Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-20


the Spiritualists are credited by recent
census figures with having member
ship of only $4,000, they claim that they
have more than a million followers in
the United States If one looks around
him for those who believe in it enough
to constantly consult mediums he will
be persuaded that their claims may not
, be greatly exaggerated. The women
predominate, according to the census,
there being upward of $4,000 woman
members to a little more than 10000
men.
There is much doubt in the public
mind as to the true status of Spirit
ualism. The credulous attendants upon
the seances of the thousands of me-
diums throughout the country belieVe
that it is wholly true and that they
have not been deceived in any partic-
ular. The skeptical "show me" man
who admits nothing that cannot be
proved before his eyes and in broad
daylight, according to established rules
of mind and matter, rejects it all as
humbug, pure and simple. Between
these two extremes there are many
men of science, men who are too keen
of intellect and too quick to detect a
fraud to allow themselves to be per-
sistently imposed upon without discov-
ering some of the trickery, but who
are yet uOItSl lIlqulIGIS dllCI lllC u uhll'
even though it leads beyond the bounds
of established knowledge and accepted
science.
These men write down as fraudulent
at least 80 per cent of all the mediums
who practice Spiritualism, but they do
find some whom they sincerely believe
are all that they pretend to be, and
that the work they do cannot be ac-
counted for by physical science. One
of them says that "the history of me-
diumship is one long, disheartening
| record of fraud and exposure" and
that every medium who offers advice
for sale at so much per head is an
arrant rascal; but that even with all
this taken as true it does not follow
| that science is bound to repudiate the
lessons of Spiritualism.
DIR. Thomas Jay Hudson declares
| that the man who disbelieVes Spiritual
ism today is not a skeptic he is simply
| ignorant. The great English scientist
Wallace, co-discoverer with Darwin of
the theory of evolution. says that no
accepted fact of science has greater
or stronger proof in its behalf than
| Spiritualsm. Sir William Crookes
former president of the British Asso-
citation for the Advancement of Science,
and the inventor of the Crookes tubes
which made possible the X-ray, has
! studied Sp1lLudllSn as a SkepIlc SClen-
| tist, and now accepts many of its
tenets. Sir oliver Lodge and Prof
| William James Of Harvard university
| share Crookes' views.
Sir William Crookes tells some Of the
experiences which led him to his pres
ent views. He relates no whe has seen
''the movement OF heavy bodies with
contact. but without exertion;" how he
has observed rappings ranging from the
| Hnlip1ta tiplfc NJ q min DOfOf fn n
cade of sharp sounds as from an in
duction coil in full work; how he once
saw, in the light a luminous cloud
hover over heliotrope on side table
| break off a sprig and carry it to a
| lady; how chairs have walked and
raised in the air when he was sure nc
physical connection Of any kind
dynamometer which registered the
force, a scales which registered the loss
of weight in leviated bodies and ther-
| mometers which measured the loss OF
| heat caused by the ineXplicable in-rush
of cold air accompanying the phe-
nomena.
One of the leading students of Spirit
ualism, Hereward Darlington, says
| that he is persuaded that 98 per cent
ulently produced; but that there is
truth in the rest. 1t is cited that the
Seybert commission, appointed by the
| University of Pennsylvania, upon a be
quest left to the university to study
spiritualistic phenomena, completely
exposed the fraud of slate writing
Kellar. the magician. told the commits
sion in advance that he would perform
the slate-writing mystery and that II
was fraud. Yet none of those quick
eyed scientists was able to discover
the trick. One method of slate writ
ing is for the medium to have a pen
ell smaller than a grain of rice under
his finger nail Another is to, mix uT
a paste that hardens and serves as 2
pencil. the heat Of the finger being sur