THE GREAT ARGUMENT
The physical basis of all psychic belief is that the soul is a complete
duplicate of the body, resembling it in the smallest particular,
although constructed in some far more tenuous material. In ordinary
conditions these two bodies are intermingled so that the identity of
the finer one is entirely obscured. At death, however, and under
certain conditions in the course of life, the two divide and can be
seen separately. Death differs from the conditions of separation
before death in that there is a complete break between the two bodies,
and life is carried on entirely by the lighter of the two, while the
heavier, like a cocoon from which the living occupant has escaped,
degenerates and disappears, the world burying the cocoon with much
solemnity by taking little pains to ascertain what has become of its
nobler contents. It is a vain thing to urge that science has not
admitted this contention, and that the statement is pure dogmatism.
The science which has not examined the facts has, it is true, not
admitted the contention, but its opinion is manifestly worthless, or at
the best of less weight than that of the humblest student of psychic
phenomena. The real science which has examined the facts is the only
valid authority, and it is practically unanimous. I have made personal
appeals to at least one great leader of science to examine the facts,
however superficially, without any success, while Sir William Crookes
appealed to Sir George Stokes, the Secretary of the Royal Society, one
of the most bitter opponents of the movement, to come down to his
laboratory and see the psychic force at work, but he took no notice.
What weight has science of that sort? It can only be compared to that
theological prejudice which caused the Ecclesiastics in the days of
Galileo to refuse to look through the telescope which he held out to
them.
It is possible to write down the names of fifty professors in great
seats of learning who have examined and endorsed these facts, and the
list would include many of the greatest intellects which the world has
produced in our time--Flammarion and Lombroso, Charles Richet and
Russel Wallace, Willie Reichel, Myers, Zollner, James, Lodge, and
Crookes. Therefore the facts HAVE been endorsed by the only science
that has the right to express an opinion. I have never, in my thirty
years of experience, known one single scientific man who went
thoroughly into this matter and did not end by accepting the Spiritual
solution. Such may exist, but I repeat that I have never heard of him.
Let us, then, with confidence examine this matter of the "spiritual
body," to use the term made classical by Saint Paul. There are many
signs in his writings that Paul was deeply versed in psychic matters,
and one of these is his exact definition of the natural and spiritual
bodies in the service which is the final farewell to life of every
Christian. Paul picked his words, and if he had meant that man
consisted of a natural body and a spirit he would have said so. When
he said "a spiritual body" he meant a body which contained the spirit
and yet was distinct from the ordinary natural body. That is exactly
what psychic science has now shown to be true.
When a man has taken hashish or certain other drugs, he not
infrequently has the experience that he is standing or floating beside
his own body, which he can see stretched senseless upon the couch. So
also under anaesthetics, particularly under laughing gas, many people
are conscious of a detachment from their bodies, and of experiences at
a distance. I have myself seen very clearly my wife and children
inside a cab while I was senseless in the dentist's chair. Again, when
a man is fainting or dying, and his system in an unstable condition, it
is asserted in very many definite instances that he can, and does,
manifest himself to others at a distance. These phantasms of the
living, which have been so carefully explored and docketed by Messrs.
Myers and Gurney, ran into hundreds of cases. Some people claim that
by an effort of will they can, after going to sleep, propel their own
doubles in the direction which they desire, and visit those whom they
wish to see. Thus there is a great volume of evidence--how great no
man can say who has not spent diligent years in exploring it--which
vouches for the existence of this finer body containing the precious
jewels of the mind and spirit, and leaving only gross confused animal
functions in its heavier companion.
Mr. Funk, who is a critical student of psychic phenomena, and also the
joint compiler of the standard American dictionary, narrates a story in
point which could be matched from other sources. He tells of an
American doctor of his acquaintance, and he vouches personally for the
truth of the incident. This doctor, in the course of a cataleptic
seizure in Florida, was aware that he had left his body, which he saw
lying beside him. He had none the less preserved his figure and his
identity. The thought of some friend at a distance came into his mind,
and after an appreciable interval he found himself in that friend's
room, half way across the continent. He saw his friend, and was
conscious that his friend saw him. He afterwards returned to his own
room, stood beside his own senseless body, argued within himself
whether he should re-occupy it or not, and finally, duty overcoming
inclination, he merged his two frames together and continued his life.
