Joseph McCabe Lets Us See the Crap Underneath the Spiritualist Religion

Is Spiritualism Based on Fraud? : The Evidence Given by Sir. A.C. Doyle and Others Drastically Explained – Joseph McCabe (1920)

           

            (EDIT - For those not aware, the Spiritualist religion was one that began in 1844 in middle america, when two young sisters fooled their family into thinking ghosts were making noises in their home.  Their older sister decided to make money off of this and spread the lies that the younger sisters could communicate with the dead and that the dead replied back.  Before that time, most people in the United States held the idea that "spirits" were more like after images of past lives, and not actually dead souls actively coming to hang out with us.  Within 20 years there were over a million adherents to this new fraud, and the "ghosts" developed more skills.  No longer were they content to "rap" or make knocking noises, but instead they moved items, played ghostly instruments, and eventually actually "appeared" as ectoplasmic ghosts. (the use of cheesecloth and phosphorus was widespread, not to mention that seances "had to" be held in near or total darkness. Believers excused all the trickery and fraudulent crap, usually by stating that true mediums had to cheat sometimes because the "skeptic" had scared off the actual spirits... PATHETIC.)

*****

              Joseph McCabe has been one of my intellectual heroes since I discovered his amazing book, The Story of ReligiousControversy.  His deeply rational and analytical mind stripped away everything the Roman Catholic Church indoctrinated him with as a Priest, and having left the church, he proceeded to prodigiously write books, pamphlets, and essays on the whole sordid history of the Roman Catholic Church, science, free-thought, and in this particular book, the ideas and claims made by the Spiritualist religion that began in the United States in the 1840’s when a trio of sisters flim-flammed everyone around them into believing that the noises they made when they cracked their toe-knuckles were actually “rapports” from the spirit world.  Between that time, and the date that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (he of Sherlock Holmes fame) and Joseph McCabe debated Spiritualism on stage, the “religion” had grown to include over a million adherents in the USA alone, each of them convinced that the dead’s “spirit” could be called upon to manifest itself, and communicate, when a “gifted” medium used his/her powers to call them forth.

            The occasion that led to this book was a very public debate between Joseph McCabe, speaking for the rationalists, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the doctor and author who gave the world Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and the idea of the innately rational mind being utilized to solve otherwise baffling crimes.  Holmes, and A.C. Doyle by extension, have always been important figures in my life, so when I found out as a young man that this seemingly strict rationalist was duped by terribly faked fairy pictures, and the séance fraternity’s long-running cons, excusing endless examples of fraud and outright criminality right until his death, I was a bit distraught.  It was not until I read up on the later lives of many scientists and people of reason that I began to see the pattern.  These rational people, as they get older and older, find comfort in the thoughtless void that is religious worship and especially, paranormal spiritualism.  Even Isaac Newton found himself frustrated by his late attempts to create truly scientific alchemy. 

            Joseph McCabe does a great job of dividing this book into various sections, each devoted to explicit examples and proof of the inherent fraud and ill-intent behind those who seek to dupe bereaved and emotionally troubled people.  He covers the initial phenomena, raps, noises, and voices, and then goes on to cover apparitions (most of them were pieces of cloth soaked in phosphorus and then waved about in a dark room), magic writing, clairvoyance, and all the other methods used by these con-artists to fool the sitter into thinking they had experienced true contact with the dead spirits. 

The lengths that these crooks did and do go to in order to fleece the suckers is VAST. Even back in 1910, there already existed companies whose secret catalogues would allow a crook to order “magic” typewriters that would type by themselves, musical instruments that would play themselves, and items of clothing and hair pieces that could be used to conceal whatever the supposed spiritualist wanted to.  The same companies that made tricks for working magicians supplied and continue to supply these fortune tellers and mystics with the tools of their corrupt trade.  As described in another book I reviewed which discusses the lies of the fortune teller business, each of these “mediums” would hoard information and newspaper clippings, sharing these with each other from city to city and state to state, allowing these mediums to seemingly grab knowledge about their sitters out of thin air.  It is all a very calculated confidence game, and they have been working out the kinks for 180 years now.  With today’s internet and connected networks, these bastards have it even easier.  (To read a more modern account of the tricks and lies these criminals use, check out The Psychic Mafia )

