Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00024)

I am doing an indepth study of the early days of Spiritualism (1848-1874).
I thought that this article which is to be found on the WWW might be of
some interest to those on Theos-l (especially those who have written and debated
Theosophy's view of psychism).

See the end of the article for the source on the WWW.

Daniel

> [THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA] [1913 edition]
> 
> Spiritism
> 
> Spiritism is the name properly given to the belief that the living can
> and do communicate with the spirits of the departed, and to the
> various practices by which such communication is attempted. It should
> be carefully distinguished from Spiritualism, the philosophical
> doctrine which holds, in general, that there is a spiritual order of
> beings no less real than the material and, in particular, that the
> soul of man is a spiritual substance. Spiritism, moreover, has taken
> on a religious character. It claims to prove the preamble of all
> religions, i. e., the existence of a spiritual world, and to establish
> a world-wide religion in which the adherents of the various
> traditional faiths, setting their dogmas aside, can unite. If it has
> formulated no definite creed, and if its representatives differ in
> their attitudes toward the beliefs of Christianity, this is simply
> because Spiritism is expected to supply a new and fuller revelation
> which will either substantiate on a rational basis the essential
> Christian dogmas or show that they are utterly unfounded. The
> knowledge thus acquired will naturally affect conduct, the more so
> because it is hoped that the discarnate spirits, in making known their
> condition, will also indicate the means of attaining to salvation or
> rather of progressing, by a continuous evolution in the other world,
> to a higher plane of existence and happiness.
> 
>                              THE PHENOMENA
> 
> These are classified as physical and psychical. The former include:
> production of raps and other sounds; movements of objects (tables,
> chairs) without contact or with contact insufficient to explain the
> movement: "apports" i. e., apparitions of visible agency to convey
> them; moulds, i. e., impressions made upon paraffin and similar
> substances; luminous appearances, i. e., vague glimmerings or light or
> faces more or less defines; levitation, i. e., raising of objects from
> the ground by supposed supernormal means; materialization or
> appearance of a spirit in visible human form; spirit-photography, in
> which the feature or forms of deceased persons appear on the plate
> along with the likeness of a living photographed subject. The
> psychical, or significative, phenomena are those which express ideas
> or contain messages. To this class belong: table-rapping in answer to
> questions; automatic writing; slate-writing; trance-speaking;
> clairvoyance; descriptions of the spirit-world; and communications
> from the dead.
> 
>                                 HISTORY
> 
> For an account of Spiritistic practices in antiquity see NECROMANCY.
> The modern phase was ushered in by the exhibitions of mesmerism and
> clairvoyance. In its actual form, however, Spiritism dates from the
> year 1848 and from the experiences of the Fox family at Hydesville,
> and later at Rochester, in New York State. Strange "knockings" were
> heard in the house, pieces of furniture were moved about as though by
> invisible hands, and the noises became so troublesome that sleep was
> impossible. At length the "rapper" began to answer questions, and a
> code of signals was arranged to facilitate communication. It was also
> found that to receive messages special qualifications were needed;
> these were possessed by Catherine and Margaret Fox, who are therefore
> regarded as the first "mediums" of modern times. Similar disturbances
> occurred in other parts of the country, notably at Stratford,
> Connecticut, in the house of Rev. Dr. Phelps, a Presbyterian minister,
> where the manifestations (1850-51) were often violent and the
> spirit-answers blasphemous. In 1851 the Fox girls were visited in
> Buffalo by three physicians who were professors in the university of
> that city. As a result of their examination the doctors declared that
> the "raps" were simply "crackings" of the knee-joints. But this
> statement did not lessen either the popular enthusiasm or the interest
> of more serious persons. The subject was taken up by men like Horace
> Greeley, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Robert Hare, professor of chemistry in
> the University of Pennsylvania, and John Worth Edmonds, a judge of the
> Supreme Court of New York State. Conspicuous among the Spiritists was
> Andrew Jackson Davis, whose work, "The Principles of Nature" (1847),
> dictated by him in trance, contained a theory of the universe, closely
> resembling the Swedenborgian. Spiritism also found earnest advocates
> among clergymen of various denominations, especially the
> Universalists; it appealed strongly to many people who had lost all
> religious belief in a future life; and it was welcomed by those who
> were then agitating the question of a new social organization--the
> pioneers of modern Socialism. So widespread was the belief in
> Spiritism that in 1854 Congress was petitioned to appoint a scientific
> commission for the investigation of the phenomena. The petition, which
> bore some 13,000 signatures, was laid on the table, and no action was
> taken.
