Spirits Of Another World

( Originally Published 1919 )

Prevalence of Materialism before the War—Denial of the Supernatural—Swing of the Pendulum to Spiritism—Sir Oliver Lodge—Conan Doyle—St. Francis of Sales—St. Hilary—The "Eagle of Meaux"—St. Paul—H. Carrington —Stainton Moses—Godfrey J. Raupert—The Nine Articles of Spiritism.

Before the war Materialism was, among men who professed to be wise, the accepted scientific philosophy of Europe and America. It demanded high courage on the part of any man who dared to oppose himself to this Materialistic philosophy.

The immortality of the soul, rewards and punishments in another world, man's responsibility to, and dependence on, God, and even the existence of God, were denounced as the remains and wreckage of the flood of superstition which deluged the dark and unscientific ages of the past. The believers in the Materialistic philosophy of Maudsley, Spencer, Huxley, Darwin, and Clifford relegated to the ash-heap all trust in the supernatural and all belief in a hereafter.

To the student of the history of human thought and of natural philosophy there is nothing new in the pendulum of the Materialistic mind swinging now to the other extreme and resting in the very antithesis of Materialism,—in gross Spiritism. That the sons of the men who denied and scoffed at the possibility of a life beyond the grave, should now reject the crude denials of their fathers and embrace a Spiritistic philosophy of life, is one of those strange anomalies with which all history is filled. The fathers " changed the truth of God into a lie ; they have eaten sour grapes and their children's teeth are on edge." Now, as in Apostolic times, these men "are ever learning and never attaining to the knowledge of the truth."

The lectures, reviews, and especially the book, "Raymond," of Sir Oliver Lodge, now passing through its 20th edition, have set the heather of England and America afire. From a "hardshell" scientist of the Materialist school, Sir Oliver, by a marvelous feat of mental gymnastics, has turned a double somersault and landed upright at the feet of a medium. He states, without any equivocation, that he has repeatedly spoken with the soul of his son Raymond, who was killed in the war. He is supported in his contention by Sir Conan Doyle, who informs us that "much—notice he doesn't say all —which the spirits tell us is true."

Sir Conan prophesies that, when the war is over, religion, which is now undergoing a process of change, will be recast in the mould of Spiritism. By the way, did not Sir Oliver and Sir Conan, some twelve years ago, reject the existence of a world of spirits ? Did they not scorn to argue the reality of Spiritism by contending that it was an absurdity ? Then, "deeming themselves wise they became fools," and now they profess to know it all.

Well, let us see how much wiser they are now than they were twelve years ago. We have seen that the dead do not and cannot respond to the call of a medium or of any man. Who, then, are they who come from the spirit world at our bidding and say and do such extraordinary things' "They are," writes St. Francis of Sales, "evil spirits who, since the sin of Adam, are in communication with man (en rapport avec l'homme), at one time seducing him to evil acts to the injury of his soul, and at another time, when God permits it—and that God does often permit the Sacred Scriptures and all history attest—tormenting his body, speaking and acting with his organs, as if for the time these evil spirits were absolutely his masters."

"Spirits are so numerous and so powerful," writes St. Hilary, one of the greatest and most learned men of his century, "that without the help of God and that of his holy angels safe- guarding and protecting our weakness, we could not resist their conspiracy of trickery and hatred."

Nor must we assume that the opinions of men of great learning and genius have changed with the advance of civilization and the progress of time.

Those familiar with the writings and sermons of Bossuet, "the Eagle of Meaux," will concede that no greater mind or personality ever entered upon the world of lofty thought than the mind and personality of the great French prelate. In the eighth volume of his works, published at Paris in 1845, is found his Premier Sermon sur les Demons. In that great sermon he tells us that : "If God did not limit the power to act of these evil angels, they would destroy us all. And that these malicious (malfaisants) spirits, known of old as demons, exist, is a truth so luminously clear in the Divine Writings, so certified to by the universal consent of all nations and peoples, that it is not open to controversy. God forbid that I should so far forget the dignity belonging to this sacred tribune as to advance reasons or extraneous proofs in support of that which is so openly taught by the Sacred Word of God and by ecclesiastical tradition."

There is nothing in Sir Oliver Lodge's book or Conan Doyle's articles that has not been known from immemorial time or that is not familiar to all dispassionate students of demonology. Their experiences are but repetitions of those recorded by Home, Dupotet, Regazzoni, and others, on whom the same spirits, claiming to be departed souls, imposed their pernicious negations and false philosophy.

And here we may, not inaptly, reproduce the statement of Sir William Barrett, President of the English Society for Psychical Research.

