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CHAPTER XXVIII.

CHARLATANISM.

Mercenary mediumship - Sham spiritism.

Paid Mediums.

304. As everything may be made a source of pecuniary profit, it would not be strange if attempts were made to turn spiritism to that purpose; but the spirits would probably be at no loss to show their opinion of such a speculation, should it be attempted, for it is evident that nothing could be more easily abused by charlatans than such a trade.

On the other hand, it is to be remarked that, although the turning of the medianimic faculty into a source of gain must lay its genuineness open to suspicion, it would not be a proof that such suspicion is founded; for a medium may possess real medianimic aptitude, and employ it with perfect honesty, while receiving payment. Let us see, then, what are the results that may be reasonably hoped for under such circumstances.

305. If our readers have carefully weighed what we have said of the conditions necessary for inducing superior spirits to communicate, of the causes which repel them, and of the circumstances independent of their will that are often an obstacle to their coming, they will see that no medium, whatever his faculty or moral worth, could pretend to have them constantly at his beck and call; while, on the other hand, the repugnance of the higher spirits to everything

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connected with terrestrial aims and interests would indispose them towards any attempt to make a traffic of their manifestations.

306. The same considerations are applicable, not only to mediums who receive payment in money, but to all who turn their faculty to the furtherance of their worldly affairs; for self-interest does not always take the form of seeking pecuniary gain, but is shown as certainly by every sort of contrivance for the furtherance of ambition or of any other personal aim. To sum up: Medianimity is a faculty given for a high and holy purpose, and spirits of high advancement withdraw from those who make it a steppingstone to any other ends than those marked out for it by Providence.

307. Physical mediums are not in the same category as those who habitually receive intelligent communications. The physical phenomena are usually produced by lower and less scrupulous spirits; and mediums of this category, desirous to turn their faculty to pecuniary account, may therefore find willing assistants among the spirits with whom they are habitually connected. But the medium for physical effects, like the medium for intelligent manifestations, has not been endowed with this faculty for his own pleasure merely. It has been given him in order that he may make a good use of it; should he do otherwise, it may be taken from him, or it may turn to his disadvantage, the lower spirits being always under the orders of the higher ones, who sometimes use them for the punishment of unfaithful mediums.

308. From the preceding considerations we conclude that the most entire disinterestedness, on the part of evokers and of mediums, is the best guarantee against deception; for, although it does not always suffice to insure the intellectual superiority of the communications received, it deprives evil spirits of a powerful means of action and shuts the mouths of detractors.

309. We need give but a few words to the comparatively innocent trickery of those who may be called amateur charlatans; that is to say, those who imitate spirit mani-

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festations for the amusement of an evening-party. But, though such trickery may gratify the shallow and frivolous, every attempt of the kind must be regarded as exceedingly reprehensible when made in serious centres, or palmed off upon serious inquirers.

310. It may perhaps be said that a professional medium who gives up his time to the public cannot be expected to do so for nothing; for he must live. True but, even in this case, he must see to it that he adopts the medianimic profession for the good of spiritism, and not because he regards it as a lucrative calling. Let him never forget that spirits, whatever their superiority or inferiority, are the souls of deceased men and women, and that, while morality and religion prescribe it as a duty to respect the bodily remains of the departed, it is still more incumbent on us to respect their souls. And neither mediums nor those who address themselves to them must ever lose sight of the fact that physical manifestations, as well as manifestations of the intellectual order, are only permitted by Providence for our moral instruction and improvement.

311. While urging attention to these self-evident considerations, we have not the least intention of denying that paid mediums may be found who are both honourable and conscientious. We only refer to those who misuse their faculty; and it must be conceded that, for the reasons we have given, such misuse is more likely to occur in the case of paid mediums than in the case of those who, regarding their faculty as a talent entrusted to them for high and holy purposes, employ it solely as a means of rendering service to others.

The degree of confidence to be accorded to a paid medium depends, in the first place, on the esteem commanded by his character and morality, and, in the next place, on circumstances. The medium who is prevented from following any other employment, by the fact that he is devoting his time and strength to a work which is eminently useful and advantageous to the community at large, is thereby justified in taking payment for his services and

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such a medium is not to be confounded with the mere speculator who, from no other motive than the desire of gain, makes a traffic of his medianimity. The payment of mediums may therefore be condemned, absolved, or favoured, according to the motive and aim of each individual medium; the intention of the medium, rather than the material fact of payment, furnishing the basis of our judgement.

312. With somnambulists who utilise their faculty for pay, the case is not the same, although they, also, may make a bad use of their gift, and although disinterestedness must always be the best guarantee of sincerity; for their position is a different one, because it is their own spirit which acts, and therefore their faculty is always at their own command. The somnambulist trades only upon himself, and is free to dispose as he chooses of his own action whereas the mercenary medium trades upon the souls of others. (See Somnambulist Mediums, §172.)