> 
> In Europe the way had been prepared for Spiritism by the Swedenborgian
> movement and by an epidemic of table-turning which spread from the
> Continent to England and invaded all classes of society. It was still
> a fashionable diversion when, in 1852, two mediums, Mrs. Hayden and
> Mrs. Roberts, came from America to London, and held séances which
> attracted the attention of scientists as well as popular interest.
> Faraday, indeed, in 1853 showed that the table movements were due to
> muscular action, and Dr. Carpenter gave the same explanation; but many
> thoughtful persons, notably among the clergy, held to the Spiritistic
> interpretation. This was accepted also by Robert Owen, the socialist,
> while Professor De Morgan, the mathematician, in his account of a
> sitting with Mrs. Hayden, was satisfied that "somebody or some spirit
> was reading his thoughts". The later development in England was
> furthered by mediums who came from America: Daniel Dunglas Home (Hume)
> in 1855, the Davenport Brothers in 1864, and Henry Slade in 1876.
> Among the native mediums, Rev. William Stainton Moses became prominent
> in 1872, Miss Florence Cook in the same year, and William Eglinton in
> 1886. Spiritism was advocated by various periodical publications, and
> defended in numerous works some of which were said to have been
> dictated by the spirits themselves, e. g., the "Spirit Teachings" of
> Stainton Moses, which purport to give an account of conditions in the
> other world and form a sort of Spiritistic theology. During this
> period also, scientific opinion on the subject was divided. While
> Professors Huxley and Tyndall sharply denounced Spiritism in practice
> and theory, Mr. (later Sir Wm.) Crookes and Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace
> regarded the phenomena as worthy of serious investigation. The same
> view was expressed in the report which the Dialectical Society
> published in 1871 after an inquiry extending over eighteen months, and
> at the Glasgow meeting of the British Association in 1876 Professor
> Barrett, F.R.S., concluded his account of the phenomena he had
> observed by urging the appointment of a committee of scientific men
> for the systematic investigation of such phenomena.
> 
> The growth of Spiritism on the Continent was marked by similar
> transitions from popular curiosity to serious inquiry. As far back as
> 1787, the Exegetic and Philanthropic Society of Stockholm, adhering to
> the Swedenborgian view, had interpreted the utterances of "magnetized"
> subjects as messages from the spirit world. This interpretation
> gradually won favour in France and Germany; but it was not until 1848
> that Cahagnet published at Paris the first volume of his "Arcanes de
> la vie future dévoilées", containing what purported to be
> communications from the dead. The excitement aroused in Paris by
> table-turning and rapping led to an investigation by Count Agénor de
> Gasparin, whose conclusion ("Des Tables tournantes", (Paris, 1854) was
> that the phenomena originated in some physical force of the human
> body. Professor Thury of Geneva ("Les Tables tournantes", 1855)
> concurred in this explanation. Baron de Guldenstubbe ("La Réalité des
> Esprits" Paris, 1857), on the contrary, declared his belief in the
> reality of spirit intervention, and M. Rivail, known later as Allan
> Kardec, published the "spiritualistic philosophy" in "Le Livre des
> Esprits" (Paris, 1853), which became a guide-book to the whole
> subject.
> 
> In Germany also Spiritism was an outgrowth from "animal magnetism". J.
> H. Jung in his "Theorie der Geisterkunde" declared that in the state
> of trance the soul is freed from the body, but he regarded the trance
> itself as a diseased condition. Among the earliest German clairvoyants
> was Frau Frederica Hauffe, the "Seeress of Prevorst", whose
> experiences were related by Justinus Kerner in "Die Seherin von
> Prevorst" (Stuttgart, 1829). In its later development Spiritism was
> represented in scientific and philosophical circles by men of
> prominence, e. g., Ulrici, Fichte, Züllner, Fechner, and Wm. Weber.
