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The Secret
of Life, Death
and Immortality
A Startling Proposition, With
a Chapter Devoted to Mental
Therapeutics and Instructions
for Self Healing
_By_
HENRY FLEETWOOD
_Author of_
“MUSIC AS A CURE”
Published by Henry Fleetwood
Los Angeles
1909
Copyrighted by
HENRY FLEETWOOD
Dec. 3, 1908
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Life
Cosmic Evolution; Life Germs—how produced; “The Word”—evolution
of; Universal Vibration—the only Immortality; Continuous
Evolution—the condition of creation.
CHAPTER II
Electricity and Life
Proof that Electricity is Life; recent discoveries in the
wireless telegraph and telephone, telepathy, etc.,—how they
affect the human race; other possibilities of Electricity.
CHAPTER III
Love and Music
Their relation to Life; their effect on creation; the power of
love; the power of music; all emotion subject to these powers.
CHAPTER IV
Immortality
There cannot be conscious immortality; what is immortality?;
why we hope for consciousness in a future life; how the
ancients regarded a future life.
CHAPTER V
The Sun
Its relation to life; what is radiant energy?; why the ancients
worshipped the sun; the Parsees the present sun worshippers.
CHAPTER VI
Fear
The great curse of the Universe—the only devil—its insidious
claims—its effect on life.
CHAPTER VII
Death
Its relation to Life; the only Immortal; its loving purpose;
its relation to evolution.
CHAPTER VIII
Healing
Mental Therapeutics, or healing suggestions; Christian Science;
Faith healing, etc.
CHAPTER IX
Resume and Conclusion.
PREFACE
The writer of these pages a few years ago invented, patented and
successfully demonstrated in the city of Los Angeles, California, a
mechanical device by which he transformed musical vibrations into
“electrical” waves. These when conveyed to the human organism were
found to be harmonizing, vitalizing, and curative, in many nervous and
functional disorders. Further study and research along these lines
convinced him that all vibration, or motion, or activity is electrical.
That all phenomena are electrical phenomena. In fact, that there is but
one substance in the universe, and that is—Electricity.
Without any attempt to enter the realm of metaphysics, the writer desires
to state that he uses the term Life in its absolute or universal sense,
and not in the conditioned or limited sense in which it is ordinarily
and loosely used. He distinguishes between Life—with its eternal,
inherent unceasing impulse and energy—and the resultant of that impulse
and energy; whether that resultant be a molecule of hydrogen or what
is called consciousness, intelligence, manifesting through an organism
called man.
This Life is not mind, nor its product matter. It is Substance—and
that substance the writer calls electricity. It is eternal. It is the
totality of what is, or Be-ing. It has a dual impulse or tendency, viz.
(the positive and negative)—attraction and repulsion of its infinite
integral constituent particles or ELECTRONS. This attraction and
repulsion, this breaking and closing of the circuit, this vibration
or motion—always in a straight line or a circle—this infinite eternal
polarity, being continuous creation or evolution, and destruction or
devolution.
It has not been possible in the limited space devoted to this book to
attempt a discussion and proof of the statements made herein. While the
statements made are scientific and rational the writer could not do more
than point out through them the direction in which the truth is to be
sought and found.
The reader will find many thoughts suggested along the line of the
wireless telegraph and telephone, musical vibrations, thought vibrations,
telepathy, clairvoyance, “Spiritualistic phenomena,” death, post-mortem
consciousness or “Conscious immortality,” etc.
We are living in an age of scientific investigation and inquiry. The
human mind is awakening to the necessity of doing its own thinking
instead of being bound by the many dogmas of religious systems.
Laden with ability to annihilate superstition, and forever destroy that
curse of humanity—Fear—in all who will carefully and with an open mind
read them, these pages are set adrift.
HENRY FLEETWOOD,
Los Angeles, California.
September, 1908.
CHAPTER I
Life
Cosmic Evolution. Life Germs—How Produced. “The Word”—Evolution of.
Thought Vibration the Only Immortality. “Life” and “Death” Evolved from
the Same Cosmic Substance.
“But words are things, and a small drop of ink falling like dew
upon a thought, produces that which makes thousands, perhaps
millions, think.”—Byron.
Electricity is the one, eternal, unchangeable, indestructible, universal
substance.
The universe is made up of innumerable “corpuscles,” from whose manifold
combinations, ruled by unalterable affinities, has been evolved our solar
system.
Our earth after the cooling process, became through the light and radiant
energy of the sun, the theater of the evolution of the various forms of
life. The eternal, inherent, restless energy that had formed and launched
into existence this solar system continued its work to evolve conscious
life on this earth. Monad, atom, protoplasm, molecule and cell all being
produced by this electric energy we call life.
This universal substance is constituted of electrons—infinitesimally
smaller than atomic dust—each electron having the potentiality of the
whole, with its positive and negative impulse.
It is well known that each molecule is a separate and distinct organism,
formed by this same electric impulse. The active force in evolution being
the electric energy—attraction and repulsion—its movements can be easily
followed by noting the similarity of its formation, namely, circular
or spherical. The tendency of this electric energy is always to form a
complete circuit—and must do so in order to evolve and carry on its work
of evolution; all creation being the result of the breaking and closing
of the circuit. The various forms of life evolved, are subject to this
same restless impulse—positive and negative—which continues the work of
creation or evolution.
