A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer.

  • Farmer, John S.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new basis of belief in immortality / by John S. Farmer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Tospondent with regard to SpiritRalism, is to the effect that a future life would not be worth having if we ai’e to be at the beck and call of every medium who desires his goods and chattels knocked about. The double insinuation involved, viz., that spirits can be invoked, and that ■they come simply to play pranks with our chairs and tables, would be 4ibsurd from the utter ignorance of the subject which is thereby dis- played, were it not that this conception of Spiritualism is, thanks to the persistent misrepresentation of a portion of the press, very widely spread. In reply, I will simply state : (1) that Spiritualists do not in- voke spirits. There is no necessity for so doing, seeing that we are surrounded by them, and oftentimes they are more anxious to com- nuinicate than those still living on ‘the earth plane are willing to receive ; (2) that Spiritualism does not consist in the knocking about of chairs and tables. Those who wish to know what does constitute ^spiritualism have but to seek to find, to ask to be answered. XXI. —Ou certain erroneous ideas as to the conditions observed at seances. The following extract from J.Ir. Crookes’s work concludes the pre- ■sent paper ;— “At the commencement I must correct one or two errors which have taken firm possession of the public mind. One is, that darkness is essential to the phenomena. This is by no means the case. Ex- cept where darkness has been a necessary condition, as with some of the phenomena of luminous appearance, and in a few other instances, everything recorded has taken place in the light. In the few- cases where the phenomena noted have occurred in darkness, I have been •very particular to mention the fact; moreover, some special reason can, be shown for the exclusion of light, or the results have been produced- under such perfect test conditions that the suppression of one of the senses has not really weakened the evidence. ‘‘Another common error is, that the occurrences can be witnessed only at certain times and places—in the rooms of the medium, or at hours previously arranged; and, arguing from this erroneous supposi- tion, an analogy has been insisted on between the phenomena called spiritual, and the feats of legerdemain by professional ‘ conjurers ’ and ‘ wizards ’ exhibited on their own platform, and surrounded by all appli- ances of their art. “ To show how far this is from the truth I need only say that, with very few exceptions, the many hundreds of facts I am prepared to attest, —facts which, to imitate by known mechanical or physical means, would haflle the skill of a Houdiu, a Basco, or an Audersou, backed with all the oresources of elaborate machinery and the practice of years—have all taken place in my own house, at t'mos api^ointed by myself, and under circumstances which absolutely precluded the employment of the very simplest instrumental aids. “A third error is, that the medium must select his own circle of friends and associates at a se'ance ; that these friends must be thorough believers in the ti*uth of whatever doctrine the medium enunciates, and that conditions arc imposed on any person present of an investigating