> The last-named three conducted (1877-8) a series of experiments with
> the American medium Slade at Leipzig. The results were published in
> Züllner's "Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen" (cf. Massey,
> "Transcendental Physics", London, 1880, in which the portions relating
> to spiritism are translated). Though considered important at the time,
> this investigation, owing to lack of caution and accuracy, cannot be
> regarded as a satisfactory test. (Cf. "Report of the Seybert
> Commission", Philadelphia, 1887--, which also contains an account of
> an investigation conducted at the University of Pennsylvania with
> Slade and other mediums.)
> 
> The foregoing outline shows that modern Spiritism within a generation
> had passed beyond the limits of a merely popular movement and had
> challenged the attention of the scientific world. It had, moreover,
> brought about serious divisions among men of science. For those who
> denied the existence of a soul distinct from the organism it was a
> foregone conclusion that there could be no such communications as the
> Spiritists claimed. This negative view, of course, is still taken by
> all who accept the fundamental ideas of Materialism. But apart from
> any such a priori considerations, the opponents of Spiritism justified
> their position by pointing to innumerable cases of fraud which were
> brought to light either through closer examination of the methods
> employed or through the admissions of the mediums themselves.
> 
> In spite, however, of repeated exposure, there occurred phenomena
> which apparently could not be ascribed to trickery of any sort. The
> inexplicable character of these the sceptics attributed to faulty
> observation. The Spiritistic practices were simply set down as a new
> chapter in the long history of occultism, magic, and popular
> superstition. On the other hand, a certain number of thinkers felt
> obliged to confess that, after making due allowances for the element
> of fraud, there remained some facts which called for a more systematic
> investigation. In 1869 the London Dialectical Society appointed a
> committee of thirty-three members "to investigate the phenomena
> alleged to be spiritual manifestations, and to report thereon". The
> committee's report (1871) declares that "motion may be produced in
> solid bodies without material contact, by some hitherto unrecognized
> force operating within an undefined distance from the human organism,
> an beyond the range of muscular action"; and that "this force is
> frequently directed by intelligence". In 1882 there was organized in
> London the "Society for Psychical Research" for the scientific
> examination of what its prospectus terms "debatable phenomena". A
> motive for investigation was supplied by the history of hypnotism,
> which had been repeatedly ascribed to quackery and deception.
> Nevertheless, patient research conducted by rigorous methods had shown
> that beneath the error and imposture there lay a real influence which
> was to be accounted for, and which finally was explained on the theory
> of suggestion. The progress of Spiritism, it was thought, might
> likewise yield a residuum of fact deserving scientific explanation.
> 
> The Society for Psychical Research soon counted among its members
> distinguished representatives of science and philosophy in England and
> America; numerous associations with similar aims and methods were
> organized in various countries. The "Proceedings" of the Society
> contain detailed reports of investigations in Spiritism and allied
> subjects, and a voluminous literature, expository and critical, has
> been created. Among the most notable works are: "Phantasms of the
> Living" by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore (London, 1886); F.W.H. Myers,
> "Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death" (London, 1903);
> and Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., "The Survival of Man" (New York, 1909).
> In recent publications prominence is given to experiments with the
> mediums Mrs. Piper of Boston and Eusapia Palladino of Italy; and
> important contributions to the literature have been made by Professor
> Wm. James of Harvard, Dr. Richard Hodgson of Boston, Professor Charles
> Richet (University of Paris), Professor Henry Sidgwick (Cambridge
> University), Professor Th. Flournoy (University of Geneva), Professor
> Morselli (University of Genoa), Professor Cesare Lombroso (University
> of Turin), Professor James H. Hyslop (Columbia University), Professor
> Wm. R. Newbold (University of Pennsylvania). While some of these
> writers maintain a critical attitude, others are outspoken in favour
> of Spiritism, and a few (Myers, James), lately deceased, arranged
> before death to establish communication with their surviving
> associates.
> 
>                               HYPOTHESES
> 
> To explain the phenomena which after careful investigation and
> exclusion of fraud are regarded as authentic, three hypotheses have
> been proposed. The telepathic hypothesis takes as its starting-point
> the so-called subliminal consciousness. This, it is claimed, is
> subject to disintegration in such wise that segments of it may impress
> another mind (the percipient) even at a distance. The personality is
> liberated, so to speak, from the organism and invades the soul of
> another. A medium, on this hypothesis, would obtain information by
> thought-transference either from the minds of persons present at the
> séance or from other minds concerning whom the sitters know nothing.
