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WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
WHAT IS 
 
 THIS 
 
 SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 BY 
 
 HORACE LEAF 
 
 n 
 
 
 * '» > J » 
 
 NEW XaJr YORK 
 GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
L^ 
 
 iRY 
 
 EDUC. 
 
 PSYCH. 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 COPYRIGHT. 1919. 
 BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I The Case for Spiritualism 9 
 
 II What Spiritualism Teaches .... 38 
 
 III What Spifjtualism Teaches — Continued 54 
 
 IV Why I Became a Spiritualist .... 72 
 
 V Authenticated Cases op Spirit Com- 
 munications 93 
 
 VI Mediums True and False 120 
 
 VII Clairvoyance or "Clear-Seeing" . . 144 
 
 VIII The Antiquity of Spiritualism . . . 166 
 
 405752 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
> > 1 J 5 
 
 WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 The growing popularity of Spiritualism; its unique position; 
 leads to a clearer conception of life; the Churches and 
 Spiritualism; Rev. R. J. Campbell; has convinced many 
 scientists of survival of bodily death; controversy in 
 nineteenth century; opponents' methods; Professor Tyn- 
 dall; Mr. Edward Clodd; Dr. W. J. Carpenter; support- 
 ers' methods; Sir William Crookes; Psychic i^orce; 
 Cesare Lombroso; biology and psychology of phantoms 
 may be constructed; Sir Oliver Lodge; *^ Raymond"; 
 table-tiltings and rappings; their evidential value; scien- 
 tific experiments with D. D. Home and Florence Cook; 
 materialisation of *' Katie King"; Sir W. Crookes sees 
 medium and spirit together; photographs spirit form; 
 Dr. W. J. Crawford; Miss Kathleen Goligher; the ** in- 
 visible operators"; seance in the light; levitations and 
 raps; Dr. Crawford's theories; trance control of Miss 
 Goligher. 
 
 For nearly three-fourths of a century the 
 public has been more or less interested in the 
 subject of Modern Spiritualism. During the 
 course of the great war, whilst other reli- 
 
 9 
 
;*;■'., yviiA't is this spiritualism? 
 
 • groii'g'boaies'ii^ve frequently complained of 
 failure or ill-success, Spiritualism has rap- 
 idly increased in popularity and is to-day 
 probably the only religious movement in the 
 West that is growing. The world has now 
 made the discovery that instead of being 
 composed of a small number of ignorant and 
 superstitious people, whose sole interest is 
 in table-rappings and '^ weird" manifesta- 
 tions, it is represented by many persons 
 commanding respect in other departments 
 of activity. This is exactly what one of its 
 most illustrious opponents — Ernest Haeckel 
 — ^pointed out nearly twenty years ago. 
 
 Spiritualism has invaded the homes of 
 prince and peasant alike, and many of the 
 greatest minds, including eminent scientists, 
 have made it a matter of special study ; and 
 whilst some have been unconvinced, others 
 have become its enthusiastic advocates. 
 This is unique in the history of religion, be- 
 cause the claims of Modern Spiritualism rest 
 upon an entirely different basis to that of 
 other religious beliefs. Whereas faith is the 
 particular foimdation of Christianity, Mo- 
 hammedanism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, 
 
 10 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 experiment is the foundation of Spiritual- 
 ism. In other words, it is a science as well 
 as a religion. In one sense its devotees re- 
 gard it as a science throwing fresh light on 
 the great problem of existence. In another 
 sense it is an illumination leading to a 
 clearer appreciation of the spiritual and 
 philosophical value of life. That is no doubt 
 why so many of its bitterest opponents have 
 been leaders in religious thought. Full of 
 confidence in the faith they already held, 
 they could only regard as a dangerous inter- 
 loper that which denied their assertion that 
 all matters concerning the hereafter must be 
 accepted by faith and not demonstrated as 
 fact. 
 
 A gradual change has taken place in this 
 direction during the last few years, and it 
 has become quite common for clergymen to 
 admit the correctness of the Spiritualists' 
 position ; so far, at least, as evidence for the 
 survival of bodily death is concerned. Sev- 
 eral of the most popular authors on the sub- 
 ject are ordained ministers in the Church of 
 England ; and quite recently the Rev. R. J. 
 Campbell had an article in a leading Church 
 
 11 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 journal, in wMch he declares that it is use- 
 less to deny the reality of the experiences on 
 which Spiritualists base their claims. Clair- 
 voyance, clairaudience, levitation and the 
 materialisation of spirit forms, and many 
 other kinds of psychic phenomena that 
 might be named, are facts, attested by 
 trained expert scientific observers, some of 
 whom are personally known to him as men 
 whose testimony on this or any other subject 
 is not to be lightly discounted. 
 
 The scientific nature of Spiritualism 
 means that the scientists who have spoken 
 in favour of it or who have embraced it, 
 have done so, not because they wished to 
 believe, or because they have been taught 
 from infancy to believe, but because common 
 sense and experience have compelled them 
 to do so. Nothing can testify more effect- 
 ively to the power of a movement than this. 
 No other religious body would venture to 
 establish its claims upon so strict a founda- 
 tion. Perhaps that is why no other can hope 
 to stand so firmly, nor expect, in this an- 
 alytical age, to flourish so vigorously as 
 
 12 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 Modern Spiritualism may reasonably hope 
 to do. 
 
 In almost every instance where leading 
 personages — ^particularly scientists — ^have 
 undertaken to investigate the subject, they 
 have done so in a sceptical spirit. In nearly 
 every case where they have been won over, 
 they had originally combated against it. 
 Their first conviction has almost invariably 
 been that Spiritualism is established upon 
 fraud, and that once the keen eye and 
 shrewd mind of the trained observer be 
 brought to bear upon so-called psychic phe- 
 nomena, the tricks would be exposed. Nor 
 have these investigators hastily arrived at 
 their conclusions. One of the best proofs 
 of the genuineness of psychic phenomena is 
 in the fact, that those who have most con- 
 sistently and closely examined them are 
 generally those who have accepted them. 
 Among scientists this is most noticeable. 
 During the great controversy upon the sub- 
 ject which took place in the last quarter of 
 the nineteenth century, it was those scien- 
 tists who had unsparingly investigated, that 
 supported Spiritualism. On the other hand, 
 
 13 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 those who condemned it were often those 
 who confessed they considered the matter 
 unworthy of their serious attention. This is 
 well shown in some of the replies received 
 by the Dialectical Society when appointing 
 a committee to inquire into the subject. A 
 representative body was sought for, and in- 
 vitations were sent to several leading scien- 
 tists to join the committee. The replies of 
 some of them reveal to what an extent the 
 matter had been prejudged, and in conse- 
 quence how many were totally unprepared 
 to even consider it. Professor Huxley, then 
 at the height of his fame, and the leading 
 agnostic in this country, said: ** Supposing 
 the phenomena to be genuine, they do not 
 interest me." Herbert Spencer declared: 
 '*I have settled the question in my own mind 
 on a priori grounds." It is dilBScult to un- 
 derstand this attitude on the part of men 
 professedly lovers of truth, and who on 
 other subjects were undoubtedly broad- 
 minded. That this was due, however, to no 
 mere passing mood, but a deeply-rooted 
 aversion, is demonstrated by the repeated 
 attacks against Spiritualism by this type of 
 
 14 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 person. Even authorities unsympathetic to- 
 wards Spiritualism have had to acknowledge 
 the unfairness of such critics as Professor 
 Tyndall and Dr. W. B. Carpenter. Tyn- 
 dall's noteworthy pronouncement that, 
 *'The world will have a religion of some 
 kind, even though it should fly to the intel- 
 lectual whoredom of Spiritualism,'' sprang 
 from little more than his ignorance of the 
 subject. The remarks of Prank Podmore, 
 an unfavourable critic of Spiritualism, con- 
 vey a vivid idea of the unscientific methods 
 of the eminent physicist, as well as the bit- 
 ter manner in which he blindly regarded 
 anj^hing to do with psychic phenomena. 
 
 '*In his * Fragments of Science for Un- 
 scientific People,' " writes Podmore, *' Tyn- 
 dall furnishes a sample of his mode of in- 
 vestigation. The date of the solitary seance 
 which he describes is not given, but from 
 another source we learn that it took place 
 in the early sixties, at the house of Mr. New- 
 ton Crossland. The seance was a failure; 
 nothing occurred which could not have been 
 effected by fraud or accident. Tyndall 
 
 15 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 claims, however, to have checked one or two 
 intended movements of the table ; he further 
 asserts that the medium, after boasting that 
 she was so sensitive as to be rendered seri- 
 ously ill by the mere presence of a magnet in 
 the room, failed to detect a magnet in Tyn- 
 dall's pocket, within a few inches of her 
 person; and that some of the company at- 
 tributed to spirit influence movements and 
 sounds which were actually caused by Tyn- 
 daU himself. Tyndall's account of the sit- 
 ting is quite possibly correct, but we have 
 only his word for it, and the fact that at the 
 time he kept his experiments and observa- 
 tions to himself, so as to shut out all possi- 
 bility of corroDorative evidence, gives an 
 appearance of unfairness to his article, 
 which is much to be regretted. As we have 
 already seen, even a distinguished physicist 
 is liable, like ordinary mortals, to make seri- 
 ous mistakes in his report of a seance, and 
 as a matter of fact, Tyndall's version of the 
 evening's performance was challenged, on 
 publication, by his host. 
 
 '*But even if the accuracy of the narra- 
 tive is admitted, the propriety of publish- 
 
 16 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 ing it is dubious. The seance was admittedly 
 unsuccessful; no fraud was actually de- 
 tected; and it seems hardlv worth while to 
 have written an article to prove that some 
 Spiritualists were credulous and some me- 
 diums imaginative. But when dogs are to 
 be beaten any stick will serve." * 
 
 Although Tyndall and Carpenter belong 
 to the previous generation, their methods 
 are such glaring examples of the unfair crit- 
 icism to which Spiritualism has always been 
 subjected on the part of persons of whom 
 any such thing is hardly likely to be sus- 
 pected, that they serve a very useful pur- 
 pose in connection with this aspect of the 
 subject. Unfortunately, there are a large 
 body of people who take their lead from this 
 kind of critic, without even troubling to in- 
 vestigate for themselves. 
 
 Even thinkers of importance who have 
 played a conspicuous and honourable part 
 in progressive thought, and, therefore, to 
 whom the world owes a debt of gratitude, are 
 often thus perniciously influenced. 
 
 ** 'Modem Spiritualism: A History and a Criticism." By 
 Frank Podmore. VoL II. p. 147. 
 
 17 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 Mr. Edward Clodd* is one of the most re- 
 cent examples; for no one acquainted with 
 the love of truth he has hitherto shown, 
 would suppose that his illogical and abusive 
 attack on Spiritualism and some of its scien- 
 tific exponents has been inspired by personal 
 experience. Only those ignorant of the facts 
 would venture to dispute levitations and 
 other well attested psychic manifestations, 
 on the grounds that they *^are defiances of 
 the uniformity of Nature"; or stoop so low 
 as to refer to the testimonies of men far 
 more eminent and qualified than themselves 
 as ** mischievous drivel." The assumption 
 contained in such criticism is that Mr. Clodd 
 has exhausted nature, and that not one of 
 her laws is outside his knowledge. The truth 
 is, Mr. Clodd is of the old school, and long- 
 continued modes of thought and belief have 
 hardened his heart, and left practically no 
 room for expansion in certain directions. 
 What is required by this order of sceptic is 
 a course of personal investigation of psychic 
 
 ***The Question: *If a man dies, shall he live again f* " 
 By Edward Clodd. 
 
 18 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 phenomena, equal to the importance of the 
 issues involved. 
 
 Dr. Carpenter's attitude reveals in what 
 bad odour important individuals stood fifty 
 years ago when they ventured to speak in 
 favour of Spiritualism. The kind of stick 
 used against them was not less disreputable 
 than that used against Spiritualists in gen- 
 eral. Carpenter claimed to have studied the 
 ** higher phenomena of Spiritualism" for 
 more than twelve years. His investigations 
 were certainly not exhaustive, whilst certain 
 classes of psychic phenomena he avoided al- 
 together. He expressly states he refused to 
 attend dark seances, or to have anything to 
 do with phenomena below the table. Some 
 of the more remarkable forms of phenom- 
 ena, which had quite convinced other scien- 
 tists, he uncompromisingly attributed to 
 fraud. In attempting to demonstrate this 
 theory he failed miserably. We are indebt- 
 ed to him for the phrase ** unconscious cere- 
 bration," and by means of it he endeav- 
 oured to account for various kinds of psy- 
 chical manifestations. The way he applied 
 this undoubtedly useful discovery, is often 
 
 19 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 quite amusing, involving him in difficulties 
 far greater than the one he was endeavour- 
 ing to solve. By unconscious cerebration, 
 he meant that there were often unconscious 
 actions performed, both physically and men- 
 tally, that might lead the investigator to 
 suppose that it was not he but some ex- 
 traneous entity performing the action or 
 expressing the thought. In applying it to 
 table-tilting and planchette-writing. Car- 
 penter would be to a large extent correct. 
 Spiritualists are, as a rule, quite prepared 
 to admit that under certain circumstances 
 much may influence the phenomena which 
 comes only from the experimenter's own 
 subconsciousness. But how it can explain 
 the movements of objects at a distance from 
 the medium or the materialisation of a spirit 
 form, it is impossible to conceive. 
 
 Carpenter's strong aversion to Spirit- 
 ualism led him to adopt Jesuitical means of 
 bringing about its overthrow. He regarded 
 it as a most '^mischievous epidemic delu- 
 sion," compared it to the witchcraft of 
 the seventeenth century, and considered it 
 ought, therefore, to be crushed. The ex- 
 
 20 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 traordinary vigour with which he pursued 
 this end redounds to his lasting discredit as 
 a scientific observer and critic; being ** im- 
 paired," says Podmore, ''by the extraordi- 
 nary egotism and malevolence which he dis- 
 played." * 
 
 The foregoing facts afford an idea of the 
 difficulties against which Modern Spirit- 
 ualism has had to contend. The very body 
 of opinion which Spiritualists have always 
 most honoured, and from which they have 
 always realised their greatest assistance 
 must come, has far too long been in large 
 part antagonistic. So strong is the belief 
 of the average Spiritualist, that he has ac- 
 tually counted on the enquiries of the sci- 
 entific expert for support ; all he has asked 
 for is a fair trial, knowing that should much 
 of his evidence fail to convince, a certain 
 amount could not fail to do so if honestly 
 dealt with. Subsequent events have justi- 
 fied this view; for although there are still 
 many scientific opponents of the phenomena 
 of Spiritualism, they are simply uninformed 
 
 ♦''Modern Spiritualism/' Vol. II. p. 152. By Frank Pod- 
 more. 
 
 21 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM-? 
 
 upon the subject. It is now generally ac- 
 knowledged that there exist certain phe- 
 nomena, not explicable by known physical 
 and psychological laws. This, of course, 
 does not involve the Spiritualistic explana- 
 tion of them; but although various expla- 
 nations other than this have been sought, it 
 has been unavailingly. Various theories 
 cover part of the facts, sometimes a con- 
 siderable part. The explanations offered 
 by Spiritualism appear, however, to cover 
 them all. 
 
 A comparison between the methods of sci- 
 entists who have attributed psychic phe- 
 nomena to delusion and fraud, and those 
 who have acknowledged them as demon- 
 strated facts is little short of startling. 
 Even if the charge of credulity against the 
 latter could be substantiated, it must ever 
 be to their credit that they investigated sin- 
 cerely and in accordance with scientific prin- 
 ciple ; but the accusation cannot be support- 
 ed. So careful have they been to guard 
 against the possibility of error, that one 
 frequently looks in vain for a flaw. Time 
 has been to most of them no object, forty 
 
 22 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 years and even more have sometimes been 
 occupied in this research ; and several have 
 not even ventured to express any decided 
 view to account for their experiences until 
 after a quarter of a century of investiga- 
 tion, progress being made slowly from point 
 to point as new experiences and facts have 
 been evolved. Sir William Crookes ad- 
 vanced from absolute unbelief to the admis- 
 sion that his early experiments conclusively 
 established the existence of a new force, in 
 some manner connected with the human or- 
 ganisation, which he called Psychic Force. 
 From that he went on to the assurance that 
 he had frequently witnessed the manifesta- 
 tion of another being who could not be ac- 
 counted an inhabitant of the terrestrial 
 world. To-day he is a firm believer in spirit 
 communion. 
 
 The late Professor Cesare Lombroso, the 
 famous criminologist, commenced by re- 
 garding Spiritualism as a species of insan- 
 ity, and finished over a quarter of a cen- 
 tury later by writing one of the most valu- 
 able treatises in favour of the subject which 
 before he had so roundly condemned. For 
 
 23 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 more than twenty-five years this eminent 
 personality investigated before he gave to 
 the world his full decision. He openly con- 
 fessed how hard it had been for him to ac- 
 cept this view. ^*If ever there was an in- 
 dividual in the world," he wrote, ** opposed 
 to Spiritualism by virtue of scientific edu- 
 cation, and, I may say, instinct, I was that 
 person."* He had made it the indefatig- 
 able pursuit of almost a lifetime to defend 
 the materialistic theory that the soul is an 
 emanation of the brain, and for years he 
 laughed at the idea of psychic phenomena. 
 He published his book ** After Death — 
 What?" in face of his friends rising against 
 him on every side, crying out that by doing 
 so he would ruin an honourable reputation. 
 He did not hesitate for a single moment, 
 feeling it was his predestined end and way 
 and duty to crown his life's work '*in the 
 struggle for great ideas by entering the lists 
 for this desperate cause, the most hotly con- 
 tested and perhaps the most persistently 
 mocked idea of the times." t So convinced 
 
 1. By Gesare Lombroso. 
 t Vide Preface, p. v. 
 
 24 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 was he of the truth of Spiritualism that he 
 asserted the facts relating to one class of 
 phenomena alone, namely, phantoms, are so 
 numerous and so well proved that ^Hheir bi- 
 ology and their psychology" can now be con- 
 structed. 
 
 Sir Oliver Lodge is one of the greatest 
 living scientific exponents of Spiritualism. 
 His history in connection with psychical re- 
 search is too well-known to need elabora- 
 tion here. It is the same story of slow and 
 careful investigation, and a gradual win- 
 ning over from scepticism to belief, cul- 
 minating in the production of his recent 
 work *'Eaymond, or Life and Death." No 
 book could show more clearly the firmness 
 of his belief. To deal publicly with family 
 matters that must ever be sacred to the heart 
 of a father who has lost a dearly-loved child, 
 is in itself evidence of the importance in 
 which he holds the matter. The very thought 
 that communications, which from their na- 
 ture can never be appreciated fully except 
 by those to whom they were given, should 
 meet with the scoffs of unbelievers, could 
 be overridden only by the urgency and ac- 
 
 25 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 curacy of the subject. ^^Eaymond'' marks 
 an important period in the development of 
 psychic research, for it is perhaps the first 
 time that an eminent scientist has ventured 
 to publish a book dealing almost specifically 
 with the more subtle mental forms of me- 
 diumship and Spiritualism. 
 
 In illustrating the nature of the experi- 
 ences that have convinced scientists of the 
 truth of Spiritualism, it will be best to quote 
 from one who must be regarded as the pio- 
 neer of scientific Spiritualism, and then 
 from his legitimate successor in Great Brit- 
 ain. Sir William Crookes has retired from 
 active scientific work in connection with the 
 subject, whilst Dr. W. J. Crawford is still 
 pursuing his remarkable experiments into 
 the nature of psychic force. Both, it will 
 be observed, deal specially with the physical 
 phenomena. The mental phenomena are 
 not less valuable, although certainly more 
 elusive. 
 
 A word may be said first regarding the 
 two forms of psychic phenomena with which 
 the popular mind still largely associates 
 Spiritualism. ** Table-tilting" and ^'spirit- 
 
 26 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 rappings" have in the past played a con- 
 spicuous part in the growth of the move- 
 ment; but for many years they have given 
 way to other means of communicating with 
 the spirit-world. Although a large amount 
 of ridicule has been levelled at both these 
 forms of mediumship, it cannot be because 
 they are not efficient methods of communi- 
 cation. It has arisen from thoughtlessness 
 or misconception on the part of critics, who 
 are more concerned with the means than the 
 end. There can be nothing foolish about 
 any way of communicating that is suitable 
 to the occasion. Because a dumb person 
 uses the manual alphabet to convey his 
 thoughts, people who know the reason for 
 his doing so are not disposed to laugh at 
 him. Yet merely moving the fingers is in 
 itself foolish. Indeed, in some instances it 
 can be regarded only as a sign of mental 
 weakness. The object with which anything 
 is done is what really counts. If therefore 
 the tilting of a table or rapping sounds 
 prove that an intelligence other than those 
 known to be present is at work, and if they 
 throw light upon the nature and where- 
 
 27 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 abouts of that intelligence, then table-tilting 
 and spirit-rapping become valuable prac- 
 tices. The mere condemnation of rapping 
 as meaningless, carried to its logical con- 
 clusion, would soon deprive mankind of at 
 least one of its most valued possessions. The 
 telegraph is nothing more than a rapping 
 machine. To the uninitiated the faint and 
 apparently erratic taps that can be heard 
 through it have no meaning. But those who 
 understand its functions and who can read 
 the code those raps conform to know that 
 by means of them an important part of the 
 world's affairs are carried on, often of na- 
 tional or international importance. It is 
 not the raps that count ; it is what they sig- 
 nify. 
 
 In view of this one can appreciate why 
 Mr. William Crookes, as he then was, at- 
 tached great importance to a thin wooden 
 lath 2314 inches long, by 1^ inches wide, 
 and % inch thick, floating in the air with- 
 out any visible or known means of support 
 except the mysterious psychic force known 
 to emanate from the medium who was pres- 
 ent on the occasion, and under severe test 
 
 28 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 conditions. On another occasion he fitted 
 up an apparatus for experimenting on the 
 alteration in the weight of a body. 
 
 **It consisted of a mahogany board, 36 
 inches long by 9^ inches wide, and 1 inch 
 thick. At each end a strip of mahogany 
 1% inches wide was screwed on, forming 
 feet. One end of the board rested on a 
 firm table, whilst the other end was sup- 
 ported by a spring balance hanging from a 
 substantial tripod stand. The balance was 
 fitted with a self -registering index, in such 
 a manner that it would record the maximum 
 weight indicated by the pointer. The ap- 
 paratus was adjusted so that the mahogany 
 board was horizontal, its foot resting flat 
 on the support. In this position its weight 
 was 3 lbs., as marked by the pointer of the 
 balance."* 
 
 The apparatus was arranged in position 
 before Mr. Home (the medium) entered 
 the room. He had not even the object of 
 some of the parts explained to him. The 
 purpose of this apparatus was to see 
 whether it was possible to produce much ef- 
 
 •"Eesearehes in Spiritualism.'* By W. Crookes, rji.s. 
 
