REV. J. M. SAVAGE, whose name is not unfamiliar on both sides of the ocean, states conclusions which are but those of multitudes of persons like himself. For more than twenty-five years he has been a close observer and investigator of these phenomena. He says that in forming his opinion he has used no “dark seance” occurrences as evidence; has followed the most rigid scientific method; has kept nothing which was doubtful, and nothing which he has not seen and known and demonstrated to be true. His decision concerning moving objects, such as tables, pianos, a chair (with himself in it), etc., is that they were moved “beyond question or qualification of statement, in a way inexplicable on the theory that only the muscular power of any person present was involved.”
Equally positive and equally representative is the following, taken from the same source:—
There are clairaudience, clairvoyance. There is the visible movement of physical bodies without any visible reason for their moving; there is the playing of musical instruments by no visible fingers or hands; there are visions, there are voices, there are scenes and experiences on death-beds; there are what are called hauntings, wraiths, doubles, phantoms of the dead and of the living. There is no sort of question that there are phantasms of both the dead and the living. That what we call ghosts exist, no unprejudiced student has the slightest doubt.
We might give our own evidence on several of these points, which has led us to the same conclusion, but we prefer to quote from one so widely known. We have had ghosts appear in our own house when there was not, so far as we know, a medium in the town; we know absolutely reliable persons, non-believers in Spiritism, who have seen phantasms of their living friends, to say nothing of others who have seen the apparitions of the dead, and that when no medium whom they were aware of was about.
It is useless to deny these things. And the fact is, they are becoming more astonishing as the years advance.
Equally certain is it, equally well established, that behind these things there is intelligence. As the same author says, “I know that they”—the raps—“indicate intelligence.” It has been demonstrated again and again that this is not due to the “psychics,” for the communications are frequently concerning matters which are demonstrably unknown to the mediums by whose aids the raps or trance speaking occurs. He further states what is simply a fact beyond dispute when he says, “After years of investigation, a large number of the leading thinkers, students, authors, scientists, physical scientists, chemists, mathematicians—great minds—have come to believe that there is no possible way of explaining that which has been over and over again proved to be fact without supposing that they have been in communication with some invisible intelligence. That is at present my own belief. . . . . If somebody can give me an explanation for my facts, I will take it. . . . That they are facts I know. . . . I believe because a fact has come to me and been handled by myself—a fact which I can explain in no other way.”
We do not say that these physical phenomena are supernatural; but the closer they are studied and their extreme subtlety and cunning in many cases observed, the more we are led to the conclusion that conscious human deception does at times run into superhuman manipulation. And this we believe would be the decision of any such ordinary jury as we should with perfect confidence trust as competent to try the evidence in a case involving the death penalty. If these were the days of Moses, when every person having communication with “familiar spirits” was stoned, we have serious doubts whether all the mediums of to-day could convince the hard sense of the old warrior and statesman that they were not deserving of that fate, if not for being in league with the devil, at least for being so devilish in character that they were no longer fit to mix with decent society, a menace to the peace and welfare of the body politic.
Certainly there are tricks galore; and in these days when we carry air in a pail as we would water, and look through a man as through a dirty window-glass, when we talk with each other over a distance of more than two-hundred miles without so much as a wire to carry the message; who would venture to assert that, if we understood the occult forces of nature a little better, we might not manipulate electricity in such a way as to produce ghosts at pleasure without any visible physical agent? Indeed, a well-known and fully accredited medium, with whom I was at one time in correspondence, wrote that “every medium knows how difficult it often is in cloudy weather to get manifestations.” Every school-boy likewise knows the effect of muggy atmosphere upon electric currents, as do also many victims of the electric light, car, and telephone.
It is said of the Greek Lysander that where the lion’s skin fell short, he eked it out with the fox’s. This is much the principle acted upon by spirit mediums; rather than lose the shekels resulting from the admission fees of a good audience, where Mephisto fails they supply the deficiency with magic. This is the written confession to me of the medium before mentioned, after he became a converted man.
It is certain so far as human experiments can determine, that, whether we are willing to believe or not the use of merely natural laws in the production of these physical phenomena, many of them, through whatever agency performed, are supernormal in character, even tho in many cases this may consist chiefly in the bafflingly subtle combination and use of merely natural laws—physical and psychological.
The problem, therefore, becomes this: Given superhuman intelligence, to what sort of being does it belong? Is it of an angel, of a dead man, or of a devil?
Scientifically (without the Bible), we know no more about angelic beings than we do about demons. We must consequently discuss the question from the standpoint of what the manifestations themselves purport to be; and the one ever-persistent claim running through them all, and held without exception by Spiritist propagandists, is that the phenomena are caused by disembodied souls.
We have, then, but two scientific facts to reason from: (1), that there is extrinatural intelligence; (2), that this claims to belong to some dead person.
If this claim can be substantiated, the thing is settled. But a claim is in no sense a demonstration. Hence, how could it be demonstrated? The answer is, By proving that no other hypothesis could explain the facts. But if we ask ourselves whether any other supposition can with equal facility comprehend all of the facts, we find not a single phenomenon which might not be as readily explained on the theory that it was effected by an evil spirit bent on deceiving mankind.
Here science must rest its case if it determines to omit all moral considerations. Any man is of course at liberty to believe whichever of the above interpretations he prefers; but let him forever remember that it is merely preference and not proof.
For emphasis we will say again, that this question can be settled (outside of the Bible) only by a consideration of the moral character of the phenomena themselves.
Then the matter becomes perfectly easy; for we have already seen fraud and deception entering into the whole fabric to such an extent that the main question in the scientific view yet is, whether the entire thing is not the mere production of shameless rascals.
And yet multitudes exalt this stuff into a religion. Be astonished, O ye heavens! It certainly is not to be wondered at that every long-haired freak and mountebank can gain followers, when such vast numbers will stultify every instinct of reason and degrade every moral faculty by enslaving them to a superstition whose very life is drawn from the breast of deceit.
[The consideration of the “Physical Phenomena of Spiritism” will be concluded next week. The Scriptural side will then be considered.]
