SPIRITUALISM AND MESMERISM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1539, 31 July 1886, Page 2

SPIRITUALISM AND MESMERISM.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, — A correspondent signing himself J.P., in your issue of the 27th inslant, writes a lengthy article on the above subjects. He begins by calling me a “ redhot spiritist,” whatever that means. I would remind J.P. that I have been twenty-three years in the district, and that no man conld ever say 1 was red-hot on any subject, neither could they accuse me of trying to force my opinions on them. Fifteen years ago I suppose J.P. would have called me a red-hot Christian. He then says he was disgusted with my letter. Poor fellow, I suppose he was disgusted to find that if he tried to carry out the Mosaic law in New Zealand he would be on the scaffold before he had carried a twentieth part of it out, and I suppose be is also disgusted because he dare not sign his name to his letter for fear of being shown up for writing on a subject he knows nothing about. He says the lecture had the effect of bringing ne out of my shell. J.P. dare not come out of his shell, but prefers to throw dust in the eyes of the public from behind a wall, but I will not answer any other letters unless the writers have the coursge to sign their names and addresses to them, as they can bring forward any absurd arguments they like, kncwicg that no matter how they are shown up the public will not know who they are. If it was a subject that the general public were well informed on, I would not think of answering the absurdities J.P, brings forward. My excuse for defending spiritualism is that “ Ho who has a truth and keeps it, Keeps what- not to him belongs, But commits a fatal error, And his fellow-mortal wrongs.” J.P. says “that the spirits are backward in speaking about God.” AH that I can say about the matter is that it is an untruth ; the spirits are never tired of speaking of God’s goodness to the whole of mankind, and nearly all our trance speakers begin their discourses with an invocation addressed to Him. To quote four lines from a poena giving the spirit’s first experience in the spirit world—- “ The harsh and cruel dogmas that on earth assail our cars Are never heard throughout the unnumbered spirit spheres; Not as a haughty tyrant is the Ruling Spirit known, But as the Universal Sire, whom all delight to own." J.P. next tells a tale about a Maori chief’s spirit coming back through a tohunga. But, to be consistent, he ought to have told another one out of the same book by the same author. It was this: “A vessel left one of the harbors homeward bound; someone took a Maori woman away without the consent of the tribe { tbo Maoris consulted the spirits,

and one, speaking through the tohunga, said he would batter the head of the ship, and sure enough the ship had to return to the harbor with the figure-head all smashed to atoms, after being 200 miles at sea.” I suppose J.P. could not get this one fitted on to his demon therefore he did not tell it. J.P. then says “ I ask is it not magic for spiritualists to speak to a table and it speaks.” 1 answer, is it not magic to an Australian Black for a man to write on a piece of paper, and tell him to take it to a friend, and that friend knows exactly what is wanted just as it his friend had come personally J is it not magic to the same individual to send a message by telegraph lor to start a train with 50 carriages attached merely by the touch of the engineer’s hand! J.P. then says “ The of magnetism, clairvoyance, q&., cannot be accounted for except by the agency of the demon,” Now, I would like to know what any sane man would say about me, if in speaking about the Scriptures I was to quote from Voltaire, Paine, Ingersoll, or Bradlaugh, as authorities, and at the same time never to have seen a copy of the Scriptures myself. That is exactly J.P.’s position. Any person with a little experience in any of the subjects he speaks of would know that he had never investigated either of them. J.P. next speaks of the Baron Dupotet imprisoning spirits in a circle made with charcoal, taking care that all inside the circle was] black, and another experiment was taking dust from a burial ground, and, by merely exhibiting it,, those who came to consult him saw apparitions of the dead. Here again J.P. is speaking of charcoal and the dust from the burial ground as if they were necessary to the production of the phenomena. If J.P. came under the Baron's influence, he could make him believe he was an elephant, a donkey, a captain of a man-of-war with his ship in action, the Emperor of China, or that he had glass legs. And all those different characters