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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1919)
THE SUNDAY OltEGONIAN, PORTLAND, OCTOBER 5, 1919. 3 SINCLAIR LEWIS ASSAILS THE CLAIMS OF SPIRITUALISTS Trickery Not Truth Prevails at Lily Dale He Writes i i i QXS 4i' i v It 'ill I ; v . . ' l ' ... III xfJt - ?Wti?: Ill . - . r i I! I ' ll t JSLXISV L. lt2- -SpIHt M..If" From Arthur Up 1171 . II - : i. f . . I I r - i.tjyi r and, at Left, Fiulmile of UU Real a Jf . ' r- f v MX A S W IrV . - ilZ., jjm m muiu m m 3 1 .0 M- - jjrfl w . ' It -; : S-tSS' -s- Zr'- ' .M Facsimile of AUeajed Spirit M.mire From Alfred Henrr lewla and, at I 1. J?- JliLw X5fjSS35 tfrtrtytVfr Vi ..fC HU He., Mat-re. . 1.- Mk &&&&&& 8f .M ix., ,a . ... a, , , , 1 Ir, , , -'4 ' wr rotr;v i 1 mmm$&fr y&&W rr', ,; - 4 I ffili , - ' ' - 1 - - v ,1" John Slater, posing- by one of the big trees near the Lily Dale auditorium AUee4 Spirit Meaaare Fram "Herfcert S WU" aad at Left tlia Real Slvaarare of H. O. fVella, Well-knowa Brltixh Author. It Waa H. Wclla Taat SlarUlr Lewla Had la HI ad. Mr. Wells at Tfcla Writing la Allra aad Well. Kot kaowlnc Him Personally. Mr. Lewis Thinks It Straas That WrUa Baoald Addreaa Him as "Harry." ' " ' G. la fllnclalr LawU. yennc novsllst and short tory wr1tr, today takss a fling at ths spiiitoalUts. H doM not dlrsctly assail ths dtstlnsutshsd lupponari of tbs bsllsf In maa'a power to comraantcate with tbs drsd bods and boyis but ha picks raws In tbo methods In vogue at tbst strangest of all eolonles ths blip Dais BplritusUst assembly In uppsr Ham York late, Mr. Lewis spent considerable time thers InrestlgattDg seances, slsts writing, spirit messages and slmllsr phenomena. On!T be doesn't cell them phennmens. He thinks It Is all torn my rot- Ha baa soma big men against him. but what be says Is as sincere as It Is interesting. His con trtbutton makss ths sights In ths Fplr Ituallst 8erlee, which alll close next week with a special article by ur. James n. Jtvalop. secretary of the American So ciety for Psychical Research. (Copyright. 11, Metro politaa Newf paper . bervice.) BT BINCLAiR LEW 1 3. avintsm Shspesoears. Robert Louis 8te ensoa and Henry Jamea assisted la the preps ratios of this article. No writer ever had more distinguished collabora tors. O LATER John Elater himself had. In return for three dollars r"' In advance. Ehren me ten minutes of nla time, and an example of bta Inspiration aa a spiritualistic medium. "Are there any question!?" asked Elater. briskly and rather condescend- Jngrly. "Please." I stammered, "does your rulde tell If th spirits of William and Robert and Henry are near me and assisting- me . William. Robert. Henrr simple names; presumably those of common place relatives who bad "passed be yond." Slater shot oat. "Certainly. I can positively say that they are with you. and assisting; you always. In fact, my guide ears that they are touch ing; your sensorium : 1 wished him to commit himself be yond question. "Are you sure It's the spirits of William and Robert and Henry that you see with meT" "Tea. certainly. "Well, do they approve of the work I am doing- Just now V "Tea. They aay It's all rUht, Just to ahead. "But do they like the way I'm han dling the work?" I Insisted. Slater was Impatient. "Yea! Didn't I tali yen that they were touching your sensorium? Why. there ain't once In a hundred times that I can aee that condition. Tbey tell me te tell you. through Mr. Slater, to go right ahead, and they will be with you. The Divine Guide, the Control, the same being; an L'ncaa. had spoken the last words, through Mr. Slater's mouth: though: as I understand the system. It Is Mr. Slater who sets the three dollars, not the guide. I waa modestly pleased, for Will iam and Robert and Henry, those homely spirits whom Slater had defi nitely asserted to be my sponsors, were William Shakespeare. Robert Louis Stevenson and Henry Jamea. Slater had not aaked me for the rest of their namaa: apparently he had not needed the surnames to identify them. And the work I was doing-, the work which they were authorizing and aiding-, was the Investigation of Mr. John Slater and hla fellow spirit exhibitors. spiritualist vaudeville managsrs and sideshow apielera of the Lily Dale Assembly. The Lily Dale Assembly Is a mix ture of summer resort, spiritualistic Campmeetlng and Chautauqua. It has been held every summer now. for IS, THEY ALWAYS CITE LODGE, DOYLE, HYSLOP ET AL, SAYS LEWIS. "I want to establish some fundamental principles. I desire to prophesy. The spiritualists are going to answer my article by re peating their favorite incantation which is the names of Crookes, Lodge, Wallace, Stead, Uyslop and Conan Doyle. They are going to ignore what I actually do say; they are going to twist my mean ing