The Conditionalist Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

VI. Investigators Doubt Claimed Identity of “Spirits”

1. GARLAND QUESTIONS REPORTED IDENTITY OF SPIRITS

Not all who have dabbled deeply in Spiritualism accept the “spiritist interpretation” of “psychic phenomena.” After forty years of investigation Hamlin Garland still questioned “the identity of the manifesting intelligences” ¹⁸—that is, the claim that they are discarnate spirits of dead human beings. CFF2 1167.4

2. EVIDENCES OF SENSES MAY MISLEAD

George Whitehead points out the perils of “misleading impressions” and “faulty inferences” from sight and senses-such as the fact that “an oar half immersed in water appears to be bent,” or that “thirsty travellers in the desert are confident that they see an oasis,” though it is but an “illusion.” ¹⁹ The testimony of the “senses” may obviously mislead in psychic phenomena. CFF2 1167.5

3. PERSONAL SURVIVAL NOT DEMONSTRATED

Corliss Lamont, while recognizing the undeniable phenomena of Spiritualism, likewise questions its “interpretation,” contending that it does not necessarily prove the personal “survival of the dead”—the favorite expression being “existence beyond the grave.” Here are his words: CFF2 1168.1

“The Spiritualists, however, are very far from having demonstrated that the hypothesis of personal survival is the sole and certain explanation of the data they have gathered.” ²⁰ CFF2 1168.2

He calls attention to the undeniable duplication of the phenomena by such professional magicians as Harry Houdini and Joseph Dunninger. The appealing phenomena do not thereby prove that one has been in touch with “an immortal soul.” CFF2 1168.3