The possibility of the spirit “leaving the body” for a time and then
returning and resuming its usual activities has been demonstrated
many times. In some instances the temporary separation was caused by
accident, illness, states of coma induced by anesthetics, trance,
either of spirit control or hypnosis, and sometimes a _voluntary
absence_ or activity not suspending the vital functions of the body. It
is also undoubtedly true that during sleep--especially that restful,
dreamless sleep that betokens a normal state of mind and body, the
spirit avails itself of the opportunity of restoration by spiritual
methods and activities not possible while urging the body to do its
bidding. Not only Spiritualists, Psychologists and Psychic Research
students have well authenticated cases of the undoubted activity of the
Spirit apart from the body, but many prominent physicians have recorded
their experiences with patients whose bodily functions were suspended,
even to seeming dissolution, and upon the unexpected resuscitation of
the subject there would be a vivid account of active experiences in
spirit--usually pleasant scenes and meetings with friends long passed
into spirit life. These visits to “heaven” would be sometimes tinged
with the religious bias of the subject, but this is not strange in view
of the fact that _spirit states are conditions of the mind_ and spirit
experiencing them.
Among the most familiar popular illustrations are those narrated
by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, especially by “Gail Hamilton” who,
being thought “dead” returned to her body, narrated to her pastor
the experiences she had during that period of suspended animation
and resumed her pen, remaining in mortal life a considerable time
thereafter.
Although not usual, this class of experiences is not so _unusual_ as
many imagine or assert. And the writer having been from childhood
accustomed to the “other state” (“Inner,” “higher”), of consciousness
can distinctly trace her experiences in that inner realm as forming
fully a third if not one-half of her life-experiences.
The “realm of spirit” in which she has so often found herself a
participant is, therefore, no unfamiliar realm; in fact if called
upon to decide _which state_ is the _reality--the life_, she would
unhesitatingly say: the _inner_ state, the _super-mundane_ realm.
Of the many eminent men of Science in both Europe and America who have
come to a knowledge of the truths of Spirit existence, continuance of
life after transition,--and the writer has known them all personally,
except the one she is about to mention,--probably Sir Oliver Lodge
has approached the subject of “psychic Research” (Spiritualism) with
a mind the _best prepared_ to receive (perceive) Spiritual Truth. I
say this with the utmost reverence and admiration for the long list
of names--eminent alike in their personal qualities and scientific
attainments, whose lives have been made brighter by a knowledge of
demonstrated future existence and a belief in the Immortality of the
Soul. Shall I name some of them? Hare, Mapes, Denton, Wallace, Crookes,
Varley, Zollner, Flammarion--the list is almost endless.
Sir Oliver Lodge has not only recently, and very publicly, announced
his full belief (knowledge) of continued personal existence beyond the
change called death, but the possibility of communion with those “gone
before” and the certainty that he had personal evidence beyond cavil
or doubt, proofs indubitable, of the presence of and communication
with his particular friends, _but_--and this is the point I wish
to emphasize--in his earlier utterances on this subject he said
in effect: “When I become aware that the human spirit while still
animating the body, or not released by death, has _such surpassing
powers_, ‘telepathy,’ ‘voluntary action’ _apart from the body_, showing
conclusively that the activities of the mind _are not_ dependent
upon the physical organism--I concluded there _must_ be evidence to
show that the spirit _can_ and does survive the body.” This and much
more was in his published statements concerning his investigations
in connection with Psychic Research--showing that he approached the
subject not only from the “effect to cause” line of usual scientific
investigation, but had already in his quickened perception the
vivification of a-priori knowledge leading from “_cause to effect_.”
One would like to accumulate and set down in condensed manner all the
available evidences of “absence from the body”--of which the writer has
a large and increasing store, but this writing is more distinctly in
the form of a message for this particular time.
With our own “other world” within and about us, moving “like wings of
light on dark and stormy air,” with such unused, wonderful powers, what
wonder that one having partaken of the bounties of that inner realm
longs to awaken the “sleeping” spirits of those in human life--or, more
correctly speaking, tear aside the veil and show how wonderful are the
dormant powers within each person: Soul-powers more active, perhaps,
than any are aware! Who can tell, until the film of mental blindness is
removed, how great may be the works accomplished by the spirit when the
body sleeps, when one is “absent minded,” or when _thinking intently_
of a particular friend, one finds at that very day and hour the friend
had “passed away”?
It is of the “Substance that dreams are made” that we shall ultimately
find our divinest realities, _our very lives_ are fashioned.
This narrative of “experiences while out of my body” is only a prelude
to those vaster heights, those more inner scenes, that I hope sometime
to be able to record: The Symphony is Life itself whose theme of Love
is Endless, Endless, Endless.
--_The Author._
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