Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

78 MODERN SPIRITISM i
large class of robust, though not very acute, intellects
who in former days long affirmed that hypnotism,
telepathy, wireless telegraphy, etc., were 'all unscientific
and unproved balderdash. Now they say
the same respecting the proved facts of Spiritism.*
Not that any of these proofs reach the standard of
what Sir Wm. Crookes indicated was the only way
in which supernatural powers could be proved. As
a scientific observer, he asks that some additional
weight be deposited in one pan of his balance when
the case is locked; as a chemist, he asks for onethousandth
part of a grain of arsenic to be placed in
a hermetically sealed glass tube of distilled water.
No such proofs of supernatural power have been
given anywhere during the last 100 years.
Nevertheless, in
Proved Facts
,
Professor Bottazzi's physiological
laboratory, at Naples, when the doors were- padlocked
and sealed, the Professor has seen various
human limbs appear, hands in great activity which
worked apparatus, and all sorts of clothing apparently
produced out of nothing. A professor of astronomy
observes, with regard to spirit phenomena, that the
facts must either be admitted as proved, or the
possibility of certifying any facts by human tests
must be given up.
Sir Wm. Barrett ("On the Threshold of the
Unseen," p. 98) says: "Of the real objective exist-
* Helmholtz said to Sir Wm. Barrett that neither the evidence
of all the members of the Royal Society nor of his own senses
wo.uld e.ver make him believe in thought-transference; yet this
is now proved and generally accepted.