ALL HOUSES HAUNTED HOUSES.

 

The extended investigation of the English Psychical Research Society on this subject proves conclusively that setting aside a vast amount of rubbish, there is a residuum of facts which are unshaken and reliable. There are houses and places where manifestations occur which are not referable to any known physical force. Many of these hauntings depend on the presence of a medium. The house in which the Fox family first heard the rappings was haunted but no manifestations occurred unless they were present. Then again there are houses where the phenomena appear to be independent of any person on this side.

 

There is what may be called a mediumship of locality. That is for a certain spirit, a given locality allows it more freedom to manifest than any other. As a rule, places to which the spirits are united by some great event, as death or the committing of a capital crime, furnish these conditions and such spirits find that they can more readily manifest in the midst of such surroundings than elsewhere.

 

Although it mail be easier to manifest, there must be mediumistic power either in the person or persons receiving such manifestations, or it may be drawn from persons unconsciously, at remote distances. Such earth-bound spirits are not as subject to delicate conditions, and retain strength of control.

 

The legendary stories of haunted houses, and appearances of spirits where crimes have been committed, foster the belief that the spirit lingers around the last scene of its mortal life, when violently thrust therefrom. This is not by compulsion, nor is it always true. In fact the majority of those meeting with violent deaths at once go away, either with friends or by their attractions. Others who have no spirit friends, who have no place to attract them, enter spirit life, filled with regret, and revenge for the injustice which has deprived them of the enjoyment of life. They linger near the scene of their misfortune, and advance out of their peculiar condition with great difficulty. The idea that they can be reached only through and by mediums, is a strange error for one versed in the philosophy of Spiritualism to fall into. They may be awakened from the terrible hypnotism into which they have fallen, by coming into a circle. The true instructors of such "earth-bound" spirits are their spirit friends, or spirits who devote themselves to the work, with the zeal of missionaries and with much more intelligence and success.

 

BUSINESS MEDIUMS.

 

"Business mediums" are wont to tell those who apply to them, what their shrewdness supposes will be pleasing, after the fortune-teller's style. "Beautiful green paths ahead," money, success, or the death of a woman, presumably the wife. Those who place the least credence in such chaff are greener than any paths they will find in the future. And yet even if such "tests" or fortune-telling are scorned they will have an influence on thought and life. To give such communications whereby a great deal of unhappiness must be caused, is little less than criminal. Surely no good and wise spirit would utter such prophecies, unless there was some surpassing need, and gain to the recipient.