LYING WONDERS | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 21, 1897

LYING WONDERS.

We have no doubt that a great many of the so-called marvels of Hypnotism and Spiritualism are what may be called fakes, mere slight-of-hand performances, which are easily accounted for by those who are in the secret. The New York World recently gave an account of the career of a so-called prince of fakirs in the hypnotic line. He was one of those who remained buried six feet underground in a so-called hypnotic trance for a week; and yet he now tells the public that he was fed during the whole time. He had the remarkable faculty of having almost absolute control over his heart. He could send the pulse beats up to 150 and from that down to one-third the number, almost instantly. He could swallow cayenne pepper without any discomfort, and bear any amount of pinching and piercing without manifesting any signs of pain. But he now tells us that the hypnotic part was all a fake.

The same is true concerning many things in Modern Spiritualism. A little over two years ago papers in Massachusetts reported strange fires in a house, twenty-five mysterious fires having started within a short time in the most unaccountable manner and places,—now in a newspaper, then in towels hanging on a rack, then on a lounge, then in the middle of a bed. It was said that the mysterious blaze would spring up before the eyes of the watcher; two pillows on which women were working broke out in flames and were destroyed; and that the fire marshal could find no trace of matches, or anything else which would lead to the belief that an incendiary had been at work. We wrote at that time to two gentlemen in Hopkinton, Mass., the town where these fires were said to have occurred. One of them, Mr. R. I. Frail, the chief of the fire department, wrote:—

“Altho no one saw a fire set at the house of Mrs. Fisher Hemenway, it is a fact that there were twenty-five or more fires there in twenty-four hours. The first, as near as I can determine, happened in the woodbox, at least it might have been. I myself think that they in the house made so much talk about the matter that a boy in the family thought to further entertain them, but none of the fires started in rooms where the folks were. While they were occupied in putting out a fire in one room, a fire would start in another. After they called me, and I found how things were going, I said I would watch upstairs alone, and there were no more fires there. After a time I went downstairs, but found I could not watch everywhere, and the fires came fast. At length I sent the boy thirteen or fourteen years old, after a fireman. He was gone twenty minutes and there was no fire while he was absent. When the other man came, we sent off some of the women and put the boy out-of-doors. Then the fires began in the barn. Then the boy’s uncle had him go off the place, and the fires stopped.”

This is an illustration of many of the so-called wonders of Spiritualism. Yet many such instances as these do not disprove the fact that there is such a power as hypnotism, which is used many times where there is no design or object whatever to mystify or deceive the public; nor do they disprove the fact that there is a supernatural power connected with Spiritualism, by which the angels of Satan possess and control men and women here as they did in the time of our Saviour. That there would be frauds connected with Spiritualism is expressly declared; for we are told that Satan will not only work “with all power and signs” but with “lying wonders.” 2 Thess. 2:9. It is only the love of God’s truth which will keep men from these delusions. And the love of that truth in the heart will save from the wonders of Satan, whether they be lying, or real.