Whereas, back in 1900, a medium would cold-read you for a few minutes, and ask you to come back in a week, “when the spirit guides are more ready to talk,” (allowing the medium and their cronies a chance to do research on the sitter’s life, family, business, etc.) these days they can do the exact same research on a potential sucker in 15 minutes online.  Of course, the sitter is always astounded that the medium could know such information!  The scary thing is that debunkers have constantly proven these “psychics” and “mediums” to be wholesale frauds.  Many of them have gone to jail after being proven fraudulent, only to return to their same fame afterwards, suckering bereaved people and stealing their money.  Believers do not want to hear the truth.  They just want to hear what makes their thoughts seem like the truth.  Self-delusion is ugly.

I highly recommend this book, as it not only provides amazing information, but it also lists various other cool resource books on this topic.  I bet most of those are out of print, but I just love finding new books to track down.  I wonder if Mr. Joseph McCabe would be surprised to know I am reading his books 100 years later?

(This book can be read for free here: Project Gutenberg )

Alan Moore is as British as British gets!

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vols. 1 + 2 – Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neil (2000)

            Writer Alan Moore is responsible for several of the best comics of the past 2 decades.  His work is always highly researched and deeply engrossing.  For this comic series, he resurrected the old pulp heroes of his childhood, such as Allan Quatermain, Captain Nemo, Hawley Griffin (The Invisible Man), and Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde  among others, and gathered them as a kind of super-group, working in the shadows to aid Great Britain as only these heroes can.

            Being American, I had only passing knowledge of some of these pulpy characters, but having immersed myself in American pulp heroes (The Shadow, The Black Cat, Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, etc.) I was more than willing to be sucked into Mr. Moore’s dense stories.  One thing that is different between American pulp and British pulp is the focus on wordplay and erudition in the British heroes.  American pulp heroes are usually not talkers.  They are beings of pure action, whose words fail them and whose physical gifts and intelligence must save the day.  These British heroes are drawn from literature, and therefore these comics have a more literate quality than I expected.  Alan Moore is an intellectual person, and his characters’ dialogues are always more refined than his American contemporaries.

            The story within The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (even the name of the group is very British.  Nothing like the American hero-groups who are all called either Fantastic, Avengers, Uncanny, etc.) centers around threats to the British crown, and the machinations behind the scenes by a mysterious “Mr. M” who has gathered up the group and uses them to fight back against these threats.  The story is framed by prefaces that read like the old pulpy yarns these heroes originally appeared in.  The artwork is refined, yet chaotic and dense, very indicative of the crowded world of late 19^th and early 20^th century England.  I do not want to discuss the specific details of the plot as I do not wish to give anything away, but it draws in several other British literature characters.  One of the cool little bits is how Moore hints that heroes have been gathered before by the British crown under the “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” moniker.  I love how he creates a backstory when he writes.

            While it is not my favorite of Mr. Moore’s works (Those would be The Watchmen and From Hell, about the Ripper murders), it is still a great read and even a cool introduction to characters which the mainstream has generally forgotten.  I am sure that if I was more familiar with the source material for these characters that I would have picked up on a lot more cool stuff.  It is not as cohesive a whole as I would have wished, but perfection is rarely achieved, if ever.  

(This book can be purchased here:  AMAZON  )

Paranoia is for the strong!

Everything is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults & Cover-Ups – Robert Anton Wilson, Miriam Joan Hill (1988)

My man Robert Anton Wilson never disappoints!  His books have blown my mind countless times and altered how I perceive my reality tunnel, all to my benefit.  Robert Anton Wilson (RAW), due to his exposure to so much of the fringe, has compiled a vast storehouse of information on conspiracies, perceived conspiracies, and the people involved in them.  With this book, he has created an encyclopedic collection of most of the important names, places, and events dealt with by “conspiratologists.” 

