# Cotton Mather, Babylon 5, Salem and Psi Corps



## Eoghan (Nov 4, 2011)

I am a great fan of B5 and have continued to read the novels which give background to the characters and events. Reading the first of the psi corps series I was surprised to find a reference to Cotton Mather, a positive reference!

Page 80 details Cotton Mathers  objections to the admission of "spectral evidence" because the allegation could not be verified by it's very nature and so opened up the possibility of simply lying against a neighbour. Against his advice it WAS admitted and 21 people lost their lives.

Is there a historical document I could read to flesh this out?


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## Stargazer65 (Nov 4, 2011)

Now I feel really old, I have not the slightest idea what you're talking about except I know of Cotton Mather.


Try this reference:

"The Wonders of the Invisible World. Observations as Well Historical as" by Cotton Mather and Reiner Smolinski , Editor

It's "The wonders of the invisible world" ; Cotton Mathers own defense of the Salem Witch Trials in .pdf format.


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## J. Dean (Nov 4, 2011)

B5. Great show. I was very suprised to learn that JMS is an atheist, because he sure doesn't write like one.


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## Eoghan (Nov 4, 2011)

J. Dean said:


> B5. Great show. I was very suprised to learn that JMS is an atheist, because he sure doesn't write like one.



I would have agreed until I got to series 4 when the Shadows and Vorlons are revealed as "Yin and Yang" this chinese philosophy seems to have influenced JMS to view the conflict as dualism rather than good v evil.

There are a lot of interesting snippets in it as well as character development. Mollari's path is a down ward one while G'Kar's is an upward one (in secular terms).


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