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 SPIRITISM

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SPIRITISM

In Europe the way had been prepared for Spirit- ism by tlie Svvedenborgian movement and by an epi- demic of tahlc-turninK whifh siircnd from the Conti- nent to England and invaded all clas.'ses of society. It was still a fashionable diversion when, in 1852, two mediums, Mrs. Hayden and Mrs. Roberts, came from America to London, and held seances which attracted the attention of scientists as well as popular interest. Faraday, indeed, in 1853 showed that the table move- ments were due to muscular action, and Dr. Carpen- ter gave the same explanation; but many thoughtful persons, notably among the clergy, held to the Spirit- istic interpretation. This was accepted also by Robert Owen, the socialist, while Professor De Mor- gan, the mathematician, in his account of a sitting with Mrs. Hayden, was satisfied that "somebody or some spirit was reading his thoughts". The later development in England was furthered by mediums who came from America: Daniel Dunglas Home (Hume) in 1855, the Davenport Brothers in 1864, and Henry Slade in 1876. Among the native mediums, Rev. William Stainton Moses became prominent in 1872, Miss Florence Cook in the same year, and Wil- liam Eglinton in 1886. Spiritism was advocated by various periodical publications, and defended in nu- merous works some of which were said to have been dictated by the spirits themselves, e. g. the "Spirit Teachings" of Stainton Moses, which purport to gi^'e an account of conditions in the other world and form a sort of Spiritistic theology. During this period also, scientific opinion on the subject was divided. While Professors Huxley and Tyndall sharply denounced Spiritism in practice and theory, Mr. (later Sir Wm.) Crookes and Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace regarded the phenomena as worthy of serious investigation. The same view was expressed in the report which the Dialectical Society published in 1871 after an inquiry extending over eighteen months, and at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association in 1876 Professor Barrett, F.R.S., concluded his account of the phenom- ena he had observed by urging the appointment of a committee of scientific men for the systematic in- vestigation of such phenomena.

The growth of Spiritism on the Continent was marked by similar transitions from popular curiosity to serious inquiry. As far back as 1787, the Exegetic and Philanthropic Society of Stockholm, adhering to the Swedenborgian view, had interpreted the utter- ances of "magnetized" subjects as messages from the spirit world. This interpretation gradually won favour in France and Germany; but it was not until 1848 that Cahagnet published at Paris the first vol- ume of his "Arcanes de la vie future devoil^es", con- taining what purported to be communications from the dead. The excitement aroused in Paris by table- turning and rapping led to an investigation by Count Ag6nor de Gasparin, whose conclusion ("Des Tables tournantes", Paris, 1854) was that the phenomena originated in some physical force of the human body. Professor Thury of Geneva ("Les Tables tournantes", 1855) concurred in this explanation. Baron de Guldenstubbe (" La Rcaht6 des Esprits", Paris, 1857), on the contrary, declared his belief in the reality of spirit intervention, and M. Rivail, known later as .\llan Kardec, published the "spiritualistic phi- losophy" in "Le Livre des Esprits" (Paris, 18.53), which became a guide-book to the whole subject.

In Germany also Spiritism was an outgrowth from "animal magnetism". J. H. Jung in his "Theorieder Geistcrkunde" declared that in the state of trance the soul is freed from the body, but he regarded the trance itself as a diseased condition. Among the earliest German clairvoyants was Frau Frederica HaufTe, the "Seeress of Prevorst", whose experiences were related by .lu.stinus Kerner in "Die Seherin von Prevorst" (Stuttgart, 1S29). In its later development Spirit- ism was represented in scientific and philosophical

circles by men of prominence, e. g. Ulrici, Fichte, Zoll- ner, Fechner, and Wm. Weber. The last-named three conducted (1877-8) a series of experiments with the American meditmi Slade at Leipzig. The results were published in ZoUner's " Wissenschaftliche Ab- handlungen" (cf. Massey, "Transcendental Phys- ics", London, 1880, in which the portions relating to spiritism are translated). Though considered impor- tant at the time, this investigation, owing to lack of caution and accuracy, cannot be regarded as a satis- factory test. (Cf. "Report of the Seybert Commis- sion", Philadelphia, 1887 —, which also contains an account of an investigation conducted at the Univer- sity of Pennsylvania with Slade and other mediums.)

The foregoing outline shows that modern Spiritism within a generation had passed beyond the limits of a merely popular movement and had challenged the at- tention of the scientific world. It had, moreover, brought about serious divisions among men of science. For those who denied the existence of a soul distinct from the organism it was a foregone conclusion that there could be no such communications as the Spirit- ists claimed. This negative view, of course, is still taken by all who accept the fundamental ideas of Materiahsm. But apart from any such a priori con- siderations, the opponents of Spiritism justified their position by pointing to innumerable cases of fraud which were brought to light either through closer ex- amination of the methods employed or through the admissions of the mediums themselves.

In spite, however, of repeated exposure, there oc- curred phenomena which apparently could not be ascribed to trickery of any sort. The inexplicable character of these the sceptics attributed to faulty observation. The Spiritistic practices were simply set down as a new chapter in the long history of oc- cultism, magic, and popular superstition. On the other hand, a certain number of thinkers felt obhged to confess that, after making due allowance for the element of fraud, there remained some facts which called for a more systematic investigation. In 1869 the London Dialectical Society appointed a committee of thirty-tliree members "to investigate the phe- nomena alleged to be spiritual manifestations, and to report thereon". The committee's report (1871) de- clares that "motion may be produced in soUd bodies without material contact, by some hitherto unrecog- nized force operating within an undefined distance from the human organism, and beyond the range of muscular action"; and that "this force is frequently directed by intelhgence". In 1882 there was or- ganized in London the "Society for Psychical Re- search" for the scientific examination of what its prospectus terms "debatable phenomena". A mo- tive for investigation was supplied by the history of hypnotism, which had been repeatedly ascribed to quackery and deception. Nevertheless, patient re- search conducted by rigorous methods had shown that beneath the error and imposture there lay a real influence which was to be accounted for, and which finally was explained on the theory of suggestion. The progress of Spiritism, it was thought, might hke- wise yield a residuum of fact deserving scientific explanation.

The Society for Psychical Research soon counted among its members distinguished representatives of science and philosophy in England and America; numerous associations with similar aims and methods were organized in various countries. The "Proceed- ings" of the Society contain detailed reports of in- vestigations in Spiritism and allied subjects, and a voluminous literature, expository and critical, has been created, .■\mong the most notable works are: "Phantasms of the Living" by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore (London, 1886); ¥. VV. H. Myers, "Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death" (Londou, 1903); and Sir Oliver Lodge, F. R. S., "The