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vol. title: vol. period: 1882 pages in vol.: 231 |
< Alleged Magician at Their Work (continued from page 12-22) >
pearance of materialised spirits among men? To deny this is to assail the credibility of the Bible. It was the accepted dogma of the Apostolic and Patristic Churches, and was universally believed throughout Christendom until Protestantism essayed the mad scheme of building a philosophy of the future state upon bare faith, with recourse to the facts which alone can demonstrate its existence. Cast an eye over the whole world and see how miserably small is the minority of those who disbelieve in spirit intercourse.
The lecturer, after describing the manner in which the occult science were kept alive through the long ages, declared that he esteemed it the highest honor that could have been conferred on him that in one day he had been permitted to hold it up in the sight of the Spiritualists, who, he said, whatever may be their present shortcomings, are destined to be the benefactors of the Christian world. He lamented, however, the fact that after 27 years of spiritual phenomena, there should be no philosophy to account for the simplest of those phenomena. In what respect, he asked, have Spiritualists advanced during the 25 years! Dare any assert that there has been any progress at all? Are we one inch nearer a true philosophy, broad enough to cover the whole subject, minute enough to account for every phase, impregnable against every assault?
The lecturer took the Spiritualists of the day to task severely for allowing themselves to be deceived by impostors with juggler’s tricks, who ought to be sent to the penitentiary, and for so conducting themselves as to maintain as broad as ever the gulf which separates believers and unbelievers. In the ancient times, he said, when mesmerism and mediumship, psychometry and magic were thoroughly understood and scientifically practiced, they set the sensitives aside as a sacred class. Instead of condoning their bestial faults, as we too often do now, they chose virgins of purest minds, and domiciled them in their temples away from every contaminating influence. The priests of Isis, of Brahma and of Jupiter, were men who had purified their minds and hearts of every base desire, and whose highest psychological powers were fully developed. With such priests and priestesses, intercourse with the pure and good of the spirit-world was easy and constant, because natural. Do you imagine that you can enjoy this communication with such public mediums as the majority of those we have educated and developed? Do you suppose that the great and spotless souls of the other world can come to us through the atmosphere of whisky-drinking and immoral men and women?
The blame of all that has gone wrong belongs at the door of the whole body of Spiritualists who let year after year go by, each as barren of practical results as its predecessor, at the door of these millions who go with gaping mouths to swallow each new miracle, and never take one step towards ensuring a decent support for the medium, and so placing him or her above temptations of playing false. Be assured of one thing, ye millions of Spiritualists! If you do not organise to crush your irreconcilable enemy, the church, she has organised and will crush you. The lecturer then endeavoured to show the lack of interest which Spiritualists seem to take in their faith. He pointed to the poor support which they give their newspapers and periodicals, and stated that in 1870 they had in this whole country just 22 meeting houses, while even the Mormons had 171; the Swendenborgians, 61; and the Jews, 152. Continuing, he said that Spiritualism had had no philosophy developed such as described by him, because Spiritualists had regarded their belief as something new, the explanation of which was to be a work of ages.
He said that he could not in his limited time expound the true philosophy of spiritual phenomena in general, and of materialised spirits in particular, but he would give a few hints at the truth. He then spoke of having seen between 400 and 500 figures, which in the absence of proof to the contrary, he ought to call people from the other world. He spoke of a visit to the Eddy homestead, and of rebuffs which he there received. He said that he then knew nothing about elementary spirits. He took everything that looked like a man or woman spirit, and that was a spirit, to be what it seemed. If he had only been informed that there were such things as elementaries, he would have been spared a world of angry feelings, for who could be angry with creatures who knew no better than to act as they did? But there are thousands of Spiritualists who scout the idea of there being elementaries, just as many declare that they cannot understand the works of the occultists. The powers enjoyed by these acute philosophers are described m many ancient books, and proved by the seeming miracles performed by them in the presence of a host of unimpeachable witnesses.
Col. Olcott, after reading accounts of some of these wonders, said that upon three separate <... continues on page 12-24 >