The listings are alphabetical and nearly every one provides links to further online reading about the subject.  Everything is covered, from the far-right (“The Federal Reserve is run by communists!”), to the far-left (“The Federal Reserve is run by fascists!”), and from ridiculously implausible ideas (“Jesus was an alien from Orion and the Opus Dei organization keeps this a secret”) to actual real-life conspiracies that came to light (The P2 conspiracy where the Vatican, the CIA, and the MAFIA were all hand in hand creating many dozens of fake banks worldwide and laundering cocaine money, or the Iran/Contra conspiracy where the CIA was buying cocaine with guns and selling the cocaine in the USA to buy more guns, in an effort to undermine the elected government of Nicaragua).  The overall effect either leaves you doubting everything you hear or open to anything you may hear.  Either way it is a good change from the norm!

"They" were out to get Hunter S. Thompson too....

There are many people these days that dismiss anything called a “conspiracy” with a shrug, as if the very term “conspiracy” means fanciful or make-believe.  This is part of the ruse!!!  Conspiracies are very real and take place every day all around us.  If they were not real why does every government in the world have laws against conspiracy, and top secret intelligence offices to combat conspiracy?  Only the truly deluded and stupid dismiss outright the idea that conspiracies exist.  The world is full of unscrupulous people, all with specific agendas, and all with the desire to avoid the eye of the government or the police.  It happens every single day, especially IN the government, as organizations like the CIA do not have to report what they do to anyone, and purposefully maintain shields and ruses to deflect attention away from their actual activities.  Those that get too close to uncovering the truth are “exposed” as quacks believing in conspiracy theories, and the idiots who like to live their lives thinking as little as possible automatically dismiss them.  Like RAW quotes in this book, “Just because you’re paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you.”

(To read this book, click here: http://endthelie.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Everything-Is-Under-Control-Conspiracies-Cults-and-Cover-ups-0062734172.pdf )

Sometimes the truth is so murky that the lies overwhelm it

The Murdered Magicians: The Templars and their Myth – Peter Partner (1982)

            If there is one group of people in history that have had the most fanciful stories told about them and their influence, it is the Knights Templar.  Everything from Freemasonry to Illuminism to Satanism has been attributed to them and claimed to be derived from them.  The actual historical accounts of this order are so few and so scrubbed by later theologians and church historians that to find the truth one has to dig through a mountain of poorly researched and ornately embellished writings hoping to eek out the small kernels of actual fact.  Mr. Partner spends the first half of this book discussing the facts as can be deduced from church and Templar documents and contemporary accounts, and the second half of the book discussing the many ways the myth of the Templars was created a grew in the centuries after their dissolution.

            To begin, the Templar Knights were one of two military orders of the Roman Catholic Church, the other being the Order of the Hospitalers.  The Templar Knights were originally an order of what were then “middle-class” type people, merchants, soldiers, etc., who joined the Order to do religious duty, much like people join convents or monasteries.  They were frugal by decree, living only on what was supplied to them by the local churches and benefactors, and using their arms to protect pilgrims heading to the Holy Land.  Over time, they grew in influence and wealth and were used by the Catholic Church as an armed force in the early Crusades to the Holy Land.  After a while the Knights Templar began to act as an independent arm of the Catholic Church, with all the bureaucracy expected of that, and controlled many towns and cities in the Holy Land.  With their increase in power and prestige lords and kings sought to align themselves with them and therefore deeded many properties, castles, and land holdings to the Order in exchange for protection and military favors.  Eventually the Order became so prosperous and powerful that they began to draw the jealous eye of the King of France, under whom they were supposed to serve, especially after the Crusades were over and done with.  Leaders of religions always fight with leaders of nations for power and this was no different.

