The Resurgence of Spiritism

The Mediator, not a medium, is the way to spiritual communion

The supreme mystery of all human experience is not life but death. It has teased and tortured the mind of man in every age. He is depressed by its inevitableness, challenged by its unknowableness. From the beginning of the race man has sought to lift aside the veil that hides from our eyes that “undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.”

Not surprisingly, necromancy, the cult of the dead, has existed in many lands, including Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. In the ancient world the Hebrew people were unique in the outlawing of necromancy. The prophets forthrightly condemned such practices as a sin against Jehovah their God. This is how the law was expressed: “When you enter the land which the LORD your God is giving you, you must learn not to imitate the abominable practices of these nations. There must not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through fire [a reference to infant sacrifice], a diviner, a soothsayer, an augur, a sorcerer, a charmer, a medium, a magician or a necromancer. For anyone given to these practices is an abomination to the LORD” (Deut. 18:9–11). Those who disobeyed were severely punished, sometimes put to death.

The most flagrant violation of this law was by a man entrusted with enforcement of it—King Saul. He knew that an immense battle was shaping up and that his enemy, the Philistines, greatly outnumbered him. Because of his rebellion against God, Saul could not look for help to the One who had blessed and guided him in other days. So he resorted to a woman known to history as “The Witch of Endor.” Nowadays she would be called a “clairvoyant” or a “medium.” She pretended to bring the Prophet Samuel from the dead as King Saul had requested. The king said, “What do you see?” He himself saw no one but the medium and had to depend on what she told him. She replied, “I see an old man coming up, and he is covered with a mantle.” Then, we are told, “Saul perceived that it was Samuel.” This is evidence of his mental deterioration and astonishing credulity. Ten thousand old men in those days were clad in mantles. The woman told him only what every intelligent person in the land knew—that he would be hopelessly defeated in the Battle of Gilboa by the vast host of Philistines advancing upon Israel.

A Hollow Sound

The Hebrew word used to describe the witch is b. The word describes the sound of a voice spoken into an empty wineskin—today we might say, into an empty rain barrel. It was hollow! mysterious! unearthly! For such a purpose the Greek and Roman necromancers often used a cave in which a voice would echo to simulate the dead—or a deity.

The Jewish Encyclopedia points out that the word Ob suggests ventriloquism. It is entirely likely that the Witch of Endor—or the Medium of Endor, if you prefer—employed ventriloquism to imitate the voice of Samuel. She was an b—one whose voice made a hollow, unearthly sound. When the Prophet Isaiah thundered condemnation on necromancy, he referred to the mediums as people “who chirp and mutter.” This too suggests ventriloquism.

Spiritism became a vogue in Britain during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, with F. W. H. Meyer its leading exponent. Again in the early decades of the twentieth century the cult became quite prevalent. That it should flourish after World War I is understandable, in view of the untimely death of hundreds of thousands of young men in the war. But many people soon lost interest because of the uncritical attitude taken by notable adherents of the cult, such as Sir Oliver Lodge, who among other things referred to the spiritual cigars his dead son Raymond was smoking, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who let himself be completely hoodwinked by an unscrupulous medium. Since 1930 there has been little development in the field, though there are a few well-known mediums and an active Society for Psychical Research.

Early in 1930 a number of professional people attempted to conduct a scientific investigation of spiritism. The leader was Dr. T. Glenn Hamilton, a well-known physician of Western Canada. I was invited to participate in these scientific studies and for four months met once a week with one or the other of the two groups, the investigators and the practitioners. Fourteen sealed cameras were placed in the séance room. All were triggered to take simultaneous pictures from different angles. Many pictures showed masses of “ectoplasm” proceeding from one or more of the three mediums. But my suspicions were sharply aroused when on examining one of the pictures I noticed that a large piece of “ectoplasm” in which a face showed plainly had cast a shadow on the wall when the flash bulbs ignited. That gave the game away! Spirits are not spirits if they cast shadows; they are substance or matter.

More Fraud

But the climax of disillusionment came when I was given the privilege of “shaking hands” with the great Bible preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who had been dead for many years. Of course, this was by means of the medium’s hand. The identity of the great preacher became dubious when in conversation with him I found he had considerable difficulty naming in order the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John! Two of the three mediums were later exposed.

To assume that all mediums are fradulent would be a mistake. Some are sincere and are self-deluded rather than deliberately deceptive. Furthermore, there are phenomena in this field that merit reliable scientific investigation.

Two classes of people in particular should not dabble in spiritism. First, persons who are not emotionally mature or who are subject to any type of emotional imbalance. Second, persons who have been recently bereaved. They are in no mental or emotional condition to weigh evidence in this field. When people take up spiritism for solace or comfort, they are so eager for help that they become notably credulous and uncritical.

Sympathy for Bishop Pike

A while ago Bishop James A. Pike announced his belief that he had been in contact with his dead son and had received messages from him. Although one may disapprove of this public relation of spiritist happenings, one cannot but feel deep sympathy for the bishop in his tragic bereavement. Since his announcement a number of pastors have reported that bereaved parishioners have been asking them for guidance in this area. There is growing need for clarification by persons who have studied spiritism.

The experiences narrated by Bishop Pike—displacing of books and other physical and psychic happenings—are neither new nor surprising; in fact, they are now largely outdated. Very little attention is paid nowadays to such physical manifestations as the movement of tables and chairs or books. The interest lies almost wholly in purely psychic phenomena.

Hesketh Pearson in his life of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle remarks that “spiritually underdeveloped people are attracted … by the exotic and occult.” I suppose an instance of this would be the Beatles, who supposedly found nothing acceptable in Christianity but then journeyed to India to sit starry-eyed at the feet of Maharashi Mahesh Yogi, a Hindu mystic.

The Communion of Saints

The convinced Christian does not need a medium because he has a Mediator, who through spiritual communion makes the eternal world real to him. The Christian doctrine of the communion of saints has never been given its due. Through Christ we can have spiritual fellowship with those who have gone before. I firmly believe that the world of spiritual reality is not in some far-removed region beyond the stars but is truly “closer … than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.” To enter it requires no lengthy journey, only the opening of our eyes.

We would do well to ponder certain episodes in the Scriptures that suggest that an unseen world impinges upon our material world. A case in point is the panic of Elisha’s servant at the sight of a host of enemy surrounding the city where Elisha dwelt. In response to Elisha’s prayer that the young man’s eyes might be opened, the servant suddenly became aware of a host of heavenly defenders around Elisha. On the Mount of Transfiguration our Lord conversed with Moses and Elijah, a law-giver and a prophet of an earlier age. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, in the moment of death cried, “Look, the heavens are opened, and I can see the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand!”

Shaw and the Savior

It may have been the story of Stephen’s martyrdom that inspired Bernard Shaw to write a deeply moving passage on the death of Joan of Arc. Shaw makes the prelate Ladvenu tell how he took the cross from the church and held it before Joan’s eyes as the flames leaped up around the stake. When Joan saw the danger that Ladvenu was in, she warned him to move away. After her death, Ladvenu said to a group of churchmen:

In the same order is the truly high moment in the life of a pastor when he sees the face of a dying parishioner suddenly light up with the radiance of heaven and hears him call out the name of a loved one who had died years before, then watches as he sinks into unconsciousness and death with a look of inexpressible happiness on his face. I have seen this happen more than once, and it is a never-to-be-forgotten experience.

Members of Dwight L. Moody’s family witnessed such a happening. Some years before the evangelist’s death two of his well-loved grandchildren had died. As the end of his own life approached he suddenly looked up and cried in tones of triumph—“Dwight! Irene! I can see the children’s faces!”

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