_I._ That is what we are anxious to understand; electricity, magnetism,
odylic force, or whatever you may know or believe it to be--give us all
the light you can on the subject.
_P._ Properly speaking, neither of these, or neither without important
qualifications. Preparatory to the true explanation, I will lay the
foundation of a new thought in your mind by asking, Do you know of any
body or organism in nature--unless, indeed, it be a _dead_ body--which
has not something answering to an atmosphere?
_I._ It has been said by some astronomers that the moon has no
atmosphere; though others, again, have expressed the opinion that she
has, indeed, an atmosphere, but a very rare one.
_P._ Precisely so; and as might have been expected from the rarity
of her atmosphere, she has the smallest amount of cosmic life of
any planetary body in the solar system--only enough to admit of the
smallest development of vegetable and animal forms. Still, every sun,
planet, or other cosmic body in space is generally, and every regularly
constituted form connected with that body is specifically, surrounded,
and also pervaded, by its own peculiar and characteristic atmosphere;
and to this universal rule, minerals, plants, animals, man, and in their
own degree even the disembodied men whom you call "spirits," form no
exception.
_I._ Do you mean to say that man and spirits, and also the lower living
forms, are surrounded by a sphere of air or wind like the atmosphere of
the earth, but yet no part of that atmosphere?
_P._ The atmospheres of other bodies than planets are not air or wind,
but in their substances are so different from what you know as the
atmospheres of planets as not to have anything specifically in common
with them. The specific atmospheres of flowers, and when excited by
friction, those also of some metals, and even of stone crystals,
are often perceptible to the sense of smell, and are in that way
distinguishable not only from the atmosphere of the earth, but also from
the atmospheres of each other. But properly speaking, the psychic _aura_
surrounding man and spirits should no longer be called an atmosphere,
that is, an _atom-sphere_ or sphere of atoms, but simply a "sphere;"
for it is not atomic, that is, material, in its constitution, but is
a spiritual substance, and as such extends indefinitely into space,
or rather has only an indirect relation to space at all. Nor is the
atmosphere, as popularly understood, the only enveloping sphere of the
earth, for beyond and pervading it, and pervading also even all solid
bodies, is a sublime interplanetary substance called "ether," the
vehicle of light, and next approach to spiritual substance; while all
bodies, solid, liquid, and gaseous, are also pervaded by electricity.
_I._ All that is interesting, but the subject is new to me, and I would
like to have some farther illustration. Can you cite me some familiar
fact to prove that man is actually surrounded and pervaded by a sphere
such as you describe?
_P._ I can only say that you are at times conscious of the fact
yourself, as all persons are who are possessed of an ordinary degree
of psychic sensitiveness. Does not even the silent presence of certain
persons, though entire strangers, affect you with an uncomfortable sense
of repulsion, perhaps embarrassing your thoughts and speech, while in
the presence of others you at once feel perfectly free, easy, at home,
and experience even a marked and mysterious sense of congeniality?
_I._ That is so; I have often noticed it, but never could account for
it.
_P._ Farther than this, have you not at times when free from external
disturbances, with the mind in a revery of loose thoughts, noticed the
abrupt intrusion of the thought of a person altogether out of the line
of your previous meditations, and then observed that the same person
would come bodily into your presence very shortly afterward?
_I._ I have, frequently; the same phenomenon appears to have been
noticed by others, and is so common an occurrence as to have given rise
to the well-known slang proverb, "Speak of the devil and he will always
appear."
_P._ Just so; but still further: Have you not personally known of
instances, or been credibly informed of them, in which mutually
sympathizing friends of highly sensitive organizations were mysteriously
and correctly impressed with each other's general conditions, even when
long distances apart, and without any external communication?
_I._ I have heard and read of many such cases, but could have scarcely
believed them had I not had some experience of the kind myself.
_P._ There must, then, be here some medium of communication; that medium
is evidently not anything cognizable to either of the five outer senses.
What, then, can it be but the co-related spheres of the two persons,
which I have already told you are not atomic--not material but
spiritual, and as such have little relation to space?
