the astonishing seances of Mme. Fa$ plain them on the hypothesis of telepathy. He resorted In her performances, she was always accompanied 76 The Truth About Spiritualism The Modern Movement 77 to the theory that it was Mrs. Piper’s subconscious s that thinks and creates these spiritual beings, and that another to the long list of dismal failures to make good she elicits communications from her sitters by making under real test conditions. Even when she claimed to telepathic contact with their respective minds. have called up Professor Hodgson from the grave, when Now when we are discussing Mrs. Piper, the read his friends put test questions to her, or to what pur- should bear in mind that we are considering a wo ported to be his spirit speaking through h4rs. Piper as who was regarded as the “greatest clairvoyant in a medium, about his early life in Australia, her answers history of the movement” and that she was endo were all consistently wrong. by Doctor Hodgson and his American Society She was completely baflled when a message was Psychic Research; and that she was further endor given to her in Latin, though she was supposed to be by Sir and the leading British light speaking in the name of the spirit of the learned Myers, the firmament of spiritism. But Mrs. Piper always and it took her three months to get the meaning (out of down when it came’to the actual test - when it ca a dictionary?) of one or two easy words of it. She gave to “ brass tacks,” in the language of slang. Her spook, a man a long account of an uncle whom he never had; Phinuit, who could communicate so much through Mrs. and it turned out that this information was in the En- Piper to the investigators, on subjects of a gene cyclopedia, and related to another man of the same nature, could not give a sane or connected account name. In no instance did she ever give details that it his own life on earth, or give a plausible reason why was impossible for her to learn in a normal way, and shouId forget the medical facts and knowledge which it is for her admirers to prove that she did not learn he had possessed when in the flesh. them in a normal way, and, on the other hand, to give

When bIyers, the renowned English investigator and a more plausible explanation of what

homena embracing a series of seance <( stunts” ranging

83 Physical Phenomena 84 The Truth About Spiritualism 85 be our fraudulent practices. from roping, tying, and slatc-writing, to materializa- b. Diversion of attentioz. To distract the attention tion, have been successfully introduced by the earlier we know to be one of the trump cards of both the parlor mediums, such as Home, , Mrs. Cobb, magician and the professional sleight-of-hand per- Foster, , and the . former; and it has been our observation that the most phenomenal things occur in the seance chamber, as a 1. THE ENVIRONMENT OF THE SEANCE rule, after the sitters are tired out by expectant listen- If there are genuine mediums - that is, if one out ing and watching, or otherwise have had their powers of a hundred is as the wheat among the chaff, the gold i attention either partially exhausted or cleverly diverted. the midst of the dross - than it is indeed extreme1 c. The element of surprise. The psychology of the unfortunate that the spirits of our departed friends fin unexpected would be utilized by any performer who it inconvenient to return to our old world and co would seek to deceive and mystify the observer. The municate with us only under those conditions whi feats of the professional conjurer and of the spirit lend themselves so favorably to fraud and deceptio medium are often unexpected and unforeseen, and that For instance, let us look at this matter for a mornen is why it is quite impossible to take advance precau- from the standpoint of the cunning trickster and the tions against deception and trickery. wilful deceiver. Suppose we started out on a progra d. Control of conditions. The magician and the deliberately to deceive the public into thinking medium alike insist on con trolling and manipulating possessed the powers of spiritistic mediumship. Fi the arrangement of all lights, furniture, and even the we must recognize the fact that the public possesses order of the sitters in the seance room. Now, it is a little real information of a scientific character concern- well-known fact that, from a scientific standpoint, the ing these phenomena, and that, therefore, everything fundamental requisite for reliable experimentation is would be favorable to the practice of fraudulen the complete control of conditions; therefore, in no methods. To further enhance our ability to decei sense can a real scientific experiment be conducted it would seem well for us to impose the following co with spiritualistic mediums. Such tests are merely ob- ditions: servations, and at that, under conditions and circum- a. Absence of light - more or less complete darkness. stances highly inimical to reliable and correct observa- The less illumination we have upon the scene of our t1on. performances, the more secure against detection wouid 86 The Truth About Spirituallsm Physical Phenomena 87 e. Concealment. The magician on the stage, in the spiritualism is such as to appeal to the emotions and performance of his more difficult tricks, always makes awe of the supernatural rather than to reason and logic, use of some sort of a table, a shelf, or a screen, but he to feed curiosity rather than to foster accurate judg- seldom dares to employ such a complete mode of con- men t and correct observation. cealment as the rnediunl utilizes in the conventional \Ve see, therefore, that if we should start out de- cabinet or curtain. The magician seldom resorts to libzrr:t.ly to arrange a program of deception, if we the complete hiding of his persol1 during an experiment, would purposely supply ourselves with all the tools, f. The power of suggestion. Suggestion is one of th conditions, and environment favorable to fraud, we main methods employed by the magician, next to di would do ody what the mediums do under their alleged tracting the attention of his audience, looking toward spirit dictation when they turn off the light and other- proper preparation of the minds of his observers fo wise arrange the seance environment so that it consti- the finished performance of the trick. The conjur tutes the ideal conditions favorable to the perpetration palms the coin while he pretends to throw it into t of fraud. air, the eye follows the motion of his hand, and su gestion is thereby utilized to aid in the deception. 2. MA N U A L D E XTE R ITY - S LEIGHT- 0 F-H A N D This sort of trick has ~ g. Tying, or holding hands. Many of the outward manifestations accompanying been so frequently exposed that we no longer marvel a< the seances of the lower grade commercial mediums seeing a man handcuffed and tied in a bag, or even are nothing more nor less than sleight-of-hand tricks. thrown into a river, when he bobs up serenely with Many of the more common sprltlstic... phenomena are hands and feet, which u-ere previously tied, loosened. the result of manual dextcrity. If the magician is h. Emotional expcjmcy, curiosiQ, and excitement. able to deceive the eye of his audience on a briliiantly The environment of an individual wztching a magician lighted stage, how much more easy for the medium in a theatre is that of an unbiased investigator-a to practice this sort of deception in the dimly lighted tached observer; but the phenomena of a darken rooms - and sometimes they even favor themselves seance room are contrary to these requisites all by moments of complete darkness. scientific investigation. They all appeal to supersti ti severaln years ago I knew an individual who had am- and the emotions; the discussion of niessages from de bitions to become a magician, but not being a prestidig- friends and relatives, in fact the whole atmosphere o itator of a high order he made little headway in his Physical Phenomena 89 88 The Truth About Spiritualism Mechanical Apparatus. 1 remern ber very well, twelve

or fifteen years ago, when a certain patient came to ’ chosen profession, and so he decided to become a consult me about his health, and when on inquiring “psychic.” He sprang into prominence instantly, and about his business-whether his time was spent in- within a few years had not only acquired a big reputa- doors or out of doors, etc., he replied by telling me that tion but had amassed an equally large fortune. He he was a manufacturer of apparatus for magicians and explained to me one time, in strictest confidence, that mediums. Now, I knew that magicians must carry a his tricks were so much more influential when they we very large equipment, for it had been my privilege to enshrouded with the atmosphere of the supernat know two or three of the leading magicians of the and when they had added to them the further inte present time, and I had learned much of their methods which, he explained to me, “all people have in spoo and work, and I knew of the vast army of helpers they and spirits.” must have to arrange their performances and the It seems seldom to dawn upon the mind of the g enormous amount of paraphernalia and apparatus era1 public that spiritualistic performers might ha which they carried in order to produce their entertain- taken the pains and precaution to have surround ing effects. But I confess it was a shock to me to know themselves with well-trained and reliable confederates. that the manufacture of apparatus for mediums was a But investigation shows that they do this very thi business, and that it was carried on in connection with Many of the more successful of our modern fortu the manufacture of this same sort of appliances for tellers, clairvoyants and mediums have main taine use by professional magicians. 1, large working organization, embracing numerous male It will be observed that the high class mediums, who and female confederates. pull off the more marveious stunts, must needs always Not long ago I had for a patient a xoman who perform amid their own surroundings. They cannot do been for many years employed as hand-maiden to these things out in the open. Everything must be of our well known mediums, and in delineating to carefully staged. The author well remembers the case the story of her life, which was indeed very interest of Madam X, who, in connection with a performance I not only learned the details of the manner in w in which the table was dancing about rather lightly in she served and assisted her mediumistic employer, b obedience to the raising and lowering of her arms- learned also that there were no less than half a do ivhen, to my mind, the most simple explanation would such persons employed in connection with the I“ elaborate seances. rnysrcai Phenomena 90 'lhe 'l'ruth About Spiritualism 91 which he covered his face was at last discovered ccn- be the employment of electro-magnetic force of some cealed within the body of a gold watch case which was sort, since I noticed she was very careful to furnish her ininus its works. own table for this demonstration - I proposed to this medium that she allow my wife to take her into an ad- 3. INVISIBLE WRITING joining room where she should undress and allow her One of the common methods employed, up to the clothing to be examined. This she refused to do. Next present time, of getting spirit messages, and one which I proposed that I subject her table to an X-ray obser- I have seen most cleverly perpetrated by a number of

vation and this she also refused. She could not have~ 'W mediums, is to write the alleged spirit message on a her consecrated furniture subjected to such skeptidl piece of paper with any one of the many known invis- indignity. And so I could recite scores of cases ible writing fluids, and then before the eyes of the which the mediums refused to submit to real exami sitter the medium will seal this apparently blank piece tion and scrutiny by mechanical and electrical expe of paper in an envelope which the investigator can The initiated among mediums and conjurers kn hold with his own hands, and then after the lapse of a where to go to buy the self-playing guitar which is s certain length of time the envelope can be opened and a helpful addition to a medium's tools of decept the spirit message will be clearly visible. Guitars are also made for mediums in which one of the Almost half a hundred different recipes for invisible panels can be removed, and one such instrument writing fluid are in use by the mediums of this country, become the hiding place for a vast amount of mediu and we have been able to collect the formulae for almost istic paraphernalia. Guitars may in this way also h this number, more than a dozen of which require only placed within them the mechanism of a small music the application of a little heat to develop them; and box. with still others the inside of the envelopes can be so Still another medium kept a robe large enough to treated that the invisible writing will appear within a simulate a spirit's return in a hollow boot heel, while few minutes after the paper is inserted in these specially in the heel of the other shoe he kept an assortment of prepared containers. netting masks with which he could effect almos Some time back a certain medium attracted consid- dozen face transformations. One medium who erable attention by putting a blank piece of paper in a been repeatedly searched by investigating committed large, wide-mouthed bottle, securely corking the bottle, was finally caught. The peculiar luminous mask w Physical Phenomena

ullu ariowing the investigator.- to hold it in his own the field by an assistant in an adjoining room who h hands, and within a fern minutes the alleged spirit the questions. The fingers of the hand model c message would appear in a plainly visible and beautiful tained a core of soft iron, and the confederate who handwriting. This was a very impressive “stunt” tened to the questions merely pressed a button until another medium in possession of the secret 4s- cause the hand to give the desired number of taps closed its technique, and now we can all produce rhe answer to any and all questions. same spirit messages by writing the paper wit I have been recently told of a conjurer who has prc weak solution of copper sulphate, in advance, duced a little table that will give spirit messages. Yo1 stopping it up securely in a bottle that has just put your ear down to the top of the table and you heat washed out with a solution of ammonia - enough it talk, yet you can examine the table at will. The the gas of which is left in the bottle to develop table is in a room that is wired for “induction” effects, writing. while within the top of the table is placed a telephone receiver. Around the receiver me1 ted paraffine is 4. ELECTRIC PHENOMENA poured, which gives the same note as the rest of the Magnets have been used very liberally by the tabIe which has a veneered top and gives no hollow expert mediums in accomplishing their wonders. sound at any spot. Several annunciators are placed in medium operated on a glass table suspended by the wall carrying questions to a confederate in an ad- ribbons. A cast of a hand was placed on this piece o joining room, who in turn transmits his answers to the glass. The hand was carefully and evenly balanced SO top of the table in due time. that the least tilt would cause the fingers to tap upon In the near future we shall no doubt be treated to the glass. Any question asked by a sitter would be phenomena that are due to real wireless telegraphy and

promptly answered by the hand. You could tho ’ telephony. There is no reason why mediums should oughly examine the hand at any time, and the exp not use these as they have the more simple and alder ment was conducted throughout in broad daylig technique of days gone by. One experimenter has You could examine the suspended glass and the t already been reported as working on the construction ping hand while it was n-orking; no threads or wires. of a “whispering gallery” in which the operator can

-~ ~-~ - ~~ -verqresen_t. Performances-~ of this ~_~~~__ sort are conducted AtaKd ~~hhave_voll-es_em_anatefroma blank f-~ :~ _ ~ by means of an electro-magnet thrown into and out cardboard which will spp~r= 94 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 95 transmitter, or perhaps a piece of cardboard - a blow she had been aiming at skeptics for some time. ently - which contains a thin metallic sheet be She had placed her reporters at police stations, hos- its layers. pitals, and newspaper offices to wait for the news How one Medium became famous. Perhaps you who of a death by violence which would receive space in are reading this may attend the seance of a medium as the papers. clever as the woman who became nationally famo Fire Eaters. Mediums are often observed (like a result of her work one evening in a western Home) to show their supernatural powers by handling While she was in the midst of her communication live coals of fire or otherwise playfully juggling highly the shades of those present, she stopped short. heated objects - lamp chimneys, etc. Still other ob- a man murdered!” she exclaimed. Then she desc jects, such as handkerchiefs and neckties are passed a violent death scene, giving the name of the ma through a flame without burning. Many formulae the address in the city where he was actually mur have beqn devised for temporarily fire-proofing one’s a few minutes before she received the “spirit me hands or other objects so as to stand considerable heat The newspapers confirmed her statements, an and blaze without damage. One successful medium, spread her fame throughout the country. From long before the American public, gives the following time on people paid ridiculous prices for her ser formula for accomplishing this purpose: “ Dissolve - until she was exposed. one-half ounce of camphor in two ounces of aquavitae; The secret of her spiritualistic demonstration add one ounce of quicksilver and one ounce of liquid simple. A radio antenna in the sole of her shoe styrax, which is the product of myrrh, and which pre- ceived impulses from a transmitting antenna in the rug vents the camphor igniting. Shake and mix well to- upon which she stood, and conveyed them to a sensitive__ gether.” Bathe the inside of the hand and the fingers headphone hidden in a large bouquet of flowers o in this preparation, allowing it to dry on, and you can shoulders. A reporter had telephoned the news o duplicate the performance with the hot lamp chimney murder to her confederate behind the scenes, who tr and hold your fingers in a blaze quite a while without mitted it by radio-telephone. The receiver conce any bad effect. in the flowers was not loud enough for the audien hear, but when the medium leaned her head upon 5. TRICKS OF THE SEANCE ROOM flowers she could hear it distinctly. Her feat w You must not forget that commercial mediums are Yb ’l’he ‘l‘ruth About Spiritualrsm Physical Phenomena 97 expert sleigh t-of-hand performers. They are able to ca.6es like this I have known spectators to go away and have their hands tied behind their backs and, just like say that the table rose half way to the ceiling. Many the magician, Keller, Thurston and others, would be other methods are used, such as the method of the able to show you their hands free if the lights were black pin inserted in the top of the table and lifted by turned on; but in the darkness of the seance room they means of a notch in the medium’s ring. are able to produce the many wonders which are re, The manager, or the major-domo of the seance room, garded by the sitters as spirit manifestations. often supplies the medium with her tools, spirit robes, know where to buy all the paraphernalia neede etc. carry on their work. There are dealers right h There are a half dozen different successful methods Chicago who sell this stuff. Not long ago, Mr. of holding hands, in which the medium can be released, ton, in a magazine article, gave extracts from a and yet the sitters on either side think they are securely lope of forty pages which offered for sale a holding the medium’s hand. secrets and paraphernalia that mediums use perpetrating their frauds. 6. INDEPENDENT VOICES-TRUMPETS

