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The Vital Message, by Arthur Conan Doyle
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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Vital Message, by Arthur Conan Doyle
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Title: The Vital Message
Author: Arthur Conan Doyle
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Release Date: February, 1996
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
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</pre>
<div style="height: 8em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h1>
THE VITAL MESSAGE
</h1>
<h2>
By Arthur Conan Doyle
</h2>
<p>
<br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<br />
</p>
<p>
<b>CONTENTS</b>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2H_PREF"> PREFACE </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2H_4_0002"> THE VITAL MESSAGE </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I — THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS
</a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II — THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III — THE GREAT ARGUMENT </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV — THE COMING WORLD </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V — IS IT THE SECOND DAWN? </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2H_APPE"> APPENDICES </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2H_4_0009"> A. — DOCTOR GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2H_4_0010"> B. — A PARTICULAR INSTANCE </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2H_4_0011"> C. — SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2H_4_0012"> D. — THE CLAIRVOYANCE OF MRS. B. </a>
</p>
<p class="toc">
<a href="#link2H_NOTE"> NOTES: </a>
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2H_PREF" id="link2H_PREF"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
PREFACE
</h2>
<p>
In "The New Revelation" the first dawn of the coming change has been
described. In "The Vital Message" the sun has risen higher, and one sees
more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseen may be. As
I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of how once, from
amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an Alpine pass, I
looked down upon the far stretching view of Lombardy, shimmering in the
sunshine and extending in one splendid panorama of blue lakes and green
rolling hills until it melted into the golden haze which draped the far
horizon. Such a promised land is at our very feet which, when we attain
it, will make our present civilisation seem barren and uncouth. Already
our vanguard is well over the pass. Nothing can now prevent us from
reaching that wonderful land which stretches so clearly before those eyes
which are opened to see it.
</p>
<p>
That stimulating writer, V. C. Desertis, has remarked that the Second
Coming, which has always been timed to follow Armageddon, may be fulfilled
not by a descent of the spiritual to us, but by the ascent of our material
plane to the spiritual, and the blending of the two phases of existence.
It is, at least, a fascinating speculation. But without so complete an
overthrow of the partition walls as this would imply we know enough
already to assure ourselves of such a close approximation as will surely
deeply modify all our views of science, of religion and of life. What form
these changes may take and what the evidence is upon which they will be
founded are briefly set forth in this volume.
</p>
<h3>
ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.
</h3>
<h3>
CROWBOROUGH,
</h3>
<p>
July, 1919.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h1>
THE VITAL MESSAGE
</h1>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
CHAPTER I — THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS
</h2>
<p>
It has been our fate, among all the innumerable generations of mankind, to
face the most frightful calamity that has ever befallen the world. There
is a basic fact which cannot be denied, and should not be overlooked. For
a most important deduction must immediately follow from it. That deduction
is that we, who have borne the pains, shall also learn the lesson which
they were intended to convey. If we do not learn it and proclaim it, then
when can it ever be learned and proclaimed, since there can never again be
such a spiritual ploughing and harrowing and preparation for the seed? If
our souls, wearied and tortured during these dreadful five years of
self-sacrifice and suspense, can show no radical changes, then what souls
will ever respond to a fresh influx of heavenly inspiration? In that case
the state of the human race would indeed be hopeless, and never in all the
coming centuries would there be any prospect of improvement.
</p>
<p>
Why was this tremendous experience forced upon mankind? Surely it is a
superficial thinker who imagines that the great Designer of all things has
set the whole planet in a ferment, and strained every nation to
exhaustion, in order that this or that frontier be moved, or some fresh
combination be formed in the kaleidoscope of nations. No, the causes of
the convulsion, and its objects, are more profound than that. They are
essentially religious, not political. They lie far deeper than the
national squabbles of the day. A thousand years hence those national
results may matter little, but the religious result will rule the world.
That religious result is the reform of the decadent Christianity of
to-day, its simplification, its purification, and its reinforcement by the
facts of spirit communion and the clear knowledge of what lies beyond the
exit-door of death. The shock of the war was meant to rouse us to mental
and moral earnestness, to give us the courage to tear away venerable
shams, and to force the human race to realise and use the vast new
revelation which has been so clearly stated and so abundantly proved, for
all who will examine the statements and proofs with an open mind.
</p>
<p>
Consider the awful condition of the world before this thunder-bolt struck
it. Could anyone, tracing back down the centuries and examining the record
of the wickedness of man, find anything which could compare with the story
of the nations during the last twenty years! Think of the condition of
Russia during that time, with her brutal aristocracy and her drunken
democracy, her murders on either side, her Siberian horrors, her Jew
baitings and her corruption. Think of the figure of Leopold of Belgium, an
incarnate devil who from motives of greed carried murder and torture
through a large section of Africa, and yet was received in every court,
and was eventually buried after a panegyric from a Cardinal of the Roman
Church—a church which had never once raised her voice against his
diabolical career. Consider the similar crimes in the Putumayo, where
British capitalists, if not guilty of outrage, can at least not be
acquitted of having condoned it by their lethargy and trust in local
agents. Think of Turkey and the recurrent massacres of her subject races.
Think of the heartless grind of the factories everywhere, where work
assumed a very different and more unnatural shape than the ancient labour
of the fields. Think of the sensuality of many rich, the brutality of many
poor, the shallowness of many fashionable, the coldness and deadness of
religion, the absence anywhere of any deep, true spiritual impulse. Think,
above all, of the organised materialism of Germany, the arrogance, the
heartlessness, the negation of everything which one could possibly
associate with the living spirit of Christ as evident in the utterances of
Catholic Bishops, like Hartmann of Cologne, as in those of Lutheran
Pastors. Put all this together and say if the human race has ever
presented a more unlovely aspect. When we try to find the brighter spots
they are chiefly where civilisation, as apart from religion, has built up
necessities for the community, such as hospitals, universities, and
organised charities, as conspicuous in Buddhist Japan as in Christian
Europe. We cannot deny that there has been much virtue, much gentleness,
much spirituality in individuals. But the churches were empty husks, which
contained no spiritual food for the human race, and had in the main ceased
to influence its actions, save in the direction of soulless forms.
</p>
<p>
This is not an over-coloured picture. Can we not see, then, what was the
inner reason for the war? Can we not understand that it was needful to
shake mankind loose from gossip and pink teas, and sword-worship, and
Saturday night drunks, and self-seeking politics and theological quibbles—to
wake them up and make them realise that they stand upon a narrow
knife-edge between two awful eternities, and that, here and now, they have
to finish with make-beliefs, and with real earnestness and courage face
those truths which have always been palpable where indolence, or
cowardice, or vested interests have not obscured the vision. Let us try to
appreciate what those truths are and the direction which reform must take.
It is the new spiritual developments which predominate in my own thoughts,
but there are two other great readjustments which are necessary before
they can take their full effect. On the spiritual side I can speak with
the force of knowledge from the beyond. On the other two points of reform,
I make no such claim.
</p>
<p>
The first is that in the Bible, which is the foundation of our present
religious thought, we have bound together the living and the dead, and the
dead has tainted the living. A mummy and an angel are in most unnatural
partnership. There can be no clear thinking, and no logical teaching until
the old dispensation has been placed on the shelf of the scholar, and
removed from the desk of the teacher. It is indeed a wonderful book, in
parts the oldest which has come down to us, a book filled with rare
knowledge, with history, with poetry, with occultism, with folklore. But
it has no connection with modern conceptions of religion. In the main it
is actually antagonistic to them. Two contradictory codes have been
circulated under one cover, and the result is dire confusion. The one is a
scheme depending upon a special tribal God, intensely anthropomorphic and
filled with rage, jealousy and revenge. The conception pervades every book
of the Old Testament. Even in the psalms, which are perhaps the most
spiritual and beautiful section, the psalmist, amid much that is noble,
sings of the fearsome things which his God will do to his enemies. "They
shall go down alive into hell." There is the keynote of this ancient
document—a document which advocates massacre, condones polygamy,
accepts slavery, and orders the burning of so-called witches. Its Mosaic
provisions have long been laid aside. We do not consider ourselves
accursed if we fail to mutilate our bodies, if we eat forbidden dishes,
fail to trim our beards, or wear clothes of two materials. But we cannot
lay aside the provisions and yet regard the document as divine. No learned
quibbles can ever persuade an honest earnest mind that that is right. One
may say: "Everyone knows that that is the old dispensation, and is not to
be acted upon." It is not true. It is continually acted upon, and always
will be so long as it is made part of one sacred book. William the Second
acted upon it. His German God which wrought such mischief in the world was
the reflection of the dreadful being who ordered that captives be put
under the harrow. The cities of Belgium were the reflection of the cities
of Moab. Every hard-hearted brute in history, more especially in the
religious wars, has found his inspiration in the Old Testament. "Smite and
spare not!" "An eye for an eye!", how readily the texts spring to the grim
lips of the murderous fanatic. Francis on St. Bartholomew's night, Alva in
the Lowlands, Tilly at Magdeburg, Cromwell at Drogheda, the Covenainters
at Philliphaugh, the Anabaptists of Munster, and the early Mormons of
Utah, all found their murderous impulses fortified from this unholy
source. Its red trail runs through history. Even where the New Testament
prevails, its teaching must still be dulled and clouded by its sterner
neighbour. Let us retain this honoured work of literature. Let us remove
the taint which poisons the very spring of our religious thought.
</p>
<p>
This is, in my opinion, the first clearing which should be made for the
more beautiful building to come. The second is less important, as it is a
shifting of the point of view, rather than an actual change. It is to be
remembered that Christ's life in this world occupied, so far as we can
estimate, 33 years, whilst from His arrest to His resurrection was less
than a week. Yet the whole Christian system has come to revolve round His
death, to the partial exclusion of the beautiful lesson of His life. Far
too much weight has been placed upon the one, and far too little upon the
other, for the death, beautiful, and indeed perfect, as it was, could be
matched by that of many scores of thousands who have died for an idea,
while the life, with its consistent record of charity, breadth of mind,
unselfishness, courage, reason, and progressiveness, is absolutely unique
and superhuman. Even in these abbreviated, translated, and second-hand
records we receive an impression such as no other life can give—an
impression which fills us with utter reverence. Napoleon, no mean judge of
human nature, said of it: "It is different with Christ. Everything about
Him astonishes me. His spirit surprises me, and His will confounds me.
Between Him and anything of this world there is no possible comparison. He
is really a being apart. The nearer I approach Him and the closer I
examine Him, the more everything seems above me."
</p>
<p>
It is this wonderful life, its example and inspiration, which was the real
object of the descent of this high spirit on to our planet. If the human
race had earnestly centred upon that instead of losing itself in vain
dreams of vicarious sacrifices and imaginary falls, with all the mystical
and contentious philosophy which has centred round the subject, how very
different the level of human culture and happiness would be to-day! Such
theories, with their absolute want of reason or morality, have been the
main cause why the best minds have been so often alienated from the
Christian system and proclaimed themselves materialists. In contemplating
what shocked their instincts for truth they have lost that which was both
true and beautiful. Christ's death was worthy of His life, and rounded off
a perfect career, but it is the life which He has left as the foundation
for the permanent religion of mankind. All the religious wars, the private
feuds, and the countless miseries of sectarian contention, would have been
at least minimised, if not avoided, had the bare example of Christ's life
been adopted as the standard of conduct and of religion.
</p>
<p>
But there are certain other considerations which should have weight when
we contemplate this life and its efficacy as an example. One of these is
that the very essence of it was that He critically examined religion as He
found it, and brought His robust common sense and courage to bear in
exposing the shams and in pointing out the better path. THAT is the
hall-mark of the true follower of Christ, and not the mute acceptance of
doctrines which are, upon the face of them, false and pernicious, because
they come to us with some show of authority. What authority have we now,
save this very life, which could compare with those Jewish books which
were so binding in their force, and so immutably sacred that even the
misspellings or pen-slips of the scribe, were most carefully preserved? It
is a simple obvious fact that if Christ had been orthodox, and had
possessed what is so often praised as a "child-like faith," there could
have been no such thing as Christianity. Let reformers who love Him take
heart as they consider that they are indeed following in the footsteps of
the Master, who has at no time said that the revelation which He brought,
and which has been so imperfectly used, is the last which will come to
mankind. In our own times an equally great one has been released from the
centre of all truth, which will make as deep an impression upon the human
race as Christianity, though no predominant figure has yet appeared to
enforce its lessons. Such a figure has appeared once when the days were
ripe, and I do not doubt that this may occur once more.
</p>
<p>
One other consideration must be urged. Christ has not given His message in
the first person. If He had done so our position would be stronger. It has
been repeated by the hearsay and report of earnest but ill-educated men.
It speaks much for education in the Roman province of Judea that these
fishermen, publicans and others could even read or write. Luke and Paul
were, of course, of a higher class, but their information came from their
lowly predecessors. Their account is splendidly satisfying in the unity of
the general impression which it produces, and the clear drawing of the
Master's teaching and character. At the same time it is full of
inconsistencies and contradictions upon immaterial matters. For example,
the four accounts of the resurrection differ in detail, and there is no
orthodox learned lawyer who dutifully accepts all four versions who could
not shatter the evidence if he dealt with it in the course of his
profession. These details are immaterial to the spirit of the message. It
is not common sense to suppose that every item is inspired, or that we
have to make no allowance for imperfect reporting, individual convictions,
oriental phraseology, or faults of translation. These have, indeed, been
admitted by revised versions. In His utterance about the letter and the
spirit we could almost believe that Christ had foreseen the plague of
texts from which we have suffered, even as He Himself suffered at the
hands of the theologians of His day, who then, as now, have been a curse
to the world. We were meant to use our reasons and brains in adapting His
teaching to the conditions of our altered lives and times. Much depended
upon the society and mode of expression which belonged to His era. To
suppose in these days that one has literally to give all to the poor, or
that a starved English prisoner should literally love his enemy the
Kaiser, or that because Christ protested against the lax marriages of His
day therefore two spouses who loathe each other should be for ever chained
in a life servitude and martyrdom—all these assertions are to
travesty His teaching and to take from it that robust quality of common
sense which was its main characteristic. To ask what is impossible from
human nature is to weaken your appeal when you ask for what is reasonable.
</p>
<p>
It has already been stated that of the three headings under which reforms
are grouped, the exclusion of the old dispensation, the greater attention
to Christ's life as compared to His death, and the new spiritual influx
which is giving us psychic religion, it is only on the latter that one can
quote the authority of the beyond. Here, however, the case is really
understated. In regard to the Old Testament I have never seen the matter
treated in a spiritual communication. The nature of Christ, however, and
His teaching, have been expounded a score of times with some variation of
detail, but in the main as reproduced here. Spirits have their
individuality of view, and some carry over strong earthly prepossessions
which they do not easily shed; but reading many authentic spirit
communications one finds that the idea of redemption is hardly ever spoken
of, while that of example and influence is for ever insisted upon. In them
Christ is the highest spirit known, the son of God, as we all are, but
nearer to God, and therefore in a more particular sense His son. He does
not, save in most rare and special cases, meet us when we die. Since souls
pass over, night and day, at the rate of about 100 a minute, this would
seem self-evident. After a time we may be admitted to His presence, to
find a most tender, sympathetic and helpful comrade and guide, whose
spirit influences all things even when His bodily presence is not visible.
This is the general teaching of the other world communications concerning
Christ, the gentle, loving and powerful spirit which broods ever over that
world which, in all its many spheres, is His special care.
