Materialized Apparitions: If Not Beings from Another Life, What Are They

A employs B to personate, at one dollar a séance. B finds that A is making money, and, being rascally enough to engage in such work, would have no scruples in demanding, under threats of exposure, the lion's share of the proceeds.

A is completely in his power, and has no alternative but to submit. This, and the outside pressure which would be likely to be brought to bear upon B to make public the fraud, would render it almost impossible to carry on the deception for any great length of time.

Again, there are often from fifty to sixty distinct individual forms appearing at each séance, requiring as many confederates to represent them. As the circle is rarely composed of more than twenty-five persons, would it pay to keep so many actors for so small an audience? If people who listen to these accusations would reflect for a moment, they would see that the theory of confederates is not a very plausible one, and it might do much toward relieving mediums from the unjust suspicions to which, through lack of understanding on the part of the public, they are more or less obliged to submit.

All honest mediums will cheerfully do all they can to satisfy the public that there is no deception, and that the cabinet and its surroundings are such as to preclude the possibility of confederates. Any other arrangements are unnecessary, and, to say the least, suspicious. These things are new and strange to most people, and they very naturally expect strong evidence; and they are right, provided their desire is expressed in a kindly and gentlemanly manner.

Any one at all familiar with these séances cannot help seeing that there are some mediums and their controls who are largely responsible for the feeling of distrust more or less manifested toward the subject. When the question of a confederate is fairly settled (and no one can be certain of his position until it is done), and two forms appear at the same time; or when you can be taken into the cabinet by a form, and shown the entranced medium, it is self-evident that one of them is a materialized form, and not a personation by the medium. It needs no argument to settle this, no matter how much it may conflict with pre-conceived notions.

I have quoted from Chief Justice Jacolliot's work on Occult Science in India, to prove that there is no connection between these manifestations and what is called sleight-of-hand.

There is, however, a more important fact conveyed in his statements, corroborated by other writers upon this subject, showing the perfect fairness with which these mediums, or Fakirs, submit to tests, courting the most thorough and exhaustive investigation, even trusting themselves, while in a trance, without any protection, to the honor and good faith of those around them, repeating at request the experiments, again and again, to satisfy that there is no deception about them.

This is strangely in contrast with our mediums, who as a rule shrink from anything of the kind, and are disposed to regard any request of that nature as a direct imputation upon their honesty.

If materialization means anything besides dollars and cents – if it has a mission to perform – it is to enlighten and educate the people upon one of the most important subjects that has ever engrossed the mind.

The lack of openness and confidence on the part of many of the mediums, or their managers, creates a feeling of distrust which sometimes finds an expression in rudeness on the part of skeptics, and leads those who are confident of the genuineness of a part of the séance to be impressed with the idea that there are things connected with it that are dishonest.

There is no difficulty in tracing the source of this feeling. Everywhere like begets like, and as long as this state of feeling exists there will be a lack of harmony in the circle, with more or less disturbance.

It may be that these things are inseparable from the newness of the manifestations among us, and will disappear when mediums are more freely developed in our homes, and the séances assume less of a commercial character.

While no apology should be made for fraud in these séances, we have no right to make charges that cannot be sustained. Every medium is bound, in justice to the audience, to see that the cabinet and its surroundings are so arranged that the appearance of fraud is, as far as possible, avoided.

Lack of experience, want of perception, or ignorance of a subject, gives no authority to assume that it is a fraud. The eagerness with which the press circulates reports of imposture finds its excuse, not in a manly defence of the truth, but in a morbid disposition to cater to the whims and caprices of the public. Those who accept such statements without investigation may possibly become victims of a worse delusion than that which they fancy they are condemning in others – a delusion born of ignorance and self-conceit.

CHAPTER III.

PUBLIC SÉANCES

No comparison can justly be made between different mediums. All are excellent in their way. The preference that is given to one over others is mainly due to personal feeling, to likes and dislikes, which must always find an expression among individuals of different tastes.

In some séances the strength of the manifestations is largely exhausted in the production of forms. In others, the social and affectionate element predominates. Where there are from fifty to sixty materialized forms appearing at a sitting, it is hardly to be expected that much time can be given to the interchange of thought or the expression of feeling. Such séances are, as a rule, mere touch-and-go occasions.

The strength of the circle is often exhausted in combating the ignorance and prejudice of the audience, and the higher and more delicate phase of materialization is lost sight of.

Many condemn public séances on account of the mixed audience and the conflicting elements that surround the medium. These things are, at present, a necessity, being the only means of educating the masses.

The time has not yet come when, through a more general acceptance of the truth of materialization, it can be transferred to the domestic circle, where it properly belongs, and where its best results will be obtained. Not until the flush of excitement necessarily arising from the strangeness of the phenomena has subsided, and the investigator has settled in his mind the facts of materialization, is he capable of forming an intelligent opinion on the subject.