Using every trick and lie that governments and religions have always used against their perceived enemies, they brought down the hammer on the Templar Knights.  Torture was used to extract ridiculous confessions.  These included things like renouncing Christ, forcing members to commit sodomy, requiring new members to kiss the butthole of the brother who is initiating them, endless blasphemes against the church, the denial of God’s divinity, black magic, witchcraft etc.  These were all base lies, but they served to end the Order of the Knights Templar, especially after their leaders were burned alive on November 22 in front of the public.  Every bit of treasure and property that the Templar knights had been granted was stolen by the French King and the Catholic Church.  The full might of the Catholic Inquisition stomped the Templars into oblivion.  For some reason, it seems that churches heap their most virulent scorn not upon pagans who do not believe as they do, but upon heretics, who believe slightly differently than they do.  It is all about controlling the message, which is the priority of any cult.  The same claims made against the Templars were used to torture and destroy the church’s enemies for centuries.

Do not make enemies with deluded fools who think they are infallible.  It never ends well.

This is the extent of the historical facts of the Templars, but almost as soon as their end people started crafting lies about them, demonizing them and their activities.  The myth grew instantly.  Several hundred years after this, when the Middle Ages were seen very romantically, writers came claiming that the reason the Templar Knights were destroyed was because they had renounced Christianity and instead worshiped a false idol named “Baphomet.”  This was developed into a lie saying they were full on devil worshipers.  Most believe that “Baphomet” is a mangling of Mohammed, but instead of claiming that the Templars were Muslims, the ignorant bastards of the 1700’s claimed they worshiped Satan himself, in the guise of Baphomet.  The sad part is that Baphomet is actually the Old French word for Mohammed.  You figure historians would not fall prey to such stupidity but they certainly do.  It makes no sense to think that a group of illiterate, devout soldiers would ever contemplate any of the evils that their opponents claimed of them.

The myth of the Templars grew and grew and became entangled with every single conspiracy you can imagine, as more and more fanciful extrapolations were made over the centuries.  Eventually the Knights Templar were supposed to have discovered the Ark of the Covenant, discovered the bloodline of Jesus and Mary Magdalene, hidden in secret for centuries controlling secret societies from within, etc. etc.  The bullshit just grows and grows.  It is cool to read such a well-researched account of what is a very murky subject.  All I know is that the Catholic Church seems to be a pox on humanity and will turn on its own the moment there is something to gain.  Shit don’t change.

(Another review of this book can be read here http://adsmithlor1949.org/Transactions/Volume%204/PDF%20Files/80A%20-%20The%20Murdered%20Magicians%20review.pdf )

(This book can be purchased here:  AMAZON  )

The more I learn about these con-artist quacks the more I hate them!

Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science – Martin Gardner (1957)

            Martin Gardner is a name I recognized referenced in many of the books I read about pseudo-science, quackery, and delusions.  This book, Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science, was the first work of the past 100 years that sought to include all the major nonsensical, seemingly scientific claims that many people at the time believed in.  Sadly, there are still many slightly-educated fools that believe these things up to today.

            The book is divided into chapters, each dealing with a specific subset of quackery.  One of the first topics explored are the claims that the Earth is not a spheroid, but flat.  Another of these pseudo-scientific fads which still has followers, and which had many more in the past, is the claim that the Earth is hollow, and that mysterious creatures and entities reside there.  Mr. Gardner does a great job describing the claims put forth and explaining just what the many logical and intellectual fallacies the proponents of this nonsense fall into, fooling themselves into certitude.

            There are chapters on the “flying saucer” nonsense, and chapters on the many medical quackeries that fleeced so much money from so many sick and suffering people between 1880-1950.  One of the ways in which these beliefs and ideas are kept alive is by removing some of the older verbiage and replacing it with seemingly well-researched scientific-esque language.  This is what allowed the full on lie that is chiropractic “medicine” to be practiced in the USA to this day.  Originally, the quack that invented the chiropractic claimed that all the body’s diseases and ailments were caused by “sublimations” of the spinal vertebrae, and that by manipulating them and applying heat or massage treatments, all manner of disease could be cured.  Of course, the wacko that created this flim-flam denied the existence of germs, and never accepted the germ-theory of disease.  These days the chiropractors in the USA hide their quackery under the words of physical therapy, and rehabilitation.  It is all bullshit, and chiropractic “care” is as effective as a sit in a hot tub.  Temporary “relief,” followed by renewed pain and symptoms.  The crooks in chiropractic care have survived to this day, milking the American health insurance cartels for millions of dollars in worthless care.

