LIFE AFTER BODILY DEATH
One of the really remarkable facts of modern life is the disinclination
to accept at apparent value the scientific and other evidence there is
to prove that consciousness persists after the death of the physical
body. There is in existence a large amount of such evidence and much of
it is offered by scientists of the highest standing; and yet the average
man continues to speak of the subject as though nothing about it had yet
been definitely learned. It is the tendency of the human mind to adjust
itself very slowly to the truth, as it is discovered. Sometimes a
generation passes away between the discovery and the general acceptance
of a great truth. When we recall the intense opposition to the
introduction of steam-driven boats and vehicles, and the slowness with
which the world settles down to any radical change in its methods of
thinking, it will perhaps seem less remarkable that the truth about the
life after bodily death has waited so long for general recognition.
The evidence upon which a belief in the continuity of consciousness is
based is of two kinds--that furnished by physical science and that
furnished by psychic science. Together they make a very complete case.
The printed evidence of the first division--physical science--is
voluminous. In addition to that gathered by the Society for Psychical
Research there are the researches and experiments by the scientists of
England, France and Italy, among whom are Crookes, Lodge, Flammarion and
Lombroso. Crookes was a pioneer in the work of studying the human
consciousness and tracing its activities beyond the change called death.
All of that keenness of intellect and great scientific knowledge, which
has enabled him to make so many valuable discoveries and inventions, and
has won for him world-wide fame, were brought to bear upon the subject,
and for a period of four years he patiently investigated and
experimented. Many illustrated articles prepared by him, fully
describing his work, were published at the time in _The Journal of
Science_ of which he was then the editor.
Three vital points in psychic research were established by Sir William
Crookes. One was that there is psychic force. He demonstrated its
existence by levitation. He showed next, that the force is directed by
intelligence. By various clever experiments he obtained most conclusive
evidence of that fact. He then demonstrated that the intelligence
directing the force is not that of living people. Crookes also went
exhaustively into the subject of materialization and here, again, he was
remarkably successful. He was the first scientist to photograph the
materialized human form and engage in direct conversation with the
person who thus returned from the mysterious life beyond. This evidence
from the camera must be regarded as particularly interesting. It was
received with much amazement at the time, but that was before we had
revised our erroneous ideas about the nature of matter and before the
day of liquid air. Materialization is no longer a startling idea, for
that is precisely what liquid air is--a condensation of invisible matter
to the point where it becomes tangible and can be weighed, measured,
seen and otherwise known to the physical senses.
All these things Sir William Crookes did upon his own premises and under
the most rigid scientific conditions. All the methods and mechanism
known to modern science were employed and he finally announced his
complete satisfaction and acceptance of the genuineness of the phenomena
observed.
As Sir William Crookes was the earliest, Sir Oliver Lodge is the latest
of the famous scientists who have taken up the investigation of the
continuity of consciousness. In a lecture upon the subject, before the
Society for the Advancement of Science, he declared not only that the
subject of life after physical death was one which science might
legitimately and profitably investigate but that the existence of an
invisible realm had been established. He declared the continent of an
invisible world had been discovered, and added, "already a band of
daring investigators have landed on its treacherous but promising
shores."
Different scientists make a specialty of certain kinds of psychic
investigation and while Crookes made a detailed and careful study of
materialization Lodge has given equally painstaking efforts to
investigations by the use of that class of sensitives known as
"mediums." A medium is not necessarily a clairvoyant, and usually is
not clairvoyant. A person in whose body the etheric matter easily
separates from the physical matter is a medium and can readily be
utilized as a sort of telephone between the visible and the invisible
planes. A medium is an abnormal person and is a good medium in
proportion to the degree of abnormality. If the etheric matter of the
body is easily extruded the physical body readily falls into the trance
condition and the mechanism of conversation can be operated by the
so-called "dead" person who has temporarily taken possession of it. In
such cases it is not the medium who speaks for the living-dead
communicator. He is speaking directly himself, but he may often do it
with great difficulty and not always succeed in accurately expressing
the thought he has in mind. He may have to contend with other thoughts,
moods and emotions than his own and to those who understand something of
his difficulties it is not strange that such communications are
frequently unsatisfactory. It is not often that an analogy can be found
that will give a physical plane comprehension of a superphysical
condition, but perhaps a faint understanding may be had by thinking of a
"party line" telephone that any one of a dozen people may use at any
moment he can succeed in getting possession of it. A listener attempting
to communicate with one of them may find that several others are
constantly "switching in," much to his confusion. If distinction of
voices due to sound were eliminated and then a stenographic record were
to be made of all words reaching the listener he would find that it
would often be fragmentary and trivial. That would not, however, prove
that the conversation did not come from living beings nor that there
was not at least one intelligent person among them. That scientists
engaged in psychic research have similar experiences proves nothing
more.
