Perhaps I cannot open my subject in any better way than by giving a few
reasons why a knowledge of The Beyond has remained a sealed book for
centuries.
My first reason will not be a very satisfactory one, because I cannot
now enter into it as fully as I could wish; but it belongs first, and
cannot be omitted. A knowledge of The Beyond has remained hidden from
men, first, because those intelligences who were capable of imparting it
have refrained from doing so. Some of these intelligences were actuated
by selfish motives. They could more easily control those whom they hoped
to enslave, by keeping them ignorant. Others have remained silent out
of respect for an edict proceeding from a far height at a time when all
men were believers in a future state, and so many of them were absorbed
in speculating upon it, and holding communications with the departed,
that the earth was neglected, and in danger of going to waste. Hence the
edict, which was promulgated through the kings who were able themselves
to see the need of it.
Another very important reason why this knowledge has remained hidden, is
because to embody it in a language appropriate to it, and, at the same
time, avoid obscurity, is exceedingly difficult.
Why? Because it belongs to a different world, a world which has no
nearer relation to this one than thoughts have to things. To illustrate
what I mean by this, suppose you should wake up some night and find
yourself in silent darkness and unable to move a muscle. Suppose you
could not even feel the bed under you, being conscious only of being
supported in a horizontal position. So long as these avenues of sense
remained closed, the world of things would not exist to you, and you
could not say, of your own knowledge, that it continued to exist for
anyone else.
While the situation would be a startling one without doubt, I am going
to assume that you would have a sufficient degree of self-control to
keep your mental balance. This would be the easier as you discovered
that your mental vision was as clear as ever, and that your real self,
which is back of all your senses, had received no shock or injury. You
would naturally wish to know just what had happened, and it would be apt
to disturb you somewhat to find that your reasoning powers failed to
respond when you called upon them to solve the problem, as naturally
they would, since the brain, with which they do their work, would share
the inaction of the body. Now, if the world of things had thus vanished,
what could remain? In the first place, memory. You would be able to call
up the pictures of the past, and live over again in your mind any scene
there depicted. But you would not be confined to living in the past.
Although unable to see or to hear, you would be able to assume the
mental attitude either of looking or listening, and as you sought to
penetrate the gloom of your surroundings, you would be conscious of
lifting eyelids which perhaps had never been raised before, and the
mystic light of another world would dawn upon you. Shadowy forms of
graceful outline would be seen, at first dimly, then with greater
clearness. You would not mistake them for mortals, and, having no
acquaintance with other-world intelligences, you might take them for
moving pictures, destitute of any kind of life.
Presently you would become aware that connected thoughts were passing
through your mind, without conscious volition on your part, and assuming
the attitude of a listener you would discover that the inner world of
sound was opening to you. The subject treated of might not relate to you
personally, but you would hail with delight the opportunity to prove
yourself in communication with other minds.
Presently some sentiment is expressed which you do not approve, and you
put forth an impulse of will-power in protest. Instantly comes a
thought-message directly to you. Who has arrested my current of thought?
The meaning of this is at once apparent. You are like a telegraph
operator who has been listening to a passing message, containing a
false statement, and has stopped it. You might now withdraw your protest
and allow the message to pass as something which did not concern you, or
you might assert your individuality and reply to the sharp question by
saying, "Because I allow nothing to pass through my mind which I do not
approve." If you adopted the first course, you might be let off with a
curse, and told to mind your own business hereafter; but if you should
manifest the temerity indicated by the second, a thundering "What?"
might fall upon your new sense, and you would discover that you had a
fight on your hands. It may be supposed that you would mentally assume
an upright position, which in that world corresponds to the act of
rising here, and brace yourself for the contest. But it is not necessary
to carry the illustration any farther at this time. I merely wished to
show how _thoughts_ may take the place of _things_ in the mind's arena
when, for any reason, things are shut out.
A third reason why a knowledge of The Beyond is not more generally
disseminated, is that false ideas in regard to death are so predominant
that it has become a habit with the great majority to dismiss from the
mind all thoughts having, or that are supposed to have, any possible
connection with it, and therefore the avenue of approach to the minds of
such is kept closed by themselves.
It may be asked why the solitary student is not able to attain to a
satisfactory solution of the great problem, although seeking it with
utmost earnestness. And I answer, first, because he probably seeks for
it in the same way that he would seek for earth-knowledge, which is an
error; and, secondly, because those who would otherwise gladly give it
to him are able to read his motives, and finding them purely selfish,
they turn away and leave him, while those spirits who have occult
knowledge to _sell_, demand pay in a coin which the student is seldom
willing to give, namely, a certain degree of control over him.