A letter from him to his friend explaining matters crossed a letter
from the friend, in which he told how he also had been aware of his
presence. The incident is narrated in detail in Mr. Funk's "Psychic
Riddle."
I do not understand how any man can examine the many instances coming
from various angles of approach without recognising that there really
is a second body of this sort, which incidentally goes far to account
for all stories, sacred or profane, of ghosts, apparitions and visions.
Now, what is this second body, and how does it fit into modern
religious revelation?
What it is, is a difficult question, and yet when science and
imagination unite, as Tyndall said they should unite, to throw a
searchlight into the unknown, they may produce a beam sufficient to
outline vaguely what will become clearer with the future advance of our
race. Science has demonstrated that while ether pervades everything
the ether which is actually in a body is different from the ether
outside it. "Bound" ether is the name given to this, which Fresnel and
others have shown to be denser. Now, if this fact be applied to the
human body, the result would be that, if all that is visible of that
body were removed, there would still remain a complete and absolute
mould of the body, formed in bound ether which would be different from
the ether around it. This argument is more solid than mere
speculation, and it shows that even the soul may come to be defined in
terms of matter and is not altogether "such stuff as dreams are made
of."
It has been shown that there is some good evidence for the existence of
this second body apart from psychic religion, but to those who have
examined that religion it is the centre of the whole system,
sufficiently real to be recognised by clairvoyants, to be heard by
clairaudients, and even to make an exact impression upon a photographic
plate. Of the latter phenomenon, of which I have had some very
particular opportunities of judging, I have no more doubt than I have
of the ordinary photography of commerce. It had already been shown by
the astronomers that the sensitized plate is a more delicate recording
instrument than the human retina, and that it can show stars upon a
long exposure which the eye has never seen. It would appear that the
spirit world is really so near to us that a very little extra help
under correct conditions of mediumship will make all the difference.
Thus the plate, instead of the eye, may bring the loved face within the
range of vision, while the trumpet, acting as a megaphone, may bring
back the familiar voice where the spirit whisper with no mechanical aid
was still inaudible. So loud may the latter phenomenon be that in one
case, of which I have the record, the dead man's dog was so excited at
hearing once more his master's voice that he broke his chain, and
deeply scarred the outside of the seance room door in his efforts to
force an entrance.
Now, having said so much of the spirit body, and having indicated that
its presence is not vouched for by only one line of evidence or school
of thought, let us turn to what happens at the time of death, according
to the observation of clairvoyants on this side and the posthumous
accounts of the dead upon the other. It is exactly what we should
expect to happen, granted the double identity. In a painless and
natural process the lighter disengages itself from the heavier, and
slowly draws itself off until it stands with the same mind, the same
emotions, and an exactly similar body, beside the couch of death, aware
of those around and yet unable to make them aware of it, save where
that finer spiritual eyesight called clairvoyance exists. How, we may
well ask, can it see without the natural organs? How did the hashish
victim see his own unconscious body? How did the Florida doctor see
his friend? There is a power of perception in the spiritual body which
does give the power. We can say no more. To the clairvoyant the new
spirit seems like a filmy outline. To the ordinary man it is
invisible. To another spirit it would, no doubt, seem as normal and
substantial as we appear to each other. There is some evidence that it
refines with time, and is therefore nearer to the material at the
moment of death or closely after it, than after a lapse of months or
years. Hence, it is that apparitions of the dead are most clear and
most common about the time of death, and hence also, no doubt, the fact
that the cataleptic physician already quoted was seen and recognised by
his friend. The meshes of his ether, if the phrase be permitted, were
still heavy with the matter from which they had only just been
disentangled.
