Title:      The History of Spiritualism Vol I (1926)
Author:     Arthur Conan Doyle
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A Project Gutenberg of Australia eBook

Title:      The History of Spiritualism Vol I (1926)
Author:     Arthur Conan Doyle



THE HISTORY OF SPIRITUALISM

BY

ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE, M.D., LL.D.



PRESIDENT D'HONNEUR DE LA FEDERATION SPIRITE INTERNATIONALE
PRESIDENT OF THE LONDON SPIRITUALIST ALLIANCE
PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH COLLEGE OF PSYCHIC SCIENCE




VOLUME ONE



TO
SIR OLIVER LODGE, F.R.S.
A GREAT LEADER
BOTH IN PHYSICAL AND IN PSYCHIC SCIENCE
IN TOKEN OF RESPECT
THIS WORK IS DEDICATED




PREFACE



This work has grown from small disconnected chapters into a narrative
which covers in a way the whole history of the Spiritualistic movement.
This genesis needs some little explanation. I had written certain
studies with no particular ulterior object save to gain myself, and to
pass on to others, a clear view of what seemed to me to be important
episodes in the modern spiritual development of the human race. These
included the chapters on Swedenborg, on Irving, on A. J. Davis, on the
Hydesville incident, on the history of the Fox sisters, on the Eddys and
on the life of D. D. Home. These were all done before it was suggested
to my mind that I had already gone some distance in doing a fuller
history of the Spiritualistic movement than had hitherto seen the
light-a history which would have the advantage of being written from the
inside and with intimate personal knowledge of those factors which are
characteristic of this modern development.

It is indeed curious that this movement, which many of us regard as the
most important in the history of the world since the Christ episode, has
never had a historian from those who were within it, and who had large
personal experience of its development. Mr. Frank Podmore brought
together a large number of the facts, and, by ignoring those which did
not suit his purpose, endeavoured to suggest the worthlessness of most
of the rest, especially the physical phenomena, which in his view were
mainly the result of fraud. There is a history of Spiritualism by Mr.
McCabe which turns everything to fraud, and which is itself a misnomer,
since the public would buy a book with such a title under the impression
that it was a serious record instead of a travesty. There is also a
history by J. Arthur Hill which is written from a strictly psychic
research point of view, and is far behind the real provable facts. Then
we have "Modern American Spiritualism: A Twenty Years' Record," and
"Nineteenth Century Miracles," by that great woman and splendid
propagandist, Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, but these deal only with
phases, though they are exceedingly valuable. Finally-and best of
all-there is "Man's Survival After Death," by the Rev. Charles L.
Tweedale; but this is rather a very fine connected exposition of the
truth of the cult than a deliberate consecutive history. There are
general histories of mysticism, like those of Ennemoser and Howitt, but
there is no clean-cut, comprehensive story of the successive
developments of this world-wide movement. Just before going to press a
book has appeared by Campbell-Holms which is a very useful compendium of
psychic facts, as its title, "The Facts of Psychic Science and
Philosophy," implies, but here again it cannot claim to be a connected
history.

It was clear that such a work needed a great deal of research-far more
than I in my crowded life could devote to it. It is true that my time
was in any case dedicated to it, but the literature is vast, and there
were many aspects of the movement which claimed my attention. Under
these circumstances I claimed and obtained the loyal assistance of Mr.
W. Leslie Curnow, whose knowledge of the subject and whose industry have
proved to be invaluable. He has dug assiduously into that vast quarry;
he has separated out the ore from the rubbish, and in every way he has
been of the greatest assistance. I had originally expected no more than
raw material, but he has occasionally given me the finished article, of
which I have gladly availed myself, altering it only to the extent of
getting my own personal point of view. I cannot admit too fully the
loyal assistance which he has given me, and if I have not conjoined his
name with my own upon the title-page it is for reasons which he
understands and in which he acquiesces.


ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
THE PSYCHIC BOOKSHOP,
ABBEY HOUSE,
VICTORIA STREET, S.W.




CONTENTS



CHAPTER


I.    The Story of Swedenborg
II.   Edward Irving: The Shakers
III.  The Prophet of the New Revelation
IV.   The Hydesville Episode
V.    The Career of the Fox Sisters
VI.   First Developments in America
VII.  The Dawn in England
VIII. Continued Progress in England
IX.   The Career of D. D. Home
X.    The Davenport Brothers
XI.   The Researches of Sir William Crookes (1870-1874)
XII.  The Eddy Brothers and the Holmeses
XIII. Henry Slade and Dr. Monck
XIV.  Collective Investigations of Spiritualism
      Appendix
[Index and Bibliography at end of Volume Two]




ILLUSTRATIONS



(not included in this eBook)

Little Katie Fox Gets An Answer To Her Signals
Emanuel Swedenborg
Andrew Jackson Davis
Margaretta Fox-Kane: Kate Fox-Jencken: Leah Underhill
Sir William Crookes
D. D. Home
Professor Crookes's Test To Show That The Medium And The Spirit
   Were Separate Entities
Alfred Russel Wallace





CHAPTER I



THE STORY OF SWEDENBORG


It is impossible to give any date for the early appearances of external
intelligent power of a higher or lower type impinging upon the affairs
of men. Spiritualists are in the habit of taking March 31, 1848, as the
beginning of all psychic things, because their own movement dates from
that day. There has, however, been no time in the recorded history of
the world when we do not find traces of preternatural interference and a
tardy recognition of them from humanity. The only difference between
these episodes and the modern movement is that the former might be
described as a case of stray wanderers from some further sphere, while
the latter bears the sign of a purposeful and organized invasion. But as
an invasion might well be preceded by the appearance of pioneers who
search out the land, so the spirit influx of recent years was heralded
by a number of incidents which might well be traced to the Middle Ages
or beyond them. Some term must be fixed for a commencement of the
narrative, and perhaps no better one can be found than the story of the
great Swedish seer, Emanuel Swedenborg, who has some claim to be the
father of our new knowledge of supernal matters.

When the first rays of the rising sun of spiritual knowledge fell upon
the earth they illuminated the greatest and highest human mind before
they shed their light on lesser men. That mountain peak of mentality was
this great religious reformer and clairvoyant medium, as little
understood by his own followers as ever the Christ has been.

In order fully to understand Swedenborg one would need to have a
Swedenborg brain, and that is not met with once in a century. And yet by
our power of comparison and our experience of facts of which Swedenborg
knew nothing, we can realize some part of his life more clearly than he
could himself. The object of this study is not to treat the man as a
whole, but to endeavour to place him in the general scheme of psychic
unfolding treated in this work, from which his own Church in its
narrowness would withhold him.

Swedenborg was a contradiction in some ways to our psychic
generalizations, for it has been the habit to say that great intellect
stands in the way of personal psychic experience. The clean slate is
certainly most apt for the writing of a message. Swedenborg's mind was
no clean slate, but was criss-crossed with every kind of exact learning
which mankind is capable of acquiring. Never was there such a
concentration of information. He was primarily a great mining engineer
and authority on metallurgy. He was a military engineer who helped to
turn the fortunes of one of the many campaigns of Charles XII of Sweden.
He was a great authority upon astronomy and physics, the author of
learned works upon the tides and the determination of latitude. He was a
zoologist and an anatomist. He was a financier and political economist
who anticipated the conclusions of Adam Smith. Finally, he was a
profound Biblical student who had sucked in theology with his mother's
milk, and lived in the stern Evangelical atmosphere of a Lutheran pastor
during the most impressionable years of his life. His psychic
development, which occurred when he was fifty-five, in no way interfered
with his mental activity, and several of his scientific pamphlets were
published after that date.

With such a mind it is natural enough that he should be struck by the
evidence for extra-mundane powers which comes in the way of every
thoughtful man, but what is not natural is that he should himself be the
medium for such powers. There is a sense in which his mentality was
actually detrimental and vitiated his results, and there was another in
which it was to the highest degree useful. To illustrate this one has to
consider the two categories into which his work may be divided.

The first is the theological. This seems to most people outside the
chosen flock a useless and perilous side of his work. On the one hand he
accepts the Bible as being in a very particular sense the work of God.
Upon the other he contends that its true meaning is entirely different
from its obvious meaning, and that it is he, and only he, who, by the
help of angels, is able to give the true meaning. Such a claim is
intolerable. The infallibility of the Pope would be a trifle compared
with the infallibility of Swedenborg if such a position were admitted.
The Pope is at least only infallible when giving his verdict on points
of doctrine ex cathedra with his cardinals around him. Swedenborg's
infallibility would be universal and un restricted. Nor do his
explanations in the least commend themselves to one's reason. When, in
order to get at the true sense of a God-given message, one has to
suppose that a horse signifies intellectual truth, an ass signifies
scientific truth, a flame signifies improvement, and so on and on
through countless symbols, we seem to be in a realm of make-believe
which can only be compared with the ciphers which some ingenious critics
have detected in the plays of Shakespeare. Not thus does God send His
truth into the world. If such a view were accepted the Swedenborgian
creed could only be the mother of a thousand heresies, and we should
find ourselves back again amid the hair-splittings and the syllogisms of
the mediaeval schoolmen. All great and true things are simple and
intelligible. Swedenborg's theology is neither simple nor intelligible,
and that is its condemnation.

When, however, we get behind his tiresome exegesis of the Scriptures,
where everything means something different from what it obviously means,
and when we get at some of the general results of his teaching, they are
not inharmonious with liberal modern thought or with the teaching which
has been received from the Other Side since spiritual communication
became open. Thus the general proposition that this world is a
laboratory of souls, a forcing-ground where the material refines out the
spiritual, is not to be disputed. He rejects the Trinity in its ordinary
sense, but rebuilds it in some extraordinary sense which would be
equally objectionable to a Unitarian. He admits that every system has
its divine purpose and that virtue is not confined to Christianity. He
agrees with the Spiritualist teaching in seeking the true meaning of
Christ's life in its power as an example, and he rejects atonement and
original sin. He sees the root of all evil in selfishness, yet he admits
that a healthy egoism, as Hegel called it, is essential. In sexual
matters his theories are liberal to the verge of laxity. A Church he
considered an absolute necessity, as if no individual could arrange his
own dealings with his Creator. Altogether, it is such a jumble of ideas,
poured forth at such length in so many great Latin volumes, and
expressed in so obscure a style, that every independent interpreter of
it would be liable to found a new religion of his own. Not in that
direction does the worth of Swedenborg lie.

That worth is really to be found in his psychic powers and in his
psychic information which would have been just as valuable had no word
of theology ever come from his pen. It is these powers and that
information to which we will now turn.

Even as a lad young Swedenborg had visionary moments, but the extremely
practical and energetic manhood which followed submerged that more
delicate side of his nature. It came occasionally to the surface,
however, all through his life, and several instances have been put on
record which show that he possessed those powers which are usually
called "travelling clairvoyance," where the soul appears to leave the
body, to acquire information at a distance, and to return with news of
what is occurring elsewhere. It is a not uncommon attribute of mediums,
and can be matched by a thousand examples among Spiritualistic
sensitives, but it is rare in people of intellect, and rare also when
accompanied by an apparently normal state of the body while the
phenomenon is proceeding. Thus, in the oft-quoted example of Gothenburg,
where the seer observed and reported on a fire in Stockholm, 300 miles
away, with perfect accuracy, he was at a dinner-party with six teen
guests, who made valuable witnesses. The story was investigated by no
less a person than the philosopher Kant, who was a contemporary.

These occasional incidents were, however, merely the signs of latent
powers which came to full fruition quite suddenly in London in April of
the year 1744 It may be remarked that though the seer was of a good
Swedish family and was elevated to the Swedish nobility, it was none the
less in London that his chief books were published, that his
illumination was begun and finally that he died and was buried. From the
day of his first vision he continued until his death, twenty-seven years
later, to be in constant touch with the other world. "The same night the
world of spirits, hell and heaven, were convincingly opened to me, where
I found many persons of my acquaintance of all conditions. Thereafter
the Lord daily opened the eyes of my spirit to see in perfect
wakefulness what was going on in the other world, and to converse, broad
awake, with angels and spirits."

In his first vision Swedenborg speaks of "a kind of vapour steaming from
the pores of my body. It was a most visible watery vapour and fell
downwards to the ground upon the carpet." This is a close description of
that ectoplasm which we have found to be the basis of all physical
phenomena. The substance has also been called "ideoplasm," because it
takes on in an instant any shape with which it is impressed by the
spirit. In this case it changed, according to his account, into vermin,
which was said to be a sign from his Guardians that they disapproved of
his diet, and was accompanied by a clairaudient warning that he must be
more careful in that respect.