The mediums know how to be tied up in a sack The so-called (( independent voices ” which appear in to liberate themselves so that in the darkness the connection with many spiritualistic seances are a great carry on their work; and yet when you turn on puzzle to many people, but careful investigation usually light you will find them tied and sealed as be discloses that they have been carried out in to the room There are all sorts of mechanical rappers, electn by means of extension speaking trumpets, speaking thumping machines, etc., which can be had for the tubes, induction telephone technique, ventriloquism, purpose of producing spirit raps. 1 have never been etc. Many times the confederates and assistants in able to get these raps in an open room when even but adjoining rooms are informed of what is transpiring a faint light was present. It always requires per in the seance room by means of the well-known dicto- darkness. graph system, whose openings are concealed behind There are a score of different methods for tippi furniture, underneath wall paper, etc. These systems tables, the most common of which is to cause the table are also used by the medium for producingwhispers to lean forward slightly, the medium gets his toes under which are heard by the members of the circle in the the near legs, and then balances it there; and in some darkened room. 98 The Truth About Spiritualism

I don’t know of any “stunt” in which mediums in- covered to be employed by SO-L~~~~, dulge themselves that I have so many times detected times these crafty creatures carry around a bottle or to be pure fraud as that of the speaking trumpet. <(cough medicine” which enables them to produce Careful investigation always discloses that it is the many striking phenomena, after the lights are turned medium or some confederate who is actually talking Out, in the shape of floating lights and other luminous through the trumpet. They get their hands loose from rn ani fes t a ti ons . the magic circle and they use the trumpet, which is Luminous phenomena “are easily simulated,” says built on the extension principle and can be shortened Doctor Maxwell. Most people will agree to this can- or lengthened, and by the direction in which it i did verdict of so experienced and so sympathetic an pointed the voice can be made apparently to originat investigator. Tons of phosphorus have been used in in almost any part of an average sized room. In 0th the service of religion since 1848. It has taken the cases confederates are undoubtedly employed and ar place of incense. The saintly Moses twice had a nasty properly placed in the circle for assisting in this work. mess with his bottle of phosphorus. Herne was one I was informed a number of years ago, by an expert night tracing a pious message in luminous characters trumpet medium, that it required two or three years (with a damp match) when there was a crackle and of practice to become proficient in the art - that is, to flash; the match had “struck.” The spiritualistic be able to manage a trumpet so that no voice would be movement abounds in incidents which are in a double heard at the mouth but only at the bell of the trumpet. sense “luminous.” Trumpet speaking is rapidly going out of fashion Certain sulphides may be used instead of phosphorus because too many times the pocket electric AashIight and in modern times electricity is an excellent means o has been turned on them so disastrously, and thus producing lights at a distance. Chemicals of the pyrc scores of these performers have come to their untimely technic sort are aIso usefuI. One must remember thz end, for when the light is suddenly switched on or a behind the thousands of mediums, whose fertile braii flash is thrown on the scene, it is always found that the are constantly elaborating new methods of wadi! medium is at the end of the so-called “spirit-speaking control, are manufacturers and scientific experts w trumpet.’’ supply them with chemicals and apparatus. One of1

------hears Spiritualists laugh at this suggestion as a P ?.SEAKCELXJGKTS ------* -- methods of producing light have been dis- theory of their opponents. But posiFive proof t- - 100 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 1Oi such is the case has been given over and over again. the spectators during the seance, and who occupies the Mediums have told me how they use French bridal time at this juncture by making an appropriate speech veiling and Belgian netting treated with phosphorus regarding the favorable conditions which should be and other compounds to manufacture all sorts of maintained during the seance. During the brief ad- beautiful spirit robes. I once saw taken in a raid in a dress, the assistant usually stands directly in front of seance in Chicago some thirty yards of this material the closed cabinet curtains. Under the tail of his coat, which could be almost secreted in the palm of the hand, behind, is an abundant supply of luminous silk forms, and could easily be contained in an ordinary pocke faces, hands, costumes, and two or three pencil- In fact I was able to put it all, very conveniently in reaching rods. The medium slyly slips his hands pint cup. There are many different ways of prepari through the curtains and helps himself to this liberal this material so as to make it properly luminous a supply of spirit habiliments. The assistant now has the “spooky” in appearance during the darkened hours lights extinguished and takes his position in the front the seance. One experienced medium furnished us wi row with the sincere believers, where he can best see to a recipe for treating this fabric in order successfully it that proper conditions prevail - conditions in every canvert it into “spirit robes.” way favorable to the successful conduct of the material- Most mediums who attempt materializations ha iza tion seance. been found, upon investigation, to employ either c 9. AND EVA C. federates or some form of luminous costume. Wh the medium works alone, he generally uses the luml- One European medium had to submit to a surgical nous costumes; but when he has confederates who operation at the hands of a skilled surgeon, because she impersonate the spirits, this is unnecessary. If the had swallowed her masks when detection threatened. medium works from a cabinet, he first allows strangers This woman is a ruminant. She swallows her para- to erect and at the same time thoroughly to examine it,- phernalia and brings it up at will. She swallows the after which he enters the cabinet and is thoroughly dis ectoplasm, too. I had some ectoplasm in my hands not robed by a committee, while at the same time his cldth two weeks ago. It is manufactured by the same man ing is examined. The committee, having satisfied itsel who makes the apparatus for magicians. that the medium is in possession of no robes, retires. In my study of the case of Eva C., I have reached the The medium usually has an assistant who stays with same conclusion as that arrived at by certain ob- 102 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 103 servers who have made a critical study of the phe- ticed that the medium, during the evening, identified nomena connected with this medium’s performances, me and addressed me by the name of my friend’s card and that is: I believe that she swallows much of her which I had left in my overcoat pocket in the hallway. material, and that she possesses the power to bring it On another occasion, when I had most carefully ex- up from her stomach or from a dilated oesophagus at cluded from my person anything that could identify will. Medical science has in its records between fifty me, the medium promptly recognized me and called and one hundred cases of just such remarkable indi- me by name during the seance, saying: “You are viduals who are technically known as << ruminants.’ Doctor Sadler, and there is a spirit messenger here There is much evidence on record which goes to pro from the other world who has something to say to that Eva C. is a ruminant. She has been known t you.’’ This case greatly puzzled me and I was some bleed freely from the mouth and gullet. Of cour time in solving the problem -in fact I did not solve Doyle has objected to this explanation on the grou it, but on a return visit the maid in waiting on this that she sometimes performs with a net sewn about h medium let the “cat out of the bag” by asking me for neck, The fact is that she seldom performs with this some further instructions in connection with advice net sewn about her neck, out of hundreds of seances she had received at my hands in a clinic where she had there being a record of its being used as a test only come for help; and then when she was confronted with seven times, and that she refused to permit its further the charge admitted having given her employer my employment because in four out of these seven sittings name. This but illustrates that if we can really get at she was unable to elude her observers and the seances the bottom of these cases we always find a purely hu- were barren of results. man, perfectly ~ natural explanation of the whole affair. It mystifies us only as the magician entertains 10. THE TRICK OF REXDING SEALED WRITING and deceives us, because we do not know at first how The mediums are very clever and employ many they do it. methods of getting your name. I remember well, on a Getting Your Name. Of the many methods utilized cold wintry evening a few years back, attending a for getting your name, some feature of the following seance and carrying a friend’s calling card in my over- procedure is quite universally employed by travelling coat pocket. I was careful to leave my own cards and mediums. The idea is to get an impression of your all letters that might identify me at home, and I no- writing, including, of course, your name, that is not a 104 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 105 carbon impression. The impression is, in fact, invis- dust, instead of charcoal. ible until after it is “developed.” The paper used is a There are so many ways of gaining information as thin, highly glazed paper. A tablet of this paper is to what you write that it is safe to say that if the sitter provided for the subject to write upon. He can make in any seance or the inquirer of any medium ever an inspection of the tablet if he so desire, and he will indulges in any writing on the medium’s premises, the find nothing out of the ordinary. medium will be able to gain an accurate knowledge of The operator first prepares a few sheets of the pa what was written. I have been able to ferret out more by rubbing over one side of them with spermaceti than a dozen different methods whereby a medium can which has been melted and mixed with a small am gain a knowledge of what the sitter writes, and I have of Vaseline. The wax, being white, cannot be see never written anything for a medium on their own the paper after the same has been coated with it. paper and with the pencils they furnish, and on the prepared sheet is generally placed in the tablet two premises, but what they were able to read the writing; three sheets below the top, coated side down, bein but in no cases, extending over a period of twenty years, held in place with library paste. have mediums ever been able to read what I have When the writing is done, an invisible impression is written at home, which writing I have taken to the transferred from the waxed surface of the prepare seance room and kept in my hands or in my own sheet, to the sheet next under it. Of course this cann pocket. be seen until developed, as the wax is very thin and is The Alcohol Method. Perhaps the most universal the color of the paper. After the subject writes his method of reading sealed writing, which has been em- questions, and removes the sheet bearing them, the ployed by mediums in the past, has been through the operator secures this tablet by almost any one of a use of absolute or relatively absolute alcohol. These number of secret means; and then he secretly removes mediums take care that the writing is placed in the the sheet bearing the impression and develops it by envelopes so that the written surface is against the throwing on the sheet some powdered charcoal, an face of the envelope. It is only necessary then, with shaking the sheet around until the powder adheres t a sponge or a handkerchief which may be concealed the wax, after which the surplus powder is dusted o in the hair, the sleeve, or somewhere about the table, The writing appears plainly and may be easily read. to moisten the front of the envelope with the alcohol Some performers use plumbago, lampblack, or coal Which renders it transparent and the writing is entirely rnyslcai phenomena 107 clear to the medium., In a few seconds the alcohol it resembles in every way. When it is removed from evaporates leaving the paper smooth and dry, with no this box in the presence of the sitter, there is certainly wrinkling of the surface, and there is no way of detect-_. nothing to suggest any previous preparation, even ing that it has been applied. though it be carefully examined: that is, provided the medium sits-as he always does-in such a position 11. TRICK ENVELOPES that the sitter is between him and the light. I have collected from mediums and conjurers more The message is then dropped into the envelope by than a score of different methods of preparing the medium, while perhaps the subject holds it open, envelopes for the deception of the spiritualistic inqu it is sealed in the presence and full view of the sitter, One method, which has come to be used in the after which the envelope is taken in the tips of the dozen years by many mediums, is to have a b fingers of the medium’s right hand and he requests ordinary-appearing envelopes sitting on the table * the subject to hold the other end. an te-room where the inquirers write their questi Now when the stage is all set, and after a suitable Now, the medium takes one of these envelopes interlude of talking, and after a signal has been received with a pair of sharp scissors cuts a very small bi that the spirit has written the message, the medium one end and the bottom. The back side of the envelope proceeds to tear off the end of the envelope himself, is then discarded and only the front side with its flap and while deftly holding the envelope in his left hand, is used. This half of the envelope, it will be found,- he reaches into the front compartment with the fingers will now very readily slip inside of another envelope of his right hand, bringing out the message which he and the two flaps will fit into each other very accurately. immediately hands to the enquirer, asking that it be If the flap of the whole envelope is slightly moistened, examined and read. Now, as a rule the subject is it can be readily sealed to the flap of the dummy SO considerably excited at this time-unless he is a cool- as to avoid detection under the sharpest scrutiny. NOW headed investigator-and during this little flurry it is before the medium seals these two flaps together the an easy matter for the medium to slip the envelope spirit message is prepared and placed in the compa just used into his pocket and bring forth therefrom a ment between the two fronts, and after this tric duplicate which has been prepared beforehand - a gen- envelope is thus prepared it is placed in the box con- uine envelope with the end torn off in exactly the same taining the other innocent and honest envelopes which fashion as that which has just been used for the trick. 108 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 109 ^r_ And after the inquirer has read his “spirit” message$ hand pinches the slate up under the table. There is this envelope can be handed over to him for a full and; a thimble used, sometimes, with holders attached con- complete examination. taining colored crayons; but it requires an expert to 12. SLATE WRITING use it. Slates. There are, literally, scores of methods for practici Trick The “flap slate” has also been suc- cessfully used by fraudulent mediums. This looks very deception in slate writing. The basic trick is to much like an ordinary innocent slate, except that it change the slates right before your eyes without y has a flap which fits neatly into the frame of the slate. detecting it. The methods are too numerous Elaborate spirit messages can be written upon the slate , describe in our limited space. under this flap, the slate can be critically examined There are also chemical tricks, although they are and the writing of course is fully concealed. Now this so much used. If a message be prepared with nitr flap fits sufficiently loose so that the medium can, in its of silver and then breathed upon, it will vanish. manipulation, turn the slate over, remove the flap, and the slate be washed with salt water, the message appe then when the slate is exposed the concealed message but cannot be erased. There are also dozens of cheriif is in full view. Various modifications of this trick icals for writing invisible messages on paper, which have been employed from time to time by the most appear from heat, or from the application of a blot successful mediums and it has been very difficult to ‘ saturated with other chemicals. detect the fraud. If a message be written on paper with a solution O the paper be placed sulphate of iron, it is invisible. If 13. THE OcIJ-4 BOARD in an envelope moistened inside with a solution of nut- In the vast majority of instances the phenomena of galIs, the writing appears. The paper can be plac the Ouija board represent more or less conscious and between slates just washed with the same solution, jefinite fraud. That is, the individual either con- the writing will soon be visible. jciously cheats, or is being hoodwinked by his own sub- There are also slate writers who write with a s :onscious mind. piece of pencil held on the end of a single finger by Perhaps the most monumental demonstration of the flesh-colored piece of courtplaster with a hole in its iophistries of the Ouija board was made by two British center. In such cases the message is written while t ieu tenants who were Turkish military prisoners at 110 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 111

Yozgad during the late World War. The spare time of the camp for some time, turned its

These tu7o young men, having heard of the recent atten tion to “ spooking,” ” and soon the Turkish guards outbreaks of Sir Oliver Lodge, and after reading the became interested and considerable disturbance was spiritistic ebullitions of Sir ‘4.Conan Doyle, decided created at one time because of the belief on the part on the production of a little spirit phenomena on their of the Turks that these mediums were sending out and own hook. These young men assembled about receiving contraband military messages. Through the some of their fellow prisoners of war, constru means of this apparently harmless prank, a tremendous Ouija board upon which they moved a glass, t belief in the occult and the supernatural was built up lightly by the fingers of two of them, and as a on the part of the British prisoners of war in this at first of harmless diversion and entertainme camp. The story is as remarkable as that chronicled of these young men began to fake “spirit” mess by any medium of highest repute. No professional He enjoyed the sensation of outwitting his fellow performer of spiri tistic phenomena, or amateur dabbler oners, and witnessing their looks of amazement in the occult, ever had a more remarkable experience hearing their expressions of astonishment. than these two young men had in bamboozling their kl’itfi the passing of days the fame of these young fellow prisoners. men grew. By fishing for information here and t€$e These two mediums, if we may now call them such, and by means of clever guesswork and fortunate st vere subjected to many and stringent tests by their in the dark they created for themssl\.es an envi kllows in the camp, and they always managed to come reputation as iI 11 psj-chics, ” and li sensi- )ut by some clever ruse or manipulation, and to make tives. ” They became the talk of the whole camp. It ;ood. Again and again they picked up bits of informa- seems to have been the intention of the deceiver to ion dropped, which they cleverly weaved into elaborate have made an early confession of his culpability tories and gave most impressive seances and imparted ask forgiveness, and to have explained that it wa lost astonishing information to the observers at these a joke, but he got in farther and farther, and mateur “spook” circles. confessed to his associate that his part was all a and the associate made the same confession. 14. SPIRIT MOULDS they decided to go on together and have a little rn When in London, some years back, I was consider- fun, as times were dull in this Turkish military ca bly interested by a group of mediums who were then Physical Phenomena

