The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-15
BELIEVE SPIRITS
GREET THE LIVING IS NOTION OF
 R. HEBER NEWTON.
He Tells of Actual Cases of TeiepathS - Many So Called Superstitions' Minister Says are Being Proved
 to be Scientific Facts.

New York Herald.
 Discussing physical science in an ao- dress delivered last night at a meeting of the American Institute for Scientii- ic Research. in the home of c, Griswold Bourne, No. 1 West Sixty-eighth street. the Rev, Dr. R. Heber Newton made the astonishing assertion that the spirits of the dead communicate with the living, that telepathy is power possessed by many men and women, that clairvoyance Is an estaphsheu scientifif fact, and it may be possible for men to carry halos apout tneir heads, and, in short, that Vvarlety of beliefs regarded by the majority or persons as superstitious can be demon strated as truths.
 "Persons who have not studied care fully in the line of phychics, said Dr' Newton, have no idea of the marvel lousness of the finds which are being made in this new realm. The most striking feature of our present day IS that one after another of the bellefs of the far past, spread wide among men, which have been supposed to be mere superstitions, have been strangely vln- dicatinR themselves before the bar or reason--at least given ample cause to warrant a scientific investigation.
 "A generation ago nobody but fool would have been inclined to believe Tn the claims of the Dowser. The plain people have consistently believed that certain men were gifted with the pow CT of locating springs of water. Now the Psychical Research Society, after, careful investigation, reports that there lis little question as to the fact, though no theory has yet sufficed to interpret 1t.
 Halos are Probable. sThe middle ages believed that the saints were surrounded by halos. Again the scientist laughed in his sleeve-f he was courteous enough not to laugh openly. Yet Baron Reichenbach show ed that certain scientists recognized luminousness in magnets. and since the earth Is now known to be a great mag net man may also be a good sized one.
 'The middle ages also believed that saints received the imprint of the wounds of Jesus on their hands and feet. A beautiful superstition, said our scientists. Now medical scrunity con- fesses that the stigmata are facts. though exceptional facts. to be ex- plained naturally, of course, as every other marvel Is to be explained.
 "Clairvoyance was nothing but a will O. the wisp but it Is also now a con fessed power of certain organizations. Mollie Francher, over in Brooklyn, has proved stronger than the incredulity Of our savants. Read that charming pie ture of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain, and you will admit with him that this peasant girl, with her powers of clair voyance, hearing her mystic voices, is a fact which defies explanation by our Knowledge up to date.
 q know a woman of fine culture and high character who will not trade her gift for commercial purposes, but who has that most remarkable power known as psychometry-the power of holding a sealed letter in her hand and giving a diagnosis of the physical condition or the writer and picture of his charac- ter; of taking bit of stone from an ancient villa of Cicero, for example. the nature of which is entirely unknown to her. and calling up a vision of the villa as 1t existed in Cicero's time and of its owner. She is incapable of fraud, and her case Is but one of others which know.
 Spirits of the Dead.
 'Mesmerism was duly laughed out of court at the opening of our century, and To! 1t Is back again, in good stand ing, under the alias of "hypnotism." So one may run on through list of strange. unaccountable, mysterious and most unbelievable powers of man, lead ing up to that nightmare of the dog matic scientist, spiritualism. The be- lief in the existence of unseen spirits and of their power of communication with us in the flesh is one of the old est, most widespread and most insist ent beliefs of man, and it has revived strangely in our day.
 For the first time in the history of man these powers have been sctentifi- cally investigatedGn our day. Already the result Is that a considerable num- Der of eminent men of science have had the courage to avow that. after allow ing for illusion, fraud, and every pos sible hypothesis of intempretation, they have been driven to the ultimate so- lution of the problem--the belief in the communication of the spirits of those whom we call dead with the liV- ing.
 1T make bold to say that there is no field for human investigation half so promising as this, none which should appeal to educated, intelligent philan- thropic men to support and endow.
 Any one who walks with eyes open, ready to hear what men will have to tell, will find stories pouring in upon him from men whom he cannot mis- trust as liars and whom he knows to be sane and sensible which will 'stagger him. These experiences are not at all confined to the seance and the medium. Their most impressive forms occur in the privacy of the home without pro- fessional medium present.
 Now here is dark continent de- manding exploration, promising the richest finds. Already we find a new agents at work in our midst--not new, but newly realized and working a revolutionizing influencec in modern medicine. The possibilities of mental medicines are only being open ed. It's application to the most dis treSsing form of human malady. in- sanity. Is full of beneficient results. Its potency in character reform and the cure of the drink habit seems vast and