CHAPTER XXIX.
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON MEDIUMSHIP.
Mysteries of Mediumship—To Prove the Immortality of the Soul—Passivity and Harmony at Séances—Honest and Candid Scepticism—Imaginary and Self-induced Mediumship—Deceptive Communications—Cautions—Rappings—Spirits made Visible—Beware of Fraudulent Mediums—Not All Spirits Reliable—Cabinets.
Mediumship is a great mystery. Some persons are found to possess the gift (often from ancestral derivation, as in the case of the “second-sight” in the Scotch Highlands), while others are totally devoid of it. There are also many varieties both in the forms and phases of it, and in the degrees in which different persons possess the strange—I may say, abnormal—gift. There seem to be also great variations of degree in which it is possessed by different persons, constituting differences of mediumistic power.
I am satisfied that there are few families in which some one or other of its members does not possess it, at least in latent condition, more or less developed or undeveloped; and that, if they will sit patiently and passively (without anxiety or eagerness) round a table, without being discouraged and exhausted of patience by weeks or even months of failure, the manifestations will generally at last come, whether in the form of rappings, or that of tilting of the table, or in other phenomena inexplicable on the ground of the ordinary laws of physical nature, and compelling the recognition of the presence of extra-natural beings or forces—i.e., “Spirits”—as the only explanation of the manifest and incontestable facts.
Again, apart from the various degrees of the faculty in the mediums, there is mystery hanging over the question of the various degrees of ability of Spirits who may be present—high, low, or of intermediate grade and character—to act through or with a particular medium. And still again, there is mystery over the influence of the members of the circle present, both upon the sensitive medium and upon the Spirits present. And upon the fundamental point of what constitutes mediumship, on what qualities, physical, mental or spiritual, it depends, hangs the greatest mystery of all.
One thing seems certain, namely, that at least in the present age or “dispensation,” the Spirits about us seem desirous of communicating with us, human Spirits still in the flesh, and glad of the opportunities afforded them through the mediums for doing so. “Psychics,” or “sensitives,” have been suggested as more suitable designations than “mediums,” but that of “medium” seems to have got too strongly rooted in popular usage to be now easily changed.
It is certain that history shows what may be called mediumship to have existed in all ages, climes, and civilizations, in various degrees, and that in all races, barbarian or civilized, there has been more or less of manifestation, to man still in the flesh, of the continued existence of disincarnated man, or Spirits. The extraordinary outpouring of the evidence of this great truth which our times have witnessed, and which, beginning in our country, has so rapidly made the circuit of the globe, seems, as has been declared by many of the higher classes of Spirits, to have grown out of the fact, that the science and philosophy of the century had become so deeply imbued with materialism, fast sapping the foundations of all religion, that it had become necessary, in the counsels of the high Spirits who are the ministers of the will of the Infinite Supreme we name God, to overpour the world with a new flood of irresistible demonstration of the truth and reality of the next life and of the immortality of the soul.
If there is one mental condition, on the part of mediums and sitters, more constantly insisted upon by good Spirits as necessary toward the attaining of good results in the manifestations, it is that of “passivity.” If a sitter earnestly desires a particular thing, has his heart and thought and will strongly set upon it, that is precisely what he is least likely to obtain, or to obtain it clearly and satisfactorily, if he obtain it at all. The expression is sometimes used that both medium and sitter must keep themselves in a negative, as distinguished from a positive, condition. If they are “positive”—especially if persons of strong will—their magnetic or Spiritual “positiveness” seems to work adversely instead of harmoniously with that of the invisibles.
The testimony from the Spirits is pretty unanimous that tranquil mental harmony in the circle is very necessary toward the attainment of good results. Discussion of subjects of difference, in however friendly a temper it may be conducted, is unfavorable. This is generally accepted as the reason why instrumental or vocal music is so commonly resorted to, as tending to lead the minds of all into the same channel. There may also be something in its action to attune the air-vibrations into accord instead of opposition, resulting from the differences of voice among a number of persons thus gathered together.