The Spiritualist > No.4, December 31st 1869

Dec. 31, 1869
THE SPIRITUALIST.
27
was still wandering about this planet, and wanted very much
to get away from it; he had been taken in once, and would
not believe anything in future till he saw it. When other
spirits told him about the “ spheres,” he should put it down
that they were “ gammoning ” him. He died, he ex¬
pected to go to heaven and play a harp eternally, and when
he found he had not to do so, his being the nature of an india-
rubber ball, he bounded back from the wall of facts, into the
valley of ignorance. There were plenty to teach him, who
wanted him to become as a little child, to learn, and to fit
himself for a higher life ; but when a person hss got old in
particular ideas, it takes long to get right again and it was
this artificial nature which he had to work off. On earth he
was in the habit, at present, of looking about for a medium,
who might be either a duke or a beggar, for he had his choice,
and he could partake of all the pleasures of the medium, see
all that he saw, get the spirit portions of the food he ate, and
could enjoy himself generally. All his education and belief
in life had been superficial, and did not appeal to the inner
man; the body and the clothes believed it, but not the soul
within. Now he went to church sometimes, and when he saw
the minister, he felt inclined to sit on him and extinguish him,
knowing that half the congregation would be very likely to
take the same road that he had taken himself, and it made
him feel very nasty towards the ministers. The worst of it
was, that many of the ministers know about Spiritualism, and
attend seances, but when they get back in the pulpit they are
“ mum they get wheat for themselves, and deal out fire and
brimstone to their flocks. To return to himself—Wasn’t he a
beautiful plant out of the garden of theology ? (Laughter.)
The worst of it was, he had not been allowed to use his
reason ; he was not surrounded on earth by the right con¬
ditions, so the wrong flower had been blown. However, he
was getting better, and went among benevolent people,
through whom he was gaining knowledge.
What was your name, address, and occupation ?
That is too hard upon me. I would not have said so much,
if I had known you were going to ask that. I am not going
to tell you.
After some pressing, he yielded a little to the ladies, and
said his name was Michael Clarke ; he had been a baker, but
would not give his address.
Why don't you go to the higher spirits to gain knowledge ?
If you were fond of chemistry, you would not go to a linen-
draper to be taught. It is no use your going to the spirit
world to learn what ought to have been learnt in the body in
this world ; you cannot rise to a certain spiritual level, until
you have worked up to it; you cannot understand the higher
till you apprehend the lower.
Tien Sien Tie, the guardian spirit of the medium, then
came as usual and said—Good evening, friends. Ton have
seen this evening two opposing types of the development of
the mind. Such an exhibition should carry with it a lesson—
a lesson which I will endeavour to point to your understand¬
ings. There are many well-disposed honest minds that would
have welcomed with open heart and hand our sister who con¬
trolled the medium first, but who would have said to our
brother who came next—“ You have a deal to learn. You had
better learn manners before you come here again.” Now,
Considering all the causes that act around individuals upon
this planet, how charitable we ought to be. Our brother was
placed in conditions not suitable for his spiritual faculty, and
he had a superficial mentality ; the germs of spiritual truth
are not developed. He was born of parents who of themselves
had had no education in earthly things, and who by their
occupation strove hard to sustain their existence, so rose not
above the level of their wants. This was the first cause of
the lack of development. The mind of the child therefore is
not developed and enabled to bring itself to earth’s literature ;
it cannot read, its chance of gaining knowledge from that
source is closed. There are other sources than books, but the
social status of the family still interferes. There is the school
for daily instruction, but the social condition of the parent
makes it a necessity that as soon as the child can carry a mes¬
sage or work with its hands, the child must work to sustain
itself. Yes, but we have another chance ; there is the Sabbath-
school. Still carrying with us the social status of the family,
the child is opposed to religious teaching and rebels against
the Sabbath-school; it is repugnant to the mind of the child,
and often more so to the minds of the parents. There are
good folks who go. about, and would instruct these waifs and
strays of society, and make them good and useful. Yes, they
instruct the child in matters beyond its comprehension ; they
try to force the mind of the child into blossom before its time,
so the child feels a repulsion and will not listen. The spiri¬
tual things lie dormant within the mind; it sees nothing be¬
yond its immediate wants and necessities ; and it would say of
the future—“ When the future comes that will be time enough
to attend to it I must attend to the present, else I starve.”
That condition is carried up through many grades of society.
