Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestations
Free
Description
Contents
Reviews
Language
English
ISBN
Unknown
Transcriber’s Notes
EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF THE SPIRIT MANIFESTATIONS,
CONTENTS.
APPENDIX.
PREFACE.
Author’s Reply to the preceding Address.
Communication from an assembly of eminent spirits, sanctioning the credentials transmitted through the mediumship of Mr. Lanning.
Postscript by the author.
SUPPLEMENTAL PREFACE.
INTRODUCTION.
On the Evidence of the Existence of a Deity. BY THE AUTHOR.
THEOLOGICAL AXIOMS.
INTUITIVE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS.
NARRATIVE OF THE AUTHOR’S EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF SPIRITUALISM.
Letter in reply to an Inquiry respecting the influence of Electricity in Table Turning.
Of manifestations founded on table movements without contact, or such contact, as cannot be sufficient to cause the result.
HYMN CHANTED TO MY SISTER, AND HER REPLY.
CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS.
Corroborative evidence by the Rev. Allen Putnam, of Roxbury, Mass.
FOREIGN CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE.
Manifestations which occurred in France, in 1851.
Letter from T. R. P. Ventura.
Letter of Dr. Coze.
Letter of M. F. De Saulcy.
Spiritualism in Paris.
SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS IN FRANCE AND GERMANY.
SPIRITUALISM IN GREAT BRITAIN.
Account of Mr. Robert Owen’s Conversion.
Letter of Robert Owen to the Yorkshire Spiritual Telegraph.
Mr. Hume at Springfield.
COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD.
Remarks Introductory to my Spirit Father’s Communication.
My Spirit Father’s Communication.[10]
Communication from a Spirit Son of the Author.
Additional Communications from Spirits who died while Infants.
Communication from a very young Spirit child to its Parents.
OF THE SPIRITUAL BIRTH,[13] CALLED DEATH, OF HUMAN BEINGS, CALLED MORTALS, ALTHOUGH IMMORTAL.
Of Spiritual Birth.
Narrative given by Spirits of their translation to the Spirit World, the abode of human souls in a future state
Narrative of his Spiritual Birth, by W. W-—-, a most benevolent Spirit of the Fifth Sphere.
SPIRITUAL BIRTH OF MARIA.
The Spirit Maria’s Narrative, as given through the Mediumship of Mrs. M. B. Gourlay.
My Sister’s account of her Spiritual Birth, or Translation to the Spirit World.
My Brother’s account of his Spiritual Birth.
CONVOCATION OF SPIRITS.
EXPOSITION OF THE INFORMATION RECEIVED FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD.
APOLOGY FOR MY CONVERSION.
Apology for my change of opinion and belief in the existence and agency of Spirits.
Invisibility of the Soul.
On the Whereabout of Heaven.
In reply to the preceding, so much of a letter from the Author as relates to Spiritualism.
Some parts of a letter to Mr. Holcomb, in reply to the parts of his letter relating to Spiritualism.
MORAL INFLUENCE OF SPIRITUALISM.
THE HEAVEN AND HELL OF SPIRITUALISM CONTRASTED WITH THE HEAVEN AND HELL OF SCRIPTURE.
DISCORDANCE AS TO THE WHEREABOUT OF THE SCRIPTURAL HEAVEN.—INSTINCTIVE IMPRESSION AS TO HEAVEN BEING OVERHEAD.
“THE TRUE DOCTRINE”
Respecting Heaven, according to the Rev. H. Harbaugh, Pastor of the First German Reformed Church, Lancaster, Penna.
OF MEDIUMSHIP.
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE ILL-TREATMENT OF MEDIA, ON SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS.—OF COUNTER-MEDIUMSHIP.
The Author’s Discovery of his powers as a Medium.
ON PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATIONS.
MODERN PROCESS FOR ALPHABETIC CONVERSE WITH SPIRITS, AS NEW TO MAN AS THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
INFLUENCE OF MUNDANE WEALTH IN THE WORLD TO COME.
According to the Spiritual Code, riches elevate or degrade according to the virtue displayed in their acquisition and employment.
MRS. GOURLAY’S NARRATIVE.
ILLUSTRATION OF THE PRACTICAL BENEFIT OF SPIRITUALISM, IN THE HAPPINESS IMPARTED BY THE CONVERSION OF AN UNBELIEVER TO A BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY.
Letter from a Spirit Daughter.
MARRIAGE ON EARTH AND IN HEAVEN.
The Hymeneal Tie in the Spirit World grows out of the necessity of the Connubial Union in the Mundane Sphere. “Free love” imputation refuted.[19]
THE MORALITY OF CHRISTENDOM BEING IRRECONCILABLE WITH THE NEW TESTAMENT, CANNOT BE ITS LEGITIMATE OFFSPRING.
Inspiration can have no higher authority, than the human testimony on which its existence is arrogated.
Injurious Influence of unreasonable Restriction.