.,llL arc of producing moulds of hands, d for these seances by making paraffine masks fr, arms, and other parts of spirit materializations tor. plaster moulds, so that when these alleged spirits cai responding to some portion of the human form Divine- forth from the cabinet they had fitted over their fac such as Doyle recently exploited. These mediums were or hands this previously prepared mould, so that ;? '11 then teaching that the spirits were able to materialize reality, as subsequent investigation disclosed, they di in our presence and that they were able thus to produce not dip their faces or hands into the hot paraffine, bu paraffine moulds of their hands, faces, feet, etc. they did dip them into the cold water so that when tht preliminary preparation for seances of this so spectators were given the moulds to inspect they were addition to producing an expectation on the part always wet and dripping. sitters, was to immerse a large piece of paraffine in a basin of hot water, placing this melting, floa 15. SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHS AND PAINTINGS mass on a table in front of the cabinet with a b It has been my good fortune to know one or two of cold water handy by. The spirits always came individuals who have become experts in spirit photog- from the cabinet, whereupon they would appare raphy-one who was formerly a professional medium, dip their hands or faces first into the melted paraffine and another who dabbled in this thing as a sort of in the basin of hot water and then into the basi hobby. From these friends I had my first insight into cold water, and this would be repeated as it seem some of the numerous methods employed by spirit require three or four dips in order to accumulat photographers in their technique of deluding the public amount of paraffine sufficiently thick to retain in general, and the faithful believers in particular. After this the spirit would stand up full length before Among the many methods employed, the following the audience, and with considerable ceremony take the may be mentioned: After a plate is developed which mould from the face or hand, as the case might be, contains the portrait, let us say, of some spiritualistic and pass it out to the sitters for examination. believer, this negative if it has placed under it a sheet In those seances which I attended, this procedure of sensitized paper, will, after it is exposed to the rays was carried out under very strict guardianship an of the sun, exhibit in shadowy outline a print of the the faintest possible light. But like all other ho original portrait. Now this same process PQ * I- of this sort it was destined to be short-lived, as it outr with still another -- soon discovered that the mediums prepared in advance 114 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 115 tional figures and faces to appear in mystic and shadowy off the plain or camouflage canvas. Spiritualists are outline about the original photograph. always much impressed-at least they used to be- One spirit photographer of renown will give you an by the fact that the painting was wet at the time it apparently innocent looking blank sheet of paper, and was so mysteriously produced. Many have argued that while engaged in talking his mediumistic babble, wi this constitutes sufficient and abundant proof of gen- lay this blank piece of paper under an ordinary appear uineness. So it is very easy for the spiritualistic con- ing blotting pad resting on top of the table. The mos jurors to accommodate them in this superstition, as by careful scrutiny may be maintained over this proces rubbing a little “poppy oil” on these paintings they to see that no substitution of the paper is made, a appear to be fresh, or as commonly described “wet.” yet a photograph appears upon that sheet of DoyZe’s Spirit Photographs. Among the many spirit within a few minutes’ time. Now, an invisible photographs collected by Doyle and offered by him as graph was there on the apparently blank piece o proof in support of the contention that spirit entities all the while. A picture had been taken on this spec’ can so materialize themselves as to be subject to material, known as solio paper, the image of whi photography, there is one case that demands more than had been bleached out with bichloride of mercu passing attention. He tells about having purchased a The harmless looking blotting pad resting on the tab1 plate, examined the camera, and how he exposed and was moistened with a solution of “hypo,” and in thi developed the plate with his own hands. “No hands way, in a few short moments the photograph w but mine ever touched the plate, 9’ he says. That he quite fully restored. must have been the subject of some cute prank, not- Tricks Ofthe Trade. Another medium can show you withstanding his impressive declaration that he so care- an ordinary blank canvas, and without really taking fully supervised the photographic technique in this case, this thing out of your sight will be able to produce a is shown by his own admission, when he feels called beautiful oil painting which inspection shows has been upon further to explain, that “on examining with a so recently done that the paint is still wet. Now in powerful lens the face of the ‘extra’ I have found such this case the painting was there all the time, but a a marking as is produced in newspaper process work. ” blank canvas was neatly held in place over it by means Now it should be explained to the reader that the half- of a little gum, so that all this medium had to do was tones which have been prepared for reproduction in to divert your attention for a moment and cleverly rip newspapers, magazines, or books, show, when they are 116 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 117

printed, certain little lines of dots when such a printed the technique of the common magic lantern, so that it picture is examined under a magnifying glass. The would thus appear on the plate when the same was same thing is characteristic of lantern slides; these dots exposed in the camera. will appear on the screen if the picture has been made’ Some years ago I offered one hundred dollars to a from a printed half-tone reproduction of a photogr local spirit photographer for a spirit photograph in whereas the picture will be smooth and minus t which I would be permitted to examine every step of dots if the lantern slide has been made directly fr the process. My proposition was accepted but when the photographic plate. I desired to make an elaborate examination of the Now Doyle admits that this picture, the takin camera before the first step was taken, my friend the which he so stringently supervised, shows these d photographer backed out. He said my materialistic which indicate that it was made from a magazine skepticism was of such a rank order that he feared it newspaper reproduction of the original pho togr would entirely inhibit the activities of the spirits. Un- Doyle admits all this, and goes so far as to grant doubtedly this chap had a miniature ghost in his camera. perhaps his picture was in some way made from Among the older tricks of this sort of trade was the previous reprint of a photograph, but he further main substitution of plates, and among the newer methods tains: “However that may be it was most certai are those ih which the ghost is painted with sulphate supernormal, and not due to any manipulation of quinine or other chemicals on the ground glass fraud.” What an astounding conclusion for a screen. Such a figure would be entirely invisible when telligent man to reach! dry, and would pass the closest inspection, as indeed it Celluloid Ghosts. There seems to be no end to the has at my hands. With such a preparation, all that is technical methods whereby a trick photographer can required is to in some way supply a little moisture produce the simulated spirit photographs. One metho and then upon the operation of the camera the ghost which has been successfully employed is to cut o figure will appear. the figure of a ghost in celluloid or some other tra Chemistry of Spook Painting. Recently the “spook” painters have worked out a new technique for producing parent material and carefully attach it to the lens of , camera. After the exposure of this technique othersA invisible portraits. They have discovered that sulpho- cyanide of potassium can be employed for invisible red, produced a tiny ghost which could be hidden in the camera and projected through a magnifying glass, afte that ferro-cyanide of potassium will serve for blue, and 118 The Truth About Spiritualism Physical Phenomena 119 tannin for black. They are thus able to produce a and materializational claims of modern spiritualism. three-color invisible photograph on a canvas, which Many large rewards, both in this country and in will stand the casual inspection of the ordinary sitter. Great Britain, still remain unclaimed, which can be These chemicals are all invisible when dry, but if they had any day by any medium who can, under fair test are gently sprayed with a weak solution of tincture of conditions, demonstrate the possibility of physical iron the picture will gradually appear, and operators the phenomena being produced by spirit agencies. And have been very ingenious in methods whereby they will in my opinion these rewards will remain unclaimed as place the canvas, while waiting for the spirit to p the years roll by. the portrait, in such a unique position that the sp The facts are that the mediums cannot stand the can be mechanically applied; and thus they are test. Those engaged in the production of physical to bring the picture before the very eyes of the sitt phenomena, materialization, etc., are all deliberate, without having to remove the canvas from the roo conscious frauds. In twenty-five years, I have not to be sprayed. come in contact, in any capacity whatsoever, with a single physical manifestation medium, but what I have 16. THE CONCLUSION been able either to detect the fraud, or impose those As far as the physical phenomena of spiritualism are conditions which would have led to immediate detec- concerned, what only can be the conclusion of any tion, but which were very wisely rejected by the intelligent, sound-minded person who has taken the medium. That is, in the case of every medium we time to investigate the subject? From the earlier per- have gone in to investigate we have immediate117 formances of the Fox Sisters down to the latest medium detected fraud, or the medium has declined further to be exploited at the present time, even the half- investigation or flatly refused the fair and reasonable hearted and amateurish investigations on the part of conditions imposed. untrained observers have resulted in disclosing a con- I talked with Mr. Thurston at luncheon one day tinuous trail of deception and fraud. Whatever ma while he was here recently. I think he is the greatest be said in behalf of the claims regarding the “psychic’ magician on the stage today. He said that it is his and more mental and spiritual aspects of spiritualism, belief that all performances done for money and as a which we have not yet considered, there remains no commercial proposition are fraudulent. ground-absolu tely no scientific basis- for the physical No sooner does some medium hail from a foreign 120 ‘l’he Truth About Spiritualism shore, or rise up to eminence from our own native CHAPTER V heath, than some shrewd investigator effects her ex- THE PSYCHIC PHENOMENA OF posure. Most eminent mediums are short-lived- their career is meteoric. They cannot stand the searchlight SPIRITUALISM of truth. They are not able to withstand the acid test of investigation. Sooner or later our spirit idols fall, PIRITUALISM is not a matter which can be finally faith in our favorite medium is shattered, but with stried and adjudged in the experimental laboratory. child-like trust and confidence we go forth in quest of While the investigations which I have made into new ido1,saddened and somewhat wiser, but none the less spiritistic phenomena have convinced me that prac- easily beguiled into the belief that, whereas one tically all so-called materializations and other trans- false, our new find will be true. And scores of mediu actions of the “seance” are purely fraudulent-sheer who go on successfully for a season, would be expos chicanery and trickery-it is not my intention to assert much‘sooner if they were investigated, not by the that all so-called occult or spiritistic phenomena are of friends and believers in the cult, as is usually the case, a fraudulent nature. There may be a residue that will but by hard-headed men of scientific training- by have to be accounted for otherwise, but it has never those who know the laws of physics, chemistry and been my privilege to come in contact with mediums of electricity, and those who habitually employ these this unusual sort. Such genuine spirit phenomena, of very tricks as a part of their professional careers, as is course, would be beyond the pale of scientific investiga- the case with magicians and similar experts who deal tion. They constitute problems for study by the with rope-tying, handcuffs, and other sorts of sleight- theologians and philosophers. of-hand performances, designed to mystify and enter- tain the public. 1. PHANTASY AND IMAGINATION There can be little doubt but that certain human

beings possess a tremendously large “ bump” of phan- tasy. That is, they have the day dreaming faculty developed to the point where it has acquired the pro-

121 Psychic Phenomena 123 portions of a well-nigh separate personality. This must have remained juvenile, and we all know that the be the case with many clairvoyants, mediums, and younger we are, the more active, vivid and uncontrolled other occult practitioners. They be said to might is the imagination and phantasy. possess an automatic power of phantasy-one that acts What is to hinder an over-developed phantasy froin quite independently of their ordinary mental processes setting in operation fictitious feelings and impressions -and one which forms its conclusions and formulates and, by its well known powers of reconstruction, crest- its statements quite without the conscious knowle ing spiritistic forms, unreal apparitions, and the fan- of the higher powers of such individuals’ minds. tastic concepts of the spirit world? As we ascend in the realms of thought, we reach The highly organized nervous system of a psychi- and greater possibilities of mental confusion and cally unstable individual can easily imagine itself to deception. It is quite impossible for the very y be the hero of the moving picture play, identifying it- child to discriminate between imagination, mem self with all the experiences portrayed on the screen, and images. The child of three years will viv as indeed he will in the case of the public procession in describe his meetings with lions and other wild bea which some prominent individual, or some hero, is on in the back yard, and may relate these things as real‘ parade; such individuals will imagine themselves to be experiences hav.e just happened. He really which is the hero and will experience all the pleasant and grati- recalling the pictures of lions from his story books, ’ fying emotions experienced by the hero himself. This reviving the memory images of the beasts observed sort of “identification,” or, as it has been termed, the zoo; and many of our mediums and clairvoya “ wish evolvenien t,” furnishes the psychological inter- are so constituted of mind that their own subconscious pretation for a vast number of mediuniistic phenom- plays the same subtle trick upon them. They see, ena. The mediums desire to be what they profess to hear, feel and perceive things that have not just hap- be and thus, through the mental processes of “pro- pened, as facts, and as such portray them. These jection,” on the one hand, and the phantasy of “iden- experiences are the phantasms of a short circui tification,” on the other, they seek to bring about their memory acting under the impulse and inspiration “ wish evolvement; ” and thus, from the unlimited misguided imagination. supply of material in the reservoir of the subconscious In the case of these mediums, the mind has grown. mind they bring forth those things which complete the up in some respects, but in this particular feature they picture and enable them, through their cIairvoyance 124 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 125 and clair-audience, to depict to the devotees of spir- insanity, and they are able to assert themselves in such itism the images of departed spirits and to hear mes- a fashion as to cause the demented individual to hear sages from another world. voices and in many other ways to disturb the mental Mental confusion , crossed wires, endocrine distur- equilibrium. bances, and a dozen other influences, mental, chemical, It is highly probable that, in some cases of clairvoy- and physicd, not to say spiritual, may all contribute ants and mediums, we have a mental condition that to the making of a first class, sincere, utterly s actually borders on insanity. These individuals may deceived medium or clairvoyant. be suffering from a “complex detachment” in a very Personality determines the psychic tendency of th mild degree, so that they are able from time to time unique individuals; and we now know that personal to recognize these voices and other impressions that is largely determined by thesecretions of the endocr come up from this sort of dissociation, complex detach- or ductless gland system, of the body. There is ment, or double personality - or whatever name it only a psvchic basis for spiritualistic tendencies, may be called - and they are, therefore, wholly sin- also an hereditary and a chemical basis. cere when they represent to others that they have heard these voices in the mind as from an outside 2. DETACHED COMPLEXES source. I am convinced that many mediums and other You should understand that the human mind spiritistic enthusiasts have so persistently and suc- represented by a very intricate organization and grou cessfully built up their “ghost complexes;” that they ing of cells, which hold the patterns of memory an have so effectively come to transfer the “reality feel- thoucht,c and which are undoubtedly formed after the ing” to these “spook” creations of their own subcon- fashion of cqroups, systems, constellations, and so on. scious mind; that they have so ardently welded their Now it is 1;nown that certain groups of mind cells or emotions to these spirit concepts, that in time, this systems, commonly known as complexes, may be cut off, grouping of complexes, having to do with spirit be- as it were, from active connection with the maj liefs and desires, becomes so powerfully entrenched and mental powers, and may behave in an insubordinat so highly influential in the psychic life of such individ- manner, playing the r61e of a psychic insurgent, uals that they become capable of instituting some sort regards the mental life as a whole. These detached of psychic insurrection, and come thus more or less compleses are undoubtedly present in some forms of fully to dominate the conscious life, opinions, and be- 126 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 127 havior of their victims. possessed with the reality of the thing which they think An individual may bury certain unwelcome ideas or they see outside of their minds, but vhich, in reality, unpleasant eino tions in his subconscious, from whence, lives and functions on the threshold of their own as time passes, they may come forth again to plague psychic life and which had its inception, origin, and and hnrrass him. So may the mediunis and clairvoy- birth within their own subconscious mind. ants, as the years pass, bury things in their sub In the presence of this temporary sort of complex conscious minds, from whence these long forgo dissociation, it would appear that in the case of these ideas and emotions may constantly spring forth du highly suggestible individuals, that some sort of domi- the spirit seance to impersonate, through the pro nating and all-pervading idea - now free from natural of “projection” and the technique of “ transferen restraints and customary restrictions - sweeps through the person, mannerisms, and voices of dead and the mind and out over the body, completely dominat- parted human beings. ing and absolutely controlling the organism to such an

