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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-566}} | |||
{{Style P-No indent|ists to guard against the possibility of fraud in the course of their experiments. If ever there was a fact of science proved, it is that a new and most mysterious force of ''some'' kind has been manifesting itself since March, 1848, when this mighty modern epiphany was ushered in with a shower of raps, at an obscure hamlet in New York State. Beginning with these percussive sounds, it has since displayed its energy in a hundred different phenomena, each inexplicable upon any known hypothesis of science, and in almost, if not quite, every country of our globe. To advocate its study, expound its laws, and disseminate its intelligent manifestations, hundreds of journals and books have from time to time been published in different languages; the movement has its schools and churches, or meeting halls, its preachers and teachers; and a body of men and women numbering thousands at the least, are devoting their whole time and vital strength to the profession of mediumship. These sensitives, or “psychics,” are to be found in every walk of life, in the palaces of royalty as well as the labourer’s cottage, and their psychical, or mediumistic, gifts are as various as their individualities.}} | |||
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|why spiritualism spreads so rapidly.}}</center> | |||
What has caused this world-wide expansion of the new movement, and reconciled the public to such a vast sacrifice of comfort, time, money, and social consequence? What has spurred on so many of the most intelligent people in all lands, of all sects and races, to continue investigating? What has kept the faith alive in so many millions, despite a multitude of sickening exposures of rascality of mediums, of the demoralizing tendency of ill-regulated mediumship, and the average puerility and frequent mendaciousness of the communications received? This, that a hope has sprung up in the human breast that at last man may have experimental proof of his survival after bodily death, and a glimpse, if not a full revelation, of his future destiny. All these millions cling, like the drowning man to his plank, to the one hope that the old, old questions of the What? the Whence? the Whither? will now be solved, once and for all time. Glance through the literature of Spiritualism and you shall see what joy, what consolation, and what perfect rest and courage these weird, often-exasperating phenomena of the seance-room have imparted. Tears have ceased to flow from myriad eyes when the dead are laid away out of sight, and broken ties of love and friendship are no longer regarded by these believers as snapped for ever. | |||
The tempest no longer affrights as it did, and the terrors of battle and pestilence have lost their greatest power for the modern spiritualist. The supposed intercourse with the dead and their messages have sapped the infallible authority of dogmatic theology. The Spiritualist with the eye of his new faith now sees the dim outlines of a Summer Land where we live and are occupied much as upon Earth. The tomb, instead of seeming the mouth of a void of darkness, has come to look merely like a sombre gateway to a country of sun-light brightness and never-ending progression towards the crowning state of perfectibility. | |||
<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|absurdities.}}</center> | |||
Nay, so definite have become the fancy pictures of this Summer Land, one constantly reads of baby children growing in spirit life to be adults; of colleges and academies for mortal guidance, presided over by the world’s departed sages; and even of nuptial unions between living men or women and the denizens of the spirit-world! A case in point is that of the Rev. Thomas Lake Harris, founder of the socialistic community on Lake Erie, which Laurence Oliphant and his mother have joined—who gives out that he is duly married to a female spirit and that a child has blessed their union! Another case is that of the marriage of two spirits in presence of mortal witnesses, by a living clergyman, which was reported last year in the Spiritualistic papers. A Mr. Pierce, son of an ex-President of the United States and long since dead, is said to have ‘materialised,’ that is, made for himself a visible, tangible body, at the house of a certain American medium, and been married by a minister summoned for the occasion, to a lady spirit who died at the very tender age of seven months, and who, now grown into a blooming lass, was also materialised for the ceremony! The vows exchanged and the blessing given, the happy couple sat at table with invited friends, and, after drinking a toast or two, vanished—dress-coat, white gloves, satin, lace and all—into thin air! This you will call the tomfoolery of Spiritualism, and you will be right; but, nevertheless, it serves to show how clear and definite, not to say brutally materialistic, are the views of the other-world order which have replaced the old, vague dread that weighed us down with gloomy doubts. Up to a certain point this state of mind is a decided gain, but I am sorry to say Spiritualists have passed that, and become dogmatists. Little by little a body of enthusiasts is forming, who would throw a halo of sanctity {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |10-568}} | |||
Latest revision as of 10:07, 10 April 2026
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vol. title: vol. period: 1879-1880 pages in vol.: 577 |
< Spiritualism and Theosophy (continued from page 10-566) >
ists to guard against the possibility of fraud in the course of their experiments. If ever there was a fact of science proved, it is that a new and most mysterious force of some kind has been manifesting itself since March, 1848, when this mighty modern epiphany was ushered in with a shower of raps, at an obscure hamlet in New York State. Beginning with these percussive sounds, it has since displayed its energy in a hundred different phenomena, each inexplicable upon any known hypothesis of science, and in almost, if not quite, every country of our globe. To advocate its study, expound its laws, and disseminate its intelligent manifestations, hundreds of journals and books have from time to time been published in different languages; the movement has its schools and churches, or meeting halls, its preachers and teachers; and a body of men and women numbering thousands at the least, are devoting their whole time and vital strength to the profession of mediumship. These sensitives, or “psychics,” are to be found in every walk of life, in the palaces of royalty as well as the labourer’s cottage, and their psychical, or mediumistic, gifts are as various as their individualities.
