Legend
< Spirit Messages Upon Mesmerism and Mediumship (continued from page 8-178) >
the force spoken of. Harmony of condition is needed before benefit can arise. Certain temperaments, or mesmerisms, are out of all harmony with some other temperaments or mesmerisms. If the medium for healing and the patient should be repelled one from the other, the conditions may be so disturbed as to hinder any good result arising from the spirit power. . . . There is a wide difference between the spiritual realities and the earthly ones. True, one is the type of the higher or more developed; but this does not remove the difficulty.
“One grand law of the mystery of the intercommunion between the two worlds is constantly violated. It is impossible for all spirits to become completely on rapport with all mediums. If each medium could by any means be kept entirely to the one set of spirits immediately en rapport with his sphere of mesmerism, so many mistakes would not occur.
“Spirits are as anxious to communicate to you on earth as you are to hear from them all they would say. And as spirits are not much wiser than men on earth about these laws, much error comes. Of course, evil spirits will lie; but very often, on the other hand, what looks like lying is not intended for that, but merely arises from the difficulty there is to express the right ideas...There are so many difficulties in the control of mediums. I wish to fathom the philosophy of it. It is to us here a system of telegraphy which we want to understand better. But in dealing with the laws of individual mediumship, we find it far more intricate than in dealing. merely with other laws of nature. Each medium was, as it were, a law to himself.
“’Tis true that in the lower physical manifestations the laws are more simple, having to do with the nerve power, the muscles, and the external body. But when it comes to the higher psychological laws, there is no law working without interference, for it has to do with the brain tissues in its ramifications throughout the body; the mental in place, of the physical.
“Mental conditions cannot be fully controlled by us or by the medium, because the individual mind and groove of thought can but receive what can run in these grooves if you are to receive a clear, lucid message.
“If we attempt to instilknowledge that is not capable of flowing into the groove it will come forth disfigured, distorted, injured.
“The time approaches when matter will be subservient to spirit, and then knowledge of a far purer, higher, and clearer type will be given.”
St. Leonard’s-on-Sea.
The Abolition of Capital Punishment
Sir,—Might it not be well now to give more prominence than a letter can afford to this subject, seeing how painfully public attention has again been drawn to it by the apparently wrongful conviction of Habron for the Whalley Range murder?
You will see by the enclosed cuttings from the Echo that since 1831, in this country alone, it is now known that seven innocent persons, at least, have been condemned to death, and four of them hanged, which in itself should be sufficient argument for the abolition of a law that fails in its professed deterrent purpose; which occasionally causes the ignominious destruction of innocent people; which temporarily elevates criminals into heroes; and which generally demoralises all who have to do with their doings till the gallows has done its work.
Formerly life was taken for sheep-stealing; and since the abolition of its being a capital offence, do we hear of more sheep being stolen, or less?
If, then, we see the non-deterrent effect of capital punishment in regard to the much easier and commoner practice of thieving, why should we assume it would be otherwise in regard to murder? Indeed, in those States where it is abolished, murders are not unusually rife; and this answers the only possible reason for maintaining so pernicious a law.
As a Christian people, too, we are certainly bound to give a murderer the best chance possible of a thorough repentance, by a confinement that would not be a perpetual torture, but regulated in its painfulness by the clear evidence of contrition and improvement of the culprit.
The sadly pernicious teaching of a radical change being effected in a day or two from a state of the blackest crime to one of purity, such as that most wretched being Peace asserted he had achieved, few, I trust, really believe. Spiritualists, at any rate, know the fallacy of such a notion, and the important need of making others know it. They also know how liable we are to have other deadly crimes committed amongst us by hurrying out of existence a revengeful criminal, who would naturally do his best to incite others of low state to similar crime.
What an incalculable good the “social science” people might effect if they would scientifically define the causes of crime, with an honest determination to, so far as possible, abolish it from our midst; not to let it drift elsewhere, as (trim to our selfish principles) we do with our sewage, among other refuse, to poison and rob our more distant neigh-hours, but abolished from among us for ever.
