SPIRITUALISM
by Herbert Thurston, S.J.
FOR those who approach the question of Spiritualism from the
standpoint of the late Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and other
enthusiastic believers in the New Revelation, it must be a little
difficult to explain why any effective intervention of the spirit
world in human affairs should have been so long delayed. We are
told that many of these intelligences who passed on thousands of
years ago are supremely wise, that it is their main concern to
guide and uplift mankind, and that only through this channel can
the people be rescued from the dogmatic fictions of the churches
on the one hand and the blank hopelessness of materialism on the
other.
Yet it was not until 1848 that intercourse with the realm of
shades was opened up. For all practical purposes before that time
the oracles were dumb. The delay was not due to the lack of
suitable communicators. "Pheneas," the special control of Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle's family, claims to have died "thousands of
years ago" and to have lived at Ur before the time of Abraham.
"Imperator," the dominant partner of the Stainton Moses band,
declared himself to be identical with the prophet Malachi (c. 460
B.C.).
We have then to suppose that these and a crowd of other
beneficent spirits were in effect impotent to convey any message
to mankind until two uneducated little girls in the hamlet of
Hydesville, U.S.A., showed them the way to a solution by
imitating the strange knockings which were heard in the haunted
house their parents occupied. By these knockings a means of
communication was first established just a hundred years ago. It
is difficult to reconcile the idea of exalted spirits remaining,
for untold centuries, powerless to make their influence felt,
with the claim that to these same spirits we must look for any
guidance which can contribute to the world's regeneration. Still,
Conan Doyle, J. Arthur Findlay, and a crowd of others too
numerous to catalogue here are satisfied that there is no hope
for the religious future of the race outside the practice of
Spiritualism.
Be this as it may, no one can dispute the fact that modern
Spiritualism only dates from the year 1848. Both in America and
in England the anniversary from time to time has been
commemorated with great solemnity. On one such occasion, at the
Queen's Hall, London (March 31, 1920), Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
told a crowded audience that they were there that evening "to
celebrate the seventy-second anniversary of what Spiritualists
considered to be the greatest event which had occurred in the
world for two thousand years." In America the frame house in
which the Fox family lived has been taken down and built up
elsewhere. It now bears the inscription: "Spiritualism originated
in this house, March 31, 1848."
There is no satisfactory evidence to prove that the two child
mediums, Maggie and Katie Fox, through whom the communication
with the spirit world by means of rappings first took its rise,
were either vicious or fraudulent at the beginning of their
career. On the contrary, many men of high character who were
interested in the phenomena--it may be sufficient to name the
statesman Horace
Greeley, and the Catholic publicist Orestes A. Brownson--spoke of
them during those early years with sincere regard and sympathy.
There seems no adequate ground for charging them with any
imposture. The knockings and the table movements which soon came
to be produced through other mediums as well, all over the
country, cannot all be explained by mere trickery. Investigators
like Father C. M. de Heredia, S.J., in recent years who,
following in the track of Houdini the conjuror, began by
denouncing all the manifestations as fraudulent, have found
themselves compelled to modify their view.
But while, as I hold, we may admit that the Fox sisters were
genuine mediums and that very remarkable and inexplicable
phenomena were wont to occur in their presence, there can be no
possible question that these two wonder-workers, who for thirty
years and more were acclaimed as the founders of Spiritualism,
both came to a very sad end. It is on record that the first
message of guidance which they received from the spirits in 1848
was to the following effect:
"Dear Friends,
"You must proclaim these truths to the world. This is the dawning
of a new era, and you must not try to conceal it any longer. When
you do you. duty, God will protect you and good spirits will
watch over you."
Maggie and Katie Fox did not fail to devote their energies to the
propagation of Spiritualism, but the promise of protection was
illusory; at any rate it led to no result. On October 21, 1888,
the two sisters, who some time previously had contracted habits
of intemperance, were persuaded--it may be were bribed, though I
know no direct evidence of this--to attend an anti-Spiritualist
meeting in one of the large halls in New York. There Maggie, in
the presence of her sister, read aloud a short statement, in the
course of which she declared: "I am here tonight as one of the
founders of Spiritualism to denounce it as absolute falsehood . .