Having disengaged itself from grosser matter, what happens to this
spirit body, the precious bark which bears our all in all upon this
voyage into unknown seas? Very many accounts have come back to us,
verbal and written, detailing the experiences of those who have passed
on. The verbal are by trance mediums, whose utterances appear to be
controlled by outside intelligences. The written from automatic
writers whose script is produced in the same way. At these words the
critic naturally and reasonably shies, with a "What nonsense! How can
you control the statement of this medium who is consciously or
unconsciously pretending to inspiration?" This is a healthy
scepticism, and should animate every experimenter who tests a new
medium. The proofs must lie in the communication itself. If they are
not present, then, as always, we must accept natural rather than
unknown explanations. But they are continually present, and in such
obvious forms that no one can deny them. There is a certain
professional medium to whom I have sent many, mothers who were in need
of consolation. I always ask the applicants to report the result to
me, and I have their letters of surprise and gratitude before me as I
write. "Thank you for this beautiful and interesting experience. She
did not make a single mistake about their names, and everything she
said was correct." In this case there was a rift between husband and
wife before death, but the medium was able, unaided, to explain and
clear up the whole matter, mentioning the correct circumstances, and
names of everyone concerned, and showing the reasons for the
non-arrival of certain letters, which had been the cause of the
misunderstanding. The next case was also one of husband and wife, but
it is the husband who is the survivor. He says: "It was a most
successful sitting. Among other things, I addressed a remark in Danish
to my wife (who is a Danish girl), and the answer came back in English
without the least hesitation." The next case was again of a man who
had lost a very dear male friend. "I have had the most wonderful
results with Mrs. ---- to-day. I cannot tell you the joy it has been
to me. Many grateful thanks for your help." The next one says: "Mrs.
---- was simply wonderful. If only more people knew, what agony they
would be spared." In this case the wife got in touch with the husband,
and the medium mentioned correctly five dead relatives who were in his
company. The next is a case of mother and son. "I saw Mrs. ----
to-day, and obtained very wonderful results. She told me nearly
everything quite correctly--a very few mistakes." The next is similar.
"We were quite successful. My boy even reminded me of something that
only he and I knew." Says another: "My boy reminded me of the day
when he sowed turnip seed upon the lawn. Only he could have known of
this." These are fair samples of the letters, of which I hold a large
number. They are from people who present themselves from among the
millions living in London, or the provinces, and about whose affairs
the medium had no possible normal way of knowing. Of all the very
numerous cases which I have sent to this medium I have only had a few
which have been complete failures. On quoting my results to Sir Oliver
Lodge, he remarked that his own experience with another medium had been
almost identical. It is no exaggeration to say that our British
telephone systems would probably give a larger proportion of useless
calls. How is any critic to get beyond these facts save by ignoring or
misrepresenting them? Healthy, scepticism is the basis of all accurate
observation, but there comes a time when incredulity means either
culpable ignorance or else imbecility, and this time has been long past
in the matter of spirit intercourse.
In my own case, this medium mentioned correctly the first name of a
lady who had died in our house, gave several very characteristic
messages from her, described the only two dogs which we have ever kept,
and ended by saying that a young officer was holding up a gold coin by
which I would recognise him. I had lost my brother-in-law, an army
doctor, in the war, and I had given him a spade guinea for his first
fee, which he always wore on his chain. There were not more than two
or three close relatives who knew about this incident, so that the test
was a particularly good one. She made no incorrect statements, though
some were vague. After I had revealed the identity of this medium
several pressmen attempted to have test seances with her--a test seance
being, in most cases, a seance which begins by breaking every psychic
condition and making success most improbable. One of these gentlemen,
Mr. Ulyss Rogers, had very fair results. Another sent from "Truth" had
complete failure. It must be understood that these powers do not work
from the medium, but through the medium, and that the forces in the
beyond have not the least sympathy with a smart young pressman in
search of clever copy, while they have a very different feeling to a
bereaved mother who prays with all her broken heart that some assurance
may be given her that the child of her love is not gone from her for
ever. When this fact is mastered, and it is understood that "Stand and
deliver" methods only excite gentle derision on the other side, we
shall find some more intelligent manner of putting things of the spirit
to the proof.[3]
I have dwelt upon these results, which could be matched by other
mediums, to show that we have solid and certain reasons to say that the
verbal reports are not from the mediums themselves. Readers of Arthur
Hill's "Psychical Investigations" will find many even more convincing
cases. So in the written communications, I have in a previous paper
pointed to the "Gate of Remembrance" case, but there is a great mass of
material which proves that, in spite of mistakes and failures, there
really is a channel of communication, fitful and evasive sometimes, but
entirely beyond coincidence or fraud. These, then, are the usual means
by which we receive psychic messages, though table tilting, ouija
boards, glasses upon a smooth surface, or anything which can be moved
by the vital animal-magnetic force already discussed will equally serve
the purpose. Often information is conveyed orally or by writing which
could not have been known to anyone concerned. Mr. Wilkinson has given
details of the case where his dead son drew attention to the fact that
a curio (a coin bent by a bullet) had been overlooked among his
effects. Sir William Barrett has narrated how a young officer sent a
message leaving a pearl tie-pin to a friend. No one knew that such a
pin existed, but it was found among his things. The death of Sir Hugh
Lane was given at a private seance in Dublin before the details of the
Lusitania disaster had been published.[4] On that morning we
ourselves, in a small seance, got the message "It is terrible,
terrible, and will greatly affect the war," at a time when we were
convinced that no great loss of life could have occurred. Such
examples are very numerous, and are only quoted here to show how
impossible it is to invoke telepathy as the origin of such messages.