</p>
<p>
Before passing to the new revelation, its certain proofs and its definite
teaching, let us hark back for a moment upon the two points which have
already been treated. They are not absolutely vital points. The fresh
developments can go on and conquer the world without them. There can be no
sudden change in the ancient routine of our religious habits, nor is it
possible to conceive that a congress of theologians could take so heroic a
step as to tear the Bible in twain, laying one half upon the shelf and one
upon the table. Neither is it to be expected that any formal
pronouncements could ever be made that the churches have all laid the
wrong emphasis upon the story of Christ. Moral courage will not rise to
such a height. But with the spiritual quickening and the greater
earnestness which will have their roots in this bloody passion of mankind,
many will perceive what is reasonable and true, so that even if the Old
Testament should remain, like some obsolete appendix in the animal frame,
to mark a lower stage through which development has passed, it will more
and more be recognised as a document which has lost all validity and which
should no longer be allowed to influence human conduct, save by way of
pointing out much which we may avoid. So also with the teaching of Christ,
the mystical portions may fade gently away, as the grosser views of
eternal punishment have faded within our own lifetime, so that while
mankind is hardly aware of the change the heresy of today will become the
commonplace of tomorrow. These things will adjust themselves in God's own
time. What is, however, both new and vital are those fresh developments
which will now be discussed. In them may be found the signs of how the dry
bones may be stirred, and how the mummy may be quickened with the breath
of life. With the actual certainty of a definite life after death, and a
sure sense of responsibility for our own spiritual development, a
responsibility which cannot be put upon any other shoulders, however
exalted, but must be borne by each individual for himself, there will come
the greatest reinforcement of morality which the human race has ever
known. We are on the verge of it now, but our descendants will look upon
the past century as the culmination of the dark ages when man lost his
trust in God, and was so engrossed in his temporary earth life that he
lost all sense of spiritual reality.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
CHAPTER II — THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT
</h2>
<p>
Some sixty years ago that acute thinker Lord Brougham remarked that in the
clear sky of scepticism he saw only one small cloud drifting up and that
was Modern Spiritualism. It was a curiously inverted simile, for one would
surely have expected him to say that in the drifting clouds of scepticism
he saw one patch of clear sky, but at least it showed how conscious he was
of the coming importance of the movement. Ruskin, too, an equally agile
mind, said that his assurance of immortality depended upon the observed
facts of Spiritualism. Scores, and indeed hundreds, of famous names could
be quoted who have subscribed the same statement, and whose support would
dignify any cause upon earth. They are the higher peaks who have been the
first to catch the light, but the dawn will spread until none are too
lowly to share it. Let us turn, therefore, and inspect this movement which
is most certainly destined to revolutionise human thought and action as
none other has done within the Christian era. We shall look at it both in
its strength and in its weakness, for where one is dealing with what one
knows to be true one can fearlessly insist upon the whole of the truth.
</p>
<p>
The movement which is destined to bring vitality to the dead and cold
religions has been called "Modern Spiritualism." The "modern" is good,
since the thing itself, in one form or another, is as old as history, and
has always, however obscured by forms, been the red central glow in the
depths of all religious ideas, permeating the Bible from end to end. But
the word "Spiritualism" has been so befouled by wicked charlatans, and so
cheapened by many a sad incident, that one could almost wish that some
such term as "psychic religion" would clear the subject of old prejudices,
just as mesmerism, after many years of obloquy, was rapidly accepted when
its name was changed to hypnotism. On the other hand, one remembers the
sturdy pioneers who have fought under this banner, and who were prepared
to risk their careers, their professional success, and even their
reputation for sanity, by publicly asserting what they knew to be the
truth.
</p>
<p>
Their brave, unselfish devotion must do something to cleanse the name for
which they fought and suffered. It was they who nursed the system which
promises to be, not a new religion—it is far too big for that—but
part of the common heritage of knowledge shared by the whole human race.
Perfected Spiritualism, however, will probably bear about the same
relation to the Spiritualism of 1850 as a modern locomotive to the
bubbling little kettle which heralded the era of steam. It will end by
being rather the proof and basis of all religions than a religion in
itself. We have already too many religions—but too few proofs.
</p>
<p>
Those first manifestations at Hydesville varied in no way from many of
which we have record in the past, but the result arising from them
differed very much, because, for the first time, it occurred to a human
being not merely to listen to inexplicable sounds, and to fear them or
marvel at them, but to establish communication with them. John Wesley's
father might have done the same more than a century before had the thought
occurred to him when he was a witness of the manifestations at Epworth in
1726. It was only when the young Fox girl struck her hands together and
cried "Do as I do" that there was instant compliance, and consequent proof
of the presence of an INTELLIGENT invisible force, thus differing from all
other forces of which we know. The circumstances were humble, and even
rather sordid, upon both sides of the veil, human and spirit, yet it was,
as time will more and more clearly show, one of the turning points of the
world's history, greater far than the fall of thrones or the rout of
armies. Some artist of the future will draw the scene—the
sitting-room of the wooden, shack-like house, the circle of half-awed and
half-critical neighbours, the child clapping her hands with upturned
laughing face, the dark corner shadows where these strange new forces seem
to lurk—forces often apparent, and now come to stay and to effect
the complete revolution of human thought. We may well ask why should such
great results arise from such petty sources? So argued the highbrowed
philosophers of Greece and Rome when the outspoken Paul, with the
fisherman Peter and his half-educated disciples, traversed all their
learned theories, and with the help of women, slaves, and schismatic Jews,
subverted their ancient creeds. One can but answer that Providence has its
own way of attaining its results, and that it seldom conforms to our
opinion of what is most appropriate.
</p>
<p>
We have a larger experience of such phenomena now, and we can define with
some accuracy what it was that happened at Hydesville in the year 1848. We
know that these matters are governed by law and by conditions as much as
any other phenomena of the universe, though at the moment it seemed to the
public to be an isolated and irregular outburst. On the one hand, you had
a material, earth-bound spirit of a low order of development which needed
a physical medium in order to be able to indicate its presence. On the
other, you had that rare thing, a good physical medium. The result
followed as surely as the flash follows when the electric battery and wire
are both properly adjusted. Corresponding experiments, where effect, and
cause duly follow, are being worked out at the present moment by Professor
Crawford, of Belfast, as detailed in his two recent books, where he shows
that there is an actual loss of weight of the medium in exact proportion
to the physical phenomenon produced.<a href="#linknote-1"
name="linknoteref-1" id="linknoteref-1"><small>1</small></a> The whole
secret of mediumship on this material side appears to lie in the power,
quite independent of oneself, of passively giving up some portion of one's
bodily substance for the use of outside influences. Why should some have
this power and some not? We do not know—nor do we know why one
should have the ear for music and another not. Each is born in us, and
each has little connection with our moral natures. At first it was only
physical mediumship which was known, and public attention centred upon
moving tables, automatic musical instruments, and other crude but obvious
examples of outside influence, which were unhappily very easily imitated
by rogues. Since then we have learned that there are many forms of
mediumship, so different from each other that an expert at one may have no
powers at all at the other. The automatic writer, the clairvoyant, the
crystal-seer, the trance speaker, the photographic medium, the direct
voice medium, and others, are all, when genuine, the manifestations of one
force, which runs through varied channels as it did in the gifts ascribed
to the disciples. The unhappy outburst of roguery was helped, no doubt, by
the need for darkness claimed by the early experimenters—a claim
which is by no means essential, since the greatest of all mediums, D. D.
Home, was able by the exceptional strength of his powers to dispense with
it. At the same time the fact that darkness rather than light, and dryness
rather than moisture, are helpful to good results has been abundantly
manifested, and points to the physical laws which underlie the phenomena.
The observation made long afterwards that wireless telegraphy, another
etheric force, acts twice as well by night as by day, may, corroborate the
general conclusions of the early Spiritualists, while their assertion that
the least harmful light is red light has a suggestive analogy in the
experience of the photographer.
</p>
<p>
There is no space here for the history of the rise and development of the
movement. It provoked warm adhesion and fierce opposition from the start.
Professor Hare and Horace Greeley were among the educated minority who
tested and endorsed its truth. It was disfigured by many grievous
incidents, which may explain but does not excuse the perverse opposition
which it encountered in so many quarters. This opposition was really
largely based upon the absolute materialism of the age, which would not
admit that there could exist at the present moment such conditions as
might be accepted in the far past. When actually brought in contact with
that life beyond the grave which they professed to believe in, these
people winced, recoiled, and declared it impossible. The science of the
day was also rooted in materialism, and discarded all its own very
excellent axioms when it was faced by an entirely new and unexpected
proposition. Faraday declared that in approaching a new subject one should
make up one's mind a priori as to what is possible and what is not! Huxley
said that the messages, EVEN IF TRUE, "interested him no more than the
gossip of curates in a cathedral city." Darwin said: "God help us if we
are to believe such things." Herbert Spencer declared against it, but had
no time to go into it. At the same time all science did not come so badly
out of the ordeal. As already mentioned, Professor Hare, of Philadelphia,
inventor, among other things, of the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, was the first
man of note who had the moral courage, after considerable personal
investigation, to declare that these new and strange developments were
true. He was followed by many medical men, both in America and in Britain,
including Dr. Elliotson, one of the leaders of free thought in this
country. Professor Crookes, the most rising chemist in Europe, Dr. Russel
Wallace the great naturalist, Varley the electrician, Flammarion the
French astronomer, and many others, risked their scientific reputations in
their brave assertions of the truth. These men were not credulous fools.
They saw and deplored the existence of frauds. Crookes' letters upon the
subject are still extant. In very many cases it was the Spiritualists
themselves who exposed the frauds. They laughed, as the public laughed, at
the sham Shakespeares and vulgar Caesars who figured in certain seance
rooms. They deprecated also the low moral tone which would turn such
powers to prophecies about the issue of a race or the success of a
speculation. But they had that broader vision and sense of proportion
which assured them that behind all these follies and frauds there lay a
mass of solid evidence which could not be shaken, though like all
evidence, it had to be examined before it could be appreciated. They were
not such simpletons as to be driven away from a great truth because there
are some dishonest camp followers who hang upon its skirts.
</p>
<p>
A great centre of proof and of inspiration lay during those early days in
Mr. D. D. Home, a Scottish-American, who possessed powers which make him
one of the most remarkable personalities of whom we have any record.
Home's life, written by his second wife, is a book which deserves very
careful reading. This man, who in some aspects was more than a man, was
before the public for nearly thirty years. During that time he never
received payment for his services, and was always ready, to put himself at
the disposal of any bona-fide and reasonable enquirer. His phenomena were
produced in full light, and it was immaterial to him whether the sittings
were in his own rooms or in those of his friends. So high were his
principles that upon one occasion, though he was a man of moderate means
and less than moderate health, he refused the princely fee of two thousand
pounds offered for a single sitting by the Union Circle in Paris.
</p>
<p>
As to his powers, they seem to have included every form of mediumship in
the highest degree—self-levitation, as witnessed by hundreds of
credible witnesses; the handling of fire, with the power of conferring
like immunity upon others; the movement without human touch of heavy
objects; the visible materialisation of spirits; miracles of healing; and
messages from the dead, such as that which converted the hard-headed Scot,
Robert Chambers, when Home repeated to him the actual dying words of his
young daughter. All this came from a man of so sweet a nature and of so
charitable a disposition, that the union of all qualities would seem
almost to justify those who, to Home's great embarrassment, were prepared
to place him upon a pedestal above humanity.
</p>
<p>
The genuineness of his psychic powers has never been seriously questioned,
and was as well recognised in Rome and Paris as in London. One incident
only darkened his career, and it, was one in which he was blameless, as
anyone who carefully weighs the evidence must admit. I allude to the
action taken against him by Mrs. Lyon, who, after adopting him as her son
and settling a large sum of money upon him, endeavoured to regain, and did
regain, this money by her unsupported assertion that he had persuaded her
illicitly to make him the allowance. The facts of his life are, in my
judgment, ample proof of the truth of the Spiritualist position, if no
other proof at all had been available. It is to be remarked in the career
of this entirely honest and unvenal medium that he had periods in his life
when his powers deserted him completely, that he could foresee these
lapses, and that, being honest and unvenal, he simply abstained from all
attempts until the power returned. It is this intermittent character of
the gift which is, in my opinion, responsible for cases when a medium who
has passed the most rigid tests upon certain occasions is afterwards
detected in simulating, very clumsily, the results which he had once
successfully accomplished. The real power having failed, he has not the
moral courage to admit it, nor the self-denial to forego his fee which he
endeavours to earn by a travesty of what was once genuine. Such an
explanation would cover some facts which otherwise are hard to reconcile.
We must also admit that some mediums are extremely irresponsible and
feather-headed people. A friend of mine, who sat with Eusapia Palladino,
assured me that he saw her cheat in the most childish and bare-faced
fashion, and yet immediately afterwards incidents occurred which were
absolutely beyond any, normal powers to produce.
</p>
<p>
Apart from Home, another episode which marks a stage in the advance of
this movement was the investigation and report by the Dialectical Society
in the year 1869. This body was composed of men of various learned
professions who gathered together to investigate the alleged facts, and
ended by reporting that they really WERE facts. They were unbiased, and
their conclusions were founded upon results which were very soberly set
forth in their report, a most convincing document which, even now in 1919,
after the lapse of fifty years, is far more intelligent than the greater
part of current opinion upon this subject. None the less, it was greeted
by a chorus of ridicule by the ignorant Press of that day, who, if the
same men had come to the opposite conclusion in spite of the evidence,
would have been ready to hail their verdict as the undoubted end of a
pernicious movement.
</p>
<p>
In the early days, about 1863, a book was written by Mrs. de Morgan, the
wife of the well-known mathematician Professor de Morgan, entitled "From
Matter to Spirit." There is a sympathetic preface by the husband. The book
is still well worth reading, for it is a question whether anyone has shown
greater brain power in treating the subject. In it the prophecy is made
that as the movement develops the more material phenomena will decrease
and their place be taken by the more spiritual, such as automatic writing.
This forecast has been fulfilled, for though physical mediums still exist
the other more subtle forms greatly predominate, and call for far more
discriminating criticism in judging their value and their truth. Two very
convincing forms of mediumship, the direct voice and spirit photography,
have also become prominent. Each of these presents such proof that it is
impossible for the sceptic to face them, and he can only avoid them by
ignoring them.
</p>
<p>
In the case of the direct voice one of the leading exponents is Mrs.
French, an amateur medium in America, whose work is described both by Mr.
Funk and Mr. Randall. She is a frail elderly lady, yet in her presence the
most masculine and robust voices make communications, even when her own
mouth is covered. I have myself investigated the direct voice in the case
of four different mediums, two of them amateurs, and can have no doubt of
the reality of the voices, and that they are not the effect of
ventriloquism. I was more struck by the failures than by the successes,
and cannot easily forget the passionate pantings with which some entity
strove hard to reveal his identity to me, but without success. One of
these mediums was tested afterwards by having the mouth filled with
coloured water, but the voice continued as before.
</p>
<p>
As to spirit photography, the most successful results are obtained by the
Crewe circle in England, under the mediumship of Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton.<a
href="#linknote-2" name="linknoteref-2" id="linknoteref-2"><small>2</small></a>
I have seen scores of these photographs, which in several cases reproduce
exact images of the dead which do not correspond with any pictures of them
taken during life. I have seen father, mother, and dead soldier son, all
taken together with the dead son looking far the happier and not the least
substantial of the three. It is in these varied forms of proof that the
impregnable strength of the evidence lies, for how absurd do explanations
of telepathy, unconscious cerebration or cosmic memory become when faced
by such phenomena as spirit photography, materialisation, or the direct
voice. Only one hypothesis can cover every branch of these manifestations,
and that is the system of extraneous life and action which has always, for
seventy years, held the field for any reasonable mind which had
impartially considered the facts.
</p>
<p>
I have spoken of the need for careful and cool-headed analysis in judging
the evidence where automatic writing is concerned. One is bound to exclude
spirit explanations until all natural ones have been exhausted, though I
do not include among natural ones the extreme claims of far-fetched
telepathy such as that another person can read in your thoughts things of
which you were never yourself aware. Such explanations are not
explanations, but mystifications and absurdities, though they seem to have
a special attraction for a certain sort of psychical researcher, who is
obviously destined to go on researching to the end of time, without ever
reaching any conclusion save that of the patience of those who try to
follow his reasoning. To give a good example of valid automatic script,
chosen out of many which I could quote, I would draw the reader's
attention to the facts as to the excavations at Glastonbury, as detailed
in "The Gate of Remembrance" by Mr. Bligh Bond. Mr. Bligh Bond, by the
way, is not a Spiritualist, but the same cannot be said of the writer of
the automatic script, an amateur medium, who was able to indicate the
secrets of the buried abbey, which were proved to be correct when the
ruins were uncovered. I can truly say that, though I have read much of the
old monastic life, it has never been brought home to me so closely as by
the messages and descriptions of dear old Brother Johannes, the
earth-bound spirit—earthbound by his great love for the old abbey in
which he had spent his human life. This book, with its practical sequel,
may be quoted as an excellent example of automatic writing at its highest,
for what telepathic explanation can cover the detailed description of
objects which lie unseen by any human eye? It must be admitted, however,
that in automatic writing you are at one end of the telephone, if one may
use such a simile, and you have, no assurance as to who is at the other
end. You may have wildly false messages suddenly interpolated among
truthful ones—messages so detailed in their mendacity that it is
impossible to think that they are not deliberately false. When once we
have accepted the central fact that spirits change little in essentials
when leaving the body, and that in consequence the world is infested by
many low and mischievous types, one can understand that these untoward
incidents are rather a confirmation of Spiritualism than an argument
against it. Personally I have received and have been deceived by several
such messages. At the same time I can say that after an experience of
thirty years of such communications I have never known a blasphemous, an
obscene or an unkind sentence come through. I admit, however, that I have
heard of such cases. Like attracts like, and one should know one's human
company before one joins in such intimate and reverent rites. In
clairvoyance the same sudden inexplicable deceptions appear. I have
closely followed the work of one female medium, a professional, whose
results are so extraordinarily good that in a favourable case she will
give the full names of the deceased as well as the most definite and
convincing test messages. Yet among this splendid series of results I have
notes of several in which she was a complete failure and absolutely wrong
upon essentials. How can this be explained? We can only answer that
conditions were obviously not propitious, but why or how are among the
many problems of the future. It is a profound and most complicated
subject, however easily it may be settled by the "ridiculous nonsense"
school of critics. I look at the row of books upon the left of my desk as
I write—ninety-six solid volumes, many of them annotated and well
thumbed, and yet I know that I am like a child wading ankle deep in the
margin of an illimitable ocean. But this, at least, I have very clearly
realised, that the ocean is there and that the margin is part of it, and
that down that shelving shore the human race is destined to move slowly to
deeper waters. In the next chapter, I will endeavour to show what is the
purpose of the Creator in this strange revelation of new intelligent
forces impinging upon our planet. It is this view of the question which
must justify the claim that this movement, so long the subject of sneers
and ridicule, is absolutely the most important development in the whole
history of the human race, so important that, if we could conceive one
single man discovering and publishing it, he would rank before Christopher
Columbus as a discoverer of new worlds, before Paul as a teacher of new
religious truths, and before Isaac Newton as a student of the laws of the
Universe.
