The Spirit LandEmmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Religion
The Spirit Land
Emmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Spiritualism
A Mrs. Draper, of Rochester, New York, had an interview with Dr.
Franklin, at one time, while she was in a magnetized state. She said he
appeared to be busily employed in establishing a line of communication
between the two worlds by means of these "rappings." On another
occasion, while in a clairvoyant state, at her own house, sounds were
heard in exact imitation of those heard in the telegraph office. These
sounds were so unusual, that Miss Margaretta Fox, who was present,
became alarmed, and said, "What does all this mean?" Mrs. Draper
replied, "_He is trying the batteries_." Soon there was a signal for
the alphabet, and the following communication was spelled out to the
company present. "Now I am ready, my friends. There will be great
changes in the nineteenth century. Things that now look dark and
mysterious to you, will be laid plain before your sight. Mysteries are
going to be revealed. The world will be enlightened. I sign my name,
Benjamin Franklin."
It seems that, in the early history of these rappings, they used to be
without any limitations as to whether persons were in a magnetized
state or not. The first we learn of magnetism being employed as a
_medium_ of communication is in the case of a daughter of Lyman
Granger, in Rochester, New York. For a long time, answers could be
obtained by any _two_ (why _two_?) of the family standing near each
other. And in the freedom of the answers, no preference seemed to be
manifested towards any particular members of the family. At length, one
of his daughters was placed under the influence of magnetism, and
became clairvoyant. From that time none of the family could get
communications unless the daughter who was magnetized was present. Why
the communications should leave all the family except the magnetized
daughter, after they once had free conversation without her, remains to
be explained. The whole business now seems to be pretty much, if not
wholly, monopolized by the clairvoyants. They seem to be employed as
agents, or mediums of correspondence, between the two worlds, acting as
interpreters between two classes of beings, or beings existing in two
different states, _natural_ and _spiritual_. They act as a kind of
_spiritual postmasters_ between the two countries. We find _spiritual
letter paper_, and _envelopes_ to enclose the same, advertised for
those who wish to avail themselves of an opportunity to write to their
deceased friends in the other spheres. Letters said to have been
written in the spirit world have been transmitted through the
established mediums to friends in this world, and have been published
in some of the papers devoted to these subjects. In the New York Daily
Tribune of February 28, 1851, we find the prospectus of a quarto
journal, to be published in Auburn, "to be dictated by spirits out of
the flesh, and by them edited, superintended, and controlled. Its
object is the disclosure of truth from Heaven, guiding mankind into
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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