{"id":55,"date":"2013-07-13T01:25:35","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=55"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:25:35","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:25:35","slug":"52-stead-and-the-spirits-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03\/52-stead-and-the-spirits-vol-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","title":{"rendered":"-52_Stead and The Spirits.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n


\n\t\tStead and
\n\t\tthe Spirits<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n                C<\/font>ONSIDERABLE <\/font>
\n<\/b>attention has been attracted and excitement created by the latest development of
\nMr. W. T. Stead’s agency for communicant spirits which he calls
\nJulia’s Bureau. The supposed communications of Mr. Gladstone, Lord Beaconsfield and other distinguished politicians on
\nthe question of the Budget have awakened much curiosity, ridicule and even indignation. The ubiquitous eloquence of Lord Curzon has been set flowing by what he considers this unscrupulous method of pressing the august departed into the ranks of
\nLiberal electioneering agents, and he has penned an indignant
\nletter to the papers in which there is much ornate Curzonian
\ntwaddle about sacred mysteries and the sanctities of the grave.
\nIf there is anything at all in the alleged communications from
\ndeparted souls which have become of increasing interest to the
\nEuropean world, it ought to be fairly established that the grave is
\nnothing but a hole in the earth containing a rotting piece of
\nmatter with which the spirit has no farther connection, and that
\nthe spirit is very much the same after death as before, takes much
\ninterest in small, trivial and mundane matters and is very far
\nfrom regarding his new existence as a solemn, sacred and mysterious affair. If so, we do not see why we either should approach
\nthe departed spirit with long and serious faces or with any more
\nunusual feelings than curiosity, interest and eagerness to acquire
\nknowledge of the other world and communication with those we
\nknew and loved in this, in fact, the ordinary human and earthly
\nfeelings existing between souls sundered by time and space, but
\nstill capable of communication. But Lord Curzon still seems to
\nbe labouring under the crude Christian conception of the blessed
\ndead as angels harping in heaven whose spotless plumes ought
\nnot to be roughly disturbed by human breath and of spiritual
\ncommunication as a sort of necromancy, the spirit of Mr. Gladstone being summoned from his earthy bed and getting into it
\nagain and tucking himself up comfortably in his coffin after Julia<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\nand Mr. Stead have done with him. We should have thought
\nthat in the bold and innovating mind of India’s only Viceroy these
\ncoarse European superstitions ought to have been destroyed
\nlong ago.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nIt is not, however, Lord Curzon but Mr. Stead and the
\nspirits with whom we have to deal. We know Mr. Stead as a
\npushing and original journalist, not always over-refined or delicate either in his actions or expressions, skilful in the advertisement of his views, excitable, earnest, declamatory, loud and even
\nhysterical, if you will, in some of his methods, but certainly
\nneither a liar nor a swindler. He does and says what he believes
\nand nothing else. It is impossible to dismiss his Bureau as an
\nimposture or mere journalistic r\u00e9clame. It is impossible to dismiss the phenomena of spirit communications, even with all the
\nimposture that unscrupulous money-makers have imported into
\nthem, as unreal or a deception. All that can reasonably be said is
\nthat their true nature has not yet been established beyond dispute. There are two conceivable explanations, one that of actual
\nspirit communication, the other that of vigorously dramatised
\nimaginary conversations jointly composed with wonderful skill
\nand consistency by the subconscious minds, whatever that may
\nbe, of the persons present, the medium being the chief dramaturge
\nof this subconscious literary Committee. This theory is so wildly
\nimprobable and so obviously opposed to the nature of the phenomena themselves, that only an obstinate unwillingness to admit
\nnew facts and ideas can explain its survival, although it was
\nnatural and justifiable in the first stages of investigation. There
\nremains the explanation of actual spirit communication. But
\neven when we have decided on this hypothesis as the base of our
\ninvestigation, we have to be on our guard against a multitude of
\nerrors; for the communications are vitiated first by the errors and
\nself-deceptions of the medium and the sitters, then by the errors
\nand self-deceptions of the communicant spirits, and, worst of all,
\nby deliberate deceit, lies and jugglery on the part of the visitants
\nfrom the other world. The element of deceit and jugglery on the
\npart of the medium and his helpers is not always small, but can
\neasily be got rid of. Cheap scepticism and cheaper ridicule in
\nsuch matters is only useful for comforting small brains and weak<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n\u2013 394<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nimaginations with a sense of superiority to the larger minds who
\ndo not refuse to enquire into phenomena which are at least widespread and of a consistently regular character. The true attitude
\nis to examine carefully the nature of the phenomena, the conditions that now detract from their value and the possibility of
\nremoving them and providing perfect experimental conditions
\nwhich would enable us to arrive at a satisfactory scientific result.
\nUntil the value of the communications are scientifically established, any attempt to use them for utilitarian, theatrical or yet
\nlighter purposes is to be deprecated, as such misuse may end in
\nshutting a wide door to potential knowledge upon humanity.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nFrom this point of view Mr. Stead’s bizarre experiments are
\nto be deprecated. The one redeeming feature about them is that,
\nas conducted, they seem to remove the first elementary difficulty
\nin the way of investigation, the possibility of human deceit
\nand imposture. We presume that he has got rid of professional
\nmediums and allows only earnest-minded and honourable investigators to be present. But the other elements of error and confusion are encouraged rather than obviated by the spirit and
\nmethods of Mr. Stead’s Bureau. First, there is the error and self-deception of the sitters. The spirit does not express himself
\ndirectly but has to give his thoughts at third hand; they come
\nfirst to the intermediary spirit, Julia or another, by her they are
\nconveyed to the human medium and through him conveyed by
\nautomatic or conscious speech or writing to the listeners. It is
\nobvious how largely the mind of the medium and, to a smaller
\nbut still great extent, the thought-impressions of the other sitters
\nmust interfere, and this without the least intention on their part,
\nrather in spite of a strong wish in the opposite direction. Few
\nmen really understand how the human mind works or are fitted
\nto watch the processes of their own conscious and half-conscious
\nthought even when the mind is disinterested, still less when it is
\nactive and interested in the subject of communication. The
\nsitters interfere, first, by putting in their own thoughts and
\nexpressions suggested by the beginnings of the communication,
\nso that what began as a spirit conversation ends in a tangle
\nof the medium’s or sitters’ ideas with the little of his own
\nthat the spirit can get in now and then. They interfere not<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

