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THE NEW AVATAR
and
The Destiny of the Soul
THE FINDINGS OF NATURAL SCIENCE
REDUCED TO PRACTICAL STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY
By
JIRAH D. BUCK, M.D.
Author of
"Mystic Masonry," "A Study of Man," "Christos,"
"The Genius of Freemasonry," "Constructive Psychology,"
"The Lost Word Found," "Browning's Paracelsus," and other MSS.
SECOND EDITION
1916
INDO-AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
(Not Inc.)
5705 SOUTH BOULEVARD
CHICAGO
ILL.
COPYRIGHT
STEWART & KIDD CO.
1911
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England
All Rights Reserved
TO THE
GREAT FRIENDS
THE HELPERS--VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE--WHOSE
DEEPEST MOTIVE AND HIGHEST AIM
ARE TO ENCOURAGE, UPLIFT, AND INSPIRE
THOSE WHO NEED;
THAT ALL, AT LAST, MAY STAND
TOGETHER
IN THE MIDST OF
THE
RADIANT SPLENDOR
OF
ETERNAL
TRUTH
CONTENTS
FOREWORD xi
INTRODUCTION xvii
SECTION ONE
STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY
I. CLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS 3
II. EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 9
III. MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS 18
IV. THE MEASURE OF VALUES 29
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 50
VI. THE CROSS IN RELIGION AND THE CRUX IN SCIENCE
WITH THE GREAT WORK IN AMERICA 68
VII. THE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM OF PSYCHOLOGY 93
SECTION TWO
THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE
VIII. OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 111
IX. HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE 136
X. CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE 146
XI. CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 151
XII. PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME 164
XIII. THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 171
XIV. FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 191
XV. THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A KNOWLEDGE OF
THE HUMAN SOUL 208
XVI. THE NEW AVATAR 218
NOTES 223
FOREWORD
The reader who is willing to give the following pages a careful reading,
and a courteous hearing, is entitled to know the basis of study,
observation or experience from which the suggestions, inferences and
conclusions proceed, in order that he may fairly estimate their value.
At the age of seventy-two, my egotism is at least softened by the
discovery of the many things I do not know; and my dogmatism, so far as it
ever existed, is equally relaxed by the realization that it is a bar to
light and knowledge, which rest so largely on demonstration.
For more than forty-five years I have been engaged in the active practice
of medicine with consultations extending over three States.
For an equal length of time I have lectured in Medical Colleges, fifteen
years on the subject of Physiology, an equal number on Therapeutics
(including Pathology and Histology), and for the last fifteen years on
Psychology, Mental and Nervous Diseases, and all this time with a large
College Clinic from the poorer classes.
From first to last, my "Study of Medicine" has been generically and
specifically a "Study of Man," physical, mental, ethical, and psychical.
Outside of Medicine as a "Calling" or a "Profession" my real interest has
been to unravel the nature of man, grasp the problem of human life, and to
apprehend the nature, laws, and destiny of the human soul. My library
covers a rather continuous thread from 1543, and the time of Paracelsus,
to Profs. James, Ladd, Lombroso, Sir Oliver Lodge, and Münsterberg.
My reading dips into the Sacred Books of the East, the records of the
Past, and particularly the psychic phenomena of different ages, finding at
last the Constructive Theorem clearer than anywhere else in the "School of
Natural Science," from the fact that it is demonstrably cognizant of all
preceding work, and definitely conforms to the strict demands of
Science--Physical, Mental, Ethical, Psychical and Spiritual, and proves to
be the very thing for which I have searched for nearly half a century.
The foregoing statements are not made to force credulity nor to assume
authority. They simply mean--This is how, and where, and how long, I have
been searching, largely, also at the bedside of the sick, the deranged and
the dying; from the first breath of the little one that comes--
"Out from the shore of the Great Unknown
Weeping and wailing and all alone,"
to the death-damp and the last sigh of the aged; in one case at nearly one
hundred and four years.
Once I found an old lady of eighty, dying. The "death-damp" on her brow;
the "death-rattle" in her throat; the chin dropped, and no pulse at the
wrist. She had a wayward son who had been promised due notice of any
change, and he had been sent for. Speaking distinctly in her ear _I called
her back_; the motive being the grief of her son at not bidding each other
good-bye. The response was immediate. The "rattle" in her throat ceased.