 29 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 feet upon the spring balance by the medium 
 placing his fingers upon the end farthest 
 from the balance. Mr. Home placed the tips 
 of his fingers lightly on the extreme end 
 of the mahogany board which was resting 
 on the support, whilst Mr. Crookes and a 
 friend sat on each side of it, watching for 
 any effect that might be produced. Almost 
 at once the pointer of the balance was seen 
 to descend, and after a few seconds to rise 
 again. This movement was repeated several 
 times, ^^as if by successive waves of the 
 Psychic Force." The medium, of his own 
 accord, now took a small hand-bell and a 
 little card match-box, and placed one under 
 each hand, still at the end of the mahogany 
 board, in such a position as still to render 
 it impossible for him to exert any appreci- 
 able pressure on the spring balance. Never- 
 theless, it registered a downward pull of 
 from 3I/2 lbs. to 6 lbs. The latter being the 
 maximum. Mr. Crookes now stepped upon 
 the table and stood on one foot at the end 
 of the board where Mr. Home's fingers had 
 been, and by exerting the whole weight of 
 liis body (140 lbs.) succeeded in depressing 
 
 30 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 the index only V^ or 2 lbs. when he jerked 
 up and down. In this way Mr. Crookes 
 demonstrated the existence of the mysteri- 
 ous force which had hitherto been unknown 
 to science. 
 
 These experiments do nothing necessarily 
 towards proving the existence of disem- 
 bodied intelligences. In his series of re- 
 searches, however, Mr. Crookes had distinct 
 evidence of such existing. 
 
 Through the mediumship of Miss Flor- 
 ence Cook he obtained some remarkable ex- 
 amples of materialisation, ix,, the tempo- 
 rary manifestation of a spirit entity in a 
 form corresponding more or less closely 
 with an ordinary human body. In some in- 
 stances it is impossible to distinguish one 
 from the other. The form that most fre- 
 quently manifested to Mr. Crookes under 
 test conditions called itself *^ Katie King." 
 She appeared to be a tall, graceful, hand- 
 some, well-proportioned lady, and readily 
 did all in her power to give proof of her 
 separate identity from the medium. The 
 eminent scientist once, when the form of 
 ^^ Katie" was standing before him in the 
 
 31 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM*? 
 
 room, distinctly heard a sobbing, moaning 
 sound proceeding from the medium, behind 
 the curtains, where she was supposed to be 
 sitting. Under the heading of ^'Spirit- 
 forms," Mr. Crookes refers to the results 
 of a series of private seances Miss Cook de- 
 voted exclusively to him and one or two of 
 his friends. During one of these seances 
 Mr. Crookes had the satisfaction of seeing 
 ** Katie" and her medium together. Miss 
 Cook was crouching on the ground uncon- 
 scious, whilst Katie stood close behind her. 
 Never before this seance had Katie ap- 
 peared to greater perfection. For nearly 
 two hours she walked about the room, con- 
 versing familiarly with those present. On 
 several occasions she took Mr. Crookes' 
 arm when walking, conveying to him the 
 impression that it was a living woman by his 
 side *' instead of a visitor from the other 
 world."* To assure himself of her sub- 
 stantial nature he asked her permission to 
 clasp her in his arms, thus to verify interest- 
 ing observations that had been made by an- 
 
 *'*Besearches in Spiritualism/' p. 106. By W. Crookes, 
 
 32 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 other experimenter. Permission was gra- 
 ciously given, and he accordingly did so. 
 Subsequently Mr. Crookes obtained a series 
 of photographs of Katie ; each evening there 
 were three or four exposures of plates in 
 five cameras, giving at least fifteen separate 
 pictures of each seance. Altogether he ob- 
 tained forty-four negatives. One of the 
 most interesting of the pictures is one in 
 which he is standing by the side of Katie. 
 The difference between Katie and her me- 
 dium was very pronounced. Katie was half 
 a head taller than Miss Cook, and a bigger 
 woman in comparison. In breadth of face 
 she differed essentially in size from her me- 
 dium. Photography was inadequate to de- 
 pict the perfect beauty of Katie's face, and 
 words powerless to describe her charm of 
 manner, says Mr. Crookes. 
 
 "Bound her she made an atmosphiere of life; 
 The very air seemed lighter from her eyes, 
 They were so soft and beautiful, and rife 
 With all we can imagine from the skies; 
 Her overpowering presence made you feel 
 It would not be idolatry to kneel. ' ' * 
 **'Eesearches in Spiritualism.*' By W. Crookes, P.E.S. 
 
 33 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 Thus he writes of her, expressing at the 
 same time his absolute certainty that Miss 
 Cook and Katie were two separate individ- 
 uals so far as their bodies were concerned. 
 
 **The Reality of Psychic Phenomena," 
 published by W. J. Crawford, D.Sc, in 1916, 
 is the most recent work upon the physical 
 phenomena of Spiritualism by a qualified 
 scientist. Dr. Crawford approached the sub- 
 ject sceptically. The facts proved too much 
 for his scepticism, and he is to-day a con- 
 firmed Spiritualist. That conclusion may 
 be derived from the preface of his book, in 
 which he says : 
 
 "I do not discuss in this book the ques- 
 tion of the identity of the invisible opera- 
 tors" (i.e., the intelligences producing the 
 phenomena). **That is left for another oc- 
 casion. But in order that there may be no 
 misapprehension, I wish to state explicitly 
 that I am personally satisfied that they are 
 the spirits of human beings who have passed 
 into the Beyond." 
 
 The circle with which Dr. Crawford car- 
 ried out his experiments consisted of seven 
 
 34 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 members, all of one family. All work was 
 voluntary. One member of the family — 
 Miss Kathleen Goligher — is a medimn of 
 outstanding merit, and it was with her most 
 of the personal experiments were made. 
 The special advantages obtained by Dr. 
 Crawford with this circle, are the splendid 
 manner in which the phenomena were un- 
 der control, and the hearty co-operation of 
 the invisible entities. I can testify from 
 personal experience to this, as on more than 
 one occasion I had the privilege of attend- 
 ing some of Dr. Crawford's experiments. 
 Although the manifestations were purely 
 physical, this was only in the sense that they 
 operated on physical bodies ; all through was 
 demonstrated the existence of the invisible 
 operators, who were evidently highly in- 
 telligent. The medium was quite conscious 
 during all the experiments, keenly interest- 
 ed in the whole proceedings, and quite en- 
 joyed the seances. The experiments were 
 conducted in a light strong enough to enable 
 all present to see the objects in the room; 
 whilst the tables used for levitations were 
 so situated as to make it quite impossible 
 
 35 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 for any of the mediums to lift them, even if 
 they could have done so without being de- 
 tected. The greatest freedom was afforded 
 Dr. Crawford, who spent many hours within 
 the circle and in all places around it. He 
 continually worked under the levitated table 
 and between the levitated table and the me- 
 dium. Complicated instruments were intro- 
 duced, and placed below the table, whilst 
 Dr. Crawford often placed his arm and hand 
 in the space between the medium and the 
 table. As a result of these and other pre- 
 cautions and tests, eliminating all possibility 
 of fraud. Dr. Crawford was enabled to con- 
 firm the reality of psychic force and dis- 
 cover two of the ways in which it is used 
 by spirit communicators when producing 
 physical phenomena. 
 
 The table would be levitated and remain 
 suspended in view of all present without 
 visible support; and so powerful was the 
 force lifting it, that the united efforts of 
 strong men could not depress it. The raps 
 varied in intensity from faint taps to blows 
 resembling those made with a sledge-ham- 
 mer when vigorously wielded. The least re- 
 
 36 
 
THE CASE FOR SPIRITUALISM 
 
 quest of Dr. Crawford's seems to have met 
 with an immediate response, and whenever 
 possible the action produced. Everything 
 within reason appears to have been effec- 
 tively accomplished. In this way what are 
 known as the ^'cantilever theory" for levi- 
 tating the table, and the ''rod theory," by 
 means of which the raps were produced, 
 were demonstrated. The book is a reve- 
 lation of scientific precision and a clear 
 evidence of the existence of invisible be- 
 ings who intelligently co-operated with Dr. 
 Crawford, evidently as anxious to demon- 
 strate the reality of spiritual communion 
 as any mortal could possibly be. 
 
 These spiritual entities had other means 
 of communicating with Dr. Crawford; for 
 sometimes when he desired it the medium 
 would go into trance to allow the entities 
 working with her to talk to him. In an- 
 other part of this book I give an excellent 
 example of the remarkably evidential na- 
 ture of the rappings with this medium, es- 
 tablishing spirit identity. Dr. Crawford's 
 book deserves the closest attention of all en- 
 quirers and critics of Modern Spiritualism. 
 
 37 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 WHAT SPIKITTJALISM TEACHES 
 
 After Death — ^what?; physical limitations; the average man 
 deserves to survive; ignorance of ecclesiastics regarding 
 nature of next life; religious teachings contradictory; 
 efforts of science to deal with question; Dr. Alfred Eussel 
 Wallace on Spiritualism; it claims to remove doubt; in- 
 visible worlds scientifically probable; extension of five 
 senses; St. Paul; psychic gifts penetrating into spirit- 
 world; Spiritualism does not know all about next life; 
 ethical teachings of Spiritualism; punishments and re- 
 wards; low and high spiritual states; spirit-world not un- 
 like earth; Spiritualists ** naturalists " ; Spiritualism of- 
 fers logical explanation of next life; spirits naturally 
 desirous of communicating with us. 
 
 No subject has occupied the attention of 
 mankind more than that of death. Primi- 
 tive and civilised man have alike asked the 
 question ^' After death — ^whatT' and both 
 have endeavoured to answer it to their satis- 
 faction. On the whole, the more advanced 
 the race the less satisfactory to them has 
 been the answer, until to-day an ever in- 
 creasing number conclude that death means 
 annihilation. The vast and magnificent re- 
 
 38 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 ligious systems that have from time imme- 
 morial flourished and faded away, are mere- 
 ly epitomes of the intense importance which 
 mankind has attached to the subject. The 
 many contradictions they involve are proofs 
 of the difficulties which it presents. It is 
 natural that intelligent self-conscious be- 
 ings should desire always to live, and that 
 they should regard the possibility of extinc- 
 tion with horror. The struggle for exist- 
 ence among mankind arises from a much 
 deeper law than the wish for physical life 
 alone. This world is far too limited for the 
 average person. Each one feels himself 
 pressing against the margin of his physical 
 life. There is within something too big for 
 time and space. A thousand facts give evi- 
 dence of this. The body is weak frail stuff, 
 so easily broken and torn to rags; but the 
 soul is often resolute and untouched by these 
 disabilities. The soldiers at the front dem- 
 onstrate this almost without ceasing. It is 
 the body in the main that hinders them. 
 Marcus Aurelius was right when he spoke 
 of man as a "little soul carrying a corpse ;" 
 for is not the body subject to purely me- 
 
 39 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 chanical and biological laws, whilst the con- 
 sciousness strives incessantly to live above 
 them! The body must be washed, clothed 
 and fed; is subject to the laws of gravita- 
 tion. We must carefully watch its welfare 
 and put it to bed when it is tired, even 
 though we may desire an entirely different 
 course. These are plain facts known to all 
 rational people, and they are inextricably 
 involved in this great question of life and 
 death. Rightly or wrongly, they lead us 
 consciously or otherwise to feel this life is 
 insufficient, unsatisfying, and we instinc- 
 tively long for another chance. Even the 
 ordinary person deserves another chance. 
 The circumstances of life are such that the 
 vast majority of men and women and chil- 
 dren get practically no opportunity of de- 
 veloping more than the veriest fraction of 
 their faculties and powers. With the more 
 fortunate it is much the same, for it is mere- 
 ly a matter of degree. The man in the 
 street, unknown as he is to the world at 
 large, is too good to die out at death. He 
 deserves a better opportunity for self-ex- 
 pression than this world affords. Does not 
 
 40 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 this apply much more to the world's great 
 characters? Why should not Socrates, 
 Plato, Galileo, Kepler and Shakespeare, to 
 mention only a few, be permitted in some 
 other state of existence to continue their re- 
 searches and exercise their powers still to 
 the advantage of the human race ? 
 
 Then there are the great demands of 
 friendship and love. The degree to which 
 these entwine themselves into the lives of 
 people is too wonderful to be expressed, and 
 too well known to require it. They are the 
 two virtues which make life worth living; 
 and they are two qualities the complete loss 
 of which would be intolerable, and would 
 mark nature indelibly as uneconomical. 
 One of the principal tasks of religion is 
 to give comfort and assurance to the mourn- 
 er that death does not end all, and that there 
 is the possibility of meeting those who have 
 gone through its gateway elsewhere. So 
 essential is such a teaching, that its absence 
 would destroy any religion, no matter how 
 powerful it may have been. Whoever has 
 stood by the graveside of a loved one will 
 realise how true this is. 
 
 41 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 How is it, then, that notwithstanding the 
 naturalness and strength of the hope of sur- 
 vival of bodily death, so many have lost, or 
 are losing, faith in it ? It is because the re- 
 ligious authorities know nothing definite 
 about it. They are without any personal 
 knowledge on the subject; they rely solely 
 upon tradition, and tradition is confused, 
 indefinite, and contradictory. Go to any 
 minister of religion and he can do no more 
 than affirm to you his belief in survival. He 
 is so ignorant of the nature of the after- 
 world state that he will either refrain from 
 attempting to describe it, or if he does at- 
 tempt to do so, he is sure to differ from his 
 colleagues. No wonder, then, that science 
 has undertaken to grapple with the problem. 
 Its message in the main, has been gloomy 
 and uncompromising, but this was before 
 the scientific examination of Spiritualistic 
 phenomena; an investigation of which led 
 Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace to declare that 
 Spiritualism ** demonstrates mind without 
 brain, and intelligence disconnected with a 
 material body. It furnishes that proof of 
 a future life for which so many crave, and 
 
 42 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 for want of which so many live and die in 
 positive disbelief." There can be no doubt 
 that the study proclaims to mankind the ex- 
 istence of another and intelligent world. 
 That is the teaching of Modern Spiritual- 
 ism; and it is not a mere subjective pref- 
 erence, but an objective fact. Without evi- 
 dence all the faith in the world could not 
 prove survival. The fact that we have deep 
 yearnings, hopes and ambitions is no guar- 
 antee that they will be fulfilled. Just as 
 we came into the world without being con- 
 sulted, so may we go out of it into nothing- 
 ness, no matter how we may hate and fear 
 the thought. Is not this the method of rea- 
 soning to-day, and is it not perfectly justi- 
 fiable ? Well, Spiritualism claims to be able 
 to remove every doubt ; and those who have 
 tested its claims appear satisfied with them. 
 To the Spiritualist it is a literal truth that 
 spirits walk this earth unseen and unheard 
 by the vast majority of people. No one 
 goes through life uninfluenced by these in- 
 visible hosts, who are quite aware of earthly 
 presences. Who are these unseen beings? 
 They are the spirits of the so-called **dead." 
 
 43 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 Through that great change they have passed 
 to the ^ ^higher life." Therefore, Spiritual- 
 ism teaches there is no death. Nor is the 
 world of spirits a world of shades; it is 
 indeed a more real world than our own. 
 Viewed casually, this seems improbable sim- 
 ply because we are in the habit of regarding 
 things from the point of view of personal 
 experience. What we cannot see, or hear 
 or otherwise cognise through our physical 
 senses, we have difficulty in believing exists 
 at all. The principles of science, however, 
 make it not improbable that there may be 
 even now passing through us and the earth, 
 invisible planets with cities and inhabitants, 
 mountains and oceans, fields, rivers, and 
 various forms of life, though we are quite 
 ignorant of the fact. The beyond is only 
 beyond our senses. With other organs of 
 sense, or even with an extension of those we 
 already have, there might be brought within 
 the scope of our experience hitherto un- 
 dreamed-of realms. The Spiritualist has 
 found this to be a demonstrable fact. 
 Higher senses do exist among us, and it is 
 largely due to them that Spiritualism exists. 
 
 44 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 It is common knowledge that the human eye 
 registers only a certain number of ether vi- 
 brations. Beyond what has been aptly called 
 our *' conscious spectrmn," are ether waves 
 of which our eye takes no cognisance. Al- 
 ready science has knowledge of faculties 
 that can extend beyond the commonly 
 known range of our five special senses, al- 
 though to what extent they are capable of 
 advancing can at present be but indistinctly 
 guessed. There is, furthermore, reason to 
 believe that each person has a larger degree 
 of consciousness than he suspects; that in 
 reality only a portion, or rather, two por- 
 tions, of his real self manifest normally; 
 namely, the waking and the dream con- 
 sciousness. With some, the hidden phases 
 of consciousness sometimes pass up into the 
 brain, and thus manifesting, exhibit hitherto 
 unsuspected powers." Visions are then seen, 
 sounds heard, sensations felt, and intellec- 
 tual and emotional qualities demonstrated 
 that are often far superior to anything ex- 
 perienced during the normal state. These 
 things occur apart altogether from Modern 
 Spiritualism. They are facts of psychol- 
 
 45 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 ogy, so bafifling, that psychology, because of 
 them, cannot at present stand upon solid 
 ground. Before it can be said to be a ''nat- 
 ural science," the data must be considered 
 more widely. 
 
 That it is not impossible for a spiritual 
 world to exist around, is shown by the fact 
 that the earth moves through the ether of 
 space. We are, in other words, actually 
 moving among the phenomena of etheric 
 life without apparently displacing them. 
 Indeed, they to some extent conjoin with 
 and aid us ; for it is by occasional manifesta- 
 tions of the etheric world that we are en- 
 abled to exist at all. Light is an example 
 of this. Electricity and magnetism are fur- 
 ther expressions which enable us to live 
 more freely than we otherwise could. Ra- 
 dio-active elements constitute a group of in- 
 sights into nature which a few years ago 
 were unknown. Therefore, apart alto- 
 gether from the discoveries of Modern 
 Spiritualism, there are ample reasons for 
 suspecting the existence of a spiritual world. 
 The Spiritualist declares that the existence 
 of this world can be demonstrated in a va- 
 
 46 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 riety of ways here and now. In one sense, 
 we live in both worlds at the same time, for 
 just as St. Paul taught there are bodies 
 terrestrial and bodies celestial, so does 
 Spiritualism; and just as the great apostle 
 of Christianity declared there are spiritual 
 as well as physical gifts or faculties, so does 
 Modem Spiritualism. As the physical fac- 
 ulties spring from, and are related to, the 
 physical body, the spiritual faculties spring 
 from and are related to the spiritual body. 
 It is not intended here to do more than 
 briefly refer to the main teachings of Mod- 
 ern Spiritualism in relation to the survival 
 of death. To attempt a larger task would 
 require an extensive and intricate treatise 
 which would necessarily be indefinite, since 
 Spiritualism is, in regard to its philosophi- 
 cal and religious aspects, in its infancy. To 
 a considerable extent, this is also true of the 
 scientific side. Not that much of importance 
 has not been discovered regarding all these 
 phases, but that vast unexplored fields lie 
 before it. To know of the existence of any- 
 thing is very different from knowing all 
 about it. People see without the least idea 
 
 47 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 of how they do so. An intimate knowledge 
 of the law of optics, or of the anatomy and 
 physiology of the eye, is not essential to so 
 natural a sense. Spiritualism in one respect 
 may justly claim an analogy with this. No 
 rational person can deny the existence of 
 spiritual intelligences behind the marvellous 
 happenings of the seance room ; and no fair- 
 minded person can deny that the evidence 
 proves that those intelligences are what they 
 claim to be — disembodied human beings. Al- 
 though Spiritualists have a fairly clear idea 
 of the nature of the spirit world, they do 
 not venture to say they know all there is to 
 be known about it. Two such widely dif- 
 ferent states of matter as that world and 
 this, must involve other great differences, 
 very difficult for us to understand. Among 
 the outstanding things Spiritualism claims 
 to know about the spiritual world are all 
 important ethical facts. For example, 
 Spiritualists declare that life in this sense 
 is taken up in the new world at the point it 
 was broken off here. That is to say, a per- 
 son is no better nor worse immediately after 
 dying than he was immediately before. The 
 
 48 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 same laws of mental and spiritual growth 
 await him there as here. If he would be 
 good, he must do good ; if he desires to in- 
 crease his knowledge, he must continue to 
 strive after it ; if he would progress to more 
 spiritual states, he must live more spiritual- 
 ly. The question of punishment and re- 
 ward according to Spiritualism does not 
 necessarily involve eternity. People who 
 have been very wicked here, suffer in the 
 next world in a remedial and not in a vin- 
 dictive sense. Perhaps one of the most dif- 
 ficult things the average person experiences 
 in connection with this view of the subject 
 is this idea of punishment. We have been 
 so habituated to the notion of eternal pun- 
 ishment of a uniform type, that unjust as 
 this must be, it makes it hard to appreciate 
 a more just view. Spiritualism maintains 
 that the main factor is an interior one. The 
 defaulting spirit sooner or later awakens to 
 a realisation of his misdeeds, and as this 
 consciousness grows, so deepens the sense 
 of remorse. Only those who have experi- 
 enced the tremendous pain of a racking con- 
 science will understand the force and poign- 
 
 49 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 ancy of this mode of punishment. In ad- 
 dition, however, there are states or planes 
 to which wrongdoers pass coinciding with 
 their demerits, and comparable to the con- 
 ception of Purgatory. In them the process 
 is one of purifying, and until that has been 
 fully accomplished, they cannot hope to pass 
 to higher and happier conditions. 
 
 The average individual is not bad enough 
 to go to these unhappy states, nor good 
 enough to go to very high ones. He passes 
 into a world not unlike this one in its gen- 
 eral arrangement. There he lives a perfect- 
 ly rational life among scenes and people he 
 can appreciate and love. Even if this were 
 not true, it certainly seems quite natural 
 that it should be true. What could be more 
 reactionary and uneconomical than for men 
 and women and children to pass from one 
 state of existence to another totally unlike 
 it? Especially one in which the whole of 
 the principles of conduct and growth were 
 changed. It would mean that all they had 
 learned in their previous life would be ut- 
 terly wasted and without meaning; all the 
 trials, disappointments, and successes that 
 
 §0 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 distinguisli every life on earth would be 
 without purpose, meaningless, sheer waste. 
 It is impossible to conceive nature breaking 
 down in so unaccountable a way. If these 
 facts are borne in mind, it will be seen that 
 instead of the Spiritualist being a "credu- 
 lous supernaturalist," ready to believe any 
 foolish thing purporting to come from the 
 "spirits," that he is really a "naturalist," 
 and an extremely sensible one at that. Com- 
 pare these beliefs with those currently 
 taught on religion, or with the total disbelief 
 of the materialist, or with the blank igno- 
 rance of the agnostic, and they will be ob- 
 served to be the only rational explanation 
 offered on this important but perplexing 
 subject. 
 
