Secondly
The definition: this is the claim to be able to conjure up the spirits of the dead through what are alleged to be scientific methods.
The aim: to introduce doubt about the divine religions, and to preach a new religion in line with these claims.
The beginning: during the nineteenth century, many groups appeared in the United States of America and practiced this sort of magic, whereby they pretended to conjure up the spirits of dead people by various means, with the goal of revealing unseen matters. This was motivated by the disbelievers of the Jewish religion.
Their propaganda then spread throughout the Muslim and Arab worlds, where sessions of conjuring up spirits are still held in homes and clubs, during which the attendees receive messages written down on paper, supposedly without the prompting of the medium or psychic. During these meetings, these magicians sometimes say that they can hear these spirits’ voices, especially when these sessions are being held in a room that is in deep darkness. These conditions give the magicians more control over the situation.
None of the founders of this practice from Europe or America have yet become known. However, the disbelievers of the Jewish religion, who proliferate there as minorities, played a large part in establishing this practice when they went against Al’lah’s Saying that had been sent down in the Torah. The Holy Qur’an revealed their situation; as God says: “They accepted what the devils had told them about Solomon’s possession. Solomon did not disbelieve, but the devils did…”
The Holy Qur’an,
Fortress 2, Al-Baqara (The Cow), verse 102
Nonetheless, at the beginning of the twentieth century many notable characters actively promoted this practice, including:
· Jan Arthur Findley, in his famous book On the Edge of the Etheric
· Eden Fredreck Pours, in his famous book The Phenomenon of the Room of Invoking Spirits
· Arthur Conan Doyle, in his book The Edge of the Unknown
· The famous infidel Jew, David Wajeed
Besides these examples, many institutions were established in those countries to support this propaganda, such as:
· The International Institute for Spiritual Research in the United States of America
· The Spiritual Institution of Mulborn in England, whose owner is Mrs. Wood Smith who pretends to invoke spirits
And in Muslim countries, there were many people who enthused about, adopted, and propagandized this practice, such as:
· Mr. Ahmed Fahmi Abul-Kheir, the secretary-general of the Egyptian Institution for Spiritual Research, who published the magazine The World of the Spirit, which is a mouthpiece for destructive propaganda about this practice. He started carrying out his activities in the year 1937, and translated the two books of Findley and Pours mentioned above into Arabic
· Mr. Wahib Doss, the lawyer and head of the former institution
· Dr. Ali Abdul-Jalil Radhi, the head of The Spiritual Institution of Al-Ahram, who published a book under the title My Witnessing in the Spiritual Institute of London
· Hasan Abdul-Wahab, the secretary of the former institution
· The Lebanese poet, Halim Dammoos, who was known for sanctifying Dahesh, who he glorified as a prophet. He wrote many essays which were published in the magazine, The World of the Spirit under the title The Mission of Dahesh
This propaganda now has a great influence, especially in America and Europe, where you find no city that does not include an outlet for such destructive propaganda, and furthermore, many newspapers and magazines speak its name.
In America, there is the International Center for Spiritual Research, and in the Arab and Muslim worlds, these dangerous ideas are spreading very quickly. This is the case in Egypt in particular, where you find many institutions related to the promotion of this practice, and many Egyptian magazines and newspapers propagandize it, such as the specialized magazine The World of the Spirit.
It is said that its practitioners are interested in reviving the mission of Pharaoh along with other pagan missions, with the aim of destroying the true divine religions.
It has also been suggested that many of its promoters are people who have lost a dear friend or member of their family. Such people console themselves through fancies, and some of the most famous of these include Oliver Lodge, who lost his son during World War I, and the founder of the Spiritual Institution in Egypt, Ahmed Fahmi Abul-Kheir, who also lost his son in the year 1937, and had only been blessed with this child after waiting for a long time after his marriage without having children.
1) These people say that they conjure up spirits and invoke dead people in order to consult them about whatever mysterious problems they have, and to seek their help in treating both spiritual and physical patients. Other supposed goals of this practice are to get information about criminals, to unveil hidden matters, and to foretell the future. Those who follow these beliefs pretend that the spirit can be perceived because it can become manifest and can be touched, and suggest that some spirits think that they are still alive, leading us to wonder here: can a body move without a soul?! And how can the owner of such a soul remain alive after it has left his body?! And what could follow the exit of the soul except death, at which time there is no return of the soul to the body until Doomsday?