The pulse promptly returned. The mouth closed. Then I said--"open your
eyes," which she promptly did with a gentle smile. "You are not going to
do it," I said. "No," she replied. The son soon came in and received his
mother's caress and blessing. At the same hour on the following day, she
passed peacefully to the beyond, dying of old age. Had it been a "crisis"
in disease, she might have recovered.
As a psychic phenomenon I never saw anything just like it. Had I before
doubted the existence of a "separable soul," it would have ended all
doubt. From the magnetic border of the "Great Divide" _with a sufficient
motive_, I literally "called her back."
The evidence of the concreteness, and wholeness and self-awareness of the
Individual Intelligence, functioning in and through, and separable from
the physical body, was complete. No other explanation or conclusion would
fit or cover the case at all. Had I been clairvoyant and able to _see_ the
entity, it would have been another link in a chain whose sequence pointed
all one way. But even here I was not without a witness.
In another case, an old lady was dying. A "Platform Lecturer"
(Mediumistic) was present and described, incidentally, what she saw. She
was a good, clean, ignorant woman and only "controlled" on the Platform.
She described a vapor emanating from the body, as the "death-damp"
increased, and outer "awareness" failed. This vapor seemed to adhere
together until it stood near the head, rounded and nearly reaching the
ceiling. Then the "spirit form" passed out from the top of the head, was
inclosed in the ball of "vapor," and together they "floated away."
I found that she had never heard of the "Auric-egg" nor read a page of the
old Eastern philosophy, and yet she had accurately described, step by
step, what the Masters for ages declare occurs at death.
Science is the careful observation, demonstration and record of Facts,
their orderly grouping or classification, and the logical and sequential
conclusions resulting therefrom.
It is not a matter of opinion and belief, nor dogma and denial, no matter
how large, respectable, and sincere may be the army of the dogmatists.
Take these suggestions and conclusions--my friend--for what you think them
worth, since now you know how far they have grown from experience and the
love and search for the simple Truth.
The temptation to quote and annotate from many authors is very great, but
the material is so abundant that one scarcely knows where to begin, where
to end; and as the address is solely to the reader of "average
intelligence," and argument is eliminated as far as possible, many
quotations could do little more than confirm opinions, and would extend
beyond the limits designed by the author, or the brief space and popular
form more desirable for the average reader.
Repetitions in the text seemed unavoidable for the reason, that at every
phase of the subject I have continually to regard the Individual, and that
aggregate called Society; the inner conscious life of _one_, and the
associate elements and conditions regarding the many, and from different
viewpoints.
Man, the Individual, is like a "wheel within a wheel," the larger circle
being Humanity as a whole.
Nor does the thought or concept stop here. There is the relation of the
Individual Intelligence we call MAN to the Universal Intelligence we call
GOD, which as related to Nature is "In All, Through All, Over All, and
Above All."
Not an "Absentee God," but Illuminant within and without revealing itself
in what we call Love and Law.
Here "in brief" I rest the case and proceed to the evidence.
INTRODUCTION
In "A Study of Man, and the Way of Health," first published twenty-one
years ago, as a general outline for my classes of Medical Students, to
enable them to grasp the real problem of life, and to emphasize the Study
of Man, as basic in the Study of Medicine, the following epitome was
placed in the Preface.
"The cosmic form in which all things are created and in which all
things exist is a Universal Duality.
Involution and Evolution express the two-fold process of the One Law
of Development, corresponding to the two planes of being, the
Subjective and the Objective.
Consciousness is the central Fact of Being.
Experience is the only method of knowing.
Therefore, to Know, is to Become.
The Modulus of Nature, that is, the Pattern, after which she
everywhere builds, and the _Method_ to which she continually conforms
is an Ideal, or Archetypical Man.
The Perfect Man is the anthropomorphic God. A living, potential
Christ in every human soul.
Two natures meet on the human plane, and focalize in man.
These are the Animal Ego and the Higher Self. The one, an inheritance
from lower life. The other, an overshadowing from the next higher
plane.
The Animal Principle is Selfishness. The Divine Principle is
Altruism.
However defective in other respects human nature may be, all human
endeavor must finally be measured by the principle of Altruism and
must stand or fall by the measure in which it inspires and uplifts
Humanity.
The highest tribunal is the criterion of Truth, and the test of truth
is by its use and beneficence. 'BY THEIR WORK YE MAY KNOW THEM.'
