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Spirits, Witches & Science 67

Spirits, Witches & Science

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As early as January 19, 1663, Glanvill had
begun to investigate claims of spirit phenomena
when he and a gentleman friend traveled to
Tedworth in Wilshire, where a "drumming"
spirit was said to haunt the house of a Mr.
Mompesson. The two men first interviewed the
servants and several neighbors, including two
local ministers of impeccable reputation, all of
whom had been present when the spirit made
noises or threw objects about the house. Then
they themselves experienced the noises that the
spirit produced and tried to discover, "if there
were any trick, contrivance, or common sense
of it," but they could find nothing; so Glanvill
was persuaded that, "the noise was made by
some Daemon or Spirit" (Glanvill, 1689, p.
329). Glanvill delayed publication of his
account of the "Drummer of Tedworth" at Mr.
Mompesson's request until the strange
phenomena ceased. (He was concerned that the investigations of spirits and thus in support for early 17th century--returned as a serious and
spirit would become angered by the books!) In the true religion: popular topic for polemical discussions; and
1668, however, it became the first of 28 Did the Society direct some of its wary those who argued in favor of beliefs in spirit
different detailed accounts of spirits and witches and luciferous enquiries towards the world of phenomena simultaneously drew arguments
which Glanvill published as appendices to his spirits, believe we should have another kind of from and promoted experimental science (Jobe,
philosophical treatments of witchcraft and Metaphysics, than those [that] are taught by men 1981, pp. 343-356). []
demons in order to reliably establish the that love to write great volumes and to be subtle
evidence for their existence. Summarizing his about nothing? For we know not anything of the
account of the drummer, Glanvill lays out a world we live in, but by experiment and the
litany of criteria which such an account ought to phenomena; and there is the same way of
have in order to be credible support for the speculating immaterial nature, by extraordinary
belief in spirits: events and apparitions, which possibly might be
[The phenomena] are strange enough to improved to notices not contemptible, were
prove themselves effects of some invisible there a cautious and faithful history made of
extraordinary Agent, and so demonstrate that those certain and uncommon appearances. At
there are spirits, who sometimes sensibly least it would be standing evidence against
intermeddle in our affairs. And I think they do it SADDUCISM, to which the present age is so DID YOU KNOW...
with clearness of evidence. For these things unhappily disposed, and a sensible argument of Causes of Death
were not done long ago or at a far distance, in an our Immortality (cited in Prior, 1932, p. 182).
ignorant age, or among a barbarous people. While the Royal Society offered no - The first victim of the guillotine was a
They were not seen by two or three only of the official response to Glanvill's request, many highwayman named Nicholas Pelletier, on
Melancholic or superstitious, and reported by members contributed directly to Glanvill's April 25, 1792, in Paris, France.
those that made them [to] serve the advantage collection of Spirit relations. Boyle sent a report
and interest of a party. They were not the of an Irish Witch, who he had investigated and - In 1940, German spy Josef Jakobs became
passages of a day or night, nor the vanishing confirmed his first-hand support of an earlier the last person to be executed in the Tower of
glances of an apparition; but these transactions account of a demonic possession at Mascon in London.
were near and are public, frequent, and of France, for example. And John Beale sent him
diverse years continuance, witnessed by letters on the possible effects of witchcraft on - The first attempt on Martin Luther King Jr.’s
multitudes of competent and unbiased attestors, butter production. Perhaps more importantly, life came in 1958, when a woman stabbed
and acted in a searching and incredulous age: many Royal Society members began to him in the chest with a letter opener.
Arguments enough, one would think, to incorporate spirits into their laboratory world
convince any modest and capable reason (Schaffer, 1987, pp. 55-85). - Indira Ghandi and her son Rajiv were both
(Glanvill, 1689, p. 338). It is not clear to me which group assassinated during their consecutive terms
From the comments of Samuel Pepys, benefitted more from the mutually supportive as prime minister of India.
who had found the earlier versions of Glanvill's arguments of Anglican demonologists and
Witchcraft essay "unconvincing," it is fairly experimental natural philosophers after 1666. - In 1800, England’s King George III
clear that the accounts of actual spirit events On the one hand, Glanvill and his Anglican survived two assassination attempts...in one
increased the impact of his arguments, making colleagues, such as Henry More, reached a far day.
them in Pepys' view, "worth reading indeed" wider audience; and many persons who
(Cope, 1956, p. 14). Whatever other impact they welcomed Glanvill's "defence" of traditional - At the Jonestown Massacre, Jim Jone’s
had, these "ghost stories" certainly made best Christian beliefs in the immortality of the soul, followers drank Flavor Aid, not Kool-Aid.
sellers out of numerous editions of Glanvill's were probably swayed toward a sympathy for
Saducismus Triumphantus and stimulated a experimental philosophy. On the other hand, - The 1918 flu pandemic killed 25 million
whole tradition of dramatic and fictional experimental philosophers, as a group, probably people in four months...more than were killed
treatments of spirit phenomena. In the 1668 A had a more profound impact in legitimizing in all of World War I.
Blow at Modern Saducism, which saw the first Glanvill's views among intellectuals. In any
appearance of Glanvill's account of the event, for at least a couple of decades after the DID YOU KNOW by
drummer of Tedworth, Glanvill also attempted Restoration, the belief in ghosts and witches-- Rob McConnell - Visit
to recruit the Royal Society to help in which had begun to decline in the late 16th and www.rel-mar.com/didyouknow