The secret of the sects : a few words on mesmerism, psychomancy, etc. : a caution for the times.

Date:
[1882?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The secret of the sects : a few words on mesmerism, psychomancy, etc. : a caution for the times. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    / the: secret of the SECTS^/-t^ A FEW WORDS ON MESMERISM,^ PSYCHOMANCY, ETC. A CAUTION FOR THE TIMES.^^^^^'^'^ „ ^_ Some readers of these pages may possibly remember that ^S^^-^ in the summer and autumn of 1878, whole columns of the'/' . daily papers were several times filled with letters from their'v^'^^'^ special correspondents or reporters on the subject of t\].Q//(ZZ Hampshire SHAKERS, or followers of Mrs. Girling, to whos//— (? history and eccentric proceedings the attention of the public ' ^ was at that time strongly directed. The correspondent of The Standard of August 28th, writ- ing from Lymington, ascribed to Mrs. Girling, the foundress of the Sect in this country, a singularly piercing look, which he found was popidarly supposed there to have a sort 'of mesmeric influence on her follozvers ; and again, in the same letter, he says that she seemed to indicate' by one of her magnetic glances, or by a sort of pass, who were to dance, &c. The special reporter of the Daily Telegraph, in like manner,' states that the remarkable power she possessed had been ascribed to mesmerism, animal magnetism, and what not beside of ' isms' that are supposed to render possible an involuntary obedience {Telegraph of September 24th). In thus writing, both correspondents seem to have unconsciously touched upon a fact of no small interest and importance; one, how- ever, which is but little known or recognised in this country; viz., that Mesmerism or Psychomancy is still—as it has ' been for many centuries—the great secret of various Sects 9 and Secret Societies; and that, at this present time, there are I in this country and America alone, many millions of persons who are more or less subject to or affected by that occult agency.^ 1 The Tablet of August 2d, 1879, remarks, that The seances of the Spirit- uahsts, their intercourse with unseen powers, the manifestation among them of