Thousands of persons, through their experience, have reached that point. Whether they advance beyond this will depend upon the character of the séance, the strength of the manifestations, and the purely affectional bearing toward these beings.

Séances should be classified: the first, for primary education, for facts and evidence to convince skeptics; the second, for the more advanced investigator. Into this latter class no skeptic should be admitted. Such an arrangement could not interfere with the patronage of mediums, but on the contrary would enhance it, for there comes a period in the progress of the investigator when, finding that he cannot advance, he will retreat or seek some other field for investigation. The public séance, as now constituted, must, from the nature of its surroundings, remain more or less stationary.

There are séances that are pitched on so low a key that when the investigator passes from a state of doubt into a full knowledge of the truth of materialization, he will instinctively leave them for a more genial atmosphere; for it is in vain to expect that coarse, mercenary, untruthful mediums can avoid impressing more or less of their natures upon the spirits who come through their organisms, or that mainly spirits like themselves will be attracted to them. The more intelligent investigators are beginning to realize this, and those mediums who have lost the sense of their high calling, and degraded the séance to a mere show, will, under the inevitable law of progress, find themselves supplanted by a better element. Mediums are being developed everywhere, and in the near future there will be no lack of noble men and women who will gladly come to the front with their divine gifts.

If we accept the idea that passing to the other life does not essentially change the character of the man, that his peculiarities remain the same, we can account for many things in the séance-room that appear to be simply acting, – performances which have no other object than to attract the audience, to show what power the spirits can acquire under conditions which seem impossible to us.

Considering the state of feeling with which many persons enter the séance-room, it is not singular that they are sometimes treated to what seems to be deception. The spirits, perceiving the condition of the minds around them, act very much as they would if they were still on this side of life. Thoughts are things, which appear to them very much as solid substances do to us. If, instead of attempting to remove them, they can accomplish their object by going round them, they feel themselves justified in doing so. They act very much, at times, as children would under similar circumstances; and, until they obtain complete control over the form that encases them, they cannot express themselves with much force. They are as children learning to walk, to think, and talk through a medium that is new to them.

A simple, childlike bearing, blended with the warmest affection, is the only element that enables them to progress and meet us upon the highest plane of thought.

CHAPTER IV.

THE ATTITUDE OF SCIENTISTS

The world is indebted to scientists for their clear arrangement of and deductions from what others have discovered; for, as a rule, they are not inventive. Hasty in condemning everything new, their timidity and lack of generous bearing toward what seems to conflict with their materialistic theories are conspicuous.

Nothing can be more unscientific than the attitude of most of them toward this subject. Obliged in the past to antagonize the despotism of the old Theology, they have themselves become despotic. Condemning dogmatism, they assume a dogmatic bearing toward everything that does not square with their pre-conceived notions. Walking with faces toward the ground, they refuse to look up, or admit the existence of anything beyond matter; denying the possibility of spirit, and claiming that the earth contains within itself the "promise and potency" of everything that is or has been.

Against this sweeping claim may be opposed the fact that, in the light of a purely scientific analysis, the earth gives no promise of the living beings that cover its surface; that it creates nothing, furnishes nothing except the environments or clothing of the beings that for the time find their abiding-place here.

When scientists are confronted with materialization, they deny it without investigation, or refuse to examine it unless they can dictate their own conditions, and yet no class of men understand better than they do the necessity of adhering closely to the laws governing any operation in nature, if it is to be fairly studied. The course that has been and is now being pursued by the two scientific bodies supposed to be investigating this subject must necessarily lead to failure. Individual members may be more or less impressed with the reality of the phenomena, but no report worthy of the subject will ever be made by either society. The ridiculous farce enacted by the French Academy of Science in their report on Mesmerism, will probably be repeated here.

It has been charged upon me that I am not a scientist, and that my methods are not scientific, – all of which, if their implied definition of science is correct, I admit. I have had the fairness, notwithstanding my skepticism, to lay aside my prejudices and study this subject purely in relation to itself, and not in connection with pre-conceived ideas. The facts which I have presented have been attested by competent witnesses; and until scientists have made themselves familiar with them, their allegations amount to nothing. The course which I have pursued in studying this subject is far more sensible and scientific than a denial without investigation.

The editor of one of the ablest scientific journals has well said, "Science having no methods by which it can experimentally determine that man has a spiritual nature distinct from the material, it follows that it must be incompetent to throw light upon the nature of that which is unrecognized or unknown."

The testimony of scientists in such matters cannot be considered of any more value than that of any other careful investigator; and if we take into consideration their materialistic views, it is dealing liberally with them to concede that much.