In his book on "Necromancy and Modern Magic" he says:

"It seems to me that the Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, points to a race of spiritual creatures, similar to those I have described, but of a malignant type, when he speaks of beings not made of flesh and blood, inhabiting the air around us and able injuriously to affect mankind." Alluding to the dangers attending seances and consulting spirits he writes: "Of course, it is true now, as then, that these practices are dangerous in proportion as they lead us to surrender reason, or our will, to the dictates of an invisible and oftentimes masquerading spirit which tempts us to forsake the sure but arduous path-way of knowledge and of progress for an enticing maze which lures us round and round."

Now read what that great researcher into psychic phenomena, Hereward Carrington, says in his "Psychology":

"When I wrote my book ' The Coming Science,' some years ago, I contended (pp. 59-78) that there was really no good first-hand evidence that Spiritistic practices induced abnormal and morbid states and conditions to the extent usually supposed. Further experience has caused me to change that opinion. I now believe that the danger of Spiritistic practices is very great, and that this aspect of the problem is one that should be more widely discussed and more attention should be given to it by members of the Society for Psychical Research. The recent writings of Viollet and Mr. J. Godfrey Raupert should be more widely known. But it is probable that all these books would not have influenced me had I not seen several examples of such detrimental influence myself—cases of delusion, insanity and all the horrors of obsession.

Those who deny the reality of these facts, those who treat the whole problem as a joke, regard planchette as a toy, and deny the reality of powers and influences which work unseen, should observe the effects of some of the Spiritistic manifestations. They would no longer, I imagine, scoff at that investigation and be tempted to call all mediums frauds, but would be inclined to admit that there is a true terror of the dark, and there are 'principalities and powers' with which we, in our ignorance, toy, without knowing and realizing the frightful consequences which may result from this tampering with the unseen world."

We have already mentioned that these spirits who respond to the summons of the medium, are not the souls of the dead. Camille Flammarion, the widely known French astronomer, who devoted many hours of his long life to the study of Spiritism and spirit phenomena, writes :

"Souls of the dead? This is far from being demonstrated. My observations of forty years prove the contrary. No satisfactory identification has been made by me."

This is also the opinion of Mr. Stainton Moses, of University College, London, and a member of the London Dialectical Society. "I could not get rid," he wrote, "of the idea that the faith of Christendom was practically upset by their [the spirit-teachings'] issue. I believed that, however it might be disguised, such would be their outcome in the end. The central dogmas seemed especially attacked, and it was this that startled me. . . . Then came the doubt as to how far all might be the work of Satan, ' transformed into an angel of light,' laboring for the subversion of the faith."

So far back as 1871, a member of a Committee of the London Dialectical Society, which had been formed for the purpose of investigating and reporting upon the much disputed phenomena, made the following emphatic statement : "My opinion of these phenomena is that the intelligence which is put in communication with us, is a fallen one.. It is of the devil, the prince of the power of the air. I believe that we commit the crime of necromancy when we take part in these spiritistic seances."

No man in modern times has given more thought and intelligent study to psychic and spirit phenomena, or has written so luminously, dispassionately, and calmly on Spiritism than Mr. J. Godfrey Raupert. In his work, "Modern Spiritism," he summarises the profession of faith of modern Spiritism in these nine articles of denial:

1. That Christianity cannot be regarded as a revelation of an unique and specific character, foreshadowed in the Jewish ordinances, foretold by prophet and seer, and completed and consummated on Calvary and on the day of Pentecost; but that it is one of many forms of high spirit-manifestation designed to enforce upon man the binding obligations of the moral law inherent in his nature, and to remind him of the true character of his high origin and destiny.

"2. That Christ is not divine in the sense in which the Church throughout all ages has understood that term and has believed and taught Him to be divine. That He is, on the contrary, a human being like ourselves—at best perhaps a spirit of a high order and possessed of remarkable gifts and powers, who, descending from the higher. spheres and assuming a human body, was content to lay down His life as a testimony to the truth of the doctrines which He taught.

"3. That the teaching of the Catholic Church respecting His character and person and the aim and purpose of His death, is based upon a misconception, due to human error and weakness, and to subsequent philosophical thought and speculation.

4. That there is no priesthood specially set apart and ordained by Christ with a view to perpetuating His work and to forming the link between the sphere of the human and the divine.

"5. That the Church, with its sacramental institutions for the effectual carrying out of this work, and for the raising of the human soul to a supernatural life, for the imparting to it of supernatural gifts and graces, is a vain thing fondly invented, and at best an institution of mere human origin and doing a purely human work.

"6. That the scriptural notion of retribution after death and of punishment for sin committed in the flesh is a misreading and misrepresentation of the words of Christ and of those feelings of failure and of loss which necessarily attend the slow process of human evolution, retribution only taking place in the sense that suffering must follow upon wrong, wilfully or ignorantly done, in order that thus the way to right doing and to right conduct may be found.