SOME OBSERVATIONS ON MEDIUMSHIP.
MYSTERIES OF MEDIUMSHIP--TO PROVE THE IMMORTALITY OF THE
SOUL--PASSIVITY AND HARMONY AT SÉANCES--HONEST AND CANDID
SCEPTICISM--IMAGINARY AND SELF-INDUCED MEDIUMSHIP--DECEPTIVE
COMMUNICATIONS--CAUTIONS--RAPPINGS--SPIRITS MADE VISIBLE--BEWARE
OF FRAUDULENT MEDIUMS--NOT ALL SPIRITS RELIABLE--CABINETS.
Mediumship is a great mystery. Some persons are found to possess
the gift (often from ancestral derivation, as in the case of the
"second-sight" in the Scotch Highlands), while others are totally devoid
of it. There are also many varieties both in the forms and phases of it,
and in the degrees in which different persons possess the strange--I may
say, abnormal--gift. There seem to be also great variations of _degree_
in which it is possessed by different persons, constituting differences
of mediumistic power.
I am satisfied that there are few families in which some one or other
of its members does not possess it, at least in latent condition, more
or less developed or undeveloped; and that, if they will sit patiently
and _passively_ (without anxiety or eagerness) round a table, without
being discouraged and exhausted of patience by weeks or even months of
failure, the manifestations will generally at last come, whether in the
form of rappings, or that of tilting of the table, or in other phenomena
inexplicable on the ground of the ordinary laws of physical nature, and
compelling the recognition of the presence of extra-natural beings or
forces--_i.e._, "Spirits"--as the only explanation of the manifest and
incontestable facts.
Again, apart from the various degrees of the faculty in the mediums,
there is mystery hanging over the question of the various degrees of
ability of Spirits who may be present--high, low, or of intermediate
grade and character--to act through or with a particular medium. And
still again, there is mystery over the influence of the members of the
circle present, both upon the sensitive medium and upon the Spirits
present. And upon the fundamental point of what constitutes mediumship,
on what qualities, physical, mental or spiritual, it depends, hangs the
greatest mystery of all.
One thing seems certain, namely, that at least in the present age or
"dispensation," the Spirits about us seem desirous of communicating with
us, human Spirits still in the flesh, and glad of the opportunities
afforded them through the mediums for doing so. "Psychics," or
"sensitives," have been suggested as more suitable designations than
"mediums," but that of "medium" seems to have got too strongly rooted in
popular usage to be now easily changed.
It is certain that history shows what may be called mediumship to have
existed in all ages, climes, and civilizations, in various degrees, and
that in all races, barbarian or civilized, there has been more or less
of manifestation, to man still in the flesh, of the continued existence
of disincarnated man, or Spirits. The extraordinary outpouring of the
evidence of this great truth which our times have witnessed, and which,
beginning in our country, has so rapidly made the circuit of the globe,
seems, as has been declared by many of the higher classes of Spirits,
to have grown out of the fact, that the science and philosophy of the
century had become so deeply imbued with _materialism_, fast sapping the
foundations of _all_ religion, that it had become necessary, in the
counsels of the high Spirits who are the ministers of the will of the
Infinite Supreme we name God, to overpour the world with a new flood of
irresistible demonstration of the truth and reality of the next life and
of the immortality of the soul.
* * * * *
If there is one mental condition, on the part of mediums and sitters,
more constantly insisted upon by good Spirits as necessary toward
the attaining of good results in the manifestations, it is that of
"_passivity_." If a sitter earnestly desires a particular thing, has
his heart and thought and will strongly set upon it, that is precisely
what he is least likely to obtain, or to obtain it clearly and
satisfactorily, if he obtain it at all. The expression is sometimes
used that both medium and sitter must keep themselves in a _negative_,
as distinguished from a _positive_, condition. If they are
"positive"--especially if persons of strong will--their magnetic or
Spiritual "positiveness" seems to work adversely instead of harmoniously
with that of the invisibles.
