Modern spiritism; its science and religion

Preface

MODERN custom doubtless suggests that it would be well that a book like this, by an author who has not hitherto written on the subject, should be commended to its readers by a "Foreword" from some well-known authority.

The author may be pardoned if he very briefly states why this preface is written; and, in doing so, he would also recommend that it be read before the book, and not, as is now so common, afterwards.

Even previously to entering on a medical career the author began to- study psychological problems, with the result that many years ago he wrote the first English book on "The Unconscious Mind." A paper he read on the subject at the Harveian Society was received with howls of derision, and the authorities were rebuked for allowing it to offend the ears of its learned members ; all of which shows to our wiser generation the archaic condition of the psychology of that day. It is true I do not regard the unconscious mind as cosmic, as is the subliminal mind of F. W. H. Myers, and to a large extent the subconscious mind of Thomas Jay Hudson, of America; but substantially it is the same.

Professor William James has written scathingly of what was the condition then of psychological science for want of this knowledge.

vi PREFACE

Once it is recognised that consciousness is not co-extensive with mind, but only reaches less than half the way, it can be readily conceived that the word "subconscious" is the best for that mental region which can at times be brought within the range of consciousness by forced introspection; while "unconscious" is a far better word for that part which never by any effort can be brought within consciousness. If consciousness be called the "eye" of the mind it clears our thoughts, for much exists psychically that is beyond mental vision .

When the reader grasps the fact that the most modern views of Spiritist psychical phenomena show that the medium's trance is very largely, at any rate, a condition of unconscious mental activity, with more or less complete abeyance of consciousness, the relevancy of the above statement to our subject will be readily admitted.

Psychological problems have indeed for over thirty years been to me an absorbing study, including all those connected with Spiritism, many of which, I freely confess, are not yet fully solved.

Borderland questions have always proved a great attraction, and what I call the true Spiritualism of the Divine Revelation has long provided for me what I have ever felt to be the most elevated study of which the human mind is capable.

This book has been written at the very special and earnest request of a friend well known in the medical world, whose views as to the urgency of presenting to the public some fairly comprehensive monograph on the subject at this time coincided with my own.

PREFACE vii

The recent accession to the ranks of this doubtful cult of such well-known and honoured names as Sir Oliver Lodge and Sir A. Conan Doyle has undoubtedly acted as a stimulus to Spiritism.

A more critical view, however, of their work, as given towards the close of this book, seems to throw some doubt on the value of their accession to the deeper interests of this new "Religion."

It is most unfortunate for its success that Spiritism seeks to be both a science and a religion, which is impossible. So long as Sir Oliver Lodge was content to be scientific, which, in this connection, was but a very short time, so long did he advance the scientific status of Spiritism. But when he propounded dogmas, and when Sir A. Conan Doyle asserted tout court that "Spiritism is a religion," science was arrayed against both; and Sir William Barrett, in his earnest attempts to confine its objects to scientific investigations, was defeated.

Its present condition is, therefore, undoubtedly chaotic, and the benefit, or otherwise, that it derives from its recent distinguished converts will depend, in the author's estimation, entirely on the light in which one regards Spiritism: whether that in which Sir William Barrett sees it, or that in which it seems to fascinate Sir A. Conan Doyle.

Thirdly, and lastly, to round off this lay sermon, I have been studying for many years what may without offence be termed borderland disease, that is, those conditions which are somewhat casually included under the vague term of "functional nerve disorders." Here conditions allied to the trances of mediums are by no means rare, and their viii PREFACE

continuous study over so long a period has certainly evolved an amount of analytical po\ver in dealing with them that is not inherent. All this has helped me now. While I have not disguised my own beliefs, I am in hopes that some at least of my readers will admit that I have presented the case for and against Spiritism fairly and squarely. If Spiritism were all fraud, it would be no real danger to the nation; it is because it is not that this book is written. My work is to show that, however bad fraud may be, the actual action of evil spirits is infinitely worse. The subject on which I have been most dogmatic, is the one point on which I find myself in full agreement with the leading Spiritists — and that is its great hidden dangers.

I am glad this book appears after the Great War, and not before, for amidst its many evils the war has at least done one good. It has made the simple, the straightforward, the true, of greater value than formerly, and men to-day are not likely to accept the claims of Spiritism, however endorsed, without full investigation.

All the author asks, therefore, is that the book be read in such a spirit and without prejudice, for he then believes it probable that his readers can come to no other conclusion than that at which he himself has arrived.

ALFRED T. SCHOFIELD, M.D,

10, HARLEY STREET, LONDON.