"Wait outside by the slender tree.  Your treatment will soon begin."

            Other parts of the book discuss the lies of homeopathy, acupuncture, phrenology, and more.  It may seem sad that people fall for this stuff, but the real sadness lies in the hearts and minds of the assholes who sell the sick, infirm, and suffering quackery as medicine.  Those bastards are just as bad as the asshole that created Scientology once his science fiction books did not sell (because they sucked).  It seems if you couch any crazy idea in seemingly scientific wording, unsuspecting people will eat it up.  That is why it is important for everyone everywhere to have at least a working knowledge of science and the scientific method, and of logic and reasoning.  A desperate person will turn to anyone offering answers.  The assholes that prey on these desperate people deserve to suffer every possible pain imaginable.  This book, or this one by James Randi (http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-masterful-reference-for-those-of-us.html ), or this one by Harry Houdini (http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2014/09/houdini-was-trying-to-school-us-about.html ) , should be required reading in all public schools.  It would create a better educated citizenry, but then again, our political leaders may not want that!

(This book is available in .pdf format here: http://emilkirkegaard.dk/en/wp-content/uploads/Martin-Gardner-Fads-and-Fallacies-in-the-Name-of-Science.pdf )

The evil that men do is hard to explain sometimes

Invisible Eagle: The Hidden History of Nazi Occultism – Alan Baker (2000)

            It is very difficult for normal humans to understand what can drive a group of people to commit unspeakable atrocities and horrors against other humans.  When such twisted and malicious ideas become national governmental policy?  Even worse.  The National Socialist government of Germany engaged in such atrociously clinical and rigorous genocide and mass murder that even today, 60-plus years later, people still seek the reasons behind such actions.  How could this happen?  How could a country that has always been at the forefront of rational science and philosophy get taken over by a megalomaniac whose inner circle drove all of Germany to some of the most insane acts ever committed?  It is a question that people will grapple with for a long time.  Many people, however, are convinced that the pure evil on Nazi ideology and actions had to come from something more sinister than the human mind.  This book explores the many claims laid out by people over the past decades seeking to explain this evil.

            One of the most common claims about Nazi Germany is that from the top down, it was a fully satanic endeavor.  Others claim that the Nazis were involved with deeply Occult matters that fueled their insanity.     Still others assert that Hitler did not kill himself, and instead escaped to a secret base in Antarctica where the Nazis had discovered some mystical secret.  Each of these things, while implausible, seems to help those who claim them as real to rationalize away the evil perpetrated by Hitler and his assholes.  It is too scary to imagine that a roomful of supposedly well-educated governmental leaders could just come up with the horrors of the Holocaust while sipping tea and enjoying some classical music. 

Aleister Crowley could come up with those horrors while chillin' at the Starbucks!

            It is indeed true that certain members of Hitler’s inner circle, especially Heinrich Himmler, were deeply obsessed with certain occult and esoteric ideas such as Theosophy, the Ice World Theory, and other crack pot ideas that were all the rage in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.  These bastards used these borrowed ideas to shore up their claims of an ancient Aryan master race that was diluted and “mongrelized” by interbreeding with the “lesser” races of the Earth.  They also shared a deep anti-Semitism which condensed itself into the most horrific attempted genocide of recent times.  Hitler himself did not believe in these occult things, but he was perfectly willing to use their ideas in shaping his propaganda.  He even mentioned how pathetic Himmler was in his devout beliefs in the more outlandish of these pseudo-theological ideas.  No matter, for he knew exactly how to utilize them to his own ends. 

