The spiritual delusion : its methods, teachings, and effects : the philosophy and phenomena critically examined

m

Library OF CONGRESS, I

! ^ S

I UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. |

THE "SPIRITUAL" DELUSION;

THE PHILOSOPHY AND PHENOMENA
CRITICALLY EXAMINED.

BY

DYER D. LUM,

AUTHOB OP " THE EAELY SOCIAL LIFE 07 MAN.'

• " 'Ti3 an unweeded garden

That grows to seed ; things rank and gross in nature

Possess it merely."

Hamlet.

PHILADELPHIA :

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.

18T3.

0?^

r.-"

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1873, by

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

TO

THE MEMORY

OF

MY BROTHER AND SISTER,

THIS ATTEMPT TO RESCUE THE NAMES OF OUR LOVED ONES BETOND THE SILENT RITEB

AND THE TENDER MEMORIES ASSOCIATED WITH THEM TREASURED IN THB

SECRET RECESSES OF OUR HEARTS, FROM PROFANATION

BT STROLLING JUGGLERS AND THEIR

CREDULOUS DUPES,

THESE I>.A.(3-ES
ARE AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.

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PEEFAOE.

In presenting this little work to the public, it may be
well to state at the outset that no new theory is urged
to account for the " spiritual manifestations" so loudly
asserted to be everywhere occurring, nor is it designed
to definitely map out the causes of all the phenomena
presented by "mediums" with the accuracy of a phreno-
logical chart.

While not assuming to offer anything new on this
well-worn subject, it has seemed to the author that an
examination of the claim of the spiritists, that disem-
bodied fellow-mortals do communicate and manifest
themselves to us, might commend itself to many still
halting in their convictions with regard to these singular
phenomena. That they are not the result of spiritual
beings operating from the unseen may be definitely shown ;
and to group together the various reasons leading to this
conclusion, to show that the phenomena in question do
not require the presence of hypothetical " spirits," is the
aim of the following pages.

In the consideration of the subject, many phenomena
that, owing to their marvelousness, commend themselves
to the simple as "demonstrative evidences" of the spirital
theory, will be seen to be explicable upon scientific prin-

(5)

6 PREFA CE.

ciples; a less number, vociferously asserted to be "tests,"
may not be so easily explained ; but even in these cases
we may clearly see that " spirits" are in no event to be
accredited with their occurrence.

To those who have neither the time nor inclination to
thoroughly investigate the subject in the light of modern
scientific research, but are still perplexed with the appar-
ent mystery surrounding it, these pages are addressed,
the author believing that a statement of the reasons
which have led him out of this treacherous quicksand to
healthful moral actiou may be of service to many not
as yet lost to all appeals to reason and common sense.

Northampton, Mass., May, 1873.

COI^fTEKTS.

PART I.

THE PniLOSOPHT.
CHAPTER I.

MODERN SPIRITISM UNSCIENTIFIC IN ITS METHODS.

FAOE

1. In its recurrence to savage modes of thought 9

2. In its implicit denial of uniformity in nature 13

3. In its investigations based on assumption 16

4. In its reliance on unsatisfactory testimony and unwarranted

inferences 22

5. In its bizarre contributions to scientific knowledge 25

CHAPTER II.

MODERN SPIRITISM UNPHILOSOPHICAL IN ITS TEACHINGS.

1. In its materialistic spiritunlism 42

2. In its confusion of distinctions between physical and spiritual

realms of being 51

3. In its claim of higher spirituality for rejuvenated polytheism... 56

4. In its fallacious mental philosophy 76

CHAPTER III.

MODERN SPIRITISM UNNATURAL IN ITS EFFECTS.

1. In its effect on mental health by destroying self-reliance 80

2. In its effect on spiritual health by fostering superstition 85

3. In its effect on physical health by developing abnormal faculties... 92

4. In its effect on moral health by weakening self-control 94

1

CONTENTS.
PART IL

THE PHENOMENA.
CHAPTER I.

Inteoductort.

CHAPTER II.

MENTAL EXALTATION.

1. In mental derangement 104

2. In the use of stimulants 107

3. In slumber Ill

4. In magnetic somuolency 114

CHAPTER III.

" OBSESSION."

1. Evidence of the senses 125

2. The witchcraft delusion 129

8. Mental epidemics 13S

CHAPTER IV.

UNCONSCIOUS ACTION OF THE BRAIN.

1. Unconscious cerebration 148

2. All impressions permanent 157

3. Mental telegraphing and prevision 164

CHAPTER V.

"what PHENOMENA OCCUR?"

1. Liability to self-delusion , 182

2. Tendency of scientific research 195

CHAPTER VI.

PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS.

1. Involuntary actions 205

2. Hints towards a solution 226

THE "SPIRITUAL" DELUSION.

PART I.-THE PHILOSOPHY.

CHAPTER I.

MODERN SPIRITISM UNSCIENTIFIC IN ITS METHODS.

1. In its recurrence to savage modes of thought.

Living in a barbarous and unlettered condition, the
sport of conflicting forces alternately fostering and de-
stroying the fruit of his labors, and exciting fear and
trembling by the apparent waywardness of their action,
the savage would naturally seek for some explanation of
these confusing phenomena, and the means to avert im-
pending calamities in future.

Trees sheltered him from the burning rays of the sun,
and afforded fuel for his fire ; fire warmed him when
chilled by exposure, and prepared his food in a more
palatable manner; beasts clothed him, and could be made
useful in many ways ; water not only slaked his thirst,
but also cleansed his body ; rains refreshed him, and gave
renewed life to vegetation. These facts would call forth
no thought from a savage mind. But his rude and
selfish consciousness could not but observe that these
facts were not always calculated for his benefit, but
were apparently controlled by motives as uncertain and
A* " ( 9 )

10 TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

contrary as human passions. These unknown forces ex-
cited his fears and terrors.

Fire could consume him, water drown him, trees crush
him. What the sun had nurtured, storms would destroy.
The long and patient labor of multitudes would in a few
hours be swept away. Whence came this strange con-
trariety of actions, so like in its effects to human passions
and iujpulses ? Evidently from superior beings, invisible
it. is true, bat whose existence and power were daily seen
in the devastating effects they produced.

The explanation thus naturally adopted would be re-
sorted to whenever any event transcended his limited
range of experience. "Animism," says E. B. Tylor, "is
the doctrine of all men who believe in active spiritual
beings ; it is essentially the antagonist of materialism,
and in some form or other it is the religion of mankind,
from the rude savage of the Australian bush or the
Brazilian forest, up to the most enlightened Christian.
Now, animism in the lower civilization is not only a
religion, but also a philosophy ; it has to furnish rational
explanations of one phenomenon after another, which we
treat as belonging to biology or physics. If a man is
alive and moving, the animistic explanation is, that the
soul, a thin, ethereal, not immaterial being, in the man's
likeness, is within him, animating him, just as one gets
inside a coat atid moves it. If the man sleeps and dreams,
then either the soul has gone out of him to see sights
which he will remember when he wakes, or it is lying
quiet in his body, receiving visits from the spirits of
other people, dead or alive, — visits which we call dreams.
If a man, when fasting or sick, sees a vision, this is a
ghost or some other spirit; if he faints or falls into a fit,
his soul has gone out from him for a time, and must be
recalled with mystic ceremonies ; if it returns, he recovers,

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. \\

but if it stays away permanently, then the man is dead.
If the man takes a fever or goes mad, then it is a spirit
which is hovering- about the person, shaking or maltreat-
ing him, or it lias got inside him, and is driving him,
tearing him, speaking and crying by his voice."

This description of savage thought is not without its
parallel in our own land of boasted civilized thought.
Instead of any reference to physical cause and effect, the
spiritist hastily assumes the presence and agency of a
"spirit," to account for phenomena which transcend the
powers of his mind. Assuming a learned look, the
spiritist seeks to confute "groveling, mole-eyed science"
by an elaborate collection of the superstitious rites and
observances of uncivilized tribes of men, to demonstrate
the universality of commerce with spiritual beings,
seemingly unconscious that by thus allying himself with
rope-tying Greenland angekoks, Ojibway conjurers, and
Siberian shamans, he is virtually confessing antagonism
to the spirit of science, and seeking to restore the phi-
losophy of ruder and more barbarous times.

Professor Tylor says, " Set a Chinese and an Eng-
lish medium to obtain written missives from the respect-
ive spirits they believe in, and let a wild Ojibway In-
dian look on at the performance. So far as the presence
of disembodied spirits goes, possessing the performers,
and guiding the pencils, or manifesting themselves by
nips, or voices, or other actions, the savage would under-
stand and admit it at once, for such things are part of
his recognized system of nature : the only part of the
affair out of his line would be the art of writing, which
does belong to a higher grade of civilization than his. In
a word, a modern medium is a red Indian or a Tartar
shaman in a dress-coat."

"If communion be indeed a fact," the spiritist retorts,

12 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

" why should not the fact be alike intelligible to all
three ?" We reply, it is more than a question of fact: it
is a question involving the true method of interpreting
facts; whether "facts" shall be explained by the savage
philosophy or the scientific method. "But if it be a
fact?" Oh, most wise and sapient reasoner ! If it be
indeed a fact that this mode of thought is the true torch
to unravel the mysteries of nature, by throwing an in-
stantaneous light on all marvelous phenomena, then the
savage was a wise man, and the year 1813 is far down
on the scale of decadence, and the sooner we break our
crucibles and retorts, the better.

To briefly state the radical difference between these
two forms of thought will be sufficient to show that our
charge is true and unanswerable. The savage attributes
spiritual life as an adequate cause for all uncomprehended
events. The belief in fairies, banshees, ghosts, witches,
sorcery, etc., is a survival of savage thought, and to
science alone are we indebted for emancipation from it.
Belief in dreams and visions, as originating in an object-
ive spiritual world, is savage thought; as being subjective
phenomena of mind, is scientific. To regard the cata-
leptic as a medium, is savage philosophy ; as a patient,
is scientific. To the savage, apparitions are real ; science
classifies them under well-understood laws, as mental
hallucinations. To the savage, every medicine-man,
conjurer, or shaman attests his commerce with "spirits"
by phenomena consisting in strange. noises, rope-tying,
and beating of drums by " invisibles." Communion with
the unseen thus becomes possible by knocks and the
movement of objects. To the student in science, explan-
ation of phenomena based on ignorance of natural causes
is emphatically unscientific.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION: 13

2. In its implicit denial of uniformity in nature.

The researches of the astronomer into the boundless
expanse of the universe, filled with worlds and systems
of worlds ; the investigations of the geologist unraveling
the history of our planet down through countless cycles
of time to primordial fire-mist; the discoveries of the
biologist concerning the genesis and evolution of life from
its earliest, scarce recognizable form, to its master-piece,
the " human form divine," are all the result of the mind
having clearly conceived the grand idea of uniformity
and law in nature. The philosophy of the past has given
way to new methods, under which all events are being
slowly grouped as the result of natural causes. Not only
in the physit^l world has the conception of uniformity
triumphed, but as well in the world of mind. Dr. Dra-
per, well aware of the intimate connection between man
and nature, has remarked that but for the Gulf Stream,
Newton would not have written his Priiicipia, nor Milton
sung; for (otherwise) England would have been as bleak
and dreary as Labrador, and the Anglo-Saxon race mere
Esquimaux.

If Washington, Lafayette, Kosciusko, and Kossuth had
been born and obliged to live in abject poverty, struggling
through life for merely enough to prevent the divorce of
soul and body, as millions do, the world would never have
heard their eloquent words, or witnessed their still more
eloquent deeds. Is not life itself influenced by invariable
law ? Births and deaths are ever relatively the same,
not merely in number, but also in regard to sex. By the
study of statistics we may even calculate how many let-
ters without any address will this month be dropped in
the Boston post-office, apparently one of the most acci-
dental of events.

2

14 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

The same is true, not only of crime in the aggregate,
but even as to its nature, enabling us to determine both
the perihelion and aphelion of any crime in its annual
orbit. In summer, crimes against persons preponderate
over crimes against property ; in winter, the reverse.
The tendency of women to commit crimes against per-
sons is, to men, the same as the relations of physical
strength between the two sexes. We cannot assert of
this man or of that that he will commit a crime, yet we
ascertain the relative number of each given offense that
will be committed during the year in any country not
disturbed by exceptional exciting events.

It is only by taking in a wider field of vision, a more
enlarged retrospect of human action, that uniformity be-
comes apparent. Yet of individual human action, it must
be borne in mind, we can form no definite estimate, nor
predetermine an act.

The spiritist theoretically affirms the universality of
law, but practically denies it by introducing new factors
to still more complicate the mystery; and these unknown
factors being " spirits," they are not amenable to the
laws of matter and motion on our terrestrial sphere, but
override or annul them at will.

Our knowledge of the uniformity in the aggregate
actions of men results from our having abundant means
to examine these actions, from the most trivial to the
most important. Spiritist literature is replete with anec-
dotes illustrating the power of " spiritual beings" to sus-
pend the natural order of things to avert some personal
calamity. " Spirits" have been known, it is soberly assev-
erated, to stop the water-wheel of a mill without the use
of the lever; to cause persons to fall up hill when de-
struction would have awaited their downward course.
They interfere in all the domestic relations of this world

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 15

to thwart or aid our plans and accomplish their ends, how-
ever whimsical. I have heard a — so-called — " well-at-
tested" instance of a gentleman lying in his bed in the
morning and hearing " spirits " strike a match and light
a fire in the stove prepared over-night ! Some of our
prominent spiritist lecturers wear gold charms said to
have been brought to them " by spiritual agency." The
question where they got them is not pressed I

Science is based on the universality of law; and to
assert that " spirits " are controlled by law does not evade
the charge, for, from the very nature of the case, it must
be by laws governing their world or condition of exist-
ence, not ours, and consequently beyond the grasp of our
faculties here, for the evident reason that we are unable
to obtain any glimpse of that condition of life, save what
is occasionally reflected through " mediumship." As long
as we are unable to observe the " spirits" in their daily
and hourly avocations, we can form no conception of the
laws governing them, nor of the extent of their power
over the physical forces of gravity, light, heat, etc.

The phenomena of individual mental action have not
yet been co-ordinated under law, and many philosophers,
in fact, all of the school of spiritual philosophy, in affirai-
ing the freedom of the will, deny its possibility in indi-
vidual cases. If, therefore, human will, operating from
the unseen, can interfere in all the relations of life, and
destroy the apparent connection between cause and effect,
then affirmations of law are but empty sound and utterly
meaningless. The Greeks recognized the universality
of law in the same sense, and when any mysterious event
occurred inexplicable to them, it was ascribed to some
spiritual being working in accordance with the laws of
another sphere of existence.

The crowning glory of science is that it has exorcised

16 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

the " spirits" out of the trees and winds, out of the rivers
and mountains. Even the later forms of the same phase
of thought, regarding forces as mysterious entities lying
latent in matter, have had to succumb to the power of
physical investigation.

A recent writer has aptly remarked, " This broad do-
main has been conquered little by little ; for the spirits
have always been very loath to go. They cling longest
in the obscurest parts of existence, where it is difficult for
the exorcising process to penetrate. They still persist in
retaining a certain control of the mental operations ;
though with most of scientists the mind is placed, with
all things else, under the dominion of force and law."

Is it asserted that a knowledge of mind is not included
in a knowledge of nature ? If so, it is an unproven as-
sumption, and the cause of the barrenness of much meta-
physical speculation. The metaphysician, with his de-
ductions from pure reason, and the theologian, with his

Thus saith the anything but proven facts, have been

tried and found incompetent to decide the phenomena of
mind, and upon scientists has the task descended. But
modern science, we are sometimes warned, is material-
istic! Names or epithets have lost their power, happily,
in deterring us from investigation. We are first to ask,
not where or to what does a principle lead, but, Is it true ?
Is it based on facts?

3. In its investigations based on assumption.

Scientific investigation is based on a careful and scruti-
nizing accumulation of facts, until it becomes possible to
rise to some generalization and grasp the law under-
lying them. " Spirit," says Sir David Brewster, " is the
last thing I shall give in to ;" and he was right ; for, the
hypothesis once granted, investigation for critical pur-

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 17

poses ceases ; inquiry for the cause is no longer needed
"When the phenomenon, moreover, occurs in that realm of
which he possesses the least accurate knowledge concern-
ing its nature and hidden springs of action, the clear con-
ception of uniformity, that has never as yet failed him
in his elucidation of nature's mysteries, renders him loath
to recur to savage forms of thought for an explanation.

He rather queries within himself, " I am as yet igno-
rant of the workings of the human mind in too many
respects to hastily indorse the spirital hypothesis. We
know that in former times it was believed most where
natural law was understood least : thus patron saints
manifested themselves to Catholic believers, fairies and
elves to those who had no doubt of their existence, and
devils admitted they were obsessing and bewitching
mortals when addressed by orthodox interrogators.*
The interrelation of forces in the domain of psycholog-
ical science is as yet too little understood ; there seems to
remain too much room for inference that the mind, though
altogether unconsciously, may have much to do with the
shaping of these purported communications I must in-
vestigate not only the phenomena, but tlie mental status

S- « ^jjg Greeks and Romans of antiquity were just as much liable to
disorders of the nervous system as we are, but to them supernatural
appearances came under mythologic forms, — Venus, and Mars, and
Minerva. The places of these were taken in the dreams of the ascetics
of the Middle Ages by phantoms of the Virgin and the saints. At a still
later time, in Northern Europe, and even in England, where the old
pagan superstitions ^e scarcely yet rooted out of the vulgar mind, even
though the Reformation has broken the system of ecclesiastical thought,
fairies and brownies and Robin Goodfellow survive. The form of phan-
toms has changed with change of the creed of communities, and we may
therefore, with good Reginald Scot, inquire, ' If the apparitions which
have been seen by true men and brave men in all ages of the world were
real existences, what has become of the swarms of them in these latter
times?' " — Draper's Human Physiology, p. 407.

2*

18 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

of the medium through whom these so-called revelations
come, before I can decide as to their origin."

The scientist ascribes any given phenomenon, when the
cause is unknown, to the operation of some natural law, —
to laws operative here, not to laws peculiar to the spheres,
— and never loses sight of this iu his attempts to investi-
gate. If a table moves, it must be by the application of
force ; in what manner it is applied, and the nature of
the force, is the problem to be worked out. If scientists
had ever lost sight of this aim in their researches, our
knowledge of nature would be naught.

When the Greeks first observed the singular phenome-
non of electricity induced by rubbing amber, even the
philosophers were amazed and marveled much. Inves-
tigation but deepened their conviction that some "ex-
ternal influence" was there manifesting itself, and they
sapiently concluded that minute spirits dwelt in the
amber, who, becoming exasperated, threw out their
feelers and claws to seize whatever came in contact with
them.* " Spirit-influence" thus coming in, the very pos-

* "It is an opinion of the remotest antiquity, that there exists no-
thing, however vile and abject, no disease of the mind, no virtue, that is
not under the protection and control of some particular demon or genius.
The doctrine is said to have been derived originally from the Chaldeans.
Be this as it may, one thing is unquestionable, and evident, even from
the authority of Hesiod, that the earliest inhabitants of Greece were im-
bued with it; and it is no less certain that the opinion was propagated
from the people to the professors of wisdom themselves, having been
adopted by Pythagoras and Plato, philosophers of the highest authority.
With respect to Plato, indeed, no one can doubt that, if the philosophy
which he taught his disciples be divested of the doctrine of demons and
genii, it loses its most important part. And how prone Pythagoras was
to enlarge the empire of demons, may be learned both from many other'
incidents in his history, and especially from the fact that he at once
referred to them the causes of all recondite and abstruse matters. Be-
ing asked what occasioned the acute sound emitted from brass, he gravely

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 19

sibility of scientific explanation vanished, and we had
to wait two thousand years for the electric telegraph.

AVith many spiritists, investigation in any true sense
of the word is impossible. By far the larger portion of
them having but the most limited knowledge of psycho-
logical phenomena, more particularly of disordered intel-
lectual or sensitive action, the marvelousness of the phe-
nomenon in question is sufficient to elicit their full cre-
dence in its super-physical origin. Even ordinary cases
of imperfect mental action are often sufficient to convince
them that they are the result of mediumship. So com-
pletely does this preconception control the ardent spiritist,
that if a table tips, or crockery breaks, no step can be
taken towards an "investigation" until amedium has been
sent for to ascertain what the assumed " spirit" wants,
or who he or she is. Does a person manifest strange
nervous action ; " investigation" first of all requires that
a circle be formed ! Do certain involuntary movements
of the muscles occur; a "spirit" is endeavoring to
"manifest" !

Dr. Wigan, in his " Duality of the Mind" (pages 23T-
9), cites the case of a young man of distinction, and
good disposition, who was " influenced" by an uncontrol-
lable desire to run up into the organ-loft during divine
service, and play some well-known jocular tune, and fre-
quently one of "an indecent character. He always ap-
peared sorry for it, and declared that he used every
exertion to prevent it, but in vain, and finally had to ab-

replied that it was the voice of a demon shut up in the brass !'— Por-
phyrius, De Vita Pythagor., p. 42. Who would have expected such an
unswer from a geometrician? And yet what method can be more con-
venient and expeditious than this, towards clearing away all the diffi-
culties which beset those who investigate the causes of things ?"—Mos-
heim's Notes on Cudworth, vol. ii. p. 264.

20 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

stain entirely from public service, though he would read
the prayers at home with apparently sincere and tranquil
devotion. If he accidentally passed an open church-door,
the temptation was irresistible, and often resulted in
serious embarrassment to him. In all other respects he
was perfectly sane, but was subject to periodical epileptic
fits.

In our midst, such a case would excite no surprise in
the .mind of the spiritist : he would see therein a con-
vincing " manifestation of obsession." His theory would
lead him to have the young man's mediumistic powers
more fully developed, that " spirits" of a higher grade
might be enabled to control him ; or by magnetic passes
and kind words of advice seek to quiet the restless " in-
fluence." The scientist would see in the young man, not
a medium to be developed, but a patient requiring treat-
ment, and if he sent for any one it would be for his
physician. He would seek to restore the young man to
a state of health, rather than " develop" a disordered
state of the brain into irrecoverable madness, or a more
fatal result.

This illustration is given here, not as a type of what
is known as " spirit-control," but to illustrate the diverse
methods by which the scientist and spiritist would be
governed in their treatment of the case. The scientist is
habituated to co-ordinating facts first, and then seeking
to grasp the law underlying them. The one investigates
to discover the cause, the other to obtain a " test" to
indorse his preconceived views. In the case given above,
the scientist concludes it is imperfect mental action, be-
cause similar cases are of not unfrequent occurrence where
this can alone explain them, and he has been led by a
large collection of facts to associate the presence of epi-
leptic fits with imperfect mental action ; whilst to the

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 21

spiritist, the epileptic paroxysms, if not viewed as ad-
ditional evidence of "obsession," would be regarded as
extraneous to it.

In any circle for " physical manifestations," who ever
heard of spiritists investigating the connection between
the mental powers of the medium and the intelligence
evinced in the manifestations ? In a circle for " musical
manifestations," for instance, the spiritist investigator
takes great pains to see that the medium is securely bound,
and that no movement can be made without his knowl-
edge ; and then, if the piano plays, or the guitar floats in
the room, he is satisfied it is the work of " spirits," because
he knows the medium, has not touched an instrument 1

Do they ever seek to ascertain whether the compo-
sitions played by the " influence" are familiar or not to
the mind of the medmm ? Do they ever question
whether the information obtained is such as to be new
to all present? Do they ever call for some tune they
know to be unknown to the medium or never heard by
him? Ropes and bandages have no effect on the exer-
cise of mental faculties, and the readiness with which
they are relied on is evidence of the unfitness of the
spiritist to conduct a scientific investigation. He is too
much concerned in maintaining the requisite " conditions"
insisted upon by the medium, to press any question : in-
stead of preparing tests, he is seeking them.

I well remember the first " spiritual seance" I ever at-
tended. Many years since, in Springfield, Massachusetts,
I was invited to attend a "test-circle" held for the purpose
of investigation. The medium was a Dr. McFadden, a
smooth-tongued and stoutly-built gentleman, wearing
his hair in long oily ringlets. We all clasped hands in
a circle composed of about a dozen individuals ; the
" doctor" said it was necessary to have a lady sit on

22 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

each side of him, as ladies were " negative" and he pos-
sessed too much "positivism." On no account, we were
charged, were we to withdraw our hands and break the
chain of magnetic attraction. Twice through forgetful-
ness, some one removed a hand from a neighbor's, and
each time the "doctor" fell back with his head on the
breast of one of the ladies beside him, giving vent to
several groans, as if he had received a severe shock.
Anxious to introduce a private test of my own, I slylj
loosed my hold on the hand of the person next me,
farthest removed from the medium, unknown to him, and,
lo ! no shock was felt.

We spent- two hours in the "investigation," and re-
ceived one "test." An elderjj gentleman in the circle
was told that on the side of the great toe of his left foot
there was a small mole 1 The gentleman said he was
not aware of it, and the circle broke up, and awaited in
breathless expectancy an appeal to the fact. Retiring to
one corner, the gentleman proceeded to ascertain if tbe
statement was correct, and informed us that the "doctor"
was right. This was glory enough for one night; and
in the midst of the general congratulations of the faithful,
I deposited my fifty-cent scrip in the medium's ready hat,
and departed to muse over my first lesson in the "spirit-
ual philosophy of the nineteenth century."

This is an actual fact, and related without exaggera-
tion, and I have no doubt that any who have met the
"doctor" in his peregrinations will instantly recognize
its inherent probability.

4. In its reliance on unsatisfactory testimony and
unwarranted inferences.

The mere fact that certain phenomena occur without
visible human agency is regarded as irrefutable evidence

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 23

of immortality ! Not to recapitulate what has already-
been said, we charge spiritism with being unscientific
in its reliance on inferences drawn from a certain class
of phenomena as related in the columns of the spirital
press. Tliese testimonies as published can furnish no
ground for conviction, nor^ basis for examination. The
innumerable points which, as we have seen, pass by
unnoticed or are regarded as extraneous by the narrator
often contain the key to solve the whole mystery.

In the case related in the last section, as narrated by
Dr. Wigan, we found especial prominence given to the
all-important fact of epilepsy. But if the same case had
been narrated by a spiritist for the columns of one of
his journals, he would not have felt the same necessity
for mentioning it, and might have omitted all reference
to it in his testimony.

The state of mind that can greedily devour the ill-
digested narrations of events transpiring in what is
known in spirital nomenclature as the "night-side of
nature," or the "debatable land," is the very reverse of
that brought to bear upon scientific problems. The
spiritist, if a medium, is completely under the control of
the dominating idea, and is incapable of prosecuting a
critical inquiry. Dr. Carpenter, in his " Human Physi-
ology" (p. 633), truly observes, " When the mind has
once yielded itself up to the dominance of these erroneous
ideas, they can seldom be dispelled by any process of
reasoning ; for it results from the very nature of the
previous habits of thought that the reasoning-powers
are w^eakened, and that the volitional control, through
want of exercise, can no longer be exerted. If an at-
tempt be made to reason a patient out of a delusion by
demonstrating its complete inconsistency with the most
obvious facts, the reply will be generally something to

24 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

this effect: 'I have stronger evidence than anything
which you can urge, — the evidence of my own feelings.'"

Have you seen wonderful things ? publish it to the
world ; collect a mass of testimony written under pre-
conceived conceptions, and by its weight crush out all
cavil and doubt. Does a man float in the air ? therefore
be is immortal ! Does a man in Portland, with a broken
back, spin around upon the foot-board of the bed on the
injured part, like a tee-totum? therefore "thou shalt
never die" 1 Do "spirits" in Montpelier lift cats in the
air by the tail with invisible hands ? therefore thy rela-
tives and friends are ever with thee 1 Can a medium in
Boston tell me what I knew before, or how much change
I have in my pocket, which I did not kaow ? " 0 death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
Science is hardly prepared to resign to conjecture, and
the question does become pertinent, " What phenomena
occur ?"

Professor Tyndall, with much force, has said, "The
present promoters of spiritual phenomena divide them-
selves into two classes, one of which needs no demonstra-
tion, while the other is beyond the reach of proof. The
victims like to believe, and they do not like to be unde-
ceived. Science is perfectly powerless in the presence
of this frame of mind. It is, moreover, a state perfectly
compatible with extreme intellectual subtlety and capa-
city for devising hypotheses which only require the
hardihood engendered by strong conviction or by callous
mendacity to render them impregnable. The logical
feebleness of science is not sufficiently borne in mind.
It keeps down the weed of superstition, not by logic,
but by slowly rendering the mental soil unfit for its cul-
tivation. When science appeals to uniform experience,
the spiritualist will retort, ' How do you know that a

THE SriRITVATj DELUSION. 25

uniform experience will continue uniform ? You tell me
that tlie sun has risen for six thousand years: that is no
proof that it will rise to-morrow ; within the next twelve
hours it may be puffed out by the Almighty.' Taking
this ground, a man may maintain the story of ' Jack
and the Bean-stalk' in the face of all the science in the
world. You urge in vain that science has given us all
the knowledge of the universe which we now possess,
while spiritualism has added nothing to that knowledge.
The drugged soul is beyond the reach of reason. It is
in vain that impostors are exposed, and the special demon
cast out. lie has but slightly to change his shape, return
to his bouse, and find it empty, swept, and garnished."
— Fragments of Science, p. 409.

5. In its bizarre contributions to scientific knowledge.

The progress of science has not been a peaceful one,
but rather that of a couquering army, passing victoriously
from one battle-field only to find the enemy securely in-
trenched in another quarter. The strength of science
lies in its methods of investigation. Determined to
know more of the many mysteries with which we are
sui'rounded, men of science realize that the mind must
be divested of all preconceived conclusions on the sub-
ject, and pursue the inductive method of collecting a
sufficient number of facts before attempting any generali-
zation ; to rise from the effect to an understanding of the
law by which it is governed, is tlie method of science.

Long and arduously have men of science labored ;
with patient and pains-taking toil have they sought to
obtain from the clutch of nature a glimpse, however
faint, into the great secret; and now, through their labors,
we find the conditions of life ameliorated, tlie comforts,
and lux nil s even, placed within the rer.c'i of the toiling

B .']

26 TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

multitudes, and a broader and more comprehensive edu-
cation generally diffused.

Science has trod no "royal road" to knowledge, but
struggled on in thorny paths, bravely trampling difficul-
ties under foot, and ever pressing on, accumulating facts
before theories. No guardian " intellectual guide" was
there for Watt, or Fulton, or Stephenson, to consult for
information in his darkest hour. No familiar stood
ready, upon the payment of a certain amount of good
and lawful currency, to appear and solve the problems
perplexing the mind of Morse, when he was struggling
to give form to the idea dimly burning in his brain.

Geologists were content to descend into quarry-beds,
and to ascend precipitous mountains, hammer in hand,
that they might read but a line on a page of the mighty
volume spread out before them. Astronomers were sat-
isfied if mechanical ingenuity could give them a clearer
vision of the countless orbs which had so long kept
their secret from human eyes, hoping to gain a deeper
insight into the laws governing the universe. The
biologist knew no greater pleasure than studying his
science by the only method that as yet he knew to be
capable of producing useful results, — that of careful in-
vestigation,— trusting to obtain but a glimpse into that
mightiest of all problems, — the problem of problems, —
life.

But old things have passed away, and all methods
are new, under the light of the New Dispensation. Greolo-
gists are no longer required to content themselves with
long and arduous toil to read the history of the earth's
formation. Sitting in his study, and placing his mind in
a condition of " passive receptivity," the geologist may
become the agent of another, — of one who has risen above
the " cramping influence of material environments" to the

THE Sr I RITUAL DELUSION. 2T

full realization of spirital manhood ; of one who has a
thousand facilities at his command for investigating na-
ture, and libraries far older and more extensive than that of
Alexandria at his service, libraries incapable of destruction.
He has had it in his power to question the sages of the
past, resting after their various reincarnations, and com-
mune with the eminent geologists who have passed on after
a lifetime of study. This more extended field of research
exhausted, he hastens to unfold the mysteries of nature
to the patient toilers in the form, who are still laboriously
pursuing the " mole-eyed" method.

Is this a jest ? Not at all. The mind of " passive
receptivity" having been found (and the spiritists' ranks
contain many such). Professor Lyon returns, and pre-
sents to mortals, still held in the "cramping influence of
material environments," the results of his studies in the
higher spheres. The " material" consideration having
been satisfactorily arranged to- the publisher's notion,
" The Hollow Globe" is born, and secrets which have
long puzzled the mundane physicist stand revealed. By a
trifling outlay of currency the whole mystery of world-
building may be ascertained, and " mole-eyed science"
forever silenced.

Worlds are made by, or through the agency of, spirital
architects, who frame and fashion the whole material
creation after certain immutable laws. And they builded
wiser than we knew ; for anxious, as we may conjecture,
to economize in the expenditure of force, instead of a
globe filled with a molten mass and pent-up forces, the
earth was made in the form of a hollow globe, and fitted,
internal as well as external, for the development of life.
According to this new revelation, Lyell was led by his
aforesaid "mole-eyed" mistress into many absurdities, cal-
culated to cause a ghost of a smile to flit over the ethere-

28 TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

alized countenances of the supernal scientists ; and
Symmes stands revealed as the true prophet of geologi-
cal science.

" Symmes's Hole " was no imaginative illusion, but a
veritable fact, and exists still, awaiting the arrival of the
adventuresome explorer, in the vast undiscovered conti-
nent, replete with life and tropical vegetation, which, as
we know from other Flashes of Light from the Spirit-
World, lies in the immediate vicinity of the North Pole !
Oh, where is the daring Stanley, to penetrate through the
icy barriers surrounding that undiscovered continent, and
traverse its smiling valleys and cross its lofty mountains,
and bring to us news of Sir John Franklin and his com-
panions ? Perhaps the knight has entered that " Hole"
into which the Gulf Stream flows, and been borne to
happier climes, where he may have renewed the vigor of
his youth and be dwelling peacefully.

To all lovers of true science, who have felt a natural
repugnance to climb the rocky road and learn the barba-
rous nomenclature prescribed by Old Science, we com-
mend this volume. No one can doubt its mediumistic
origin after one careful perusal, for it bears on every
page irrefutable evidence of not being the work of any
living scientist !

Astronomers also may dispense with their instruments,
and enjoy a social chat with the inhabitants of the various
planets, who occasionally penetrate our atmosphere on
tours of scientific investigation. Denizens of the moon
visit us, and by their presence confute the theory that
their former abode is a burnt-out world, and from their
lips we have a vivid description of lunar life and manners
on the hither side of the moon's surface.

Certain recent speculations of astronomers, who have
confined themselves to the old methods of inductive re-

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 29

search, are regarded from the spirital stand-point as
fruitful instances of the inherent falsity of their methods,
being in direct contradiction with the testimony of the
" spirits" who have resided in the sun and the planets,
as well as the " evidence" derived from the seer's clear
vision of those abodes. Are not persons who have lived
on the sun more reliable than mere inferences drawn from
spectrum analysis discoveries as to the physical consti-
tution of the sun ?

Recent researches of mortal astronomers have led them
to conclusions regarding the physical constitution of the
major planets of a startling nature ; various singular ap-
pearances presented by them have led to the supposition
that these planets themselves are still intensely heated,
and emit light and heat of their own. True, as we know
from the pen of A. J. Davis, " in the beginning the uni-
verccelum was one boundless, undefinable, unimaginable
ocean of Liquid Fire;" but "progression," we had sup-
posed, was fleeter-footed. According to the late Profes-
sor Bond, however, Jupiter shines far more brightly than
the reflection of the light falling upon his surface will
warrant. Observations taken while Jupiter's satellites
were passing its face exhibit these satellites as black
spots on its surface, their reflected light being inappreci-
able when compared with that of the planet itself The
belt-zones of Jupiter bear witness to terrific convulsions
on that planet ; the spectrum of Saturn and Uranus, and
the nebulous edge presented by the spectrum of Neptune,
are thought to be accountable for on no other hypothesis
than that these planets have not yet attained that degree
of density necessary for the presentation of a solid sur-
face. Hence the major planets are rather to be viewed
as secondary suns than as inhabitable worlds; as sources
of additional light and heat to their satellites, — rulers of

3*

30 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

a scheme of subordinate orbs, on which alone the multi-
form manifestations of life may exist.

But what are sodium lines, when we have direct com-
munication with those who have once lived on these
planets ? Have we not had duly spread out before us, in
the columns of the spirital press, descriptions of scenery
in the Jovian world, and picturesque delineations of the
midnight sky on the Saturnian globe ? We are told that
their inhabitants are far superior to earth's mortals in
physical development, and have attained to so high a
degree of spiritual unfoldment as to be able to pass
through the air on their journeys to and fro. They have
progressed far beyond earth's sons and daughters, who
for countless ages yet to come will not outgrow " the
cramping influence of material environments" sufficiently
to reach such high spiritual attainments. What has
secular science told us concerning the seven spheres of
the spirital life ? It is to spirital science we owe the
grand discovery that they are composed of the spiritual
emanations constantly emitted by the various planetary
bodies.

Without presuming to decide between the rival claims
of " spirit-communion" and the ''seer's clear vision," as
to which is entitled to priority as evidence,! will quote
briefly from both on this highly important point. With-
out compromising the authority of our ghostly visitants,
we will first refer to the testimony of one who daily visits
the " inner life."

" Canst thou form an idea of the magnitude of the
second sphere ?

" Multiply our earth by twenty-seven million times its
present size, and it will give you the exact size of one
of the countless parks of the second sphere.

" How was the spirit-land formed ?

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 31

" What law was it which formed the sparkling girdles
of Saturn ? What becomes of the fine invisible particles
of matter which emanate from vegetation, from minerals,
from all animal bodies, and from the entire globe ? This
earth alone gives off eight hundred million tons of in-
visible emanations every year. Where do these atoms
go? The earth perspires, like the human body. . . .
All the other planets — Mercury, Venus, the vast group
of asteroids. Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the three orbs be-
yond, together with all their moons \_sic'] — give off
fine emanations just like the earth. Where do these
emanations go ? These questions are left you as replies
to query as to the foundation of the spirit-land."

The "Milky Way" is composed of countless systems
of worlds, of which our solar system is one, and the
" second sphere" lies beyond and encircling this. " The
second sphere [the spirital] girdles the first sphere
[the " Milky Way"], just as the rings girdle the planet
Saturn. The representation is perfect." Thus far from
the "clear vision" of Andrew Jackson Davis in "The
Present Age and Inner Life," and not, as some may have
inferred, from the spirital lips of some ancient Brahmin.

Of all the testimony offered us by the dwellers in the
spheres, we will only refer to that given by Immanuel
Swedenborg, who in a case of this nature should be
deemed a competent judge. That there might be no
doubt of the identity of the illustrious Swede, " twenty
spirits''' appeared, and voluntarily took an oath, "in the
name of God," that Swedenborg was really present.
This distinguished " spirit," having been thus satisfac-
torily vouched for, deposed as follows: "The second
sphere is above the atmosphere, about six miles in
height. The third occupies ahowi forty miles in height.
The fourth occupies a still wider space ; and so of the

32 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

others, until the outer boundary of the sixth and com-
mencement of the seventh, which is distant four or Jive
thousand ■miles.'''' " In rising to the spheres, there are
openings through which we rise." — Supernal Theology.

In spiritual geography we have had considerable ad-
dition to our fund of knowledge ; but, as we are more
concerned at present in ascertaining the contributions to
mundane science, we leave this highly useful and in-
structive study, to ascertain in what respects the biologist
is indebted to the light of the New Dispensation.

From the Banner of Light, of July 6, 1872, I extract
from the " Questions and Answers" of the " Banner of
Light Free Circles" the following :

" Question (from a correspondent). — Among the ques-
tions and answers in the Banner of December 23d,
is opened up a subject of considerable interest, upon
which I would be pleased to receive more light from the
controlling intelligence. The declaration is made that
'offspring are born to parents in the spirit-world.' Is it
supposed or known that the process of generation con-
tinues in the higher spheres indefinitely ?

"Answer (Theodore Parker).— ^So far as my experi-
ence extends, I learn that the process of generation, so
far as the human species is concerned, begins here and
ends here ; and yet there are spiritual births taking place
every hour in our life,— every moment, every second,
according to earth-time, — and in this way. You are con-
stantly sending off from your life these germs that need
individualizing, that need to be surrounded by love, by
wisdom, and strength, that they may mature in intelli-
gence in the spirit-world. These germs that are thrown
off in your life, ere they are ushered into existence here,
are destined to an individualized existence in the spirit-
world, and they all need fathers and mothers there. They

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 33

have need of the father's strength to hold them in posi-
tion until they shall become individualized existence."

There are many questions that might be pressed to
elucidate this position of spirital physiology ; but I for-
l)ear, and leave the " spirit" Theodore Parker to explain
in his own way.

" Ques. — Please explain what you mean by individ-
ualizing the germs thrown off from our own spiritual
natures.

"Ans. — Gathering tothem those elements necessary for
form and experience. Your individuality depends upon
the amount of elements you have gained from nature.
Now, nature extends beyond this earth. It goes through
all the spiritual spheres ; for without nature there could
be no form ; without form there could be no experience.
Now, these little waifs need assistance in gathering to
themselves those elements necessary to build up form, —
structures through which the soul can manifest itself
and become individualized. When it remains here in
the mother-life during the proper time, it gathers these
elements from the mother-life. When it is cast off before
the j^Toper time, it is without these elements; then some-
body must assist the little soul-germ to gather them for
itself When you feed your infants, you strengthen the
form : in the spirit-life they do even more than this ; they
build up the form. At conception, the soul-germ be-
comes simply conjoined with matter. Now, then, sup-
pose it is thrown off immediately after that, it is not
individualized at all; it is joined to matter, but not in-
dividualized. So, then, a mother-life is necessary in the
other world, — a mother's love and father's strength. All
souls are first conjoined to matter through the sexual
relations here in this life, here in the earthly sphere.
TJiat is the business of this life."

B*

34 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

To spirital science we are indebted for new light on
" biology ;" not the biology described in the text-books of
the " mole-eyed " system, for spirital science scorns to be
indebted to its less ambitious rival, but the " electrical-
biology" of the platform, where it is illustrated by its
distinguished exponents, " Professor" Stearns, " Profes-
sor" Cadwell, and others. Again Mrs. Conant, of Boston,
is the medium for this influx of scientific truth, as may be
found in the Banne?' of Light for April 6, 1812. Pro-
fessor Edgar C. Dayton is the ghostly respondent.

" QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

"Question (from the audience). — Professor Cadwell
is in town, giving exhibitions of so-called ' mesmeric'
power. After he has slightly manipulated the heads of
the persons who present themselves to be mesmerized,
they declare that they see any object or scene that he
mentions, and, by their actions, indicate that they do be-
lieve, for the time being, that they see them. The other
evening, besides a variety of other experiments, he caused
about a dozen young men apparently to see him boiling
coffee on a hot stove, and to snuff up its odor ; and when he
pretended that he had thrown it on their feet, they pulled
off their boots, and jumped. about, and acted as if they had
been scalded. Yet this pot of coffee and hot stove were
nothing but an empty tin cup on a chair, and really
nothing had been thrown upon them. ... I would
inquire, ' What is the explanation of these persons seeing
scenes and objects which did not exist?'

"Ansioer. — You say he caused them to see scenes which
did not exist. I shall be obliged to take exceptions to
that statement, since all these psychological conditions do
exist, of a verity; and they are just as perceptible to the
consciousness of the spiritual senses, as are conditions

THE SPIRIT UAL DELUSION. 35

which are apparent to all ia this room perceptible to the
consciousness of the material physical senses. Now, when
it is understood that you are all living double lives, that
you possess a double consciousness, one distinct and sepa-
rate from the other, these things will appear less miracu-
lous. The psychological professor psychologizes his sub-
jects through the action of his spiritual senses. True,
they see no boiling coffee, they physically feel no burn ;
and yet, spiritually, this is a positive reality ; just as
much a positive reality as it is a positive reality that the
drunkard, during an attack of delirium tremens, sees
snakes and venomous reptiles and they offend him. You
say this is the hallucination of a disordered brain. I say
it is not. There is nothing in all the science of life that
can prove it to be so. It is a positive, spiritual reality
to the one who sees, who feels and realizes the condition,
as it is not a reality to one who does not see, feel, and
realize that condition. Now, then, / denxj that there is
any such thing as imagination. Everything that appeals
to either of our sets of senses, the inner or the outer, is
real, and becomes a demonstrated fact to that one set of
senses at any rate. The others cannot demonstrate it,
because it does not belong to them. . . . The law
of psychology is, properly speaking, the law of spiritual
science.

"Qwes.--Will you be kind enough to explain just what
j'ou mean by ' psychologizing' a person ?