. the most wicked blasphemy known to the world." This was
followed by what purported to be a demonstration that the medium
by cracking her toe or anklejoints was able to produce raps which
could be heard all over the room.
That the scene occurred as described may be learnt from all the
contemporary newspapers of New York and is perforce admitted by
the most zealous advocates of the cult. They urge, however, that
a year later Maggie, in the presence of witnesses, formally
retracted all that she had said. This also is indisputable, but
such contradictory declarations are equally worthless as
evidence. The sisters at that time were so far the victims of the
craving for drink that all sense of moral responsibility was
lost. Within a few years both were dead. When Maggie, the last
survivor, was nearing her end, an American newspaper described
her as "an object of charity, a mental and physical wreck, whose
appetite is only for intoxicating liquors" and added: "The lips
that utter little else now than profanity once promulgated the
doctrine of a new religion which still numbers its tens of
thousands of enthusiastic believers."
A few weeks later we find the editor of a leading English
Spiritualist journal improving the occasion in such terms as
these:
"Here we have a wonderful twofold spiritual spectacle--we have a
woman giving spiritual manifestations to others, while within
herself she is spiritually lost and misdirected. All moral sense
and control of mind and desire were gone.... But when the medium
makes a trade of it and puffs the thing up as a commodity for
sale, then farewell to all that might elevate or instruct in the
subject.... Under such circumstances, and with drunkenness,
sensuality, and moral abasement of all kinds added, is it any
wonder that this kind of thing has covered the cause with
scandals and left a heap of festering corpses along the course of
these forty-five years?"
When a responsible representative of the movement used such
language, can we fail to ask ourselves whether that contact with
the spirit world which is alleged to have come about through the
agency of the two Fox children has been for good or rather for
evil?
It is no part of the contention of this essay that the phenomena
commonly associated with Spiritualism must, when genuine, be
necessarily of diabolic origin. The problem presented by these
manifestations is extremely complicated, and in my judgment
investigation will have to be carried on for many years--it may
be for centuries--before it will be possible to pronounce
confidently upon the nature of the strange occurrences of which
we have incontrovertible evidence. But the tragic history of the
Fox sisters must surely cast the gravest suspicion upon the
wisdom, the beneficent purpose, and the promises of those
supposed intelligences, whatever they may be, which purport to
communicate from the other side.
Already in 1852 the Rev. Adin Ballou, a man of very sober
judgment, was assured, as he believed, by his dead son that by
Spiritualism the world was about to be transformed into a new
Eden. "Father," the boy urged, "be patient, watch, and wait.
Another century cannot commence before this great change will be
wrought." No one, again, can be blind to the impression conveyed
by Sir Oliver Lodge's book Raymond that a stupendous effect is to
be produced in the world by Spiritualism--and that very soon.
Thus, to take one instance, on March 3, 1916, Raymond,
communicating at a Mrs. Leonard's seance, told his father: "Mr.
Myers [i.e., the famous F. W. H. Myers, the psychic researcher
who died in 1901] says that in ten years from now the world will
be a different place. He says that about fifty percent of the
civilized portion of the globe will be either Spiritualists or
coming into it." The ten years spoken of are now long past, but
the change predicted has not taken place. The "New Revelation"
has not justified itself except as a new revelation of the
readiness with which men are deceived and are carried about by
every wind of doctrine. How can we expect guidance or the
regeneration of mankind from powers that have shown themselves
both blind to foresee the future and impotent to protect their
own chosen instruments, even those who are honored as the
founders of the new cult, from the most ignoble ruin?
Dangers of spiritualism
The Catholic Church has always condemned any attempt to hold
communication of set purpose with the spirits of the dead. The
Old Testament speaks in terms which cannot be mistaken (see, for
example, Deut. 18:1012), and the very striking incident in the
Acts of the Apostles (ch. 16), concerning "the girl with the
pythonical spirit who brought to her masters much gain by
divining," teaches us that the attitude of strict moralists had
not changed since the coming of our Lord. Though the girl had
spoken no falsehood of Paul and Silas, but rather had seemed to
further their work by proclaiming that "these men are the
servants of the most high God," Paul took it amiss and commanded
the spirit to go out of her.
