New York Daily Tribune

JUDGE EDMONDS ON SPIRITUALISM....II.
MEDIUMSHIP.
To the Editor of The N. Y. Tribune.
Sir: I shall devote this and the next paper to
Mediumship and the Circles-the chief instrumental-
ities of spiritual intercourse. And I remark-
First: That the manifestation of the spirit power
seems to be generally connected with the living human
form. I say generally; because there seem to be some
cases where the phenomena do not require or are not
connected solely with the person. Haunted houses
are of that kind. So are cases of inanimate objects
moving in the absence of any person. And the brute
creation are sometimes affected. The devils entering
the herd of swine, and Balaam's ass seeing the angel
before his rider did, are instances of this. I am
informed of a case, where a fierce watch-dog saw a
spirit at the same moment his master did, and fled
frightened. And in the "Seeress of Prevorst," it is
said: "A black terrier that was in the house was
"always aware of the presence of the spirit, and kept
"howling to his master; neither would he lie alone at
"night."
These, however, are exceptions to the rule that the
living human form is necessary to the intercourse.
Second: The existence of the mediumistic power is
the result of physical rather than of mental or moral
organization.
What that peculiarity of organization is, I confess I do
not know. I at one time thought the power was con-
nected with a nervous, excitable temperament; but I
have seen it just as strong in a stupid, stolid person.
It does not depend upon age, nor upon sex, nor upon
color; not upon climate or locality, nor upon condition;
for rich and poor, high and low, educated and ignorant,
married and single, male and female, young and old,
white and black, are alike developed as mediums.
And my marvel is that men of science, instead of
acting like scared children, do not look into it like
men of sense, and find out what it is that is thus
strangely affecting all classes. Surely, it may as well
be discovered as many other things connected with
man, which were once as profound mysteries as this is.
Its existence in our midst cannot be ignored any lon-
ger, nor will thinking people be much longer satisfied
with general denunciations of its delusive or demoni-
acal nature. And science owes it to mankind to meet
the question, not with self-complacent sneers-
The Atheist's laugh 's a poor exchange
For a society offended-
but with careful, judicious investigation. In France,
it meets with such sensible treatment. But among the
savans of America, with the exception of Prof. Hare
and Prof. Mapes, it is received as the appearance of a
comet was in the days of my childhood among fright-
ened boys, with anything but philosophic calmness.
Third: Mediumship is capable of being improved
by culture.
I have known physical mediumship to begin with
faint and almost inaudible rappings, and end with loud,
clear and distinct sounds; to begin with a slight mo-
tion of a table, and after a while find itself amid a
riotous movement of inanimate objects. I have known
the mental kind to begin with writing more "pot-
hooks and hangers" and unmeaning characters, and
go on to write with ease and distinctness; to begin
with seeing a faint, shadowy form, and end with so
distinct a vision of the spirit as to be able to identify
the person; to begin with a confused perception of
something to be communicated, and progress to the point
of receiving thought clearly and distinctly from this
unseen intelligence.
It seems to be like other of our attributes-like our
power to read, write or cypher-to paint or make
music-belonging to us as part of our nature, and capa-
ble of being made available by culture.
I found it so in my own case. The first signs of me-
diumship in me came when I was alone in my library,
and in the form of an impression on my mind. It
might be called imagination, for it was very like the
process of building castles in the air, and yet it was
different. It was presenting to my consciousness an
acting, continuing scene, with a lesson told by the to-
tality of the incidents. The process was novel to me,
and I watched it with a good deal of interest. I dis-
covered that I had nothing to do with it, but to be a
passive recipient of a train of thought, imparted to me
from a source outside of or beyond myself: that is, the
thoughts did not originate in my intelligence.
My next step was to behold a scene presented to my
vision like a moving panorama, and not merely a men-
tal impression. I seemed to see, though I know I did
not see with my usual organs of sight. And it was
remarkable that the intelligence that was dealing with
me, presented the picture more or less rapidly, as it
discovered I had taken in its details; and after going
through with it once thus deliberately, it presented it
to me a second time, but more rapidly, evidently for
the purpose of so impressing it on my memory that I
could narrate it.
My next step was to see an individual spirit, that of
an old friend who had been dead six or eight years. I
was in my room at work, not thinking of him, and sud-
denly I saw him sitting by my side, near enough for
me to touch him. I perceived that I could exchange
thoughts with him, for, in answer to my question, he
told me why he had come.
Next, I beheld spirit scenes, which I was told were
the actual, living realities of the spirit world, scenes in
which individuals and numbers were moving, acting,
thinking, as we do in this life, and conveying to me a
vivid idea of life in the next stage of existence.
During all these steps of progress, I could converse
with the spirits whom I saw, as easily as I could talk
with any living mortal, and I held discussions and ar-
guments with them as I have with mortals.