and assume that I have asserted that all psychic phenomena are -necessarily deception. Of course if I did say that it would be fair to contrast me, the novelist, with such master scientists as Crookes and Lodge. But it happens that I don't say anything of the kind. "I eta not deny the possibility of the existence of spirit-life nor of any other force or form of existence- I am not studying Lodge but " Lily Dale. " I protest against the poor logic of saying as the ' spiritualists constantly do that because Lodge and Crookes were honest investigators, therefore any association of persons calling themselves spiritualists,- psychics or occultists, must also be honest." years In Chautauqua county. New York. It Is ths roost Important of the several summer campmeetlngs in fluenced by the National Spiritualist association. ' Lily Dale lies upon a little reedy lake. (00 feet above the level of Lake Erie, and 11 miles south about 40 miles from Buffalo. A creaking; country bus takes you through an iron gateway, witn a gatenouse ana a ticket taker, like the entrance to a countr fair. The admtasion is zu cents. At first you seem to have come to a cheao summer resort, not un pleasant In its scattering; of treea and the shine of the lake Deyona. inen the biff canvas-sided auditorium sug gests a Chautauqua and the ubiqul tons signs begin to amass you. Everywhere upon the nouses are such notices as: "Message Medium. Scientific Palmist- "Magnetic Heal tr." "Healing; Circles." Clairvoyant ana Clalraudlent." "Trance Medium,' Readlnga. "Psychic." The Natsural Beaatlea of Lily Dale. But three beautiful thing- there are at Lily Dale: the Forest Temple, the Inspiration Stump and the view of the lake and the sloping aralnfields be yond It. The Forest Temple is merely a collection of wooden benches lacing a roofed stage, but It is In a trove and above the benches the maple boughs meet. It la tranquil In late afternoon, when the leavea overhead are delicately translucent and there la a murmur of woodland peace. The covered stage, like a tiny wooden adaptation of an ancient Greek stage. s simple and white. True, some one has done hia best te spoil It by adorn ins- It with a mall order parlor organ yer.lt has a dignity not borne out by the glib messages which the minor mediums are constantly giving at the Forest Temple. A strange touch to the wooden benches Is ths tiny plate on the back of each, dedicating it to an "Arisen Loved One " The Inspirational Stump, surround ed by a ring of backless benches, is among the big maples and pines of he Leolyn woods. It Is a natural church: a friendly, and disarming gathering place. Near the Forest Temple Is the Fox cottage, ahrlne of spiritualism. If formerly stood at Hydeaville, New Tork. and waa removed to Lily Dale, as a sacred relic. In the Fox cottage In 1847, began a series of rapnlngs, attributed by scoffers to charlatan Ism and by the faithful to. the spirit or a murdered pedlar. It leer to th spiritualistic epidemic which swept America and England, and produced so renowned a medium as Daniel Douglas Home. Now the astral signaling is reduced to a set of meek tappings which the custodian of the cottage. Miss Floy CottreL a quiet, school-mistress sort of young woman, produces at will. Her guide and rapper extraordinary is, she told me, one who was famous on the "earth-plane," but who now prefers to be known as Uncle Ike Rappings have rather gone out of fashion whether among earthly me diums or heavenly spirits, I do not know but Miss Cottrel still cleaves to them. The Fox cottage Is further sancti fied by such relics as the box of the murdered pedlar, an Iron rod made by Mr. Fox, seveial spirit photo graphs spirit photography is anoth er art which, having been explained ao many times, baa aomewhat gone out of vogue and a picture of some what anemic flowers which was, said Miss Cottrel. "done by an old lady blindfolded, in two hours, . working witn Dotn nanas. The Daily Do In as. Lily Dale is crammed with activ ities. Often a dosen meetings are going on at once. The working-day starts at :30 with a meeting at the Forest Temple where, after one hymn has been sung and the chairwoman has announced that Mrs. Y. OI Syra cuse and lira. Z. of Cleveland will hold 26-cent circles that evening. Mrs. x- and Mrs. g. volunteer for free mes sage-giving. At 10:30 on week days is the class In the development of medlumship; at 10:30 on Sundays, a big' public meeting in the auditorium, with a lecture-sermon. At 1 o'clock dally the more ardent believers drift up to the inspirational stump, where the minor mediums again perform free. At 1:30 Is Dr. Burgess class in healing also for an admission price. At 2:30, every day, another auditorium meeting. At 4:30. another message-fiesta at- the forest temple. At S. any