CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: SPIRITISM

Spiritism

Spiritism is the name properly given to the belief that the living can and do
communicate with the spirits of the departed, and to the various practices by which
such communication is attempted.  It should be carefully distinguished from
Spiritualism, the philosophical doctrine which holds, in general, that there is a spiritual
order of beings no less real than the material and, in particular, that the soul of man is a
spiritual substance.  Spiritism, moreover, has taken on a religious character.  It claims to
prove the preamble of all religions, i. e., the existence of a spiritual world, and to
establish a world-wide religion in which the adherents of the various traditional faiths,
setting their dogmas aside, can unite.  If it has formulated no definite creed, and if its
representatives differ in their attitudes toward the beliefs of Christianity, this is simply
because Spiritism is expected to supply a new and fuller revelation which will either
substantiate on a rational basis the essential Christian dogmas or show that they are
utterly unfounded. The knowledge thus acquired will naturally affect conduct, the
more so because it is hoped that the discarnate spirits, in making known their
condition, will also indicate the means of attaining to salvation or rather of progressing,
by a continuous evolution in the other world, to a higher plane of existence and
happiness.

THE PHENOMENA

These are classified as physical and psychical. The former include: production of raps
and other sounds; movements of objects (tables, chairs) without contact or with contact
insufficient to explain the movement: "apports" i. e., apparitions of visible agency to
convey them; moulds, i. e., impressions made upon paraffin and similar substances;
luminous appearances, i. e., vague glimmerings or light or faces more or less defines;
levitation, i. e., raising of objects from the ground by supposed supernormal means;
materialization or appearance of a spirit in visible human form; spirit-photography, in
which the feature or forms of deceased persons appear on the plate along with the
likeness of a living photographed subject.  The psychical, or significative, phenomena
are those which express ideas or contain messages.  To this class belong: table-rapping
in answer to questions; automatic writing; slate-writing; trance-speaking; clairvoyance;
descriptions of the spirit-world; and communications from the dead.

HISTORY

For an account of Spiritistic practices in antiquity see NECROMANCY.  The modern
phase was ushered in by the exhibitions of mesmerism and clairvoyance.  In its actual
form, however, Spiritism dates from the year 1848 and from the experiences of the Fox
family at Hydesville, and later at Rochester, in New York State.  Strange "knockings"
were heard in the house, pieces of furniture were moved about as though by invisible
hands, and the noises became so troublesome that sleep was impossible.  At length the
"rapper" began to answer questions, and a code of signals was arranged to facilitate
communication.  It was also found that to receive messages special qualifications were
needed; these were possessed by Catherine and Margaret Fox, who are therefore
regarded as the first "mediums" of modern times.  Similar disturbances occurred in
other parts of the country, notably at Stratford, Connecticut, in the house of Rev. Dr.
Phelps, a Presbyterian minister, where the manifestations (1850-51) were often violent
and the spirit-answers blasphemous.  In 1851 the Fox girls were visited in Buffalo by
three physicians who were professors in the university of that city.  As a result of their
examination the doctors declared that the "raps" were simply "crackings" of the knee-
joints.  But this statement did not lessen either the popular enthusiasm or the interest of
more serious persons.  The subject was taken up by men like Horace Greeley, Wm.
Lloyd Garrison, Robert Hare, professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania,
and John Worth Edmonds, a judge of the Supreme Court of New York State.
Conspicuous among the Spiritists was Andrew Jackson Davis, whose work, "The
Principles of Nature" (1847), dictated by him in trance, contained a theory of the
universe, closely resembling the Swedenborgian.  Spiritism also found earnest
advocates among clergymen of various denominations, especially the Universalists; it
appealed strongly to many people who had lost all religious belief in a future life; and
it was welcomed by those who were then agitating the question of a new social
organization--the pioneers of modern Socialism.  So widespread was the belief in
Spiritism that in 1854 Congress was petitioned to appoint a scientific commission for
the investigation of the phenomena.  The petition, which bore some 13,000 signatures,
was laid on the table, and no action was taken.