Foreword

Cicero's question, "Is there a meeting place of the dead?" asked two thousand years ago, has suddenly taken on new meanings. The death of his daughter, Tullia, filled the heart of the great Roman lawyer with acute anguish. He read Socrates' arguments for the immortal hope over and over again, but with an increasing feeling that the argument was incomplete. Now comes a moment when three millions of homes in Britain, France and the United States have lost the noble boy whose future before that day of battle held only high hopes for all who loved the young soldier. Many a father and mother and lover have coerced the lips into silence, and with a solemn pride oft exclaimed, " God's soldier let him be! I could not wish him to a fairer death!" And then comes a revulsion, with the awful sense of loneliness, and the emptiness of life.

The inevitable result of the world war, therefore, and of the hillsides of Belgium and France, billowy with the graves of the noble dead, was a revival of spiritualism. Everywhere men are saying, "Does the soul survive bodily death?" Is immortality the next step in the ascending progress of the soul ? Is it true that there is an unseen realm, within the reach of an outstretched arm? Since without the optic nerve there is no summer's landscape, is it possible that most of us have no spiritual nerve toward the realm immortal, while now and then an occasional person with a clairvoyant sense receives hints of an x FOREWORD

unseen world ? Suddenly, scientists are answering the question in the affirmative. Maeterlinck, Conan Doyle, Sir Oliver Lodge, and thousands of others insist that death does not end all. The arguments based upon instinct, the ascent of man, and the principles of philosophers, have reinforced the teachings and experience of Jesus for multitudes who hold to the Christian faith. Meanwhile, the spiritualist has come to the front. It is said that the number of persons who attended spiritualistic meetings on a single memorial Sunday, equalled the number of those that attended the Christian churches in the city of London on the self-same day. Even though we question the accuracy of this estimate it still remains true that uncounted multitudes are interested in the ouija board, in spirit photography, in seances, and in mediums, who claim to speak while in a trance, and to be voicing a message from the dead. It has, therefore, become important to the last degree that the scientist and the experts in physiological psychology, and the students of nervous phenomena should analyze this mass of material, sift the wheat from the chaff, prick the 'bubbles that have been blown by enthusiasts, and spread out before the normal mind the few facts that are left. Dr. Schofield's book represents the patient, long-continued investigations of a man singularly gifted by nature and trained by long experience to distinguish between that which is seeming and that which is real. His volume has received a warm welcome from the most thoughtful people in Great Britain, and it deserves careful scrutiny of Americans who are interested in the border land, where the seen and the unseen meet and mingle.

NEWELL DWIGHT HILLIS.

Contents

CHAPTER PACE

I. THE GUILD OF THE SILVER FERN .... i

II. THE HISTORY OF MODERN SPIRITISM . . 17

Chapter I Introductory

A FEW years ago I got an invitation to attend a gathering of the members of the Guild of the Silver Fern, in order that I might tell them, as the herald in England of the unconscious mind,* whether the voices which they, as Spiritists, f heard were subjective, i.e., from themselves, or objective, that is, from some other agency.

The Unconscious Mind

Most of my readers will at least have heard of F. W. H. Myers, Vice-president of the Psychical Research Society, even if they have not read his great book on "Human Personality. "J In this, at considerable length, he explains what he calls "subliminal consciousness," or consciousness "below the threshold," i.e., below the cognizance of our ordinary consciousness — in other words, an unconscious consciousness; and this, I gather, he believes is in each person a part of what he calls a great cosmic mind.

* "The Unconscious Mind," A. T. Schofield, M.D. Hodder and Stoughton. 1898.

t Modern and short term for Spiritualists.

JHe is the author also of that unique poem "St. Paul."

MODERN SPIRITISM f

Now a "consciousness" of which I am unconscious is, in relation to myself, unconsciousness; hence my term "the unconscious mind," which I much prefer to "subliminal," or "sub-conscious." It seems to me that we have but one mind (I know of no cosmic mind, other than God Himself) which, however, in us exists in three conditions.

Regarding consciousness as ' ' the eye of the mind, ' ' by which we can see mental processes, and comparing the mind as a whole to an island, I would regard the first mental condition of full consciousness as comparable to that part of the island which is always above water. The second condition of sub-consciousness I would describe as that part of the island which is sometimes visible and sometimes invisible according to the state of the tide. In us this represents that part of our mentality which can be brought into consciousness by strong introspection, but which is usually outside it.