evening, half a dosen things are going on a meet ing, dance or entertainment at the auditorium; a free-for-all "thought exchange" at the library hall; with from one to 20 private circles and seances, at wbicu our to 10 people , write messages to spirit friends, and sit in an excited ring about the med ium to get her replies. The prices for these circles vary. Slater's, the most popular, costs 50 cents; the minor mediums coax in just , as many but not quite such articulate spirts for 25 cents. With all these wires at her service, any seeker ought to be able to get half a dozen commanications from the same spirit in the same days. ... Only they are likely ail to be the same communication more or less glibly expressed. . . . . Spiritualists Bat Not Long-Hnired .ST.. Cranks. I want to establish some fundamen tal principles. I desire to prophesy. Tire spiritualists are going to answer my article by repeating their favorite incantation, which is the names of Crookes. Lodge. Wallace, Stead, Hy- siop. and Conan Doyle. They are sro ing to ignore what I actually do say; they are going to twist my meaning ana assume that I have asserted that all psychic phenomena are necessarily deception. Of course, if I did say that. It would be fair to contrast me, the novelist, with such master scien tists as Crookes and Lodge. But it nappens that I don t say anything of the kind. I do not deny the possibil ity of the existence of snlrit-ll of any other force or form of exist ence. I am not studylncr Lodere but Lily Dale. I protest against the poor lugio oi saying as the SDlrltualista constantly do that because Lodge and Crookes were honest investiga tors, therefore any association of per sons calling themselves spiritualists. psycnics, or occullsts, must also be honest. The more important the invest! ac tions or a Crocker are the more lm muslin or, on Sunday, the "best silk dress," with a big brown and white cameo at the throat, and a tiny frilL A few are like the small-town club woman alert. Intensely respectable, wearing on the bosoms of their white blouses that eye-glass-hook which is a badge of Chautauqua culture. The older men are often bearded,' the backs of their hands brown as strong cigars from 60 years of work in the fields; civil war veterans, many of them, wearing the G. A. R. button and in one case, the blue coat with brass buttons. Livers In the Paat. One thing that gives their flavor Is the fact that they almost always ask for messages from dead relatives, not from friends or the lost great. A message from Uncle Charles, with no more content than l am nappy here, and Jimmie is with me, and sends love," is to them preferable to an attempt to gain the wisdom of Goethe or Erasmus. They live in the past. No few of them are absolutely alone parents. husband or wife, brothers, sisters, uncles, even children gone. No one could be flippant over the great tears, the broker, voices, with which the old people greet the "mes sages." That was the oniy possiDie excuse for spiritualism mat 1 dis covered: that drugging of the for- sakeh old. But I believe that to be more than half evil, because It turns their attention from the need about them to a narcotic absorption in mes sages any kind oZ messages, clever or clumsy. It Is so easy to deceive them! ii a medium says, "I get a condition of your knowing some one namea Frank," the devotee will neipiuiiy micsMt. "Maybe it s rod, ana oe satisfied when the midlum follows suit: Yes. of course! That s it u rea. Now I see it clearly. Well, Fred is here wasn t Fred your brother on the material side?". "No, my uncle. "Oh, yes, now my guide shows it to me o.learlv. Well. Uncle Fred is here and says to tell you he is helping, you and everything will be all right." The devotee is . atsrutsu uu uo- Splrlt Message From George Glaslng, British Author. He Is Dead. But Sinclair Lewis Had Never Met Him. the Charlie Chaplin, the William J. Bryan of Lily Dale. A few heretics complained that for three dollars for a private reading .they had received only six to ten minutes of rapid-fire generalizations. But the stalwarts honest means for the communication of his conclusions. If veritably. ouu.uuu years or numan . Igno ranee, we are guessing the riddle of naaies, acquiring truth about the illimitable secret of after-life, then how drastically wa should demand medium, who slipB in tna questions so quickly and deftly that the slow witted customer comes from the se ance withi what she has said and what the medium has said completely confused. Not only are the flock self-hypnotizing in tneir aesire to an wno actually dare to identify I greet the lost ones, but they are themselves with that truth shall be I f....i h.r. thav themselves are beyond all ancient demands for the I hn.. probity of