The Spirit Land

by Samuel B. Emmons

In answer to the question, "Why do these spirits require a dark room to play upon instruments of music, or to take hold of persons," they answer by saying that "they assume a tangible form in order to do these things, and we are not yet prepared for such a visitation."

To the inquiry how it is they make the rapping noises that generally accompany their visits to this world, they answer, that "they are made by the will of the spirits causing a concussion of the atmosphere, and making the sounds appear in whatever place they please."

A Mrs. Draper, of Rochester, New York, had an interview with Dr. Franklin, at one time, while she was in a magnetized state. She said he appeared to be busily employed in establishing a line of communication between the two worlds by means of these "rappings." On another occasion, while in a clairvoyant state, at her own house, sounds were heard in exact imitation of those heard in the telegraph office. These sounds were so unusual, that Miss Margaretta Fox, who was present, became alarmed, and said, "What does all this mean?" Mrs. Draper replied, "He is trying the batteries." Soon there was a signal for the alphabet, and the following communication was spelled out to the company present. "Now I am ready, my friends. There will be great changes in the nineteenth century. Things that now look dark and mysterious to you, will be laid plain before your sight. Mysteries are going to be revealed. The world will be enlightened. I sign my name, Benjamin Franklin."

It seems that, in the early history of these rappings, they used to be without any limitations as to whether persons were in a magnetized state or not. The first we learn of magnetism being employed as a medium of communication is in the case of a daughter of Lyman Granger, in Rochester, New York. For a long time, answers could be obtained by any two (why two?) of the family standing near each other. And in the freedom of the answers, no preference seemed to be manifested towards any particular members of the family. At length, one of his daughters was placed under the influence of magnetism, and became clairvoyant. From that time none of the family could get communications unless the daughter who was magnetized was present. Why the communications should leave all the family except the magnetized daughter, after they once had free conversation without her, remains to be explained. The whole business now seems to be pretty much, if not wholly, monopolized by the clairvoyants. They seem to be employed as agents, or mediums of correspondence, between the two worlds, acting as interpreters between two classes of beings, or beings existing in two different states, natural and spiritual. They act as a kind of spiritual postmasters between the two countries. We find spiritual letter paper, and envelopes to enclose the same, advertised for those who wish to avail themselves of an opportunity to write to their deceased friends in the other spheres. Letters said to have been written in the spirit world have been transmitted through the established mediums to friends in this world, and have been published in some of the papers devoted to these subjects. In the New York Daily Tribune of February 28, 1851, we find the prospectus of a quarto journal, to be published in Auburn, "to be dictated by spirits out of the flesh, and by them edited, superintended, and controlled. Its object is the disclosure of truth from Heaven, guiding mankind into open vision of paradise, and open communication with redeemed spirits. The circle of apostles and prophets are its conductors from the interior, holding control over its columns, and permitting no article to find place therein unless originated, dictated, or admitted by them: they acting under direction of the Lord Supreme."

We hope the information coming through its columns will be more reliable than the communications from some of the "rapping spirits." No dependence whatever can be placed upon them. They are so blundering, awkward, and uncertain, and even trickish and deceitful, that they spoil all our notions of the dignify and purity—the spirituality, in fact—of the spiritual world. The advocates of the manifestations attribute the fault to ignorant spirits, who do not know whether the matter they attempt to speak of be true or not. Swedenborg says, "There are some spirits so ignorant that they do not know but they are the ones called for, when another is meant. And the only way to detect them, in speaking, is by the difference of sound—that made by intelligent spirits being clear and lively, and that of the ignorant being low and muffled, like the striking of the hand upon a carpet."

It is contended by the authors of the pamphlet from which we quote, that these ignorant spirits will ultimately progress to a state of intelligence. But this idea of progression seems to be at variance with the observations of a writer in the Boston Post, who was astonished at the wonderful precocity of little infants in the spirit world. "I have known," says he, "the spirit of a child, only eighteen months old when he died, and only three months in the second sphere, show as much intelligence, and as perfect a command of our language, as Dr. Channing himself seems to possess." On the other hand, when I find that "the spirit of Dr. Channing cannot express an idea above the rudimental conception of a mere child, I am forced to the conclusion that his mental endowments must have greatly deteriorated since he left us."

It is said that the theological teachings of these spirits generally agree with those of Davis, Swedenborg, and others who have claimed to receive their impressions from spirits. Accordingly, we find them using the term higher and lower spheres, instead of heaven and hell. Swedenborg prophesied that the year 1852 would be the one to decide the fate of his church or his doctrines; and Capron and Barron tell us that "the probabilities now seem to be that his general spiritual theory will, not far from that time, be very generally received." We presume that the "mysterious rappings" are considered by them as so many omens of such an event. And we may reasonably conclude that they are as decisive tests, as sure prognostications, as were the various celestial signs of the coming of the end of the world in 1843. The believers in the "harmonial philosophy" have their miracles in attestation of their theory; and so of the Millerites. On Saturday evening, January 18, 1851, we are told by La Roy Sunderland, that Mrs. Cooper (clairvoyant medium) was taken to Cambridge, by Mr. Fernald and a friend, for the purpose of visiting a gentleman who had been confined by a spinal difficulty some ten years or more. The spirits gave beautiful responses for his consolation, and in the sight of all present, the sick man and his bed were moved by spiritual hands alone. The sick man and the "bed whereon he lay" were both moved by attending angels, without any human power. And more recently, a Mr. Gordon, it is said, has been taken up and his body moved some distance entirely by spiritual hands. Were such miracles ever wrought in favor of Millerism? Most assuredly, if we are to believe the Millerites themselves; and even more in favor of witchcraft also. At a meeting of the friends of Millerism, held in Waltham, in 1842, a lady was taken from her seat by some unseen power, and carried up to the ceiling of the room; and she afterwards declared that it was done without any effort on her part. More recently, (1851,) another lady of the same place testifies that she has, in a similar manner, been taken from her seat in church and carried up above the tops of the pews. And at times, at the advent meetings, strange noises have been heard, houses also have been shaken, mirrors shattered to pieces, and furniture broken, and all have been considered by the Adventists as so many auguries or signs of the approaching dissolution of all things, to take place in 1843.

We have already made mention of the fact, in another place, that bewitched persons used to be carried through the air, on brooms and spits, to distant meetings, or Sabbaths, of witches. But we will now give a case to the point.

On the 8th of September, 1692, Mary Osgood, wife of Captain Osgood, of Andover, was taken before John Hawthorne, and other of their majesties' justices, when she confessed that, about two years before, she was carried through the air, in company with Deacon Fry's wife, Ebenezer Baker's wife, and Goody Tyler, to Five Mile Pond, where she was baptized by the devil, and that she was transported back again through the air, in company with the forenamed persons, in the same manner as she went, and believes they were carried on a pole! She was asked by one of the justices, how many persons were upon the pole; to which she answered, As I said before, viz., four persons, and no more, but whom she had named above.

Are not these cases to be relied upon as much as those related by Mr. Sunderland? Could not four respectable ladies tell whether they were actually carried through the air on a pole or not? Could they be deceived? Possibly, in the days of chloroform, or ether, it might have been the case; but not at the period in which it actually occurred.