SPIRITUALISM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2623, 4 May 1889, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPIRITUALISM.

New Zealand spiritualists will be interested to know that after years ofscientific investigation, the Society for Physical Research, in London, have come 'n the conclusion that there is some priir ■. facile evidence of intelligence outside of ourselves. This strikes forcibly at materialism and will doubtless lead to hot controversies. A general meeting of the society was held on January '3->th last, when Professor Sidgewick, the President, gave an address on the Physical Phenomenon of Spiritualism considered as a subject of Scientific Investigation. We are now ([noting the Society's journal for February last : — 1 He held that the evidence brought forward to prove that such phenomena were caused by intelligent beings other than living men, was sufficient to justify a serious consideration of the hypothesis and further investigation, and lie thought that the Society having once declared the question an open one, ought to be very slow to close it again. Certainly they ought to be slow to close it with a negation, and considering the ordinary rate of scientific progress, lie did not think that a rapid arrival at a positive conclusion ought to be either demanded or anticipated. He was glad that the rule he ventured to suggest, when the Society was founded, of avoiding paid mediums as much as possible, had been in the maiu, observed, but it was diffi cult to find private mediums at ouce able to furnish phenomena of this kind, prima facia;, inexplicable by recognised natural cause?, and willing to submit to the rigorous conditions and repeated experiments which he held to be absolutely required if the possibility of deception, conscious or unconscious, was to be excluded. And obviously, if the possibility was not exeluded, though the phenomena might still be interesting and valuable to person acquainted with the medium, the testimony of the investigators could add little to their value, so that the experiments would be almost thrown asvay, from a scientific point of view. This difficulty had been found a serious obstacle to fruitful investigation; but he was not without hopes it might be overcome. Than this papor by Professor Sidgewick, who is one of the leading lights of the Physical Research Society, and has all along maintained an attitude of scepticism in relation to spiritualism, nothing of late years has so mnch tended to place spiritualism on a realistic basis in the eves of a scientific and scoffiing world. For it is to be remembered that Professor Sidgewick's opinion is derived from concensus of opinion of the Society itself, come- to only after years of patient and trying investigation. His remarks about paid medium will commend themselves to every sincere thoughtful spiritualist, not hoodwinked by sheer credulity.