“Psychic Experiments” and Spiritualism
By L. A. S.
WHAT progress is Spiritualism making in the land to-day, preparatory to the fulfillment of the part which, upon the authority of inspired prophecy, we know it is to act in the great closing drama of earthly history? Upon this important question much light is thrown by an article in the Chicago Tribune of August 3, contributed by an authority on the subject of psychic phenomena and experiments, Mr. Percy L. Howard. This writer affirms that such experiments in “occult art” are everywhere secretly practiced among the rich and well-to-do, and admits that they seriously menace the welfare of society. The foundation idea of these experiments is the theory of the “duality” of the human mind, advanced some years ago by Prof. Thomas J. Hudson. According to this theory there is an “objective” and a “subjective” mind, the former being the mind which operates through the five physical senses, and the latter being a mind operating independently of these senses, and which “is most active when the objective mind is dethroned.” And this mind is “controllable by the objective mind of others.” Of the extent and effect of this dabbling in the mysteries of occultism, Mr. Howard says:— He [Professor Hudson] laid the foundation for a curiosity that, being allowed full vent throughout the length and breadth of the land, rapidly is bringing to us, especially in the great commercial centers, if the word of eminent physicians is to be believed, a race of men and women who not alone are losing their mental poise, but who . . . become an actual menace to society. To-day in London and New York statistics show that fully forty per cent of the adult population are experimenting in some branch of what has been known as the “occult art.” Hypnotism, mesmerism, clairvoyance, clairaudience, second sight, spiritism, and their various phenomena, being classed under the generic head of psychology, have formed a subject too engrossing in its interest to withstand, and to-day experimental work is going on from the humble cottager with his planchette, to the woman of society versed in every technicality of this still mysterious subject. One very common form of “experiment” in this line is “crystal gazing.” Note what is said of the extensiveness of this practice:— To-day there are to be found in almost every house along Fifth Avenue [New York City] and in the homes of most of the upper fashionable circles some members of the family who make their daily trips to the so-called mediums, where, in the quiet of some secluded and dimly lighted room, they are permitted to see in the little sphere of crystal scenes of days that have passed, and, as some of the more ignorant believe, visions of what is to come. And in not a few cases the women of the “upper ten” practice this fascinating study themselves, and act as mediums for their friends. Just now, says Mr. Howard, “crystal gazing has received a fresh impetus in New York, owing to the news recently received of another ‘test’ case,” in which the body of a missing London lawyer who had been murdered was located by a medium whom the victim’s wife had been induced to consult. In the following paragraph our authority establishes an intimate connection between these occult phenomena and Christian Science:— Once the theory of the dual mind is grasped, and one understands the great meaning of the power of suggestion, all of these so-called mysterious phenomena are easily understood, and a lightning-like glance is cast not only into the subject itself, but into the hitherto laughed-at realm of psycho-therapeutic mind healing, which as a religion flourishes under the name of Christian Science. And in the following statement we are told how essential to an understanding of these experiments is the doctrine that man has an immortal soul, a conscious entity, capable of existing independently of the body:— The real distinctive difference between the two minds seems to consist in the fact that the “objective” mind is merely the function of the physical brain, while the “subjective” mind is a distinct entity, possessing independent powers and functions, having a mental organization of its own, and being capable of sustaining an existence independently of the body. In other words, it is the soul. This “subjective mind,” we are informed, is “completely under the control of suggestion,” the suggestion coming from a controlling mind without. This is the phenomenon exhibited by a trance medium. “The clairvoyant medium,” says the authority we have quoted, “may be described as the man who has the power to raise the information possessed by his ‘subjective’ mind to the threshold of his consciousness.” All this makes clear the close connection between “psychic experiments,” which have become so common, Christian Science, which is so rapidly spreading, and Spiritualism, which professes to establish communication with the dead. The three are seen to be but different phases of one and the same thing. The theory of the “duality of the mind”—that is, that every individual really possesses two minds, operating independently of each other—may be regarded simply as an illustration of the errors which men are ready to receive when they turn away from the teaching of the Word of truth. Having provided this theory, and having given names to the various forces and phenomena which belong to it, men talk about “thought transference,” “second sight,” and the things done by clairvoyant mediums as though these had become mere natural phenomena easily understood from the standpoint of science, when in reality they have no real knowledge about them. But having transferred them, as they think, to the realm of natural phenomena, or having “discovered” that they belong there, they think it legitimate and safe to indulge freely in the “experiments” by which this pretended knowledge of occult things is to be obtained. It is not necessary, however, to regard the premises upon which their conclusions are built as being wholly the work of imagination. There is no reason to doubt what is said of the complete subjection of the “subjective mind” to the dominance of another intelligence in the process of producing occult information. This is a condition fully in harmony with what is known from the Scriptures concerning the working of Spiritualism, and with what is observed of the fruits of this evil system. The dominating intelligence in the case is, however, quite another than that premised by these discoverers in the realm of “psychic science.” Mr. Howard closes his description of “psychic experiments” with a paragraph on their dangerous character. The danger lies, he says, “in the fact that the ‘subjective mind’ has no power of reason by induction, and it does not require a vast sweep of the imagination to show under such a system how far moral degradation can reach. Much more is it evident, then, how dangerous it is to allow the ‘objective’ reason to be dethroned by a power when the laws under which that power operates are not understood.” Truly, it needs no “sweep of the imagination” to understand that to allow reason to be dethroned and the mind to become wholly subject to the control of another intelligence, acting upon all the suggestions of the latter as if they were the dictates of truth and reason, is a proceeding dangerous to the last degree. And if one’s reason alone would not teach him this, he would have but to note the mental and moral wrecks which such experimenting has produced, to be convinced of its truth. Our authority adds:— The number of persons in this class is legion; and daily are the ranks being added to. The strain upon the nervous system is enormous, especially among women, whose “subjective” senses seem to be in greater proportion than those of the more animal man. The faddists have added to the ranks, and the idle woman of society has turned her attention to what at first amused, then interested, and finally baffled, and as a result we have to-day hundreds of men and women, and some children, who are playing with a force as insidious and as7evil in its effects when not understood as any force yet discovered by experimental science. The “subjective” mind is paramount in the insane. And “fully forty per cent of the adult population” in London, New York, and other large centers are, if this writer speaks the truth, playing with this insidious force, and yielding themselves to the influence and control of a power residing in occult darkness, and which leads them contrary to every precept of the Word of God. And thus is answered the query, What of the progress of Spiritualism in the world to-day?