" Jn.s. I mean this: by bringing them into rapport with

your thoughts, with your spiritual senses, your thoughts
act upon these spiritual senses and produce these condi-
tions. For instance : the psychological professor thinks
of boiling coffee; his spiritual senses ^■7^^a?e the aroma,
see the boiling coffee, realize the fact. The first thing to
be done is to establish a connection between the two, —

36 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

subject and operator. The professor's thoughts act as a
key upon his spiritual senses ; in turn, his spiritual senses
act in producing these conditions objectively io the spirit-
ual senses of the subject. It is almost impossible to clearly
elaborate these abstract ideas so that you who are
cramped about by mortal conditions can clearly appreciate
and understand them."

In the Banner of Light, of November 2, 1872, we find
Theodore Parker indorsing the same views, and denying
the existence of imagination in man. I have taken up so
much space with this scientific contribution that I will
not pause to comment upon it. In fact, notwithstanding
our "cramped conditions," I have no fears but they will
be fully " appreciated" by the reader, even though un-
versed in the rudiments of spirital science.

To spirital science we are also indebted for the restora-
tion of astrology to its proper rank in the circle of the
sciences, and learned treatises are laid before the public,
on the magnetic influence exercised by the planets and
fixed stars upon human destiny, and the nature of their
influence on the formation of character and personal ac-
countability.

The chemist may break his retorts and discontinue his
molecular investigations, and sit at the feet of Theodore
Parker, and learn that the accumulation of wealth is a
chemical process ; for Parker informs us, through the
Banner of Light (February 11, 1871), of this valuable
truth. I submit it in full, that it may receive the atten-
tion it merits from students in chemical science :

" That the reception of wealth is indeed a result of the
action of chemical laws is an absolute truth ; but it is no
less true that the chemical relations and conditions of an
individual are constantly changing. You are constantly
throwing off chemical emanations from your bodies, and

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 3t

taking on new ones. Perhaps to-day you may be chemic-
ally in a fit condition to attract to yourself wealth, —
gold, silver, the precious things of this earth. To-mor-
row you may be chemically another being. Yes; hard
work and economy and good common-sense [!] are valu-
able acquisitions to your chemical condition. They are
levers assisting what you have by nature ; precisely as a
musical education would be of value to one musically en-
dowed by nature. The elements being in the individual,
these are conditions that favor their evolutions."

Political economists should seek to thoroughly under-
stand these chemical processes and evolutions !

Spiritists are barred from saying that " spirits" do
not enlighten us on scientific subjects, for they have so
sought in innumerable cases, or the communications were
not from "spirits;" and I think but very few spiritists
would hesitate to call Mrs. Conant a veritable medium,
" through whose organism" most of these facts in spir-
ital science were given. They profess their willingness
and ability to receive and answer any question pro-
pounded, and yet what real addition have we acquired
to our fund of practical knowledge ? If a scientific ques-
tion is pressed, we have in reply the merest dribble of
" unimaginative" brains, or paltry evasions of facts, by
replying in general terms. For instance :

"Ques. — Please explain how it is possible that spirits
can be photographed.

" Ans. — They first pass themselves through a chemi-
cal process which is analogous to the process of gal-
vanism. They are plunged — if you please — in a bath
of certain chemicals, that will be held in solulion for a
very short time only, because they are taken from the
air, and the air absorbs them again very quickly ; but
the spirit can hold them in form for a sufficient length

4

38 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

of time to impress itself upon the sensitive plate. The
use of a medium is necessary as a condenser." — "Theo-
dore Parker," in Banner of Light, August 10, 1812.

However much we may object to the lucidity of this
explanation, we at once see that it professes to grapple
the subject. When " mole-eyed science" is found to clash
with the teachings of the spirital scientists, no trouble is
experienced in solving the difficulty. The following may
pass as a sample of the easy method of disposing of such
apparent contradictions :

" Ques. — I read in the Banner that the moon is in-
habited by both man and animals. Now, Professor
Shaler, of Harvard, and all other scientific men who
have made the moon a special study, declare, beyond all
doubt, that the conditions necessary to sustain life are
not there, nor ever have been. How are we to account
for these seemingly flat contradictions ?

" Ans. — It is very easy to account for them. Pro-
fessor Shaler has not been there ; somebody else has.
One has absolute knowledge ; the other has guess-work,
backed up by a little scientific knowledge, — very poor
at that, however. Harvard cannot boast of much !" —
" Theodore Parker," in Banner of Light, July 21, 18T2.

Spiritists object to mundane science that it is " dog-
matic" and " one-sided." Not desirous of bandying epi-
thets, I refrain from characterizing the spirit displayed
in the above. But Theodore Parker, though evidently a
very changed man, was never remarkable in " earth-life"
as a scientist, and we therefore part company with him
here, to summon Benjamin Franklin on the stand, in
whose testimony we should at least expect to observe an
absence of dogmatism or self-assertion. Our American
philosopher has our spiritual welfare so near his heart
that he has assumed control of the editorial portion of

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 39

the Banner of Light, — in other words, is the spirital
guide and source of inspiration to the editor thereof,
probably supplying the loss of " imagination" in the edi-
torial brain with impressions on the " set of spiritual
senses" therein.

In the editorial columns of the Banner of Light, of
October 5, 1872, is an article based on a recent trial of
a gentleman (Dr. Schoeppe) for murder through the use
of poison. He had been tried and found guilty, but a
subsequent trial resulted in his acquittal. Both verdicts
were based on the evidence of medical " experts." The
philosopher says, —

" In the trial of Mrs. Wharton at Annapolis it was
demonstrated, as clearly as it is possible to do it, that
science knew no more about matters it considered itself
competent to testify upon than ignorance. . . . And
now it has come to an equally ignominious end in the
case of Dr. Schoeppe, of Pennsylvania. . . . The testi-
mony on the second trial completely destroyed that ad-
duced on the previous one, thus showing again that
science is of all things the most unreliable. It has
floored itself, and proved that it is idle to hang any faith
upon it. Yet, while it shows its incapacity to deal with
demonstrations on the coatings of the human stomach,
it presumes in the most impudent manner to pass judg-
ment on the mysteries of spiritual phenomena, of which
it can know much less than it does even of physical oper-
ations. Year after year it comes forward to deny the
truths of spiritualism in the most dictatorial and offen-
sive manner, while year after year spiritualism continues
to advance with its proofs and to make captive the con-
victions of the human mind and heart. We may reason-
ably conclude, therefore, that science is a humbug, a pre-
tender, a charlatan, not fit to be trusted with a judgment

40 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

on any matter that involves such great interests as those
involved in human beliefs."

My respect for Benjamin Franklin is so profound that
I will make no comments on the above, nor seek to rob
it of any of its weight. With this characteristic quota-
tion (of spirital science, — not of Franklin) I close my col-
lection of acquisitions to science.

Nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since the
first electric rap was struck which opened the line of
communication between us and the spheres ; and since
that eventful hour, we are told by Professor Denton,
" spirits make their presence known daily, hourly, to
multitudes, not disdaining the poorest or the vilest."
Plato has returned, and socially chatted in New York
in English speech. Demosthenes again thrills the hearts
of multitudes with his burning eloquence, through the
inspired lips of Victoria C. Woodhull. Benjamin Frank-
lin continues his interest in scientific subjects, and Shak-
speare renews his acquaintance with the muse. Theodore
Parker becomes an encj^clopedic oracle, and Daniel Web-
ster returns to correct mistakes in his dictionary 1 Lord
Bacon discourses philosophy with Judge Edmonds, and
the mirthful Calhoun indulges in antics under his table.
And we have for results : in cosmology, the presence of
spirit-architects for world-builders ; in geology, a hollow
globe, with an internal development of forms of life ; in
astronomy, races of salamanders living in the sun and
major planets, and the discovery of the "spheres" "cir-
cling" the Milky Way; in geography, a vast continent
lying around and beyond the north pole, exceeding in
size the whole known surface of the earth, and the
definite location of " Synmies's Hole ;" in biology, the
existence of "spiritual senses," which perceive what our
outward senses had erroneously supposed to be the re-

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 41

suits of imagination as evidenced in delirium tremens ;
in astrology, the influence of the stars on character; in
chemistry, the law of attraction between human bodies
and precious metals.

In history, we have also valuable additions. Dr.
Channing informs us that Jesus was an illegitimate child
of Mary by Caiaphas, the high-priest ; and the disclo-
sures by St. Paul of his share in the betrayal of Jesus,
and subsequent hypocritical assumption of belief, may
be read at length in his work on "Jesus of Nazareth,"
as given through the organism of Alexander Smith. The
influence of the planetary bodies on the formation of
character, if a truth, might lead us to conjecture that the
lunar orb had a prevailing influence in the horoscope of
our spiritist friends.

Beyond these, — what? Savage and primitive in its
forms of thought, ignorant and imbecile in its conception
of uniformity in nature, arrogant and prejudiced in its
investigations, partial and illogical in its collection of
testimony and inferences therefrom, and contemptible and
ridiculous in its vapid contributions to scientific knowl-
edge, spiritism stands justly charged with being, in every
sense of the term, unscientific.

42 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

CHAPTER II.

MODERN SPIRITISM UNPHILOSOPHICAL IN ITS TEACHINGS.

1. In its materialistic spiritualism.

"In the early stages of human culture," says Dr.
Alger, " when the natural sensibilities are intensely pre-
ponderant in power, and the critical judgment is in abey-
ance, whatever strongly moves the soul causes a poet-
ical secretion on the part of the imagination. Thus, a
rainbow is personified ; a waterfall is supposed to be
haunted by spiritual beings ; a volcano with fiery crater
is seen as a Cyclops with one flaming eye in the centre
of his forehead. This law holds not only in relation to
impressive objects or appearances in nature, but also in
relation to occurrences, traditions, usages. In this way
innumerable myths arise, — explanatory or amplifying
thoughts secreted by the stimulated imagination, and
then narrated as events."

Thus Fetichism slowly emerged as the natural result
of man's necessities. Every forest, river, mountain, and
glen had its own inward life ; every tree, rock, and in-
animate thing was endowed with a conscious personality.
But, it has been often assei'ted, this tends to prove that
religion and philosophy had their origin in ignorance of
the natural causes of events. Not entirely so : through
ignorance men offered their prayers or supplications to
imaginary beings, but ignorance only caused the tnis-
direction of their prayers ; it was never the cause of their
heart-felt need of prayer. This exists independently of

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 43

fear and ignorance. Aspiration, the soul of all prayer,
has its existence in the very constitution of mind, and in
an ignorant age must necessarily have been manifested
in other than an enlightened method; and from that re-
mote epoch to our own time, man has never been able to
shake off this feeling of dependence on the Unseen.

" As thought advanced," says Mill, " not only all
physical agencies capable of ready generalization, as
Night, Morning, Sleep, Death, together with the more
obvious of the great emotional agencies. Beauty, Love,
War, but by degrees also the ideal products of a higher
abstraction, as Wisdom, Justice, and the like, were
severally accounted the work and manifestation of as
many special divinities. " The conception of higher power
could not exist in primitive minds, independent of the
idea of form. By the very constitution of our minds,
we cannot think of things at all, without calling into
action the imaginative faculties which deal with mental
pictures of material objects. To the primitive man these
mighty spirits must necessarily be endowed with form,
organs, and passions similar in nature to our own.

Long ages of steady advancement must have passed
away before man could rise to a comprehension of the
meaning of that grand statement — "God is Spirit!"
And still how many there are who fail to even dimly dis-
cern the depth and beauty of that saying, and persist in
regarding form as essential to personality ! Spirit is
illimitable, infinite; formless, yet not void; invisible, in-
tangible, yet real. Goethe has said, and it is as true now
as in prehistoric times, " Man is a true Narcissus ; he
delights to see his own image everywhere ; and he spreads
himself underneath the universe like the amalgam behind
the glass."

On the part of our spiritist friends we find a similar

44 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

failure to comprehend the radical diiference between
spirit and matter. In fact, most of them fail to make any
distinction whatever in essence, and recognize them as
virtually one, spirit being etherealized matter, more
highly rarefied than anything of which we are now cogni-
zant; possessing less density than a physical force, per-
meating or passing through any form of gross matter,
yet not affecting it physically.

We have it stated by " spirits," as reported by Judge
Edmonds in his book on "Spiritualism," that "spirit-
body or spirit-matter is intangible ; and it is so sublimated
that it is like electricity almost. We do not pass grossly
through matter ; but we will, and like a current of
electricity we pervade matter. Our clothing is adapted
to our conditions, and thus we are able to take with us
what is on us." The illustrious Swedenborg has so far
" progressed" since his advent in the spheres, as to have
the following highly "spiritual" conceptions: "Now,
spirits possess a material nature, and this nature, or
form, in some is so gross that it is almost subject to
laws as imperative as those on earth. I mean as
m.aterial laivs. Their material nature is under influ-
ences that require obedience, and though there is none
of the physical suffering you have, yet there is as much
material necessity and absolute want, in proportion
to the grossness of their nature, as there possibly can
be in your material world." " We eat and drink of
the fruit of the countries where we reside." " The new
spirit often finds it necessary to shelter its body from the
sun or storm."

Swedenborg gives us the following pretty picture of
the scenes which burst upon his spiritual vision on en-
tering the spiritual world : " As soon as I reached the
sixth sphere, I was conducted to my own home and left

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 45

alone. I sank upon the grass, aucl listened to the ex-
quisite siughig of the birds. ... I felt as though I was
just born into a most beautiful world. I went to my bed,
which was made of roses, and laid myself upon it, and
in a dreamy state of happiness fell asleep."

" I dressed myself, and went into my garden. I saw
all kinds of tempting fruit hanging upon the trees. . . .
I took some of the fruit, and eat it. It was the first time
I had tasted sjnritual food!" "When I rose to the
seventh sphere, I had but one guide, who carried a lamp."
Probably to find the "opening" through which they
were obliged to pass.* ("Supernal Theology.") Sweden-
borg's experience in the spirital world having been so
extensive and varied, we are loath to part with so valu-
able a witness, and hence will quote again from him, as
written through the mediamship of Dr. Dexter. He is
again describing the beauties of the sixth sphere :

" The newness of everything impressed me with de-
light. The air was pure, and the whole heavens were
clear and bright beyond all comparison. I saw no dif-
ference in the sky, except in its brightness and purity ;
and on looking abroad on the earth I could detect no dif-
ference in its appearance from our earth, except in the
heavenly beauty and harmony in tlie arrangement of
the landscape. The trees, the rocks and mountains, the
flowers and birds, the gushing torrents and murmuring
rivulets, the oceans and rivers, man, woman, and child,
all passed before me." " We occupy earth, — tangible,
positive earth, — as much as your earth ; but the advanced
state of both spirit and locality renders it unnecessary
for us to labor much to obtain food for the support of our

* " lu rising to the spheres, there are openings through which we rise.'
— Supernal Theology, vii.

46 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

bodies. Then, again, the earth brings forth spontane-
ouslj most of the food required for our bodies. Ad-
vanced spirits do not require as much food as those who
are below them. — Spiritualism, sec. xv.

The " clear vision " of the seer is in accord with these
angelic visitors. Andrew Jackson Davis reports as fol-
lows the result of his personal observations. " The
Spirit Land ! What do you mean by these terms ?
Something figurative, or something literal ? I mean a
substantial world ; a sphere similar in constitution to
this world, only in every conceivable respect one degree
superior to the best planet in our solar system.

"What is the external appearance of the Spirit Land?

"It appears like a beautiful morning! The surface is
diversified endlessly, with valleys, rivers, hills, mountains,
and innumerable parks. These parks are particularly
attractive. The ten thousand varieties of flowers lend a
peculiar prismatic charm to the far-extending territories,
and the soft divine ether in which the entire world is
bathed surpasses all conception." — Present Age and
Inner Life, p. 273.

The illustrious band of " spirits" who made the Ban-
ner of Light Free Circle their headquarters are no less
explicit. Cardinal Cheverus is the respondent.

" Ques. — It is said that the spiritual body possesses all
the organs of the physical body, and that there is nothing
without use. If this be the case, of what use to the spirit are
the teeth and stomach ? Do spirits eat food, masticating
and digesting it, and passing it out of the system, in the
spirit-world, as we do in this ? If not, of what use are
■ the internal organs?

"Ans. — The spirit-body possesses all the organs known
to the natural body, and all the attributes, all the func-
tions, known to the natural body, and more also ; for at

TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 4'[

each successive step in progress the spirit has need of
new functions, new attributes, and the divine Providence
provides for all it hath need of. Yes, the spirit hath a
stomach, has teeth, and uses them. Spirits have need
to eat, as you have. They do not subsist upon nothing.
Here you are in the rudimental state of spirit-life, and
here you eat. These spirits dwell in a more refined state,
but there they eat also. Receive and give is the order of
nature, divine and human. Therefore all the processes
by which progress is carried on here, are known also and
made use of in the spirit-world." — B. of L., August 14,
1869.

On another occasion, when Theodore Parker was pre-
siding, we have additional testimony. " (As each "spirit" is
only responsible for his own utterances, I desire to submit
quotations from those whose utterances are deemed most
authoritative, for, of course, the views of the medium are
immaterial.)

"Qiies. — Different answers have been given as to
whether spirit-animals exist in the spirit-world. What in-
formation would you give with reference to that question ?

"Ans. — There are spheres in the spirit-world where no
animals exist ; there are others where they do exist ; but
the sphere in which they are found most plentiful is that
which is contiguous to your earth,. — that which forms the
inner sphere, or spirit-circle of your earth. These animals
are a necessity to the inhabitants of the spheres in which
they are found ; they are not a necessity where they are
not found.

"Q. — In more advanced spiritual spheres there is spir-
itual scenery ; they have trees and plants, why not ani-
mals ? We should consider the animal kingdom higher
than the vegetable.

"J. — You say, in our 'more advanced spheres.' These

48 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

conditions exist in all spheres. We do not know why
spirits are not found in all spheres, but we know they are
not; no more than tropical flowers bloom in frigid zones.
They are not a necessity there." — B. of L., April 6, 1872.

Rabbi Lowenthal, through Mrs. Conant, describes a
" spiritual home" as " dwellings surrounded by the beau-
tiful in nature, perhaps by trees, water, shrubbery, flowers.
All that goes to make up a beautiful rural home here
generally constitutes the beauty of a spiritual home."
— B. of L., August 10, 1872. Father Fitz-James, another
member of the " band," declares that all the various secret
orders and fraternities existing among us " are perpetu-
ated in the spirit-world, and all the various modes of pro-
tection against fraud, through outsiders, exist there as
here."— 5. of L., June 8, 1872.

The "communications" from the spirit-world published
recently under the title of " Strange Visitors," embracing
articles on philosophy, science, government, and religion,
from Irving, "Willis, Thackeray, Richter, Humboldt, Sir
David Brewster, and others, give us the same crass con-
ception of spiritual existence. Margaret Fuller commu-
nicates an essay on "Literature in Spirit-Life." Pro-
fessor Olmsted informs us of the " Locality of the Spirit-
World ;" Edward Everett contributes his more matured
views on "Government;" Professor Bush discourses
pleasantly on " Life ami Marriage in Spirit-Life ;" W. E.
Burton informs us concerning " Acting in Spirit-Life ;"
and Charles B. Elliott tells us what he knows of " Paint-
ing in Spirit-Life.' We have in this volume minute
descriptions of " spiritual" architecture ; and from the
pen, if my memory serves me right, of jST. P. Willis, we
have a pen-and-ink sketch of a spiritual entertainment,
where "spiritual" guests were served by "spiritual"
waiters with " spiritual" food !

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 49

Andrew Jackson Davis has given the world some most
soarchiuy criticisms and earnest rebukes of this grosser
form of spiritism now so prevalent. His powerful pro-
tests against spasmodic and phenomenal spiritism entitle
him to the highest respect as an independent thinker.
Xo writer, however, has materialized spirit more com-
pletely than Mr. Davis. In his work, ''The Stellar Key;'
we find the same eiTor most grossly expressed :

"Until you come to perceive and comprehend these
grand progressive truths, namely : that the solid world
was once fluid ; that fluid was once vapor ; that vapor
was once ether ; that ether was once essence ; thatessence
is the highest material coyinecting link for the operation
of positive spiritual laws; that these natural inherent
laws constitute a negative medium for the manifestation
of invisible celestial positive force ; that this force is the
negative side of a yet more positive expression, called
power ; that this last potential demonstration is animated
by interior intelligence and more positive energies, termed
principles ; that these immutable principles of the universe
are external methods of positive and still more interior
ideas; that ideas are the self-thinking, inter-intelligent,
])urely spiritual attributes and properties of the Drvine
Positive Mind." (P. 90.)

Are these the distinguishing characteristics of spiritual
existence? The aspirations of the human mind are insa-
tiable, ever ascending and approaching the attainment
of higher and more spiritual development. Spiritual
progression is more than the removal of the form from
one material sphere into another; more than an entrance
through an "opening" to another physical existence.
The dying words of that highly-gifted and representa-
tive man, Goethe. " 3Iore light;' are the soul's truest
utterances, even though encased in a worn-out and
c 5

50 THE SPIRITUAL DELUS[::N.

enfeebled body, nearly ready to crumble into the dust.
In the revelations made by the "spirits" we find no
conception of true spirituality. Their arrangements of
spheres, one rising above the other, with trap-door en-
trances, differ only in material aspect. The soul of man
has higher and nobler aspirations than can be gratified
with such crude conceptions.

The mind gives out its own phenomena without
itself appearing, and originates in no previous phe-
nomenal compound. It is not phenomenal, a state of
some other things, but has its own successive states,
while it perdures through them all. Nor is it ideal ; for
that presupposes a mind to construct the ideal, and the
mind perdures through all its ideal constructions. All
mental action is conditional to some object or end of ac-
tion. There must be the agent acting, and the object or
end of action, and the mind discriminates between them
and assigns to each its own distinct identity. Its acts
only appear in consciousness ; and while its own succes-
sive states come and go, that still remains a something
that produces them, which does not come and go. The
mind lives under the act, and is a ground for it. Its
agency is its own and originates its own causality.
What mind is, remains an unsolved problem ; and while
we may have reason to conclude that it is not neces-
sarily dependent upon the physical organization, but
may survive it, we cannot picture to ourselves the con-
ditions of its independent existence. To speak of mind,
soul, and spirit as three distinct entities has no warrant
in true spiritual philosophy. The desire of man to
understand mental existence has necessarily led to phy-
sical expressions of it ; living in a world of sense, we
can apprehend only after its methods ; but to assume
that these expressions of mental existence are absolutely

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 51

correct would lead auy thoughtful uiiud to believe iu
materialism undisguised with pseudo-spiritualism.

Matter and mind should not be confounded ; and their
capacities cannot be judged from the sanje stand-point.
Matter is but the outward form of existence. " The ani-
mal is built up, not by masonry from without, but by an
organific power within, till he roams forth the elBgy of the
instinct that animates and rules him." But to attempt
to bring this "organific power" within the compass of
physiological laws as a physiological entity is more than
we have any warrant for in philosophy.

As well talk of the form of thought, the weight of love,
or the solidity of the affections, as to theorize on the at-
tenuation of spirit. They are materialistic who assert the
correlation of things so distinct, so opposed to each other,
both in essence and function, through " the material con-
necting links" of essences, laws, and principles. To term
such crassitude of thought and imbecile jargon spiritual-
ism par excellence is emphatically unphilosophical.

2. In Ua confusion of distinctions between phijsical and
spiritual realms of being.

The confusion of thought thus indicated pervades all
spiritistic literature. Warren Chase, of the Banner of
Light, asserts thought and love to be material substance.s.
Dr. P. B. Randolph has treated of love in the same sense
as a physician would of bile, as a material secretion.
A lecturer advertises in the Banner of Light a course
of lectures, the last of which has the following title,
" Spiritualism and Materialism "[Incontradictory," and
adds, " As I am a thorough spiritualist, as well as a
thorough infidel, I offer the last lecture as an alternative
to those infidels who are also spiritualists. "^=

* November 9, 1872.

52 TEE SPIRITUAL DELI S!ON.

Spirital beings are described as of different degrees of
grossness. " As they progress, they leave their grosser
part from sphere to sphere;" but in each successive
sphere we find cottages and husbandmen, palaces and
privileged classes, those who serve and those who are
waited upon. However " sublimated and etherealized"
their bodies may be, still, as we have seen, they possess
all the organs and functions of the physical body, and
they can influence, control, or "obsess" mortals. In
what manner are we controlled by these hybrid beings ?
Their material organism is too " sublimated and ethereal-
ized" to affect us physically, and their spiritual nature is
too trammeled with bodily organization to have any in-
fluence on us spiritually. They pass through the most
solid substances without leaving a trace of their presence,
yet delight in physical manifestations. If they are
spiritual, what influence can they wield over physical
forces ? how handle or direct electricity, magnetism, or
psychic force ? If they are mateyHal, as claimed, then
their "influence" is a material influence, and no evidence
of spiritual existence ; for they are not from a distinct
sphere of existence. If we are influenced by spiritual
beings, it must be through our spiritual natures, and not
through our physical nerves ; the communication aiust
come direct to the mind which, by the attainment of
higher spirituality, has been drawn nearer to the spiritual
world, to which our souls are ever attracted in their
highest moments, nearer to the fount of all spiritual
truth, closer in soul-relation with the higher realms, of
thought and existence. This is an inward, a subjective
experience ; not an outward, physical event induced by
sitting at a table and harmonizing nerves and will.

God occupies an anomalous position in spirital theology.
While assuming to be pantheistic, it bears no relation-

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 53

ship with the profound spiritualism of Spinoza, and looks
pityingly on the "crude" views of Carlyle and Emerson.
Swedenborg had some reputation while " in earth-life"
of being versed in metaphysical philosophy, and the
added years of experience and study in the highest
spheres should lead us to expect his contributions to
religious thought to be fraught with wisdom ; yet, if we
may believe Judge Edmonds, Swedenborg is capable
of uttering the following unphilosophical expressions :
" When the mind attempts to separate spirit from matter,
it has no just conception of spirit. Therefore we can-
not invest the Creator with form or personality. What
sort of f)erson would God be if the /orm depended upon
the idea of man ? The form would resemble that of
man: as he is supposed to be the image of the Being
who created him. There is no point from which an idea
can be formed; and if, with all the various attributes
with which the Creator is invested, there is but one point
from which any resemblance could be traced, how utterly
does the mind fiiil in carrying out this connection other
than through the whole of God's manifestations of him-
self through his w^orks ! But the condition of matter
necessary for such an amalgamation must be unknown to
us as well as to you ; for if the idenfification of spirit
xvith matter were unfolded to your minds, the whole
mystery of the Great First Cause would be understood."
— Spiritualism, sect. xxxi.

The above extract is not given to show that spirital
theology is pantheistic, but to show the effect of spirital
knowledge on the mind of Swedenborg, — that he, of all
men, can return and commit so glaring an error as to
confound form with personality, to speak of them as if
they were identical or correlative in thought. We are
told that God is a " Germ,"— the " Universal Germ."

5*

54 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

" In short, God exists as a principle ;" and it is added,
" The soul of man is a part of God," — a finite edition of
an infinite " Germ ;" too often an unprincipled portion
of the omnipresent "principle." The following passage
from Judge Edmonds's work on " Spiritualism" will most
fully illustrate the confusion of thought existing among
spiritists, and will need no comment:

"In short, God exists as a principle, . . . still resolv-
ing itself into direct and pertinent manifestations of the
incomprehensible specialties of his nature. . . . God is
the very spirit of life in everything; and it is eternally
at work, sublimating and progressing every particle of
matter, from the rudest form to its ultimate end, the im-
mortal spirit of man !"

" The universal germ" is made more intelligible by being
described as " pervading essence" with moral attributes 1

In this same volume are communications from- " my
Lord Bacon" and "Daniel Webster," and heralded as
"profound" contributions to modern thought.* "Daniel

a- « Truly, if any man, who erer read ten lines of Bacon or one treat-
ise of the thoughtful Swede, can believe that either of those men could
have perpetrated, even in their school-boy days, such rhapsodical in-
anities as are there fathered upon their far-progressed spirits, — certainly
credulity can no farther go, and never was known to go so far before.

" It cannot be said in this case, in order that the ' reader may find no
difficulty in extricating his mind from doubts,' that it is 'an unwarrant-
able thing to look for instruction much superior to the mental development
of the medium ;' because, in the first place, these were reckoned ra.ther un-
commonly wise men while 'in the form/ and their spirits are now far
progressed; and in the next place, the communications are kept clear of
the mind of the medium, and only come through his arm. There remain,
therefore, for all minds not precommitted to credulity, but two possible
methods of solution of this diflSculty, — the moral and intellectual ab-
surdity involved in the asserted authorship of these communications :
one is to suppose that these spirits were 'falsely personated,' and the
other is to recur to the theory of Synesius, already referred to, and to
suppose that the brain-dribble of the medium himself flowed down

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 55

Webster" is responsible for the following: "When we
say light, we mean the pure essence of God that the sun
reflects into your system. It is fraught with the life
eternal ; is the secret of your happiness, and the cause of
your existence. . . . The partial obscuration of light at
night is for the resting of spirits." What terrible ma-
terialists our coal-miners and coal-consumers must be ! for
science has taught us to look upon coal as the tangible
form of the solar rays " reflected into our system" mil-
lions of years ago, and they have calmly consumed count-
less tons of " pure essence" to satisfy material wants 1

In their moral philosophy w^e find the same confusion
of thought, — a failure to discriminate between the relative
and the absolute. "Whatever is, is right," is regarded as
an axiom, and, frequently held wnth the lowest and most
depraved conceptions, is urged as an excuse for the most
flagrant violations of the law of Right and Duty, which
notwithstanding exists in humanity, and is ever mani-
festing itself when not followed.

" Powers there are
That touch each other to the quick, in modes
Which the gross world no sense has to perceive;"

and to attempt the task by talking of Germs and Prin-
ciples indifferently as he and it, or correlating Laws and
Ideas by " the material connecting link" of Essences, is
an unphilosophical confusion of

" The seen and the unseen,
The world of matter and the world of spirit."

through his arm upon the paper. Incredulous men will adopt, som-e one
and some the other, of these solutions: for myself, I profess my most re-
ligious belief in the latter." — ApoeatastasU, or Progress Backwards (Bur-
lington, Vt., 1854), p. 170.

56 ■ THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

3. In its claim of higher spirituality for rejuvenated
polytheism.

It has already lioen sufficiently shown that the only
conception of the spiritual beings possessed by spiritists
is that of " etherealized" material beings. God is a
" Germ," indifferently termed he or it. Prayer is re-
garded as a vain attempt to change the purposes of an
imaginary deity ; destitute themselves of the faintest ru-
diments of spiritual perception, they can view it in no
other light than that of offering advice or entreating
material benefits. Spiritual truth is never attained
through outward observances, and those who are truly
spiritual never attempt to make these the means to that
end. Spiritual truth is perceived from within, and true
souls have lived in all ages who have been able to obtain
glimpses of the higher life and its eternal realities. Not
to allude to any whose names have become tiresome to
spiritists rejoicing in the light of a New Dispensation,
we will quote from Buddha, as one that obtained a few
such glimpses even in his day, long before the tide of pro-
gression had reached the high-water mark indicated by
modern spirital literature and " inspirational" lecturers.

The future sXaie-^ Nirvana — is thus described by
Buddha :

" The wind cannot be squeezed in the hand, nor can its
color be told ; yet the wind is. Even so Nirvana is, but
its properties cannot be told."

"Nirvana, like space, is causeless, does not live nor
die, and has no locality."

" Nirvana is not, except to the being who attains it."
" Nirvana is real, all else is phenomenal."
In that remote day this was regarded as very fair
spiritual philosophy; but the waves of " progression" have

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION: 5^

borne us very far from it, to reach, in modern spiritism,
" tlie spiritual philosophy of the nineteenth century,"
with its Demosthenes orators and Benjamin Franklin
editors ! Phenomenal spiritists are as deaf to the signifi-
cance of these words of Buddha as they are to the spirit
of the scientific thought of the age in which they live,
move, and have at least a physical being. No " mysti-
cism" will meet the requirements of their ardent souls.
Their inner natures revolt from the " dry husks" of the
past, and crave demonstrative evidence and a present
intimate knowledge of the beautiful fields and fruitful
orchards that lie on the other side of the " pearl-strand
shore."

Although a distinguished itinerant orator has protested
against the supposition that " spirits" are more than
" men and women with their jackets off," still the greater
body of spiritists do regard them in a far higher sense.
They are supposed to inform us of approaching personal
calamities; therefore, if true, we must accord them the
power of reading the future by other means than by those
aff<)rded by the study of the past. Death is foreseen, and
the exact moment of departure revealed to the interested
individual : though death be the result of accident, the
prescient mind of the " spirit" beholds it as plainly as we
do the past. Their power over physical laws — a power,
as we have seen, incapable of being reduced to a scien-
tific knowledge of its extent or controlling laws — raises
them higher than mere jacketless men and women, unless
the chemistry of death effects some marvelous transfor-
mation in us ; and this is not admitted by spiritists.

" Congres!>es of spirits," says J. M. Peebles {alias The

Spiritual Pilgrim), "'conceived the plan of laying the

corner-stone of this late spiritual movement. . . . The

propelling powers were spirits, -angels, heavenly hosts,

c*

58 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

and Grod himself." "Congresses," "World-builders,"
neuter " Germs ;" are not these the indications of polythe-
istic thought rather than of spiritual philosophy ? In
fact, the spiritists themselves glory in the points of resem-
blance between their system and ancient polytheism.
" The Spiritual Pilgrim" wrote his " Seers of the Ages"
to maintain this resemblance. A recent writer in the
Banner of Light (of Nov. 9, 1812) makes the following
declaration :

" Is phenomenal spiritualism a reality ? In Hindo-
stau, Egypt, and Greece, several thousand years ago,
phenomenal spiritualism bore a striking resemblance to
that of the present day. The statues and images repre-
senting what are termed the heathen gods and goddesses
were in reality statues erected to the memory of their
great men who had departed from the earth-sphere. They
were made instrumental for obtaining spirit-manifesta-
tions, by the aid of mediums (priestesses), as at present.
But we have no space to devote to this department, and
hasten," etc., etc.

Willing to be made " instrumental" in imparting in-
telligence to our spiritist friends, a few instances of these
ancient manifestations are here described for their benefit.
Tacitus gives a description of the celebrated oracle at the
fountain of Colophon, from which we extract the follow-
ing: "There is not a woman here, as at Delphi, but a
priest is elected from certain families, and mostly from
Miletus, who is informed only of the name and number
of those who come to consult the Oracle. He then retires
into the cavern, and, drinking of the secret fountain,
though ignorant generally of letters and poetry, he de-
livers responses, in verse, to whatever mental questions
any one has in his mind." — Annal., lib. ii. Here we ob-
serve several " striking resemblances," not only in the

THE SPIRITUAL D EL US 10 X.

59

"manifestations," but in the character of the medium
as well.

Let us continue our quotations. Herodotus relates
the following : " Then was performed a great miracle.
F'or Mus, as is related by the Thebaus, having visited
various oracles, came to the temple of Apollo Ptoi.
There followed him three men publicly selected by the
Thebans for the purpose of recording the responses
which might be given. But on arriving at the temple
they were astonished to hear the priestess answer in some
foreign language, instead of speaking Greek, so that they
had nothing to do. Whereupon Mus, taking from them
their tablets, wrote down the responses of the Oracle ;
and, having made the record, he departed."— f7rania.
Considering that this was nearly twenty-five hundred
years before the present "progressed" age, we must
admit it was a very creditable " manifestation," and, were
it not contrary to the idea of "progression," we might
be led to regard it as more demo7istrative than modern
Flashes of Light.

As reincarnation is taught by modern "spirits," we
may fancy that in the following extract from the geog-
rapher Strabo we have some information concerning
the medium Home in his former state of existence:
" Under Mount Soracte is the town of Feronia, which
is also the name of the goddess of the place, who is
held in great honor there. There is also a grove of
Feronia, in which are performed sacred rites of a very
wonderful kind. For those possessed by this daemon walk
with naked feet over burning coals and hot ashes, with-
out suffering any injurious effects from the fire." Lib. v.

" Spirit-forms" were also plainly discernible in that
unprogressed age, and were made the subject of "scien-
tific investigation." Porphyry gave evidence of possess-

60 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

ing a critical spirit when he asked, " What is the indica-
tion of a god, or angel, or archangel, or demon, or a
cerlain archon, or a soul, being present ? For to speak
boastingly, aud to exhibit a phantasm of a certain quality,
is common to gods and demons, and to all the more ex-
cellent genera." But the. spirital philosophers were
equal to the emergency ; and the following scientific de-
scription and analysis of the manifestations was offered
by lamblichus, — a most competent authority and careful
" investigator :"

" The phantasms, or luminous appearances, of the
gods are uniform; those of demons are various; . . .
those of souls are all various. And the phasmata in-
deed of the gods will be seen shining with a salutary
light ; those of archangels will be terrible ; those of
angels more mild ; those of demons will be dreadful ;
those of heroes are milder than those of demons ; those
of arehons produce astonishment; and those of souls
are similar to the heroic phasmata. The phasmata of
the gods are entirely immutable according to magnitude,
form, and figure ; those of archangels fall short in same-
ness; those of demons are at different times seen in a
different form, and appear at one time great and at
another time small, yet are still recognized to be the phas-
mata of demons ; and those of souls imitate in no small
degree! the demoniacal mutations. ... In the forms of
the gods which are seen by the eyes, the most clear
spectacles of truth are perceived ; the images of demons
are obscure; . . . and the images of souls appear to
be of a shadowy form. Again, the fire of the gods
appears to be entirely stable ; that of archangels is
tranquil ; but that of angels is stably moved. The fire
of demons is unstable ; but that of heroes is, for the
most part, rapidly moved. The fire of those arehons

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 61

that are of the first rank is tranquil, but of those that
are of the last order is tumultuous ; aud the tire of souls
is transmuted in a multitude of motions."

Here we have the testimony of one who has both used
ills eyes and mental faculties to some purpose, and has
svsiematized the phenomena and orders of spirital beings,
so that we may recot>nize each at once and determine
the nature of the "influence." Here, also, we observe a
more thorough acquaintance with the spirital world; for
in ancient times communications from, and apparitions
of, gods and demons, archangels and angels, heroes and
archons, and, last in the scale, souls, were common
events. Our modern " investigators" have only as yet
recognized three classes, " spirits, angels, and heavenly
hosts," and remain in entire ignorance of the superior
powers known to the ancients, that manifested with their
own particular " luminous appearance," as described above
by lamblichus. Let us continue our reference to this
authority in things spirital, and observe the great bene-
fit derived from understanding the characteristics of the
spirital forms, and the danger of neglecting such a scien-
tific classification of facts :

" That, however, which is the greatest thing is this,
— that he who draws down a certain divinity sees a
spirit descending and entering into some one, recognizes
its magnitude and quality ; and from this spectacle, the
greatest truth and power of the god, and especially the
order he possesses, as likewise about what particulars
he is adapted to speak the truth, what the power is
which he imparts, and what he is able to effect, become
known to the scientijic.''^

Sjiirital science has yet much to accomplish to even
regain what was known two thousand years ago, it
would seem, when the above particulars could be de-

6

62 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

termined at sight. Our " progression" must have been
in a backward direction, as we may partly glean from
the following, taken from the same scientific work, "On
Mysteries :" " For when a certain error happens in the
theurgic art, and not such autopic or self-visible images
are seen as ought to occur, but others instead of these,
then inferior powers assume the form of the more ven-
erable orders, and pretend to he those whose forms they
assume ; and hence arrogant words are uttered by them,
and such as exceed the authority they possess. . . .
Much falsehood is derived from the perversion which it
is necessary the priests should learn from the whole
order of the phasmata, by the proper observation of
which they are able to confute and reject the fictitious
pretexts of those inferior powers, as by no means per-
taining to true and good spirits."

Where now is the shade of lamblichus ? If Demos-
thenes can again thrill the hearts of men with his elo-
quence, and St. John hold sweet converse with " the
Spiritual Pilgrim,"— if Joshua and Samuel have their
latest word for sale at the Banner of Light counter, and
Plato responds to Dr. Dresser in New York,— why can we
not have the pleasure of hearing from lamblichus again,
and be kept from the danger of being misled by de-
ceiving "inferior powers," from whom the -very " elect"
are not secure ? Is it that this ancient sage is so thor-
oughly disgusted with the present management of the
" theurgic art" that he will have none of it ? or has he
become reincarnated in human form, perhaps in the
Jovian world ? It is sad to think we have so deterior-
ated from the ancient standard, as is evidenced by the
declaration of our seer that " it is an unwarrantable thing
to look for perfect wisdom, or for instruction much above
the mental development of the medium" !

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 63

Lucian informs us that the statue of Apollo in Syria,
when neglected, would sweat and come forth into the
room ; and once in his presence, when borne by the
priests, " he left them below upon the ground, w^hile he him-
self was borne aloft and alone in the air." lamblichus in-
forms us that " to be borne along sublimely in the air" was
one of the ordinary indications of inspiration iu his day.

One more reference to ancient spiritism, and we will
resume our study of its modern counterpart. Philos-
tratus, in his life of Apollonius Tyanensis (book iii.,
c. 15, n), relates this striking physical manifestation :

" ' / have seen,'' said Apollonius, ' the Brahmins of
India dwelling on the earth and not on the earth, living
fortified without fortifications, possessing nothing and yet
everything.' This he spoke somewhat enigmatically;
but Damis says they sleep upon the ground, but that the
earth furnishes them with a grassy couch of whatever
plants they desire. That he himself had seen them, ele-
vated two cubits above the surface of the earth, walk in
the air ! not for the purpose of display [these were the
ancient mediums, remember], which was quite foreign to
the character of the men, but because whatever they did,
elevated, in common with the sun, above the earth, would
be more acceptable to the Deity. . , . Having bathed,
they formed a choral circle, having larchus for their
coryphaeus, and, striking the earth with their divining-
rods, it rose up, — no otherwise than does the sea under
the power of the wind, — and caused them to ascend into
the air .'"

Did space permit, we should see all the phenomena
recorded in ancient writers, and, unfortunately for tlie
theory of "progression," far exceeding the records in our
spirital papers. Mediums were then encircled with a
luminous halo, and " spirit-forms" were each accompanied

64 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

by a peculiar spirital spectrum, enabling us to immediately
recognize their social standing and character for veracity.
Voices were heard speaking from statues, musical mani-
festations abounded, and trumpets were then, as now,
receptacles of spiritual truth. Suspension in the air, not
only of mediums, but of statues and other inert bodies,
was of common occurrence. All the various phases of
the trance M^ere well known, and spirital beings mani-
fested without the aid of a medium, producing spirital
writing and singing. Answering mental questions, and
speaking in foreign tongues, were " tests" to many an
anxious "investigator ;" and, to carry out the " striking
resemblances," many of the learned of that age regarded
the revelations in the same light as their successors in
this. Cicero said, " Some of them are the merest fiction,
some, inconsiderate babble, never of any authority with a
man of even moderate capacity." This conclusion bears
a "striking resemblance" to that of Professor Huxley,
who says, " But supposing the phenomena to be genu-
ine, they do not interest me. If anybody would endow
me with the faculty of listening to the chatter of old
women and curates in the nearest cathedral town, I
should decline the privilege, having better things to do.
And if the folks in the spiritual world do not talk more
wisely and sensibly than their friends report them to do,
I put them in the same category.. The only good I can
see in a demonstration of the truth of ' spiritualism' is to
furnish an additional argument against suicide. Better
live a crossing-sweeper than die and be made to twaddle
by a medium hired at a guinea a seance .'"

However deficient in a clear apprehension of the
" theurgic art " our modern spiritists may be, some of
them seem determined not to be outdone in the matter
of marvelous relations. Take the following illustrations

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 65

as a few out of many to be met with in spirital literature,
and undoubtedly quite as authentic as any related of Apol-
lonius. In tlie English edition of the biography of the
Davenport brothers, by a Mr. Nichols, we may read the
following " well-attested manifestation :"

" The strange event which took place is variously
vouched for; but I have preferred to take the facts from
the lips of Mr. Ira Davenport, the elder of the two brothers.
He says he was walking one evening in the streets of
Buffalo, with his brother William, this being the winter
of 1853-4, and the boys in their twelfth and fourteenth
years.

"Here Ira's recollection ceases. The next thing he
knew was that he found himself and his brother in a snow-
bank in a field, with no tracks near him, near his grand-
father's house, at Mayville, Chautauqua County, New
York, aixty miles from Buffalo. On waking up William,
who had not returned to consciousness, they made their
way to their grandfather's house, where they were received
with surprise and their story heard with astonishment.
Their father was immediately informed by telegraph of
their safety and whereabouts ; and he, good obstinate
man, set himself to find out how they got to Mayville.
On inquiry, he found that no railway-train could have
taken them, after the hour they left home, more than a
portion of the distance, and the conductors on the road
knew the boys, and had not seen them. 'John' declared
through the trumpet, after their return home, that he had
transported them."