If right conditions are brought to bear upon an organisation,
it is improved and purified, and the mind can improve itself
and ascend to the limits of our sjrstem. But let the mind be
of the lowest development, it will one day be greater than we
at present believe to be possible. You should all love justice
and wisdom for they are the attributes of the Deity. I am
ready to answer any questions.
Sow is it that though the two spirits mere on earth both
surrounded by the samp hard conditions, one is now so much
in advance of the other ?
Because our sister had naturally a higher spiritual nature,
and shook off many of the influences of unfavourable sur¬
roundings.
Is the spirit world objective or subjective ?
The spirit world is a real objective world, because man
physically is the ultimate of all the developments of matter.
Man contains within himself the elemental life of all forms
and substances ; he may be compared to a “ mill ” grinding
down these particles into a spirit body ; when the change
comes, these particles for the most part escape upwards to
form the free spirit body, but a portion of these particles
remains in the earthly form, which is placed in the ground.
Chemical action dissolves the remains, but the refined ma¬
terial particles (not quite so fine as those which composed the
spirit body) then rise from the ground, and they are too re¬
fined to remain in the atmosphere of the earth. Each atom
thus released, is itself an atom of a particular elemental life.
The stream which thus rises from your planets is immense,
for you know how very many bodies are daily placed in the
ground. Floating upwards, all these particles find their level;
they naturally unite according to their elemental life, and
form the strata of an objective world. The flower particles
are liberated, the tree particles are liberated, and they are
prone to take the same forms as before, but their elemental
life is then of a higher grade, and a further development of
the vegetable kingdom takes place. There is nothing but
external progression for the ultimates of matter.
Do grindstones go to the spirit world ? (Laughter).
The grindstone consists of rock-particles, which at last
crumble into dust. By many. conditions extending over a
long period of time, this dust gets into the soil, and rises into
vegetable life. Then at last it is absorbed by man, and aids
to form the spirit world in the way already stated.
The houses in the spirit world are not the spirits of houses
in this one ?
As the refined elements necessary for houses are in the spirit
world, they are used. The houses are built by spirits with
more extended knowledge and better appliances than you
have here. Bemember, all objective things are at first subjec¬
tive. Before a house is built, the idea of it exists in the brain
of the designer.
Will you give us a little more information about how spirits
produce audible voices.
There are many ways. Sometimes they form a tube out of
the emanations from the medium, and in connection with the
medium, and are able to speak through it. Sometimes, in the
atmosphere of the medium, they are able to make themselves
heard, and are quite unconscious how or why they are audible.
It is necessary that the medium should be very passive, that
the emanations may be given off in a steady uninterrupted
flow.
Do spirits ever produce audible voices by sticking lips on the
front of the tube, and lungs and bellows behind, so as to make
a/n automatic voice ?
Tien Sien Tie (with a smile).—No. Never that I know of.
Such a case never came under my observation. And now, my
friends, I must draw my control of the medium to a close.
Ere I meet you again a season of festivity will have come
and gone. In many homes will be marked a vacant chair,
many a half-suppressed sigh will rise as they gaze in the
vacant corner, and they will pass through life with the sad
remembrance that one of the circle is gone. You are Spirit¬
ualists, and you desire good for humanity, so tell them how
to fill, once again, the vacant seat and the vacant corner.
Stop the sigh of sadness, and turn sorrow to beaming joy and
love, by giving them knowledge of the return of their friends.
Good night.
PRIVATE SEANCES.
CLAIRVOYANCE—SPIRIT MAGNETISM—THE DEITY—JESUS OF NAZARETH—
THE DOUBLE—MEDIUMSHIP—MARTYRDOM—THE FUTURE OF THE PHYSICAL
BODY—BODILY DEFORMITIES—UNDEVELOPED SPIRITS—CAPITAL PUNISH¬
MENT—RESPONSIBILITIES OF JUDGES—SPIRIT POETRY—SPIRIT VOICES—
SEEING MEDIUMSHIP—TABLE MOTIONS WITHOUT jCONTACI WITH HUMAN
BEINGS.
On Thursday, December 16th, a private seance took place
at the residence of Mrs. C. Berry, a well-known Spiritualist.
The medium was Mrs. P. Perrin, of 11, Westmoreland-place,
Southampton-street, Camberwell, S.E., and the other members
of the circle were Mr. G. Perrin, Mrs. A. Cooper, Mrs. George
Oliver, Mr. N. F. T. Daw, and the reporter to this journal.
The medium passed into what was supposed to be the trance
state, and described scenes in the life of a gentleman, begin¬
ning with one of bloodshed and battle. The narrative threw
one of the ladies present into a state of intense excitement.