It seems to be a common opinion that the evidential value of such
psychic communications, even under the direction of a skilful scientist,
cannot be very great. But there are ways of knowing. It is not at all
difficult for the investigator to confine his work, not only to
incidents unknown to the medium, but to scientific facts which the
medium can not possibly comprehend. It is a matter of common knowledge
that mediums are usually people without technical scientific knowledge.
Some of them have some degree of education and some of them are
illiterate. Some of the most celebrated belong to the peasant class of
Europe.
Let us suppose that Sir Oliver Lodge is about to attempt to communicate
with a scientist who has passed on to join the living dead. He will ask
technical scientific questions that nobody but a scientist can answer
and that the medium can by no possibility even understand when they are
answered. Or suppose he gets a communication from the medium's hand
signed by a great author. The living dead man writes a criticism, let us
say, of some new book and does it in his characteristic style, full of
the power of keen analysis and sound literary judgment. Surely nobody
can believe that the medium is producing such things on her own account.
If she could do so she would not be earning her living as a medium. But
the scientists do not stop there. We often hear the expression
"cross-correspondence." Just what do they mean by that and in what way
does it prove the personal identity of a dead man who is communicating?
The principle may be illustrated by the hotel clerk's method. Sometimes
a guest leaves a sum of money with the clerk, and he wishes to be
perfectly sure of his identity when he returns to claim it. He requests
the guest to put his signature on a card. Then he tears the card in two,
gives him one piece and keeps the other. That gives him a double proof
of identity. When he comes for his money he must first give his name and
then produce the piece of card that fits into the ragged edge of the
piece the clerk has retained, the two together making the whole and
restoring the signature. It's one of the simplest but most satisfactory
proofs possible. Neither piece of that card alone is intelligible. If
one piece should be lost and others should find it nobody could read it
or make anything of it. Nobody could guess the name unless he had the
other piece. He knows only about the part he holds. He may be a thief
and may earnestly desire to use what he has found to defraud, but he is
helpless because he has only one of the two parts it requires to make an
intelligible whole. That is the principle involved in identity by
cross-correspondence. Part of a message is written through one medium
and part through another medium at another time in another place and
neither part presents a complete statement or has coherence until it is
fitted into the other part; and that prevents a medium who is dishonest
from manufacturing a story that may be more or less plausible.
We are by no means wholly dependent upon scientific investigation for
evidence that the dead still live. Hundreds of people are sufficiently
sensitive to have some personal knowledge of the matter. The number is
far beyond what it appears to be for two reasons. One is that the
average person fears ridicule and keeps his own counsel about his occult
experience. The other is the feeling that communications from departed
relatives are too sacred and personal for public discussion. Tens of
thousands of people have seen demonstrations at spiritualistic seances
which, while possessing little evidential value from the scientific
viewpoint, nevertheless have a legitimate place in the great mass of
psychic phenomena. But more convincing is the evidence furnished in
hundreds of homes where some member of the family acts as automatic
writer or medium.
The most convincing evidence is not always scientific evidence. What can
be more convincing than the evidence furnished in one's home by members
of the family? There is much such evidence, obtained both through
mediums and by automatic writing.
Automatic writing--that is, the control of the hand of a living person
to record the thoughts of another who has lost the physical body--is
perhaps one of the least objectionable ways in which communications have
come from the astral world, and to it we are indebted for some useful
books with interesting accounts of the life in the unseen regions. Here,
of course, as elsewhere, discrimination must be used, for the wise and
foolish, the useful and useless are to be found side by side. In
accepting or rejecting, one must use his common sense just as he does on
this plane in separating the valuable from the worthless. In such
matters we should not lose sight of the fact that the living dead are
unchanged in intellect and morality. The genius here is the genius there
and the living fool is not different from the dead one. It is often
those who know the least who are the most anxious to tell it and the
medium or automatic writer sometimes gives them the opportunity.