If it were not for the express declaration made by
"John" that he had caused this wonderful flight, we
should be tempted to believe that the "spirit" Was no
other than the lamented Peter Schlemihl, quondam pos-
sessor of the celebrated seveu-league boots, concerning

G*

66

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

whicli we have read in more youthful days in an equally
veracious history. In the American edition of the above
work the foregoing narrative appears in a somewhat
different form : being nearer home, and with, perhaps, the
entirely unnecessary precaution of not " spreading it on
too thick," we find that one of the brothers was transported
across the Niagara River into a snow-bank on the Canada
side. Reducing the number one-half, and the miles from
sixty to two or three, would of course make the story
seem less miraculous and more credible.

The writer has read descriptions of hundreds of mani-
festations, and witnessed scores, but for demonstrative
purposes the following is yielded the palm, and com-
mended to all inquiring minds anxious for spirital evi-
dence. Nichols is again our authority :

" The room was not darkened, only obscured to a pleas-
ant twilight. After several of the usual phenomena were
exhibited, the two boys were raised from their chairs,
carried across the room, and held up, with their heads
downwards, before a window. ' We distinctly saw,' says
an eye-witness, ' two gigantic hands attached to about three-
fifths of a monstrous arm, and those hands grasped the
ankles of the two boys, and thus held the lads, heels up
and heads downwards, before the window, now raising,
now lowering them, till their heads bade fair to make
acquaintance with the carpet on the floor !' This curious
but assuredly not dignified exhibition was several times
repeated, and was plainly seen by every person present.
Among these persons was an eminent physician. Dr.
Blanchard, then of Buffalo, now of Chicago, Illinois, who
was sitting on a chair by the side of Elizabeth Davenport ;
and all present saw an immense arm, attached to no ap-
parent body, growing as it were out of space, glide along
near the floor'till it reached Dr. Blanchard's chair, when

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 61

the hand grasped the lower back-round of Elizabeth's
chair, raised it from the floor with the child upon it, bal-
anced it, and then raised it to the ceiling. The chair and
the child remained in the air, without contact with any
person or thing, for a space of time estimated to be a min-
ute, and then descended graduall}^ to the place it first
occupied."

This demonstrative proof of immortality is deemed
worthy of pi-eservation in the American edition, where it
may be seen with a full-page illustration of the brothers
held in the arm, thus rendering assm-ance doubly sure.
As this two-handed arm could not possibly have been
one belonging to a jacketless man or woman, we may safely
conjecture it must have been the personal property of one
of Professor Lyon's " world-builders " who had graci-
ously consented to aid the manifestations with his supe-
rior powers. We cannot, however, regard it as so much
of a condescension, after all, for in thousands of " circles"
the expenditure of a small amount of fractional currency
may secure us the ineffable happiness of having our limbs
pinched by Benjamin Franklin, in his moments of editorial
relaxation, while George Washington tips the table !

Daniel Dunglas Home, whose aerial flights and spirital
elongations have made his name familiar with all, mani-
fested his mediumistic powers at an early age, if we may
credit his biography. We there find the following:

" On the 26th April, Old Style, or 8th May, according
to our style, at seven in the evening, and as the snow
was fast falling, our little boy was born in the town-
house, situate on the Gagarines Quay, in St. Petersburg,
where we were still staying. A few hours after his
.birth, his mother, the nurse, and I heard for several
hours the warbling of a bird, as if singing over him.
Also, that night, and for two or three nights afterwards,

68 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

a bright starlike light, which was clearly visible from
the partial darkness of the room, in which there was only
a night-lamp burning, appeared several times directly
over its head, where it remained for some moments, and
then slowly moved in the direction of the door, where it
disappeared. This was also seen by each of us at the
same time. The light was more condensed than those
which have been so often seen in my presence upon
previous and subsequent occasions : it was brighter and
more distinctly globular."

The papers of Macon, Ga., during the month of Oc-
tober, 1872, gave long accounts of certain strange occur-
rences said to have taken place at a house not far from
that city, on the Macon and Brunswick Railroad. Though
" supernatural manifestations" have been more or less
frequent for the past twenty years, it is only lately that
the phenomena have become so violent. As this account
is so recent, and so characteristic of modern polytheism,
a report of it, not from a spiritistic source, may not be
unwelcome. A reporter of the Telegraph and Messenger
(Macon, Ga.) visited the scene of these phenomena, and
from his account the extracts below are taken :

" Mr. Surreucy's house is a two-story frame house,
plastered and weather-boarded. Mr. Surrency, on re-
turning home Thursday, the 10th instant [October, 1812],
was astonished to observe the glass goblets begin to
tumble off the slab, and the crockery to roll from the
table and, falling on the floor, break into atoms. Books,
brickbats, pieces of wood, smoothing-irons, biscuits, po-
tatoes, tin pans, buckets, pitchers, and numerous oiher
articles flew about the house pron)iscuously, without any
visible cause. They seemed to spring up involuntarily^
and often were never seen to move until they were shat-
tered at the feet or against the wall.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 69

" Late in the afturuoou, while all the iumates of the
house were at their supper, a uoise was heard in an ad-
joining room. A gentleman was promptly at the door,
the windows were all secured, and it was impossible for
any one to escape without being observed. Presently
a book fell in the passage, which only a few moments
previous was certainly seen in the bookcase.

" On Monday the manifestations were again renewed
in a more wonderful and frightful manner. While a
company of ladies and gentlemen were seated in one of
the rooms of the house, a hog suddenly appeared in the
viiddle of the floor, and, without the slightest manifesta-
tion of fear, executed a few manoeuvres and evolutions,
when it quickly retreated to an adjoining room, where, in
full view of the company, it suddenly vanished, like a
ghostly apparition."

An apology may be deemed necessary for presenting
the above ; but such recitals as these compose the great
bulk of " accredited manifestations," and are greedily
swallowed by spiritists as " tests" of sj)iritual com-
munion! If all that is absurd or contemptible in the
subject were omitted, there could be no examination of
spiritism. Let us again refer to the reporter's account,
to see an accurate description of "investigation" after
the spirital methods :

" An old sea-captain, who has been an eye-witness to
the phenomena and demonstrations incident to a sailor's
life and several voyages around the world, came to the
place determined to solve the mystery. He watched
with fixed attention for some time a smoothing-iron,
which heretofore, by its supernatural exploits, seemed to
be ring-master of the game. Becoming exhausted and
thirsty, he longed for a bottle of the ' cratur,' which he
understood was in the other room, when instantaneously

to THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

the bottle fell on the flooi* at his side. He partook of the
liquor, but the bottle disappeared as mysteriously as it
came!" Truly a "new dispensation" is upon us if these
tales find believing readers, even though it be one of a
questionable sort.

The " spheres " are not alvi^ays painted in the
most gorgeous hues ; for we iind that many of their
denizens are of an evil and repulsive character. Lying
spirits return and are accredited with all the communica-
tions proving untrue. As sufficient space has been de-
voted to the power of the demi-gods and their modern
Olympus, a few words on the abode of the " inferior
powers," as old lamblichus termed them, may not be out
of place. Our modern polytheism has also its sombre
abode, where dwell the " unprogressed" spirits, as they
are termed in the " Whatever is, is right" theory ; and
this abode, we are informed, is the second sphere, — the
one nearest to us ; for we inhabit the first sphere, or
" physical plane."

In all of the " spheres" we have seen material objects
abounding, as on our " plane." Even in the highest
" sphere," we are told by the spirital Swedenborg, " the
land is subdivided into communities or neighborhoods,
and in thein the land, is also again laid out in parcels /or
each to till for the benefit of all.^'' If the reward of
spiritual growth consist in raising spirital cabbages or
etherealized potatoes for our neighbors, we may well
wonder what is the penalty of living an " unprogressed"
life on this " plane."

Dr. Dexter, or the " spirits" through him, informs us
that " every soul that is out of keeping with divine
order must remain in the license of a perverse will, for-
ever vile, until restored by the regenerating influences
of progression upward and onward forever." These

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION: -Jl

" spirits" are necessarily in the lowest abodes,- — their
" uuprogressed" condition rendering them more subject
to the laws of gravity ; the weight of remorse causing
them to gravitate to their appropriate plane, and this, as
Judge Edmonds informs us, "embraces not only this
earth, but many worlds." Here we find that the moral
darkness resulting from being "out of keeping with
divine order" is manifested in the black color of the
bodies of all on this " plane." Consequently, we may
regard a mulatto " spirit" as one already advanced on
the highway of progression, and indeed " a man and a
brother" ! Small chance, however, has he for entering
the "spiral paths" of progression, if we may credit
Judge Edmonds's friends, as reported in " Spiritualism."
Notwithstanding " the soul is a cosmopolite amid the
eternity of worlds," yet it is led " by the force and di-
rection of its affinities to select the associates with which
it will daily mingle, and the neighborhood in which it
will reside." Being controlled by " affinities" and "force
of circumstances," these " spirits" lack, in the first place,
the duj^osiiion, and, secondly, the " force of circum-
stances" presents some difficulty, for their "sphere" is an
immense jAain, as level as a Western prairie, with the
exception of one high and rugged mountain in its centre,
up whose sides winds the ascending path of progression.
On this sterile plain farming leaves them but little time
either for philosophical reflections on the state of their
souls or ten-hour conventions for the relief of their bodies ;
for " they toil for sustenance, and, as their land is sandy,
and no sunlight, there must be great labor to enable
the earth [' sphere'] to bring forth enough to sustain
them." (Ibid., p. 222.)

This disposition for " higher life" is an essential pre-
requisite for climbing the central mountain, to obtain

12 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

egress through the trap-door that opens to the sphere
above. Evil passions and wicked propensities, or, in
the new vernacular, an " unprogressed" condition, ia-
crease their specific gravity, and present a physical ob-
stacle to mountain rambles ; but a " sincere, dignified,
elevated, soaring, self-sacrificing agony" of remorse and
contrition has very much the same effect upon them as
the introduction of hydrogen gas into a balloon, under
the influence of which their spiral ascent grows easier
each moment until the summit is reached, and with one
elastic bound they spurn the sandy soil beneath them,
and shoot upwards through the "opening" to "higher
life," where they abide until a fresh inflation is possible,
and then again to newer and brighter worlds, still up-
ward! This is "progression."

Nor need we confine our attention to Judge Edmonds's
work to find these crude polytheistic conceptions of the
future life; for the illustrious band that control Mrs.
Conant indorse many of these views. In the Banner
of Light, of July 6, 1812, we find the "controlling
spirit," Father Fitzjames, answering a question as to his
first emotions on entering spirit-life. The reverend father
gives a gloomy picture of his introduction to spirital
scenes. He had yielded to temptation while " in the
form," and became a drunkard. Let us listen to his ex-
perience: "When I entered the spirit-M'orld, I found
myself in a condition of unhappiness, and I was dissatis-
fied with my surroundings. ... I wandered on for
months. ... I longed to soar away from my own
darkness.

" Ques. (From the audience.) — I would inquire whether
the darkness spoken of was mereh^ mental, or was it ob-
jective darkness complementary to a mental condition ? or
whether it was anything similar to a lack of vision here?

THE Sr [RITUAL DELUSION. Y3

"Ans It is a mental condition, and yet it affects ob-
jective things. I saw beautiful scenes, ana met beauti-
ful people, and they were all hideous to me. . . . The
spiritual sun shone brightly, but I did not appreciate it
any more than I did the sun of this life, which used to
often shine brightly when I was drunk."

The following criticism on "life in the spheres," from
some unknown pen, is so pertinent that I gladly quote it
here :

" To illustrate the extreme sublimation to which con-
stant attrition and metamorphosis have at length drawn
out the physical man (in the seventh sphere), we are
exultingly told that many of the higher spirits have no
need to eat oftener than once a week ! Taking that as
the basis of a calculation, we may easily discover the
precise ratio of their fineness to the texture of our own
mortality. Once a week to three times a day! That
would make one bricklayer of Gotham equal, in a fair
fight, to about twenty-one spherical farmers of the very
highest capacity !"

Need more be said to show the parallel existing be-
tween ancient polytheism and modern spiritism, — not
only similar in philosophy and phenomena, but account-
ing for errors by similar methods ? Read the following
extracts from the ancient believers, and see how closely
they tally with the reasoning of our modern pagans:

" There are some w^ho suppose that there is a certain
obedient genus of demons, which is naturally fraudulent,
omniform, and various, and which assumes the appearance
of gods, and good demons, and the souls of the deceased,
and that through these everything which appears to be
either good or evil is effected." (Porphyry to the Egyp-
tian Anebo.)

In another place he says, —

D 7

74 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

" By the contrary kind of demons all prestigious effects
are produced. Tliey constantly cause apparitions and
spectral appearances, skillful by deceptions which excite
amazement to impose upon men. It is their very nature
to lie ; because they wish to be considered gods." (Por-
phyry apud Eusebium.)

" Evil spirits, after a fantastic and fallacious method,
simulate the presence of gods and good demons (spirits),
and therefore command their worshipers to be just, in
order that they themselves may seem to be good like the
gods. Since, however, they are by nature evil, they
willingly induce evil when invoked to do so, and prompt
us to evil. These are they who in the delivery of oracles
[messages] lie and deceive." (lamblichus.)

The following, we might almost venture to say, must
have been " inspirational :"

"But an intellectual perception, above all things, sep-
arates whatever is contrary to the true purity of the phan-
tastic spirit ; for it attenuates this spirit in an occult and
ineffable manner, and extends it to divinity. And when it
becomes adapted to this exalted energy, it draws, by a cer-
tain affinity of nature, a divine spirit into conjunction with
the soul : as, on the contrary, when it is so contracted and
diminished by condensation that it cannot fill the ven-
tricles of the brain, which are the seats assigned to it by
providence, then, nature not enduring a vacuum, an evil
spirit is insinuated in the place of one divine." (Sy-
nesius.)

" These impure spirits . . . gravitate downwards, and
seduce from the true God towards matter, render life
turbid, and sleep unquiet : gliding secretly into the bodies
of men, they simulate diseases, terrify the mind and
distort the limbs." (Minutius Eelix.)

" The regions of the air are filled with spirits, who are

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 75

demons and heroes; that from them come all kinds of
divination, omens, etc. ; that all kinds of divination are
to be held in honor." (Pythagoras.)

Compare the last quotation with the following inspira-
tional gem from the " spirit" Theodore Parker:

" Ques. — How does a fine normal speaker, such as
Henry Ward Beecher, differ from a medium under what
we term inspirational control ?

'^Ans. — The difference is simply in degree ; for all fine
speakers are inspirational speakers. They cannot be
fine speakers unless they are open to the truths that exist
in life; and therefore they are inspirational mediums.^'
B. of L., Nov. 16, 1872.

" O Achilles, the many assert that you are dead, but
I do not coincide with that opinion, neither does Pythag-
oras my master. If we are right, show us your shadow.
For allow me to say that my eyes might be of much ser-
vice to you, could you use them as witnesses of your
being alive." (Apollonius Tyanensis.)

" * * * holding conversation with the shades and
spirits of the deceased." (Pliny.)

In the editorial columns of the Banner of Light (of
Nov. 16, 1872) is an allusion to a suicide-cell in a
prison, in which several persons have hanged themselves.
There is nothing so very remarkable about this in itself,
for similar narratives may be met with in almost every
work on mental philosophy ; but spirital science has
solved the mystery. A young girl who had attempted
suicide in this cell was restored to life, and said that " a
little white woman" had appeared to her in the night,
and " persuaded her" to hang herself. " To test the matter,
a stranger — a man — who had applied for a night's lodg-
ing was put into the cell, with a full knowledge of its
character. At a certain hour he was visited by the same

t6 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

little white woman, who tried to persuade him to do the
deed she had led others to do before him. He was in
due time relieved of his painful suspense, and told his
storj, though he was not previously apprised of the visit
of the little woman. It appears that some time ago such
a woman did hang herself in that cell, and she revisits it
regularly to gratify her propensity as often as the tem-
perament or condition of the occupant allows her."

In this case the cell is the medium, it will be observed,
for the exercise of her evil "propensity." I shall make
no comment on this, but, together with the analogous
quotations from more ancient writers, lay them before the
reader to show the identity of thought between the two
classes of spiritists.

If spirituality, or its modern equivalent, " sublimation,"
is acquired only as we recede from the earth to higher
" spheres," we may fairly question whether the acquaint-
ance is desirable of those in the " spheres" nearest the
earth, whether the black and tawny " spirits" that have
not as yet progressed by the exhilarating agony of remorse
out of the " sphere" adjacent to us are, after all, the safest
guides to enlighten us on spiritual duties ! The spiritist
will accept the quotations above as confirmatory of the
truth of his position, but the thoughtful reader will hesi-
tate to accredit a theory on such questionable credentials.

Throughout the whole jargon of words constituting the
so-called " spiritual philosophy of the nineteenth cen-
tury," we find in the " accredited manifestations" and
descriptions of the "spheres" only a weak and contempti-
ble rejuvenation of the polytheism of ruder ages.

4. In its fallacious mental philosophy.
The genuine spiritist recognizes no such thing as genius.
"Spirit-power" is claimed for every act done, word

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. "77

spoken, or emotion felt. Every invention with which
the world has been blessed is the result of ideas impressed
on the mind by unseen beings. Every poet, from Shak-
speare and Burns down to the trance-medium, is only
a vehicle for inspiration from " the invisibles." All our
orators, from the most eloquent statesman, whose burning'
words have kindled into a flame the souls of a whole
nation, even to the itinerant spiritist lecturer that charms
the gaping crowd, are but puppets in the hands of those
who hold the wires on the unseen side of life. Our very
dreams are revelations of the higher life, and have been
carefully studied and their significance tabulated by a
distinguished spiritist, in a "Book of Dreams," and ad-
vertised in spirital papers.

Even those who are entirely unaware of the presence
of "intellectual guides" are as certainly under their in-
fluence as any of the well-known media. The editor of
the principal journal of this modern "spiritual philoso-
phy" (assisted by the jacketless Franklin) recently as-
sured me that, by long experience in inspired writings, he
could instantly detect the extent of inspirational control
in any article sent to him for publication, and he had
frequently noticed in my contributions convincing evidence
of a high degree of " inspirational control." Hence the
reader may view these pages as the work of some para-
doxical " spirit" that has not as yet progressed to the
possession of a ten-acre lot in the higher " spheres," but
is awaiting, on the sandy plain of the lower region, the
necessary inflation for an upward course.

J. M. Peebles, " the Spiritual Pilgrim," for many years
one of the editorial corps of the Banner of Light, asserts,
in his " Seers of the Ages," th;it every act performed by the
" psychologist" upon his subjects can only be explained
by being viewed as the influence of the denizens of the

•78 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

other world. The well-known phenomena of Impressions
transmitted from one mind to another, loosely classed
together under the term clai7^voyance, are universally
regarded by spiritists as test-manifestations, and media
relate that while under the control of the "influence"
using their organism for the time being, their own spirit
is traveling in other places, often in Europe, or other far-
distant lands.

Disembodied spirits have been accredited with inspir-
ing the mind of Edgar A. Poe when he was with us, but
the brighter light of this newer philosophy shows us that
the vinous stimulants were only the agencies employed
for harmonizing his mind into the condition of " passive
receptivity" necessary for catching the "music of the
spheres." Thus we become mere " spouts," to use A. J.
Davis's appropriate word, through which the inspiration
of others is poured. If indeed Poe was incapable of any
original mental power, but was a mere automatic distrib-
uter of ideas injected into his mind, we might well wonder
how he could now, in his jacketless condition, be able to
do nearly, if not quite, as well through the physical or-
ganisms of others, as admirers of his recent poetical com-
munications believe.

The laws of mind are only to be studied and understood
in the light of mediumship. Genius is a plant indigenous
to the higher latitudes of the " spheres," whither all forms
of life are tending, for all animate and inanimate forms
have their indwelling spirital entity, — a "sublimated"
body which still lives on in the other life. Immortality
is not more peculiar to man than to the pig or the tree.

" Pig, bullock, goose, must have their goblins too.
Else ours would have to go without their dinners :
If that starvation doctrine were but true,

How hard the fate of gormandizing sinners!"

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. Y9

Spiritism, though clairainj? to be as yet but a child in
years, is really aa old friend of extremely antiquated ap-
pearance, being as old as human ignorance. When it is
critically examined, we discern it to be strutting in bor-
rowed clothing and betraying, by its confusion of thought,
more aflaiiation with the rude polytheistic conceptions of
ancient Greece, Rome, and Persia than with the analytic
mental philosophy of our day, and hence, notwithstand-
ing its high pretensions, unphilosophical and gross in its
teachings.

80 TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

CHAPTER III.

MODERN SPIRITISM UNNATURAL IN ITS EFFECTS.

1. Initseffecton mental health, by destroying self-reliance.

True mental health can only consist in the untram-
meled use of our intellectual faculties through their normal
development. The old reply of the plowman to the
dyspeptic inquirer, that he " had no system," was an in-
dication of physical health. The healthy man has no
knowledge of the operations performed by his secretory
organs. In health they perform their work silently and
naturally, and only disease brings them into prominence
in our consciousness ; they have then assumed an un-
natural character, and we are forcibly reminded of their
existence. Even so in mental and spiritual health ; the
organs of the mind must work with a natural spontaneity,
neither forced nor starved.

Whatever assumes to give us a royal road to knowledge
in any direction other than that worked out by our own
faculties, or pretends to reveal to us the mysteries of time,
is unnatural, and would produce an unhealthy state of
mental growth. Man must hew out his own knowledge,
rather than obtain it by gift, if he would not stagnate in
imbecility. The use of organs must be under the direc-
tion of our consciousness: if we neglect the use or remit
it to others, the result is the same. By a process of
natural selection, the disuse of organs renders them
practically worthless. As the Hindu devotee that stands
upon one foot for years sees the other limb shrink and
wither from disuse, so the surrender of our minds for the

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 81

thoughts of others, while we remain unconscious of such
use, can never prove otherwise than injurious to mental
health.

Thought kindles thought. As the light applied to the
slow-match sends activity into the heart of the rock, so
does an idea once fully possessed awaken a train of ideas,
until the whole shell, in which custom so often encases
the mind, shakes and crumbles away before its active
powers.

If our ideas are obtained by impressions from without
through mechanical means, mental activity can never
ensue. The organs of man are the outlets of an indwell-
ing controlling force, not the inlets of knowledge by
external control ; man is an intelligence served by organs,
not a mere instrument to be played upon. Man has
a nobler mission than serving as a spiritual watering-
pot in the hands of any hypothetical "influence," either
of the earth earthy, or of the " spheres" sublimated !

The grand prerequisite for mental independence, the
condition of health, is to have a soul within us, an ani-
mating, invigorating, inspiring soul, — not an etherealized
phantasm of the physical man, who is to continue his
etherealization through a sevenfold existence hereafter,
unless sooner reincarnated, but a soul that can recognize
divine order here, and by and through its own faculties
put itself in keeping with it ; something in us that will
stir up all our slumbering powers into new activities
under the dominating rule of a purpose ; without which
we may as well be automatic implements in the hands of
others, mere voluble dischargers of second-hand thought,
with even the wadding furnished ; *for without soul —
purpose — all powers are useless.

What is it to us to know that "the first sphere is the
natural, the second the spiritual, the third the celestial,

D*

82 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

the fourth the supernatural, the fifth the super-spirit-
ual, the sixth the super-celestial, the seventh the Infi-
nite Yortex of Love and Wisdom"? ]SI"o ! nature's divine
revelations teach us not of the names of conditions of
being held in store bj her, but to so live and develop our
own transcendent powers as to insensibly pass into those
higher conditions.

" To know that which before us lies
Is the prime wisdom ; what is more is fume,
Or emptiness, or fond impertinence,
And renders us in that which most concerns us
Unpracticed, unprepared."

Words are but the garments of thought. Terminology
should never take the place of the animating idea.
Thought, which necessarily clothes itself in action, is
needed to make the truly self-reliant man. Soul once
attained, all is attainable ; for where purpose exists, action
will result, and so far as the actions are the result of spon-
taneity, is mental health indicated.

Many of our spiritist friends seem to regard mental
action as a mechanical influx, instead of a spontaneous out-
growth ; no inner fire burns on the hearth to warm the
whole man into a glow of healthy activity, rousing a passive
will into a sovereign principle, but we are offered the cold
reflection of distant star-beams, which, however deep they
may pierce, can excite no molecular motion. The man
of purpose cannot remain the passive shuttle-cock of con-
tending forces, "compelled to act as he is acted upon,"*
but resolutely seizes the refractory circumstances, places
a bit in their mouths, and renders them subservient to his
will. Intensely realizing the duties of the present, he has

"•■■"The Great Harmonia," vol. ii. p. 225.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 33

neither time nor inclination to spare in profltiess inquiries
concerning the vocations and avocations of the departed.

"Life is real, life is earnest;"

and a healthful, natural condition of the mental faculties
rejects all external developing processes of the mechanical
sort, as savoring of the quack. Manlj self-reliance, there-
fore, is not attainable by placing ourselves under the con-
trol of others, whether in a physical or sublimated body ;
not in the school of mediumship do we learn better to
battle the waves of life as they surge around and over us.
Only in the development of our own mental powers,
under the master-hand of soul, recognizing in life a purpose,'
and unconsciously outworking every thought into action'
can we ever arrive at a healthful activity of the mind.

Inspiration, of the mechanical kind, declares man to be
"a gland or minute organ" in the "great Body of the
Divine Mind,"* a species of ^olian harp to be played
upon; but another inspiration, not of the baser sort,
moved the mind of Matthew Arnold when he wrote these
lines :

"From David's lips this word did roll,
'Tis true and living yet;
No man can save his brother's soul,
Nor pay his brother's debt.

"Alone, self-poised, henceforward man
Must labor, must resign
His all too human creeds, and scan
Simply the way divine."

Is the "spiritual philosophy of the nineteenth cen-
tury" to become a mechanical one, confuting material-
ism and soulless sadduceeisms by converting the mind
into a mechanical trough, with the sole faculty of " pys-

* " Nature's Divine Revelations," p. 263.

84 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

sive receptivity" ? Those sparks from the inner hearth
where the soul sjts enshrined, and known in mortal
speech as ideas, talent, genius, are not to be reduced to a
phantasm or worshiped as ■SM2:)e?--human, but reverently
regarded as dim signs of almost infinite possibilities.
Inspiration does dwell in the innermost recesses of the
soul, and is often manifested, notably so in these words
of Carlyle, which many might read with profit :

" ' Man of Genius :' 0 Maecenas Twiddledee, hast thou
any notion of what a man of genius is ? Genius is ' the
inspired gift of God.' It is the clearer presence of God
Most High in a man. Dim, potential in all men ; in this
man it has become clear, actual. So says John Milton,
who ought to be a judge ; so answer him the voices, the
Voices of all Ages and all Worlds. Wouldst thou com-
mune with such a one ? Be his real peer, then : does
that lie in thee ? Know thyself and thy real and thy
apparent place, and know him and his real and apparent
place, and act in some noble conformity with all that.
What ! The star-fire of the Empyrean shall eclipse itself,
and illuminate magic-lanterns to amuse grown children?
He, the god-inspired, is to twang harps for thee, and
blow through scrannel-pipes, to soothe thy sated soul
with visions of new, still wider Eldorados, Houri para-
dises, richer lands of Cockaigne ? Brother, this is not
he ; this is a counterfeit ; this twangling, jangling, vain,
acrid, scrannel-piping man. Thou dost well to say with
sick Saul, 'It is naught — such harping!' and, in sudden
rage, to grasp thy spear and try if thou canst pin such a
one to the wall. King Saul was mistaken in his man,
but thou art right in thine. It is the due of such a one :
nail him to the wall, and leave him there. So ought cop-
per shillings to be nailed on counters, copper geniuses on
walls, and left there for a sign !"

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 85

2. 7/1 its effect on spiritual health by fostering super-
stition.

What is superstition? Who shall decide fof us what
is superstitious ? Webster, it is true, defines super-
stition as excessive exactness or rigor in religion, and
as belief in omens and prognostics. As to the first, it
may be questioned whether excessive exactness or rigor
can exist in religion itself, and we may conclude that
the " excess" is a sign of no religion, a mere sham sub-
stitute for religion. If, however, is meant a rigor in
what is called religion by those in whom we think we
discover the symptoms of excess, we should then con-
clude that exactness must never overstep a certain line
which still remains indefinite. How far shall we be
exact to our conceptions of truth and duty without over-
stepping the boundary-line between the rational and the
irrational, and entering the domain of superstition ? I
think I am not a superstitious man, and I discover that my
neighbor has the same good opinion of his own rationality.
So we are again brought to our starting-point: What
is superstition ?

John Wetherbee, in a thoughtful article published some
time since in The Index, though professing not to be able
to answer the question, still felt certain that there was
"no body of people, in Christendom or out of it, so free
from superstition as the modern ' spiritualists.' " If all
spiritists were as sensible as Mr. Wetherbee, these pages
would be unnecessary ; yet even he did define it, in his es-
timation, as " the dry-rot of the Christian church," a defini-
tion aptly illustrating our proneness to discover the mote
often existing in our neighbor's eye, and recalling to mind
a remark attributed to Josh Billings, that the best place
to have a boil was somewhere on your neighbor's body !

86 TEB SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

If we say belief in omens and prognostics — that physi-
cal signs or events in the natural world are material evi-
dence of spiritual facts — does it remain clear that Mr.
Wetherbee's friends are of all bodies the most free from
this charge ? Mr. Wetherbee declares of his belief that
"its most accented expression is that everything is natural
and nothing supernatural. The moment a man is a
believer, he can be superstitious only so far as he is in-
consistent. A man may be credulous ; he may be shallow ;
he may be ignorant : these are human attributes, and may
appear in human beings who are spiritualists. But the
subject tends to correct all such weaknesses."

Is this indeed true ? Does an " instantaneous conver-
sion" occur " the moment a man is a believer" ? or is this
assertion but what any sectary announces of his own pet
theory of the universe ? Does an earnest, entire belief in
the presence of our departed friends, and the possibility
of conversing with them on any subject, tend to render us
more self-reliant and less credulous ? Does the possibility
of consulting a trusted friend removed to a higher plane
with a broader scope of vision, and the adoption of his
advice, tend to eliminate shallowness ? If belief in such
intercourse tends to correct ignorance, is the extent of
the correction in any proportion to the intensity of the
belief? Are they who believe least, or they who believe
most, the most intelligent in the ranks of spiritism ?

Mr. Wetherbee's articles invariably bear evidence
of their author's possessing good common sense ; whether
his faith or his skepticism is the greater always appears
to me a matter of doubt, but not which is more in har-
mony with his common sense.

Let us take a closer view of the field, and by compari-
son see if we can place our hand on any one belief and
say. This is indeed superstitious. I read that a Tartar

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. St

shaman lies in a lethargic slumber while his soul journeys
in other lands, or visits the realms of the departed. In
former years I was accustomed to look on this as super-
stitious, but the light of the New Dispensation has made
the phenomenon as common among us as with the Tar-
tars; for I read in the Banner of Light (of August 31,
18T2) a communication from Ohio, setting forth the
wonderful manifestations performed by "invisibles" in
that State, where soul-communion is attained through
the homble instrumentality of a tin trumpet. The souls
of all present having been harmonized by an influx of spir-
ituality, radiating from the aforesaid trumpet of tin (is tin
preferable to other metals as a conductor of spiritual in-
fluence to our spiritual natures ? A query for spirital

science), the writer adds, " Miss Annie M , a member

of the circle, passed into a clairvoyant state, and remained
for a time entirely under the control of departed spirits,
who spoke to us through her, while her spirit, in the mean
time, wandered with our spirit-friends amid the beauties
of the brighter world, a recollection of which she always
retains, and relates to us as soon as her spirit takes charge
of her earthly form." Shall we say the Tartar or the
degraded Bushman is irrational and superstitious for be-
lieving in Asia or Africa what in America is not only
rational, but the rational method of correcting credulity,
shallowness, and ignorance ?

I have been accustomed to see superstition in the belief
of savage tribes in spectral appearances ; to regard appa-
ritions as subjective only in origin ; to believe that in
hallucination

" The soul-
Wrapt in strange visions of the unreal —
Paints the illusive form."

But the familiarity of our own friends with ghostly

88 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

acquaintances mnst lead us to revise our judgment of
Karens or Caribs, or to extend the borders of superstition
to include many in our midst. When I read in the Banner
of Light (of February 11, 1871) a detailed account of
the return of a "spirit," who manifests his presence by
purloining corn from a reverend gentleman's corn-crib,
opening windows, and scattering culinary furnitui'e, I
am forcibly reminded of the agreement between the sav-
age and the Banner writer in their interpretation of phe-
nomena, and have no doubt they would still further agree
that superstition is a deadly weed and should be eradi-
cated whenever found on our neighbor's ground.

To believe that our friends are ever with us, and anx-
ious to impart counsel and assistance in our many per-
plexities, would inevitably lead the mind to listen to their
monitions, coming as we would believe from a being of a
higher condition, and removed from the influence of the
petty things which contract our vision here; in inverse
proportion to our belief in the reality of their presence and
communications would be our inclination to calmly weigh
their words in our mind. To test, to weigh in the scales
of reason, is to doubt, to be uncertain whether the phe-
nomenon does proceed from the source claimed ; and our
spiritist friends claim to have knowledge, not faith. Me-
diums often boast of the numbers that come to them to
consult their friends in higher life regarding. their business
speculations, and claim that thousands never make any
venture unless it has received indorsement from these
friends. And this claim is consistent with the spirital
theory ; for the whole tenor of the " philosophy" is to
show that " spirits" can not only impart information, but
that they possess better means of forecasting the future
than mortals still confined in the " cramping influence of
material environments."

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 89

A Story was recently current of a young lady in Maine
having been married to the sublimated form of her de-
ceased lover. Was this act any evidence of superstition ?
If he was with her, visible in bodily form to her eyes, and
she could converse with him and hear the words that
passed his spirital lips, why not become in fact, what she
was in intention, his wife? "Material" minds may in-
deed regard her action as superstition, but not so the
spiritist. Admitting the premises, no such conclusion
could possibly follow. He would regard her as having
attained to a clear conception of real things, a knowledge
of spiritual truth, — confessedly the highest development,
— and the conversation of her sublimated husband would
necessarily tend to broaden her field of vision, and elimi-
nate credulity, shallowness, and ignorance.

Leaving the spiritist firm in his " knowledge," we will
not need to seek further for an answer to the question,
" What is superstition ?" for if the ground on which su-
perstition is produced be once regarded as true knowl-
edge, and assiduously cultivated, we need not marvel that
spiritist writers confess their inability to define supersti-
tion.

In discussing the efi"ects of spiritism on the mind, I
would not be supposed to assert that all spiritists are
superstitious. I do not regard Mr. Wetherbee as a super-
stitious man ; not, however, because his belief has eradi-
cated superstition but for the reason that he has not
accepted all the logical conclusions of the spirital theory.

I have in several places criticised some of the written
expressions of A. J. Davis as materialistic and gross,
yet Mr. Davis has ably protested against some of the
popular views current among spiritists. As an act of
justice to him, I here quote from one of his recent works
— "The Fountain" — his views on "popular errors."

8*

90 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

Whether be is strictly logical in affirming the "philos-
ophy," and denouncing as errors what others regard as
essential elements of it, is another question, on which
we should undoubtedly differ.

"Among the errors and hurtful superstitions which
have sprung up in modern fields — in fields where we
fondly hoped the immortal flowers of reason alone would
grow and forever bloom — I will in this place mention
only nine, as follows :

" 1. That departed spirits, both good and evil, con-
tinually float and drive about in the earth's physical
atmosphere.

" 2. That evil-disposed characters, having died in
their active sins, linger around men and women both
day and night, in order to gratify their unsatisfied pas-
sions and prevailing propensities,

" 3. That all known mental disturbances, such as in-
sanity, murder, suicide, licentiousness, arson, theft, and
various evil impulses and deeds, are caused by the di-
rect action of the will of false and malignant spirits.

" 4. That certain passionate spirits, opposed to purity
and truth and goodness, are busy breaking up the tender
ties of families, and take delight in separating persons
living happily in the marriage relation.

" 5. That spirits are at all times subject to summons,
and can be 'called up' or made to 'appear' in circles;
and that the ' mediums' have no private rights or powers
of will which the spirits are bound to respect.

" 6. That spirits are both substantial and Immaterial ;
that they traverse the empire of solids, and bolt through
s«lid substances, without respecting any of the laws of
solids and substances ; and that they can perform any-
thing they like, to astonish the investigator,

" T, That every human being is a medium in one form

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 91

or another, and to some extent; and that all persons, un-
consciouslj to themselves, are acting out the feelings,
the will, and the mind of spirits.

" 8. That spiritual intercourse is perpetual ; that it is
everywhere operative; and that, being at last established,
it cannot be again suspended.

" 9. That the reading of books, and reflection, as a
means of obtaining truth, are no longer necessary to be-
lievers ; that the guardian band of spirits will impart to
the faithful everything worth knowing; and that, for
anything further, one need only wait upon the prompt-
ings of intuition ; and that, in any event, ' whatever is-
is right.'

" These errors, these superstitions, and these dogmas,
like all other human developments, contain rich intima-
tions and germs of truth. These theories have taken
deep root among a large class of avowed spiritualists.
And the legitimate effects, it will be remembered, are
visible in the disintegrations and decompositions of char-
acter; in mutual disrespect and recriminations; in the
disorganization of all our public efforts and the abandon-
ment of our beneficent enterprises ; in the irreverence
manifested towards even the great central principles
around which all persons and facts must bow and cling;
and, lastly, in the gradual suspension of the delightful
intercourse itself, by which the glory and unspeakable
opportunities of immortality have been brought to life.

"After twenty-five years of constant investigation into
the many and various phases of this subject, and with
almost daily realizations of somewhat of the infinite
goodness embosomed in these high privileges, I can
most solemnly affirm, and I do now make the declara-
tion, that the nine propositions contained in the indict-
ment are mostly errors and hurtful theories, injurious in

92 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

their effect upon the individual judgment, and still more
injurious when made the foundation of faith and prac-
tice. They belong to the age of broom-riding witches,
to the shallow doctrines of personal devils and sorcery,
and the fiction age of astrology and the small gods of
superstition. They will not bear analysis by the philo-
sophical method of» detecting the presence and value of
truth. They will not stand a test by the supreme in-
fallible authorities, — Nature, Reason, Intuition.''^

3. In its effect on physical health by developing abnormal
faculties.

That the healthful know not of their health, but only
the sick, we have seen to hold true in a far wider sense
than its physical one. Health is a state of unconscious
activity of all normal faculties. All faculties are normal
or abnoi'mal according to the use made of them. Web-
ster defines abnormal as "irregular, contrary to rule,"
and hence any faculty used irregularly, and not accord-
ing to the established methods of nature, is abnormal
and unnatural.

The mental and physical are too intimately correlated
for one not to be affected by whatever tends to weaken
the other. Anything which tends to sap or destroy the
natural activity of the organs through which man holds
converse with objective nature tends to lower the stand-
ard of health, for the abnormal use of any faculty being
" irregular" r)mst so far weaken it for normal service.
To attain physical manhood, we must ourselves have
control of the reins, and not be held or swayed from
without.

" Man is an intelligence served by organs," and these
organs may have a stinted or an excessive development;
but in either case they should remain our own. If we

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 93

grant the assumption of the spiritist, that even now

" The unseen
Shore faint, resounds, and all the mystic air
Breathes forth the names of parent, brother, wife,"

and that we may become rnedia for their use in eon-
versing with those remaining on the shores of time, we
should still regard the method adopted as one detrimental
to physical perfection, and unnatural.

Our organs of speech will but give what there is in us
to say, whether wise or otherwise. If we have the
thought, an inspiring idea, it will soon enough clothe
itself in articulate words and go on its way, doing its mis-
sion wheresoever it may find lodgment. Ideas are never
isolated. " One-idea men" are illusive monstrosities, ex-
isting nowhere in nature, for ideas are creative ; they are
active, agitating, fruitful, filling the mind with light and
eventuating in healthful action.

If the thought be not there, but only a barren waste,
destitute alike of beautiful verdure and refreshing springs
ever overwelling, and " passively" content with reflecting
the rays falling upon it, instead of absorbing and out-
working them, the natural end and purpose of exist-
ence is wanting, and action of a manly sort can never
ensue. Man is not a machine whose motive power may
be estimated in terms of beef or grain ; he is more than
the sum of his senses, and must be maste?' of his faculties
to even develop physical manhood. The child that is
always waited upon, whose every wish is gratified, that
finds no occasion for inquiry or thought, remains a child ;
he never reaches manhood, whatever may be his longitudi-
nal standard. If we are to become mere auxiliaries to tin
trumpets for the transmission of the wisdom of the
" spheres," there must be an arrest of normal growth,
and manhood lies not in us, but far removed from us.

94 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

Nature, with all her reticence as regards herself, is
prodigal in her gifts, and has bountifully supplied us
with faculties for perceiving truth and beauty, if we
would but use them, and methods for giving expression
to them infinitely better than we can find through any
other channel never adapted to the purpose ; methods far
more inspiring than " passive receptivity" to every Tom,
Joe, or Harry that may desire to give vent to spherical
idiocies or sentimental drivelings.

If we could thus be used by entirely unknown per-
sons, subject to questionable — ay, often unquestionable
— " influxes," and our divine faculty of speech be made
a trumpet of uncertain tone, or prostituted to base in-
fluences, if the very possibility of such a degradation lay
before us, we should sacredly guard ourselves from the
remotest danger of such utter prostitution. Only in the
healthful, natural use of our powers are we warranted
by nature, and only by such use are we benefited and
blessed.

4. In its effect on moral health hy weakening self-
control.

It may seem a truism to observe that moral conduct is
the result of possessing control over our faculties and
passions, yet it is a truism that sadly needs reiterating
in these days, when thousands are busily engaged in
protracted endeavors to place their faculties under the
control of some other power, — when, instead of action
being the aim, the mind is systematically reduced to a
state of "passive receptivity," and self-control deliber-
ately abnegated. Having no controlling idea within
them, no inspiring soul at the helm, many become capti-
vated with the prospect of becoming spiritual watering
pots, and distributing to thirsting souls, by a mechanical

TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 95

process, what they instinctively realize they have not the
natural means of supplying.

The process of " development" being an unnatural one,
and necessarily resulting only in the development of ab-
normal or morbid faculties, the individual control must
be so far weakened. The mind loses its healthful con-
dition of spontaneous activity, and regards every action
as the result of "external agencies." It may well ^be
questioned, even whether passivity on our part, and
activity on the side of thousands of jacketless men and
women "ever with us," could possibly be conducive to
morality. Though assuming to be the " spiritual philos-
ophy of the nineteenth century," we fail to discover the
ghost of evidence that this system possesses even the
rudiments of spiritual thought, or influences its followers
in their daily conduct to nobler lives.

It is impossible, of course, to lay before the reader any
examples to show that this is actually the result, yet the
fact remains patent to all familiar with the private his-
tories of a large proportion of our constantly-employed
media, and is still further evidenced in the scandalous
stories regarding each other current among mediums
themselves, and occasionally outcropping in their ha-
rangues, as was recently the case, at the " Spiritualists'
National Convention," with the physical organism con-
trolled by Demosthenes. When a distinguished spiritist
lecturer arrives in a town, and after a brilliant lecture
on temperance is seen in public resorts, exhibiting him-
self as a " frightful example" of the need of temperance
reform, the excuse of " obsession" is urged to palliate
his fault and remove the responsibility. Is a female
lecturer left by her husband for lewd and adulterous
conduct? "evil spirits" are deemed the cause, and her
graceful figure and coquettish ways are as welcome as

96 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

ever on the rostrum to expound " spiritual truth" ! Are
families broken up by some ex-reverend whose carnal
propensities have overmastered him ? we are gravely
informed that " certain spirits delight in producing
discord" !

Granting that these excuses be correct, it remains a
virtual confession that passivity lias resulted injuriously
to moral health ; that moral self-control did not lie
within them, and that they were powerless in the hands
of unknown agencies, who delight to return and through
them gratify their baser passions and propensities, "ob-
sessing" them for their own vile purposes. A spiritist,
known in nearly all the Northern States, once remarked
to me that he believed he could eat a hearty meal and
then be " obsessed" by a " hungry spirit" and eat as much
more! The very admission that such a state of things
exists, or belief in its possibility, is tantamount to confes-
sion of the fact alleged.

