MODERN SPIRITUALISM

 IT is a curious fact that most investigators connected with the English society for Psychical Research have associated modern spiritualism with the Fox sisters almost exclusively, though conceding, with Mr. Andrew Lang, that it has its roots far back in the earliest history of man. There is little excuse for this narrowness of view, though there is no doubt that the Fox sisters gave the subject a popular vogue which it did not have until their experiences excited attention.

 Modern spiritualism really originated in the work of Swedenborg. The phenomena of Swedenborg were not physical, as were many of those alleged by the Fox sisters. They were of the mental type, consisting of visions with his own interpretation of them—illustrations of the type now called pictographic. While such phenomena have been casually reported in literature ever since the time of the Christian fathers, these reports were given little credence until similar reports by Swedenborg made them seem more credible. He was a man of good education and creditable probity, who never exploited his powers as did the charlatans of the Middle Ages. He was born in 1688 and died in 1772. These dates placed him before the time of the great revolution in philosophic thought brought about by Immanuel Kant. He was educated at the University of Upsala and became a civil engineer. He made himself famous in almost every department of science, and even anticipated Kant and Laplace, according to Grieve, in the nebular hypothesis. He also suggested a flying-machine and produced a model which he knew, and said, would not work, but which he thought would suggest the principles on which such a machine might be constructed. His inventions in other fields were numerous and successful. But we hear less of them than of his philosophical works in the sphere of religion and real or alleged supernormal psychology. "hen he was in London he claimed to have obtained by supernormal means information of a fire in Copenhagen. There was reported of him also the clairvoyant discovery of a lost paper, which strongly impressed Kant. But his "revelations" appealed to more minds than did these trivial supernormal phenomena. These revelations purported to come from discarnate spirits, to reveal the nature of the next life, and to give instruction on all religious matters of importance to human kind. Swedenborg's works abound with evidence that much of his material was influenced by his own mind and its stores of reading, though his diary records the experiences in a form more free from interpretation. The impressiveness of his work affected Immanuel Kant in his early life sufficiently to induce him to write his "Dreams of a Ghost Seer" ("Traume eines Geistessehers"), in which he weighed the speculative arguments for and against spirit communication, leaving the question unsettled. Some writers see in this work an ironical treatment of the problem; but there are too many statements seriously recognizing the possible validity of spiritistic claims to justify such a judgment except to men who are wholly unfamiliar with the evidence for the subnormal. Kant, however, ceased to have interest in the subject, though it was later revived, as the works of Hegel and Schopenhauer show. Both of these philosophers became convinced of the existence of the phenomena; but their attitude toward this subject is disregarded in most discussions of their philosophic systems.

 Scientific materialism arose as a consequence of the renaissance of science which began with Copernicus. Men had a new interest in nature and the physical universe. They had long been fed on tradition and speculative metaphysics, and the reactions, as shown, both in skepticism and the revival of materialistic tendencies, is apparent in the agnosticism of Kant and in all subsequent philosophy. Swedenborg made an attempt to counteract this materialistic trend of things, though he, perhaps, did not feel the impulse of the materialistic movement so strongly as did many others who had followed in the wake of Cartesian thought. Whether they felt this trend or not, however, believers in immortality were supplied by the method of Swedenborg with scientific evidence. This method was an appeal to facts and to communication with the dead for evidence of another life, and it even went so far as to map out that life. Whether Swedenborg adequately met the demands of scientific method is another matter. There is no doubt that too much was made to depend on his mere probity and his authority as a scientific man and that his system soon developed into the same kind of dogmatism as that of Christian theology. The experiment of continued communication with the dead was not kept up, except as it was practised by people who had abandoned the orthodoxies of both philosophy and religion. Despite its defects, however, the method of Swedenborg represents the right conception of the problem. Materialism and skepticism acknowledged nothing but normal experience for regulating the beliefs of mankind; and that experience does not attest survival. It may stimulate hope and faith, but these sources of belief give no such assurance as the scientific mind requires. With the new criterion of truth set up by scientific investigation, came an increased demand for better evidence for survival than natural science on the one hand and religion the other were capable of supplying. Swedenborg anticipated the method by which this evidence can be obtained; but his followers, like Christian theologians, settled down on the authority of their master and regarded spiritual revelation as closed. Scientific experiment and investigation had to wait another century for recognition, except as the problem was kept alive by sporadic instances of mediumship and other phenomena outside the limits of science, philosophy, theology and even Swedenborgianism. These instances found favor mostly among the common people, but they were ridiculed by the respectable adherents of other beliefs. Events may have justified this attitude of mind on the part of the educated; at any rate these occurrences occasioned no such interest as did the movement initiated by the Fox sisters.