 One of the advantages the inhabitants of 
 the spirit world have over ourselves is their 
 knowledge of the existence of the earth. In 
 this respect they are much better situated 
 in regard to us than are we in regard to 
 them. They know of our existence; we, in 
 the main, only suspect theirs. It is natural 
 they should feel a keen interest in a place 
 where they have so many interests, and 
 
 51 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 which for a time was their sole abode. Noth- 
 ing would be more unlikely than that a de- 
 parted mother should forget her children 
 and no longer desire to see them, or to be 
 with them ; a husband his wife ; or a child its 
 parents. They would, we might well sup- 
 pose, endeavour to communicate in some 
 way with the objects of their affections, even 
 if it were beyond their power to do so suc- 
 cessfully. An idea of their feelings may 
 be gathered from our own. What greater 
 solace could a bereaved person have than to 
 know that the one he mourns still lives, is 
 happy, that one day they will be reunited, 
 and that even now from time to time the 
 departed one can communicate these and 
 other facts? And what greater pleasure 
 could the departed experience than to be 
 able to gratify this legitimate desire for 
 knowledge ? Death would then appear to be 
 merely a journey to a not very distant land. 
 That is just what Spiritualism claims as 
 its most special discovery. For, although 
 desperately wicked people suffer, and are 
 even denied the opportunity of holding in- 
 tercourse with the world, the average spirit 
 
 52 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 is so happy that, notwithstanding the ties 
 he has on earth, he would not return to it 
 permanently if he could. We can now see 
 why it is that in perhaps every form of com- 
 munion with the earth, the spirit world 
 plays the leading part. It is the spirit peo- 
 ple who manifest to the clairvoyant, speak 
 to the clairaudient, control the automatist's 
 hand, and materialise. No greater error 
 prevails than that Spiritualists call the 
 spirits up. Whoever undertakes to inves- 
 tigate will soon see the folly of this notion. 
 The departed are far more anxious to com- 
 municate with us than we with them. They 
 soon realise they are ^^more alive than 
 ever," and yet see their friends mourning 
 them as dead ; probably as lying in the grave 
 or residing in some equally uncomfortable 
 place; or else totally ignorant of what has 
 become of them, whilst all the time they are 
 alive and happy except for the knowledge 
 of their friends' mistaken view. 
 
 '*Yea! while I found all wisdom (being dead) 
 They grieved for me. I should have grieved for them I " 
 
 The origin of Modern Spiritualism well 
 illustrates this fact. 
 
 53 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES — Continued. 
 
 Origin of Modem Spiritualism; Fox family; development of 
 many different means of psychic communion; what a me- 
 dium is; psychic force in physical and mental phenomena; 
 substance of physical body also used; Miss Goligher, 
 Eusapia Paladino and Mme. d'Esperance; mediums can- 
 not control the phenomena; spirit communion diflScult; 
 establishing identity; to what extent mediums may be 
 developed; gift of mediumship varies greatly; medium- 
 ship not a morbid state; mediumship a form of genius; 
 Spiritualism without class distinction; no priests; me- 
 diumship a natural gift; how to investigate; the **home 
 circle''; '* negatives" and '* positives"; mediumship sub- 
 ject to natural laws; how sceptics may **sit"; dangers; 
 no devils nor angels. 
 
 The opening scene of Modern Spiritual- 
 ism's eventful history is dramatic in its sim- 
 plicity. In Arcadia, a township in Wayne 
 County, New York, there lived John D. Pox, 
 a farmer, with his family. They were 
 Methodists by conviction. In addition to 
 himself and his wife, Mr. Fox's household 
 consisted of two daughters, aged twelve and 
 
 54 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 fifteen respectively. There was also a mar- 
 ried son and a married daughter living else- 
 where. On the evening of March the 31st, 
 1848, when the two girls, who occupied the 
 same bed, were about to retire, the house- 
 hold was disturbed by some mysterious rap- 
 pings. This had happened before. On this 
 occasion, however, one of the girls chal- 
 lenged them, and to their astonishment, the 
 raps replied! They repeated sound for 
 sound the noises made by one of the girls 
 snapping her fingers, and again and again 
 gave the exact number of raps asked for. 
 The listeners — including the parents — soon 
 realised this was an event of no ordinary 
 moment. They called in friends and neigh- 
 bours that they too might bear witness. 
 Needless to say, the neighbours were dis- 
 posed to ridicule the idea that there was 
 anything unusual about these raps. One 
 gentleman, to whom we are indebted for a 
 carefully-written account of what occurred 
 in his presence that night, laughed at Mrs. 
 Fox, told her it was all nonsense and could 
 be easily accounted for. Later, hearing 
 them, he altered his opinion. In the pres- 
 
 55 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 ence of the neighbours, questions were asked 
 by him, and the rappings were heard re- 
 sponding with sufficient force to cause the 
 bedstead to jar as the sound was produced. 
 A code was arranged, and soon a niunber of 
 questions were correctly answered. Among 
 other things, the correct ages of those pres- 
 ent were given, although in most instances 
 they were known only to the individual con- 
 cerned. The number of children in the dif- 
 ferent families in the neighbourhood were 
 also correctly stated, even the number of 
 boys and girls in each case. The invisible 
 rapper declared he was the spirit of a cob- 
 bler who had been murdered some years be- 
 fore in the house and buried under the floor. 
 Subsequent enquiry tended to confirm this 
 statement. 
 
 There was no doubt the rappings were 
 caused by no hmnan means. Within the 
 next few days, hundreds of people were at- 
 tracted to the spot, and what they witnessed 
 or heard, gave rise to serious considerations. 
 A curious thing now happened. Wherever 
 the two yoimg girls — Catherine and Mar- 
 garetta Fox — ^went, the rappings followed 
 
 56 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 them, increased in volume, and spread to 
 others. Mrs. Fish, the married daughter 
 of Mr. Fox, and several inmates of a board- 
 ing-house in Auban, where the younger 
 sister stayed, also became mediums. The 
 rappings spread rapidly throughout the 
 eastern states. In one place alone — Syra- 
 cuse — some two hundred rapping mediums 
 developed in a very short time. 
 
 The faculty for rapping mediinnship 
 seems to have been possessed by nearly all 
 the Fox family. Leah and Kate appear to 
 have had the gift in the greatest degree. The 
 records published by capable witnesses show 
 the remarkable vigour of the gift among 
 them. No situation appears to have been 
 too difficult in which to exercise it. Direct 
 evidence was in this way received on numer- 
 ous occasions, establishing the identity of 
 deceased people who could not possibly have 
 been known to the mediums. 
 
 The anxiety shown here of the spirit world 
 to communicate with this is typical of what 
 has occurred ever since. One of the princi- 
 pal rules of the seance room is, ^*Keep your 
 mind open, ready to receive whatever comes 
 
 57 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 at its proper value, but don't dictate what 
 shall happen, although within reason you 
 may dictate how it shall happen." One of 
 the commonest experiences of inquirers is 
 that they do not always receive communi- 
 cations from those they specially wish to; 
 and very often the least expected spirit may 
 turn up. 
 
 Since the advent of Modern Spiritualism, 
 the means by which spirit intercourse is at- 
 tained has grown in a remarkable way. 
 Many new methods superior to the original 
 rappings have come into vogue, some of 
 them being related directly to the mind of 
 the medium. In every instance, as far as 
 can at present be judged, a human organism 
 is essential to the exercise of all these meth- 
 ods; even when the phenomena are objec- 
 tive to the medium. Eecent experiments, 
 however, appear to point to the possibility 
 of being able to dispense with the human 
 element in favour of a purely mechanical 
 device ; but up till now nothing definite has 
 been arrived at. 
 
 A medium may be described as a **go be- 
 tween" the two worlds, a sort of psychic 
 
 58 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 bridge ; and just as certain kinds of material 
 are required for ordinary bridges, so are 
 they necessary for this kind. This material 
 is the mysterious Psychic Force. It is 
 needed for all forms of mediumship, al- 
 though varying in nature and degree ac- 
 cording to the character of the psychic's 
 gifts. In physical phenomena it is much 
 more in evidence than in mental phenomena. 
 All kinds of explanations have been offered ; 
 but none seems to cover all the facts relat- 
 ing to it. All are more or less agreed that 
 in cases of physical phenomena — such as 
 levitation and materialisations— some fluid 
 emanates from the body of the medium to 
 produce them; but whether it is a nervous 
 fluid or one of a more material nature, 
 seems never to have been agreed upon. The 
 recent experiments of Dr. W. J. Crawford, 
 however, seem deflnitely to prove that it is 
 partly of a physical nature — the substance 
 of the medium's body. Scientists have fre- 
 quently photographed it proceeding from 
 psychics, and there appear to be certain 
 parts of the human organism from or 
 through which it is more easily extracted. 
 
 59 
 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 Nevertheless, it appears to be based upon 
 a substratum of matter far more refined 
 than the physical body, and which appar- 
 ently belongs to the psychic body of the me- 
 dium. No doubt it involves several degrees 
 of matter, of the nature of some of which 
 we are at present ignorant, and which 
 may, because of their transcendental na- 
 ture, be never fully understood in this world. 
 The extent to which certain psychic phe- 
 nomena draw upon the substance of the me- 
 dium's body is amazing, and if we were not 
 able to rely upon the testimonies of eminent 
 scientists, it would be quite impossible to 
 believe what really happens. In the case of 
 Miss Goligher we have distinct reductions in 
 her weight during the manifestations. The 
 same applies to the Italian medium, Eusapia 
 Paladino; whilst in other instances, espe- 
 cially that of Mme. d'Bsperance, the entire 
 physical body of the medium has been 
 known to disappear during materialisations. 
 In Mental forms of mediumship, such as 
 clairvoyance, less psychic force is used, 
 probably because the medium is able to ex- 
 ercise a faculty or sense comparable with 
 
 60 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 the ordinary power of vision. With few 
 exceptions — and even these are doubtful — 
 psychics are quite unable to make and con- 
 trol the phenomena. All they can do is to 
 place themselves in the state which renders 
 them possible. Sometimes the manifesta- 
 tions occur unexpectedly, but seldom with 
 the psychic who has cultivated his gifts care- 
 fully. A special purpose and effort are then 
 nearly always required. Even clairvoyants 
 are subject to this, and unable to see spirit 
 forms unless they try to by putting them- 
 selves in the necessary condition, and unless 
 the spirit people undertake to manifest. 
 Then they cannot help seeing spiritually any 
 more than one can avoid doing so physically 
 when one's eyes are opened in the light. The 
 emplojonent of psychic powers is therefore 
 mainly dependent upon the unseen entities. 
 It follows that mediums do not see into the 
 spirit world, or otherwise communicate di- 
 rectly with it with the same freedom and 
 consistency that they do with their own 
 world. A great deal depends upon the re- 
 alisation of this. Spiritualists have long 
 been misrepresented as teaching that com- 
 
 61 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 munion with the spirit world is an easy mat- 
 ter ; and mediums as making the claim that 
 they can compel the spirits to come to them, 
 or even go and fetch them because they have 
 free access to the superior state. Spirit- 
 ualism really contends that the more cor- 
 rect way is to say that the spirit people com- 
 municate with us ; and that once they have 
 a fitting instrument for this purpose, they 
 adapt it carefully to the end in view. In 
 almost every instance, it requires consider- 
 able knowledge and skill on their part to 
 do this. They *' build down," as it were, 
 towards this earth. In materialisations 
 they actually '* build on to the earth." Sel- 
 dom are they seen in their natural spiritual 
 state. When manifesting to or through me- 
 diums, their main object is to give evidence 
 of their identity, and to do so they are com- 
 pelled to adopt a form that is likely to be 
 recognised by those whom they specially 
 wish to be aware of their presence. Herein 
 is the explanation why the average clair- 
 voyant description depicts the dead as ap- 
 pearing in earthly-looking garments, and to 
 all intents and purpose with the infirmities 
 
 / J ^^ 
 
 I'fuA 
 
 (L&^di / \ (^i!ti '^^ 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 and personal faults and foibles that distin- 
 guished them when in earth life. Short- 
 sighted people who have failed to see this 
 reason have pooh-poohed the idea on the 
 grounds that tall hats and Paisley shawls 
 cannot have souls, and, therefore, as the 
 manifestation of these things is ridiculous, 
 so must the whole affair be. Let it be put 
 in this way: Suppose your grandmother, 
 who died at an advanced age, was described 
 by a clairvoyant as a young and beautiful 
 creature with none of the marks of old age 
 and infirmities that afflicted her before she 
 died. Suppose that instead of the old mob 
 cap and the shawl she habitually wore, she 
 was said to be dressed in flowing garments 
 of the purest white ; what meaning would it 
 have for you ? None whatever. You might 
 be glad to think such a wonderful and de- 
 lightful change could take place in the old 
 lady; but its test value to you as evidence 
 of her continued existence would be nil. 
 Even if from her were elicited certain facts 
 of which you were aware she alone knew, 
 their value would be destroyed as evidence 
 of her identity, because of the dissimilarity 
 
 63 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 between the description given of her and 
 that of your grandmother. Now, suppose 
 your grandmother could communicate with 
 you from the other world, and that she, 
 knowing this, endeavoured to do so. What 
 more reasonable method could she adopt 
 than to appear as you would best remember 
 her? This would necessitate her conjuring 
 up images corresponding to the various ob- 
 jects by which she knew you would recognise 
 her. That is exactly what Spiritualism 
 teaches she does. 
 
 Although there are comparatively few 
 qualified mediums, no one knows to what 
 extent the power may be developed. Mod- 
 ern Spiritualism is quite a modern move- 
 ment, and has attracted in a practical way 
 but slight attention. In aU probability, the 
 majority of mankind possess one or other 
 of these gifts in a latent condition. The 
 question is whether it is in every case suf- 
 ficiently good to repay the effort necessary 
 to its unf oldment. As a rule, it varies great- 
 ly with the same person. This is one of the 
 difficulties against which all investigators 
 have to contend. It is certainly not a mor- 
 
 64 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 bid state. Nearly all the most famous medi- 
 ums have been in all other respects quite 
 normal, their mediumship being quite con- 
 tingent. Although they are generally keen- 
 witted, lucid and capable, neither the physi- 
 cal nor the mental state seems to have much 
 to do with the gift, excepting perhaps in 
 the case of clairvoyance and the ability to 
 receive impressions, i,e,, thoughts and sensa- 
 tions from the spirit world; and then it is 
 only temporary, the mind needing to be in 
 a state of restfulness. Mediumship, in its 
 highest degree, is comparable with genius. 
 The marvellous things it is able to accom- 
 plish and the heights of spiritual insight it 
 sometimes attains, are not inferior to some 
 of the greatest achievements of those re- 
 markable men and women whom we have 
 come to regard as superior to their fellows, 
 if erratic in their ways. 
 
 There is a marked difference between the 
 way in which Spiritualism endeavours to 
 spread its beliefs and the method adopted 
 by other religions. The custom of nearly 
 all institutions is to specialise and keep the 
 control of affairs in a few hands. In con- 
 
 65 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 nection with religion, this ha^ invariably 
 developed into priestcraft; a special educa- 
 tion and ordainment and a distinctive mode 
 of dress, making the dispensers of spiritual 
 benefits a class apart. Whether rightly or 
 wrongly, the public taste no longer runs that 
 way. Priests are but men after all; and 
 since they are unable to substantiate their 
 special claims, they are not likely to be seri- 
 ously regarded. Spiritualism, on the other 
 hand, makes no such distinction between 
 people and the attainment of truth. Medi- 
 ums, certainly, stand in a sense apart from 
 the ordinary person, but simply because 
 they prove their claims, and they differ only 
 because of them. They can claim no special 
 virtue. Nature has for some unaccountable 
 reason presented them with valuabl e giftsj^ 
 but so has she others. Some people have 
 naturally great memories or fine voices. We 
 admire them for it, but do not reverence 
 them. If anything deserves that, it is surely 
 the Creator and Presenter of those gifts. 
 This is precisely the view of Spiritualism. 
 For aught that is known, half the world may 
 become mediumistic ; and if the world is in- 
 
 66 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 terested in the cultivation of the power, it 
 can undertake the task without the aid of 
 any specially ordained person, and in their 
 own homes. Two things, however, are nec- 
 essary — a knowledge how to proceed and 
 sincerity of purpose. The former can be 
 easily obtained by a brief study of the litera- 
 ture upon the subject. The latter is en- 
 tirely personal. In a way, the **home cir- 
 cle" is the Spiritualists' spiritual labora- 
 tory; in another it is their temple. This is 
 one of the oldest means of spiritual com- 
 munion, long antedating Modern Spiritual- 
 ism. As with the ancient Eomans, the true 
 altar of worship may be in the chief living 
 room in the house ; for there, above all other 
 places, may we suppose our departed friends 
 and relations will find best those conditions 
 enabling them to prove their continued love 
 and interest in those who dwell on earth. 
 More psychic force is generally required 
 for successful spirit intercourse than the 
 medium possesses. At any rate, it is well 
 known that each person taking part in the 
 seance in some way modifies the phenomena, 
 usually by contributing a small amount to 
 
 67 
 
^ 
 
 WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 the psychic power required. Sometimes the 
 effect is quite harmful, retarding the mani- 
 festation. This may arise from the peculiar 
 psychic make-up of the sitter, or from the 
 fact that the seance is not properly ar- 
 ranged. The best way to supply good condi- 
 tions is by forming a circle. It is not in- 
 dispensable, however, although never, ap- 
 parently, harmful. 
 
 Psychic force is subject to laws anal- 
 ogous in some respects to electricity. It 
 varies with the sexes, usually being ** nega- 
 tive" with females and ^* positive" with 
 males. This, again, is not invariable, whilst 
 it must be understood that the terms *' nega- 
 tive" and ** positive" are merely meant to 
 describe differences rather than to explain 
 them. 
 
 Ignorant people have not hesitated to ridi- 
 cule the idea of a circle, asking of what use 
 is it. But that is the inevitable criticism 
 levelled at any new science. Galileo's tele- 
 scope and almost every other valuable sci- 
 entific discovery has met the same fate. The 
 proper answer is that nature demands it, 
 and what nature demands must be supplied 
 
 68 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 or the phenomena, be it what it may, wiU be 
 denied us. Extensive experience has long 
 justified the value of the Spiritualistic cir- 
 cle. As Spiritualism among its most devout 
 followers is a religion, they open all circles 
 with an invocation to God, and occasionally 
 throughout the proceedings sing hymns or 
 have appropriate music played. .Music is 
 a valuable aid to all psychic phenomena. 
 The vibrations thus set up are said to be 
 greatly beneficial to the spirit entities when 
 moulding the psychic force or otherwise 
 using it. At the beginning of the circle it 
 is wise for all present to clasp hands, plac- 
 ing the right hand over their neighbour's 
 left, thus forming an endless chain. From 
 one to two hours is usually long enough to 
 sit, after which the meeting should be 
 broken up with a benediction. This, it 
 should be remembered, is the spiritual 
 method. It is impossible that sceptics would 
 care for the devotional part. It may also 
 be investigated in this manner from a purely 
 scientific point of view, when all but the 
 devout part may be retained. 
 Is there any danger in Spiritualism? If 
 69 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 by that is meant are there devils, the an- 
 swer must be, No — at least, so far as the dis- 
 coveries of Modem Spiritualists and other 
 psychic investigators have up to the present 
 gone. Strangely enough, this is one of the 
 gravest difficulties Spiritualism has had to 
 meet in regard to certain religious people. 
 There is always opposition against discov- 
 eries which fail to support old established 
 creeds and opinions. Just as spirit is the 
 last thing the materialist will acknowledge, 
 so many people object to the explanation of 
 an after-life that leaves out the unpleasant 
 bogies they were taught in childhood to be- 
 lieve constitute the most active inhabitants 
 of the unseen world. The very denial of 
 this pet idea is sufficient to bring Spirit- 
 ualism into disrepute as actually holding in- 
 tercourse with devils and even aiding them 
 in their nefarious work ! These are the peo- 
 ple who declare Spiritualism is a form of 
 diabolism: that spirit possession and dia- 
 bolical possession are the same thing. No 
 better answer can be given than that of Mr. 
 F. W. H. Myers, one of the greatest authori- 
 ties on Spiritualism and psychic phenom- 
 
 70 
 
WHAT SPIRITUALISM TEACHES 
 
 ena: — '*I know of no evidence — reaching in 
 any way our habitual standard, either for 
 angelic, for diabolical, or for hostile posses- 
 sion."* After many years of the closest 
 investigation and severest criticism, Mr. 
 Myers concluded that, apart from subcon- 
 scious action and fraud, we have *Ho deal 
 only with spirits who have been men like 
 ourselves." 
 
 There must long be a great deal of differ- 
 ence between what the public expect and 
 what the experimenter discovers. If the 
 phenomena of Spiritualism are carefully 
 and intelligently investigated, there is no 
 danger whatever. No more danger attaches 
 to it than to any other branch of science. 
 Eeasonableness is all that is required to as- 
 sure a safe passage, and the attainment of 
 invaluable knowledge. 
 
 *F. W. H. Myers' ''Human Personality and its Survival 
 of Bodily Death.'' VoL II. p. 198. 
 
 71 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 From scepticism to belief; common sense as a guide; facts 
 compelled belief; fifteen years' intimate acquaintance 
 with subject; have sat with many famous mediums; the 
 case of Sidney; cross-correspondence; ''Harry Thomp- 
 son''; the Hanley and Southsea incident; Lombroso's 
 mother materialises over twenty times; a materialisation; 
 *'Eobert Farell"; evidential value of small things; my 
 father communicates with me; blowing kisses; the case 
 
 As the principal object of this book is to 
 convey to 'Hhe man in the street" an idea 
 of what Spiritualism is, an account of a few 
 of the experiences which have befallen one 
 who has passed from scepticism to belief 
 may not be without interest. I lay claim to 
 no special qualifications for discerning the 
 true from the false in anything. Common 
 sense has always been my guide ; and, since 
 that is the particular quality upon which 
 the general affairs of mankind are run, 
 I must be content to stand or fall with them. 
 
 72 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 To believe in spirit communion was never 
 a special wish of mine. At one time, in- 
 deed, I bitterly opposed the idea. It is rea- 
 son alone that has compelled me to change 
 my course : to have done otherwise under the 
 circumstances would have been ridiculous 
 and false to myself and the facts. 
 
 For fifteen years I have been more or less 
 intimate with Spiritualism and Spiritualists 
 in all parts of the British Isles. During 
 the last ten years the main portion of my 
 life has been in direct touch with this move- 
 ment. I have taken part in many hundreds 
 of seances of various kinds; and have wit- 
 nessed — in the presence of some of the finest 
 mediums of Europe, America and Australia, 
 and through my own psychic powers — ^most 
 astounding proofs of the survival of bodily 
 death. In all but a few of these seances, 
 my presence has been that of a friend, or by 
 special invitation, no money whatever being 
 demanded of me. It is necessary to make 
 this perfectly clear, as there is a strong in- 
 clination for critics to doubt anything pro- 
 fessional in this respect : why this should be 
 is not altogether easy to explain. Doctors, 
 
 73 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 lawyers, musicians, poets, politicians, cler- 
 gymen, are not less honoured and trusted 
 because they draw stipends. The medium, 
 however, is anathematised for putting a 
 monetary value on his services. Be that as it 
 may, like Mark Antony at the burial of 
 Caesar, I must speak of mediums as I have 
 foimd them. Pee or no fee, the evidence — 
 as you, reader, shall have occasion to judge 
 — has been conclusive. 
 
