The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-01-11 00:00:00

WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM P

lip this subject, which le now being eh) widely discussed,
rhe Times has the following leader:—
Many eens.ble readers we fear, will think we owe
them come apology for opening or column. to a con-
troversy en Rich a subject a. Spiritualism, and thus
treating as an open or debatable queetion what should
rather be dismitned at once rie either an ilnpootnre or a
Oelusion. But even an imposture may osll for unmask-
lig, and popular delusions. however absurd, are often
~o important to he negleciwl by the wieer portion of
• nankind. It ha, we supposet on these grounds we are
'told that men of teZience," instead of treating Spiri-
tualism with derisien or ci ntempt. ought to etudy it.
phenomena with impartial attention and prepare
theneedvee either to rep no deceit or to acknowledge
fads. On the other side, however, it in reosonably
argued that before scieutiic men can be expected
to investigate alleged phenomena, it must he shown
that such phenomena are real enough and extra-
culinary enough to deserve inquiry. Thus, in fact,
has arisen the questionof " Spiritualism e. Fkience," un-
der which heading we have allowed correepondents of all
!bodes of belief, or diebelief, to relate their experience
or state their views, Is there really any case for scientific
Investigation in this matter Would it have been allow.
able, for instruato, te l'rofeasor Faraday to come and
tcrifY fee hitriffell the manifestations of Spiritualism,
or w.ould It have been an instilt to invite him to any
h e.betudity ? Is three' in reality, anything, as
tewyers would eon, to go to a jury with' Well, on
the one hart We have abundance of alleged experience
which ear hardly be called evidence, and • few depoci.
ti na el a more notable and imprtneive character. On
tin other hand, we have many accounts of convicted
impostors, and many authentic reporte of prechedy
such disappointments or discoveries as we should be
led to expect,

What, however, is Spiritualism? We Mk that im-
portant question with little hope of getting a conchs-
vii answer, for our readers will have seen during the
last few days how very various are the impressions of
Spirituslints themselves. Originally, no doubt, as the
name itself implies, Spiritualism meant &certain deal-
through some mysterious agencies, with the spirits
Ist the dead, which were summoned to communicate
With the living. This is nothing but the old theory of
irbusts and apparitions reduced to a kind of practice,
by which Spirit., instead of appearing at their own
discretion, are raised at will by the call of others.
Probably the believers in Spiritu diem as thus defined
do not include many scientific men ; but other views
ii the matter have teen placed bet. re us. One corre-
spondent is content to ebserve that he has witnessed
phenomena which could not be attributed to any
natural causes. ituo:her expresses his conviction that
certain phenomena are really due to the operation of a
force hitherto unsuspected, but entering into the
agencies of nature like any other force. As this is,
perhaps, the least incredible of all the hypotheses, we
may as well consider it first, especially as the reader of
Lord Lytton's novels will recognise in it a familiar and
almost attractive assumption. It is said, then,
that the force of the human will, which can
put the fingers of the hand in motion at plea.
cure, can occasionally and under certain circum-
stances be exerted beyond the limits of the
body, and with such material effect as to move
Inanimate objects to an extent, at any rate, far
exceeding the mechanical force employed. A number
of Persons,. being duly gifted and in a proper state of
" cerebration," might thus, we are toll, put in motion
a heavy dining•table and drive it over a considerable
space. Now, we must avow that, for our own part,
we do not believe the united " wills " of all the nine
hundred millions of the earth's population could ever
be made to move a single wine-glass; but the possi-
bility of such a force may be imagined with less outrage
to reason than is involved in ceitain other Spiritualiat
theories, and can easily be brought to proof.
Of the other alleged phenomena of Spiritualism it is
difficult to speak with eves this amount of gravity.
They are for the most part exhibited under conditions
tether plainly suggestive of imposture or clearly con-
tingent with delusion. Stipulations for a dark room,
concerted arrangements of furniture, and a company
pri disposed by credulity to the reception of impreesions
Sr, not terms likely to commend themselves to the
students of physical science. The phenomena them-
selves, too, are mostly incompatible with any serious
conception of Spiritual revelations, and, at the same
time, exactly adapted to the purposes of human opera-
tors. Raps given under the table, chairs totaled about
the room, strange noses, and mysterious movements
have been the stock features of all such stories from
the days of the Cock-lane Ghost to the pre cut time.
Snob tricks are easily played, and the manifesta-
tions are easily magnified by a credulous or imagi-
native mind. When we hear from witnesses neither
imagirative nor credulous that they have really heard'
or eeen what they could not tell how to explain, we
may believethem without the least belief in the truth
or reality of Spiritualism. Exactly the same things
have been said of Indian juzglers or Egyptian magicians.
When, again, we are told that Spiritn dem, having
existed for forty years, must have a basis of trot?',
we can only reply that magic without the least
basis of truth existed and was, fully believed in for
more than ten times that period. Its theory was per-
fectly simple, being founded on the belief, universally
prevailing, that the elements were peopled with certain
Spirits or superhuman natures which could, by the
application of certain laws, be made to perform the
bidders will. Magical art consisted in the mastery of
these laws, and the command consequently attained
over the powers of the air, the earth, or the sea.
The observance of certain forms the burning of cer-
tain essences, and the utterance of certain words called
the spirit or the "genii" to the presence of the per.
former, and it is curious to remark how elaborately the
study must have been pursued. The Magician of
Orientalt ales before exercising his are in variably consults
his "b00k,," and is imetimes spends days in the in-
veetigation. We laugh at such pretensions now, but
they were neither roliolleus nor incredible in times
when the existence of the spirits concerned Ran never
called in flotation. It was everywhere believed that
natures en' owed with more than human faculties were
among the Leine& id the world, and from that convic-
tion to the•ronception of an art by which they might
Le controlle.l the passage was easy. But this does not
touch the essence of spiritualistic pretentions. We are
told either that spirits from the unseen world may be
called to communicate with living men and women, or
that a force hitherto unknown may be exerted with
material effect upon inanimate bodies; and then wears
asked why men of science will not apply themselves to the
investigatii not such claim. In the ton trovers y which has
been raised in our columns due allowance has, perhaps,
not been mode for the conditions of the problem ; but
sufficient answer to the demand for a acientitic in-
quiry is that the proposals must come in less air bi-
guous or olijectionable shape. The " medium " must
be cotent with any apartment offered for the pur roee,
with an unbelieving audience, and with conditions ge-
nerally devilled to prevent eves the possibility of
deception or misapprehension. The employer of
" Psychic Force" must accept similar terms, which,
indeed, in liis ease, as th. r • can be no "susceptibilities "
involved, should be readily welcomed. We have
been warned not to apply the measures of an exact or
advanced science to diacoveries possibly just dawning
upon mankind, but that advice would befit only an
ulterior stage of the inquiry. We cannot be too scep-
tical, too scrutinizing, or too precise in ascertaining
facts, though it may be otherwise when we ceme to
explanatis us. Let us first be positively assured that a
Spirit has been evoked, or that a dining-table has been
moved by a niece effort of volition on the part of an
operator. When the facts have been once eatabliebeil
Science may be fairly called upon to consider their
import.