There is only one explanation which covers the facts. They are what
they say they are, messages from those who have passed on, from the
spiritual body which was seen to rise from the deathbed, which has been
so often photographed, which pervades all religion in every age, and
which has been able, under proper circumstances, to materialise back
into a temporary solidity so that it could walk and talk like a mortal,
whether in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, or in the laboratory of
Mr. Crookes, in Mornington Road, London.
Let us for a moment examine the facts in this Crookes' episode. A
small book exists which describes them, though it is not as accessible
as it should be. In these wonderful experiments, which extended over
several years, Miss Florrie Cook, who was a young lady of from 16 to 18
years of age, was repeatedly confined in Prof. Crookes' study, the door
being locked on the inside. Here she lay unconscious upon a couch.
The spectators assembled in the laboratory, which was separated by a
curtained opening from the study. After a short interval, through this
opening there emerged a lady who was in all ways different from Miss
Cook. She gave her earth name as Katie King, and she proclaimed
herself to be a materialised spirit, whose mission it was to carry the
knowledge of immortality to mortals.
She was of great beauty of face, figure, and manner. She was four and
a half inches taller than Miss Cook, fair, whereas the latter was dark,
and as different from her as one woman could be from another. Her
pulse rate was markedly slower. She became for the time entirely one
of the company, walking about, addressing each person present, and
taking delight in the children. She made no objection to photography
or any other test. Forty-eight photographs of different degrees of
excellence were made of her. She was seen at the same time as the
medium on several occasions. Finally she departed, saying that her
mission was over and that she had other work to do. When she vanished
materialism should have vanished also, if mankind had taken adequate
notice of the facts.
Now, what can the fair-minded inquirer say to such a story as that--one
of many, but for the moment we are concentrating upon it? Was Mr.
Crookes a blasphemous liar? But there were very many witnesses, as
many sometimes as eight at a single sitting. And there are the
photographs which include Miss Cook and show that the two women were
quite different. Was he honestly mistaken? But that is inconceivable.
Read the original narrative and see if you can find any solution save
that it is true. If a man can read that sober, cautious statement and
not be convinced, then assuredly his brain, is out of gear. Finally,
ask yourself whether any religious manifestation in the world has had
anything like the absolute proof which lies in this one. Cannot the
orthodox see that instead of combating such a story, or talking
nonsense about devils, they should hail that which is indeed the final
answer to that materialism which is their really dangerous enemy. Even
as I write, my eye falls upon a letter on my desk from an officer who
had lost all faith in immortality and become an absolute materialist.
"I came to dread my return home, for I cannot stand hypocrisy, and I
knew well my attitude would cause some members of my family deep grief.
Your book has now brought me untold comfort, and I can face the future
cheerfully." Are these fruits from the Devil's tree, you timid
orthodox critic?
Having then got in touch with our dead, we proceed, naturally, to ask
them how it is with them, and under what conditions they exist. It is
a very vital question, since what has befallen them yesterday will
surely befall us to-morrow. But the answer is tidings of great joy.
Of the new vital message to humanity nothing is more important than
that. It rolls away all those horrible man-bred fears and fancies,
founded upon morbid imaginations and the wild phrases of the oriental.
We come upon what is sane, what is moderate, what is reasonable, what
is consistent with gradual evolution and with the benevolence of God.
Were there ever any conscious blasphemers upon earth who have insulted
the Deity so deeply as those extremists, be they Calvinist, Roman
Catholic, Anglican, or Jew, who pictured with their distorted minds an
implacable torturer as the Ruler of the Universe!
