HPB-SB-14-38: Difference between revisions

}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|Notes by the Way.|14-37}}

{{Style P-No indent|which a lurid light has been cast by the Peterborough exposure. It is to no purpose that we spend our time in speculating whether or not certain phenomena are or may conceivably be ''true'' and ''genuine.'' No sitting should ever be held under conditions which admit of such speculative guesses at truth. Tests should be absolute, or should not be employed. “C.C.M.” is right as to tests. Mr. Podmore is right too. I have never pretended that I regard it as probable or even possible to obtain the best phenomena under conditions of prescribed test, which are not compatible with the perfect comfort of the medium, and which in themselves must imply some doubt as to his integrity. I have preferred always to adopt the method recommended by “C.C.M.” But I have tried to point out that any tests which are employed should be complete; and, with a view to extending our knowledge of the ''modus operandi'', as well as for our more simple satisfaction, I still think no condition of observation is so good as a clear view of the medium during the whole séance.}}

There is one difficulty in adopting “C.C.M.’s” advice to “submit, if necessary, to imperfect conditions of observation, treating as of no account . . . any phenomena which do not make up for this usual defect and carry conviction by their own spontaneous cogency and character,” and this is a serious one for the future compiler of evidence. No circle of which I have ever been a member would unanimously agree as to what was or was not “indisputably genuine.” This comes home to me just now, for the various records that I have sifted in collecting evidence for materialisation are bewildering from the very fact that no reader can now tell the exact value of the testimony so given. The Spiritualist journals, in “C.C.M.’s” contemplated case would be filled with conflicting records, and it would be impossible in the strife of tongues to get at any fair conception of what really had taken place. A would write to say what he had seen, and B would rejoin that it was pure fancy on A’s part. C would point out that the medium ''might'' conceivably have done so-and-so, and D would wax virtuously indignant and vituperative over the unmanly attack on the character of an &c., &c. And so it would go on, till (as we have seen in other cases) two mutually irritated camps were formed, one who regarded the medium as a long-suffering martyr—the other as a probable trickster; one who believed everything; the other who believed nothing (except what was in accord with preconceived opinion). This is surely a consummation devoutly to be deprecated. In private circles the method usually adopted is that advocated by “C.C.M.;” in mixed circles tests of some kind must be used. I desire only that they should be complete, though I have no hope of any being devised so satisfactory as to exclude all doubt from all minds. And, in view of those perpetual exposures, I am by no means sure that any public and promiscuous circles should be encouraged to seek for such phenomena.

The appeal that “C.C.M.” makes to the Physical Phenomena Committee of the Society for Psychical Research is one that touches a very important matter. I believe that nothing will be easier than for that Committee to pursue a long series of investigations under conditions so devised that nothing can take place. It is not unlikely that a fear of such conditions will make it very difficult to persuade mediums to give them opportunity of investigation. Private mediums will not submit to the elaborate system of testing. Public mediums have before their eyes the fear of failure. It will be hard, perhaps impossible, for them to get good results, and then investigators or Spiritualists generally will say “Ah! yes; his power is failing; he sat for the Committee of the Society for Psychical Research and got nothing. Better go to someone else!” And so the trade would depart, and they who live by it naturally fear and hesitate. It is a delicate question; for the absence of all tests, and the trusting of the unseen agents to tell us when they can dispense with such and such conditions, is risky. I, for one, do not believe that ''all'' the illusion, deception, and what we roughly call fraud, ''i.e.'', the elements of misconception as well as of deception, come from this side only. I have said repeatedly, and I maintain the opinion, that such demonstrably come, in cases which I have known, from a source other than the medium. I have seen, after watching a particular manifestation over and over again under conditions which were good enough for any reasonable being, the same phenomenon presented in such a way as to suggest the most obvious and foolish attempt at trick, such as no sane man would attempt. And this has been Spirit-trickery. We can{{Style S-HPB SB. Restored|n}}o{{Style S-HPB SB. Restored|t}}<ref name="editor-restoration-38">Two abraded letters in “cannot” are restored from Light, 23 September 1882, p. 418.</ref> reckon without the intelligent operator, but all difficulties will not vanish by leaving all in his power.

{{Style P-Signature custom|“M.A. ({{Style S-Small capitals|Oxon.}})”|align=right|1 style=plain}}

{{HPB-SB-item