2) The spirits are like servants for these people, as they are said to answer any call or respond to any signal that they make.
They pretend that the spirits that they supposedly conjure up are sent by Al’lah to humanity, just as the messengers had been sent before them. But the contention is that their teaching and direction are loftier than those of the messengers.
They also claim that these spirits help them to reveal crime, discover the sites of the ancient monuments for those in search of gold, and can help to treat spiritual diseases. So, this is propaganda for a sort of magic.
3) The supporters of this practice claim that they can photograph these spirits by means of infra-red rays, but the strange thing about this is that infra-red rays examine material, inspect its nature, and make it known, so how can they examine spirits and photograph them?! Does the spirit have a material form?! Can even the most modern of cameras and spectroscopes using infra-red rays photograph the soul of a person after they die, and show what has happened to it after death? Of course not. Thus, they try to put a scientific stamp on their work, although it is far from scientific, as their actions do not rely on clear principles; and besides, they cannot recreate the results afresh each time, as would be the case if they were truly scientific experiments.
Indeed, this is nothing more than trickery and deception, and a kind of hypnosis that aims to take hold of the attention of those present and make a connection with the devilish jinns.
4) They perform their actions in a special dimly lit room, where the only source of light is a weak red light. The charade of the embodiment of the spirits and their addressing of them cannot be seen by those people present, but instead is reported to them by the medium, making them the most important person present when these events take place.
5) The medium can see and hear that which is unseen and unheard, and also receives words from these spirits that are supposedly written down without any prompting, and it is only the medium who has the ability to communicate from afar with the spirits through telepathy. This is really nothing but a sham that is practiced on naive people.
6) They admit the truth of the prophets’ and messengers’ missions (ptt), but their mediation is what distinguishes these magicians. They believe that the prophets’ wonders were spiritual phenomena, just like those which occur in the room where they conjure up the spirits, and they say that they can recreate the prophets’ wonders. In this they are aiming to confuse the believers and distort their faith.
7) They regulate the attendees of the session quantitatively and qualitatively, and when there are women among them, they let the people present sit in a way that alternates between the sexes, so that there is a man, then a woman, then a man, etc. They do this because they know that whenever a man and a woman meet, the devil will soon come and be the third one present.
8) Sometimes they play music to control the spirits of the attendees, and they claim that each session has a guardian spirit who watches over it.
9) They show their thoughts to each person according to what suits them, and therefore they sometimes support their propaganda with wordings that are borrowed from the Divine Books, making them bear false meanings that serve their purposes.
10) They attempt to disprove religious inspiration, saying that there is nothing in the divine religions to confirm it, and besides, they mock pious people.
11) They say that their god is mightier than that of the messenger (cpth), and that he has less human qualities and more godly properties; that is, they contend that their god is loftier and mightier.
12) They use brilliant watchwords such as humanity, brotherhood, freedom and equality to brainwash common and simple people.
13) Their work is wholly aimed at sowing misgivings about religious beliefs and moral standards, and they declare that ‘Spiritism’ is a new religion that supports universality and that invites people to give up all other religions. They assert that its rites and religious duties are limited to giving people practice in how to concentrate their spiritual power, and besides, it presents a new way of life and a different idea about Al’lah.
14) They pretend that the spirits which address them live in happiness and bliss, even if they had been unbelievers. The goal here is to destroy any faith in resurrection and reckoning, suggesting that the gate of repentance is always open, even after death. Concerning heaven and the fire, they consider them to be mental states that were brought into being by thought, so rendering them nothing more than the creations of imagination.
15) They have made many statements glorifying the communists, the pagans, the pharaohs and the Indians, who have the mightiest spirits, according to their claim.
16) They justify the commission of crimes, believing that their perpetrators are compelled to do them, and consequently, that they should not be punished.
17) They seek to actualize Judaism’s control over the whole world, in order to establish their own state on the ruins of the wholesale destruction that is supported by those who adopt the dogma of divide and rule. The Scientific American magazine announced that they would give a great financial prize to the person who proves the truth of their spiritual claims, but is still waiting for the winner to announce themselves. This is also true of the prize which has been set aside for the same purpose by the American magician Danger, and this is one of the greatest proofs of the falsehood of this propaganda.