> This view, it is held, would accord with the recognized facts of
> hypnosis and with the results of experimental telepathy; and it would
> explain what appear to be cases of possession. Similar to this is the
> hypothesis of psychical radiations which distinguishes in man the
> material body, the soul, and an intermediate principle, the
> "perispirit". This is a subtle fluid, or astral body, which in certain
> persons (mediums) can escape from the material organism and thus form
> a "double". It also accompanied the soul after death and it is the
> means by which communication is established with the peri-spirit of
> the mediums. The Spiritistic hypothesis maintains that the
> communications are received from disembodied spirits. Its advocates
> declare that telepathy is insufficient to account for all the facts,
> that its sphere of influence would have to be enlarged so as to
> include all the mental states and memories of living persons, and that
> even with such extension it would not explain the selective character
> of the phenomena by which facts relevant for establishing the personal
> identity of the departed are discriminated from those that are
> irrelevant. Telepathy at most may be the means by which discarnate
> spirits act upon the minds of living persons.
> 
> For those who admit that the manifestations proceed from intelligences
> other than that of the medium, the next question in order is whether
> these intelligences are the spirits of the departed or beings that
> have never been embodied in human forms. The reply had often been
> found difficult even by avowed believers in Spiritism, and some of
> these have been forced to admit the action of extraneous or non-human
> intelligences. This conclusion is based on several sorts of evidence:
> the difficulty of establishing spirit-identity, i. e., of ascertaining
> whether the communicator is actually the personality he or it purports
> to be; the love of personation on the part of the spirits which leads
> them to introduce themselves as celebrities who once lived on earth,
> although on closer questioning they show themselves quite ignorant of
> those whom they personate; the trivial character of the
> communications, so radically opposed to what would be expected from
> those who have passed into the other world and who naturally should be
> concerned to impart information on the most serious subjects; the
> contradictory statements which the spirits make regarding their own
> condition, the relations of God and man, the fundamental precepts of
> morality; finally the low moral tone which often pervades these
> messages from spirits who pretend to enlighten mankind. These
> deceptions and inconsistencies have been attributed by some authors to
> the subliminal consciousness (Flournoy), by others to spirits of a
> lower order, i. e., below the plane of humanity (Stainton Moses),
> while a third explanation refers them quite frankly to demonic
> intervention (Raupert, "Modern Spiritism", St. Louis, 1904; cf.
> Grasset, "The Marvels beyond Science," tr. Tubeuf, New York, 1910).
> For the Christian believer this third view acquired special
> significance from the fact that the alleged communications antagonize
> the essential truths of religion, such as the Divinity of Christ,
> atonement and redemption, judgment and future retribution, while they
> encourage agnosticism, pantheism, and a belief in reincarnation.
> 
> Spiritism indeed claims that it alone furnishes an incontestable proof
> of immortality, a scientific demonstration of the future life that far
> surpasses any philosophical deduction of Spiritualism, while it gives
> the death-blow to Materialism. This claim, however, rests upon the
> validity of the hypothesis that the communications come from
> disembodied spirits; it gets no support from the telepathic hypothesis
> or from that of demonic intervention. If either of the latter should
> be verified the phenomena would be explained without solving or even
> raising the problem of human immortality. If, again, it were shown
> that the argument based on the data of normal consciousness and the
> nature of the soul cannot stand the test of criticism, the same test
> would certainly be fatal to a theory drawn from the mediumistic
> utterances which are not only the outcome of abnormal conditions, but
> are also open to widely different interpretations. Even where all
> suspicion of fraud or collusion is removed--and this is seldom the
> case--a critical investigator will cling to the idea that phenomena
> which now seem inexplicable may eventually, like so many other
> marvels, be accounted for without having recourse to the Spiritistic
> hypothesis. Those who are convinced, on philosophical grounds, of the
> soul's immortality may say that communications from the spirit world,
> if any such there be, go to strengthen their conviction; but to
> abandon their philosophy and stake all on Spiritism would be more than
> hazardous; it would, indirectly at least, afford a pretext for a more
> complete rejection of soul and immortality. In other words, if
> Spiritism were the sole argument for a future life, Materialism,
> instead of being crushed, would triumph anew as the only possible
> theory for science and common sense.