As what is called “life” is the result of the closing of the circuit,
so what is called “death” is the result of the breaking of the circuit.
Thus we see that life and death are one and the same process. Simply the
readjustment, rearrangement of these infinite electrons by the opening
and closing of the electric circuit. The same eternal, inherent, restless
energy forever at play—creating life, and creating death—both equally
beautiful. This is the continuous evolution of Darwin and others. There
is no rest. There is only eternal continuous vibration. Prof. Loeb says,
“The force that makes life possible is primarily the electric charge.”
Dr. Samuel Wallian says, “Life originates in vibration and consists of an
incessant repetition of vibrations.” It can with equal truth be said that
THE FORCE THAT MAKES DEATH POSSIBLE IS PRIMARILY THE ELECTRIC CHARGE; AND
DEATH ORIGINATES IN VIBRATION, AND CONSISTS OF AN INCESSANT REPETITION OF
VIBRATIONS—or opening and closing of an electric circuit. These are the
only Two IMMORTALS—Life and Death.
Primitive man having his habitation mainly in the primeval forest, the
shadows cast by the sun became objects of terror to him. The caves
with their mysteries begot gnomes and hobgoblins. Thus was born that
great curse of humanity—Fear. Feeling the need of protection from these
bogies of his imagination, he peopled his world with fairies, etc.,
that would help him to overcome the evil of these fancied cave and
forest shadow-folk. Here we have the origin of good and evil, rewards
and punishments, out of which has been evolved the various systems of
religion. Observing the various phenomena of this universal force, he
called it God; made images to express his ideas and worshipped them.
Man’s evolution in the universe of thought has been slow, handicapped as
he has been by superstition, traditional folk-lore and lack of individual
search for truth. But now for the past fifty years there has prevailed
a set of thought vibrations—a so-called “New Thought” wave—that has
impelled to a desire for the truth that shall make one free.
There is no mystery in nature. She works under the immutable laws of her
eternal being—Electricity. When primitive man evolved on this earth he
was at first without speech, his only language being guttural sounds and
gestures, some of which are distinctly discernible in many of the present
races of mankind. From these guttural sounds speech was evolved and the
“word” was born. “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God
and the word was God.”
The brain cells of man—the ego—the beginning or birth of
understanding—sent forth vibrations called “thought” into the universe;
and man has been adding to their volume during countless ages. As he
progressed he learned to write by signs or hieroglyphics, thus recording
his thoughts. By still further evolution he constructed an alphabet and
finally a printing press, so that now thoughts can be easily recorded and
preserved.
Sir Humphrey Davy immediately upon recovering from apparent death, caused
by one of his scientific experiments, exclaimed, “I am convinced that
thought is all there is in the universe.”
As all man’s thoughts,—the vibrations of his brain cells—are contained in
the universe, there must be reservoirs of thought governed by the law of
natural selection.
This accounts for what we call genius. For example, a child is born
showing early a genius for music, which enables it to grow in the art
until it becomes famous. What is the explanation? Simply that during the
period of gestation the mother was environed by musical vibrations, so
attuning the brain cells of the child that communication was established
with some great reservoir of musical thought in the universe, and a
genius was evolved. This is the so-called “Reincarnation.” A perfectly
natural law of vibration.
Creation, we repeat, is but continuous evolution, bringing forth by
natural selection,—“everything after its kind”—progressing onward year by
year, developing more improved species and greater inventions. Evolution
is but continuous creation. They are one, even as life and death are one.
Lucretius wrote fifty years B. C., “Change is the law of things and is
brought about by opposing forces.” Lucretius did not know that these
opposing forces were but the attraction and repulsion, or positive
and negative action of the one universal substance,—Electricity. The
inherent eternal impulse (polarity, or sex) of the electrons composing
the universal substance from which all things are evolved. Many of the
great scientific writers, such as Kant, Darwin, Wallace, Hume, etc.,
had not seen this great light which the discovery and investigation of
certain electrical phenomena has revealed and so could not account for
this primal force in the universe, which they knew existed but could not
define.
Electricity is Life, and cosmic evolution is but the law of vibration of
its eternal, universal being.
All formations of worlds, planets, suns, stars, asteroids, etc., were
rotated into form and position and continue their movements by this same
universal law of vibration—the inherent, eternal impulse and energy of
the one only substance—Electricity. Millions of ages have been evolved
in the cosmos. All are subject to what is called decay or death, but, as
Lucretius says, “What is will perish, but only to appear in another form.”
All formations of nature in the universe are circular or spherical, thus
proving their electric source or origin, and are but the completion of an
electric circuit. Every stone, grain of sand and drop of water is rotated
and rounded by this same electric vibratory impulse. What is true of our
solar system, we may by deduction conclude is true of other systems,
which may have gone through evolution and devolution many times in the
countless aeons of the so called “past.” Combustion, radiant energy, what
are these but modes of motion? A living, breathing, thinking organism
called man, or an expiring puppy on the sidewalk, are but different modes
of vibration of this one universal substance. From worlds to atoms, from
atoms to monads, from monads to motion,—and we find the universe held
in a solution of omnipotent, electric energy, just as salt is held in
solution in the ocean. Well may we repeat the modern paraphrase—
Praise law from whom all blessings flow,
Praise protoplasm here below,
Praise matter, evolution tossed,
Praise force, the only Holy Ghost.