SPIRITUALISM IN DUNEDIN.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 176, 25 March 1873, Page 6

SPIRITUALISM IN DUNEDIN.

The "Rev. Dr Copland gave his second lecture in connection with Spiritualism on Tuesday evening last in Dunedin. The Dr believes that the manifestations of Spiritualism are to be accounted for by natural causes ; that there is no supernatural agency in connection with them, whether of the devil or of spirits; bat that human trickery is at the bottom of the delusions : (such as those, for instance, which are mentioned in an article on our seventh page, beaded “Herr Dobler’s Dark S6ance.”) During bis lecture, while treating of the so-called spiritualistic phenomenon of “levitation,” Dr Copland said:— “ Mr J. M. Peebles, in a lecture in Melbourne, entitled, ‘ Spiritualism Defined and Defended, stated— ‘ I have' seen Dr E. C. Dunn and other mediums float in the air by spirit power.’ Here is an opportunity then for this individual demonstrating both bis own convictions of the reality of this Spirit power, and bringing conviction to the multitudes of this city. Let Mr Dunn float through the air in daylight from the end of the Stuart-street jetty to the old jetty. (Great laughter.) This will do more to convince the world of Spirit power than all empty talk.” • —ln a lecture in reply given since by Dr Dunn, that gentleman declines the challenge, and is doubtful whether, even if he accomplished the feat, Dr Copland would then believe.

From the Times of the 21st hist., we take the following A farewell soiree was given hi the Oddfellows’ Hall to Messrs Peebles and Dunn. There were on the platform Messrs Redmayne, (who presided), Peebles, and Dunn ; and in the body of the hall, ladies and gentlemen to the number of nearly two hundred. The hall was elegantly decorated with evergreens and flowers. Mr liedmayne made some appropriate remarks, read an address to Messrs Peebles and Dunn, and presented Mr Peebles with a purse of 75 sovereigns, and a sum of £25 for passage-money,—in all, £IOO. Messrs Peebles and Dunn were also each presented with a greenstone pendant, mounted in gold. Mr Peebles then spoke, saying that in Dunedin they had been to some degree vilified, not because of wrong lives or immoral acts, but because they had expressed their conscientious convictions, which differed from the convictions of those who assailed them. Was toleration a dream yet 1 Relative to Dr Dunn's levitation and immunity while in a. trance-state from the effects of fire, Mr Peebles said he had seen Dr Dunn lying on a sofa entranced, and saw him raised by some unseen force or power, and floating in the atmosphere. As to the other point— he was sceptical of the Bible account of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego coming uninjured out of the burning furnace, but the spirit of an Italian chemist told him such was possible. Following'the direction of the spirit, he, while Dr Dunn was in a trance, lifted the chimney off a burning kerosene lamp, took the doctor’s hand and placed it on the flames. The flames came up between the fingers. It was on the flame for five minutes, and when ho wiped the black soot off, the hand was as well as before. lie asked the spirit how it was clone, and the spirit in reply told him it was easier to do than to explain, but said it had constructed a refined ethercali.-.cd coating of atmosphere around Dr Dunn's hand, which rendered the hand impervious to heat, and that it could envelope, and protect from burning, the whole of the body of a person in that way. From letters sent by the two gentlemen to the Sla r, we notice that Mr Reid, Wesleyan Minister, and Mr Dunn have agreed to publicly argue the following resolution, proposed by the latter —“ Resolved, that Spiritualism is true, and the. Bible (Rung James’s version) proves the same.” Saturday evening was to witness the contest.