CULT OF SPIRITUALISM

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 81, 30 December 1920, Page 7

CULT OF SPIRITUALISM

CHURCH CONGRESS DEBATE

RACIAL SUICIDE DANGER

SPIRIT MESSAGES DISCUSSED

Several papers on spiritualism were read at the Church Congress at Southend, writes tho London correspondent oi an exchange. Sir W. F. Barrett, i>he scientist, spoke on the teachings and warnings of spiritualism. He said •he did not know of any investigator who had devbted to this subject unprejudiced experimental inquiry, and remained sitidng in tho seat of the scornful. He decisively rejected tho once-popular explanation that spiritualism could be explained away by fraud, deception, or delusion. A group of investigators had' been driven to tlie conviction, ofie.ii against pre-possession, that the purely terrene and human theory must be abandoned.

"If everyone were a.» certain as day following night that, after ihe momentary eclipse of death, they would pass into a new and better life of freedom and progression, such as spiritualists depict," Sir William BarK'tii said later, "it is possible that few would wish to remain on earth.

"Multitudes of worn and weary souls would tako the readiest, means t6 enter a realm where they hoped their troubles ■would be ended and their sorrows forgotten,' while others, from curiosity, or to join their loved ones, would make tho great adventiiro. Thus racial suicide would gradually ensue."

The "Usual" Message. Miss lily Douglas, a well-known writer, said: "I have witnessed, or read of, many a seance, and, when tho thought they really contain is sifted from all repetition and verbiage, it seems to N amouut .to this: 'Cheerio, here I am again; it's very pretty over here; vory pretty and comfortable; and I'm enjoying myself Immensely and helping lams doss over stiles.'" (Laughter.) "When mediums and automatists give us writings which can command our attention and reverence, we may believe in the spiritual origin of those messages. At present all that claims to come from the minds of the spirits is on a lower level of thought, insifclr-, Mid literary achievement than what is produced on earth."

The Rev. A. B. M'Ge®, St. Mark's, London..said he opposed Spiritualism because he believed that for the ordinary, person the results of seances and automatic writing meant religions deterioration, danger from hysteria, and intellectual indiscipline.

Rev. Harold Anson's Views. The Rev. Harold Anson, formerly of Auckland, urged, that in dealing with psychic phenomena incredulity is a bias tb be discounted as well as credulity. Recounting .some of the remarkably manifestations of tho workings of the subconscious levels of the human mind under hypnosis, he said that such things should b» possible was sufficiently astounding to most, people, but itoe evidence for such powers was now so overwhelming that few would venture to deny their reality. "There can be no doubt that at all events many of t;he messages, and much of the super-noormally acquired knowledge formerly ascribed to spirits ox devils is acquired telepathically," ho added. "There can be no doubt that very much in these messages' represents a layer of the percipient's personality, which he or she is not normally conscious of, and would hesitate in normal circumstances to bring into manifestation." Tho fact that vast numbers of people had been. brought up in forms of religion which in the depths of their being they rejected as immoral and untrue, though they had not the learning nor courage to disown them, accounted, ho thought, for ri-any psychic people giving vent to expressions of Teligious bolief which were many degrees higher and nobler than tho religion of the ordinary man in the street. Not Anti-Christian.

"It is not incongruous with our faith," he urged, "to bciieve that tho souls of men may retain the power undor certain conditions for a 6liort time, to communicate with us even in our present material state, beforo they pass into that moro blessed and desirable slate in which appearanco to us physically gives place to the far greater nearness of spiritual participation in tho eternal life. Whether there is ovidonco for tho .truth of suoh an hypothesis is of course a separate question."

Ho confessed that the bnlk of the messages purporting to come from the other side were either incredibly foolish or purely trita and conventional.

"It io very certain," he continued, "that infinite harm is being done to countles3 people by continually resorting to psych io phenomena (which generally means thsir own subconsciousness),, for tho guidance of their own moral and emotional life. Even if we could nil.of ns live in continuous communication "with discarnate spirits, we should not necessarily bo any better than wo ire." Religion's Ally. . The Rev. M. A. Bayfield, a mombor of tho council of the Socioty for-Psychical Research, endeavoured in his paper to show that a study of psychio science is nn ally of the Christian faith. Mr. Bay- • field nssertod: "I have myself removed pains, banished the thirst of fever, and reduced painful swellings in a number of instance by simple suggestion. In ono caso I' kept free from pain for 11 weeks, until his death, an old man who was dying of gongreno in the foot."

Sir W. F.j Barrett, in a paper on tho teachingfl and warnings of spiritualism, said that when the results of psychical research were further established and generally accepted tho materialistic philosophy and mechanistic view of life would have rocoived a fatal blow. Tho soul and the spiritual world, which had gone out of fashion and been ignored by science, would resnmo their high position, and become a dominant matter of serious thought.