No one would believe that a capable farmer would make such a mistake as to sow garlic instead of wheat. Yet God, while represented as having intended to sow Protestantism, is considered as having caused, throughout Christendom, a crop of Catholicism, in the Roman or Grecian form, for more than a thousand years; those weeds still occupying more than half of the whole soil.
Letter of William Pitt.
Offer of Guidance by a Mundane Spirit.
Improper use of the epithet Infidel, as used in the parodied quotation from the Clergyman’s Letter.
On Atonement.
On the massacre at Sinope, as a probable consequence of Religious Fanaticism and Intolerance.
Opinions of God held by Sir Isaac Newton.—Enfield’s Philosophy, Page 638.
On God and his Attributes, by Seneca.
On the Better Employment of the First Day of the Week.
Additional Remarks respecting the Observance of the Sabbath, so called.
If Creatures be not so created as to love their Neighbours as themselves, precepts can no more alter them in this respect, than change the Colour of their Hair, or the Number of Cubits in their Stature.
Attacks upon the authenticity of Scripture cannot endanger the prevalent morality, which, while it is superior to that of the Old Testament, indicates a recklessness of the precepts of Christ, excepting so far as they make faith a counterpoise for sin.
The Doctrine of a peculiar Belief being necessary to Salvation, and a counterpoise for Sin, a source of discord originally confined to Judea, expanded with Christianity and Islamism; verifying Christ’s allegation, that he came “as a Sword, not as a Messenger of Peace.”—Superior Morality, and far more unquestionable Certainty of the Communications from the Spirit World.
Quotation from Mosheim.
Quotation from Gibbon.
For more than a thousand years the Grecian or Roman Catholic Clergy were the sole depositories of the word of God, so called, and Regulators of Religious morals; yet during that time the Clergy were for the most part pre-eminent in vice, as compared with the rest of the community; whence it is inferred that, like Pope Boniface, the wicked Clergy in general were really unbelievers in the truth of the Gospel. If the morals of the modern Clergy are better, it is neither from the barbarous example furnished them in the Old Testament, nor the ultra precepts of the Gospel; being too much enlightened to be governed in practice by either.
Reasons for not proceeding farther with Quotation of Details.
Any religion, like that of Moses, which does not make Immortality a primary consideration, must be chiefly confined to worldly objects, and of course unworthy of consideration or respect.
People profess Christianity more from a desire to do right, than they do right in consequence of their professions.
It is a calumny against human nature to represent men as wilfully ignorant of the true religion.
To appreciate the Jewish representation of the Deity, a reader should first form an idea of this planet and its inhabitants, comparatively with the hundred millions of solar systems, and the inconceivable extent of the space which encompasses them, which fall within the domain of one common Deity.
Our actions dependent, under God, on organization, education, and the extent to which we are tempted extraneously.
On Probation.
World least moral when the Christian church had most sway.—Honour and mercantile credit more trusted than religion.—Virtue due more to the heart than to sectarianism.—Bigotry acts like an evil spirit.
Progress of Literature and Science in Arabia under the Mohammedan Pontiffs, called Caliphs.
ADDITIONAL CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE OF THE EXISTENCE OF SPIRITS.
The Opinions of MM. de Mirville and Gasparin, on Table Turning and Mediums, (considered in relation to theology and physics) examined, by the Abbot Almignana, Doctor of the Canon Law, Theologian, &c.
Mechanical Movements without Contact. By Mr. Isaac Rhen, President of the Harmonial Society of Philadelphia.[35]
Communication from J. M. Kennedy, Esq.
Communication from Wm. West, Esq.
Koons’s Establishment.
Communication from Joseph Hazard, Esq.
A VISIT TO THE SPIRITUALISTS OF OHIO.
Letter from John Gage.—The Home of the Mediums and the Haunts of the Spirits.—What they did, said, and wrote.
An Evening at Koon’s Spirit Room. By Charles Partridge, Esq., New York.
Experience of the Hon. N. P. Tallmadge.
Letter from Mr. D. H. Hume.—Spiritualism in London.
Lord Brougham with the Spirits.
Evidence afforded by the Rev. J. B. Ferguson.
An Exposition of views respecting the principal facts, causes, and peculiarities involved in Spiritual Manifestations; together with interesting phenomenal statements and communications. By Adin Ballou.
The Hon. J. W. Edmonds’s Testimony.
Testimony of Henry Lloyd Garrison.
Testimony of Mr. and Mrs. Newton.
Testimony of Members of the New York Circle.
Testimony of the Rev. D. F. Goddard, Boston.
Manifestations at Stratford, Conn., in the House of Rev. Eliakim Phelps, D.D.—Remarkable Exhibitions of Power.—Singular Occurrences.—Image-making.—Destruction of Furniture.—Incendiary Spirits.—The Spirits identified.—Unhappy Spirits, from the remembrance of wrong done in this World.—Wrong-doing revealed.—Directions given for restoring ill-gotten Gains.—Discontinuance of the Manifestations.
Idea of the existence of a spiritual sun, and a vital spiritual oxygen, found to exist independently in the mind of a much esteemed author.
OF MATTER, MIND, AND SPIRIT.
Of Matter.