In Europe the way had been prepared for Spiritism by the Swedenborgian movement
and by an epidemic of table-turning which spread from the Continent to England and
invaded all classes of society.  It was still a fashionable diversion when, in 1852, two
mediums, Mrs. Hayden and Mrs. Roberts, came from America to London, and held
seances which attracted the attention of scientists as well as popular interest.  Faraday,
indeed, in 1853 showed that the table movements were due to muscular action, and Dr.
Carpenter gave the same explanation; but many thoughtful persons, notably among the
clergy, held to the Spiritistic interpretation.  This was accepted also by Robert Owen,
the socialist, while Professor De Morgan, the mathematician, in his account of a sitting
with Mrs. Hayden, was satisfied that "somebody or some spirit was reading his
thoughts".  The later development in England was furthered by mediums who came
from America: Daniel Dunglas Home (Hume) in 1855, the Davenport Brothers in 1864,
and Henry Slade in 1876.  Among the native mediums, Rev. William Stainton Moses
became prominent in 1872, Miss Florence Cook in the same year, and William Eglinton
in 1886.  Spiritism was advocated by various periodical publications, and defended in
numerous works some of which were said to have been dictated by the spirits
themselves, e. g., the "Spirit Teachings" of Stainton Moses, which purport to give an
account of conditions in the other world and form a sort of Spiritistic theology.  During
this period also, scientific opinion on the subject was divided.  While Professors Huxley
and Tyndall sharply denounced Spiritism in practice and theory, Mr. (later Sir Wm.)
Crookes and Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace regarded the phenomena as worthy of serious
investigation.  The same view was expressed in the report which the Dialectical Society
published in 1871 after an inquiry extending over eighteen months, and at the Glasgow
meeting of the British Association in 1876 Professor Barrett, F.R.S., concluded his
account of the phenomena he had observed by urging the appointment of a committee
of scientific men for the systematic investigation of such phenomena.          The growth
of Spiritism on the Continent was marked by similar transitions from popular curiosity
to serious inquiry.  As far back as 1787, the Exegetic and Philanthropic Society of
Stockholm, adhering to the Swedenborgian view, had interpreted the utterances of
"magnetized" subjects as messages from the spirit world.  This interpretation gradually
won favour in France and Germany; but it was not until 1848 that Cahagnet published
at Paris the first volume of his "Arcanes de la vie future devoilees", containing what
purported to be communications from the dead. The excitement aroused in Paris by
table-turning and rapping led to an investigation by Count Agenor de Gasparin, whose
conclusion ("Des Tables tournantes", (Paris, 1854) was that the phenomena originated in
some physical force of the human body.  Professor Thury of Geneva ("Les Tables
tournantes", 1855) concurred in this explanation.  Baron de Guldenstubbe ("La Realite
des Esprits" Paris, 1857), on the contrary, declared his belief in the reality of spirit
intervention, and M. Rivail, known later as Allan Kardec, published the "spiritualistic
philosophy" in "Le Livre des Esprits" (Paris, 1853), which became a guide-book to the
whole subject.

In Germany also Spiritism was an outgrowth from "animal magnetism". J. H. Jung in
his "Theorie der Geisterkunde" declared that in the state of trance the soul is freed from
the body, but he regarded the trance itself as a diseased condition.  Among the earliest
German clairvoyants was Frau Frederica Hauffe, the "Seeress of Prevorst", whose
experiences were related by Justinus Kerner in "Die Seherin von Prevorst" (Stuttgart,
1829).  In its later development Spiritism was represented in scientific and
philosophical circles by men of prominence, e. g., Ulrici, Fichte, Zullner, Fechner, and
Wm. Weber.  The last-named three conducted (1877-8) a series of experiments with the
American medium Slade at Leipzig.  The results were published in Zullner's
"Wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen" (cf. Massey, "Transcendental Physics", London,
1880, in which the portions relating to spiritism are translated).  Though considered
important at the time, this investigation, owing to lack of caution and accuracy, cannot
be regarded as a satisfactory test.  (Cf. "Report of the Seybert Commission",
Philadelphia, 1887--, which also contains an account of an investigation conducted at
the University of Pennsylvania with Slade and other mediums.)

