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{{Style P-Align center|1=LIGHT.<br>September | <div>{{Style P-Align center|1=LIGHT.<br>September 30, 1882.}}</div> | ||
{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|Supersensuous Perception and Prophetic Dreams.|14-34}} | {{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|Supersensuous Perception and Prophetic Dreams.|14-34}} | ||
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{{Style P-Title|NOTES BY THE WAY.}} | {{Style P-Title|NOTES BY THE WAY.}} | ||
{{Style P-Align center|1='''Contributed by “M.A. (Oxon.)”'''}} | |||
There is nothing to be added to what I have so frequently said about the conditions under which promiscuous séances for materialisation are held. The last exposure has but emphasised anew the necessity for a stern and searching reform. Possibly the steady frequency with which these miserable frauds recur may suggest the expediency of discountenancing altogether the holding of such experimental circles at all, except in private, and in the presence of experienced investigators. If they be held, it is imperative that they should be purged absolutely of the conditions which so readily lend themselves to fraud. But there are grave reasons for thinking that they are undesirable as ''public exhibitions.'' “A.P.S.” set forth some of these in his last letter, and the experience of instructed Spiritualists will supply others. It has, most unfortunately, become a received idea that a medium will be defended by some crazy enthusiasts, no matter how mean the fraud committed, nor how palpable it be. It is this, quite as much as the frauds themselves, that has brought such flagrant discredit on public Spiritualism. The outside investigators, who gather their opinions from the journals, have come to believe that fraud is rife, for they see little else than newspaper comments on exposures and prosecutions. And, what is worse, they have come to believe that there is a large class of men, whose names are prominent among Spiritualists, who are always ready to bolster up imposture, to cloak deceit, and to find an excuse for the most mean and miserable fraud. So, in their eyes, Spiritualists are ''participes criminis'', accessories after the fact, if not before, not ashamed of what to them should be sheer sacrilege. And such men ask, “How can these people believe what they profess? They and their phenomena are one vast sham!” It is this that, even more than repeated fraud, of which the ''raison d’être'' is not far to seek, discredits Spiritualism. And it is this that must be resolutely dealt with. | There is nothing to be added to what I have so frequently said about the conditions under which promiscuous séances for materialisation are held. The last exposure has but emphasised anew the necessity for a stern and searching reform. Possibly the steady frequency with which these miserable frauds recur may suggest the expediency of discountenancing altogether the holding of such experimental circles at all, except in private, and in the presence of experienced investigators. If they be held, it is imperative that they should be purged absolutely of the conditions which so readily lend themselves to fraud. But there are grave reasons for thinking that they are undesirable as ''public exhibitions.'' “A.P.S.” set forth some of these in his last letter, and the experience of instructed Spiritualists will supply others. It has, most unfortunately, become a received idea that a medium will be defended by some crazy enthusiasts, no matter how mean the fraud committed, nor how palpable it be. It is this, quite as much as the frauds themselves, that has brought such flagrant discredit on public Spiritualism. The outside investigators, who gather their opinions from the journals, have come to believe that fraud is rife, for they see little else than newspaper comments on exposures and prosecutions. And, what is worse, they have come to believe that there is a large class of men, whose names are prominent among Spiritualists, who are always ready to bolster up imposture, to cloak deceit, and to find an excuse for the most mean and miserable fraud. So, in their eyes, Spiritualists are ''participes criminis'', accessories after the fact, if not before, not ashamed of what to them should be sheer sacrilege. And such men ask, “How can these people believe what they profess? They and their phenomena are one vast sham!” It is this that, even more than repeated fraud, of which the ''raison d’être'' is not far to seek, discredits Spiritualism. And it is this that must be resolutely dealt with. | ||