</p>
<p>
Before opening up this subject there is one consideration which should
have due weight, and yet seems continually to be overlooked. The
differences between various sects are a very small thing as compared to
the great eternal duel between materialism and the spiritual view of the
Universe. That is the real fight. It is a fight in which the Churches
championed the anti-material view, but they have done it so
unintelligently, and have been continually placed in such false positions,
that they have always been losing. Since the days of Hume and Voltaire and
Gibbon the fight has slowly but steadily rolled in favour of the attack.
Then came Darwin, showing with apparent truth, that man has never fallen
but always risen. This cut deep into the philosophy of orthodoxy, and it
is folly to deny it. Then again came the so-called "Higher Criticism,"
showing alleged flaws and cracks in the very foundations. All this time
the churches were yielding ground, and every retreat gave a fresh
jumping-off place for a new assault. It has gone so far that at the
present moment a very large section of the people of this country, rich
and poor, are out of all sympathy not only with the churches but with the
whole Spiritual view. Now, we intervene with our positive knowledge and
actual proof—an ally so powerful that we are capable of turning the
whole tide of battle and rolling it back for ever against materialism. We
can say: "We will meet you on your own ground and show you by material and
scientific tests that the soul and personality survive." That is the aim
of Psychic Science, and it has been fully attained. It means an end to
materialism for ever. And yet this movement, this Spiritual movement, is
hooted at and reviled by Rome, by Canterbury and even by Little Bethel,
each of them for once acting in concert, and including in their battle
line such strange allies as the Scientific Agnostics and the militant
Free-thinkers. Father Vaughan and the Bishop of London, the Rev. F. B.
Meyer and Mr. Clodd, "The Church Times" and "The Freethinker," are united
in battle, though they fight with very different battle cries, the one
declaring that the thing is of the devil, while the other is equally clear
that it does not exist at all. The opposition of the materialists is
absolutely intelligent since it is clear that any man who has spent his
life in saying "No" to all extramundane forces is, indeed, in a pitiable
position when, after many years, he has to recognise that his whole
philosophy is built upon sand and that "Yes" was the answer from the
beginning. But as to the religious bodies, what words can express their
stupidity and want of all proportion in not running halfway and more to
meet the greatest ally who has ever intervened to change their defeat into
victory? What gifts this all-powerful ally brings with him, and what are
the terms of his alliance, will now be considered.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
CHAPTER III — THE GREAT ARGUMENT
</h2>
<p>
The physical basis of all psychic belief is that the soul is a complete
duplicate of the body, resembling it in the smallest particular, although
constructed in some far more tenuous material. In ordinary conditions
these two bodies are intermingled so that the identity of the finer one is
entirely obscured. At death, however, and under certain conditions in the
course of life, the two divide and can be seen separately. Death differs
from the conditions of separation before death in that there is a complete
break between the two bodies, and life is carried on entirely by the
lighter of the two, while the heavier, like a cocoon from which the living
occupant has escaped, degenerates and disappears, the world burying the
cocoon with much solemnity by taking little pains to ascertain what has
become of its nobler contents. It is a vain thing to urge that science has
not admitted this contention, and that the statement is pure dogmatism.
The science which has not examined the facts has, it is true, not admitted
the contention, but its opinion is manifestly worthless, or at the best of
less weight than that of the humblest student of psychic phenomena. The
real science which has examined the facts is the only valid authority, and
it is practically unanimous. I have made personal appeals to at least one
great leader of science to examine the facts, however superficially,
without any success, while Sir William Crookes appealed to Sir George
Stokes, the Secretary of the Royal Society, one of the most bitter
opponents of the movement, to come down to his laboratory and see the
psychic force at work, but he took no notice. What weight has science of
that sort? It can only be compared to that theological prejudice which
caused the Ecclesiastics in the days of Galileo to refuse to look through
the telescope which he held out to them.
</p>
<p>
It is possible to write down the names of fifty professors in great seats
of learning who have examined and endorsed these facts, and the list would
include many of the greatest intellects which the world has produced in
our time—Flammarion and Lombroso, Charles Richet and Russel Wallace,
Willie Reichel, Myers, Zollner, James, Lodge, and Crookes. Therefore the
facts HAVE been endorsed by the only science that has the right to express
an opinion. I have never, in my thirty years of experience, known one
single scientific man who went thoroughly into this matter and did not end
by accepting the Spiritual solution. Such may exist, but I repeat that I
have never heard of him. Let us, then, with confidence examine this matter
of the "spiritual body," to use the term made classical by Saint Paul.
There are many signs in his writings that Paul was deeply versed in
psychic matters, and one of these is his exact definition of the natural
and spiritual bodies in the service which is the final farewell to life of
every Christian. Paul picked his words, and if he had meant that man
consisted of a natural body and a spirit he would have said so. When he
said "a spiritual body" he meant a body which contained the spirit and yet
was distinct from the ordinary natural body. That is exactly what psychic
science has now shown to be true.
</p>
<p>
When a man has taken hashish or certain other drugs, he not infrequently
has the experience that he is standing or floating beside his own body,
which he can see stretched senseless upon the couch. So also under
anaesthetics, particularly under laughing gas, many people are conscious
of a detachment from their bodies, and of experiences at a distance. I
have myself seen very clearly my wife and children inside a cab while I
was senseless in the dentist's chair. Again, when a man is fainting or
dying, and his system in an unstable condition, it is asserted in very
many definite instances that he can, and does, manifest himself to others
at a distance. These phantasms of the living, which have been so carefully
explored and docketed by Messrs. Myers and Gurney, ran into hundreds of
cases. Some people claim that by an effort of will they can, after going
to sleep, propel their own doubles in the direction which they desire, and
visit those whom they wish to see. Thus there is a great volume of
evidence—how great no man can say who has not spent diligent years
in exploring it—which vouches for the existence of this finer body
containing the precious jewels of the mind and spirit, and leaving only
gross confused animal functions in its heavier companion.
</p>
<p>
Mr. Funk, who is a critical student of psychic phenomena, and also the
joint compiler of the standard American dictionary, narrates a story in
point which could be matched from other sources. He tells of an American
doctor of his acquaintance, and he vouches personally for the truth of the
incident. This doctor, in the course of a cataleptic seizure in Florida,
was aware that he had left his body, which he saw lying beside him. He had
none the less preserved his figure and his identity. The thought of some
friend at a distance came into his mind, and after an appreciable interval
he found himself in that friend's room, half way across the continent. He
saw his friend, and was conscious that his friend saw him. He afterwards
returned to his own room, stood beside his own senseless body, argued
within himself whether he should re-occupy it or not, and finally, duty
overcoming inclination, he merged his two frames together and continued
his life. A letter from him to his friend explaining matters crossed a
letter from the friend, in which he told how he also had been aware of his
presence. The incident is narrated in detail in Mr. Funk's "Psychic
Riddle."
</p>
<p>
I do not understand how any man can examine the many instances coming from
various angles of approach without recognising that there really is a
second body of this sort, which incidentally goes far to account for all
stories, sacred or profane, of ghosts, apparitions and visions. Now, what
is this second body, and how does it fit into modern religious revelation?
</p>
<p>
What it is, is a difficult question, and yet when science and imagination
unite, as Tyndall said they should unite, to throw a searchlight into the
unknown, they may produce a beam sufficient to outline vaguely what will
become clearer with the future advance of our race. Science has
demonstrated that while ether pervades everything the ether which is
actually in a body is different from the ether outside it. "Bound" ether
is the name given to this, which Fresnel and others have shown to be
denser. Now, if this fact be applied to the human body, the result would
be that, if all that is visible of that body were removed, there would
still remain a complete and absolute mould of the body, formed in bound
ether which would be different from the ether around it. This argument is
more solid than mere speculation, and it shows that even the soul may come
to be defined in terms of matter and is not altogether "such stuff as
dreams are made of."
</p>
<p>
It has been shown that there is some good evidence for the existence of
this second body apart from psychic religion, but to those who have
examined that religion it is the centre of the whole system, sufficiently
real to be recognised by clairvoyants, to be heard by clairaudients, and
even to make an exact impression upon a photographic plate. Of the latter
phenomenon, of which I have had some very particular opportunities of
judging, I have no more doubt than I have of the ordinary photography of
commerce. It had already been shown by the astronomers that the sensitized
plate is a more delicate recording instrument than the human retina, and
that it can show stars upon a long exposure which the eye has never seen.
It would appear that the spirit world is really so near to us that a very
little extra help under correct conditions of mediumship will make all the
difference. Thus the plate, instead of the eye, may bring the loved face
within the range of vision, while the trumpet, acting as a megaphone, may
bring back the familiar voice where the spirit whisper with no mechanical
aid was still inaudible. So loud may the latter phenomenon be that in one
case, of which I have the record, the dead man's dog was so excited at
hearing once more his master's voice that he broke his chain, and deeply
scarred the outside of the seance room door in his efforts to force an
entrance.
</p>
<p>
Now, having said so much of the spirit body, and having indicated that its
presence is not vouched for by only one line of evidence or school of
thought, let us turn to what happens at the time of death, according to
the observation of clairvoyants on this side and the posthumous accounts
of the dead upon the other. It is exactly what we should expect to happen,
granted the double identity. In a painless and natural process the lighter
disengages itself from the heavier, and slowly draws itself off until it
stands with the same mind, the same emotions, and an exactly similar body,
beside the couch of death, aware of those around and yet unable to make
them aware of it, save where that finer spiritual eyesight called
clairvoyance exists. How, we may well ask, can it see without the natural
organs? How did the hashish victim see his own unconscious body? How did
the Florida doctor see his friend? There is a power of perception in the
spiritual body which does give the power. We can say no more. To the
clairvoyant the new spirit seems like a filmy outline. To the ordinary man
it is invisible. To another spirit it would, no doubt, seem as normal and
substantial as we appear to each other. There is some evidence that it
refines with time, and is therefore nearer to the material at the moment
of death or closely after it, than after a lapse of months or years.
Hence, it is that apparitions of the dead are most clear and most common
about the time of death, and hence also, no doubt, the fact that the
cataleptic physician already quoted was seen and recognised by his friend.
The meshes of his ether, if the phrase be permitted, were still heavy with
the matter from which they had only just been disentangled.
</p>
<p>
Having disengaged itself from grosser matter, what happens to this spirit
body, the precious bark which bears our all in all upon this voyage into
unknown seas? Very many accounts have come back to us, verbal and written,
detailing the experiences of those who have passed on. The verbal are by
trance mediums, whose utterances appear to be controlled by outside
intelligences. The written from automatic writers whose script is produced
in the same way. At these words the critic naturally and reasonably shies,
with a "What nonsense! How can you control the statement of this medium
who is consciously or unconsciously pretending to inspiration?" This is a
healthy scepticism, and should animate every experimenter who tests a new
medium. The proofs must lie in the communication itself. If they are not
present, then, as always, we must accept natural rather than unknown
explanations. But they are continually present, and in such obvious forms
that no one can deny them. There is a certain professional medium to whom
I have sent many, mothers who were in need of consolation. I always ask
the applicants to report the result to me, and I have their letters of
surprise and gratitude before me as I write. "Thank you for this beautiful
and interesting experience. She did not make a single mistake about their
names, and everything she said was correct." In this case there was a rift
between husband and wife before death, but the medium was able, unaided,
to explain and clear up the whole matter, mentioning the correct
circumstances, and names of everyone concerned, and showing the reasons
for the non-arrival of certain letters, which had been the cause of the
misunderstanding. The next case was also one of husband and wife, but it
is the husband who is the survivor. He says: "It was a most successful
sitting. Among other things, I addressed a remark in Danish to my wife
(who is a Danish girl), and the answer came back in English without the
least hesitation." The next case was again of a man who had lost a very
dear male friend. "I have had the most wonderful results with Mrs. ——
to-day. I cannot tell you the joy it has been to me. Many grateful thanks
for your help." The next one says: "Mrs. —— was simply
wonderful. If only more people knew, what agony they would be spared." In
this case the wife got in touch with the husband, and the medium mentioned
correctly five dead relatives who were in his company. The next is a case
of mother and son. "I saw Mrs. —— to-day, and obtained very
wonderful results. She told me nearly everything quite correctly—a
very few mistakes." The next is similar. "We were quite successful. My boy
even reminded me of something that only he and I knew." Says another: "My
boy reminded me of the day when he sowed turnip seed upon the lawn. Only
he could have known of this." These are fair samples of the letters, of
which I hold a large number. They are from people who present themselves
from among the millions living in London, or the provinces, and about
whose affairs the medium had no possible normal way of knowing. Of all the
very numerous cases which I have sent to this medium I have only had a few
which have been complete failures. On quoting my results to Sir Oliver
Lodge, he remarked that his own experience with another medium had been
almost identical. It is no exaggeration to say that our British telephone
systems would probably give a larger proportion of useless calls. How is
any critic to get beyond these facts save by ignoring or misrepresenting
them? Healthy, scepticism is the basis of all accurate observation, but
there comes a time when incredulity means either culpable ignorance or
else imbecility, and this time has been long past in the matter of spirit
intercourse.
</p>
<p>
In my own case, this medium mentioned correctly the first name of a lady
who had died in our house, gave several very characteristic messages from
her, described the only two dogs which we have ever kept, and ended by
saying that a young officer was holding up a gold coin by which I would
recognise him. I had lost my brother-in-law, an army doctor, in the war,
and I had given him a spade guinea for his first fee, which he always wore
on his chain. There were not more than two or three close relatives who
knew about this incident, so that the test was a particularly good one.
She made no incorrect statements, though some were vague. After I had
revealed the identity of this medium several pressmen attempted to have
test seances with her—a test seance being, in most cases, a seance
which begins by breaking every psychic condition and making success most
improbable. One of these gentlemen, Mr. Ulyss Rogers, had very fair
results. Another sent from "Truth" had complete failure. It must be
understood that these powers do not work from the medium, but through the
medium, and that the forces in the beyond have not the least sympathy with
a smart young pressman in search of clever copy, while they have a very
different feeling to a bereaved mother who prays with all her broken heart
that some assurance may be given her that the child of her love is not
gone from her for ever. When this fact is mastered, and it is understood
that "Stand and deliver" methods only excite gentle derision on the other
side, we shall find some more intelligent manner of putting things of the
spirit to the proof.<a href="#linknote-3" name="linknoteref-3"
id="linknoteref-3"><small>3</small></a>
</p>
<p>
I have dwelt upon these results, which could be matched by other mediums,
to show that we have solid and certain reasons to say that the verbal
reports are not from the mediums themselves. Readers of Arthur Hill's
"Psychical Investigations" will find many even more convincing cases. So
in the written communications, I have in a previous paper pointed to the
"Gate of Remembrance" case, but there is a great mass of material which
proves that, in spite of mistakes and failures, there really is a channel
of communication, fitful and evasive sometimes, but entirely beyond
coincidence or fraud. These, then, are the usual means by which we receive
psychic messages, though table tilting, ouija boards, glasses upon a
smooth surface, or anything which can be moved by the vital
animal-magnetic force already discussed will equally serve the purpose.
