It is an absolute fact and certainty, impossible of refutation, that
when animation ceases in the body and no effort is made to revive it,
life ceases and the processes of decay and decomposition set in.
Yet it is permanently established and has been successfully demonstrated
innumerable times, that certain methods of artificial stimulation have
revivified and resuscitated the delicate organs that cause the heartbeat
and give consciousness to the brain.
Recently my local newspaper contained the following item:
"DEAD" BUT SAW NO SPIRITS
_Oklahoma City, Okla._, February 7th--Neal Dillingham doesn't
believe in after-death communication with the living. Dillingham
was "dead" for twenty minutes recently, and he says he ought to
know.
Doctors said Dillingham's blood circulation was stopped by a clot
of blood. His heart stopped beating, and he did not breathe.
Insertion of a saline solution into his artery just above the
heart caused the clot to dissolve, and Dillingham came back to
life.
"I did not return to earth after I left it," said Dillingham. "I
had no knowledge of anything that took place, but I must have been
pretty dead, as I do know I didn't recognize several persons I had
known all my life, after I was myself again. If I had any talks
with anybody while I was 'dead' I don't remember anything about
them."
Believing that the publicity that this case received would make the
party known to the postal authorities, I sat down and wrote him a
letter, hoping that, if fortunate enough to have a letter delivered to
him, he might be kind enough to write me personally of his experience.
After a lapse of several days I received from him a letter
substantiating in detail all that was mentioned in the newspaper
clipping quoted above.
In the instance of this man Dillingham, he was "dead," so to speak, and
as far as his "soul" was concerned it had "left" the body; yet the
injection of a material solution, compounded by man, in conjunction
with artificial respiration, caused the beating of the heart and gave
back to the brain its power of consciousness.
If it is the "soul" that causes the functioning of the body, where is it
when such an action takes place?
If it is the "soul" that gives us "life," how is it that we can
materially and mechanically destroy it?
We are born and nourished by material means.
We live our life by material means.
We reproduce our kind by material means.
And we can destroy ourselves by material means.
Everything that touches and concerns our life is purely material, and it
should be incumbent upon those who believe in the "Soul" or the
"Spiritual Element" of man to produce the proof of their contention.
We are nothing but a continual propagating instrument, without
spiritual, moral, lasting or ultimate value. We are here to reproduce
our kind and for nothing more. What man secures for himself within the
narrow circle of his existence here is all that he gains for the life
that Nature forces him to live.
Everything man has, man has made. Nothing has been given to him by
Nature. God has been a miser!
If man possessed a "soul" the thousand deformities of the brain would
not exist. Insanity would be impossible, and all the forms of petty
vices that so miserably afflict us would be totally unknown.
That which gives us the power of life is a combination of the material
forces of Nature, and the elements that compose the brain are of a
chemical substance. The difference between a "live" person and a "dead"
one can be summarized by a great many instances about us, and because of
their commonplaceness, we do not observe them.
There are many apples falling to the ground, but we are not inspired
with the knowledge that the actuating force is gravity.
One of the best illustrations, to show the difference between a "live"
and a "dead" person, can be had from that excellent invention called the
"film" or "plate," and which is so remarkably used in the camera.
When that sensitive composition of chemicals that forms the "film" and
which produces such a vivid and lasting likeness of ourselves is freshly
made, it possesses that vital something we call "life."
But allow this film to remain unused for a period of time, and it will
no longer be able to perform its remarkable work. It will not possess
the "life" to take a picture or to record an impression.
If a premature "exposure" of the film is made, it loses its vital
quality because of the mixture with other elements, or because of the
evaporation of its constituent parts.
It is not necessary to analyze all the properties of that film to show
the principle whereby it performs its wonderful work. The general
principle, showing its marvelous use while intact and its utter
uselessness when its composition is no longer the same, should be
sufficient to illustrate the comparison.
This illustration can with force and conviction be applied to the
peculiar quality and nature of our "soul" and brain. As long as the
brain is incased within our skull, and fully protected from contact with
any other substance to alter or to change its integrity, it will perform
all that is warranted of it. In the case of our brain, though, besides
the importance of keeping it protected from outside chemical action, the
vital element concerned in its continuity of life lies in the importance
of keeping it constantly nourished and supplied with the remarkable
qualities of the vital substance of blood.