The testimony from the Spirits is pretty unanimous that tranquil mental
harmony in the circle is very necessary toward the attainment of good
results. Discussion of subjects of difference, in however friendly a
temper it may be conducted, is unfavorable. This is generally accepted
as the reason why instrumental or vocal music is so commonly resorted
to, as tending to lead the minds of all into the same channel. There may
also be something in its action to attune the air-vibrations into accord
instead of opposition, resulting from the differences of voice among a
number of persons thus gathered together.
It is a mistake to suppose that faith in Spiritualism on the part of all
present is a necessary condition of success at séances. It is true that
it sometimes seems that the presence of particular individuals is fatal
to any, or any but the feeblest, manifestations. In such cases it is
not their ignorance and disbelief, nor a rational scepticism, that
militate against success. On the contrary, Spirits like the visits of
honest, candid sceptics or inquirers, who are not inaccessible to
evidence, nor so resolutely and bitterly hostile, and so acrid in
temper, that they neither can be convinced though one "rose from the
dead," nor are worthy of the attempt. They seem to resent the insulting
presence and the unworthy mental condition and attitude of such persons,
and ill-disposed to cast such pearls before such swine. Also, when
sitters come with lies and fraud in their hearts, and trickery in their
purposes, they bring with or attract to them lying and fraudulent
Spirits who like to give them just what they come to seek. It is perhaps
even more true in the Spirit life than in this, that like attracts like,
and that birds of a feather flock together.
There are many imaginary mediums. They will tell you they see, hear,
and speak to you under the influence of Spirits, when it is nothing
but an emanation from their own brain, and perhaps from the forces of
the circle combined. This I believe to be a self-induced condition,
developed by the powerful influence of the human will acting upon
their own physical force.
Beware how you become ensnared in the meshes of such mediums. They are
only fit subjects for the lunatic asylums.
There are, I believe, some unexplored regions in the human brain which
may be hereafter explained and better understood.
I will give you an example of this phase of mediumship.
A friend of mine, an excellent man but very ambitious to excel in doing
good, and at the same time to take a high position in Spiritualism, was
told by Spirits that he would be a medium. He was very sanguine and
believed that he could revolutionize the world, if he should become one.
He was a clergyman and an honest man. One morning (after having waited a
long time for the fulfilment of the promise that he would be a medium),
he came to me with a roll of paper in his hand, his face beaming with
joy, saying as he entered the room, "At last the prophecy has been
fulfilled! See, listen," and he read a beautiful poem signed "Felicia
Hemans."
He afterward wrote many interesting things, and I have no doubt there
were or had been times when he was under the influence of good Spirits;
but as soon as he became ambitious to set himself up as "high priest,"
that innate something which belongs to the natural man performed the
office of his own mind.
That development is often very disastrous and unreliable, and should not
be encouraged. I will give you an illustration in the following
communication.
One Sunday afternoon, while sitting in his library, his hand was
influenced to write a communication, of which the following is a copy:
"I departed this earth-life a few hours ago, in ---- Street, No. ----.
You will find my children mourning over my lifeless form. Go to them at
once and assist them to bury my body.
(Signed) MARY."
He read the communication to his wife, who remonstrated, saying that she
doubted it; but after considering the matter they both started to find
the distressed family. It was not very far from them; but judge of their
astonishment when they found no such place as had been mentioned. The
_street_ was there, but no _house_, and no number like the place
designated. The communication, in its essentials, was _an entire
fabrication_. In the evening they both called on me, and desired, if
possible, that Spirits would explain through the rappings why he should
have been so deceived. The rapping said, "My dear friend, this is an
experience which you will not forget. You have been led by ambition,
mistaking it for a higher motive. You have besought Spirits to direct
you, when you should have acted according to your own best judgment.
Thus you have attracted a class of Spirits who are unreliable." This was
something which many were necessitated to learn in the school of
experience, especially in those early days of Spiritualism.
I do not approve of sitting in promiscuous circles for development.
I remember several years ago there was a circle held in New York for
the purpose of making mediums. Our friend, Mr. George Willets, visited
the rooms of the "developers" several times, and reported to us the
unfavorable effect it produced upon him. My sister Katie on one occasion
went with him. When she returned she felt badly and complained of
strange sensations, caused (she believed) by sitting in that circle. It
affected her unfavorably for some days. She was sad, and complained of
seeing disagreeable things whenever her eyes closed. This gradually
changed, but she could never be persuaded to visit such circles again.
