Legend
Spirit Identity
Sir,—Allow me through the agency of your paper to acid my testimony to the valuable character of Mr. Fletcher’s mediumship. I have attended nearly all the lectures at Cavendish Rooms, and have been greatly impressed by the forcible and easily understood language. At the close of a most interesting discourse on Sunday last, the 16th inst., Mr. Fletcher gave several tests to the audience. I have been told that a female spirit was always watching over me, and as I had a most earnest desire to test the truth of this assertion, I asked mentally that if she were near me she would give me a message. Almost immediately Mr. Fletcher stated that he could see a young lady before him, and he accurately described my friend, giving her Christian and surname, her pet name, where she lived, the name of her brother, and mentioned a dog of which she was very fond. She then gave a message alluding to incidents no one knew but myself, and to a present of books I sent her from England. In earth-life she lived in New Zealand.
Another test was given, but as my sister acknowledged it, I did not think it necessary to delay proceedings by stating that the names mentioned were also known to me.
In conclusion, I may add that I had never spoken to Mr. Fletcher, nor had I any knowledge of him except through spiritual literature.
I regret extremely that I have not seen any verbatim report of his lectures.
Dalston, March 17th, 1879.
Madam Blavatsky
Sir,—If my memory has not altogether evaporated under the combined influences of this blazing Indian sun, and the frequent misconstructions of your correspondents, there occurred, in March, 1878, an epistolary skirmish between one who prudently conceals his face behind the two masks of “Scrutator” and “M.A. Cantab,” and your humble servant. He again attacks me in the character of my London Nemesis. Again he lets fly a Parthian shaft from behind the fence of one of his pseudonyms. Again he has found a mare’s nest in my garden—a chronological, instead of a metaphysical, one this time. He is exercised about my age, as though the value of my statements would be in the least affected by either rejuvenating me to infancy, or ageing me into a double centenarian.
He has read in the Revue Spirite for October last a sentence in which, discussing this very point, I say that I have not passed thirty years in India, and that “C’est justement mon age—guoigue fort respectable tel gu’il est—gui s’oppose violemment a cette chronologie,” &c. I reproduce the sentence exactly as it appeal’s, with the sole exception of restoring the period after “l’inde” in place of the comma, which is simply a typographical mistake. The capital C which immediately follows would have conveyed to any one except a “Scrutator” my exact meaning, viz., that my age itself, however respectable, is opposed to the idea that I had passed thirty years in India.
I do hope that my ever-masked assailant will devote some leisure to the study of French as well as of punctuation before he attacks again.
Bombay, February, 1879.
Phenomenal Spiritualism
Sir,—Much has been said against phenomenal Spiritualism. Is it entirely just? It is our proof. We have seen that the intellect of man, however highly cultivated, is incapable of evolving the idea of soul or spirit separate from the material body. On the contrary, the exclusive cultivation of the intellectual faculties leads to materialism: read Tyndall on “Virchow and Evolution,” Nineteenth Century, November, 1878. Where -would the spiritual movement be without phenomena? I have no expectation that we can convert the scientific materialist; his spiritual faculties are rudimentary. Pass him by. But there are thousands who are prepared to receive the truth, who go through the dry formulas of the Church from habit rather than conviction— thousands who have lost faith in its teachings, its man-made God, its heaven and hell, its vicarious atonement, and death-bed repentances. A religion is a necessity to man. Without it ho deteriorates into the brute. The simpler that religion, and the fewer dogmas it has the better. Selfishness and expediency have been the load under which the world has laboured. The maxim, “Do unto others as you would they should do unto you,” must be the rule of action practised as well as theoretically acknowledged, and that, too, by nation to nation, irrespective of creed or colour, and by man to man. I believe that the diffusion of true spiritual knowledge will ultimately lead to this result. “Whether the truth lies within the reincarnation, progressive, or any other doctrine that has been propounded by Spiritualists, does not affect the fundamental truths. Spiritualism is yet too young to expect to fathom these mysteries; it can only be by a vast accumulation of facts and the combined development of the spiritual and intellectual faculties that we can hope for an approximate solution of such problems.
Spiritualism has a great work before it, and it must not stop till these questions are settled, if ever they will be in earth-life. That work is the regeneration of the masses from the-slough of sensualism, into which generations of poverty and ignorance have plunged them; they must have a religion which appeals to the sentiment of hope as well as to reason. What comfort to the toiling labourer and his overtaxed wife would the doctrine of the materialist be, that nature works by averages, and that mankind is progressing in knowledge and civilisation? What comfort to the half-starved needlewoman, toiling in the cellar or garret, that this life is all there is for her, and that she must make the best of it? I say that with such a belief suicide would be commendable. No. We have to show that this life is but a school for the spirit, and that a future awaits them. We must first show them that our knowledge is built on a sure foundation; that we draw not on the past, but have the proof at hand that those who have gone before us are neither in heaven nor hell, but that they are in a world that is around us, the spirit-world, and that the condition of the spirit in that world is just what earth-life has made it. All this, I believe, is capable of proof to those willing patiently to investigate. But the first step is to bring conviction of the actual reality of the spirit world, and this can only be done by means of physical phenomena which appeal to the senses.
