The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1905-08-21
MIND READING
rsith Has No Relation win Il or
Spirituaiism.

DR.. Weir Mitchell is said to lo
said that he had been conyert,.
belief In mind-reading upch vad, 10
considered indisputable cwdc
Professor Crookes. emineu. in
science, has written long story abou.
q materalizeu spirit. which, be declares
he entertained for months in his own
house
Professor Wallace. colleague Of the
great Darwin. recently wrote a book
TO prove that the world we iahab't
Is the only Inhabited world in the IN
iverse-though he admits that be is
not an astronomer. The professor
has also long been a spirituai't.
Professor Haeckel of Germany. very
eminent in science, affirms that mind
is product Of matter. and that mau
has no soul OF Immortality
Our own DIR. Funk OF Brooklyn, a
clergyman, Is Investigating Spiritual
ism. apparently in very friendly
spirit
Meanwhile. men Of science in gen
eral will Aave it that laymen are in
competent to judge OF the value Ct
evidence, and that what they think
they be'.eve If of no import Aud tho
laYmen accept this pronouncement
meekiy, and are never really satisfied
that what they think they believe is
really so until they can get some
scientific man to side with them.
Science is one thing. science men
another Our voluntary capitulation
to the latter is as pusillanimous and
unreasonable as was that OF our fore.
fathers to the theologians. It is tins
to Semand emancipation. Scientific
men, as q rule, are as incompetent
to Judge of the valre of evidence.
when the matter under discussion is
out Of their own special province, as
we are: and often they are less COM
petent than we, because their minds
have been narrowed and darlened by
playing too long in a grove. All that
they have 10 say about spiritual things
or tbs occult" whether pro or con,
is not worth the breath with which
they utter it. Messrs. Crookes, Funk,
Wallace, Haeckel and Mitchell are no
more able to resist self-deception or
the sleight-of-hand tricks of coniurors
than we are. The field OF science Is
the material plane; spiritual and oc-
cult things are on a different and dis
tinct plane; and aRd a man expert in
the former is rather less than likely
to be worth listening to on the latter.
II will be time enough for US to
decide whether things spiritual and
occult be true" when we discover
the principles according to which they
occur. We know IL what proportions
oxygen and hydrogen must combine
to form water, and we know that sui
Irihurlc ether produces unconscious
ness in animals; but we do not know
how a spirit is materlized. OF how ore
mind may communicate with anothsF
without sensible manifestations. Mind
reading and materlalizations may oc-
cur, or they may not; meanwhile all
possible multiplication Of "evidencs"
is OF no value until and unless We
understand the philosophy OF these
things. When the philosophy has
been explained, no evidence will he
needed. Till then the cleverest OF US
cannot be sure that he is not the
victim OF hallucination--that his senses
have not been deceived. That nun
dred or a million persons have been
deceived with him makes no difference;
we all believed once that the sun
rose and the earth stood still. 'Befet'
is word carelessly used; a man clL
pepeve only what he understands;
though this is not to say that there
Is not a spiritual as we'll as a mater
ial plane of the understanding. And
there is a field for faith, but faith has
no relation with mind-reading or
splritualism. It belongs to the inter
Tor. supersensuous and involuntary
communion OF man with HE Make.
ard it is not in question here.
But the only possible or conceivable
way to the beliefs that are mere IN
question is the patient study Of the
causes OF effects. and until that study
has been crowned with success. all
alleged beliefs are guesses or haliueina-
tions and retard instead OF advancing
the ends at which we aim.--Julan
Hawthorne.