A defence of modern spiritualismWallace, Alfred Russel
Religion
A defence of modern spiritualism
Wallace, Alfred Russel
Spiritualism
Now, at this point, an inquirer, who had not pre-judged the question,
and who did not believe his own knowledge of the universe to be so
complete as to justify him in rejecting all evidence for facts which he
had hitherto considered to be in the highest degree improbable, might
fairly say, “Your evidence for the appearance of visible, tangible,
spiritual forms, is very strong; but I should like to have them
submitted to a crucial test, which would quite settle the question of
the possibility of their being due to a coincident delusion of several
senses of several persons at the same time; and, if satisfactory, would
demonstrate their objective reality in a way nothing else can do. If
they really reflect or emit light which makes them visible to human
eyes, _they can be photographed_. Photograph them, and you will have an
unanswerable proof that your human witnesses are trustworthy.” Two years
ago we could only have replied to this very proper suggestion, that we
believed it had been done and could be again done, but that we had no
satisfactory evidence to offer. Now, however, we are in a position to
state, not only that it has been frequently done, but that the evidence
is of such a nature as to satisfy any one who will take the trouble
carefully to examine it. This evidence we will now lay before our
readers, and we venture to think they will acknowledge it to be most
remarkable.
Before doing so it may be as well to clear away a popular misconception.
Mr. Lewes advised the Dialectical Committee to distinguish carefully
between “facts and inferences from facts.” This is especially necessary
in the case of what are called spirit photographs. The figures which
occur in these, when not produced by any human agency, may be of
“spiritual” origin, without being figures “of spirits.” There is much
evidence to show that they are, in some cases, forms produced by
invisible intelligences, but distinct from them. In other cases the
intelligence appears to clothe itself with matter capable of being
perceived by us; but even then it does not follow that the form produced
is the actual image of the spiritual form. It may be but a reproduction
of the former mortal form with its terrestrial accompaniments, _for
purposes of recognition_.
Most persons have heard of these “ghost-pictures,” and how easily they
can be made to order by any photographer, and are therefore disposed to
think they can be of no use as evidence. But a little consideration will
show them that the means by which sham ghosts can be manufactured being
so well known to all photographers, it becomes easy to apply tests or
arrange conditions so as to prevent imposition. The following are some
of the more obvious:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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