Article August 3, 1899 ISSUE

Renounces Spiritualism

—The Inter Ocean

LONDON, June 20.—Spiritualism, in the ordinary acceptance of the term, has received a heavy blow in France. M. Camille Flammarion, its most prominent leader and best-known medium, has renounced it. He affirms his belief that the phenomena of spiritualism are due to autosuggestion and not to the influence of the spirits of the dead. Strangely enough his conversion is due to Allan Kardec's book "Genese," which was supposed to be written at the dictation of the late M. Galle, the discoverer of Neptune, through Flammarion himself as medium. Flammarion now declares that, although the book was produced in a series of trances in which he was the innocent and honest instrument, it is impossible that the illustrious astronomer could have dictated the blunders contained in Genese.

That work states, for instance, that Jupiter has four satellites and Saturn eight, whereas it is now known that Jupiter has five and Saturn nine. When "Genese" was written, however, these discoveries had not yet been made, and M. Flammarion concludes that the information transcribed by Allan Kardec was merely the reflection of his own (M. Flammarion's) knowledge, and of what was said around him concerning the stars and planets.

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