Dangers of Mediumship by Joseph Harvey Waggoner

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 1, 1874

Dangers of Mediumship

By Joseph Harvey Waggoner

Modern Spiritualism.—No. 5.

Dangers of Mediumship.

As we approach this subject, we are aware that spiritualists will claim that we magnify the danger—that we view the subject from a wrong standpoint, and with eyes of prejudice. But we think we are able to successfully repel this charge. We have presented, and propose still to present, spiritualism from the standpoint of the spiritualists. We have not offered as evidence the testimony of their enemies, or of those not well acquainted, by observation and experience, with its workings. Let this fact be marked. We now propose to examine the subject of the dangers of mediumship or spirit control, and this altogether in the light of proofs presented by themselves. The following points are presented to us by spiritualistic data:—

1. The spirits control the mediums, acting, not only independent of, but against, their wills.

2. The spirits have all the evil dispositions, propensities, and desires of wicked, debased persons in this life.

3. These desires they had no means of gratifying until the recent discovery of mediumship.

4. Spirits do now gratify their desires by inducing such desires in the medium, causing them to indulge in evil practices, of the gratification of which the spirits partake.

As some of the testimonies now offered bear upon more than one of these points, we shall not arrange the evidence under each head respectively, as that would involve the necessity of repeating them, and thus add to the length of our articles.

Of the great influence and power of spirits over the mediums no one who has not examined the matter can have any idea. Dr. Gridley gives an account of an aged medium, of sixty years, living near him (in Southampton, Mass.), whose sufferings “in two months at the hands of evil spirits would fill a volume of 500 pages.” Very little of this ever becomes known outside of the “circles.” The following extract will give some idea of the above case:—

“They forbade his eating to the very point of starvation. He was a perfect skeleton; they compelled him to walk day and night, with intermissions, to be sure, as their avowed object was to torment him as much and as long as possible. They swore by everything sacred and profane that they would knock his damned brains out, always accompanying their threat with blows on the forehead or temples, like that of a mallet in the hands of a powerful man; with this difference, however, the latter would have made him unconscious, while in full consciousness he now endured the indescribable agony of those heavy and oft-repeated blows; they declared they would skin him alive; that he must go to New York and be dissected by inches, all of which he fully believed. They declared they would bore holes into his brain, when he instantly felt the action suited to the word, as though a dozen augers were being turned at once into his very skull; this done they would fill his brain with bugs and worms to eat it out, when their gnawing would instantly commence.

“These spirits would pinch and pound him, twitch him up and throw him down, yell and blaspheme, and use the most obscene language that mortal can conceive; they would declare that they were Christ in one breath and devils in the next; they would tie him head to foot for a long time together, in a most excruciating posture; declare they would wring his damned neck off because he doubted them or refused obedience.”—Astounding Facts from the Spirit World, pp. 253, 254.

Judge Edmonds says that entire spirit control, or the “exclusion of the medium’s selfhood,—a suspension of his own will,” is very rare. See his Spir. Tracts, No. 4, p. 7. But this language proves that he believes that it does sometimes occur. An approach to it is given in his second Vol. on Spiritualism, Dr. Dexter being the medium. He says:—

“It was altogether a very extraordinary manifestation. It was conducted throughout with unusual and indeed unknown violence. He took entire possession of the doctor, not merely of his arm, as others did, and the doctor said he felt an almost uncontrollable desire to strike me, and to commit acts of violence.”—Appendix A, vol. 2, p. 512.

The following case was given in No. 13 of the Spiritual Telegraph:—

“A lady who had joined the Methodist church, in Cleveland, only two weeks previous, was thrown into a magnetic, or, as our Western friends call it, a spiritualized condition, and called for music; and after she had danced fifteen or twenty minutes was suddenly released, and returned home, I presume none the worse for what she could not help.”

Prof. Brittan thus speaks of Mr. Davis’ mediumship:—

“During the delivery of ‘Nature’s Divine Revelations,’ Mr. Davis was profoundly entranced, and so far removed from the sphere of outward consciousness as to be temporarily absolved from the obligations of the earth-life. . . . Of course in his state of waking consciousness he was no more accountable for what had been uttered during the trance, than the reader is responsible for his dreams, or for unconsciously talking in his sleep.”—Telegraph’s Answer to Mahan, pp. 8, 9.