3. COMPLEX DISSOCIATION extent as to be able to produce cramps, paralyses, and fits, as regards the body; while, in a mental wavy the Now it is believed that some individuals possess such patient may become as one possessed of the devil on a power of dissociation, in connection with a peculiar the one hand, while on the other hand she may estab- and uncanny concentration of the attention, that lish herself as a spiritualistic medium, or she may go any one moment the whole stream of consciousn forth in some noble and daring r81e as did the heroic may be so directed and so successfully diverted that Uaid of Orleans. the “feeling of reality” - the sense of reality - may There can be no doubt that the minds of many so- be so focused upon a single idea or desire as to shut called mediums are striking illustrations of that dissoci- every other sensory feeling or emotional experience ation among groups of conscious mental processes - of the mind’s eye, or the awareness of consciousn they verge on actual hysteria and double personality. and thus the whole psychic machinery would be -,: In so far as this is the case, one must in fairness admit centrated upon this single idea of the mind. In this9, that such a medium is not fundamentally (I mean way, psychologists believe that mediums -sometimes,% morally) a fraud, but rather the subject of an elu- come to materialize disembodied spirits in the eyes sive, functional disorder, and at the same time clever their own minds, to become - mind, body, and soul enough to capitalize the disorder and make it provide 128 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 129 the necessaries of life. In whatever instances this is of the dream world originate during the night season, the case, the so-called messages from the dead are n-lien the higher reasoning, the logical, analytical and made up of the more or less coherent trains of ideas conscious centers of the brain are asleep - dead to the that troop in from the marginal consciousness in re- n-orl d. sponse to those suqpested-- ideas which come into the Unquestionably the seance rocmi, as conventionally medium’s attention when he or she is in a state of semi- conducted, constitutes a very favorable setting - one or complete trance. n-hich is in every way calculated to encourage the emergence of visual or auditory hallucinations from 4. THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND the realms of the unconscious. These no sooner appear The subconscious mind, like the atomic theory, than the expectant attitude of both medium and spec- splendid and practical working concept, whethe tator disposes them early to transfer to these children really exists or not. One thing we are sure of- of subconscious creation that “ feeling of reality,’’ which justifies the consciousness from that time on in thing which it stands for is an actual part of our me :.I , life. \Vhile sensations can produce ideas, it must also its recognition and reception of these phenomen?, as a be borne in mind that ideas can produce sensations. bona fide experience. It is impossible to conceive of the possibilities Hysterical patients, in a former generation, were mind deception, extending from the mental delusio burned at the stake as witches. Today they preside of fictitious physical disease to the consummate dec over parlor seances and perform as spirit mediums. tions of spiritualistic phantasms, that would be made Lhdtoday, as in olden times, their performances are possible by a working conspiracy between imagina- characterized by falsehood and dcplicitv, as well as by tion, phantasy, and memory, when all three of these a continuous series of impersonations. It should be powers are unstable from heredity or irritated a remembered that hysterical women are not only able diseased by a poisoned blood stream. to impersonate serious diseases of the body in their It is my opinion that much of the psychology attacks, but that they are equally gifted in psychologic clairvoyants and spirit mediums takes place out in legerdemain, in that they are able to impersonate, and dim consciousness of the marginal state. That is, these otherwise make represen tations to onlookers, the spirits spirit manifestations, in their ideas and images, origi- Gf departed human beings. nate in the subconscious mind, much as the phantasms 130 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 131

5. THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SPIRITUALISM The very nature of the content of these spirit messages In the mind of the primitive savage it constitutes b and revelations is sufficient to brand them as wholly a short step in reasoning (from his dream-esperiences) human, and in every way very ordinary and utterly to lead to the belief that his CC c~n~ciou~ne~~”could be devoid of any ear-marks of that superiority which absent from the body, and so these two ideas put to- m-ould in any way serve to class them as extraordinary gether-or rather, the one growing out of the oth or identify them as supernatural. -lead the primitive mind to believe in

ing, and other of the real and respectable manifesta- ~ the deep and unknown deposits of human sensation, tions of modern spiritualism. memory and emotions, which we commonly call the subconscious mind, but which is more properly and 7. WHAT IS A SPIRIT? scientifically known as “ the great Unconscious.” Physiology is the key by which we will open th6 psycho- The spirits, then, that we deal with so larpelv in the 134 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 135 for the same reason that you have to have copper wire study of spiritualism, exist within the human body, to conduct electricity; you cannot conduct it through a and froni the realms of the unconscious centers of the board fence. They tell us we cannot do it on our own mind project themselves outward for the production hook, we have to have peculiar, sensitive mediums. of their phenomena. They do not exist without the I You see our preparatory training has built up in us the body and come in to possess the bod\-, and thus work idea that special people can do special things and it is upoii the mind as an extraneous spiritual force. In very easy to make us believe this theory about spirit brief, as far as science has been able to discover, th mediums. spirit operating in connection with occult man; The psychic laws regulating this thing are based on tations functions only in connection with the body, what we call “complex formations.” The brain cells in so far science has not been brought face to face w the human body are organized on the principle of the any phenomena that cannot be adequately explai solar system. And these things can become disso- on this hypothesis, or that cannot be reproduced ciated so that you can have one part of your mind talk psychic manipulations and in accordance with natur with the other part. You know how one part of your laws. mind can be so engrossed in thought, that you can read Science, therefore, makes two challenges to the spir- two pages and never know it, never have the slightest itualist, and they are as foHows: recollection of what you read. We do these things and 1. That the existence of a spirit separate and apar they are perfectly normal and natural. If you can from the body, operating to produce spiritualis tic phe- keep your thoughts centered on spiritualism you are nomena, is as yet unproved. The scientist calls for all right, but if you go too far with them, we will put further proof - science asks for evidence. you in a blue wagon and haul you off to the psychopa- 2. Science challenges the ability of spirits, the pro- thic hospital. Just as long as you say you hear a spirit jections of the subconscious mind, to afTect any human talking to you you can get away with it; but as soon body with which it is not connected, except as through, as you say you hear voices and see things they will put the ordinary agencies of suggestion and other well- you in an asylum. One leads to afffuence and a large known channels of psychic influence. income, and the other incarcerates you.

8. WHY ARE MEDIUMS WECESSARY? Not only do we find more women functioning as mediums, as compared with men, but we find instruc- The spiritualists tell us that mediums are necessary 136 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 137 tion from the spirit world explaining that women are sonality - and thus establish themselves in the place better mediums than men. of power, and immediately to assume control of the The spiritualists claim that women are less likely to mental actions and nervous behavior of the individual. be mercenary than men. They further tell us that the’ This is what we see taking place in hysteria. Now, it spiritual world, inferring at least some degree of ma- seems that in the case of the medium, this dkjuncted, teriality, is much more beautiful than our world, or insubordinate, minor personality, instead of crossing one writer goes on to describe, in superlative te swords with the reigning ego of the psychic realm, their rivers, lakes, and oceans, their beautiful cities rather chooses to establish itself as a separate entity homes; and explains that a woman’s finer sense - as a minor personality, distinct and separate from more artistic tendency is more easily brought the mind and ego of its origin. Thus it professes to be sympathetic contact with, and more highly appr foreign to the real self of the individual, alleging that tive of, those things, and therefore serves as the bet it is an outside entity, often a discarnate mirit, present channel between the higher spiritual and lower m from a higher and invisible world. terial worlds. How easy for this detached group of psychic com- So far as my personal experience goes, I have nev plexes to take one step further, after organizing itself detected anything in the line of mediumship, thus into a subconscious source of feeling and information, which would call for a resort to a spiritual hypoth to relegate to itself the prerogatives of a departedspirit, for explanation. I have met, in my practice, pecul 2nd to palm itself off on the credulous and superstitious psychic cases, some of which I have not been able full mind of its indwelling as a “spirit control,” as the dis- to understand in the light of physiologic and ps carnate spirit of some departed friend or relative of logic laws, but as before stated, none of these recent times, or the disembodied ego of some prince or been mediums, and in no case did they claim to co hero of olden days. So our new personality, so mys- nicate with the dead. tically set up in business, proceeds to borrow the mind In ordinary psychic experience, when disjunct and muscles, the talking mechanism of the medium, as occurs in the mind-when a constellation of c a means of expression on this so-called material plane plexes inaugurate an insurrection and try to set u to which it has returned for various alleged benevolent business for themselves, they usually seek to displ purposes. the real self- to supplant the actual ego of the 138 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 139

9. THE TECHNIQUE OF “PROJECTION” originally did arise before they were buried in the for-

“Projection ” is the technique of reversing the gotten regions of the unconscious), then you will have physiology of the conduction of sensory impulses from a picture in your mind of the technique of projection. the body to the brain, there to form ideas, images, Your inlagination need go but one step farther- to memories, etc. In << projection” this process is re- throw these sounds and images from the seeing and versed - ideas and images are aroused in the mind and hearing centers of the mind, out of the body into the from there travel outward and are recognized through external world, and you have the foundation all laid the sense organs as having had origin outside the bod$ for perfect hallucination. In this way an hysterical in-

Ordinarily, our visual images and our auditory sour&”-%-?, dividual, a spiritualistic medium, or insane person, will go with the feelings and emotions which they arouTe be able to see and hear things that do not exist - that and which accompany them, for registration and att is, that do not exist in the external world - and they tion in the archives of memory; I say ordinarily t are not discoverable except to those people who, from sights and sounds, as well as other sensory impressi whatever cause, are “seeing things” and “hearing originate outside of the body as the result of its contact things. ” with the external and material world. This sort of “projection” is, to a certain extent, Now, if we imagine a reversal of this process - that normal to all of us, and is no doubt unconsciously prac- instead of these symbols of material things, these sights ticed (to a limited degree) by most of us. Occasionally and sounds originating without the mind and external we run across an individual who has become a victim to it, and passing in as sensory impressions from the of this sort of thing in one particular phase of his life. nervous system to the brain, to be there recognized by He is thoroughly sane and rational in every other ave- the mind and therein to be recorded and retained-as nue of thought, but on some one thing he has become a memories - if we can imagine a reversal of this pr monomaniac. He hears and sees things that are not so that we would have arising, down in the unconsc real, his mind is not controlled by reason and is not. centers of the mind, various memory images and so dominated by logic in this particular realm of thought, which would travel outward over the nerves t as in all others and when this is well marked and classic, center of hearing and vision, there to be recognized, we say that such a patient has paranoia. there in reality to appear just as if they had come from We are quite likely to project some of our own fears without in the normal manner (and as they no dou and feelings on other people - it is notorious that we 140 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 141 have a tendency to judge other people by ourselv We judge many of our own acts by the way in which clings to the human mind and infests the human con- sciousness, predisposing in such a deep-seated, patho- we think our friends and neighbors would judge US, Our standards of morality are largely those that are logical fashion, the men and women, even of a civilized “projected” from the consciences of other people upon day and generation, to the sophistries and vagaries of us. We are influenced by tribal standards; we ye spiritualism. governed largely by fashion; we regulate our live ‘ 10. THE “ REALITY FEELING ” accordance with convention; we are constantly changing ideas and feelings, emotions and reac Thus we see that in certain peculiar types and tem- between ourselves and other people. peraments the “reality feeling” works very well in Origin and Nature of Projection. It would see connection with the clairaudient state - automatic primitive people - savages - were wont to p hearing. And it is easy to suppose that in a seance their ideas and emotional reactions on a great v many individuals whose minds are attuned - who are of things, both animate and inanimate, and so t en rapport as the professionals call it - would be able simple children of Nature came to endow rocks, clouds,. to see and hear the same things the medium would. It rivers, not to mention the sun, moon and stars, with is a sort of collective sensation, or collective illusion - spirits and various supernatural attributes as sho some one has called it “collective hypnotism.” the superstitious beliefs of ancient peoples, as w Every now and then some one arises who attempts to make other people believe in the things which they see the highly organized mythology of the Greeks . other olden tribes. As the race developed it was ob- and hear in their own minds. Self-styled “prophets” 6” served that animals breathed, and then the savage arise to convince us of the reality of their visions. Odd geniuses appear who tell us of the voices they hear, and the mist arise from the waterfall, looking not un the condensation of his breath on a frosty morn, if they seem fairly sane and socially conventional in How easy for the primitive mind to reason that every way, they are sometimes able to build up vast followings, to create cults and es-tablish-h-Q; waterfall had a spirit as shown in the mist floating they are too bold in their imaginings, the plunging waters. And so, later on, the trees whereas, if if they see a little too far or hear a little too much, they endowed with spirits, and the whole primitive are promptly seized and quickly lodged safe within the chology of a spirit world was built up - which confines of an insane asylum. 142 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 143 individual may actually possess a dual psychic nature, T’i’hen an individual has a great variety of these. may actually be one person one day and another the visualizations, and when he hears too many voices f~llowing,and still a third a few days subsequently, is readily drag him from his pedestal as prophet or a fact now well established in the study of abnormal priest of spiritualism, haul him before a sanity c psychology. mission, adjudge him insane and confine him in the Interesting as it would be further to go in to this ques- crazy house. That is the penalty of allowing his “fe tion here, space will not permit, and we can only touch ing of reality” to once gain possession of the h upon it as an illustration of the manner in which some intellect, of indulging in the failure to discrimina sorts of psychic phenomena may be adequately ex- tween the creatures of consciousness and the creat plained. of the material world, in the practical affairs of li In cases of double personality, individuals may wan- If we intently believe anything, if we ardently der off and be under the guidance of the subordinate to believe a certain thing, it greatly helps us in tr personality, and then return, after days or weeks, not ferring our memory images and our imaginative knowing where they have been or what has transpired. tions of the mind from one psychic associati Under the influence of one personality, a girl will go another; that is, to transfer the “feeling of re into the woods and gather garter snakes and bring which belongs to an external visual sense, to an associa: them home in boxes addressed to her other personality, tion that is purely and properly a visual image of c cc just to witness the consternation of the other indi- sciousness; or to transfer a feeling of reality” c vidual when the wriggling reptiles crawled out of the nected with the reception of sound waves through the box when it was opened. One personality is afraid of external ear, to a concept or sensation of sound which snakes, the other is not; again one personality may be is internal in origin, but which is made real to con- able to write shorthand, the other cannot; one may sciousness by such a transfer of these emotions and speak French fluently, while the other knows not a reactions which go by the name of “reality feeling.” word of the language. Those are but a few illustrations

