The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1920-11-20

NOTED MEDIUMS = FATHER
HERREDIA TELLS HOW He BE.
CAME ACCOMPLISHED IN
TRICKS OF so.cALLED SPIRIT.
lsTs-HIs PURPOSE IN EXPOS.
ING THEM.
To expose the tricks which medi-
ums represent as 'spiritistic mani
festations," Rev. Father Charles J.
Herredia, S. j., of Holy Cross Col.
lege, Worcester, Mass, is giving a
series of public performances which
are said to rival feats of the greatest
magicians of. the stage.
When requested to tell how he be-
came interested in magic" and indi,
cate the purpose he had in giving lee
lures and exhibitions, Father Herredia
wrote the following:
BY Rev. Charles Herredia, S. J.
Since earliest boyhood have seen
SO many frauds in the realm of the
occult that l determined to set about
exposing them. And this is how l be-
gan the work l am now engaged in.
When l was about eighteen years
old, ! heard a priest say in pulpit
that certain great mind-reader was
in collision with the "Old Boy" The
next night the theater was damned.
Every one wanted to see how the
devil worked. Then with my brother
l did, at a public lecture, the same
wonders" that had been performed
by the mind-reader.
That was thirty years ago. Since
then, on account of a great attraction
for tricks and some little familiarity
with the method of their performance,
have been in almost constant contact
with magicians and their tricks.
Since that time, too, in four differ
ent countries, 1 have observed the
wave of spiritism rise and fall with
the passing years. In California
eighteen years ago, l had great
chance to study mediums and their
methods. The same in Italy twelve
years ago. Again in Mexico, during
the regime of Madero, who was Spir.
itualist, l had much to do with the
mediums. Finally, during the last six
years of my residence in this country,
especially in Boston, the hotbed of
spiritism, have had personal expert
ence in this matter.
And so for thirty years ] have given
lectures in the United States, in Mex.
leo, Italy and in England. In Rome,
as Vice Rector of the South American
College, gave an illustrated" lee
ture to the students, at which two
Cardinals were present tone of them
dear old Cardinal Vives).
The Power of Suggestion.
For the last thirty years, too,
have been reading books on Spiritism
in English, French, italian and Span
ish. I find that they continually copy
enc another and repeat the same
things over and over again. Do not
forget the power of suggestion. When
falsity is repeated and repeated and
printed and reprinted as fact, we
begin to believe it is true. That is
what has happened in the case OF
thousands of the so-called spiritistic
phenomena. But had the courage to
read all the volumes Of the Journal
and the proceedings of the London So
ciety for Psychical Research, and a
good deal of the literature Of the
American Society for Psychical Re
search, and l have taken the pains to
examine the principles and most won
derful phenomena of Spiritism at the
original sources, and l came to this
conclusion: There is almost always
some leak in each of the phenom
ena."
That does not mean that l deny the
existence of genuine phenomena.
admit them, because have seen some
of them myself. But do question the
explanation given by, the Spirit and
by the advocates of the "diabolic" the
DRY. lightning was a phenomenon
since the beginning of the world, and
yet for sixty centuries civilized and
uncivilized nations explained it by the
devil, the gods, or by some praeternat
ural powers. Then came an Ameri
can, Ben Franklin, with his kite, and
proved it to be electricity. So it has
been with spiritistic phenomena-only
we are still waiting for an adequate
explanation.
Spiritism as a hypothesis, as pos
sible explanation of the phenomena,
find no difficulty in admitting, but
certainly deny that it has clearly es
tablished it's claims. So, too, / admit
with certain reservations the Satan
fc' theory as a possible explanation Of
phenomena wrought through me
dunn. (There is no question here OF
spontaneous phenomena, e. g., posses
sion by the devil; unsought appari
lions, etc.,.
But leaving aside for the present
the explanation of the phenomena, lei
us look at the phenomena in them
selves. When you see a field in the
cinematograph and storm, a wreck
| or a flood, you are not able easily te
distinguish between the scenes that
were taken in the studio and those
taken from real nature. In the same
way spiritistic phenomena can be re
produced so easily by trickery 81 have
done so), and In such a mystifying
manner, that even most learned PEG
pie are deceived. For an ordinary