WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM?
Spiritualism, as defined by its supporters, is based on the cardinal fact of spirit communion and influx; it is the effort to discover all truth relating to man’s spiritual nature, but to those who are mourning over lost friends it assumes an importance of the highest possible character.
WHAT IS A MEDIUM?
Mediums are those who form the links between this world of the living and the world of the dead. Spiritualists are not yet agreed as to the special qualities in mediums which enable spirits to make use of them for communication with the living. It is a well ascertained fact that some at once discover themselves in possession of these special qualities, whilst others who become mediums do so only after prolonged and patient waiting.
EVIDENCE FOR THE SUPERNATURAL
An inquiry into spiritualism was instituted at the close of 1869 by the London Dialectical Society, who appointed a committee “to investigate the phenomena alleged to be spiritual manifestations, and to report thereon.”
And what was the result? After a careful and prolonged investigation, the committee reported in July, 1871, that a “large majority” of its members “have become actual witnesses to several phases of the phenomena, without the aid or presence of any professional medium, although the greater part of them commenced their investigations in an avowedly sceptical spirit.”
Here is their synopsis of the evidence laid before them –
THIRTEEN WITNESSES STATE that they have seen heavy bodies – in some instances men rise slowly in the air, and remain there for some time without visible or tangible support.
FIVE WITNESSES STATE that they have been touched by some invisible agency on various parts of the body and often where requested, when the hands of all present were visible.
EIGHT WITNESSES STATE that they have received detailed information through rappings, writings, or in other ways, the accuracy of which was unknown at the time to themselves or to any persons present, and which on subsequent inquiry was found to be correct.
THIRTEEN WITNESSES DECLARE that they have heard musical pieces well played upon instruments not manipulated by any ascertainable agency.
SIX WITNESSES DECLARE that they have received information of future events, and that in some cases the hour and minute have been accurately foretold days and even weeks before.
In addition to the above evidence was given before the committee of trance-speaking, of healing, of automatic writing, of the introduction of flowers and fruits into closed rooms, of voices in the air, of visions in crystals and glasses, and of the elongation of the human body.
COMMUNICATION WITH THE OTHER SIDE
TABLE-TURNING
The phenomenon of spiritualism which attracted most attention when the spiritualistic movement first spread from the New to the Old World in 1852, was table-turning. There was a positive mania for table-turning all over Europe in the following year.
We must choose in preference to others a wooden table without marble, standing on castors well oiled, or turning easily on its stand. To relieve the tedium of waiting, the experimenters should be of different sexes, in nearly equal proportions, and placed alternately. Placed in this manner, whether sitting or standing, the experimenters will lay their hands, spread out on the table in an easy position with the palm downwards, and will put them in contact with their neighbour’s by means of their little fingers.
When the table begins to move it must be followed quickly by the experimenters, care being taken not to break the chain, in which case the movement would immediately cease. But the chain should be again formed immediately.
TO MAKE THE TABLE SPEAK
In conducting a spiritualistic circle, at which the table is made to speak and answer questions put to it, or rather put to the intelligence controlling it, two or three conditions besides those already named should be observed.
The room should be moderately warm, while the parties who are to sit should – in order to secure harmony – be passive and serious, endeavouring, as far as possible, to lay aside preconceived notions and allow the facts to speak for themselves.
After the experimenters have sat quiet for some time –perhaps for fifteen to thirty minutes – some will feel their hands begin to grow cold, while those of the others will remain warm, or perhaps grow warmer. It is advisable, then, to place those whose hands are cold opposite those whose hands are warm. At this stage the gas may be lowered in order to intensify the magnetic conditions that have thus been established.
When the experiment arrives at the point of success instead of movements the party may get slight explosive cracks from the table, which gradually increase to distinct raps. But whether raps or movements it will now be time to put questions to the intelligence moving the table.
The first question should be whether it will reply to questions put to it by giving one rap or movement for “yes”, three for “no”, and two for “doubtful”. By this mode you can obtain answers to all questions requiring a negative or affirmative reply.
For longer communication you must use the alphabet. Having ascertained the spirit’s willingness to do so, you begin at A, repeating the letters distinctly, till you arrive at the required letter, which will be indicated by a rap or movement of the table; you then repeat the process, and in this way form words and sentences. This process is both tedious and uncertain, to obviate which some use what is called an indicator; but even this is open to the same objections. But on this subject the reader may turn to what we have said in a preceding section.
Mystery and Danger in Hypnotism
RELATED TO MESMERISM
Spiritualism has a close connection with mesmerism. Indeed, spiritualists say that the difference between them just lies in this, that in the case of mesmerism the operator is a mortal being, whereas in spiritualism the operator is a disembodied human spirit, with a spiritual body instead of one of flesh and blood.