The language used seems to imply that the control which spoke
through the lips of this divineress or medium was an evil spirit.
Whether these biblical precedents were responsible or not, it is
certain that most Christian teachers throughout the intervening
centuries have been disposed to treat all occult powers which
savored of necromancy as diabolic in their origin. It is only of
recent years, since hypnotism and its strange manifestations have
become familiar, that theologians have realized that such
faculties as telepathy and clairvoyance may possibly be natural
gifts, abnormal and hitherto unrecognized because until lately no
serious attention was ever paid to them.
On the other hand, it must in fairness be admitted that both
earlier and recent accounts of what purport to be hauntings or
obsessions originating in the spirit world provide plenty of
excuse for believing that the agencies concerned are often
malicious, deceptive, and altogether evil. Even if we hesitate to
accept the descriptions penned early in the last century by the
Catholic statesman Gorres, or the Lutheran physician Justin
Kerner, such modern psychic researchers as Mrs. Travers Smith
(Hester Dowden) and Mr. Hereward Carrington make it clear that
unpleasant and even horrible experiences are apt to be
encountered not only by the rash and heedless, but also by
practiced investigators. To take one instance, Mrs. Osborne
Leonard, who figures so prominently in Raymond, bears the highest
reputation as a medium, both for her personal character and for
the reliability of her spirit messages. But she has made no
secret of an alarming episode which occurred on one occasion when
she took part with two friends in an attempt to obtain
materializations at an impromptu seance. In a room which was not
perfectly dark she saw an arm covered with hair stretched out
towards the throat of her companion, Nelly.
Mrs. Leonard was trying to frame a word of warning in such terms
as not to startle her, when the girl "jumped up with a piercing
shriek, knocked over her chair and rushed blindly for the door,
which she shook violently, forgetting in her terror that it was
locked." She had felt the grasp upon her throat which a rent in
the blind had enabled the friend beside her to discern visually.
Even if we explain the incident as no more than a case of
overwrought nerves, the possibility of such experiences goes far
to illustrate the reasonableness of the biblical veto on dabbling
in the occult.
But though many Catholics incline to the belief that all the
genuine phenomena of Spiritualism are the work of demons, it
cannot be maintained that this is a part of the Church's official
teaching. The distinguished Dominican Pere Mainage, a Professor
of the Institut Catholique de Paris, has pointed out that up to
the present the attitude of ecclesiastical authority in these
matters may be summed up in three directive principles: (1) the
Church has not pronounced upon the essential nature of
Spiritualistic phenomena; (2) the Church forbids the general body
of the faithful to take any part in Spiritualistic practices; and
(3) in the manifestations which occur the Church suspects that
diabolic agencies may per accidens intervene.
Although a decree of the Holy Office in 1898 explicitly forbade
the practice of automatic writing in which the psychic allows his
hand to be guided to take down messages, the content of which is
independent of his volition, and although a similar decree in
1917 condemned any participation in Spiritualistic seances, even
though such participation was limited to mere presence as an
onlooker, still it would be too much to say that the Church had
set her face against all such investigations of phenomena as are
commonly included under the term psychic research.
To genuine students who are well grounded in theological
principles and sufficiently versed in psychology to deal with
these manifestations in a scientific spirit, permission may be
accorded to experiment with a medium and attend seances. The
attitude of Catholic authority in the matter is based upon the
matured conviction that for the ill- instructed, the idly
curious, and the emotional, who are for the most part the very
people upon whom the occult exercises the strongest attraction,
any contact with the intelligences which purport to communicate
from the other world can only be disquieting and morally, if not
physically, dangerous.
Even Spiritualists of the more sober type readily admit the need
of great caution on the part of the inexperienced. Mr. W.
Stainton Moses, at first a beneficed clergyman of the Church of
England and afterwards a member of the teaching staff of
University College, London, wrote several works which have more
than once been reprinted by the London Spiritualist Alliance as
classical handbooks for the guidance of believers. He was the
first editor of Light, and was a powerful medium for physical
phenomena as well as an automatist.