         The foregoing outline shows that modern Spiritism within a generation had
passed beyond the limits of a merely popular movement and had challenged the
attention of the scientific world.  It had, moreover, brought about serious divisions
among men of science.  For those who denied the existence of a soul distinct from the
organism it was a foregone conclusion that there could be no such communications as
the Spiritists claimed.  This negative view, of course, is still taken by all who accept the
fundamental ideas of Materialism.  But apart from any such a priori considerations, the
opponents of Spiritism justified their position by pointing to innumerable cases of
fraud which were brought to light either through closer examination of the methods
employed or through the admissions of the mediums themselves.

         In spite, however, of repeated exposure, there occurred phenomena which
apparently could not be ascribed to trickery of any sort.  The inexplicable character of
these the sceptics attributed to faulty observation.  The Spiritistic practices were simply
set down as a new chapter in the long history of occultism, magic, and popular
superstition. On the other hand, a certain number of thinkers felt obliged to confess
that, after making due allowances for the element of fraud, there remained some facts
which called for a more systematic investigation.  In 1869 the London Dialectical
Society appointed a committee of thirty-three members "to investigate the phenomena
alleged to be spiritual manifestations, and to report thereon".  The committee's report
(1871) declares that "motion may be produced in solid bodies without material contact,
by some hitherto unrecognized force operating within an undefined distance from the
human organism, an beyond the range of muscular action"; and that "this force is
frequently directed by intelligence".  In 1882 there was organized in London the
"Society for Psychical Research" for the scientific examination of what its prospectus
terms "debatable phenomena".  A motive for investigation was supplied by the history
of hypnotism, which had been repeatedly ascribed to quackery and deception.
Nevertheless, patient research conducted by rigorous methods had shown that beneath
the error and imposture there lay a real influence which was to be accounted for, and
which finally was explained on the theory of suggestion.  The progress of Spiritism, it
was thought, might likewise yield a residuum of fact deserving scientific explanation.
The Society for Psychical Research soon counted among its members distinguished
representatives of science and philosophy in England and America; numerous
associations with similar aims and methods were organized in various countries.  The
"Proceedings" of the Society contain detailed reports of investigations in Spiritism and
allied subjects, and a voluminous literature, expository and critical, has been created.
Among the most notable works are: "Phantasms of the Living" by Gurney, Myers, and
Podmore (London, 1886); F.W.H. Myers, "Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily
Death" (London, 1903); and Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S., "The Survival of Man" (New York,
1909). In recent publications prominence is given to experiments with the mediums
Mrs. Piper of Boston and Eusapia Palladino of Italy; and important contributions to the
literature have been made by Professor Wm. James of Harvard, Dr. Richard Hodgson
of Boston, Professor Charles Richet (University of Paris), Professor Henry Sidgwick
(Cambridge University), Professor Th. Flournoy (University of Geneva), Professor
Morselli (University of Genoa), Professor Cesare Lombroso (University of Turin),
Professor James H. Hyslop (Columbia University), Professor Wm. R. Newbold
(University of Pennsylvania).  While some of these writers maintain a critical attitude,
others are outspoken in favour of Spiritism, and a few (Myers, James), lately deceased,
arranged before death to establish communication with their surviving associates.

HYPOTHESES

To explain the phenomena which after careful investigation and exclusion of fraud are
regarded as authentic, three hypotheses have been proposed.  The telepathic hypothesis
takes as its starting-point the so-called subliminal consciousness.  This, it is claimed, is
subject to disintegration in such wise that segments of it may impress another mind
(the percipient) even at a distance.  The personality is liberated, so to speak, from the
organism and invades the soul of another.  A medium, on this hypothesis, would
obtain information by thought-transference either from the minds of persons present at
the seance or from other minds concerning whom the sitters know nothing.  This view,
it is held, would accord with the recognized facts of hypnosis and with the results of
experimental telepathy; and it would explain what appear to be cases of possession.
Similar to this is the hypothesis of psychical radiations which distinguishes in man the
material body, the soul, and an intermediate principle, the "perispirit".  This is a subtle
fluid, or astral body, which in certain persons (mediums) can escape from the material
organism and thus form a "double".  It also accompanied the soul after death and it is
the means by which communication is established with the peri-spirit of the mediums.
The Spiritistic hypothesis maintains that the communications are received from
disembodied spirits.  Its advocates declare that telepathy is insufficient to account for
all the facts, that its sphere of influence would have to be enlarged so as to include all
the mental states and memories of living persons, and that even with such extension it
would not explain the selective character of the phenomena by which facts relevant for
establishing the personal identity of the departed are discriminated from those that are
irrelevant.  Telepathy at most may be the means by which discarnate spirits act upon
the minds of living persons.

