Sir William Barratt on Physical Mediumship

Hi All,

In all of my researches I was digging around and saw this interesting piece from a book which we own so I scanned it to share

From On the Threshold of the Unseen
Sir William Barratt third edition 1920

Part 2
CHAPTER IV
THE PHYSICAL PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM
" Science is bound by the everlasting law of honour to face fearlessly every problem which can fairly be presented to it. "-Lord Kelvin.
lt is now time to turn from the somewhat lengthy discussion in the preceding pages, and submit some of the evidence which has come under my own observation and has convinced me of the genuineness of the phenomena themselves. It is however hardly possible to convey to others who have not had a similar experience an adequate idea of the strength and cumulative force of the evidence that has compelled one's own belief.
Unfortunately, where there is good coin there is also false and spiritualism has suffered from a fraudulent imitation trading on the credulity of the ignorant or uncritical.

36 Chapter tV
In a paper(1) I contributed to the proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research in 1886 I stated that" reviewing the numerous seances I have attended with different private and professional mediums during the last 15 years I find that by far the larger part of the results obtained had absolutely no evidential value in favour of Spiritualism ; either the condition of total darkness forbade any trustworthy conclusions, or the results were nothing more than could be explained by a low order of juggling. A few cases, however, stand out as exceptions." These I proceeded to cite, and will here give the substance of two of them, as they offer, in my opinion, unexceptionable evidence of what has been called the' physical phenomena' of Spiritualism,-that is to say, the movement of objects, raps and other sounds displaying an unseen intelligence, for which no normal explanation can be found.
For these manifestations Mr. Myers has suggested the term telekinetic, as spiritualistic is a question-begging expression, for they afford in themselves no evidence of the survival of human personality after death. As a rule they are grotesque and meaningless, it is only when the content of some of the messages that are conveyed by telekinesis are examined, that any slight and dubious evidence is found of another personality than that of the medium. The main question is the genuine­ness of telekinesis itself.
It is therefore important to note that not only did the phenomena I am about to describe take place either in broad daylight or in sufficient artificial light to enable me to detect any fraud, had such been attempted, but there were no paid or professional mediums present, and the sittings were held in any place I selected and even in my own house; notes were taken at the time of the sittings, or shortly after.'
1 " Proceedings, Society for Psychical Research," Vo\. IV, p. al!.
See Appendix B, where I have reprinted a note on this paper which was written by that distinguished and far-seeing scientific man the late Professor Balfour Stewart.

37

Personally I find that this written nearly 90 years ago remains just as valid today, indeed sometimes in our desperation for Physical Phenomena we accept things that researchers of old would have quickly dismissed.

Cheers

Jim

Again you are quite right Jim. It's a pity that more people do not study the older books on mediumship.

Z

Hi Z,

I totally agree there is little that is really new and our founders were both intelligent and believers in the truth.

Everyone should remember Spiritualism is a Belief, a Philosophy, a Truth and a Science. This is as it has been approached ever since the first rappings and well before the Society for Psychical Research was founded. Spiritualism, in the past, did its own scientific research and study.


Cheers

Jim

Admin wrote:Hi Z,

I totally agree there is little that is really new and our founders were both intelligent and believers in the truth.

Everyone should remember Spiritualism is a Belief, a Philosophy, a Truth and a Science. This is as it has been approached ever since the first rappings and well before the Society for Psychical Research was founded. Spiritualism, in the past, did its own scientific research and study.


Cheers

Jim

So sad it's now in the Doldrums...