 It is impossible to do more than select a 
 few out of my many psychic experiences. 
 They are not more convincing than a great 
 many I must leave unrecounted. My se- 
 lection will be carefuUy drawn from dif- 
 ferent kinds of psychic phenomena, so as to 
 show how each may be equally evidential. 
 
 One of the first incidents that tended to 
 convince me there was something more in 
 Spiritualism than mere trickery or delusion, 
 was connected closely with my family. A 
 brother of mine who had volunteered for the 
 South African War, came home after the 
 campaign suffering from a serious chest 
 trouble. In course of time it proved too 
 much for the family doctor, who advised him 
 
 74 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 to consult a specialist. When it was discov- 
 ered that his illness would be very protract- 
 ed, he entered as an *^in patient" in one of 
 the large London general hospitals. Al- 
 though he grew gradually worse, the idea of 
 his death was not for a long time enter- 
 tained, as nobody seemed quite aware of 
 the nature of his complaint, and youth and 
 hope were on his side. 
 
 At his instigation, my mother — practi- 
 cally a stranger to Spiritualism — took a 
 pocket handkerchief of his to a medium for 
 psychometrical purposes (i.e,, by holding 
 the article the ** sensitive" gets **in touch" 
 with the owner, and can frequently describe 
 much to do with him, both past and to come ; 
 as well as describe spirit forms often con- 
 nected with and recognisable by him). 
 
 To make quite sure that nothing unre- 
 liable should interfere with the fulfilment of 
 this request, the handkerchief was taken to 
 a psychic who was totally blind, having no 
 eyes. On three occasions the interviews 
 were without success ; but on the fourth the 
 results were marvellously accurate. An ex- 
 cellent description was given of the sick man 
 
 75 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 and his whereabouts. The nature of his 
 complaint was correctly diagnosed, and with 
 it the disheartening assertion that he could 
 not recover. Then came the most striking 
 part of the reading. The medium stated 
 that my brother would pass away on either 
 the 22nd or 23rd of February of the follow- 
 ing year. She was uncertain which would 
 be the date, as both impressed her with equal 
 force. This statement was made in October, 
 
 1903. On the evening of February 23rd, 
 
 1904, my mother received the following 
 letter: 
 
 *'Mark Ward, 
 **S.B. 11. 
 ^^Feb. 23rd. 
 *'Dear Mrs. Leaf, 
 
 '*Poor Sidney passed away quite 
 suddenly at 1.15 a.m. He had had a very 
 bad attack of breathing about 11" (p.m. 
 22nd), ^^the worst he had had, and he said 
 how thankful he was that he was in the hos- 
 pital, as you would have been so frightened. 
 The end came very peacefully, and we can 
 only say thank God he was spared any more 
 suffering. * * Sister Mark. ' ' 
 
 76 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 If the act of dying began with the bad 
 attack of breathing on the 22nd February, 
 my brother's death at 1.15 a.m. the follow- 
 ing morning, includes both dates, and con- 
 firms in a remarkable manner the clair- 
 voyante's prediction. 
 
 What is known as ** cross correspond- 
 ence" is regarded by authorities as an al- 
 most ideal method of establishing identity. 
 I have experienced several instances, of 
 which the following are excellent examples. 
 The first will convey an idea of the difficul- 
 ties of getting tests of identity always veri- 
 fied, for not very often are circumstances 
 likely to fall as favourably as in this in- 
 stance. A spirit purported to control a me- 
 dium in my presence, giving his name as 
 ^^ Harry Thompson." Among other things, 
 he assured me that although I had never 
 known him in earth life, he was, neverthe- 
 less, deeply interested in my welfare, and 
 would render me all the service in his power. 
 Needless to say, there was not an iota of 
 evidence for survival in this; and had the 
 matter remained there I might well have 
 been in doubt as to whether ** Harry Thomp- 
 
 77 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 son" was reaUy an entity apart from the in- 
 dividuality of the medium or not. My 
 doubts, however, were set at rest seven years 
 later; for at that time I received a letter 
 from a relation who had been many years 
 resident in America, and with whom I rare- 
 ly communicated and practically never dis- 
 cussed my affairs. In it he informed me 
 that he had become interested in Spiritual- 
 ism, and had been attending seances in Los 
 Angeles, California, U.S.A. Among much 
 of an evidential nature there had happened 
 to him one incident which he wished to re- 
 fer to me for confirmation. At one of these 
 seances a spirit had manifested giving the 
 name of ^' Harry Thompson," who declared 
 he had already made himself known to me 
 and was anxious for my brother to tell 
 me so. 
 
 On another occasion, during a visit to 
 Hanley, Staffordshire, I received an invita- 
 tion to sit with a well-known clairvoyante, 
 who, during entrancement, gave me a mes- 
 sage supposed to come from an acquaintance 
 of mine who had recently died. The evi- 
 dence of his identity was convincing; but 
 
 78 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 the message was so unexpected and remark- 
 able that my confidence was shaken. On 
 arriving in London two days later, a letter 
 was awaiting me from a town in the South 
 of England, considerably more than two 
 hundred miles distant from Hanley, giving 
 precisely the same message purporting to 
 come from the same spirit — christian and 
 surname being accurately stated. Upon en- 
 quiring of the writer of the letter — ^who 
 must have been totally unacquainted with 
 my movements at the time — ^how this came 
 about, it turned out that he was attending a 
 seance with a very different kind of medium 
 in Southsea within a few hours of my sitting 
 at Hanley, when this same spirit came with 
 the same message for me. 
 
 I do not purpose mentioning what I deem 
 my most marvellous experience of psychic 
 phenomena, because it would probably be 
 quite beyond the power of the enquirer or 
 the neophyte to believe it. Suffice it to say, 
 that incidents happen in the seance-room 
 outdoing for marvellousness even such 
 legends as the ** Arabian Nights' Entertain- 
 ment." Some of the testimonies of scien- 
 
 79 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 tific observers prove this. My next story- 
 has a certain spice of humour in it. It cer- 
 tainly left the sitters unconvinced until it 
 was unexpectedly confirmed. 
 
 It happened in June, 1915, in the house of 
 Dr. W. J. Crawford, during one of his ex- 
 perimental seances with his remarkable cir- 
 cle of mediums. There were the usual dem- 
 onstrations of psychic force for which this 
 *^ circle" is famous, including the levitation 
 of physical objects. It was held in light, 
 thus enabling all present to see the whole 
 of the proceedings ; full opportunity having 
 been afforded me to inspect the apparatus 
 and arrangement of the circle before and 
 even after the seance commenced. The usual 
 taps and thuds were heard, and then, by re- 
 quest, the unseen operators imitated very 
 cleverly various peculiar sounds, such as are 
 caused when sawing wood and bouncing a 
 ball. Dr. Crawford then suggested that we 
 should see whether we could obtain evidence 
 of identity from any spirits who might be 
 present. The raps immediately signified ap- 
 proval. 
 
 In answer to a question put by myself, it 
 80 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 was stated by the raps that someone was 
 present desirous of communicating facts 
 about himself. It was agreed that the in- 
 visible communicators should rap at the cor- 
 rect letters forming the words they wished 
 to convey as one of the sitters slowly repeat- 
 ed the alphabet. In this way the name 
 '^Robert Farell" was spelt out. As no one 
 present knew any such person, he was asked 
 to signify with whom he wished to communi- 
 cate. It was with myself. I informed him 
 that I was quite unacquainted with anyone 
 of that name, but the raps conveyed the in- 
 formation that he was known to a friend of 
 mine whose name he mentioned. As the gen- 
 tleman referred to had a rather distinctive 
 and honourable profession, I wondered if 
 ^'Robert Farell" could tell me what it was. 
 He readily proved he could. 
 
 Thinking that perhaps ** Robert Farell" 
 had been a member of the same profession, 
 I invited him to tell me what particular oc- 
 cupation he had followed when on earth. 
 This, to the astonishment of all present, he 
 peremptorily refused to do. All thought this 
 very singular, as there appeared to be no rea- 
 
 81 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 son why that should not be rapped out as 
 well as the particulars already received. 
 There was certainly no lack of psychic 
 power as subsequent phenomena proved; 
 but every effort to obtain the desired in- 
 formation met with so decided a rebuff that 
 we at last desisted, feeling the value of the 
 test had been greatly impaired. 
 
 The next day I wrote my friend a letter 
 in which I mentioned the seance and that 
 the name Eobert Farell had been given as 
 known to him. Nothing however was said 
 about the failure to obtain information of 
 the spirit's earthly profession. A few weeks 
 later, my friend, who had been staying at 
 a South Coast holiday resort, visited me in 
 London. As he had not answered my letter 
 about Robert Farell, I mentioned the matter 
 to him again. He admitted he and his 
 brother had known a gentleman of that 
 name some forty years ago in London; but 
 I observed a strong disinclination on his 
 part to talk about the subject. At last he 
 said, ** Eobert Farell was quite a notorious 
 character in the district, and I only knew 
 him as a neighbour. I saw him many times, 
 
 82 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 but have no wish to talk about him." I 
 told him that '^Farell" knew his profession. 
 My friend agreed that he undoubtedly did. 
 I then connnenced to tell him that I had 
 asked **Farell" what his particular profes- 
 sion was. *'He refused to tell you that, I 
 expect," interrupted my friend. ^^Yes; but 
 why?" *^Well, I expect because he was a 
 professional thief ! " * 
 
 There are three probable reasons why the 
 name of Eobert Farell's profession should 
 be refused. First, that he was ashamed of 
 his past life. Secondly, that as he was 
 known to my friend only by repute and as 
 a neighbour, he did not wish to convey the 
 impression that friends of mine had been in 
 any way associated with questionable char- 
 acters. Thirdly, because he did not wish to 
 upset the sitters, some of whom, being new 
 to the subject of Spiritualism, might form 
 a wrong idea of it. Thus what appeared to 
 detract from the value of the test, really 
 added point and interest to it. 
 
 The value of small things for the estab- 
 lishment of identity is now generally under- 
 
 •''The Two Worlds/' Vol. 28, p. 506, 1915. 
 83 
 
/ 
 
 WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 stood. A small mole or indelible mark on 
 some particular part of a person's body is 
 far more likely to lead to their identifica- 
 tion than a general description of their ap- 
 pearance. It is the same with psychic iden- 
 tification. A grandfather of mine was once 
 described by a clairvoyante very accurately; 
 but after all, it was not conclusive, since 
 many people were like him in a general way. 
 When, however, the medium said he was in 
 the habit of standing with his left knee bent, 
 and that he attracted her attention to it by 
 slowly rubbing it, there was much less room 
 for doubt. My grandfather had seriously 
 injured his left knee several years before 
 he died, and ever after, when he stood still 
 he kept the knee bent, and often rubbed it 
 in the manner described. Here the small 
 thing counted. Before my father's decease 
 we used to say he was a '^Spiritualist up 
 to a point," for a reason known only to his 
 family. In the autumn of 1917, he purported 
 to speak with me in the '* direct" voice, that 
 is, independently of the medium's organism, 
 and so loudly and naturally that all present 
 could hear him. The medium knew nothing 
 
 84 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 about my father, the towns in which they 
 lived being four hundred miles apart. After 
 the voice had been speaking some time, one 
 of the sitters vouchsafed the remark that my 
 father must have been a good Spiritualist. 
 I replied that he had been. Immediately 
 the voice said : ^ * Up to a point. ' ' That brief 
 sentence was far more evidential than his 
 full name, and many other notable facts. It 
 was a small thing, but it counted. I once 
 met a bereaved father at a trumpet seance 
 (i,e,, where the direct voice is produced, and 
 a metal tnunpet used to concentrate the 
 sound waves in the direction of the person 
 to whom the voice wishes to speak) express 
 his belief that his little son had communi- 
 cated with him because of the manner in 
 which he **blew kisses" to him. It had been 
 the little boy's habit when on earth to give 
 the kisses in bunches, as it were, and then 
 blow them in the same way afterwards. He 
 did precisely the same thing through the 
 trumpet. Had each kiss been blown sepa- 
 rately it could hardly have been his child. 
 
 There are probably not more than a dozen 
 trumpet mediums in Great Britain at the 
 
 85 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 present time. Six years ago there appear 
 to have been none. This is a new but very 
 satisfactory means of spirit-communion. It 
 gives at least as good evidence that one 
 speaks with one's *'dead" friends, as the 
 telephone does regarding those living. An 
 idea of the splendidly evidential nature of 
 communications received in this way can be 
 obtained by reading *^The Voices," by Vice- 
 Admiral Usborne Moore. 
 
 In many respects it is superior to almost 
 all other forms of psychic phenomena, and 
 through it I have received many excellent 
 tests, of which the following is an example : 
 
 Four years ago I lost a brother-in-law, an 
 agnostic. We had often discussed the sub- 
 ject of Spiritualism, and as he was sceptical, 
 he had formed an opinion of what he re- 
 garded as necessary to constitute a satis- 
 factory test of survival. It, he maintained, 
 must be information not known to the sitter, 
 nor to any other person but the one profes- 
 sing to communicate. The value of psychic 
 evidence must always, he thought, be deter- 
 mined by what the sitter knew, especially by 
 what was consciously in his mind at the time 
 
 86 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 of the supposed communication. Thus, if 
 the name of a deceased person were in his 
 thoughts, the fact that that name was men- 
 tioned would not constitute evidence, as the 
 medium might have consciously or uncon- 
 sciously read it telepathically. If something 
 was said that the sitter knew, but was not 
 at the moment thinking about, but of some- 
 thing else, then its evidential value would be 
 increased. Should, however, anything be 
 told quite unknown to the recipient and 
 afterwards verified, that might be regarded 
 as conclusive. It is necessary to remark 
 that my brother-in-law was well read and 
 above the average in intellectual qualifica- 
 tions. He died when quite a young man, 
 after having been an invalid throughout the 
 whole of his life. 
 
 Shortly after his death I sat by invita- 
 tion with a weU-known '* voice medium," 
 who knew nothing about my brother-in-law. 
 Being an only son and much loved by his 
 parents, his mother had taken his decease 
 sadly to heart; and, although nothing was 
 ever said by her on the matter, there was 
 no doubt she was worried by her son's un- 
 
 87 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 belief. During the * * voice ' ' seance the trum- 
 pet approached me, and I recognised 
 
 L 's voice saying anxiously: ^*Tell my 
 
 mother I am living, and not dead. Tell 
 my mother I am living." Instantly his full 
 name came to my mind, and filled it to the 
 exclusion of all else. I, therefore, forget- 
 ting all we had said on the subject of Spirit- 
 ualism, asked him to tell me his name. In- 
 stead of which, he said to me: **Do you re- 
 member the photographs you had taken last 
 Christmas?" For the moment I did not, 
 until he remarked: **Yes, you do; you gave 
 my sister one." That brought the incident 
 to my mind. The previous Christmas I had 
 had my photograph taken by request, and 
 I had given one to his sister, and at that 
 moment it must have been reclining on her 
 mantel-shelf several miles away. 
 
 **Yes, I remember now. But what is your 
 name?" I asked. 
 
 *'Do you know," was the evasive reply, 
 **that I died of internal haemorrhage?" 
 
 Now, the doctor attributed his death to 
 heart-failure ; but, upon consideration, 
 haemorrhage was much the likelier cause. 
 
 88 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 He had taken no solid food for over a month 
 and was greatly reduced in strength. Sev- 
 eral times he had been warned against sub- 
 jecting himself to an internal strain, as it 
 might be fatal. He disobeyed, fell back, and 
 expired immediately. The value of this re- 
 mark rests in his informing me of what was 
 probably true, although it had never en- 
 tered my thoughts. After much other talk 
 of this kind, the voice suddenly said to me : 
 
 *'Do you know I have a watch and 
 chain?'' 
 
 ^^No." 
 
 ** Well, I have ; the chain is in my mother's 
 house, upstairs in a drawer." 
 
 Here was a splendid point. L , who 
 
 had always been rather immaculate in his 
 dress, had never to my knowledge worn a 
 watch and chain. This I had observed with 
 surprise, although I had never enquired the 
 reason for it. 
 
 After the seance I went directly to 
 
 L- 's sister and asked her whether she 
 
 knew anything about his watch and chain. 
 She did not. At my earnest request she went 
 to her mother, who lived the other side of 
 
 89 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 London, specially bearing in mind that if a 
 watch and chain of her brother's were not 
 known to exist, they were to search for 
 them. Nothing was said by me as to their 
 probable whereabouts. The result was, that 
 
 by diligently searching, a chain of L 's, 
 
 which had been long forgotten, was found 
 in a drawer in the bedroom L had oc- 
 cupied upstairs. The watch — of the where- 
 abouts of which the voice had said nothing 
 — was discovered in a small box, also up- 
 stairs. 
 
 When these facts are compared with my 
 brother-in-law's conception of a reliable test 
 for the survival of identity, the proof, I 
 think, is complete, even if I had not recog- 
 nised his voice and mannerisms. 
 
 There has always been a particular charm 
 about materialisation, and perhaps this 
 form of psychic-phenomena has done more 
 than any other to convince sceptics that there 
 is a life after death. The experience of Sir 
 William Crookes with Katie King is only 
 one of many similar experiences by equally 
 reliable authorities. Lombroso affirms that 
 his mother materialised at least twenty 
 
 90 
 
WHY I BECAME A SPIRITUALIST 
 
 times to him during his seances with Eusa- 
 pia Paladino, and she would say: ^' *My 
 son, my treasure!' Kissing my head and 
 lips with her lips."* After such unim- 
 peachable testimony I may unhesitatingly 
 mention one — ^by no means the best — of my 
 experiences of this kind of manifestation. 
 
 The seance was held in the house of a 
 friend, and was of the ^^dark" variety. The 
 exclusion of light undoubtedly weakens the 
 value of the tests received, unless they are 
 unusually good. On this occasion a brother 
 of mine, who was investigating with me, sat 
 on one side of the table, directly opposite 
 me, the medium being held securely by the 
 hands by two of the sitters some distance 
 away. Visibility was obtained by the means 
 usually adopted at this kind of seance, name- 
 ly, by a phosphorescent slate being placed 
 on the table for the manifesting forms to 
 lift and hold close to their faces, the light 
 given forth by the slate being sufficiently 
 strong to reveal the features satisfactorily. 
 
 A mutual friend of my brother's and mine 
 who had passed away about three years be- 
 
 *** After Death— Whatr* By Cesare Lombroso, pp. 68-9. 
 
 91 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 fore, and who was absolutely unknown to 
 anyone present beside ourselves, made a 
 convincing manifestation by showing him- 
 self to each of us separately, his face bear- 
 ing unmistakable evidences of his identity. 
 The complaint from which he died had 
 caused his neck to swell in a peculiar man- 
 ner, whilst he had badly broken his nose 
 through an accident several years before his 
 decease. Apart from other points, these two 
 were most obvious when he manifested, so 
 as to leave no room for doubt as to his iden- 
 tification. 
 
 92 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 AUTHENTICATED CASES OF SPIRIT 
 COMMUNICATIONS 
 
 Number very great; efforts to destroy their evidential value 
 fail; *' Abraham Florentine"; Dr. Venzano'a experience; 
 Mrs. Piper's mediumship; *'The Greek message"; George 
 Pelham; the *' Honolulu" incident of Eaymond Lodge; 
 communications of exalted character often received. 
 
 So great is the number of well-attested 
 cases of spirit-coimnunion, that considera- 
 ble difficulty is experienced in selecting the 
 best from among them. Where identity has 
 thus been successfully established the value 
 may be said to be equal, although the cir- 
 cumstances may vary considerably, and, con- 
 sequently, some instances may appear more 
 attractive than others. The literature of 
 Spiritualism and psychical research is lit- 
 erally replete with examples, and they are 
 being added to daily. Every effort to ac- 
 count for them by non-Spiritualistic theo- 
 rieB fails because they cannot cover all the 
 facts. Very often, however, these theories 
 
 93 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM*? 
 
 offer a reasonable explanation for some of 
 the facts; but these, too, are usually ac- 
 countable for by the Spiritualistic hypothe- 
 sis, which also explains what the others can- 
 not. 
 
 We naturally look for the imprimatur of 
 qualified personages when selecting veridical 
 cases of spirit-intercourse. Nothing but the 
 testimonies of most capable judges can sat- 
 isfy us on a matter so important, and, as is 
 commonly believed, obscure. But it is no 
 easy matter to decide who is qualified and 
 who is not. Choice almost invariably falls 
 upon the scientist, because he has received a 
 special training to enable him to observe and 
 carefully weigh evidence, while a love of 
 truth is supposed to determine all his con- 
 clusions. Furthermore, he at least has noth- 
 ing to gain by testifying to these things ; as 
 a rule, indeed, he has much to lose. None 
 recognises this more than the Spiritualist, 
 and none appeals more persistently than he 
 to scientific testimony to support his claims. 
 We need to be careful, however, lest, in our 
 anxiety for accuracy, we overlook other wit- 
 nesses who may be equally qualified and sin- 
 
 94 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 cere. The testimony of the average person 
 has some claim to respect, as the history of 
 Modern Spiritualism clearly shows, for long 
 before scientists gave their benediction to 
 psychic phenomena, the rank and file spoke 
 of their existence, and ventured to explain 
 in various ways their origin. This, too, 
 when science held itself entirely aloof with 
 an air of disdainful superiority, declaring 
 that whoever professed to believe in such 
 things were either credulous fools or cun- 
 ning rogues. Science was wrong, while the 
 average person was right, as time has 
 proved. The fact is, common-sense and sin- 
 cerity are not bad qualifications for any in- 
 vestigator in the domains of psychical re- 
 search. The phenomena, intricate enough 
 in many instances, are often very plain and 
 simple, so that none need then err. 
 
 It is because of this that no better exam- 
 ple of authenticated cases of spirit-commu- 
 nication can be selected in opening this 
 chapter, than that of *' Abraham Floren- 
 tine." All the witnesses are good, honour- 
 able folk who made no pretensions to pos- 
 sessing special qualifications for discerning 
 
 95 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 truth from error, but who nevertheless were 
 exhaustive in their inquiries and careful in 
 their conclusions regarding the nature of 
 the invisible communicator. Their one de- 
 sire was for truth ; and when convinced who 
 the unseen operator was, they were as sur- 
 prised and pleased as strangers under the 
 circumstances could be. 
 
 In August, 1874, the Rev. W. Stainton 
 Moses was staying with Dr. Stanhope Speer 
 at Shanklin, Isle of Wight. Being inter- 
 ested in Spiritualism, and the Eev. Stainton 
 Moses an excellent medium, they had a num- 
 ber of sittings, and at one of them a spirit 
 purported to communicate who gave his 
 name as Abraham Florentine. He said he 
 had been concerned in the war of 1812, and 
 that he died at Brooklyn, U.S.A., on August 
 5th, 1874, at the age of eighty-three years, 
 one month and seventeen days. At first there 
 was some diificulty in making out whether 
 the month and days referred to his age or to 
 the length of his illness; but this difficulty 
 was eventually overcome. 
 