Superstition is not Religion; Speculation is not Philosophy;
Materialism is not Science; but true religion, true philosophy and
true science are ever the handmaids of Truth, and will at last be
found in perfect harmony."
After more than twenty years of continuous and careful study since the
foregoing was written, I must still confirm and emphasize these basic
propositions to-day.
The attempt is herein made to apply them more particularly to the study of
Psychology. To add to what was then discerned and designated as "the
Modulus of Nature," an exact and comprehensive Theorem of Psychology.
I am well aware how presumptuous this would in certain quarters be
considered, if there were the least probability that "those in authority"
would read these pages at all. The motive is involved in the modulus, and
I am quite content to leave it there, while the "common people," it is
hoped, may find herein, as I have found in the search for more light,
encouragement, inspiration, and hope. And these may lead to
Understanding.
It is the farthest possible from my thought or wish to ignore or belittle
the labors of earnest students and writers on Psychology.
But there is a habit of conservatism in Physical Science to-day, that in
spirit and effect differs very little from Dogma and Orthodoxy in
Religion. It concerns methods rather than results. It is generally
incredulous through fear of being over-credulous. It is bound by
tradition, or the records of the past, and its dogmas are deductions from
the consensus of _opinions_, rather than "decrees in councils" or
"Infallible Popes."
Occasionally a Scientist, like Sir Oliver Lodge, seems to be utterly rid
of both credulity and incredulity, and for these, Science really means--
"the Facts of Nature, demonstrated, classified, and systematized."
But for the "Common People," the average intelligent student, for whom
Science and the pursuit of Knowledge is not a Profession, but a desire to
know, and to understand, in order to be able to use wisely and well, it is
of far less importance to know what others think or believe, deny or
affirm, on the subject of Psychology, than to _realize_ what are the
faculties, capacities, and powers of their own souls.
Knowledge for the sake of knowledge, like "Art for Art's sake," is one
thing, Knowledge for _use_ in daily life, and for illuminating its pathway
and revealing the purpose and destiny of man, is something different
indeed.
This hunger of the individual soul for real knowledge is perhaps the most
patent "Sign of the Times."
The average intelligent individual has broken away from the traditions of
the past, and yet found nothing to take their place. One result is empty
churches, and the race for wealth, display, position, and power. Increased
idleness begets dissipation, Paresis and Insanity increase, while wasted
opportunity both shortens and embitters life.
A very large number of intelligent men and women realizing all this, and
repelled by the almost contemptuous conservatism of so-called Science,
swing to the side of credulity, and are robbed and exploited by
charlatans. They believe the Truth _ought_ to be forthcoming, and their
intuitions and demands, though oft leading to sore disappointment, deserve
a better fate.
It is for these, and for these reasons, that these pages are written, and
with no other hope of fame or reward.
The demand is everywhere for Knowledge of the soul. Facts there are in
abundance, but how far these facts are _demonstrated_, so as to constitute
a basis of exact science, and how to classify and systematize them, the
average intelligence does not know.
The Psychical Scientist claims to know, and undoubtedly does know, but he
busies himself almost exclusively in gathering and verifying _more facts_.
When asked by the average intelligence, "What does it all mean?"--the
answer is, "Ah! there's the rub. _Wait!_ Some day we _may_ know."
The simple fact is that the Scientist is bewildered, while the theologian
and the dogmatist appeal to Faith without Knowledge, and invoke miracle as
in all past times.
Spiritualism has had its day and left an immense body of facts, while
Mediumship and the dark circle are more often repudiated by intelligent
professed Spiritualists. Satisfied as to conscious existence after death
as a _fact_, they have learned how generally unreliable are many messages
from departed friends, owing to conditions beyond their control; while the
effect of surrender to so-called "spirit-control" contributes to neither
health nor a well-balanced mind or character.
Hypnotism maintains a precarious hold, simply through juggling with the
words, "Suggestion" and "Hypnosis." The professional hypnotist, yielding
as he must to the public fear and condemnation of Hypnotism, advocates
_Just a little of it!_ under the false title "Suggestion," for the good it
is claimed to do in such cases as the drink and drug habit. As though a
little further _weakening of the will_, would ultimately tend to restore
and strengthen it!
One is reminded of the baby in "Pendennis." The Mother "hoped the Lord
would forgive her, because it was such a little one!"
Even the leaders in the "Emmanuel Movement" have deceived themselves by
this sophistry, and while they applaud the temporary results, they seem
unaware that they are still further weakening self-control and real
character, by dominating the Will.