313. We are well aware that our severity with regard to mercenary mediumship has gained us the ill-will of those who are tempted to make of spiritism a source of worldly gain, and of their friends, who naturally side with them hut we console ourselves with the thought that the buyers and sellers in the Temple, who were driven out by Jesus, can hardly be supposed to have regarded His action with complacency.

We have also against us many of those who do not regard the question in so serious a light as is done by us; but if our view of the subject has been adopted by the immense majority of spiritists, it is, doubtless, because their experience has shown them that it is the right one. At all events, we do not see how any one can maintain that there is not a greater risk of fraud and of misuse of the medianimic faculty, when the latter is made a matter of speculation, than when it is exercised with entire disinterestedness and if our writings have contributed, in France and other countries, to discredit the turning of mediumship into a trade, we believe it will not be the least of the services they will have rendered to the cause of spiritism.

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Sham-manifestations.

314. Those who do not admit the possibility of the physical manifestations of spirits, generally suppose their production to be the result of fraud. They found their supposition on the fact that skilful conjurors do things which appear to be prodigies to those who are not in the secret of their tricks and they accordingly conclude that mediums are nothing more than jugglers. We have already refuted this argument, or rather this opinion, especially in our articles on Mr Home and in the Revue Spirite of January and February 1858; we will therefore say only a few words on this point before touching on a point still more important.

A consideration which can hardly fail to occur to anyone who reflects upon the subject is this, viz., that, although there are, undoubtedly, conjurors whose skill is really prodigious, they are few in number. If all mediums practised sleight-of-hand, it would have to be admitted that the art of conjuring had not only made most wonderful progress in these latter days, but that it had suddenly become exceedingly common, since the medianimic faculty is now found to be innate in people who had no suspicion of its existence in themselves, and even among children.

There are quacks who vend their worthless nostrums in the streets and squares, and even physicians who, without going down into the highways, impose upon the confidence of their patients; but does it follow, from the fact of these abuses, that all physicians are charlatans, and that the whole medical body is unworthy of respect?

Because some dealers sell dye-stuffs for wine, does it follow that all wine merchants are adulterators, and that pure wine is not to be found? All things, even the best, are imitated, and to such a point that fraud may even be said to assume in some cases the stamp of genius. But fraud has always a personal object, a material interest, of some kind or other, to compass; where nothing is to be gained, there is no temptation to deceive; and, as we remarked in reference to mercenary

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mediums, the best of all guarantees of the genuineness of the phenomena is the absolute disinterestedness of the mediums through whom they occur.

315. Of all spirit-manifestations, the most easily imitable are the physical phenomena, for reasons which it is well to take into consideration: - First, because, from the fact of their being addressed to the eyes rather than to the intelligence, these phenomena are the ones which conjuring can most readily imitate; and, secondly, because they stimulate curiosity more generally than do the others, and are therefore the ones most likely to attract the crowd, and consequently to be the most lucrative. For both these reasons, charlatans find it most to their interest to simulate this class of phenomena; the spectators, for the most part strangers to spiritism, usually go to such exhibitions for amusement rather than for any serious purpose, and as what amuses pays better than what instructs, amusement is all that the charlatan provides for them.

But there is yet another argument still more peremptory. Conjuring can imitate certain physical manifestations, for which nothing more than address is required; but it has not, up to the present time, been able to simulate, for instance, the gift of improvisation, which, in fact, requires an amount of intelligence quite above the common level, nor to produce the grand and sublime dictations, so admirably appropriate as regards time and place, which are often given by spirits. Here is a fact illustrative of the foregoing assertion: -

A well-known literary man once came to see us, stating that he was a good intuitive writing medium, and would be happy to join the Spiritist Society. As it was a rule with us not to admit to our meetings any mediums but those whose faculties were already known to us, we begged him to give us an opportunity of witnessing his medianimity at a private meeting. He assented to this request, and came to the meeting proposed, where a number of excellent mediums were assembled, some of whom gave dissertations of great interest, while others gave answers of remarkable precision to questions relating in some cases to subjects

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unknown to them. When this gentleman's turn came to read the communication received by him, he read off a few insignificant words, remarked that "he was not up to the mark that day," and made a hasty retreat. He had probably discovered that, to play the part of a medium for intellectual manifestations was very much more difficult than he had supposed; for, from that time, we saw no more of him.

316. It is always those who do not understand a matter that are most easily deceived in regard to it. It is so with spiritism; those who know nothing about it are easily led away by appearances, while those who have made an attentive study of the subject beforehand, understand not only the cause of the phenomena they witness, but the conditions under which they may be produced, and are thus furnished with the means of detecting fraud if such should be attempted.

