Another case in which Spirits were claimed to have been responsible for diverting funds is told in “The Fallacies of Spiritualism.”
“In September, 1920, an action was brought in the New York Courts against a medium named Mrs. Mabelle Hirons, for the recovery of twelve thousand four hundred dollars, alleged to have been obtained by ‘Spiritualistic’ means from Dr. J. B. Hubbell, of Rockville, Maryland. Dr. Hubbell declared that after the death of Clara Barton,[104] founder of the American Red Cross, to whom he had been secretary, it was intended to erect a memorial to that lady, to which he proposed contributing twelve thousand four hundred dollars of his own money, including nine hundred dollars bequeathed him by Clara Barton herself. In 1914 he visited Mrs. Hirons, who, he said, went into a trance and gave him a ‘message’ that was supposed to come from Clara Barton and which directed him to give all the money to Mrs. Hirons for the memorial. Dr. Hubbell believed the ‘message’ to be genuine and gave her the money, but the memorial was never erected—hence the action.”
A few years ago the papers told of the case of a woman in the Middle West who was sensationally and cruelly deceived by a medium. When she lost her little girl it was feared that she would not recover from the intense grief with which she was overcome. On the woman’s farm was a hired man whose wife was a medium. He talked sympathetically with her and got her to allow him to send for his wife, who was in Chicago. She began preaching Spiritualism as soon as she arrived, finding the woman a willing listener. When it was apparent to the medium that the woman thoroughly believed her doctrine she began to advise her to pray nightly for the restoration of her child and finally one night she announced to the credulous woman that at midnight four days later her child would be restored to her. She cautioned her that she must fast that day, dress her room and bed in white, and sleep alone that night. The instructions were followed to the letter. At midnight she heard the stairs creak. Then suddenly her door was pushed open and she saw something luminous approaching her bed. It carried a bundle and a voice announced that her daughter was coming back to her. After the apparition left the woman found a baby girl in the bed with her. Soon after the medium persuaded the woman and her husband to dispose of their property and go to a Spirit Colony in California. After nearly three years they came back to their home with practically no means but with the knowledge that the baby girl came from a foundling society in Chicago.
Not the least of the evils of Spiritualism is the insanity which it causes. A mental specialist of high standing in Birmingham, England, issued a warning in 1922 quoting numerous cases which came under his observation and were the result of Spiritualistic teaching. An English doctor has estimated the number of such cases at a million. It is a well-established fact that the human reason gives way under the exciting strain of Spiritualism. The list is not limited to European countries; we have a goodly share of baneful results right at home. Not long ago Dr. Curry, Medical Director of the State Insane Asylum of New Jersey, issued a warning concerning the “Ouija-board” in which he said:
“The ‘Ouija-board’ is especially serious because it is adopted mainly by persons of high-strung neurotic tendency who become victims of actual illusions of sight, hearing and touch at Spiritualistic seances.”
He predicted that the insane asylums would be flooded with patients if popular taste did not swing to more wholesome diversions.
In March, 1920, it was reported in the papers that the craze for the Ouija-boards, with which it was thought spirit messages could be received, had reached such a pitch in the little village of Carrito, across San Francisco Bay, that five people had been driven mad.
The available amount of evidence of this sort is almost unbelievable, but enough has been given to show the extent of the evil. The average medium works only for the money he or she can extract from the public; money obtained by moving the deepest sentiments in the human soul. Is it right to legally sanction the medium, to allow him to prey on the public—not only allowing him to take the earthly possessions of his victims, but their soul, and oftentimes their mind as well? Spiritualism is nothing more or less than mental intoxication, the intoxication of words, of feelings and suggested beliefs. Intoxication of any sort when it becomes a habit is injurious to the body but intoxication of the mind is always fatal to the mind. We have prohibition of alcohol, we have prohibition of drugs, but we have no law to prevent these human leeches from sucking every bit of reason and common sense from their victims. It ought to be stopped, it must be stopped, and it would seem that the multiplicity of exposures and the multitude of prosecutions that have followed rational investigation should be sufficient to justify, yes, demand legislation for the complete annihilation of a cult built on false pretence, flimsy hear-say evidence, and the absurdity of accepting an optical illusion as a fact.