SPIRITUALISM WITHOUT SPIRITS.
We may now turn from the wretched arena of imposture, duplicity, and credulity, to genuine, but little understood, phenomena in Spiritualism. We have seen that much which has been attributed to the agency of disembodied spirits is due, in many instances, to the action of man’s own psychic states, “the double, who is wiser than we,” and to the fact that, as often as not, trance states, automatic and planchette writing, are self-induced conditions. Equally so, clairvoyance, thought-transference, and psychometry do not require the “agency of spirit” to account for their existence as “gifts,” qualities or powers. It will be time enough to admit such agency—that of disembodied spirit—when the evidence in each particular case is reasonably conclusive. I think this is the only wise and safe course to pursue.
Clairvoyance may be native or induced, self-cultivated or cultivated by aid of a mesmerist. As it has been exercised naturally, and without any such aid, the exhibition of clairvoyance—in itself—is no evidence of disembodied spirit-presence or control. Equally, the seeing of, and the describing of, spirits by a clairvoyant—even if the descriptions are apparently accurate—may present no evidence of the real presence of such spirits. I do not deny that clairvoyants can see spirits, but the mere fact of being able to see and describe spirits, is not sufficient evidence—the seer is controlled by spirit-power to see, or that the spirits described are actually bona-fide spirits. Frequently, so-called spirits have no other existence than the image of them possessed by some positive-minded individual. A clairvoyant, perceiving these images, might naturally enough conclude she was actually seeing the spirits which she described.
If Mr. Stead, for instance, is convinced that “Sister Dora,” “Cardinal Manning,” or “Lord Tennyson,” are at his side, in his rooms, influencing and directing his mind, or at other times actually controlling his arm and hand to write, a clairvoyant in sympathy with him may describe this or that other spirit he is thinking about. But that does not prove the spirit or spirits are actually present.
A lady (Mrs. Davis), whose name has come prominently before the public as Mr. Stead’s clairvoyante, being questioned as to Mr. Stead’s automatic writing and her own gift, said:—“I know probably more about that than anyone. I was in his office some time in the beginning of December last regarding the forthcoming publication of a book of mine concerning spiritualism. The conversation turned upon spiritualistic automatic handwriting. I did not know the deceased lady who was writing through him, but I saw her behind his chair as distinctly as if she had been in the flesh. I described her position as she stood and her appearance. She at once wrote through Mr. Stead’s hand confirming all I had stated concerning her in my description. Mr. Stead’s hand continued to write. I knew afterwards it wrote out a message stating that another spirit was in the room. Mr. Stead asked me if I could describe that spirit. I had to wait some little time before I detected it, and there I recognised as in the flesh a very famous personage recently dead, whose loss was mourned all the world over in prose and verse. I carefully described the spirit as he appeared to me, and then Mr. Stead said I was right. But, I answered, I see another male spirit. Ask the deceased lady who is writing through you to write the name of the last spirit. Mr. Stead’s hand automatically moved, and he wrote the name of a son of the famous personage already alluded to.” Mrs. Davis says she has been strongly impressed with the fact that Mr. Stead has been selected by the spirits as their champion from the peculiar and unique position he occupies in the journalistic world, and he will be the agent who will break through the solid walls of bigotry and prejudice. Mr. Stead may or may not have written under spirit influence, and this lady may or may not have seen spirits as described. We must not conclude in the latter case that Mr. Stead and his “trustworthy clairvoyante” are stating anything they do not believe to be true. I believe she saw, as described or thought of by Mr. Stead, a “deceased lady;” and that she also saw, as equally thought by him, “a very famous personage recently dead;” also “another male spirit,” whose name she did not know until Mr. Stead wrote the name. This narrative, however interesting as to automatic writing and spirit agency in the opinions of those concerned, conveys no tangible evidence of either the one or the other. To us it is interesting in the fact that Mrs. Davis saw the spirits thought of by Mr. Stead. We must think twice before we can accept this as evidence of spirits and spirit-presence. Although it is possible those concerned have evidence, we have not. We have, however, evidence here of thought-transmission and psychic impressionability.
When we read of persons who have been raised up, as mediums of St. Peter, St. Paul, or St. John, or a publishing company being run by Shakespeare through a special medium, and worked by a syndicate of Spiritualists, I think we are entitled to doubt these claims, even though a dozen clairvoyants vouched for the existence and presence of the aforesaid spirits.
Psychometry furnishes evidence that many so-called spirits are not spirits “at all, at all”—only visions of the originals; and the fact that such and such an individual has been accurately described—actions and manners carefully indicated—and this has been and is accurately done in health and disease daily—is no evidence, in itself, that psychometers have seen spirits. Thus, when a psychometer places a geological specimen to his forehead, and describes an “antediluvian monster,” roaring and walking about, no one but a very shallow individual would imagine for a second the psychometer was actually seeing the original. So many of the spirits and spectres seen do not proceed from our own brains, but from objects, relics, and old houses, which had been in times past impinged by the living presence and magnetism of the originals. Then we must take into consideration those spectres which proceed from our own brains, such as the realistic images which are sometimes projected from the background of consciousness to our eyes and ears. Many so-called spirits are simply the product of diseased neurological conditions, in short, hallucinations, which arise from some derangement of the optic and auditory centres. The spectres seen by Nicolai gradually disappeared as he lost blood, as the prescribed leeches tranquilised his system. We have no reason to believe the spectres he saw, visions and what not, were actually either spirits or produced by spirits.