The New Black Magic and the Truth about the Ouija-board

251 Pages·2012·5.55 MB·English

by  John Godfrey Raupert

BLACK MAGIC
AND
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE OUIJA-BOARD
BY
J. GODFREY RAUPERT, K. S. G.
Formerly a member of the Britixls Society for Psychics!
Research and Author af "Modern Spiriiitllf'
"Hell and Ii: Problnu," dc., dc.
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NEW YORK
THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY
1920 ~
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THE DEVIN-ADAIR COMPANY
All Rights Reserved By
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' PREFACE
IT SHOULD be pointed out that this book does not
attempt to deal with abnormal phenomena which
occur spontaneously-with apparitions or forms
resembling the dead coming umought for, such
as have been recorded in all ages of the world's
history and of which we have had accounts dur-
ing the great war. Such phenomena follow some
law which is quite unknown to us, or they are due
to some act of God necessarily outside our knowl-
edge and beyond our control. The evidence in
favor of these phenomena is of a varied kind and
is, in many respects, very conflicting. It is dif-
ficult, in most instances, to distinguish the ob-
jective from the purely subjective. In a variety
of cases the phantom seen is manifestly the crea-
tionof the,percipient's ownbrain. The dead, with
few exceptions, present themselves, not in the
form in which they appeared when last seen on
earth, but in that in which the percipient best
remembers them. Their statements respecting
the other life and their new environment, too,
vary considerably and are often quite contra-
dictory. -
It is admitted, however, that there are credible
instances in which the departure from the body
' v
PREFACE
of some member of a family or community has
been intimated to some distant member by an ap~
parently objective though fugitive appearance of
the deceased. We have records of phenomena
of this kind in the history of the lives of the
saints and martyrs, and the Catholic Church
has never denied their reality. On the con-
trary, she has maintained that reality when a
skeptical world deniedpand ridiculed them. But
she has also maintained that, since such phe-
nomena may emanate from different sources,
and since those produced by the act of God may
be imitated by the enemy of God, it is not possible
to speak dogmatically respecting them. She has,
as a rule, tested their aim and character by the
Apostolic test (see p. 141), or by their effects,
moral and spiritual, upon the ,life of the per-
cipient. She has always discouraged any seek-
ing after them, and any attempt to regard their
occurrence as an indication of a peculiar stateof
sanctity. In any case, it will be seen that such
phenomena have nothing in common and can-
not be said to be identical with those which are
im/oked and induced, for which a circle has to
be formed, for which a medium is employed, and
for which favorable conditions have to be cre-
ated. It is with such phenomena alone that this
book deals.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
I. THE CLAIM or MODERN SCIENCE . . I
II. THE CLAIM SPECIFIED . . . . 17
III. THE EVIDENCE OF HISTORY .... 29
IV. THE EVIDENCE or FACT AND EXPE-
RIENCE . . . . . . . . . 47
E V. THE EVIDENCE or TRUE SCIENCE . . 77
VI. THE EVIDENCE or CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
AND EXPERIENCE . . . . . . 109
VII. THEEVIDENCEorREASON ANDCOMMON-
' SENSE 163
.........
VIII. THE INEVITABLE INI=EnE~NcE . _ _ 191
IX. THE TRUTH ABOUT THE OUIJA-BOARD 205
X.INDEX...Q ....... 235

I
THE CLAIM OF MODERN SCIENCE

THE CLAIM OF MODERN SCIENCE
THE reading and thinking world has recently
been startled by the publication of books and
articles from the pens of eminent scientific and
literary men in which the claim is made that re-
liable communications are being received from
the spirits of departed human beings and that
these communications are of such a character
that they may not unfairly _ be regarded as a
New Revelation.
Two of these writers, the English physicist
Sir Oliver Lodge, and Sir Conan Doyle, of Sher-
lock Holmes' fame, who may be regarded as the
spokesmen of this class of innovators, boldly as-
sert that, in view of these remarkable and, as
they think, authentic disclosures, the traditional
teachings of Christianity will have to undergo
a radical transformation and that their recon-
struction, in the light of the new knowledge thus
obtained,'will have to take place.
That large numbers of that class of persons
who are always on the lookout for new develop-
ments in the sphere of Religion and who do not
know that the new in Religion is seldom the true,
and that the true is never theinew, should wel-
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THE NEW BLACK MAGIC
come these bold assertions and should rejoice
that they emanate from such eminently respect-
able quarters cannot take us by surprise. Such
persons are always glad to welcome any so-called
new religion, especially when it is seen to free
them from obligations to which they have never
submitted fully and willingly and which provides
them with a more convenient and comfortable
and, as they consider, reasonable philosophy of
life. The multiplicity of the already existing
"new" religions and new-thought movements is
a striking illustration of this tendency of the
modern mind. But that men of high intelligence
who might be supposed to discern the fallacy of
such contentions and whose outlook on the world
might be expected to be of a very different char-
acter, should put forth such claims is a problem
perplexing minds apt to think more deeply and
seriously about such matters.
To those of us, however, who are more in-
timately_ acquainted with this subject and who
are behind the scenes of the modern psychical
research movement this problem does not present
any very great difficulty. They know that these
scientific researchers, constantly engaged in
spiritistic experiments, and necessarily obeying
the laws by which spirit-intercourse becomes
possible, are themselves the victims of the intel-
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