CHAPTER III
MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS
Into this arena of the inquiring soul of man, came Modern Spiritualism.
It contained little or nothing new, as to methods, aims, or results.
The Church, Protestant and Catholic alike, uttered their warnings, called it “dealings with the devil,” but divested of political authority and without power to arrest or persecute, as in the past, were unable to stay the tide. It swept the country like a whirlwind. The average individual, desiring to know and to get tidings from departed friends, was unrestrained and unterrified.
He could not see why, if the gates were really ajar, angels might not communicate, no less than devils.
Then came the cry of “fraud,” often amply justified, and a cloud of uncertainty and unreliability settled over the phenomena generally. Unscrupulous men and women seeing their opportunity, sophisticated and exploited it, and “exposures” of these became common.
But in spite of all this, there remained facts, and groups of phenomena impossible to explain away.
Finally, men like Crookes and Wallace took up the subject and investigated the phenomena, not from the emotional, expectant, or fraternal aspect, but from the purely scientific, and rendered their verdict, which, though frequently ignored or treated with contempt, remains practically unaltered.