Often information is conveyed orally or by writing which could not have
been known to anyone concerned. Mr. Wilkinson has given details of the
case where his dead son drew attention to the fact that a curio (a coin
bent by a bullet) had been overlooked among his effects. Sir William
Barrett has narrated how a young officer sent a message leaving a pearl
tie-pin to a friend. No one knew that such a pin existed, but it was found
among his things. The death of Sir Hugh Lane was given at a private seance
in Dublin before the details of the Lusitania disaster had been published.<a
href="#linknote-4" name="linknoteref-4" id="linknoteref-4"><small>4</small></a>
On that morning we ourselves, in a small seance, got the message "It is
terrible, terrible, and will greatly affect the war," at a time when we
were convinced that no great loss of life could have occurred. Such
examples are very numerous, and are only quoted here to show how
impossible it is to invoke telepathy as the origin of such messages. There
is only one explanation which covers the facts. They are what they say
they are, messages from those who have passed on, from the spiritual body
which was seen to rise from the deathbed, which has been so often
photographed, which pervades all religion in every age, and which has been
able, under proper circumstances, to materialise back into a temporary
solidity so that it could walk and talk like a mortal, whether in
Jerusalem two thousand years ago, or in the laboratory of Mr. Crookes, in
Mornington Road, London.
</p>
<p>
Let us for a moment examine the facts in this Crookes' episode. A small
book exists which describes them, though it is not as accessible as it
should be. In these wonderful experiments, which extended over several
years, Miss Florrie Cook, who was a young lady of from 16 to 18 years of
age, was repeatedly confined in Prof. Crookes' study, the door being
locked on the inside. Here she lay unconscious upon a couch. The
spectators assembled in the laboratory, which was separated by a curtained
opening from the study. After a short interval, through this opening there
emerged a lady who was in all ways different from Miss Cook. She gave her
earth name as Katie King, and she proclaimed herself to be a materialised
spirit, whose mission it was to carry the knowledge of immortality to
mortals.
</p>
<p>
She was of great beauty of face, figure, and manner. She was four and a
half inches taller than Miss Cook, fair, whereas the latter was dark, and
as different from her as one woman could be from another. Her pulse rate
was markedly slower. She became for the time entirely one of the company,
walking about, addressing each person present, and taking delight in the
children. She made no objection to photography or any other test.
Forty-eight photographs of different degrees of excellence were made of
her. She was seen at the same time as the medium on several occasions.
Finally she departed, saying that her mission was over and that she had
other work to do. When she vanished materialism should have vanished also,
if mankind had taken adequate notice of the facts.
</p>
<p>
Now, what can the fair-minded inquirer say to such a story as that—one
of many, but for the moment we are concentrating upon it? Was Mr. Crookes
a blasphemous liar? But there were very many witnesses, as many sometimes
as eight at a single sitting. And there are the photographs which include
Miss Cook and show that the two women were quite different. Was he
honestly mistaken? But that is inconceivable. Read the original narrative
and see if you can find any solution save that it is true. If a man can
read that sober, cautious statement and not be convinced, then assuredly
his brain, is out of gear. Finally, ask yourself whether any religious
manifestation in the world has had anything like the absolute proof which
lies in this one. Cannot the orthodox see that instead of combating such a
story, or talking nonsense about devils, they should hail that which is
indeed the final answer to that materialism which is their really
dangerous enemy. Even as I write, my eye falls upon a letter on my desk
from an officer who had lost all faith in immortality and become an
absolute materialist. "I came to dread my return home, for I cannot stand
hypocrisy, and I knew well my attitude would cause some members of my
family deep grief. Your book has now brought me untold comfort, and I can
face the future cheerfully." Are these fruits from the Devil's tree, you
timid orthodox critic?
</p>
<p>
Having then got in touch with our dead, we proceed, naturally, to ask them
how it is with them, and under what conditions they exist. It is a very
vital question, since what has befallen them yesterday will surely befall
us to-morrow. But the answer is tidings of great joy. Of the new vital
message to humanity nothing is more important than that. It rolls away all
those horrible man-bred fears and fancies, founded upon morbid
imaginations and the wild phrases of the oriental. We come upon what is
sane, what is moderate, what is reasonable, what is consistent with
gradual evolution and with the benevolence of God. Were there ever any
conscious blasphemers upon earth who have insulted the Deity so deeply as
those extremists, be they Calvinist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Jew, who
pictured with their distorted minds an implacable torturer as the Ruler of
the Universe!
</p>
<p>
The truth of what is told us as to the life beyond can in its very nature
never be absolutely established. It is far nearer to complete proof,
however, than any religious revelation which has ever preceded it. We have
the fact that these accounts are mixed up with others concerning our
present life which are often absolutely true. If a spirit can tell the
truth about our sphere, it is difficult to suppose that he is entirely
false about his own. Then, again, there is a very great similarity about
such accounts, though their origin may be from people very far apart. Thus
though "non-veridical," to use the modern jargon, they do conform to all
our canons of evidence. A series of books which have attracted far less
attention than they deserve have drawn the coming life in very close
detail. These books are not found on railway bookstalls or in popular
libraries, but the successive editions through which they pass show that
there is a deeper public which gets what it wants in spite of artificial
obstacles.
</p>
<p>
Looking over the list of my reading I find, besides nearly a dozen very
interesting and detailed manuscript accounts, such published narratives as
"Claude's Book," purporting to come from a young British aviator; "Thy Son
Liveth," from an American soldier, "Private Dowding"; "Raymond," from a
British soldier; "Do Thoughts Perish?" which contains accounts from
several British soldiers and others; "I Heard a Voice," where a well-known
K.C., through the mediumship of his two young daughters, has a very full
revelation of the life beyond; "After Death," with the alleged experiences
of the famous Miss Julia Ames; "The Seven Purposes," from an American
pressman, and many others. They differ much in literary skill and are not
all equally impressive, but the point which must strike any impartial mind
is the general agreement of these various accounts as to the conditions of
spirit life. An examination would show that some of them must have been in
the press at the same time, so that they could not have each inspired the
other. "Claude's Book" and "Thy Son Liveth" appeared at nearly the same
time on different sides of the Atlantic, but they agree very closely.
"Raymond" and "Do Thoughts Perish?" must also have been in the press
together, but the scheme of things is exactly the same. Surely the
agreement of witnesses must here, as in all cases, be accounted as a test
of truth. They differ mainly, as it seems to me, when they deal with their
own future including speculations as to reincarnation, etc., which may
well be as foggy to them as it is to us, or systems of philosophy where
again individual opinion is apparent.
</p>
<p>
Of all these accounts the one which is most deserving of study is
"Raymond." This is so because it has been compiled from several famous
mediums working independently of each other, and has been checked and
chronicled by a man who is not only one of the foremost scientists of the
world, and probably the leading intellectual force in Europe, but one who
has also had a unique experience of the precautions necessary for the
observation of psychic phenomena. The bright and sweet nature of the young
soldier upon the other side, and his eagerness to tell of his experience
is also a factor which will appeal to those who are already satisfied as
to the truth of the communications. For all these reasons it is a most
important document—indeed it would be no exaggeration to say that it
is one of the most important in recent literature. It is, as I believe, an
authentic account of the life in the beyond, and it is often more
interesting from its sidelights and reservations than for its actual
assertions, though the latter bear the stamp of absolute frankness and
sincerity. The compilation is in some ways faulty. Sir Oliver has not
always the art of writing so as to be understanded of the people, and his
deeper and more weighty thoughts get in the way of the clear utterances of
his son. Then again, in his anxiety to be absolutely accurate, Sir Oliver
has reproduced the fact that sometimes Raymond is speaking direct, and
sometimes the control is reporting what Raymond is saying, so that the
same paragraph may turn several times from the first person to the third
in a manner which must be utterly unintelligible to those who are not
versed in the subject. Sir Oliver will, I am sure, not be offended if I
say that, having satisfied his conscience by the present edition, he
should now leave it for reference, and put forth a new one which should
contain nothing but the words of Raymond and his spirit friends. Such a
book, published at a low price, would, I think, have an amazing effect,
and get all this new teaching to the spot that God has marked for it—the
minds and hearts of the people.
</p>
<p>
So much has been said here about mediumship that perhaps it would be well
to consider this curious condition a little more closely. The question of
mediumship, what it is and how it acts, is one of the most mysterious in
the whole range of science. It is a common objection to say if our dead
are there why should we only hear of them through people by no means
remarkable for moral or mental gifts, who are often paid for their
ministration. It is a plausible argument, and yet when we receive a
telegram from a brother in Australia we do not say: "It is strange that
Tom should not communicate with me direct, but that the presence of that
half-educated fellow in the telegraph office should be necessary." The
medium is in truth a mere passive machine, clerk and telegraph in one.
Nothing comes FROM him. Every message is THROUGH him. Why he or she should
have the power more than anyone else is a very interesting problem. This
power may best be defined as the capacity for allowing the bodily powers,
physical or mental, to be used by an outside influence. In its higher
forms there is temporary extinction of personality and the substitution of
some other controlling spirit. At such times the medium may entirely lose
consciousness, or he may retain it and be aware of some external
experience which has been enjoyed by his own entity while his bodily house
has been filled by the temporary tenant. Or the medium may retain
consciousness, and with eyes and ears attuned to a higher key than the
normal man can attain, he may see and hear what is beyond our senses. Or
in writing mediumship, a motor centre of the brain regulating the nerves
and muscles of the arm may be controlled while all else seems to be
normal. Or it may take the more material form of the exudation of a
strange white evanescent dough-like substance called the ectoplasm, which
has been frequently photographed by scientific enquirers in different
stages of its evolution, and which seems to possess an inherent quality of
shaping itself into parts or the whole of a body, beginning in a
putty-like mould and ending in a resemblance to perfect human members. Or
the ectoplasm, which seems to be an emanation of the medium to the extent
that whatever it may weigh is so much subtracted from his substance, may
be used as projections or rods which can convey objects or lift weights. A
friend, in whose judgment and veracity I have absolute confidence, was
present at one of Dr. Crawford's experiments with Kathleen Goligher, who
is, it may be remarked, an unpaid medium. My friend touched the column of
force, and found it could be felt by the hand though invisible to the eye.
It is clear that we are in touch with some entirely new form both of
matter and of energy. We know little of the properties of this
extraordinary substance save that in its materialising form it seems
extremely sensitive to the action of light. A figure built up in it and
detached from the medium dissolves in light quicker than a snow image
under a tropical sun, so that two successive flash-light photographs would
show the one a perfect figure, and the next an amorphous mass. When still
attached to the medium the ectoplasm flies back with great force on
exposure to light, and, in spite of the laughter of the scoffers, there is
none the less good evidence that several mediums have been badly injured
by the recoil after a light has suddenly been struck by some amateur
detective. Professor Geley has, in his recent experiments, described the
ectoplasm as appearing outside the black dress of his medium as if a hoar
frost had descended upon her, then coalescing into a continuous sheet of
white substance, and oozing down until it formed a sort of apron in front
of her.<a href="#linknote-5" name="linknoteref-5" id="linknoteref-5"><small>5</small></a>
This process he has illustrated by a very complete series of photographs.
</p>
<p>
These are a few of the properties of mediumship. There are also the
beautiful phenomena of the production of lights, and the rarer, but for
evidential purposes even more valuable, manifestations of spirit
photography. The fact that the photograph does not correspond in many
cases with any which existed in life, must surely silence the scoffer,
though there is a class of bigoted sceptic who would still be sneering if
an Archangel alighted in Trafalgar Square. Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton, of
Crewe, have brought this phase of mediumship to great perfection, though
others have powers in that direction. Indeed, in some cases it is
difficult to say who the medium may have been, for in one collective
family group which was taken in the ordinary way, and was sent me by a
master in a well known public school, the young son who died has appeared
in the plate seated between his two little brothers.
</p>
<p>
As to the personality of mediums, they have seemed to me to be very
average specimens of the community, neither markedly better nor markedly
worse. I know many, and I have never met anything in the least like
"Sludge," a poem which Browning might be excused for writing in some
crisis of domestic disagreement, but which it was inexcusable to republish
since it is admitted to be a concoction, and the exposure described to
have been imaginary. The critic often uses the term medium as if it
necessarily meant a professional, whereas every investigator has found
some of his best results among amateurs. In the two finest seances I ever
attended, the psychic, in each case a man of moderate means, was
resolutely determined never directly or indirectly to profit by his gift,
though it entailed very exhausting physical conditions. I have not heard
of a clergyman of any denomination who has attained such a pitch of
altruism—nor is it reasonable to expect it. As to professional
mediums, Mr. Vout Peters, one of the most famous, is a diligent collector
of old books and an authority upon the Elizabethan drama; while Mr.
Dickinson, another very remarkable discerner of spirits, who named
twenty-four correctly during two meetings held on the same day, is
employed in loading canal barges. This man is one gifted clairvoyants in
England, though Tom Tyrrell the weaver, Aaron Wilkinson, and others are
very marvellous. Tyrrell, who is a man of the Anthony of Padua type, a
walking saint, beloved of animals and children, is a figure who might have
stepped out of some legend of the church. Thomas, the powerful physical
medium, is a working coal miner. Most mediums take their responsibilities
very seriously and view their work in a religious light. There is no
denying that they are exposed to very particular temptations, for the gift
is, as I have explained elsewhere, an intermittent one, and to admit its
temporary absence, and so discourage one's clients, needs greater moral
principle than all men possess. Another temptation to which several great
mediums have succumbed is that of drink. This comes about in a very
natural way, for overworking the power leaves them in a state of physical
prostration, and the stimulus of alcohol affords a welcome relief, and may
tend at last to become a custom and finally a curse. Alcoholism always
weakens the moral sense, so that these degenerate mediums yield themselves
more readily to fraud, with the result that several who had deservedly won
honoured names and met all hostile criticism have, in their later years,
been detected in the most contemptible tricks. It is a thousand pities
that it should be so, but if the Court of Arches were to give up its
secrets, it would be found that tippling and moral degeneration were by no
means confined to psychics. At the same time, a psychic is so peculiarly
sensitive that I think he or she would always be well advised to be a life
long abstainer—as many actually are.
</p>
<p>
As to the method by which they attain their results they have, when in the
trance state, no recollection. In the case of normal clairvoyants and
clairaudients, the information comes in different ways. Sometimes it is no
more than a strong mental impression which gives a name or an address.
Sometimes they say that they see it written up before them. Sometimes the
spirit figures seem to call it to them. "They yell it at me," said one.
</p>
<p>
We need more first-hand accounts of these matters before we can formulate
laws.
</p>
<p>
It has been stated in a previous book by the author, but it will bear
repetition, that the use of the seance should, in his opinion, be
carefully regulated as well as reverently conducted. Having once satisfied
himself of the absolute existence of the unseen world, and of its
proximity to our own, the inquirer has got the great gift which psychical
investigation can give him, and thenceforth he can regulate his life upon
the lines which the teaching from beyond has shown to be the best. There
is much force in the criticism that too constant intercourse with the
affairs of another world may distract our attention and weaken our powers
in dealing with our obvious duties in this one. A seance, with the object
of satisfying curiosity or of rousing interest, cannot be an elevating
influence, and the mere sensation-monger can make this holy and wonderful
thing as base as the over-indulgence in a stimulant. On the other hand,
where the seance is used for the purpose of satisfying ourselves as to the
condition of those whom we have lost, or of giving comfort to others who
crave for a word from beyond, then it is, indeed, a blessed gift from God
to be used with moderation and with thankfulness. Our loved ones have
their own pleasant tasks in their new surroundings, and though they assure
us that they love to clasp the hands which we stretch out to them, we
should still have some hesitation in intruding to an unreasonable extent
upon the routine of their lives.
</p>
<p>
A word should be said as to that fear of fiends and evil spirits which
appears to have so much weight with some of the critics of this subject.
When one looks more closely at this emotion it seems somewhat selfish and
cowardly. These creatures are in truth our own backward brothers, bound
for the same ultimate destination as ourselves, but retarded by causes for
which our earth conditions may have been partly responsible. Our pity and
sympathy should go out to them, and if they do indeed manifest at a
seance, the proper Christian attitude is, as it seems to me, that we
should reason with them and pray for them in order to help them upon their
difficult way. Those who have treated them in this way have found a very
marked difference in the subsequent communications. In Admiral Usborne
Moore's "Glimpses of the Next State" there will be found some records of
an American circle which devoted itself entirely to missionary work of
this sort. There is some reason to believe that there are forms of
imperfect development which can be helped more by earthly than by purely
spiritual influences, for the reason, perhaps, that they are closer to the
material.
</p>
<p>
In a recent case I was called in to endeavour to check a very noisy entity
which frequented an old house in which there were strong reasons to
believe that crime had been committed, and also that the criminal was
earth-bound. Names were given by the unhappy spirit which proved to be
correct, and a cupboard was described, which was duly found, though it had
never before been suspected. On getting into touch with the spirit I
endeavoured to reason with it and to explain how selfish it was to cause
misery to others in order to satisfy any feelings of revenge which it
might have carried over from earth life. We then prayed for its welfare,
exhorted it to rise higher, and received a very solemn assurance, tilted
out at the table, that it would mend its ways. I have very gratifying
reports that it has done so, and that all is now quiet in the old house.