Strictures on a Speculation by Farraday, respecting the Nature of Matter.
On Whewell’s demonstration that all matter is heavy.
Additional Remarks on the Speculations of Farraday and Exley, above noticed.
Of Mundane, Ethereal, and Ponderable Matter, in their Chemical relations.
Suggestions of Massotti, respecting the Nature of Matter.
On Electro-polarity as the Cause of Electrical Phenomena.
Of Mind, as existing independently, and as distinguished from Matter.
Of Spirit independently, or as distinguished from Mind and Matter.
Of the Soul, as distinguished from Mind and Matter.
On the Odic, or Odylic, Force.
RELIGIOUS ERRORS OF MR. MAHAN.
Proposition of Mr. Mahan.
Of the origin of the Books of Moses no higher evidence exists, according to the testimony of the Bible itself, than that of an obscure priest and a fanatical king.
Scriptural Account of the Finding of the Books of Moses by Hilkiah, the High Priest.—2 Chron. xxxiv.; 2 Kings xxii.
Account of the Finding of the Books of Moses, by Josephus.
If the Pentateuch had been previously known to the Jews, it is incredible that it could have become obsolete and forgotten prior to the alleged discovery of it in the Temple, in the reign of Josiah.
Great Importance attached to a Belief in Immortality by Cyrus the Great, King of Persia, as contrasted with the recklessness of Moses respecting the same Belief.
The Worship of a Book, Idolatry.
Evidence of Josephus and Gibbon vs. Mr. Mahan.
The Worshippers of the Golden Calf more righteous than their Assassins.
Just denunciation of the religious imposture and usurpation of Moses, by noble-minded Israelites.[54]
Remarkable observance of the Golden Rule by Moses, in his last advice to the Israelites.[56]
Straining at Spiritual Gnats, while swallowing Scriptural Camels.
The Evidence which is insufficient to establish the Iniquity of a Sinner cannot be sufficient to establish the Divine Authority of a Book.
Word of God, impiously so called, or the Golden Rule inverted by God’s alleged Commands.
PAGAN FEARLESSNESS OF DEATH.
Opinion of Mr. Huc, a Christian Priest, that it is their religion which makes Christians more fearful of death than the Chinese, (746.)
Observations of the Missionary, Mr. Huc, to whom reference has just been made.
Conclusion of Strictures on Mr. Mahan’s Religious Errors.
CONCLUSION.
The Pentateuch inconsistently represented as the basis of belief in human immortality, as will appear by the prefixed quotation, as well as the inability of any of its devotees to point out any part which conflicts with the right reverend author’s opinion, above mentioned.—Injustice of representing disbelievers in the Bible as not having as good grounds for belief in immortality as those who rest their belief on a work which, by its silence, tends to discountenance the hope of a future life.—Those who uphold the Bible against Spiritualism, the real antagonists of the only satisfactory evidence ever given to man of a future habitation in the spirit world.
APPENDIX.
LETTER TO THE EPISCOPAL CLERGY.
Letter from Dr. Hare to the Clergy of the Protestant Episcopal Church, offering to lay before them the New Evidence of Immortality. (Submitted to the late Convention, Philadelphia, May 15, 1855.)
A LETTER FROM DR. HARE.
Preliminary Remarks.
FARRADAY’S SPECULATION.
Motives for republishing my Memoirs on Electrical Theory.
Objections to the Theories severally of Franklin, Dufay, and Ampere, with an effort to explain Electrical Phenomena, by Statical or Undulatory Polarization.[58] By Robert Hare, M.D., Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania.
Supposed grounds for a Theory.
Proofs of the existence of an enormous quantity of Imponderable Matter in Metals.
Electrical Phenomena attributed to Stationary, or Undulatory, Polarization.
Ignition, Electrolysis, and Magnetism, Secondary Effects of Frictional Discharges; or, in other words, of Polarizing Electro-ethereal Waves.
The extreme Diversity, as respects striking Distance, between the direct Effects of Frictional Electricity and those directly arising from Galvanic Reaction.
On the perfect similitude between the Polarity communicated to Iron Filings by a Magnetized Steel Bar and a Galvanized Wire.
Process by which the Ethereo-ponderable Atoms within a Galvanic Circuit are polarized by the Chemical Reaction.
Difference between Electro-ethereal and Ethereo-ponderable Polarization.
Competency of a Wire to convey a Galvanic Discharge is as its sectional area, while statical discharges of frictional electricity, preferring the surface, are promoted by its extension. Yet in proportion as such discharges are heavy, the ability of a wire to convey them and its magnetic energy become more dependent on its sectional area, and less upon extent of surface.
Difference between Frictional Electricity and Galvanic does not depend on the one being superior as to Quantity, the other as to Intensity; but on the different Degrees in which the Ethereo-ponderable Atoms of the Bodies affected are deranged from their natural state of Neutralized Polarity.
Of Ethereo-ponderable Deflagration.
Summary.
INVOCATION OF SPIRITS.[80]
NEW AND VALUABLE BOOKS
FOOTNOTES:
The book hasn't received reviews yet.