The third condition of unconsciousness (Myers' subliminal consciousness) is the rest of the island under water, which is always invisible. To me, as I think I have demonstrated,* the mental processes that are wholly unseen by the eye of consciousness are just as truly psychic and purposive as those that we see and know. The fact of their being unseen does not, as so many seem to think, make them either unreal or non-mental.

This is, perhaps, a long enough digression to make what follows intelligible.

*"The Unconscious Mind."

Meeting of the Guild

I found myself in the evening in a large double drawing-room in the south-western district of London, some sixty or seventy of the Guild being present, including some well-known Spiritists, and a few others distinguished as pioneers in Psychic Research and in Theosophy. I was at once asked to open the discussion on the subject — "Whether the voices heard by mediums, or the messages received through the various media of movements, tappings, and automatic writing were subjective — the product conscious or unconscious of human beings in the room — or of some other force outside themselves, and, therefore, objective."

I said that I should much prefer to hear the views of experts in Spiritism first upon the subject, and that, if they would kindly open the discussion, I would speak later on. This was agreed to, and many views were advanced; and by far the majority were in favour of spirit communications being mainly from some other spirit than the medium's, though I was surprised to find the subjective view was also in favour, and was ably supported. When I rose to speak and looked round upon my audience, and considered the Quest upon which they were embarked, as old speakers used to say, "my spirit was stirred within me," and I asked permission to make a few general remarks before entering on the important subject of the evening.

The Great Spirit World

I said, in effect, that I felt sure we all agreed that, in the abstract, Spiritism, or at any rate

1—2

Spiritualism, was the highest and noblest study that could engage the thoughts of mankind. In its true meaning it is to seek to know and understand the Father of spirits ; it is to seek to know and understand the real, the true, the invisible, the eternal; for all that we know, all that is obvious — the material and physical — are not the real, and the things that are seen are temporal.

Not only so, but God is a spirit, and in the Bible we are told that St. Paul, discoursing on Mars' Hill to the philosophers of Athens, desired that men should "seek God, if haply they might feel after Him, and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." Here the real object of true Spiritualism is shown and enjoined; and we ask fearlessly, Can anything be nobler or more Divine than such a quest ? I think not.

'But, alas! when we turn from this, and consider what so-called Modern Spiritism has become to-day in the midst of great Christian nations, we may well ask if we have not succeeded in degrading this Spiritual Cult almost beyond recognition. The difference in the concept between the words "Spiritism" and "Spiritual" to-day is only comparable, to a Christian mind, to that between "Jesuit" and "Jesus." Without any offence to Catholics, all will agree as to the contrast of the concept.

Evil Associations of Spiritism

' Is there in this company one Spiritist who has not recoiled with, at least, disgust from the puerile pranks, too often steeped in falsehood and deception, that so frequently characterise their meetings, and have so degraded the very name of Spiritism ? And what has been the result ? What is the net outcome of the Quest so far? Has one single noble, or lofty, or divine thought been added to our previous concepts? On the other hand, have we not been brought into the closest and most un desired contact with deception and fraud of an undoubted character ; and too often, one regrets to say, with evil, malice, and sometimes, as Mr. Sinnet has testified, of unspeakable corruption ? One is brought into touch in Modern Spiritism with a world of which one had no previous concept, of a most undesirable nature, which has perhaps been best described by Maeterlinck in his "Unknown Guest."

'It is true that indirectly an unseen spirit world has thus been revealed and demonstrated to many who utterly denied it before; but the net result of Spiritism so far is most disappointing, to say nothing of its undoubted dangers to spirit, soul, and body; which, to their honour, leading Spiritists are among the first to point out.

Voices are Often Objective

'Turning now to the immediate question of the evening, as to whether the communications received by mediums, or other means, are subjective or purely objective, my reply is that some are undoubtedly objective, and that constantly at seances spirits other than our own manifest their presence. *

'Setting on one side for a moment those supposed

* I say this in spite of what I shall advance later on of the part played by our own unconscious mind.

communications which are produced by fraud, and those attributed, often erroneously, to telepathy and various forms of thought transference, there remains a certain number of purely objective utterances, surely the result of intelligences other than pur own.* ' It does not, of course, in the least follow that such beings are desirable or helpful in any way; indeed, there is too much reason to believe that, in perhaps the majority of cases, they are distinctly injurious in many ways that I cannot now describe.

The Apotheosis of Spiritualism

'But in all this there is nothing new. Perhaps there are those present who do not attach any special authority to the Bible; but to the many who do, it will be a matter of great interest to recall that it represents God ever as the seeker after men. He not only cares for them in every possible way, but is always anxious to get into communication with them. What, indeed, is prayer (when viewed rightly, and not as a mere question of asking for favours), but a true spiritual seance in the highest sense? Are not these well-known lines illustrative of this as to prayer ? —

' "Thither by faith we upward soar,

Till time and sense are all no more, And Heaven comes down our souls to greet, And glory crowns the Mercy-seat."