         For those who admit that the manifestations proceed from intelligences other
than that of the medium, the next question in order is whether these intelligences are
the spirits of the departed or beings that have never been embodied in human forms.
The reply had often been found difficult even by avowed believers in Spiritism, and
some of these have been forced to admit the action of extraneous or non-human
intelligences. This conclusion is based on several sorts of evidence: the difficulty of
establishing spirit-identity, i. e., of ascertaining whether the communicator is actually
the personality he or it purports to be; the love of personation on the part of the spirits
which leads them to introduce themselves as celebrities who once lived on earth,
although on closer questioning they show themselves quite ignorant of those whom
they personate; the trivial character of the communications, so radically opposed to
what would be expected from those who have passed into the other world and who
naturally should be concerned to impart information on the most serious subjects; the
contradictory statements which the spirits make regarding their own condition, the
relations of God and man, the fundamental precepts of morality; finally the low moral
tone which often pervades these messages from spirits who pretend to enlighten
mankind. These deceptions and inconsistencies have been attributed by some authors
to the subliminal consciousness (Flournoy), by others to spirits of a lower order, i. e.,
below the plane of humanity (Stainton Moses), while a third explanation refers them
quite frankly to demonic intervention (Raupert, "Modern Spiritism", St. Louis, 1904; cf.
Grasset, "The Marvels beyond Science," tr. Tubeuf, New York, 1910).  For the Christian
believer this third view acquired special significance from the fact that the alleged
communications antagonize the essential truths of religion, such as the Divinity of
Christ, atonement and redemption, judgment and future retribution, while they
encourage agnosticism, pantheism, and a belief in reincarnation.

         Spiritism indeed claims that it alone furnishes an incontestable proof of
immortality, a scientific demonstration of the future life that far surpasses any
philosophical deduction of Spiritualism, while it gives the death-blow to Materialism.
This claim, however, rests upon the validity of the hypothesis that the communications
come from disembodied spirits; it gets no support from the telepathic hypothesis or
from that of demonic intervention.  If either of the latter should be verified the
phenomena would be explained without solving or even raising the problem of human
immortality.  If, again, it were shown that the argument based on the data of normal
consciousness and the nature of the soul cannot stand the test of criticism, the same test
would certainly be fatal to a theory drawn from the mediumistic utterances which are
not only the outcome of abnormal conditions, but are also open to widely different
interpretations.  Even where all suspicion of fraud or collusion is removed--and this is
seldom the case--a critical investigator will cling to the idea that phenomena which now
seem inexplicable may eventually, like so many other marvels, be accounted for
without having recourse to the Spiritistic hypothesis.  Those who are convinced, on
philosophical grounds, of the soul's immortality may say that communications from the
spirit world, if any such there be, go to strengthen their conviction; but to abandon their
philosophy and stake all on Spiritism would be more than hazardous; it would,
indirectly at least, afford a pretext for a more complete rejection of soul and
immortality.  In other words, if Spiritism were the sole argument for a future life,
Materialism, instead of being crushed, would triumph anew as the only possible theory
for science and common sense.