What can the world make of such a narrative? They may say that the man
was mad, but his life in the years which followed showed no sign of
mental weakness. Or they might say that he lied. But he was a man who
was famed for his punctilious veracity. His friend Cuno, a banker of
Amsterdam, said of him, "When he gazed upon me with his smiling blue
eyes it was as if truth itself was speaking from them." Was he then
self-deluded and honestly mistaken? We have to face the fact that in the
main the spiritual observations which he made have been confirmed and
extended since his time by innumerable psychic observers. The true
verdict is that he was the first and in many ways the greatest of the
whole line of mediums, that he was subject to the errors as well as to
the privileges which mediumship brings, that only by the study of
mediumship can his powers be really understood, and that in endeavouring
to separate him from Spiritualism his New Church has shown a complete
misapprehension of his gifts, and of their true place in the general
scheme of Nature. As a great pioneer of the Spiritual movement his
position is both intelligible and glorious. As an isolated figure with
incomprehensible powers, there is no place for him in any broad
comprehensive scheme of religious thought.

It is interesting to note that he considered his powers to be intimately
connected with a system of respiration. Air and ether being all around
us, it is as if some men could breathe more ether and less air and so
attain a more etheric state. This, no doubt, is a crude and clumsy way
of putting it, but some such idea runs through the work of many schools
of psychic thought. Laurence Oliphant, who had no obvious connexion with
Swedenborg, wrote his book "Sympneumata" in order to explain it. The
Indian system of Yoga depends upon the same idea. But anyone who has
seen an ordinary medium go into trance is aware of the peculiar hissing
intakes with which the process begins and the deep expirations with
which it ends. A fruitful field of study lies there for the Science of
the future. Here, as in other psychic matters, caution is needed. The
author has known several cases where tragic results have followed upon
an ignorant use of deep-breathing psychic exercises. Spiritual, like
electrical power, has its allotted use, but needs some knowledge and
caution in handling.

Swedenborg sums up the matter by saying that when he communed with
spirits he would for an hour at a time hardly draw a breath, "taking in
only enough air to serve as a supply to his thoughts." Apart from this
peculiarity of respiration, Swedenborg was normal during his visions,
though he naturally preferred to be secluded at such times. He seems to
have been privileged to examine the other world through several of its
spheres, and though his theological habit of mind may have tinctured his
descriptions, on the other hand the vast range of his material knowledge
gave him unusual powers of observation and comparison. Let us see what
were the main facts which he brought back from his numerous journeys,
and how far they coincide with those which have been obtained since his
day by psychic methods.

He found, then, that the other world, to which we all go after death,
consisted of a number of different spheres representing various shades
of luminosity and happiness, each of us going to that for which our
spiritual condition has fitted us. We are judged in automatic fashion,
like going to like by some spiritual law, and the result being
determined by the total result of our life, so that absolution or a
death-bed repentance can be of little avail. He found in these spheres
that the scenery and conditions of this world were closely reproduced,
and so also was the general framework of society. He found houses in
which families lived, temples in which they worshipped, halls in which
they assembled for social purposes, palaces in which rulers might dwell.

Death was made easy by the presence of celestial beings who helped the
new-comer into his fresh existence. Such new-comers had an immediate
period of complete rest. They regained consciousness in a few days of
our time.

There were both angels and devils, but they were not of another order to
ourselves. They were all human beings who had lived on earth and who
were either undeveloped souls, as devils, or highly developed souls, as
angels.

We did not change in any way at death. Man lost nothing by death, but
was still a man in all respects, though more perfect than when in the
body. He took with him not only his powers but also his acquired modes
of thought, his beliefs and his prejudices.

All children were received equally, whether baptized or not. They grew
up in the other world. Young women mothered them until the real mother
came across.

There was no eternal punishment. Those who were in the hells could work
their way out if they had the impulse. Those in the heavens were also in
no permanent place, but were working their way to something higher.

There was marriage in the form of spiritual union in the next world. It
takes a man and a woman to make a complete human unit. Swedenborg, it
may be remarked, was never married in life.

There was no detail too small for his observation in the spirit spheres.
He speaks of the architecture, the artisans' work, the flowers and
fruits, the scribes, the embroidery, the art, the music, the literature,
the science, the schools, the museums, the colleges, the libraries and
the sports. It may all shock conventional minds, though why harps,
crowns and thrones should be tolerated and other less material things
denied, it is hard to see.

Those who left this world old, decrepit, diseased, or deformed, renewed
their youth, and gradually assumed their full vigour. Married couples
continued together if their feelings towards each other were close and
sympathetic. If not, the marriage was dissolved. "Two real lovers are
not separated by the death of one, since the spirit of the deceased
dwells with the spirit of the survivor, and this even to the death of
the latter, when they again meet and are reunited, and love each other
more tenderly than before."

Such are some gleanings out of the immense store of information which
God sent to the world through Swedenborg. Again and again they have been
repeated by the mouths and the pens of our own Spiritualistic
illuminates. The world has so far disregarded it, and clung to outworn
and senseless conceptions. Gradually the new knowledge is making its
way, however, and when it has been entirely accepted the true greatness
of the mission of Swedenborg will be recognized, while his Biblical
exegesis will be forgotten.

The New Church, which was formed in order to sustain the teaching of the
Swedish master, has allowed itself to become a backwater instead of
keeping its rightful place as the original source of psychic knowledge.
When the Spiritualistic movement broke out in 184.8, and when men like
Andrew Jackson Davis supported it with philosophic writings and psychic
powers which can hardly be distinguished from those of Swedenborg, the
New Church would have been well advised to hail this development as
being on the lines indicated by their leader. Instead of doing so, they
have preferred, for some reason which is difficult to understand, to
exaggerate every point of difference and ignore every point of
resemblance, until the two bodies have drifted into a position of
hostility. In point of fact, every Spiritualist should honour
Swedenborg, and his bust should be in every Spiritualist temple, as
being the first and greatest of modern mediums. On the other hand, the
New Church should sink any small differences and join heartily in the
new movement, contributing their churches and organization to the common
cause.

It is difficult on examining Swedenborg's life to discover what are the
causes which make his present-day followers look askance at other
psychic bodies. What he did then is what they do now. Speaking of
Polhem's death the seer says: "He died on Monday and spoke with me on
Thursday. I was invited to the funeral. He saw the hearse and saw them
let down the coffin into the grave. He conversed with me as it was going
on, asking me why they had buried him when he was alive. When the priest
pronounced that he would rise again at the Day of judgment he asked why
this was, when he had risen already. He wondered that such a belief
could obtain, considering that he was even now alive."

This is entirely in accord with the experience of a present-day medium.
If Swedenborg was within his rights, then the medium is so also.

Again: "Brahe was beheaded at 10 in the morning and spoke to me at 10
that night. He was with me almost without interruption for several
days."

Such instances show that Swedenborg had no more scruples about converse
with the dead than the Christ had when He spoke on the mountain with
Moses and Elias.

Swedenborg has laid down his own view very clearly, but in considering
it one has to remember the time in which he lived and his want of
experience of the trend and object of the new revelation. This view was
that God, for good and wise purposes, had separated the world of spirits
from ours and that communication was not granted except for cogent
reasons-among which mere curiosity should not be counted. Every earnest
student of the psychic would agree with it, and every earnest
Spiritualist is averse from turning the most solemn thing upon earth
into a sort of pastime. As to having a cogent reason, our main reason is
that in such an age of materialism as Swedenborg can never have
imagined, we are endeavouring to prove the existence and supremacy of
spirit in so objective a way that it will meet and beat the materialists
on their own ground. It would be hard to imagine any reason more cogent
than this, and therefore we have every right to claim that if Swedenborg
were now living he would have been a leader in our modern psychic
movement.

Some of his followers, notably Dr. Garth Wilkinson, have put forward
another objection thus: "The danger of man in speaking with spirits is
that we are all in association with our likes, and being full of evil
these similar spirits, could we face them, would but confirm us in our
own state of views."

To this we can only reply that though it is specious it is proved by
experience to be false. Man is not naturally bad. The average human
being is good. The mere act of spiritual communication in its solemnity
brings out the religious side. Therefore as a rule it is not the evil
but the good influence which is encountered, as the beautiful and moral
records of seances will show. The author can testify that in nearly
forty years of psychic work, during which he has attended innumerable
seances in many lands, he has never on any single occasion heard an
obscene word or any message which could offend the ears of the most
delicate female. Other veteran Spiritualists bring the same testimony.
Therefore, while it is undoubtedly true that evil spirits are attracted
to an evil circle, in actual practice it is a very rare thing for anyone
to be incommoded thereby. When such spirits come the proper procedure is
not to repulse them, but rather to reason gently with them and so
endeavour to make them realize their own condition and what they should
do for self-improvement. This has occurred many times within the
author's personal experience and with the happiest results.

Some little personal account of Swedenborg may fitly end this brief
review of his doctrines, which is primarily intended to indicate his
position in the general scheme. He must have been a most frugal,
practical, hard-working and energetic young man, and a most lovable old
one. Life seems to have mellowed him into a very gentle and venerable
creature. He was placid, serene, and ever ready for conversation which
did not take a psychic turn unless his companions so desired. The
material of such conversations was always remarkable, but he was
afflicted with a stammer which hindered his enunciation. In person he
was tall and spare, with a spiritual face, blue eyes, a wig to his
shoulders, dark clothing, knee-breeches, buckles, and a cane.

Swedenborg claimed that a heavy cloud was formed round the earth by the
psychic grossness of humanity, and that from time to time there was a
judgment and a clearing up, even as the thunderstorm clears the material
atmosphere. He saw that the world, even in his day, was drifting into a
dangerous position owing to the unreason of the Churches on the one side
and the reaction towards absolute want of religion which was caused by
it. Modern psychic authorities, notably Vale Owen, have spoken of this
ever-accumulating cloud, and there is a very general feeling that the
necessary cleansing process will not be long postponed.

A notice of Swedenborg from the Spiritualistic standpoint may be best
concluded by an extract from his own diary. He says: "All confirmations
in matters pertaining to theology are, as it were, glued fast into the
brains, and can with difficulty be removed, and while they remain,
genuine truths can find no place." He was a very great seer, a great
pioneer of psychic knowledge, and his weakness lay in those very words
which he has written.

The general reader who desires to go further will find Swedenborg's most
characteristic teachings in his "Heaven and Hell," "The New Jerusalem,"
and "Arcana Coelestia." His life has been admirably done by Garth
Wilkinson, Trobridge, and Brayley Hodgetts, the present president of the
English Swedenborg Society. In spite of all his theological symbolism,
his name must live eternally as the first of all modern men who has
given a description of the process of death, and of the world beyond,
which is not founded upon the vague ecstatic and impossible visions of
the old Churches, but which actually corresponds with the descriptions
which we ourselves obtain from those who endeavour to convey back to us
some clear idea of their new existence.




CHAPTER II



EDWARD IRVING: THE SHAKERS



The story of Edward Irving and his experience of spiritual
manifestations in the years from 1830 to 1833 are of great interest to
the psychic student, and help to bridge the gap between Swedenborg on
one side and Andrew Jackson Davis on the other. The facts are as
follows:

Edward Irving was of that hard-working poorer-class Scottish stock which
has produced so many great men. Of the same stock and at the same time
and district came Thomas Carlyle. Irving was born in Annan in the year
1792. After a hard, studious youth, he developed into a very singular
man. In person he was a giant and a Hercules in strength, his splendid
physique being only marred by a bad outward cast of one eye-a defect
which, like Byron's lame foot, seemed in some sort to present an analogy
to the extremes in his character. His mind, which was virile, broad and
courageous, was warped by early training in the narrow school of the
Scottish Church, where the hard, crude views of the old Covenanters-an
impossible Protestantism which represented a reaction against an
impossible Catholicism-still poisoned the human soul. His mental
position was strangely contradictory, for while he had inherited this
cramped theology he had failed to inherit much which is the very
birthright of the poorer Scot. He was opposed to all that was liberal,
and even such obvious measures of justice as the Reform Bill of 1832
found in him a determined opponent.

