Read Ebook: The Spirit Land by Emmons Samuel B Samuel Bulfinch

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Miracle performed by spirits in Springfield, Massachusetts.--Case of biological deception.--Case of a "writing medium."--Effects produced by pathetism.--Incident related by Miss Martineau.-- Travelling to other countries, and to other spheres.--Singular feat by a boy of Dr. Phelps.--Wonderful case of a lady in New Jersey.--Advice of Hon. Horace Greely.--Testimony of Rev. Dr. Phelps. 191

PERSONS TRAINED BY A LECTURER ON MAGNETISM. 199

SCENE AT EAST BOSTON.

"Circle" at the house of Mr. Hoyt, at East Boston.--Effects of vital electricity.--Imitating handwritings, writing poetry, music, &c. 200

EXTRACT FROM THE PURITAN RECORDER.

Facts related by a gentleman of Maine.--Renunciation of a spirit rapper.--Murder committed at the instigation of "spirits."-- Conflicting testimony concerning John Thompson.--Experiments of Mr. Kellogg, the table lifter.--Discovery by Dr. Taylor, the writing medium.--Renunciation of Mr. Cooley, of Springfield, Massachusetts.--Attempt to murder a family in Barre, Massachusetts. --Sacrifice of the innocent in heathen countries.--Great danger in civilized communities.--Reports concerning the burning of the Lunatic Asylum in Maine.--Testimony of Professor Stowe.-- Reply of Bingham to Professor Pond.--Singular confessions of the reviewer.--Intelligence said to be communicated by "spirits."-- Vital electricity of embodied and disembodied spirits. 203

EXTRACT FROM THE HOME JOURNAL.

Star singers, concerts, parties, and lectures in the other spheres.--Studies of French, Italian, geology, chemistry, drawing, &c.--Semi-clergymen, outsiders, or come-outers. 215

FORETELLING FUTURE EVENTS.

Prediction concerning the ship Staffordshire.--General Pierce's election foretold by Professor Anderson's glass bell.--False predictions of the "spirits."--Error committed by Professor Lester.--Suggestion of a lady to a sick friend.--Sentiments of Alexander Pope. 218

VISIONS, MIRACLES, AND WONDERS.

CLAIRVOYANT PHYSICIANS.

Prescriptions from the dead.--Power of the imagination.--Wonderful efficacy of brown bread pills.--Singular cure of palsy, by Sir Humphrey Davy. 221

STYLE OF "SUPERNAL" COMPOSITIONS.

Fishbough's new work.--Fancy-captivating publications.--Refined atheism.--Transcendental nonsense.--False communications relating to patriots, statesmen, orators, and divines.--Mountebank scenes of "psychology."--Testimony of A. J. Davis, upon the tricks of the spirit demonstrators.--Concealments, misstatements, and exaggerations. 223

MYSTERIOUS PHENOMENA, WITH THEIR AGENTS OR CAUSES.

Thumping noises in New Jersey.--Door opened as if struck by a mallet.--Great excitement.--Glass broken, &c.--Knockings heard in New Hackensack.--Pile of lumber shaken; tables, chairs, stand, and candlestick thrown about.--Bags of salt, tin ware, and cooking utensils thrown in a heap.--An English officer haunted by noises in the night.--Heavy marble top tables poising themselves on two legs.--Brass door knockers bewitched.--Commotion among crockery, tin ware, &c.--Firing a gun at noises in the walls. --Tearing up floor to get at the noises.--Suit brought for damages.--Bed of a sick girl raised.--Trembling of the house walls.--Singular pranks in a factory.--Jerking of the frames, and cylinder thrown at a distance.--Alarm and flight of the operatives.--A chest with three men, and a man on a tub, taken up by an invisible power.--A chair broken between two men's hands.--An image seated on a stool, clad in white.--Visions of beings like spirits.--Knockings on the walls, and noises in the air.--A lady suspended by the tips of the fingers, as a magnet suspends a piece of iron.--Electrical flashes from a lady's body.--Knockings made to be heard at a distance.--Quotation from a work by Rev. T. Hill, of Waltham.--Singular developments in New York.--Freaks of a knob of a door bell.--Fiery flashes, and fiery smacks, on kissing.--Blows in the mouth from a speaking tube.-- Account of two girls that could move tables without touching them. --Effects of storms on raising tables.--Electrical circles in Cincinnati.--Case of a lady in Strasburg.--Power of giving electrical shocks to persons at a distance.--Singular effects of the northern lights on a lady. 224

EXPERIMENTS IN BIOLOGY.