There are those who can never go beyond the A B C of Spiritualism, but they are few. The day is past for Spiritualism to be of an esoteric character. It will spread in spite of all discouragement, and it is the duty of those possessing knowledge and experience to try to give it a high moral, or, if you will, a religious tone.
London, March 17th, 1879.
<Untitled> (Sir,-Some months since...)
Sir,—Some months since I purchased in this city a crystal ball, five and a half inches in diameter, weighing nearly five pounds. It is a splendid specimen of the kind, and apparently very old. A jeweller here says that it is a topaz, and invaluable as a curiosity. I am acquainted with the use to which these crystals are put by clairvoyants, and append a communication received at our “circle” respecting this one, given through the planchette.
My object in writing to you, however, is to endeavour to obtain some information likely to lead to the history of so large a crystal as this is —larger than any described by Dr. Gregory or any other writer I have access to.
I have only to add that its influence when gazed upon for some minutes is sufficient to deprive a sensitive of external consciousness; and to our trance medium* it communicates a most powerful influence.
Will you kindly give this space in your paper, in the hope some correspondent may be in a position to afford the information required?
Communication received at the oldest circle in Melbourne, November 18th, 1878, the planchette being held by two ladies, one of them being a trance and writing medium:—
“The influence of the crystal counteracts the mesmeric influence from us upon you, and prevents our having control.
“Though useful in some phases of development, it is not a help in this kind of communion, its influence is of a subtle nature, entering into the spiritual particles of bodies affecting the circulation of the life principle. Its uses are not understood by many in the physical sphere. Surrounding it there is a zone of mesmeric influence, formed by the currental flow of its odylic force, which attracts to it the same; kind of influence residing in, or generated id, the human organism, it being of a like nature on the material side, and partaking of the higher and more refined state of etherealised matter. It has a more powerful effect upon some organisms than others, particularly those sensitive to the aura of persons and animals.
“Did you understand this crystal, its properties and uses, you would know more about the law of attraction and sympathy which has such power in your lives, though very rarely recognised. Yet it is the great motive power in your social life.—(Signed) Theobald.”
Melbourne, Victoria, January 23rd, 1879.
* Mr. Stowe.
Spirit Messages Upon Mesmerism and Mediumship
Sir,—I send you a few extracts from some spirit messages I have had at different times on the subject of “Mesmerism and Mediumship.” Perhaps, if you have room to spare, some of your readers may be interested in them.
“Mesmerism deals with the circle of life which is around each one. It encircles, as it were, as a whole all those who are in harmony, forming the sphere around them. Mesmerism determines the sphere. An adverse influence introduced into any sphere produces clashing and disorder. This must happen, more or less, whilst in the body, and is the great origin of evil.
“Whilst in the intensely material frame the spirit is veiled, and natures (or mesmeric influences) are misunderstood; but in the spirit land, in the unveiled light of the source of all light, love, and truth, all is clear.
“The circle within circle, the sphere within sphere of the various spiritual existences may there revolve in harmony around the great centre, producing beauty, rather than clashing—harmony, rather than discord.
“Where spirit is united to spirit the rapport must be perfect, whether in the body or out of it. When these grand laws of mesmerism are more understood and acted upon, the world of evil will become subdued; harmony and love will reign universally, and then shall the kingdom of righteousness and truth be upon earth as it is in heaven.”
Question.—What is the difference between spirit healing power and what we may call ordinary mesmerism?
Answer.—“As all mesmerism derives its origin from the great life-force of the universe (the world-soul), as by it matter is permeated, mesmerism given forth by the mesmeriser (as distinguished from the healing medium) must be of the same kind, but lesser in degree. Also, as it is given forth by his will power, there is the element of his own physical sphere mixed therein, which of itself involves all the vast difference in quality that must arise between his mesmerism and the purer, higher, and more ethereal, quality of the life-force as poured through the passive spirit medium, the latter being but the channel of <... continues on page 8-178 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Spirit Identity by Elgie-Corner, E., London Spiritualist, No. 343, March 21, 1879, p. 141
- ↑ Madam Blavatsky by Blavatsky, H.P., London Spiritualist, No. 343, March 21, 1879, p. 141
- ↑ Phenomenal Spiritualism by W.C.P., London Spiritualist, No. 343, March 21, 1879, p. 141
- ↑ Sir,-Some months since... by Bunney, H.P., London Spiritualist, No. 343, March 21, 1879, p. 141
- ↑ Spirit Messages Upon Mesmerism and Mediumship by F.J.T., London Spiritualist, No. 343, March 21, 1879, pp. 141-2
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 343, March 21, 1879, p. 141