This strange, eccentric, and formidable man had his proper environment
in the 17th century, when his prototypes were holding moorland meetings
in Gallo way and avoiding, or possibly even attacking with the arms of
the flesh, the dragoons of Claverhouse. But, live when he might, he was
bound to write his nacre in some fashion on the annals of his time. We
read of his strenuous youth in Scotland, of his rivalry with his friend
Carlyle in the affections of the clever and vivacious Jane Welsh, of his
enormous walks and feats of strength, of his short career as a rather
violent school-teacher at Kirkcaldy, of his marriage to the daughter of
a minister in that town, and finally of his becoming curate or assistant
to the great Dr. Chalmers, who was, at that time, the most famous
clergyman in Scotland, and whose administration of his parish in Glasgow
is one of the outstanding chapters in the history of the Scottish
Church. In this capacity he gained that man-to-man acquaintance with the
poorer classes which is the best and most practical of all preparations
for the work of life. Without it, indeed, no man is complete.

There was at that time a small Scottish church in Hatton Garden, off
Holborn, in London, which had lost its pastor and was in a poor
position, both spiritually and financially. The vacancy was offered to
Dr. Chalmers's assistant, and after some heart-searchings was accepted
by him. Here his sonorous eloquence and his thoroughgoing delivery of
the Gospel message began to attract attention, and suddenly the strange
Scottish giant became the fashion. The humble street was blocked by
carriages on a Sunday morning, and some of the most distinguished men
and women in London scrambled for a share of the very scanty
accommodation. There is evidence that this extreme popularity did not
last, and possibly the preacher's habit of expounding a text for an hour
and a half was too much for the English weakling, however acceptable
north of the Tweed. Finally a move was made to a larger church in Regent
Square which could hold two thousand people, and there were sufficient
stalwarts to fill this in decent fashion, though the preacher had ceased
to excite the interest of his earlier days. Apart from his oratory,
Irving seems to have been a conscientious and hardworking pastor,
striving assiduously for the temporal needs of the more humble of his
flock, and ever ready at all hours of the day or night to follow the
call of duty.

Soon, however, there came a rift between him and the authorities of his
Church. The matter in dispute made a very fine basis for a theological
quarrel of the type which has done more harm in the world than the
smallpox. The question was whether the Christ had in Him the possibility
of sin, or whether the Divine portion of His being was a complete and
absolute bar to physical temptations. The assessors contended that the
association of such ideas as sin and Christ was a blasphemy. The
obdurate clergyman, however, replied with some show of reason that
unless the Christ had the capacity for sin, and successfully resisted
it, His earthly lot was not the same as ours, and His virtues deserved
less admiration. The matter was argued out in London with immense
seriousness and at intolerable length, with the result that the
presbytery declared its unanimous disapproval of the pastor's views. As,
however, his congregation in turn expressed their unqualified approval,
he was able to disregard the censure of his official brethren.

But a greater stumbling-block lay ahead, and Irving's encounter with it
has made his name live as all names live which associate themselves with
real spiritual issues. It should first be understood that Irving was
deeply interested in Biblical prophecy, especially the vague and
terrible images of St. John, and the strangely methodical forecasts of
Daniel. He brooded much over the years and the days which were fixed as
the allotted time before the days of wrath should precede the Second
Coming of the Lord. There were others at that time-1830 and onwards-who
were deeply immersed in the same sombre speculations. Among these was a
wealthy banker named Drummond, who had a large country house at Albury,
near Guildford. At this house these Biblical students used to assemble
from time to time, discussing and comparing their views with such
thoroughness that it was not unusual for their sittings to extend over a
week, each day being fully taken up from breakfast to supper. This band
was called the "Albury Prophets." Excited by the political portents
which led up to the Reform Bill, they all considered that the
foundations of the deep had been loosened. It is hard to imagine what
their reaction would have been had they lived to witness the Great War.
As it was, they were convinced that the end of all things was at hand,
and they looked out eagerly for signs and portents, twisting the vague
and sinister words of the prophets into all manner of fantastic
interpretations.

Finally, above the monotonous horizon of human happenings there did
actually appear a strange manifestation. There had been a legend that
the spiritual gifts of earlier days would reassert themselves before the
end, and here apparently was the forgotten gift of tongues coming back
into the experience of mankind. It had begun in 1830 on the western side
of Scotland, where the names of the sensitives, Campbell and MacDonald,
spoke of that Celtic blood which has always been more alive to spiritual
influences than the heavier Teutonic strain. The Albury Prophets were
much exercised in their minds, and an emissary was sent from Mr.
Irving's church to investigate and report. He found that the matter was
very real. The people were of good repute, one of them, indeed, a woman
whose character could best be described as saintly. The strange tongues
in which they both talked broke out at intervals, and the manifestation
was accompanied by healing miracles and other signs of power. Clearly it
was no fraud or pretence, but a real influx of some strange force which
carried one back to apostolic times. The faithful waited eagerly for
further developments.

These were not long in coming, and they broke out in Irving's own
church. It was in July, 1831, that it was rumoured that certain members
of the congregation had been seized in this strange way in their own
homes, and discreet exhibitions were held in the vestry and other
secluded places. The pastor and his advisers were much puzzled as to
whether a more public demonstration should be tolerated. The matter
settled itself, however, after the fashion of affairs of the spirit, and
in October of the same year the prosaic Church of Scotland service was
suddenly interrupted by the strange outcry of the possessed. It came so
suddenly and with such vehemence, both at the morning and afternoon
service, that a panic set in in the church, and had it not been for
their giant pastor thundering out, "Oh, Lord, still the tumult of the
people!" a tragedy might have followed. There was also a good deal of
hissing and uproar from those who were conservative in their tastes.
Altogether the sensation was a considerable one, and the newspapers of
the day were filled with it, though their comments were far from
respectful or favourable.

The sounds came from both women and men, and consisted in the first
instance of unintelligible noises which were either mere gibberish, or
some entirely unknown language. "Sudden, doleful, and unintelligible
sounds," says one witness. "There was a force and fulness of sound,"
said another description, "of which the delicate female organs would
seem incapable." "It burst forth with an astounding and terrible crash,"
says a third. Many, however, were greatly impressed by these sounds, and
among them was Irving himself. "There is a power in the voice to thrill
the heart and overawe the spirit after a manner which I have never felt.
There is a march and majesty and sustained grandeur of which I have
never heard the like. It is likest to one of the simplest and most
ancient chants in the cathedral service in so much that I have been led
to think that these chants, which can be traced as high as Ambrose, are
recollections of the inspired utterances of the primitive Church."

Soon, moreover, intelligible English words were added to the strange
outbursts. These usually consisted of ejaculations and prayers, with no
obvious sign of any supernormal character save that they broke out at
unseasonable hours and independently of the will of the speaker. In some
cases, however, these powers developed until the gifted one was able,
while under the influence, to give long harangues, to lay down the law
in most dogmatic fashion over points of doctrine, and to issue reproofs
which occasionally were turned even in the direction of the
longsuffering pastor.

There may have been-in fact, there probably was-a true psychic origin to
these phenomena, but they had developed in a soil of narrow bigoted
theology, which was bound to bring them to ruin. Even Swedenborg's
religious system was too narrow to receive the full undistorted gifts of
the spirit, so one can imagine what they became when contracted within
the cramped limits of a Scottish church, where every truth must be shorn
or twisted until it corresponds with some fantastic text. The new good
wine will not go into the old narrow bottles. Had there been a fuller
revelation, then doubtless other messages would have been received in
other fashions which would have presented the matter in its just
proportions, and checked one spiritual gift by others. But there was no
development save towards chaos. Some of the teaching received could not
be reconciled with orthodoxy, and was therefore obviously of the devil.
Some of the sensitives condemned others as heretics. Voice was raised
against voice. Worst of all, some of the chief speakers became convinced
themselves that their own speeches were diabolical. Their chief reason
seems to have been that they did not accord with their own spiritual
convictions, which would seem to some of us rather an indication that
they were angelic. They entered also upon the slippery path of prophecy,
and were abashed when their own prophecies did not materialize.

Some of the statements which came through these sensitives, and which
shocked their religious sensibilities, might seem to deserve serious
consideration by a more enlightened generation. Thus one of these
Bible-worshippers is recorded as saying, concerning the Bible Society,
"That it was the curse going through the land, quenching the Spirit of
God, by the letter of the Word of God." Right or wrong, such an
utterance would seem to be independent of him who uttered it, and it is
in close accord with many of the spiritual teachings which we receive
to-day. So long as the letter is regarded as sacred, just so long can
anything, even pure materialism, be proved from that volume.

One of the chief mouthpieces of the spirit was a certain Robert
Baxter-not to be confused with the Baxter who some thirty years later
was associated with certain remarkable prophecies. This Robert Baxter
seems to have been a solid, earnest, prosaic citizen who viewed the
Scriptures much as a lawyer views a legal document, with an exact
valuation of every phrase-especially of such phrases as fitted into his
own hereditary scheme of religion. He was an honest man with a restless
conscience, which continually worried him over the smaller details,
while leaving him quite unperturbed as to the broad platform upon which
his beliefs were constructed. This man was powerfully affected by the
influx of spirit-to use his own phrase, "his mouth was opened in power."
According to him, January 14, 1832, was the beginning of those mystical
1,260 days which were to precede the Second Coming and the end of the
world. Such a prediction must have been particularly sympathetic to
Irving with his millennial dreams. But long before the days were
fulfilled Irving was in his grave, and Baxter had forsworn those voices
which had, in this instance at least, deceived him.

Baxter has written a pamphlet with the portentous title, "Narrative of
Facts, Characterising the Supernatural Manifestations, in Members of Mr.
Irving's Congregation, and other Individuals, in England and Scotland,
and formerly in the Writer Himself." Spiritual truth could no more come
through such a mind than white light could come through a prism, and yet
in this account he has to admit the occurrence of many things which seem
clearly preternatural, mixed up with much that is questionable, and some
things which are demonstrably false. The object of the pamphlet is
mainly to forswear his evil and invisible guides, so that he may return
to the safe if flattish bosom of the Scottish Church. It is noticeable,
however, that a second member of Irving's congregation wrote an
answering pamphlet with an even longer title, which showed that Baxter
was right so long as he was prompted by the spirit, and wrong in his
Satanic inferences. This pamphlet is interesting as containing letters
from various people who possessed the gift of tongues, showing that they
were earnest-minded folk who were incapable of any conscious deception.

What is an impartial psychic student who is familiar with more modern
phases to say to this development? Personally it seems to the author to
have been a true psychic influx, blanketed and smothered by a petty
sectarian theology of the letter-perfect description for which the
Pharisees were reproved. If he may venture his individual opinion, it is
that the perfect recipient of spiritual teaching is the earnest man who
has worked his way through all the orthodox creeds, and whose mind,
eager and receptive, is a blank surface ready to register a new
impression exactly as received. He becomes the true child and pupil of
other-world teaching, and all other types of Spiritualist appear to be
compromises.

This does not alter the fact that personal nobility of character may
make the honest compromiser a far higher type than the pure
Spiritualist, but it applies only to the actual philosophy. The field of
Spiritualism is infinitely broad, and on it every variety of Christian,
as well as the Moslem, the Hindu or the Parsee, can dwell in
brotherhood. But a mere acceptance of spirit return and communion is not
enough. Many savages have that. We need a moral code as well, and
whether we regard Christ as a benevolent teacher or as a divine
ambassador, His actual ethical teaching in one form or another, even if
not coupled with His name, is an essential thing for the upliftment of
mankind. But always it must be checked by reason, and acted upon in the
spirit and not according to the letter.

This, however, is digression. In the voices of 1831 there are the signs
of real psychic power. It is a recognized spiritual law that all psychic
manifestations become distorted when seen through the medium of narrow
sectarian religion. It is also a law that pompous, inflated persons
attract mischievous entities and are the butts of the spirit world,
being made game of by the use of large names and by prophecies which
make the prophet ridiculous. Such were the guides who descended upon the
flock of Mr. Irving, and produced various effects, good or bad,
according to the instrument used.

The unity of the Church, which had been shaken by the previous censure
of the presbytery, dissolved under this new trial. There was a large
secession, and the building was claimed by the trustees. Irving and the
stalwarts who were loyal to him wandered forth in search of new
premises, and found them in the hall used by Robert Owen, the Socialist,
philanthropist, and free-thinker, who was destined twenty years later to
be one of the pioneer converts to Spiritualism. Here, in Gray's Inn
Road, Irving rallied the faithful. It cannot be denied that the Church,
as he organized it, with its angel, its elders, its deacons, its
tongues, and its prophecies, was the best reconstruction of a primitive
Christian Church that has ever been made. If Peter or Paul reincarnated
in London they would be bewildered, and possibly horrified, by St.
Paul's or by Westminster Cathedral, but they would certainly have been
in a perfectly familiar atmosphere in the gathering over which Irving
presided. A wise man recognizes that God may be approached from
innumerable angles. The minds of men and the spirit of the times vary in
their reaction to the great central cause, and one can only insist upon
a broad charity both in oneself and in others. It was in this that
Irving seems to have been wanting. It was always by the standard of that
which was a sect among sects that he would measure the universe. There
were times when he was vaguely conscious of this, and it may be that
those wrestlings with Apollyon, of which he complains, even as Bunyan
and the Puritans of old used to comes plain, had a strange explanation.
Apollyon was really the Spirit of Truth, and the inward struggle was not
between Faith and Sin, but was really between the darkness of inherited
dogma, and the light of inherent and instinctive reason, God-given, and
rising for ever in revolt against the absurdities of man.

