Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-12-22


easily be distinguished from mere ma
terial phenomena, maintains Father
Franco. He supports his contention
by stating that no one but a fool car
withstand the testimony of such mer
as William Crookes and Lombroso
which testimony fully establishes the
reality of what is called materializa
ton. Spiritualism is in fact one oil
the recorded facts of history. It is
found in the Old and New Testament
and among the early Christians and
Neoplatonists of Alexandria. Any at
tempt to confute the genuineness and
authenticity of all this testimony in
favor of Spiritualism is simply alb
surd Half century ago, indeed in
credulity might have been excusable
at the present moment it is unpardon.
able. To quote:
I'm our time Q906) no one denies
the real existence of spiritualistic oc.
currences, excepting certain men
whose feet are on earth, but whose
wits go wool-gathering in the moon.
Among these latter | am surprised to
find several university professors in
Italy, men in other respects admirab-
ly specialists. 1t is well to remind
these gentlemen, and others who have
not studied Spiritualism, that spirit.
uallstic phenomena are not the produc-
lions of pure and lofty metaphysics. or
astronomy, but are objective acts.
that fall under the cognizance of the
senses, and can easily be observed by
all men. When such phenomena have
been witnessed to by very many men
otlearning and good faith, it is useless,
even foolish and ridiculous, to reject
such well-proved facts. These facts
are accepted as certain by all reason
able men. The phenomena of Spirit
ualism, 1t may be added, from the mo.
ment when they were first observed
up to our own time, have become more
and more palpable and objective, and
therefore have furnished opportunity
ior better and more unmistakablc
Authorization by the Senses"
He proceeds to trace the different
stages of spiritualism development as
follows:
These phenomena, first of all. con-
sisted merely of the movement. or
of material objects. and
OF mysterious sounds. Subsequently
their agent or cause manifested intel
ligence, and later began to speak and
write. Eventually appeared parts of
fantoms, heads, faces. and especially
a great number of hands of all kinds,
sometimes almost audacious in their
actions. At last the occult agents
brought their operations to perfection
In the so-called materalizations. in
which they put on the exact appear
ance OF living persons and behaved to-
ward those present just as a living
and acting person would naturally be-
have"
1t may be asked, he proceeds, wheth
er 1t would not be wiser to regard all
such appearances as mere hallucina-
tlon. To do so, he replies, would not
be wise, but foolish, and adds:
1T might be wise if we could attrib.
ute these appearances to the hallucina.
ton OF a single person only, as when
many people fix their eyes on the
[ace or a picture and one thinks that |
ne saw the eyes move. In the latter |
case the rest might well suspect the |
Authorization of the one. But the uni
orm hallucination of a multitude is
impossible, and If all the people were
o exclaim at once, See, the figure
moves its eyes!' the impression could
ot be considered the hallucination
4 one man, the fact would be GER
ain, and no prudent man would cues
lon 1t. Now apply this principle to
ne manifestations that occur at spir-
al ts.l< I