The truth of what is told us as to the life beyond can in its very
nature never be absolutely established. It is far nearer to complete
proof, however, than any religious revelation which has ever preceded
it. We have the fact that these accounts are mixed up with others
concerning our present life which are often absolutely true. If a
spirit can tell the truth about our sphere, it is difficult to suppose
that he is entirely false about his own. Then, again, there is a very
great similarity about such accounts, though their origin may be from
people very far apart. Thus though "non-veridical," to use the modern
jargon, they do conform to all our canons of evidence. A series of
books which have attracted far less attention than they deserve have
drawn the coming life in very close detail. These books are not found
on railway bookstalls or in popular libraries, but the successive
editions through which they pass show that there is a deeper public
which gets what it wants in spite of artificial obstacles.
Looking over the list of my reading I find, besides nearly a dozen very
interesting and detailed manuscript accounts, such published narratives
as "Claude's Book," purporting to come from a young British aviator;
"Thy Son Liveth," from an American soldier, "Private Dowding";
"Raymond," from a British soldier; "Do Thoughts Perish?" which contains
accounts from several British soldiers and others; "I Heard a Voice,"
where a well-known K.C., through the mediumship of his two young
daughters, has a very full revelation of the life beyond; "After
Death," with the alleged experiences of the famous Miss Julia Ames;
"The Seven Purposes," from an American pressman, and many others. They
differ much in literary skill and are not all equally impressive, but
the point which must strike any impartial mind is the general agreement
of these various accounts as to the conditions of spirit life. An
examination would show that some of them must have been in the press at
the same time, so that they could not have each inspired the other.
"Claude's Book" and "Thy Son Liveth" appeared at nearly the same time
on different sides of the Atlantic, but they agree very closely.
"Raymond" and "Do Thoughts Perish?" must also have been in the press
together, but the scheme of things is exactly the same. Surely the
agreement of witnesses must here, as in all cases, be accounted as a
test of truth. They differ mainly, as it seems to me, when they deal
with their own future including speculations as to reincarnation, etc.,
which may well be as foggy to them as it is to us, or systems of
philosophy where again individual opinion is apparent.
Of all these accounts the one which is most deserving of study is
"Raymond." This is so because it has been compiled from several famous
mediums working independently of each other, and has been checked and
chronicled by a man who is not only one of the foremost scientists of
the world, and probably the leading intellectual force in Europe, but
one who has also had a unique experience of the precautions necessary
for the observation of psychic phenomena. The bright and sweet nature
of the young soldier upon the other side, and his eagerness to tell of
his experience is also a factor which will appeal to those who are
already satisfied as to the truth of the communications. For all these
reasons it is a most important document--indeed it would be no
exaggeration to say that it is one of the most important in recent
literature. It is, as I believe, an authentic account of the life in
the beyond, and it is often more interesting from its sidelights and
reservations than for its actual assertions, though the latter bear the
stamp of absolute frankness and sincerity. The compilation is in some
ways faulty. Sir Oliver has not always the art of writing so as to be
understanded of the people, and his deeper and more weighty thoughts
get in the way of the clear utterances of his son. Then again, in his
anxiety to be absolutely accurate, Sir Oliver has reproduced the fact
that sometimes Raymond is speaking direct, and sometimes the control is
reporting what Raymond is saying, so that the same paragraph may turn
several times from the first person to the third in a manner which must
be utterly unintelligible to those who are not versed in the subject.
Sir Oliver will, I am sure, not be offended if I say that, having
satisfied his conscience by the present edition, he should now leave it
for reference, and put forth a new one which should contain nothing but
the words of Raymond and his spirit friends. Such a book, published at
a low price, would, I think, have an amazing effect, and get all this
new teaching to the spot that God has marked for it--the minds and
hearts of the people.