'Such is nothing less than the apotheosis of true Spiritualism as divinely taught and enjoined.

* During the war there can be no doubt that there was a great increase in the subjective, that is, messages supposed to come from others which were really suggestions of the unconscious mind.

But in this aspect the messages from our world to the spirit world are more clear, as a rule, than the responses, which our dull ears are so slow to receive. 'Let us look at the subject from another point of view, which will, I think, give a full and clear answer to the question I have to answer.

The Rich Fool

'Those who are familiar with the Bible will remember the parable of "the rich farmer," or, as some have it, "the rich fool, " for he was, indeed, both. For any who cannot recall it, I may say the story told by our Lord Christ is that of a rare phenomenon in these days — a contented farmer; and the reason of his state of mind was not far to seek. His "ground brought forth plentifully," and as he stood in his farmyard he was much perplexed, for he saw at once his buildings were not half large enough to hold such a bounteous harvest. So, being a provident man with an eye to the future, he at once faced the problem of insufficient "stedding." Looking around his barns he planned it all out (you can see him doing it), and the look of perplexity gradually changes into one of satisfaction as he sees his way out.

"This barn must be pulled down and a much larger one erected; another should be greatly lengthened; additional ones should be built in spare corners." So far, so good; no trace of any foolishness, but the very reverse — wise foresight. The foolishness comes when he begins to speak to his soul. Like many others, on the material plane he is all there; but on the spirit plane he is all abroad!

And this, not because his soul here means his "spirit," which it does not, but because of two cordinal errors. The one that his life, his ego, himself, can certainly look forward to many years of ease; whereas, as reminded elsewhere and every hour, we "know not what a day may bring forth." The other is that he wholly ignores the spirit life and its requirements. But all this only in passing. I hurry on to what follows: "But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is thy soul required of thee."

'This marvellous drama is lost to us unless we understand the phenomena of inaudible voices, and of the true answer to the question concerning which we are gathered to-night.

Our Mediaeval Bible

'I suppose no one in these rooms imagines the Almighty God, in some human form, or possibly some supernatural form, such as we commonly associate with angelic beings, appeared to this farmer ?

'We must not forget to note here the curious fact, often overlooked, that the Bible we use is not in our language at all, but in the mediaeval English of 300 years ago, now practically obsolete; with the result that not only is the true meaning frequently obscured, but that in reading it we find ourselves in a mediaeval atmosphere, and absolutely out of touch with modern thought.* The result is that in studying the Bible we conjure up mediaeval pictures,

* We often think this is due to the Bible itself; whereas it is largely on account of the mediaeval English, as one soon finds who reads Dr. Weymouth's "Testament in Modern English."

and imagine here some such angelic visitation as is recorded elsewhere.

'The facts were probably far different, and much simpler. The farmer, satisfied with his building plans, and ready now for his supper, would turn back towards the house in a complacent and contented frame of mind, and certainly not contemplating his own death. If one of us had at that moment been standing at the farmhouse door, it is not unlikely we should have seen something like the following. The farmer, slowly approaching, would suddenly halt in the middle of the path, and his ruddy brown face become perceptibly whiter for a moment; the colour would then return, and he would resume his walk. When he reached the door, you would probably comment on what you had seen, and ask him, "Why did you stop just now in the middle of the path ? You looked as if you were deep in thought." " Did I ? was I ? " he might reply, in rather a dazed manner. "Oh yes, I remember, as I was coming up the path a strange thought struck me, 'Supposing I died to-night ? ' You see I am just returning from the yard, where I have been planning how to house my crops, and thinking I was in for a good time for many years to come." "I see, I see," the friend might reply.

A Thought Struck Me

' Probably it was in some such manner God spoke then, as he speaks now, every day, to men. I need not here dwell on the tragic denouements

—the supper, the heavy sleep, the vain knocking on the door in the morning, the forcing of the lock, the scared faces, the still form, the hush of death as it is realised that the farmer has suddenly been called to his account from the midst of his prosperity. Here, then, is the solution of our problem. We, and not mediums only, do hear voices other than our own; and to do so it is by no means necessary, or even desirable, that we should have seances, or needful we should be professed Spiritists. Our common description of the voice of God by His Spirit is, "a thought struck me;" that is, we describe it in physical and objective terms. This is significant and most interesting.

