SPIRITUALISM.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19803, 31 May 1926, Page 10

SPIRITUALISM.

A LIVELY CONTROVERSY, THE RELIGIOUS ASPECT. A CAUSE OF LUNACY. (Fhom Ocb Ows Cokbebpokdkkt.J LONDON. April 16. A lively controversy on the subject of spiritualism is taking place in the colun«a of the Morning Post. In the first plate* Mr Campbell Swinton, a Fellow of tpe Royal Society, criticises a psychic photograph which Sir Arthur Conan Doy.W showed at a lecture at the Queen's Hall, "la this what appeared to be the figure pi' the late Lord Combermere was seated in a library on a chair which he was wont • to use in life. Sir Arthur writes: “I received the photograph through the great courtesy of Lord Combermere himself, and he apparently accepted the facts as I have stated them. I also hold a letter from s near relative giving further particulars, and adding the name of the lady visitor who took the photograph. He concludes with the words:-‘I am quite sure the negative was not faked. I got it direct from her ’ “The idea that this perfectly clear figure of a seated man is a defect in the plate is too absurd for argument, but it shows the extreme lengths to which our opponents will go in their frantic search for a materialist explanation. ‘Ex uno disce omnes.’ I was careful to point out in the lecture that this figure was not necessarily the spirit of the deceased, but might fee one of these mind forms of memory forms which do appear to exist.” AN AWFUL EXPERIENCE. A correspondent signing himself “Septuagenarian" says:— "I can speak from very awful experience of spiritism. A charming clever, young woman, whom I knew intimately, lost her husband, to whom she was very devoted, after a few years’ happy married life. She somehow got acquainted with Spiritists, who persuaded her to try and get communication with her husband. She became a clever medium, held seances at her house, went raving mad, and died a few months ago after being in an asylum over 30 years. She did not even recognise her son. Her sister said to me; ‘lf you ever meet Spiritists, flee from them as from deadly poison.' ” THE RELIGIOUS ASPECT. The religious aspect of the question it dealt with by several writers:— “The dilemma of the churches with regard to spiritualism is obvious,” gay one correspondent. “To admit the reality of the supernormal powers of mediums is to acknowledge a difference only in degree, and not in kind, between them and Christ. This does not trouble the spiritualists, since they deny His divinity, and, indeed, all the doctrines concerning Him on which the Christian dogmas are based. Indeed, the teaching of the ‘guides,’ given for the most part in private circles, is theosophical rather than Christian.’’ Another correspondent points out that the Bible nowhere tells mortals to seek after angels. “It does, however, call upon all people to seek after God; and, on the other hand, it characterises the practice of seeking after the dead aa ‘an abomination unto the Lord (Deut. xviii., 10-12), and that for the reason which I think must be obvious to anybody reading this letter. “Spiritualism has been lifted on to the plane of scientific investigation, and people eminent in the’ realm of scientific research have, it is fully granted, been brought face to face with spirit phenomena of an incontrovertible nature; but this much, I think, can never be accomplished, numbly to get behind the veil, and thus be able to authenticate what is on this side claimed authoritatively to be evidence that the dead return. . “The Church of England is asked not to discourage the practice of spiritualism; but. so long as the Bible remain* the final visible authority in the Christian Faith, no other course, it seems to me, can (reasonably bo taken than that of discouraging the practice.” CAUSES OF LUNACY. “Spiritualism is stated to be a frequent cause of lunacy,” says a correspondent. “How far this is the. case has been a subject of controversy in the past. A noted specialist (I think it was Dr Forbes Winslow) gave testimony to that effect, but on further inquiry he withdrew his statement. All strong emotions are attended by danger to unbalanced minds. Experts tell us that drink stands just as a predisposing cause of lunacy. .Many people will be shocked-to hear that religion comes in as a good second. The best thing, if perverted, pray prove in its effects the worst, and the perversion of the best thing is often mistaken for the thing itself. The-counterfeit attests the genuine existence of the thing it copies, so religious mania is no disproof of the excellence of true religion. It is possible that spiritualism, in spite of dangers, may have in its inmost principles vital truth to convey.” '*■ JOHN WESLEY’S GHOST BOOK. It is interesting to note that in a book called “All the Days of My Life,’’ by Mrs Amelia Barr—daughter of* John Henry Huddleston the well-known Methodist preacher—there is a reference to John iV book on ghostly visitations. On page. 56 Mrs Barr writes: “There was also another book which at this time thrilled and charmed me beyond expression. It was called ‘News from the Invisible World,’, by John Wesley. It was really a book of ghostly visitation* and wonderful visions. My father took it out of my hands twice and put it, as he sipposed. out of my reach, but by putting a stool on a chair and climbing I obtained it and read by the light of the fir© in the study, lying face downwards on the rug, in tne early winter morning. “One morning I asked our old servant to put it back for me. ‘Who put it up there?’ she asked. ‘Father,’ I said. ‘lt is about ghosts and things like you tell me.’ Then I promised to tell her tho stories and told her John Wesley wrote them. She remarked, ‘Well, I am astonished -at Mr Huddleston’s putting away anything John Wesley wrote/ “After this, in 1890, I asked a learned doctor connected with the Methodist Book Concern if they had a copy of it, and he answered very sharply, T never heard of such a book.’ Yet j know it existed la my childhood.”