William Stainton Moses--What George Pelham thinks of him--How Imperator
and his assistants have replaced Phinuit.
For those of my readers who are unacquainted with spiritualist
literature, and in order to facilitate the understanding of what
follows, I must give a short sketch of the life of the English medium,
William Stainton Moses. He was born in 1839, and died in 1892. He
studied at Oxford, and was then curate at Maughold, near Ramsey, in the
Isle of Man. His great kindness made him beloved by all his parishioners
there. When an epidemic of smallpox drove even the doctors away, he
remained faithfully at his post, caring for bodies and comforting souls.
But he had precarious health, and was overworked at Maughold. He
obtained another curacy, where there was less work, at Saint George's,
Douglas, also in the Isle of Man. It was at Douglas that the friendship,
broken only by death, was formed between him and Dr Stanhope Speer. A
throat-affection soon after prevented his preaching, and he left the
service of the Church to give himself up to teaching. He went to London,
where he became tutor to the son of Dr Stanhope Speer, who was living
there. Finally, at the beginning of 1871, he obtained a mastership in
University College School, and there he remained till 1889.
Till 1872 William Stainton Moses knew nothing of spiritualism. If he had
vaguely heard of it, he had no doubt hastened to condemn the new
superstition which carried off sheep from his flock.
However, in 1872, Mrs Speer, being ill and confined to her room, read
Dale Owen's book, _The Debatable Land_. The book interested her, and she
asked Stainton Moses to read it. He did so, but only to please his
friend's wife. Nevertheless he became curious to know how much truth
there might be in the matter. He visited mediums, and took Dr Speer with
him, and both were soon convinced that here was a new force.
It was at the time when spiritualistic phenomena were attracting much
attention in the United States and England, and when learned bodies were
appealed to from all sides to put an end to these phantasmagoria. It was
the period when the materialised apparition of Katie King appeared and
talked to numerous spectators who came from widely separated places. Sir
William Crookes could see her and photograph her as much as he pleased;
heedless of his environment, he published what seemed to him the truth.
Thereupon the man whose brain had till then been considered one of the
most lucid and best organised which humanity has produced, lost
considerably in the opinion of his contemporaries. But no doubt the
future will avenge him.
The Speer family and Stainton Moses now began to hold sittings by
themselves. Stainton Moses[74] at once showed himself to be an
extraordinarily powerful medium. Neither he nor anybody else had
suspected this mediumship till now. Many other mediumships have been
revealed in the same way, suddenly, by experiment. This shows that
faculties, valuable for the study of these disturbing problems, may
exist in some of us who least expect it.
The physical phenomena which occurred in the presence of Stainton Moses
were numerous and varied.
These phenomena cannot be due to the subconsciousness of Stainton Moses,
and they seem to point to external intervention more clearly than do the
communications he has left us. The best known of these communications is
entitled _Spirit Teachings_. It is a long dialogue between self-styled
disincarnated spirits and Stainton Moses. Stainton Moses also wrote
automatically without being entranced. _Spirit Teachings_, among other
things, was obtained in this way. The medium is still saturated with his
theological education; he discusses, he cavils, and his spirit-guides
show him the absurdity of a great part of his beliefs. We know that his
robust faith began to be shaken by doubt about the time when his
mediumship revealed itself. If we left the above-mentioned phenomena out
of consideration, we might not unreasonably be tempted to see in these
dialogues only a doubling of personality; on one hand the personality of
the clergyman defending his doctrines foot by foot, on the other hand
the personality of the reasoning man formulating his own objections to
them.
The self-styled spirit-guides of Stainton Moses formed a united group
obeying one chief, who called himself Imperator. Rector, Doctor,
Prudens, were his subordinates. Naturally, they asserted they were the
souls of men who had lived on earth; the above names were borrowed for
the circumstance; their real names were revealed to Stainton Moses, who
wrote them in one of his note-books, but always refused to publish them.
I beg the reader to observe this detail, which will become important
later.
Stainton Moses had the temperament of an apostle but not at all that of
a man of science. The contents of the messages interested him much more
than their origin. The former clergyman liked better to discuss a
doubtful text than patiently to accumulate facts while guarding himself
in all possible ways against fraud. Certainly he was scrupulously
honourable; no conscious falsehood ever passed his lips, but his
temperament makes his interpretations doubtful, and with reason. He was
one of the first members of the Society for Psychical Research, but the
methods which the Society adopted from the beginning were not of a kind
to please him; for his part, he believed that abundant proofs already
existed, and he saw no use in minutely examining a large number of small
facts.
Dr Speer's son, whom Stainton Moses had taught, praises his judgment,
his modesty, his inexhaustible charity. Modest he really was, and it
never occurred to him to be vain of the miraculous phenomena which
occurred in his presence; he never thought of making a venal use of his
mediumship. Although he published his communications, he hardly ever
published reports of his phenomena. It was Frederic Myers who published
these from the note-books of the Speer family and of Stainton Moses
himself. The notes are in agreement, although they were made separately,
and without any idea of publication.
The son of Dr Speer asserts that Stainton Moses never refused a
discussion, and never despised an opponent. But, on the other hand,
Frederic Myers, who knew him well, assures us that he bore contradiction
badly, and was quickly irritated by it. The manner in which he retired
from the Society for Psychical Research tends to prove that it is Myers
who is right. The son of Dr Speer, in his gratitude to his former
master, must have deceived himself.
I will now explain the reason of this long preamble about Stainton
Moses. At a sitting which took place on June 19, 1895, Professor
Newbold, conversing with George Pelham, obtained from him the
enunciation of doctrines which contradicted those given by Stainton
Moses in _Spirit Teachings_. Professor Newbold[75] then asked,--
"Do you know of Stainton Moses?"
