Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern SpiritualismPutnam, Allen
Religion
Witchcraft of New England Explained by Modern Spiritualism
Putnam, Allen
Spiritualism; Witchcraft -- New England
In many subsequent examinations and trials, these magistrates required the
accused to look upon the afflicted ones, and special note was taken of the
apparent action of the supposed evil eye upon the sensitive children.
Belief was held and acted upon by these examiners, that, if the accused
were guilty, the guilt might be revealed by observable effects of
emanations from the witch's eye upon those whom she had been bent upon
tormenting. Possibly human experience and observation had gained knowledge
of facts which furnished substantial foundation for such belief. The eye
of the powerful mesmerist is very potent in action upon those whom he has
been accustomed to subdue to his will. If the children quailed and
suffered under the gaze of the accused, inference might be drawn that they
had previously been brought into servitude by imperceptible forces
proceeding from that person. Forces of that nature probably go forth more
profusely from the eye than any other part of man, though that is not
their only point of egress. Any part of the body may let them out. This
fact, no doubt, was assumed of old by would-be witch detectors, for they
often required the accused to touch their accusers, or the reverse. And
generally the contact was attended by convulsions, spasms, pains, or other
distress, or by cessation of annoyances. Such results are moderate
evidence that forces pertaining to departed spirits were then operating
upon the disturbed ones; for emanations from such source are frequently
more agitating and agonizing, or more calming and pleasurable, than any
that come forth from the simple mesmerizer. One reason for this augmented
effect, as given through mediumistic lips, is, that the greater remove of
properties of freed spirits from homogeneousness with those of flesh-robed
ones, than exists between the properties of any two mortals, naturally
causes either greater commotion or greater calmness when the disembodied
ones effect contact with those robed in flesh, than ever occurs upon the
confluence of streams exclusively mundane. It should be remembered that
spirits, when in rapport with mortal forms, have power not only to will
agonies and motions therein, but also to command and efficiently use
appliances needful to produce them. Where Tituba's tall man with white
hair was controller of performances, all such sufferings and antics as
history describes may have occurred at trials for witchcraft, and yet few
of them may have been willed to come forth by any mortal. Vailed from
external perceptions, that powerful operator shaped the speech, the
actions, and the sufferings of all the impressible ones, whether accused
or accusers, at his sole pleasure. What his object and his motives were
are not matters for consideration at this stage of our investigations.
The examining magistrates, John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, subscribed
to the following account of this examination.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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