 The manner in which the communication 
 was made was table-tilting. The Rev. Stain- 
 
 96 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 ton Moses, Dr. Speer, and another person 
 were seated round a heavy loo-table, which 
 two persons could move only with difficulty. 
 Instead of raps, to which on such occasions 
 the company were accustomed, the table 
 commenced to tilt. So eager was the com- 
 municating spirit, that the table rose some 
 seconds before the required letter was ar- 
 rived at. In order, for instance, to mark 
 '^T," it would rise, quivering as if with ex- 
 citement, about **K," and then descend at 
 <^T" with a thump that shook the floor. 
 This was repeated until the whole message 
 was complete. From the general nature of 
 the phenomena the opinion was formed that 
 Abraham Florentine, were he a real entity, 
 was of a decided and impetuous disposition. 
 The matter was privately communicated 
 to Mr. Bpes Sargent, who inserted an ac- 
 count of it in the Banner of Light on De- 
 cember 12th, 1874, which resulted in the fol- 
 lowing letter being received from America : 
 
 **To the Editor of the Banner of Light. 
 
 ^*In the Banner to-day received here, is 
 the paragraph concerning a spirit who mani- 
 
 97 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 f ested through the medium of a dining-table 
 at some place in England, and gave the name 
 of Abraham Florentine, a soldier in the war 
 of 1812. You make inquiry whether any- 
 one ever heard of Abraham Florentine. I 
 cannot specifically answer that question, but 
 having been engaged some fourteen years 
 since in auditing the claims of the soldiers 
 of 1812 in the State of New York, I am yet 
 in possession of the records of all such who 
 made claims for service in that war. In 
 those records appears the name of Abraham 
 Florentine, of Brooklyn, New York, and a 
 full record of his service can be obtained in 
 the Office of the Adjutant-General of the 
 State of New York, in claim No. 11,518, 
 war of 1812. I think, however, that he there 
 claimed for a longer term of service than 
 that he gave in England, his allowance being 
 fifty-eight doUars. u^^^^ ^illab, 
 
 ** Claim Agent. 
 *^ Washington, D.C., 
 
 ^'December 13th, 1874." 
 
 In accordance with this advice a letter was 
 addressed by the Editor of the Banner to the 
 
 98 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 Adjutant-General, S.N.Y., asking for the 
 facts without giving any reason for the re- 
 quest. The following reply was received: 
 
 General Headquarters, 
 '^Stateof NewYork, 
 
 ** Adjutant-General's Ofl&ce, 
 '* Albany, 
 <<gjj^ ''January 25th, 1875. 
 
 ''In reply to your communication, dated 
 January 22nd, I have to furnish you the fol- 
 lowing information from the records of this 
 office : Abraham Florentine, private in Cap- 
 tain Nicole's Company, 1st Regiment, New 
 York Militia, Colonel Dodge, volunteered at 
 New York on or about the 2nd of Septem- 
 ber, 1814, served three months, and was hon- 
 ourably discharged. He received Land 
 Warrant No. 63,365, for forty acres. The 
 above is taken from the soldier's sworn 
 statement, and not from official records. 
 "Very respectfully, 
 
 "Pranexin Townsend, 
 "Colby & Eich, "Adjutant-General. 
 "No. 9, Montgomery Place, 
 "Boston." 
 
 99 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 Dr. Crowell, of Brooklyn, N.Y., took steps 
 to obtain additional verification from Flor- 
 entine's widow. His letter was published in 
 the Banner, February 20th, 1875, as follows : 
 
 **To the Editor of the Banner of Light. 
 
 **Upon reading in the Banner of the 
 13th inst., the article headed * Abraham Flor- 
 entine — Verification of his Message,' I ex- 
 amined my Brooklyn Directory, and there 
 found the name of Abraham Florentine, 
 with the address 119, Kosciusco Street. Be- 
 ing at the moment disengaged and interested 
 in pursuing the subject, I at once sought the 
 street and number indicated, and my appli- 
 cation at the door was met by an elderly 
 lady, of whom I inquired whether Mr. Abra- 
 ham Florentine resided there. The reply was, 
 *He did reside here, but he is now dead.' 
 
 Ques. : May I inquire whether you are 
 Mrs. Florentine, his widow? 
 
 Ans. : I am. 
 
 **Upon here remarking that I would be 
 pleased to obtain some information about 
 her late husband, she invited me to a seat 
 
 100 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES, ,7, \\\: 
 
 in the parlour, and our conversation was 
 then resumed. 
 
 Ques. : May I ask when he died ? 
 
 Ans. : Last August. 
 
 Ques. : At what time in that month ? 
 
 Ans. : On the fifth. 
 
 Ques.: What was his age at time of his 
 decease ? 
 
 Ans.: Eighty-three. 
 
 Ques.: Had he passed his eighty-third 
 year? 
 
 Ans. : Yes ; his eighty-third birthday was 
 on the previous eighth of June. 
 
 Ques.: Was he engaged in any war? 
 
 Ans.: Yes; in the war of 1812. 
 
 Ques. : Was he naturally active and self- 
 reliant, or the reverse? 
 
 Ans. : He had a will of his own, and was 
 rather impetuous. 
 
 Ques. : Was his last illness of long or short 
 duration, and did he su:ffer much? 
 
 Ans. : He was confined to bed for a year 
 or more, and suffered a good deal. 
 
 *^ Eugene Crowell, M.D. 
 
 ^^ Brooklyn, N.Y., 
 '^February 15th, 1875." 
 101 
 
'1; ,;>VHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 It will be observed there is a discrepancy 
 of ten days between the age of Abraham 
 Florentine as communicated through the ta- 
 ble and that stated by his wife. But it is a 
 discrepancy hardly worthy of serious no- 
 tice, as either he or she may have been 
 equally mistaken. The main facts are un- 
 mistakably accurate. Besides, Abraham 
 Florentine was, previous to this event, un- 
 known to any of the sitters. Nor had they 
 friends in America who could have supplied 
 them with news of what went on there ; and 
 even supposing they had, it is very improba- 
 ble they would have reported an affair in 
 which they could have felt no interest. The 
 facts may therefore be regarded as reliable 
 evidence of the spiritual presence at the 
 seance in the Isle of Wight, of the old 
 American soldier, who had lived and died 
 more than three thousand miles away. 
 
 In the Annals of Psychical Science for 
 September, 1907, under the signature of Dr. 
 Joseph Venzano, who relates the incident at 
 first-hand soon after it occurred, appears 
 the following account, which, under the cir- 
 cumstances, is accountable for only as evi- 
 
 102 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 dence of continued existence after death. 
 The room in which it occurred was lighted 
 by a candle in an ante-room, and the me- 
 dium was under strict control. 
 
 **In spite of the dimness of the light," 
 writes Dr. Venzano, **I could distinctly see 
 Mme. Paladino and my fellow-sitters. Sud- 
 denly, I perceived that behind me was a 
 form, fairly tall, which was leaning its head 
 on my left shoulder and sobbing violently, 
 so that those present could hear the sobs; 
 it kissed me repeatedly. I clearly perceived 
 the outlines of this face, which touched my 
 own, and I felt the very fine and abundant 
 hair in contact with my left cheek, so that I 
 could be quite sure that it was a woman. 
 The table then began to move, and by 
 typtology gave the name of a close family 
 connection who was known to no one pres- 
 ent except myself. She had died some time 
 before, and on account of incompatibility 
 of temperament there had been serious dis- 
 agreements with her. I was so far from ex- 
 pecting this typtological response that I at 
 first thought this was a case of coincidence 
 
 103 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 of name ; but while I was mentally forming 
 this reflection I felt a mouth, with warm 
 breath, touch my left ear and whisper, in a 
 low voice in Genoese dialect, a succession of 
 sentences, the murmur of which was audible 
 to the sitters. These sentences were broken 
 by bursts of weeping, and their gist was to 
 repeatedly implore pardon for injuries done 
 to me, with a fulness of detail connected 
 with family affairs which could only be 
 known to the person in question. The phe- 
 nomenon seemed so real that I felt com- 
 pelled to reply to the excuses offered me with 
 expressions of affection, and to ask pardon 
 in my turn if any resentment of the wrongs 
 referred to had been excessive. But I had 
 scarcely uttered the first syllables when two 
 hands, with exquisite delicacy, applied them- 
 selves to my lips and prevented my continu- 
 ing. The form then said to me, * Thank you ! ' 
 embraced me, kissed me, and disappeared." 
 
 Others present at the seance corroborated 
 these facts. Hallucination, therefore, could 
 not explain them. The recipient asserts that 
 he was perfectly calm throughout the pro- 
 
 104 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 ceedings, and that he did not cease to care- 
 fully watch the medium, who was awake and 
 visible to all present. Dr. Venzano was 
 quite convinced of the absence of fraud ; the 
 medium being quite ignorant of the family 
 details that had been revealed. This case is 
 particularly interesting, as it originally 
 forced one of the most capable and sceptical 
 inquirers — an expert prestidigitateur and 
 an authority on the detection of psychic 
 frauds — into an attitude of belief.* 
 
 The Society for Psychical Eesearch was 
 founded in 1882 for the express purpose of 
 scientifically investigating the phenomena 
 of Spiritualism. Of the four men who were 
 instrumental in founding it — Professor 
 Henry Sidgwick, Dr. Edmund Gurney, F. 
 W. H. Myers and Professor W. F. Bar- 
 rett — ^the latter alone remains with us. More 
 recently has departed Professor Richard 
 Hodgson, the only member of the Society 
 who devoted his whole life to the work of 
 investigation. His knowledge of the phys- 
 ical phenomena of Spiritualism and of the 
 
 •'*Eusapia Paladino and her Phenomena/' p. 283. Bj 
 Hereward Carrington. 
 
 105 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 trance communications received through 
 Mrs. Piper, is said to have been unrivalled. 
 Mrs. Piper is a remarkable trance speaker 
 and automatic writing medium, whose serv- 
 ices have been specially retained for several 
 years by the Society for Psychical Research 
 to aid them in their investigations. 
 
 It is natural to suppose that if it be pos- 
 sible for the dead to communicate with us, 
 that those gentlemen who had striven so 
 hard during a considerable portion of their 
 lives to discover the possibility of this, 
 should, upon their decease, continue their 
 efforts from the other side. There is nat- 
 urally a peculiar difl&culty in the case of per- 
 sons so well known to the workers in this 
 particular field, to find the kind of proof 
 desired. With people unknown to the me- 
 dium, and sometimes to the sitter, until in- 
 quiry is made, the task is much more sim- 
 ple. But when the medium and sitter alike 
 are acquainted with the nature and abilities 
 of the spirit-communicator, the field of evi- 
 dence is considerably narrowed. It is there- 
 fore more noteworthy that notwithstanding 
 these difficulties, impressive evidence of the 
 
 106 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 identity of these personages has been re- 
 ceived, as a perusal of the ^'Proceedings of 
 the S.P.E." will readily prove. 
 
 Vol. XXII. of the '^ Proceedings" of the 
 English Society for Psychical Research con- 
 tains the account of an incident known as 
 'Hhe Greek message," which took place in 
 1907, and which appears to afford conclusive 
 evidence of the continued existence of P. 
 W. H. Myers several years after his decease. 
 The medium, who was wholly ignorant of 
 Greek, was in a deep trance throughout, and 
 unacquainted with the published works of 
 Frederic Myers. The words chosen for the 
 test had been used by Myers when living as 
 a motto to a poem upon Tennyson, being 
 there credited to their author, Plotinus. In 
 his famous work, ''Human Personality," 
 Myers had given a translation of this pas- 
 sage from Plotinus. Their meaning is "even 
 heaven waveless," and they were used by 
 Plotinus to describe the condition of calm 
 in nature most favourable to a state of ec- 
 stasy. While Myers was supposed to influ- 
 ence the medium from the spirit side, the 
 entranced medium pronounced the Greek 
 
 107 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 words without any comment, except to tell 
 what they suggested. 
 
 It was felt by the experimenter that if 
 the personality were really Myers he should 
 give in his answer : 
 
 1. The meaning of the words. 
 
 2. The name of the author. 
 
 3. A reference to Myers' book, ** Hu- 
 
 man Personality," where the 
 words were translated. 
 
 4. A reference to Tennyson, since it was 
 
 as a motto to a poem on Tennyson 
 that Myers had quoted the words. 
 
 5. Possibly a reference to Tennyson's 
 
 poem, ^^ Crossing the Bar," which 
 it was thought suggested the 
 motto. 
 
 Although this was asking a very great 
 deal, the alleged Myers accepted the chal- 
 lenge ; and as if to make the test more con- 
 vincing, gave a large part of his answer, 
 not to the deviser of the test, but to another 
 person, almost ignorant of the nature of the 
 experiment. 
 
 108 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 All that was asked for and much more of 
 an equally evidential nature was given 
 through Mrs. Piper, without any help what- 
 soever. What more could be expected as 
 proof of identity ? Try as one will, the only 
 explanation that can meet these facts is the 
 Spiritualistic one. **The alleged spirit of 
 Myers did all that could have been expected 
 of the living Myers," even to mentioning 
 every association the Greek words in ques- 
 tion were thought likely to suggest.* 
 
 The communications from George Pelham 
 may now be almost regarded as classical in- 
 stances of authenticated spirit-intercourse. 
 No comment on them is necessary. Many of 
 them seem to be nothing less than plain, 
 straightforward evidences of the survival of 
 bodily death. 
 
 George Pelham (the name is assumed) 
 was a young American author and lawyer, 
 well-known to Professor Richard Hodgson ; 
 and it was, indeed, this case that con- 
 vinced the ** arch-sceptic," as Dr. Hodgson 
 has been called, of the survival of bodily 
 death. Pelham died suddenly, as the result 
 
 ♦See alao '* Light/ » Vol. 38, No. 1, 937, 1918. 
 
 109 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 of an accident, in February, 1892. He and 
 Hodgson had had long talks on philosoph- 
 ical subjects, and had discussed the possibil- 
 ity of a future life, which Pelham held to be 
 incredible and inconceivable. Four years 
 before his death he had had a single sitting 
 with Mrs. Piper, his name being carefully 
 concealed from her, and there is no reason 
 to suppose she knew of the existence of any 
 such person. A few weeks after his death 
 George Pelham purported to communicate 
 with a friend of his, John Hart (assumed 
 name), who was having a sitting with Mrs. 
 Piper. He recognised his own stud which 
 the sitter was wearing, and correctly stated 
 how he came into possession of it. He men- 
 tioned two intimate friends, James and 
 Mary Howard, and gave a message to Kath- 
 erine (their daughter): '^Tell her, she'll 
 know. I will solve the problems, Kath- 
 erine." Mr. Howard explained, in reference 
 to this, that Pelham, when he last stayed 
 with them, had had frequent talks with 
 Katherine on the great problems of exist- 
 ence, and had promised her, in almost the 
 
 110 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 words of his spirit-message, that some time 
 he would solve them. 
 
 At a sitting some months later at which 
 were present Mr. and Mrs. Howard and 
 (part of the time) their daughter Kath- 
 erine, and a reporter, the following evidence 
 was forthcoming : 
 
 (^^Phinuit" is the name given by the in- 
 telligence who sometimes used the organism 
 of Mrs. Piper for the purpose of conveying 
 messages purporting to come from the 
 spirit- world to the sitters.) 
 
 Phinuit: He [George Pelham] has been 
 to see his father, and he has seen, he has 
 taken a book and carried it to have it 
 printed. [His father had collected his poems 
 and had them printed in a small volume, 
 which appeared just before the first sitting 
 of this series.] 
 
 During the early part of the sitting, Kath- 
 erine entered the room and sat down in a 
 remote corner. Almost immediately Phinuit 
 said: ** ^He wants to see who is Katrine.' " 
 Katherine comes over, and Gr. P. takes con- 
 trol of the voice, and personal greetings fol- 
 low. Recognition of dress, also of shawl, 
 
 lU 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 which was asked for, and which was placed 
 over Mrs. Piper's shoulders. 
 
 ''What is it takes me to Paris?" [The 
 shawl had been worn in Paris frequently 
 during a year, but there is no reason to sup- 
 pose that Gr. P., living, was aware of this.] 
 
 ''G. P. inquired what had been done with 
 a special picture which he had owned. 
 
 Mrs. H.: 'That got torn up after you 
 passed out, but here is a picture that I don't 
 know whether you will recognise, but you 
 used to know the place.' [G. P. puts picture 
 on top of the head.] 
 
 G. P. : 'What is this? This is your sum- 
 mer house.' 
 
 Mrs. H.: 'Yes, you have got it right.' 
 
 G. P. : 'But I have forgotten the name of 
 the town.' 
 
 Mrs. H.: 'Don't you remember D ?' 
 
 G. P.: 'Oh, the little brick house and the 
 little vine, grape-vine some call them. Yes, 
 I remember it all; it comes back as dis- 
 tinctly as the daylight. Where is the little 
 out-house?' [All correct. The little hen- 
 house that, like the house itself, was solidly 
 b\;iilt of brick, just did not come into the 
 
 112 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 picture, but came to the very edge of it, so 
 it was natural for George to ask where it 
 was. The grape-vine that covered the whole 
 house up to the roof was a striking feature 
 of it.— K.] 
 
 Mrs. H. : * There is the painting' [handing 
 another picture]. 
 
 G. P. : ^No, I have no recollection of that.' 
 
 Mrs. H. : ^No, I painted it when you were 
 not there. You never saw that.' 
 
 G. P. : 'It is not fresh to me all; but this' 
 [fingering the photo of the house] 4s very 
 clear. Katherine. ' 
 
 Mrs. H.: *She remembers that, too.' 
 
 G. P.: 'She was a little thing. Then you 
 bought a place at some ville/ [Katherine 's 
 
 age when we left D was six, nearly 
 
 seven. We first bought the place at X — 
 ville in 1886.] 'Further references to per- 
 sonal incidents at D ' 
 
 'Katherine, how is the violin'?' (She plays 
 the violin.) 'To hear you playing it is hor- 
 rible, horrible.' 
 
 Mrs. H.: 'But don't you see she likes her 
 music because it is the best she has?' 
 
 G. P. : 'No, but that is what I used to say, 
 113 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 that it is horrible.' [George was always 
 more or less annoyed by hearing Katherine 
 practise when she was beginning the violin 
 as a little child. — ^K.] 
 
 G. P.: [A basket put into G. P.'s hand, 
 which he had given as a Christmas present.] 
 * That is mine. Where is my lamp arrange- 
 ment? I was very fond of that, you know.' 
 [He had also expressly got a small light 
 shade that could be moved round the shade 
 of an ordinary lamp to cut off the light from 
 the eye, and he had used this much when 
 living. He had made other references to 
 this in previous sittings.] 
 
 Mrs. H.: 'I want you to see that' [hand- 
 ing a paper], 
 
 G. P.: ^You wrote that to me this morn- 
 ing.' [It was a poem on death, written that 
 morning with G. P. in mind, but no refer- 
 ence to G. P. in it.] [Another paper 
 handed.] *That is a letter that is mine. 
 That is my own, but that was written a long 
 time ago.' [Correct. A letter of his written 
 many years before.] *Give my regards to 
 James Peirce. Tell him I could not speak 
 to him, but I will again, and when you dine 
 
 114 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 with him, think of me.' [George occasion- 
 ally dined at the house of James Peirce in 
 company with Mr. Howard.] 
 
 Mr. H. : 'George, do you know who this is 
 from?' [handing an unopened newspaper 
 enclosed in a wrapper as if just received in 
 the mail]. 
 
 After saying, * Where is John Hart?' G. 
 P. correctly stated that the newspaper came 
 from Orenberg; then to Mr. Howard he 
 said, 'Get the long pipe and smoke.' [Mr. 
 Howard was in the habit of smoking a long 
 pipe in the evening.]"* 
 
 The ''Honolulu" incident, recorded by Sir 
 Oliver Lodge in his book, "Raymond, or 
 Life and Death," is excellent evidence of 
 the continued existence of his son, Ray- 
 mond, who was killed in the attack on 
 Hooge Hill, 14th September, 1915. 
 
 It happened that a son and daughter of 
 the famous physicist were going through 
 London on their way to the South of Eng- 
 land, on Friday, 26th May, 1916, and had 
 arranged to have a sitting with a medium — 
 Mrs. Leonard — about noon. At noon of the 
 
 •"Proceedings'* S.P.E. Vol. XIII. 
 
 115 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 same day, it occurred to another of Sir Oli- 
 ver's sons to hold an impromptu seance; 
 and for this purpose he obtained the assist- 
 ance of two of his sisters. Together they 
 had a short sitting at a table at their home 
 in Birmingham. Knowing their brother 
 and sister were having a sitting in London 
 simultaneously, they asked Raymond to give 
 their love to them and try to get the mediimi 
 to say ** Honolulu." The London sitters 
 knew absolutely nothing of this. Notes were 
 carefully taken of both seances, and they 
 were afterwards compared. It was then 
 found that the word *' Honolulu" had been 
 got successfully through the medium in Lon- 
 don. Thus : 
 
 The medium, speaking to one of the sit- 
 ters, said: ^^You could play." 
 
 K M. L.:**Play what?" 
 
 **Not a game, a music." 
 
 N. M. L.: *^I am afraid I can't, Ray- 
 mond." 
 
 Feda (medium), sotto voce: **She can't 
 do that." **He wanted to know whether 
 you could play *Hulu-Honolulu.' Well, 
 can't you try to? He is rolling with laugh- 
 
 116 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 ter" [meaning that he's pleased about some- 
 thing].* 
 
 Such messages as this led Sir Oliver to 
 assert that ^Hhe foundation of the atomic 
 theory in chemistry is to him no stronger" 
 than evidence for spirit intercourse. They 
 broke for him the back of all legitimate and 
 reasonable scepticism. Although to many 
 of the readers of his book the facts which 
 are such decided proofs to Sir Oliver Lodge 
 may not have the same compelling force. 
 That must, of course, often be the case where 
 spirit identity is concerned. The evidence 
 must frequently be so delicate that only 
 those who knew the communicating spirit 
 can appreciate its real value. In instances 
 like the *^ Honolulu case," however — which 
 word curiously was associated with music, 
 a song — the facts seem perfectly clear and 
 convincing. If Raymond still lived and 
 could from his new life communicate with 
 his relations, and was as interested in prov- 
 ing this as he appears to have been, it is only 
 to be expected he would endeavour to con- 
 
 *'*Eaymond, or Life and Death," pp. 271-2, 274. By 
 Sir Oliver Lodge. 
 
 117 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 vey this word to his brother and sister in 
 London. Any other conclusion confuses the 
 whole matter and makes the explanation of 
 it a mere assumption. In this instance — 
 considering the cumulative evidence con- 
 tained in the book of Raymond's ability to 
 communicate — the -simplest explanation is 
 undoubtedly the correct one. 
 