Chairs, tables, and persons moved.--Biological table-liftings in East Boston.--"Mediums," as visible human operators.--Resolve of the "rappers" at Poughkeepsie.--The unseen agent that moves tables, beds, &c.--Dancing plates, knives and forks, &c. 264

FACULTY OF IMITATION.

Delivering speeches; imitating orators.--Case related by Walter Scott.--Case of a man haunted by the devil.--Effects of wine and heavy eating.--Voice heard by Judge Edmonds.--Lady in Providence who writes music by "spirits."--Diagram of the spheres, by a lady in a magnetic state. 268

UNSEEN LETTERS AND SIGNATURES.

Imitating unseen letters, signatures, and languages.--Suspicions concerning Professor Bush.--Singular feat attributed to spirits. --No difficulty in raising chairs or tables.--Spirits shown by Egyptian boys.--Unbelief of practising "mediums."--School children forbidden to move tables, &c. 273

A DANCING LIGHT.

SAILORS' OMENS.

Sailors' omens and superstitions.--Devil's power in stirring up winds.--Losing a cat overboard, a bucket, or a mop. 276

LOVE CHARMS.

Othello winning Desdemona by conjuration.--Execution of a young lady for giving a love powder.--Her dying confession.--A charm or an allay for love. 277

EFFECTS OF A BELIEF IN A GHOST.

Effects of a belief in the reality of ghosts.--Case at the University at Cambridge.--A student frightened to death. 279

THE INVISIBLE LADY.

The invisible lady in Boston.--The invisible girl in London.-- Joice Heth, the India rubber woman.--Professor Grimes's discovery among the "rappers."--Mrs. Culver respecting the Rochester rappers. 280

SORCERERS IN THE EAST.

Persons killed by the enemy's fires.--Singular custom in Java. 281

SINGULAR METAMORPHOSES.

Men turned into tigers by eating a certain root, and turned back again by eating another.--A tiger-man shot in the woods and recognized, after having devoured some of his neighbors.--Account of the wolf mania in Egypt and in Brittany.--A husband that lived and died a wolf. 282

PERNICIOUS ERRORS RELATING TO HEALTH.

Astrology.--Vegetable oil of swallows, &c.--Cleanliness, diet, &c.--Ablution.--Ventilation.--Food.--Quality of meats. 284

THE SPIRIT LAND.

INTRODUCTION.

The object of this treatise upon some of the various errors of the past and present ages is to explain their nature--investigate their origin--describe their injurious effects--and to offer and recommend the necessary measures for their banishment. Most persons, even those who have been well educated, can call to mind the avidity with which, in their days of childhood, they listened to the nursery tales of giants, dwarfs, ghosts, fairies, and witches. The effects of these juvenile impressions are not easily effaced from the mind, and the impressions themselves are but rarely, if ever, forgotten.

To doubt, in former times, the power of charms, and the veracity of omens, and ghost stories, was deemed little less than atheism. The terror caused by them imbittered the lives of persons of all ages. It either served to shut them out of their own houses, or deterred them from going abroad after it was dark. The room in which the head of a family died was for a long time untenanted; particularly if he died without a will, or was supposed to have entertained any peculiar religious opinions. If any disconsolate maiden, or love-crossed bachelor, became the instrument of their own death, the room where the fatal deed was committed was rendered forever uninhabitable, and not unfrequently nailed up. If a drunken farmer, returning from market, fell from his horse, and by the fall broke his own neck, that spot, ever after, was haunted and impassable. In truth, there was scarcely a by-lane or cross-way but had its ghost, which appeared in the shape of a headless cow or horse. Ghosts of a higher degree rode in coaches, drawn by six headless horses, and driven by a headless coachman. As for the churchyards, the legitimate habitations of spectres, clothed all in white, the numbers who swarmed there equalled the living parishioners; and to pass such a place in the night was more perilous than the storming of Badajos.

THE ORIGIN OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

INDUCTIVE PHILOSOPHY NOT UNDERSTOOD.

