HPB-SB-1-25: Difference between revisions

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title|Disorganization Among American Spiritualists.}}

In America the Spiritual movement is at the present time in a disturbed, unhappy state, partly in consequence of two notorious mediums, who were condemned as unreliable in England, having successfully imposed upon some honorable people, and partly in consequence of some attacks made upon Spiritualism by a Dr. Beard, of New York, to whose utterances the daily papers there have given wide publicity. Orators from the United States, who have visited this country, have told us of eleven millions of Spiritualists who form one third of the total population of their native land, consequently, in the middle of the present depression, it is natural to ask what those alleged eleven millions of believers are doing to ward off the attacks of the enemy. Surely there is no lack of strength; for one-third of the population, by all voting together in opposition to the divided votes of the remaining two-thirds, could take the entire government of the nation into their hands, and command nearly every seat in the Congress at Washington. Madame Blavatsky, a most energetic Russian lady, now in the United States, has been fighting Dr. Beard most vigorously, and has certainly come off best from the encounter; but in an article in the Spiritual Scientist she piteously asks where all the millions of the American Spiritualists are, and why they are doing nothing in the middle of the present crisis. In Boston, the headquarters of the Spiritualists of the United States, there are internal divisions, and people of education and culture, have not banded together in such a way as to be able to give public expression to their views; consequently in Boston, and, indeed throughout the States, the uneducated portion of our body is that whose utterances are attracting the greatest share of public attention, and this is certainly not to the advantage of the movement. Mr. R. Cooper who is now in Boston, says that there is a great falling off in the attendance at Spiritualistic Sunday meetings in that town; although a much smaller hall is now used than formerly, it is not half filled. He adds: “The more respectable, well-to-do Spiritualists hold aloof altogether, preferring not to identify themselves with the movement in its present transitional state.” Thus it will be seen that in consequence of the most intelligent people keeping aloof, and the most uneducated being split up into small "societies having no influence. Spiritualism in America, is at present a rope of sand, so far as united action and power to resist attacks from outside are concerned. The championship of the interests of the cause in times of difficulty thus falls u[?]pon two or three heroic individuals, and a lady has been obliged single-handed, to do work which it was the duty of the whole movement to undertake. In England, the banding together of educated and non-quarrelsome Spiritualists has proved eminently successful; it has given a strength to the movement which it never possessed before, and it has given the members the power of appointing by vote those representatives in whom they have confidence, and who can command the respect of the outside public. Our brethren in America should do likewise, and form a National Organization. As Mr. Paul said at Marvlebone, there is nothing good or bad in organization itself, its function merely being to give strength, so that if organization in Spiritualism is bad, Spiritualism must be bad also; the evil cannot lie in the circumstance of individuals deciding in favor of union instead of disintegration. No doubt the eleven millions of American Spiritualists exist only as a brilliant figure of rhetoric. Nevertheless, the number of American Spiritualists is much greater than the number of Spiritualists in England, yet in this country the movement is probably strongest, in consequence of educated Spiritualists having resolved to pull together in amity and good will. That the whole of our body is not as yet working in unanimity, is not the fault of those of us who have raised the cry of anti-dissension, and invited all, high and low, to work unitedly on terms of equality, under a constitutional system resting upon te by ballot.―''London Spiritualist''