            This book does a great job of explaining exactly what these influences were, and how they were put into action by the Nazi Party.  It also shows the ease with which an evil idea is rationalized by those who think themselves to be better than others.  It is a slippery slope that leads from racist ideas to the notion that the “lesser” races need to be wiped out for the good of the “Master” race.  It is also easy to forget that the Nazis not only sought to exterminate the Jewish people, but to cull the homosexuals, the infirm, the mentally and physically disabled, the “mixed races,” etc., not to mention any intellectuals that did not agree with the Nazis and any person opposed to their rule.  Their evil came straight from their own hearts, and to lay blame for it on the Occult or on Satan or on some sort of vague idea is a disservice to those that suffered and died under these fucking assholes.  It also keeps us from seeing this as it happens in our own day today.  Atrocities are caused by humans, against humans.  When such racist and evil ideology is used as a governmental platform, it strikes fear in me.  It is also important to note that many high ranking and powerful members of the UK and the USA wholeheartedly supported the Nazi party with money and arms and fully agreed with their racist bullshit. We have not yet rid ourselves of the evil of racism, and we may never do so.  However, we must remain ever vigilant against racist ideas being implemented as official state policy.  That is when a small evil turns into a big EVIL.

(This book can be downloaded in .pdf format here: http://www.germanophobia.net/books/IE.pdf )

The kooks are running our government

Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation – Mitch Horowitz (2010)

            I would imagine that the majority of Americans believe that decisions are made for them by people who study hard, learn the critical information, and make judgments based on sound rational thinking.  This is not the case.  So many of the people we elect to make decisions for us are just as obsessed with mumbo-jumbo as the dupes calling astrology hotlines for $3.99 a minute.  This is not a new thing.  The history of the USA’s government is full of kooky shit.

Seeing through the murk is nigh-impossible

 

            From before the Revolutionary War, the new colonies were awash in mysticism, both brought over from Europe and homegrown.  Everything and anything was fair game, from Spiritualism, to Mesmerism, to Quakers, Shakers, and Christian Scientists, any brand of hoodoo was welcome by someone in the USA, where it grew and grew.  The “Occult” never went away, and everyone is directly or indirectly connected.

            During Reagan’s presidency, him and his wife Nancy regularly consulted astrologers to help them make decisions and choose the best times for certain Presidential activities.  Many act as if Occult knowledge is hidden away, or used by only a few weirdos, but it is rife in America and there is no way to escape it.  This book gives a great overview of it all, and does so in a very readable manner.  Sometimes, books such as this tend to degrade into endless lists of dates and facts, supposedly correlating with something greater.  Not this book.  It gives a very clear narrative and ties everything together nicely.  Having read up on the various elements involved, it is nice to have a book such as this that ties it all in with the policies of a government.  Too bad it is describing my government.

If it looks like a duck, and smells like a duck...

None Dare Call It Conspiracy – Gary Allen, Larry Abraham (1971)

            How you imagine the world’s governments are run is not the truth.  It is a façade designed to keep the population from focusing on who really is making the large decisions we supposedly elect people to make.  In this book, the authors shed light on exactly what and who are running the United States.  Mr. Gary Allen is an investigative journalist and has written the truth as he has seen it.  It is an extremely important book, and should be read by anyone interested in “sociopolitics,” or the politics at play above the fray of our “regular” politics.

            The scary fact that these things were exposed in 1971, and that everything still functions in the exact same way really freaks me out.  All the “nuts” who see bizarre conspiracies everywhere do so because they do not know of the true overarching conspiracy that keeps us all dumb and ignorant.

This guy dared to call it a Conspiracy...

 

            “In politics, nothing happens by accident.  If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” – Franklin Delano Roosevelt

            This quote from FDR applies to both the good things and the bad things that happen in politics.  Everything’s pre-planned, and everything’s covered in political gauze to ensure that no one knows who is really pulling the strings.  It all comes back to the control of resources, control of wealth, etc.  Money is the only thing that matters.  I wish I could describe in detail the contents of this book but it is better if you read it yourself.  Read it and ask yourself what it means for all the insane shit that has gone down since this book’s writing in 1971.

(This book is available to read or download in .pdf format here: http://www.ldsfreedomnetwork.com/none-dare-call-it-conspiracy.pdf )