Bad as was the character of Charles Peace, it seems more than probable that the alleged Dyson murder was one of manslaughter, and, but for the deadly prejudice against Peace—the fear his desperate character caused, the strong desire to be rid of him, and his inability to get properly defended—such, probably, would have been the verdict. This view has been most worthily maintained by only one daily paper known to me, that zealous champion of truth and progress, the Echo, A friend of ours has also done what he could to give publicity to the same views of justice and humanity to every one, however black he may be.
At our last Sunday evening seance, my clairvoyant sister saw a very dark spirit striving to gain an entrance, but in vain, and at last we were informed by “Dr. Forbes,” who was controlling, that the dark spirit was Charles Peace, who wished to thank our friend for his exertions on his behalf, and also for seeking the abolition of capital punishment.
The previous night the medium, wife of the friend referred to, was awoke from a semi-state of sleep by a terrifying influence, which caused her to scream. She then saw a form as “dark as soot,” which seemed as “a great beetle,” or conveyed that idea to her mind.
This morning the friend I have named called on me, and we sat to see what further Charles Peace might have to say, as we did not wait on the Sunday evening to hear all, the circle feeling exhausted. A strange spirit controlled, and said he represented Charles Peace. He gave us Dyson as his name (without our having thought of him), and he stated that he had a struggle with Peace before the latter shot him, and that now he had forgiven him. He further stated that Peace desired to repeat that he shot the policeman Cock, and that though he (Peace) is in a very low state, he is repentant, and anxious to arise, which he can best do through the good influences of people in this state of life.
March 10th, 1879.
Spiritualism in United States
Sir,—Thinking that a few spiritualistic notes from this side of the Atlantic may be of interest to your readers, I jot down a few of the most important, though nothing very noteworthy is occurring at the present time.
I will commence by stating that your latest exportation to these shores, Mr. W. J. Colville, is a decided success. This will doubtless be a source of satisfaction to English Spiritualists. This gentleman has been actively employed ever since he came here, and the teachings of his guides seem acceptable to all classes of minds. He has been engaged by the society holding its meetings in the Parker Memorial Hall for two separate months, and he is now engaged again for another month. Besides this, he holds a meeting on his own account every Sunday morning in the Paine Memorial Building, and in the evening generally lectures in some neighbouring town. He also is delivering a course of Friday evening lectures on the Apocalypse in the south part of the city. His last Sunday’s engagement was one of unusual interest, and deserves special mention. At the Unitarian Church in Manchester, New Hampshire, representative services are being given by different religionists, each providing as good a man as is available to state his reasons for being what he is—a Catholic, a Jew, a Methodist, a Baptist, &c., as the case may be—and Mr. Colville was selected to answer the question, “Why am I a Spiritualist?” The church was full to overflowing, and much interest was excited in Mr. Colville’s address. So much was this the case that another good meeting was held the following evening in the City Hall, when Mr. Colville further elaborated his theme, and replied to the queries of his audience. The j idea is a good, one, and indicates great liberality on the part of the Unitarian body, and affords an example worthy to be followed. In Boston Unitarianism may be considered the religion of the cultured classes, and some of its ministers are pretty outspoken against the ordinary orthodox doctrines. Here is an instance. Last Sunday the Rev. M. J. Savage preached a sermon on “The Church and the Theatre,’’ in the course of which he is reported to have said—“While he believed in the influence of the pulpit, he maintained that the pulpits of Boston, by their baseless assertions about heaven and hell, and other equally absurd statements, do as much injury every year as the theatres of the city.”