would be as teal as his ira, prisoned spirit?, or his apparitions of the dead, and all without the charcoal circle, taking care , that all the centre was black, and without the dust from, the burial ground. The tracing of the circle on the floor is merely to formulate the will, and it does not matter whether it is black, red or white, and if the Baron was to make an iraagioary circle in his mind the subject would see it all the same. J.P. ; says, “ Our modern spiritualists pretend their scienca is perfectly innocent and harmless, but what sane man will believe them ?” Would J.P. consider the following persona sane :—Archbishop Whately, }V, M. Thackeray, Bobert Chambers (of Chambers’ Encyclopedia); William and Mary Howitt, Mr and Mrs S, C. Hal!, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Miss Florence Marryatt, Jules Favre, Victor Hugo, Professor cle Morgan, Lord Brougham, Lord Lyndhurst, Lord Lindsay, Viscount Ambetly, the Ear! of Dunraven, the Countess of Caithness, Lady Archibald Campbell (sister-in-law to the Marquis of Larne), Sir Johan lahatn (Bart.), Captain R. F. Burton (the groat traveller), Hon. Robert Dale Owen, Mr Sergeant Cox, Professor Crooker, Alfred Russell Wallace (the eminent naturalist), Cornwall Varley (electrician), Professor William Denton (geologist), Dr Buchanan (anatomist), Dr Eliston, Dr Gully, Dr WyJd, Professors Wagner, and Butterof (of the University of St. Petersburg), Professor Berty (naturalist), Professor de Savedan (of Vienna University), Professor Zollder (of Leipsic University), Judge Edmonds. The list might easily be extended till it filled your whole paper, for all oyer the world amongst the leaders of modern thought and of modern society willbefound many of eminence who have embraced spiritualism. J.P, next quotes from a work called Psychic Facts. Hia first quotation he could not have known the meaning of, or it would not have found a place in his letter. His next quotation is what is known as gutted, he only gives part of the paragraph. He says “Spiritual manifestations drain the vital powers of the medium, and if those powers are drawn upon during the first part of the day he may not recover his full vitality by the evening.”. This is given to prove that it is something very bad. Now I will explain the paragraph. The author is laying down some conditions that are necessary for people to observe if they wish to have successful results, and he says: “Another favorable condition is that the medium shall have had no stance in the early part of the day, because the manifestations drain his vital powers, and if those powers are drawn on in the early part of the day he may not recover his full vitality by the evening.” I have seen a minister give a temperance lecture in the Volunteer Hall, Temuka, and he was so much exhausted that he said he could say no more. Now, if he had given a lecture .in the fore part of the day with as much fire and enthusiasm it would scarcely have been possible for him to have displayed the same fervor at night. Mr Dickens after some of his readings, • when the curtain dropped, had to be led off the stage, and was quite prostrate for some time afterwards, so you see we can not expect mediums to get of scot free. J.P. mentions about spiritualism being a canseof insanity, but if he has read Psychic Facta he must know that that statement is not borne out by facts, but as it would take a whole letter to state those facts in a proper way, I cannot enter into it in this letter. J.P. says “ that an ordinary effect of magnetism is to inspire those who consult spirit mediums with a disgust of life and a desire of suicide,” J am afraid that J.P, to Keep the demon out must have taken a drop of the demon inside and got a, little hazy, as I cannot make anything out of the first words. I suppose J. P. calls hiraelf a Christian, I call myself a spiritualist, and he has no right to call me a spiritist. I will mention an occurrence that happened in Dunedin a few years ago, to show what it leads to. Mr 0. Bright, freethought lecturer, and Mr Green, Chistian minister, were holding a debate, and Mr Green always called Thomas Paine Tom Paine. Mr Bright objected, but Mr Green would not say Thomas. “ All right,” Mr Bright says, “ if I have occasion to speak of John the Baptist in future I will, call him Jack the Baptist.” I need not say Mr Green altered his mind very quickly. Apologising for trespassing so far on your valuable space, I am, etc., Andrew Gibson. Burnside. Temuka, July 29th, 1886. [ln future letters on this subject must be confined within half a column, no matter who is the writer. Anyone who canaot say enough in that, space must make two letters of th< subject,— Tih Ehiroz.]