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. Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2011 with funding from Tine Library of Congress littp://www.arcliive.org/details/spiritualdelusioOOIumd 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 ? " 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 :' 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