“I prefer to be here if Alice is to be present at such a meeting; in fact, I strongly object to her attending one in my absence,� Mark said. “I will say in all sincerity, I wish she and you had never seen this Russell or heard of his abominable ism. I am sorry that you have been fed on such literature as he has been sending you, and I regret more, that you have given enough credence to it to tolerate his society or his absurd seances. He is, in my opinion, a gross humbug.�
“But that is only your opinion, Mark,� suggested Alice.
“I don’t believe there is any mystery about this that cannot be explained by one of three hypotheses: first, animal magnetism or hypnotism; second, jugglery or sleight of hand in the medium; third, thought transference, mind-reading and telepathy, or perhaps I should say the force, not yet well understood, that makes these things possible. These, aided by the excited and overwrought imagination of the witnesses, can produce any phenomena adduced. There are men with strong wills, sufficient to control entirely those with whom they come in contact, and make them do, think, feel or believe whatever they suggest. We have frequently seen these exhibitions from traveling mesmerists, who make no pretense to spiritism, nor attribute their power to spirit agency. I believe the Davenport brothers perform their feats in the same manner. It seems to me that our mind, like our body, is dual, and that one part of it can come entirely under the control of another person if we are sufficiently interested in anything to be off our guard. How differs this spiritism from the Babylonian necromancy? Undoubtedly there is a force which, if understood by man, would enable him to put himself in a hypnotic state at will, and when in that state to see clairvoyantly, hear clair-audiently, and communicate with other minds or intelligences in the same condition. Hence the remarkable clairvoyant dreams, visions, etc., which come under peculiar stresses of excitement. There is a queer thing about this force which may manifest itself in another way. I remember that when I was at college we boys used to try this experiment. We would place one of our number in a chair and two of us would lift him high from the floor—while he held tightly to the chair—by merely placing the little fingers of one hand under the bend of his knees and the forefingers of the other hand under his elbows. We would use no force, seemingly, in lifting him, and he would appear but a featherweight, but we would all hold our breath at the same instant and think of lifting him. We lifted men weighing two hundred pounds in this way. Ordinarily the muscles of those fingers would not sustain such a weight. What then was the force which aided us? Mind-reading is a proven fact, as is hypnotism. Subjects in the hands of a hypnotist will imagine themselves Napoleon, Washington, or any individual suggested, and assume the character and carriage of such individuals, talking, reasoning, and affirming in harmony with the character assumed.
“Why then should we attribute everything of this kind seen at a spirit seance to spirits?�
“Professor Russell is clairvoyant,� said Lissa.
“But clairvoyancy, or psychic force, is not spiritism, and those mediums are either self-deceived or deceive their audiences by their legerdemain. I can understand that in some instances they might be self-deceived, as a hypnotic subject, by suggestion. It seems this second intelligence of ours will reason from a false starting point as well as from a correct one, and, given a false suggestion—�
“But, Mark,� again interrupted Alice, “you are only giving your opinion and we all have a right to our own individual opinions, and we think and reason for ourselves.�
Mark sighed. “Yes, only do not let that Professor think and reason for you. Read your Bible, and pray God that you may not be deceived.� Then, passing his hand caressingly over her fair hair he continued lightly, “Don’t you think we have had enough of this for the present?�
“Yes; only—Mark, I want to say one thing. The Bible contains many passages which confirm the truth of spiritism. Don’t you remember the fingers of a man’s hand that wrote upon the wall at Belshazzar’s feast?�
“Ah, some more of Russell’s thinking for you. That is the worst of it. Almost anything may be proven by the Bible in the hands of a skilful and unscrupulous manipulator, who quotes solitary texts without reference to the subject which precedes or follows them. Professor Russell has doubtless called your attention to many such ‘proofs.’ Beware of the blind leaders of the blind, Alice. I do not object to the spiritualism of the Bible, which comes from God; but I do make a distinction between that and the modern spiritism, which consists of buffoonery and worse. This demon worship, or worship of spirits who like to assume the form and speech of an Indian child, or ignorant buffoon, is ridiculous. Let me see, what was it Mrs. Jenkins said her mother appeared in?