The Spirit LandEmmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Religion
The Spirit Land
Emmons, Samuel B. (Samuel Bulfinch)
Occultism -- Early works to 1900; Spiritualism
It is said to be impossible that any mere human being could inform
persons, with whom they never had any previous knowledge or
acquaintance, of the past, present, and future events of their
lives--whether they are married or single, the number of their children
living and dead, age, health, business, letters expected, the
whereabout of long-absent friends, &c. It is supposed that such
information must indeed emanate from the spirit world. Yet precisely
such things are and always have been told, more or less, by astrologers
and fortune tellers, without any pretensions to being in league with
spirits of the other worlds. We have said that fortune tellers do not
always tell correctly; but, as poor an opinion as we have of them, we
will venture to assert that they are full as correct, if not more so,
in the information they give, as the members of the Fox family, or any
of their contemporaries, of the alleged _spiritual_ manifestations.
Persons of sane mind, though ever so ignorant of arithmetic or
orthography, can tell at least how many children they have, and are
usually able to spell their own names; but one who has spent a good
deal of time in witnessing the performances of the _spirit rappers_,
says, "They seem to be unwilling or unable to answer purely test
questions, like that of answering their own names. I have never known
them to do this," says he, "though often solicited." He also speaks of
their great deficiency in mathematics, not being able to enumerate the
number of children they have on earth with any thing like accuracy. "I
am aware that such questions have sometimes been correctly answered,
and I have heard them so answered; but I have much more frequently
known them to refuse entirely, or to do it very awkwardly, or to fail
entirely in the attempt. Out of five numbers four were erroneously
selected as the right one. The fifth was right, of course. This goes to
show, at least, that spirits have greatly _deteriorated_, rather than
_improved_, while inhabiting the celestial spheres." But this is not
all. The facility of communication between the two classes of beings is
also on the decline. The time was when ghosts or spirits held free
conversation with those they visited, without calling in the aid of
clairvoyancy or electricity. Neither did they resort, like modern
spirits, to the slow and clumsy mode of communication, through the
letters of the alphabet. In spelling out a sentence by letters, one of
the ladies commences repeating the alphabet; and when the desired
letter is mentioned, a rap is heard. In this slow and tedious process,
long sentences are communicated. No wonder that the slowness of the
mode of communication should be considered as "perfectly appalling."
And then, too, the substance of these communications is too absurd and
ridiculous to be believed. We might here refer to the information given
by the prophet Swedenborg himself, in relation to the condition of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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