The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1895-03-27
Forty-Eighth Anniversary of the ORR
gin Of Spiritualism.
Something About the Beginnings Of Spirit Rappngs,
Materiazatons and the Like.

| after continuing their researches for
several days, reported their inability
to trace them to any human agency. The
| fame OF the Fox Sisters was now national,
and when hey appeared in New York in
the following May, announcing themselves
| as Spiritual Mediums" phrase which
originated with them, they created an
intense furore These two young girls
had thus founded a new faith, TO
which they gave the name OF spiritualism
Humble as was its origin, and insigniti-
| can't as was the character of its first mani
festations, it soon found a multitude OF
| believers in both hemispheres. Spiritual
mediums soon sprang up all over the
country and were soon multiplied
| by hundreds and even by thousands.
No better evidence of the power OF
| the new faith over tho minds OF
men and its perpetuity could possibly be
desired than the fact that even its de-
nouncement as the sha Lowest, fimsiest
hum buggery by those who founded IL,
and their statement that it is an out-and-
out fraud, originated by two little girls
soley In spirit of mischief, have been
| powerless to overthrow or even to shake
| 1t.
But believers in spiritualism now go far
back beyond the Fox sisters for the origin
OF their faith. So long ago as the seven
teenth and eighteenth centuries there
were many persons who professed 10 be
under the direct guidance of the
Divine Spirit, and who may, IN
that sense. have been called spirit
ualists. Those same individuals
also claimed to be in full and open COM
J munication with the spiritual world and
to hold daily conversations of the most
10 .I. 10 n srff nd xuifh
angels. Prominent among such mystical
thinkers were Jacob Bohme or Boehmen,
Spencer, j. Godfrey Arnold John Viii
liam Peterson, John Albert Bengal,
Heinrich Jung Stilling, Madam Guyon,
Oetinger and Swedenborg. The last
| named, when on his deathbed in 1772,
predicted that in about eighty years from
| that time there would be a general revela-
/ tion from the spiritual world which would
bring his teachings into general notice
and confirm their truth, prediction
which, it 10 claimed, was fulfilled in 1S4S,
just rs years after the death of Sweden
borg, by the manifestations OF spirit
power which were then made here in
Hydesville, and which soon attracted
general attention throughout the world.
Besides the prediction of Swedenborg,
the birth of modern spiritualism was
| tNltt DTODutsltu. III lotO oOint lltl1iDtts VI
the shaker communities at New Lebanon
and Watervliet, N. Y, seemed to be under
some strange psychological influence
/, which threw them into a trance state.
While in that condition they delivered
long discourses in the names OF eminent
men OF bygone ages, by whose spirits they
said they were possessed.
| After these manifestations had contin-
ued for nearly year the spirits one day
| bade the brethren a solemn adieu, telling
them to say nothing to the worlds peo-
| pie of what had passed, but to treasure it
in their hearts, and promising that in
few years they would re-
turn and show TO the whole
world the same manifestations which they
had revealed to chosen few of the pious
members of the Shaker communities. In
that same year OF 1S43, one Andrew jack
sou Davis, poor, ignorant country lad,
in the employ of farmer of Orange
County, New York, was mesmerized into
a trance state by one William Levingeton
and ever afterward seemed to have the
power of passing into such a condi-
tion at will. Though he was so illiterate
that he could scarcely read or write, yet
in the fall OF 1916, while in the trance
state, he dictated, under the title OF "The
Principles OF Nature, Her Divine Revela-
tions and Voice TO Mankind" learned
| treatise on ontological, cosmical, theologi-
| cal, spiritual and social subjects. In this
| work he predicted that Communication
| with the spiritual world would ere long
assume the form of a living demonstra-
! tion," prophecy which spiritualists be-
lieve to have been fulfilled, as were that
OF Swedenborg and that Of the spirits TO
the Shakers, by the manifestations at
this village in 1S47-4S.
To the unbeliever in modern spiritual
| ism its most improbable feature, and that
which tends most largely 10 bring il into
discredii, is the alleged necessity for
spiritual mediums. IL the spirits of the
dead have power to communicate
with relatives ard friends who
have not yet learned the great secret,
why can they not do so directly
without requiring the Intervention
of a third person who was wholly
unknown to them in life? Why should
toe spirit OF mother or wife
communicate with son or husband on
matters that should be kept sacred be-
tween them, through a so-called medium,
who, perhaps, is coarse and vulgar in
nature, and the last person that either
would choose for the repository OF their
confidence.
Then, again, the very vague and general
nature OF the great majority OF communi-
cations and messages received from the
spirit world tend TO create and confirm
skeptics. Instead OF conversing on
some theme known only to the
departed and the relative or friend
with whom he is communicating, which
would be 10 the doubter confirmation
strong as proof Of holy writ. the spirit
merely says. in % cases out OF 100. that he
Is happy IN spirit life and wants
TO meet you there. There is
urgent need OF new. duo OF
Fox or other sisters" who shall proc aim
new revelation OF spirituslism which
shall enable the spirits TO wholly dispense
with merceuary mediums and to eold
direct converse with relatives aud friends
on earth.
GEoFFREY WtLLIsToN CHRISTINE