SPIRITUALIST BAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 August 1933, Page 2

SPIRITUALIST BAN

GROUPS CALLED SINISTER. Tho spiritualists of New York City were warned recently against the lore of the yogi, the pseudo-seer, the Egyptian crystal-gazer, and the unlicensed medium. John Heiss, president of the General Assembly of Spiritualists, anounced that his organisation had formed an educational bureau to equip the spiritualist missionary for his work and to fight the sinister doctrines of the fake practitioner. About 300 converts and orthodox believers listened attentively to an address of the president, the Rev. Frederick A. Wiggin, of Boston, but their interest reached its climax when the Rev. Charles J. Morrow, messagebearer from Buffalo, took the stand for a practical demonstration. Mr. Morrow, who had predicted train wrecks in Montana, mergers, deaths and cloudbursts, described himself to the audience as “a fat man with a jolly disposition.” He said he had communicated with Confucius, but on this occasion he confined himself to communication with the friends and relatives of those about him. He divined that certain members of the audience wanted to be successful, that others had recently recovered from pneumonia, and that others still •were extremely clairaudion —‘‘You hear more than you see —but don't we 1 all, sometimes?” Mr. Morrow’s longest colloquy was with a man named G. H. The mes-sage-bearer cautioned Mr. H. to treat his wife with more consideration, and told him he had a scar on one of his legs. ‘‘You wasn’t in an automobile accident,” said Mr. Morrow, “but you was a little careless somehow, do you understand me, friend?” Mr. Heiss, who is also pastor of the First Spiritualist Church of Jamaica, Queens, stressed the point that the contention’s chief aim was to outlaw fake spiritualism. “In the business meetings so far,” he said, we’ve taken steps to raise the qualifications for licensed mediums and to stiffen the examination for spiritualism teachers and lecturers. The new educational bureau will take care of that in most of the United Slates and Canada. The examinations are strict and standardised. The lecturer must have a knowledge, for instance, of the philosophy of spiritualism and comparative religion.” Mr. Wiggin. pastor of the Unity Spiritualist. Church of Boston, a former Unitarian minister, supported Mr. Heiss in this stand.

“Don’t seek the Egyptian or occult article—it’s spurious,” he said. “Don't go to vogis, yamas, gamas and other ‘arnas.’ ”