_I._ That idea, if true, looks to me to be of some importance, and I
would like you, if you can, to show me clearly what relation these
"spheres," as you call them, have to the spiritual nature of man.
_P._ Consider, then, the primal meaning of the word "spirit:" It is
derived from the Latin _spiritus_, the basic meaning of which is
_breath_, _wind_, air--nearly the same idea that you attach to the word
"atmosphere." So the Greek word _pneuma_, also translated "spirit,"
means precisely the same thing. The same meaning is likewise attached
to the Hebrew word _ruach_, also sometimes translated "spirit." Now,
carrying out this use of terms, the wind, air, or atmosphere of the
earth (including the ether, electricity, and other imponderable
elements) is the spirit of the earth;[2] the atmosphere of any other
body, great or small, is the spirit of that body; the atmosphere, or
rather sphere, being now without atoms, of a man, considered as an
intellectual and moral being, is the spirit of that man; the sphere of
a disembodied man or soul is the spirit of that man or soul; and so the
Infinite and Eternal Sphere of the Deity which pervades and controls all
creations both in the spiritual and natural universe, is the Spirit of
the Deity, which in the Bible is called the Holy Spirit.
[2] Query: Have we here the _spiritus mundi_ of the old
philosophers?
_I._ Well, those ideas seem singularly consistent with themselves, to
say the least, however novel they may appear. But now another point: You
have said that atmospheres or spheres surround and pervade all bodies,
unless, indeed, they be _dead_ bodies--attributing, as I understand you,
a kind of _cosmic_ life to plants, and a mineral life to minerals, as
well as a vegetable and animal life respectively to vegetables and
animals; do you mean by that to intimate that the sphere is the _effect_
or the _cause_ of the living body?
_P._ Of each living material form, the sphere, or at least _some_
sphere, was the cause. Matter, considered simply by itself, is dead, and
can only live by the influx of a surrounding sphere or spirit. It may
be said at the last synthesis, that the _general_ sphere even of each
microscopic monad that is in process of becoming vitalized, as well as
of the great nebulous mass that is to form a universe, is the Spirit
of the Infinite Deity, which is present with atoms in the degree of
atoms, as well as with worlds in the degree of worlds. This Spirit,
as it embodies itself in matter, becomes segregated, finited, and
individualized, and forms a specific soul, spirit, or sphere by itself,
now no longer deific, but always of a nature necessarily corresponding
to the peculiar form and condition of the matter in which it becomes
embodied. Life, therefore, is not the result of organization, but
organization is the result of life, which latter is eternal, never
having had a beginning, and never to have an end. Some of your
scientific men have recently discovered what they have been pleased to
term "the physical basis of life," in a microscopic and faintly vital
substance called _protoplasm_, which forms the material foundation of
all organic structures, both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. They
have not yet, however, discovered the source from which the life found
in this substance comes--which would be plain to them if they understood
the doctrine of spheres and influx as I have here given it.
_I._ I thank you for this profoundly suggestive thought, even should it
prove to be no more than a thought. But please now show us what bearing
all this has upon the question more particularly before us--the question
as to the medium and process through which this little board is moved,
the tables are tipped, people are entranced and made to speak and write,
and all these modern wonders are produced--also how and why it is that
the alleged spirit-communications are commonly tinctured, more or less,
with the peculiar characteristics of the human agents through whom they
are given?