In the case of the Dr. Phelps's manifestations I think there was
abundant evidence to prove that a natural development took place there.
And I am sure that we fought against it long enough and hard enough to
prove that we were not knowingly instrumental in bringing about anything
of our own mediumship. We were all annoyed at the idea of being called
mediums.
Another well-known case--were I to mention the name it would be clearly
remembered--was that of a wealthy gentleman doing a large business in
this city. He came to see me at No. 1 Ludlow Place, rejoicing in his
newly developed mediumship. He was a large, finely organized man, and
came to explain to me how wonderfully he was affected. He told me that
his wife was not pleased because he sat in circles for development, and
she thought he was losing his mind. This gentleman lived in Brooklyn,
and if this should come under his eye he will recollect the
circumstance. He was not a disciple of the "Rochester knockings," but a
professed admirer of speaking, writing, and impressible mediums. He
thought it would be very fine to become a great public speaker (as he
had been told he would be), and astonish the world; and therefore he
believed it. He soon began to whirl around and pound himself and snort
like an animal. I thought he was a raving madman; but when he spoke he
seemed rational enough at times, but his lucid moments were few and far
between.
At length the Spirit rapped out the following: "My son, sit down at the
table." He did so, apparently delighted. Again the alphabet was called
for, and this was spelled: "Enclose the extremities of your fingers
within your hands, cross your feet and rest your heels on the floor,
and permit me to give you advice, namely: When you sit in the circle,
exerting every faculty of mind and body, with your hands on the table
and your feet on the floor, all your brain forces escape through your
extremities and are absorbed by the more receptive members of the
circle."
He followed the directions of his guardian Spirit, and became quiet,
and was so deeply interested in the rappings that he engaged a private
hour and brought his wife the next day, who became equally interested
and honestly confessed to me that she had blamed and condemned me as
an impostor; and although her husband had not met in my circles,
she charged me with being the original cause of her husband's
"misfortune"--as she considered it. From that time he was cured.
I think he was on the high road to the lunatic asylum; and, although
some writers term the Spirit-rapping a manifestation of "lower grade,"
in my own opinion communications come more direct from Spirits through
the rappings, or when accompanied by them, than when written or spoken,
etc., in magnetic circles where the mediums are quite as susceptible
to an action exerted upon them by Spirits _embodied_ as by the
_disembodied_.
I have found it so in my own experience, and I never place entire
confidence in anything unless the Spirits sanction it to me by sounds in
connection with the alphabet, which was their first chosen method with
us. Nor do I rely on the rappings unless what is said through them
bears in itself the evidence of truth. I regret to see persons too much
carried away by this or any _ism_. Give me a good amanuensis, one who
can take down each letter as it is indicated (and not interrupt me by
asking very often, "What does it say?" which breaks the telegraphic
connection, for the time, through which Spirits operate, exactly as the
telegraphic wires are affected by a thunder-storm)--give me, I say, such
an amanuensis, and I can sit, as I have often sat, for hours at a time,
receiving the letters through the raps and alphabet, with no idea of
their connection or meaning, nor any such knowledge possible to any
listener, and at the close every letter, word, and sentence will be
found perfectly correct, and the whole intelligible only when the whole
is read in connected sequence.
It is impossible for any mortal to sit and reiterate the letters of the
alphabet as fast as they can be repeated, hour after hour, and retain
in the mind the structure of the sentences and chapters communicated. I
defy any one to do it. Even Theodore Parker pronounced it a quietus on
the Buffalo doctors. Try it yourselves, dear readers. Under the right
conditions, I can sit and call the letters for hours together, and when
the message is finished it will be found to be perfect and unbroken from
beginning to end--in accordance with the intelligence of the Spirit, not
that of the medium.
I have seen Spirits walk around the room, furnishing their own light
sufficiently bright to show themselves distinctly to all persons
present, when every precaution had been taken to lock and seal the doors
and windows, to prevent ingress or egress of any person to disturb the
circle; and I know hundreds, still living, who can testify to this
statement.