11. DOUBLE PERSONALITY to show how one personality may know absolutely nothing of what the other personality, dwelling in the Double, or multiple personality (for sometimes there Same mind, may say or do. are more than two) is one of the most interesting psychic It is my opinion that about seventy-five per cent of phenomena to be described in modern times. That an 144 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 145 ... our commonplace spiri tistic manifestations are frauds the trmce medium. They are each in more or less of - conscious, deliberate, commercial frauds, and that an unnatural and artificial state of mind, and are more about twenty-five per cent belong to the order which or less automatically executing their various actions. we are describing at this time, and include the possible In other cases, when these subordinate personalities cases of actual spiritual or supernatural phenomena, or constellations of complexes start on a rampage they which I, it will be observed, all the way along, awe exceed the limits of a mere mental mood, although as possible, though I have never personally come they fall short of carrying their insurrection to the contact with but one or two cases that could lay e point of an independent existence such as would be remote claim to falling into this last named group. exemplified by trances, cataleptic hysteria, or spirit What a calamity that the uncertain cerebrations voices, and then such an individual experiences the such abnormal minds should come to be regarde keen suffering which accompanies the variegated such a large number of people as constituting info vagaries of neurasthenia, brain fag, nervous exhaus- tion from a supernatural source, and wisdom of D tion, psychasthenia, etc. origin; or that these ebullitions of automatic, psyc We are all more or less familiar with the somnam- origin in the human mind, should come to be reg bulistic phenomena of the “sleep walker;” how he will by tens of thousands of persons as communications fro automatically .perform marvelously intricate pedestrian the discarnate spirits of departed friends and relativ feats while oblivious to all surroundings, and utterly The time’ has certainly come to apply common se unconscious in his own mind of the things which he methods of reasoning to our investigations of psychi does as he goes forth on these extraordinary nocturnal phenomena, and to apply rigid, sober-minded, scien- ‘ strolis. This common phenomenon is so well under- tific tests to all men and women who claim to be chan- stood that attention only needs to be called to it to nels of either supernatural communication, or mediums emphasize the fact that sleep walkers are unconscious of through whom disembodied spirits manifest themselv what they are doing and that they continue to do it to living men and women. exceedingly well as long as they are not aroused from their slumbers, or otherwise molested in their per- 12. SOMNAMBULISM formance. Perhaps there is little difference between the p Now, in the case of numerous phenomena connected formances of the sleep walker and the phenomena 0 with abnormal psychology in general and with 146 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 147 mediumis tic performances in particular, we have condi- fact that she claimed one of her personalities was a tions that are in every way identical with, and anal- spirit. Here we have scientific proof of the psychic agous to, the sleep walker’s automatic performances. origin of spirit entities in the human intellect. Here is In the case of the sleep walker, the subconscious mind a case which directly proves the psychic origin of much is directing the legs - the feet are made to execute that appears in the performances of modern spirit the mandates of the great unconscious-while in the mediumship. case of it is the hands that h fallen under the control of the subconscious cent 13. AUTOMATIC WRITING In automatic talking the tongue and speaking cent The automatic talkers and writers, those who “speak of the mind are dominated by the unconscious. In with tongues,” etc., constitute the most interesting case of hearing voices and seeing images of suppos group of individuals who live their queer lives out on spirits, we have the same general condition prevaili the borderland between the normal and the abnormal only in these latter cases it is the sense of hearing in psychology. These individuals are very interesting the sense of sight that have become in their turn to study, from a psychologic standpoint. I have victims of subconscious domination - the subject o recently been privileged to thoroughly examine and care- this outward projection of subconscious machination fullystudynot less than half a dozen men and women An Interesting Case. Not long ago Doctor Princ who are supposed to have the “gift of tongues,” and reported a case of dissociation, or multiple personalit who are prominently identified with numerous present- which is very interesting when studied in the light o day religious movements that exhibit these gifts of the mediumship. It should be borne in mind that in these spirit as evidence of Heavenly authenticity. cases of multiple personality the mind is sort of split I have had some very interesting experiences in con- up, or “fissured,” after the fashion of a tree with man nection with the study of automatic writers. I re- branches which in turn are connected with numero member one case which came under my observation similar sub-branches. some twenty years ago, and after giving this man a This interesting individual was Doris Fisher, wh thorough course of instruction regarding the physiol- had five personalities including the primary one. -B ogy and psychology of his strange performances, he fore the death of her mother she had at least two or gradually lost the power of automatic writing and for three personalities, the uncertainty being due to th the past six or eight pears has been wholly unable to 148 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 149 indulge in this phenomenon. Years ago he was able to 14. TELEPATHY AND MIND READING take a pencil in his hand, drop off into a sort of passive Telepathy has been variously called mind reading, dream-state, when suddenly the pencil would start in thought transference, and universal intelligence, and it to write messages, as he supposed, having their origin- has been more associated with the propaganda of in the spirit world. In this connection let me record spiritualism in Great Britain than in this country. it as my opinion that automatic writing and the autom- This is probably due to the fact that early in his spirit- atism manifested in the Ouija board performance are istic investigations Myers attached a great deal of very nearly, if not quite, one and the same thin importance to the r6le of telepathy in connection with That is, I regard them as identical in their psycholo various spiri tistic and occult manifestations. Myers roots - in their psychic origin and direction. was so impressed with the province of telepathy in the I have found it exceedingly difficult to segregate t study of spiritualism that he once stated that it was sincere and subconscious automatic writers from tho ‘‘ almost the fundamental doctrine of spiritualistic performers whose writing is more or less controlled philosophy.” those who are to a certain degree consciously fraudu Telepathy should not be confused with alleged sec- lent. ond sight, intuition, clairvoyance, etc. It rests upon There seems to be an inherent tendency on the part an entirely different and separate hypothesis. In this connection it is well to remind the reader that these pe- of these psychic freaks and so-called ‘‘ sensi tives ” to exaggerate their gifts and, childlike, magnify their culiar psychic tendencies appear to run in families. performances. The mental attitude of the medium I think the consensus of opinion among the scientists seems to be to try and outdo other “psychics,” and so today would be that telepathy is merely a popular word there is ever presene this sort of urge to the perpetra- symbol which has come into use in explanation of cer- tion of fraud. tain coincidences which take place between living indi- Notwithstanding the frauds to be found among auto-‘ viduals and which are to be explained in two general matic writers, there is, nevertheless, a residue who are’ ways: wholly sincere, honest men and women who believe 1. Chance. Coincidences, pure and simple. they are “spirit controlled,” or that in some other way 2. Sirnilari ty of hereditary predisposition, or envi- their automatic writings have a spiritual origin. ronmental influences, either or both of which tend to cause two individuals to think of the same thing, 150 ‘P‘he ‘lruth About ;jpiritualism Psychic Phenomena 151 approximately, at the same time and under similar of Christianity that God should pour out His “Spirit circumstances. upon all flesh.” Jesus told His followers before His In consideration of the fact that hereditary similarity death - before He departed, that He would send them may account for the apparent coincidence of two indi- the “ Comforter,” the “Hdy Ghost,” who would teach viduals in different parts of the world thinking of the and guide them “into all truth.” same thing at the same time, we may cite the many ex- I am not disposed to follow the deceptive and illog- periences recorded of identity of thought on the pa ical reasoning of the telepathist in order to find an of so-called “iden tical twins.” explanation of these common experiences of thought The Universal Mind. This plausible hypothesis of harmony and iden ti ty. Wqsxg-rather disposed to Universal Mind completely does away with the assum ------.L--__ ___.C accept the equivalentah-ian doctrine of the ----. .-r-*...-___ tion of the transfer of thought from one finite mind *-I omZpresent Spirituai Mind, the doctrine of the Great-.____. another. There may be a Universal Intelligence whos Spiritual Teacher, as a basis for some of the phenomena . ~ - -.. __------li emanations radiate to all who are in harmony with th __ ,. ,,*. - commonly“_I___.-- described^---_- under-the - ..- head of telepathy. Divine Mind. Every soul who is “in tune with the I - _- If such phenomena find their explanation either in finite” would enjoy the possibility of receiving mes- the doctrine of the Universal Mind or in any other doc- sages and inspirations from this Central Source. If trine which assumes the activity of spiritual forces in this is true, it is not difficult to see that two minds ma their production, they, of course, lie outside the realm have the same thought at the same time just as t of physical science and in that of personal religious be- wireless telegraph stations which are attuned alike ma lief; they are problems in spiritual science. receive, at the same time, the same message, which Mrs. Piper and Thought Transference. By the time has been flashed from a vessel out at sea many miles. Mrs. Piper got into the spiritualistic game it was be- from each station. Many good people adhere to this coming rather dangerous for mediums to indulge in view and derive comfort therefrom. Their own inti physical manifestations, and so Mrs. Piper stuck rather mate experiences, they affirm, supply testimony in it II closely to the direct-voice mode of transmitting spirit iavor. messages, occasionally indulging in performances that Even the Amerlcan Indian had in his religion, the: bordered on the trance. Prof. James Hyslop, in his “ Great Spirit.” All modern religions recognize t *- investigation of Mrs. Piper, was so impressed by the

presence. ~ of a unilrersal szrit. It is a cardinal thouk large number of coincidences - he was so influenced rsycnlc rnenomena 153 152 The Truth About Spiritualism I believe she had a radio antennae concealed within it, by Mrs. Piper’s shrewd guessing - that in a published and her hair covered her ears in such a manner that I report of his sittings with this medium he advanced am convinced a small watch-case receiver could have the opinion, that no matter what his ideas might be been so concealed as to enable her to hear messages about Mrs. Piper’s ability to communicate with the completely. This is the first time I have seen a medium dead, he was sure of her ability to communicate with carry on such an exhibition and at the same time move the minds of the living. In one case it was claimed about the stage. that Mrs. Piper was able to project a trans-Atlanti And it should be borne in mind that most of these communication, getting a message from some li demonstrations are offered to the public as proofs of mind in England, and it was asserted that this telepathy. ticular message while started out from Great Br Natural Law and Telepathy. If telepathy is based on in English was received in this country in Latin, natural laws, then any person who would.master these yet it was claimed that Mrs. Piper understood not laws could practice telepathy. If telepathy were based of the Latin tongue. on science, like telegraphy, and gramophon y, anybody Most of the investigators who studied Mrs. Pip could do it. When radium was discovered by Curie, if they believed at all in telepathy, usually reached t the description of the process of its detection was conclusion that her seances were largely to be sufficient to enable any other chemist, having the same plained on that hypothesis. And so it seems that t materials, to secure the same product. When Jenner theory of telepathy has become, in recent years, v published his discovery of vaccination, any other phy- convenient to the psychic researcher as a means of , sician could perform the operation. When an ti toxin counting for a vast sphere of psychic phenomena was discovered, every intelligent physician was - in a which, on the one hand, the investigators cannot prove position to use it successfully. When telepathy is to be fraudulent, and which, on the other hand, is scientifically proved, then can any and all psycholo- sufficiently evidential to establish its claim to sup gists practise it. Natural laws are universal in their natural or spirit origin. application. I recently attended a mind reading performance which I am satisfied that communications were carr IS. DREAMS AND SPIRITUALISM to the medium by means of radio. She wore a form Recently there appeared prominent mention in the hair dressing which extended high upon her head, 154 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenamena 155 daily press of a case of a railroad builder who claimed subconscious mind does not reason - it does reason - but reasons largely deduction, not much in- to be under the control of spirits in the planning and it by so by executing of his engineering feats. due tion. We commonly meet with those individuals who Mr. Stilwell said that nearly all his life he had made ‘ dream much concerning their work, and they secure a secret of his powers, because he feared that people. would think him a tcnut.” For years, however, some many valuable suggestions from their dreams - of his friends and many directors in companies as though they are the exception, not the rule. The av- ciated with him, knew the source of his inspiration erage engineer who builds railroads by his dreams, or believed in his spirits. by the guidance of “spooks,” will make a sorry mess of I am familiar with many cases like this. I know the whole undertaking; but there are exceptions, many of which have investigated and studied. But it is not inventor who breams out most of his inventions. I a I necessary to fall into the arms of spiritualism in order acquainted with an author who dreams out the pl . to understand, explain, or account for these interesting for most of his books and the outlines of his chapt and unusual occurrences. I have a patient, a business man, who dreams out m Many individuals secure from their dreams sugges- of his financial deals- and they usually turn out well,\ tions just as they would if they reclined in a hammock, too. I have myself dreamed out many a complicate out on a mountain side on a summer’s afternoon, and problem, and the solution of the dream was very m allowed the phantasy to run riot in the mind, and as better than the ones I had worked out during my w they indulged in dav reveries, permitted the marginal ing moments. The fact that dreams may “come true,’ consciousness to push far up into the central conscious- or that the conclusion reached in the dream state proves ness, and thus by reflection and meditation many new to be valuable or serviceable, in no way connects the ideas will come trooping into the conscious mind. And dream life with supernatural forces or with discarna this is true, whether the meditations be of the religious spirits. sort, indulged in by the religious thinker, or whether I want to make it clear to you that during sleep, they be of the mechanical sort, indulged in by an engi- subconscious mind is in full commission, in fact is neer. to act much more freely, unhampered by the restrain An Experience .My Own. I had a friend, a phy- and cautions of the higher powers of reason, judg of sician, who died a dozen years ago. We were very inti- and logic; although it must not be inferred that the 156 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 157 mate, and two or three years back, I well remember The psychology of my experience is simply this: the very vividly dreaming one night of his coming to me thing which I had thought out in a day reverie came up and discussing quite minutely a certain article which 1 again with certain modifications in a night reverie, and had in preparation, or which I contemplated preparing. this night reverie happened to collide and become con- The suggestions he gave me, or the ideas I gathered fused with the dream vision concerning my departed from our dream conversation, were very interesting, friend, and what was more natural than that he and I and on waking up I jotted them down, feeling th should talk over this, as we had talked over many sim- really had received a valuable “hunch.” In fac ilar things in life. And yet how easy, without analysis, wrote the article along this line, and it proved to it would be to proclaim my article, which was one of the something out of the ordinary. Now it would have b most unique I probably ever prepared, as having been very easy for me to>haveutilized this as a demon indited by supernatural forces and having been trans- tion of the return of the spirit, of spirit control, an mitted to me by the spirit of my dead colleague. help from the spirit land, would it not? Indeed, bu And so one remarkable experience after another, as two reasons: .., related by numerous individuals, vanishes into thin 1. I am not disposed to grab for spiritlstic explana- air, when accurately analyzed. And yet 1 am frank to

tions for ordinary physical and psychic phenomena, andilr say that it would be very difficult for me to explain this 2. After the article was published, in one of tb experience as I do, had I not subsequently found the periodical housecleanings that occur when one forgotten memoranda containing the outline for my through the memoranda that accumulate in the desk literary effort, as 1 had prepared it several years before. drawers - I subsequently found the outline for this But such an experience helps us to understand some article which had been prepared by me and forgotten, others which we are not in a position to analyze in the

and I found that I had outlined it almost exactly as my*,L fortunate manner of this particular experience of mine. departed medical friend discussed it with me in my dream, and yet I can say J had truly and wholly fo!- 16. TRANCES AND CATALEPSY gotten ever having prepared these memoranda. I It is not uncommon for persons in a cataleptic trance written them down while traveling on a train one a to imagine themselves taking trips to other worlds. In noon, en route to Chicago, and mislaid it and had fact, the wonderful accounts of their experiences, which gotten all about it. they write out after these cataleptic attacks are over, . ..

