Our Letter Box.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7731, 6 February 1905, Page 4

Our Letter Box.

(We are not responsible for opinions expressed by correspondents.) j THE UNSEEN WORLD. I (Co the Editor.) Sir, —Having noticed a letter in your journal under date of t7th December, signed by " Spiritualist," ■ and dealing- with the subject of spiritualism, I would be glad, although somewhat late, if you would allow me to ofTer a few words in reply to your correspondent. ' Firstly " Spiritualist " claihns and (fuotes Professor Crookes as a spiritualist. Now, I would like correspondent to inform your readers where and in what way Crookes declared himself a spiritualist. On the con- ; trary, lie is distinctly non-conmnt-tal in his attitude, and, in the written account' of his investigations, protests against being accused o! being a spiritualist. He ccrtainlj testifies to the occurrence of the phenomena in connection with spiritual j.vtic seances ; but he declines to at

tribute the phenomena to spirit influence, or to accept the theory of spirit control. Frank Podniore, in his work on " Modern Spiritualism" and Hudson in his work " Psychic Phenomena," sufficiently dispose of! the spirit theory to account for the ! phenomena. The position that science'takes up at present seems to be non-committal, viz. that there is not sufficient evidence to support the theory of spirit control, or that any of the phenomena is due to disembodied spirits. Myers, in his exhaustive work " The Survival of Human Personality After Death," seems to show the possibility of spirit possession, but this happens only on very rare occasions. To assume that " table rapping," table tilting, planchette writing, and such like trivialities are due to spirit intervention is simply absurd, and an insult to one's intelligence. Science certainly demonstrates the psychologi- ! cal fact of the survival of human personality after death, and that , there is a distinct entity that can i exist apart from the body. Inspirational and trance speaking, alleg- ' ed to be due to spirit control, is r fully accounted for in the above works quoted, and is shown to be

self-hypnotism. And this, it would seem, accounts for most, if not all, of the phenomena, alleged to be due to spirit agency. The professional " mediums " make use of their power, and become so adept in it by development that they can hypnotise themselves at will. Trusting I have not encroached too much on jour space, and thanking you in anticipation.—Yours, etc., INVESTIGATOR. Tongfcporutu, Feb. 1.