Of mediumship he further says:—

“We may further add, in this connection, that the trance mediums for spirit intercourse are equally irresponsible. Many of them are totally unable to resist the powers which come to them from the invisible and unknown realms.”—Id. p. 10.

This passive state of the mediums in all forms of manifestation has long been inculcated by the spirits. The following was published in 1852:—

“Such is the physical and mental condition of minds that we intend to make a great change in them before we write what will be necessary. The writing will not be the commencement of our work, but will follow other manifestations as soon as will be expedient. . . . The writing will be executed with great rapidity, when mediums shall become wholly passive.”—Pilgrimage of T. Paine, p. 250.

A well-known spiritualist writes:—

“I have seen a medium gently magnetized and thrown into a trance in one minute, by the imperceptible influence of the spirits, in accordance with their own original proposition, reluctantly acceded to by the medium and her friends; during which, sometimes, she had visions of the spirit world; and at others become entirely non-cognizant of everything transpiring in either world. In the latter case, the spirits, as previously promised, made use of her organs of speech, unconsciously to herself.”—Ballou, quoted by Dr. Hare, p. 320.

The following scene of the possession of a medium is described by Dr. Gridley, who offers the fullest proof of the truth of his statements:—

“We have seen the medium evidently possessed by Irishmen and Dutchmen of the lowest grade—heard him repeat Joshua’s drunken prayers, exactly like the original—imitate his drunkenness in word and deed—try to repeat or rather act over his most brutal deeds (from which for decency’s sake, he was instantly restrained by extraordinary exertion and severe rebuke)—snap and grate his teeth most furiously, strike and swear, while his eyes flashed like the fires of an orthodox perdition. We have heard him hiss, and seen him writhe his body like the serpent when crawling, and dart out his tongue and play it exactly like that reptile. These exhibitions were intermingled with the most wrangling and horrible convulsions.”—Astounding Facts, p. 19.

Much more to the same intent might be added, but this will not be dissented from. The power of spirits to control the mediums is very great; indeed it is unlimited, as these testimonies show. And we shall presently show how this power is used and abused. Closely connected with the foregoing are some of the following, given to show the disposition of the spirits. Says Dr. Randolph:—

“Many of these denizens of the mid-regions of space are insane—in the higher sense all are so—and to them, lust and its gratifications, dram-drinking and mal-practice of all sorts, is a reality.”—Dealings with the Dead, p. 150.

“Another admitted that he was drowned in consequence of getting dead-drunk. On being asked if he was happy, he answered, ‘Damned happy.’ Having evidently been a seaman, who had sailed under an officer who was present, he had preserved the usual fondness of sailors for tobacco and grog. This propensity he could not avoid displaying, notwithstanding his having passed death’s dread portal, and the obvious inutility of expressing to mortals his craving for these pernicious stimulants. Thus it appears that in the spirit world, one means of retribution for the indulgence of bad propensities in this life, is subjugation to their ungratified cravings.”—Dr. Hare, Spir. Sci. Dem., p. 137.

In offering the testimony of Judge Edmonds, we refer to the evidence of the reality contained in the first extract. He describes a tall, vicious-looking woman, very dirty, hair gray, teeth gone, eyebrows heavy, and a snaky pair of eyes. She was beating a child of four or five years. He then says:—

“I next observed a well-dressed female sitting by the wayside, apparently in great distress. She had been driven out of his dwelling by the man for whom she had sinned on earth—for whom she had retained, even in death, an insane attachment, and whose company she had sought as her only solace in the spheres.”—Vol. 2, p. 186.

He directed her to a mountain where she might see a better country; and taking the child, she started. In a note, page 189, he says:—

“Now in August, 1854, the spirits of the female and of that child have approached and spoken to me through a medium. She gave her name, and said she was a French woman, and lived in Paris during the reign of Louis Philippe. She spoke of her parents, of her husband, and of her brothers and sisters. She gave me some little account of the progress she had made, and said she had not yet attained the base of the mountain toward which she was traveling.”