----A UUI Study As far as actual experience goes, as far as I my wouldmediums be ableI to pa personally been able to test and observe trances, visions, and other seizures or Qaminatest, and tion. in manyIf a Subconscic 160 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 161 sciousness, or whatever other name it may be called the dream world, it may also be true that the medium- -holds its memory material in such an organized istic phenomena, in the form of visual and auditory form as to manifest such a high degree of intelligence hallucinations, spirit messages and spirit forms, may it should not be difficult for us to conceive of such a be but a representation of the same effort of the un- realm of the mind as being wholly capable of the crea- conscious to gain expression - to eliminate its corn- tion and perpetration of the psychic frauds which char- plexes - to experience wish-fulfillment. acterize modern spiritualism. We must accept it When certain unstable types of human beings have true - an established fact - that the subconsci long desired and intensely wished, in their minds, to mind of man constitutes a practical, functio communicate with the dead, when they have studied, system, which embraces a creative imagination, assoc thought and prayed over this problem; when they have tion of ideas, employing a high degree of subtle reas faithfully attended seances and have allowed the long- ing and keen judgment, together with an ability ings of their souls to be focused and concentrated on discreet deception, that is positively uncanny. the thought, the desire to draw the veil aside and corn- The subconscious may become responsible for o municate with the spirits beyond - I say, after all this spells of periodic depression, our temperamental moods, preliminary psychic preparation, it is little wonder, hysterical catalepsy, trance states, somnambulisti . then, that ultimately their day dreams and reveries wanderings, as well as the unique phenomena of s should begin to flow in the channel of wish-fulfillment, ondary personality. And to any power of mind so v and that the overflowing content of the subconscious satile as this, it requires not a great stretch of the should push itself up and out toward the attainment imagination to understand how the subconscious may and realization of those visions and experiences which be the birthplace of the deceptive vagaries and the would in some measure gratify this intense longing of unique hallucinations of spirit mediumship, for this the soul. unconscious realm is richly endowed with all the mem-‘ Owing to the widespread prevalence of spiritistic

ory and experience material of one’s past life. - 1 teacLjJngs, there is a great tendency on the part of many The Unconscious Kid. If dreams represent an people to confuse their inner experiences or

The ordinaryI clergyman,- - .. it is true, reads his Bib unaware at the time. and prays, and then orates his message from the pulpit; In experiments of this sort I have been able to have but the medium leans over the threshold of another subjects recall things which had been read in news- world, and there - so he claims - actually hears t papers, but without sufficient attention being paid to _-.- to voices and- sees-. _1 the- forms of spirit-beings, angelic hos them enable the consciousness to be aware of the and departed humans.- -. - The medium today ii-worxip fact, and to trace out in the very depths of the sub- as a hero, adored as a “seer” by the faithful believe conscious mind experiences long since forgotten and in spiritualism - until of course such time as the gra which were produced as new creations in automatic exposure results, the fraud is made manifest, the d Writing, trance speaking, etc. 164 The Truth About Spiritualism Psychic Phenomena 165 And so we come to see that the subconscious mind is gating and intelligently explaining the more subtle a dangerous thing to tamper with. It is a risky thin phases and phenomena of spiritualism. to dip into too much. If you dip in repeatedly yo Sufficeit to say, in this connection, that psychoanal- are likely to become “dippy.” ysis enables us, without putting the patient into Exploring the Subconscious by Hypnotism. Experi- hypnotic sleep, systematically to explore the superficial

mentally, by means of hypnosis and by the proced ~ strata of the subconscious mind. In this way we have of psychoanalysis, we are able as will be seen, to ta been able to show, again and again, that practically all these mystics, psychics, clairvoyants, and mediu of these things which mediums bring forth as commu- and after they have given us a beautiful spirit Sean nications from departed spirits have been palmed off and have transmitted to us messages from their spi on their conscious consciousness by their own uncon- guides and controls-after we have had most wo scious, or subconscious selves. derful and touching converse with our dear and In the case of the sincere spiritualist today, I am parted dead - then we are able to take these unsta able to sit down and look him straight in the eye as I hysteric, and unique individuals in hand, and by scie listen to his enthusiastic recital of the marvelous phe- tific processes and psychologic procedure show, first nomena associated with his favorite medium, while I ourselves and subsequently to those mediums th say: “It is all very interesting, but has it ever occurred selves-if they are sincere- that all this stuff, to you that I have in my own mind another, and what whole sordid mess, had a purely human and who11 seems to me to be a much more reasonable explanation natural origin in the depths of their own subconscious for what you are telling me? And furthermore, if your minds. medium is sincere and you will bring him to me, and Psychoanalysis. Many years ago I became great1 he will honestly and fairly submit to the tests that we interested in psychoanalysis and its possibilities in can put him through, we will first prove to you that study and treatment of nervous disorders, but I his physical manifestations and phenomena are ma- not gone far in the employment of this method whe terialistic and fraudulent; and, second, that his psychic as the result of an experience that came to me thro phenomena - his messages from the dead - take the study of a spirit medium, I saw I had accident origin in the subconscious depths of his own uncon- stumbled upon what to me seemed the most valu scious mind.” By means of either or both hypnotism tool I had as yet discovered for scientifically invest and psychoanalysis, and per‘haps in certain cases by 166 The Truth About Spiriiualisrn means of automatic writing, if these mediums are sin cere, this can usually be demonstrated. Mediums should be warned against submitting to CHAPTER VI psychoanalysis of a thorough-going sort, if they want THE MORAL AND ETHICAL ASPECTS OF still to persist in the practice of their profession as a SPIRITUALISM means of gaining a livelihood, for all those of any honor will be forced to abandon their career and seek ne PIRITUALISM has made great claims, but it has economic paths as a means of making a living, beca failed to make good. It has contributed mighty any experienced psychoanalyst will shortly convi s little to the advancement of education, morals, ethics, them of the autopsychic origin of their so-called s invention, religion, or any other of the arts or sciences co m m 11 n i c a ti om. of modern civilization. l$7itliin the past year I have had not less than five If the spirits are so wise, why have they never whis- cases of ciairvoyants and mediums who have, after the pered the principles of some new and great invention had beex but superficially studied and analyzed, a to the mediums? Why is it that our mechanical in- doned belief in the supernatural origin of their voices ventions all originate in the brains of our natural-born and visions, and who are rapidly getting themselves geniuses, or are worked out in the persistent sweat of under control and bringing their minds into safe and such men as Thomas A. Edison? What a time and norm a1 c h a n n el s . labor saving it would be if the secrets of the wireless- telegraph, or the principles of an internal combustion gas engine, could be secured at a spiritualistic seance. SVhy is it that these discarnate spirits and spirit beings of invisible space, if they are so interested in human kind, do not whisper to the mediums the cure for can- cer, the remedy for infantile paralysis, or the most suc- cessful method of treating pneumonia? Why do not these all-wise, omnipresent spirits that hover about our earthly forms, take a greater interest in things that

167 168 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and J3thical Aspects ‘169 mediums to converse with spirits beyond the vale. are worth while? Why do they spend so much time This skepticism I of course acknowledged, and she telling us where to find lost jack-knives, and other use-‘= proceeded immediately to get dot~rnto business and less trinkets? Why do they waste so much energy in pass under the influence of her controls, her spirit telling us the date on an ancient coin, or the foolish wides, etc. She soon said that there were a number thoughts that went through our heads at some given b of my acquaintances and departed relatives who were moment, when there is so much that is worth while present and would like to communicate with me. 1 in- that needs to be done on this planet and for its inhab quired as to their identity, and she seemed a little hes- itants? An intelligent visitor cannot go to an avera itant at first, but proceeded in a rather indefinite spiritualistic seance, without leaving with the im manner to say that she thought grandfather was pres- sion that the entities of the spirit land are either in ent, a cousin, and then after a moment of hesitation, a tile, or pure and simple “boobs,” when, after all departed brother. “You have a dead brother, have laborious effort to contact with the living, they ind you not?” she asked me, and while I did not reply in such puerile and juvenile communications. “Yes,” I said to her: “Well, of those you have named, 1. HUMBUCGERY ILLUSTR-4TED I should be most interested in holding converse with the dead brother you have mentioned.” There then In my pilgrimages out on the frontiers of science and ensued a half hour’s communication with my alleged spiritism, I have had many amusing experiences; ex- departed brother. It was very interesting, and I am periences which illustrate the fact that neither the‘ free to confess that it would be very difficult to explain mediums nor their alleged spirit controls know the fully and completely on purely psychological grounds real facts concerning the topic of their discussion. One and the subconscious hypothesis. I have no reason to of the best illustrations I have had of this, and one believe that this medium had any knowledge of my that has been repeated many times in my experience, identity, or knew anything of my past history, but this is one that occurred some years ago in London. I had a dead brother of mine certainly did hold a very inter- been taken, by medical friends, to consult with the esting conversation with me, and while there was more then-reigning medium, the one who at that time was or less of that vagueness and ambiguity that charac- in vogue. She started the seance, in my case, with the terizes mediums, especially when they undertake to statement that she observed that I was more or less of prognosticate the future, nevertheless this departed a skeptic regarding spiritualism and the ability of 170 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and Ethical Aspects 171 brother did show some familiarity with my past his- he was the discarnate spirit of a brother, not the sister. tory - not very definite, it is true - but still he made 2. DEGREES OF FRAUD AND DECEPTION a brave stagger at trying to convince me that he knew me as I had been, arid that therefore I should recog- The successive exposure of fraud after fraud on the nize him as he was. part of mediums seems only to develop their sagacity Finally, the seance was concluded, and the spirit de- and sharpen their wits. One medium tells us how parted from our presence, and then this mediu another who is so fortunate as to have a chemist for a asked me what I thought of the performance. I to husband has, by his help, developed some sort of a her I thought it was very interesting. She said, “N capsule which can be moistened in her mouth and you are convinced of the reality of spirit manifest thrown up into the air in the seance room where, in the tions?” I told her no, I was not, and she said,“H midst of total darkness, it will evolve into a luminous can you go through such an experience as you haveju vapor about the size of the human form and can be had without admitting the reality of spiritual man wafted about the room by initiating a gentle breeze by tations?” And then she was greatly perturbed means of a fan or otherwise. It is said that there is no considerably angered when I confessed to her t odor connected with this phenomenon, that if the had never had a brother, living or dead, and that lighcs are turned on nothing will be seen, but that on ever unique or entertaining the visitation might turning out the lights the mystic form will again been, she had been imposed upon by the spirits, an appear. deceived, and that the spirit who was conversing with It should be noted in this connection that fashion me, no matter what his source and origin, was an un- -the vogue-has a great deal to do with spiritual- doubted prevaricator, as he had endeavored to palm istic performances. In one period we had rapping on himself off on both of us as the spirit of my depart tables, in another slate writing, in another materiali- brother - that I was the oldest member of the famil zations, to be followed by magnetic powers,, spirit and that there were no other children except twin s photography, Indian guides, and so on. Particularly, ters, one living and one dead. This technical point it has been found that fashions come and go in regard had taken pains to make clear by directly asking him to controls and guides. How much has been done in early in the interview, if he was the spirit of my broth the name of Katie King, John King, Red Jacket, and and not the spirit of my sister, and he explained th so on. We have the record of serious quarrels and vio- I’lL I ne I rum WDout bpirituaiisrn Moral and Ethical Aspects 173 lent disputes between mediums over the right to have whom I was to operate. His wife went to a medium and certain individuals for their alleged controls, one me- asked if her husband would survive the operation, and dium contending that another has no right to such a the medium replied, “Yes, if the right surgeon does it.” control, etc. These things have gotten into the news- This set the wife nearly wild, and she resorted to the papers, and have even resulted in personal violence. Ouija board to ascertain if I would be the right sur- After all, the quality of the communications froq geon. But a thunder storm came up and so frightened alleged spirits is enough to betray the whole mo this highly nervous wornan that she gave up the Ouija rnent. When Sir Oliver Lodge gets Sir Isaac Newt board, became hysterical, and had to go to the hospital on the wireless telephone it is interesting to note t herself. I am glad to record that the patient lived, but we do not get any advanced information on gravitati had he died, the medium would only have called atten- or the latest developments of the Einstein theory. tion to the nature of her advice and the responsibility Oliver is not able to get any help as a result of would have rested upon the person who selected the progress which Sir Isaac has been able to make on t wrong surgeon. other side. Sir Isaac merely tells Sir Oliver that he 1s glad he is studying spiritualism, that he is very happy 3. MORALITY AND HONESTY on the other side, and bids him farewell. A few years back there was published in German, a When Hodgson communicates with Sir Oliv work on spirii‘ualism by Baron von Schrenck-Notzing. through Mrs. Piper, he is not able to give any infor This same book was published in French by Madame tion on the cipher code which he left behind- he is Bisson. This is a work containing about one hundred not able to give any information regarding psychic re- Sftv photographs of materializations of their pet me- search which will help Sir Oliver-he merely says: )? dium, Eva C., and regarding this lady’s character and “Hello! I am so happy; all’s well, good-bye. morals the baron admits that she has “moral senti- I have never known a future event to be unequiv- ment only in the ego-centric sense,” and if I understand ocally predicted, and then seen it happen as state that definition properly it is equivalent to saying that I have known of many haphazard, ambiguous predi she has no moral sentiments at all. The baron further tions, that could be twisted around so that they cou says that she “behaves improperly to herself,” that she be said to have come to pass, and this seems to be the (Ilost her virtue before she was twenty,” and further habit of mediums. I remember the case of a patient on that she has a “lively erotic imagination,” and “an Moral and Ethical Aspects 174 The Truth About Spiritualism 175 “Katie King,” got so much jewelry from the poor old exaggerated idea of her own charms and her influence R. D. Owen before she was found out? Are we to see upon the male sex.” Yet Sir Arthur and Sir Oliver no spots on the egregious “Dr.’7Monck, who pretended hold this medium and her performances as the lates up that he was taken from his bed in Bristol and put to manifestations of the spirits of another world in their bed in Swindon by spirit hands? Or in corpulent Mrs. efforts to communicate with this world. Cuppy (an amateur who duped A. Russell Wallace for Now this supposedly immaculate vestal virgin - years), who swore that she had been snatched from her high priestess of the inner spiritualism - as we h table in her home at Ball’s Pond, taken across London previously shown, is none other than the notori (and through several solid walls) for three miles at Marthe Braud, she of the Algiers frauds and numer sixty miles an hour, and deposited on the table in a other unsavory experiences. locked room? Was Charles M7illiams white? He was, We must not forget that one of the Fox sisters, with Rita, detected by Spiritualists at Amsterdam with garet, who later married Captain Kane, the Arctic a whole ghost-making apparatus in his possession. plorer - and who, as the result of his urging, m Kere Rastian and Taylor white? They were similarly clean breast of the whole spiritualistic moveme exposed at Arnheim. Was , the pupil of America- branded it as a gross fraud engineered for Herne (the transporter of Mrs. Cuppy at sixty miles profit by her older sister, and declared further that an hour), and bewitcher of Sir W. Crookes, white? whole movement was “steeped in fraud and im U’e shall soon see. Was her friend and contemporary >7 ali ty. glics t-producer, Miss Showers, never exposed ? Or does Perhaps Sir A. C. Doyle would plead that this app Sir A. C. Doyle want us to believe in Morse, or Eg- ling outburst of fraud, which poured over America linton, or Slade, or the Davenport brothers, or Mi-s. from IS48 to lS88, was only the occasion for the appear- Fzy, or Miss Davenport, or Duguid, or Fowler, or ance of genuine mediums. Well, who are they? Hudson, or Miss Wood, or Mme. Blavatsky? the mediums who founded Spiritualism in Engl And so the dismal story goes on: Munsterberg shows from 1852 onward. Was Foster white? As earl up Eusapia Palladim; they catch Craddock in London 1863 the Spiritualistic Judge Edmonds, learned ‘‘s and he is fined in the police court; Frau Aband, the ening details of his criminality.” Was Colchester, mediumistic marvel of Berlin and the idol of the Teu- was detected and exposed, white? What was the tonic Spiritualists is exposed and arrested; Bailey, the of the Holmes family, whose darling spirit control, 176 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and Ethical Aspects 177