But Irving lived very intensely and the successive crises through which
he had passed had broken him down. These contests with argumentative
theologians and with recalcitrant members of his flock may seem trivial
things to us when viewed far off down the vista of years, but to him,
with his eager, earnest, storm-torn soul, they were vital and terrible.
To the unfettered mind this sect or that seems a matter of indifference,
but to Irving, both from heredity and from education, the Scottish
Church was the ark of God, and yet he, its zealous, faithful son, driven
by his own conscience, had rushed forth and had found the great gates
which contained Salvation slammed and barred behind him. He was a branch
cut from the tree, and he withered. It is a true simile, and it is more
than a simile, for it became an actual physical fact. This giant in
early middle age wilted and shrank. His great frame stooped. His cheeks
became hollow and wan. His eyes shone with the baleful fever which was
consuming him. And so, working to the very end and with the words, "If I
die, I die with the Lord," upon his lips, his soul passed forth into
that clearer and more golden light where the tired brain finds rest and
the anxious spirit enters into a peace and assurance which life has
never given.


* * * * *


Apart from this isolated incident of Irving's Church, there was one
other psychic manifestation of those days which led more directly to the
Hydesville revelation. This was the outbreak of spiritual phenomena
among the Shaker communities in the United States, which has received
less attention than it deserves.

These good people seem to have had affiliations on the one side with the
Quakers, and, on the other, with the refugees from the Cevennes, who
came to England to escape the persecution of Louis XIV. Even in England
their harmless lives did not screen them from the persecution of the
bigots, and they were forced to emigrate to America about the time of
the War of Independence.

There they founded settlements in various parts, living simple cleanly
lives upon communistic principles, with sobriety and chastity as their
watchword. It is not surprising that as the psychic cloud of other-world
power slowly settled upon the earth it should have found its first
response from such altruistic communities. In 1837 there were sixty such
bodies in existence, and all of them responded in various degrees to the
new power. They kept their experiences very strictly to themselves at
the time, for as their elders subsequently explained, they would
certainly have been all consigned to Bedlam had they told what had
actually occurred. Two books, however, "Holy Wisdom" and "The Sacred
Roll," which arose from their experiences, appeared afterwards.

The phenomena seem to have begun with the usual warning noises, and to
have been followed by the obsession from time to time of nearly all the
community. Everyone, man and woman, proved to be open to spirit
possession. The invaders only came, however, after asking permission,
and at such intervals as did not interfere with the work of the
community. The chief visitants were Red Indian spirits, who came
collectively as a tribe. "One or two elders might be in the room below,
and there would be a knock at the door and the Indians would ask whether
they might come in. Permission being given, a whole tribe of Indian
spirits would troop into the house, and in a few minutes you would hear
'Whoop!' here and 'Whoop!' there all over the house." The whoops
emanated,-of course, from the vocal organs of the Shakers themselves,
but while under the Indian control they would talk Indian among
themselves, dance Indian dances, and in all ways show that they were
really possessed by the Redskin spirits.

One may well ask why should these North American aborigines play so
large a part not only in the inception, but in the continuance of this
movement? There are few physical mediums in this country, as well as in
America, who have not a Red Indian guide, whose photograph has not
infrequently been obtained by psychic means, still retaining his
scalp-locks and his robes. It is one of the many mysteries which we have
still to solve. We can only say for certain, from our own experience,
that such spirits are powerful in producing physical phenomena, but that
they never present the higher teaching which comes to us either from
European or from Oriental spirits. The physical phenomena are still,
however, of very great importance, as calling the attention of sceptics
to the matter, and therefore the part assigned to the Indians is a very
vital one. Men of the rude open-air type seem in spirit life to be
especially associated with the crude manifestations of spirit activity,
and it has been repeatedly asserted, though it is hard to say how it
could be proved, that their chief organizer was an adventurer who in
life was known as Henry Morgan, and died as Governor of Jamaica, a post
to which he had been appointed in the time of Charles II. Such unproved
assertions are, it must be admitted, of no value in our present state of
knowledge, but they should be put on record as further information may
in time shed some new light upon them. John King, which is the spirit
name of the alleged Henry Morgan, is a very real being, and there are
few Spiritualists of experience who have not seen his heavily-bearded
face and heard his masterful voice. As to the Indians who are his
colleagues or his subordinates, one can but hazard the conjecture that
they are children of Nature who are nearer perhaps to the primitive
secrets than other more complex races. It may be that their special work
is of the nature of an expiation and atonement-an explanation which the
author has heard from their lips.

These remarks may well seem a digression from the actual experience of
the Shakers, but the difficulties raised in the mind of the inquirer
arise largely from the number of new facts, without any order or
explanation, which he is forced to encounter. His mind has no possible
pigeon-hole into which they can be fitted. Therefore, the author will
endeavour in these pages to provide so far as possible from his own
experience, or from that of those upon whom he can rely, such sidelights
as may make the matter more intelligible, and give at least a hint of
those laws which lie behind, and are as binding upon spirits as upon
ourselves. Above all, the inquirer must cast away for ever the idea that
the discarnate are necessarily wise or powerful entities. They have
their individuality and their limitations, even as we have, and these
limitations become the more marked when they have to manifest themselves
through so foreign a substance as matter.

The Shakers had among them a man of outstanding intelligence named F. W.
Evans, who gave a very clear and entertaining account of all this
matter, which may be sought by the curious in the NEW YORK DAILY GRAPHIC
of November 24, 1874, and has been largely copied into Colonel Olcott's
work, "People From the Other World."

Mr. Evans and his associates after the first disturbance, physical and
mental, caused by this spirit irruption, settled down to study what it
really meant. They came to the conclusion that the matter could be
divided into three phases. The first phase was the actual proving to the
observer that the thing was real. The second phase was one of
instruction, as even the humblest spirit can bring information as to his
own experience of after-death conditions. The third phase was called the
missionary phase and was the practical application. The Shakers came to
the unexpected conclusion that the Indians were there not to teach but
to be taught. They proselytized them, therefore, exactly as they would
have done in life. A similar experience has occurred since then in very
many Spiritualistic circles, where humble and lowly spirits have come to
be taught that which they should have learned in this world had true
teachers been available. One may well ask why the higher spirits over
there do not supply this want? The answer given to the author upon one
notable occasion was, "These people are very much nearer to you than to
us. You can reach theta where we fail."

It is clear from this that the good Shakers were never in touch with the
higher guides-possibly they did not need guidance-and that their
visitors were on a low plane. For seven years these visitations
continued. When the spirits left they informed their hosts that they
were going, but that presently they would return, and that when they did
so they would pervade the world and enter the palace as well as the
cottage. It was just four years later that the Rochester knockings broke
out. When they did so, Elder Evans and another Shaker visited Rochester
and saw the Fox sisters. Their arrival was greeted with great enthusiasm
from the unseen forces, who proclaimed that this was indeed the work
which had been foretold.

One remark of Elder Evans is worth transcribing. When asked, "Don't you
think your experience is much the same as that of monks and nuns in the
Middle Ages?" he did not answer. "Ours were angelic but these others
were diabolical," as would have been said had the situation been
reversed, but he replied with fine candour and breadth of mind,
"Certainly. That is the proper explanation of them through all the ages.
The visions of Saint Theresa were Spiritualistic visions just such as we
have frequently had vouchsafed to the members of our society." When
further asked whether magic and necromancy did not belong to the same
category, he answered, "Yes. That is when Spiritualism is used for
selfish ends." It is clear that there were men living nearly a century
ago who were capable of instructing our wise men of to-day.

That very remarkable woman, Mrs. Hardinge Britten, has recorded in her
"Modern American Spiritualism" how she came in close contact with the
Shaker community, and was shown by them the records, taken at the time,
of their spiritual visitation. In them it was stated that the new era
was to be inaugurated by an extraordinary discovery of material as well
as of spiritual wealth. This is a most remarkable prophecy, as it is a
matter of history that the goldfields of California were discovered
within a very short time of the psychic outburst. A Swedenborg with his
doctrine of correspondences might perhaps contend that the one was
complementary to the other.

This episode of the Shaker manifestations is a very distinct link
between the Swedenborg pioneer work and the period of Davis and the Fox
sisters. We shall now consider the career of the former, which is
intimately associated with the rise and progress of the modern psychic
movement.




CHAPTER III



THE PROPHET OF THE NEW REVELATION


ANDREW JACKSON DAVIS was one of the most remarkable men of whom we have
any exact record. Born in 1826 on the banks of the Hudson, his mother
was an uneducated woman, with a visionary turn which was allied to
vulgar superstition, while his father was a drunken worker in leather.
He has written the details of his own childhood in a curious book, "The
Magic Staff," which brings home to us the primitive and yet forceful
life of the American provinces in the first half of last century. The
people were rude and uneducated, but their spiritual side was very much
alive, and they seem to have been reaching out continually for some new
thing. It was in these country districts of New York in the space of a
few years that both Mormonism and modern Spiritualism were evolved.

There never could have been a lad with fewer natural advantages than
Davis. He was feeble in body and starved in mind. Outside an occasional
school primer he could only recall one book that he had ever read up to
his sixteenth year. Yet in that poor entity there lurked such spiritual
forces that before he was twenty he had written one of the most profound
and original books of philosophy ever produced. Could there be a clearer
proof that nothing came from himself, and that he was but a conduit pipe
through which flowed the knowledge of that vast reservoir which finds
such inexplicable outlets? The valour of a Joan of Arc, the sanctity of
a Theresa, the wisdom of a Jackson Davis, the supernormal powers of a
Daniel Home, all come from the same source.

In his later boyhood, Davis's latent psychic powers began to develop.
Like Joan, he heard voices in the fields-gentle voices which gave him
good advice and comfort. Clairvoyance followed this clairaudience. At
the time of his mother's death, he had a striking vision of a lovely
home in a land of brightness which he conjectured to be the place to
which his mother had gone. His full capacity was tapped, however, by the
chance that a travelling showman who exhibited the wonders of mesmerism
came to the village and experimented upon Davis, as well as on many
other young rustics who desired to experience the sensation. It was soon
found that Davis had very remarkable clairvoyant powers.

These were developed not by the peripatetic mesmerist, but by a local
tailor named Levingston, who seems to have been a pioneer thinker. He
was so intrigued by the wonderful gifts of his subject, that he
abandoned his prosperous business and devoted his whole time to working
with Davis and to using his clairvoyant powers for the diagnosis of
disease. Davis had developed the power, common among psychics, of seeing
without the eyes, including things which could not be seen in any case
by human vision. At first, the gift was used as a sort of amusement in
reading the letters or the watches of the assembled rustics when his
eyes were bandaged. In such cases all parts of the body can assume the
function of sight, and the reason probably is that the etheric or
spiritual body, which possesses the same organs as the physical, is
wholly or partially disengaged, and that it registers the impression.
Since it might assume any posture, or might turn completely round, one
would naturally get vision from any angle, and an explanation is
furnished of such cases as the author met in the north of England, where
Tom Tyrrell, the famous medium, used to walk round a room, admiring the
pictures, with the back of his head turned towards the walls on which
they were hung. Whether in such cases the etheric eyes see the picture,
or whether they see the etheric duplicate of the picture, is one of the
many problems which we leave to our descendants.