George Pelham.--"No, not very much. Why?"
Professor Newbold.--"Did you ever know of him or know what he did?"
G. P.--"I only have an idea from having met him here."
Professor N.--"Can you tell me what he said?"
G. P.--"No, only that he was W. Stainton Moses. I found him for E.[76]
and Hodgson."
Professor N.--"Did you tell Hodgson this?"
G. P.--"I do not think so."
At the sitting on the next day, Professor Newbold returns to the charge.
"Can you bring Stainton Moses here?"
G. P.--"I will do my best."
Professor N.--"Is he far advanced?"
G. P.--"Oh, no, I should say not. He will have to think for a while
yet."
Professor N.--"What do you mean?"
G. P.--"Well, have you forgotten all I told you before?"
Professor N.--"You mean about progression by repentance?"
G. P.--"Certainly I do."
Professor N.--"Was not he good?"
G. P.--"Yes, but not perfect by any means."
Professor N.--"Was he a true medium?"
G. P.--"True, yes, very true; his 'light' was very true, yet he made a
great many mistakes and deceived himself."
Phinuit, sent to find Stainton Moses, ends by bringing him. George
Pelham warns the sitter against the confusions and incoherences of
Stainton Moses's communications. "When he arrives," says George Pelham,
"I will wake him up."
Professor N.--"Is he asleep?"
G. P.--"Oh, Billie, you are stupid, I fear, at times. I do not mean wake
him up in a material sense."
Professor N.--"Nor did I."
G. P.--"Well, then, old man, don't be wasting light."
Professor N.--"I'm not wasting light, but I am obliged to find out what
you mean."
G. P.--"Well, this is what I wish also."
Professor N.--"Stainton Moses has been nearly three years in the
spirit.... Do you mean to say that he is not yet free from confusion?"
These explanatory passages would be of great value if we were sure that
we were not dealing with a secondary personality of Mrs Piper.
Later still, George Pelham returns to the probable mental confusion of
Stainton Moses, and to the necessity for taking certain precautions in
order to obtain clear communications. He was quite right. These
sittings, in which Stainton Moses was the self-styled communicator, are
exactly those which make the spiritualist hypothesis most difficult to
accept. All the exact information given existed already in the minds of
those present; all the rest was untrue. Stainton Moses had an excellent
chance of proving his identity. We have said that he had written down
the real names of his "spirit-guides" or "controls" in one of his
note-books. At the time these sittings were taking place in America,
Frederic Myers, in England, was studying these note-books in order to
publish so much of them as he thought fit. He knew these names, but I
believe he was the only person in the world who knew them. Stainton
Moses was told, "Give us the names of your spirit-guides; it will be a
splendid proof. Mr Myers knows them, but we do not. We will send them to
him, and if they are correct we shall no longer be able to have a
reasonable doubt of your identity." The self-styled Stainton Moses
seemed perfectly to understand what was asked of him; he gave the names,
and every one of them was wrong.
In October 1896 Dr Hodgson made George Pelham understand the necessity
of obtaining exact information from Stainton Moses, in order that the
problem, which seemed to interest George Pelham as much as it did Dr
Hodgson, might be solved. Stainton Moses then said that he would ask the
help of his former spirit-guides. The latter communicated directly
several times, in November and December 1896 and in January 1897. But
finally they demanded that the "light" of the medium should be put at
their exclusive disposal. Imperator explained that these unconsidered
experiments with all sorts of spirits--more or less undeveloped and
disturbed--as communicators, had made Mrs Piper as a medium into a
machine "worn out," and incapable of being really useful. He, Imperator,
and his friends would be able to restore her in time. But they must have
the right to keep away such communicators as they should judge likely to
injure her again. Dr Hodgson explained the importance of trying this
experiment to Mrs Piper in her normal state. Mrs Piper, docile as usual,
consented. The last appearance of Phinuit occurred on January 26, 1897.
Phinuit had formerly said, "They find fault with me, they won't
understand that I do all I can, but when they do not hear my voice any
longer they will regret me." However, he is not regretted. Whoever the
controls Imperator, Rector, Doctor and Prudens may be, since they have
controlled the communications, these have acquired a coherence,
clearness and exactness unknown before; errors are rare, and evident
falsehood unknown. Besides, Mrs Piper enters the trance differently.
Formerly there was more or less painful struggle; she had violent
convulsions and spasmodic movements; at present she enters the trance
quietly, as if she were falling asleep.
If, in truth, Mrs Piper entranced is merely an automaton, a "machine,"
of which use is made to communicate between two worlds, it is perfectly
evident that, on this side as well as the other, it is well to have
honourable and experienced experimenters. Phinuit was not perhaps
wanting in experience, but he was assuredly wanting in honesty; or
possibly he did not perceive the extreme importance of veracity in these
matters; he did not lie for the pleasure of lying, but he did not
hesitate to lie, if needs were, to escape from some difficulty.
The new report of Professor Hyslop, which I am about briefly to analyse,
will show us the new phase of Mrs Piper's mediumship. The results are
already good. Imperator asserts nevertheless that the "machine" still
needs repair, and that he will obtain still more wonderful results
by-and-by.
FOOTNOTES:
[74] For an account of the mediumship of W. Stainton Moses the reader is
referred to Mr F. W. H. Myers's articles in the _Proc. of S.P.R._, vol.
ix. p. 245, and vol. xi. p. 24.
[75] _Proc. of S.P.R._, vol. xiv. p. 36.
[76] Another communicator.