_P._ You now have some idea of the doctrine of spheres; you will,
however, understand that the spheres of created beings, owing to a unity
of origin, are universally co-related, and, under proper conditions, can
act and react upon each other. You have before had some true notion of
the laws of _rapport_, which means relation or correspondence. You will
understand, further, that there can be no action between any two things
or beings in any department of creation except as they are in _rapport_
or correspondence with each other, and that the action can go no farther
than the _rapport_ or correspondence extends. Now, two spirits can
always, when it is in divine order, readily communicate with each other,
because they can always bring themselves into direct _rapport_ at some
one or more points. Though matter is widely discreted from spirit, in
that the one is dead and the other is alive, yet there is a certain
correspondence between the two, and between the degrees of one and the
degrees of the other; and according to this correspondence, relation,
or _rapport_, spirit may act upon matter. Thus your spirit, in all its
degrees and faculties, is in the closest _rapport_ with all the degrees
of matter composing your body, and for this reason alone it is able to
move it as it does, which it will no longer be able to do when that
_rapport_ is destroyed by what you call death. Through your body it is
_en rapport_ with, and is able to act upon, surrounding matter. If,
then, you are in a susceptible condition, a spirit can not only get into
_rapport_ with your spirit, and through it with your body, and control
its motions, or even suspend your own proper action and external
consciousness by entrancement, but if you are at the same time _en
rapport_ with this little board, it can, through contact of your hands,
get into _rapport_ with _that_, and move it without any conscious or
volitional agency on your part. Furthermore, under certain favorable
conditions, a spirit may, through your sphere and body combined, come
into _rapport_ even with the spheres of the ultimate particles of
material bodies near you, and thence with the particles and the whole
bodies themselves, and may thus, even without contact of your hands,
move them or make sounds upon them, as has often been witnessed. Its
action, however, as before said, ceases where the _rapport_ ceases; and
if communications from really intelligent spirits have sometimes been
defective as to the quality of the intelligence manifested, it is
because there has been found nothing in the medium which could be
brought into _rapport_ or correspondence with the more elevated ideas of
the spirit. The spirit, too, in frequent instances, is unable to prevent
its energizing influences from being diverted by the reactive power of
the medium, into the channels of the imperfect types of thought and
expression that are established in his mind, and it is for this simple
reason that the communication is, as you say, often tinctured with the
peculiarities of the medium, and even sometimes is nothing more than
a reproduction of the mental states of the latter, perhaps greatly
intensified.
_I._ If this theory, so far seemingly very plausible, is really the
correct one, it ought to go one step farther, and explain the many
disorderly unintelligible rappings, thumpings, throwing of stones,
hurling of furniture, etc., which often have occurred in the presence
of particular persons, or at particular places.[3]
[3] See an article entitled "_A Remarkable Case of Physical
Phenomena_," in the _Atlantic Monthly_ for August, 1868.
_P._ Those are manifestations which, when not the designed work of evil
spirits, have their proximate source in the dream-region which lies
between the natural and spiritual worlds.
_I._ Pray tell us what you mean by the dream-region that lies between
the two worlds?
_P._ There are sometimes conditions in which the body is profoundly
asleep, with no perturbations of the nervous system caused by previous
mental and physical exercise. In this state the mind may still be
perfectly awake, and independently, consciously, and even intensely
active. When thus conditioned, it may be, and often is, among spirits
in the spiritual world, though from the nature of the case it is seldom
able to bring back into the bodily state any reminiscences of the scenes
of that world. The dream state, properly speaking, is not this, but
a state intermediate between this and the normal, wakeful state of
the bodily senses, and is a state of broken, confused, irrational,
inconsistent, and irresponsible thoughts, emotions, and apparent
actions--the whole arising from confusedly intermixed bodily and
spiritual states and influences. The potential spheres of spirits who
desire to make manifestations to the natural world sometimes become
commingled, designedly or otherwise, with the spheres of persons in the
body who, in consequence of certain nervous or psychic disorders, are
more or less in this dream-region even when the body is so far awake as
to be _en rapport_ with external things; and in such cases, whatever
manifestations may arise from the spiritual potencies with which such
persons are surcharged, will of necessity be beyond the control, or
possibly even beyond the cognizance, of any governing spirit, and will
be irrational, inconsistent, and sometimes very annoying, or even
destructive, according to the types of the dreamy mentality of the
medium. If you will think for a moment, you will remember that the kind
of manifestations referred to are never known to occur except in the
presence of persons in a semi-somnambulic or highly hysterical state,
or laboring under some analogous nervous disorders; and the persons are
often of a low organization, and very ignorant.