pride of the Aastralian Spiritualists - he of marvelous 4. THE TEST THAT ALWAYS FAILS rapport fame - is unmasked and exposed; in France, Again and again have I tried, through mediums, when Corrales, a short-lived mediumistic marvel is soon ca supposedly in communication with some deceased down in disgrace; Sardi, the chief of the Italian m scholar, to get the spirit to dictate to the medium some- diums comes to a sad end, and the following year Linda thing pertaining to the spirit’s professional specialties Gazerra, that refined Italian lady medium who he1 when here on earth. For instance, I have a deceased high carnival and duped the scientists for three yea friend, a physician and a very dear friend, and in my comes to the same inglorious end; Mrs. Wreidt, investigation of spiritism I have supposedly been many famous direct-voice medium, met her Waterloo in N times in communication with this physician - but way. And so the list goes; mediums are short-li never have I been able to get the spirit to dictate some three to five years is about all that can be expect passage from some medical authority that I might sug- them before they are detected in fraud and publi gest. Never could I get the medium to spell out medical exposed. Some clever ones have been able to operat terms properly, never could I get the medium to name bit longer. the diagnosis we made of a certain case which we had How long would the priesthood of any cult last ’ in consultation or to cite the authorities investigated how long would the ministry of any denominat at that conference which led to the making of the diag- stand-if in three-quarters of a century it had b nosis. In a score of ways I have given these mediums convicted of the fraud, immorality, and other unethi I an opportunity to prove that they were in communica- behavior that stigmatizes the priesthood of modern tion with bona fide discarnate spirits, but in every spiripalism? As one writer said, calling attention to instance they have wholly and completely - yes dis- PodGIore’s history of the spiritualistic movement: mally - failed. “There is hardly a medium named in the nineteen I have talked with George Washington, Abraham century who does not eventually disappear in an od Lincoln, Thomas Paine, Socrates, Plato, Milton, and of sulphur.” other of the great minds of past ages, but in no case have Carrington, who has been a great student of I ever secured from mediums anything from these old diums, and who may be said to be a believer in spirit masters that would bear the least semblance to the ualism, was forced to admit that ninety-eight per cent product of their minds when living on earth - and the physical phenomena of spiri tualism was fraudulen mind you, I communicated with them with reference 178 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and Ethical Aspects 179 to the very things they thought about and discussed fellow will be enthusiastic for the cause one of these when living. 1 did not ask questions pertaining to days and will leave a message which has previously their present state in the spirit world. I did not ask for been given to some medium, in a spirit of enthusiasm, a description of the landscape and geography of spirit- feeling that the end justifies the means, and they will land. I asked them about the very things they author- score a big point for spiritualism. But so far that test itatively discussed when living, and they unfailing has failed every time. But mark my words the time is defaulted in their efforts to show any degree of fa coming when it will (apparently) succeed. iarity with those subjects in which they were spec1 If we could call up the spirits of the departed, and . ists in life. they were really true to their professed identity, we In this connection I should say that I have teste might hear something worth while. As some one sug- out mediums by going repeatedly to the same seanc gested not long since, it would be interesting to get and asking to communicate with the same spirit, an Isaac Newton on the wire and hear what he thought of thus I have observed a growth or development in t the Einstein theory of relativity. We would likewise quality of the information imparted to me through the be glad to hear from George IT’ashington on the League alleged spirit. For instance, in my first talk with the of Nations; what Gladstone thought about the Irish poet Milton, along theological lines, I got little or n Treaty; or from Abraham Lincoln on the Four-Power satisfaction, but on going several times to the same me Naval Pact. It would be interesting to hear what dium I discovered that she had been reading Paradise Alexander the Great might have thought of the mili- Lost, so I began having lengthy conferences with the tary strategy at Verdun. But, strange to say when the alleged spirit of the poet. But it was all too transparent mediums do bring out these dignitaries and sages of a - the medium had been posting up and the quantity- past age, they are much more likely to talk about sub- and quality of my information was quite largely and stitutes for coffee, removable dental bridges, or to dis- evidently determined by the medium’s progress in the cuss some other trifle, the purport of which is to try study of the poet’s writings. and convince those present that spirits are real be- Hodgson, Myers, and others have left sealed mes- cause they can tell you about something you have lost sages, written in cipher, and so far no medium has ever or which has been stolen, etc. The whole business is been able to interpret them, no one has ever approached too trivial and juvenile to be worthy of the serious at- an interpretation of these code messages. But some tention of sober-minded, thinking men and women. 180 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and Ethical Aspects 181 point out higher and better ways, by means of the There was a Jewish fellow who went to consult a light which shone forth from the truth which they pro- medium, and she told him his mother was present. He claimed. The world has been advanced by men and talked with his mother’s spirit, and she gave him mes- women who loved light and worshipped truth, whose sages from other relatives who had passed over, and at doings were open, and whose beliefs would stand the the end the medium asked if there were any other ques- clear light and illumination of the severest tests which tions he would like to ask his mother, and he s their fellow men might apply; whereas the mediums, at “You know,Mother, we used to have such nice v least in a material way, seem to love darkness more in Hebrew, and now if I could just have a little t than light, and to keep their cause enshrouded in mys- with you in Yiddish, then I’d know it was you.’’ B ticism, while their comings in and goings out are the ghost could not talk Yiddish. steeped in secrecy and permeated with mystery.- 5. MEDIUMISTIC SPIRITUALITY. 6. NATIONAL TENDENCIES It does not appear that the mediums are the sourc In our study of mediums and spiritualistic phenom- and centers of the highest spiritual thought of th ena, it is very interesting to note that not only waves realm. Ethical advancement and spiritual improve- of fashion - epochs of characteristic behavior - have ment do not seem to take their origin or have the’ dominated spiritualism from decade to decade, but the root in spiritualism. The men and women who hav further fact is observed that spiritualism is directed in contributed to the social improvement and moral a its performance, and tends to crystallize its dogmas, vancement have not been avowed spiritualists. They differently among different peoples. There is a nation- have not secured their information from the discarnate alistic tendency to spirit manifestations. spirits who inhabit the ether surrounding our planet, or It seems that spiritualistic manifestations are liable who infest the atmosphere which we breathe and re- to take on the current color of the time and place in breathe. which they take origin. It is easy to suppose that a The theological advancement of age after age has not writer might receive from his subconscious centers been the result of spiritualistic influences. The ethicaE certain ideas which he believes to be of spiritistic origin, and social improvement of human society has come and since they would be quite likely to harmonize more from those daring reformers and intrepid human minds or less with his theories of life in general, and his spir- who have essayed to go forth in times of darkness and 182 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and Ethical Aspects 183 itualistic philosophy in particular, it is easy to imagine For all that do these things are an abomination unto that his mind - thus aroused by these ebullitions of the Lord.” Deut. 18:lO-12. He here catalogues eight the subconscious - would continue to develop it. different classes of occult devotees or spiri tuaiis tic Now, suppose such an author has theosophical lean- mediums. ings. It is quite likely that the whole spiritualistic It must be evident from the foregoing biblical admon- message will evolve into a theosophical dissertation. ition that-spiritualism, in the time of Moses, was not Such a spirit communication would have special in in good ethical and theologic standing. If the religious Auence with the devotees of the theosophical cult. teachers of biblical times believed the mediums of We observe that spiritualism in Germany, Fran their day were actually in communication with spirits, Great Britain and Ameyica, tends to run in entire it is evident that they regarded them as highly dis- . different channels. Spirits, apparently, are not in pos- reputable, and looked upon their spirit controls as be- session of a working program and a universal propa- ing- of an evil nature. Consequently, we have, all ganda. Apparently, they are limited in communicating through the scriptures, the denunciation of the prac- with the living to the beliefs, tendencies and other tice of seeking information from the dead, with the influences which are in vogue among the different peo- - constant exhortation that the appeal of mankind ples and nations through which they operate. All of - should be made to the living God. which suggests the purely fallible nature and human The prophet Isaiah, in discussing spiritualism, says: origin of the whole phenomenon. “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them

7. THE BIBLICAL ESTIMATE OF SPIRITUALISM that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep 2nd that mutter; should not a people seek unto their certain that Moses, who, we are told, was It is God? for the livihg to the dead? To the law and to the “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” was fa- testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it miliar with these occult doctrines, for he left on record is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8: 19, 20. for the guidance of the ancient Israelites, the following This then is the test. Divine law and the testimony of admonition: “There shall not be found among you any truth constitute the statutes whereby we should judge one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the teachings and estimate the performances of mod- the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of ern spiritualism, but how seldom are these spiritistic times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a necromancer. pretenders of today ever brought face to face with such Moral. and Ethical Aspects 185 184 The Truth About Spiritualism adventurers, wizards and necromancers. a tribunal. How seldom are they called upon to pass In ancient times they also had fraudulent priests. such tests. AIL too easily, the ignorant and unin- In the apocryphal book BeZ and the Dmgon, we are structed public of today are fascinated with their se- told how Daniel revealed to Cyrus, the King of Baby- ances and deceived by their performances. lon, a trick by which the court priests were fooling It must be clear to the reader that the Jews, a him, inducing him to provide each evening a great nation, were taught from earliest infancy to have quantity of choicest provisions for the great god Be1 to ing to do with the whole group of mystic soothsa eat, but which they and their families ate. By the whether they secured their information from the neat device of a thin layer of ashes sprinkled on the the astrologists; whether they got it from evil s floor of the temple and on the altar steps, Daniel was the witches; or whether they pretended to corn able to reveal the footprints of the tricky priests and cate with the dead, those having familiar spirits. the secret door under the altar by which they entered clear that Moses and his successors taught the Je the temple after it “was shut and sealed with the keep away from the whole nefarious tribe. king’s signet.” Daniel was a good psychic reseprcher. It is an important part of the history of spiritualis M’e need more of his sort today. to note how it was so utterly condemned by Jewis philosophy, and outlawed by Judaistic theology; an S. THE WITCH OF ENDOR it is even a commentary on the wisdom of Moses tha One of the most significant passages in all the sacred he should, three thousand years ago, and in the absenc literature, with which I am familiar, is that depicting of all the psychologic and scientific aid which we hav the experience of the Hebrew King, Saul, with the at our hand today, diagnose and seek to restrict Wtch of Endor, and fottnd in 1 Sam. 28516. occultism of his day as shown by the prohibitions A perusal of this passage of scripture shows, very tofore quoted-it is also a sad commentary o clearly, a number of things: intelligence and reasoning power of the men and 1. That they had professional mediums in Saul’s who live in this supposedly intellectual age, wit day, just as we have them today and that these pro- the means and methods we have for detecting o fessional mediums claimed to be able to call up the fraud and exposing spiritualistic deceptions, that dead and to put living persons in communication with large numbers should look with such a high degr discarnate spirits. favor upon the spiritualistic pretenses of our mod 186 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and Ethical Aspects 187 2. That official decrees had been issued against out the folly, if he could not get help and succor from these ancient mediums, in harmony with the Mosaic the living, acting Spiritual Forces of the realm-if iiijunction, much as we are wont, every now and then his living God could not help him out of the fix he was to issue police orders against the operation of cla in - of appealing to the dead for guidance and wisdom. ants, fortune tellers and mediums, in our own da The folly of this transaction on the part of King and that at this particular time when Saul felt lone Saul is further shown by a terse statement found in and God-forsaken, there had been recent police act I Chronicles 10:13, 14. “SO Saul died for his trans- ities of a very vigorous nature against all this psyc gression which he committed against the Lord, even occult business, throughout the Hebrew kingdom. against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and 3. That after much persuasion, and after also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, solemnly promised that she should not be arreste to inquire of it: and inquired not of the Lord: there- molested, this old woman of Endor consented to fore he slew him and turned the kingdom unto David the spirits, and ‘at her petitioner’s request brought the son of Jesse.” the alleged spirit of Samuel. And as is often the According to the sacred record, the Almighty was enough of plausible or worthy advice is given to much displeased with Saul because he sought counsel both to estabIish the identity of the spirit and crea from a spiritualistic medium. We would infer that he confidence on the part of those who seek informa only went to this source of help because he was out of from these sources. It is further suggested that the spi touch and out of tune with the higher and Divine in this case at least, operating through the wi source of help and guidance, and the subsequent sad of Endor, knew and recognized Saul when the spectacle of his dying a suicide on the hills of Gilboa lady herself was apparently quite ignorant of after the violation of his own royal decree and the identity; this fact tending of course to give the who Jewish code of ethics in going to seek information from proceeding a tinge of the supernatural of some s the dead, is but in keepi.ng with the last results we though of course we have here only a very brief have observed in modern times, .of many who.seek com- fragmentary record of a very important and ext fort and guidance at the broken cisterns of spiritism. ordinary seance. I know of a number of instances where individuals, like 4. The whole thing contained quite a rebuke Saul, after seeking advice from mediums and daiivoy- Saul, in that even the alleged spirit of Samuel point ants, have likewise fiIled the grave of a miserable suicide. 188 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and Ethical Aspects 189

CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM tality. His shrewd eye saw that behind disbelief in a 9. ____ ”.------lffe‘beyond- lay disbelief in the value- of personality. Gibbon, in his famous fifteenth chapter, marks as one .r-- - - =_ 1_-- -- of the five causes of the growth of Christianity, Look at Germany, where, among the educated daises, ---- .__-____--.------“he doctrine of a future life, improved by every additio&l faith in immortality has been scorned as one of the circumstance which could give weight and efficacy-yi main buttresses of superstition, and where dogmatic that important truth;” and in the true spirit materialism in the person of Professor Haeckel still plants its banner. Again, the idea of Christ’s mission being that of a life-giver, and that this life pertains to something un- usual and out of the ordinary, is further carried out by the statement of John 10:10, “The thief cometh not but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” And in the twenty-eighth and twenty- ‘ been for centuries in possession of the greater ninth verses he further carries out this same idea: of civilized men, had proved of small accou “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall the new religion swept over the Graeco-Rom never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of and eventually transformed it. my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater But an equally important question is raised w than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.” sociological------effect of this theory is contemplate John, it would seem, de~Eedto teach that immor- vince men generally that consciousness e --_ I__c- tality was conditional uppn Christian belief; that the €FaY%,3FjZi% -- ____-.....-. TFiEiGTf Th3T-o$zkm-&zt _I theology of it consisted in the recognition of everlast- ing life as a gift made possible by the sacrificial mission of Christ in the r81e of the world’s Redeemer. This Seems also to be the purport of the statement of the first epistle of John, 5:ll-13: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is 190 The Truth About Spiritualism Moral and Ethical Aspects 191 in His Son. These things I have written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God; that ye old Hebrew scriptures, believing that mortals who have know that ye have eternal life, and that ye map closed their eyes in death do not return to this planet, lieve in the name of the Son of God.” And the apostle that their records are preserved on high, and that they Paul seems to have carried out the same tea will be duly resurrected at a future Day of Judgment, there to appear before the Magistrate of all the Uni- verse, to be judged according to the deeds done in the body, and that subsequent to this judgment the right- eous enter the Gates of Paradise while the unworthy 10. MODERN THEOLOGICAL VIEWS are condemned to the nether regions. d. The Catholic View. It seems to be the disposition on the part of many Catholic authorities and publica-

tions to__ admit __-__ thepossiblegenuineness ------I^ -_I------I of----_ some spiritualc1

communications,--- - -_ but at the same time to forbid all efforts to communicate with these supernatural intel- ligences. To dabble with spiritualism is regarded as a wicked practice. It seems to have been officially de- creed by the Sacred Roman Congregation that “As matters stand, _it is not -allcmable.” b. The Oriental viewpoint. Both the Judaisti e. The Spiritualistic Yiewpoint. To the spiritualist, the Hindu doctrines do not offer much encourag Christ is the Master Medium. All of the Oriental to spiritualism. The Old Testament scriptures mysticism of Holy Writ, and all references to the “Me- Jews seem to teach that there is little hope of c diator,” the “Holy Ghost,” and what not, are sup- cating with those who have once entered the p posed to be allusions to the power of mediumship, the tomb. with its ability to bridge the gulf between the seen and c. The Soul Sleepers. The Seventh Day Ad the unseen worlds. To the spiritualist, the resurrection of Christ was a and some other sects are inclined to view the s the dead much in accordance with the teachings master materialization, a perfect type of the ability of the spirit to materialize itself so that it can be seen, .. -.-. -- ’..,* C,... ..,iC.. 192 The Truth About Spiritualism heard, and handled by other living and material beings. Likewise every allusion of the Bible to “ministering angels,” every reference to “demons and devils,” is CHAPTER VII assumed to constitute a scriptural backing for the THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER present-day belief in the dogmas of spiritualism. 0 spiritualist has said: “Take out of the Bible reference to spirits and angels, and the rema HE believers in spiritualism are wont to point Twith pride to certain scientific men whom they will be only a mass of fables.” As we have seen, while spiritualism is not a new claim as converts; but careful investigation proves that many of these men do not confirm these claims but trine - it is as old as the human race -yet spiri instead most strenuously maintain they are not ism as an affiliation with the Christian religion that comparatively new and recent phenomenon. On spiritualists. For example, Flammarion, whom the the last two generations have mediums - those spiritualists have claimed as a convert, says, in a book published as far back as 1907, that he is not and never profess to communicate with the spirits of the de claimed to basesheir teachings and to justify was a spiritualist. In this connection he publishes a practices by an appeal to the s+-GGsKf?hSCW1 letter from Schiaparelli, whom the spiritualists have __ __ * ------__-_ __ religion. also claimed, disavowing his belief in all such phenom- f. The Hypothesis of the Universal Mind. ena. Even Professor Richet, although he has ad- mitted belief in some sorts of materialization, is not a sober-minded philosophers .of today who are q ’ spiritualist, as ordinarily understood. Professor Mor- averse to accepting the tenets of spiritualism- selli, who has been heralded the spiritualists as a doctrine of the dead communicating with the 1 by believer in the cult, has characterized the interpreta- - are disposed to believe in the existence. of a Uni Spiritual Mind with which the Spiritual Monit tion of their phenomena as “childish, absurd, and im- moral.” men may possibly be able to communicate when On the other hand, should be stated that some are properly attuned. it men entitled to at least some claim of scientific emi- nence, have admitted that they have been puzzled by certain spiritualistic phenomena, such as raps and other