It has been urged that the result obtained is worth far
more than the cost; that we have thereby the fact
demonstrated to us that it is possible for those whom we
had sadly thought to be dead to return and influence
us. Is it not a great, transcendent fact that they live
and are still with us ? Does not this knowledge outweigh
all incidental injury to those willing to make " martyrs"
of themselves in so holy a cause ?

Alas ! it is not so apparent. Aside from the grossness
of the thought that the attainment of a knowledge of
spiritual realities may be detrimental to moral upright-
ness in conduct, and is dependent upon physical con-
ditions, we see with sorrow the evidence of complete
spiritual paralysis. The soul has become conscious of
itself, and sees itself to be a "sublimated" image; it
has become an entity, and concerns itself exceedingly as

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

9Y

to its ultimate condition. It is no longer a healthful,
animating cau^e, but an effect. Spiritual anatomists dis-
sect it, and give us treatises on sjnritual physiology.
Soul, as an indwelling motive power, unconsciously out-
working a purpose in life, by noble and manly endeavor,
with firm faith and undoubted reliance in all goodness
and nobleness, now lies sick,— has become anxious to
know the why and how. Spiritual digestion has become
disordered, and craves for nostrums, and nostrums enough
abound ! The soul is no longer shrouded in mystety
and reverently regarded, but "parceled out into shop-
lists of what are called 'faculties,' 'motives,' and such
like."

We are to have a new religion to meet the soul's
dyspeptic cravings; a "religion made easy," with im-
proved mechanism in good working order, whereby we
may have " demonstrated to us the existence of other
realms wherein we are to reside and progress." Religion,
in such sense, becomes but the apotheosis of self! "^The
true, heroic soul will rather answer in the words of one
somewhat widely known as a thinker,—

" Let that vain struggle to read the mystery of the
Infinite cease to harass us. It is a mystery which,
through all ages, we shall only read here a line of, there
another line of. Do we not already know that the name
of the Infinite is Good, is God ? Here on earth we are
as soldiers fighting in a foreign land, that understand
uot the plan of the campaign, and have no need to un-
derstand it; seeing well what is at our hand to be done.
Let us do it like soldiers ; with submission, with cour-
age, with a heroic joy. 'Whatsoever thy hand fiudeth
to do, do it with thy might.' Behind us, behind each
one of us, lie six thousand years of human effort, human
conquest : before us is the boundless time, with its as
E 9

98 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

yet uncreated and unconquered continents and Eldorados,
which we, even we, have to conquer, to create ; and from
the bosom of eternity there shine for us celestial guiding
stars.

" ' My inheritance how wide and fair !

Time is my fair seed-field, of Time I'm heir.' "

PART II -THE PHENOMENA.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY.

Having somewhat critically examined the subject of
spiritism as presented in its philosophy, and seen it to be
crude and unscientific in its methods, gross and unphilo-
sophical in its teachings, and demoralizing and unnatural
in its effects, we migiit be content to rest. But the mind
is not satisfied unless some explanation is presented of
the various " manifestations" upon which the philosophy
is based. In entering upon this portion of the subject —
an examination of the phenomena — we are beset with
many difficulties, and frankly confess that, in the present
state of psychological science, it does not lie in our power
to definitely explain every phenomenon to which spirit-
ists may point ; but we may endeavor to point out the
false deductions drawn, and show good reason for with-
holding our belief in the entirely gratuitous assumption
that they must proceed from disembodied human beings.

Let us carefully investigate the alleged manifestations,
and while disclaiming the egotism that would })ronounce
them well understood, it is still possible to show that,
whatever the causes, they can furnish no evidence of the
presence of intelligence not in the physical form.

(99)

100 TSE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

For many years I have carefully investigated the
various phenomena presented as " spiritual" in their
origin, without prejudice on the one hand, or blind
credulity on the other. Soon convinced that the subject
was well worth examination, no pains were spared to
become acquainted with it in all of its various phases
and to endeavor to arrive at just conclusions. In my
mind it became established that spirit-communion was a
possibility, and that departed friends had the power,
under certain conditions, of making their presence known
through the physical organism of a living person. While
giving assent to this, however, the " communications"
were never regarded as reliable : even in the most favor-
able conditions they seemed to be more or less influenced
by the mind of the medium. But continued investigation
has thoroughly convinced me that my conclusions were
premature, and not logical deductions from the phenomena
prescHted. After years of pains-taking and anxious investi-
gation, these former conclusions, drawn from isolated and
sporadic "manifestations," were shown to be unwarranted
inferences, destitute alike of scientific evidence and phil-
osophical plausibility. To indicate, therefore, the proper
manner in which the subject should be studied, and the
reasons for denying the inferences based upon the phe-
nomena is the purpose of the remaining pages.

To the spiritist, who already has his complete theory
of the universe, and fancies himself in full possession of
the key to the mysteries of nature, no appeal is made ; it
were useless ; those already possessing knowledge are
never students. But the thoughtful, inquiring mind,
anxious to know if these marvels do really indicate an
extra-material origin, we invite to follow us through the
remaining pages, before coming into full possession of the
spiritist's "knowledge."

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 101

No desire is felt to weaken any one's faith in a future
state of being, nor remove anything which may prove a
consolation in time of bereavement. The writer has an
abiding faith as to the future, a faith that has remained
unshaken even under the perusal of countless " commu-
nications" purporting to emanate thence, and still cher-
ishes it as one of the soul's most precious possessions.
But as men love truth, so do they abhor error, and scout
the idea that error ever can be blessed or beneficial to the
soul. If error seems for the time to possess consolation,
it is because the soul has been content to rest on a lower
level ; and the enlargement of its vision, while destroy-
ing the supposed consolation, never leaves it destitute.
Whatever is truth, is best, no matter whither it may lead
us. The soul will instinctively cling to it when once seen,
and find consolation and peace only therein.

9*

102 TUE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

CHAPTER 11.

MENTAL EXALTATION.

The wisest and best of mankind have ever fondly dwelt
on the idea that the higher in spirituality we attained, the
nearer we were drawn into communion with the spiritual
world, and became more receptive to spiritual truths.

" Nearer, my God, to thee,"

and to thy higher realms of thought and existence, nearer
to the fount of all truth, and in closer soul-communion
with our loved ones gone before, should be the aspiration
of every heart and the governing impulse of every mind.
In challenging the "tests of mediumship," the writer
would not be understood as denying the existence of a
spiritual world, for he is firmly persuaded that his friends
who have passed the portals of the tomb have but thrown
off the worn-out habiliments of mortality, with its debas-
ing influences, and live on in a wider and higher sphere
of action, again to be met when he, as a tardier trav-
eler, shall have groped his way to the journey's end, and
the scales of physical existence drop from his sight and
permit him to behold what now he cannot dimly conceive.
Nay, more : that across the great gulf between this state
and'that there may have occasionally flashed — to receptive
minds spiritually attuned — some dim realization of a
nobler, holier state of action yet to be attained ; that there
have been times when children of men have been refreshed
with inspiration falling upon their spiritual natures like
gentle rain, causing new and loftier thoughts to bud and

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 103

blossom, so that the fragrance thereof — like musk in the
walls of ancient temples — has outlived the ravages of time.

Modern spiritists, however, are not content with this
" strait and narrow way" to spirituality, but have im-
proved, as they fondly imagine, upon the original concep-
tion; and now they present us with a patent labor-saving
apparatus, by which any one may attain to a " knowledge"
of spiritual truth by paying from ten cents to ten dollars ;
the schedule being based not on the net amount of
spirituality evolved, but either on the thaumaturgical
abilities of the medium or the credulity of the "investi-
gator." Not content, moreover, with borrowing a word
descriptive of the grandest school of philosophy, ancient
or modern, they arrogantly presume to be its special expo-
nents, and, to use the pertinent words of John "Weiss,
" spell it with a capital S !"

Of all the phases of mediumship, the trance is the most
familiar, in which condition, it is confidently asserted, illit-
erate men and women, and even children, ai'e capable of
lecturing, improvising, singing, dancing, and painting, in
a manner far transcending their normal mental powers.
Thousands point to these instances of mental exaltation
as irrefutable evidences of " spirit-influence," and loudly
call upon "mole-eyed science" to explain them or "for-
ever after hold its peace." Similar instances of mental
exaltation are familiar to every student in mental phi-
losophy ; yet those to whom the human soul is no mys-
tery reiterate this demand. It is undoubtedly proven that
these wonderful powers pertain to the mind, and that
various causes not due to the ubiquitous " influences"
may call them forth ; and yet new instances are constantly
being paraded in the columns of the spirital press as
"demonstrations" of spiritual existence. If we can cite
similar phenomena produced by mundane means, then as

104 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

direct evidence of another state of existence this class of
phenomena becomes worthless. I therefore proceed to
adduce some of the causes known to produce the state of
" mental exaltation ;" not, however, to claim that all in-
stances may be classified under the heads selected, but to
give reason for inferring that still other causes exist, not
so well studied and understood,

1. In mental derangement.

All competent physicians are familiar with the morbid
phenomena of consciousness, and rightly withhold cre-
dence in whatever is attested by abnormal or unusual
manifestations of it. Hence strong personal conscious-
ness of the reality of any event, under such conditions,
carries with it no weight to the intelligent mind. Among
the earliest recognized symptoms of organic brain dis-
ease, indicating the approach of insanity, softening of the
brain, or paralysis, there is often observed a marked
exaltation of certain faculties.

Dr. Forbes Winslow, in his work on the " Obscure
Diseases of the Brain and Mind," gives some striking
illustrations of this fact. He says, —

" Men naturally dull of apprehension, in fact nearly
half-witted, exhibit occasionally, both in the early as well
as in the advanced stages of insanity, considerable acute-
ness and capacity."

As examples of this mental acuteness in insanity, we
quote from the same work several illustrative cases.

" In the stage of morbid exaltation, the patient fre-
quently exhibits a talent for poetry, mechanics, oratory,
and elocution, quite unusual and inconsistent with his
education, and opposed to his normal habits of thought.
His witty sallies, bursts of fervid and impassioned elo-
quence, readiness at repartee, power of extemporaneous

TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 105

versification, mechanical skill and ingenuity, amaze those
who were acquainted with his ordinary mental capacity
and educational attainments. There is an unusual dis-
play of vigor of mind, an ability to converse fluently on
subjects not previously familiar to his mind, and an
aptitude to discuss matters wholly unconnected with his
particular situation in life. A quickness of perception, a
facility or propriety of utterance quite unusual, becomes
in some cases, as the disease progresses, daily more
manifest. * * *

"A young gentleman had an attack of insanity caused
by rough ill-usage whilst at school. This youth had
never exhibited any particular talent for arithmetic or
mathematical science ; in fact, it was alleged that he
was incapable of doing a simple sum in addition or mul-
tiplication. After recovering from his maniacal attack,
and when able to occupy his mind in reading and con-
versation, it was discovered that an arithmetical power
had been evolved. He was able with wonderful facility
to solve several rather complicated problems. This talent
continued for several months, but after his complete re-
storation to health he relapsed into his former natural
state of arithmetical dullness, ignorance, and general
mental incapacity.

" The wife of a clergyman exhibited, during her par-
oxysms of maniacal excitement, a wonderful talent for
rapid and clever versification. The nurse who was in
constant attendance upon the patient was so struck
with the phenomenon that she had transcribed, before
calling my attention to the fact, a number of verses
evidencing poetical powers of no ordinary character.
The disposition to improvise was manifested mostly at
night. After her recovery all capacity for rhyming
appeared to subside. I understand that, previously to

E*

106 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

her illness, she had not exhibited the slightest poetical
inclination or ability."

Dr. Benjamin Rush, in his work " On the Diseases of
the Mind," writes as follows:

" The records of wit and cunning of madmen are nu-
merous in every country. Talents for eloquence, poetry,
music, painting, and uncommon ingenuity in several of
the mechanical arts are often evolved in this state of
madness. A female patient of mine, who became insane
after parturition, in 180Y, sang hymns and songs of her
own composition, during the latter stage of her illness,
with a tone and voice so soft and pleasant that I hung
upon it with delight every time I visited her. She had
never discovered a talent for poetry or music in any
previous part of her life. Two instances of a talent for
drawing evolved by madness have occurred within my
knowledge ; and where is the hospital for mad people in
which elegant and complete rigged ships and curious
pieces of machinery have not been exhibited by persons
who never discovered the least turn for a mechanical art
previously to their derangement ?"

Pinel, an acknowledged authority on insanity, remarks
in this connection that —

" Certain facts appear so extraordinary that they have
need of being borne up by the most authentic testimony,
in order not to be called into question. I speak of the
poetical enthusiasm which is said to have characterized
certain paroxysms of mania, even when the verses could
nowise be regarded as an act of reminiscence. I have
myself heard a maniac declaim, with grace and exquisite
discernment, a longer or shorter succession of verses of
Virgil or Horace, which had been a long time effaced
from his memory. . . . An English author attests
that a young girl of a feeble constitution, and subject to

TBE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. IQT

nervous affections, had become insane, and during her
delirium she expressed herself in very harmonious Eng-
lish verses, though she had before shown no disposition
for poetry."

Dr. Abercrombie, in his " Intellectual Powers," men-
tions the case of a young lady becoming insane, but not
violent. "Before her insanity she had been only learning
to read, and to form a few letters ; but during her in-
sanity she taught herself to write perfectly, though all
attempts of others to teach her failed, as she could not
attend to any person who tried to do so. She has intervals
of reason, which have frequently continued three weeks,
sometimes longer. During these she could neither read
nor write; but immediately on the return of her insanity
she recovers ber power of writing, and can read perfectly."

Tasso composed his most eloquent and impassioned
verses during paroxysms of insanity. Lucretius wrote
his immortal poem when suffering from an attack of
mental aberration. Cruden compiled his "Concordance"
whilst insane.* Van Swieten relates the case of a young
woman displaying the faculty of rhyming, or poetic
talent, during her paroxysms of mania, though she had
before been occupied with manual labor, and her under-
standing had never been enriched by culture. Pages
might be filled with similar instances, to all but the
spiritist susceptible of a psychological solution.

2. In the use of stimulants.
Similar effects are sometimes produced by the use of
stimulants. In states of depressed energy of the brain,
when in a starved and impoverished condition, arising

* Winslow : "Obscure Diseases of the Brain and Mind," p. 171.
Dendy : " Philosophy of Mystery," pp. 94, 95.

108 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

from a deficient supply of blood, the memory becomes
impaired, it is well known that vinous stimulants will
often act immediately in restoring the memory to its
usual activity. Stimulants frequently excite mental
faculties, producing that singular phenomenon known as
" double consciousness," in which the person apparently
leads two lives, forgetting when sober everything tran-
spiring when intoxicated, and vice versa; when drunk,
with memory only of acts perform.ed or witnessed in
former states of intoxication, and when sober with knowl-
edge only of his past sober moments ; or, as Mr. Combe
has said, a double personality manifests itself in the
exhibition of two separate and independent mental capa-
bilities in the same individual; each train of thought and
each capability being wholly dissevered from the others,
and the two states in which they predominate subject to
frequent interchange. An illustration of this curious
state of mental action was quoted from Abercrombie in
the preceding section.

It has often been asserted that Poe wrote best when
under the influence of vinous stimulants. Coleridge's
remarkable poetical fragment, " Kubla Khan," was com-
posed while under the influence of opium, and made so
deep an impression on his memory that on waking he
proceeded to write it down. While engaged in this task
he was called away on urgent business requiring his
whole attention for a few hours, and on his return found
that the remainder of the poem had passed from his
memory. " Rousseau's Dream" and Tartini's " Devil's
Sonata" owe their birth to brains stimulated by narcotics
to flights of fancy and musical expression far surpassing
their respective authors' usual powers.

Tartini relates the following anecdote of the origin of
his chef-d'oeuvre, "La Sonata di Diavolo:"

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 109

" One nigbt, it was iu the year 1113, 1 dreamed that I
had made over my soul to his satanic majesty. Every-
thing was done to my wish : the faithful menial antici-
pated my fondest wishes. Among other freaks, it came
into my head to put the violin in his hands, for I was
anxious to see whether he was capable of producing any-
thing worth bearing upon it. Conceive my astonishment
at his playing a sonata, with such dexterity and grace as
to surpass whatever the imagination can conceive. I
was so much delighted, enraptured, and entranced by his
performance that I was unable to fetch another breath,
and, in this state, I awoke. I jumped up and seized upon
my instrument, in the hope of reproducing a portion, at
least, of the unearthly harmonies I had heard iu my
dream, but all in vain ; the music which I composed under
the inspiration I must admit was the best I have ever
written, and of right I have called it the ' Devil's Sonata;'
but the falling off between that piece and the sonata
which had laid such fast hold of my imagination is so
immense, that I would rather have l)roken my violin into
a thousand fragments, and renounced music for good and
all, than, had it been possible, have been robbed of the
enjoyment which the remembrance afforded me."

Walter Cooper Dendy, in his " Philosophy of Mystery,"
remarks as follows in this connection :

" The brilliancy of thought may be artificially induced
also by various other narcotics, such as the juice of the
American manioc, the fumes of tobacco, or the yupa of the
Othomacoes on the Orinoco. To this end we learn from a
learned lord that even ladies are wont to 'light up their
minds with opium, as they do their houses with wax or oil.'

" Indeed, a kind of inspiration seems for a time to fol-
low the use of these narcotics. The Cumsean Sibyl
swallowed the juice of the cherry-laurel ere she sat on

10

110 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

the divining tripod; and from this may have arisen those
superstitious fancies of the ancients regarding the virtues
of the laurel, and the influence of other trees, of which I
remember an allusion of the excellent author of the ' Sylva :'

" ' Here we may not omit what learned men have ob-
served concerning the custom of prophets and persons
inspired of old to sleep upon the boughs and branches of
trees, on mattresses and beds made of leaves, ad con-
sulendum, to ask advice of God. Naturalists tell us that
the Laurus and Agnus Castus were trees which greatly
composed the phrensy, and did facilitate true vision, and
that the first was specifically efficacious to inspire a poet-
ical fury ; and Cardan, I remember, in his book de Fato,
insists very much on the dreams of trees for portents
and presages, and that the use of some of them do dis-
pose men to visions.'

" During the revery of the opium-eater (not the deep
sleep of a full dose, but the first and second stage ere
coma be induced), he is indeed a poet, so far as brilliant
imagination is concerned."

"Ben Jonson," writes Aubrey, "would many times
exceede in drink ; Canarie was his beloved liquor ; then
he would tumble home to bed, and, when he had thor-
oughly perspired, then to studie."

Dr. Abercrombie states that he attended a gentleman
afi'ected with a painful disease, requiring the use of large
opiates. On one occasion, the opiates having failed to
produce sleep, the gentleman beheld passing before him
a number of the celebrities of the day discussing some
occurrences of a recent date, and heard their speeches
and conversations, some of which were in rhyme, and
was able to repeat much of it the next day.

I am acquainted with a lady residing on a farm in
Central New York, who, while suffering from a severe

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. HI

attack of the toothache, was induced by her friends to
partake generously of alcoholic drinks to " drown the
pain ;" soon becoming slightly inebriated, she astonished
all in the house with her wonderful power of song, sing-
ing with a sweetness and pathos truly touching; yet she
declared she had never before been able to more than
" hum a tune," having had no musical education. This is
an instance of spirit-power, direct evidence of the ability
of disembottled spirits " to manifest in the form."

3. Li slumber.

We have abundant testimony to the fact of abnormal
exaltation of the mental faculties during sleep. Miss
Cobbe, in her thoughtful essay on "Unconscious Cere-
bration," cites several cases of poetical talent being called
into existence during slumber. She cites the case of a
lady who confessed to have been pondering, on the day
before her dream, on the many duties which " bound her
to life." This metaphorical allusion became in her sleep
a visible allegory. " She dreamed that Life — a strong,
calm, cruel woman — was binding her limbs with steel
fetters, which she felt as well as saw, and Death, as an
angel of mercy, hung hovering in the distance, unable to
approach or deliver her. In this most singular dream
her feelings found expression in the following touching
verses, which she remembered on waking, and which
she has permitted me to quote precisely in the frag-
mentary state in which they remained in her memory :

" ' Then I cried, with weary breath,
Oh, be merciful, great Death !
Take me to thy kingdom deep,
Where grief is stilled in sleep,
Where the weary hearts find rest.

112 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

" 'Ah, kind Death, it cannot be
That there is no room for me
In all thy chambers vast.
See ! strong Life has bound me fast:
Break her chains and set me free.

" 'But cold Death makes no reply —
Will not hear my bitter cry.
Cruel Life still holds me fast,
Yet true Death must come at last,
Conquer Life, and set me free !' "

Miss Cobbe also refers to a ladj of her acquaintance
who composed a dream-poem which merits attention, as
she observes, " seeing that the dreamer in her waking
hours is not a poet, and that the poem she dreamed is in
French, in which she can speak fluently, but in which
she believes herself utterly unable to compose a verse."

Abercrombie ("Intellectual Powers") gives the follow-
ing interesting instances of mental exaltation in the hours
of slumber:

" Dr. Franklin informed Cabanis that the bearings and
issues of perplexing political events were frequently un-
folded to him in his dreams. A gentleman had been
reading an account of the cruelties inflicted by the Turks
on the Christians, and in his sleep dreamed that he was
a witness of similar scenes, and heard a Turk address
the sufferer in some doggerel rhymes, which he was
enabled to repeat in the morning.

"A distinguished lawyer of Scotland was occupied in
a case which severely taxed his attention and was at-
tended with much difficulty. In his sleep he arose, and,
proceeding to his writing-desk, wrote for some time and
returned to bed. In the morning he informed his wife
he had had a remarkable dream, in which the perplexities
of the case had been clearly unraveled, but was unable to

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSIOK. HB

recall it. His wife directed bim to his desk, wbere he
found a full and luminous opinion on the case, written
out in his own hand.

"... They [somnambulists] in some cases repeat
long pieces of poetry, often more correctly than they can
do in their waking state, and not unfrequently things
which they could not repeat in their state of health, or
of which they were supposed to be entirely ignorant. In
other cases, they hold conversations with imaginary
beings, or relate circumstances and conversations which
occurred at remote periods, and which they were sup-
posed to have forgotten. Some have been known to
sing in a style far superior to anything they could do in
their waking state, and there are some well-authenticated
instances of persons in this condition expressing them-
selves correctly in languages with which they were im-
perfectly acquainted."

Sir Isaac Newton solved a subtle mathematical problem
whilst sleeping; Condorcet recognized in his dreams the
final steps of a difficult calculation, which had baffled his
powers during the day; and Cabanis asserts that while
engaged on his " Cours d'Etude," Condillac frequently
during slumber developed and finished in his dreams a
subject which he had broken off before retiring to bed.*

A member of my own family, duringthe half-unconscious
slumber preceding waking, dreamed that she was writing
a romance, and each morning she took up the thread of
thought where waking from sleep had interrupted it on
the previous morning. So interested did she become in the
plot and incidents, as they shaped themselves in her mind,
without any effort of creative power, that she experienced
as much pleasure as if she had been reading some new

* Abercrombie : "Intellectual Powers," p. 234.
10*

114 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

work of a favorite author. She could retain but a faint
recollection of the incidents, and had but a vague im-
pression of the grandeur and sublimity of the style. I
recollect a fact in my own experience of somewhat similar
nature. I had been deeply interested in researches on
the ancient forms of worship, and was very anxious to
see a certain work which treated on the religion of the
Sabeans, but could not procure it. In my dreams I
thought I had obtained the book and eagerly perused its
pages. The perusal of the work continued for several
nights, and I was much surprised to find how admirably
the author handled the subject and how clearly he pre-
sented it in all of its aspects. Of course, the eloquent
and lucid reasonings of the " learned author" were in
perfect harmony with my own conjectures, which, how-
ever, had not been arranged into any systematic order,
but were existing in my mind in a confused manner.

Dr. Winslow remarks that in this condition "phases
of intellectual vigor and states of mental acuteness are
developed which were not normal manifestations during
waking hours, and did not exist in conditions of healthy
thought."

4. In magnetic somnolency.

That the " mesmeric" sleep often awakens powers of the
mind into action hitherto unknown is now too well estab-
lished to admit of refutation. The nature of the experi-
ments made upon mesmeric subjects has been such as to
absolutely preclude the possibility of longer attempting to
account for them on the supposition that the mind of
the magnetizer is the sole source of all the intelligence
evolved. I admit that in ordinary experiments in "elec-
tro-biology" it is undoubtedly true that the mind of the
operator determines the action. If he declares the

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 115

"subject" to be hot or cold, his independent mental ac-
tion is suspended, and he feels as the mind of the opera-
tor wills, — not simply because the operator wills it, but
because his own reasoning faculties and will are in
abeyance, and he feels that he must be as the other de-
clares. But when the subject enters the deep trance con-
dition, and displays mental powers impossible to account
for through control of the imagination, and resulting in
actions entirely unsuspected, or giving information un-
known to the operator, some other explanation must be
resorted to.

In the magnetic state we may observe an exaltation
of the mental faculties oftentimes bordering ou the in-
credible. The intellectual faculties seem to be quickened,
and questions are frequently discussed which, in waking
moments, are far beyond the reach of the normal capa-
bility of the mind. Subjects also experience a wonderful
development of memory, which, on passing into their
normal condition, it is impossible to retain. In addition
to the superior coherence of thought sometimes mani-
fested, we discover a power to perceive objects in the
deepest darkness, or to hear sounds in distant rooms,
sounds which fail to reach the ears of others ; and this in
cases where the object seen or sound heard is unknown to
the operator or any one j)resent.

I am aware that those who believe we can receive no
impression except by the usual action of the senses will
doubt the correctness of these statements ; for their theory
has no place for such facts as may be brought to substan-
tiate it. That sensation is seated in the senses, rather than
in the mind, is an unproven assertion. Thus, the prepar-
atives of sensation have been confounded with sensation
itself; but, as Sir James Mackintosh has admirably ob-
served, " All the changes in our organs which can be

116 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

likened to other material phenomena are nothing more
than antecedents and prerequisites of perception, bearing
not the faintest likeness to it : as much outward in relation
to the thinking principle as if they occurred in any other
part of matter, and of which the entire comprehension, if
it were attained, would not bring us a step nearer to the
nature of thought."

A few illustrations of the exaltation of faculties in artifi-
cial somnambulism, when carefully witnessed and verified
by competent persons, are worth more than pages of
theorizing or assertions, and will be more welcome to the
reader. The Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, in his
" Facts in Mesmerism," cites many experiments, performed
under the most careful scrutiny, evidencing the truth of
these statements. From his work the following illus-
tration is quoted :

" Remembering that E. A , on his father's testi-
mony, had in natural sleep-waking seemed to perceive in
total darkness, I was curious to ascertain whether in mes-
meric sleep-waking he would manifest a similar phenom-
enon of sensation. I therefore, having mesmerized him,
took him with me into a dark press or closet, of which I
employed a friend to hold to the door in such a manner
as that no ray of light could penetrate through crevice or
keyhole. Then, like the hero of ' The Curse of Kehama,'

'I opened my eyes and I closed them,

And the blackness and the blank were the same.'

" My utmost efforts to see my hand only produced those
sparks and flashes which waver before the eye in complete
obscurity. Having thus ascertained the perfect darkness
of the closet, I drew a card, at hazard, from a pack with
which I had provided myself, and presented it to the
sleep-waker. He said it was so and so. I repeated this

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. Hf

to my friend, whom I then told to open the door. The
admission of light established the correctness of the
sleep-waker ; it was the card he had named. The expei'i-
ments repeated four times gave the same satisfactory
result. This peculiar development of vision was, like the
other faculties of the sleep-waker, capable of improvement
through exercise. At first he seemed unable to read in
the dark ; then, like a person learning the alphabet, he
came to distinguish large single letters which I had
printed for him on a card ; and at length he could make
out whole sentences of even small print. While thus
engaged in deciphering letters, or in ascertaining cards,
the patient always held one of my hands, and sometimes
laid it on my brow, affirming that it increased his clair-
voyance. He would also beg me to breathe upon the
objects which he desired to see. He used to declare that
the more complete the darkness was, the better he could
exercise his new mode of perception, asserting, that, when
in the dark, he did not come to the knowledge of objects
in the same manner as when he was in the light. Often
when I could not see a ray of light he used to complain
that the closet was not dark enough, and in order to
thicken the obscurity he would wrap up his head in a
dressing-gown which hung in the closet.. At other times
he would thrust his head into the remotest corner of the
press. His perception of color, when exercised in obscu-
rity, sustained but little alteration. He has named cor-
rectly the different tints of a set of colored glasses. It
was, however, worthy of remark that he was apt to mis-
take between the harmonic colors, green and red, not only
when he was in the dark, but when his eyes were bandaged.
" Many persons can bear testimony to the accuracy of
the above experiments ; and I refer to the Appendix for
proofs that I sought for witnesses and invited scrutiny,

118 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

feeling that such things as I had to narrate could scarcely
be credited on the word of a single person."

In the Appendix we find a number of statements drawn
by witnesses to these interesting experiments. M. Yan
Owenhuysen, of Antwerp, Dr. Foissac, of Paris, Baron
de Carlowiz, of Berne, Dr. Wild, of Berne, and others,
give interesting descriptions of mesmeric " manifesta-
tions" witnessed by them where clairvoyance was shown
to exist, independently of the minds of those present.
Strong testimony would indeed be required to convince

us that " E. A ," his best subject, with eyes securely

bandaged, could read two hundred pages of print, and
even written music ; yet it was thoroughly tested. Signer
Ranieri, of Naples, and the distinguished Professor
Agassiz, relate their experience when under the mes-
meric control of Mr. Townshend. Among these letters
is one from Dr. Filippi, of Milan, which, being brief,
may be quoted in this connection :

" M. Valdrighi, advocate, had his sense of hearing so
exquisite and exalted that he could hear words pronounced
at the distance of two rooms, the doors of which were
shut, although pronounced in a weak and low voice.

" The exaltation of life which is observed in some
patients attains such a height, that one of them could
see the most delicate and minute objects in the greatest
darkness. This is noticed in nervous and very delicate
persons."

The case of Miss Brackett, who lived in Providence,
R. I., some thirty or forty- years since, has been pub-
lished and commented on by many, though now perhaps
forgotten. While totally blind, — the result of an injury, —
she manifested clairvoyant powers in a high degree.
Abundant testimony was collected and published, which
now lies before me, showing conclusively that she had

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. Hg

the power to corrcctlj read sealed letters. The well-
known case of Jane Rider, and many others, could also
be quoted, if enough had not already been said, as well
as instances occurring in the personal knowledge of the
writer, where his " subjects" have told him facts which
at the time were unknown to him, but subsequently veri-
fied. Many cases might be cited of more recent date, but
I have preferred to take those where the circumstances
were such as to preclude the possibility of deception.

Did space permit, I could cite cases of oratory, philo-
sophical composition, drawing, painting, reading, etc., de-
veloped by some of the above causes or others, in each case
ability being displayed far transcending the person's natu-
ral habits or powers of thought. In natural somnambulism
we find the same phenomena ; and these two states are too
closely related to each other not to be classified under one
and the same great law. In the mesmeric " subject" we
have an " operator," but in somnambulism the subject
and operator are one. A case is narrated in the French
Encyclopedia, which occurred under the observation of
the Archbishop of Bordeaux. A young minister was a
somnambulist, and was observed to rise in the night aud
" take paper, pen and ink, and proceed to the composition
of sermons. Having written a page in a clear, legible
hand, he would read it aloud from top to bottom, with a
clear voice and proper emphasis. If a passage did not
please him, he would erase it, and write the correction,
plainly, in its proper place, over the erased line or word.
All this was done without any assistance from the eye,
which was evidently asleep. A piece of pasteboard inter-
posed between the eye' and the paper produced no inter-
ruption or inconvenience. When his paper was exchanged
for another of the same size, he was not aware of the

120 TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

change; but when a paper of different size was substi-
tuted, he at once detected the difference."

Professor Haven relates the following remarkable in-
stances in his Mental Philosophy :

" In a certain school for young ladies — I think in
France — prizes had been offered for the best paintings.
Among the competitors was a young and timid girl, who
was conscious of her inferiority in the art, yet strongly
desirous of success. For a time she was quite dissatis-
fied with the progress of her work ; but by-and-by began
to notice, as she resumed her pencil in the morning, that
something had been added to the work since she last
touched it. This was noticed for some time, and quite
excited her curiosity. The additions were evidently by a
superior hand, far excelling her own in skill and work-
manship. Her companions denied, each and severally,
all knowledge of the matter. She placed articles of furni-
ture against her door in such a way that any one enter-
ing would be sure to awaken her. They were undis-
turbed; but still the mysterious additions continued to
be made. At last her companions concluded to watch
without and make sure that no one entered her apart-
ment during the night ; but still the work went on. At
length it occurred to them to watch her movements ; and
now the mystery was explained. They saw her, evi-
dently in sound sleep, rise, dress, take her place at the
table, and commence her work. It was her own hand
that, unconsciously to herself, had executed the work in
a style which in her waking moments she could not
approach, and which quite surpassed all competition.
The picture, notwithstanding her protestations that it
was not her painting, took the prize."

Here we have an " accredited manifestation," thor-
oughly tested by the most approved methods known in

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 121

"investigating circles," and sufficiently satisfactory to
the spiritist to set up a medium in business. This case
presents as strong " evidence" of a " controlling inOu-
ence" as most of those recorded in the spirital journals
of our day, and nine out of ten would unhesitatingly
accept the work of the somnambule as that of a " spirit-
artist." Professor Haven's remarks on this and analo-
gous instances are so pertinent that I sliall quote at some
length from them :

" How is it, now, that in a state of sleep, with the
eye probably fast closed, and the room in darkness, this
girl can use the pencil in a manner so superior to an^-
. thing that she can do in the daytime, with her eyes open
and in the full possession and employment of her senses
and her will ?

'^ Here are, in fact, several things to be accounted for.
How is it that the somnambulist rises and moves about
in a state of apparently sound sleep? How is it that
she performs actions requiring often a high degree of in-
telligence, and yet without apparent consciousness ? How
is it that she moves fearlessly and safely, as is often the
case, over places where she could not stand for a moment
in her waking state without the greatest danger ? How
is it that she can see without the eye, and perform actions
in utter darkness, requiring the nicest attention and the
best vision, and not only do them, but in such a manner
as even to surpass what can be done by the same person in
any other state under the most favorable circumstances ?
***** j^

" Another and much more reasonable supposition [than
the automatic theory] is that the will, which ordinarily
in sleep loses control both over the mind and the body,
in the state of somnambulism regains, in some way and
to some extent, its power over the latter, so that the body

F 11

122 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

rises and moves about in accordance with the thought
and feeling that happened at the moment to be pre-
dominant in the mind. There is no control of the will
over those thoughts and suggestions : they are spontane-
ous, undirected, casual, subject only to the ordinary laws
of association ; but for the time, whether owing to the
greater vividness and force of these suggestions and im-
pressions, or to the disturbed and partially aroused state
of the sensorial organism, the will, acting in accordance
with these suggestions of the mind, so far regains its
power over the bodily organism that locomotion ensues.
The dream is then simply acted out. The body rises,
the hand resumes the pen, and the appropriate move- „
ments and actions corresponding to the conceptions of
the mind in its dream are duly performed. . . .

" Whatever theory we adopt, or even if we adopt none,
we must admit, I think, in view of the facts in the case,
that in certain disordered and highly-excited states of the
nervous system, as, e.g., when weakened by disease so
that ordinary causes affect it more powerfully than usual,
it can, and does sometimes, perceive what, under ordinary
circumstances, is not perceptible to the eye or to the ear ;
nay, even dispenses with the use of eye and ear and the
several organs of special sense. This occurs, as we have
seen, in somnambulism, or natural magnetic sleep. We
meet with the same thing also in even stranger forms, in
the mesmeric state, and in some species of insanity.

" So far as regards the purely mental part of the phe-
nomena, the operations of the mind in somnambulism,
there is nothing which is not easily explained. In som-
nambulism, as indeed in all these states so closely con-
nected,—sleep, dreams, the mesmeric process, and even
insanity,— the will loses its controlling power over the train
of thought, and, consequently, the thought or feeling that

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 123

happens to be dominant gives rise to, and entirely
shapes, the actious that may in that state be per-
formed."

In chapter iv. we shall have occasion to investigate
the causes of these singular phenomena somewhat more
closely : it is enough in this connection to show that such
cases do exist. I am well aware that the spiritists
will claim that these cases are explicable only on their
theory: in fact, the "spirits" inform' us, through the
Banner of Light, that fully one-third of the cases of in-
sanity are really the result of " obsession;" but the intel-
ligent reader would hardly care to read any very lengthy
refutation of this antiquated opinion, and I certainly shall
not so far trespass on his good nature at present. He
would doubt the necessity for controverting a theory
which assumes that organic affection of the brain is an
essential condition to establish a connection between this
world and the next, or that intoxicating drinks render
the brain more passive and therefore more susceptible to
spiritual influences. That some can believe that the
dreamer is inspired, the opium-eater "obsessed," or that
the somnambule's clearness of vision is the result of sjnr-
itual agents, who return to amaze us by selecting the
knave of clubs from a pack of cards, need not surprise
us, when we think of the fact that the distinguished
French savant M. Taui Broca has collected a library of
works published during the present century to sustain
the theory that the earth is not spherical, but flat.

In the cases instanced above, the hypothesis of an
" influence" operating from the unseen side of life was
never once asserted by the persons supposed to be under
such control. In most of the instances cited I -have
chosen those which antedated the advent of our modern
polytheism; and as, very singularly, the "unseen influ-

124 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

ences" forgot to state that they were " spirits," we may
reasonably decline to adopt that assumption at this late
day.

Thus it appears that " manifestations" as surprising as
those witnessed in the " circle" have been recorded as
arising from certain states of the nervous system, and,
under "right conditions," have occurred without the aid
of any mythical "influence" whatever. If affection of
the brain can produce them, if stimulants may call them
into action, if slumber may arouse faculties of even the
existence of which we were unaware, it certainly would
be more in accordance with scientific thought to expect
that other causes might also excite their manifestation.
As we shall see hereafter, the powers of the mind are far
from being capable of definite limitation, and it were
foolhardy to assert that any act of mental exaltation must
have external spiritual origin.

If a person can play on a musical instrument, or paint,
while in a somnambulic or trance state, and — as we posi-
tively know — possess the power of entering that condi-
tion at will without the aid of a " mesmerizer," then as
evidence of mediumship for departed spirits it is not
only contemptible, but a reflection on the intelligence of
those capable of urging it.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 125

CHAPTER III.

" OBSESSION."

1. Evidence of the senses.

In the preceding chapter we have seen that the mere
fact of an extraordinary exaltation of the mental powers
does not in itself furnish us with conclusive evidence that
it must necessarily have proceeded from an intelligence
distinct from ourselves, and have also seen sufficient
reason to refuse the use of the supposition as even a
probable cause. In spiritism, however, we find accom-
panying these states of mental exaltation the claim of
distinct personality : the medium, in conversation or in
writing, while conscious that his acts are not the result of
his own normal powers, is also conscious of a claim put
forth through him that they are the work of some other
intelligent agency. Thus he finds that he not only
writes better — though this is not the case universally —
than in his normal condition, but that the writing is
signed with the name of sojie deceased person ; the
power controlling him aj)pai'entiy asserts a distinct in-
dividuality.

In considering the claim of "obsession," or the pos-
session of a mcirtal by a disembodied spirit, we shall find
that the evidence is equally weak when submitted to
close scrutiny. In exam'uiiig the arguments adduced in
support of* this theory, we find the spiritist generally
laying great stress on the testimony of his senses. He
gravely assures us that he cannot argue the question on
the ground of probability, for he has personal knowledge ;

11*

126 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

be has himself been conscious of being a willing or un-
willing instrument in the hands of "spirits;" his eyes
have beheld theai, his hands grasped them, his ears
heard them, or thej have controlled him on many oc-
casions, even against his will. Let us examine this
evidence of the senses.

In the first place, we have abundant evidence that the
senses are not always trustworthy, and may frequently
deceive us. Dr. Winslow cites the following passage
from a letter addressed to him by a patient : " I am a
martyr to a species of persecution from within, which
is becoming intolerable. I am urged to say the most
shocking things. Blasphemous and obscene words are
ever on the tip of my tongue. Hitherto, thank God ! I
have been able to resist, but I often think I must yield
at last ; and then I shall be disgraced forever. I solemnly
assure you that I hear a voice which seems to be within
me, pi'ompting me to utter what I would turn from with
disgust if uttered by another. If I were not afraid you
would smile, I should say there is no way for accounting
for these extraordinary articulate whisperings but by
supposing that an evil spirit has obtained possession of
me for a time."

The spirital " physician" would at once exclaim that the
patient was right so to think ; his " Theory of the Uni-
verse" readily finds a niche for such facts. But the intelli-
gent physician would regard the matter far differently :
to him it would be evidence of disordered mental action,
requiring other treatment than a process of " develop-
ment" and harmonizing circles, if he would not see
health entirely destroyed and death rendered inevitable.
" These symptoms," remarks Dr. Winslow, " long before
tliey are recognized to be morbid, cause much acute and
bitter anguish, concealed suffering, great and unobserved

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 127

misery in the bosoms of families, often sapping the foun-
dation of domestic happiness. A. contest of this nature
in an unhealthy but not yet insane mind has continued
for a long- period unknown, except to the wretched suf-
ferer, before the intellect has succumbed to its baneful
and destructive influence."

The spiritist smiles derisively at the charge of dis-
ordered mental action, as obviously at fault in many
instances, and asserts that his case cannot be so con-
strued, as the different senses unite in confirming the
distinct individuality of the power claiming to control
him. When Copernicus published his theory of the
rotundity of the earth, he was met with shouts of de-
rision. " Trust to your senses !" was the response of the
deriding populace. When Galileo announced his dis-
covery^f Jupiter's satellites, the opponents of "mole-
eyed science" again renewed the cry of " Trust to your
senses !" This appeal to the senses has been thrown into
the faces of all devotees of science in their struggles to
reduce discord to order, fancy to reality. And again in
our day the same senseless cry is parrot-like repeated,
furnishing us, if nothing else, additional evidence of " the
power of the mind to resist knowledge." A dominant
idea, when once in full possession of the mind, may be
as productive of delusion as drugs or disease. The
studied " development" of abnormal faculties under the
impression that the source of the action is due to invisi-
ble beings, necessarily shapes the "manifestation," and
produces the assertion of distinct individuality on the
part of the assumed "influence."

" It is immaterial," says Dr. Draper, in " The Intel-
lectual Development of Europe," " in what manner or
by what agency our susceptibility to the impressions of
surrounding objects is benumbed whether by drugs, or

128 THE Sri RITUAL DELUSION.

sleep, or disease ; as soon as their force is no greater
than that of forms already registered in the brain, these
last will emerge before us, and dreams or apparitions
are the result. So liable is the mind to practice decep-
tion on itself, that with the utmost difficulty it is aware
of the delusion. No man can submit to long-continued
and rigorous fasting without becoming the subject of
these hallucinations ; and the more he enfeebles his
organs of sense, the more vivid is the exhibition, the more
profound the deception. An ominous sentence may per-
haps be incessantly whispered in his ear ; to his fixed or
fascinated eye some grotesque or abominable object may
perpetually present itself. To the hermit in the solitude
of his cell there doubtless often did appear, by the un-
certain light of his lamp, obscene shadows of diabolical
import ; doubtless there was many an agony witkfiends,
many a struggle with monsters, satyrs, and imp^ many
an earnest, solemn, and manful controversy with Satan
himself, who sometimes came as an aged man, sometimes
with a countenance of horrible intelligence, and some-
times as a female fearfully beautiful. St. Jerome, who
with the utmost difficulty had succeeded in extinguish-
ing all carnal desires, ingenuously confesses bow sorely
he was tried by this last device of the enemy, how nearly
the ancient flames were rekindled. As to the reality of
these apparitions, why should a hermit be led to suspect
that they arose from the natural working of his own
brain ? Men never dream that they are dreaming. To
him they were terrible realities; to us they should be the
proofs of insanity, but not of imposture."

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 129

2. Tlie ivitchcrafl delusion.

We are not limited, however, to aclinowledged cases of
disordered mental action for illustrations of the unrelia-
bility of the senses when their testimony is claimed as
evidence of "spirit-manifestations." Without havin"-
recourse to the columns of spirital journals, the pages
of history furnish us with numerous instances of sup-
posed " manifestations" by, and intercourse with, invis-
ible beings. Some of these we need to reperuse in order
to be better prepared to arrive at a just conclusion.