Consequently we get many foolish communications and an enormous amount
of commonplace platitude is delivered at seances. But it is equally true
that unquestionable proof of personal identity is sometimes secured.
There is much valuable non-scientific evidence that the consciousness
survives the loss of the physical body and it frequently comes from
sources that insure respectful attention. The two following stories of
that kind are cited as corroboration of the scientific evidence.
Little touches of the personality often constitute the most convincing
of all evidence. It is one thing to show that people in general live
after physical death. It is quite a different matter to establish the
personal identity of one of them who is communicating, and that is one
of the vital points involved. W. J. Stillman, the eminent journalist,
gives us some valuable evidence on personal identity. In his earlier
years he had studied art in London. Shortly before the death of Turner,
the great artist had volunteered to give Stillman some advice on
painting, but had not redeemed the promise at the time of passing away.
Stillman had a friend whose daughter was mediumistic and he decided to
experiment. Immediately on beginning the seance the young girl was taken
possession of by an entity claiming to be Turner. Stillman asked his
question silently, speaking no words, but mentally requesting Turner to
write his name. The only reply was an emphatic shake of the head. He
then asked if he would give some advice on painting. The response was
another decided negative. Stillman felt that he was foolishly wasting
his time and declared the seance at an end. But the girl sat silent.
Then after a moment she slowly arose with the air of decrepitude, took a
lithograph from the wall and went through the pantomime of stretching a
sheet of paper on a drawing board, sharpening a pencil, tracing the
outline, the washing-in of a drawing, etc., and then proceeded to show a
simple but surprising method of taking out the lights. "Do you mean to
say that Turner got his effects in that way?" asked the incredulous
young artist. The answer was an emphatic affirmative. Stillman then
asked if the central passage of sunlight and shadow through rain in the
well known drawing "Llanthony Abbey" by Turner, had been done in that
way and was answered by another emphatic affirmative. So sure was the
young artist that this could not be true that he gave it up in disgust
and abruptly left. A few weeks later Stillman was calling upon Ruskin
and related the experience. Ruskin, who had known the celebrated dead
artist intimately, declared that the contrariness of the medium at the
beginning of the seance was remarkably characteristic of Turner. But
what was much more to the point, in the way of evidence, was that the
drawing in question was in Ruskin's possession and eagerly it was
brought down from the wall for examination. After close scrutiny the
great art critic and the young artist agreed that, beyond dispute, the
drawing _had_ been done in the way described.
Such evidence has an added value when it comes from those who are
neither spiritualists nor professional investigators, but who have the
things they doubt thrust upon them in such convincing manner that they
feel impelled to record their experience for the enlightenment of
others. In the last literary work[C] done by Carl Schurz, we are given,
quite incidentally, his testimony that at a seance soon after the Civil
War he was told the future in such detail as to leave no possible room
for the explanation of coincidence. It was in July, 1865, when Schurz
was on his way to Washington, whither he had been summoned by President
Johnson, that he stopped in Philadelphia at the home of his friend, Dr.
Tiedemann. The doctor's daughter, about fifteen years old, could do
automatic writing. As a matter of interest and amusement in the family
circle the girl gave an exhibition of her psychic abilities. When Schurz
was invited to ask for a communication he not unnaturally requested one
from the recently deceased President Lincoln, for he had been personally
acquainted with him. The girl wrote a message purporting to come from
Lincoln. It related to politics and proved, in time, to have been an
accurate prophecy of most unexpected facts which would not transpire for
more than three years! Schurz lived in Wisconsin at the time and had no
intention of changing his residence, nor did he do so until two years
later. The message which the girl wrote asserted that Schurz would be
elected to the United States senate _from Missouri_. He did not regard
the message as authentic and naturally enough considered the prophecy
absurd. In 1867 he took up his residence in St. Louis and in January,
1869, he was elected United States senator by the Missouri legislature.