Levingston used Davis at first for medical diagnosis. He described how
the human body became transparent to his spirit eyes, which seemed to
act from the centre of his forehead. Each organ stood out clearly and
with a special radiance of its own which was dimmed in case of disease.
To the orthodox medical mind, with which the author has much sympathy,
such powers are suspect as opening a door for quackery, and yet he is
bound to admit that all that was said by Davis has been corroborated
within his own experience by Mr. Bloomfield, of Melbourne, who described
to him the amazement which he felt when this power came suddenly upon
him in the street, and revealed the anatomy of two persons who were
walking in front of him. So well attested are such powers that it has
been not unusual for medical men to engage clairvoyants as helpers in
diagnosis. Hippocrates says, "The affections suffered by the body the
soul sees with shut eyes." Apparently, then, the ancients knew something
of such methods. Davis's ministrations were not confined to those who
were in his presence, but hi; soul or etheric body could be liberated by
the magnetic manipulation of his employer, and could be sent forth like
a carrier pigeon with the certainty that it would come home again
bearing any desired information. Apart from the humanitarian mission on
which it was usually engaged it would sometimes roam at will, and he has
described in wonderful passages how he would see a translucent earth
beneath him, with the great veins of mineral beds shining through like
masses of molten metal, each with its own fiery radiance.

It is notable that at this earlier phase of Davis's psychic experience
he had no memory when he returned from trance of what his impressions
had been. They were registered, however, upon his subconscious mind, and
at a later date he recalled them all clearly. For the time he was a
source of instruction to others but remained ignorant himself.

Until then his development had been on lines which are not uncommon, and
which could be matched within the experience of every psychic student.
But then there occurred an episode which was entirely novel and which is
described in close detail in the autobiography. Put briefly, the facts
were these. On the evening of March 6, 1844, Davis was suddenly
possessed by some power which led him to fly from the little town of
Poughkeepsie, where he lived, and to hurry off, in a condition of
semi-trance, upon a rapid journey. When he regained his clear
perceptions he found himself among wild mountains, and there he claims
to have met two venerable men with whom he held intimate and elevating
communion, the one upon medicine and the other upon morals. All night he
was out, and when he inquired his whereabouts next morning he was told
that he was in the Catskill Mountains and forty miles from his home. The
whole narrative reads like a subjective experience, a dream or a vision,
and one would not hesitate to place it as such were it not for the
details of his reception and the meal he ate upon his return. It is a
possible alternative that the flight into the mountains was a reality
and the interviews a dream. He claims that he afterwards identified his
two mentors as Galen and Swedenborg, which is interesting as being the
first contact with the dead which he had ever recognized. The whole
episode seems visionary, and had no direct bearing upon the lad's
remarkable future.

He felt higher powers stirring within him, and it was remarked to him
that when he was asked profound questions in the mesmeric trance he
always replied, "I will answer that in my book." In his nineteenth year
he felt that the hour for writing the book had come. The mesmeric
influence of Levingston did not, for some reason, seem suited for this,
and a Dr. Lyon was chosen as the new mesmerist. Lyon threw up his
practice and went with his singular protege to New York, where they
presently called upon the Rev. William Fishbough to come and act as
amanuensis. The intuitional selection seems to have been justified, for
he also at once gave up his work and obeyed the summons. Then, the
apparatus being ready, Lyon threw the lad day after day into the
magnetic trance, and his utterances were taken down by the faithful
secretary. There was no money and no publicity in the matter, and even
the most sceptical critic cannot but admit that the occupation and
objects of these three men were a wonderful contrast to the money-making
material world which surrounded them. They were reaching out to the
beyond, and what can man do that is nobler?

It is to be understood that a pipe can carry no more than its own
diameter permits. The diameter of Davis was very different from that of
Swedenborg. Each got knowledge while in an illuminated state. But
Swedenborg was the most learned man in Europe, while Davis was as
ignorant a young man as could be found in the State of New York.
Swedenborg's revelation was perhaps the greater, though more likely to
be tinged by his own brain. The revelation of Davis was incomparably the
greater miracle.

Dr. George Bush, Professor of Hebrew in the University of New York, who
was one of those present while the trance orations were being taken
down, writes:

I can solemnly affirm that I have heard Davis correctly quote the Hebrew
language in his lectures, and display a knowledge of geology which would
have been astonishing in a person of his age, even if he had devoted
years to the study. He has discussed, with the most signal ability, the
profoundest questions of historical and biblical archeology, of
mythology, of the origin and affinity of language, and the progress of
civilization among the different nations of the globe, which would do
honour to any scholar of the age, even if in reaching them he had the
advantage of access to all the libraries in Christendom. Indeed, if he
had acquired all the information he gives forth in these lectures, not
in the two years since he left the shoemaker's bench, but in his whole
life, with the most assiduous study, no prodigy of intellect of which
the world has ever heard would be for a moment compared with him, yet
not a single volume or page has he ever read.

Davis has a remarkable pen-picture of himself at that moment. He asks us
to take stock of his equipment. "The circumference of his head is
unusually small," says he. "If size is the measure of power, then this
youth's mental capacity is unusually limited. His lungs are weak and
unexpanded. He had not dwelt amid refining influences-manners ungentle
and awkward. He has not read a book save one. He knows nothing of
grammar or the rules of language, nor associated with literary or
scientific persons." Such was the lad of nineteen from whom there now
poured a perfect cataract of words and ideas which are open to the
criticism not of simplicity, but of being too complex and too shrouded
in learned terms, although always with a consistent thread of reason and
method beneath them.

It is very well to talk of the subconscious mind, but this has usually
been taken as the appearance of ideas which have been received and then
submerged. When, for example, the developed Davis could recall what had
happened in his trances during his undeveloped days, that was a clear
instance of the emerging of the buried impressions. But it seems an
abuse of words to talk of the unconscious mind when we are dealing with
something which could never by normal means have reached any stratum of
the mind, whether conscious or not.

Such was the beginning of Davis's great psychic revelation which
extended eventually over many books and is all covered by the name of
the "Harmonica Philosophy." Of its nature and its place in psychic
teaching we shall treat later.

In this phase of his life Davis claims still to have been under the
direct influence of the person whom he afterwards identified as
Swedenborg-a name quite unfamiliar to him at the time. From time to time
he received a clairaudient summons to "go up into the mountain." This
mountain was a hill on the farther bank of the Hudson opposite
Poughkeepsie. There on the mountain he claims that he met and spoke with
a venerable figure. There seems to have been none of the details of a
materialization, and the incident has no analogy in our psychic
experience, save indeed-and one speaks with all reverence-when the
Christ also went up into a mountain and communed with the forms of Moses
and Elias. There the analogy seems complete.

Davis does not appear to have been at all a religious man in the
ordinary conventional sense, although he was drenched with true
spiritual power. His views, so far as one can follow them, were very
critical as regards Biblical revelation, and, to put it at the lowest,
he was no believer in literal interpretation. But he was honest,
earnest, unvenal, anxious to get the truth and conscious of his
responsibility in spreading it.

For two years the unconscious Davis continued to dictate his book upon
the secrets of Nature, while the conscious Davis did a little
self-education in New York with occasional restorative visits to
Poughkeepsie. He had begun to attract the attention of some serious
people, Edgar Allan Poe being one of his visitors. His psychic
development went on, and before he reached his twenty-first year he had
attained a state when he needed no second person to throw him into
trance but could do it for himself. His subconscious memory too was at
last opened, and he was able to go over the whole long vista of his
experiences. It was at this time that he sat by a dying woman and
observed every detail of the soul's departure, a wonderful description
of which is given in the first volume of the "Great Harmonia." Although
this description has been issued as a separate pamphlet it is not as
well known as it should be, and a short epitome of it may interest the
reader.

He begins by the consoling reflection that his own soul-flights, which
were death in everything save duration, had shown him that the
experience was "interesting and delightful," and that those symptoms
which appear to be signs of pain are really the unconscious reflexes of
the body, and have no significance. He then tells how, having first
thrown himself into what he calls the "Superior condition," he thus
observed the stages from the spiritual side. "The material eye can only
see what is material, and the spiritual what is spiritual," but as
everything would seem to have a spiritual counterpart the result is the
same. Thus when a spirit comes to us it is not us that it perceives but
our etheric bodies, which are, however, duplicates of our real ones.

It was this etheric body which Davis saw emerging from its poor outworn
envelope of protoplasm, which finally lay empty upon the bed like the
shrivelled chrysalis when the moth is free. The process began by an
extreme concentration in the brain, which became more and more luminous
as the extremities became darker. It is probable that man never thinks
so clearly, or is so intensely conscious, as he becomes after all means
of indicating his thoughts have left him. Then the new body begins to
emerge, the head disengaging itself first. Soon it has completely freed
itself, standing at right-angles to the corpse, with its feet near the
head, and with some luminous vital band between which corresponds to the
umbilical cord. When the cord snaps a small portion is drawn back into
the dead body, and it is this which preserves it from instant
putrefaction. As to the etheric body, it takes some little time to adapt
itself to its new surroundings, and in this instance it then passed out
through the open doors. "I saw her pass through the adjoining room, out
of the door and step from the house into the atmosphereÉ. Immediately
upon her emergement from the house she was joined by two friendly
spirits from the spiritual country, and after tenderly recognizing and
communing with each other the three, in the most graceful manner, began
ascending obliquely through the ethereal envelopment of our globe. They
walked so naturally and fraternally together that I could scarcely
realize the fact that they trod the air-they seemed to be walking on the
side of a glorious but familiar mountain. I continued to gaze upon them
until the distance shut them from my view."

Such is the vision of Death as seen by A. J. Davis-a very different one
from that dark horror which has so long obsessed the human imagination.
If this be the truth, then we can sympathize with Dr. Hodgson in his
exclamation, "I can hardly bear to wait." But is it true? We can only
say that there is a great deal of corroborative evidence.

Many who have been in the cataleptic condition, or who have been so ill
that they have sunk into deep coma, have brought back impressions very
consistent with Davis's explanation, though others have returned with
their minds completely blank. The author, when at Cincinnati in 1923,
was brought into contact with a Mrs. Monk, who had been set down as dead
by her doctors, and for an hour or so had experienced a post-mortem
existence before some freak of fate restored her to life. She wrote a
short account of her experience, in which she had a vivid remembrance of
walking out of the room, just as Davis described, and also of the silver
thread which continued to unite her living soul to her comatose body. A
remarkable case was reported in LIGHT, also (March 25, 1922), in which
the five daughters of a dying woman, all of them clairvoyant, watched
and reported the process of their mother's death. There again the
description of the process was very analogous to that given, and yet
there is sufficient difference in this and other accounts to suggest
that the sequence of events is not always regulated by the same laws.
Another variation of extreme interest is to be found in a drawing done
by a child medium which depicts the soul leaving the body and is
described in Mrs. De Morgan's "From Matter to Spirit" (p. 121). This
book, with its weighty preface by the celebrated mathematician Professor
De Morgan, is one of the pioneer works of the spiritual movement in
Great Britain. When one reflects that it was published in 1863 one's
heart grows heavy at the success of those forces of obstruction,
reflected so strongly in the Press, which have succeeded for so many
years in standing between God's message and the human race.

The prophetic power of Davis can only be got over by the sceptic if he
ignores the record. Before 1856 he prophesied in detail the coining of
the motor car and of the typewriter. In his book, "The Penetralia,"
appears the following:

"Question: Will utilitarianism make any discoveries in other locomotive
directions?"

"Yes; look out about these days for carriages and travelling saloons on
country roads-without horses, without steam, without any visible motive
power moving with greater speed and far more safety than at present.

Carriages will be moved by a strange and beautiful and simple admixture
of aqueous and atmospheric gases-so easily condensed, so simply ignited,
and so imparted by a machine somewhat resembling our engines, as to be
entirely concealed and manageable between the forward wheels. These
vehicles will prevent many embarrassments now experienced by persons
living in thinly populated territories. The first requisite for these
land-locomotives will be good roads, upon which with your engine,
without your horses, you may travel with great rapidity. These carriages
seem to me of uncomplicated construction."

He was next asked:

"Do you perceive any plan by which to expedite the art of writing?"

"Yes; I am almost moved to invent an automatic psychographer-that is, an
artificial soul-writer. It may be constructed something like a piano,
one brace or scale of keys to represent the elementary sounds; another
and lower tier to represent a combination, and still another for a rapid
re-combination; so that a person, instead of playing a piece of music,
may touch off a sermon or a poem."

So, too, this seer, in reply to a query regarding what was then termed
"atmospheric navigation," felt "deeply impressed" that "the necessary
mechanism-to transcend the adverse currents of air, so that we may sail
as easily and safely and pleasantly as birds-is dependent on a new
motive power. This power will come. It will not only move the locomotive
on the rail, and the carriage on the country road, but the aerial cars
also, which will move through the sky from country to country."