Let us turn our attention to the records of the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, when witchcraft was more
prevalent in Europe than spiritism has yet become in our
land. Witchcraft and spiritism present many points of
correspondence. The spiritists themselves generally ad-
mit this, and claim that witchcraft was but a form of
" spirit-intercourse ;" that, finding the effort to open com-
munication between the two worlds only resulting in
erroneous views and personal suflTering, the sublimated
authors of the movement generously consented to forego
their endeavors and wait a more favorable opportunity.
In that age the supernatural was as readily admitted by
the learned as the unlearned; the existence o^ "spirit-
intercourse" was undoubted ; but our ancestors, with
singular obtuseness, could not but regard "obsession" as
the work of evil spirits. Readily admitting the spirital
hypothesis, their minds were so clouded with theological
dogmas and bigotry as to be unable to imagine that a
denizen of the brighter world of spiritual existence could
desire to return to obsess mortals to dance or leap !
Strangely enough, however, we find these bewitched
persons claiming in their " obsessed" moments to be in-
fluenced by denizens of the pit !

130 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

In the early days of the struggle between the Dis-
senters and the Established Church of England, both
parties claimed the power to exorcise spirits who had ob-
tained possession of a mortal medium. The memorable
ease of Richard Dugdale was one of the most remarkable
brought forward by the Dissenters. This rustic youth
had sold his soul to the devil, in the parlance of the day,
in order to become the best dancer in Lancashire.
Anxious to relieve him from this demoniacal control, the
Dissenters appointed a committee of clergymen, who pro-
posed to exorcise the demon by the usual course of fasting
and prayer. They labored for a year, but without accom-
plishing their purpose. Though unable to exorcise the
demon, they grew quite familiar with him, as the follow-
ing specimen of their railing will exhibit : " What, Satan !
is this the dancing that Richard gave himself to thee
for ? Canst thou dance no better ? Ransack the old
records of all past time and places in thy memory : canst
thou not then find out some better way of trampling?
Pump thine invention dry : cannot the universal seed-
plot of subtle wiles and stratagems spring up one new
method of cutting capers ? Is this the top of skill and
pride, to shuffle feet and brandish knees thus, and to trip
like a doe, and skip like a squirrel? And vi'herein differ
thy leapings from the hoppiiigs of a frog, or the bouncing
of a goat, or the friskings of a dog, or gesticulations of
a monkey ? And cannot palsy shake such a loose leg as
that? Dost thou not twirl like a calf that hath the turn,
and twitch up thy houghs just like a springhalt tit ?"

Inhow many particulars does this remind me of "cir-
cles" in which I have sat with patient waiting for some
" test," always promised, yet never realized! Often in
the State of Vermont I have beard the shade of Ethan
Allen addressed, if not in similar language, yet with

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 131

equal familiarity ; an unusual thump of tlie table occur-
ring- would be gieeted with ejaculations of " That's old
Ethan!" "How are you, Ethan ?" I have sat thus for
an hour or more, and at last had my patience rewarded
by beholding a member of the company " controlled" to
dance for as long a time without apparent exhaustion,
and with the others I marveled much, but from a far
different reason !

During the year 1811, the Banner of Light con-
tained, a complimentary notice of the advent of a new

medium, Mrs. P , who gave dancing seances "under

influence," and was regarded by the faithful as a re-
markable test-medium. If the assertion of the "influ-
ence" through Mrs. P is a positive test, what shall

we call the assertion of his Satanic majesty through
Richard Dugdale ?

The Established Church also had its cases of Satanic
obsessions. The once famous case of the witches of
Warbois may furnish us with an instance of the length to
which the " evidence of the senses" may go. The witclies
were a Mother Samuel and her husband, both very old
and poor persons, and a daughter, a young woman. The
daughter of a Mr. Throgmorton, being taken ill, fancied
that Mother Samuel had bewitched her. The other
children of the family sympathetically joined in the cry,
and " investigation" began. The parents heard the chil-
dren during their paroxysms carrying on a conversation
with some invisible persons, and, when the children re-
covered, learned from their lips the nature of the remarks
made by the "spirits." Sir Walter Scott, in his "Letters
on Demonology and Witchcraft," gives us a description of
this tragical event, from which the following lively con-
versation between the " spirit" and one of the girls is
taken :

132 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

" The names of the spirits were Pluck, Ilarclname,
Catch, Blue, and three Smacks, who were cousins. Joan
Throgmorton, the eldest, supposed that one of the Smacks
was her lover, did battle for her with the less friendly
spirits, and promised to protect her against Mother
Samuel herself; and the following curious extract will
show on what a footing of familiarity the damsel stood
with her spiritual gallant : ' From whence came you, Mr.
Smack?' says the afflicted young lady ; ' and what news
do you bring?' Smack, nothing abashed, informed her
he came from fighting with Pluck: the weapons, great
cowl-staves, — the scene, a ruinous bakehouse in Dame
Samuel's yard. 'And who got the mastery, I pray you ?'
said the damsel. Smack answered, he had broken
Pluck's head. ' I would,' said the damsel, ' he had
broken your neck also.' 'Is that the thanks I am to
have for my labor ?' said the disappointed Smack. ' Look
you for thanks at my hand ?' said the distressed maiden.
' I would you were all hanged up against each other, with
your dame for company, for you are all naught.' On this
repulse exit Smack, and enter Pluck, Blue, and Catch,
the first with his head broken, the other limping, and the
third with his arm in a sling, all trophies of Smack's
victory. They disappeared, after having threatened
vengeance upon the conquering Smack. . . . Miss
Throgmorton and her sisters railed against Dame Samuel ;
and when Mr. Throgmorton brought her to his house by
force, the little fiends longed to draw blood of her,
scratch her, and torture her, as the witch-creed of that
period recommended ; yet the poor woman incurred deeper
suspicion when she expressed a wish to leave a house
where she was so coarsely treated and lay under such
odious suspicion." This unfortunate w^oman was at
length worried into a confession of her guilt, and, with

I

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 133

her husband and daughter, was condemned and exe-
cuted.

In this case the delusion existed in the minds of the
persons supposed to be bewitched, and on the testimony
of their senses sufficient evidence was obtained to cause
the execution of these poor people. Nor need we be sur-
prised at instances of confession on the part of the accused,
when we consider the means so often applied for extorting
them ; but the following case so fully illustrates the folly
of relying upon the senses alone in regard to phenomena
of this character, that it is commended to the attention
of those who delight in collecting " accredited manifesta-
tions" to substantiate conjecture.

In the Swedish village of Mohra, about the middle of
the seventeenth century, the witchcraft mania had become
so general, and involved so many of the inhabitants, that
the government sent royal commissioners to investigate*
the matter and punish the guilty, if such there were. The
complaints, attested by persons of all classes, were that
certain individuals, instigated by Satan, had bewitched
several hundred children, who were daily " obsessed" by
demons. In this village alone threescore and ten were
seized and imprisoned on this charge, of whom twenty-
three confessed to the crime alleged and were executed.
In the" record of this case we may read, "Fifteen of the
children were also led to death. Six-and-thirty of those
who were young were forced to run the gauntlet, as it is
termed, and were, besides, lashed weekly at the church
door for a whole year. Twenty of the youngest were
condemned to the same discipline for three days only."

The process adopted by the commissioners was to con-
front the children with the so-called witches, and listen
to the accusations made by the children, who persisted in
their tale notwithstanding the flogging which awaited

12

134 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

them. Three hundred of the children were found who
substantially agreed in the following improbable tale:
Under instructions from the witches, they were wont to
assemble at a cross-way and invoke the presence of the
devil, requesting him to convey them to Blockula, a
mountain famous for witches' gatherings. The children
gave a minute description of his majesty and the methods
of transportation provided by him. Here was positive
" evidence" equal to that so often related to us in the
present time by trance-7Jiec?u(??is. On the spirital hypoth-
esis, can stronger evidence be conceived than that which
convinced these children with the fear of death before
their eyes and actually visited upon some of their number?
Whatwerelearnedjudges to think, with the spirital theory
firmly established in their minds, when witches and be-
witched both united in substantiating the truth of the
charges, and gave minute descriptions of the feasts held
on the " Devil's Sabbath" ? when the children agreed in
the statement that they had conversed with the arch-fiend
himself, and the witches confessed to having "sons and
daughters by the fiends, who were married together, and
produced an oS'spring of toads and serpents" ?

If " obsession" was a delusion, then was the method
of investigation a false one ; if it was real, the public
floggings sent the " spirits" off on other business, and
benefited society: a conclusion giving rise to another
conclusion, as applicable to-day as it was two hundred
years since !

Belief in the marvelous and the supernatural was uni-
versal, and the reality of these nocturnal gatherings was
unquestioned. His infernal highness, we are told, left a
very unpleasant odor behind ; and we find this fact duly
explained in accordance with the spirital science of that
time by a Mr. Granville, in terms which, if he were now

TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 135

living, would entitle liim to a conspicuous position in the
ranks of modern necromancy. " This," he says, " seems
to imply the reality of the business, these ascititious pai--
ticles which he held together in his sensible shape being
loosened at his vanishing, and so offending the nostrils
by their floating and diffusing themselves in the open
air !"

Let us now examine a still different case. The confes-
sion of a Scotch witch, Isobel Gowdin, extremely minute
in its description of the spirital under-world, is interesting
from the fact that it was voluntarily made, and exists judi-
cially authenticated by the signatures of the notary, clergy-
men, and gentlemen present, was adhered to after frequent
examinations, and contains no variation or contradiction
in its details. Isobel gave a full and definite account of
the pastimes enjoyed by the fiends, their names and per-
sonal appearance, the songs sung, the materials of their
feasts, and the strange ceremonials of their " Sabbaths."
Metamorphoses into the forms of cats, crows, wolves,
hares, and other animals, were very common amono*
witches. Isobel relates that having once been sent on
an errand by the devil, she assumed the form of a hare,
and had the misfortune to meet a pack of hounds. " And
I," says Isobel, "ran a very long time, and being hard
pressed was forced to take to my own house, the door
being open, and there took refuge behind a chest."

After several narrow escapes and new hiding-places,
she gained time to say the disenchanting rhyme, —

"Hare, hare, God send thee care!
I am in a hare's likeness now,-
But I shall be a womaD even now —
Hare, hare, God send thee care!"

Notwithstanding the severity of the laws, Isobel per-
sisted in these declarations, and even said, " I do not

136 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

deserve to be seated here at ease and unharmed, but
rather to be stretched on an iron rack ; nor can mj crimes
be atoned for were I to be drawn asunder by wild horses."

One more case of a still different nature, and we con-
clude. On the 8th of November, 1516, Bessie Dunlop
was accused of sorcery and witchcraft in Ayrshire, Scot-
land. She asserted that she obtained all her miraculous
knowledge of disease, lost goods, and future events, from
the spirit of one Thome Reid, who died at the battle of
Pinkie, September 10, 1547, who answered every ques-
tion which she addressed to him. She described her
" spirit" friend as " a respectable, elderly-looking man,
gray-bearded, and wearing a gray coat, with Lombard
sleeves of the auld fashion. A pair of gray breeches,
and white stockings gartered above the knee, a black
bonnet on his head, close behind and plain before, with
silken laces drawn through the tips thereof, and a white
wand in his hand." To render it a complete "test-case,"
we learn that before his first appearance Bessie had never
heard of him, but learned his history from his own lips,
and had been sent on errands by him to his son and to
others, his relatives, whom he named to her.

One of his old neighbors, to whom Bessie was sent, she
was to remind, in proof of the truth of her mission, that
he had set out with Reid to go to the battle, which
occurred on what was called Black Saturday. She was
to recall to his mind that he had desired to pursue a
different road, but that Thome Held had persuaded him
to continue the journey, that when they had arrived at
the kirk of Dairy, Reid bought a parcel of figs for him
and presented them tied up in his handkerchief, and that
they parted no more till the fatal field of Pinkie was
reached.

Here we certainly find an " accredited manifestation,"

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. I37

and are moved to listen to the revelations after so con-
vincing- a " test." Well might Bessie Dunlop be excused
for following the lead of one who had so completely
" demonstrated" his existence and continued identity,
and incline a willing ear to the tales he told of his "spirit-
home." Let us pause to look at that beautiful " land" as
it a[)peared in 1576.

Bessie's ghostly adviser grew so familiar as to invite
her to accompany him to the court of eljland, where he
resided ; he promised to take her to the court and intro-
duce her to the queen of the fairies, and on one occasion
he took hold of her apron to compel her to go. This
generous offer she never accepted, but had frequent oppor-
tunities of seeing the fairies when they left their subter-
ranean abode, and on one occasion had the honor of beinjr
attended in childbirth by her majesty the fairy queen,
who graciously waited upon her in the performance of
the duties of a nurse. Notwithstanding her faith in her
ghostly protector, his aid proved unavailing to save her
from tiie sad fate of the stake.

Though not herself a visitor to the fairy-land, her
countrywoman, Alison Pearson, of Byrehill, in 1588, ac-
cepted a similar invitation from a deceased cousin, one
William Simpson, and participated in the revelries of that
court. Isobel Gowdin, to whose voluntary confession we
have referred, in 1662 visited the king and queen of
elfland. She gave a very minuie description of their,
majeslies and their lilliputian subjects :, her knowledge
of the habits and customs of that realm was quite exten-
sive, and might furnish some of our seers a new field of
investigation.

The accumulated testimony taken at Salem, Mass., is
too well known to be dwelt upon in this connection. The
evidence which caused a child of five yeais of age to be

12

138 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

indicted in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and
sufficed to bring a poor dog to the scaffold for alleged
participation in unholy rites, was every whit as strong
and convincing as that of our own day, which seeks to
establish the fact of similar phenomena having a like
origin, differing, however, from the more ancient epidemic
delusion only in attributing the obsessing power to dis-
embodied beings rather than to demons or fairies.

■ • 3. Mental epidemics.

Dr. Francis Hutchinson said the number of witches
and their supposed Satanic intercourse would increase or
decrease in proportion to the general belief in the proba-
bility or impossibility of such tales. As the spiritist
theory prevailed, charges and convictions would be found
to augment in a terrific degree ; while under a more doubt-
ful or critical state of the public mind the charges would
.be disbelieved and dismissed as contemptible ; they would
grow less and less frequent, until they ceased altogether
to occupy the public mind. So with its modern counter-
part, "spirit-obsession;" only in proportion as such tales
as grace the columns of the journals of the " spiritual
philosophy of the nineteenth century" are believed to be
credible, will the testimony increase, and our shelves be
in danger of becoming filled with ponderous volumes erro-
neously called " The History of American Spiritualism."

The sympathy existing between human minds is so
great that a delusion, however foolish, can easily find
mental soil in which to take root and grow with the
rapidity of Jonah's gourd. An illustration of this is
found in the old anecdote of a wag stopping in front of an
English nobleman's house and intently gazing at one of
the bronze lions on the door-step ; his fixed attention soon
attracted a crowd of curious idlers. "By heavens! it

THE SPIRITUAL U ELUSION. 139

wags !" he ejaculated, pointing to the lion's tail. Soon
the street became impassable, and a large majority of the
"investigators" were ready to substantiate the assertion
with their solemn oaths. Let us briefly glance over some
historic examples of the contagious nature of intense con-
victions, where they have become epidemic and spread
from mind to mind in defiance of common sense and
reason.

In the early days of the Christian church, at least as
soon as the fourth century, retirement to desert or soli-
tary places became common among Christians. Shut off
from all human intercourse, immured in some mountain
cave, men sought to win holiness by prayer and penance.
This desire to secure salvation through humiliation of the
flesh became so general, we are told, that the Christian
world was in some danger of becoming depopulated of
its believers. At one period the sandy deserts of Egypt
alone contained over one hundred thousand religious re-
cluses, one-fourth being females ! In every direction
throughout the East flocked thousands in mad quest of
solitude. In those remote quarters of the earth enthu-
siasts passed their lives in prayer and demoniacal adven-
tures. Though removed from the carnal cares of the world,
they were none the less harassed ; for spirits of the damned
tormented or tempted them at every opportunity. In vain
they redoubled their penances or fasted oftener to con-
quer these creatures of the imagination: men and women
ran naked upon all-fours, associating themselves with the
beasts of the field, or, like St. Ammon, rejoiced in beino-
able to assert that they had never seen their bodies un-
covered, but the demons haunted them still. Though
Didymus never spoke to a human betng for ninety years,
and Anthony spent a lifetime in extinguishing all lustful
desires, the unconquerable spirit-world delighted in pre-

140 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION:

senting before them lascivious forms to still further tempt
their coostancy. To escape from the embrace of a beau-
tiful spirital maiden, St. Benedict had to roll himself
among thorns. In his presence, it is said, even the bodies
of the sinful dead would rise from their graves in the
church and depart to bury themselves in unconsecrated
ground. Our modern delusion has yet to increase in a
wonderful degree, to rival its ancient prototype.

The Crusades furnish us with a striking example of the
rapid spread of opinions having no foundation in I'eason.
Under the exhortations of Peter the Hermit and Walter
the Penniless, in the eleventh century, thousands of men
paved the road through Hungary to the East with a long
and ghastly line of whitened bones. Two hundred and
seventy-five thousand men, relying upon Divine Provi-
dence for material support, and preceded by a goat and a
goose, into which the Holy Ghost was asserted to have
fentered, set out on the mad expedition of capturing Jeru-
salem from the hands of the infidels. Under the assurance
of divine protection, the desire to rescue the tomb of the
Saviour became epidemic, and spread to every nook
of Christendom. Though the first crusade cost the lives
of more than half a million men, a triumph was appar-
ently won in the temporary occupation of the Holy City,
where ensued a scene of horror and butchery only possible
when men are controlled by delusions of the imagination,
and consequently deaf to the voice of reason or the sup-
plications of innocent women and children. A second and
third crusade followed before this mania became extinct,
showing to what length the mind of man will lead him
when " obsessed" by delusion. In those days a read}'' ear
was lent to " accredited manifestations" which abounded
on every hand, — "manifestations" of so marvelous a kind
(as may be read at length, duly attested, in the lives of

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 141

the Saints) as to make our itinerant miracle-mongers
appear insignificant and puerile.

Ttie witchcraft delusion, as we have seen, furnished
" manifestations" attested by all the weight human testi-
mony can give. Though denounced by the Pope as
impious, the reality of the phenomena was unquestioned,
and consequently the number of cases increased. A bull
of Pope Innocent YIIL, a.d. 1484, says, "It has come
to our ears that numbers of both sexes do not avoid to
have intercourse with the infernal fiends, and that by
their sorceries they afflict both man and beast. They
blight the marriage-bed; destroy the births of women
and the increase of cattle ; they blast the corn on the
ground, the grapes in the vineyard, the fruits of the trees,
and the grass and the herbs of the field."

This belief existed even in the most masculine minds.
Sturdy Martin Luther was not free from this delusion,
and often had long conferences or wearisome wrestlings
with the arch-fiend in the solitude of his chamber. So
convinced was Luther of the reality of these scenes that
we find him confessing to as intimate a knowledge of
the inhabitants of the infernal world as Mr. Davis or
Judge Edmonds has of the sublimated spherical farmers.
"The devil," says Luther, "knows well enough how to
construct his arguments, and to urge them with the skill
of a master. He delivers himself with a grave and yet
with a shrill voice. Nor does he use circumlocution and
beat about the bush, but excels in forcible statements and
quick rejoinders. I no longer wonder that the persons
whom he assails in this way are occasionally found dead
in their beds. He is able to compress and throttle, and
more than once he has so assaulted me and driven my
soul into a corner that I felt as if the next moment it
would leave my body. I am of opinion that Gesner and

142 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

(Ecolampadius came in that manner to their deaths. The
devil's manner of opening a debate is pleasant enough,
but he soon urges things so peremptorily that the re-
spondent in a short time knows not how to acquit him-
self."

Though possessing such intimate knowledge of the
habits and manners of the denizens of the other world,
his resemblance to our modern believers exists in no other
particular. Luther was a man of faith ; a man who
clearly perceived a noble aim in life, and steadfastly
struggled towards it. Whatever ran contrary to this,
whether of this world or of other worlds, was to be
manfully met, fought against, subdued. The aim was
ever kept in view, and when duty called he was always
ready to respond : " Were there as many devils in
Worms as there are roof-tiles, I would on." With eyes
that beheld God's hand in all things, with a soul filled
with deep convictions animating his being to manly
doing, what to him was the tempter's art? No thought
of "investigating seances" darkened his mental vision or
distracted his fixed gaze from the purpose of life ; the war-
fare of life, to his mind, permitted no dalliance with the
embodiment of " undeveloped good," but called for strenu-
ous exertions to guard well his own feet in the road before
him, a road rendered luminous by his great and noble soul.
A man that could stand in the presence of princes and
emperors and proclaim those ever-memorable words, — " It
is neither safe nor prudent to do aught against conscience.
Here stand I, I cannot otherwise. God help me. Amen !"
— is not even to be compared with men of our day who try
to subdue the spirital embodiments of "undeveloped
good" with soft words and harmonizing influences. None
of those of the harmonizing sort can join in this grand
old hymn left us by Luther:

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 143

"And were this world all devils o'er,

And watching to devour us,
We lay it not to heart so sore.

Not they can overpower us.
And let the Prince of 111
Look grim as e'er he will,
He harms us not a whit:
For why ? His doom is writ."

Luther, if now living, would find no arch-fiend to
battle, and I fear but little controversy would arise with
the spirital successors of his majesty, if he waited for one
to appear that " excelled in forcible statements and quick
rejoinders."

Numerous cases might be referred to in this connection,
illustrating the contagious effects of strong convictions
when reason is overthrown and delusion sits enthroned
in the mind. Every student in history can recall exam-
ples, such as the rapid spread of belief in vampirism in
Southern Europe during the Middle Ages, the preva-
lence of flagellation in Italy, and the strange delusion
of lycanthropy, or wolf-metamorphosis, iu the mountain
regions of Austria and Italy. The rise of the sect of
Jumpers, in Germany, presents analogous traits to the
rise of other sects once flourishing in England and
America. Pages might be filled with recitals of deluded
enthusiasts participating in the most singular acts, such
as running on all-fours, climbing trees, or falling into
trances, arising from mental sympathy with those who
first exhibited such actions. In another chapter some of
these phenomena will be again referred to.

Who now believes that St. Jerome or St. Anthony
was visited by lascivious spirital maidens? Who be-
lieves that Agues Sampson, with two hundred other
Scotch witches, sailed in sieves from Luth to North Ber-
wick Church to hold a banquet with the devil ? Though

144 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

Bo]emnly asserted in her voluntary confession, yet who
lends an ear to the tale told by Isobel Gowdin of visiting
the queen of fairy-land in the bowels of the earth, or
believes that she was metamorphosed into the form of a
hare ? Who credits the story that the Hebi'ew physician of
Charles the Bold devoured at one meal, in the presence
of the court, a wagon-load of bay, together with its
horses and driver ? These delusions, though once wide-
spread and fully "accredited," have passed away; yet
thousands to-day give full credence to the report of a
visit of a learned American judge to a spirital home,
where he socially chatted while the spirital housewife
was busily engaged in churning.

Dr. Draper (" Intellectual Development of Europe,"
p. 412), in commenting upon the witchcraft epidemic,
has the following pertinent remarks:

" All the delusions which occupied the minds of our fore-
fathers, and from which not even the powerful and learned
were free, have totally passed away. The moonlight has
now no fairies ; the solitude no genius ; the darkness no
ghost, no goblin. There is no necromancer who can raise
the dead from their graves — no one who has sold his soul
to the devil and signed the contract with his blood — no
angry apparition to rebuke the crone who has disquieted
him. Divination, agromancy, pyromancy, hydromancy,
chiromancy, augury, interpreting of dreams, oracles, sor-
cery, astrology, have all gone. It is three hundred and fifty
years since the last sepulchral lamp was found, and that
was near Rome. There are no gorgons, hydras, chimaeras ;
no familiars ; no incubus or succubus. Tlie housewives of
Holland no longer bring forth sooterkins by sitting over
lighted chauffers. No longer do captains buy of Lapland
witches favorable winds; no longer do our churches
resound with prayers against the baleful influences of

TFIE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 145

comets, though there still linger in some of our noble old
rituals forms of supplication for dry weather and rain,
useless but not unpleasiug reminiscences of the past.
The apothecary no longer says prayers over the mortar
in which he is pounding, to impart a divine afflatus to his
drugs. Who is there now that pays fees to a relic or
goes to a saint-shrine to be cured ? These delusions
have vanished with the night to which they appertained,
yet they were the delusions of fifteen hundred years. In
their support might be produced a greater mass of human
testimony than probably could be brought to bear on any
other matter of belief in the entire history of man ; and
yet, in the nineteenth century, we have come to the con-
clusion that the whole, from the beginning to the end,
was a deception ! Let him, therefore, who is disposed to
balance the testimony of past ages against the dictates
of his own reason ponder on this strange history; let
him who relies on the authority of human evidence in
the guidance of his opinions now settle with himself
what this evidence is worth."

It mmII not do, however, to congratulate ourselves that
all delusions have vanished ; for ever and again they re-
appear in new forms. Though captains do not buy favor-
able winds of Lapland witches, merchants and bankers
are found who do buy of mediums information in regard
to speculations in funds ! Though the apothecary has
ceased praying over his mortar, yet spirital " physicians"
advertise powders to which have been "imparted a di-
vine afflatus"! True, no Devils' Sabbath now exists
where witches dine with infernal fiends; but "spirit-
circles" have taken their place, and mediums and spirits
eat ajyples in Illinois and potatoes in Loudon ! The forms
only have changed ; the delusions still linger in the
minds of men but hanpily less dangerous, if not less
a 13

146 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

ridiculous. Our forms of thought have changed, and
consequently our mental epidemics are tinged with a
different tint. As in these ancient cases, so in the
modern, it is equally true, as Professor Haven (" Mental
Philosophy," p. 368) has remarked of the operations of
mind in somnambulism, that "the thought or feeling
that happens to be dominant gives rise to, and entirely
shapes, the actions" which constitute their characteristics.

Commerce with deities was a common practice in all
the ancient polytheistic systems ; oracles abounded on
every hand, and the communicants purported to be gods.
In the Middle Ages fairies and elves were seen and
conversed with, their court visited, and the manners and
habits of the citizens carefully noted ; an abundant mass of
"evidence of the senses" could be adduced to support the
belief in the veritable existence of these pigmy people
and their controlling influence in human affairs. In the
later days of witchcraft delusion the " obsessed" were
often quieted by holy water, and frequently on hearing
the name of Christ the "influences" rent the air with
their shrieks and admitted they were devils. In more
modern times the same results are seen, but now the
devils claim to be departed fellow-mortals.

In each case we but see reflected the prevailing super-
stitious belief of the populace; the mind being "ob-
sessed" with the dominant thought unconsciously shaping
the action and determining its characteristics. When
deities were thought to be continually around us, the
"obsessed" claimed to be controlled by gods; when
fairies and elves were believed to abound in every shady
forest, these controlling visitants asserted themselves to
be such : under a more vivid conception of the literal
horrors of hell they were thought to be devils, and such
they impiously proclaimed themselves ; while in a some-

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 147

what more enlightened age, where rationalistic influences
have had greater scope, they again reappear under the
forms of disembodied mortals, and claim to be Tom, Dick,
and Joe. Yet circles have been held and astounding
manifestations obtained where all present disbelieved in
their spirital origin, and, behold! the "spirits" coincide
entirely with the views of those invoking them. Chris-
tian spiritalists meet with Christian "spirits" who de-
light in prayer and biblical exposition and add in no small
degree to their convictions ; while the less devout find
all " spirits" decidedly heterodox in their theology

148 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

CHAPTER IV.

UNCONSCIOUS ACTION OP THE BRAIN,

1. Unconscious cerebration.

Dr. Carpenter, the distinguished English physiologist,
whose labors have accomplished so much towards raising
the study of mind from the speculations of metaphysi-
cians to the rank of a new science, — mental physiology,
— has seriously disturbed the admirers of spirital science
by the announcement of his theory of " unconscious
cerebration." Common sense Dr. Carpenter defines as
the general resultant of the whole previous action of the
mind. This resultant, be holds, is at all times available
to the mind, whether we are conscious of the fact or not.

We often receive some important proposition, and de-
cide to wait before forming a definite conclusion on the
subject. We consider the subject well, weigh the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of the proposed scheme, and
still hesitate. If we lay it aside for a few weeks and
then reconsider it, we find that in the mean time the
mind has referred the matter to our common sense, and
gravitates to one side or the other. We then see the
whole subject in a clearer light, and more readily arrive
at a sensible conclusion. This unconscious operation of
the brain in balancing for itself all these considerations,
in putting all in order, so to speak, towards working out
a correct judgment, is what Dr. Carpenter terms " un-
conscious cerebration."

We see illustrations of this in every day's experience.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 149

The " sober second thought" is the result of such an un-
conscious operation. In conversation we frequently for-
get some name or date, and, after vainly endeavoring to
recall it, we frequently exclaim, "Well, never mind; I
shall think of it presently," and continue the conversa-
tion. Often the forgotten word or fact suddenly presents
itself to our consciousness without previous warning,
and we avail ourselves of it without pausing to thank
the silent messenger that had hunted it up from the
storehouse of memory at our bidding. In cases of what
are familiarly termed "absence of mind" we may see
illustrations of the same fact. In walking, a man may
become absorbed in deep thought, and take no note of
his whereabouts; but the mind is not "absent" in the
sense the term implies, for it guides him with accuracy
through the jostling crowd of which his conscious self
has taken no notice. He has turned the usual corners,
avoided the carriages in crossing the crowded thorough-
fares, and arrives with safety at the end of his journey.
Dr. Carpenter has given numerous illustrations of un-
conscious cerebration, two of which are worthy of quo-
tation, as they place the subject in so clear a light :

" The manager of a bank in a certain large town in
Yorkshire could not find a key which gave access to all
the safes and desks in the bank. This key was a dupli-
cate key, and ought to have been found in a place acces-
sible only to himself and to the assistant manager. The
assistant manager was absent on a holiday in Wales, and
the manager's first impression was that the key had
probably been taken away by the assistant in mistake.
He wrote to him, and learned to his own great surprise
and distress that he had not got the key, and knew
nothing of it. Of course, the idea that the key which
gave access to every valuable in the bank was in the
13*

150 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

hands of any wrong person was distressing. He made
search everywhere, thought of every place in which the
key might possibly be, and could not find it. The as-
sistant manager was recalled, both he and every person
in the bank was questioned, but no one could give any
idea of where the key could be. Of course, though no
robbery had taken place up to this point, there was the
apprehension that a robbery might be committed after
the storm, so to speak, had blown over, when a better
opportunity would be afforded by the absence of the
same degree of watchfulness. A first-class detective
was then brought down from London, and this man had
every opportunity given him of making inquiries. Every
person in the bank was brought up before him ; he ap-
plied all those means of investigation which a very able
man of this class knows how to employ, and at last he
came to the manager and said, ' I am perfectly satisfied
that no one in this bank knows anything about this lost
key. You may rest assured that you have put it some-
where yourself, and you have been worrying yourself so
much about it tiiat you have forgotten where you put it
away. As long as you worry yourself in this manner
you will not remember it; but go to bed to-night with
the assurance that it will be all right, get a good night's
sleep, and in the morning I think it is very likely you
will remember where you have put the key.' This turned
out exactly as it was predicted. The key was found
the next morning in some extraordinarily secure place,
which the manager had not previously thought of, but in
which he then felt sure he must have put it himself."

In this case even the most persistent believer in
the marvelous would hardly have the impertinence to
suggest a super-mundane cause to account for the find-
ing of the key. Following the advice of the detective,

THE Sr I RITUAL DELUSION. 151

the banker dismissed all anxiety from his mind, and
became, in our modern jargon, in a " state of passive
receptivity." In this condition his own mental faculties
sufficed to restore the forgotten fact to his consciousness.
If in his slumber that night some " guardian spirit," or
the form of some deceased friend, had appeared before
him in his dreams and told him where the key had
been secreted, ignorance of the laws of mental physiology
might have claimed the vision as an " accredited mani-
festation." But the same explanation would have
sufficed even in that case. In dreams we have illustra-
tions of unconscious brain-work ; flights of fancy, or the
w^eaving of events into some marvelous story, go on
during sleep in the brain of even the dullest mortal, who
is never conscious of fancy or imaginative powers in his
waking moments. Addison says, in his Spectator,
" There is not a more painful act of the mind than that
of invention. Yet in dreams it works with that care
and activity that we are not sensible when the faculty is
employed."

Many dreams are related by the superstitious, wherein
missing wills or deeds have been found through the inter-
position of some friendly apparition which thus appeared
in the hours of sleep and " impressed" the required fact
on the mind. In such eases we may safely assume that
"unconscious cerebration" is the friendly sprite that ran-
sacks the galleries of memory and sets before us the
forgotten fact in some fanciful frame of its own manu-
facture.

Tliese remarks will aid us in better understanding the
other illustration yet to be cited from Dr. Carpenter,
who gives as his authority a well-known clergyman, the
Rev. John De Liefde. A student had been attending a
class in mathematics, and the professor had said to his

152 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION'.

class, " 'A question of great difficuhy has been referred
to me by a banker, — a very complicated question of ac-
counts, which they themselves have not been able to
bring to a satisfactory issue, and they have asked my
assistance. I have been trying, and I cannot resolve it.
1 have covered whole sheets of paper with calculations,
and have not been able to make it out. Will you try V
He gave it as a sort of problem to his class, and said he
would be extremely obliged to any who would bring him
the solution by a certain day. This gentleman tried it
over and over again. He covered many slates with
figures, but could not succeed in resolving it. He was a
little put on his mettle, and very much desired to attain
the solution ; but he went to bed, on the night before the
solution, if attained, was to be given in, without having
succeeded. In the morning, when he went to his desk,
he found the whole problem worked out in his own hand.
He was perfectly satisfied that it Avas his own hand ; and
this was a very curious part of it, — that the result was
obtained by a process very much shorter than any he had
tried. He had covered three or four sheets of paper in
his attempts, and this was all worked out on one page,
and correctly worked, as the result proved. He inquired
of the woman who attended to his rooms, and she said
she was certain no one had entered his room during the
night. It was perfectly clear that this had been worked
out by himself."

During the day his anxiety to accomplish the result
prevented the unconscious action of the brain, which
accomplished the task so readily after he had desisted ;
and, while his mind is supposed to be dormant, the diffi-
cult task is, correctly accomplished. In many of the
instances cited in the last two chapters we find this view
alone to be the key which can open the door and shed light

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. I53

on their seeming mysteries. Tlie case alluded to in a pre-
vious chapter, of a girl rising in the night and passing hours
at her easel, engaged in painting, and with such superior
skill, is a striking illustration of unconscious brain-action.
Nearly every reader can recall some instances where per-
sons have shown the power of waking at any given hour
in the night, while others are able at any moment, waking
from a sound sleep, to tell the hour with almost unfailing
accuracy.

The following incident, known to the writer, will also
furnish us with" another illustration of this curious power.

Mrs. D , a lady residing in an Eastern city, was one

evening sitting quietly in her chamber, reading. Her
husband was absent, and she was alone in the house, but
had no thought of fear. Suddenly, springing from her
chair, and dropping her book, she ran to the door and
hastily turned the key in the lock, though why she did
so she was unable to say. Almost immediately she saw
the knob noiselessly turn and the door tried ; and to her
inquiry, " Who's there ?" a strange voice replied with
some inquiries. She resolutely refused all appeals to
open the door, and the man was forced to retire. Look-
ing from her window, she saw three men, all strangers,
leave the house. There was a considerable sum of money
in the room, and she has no doubt their intention was
robbery. In this case "unconscious cerebration" at once
gives us the clue to the solution of the enigma. Sitting
quietly, with her attention absorbed in her book, the
stealthy steps of the intruders were heard, and yet not
sufficiently to impress her conscious self with the fact, — as
we often hear the clock strike, though the mind is too
absorbed to permit of the impression being transmitted to
our conscious thoughts. The impression transmitted to
her brain gave rise to the unconscious start and lockins:

154 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

of the door, to guard against some unrealized yet im-
pending danger, in precisely the same manner as the
student was moved to rise in his sleep and work out the
problem.

I use the term unconscious in its popular sense, as
absent from our present state of consciousness. Strictly
speaking, it may well be questioned whether the mind is
ever unconscious ; but a treatise on mental philosophy is
not the task I have here assigned to myself, and the use
of terms in the above sense is sufficiently explicit for the
purpose in view. During abstraction or slumber, the
senses being closed to the objective world, no sensations
are received and transmitted to the cerebrum, and its
activity at these times must be carried on independently
of the sensorium. In dreams, and in partial intoxication
from spirits or narcotics, the cerebrum unconsciously
works from the stock stored up by memory within its
own domain. Dr. Carpenter having first introduced the
term " unconscious cerebration" to elucidate these unno-
ticed workings of the mind, and more prominently than
others having associated his name with this theory, I shall
again quote from him, that his views may be clearly stated.

In his lecture before the Royal Institution, March 1,
1868, he defines the relations between the cerebrum and
the sensorium as made known by scientific research.
The cerebrum, according to him, is " a superadded organ,
the development of which seems to bear a pretty con-
stant relation to the degree in which intelligence super-
sedes instinct as a spring of action. The ganglionic
matter which is spread out upon the surface of the hemi-
spheres, and in which their potentiality resides, is con-
nected with the sensory tract at their base (which is the
real centre of conveyance for the sensory nerves of the
whole body) by commissural fibres, long since termed by

rilE SPIRITUAL delusion: 155

Reid, with sag-acious foresight, ' nerves of the internal
senses,' and its anatomical relation to the sensorium is
thus precisely the same as that of the retina, which is a
ganglionic expansion connected with the sensorium by
the. optic nerve. Hence it may be fairly surmised, — ■
1. That as we only become conscious of visual impres-
sions on the retina when their influence has been trans-
mitted to the central sensorium, so we only become
conscious of ideational changes in the cerebral hemi-
spheres when their influence has been transmitted to the
same centre. 2. That as visual changes may take place
in the retina of which we are unconscious, either through
temporary inactivity of the sensorium (as in sleep), or
through the entire occupation of the attention in some
other direction, so may ideational changes take place in
the cerebrum, of which we may be unconscious for want
of receptivity on the part of the sensorium, but of which
the results may present themselves to the consciousness
as ideas elaborated by an automatic process of which we
have no cognizance."

In his " Human Physiology" (p. 588) he dwells at
some length on this subject: " Most persons who attend
to their own mental operations are aware that when
they have been occupied for some time about a particular
subject, and have then transferred their attention to some
other, the first, when they return to the consideration of
it, aiay be found to present an aspect very different from
that which it possessed before it was put aside ; not-
withstanding that the mind has since been so completely
engrossed with the second subject as not to have been
consciously directed towards the first in the interval.
Xow, a part of this change may depend upon the altered
condition of the mind itself, such as we experience when
we take up a subject in the morning with all the vigor

156 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

which we derive from the refreshment of sleep, and find
no difficulty in overcoming difficulties and in disentan-
gling perplexities which checked our further progress the
night before, when we were too weary to give more than
a languid attention to the points to be made out, and
could use no exertion in the search for their solutions.
But this by no means accounts for the entirely new de-
velojoment which the subject is frequently found to have
undergone when we return to it after a considerable
interval ; a development which cannot be reasonably ex-
plained in any other mode than by attributing it to the
intermediate activity of the cerebrum, which has in this
instance automatically evolved the result without any
consciousness. Strange as this phenomenon may at first
sight appear, it is found, when carefully considered, to
be in complete harmony with all that has been already
affirmed respecting the relation of the cerebrum to the
sensorium, and the independent action of the former;
and, looking at all these automatic operations by which
results are evolved without any intentional direction of
the mind to them, in the light of reflex actions of the
cerebrum, there is no more difficulty in comprehending
that such reflex actions may proceed without our knowl-
edge, so as to evolve intellectual products when their
results are transmitted to the sensorium and are thus
impressed on our consciousness, than there is in under-
standing that impressions may excite muscular move-
ments through the ' reflex' power of the spinal cord,
without the necessary intervention of sensation. In both
cases, the condition of this mode of independent operation
is that the receptivity of the sensorium shall be suspended
quoad the changes in question, either by its own func-
tional inactivity, or through its temporary engrossment
by other processes."

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. \q1

For the facts and reasons set forth above, we are justified
in ascribing to the unconscious brain the following powers :

I. It can control the various organs of the body, en-
abling us to read, write, draw, play on instruments, or
discourse, frequently in a manner not justified by our
normal acquirements ;

II. It can rausack the storehouse of memory and bring
to our conscious self words or facts sought for in vain in
our conscious moments ;

III. It can weave common impressions into terrible
romances or beautiful pictures, and can perform the ex-
ceedingly difficult task of mental arrangement and logical
division of subjects;

IV. It can tell the hour in the night without a timepiece.

2. All impressions permanent.
Before we apply these mental powers to the phe-
nomena presented by trance test-mediums, it will be
necessary for us first to examine another point in mental
physiology, in order that our means may be more ample
in atteujpting to resolve so difficult a problem. A few
words must be said on the subject of memory and its
retentive hold of every impression transmitted over the
nerves of sensation. Reteutiveness is not a quality of
memory, thereby implying its existence in a greater or
less degree, but reteutiveness is itself memory. The
power to recall a past impression to consciousness may
be wanting, but it by no means follows that the desired
fact is lost to memory. Our control over past impres-
sions is not a direct one : if we desire to recall a certain
date, for instance, it is because it is not present in con-
sciousness ; if it were, there would be nothing to recall.
Finding ourselves unable to recall the desired impression,
we resort to comparisons, or associations, or some other

14

158 TTIE SPIRITUAL DELVSTOX.

suggestive process by which the desired fact may be
brought into consciousness. Our inability by no means
proves that the impression is lost beyond recovery, or
obliterated, but that our control over it is lost. The im-
pression remains, and at some future time may present
itself to consciousness either with or without a mental
effort on our pai't.

Many cases are on record showing the power of the
mind, in many cases, of recalling impressions at will.
" Cyrus, it is said, knew the name of every officer — Pliny
has it, of every soldier — that served under him. Themisto-
cles could call by name each one of the twenty thousand
citizens of Athens. Hortensius could sit all day at an
auction, a,nd at evening give an account from memory of
everything sold, the purchaser and the price. Muretus saw
at Padua a young Corsican, says Mr. Stewart, who could
repeat thirty-six thousand names in the order in which he
heard them, and then reverse the order and proceed back-
ward to the first. Dr. Wallis, of Oxford, on one occasion, at
night, in bed, proposed to himself a number of fiftj-three
places, and found its square root to twenty-seven places,
and, without writing down numbers at all, dictated the
result from memory twenty days afterwards. It was not
unusual with him to perform arithmetical operations in
the dark, as the extraction of roots, e.g., to forty decimal
places. The distinguished Euler, blind from early life,
had always in his memory a table of the first six powers
of all numbers from one to one hundred. On one occa-
sion two of his pupils, calculating a converging series, on
reaching the seventeenth term, found their results difier-
ing by one unit at the fiftieth figure, and, in order to de-
cide which was correct, Euler went over the whole in his
head, and his decision was found afterwards to be cor-
rect. Pascal forgot nothing of what he had read, or

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 159

heard, or seen. Menage, at seventy-seven, commemo-
rates, in Latin verses, the favor of the g-ods in restoring
to him, after partial eclipse, the full powers of memory
which had adorned his earlier life."*

Dr. Kitto says, " I retain a clear impression or image
of everything at which I ever looked, although the color-
ing of that impression is necessarily vivid in proportion
to the degree of interest with which the object was re-
garded. I find this faculty of much use and solace to
me. By its aid I can live again at will in the midst of any
scene or circumstance by which I have been once sur-
rounded. By a voluntary act of mind I can in a moment
conjure up the whole of any one out of the innumerable
scenes in which the slightest interest has at any time
been felt by me."f

These are instances of extraordinary memory ; yet the
marvel exists only in the power to recall so easily what
the mind has once entertained. The same great library
exists in each one of us, but we are not all privileged to
command its contents at will. But will is not the only
cause which brings up before us the events of which we
have been once cognizant. Impressions made on the
mind in childhood, and, as we say, forgotten in after-
life,— impressions of which we remain ignorant even when

we are told of the circumstances by others, may be

brought on the ever-shifting stage of consciousness by
some event where the will is not employed. All know
that persons resuscitated from drowning sometimes assert
that in the short space of time in which they are in the
water, every act of their lives seems to be simultaneously
restored to consciousness. Miss Cobbe gives the fol-

* Haven : "Mental Philosophy," p. 127.
t Moore: 'Bodj and Mind," p. 20C.

