Researchers

Robert Hare

Robert Hare 

1781-1858


          Professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Discovered the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe. Author of more than 150 papers on scientific subjects, writer on political and moral questions and one of the first scientific authorities to denounce early American Spiritualism in the Press. He considered it "an act of duty to his fellow creatures to bring whatever influence he possessed to the attempt to stem the tide of popular madness which, in defiance of reason and science, was fast setting in favour of the gross delusion called spiritualism." So in 1853, at the age of 72, he began his investigations and devised a number of instruments which, contrary to his expectations, conclusively proved that a power and intelligence, not that of those present, was at work.

His book, Experimental Investigation of the Spirit Manifestation, published in 1855, summed up the results as follows:

"The evidence may be contemplated under various phases; first, those in which rappings or other noises have been made which could not be traced to any mortal agency; secondly, those in which sounds were so made as to indicate letters forming grammatical, well-spelt sentences, affording proof that they were under the guidance of some rational being; thirdly, those in which the nature of the communication has been such as to prove that the being causing them must, agreeably to accompanying allegations, be some known acquaintance, friend, or relative of the inquirer.

"Again, cases in which movements have been made of ponderable bodies of a nature to produce intellectual communications resembling those obtained, as above-mentioned, by sounds.

"Although the apparatus by which these various proofs were attained with the greatest possible precaution and precision, modified them as to the manner, essentially all the evidence which I have obtained tending to the conclusions above mentioned, has likewise been substantially obtained by a great number of observers. Many who never sought any spiritual communications and have not been induced to enroll themselves as Spiritualists, will nevertheless not only affirm the existence of the sounds and movements, but also admit their inscrutability."

Reaction was quick to set against Hare. The professors of Harvard University passed a resolution denouncing him and his "insane adherence to a gigantic humbug." He was howled down by the American Association for the Advancement of Science when in Washington in 1854 he tried to address them on the subject of Spiritualism. Finally he paid for his convictions by resigning from his chair.

 

 

Some parts of this page The International Survivalist Society 2004

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