Mrs. Twigg and the Witch of
Endor
WE CAN SAFELY assume that Dr. Pike was neither a bishop thinking theologically, nor a lawyer thinking objectively, but a father in anguish of soul as he visited Mrs. Twigg and the other mediums. And perhaps in the light of all that preceded Jim's suicide, it is not surprising if Dr. Pike desperately wanted reassurance that he was not to blame for the way things had turned out, despite his attempts during several months of living with Jim in Cambridge to redeem his son from the world he had entered through drug addiction. (It must be noted, however, that Dr. Pike denies the need for such reassurance; through his pastoral counseling experience, he says, he had learned to reject simplistic guilt.)
Whether this was so or not, James Pike was never more vulnerable in his life to such an experience, to receive it and believe it, than in the aftermath of Jim's suicide and the later suicide of his close associate, Mrs. Maren Bergrud.
People who visit mediums are almost always emotionally vulnerable. They have not yet come to terms with grief, they often have the ordinary "What if," "Why didn't I," "If only" guilt feelings as they think about the deceased person. And some mediums may pander to such emotional upheaval.
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But is it possible to call up the dead? This is the important question.
Since my long-ago conversations with James Pike were in the context of the Bible, I should like to appeal to what it tells us for my answer.
Dead people appeared to living people on two occasions in the Bible, once in the Old Testament and once in the New. One appearance resulted from an appeal to the powers of darkness, and occurred through the activity of a medium. The other was at the time of Jesus' transfiguration, and represented, according to the record, a special act of God.
King Saul was the one who sought out a medium, to consult dead prophet Samuel, in the crisis of imminent attack by the Philistines. His act in consulting the medium was an extreme one: he had previously turned from God; he had been disowned by God; God had refused to answer his request for counsel through ordinary channels and maintained silence.
The extent of King Saul's desperation is shown by the fact that he was willing to take this course, since — in an earlier action as king — he had outlawed mediums and spiritism.
It seems fair to examine this incident in the light of Dr. Pike's experience, since the Bishop himself introduced the comparison in The Other Side.
Here's what happened, as it's recorded in I Samuel 28 (R.S.V.):
Then Saul said to his servants, "Seek out for
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me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her."And his servants said to him, "Behold, there is a medium at Endor."
So Saul disguised himself and put on other garments, and went, he and two men with him; and they came to the woman by night. And he said, "Divine for me by a spirit, and bring up for me whomever I shall name to you."
The woman said to him, "Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off the mediums and the wizards from the land. Why then are you laying a snare for my life to bring about my death?"
But Saul swore to her by the Lord, "As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for this thing."
Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?"
He said, "Bring up Samuel for me."
When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman said to Saul, "Why have you deceived me? You are Saul."
The king said to her, "Have no fear; what do you see?"
And the woman said to Saul, "I see a god coming up out of the earth."
He said to her, "What is his appearance?"
And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did obeisance.
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Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?"Saul answered, "I am in great distress; for the Philistines are warring against me, and God has turned away from me and answers me no more, either by prophets or by dreams; therefore I have summoned you to tell me what I shall do."
And Samuel said, "Why then do you ask me, since the Lord has turned from you and become your enemy? The Lord has done to you as he spoke by me; for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand, and given it to your neighbor, David. Because you did not obey the voice of the Lord, and did not carry out his fierce wrath against Amalek, therefore the Lord has done this to you this day. Moreover the Lord will give Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons shall be with me; the Lord will give you the army of Israel into the hand of the Philistines."
Then Saul fell at once full length upon the ground, filled with fear because of the words of Samuel; and there was no strength in him, for he had eaten nothing all day and all night. And the woman came to Saul, and when she saw he was terrified, she said to him, "Behold, your handmaid has hearkened to you; I have taken my life in my hand, and have hearkened to what you have said to me. Now therefore, you also hearken to your handmaid; let me set a morsel of bread before you; and eat, that you may have strength when you go on your way."
He refused and said, "I will not eat."
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But his servants together with the woman urged him; and he hearkened to their words. So he arose from the earth, and sat upon the bed.Now the woman had a fatted calf in the house, and she quickly killed it, and she took flour and kneaded it, and baked unleavened bread of it, and put it before Saul and his servants; and they ate. Then they rose and went away that night.
There are several differences between this account and that of Dr. Pike.
First, Saul recognized Samuel. It may have been his voice rather than his appearance, but he didn't have to take the medium's word for it, nor the mention of remote facts or persons for evidence. (Subsequent to the televised seance with Reverend Arthur Ford, some of this surprising "evidence" was shown by Newsweek Magazine to have been available in the International Who's Who. Dr. Pike mentions this, in admitting a possibility — which he did not accept — that he had been the victim of a hoax or conspiracy on the part of the various mediums.)
Then, too, Samuel talked like Samuel. Here was a dead man, not expressing himself in bits and pieces of obscure phrases and ideas — like most recorded conversations through mediums — but thundering as he had before they laid him in the grave.
The witch did not treat the appearance casually as did the mediums James Pike consulted; nor did she go into a trance. She was terrified. Perhaps her terror was related to fear for her life because she had broken the command of the king
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standing before her. But it seems to many Old Testament scholars that she was terrified by what she had brought back from the other side.
Like many reported communications through mediums, the word James Pike received denied the biblical concept of God and Jesus Christ. Samuel's word to King Saul, on the other hand, affirmed the personality of the God of Israel, and declared His impending judgment.
The other major biblical occasion on which the dead appeared was when Old Testament prophet leaders Moses and Elijah, who had died centuries before, appeared on a mountain with Jesus in the presence of three disciples.
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
He was still speaking, when lo, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."
When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces, and were filled with awe.
But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear."
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And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead." (Matthew 17, R.S.V.)
Here is no quiet cottage or darkened room, no trance or disembodied voices. This is an appearance outdoors, on a mountain. The dead appear as in life, they talk with a living man, the onlookers — as was true of the incident involving King Saul — are terrified and fall on their faces.
And there is no uncertainty about the nature of God or of Jesus. Unlike Bishop Pike's experience with mediums, the incident is consonant with other biblical teachings. God speaks, and in speaking affirms His Son.
Did Bishop Pike actually get through to his dead son Jim, and to Maren Bergrud, through mediums?
Dr. Pike was convinced that the answer was yes, although he considered at some length the possibility that he had been duped by the mediums he consulted, individually or collectively. He concluded that all had acted in good faith, and had produced words from "the other side." (At times, he thought, they spoke on their own, along the lines of a sympathetic pastoral counselor who presents little thoughts or homilies to an inquirer. He distinguished between these thoughts and true breakthroughs.)
But Pike was a public figure. Research could have uncovered many things about his past that he'd forget had ever been printed or spoken. By
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his own admission, for instance, he had been on hundreds of television shows.
Was there an interlocking network of mediums — Mrs. Twigg, George Daisley, Arthur Ford — in England and the United States, who conspired to manipulate Bishop Pike — a world figure — for their purposes, without his knowledge? No, says Pike, these were people of probity and integrity. But to those who know the extent to which zealous men will go to achieve their mission (in this case, the advancement of spiritism), his elaborate reasons will be less than convincing.
Still, what comes through had a certain ring of truth to it. All that Bishop Pike heard in the seances may not have come from "the other side," may not have been the words of his son Jim or the other dead people who claimed to speak; but a lot of it seems to have come, at the very least, from beyond the mediums.
Where did it come from?
