Part 9 (1/2)

”Why, yes,” was the unexpected reply ”When you were a little girl, two or three years old, I often took you to it”

But not all crystal visions ence of subconscious perceptions or the recrudescence of forgotten memories

There are some in which the telepathic action of mind upon mind is clearly manifested, and in which the crystal see the percipient to becoe In no case, however, as I have already said, is it necessary to go beyond telepathy to find an adequate explanation

The saular phenomena to which we shall turn next--the phenoarded byincontrovertible proof of the validity of the spiritistic belief that the dead can and do co

CHAPTER IV

AUTOMATIC SPEAKING AND WRITING

There is a widespread belief that spiritism--or spiritualism, as it is ated to the liions But the facts indicate otherwise At a conservative estimate, there are to-day, in the United States alone, no fewer than 75,000 avowed spiritists, in s of nearly 450 spiritist societies, and possessing church property valued at 2,000,000; andthemselves with any society, accept the ministrations of 1,500 public and 10,000 private ” into the Philippines, seances being held at Manila and elsewhere

This certainly is a reion, and what makes it innings sixty years ago, has been perhters of a New York far strange noises which superstitious persons interpreted as co profitable to the sisters Fox, the business of producing ”spirit knockings” spread from town to town, and forthwith modern spiritis and disators Scarcely a month passes without a story of so all predictions to the contrary, spiritis new recruits to its ranks

Several reasons account for its aress under ould appear to be the inable One is the innate tendency of many people to dabble with the occult and mysterious Another is the appeal spiritism makes to the most sacred emotions of humanity Its central doctrine is that it is possible for the dead to coh the ifted with extraordinary powers Thus the hope is raised that ood cheer reat Beyond--that their voices may be heard, their faces seen, and their hands clasped by those from whom death has separated therief-stricken men and women, skeptical perhaps, but fervently hopeful that their skepticis phrase, they are already deeply imbued with ”the will to believe,” and are in no mood for close observation of what happens in the seance roo in the qualities that ator The sense of their loss is all-absorbing, and in this state of mind it is easy for any trickster who poses as athat they have actually been in touch with the dead

But the main reason why spiritism has survived repeated exposes, and persists as a force to be reckoned with in the religious life of to-day, is the fact that it is by no

There are certain pheno, which it is out of the question to attribute invariably to trickery and deceit While one need have no hesitation in dis as fraudulent[22] all ”physical” mediums--that is to say, mediums whose stock in trade is the production of such phenomena as the ”materialization” of spirit for about of furniture, and the striking of the ”sitters” by unseen hands--the case of the automatists, or ”psychical” mediums, is decidedly different

[22] Of course, strictly speaking, the term ”fraudulent”

should not be applied to those mediums who are the victims of a peculiar form of hysteria This is discussed in detail in the next chapter

These areinto a peculiar condition of trance, and occasionally while see state, appear to be controlled by soence, and, when so controlled, utter or write information which it is hard, if not impossible, to believe they could have obtained by any ordinary means

To be sure, there is a host of spurious autouard Some of these are out and out cheats, as brazen as the most rascallyand on inferences shrewdly drawn from hints unconsciously dropped by their patrons Quite a nuift not possessed--or, at all events, not utilized--by everyday , in the late nineties, I visited the spiritist church on Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, of which the late Ira Moore Corliss was then pastor In his day Mr Corliss was probably the most prominent medium in Brooklyn, a city where spiritisious-minded man, and one who sincerely believed that it was his mission to act as an inter the usual order of services in spiritist churches was followed--a prayer, so, a ser of ”test es,” in which thehere and there to deliver oral coed to come from the world of spirits

Seated next to nified appearance, atched the proceedings with a quiet smile of contempt It was evident that this was the first ti of the kind, and that he was both a directly in front of him, said, in the quick, nervous way common to hie for you, sir”

”For entleman, incredulously

”Yes, sir, for you There is a spirit here that wants to thank you for your kindly thought of him to-day It is the spirit of a rather tall ht, tender eyes He says his name is Henry Ward Beecher”

The s intently

”Go on,” he said

”This spirit,” continued the otten him He says that he ith you this afternoon, when you went to the cerave”

With a draesture Mr Corliss drew froeranium, and held it up so that all could see it