Los Angeles herald., 1907-02-18
PASTOR EXPLAINS
SPOOK PHENOMENA
FINDS NATURAL CAUSES FOR
MANIFESTATIONS
Declares "True" Mediums Are Con-
trolled by Suggestion Of sitter.
Calls Principles Of Spirit
ualism Immoral

Rev. Robert S. Fisher. pastor of st.
James Methodist church, preached last
night the third Of series on "Isms,'
the subject of which was "Spiritism
the Fellowship of Spooks." He said In
part:
"There is little doubt that thousands
in pagan lands, besides many in more
enlightened countries, believe in the
phenomena of splritlsm. Whether spir-
it's of the departed ever return to be
seen of mortal eye or not Is matter
for conjecture. They may do so, they
may not, but that the many so-called
materializations of mediums can be ex-
planned on purely natural grounds no
intelligent person need remain in
doubt. The phenomena exist, as seen
by many reliable witnesses, but that
they may be produced by the psychic
powers of mans own mind Is con-
clusion of modern students of spirit
phantasms.
"Some conclusions of scholars are as
follows That there are two powers of
mind, subjective and objective: that
the subjective mind is amenable to the
law of suggestion; that the sub
jective mind has power to pro-
duce physical phenomena. Minds
must be en- rapport in order to
get the results OF mediumship. Lack
ing this condition a skeptic can stop
the manifestations, showing that the
performances are dependent on the
mental condition of the performers.
The spirit information is always lin
tied to the bounds of mentality in the
minds of the medium and the sitter.
Controlled by Suggestion
Leaving out the whole class of Spirit
ualists who perform by legerdemain,
and treating only of those who operate
by psychic power, we see many most
interesting things. Many mediums evil
IDENTIFY believe themselves under con-
troll of spirits. But hypnotized persons
often assume the role of numerous
other personalities and thus perform
marvellous feats. Undoubtedly alleged
true mediums are thus controlled
either by suggestion or auto-sugges-
ton. In this manner mediums often
describe the dead whom they have
never seen, to the great astonishment
of the sitter
cor a most convincing method of
converting the unbeliever is to have
the spirits repeat some conversation
or cite some incident known only to
the sitter and the departed. I knew
an intelligent woman to be thus de-
ceived. Telepathy can be shown to
carry messages to even a third party
by means of a second. Automatic writ
ing and Photographic phantasms are
probably produced by the physical pro-
jections of the subjective power of the
mind. 1t is folly to deny all spiritistic
phenomena, second only to the folly of
dismissing them as produced by spirits
instead of showing them to be as they
are, manifestations of the mind it
self.
THE religious significance attached
by some to Spiritualism has had a ten
dency to draw them away from ac-
cepted faiths or to wreck faith alto
gether. This form of error looks upon
the Savior as a strong medium and in
PRODUCES the idea of a female Cod In
practice, Spiritualism Is the enemy of
sacred marriage ties, making the small
est preteXt sufficient for divorce. Wo-
men are sometimes married, it is said,
to shades and all may expect to find
their affinities in the spirit world. Men
tally it upsets common sense and
often helps to people lunatic asylums
with its victims. Morally it's influence
is such that mediums themselves abhor
the sickening deceptions and shameless
graft of their profession. In Bible
times these impostors We're, under the
stern primitive law literally put to
death. In our day the practices should
be prohibited by law and frowned upon
by intelligent persons until this thing,
which is neither religion nor science,
shall no longer be able to engage in
the traffic of FOOLS"