 It will be noticed that in all the preceding 
 cases of identity mentioned, there has been 
 no effort to depart from plain matter-of- 
 fact proof. There is indeed no more valua- 
 ble evidence than that kind. It is a fruitful 
 cause for complaint among critics that Spir- 
 itualism gives no evidence of an exalted 
 character. Such a complaint has no mean- 
 ing. The first aim of any spirit anxious to 
 prove its identity is necessarily an appeal 
 to personal facts. A disquisition on Immor- 
 tality or the existence of God may be very 
 beautiful and inspiring, and thought-pro- 
 voking, but it is not necessarily evidence. In 
 that respect it would be without significance 
 to the average individual who passes into 
 the Great Beyond. Usually in life he has 
 shown no taste or ability for such intricate 
 
 118 
 
AUTHENTICATED CASES 
 
 discussions. But the fact that he had a cer- 
 tain appearance, or some personal peculiar- 
 ity, or love for some particular thing or a 
 name, stands for much. Let it be repeated : 
 it is the small things that count as proof 
 very often in communications. 
 
 Apart from evidence of identity pure and 
 simple, much of an exalted and enlightening 
 nature regarding great problems has been 
 received from these same sources; but to 
 discuss them here would take us too far 
 afield. 
 
 119 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 MEDIUMS TKUE AND FALSE 
 
 Mediumship the foundation of Spiritualism; importance of 
 mediums; mediumship helps to co-ordinate history; reveals 
 new aspects of natural law; Spiritualism meets material- 
 ists on their own grounds; defects of mediumship; influ- 
 ence of mental and emotional states on mediumship; 
 universal influences against mediumship; psychology of 
 mediumship; mediums blamed for failures; the insta- 
 bility of psychology; the influence of ''association of 
 ideas"; danger of hasty conclusions; the influence of the 
 subconsciousness; Spiritualists allow for this; medium- 
 ship and the law; the law needs modifying. 
 
 Mediumship is the foundation of Modern 
 Spiritualism. Without the one the other 
 could never have been. Mediums are some- 
 times called ** psychics," or "sensitives." It 
 is as well to fix these facts in mind if a 
 proper appreciation of mediumship in rela- 
 tion to this important subject is to be ob- 
 tained. Few people have been more ad- 
 versely criticised than this community. Re- 
 ligious folk have long been in the habit of 
 
 120 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 regarding them as instruments of the devil 
 — consciously or unconsciously ; materialists 
 and sceptics have usually regarded them as 
 frauds. All this is gradually changing ; but 
 there is still much left to be desired. The 
 tendency in the past has been to condemn 
 mediums offhand. In reality they ought to 
 have been closely studied. They must be 
 closely studied if a correct knowledge of the 
 laws governing psychic phenomena is to be 
 attained. 
 
 Think what it means! Psychic phenom- 
 ena are now recognised facts ; even the ene- 
 mies of Spiritualism admit that. Supposing 
 these wonderful happenings are not brought 
 about by the action of disembodied spirits, 
 even then new and wonderful aspects of nat- 
 ural law have undoubtedly been brought to 
 light through the agency of psychics. ''Mod- 
 ern Miracles" is what one great scientist has 
 tentatively called psychic phenomena. If 
 mediums have done nothing else, they have 
 made it possible to bring into the realm of 
 history and co-ordinate vast numbers of in- 
 teresting facts which hitherto have found no 
 fitting place, and have therefore been left 
 
 121 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 severely alone by historians. What else 
 could historians do, since they disbelieved in 
 the possibility of a violation of known nat- 
 ural laws ? From their point of view these 
 strange things could not happen; yet they 
 have often been testified to by numerous and 
 unimpeachable witnesses. If evidence 
 stands for anything, those ancient marvels 
 must have happened. 
 
 These new aspects of natural law may yet 
 prove far more valuable to humanity than 
 any yet known. The lifting of heavy ob- 
 jects without visible means, the passing of 
 matter through matter, the carriage of ob- 
 jects — often of considerable weight — great 
 distances almost in the twinkling of an eye, 
 all obviously brought about under intelli- 
 gent control, are facts inconceivably valua- 
 ble. The ability to see what is happening at 
 a distance, to discover lost objects, to com- 
 municate directly from mind to mind, sur- 
 pass in their possibilities such immensely 
 important discoveries as the telephone and 
 wireless telegraphy. 
 
 Should psychic phenomena prove the ex- 
 istence of a spirit world and the continuity 
 
 122 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 of life after death, even greater service will 
 have been done mankind. Light will be 
 thrown upon the most obscure of all sub- 
 jects, at a time when faith is no longer capa- 
 ble of satisfying thinking people. One of 
 the most terrible effects of the great war will 
 be eliminated, and perhaps grief will give 
 way to joy. Now the Modern Spiritualist is 
 already convinced regarding this supreme 
 matter, and confident that an impartial trial 
 of his claims will result in convincing every 
 unbiased person. It is certain that all those 
 who have thought about a future life, apart 
 from Modern Spiritualism and kindred 
 movements, have had to admit they know 
 nothing about it, other than what is mani- 
 festly foolish and contradictory. Each 
 great religion gives out different teachings 
 on this all-important subject, and even 
 within the same religion glaring contradic- 
 tions exist. The declaration that reason is 
 no measure of revelation is now believed by 
 a great number of thoughtful individuals to 
 be a cunningly designed means of prevent- 
 ing priestly ignorance and error from being 
 seen in their true perspective. The old 
 
 123 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 methods are giving way to more rational 
 processes, and we may be quite sure that if 
 there can be obtained no evidence of an after 
 life, no clerical institution, however venera- 
 ble, can hope to stem the tide of materialism. 
 Spiritualism, on the contrary, meets the ma- 
 terialist on his own ground, invites him to 
 apply his own principles of inquiry, and 
 from the result thereby obtained to draw 
 his own conclusions. Most Spiritualists 
 have done this with beneficial consequences 
 to themselves and true religion. In every 
 case the sensitive has been the all-important 
 factor, for without the remarkable powers 
 of these unusual individuals, psychic phe- 
 nomena would be unattainable. 
 
 Mediumship appears to have no special 
 relation to age, sex or class. Some splendid 
 psychics are to be found among the ^^ upper 
 ten," as well as among all the other ranks of 
 Society. There are far more developed me- 
 diums than are commonly heard of. This is 
 not surprising, considering how unpopular 
 the subject has hitherto been. No doubt the 
 rapid change now taking place in public 
 
 124 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 opinion will make psychics more inclined to 
 reveal themselves. 
 
 The exact nature of mediiunship promises 
 long to remain a mystery. Beyond the dis- 
 covery that a *^ magnetism'' or ^* fluid," and 
 sometimes even physical substance itself, is 
 extracted from the sensitive's body and 
 made to produce certain physical manifesta- 
 tions ; and that certain unusual faculties of 
 feeling, hearing and seeing, ascribable to* 
 latent senses that will become normally 
 active when man lives in a higher and more 
 spiritual world, but which are in part exer- 
 cised here and now by mediums — nothing 
 definite is known. These faculties and mag- 
 netic fluids are very susceptible to the op- 
 eration of mental forces ; more particularly 
 to those exerted by the spirit-people. A 
 good deal has been said about their respon- 
 siveness to the thoughts of the medium and 
 the sitters, and a number of instances can be 
 quoted which seem to substantiate the claim. 
 
 Very often, however, they can be quite as 
 satisfactorily accounted for by the Spiritu- 
 alistic theory; but full allowance must be 
 made for the possibility of the interposition 
 
 125 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 of the action of thought from ordinary peo- 
 ple. There is undoubtedly much evidence 
 of the remarkable effect thoughts and emo- 
 tions have upon all phases of psychic phe- 
 nomena. This is one t)f the greatest diffi- 
 culties to be faced. As a rule, powerful 
 thoughts of any kind hinder rather than help 
 the proceedings. Passivity of mind is al- 
 most essential for the attainment of the best 
 results in the seance-room. That is why a 
 medium has been defined as a person who is 
 constitutionally sensitive or susceptible to 
 ** influences," and who responds more or less 
 readily to the dominant thoughts or im- 
 pulses that impinge upon his own **aura" or 
 ^* magnetic sphere."* But he is mainly un- 
 der the influence of disembodied beings. 
 These influences act collectively as well as 
 singly, and this conveys an idea of the dis- 
 abilities under which mediums inevitably 
 labour to-day. 
 
 Most of the people who investigate Spir- 
 itualism are at first almost invariably sub- 
 ject to powerful opposition to it from within 
 
 **'A Guide to Mediumship/* By E. W. and M. H. Wallis, 
 p. 103. 
 
 126 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 themselves. They either do not l)elieve, or 
 they are nervous or fearful. Very often 
 they are in deep distress. All these condi- 
 tions hinder psychic work, particularly the 
 latter, and in each instance the sitter con- 
 duces to the defeat of his own ends. It is a 
 common thing for the imseen communica- 
 tors to plead with sitters to be '4ess tense," 
 on the ground that tenseness in any form 
 makes communication more difficult. A 
 bright, cheerful, friendly attitude is always 
 best. This is, of course, hardly to be ex- 
 pected from those who are sceptical and in- 
 tent on discovering the truth. The very 
 request is usually regarded as an effor^ n 
 the medium's part to weaken the c' .orving 
 power of the inquirer, or to make him be- 
 come credulous. Needless to say, a friendly, 
 cheerful attitude is quite compatible with 
 keen observation and sound judgment; but 
 anything that savours of ^* special pleading" 
 in this matter is usually regarded as proof 
 of weakness and dishonesty. Yet none of 
 these requests is incompatible with science. 
 The necessity of respecting conditions is 
 well recognised in chemistry, for instance. 
 
 127 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 The production of any desired result de- 
 pends upon obedience to the laws governing 
 it. No intelligent person would venture to 
 prescribe his own laws. What he does is to 
 endeavour to discover nature's laws and put 
 them into operation. Psychic science is no 
 exception to the rule ; but because such sub- 
 tle influences as mental and emotional forces 
 enter largely into it, the casual, and often 
 very illogical, critic condemns it. 
 
 If these conditions were extended over 
 the entire legitimate field influencing 
 psychical research, almost the whole of mod- 
 ern life would be impeached. The mental 
 £ "^ emotional forces of civilisation are, with 
 few e.- options, quite against Spiritualism 
 in its broadest sense, and mediumship is 
 thereby greatly retarded. The inherent ma- 
 terialism of the age touches every phase of 
 life. The last two centuries have witnessed 
 a remarkable development of commercial 
 and industrial activities, and they have 
 turned the thoughts of nearly the whole 
 world almost exclusively to temporal gain. 
 The early seventies of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury were recognised as the high-water mark 
 
 128 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 of scientific materialism, with its depressing 
 reaction upon philosophy and religion, and 
 its influence is still severely felt. Perhaps 
 no greater indictment from a religious point 
 of view can be passed on the non-spiritual 
 trend of the age than to remark upon the 
 deplorable fact that the highest honours 
 have been almost invariably conferred on 
 financiers and people of purely materialistic 
 tastes. Whether this be in itself good or 
 bad, its influence upon spirit intercourse has 
 raised tremendous barriers and has often 
 unintentionally involved mediumship in 
 great difficulties. 
 
 The psychological aspect of mediumship, 
 even from this point of view, therefore, 
 leaves much to be desired and discovered. 
 It often unaccountably breaks down and the 
 blame, almost without exception, is laid 
 upon the psychic ; the assumption being that 
 if he were genuine, failures could not hap- 
 pen. We ought to judge with caution here. 
 Normal psychology, whose special function 
 it is to deal with the conscious states of the 
 ordinary, everyday individual, is in a very 
 undeveloped state. Great schools of 
 
 129 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 thought differ on most obvious and pro- 
 found points. There are eminent thinkers 
 who stake the whole of their arguments 
 upon the assertion that man has no free 
 will ; others take just as vehemently the op- 
 posite point of view. The dictum of one of 
 the greatest of modern psychologists, the 
 late Professor William James, was that psy- 
 chology is particularly fragile, and not even 
 a science, but only the hope of a science. Its 
 data, he declared, must be reconsidered in 
 wider connections and other terms!* This 
 is nothing more than a candid confession 
 that ordinary mental states are at present 
 beyond our power of comprehension. It is 
 therefore not too much to ask, that before 
 anyone attempts to investigate and criticise 
 the abnormal mental conditions always in- 
 volved in the exercise of genuine psychic 
 powers, that some attention should be paid 
 to this aspect of the subject. 
 
 Now let us observe the psychic in one or 
 two of his modes of functioning. In many 
 cases of clairvoyance the medium is per- 
 fectly conscious. Like the sitter, he has men- 
 
 * *^Text Book of Psychology/' p. 468. By W. James. 
 
 130 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 tal and emotional experiences. His task is 
 to get into touch with the unseen world and 
 to give proof of the fact. He has the power 
 of seeing invisible objects ; and he can at will 
 very often bring it successfully into opera- 
 tion. But he has usually no control what- 
 ever over the things he may happen to see. 
 His peculiar vision does not enable him in 
 most instances to see into the spirit-world, 
 but into conditions of matter that exist in an 
 intermediary realm between this world and 
 that. It is obvious, therefore, that before 
 he can describe a spirit form, it must first be 
 made to appear by the intelligence desiring 
 to manifest itself ; but before the spirit can 
 accomplish this it must have : 
 
 1. Sufficient of the necessary kind of psy- 
 
 cho-plasm in which to appear. 
 
 2. Sufficient skill to utilise the psycho- 
 
 plasm for its special purpose. 
 
 This is no easy thing, and, as one may 
 well suppose, it is accomplished with vary- 
 ing results. Some idea of the ability that is 
 required for such a gigantic task can easily 
 be formed from the remarkable scientific 
 
 131 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM'? 
 
 evidence that is already forthcoming along 
 these lines. In cases of materialisation, in 
 which the densest kind of psycho-plasm has 
 to be used, the forms resemble in every way 
 ordinary living people, with flesh, bone, 
 blood, teeth, hair, temperature, and so on. 
 Compare that phenomenon with what sci- 
 ence has sought to accomplish when endeav- 
 ouring to produce life from matter. Scien- 
 tists would be perfectly content to obtain the 
 lowest possible expression of life, mere spon- 
 taneous movement. The greatest learning 
 and skill have up till the present failed to do 
 this. What untold skill and knowledge 
 must therefore be necessary on the part of 
 the spirit operators before they can produce 
 the marvellous manifestations of life they 
 so frequently make ! 
 
 When the form has been built up for the 
 medium to see, it becomes necessary for the 
 communicating entity to convey evidential 
 facts of its identity to the medium, and 
 through him to the sitter, for whose edifica- 
 tion it has come. The first step was difficult. 
 It is not inconceivable that each subsequent 
 step will be still more difficult. We have it 
 
 132 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 on the best testimony 'that this is the case. 
 The Hodgson, Myers, Pelham, and numer- 
 ous other controls, have frequently stated 
 that contact with denser states of matter, 
 compared with that of their own subtle spir- 
 itual condition, makes them *'dull," *' for- 
 getful," *' sleepy." Let us now suppose the 
 communication is coming through fairly 
 well. In most instances spirit messages, 
 during this kind of seance, are transmitted 
 by ^impressions" or thought transference; 
 sometimes by signs; and at others symbols 
 are adopted. Very frequently feelings are 
 transmitted which are not commonly known 
 to the psychic. He may therefore translate 
 them wrongly. Then the association of ideas 
 is a powerful factor here, as in almost every- 
 thing else. The form may resemble some- 
 one whom the medium knows, and there may 
 be set in motion in his own mind a train of 
 thoughts related to this person, which may 
 shut out what the communicator is trying to 
 convey. The psychic, without the least in- 
 tention of doing wrong, may think his own 
 thoughts are really conveyed by the spirit 
 entity, and so errors creep in inadvertently. 
 
 133 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 This state of affail's happens very fre- 
 quently. Thus a name, a relationship, or 
 the cause of death, may be wrongly sug- 
 gested, and tend to vitiate the test value of 
 the sitting. 
 
 Facts such as these naturally convey the 
 idea that mediumship is always more or less 
 unreliable. Undoubtedly it is so to a large 
 extent ; but notwithstanding these and other 
 obstacles, the most astounding and convinc- 
 ing results are often obtained ; whilst, on the 
 other hand, perfectly genuine mediumship 
 is often made to appear fraudulent. 
 
 No doubt a good deal of imposture passes 
 irrent as genuine mediumship, and it is 
 often difficult to discriminate between them ; 
 and, in consequence, genuine psychic powers 
 are sometimes wrongly impeached. Pro- 
 found ignorance of the nature of psychic 
 phenomena and immature judgment, espe- 
 cially in the early days of Spiritualism, have 
 also been the cause of a good deal of mis- 
 understanding and condemnation of sensi- 
 tives. During recent years the more quali- 
 fied investigators have been literally startled 
 at the grievous mistakes and wrong accusa- 
 
 134 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 tions levelled at psychics in earlier years. 
 For a long time, for instance, materialisa- 
 tion was pronounced by sincere investiga- 
 tors as nothing but trickery. The very tests 
 they applied seemed conclusively to prove 
 this. One method was to mark surrepti- 
 tiously some part of the supposed spirit 
 body with some coloured material, and after 
 the seance to examine the medium. If the 
 mark was found on him, he was naturally 
 considered a fraud. Thus many materialis- 
 ing mediums were discredited. Sometimes, 
 however, even in the face of such apparently 
 overwhelming evidence, it was realised this 
 could not have been so. Perhaps the me- 
 dium had been seen simultaneously with the 
 materialised form ; or, having been securely 
 tied to a chair by the sitters before the 
 seance, and the knots carefully sealed, at the 
 end of the seance he would be found still 
 securely bound and sealed. It was, there- 
 fore, impossible for him to have left the 
 chair during the whole of the proceedings. 
 The solution to the mystery was found when 
 it was discovered that the substance com- 
 posing the materialised form was extracted 
 
 135 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM *? 
 
 from corresponding parts of the medium's 
 body. On the form dematerialising, these 
 elements returned to the psychic's body, car- 
 rying with them the incriminating marks. 
 
 One of the most interesting results of Dr. 
 W. J. Crawford's experiments in physical 
 phenomena, is the heavy and varied reac- 
 tions which occur with the medium, owing 
 to some peculiar condition of her organism 
 during the period of the phenomena. It is 
 only to be expected that if movements take 
 place in the medium's body synchronising 
 with the phenomena, that the sceptic wiU 
 regard them with suspicion. Although the 
 phenomena may appear to be quite discon- 
 nected from the medium in every way, these 
 movements will lead one to suppose that the 
 medium is cunningly making them. That is 
 indeed what has long been supposed, and 
 many mediums have suffered in conse- 
 quence. 
 
 Dr. Crawford frequently noticed bodily 
 reactions with Miss GoUgher; yet she was 
 totally unaware of them, although quite con- 
 scious during the seances. He has watched 
 her sitting quietly on a chair in his own 
 
 136 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 house, with the light shining directly on her, 
 while great sledge-hammer blows have been 
 occurring on the floor several feet in front 
 of her at intervals of a few seconds ; and as 
 each blow was struck, he has watched her 
 whole body from the waist upwards, sway 
 backwards several inches. As the blows be- 
 came lighter and swifter, the character of 
 the shocks reacting on her also changed, be- 
 coming also lighter and swifter — and finally, 
 when a fusillade of raps was being pro- 
 duced, she was under a regular bombard- 
 ment. He has stood beside her and felt the 
 various motions of her "body. Yet she was 
 so unconscious of them, that but for the doc- 
 tor 's assurance she would have disbelieved 
 that they had taken place. Dr. Crawford 
 points out that there is a danger that an un- 
 observant and unscientific witness of the 
 rapping phenomena might uncritically con- 
 clude that these motions of the medium's 
 body betokened fraud. In Miss Goligher's 
 case he is absolutely sure she speaks the 
 truth when she says she knows nothing 
 about them. He, for one, knowing all he 
 does about physical phenomena, would ac- 
 
 137 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 tually be surprised to see them entirely ab- 
 sent ; for he has demonstrated that, although 
 these phenomena are under the control of 
 disembodied entities, they are purely me- 
 chanical operations and must, therefore, 
 obey the laws of mechanics.* 
 
 In all mental forms of mediumship allow- 
 ance must be made for the operations of the 
 sub-conscious mind. No qualified Spiritual- 
 ist denies the possibility of this particularly 
 puzzling and vague aspect of the human con- 
 sciousness interposing in various kinds of 
 spirit communion. But to attribute to it all 
 the phenomena is stupid. Nothing can so 
 well serve the biassed critic as something 
 about which so little is known that he may 
 speculate with impunity upon it. Such fac- 
 tors used merely as destructive arguments 
 may be dragged in to explain anything the 
 person dislikes. This has been constantly 
 done in regard to the subconsciousness in 
 connection with Spiritualism, until at last 
 there have been credited to this mysterious 
 phase of our being, powers, so vast, that 
 those who really know something of its pos- 
 
 • The International Psychic Gazette, September, 1916. 
 
 138 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 sibilities might well stand aghast. Its mar- 
 vellous exhibitions of supernormal sight and 
 hearing and feeling, its occasional ability to 
 guide and warn and control, its remarkable 
 curative powers which may instantly banish 
 serious disease, naturally lead us to wonder 
 what it might be in all its potency. But 
 after full allowance has been made for the 
 action of the subconscious mind in psychic 
 communications, there is still left over a 
 mass of unexplained facts. And after all, 
 for test purposes, that is all that concerns 
 Spiritualism. 
 
 Indeed, in the hands of a master-mind — 
 F. T/. H. Myers — the powers of the subcon- 
 sciousness have been demonstrated as in 
 themselves sufficient to prove that man is 
 destined to survive death, and that instead 
 of the Spiritualist regarding it as evidence 
 against his claims, he may justly regard it as 
 supporting them, after making proper al- 
 lowance for its activities.* 
 
 Spiritualists are fully aware that these 
 uncertainties leave the field open to char- 
 
 * ''Human Personality,'' w. 1 and 2. By F. W. H. Myers, 
 1903. 
 
 139 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 latanry and do all in their power to over- 
 come them. There can, however, be little 
 doubt that a good deal that has been con- 
 demned as fraud was genuine mediumship. 
 Many of the best-known and most powerful 
 psychics have been denounced in this way; 
 and those who have been responsible for it 
 have been mostly inspired with bigotry and 
 ignorance. 
 