But Stainton Moses was haunted by the dread of personation on the
part of the spirits who purported to communicate. He seems never
to have been entirely satisfied that he could trust even the
chosen "Imperator" band of controls. Over and over again he
reminds his readers that "the foes of God and man, enemies of
goodness, ministers of evil," are striving to get into contact
with those who are living on earth. He does not call these evil
beings devils, because in his view they are the souls of men once
on earth that have been "low in taste and impure in habit," souls
which are "not changed save in the accident of being freed from
the body," but which have "banded themselves together under the
leadership of intelligence still more evil."
He urges that, "unfortunately for us, the spirits which are least
progressive, least developed, least spiritual, and most material
and earthly, hover round the confines" and are most eager to seek
communication. Such language from a recognized adept of high
authority in the cult goes far to justify the attitude of the
Holy See and the Catholic clergy. Spiritualists can hardly be
surprised that the Catholic Church, having good reason to believe
that the evocation of the spirits of the dead throughout the ages
has produced nothing but evil, refuses resolutely to countenance
any attempt at communication with the other world. The psychic
movement in our day includes, no doubt, a certain proportion of
honest and serious inquirers after truth, but the majority of
those who crowd to the trance addresses of mediums like Mrs.
Meurig Morris, who attend "message services" and organize
domestic seance circles, and not least of all those who are
thrilled by the numberless printed volumes of conversations with
the dead taken down in automatic writing, are unbalanced,
gullible. and badly in need of protection.
It being admitted that the lowest types of spirits are the most
eager to make contact with the earth and that the idle people who
are particularly curious about the occult are also the most
credulous and uncritical, the Church is thoroughly justified in
forbidding her own subjects to put themselves needlessly in
harm's way. Her sweeping prohibition may entail some hardship
upon genuine students, but the good of the greater number of the
faithful has the first title to her consideration. She does not
act with precipitation. Spiritualism had existed for half a
century, and full proof had been given of its harmful results,
before the first explicit decree condemning automatic writing was
published by the Holy See in 1898.
What is more, no student of the Spiritualistic movement can fail
to observe that there has been for many years a steady trend in a
direction hostile to Christianity and contemptuous of every form
of religious dogma. The antagonism to revelation and the churches
has been greatly intensified during recent years. It comes out
strongly in the various writings of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and
in such a Spiritualist newspaper as The Two Worlds, published in
Manchester. But it has recently reached a climax in Mr. J. Arthur
Findlay's book, The Rock of Truth (1933) which, as the pages of
Light and other journals bear witness, has seriously shocked a
considerable section of his fellow believers. Suffice it to say
that this writer is an avowed disciple of the late J. M.
Robertson, author of Pagan Christs and other similar works, and
that he treats all such doctrines as the Trinity, the Fall of
man, the Atonement, everlasting punishment, etc., as patent
absurdities which can only be a subject for ridicule. While the
later and constructive section of the volume is very involved and
makes heavy reading, the earlier portion with its sensational
attack on the clergy and its unscrupulous travesty of Christian
history is much more likely to hold the attention of the not very
erudite public who take Mr. Findlay for an oracle.
Much of the abuse of the teaching of the churches purports to
have been communicated by exalted spirits in the etheric world.
It is, for example, the Doyle control, Pheneas, who rails against
"theological egotism and power and pride" and who proclaims that
"Christ's guiding hand to happiness has been twisted by
priestcraft till it pointed to hell. The Church which prates of
him thus is his worst enemy." If these attacks were based upon a
discussion of the historical evidence the mischief would be less
serious, but they purport to be the utterances of supremely wise
beings in the world beyond who, having long been emancipated from
the conventions and superstitions of earth life, speak with a
serenity and breadth of view unattainable by any living
teacher.
Such communications are apt to be taken at their own valuation
because they do at times exhibit a strange supernormal knowledge
of trivial facts which can be verified. On the other hand, there
is nearly always a considerable amount of incorrect information
associated with the true, though these aberrations are forgotten
in the wonder that something unknown has been revealed, seemingly
from the skies. As Bacon says, "Men mark when they hit, but never
mark when they miss." The Church has every reason to protect her
subjects from pseudo-revelations of this kind, which offer no
guarantee of truth and which, for the most part, openly attack
the deposit of faith of which she is the appointed custodian.
