The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1889-04-11

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principally upon the reasons that me-
! diunlS as rule have no settled pro-
gramme, and thus avail themselves Of
accidental circumstances for trickery:
and that many of their arts are analo-
gous to those of coniurers. This oljcc-
ton evidently has weight, but do not
see how it is to account for all the facts
Of Spiritualism.
Another theory is that ofa hypothct-
ical nerve-atmospherc, which SUI
rounds every person, and particularly a
medium; and is advanced by Fairfield,
author Of a book entitled, "Ten Years
with Spiritual Mediums. 1t is we'll
sustained, but the present state Of sci
ence does not justify us in adopting
such an hypothesis. The same may be
said of the new force, called 11yc|tlc
force, proposed by Prof. CrookeS, all
eminent chemist in England, who was
| spiritualist, and who has given Spirit
ualism more scientific character than
any other man.
True light began to dawn upon the
subject, when Faraday proposed the
theory of unconscious muscular action;
and when we combine this with the
theory Of unconscious cerebration pro-
posed and so ably defended by Dr.. Car
penter in his standard work Oh Physi
ology, think we will have almost a
sufficient cause for all the wonders of
Spiritualism. If these theories are true,
we need not go beyond the mediums
themselves to account for what is
claimed to be the Intervention ofspirts.
Simplified, the theory offered by Dr.
| Carpenter is this: The mind let's when
| We are not conscious of its action. |
read book, plainly written; lhe..idcas
perspicuous, the thoughts lucidly eN-
pressed. AS read the sentences, lam
| not conscious of the words and letters
in the sentence. Again: I forget
name; story; a line Of poetry. | en-
deavOr to recall it; concentrate ali my
mental energies npon it; but in vain, it
is gone. / then think of something
else; something entirely different. But
all at once, when I return to the forgot
ten fact; the name, story or line of poe
try, presents itself. Now, evidently,
my mind was working while l was
thinking Of that other matter; working
when was not conscious Of the work
ing This is unconscious cerebration;
and this unconscious cerebration will
account for nearly all the pretended
miracles of Spiritualism, Take an ex-
ample. In the Rev. r. w. Dlbdin's
Lecture on ,Table-turning, he tells us of
a gentleman who believed in the spirit
ual agency of his table, and who be.
lieved himself to be in communica-
ton with Edward Young, the poet. He
desired the spirit to prove his identity
by citing line of his poetry, and the
table raped out,
MAN was not made to question but
adore"
Being asked whether the line was in
the "Night Thoughts" the spirit re-
piled Through the table, mo"
"Where is 1t, them"
The reply was "Job."
Not being familiar with Young's
poems he bought copy the next day,
and at the end of the Night Thoughts,
he found a paraphrase on Job, the last
line of which is that just cited. Of
course the man was very much aston
ished; but it turned out that he had
the book all the time in his house, had
read it before; and now his own mind,
under the excitement of the moment,
was only unconsciously reproducing
what was already in it. We may there
fore safely assert that in all the messages
Of Spiritualism, whether through the
table, or through pencils supposed to be
held in spirit hands, there is nothing
but the reproduction of something al
ready in the mind of the medium, or
in that of those who think they wit
| ness it.
DR.. Carpenter also added to this theo-
rv of unconscious cerebration, that of
ezpectdnt attention. A company sur
round a table with a medium. They
are all excited; place their hands upon
it; with minds fully fixed upon the
idea that the table is going to move.
This dominant idea overthrows all will
power, and there is produced an uncon-
scious contraction of the muscles, and
these unconscious movements are COM
municated to the table. A little jar is
felt. The excitement increases. Mus
cular action increases. The table re-
ceives more jars, and finally begins
to rap 1urlously or spin around rapidly,
all because nervous, trembling hands
are pushing it with all their might. So
also, the theory of eXpectant attention
can account for those higher wonders
of Spiritualism, namely the "Materiali-
zation" Of spirit forms. A company is
assembled in a private parlor. let us
suppose, with Medium present who
has considerable reputation. All be-
lieve in Spiritualisln; they have the
utmost faith in the power of the Me-
dium, and have no other thought than
that the pretended phenomena will ap-
pear. They direct their eyes to def
mite pointin the room. Their bodies
are agitated with nervousness; their
imaginations highly wrought; their
eyes are beclouded with moisture; and
under such circumstances it is not diff
| rI,1f to beI;p,o that WA, 49,, ~. 49,,