Many persons have supposed that pork killed in the increase of the moon would swell in boiling, while that killed in her wane would shrink. This opinion probably originated in the following manner: Some person killed, at different periods of the moon, two hogs which had been born and fattened together. That killed in her increase swelled in boiling; while the other, killed in her wane, shrunk. He could conceive of no way to account for the facts but on the supposition of lunar influence. This conclusion was accordingly adopted, and at length became an established truth. Yet there was no philosophy in forming this opinion from a few such facts. More experiments should have been tried; and they results would have shown that the real cause of the swelling and shrinking existed in the constitution of the animals. It would have been discovered that pork of fine and solid texture would commonly swell, whenever killed; while that of loose and coarse grain would as generally shrink. And the person would no more have thought of attributing the difference in his pork to the moon than to the spirit of Bonaparte.

Let this philosophic principle be applied to this whole class of superstitions, and we shall arrive at similar results. There is the supposed influence of the moon on making soap, grafting trees, cutting timber, and also upon the fortunes of love-sick swains and maidens. The latter are directed to go out in the evening and stand over the bars of a gate, and, looking on the moon, repeat the following lines:--

"All hail to the moon! all hail to thee! I pray thee, good moon, reveal to me, This night, who my husband shall be."

IGNORANCE OF THE CAUSES OF DREAMS.

To say that the devil is the author of all our disagreeable dreams that happen generally when we are in some trouble of body, mind, or estate, is too absurd to believe. And it is specially unbecoming the followers of Jesus to harbor an opinion so unbecoming in itself, so pernicious in its consequences, and so derogatory to the supreme Ruler of the universe. The true doctrine is, that our dreams originate from ourselves. Some are influenced by our bodily sensations. A person with a bottle of hot water at his feet dreams of ascending AEtna; and he finds the heat of the ground almost insupportable. Another kicks the bed clothes from his feet, and dreams of walking through snow banks, even in the summer season. Some dreams are influenced by the state of our stomach and bowels. The hungry prisoner dreams of well-furnished tables and the pleasures of eating. The glutton dreams of a surfeit and its attendant unpleasant sensations. Some dreams are influenced by our dispositions. The person of amiable temper and cheerful spirits is frequently refreshed with delightful scenes and visions of bliss; while those of morose, gloomy, irritable, and melancholy habits are generally harassed with those of a disagreeable and oppressive character. Some dreams are influenced by the state of our health. Sickness is usually productive of those of an unpleasant nature; while health secures those of an opposite description. A gentleman, mentioned by Locke, was not sensible of dreaming till he had a fever, at the age of twenty-six or seven. Some dreams are influenced by our waking thoughts. The mathematician solves difficult problems. The poet roves in Elysian groves. The miser makes great bargains. The sensualist riots in the haunts of dissipation. The criminal sees the dungeon or the gallows. The awakened sinner beholds the flames of hell, or looks upon the sceptre of pardon; and the Christian anticipates heavenly joy.

Strong mental emotions are sometimes embodied into a dream, which, by some natural coincidence, is fulfilled. A murderer, mentioned by Mr. Combe, dreamed of committing murder some years before the event took place. A clergyman on a visit to the city of Edinburgh, from a distance in the country, was sleeping at an inn, when he dreamed of seeing a fire, and one of his children in the midst of it. He awoke with the impression, and instantly started for home. When he arrived within sight of his house, he found it on fire, and got there in time to assist in saving one of his children, who, in the alarm and confusion, had been left in a situation of danger. Without calling in question the possibility of supernatural communications in such cases, this striking occurrence may perhaps be accounted for on simple and natural principles. Let us suppose that the gentleman had a servant who had shown great carelessness in regard to fire, which had often given rise in his mind to a strong apprehension that he might set fire to the house. His anxiety might be increased by being from home, and the same circumstances might make the servant still more careless. Let us further suppose that the gentleman, before going to bed, had, in addition to this anxiety, suddenly recollected that there was on that day, in the neighborhood of his house, some fair or periodical merry making, from which the servant was likely to return home in a state of intoxication. It was most natural that these impressions should be embodied into a dream of his house being on fire, and that the same circumstances might lead to the dream being fulfilled.

The cause of a dream may sometimes be the cause of its fulfilment. A clergyman dreamed of preaching a sermon on a particular subject. In a few weeks, he delivered the discourse. His dream was therefore fulfilled. But his waking thoughts caused the dream, for he had meditated on this very subject; and they also caused its fulfilment, for he proceeded to write and deliver the result of his meditations.

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