 The interest in spiritualism after the time of Swedenborg was kept alive by the performances of Mesmer and by the investigators who followed him. Among German authorities of note who investigated the subject, Jung Stilling, a man of university education and standing, is the most important. Contemporary with him were Keiser, Wienholt, Fischer, Kluge, and Baron von Reichenbach; the last, a scientific man of some attainments, experimented and wrote much upon the subject. We cannot go into any notice of his work, and refer to it only to indicate that the phenomena would not have received so much attention, had they been merely sporadic. This attention was centered on mesmerism or animal magnetism, now called hypnotism, an artificial method of inducing trance, which often resulted in supernormal manifestations and mediumistic phenomena. Among the most noted of the somnambules of the period was Frederika Hauffe, called, from her birthplace, the Seer of Prevorst. The poet and physician Kerner published a life of her after her death, which was prior to 1829. Kerner had also another case of which he published some account; but there is no space to discuss these cases. They illustrate the usual phenomena, however explained, and were no doubt accompanied by hysteria, the usual concomitant of such manifestations, but they are of interest as demonstrating that the modern movement began outside of America, and long before 1848

 Swedenborg aroused some interest in France, but he had no sectarian following there of any special note. It was Mesmer who created the interest manifested there. His performances in Paris soon after he moved there in 1878 excited great interest, and resulted, as did somnambulism in Germany, in the revival of supernormal phenomena transcending hypnosis. Deleuze was the chief representative of the movement in this period, but he suspended his judgment on spiritistic phenomena. He was interested in the naturalistic interpretation of somnambulism and clairvoyance, though conceding that there were facts which required further, investigation. He had some controversy on the subject with one Billot, who defended the spiritistic theory. Cahagnet aroused some interest, but, as he had no scientific training, his work was without authority; he seemed to have experimented much in various directions and accepted the spiritistic theory. The materialistic tendencies of France, however, after the expulsion of the Huguenots by Louis XIV, created an atmosphere of skepticism about everything supernatural or savoring of spirits, so that the first inclination of all inquirers was toward what they were pleased to call "naturalistic" explanations. Hence spiritualism made little or no progress until long after 1848,

 In England mesmerism aroused some interest. Elliotson and Esdaille successfully practised it and also met with supernormal experiences. Another student of mesmerism was Braid, but he encountered few, if any, supernormal phenomena. On the whole, spiritualism, at least in so far as public and literary notice are concerned, made little headway in England until after the episode of the Fox sisters.

 Though the phenomena are very old, as we have seen in the foregoing account, it was the rappings of the Fox sisters that created a world-wide interest in the facts. The manifestations were accompanied by no mesmeric nor hypnotic phenomena. America knew and cared little about mesmerism in the scientific sense. It was chiefly occupied in the organization of a new social and political system, and in the accumulation of wealth. Spiritual interests were confined largely to the orthodox in religion. Consequently, scientific and skeptical people were not fired with interest in the immortality of the soul. The movement broke out in a simple agricultural community, wholly unacquainted with the philosophic and scientific problems of Europe. It boldly proclaimed itself as spiritualism—a word whose history is honorable, but whose meaning has degenerated into a term of contempt with a creed based on certain physical phenomena said to have originated in the presence of the Fox children.

 These phenomena began in Hydesville, New York. The history of the occurrences is well told in the work of Mrs. Underhill, a sister of the two chief mediums concerned. Her account is a good one and there is no reason to question it, though we may not fully share her enthusiastic interest in the events. She, with many others, thought that they betokened the rise of a new religion, unaware that they only repeated phenomena associated with the early history of Christianity. The enthusiasm was natural; for these people felt that they had found proof, to take the place of the uncertainties of faith. I am convinced that the abuse which has been heaped upon the movement has obscured the value of some of the phenomena—value not necessarily as supernormal occurrences, but as cases of interest to abnormal psychology. It was the confession of Margaret Fox that deprived the movement of both its scientific and its religious interest. She confessed to making the raps with her toe joints. It mattered not that there were other and mental phenomena which were well-attested, and that there was testimony that raps had occurred in localities where action of the toe joints could not be effective. The confession of fraud sufficed to rob the case forever of scientific interest.

 Other forces also contributed to nullify the importance of the phenomena. A religion dependent on raps and on proved defects in moral character was not likely long to survive. It would have been wiser to leave the significance of the facts to science and to allow religion to obtain its credentials from ethical and spiritual ideals of another type. But the consolation obtained from alleged proof where only faith had previously existed—was too much for uneducated people to withstand, and their emotional reaction discolored the facts. The confession of fraud left no room for apologies; no intelligent person could afterwards feel or express an interest in the phenomena. The spiritualists who endeavored to defend their proteges only weakened their cause and brought it into deserved contempt. There can be no doubt in the mind, of the present writer that the phenomena of the Fox sisters never received their deserved investigation; but the spiritualists did not take a course that would invite the interest of intelligent people. They succeeded only in giving the word spiritualism a meaning that has made it almost impossible to use it in a favorable sense among respectable people.