It should also be noted that many intelligent people who are
quite satisfied of the reality of mediumistic faculty and who, on
the other hand, are not influenced by any religious scruples, are
by no means disposed to encourage communications with the spirit
world. Horace Greeley and Lloyd Garrison, the editor of The
Liberator, both of whom in early days had much to do with the Fox
sisters, were of this class.
The late Lord Dunraven, who, as Lord Adare, had had unrivaled
opportunities of studying the subject, living as he did for a
year or more in almost daily companionship with the great medium
D. D. Home, gave up the pursuit because he found it led him
nowhere. He was not satisfied as to the identity of those who
purported to communicate from the other side and moreover, he
adds: "I observed that some devotees were inclined to dangerous
extremes and became so much possessed by the idea of spiritual
guidance in the everyday affairs of life as to undermine their
self dependence and to weaken their will power."
Sir H. Rider Haggard, the novelist, after relating his personal
experience with a medium for physical phenomena, which he could
only attribute to some unknown force, concludes with the words:
"Whatever may be the true explanation, on one point I am quite
sure, that the whole business is mischievous and to be
discouraged. Bearing in mind its effect upon my own nerves, never
would I allow any young person over whom I had control to attend
a seance." Haggard was not a recluse or a crank. A considerable
part of his life was spent knocking about in South Africa and in
many other parts of the world.
The fraudulent side
To discuss this aspect of the subject at any length would serve
no good purpose, but it certainly cannot be passed over in
silence. When Mr. James Burns, in 1893, wrote that the moral
depravity of mediums had "covered the cause with scandals and
left a heap of festering corpses along the course of these
forty-five years," he was not using stronger language than that
employed by Dr. Sexton, Mr. Andrew Leighton, the medium Home, Mr.
S. Carter Hall, and many other representative Spiritualists. With
the exception of Home there is hardly a prominent medium for
psychical manifestations against whom a good case has not been
made out that he or she, at least on certain occasions, had
recourse to unscrupulous trickery. There is no room for doubt
that the famous Eusapia Palladino in many instances faked her
phenomena. "Dr." Monck, Slade, Eglinton, the Holmeses, and a
score of others were caught red-handed.
More recently we have had the remarkable case of Mrs. Duncan, who
unquestionably enjoyed a great reputation in many Spiritualistic
circles. This last example is interesting both from the
completeness of the exposure and the nature of the fraud itself.
Mrs. Duncan at these seances used to appear, in a relatively good
light, covered to her feet with what seemed to be a flowing sheet
of white material.
The onlookers saw it, as they thought, extruded from the mouth or
other facial orifices. This was supposed to be ectoplasm, and it
sometimes showed a little face (a picture) embedded in its
texture. Investigation however proved beyond doubt that this
enveloping sheet was nothing but a roll of very thin cheese-cloth
or butter-muslin, which had been swallowed by the medium and
regurgitated.
So again the medium Valiantine, whose supernormal exploits have
been glorified beyond measure by Mr. H. Dennis Bradley in his
widely read books Towards the Stars and The Wisdom of the Gods,
was later on caught out by Mr. Bradley himself in a flagrant
piece of imposture. Valiantine had professed to produce an
imprint of the thumb of Lord Dewar, then (February, 1931)
recently deceased. In the course of a dark seance the imprint was
made, sure enough, upon the smoked paper prepared for the
purpose, but it proved to be an impression, not of Lord Dewar's
thumb, but of Valiantine's big toe. The identity was established
with certainty by finger-print experts, whose credit cannot be
disputed.
In the matter of psychic photography which has occasioned so much
controversy, and which, for over 70 years, has been brought
forward again and again as supplying tangible proof of an agency
which could not be of this world, there has been a hardly less
surprising exposure and retractation. Of all the mediums for
photographic "extras," the most famous in recent times was the
late Mr. W. Hope, of Crewe. Dozens of books appeal to the
negatives of spirit faces obtained in his presence as completely
decisive, and in particular Conan Doyle, in his Case for Spirit
Photography, stakes everything on Hope's results. Many expert
photographers vouched for their genuineness and, in particular,
Mr. Fred Barlow, the Secretary of the Society for the Study of
Supernormal Pictures, contributed both a preface and an important
chapter to Doyle's volume.