priests, clean, scrupulous. They are exceptions to the rule Intelligent. If I shall show that Lily that most of the Lily Dale devotees Dale, approved by the presence of correspond to the crowd at a county the high personages of the snlrltusl- ir The most noticeable excep- istlc organization, is not thus clean, tions whom I saw were two army of- scrupuious, intelligent, then I shall I fleers, ln uniform; a captain oi tne have made a severe indictment. And If I shall show that to this place come mo average people askinar for in spiratlon, then I shall have Indicated a neea ior stern house-cleaning. regular infantry, and a doctor of medicine who was a lieutenant in the medical reserve corps. The tragic sublimity or the ordi nary devotees came to me as x 1 was told by officials at Lily Dale watched a woman at an auditorium that there are between nine and ten thousand attendants on the camn meeting each year; and this is only one of thirty camps. It is not a small movement. And, judging from the people at Lily Dale, It is not a move ment of the long-haired, of the cranks and sensationalists. Not once at Lily Dale aid i see the anemic gentlemen In robes and sandals, or the neurotic ladles in orange chiffon, who mark many causes. These seekers of Lily Dale are tne good, sound, solid peo ple or the small towns and farms and suburbs and city uptown streets who do the world s work. bcores or men and women I saw reminded me of the "pillars" of hurches In the small towns I know. can see them at Wednesday prayer meetings, W. C T. U.'s, at chicken suppers, or donation parties for the pastor. The older women "Mothers 1 lecture. Her red swollen face was usrlv. made more so by a brilliant sweater. ana a weamerea nat slapped on the back of her head. Yet she. listened with longing faith! I saw that it was not spiritualism that was wonderful, trut the infinite ca pacity of the human heart for de sire to know God. If people with such a willingness to be loyal turn from the standaVd churches to a think like the spiritualism of Lily Dale, then It is a clamorous warning to those churches not merely to re form, but to cast overboard all their formalism, their Sabbatarianism, their rote of hymn and sermon and prayer, and to supply the daily friendliness and the personal interest In their own souls, which spiritualism does give. The Importance of Slater. The moment I was settled at Lily Zlon" they used to be called I Dale I heard John Slater. large, aUt;niried, wriukled wearias ALr- Slater was the Billy. Sunday. related anecdotes of his glvln names, facts, and dates relative persons of whom "he couldn't pos sibly have heard. ' I went first to Slater's morning class in medlumship at Library hall, which is a two-Btory frame buildin resembling a village firemen's hall. The more shallow souls may skip from Forest temple to Inspirational stump, to receive messages, but the deep, the initiate, are supposed to imbibe esoteric doctrines at the classes at Library hall and even, oc casionally, to look at the books on the second floor of the hall. . Enter the seer! Slater had come! He bustled down the aisle. small, brisk man, with white hair, spectacles, a neat little collar an blue tie very much like a Vetera conductor whom 1 knew on the Great Northern railroad. But no con ductor could rival that mincing step, that patronizing utterance, nor the airy manner In which Slater, when he has answered a question, tears up the slip and lets the fragments nutter away. The audience sat up to attention as aiater exploded " in speech. Th master announced that he didn' want to be with us at all. We ouerh to be out in the sunshine. He wasn going to give any test messages. (General air of disappoint. nent tnrougn tne room.) This was not test circle. It was a class in the development of the 'powers of the soul. - ihe classes formed a regula course. He, Mr. Slater, had Just "finished with four ladies" who had "shown great power as mediums." He felt that this, achievement was worth while, if nothing else that he did at J-ny uaie was. He didn't have to stay at Lily Dale. "I don't care anything about this piace: 'iney worship me out on the coast!" he exclaimed. (Applause sad smites.1 We were not to cross our legs and ureait tne magnetic current. Mr. siater would, he submitted, be in trance, dead to the world. His guide would speak through him in regard 10 tne unioiament or medlumship. Ana now we were to go into the silences. For two minutes we went into Uie silences I don t know whv the si. lences were plural unless each of us had a little silence all his own. Then the guide began to Issue oracles via the vocal cords of Mr. John Slater. It seemea to me that John possessed spoke very much in the style of John unpossessed. But of cuorse my observation was incorrect, for didn't