So much has been said here about mediumship that perhaps it would be
well to consider this curious condition a little more closely. The
question of mediumship, what it is and how it acts, is one of the most
mysterious in the whole range of science. It is a common objection to
say if our dead are there why should we only hear of them through
people by no means remarkable for moral or mental gifts, who are often
paid for their ministration. It is a plausible argument, and yet when
we receive a telegram from a brother in Australia we do not say: "It is
strange that Tom should not communicate with me direct, but that the
presence of that half-educated fellow in the telegraph office should be
necessary." The medium is in truth a mere passive machine, clerk and
telegraph in one. Nothing comes FROM him. Every message is THROUGH
him. Why he or she should have the power more than anyone else is a
very interesting problem. This power may best be defined as the
capacity for allowing the bodily powers, physical or mental, to be used
by an outside influence. In its higher forms there is temporary
extinction of personality and the substitution of some other
controlling spirit. At such times the medium may entirely lose
consciousness, or he may retain it and be aware of some external
experience which has been enjoyed by his own entity while his bodily
house has been filled by the temporary tenant. Or the medium may
retain consciousness, and with eyes and ears attuned to a higher key
than the normal man can attain, he may see and hear what is beyond our
senses. Or in writing mediumship, a motor centre of the brain
regulating the nerves and muscles of the arm may be controlled while
all else seems to be normal. Or it may take the more material form of
the exudation of a strange white evanescent dough-like substance called
the ectoplasm, which has been frequently photographed by scientific
enquirers in different stages of its evolution, and which seems to
possess an inherent quality of shaping itself into parts or the whole
of a body, beginning in a putty-like mould and ending in a resemblance
to perfect human members. Or the ectoplasm, which seems to be an
emanation of the medium to the extent that whatever it may weigh is so
much subtracted from his substance, may be used as projections or rods
which can convey objects or lift weights. A friend, in whose judgment
and veracity I have absolute confidence, was present at one of Dr.
Crawford's experiments with Kathleen Goligher, who is, it may be
remarked, an unpaid medium. My friend touched the column of force, and
found it could be felt by the hand though invisible to the eye. It is
clear that we are in touch with some entirely new form both of matter
and of energy. We know little of the properties of this extraordinary
substance save that in its materialising form it seems extremely
sensitive to the action of light. A figure built up in it and detached
from the medium dissolves in light quicker than a snow image under a
tropical sun, so that two successive flash-light photographs would show
the one a perfect figure, and the next an amorphous mass. When still
attached to the medium the ectoplasm flies back with great force on
exposure to light, and, in spite of the laughter of the scoffers, there
is none the less good evidence that several mediums have been badly
injured by the recoil after a light has suddenly been struck by some
amateur detective. Professor Geley has, in his recent experiments,
described the ectoplasm as appearing outside the black dress of his
medium as if a hoar frost had descended upon her, then coalescing into
a continuous sheet of white substance, and oozing down until it formed
a sort of apron in front of her.[5] This process he has illustrated by
a very complete series of photographs.
These are a few of the properties of mediumship. There are also the
beautiful phenomena of the production of lights, and the rarer, but for
evidential purposes even more valuable, manifestations of spirit
photography. The fact that the photograph does not correspond in many
cases with any which existed in life, must surely silence the scoffer,
though there is a class of bigoted sceptic who would still be sneering
if an Archangel alighted in Trafalgar Square. Mr. Hope and Mrs.
Buxton, of Crewe, have brought this phase of mediumship to great
perfection, though others have powers in that direction. Indeed, in
some cases it is difficult to say who the medium may have been, for in
one collective family group which was taken in the ordinary way, and
was sent me by a master in a well known public school, the young son
who died has appeared in the plate seated between his two little
brothers.
As to the personality of mediums, they have seemed to me to be very
average specimens of the community, neither markedly better nor
markedly worse. I know many, and I have never met anything in the
least like "Sludge," a poem which Browning might be excused for writing
in some crisis of domestic disagreement, but which it was inexcusable
to republish since it is admitted to be a concoction, and the exposure
described to have been imaginary. The critic often uses the term
medium as if it necessarily meant a professional, whereas every
investigator has found some of his best results among amateurs. In the
two finest seances I ever attended, the psychic, in each case a man of
moderate means, was resolutely determined never directly or indirectly
to profit by his gift, though it entailed very exhausting physical
conditions. I have not heard of a clergyman of any denomination who
has attained such a pitch of altruism--nor is it reasonable to expect
it. As to professional mediums, Mr. Vout Peters, one of the most
famous, is a diligent collector of old books and an authority upon the
Elizabethan drama; while Mr. Dickinson, another very remarkable
discerner of spirits, who named twenty-four correctly during two
meetings held on the same day, is employed in loading canal barges.
