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.
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. ARTHUR
CONAN DOYLE.
CROWBOROUGH,
July, 1919.
I THE TWO NEEDFUL
READJUSTMENTS . . . . . . . . . 11
II THE DAWNING OF THE
LIGHT. . . . . . . . . . . . 29
III THE GREAT ARGUMENT.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
IV THE COMING WORLD. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
V IS IT THE SECOND
DAWN?. . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
APPENDICES
A. DR. GELEY'S
EXPERIMENTS . . . . . . . . . . 141
B. A PARTICULAR
INSTANCE . . . . . . . . . . . 152
C. SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY.
. . . . . . . . . . . . 156
D. THE CLAIRVOYANCE OF
MRS. B. . . . . . . . . 162
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.
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.
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 Cardi nal 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.
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.
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.
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. Every thing 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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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 high browed 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.
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. "The Reality of
Psychic Phenomena." "Experiences in Psychical Science."
(Watkins.) 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. See Appendix. 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.
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 ob viously 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 Chris topher 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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?
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."
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.
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.
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.
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. See Appendix D.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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.
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?
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 mes sage 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!
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.
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.
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 independent ly
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.
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 at tain, 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. For
Geley's Experiments, Appendix A. This process he has illustrated by a very
complete series of photographs.
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.
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.
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. We need more first-hand
accounts of these matters before we can formulate laws.
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.
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.
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.
Let us now consider the
life in the Beyond as it is shown to us by the new revelation.
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.
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.
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: --
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?
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."
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
"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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
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, form 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. 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.
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.
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. "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.
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.
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 sytsem by the
use of pure reason and deduction.
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.
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: "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 intro ducing 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.
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.
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.
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: "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.
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 medium ship -- 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.
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.
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 evi dence, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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." 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Is it necessary, for example, to be told, as an inspired fact from
Christ's own lips, that Zacharias, the son of Barachias, The References are to
Matthew, xxiii 35, and to Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, Chapter 5. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 castrophe 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. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Dr. Geley
writes to me that they are unknown either to him or to the medium. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 mys tery even when we accept
Dr. Geley's statement that they are "ideoplastic."
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.
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.
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.
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 per sonality 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 {Plate I. Caption = IMPRESSION RECEIVED UPON A MARKED
PLATE WHICH NEVER WENT OUT OF THE AUTHORS HANDS, SAVE WHEN IT WAS IN THE
CARRIER. THERE IS A PARTIAL MATERIALISATION BEHIND. IN FRONT IS AN INSCRIPTION
SIGNED "T. COLLEY" {Plate II. Caption = SPECIMEN OF ARCHDEACON
COLLEY'S WRITING DURING HIS LIFETIME {Plate III. Caption = PHOTOGRAPH IN LIFE
OF LIEUT. WILL. HEWAT MACKENZIE {Plate IV. Caption = PHOTOGRAPH OF LIEUT. WILL.
HEWAT MACKENZIE, TAKEN SOME MONTHS AFTER HIS DEATH, IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES
DESCRIBED IN THE TEXT 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?
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 me diumship 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."
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 prac
tice 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.