</p>
<p>
Let us now consider the life in the Beyond as it is shown to us by the new
revelation.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
CHAPTER IV — THE COMING WORLD
</h2>
<p>
We come first to the messages which tell us of the life beyond the grave,
sent by those who are actually living it. I have already insisted upon the
fact that they have three weighty claims to our belief. The one is, that
they are accompanied by "signs," in the Biblical sense, in the shape of
"miracles" or phenomena. The second is, that in many cases they are
accompanied by assertions about this life of ours which prove to be
correct, and which are beyond the possible knowledge of the medium after
every deduction has been made for telepathy or for unconscious memory. The
third is, that they have a remarkable, though not a complete, similarity
from whatever source they come.
</p>
<p>
It may be noted that the differences of opinion become most marked when
they deal with their own future, which may well be a matter of speculation
to them as to us. Thus, upon the question of reincarnation there is a
distinct cleavage, and though I am myself of opinion that the general
evidence is against this oriental doctrine, it is none the less an
undeniable fact that it has been maintained by some messages which appear
in other ways to be authentic, and, therefore, it is necessary to keep
one's mind open on the subject.
</p>
<p>
Before entering upon the substance of the messages I should wish to
emphasize the second of these two points, so as to reinforce the reader's
confidence in the authenticity of these assertions. To this end I will
give a detailed example, with names almost exact. The medium was Mr.
Phoenix, of Glasgow, with whom I have myself had some remarkable
experiences. The sitter was Mr. Ernest Oaten, the President of the
Northern Spiritual Union, a man of the utmost veracity and precision of
statement. The dialogue, which came by the direct voice, a trumpet acting
as megaphone, ran like this:—
</p>
<pre xml:space="preserve">
The Voice: Good evening, Mr. Oaten.
Mr. O.: Good evening. Who are you?
The Voice: My name is Mill. You know my father.
Mr. O.: No, I don't remember anyone of the name.
The Voice: Yes, you were speaking to him the other day.
Mr. O.: To be sure. I remember now. I only met him casually.
The Voice: I want you to give him a message from me.
Mr. O.: What is it?
The Voice: Tell him that he was not mistaken at midnight on
Tuesday last.
Mr. O.: Very good. I will say so. Have you passed long?
The Voice: Some time. But our time is different from yours.
Mr. O.: What were you?
The Voice: A Surgeon.
Mr. O.: How did you pass?
The Voice: Blown up in a battleship during the war.
Mr. O.: Anything more?
</pre>
<p>
The answer was the Gipsy song from "Il Trovatore," very accurately
whistled, and then a quick-step. After the latter, the voice said: "That
is a test for father."
</p>
<p>
This reproduction of conversation is not quite verbatim, but gives the
condensed essence. Mr. Oaten at once visited Mr. Mill, who was not a
Spiritualist, and found that every detail was correct. Young Mill had lost
his life as narrated. Mr. Mill, senior, explained that while sitting in
his study at midnight on the date named he had heard the Gipsy song from
"Il Trovatore," which had been a favourite of his boy's, and being unable
to trace the origin of the music, had finally thought that it was a freak
of his imagination. The test connected with the quick-step had reference
to a tune which the young man used to play upon the piccolo, but which was
so rapid that he never could get it right, for which he was chaffed by the
family.
</p>
<p>
I tell this story at length to make the reader realise that when young
Mill, and others like him, give such proofs of accuracy, which we can test
for ourselves, we are bound to take their assertions very seriously when
they deal with the life they are actually leading, though in their very
nature we can only check their accounts by comparison with others.
</p>
<p>
Now let me epitomise what these assertions are. They say that they are
exceedingly happy, and that they do not wish to return. They are among the
friends whom they had loved and lost, who meet them when they die and
continue their careers together. They are very busy on all forms of
congenial work. The world in which they find themselves is very much like
that which they have quitted, but everything keyed to a higher octave. As
in a higher octave the rhythm is the same, and the relation of notes to
each other the same, but the total effect different, so it is here. Every
earthly thing has its equivalent. Scoffers have guffawed over alcohol and
tobacco, but if all things are reproduced it would be a flaw if these were
not reproduced also. That they should be abused, as they are here, would,
indeed, be evil tidings, but nothing of the sort has been said, and in the
much discussed passage in "Raymond," their production was alluded to as
though it were an unusual, and in a way a humorous, instance of the
resources of the beyond. I wonder how many of the preachers, who have
taken advantage of this passage in order to attack the whole new
revelation, have remembered that the only other message which ever
associated alcohol with the life beyond is that of Christ Himself, when He
said: "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until that
day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."
</p>
<p>
This matter is a detail, however, and it is always dangerous to discuss
details in a subject which is so enormous, so dimly seen. As the wisest
woman I have known remarked to me: "Things may well be surprising over
there, for if we had been told the facts of this life before we entered
it, we should never have believed it." In its larger issues this happy
life to come consists in the development of those gifts which we possess.
There is action for the man of action, intellectual work for the thinker,
artistic, literary, dramatic and religious for those whose God-given
powers lie that way. What we have both in brain and character we carry
over with us. No man is too old to learn, for what he learns he keeps.
There is no physical side to love and no child-birth, though there is
close union between those married people who really love each other, and,
generally, there is deep sympathetic friendship and comradeship between
the sexes. Every man or woman finds a soul mate sooner or later. The child
grows up to the normal, so that the mother who lost a babe of two years
old, and dies herself twenty years later finds a grown-up daughter of
twenty-two awaiting her coming. Age, which is produced chiefly by the
mechanical presence of lime in our arteries, disappears, and the
individual reverts to the full normal growth and appearance of completed
man—or womanhood. Let no woman mourn her lost beauty, and no man his
lost strength or weakening brain. It all awaits them once more upon the
other side. Nor is any deformity or bodily weakness there, for all is
normal and at its best.
</p>
<p>
Before leaving this section of the subject, I should say a few more words
upon the evidence as it affects the etheric body. This body is a perfect
thing. This is a matter of consequence in these days when so many of our
heroes have been mutilated in the wars. One cannot mutilate the etheric
body, and it remains always intact. The first words uttered by a returning
spirit in the recent experience of Dr. Abraham Wallace were "I have got my
left arm again." The same applies to all birth marks, deformities,
blindness, and other imperfections. None of them are permanent, and all
will vanish in that happier life that awaits us. Such is the teaching from
the beyond—that a perfect body waits for each.
</p>
<p>
"But," says the critic, "what then of the clairvoyant descriptions, or the
visions where the aged father is seen, clad in the old-fashioned garments
of another age, or the grandmother with crinoline and chignon? Are these
the habiliments of heaven?" Such visions are not spirits, but they are
pictures which are built up before us or shot by spirits into our brains
or those of the seer for the purposes of recognition. Hence the grey hair
and hence the ancient garb. When a real spirit is indeed seen it comes in
another form to this, where the flowing robe, such as has always been
traditionally ascribed to the angels, is a vital thing which, by its very
colour and texture, proclaims the spiritual condition of the wearer, and
is probably a condensation of that aura which surrounds us upon earth.
</p>
<p>
It is a world of sympathy. Only those who have this tie foregather. The
sullen husband, the flighty wife, is no longer there to plague the
innocent spouse. All is sweet and peaceful. It is the long rest cure after
the nerve strain of life, and before new experiences in the future. The
circumstances are homely and familiar. Happy circles live in pleasant
homesteads with every amenity of beauty and of music. Beautiful gardens,
lovely flowers, green woods, pleasant lakes, domestic pets—all of
these things are fully described in the messages of the pioneer travellers
who have at last got news back to those who loiter in the old dingy home.
There are no poor and no rich. The craftsman may still pursue his craft,
but he does it for the joy of his work. Each serves the community as best
he can, while from above come higher ministers of grace, the "Angels" of
holy writ, to direct and help. Above all, shedding down His atmosphere
upon all, broods that great Christ spirit, the very soul of reason, of
justice, and of sympathetic understanding, who has the earth sphere, with
all its circles, under His very special care. It is a place of joy and
laughter. There are games and sports of all sorts, though none which cause
pain to lower life. Food and drink in the grosser sense do not exist, but
there seem to be pleasures of taste, and this distinction causes some
confusion in the messages upon the point.
</p>
<p>
But above all, brain, energy, character, driving power, if exerted for
good, makes a man a leader there as here, while unselfishness, patience
and spirituality there, as here, qualify the soul for the higher places,
which have often been won by those very tribulations down here which seem
so purposeless and so cruel, and are in truth our chances of spiritual
quickening and promotion, without which life would have been barren and
without profit.
</p>
<p>
The revelation abolishes the idea of a grotesque hell and of a fantastic
heaven, while it substitutes the conception of a gradual rise in the scale
of existence without any monstrous change which would turn us in an
instant from man to angel or devil. The system, though different from
previous ideas, does not, as it seems to me, run counter in any radical
fashion to the old beliefs. In ancient maps it was usual for the
cartographer to mark blank spaces for the unexplored regions, with some
such legend as "here are anthropophagi," or "here are mandrakes," scrawled
across them. So in our theology there have been ill-defined areas which
have admittedly been left unfilled, for what sane man has ever believed in
such a heaven as is depicted in our hymn books, a land of musical idleness
and barren monotonous adoration! Thus in furnishing a clearer conception
this new system has nothing to supplant. It paints upon a blank sheet.
</p>
<p>
One may well ask, however, granting that there is evidence for such a life
and such a world as has been described, what about those who have not
merited such a destination? What do the messages from beyond say about
these? And here one cannot be too definite, for there is no use exchanging
one dogma for another. One can but give the general purport of such
information as has been vouchsafed to us. It is natural that those with
whom we come in contact are those whom we may truly call the blessed, for
if the thing be approached in a reverent and religious spirit it is those
whom we should naturally attract. That there are many less fortunate than
themselves is evident from their own constant allusions to that
regenerating and elevating missionary work which is among their own
functions. They descend apparently and help others to gain that degree of
spirituality which fits them for this upper sphere, as a higher student
might descend to a lower class in order to bring forward a backward pupil.
Such a conception gives point to Christ's remark that there was more joy
in heaven over saving one sinner than over ninety-nine just, for if He had
spoken of an earthly sinner he would surely have had to become just in
this life and so ceased to be a sinner before he had reached Paradise. It
would apply very exactly, however, to a sinner rescued from a lower sphere
and brought to a higher one.
</p>
<p>
When we view sin in the light of modern science, with the tenderness of
the modern conscience and with a sense of justice and proportion, it
ceases to be that monstrous cloud which darkened the whole vision of the
mediaeval theologian. Man has been more harsh with himself than an
all-merciful God will ever be. It is true that with all deductions there
remains a great residuum which means want of individual effort, conscious
weakness of will, and culpable failure of character when the sinner, like
Horace, sees and applauds the higher while he follows the lower. But when,
on the other hand, one has made allowances—and can our human
allowance be as generous as God's?—for the sins which are the
inevitable product of early environment, for the sins which are due to
hereditary and inborn taint, and to the sins which are due to clear
physical causes, then the total of active sin is greatly reduced. Could
one, for example, imagine that Providence, all-wise and all-merciful, as
every creed proclaims, could punish the unfortunate wretch who hatches
criminal thoughts behind the slanting brows of a criminal head? A doctor
has but to glance at the cranium to predicate the crime. In its worst
forms all crime, from Nero to Jack the Ripper, is the product of absolute
lunacy, and those gross national sins to which allusion has been made seem
to point to collective national insanity. Surely, then, there is hope that
no very terrible inferno is needed to further punish those who have been
so afflicted upon earth. Some of our dead have remarked that nothing has
surprised them so much as to find who have been chosen for honour, and
certainly, without in any way condoning sin, one could well imagine that
the man whose organic makeup predisposed him with irresistible force in
that direction should, in justice, receive condolence and sympathy.
Possibly such a sinner, if he had not sinned so deeply as he might have
done, stands higher than the man who was born good, and remained so, but
was no better at the end of his life. The one has made some progress and
the other has not. But the commonest failing, the one which fills the
spiritual hospitals of the other world, and is a temporary bar to the
normal happiness of the after-life, is the sin of Tomlinson in Kipling's
poem, the commonest of all sins in respectable British circles, the sin of
conventionality, of want of conscious effort and development, of a
sluggish spirituality, fatted over by a complacent mind and by the
comforts of life. It is the man who is satisfied, the man who refers his
salvation to some church or higher power without steady travail of his own
soul, who is in deadly danger. All churches are good, Christian or
non-Christian, so long as they promote the actual spirit life of the
individual, but all are noxious the instant that they allow him to think
that by any form of ceremony, or by any fashion of creed, he obtains the
least advantage over his neighbour, or can in any way dispense with that
personal effort which is the only road to the higher places.
</p>
<p>
This is, of course, as applicable to believers in Spiritualism as to any
other belief. If it does not show in practice then it is vain. One can get
through this life very comfortably following without question in some
procession with a venerable leader. But one does not die in a procession.
One dies alone. And it is then that one has alone to accept the level
gained by the work of life.
</p>
<p>
And what is the punishment of the undeveloped soul? It is that it should
be placed where it WILL develop, and sorrow would seem always to be the
forcing ground of souls. That surely is our own experience in life where
the insufferably complacent and unsympathetic person softens and mellows
into beauty of character and charity of thought, when tried long enough
and high enough in the fires of life. The Bible has talked about the
"Outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth." The
influence of the Bible has sometimes been an evil one through our own
habit of reading a book of Oriental poetry and treating it as literally as
if it were Occidental prose. When an Eastern describes a herd of a
thousand camels he talks of camels which are more numerous than the hairs
of your head or the stars in the sky. In this spirit of allowance for
Eastern expression, one must approach those lurid and terrible
descriptions which have darkened the lives of so many imaginative children
and sent so many earnest adults into asylums. From all that we learn there
are indeed places of outer darkness, but dim as these uncomfortable
waiting-rooms may be, they all admit to heaven in the end. That is the
final destination of the human race, and it would indeed be a reproach to
the Almighty if it were not so. We cannot dogmatise upon this subject of
the penal spheres, and yet we have very clear teaching that they are there
and that the no-man's-land which separates us from the normal heaven, that
third heaven to which St. Paul seems to have been wafted in one short
strange experience of his lifetime, is a place which corresponds with the
Astral plane of the mystics and with the "outer darkness" of the Bible.
Here linger those earth-bound spirits whose worldly interests have clogged
them and weighed them down, until every spiritual impulse had vanished;
the man whose life has been centred on money, on worldly ambition, or on
sensual indulgence. The one-idea'd man will surely be there, if his one
idea was not a spiritual one. Nor is it necessary that he should be an
evil man, if dear old brother John of Glastonbury, who loved the great
Abbey so that he could never detach himself from it, is to be classed
among earth-bound spirits. In the most material and pronounced classes of
these are the ghosts who impinge very closely upon matter and have been
seen so often by those who have no strong psychic sense. It is probable,
from what we know of the material laws which govern such matters, that a
ghost could never manifest itself if it were alone, that the substance for
the manifestation is drawn from the spectator, and that the coldness,
raising of hair, and other symptoms of which he complains are caused
largely by the sudden drain upon his own vitality. This, however, is to
wander into speculation, and far from that correlation of psychic
knowledge with religion, which has been the aim of these chapters.
</p>
<p>
By one of those strange coincidences, which seem to me sometimes to be
more than coincidences, I had reached this point in my explanation of the
difficult question of the intermediate state, and was myself desiring
further enlightenment, when an old book reached me through the post, sent
by someone whom I have never met, and in it is the following passage,
written by an automatic writer, and in existence since 1880. It makes the
matter plain, endorsing what has been said and adding new points.
</p>
<p>
"Some cannot advance further than the borderland—such as never
thought of spirit life and have lived entirely for the earth, its cares
and pleasures—even clever men and women, who have lived simply
intellectual lives without spirituality. There are many who have misused
their opportunities, and are now longing for the time misspent and wishing
to recall the earth-life. They will learn that on this side the time can
be redeemed, though at much cost. The borderland has many among the
restless money-getters of earth, who still haunt the places where they had
their hopes and joys. These are often the longest to remain . . . many are
not unhappy. They feel the relief to be sufficient to be without their
earth bodies. All pass through the borderland, but some hardly perceive
it. It is so immediate, and there is no resting there for them. They pass
on at once to the refreshment place of which we tell you." The anonymous
author, after recording this spirit message, mentions the interesting fact
that there is a Christian inscription in the Catacombs which runs:
NICEFORUS ANIMA DULCIS IN REFRIGERIO, "Nicephorus, a sweet soul in the
refreshment place." One more scrap of evidence that the early Christian
scheme of things was very like that of the modern psychic.