The moment the blood supply to the brain is stopped, our brain loses its
most important constituent, with the ultimate and inevitable result of
inertia, decomposition and decay. When this condition happens we are
then "dead" and, like the proverbial egg, "all the King's horses and all
the King's men cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again."
If we possessed a soul, and it were of a permanent and special quality,
it would maintain its impressions and remember its existence.
It could pass through innumerable periods and know its many and varied
journeys.
Even memory, so unreliable in our short life, bespeaks the utter
impossibility of such a thing as a soul with a permanent and lasting
existence.
That which we call the "soul" is nothing but a chemical composition,
that can and _does_ lose its permanency while we are still alive.
We are acquainted with a number of chemical compositions that must
remain in a pacific state to maintain their identity, so those chemical
forces that compose our "soul" must perforce maintain their
equilibrium.
If we are stunned, or suffer any of the many conditions that upset
chemical compounds and compositions, we, for the time being, suffer
either "unconsciousness" or some other form of mental disability.
If we are shocked too severely, we become totally and permanently
impaired, and suffer violent fits and fearful rages, insanity or
imbecility.
Different shocks, and even forms of disease, result in certain action
upon our chemical brain, which causes it to lose only part of its
ability. Extreme high fever is only one form of illness which causes the
brain to lose its stability and run rampant and unbridled.
If I were fully cognizant of all forms and degrees of disease, I could
recite exactly how they act and in what degree they harm the delicate
organism of our brain. In many instances shocks or diseases too powerful
for our brain to withstand, cause that portion of our brain that may
control our speech, our sight, our hearing, our limbs or other organs to
lose its power, with the consequence that we must suffer and be
handicapped with what is properly called "a great affliction."
Science to-day has discovered that great truth, and has not only
catalogued the different portions of the brain in their individual
departments or capacities, but, by a master stroke of surgery, can
correct and remedy those impaired parts, and give back to the human
being the use of those valuable organs that the invisible agents of
Nature had taken away.
So, instead of the brain's possessing a "soul," we find it, only in a
more delicate degree, a mechanical formation such as we discovered our
body to be.
But if we possess a soul and it is capable of passing through the many
and varied stages that life suffers, what becomes of its impressions?
What and where are the benefits of its retention?
Where is the soul when we are in a state of unconsciousness? Surely, if
the soul were ever present to guard and maintain life, it would be
standing by and using its power when it is most needed. We have no
occasion for help when we are not in danger. It is when power can be
used and exercised that it should be manifested.
Even love, the great compelling force of our life, is subject to the
variations of our chemical "soul," its attractions and repulsions.
If two form the unit of reproduction, and love is the great mating
medium of Nature, then once it is animated, once it is brought into
existence, it should endure permanently, and the possessors should at
least enjoy their blissful companionship until the end. But no. Nature
would entice, and then destroy, this most consuming feeling of life.
Two persons can start life with the most irresistible attraction and
irrepressible love and within a very short time, unless they guard their
love with every means and weapon of advanced thought and reason, Nature,
through her duplicity, will provide searching eyes to alienate their
affection, causing a wretchedness unparalleled in the mental miseries of
mankind's life.
The saddest state of all is when two persons, with the sacred devotion
of love, cohabit and the happy result is loving children, and yet
while this happy family, free from Nature's pitfalls and snares, are
living in a peaceful and blissful state, there exists the ever-menacing
"devil" who tempts the loving wife and mother to follow the
will-o'-the-wisp--and thereby undoes and destroys the greatest kingdom
of life.
The devoted husband and father, by the flash of an eye, and the charm of
a face, can forsake his sacred ties of devotion and become a degenerate
and outcast, with death as his only salvation. In either case Nature
stands by with a sneer upon her lips, and God forgets his obligation to
his children. But the final analysis proves beyond doubt that the
physical attraction is responsible for this action; and who can deny
that it is the chemical attraction of two forces that produced this
irresistible desire?