SANITARIUMS IN SPIRIT LIFE.
I think it will be interesting to you to learn something of the
sanitariums of spirit life, where the grown people—those who while in
the body were weak and struggling in spirit, whose natures were but
partially unfolded, whose higher qualities of being were stunted or
warped in growth, and who, through lack of opportunity, power, and
favorable conditions generally were unable to grow in grace, beauty, and
sweetness of spirit—gain health, strength, vigor, and power. Those
unfortunate ones who, from whatever cause, are unable during their
sojourn on earth to put forth the purest attributes of the soul, to
become mentally strong and fearless, to rise above the temptations of
mortal life, to resist the evil thoughts which assail them, or who fail
in any manner to grow in goodness and wisdom, are spiritually sick, and
in need of tender and judicious treatment.
In the spiritual world there are sanitariums for such as these, and when
the spirit, weak and feeble, exhibits a desire to become strong and
healthy, and to be placed under conditions that will afford the means of
growth, unfoldment, and of gaining power, he or she may be conducted to
one of these beautiful places, where only life, health, enjoyment,
mental vigor, and happiness can be obtained.
LOCALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS.
Our places where health is sought and found are not great gloomy
buildings where dozens of individuals live, where perhaps no two of them
are alike in temperament, constitution, and habits, but where all must
undergo the same amount and quality of discipline and treatment; but
they are large gardens, beautifully laid out with beds of flowers, banks
of moss, pebbly walks, and groves of trees, where birds sing and
sparkling waters leap and play; where the glad sunshine is felt by all,
and where life is untrammeled, free and happy; or in shady woods where
nature invites man to partake of the quiet, calm, and tranquility of her
forest nooks. And I know of such bright homes of rest, where the
sparkling sea surges and beats upon shining sands, and others that are
built upon the mountain sides, where the atmosphere is strong, clear,
and bracing. The houses are small, light, and airy, furnished with
deference to taste as well as utility; they are at short distances from
each other and separated by garden plots of flowers, groves of trees,
etc., as the particular section of country decides. Only one weak,
enfeebled, diseased spirit dwells in each house at a time, but he or she
is an inmate of a home where two or more healthy, happy, industrious
spirits reside; these vigorous ones are the attendants and teachers of
the patient, and their presence, care, and example impart strength,
health, and happiness to the one under their charge, while at the same
time he or she is learning those lessons of life of which they were
deprived while on the earth, but which are requisite to the upbuilding
and outrounding of every intelligent, progressive soul.
METHODS OF TREATMENT.
The natural scenery of these places enters largely into the system of
treatment as an active agent, and exerts a powerful influence upon the
weak and suffering spirit. For instance, the soul that is irritable,
peevish, dissatisfied with itself, requires a soothing, calm, and gentle
influence. She is brought to one of the great garden sanitariums, and
taken in charge by a family of tender, sympathetic beings, who delight
to care for her. The harmonious influence of her new home, the sight of
blooming flowers, waving trees, and rippling waters, the sound of gentle
human voices, of singing birds, and of the soothing, elevating,
enchanting music which her kind attendants evoke from their melodious
instruments for her, produce a tranquilizing effect upon her entire
being, and she gradually grows restful, contented, and at peace, thus
bringing her highest nature into proper condition for its unfoldment in
spiritual power, and its advancement in the acquirement of knowledge.
Fruits form the staple of her diet, and thus removed from all that is
coarse of the earth, earthly, crude, and sensual, her spirit grows in
strength and beauty, until she, too, becomes permeated with true
vitality, becomes perfectly healthy, and is ready to take upon herself
the duties of a teacher, nurse, and physician, and to attend some poor
soul that is ill.
Another patient may require the healthful atmosphere and the partial
solitude of some forest glen; if so, such a home, with loving
attendants, pleasing surroundings, and delicate nourishment is provided
for her. Another is drooping, easily discouraged, cannot resist any
condition that at the time presses upon him, easily becomes a prey to
the positive encroachment of temptation. He is taken to a pleasant home
by the sea shore, where the sight of the great blue waves rushing in
toward the land, or flowing out to the further side, and the sound of
surging billows and singing winds, stimulates him with new strength,
courage, and vigorous endeavor to grow upward from an unhealthy,
darkened condition. He, too, has spirit guardians and teachers, whose
duty it is to arouse within him that interior self-reliance that enables
the soul to conquer all difficulties and to rise above all obstacles
that are to be encountered. In his home, and in every home provided for
the weak and suffering, and all around them, are to be found only the
most beautiful works of nature and of art. Only those sights and sounds
that appeal to the highest, loftiest nature of man, are to be seen and
heard therein; and thus conditions are afforded that enable strength,
health, mental vigor and spiritual power to supersede and eradicate ill
health, mental paucity, moral weakness, and sensual proclivities.