Science accepts the theory of molecules and atoms, and declares matter to be indestructible. These little molecules set in motion produce the phenomena of life. When they get tired and refuse to climb one above another, like acrobats in a circus, then there is death. It is all very simple, and any one can understand it, – a little alkali thrown into some acid, – a rapid effervescence, – the atoms are disturbed and seek to hurriedly arrange themselves into a different position, – they have performed the fantastical dance of life, and all is over!

Upon this theory scientists have endeavored to account for the creation of everything. If they have found anything else they have not declared it. The trinity of Molecules, Atoms, and Motion is the keystone of the whole structure which for centuries they have been trying to build up.

As science takes nothing for granted, it would be interesting to learn when and where they found these little atoms, which no microscope, however powerful, has ever revealed. Before scientists insist upon the denial of the existence of that spiritual force which organizes and individualizes all forms of life, it might be as well for them to settle the question, What is matter?

I do not assert positively that these beings are spirits; for it may be said, in a scientific point of view, I have no right to do so; but I do assert that the facts warrant beyond a question the conclusion that they do not belong to what we call the earth-side of life, – that they are not automatons, lay figures, or effigies, but are living, breathing, intelligent beings, with thoughts, feelings, and passions strictly human; that they come out of invisible space, and depart in the same way. In the language of Professor Crookes, "Nothing is more certain than the reality of these facts. I do not say that they are possible, but I say that they are."

CHAPTER V.

PUBLIC OPINION

When Mesmer appeared in Paris, exhibiting his claims to Magnetism, he was ridiculed, and treated as a humbug. The French Academy of Science, after due consideration, pronounced Mesmerism a fraud. This was the more remarkable from the fact that many of the experiments in Mesmerism are so simple that a child can demonstrate them to the entire satisfaction of an unprejudiced person. Many years afterward, in 1831, the French Academy of Medicine, through a report of its Committee, reversed this decision.

So far as we know, these are the only efforts that have been made, until within a few years, by any scientific association, to investigate this class of phenomena. Both in Europe and this country it has been treated with contempt, and for more than a hundred years condemned by pseudo-Science as nothing more than a hallucination produced by a diseased condition of body or mind.

I was present at the Massachusetts Hospital, many years ago, when the elder Warren, knife in hand, made mock passes over his patient, ridiculing to his students the idea that any one could be entranced or rendered insensible to pain by what was called Mesmerism; and yet the existence of the Mesmeric force or fluid is one of the most remarkable discoveries ever made. It has been known for thousands of years, by the Hindoo philosophers, as "the pure Agassa Fluid" that penetrates and permeates all objects, whether animate or inanimate. It controls the social relations; is the secret of that influence which one person exerts over another; and is the connecting link between the seen and the unseen worlds, enabling spirits, whether in or out of the flesh, to produce all the phenomena known as "spirit-manifestations."

If we except the writings of Deleuze, Townshend, Gregory, Dr. Elliotson, and a few lesser lights, Mesmerism has been kept before the public mainly by a class of itinerant lecturers who, despairing of a more considerate hearing, have, in order to retain their hold on their audience, degraded it to a mere burlesque.

The history of Mesmerism forms no exception to all discoveries that have marked the progress of man from a state of barbarism to the present time. The old stubble chokes and prevents the new crop of grain, unless it has been turned under. The acceptance of anything with which we are not familiar depends more upon the mental condition produced by pre-conceived ideas than upon any evidence necessary to sustain it. The progress of public opinion is like the march of a great army; it camps at night upon ground occupied by its videttes in the morning. When Spiritualism began to attract attention, the opponents of Mesmerism, not understanding its true character, abandoned their hostility to it, and accepted it as an explanation of the new phenomena. Mind-reading, Telepathy, everything possible, was brought forward to explain away this supposed evidence of another life. And, in a somewhat different form, the same thing is taking place in regard to Materialization.

If we eliminate from it the idea of spirits, and attribute to man alone this wonderful power, we disarm scientific as well as sectarian opposition, and the possibilities of man, the influence of mind over matter, become a legitimate subject for study. But no matter how exhaustive your investigations of Materialization may have been, the moment you suggest that spirits may have something to do with it, it becomes unscientific, and, in the judgment of certain persons who have assumed the right to control public opinion, you are instantly transformed from an honest student into a "crank"!

In view of the obstacles that Conservatism is always throwing in the way of Progress, one may be pardoned for a certain kind of admiration for cranks. They have, at least, the courage of their convictions, and in this respect, if for nothing more, may become popular, for the crowd always throw up their hats, whether right or wrong, to the plucky man.

Is courage, then, so rare a thing that we are forced to applaud it even in the bulldog?