In regard to physical manifestations nothing very striking is going on at the present time in Boston. Mr. and Mrs. Holmes were here during the latter half of the past year, and did a good work in demonstrating the great fact of materialisation. Owing to the “Ratio King” affair at Philadelphia they were looked upon at first with suspicion, but the very decided character of their manifestations soon put to flight all notions of fraud, the manifestations being so prompt and trustworthy as to render any supplementary action on the part of tire mediums wholly unnecessary. During the materialisations Mrs. Holmes sits in the room as one of the circle, or rather half-circle, and Mr. Holmes is locked in a cage in the cabinet. Under these circumstances full forms appear at the door of the cabinet, and occasionally come into the room; generally a dozen of an evening, and are seen in a fair amount of light. On two occasions one of the forms came into the room, and unlocked a door and threw it open. On another occasion, the cage in which Mr. Holmes was confined was turned in the opposite direction, the door-end being full butt against the wall. For Mr. Holmes to have done this himself would be something like raising himself up by his waistband. Living close by, I was a frequent visitor to their seances, and had great facilities for judging of the matter. I had the satisfaction of seeing several times the form of Mr. J. H. Powell, who is well known to many of the early English Spiritualists. He was the first to introduce Spiritualism to myself, and then became a coadjutor of mine in its dissemination, acting as editor of The Spiritual Times, of which I was proprietor. When I first visited this country and went to Philadelphia, Mr. Powell communicated to me through a medium, and also when I first went to Boston, His appearance at the Holmes’s was perfectly characteristic and life-like. The first few times he appeared his eyes were closed, but the last three or four times they were open. He only spoke on two occasions, and then very briefly and inarticulately. I understood him to express a wish for his widow, who resides in Boston, to come and see him. He always shook me heartily by the hand, and appeared very pleased to see mo. I also had the satisfaction of seeing him through another medium, Mrs. Hull, when he presented, as far as I could judge, the same appearance as at the Holmes’s. This lady’s seances are, on the whole, the best specimen of materialisation I have ever witnessed. On one occasion a figure, purporting to be Mr. Colville’s mother, was in the room for nearly a quarter of an hour, and this was only one of many forms that appeared during the evening. I should like to say more about my experience with this lady, but space will not permit.
Mrs. Thayer, the wonderful flower medium, is still in Boston. Latterly she has been kept somewhat in abeyance, the spirits stating that some new phase of development is about to take place. When her seances are resumed I hope to make further experiments with a box, not for my own satisfaction, but in order that others may obtain the evidence of the power of spirits to pass such fragile things as flowers into a perfectly close box without in the least impairing their pristine perfection. I was present at a seance of Mrs. Thayer's a few evenings ago when flowers were brought in unusual quantities. Besides a branch of fir tree, three feet in length, which came in less than a minute after the light was extinguished, there were enough flowers for all present, a dozen in number, to carry away a moderate-sized bouquet of choice flowers. In the autumn of last year two gentlemen from the Far West attended a seance of Mrs. Thayer’s, at which two large white bell-shaped flowers were produced. These were stated by the gentlemen to be the flora granda, a flower peculiar to California. At every subsequent seance one or more of these flowers have been found on the table, and the spirits, through Mrs. Thayer and through other mediums, assert that they are brought from the Pacific coast, a distance of 3,000 miles. Mrs. Thayer still entertains the idea of visiting England, but is waiting instructions from headquarters to do so. When she does go to you considerable interest will, I have no doubt, be manifested in her seances. Mrs. Thayer has been thoroughly tested many times. The following certifies to one instance:—
“At a regular meeting of the Theosophical Society, held at Mott Memorial Hall, in New York City, on the 5th day of January, a.b. 1876, it was on motion resolved that the thanks of the society are due, and they are hereby tendered, to Mrs. M. B. Thayer for her kindness in coming before the society this evening; that a copy hereof, duly attested, be transmitted to Mrs. Thayer, with a memorandum certifying to the occurrences.
“Memorandum.—The society adjourned to 128, West Forty-third- street, residence of Dr. Newton, the treasurer. Mrs. Thayer was securely fastened in a bag. The seance was dark. At the end of about an hour many flowers and two ring-doves, alive, were found on the table. We certify that, in our opinion, no fraud was practised by either the medium or any other person then present. H. S. Olcott, president, attest., January 5th, 1876. William D. Judge, secretary pro tern:”
There is residing in Boston a remarkable medium for physical manifestations—Mrs. Bell Youngs, who is known as the piano medium, <... continues on page 8-179 >
Editor's notes
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 343, March 21, 1879, p. 142