DANGERS

To this risk of philosophical error must be added the dangers, mental and moral, which
Spiritistic practices involve.  Whatever the explanations offered for the medium's
"powers", their exercise sooner or later brings about a state of passivity which cannot
but injure the mind.  This is readily intelligible in the hypothesis of an invasion by
extraneous spirits, since such a possession must weaken and tend to efface the normal
personality.  But similar results may be expected if, as the alternate hypothesis
maintains, a disintegration of the one personality takes place.  In either case, it is not
surprising that the mental balance should be disturbed, and self-control impaired or
destroyed.  Recourse to Spiritism frequently produces hallucinations and other
aberrations, especially in subjects who are predisposed to insanity; and even those who
are otherwise normal expose themselves to severe physical and mental strain (cf.
Viollet, "Le spiritisme dans ses rapports avec la folie", Paris, 1908).  More serious still is
the danger of moral perversion.  If to practise or encourage deception of any sort is
reprehensible, the evil is certainly greater when fraud is resorted to in the inquiry
concerning the future life.  But apart from any intention to deceive, the methods
employed would undermine the foundations of morality, either by producing a
disintegration of personality or by inviting the invasion of an extraneous intelligence.
It may be that the medium "yields, perhaps, innocently at first to the promptings of an
impulse which may come to him as from a higher power, or that he is moved by an
instinctive compulsion to aid in the development of his automatic romance--in any case,
if he continues to abet and encourage this automatic prompting, it is not likely that he
can long retain both honesty and sanity unimpaired.  The man who looks on at his
hand doing a thing, but acquits himself of responsibility for the thing done, can hardly
claim to be considered as a moral agent; and the step is short to instigating and
repeating a like action in the future, without the excuse of an overmastering impulse . .
To attend the seances of a professional medium is perhaps at worst to countenance a
swindle; to watch the gradual development of innocent automatism into physical
mediumship may be to assist at a process of moral degeneration" (Podmore, "Modern
Spiritualism", II, 326 sqq.).

ACTION OF THE CHURCH

As Spiritism has been closely allied with the practices of "animal magnetism" and
hypnotism, these several classes of phenomena have also been treated under the same
general head in the discussions of theologians and in the decisions of ecclesiastical
authority.  The Congregation of the Inquisition, 25 June, 1840, decreed: "Where all
error, sorcery, and invocation of the demon, implicit or explicit, is excluded, the mere
use of physical means which are otherwise lawful, is not morally forbidden, provided
it does not aim at unlawful or evil results.  But the application of purely physical
principles and means to things or effects that are really supernatural, in order to
explain these on physical grounds, is nothing else than unlawful and heretical
deception".  This decision was reiterated on 28 July, 1847, and a further decree was
issued on 30 July, 1856, which, after mentioning discourses about religion, evocation of
departed spirits and "other superstitious practices: of Spiritism, exhorts the bishops to
put forth every effort for the suppression of these abuses "in order that the flock of the
Lord may be protected against the enemy, the deposit of faith safeguarded, and the
faithful preserved from moral corruption".  The Second Plenary Council o Baltimore
(1866), while making due allowance for fraudulent practice in Spiritism, declares that
some at least of the manifestations are to be ascribed to Satanic intervention, and warns
the faithful against lending any support to Spiritism or eve, out of curiosity, attending
seances (Decreta, nn. 33-41).  The council points out, in particular, the anti-Christian
character of Spiritistic teachings concerning religion, and characterizes them as an
attempt to revive paganism and magic.  A decree of the Holy Office, 30 March, 1898,
condemns Spiritistic practices, even though intercourse with the demon be excluded
and communication sought with good spirits only.  In all these documents the
distinction is clearly drawn between legitimate scientific investigation and superstitious
abuses.  What the Church condemns in Spiritism is superstition with its evil
consequences for religion and morality.

EDWARD A. PACE

Transcribed by Janet Grayson

Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an effort aimed at placing the
entire Catholic Encyclopedia on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to contribute to this
worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-mail at ([email protected]). For
more information please download the file cathen.txt/.zip.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

  Provided courtesy of:

       Eternal Word Television Network
       PO Box 3610
       Manassas, VA 22110
       Voice: 703-791-2576
       Fax: 703-791-4250
       Data: 703-791-4336
       FTP: EWTN.COM
       Telnet: EWTN.COM
       Email address: [email protected]

  EWTN provides a Catholic online
  information and service system.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.ratthing.com. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.