</p>
<p>
So much for the borderland, the intermediate condition. The present
Christian dogma has no name for it, unless it be that nebulous limbo which
is occasionally mentioned, and is usually defined as the place where the
souls of the just who died before Christ were detained. The idea of
crossing a space before reaching a permanent state on the other side is
common to many religions, and took the allegorical form of a river with a
ferry-boat among the Romans and Greeks. Continually, one comes on points
which make one realise that far back in the world's history there has been
a true revelation, which has been blurred and twisted in time. Thus in Dr.
Muir's summary of the RIG. VEDA, he says, epitomising the beliefs of the
first Aryan conquerors of India: "Before, however, the unborn part" (that
is, the etheric body) "can complete its course to the third heaven it has
to traverse a vast gulf of darkness, leaving behind on earth all that is
evil, and proceeding by the paths the fathers trod, the spirit soars to
the realms of eternal light, recovers there his body in a glorified form,
and obtains from God a delectable abode and enters upon a more perfect
life, which is crowned with the fulfilment of all desires, is passed in
the presence of the Gods and employed in the fulfilment of their
pleasure." If we substitute "angels" for "Gods" we must admit that the new
revelation from modern spirit sources has much in common with the belief
of our Aryan fathers.
</p>
<p>
Such, in very condensed form, is the world which is revealed to us by
these wonderful messages from the beyond. Is it an unreasonable vision? Is
it in any way opposed to just principles? Is it not rather so reasonable
that having got the clue we could now see that, given any life at all,
this is exactly the line upon which we should expect to move? Nature and
evolution are averse from sudden disconnected developments. If a human
being has technical, literary, musical, or other tendencies, they are an
essential part of his character, and to survive without them would be to
lose his identity and to become an entirely different man. They must
therefore survive death if personality is to be maintained. But it is no
use their surviving unless they can find means of expression, and means of
expression seem to require certain material agents, and also a
discriminating audience. So also the sense of modesty among civilised
races has become part of our very selves, and implies some covering of our
forms if personality is to continue. Our desires and sympathies would
prompt us to live with those we love, which implies something in the
nature of a house, while the human need for mental rest and privacy would
predicate the existence of separate rooms. Thus, merely starting from the
basis of the continuity of personality one might, even without the
revelation from the beyond, have built up some such system by the use of
pure reason and deduction.
</p>
<p>
So far as the existence of this land of happiness goes, it would seem to
have been more fully proved than any other religious conception within our
knowledge.
</p>
<p>
It may very reasonably be asked, how far this precise description of life
beyond the grave is my own conception, and how far it has been accepted by
the greater minds who have studied this subject? I would answer, that it
is my own conclusion as gathered from a very large amount of existing
testimony, and that in its main lines it has for many years been accepted
by those great numbers of silent active workers all over the world, who
look upon this matter from a strictly religious point of view. I think
that the evidence amply justifies us in this belief. On the other hand,
those who have approached this subject with cold and cautious scientific
brains, endowed, in many cases, with the strongest prejudices against
dogmatic creeds and with very natural fears about the possible re-growth
of theological quarrels, have in most cases stopped short of a complete
acceptance, declaring that there can be no positive proof upon such
matters, and that we may deceive ourselves either by a reflection of our
own thoughts or by receiving the impressions of the medium. Professor
Zollner, for example, says:
</p>
<p>
"Science can make no use of the substance of intellectual revelations, but
must be guided by observed facts and by the conclusions logically and
mathematically uniting them"—a passage which is quoted with approval
by Professor Reichel, and would seem to be endorsed by the silence
concerning the religious side of the question which is observed by most of
our great scientific supporters. It is a point of view which can well be
understood, and yet, closely examined, it would appear to be a species of
enlarged materialism. To admit, as these observers do, that spirits do
return, that they give every proof of being the actual friends whom we
have lost, and yet to turn a deaf ear to the messages which they send
would seem to be pushing caution to the verge of unreason. To get so far,
and yet not to go further, is impossible as a permanent position. If, for
example, in Raymond's case we find so many allusions to the small details
of his home upon earth, which prove to be surprisingly correct, is it
reasonable to put a blue pencil through all he says of the home which he
actually inhabits? Long before I had convinced my mind of the truth of
things which appeared so grotesque and incredible, I had a long account
sent by table tilting about the conditions of life beyond. The details
seemed to me impossible and I set them aside, and yet they harmonise, as I
now discover, with other revelations. So, too, with the automatic script
of Mr. Hubert Wales, which has been described in my previous book. He had
tossed it aside into a drawer as being unworthy of serious consideration,
and yet it also proved to be in harmony. In neither of these cases was
telepathy or the prepossession of the medium a possible explanation. On
the whole, I am inclined to think that these doubtful or dissentient
scientific men, having their own weighty studies to attend to, have
confined their reading and thought to the more objective side of the
question, and are not aware of the vast amount of concurrent evidence
which appears to give us an exact picture of the life beyond. They despise
documents which cannot be proved, and they do not, in my opinion,
sufficiently realise that a general agreement of testimony, and the
already established character of a witness, are themselves arguments for
truth. Some complicate the question by predicating the existence of a
fourth dimension in that world, but the term is an absurdity, as are all
terms which find no corresponding impression in the human brain. We have
mysteries enough to solve without gratuitously introducing fresh ones.
When solid passes through solid, it is, surely, simpler to assume that it
is done by a dematerialisation, and subsequent reassembly—a process
which can, at least, be imagined by the human mind—than to invoke an
explanation which itself needs to be explained.
</p>
<p>
In the next and final chapter I will ask the reader to accompany me in an
examination of the New Testament by the light of this psychic knowledge,
and to judge how far it makes clear and reasonable much which was obscure
and confused.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
CHAPTER V — IS IT THE SECOND DAWN?
</h2>
<p>
There are many incidents in the New Testament which might be taken as
starting points in tracing a close analogy between the phenomenal events
which are associated with the early days of Christianity, and those which
have perplexed the world in connection with modern Spiritualism. Most of
us are prepared to admit that the lasting claims of Christianity upon the
human race are due to its own intrinsic teachings, which are quite
independent of those wonders which can only have had a use in startling
the solid complacence of an unspiritual race, and so directing their
attention violently to this new system of thought. Exactly the same may be
said of the new revelation. The exhibitions of a force which is beyond
human experience and human guidance is but a method of calling attention.
To repeat a simile which has been used elsewhere, it is the humble
telephone bell which heralds the all-important message. In the case of
Christ, the Sermon on the Mount was more than many miracles. In the case
of this new development, the messages from beyond are more than any
phenomena. A vulgar mind might make Christ's story seem vulgar, if it
insisted upon loaves of bread and the bodies of fish. So, also, a vulgar
mind may make psychic religion vulgar by insisting upon moving furniture
or tambourines in the air. In each case they are crude signs of power, and
the essence of the matter lies upon higher planes.
</p>
<p>
It is stated in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, that they,
the Christian leaders, were all "with one accord" in one place. "With one
accord" expresses admirably those sympathetic conditions which have always
been found, in psychic circles, to be conducive of the best results, and
which are so persistently ignored by a certain class of investigators.
Then there came "a mighty rushing wind," and afterwards "there appeared
cloven tongues like unto fire and it sat upon each of them." Here is a
very definite and clear account of a remarkable sequence of phenomena.
Now, let us compare with this the results which were obtained by Professor
Crookes in his investigation in 1873, after he had taken every possible
precaution against fraud which his experience, as an accurate observer and
experimenter, could suggest. He says in his published notes: "I have seen
luminous points of light darting about, sitting on the heads of different
persons" and then again:
</p>
<p>
"These movements, and, indeed, I may say the same of every class of
phenomena, are generally preceded by a peculiar cold air, sometimes
amounting to a decided wind. I have had sheets of paper blown about by it.
. . ." Now, is it not singular, not merely that the phenomena should be of
the same order, but that they should come in exactly the same sequence,
the wind first and the lights afterwards? In our ignorance of etheric
physics, an ignorance which is now slowly clearing, one can only say that
there is some indication here of a general law which links those two
episodes together in spite of the nineteen centuries which divide them. A
little later, it is stated that "the place was shaken where they were
assembled together." Many modern observers of psychic phenomena have
testified to vibration of the walls of an apartment, as if a heavy lorry
were passing. It is, evidently, to such experiences that Paul alludes when
he says: "Our gospel came unto you not in word only, but also in power."
The preacher of the New Revelation can most truly say the same words. In
connection with the signs of the pentecost, I can most truly say that I
have myself experienced them all, the cold sudden wind, the lambent misty
flames, all under the mediumship of Mr. Phoenix, an amateur psychic of
Glasgow. The fifteen sitters were of one accord upon that occasion, and,
by a coincidence, it was in an upper room, at the very top of the house.
</p>
<p>
In a previous section of this essay, I have remarked that no philosophical
explanation of these phenomena, known as spiritual, could be conceived
which did not show that all, however different in their working, came from
the same central source. St. Paul seems to state this in so many words
when he says: "But all these worketh that one and the selfsame spirit,
dividing to every man severally as he will." Could our modern speculation,
forced upon us by the facts, be more tersely stated? He has just
enumerated the various gifts, and we find them very close to those of
which we have experience. There is first "the word of wisdom," "the word
of knowledge" and "faith." All these taken in connection with the Spirit
would seem to mean the higher communications from the other side. Then
comes healing, which is still practised in certain conditions by a highly
virile medium, who has the power of discharging strength, losing just as
much as the weakling gains, as instanced by Christ when He said: "Who has
touched me? Much virtue" (or power) "has gone out of me." Then we come
upon the working of miracles, which we should call the production of
phenomena, and which would cover many different types, such as apports,
where objects are brought from a distance, levitation of objects or of the
human frame into the air, the production of lights and other wonders. Then
comes prophecy, which is a real and yet a fitful and often delusive form
of mediumship—never so delusive as among the early Christians, who
seem all to have mistaken the approaching fall of Jerusalem and the
destruction of the Temple, which they could dimly see, as being the end of
the world. This mistake is repeated so often and so clearly that it is
really not honest to ignore or deny it. Then we come to the power of
"discerning the spirits," which corresponds to our clairvoyance, and
finally that curious and usually useless gift of tongues, which is also a
modern phenomenon. I can remember that some time ago I read the book, "I
Heard a Voice," by an eminent barrister, in which he describes how his
young daughter began to write Greek fluently with all the complex accents
in their correct places. Just after I read it I received a letter from a
no less famous physician, who asked my opinion about one of his children
who had written a considerable amount of script in mediaeval French. These
two recent cases are beyond all doubt, but I have not had convincing
evidence of the case where some unintelligible signs drawn by an
unlettered man were pronounced by an expert to be in the Ogham or early
Celtic character. As the Ogham script is really a combination of straight
lines, the latter case may be taken with considerable reserve.
</p>
<p>
Thus the phenomena associated with the rise of Christianity and those
which have appeared during the present spiritual ferment are very
analogous. In examining the gifts of the disciples, as mentioned by
Matthew and Mark, the only additional point is the raising of the dead. If
any of them besides their great leader did in truth rise to this height of
power, where life was actually extinct, then he, undoubtedly, far
transcended anything which is recorded of modern mediumship. It is clear,
however, that such a power must have been very rare, since it would
otherwise have been used to revive the bodies of their own martyrs, which
does not seem to have been attempted. For Christ the power is clearly
admitted, and there are little touches in the description of how it was
exercised by Him which are extremely convincing to a psychic student. In
the account of how He raised Lazarus from the grave after he had been four
days dead—far the most wonderful of all Christ's miracles—it
is recorded that as He went down to the graveside He was "groaning." Why
was He groaning? No Biblical student seems to have given a satisfactory
reason. But anyone who has heard a medium groaning before any great
manifestation of power will read into this passage just that touch of
practical knowledge, which will convince him of its truth. The miracle, I
may add, is none the less wonderful or beyond our human powers, because it
was wrought by an extension of natural law, differing only in degree with
that which we can ourselves test and even do.
</p>
<p>
Although our modern manifestations have never attained the power mentioned
in the Biblical records, they present some features which are not related
in the New Testament. Clairaudience, that is the hearing of a spirit
voice, is common to both, but the direct voice, that is the hearing of a
voice which all can discern with their material ears, is a
well-authenticated phenomenon now which is more rarely mentioned of old.
So, too, Spirit-photography, where the camera records what the human eye
cannot see, is necessarily a new testimony. Nothing is evidence to those
who do not examine evidence, but I can attest most solemnly that I
personally know of several cases where the image upon the plate after
death has not only been unmistakable, but also has differed entirely from
any pre-existing photograph.
</p>
<p>
As to the methods by which the early Christians communicated with the
spirits, or with the "Saints" as they called their dead brethren, we have,
so far as I know, no record, though the words of John: "Brothers, believe
not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God," show very
clearly that spirit communion was a familiar idea, and also that they were
plagued, as we are, by the intrusion of unwelcome spiritual elements in
their intercourse. Some have conjectured that the "Angel of the Church,"
who is alluded to in terms which suggest that he was a human being, was
really a medium sanctified to the use of that particular congregation. As
we have early indications of bishops, deacons and other officials, it is
difficult to say what else the "angel" could have been. This, however,
must remain a pure speculation.
</p>
<p>
Another speculation which is, perhaps, rather more fruitful is upon what
principle did Christ select his twelve chief followers. Out of all the
multitudes he chose twelve men. Why these particular ones? It was not for
their intelligence or learning, for Peter and John, who were among the
most prominent, are expressly described as "unlearned and ignorant men."
It was not for their virtue, for one of them proved to be a great villain,
and all of them deserted their Master in His need. It was not for their
belief, for there were great numbers of believers. And yet it is clear
that they were chosen on some principle of selection since they were
called in ones and in twos. In at least two cases they were pairs of
brothers, as though some family gift or peculiarity, might underlie the
choice.
</p>
<p>
Is it not at least possible that this gift was psychic power, and that
Christ, as the greatest exponent who has ever appeared upon earth of that
power, desired to surround Himself with others who possessed it to a
lesser degree? This He would do for two reasons. The first is that a
psychic circle is a great source of strength to one who is himself
psychic, as is shown continually in our own experience, where, with a
sympathetic and helpful surrounding, an atmosphere is created where all
the powers are drawn out. How sensitive Christ was to such an atmosphere
is shown by the remark of the Evangelist, that when He visited His own
native town, where the townspeople could not take Him seriously, He was
unable to do any wonders. The second reason may have been that He desired
them to act as His deputies, either during his lifetime or after His
death, and that for this reason some natural psychic powers were
necessary.
</p>
<p>
The close connection which appears to exist between the Apostles and the
miracles, has been worked out in an interesting fashion by Dr. Abraham
Wallace, in his little pamphlet "Jesus of Nazareth."<a href="#linknote-6"
name="linknoteref-6" id="linknoteref-6"><small>6</small></a> Certainly, no
miracle or wonder working, save that of exorcism, is recorded in any of
the Evangelists until after the time when Christ began to assemble His
circle. Of this circle the three who would appear to have been the most
psychic were Peter and the two fellow-fishermen, sons of Zebedee, John and
James. These were the three who were summoned when an ideal atmosphere was
needed. It will be remembered that when the daughter of Jairus was raised
from the dead it was in the presence, and possibly, with the co-operation,
of these three assistants. Again, in the case of the Transfiguration, it
is impossible to read the account of that wonderful manifestation without
being reminded at every turn of one's own spiritual experiences. Here,
again, the points are admirably made in "Jesus of Nazareth," and it would
be well if that little book, with its scholarly tone, its breadth of
treatment and its psychic knowledge, was in the hands of every Biblical
student. Dr. Wallace points out that the place, the summit of a hill, was
the ideal one for such a manifestation, in its pure air and freedom from
interruption; that the drowsy state of the Apostles is paralleled by the
members of any circle who are contributing psychic power; that the
transfiguring of the face and the shining raiment are known phenomena;
above all, that the erection of three altars is meaningless, but that the
alternate reading, the erection of three booths or cabinets, one for the
medium and one for each materialised form, would absolutely fulfil the
most perfect conditions for getting results. This explanation of Wallace's
is a remarkable example of a modern brain, with modern knowledge, throwing
a clear searchlight across all the centuries and illuminating an incident
which has always been obscure.
</p>
<p>
When we translate Bible language into the terms of modern psychic religion
the correspondence becomes evident. It does not take much alteration. Thus
for "Lo, a miracle!" we say "This is a manifestation." "The angel of the
Lord" becomes "a high spirit." Where we talked of "a voice from heaven,"
we say "the direct voice." "His eyes were opened and he saw a vision"
means "he became clairvoyant." It is only the occultist who can possibly
understand the Scriptures as being a real exact record of events.