This was in 1922. Some years later, however, Mr. Barlow, who as a
practical expert always retained a keen interest in the problem,
was led, owing to the discoveries made and the confession of
fraud obtained in the case of another psychic photographer, to
conceive suspicions regarding Hope himself. After following up
the clue and applying, in conjunction with Major Rampling Rose,
certain rigorous tests, he came to the conclusion that his
earlier belief in the integrity of the Crewe circle had been
unwarranted. In a paper contributed to the Proceedings of the
Society for Psychical Research the whole case against Hope is set
out in detail. It is conclusive, but based on too many converging
lines of proof to be summarized here. It would seem that most of
the "extras" must have been obtained by a tiny picture attached
to a small flash light which Hope kept in his pocket or secreted
in the hollow of his hand.
Altogether it is impossible to doubt that an enormous amount of
trickery and fraud has been mixed up with Spiritualism from the
very beginning. Even Doyle, in the volume of essays published a
week or two before his death, owns that, in America particularly,
things were worse than he had previously thought possible. Though
nothing but ignorance, he remarks, can suppose that there are no
real mediums, "at the same time the States, and in a lesser
degree our own people, do need stern supervision." "I admit," he
adds, "that I underrated the corruption in the States." It is
then, perhaps, not unnatural that many intelligent people, whose
normal attitude to the marvelous is one of healthy skepticism,
should from the universal prevalence of trickery be led to infer
that nothing is genuine in the phenomena of Spiritualism. This
view has found acceptance among many earnest Catholics, both
clergy and laity, especially in the United States. To the present
writer the objections to this "nothing but trickery" hypothesis
seem even more serious than those which beset what Mr. J. Arthur
Hill has called "the wholesale devil theory," espoused by the
late Mr. Godfrey Raupert, Father Blackmore, and the majority of
Continental ecclesiastics.
It is often taken for granted that a medium who has once been
detected in imposture may be assumed to produce all his phenomena
fraudulently. This is an extreme view which seems to be
contradicted by evidence that cannot be lightly dismissed. The
well- known Eusapia Palladino is said to have habitually taken
advantage of any carelessness on the part of those who controlled
her limbs in order with a free hand or foot to play any childish
trick which would cause a sensation in the dim light of the
seance room.
Nevertheless the testimony of dozens of experienced
investigators, the flash-light photographs revealing levitated
objects in contact with no human support, and above all the
detailed report of the Naples sittings with Messrs. Feilding,
Carrington, and Baggally demonstrated that Eusapia undoubtedly
did on occasion exhibit extraordinary powers. It is even possible
that the medium who tricks is not always consciously fraudulent.
He or she is often entranced and in that hypnotic condition may
be peculiarly susceptible to the suggestion latent in the minds
of the sitters that some particular deception is about to be
attempted. Their minds are intent on this thought, and the
battery of suggestion becomes so strong that the medium, in spite
of herself, does the very thing which they have mentally pictured
her doing.
Again, we know nothing about the nature or dispositions of the
"spirits" who are supposed to be the agents of these phenomena.
Certain records would even suggest that they may deliberately
prompt some fraudulent device which results in the undoing of the
medium. There is nothing to forbid our thinking that among them
are evil spirits animated by a malicious purpose, though, on the
other hand, some of the communicating intelligences appear
truthful and kindly. A suggestion has been made that they may be
souls of the unbaptized, who died in infancy or without any
sufficient knowledge of God, and whom Catholics believe to enjoy
some sort of natural beatitude in "limbo."
It is certainly curious that so large a proportion of those
controls who seem somewhat more trustworthy than the rest profess
to be Indians, calling themselves by such names as "Red Cloud,"
"White Feather," etc. There is not much likelihood that the
beings who bore these names ever received baptism. But the fact
is that we know nothing about the agencies who purport to
communicate. The subconsciousness of the medium is no doubt
responsible for by far the larger part of the messages received,
but there is a residue which it is very hard to account for
except as coming from some intelligence which is external to the
world in which we live.