 The present attitude of the law is no cri- 
 terion on the subject. There are upon the 
 statute books of this country certain laws 
 which can be interpreted as condemning all 
 forms of psychism. In the eyes of the law 
 there seems to be no such thing as psychic 
 phenomena, and whoever exercises psychic 
 gifts in any form may be said to come within 
 the condemnation of the law. At one time 
 the law legislated severely against occult 
 practices, because, whilst recognising the ex- 
 istence of psychic powers, it regarded them 
 as evil. Communion with an unseen world 
 was believed to be an awful possibility, but 
 whoever ventured upon it was regarded 
 mainly as being a danger to the spiritual 
 welfare of the State, and deserving of eter- 
 
 140 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 nal, as well as of temporal, punishment. 
 Thus, it was decreed in the Tudor period 
 that such malefactors should suffer forfei- 
 ture of property, the pains of death, and the 
 loss of privilege of clergy, and sanctuary; 
 in other words, damnation materially and 
 spiritually. The ignorant credulity of those 
 days gave way in later times to the opposite 
 extreme. Act 9, George II., c. 5, known as 
 the Witchcraft Act, which came into force 
 on the 24th June, 1736, is the Act still in 
 force. In reference to it EUis T. Powell, 
 LL.B., D.Sc, says: 
 
 *'The new Act, therefore, repeals the pen- 
 alties enacted against what were now re- 
 garded as impossible offences, but goes on 
 to enact punishment for those who pre- 
 tended to exercise the discredited arts, ^For 
 the more effectual preventing and punish- 
 ing of any pretences to such arts or pow- 
 ers.' " * 
 
 It has always been decided in cases of 
 offence against this Act, that no such pow- 
 ers as those claimed by mediums exist. A 
 
 * ' * Psychic Science and Barbarous Legislation, ' * p. 18. By 
 Ellis T. Powell, LL.B., D.Sc. 
 
 141 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 more outstanding example of the law oppos- 
 ing the discoveries of science it would be 
 difficult to quote. Absolutely no attenion is 
 paid by this Act to the result of the re- 
 searches of men like Sir William Crookes, 
 Professor C. Lombroso, Sir Oliver Lodge, 
 Camille Flammarion, Professor William 
 James, Dr. Venzano, Dr. W. J. Crawford, 
 3ir Arthur Conan Doyle, and a host of others 
 of world-wide repute as qualified observers. 
 The nature of the law compels it to lag be- 
 hind progression, and history affords many 
 sad examples of the fact. In this respect 
 Spiritualism may be said to stand where once 
 the Quakers and Roman Catholics stood in 
 the eyes of the law. 
 
 A modification of this unjust state of 
 things must take place before long; but in 
 the meantime Mediumship, Spiritualism, 
 and Psychic Science are in an unenviable 
 position. There are indisputably true psy- 
 chics ; and they are of such value to the fu- 
 ture of the hiunan race, that Spiritualists 
 have no hesitation in believing that the au- 
 thorities wiU yet see fit to co-operate with 
 
 142 
 
MEDIUMS TRUE AND FALSE 
 
 them in carefully distinguishing the real 
 from the false ; and not always, as at pres- 
 ent, ruthlessly condemn all without discrim- 
 ination. 
 
 143 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 CLAIRVOYANCE OR ** CLEAR-SEEING " 
 
 Seers in all ages and climes; *' second sight''; its symbolical 
 nature; case mentioned by Rev. Dr. Stewart; difference 
 between Highland seers and Spiritualistic clairvoyants; 
 four well-defined forms of clairvoyance; true clairvoyance; 
 John of Patmos, Swedenborg; **etheric sight"; another 
 form of ** objective clairvoyance"; *' subjective clairvoy- 
 ance"; variations in size of vision; ** distance" or * trav- 
 elling clairvoyance"; clairvoyance difl&cult to develop; 
 the professional use of psychic gifts; Sir Arthur Conan 
 Doyle and psychic phenomena. 
 
 Each of the several forms of mediumsMp 
 is so interesting and important as to require 
 a special treatise quite beyond the limits of 
 these pages. None of them is simple, nor 
 have any yet been fully explained. Here it 
 will be wise to deal with one of them, if only 
 for the purpose of conveying an idea of the 
 scope and complexity of the subject. No 
 better choice can be made than the faculty of 
 clairvoyance, because no other psychic gift 
 is so popular nor so extensively used. But 
 
 144 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 even this form of mediumship is not yet 
 fully understood, although it has probably 
 received much more attention than any 
 other. 
 
 No age or race has been without some in- 
 dividuals who have laid claim to the power 
 of seeing spiritual visions; and no religion 
 has been without its seers. In the Primitive 
 Christian Church a diversity of spiritual 
 gifts was so firmly believed in and sought 
 after, that the possession of one or the other 
 of them seems to have been regarded as the 
 greatest of blessings; among them was the 
 ^/discerning of spirits." Popularly this has 
 come to be known as ** second sight," which 
 usually, however, denotes the seeing of 
 events before they come to pass. So real 
 do many of these visions appear to be, that 
 they may at the time be actually mistaken 
 for physical events. We hear most about 
 the gift existing among the Celts of the 
 Highlands of Scotland ; but it does not seem 
 to be the sole possession of any particular 
 people. There can be no doubt that it is 
 peculiarly constitutional among the Celtic 
 races, for among the inhabitants of Ireland 
 
 145 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 and Wales it is also frequently found. The 
 faculty is an involuntary one, and its vi- 
 sions are often symbolical, sometimes in pe- 
 culiar and eerie ways. One of the earliest 
 references to this kind of manifestation is 
 found in the ** Odyssey,'' where Theoclymi- 
 nus sees a shroud of mist about the bodies 
 of the Wooers, and drops of blood distill- 
 ing from the walls of the hall of Odysseus. 
 The Pythia of Delphi also saw blood on the 
 walls during the Persian War. Similar ex- 
 amples occur in the ancient Icelandic Sa- 
 gas, showing their symbolical nature. Mod- 
 ern travellers record remarkable facts con- 
 cerning the existence of second sight among 
 the Lapps, Eed Indians, Zulus, Maoris, and 
 many other races: 
 
 In the Highlands of Scotland the princi- 
 pal symbols beheld are the shroud, the 
 corpse-candle, and other illuminations; but 
 the most common forms that the visions take 
 are the wraith, fetch, or shadowy self of 
 some person soon to die, often wrapped in a 
 shroud, or attended with some other of the 
 special circumstances of death or burial. 
 
 An example of the peculiar nature of 
 146 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 some of these previsions is given by the Rev. 
 Dr. Stewart, of Nether Lochaber. One of 
 his parishioners, a woman, pointed out to 
 him a rock by the sea which shone with a 
 kind of phosphorescent brilliance. The doc- 
 tor attributed the phenomenon to decaying 
 seaweed ; but the woman assured him that a 
 corpse would be laid there on the morrow. 
 This actually occurred. A body was brought 
 in a boat for burial and laid at the foot of 
 the rock, where, as Dr. Stewart found, there 
 was no decaying vegetable matter. The ex- 
 act detail with which an event yet to happen 
 is sometimes seen is astounding. The whole 
 of it is enacted before the seer perhaps days 
 before the real event takes place. The ap- 
 pearance of the shroud — a sure presage of 
 death — also reveals the nearness or remote- 
 ness of the occurrence by the amoimt of it 
 which covers the body. If it is not seen 
 above the waist a twelve-month may be 
 hoped for ; if higher towards the head, death 
 is believed to be near at hand. 
 
 Second sight does not appear to be always 
 hereditary, although in some cases it seems 
 to have descended in the family. There is, 
 
 147 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 however, a persistent belief among the 
 Highlanders that the seventh son of the sev- 
 enth son has the gift naturally. Although 
 the faculty is usually regarded as a sign of 
 morbidity, predicting only sad events, this 
 is not true. Dr. Samuel Johnson, who made 
 a special study of the subject during his 
 famous journey to the Western Islands of 
 Scotland, remarks in his ^^ Journal'' that 
 happy events are also foreseen. Prevision 
 is only one of its aspects. "Distance" or 
 "travelling" clairvoyance is frequently re- 
 lated to it. "A man," says the doctor, "on 
 a journey far from home falls from his 
 horse ; another who is perhaps at work about 
 the house sees him bleeding on the ground, 
 commonly with a landscape of the place 
 where the accident befalls him." He also 
 objected to the fallacy that the faculty was 
 possessed by the poor and illiterate only, a 
 belief that has given strength to the suppo- 
 sition that the visions are mere hallucina- 
 tions misunderstood through ignorance. 
 Frequently educated people are endowed 
 with the gift; and it is regarded by many 
 who possess it as an affliction, although seers 
 
 148 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 are nearly always people healthy in every 
 way. 
 
 An old idea, which has even now a very 
 wide vogue, is that the faculty is vouchsafed 
 only to those eminent for holiness, and that 
 it is therefore truly spiritual. But there is 
 no reason to doubt that it is often possessed 
 by quite ordinary persons irrespective of 
 their dispositions. A curious characteristic 
 of the sight is that sometimes it can be trans- 
 mitted from the seer to another by physical 
 contact ; whilst the vision may become so ob- 
 jective that all within a certain radius may 
 see it like any ordinary material object. 
 
 Consideration of these well-known claims, 
 which have long existed quite apart from 
 Modern Spiritualism, enables us to realise 
 that history, ancient and modern, confirms 
 the pretensions of the modern clairvoyant. 
 
 There is no reason why a gift universal 
 and ancient should not belong to any age; 
 nor does there seem to be any reason why 
 any particular race should be excluded from 
 so singular a faculty. The principal differ- 
 ence between the clairvoyance of the Modern 
 Spiritualist and that of, say, the Highland 
 
 149 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 seers, is that whereas with the Highlanders 
 the gift is spontaneous, with Spiritualists it 
 is often carefully cultivated. The conse- 
 quence is that, while the Highland seers are 
 totally ignorant of the nature and source of 
 their visions, the modern clairvoyant has at 
 least a fair idea of their origin. 
 
 Clairvoyance is by no means a simple mat- 
 ter. It consists of at least four well-defined 
 phases, which, like all other forms of me- 
 diumship, vary in degree both with the in- 
 dividual from time to time, and in a general 
 way. Three of these phases are of practical 
 value and in more or less constant use 
 among clairvoyants. The fourth is of a par- 
 ticularly exalted and spiritual character and 
 has been experienced by a few great mystics 
 only. It seems to a large extent to be the 
 natural spiritual vision exercised normally 
 by the spirit after death ; and for the field of 
 its operations depends largely upon a high 
 degree of spirituality. Its practical value is 
 to a great extent destroyed because the 
 things revealed by it cannot be appreciated 
 by ordinary people; although they may be 
 of the greatest spiritual significance. Nor 
 
 150 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 can they always be made clear, because com- 
 mon experience affords no analogies by 
 which they may be illustrated. Symbology 
 is therefore resorted to, and to the practical 
 Western mind that seldom appeals. John 
 of Patmos, Swedenborg, and a few saints of 
 all religions are outstanding examples of 
 this form of seership, which is sometimes 
 called ^Hrue clairvoyance." 
 
 **Etheric clairvoyance" is much more 
 practical and widespread, and is doubtless 
 capable of development to a considerable de- 
 gree. The title is applied to it because the 
 objects thus seen are obviously composed of 
 some physical substance, although of too re- 
 fined a nature for the normal eye to see. 
 This substance is believed to be etheric ; but 
 whatever may be its constitution, clairvoy- 
 ants alone can become aware of it. The light 
 rays which it reflects are incapable of regis- 
 tration by the parts of the optic nerve ordi- 
 narily in use. They can, however, be seen 
 by what must be regarded as higher fibres 
 of the optic nerves and the cells of the ap- 
 propriate brain-centre. This can be easily 
 substantiated by the clairvoyant closing his 
 
 151 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 eyes, thereupon shutting out the vision, and 
 by opening them and seeing it again. Some- 
 times the image remains long enough for 
 this to be done several times, demonstrating 
 it to be external to the seer. Were it sub- 
 jective the vision would be seen as clearly 
 with the eyes closed as open. The average 
 ghost or *^ spook" belongs to this order; that 
 is why some persons see it whilst others do 
 not. 
 
 Btheric clairvoyance is as active in the 
 dark as in the light. It is difficult to ac- 
 count for this unless on the supposition that 
 the entity thus manifesting brings an illumi- 
 nation of its own, or that even when the sun 
 has set certain degrees of light remain con- 
 served in the atmosphere. That would 
 make it what it is claimed to be, a purely 
 physical phenomenon, arising from the 
 physical nature of the substance used. That 
 human bemgs cannot register all the de- 
 grees of light known to exist is shown in 
 many ways. The domestic cat, ants, and 
 many other animals see in what is to us dark- 
 ness. In tropical forests, where night is in- 
 tensely dark owing to the dense foliage, a 
 
 152 
 
'CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 vast and varied host of animals and insects 
 awake to a noisy and active existence during 
 that period. Without the power to see in 
 some way they could not do this ; yet to the 
 hmnan being nothing is visible. 
 
 Etheric clairvoyance is only one kind of 
 '^objective clairvoyance." There is another 
 form in which no physical organ appears to 
 play a part. The vision evidently belongs to 
 some other portion of the human economy, 
 and by the Spiritualist it is ascribed to the 
 ** psychic body," i,e,, the organism in which 
 the departing spirit enters the next world 
 at death; and although in general appear- 
 ance it resembles the physical body at its 
 best and healthiest stage, its faculties are 
 much superior to, and often very different 
 from, our physical senses. The stimulation 
 of these psychic faculties to their full scope 
 during earth-life, results in the attainment 
 of that marvellous and beautiful power of 
 clairvoyance attained only by saints and 
 mystics. It may, however, be developed in 
 a partial degree ; then objects made of finer 
 degrees of matter than those seen by means 
 of the etheric sight can be visualised. As a 
 
 153 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 rule the things thus witnessed appear far 
 more real and vivid than physical objects. 
 This form of clairvoyance is not less prev- 
 alent than the etheric. Perhaps it is more 
 so. One of its peculiarities is that almost 
 any part of the physical body may become 
 the centre from which the faculty is func- 
 tioned, although habit usually causes the 
 seer to relate it to the region of the eyes. 
 This explanation is comparable with that 
 suggested by F. W. H. Myers to account 
 for the remarkable cases of the transposi- 
 tion of senses, known to science. The ex- 
 periments of Professor Fontain, of Toulon, 
 with the sailor ''B,'' showed clearly that 
 when suffering from hysteria with attacks 
 of catalepsy, B's senses became transposed. 
 Instead of being able to see with his eyes 
 he saw with the tips of his fingers, whilst 
 his other senses were as strangely affected.* 
 Lombroso refers to a similar case in which 
 a young girl, during severe hysterical trou- 
 bles, lost the power of seeing with her eyes, 
 but **saw" with the same degree of acute- 
 
 ***Hyst6ro-Epilepsie Masculine/' Bevtte PhUosophique, 
 August, 1887. 
 
 154 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 ness at the point of the nose and the lobe 
 of the left ear.* Myers suggested ^Hhat the 
 spirit which thus perceives in wholly super- 
 normal fashion may be under the impres- 
 sion that it is perceiving through some cor- 
 poreal channel — as the knee or the stom- 
 ach." t 
 
 ^^ Subjective clairvoyance" is, of course, 
 exactly opposite in nature to objective clair- 
 voyance, since it relates to visions existing 
 in the mind, like creations of the imagina- 
 tion. They appear to be objective through 
 an action of the mind similar to that which 
 causes dream images to appear objective, 
 while all the time they are purely mental 
 forms. Some people have such lively imag- 
 inations that they are able to produce vivid 
 externalised mental images when fully 
 awake. Goethe could do this so effectively 
 that he could observe them to be in a state of 
 motion, as if quite material. The visions of 
 subjunctive clairvoyance are not always dis- 
 
 *" After Death— What? '* Chap. I., pp. 1-5. By Cesare 
 Lombroso. 
 
 t ''Human Personality/' Vol. 1, p. 192. By F. W. H. 
 Myers. 
 
 155 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 tinct. They vary in the same way as mem- 
 ory pictures. Sometimes they are extremely 
 clear ; at others they resemble those memory 
 pictures when, although nothing can be said 
 to be seen, they are nevertheless fully com- 
 prehended. Another of the strange vicissi- 
 tudes to which this form of higher vision is 
 subject, is that the images do not always 
 appear correct in size. Suppose, for exam- 
 ple, the form of a person thus appears; it 
 may do so looking either much smaller or 
 much larger than it ought, and we may be 
 sure, is meant to be. The result is the figure 
 of an individual may be seen a pigmy in size, 
 or giant-like! Strange as this seems, it is 
 true that through this faculty a person, to 
 all intents and purposes as real and living 
 as anyone can imagine, may sometimes seem 
 to be only a few inches in height, or so large 
 as to be difficult to wholly retain in the field 
 of vision. 
 
 An explanation of this peculiarity may 
 be found in the circiunstances which give 
 rise to these visions. They are caused by a 
 disembodied entity wishing to make known 
 his presence — ^but imable, or, perhaps, unde- 
 
 156 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 sirous of ** building" in etheric or other sub- 
 stance — conveying a mental image of him- 
 self to the sensitive's mind. Thought trans- 
 ference in all forms is well established ; and 
 since it is a fact among embodied people, 
 there is no reason why the disembodied 
 should not be able to exert it even more suc- 
 cessfully, supposing, of course, they are able 
 to communicate with this world. All that is 
 required is a mind sufficiently sensitive to 
 receive their thoughts or impressions, and 
 that is what the subjective clairvoyant pos- 
 sesses. It is quite conceivable that com- 
 municating entities should sometimes form 
 imperfect images of themselves, hence the 
 peculiar variations in the visions mentioned 
 above. 
 
 These peculiarities render it difficult to 
 distinguish subjective clairvoyance from 
 ** distance" or ^ travelling clairvoyance," 
 i,e,, the ability to see physical objects that 
 are beyond the range of the normal eye. 
 They may be behind a wall a few feet away, 
 or at the other side of the world. Mrs. Piper 
 has frequently proved herself capable of ex- 
 ercising this faculty, whilst it has always 
 
 157 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 been one of the favourite tests of mesmerists 
 and hypnotists when experimenting with 
 their subjects. This type of clairvoyance is 
 excellently adapted to verification. Prop- 
 erly speaking, it is real '^clear-seeing" with- 
 out necessarily anything spiritual about it. 
 There are three states of consciousness in 
 which it occurs, namely, trance, semi-trance, 
 and complete consciousness. 
 
 In the trance state, the medium appears 
 to leave his body and visit the places and 
 objects seen, bringing back a vivid account 
 of all that has taken place at the distant 
 spot. This has often been confirmed. Many 
 examples are to be found in the various 
 *' Proceedings of the Society for Psychical 
 Research." Some good cases are recorded 
 by Dr. Fahnestock, of which the following 
 is an instance : A gentleman had requested 
 some friends of his at Baltimore to place 
 something in a particular place in a certain 
 house, after he left the City. The object 
 was to see if any of Dr. Fahnestock 's hyp- 
 notic subjects could discover it, although 
 they were at Lancaster. 
 
 '^ Subject: Mrs. E. She had never been 
 158 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 in Baltimore in her life," says Dr. Fahne- 
 stock, **and after she had entered the [hyp- 
 notic] state, it was necessary, as I was not 
 acquainted with the location of the house, 
 for him to convey her in thought to the ap- 
 pointed place. Having done so, I requested 
 her to describe the room, which she did to 
 his satisfaction; and as the thing to be 
 looked at was to be at or about the time- 
 piece, I directed her attention to it, and de- 
 sired her to look whether there was anything 
 about the clock which did not belong to it. 
 She said she saw something dark there, 
 which looked like a bottle. ... I desired 
 her ... to take the article which she before 
 described as being a dark bottle into her 
 hands, and to examine it minutely, so that 
 she could be certain as to what it really 
 was. After having done so, she declared 
 that she now saw it distinctly, and stated 
 that 'it was a dark bottle, about the length 
 of her index finger, and was suspended by 
 a white string, tied about its neck; that it 
 was empty, and had no cork.' 
 
 **The gentleman left Lancaster for Balti- 
 more the next day. ... He saw his friend. 
 
 159 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 After he had related the circumstances, and 
 told what the lady said, his friend produced 
 the bottle, which had been suspended at the 
 time agreed upon, and which, to their mu- 
 tual astonishment, they now saw she had 
 described to the very letter."* 
 
 This phase of clairvoyance, apart from 
 ordinary hypnosis, is usually experienced in 
 the conscious state. Sometimes the distant 
 object may be seen as if through a pipe or a 
 tunnel. There is a teaching that a tube of 
 psychic matter is made consciously or un- 
 consciously by the medium, leading from 
 himself to the object which is seen through 
 it. More often the vision appears to be im- 
 printed on the atmosphere like a cinemato- 
 graph picture, or a second picture thrown 
 from a magic lantern onto the corner of an- 
 other picture already on the screen ; the first 
 picture illustrating the ordinary surround- 
 ings of the clairvoyant, the additional pic- 
 ture the lision. 
 
 An excellent example of conscious dis- 
 tance clairvoyance which I was able to ver- 
 ify, was experienced by a lady living in 
 
 •"Statuvolism/' pp. 229-232. By Dr. Fahnestock. 
 
 160 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 England, who saw her son in America lying 
 ill in a hospital bed. She had heard noth- 
 ing whatever of his being ill. In answer to 
 a letter from me, the son stated that he was 
 at the time of the vision in a hospital in Los 
 Angeles, California, suffering from a broken 
 thigh, through falling into the hold of a 
 ship. On another occasion, in my presence, 
 a gentleman saw a lady we were expecting to 
 visit us that day, standing by a table suffer- 
 ing from biliousness. He stated that she 
 had, because of her indisposition, decided 
 not to fulfil the engagement. A few minutes 
 later, however, he became conscious of her 
 having recovered, and added that she in- 
 tended to come after all. Later in the day a 
 similar thing happened, the clairvoyant re- 
 marking that the lady had again recovered 
 and would pay the promised visit. The time 
 in each instance was carefully noted; and 
 upon questioning the lady on her arrival^ 
 the facts recorded by the medium proved 
 correct, although on the first occasion she 
 was over four miles away, and on the second 
 only a little nearer to the house in which the 
 visions were seen. 
 
 161 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 There are occasionally strange variations 
 of time in this and kindred phases of clair- 
 voyance. Sometimes the clairvoyant re- 
 cords as just happening what may have al- 
 ready taken place, or what has yet to occur 
 — second sight. The time occupied in the 
 vision may be considerably less than in the 
 real event. In dreams we have a similar 
 experience; for frequently what then hap- 
 pens in a fraction of time would take years 
 of ordinary life to work out. 
 
 Although complete entrancement does not 
 always necessitate leaving the body, it fre- 
 quently does. St. Paul's experience of be- 
 ing taken up to the third heaven, is not in- 
 cluded in this form of clairvoyance ; but he 
 probably left his physical body. There are 
 interesting records of people who have 
 claimed to possess the power of doing this at 
 will. 
 
 The future promises to see a considerable 
 development in all forms of clairvoyance. 
 Already many are endeavouring to cultivate 
 the gift, and in some phase or another it is 
 probably capable of development by every- 
 one. Should Spiritualism wield the great 
 
 162 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 influence that appears to be within its scope, 
 people will no doubt grow to regard the un- 
 foldment of so wonderful a faculty as a 
 privilege and a duty. One is almost tempted 
 to predict that we shall all become Spirit- 
 ualists then. 
 
