Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

THE FAILURES OF SPIRITISM 203
could materialise spirits,
and who was of undoubted
integrity a Mrs. Mellor; and yet she was afterwards
detected in the grossest fraud in Sydney.
Mr. Bishop, the well-known thought-reader, could
give the contents of sealed envelopes with perfect
ease, and had read them hundreds of times; but
when Mr. Labouchere put a bank-note for a large sum
of money in an envelope and offered it to Mr. Bishop
if he could read the number of it, he failed to do so
in spite of the most determined attempts. Only by
this means was it discovered that his supposed power
was a fraud.
In Spiritism, however, no such exposures seem
to be a bar to faith. Many of the best phenomena
it has produced are from convicted impostors.
Contradictory Necromancy
Turning to attempts at necromancy, we find the
same trickery and fraud prevailing. These "departed
spirits," as we have already shown, teach
different and conflicting faiths in different countries.
In France re-incarnation is taught; in England it
is denied. It is thus found that the disembodied
spirits of Kardec in France, of Stainton Moses in
England, of Swedenborg in Sweden, of Mrs. Piper
in America, give absolutely contradictory messages.
No doubt this is accounted for by the phenomena
of the unconscious mind and telepathy, which, of
course, negatives "spirits." Andrew Lang does
not believe in Mrs. Piper's communications with the
dead, and "considers that all coming from her is
worthless."