A few conclusions
If Spiritualism has the merit of upholding the belief that man is
not purely material and that a future life awaits him, the
conditions of which are in a measure dependent upon his conduct
here upon earth, it must be confessed that there is very little
else to set to its credit. Catholic teaching recognizes one
divine revelation which it is the appointed office of the Church,
in dependence upon the living voice of the Supreme Pontiff, to
maintain inviolate. For this Spiritualism substitutes as many
revelations as there are mediums or rather controls, all these
communications being open to suspicion and, as the briefest
examination shows, abounding in contradictions about matters most
vital.
Largely as a consequence of the disagreements in the guidance
thus received, hardly any two Spiritualists hold the same views,
and, from its earliest beginnings down to the present time, the
movement has entirely lacked cohesion. Such energizing force as
it possesses seems to be due partly to that curiosity about the
occult which leads people to consult palmists and to purchase Old
Moore's Almanack, partly to a pathetic desire of the bereaved to
obtain tidings of those who are dear to them, the tragedies of
the War having clearly exercised a great stimulus in promoting
the vogue of this form of relief.
Unfortunately the comfort which Spiritualism offers in such cases
is entirely dependent upon one indispensable condition, the
possibility of identification. But those who believe that they
have got into contact with their dear ones, that they have
received messages from them or have even heard their voice and
recognized their features, are building on very insecure
foundations. It is admitted that personation is constantly
attempted. We know little of the agencies which purport to
communicate, but we do know that for some freakish purpose or
other they constantly pretend to be what they are not. It is also
a generally received tenet among Spiritualists that the departed
are free to return to earth, to witness, though invisible
themselves, anything which is being done even in the utmost
secrecy. There is, on this supposition, no trivial incident in
our past lives which may not be known and published abroad in
that spirit world of which Conan Doyle and the automatists
profess to tell us so much.
It is impossible, therefore, for any spirit to give any
convincing proof of his identity. Incidents which on earth were
known to him alone may be public property on the other side. The
tones of the voice or tricks of expression which are reproduced
in a "direct- voice" sitting cannot proceed from the larynx which
has long since crumbled to dust. However effected, the voice is a
counterfeit, and who will say that it is only the spirit of the
departed which can build up the vocal chords so as to yield a
perfect imitation? Similarly when Conan Doyle assures us that at
a seance he has seen his son as clearly as he ever saw him in
life, we may be sure that the features he beheld were not the
features as they then lay buried beneath the soil. So here again
we are led to ask how the simulacrum which he recognized afforded
any proof that the poor lad who had perished stood there himself
beside him. Finally the whole atmosphere of the seance room is
repellent, and even the process of automatic writing, with its
frequent inanities and platitudes and obvious fictions,
characterizes such communications as mainly the product of
subconscious, and often morbid auto-suggestion.
"There is very little that is spiritual in Spiritualism," wrote
Friedrich von Hugel, and as G. K. Chesterton happily remarks "you
do not expect to hear the voice of God calling from a coal
cellar." Mr. Findlay, Mr. Oaten, and their followers who have
made short work of the Trinity do at the same time profess to
hold that "the Universe is governed by Mind, commonly called
God." What sort of "Mind" is it, one wonders, which has planned
that a handful of men, sitting for hours in the dark, playing
gramophone records or making discordant attempts at song in order
to "stimulate vibrations," shall be privileged to evoke those
momentous communications from the etheric world which will uplift
the whole human race to a moral eminence never attained before?
Spiritualism, so far, has certainly not been associated with
progress. No new fact has come to light through this source which
has added to the world's knowledge or has led it to seek higher
ideals. Its history reminds us, on the contrary, of what Paul
wrote to Timothy: "But the Spirit plainly saith that in after
times some will fall away from the faith, giving heed to
deceiving spirits and the teachings of demons, through the
impostures of those who speak falsely, men seared in their own
conscience" (1 Tim. 4:1- 2). +
Herbert Thurston, S. J. (1856-1939) was considered by many the
epitome of a Jesuit scholar. Three of his books were on psychical
phenomena. This essay is extracted from an introductory booklet
titled Spiritualism.
This article was taken from the March 1995 issue of "This Rock,"
published by Catholic Answers, P.O. Box 17490, San Diego, CA
92177, (619) 541-1131, $24.00 per year.
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Further Reading:
Refutation of the New
Age Movement
Holy Spirit Watch