He predicted the coming of Spiritualism in his "Principles of Nature,"
published in 1847, where he says:

It is a truth that spirits commune with one another while one is in the
body and the other in the higher spheres-and this, too, when the person
in the body is unconscious of the influx, and hence cannot be convinced
of the fact; and this truth will ere long present itself in the form of
a living demonstration. And the world will hail with delight the
ushering-in of that era when the interiors of men will be opened, and
the spiritual communion will be established such as is now being enjoyed
by the inhabitants of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.

In this matter Davis's teaching was definite, but it must be admitted
that in a good deal of his work he is indefinite and that it is hard
reading, for it is disfigured by the use of long words, and occasionally
he even invents a vocabulary of his own. It was, however, on a very high
moral and intellectual level, and might be best described as an
up-to-date Christianity with Christ's ethics applied to modern problems
and entirely freed from all trace of dogma. "Documentary Religion," as
Davis called it, was not in his opinion religion at all. That name could
only be applied to the personal product of reason and spirituality. Such
was the general line of teaching, mixed up with many revelations of
Nature, which was laid down in the successive books of the "Harmonial
Philosophy" which succeeded "Nature's Divine Revelations," and occupied
the next few years of his life. Much of the teaching appeared in a
strange paper called "The Univercoelum," and much was spread by lectures
in which he laid before the public the results of his revelations.

In his spiritual vision Davis saw an arrangement of the universe which
corresponds closely with that which Swedenborg had already noted, and
with that afterwards taught by the spirits and accepted by the
Spiritualists. He saw a life which resembled that of earth, a life that
may be called semi-material, with pleasures and pursuits that would
appeal to our natures which had been by no means changed by death. He
saw study for the studious, congenial tasks for the energetic, art for
the artistic, beauty for the lover of Nature, rest for the weary ones.
He saw graduated phases of spiritual life, through which one slowly rose
to the sublime and the celestial. He carried his magnificent vision
onward beyond the present universe, and saw it dissolve once more into
the fire-mist from which it had consolidated, and then consolidate once
more to form the stage on which a higher evolution could take place, the
highest class here starting as the lowest class there. This process he
saw renew itself innumerable times, covering trillions of years, and
ever working towards refinement and purification. These spheres he
pictured as concentric rings round the world, but as he admits that
neither time nor space define themselves clearly in his visions, we need
not take their geography in too literal a sense. The object of life was
to qualify for advancement in this tremendous scheme, and the best
method of human advancement was to get away from sin-not only the sins
which are usually recognized, but also those sins of bigotry, narrowness
and hardness, which are very especially blemishes not of the ephemeral
flesh but of the permanent spirit. For this purpose the return to simple
life, simple beliefs, and primitive brotherhood was essential. Money,
alcohol, lust, violence and priestcraft-in its narrow sense-were the
chief impediments to racial progress.

It must be admitted that Davis, so far as one can follow his life, lived
up to his own professions. He was very humble-minded, and yet he was of
the stuff that saints are made of. His autobiography extends only to
1857, so that he was little over thirty when he published it, but it
gives a very complete and sometimes an involuntary insight into the man.
He was very poor, but he was just and charitable. He was very earnest,
and yet he was patient in argument and gentle under contradiction. The
worst motives were imputed to him, and he records them with a tolerant
smile. He gives a full account of his first two marriages, which were as
unusual as everything else about him, but which reflect nothing but
credit upon him. From the date at which "The Magic Staff" finishes he
seems to have carried on the same life of alternate writing and
lecturing, winning more and more the ear of the world, until he died in
the year 1910 at the age of eighty-four. The last years of his life he
spent as keeper of some small book-store in Boston. The fact that his
"Harmonial Philosophy" has now passed through some forty editions in the
United States is a proof that the seed which he scattered so assiduously
has not all fallen upon barren ground.

What is of importance to us is the part played by Davis at the
commencement of the spiritual revelation. He began to prepare the ground
before that revelation occurred. He was clearly destined to be closely
associated with it, for he was aware of the material demonstration at
Hydesville upon the very day when it occurred. From his notes there is
quoted the sentence, under the vital date of March 31, 1848: "About
daylight this morning a warm breathing passed over my face and I heard a
voice, tender and strong, saying, 'Brother, the good work has
begun-behold, a living demonstration is born.' I was left wondering what
could be meant by such a message." It was the beginning of the mighty
movement in which he was to act as prophet. His own powers were
themselves supernormal upon the mental side, just as the physical signs
were upon the material side. Each supplemented the other. He was, up to
the limit of his capacity, the soul of the movement, the one brain which
had a clear vision of the message which was heralded in so novel and
strange a way. No man can take the whole message, for it is infinite,
and rises ever higher as we come into contact with higher beings, but
Davis interpreted it so well for his day and generation that little can
be added even now to his conception.

He had advanced one step beyond Swedenborg, though he had not
Swedenborg's mental equipment with which to marshal his results.
Swedenborg had seen a heaven and hell, even as Davis saw it and has
described it with fuller detail. Swedenborg did not, however, get a
clear vision of the position of the dead and the true nature of the
spirit world with the possibility of return as it was revealed to the
American seer. This knowledge came slowly to Davis. His strange
interviews with what he described as "materialized spirits" were
exceptional things, and he drew no common conclusions from them. It was
later when he was brought into contact with actual spiritual phenomena
that he was able to see the full meaning of them. This contact was not
established at Rochester, but rather at Stratford in Connecticut, where
Davis was a witness of the Poltergeist phenomena which broke out in the
household of a clergyman, Dr. Phelps, in the early months of 1850. A
study of these led him to write a pamphlet, "The Philosophy of Spiritual
Intercourse," expanded afterwards to a book which contains much which
the world has not yet mastered. Some of it, in its wise restraint, may
also be commended to some Spiritualists. "Spiritualism is useful as a
living demonstration of a future existence," he says. "Spirits have
aided me many times, but they do not control either my person or my
reason. They can and do perform kindly offices for those on earth. But
benefits can only be secured on the condition that we allow them to
become our teachers and not our masters-that we accept them as
companions, not as gods to be worshipped." Wise words-and a modern
restatement of the vital remark of Saint Paul that the prophet must not
be subject to his own gifts.

In order to explain adequately the life of Davis one has to ascend to
supernormal conditions. But even then there are alternative
explanations. When one considers the following undeniable facts:

1. That he claims to have seen and heard the materialized form of
Swedenborg before he knew anything of his teachings.

2. That SOMETHING possessed this ignorant youth, which gave him great
knowledge.

3. That this knowledge took the same broad sweeping universal lines
which were characteristic of Swedenborg.

4. But that they went one step farther, having added just that knowledge
of spirit power which Swedenborg may have attained after his death.

Considering these four points, then, is it not a feasible hypothesis
that the power which controlled Davis was actually Swedenborg? It would
be well if the estimable but very narrow and limited New Church took
such possibilities into account. But whether Davis stood alone, or
whether he was the reflection of one greater than himself, the fact
remains that he was a miracle man, the inspired, learned, uneducated
apostle of the new dispensation. So permanent has been his influence
that the well-known artist and critic Mr. E. Wake Cook, in his
remarkable book "Retrogression in Art,"* harks back to Davis's teaching
as the one modern influence which could recast the world. Davis left his
mark deep upon Spiritualism. "Summerland," for example, as a name for
the modern Paradise, and the whole system of Lyceum schools with their
ingenious organization, are of his devising. As Mr. Baseden Butt has
remarked, "Even to-day the full and final extent of his influence is
extremely difficult, if not impossible, to assess."

* HUTCHINSON'S, 1924. OCCULT REVIEW, February, 1925.




CHAPTER IV



THE HYDESVILLE EPISODE


We have now traced various disconnected and irregular uprushes of
psychic force in the cases which have been set forth, and we come at
last to the particular episode which was really on a lower level than
those which had gone before, but which occurred within the ken of a
practical people who found means to explore it thoroughly and to
introduce reason and system into what had been a mere object of aimless
wonder. It is true that the circumstances were lowly, the actors humble,
the place remote, and the communication sordid, being based on no higher
motive than revenge. When, however, in the everyday affairs of this
world one wishes to test whether a telegraphic wire is in operation, one
notices whether a message comes through, and the high or low nature of
that message is quite a secondary consideration. It is said that the
first message which actually came through the Transatlantic cable was a
commonplace inquiry from the testing engineer. None the less, kings and
presidents have used it since. So it is that the humble spirit of the
murdered peddler of Hydesville may have opened a gap into which the
angels have thronged. There is good and bad and all that is intermediate
on the Other Side as on this side of the veil. The company you attract
depends upon yourself and your own motives.

Hydesville is a typical little hamlet of New York State, with a
primitive population which was, no doubt, half-educated, but was
probably, like the rest of those small American centres of life, more
detached from prejudice and more receptive of new ideas than any other
set of people at that time. This particular village, situated about
twenty miles from the rising town of Rochester, consisted of a cluster
of wooden houses of a very humble type. It was in one of these, a
residence which would certainly not pass the requirements of a British
district council surveyor, that there began this development which is
already, in the opinion of many, by far the most important thing that
America has given to the commonweal of the world. It was inhabited by a
decent farmer family of the name of Fox-a name which, by a curious
coincidence, has already been registered in religious history as that of
the apostle of the Quakers. Besides the father and mother, who were
Methodists in religion, there were two children resident in the house at
the time when the manifestations reached such a point of intensity that
they attracted general attention. These children were the
daughters-Margaret, aged fourteen, and Kate, aged eleven. There were
several other children out in the world, of whom only one, Leah, who was
teaching music in Rochester, need come into this narrative.

The little house had already established a somewhat uncanny reputation.
The evidence to this effect was collected and published very shortly
after the event, and seems to be as reliable as such evidence can be. In
view of the extreme importance of everything which bears upon the
matter, some extracts from these depositions must be inserted, but to
avoid dislocation of the narrative the evidence upon this point has been
relegated to the Appendix. We will therefore pass at once to the time of
the tenancy of the Fox family, who took over the house on December 11,
1847. It was not until the next year that the sounds heard by the
previous tenants began once more. These sounds consisted of rapping
noises. A rap would seem to be the not unnatural sound to be produced by
outside visitors when they wished to notify their presence at the door
of human life and desired that door to be opened for them. Just such
raps (all unknown to these unread farmers) had occurred in England in
1661 at the house of Mr. Mompesson, at Tedworth.* Raps, too, are
recorded by Melancthon as having occurred at Oppenheim, in Germany, in
1520, and raps were heard at the Epworth Vicarage in 1716. Here they
were once more, and at last they were destined to have the closed door
open.

* "Saducismus Triumphatus," by Rev. Joseph Glanvil.

The noises do not seem to have incommoded the Fox family until the
middle of March, 1848. From that date onwards they continually increased
in intensity. Sometimes they were a mere knocking; at other times they
sounded like the movement of furniture. The children were so alarmed
that they refused to sleep apart and were taken into the bedroom of
their parents. So vibrant were the sounds that the beds thrilled and
shook. Every possible search was made, the husband waiting on one side
of the door and the wife on the other, but the rappings still continued.
It was soon noticed that daylight was inimical to the phenomena, and
this naturally strengthened the idea of trickery, but every possible
solution was tested and failed. Finally, upon the night of March 31
there was a very loud and continued outbreak of inexplicable sounds. It
was on this night that one of the great points of psychic evolution was
reached, for it was then that young Kate Fox challenged the unseen power
to repeat the snaps of her fingers. That rude room, with its earnest,
expectant, half-clad occupants with eager upturned faces, its circle of
candlelight, and its heavy shadows lurking in the corners, might well be
made the subject of a great historical painting. Search all the palaces
and chancelleries of 1848, and where will you find a chamber which has
made its place in history as secure as this little bedroom of a shack?

The child's challenge, though given with flippant words, was instantly
answered. Every snap was echoed by a knock. However humble the operator
at either end, the spiritual telegraph was at last working, and it was
left to the patience and moral earnestness of the human race to
determine how high might be the uses to which it was put in the future.
Unexplained forces were many in the world, but here was a force claiming
to have independent intelligence at the back of it. That was the supreme
sign of a new departure.

Mrs. Fox was amazed at this development, and at the further discovery
that the force could apparently see as well as hear, for when Kate
snapped her fingers without sound the rap still responded. The mother
asked a series of questions, the answers to which, given in numerals,
showed a greater knowledge of her own affairs than she herself
possessed, for the raps insisted that she had had seven children,
whereas she protested that she had borne only six, until one who had
died early came back to her mind. A neighbour, Mrs. Redfield, was called
in, and her amusement was changed to wonder, and finally to awe, as she
also listened to correct answers to intimate questions.