'God is ever speaking objectively to men in dreams, in visions, and in thoughts that strike us. The Bible is not only itself the voice of God, as all Christians know, but this voice is constantly speaking to us in other ways, and is so represented in Scripture.*

A Noble Study

'If, then, the great Father of Spirits deigns thus to speak to His creatures, does it not seem to all of us that the highest and noblest vocation of true Spiritualism would be to study the differences between ' ' I thought" and "a thought struck me;" between the subjective from our own unconscious mind and the objective from the spirit world. And, seeing that Christianity has revealed to us the two worlds of spirits, good and bad (the latter, at any rate, as many Spiritists will admit, amply confirmed by the

* A well-known evangelist told me that one-third of those he met ascribed their conversion to visions in dreams.

INTRODUCTORY n

experiences of modern Spiritism), might not a further Quest be to seek the best means to become a true discerner of spirits, so as to be able to distinguish, first, between my own voice and another's, and, secondly, between the voices of good and evil spirits ?'

I said a good deal more on the facts that these objective voices generally seem to speak from within — less frequently they are from without.*

Our Father in Heaven

If, as Scripture tells us, the bodies of Christians are indeed temples of the Holy Spirit, it is clear His dwelling-place is in the unconscious mind (F. W. H. Myers' subliminal mind), and this for a most obvious and necessary reason. If God dwelt inside us in the conscious mind, we could not fail ever to pay adoring worship, and to pray to the God within ; whereas our prayer is to be addressed to "Our Father which art in Heaven," and we are practically unconscious of the amazing fact, dogmatically stated in the Bible, that all Christians, in virtue of the New Birth, have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them. To me, and perhaps to many others, this is a wonderful proof, not only of the fact of the unconscious mind, but of the Divine wisdom in selecting a part of the mind outside our own consciousness for His dwelling-place. But these are all great subjects for study which I earnestly commend to every earnest student of spirit mysteries, for, I doubt not, the powers of the uncon-

* See "Another World, or the Fourth Dimension." D. Allen & Son, 40, Museum Street, W.C. Second edition.

scious mind can really solve many of the problems that perplex us.

Two Opposite Directions

I was agreeably surprised at the close of my words to find that many came up and thanked me for them in warm terms, while others equally warmly expressed their own views on Spiritism and its objects, which widely diverged from those I had suggested.

It did not take me long to find that, in this Spiritist Society of the Silver Fern, I was with two entirely different sets of people, with different objects and different destinations.

Many of my readers, waiting at an "island" platform at some railway station, where the "down" trains run at one side and the "up" trains in an opposite direction at the other, have noticed in the waiting passengers two distinct classes. If the "down" trains run to the seaside, and the "up" to town, the two elements in the crowd are clearly distinguishable. Though standing at the moment side by side, in five minutes they would be travelling in opposite directions, never probably to meet again. The importance in life is not where one may be found at any particular moment, but in what direction he is travelling. It was so in these drawingrooms. One could clearly discern that, although all were together in the same society, they were there for two opposite reasons. To many the Silver Fern represented their farthest advance towards the light • — the spiritual world, God, and Christianity. They had been either materialists or absolutely careless as to things unseen; but this society had succeeded in awakening in them a sense and a belief in another and a higher world, and possibly prepared their minds for an intelligent hearing and acceptance of Christianity. These would undoubtedly be regarded by Christians as travelling on the "up" lines.

On the Down Grade

The rest, and probably the majority, on the contrary, represented lapses from the Christian faith, and their presence that night their acceptance of modern Spiritism in its place. To believers, the shifting sands of the vague utterances of mediums seems but a poor and doubtful substitute on which to build one's faith, when compared with what Gladstone used to call "the impregnable rock of Holy Scripture." From a truly spiritual point of view, the same position in this society side by side represented, in the one case, the zenith, and, in the other, the nadir of their place with regard to Christianity; for, as I shall hope to show in this monograph, while there is much, very much, of interest in all researches into the unseen and unknown, the Spiritist faith, which, as we shall see is gradually being formulated into dogmas, contradicts categorically, point by point, all the fundamentals of Christianity.

True Spiritualism Wanted

One wonders sometimes if it is too much to hope for, that some day a true Spiritual quest may be established, not for necromancy, nor for the mountebank performances so common to-day, but for the serious and lofty object of learning more of the Father of Spirits, of the Holy Spirit and His action in connection with man, with other phenomena of the spirit world which everywhere surrounds us and are yet so imperfectly understood by Christians. All this, and much more, is still an unexplored region, and awaits some such concerted action as I have suggested.