 In most cases the development of clair- 
 voyance is not easy. Although it may be 
 regarded as a ^^gift," it is one that in the 
 vast majority of instances requires careful 
 cultivation, and sometimes years of patient 
 endeavour is needed for the proper accom- 
 plishment of the task. This is an aspect of 
 the subject quite overlooked by the average 
 critic, who usually concludes that to see 
 clairvoyantly must be to those who possess 
 the faculty, as natural as seeing in the ordi- 
 nary way. From this erroneous view arises 
 much of the bitter opposition against the 
 professional use of psychic gifts, for what 
 applies to clairvoyance applies equally to 
 all forms of mediumship. Even when fully 
 developed, clairvoyance is very delicate. 
 The least unpropitious circiunstance may 
 weaken it or temporarily destroy it, while 
 nothing so readily affects it harmfully as the 
 
 163 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 lack of physical energy. The necessity of 
 keeping in a ^*fit condition" is commonplace 
 knowledge among all capable psychics, and 
 so essential is this that when there has been 
 a drain upon the health the effect upon the 
 gift is so deleterious that the danger of los- 
 ing it has to be faced. No doubt if ever me- 
 diumship comes to be regarded as of value 
 to the best interests of mankind, precau- 
 tions will be taken to ensure suitable con- 
 ditions in which to nurture it, thus conform- 
 ing to what has hitherto been done for other 
 spiritual advisers. In the meantime — owing 
 to the fact that Modern Spiritualism is still 
 in its infancy, and mediumship, in conse- 
 quence, only partially recognised — ^the ex- 
 ercise of psychic powers is left almost with- 
 out exception to the unaided individual me- 
 dium, who, as a rule, can no more afford to 
 give his time and services than the average 
 artist, singer, or clergyman. Either the gifts 
 must be specialised or their scope and power 
 greatly reduced. All these difficulties should 
 be overcome, for they sink into insignifi- 
 cance before the wonderful blessings that 
 arise from the use of clairvoyance and kin- 
 
 164 
 
"CLEAR-SEEING" 
 
 dred gifts, not least among them, says the 
 Spiritualist, being the definite knowledge of 
 the continuity of life and direct intercourse 
 with departed friends. New conceptions of 
 the importance and sacredness of life must 
 inevitably arise from such knowledge; and 
 many of the social and religious difficulties 
 that now harass mankind will then automat- 
 ically disappear. For, as Sir Arthur Conan 
 Doyle has said of the phenomena of Spirit- 
 ualism : 
 
 *^They are a device of the Great Designer, 
 by which public attention is drawn to the 
 matter. The higher phenomena have cer- 
 tainly much to do with religion. They are 
 the means by which the truth comes through. 
 But I may add that the truths seem to me 
 to commend themselves by their own intrin- 
 sic worth."* 
 
 * The Christian Commonwealth, December 5th, 1917. 
 
 165 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITTJALISM 
 
 Argument against Spiritualism; Spiritualism modem and an- 
 cient; Spiritualism the underlying principle of all relig- 
 ions; Hebraism and Christianity originally believed in 
 psychic phenomena; spirit communion; many instances of 
 psychic phenomena in the Bible; disastrous effect on re- 
 ligion of the loss of this belief; Spiritualism in Ancient 
 Chaldea, Egypt, Eome, Greece, etc.; Ancestor Worship in 
 ancient Eome; in China; '* spirit-control " in China; Chi- 
 nese philosophical; Spiritualism among primitive races; 
 witchcraft persecutions; finis. 
 
 It has often been urged as an argument 
 against Spiritualism, that if it were true it 
 would have been always known; so impor- 
 tant a fact, long sought for by mankind, 
 could hardly have been overlooked, and once 
 found, would never have been forgotten. 
 Religious persons use this argument in a 
 slightly different form. If, they say, God 
 had meant man to communicate with the 
 world of spirits, everybody would have had 
 the knowledge and power from the begin- 
 
 166 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 ning. The common belief is, apparently, 
 that to be able to hold intercourse with the 
 spirit world is quite a recent claim. Even 
 if that were so, the argument would have 
 no force, it would simply mean that this 
 truth is in the same category as many other 
 truths. Facts of the highest significance are 
 constantly being brought to light which 
 broaden and improve our general outlook. 
 The world has gone on for ages believing 
 certain errors, intensely ignorant of the 
 truth. There is probably no department of 
 thought which cannot contribute examples 
 of this. One of the central and most ele- 
 mentary facts of astronomy is a case in 
 point. Up till comparatively modern times 
 the universal belief was that the sun moved 
 round the world. The struggle for the erad- 
 ication of this wrong idea was notoriously 
 severe, but the result has been most advan- 
 tageous. 
 
 The fact is the argument does not apply 
 to Spiritualism. There is a tendency to re- 
 gard what has come to be known as Modern 
 Spiritualism, which originated in 1848, as 
 original and distinct from the much older 
 
 167 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 Spiritualism that has always existed. In 
 the latter sense, Spiritualism is doubtless 
 the oldest religious belief in the world, for 
 the world has never been without its seers 
 and prophets. The pages of history, ancient 
 and modern, are literally full of examples 
 of psychic phenomena ; and long before man 
 learnt to write he told of these wonderful 
 happenings. No country, and probably no 
 race, however small, has failed to subscribe 
 to this. It is, indeed, the underlying belief 
 of all great religions, existing and defunct; 
 although most of them have departed from 
 this teaching. Christianity and Hebraism 
 are instances. A casual perusal of the Old 
 and New Testaments cannot fail to show 
 striking psychic elements throughout them. 
 Not one form of psychic phenomena com- 
 mon to the modern seance-room appears to 
 have been unknown to the writers of those 
 ancient documents. From full form mate- 
 rialisations to the speaking with foreign 
 tongues they give account of all. The gift 
 of prophecy — against which the law to-day 
 so rigorously contends — healing, and *Hhe 
 working of miracles," are mentioned as evi- 
 
 168 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 dences of spiritual merit. In the old dis- 
 pensation there was a school of the proph- 
 ets; in the new, the virtual founder of 
 Christianity — St. Paul — urges his converts 
 to seek after psychic powers. Christianity 
 is a wonderful example of how a religion can 
 not only lose an original belief, but even be- 
 come its persecutor. 
 
 With the departure from the knowledge 
 of spirit intercourse, religion has in many 
 ways degenerated, losing much of its sta- 
 bility and spiritual influence. With the loss 
 of their principal function, priests have 
 been obliged to seek new means of retaining 
 power. In place of the actual knowledge of 
 survival, coercion has been largely adopted. 
 For the purpose of compelling people to ac- 
 cept their creeds, the great religions have 
 linked themselves up with state govern- 
 ments ; with what unfortunate consequences 
 history plainly shows. Oppression has be- 
 come one of their most obvious character- 
 istics, especially exercised in the past. 
 Speaking of the disastrous decadence in the 
 original purpose for which Christianity was 
 established, one of its own most sincere sup- 
 
 169 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 porters could write in no less vigorous terms 
 of denunciation than as follows: *^ Through 
 a great part of its history it has been a too 
 constant enemy of freedom. It has been 
 over and over again the main support of 
 tyranny ; over and over again it has conse- 
 crated misgovernment, and retarded polit- 
 ical and social progress; repeatedly it has 
 suppressed truth, and entered into conspir- 
 acy with error and imposture; and at the 
 present day it fails most in that which its 
 Founder valued most, originality; it falls 
 into that vice which He most earnestly de- 
 nounced, insipidity."* 
 
 A Church without a vision can hardly- 
 hope to become anything else. That, at 
 least, is the view of Modern Spiritualism, 
 which seeks to replace the knowledge of 
 practical spiritual intercourse, believing 
 thereby to make religion what it has so long 
 failed to be — an inspiration, guide, and com- 
 fort to the nations. Failing this, is there 
 any other way of checking the conspicuous 
 decline in all forms of established religion 
 at present taking place ? 
 
 *"Ecce Homo'' (5th edition). Preface XVI. 
 
 170 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 It is unnecessary to mention the Spirit- 
 ualistic beliefs and practices of all the great 
 ancient civilisations. From Egypt, Baby- 
 lonia, India, China, Chaldea, Greece, and 
 Eome has come a constantly accumulating 
 mass of evidence proving that all forms of 
 mediumship were exercised in connection 
 with their religions, and that those who pos- 
 sessed these gifts were held in deep respect, 
 often reverenced. If there was one fault 
 more than another into which these ancient 
 races fell, it was in attributing too much to 
 the spirits. This is one of the errors Mod- 
 ern Spiritualism aspires to correct; for 
 Spiritualists do not worship the dead. They 
 seek to commune with them and to learn 
 from them more of the meaning and sacred- 
 ness of life and the true worship of God. 
 
 Some of the greatest characters of the 
 ancient world openly claimed to possess 
 psychic powers. Socrates in his defence be- 
 fore his judges in the fourth century B.C., 
 claimed that something ** supernatural and 
 divine" came to him. **I have had this since 
 a child, a kind of voice coming to me." Nor 
 was his power limited to this phase. In the 
 
 171 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 Crito of Plato reference is made to a previ- 
 sion he had. Crito expressed his belief that 
 on the morrow the great sage's life would 
 have to end, as the ship that was to take him 
 to Delos was to arrive that day. Socrates 
 said he did not think the ship would arrive 
 at the time stated, and that he would not die 
 before the third day because, **A fair and 
 beautiful woman, clad in a white gown, 
 seemed to come to me and call me, and say, 
 *0h, Socrates, the third day hence shalt thou 
 fair Phthitia reach,' " and the meaning of 
 this dream was clear to him. 
 
 The ancient Romans, who were greatly in- 
 fluenced by the ancient Greeks in their reli- 
 gious thought, were essentially Spiritual- 
 istic. Ancestor worship, especially in the 
 adoration of the Lares or Lords, the good 
 spirits of the dead, was probably the most 
 important and universal of their religious 
 customs. To neglect this service was to act 
 irreverently towards the departed. Every 
 home had its tutelary spirit of the family. 
 Sometimes, at least, this important benefac- 
 tor was conceived as being a deceased an- 
 cestor and as such was specially represented 
 
 172 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 on the family shrine in the image of a man 
 in wood, stone, or metal. But he was only 
 the head of a host of spiritual relations who 
 were believed to visit the home from time 
 to time. In addition, each man and woman 
 had his or her Genius or Juno, a guardian 
 spirit whose special care was the general 
 welfare of its charge. 
 
 The head of the household and his family 
 saluted the altar daily with morning prayer 
 and an offering from the table after the 
 chief meal was over, a portion of it being 
 laid on the fire on the hearth, or placed on 
 the table before the shrine. There were at 
 least two reasons for doing this : as a recog- 
 nition of the assistance rendered by the de- 
 parted to the family ; and as a symbol of the 
 fact that although the invisible host could 
 not join with them in the meal at the table, 
 they nevertheless recognised their right to 
 do so. 
 
 The last of the great Pagan Emperors of 
 Rome affords an insight into the existence 
 of psychic gifts and the production of psy- 
 chic phenomena as practised in the ** inner 
 circles" of Roman Paganism. The Emperor 
 
 173 
 
]WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 Julian is said to have been initiated into the 
 mysteries of the ancient faith when a young 
 man, and, in addition to entertaining the 
 most exalted conceptions of Deity and the 
 duty and spiritual destiny of mankind, to 
 have been able to hold direct intercourse 
 with the unseen world. **By voluntary 
 fasts," writes Edward Gibbon, '^he prepared 
 his senses and his understanding for the 
 frequent and familiar visits with which he 
 was honoured by the celestial powers."* 
 Libanus, his friend, declares that Julian 
 lived in perpetual intercourse with spiritual 
 beings, who sometimes seem to have ap- 
 peared to him in materialised form. 
 
 What is known as ** ancestor worship" 
 has never lost its influence in the world. 
 The phrase is often misapplied, and no 
 doubt as the claims and practices of Modern 
 Spiritualism become better understood, an- 
 thropologists and those interested in com- 
 parative religion will realise this. Spiritual- 
 ists, for instance, have frequently been ac- 
 cused of worshipping the dead, when they 
 really do not — it is an act of which they are 
 
 ***Decline and Fall of the Eoman Empire/' Vol. 2, p. 368. 
 
 174 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 entirely guiltless. To the uninformed the 
 mere suggestion of belief in spirit commun- 
 ion conjures up this notion of worshipping 
 the dead. No one thoroughly acquainted 
 with psychic phenomena appears among the 
 list of so-called *' authorities" who have 
 written upon the subject of ancestor wor- 
 ship ; yet such a person alone seems qualified 
 to appreciate the attitude of mind associated 
 with a keen esteem for the memory of those 
 who have been loved and admired, and who 
 have passed into the Great Beyond. 
 
 The Chinese are notorious as *^ ancestor 
 worshippers," and almost every book writ- 
 ten on the Flowery Land contains something 
 on the subject. Belief in survival after death 
 and intercourse with the departed is so 
 strong among the inhabitants of China, that 
 missionaries, seeking to propagate their va- 
 rious religions in that land, admit that it is 
 hopeless to expect to eradicate the ceremo- 
 nies custom demands shall be paid to the 
 dead. No religion, indeed, can hope to sur- 
 vive in China unless prepared to incorpo- 
 rate among its principles these ancient prac- 
 tices. Eminent Christian missionaries, f uUy 
 
 175 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 acquainted with the views of the Chinese on 
 this and other religious points, declare *^ an- 
 cestor worship" to be not only not a vice, 
 but a virtue ; and say that Christianity may 
 gain by countenancing it, because, they as- 
 sert, the Chinese do not really worship the 
 dead, but honour and respect them. Arch- 
 deacon Moule says that the educated and 
 thoughtful people of China entertain no hos- 
 tile feeling towards Christianity; but unless 
 Christians cease to make it an indispensable 
 condition of discipleship that a Chinaman 
 shall abandon the ceremonial and reverence 
 he believes to be due to his ancestors, there 
 is little chance of Christianity flourishing 
 among them. He once informed an edu- 
 cated Chinese mandarin — ^who had pointed 
 out this difficulty to him — ^that the adora- 
 tion of the dead, or, at any rate, the idea 
 that they form an intermediate order be- 
 tween God and man, that they are interces- 
 sors of mankind with the Supreme, and that 
 they must be propitiated with sacrifice and 
 offering, are altogether opposed to the 
 Christian conceptions. **Sir," rejoined the 
 mandarin with emphasis, **you are mis- 
 
 176 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 taken. Ancestor worship is not idolatrous. 
 It has not the high significance which you 
 imagine. It implies merely a reverential 
 and affectionate rite in memory of the de- 
 parted, whom we desire to serve in their ab- 
 sence as though they were still present with 
 us. " * The Archdeacon repeated this conver- 
 sation to a missionary of forty years' resi- 
 dence in China, and this gentleman assured 
 him that this view of ancestral worship was 
 at least a possible one, if not the whole truth 
 about the matter. Perhaps, after all, ances- 
 tor worship is not confined to the East, for 
 in addition to many Westerners showing 
 particular deference to their ^^dead," we are 
 in the habit of retaining something more 
 than the memory of them. George Wash- 
 ington appears in the lararium of almost 
 every American drawing-room; and West- 
 minster Abbey, ^Hhat temple of silence and 
 reconciliation," must, we are informed, 
 seem to the Chinese eyes far more idolatrous 
 than one of his great ancestral temples ; for 
 the Abbey is full of images, and the ances- 
 tral halls have none. It seems, therefore. 
 
 « (( 
 
 New China and Old," p. 195. By Archdeacon Moule. 
 
 177 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 that we are no more justified in expecting 
 the Chinese to cease reverencing their de- 
 parted friends and relations, than they 
 would be in demanding that we destroy the 
 photographs or paintings or statues of our 
 deceased parents, children, and friends; 
 and sweep from our churches, cathedrals, 
 abbeys, and public places all the represen- 
 tations in stone, pigment, and glass of he- 
 roes, martyrs and worthies whose memories 
 we love to cherish, and whose lives we con- 
 sider worthy of imitation. 
 
 That the Chinese go much further than 
 the performance of rites and ceremonies in 
 connection with their dead is well known. 
 The famous Secret Sect, which has its 
 branches throughout China, appears to be 
 something like an organised psychical 
 movement. During its meetings the leader 
 is supposed to be under the influence of 
 some spiritual power which entrances him; 
 and while in that condition he '^sees visions 
 and dreams dreams." Another example of 
 what Spiritualists call ** spirit control" is 
 mentioned by Archdeacon Moule. 
 
 "I passed by a low hut one day, among 
 178 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 the hills, before which a great crowd stood, 
 some of them pressing through the dark 
 door, but some of them listening, and watch- 
 ing outside. The crowd moved as I ap- 
 proached, and I saw a young man swaying 
 to and fro in great emotion, and muttering 
 some incomprehensible words. He was pos- 
 sessed, they told me, by the soul of a man 
 recently dead ; and with hushed and almost 
 awe-struck interest, they were listening to 
 the words."* Let us not forget these won- 
 derful people, who retain the beliefs which 
 more materially progressive races have long 
 since lost, are characterised more by the 
 philosophical sense than by religious emo- 
 tions. They look to the great philosophers, 
 Laotse and Confucius, for spiritual guid- 
 ance, rather than to a sheer abandonment of 
 thought in favour of feeling. Emotion is 
 not a strong feature of the yellow race ; and 
 this makes them more capable of judging 
 the accuracy or otherwise of psychic phe- 
 nomena. 
 
 No lengthy mention need be made of the 
 persistence of the belief in spirit inter- 
 
 *md., p. 175. 
 
 179 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 course among the many primitive races. It 
 seems, without exception, the cardinal point 
 in all their creeds. Their tutelary Gods are 
 frequently the spirits of their own fathers 
 or grandfathers, as in the case of the famous 
 Matabele chief, Lobengula. Medicine men 
 and witch doctors are distinguished from 
 their fellow tribesmen by the wonderful 
 psychic powers they are supposed to be able 
 to exert. But other persons besides recog- 
 nised sorcerers are believed less frequently 
 to be subject to inspiration from the unseen 
 world. 
 
 What is more interesting, is that Europe 
 has never been without personal testimony 
 of these things. It has had its saints and 
 great characters, who, like St. Theresa and 
 Joan of Arc, heard strange voices, saw vi- 
 sions, and possessed gifts of prophecy or of 
 healing that were certainly not of this 
 world. There were also many of lesser note, 
 whose only reward in the intolerant Middle 
 Ages was imprisonment, torture or death. 
 No one can read of the terrors of the witch- 
 craft persecutions without a sigh at the ex- 
 cesses into which ignorance hurried often 
 
 180 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 the best of the land ; and the intense agony 
 inflicted upon thousands of our fellow crea- 
 tures by the hand of bigotry. Yet there can 
 be little doubt that many of the wonderful 
 things attributed to the unfortunates who 
 were dragged with jeers and curses before 
 their relentless judges were actually per- 
 formed by them. Before the advent of Mod- 
 ern Spiritualism and its long line of scien- 
 tific inquirers one might well hesitate to say 
 this, but it is now difficult to deny it. After 
 allowance has been made for falsehood and 
 exaggeration, a great deal is left over unac- 
 counted for except by psychic science; and 
 of this much bears the unmistakable impres- 
 sion of spiritual agencies. No doubt many 
 of the confessions wrung from the lips of 
 the helpless victims by the torturer were due 
 only to the desire to escape further torment, 
 but many of these unfortunate mortals were 
 unquestionably good mediums. The seeing 
 of spirits, healing of the sick, foretelling of 
 events, and sometimes — as in the case of 
 poor Bessie Dunlop — the actual material- 
 isation on the part of spirit entities were ex- 
 perienced. One can speak more confidently 
 
 181 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISMS 
 
 of Bessie Dunlop because nothing could per- 
 suade her to deny the goodness of Thorn, 
 the spirit whom she and her neighbours 
 claimed to help her in her labour of love and 
 service among her fellow citizens. Thom, 
 she said, was the spirit of one Thom Reid, 
 who had been killed at the Battle of Pinkie, 
 twenty-nine years before. Wonderful as 
 were the good deeds he did through his me- 
 dium, he could not save her from the bitter- 
 ness of her death, for she was ** convict and 
 brynt" upon the Castle Hill, Edinburgh. 
 
 How much better it would have been for 
 the human race had people like Bessie Dim- 
 lop received sympathetic treatment, and 
 their remarkable claims examined, none can 
 say ; but it is not without reason to conclude 
 that progress would have been accelerated 
 in several respects. There might never have 
 been that gulf between religion and science 
 which has loomed so conspicuously on our 
 mental horizons during the last hundred 
 years ; for science would more quickly have 
 discovered evidence proving that a spiritual 
 world exists and that the human family, so 
 far from being threatened with extinction at 
 
 182 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 death, really through it is resurrected to a 
 superior state of existence. 
 
 How much longer this duty would have 
 been neglected but for Modern Spiritualism 
 it is impossible to tell. It has been Spirit- 
 ualism 's particular task to emphasise the 
 importance of paying serious attention to all 
 forms of psychic phenomena. Whether it 
 has always adopted the wisest method for 
 the accomplishment of this will, no doubt, 
 be a matter of controversy ; but that it has 
 already in part succeeded no one can justly 
 deny. This has been no easy task. The op- 
 position has been bitter, and often stimu- 
 lated by a groundless contempt or a pur- 
 poseless fear. It has had to dash itself con- 
 stantly against the rock of long established 
 ignorance, prejudice and scepticism, but not 
 without avail. To Christians it speaks with 
 a direct appeal. The spiritual world which 
 they believe exists and which they believe 
 acted on the material world two thousand 
 years ago is no figment of the imagination. 
 Modem Spiritualism proclaims it to be even 
 now a demonstrable fact. Surely this is im- 
 portant! ** Never, perhaps, did man's spir- 
 
 183 
 
WHAT IS THIS SPIRITUALISM? 
 
 itual satisfaction bear a smaller proportion 
 to his needs than it does to-day.'' 
 
 Let it be clearly understood that the Spir- 
 itualist makes no claim to infallibility on 
 matters spiritual. He merely speaks of 
 things as he has found them. It may be 
 that for generations to come patient effort 
 will be required to unravel fully the often 
 confused phenomena which give us trace of 
 the spiritual world; but the inquiry is full 
 of promise. Already it convinces us that 
 with the persistence of consciousness, there 
 is the persistence also of love and justice ; a 
 strengthening of all that in the best sense 
 mankind has agreed to call good. And if it 
 should not confirm the darker pictures which 
 the unlearned mind and distorted imagina- 
 tions of men have conjured up in connection 
 with the hereafter, surely that is no loss but 
 a great gain. The Spiritualist is convinced 
 that before each of us there lies a path of 
 eternal progress, and all who will may tread 
 therein, just as he is convinced that for all 
 who sin there is punishment of a retributive 
 nature, and for all righteousness a sure and 
 fitting reward; and remember, above all 
 
 184 
 
ANTIQUITY OF SPIRITUALISM 
 
 things, that he believes these not because he 
 has been taught to believe them as articles 
 of faith, but because he considers he has 
 received evidence which compels him to ac- 
 cept them as matters of fact. 
 
 FINIS 
 
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