This subject is not to be lightly dealt with, and not at all to be experimented in except by those prepared to treat it in a serious, inquiring, and scientific spirit.
By means of mesmerism or hypnotism – you may call it which you please – the mind and body of an individual are influenced by a mysterious power proceeding from another person, and “most thinking people,” it has been well said, “will hesitate before they run the risk of submitting themselves to an influence which may end in the surrender of their will to another, the annihilation of their very identity”
HOW TO PRODUCE THE MESMERIC STATE
From a well-informed writer in the Popular Science Monthly –
“With one hand, a bright object, such as a faceted piece of glass, is held eight to twelve inches from the subject, so that there is considerable convergence of the eyes, and rather above the level of the eyes, so that he is obliged to look upward. The subject is told to look steadily at the piece of glass, and to keep his whole attention fixed upon it.
“This position is kept up for five or ten minutes; during this time the pupils will probably dilate considerably; when this is the case the free hand is moved slowly from the object towards the eyes. If the subject is sensitive, the eyes will usually close with a vibratory motion. In some cases the subject is then unable to open them, and the usual mesmeric phenomena can be obtained.
“If, when the operator brings his hand near the eyes of the subject, the subject instead of closing them follows the movements of the fingers, the whole proceeding is repeated. When the subject is inclined to pass into the cataleptic state, an indication of his condition may be obtained by gently raising his arm; if he is beginning to be mesmerised, the arm remains in the position in which it is placed. If the arm falls, the mesmeric state may not infrequently be hastened on by telling the subject to keep his arm extended while he is still gazing at the object. And that is the whole of the process.”
WHEN IN THE HYPNOTIC STATE
When in his sleep-like condition the subject may be made to make movements as directed by the operator, and to act in
accordance with ideas suggested to him. “Thus he may eat a raw onion with gusto, apparently under the impression that it is an apple; he may make wry faces on drinking a glass of water when told that what he is taking is castor oil; he may ride on a chair or stool as in a horse race; he may fight with imaginary enemies or show tokens of affection to imaginary friends; in short, all kinds of actions, even of a ridiculous and degrading nature, may be done by the subject at the command of the operator.”
HOW TO BRING ONE OUT OF THE HYPNOTIC STATE
To bring the person in the hypnotic state out of it again, it is only necessary to blow lightly on the face and say “Wake up!” If left to themselves subjects eventually return to the normal state sooner or later.
SECOND-SIGHT
SECOND-SIGHT is not something to be acquired, and no rules can be given for it. It is a power which is born with the possessor. It is a singular faculty “of seeing an otherwise invisible object, and without any previous means used by the person that beholds it for that end.” Some people disbelieve it, but according to Sir Walter Scott, “if force of evidence could authorise us to believe facts inconsistent with the general laws of nature, enough might be produced in favour of the existence of the second-sight.”
IN THE HIGHLANDS
A great haunt of the second-sighted was long the highlands and islands of Scotland, and it was there they were made the subject of very careful inquiry by the famous Dr. Samuel Johnson. “Second-sight,” he says, “is an impression made either upon the eye or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived, and seen as if they were present. A man 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. Another seer, driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or a funeral procession, and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows them, he relates the names; if he knows them not he can describe their dresses. Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen.”
THINGS SEEN BY SECOND-SIGHT
Of things future, the rules of interpretation are numerous. If a vision occurs by day, for example, the accomplishment of what it predicts will be speedy; if by night, less so. An exact proportion, indeed, is maintained in this respect – the morning vision being sooner fulfilled than that of noon; the latter more quickly than that of the afternoon, and so on.
FIGURE IN A SHROUD
If the seer beholds a figure in a shroud, it is a sure sign of death to the party represented by the figure; and according to the extent to which the shroud covers the body, the end will be quicker or slower.
AN EMPTY SEAT
To see a seat as if vacant when one is sitting in it, is a presage of the party’s death.
A WOMAN
If a woman be seen at a man’s left hand, it is a presage that she will be his wife, and this will be the case even though both should then be married.
If more than one woman be seen standing at a man’s left hand they will be married to him in rotation, as they stand nearer or farther from his arm.
A VISITOR
A seer often announces that such and such a guest will arrive at a certain hour; and though a hundred miles away when that is told, the guest will appear at the stated time.
TREES AND HOUSES
If a seer observes a vision of trees and crops in some spot or other, though perfectly barren and bare at the moment, wood and grain will be seen there in due time. A visionary house is beheld by the gifted eye, in a place where stone and lime were never laid or expected to be laid. Yet there will the real house forthwith be seen.