It is thus that ignorance, confusion and unrest, like waves of ocean, ebb
and flow in the great human tides.
Through impatience and discouragement alone, many give up the quest for
knowledge as hopeless, and while too well-balanced to drift into
dissipation, they suffer from _ennui_ and become pessimistic.
Real knowledge will not come all at once, like a vision, or a complete
revelation.
The first real Light that comes will be that of Faith, a term generally
misunderstood and misused.
Faith is the complete antithesis of blind dogma and superstition. It is
born within the soul, and never imposed by outward authority enforced by
fear.
"Faith is the soul's _intuitive conviction_ of that which both reason and
conscience approve."
To give intellectual assent to belief in God is one thing; to be able to
declare with light and warmth that uplifts and inspires, "_I know_ that my
Redeemer liveth" is another thing entirely.
The impatience above referred to would see the end from the beginning, and
know all about the development and destiny of the soul before it has
learned the first lesson that guides and determines both.
When, however, Science and Religion clasp hands, and the facts of nature
guided by the light of Faith, build character and guide progress, there is
revealed a Philosophy of Life that needs little revision. It is like the
compass that points continually to the pole, and gives unqualified
assurance as to the _direction_ we are going.
So also every step in the past enables us to get our bearings and verify
our course by checking backward.
Faith is no longer a blind dogma, but a compass in the box of experience,
the wise mariner's guide in the voyage of life.
If neither Science, Religion nor Philosophy, nor all together can thus
come to the service of man, can not do it _now_, after all the weary
centuries since Plato and Aristotle, we may as well write _qui bono_ on
our banners and trail them in the dust!
Even the theologies of the day, recognizing the dilemma and the
difficulties, still cling to the miraculous, and to make the best of a bad
bargain, offer dogma in the place of demonstration, and contradictory and
blind belief in place of the light of Faith.
While they count thousands as nominally in their communion, the
intelligent among all these have many "mental reservations."
The intelligent thought of the world flows past and beyond them.
The "Soul's intuitive conviction" agreeing with "both reason and
conscience" holds and guides them, in spite of the verbal "confession of
faith."
The Divinity of Jesus, the Christ, can be fully explained under natural
and divine law, without invoking miracle.
The result of such explanation is to dethrone him from the altars of dogma
and superstition, and enthrone him on the altar of Love in the heart of
Humanity.
This is long delayed, but cannot be defeated.
STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER I
CLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS
Starting with the _Modulus of Nature_--an Ideal or _Archetypal Man_, and
coming down to practical things in daily life--
1. Man _is_ an _Individual Intelligence_. This is taken as an empirical
_fact_, patent to every intelligent individual.
The source and nature of intelligence itself need not here concern us. We
may call it an _ultimate_ that all the philosophies of the world have
signally failed to explain. It is something that grows, increases or
decreases, expands, becomes confused, according to the conditions of
bodily organ and function, heredity, environment, personal effort and the
like; but so far as we know, it is the same thing, large or small, wise or
foolish. It is still, measure for measure, Individual Intelligence.
2. The term _Individual_ means distinct, concrete, relatively separate.
Man being an Individual Intelligence; God is the Universal Intelligence.
Just as the organism of man is involved in, and evolved from Universal
Nature; so the Intelligence of man is involved in, and evolved from
Universal Intelligence.
The empirical fact of the intelligence of man presupposes a "sufficient
reason" or source. Still we do not know what God and Nature and
Intelligence are. We only know _how they manifest_. Our intelligence
enables us to observe, reflect, reason, and in some measure apprehend the
_method_ and _manifestation_.
I am not seeking to build nor unfold a "Philosophy." "Yes," someone
replies, "but a philosophy is implied or involved."
Very well, let _it_ unfold _itself_.
3. The next empirical fact of prime importance is, The Individual
Intelligence, not of man, but which _is_ man, is _aware of itself_, i.e.,
"self-conscious." It is able to distinguish between the self and the
non-self.
4. Again, as to _consciousness_, as with intelligence: We know that man
has it and uses it, and what it _does_ to some extent; but we do not know
what it _is_, intrinsically, nor do we need to know any of these
_ultimates_. The effort to explain them has never ended in anything but
confusion. We shall herein name them, and then pass them.
