A Challenge to Spiritualism
By Lt.-Colonel R. H. ELLIOT •
[A rejoinder to Col. Elliot's article by C. E. 31. Jowl will appear in next week's" Spectator."]
THE two great religions of the West, Christianity and Mohammedanism, have never doubted survival after death. It has been very different in the East. Hinduism has concerned itself with metempsychosis and with the ultimate absorption of individual souls into Bramali, whilst Buddha and Confucius declined even to speculate on the possibilities of a future existence.
Perhaps the virile Western mind found it hard to accept the complete blotting out of its earthly activities, whilst the placid fatalistic Easterner was content to leave to the morrow its evil and its good. Spiritualism enters the picture as a religion " with something plus." It has not accepted survival axiomatically, but has desired to experiment and to prove its thesis. Christianity, especially its Roman branch, and modern science have both opposed it vigorously, but on widely different grounds. The latter has called for proofs of every datum submitted for its acceptance, surely a reasonable demand with such important issues at stake. Spiritual- ism's claim to have established connexion with those who have " passed over " has unfortunately been complicated prejudicially by the introduction into stances of various physical phenomena which have, only too often, been shown to have been fraudulently produced.
The Magic Circle, the largest and most influential body of conjurers in the Empire, reappointed after the War its Occult Committee to investigate phenomer a chimed as supernormal. This Committee includes members of different professions and branches of business. All are expert conjurers. No opportunity has been lost, and yet, after fifteen years, we cannot point to a single observation in support of spiritualism. We have met with much obstruction and have not seldom encountered credulity, exaggeration and fraud, but we still keep an open mind and are as ready as ever to test fresh phenomena, promising absolute fair play, but demanding the right to employ rigid methods and to publish our findings, whatever they may be.
The history of the occult is very ancient and goes back to prehistoric times, when human knowledge was very limited, and when facts now well known were grasped weakly, if at all. Spiritualism runs through the beliefs of primitive tribes and is rooted in long buried civilizations. Our nursery rhymes, our superstitions, our harvest and other customs, have come down through endless generations. They are like the dykes, the tumuli, the Celtic fields and the lynchets of our West country, which many take for the creations of yesterday, but which date back thousands of years. Even the most scientific mind finds it hard to shed the heritage of the past. Time has swept away many pseudo-sciences. Others, like astrology and alchemy, have been replaced by volumes of modern knowledge. And yet it is true, even today, that whilst rationality is man-wide, logicality is the slow and painful acquisition of the few.
Too often propositions which rest on no solid foun- dation are advanced with the demand that the scientist should either rebut or accept them. This is wholly unwarranted. We are not obliged to reconstruct our scientific knowledge on inadequate or Incorrect data. The burden of disproving these new assertions does not lie with us ; that of proving them lies with those who bring them forward. Human progress has been founded
• Col. Elliot is Chairman of the Occult Committee of the Magic Circle.
on the careful collection and analysis pf accurate data, and on the derivation therefrom of reliable deductions. Along that road alone lies the hope of future advance.
If spiritualism really puts us into communication with those who have passed on to a higher life, the messages received should obviously be on a lofty plane and should include the revelation of noble and epoch-making thoughts, such as have emanated from the great teachers of the past. Instead, they are of a uniformly low order, reminding us once again that men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs- of thistles. A great mind thinks great thoughts and a small mind mean ones. Re-read the well-known book Raymond. Can its ridiculous trivialities have really emanated from that fine young man in a higher stage of existence, or are they the feeble outpour- ings of the mediocre minds of the mediums ? Study the many messages that claim to have been received from another world. All are on the same level. What is the obvious inference ?
Spiritualists contend that though a large number of mediums have in the past been convicted of fraud, this fact should not prejudice our acceptance of any new claimant. They go further, and maintain that a medium convicted of fraud on previous occasions may next time be perfectly genuine, and that he should be accepted afresh without bias. Throughout the whole range of science there runs the insistent demand for scrupulous honesty in every worker, whatever his branch. Mistakes, errors of observation, incorrect deductions and faulty logic are freely pardoned, but the liar once detected is finished with for good. To his former colleagues he is dead. Science which forgives everything else has no forgiveness for fraud. The spiritualist cannot have it both ways. If he claims to be working on scientific lines he must conform to the code under which all science works. If not, let him cease to appeal to it.
A few men of high distinction have given their support to spiritualism, and much has been made of this. As compared with the great bulk of their colleagues, such men are few indeed. Even if they were not, the case would have to stand on its merits and not on those of its advocates. Moreover, a man may be very distinguished in one line and very unreliable in others. In his own laboratory he may be rigidly scientific and submit everything to the cold test of reason. Outside it, when his emotions are stirred, he may allow himself to he led to conclusions which astonish those who know him.
Wonderful stories are told of spirit photography, and the Occult Committee has devoted much time to this subject. Our unhesitating conclusion is that there is no such thing as a genuine " spirit extra." The faking of these photographs is a very profitable affair, and great ingenuity has been expended in elaborating the devices employed for the purpose. New methods are being continually introduced by enterprising photo- graphers. The detection of the actual method used demands considerable training and aptitude, as well as the careful study of each individual case. The blatant hypocrisy often mixed up with these practices is re- volting. Flimsy excuses are offered to evade challenges for investigation. The argument "thy money perish with thee," used in refusing us a sitting, is absurd when coming from people who are daily taking the guineas of sorrowing relatives. If they can take their money, why not ours ? If they are able to prove to the Occult Com- mittee that they can produce " spirit extras " under test conditions we shall unhesitatingly make known our findings to the Press, who will give them a publicity beyond that of their wildest dreams. They will not face our tests because they dare not. The shallow excuses that they offer us are the thinnest possible camouflage.
To return to spiritualism proper : the issues involved are momentous, and men of good will on both sides should unite in this investigation whatever views they hold. Any effort to score points at the expense of those who differ from us would be lamentable. Two thousand years ago a Great Teacher said : " Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Let us all concentrate on the search for it.
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