The Spiritualist newspaper > No.148, June 25th 1875

302
THE SPIRITUALIST.
serious attention, since it deals with influences which
are permanently at work in connection with medium-
ship. Assuming Buguet to be a medium almost en¬
tirely under the control of spirits, what must be the
nature of those spirits if they have caused him to swear
that which is false, and to bring unmerited punishment
upon innocent people? Such moral obliquity is not
without precedent. The celebrated Neapolitan medium,
Sapia Padalino, took to bad courses under the rule of
evil spirits, nor up to the latest accounts from Signor
Damiani which were published in this journal were her
best friends able to save her. Two American mediums
of great power, who visited England some years ago,
and who could get marvellous manifestations when they
were held hand and foot, forged two cheques for a large
amount before they left this country, and at times
seemed scarcely to have any consciousness whether they
were telling the truth or the reverse. Several powerful
American mediums have travelled in that country ex¬
hibiting real mediumship as imposture, though of course
they were unable to explain how the “tricks” were
done, whatever amount of money might be offered to
them, notwithstanding that they were needy people in
disrepute both among Spiritualists and the outside public.
Among the lower order of physical mediums also are
some who have made the most desperate attempts to
ruin each other by the deliberate invention and circula¬
tion of the most atrocious scandals about each other;
indeed,if all that is known upon these subjects could be
brought together and printed in one volume, a depth of
depravity would be revealed which is simply appalling.
Those who have had experience with mediums know
that when by casual spectators the mediums are sup¬
posed to be in their normal condition, their thoughts
and words are usually stimulated by the spirits around
them, especially when any subject affecting the interests
of those spirits is under discussion, so that the question
remains and has never yet been authoritatively answered
—“To what extent are powerful physical mediums,
utterly under the control of the influences about them,
responsible for their acts?”
Applying these ideas to the case of Buguet, is he
merely an instrument in the hands of evil powers which
have destroyed his control over himself, consequently his
moral responsibility, years ago?’ Is he therefore as
much a victim as the innocent people who have been
brought to trouble in company with himself ? Or is he
as responsible for his own actions as any other indivi¬
dual ? The lower the spirits, the greater appears to be
their direct power over common matter; and if those
spirits resemble human beings in general characteristics,
they may be divided into two classes, namely, those who
are working with good intentions, and those who are
working with bad intentions. Take, for instance, the
case of a railway navvy, not very high in the intellectual
scale; if he works with good intentions under the
direction of an intelligent superior, he is a most useful
man, but let him be animated by bad motives, then he
presents the phenomenon of a demon in the flesh, and
from such men as these proceed some of the murders
and outrages which occasionally stain the columns of
newspapers. If these two classes of spirits surround
physical mediums, the problem is how to separate those
who are working from bad motives, from those who are
working from good ones, and in Spiritualism no general
attempt has yet been practically made to meet this
difficulty, although those who attend seances probably
have some control in the matter. Suppose a medium
June 25, 1875.
to be a telegraphic channel through which good or evil
messages may be sent, it is only reasonable to suppose
that the persons who attend physical seances ought-
themselves to be of good character, so that no spirits or
mental influences they would otherwise bring with them
could act upon the medium. It may also be necessary
that the medium before coming to any seance, and, in
fact, from one'year’s end to another, should be surrounded
by good influences in daily life, for sometimes a medium
when walking along the street has been seized upon by
bad influences connected with a person who merely
brushed past him. It may also, as experience is gained,
be proved to be necessary that a physical medium should
be relieved from all care and anxiety about the things
of this life, and should never sit in any circle where the
results would have an influence upon his pecuniary
affairs. Further, it may be discovered that there are
some persons who have animal proclivities which would
be heightened by the mental stimulus incidental to
mediumship; such persons should perhaps not be
allowed to develope medial powers at all.
Supposing these ideas to be founded on truth, it is
evident that in ignorance of the subject we Spiritualists
are acting as foolishly in permitting any physical
medium to sit at a public seance, as a ship captain would
act if he gave one of his chronometers to a horde of
Australian savages to test, and examine, and wonder
at, as seemed to them good. In the days of old, more
was known among certain communities about the
management of mediums than is known now; and it
is noteworthy that in the case of the Grecian and
Egyptian oracles the mediums were altogether secluded
from the outside world. Moreover, in these modern
times it is a remarkable circumstance that nearly all
the best tests of spirit identity have been given when
the medium has been by himself, showing that spirit
action is then most perfect.
The difficult problem—how to deal with malignant
spirits, must be faced sooner or later, and the recurrence
of cases like that of Buguet’s in Paris, of Yon Yleck
in America, and of others in private life which have
not yet seen the light of day, will give such heavy
blows occasionally to the Spiritual movement, that the
trouble inflicted thereby will dissipate lethargy and in¬
difference, and cause the most careful search for a
remedy for the evil; for this is the true philosophy of
the use of pain all the world over. The remarks in
this article apply of course only to the lowest spirits
and the lowest physical mediums, and not to those of a
high character, who are free from untruth and decep¬
tion, and who never make disparaging remarks about
their fellow-mediums.
Supposing all the precautions just suggested to be
taken, if it should then be found that such powers as those
which now control Buguet andothers like him can still act,
it would be established that few but evil spirits have much
control over common matter or can produce powerful
physical manifestations; but we do not think that this
will prove to be the case. Even through the worst of
mediums, messages of the highest purity and spirituality
have occasionally been given; nay, there is the
strongest evidence that at times the true likenesses of
departed relatives of sitters have been given through
Buguet himself, so that the real thing to be done is to
ascertain why good influences act at one time and bad
ones at another, and what can be done to destroy the
power of mischief of the latter. In examining these
things, circumstances occur at times calculated to appal