The neighbours came flocking in as some rumours of these wonders got
about, and the two children were carried off by one of them, while Mrs.
Fox went to spend the night at Mrs. Redfield's. In their absence the
phenomena went on exactly the same as before, which disposes once for
all of those theories of cracking toes and dislocating knees which have
been so frequently put forward by people unaware of the true facts.

Having formed a sort of informal committee of investigation, the crowd,
in shrewd Yankee fashion, spent a large part of the night of March 31 in
playing question and answer with the unseen intelligence. According to
its own account he was a spirit; he had been injured in that house; he
rapped out the name of a former occupant who had injured him; he was
thirty-one years old at the time of death (which was five years before);
he had been murdered for money; he had been buried in the cellar ten
feet deep. On descending to the cellar, dull, heavy thumps, coming
apparently from under the earth, broke out when the investigator stood
at the centre. There was no sound at other times. That, then, was the
place of burial! It was a neighbour named Duesler who, first of all
modern men, called over the alphabet and got answers by raps on the
letters. In this way the name of the dead man was obtained-Charles B.
Rosma. The idea of connected messages was not developed until four
months later, when Isaac Post, a Quaker, of Rochester, was the pioneer.
These, in very brief outline, were the events of March 31, which were
continued and confirmed upon the succeeding night, when not fewer than a
couple of hundred people had assembled round the house. Upon April 2 it
was observed that the raps came in the day as well as at night.

Such is a synopsis of the events of the night of March 31, 1848, but as
it was the small root out of which sprang so great a tree, and as this
whole volume may be said to be a monument to its memory, it would seem
fitting that the story should be given in the very words of the two
original adult witnesses. Their evidence was taken within four days of
the occurrence, and forms part of that admirable piece of psychic
research upon the part of the local committee which will be described
and commented upon later. Mrs. Fox deposed:

On the night of the first disturbance we all got up, lighted a candle
and searched the entire house, the noises continuing during the time,
and being heard near the same place. Although not very loud, it produced
a jar of the bedsteads and chairs that could be felt when we were in
bed. It was a tremulous motion, more than a sudden jar. We could feel
the jar when standing on the floor. It continued on this night until we
slept. I did not sleep until about twelve o'clock. On March 30th we were
disturbed all night. The noises were heard in all parts of the house. My
husband stationed himself outside of the door while I stood inside, and
the knocks came on the door between us. We heard footsteps in the
pantry, and walking downstairs; we could not rest, and I then concluded
that the house must be haunted by some unhappy restless spirit. I had
often heard of such things, but had never witnessed anything of the kind
that I could not account for before.

On Friday night, March 31st, 1848, we concluded to go to bed early and
not permit ourselves to be disturbed by the noises, but try and get a
night's rest. My husband was here on all these occasions, heard the
noises, and helped search. It was very early when we went to bed on this
night-hardly dark. I had been so broken of my rest I was almost sick. My
husband had not gone to bed when we first heard the noise on this
evening. I had just lain down. It commenced as usual. I knew it from all
other noises I had ever heard before. The children, who slept in the
other bed in the room, heard the rapping, and tried to make similar
sounds by snapping their fingers.

My youngest child, Cathie, said: "Mr. Splitfoot, do as I do," clapping
her hands. The sound instantly followed her with the same number of
raps. When she stopped, the sound ceased for a short time. Then
Margaretta said, in sport, "Now, do just as I do. Count one, two, three,
four," striking one hand against the other at the same time; and the
raps came as before. She was afraid to repeat them. Then Cathie said in
her childish simplicity, "Oh, mother, I know what it is. To-morrow is
April-fool day, and it's somebody trying to fool us."

I then thought I could put a test that no one in the place could answer.
I asked the noise to rap my different children's ages, successively.
Instantly, each one of my children's ages was given correctly, pausing
between them sufficiently long to individualize them until the seventh,
at which a longer pause was made, and then three more emphatic raps were
given, corresponding to the age of the little one that died, which was
my youngest child.

I then asked: "Is this a human being that answers my questions so
correctly?" There was no rap. I asked: "Is it a spirit? If it is, make
two raps." Two sounds were given as soon as the request was made. I then
said "If it was an injured spirit, make two raps," which were instantly
made, causing the house to tremble. I asked: "Were you injured in this
house?" The answer was given as before. "Is the person living that
injured you?"

Answered by raps in the same manner. I ascertained by the same method
that it was a man, aged thirty-one years, that he had been murdered in
this house, and his remains were buried in the cellar; that his family
consisted of a wife and five children, two sons and three daughters, all
living at the time of his death, but that his wife had since died. I
asked: "Will you continue to rap if I call my neighbours that they may
hear it too?" The raps were loud in the affirmative.

My husband went and called in Mrs. Redfield, our nearest neighbour. She
is a very candid woman. The girls were sitting up in bed clinging to
each other, and trembling with terror. I think I was as calm as I am
now. Mrs. Redfield came immediately (this was about half-past seven),
thinking she would have a laugh at the children. But when she saw them
pale with fright, and nearly speechless, she was amazed, and believed
there was something more serious than she had supposed. I asked a few
questions for her, and was answered as before. He told her age exactly.
She then called her husband, and the same questions were asked and
answered.

Then Mr. Redfield called in Mr. Duesler and wife, and several others.
Mr. Duesler then called in Mr. and Mrs. Hyde, also Mr. and Mrs. Jewell.
Mr. Duesler asked many questions, and received answers. I then named all
the neighbours I could think of, and asked if any of them had injured
him, and received no answer. Mr. Duesler then asked questions and
received answers. He asked: "Were you murdered?" Raps affirmative. "Can
your murderer be brought to justice?" No sound. "Can he be punished by
the law?" No answer. He then said: "If your murderer cannot be punished
by the law, manifest it by raps," and the raps were made clearly and
distinctly. In the same way, Mr. Duesler ascertained that he was
murdered in the east bedroom about five years ago and that the murder
was committed by a Mr. on a Tuesday night at twelve o'clock; that he was
murdered by having his throat cut with a butcher knife; that the body
was taken down to the cellar; that it was not buried until the next
night; that it was taken through the buttery, down the stairway, and
that it was buried ten feet below the surface of the ground. It was also
ascertained that he was murdered for his money, by raps affirmative.

"How much was it-one hundred?" No rap. "Was it two hundred?" etc., and
when he mentioned five hundred the raps replied in the affirmative.

Many called in who were fishing in the creek, and all heard the same
questions and answers. Many remained in the house all night. I and my
children left the house.

My husband remained in the house with Mr. Redfield all night. On the
next Saturday the house was filled to overflowing. There were no sounds
heard during day, but they commenced again in the evening. It was said
that there were over three hundred persons present at the time. On
Sunday morning the noises were heard throughout the day by all who came
to the house.

On Saturday night, April 1st, they commenced digging in the cellar; they
dug until they carne to water, and then gave it up. The noise was not
heard on Sunday evening nor during the night. Stephen B. Smith and wife
(my daughter Marie), and my son David S. Fox and wife, slept in the room
this night.

I have heard nothing since that time until yesterday. In the forenoon of
yesterday there were several questions answered in the usual way by
rapping. I have heard the noise several times to-day.

I am not a believer in haunted houses or supernatural appearances. I am
very sorry that there has been so much excitement about it. It has been
a great deal of trouble to us. It was our misfortune to live here at
this time; but I am willing and anxious that the truth should be known,
and that a true statement should be made. I cannot account for these
noises; all that I know is that they have been heard repeatedly, as I
have stated. I have heard this rapping again this (Tuesday) morning,
April 4. My children also heard it.

I certify that the foregoing statement has been read to me, and that the
same is true; and that I should be willing to take my oath that it is
so, if necessary."

(SIGNED) MARGARET FOX.

APRIL 11, 1848.



STATEMENT BY JOHN D. FOX

I have heard the above statement of my wife, Margaret Fox, read, and
hereby certify that the same is true in all its particulars. I heard the
same rappings which she has spoken of, in answer to the questions, as
stated by her. There have been a great many questions besides those
asked, and answered in the same way. Some have been asked a great many
times, and they have always received the same answers. There has never
been any contradiction whatever.

I do not know of any way to account for those noises, as being caused by
any natural means. We have searched every nook and corner in and about
the house, at different times, to ascertain, if possible, whether
anything or anybody was secreted there that could make the noise, and
have not been able to find anything which would or could explain the
mystery. It has caused a great deal of trouble and anxiety.

Hundreds have visited the house, so that it is impossible for us to
attend to our daily occupations; and I hope that, whether caused by
natural or supernatural means, it will be ascertained soon. The digging
in the cellar will be resumed as soon as the water settles, and then it
can be ascertained whether there are any indications of a body ever
having been buried there; and if there are, I shall have no doubt but
that it is of supernatural origin.

(SIGNED) JOHN D. FOX.

APRIL 11, 1848


The neighbours had formed themselves into a committee of investigation,
which for sanity and efficiency might be a lesson to many subsequent re
searchers. They did not begin by imposing their own conditions, but they
started without prejudice to record the facts exactly as they found
them. Not only did they collect and record the impressions of everyone
concerned, but they actually had the evidence in printed form within a
month of the occurrence. The author has in vain attempted to get an
original copy of the pamphlet, "A Report of the Mysterious Noises heard
in the House of Mr. John D. Fox," published at Canandaigua, New York,
but he has been presented with a facsimile of the original, and it is
his considered opinion that the fact of human survival and power of
communication was definitely proved to any mind capable of weighing
evidence from the day of the appearance of that document. 71

The statement made by Mr. Duesler, chief of the committee, gives
important testimony to the occurrence of the noises and jars in the
absence of the Fox girls from the house, and disposes once and for ever
of all suspicion of their complicity in these events. Mrs. Fox, as we
have seen, referring to the night of Friday, March 31, said: "I and my
children left the house." Part of Mr. Duesler's statement reads:

I live within a few rods of the house in which these sounds have been
heard. The first I heard anything about them was a week ago last Friday
evening (March 31st). Mrs. Redfield came over to my house to get my wife
to go over to Mrs. Fox's. Mrs. R. appeared to be very much agitated. My
wife wanted me to go over with them, and I accordingly wentÉ. This was
about nine o'clock in the evening. There were some twelve or fourteen
persons present when I left them. Some were so frightened that they did
not want to go into the room.

I went into the room and sat down on the bed. Mr. Fox asked a question
and I heard the rapping, which they had spoken of, distinctly. I felt
the bedstead jar when the sounds were produced.

The Hon. Robert Dale Owen,* a member of the United States Congress, and
formerly American Minister to Naples, supplies a few additional
particulars in his narrative, written after conversations with Mrs. Fox
and her daughters, Margaret and Catharine. Describing the night of March
31, 1848, he says ("Footfalls, etc.," p. 287):

* Author of "Footfalls on the Boundary of Another world" (1860), and
"The Debatable Land" (1871).

The parents had had the children's beds removed into their bedroom, and
strictly enjoined them not to talk of noises even if they heard them.
But scarcely had the mother seen them safely in bed and was retiring to
rest herself when the children cried out, "Here they are again!" The
mother chid them, and lay down. Thereupon the noises became louder and
more startling. The children sat up in bed. Mrs. Fox called in her
husband. The night being windy, it suggested itself to him that it might
be the rattling of the sashes. He tried several, shaking them to see if
they were loose. Kate, the youngest girl, happened to remark that as
often as her father shook a window-sash the noises seemed to reply.
Being a lively child, and in a measure accustomed to what was going on,
she turned to where the noise was, snapped her fingers, and called out,
"Here, old Splitfoot, do as I do." THE KNOCKING INSTANTLY RESPONDED.
That was the very commencement. Who can tell where the end will be?É.
Mr. Mompesson, in bed with his little daughter (about Kate's age) whom
the sound seemed chiefly to follow, "observed that it would exactly
answer, in drumming, anything that was beaten or called for." But his
curiosity led him no further. Not so Kate Fox. She tried, by silently
bringing together her thumb and forefinger, whether she could still
obtain a response. Yes! It could see, then, as well as hear! She called
her mother. "Only look, mother!" she said, bringing together her finger
and thumb as before. And as often as she repeated the noiseless motion,
just so often responded the raps.

In the summer of 1848 Mr. David Fox, with the assistance of Mr. Henry
Bush, Mr. Lyman Granger, of Rochester, and others, resumed digging in
the cellar. At a depth of five feet they found a plank, and further
digging disclosed charcoal and quicklime, and finally human hair and
bones, which were pronounced by expert medical testimony to belong to a
human skeleton. It was not until fifty-six years later that a further
discovery was made which proved beyond all doubt that someone had really
been buried in the cellar of the Fox house.