317. Sham-mediums are stigmatised, as they deserve to be, in the following letter, which we quote from the Revue Spirite of August 1861:

- ''PARIS, July 21st, 1861.

"SIR, - I have read in the last number of the Revue Spirite your remarks in reference to fraudulent imitations of spirit-manifestations, and in these I most heartily concur.

"I am not, perhaps, quite so severe as you are in regard to paid mediumship, for I see nothing wrong in the action of mediums who, in an upright and becoming way, accept remuneration for the time devoted by them to experimentations which are often long and fatiguing; but I am quite as much so - and it is impossible to be too much so - in regard to those who sometimes resort to fraud and trickery, to make up for the absence or insufficiency of results that have been promised beforehand on one side, and that are expected on the other (See 311).

"To mingle falsehood with truth, when the obtaining of phenomena by the intervention of spirits is in question, is simply infamous; and all moral sense must be obliterated in the medium who could venture on such a proceeding. As you truly say, frauds of this character, which are sure to be

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discovered sooner or later, bring discredit on the cause itself in the mind of those who are undecided. I add that it compromises most cruelly the honourable men who have afforded to such mediums the disinterested support of their knowledge and countenance, who have vouched for their honesty, and who have given them, so to say, their patronage. Such conduct, on the part of mediums, is treason to the friends who have trusted and helped them.

"All mediums who are convicted of fraudulent manoeuvres, all who have been caught tricking, should be placed under the ban of all the spiritists and spiritualists of the world, who should consider it as their bounden duty to unmask and to expose them.

"If you think proper to insert these lines in your periodical, they are at your service. -Yours, &c. ... "

318. All spirit-phenomena are not imitated with equal facility; and there are some which absolutely defy the efforts of the most skilful conjuror. Among these may be mentioned the movement of objects without contact, the suspension of heavy bodies in space, rappings heard, at the demand of those present, in various places, provided these phenomena are produced under conditions which exclude the possibility of trickery and collusion; in order to ascertain which point we must carefully observe all the attendant circumstances of each case, taking into consideration the character and position of the parties concerned, and the interest they may have in deceiving; and always remembering that deceit is not likely to exist where nothing is to be gained by it.

A few words will suffice to put inquirers on their guard against the tricks sometimes resorted to for simulating spirit-phenomena.

319. The tiltings of tables are sometimes imitated by pressure of the hands and feet, and the rappings in the same, by movements of the hands, or of boot-heels, &c. Genuine spirit-raps, however, are easily distinguished from

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sham ones by their changes of quality and place, at the demand of the sitters, by being repeated in various pieces of furniture in different parts of the room, in the floor, the walls, the ceiling, the air, &C., and by their replying to questions on subjects not known to the medium, which cannot be done by any method of simulation (See 41).

320. Direct writing is still more easy to imitate than are the raps; not to speak of sympathetic inks, mediums have sometimes been caught in the act of writing with a particle of black lead, or slate-pencil, hidden under one of their nails.

321. The phenomenon of the transport of objects is also one that is open to trickery, and that may be imitated with the aid of clever management, even by those who do not possess the skill of the professional conjuror. We have given above (96) the statements of spirits, showing the exceptional conditions under which, alone, this class of phenomena can be produced; and we may therefore safely conclude that the claim of a medium to obtain phenomena of this order at pleasure must always be regarded with suspicion.

322. In the chapter on Special Mediums, we indicated, according to spirit direction, the medianimic aptitudes that are common, and those that are rare. Mediums who profess to obtain the rarer phenomena too easily, or to cumulate too many varieties of mediumity, lay themselves thereby open to suspicion.

323. Intelligent manifestations are usually the most reliable; nevertheless, even these are not always safe from imitation. As previously remarked, it is sometimes thought that there is more security with mechanical mediums, not only as regards independence of ideas, but also as regards trickery; for which reason some persons prefer to employ the material appliances described above. But such persons are mistaken; fraud slips in everywhere, and nothing is easier, for instance, than to direct a planchette at pleasure, giving to it the appearance of spontaneous movement. What alone removes all doubt is the expression of thought;

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whether through a mechanical, intuitive, auditive, speaking, or seeing medium. Some communications are so far beyond the knowledge, or the intellectual grasp, of the medium, that it would be impossible to attribute them to him. We admit that charlatanism is very skilful, and that it possesses a great variety of resources; but we do not admit that it can give knowledge to the ignorant, intellect to the stupid, or familiarity with names, dates, places, and circumstances, unknown to the medium.

To sum up, we repeat that the best guarantee of the genuineness of any manifestation is furnished by the character and position of the medium, and by the absence of all motives of worldly interest or vanity in the exercise of his faculty; because the same stimulus of unworthy motives, which would prompt a medium to make an interested use of a faculty really possessed by him, might also prompt him to simulate that faculty if he did not really possess it.