160 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

lowing instance of unconscious memory in one of her
thoughtful essays: "Under some special excitement,
and perhaps inexplicably remote association ot ideas,
some words which once made a violent impression on us
ai'e remembered from the inner depths. Chance may
make these either awfully solemn, or as ludicrous as that
of a gentleman shipwrecked off South America, who, as
he was sinking and almost drowning, distinctly heard
his mother's voice say, ' Tom ! did you take Jane's cake?'
The portentous inquiry had been addressed to him forty
years previously, and (as might have been expected) had
been wholly forgotten."

Disease often brings trooping before the consciousness
long- forgotten events: sometimes we repeat in fever
long trains of phrases which we have once heard, and
which may not have made a vivid impression at the
moment. Instances are on record where persons have
repeated either living or dead languages which they had
once heard, but of the meaning of which they were en-
tirely ignorant. The case of a Grerman servant-girl, cited
by Coleridge, is frequently narrated. This girl, while at
her work in a room adjoining her master's study, had
heard him reading aloud from the Hebrew Bible, and in
the delirium of fever in after-years, in other surroundings,
she astonished those around her by repeating these He-
brew sentences that had once been uttered in her hearing.
The expression " going in one ear and out the other" is
true only of our present state of consciousness : the mind
itself is more than any state of consciousness, it embraces
them all.

Dr. Abercrombie relates the following instances: "A
lady, in the last stage of a chronic disease, was carried
from London to a house in the country ; there her infant
daughter was taken to visit her, and, after a short inter-

I

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 161

view, was carried back to town. The lady died a few
days after, and the daughter grew up without any recol-
lection of her mother, till she was of mature age. At
this time she happened to be taken into the room in
which her mother died, without knowing it to have been
so ; she started on entering it, and, when a friend who
was along with her asked the cause of her agitation,
replied, 'I have a distinct impression of having been in
this room before, and that a lady, who lay in that corner
and seemed very ill, leaned over me and wept.'

" A boy, at the age of four, received a fracture of the
skull, for which he underwent the operation of trepan.
He was at the time in a state of perfect stupor, and,
after his recovery, retained no recollection of the opera-
tion. At the age of fifteen, during the delirium of a
fever, he gave his mother a correct description of the
operation and the persons who were present at it, with
their dress and other minute particulars. He had never
been observed to allude to it before, and no means were
known by which he could have acquired the circumstances
which he mentioned."

Similar instances could be quoted, but I restrict myself
to one or two more illustrating the same fact under other
circumstances. Miss Martineau gives an instance of a
congenital idiot who had lost his mother before he had
reached two years of age, and of course before he was
able to retain any consciousness of her person. Yet at
the age of thirty, when dying, he "suddenly turned his
head, looked bright and sensible, and exclaimed, in a tone
never heard from him before, ' Oh, my mother ! how
beautiful !' and sunk round again — dead."

Dendy, in his " Philosophy of Mystery," gives a curious
instance of memory occurring in the state of somnambul-
ism. " We have heard of one more interesting case, in

li*

162 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

which the somnambule, remembering that he had made
errors in his writing, traced, on a blank paper substituted
for that written on, the corrections in the very places cor-
resjDonding to the er?^oneous writing. And that here was
memory was proven in this, that during the time his
eyes were shut, the pen was dropped on the very spot
where the inkstand stood ; but, this being removed, no
ink was obtained, and the writing was blank."

A number of anecdotes might be quoted of persons in
abnormal sleep repeating violin-, guitar-, or piano-playing
which they had heard in former years. This is still more
wonderful ; for not only are the sounds remembered, but
the capacity to reproduce them on the instrument is also
developed. A case of this nature a few years since went
the rounds of the press as a marvelous phenomenon. It
was stated that a child from the mission-school in New
York had been adopted by a gentleman and his wife in
the West. The child was a delicate girl, and they soon
grew very much attached to her. One night, after hav-
ing retired, they were very much surprised to hear on
the piano in their parlor one of the most difficult pieces
of a distinguished German composer. Their first im-
pression was that visitors had called, intending a " sur-
prise;" but on dressing and descending to the parlor,
their astonishment was augmented at seeing this little
girl seated at the piano. After playing a few choice
selections, she arose, gracefully bowed, and withdrew.
Nearly every night this scene was repeated, and soon
grew into an expected occurrence. The girl was entirely
ignorant of her part in the transaction, and was not
aware that she had left her bed. After a few nights'
silence, she turned to her admiring auditors when she
had finished, and, gravely speaking, asserted that she
was the mother of the child whose form she was usin"-.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. ■ 163

and took that method of developing her daughter into a
musician. The poor child grew more and more delicate,
and soon died.

On the spirital hypothesis we must admit that her
declining health made her susceptible to her mother's in-
fluence; but this would be admitting disease as a condition
or aid to me'diumship. Again we fail to see how a pro-
cess which was plainly destroying the health of the child
could be instrumental in developing her into a musician,
she ia the mean while remaining in entire ignorance of
the existence of such a process. Inquiries were made
after her death, and it was ascertained that she was the
daughter of a widow, a very accomplished music-teacher,
who had died in great privation and left the daughter at
the age of five years to the charity of strangers.

Mental pathology alone furnishes us with the clue to
this enigma. We may be warranted in asserting that
every piece played by the child had been played in her
hearing by her mother in her childhood, and probably
listened to by her with wonder and delight. In her dis-
eased condition we find but another instance of uncon-
scious memory, so often reappearing as we draw near to
the portals of death. In her orphaned condition and deli-
cate health, what more natural than that the comforts of
a home should lead her thoughts to dwell on her mother,
and fondly try to recall some faint recollection of her form
and features, leading her perhaps to believe that her mother
was watching over and guiding her steps ? This morbid
thought, perhaps assisted by some association of ideas
connecting her mother with the playing, became dominant
in her abnormal state at the piano ; and on the ejacula-
tions of a dreaming child in a walking sleep, we are called
upon to accept as " positive evidence" the fact of her
mother's presence in iji^opria persona.

164 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

Not to multiply illustrations of similar cases, we may
now augment our conclusions in regard to the uncon-
scious brain with these additional powers :

V. It can remember impressions made upon the senses
at almost any period of life in our conscious moments ;

yi. It can, under certain conditions, reproduce impres-
sions made on the senses during infancy, or while in an
unconscious state ;

YII. It can manifest all the powers of the conscious
brain, as in the state of double consciousness, leaving
us in doubt as to which is the conscious and which the
unconscious condition ;

YIII. It can " manifest" mental powers far superior to
those of its normal condition, and claim a distinct indi-
viduality for itself.

3. Mental telegraphing and prevision.

We are told, however, that mediums give us " tests
of spirit-presence" inexplicable upon any theory of un-
conscious cerebration. A stranger visiting the city is
t)ften urged to call upon a medium, and, doing so, is sur-
prised to hear of events known only to himself, the names
of friends no longer living, with their age and the date of
their demise. Struck with astonishment by these mar-
velous facts, he eagerly listens to the dull commonplaces
purporting to be communications from the denizens of the
heavenly world. Assured, as we have been by our phi-
losophers, that all our fundamental ideas ai'e derived from
impressions transmitted by the senses alone, he may well
be startled on hearing such revelations from the lips of
an entire stranger, and the general result of such previous
teaching is that thousands are led to believe that invisi-
ble beings must be assumed to account for these phenom-
ena, and then collect records of the phenomena to use as

TUB SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 165

evidence of the trutb of tbe assumption. Once firmly
convinced, they are prepared to join the spirital ranks,
and, " arguing in a circle," smile derisively at " mole-eyed
science." There must be a "spirit-world," or these sin-
gular phenomena would be left in the awkward predica-
ment of not being understood ; it is tbe only hypothesis
which accounts for the facts. Then, in the next breath,
they know there is a " spirit-world," because they have
communicated with persons now dwelling there.

The question forced upon us is, How can the medium
obtain this accurate knowledge without the aid of invisi-
ble "intelligences" ? In accordance with the plan pursued
heretofore in these pages, permit me to cite a few "mar-
velous facts," " accredited manifestations" in mental
philosophy, to serve as a groundwork upon which any
explanation whatever must be based. It is not necessary
that we should be able to " explain" all the marvelous
phenomena of mind; it will suffice to show that mental
philosophy presents as " marvelous phenomena" as the
circle-room of any medium ; and if these cannot be "ex-
plained" by the spirital theory of invisible agencies, but
pertain to the mind itself, their consideration is essential
before asserting that " spirit-presence" is a necessarrj
assumption.

In the first place, I desire to give instances illustrative
of the fact that ideas are communicated from mind to
mind without the conscious use of the physical organs of
sight, hearing, or speech. This communication of thought
may take place by direct effort of the will, or it may be
by unconscious action. The phenomena of mesmerism,
of which some illustrations have been given, furnish
us with many instances of the transmission of thought
produced by the will of the operator. Prof. W. D. Gun-
ning, in his admirable essay, " Is it the Despair of Sci-

166 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

ence?" relates a case which substantiates this position.
He says an eminent physician of Philadelphia went one
day to hear an "inspirational" trance-medium, and told
him the following facts. " The medium was a frail, sen-
sitive woman, and one of the most successful speakers of
her class. The doctor went to tr}^ an experiment. He
wrote out a very short lecture, memorized it, and tore up
the manuscript. When he entered the hall, the audience
had assembled, and the medium sat on the platform. He
fixed his eye on her, and, by a strong effort of will,
caused her to rise and walk forward to the desk. Then
he thought over his lecture, keeping his will on her, and
she delivered it, word for word, as the words rose up in
his mind. The woman intended no deception. She knew
that she was not speaking her own thoughts, and, very
naturally, she referred the control to a spirit."

Dr. Brittan, an able and eloquent exponent of the
" spiritual philosophy of the nineteenth century," in
his work on " Man and his Relations," devotes an
entire chapter to " Mental Telegraphing," and relates
many instances, coming under his own immediate obser-
vation, where persons once having been under magnetic
control were subsequently influenced by him at a distance
of miles. All familiar with what is called magnetic
influence must have observed similar instances not unfre-
quently. Probably no " science" has been based so much
on delusion as the so-called " science of mesmerism ;"
yet, notwithstanding the absurdity of its claims, its phe-
nomena have shown that thought may be transmitted
without the use of the usual modes afforded by the senses.

Again, thought may be communicated from mind to
mind without any conscious effort on the part of either
person. I am acquainted with a lady who for a long
time was frequently " impressed" with the thoughts of

TUE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 167

others before they were spoken, frequently answering
persons before the question had been orally expressed,
though the question related to matters which rendered
any guess-work or " association of ideas" utterly im-
possible. On one occasion a young lady entered the
room where she was sitting, about ten o'clock in the
evening, and, before the former had closed the door, she
was greatly surprised to hear her exclaim, in a jocular
manner, " You cannot have any of my quince-sauce !" The
young lady admitted that this was what she had come
for. On no previous occasion had she expressed any de-
sire for the article in question, which had been prepared
a number of months before, and she came at that time, as
she expressed it, from "a sudden whim." Scores of simi-
lar instances which have occurred in my presence might
be given. The well-known spiritist, "Rev." Chauncey
Barnes, whose zeal has never outstripped his credulity,
regards himself as " highly mediumistic," because he can
inform you what article of furniture, book, or other object
you have touched, or mentally selected, while he was out
of the room. These "tests" are gravely paraded in the
various towns and cities of the Union — for ^chere has be
not been? — before awe-struck investigators as wonderful
evidences of mediumistic powers ! I knew a worthy
gentleman, now deceased, who was peculiarly suscep-
tible to mental impressions, frequently foretelling the
arrival of guests, however unexpected their coming had
been ; and on more than one occasion he was conveniently
absent when a "dun" was meditating a descent on the
house.

Presentiments furnish us with other illustrations of
this singular faculty of the mind. A case frequently
cited is that of Governor Marcy's daughter, who had
a fearful presentiment on the morning of her father's

168 TFIE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

death, and felt confident that some terrible calamity
brooded over her. A telegram soon confirmed her fore-
boding. Another instance, to be found in several text-
books on mental philosophy, is that of the sister of
Major Andre, who, it is said, dreamed of her absent
brother, one night, as arrested and on trial before a
court-martial. " The appearance of the officers, their
dress, etc., was distinctly impressed on her mind ; the
room, the relative position of the prisoner and his judges,
were noticed ; the general nature of the trial, and its
result, the condemnation of her brother. She woke
deeply impressed. Her fears were shortly afterwards
confirmed by the sad intelligence of her brother's arrest,
trial, and execution, and, what is remarkable, the facts
corresponded to her dream, both as respects the time of
occurrence, the place, the appearance of the room, posi-
tion and dress of the judges, etc. Washington and
Knox were particularly designated, though she had
never seen them."

However it may be with the above dream, there are
others quite as remarkable which are fully "attested."
Dr. Moore, in his work on " Body and Mind," narrates
the following as having occurred under his own obser-
vation. A friend of his dreamed that he was amusing
himself, as he was in the habit of doing, by reading the
inscriptions on the grave-stones in a country church-
yard. While thus engaged, he saw with great surprise
the name, and date of death, of an intimate friend with
whom he had that very evening been engaged in con-
versation. Nothing more was thought of the dream till
some months afterwards he received intelligence of his
friend's death, which, singularly enough, corresponded
in date with that dreamed of as being inscribed on the
tombstone.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 169

An instance occurred in my presence some years since
which may be put on record as an " accredited manifes-
tation," as the persons concerned are still living and dis-
tinctly remember the circumstance. In the month of No-
vember, 1 859, 1 was escorting a lady home from an evening
entertainment, and in passing the windows of her house,
before reaching the door, she declared she saw a body
laid out on the sofa, covered with a sheet. On entering
the house, we learned that a gentleman temporarily stop-
ping there had that evening received a telegram inform-
ing him of the death of his only son, who had left the
city a week previous in good health. No person was in
the room except the lady's mother, and the death was
entirely unexpected, as no intelligence of his sickness had
been received.

The father of the Rev. C. W. Gushing, formerly presi-
dent of a collegiate institute in Yermont, was for many
years a sexton, and not unfrequently told his family he
should not go to his usual labor, for he would be called
upon to prepare a grave : this would prove true, though
he had no information of the sickness of the person de-
ceased. Another gentleman living in Vermont assures
me that upon entering a room where persons are en-
gaged in conversation, he frequently "gets the thread of
their remarks" though not a word has reached his ear.

Can we suppose that a " spirit" whispered to my lady
friend that her visitor wished quince-sauce? that the
" Rev." Chauncey Barnes is attended by a " spirit-band"
to astonish rustics? that "invisibles" tell us of the ap-
proach of duns, or that a grave must be dug? that they
hover around us in dreams to foretell future events or
far-distant occurrences? that they delight in " impressing"
our minds with the misfortunes of acquaintances or the
conversation of gossips ? How did Andrew Jackson
H 15

170 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

Davis obtain the thoughts expressed in "Nature's
Divine Revelation," certainly a most marvelous pro-
duction coming from the mind of an illiterate youth ? He
denies having been "a mere spout," as he tersely expresses
it, but declares he received these " revelations" in the
state of mental exaltation, his mind en rapport w^ith the
"entire universe."

" The history of the human mind," says Renan, " is full
of strange synchronisms, by which far-distant fragments
of the human race attain at the same time, without inter-
communication, to ideas and imaginations almost iden-
tical. The commerce of ideas in the human race does
not work by looks nor by direct teaching only. Jesus did
not even know the name of Buddha, Zoroaster, or Plato,
had read no Greek book, no Buddhist soutra ; and yet
there is in him more than one element which, without
his knowledge, came from Buddhism, from Parseeism, or
from the wisdom of the Greeks. All this is done through
secret channels, and by that species of sympathy which
exists between different divisions of humanity."

Some twelve years since, I occupied my leisure mo-
ments during- several months with experiments in what
is popularly termed clairvoyance. I found that by hold-
ing a lock of hair in my hand I could invariably induce
the physical sensations in my own body of the person to
whom the hair belonged, even when no one present knew
at the time whether my description was correct or not.
I frequently described features, personal appearance,
and characteristics from the hair, but soon dismissed the
subject as profitless, while " patients" had tongues of
their own. True, I made many mistakes, but became
convinced that this power did pertain to the mind. If
the person to whom the hair belonged was dead, I saw
the person in my mental vision only as he or she appeared

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 171

when the hair was cut, and the fact of a subsequent death
did not appear. Once when a dear friend was sinl^ing
into a rapid decline, I mentally obtained a botanic pre-
scription. Of some of the ingredients, with the medical
properties of which I was familiar, I gave the names ;
the rest I seemed to see in mental vision, as I can now
call up before me the house where I was born, but their
names I onlj ascertained by describing them as thus seen.
I have no doubt whatever that the prescription saved her
life : she rallied immediately, and soon regained her accus-
tomed health. How this was done I cannot tell ; it was
not the result of will, nor were my senses closed to
external things. My mental faculties were concentrated
on that one point, and the "prescription" was the result.
Instances of the results of concentration of thought are
frequent in all works treating on the philosophy of mind :
it was this that enabled Mozart to compose a sonata at
the age of four, and Louisa Tinning, the " Infant Sappho,"
to compose and sing an exquisite melody at the age of
two years and eight months. " These mental concentra-
tions can," says Dendy, " by some enthusiasts, be pro-
duced at pleasure ; the paroxysm of the improvisatore,
for instance. But it is an effort which, like the dark hour
of the Caledonian seer, is not endured with impunity : it
points, indeed, to limits beyond which mind should not
be strained."

On another occasion I described a funeral which had
taken place years before in the room where I was then
Bitting. I gave an accurate description of the grouping
of the guests, the location of the remains, the position of
the officiating clergyman, and various other particulars.
I have thus described, in the presence of their friends,
persons long dead, and who were utterly unknown to me,'
and have always retained a vivid recollection of their per-

1Y2 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

sonal appearance. Sympathetic impression, generally
loosely termed clairvoyance, is an admitted fact, and
rests on a scientifically defined basis ; but to those
unacquainted with its limitations, which are many,
these cases of mental impressions seem marvelous,
and the credulous are easily induced to believe what-
ever else may be declared by the " seer." Even now,
when in the presence of a sick friend, I frequently
feel the symptoms in my own body, sometimes causing
severe pain. One of the last locks of hair held by
me in my amateur experiments was that of a person
very sick with the smallpox ; in my endeavors to de-
scribe the sj^mptoms of the disease — to me unknown at
the time — I became a subject of sympathetic contagion,
but very fortunately had only a light attack of varioloid.
I have seen a woman so sensitive that when holding a
lock of hair taken from the head of a person subject to
epileptic fits, she would fall on the floor herself, and the
hair would have to be wrenched from her hand. Whether
the lock "of hair" is any aid or not, I do not know; it
maybe like the metal disk which once was thought essen-
tial in " mesmerism."

A case of sympathetic contagion was published in the
Boston papers, under date of Sept. 21, 18*12, as a tele-
graphic dispatch. It was as follows :

" New York. — Two brothers, Henry and Peter Bars-
man, aged thirty-two and thirty-five, died of congestive
chills, near Factoryville, Staten Island, this morning,
within half an hour of each other. They were taken ill
the same evening, had the same symptoms beforehand
and suffered the same pangs at the same time. Their
physician regards this as a case of sympathetic contagion,
which is so very rare in pathology that its existence as a
phenomenon of disease has often been denied."

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. l^Z

Any extended application of the principles laid down
in this chapter to the phenomena offered by mediumship
will not be necessary, as the application is too self-evident
to require an argument. In many of the so-called " tests,"
we will find them easily falling into line with the phenom-
ena afforded by the manifestation of mind, and evidently
the result of the same causes. A story frequently cited,
and recently retold by Dr. Carpenter, is that of an admirer
of the poet Young, consulting his "spirit" at a "test-
circle." While sitting at the table, the " intelligence"
present announced himself by raps to be Edward Young.
The following conversation ensued:

" Are you Young, the poet ?"

"Yes."

"The author of the 'Night Thoughts'?"

"Yes."

"If you are, repeat a line of his poetry."

In response the table spelled out, by the usual alpha-
betical formula, these words :

"IMan is not formed to question, but adore."

" Is this in the ' Night Thoughts' ?" inquired the gen-
tleman.

"No."

" Where is it ?"

"Job."

This reply was very unsatisfactory to him, and he went
home to ponder on it. He bought a copy of Young's
poems, and found therein a poetical commentary on the
book of Job which ended with that line. Greatly sur-
prised, he hardly knew what to think. Apparently the
poet had given him a line with which he was not familiar
to make the " test" more convincing-. A few weeks after-
wards he found a volume of Young's Poems in his own
libiary, ami, on turning to the poem in question, found it

15*

n4 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

with marginal marks of his own, and was thus convinced
that he had read the poem before. Dr. Carpenter, in
retelling this anecdote, adds these words : " I have no
doubt whatever that that line had remained in his mind,
that is, in the lower stratum of it; that it had been
entirely forgotten by him, as even the possession of
Young's Poems had been forgotten, but that it had been
treasured up as it were in some dark corner of his memory,
and had come up in this manner, expressing itself in the
action of the table, just as it might come up in a dream.''''

We all know that long-forgotten events frequently
appear in our dreams ; faces, or facts, or scenes, thus
often appear on the stage of consciousness in such mo-
ments, and no superstitious wonder is felt, and yet it is
really as marvelous as the phenomena exhibited as
" spiritual." Dr. Carpenter, in the above-quoted sentence,
has expressed no " theory" of his own, but the well-settled
conviction of all physiologists.

Dr. Draper says, "In the brain of man, impressions
of whatever he has seen or heard, of whatever has been
made manifest to him by his other senses, nay, even the
vestiges of his former thoughts, are stored up. These
traces are most vivid at first, but by degrees they decline
in force, though they probably never comjjletely die out.
During our waking hours, while we are perpetually re-
ceiving new impressions from things that surround us,
such vestiges are overpowered and cannot attract the
attention of the mind. But in the period of sleep, when
external influences cease, they present themselves to our
regard, and the mind, submitting to the delusion, groups
them into the fantastic forms of dreams. By the use of
opium and other drugs which can blunt our sensibility to
passing events, these phantasms may be made to emerge."

While sitting in a "circle," we are always requested

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 175

to remain perfectly passive, neither seeking to exercise
the will-power against " manifestations," nor too anxious
to have some particular " spirit" report, or, as the father
of the Davenport Brothers beautifully expresses it, " try
to keep perfectly harmonic." Mediums tell us that a
strong desire existing in the mind to hear from some
particular one often seriously interferes with the " con-
trol," but that if we will remain passive the " spirits" will
endeavor to satisfy us in their own way. In the anec-
dote given above, the announcement made, that Edward
Young was present, unconsciously awoke a train of ideas
in the mind of the questioner eventuating in the quota-
tion of the line spelled out.

We know that the action of light will impress an image
on the surface of iooi-ganic objects. A familiar experi-
ment is to lay a key, or some other object, on a sheet of
white paper, and expose it for a few minutes to the action
of sunlight, and then lay the paper away where it will not
be disturbed. After several months, if the paper be carried
into a dark place and laid on a piece of hot metal, the
spectre of the key will appear. Dr. Draper says of these
experiments, " In the cases of bodies more highly phos-
phorescent than paper, the spectres of different objects
which may ha<^e been in succession laid originally upon
it will, on warming, emerge in their proper order. Indeed,
I believe that a shadow never falls upon a wall without
leaving there a permanent trace, — a trace which might be
made visible by resorting to proper processes. All kinds
of photographic drawing are in their degree examples of
the kind Of the moral consequences of such facts it is
not mj'- object here to speak. But if on such inorganic
substances impressions may in this way be preserved,
how much more likely is it that the same thing occurs iu
the purposely-constituted ganglion!"

1V6 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

If the physical forces can thus leave permanent impres-
sions, we may well ask whether the still higher forms of
force cannot also impress other than the " purposely-
constituted ganglion" of the person in whose organization
they first occur. Is it unreasonable to conclude that
thought is communicated from one brain to another
without connecting nerves ? We know that physical
symptoms in one may be sympathetically experienced by
another. Shall we assume that a " spirit" is necessary
to account for it? Mental sympathy is fully as well
established a fact as any in nature ; yet we are called
upon to believe that it is inexplicable by physiological
laws ; and this request, so modest in its nature, comes
from those who are the least versed in these laws.

All force is transmitted by wave-motion. Minute
vibrations, communicated by various bodies to the sur-
rounding medium, impinging upon the retinae of the
eyes, give rise to the sensation of sight, and the dimen-
sions of these "light-waves" determine their color;
waves of less intensity give rise to the sensation of
heat. In the numerous cases cited above, something must
have passed from the brain of one person to that of
another. The term mental impressioyi only describes the
effect. An explanation of the method by which the com-
munication of thought was made necessitates the existence
of waves of brain-force passing from one brain to another.
Prof Gunning, in the essay already referred to, makes
use of the following language : " When Dr. Bell began
the investigation of spiritualism, he was surprised to find
the mediums echoing back his own thoughts. He sup-
posed that these persons had the power, in some myste-
rious way, of looking into our minds and seeing what is
passing there. He was perplexed and baffled, and stopped
the investigation, denying the intervention of spirits, but

TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. ^^

not claiming to have explained the phenomenon. Others
have had the same experience. I have had it myself.
Since I have begun to investigate these things, I have
often found my own thoughts coming back to me from
the entranced sensitive; but I soon discovered that this
occurred only when I was fixing my mind more or less
intently on the sensitive, and unconsciously mesmerizing
her or him. I have no doubt that a great part of that
which comes to us from these persons, even when they
are honest and do not mean to deceive, is only the reflec-
tion of what is passing in the minds of good, fleshly, solid
men and women who are present at the sittings. But
I question very seriously the position of Dr. Bell, that
everything which comes from the entranced sensitive is
taken from the mind of some living person."

True, if we will use the word mind in its narrow and
restricted sense. But I trust suSicient facts have been
adduced to convince us that we should expect to meet the
reflections of thoughts not present in the conscious mind,
and phenomena of this class constitute the keystone to
the arch with which modern delusion has attempted to
span the "great gulf" Loosen this, and the whole fabric
falls into the bottomless abyss of nothingness.

Before concluding this chapter it is desirable to say a
few words on the mysterious power of prevision often
manifested by the mind. A few cases have already been
incidentally given ; but others will more clearly establish
the fact.

Dr. Forbes Winslow, in his work on "Obscure Diseases
of the Brain and Mind," thus alludes to this singular fact
in mental pathology : "Persons who have been attacked
by epilepsy, paralysis, and apoplexy have had for some
period previous to their seizures distinct recollection of
dreaming of these affections : in fact, thej seem to have

H*

1Y8 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

a clear presentiment of their particular disease, as well
as a prophetic inspiration of their mode of death."

In a note, Dr. Win slow quotes from a French work a
number of instances which are explicable on the old
theory of physiological writers, that the physical symp-
toms are unconsciously perceived by the mind before the
conscious self has noted them. The note, presented
herewith, is a quotation from the " Anatomie com-
paree du Systeme nerveux," etc., by Drs. Leuret and
Gratiolet.

" In certain respects dreams ought to be attentively
studied ; natural instinct can in certain cases, while
inciting the imagination to certain ideas, induce useful
dreams, containing salutary warnings. Aspasia thus
learnt the simple remedy which restored her to health ;
and it was likewise in a dream that the physician Aben-
zoar had the revelation of a medicine by the aid of which
he freed himself from severe ophthalmia. If one, in
fact, notices the extreme facility with which the ideas,
free from the chain of exterior impressions, associate
themselves during sleep, one can conceive how, in the
midst of a thousand strange combinations, luminous per-
ceptions sometimes arise. One can explain in the same
way the marvelous perspicacity of certain dreamers, who,
under one form or other, seem to foresee diseases of
which the germ until then had been latent. Arnauld de
Yilleneuve dreamt one night that a black cat bit him on
the side. The next day an anthrax appeared on the part
bitten. A patient of Galen's dreamt that one of his limbs
was changed into stone. Some days after, this leg was
paralyzed. Such also was the case of the woman of
whom Gunther has spoken : she dreamt that she was
being beaten by a whip. In the morning she bore lesions
like scars. Roger d'Oxteyn, knight of the Company of

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 179

Douglass, went to sleep in good health. Towards the
middle of the night he saw in his dream a man infected
with the plague, quite naked, who attacked him with
fuiy, threw him on the ground after a desperate struggle,
and, holding him between his open thighs, vomited the
plague into his mouth. Tliree days after, he was seized
with the plague and died."

Let us now turn to another case, narrated by a most
competent authority, along with a number of remarkable
dreams well worth consulting. I quote from Abercrom-
bie's "Intellectual Powers:" "A clergyman had come
to this city (Edinburgh) from a short distance in the
country, and was sleeping at an inn, when he dreamed
of seeing a fire, and one of his children in the midst of
it. He awoke with the impression, and instantly left
town on his return home. When he arrived within sight
of his house, he found it on fire, and got there in time
to assist in saving oue of his children, who, in the alarm
and confusion, had been left in a situation of danger."
A somewhat similar instance occurred recently in the
State of Maine. An employe on a railroad in that State,
one night, while asleep in another town from that in
which his family resided, dreamed that the lives of the
members of his family were in some impending dano-er.
Waking with this impression on his mind, he hurriedly
dressed himself, and was fortunate enough to catch a
train about leaving. On his arrival home, he found the
family asleep, and nearly suffocated with the gas which
liad escaped from the stove.

In the cases quoted by Dr. Winslow, physiology sup-
plies us with a clue to their solution. Yet to the ignorant
or unreflecting mind they are just as good " tests" of
imaginary " influences" as any presented in the columns
of the spirital press ; and these additional instances, eveu

180 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

if not resolvable by the same method, give us no reason
to believe that a disembodied mind muat be assumed
for the occasion, with an assumed power to " impress"
knowledge through that most doubtful of all avenues to
knowledge, a dream !

The fact that human lives were in danger, and other-
wise might have been sacrified, has nothing to do with
the argument. If presentiments are whispered revela-
tions, they must include the trivial as well as the impor-
tant. Science can draw no distinction between impres-
sions that lives are in danger, and those announcing the
approach of a "dun" or casual callers. The lady to
whom I have before referred as having frequently received
mental impressions, when quite a child, exclaimed one
night after ten o'clock, "Mother, Uncle George is com-
ing!" referring to an uncle of hers who lived a dozen or
more miles away in the country, where no railroad com-
munication existed. Laughing at the girl, her mother
bade her go to sleep. In the coui'^e of an hour, " Uncle
George" drove up to the house and went in. His visits
there were very infrequent, often a year or more inter-
vening. Although no lives or property were at stake in
this exercise of prevision by the mind of that little girl, it
must take its place with the " accredited manifestations."
Generous as the spiritigts are with their bestowal of
powers to the "invisibles," but few would ascribe this
incident to a ghostly gossip.

When we take into consideration the fact that of the
tens of thousands of impressions registered in the brain
but few are present in consciousness ; the fact that the
rest exist undestroyed, and may be at any moment re-
stored to consciousness ; and the fact that thought, under
certain conditions, may be communicated from one mind
to another by pure volition, we may safely lay down

TEE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 181

these additional conclusions as pertaining to the uncon-
scious brain :

IX. It can transmit thought to sensitive minds without
the exercise of volition ;

X. It can thus transmit thought not present in con-
sciousness ;

XI. It can obtain ideas, by some as yet inexplicable
method, when no person is present, or which were never
known to those who are present ;

XII. It can " manifest" a faculty of prevision, which,
often dormant, is capable of being called into action.

16

182 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

CHAPTER V.

"what phenomena occur?"
1. Liability to self-delusion.

Physical manifestations are supposed by the spiritist
to differ from the class ah'eady reviewed, in that they not
only involve no action of the medium'' s mental faculties,
but are confined to phenomena which may be subdivided
into two classes: those in which the arras or limbs are
automatically moved, and those in which physical objects
are moved by unseen agencies ; the medium constituting
a reserve fund of force from which the " spirits" draw to
affect grosser material. Thus, when profane hands place
printer's ink on the instruments used by the " spirit-
band" attending Mrs. Andrews, of Moravia notoriety,
and the marks of the ink are subsequently found on her
hands, or on her lips, if the trumpet was so anointed,
the spirital " law of transference" is announced, and
regarded as a complete reply to the suspicions held by
the " unharmonic" skeptics.

In cases of " obsession," trance, etc., the more intel-
ligent spiritist acknowledges some undefinable relation
as existing between the mental endowments of the me-
dium and the intellectual characteristics of the commu-
nication or address. In what are termed physical mani-
festations, however, no such connection is assumed. The
writing medium, for instance, is controlled in the arm
alone, we are told, and not through the brain, if the
writing be produced without the attention of the writer

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 183

being directed to it. The movement of heavy bodies, the
tiltings of tables and pianos, the elongation and diminu-
tion of the body, apparitions of the dead, and writing by
unseen hands, are classed as facts, to be daily seen and
subject to investigation, facts in which any conscious or
unconscious action of the brain cannot be referred to for
an explanation. Notwithstanding the explicitness of this
claim, a more critical investigation than that generally
undertaken in " harmonic circles" will tend to dissipate
a large share of it, and classify much of the phenomena
in question under the head of mental delusions. I have
already referred at some length to the proper estimate to
be placed on the evidence furnished by the senses when
adduced in support of what is considered supernatural,
or out of the ordinary course of experience, but desire to
call attention again to some of the numerous ways in
which we may be deceived even in phenomena supposed
to be independent of the mind.

An experiment once in vogue, before the advent of the
modern mode of explaining all acts singular and un-
accountable, was to place a glass goblet on a table, and
with a metallic button suspended from a string held just
within it, the button would commence to oscillate and
would strike the sides of the glass the number of times
the holder of the string may have requested. Investi-
gation soon convinced the skeptical that this result
did follow, even when the request was merely a mental
one. With the elbow firmly placed on the table, and
the string held between the thumb and fore-finger, is
made the request, and lo ! the desired number is soon
struck, and the button slowly regains its former mo-
tionless position. What more convincing test could be
conceived? Beyond this there lay the possibility of
obtaining letters, words, sentences, spelled out by means

184 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

of the alphabet, if they had been attempted. The " in-
vestigator" felt assured that he or she had not moved a
muscle of the arm, stood ready, if necessary, to make
solemn attestation to it, and yet the strange result was
again and again attained. Investigation of a different
sort, proceeding from those whose minds were not of the
" passive receptivity" school, soon discovered that while
the eyes were closed or diverted the expected result did
not follow. Faith was also noticed to have a marvelous
effect in accelerating the motion of the mystic button ;
and when it was discovered that under the control of
confident anticipation the arm had unconsciously swayed
the cord till the desired number had been struck, the illu-
sion was dispelled. The charm being broken, the button
thenceforth stubbornly refused to move ; for, the secret
once known, the scarce perceptible action of the muscles
was noticed and corrected.

So also it may happen in a large number of cases of
table-tipping and kindred "manifestations." I say a large
number of cases, for I cannot agree with Dr. Carpenter
that all cases of table-tipping can be refei'red to this
source. I believe there are "physical manifestations,"
neither the result of deception, conscious or unconscious,
on the one hand, nor the product of imagination on the
other. Their nature, and the supposed evidence of the
presence of disembodied beings based on their occurrence,
will be fully considered in a subsequent section.

Dr. Faraday, whose name is always mentioned with
grateful reverence (except by the spiritist who has far
" progressed" above the low aims of " mole-eyed science"
and who- obtains his scientific acquirements from the
spheres), investigated the phenomenon of table-tipping,
and, not having his mind in a condition of "passive
receptivity," arrived at some conclusions on the subject.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 185

He designed a simple instrument to serve as an index to
the unconscious pressure exerted by those having their
iiands on the table. He constructed two boards, with
small rollers placed between them. This was to be
placed on the table, and upon it the fingers were to rest
In this manner the slightest pressure of the hand could
be at once noticed by the sliding of the board, and atten-
tion being thus called to the pressure, it would be at once
corrected. The lack of reverence displayed in the con-
struction of this simple indicator evidently highly dis-
pleased the " invisibles," for thenceforth they refused to
honor with their presence any circle using it. I have
repeatedly sat at circles formed by friends around my own
sober table, who desired, "just for fun," to see if they
were mediumistic, and have seen the table rocking back
and forth or revolving round, giving no little trouble to
the operators to keep their fingers on its surface ; yet
never, on any occasion, have I had the least reason to
believe that any mental influence was involved outside
of the merry group clustered around it, and often frantic-
ally endeavoring to keep up with its increasing speed,
until, worn out by exhaustion, they would remove their
hands, and the table would again become the staid and
useful piece of furniture its maker designed. When a
group of persons sit around a table, their minds filled
with the dominant idea that " spirits" are present, and
are in a high state of expectancy to behold something
marvelous, it would be a far greater wonder if their
curiosity was not satisfied to some extent than anything
that could be " manifested" to them.

There are a large class of physical manifestations
that are unworthy of serious attention. I allude to
those produced by the itinerant jugglers who travel
tlirough the country, attempting, by means of iron rings

16*

186 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

and tin horns, so-called demonstrations of spiritual ex-
istence. Many of these so-called mediums, I am firmly
convinced, are arrant cheats, having no faith in the
" Gospel of the IsTew Dispensation," but anxious only for
the "scrip" to be gathered from the pockets of the credu-
lous. The well-known mediums for physical manifesta-
tions, the Davenport Brothers, Laura Y. Ellis, the
Eddys, Mr. Reed, and last, though by no means least,
the redoubtable Fay, by confining their powers to " dark
circles" or " cabinet seances" can furnish us with
nothing that can meet the requirements of independent
investigation, because the darkness in which their feats
are performed renders any critical observation impos-
sible. These feats, we should remember, have all been
duplicated by others, who made no claim to ghostly aid.
These 'mediums announce themselves to their audiences
as about to present some marvelous phenomena, the
cause of which they leave to each to ascertain or deter-
mine as he may see fit. All of those whose names are
mentioned above have passed through " exposures" again
and again, as the skeptical assert, but the believers in
their mediumistic powers continue to rely upon them as
worthy of all credence.

Our liability to self-delusion is strikingly illustrated
in the matter of apparitions. Thousands of persons de-
clare that they daily see the forms of the departed, and
converse with them as unmistakably as they do with their
friends "still in the form." Let us examine somewhat
briefly the degree of importance possessed by these un-
doubtedly honest declarations. In so doing, it will be
well to refer to some instances not explicable upon
the spirital hypothesis, and see if they do not pre-
sent many characteristics in common with more recent
narratives.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. \%\

Dr. Forl)es Winslow relates some singular instances.
"A nobleman," be says, "for some weeks previously to
an attack of apoplexy, was subject to a curious phantasm.
He, on several occasions during the da}', when suffering
from an acute headache, saw clearly a spectral image
resembling himself. This form of hallucination is termed
deuteroscopia. The phenomenon is considered of rare
occurrence even among the insane. Aristotle refers to
this type of illusion. It is explained more at length in
his Metaphysics. A certain Antipheron, Aristotle says,
when he was walking, saw a phantasmal reflection of
himself advancing towards him. A traveler who had
passed a long time without sleeping, perceived one night
his own image which rode by his side. It imitated all
his actions. The horseman having to cross a river, the
phantom passed over it with him. Having arrived at a
place where the mist was less thick, this curious appari-
tion vanished. Goethe relates having had a similar hal-
lucination."

Such instances as these require no explanation to in-
telligent readers. Yet similar instances are recorded in
the spirital journals as evidences of man's immortality!
In the nomenclature of spirital science they are termed
"phenomena of the double," and are seriously asserted
to be objective existences, thus demonstrating the exist-
ence of a " spirit" in man by its manifestations out of the
body, leaving its tenement to thrive as best it may in the
mean while. This curious phenomenon is no longer " of
rare occurrence," for there exists scarcely a medium but
can relate instances when his soul has " gone out" of
the body. How often mediuvis are deprived of an in-
dwelling soul we cannot determine, but they seem to
live as well without it as when it deigns to remain. It
is undoubtedly very refreshing and consolatory to some

188 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

persons to know that they have souls, even if their mani-
festations are confined to appearances out of the body.
So many are ready to vouch for the truth of the fact that
their souls have "gone out," that we will cheerfully con-
cede the point, and only require stronger evidence that
they have ever returned.

Yoices of the disembodied dead, many think, are heard
the same as mortal voices ; the vibrations of the air
enter the ears of all men alike, but only those having- a
finer sense of hearing, the result of the development of
the "interior" spirital sense of hearing, are aware of the
fact. Dr. Winslow has some examples of this form of
delusion so pertinent that I cannot refrain from again
quoting from his excellent treatise:

"A worthy clergyman now under my treatment is
subject to the most singular aural illusions. Several
years back he had a severe attack of carbuncle at the
nape of the neck. After recovering from this affection,
he began to hear voices audibly speak to him. They
often addressed him in the Welsh language, occasionally
using particular phrases, idioms, and endearing epithets
that he had been in the habit of indulging m forty years
previously, when paying court to his wife. On one oc-
casion he was seated by my side Avhilst I was occupied in
writing a prescription. Appearing somewhat abstracted,
I asked ' whether he then heard the voices speaking to
him.' ' Yes, quite distinctly.' I said, ' What are they
saying?' He rejoined, 'I would rather not repeat the
words, as they are not very complimentary to yourself.'
After begging him to inform me what observations these
unseen spirits hovering about us were making, he re-
plied that they were ejaculating, ' Don't leave your living;
don't go abroad ; remain in England ; don't do what he
recommends; don't take the medicine he prescribes.' I

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION: 189

had endeavored to impress upon this patient's mind the
importance of his relieving himself for a time from all
anxious and responsible clerical and parochial duty. I
advised a continental tour, with the view of trying the
effect of a thorough change of air and scene, having found,
in cases similar to his, much benefit from this mode of
treatment. Whatever I suggested for the re-establish-
ment of this clergyman's health, these imaginary persons
did their best, most uncourteously, to oppose."

" Under the irresistible influence of an imaginary voice,
many a person is driven to acts of violence and homicide.
Occasionally the illusions of hearing are of a double
character, that is, the patient is apparently subject to the
influence of two distinct voices, a good and a bad voice, —
one urging him to sacrifice life, the other a restraining
voice, begging and imploring him not to yield to his
dangerously insane impulses. 'My bad voices urge, my
good voices restrain me,' was the remark of a patient
who believed himself to be demoniacally possessed. *I
should have destroyed myself long ago,' said an insane
person to Dr. Morel, 'or I should have killed somebody
else, if the voice of my good angel had not begged and
encouraged me to suffer.' Patients often contend with
these antagonistic illusions, or ' double voices,' as Morel
designates them. In one ear the most frightfully obscene
ideas are suggested, whilst in the opposite one senti-
ments of the greatest purity will be whispered to the dis-
ordered imagination of the sufferer. These antagonistic
and opposing illusions lead to fearful contests, and pro-
duce a sad amount of mental agony. ' Which voice ought
I to obey?' said a delicate and sensitive-minded patient
to me one day after a fit of hysterico-maniacal excitement.
' I am urged by persons that address me on my right
side to utter blasphemous and indecent expressions, and

190 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

to commit acts the most repulsive and repugaant to my
nature ; whilst in the opposite ear I clearly recognize
the tender voice (conscience ?) beseeching me not to yield
to the fearful temptations of Satan, but to battle with
his vile and wicked suggestions.'

"An insane pa,tient was urged by an imaginary voice
to destroy himself. He was commanded to cut his throat.
The words blood, blood, blood, were repealed with terri-
ble emphasis and in rapid succession ; and on more than
one occasion he was discovered with a razor, seriously
contemplating self-destruction. This gentleman was sub-
ject to the influence of the double voice ; for at times,
when the word blood was ringing awfully in his ear, and
an air-drawn dagger, stained with gore, glittered before
his eyes, there stood, as he imagined, on the opposite
side of his body a good spirit, whispering to him texts of
Scripture, repeating verses of hymns applicable to his then
state of mind, and imploring him, in most affectionate and
touching language, not to eternally damn his soul by
destroying his own life."*

That these are the ravings of the insane should
not be objected by the spiritist. True, the delusions
were of a more "progressed state of development,"
but these aural delusions were no more acute or con-
vincing than those heard by our " hearing mediums."
We are not to forget, moreover, that the learned
" spirit-band" presiding at the Free Circle Room of the
Banner of Light declare that a great majority of the
insane are really "under control," and they would
render strait-jackets useless by the adoption of the more
restorative process of magnetic passes ! Yoices must
necessarily be associated with intelligent beings, for no
one would conceive an articulate voice to proceed from

* Dr. Forbes AVinslow : " Obscure Diseases of the Mind," pp. 155, 384.

THE SPIRITUAL DEI US 10 JV. 191

an inanimate object; but in tlie illusion of spectral appear-
ance the phantom may be of any form in nature, and
present all the distinguishing features of a living or of
an inert body.