> 
>                                 DANGERS
> 
> To this risk of philosophical error must be added the dangers, mental
> and moral, which Spiritistic practices involve. Whatever the
> explanations offered for the medium's "powers", their exercise sooner
> or later brings about a state of passivity which cannot but injure the
> mind. This is readily intelligible in the hypothesis of an invasion by
> extraneous spirits, since such a possession must weaken and tend to
> efface the normal personality. But similar results may be expected if,
> as the alternate hypothesis maintains, a disintegration of the one
> personality takes place. In either case, it is not surprising that the
> mental balance should be disturbed, and self-control impaired or
> destroyed. Recourse to Spiritism frequently produces hallucinations
> and other aberrations, especially in subjects who are predisposed to
> insanity; and even those who are otherwise normal expose themselves to
> severe physical and mental strain (cf. Viollet, "Le spiritisme dans
> ses rapports avec la folie", Paris, 1908). More serious still is the
> danger of moral perversion. If to practise or encourage deception of
> any sort is reprehensible, the evil is certainly greater when fraud is
> resorted to in the inquiry concerning the future life. But apart from
> any intention to deceive, the methods employed would undermine the
> foundations of morality, either by producing a disintegration of
> personality or by inviting the invasion of an extraneous intelligence.
> It may be that the medium "yields, perhaps, innocently at first to the
> promptings of an impulse which may come to him as from a higher power,
> or that he is moved by an instinctive compulsion to aid in the
> development of his automatic romance--in any case, if he continues to
> abet and encourage this automatic prompting, it is not likely that he
> can long retain both honesty and sanity unimpaired. The man who looks
> on at his hand doing a thing, but acquits himself of responsibility
> for the thing done, can hardly claim to be considered as a moral
> agent; and the step is short to instigating and repeating a like
> action in the future, without the excuse of an overmastering impulse .
> . . To attend the séances of a professional medium is perhaps at worst
> to countenance a swindle; to watch the gradual development of innocent
> automatism into physical mediumship may be to assist at a process of
> moral degeneration" (Podmore, "Modern Spiritualism", II, 326 sqq.).
> 
>                          ACTION OF THE CHURCH
> 
> As Spiritism has been closely allied with the practices of "animal
> magnetism" and hypnotism, these several classes of phenomena have also
> been treated under the same general head in the discussions of
> theologians and in the decisions of ecclesiastical authority. The
> Congregation of the Inquisition, 25 June, 1840, decreed: "Where all
> error, sorcery, and invocation of the demon, implicit or explicit, is
> excluded, the mere use of physical means which are otherwise lawful,
> is not morally forbidden, provided it does not aim at unlawful or evil
> results. But the application of purely physical principles and means
> to things or effects that are really supernatural, in order to explain
> these on physical grounds, is nothing else than unlawful and heretical
> deception". This decision was reiterated on 28 July, 1847, and a
> further decree was issued on 30 July, 1856, which, after mentioning
> discourses about religion, evocation of departed spirits and "other
> superstitious practices: of Spiritism, exhorts the bishops to put
> forth every effort for the suppression of these abuses "in order that
> the flock of the Lord may be protected against the enemy, the deposit
> of faith safeguarded, and the faithful preserved from moral
> corruption". The Second Plenary Council o Baltimore (1866), while
> making due allowance for fraudulent practice in Spiritism, declares
> that some at least of the manifestations are to be ascribed to Satanic
> intervention, and warns the faithful against lending any support to
> Spiritism or eve, out of curiosity, attending séances (Decreta, nn.
> 33-41). The council points out, in particular, the anti-Christian
> character of Spiritistic teachings concerning religion, and
> characterizes them as an attempt to revive paganism and magic. A
> decree of the Holy Office, 30 March, 1898, condemns Spiritistic
> practices, even though intercourse with the demon be excluded and
> communication sought with good spirits only. In all these documents
> the distinction is clearly drawn between legitimate scientific
> investigation and superstitious abuses. What the Church condemns in
> Spiritism is superstition with its evil consequences for religion and
> morality.
> 
> EDWARD A. PACE
> Transcribed by Janet Grayson
> 
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