The case against spiritualism

Seventy-eight years have passed since Nathaniel Hawthorne warned his future wife, Sophia Peabody, against “the so-called ‘magnetic’ and ‘mesmeric’ impostures which prepared the way for an unspiritual Spiritism.”[46] The words of his letter are not obsolete, though written in 1841.

“Take no part, I beseech you,” he wrote, “in these magnetic miracles. I am unwilling that a power should be exercised on you of which we know neither the origin nor consequence, and the phenomena of which seem rather calculated to bewilder us than to teach us any truths about the present or future state of being.… Supposing that the power arises from the transfusion of one spirit into another, it seems to me that the sacredness of an individual is violated by it; there would be an intruder into the holy of holies.… Without distrusting that the phenomena have really occurred, I think that they are to be accounted for as the result of a material and physical, not of a spiritual influence.… And what delusion can be more lamentable and mischievous than to mistake the physical and material for the spiritual? What so miserable as to lose the soul’s true, though hidden, knowledge and consciousness of heaven in the mist of an earth-born vision?… The view which I take of this matter is caused by no want of faith in mysteries, but by a deep reverence of the soul and of the mysteries which it knows within itself, but never transmits to the earthly eye and ear. Keep the imagination sane—that is one of the truest conditions of communion with heaven.”

Science has made great advance since Hawthorne wondered whether the phenomena of his “Veiled Lady” foreshadowed “the birth of a new science or the revival of an old humbug.” Is not the public entitled to some indication of the attitude of science toward Spiritualism? Michael Faraday summed up his thoughts, when nearing the end, on a problem he had closely investigated. Answering one who had questioned him about the spirits, the great scientist wrote: “Whenever the spirits can counteract gravity or originate motion, or supply an action due to natural physical force, or counteract any such action; whenever they can punch or prick me, or affect my sense of feeling or any other sense, or in any other way act on me without my waiting on them; or working in the light can show me a hand, either writing or not, or in any way make themselves visibly manifest to me; whenever these things are done or anything which a conjuror cannot do better; or, rising to higher proofs, whenever the spirits describe their own nature, and like honest spirits say what they can do, or pretending, as their supporters do, that they can act on ordinary matter, whenever they initiate action, and so make themselves manifest; whenever by such-like signs they come to me, and ask my attention to them, I will give it. But until some of these things be done, I have no more time to spare for them or their believers, or for correspondence about them.”[47] Has the science of our day advanced beyond the standpoint of Michael Faraday? In the absence of a united pronouncement, can we define the attitude of modern science towards Spiritualism?

I

We are impressed at once, as we seek to answer these questions, by the contemptuous indifference of the learned world as a whole. Spiritualists ring the changes on a handful of eminent names. How is it that the leaders of the Psychical Society have not drawn after them a larger following? Canon Barnes, himself a Doctor of Science, observes that the most distinguished supporters of Spiritualism have not themselves received messages which prove the possibility of communication with the dead. The messages have come through others, for the most part professional mediums.[48] Dr. Barnes recognises that the task of investigation belongs to psychologists, and he considers it “significant that practically none of the leading experimental psychologists of the world are prepared to accept the theory of spirit-communication.” “Nor is it accepted,” he goes on, “by leading medical men, whose careful study of mental disease and experiments with abnormal mental states, would permit them to speak with authority. So long as such experts refuse to accept the spiritualistic explanation of the observed phenomena, it is mere superstition for the mass of men to do so.”[49]

Ought not the public to know, through some clear and simple statement, where the medical profession stands with regard to Spiritualism? The voice of authority should be heard in difficult times.

II

Camille Flammarion, speaking fifty years ago at the grave of Allan Kardec, the French apostle of Spiritualism, used language which might almost seem justified in view of modern discoveries. “When we compare our small knowledge and the narrow limits of our sphere of perception with the vast mass of that which really exists,” he says, “we can hardly avoid the conclusion that we do not really know anything, and that all true knowledge lies in the future.” The phenomena of Spiritualism to the French astronomer look like twinkling stars in the Milky Way of science. Thomas Hardy, in “Two on a Tower,” dwells on man’s sense of infinite littleness as he confronts the stellar universe. “I often experience a kind of fear of the sky after sitting in the observing chair a long time,” says Swithin St. Cleeve to Lady Constantine. “And when I walk home afterwards I also fear it, for what I know is there, but cannot see, as one naturally fears the presence of a vast formless something that only reveals a very little of itself.”[50]

“Patience and equanimity” are the watchwords of true science. Wordsworth, in his poem “Star-Gazers,” notes the bitter disappointment of the crowd which looked through the telescope in Leicester Square. Fee in hand, they had come to behold the wonders of the heavenly spaces, but showman or implement failed to answer their desires.

A similar disappointment awaits the pushing crowd which gazes through the telescope of Spiritualism. “Have patience,” say the masters of science, “we are only on the threshold of knowledge. In a single generation we have added two vast provinces to the human spirit. By wireless telegraphy we have turned the farthest ocean solitudes into man’s whispering gallery. In conquering the air we have revolutionised the course of history.”

Can we doubt that from the wonderful works of God, no less than from His holy Word, new light and truth will yet break forth for humanity? Science is prepared for extensions of man’s physical and mental powers which will put to shame the phenomena of Spiritualism. We are living in a transitional epoch, and faith alone can support the soul as it beats the prison bars, knowing not how or when the sentence of its liberation may be spoken.

“O Key of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel, Thou that openest, and no man shutteth, and shuttest, and no man openeth, come and bring the prisoner out of his prison house.”