She said that the medium had accurately described scenes in
the past life of her husband and herself at the antipodes;
that she had gone further, and told her what was probably
taking place at present, and could be verified on the arrival of
an early mail from Australia and New Zealand. She had also
told her of the future. The details are necessarily of a private
nature. The lady and the medium had never met each other
in their lives until a few minutes before the stance began.
A spirit, who gave the name of Mrs. Farnham,* then spoke
through the medium, and said that the preceding remarks
were made by the medium herself, whose spiritual powers had
been temporarily developed, so that she had been able to see
into the past, the present, and the future, and had stated
what she saw in her clairvoyant vision—it was not a spiritual
communication. She (Mrs. Farnham) was glad to see that,
the members of the circle sat to accumulate facts and facts
alone, so if what had already been stated proved to be true in
the end, so much the better for the cause of Spiritualism.
She would not speak much longer, for she knew that physical
manifestations were desired. She was ready to- answer any
questions.
Some physical manifestations require dark/ness. Shall we
ever be able to get them in the light ?
The Spirit—By constant sitting and keeping together you
will get much in the light, but not all. Some things I think
you will never get in the light, for great laws stand against it.
They have been laid down from the foundation, and can never
be altered.
Do you, who speak to us, move tables ?
The Spirit said that she could move a table spiritually, but
not physically.
Please explain the difference between the two.
The Spirit said that she could move it gently to answer
questions, but those spirits who had power to carry it from
place to place, did it by physical force.
Horn do you move tables ?
The Spirit said that tables are moved in many ways.
Sometimes spirit hands are placed over the hands of the
members of the circle, and they can draw the table up ; some¬
times they lift it by concentrating force underneath : some¬
times, also, the power falls from above, looking like light, and
lifts the table. It is a power composed of magnetic forces.
Magnetism as we understand it ?
The Spirit—What is your magnetism ?
The force which makes an iron needle, balanced on a pivot,
swing round to the north.
The Spirit—No. It is totally different’from your magnetic
forces. It is a power I cannot explain, and even to us it is
mysterious. It is given us by the great Creator. I see it used
and use it myself, yet cannot explain it any more than you
can.
Have you ever seen God ?
The Spirit—We' are still in ignorance what is the great
“ I AM,” and have never seen Him, as some on earth say we
have, except in surrounding objects, in landscapes bright and
fair, in the hues of the rainbow, and in the emotions of the
bosom. Thus do we behold God, but in no other way.
Have you ever seen Jesus ?
The Spirit—I have never seen Jesus of Nazareth, but have
heard Him spoken of as a great prophet inspired beyond the
ordinary degree ; a prophet is a medium. This medium has
seen Him three times.
Put He worked-miracles ?
The Spirit—We do not acknowledge miracles ; there are
* Mrs. Famham, an American lady, was the authoress of the tale, “The
Ideal Attained,” which was recently re-puhlished in Human Nature.
During the late American war she spent her time in nursing and tending
sick and wounded soldiers,! and she “died," os the]phrase is, very soon
after the suppression of the rehellion.—Ed.
nothing but natural laws. We know that upon earth there
will again be greater men than Jesus of Nazareth, and why
will men keep on saying that he is higher than others ? Why
ignore the prophets before Him, and the martyrs after Him,
who also laid down their lives for the truth ?
Is Jesus God ?
The Spirit—No.
Is He the principal representative of God?
The Spirit—No. God is so grand that He needs no form
like that of man to represent Himself ; He has stamped Him¬
self and His divinity in His laws. God is not the Trinity
which man, for His own purposes, has set Him forth to be.
Do you consider the Bible to be acev/rate history?
The Spirit—Yes, it is true. It is the prophecy of the past,
the present, and the future, but it is not Divine. Take from
it whatever will do you good.
What is the difference between soul and spirit ?
The Spirit—If your spirit or vital spark once left your
earthly body, it would never return, but the soul might go,
carrying some of your brain power with it, and could then
even move a table at a spirit circle ; this is “ the double ” as
known to you Spiritualists. In such cases the body of the
person who thus acts at a distance, is always in a state of
sleep or stupor.
But while I home been awake I have manifested at a circle.
The Spirit—I, as a spirit, cannot take what you say as a
truth. Another may have been using your name, or you must
have been unconscious.
Mrs. Hardinge has often ma/nifested at circles.