This man is one gifted clairvoyants in England, though Tom Tyrrell the
weaver, Aaron Wilkinson, and others are very marvellous. Tyrrell, who
is a man of the Anthony of Padua type, a walking saint, beloved of
animals and children, is a figure who might have stepped out of some
legend of the church. Thomas, the powerful physical medium, is a
working coal miner. Most mediums take their responsibilities very
seriously and view their work in a religious light. There is no
denying that they are exposed to very particular temptations, for the
gift is, as I have explained elsewhere, an intermittent one, and to
admit its temporary absence, and so discourage one's clients, needs
greater moral principle than all men possess. Another temptation to
which several great mediums have succumbed is that of drink. This
comes about in a very natural way, for overworking the power leaves
them in a state of physical prostration, and the stimulus of alcohol
affords a welcome relief, and may tend at last to become a custom and
finally a curse. Alcoholism always weakens the moral sense, so that
these degenerate mediums yield themselves more readily to fraud, with
the result that several who had deservedly won honoured names and met
all hostile criticism have, in their later years, been detected in the
most contemptible tricks. It is a thousand pities that it should be
so, but if the Court of Arches were to give up its secrets, it would be
found that tippling and moral degeneration were by no means confined to
psychics. At the same time, a psychic is so peculiarly sensitive that
I think he or she would always be well advised to be a life long
abstainer--as many actually are.
As to the method by which they attain their results they have, when in
the trance state, no recollection. In the case of normal clairvoyants
and clairaudients, the information comes in different ways. Sometimes
it is no more than a strong mental impression which gives a name or an
address. Sometimes they say that they see it written up before them.
Sometimes the spirit figures seem to call it to them. "They yell it at
me," said one.
We need more first-hand accounts of these matters before we can
formulate laws.
It has been stated in a previous book by the author, but it will bear
repetition, that the use of the seance should, in his opinion, be
carefully regulated as well as reverently conducted. Having once
satisfied himself of the absolute existence of the unseen world, and of
its proximity to our own, the inquirer has got the great gift which
psychical investigation can give him, and thenceforth he can regulate
his life upon the lines which the teaching from beyond has shown to be
the best. There is much force in the criticism that too constant
intercourse with the affairs of another world may distract our
attention and weaken our powers in dealing with our obvious duties in
this one. A seance, with the object of satisfying curiosity or of
rousing interest, cannot be an elevating influence, and the mere
sensation-monger can make this holy and wonderful thing as base as the
over-indulgence in a stimulant. On the other hand, where the seance is
used for the purpose of satisfying ourselves as to the condition of
those whom we have lost, or of giving comfort to others who crave for a
word from beyond, then it is, indeed, a blessed gift from God to be
used with moderation and with thankfulness. Our loved ones have their
own pleasant tasks in their new surroundings, and though they assure us
that they love to clasp the hands which we stretch out to them, we
should still have some hesitation in intruding to an unreasonable
extent upon the routine of their lives.
A word should be said as to that fear of fiends and evil spirits which
appears to have so much weight with some of the critics of this
subject. When one looks more closely at this emotion it seems somewhat
selfish and cowardly. These creatures are in truth our own backward
brothers, bound for the same ultimate destination as ourselves, but
retarded by causes for which our earth conditions may have been partly
responsible. Our pity and sympathy should go out to them, and if they
do indeed manifest at a seance, the proper Christian attitude is, as it
seems to me, that we should reason with them and pray for them in order
to help them upon their difficult way. Those who have treated them in
this way have found a very marked difference in the subsequent
communications. In Admiral Usborne Moore's "Glimpses of the Next
State" there will be found some records of an American circle which
devoted itself entirely to missionary work of this sort. There is some
reason to believe that there are forms of imperfect development which
can be helped more by earthly than by purely spiritual influences, for
the reason, perhaps, that they are closer to the material.
In a recent case I was called in to endeavour to check a very noisy
entity which frequented an old house in which there were strong reasons
to believe that crime had been committed, and also that the criminal
was earth-bound. Names were given by the unhappy spirit which proved
to be correct, and a cupboard was described, which was duly found,
though it had never before been suspected. On getting into touch with
the spirit I endeavoured to reason with it and to explain how selfish
it was to cause misery to others in order to satisfy any feelings of
revenge which it might have carried over from earth life. We then
prayed for its welfare, exhorted it to rise higher, and received a very
solemn assurance, tilted out at the table, that it would mend its ways.
I have very gratifying reports that it has done so, and that all is now
quiet in the old house.
Let us now consider the life in the Beyond as it is shown to us by the
new revelation.