MUSIC AS A MEANS OF RECUPERATION.
The cultivation of the human voice in singing is one of the means of
advancement for the spirit. It is also very effective in its results in
the sanitariums of spirit life, producing a marvelous effect upon the
weary and feeble ones. Music and singing are employed as curative agents
in the treatment of diseased or enfeebled souls, and with marked
results. You will find that every lover of good music and singing can at
times become receptive to angelic influence. It is a sacred work in the
higher life to awaken this love of music in the minds of the afflicted
ones; for this once accomplished, the higher influences can impart their
magnetism to those in distress. Hence, many of our greatest musicians
and sweetest singers may at times be found in the home of some invalid
spirit, exercising his or her divine gifts with rare power for the
especial benefit of the ailing one. Music, so elevating, cheering,
soul-inspiring in power, lifts the spirit above the conditions that
favor ill health into an atmosphere where only vigor and mental vitality
abound.
RESTORATION OF THE MENTALLY DISEASED.
We have homes where those spirits who were considered insane in the body
may find rest, repose, and strength. Having been unable to express
themselves understandingly or to manifest their desires clearly through
the poor, unbalanced brains which belonged to their earthly forms, their
spirits are weak, feeble, not unfolded, and they require that treatment
which will restore tone, power, and energy to their wasted forces. And
so homes, guides, teachers, and every attention are provided for them.
Flowers, birds, music, and kind faces surround them. They are not
restricted nor confined, but are allowed liberty, though under the
careful, yet tender, surveillance of their friends. No medicine but
sunshine and air is given them; no unkind treatment is resorted to. In
the pure and genial atmosphere of their spirit homes, and under the
gentle influence of their surroundings, they gain a perfect mental
equipoise, become strong in spirit and attain a knowledge of life in all
its various grades and departments of unfoldment.
Thus need no one of earth, who has friends weak and suffering in body or
mind, or who are undeveloped in spiritual health, strength, and power,
fear that these unpleasant conditions will long continue with them after
they have passed from the mortal.
The tendency of human life is upward and on; the spirit world affords
conditions and opportunities, facilities and advantages, for its growth
and progress. No soul can advance in wisdom and happiness that is weak
and enfeebled from any cause whatever; therefore, the first work to be
done is to remove the weakness and misery by subduing them with strength
and power and friends and homes; and all that is requisite for the
upbuilding of a beautiful spirit is provided for the unhappy one.
No prison cells, no hospital wards, no massive walls where the mentally
diseased languish in pain, are to be found in the spirit world; but as
God’s sunshine, and air, his flowers and singing birds, are free to all,
they are there provided for the welfare and pleasure of any and every
soul, and have proved to be the means of restoring to life, health, and
happiness many poor, pain-stricken, suffering human beings.
My experiences in the spirit world have taught me that all crime, all
unkindness of feeling, all selfishness, all misery of men, are diseases
which need to be eradicated from the human system, and if they cannot
become obliterated here, the time will surely come in the spiritual
world when they will be eliminated.
These unpleasant and unfortunate conditions of which I write are the
correspondence of the physical ailments with which man is assailed, and
I believe the time will come when they will be recognized by mortals as
diseases, and proper measures taken to repress and overcome them.
IMPROVED MEDICAL TREATMENT ON EARTH.
As all things have their origin in the spiritual, and as ideas of
practical import are given to mortals through and from the silent yet
potential inspiration of the spirit, I believe the time will come when
individuals on earth will be impressed and imbued with ideas of medical
treatment, and the establishing of sanitariums similar to those which
already exist in the beyond, when the public mind will become exercised
on the subject of the proper treatment and care of the sick and
suffering of both body and spirit, and when a new thought will be
agitated concerning its duty toward the morally weak and low. Then your
hospitals will not be huge edifices, but small habitations with only one
invalid in each, so that no impure and unhealthy magnetism from another
diseased body shall be absorbed by its occupant. Light, air, water,
music, and flowers will take the place of drugs and powders, and
cheerful, ready attendance be freely given. So with your homes of
refuge, your places of confinement for criminals; those now of walls of
stone will give way to light and airy dwellings, gardens of beauty will
surround them; music and flowers, books and papers, congenial, active
employment, and the cheerful companionship of healthy, kind-hearted
teachers, will supersede whip and thong, and supply to the mental nature
that bracing tone so much required, and under your present system of
discipline, so seldom obtained, these will awaken retrospection in the
mind of the diseased, and bring a desire for amendment, thus beginning
that radical cure which will in time be firmly established in every
sin-sick soul.