Sir David Brewster, in his interesting " Letters on
Natural Magic," cites twelve instances of spectral illu-
sions experienced by a lady friend, — Mrs. A. On one
occasion, while engaged at her toilet before the dressing-
glass, " she was suddenly startled by seeing in the mirror
the figure of a near relation. The apparition appeared
over her left shoulder, and its eyes met hers in the glass.
It was enveloped in grave-clothes, closely pinned, as is
usual with corpses, round the head and under the chin ;
and, though the eyes were open, the features were solid
and rigid. The dress was evidently a shroud, as Mrs.
A. remarked even the punctured pattern usually worked
in a peculiar maimer round the edges of that garment.
Mrs. A. described herself as at the time sensible of a
feeling like what we conceive of fascination, compelling
her for a time to gaze on this melancholy apparition,
which was as dislinct and vimd as any reflected reality
could be, the light of the candles upon the dressing-table
appearing to shine fully upon its face." Truly a most
" remarkable manifestation," were it not for the fact that
the mortal form of her relative " was then in Scotland,
and in perfect health."

On other occasions she saw apparitions of persons
who were living, clad either in the habiliments of the
grave or in their usual costumes. One of the first in-
stances of illusion in her experience was the form of her
husband standing in the room with his back to the fire,
though he had left the house half an hour previously for
a walk. Sir David says, "The apparition was seen in
broad daylight, and lasted four or five minutes. When

192 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

the figure stood close to her it concealed the real objects
behind it, and the apparition was fullj as vivid as the
reality." Deceased friends " appeared" to her in their
former dress, and seated themselves in the room ; and on
some occasions the ghostly form of a cat or dog would
be seen in the room, or a spectral carriage-and-four
would drive up the entrance-road. Fortunately Mrs. A.
was a lady of intelligence, and lived before the " commu-
nion of spirits " had been reduced to an exact science.

Let us take her experience, and suppose it to occur
in our own land, at the present time, to one not dis-
inclined to believe in the spirital philosophy. We may
safely venture to say that many of the apparitions
would be of a different character. Back of the spectral
illusions would be a mind prepared to believe in their
objective reality. This conviction would become the dom-
inant idea, and unconsciously shape the appearance of the
spectral forms. Instead of cats and dogs, living persons,
or inanimate objects, this controlling idea would cause
all such phantoms to assume the form of departed beings.
Mrs. A. was convinced of the illusory nature of these
phantoms, and consequently any object might appear
before her disordered sight as readily as impressions are
brought before the consciousness in dreams; while in the
mind of the spiritist the conviction that "the departed
are ever witb us" would determine the character of the
spectral forms.

It is not necessary to rely upon supposition alone in sup-
port of these statements. Some time since there appeared
a communication in the American Spiritualist, in which
the writer narrated a "manifestation" occurring through
the well-known medium Charles Foster", who is said to
be one of the best " piiysical mediums''^ m the ITnited
States. A lady visitor received a communication from

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. I93

the sublimated form of a brother of whom nothing had
been heard for years. When last heard from, he was in
the array during the rebellion, and his fate was unknown
till he " appeared" to Mr. Foster and gave a circum-
stantial account of his capture by the Confederate sol-
diers, his imprisonment, and eventual death. That no-
thing might be wanting to present a complete "test" to
his sorrowing sister, he was "seen" by Mr. Foster in
his army uniform. This revelation from " the unseen
shore" brought relief to an an.^ious heart that gladly
listened to the description of the ha[)piaess now enjoyed
in the brighter world above. This sweet consolation,
however, was destined to be removed, for suljsequently
the young scapegrace returned from California I

Once thoroughly convinced of the objective reality
of these illusions, no limit is to be placed to the ex-
tent to which the mind may be carried. It may pass
through the stage of "development" requisite to fit its
possessor for admission to Bedlam, or prepare him to
accept any tale if asserted to be a " manifestation."
Mundane science, through Sir David Brewster, says,
" Although it is not probable that we shall ever be
able to understand the actual manner in which a per-
son of sound mind beholds spectral apparitions in the
broad light of day, yet we may arrive at such a degree
of knowledge on the suliject as to satisfy rational curi-
osity and to strip the phenomena of every attribute
of the marvelous. Even the vision of natural objects
presents to us insurmountable difficulties, if we seek
to understand the precise part which the mind under-
takes in perceiving them; but the philosopher con-
siders that he has given a satisfactory explanation of
vision when he demonstrates that distinct pictures of
external objects are painted on the retina, and that this

I n

194 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

membrane communicates with the brain by means of
nerves of the same substance as itself, and of which it
is merely an expansion. Here we reach the gulf which
human intelligence cannot pass ; and if the presumptuous
mind of man shall dare to extend its speculations further,
it will do it only to evince its incapacity and mortify its
pride."

Spirital science, on the other hand, asserts that the
gulf which yawns before the feet of the " mole-eyed"
scientist has been bridged over by immortal intelligence,
and, with the utmost contempt for a priori "philosophiz-
ing," makes appeal to the " facts." One of these " facts"
furnished by spirital science will fully illustrate the essen-
tial difference in the methods employed by mundane and
by spherical science. A few years since — in 1810, I
think — an etherealized " spirit-boy" presented himself at
the Banner of Light circle room, anxious to " commu-
nicate." What a touching picture might be drawn of the
anxiety of the little fellow to again approach mortal scenes,
to convince his sorrowing parents that he was still living,
tenderly cared for, in a brighter world ! But unfortunately
for any pathetic scene that might be conjecturally as-
sumed, the "boy" stoutly asserted that his sole object in
controlling the medium was thereby to be endowed with
the power to behold material things, as he ardently
desired to visit East Boston that day to attend a circus !
He chuckled exceedingly over the idea of slipping within
the canvas without a ticket. Spirital science regarded
this as a great "test"! "So childlike," "so natural,"
Avere some of the opinions presenting themselves to the
spirital mind.

Sir Walter Scott, in concluding his " Letters on De-
monology," used language that may well be quoted as
strikingly applicable to our own time. He says, " Those

TUE SPIRITUAL DELUSION: 195

who are disposed to look for them maj, without much
trouble, see such mauifest signs, both of superstition and
the disposition to believe in its doctrines, as may render
it no useless occupation to compare the follies of our
fathers with our own. The sailors have a proverb that
every man in his life must eat a peck of impurity ; and it
seems yet more clear that every generation of the human
race must swallow a certain measure of nonsense."

2. Tendency of scientific research.

The present century has witnessed the grandest dis-
covery made in physical science since the time of New-
ton,—the discovery of the persistence and correlation
of forces ; a discovery now generally conceded, and
possessing the most far-reaching results. That heat is
not a specific entity, but rather an affection of matter, was
long ago seen. Even Bacon and Locke gave some inti-
mations of this in their works; but modern research has
indubitably established the fact that heat is a " mode of
motion." As a stone dropped into a pool of water trans-
mits its motion in the ripples seen radiating in all direc-
tions on its surface, so a body dropping on a solid surface
and brought to a state of rest transmits its motion to the
particles of matter upon which it strikes. The molar
motion expends itself by producing molecular motion ;
the visible motion of the whole body cease.s, and the
molecular motion, or motion of the particles, becomes
manifest in the form of heat. All physical forces are
thus shown to be convertible ; that is, the expenditure of
one mode of force gives rise to the manifestation of
another. Repeated experiments have shown that the
forces known as heat, light, electricity, and magnetism
ar(! mutually correlated, are in fact but different manifes-
tations or modes of motion.

196 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

As in sound we have vibrations of the atmosphere
striking upon the tympanum of the ear and giving rise
to the sensation of hearing, so in light we have vibrations
of an all-pervading ether impinging upon the retina of
the eye and causing the sensation known as sight. Nor
has the discovery ended with the correlation of the phys-
ical forces, for investigations conducted by Mayer, Car-
penter, Le Conte, and others, demonstrated that the so-
called vital forces were but modes of manifestation of the
same force, or, as Dr. Carpenter has expressed it, " that
so clear a mutual relationship exists between all the vital
forces that they might be legitimately regarded as modes
of one and the same force."

Herbert Spencer asserts that all a priori possibilities
and experimental evidence alike warrant us in the belief
" that there cannot be an isolated force beginning and
ending in nothing ; but that any force manifested implies
an equal antecedent force from which it is derived and
against which it is a reaction. Further, that the force so
originating cannot disappear without result, but must
expend itself in some other manifestation of force, which,
in being produced, becomes its reaction, and so on con-
tinually."— First Principles. In another work ("Prin-
ciples of Biology," i. p. 51) he states, " It is a corollary
from that primordial truth which, as we have seen, under-
lies all other truths, that whatever amount of power an
organism expends in any shape is the correlate and
equivalent of a power that was taken into it from with-
out. On the one hand it follows from the persistence of
force that each portion of mechanical or other energy
which an organism exefts implies the transformation of
as much organic matter as contained this energy in a
latent state. And on the other hand it follows from the
persistence of force that no such transformation of organic

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 19t

matter containing- this latent energy can take place
without the energy being- in one shape or other mani-
fested."

GontractiUty is the essential attribute of the muscle,
and is peculiarly a vital endowment, yet it can be
excited, for a time, after death, when the " vital prin-
ciple" is supposed to have left the body. During life this
movement of the muscles is the result of a stimulus
transmitted by the nerves. Mr. G. H. Lewes has shown,
and subsequent research has abundantly verified it, that
there is no real difference in property between the sensory
and motor nerves. Dr. Bastian, in his recent work on
"The Beginnings of Life," remarks, " Neurility is the
characteristic property of a nerve, just as contractility is
the characteristic pi'operty of a muscle; and the different
results produced when a sensory and motor nerve re-
spectively are stimulated are due to the different nature of
the organs to which the stimulus is directed. When the
stimulus traverses the nerve in an a/fe/'e;?^ direction, this,
impinging upon a nerve-centre, liberates a larger or
smaller quantity of energy, and may produce what is
called a sensation ; but when, on the other hand, a stim-
ulus originating in a nerve-centre is propagated in an
efferent direction, then this stimulus calls into play the
contractility of a muscle, and so gives rise to a motor
act."

I have recalled these established principles of scien-
tific research to the reader's attention, because the whole
theory of spirital physical manifestations is in direct con-
flict with them. The spiritist still regards all the phe-
nomena of life as the direct result of a mysterious entity,
an " etherealized and sulilimated" being dwelling within
the body during physical life and using the body as a
machine for its own use ; while modern thought, form-

17*

198 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

ing its conclusions from the study of organic forms, I'e-
gards life as an abstract term, signifying the properties
exhibited by what are termed living bodies to distinguish
them from those not manifesting these properties. Modern
research endeavors to understand the relation existing
between the manifestation of thought and the forces
employed in keeping the thinking apparatus in perfect
tune. The metaphysical idea of life being a specific entity
was the direct cause of the ready belief accorded to the
tales of earlier days of transformations of persons into
animals, as narrated in witchcraft prosecutions. This
philosophy may be found more fully elaborated in some
of the tales in the Arabian Nights' Entertainment.

While looking upon the phenomena of life as the pecu-
liar field of physical research, modern thought is met by
the bold assumption that its method of investigation will
necessarily rob the soul of all hopes of the future, blot
out the divine spark of immortal life, and leave us with
only a visible horizon to bound our powers. This asser-
tion has been so many times and so fully met by abler
hands, that we need not be deterred in our purpose by
having it again flaunted in our way. We know that we
are physical beings ; we inhabit a physical world, and in
structural form have many points of resemblance to in-
ferior forms of life. Intelligence in man, as in many of
these inferior forms, is manifested by much the same
processes. The mechanism of thought is a legitimate
study for science. Even if our conclusions should be an-
tagonistic to many of our former metaphysical notions,
it does not necessarily follow that they must be false.
The bugbear of "atheistic materialism" need not frighten
us, even if science should confirm the views of Dr.
Bastian, that " cognition or intellectual action may
take place under the form of a mere organic or iin-

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 199

conscious discrimination, without the interventioa of
consciousness. Thus, in the individual, consciousness or
feeling comes to be superadded as an additional accom-
paniment to certain mere organic discriminations; so
that consciousness, without which sensation cannot exist,
is secondary, whilst cognition, in the form of unconscious
discrimination, is primary. Out of this primary undiffer-
entiated organic discrimination, such as alone pertains to
the lowest forms of animal life, there has been gradually
evolved that which we know as feeling and consciousness."
Those who are still determined to discover evidence of
spiritual realities in the domain of physical science may
well be alarmed at the conflict physical science is bring-
ing on. The two lines of thought, so far from being an-
tagonistic, are in parallel directions, and neither approach
nor recede from each other. Whatever may be the result
of the inquiry into the genesis of mind will in no degree
pronounce an ultimate decision on the question of its
destiny. However intimate a relation may be shown to
subsist between mental processes and the expenditure of
force, we are still to bear in mind that " the intellectual
product does not belong to the category of forces at all.
It does not answer their definition as 'that which is ex-
pended in producing or resisting motion.' It is not recon-
vertible into other forms of force. One cannot lift a
weight with a logical demonstration, nor make a tea-kettle
boil by writing an ode to it. A given amount of molec-
ular action in two brains represents a certain equivalent
of food, but by no means an equivalent of intellectual
product We must not forget that force-
equivalent is one thing, and quality of force-product is
quite a difierent thing. The same outlay of muscular
exertion turns the winch of a coffee-mill and of a hand-
organ. I am not sure that mental qualities are not as

200 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION:

susceptible of measurement as the aurora borealis or the
changes of the weather. But even measurable quality
has no more to do with the correlation of forces than the
color of a horse with his power of draught ; and it is
with quality we more especially deal in intellect and
morals." *

The spiritists are the most notable of modern opponents
of scientific thought, inasmuch as they are unable to
realize the changes which have taken place in the world
of thought during the present century. They still cling
to the scholastic error that soul and life are in some mys-
terious manner identical, and seek to interpret physical
phenomena in such a manner as to understand in physical
terms the mechanism of spirit ! These crude attempts at
interpreting phenomena as "physical manifestations" of
spiritual life are in direct conflict with philosophy and
science, and the reasons often so ostentatiously set forth
by this school may be described, in the words of Herbert
Spencer, as " those vitiations of evidence due to random
observations, to the subjective states of the observers,
to their enthusiasms, or prepossessions, or self-interests ;
those that arise from the general tendency to set down
as a fact observed what is really an inference from an
observation, and also those that arise from the general
tendency to omit the dissection by which small surface-
results are traced to large interior causes."

In treating of the tendency of modern thought, it may
be well to see in what manner some of the most pains-
taking investigators have met the objection of " material-
ism," so often urged to-day, as well as in the past. Claude
Bernard, Professor of Physiology in the College of France,
has seen fit to refer to this charge. He says,—

* Oliver Wendell Holmes : " Mechanism in Thought and Morals,"
pp. 64, 67.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION: 201

"Preconceived ideas clearly have a great influence in
discussing the functions of the brain, and a solution is
combated by arguments used for the sake of their tend-
ency. Some refuse to allow that the brain can be the
organ of intelligence, from fear of being involved by that
admission in materialistic doctrines ; while others eagerly
and arbitrarily lodge intelligence in a round or fusiform
nerve-cell, for fear of being charged with spiritualism.
For ourselves, we are not concerned about such fears.
Physiology tells us that, except in the difference and
greater complexity of the phenomena, the brain is the
organ of intelligence in exactly the same way that the
heart is the organ of circulation and the larynx that of
the voice. We discover everywhere a necessary bond
between the organs and their functions ; it is a general
principle, from which no organ of the body can escape.
Physiology should copy the example of more advanced
sciences, and free itself from the fetters of philosophy that
would impede its progress; its mission is to seek truth
calmly and confidently, its object is to establish it beyond
doubt or change, without any alarm as to the form under
which it may make its appearance."

That the brain, or the whole nervous system, is the
organ of mind, is a conclusion in no way fraught with
the terrible results so many imagine. Dr. Carpenter has
spent a lifetime investigating the physiology of mind,
and on more than one occasion has expressed his belief
in terms no one can regard as materialistic. He is of
the opinion "that science points to (though at present I
should be far from sajdng that it demonstrates) the
origination of all power in mind. . . . When meta-
physicians, shaking off the bugbear of materialism, will
honestly and courageously study the phenomena of the
mind of man in their relation to those of his body, I believe

202 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

that they will find in their relation their best arguments
for the presence of infinite mind in universal nature."
Modern science has swung clear from its old moorings,
and is rapidly seeking to embrace all phenomena within
its domain. Mind can no longer claim to be beyond its
grasp and to dwell secluded in mystery. The tendency of
thought in this direction is forcibly expressed by a recent
writer, as follows : " Whilst the manifestation of mental
phenomena, in the ordinary sense of the term, corresponds
only to a fractional part of nerve-activities in general,
there is, again, the very best reason for believing that
consciousness, so far from being coextensive with mind,
or mental phenomena, is in reality limited to a compara-
tively small portion of what may be rightly ranged under
this category. Many truly mental phenomena never
reveal themselves in consciousness at all, and the roots
of these strike far and wnde : so that, instead of accepting
the popular view that the brain is the organ of mind, I
believe it would be nearer the truth to look upon the
whole nervous system as the organ of mind, — a doctrine
which has already been taught by Mr. G. H. Lewes and
others. The brain, it is true, is its principal organ,
whilst consciousness or feeling is probably only attend-
ant upon the activity of quite a liuiited portion of this.
And, as Mr. Herbert Spencer has so clearly pointed out,
in the evolution of mind we each one of us experience
the constant transitions whereby a state or act (the re-
currence of which was at first always attended by con-
sciousness) at last, when thoroughly familiar, may take
place quite unconsciously, or without in the least arousing
our attention. The more fully such phenomena, there-
fore, are recognized as parts of an orderly succession, by
which alone greater and greater complexities of thought
and feeling are rendered possible, the more will it become

THE SriRITUAL DELUSTOX. 203

evident that the sphere of mind cannot at any time be
circumscribed by the then present or possible states of
consciousness, — the more it is obvious that in our con-
ception of mind we should also include all past stages of
consciousness, the representatives of which, now in the
form of unconscious nerve-actions, are from moment to
moment manifesting themselves potentially, if not actu-
ally, in all our present thoughts, feelings, and volitions."*

An able article some time since appeared in the Popular
Science Review (London), contributed by Dr. Richardson,
in which he contends that the nerves are enveloped in a
nerve-fluid or ether, that by its molecular motion sensa-
tion is communicated and the commands of the will
transmitted. He states that' it extends in all persons
more or less beyond the extremities of the nerve-struc-
ture, varying in depth and density in various persons.
Mr. Crookes, F.R.S., the editor of the Quarterly Journal
of Science and of the Chemical Neivs, more widely
known by reason of his investigations of the niediuniship
of Mr. D. D. Home, has constructed an instrument of
extreme delicacy, which seems to indicate the existence
of such a " nerve-atmosphere" as more or less encompass-
ing every person with whom he has made trial of it.

Many of the phenomena narrated in the preceding
pages would seem to be explicable only upon the hy-
pothesis of the existence of such a medium, in which
the conscious or unconscious exercise of the mental
faculties excites molecular motion, as the physical force
of light excites molecular motion in the ether-filling
space. In the hands of so experienced an investigator
as Mr. Crookes, there is but little fear of imitating

* H. Charlton Bastian, M.A., M.D., F.R.S. : " The Beginnings of
Life," pp. 42-44.

204 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

the fallacious methods pursued bj Reichenbach in
his so-called discovery of odic force, now known to be
destitute of any plausible evidence. Granting the exist-
ence of such a medium as Dr. Richardson claims to have
discovered, the manifestation of intelligence in spirital
phenomena would cease to be a source of wonder. Phys-
iologists are familiar with speculations concerning the
existence of a medium for the transmission of thought,
which has been often broached under the names of " vital
force," "brain-waves," "soul-force," or "nerve-ether;"
and, although the writer is convinced that these terms
shadow forth a great truth, and that Dr. Richardson's
discovery will in the main be substantiated, it is not
necessary to the line of argument herein pursued to de-
vote any space to the consideration of it, or to rely upon
it as an essential condition.

If I have succeeded in presenting sufficient grounds for
believing that the mental phenomena are directly depend-
ent upon the mental organization of the " medium,,^'' and
consequently are wholly within the domain of physiologi-
cal investigation, the more detailed explanation of the
methods by which they are evolved may well be left to
other hands. That the unconscious brain can perform
all the mental acts that are possible under the control of
conscious volition has already been shown, as well as its
power to exert a mental force affecting the consciousness
of others; and the discovery of a "nerve-ether" would
render such acts more intelligible, as well as afford an
explanation of many " physical manifestations," such as
the movement of heavy bodies without personal contact.
That a force proceeding from the human organism can
move ponderable bodies without physical contact may be
a conclusion more difficult to win assent to; and yet I
think it is one that can be abundantly verified.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 205

CHAPTER YI.

PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS.

1. Involuntai-y actions.

" What thought is," says G. H. Lewes, " we do not
know, perhaps we never shall. We do not know what
life is. But the realm of mystery may be reduced to one
of ' orderly mystery ;' we may learn what are the laws of
Life, and what are the laws of Thought." So in investi-
gating so-called physical phenomena we may be enabled
to learn some of their laws, and, while frankly admitting
the existence of much still mysterious, may still feel
convinced that the phenomena cannot be the effect of
invisible personal agents, and that the mystery can be
shown to lie in our failure to comprehend the natural
processes involved. In a previous chapter it has been
shown that the mind, while controlled by an uncon-
scious idea, often directs the movements of the body ;
that painting, reading, or writing may be performed
without the fact being known to consciousness. We
have seen that during abstraction, in natural sleep, and
in the trance state, the connection between the brain
and nerves being closed, the activity of the cerebrijm is
carried on independently of the sensoriura, from the stock
of sense-impressions stored up by memory. Attention
also has been called to the fact that when the mind is
"under control" by a dominant idea, this will invariably
shape the action evolved. Dryden has said, —

" Sometimes forgotten things, long cast behind,
Rusli forward in the brain, and come to mind;

18

206 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

The nurse's legends are for truth received,
And the man dreams but what the boy believed ;
Sometimes we but rehearse a former play,
The night restores our actions done by day."

Spirital investigators are required to exhibit a passive
frame of mind, to patiently wait for the expected mani-
festations. Singing is generally resorted to, that all minds
may be rendered more "harmonious," as the " influences"
are often seriously retarded by the action of the " will-
powers" of non-passive investigators. Circles are formed
which often continue for ten, twenty, or thirty nights before
any phenomena are vouchsafed. A lady medium, well
known as a "spirit-artist," sat in a circle certain evenings
consecutively for months before she was "controlled." In
this case the " spirits" had promised to develop her as an
artist before the close of the year ; and during the last days
of December, when expectancy was at its highest point,
the materials were called for and a sketch made, the lady
all the while being in an unconscious trance state. This
lady in her childhood, her mother once informed me, had
shown a natural taste for drawing, frequently having
used the juice of the elderberry for ornamental purposes
on fences and barns. In her unconscious state, the domi-
nant idea of "spirit-possession" and concentrated expecta-
tion assumed " control," and manifestations ensued.

In circles the great prerequisite " condition" for the
successful invocation of "spirits" is recognized to be the
entire passivity of the voluntary powers. " Passive re-
ceptivity" is the key to spirital favor. Each subsequent
sitting confirms this use of the physical organs, until they
become automatic, fixed by habit as well in this state as
in the conscious moments. When Charles XII. was
struck dead by a cannon-ball, he clasped his hand on the
hilt of his sword. The mind requires but one-tenth of a

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 201

second to form a conclusion and act accordingly, bat the
velocity of the ball far exceeded the "rapidity of thought,"
and we are thus compelled to regard the movement of the
arm and hand as an unconscious reflex action. Some
experiments performed on the body of a negro criminal,
hanged in the city of Richmond, Va., gave an interesting
illustration of the reflex action of the nerves and muscles.
Under electrical stimulus the arms assumed the position
necessary for playing the banjo ! This was a position
that had once required the constant attention of con-
sciousness, but habitual use had rendered it automatic,
and the voluntary power had passed into an involuntary
one, capable of being induced after consciousness had for-
ever quitted its home.

It should be borne in mind that physiology gives us no
warrant for drawing a sharp line of demarcation between
the voluntary and involuntary powers of the nerves.
Some even assert that there exists no involuntary action
but can be controlled or modified by conscious volition.
Mr. G. H. Lewes, in his " Physiology of Common Life,"
says,—

" It is an error to assei't, as most physiologists and
psychologists persist in asserting, that these actions can-^
not be controlled, that they are altogether beyond the
interference of other centres, and cannot by any effort of
ours be modified. It is an error to suppose these actions
are essentially distinguished from the voluntary move-
ment of the hands. We have acquired a power of definite
direction in the movement of the hands, which renders
them obedient to our will ; but this acquisition has been
of slow, laborious growth. If we w^ere asked to use our
toes as we do our fingers, to grasp, paint, sew, or write
with them, we should find it not less impossible to control
the movement of the toes in these directions, than to con-

208 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

tract the iris, or cause a burst of perspiration to break
forth.* Certain movements of the toes are possible
to us ; but, unless the loss of our fingers had made it
necessary that we should use our toes in complicated and
slowly-acquired movements, we can do no more with
them than the young infant can do with his fingers. Yet
men and women have written, sewed, and painted with
their toes. All that is required is that certain links should
be established between sensations and movements ; by
continual practice these links are established ; and what
is impossible to the majority of men becomes easy to the
individual who has acquired this power. This same
power can be acquired over what are called the organic
actions ; although the habitual needs of life do not tend
towards such acquisition, and without some strong cur-
rent setting in that direction, or some peculiarity of
organization rendering it easy, it is not acquired. In
ordinary experience the number of those who can write
with their toes is extremely rare, the urgent necessity
which would create such a power being rare ; and rare
also are the examples of those who have any control over
the movement of the iris, or action of a gland ; but both
rarities exist.

"It would be difficult to choose a more striking exam-
ple of reflex action than the contra,ction of the iris of the
eye under the stimulus of light, and to ordinary men,
having no link established which would guide them, it is
uttei'ly impossible to close the iris by an effort. It would
be not less impossible to the hungry child to get on a
chair and reach the food on the table, until that child had

* It might seem, a priori, equally difficult to "cause a burst of in-
spiration to break forth;" yet thousands fondly believe it to be as easy
of accomplishment as drawing water from a faucet.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSIOX. 209

learned how to do so. Yet there are men who have
learned how to contract the iris. The celebrated Fontana
liad this power; which is possessed also by a medical
man now living at Kilmarnock, — Dr. Faxton, — a fact
authenticated by no less a person than Dr. Allen Thom-
son. Dr. Paxton can contract or expand the iris at will,
without changing the position of his eye, and without an
effort of adaptation to distance.

" To move the ears is impossible to most men. Yet
some do it with ease, and all can learn to do so. Some
men have learned to 'ruminate' their food; others to
vomit with ease ; and some are said to have the power
of perspiring at will. That many glands are under the
influence of the will — in other words, that we can stimu-
late them to secretion by a mere ideal stimulus — is too
well known to need instance here. Even the beating of
the heart can be arrested.

" .... It thus appears that even the actions
which most distinctly bear the character recognized as
involuntary — uncontrollable — are only so because the
ordinary processes of life furnish no necessity for their
control. And while it appears that the involuntary can
become voluntary, it is familiar to all that the voluntary
actions tencZ, hy constant repetition, to become involuntary,
and are then called secondary automatic."

Dendy ("Philosophy of Mystery," pp. 310-71) relates
a number of instances of the power of the will over
involuntary muscles; one of the suspension of the action
both of the heart and lungs, during which there was no
apparent vapor on the mirror held to the mouth. Of this
instance he says, " During the many hours in which
this voluntary trance existed, there was a total absence
of consciousness, yet a faculty of self-reanimalion I"

These examples are far more marvelous than anything
18*

\

210 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

recorded of " automatic mediums." For it is more difficult
for the will to direct an involuntary action, than it is for
the unconscious brain, or, if the term may be used, the
extra-conscious mind, when influenced by concentrated
expectancy. The manifestation of intelligence, as we have
seen, would, so far from being surprising, be the result
naturally expected to be associated with the phenomenon.
The dominant state of expectancy for the occurrence of
phenomena priDceeding from intelligent beings would not
only operate upon the Involuntary nerves with a force
equal to that of conscious volition, but, it is not too
much to assert, would sensibly augment the power, be-
coming more concentrated than in our conscious mo-
ments, when the mind is open to sense-impressions ; and
the systematic "development" of this power, at first often
so laborious and protracted, on each I'ecurring manifesta-
tion becomes more and more of the character of a "reflex
action." Thus a " well-developed medium" has but to close
her eyes, resign herself to passivity, and in a minute the
hand is controlled to write, or paint. There is one point
which still remains a "marvel ;" that is, hoiu the sense of
seeing is exercised while the eyes are closed ; but it is a
"marvel" no greater than many exhibited by the som-
nambule and dreamer. In fact, the true solution of the
phenomena, instead of being sought in the domain of
"spiritual faculties" or "intuition," might be attained
by a closer study of the manifestations of instinct in the
lower forms of life, many of which are as marvelous as, if
not analogous to, the manifestations of " soul-perceptions"
in man. To all true students of nature, however, it must
ever remain by far the greatest " manifestation" of this
phenomena-loving age, that thousands of individuals,
having attained the years of legal majority, can be found
willing and even anxious to abnegate the powers of the

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 211

will and become mere instruments for the manifestation
of involuntary powers. To all such who may have read
this work as far as the present point, the following re-
marks of Dr. Carpenter, quoted from " Human Physi-
ology," are seriously commended. He says, —

" It is, in fact, the virtue of the will that we are not
mere thinking automata, mere puppets to be pulled by
suggesting strings, capable of being played upon by every
one who shall have made himself master of our springs
of action. It may be freely admitted that such thiidiing
automata do exist; for there are many individuals whose
will has never been called into due exercise, and who
gradually or almost entirely lose the power of exerting
it, becoming the mere creatures of habit and impulse ;
and there are others in whom such states are of occa-
sional occurrence ; whilst in others, again, they may be
artificially induced.

"It maybe unhesitatingly laid down that, if the di-
recting powers of the will be suspended, the capability
of correcting even the most illusory ideas by an appeal
to ' common sense' is for the time annihilated. Of this
we have a t^^pical example in the state of dreaming.
Hence we see that if the human mind should lose for a
time the power of volitional self-direction it cannot shake
off the yoke of any ' dominant idea,' however tyrannical,
but must execute its behests ; — it cannot bring any notion
with which it may be possessed to the test of ' common
sense,' but must accept it as a belief, if it be impressed
on the consciousness with adequate force ; — it cannot
recall any /act, even the most familiar, that is beyond its
immediate grasp \ — upon any idea, therefore, with which
it may be possessed, the whole force of its attention is
for the time concentrated, so that the most incongruous
conception presents itself with all the vividness of reality."

212 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION:

Professor Dods, in his Lectures on " Spirit Manifesta-
tions," says, "I know a Quaker lady in Salem, Mass.,
who, from long habits of passivity, waiting for the moving
of the spirit, could strike every joint of her body together
so as to be heard in an adjoining room. Nor was it in
her power to prevent it. Her manner of devotion had
become itself a disease. The habit was stamped upon
her involuntary powers, and they ruled. She was un-
ceasingly rapping during her waking moments, and was
still only when she was asleep. She was the greatest
rapping medium I ever knew." Many instances of habits
voluntarily formed becoming involuntary must be familiar
to all thoughtful readers, and history furnishes us with
numerous cases of their having become epidemic and
afflicting a whole community with " accredited manifes-
tations." Dr. Babbington says, "The imaginations of
women are always more excitable than those of men, and
are therefore susceptible of every folly when they lead a
life of strict seclusion and their thoughts are constantly
turned inward upon themselves. Hence, in orphan asy-
lums, hospitals, and convents, the nervous disorder of one
female so easily and quickly becomes the disorder of all.
A nun in a very large convent in France, by some strange
impulse, began to mew like a cat. Shortly after, other
nuns also mewed together every day at a certain time
for several hours in succession, annoying the whole neigh-
borhood with a cat-concert. This it was not in their
power to prevent till they were relieved by a superior
impression. . , . But of all the epidemics of
females which I myself have seen in Germany, or of
which the history is known to me, the most remarkable
is the celebrated convent epidemic of the fifteenth century,
which Cardan describes. A certain nun in Germany fell
to biting all her companions. In the course of a short

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 213

time all the nuns of this convent began biting- each other.
The news of this infatuation among the nuns soon spread,
and passed from convent to convent through a great part
of Germany, principally Saxony and Brandenburg. It
afterwards visited the nunneries in Holland, and at last
the nuns had the biting mania even as far as Rome."

Perhaps one of the most singular instances recorded
of this nature — the contagious effect of involuntary actions
— is narrated by Dr. Stone, in his work on the " Progress
of Fanaticism." He is describing an extensive religious
excitement in the State of Kentucky in the early part of
the present century. The preacher had been a great
hunter, and in his public addresses used as figures of
speech words and phras&s from the hunter's vocabu-
lar}'. His hearers were vehemently exhorted to chase
the devil and tree him as they would any wild beast
endangering their households. One individual, at a grove
meeting, of a sufficiently nervous temperament to be easily
impressed, started off on full run in pursuit of the devil !
Others were involuntarily led to join in the pursuit.
Professor Dods, who investigated this statement, and saw
and conversed with an eye-witness of this strange scene,
says this was called "the running exercise !" Professor
Dods says, " One climbed up into a tree after the devil,
and others involuntarily caught the mania. This was
called ' the climbing exercise !' One individual was moved
to bark ; and soon others, even though they used every
method to prevent it, fell to involuntary barking like dogs,
while others gathered around the tree praying for success.
This was called ' treeing the devil !' It was literally a
devil-chase ! And such a time of running, climbing, dog-
barking, and devil-chasing, was perhaps never known
before nor since. I doubt whether it can be surpassed
in any of its mysteries, even by the rapping, writing, and
table-tipping business of the present day.

214 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

" On another occasion, insisting upon the words of our
Saviour being literally understood, — ' Except ye be con-
verted and become as little children, ye cannot enter into
the kingdom of heaven,' — one individual went to playing
marbles in the broad aisle of the church ; others involun-
tarily joined him. An old man undertook to expostulate,
saying that it was carrying matters, as he thought, rather
too far. On hearing this, an old lady who was down
upon her knees among the marble-players sprang to her
feet, grasped her umbrella, and, taking a side-saddle seat
on it, rode down the aisle in full childlike glee. On seeing
this, the old gentleman could resist no longer, — seized his
cane, threw himself astride of it, like any boy, and rode
down the aisle after her, exclaiming, in a sing-song voice,
* Oh, my dear brethren and sisters, I feel the full childlike
spirit carrying me to heaven on a wooden boss !' Several
others now caught the mania, having no power to resist
it. Others, less serious, broke out in convulsive laughter,
shouted and hurrahed, and the meeting broke up in one
scene of confusion. It was not in the power of these per-
sons to resist it. The involuntary powers, by one single
impression, took the entire and irresistible control."

The professor narrates another instance, referred to
by Dr. Stone, the facts of which were gathered by him
during his travels in North Carolina in 1832. As his
book is now out of print, I shall quote the passage entii'e :

"A man had set himself up as a preacher who had
received a commission direct from heaven, and as clergy-
men were not willing to admit him into their pulpits, he
traveled about, preaching in groves in various sections
of the State. He was a man of a very nervous tempera-
ment, and when he became excited in speaking his ges-
tures were violent, yet impressive. Still, they were made
by his voluntary powers. He possessed, also, a good

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 215

faculty for expressing the various passions and emotions
of the soul in his countenance, according to the sentiment
he was uttering. These gestures of his bands and
motions of his face, and even feet, would involuntarily
continue for some time after he took his seat, while the
concluding hymn was being sung, and frequently com-
mence before he rose to speak, and, indeed, at any time
when he was excited. But as he, in all these cases,
exerted his voluntary powers to keep his hands, face, and
feet still, so the conflict between the voluntary and invol-
untary powers produced, not gestures, but most violent,
sudden, and irregular jerkings and twitchings. And
instead of expressing the passions of his soul in his coun-
tenance, he made up the most horrible faces that can be
well conceived. As he could not account for these things
in himself, and as it was not in his power to prevent them,
so he attributed the whole to the power of the spirit!

" Now, it so happened that every one of his convert?
was at first seized with these most singular spasmodic
motions of the limbs and contortions of the countenance.
Hence these involuntary motions were called 'the jerks,'
and whenever any one was converted it was expressed
by saying that such a one had got the jerks ! The news
of these most singular manifestations spread over the
whole region round about. Persons came from a dis-
tance of twenty and even thirty miles to hear him and
see the wonders. And it so happened, at length, that as
many of those who came laughing and mocking were
seized with the jerks as of those who were in reality con-
verted. This was pronounced by the eccentric speaker
as the curse of God upon those who scoffed. But the
mania spread, exciting the mirth and ridicule of some,
and the astonishment and awe of others, till the excite-
ment became general ; and such a time of jerking,

216 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

twitching, and making up wry faces at each other, it is
difficult to imagine, or even describe. Here, then, is a
stril<ing proof of the fact that the involuntary powers of
some can be made to act suddenly, even by one solitary
impression made upon the mind."

Those of my readers who have had opportunities for
observing the actions of trance-mediums during the
earlier portion of their "development" cannot have failed
to notice the nervous twitchings and "jerks" that pre-
ceded the control of the involuntary powers of the mind.
During the " planchette" mania I procured one of those
mysterious instruments and carried it home, to see if any
of my family could write with it. In the hands of one
member it moved off rapidly and wrote quite distinctly,
answering questions readily enough, but with very little
regard to veracity if the questions were such as the per-
son using it could not have answered herself One of
the first " communications" received was the spirital
autograph of Silas Wright. In response to the suggestion
that we were ready to hear anything he might see fit to
communicate, the pencil wrote this sentence : " I am an
honest man." No one seeming inclined to dispute the
statement, we heard no more from the ex-Governor.
One noticeable fact I observed in connection with this
planchette writing: the lady's hand on the board, after
repeated experiments, was seized with a spasmodic trem-
bling, and moved off from the planchette on to the table.
In response to a suggestion that " they" might desire to
write by means of her hand, a pencil was furnished, and
several sheets of paper were filled with illegible zigzag
marks. I found that whenever she sat down with a
pencil in her hand the arm would again exhibit the usual
premonitory twitchings before the pencil began its mark-
ings. Once, when her mind was on a dear friend, then

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 217

recently deceased, the friend's name was legibly written
on the paper before her. Lack of faith, however, on her
part, prevented the spirital hypothesis from becoming
the dominant idea, and no other intelligible writing was
produced by her hand except that given by the menda-
cious planchette. lu those cases, however, she averred
that the answers were always present in her conscious-
ness before the pencil had finished writing, although she
was unconscious of any effort on her part to influence
the writing or direct the movement of the board. When
a question was asked, her mind necessarily would form
some answer, and, although volition ha.d no conscious
direction, that answer would be involuntarily written
through the agency of the planchette. I have no doubt
but there have been many instances where the answers
were written when this connection between the working
of the mind and the consciousness did not exist, and the
answer would then only be known to the passive opera-
tor by seeing it written out on the paper. A firm belief
in the reality of the communication would necessarily
tend to produce this result. In some instances names
were written entirely unknown save to some one present
— one that of a school-mate of a gentleman present, long
since dead, and remembered only as a school companion
in earlier years. Sometimes a short " communication"
would follow; other times the "control would be
changed," as our friends would say, and some other
idea would direct the pencil. Those who have never
seen writing by this instrument, or are unable to write
with it, may easily obtain similar " communications" in
a far easier manner. Let one of the party be selected,
who shall answer every question put, of whatever nature,
on the spur of the moment, without any hesitancy or
deliberation, giving the first thoughts which arise in the
K 19

218 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

mind. True, there would be no mystery connected with
it, to give a zest to the farce ; but so far as the " intelli-
gent influence" is concerned, the answers would be of
the same nature as those produced through the planchette
by the action of the involuntary nerves.

There are still other actions, partaking largely of the
marvelous, which seem to come under a different classifi-
cation from any yet considered. A few instances on
record may be referred to, in order that the nature of the
phenomena may be more clearly defined. Many years
since, there was reported in Silliman^s Journal a case
of a lady becoming charged with electricity to such a
degree that she emitted electric sparks from her fingers
and toes, sometimes seen, heard, and felt, while at other
times the sparks were neither seen nor felt, but heard,
producing a " mysterious series of raps." The narrative
says, " On the evening of January 28, during a somewhat
extraordinary display of the Northern Lights, a respect-
able lady became so highly charged with electricity as
to give out vivid electrical sparks from the end of each
finger to the face of each of the company present. This
did not cease with the heavenly phenomenon, but con-
tinued several months, during which time she was con-
stantly charged and giving off electrical sparks to every
conductor she approached. This was extremely vexa-
tious, as she could not touch the stove, or any metallic
utensil, without first giving off an electrical spark, with
the consequent twinge. The state most favorable to this
phenomenon was an atmosphere of about eighty degrees,
moderate exercise, and social enjoyment. It disappeared
in an atmosphere approaching zero, and under the debili-
tating effects of fear. When seated by the stove, read-
ing, with her feet upon the fender, she gave sparks at the
rate of three or four a minute ; and under the most favor-

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 219

able circumslancos a spark that could be seen, heard, or
felt passed every second. She could charge others in
the same way when insulated, who could then give
sparks to others. To make it satisfactory that her dress
did not produce it, it was changed to cotton and woolen,
without altering the phenomenon. The lady is about
thirty, of sedentary pursuits and delicate state of health,
having for two years previously suffered from acute rheu-
matism and neuralgic affections, with peculiar symptoms."
A case somewhat more widely known was that of the
French peasant-girl Angelique Cottin, in the year 1846.
The first manifestations observed were unaccountable
movements of the frame of a loom at which she was
weaving silk gloves. Terrified at the apparently causeless
motion, she ran to a distance, when it ceased. On again
approaching the loom it recommenced its tippings. Her
parents, much distressed, took the girl to the church to
have the demoniacal " influence" exorcised ; but the curate,
fortunately being a man of sense, sent her to a physician.
This singular phenomenon soon grew more marked in its
manifestations, as we should naturally expect. For the
girl, firmly convinced that her conscious self was not the
author of these mysterious movements, would naturally
think, as her parents thought, that they were the result
of some " outside influence," and her mind under this
impression would sink into a state of complete passiuiYy,
thus unconsciously aiding "development." Wherever
she went the furniture moved, and articles touched by her
clothes would fly as if hurled by a human hand direct
from the "spheres." A man seated on a tub near which
she was standing w^as lifted on his seat into the air.
When placed on certain non-conductors of electricity
tiiese effects were observed to diminish, and insulation
was at times necessary to enable her to take repose.

220 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

A somewhat similar case occurred a ^ew years since,
near Boston. An Irish servant-girl became possessed
with an unaccountable attraction, by which furniture and
other articles would be drawn towards her, and crockery
broken without personal contact. The spirital neighbors
of the family with whom the girl resided kindly oifered
their services to ascertain the wishes of the "spiiHts^'
operating through her, but their services were declined.
The girl was removed to a hospital, and subsequently died,
and her death was referred to by the Banner of Light as
evidence of the injurious effects of scientific treatment,
whereas, if she had been properly " developed," submitted
to harmonious influences, — and so on, ad infinitum, ad
nauseam !

In the case of the Seeress of Prevorst, Madame Hauffe,
similar movements of physical objects occurred. William
Hewitt says, " While Madame Hauffe was spending
some time at Kerner's house, gravel and ashes were
thrown about where no visible creature was to throw
them. A stool rose gradually to the ceiling and then
came down again. ... It was a fact that when
Madame Hauffe was in a particularly magnetic state she
could not sink in her bath, but rose to the surface, and
could only be held down by hands." Justinus Kerner
published a narrative of her eventful life, from which I
make one extract : " As I had been told by her parents,
a year before her father's death, that at the period of her
early magnetic state she was able to make herself heard
by her friends as they lay in bed at night in the same
village, but in other houses, by a knocking, as is said of
the dead, I asked her whether she was able to do so
now, and at what distance. She answered that she
would sometimes do it, — that to the spirit space was
nothing. Some time after this, as we were going to bed,

TUE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 221

— my children and serv^ants being already asleep, — we
heard a knocking as if in the air over our heads. There
were six knocks, at intervals of half a minute. It was a
hollow yet clear sound, soft, but distinct. On the fol-
lowing evening, when she was asleep, when we had
mentioned the knocking to nobody whatever, she asked
me whether she should soon knock to us again, which,
as she said it was hurtful to her, I declined."

