The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-04-26
AS TO SPIRITUALISM
COMMENTS AROUSED BY ExPERI-
ENCEs OF DIR. FUNK, NEW YORK.
Opinions of Lombroso and MOrseflf,
Who Have studied the Subject
Not Supernatural.

spiritualism attracted wide attention here,
coming on the eve of the publication or
books spiritualism by the Latin WORLDS
greatest masters of psychiatry, Prof.
Caesare Lombroso and Professor Morseli,
the latter director OF the phychiatry clinic,
University of Genoa.
/ interviewed both. Professor Lombroso,
strange to say. half sides with DIR. Funk.
but Morselli, while admitting that there
may be some truth in what DR.. Funk says,
insisted that the noted New Yorker was
mistaken in the essential facts.
After studying spiritualsm in all it's
branches with the famous medium. Eusapia
Paladino, / come to this conclusion" said
Professor Morseli.
1T is true that spiritualism produces GER
tain objective and real phenomena; the
chairs. tables and other things seen moving
at the seances are not necessarily put in
motion by mechanical power, by tricks. etc:
the eye is not necessarily deceived as to
so-called materializations. nor is the sense
of touch necessarily deceived In respect TO
certain sensations of a tangible character.
At the same time / deny positively that
human voices can be produced at these
seances except by trickery.
During my seances with Paladino there
were no possibilities for deception. yet as a
scientific man who made particular study
of all matters appertaining TO the things
seen and heard am bound to admit that
the phenomena, or at least the greater part
of them. were matters of fact. true and
genuine in every way
How do you explain it?'
There must be some sense concealed
about the human system enabling certain
persons to produce ideas and sensations.
particularly such Of motion. in such a way
that they are felt by others at distance.
Persons so disposed are mediums privileged
TO transfer on TO others at distance their
own subjective feelings and sensations.
Ghosts have nothing 10 do with the process.
which sooner or later will be fully ex-
planned on perfectly natural and rational
basis. Spiritualism, then, is a misnomer:
medium communications would be the cor
rect descriptive term.
SUPERNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY.
'T am inclined to class spiritualistic phe-
nomena, so called, under the head Of SUI
pernormal psychology. Ability to produce
such sensations is doubtless given TO GER
tain individuals only, but the talent itself
is essentially a natural and physical
process. There is no need OF and no occa-
sion for assuming that an unknown and
unperceived world thereby manifests IL
in any manner, form or shape.
"At the same time II is my opinion that
the sense referred to is possessed only by
a very few. The greater number OF So
called mediums are undoubtedly substitute
ing trickery and horse play for an ability
they do not possess, and which they would
not want to possess except for the money
it brings.
81 have seen materializations, twenty OF
them, and am more convinced than ever
that they were frauds in so far as they rur-
ported to have any connection whatever
with an imaginary world. or with repre-
senting the dead. I assumed them TO be
frauds before going near a medium, and,
having consulted and heard many. that as
sumption, based on theories. has become
practical knowledge.
THE things called ghosts have seen and
touched, and. while unprepared to explain
their nature, / certain that the one
claimed by the mediums is nonsense. Sci
ence knows no ghosts-it recognizes nature.
The explanation OF the ghost phenomena,
then, must either conform TO the laws OF
nature or be condemned as a fraud.
There is an ethical and aesthetic side
to the case also. Nine and twenty years
ago my good mother died, a woman OF re-
fnement. high intelligence. and great dig
nifty. Does anybody suppose that such
woman would follow the call OF low
Neapolitan fish-wife. making a living by
iimfamming the public? Does anybody
suppose that woman of refinement would
her IN Ud Of f.
ity seekers and cynics. such as are repre-
scented at seances? The woman said to be
my mother kissed and caressed me In the
thought is monstrous
THE TRUTH OF THE CASE.
1T is true that something or somebody
bearing a faint likeness TO the mother I
lost, came to me. touched me. kissed me.
etc.
But II was not my mother-neither in a
physical nor moral sensel IL did not know
how many children my mother had born.
nor at what age she died. Presumably n
was a stage-mother acting the mother OF
Caesare to-day and Of Augustus to-mor-
row. There was nothing to identify the
neutrality-suspicious. TO pronounce IL q
fraud.
IF DR.. Funk says he saw real ghosts. I
say to him: You are mistaken, and refer
him to the only article OF the sort that ever
appeared in the scientific lime-light: the
ghost Mrs. Piper called up TO see George
Robertson. Spiritualism dashed itself into
an ecstasy of I-told-you-so satisfaction over
that materialization-ur I'll Mrs. Piper con-
fessed that the thing due TO auto
suggestion. Between ourselves, think
Mrs. Piper was an all-around fraud as far
as her medumship went However. we
must be lenient with mediums and persons
believing in them. The majority OF me-
diums are subject to hysteria. a form OF
arrangement that affects men as well an
women"
Professor Lombroso told me that he has
been experimenting with spiritualism for
the last ten years. and that. like Professor
Morselli. he is about TO publish his ex-
periences and views on this most interesting
subject.
Touching upon the case of DR.. Funk he
said: 81 have no right 10 Judge other pec-
Piles emotions. thoughts and opinions. but
do know that even the sanest and most
authentic mediums. like Home. siade and
Paladino. have been accused OF fraud tins
and again.
THAT fact cannot be explained away on
the supposed incredulity OF men OF science