ONE OF THE SANITARIUMS OF SPIRIT LIFE.
I will tell you of a beautiful scene I have recently witnessed in one of
the sanitariums of spirit life. Picture to yourselves an immense garden,
spread with a closely-cropped carpet of the freshest, greenest, and most
velvety grass you can conceive adorned with parterres of fragrant,
bright-colored flowers. The trees are tall, stately, and graceful, and
their foliage glistens as though sprinkled with dew; rippling streams of
water make rhythmic music pleasant to the ear. The sky is cloudless, and
the sun shines mildly down upon the placid scene. The atmosphere is of a
peculiar golden tint that clothes every object in a mantle of beauty.
Birds with musical throats and bright plumage flit from flower to flower
undisturbed by those human beings who are walking the grounds, or seated
in various parts of the garden. Small, white, cosey-looking dwellings,
simple and neat, are scattered here and there, while in the center of
this immense park a stately, white temple uprears its shining dome.
This place is a sanitarium or home where weary women, as well as
neglected children, from the earth sphere are brought to receive
protection, care, and instruction from the pure mother souls who abide
in this lovely spot.
The teachers and nurses of this glowing plane are of a truly
_spirituelle_ character; their lives are spent in seeking to guide,
influence, and encourage unfortunate spirits to find a higher and better
life than that they have hitherto known, and in endeavors for
self-improvement.
Here teachers and preceptors are educated and directed through a course
of experience that will prepare them to guide and guard those young
souls who come to the spirit world with no natural guardian or parent to
care for them. Love is the ruling power in this community, and no
unkind, unsympathetic thought finds its way hither.
INTERESTING INCIDENT: A MOTHER FINDS HER CHILD.
But the incident which I propose to relate to you was so beautiful I
feel that I must tell you of it now while it is fresh in my mind: a
beautiful young female spirit, a true teacher, a natural mother-soul,
whose entire being is illuminated with the light of benevolence and
love, had brought to her charming little cottage in the delightful
garden a young child, one who had recently passed to the higher life,
with no kind hand to close its mortal eyes or to drop tender caresses
upon the marble brow,—one of the waifs of society, cast out by mankind,
and permitted to ignobly perish from the earth.
This child was brought to the bright Summer-land, and tenderly cared for
by guardian angels; all the good within its nature was encouraged to
unfold and blossom out; all the attributes of ill, the conditions of
carnal life transmitted to it by others, were fading for want of
nourishment and attention.
The work of cultivating and beautifying an immortal soul, as was this
little one, under the direction of a sweet, self-denying, loving spirit,
is delightful to contemplate; but the most thrilling incident in this
special instance, and one which came under my immediate observation, was
this:—
One day there came to this garden of delight a poor, sin-stained, weary
woman,—one who, through all the misery heaped upon her by the conditions
of vice and crime, still kept the love-light for her child burning in
her soul. She had been an inhabitant of the spirit world three years,
but, because of the crudities of physical conditions still clinging to
her spirit, had been held down to the earthly sphere.
Now, she had been found by a benevolent spirit, and conducted to the
blooming paradise of which I write. Sad, disheartened, despairing,
nothing could rouse her from her condition of unhappiness. The tender
encouragements of benevolent beings, the beautiful objects and sweet
sounds around her, the gentle ministrations of kindly spirits, seemed to
have no effect upon her state of apathy. At last it was suggested that
she be taken to the grove, where the children were busy with their
innocent sports; and accordingly the unfortunate woman was conducted to
a green and shady spot where a company of little spirits, under the care
of their teachers and guides, were engaged in pleasant pursuits.
The eyes of the unhappy spirit for the first time lighted up with a
gleam of pleasure as they fell upon the children, and her conductor
noted the sign with a joyous heart. Suddenly the woman screamed, sprang
forward, and clasped one of the little ones to her breast. It was the
little waif who not long since had been brought hither. “My child! my
child! my darling child!” exclaimed the spirit, as tears of joy rained
down her pallid face, “have I found you at last! have I found you!”