Although the " seeress" professed to see " spirits," no
claim was ever made of their acting through her; she
professed to act by her own power, though in what
manner these electro-magnetic discharges were made
audible at so great a distance is not so clear. I often
make magnetic passes over persons suffering from head-
aches or other nervous disorders, almost invariably with
complete success, and I am often assured by skeptical
patients that they feel something striking on their faces
or hands. Some describe it as " sparks," others as " drops
of warm water." For a long time I ascribed this to
imagination ; but I have been assured of the same fact
by gentlemen of culture, who were at first entirely skep-
tical of any tranquilizing effects following the "passes."
Whether this feeling be founded on fact or imagination,
I never was conscious of being a medium in allaying
nervous disorders, although I have met with perfect
success with friends who were at the time delirious.

In Appletons^ Journal for November 12, 1870, is an
interesting article on Electrical Persons and Places, by
II. Butterworth. The author refers to some of the in-
stances narrated above, and gives others equally remark-
ai)le. Iwill quote one or two instances :

" A careful observer of the various phenomena of
animal magnetism declares that, in many cases, somnam-
bulists are capable of giving an electric shock. Made-

19*

222 THE SPIRfTUAL DELUSION:

moiselle Emmerich, a beautiful and accomplished lady,
sister to Professor Emmerich, a theologian at Strasburg,
became unnerved by a fright that occasioned a long and
peculiar illness. According to Dr. Eunemoser, her body
became so highly electrical that she imparted shocks to
all who approached her bedside. Wishing to call the
attention of her brother to herself on one occasion, when
he was in another part of the house, she sent him a
severe shock by the mere force of the will. Some years
ago a man and his wife, living in Providence, Rhode
Island, became deranged at the same time, on the subject
of spiritualism. They were people who, in their best
days, were susceptible and subject to impressions ; they
became ' mediums,' overtaxed their nervous energies, and
at last went mad. They were confined in different rooms
of the same house. Each was able to make impressions
on the other, and each seemed to be conscious of the
other's movements and feelings. . . .

"I have found, among old English ghost-stories,
nothing more remarkable than ' The Haunted House in
Stockwell.' The circumstances of the Stockwell wonder,
which I gather from an authentic, candid, and circum-
stantial narrative of the astonishing transactions at
Stockwell, in the county of Surrey, on Monday and Tues-
day, the sixth and seventh days of January, 1*1*12, pub-
lished with the consent and approbation of the family, are
as follows : On the morning of the sixth of January,
1*1*12, Mrs. Golding, an estimable English lady, was in her
parlor, when she heard the glass in her kitchen falling
and breaking. She was immediately summoned to the
place by her maid, who told her that the dishes were
falling from the shelves. Soon after these disturbances
violent noises were heard all over the house, followed by
a work of destruction fearful to behold. An alarm was

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 223

given that called together the neighbors, and Mr. Row-
lidge, a carpenter, declared that the foundation of the
house was giving way, and that the house itself was in
danger of falling. The disturbances seemed to follow the
maid, who gave the appearance of being perplexed and
grieved, but not in the least alarmed Once, when she
was called to come down from her chamber, whither she
doubtless went to escape observation, she answered in-
differently, and made her appearance 'without any seem-
ing fearful apprehensions.' It became necessary to bleed
Mrs. Golding. Soon after the bleeding, the blood sprung
out of the basin, and the basin broke to pieces. It was
thought best to remove the furniture to a neighbor's, but,
whenever any valuable was taken for the purpose, it im-
mediately went to destruction. Mr. Hames attempted to
take away a costly pier-glass, but parts of the frame flew
off" in his hands. Mr. Saville was asked to drink some
wine, but the bottle broke before it was uncorked. 'At
all times of action,' says the narrative, ' Mrs. Golding's
servant was walking backward and forward. Nor could
they get her to sit down five minutes together, except
when the family were at prayers, then all was quiet ; but,
in the midst of the greatest confusion, she was as much
composed as at any other time, and, with uncommon
coolness of temper, advised her mistress not to be alarmed
or uneasy, as she said these things could not be helped.

" Mrs. Golding left her house, and, with her maid, went
to Mrs. Pain's, where they passed the night. Here the
work of destruction began anew. ' Everything,' says the
narrative, 'was broke, till there was not above two or
three cups and saucers remaining out of a considerable
quantity of china.' 'About five o'clock Tuesday morn-
ing,' continues the account, ' Mrs. Golding went up to her
niece and desired her to get up, as the noises and de-

224 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

struction were so great she could continue in the house
DO longer. At this time, all the tables, chairs, and
drawers were tumbling about. When Mrs. Pain came
down, it was amazing beyond all description. Their only
security was to quit the house.' They went to a Mr
Fowler's. They had barely arrived, when utensils began
to fly about as before. Mr. Fowler desired Mrs. Golding
to quit the house, which she did, returning to her own
home. It was observed that these disturbances seemed
to be in some manner connected with the maid. They
followed her wherever she went, and never manifested
themselves except when she was present. It was, more-
over, noticed that she seemed to understand the phe-
nomena, and to speak of them in a familiar way. She
was a blameless girl ; her mistress pitied her, but felt it
her dut}^ to discharge her. At Mrs. Golding's were
broke three pailfuls of china, etc. At Mrs. Pain's the
broken dishes filled two pails.

" That many remarkable effects, produced by so-called
spirit-mediums, are electrical, no observant person ^can
doubt. William Howitt, the most respectable writer on
modern spiritualism, says, ' How often have we seen
fire streaming from the finger of a medium ! How often
have we felt the touch of spirit-fingers prick as from
sparks of electricity !'

" There are certain places, as well as persons, that
become so electrical as to produce phenomena. As rapid
motion develops electricity, windy and falling weather
may produce it in great quantities. Dr. Livingstone
mentions that the hot wind of Southern Africa is so elec-
tric that a bunch of ostrich-feathers, held against it,
becomes as strongly charged as if attached to a;i electric
machine. A gusty fall of snow on mountainous places
sometimes produces so great an amount of electricity as

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 225

to cause a hissing sound in the air, and to affect the hair
of the traveler. The faculty of second-sight, possessed
by the Highlanders of Scotland, has been attributed to
certain electrical influences that abound in those hilly
regions. Many phenomena once regarded as super-
natural are now explained as the effects of unusual quan-
tities of electricity generated in the atmosphere."

Mr. Butterworth cites a number of instances where
similar manifestations have occurred, in which locality,
rather than a person, seemed to furnish the requisite con-
ditions ; and those desirous of still further pursuing the
subject are referred to his article in Applelons' Journal,
vol. iv., pp. 585-6.

Enough has now been produced to exhibit many ways
in which involuntary movements may occur without the
aid of hypothetical "spirits." The larger portion of the
more common manifestations abounding in our towns
and villages may be resolved by the principles herein set
forth. The involuntary powers of the mind may, with-
out consciousness, produce any movement of the limbs
or other bodily organs, possible to conscious volition.
Furthermore, as in certain unhealthy states of the nerv-
ous system the unconscious action of the brain often
surpasses in intellectual power the conscious action ; so
it would seem that the involuntary or ideo-motor actions
are often beyond the capacity of the individual to accom-
plish in the normal state.* Illustrations have also been

*In the Sprinc/field (Mass.) Repnhlican of a recent date, among the
Vermont items, I find the following illustration of the above:

"An eleven-year-old miss named Houghton, who has received no
instruction in dancing, has been mystifying Londonderry. She goes
into a kind of trance, during which she trips it for hours with no
apparent effort of the %cill, and with uo sense of weariness, the move-
ment and time being described as graceful and perfect."

226 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

given of the occurrence of phenomena as remarkable as
any furnished by the advocates of the New Dispensation,
in which ponderable bodies have been moved without
personal contact, and in which physical effects have been
experienced, arising from a cause not under volitional
direction, in which " spirit-influence" was unthought of,
and not claimed by the operating force. Having pre-
pared the way for a more critical study of modern mani-
festations, so loudly asserted to furnish " demonstrative
evidence of the souVs immortality," we will venture to
examine them more in detail.

2. Hints towards a solution.

In the winter of IStO-'Tl, while residing in the village
of Montpelier, Yt., I was introduced to a young man
named Henry Allen, well known as a medium for physi-
cal manifestations. I attended several private seances,
and, anxious to investigate the subject under the most
favorable circumstances, invited him to my house, where
an exhibition of his wonderful powers took place before
about forty of my friends and neighbors. As these
" manifestations" were submitted to a rigorous scrutiny,
and were sufficiently marvelous to stand as a sample of
the phenomena so frequently occurring, I will describe
them. Mr. Allen, more widely known as " The Allen
Boy," had but few preliminaries to arrange. Three
large-back chairs were placed side by side across one
corner of the room, facing the company assembled. Over
the backs of these chairs was hung a heavy shawl, to
prevent the light from the lamp from shining too brightly
on the spirital scene of operations.

In this corner, behind the extemporized screen, were
placed two wooden chairs, on which were laid a dulcimer,
a guitar, a triangle, and I think one or two other instru-

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 22 1

ments. The medium sat in one of the three large chairs,
with his back to the instruments. The audience had
carefully examined the instruments before they were
placed in readiness for the expected invisible guests, and,
on suggestion of Mr. Allen that a committee be appointed,
selected a gentleman who was at that time a member of
the State government, and was not a believer in the
spirital theory. He sat down on one of the chairs adjoin-
ing Mr. Allen, and grasped his right arm with both hands,
— one placed near the shoulder, the other on the wrist.
Having satisfied himself that he had Mr. Allen securely
by the arm, a shawl was thrown over their arms thus
connected, as the "spirits" insisted it was a requisite
condition to have the medium's arm and the instruments
in the dark. With the light partially turned down, but
not so much but that every object was visible in the room,
we patiently awaited the promised manifestations. A
lady kindly volunteered to sing and play on the organ to
render the company harmonious, or, as I should prefer
to express it, to induce the requisite state o^ jjassiviti/.

Nearly an hour elapsed before the "spirits" reported
themselves. The manifestations then commenced by
slight vibrations of the strings of the guitar and dulcimer,
gradually increasing in power. Soon tunes were played,
and the guitar was seen to rise in the air until all of
it was visible except the keys, which remained in the
shade. While in this position, several pieces were neatly
executed. Sounds were also heard during the evening
in imitation of sawing wood, boring with an auger,
planing a board, and clog-dancing; also a very clever
imitation of the wind roaring through the rigging of a
vessel was performed on the dulcimer. A slate and
pencil were passed over the backs of the chairs into the
corner, were taken, and soon returned with writing on it

228 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

purporting to be from a negro sailor drowned at sea.
Hands frequently came in sight, sometimes pulling the
hair or boxing the ears of the medium or of the gentleman
holding him. Whenever an attempt was made to look
over the screen, the phenomena ceased, and began again
gradually; and, generally, after each performance the
instrument was heard to drop. The slate was dropped
when it was the second time passed over after being
taken. When any article fell to the floor, it was not used
again. At the close of the seance all the instruments
were thrown to the floor, and the wooden chairs hurled
over the large chairs into the centre of the room. A heavy
arm-chair, adjoining that in which our "committee" sat,
seemed exhilarated at this scene, and slowly and sedately
rose several feet in the air, coming down, however, with
considerable force. During most of the time Mr. Allen
was employed in whistling, and the gentleman by him
was frequently asked if he still retained a firm hold on
his arm, and as often replied that he was unable to dis-
cover any movement on his part. His feet and limbs, as
well as his head, were distinctly visible to every one in
the room, and none saw any movement in the least sus-
picious. All the manifestations were within a radius
of about five feet of the medium ; most of thehi being
between three and four feet distant. The believers were
all satisfied, and the only ground for dissatisfaction on
the part of the skeptical arose from their inability to ac-
count for the phenomena on any theory of their own. I
was firmly convinced of the honesty of Henry Allen, and
have never seen any I'eason to change that opinion, al-
though familiar with what was termed an "expose" of
his powers, occurring in an Eastern city. A conviction
that he could, not have performed these wonderful feats
would be justly regarded as but poor evidence; but we

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSIOK. 229

were all tliorouglily convinced that he did not aid them
by muscular exertion.

Here were " manifestations" enough to satisfy the most
incredulous that they were not a delusion nor the re-
sult of adroit trickery. Why not then accept the spir-
ital theory that they were the result of the presence of
"spirits," as asserted by the writing on the slate? For
various reasons I regard this conclusion as untenable. I
had attended a number of his seances, and, by closely ques-
tioning those still more familiar with them, I arrived at
certain conclusions, which, while not serving to explain
the manner in which they were performed, were yet suf-
ficient to discredit the alleged theory of their cause. I
observed that in all his seances there was a general same-
ness. The " spirit" played the same tunes, exhibited the
same phenomena, and wrote about the same meagre ac-
count of himself, night after night, with provoking mo-
notony. Any attempt to converse by means of the slate
was futile ; no information could be obtained beyond the
established formula reiterated on every new occasion.
The seafaring "influence" seemed to be playing a part,
outside of which he could not depart. If an individual
"out of the form" was really the producer of these sin-
gular phenomena, and could handle the pencil to write his
name and manner of his death on a slate, as M^ell as play
on the various instruments furnished, why should he not
be able to answer an unexpected question or communicate
other than the routine phrases? If the intelligence mani-
fested was an unconscious manifestation of the mental
powers of the medium, there would be no marvel in the
constant reiteration of the same story. Allen, himself
honestly convinced of the "spirit's" existence, would not
seek to coin the answers to new questions when first
presented. Allen had considerable musical talent, was

20

230 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

familiar with the instruments used, and could whistle an
accompaniment to the tunes played ; and I do not be-
lieve he ever heard his hypothetical " sailor friend" play
a tune entirely new to himself. Again, I observed that
when any delay occurred, as frequently happened, Allen
was the only one who could at once divine the cause.
His inquiry was always answered with aflBrmative raps,
whether it was for more or for less music from the
organ. This mental sympathy between the medium and
the "influence" was quite remarkable, on the spirital
hypothesis.

If the intelligence shown was not of a character, then,
to justify us in conceding the presence of disembodied
beings, did not the physical manifestations, occurring
beyond the reach of the medium\s arm, even if he had had
its use, '' demonstrate" the fact that invisible beings were
at work in their production ? How otherwise can they
be accounted for? exclaims the spiritist; strangely for-
getting that the burden of proof rests on him, and not
on those who are content with a verdict of "not proven."
If he asserts that such phenomena cannot occur by other
means, we may take exceptions to the sweeping state-
ment, and show that they have occurred when " spirit
power" was not alleged and was uncalled for.

The recent experiments undertaken by Mr. Crookes,
P.R.S., Dr. Huggins, F.R.S. and a Yice-President of the
Royal Society, and Mr. Cox, S.L., F.R.G. S., to determine
the nature of the phenomena presented by the medium
Home, have been narrated in most of our leading journals,
and are undoubtedly familiar to the reader's mind. Mr.
Serjeant Cox has recently issued a small work on the
subject, entitled " Spiritualism Answered by Science," in
which he holds that the experiments made have already
definitely settled the question. It is not to be inferred,

Tllh: SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 231

iniui xcr. that tins work, of Mr. Cox, represents the
views f)f Mr. Crookes or Dr. Huggins, neither of whom
would probably coincide with many of the conclusions
arrived at by their legal friend. After somewhat closely
examining the results of recent investigations of the
phenomena presented, a brief examination will be made
of Mr. Cox's theory of psychic force, a force directed by
an "entity" or "non-corporeal something" within us, and
operating on matter without.

In the year 1869 the London Dialectical Society ap-
pointed a committee to examine " the asserted phenomena
of spiritualism." A sub-committee, composed of per-
sons of good social standing and intellectual abilities,
proceeded to experimentally test the phenomena, not to
ascertain cau.ses or to hazard theories, but to examine
and narrate results. This Society published a report
of their committee in 18T1, with detailed accounts of
the various experiments made and phenomena witnessed.
This work* presents us with many instances of so-called
" physical manifestations" and mental phenomena, which
would not appear in the least marvelous to one ac-
quainted with the phenomena presented by mental
pathology ; but space forbids any extended reference to
its contents. The report of the sub-committee No. 1
is too important, however, to be omitted; and I here pre-
sent it entire :

" Since their appointment on the IGth February, 1869,
your sub-committee have held forty meetings for the
purpose of experiment and test.

" All of these meetings were held at the private resi-

••■ Report on Spiritualism of the Committee of the London Dialectical
Society, together with the Evidence, Oral and Written, and a Selection
from the Correspondence. London : Longman, Green, Reader &, Dyer,
1871. 8vo, pp. 412.

232 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION:

deuces of members of the committee, purposely to pre-
clude the possibility of pre-arranged mechanism or con-
trivance.

" The furniture of the room in which the experiments
were conducted was on every occasion its accustomed
furniture.

" The tables were in all cases heavy dining-tables, re-
quiring a strong effort to move them. The smallest of
them was five feet nine inches long by four feet wide,
and the largest nine feet three inches long and four and
a half feet wide, and of proportionate weight.

" The rooms, tables, and furniture generally were
repeatedly subjected to careful examination before, dur-
ing, and after the experiments, to ascertain that no con-
cealed machinery, instrument, or other contrivance existed
by means of which the sounds or movements hereinafter
mentioned could be caused.

" The experiments were conducted in the light of gas,
except on the few occasions specially noted in the
minutes.

" Your committee have avoided the employment of
professional or paid mediums, the raediumship being that
of members of your sub-committee, persons of good
social position and of unimpeachable integrity, having
no pecuniary object to serve, and nothing to gain by
deception.

" Your committee have held some meetings without
the aid of a medium (it being understood throughout this
report the word 'medium' is used simply to designate an
individual without whose presence the phenomena de-
scribed either do not occur at all, or with greatly dimin-
ished force and frequency), purposely to try if they could
produce, by any efforts, effects similar to those witnessed
when a medium was present. By no endeavors were

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSIOX. 233

they enabled to produce anytliing at all resembling the
raanifestations which took place in the presence of a
medium.

"Every test that the combined intelligence of your
committee could devise has been tried with patience and
perseverance. The experiments were conducted under
a great variety of conditions, and ingenuity has been ex-
erted in devising plans by which your committee might
verify their observations and preclude the possibility of
imposture or of delusion.

" Your committee have confined their report to /ac^s
witnessed by them in their collective capacity, which
facts were palpable to the senses, and their reality capa-
ble of demonstrative proof.

" Of the members of your sub-committee about four-
fifths entered upon the investigation wholly skeptical
as to the reality of the alleged phenomena, firmly believ-
ing them to be the result either of ivipoi<ture or of delu-
sion, or of involuntary muscular action. It was only
by irresistible evidence under conditions that precluded
the possibility of either of these solutions, and after trial
and test many times repeated, that the most skeptical of
your sub-committee were slowly and reluctantly con-
vinced that the phenomena exhibited in the course of
their protracted inquiry were veritable facts.

" The result of their long-continued and carefully-con-
ducted experiments, after trial by every detective test
they could devise, has been to establish conclusively :

" First. That, under certain bodily or mental conditions
of one or more of the persons present, a force is exhibited
sufficient to set in motion heavy substances, without the
employment of any muscular force, without contact or
material connection of any kind between such substances
and the body of any person present.

20*

234 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

" Second. That this force can cause sounds to proceed,
distinctly audible to all present, from solid substances
not in contact with, nor having any visible or material
connection with, the body of any person present, aud which
sounds are proved to proceed from such substances by
the vibrations which are distinctly felt when they are
touched.

" Third. That this force is frequently directed by intel-
ligence.

" At thirty-four out of the forty meetings of your com-
mittee some of these phenomena occurred.

"A description of one experiment, and the manner of
conducting it, will best show the care and caution with
which your committee have pursued their investigations.

" So long as there was contact, or even the possibility
of contact, by the hands or feet, or even by the clothes,
of any person in the room, with the substance moved or
sounded, there could be no perfect assurance that the
motions and sounds were not produced by the person so
in contact. The following experiment was therefore
tried :

" On an occasion when eleven members of your sub-
committee had been sitting round one of the dining-tables
above described for forty minutes, and various motions
and sounds had occurred, they, by way of test, turned
the backs of their chairs to the table, at about nine inches
from it. They all then knelt upon their chairs, placing
their arras upon the backs thereof. In this position, their
feet were of course turned away from the table, and by
no possibility could be placed under it or touch the floor.
The hands of each person were extended over the table
at about four inches from the surface. Contact, there-
fore, with any part of the table could not take pace
without detection.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION: 235

" In less than a minute the table, untouched, moved
four times ; at Grst about five inches to one side, then
about twelve inches to the opposite side, and then in like
manner four inches and six inches respectively.

" The hands of all present were next placed on the
backs of their chairs, and about a foot from the table,
which again moved as before, ^irt^ times, over spaces vary-
ing from four to six inches. Then all the chairs were
removed twelve inches from the table, and each person
knelt on his chair as before; this time, however, folding
his hands behind his back, his body being thus about
eighteen inches from the table, and having the back of
the chair between himself and the table. The table again
moved four times, in various directions. In the course
of this conclusive experiment, and in less than half an
hour, the table thus moved, without contact or possi-
bility of contact with any person present, thirteen times,
the movements being in different directions, and some of
them according to the request of various members of your
sub- commit tee.

"The table was then carefully examined, turned upside
down, and taken to pieces, but nothing was discovered to
account for the phenomena. The experiment was con-
ducted throughout in the full light of gas above the
table.

" Altogether, your sub-committee have witnessed up-
wards of fifty similar motions without contact, on eight
different evenings, in the houses of members of your sub-
committee, the most careful tests being applied on each
occasion.

"In all similar experiments the possibility of mechan-
ical or other contrivance was further negatived by the fact
that the movements were in various directions, — now to
one side, then to the other; now up the room, now down

236 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

the room : motions that would have required the co-
operation of many hands or feet; and these, from the
great size and weight of the tables, could not have been
so used without the visible exercise of muscular force.
Every hand and foot was plainly to be seen, and could
not have been moved without instant detection.

" Delusion was out of the question. The motions were
in various directions, and were witnessed simultaneously
by all present. They were matters of measurement, and
not of opinion or of fancy.

" And they occurred so often, under so many and such
various conditions, with such safeguards against error or
deception, and with such invariable results, as to satisfy
the members of your sub-committee by whom the ex-
periments were tried, wholly skeptical as most of them
were when they entered upon the investigation, that
therein a force capable of moving heavy bodies without
material contact, and which force is in some unknown
manner dejjendent upon the presence of human beings.

"Your sub-committee have not, collectively, obtained
any evidence as to the nature and source of this force,
but simply as to the fact of its existence.

" There appears to your committee to be no ground for
the popular belief that the presence of skeptics interferes
in any manner with the production or action of the force.

"In conclusion, your committee express their unani-
mous opinion that the one important physical fact thus
proved to exist, that motion may be produced in solid
bodies without material contact, by some hitherto un-
recognized force operating within an undefined distance
from the human organism, and beyond the range of mus-
cular action, should be subjected to further scientific
examination, with a view to ascertain its true source,
nature, and power.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 23t

" The notes of the experiments made at each meeting
of your sub-committee are appended to tliis report."

Mr. Serjeant Cox, a member of this sub-committee, in
his work referred to above, supplements these experi-
ments with some additional ones witnessed by himself
elsewhere, a few of which are herewith presented. The
first may justly be termed a " striking manifestation."

" The next experiment was with the same psychic
(medium), in the house of Dr. Edmunds, with a dining-
table of unusual weight and size. The same test, by
turning the backs of the chairs to the table and the ex-
perimentalists kneeling upon them, produced the same
results, but to a much greater extent than we bad before
witnessed. In that position of the entire party, a heavy
dining-table moved six times, — once over a space of eight
inches at a swing. Then all the party, holding hands,
stood in a circle round the table, at the distance from it
first of two feet, and then of three feet, so that contact
by any person present was phj^sically impossible. la
this position the table lurched four times, — once over a
space of more than two feet, and with great force. The
extent of these movements without contact will be under-
stood when I state that in the course of them this pon-
derous table turned completely round ; that is to say, the
end that was at the top of the room when the experiment
began was at the bottom of the room when it concluded.
The most remarkable part of this experiment was the
finale. The table had been turned to within two feet of
a complete reversal of its first position, and was standing
out of square with the room. The party had broken up,
and were gathered in groups about the room. Suddenly
the table was swung violently over the two feet of dis-
tance between its then position and its proper place, and
Pft exactly square with the room, literally knocking down

238 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

a lady who was standing in the way, in the act of put-
ting on her shawl for departure. At that time nobody
was touching the table, nor even within reach of it, except
the young lady who was knocked down by it. ...

" Alterations in the weight of tables and other fur-
niture have been frequently exhibited. Bidding the table
to be light, a finger lifted it ; the next moment, bidding
it to be heavy, the entire force of the body was required
to raise it from the floor. It was, however, suggested,
by myself and others who were engaged in the scientific
investigation of the phenomena of psychic force, that
possibly this change in the weight of the subject of the
force might be merely in our own sensations, and not an
actual change in the gravity of the wood, or the opera-
tion of any pressure upon it. To test this, a weighing
machine was constructed, with a hook to fix to the table,
the index accurately marking the weight of whatever was
attached to it. Applying this machine to the table and
other bodies, we found that the change was really in
them, and not sensational merely, as we had suspected.
This simple experiment was tried so often, and with so
many precautions, as to establish it beyond doubt. The
weights varied at every trial, but all proved the reality
of the force that was operating. One instance will
suffice. Weighed by the machine, the normal weight of
a table, raised from the floor eighteen inches on one side,
was eight pounds ; desired to be light, the index fell to
five pounds ; desired to be heavy, it advanced to eighty-
two pounds ; and these changes were instantaneous and
repeated many times.

" Not only is motion communicated to the table or
other article of furniture, where the psychic is, but every-
thing within soaie definite, though as yet undefined, dis-
tance from the psychic appears to be subjected to the

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 239

force. The smaller furniture of the room is frequently
attracted to the place at which the psychic sits. Chairs,
far out of reach and untouched, may be seen moving
along the floor in a manner singularly resembling the
motion that may be observed in pieces of steel attracted
by a magnet, which rise a little, fall, move on, stop,
until fully within the influence of the magnetic force, and
then jump to the magnet with a sudden spring. The
chairs, that are so often seen to come across the room to
the psychic, usually approach by irregular motions, glid-
ing for a short space, stopping, moving, and so on, until
fully within the influence, and then the last movement is
by a rapid jump. Larger articles of furniture are attracted
in like manner, according to weight ; chairs more easily
the whole length of a large room ; a sofa will advance
two feet or three feet only. Plainly the force is limited
in power. It can move only a certain iv eight ; bulk is no
impediment to its exercise. Nor is this phenomenon at all
dubious to the spectator. It cannot be fanciful ; it is not
a delusion. However it may be done, the fact is indis-
putable that it is done. The chairs start from the wall
against which they are placed ; the sofa rolls forward ;
the smaller tables approach. This occurs in the light of
gas, in the private room of any person who makes trial
of it, is seen by all, and often gives inconvenient proof
of the fact by encompassing the seated circle. At one
experiment six drawing-room chairs were attracted from
the other side of the room, over distances ranging from
six feet to ten feet, and thrust themselves against the
circle ; two large easy-chairs advanced three feet ; and a
large settee advanced about two feet. No person was
near either of them. In another experiment in my own
lighted drawing-room, as the psychic was entering the
door with myself, no other person being there, an easy-

240 27/yi? SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

chair, of great weight, that was standing fourteen feet
from us, was suddenly lifted from the floor, and drawn
to him with great rapidity, precisely as a huge magnet
would attract a mass of iron."

A physician, of high standing in his profession, resid-
ing in an Eastern city, informs me that eighteen years ago
he devoted considerable attention to the phenomenon of
table-turning, and with such success that, after the move-
ment of the table had commenced, he could direct itto move
in any direction, without contact, the table obeying his will
as if it possessed an animate existence. During my experi-
ments with the plancbette, one instance occurred of the
movement of the little instrument when no hand was rest-
ing on it. It had written the name of a deceased friend of
a gentleman present, and had repeatedly written the word
"music." The gentleman stepped out of the room into
another to gratify the wish, and while the sounds of the
organ were heard the planchette, though untouched, ap-
peared to be dancing on the table. We had been asking
for " spirit-communications," and received what would be
termed a veritable " test." Was it indeed so ?

Dr. Carpenter, in a recent lecture, speaking of table-
turning, says, " It was found that the table would tilt in
obedience to the direction of some spirit, who was in the
first instance (I speak now of about twent;/ years ago)
always believed to be an evil spirit. The table-tilting
first developed itself in Bath, under the guidance of some
clergymen there, who were quite satisfied that the tilt-
ings of the table were due to the presence of evil spirits.
And one of these clergymen went further, and said it was
Satan himself. But it was very curious that the answers
obtained by the rappings and iWungs always folloived the
notions of the persons who put the questions. These
clergymen always got their answers as from evil spirits,

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 241

or satisfied themselves that they were evil spirits by the
answers they got. But, on the other hand, other persons
got answers of a different kind ; an innocent girl, for in-
stance, asked the table if it loved her, and the table
jumped up and kissed her."

The report made to the Dialectical Society presents
us with a striking illustration of the above. A gentle-
man, claiming to have had seventeen years' experience
of the phenomenon in question, gave his testimony be-
fore the committee. He said, " On one occasion, the
answer given to the inquiry being obviously untrue, the
witness peremptorily inquired why a correct answer had
not been given, and the spirit in reply said, ' Because I
am Beelzebub !'

" One day the table turned at right angles, and went
into the corner of the room. I asked, ' Are you my
child V but obtained no answer. I then said, ' Are you
from God V but the table was still silent. I then said,
' In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I
command you to answer. Are you from God?' One
loud rap — a negative — was then given. ' Do you be-
lieve,' said I, 'that Christ died to save us from sin?'
The answer was, ' No !' 'Accursed spirit,'' said I, ' leave
the room.' The table then walked across the room, en-
tered the adjoining one, and quickened its steps. It was
a small tripod table. It walked with a sidelong walk.
It went to the door, shook the handle, and I opened it.
The table walke I into the passage, and I repeated the
adjuration, receiving the same answer. Finally, con-
vinced that I was dealing with an accursed spirit, I
opened the strt et-'loor, and the table was immediately
silent; no movement or rap was heard. I returned
alone to the drawing-room, and asked if there were any
spirits present. Immediately I heard steps like those of
L 21

242 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

a little child outside the door. I opeoed it, and the small
table went into the corner as before, just as my child did
when I reproved it for a fault. These manifestations
continued until I used the adjuration, and I always found
that they changed or ceased when the name of God was
mentioned. One night, when sitting alone in my draw-
ing-room, I heard a noise at the top of the house. A
servant who had heard it came into the room frightened.
I went to the nursery, and found that the sounds came
from a spot near the bed.* I pronounced the adjuration,
and they instantly ceased. The same sounds were after-
wards heard in the kitchen, and I succeeded in restoring
quiet as before.

" Reflecting on these singular facts, I determined to
inquire further, and really satisfy myself that the mani-
festations were what I suspected them to be. I went to
Mrs. Marshall, and took with me three clever men, who
were not all likely to be deceived. I was quite unknown.
"We sat at a table, and had a seance. Mrs. Marshall told
me the name of my child. I asked the spirit some ques-
tions, and then pronounced the adjuration. We all heard
steps which sounded as if some one were mounting the
wall: in a few seconds the sound ceased, and, although
Mrs. Marshall challenged again and aguin, the spirit did
not answer, and she could not account for the phenomenon.
In this case I pronounced the adjuration mentally; no
person knew what I had done. At a seance held at the
house of a friend of mine at which I was present, mani-
festations were obtained ; and, as I was known to he
hostile, I was entreated not to interfere. I sat for two
hours a passive spectator. I then asked the name of the
spirit, and it gave that of my child. ' In the name of the

* "A child is usually a more powerful psychic than a man." — Cox,
p. 53.

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 243

Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,' said I, ' are you the spirit
of my child V It answered, 'No!' and the word ' deviV
was spelled out.

"My opinion of these phenomena is that the intelli-
gence which is put in communication with us is a fallen
one. It is of the devil, the prince of the power of the
air. I believe that we commit the crime of necromancy
when we take part in these spiritual seances.

"At the Spiritual Athenaeum I saw written upas a
motto the words, ' Try the spirits.' I did so, and found
that they were not from God. Of course I believe in
the New Testament. Any spirit which denies the atone-
ment or does not believe in the Trinity cannot be from
God. When we pronounce the name of God, we must
mean what St. John meant, the three persons in one."

To this account of personal experience the witness
somewhat naively adds, " I have never stopped them
by an effort of the will alone. (!) I never used the ad-
juration without stopping the manifestations."

Tlie general committee of the Dialectical Society com-
prised thirty-four persons, including scientific and liter-
sny, professional and business men, and their report may
be briefly summed up as follows :

1. Solid substances may be set in motion without
muscular exertion or personal contact, and, in obedience
to an expressed desire from persons present, will move
in a required direction.

2. Sounds may be beard pi'oceeding from furniture,
floors, walls, and other solid substances, and vibrations
accompanying the sounds are distinctly felt.

3. By means of these movements and sounds coherent
communications can be spelled out, though the intel-
ligence manifested never rises above a commonplace
character.

244 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

4. Facts generally unknown are frequently revealed
in this manner, yet are always known to at least one
person present.

5. The power by which these phenomena occur evi-
dently proceeds from the human organism.

(To the above may be appended these additional con-
clusions, as legitimate deductions from the facts set forth
in the preceding pages :)

6. The character of the intelligence is determined by
the convictions of those present. •-

In the case of the spiritist, it is spirits of the dead ;
with the believer in demoniacal possession, it is of the
devil; with the unbiased scientific investigator, it is
simply intelligence, making no claim to distinct person-
ality. And, furthermore, it may be confidently laid down
that if a circle were composed of individuals whose minds
were filled with a conviction of the existence of fairy-
land, fairies and elves would be as ready to respond (or
" commune") as Tom Scrubbs to the spiritists, or Beel-
zebub to superstitious inquirers.

7. This force, frequently proceeds from persons who
are not believers in spirit-communion.

It is sometimes manifested when the object of the
seance is to prove that " spirits" are not essential to
its manifestation, thus compelling the spiritist to as-
sume the paradox that the skeptical medium controls
the " spirit" to give tests that "spirits" are not concerned
in the manifestation ! Of the medium employed by the
sub-committee of the Dialectical Society, whose report
has been given, Mr. Cox says that, after resolving that
no professional medium should be employed, " a psychic
was found in the person of a lady, the wife of one of the
members of the general committee, of high professional
and social position. In this we were pre-eminently

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 245

fortunate ; for the lady in question had never witnessed
any of the phenomena with others, and therefore could
not have mastered the sleight of hand, requiring- the prac-
tice of a life for its mastery, which would be necessary
for the successful performance of a trick, if trick it was.
In truth, she had discovered their production in her own
presence only by chance, a few weeks previously to
acceding to the request of the sub-committee to assist
them in their investigations."

8. The medium is an unconscious agent.

Not an agent, however, in the hands of a hypotheti-
cal "influence." Exercising no power of the will over
the manifestation of this force, a j^^ssive condition of
mind is induced in the medium, and the dominant thought
or feeling gives rise to and shapes the actions performed ;
these manifestations occur more markedly, however, in the
presence of others in like passive moods than when alone.

9. This force is variable in its manifestation.

At one moment slight and tremulous, in the next pow-
erful and rapid. It is affected by all the physical condi-
tions affecting the physical condition of the medium,
such as atmospheric changes, higher or lower tempera-
tures, his or her nervous condition or that of others
present: in short, whatever tends to weaken the nerve-
energy of the medium will lessen the flow of the force,
and vice versa. Rarely manifested immediately, a cer-
tain time is generally spent in awaiting the phenomena,
during which nothing must occur to impair the complete
passivity of the mind; and this brings us to the final
conclusion.

10. "Physical manifestations" are the result of a
nerve-force proceeding from the human organism, under
the control of the unconscious workings of the mind, by
some process not as yet clearly defined by science.

21*

246 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

Mr. Cox, in commenting on the phenomena witnessed
by the committee of which he was a member, says, " So
far as I have found in my own experience, and by the
reported experience of others, it appears that the intel-
ligence of the communication is measured by the intelli-
gence of the psychic. Nothing is conveyed by them
that is not in the mind of the psychic or of some person
present.

" There is nothing in the character or substance of the
communications indicating an intelligence higher than
our own, or a larger knowledge. They are often useless
and purposeless ; they are rarely absolute nonsense ; but
as rarely do they exhibit anything beyond ordinary intel-
ligence. They consist mainly of moral platitudes ; both
the thought and the language reflect the thoughts and
language of the psychic.

"Not unfrequently the communications are false in
point of fact. They are often tentative, as if the directing
intelligence had an imperfect perception of the object or
subject, or as if it were guessing rather than knowing
the answer to be given. The descriptions of the future
life are precisely such as the psychic would form. By a
child psychic they are painted according to a child's
notions of heaven ; and when the psychic is a man or
a woman, they are described in accordance with the
particular conceptions of a heaven entertained by that
psychic. These differences as to the process of death and
the conditions of a future life prove that the descriptions
do not proceed from any intelligence actually acquainted
with them, and therefore not from the spirits of the
dead."

Mr. Cox here sets forth in a few words the impression
derived from a year and a half's scientific investigation
of "spirit-communion;" but those who have read with

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 24T

attention the preceding chapters will be prepared to admit
that under mental exaltation the intelligence evinced may
he far superior to the normal mental capacity of the me-
dium, and, furthermore, that, when susceptible to mental
impressions, facts long forgotten — or " out of mind" —
may be recalled by hearing them from the medium's
lips. But such instances are very rare even among me-
diums. The commonplace character of the messages
observed in England is also to be plainly discerned in
this country, as well as the connection existing between
the ideas of the medium and that written as a "message."
A gentleman residing in Lowell, Mass., visited a "test-
medium," and received as a "test," supposed to "de-
monstrate" an endless amount of speculation, the name
of " T. Pane" written in blood-red letters on the bared
arm of the medium. Hardly prepared to believe that
Paine had forgotten how to spell his own name, he
accepted the phenomenon as a " test," though not in the
manner designed. He subsequently ascertained that the
medium was a very illiterate person.

I have now before me two "spirit-messages" written
by Mr. Charles Foster, who, at the time they were
written, 1866, enjo3^ed the reputation of being the most
powerful and convincing "test-medium" in this country.
I visited him, paid one dollar, and for value received
brought away these lines, heralded with the due amount
of rappings and table-tiltings. The first is from a comrade
who fell in battle in my presence :

" This is a pleasure for me to come here to-night as
an evidence of spirit-communion. I am ever by your
side, watching over you, and wish you to fully realize
my presence. The time is not far distant when you will
have a full vision of jour unseen friends ; we are working

248 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

now to that end, to bring about such evidences through
you as will convince you beyond a doubt of our presence.

" Charley ."

— omitting the initials of two middle names, as well as
certain information I was desirous of obtaining, and which
he could have given if he indited the above. The second
is from a deceased aunt, of whom I had not been think-
ing, but whose name had been written on a slip of paper
by Mr. Foster, who said she desired to "communicate."
I accordingly wrote on paper the following : " Can you
write or speak any message you desire to give ?" In
response the following lines were written underneath :

" I am here to prove that we are working for you from
the spirit-life. I come to you uncalled for, and wish to
bear you a message of love from the heavenly world to
assure you of my presence. Sit often, and you will be
refreshed. "Sarah ."

The signature is written in what purports to be a fac-
simile of the deceased's handwriting; but to this "mes-
sage" she has appended her name in accordance with the
modern mode of spelling the Christian name. Her name
was Sally ; she was so christened, so called, and it is so
inscribed on her tombstone.

Reader, our companionship is now drawing to a close.
In our investigation of the phenomena accredited to
spiritual beings, we have seen that they fail to afford
demonstrative evidence of such origin. On the contrary,
a rigid scrutiny reveals a close similarity to phenomena
of which the origin is to be sought in the laws of mental
physiology and pathology. Having traced this power,

THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION. 249

in mental phenomena, to mental exaltation, or to uncon-
scious action of the brain, and in physical manifestations,
to its seat in the nervous system, we may dismiss from
our minds all further consideration of so-called " demoa-
strations of spirit-communion." But one question remains,
which will undoubtedly arise in every mind. Having
shown that a force exists, emanating from the nervous
system of human beings, what can be said in regard to
its nature and methods of acting ? The temptation has
been very great with all writers against the spirital
theory to endeavor to explain in just what manner all the
various phenomena may be accounted for. Each one,
from the Buffalo M.D.'s in 1848, to Serjeant Cox in 18^2,
has had a theory to offer, but which, unfortunately, has
invariably failed to meet all the requirements of the facts.

Mr. Cox, the most recent theorist on this subject, has
given to the public many valuable facts, but in his infer-
ences from them I think he has transcended the limits
of scientific inquiry. In his preface he states:

" The crucial tests applied by the skill and science of
Mr. Crookes confirmed the result of a series of other ex-
periments, conducted with care and caution, which had
been instituted for the purpose of investigating if any and
what of the alleged phenomena were real ; and, if real,
Avhether they are physical or spiritual, natural or super-
natural.

" The conclusion from that patient inquiry has been,
that many of the alleged phenomena are real, though some
are delusions and others impostures ; that the power
dignified by the title of spiritual, because attributed to
the presence and action of spirits of the dead, is in fact a
psychic force proceeding from the human structure and
directed by the human intelligence.

" But from what part of the human structure that force

250 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

proceeds, — whether from nerve, ganglion, or brain, — if it
be the vital force, or 'nerve-ether' of Dr. Richardson, if
the directing intelligence is the ' unconscious cerebration'
of Dr. Carpenter, or if there be a soul (or spirit) inhabit-
ing the body and distinct from it, by which those effects
are produced, are problems remaining for close, patient,
and extensive research, by steadily pursuing the course
of scientific investigation which Mr. Crookes has so suc-
cessfully begun."

To this statement of the case I urge no objection ; but
he goes on to state further what I deem unwarranted by
the facts and not in accord with science. He says :

" For theology and modern science are directly at
issue as to the existence of a soul in man. Theology
affirms, and science either denies or doubts, demanding
proofs. If psychic force be the reality that they M'ho
have scientifically examined and tested it assert, it shakes
to its foundation the materialism of modern science, by
the probability it raises that, as a fact in nature, there is in
us an entity, distinct from the corporeal structure, which
can exercise an active force, beyond the limit of the bodily
powers, and which is not material, but something other
than that the scalpel carves and the microscope reveals.

" The purpose of this brief treatise is to state fully and
frankly the facts and arguments that have conducted to
the conclusion that there is such a force, and a non-cor-
poreal something in us that controls it, and that science
may yet be enabled to restore the faith science has shaken
in the existence of the soul and the consequent prospect
of immortality."

Here we have the old error of the spiritist repeated.
He would materialize spirit by this process of reasoning
quite as much as those do whom we are criticising ; an
error similar in nature to that of the sublimated author

THE Sr I RITUAL DELVSlOy. 251

of "The Hollow Globe," who says directly what in the
above is logically implied, as follows: " It will be diffi-
cult to find the dividing line between physical and spiritual
substances, if there be any such line, and tell where matter
terminates and spirit commences, or which is matter
and which is spirit." In the preceding chapter we have
seen that the tendency of scientific research is to establish
the correlation of all forces. In the words of Herbert
Spencer, " J.»?/ force manifested implies an equal ante-
cedent force from which it is derived, and against which
it is a reaction." And again in another work we have
seen that he states the position of science in these words:
" It follows, from the persistence of force, that each por-
tion of mechanical or other energy which an organism
exerts implies the transformation of as much organic matter
as contained this energy in a latent state." Emerson
humorously says, "I knew a witty physician who found
theology in the biliary duct, and used to affirm that if there
was disease of the liver the man became a Calviuist, and
if that organ was sound he became a Unitarian." But to
urge as "a fact in nature" that the soul may be sought in
a ganglion, or manifest a physical force " distinct from the
corporeal structure," is unwarranted alike by sound phi-
losophy and modern science.

I have not sought to advocate any specific theory with
which all the phenomena will be found to accord; on the
contrary, the psychological facts underlying the spirital
philosophy are various in their causes, and, while some
may be classified as instances of mental exaltation or
unconscious activity of the mind, others are explicable on
the ground of mental sympathy, or seem to be the result
oftentimes of a force proceeding from the nervous system
of one or more individuals, and operating in a manner, as
yet, not clearly defined. To give reasons for believing

252 THE SPIRITUAL DELUSION.

that spirits of the dead are not concerned in any of these
various phenomena has been the object of the foregoing
pages ; and however more forcibly the matter might have
been presented, still if thej serve to satisfy doubts exist-
ing in the minds of so many in view of the marvelous-
ness of the phenomena witnessed, and shall lead any one
to clearer conceptions of the distinction between spiritual
and physical existence, the author will feel that his labor
has not been in vain.

THE END

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