5. We have now postulated a self-conscious, Individual Intelligence, as
the real man. Next we find this Man can _do_ things, or _refrain_ from
doing; act, or refrain from action. This is called Initiative, Volition,
Will.
6. This power of action and of choice, inspired by intelligence, aware of
the self, adapts actions to ends. This involves reason and judgment.
7. In the course of experience along the lines of action or restraint, and
observing results in either case, the individual desiring or preferring
certain results to others, acquires more or less self-control. He controls
himself to secure desired results.
Here then, in brief outline, are the basis and the elements of our
Psychology. They are drawn from common observation and experience, and are
verified by the facts of daily life--generally complicated, confused, or
lost sight of in treatises on psychology.
Two of these factors, viz.: Consciousness and Will, enter into all
psychological phenomena such as Hypnotism and Mediumship, and into every
form of mental alienation, insanity, obsession and the like.
Moreover, by building out of mental phenomena a distinct entity--largely
independent of the self-conscious Intelligence, and almost equally so with
consciousness--our "philosophies," "metaphysics," and explanations have
become as confused and unreliable as the psychical phenomenon itself.
Hudson's so-called "Law of Psychic Phenomena," "Subliminal" and
"Supraliminal Consciousness," and the juggling with the terms "suggestion"
and "hypnosis" may serve as sufficient illustrations. In each instance
phenomena are made to take the place of principles and the core of the
problem is ignored, confused, or lost sight of.
In the meantime these empiricists are hunting in the "rubbish of the
temple" (which temple they have _metaphysically_ destroyed), for the Human
Soul--i.e. the concrete, intrinsic Individual Intelligence, which is ONE,
and which the Master Builder (Universal Intelligence) placed on the
Trestle-board of Creation and Time, for the building of character, and the
evolution of the Human Soul.
If the Ideal, Archetypal, or Divine Man, is recognized as the _Modulus_ of
both Nature and Divinity, our Theorem must consist in adhering to the
Modulus and working out the problem.
Q. E. D., if applied to man's completion of his own individual Temple,
might stand for the last words of Jesus, "It is finished," The problem is
solved; "I have finished the Work Thou gavest me to do." Science, Religion
and Philosophy have clasped hands. Divinity revealed in Humanity is
triumphant over Death. "There is a Natural (physical) body and there is a
Spiritual body," and the Individual Intelligence is ONE in each, or in
both; viz.: The Human-Divine Soul.
To recognize the _Modulus_ and intelligently to apprehend the _Theorem_ is
the foundation and the first step in the scientific solution of the
problem of life, and the progressive and continuous evolution of the human
soul. To use the term "Science" (as applied to the study of psychology) in
any other way, is pure empiricism, is wholly unscientific, and has never
yet resulted in anything but confusion and in laying a foundation for
belief, conjecture, theory, dogma, superstition, and fear.
The step of next importance, both in the scientific study of psychology
and in individual progress and evolution, is the mental attitude of the
individual; his point of view; his open-mindedness and utter refusal to
_pre_judge anything. He will often say, "I do not know." He will sometimes
say, "I do not care." That phase or presentation does not appeal to, nor
interest him.
This is what the Vedic philosophers called, "making the mind _one
pointed_" and like a search-light, with the ability to concentrate it on a
given point or subject.
Bias, prejudice, preconceived opinion, credulity and incredulity, are all
like a crooked lens to the eye of the mind, or to the perception of the
simple truth.
Not only are these principles basic in the scientific study of psychology
and the evolution of the individual intelligence, but their neglect and
oversight are solely responsible for the confusion everywhere manifest on
the subject, as well as for _every form of subjective control_,
mediumship, psychical epidemics, and obsession, and they enter into every
form and phase of insanity.
If this be true, and it is readily demonstrable, what subject is of equal
importance; and what facts and considerations are so transcendent as
these?
The difference is that between a mad-house with its frenzied and
frightened mob of helpless victims, and a palace of the gods in which
dwelleth Righteousness, Love, Peace, and Eternal Joy.
Is it not _worth while_?
This Modulus and Theorem of the School of Natural Science involve
Religion, Regeneration, Redemption, and the well-being of Souls here and
hereafter.
They separate Religion from Superstition, Duty from Dogma, cast out Fear,
release the wings of aspiration and faith; and where "the mourners went
about the streets" is heard a new song of rejoicing that binds up the
wounds and sorrows of the brokenhearted.
Again I ask, "Is it not worth while?"