Spiritualism Defended.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 115, 23 January 1872, Page 7

Spiritualism Defended.

1 I WeSiave received from a Dunedin corro- I I spoudmit the following note and extract;— c “ Dear Sir,—One side of a story is very good s ! until the other is heard. As you have pub- 3 lished an article from an American paper t 1 headed “ Spiritualism Exposed,” I hope you * | twill not refuse to give the enclosed article 1 I from the Melbourne Argus of the 33th ult., t |in its defence. —l am, &c., Fair Play.” !TO- THE EDITOR OF THS “ AS.GUS.” £ Sir, —Spiritualism—or, as it might be more £ accurately designated, naturalism —is being | , assailed and misrepresented on all sides. £ The attacks upon it take the most varied ( I forms, and are animated by the most discor- ; i dant motives. Its merely physical phenomena ‘ i are frequently admitted, and are attributed ' , |to singularly disparate causes. Diabolism, ; ; sorcery, aiid unknown “physic force,” 1 , “unconscious cerebration,” and electricity, 1 , are credited with the authorship of these J i phenomena. I will not pretend to explain them, because, although a so-called spiritu- 1 \ alist, I have never seen any of them. With ' the intelligent manifestations of spiritualism, ' or naturalism, I am familiar, and of them, 1 I-with your permission, I propose to speak. J My attention was directed to them some ; months since by the fact that many men for ‘ w r hose mental attainments I entertain the £ highest respect, whose veracity is unimpeach- j able, and whom I know to be unlikely to be ' led away by delusions of anv kind, were firm I believers in spiritualism. I observed that it 1 1 'us exercising a beneficial influence on their iuealth, their happiness, and their daily conduct ; and I resolved to investigate the pheAomena for myself. Up to that time I had 'read pretty well everything that had been written against spiritualism, and only one hook in its favour Peebles’ Seers of the Ages, which repelled me by the tumidity of its style. I entered on the enquiry with great suspicion. I suspected those through |whom the intelligent phenomena were said |to be produced, and I watched the operations |of my own mind with vigilant scrutiny. Like most men to whom their brain is their tool-chest and bread-winner, 1 have been 1 I accustomed to study its workings, and to regulate my physical habits so as to keep it I lin the highest state of health and efficiency. ‘ Therefore I was prepared—indeed, I expected J to find—an explanation of the phenomena \ lof spiritualism in some one or more of the ’ occult operations of the mind—in unconscious cerebration, mental-transfer, latent , thought, or forgotten impressions suddenly awakened or vitalised, the unsuspected open--1 ing up of long-sealed chambers of the memory, a morbid excitement of the imaginative ’ s faculties, and so forth. lam bound to conIfess that everv one of these explanations [ : i failed to account for the phenomena. I fought against the spiritual theory, but the facts 1 i were too strong for me, and I was compelled |to succumb. ' The evidence, as it accumui bated, was so powerful, so consistent, so har- * monious—the details were so perfectly in ac- i ‘ cordance with the leading principles, and the | latter approved themselves so entirely to my I reason, that conviction was irresistible. What ace those' “ intelligent phenomena” || of which you speak lit will be asked. I reply that they are these. Certain human media, in whom the requisite conditions exist, j. are taken possession of by the higher intelj ligences, who work in circles or in groups. * i They deaden the brain of the medium for the time being, and make use of his or her organs of speech and sight for the purpose of comi municating with human beings. In this ' position they are enabled to converse with ’ you, and to convey to you knowledge calculated to promote your own mental and spiri--0 tual growth and to advance that of mankind. If those whom they desire to make use | of, are suffering from any remediable dis- j ease, they apply themselves in the first in- { stance to its cure, as in my own case ; be-1 ' cause an unhealthy condition of the body is, j 3 ||'>f course, unfavourable to the healthy operations of the mind. This done, they begin to y inculcate principles of true religion and i morality, and to explain and enforce the P laws of nature as established by Almighty God, whose instruments they claim to bo, and of whoso omnipotence, omniscience, and infinite love they are perpetually speaking, in terms of fervent adoration and rapturous , t eulogy. They lay down these broad principles,— that it is the first duty of every man to asI certain what he is, whence he came, where jhe is, and whither he is going. By a knowedge of what he is, man would regulate his ie : daily life, his food, clothing, labour, exerL , j cise, recreation, and rest, so as to insure per--2 feet health, all disease being unnatural and ( p abnormal. By knowing whence he came, — ascending, as he does, through every stage ,*| of animated nature, until ho takes the form ’ of man and becomes a living spirit, —mankind would get rid of the monstrous doctrine of original sin and all its fabulous surroundings, and would escape the mental degradation ‘ and misery to which that pernicious invenj'l tion of the theologians has given rise. By a g * knowledge of whore we are, —or, in other j words, by a careful study of natural history iei' * n al * Ranches, we should be enabled the ie better to adapt ourselves to the telluric and climatic conditions of the countries we inhaI bit; we should choose more appropriate and healthy sites for our cities; we should undera- stand how to develop the natural resources I the soil more fully than we do now ;we e, should “be able to produce rain at will” ; and we should learn to foresee and to guard ea against those elementary convulsions which as are now productive of such terrible disasters as on land and sea. By a knowledge of whither be | we are going, taken in connection with that ' I -j

of whence we came, we should be led to form e a just appreciation of the utterly insignificant c proportion which this life bears, not only to 1 our future, but to our past existence ; we t should discover that the rate of our progres- f sion hereafter will be determined by the. ex- 1 tent td Which reason, illuminated from above, i has been the guide arid governor of oilr ac- '• tions here, and we should shape our lives ac- c cordingly. - 1 Such, ni a very condensed form, arc tli s 1 elementary principles of what is called 1 spiritualism, as taught by the higher intclli- j gences, not only here, but simultaneously in all parts of the world. Self-denial —not as- i ceticism ; self-renunciation—not self-torture ; < and the duty of labouring for your fellow- < creatures ;—these are incessantly inculcated < by the “spirits.” The ethics of Christianity 1 they sedulously teach ; but the doctrine of 1 the Godhead of Christ, and that of the atonement, they condemn as having contributed more than any other cause to impede the Christianisatiou of mankind. The human mind, they assort, has now reached that stage of development in which it has become practicable for the higher intelligences, acting ' under Divine Providence, and fulfilling the Almighty will, to re-reveal in its integrity and purity, through tons of thousands of channels, that religion which Christ taught, freed from the corruptions and perversions of succeeding ages, in order that the whole human race may eventually “dwell with God in endless love,” For, as they declare, and as Wordsworth says ; “ Hope, below this, consists not with belief In mercy, carried infinite degrees Beyond the tenderness of human hearts : Hope, below this, consists not with belief lu perfect wisdom, guiding mightiest power, That finds no limit but her own pure will.” Yours obediently, J. S.