SPIRITISM. A belief in the continued activity of departed spirits and of their interference in mundane affairs may be said to be characteristic of primitive religion. It is not necessarily on that account a wrong belief. The child, the savage, the primitive man may in some ways be in closer touch with the reality of things than are mature, educated, and cultured persons. Edu cation, as commonly understood, is not necessarily identical with real advancement. An uneducated person who has been endowed with an intuitional understanding of reality has received a gift of priceless value compared with the accumulation of a stock of educated beliefs. But truth is unfolded gradually. The spiritism of the savage is in most cases probably nothing more than an inkling of the truth. In any case, the term Spiritism is now used to denote not certain beliefs prevalent among primitive folk, but certain views and practices which have been adopted by a number of educated persons in modern times. The modern belief in spiritism may be said to date from 1847. In this year extraordinary phenomena are said to have been observed in an American family of German origin named Fox. John Fox, with his wife and three daughters, had settled in the county of Wayne, New York. His eldest daughter married soon afterwards. It is said that not many days after the wedding strange noises began to be heard in the house. They were repeated so often that the Fox family grew quite accustomed to them. One evening Catherine Fox, the youngest daughter, rapped with her fingers and is said to have heard raps in response. The girl called her mother's attention to this remarkable experience. The author of the phenomena, it is said, was then invited to count ten by means of raps, and did so. " To similar demands were then given quite comprehensible answers by means of raps. When the unknown being was asked whether it were a man, there was no reply. But when asked if it were a spirit, clear and rapid blows took the place of an evident affirmative " (Joseph Lapponi). It is said that neighbours were called in to witness these occurrences. " Thus was modern Spiritism born in America, and from the first it was undertaken to enter into communication with the supposed author of the singular phenomenon by means of a conventional language, based on the number of the raps given. After wards other means of communication were found." The next stage was reached when it was realized that com munication with a so-called spirit depended on the pre sence of some persons rather than of others. In the case of the Fox family, the spirit was more communicative when Catherine Fox was present. This suggested that certain persons possess in a special degree the power of establishing communication with the spirit-world. To such persons the name " medium " was applied. With the help of mediums people were anxious to communicate with their departed friends. This led to the establish ment of spiritistic unions and circles. In 1S52 spiritism
was introduced into Scotland. It soon spread into Eng land, Germany, France, and Russia. In IS58 it was introduced into Italy. It was natural that the table round which those who were interested in spiritism sat should be used for rapping. This gave rise to table rapping and table-turning. This early kind of spiritism, in which questions and replies were made by means of raps, was called " typtological spiritism." The mediums were called " typtological mediums." In course of time writing was introduced. This kind of spiritism was called " graphological spiritism." The mediums were called " graphological mediums." It was next held that the medium was possessed for a time by a spirit, and dur ing this possession acted like an automaton. The mediums were called " possessed mediums " and the spiritism " spiritism by invasion." A further development of spiritism was called " visible spiritism," because it was claimed that the spirits were visible not only to the mediums, but also to those who assisted at the seances. The final development has been " spiritism of materializa tion." Here the mediums are called " materializing mediums," because they are supposed to be able to materialize the spirits of the dead. The spirits can touch or be touched, speak, play instruments, etc. All this kind of thing lends itself to imposture, and frauds have been practised. Nevertheless, it can hardly be doubted that mediumship does produce remarkable phenomena which require examination and explanation. When care fully examined, they can be explained without resorting to a belief in the return of spirits from the dead. T. J. Hudson claims that they can be explained by three well supported propositions. I. The mind of man is dual— objective and subjective. 2. The subjective mind is con stantly controlled by suggestion. 8. " The subjective mind, or entity, possesses physical power; that is, the power to make itself heard and felt, and to move ponder able objects." The most difficult of these propositions is the third. Hudson, however, claims to have seen enough to know the reality of the leading physical phenomena. But he explains all the phenomena tele pathically (see TELEPATHY). They produced not by spirits, but by persons possessed of peculiar powers, in other words, by mediums. Lapponi, on the other hand, believes that they are produced by immaterial beings. " In view of the imprint of intelligence, of will, of tendencies, of affections, and of passions that undeniably characterize many of the singular manifestations which we are considering, it seems quite logical to admit that the phenomena point to the existence of immaterial beings who prove their existence by means of these singular manifestations." See T. J. Hudson; Joseph Lapponi, Hypnotism and Spiritism, 1907; Der Spi.ritismus and seine Geschiehte in the " "; Arch deacon Colley, Sermons on Spiritualism, 1907.