The Spirit LandEmmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Religion
The Spirit Land
Emmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Spiritualism
Letters, and lines written upon scraps of paper, have, it is said, been
sent from the other world. The following was dropped from the ceiling
of Mrs. Phelps's parlor when she and others were present.
"Sir,--Sir Sambo's compliments, and begs the ladies to accept as a
token of his esteem." Other papers have been similarly written upon,
and signed "Sam Slick," "The Devil," "Beelzebub," "Lorenzo Dow," &c.
On the 15th of March, 1850, a large turnip was thrown against Dr.
Phelps's parlor window, having several characters carved out upon it,
somewhat resembling the Chinese characters. A _fac-simile_ of them
may be found in Davis's explanation of Modern Mysteries, page 55.
Some may receive such things as emanations from the spirit world; but
to us they seem too simple and puerile to be considered as having any
thing to do with the higher spheres.
Dr. Phelps, who has been witness to every species of manoeuvre of the
alleged spirit rappers, says that he has become fully satisfied that no
reliance whatever is to be placed on their communications, either as a
source of valuable information, or as a means of acquiring truth. "I am
satisfied," says he, "that their communications are _wholly worthless_.
They are often contradictory, often prove false, frequently trifling
and nonsensical, and more in character with what might be expected of a
company of loafers on a spree than from spirits returned from a world
of retribution to 'tell the secrets of their prison house.'"
With regard to moving tables, chairs, beds, &c., Mr. Davis says that,
"at a circle of friends in Bridgeport, Connecticut, there was a large
congregation of spirits, who, from a distance of eighty miles, or
thirty above the atmosphere of our earth, directed a mighty column of
vital electricity and magnetism, which column or current, penetrating
all intermediate substances, and by a process of infiltration, entered
the fine particles of matter which composed the table, and raised it,
several successive times, three or four feet from the floor!" This we
are to receive upon his authority, or upon the testimony of those who
may say they saw the table moved. But if the operator can _make things
appear_ that _never occurred or existed_, and can _imagine_ a thing,
and have that _imagination transferred to others_, then what evidence
have we that _spirits_ are concerned in the transaction? Just none
at all. A while ago, we heard of an Italian, at the Massachusetts
Hospital, who could raise tables from the floor without touching them;
and the art of so doing, he said, he learned in Italy. And how are we
to account for the Millerites and others being so raised, as they
believed? Are they not as much to be credited as those who profess a
belief in the miracles of the "harmonial philosophers"? For ourselves,
we are satisfied that such things, for the most part, are but a
delusion, whether they are alleged to take place among those supposed
to be bewitched, the Adventists, or the harmonials.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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