SPIRITUALISM

Waikato Times, Volume 92, Issue 14255, 5 January 1920, Page 3

SPIRITUALISM

85,000 "MEDIUMS" IN PARIS. SERMON BY THE REV. A. V. MAGEE. The Rev. A. V. Magee. son of the late Archbishop Magee, preached in St. Mary's, Soho (Charing Cross Road), recently, on the Dangers of Spiritualism. The congregation gathered in the dimlylit church was not large, and ladies predominated. But. having given close attention to the subject, his words deserved a larger audience than that which assembled for the occasion (says the Westminster Gazette.) At the outset Mr Mngee remarked that it was impossible for him within the limits of his sermon to deal adequately with the question, but he hoped to stimulate its study and to suggest lines of thought in these anxious and desnerate days. The perils of spiritualism, he declared, were not imaginary. There were in Paris 35,000 mediums, and in Ken.'inK-fon there were 118, and those two "v.ts showed that the perils were widespread. The danger first of nil was not merely on this side. There were dangers on the other side. The seanse, at any rale some of them, had its immoral aspects and risks. There were fraudulent and honest mediums —mediums of good life and mediums whose lives would not bear inspection. He mentioned one seance which had been drscriboU to him at first hand, where the gramophone was playing "Nearer my God to Thee." an.' the medium came round and kissed each person present on both cheeks. There was the peril of the fraud. All spiritualists would agree that the spirits beyond had the power personating rarious personalities. With their knowledge and low moral cunning- and cruelty they had the pon-er of infinite fraud in the world beyond, for they '■ could represent themselves to be someone else. They not only represented themßelYes to be superior intelligences, but to be the departed friends of those who soijarht the aid of spirits.. When people thought they were getting messages from one of their loved «nes in the Unseen, they getting a message from an immoral personage. That was the tragedv and cruelly of the whole thing. Let-them dispose of the idea that -it -was all fraud. If there was a crreat deal of fraud on this side there was-a great deal of Iragrdy on the trtheri eft was not on the part of the nreidrufri;' but on the evil intelligence which was trying to return from the next, world. Mr Magee dealt with the effects of spiritualism on those who dabbled with it. He was astonished that certain pmin«nt people n the spiritualist world should attempt to deny that insanity ensued from the practise of spiritualism. A doctor had told him of a man and his wife who had gone hopelessly insane from dabbling'in it. He gave an instance of a woman who had stood on a kerbstone waiting for a long time for a cab to pass her with a particular number because she had been ordered to do so by a superior intelligence. She had taken' lone journeys to the north and back on similar instructions. They would hardly believe it, but that superior intelligence purported to be the Apostle. SI. John. If they wanted greater authority. Mr Magee referred Ihem to the statement of Dr Forbes Winslow. who in 1877 stated that Ihere were 10,000 people ;n lunatic asylums as a result. He notice that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had denied this, and said that Dr Forbes Winslow had recanted this assertion. A priest, a friend of his, said Mr Magee, hail the recantation, but ne ha'i not yet boon called noon !o pay the £SO. Not only insanity, hut immoral influences were associaled with spiritualism. He received statements which I '"•''' •ni"li<*.H,lv trust conoerninir undorrr ■•'■l'MeH who hail originally done briliie.n'ly iii Hie colleges. His friend who related the circumstances Sold him of an undergraduate whom be knew intimately rustling one n'frhi into his room at college and asking m great distress for brandy. He. ministered it- to him and go! bis story. This young man and Iwo friends had been playing with planchclte. and in the course of the process be had felt a force pressing him against the wall. Ho looked afterwards into a saucer on the table and saw the. reflection of a most horrible face, and tied interror from the room. That youns? man, who had previously done so brilliantly, only look a'th'rd-class, and fell later into dissipated habits.

Mr Magee pointed out, other evils, such as the surrender of the reason and the weakening of the spiritual faculty, and illustrated his points by some effective illustrations.