INSTANCES OF SECOND-SIGHT
There are many instances of second-sight recorded in history. According to a well-known anecdote, “St. Ambrose fell into a comatose state while celebrating the Mass at Milan, and on his recovery declared that he had been present at St. Martin’s funeral at Tours, where, indeed, reports from Tours afterwards declared that he had been seen.”
In modern times the gift of second-sight was possessed in a remarkable degree by Emanuel Swedenborg, the founder of the New Church. The following is a well-authenticated instance. Once while taking supper at Gottenburg, at the house of William Castel, on the 10th of July, 1759, Swedenborg became excited. “He said,” we quote from a letter written by the celebrated philosopher Kant, “that a dangerous fire had broken out in Stockholm, at the Suderhalm (Stockholm is about three hundred miles from Gottenburg), and that it was spreading very fast.
“He was restless and went out often; he said that the house of one of his friends, whom he named, was already in ashes, and that his own was in danger. At eight o’clock, after he had been out again, he joyfully exclaimed, ‘Thank God! the fire is extinguished the third door from my house.’ “
As may readily be supposed, this created a great deal of talk in Gottenburg. Three days afterwards the news of the fire arrived in that city by royal courier, and Swedenborg’s statement was confirmed in every particular.
A Scottish seer is said to have foretold the unhappy career of Charles; and another predicted the violent end of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham.
CHAPTER FIVE
FAIRY FOLK
THE characters of different classes of spirits have become so mingled together in the lapse of time that it is difficult to define individual species with precision; but there is one key characteristic which distinguishes the fairy from every other being of a similar order.
Most spirits can contract and diminish their bulk at will, but the fairy alone is essentially small in size. The majority of other spirits also, such as dwarfs, brownies, and the like, are deformed creatures, whereas the fairy is a beautiful miniature of the human being, perfect in face and form. These points of distinction, with a dress of pure green, are the principal ones, which mark the personal individuality of the fairies as a supernatural race.
THE LAND OF FAERIE
This is situated somewhere underground, and there the royal fairies hold their court. In their palaces all is beauty and splendour. Their pageants and processions are far more magnificent than any that Eastern sovereigns could get up or poets devise. They ride upon milk-white steeds. Their dresses, of brilliant green, are rich beyond conception; and when they mingle in the dance, or move in procession among the shady groves, or over the verdant lawns of earth, they are entertained with delicious music, such as mortal lips or hands never could emit or produce.
REALM OF THE FAIRIES
The presence of grass growing undisturbed by man is the spell which preserves the plain and the hillside as the domain of the fairies and other invisible people. Once it is ploughed up the spell is gone and they change their abode. “Where the scythe cuts, and the sock rives,” says an old Scottish proverb, “hae done wi’ fairies and bee bykes!” (nests of wild bees).
FAIRY RINGS
What are known as fairy rings are formed by the feet of the fairies as they dance in the great hall of nature, whose dome is the midnight sky. The grass, out of sympathy with their merriment, grows greener and more luxuriant under their tread.
To plough up these fairy rings is not lucky. There is a Scottish rhyme which says –
“He wha tills the fairies’ green,
Nae luck again shall hae;
And he who spills the fairies’ ring,
Betide him want and wae;
For weirdless days and weary nights
Are his, till his deein’ day.”
There is another Scottish rhyme much to the same purpose and containing a promise to any kind soul who will keep the ring trim and neat –
“He wha goes by the fairies’ ring,
Nae dule nor pine shall see;
And he wha cleans the fairies’ ring,
An easy death shall dee.”
The neighbourhood of fairy rings is lucky ground. If a house is built on ground whe
re they are, “whoever shall inhabit therein shall prosper considerably.”
THE POWERS OF CHILDREN
CHILDREN are under the special guardianship of those who reside in the other world. Their start in life and their ultimate success or failure depends on a great deal over which their parents have no control.
THE POWER OF SEEING SPIRITS
A child who has come into the world during twilight has in after life the power of seeing spirits, and is gifted to know who of his circle of acquaintance will die next.
The gift of second sight also belongs to a child born on All Saints’ Eve and on Christmas Day.
IN DANGER OF FAIRY SPELLS
A newborn child is in danger of fairy spells till it sneezes: then all danger is past.
“UNCHRISTENED WEANS.”
Unchristened children are peculiarly liable to be carried off by the fairies, who sometimes leave little changelings, of their own blood, in place of the infants of mortal kind.
PREPARED FOR RISING IN THE WORLD
Consult the Oracle Page 5