It was a scene to make angels weep, and tears of sympathy stood in the
eyes of more than one of that celestial company. It transpired that the
poor, suffering woman was the mother of that little child; that, at the
time the child had attained the age of three years, the mother met with
an accident that hurled her spirit from the body, and from that time to
the present moment she had been roaming in darkness, seeking for the
child she had lost.
The little one was allowed to accompany her teacher and her new-found
mother to a pleasant, quiet retreat where, under the spell of her
darling’s presence, and the kindly care of ministering attendants, her
spirit is rapidly arising above the clouds of sorrow, degradation and
woe, and emerging into the light of happiness and peace,—is unfolding
its higher powers to such a degree that we feel certain, in a very
little while, she will herself become a helper, teacher, and beneficent
spirit to those who travel in darkness and woe.
The beautiful white temple that uprears its shining dome in the center
of that delightful garden of which I have spoken is a massive structure,
elegant in appearance, and marvelous in construction. No description of
mine could do it justice; it must be seen in order to receive all the
admiration which it merits. Dedicated to the Arts, it is itself a
master-piece of art, and stands a fitting testimonial to the wonderful
design and skill of the artists who planned and executed it in all its
details. The material of which this pile is composed is like alabaster,
snowy white, but so nearly transparent that, when the sun’s rays strike
directly upon it, it glows with all the colors of the rainbow, and
presents a brilliant appearance. Delicate carvings of vines and flowers,
birds and insects, are traced upon its corner walls, showing evidences
of the work of a master-hand. Within are spacious halls dedicated to the
Muses, each of which is used as an instruction hall, where knowledge of
the particular art to which it is consecrated is imparted and received.
The halls of Music, of Painting, of Sculpture, of Poesy, of designing
and tracing, are to be found here, presided over by master-artists, who
pay especial attention to their pupils, believing that it is better to
inspire or to assist in cultivating the powers of another than to create
any piece of artistic work themselves.
CULTIVATION OF INHERENT TALENTS.
To this temple are brought the children, in order to ascertain whether
or not they have any taste, talent, or genius for practicing any of the
fine arts. Here, where all is beautiful, whether of sight or sound,
appealing alike to the harmonious instinct and the love of the beautiful
within the soul, any especial gift that the child may have in the
direction of music, poesy, etc., speedily shows itself, and he or she is
taken in charge by some competent teacher who bends all his or her
energies in the direction of drawing out or unfolding the talents of the
pupil. A child who manifests a passion for music, but takes no interest
in drawing or painting, is allowed to devote his time to the cultivation
of his musical powers, and is not required to waste energy and patience
over the vain task of trying to learn the rules of perspective, light
and shade, and coloring. One who exhibits a taste for carving and
molding, but cares little for music, is not obliged to throw away time
over the distasteful labor of practicing with voice and instrument, but
is assisted to unfold the natural powers of his soul. Another is
attracted to painting, but has no desire to attempt to carve a statue;
another is exercised over the rhymes and metric measures of poetry, but
has no gift in the other departments of art. These are encouraged and
taught how to develop their God-given powers, and are not requested to
attempt any labor for which they have no taste. Children who are found
to exhibit no taste for, or attraction toward, any of the arts, but to
have a gift for the outworking of and desire to study other branches of
knowledge, are permitted to follow the guidance of their tastes or
deeper natures, and are not expected to spend time over the study of
those artistic rules for which they have no attraction.
Therefore, you will at once perceive that the work of each spirit is
that for which they are naturally adapted; it becomes congenial to them,
consequently is agreeable. They love to pursue it, and bring forth the
best possible results from it.
There are many temples of art in the spirit world, as there are many
schools, academies, colleges of learning, etc. Education is the great
power that is to uplift and bless humanity, and in the higher life the
best forms of enlightenment are afforded freely unto all. The beautiful
white temple in the great garden, where the neglected, cast-off children
from earth are taken to be cared for, opens its glowing portals to those
little ones who, had they remained in the bodily form, would have had no
advantages of education or for spiritual unfoldment. Many of these
exhibit a marked inclination toward the development of artistic powers,
and under the favorable conditions afforded them begin early to show
signs of talent to an astonishing degree.
Encouraged to learn, stimulated to emulation by advice, example, and
assistance, they readily follow the teachings of their instructors, and
in a surprisingly brief space of time—considering all the circumstances
of their early life—their efforts to accomplish something are crowned
with success. Thus, under proper conditions, all the spiritual
attributes and faculties of an immortal soul may become unfolded,
displaying a degree of refinement, beauty, culture, and power of which
humanity at present but little dreams.