This statement appeared in the BOSTON JOURNAL (a non-Spiritualistic
paper) of November 23, 1904, and runs as follows:

Rochester, N.Y., Nov. 22nd, 1904: The skeleton of the man supposed to
have caused the rappings first heard by the Fox sisters in 1848 has been
found in the walls of the house occupied by the sisters, and clears them
from the only shadow of doubt held concerning their sincerity in the
discovery of spirit communication.

The Fox sisters declared they learned to communicate with the spirit of
a man, and that he told them he had been murdered and buried in the
cellar. Repeated excavations failed to locate the body and thus give
proof positive of their story.

The discovery was made by school-children playing in the cellar of the
building in Hydesville known as the "Spook House," where the Fox sisters
heard the wonderful rappings. William H. Hyde, a reputable citizen of
Clyde, who owns the house, made an investigation and found an almost
entire human skeleton between the earth and crumbling cellar walls,
undoubtedly that of the wandering peddler who, it was claimed, was
murdered in the east room of the house, and whose body was hidden in the
cellar.

Mr. Hyde has notified relatives of the Fox sisters, and the notice of
the discovery will be sent to the National Order of Spiritualists, many
of whom remember having made pilgrimage to the "Spook House," as it is
commonly called. The finding of the bones practically corroborates the
sworn statement made by Margaret Fox, April 11, 1848.

There was discovered a peddler's tin box as well as the bones, and this
box is now preserved at Lilydale, the central country head-quarters of
the American Spiritualists, to which also the old Hydesville house has
been transported.

These discoveries settle the question for ever and prove conclusively
that there was a crime committed in the house, and that this crime was
indicated by psychic means. When one examines the result of the two
diggings one can reconstruct the circumstances. It is clear that in the
first instance the body was buried with quicklime in the centre of the
cellar. Later the criminal was alarmed by the fact that this place was
too open to suspicion and he had dug up the body, or the main part of
it, and reburied it under the wall where it would be more out of the
way. The work had been done so hurriedly, however, or in such imperfect
light, that some clear traces were left, as has been seen, of the
original grave.

Was there independent evidence of such a crime? In order to find it we
have to turn to the deposition of Lucretia Pulver, who served as help
during the tenancy of Mr. and Mrs. Bell, who occupied the house four
years before. She describes how a peddler came to the house and how he
stayed the night there with his wares. Her employers told her that she
might go home that night.

I wanted to buy some things off the peddler but had no money with me,
and he said he would call at our house next morning and sell them to me.
I never saw him after this. About three days after this they sent for me
to come back. I accordingly came backÉ.

I should think this peddler of whom I have spoken was about thirty years
of age. I heard him conversing with Mrs. Bell about his family. Mrs.
Bell told me that he was an old acquaintance of theirs-that she had seen
him several times before. One evening, about a week after this, Mrs.
Bell sent me down to the cellar to shut the outer door. In going across
the cellar I fell down near the centre of it. It appeared to be uneven
and loose in that part. After I got upstairs, Mrs. Bell asked me what I
screamed for and I told her. She laughed at me being frightened, and
said it was only where the rats had been at work in the ground. A few
days after this, Mr. Bell carried a lot of dirt into the cellar just at
night and was at work there some time. Mrs. Bell told me that he was
filling up the rat-holes.

A short time after this Mrs. Bell gave me a thimble which she said she
had bought of this peddler. About three months after this I visited her
and she said the peddler had been there again and she showed me another
thimble which she said she had bought from him. She showed me some other
things which she said she had bought from him.

It is worth noting that a Mrs. Lape in 1847 had claimed to have actually
SEEN an apparition in the house, and that this vision was of a
middle-sized man who wore grey pants, a black frock-coat and black cap.
Lucretia Pulver deposed that the peddler in life wore a black frock-coat
and light-coloured pants.

On the other hand, it is only fair to add that the Mr. Bell who occupied
the house at that time was not a man of notorious character, and one
would willingly concede that an accusation founded entirely upon psychic
evidence would be an unfair and intolerable thing. It is very different,
however, when the proofs of a crime have actually been discovered, and
the evidence then centres merely upon which tenant was in possession at
that particular time. The deposition of Lucretia Pulver assumes vital
importance in its bearing upon this matter.

There are one or two points about the case which would bear discussion.
One is that a man with so remarkable a name as Charles B. Rosma should
never have been traced, considering all the publicity which the case
acquired. This would certainly at the time have appeared a formidable
objection, but with our fuller knowledge we appreciate how very
difficult it is to get names correctly across. A name apparently is a
purely conventional thing, and as such very different from an idea.
Every practising Spiritualist has received messages which were correct
coupled with names which were mistaken. It is possible that the real
name was Ross, or possibly Rosmer, and that this error prevented
identification. Again, it is curious that he should not have known that
his body had been moved from the centre of the cellar to the wall, where
it was eventually found. We can only record the fact without attempting
to explain it.

Again, granting that the young girls were the mediums and that the power
was drawn from them, how came the phenomena when they had actually been
removed from the house? To this one can only answer that though the
future was to show that the power did actually emanate from these girls,
none the less it seemed to have permeated the house and to have been at
the disposal of the manifesting power for a time at least when the girls
were not present.

The Fox family were seriously troubled by the disturbances-Mrs. Fox's
hair turned white in a week-and as it became apparent that these were
associated with the two young daughters, these were sent from home. But
in the house of her brother, David Fox, where Margaret went, and in that
of her sister Leah, whose married name was Mrs. Fish, at Rochester,
where Catharine was staying, the same sounds were heard. Every effort
was made to conceal these manifestations from the public, but they soon
became known. Mrs. Fish, who was a teacher of music, was unable to
continue her profession, and hundreds of people flocked to her house to
witness the new marvels. It should be stated that either this power was
contagious, or else it was descending upon many individuals
independently from some common source. Thus Mrs. Leah Fish, the elder
sister, received it, though in a less degree than Kate or Margaret. But
it was no longer confined to the Fox family. It was like some psychic
cloud descending from on high and showing itself on those persons who
were susceptible. Similar sounds were heard in the home of Rev. A. H.
Jervis, a Methodist minister, living in Rochester. Strong physical
phenomena also began in the family of Deacon Hale, of Greece, a town
close to Rochester. A little later Mrs. Sarah A. Tamlin and Mrs.
Benedict, of Auburn, developed remarkable mediumship. Mr. Capron, the
first historian of the movement, describes Mrs. Tamlin as one of the
most reliable mediums he had ever met, and says that though the sounds
occurring in her presence were not so loud as those with the Fox family,
the messages were equally trustworthy.

It speedily became evident, then, that these unseen forces were no
longer attached to any building, but that they had transferred
themselves to the girls. In vain the family prayed with their Methodist
friends that relief would come. In vain also were exorcisms performed by
the clergy of various creeds. Beyond joining with loud raps in the
Amens, the unseen presences took no notice of these religious exercises.

The danger of blindly following alleged spirit guidance was clearly
shown some months later in the neighbouring town of Rochester, where a
man disappeared under suspicious circumstances. An enthusiastic
Spiritualist had messages by raps which announced a murder. The canal
was dragged and the wife of the missing man was actually ordered to
enter the canal, which nearly cost her her life. Some months later the
absentee returned, having fled to Canada to avoid a writ for debt. This,
as may well be imagined, was a blow to the young cult. The public did
not then understand what even now is so little understood, that death
causes no change in the human spirit, that mischievous and humorous
entities abound, and that the inquirer must use his own instincts and
his own common sense at every turn. "Try the spirits that ye may know
them." In the same year, in the same district, the truth of this new
philosophy upon the one side, and its limitations and dangers on the
other, were most clearly set forth. These dangers are with us still. The
silly man, the arrogant inflated man, the cocksure man, is always a safe
butt. Every observer has had some trick played upon him. The author has
himself had his faith sorely shaken by deception until some compensating
proof has come along to assure him that it was only a lesson which he
had received, and that it was no more fiendish or even remarkable that
disembodied intelligences should be hoaxers than that the same
intelligence inside a human body should find amusement in the same
foolish way.

The whole course of the movement had now widened and taken a more
important turn. It was no longer a murdered man calling for justice. The
peddler seemed to have been used as a pioneer, and now that he had found
the opening and the method, a myriad of Intelligences were swarming at
his back. Isaac Post had instituted the method of spelling by raps, and
messages were pouring through. According to these the whole system had
been devised by the contrivance of a band of thinkers and inventors upon
the spirit plane, foremost among whom was Benjamin Franklin, whose eager
mind and electrical knowledge in earth life might well qualify him for
such a venture. Whether this claim was true or not, it is a fact that
Rosma dropped out of the picture at this stage, and that the intelligent
knockings purported to be from the deceased friends of those inquirers
who were prepared to take a serious interest in the matter and to gather
in reverent mood to receive the messages. That they still lived and
still loved was the constant message from the beyond, accompanied by
many material tests, which confirmed the wavering faith of the new
adherents of the movement. When asked for their methods of working and
the laws which governed them, the answers were from the beginning
exactly what they are now: that it was a matter concerned with human and
spirit magnetism; that some who were richly endowed with this physical
property were mediums; that this endowment was not necessarily allied to
morality or intelligence; and that the condition of harmony was
especially necessary to secure good results. In seventy odd years we
have learned very little more; and after all these years the primary law
of harmony is invariably broken at the so-called test seances, the
members of which imagine that they have disproved the philosophy when
they obtain negative or disordered results, whereas they have actually
confirmed it.

In one of the early communications the Fox sisters were assured that
"these manifestations would not be confined to them, but would go all
over the world." This prophecy was soon in a fair way to be fulfilled,
for these new powers and further developments of them, which included
the discerning and hearing of spirits and the movement of objects
without contact, appeared in many circles which were independent of the
Fox family. In an incredibly short space of time the movement, with many
eccentricities and phases of fanaticism, had swept over the Northern and
Eastern States of the Union, always retaining that solid core of actual
tangible fact, which might be occasionally simulated by impostors, but
always reasserted itself to the serious investigator who could shake
himself free from preconceived prejudice. Disregarding for the moment
these wider developments, let us continue the story of the original
circles at Rochester.

The spirit messages had urged upon the small band of pioneers a public
demonstration of their powers in an open meeting at Rochester-a
proposition which was naturally appalling to two shy country girls and
to their friends. So incensed were the discarnate Guides by the
opposition of their earthly agents that they threatened to suspend the
whole movement for a generation, and did actually desert them completely
for some weeks. At the end of that time communication was restored and
the believers, chastened by this interval of thought, put themselves
unreservedly into the hands of the outside forces, promising that they
would dare all in the cause. It was no light matter. A few of the
clergy, notably the Methodist minister, the Rev. A. H. Jervis, rallied
to their aid, but the majority thundered from their pulpits against
them, and the snob eagerly joined in the cowardly sport of
heretic-baiting. On November 14, 1849, the Spiritualists held their
first meeting at the Corinthian Hall, the largest available in
Rochester. The audience, to its credit, listened with attention to the
exposition of facts from Mr. Capron, of Auburn, the principal speaker. A
committee of five representative citizens was then selected to examine
into the matter and to report upon the following evening, when the
meeting would reassemble. So certain was it that this report would be
unfavourable that the ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT is stated to have had its
leading article prepared, with the head-line: "Entire Exposure of the
Rapping Humbug." The result, however, caused the editor to hold his
hand. The committee reported that the raps were undoubted facts, though
the information was not entirely correct, that is, the answers to
questions were "not altogether right nor altogether wrong." They added
that these raps came on walls and doors some distance from the girls,
causing a sensible vibration. "They entirely failed to find any means by
which it could be done."

This report was received with disapproval by the audience, and a second
committee from among the dissentients was formed. This investigation was
con ducted in the office of a lawyer. Kate, for some reason, was away,
and only Mrs. Fish and Margaret were present. None the less, the sounds
continued as before, though a Dr. Langworthy was introduced to test the
possibility of ventriloquism. The final report was that "the sounds were
heard, and their thorough investigation had conclusively shown them to
be produced neither by machinery nor ventriloquism, though what the
agent is they were unable to determine."

Again the audience turned down the report of their own committee, and
again a deputation was chosen from among the most extreme opponents, one
of whom vowed that if he could not find out the trick he would throw
himself over the falls of the Genesee River. Their examination was
thorough to the length of brutality, and a committee of ladies was
associated with it. The latter stripped the frightened girls, who wept
bitterly under their afflictions. Their dresses were then tied tig