ine guide snow mat it was he who was with us, not the mortal mind of Slater, by saying every so often, "I want to tell you through Mr. Slater I understood Mr. Slater to refer to his guide as "an Uncas." Uncas was a Mohegan chief born in 1S88. Lily Dale guides Jiave Indian names as frequently as do country clubs, and for the same reason though what that reason is, I cannot imagine. A spirit of Thunder Cloud and one or two of Sitting Bull are in residence at Lily Dale during the summer rea son, and I have no doubt that the two regular live Indians who sell baskets there are getting in training to be guides on the astral plane. The Uncas was speaking! At last now we were getting to it! Now for wisdom, delivered by a celestial being.! But I was baffled. What I heard did not make any great change in my life. It was the same goulash of metaphors and suggestions about optimism and concentratlon-on-the-inner-self which is served in all the rambling sermon-essays in the New Thought magazines. We were, commanded the guide, to cyme out oX the darkness, We weru t get into communion with the inner powers. We were to acquire vision and behold hidden beauty. We were to awaken and concentrate. The guide suddenly developed a peculiar keen- 1 ness of tone, and it was evident that he, she, or it had an Important post script to deliver. This was a tart re buke to the amateur spiritualists who didn't attend Slater lectures. "There have been a lot of people around here the last few days who just sit and talk and look stupid, 'stead of taklig advantage of the meetings and learn ing something. They are a lot of empty-headed seekers who never will get any further spiritually." Mr. Slater awoke from the dead trance. He rubbed his eyes, and shook his head in a headachy way. to Indicate the pangs of coming out from spirit control. This Jerky passing of the hand across the eyes is a char acteristic gesture at Lily Dale, where almost any one is likely to catch the spirit now and then. Even a Kkeptic reporter caught himself do ing It whenever his eyes were tired. A Barton Holmes In Spirit Land. Mr. Slater gave, us a travel talk (without movies) on his experiences while he had been dispossessed by the guide. He had seen lights and colored thoughts; a perfect opaque thought, and an orange one, orange being the color of sickness and nervousness. When he had finished he delighted the audience by announcing that, after all, he would coax his guide to give answers to the written questions. .Everyone beamed, while Mr. Slater snatched a slip of paper from the pile. It was an interesting performance. No, I don't know how all of it was done. I do know that myself and other quite unknown outsiders re ceived no answers to their questions. while others who were known as reg ular patients of mediums had uncom monly full particulars about them selves. I know that Mr. Hereward ' Carrington In "The Psychical Phe nomena of Spiritualism not only tells how mediums get advance infor mation about persons likely to come to them, but also quotes extracts from the secret book Issued by the bro- 4 therhood of mediums for common in formation about chronic customers. I don't assert that Mr. Slater must have had advance Information about all the persons to whom he gave ths names of various relatives, to whom he told such unexpected details as the name of the steamer upon which they had crossed the Atlantic But this I do assert: Even in my brief ac quaintance with Slater manifesta tions and by limited knowledge or the lives of his devotees, I did twice know of his giving out publicly and with great triumph Information which even I, the outsider, could myself have provided. . At a later, larger seance, at the auditorium, Mr. Slater edified the audience and thrilled a business man whom I will call "Mr. Alexander" by shouting across that crowd of 1500 people: Call for Mr. Alexander. I have a message for Mr. Alex ander, of Toronto. Is he here?" He was. "Your sister Louis Is with me, and says to tell you that she is here, and helping you, always. . . . Do I know you?' "No, sir," testified Alexander. Slater nodded at this tribute, and again, "Did 1 know you had a slste:-Louise?" No, sir." Could I possibly have known that efore?" No, sir." "Not at all! Now I have another message for you, Mr. Alexander. The man you are thinking of yes, right now! the Reverend Canon X. Is here, too, and he says to call on him for aid whenever you need it." Again Slater went through the "Did know that could I have known that" formula which always impresses his audiences. But somehow I was not impressed For I could have given precisely those same spirit messages. with the same names and information, to Alexander! On the evening before, at Pierre Keeler's materialization onilnueil ou Paao 7.).