George W Samson was a Reverend in Washington City who published many works including 'To Daimonion' in which he explains the phenomena of 'spiritual rappings' or 'spiritual knockings' through the 'nervous principle,' and animal magnetism. His attempt to explain clairvoyance, trances, second-sight, kinesis, and others comes from his thought that the 'daimonion' (the demon), is the spirit of the universe, which when excited causes these phenomena to occur. He uses quotations from Herodotus, Xenophon, Cicero, Pliny, and others to try and illustrate how all of these people were discussing the same thing and simply were conduits being used when the demon or spirit of the universe got excited, which could be done consciously or subconsciously by a person.
This 1853 edition was controversial with reviews which said it was
"the most ingenious and intelligent discussion of what has been termed "modern Spiritualism" while others… Leer más