So far as the scientific evidence is concerned, it will be understood,
of course, that no attempt is here made to present that. The intention
is merely to call attention to some of the eminent scientists who have
done notable work and to mention a few of the more interesting
discoveries made. Those who desire to come into possession of the
evidence in full will find upon examination that it is voluminous.
From the viewpoint of physical science alone the evidence of the
continuity of consciousness is not only convincing but conclusive. Yet
occult science has much more to offer. To those who have no personal
knowledge of the existence of occult faculties, such evidence can be
offered only upon the inherent reasonableness of the statements made.
The truth of clairvoyance, like all other truths, must slowly win its
way to general acceptance. While large numbers of people still scoff at
it, even as the world not so very long ago scoffed at hypnotism as a
fantastic theory with no foundation in fact, there is nevertheless a
large and rapidly growing number who personally know the truth about
clairvoyance. There is every conceivable grade of clairvoyant power and
some degree of superphysical sensitiveness is becoming rather common.
There are two distinct kinds of clairvoyance and that which is most in
evidence with the public is not calculated to inspire confidence. It is
employed almost exclusively in what is known as "fortune telling" and
is often practiced by those who are interested only in the money they
can earn by it. As a matter of course, trickery and fraud are found
associated with it among such people, and those amongst them who are
both capable and honest suffer on account of it.
The fortune telling clairvoyant is usually one who was born with "second
sight," as the Scotch have named it, and almost without an exception
they do not in the least understand its rationale. They find certain
facts in their consciousness that could not be known to them by the
physical senses, but why or how they get the information they do not
know. That form of clairvoyance is a sensitiveness related to the
sympathetic nervous system, the center of which is the solar plexus. It
has no relationship whatever to the mind, no association with
intelligence, and will often--indeed, commonly--be possessed by the most
ignorant and uncouth. It is much more common among Indians and negroes
than among more highly evolved people. It is vestigial and will slowly
disappear from the race. It belongs to the realm of emotion, not
thought.
The higher clairvoyance, the only true "clear seeing," is associated
with the cerebro-spinal nervous system and its seat is in the brain. It
is not a "natural gift"[D] like the other, although it is latent in all
human beings. It has been highly developed in some who have had the
unusual opportunity of long training under the direct supervision of
great psychic scientists. Such clairvoyants are never to be found among
the fortune tellers. Only people with serious views of life and intense
devotion to human service would have the patience and endurance to
undergo such training and only those of singular purity of life would
have any possibility of success. Such clairvoyants are people of keen
intelligence. By special training and tremendous effort, not possible to
most of us, they have pressed forward in evolution and attained a
development that the race will be many a century in reaching.
It is by the use of this exalted order of clairvoyance that invisible
realms are explored, and additional knowledge is accumulated to the
ancient wisdom. Such a clairvoyant is not a medium. The medium
surrenders his physical mechanism for the use of another, who speaks
through it, and at the close of the seance the medium knows nothing of
what has occurred. The clairvoyant is always in possession of his senses
and is fully aware of what is occurring. He is the explorer and
discoverer. He deals with the facts of the life after bodily death in a
different way than the physical scientist does but it is soon found by
the student that the physical scientist and the psychic scientist
corroborate each other. Together they bring overwhelming evidence to
support the hypothesis that life is eternal; that the consciousness we
have at this moment will never cease to be; that our individuality, with
all its present memories, will eternally persist; that what we call
death is in reality but a forward step in an orderly evolutionary
journey and an entrance upon a more joyous phase of life, which is not
remarkably different from that we live today. The sum total of the
knowledge that we have gained through the combined work of the physical
scientists and the occult scientists leads us to the conclusion that the
death of the physical body means neither the annihilation of
consciousness nor a radical change in consciousness. It is, in fact, but
the release of consciousness from its confinement to the physical form,
as a song-bird is released from a cage to the joyous freedom of a wider
world, where woods and stream and field and sky give new impulse to its
innate characteristics.
FOOTNOTES:
[C] Reminiscences of Carl Schurz, Vol. III, p. 154.
[D] There are, of course, really no natural gifts. Nature does not favor
some and ignore others. When a few possess what others do not have, they
earned it by giving special attention to its development or as in the
case of the psychic sensitiveness of the sympathetic nervous system, it
is vestigial, and has been possessed by the race in earlier ages.