CHAPTER XI
BY-PRODUCTS OF SPIRITUALISM
It has come to my attention in talking to numbers of laymen that the general public thinks of Spiritualism only in terms of mediums and seances and that the average man does not seem to realize the suffering, losses, misfortunes, crimes and atrocities of which it is the underlying cause and must bear the primary responsibility. During the more than thirty years in which I have been investigating Spiritualism I have industriously collected all possible data on the subject and in the thousands of clippings, dating from 1854 to the present time, which are filed away in my library, there are hundreds which tell of crimes attributable to Spiritualism. In my great collection of books there are many by world-renowned writers, men of science, physicians, and philosophers, each dealing with the curse of Spiritualism. It touches every phase of human affairs and emotions, leaving in its wake a crowd of victims whose plight is frequently pathetic, sometimes ludicrous, oftener miserable and unfortunate, and who are always deluded. It is to these effects of Spiritualism which are seldom considered that I wish to call the reader’s attention in this chapter.
The New York Herald on June 16, 1923, told under a Syracuse date line the following incident:
“William H. Burr of Rochester, speaking to-day at the business session of the New York State Assembly of Spiritualists, of which he is President, said he could prove scientifically and conclusively the fact of communication with the Spirit world. Mr. Burr appealed for the abolition of capital punishment. He explained that he had communicated with Spirits from the bodies of murderers and realized their sufferings, as those skeptical of psychic communication never can.”
The New York Evening World of March 8, 1922, reports that:
“Thurs Bergen Vigelius, a student in chemistry, of Brooklyn, N. Y., with faith that a Spiritual ‘glimpse’ of the hereafter and power to write a book thereof would be a distinct contribution to science and literature if he could ‘project himself into a comatose condition simulating death,’ drugged himself frequently into experimental sleep, but on his last experiment his consciousness not only deserted him, but breath and life accompanied it. He was regarded as an exceptionally bright student with every prospect of a promising career, had he not been susceptible to a fallacious belief.”
One of the saddest cases of modern times is that of the young Barnard College student, Miss Marie Bloomfield, who declared herself in love with a Spirit and finally was driven to suicide in order to join him. The young lady had been an ardent student of Spiritualism and very active in its cause. All the newspapers of February 9, 1923, carried an account of her death, which attracted so much attention that a law was proposed in the New York Assembly to prevent seances but it failed of being passed.
The Washington Times (D. C.) of January 14, 1923, tells of an Earl L. Clark who secured a divorce on the grounds that his wife claimed that she had a “Spirit affinity” named Alfred and that this Alfred through Clark’s wife made his life unbearable, even predicting his death so that she might marry some man who would “accept Alfred’s Spiritual guidance.”
According to an account in the New York World, John Slater, chief medium of the National Spiritualists Association, claims that there were over five hundred Spiritualists who served with the American Expeditionary Force, none of which were wounded or afflicted with “cooties.” The freedom from wounds he attributed to the influence of Spirits.