Revisiting ‘The Challenging Counterfeit’: Spiritualism and Christianity

Revisiting The Challenging Counterfeit, is an extended review of Raphael Gasson’s ‘The Challenging Counterfeit’ (1966). Raphael was an ethnic Jew whose spiritual journey included many years as a Christian Spiritualist minister. Today, when psychic phenomena captures the imagination and the bank accounts of popular media, it is useful to unearth the witness of one who had well worn the T-shirt of a medium with pride, only to bury it in holy ground as a thing of shame and of sorrow and of wasted time.

Challengingly, his book exposes what true Spiritualism is. He had nothing but high praise for Spiritualists, and deep condemnation for Spiritualism. For he had discovered true Spiritualism to be itself a fake of true Spirituality, a mere Counterfeit that, in deposing death in the mind, enthroned it in the soul.

Counterfeit phenomena covered include apparitions, Rescue Work and haunted houses, materialisation of pets, psychic healing, Lyceums, clairvoyance, and OOBEs-to name but a few. This book surveys his expose of Spiritualism’s offer of tantalising bait for fish, false food falling short of real food for the soul. Though it takes issue with Raphael on a number of points, his core insights are powerful and timely, helping us to avoid-or escape from-a Challenging Counterfeit, and to discover true spiritual currency.