What has caused this world-wide expansion of the new movement, and reconciled the public to such a vast sacrifice of comfort, time, money, and social consequence? What has spurred on so many of the most intelligent people in all lands, of all sects and races, to continue investigating? What has kept the faith alive in so many millions, despite a multitude of sickening exposures of rascality of mediums, of the demoralizing tendency of ill-regulated mediumship, and the average puerility and frequent mendaciousness of the communications received? This, that a hope has sprung up in the human breast that at last man may have experimental proof of his survival after bodily death, and a glimpse, if not a full revelation, of his future destiny. All these millions cling, like the drowning man to his plank, to the one hope that the old, old questions of the What? the Whence? the Whither? will now be solved, once and for all time. Glance through the literature of Spiritualism and you shall see what joy, what consolation, and what perfect rest and courage these weird, often-exasperating phenomena of the seance-room have imparted. Tears have ceased to flow from myriad eyes when the dead are laid away out of sight, and broken ties of love and friendship are no longer regarded by these believers as snapped for ever.
The tempest no longer affrights as it did, and the terrors of battle and pestilence have lost their greatest power for the modern spiritualist. The supposed intercourse with the dead and their messages have sapped the infallible authority of dogmatic theology. The Spiritualist with the eye of his new faith now sees the dim outlines of a Summer Land where we live and are occupied much as upon Earth. The tomb, instead of seeming the mouth of a void of darkness, has come to look merely like a sombre gateway to a country of sun-light brightness and never-ending progression towards the crowning state of perfectibility.
Nay, so definite have become the fancy pictures of this Summer Land, one constantly reads of baby children growing in spirit life to be adults; of colleges and academies for mortal guidance, presided over by the world’s departed sages; and even of nuptial unions between living men or women and the denizens of the spirit-world! A case in point is that of the Rev. Thomas Lake Harris, founder of the socialistic community on Lake Erie, which Laurence Oliphant and his mother have joined—who gives out that he is duly married to a female spirit and that a child has blessed their union! Another case is that of the marriage of two spirits in presence of mortal witnesses, by a living clergyman, which was reported last year in the Spiritualistic papers. A Mr. Pierce, son of an ex-President of the United States and long since dead, is said to have ‘materialised,’ that is, made for himself a visible, tangible body, at the house of a certain American medium, and been married by a minister summoned for the occasion, to a lady spirit who died at the very tender age of seven months, and who, now grown into a blooming lass, was also materialised for the ceremony! The vows exchanged and the blessing given, the happy couple sat at table with invited friends, and, after drinking a toast or two, vanished—dress-coat, white gloves, satin, lace and all—into thin air! This you will call the tomfoolery of Spiritualism, and you will be right; but, nevertheless, it serves to show how clear and definite, not to say brutally materialistic, are the views of the other-world order which have replaced the old, vague dread that weighed us down with gloomy doubts. Up to a certain point this state of mind is a decided gain, but I am sorry to say Spiritualists have passed that, and become dogmatists. Little by little a body of enthusiasts is forming, who would throw a halo of sanctity <... continues on page 10-568 >