193 .-. Conclusion IYJ 194 The Truth About Spiritualism \ tiful and romantic maiden, the alleged Katie King, minor manifestations. Some have been inclined to be- walked about the room and told his children of her life lieve that there might be something abnormal, if not in India long, long ago. She even took the Professor's supernatural, about certain spiritualistic rnanifesta- arm on one occasion and walked across the floor with tions; among this group we migh mention Richet, him, and from his brief letters it is very evident that Flornoy, Carrington, and Maxwell. But it should be Katie King was more than an ethereal apparition. She stated that the majority of the scientists who are d must have been a very solid sort of human being, because posed to believe some of the phenomena produce the Professor 'tells of feeling her pulse and auscultating mediums, do not for a moment attribute these her heart, and even went so far as ;o cut off one formances to spirit agencies. .They merely think of her auburn curls - a liberty which the spiritualists they have excluded all possible fraud, and while the'"' will not allow us with the famed ectoplasm of more re- do not admit the hypothesis of these phenomena bein cent materializations, averring that to sever the ecto- executed by discarnate spirits, they are left in the p plasm would mean the death of the medium. In one of plexed attitude of finding an alternative explanation' his letters, the Professor breaks off abruptly in des- hypothesis to account for the medium's perform cribing a spiritistic flirtation up to this point, and merely asks what any man would do under the circum- 1. PROFESSOR AND OTHERS stances -leaving us of course to infer that the average Spiritualists have made much of the investigations human would probably discover that the maiden had ' . by Professor Crookes, of that pretty little Hackne warm breath like any other individual who had been SO . girl, Florence Cook, who early became one of the re materialistic up to that point. . nowned mediums of England, at least for a whil It is interesting to note, in the case ofprofessor Crookes was a young scientist, and at the time Flo HysJop, who did so much in connection with Dr. ' materialized at his house he wrote two or three lett Hodgson to initiate psychic investigation in the United telling of the wonderful things which he saw. It sho States, that while he was a logical thinker - in fact at be said that he did not re-publish these letters later, one time Professor of Logic at Columbia University - life, and that later on he all but gave up his confide he did not take up the investigation of spirit phenomena in the whole spiritualistic movement. until prolonged ill-health compelled him to resign his While Florrie Cook, the medium, was suppose professorship at the University. And it is well known be lying on the floor in an improvised cabinet, a

~~~~~~-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 196 The Truth About Spiritualism Conclusion 197 that Professor Hyslop’s belief that he had been able 2. SIR to communicate with his associate and co-worker, Dr. Sir Arthur seems to possess anything but the scien- Hodgson, was all based upon the writing phenomenon tific attitude - the anaIytica1 mind - that is required of Mrs. Piper, the Boston medium, while in a state of properly to investigate the phenomena of spiritualism. trance or catalepsy. His judgment seems to be precipitate, his discrimina- Some good has been done by the psychic researcher tion defeaive - not to say anything in question of his at any rate, in that they have exposed many of t discretion. The childlike credulity with which he ac- more palpable medium frauds, such as Mme. Blava cepts phenomena as evidential, in support of spiritism, sky, and others. is pathetic, as evidenced by the haste with which he And so the story might be continued, reciting ho sent to the London Daily Mail on December 16, 1919, the great and the near-great have, from time to time, a photograph of an alleged picture of Christ, which he dabbled in spiritualism, and undertaken to investiga said had been “done” in but a few hours by a lady who its numerous phenomena. But the reader will o had had no previous artistic training or experience in serve that there is indeed a paucity of real scientists portrait painting. Doyle thought the picture “a mas- who have ever become serious-minded converts to terpiece,” contending that it was such a wonderful spiritualism; and even in the case of those who hav painting that “ a great painter in Paris (whose name un- espoused the cause, practically none of them - exce fortunately was withheld) fell instantly upon his in the case of William Crookes - was ever known to’ knees” in breathless admiration before such a marvel- believe in its tenets in his younger years. Most of the ous production. Doyle thought this painting was “a so-called great men who have espoused spiritualism supreme example” of a spiritualistic miracle. Now, the have done so subsequent to, or about the time of reach- sequel of this hasty act on ahe part of Sir Awis dis- ing that psychically susceptible age of “three sco closed in a letter written on December 31, hy the ac- years and ten.” This is indeed unfortunate, for t tist’s husband to the Daily MiziZ, from which it will whole subject, regards its physical manifestations suffice to quote a single paragraph: “Mrs. .Spew , etc., would have been long sin wishee &&ifely to state, once and for ail, &at her pie laeely cleared up had more men of scientific abili ture$ arc pinted in a perfectly nomd mapnor, that turned their attention to its investigation earlier the js dkgvsted at having ‘psychic pmr’at!&bated life. ’to hgqa and that she does not aherish any iu&mous .or Conclusion 198 The Truth About Spiritualism fraudulent. In the case of Doyle, I am almost led to mawkish sentiments about helping humanity by her believe that he has reached that time of life when his . . .. paintlng.“ I &!* wonderful gift for creating fictitious characters has be- %g It seems that Sir Arthur is given to being over- :I’ come hooked up in his brain with his will to believe in impressed by spiritualistic seances and that he is given - spirits, and that the “feeling of reality” has become to over-exaggeration. A number of these indiscretions projected outward from his subconscious centers onto

are noted by McCabe in the following indictment: ,ws’ these spiritistic brain children to such an extent that he has come actually to believe in the reality of the the first fifteen years of her mediumshlp; that he fictitious creations of his own mind. How else can we given me the names of forty spiritualist professors; reconcile the statements and conduct of such a cul- the Fox sisters were at first honest; that I did not gi tured gentleman, on the one hand, with the child-like the evidence from his books correctly; that Mr. Lethe credulity and willingness to be deceived by such corn: got certain detailed information the first time he con monplace phenomena? sulted a medium; that in Mme. Bissan’s book you ca see ectoplasm pouring from the medium’s ‘nose, eyes, 3. SIR OLIVER LODGE ears, and skin:’ that Florrie Cook ‘never took on Sir Oliver Lodge is the one great surprise of present- penny of money;’ that in the Belfast experiment th day spiritualism. The varying degrees to which most table rose to the ceiling, and so on. His frame of the men who are entitled to be called scientists was extraordinary.” have dabbled in spiritism can be more or less under- From a theological standpoint it is necessary to stood, and we can understand how the novelist, Doyle,

recoenize_- that Doyle repudiates- all belief in the in spite of his medical training, could become enamored 0 life and deat ficial, or atoning significa.nce of Christ’s . .. of its tenets and phenomena. But Lodge is more or less as in fact do most of the out-and-out believers ~n of a conundrum, though it must be remembered that modern spiritualism It has seemed to me very inco he is very chary in his statements as to just how far he sistent for the spiritualists to quibble with believing accepts or endorses any given spiritistic manifestation the miracles of Biblical record when they are so will& ’ or phenomenon. It must be remembered that, in to accept, with child-like and open-mouthed credd bringing out his book Raymond, purporting to be a as miracles, those performances which the most sup record of more or less indirect communication with his ficial investigation discloses to be wholly or parti -.. - Concluslon

I- the same named Feda, and in this way 3y”*Ly ---- A ’ *- through it is alleged that he was able to communlcace I I the medium, Mrs. Leonard, with his father. 4. SUMMER LAND AND ITS CITIZENS I Sir Oliver Lodge, or rather Raymond, tells US that the abode of spirits is known locally to him as “c~7m-

mer-land,’’ and he tells us that the young rapidly 1 cc+Lir maturity, and that the old go back to a moreL--J or lesser adult, or middle age state. Now this seems .l-:- -:Ae reconcile with Sir Arthur’s teaching, as I healu,C llA1l+h, proclaim, when on his lecture tour on

Atlantic: that the bereaved mothers woula1 __ __._ sct:_d ..,heLILU 202 The Truth About Spiritualism Conclusion 203 scientists of spirit land, but instead of getti spiritualistic phenomena are purely fraudulent, sheer have only been led into confusion worse confoun chicanery and trickery; and even if we were willing to because they variously tell entirely different stor admit that in certain rare cases real phenomena are But a short time back the great Darwin assured me produced in the name of spiritualism, we would have to least the medium communicated the information confess that, as yet, we have not met such genuine man- me) that “there is nothing material in spirit lan ifes tations. After all, spiri tis tic (genuine) manifesta- cept the condensation, or crystallization, of th tions are beyond the pale of scientific investigation. thoughts and good deeds of departed mortals. They are problems in theology and religion. were dependent on my information from spirit lan The mediums have failed to pass the real tests. They my concept of the philosophy of a future life, m have failed to meet the conditions which are required fusion would long since have become so hopele by science to establish their claims. They have failed, have led me either into crass materialism on when brought face to fadwith conditions*/-P that would hand, or to have driven me into the vestibul permit the production of manifestations of real evi- insane asylum on the other hand. dential value. The Biblical portrayal of the future life and It would seem the time had come when itltellgent ture home of the salvaged mortals from this pl human beings mipht indulge the hope of surviv? 1 after certainly a more cheerful picture than that w death without exposing- themselves to the sophistries depicted in Raymond’s revelations. The conce anddelusions of so-called spiritualicm. It would seem orthodox Christianity is certainly superior, wit that modern science would afford us an ample basis on golden New Jerusalem, to the melancholy spe which modern man could securely rest and upon which tha’t Raymond paints of his brick house, muddy he could safely entertain religious beliefs and indulge in odorous effluvia, and unspeakable manure. the hope of immortality, without the necessity and danger of exposure to the flagrant deceptions of OC- 5. MY OWN CONCLUSIONS cultism and spiritism. Spiritualism is not a matter which can be fi It would seem that it might be possible for intelligent judged in the experimental laboratory. Inves men and women to indulge in the hope of survival after extending over a period of twenty-five years death, to study psychic phenomena, and to investigate trinced me that more than nine-tenths of all the unusual and the extraordinary, without having to 204 The Truth About Spiritualism Conclusion 205 work of Abraham Lincoln would know that I was not dogmas and beliefs which render it almost inevita talking with his spirit - as I well knew it. If the spirits of these great men of bygone ages could be called up, it stands to reason that we would hear something ists or spiritualists. characteristic of them. Who can imagine the spirit of What, then, are the n Theodore Roosevelt coming up at a seance, and indulg- taken as a whole? What ing in the frivolous patter that these mediums seek to. portray from time to time as they juggle with these spirits of well-known departed individuals? And yet there is a fascination about the whole thing that be- thousands of earnest souls who believe that they comes supremely attractive to many seemingly intelli- gent persons - men who have the brains to be editors, been led nearer... to God, and who look upon spiritu and upon spiritistic teachings as a means whereby lawyers, doctors, preachers, psychologists, and scien- have been delivered from benighted materialism, tists. doubt many of the recent converts to spiritunli 6. THE STORY SUMMARIZED that they have, in accepting its tenets, come To summarize our examination of spiritualism, then. darkness into light, but it has been my observ we find that the belief of the living inL their ab9to ,

.-- those cases which I have been privileged to stu --_--I --c.-c- communicate with the dead is a verv ancient one. From the -e~rlie~t-d~w~~~~i~~~i~~w~fi~s~i, t-

ualism practiced under first one guise and then another, known by numerous names in various ages. SaEmember, years ago, when a well-known me We find that modern spiritism probably had its ini- had put me in contact with the spirit of Abraha tial impetus with the teachings of Swedenborg; that spiritualism as an organized religion, promoted and , coln, who spent the time discussing two or three things with me, having to do with something fostered by commercial mediumship, had its origin with the Fox sisters in the state of New York in 1848; and that it spread rapidly over the English speaking 206 The Truth About Spiritualism Conclusion 207 world; that we have had recurrent waves of it in every conclusjvely proved to be fraud. I am prepared, finally generation - once every twenty-five or thirty years; and deliberately, after a quarter of a century of study, that repeated exposure of its more palpable frauds has observation, and personal experience with mediums, led to a gradual improvement of its technique and an psychics, and sensitives, to record it as my deliberate elimination of its grosser fraudulent practices. opinion that all of the physical manifestations of spirit- We have seen how spiritualism grew up in Am ualism are a fraud. I do not believe that discarnate round the Reverend Moses, and in England about spirits are in any way connected with this phase of the medium, Home. We have further traced, decade cult, neither do I believe that spiritualism in its phys- decade, the rise and fall of famous mediums, begin ical manifestations is the work of the devil, or of any with Slade, the slate writer, and embracing a sor other sort of evil spirit, but that it is a work of pure and procession of mediumistic frauds, ending in the mo undefiled legerdemain. ., recent grotesque exposure of Eusapia Palladino, t As regards the psychic manifestations of spiritual- classic Italian medium. ism, I have endeavored first to show how well known and accgpted principles of human psychology are ade- In no case have the physical- manifestations of spirit ism passed the tests of science. Numerous tempting r quate fully to explain and account for practically all of wards of money are still available in this country the psychic manifestations brought forward in the in Europe for any medium who can prove his abi name of spiritualism. I have shown that in all these to produce physical manifestations due en tirely cases which I have personally investigated, and which spirit agencies. have been under my professional care - these psychi- We have discussed and disclosed the tricks of the s -. cally abnormal individuals ranging from clairvoyants ance room-how voices are produced and talkit and sensitives down through all sorts of mediums to the trumpets are operated. Herein are found exposed t'l borderline of the insanities - the psychological hy- methods whereby mediums produce lights, spirit ro pothesis is fully adequate in every way, satisfactorily read sealed writings, write on sealed slates, and s to explain the psychic phenomena of this whole group down through the whole mechanical mess of tricks ar of patients, mediums, and other sorts of psychics. tricksters, including the Ouija board, materialization Of course I cannot be scientifically certain that evil spirit photographs, spirit paintings, clairvoyance ghosts and vagabond spirits, or some other agency of fortune telling. The whole thing is clearly shown His Satanic Majesty, may not be at the bottom of cer- t 208 The Truth About Spiritualism Conclusion 209 Lonclusion

_"oy me subconscious - by ~nakethe reservations of a scientist as to sp

,-rlJ 01 me well-known psychic laws of mental trans- the thing in its Ultimate analysis, We have st ference and psychic projection. science has not accepted, and does not accept, As to the moral and ethical standing of mediums, the dorse, spiritualism. P less said the better. The whole movement has miser- ably failed in contributing to progress and the advance- ment of the spiritual aspects of modern civilization The rhetoric of the mediums is puerile and silly. comparison with the masterpieces of sacred and profa literature spiritualistic ebullitions are contempti The ethical standing and moral status of the business, when weighed in the balance, is found t sadly wanting. We have seen that we are now in the midst of spiritistic wave, due to the fact, on the one hand, th it has been thirty years or more since we have had su a revival of spiritualism, and on the other, to the mon mental loss of life in the recent World War, which h forced tens of thousands of bereaved people to turn their eyes toward the world beyond the grave and t long, if such a thing is possibIe, to communicate with their loved ones who have so recently and so sudden1 passed into the Great Beyond. We have further noted that, with the possible exc tion of Sir Oliver Lodge, no real scientists today a dyed-in-the-wool spiritualists, and even Sir Olive his book Raymond, while personally and sentimen endorsing the thing, seeks as it were, subconsciously