</p>
<p>
There are many other small points which seem to bring the story of Christ
and of the Apostles into very close touch with modern psychic research,
and greatly support the close accuracy of some of the New Testament
narrative. One which appeals to me greatly is the action of Christ when He
was asked a question which called for a sudden decision, namely the fate
of the woman who had been taken in sin. What did He do? The very last
thing that one would have expected or invented. He stooped down before
answering and wrote with his finger in the sand. This he did a second time
upon a second catch-question being addressed to Him. Can any theologian
give a reason for such an action? I hazard the opinion that among the many
forms of mediumship which were possessed in the highest form by Christ,
was the power of automatic writing, by which He summoned those great
forces which were under His control to supply Him with the answer.
Granting, as I freely do, that Christ was preternatural, in the sense that
He was above and beyond ordinary humanity in His attributes, one may still
inquire how far these powers were contained always within His human body,
or how far He referred back to spiritual reserves beyond it. When He spoke
merely from His human body He was certainly open to error, like the rest
of us, for it is recorded how He questioned the woman of Samaria about her
husband, to which she replied that she had no husband. In the case of the
woman taken in sin, one can only explain His action by the supposition
that He opened a channel instantly for the knowledge and wisdom which was
preter-human, and which at once gave a decision in favor of large-minded
charity.
</p>
<p>
It is interesting to observe the effect which these phenomena, or the
report of them, produced upon the orthodox Jews of those days. The greater
part obviously discredited them, otherwise they could not have failed to
become followers, or at the least to have regarded such a wonder-worker
with respect and admiration. One can well imagine how they shook their
bearded heads, declared that such occurrences were outside their own
experience, and possibly pointed to the local conjuror who earned a few
not over-clean denarii by imitating the phenomena. There were others,
however, who could not possibly deny, because they either saw or met with
witnesses who had seen. These declared roundly that the whole thing was of
the devil, drawing from Christ one of those pithy, common-sense arguments
in which He excelled. The same two classes of opponents, the scoffers and
the diabolists, face us to-day. Verily the old world goes round and so do
the events upon its surface.
</p>
<p>
There is one line of thought which may be indicated in the hope that it
will find development from the minds and pens of those who have studied
most deeply the possibilities of psychic power. It is at least possible,
though I admit that under modern conditions it has not been clearly
proved, that a medium of great power can charge another with his own
force, just as a magnet when rubbed upon a piece of inert steel can turn
it also into a magnet. One of the best attested powers of D. D. Home was
that he could take burning coals from the fire with impunity and carry
them in his hand. He could then—and this comes nearer to the point
at issue—place them on the head of anyone who was fearless without
their being burned. Spectators have described how the silver filigree of
the hair of Mr. Carter Hall used to be gathered over the glowing ember,
and Mrs. Hall has mentioned how she combed out the ashes afterwards. Now,
in this case, Home was clearly, able to convey, a power to another person,
just as Christ, when He was levitated over the lake, was able to convey
the same power to Peter, so long as Peter's faith held firm. The question
then arises if Home concentrated all his force upon transferring such a
power how long would that power last? The experiment was never tried, but
it would have borne very, directly upon this argument. For, granting that
the power can be transferred, then it is very clear how the Christ circle
was able to send forth seventy disciples who were endowed with miraculous
functions. It is clear also why, new disciples had to return to Jerusalem
to be "baptised of the spirit," to use their phrase, before setting forth
upon their wanderings. And when in turn they, desired to send forth
representatives would not they lay hands upon them, make passes over them
and endeavour to magnetise them in the same way—if that word may
express the process? Have we here the meaning of the laying on of hands by
the bishop at ordination, a ceremony to which vast importance is still
attached, but which may well be the survival of something really vital,
the bestowal of the thaumaturgic power? When, at last, through lapse of
time or neglect of fresh cultivation, the power ran out, the empty formula
may have been carried on, without either the blesser or the blessed
understanding what it was that the hands of the bishop, and the force
which streamed from them, were meant to bestow. The very words "laying on
of hands" would seem to suggest something different from a mere
benediction.
</p>
<p>
Enough has been said, perhaps, to show the reader that it is possible to
put forward a view of Christ's life which would be in strict accord with
the most modern psychic knowledge, and which, far from supplanting
Christianity, would show the surprising accuracy of some of the details
handed down to us, and would support the novel conclusion that those very
miracles, which have been the stumbling block to so many truthful, earnest
minds, may finally offer some very cogent arguments for the truth of the
whole narrative. Is this then a line of thought which merits the wholesale
condemnations and anathemas hurled at it by those who profess to speak in
the name of religion? At the same time, though we bring support to the New
Testament, it would, indeed, be a misconception if these, or any such
remarks, were quoted as sustaining its literal accuracy—an idea from
which so much harm has come in the past. It would, indeed, be a good,
though an unattainable thing, that a really honest and open-minded attempt
should be made to weed out from that record the obvious forgeries and
interpolations which disfigure it, and lessen the value of those parts
which are really above suspicion.
</p>
<p>
Is it necessary, for example, to be told, as an inspired fact from
Christ's own lips, that Zacharias, the son of Barachias,<a
href="#linknote-7" name="linknoteref-7" id="linknoteref-7"><small>7</small></a>
was struck dead within the precincts of the Temple in the time of Christ,
when, by a curious chance, Josephus has independently narrated the
incident as having occurred during the siege of Jerusalem, thirty-seven
years later? This makes it very clear that this particular Gospel, in its
present form, was written after that event, and that the writer fitted
into it at least one other incident which had struck his imagination.
Unfortunately, a revision by general agreement would be the greatest of
all miracles, for two of the very first texts to go would be those which
refer to the "Church," an institution and an idea utterly unfamiliar in
the days of Christ. Since the object of the insertion of these texts is
perfectly clear, there can be no doubt that they are forgeries, but as the
whole system of the Papacy rests upon one of them, they are likely to
survive for a long time to come. The text alluded to is made further
impossible because it is based upon the supposition that Christ and His
fishermen conversed together in Latin or Greek, even to the extent of
making puns in that language. Surely the want of moral courage and
intellectual honesty among Christians will seem as strange to our
descendants as it appears marvellous to us that the great thinkers of old
could have believed, or at least have pretended to believe, in the
fighting sexual deities of Mount Olympus.
</p>
<p>
Revision is, indeed, needed, and as I have already pleaded, a change of
emphasis is also needed, in order to get the grand Christian conception
back into the current of reason and progress. The orthodox who, whether
from humble faith or some other cause, do not look deeply into such
matters, can hardly conceive the stumbling-blocks which are littered about
before the feet of their more critical brethren. What is easy, for faith
is impossible for reflection. Such expressions as "Saved by the blood of
the Lamb" or "Baptised by His precious blood" fill their souls with a
gentle and sweet emotion, while upon a more thoughtful mind they have a
very different effect.
</p>
<p>
Apart from the apparent injustice of vicarious atonement, the student is
well aware that the whole of this sanguinary metaphor is drawn really from
the Pagan rites of Mithra, where the neophyte was actually placed under a
bull at the ceremony of the TAUROBOLIUM, and was drenched, through a
grating, with the blood of the slaughtered animal. Such reminiscences of
the more brutal side of Paganism are not helpful to the thoughtful and
sensitive modern mind. But what is always fresh and always useful and
always beautiful, is the memory of the sweet Spirit who wandered on the
hillsides of Galilee; who gathered the children around him; who met his
friends in innocent good-fellowship; who shrank from forms and ceremonies,
craving always for the inner meaning; who forgave the sinner; who
championed the poor, and who in every decision threw his weight upon the
side of charity and breadth of view. When to this character you add those
wondrous psychic powers already analysed, you do, indeed, find a supreme
character in the world's history who obviously stands nearer to the
Highest than any other. When one compares the general effect of His
teaching with that of the more rigid churches, one marvels how in their
dogmatism, their insistence upon forms, their exclusiveness, their pomp
and their intolerance, they could have got so far away from the example of
their Master, so that as one looks upon Him and them, one feels that there
is absolute deep antagonism and that one cannot speak of the Church and
Christ, but only of the Church or Christ.
</p>
<p>
And yet every Church produces beautiful souls, though it may be debated
whether "produces" or "contains" is the truthful word. We have but to fall
back upon our own personal experience if we have lived long and mixed much
with our fellow-men. I have myself lived during the seven most
impressionable years of my life among Jesuits, the most maligned of all
ecclesiastical orders, and I have found them honourable and good men, in
all ways estimable outside the narrowness which limits the world to Mother
Church. They were athletes, scholars, and gentlemen, nor can I ever
remember any examples of that casuistry with which they are reproached.
Some of my best friends have been among the parochial clergy of the Church
of England, men of sweet and saintly character, whose pecuniary straits
were often a scandal and a reproach to the half-hearted folk who accepted
their spiritual guidance. I have known, also, splendid men among the
Nonconformist clergy, who have often been the champions of liberty, though
their views upon that subject have sometimes seemed to contract when one
ventured upon their own domain of thought. Each creed has brought out men
who were an honour to the human race, and Manning or Shrewsbury, Gordon or
Dolling, Booth or Stopford Brooke, are all equally admirable, however
diverse the roots from which they grow. Among the great mass of the
people, too, there are very many thousands of beautiful souls who have
been brought up on the old-fashioned lines, and who never heard of
spiritual communion or any other of those matters which have been
discussed in these essays, and yet have reached a condition of pure
spirituality such as all of us may envy. Who does not know the maiden
aunt, the widowed mother, the mellowed elderly man, who live upon the
hilltops of unselfishness, shedding kindly thoughts and deeds around them,
but with their simple faith deeply, rooted in anything or everything which
has come to them in a hereditary fashion with the sanction of some
particular authority? I had an aunt who was such an one, and can see her
now, worn with austerity and charity, a small, humble figure, creeping to
church at all hours from a house which was to her but a waiting-room
between services, while she looked at me with sad, wondering, grey eyes.
Such people have often reached by instinct, and in spite of dogma,
heights, to which no system of philosophy can ever raise us.
</p>
<p>
But making full allowance for the high products of every creed, which may
be only, a proof of the innate goodness of civilised humanity, it is still
beyond all doubt that Christianity has broken down, and that this
breakdown has been brought home to everyone by the terrible catastrophe
which has befallen the world. Can the most optimistic apologist contend
that this is a satisfactory, outcome from a religion which has had the
unopposed run of Europe for so many centuries? Which has come out of it
worst, the Lutheran Prussian, the Catholic Bavarian, or the peoples who
have been nurtured by the Greek Church? If we, of the West, have done
better, is it not rather an older and higher civilisation and freer
political institutions that have held us back from all the cruelties,
excesses and immoralities which have taken the world back to the dark
ages? It will not do to say that they have occurred in spite of
Christianity, and that Christianity is, therefore, not to blame. It is
true that Christ's teaching is not to blame, for it is often spoiled in
the transmission. But Christianity has taken over control of the morals of
Europe, and should have the compelling force which would ensure that those
morals would not go to pieces upon the first strain. It is on this point
that Christianity must be judged, and the judgment can only be that it has
failed. It has not been an active controlling force upon the minds of men.
And why? It can only be because there is something essential which is
wanting. Men do not take it seriously. Men do not believe in it. Lip
service is the only service in innumerable cases, and even lip service
grows fainter.
</p>
<p>
Men, as distinct from women, have, both in the higher and lower classes of
life, ceased, in the greater number of cases, to show a living interest in
religion. The churches lose their grip upon the people—and lose it
rapidly. Small inner circles, convocations, committees, assemblies, meet
and debate and pass resolutions of an ever narrower character. But the
people go their way and religion is dead, save in so far as intellectual
culture and good taste can take its place. But when religion is dead,
materialism becomes active, and what active materialism may produce has
been seen in Germany.
</p>
<p>
Is it not time, then, for the religious bodies to discourage their own
bigots and sectarians, and to seriously consider, if only for
self-preservation, how they can get into line once more with that general
level of human thought which is now so far in front of them? I say that
they can do more than get level—they can lead. But to do so they
must, on the one hand, have the firm courage to cut away from their own
bodies all that dead tissue which is but a disfigurement and an
encumbrance. They must face difficulties of reason, and adapt themselves
to the demands of the human intelligence which rejects, and is right in
rejecting, much which they offer. Finally, they must gather fresh strength
by drawing in all the new truth and all the new power which are afforded
by this new wave of inspiration which has been sent into the world by God,
and which the human race, deluded and bemused by the would-be clever, has
received with such perverse and obstinate incredulity. When they have done
all this, they will find not only that they are leading the world with an
obvious right to the leadership, but, in addition, that they have come
round once more to the very teaching of that Master whom they have so long
misrepresented.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2H_APPE" id="link2H_APPE"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
APPENDICES
</h2>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2H_4_0009" id="link2H_4_0009"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
A. — DOCTOR GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS
</h2>
<p>
Nothing could be imagined more fantastic and grotesque than the results of
the recent experiments of Professor Geley, in France. Before such results
the brain, even of the trained psychical student, is dazed, while that of
the orthodox man of science, who has given no heed to these developments,
is absolutely helpless. In the account of the proceedings which he read
lately before the Institut General Psychologique in Paris, on January of
last year, Dr. Geley says: "I do not merely say that there has been no
fraud; I say, 'there has been no possibility of fraud.' In nearly every
case the materialisations were done under my eyes, and I have observed
their whole genesis and development." He adds that, in the course of the
experiments, more than a hundred experts, mostly doctors, checked the
results.
</p>
<p>
These results may be briefly stated thus. A peculiar whitish matter exuded
from the subject, a girl named Eva, coming partly through her skin, partly
from her hands, partly from the orifices of her face, especially her
mouth. This was photographed repeatedly at every stage of its production,
these photographs being appended to the printed treatise. This stuff,
solid enough to enable one to touch and to photograph, has been called the
ectoplasm. It is a new order of matter, and it is clearly derived from the
subject herself, absorbing into her system once more at the end of the
experiment. It exudes in such quantities as to entirely, cover her
sometimes as with an apron. It is soft and glutinous to the touch, but
varies in form and even in colour. Its production causes pain and groans
from the subject, and any violence towards it would appear also to affect
her. A sudden flash of light, as in a flash-photograph, may or may not
cause a retraction of the ectoplasm, but always causes a spasm of the
subject. When re-absorbed, it leaves no trace upon the garments through
which it has passed.
</p>
<p>
This is wonderful enough, but far more fantastic is what has still to be
told. The most marked property of this ectoplasm, very fully illustrated
in the photographs, is that it sets or curdles into the shapes of human
members—of fingers, of hands, of faces, which are at first quite
sketchy and rudimentary, but rapidly coalesce and develop until they are
undistinguishable from those of living beings. Is not this the very
strangest and most inexplicable thing that has ever yet been observed by
human eyes? These faces or limbs are usually the size of life, but they
frequently are quite miniatures. Occasionally they begin by being
miniatures, and grow into full size. On their first appearance in the
ectoplasm the limb is only on one plane of matter, a mere flat appearance,
which rapidly rounds itself off, until it has assumed all three planes and
is complete. It may be a mere simulacrum, like a wax hand, or it may be
endowed with full power of grasping another hand, with every articulation
in perfect working order.
</p>
<p>
The faces which are produced in this amazing way are worthy of study. They
do not appear to have represented anyone who has ever been known in life
by Doctor Geley.<a href="#linknote-8" name="linknoteref-8"
id="linknoteref-8"><small>8</small></a> My impression after examining them
is that they are much more likely to be within the knowledge of the
subject, being girls of the French lower middle class type, such as Eva
was, I should imagine, in the habit of meeting. It should be added that
Eva herself appears in the photograph as well as the simulacra of
humanity. The faces are, on the whole, both pretty and piquant, though of
a rather worldly and unrefined type. The latter adjective would not apply
to the larger and most elaborate photograph, which represents a very
beautiful young woman of a truly spiritual cast of face. Some of the faces
are but partially formed, which gives them a grotesque or repellant
appearance. What are we to make of such phenomena? There is no use
deluding ourselves by the idea that there may be some mistake or some
deception. There is neither one nor the other. Apart from the elaborate
checks upon these particular results, they correspond closely with those
got by Lombroso in Italy, by Schrenk-Notzing in Germany, and by other
careful observers. One thing we must bear in mind constantly in
considering them, and that is their abnormality. At a liberal estimate, it
is not one person in a million who possesses such powers—if a thing
which is outside our volition can be described as a power. It is the
mechanism of the materialisation medium which has been explored by the
acute brain and untiring industry of Doctor Geley, and even presuming, as
one may fairly presume, that every materialising medium goes through the
same process in order to produce results, still such mediums are
exceedingly, rare. Dr. Geley mentions, as an analogous phenomenon on the
material side, the presence of dermoid cysts, those mysterious formations,
which rise as small tumors in any part of the body, particularly above the
eyebrow, and which when opened by the surgeon are found to contain hair,
teeth or embryonic bones. There is no doubt, as he claims, some rough
analogy, but the dermoid cyst is, at least, in the same flesh and blood
plane of nature as the foetus inside it, while in the ectoplasm we are
dealing with an entirely new and strange development.
