National opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1865-1874, 1868-12-18
Spiritual Manifestations

"
Ihe American Journal Of Com
merce contains an abstract paper
By DR., Bell, read at the meeting of
Insane hospital superintendent in
Boston, from which we take q few
extracts.
DR.. Bell first narrates a series Of
experiments In stable moving
Next he speaks Of "long converse
tons with what purported to be the
spirits Of persons dead for twenty
five to forty years, in which every
question he could devise relative TO
their domestic history ana to events
in it, known only to them and MN,
had been truly answered. Some OF
subjects put mentally. G., without
speaking or wTiting-had half a
dozen correct replies, forbidding of
course completely, on any doctrine
of chances. the contingency of acct
dent, or coincidence, as such mental
questions, per sc, negative the ex
PLANTATION of previous knowledge on
the part of the medium
The account then proceeds as fol
lows:
Pretty early, however, in his i'll
vestigatlons, DR.. Bell began to find
that, however correct his spiritual
conferees were to most of their re
sponses, the moment question was
put involving a response the truth
Of which was unknown to him, uni
form failure occurred. Sometimes,
where he believed at the time that
his questions were truly answered,
subsequent information had shown
him that he had been Mistaken
He had answers which he believed
to be true. when the facts were de-
eilediy otherwise.
Pursuing this train of inquiry he
found the "spirits," while averring
that they could see him distinctly
"face to face" never could read the
signatures taken from an old file,
and unfolded without his having
-s0en the writing. Yet as soon as
he had cast his eye upon the sigma
ture, without allowing any one else
to see it, it was correctly anC
promptly reproduced by the alpha
beticsl rappings. And again, whel
he had made a previous arrange
ment with his family that the,
should do certain things every quar-
ter Of an hour ut home--hc, o
course, not knowing what-whilt
he was to ask the "spir't' what was
done at the instant, uniform failure
occurred. He proved, too, that the
theory Of the "Spiritualists' to meet
such difficulties, viz: that evil OF
trifing spirits interfered at these enc
OF the telegraph-was not tenable
For the responses just before ant
after these gross failures had beel
eminently and wonderfully accurate
and the "spirits" not only declared
that they saw with perfect clearnes
what was going on at his house, bu
denied that there had been any in
terruptiOn OF interference.
DR.. Bell also gave examples wher
test questions involving replies III
knomn to the interrogation had bee
desfgnedly intermixed with thos
which were known. The result uni
formly was that the knownrcsponse
however curious and far remote
were correctly reproduced the un
known were set of perfectly wilt
aud laundering errors, the response
often being obviously formed out @
the phraseology Of the question, a
a stuck school boy guesSes out a II
ply.
The result Of the inquiries Of ID
Bell and his frienIs-for sever;
gentlemen Of eminently fitting ia
ents pursued the investigation wit
him-was briefly this: that VIII;
the questioner knows, the spiri
know: what the questioncr do,
not know, the spirits are entire
ignorant OF. In other words the
are really no suporhuman agenci
in the matter at a!l---no connectiC
with another state OF existence b,
that it bears certain strong analogi
to some Of the experiences of clai
voyance, in that mysterious scien,
of animal magnetism, as it has bee
protruding and rccedipg for the la
hundred years.
DR.. Bell concluded by the EXPIRE
sion Of his full conviction thu
while the faith ia spirits must
given up rs being connected wi
these facts it was topic, whetlI
regarded as a physical novelty,
even as a dclusion, cutting deeI
into the very religious natures
our people, which was worth O
fullest examination. There w
great. novel, interesting facts he
They had not been treated fail
and respectfully, as they shou
have been. The effect was that I
community, knowing that theae VI
facts, ii human senses could
trusted AZ all, went away from tn,
who should have thrown light NJ
the mysteries, but who would
could not, to those who gave 80
explanation, oven IL II was {
which uproOtcd all previous for
OF religious faith. lie hoped Il
the members of this Associate,
who were as much required TO
anime this tonic as any order