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\n

\nonly by suggesting what they themselves think or would say
\non the subject, but by suggesting what they think the spirit
\nought dramatically to think or say, so that Mr. Gladstone is
\nmade to talk in interminable cloudy and circumambient periods
\nwhich were certainly his oratorical style but can hardly have
\nbeen the staple of his conversation, and Lord Beaconsfield
\nis obliged to be cynical and immoral in the tone of his observations. They interfere again by eagerness, which sometimes
\nproduces replies according to the sitters’ wishes and sometimes
\nothers which are unpleasant or alarming, but in neither case reliable. This is especially the case in answers about the future,
\nwhich ought never to be asked. It is true that many astonishing
\npredictions occur which are perfectly accurate, but these are far
\noutweighed by the mass of false and random prediction. These
\ndifficulties can only be avoided by rigidly excluding every question accompanied by or likely to raise eagerness or expectation
\nand by cultivating entire mental passivity. The last however is
\nimpossible to the medium unless he is a practised Yogin, or in a
\ntrance, or a medium who has attained the habit of passivity by an
\nunconscious development due to long practice. In the sitters we
\ndo not see how it is to be induced. Still, without unemotional
\nindifference to the nature of the answer and mental passivity the
\nconditions for so difficult and delicate a process of communication cannot be perfect.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nError and self-deception from the other side of the veil cannot be obviated by any effort on this side, all that we can do is to recognise that the spirits are limited in knowledge and cabined by
\ncharacter, so that we have to allow for the mental and moral
\nequation in the communicant when judging the truth and value
\nof the communication. Absolute deception and falsehood can
\nonly be avoided by declining to communicate with spirits of a
\nlower order and being on guard against their masquerading under
\nfamiliar or distinguished names. How far Mr. Stead and his
\ncircle have guarded against these latter errors we cannot say,
\nbut the spirit in which the sittings are conducted, does not encourage us to suppose that scrupulous care is taken in these
\nrespects. It is quite possible that some playful spirit has been
\nenacting Mr. Gladstone to the too enthusiastic circle and has<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
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\n

\namused himself by elaborating those cloudy-luminous periods
\nwhich he saw the sitters expected from the great deceased Opportunist. But we incline to the view that what we have got in this
\nnow famous spirit interview, is a small quantity of Gladstone, a
\ngreat deal of Stead and a fair measure of the disembodied Julia
\nand the assistant psychics.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage <\/font>
\n\u2013 397<\/font><\/p>\n

\t\t<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stead and the Spirits                   CONSIDERABLE attention has been attracted and excitement created by the latest development of Mr. W. T. Stead’s agency for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-03-the-harmony-of-virtue-volume-03","wpcat-4-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}