</p>
<p>
It is not possible to define exactly what occurs in the case of the
ectoplasm, nor, on account of its vital connection with the medium and its
evanescent nature, has it been separated and subjected to even the
roughest chemical analysis which might show whether it is composed of
those earthly elements with which we are familiar. Is it rather some
coagulation of ether which introduces an absolutely new substance into our
world? Such a supposition seems most probable, for a comparison with the
analogous substance examined at Dr. Crawford's seances at Belfast, which
is at the same time hardly visible to the eye and yet capable of handling
a weight of 150 pounds, suggests something entirely new in the way of
matter.
</p>
<p>
But setting aside, as beyond the present speculation, what the exact
origin and nature of the ectoplasm may be, it seems to me that there is
room for a very suggestive line of thought if we make Geley's experiments
the starting point, and lead it in the direction of other manifestations
of psychomaterial activity. First of all, let us take Crookes' classic
experiments with Katie King, a result which for a long time stood alone
and isolated but now can be approached by intermittent but definite
stages. Thus we can well suppose that during those long periods when
Florrie Cook lay in the laboratory in the dark, periods which lasted an
hour or more upon some occasions, the ectoplasm was flowing from her as
from Eva. Then it was gathering itself into a viscous cloud or pillar
close to her frame; then the form of Katie King was evolved from this
cloud, in the manner already described, and finally the nexus was broken
and the completed body advanced to present itself at the door of
communication, showing a person different in every possible attribute save
that of sex from the medium, and yet composed wholly or in part from
elements extracted from her senseless body. So far, Geley's experiments
throw a strong explanatory light upon those of Crookes. And here the
Spiritualist must, as it seems to me, be prepared to meet an objection
more formidable than the absurd ones of fraud or optical delusion. It is
this. If the body of Katie King the spirit is derived from the body of
Florrie Cook the psychic, then what assurance have we that the life
therein is not really one of the personalities out of which the complex
being named Florrie Cook is constructed? It is a thesis which requires
careful handling. It is not enough to say that the nature is manifestly
superior, for supposing that Florrie Cook represented the average of a
number of conflicting personalities, then a single one of these
personalities might be far higher than the total effect. Without going
deeply into this problem, one can but say that the spirit's own account of
its own personality must count for something, and also that an isolated
phenomenon must be taken in conjunction with all other psychic phenomena
when we are seeking for a correct explanation.
</p>
<p>
But now let us take this idea of a human being who has the power of
emitting a visible substance in which are formed faces which appear to
represent distinct individualities, and in extreme cases develop into
complete independent human forms. Take this extraordinary fact, and let us
see whether, by an extension or modification of this demonstrated process,
we may not get some sort of clue as to the modus operandi in other psychic
phenomena. It seems to me that we may, at least, obtain indications which
amount to a probability, though not to a certainty, as to how some
results, hitherto inexplicable, are attained. It is at any rate a
provisional speculation, which may suggest a hypothesis for future
observers to destroy, modify, or confirm.
</p>
<p>
The argument which I would advance is this. If a strong materialisation
medium can throw out a cloud of stuff which is actually visible, may not a
medium of a less pronounced type throw out a similar cloud with analogous
properties which is not opaque enough to be seen by the average eye, but
can make an impression both on the dry plate in the camera and on the
clairvoyant faculty? If that be so—and it would not seem to be a
very far-fetched proposition—we have at once an explanation both of
psychic photographs and of the visions of the clairvoyant seer. When I say
an explanation, I mean of its superficial method of formation, and not of
the forces at work behind, which remain no less a mystery even when we
accept Dr. Geley's statement that they are "ideoplastic."
</p>
<p>
Here we have, I think, some attempt at a generalisation, which might,
perhaps, be useful in evolving some first signs of order out of this
chaos. It is conceivable that the thinner emanation of the clairvoyant
would extend far further than the thick material ectoplasm, but have the
same property of moulding itself into life, though the life forms would
only be visible to the clairvoyant eye. Thus, when Mr. Tom Tyrrell, or any
other competent exponent, stands upon the platform his emanation fills the
hall. Into this emanation, as into the visible ectoplasm in Geley's
experiments, break the faces and forms of those from the other side who
are attracted to the scene by their sympathy with various members of the
audience. They are seen and described by Mr. Tyrrell, who with his finely
attuned senses, carefully conserved (he hardly eats or drinks upon a day
when he demonstrates), can hear that thinner higher voice that calls their
names, their old addresses and their messages. So, too, when Mr. Hope and
Mrs. Buxton stand with their hands joined over the cap of the camera, they
are really throwing out a misty ectoplasm from which the forms loom up
which appear upon the photographic plate. It may be that I mistake an
analogy for an explanation, but I put the theory on record for what it is
worth.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2H_4_0010" id="link2H_4_0010"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
B. — A PARTICULAR INSTANCE
</h2>
<p>
I have been in touch with a series of events in America lately, and can
vouch for the facts as much as any man can vouch for facts which did not
occur to himself. I have not the least doubt in my own mind that they are
true, and a more remarkable double proof of the continuity of life has, I
should think, seldom been published. A book has recently been issued by
Harpers, of New York, called "The Seven Purposes." In this book the
authoress, Miss Margaret Cameron, describes how she suddenly developed the
power of automatic writing. She was not a Spiritualist at the time. Her
hand was controlled and she wrote a quantity of matter which was entirely
outside her own knowledge or character. Upon her doubting whether her
sub-conscious self might in some way be producing the writing, which was
partly done by planchette, the script was written upside down and from
right to left, as though the writer was seated opposite. Such script could
not possibly be written by the lady herself. Upon making enquiry as to who
was using her hand, the answer came in writing that it was a certain Fred
Gaylord, and that his object was to get a message to his mother. The youth
was unknown to Miss Cameron, but she knew the family and forwarded the
message, with the result that the mother came to see her, examined the
evidence, communicated with the son, and finally, returning home, buried
all her evidences of mourning, feeling that the boy was no more dead in
the old sense than if he were alive in a foreign country.
</p>
<p>
There is the first proof of preternatural agency, since Miss Cameron
developed so much knowledge which she could not have normally acquired,
using many phrases and ideas which were characteristic of the deceased.
But mark the sequel. Gaylord was merely a pseudonym, as the matter was so
private that the real name, which we will put as Bridger, was not
disclosed. A few months after the book was published Miss Cameron received
a letter from a stranger living a thousand miles away. This letter and the
whole correspondence I have seen. The stranger, Mrs. Nicol, says that as a
test she would like to ask whether the real name given as Fred Gaylord in
the book is not Fred Bridger, as she had psychic reasons for believing so.
Miss Cameron replied that it was so, and expressed her great surprise that
so secret and private a matter should have been correctly stated. Mrs.
Nicol then explained that she and her husband, both connected with
journalism and both absolutely agnostic, had discovered that she had the
power of automatic writing. That while, using this power she had received
communications purporting to come from Fred Bridger whom they had known in
life, and that upon reading Miss Cameron's book they had received from
Fred Bridger the assurance that he was the same person as the Fred Gaylord
of Miss Cameron.
</p>
<p>
Now, arguing upon these facts, and they would appear most undoubtedly to
be facts, what possible answer can the materialist or the sceptic give to
the assertion that they are a double proof of the continuity of
personality and the possibility of communication? Can any reasonable
system of telepathy explain how Miss Cameron discovered the intimate
points characteristic of young Gaylord? And then, how are we afterwards,
by any possible telepathy, to explain the revelation to Mrs. Nicol of the
identity of her communicant, Fred Bridger, with the Fred Gaylord who had
been written of by Miss Cameron. The case for return seems to me a very
convincing one, though I contend now, as ever, that it is not the return
of the lost ones which is of such cogent interest as the message from the
beyond which they bear with them.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2H_4_0011" id="link2H_4_0011"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
C. — SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY
</h2>
<p>
On this subject I should recommend the reader to consult Coates'
"Photographing the Invisible," which states, in a thoughtful and moderate
way, the evidence for this most remarkable phase, and illustrates it with
many examples. It is pointed out that here, as always, fraud must be
carefully guarded against, having been admitted in the case of the French
spirit photographer, Buguet.
</p>
<p>
There are, however, a large number of cases where the photograph, under
rigid test conditions in which fraud has been absolutely barred, has
reproduced the features of the dead. Here there are limitations and
restrictions which call for careful study and observation. These faces of
the dead are in some cases as contoured and as recognisable as they were
in life, and correspond with no pre-existing picture or photograph. One
such case absolutely critic-proof is enough, one would think, to establish
survival, and these valid cases are to be counted not in ones, but in
hundreds. On the other hand, many of the likenesses, obtained under the
same test conditions, are obviously simulacra or pictures built up by some
psychic force, not necessarily by the individual spirits themselves, to
represent the dead. In some undoubtedly genuine cases it is an exact, or
almost exact, reproduction of an existing picture, as if the conscious
intelligent force, whatever it might be, had consulted it as to the former
appearance of the deceased, and had then built it up in exact accordance
with the original. In such cases the spirit face may show as a flat
surface instead of a contour. Rigid examination has shown that the
existing model was usually outside the ken of the photographer.
</p>
<p>
Two of the bravest champions whom Spiritualism has ever produced, the late
W. T. Stead and the late Archdeacon Colley—names which will bulk
large in days to come—attached great importance to spirit
photography as a final and incontestable proof of survival. In his recent
work, "Proofs of the Truth of Spiritualism" (Kegan Paul), the eminent
botanist, Professor Henslow, has given one case which would really appear
to be above criticism. He narrates how the inquirer subjected a sealed
packet of plates to the Crewe circle without exposure, endeavoring to get
a psychograph. Upon being asked on which plate he desired it, he said "the
fifth." Upon this plate being developed, there was found on it a copy of a
passage from the Codex Alexandrinus of the New Testament in the British
Museum. Reproductions, both of the original and of the copy, will be found
in Professor Henslow's book.
</p>
<p>
I have myself been to Crewe and have had results which would be amazing
were it not that familiarity blunts the mind to miracles. Three marked
plates brought by myself, and handled, developed and fixed by no hand but
mine, gave psychic extras. In each case I saw the extra in the negative
when it was still wet in the dark room. I reproduce in Plate I a specimen
of the results, which is enough in itself to prove the whole case of
survival to any reasonable mind. The three sitters are Mr. Oaten, Mr.
Walker, and myself, I being obscured by the psychic cloud. In this cloud
appears a message of welcome to me from the late Archdeacon Colley. A
specimen of the Archdeacon's own handwriting is reproduced in Plate II for
the purpose of comparison. Behind, there is an attempt at materialisation
obscured by the cloud. The mark on the side of the plate is my
identification mark. I trust that I make it clear that no hand but mine
ever touched this plate, nor did I ever lose sight of it for a second save
when it was in the carrier, which was conveyed straight back to the dark
room and there opened. What has any critic to say to that?
</p>
<p>
By the kindness of those fearless pioneers of the movement, Mr. and Mrs.
Hewat Mackenzie, I am allowed to publish another example of spirit
photography. The circumstances were very remarkable. The visit of the
parents to Crewe was unproductive and their plate a blank save for their
own presentment. Returning disappointed, to London they managed, through
the mediumship of Mrs. Leonard, to get into touch with their boy, and
asked him why they had failed. He replied that the conditions had been
bad, but that he had actually succeeded some days later in getting on to
the plate of Lady Glenconnor, who had been to Crewe upon a similar errand.
The parents communicated with this lady, who replied saying that she had
found the image of a stranger upon her plate. On receiving a print they at
once recognised their son, and could even see that, as a proof of
identity, he had reproduced the bullet wound on his left temple. No. 3 is
their gallant son as he appeared in the flesh, No. 4 is his reappearance
after death. The opinion of a miniature painter who had done a picture of
the young soldier is worth recording as evidence of identity. The artist
says: "After painting the miniature of your son Will, I feel I know every
turn of his face, and am quite convinced of the likeness of the psychic
photograph. All the modelling of the brow, nose and eyes is marked by
illness—especially is the mouth slightly contracted—but this
does not interfere with the real form. The way the hair grows on the brow
and temple is noticeably like the photograph taken before he was wounded."
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2H_4_0012" id="link2H_4_0012"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
D. — THE CLAIRVOYANCE OF MRS. B.
</h2>
<p>
At the time of this volume going to press the results obtained by clients
of this medium have been forty-two successes out of fifty attempts,
checked and docketted by the author. This series forms a most conclusive
proof of spirit clairvoyance. An attempt has been made by Mr. E. F.
Benson, who examined some of the letters, to explain the results upon the
grounds of telepathy. He admits that "The tastes, appearance and character
of the deceased are often given, and many names are introduced by the
medium, some not traceable, but most of them identical with relations or
friends." Such an admission would alone banish thought-reading as an
explanation, for there is no evidence in existence to show that this power
ever reaches such perfection that one who possesses it could draw the
image of a dead man from your brain, fit a correct name to him, and then
associate him with all sorts of definite and detailed actions in which he
was engaged. Such an explanation is not an explanation but a pretence. But
even if one were to allow such a theory to pass, there are numerous
incidents in these accounts which could not be explained in such a
fashion, where unknown details have been given which were afterwards
verified, and even where mistakes in thought upon the part of the sitter
were corrected by the medium under spirit guidance. Personally I believe
that the medium's own account of how she gets her remarkable results is
the absolute truth, and I can imagine no other fashion in which they can
be explained. She has, of course, her bad days, and the conditions are
always worst when there is an inquisitorial rather than a religious
atmosphere in the interview. This intermittent character of the results
is, according to my experience, characteristic of spirit clairvoyance as
compared with thought-reading, which can, in its more perfect form, become
almost automatic within certain marked limits. I may add that the constant
practice of some psychical researchers to take no notice at all of the
medium's own account of how he or she attains results, but to substitute
some complicated and unproved explanation of their own, is as insulting as
it is unreasonable. It has been alleged as a slur upon Mrs. B's results
and character that she has been twice prosecuted by the police. This is,
in fact, not a slur upon the medium but rather upon the law, which is in
so barbarous a condition that the true seer fares no better than the
impostor, and that no definite psychic principles are recognised. A medium
may under such circumstances be a martyr rather than a criminal, and a
conviction ceases to be a stain upon the character.
</p>
<p>
<br /><br />
</p>
<hr />
<p>
<a name="link2H_NOTE" id="link2H_NOTE"> </a>
</p>
<div style="height: 4em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
<h2>
NOTES:
</h2>
<p>
<a name="linknote-1" id="linknote-1"> </a>
</p>
<p class="foot">
1 (<a href="#linknoteref-1">return</a>)<br /> [ "The Reality of Psychic
Phenomena." "Experiences in Psychical Science." (Watkins.)]
</p>
<p>
<a name="linknote-2" id="linknote-2"> </a>
</p>
<p class="foot">
2 (<a href="#linknoteref-2">return</a>)<br /> [ See Appendix.]
</p>
<p>
<a name="linknote-3" id="linknote-3"> </a>
</p>
<p class="foot">
3 (<a href="#linknoteref-3">return</a>)<br /> [ See Appendix D.]
</p>
<p>
<a name="linknote-4" id="linknote-4"> </a>
</p>
<p class="foot">
4 (<a href="#linknoteref-4">return</a>)<br /> [ The details of both these
latter cases are to be found in "Voices from the Void" by Mrs. Travers
Smith, a book containing some well weighed evidence.]
</p>
<p>
<a name="linknote-5" id="linknote-5"> </a>
</p>
<p class="foot">
5 (<a href="#linknoteref-5">return</a>)<br /> [ For Geley's Experiments,
Appendix A.]
</p>
<p>
<a name="linknote-6" id="linknote-6"> </a>
</p>
<p class="foot">
6 (<a href="#linknoteref-6">return</a>)<br /> [ Published at sixpence by
the Light Publishing Co., 6, Queen Square, London, W.C. The same firm
supplies Dr. Ellis Powell's convincing little book on the same subject.]
</p>
<p>
<a name="linknote-7" id="linknote-7"> </a>
</p>
<p class="foot">
7 (<a href="#linknoteref-7">return</a>)<br /> [ The References are to
Matthew, xxiii 35, and to Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, Chapter 5.]
</p>
<p>
<a name="linknote-8" id="linknote-8"> </a>
</p>
<p class="foot">
8 (<a href="#linknoteref-8">return</a>)<br /> [ Dr. Geley writes to me that
they are unknown either to him or to the medium.]
</p>
<div style="height: 6em;">
<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
</div>
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