My daughter, who had long resisted the belief, one
day requested to witness a manifestation, and I
sought an interview with her mother, in order to bring
it about advantageously. The spirit came to me, and
I communed with her for half an hour. We reasoned
together as in life, discussed various suggestions, and
concerted a plan.
It will hardly do to say this was imagination in me;
for the plan thus concerted was, after a lapse of a few
weeks, carried out without my intervention. A female
a stranger to both mother and daughter, was brought
to my house from a distant city, and through her,
while entranced and unconscious, was given to my
daughter a parting injunction of her mother, which
death had interrupted two years before.
Nor will it do to say this was a mere reflex of the
minds of the living, for my daughter alone knew of
the injunction which had been given, and knew not
the conclusion until she heard it.
Thus has my mediumship progressed from shadows
impression of an allegory, to seeing spirits, conversing
with them, and receiving thoughts from them with
clarity and distinctness. Why may not this be equally
true of every one?
Fourth: Mediumship has an infinite variety of phase
-the same that is witnessed in human character and
human action, and absolutely precluding the idea of
collusion.
Fifth: It comes at its pleasure, and not ours, but
observing the proper conditions, we may aid it
coming. So we may surround ourselves by circum-
stances which will retard or prevent its coming; but
we cannot make it come at our pleasure. There is no
greater anomaly connected with the subject than the
extent and manner of our control over it, and no part
of it where improvement by culture can be greater.
This control seems to belong to man as part of his na-
ture, and can be so acquired by him as entirely to fore-
stall any power to do harm.
Sixth: Wherever it appears, in whatever part of
the world, it has the same general characteristics.
Thus, among the slaves at the South, I learn that it
comes in the same form as among the free at the
North. I have been told by a missionary in San Do-
mingo that such was its appearance among the igno-
rant negroes there. A French gentleman who had
been in Algeria described to me the same thing among
the Arabs. Two Spaniards, who had never heard of
the phenomenon, found it obscurely in Cadiz with the
same features. An English gentleman came to my
house out of curiosity, and, hearing it described, ex-
claimed that it was the same thing which had occurred
at his father's country mansion years ago, but they did
not know what it was.
This accordance in feature everywhere, is a pretty
formidable argument against the theory of collusion
and delusion.
Seventh: Though I have said that it depends mainly
on physical organization, I must not be understood as
implying that mental or moral causes do not affect it.
I know of no kind of mediumship that is entirely ex-
empt from the effect of the human mind, and I know
many cases where, the power being abused, it has been
interrupted. The most frequent cause of interruption.
is the perversion of it to selfish purposes. One me-
dium, I knew, who became grasping, avaricious, in
spite of warnings. His power was suspended until he
reformed. A young girl, taken from the streets as a
rag-picker, with great power, was used by an old
woman to make money out of. Not only was the child
taken from her, but the power taken from the child.
When it is necessary for my daughter to rest from her
labors, the power is temporarily suspended.
But it is not always that it will be stopped at our
pleasure. When the desire to stop it is purely selfish,
they will often pay no attention to it. I know a case,
where a female, afraid that her business might be hurt,
refused to be used. She was followed by the manifes-
tations until she yielded, and then all was well. My
daughter and niece long resisted the belief, and for a
whole year my house was haunted with noises and
other performances until they yielded, and then it
stopped. If they omitted their evening devotions on
going to bed, they would be disturbed until they said
their prayers, and then all would be quiet.
I could enumerate many kindred instances, but my
space compels me to be content with saying, as the
result of my experience, that where the power is
yielded to and used with good sense and from pure
motives, it seldom hurts, but is generally productive
of good; but when perverted to selfish purposes, it
will, first or last, be interrupted, or bring punishment
in its train, and sometimes both.
Eighth: Mediumship frequently changes in the same
person in its form of manifestation, and this not at the
discretion of the instrument. I know one who, at first.
was a medium for rapping, table-tippings and the like;
then she wrote mechanically thoughts not her own:
then she spoke in many tongues; then she sang and
played words and music unknown to her: then she
personated the departed; then saw spirits; then spoke
by impression; then was clairvoyant, seeing earthly
distant objects; then she prophesied, and then com-
muned freely with the dead, and conveyed their mes-
sages of affection and instruction to their surviving
friends.
Ninth: I have observed that though ill health will
not always prevent, yet a sound state of health is most
favorable to the manifestation, and the health will
never be injured when the power is discreetly used.
Over-indulgence in it, as in other things, will be
injurious.
And, Finally, for space compels me to stop, I have
observed that, in every form which mediumship has
assumed, there has been ever manifest one great ob-
ject in view-steadily aimed at throughout-and that
was to open a communication between mortals and the
invisible world; and to that end intelligence displaying
itself, and forcing ever upon the rational mind this
most important inquiry, Whence comes THIS INTEL-
LIGENCE?
J. W. EDMONDS.
New-York, April 2, 1859.