In the same connection, he gives the following ludicrous account of the freaks of a mischievous boy and of his punishment:—

“On the opposite side of the way, I observed what seemed to be a full-grown boy, had caught a dog, had split open his tail, and put a stick in it, merely to enjoy the sport of seeing his sufferings. He then turned the dog loose, and stood enjoying the scene. The attention of the owner of the dog was drawn to his cries, and, discovering the cause, he beat the boy, who, being as cowardly as he was cruel, fled, but was pursued, and beaten, and kicked, far up the road.”—Edmonds, Vol. 2, p. 182.

If any man had tried to get up a burlesque on spiritualism, he could not have exceeded the above. Only to think of a spirit boy splitting a spirit dog’s tail and putting a stick in it for spiritual enjoyment! Surely, he needed the “gravity of a Judge” to be able to record this. However, with all its ludicrousness it is good proof on the point in question. The following is as disgusting as the last is ridiculous:—

“At the door of one of the hovels, that stood a little back from the road, I saw a female who seemed to be about twenty-six years old. She was round and full in appearance—was a dark brunette with painted cheeks. Her whole appearance, garb, and manner were meretricious, and she had taken up her position there to entice some one to enter her dwelling. At length a man in passing turned aside, under the influence of passions which had marked his earthly career, and with her entered the house. I saw they were both influenced by the same passions, but were incapable of gratifying them. The woman became furious. She raved wildly, and in her insensate rage she dashed the things around her to pieces. The man enjoyed her anger, and she raged at him for laughing at her. She seized a chair, and aimed a blow at him. He evaded it, and with his fist knocked her down. He struck her in the neck just below her chin, and when she fell he gnashed his teeth in his rage, and stamped with his feet on her breast. He kicked her in the side several times, and rushed from the house.”—Edmonds, Vol. 2, p. 182.

The above are but samples, and not the most horrible of the scenes in the spirit land, described by Judge Edmonds. Dr. Randolph records the following experience of a spirit:—

“As I gazed out upon the surrounding glories of my new world, I could not forbear or repress a desire, if possible, to take one glance at those who yet dwelt in infamy, although disembodied. . . . Suffice it that I beheld scenes of lust, insanity, debauchery, and all vileness, sufficiently dreadful to appall the stoutest heart of any sane one who dwells in the same awful phantasies, insanities, and evils.”—Dealings with the Dead, pp. 143, 4.

Dr. Hare and Judge Edmonds said the vicious spirits had no means of gratifying their passions; but these statements have large limitations; for the Judge gives numerous instances wherein the desire of mischief, revenge, &c., were gratified, even in the spheres. And all spiritual authorities agree that spirit intercourse is a recent discovery, and is progressive in its manifestations. On this point the following is copied from Mr. Matteson’s work:—

“After the writing of the spirit Hebrew in Mr. Fowler’s room, B. Franklin is made to say: ‘My dear friends, I am happy to announce to you that the project which has engaged our attention for some years has been in part accomplished.’—Telegraph, No. 22. In Mr. Boynton’s ‘Unfoldings,’ John Wesley is made to say, ‘Never was more joy in the spirit world when it was made known that a mode of communication was opened to mankind. Such a gathering to hear the joyful news—such rejoicing was never known in the spheres.’ p. 10. So in one of Judge Edmonds’ ‘Visions.’ Shekinah, vol. i, p. 268, the Judge describes the inhabitants of the spheres as ‘rejoicing that a communication had at length been opened between the inhabitants of earth and the spirit land. . . . They set up one glad shout which rang through all space, and pointed to Dr. Franklin as him to whose practical and enlarged philosophy they were indebted for perfecting the discovery.’”—Spirit Rapping Unveiled, pp. 143, 144.

Hudson Tuttle, a very popular spiritualistic writer, says:—

“A few years since the discovery of the method by which these pages are written, have elapsed. During the first years of its growth but few demonstrations were made, and those of a disconnected character.”—Life in the Spheres, p. 62.

Again, after describing a circle, and a spirit acting on the medium, &c., he says:—

“The members of that circle went to their homes wiser and better than they came. Their spirit friends departed wiser, too, rejoicing that the long-sought method of communication had been discovered, and that the earth received by its means a new impetus by the influx of higher light.”—Id. p. 66.

J. H. Waggoner.

(To be continued.)