Who is John King?
Sir,—I wish to contradict an error made by a contributor of yours, in an article beaded, “Spirit Names from a Swedenborgian Point of View,” in The Spiritualist of January 21st. In this article your correspondent makes an assertion concerning myself, which is without foundation.
It is true that when an Intelligence calling himself John King first appeared through my mediumship, he gave out that he had been, when on earth, Henry Morgan, the buccaneer; but it is a mistaken statement that before this Spirit or Intelligence made this communication, I had seen or read any book in which Henry Morgan was mentioned. Such being the case it was obvious that the name was not found in my mind as your correspondent seems to think. The Lives of the Buccaneers, as it happens, I have never read. A romance entitled The Life of Henry Morgan, I read sometime after the said “John King” had announced himself to have been the notorious buccaneer.
Again your correspondent says “That the voice calling itself ‘Peter’ (also a generic or symbolical name) says that he was a clown, or acrobat, and I think broke his neck. At one of Miss Showers’ Seances, he declared that he had been a costermonger, and had choked himself with a carrot.” “John King” and “Peter” certainly are generic or symbolical names, and it stands to reason that the Intelligences who adopt them are numerous. From the voice calling itself “Peter,” with which I have long been familiar, I can only say that I have always heard but one and the same history of its owner's past life.
Be the John Kings whom they may, and the Peters departed costermongers or clowns, my own experience has been that spirits always find an earthly name for themselves.
Notice
...
 |
 |
Editor's notes
Sources
-
London Spiritualist, No. 441, February 4, 1881, p. 59