The Spirit—Yes. We know Mrs. Hardinge well. She is
never in her normal state when she is lecturing, and while
the spirits are speaking to English audiences through her
bodily organs, she may be moving tables in America.
Is not Theodore Parker one of her guardian spirits ?
The Spirit—Yes, he is almost always with her, and another
of her gnardians is Pierpoint.
In a general conversation that followed the name of Andrew
Jackson Davis was mentioned.
The Spirit said : Andrew Jackson Davis is a great favourite
with the spirits, but all is not truth he tells ; there is some¬
thing of the medium in every communication you receive
from us. Give fifty pieces of linen to fifty work-girls, let the
linen and the thread be exactly the same, yet every girl will
leave her own impression on her work. So with every
medium. While I talk to you now you have my words hut
the mode of language of the medium ; I cannot take away
the identity of the girl.
Where are you yourself now ?
The Spirit—I am in the medium. Her vital spark is here
[pointing to the space between the right shoulder and the ear.]
Her soul is at home with her babe, but in an instant I can call
back the soul or “ double,” and all will be right again.
Does this tire the medium, ?
The Spirit—No. I could talk to you all night, and in the
morning she would think that she had had a good night’s rest.
The conversation again turned upon the Trinity, and the
spirit said that people would do well to imitate the purity,
innocence, and truth of Jesus.
He died upon the cross.
The Spirit said that he did do so, but "martyrs after him
when brought face to face with the pile refused to be saved
from this worse death, yet Jesus asked that the cup might be
passed from him. Joan of Arc never asked for life. The
cross is not so bad as subjection to the thumbscrew and the
torture, and being allowed to recover to be tortured and re¬
tortured. Spirits kno'tfv, and doctors perhaps can bear witness,
that when a certain quantity of blood has left the body, either
on the cross or elsewhere, all pain ceases, and torture may be
defied. In the new Testament times a priesthood ruled the
people ; an Intelligent Mind saw how priestcraft was deluding
its dupes, and tried to persuade the people not to pin their
faith to another man’s elbow, but to serve God freely and
alone. When the priests saw that their craft was being exposed
by the Nazarene, they thought it time to stop him. When in
their power, he would not deny the truth within him—he had
to lie or to die—so, as a man of truth, he died. Still he very
naturally wished to live, and to go on in his noble work till he
had grown grey in the service of his Great Creator.
Will our bodies rise again?
The Spirit—Not your physical frame. Your bones will
never come together again. Your clay body will manure the
earth, and the trumpet will never wake it up again ; the earth
wants what it lent you for 'a time.
The body may go to feed the fishes.
The Spirit—Well, that is not a pleasant thought for those
who eat fish.
Are ignorant and wise people equal after death?
The Spirit—For a time ignorant people will be cramped in
the next world, till they outgrow the narrow minds you give
your children.
Have deformities of the earthly body an injurious effect upon
the spirit body ?
The Spirit—Those who have deformed bodies here, at first
have undeveloped spirit bodies in the spirit world. Then
comes the question, “ Who will suffer most—the giver or the
receiver?” Parents, by their habits, hand down injuries to
their children, and great will be their remorse hereafter. God
has made His laws perfect; and after planting the tree of
humanity, left man with sufficient freedom to perfect himself;
if you do not act up to the laws of reason in bringing forth
children, that is your fault. If you pollute yourselves, you
cannot possibly have good children.
Some low spirits say they come from spheres lower than this
earth. Is it true ? .
The Spirit—They tell you that, because you in the circle
form a sphere of your own, which looks beautiful to such
spirits, because you are higher than they. When very low
spirits quit the body, they go prowling about the earth, and
they are not good. The drunkard would go to his old haunts,
and act and talk as he did before, though these things would
be to the spirit imaginary. When such spirits wish to rise,,
there are plenty to help them.
What do youthink of capital punishment?
The Spirit—Let your criminals live, but let him not go at
large again who has imbued his hands in his brother’s blood.
Let every compassion be about him, but no reproof or chas¬
tisement, and let man, innocent, pure, and noble, and woman,
loving and gentle, hesitate not to call him “ brother,” and he
will repent. Killing him is an awful crime under the name of
justice—it is a most awful crime on the part of the man who-
condemns his brother; yes, ten times more black in the sight
of angels than the act of the wretched criminal. And I will
tell you the reason. The man who did it, must, in a degree,
have been insane, or fired by passion, and not altogether in
his normal state ; but the judge who condemns him, does it in
cold blood; and he is completely without excuse when he
goes above.