Excerpt from Contact With the Other World: The Latest Evidence as to Communication With the DeadIt was at least impossible to evade the discussion Of the doctrine of spiritualism in the face of its claims. No matter what our deci sion about telepathy, dousing, telekinesis, and hypnotism, the ap parent meaning Of apparitions and mediumistic phenomena re quired further consideration, and whether we believed or dishe lieved in the Spiritistic interpretation, we had to face the issue. The practical and ethical interests Of man concentrate-d attention on this one question and subordinated all others, no matter how vigorously was urged the need Of cool scientific Investigation. Spiritualism, therefore, gained prominence, and in the course of time challenged any defender Of materialistic science to meet it in the arena. Skepticism was asked to consider evidence, and to Offer some practical and desirable alternative to death without resurrection or survival. Skepticism was handicapped in such a debate. It might insist on natural laws, but it was always menaced by the prospect of contending with human needs, which have as much in¿uence in determining many beliefs as any Of the rigid standards of evidence that will have nothing to do with the ethical ideals of man.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.