 It is worth remarking, however, that all important movements of the kind have originated among common people. The intellectuals have never originated an important ethical or spiritual reform. They have supported art and refinement, but have never founded a religion which rules over the destinies of civilization. Such a religion has always originated among the common people, who have no prejudices against nature nor in favor of aesthetics as the first condition of truth or virtue. This is the excuse for the interest shown in the Fox phenomena. They were intelligible to common understandings, though they did not conform to the more refined conceptions of educated people. It is true that even the actuality of the raps and physical phenomena reported in the case have no bearing on the explanation that aroused enthusiasm and gave consolation. But physical phenomena, like the alleged miracles of Christ, have always attracted the untutored mind; one can therefore understand the interest excited by the movement even when one does not share it. The spiritualists have never made a sustained effort to attract the attention of scientific men to their phenomena or their religion. Their performances are little better than vaudeville and their religion, as an organized affair, little better than a cloak to protect them against the invasions of the police. Recent developments have somewhat modified this situation, but many followers are interested in neither ethics nor religion, but only in a show. Christ deplored the fact that his followers cared more for his miracles than for his ethical teachings; and mankind have ever since justified this rebuke. If spiritualism had organized ethics and practical life and laid less stress on its phenomena, it might long ago have won the world's respect. All religions are judged by their external appearances; if they are vulgar in their appearances and have no redeeming features in ethical and spiritual life, they will not attract the intellectuals.

 But the spiritualist movement was restored to a measure of respectability by judge Edmunds and Andrew Jackson Davis. Judge Edmunds was a lawyer of sufficient ability to become one of the judges in the supreme court of New York State. His first psychic experiences came through his own daughter; they were private and never exploited as were those of the Fox sisters. His two volumes have great interest for psychology, whatever explanation we give to his data; but he made the mistake of laying little or no stress on supernormal phenomena, giving the prominence to alleged communications from Francis Bacon and Emmanuel Swedenborg. He offered no proof that these philosophic and other revelations came from the source ascribed to them. The same criticism holds true of the work of Andrew Jackson Davis. Both his defenders and his opponents misjudged the facts: his defenders exaggerated Davis's ignorance and his critics exaggerated his knowledge. His work has at least great psychological interest, but his investigation of facts never pursued a method that would lead to convincing interpretations.

 The author of the "Apocatastasis," mentioned above,* took the right view of the facts. He thought it probable that the phenomena were spiritistic, but he insisted that this conclusion was not a basis for accepting the teachings which the communications contained. He drew the important distinction between the origin and the validity of the contents of the communications. It is one thing to prove that a statement comes from a spirit, but it is another and very different thing to prove that it is true and valid. This distinction is constantly forgotten. A man may exhibit supernormal faculties, but these do not give him insight into reality. Moreover, he may get messages from spirits; but the ability of a spirit to send a message does not guarantee veracity of the sender, any more than the conversation of your neighbor over a telephone assures you of the correctness of his statements. The value of a statement is not determined by its source. It was the mistake of the admirers of judge Edmunds and Andrew Jackson Davis—a mistake shared by these men themselves—to assume that the evidence that spirits were back of the phenomena furnished also a reason for belief in' the contents of the messages. Ignorance, impersonation, confusion of messages, as well as the coloring given by the medium, offer objections to the passive acceptance of messages as true. These facts should have been realized by all who were connected with the cases. It was perhaps pardonable that few or none saw the difficulties involved, because Christian thought, in its whole history, had been based on vindication of the source of teaching as a sufficient criterion of its validity. It required later reflection on he consequences of evolution to discover that the value of facts is established by function, not origin.

 It would be interesting to follow in detail the history of modern spiritualism through all its vicissitudes, but this would require more than one volume. I have devoted attention to it merely to emphasize the fact that its origin is not recent, but that its phenomena are as old as the human race. Only the scientific investigation of it is modern. This investigation would not have been undertaken, had not Christianity, like paganism, begun to show signs of decay, and had not the triumphs of physical science weakened the faith of mankind and developed an exclusive interest in physical life. Whatever faults the spiritual customs of Christianity had, they always kept alive the serious view of nature and human life, and saved civilization from debauchery in the period following the break up of paganism. That was achievement enough; but had it adjusted itself to the advances of science, it might have held the reins of power still longer.