Now, then, why should there be any need of so conducting circles
for manifestations as to cause suspicion, or leave the minds of
investigators in doubt? Should a medium be allowed to enter a cabinet
without any precautions on the part of the sitters to require "test
conditions," and deliberately clothe him or herself in the habiliments
of angels, and then softly glide forth into a dimly lighted room,
scarcely visible to the eye, and call it a "materialization" or a
"transfiguration"? Shame on such cruel deception. I am astonished that
people are willing to be so imposed upon. When I was before the public,
I expected and wished to give every satisfaction in my power. I believe
all persons who wish to know the truth, and are willing to pay mediums
for their time and trouble, should demand their rights, search the
cabinets, and hold the mediums by joining hands until they are fully
satisfied of the truthfulness of the manifestations. We have never
objected to being held, and we have even submitted to being stethoscoped
and gagged to settle the question of ventriloquism, after every other
test had been applied.
I do not wish to be understood as condemning all cabinet séances. We,
for our part, never used cabinets nor had occasion to do so. I know,
through the best of testimony, that with honest mediums and select
confidential circles, marvellous phenomena have taken place through
that means since my day. But I do disapprove of such séances before
promiscuous parties, when not accompanied with precautions against the
possibility of deception; for when "test conditions" are not required by
the sitters, or insisted upon by the mediums as their only protection
against malevolent suspicions, they open the door to fraudulent mediums
for the practice of abominable deceptions.
Nor will I dismiss the subject without cautioning all against the error
of always relying implicitly upon the communications of those whom
they regard as Spirits far better, higher, and more enlightened than
themselves or their friends. Still less should they, necessarily, obey
their directions or counsels, especially in regard to their business or
social concerns.
Many investigators find it hard to divest themselves of a sort of
superstitious reverence for the Spirits in conversation with them. It
is a mistake to suppose them to know everything, and a greater one to
imagine them capable of doing everything. It is sometimes an error even
to believe them to be the Spirits they profess to be. Spirits are of
many varieties of condition, character, and degrees of progress. There
are those prone to amuse themselves with a sort of practical joking and
false personation; and such Spirits, being in a low plane, are apt to be
glad of any opportunity to push themselves forward into the door opened
by the presence of the medium, and play their fantastic tricks on the
too credulous. We must judge for ourselves of the reasonableness, the
probability, and the characteristic resemblance of what Spirits may say,
to that which we might have expected from them. We must strive, by our
daily lives and conversation, to attract to ourselves only Spirits of
the better and higher orders in that world of the next life, which is
far more densely populous than the one in which we ourselves still "live
and move and have our being."
At the same time I think that the cause of Spiritualism would be at this
day further advanced in general acceptance, if cabinets, and with them
the phenomena called materialization and transfiguration, had never been
introduced. For, however genuine, as well as impressive, may be the
manifestations of the presence and action of the Spirits which may have
occurred in the employment of them, they afford _opportunities_ for
deception which dishonest mediums are but too ready to avail themselves
of, and then when exposure comes (and it is generally Spiritualists
who are the most earnest in detecting and punishing the infamy of such
deception), they are at once trumpeted all over the land, and more harm
is done to the progress of the cause than all the good ever resulting
from the genuine phenomena themselves. No such exposures ever occurred
in all our long and varied experience, though never have mediums been
subjected to more jealous and severe investigations; and there are
few of the more modern phenomena which have not occurred through our
mediumship, though the usual mode of communication practised at our
circles was the one which I still consider the best and most direct, as
it is the simplest--that of rapping to the alphabet.
I will only add, before dismissing the subject, that though it is so
many years since I have ceased to practise the public exercise of my
mediumship, I am not conscious that it has at all weakened or changed.
On rare occasions I have given private sittings to confidential friends,
and few days pass which do not bring me conscious evidence of the
presence of Spirit friends. It was under their prompting, and indeed
direction, that I have written this book, and often during its progress
have they given me their counsel at moments of doubt on my part as to
what to insert or to omit. Happy, in so many ways, as has been my
domestic life, I should be ungrateful if I did not realize how largely
the unseen friends and visitors of my home have contributed to that
happiness.