Modern Spiritualism by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Oct 23, 1879

Modern Spiritualism.

By Editor

DANGERS OF MEDIUMSHIP.

NOTWITHSTANDING all the evidence that has from time to time been presented to the world, of the Satanic origin and evil tendency of these spirit workings, many are so deluded as to court the influence of these spirits, and desire to be developed as mediums. We would that our words of warning could reach the ears and touch the hearts of all such. But Spiritualists will claim that we magnify the danger—that we view the subject from a wrong stand-point, and with eyes of prejudice.

It has been our aim throughout this work to present Spiritualism as it is,—and as it is presented to the world by its own adherents and advocates. We have not offered as evidence the testimony of their enemies, or of those not 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 mediums, 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.

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 augurs 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, pages 253-54.

In a former article Judge Edmonds is quoted as saying that entire spirit control, or the "exclusion of the medium's selfhood—a suspension of his own will," is very rare. See his "Spiritual 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 volume 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. ii, page 512.

The following case was given in the 13th No. 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."

And 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. page 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 Thos. Paine, page 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, became 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, page 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 low-est 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, page 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 gratification, dram-drinking and mal-practice of all sorts, is a reality."—Dealings with the Dead, page 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., page 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. ii. 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, 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 towards 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. ii. page 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 her 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 insatiate 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 left 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. ii. page 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 and evils."—Dealings with the Dead, pages 143-4.

(To be Continued.)