{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_439/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_439","id":"gutenberg_439","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/439","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Spiritualism"],"text":"THE VITAL MESSAGE\n\nBY\n\nARTHUR CONAN DOYLE\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nIn \"The New Revelation\" the first dawn of the coming change has been\ndescribed.  In \"The Vital Message\" the sun has risen higher, and one\nsees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Unseen\nmay be.  As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of\nhow once, from amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an\nAlpine pass, I looked down upon the far stretching view of Lombardy,\nshimmering in the sunshine and extending in one splendid panorama of\nblue lakes and green rolling hills until it melted into the golden haze\nwhich draped the far horizon.  Such a promised land is at our very feet\nwhich, when we attain it, will make our present civilisation seem\nbarren and uncouth.  Already our vanguard is well over the pass.\nNothing can now prevent us from reaching that wonderful land which\nstretches so clearly before those eyes which are opened to see it.\n\nThat stimulating writer, V. C. Desertis, has remarked that the Second\nComing, which has always been timed to follow Armageddon, may be\nfulfilled not by a descent of the spiritual to us, but by the ascent of\nour material plane to the spiritual, and the blending of the two phases\nof existence.  It is, at least, a fascinating speculation.  But without\nso complete an overthrow of the partition walls as this would imply we\nknow enough already to assure ourselves of such a close approximation\nas will surely deeply modify all our views of science, of religion and\nof life.  What form these changes may take and what the evidence is\nupon which they will be founded are briefly set forth in this volume.\n\nARTHUR CONAN DOYLE.\n\nCROWBOROUGH,\n\nJuly, 1919.\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\nCHAPTER\n\n   I  THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS\n  II  THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT\n III  THE GREAT ARGUMENT\n  IV  THE COMING WORLD\n   V  IS IT THE SECOND DAWN?\n\n\nAPPENDICES\n\n  A.  DR. GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS\n  B.  A PARTICULAR INSTANCE\n  C.  SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY\n  D.  THE CLAIRVOYANCE OF MRS. B.\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE VITAL MESSAGE\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS\n\n\nIt has been our fate, among all the innumerable generations of mankind,\nto face the most frightful calamity that has ever befallen the world.\nThere is a basic fact which cannot be denied, and should not be\noverlooked.  For a most important deduction must immediately follow\nfrom it.  That deduction is that we, who have borne the pains, shall\nalso learn the lesson which they were intended to convey.  If we do not\nlearn it and proclaim it, then when can it ever be learned and\nproclaimed, since there can never again be such a spiritual ploughing\nand harrowing and preparation for the seed?  If our souls, wearied and\ntortured during these dreadful five years of self-sacrifice and\nsuspense, can show no radical changes, then what souls will ever\nrespond to a fresh influx of heavenly inspiration?  In that case the\nstate of the human race would indeed be hopeless, and never in all the\ncoming centuries would there be any prospect of improvement.\n\nWhy was this tremendous experience forced upon mankind?  Surely it is a\nsuperficial thinker who imagines that the great Designer of all things\nhas set the whole planet in a ferment, and strained every nation to\nexhaustion, in order that this or that frontier be moved, or some fresh\ncombination be formed in the kaleidoscope of nations.  No, the causes\nof the convulsion, and its objects, are more profound than that.  They\nare essentially religious, not political.  They lie far deeper than the\nnational squabbles of the day.  A thousand years hence those national\nresults may matter little, but the religious result will rule the\nworld.  That religious result is the reform of the decadent\nChristianity of to-day, its simplification, its purification, and its\nreinforcement by the facts of spirit communion and the clear knowledge\nof what lies beyond the exit-door of death.  The shock of the war was\nmeant to rouse us to mental and moral earnestness, to give us the\ncourage to tear away venerable shams, and to force the human race to\nrealise and use the vast new revelation which has been so clearly\nstated and so abundantly proved, for all who will examine the\nstatements and proofs with an open mind.\n\nConsider the awful condition of the world before this thunder-bolt\nstruck it.  Could anyone, tracing back down the centuries and examining\nthe record of the wickedness of man, find anything which could compare\nwith the story of the nations during the last twenty years!  Think of\nthe condition of Russia during that time, with her brutal aristocracy\nand her drunken democracy, her murders on either side, her Siberian\nhorrors, her Jew baitings and her corruption.  Think of the figure of\nLeopold of Belgium, an incarnate devil who from motives of greed\ncarried murder and torture through a large section of Africa, and yet\nwas received in every court, and was eventually buried after a\npanegyric from a Cardinal of the Roman Church--a church which had never\nonce raised her voice against his diabolical career.  Consider the\nsimilar crimes in the Putumayo, where British capitalists, if not\nguilty of outrage, can at least not be acquitted of having condoned it\nby their lethargy and trust in local agents.  Think of Turkey and the\nrecurrent massacres of her subject races.  Think of the heartless grind\nof the factories everywhere, where work assumed a very different and\nmore unnatural shape than the ancient labour of the fields.  Think of\nthe sensuality of many rich, the brutality of many poor, the\nshallowness of many fashionable, the coldness and deadness of religion,\nthe absence anywhere of any deep, true spiritual impulse.  Think, above\nall, of the organised materialism of Germany, the arrogance, the\nheartlessness, the negation of everything which one could possibly\nassociate with the living spirit of Christ as evident in the utterances\nof Catholic Bishops, like Hartmann of Cologne, as in those of Lutheran\nPastors.  Put all this together and say if the human race has ever\npresented a more unlovely aspect.  When we try to find the brighter\nspots they are chiefly where civilisation, as apart from religion, has\nbuilt up necessities for the community, such as hospitals,\nuniversities, and organised charities, as conspicuous in Buddhist Japan\nas in Christian Europe.  We cannot deny that there has been much\nvirtue, much gentleness, much spirituality in individuals.  But the\nchurches were empty husks, which contained no spiritual food for the\nhuman race, and had in the main ceased to influence its actions, save\nin the direction of soulless forms.\n\nThis is not an over-coloured picture.  Can we not see, then, what was\nthe inner reason for the war?  Can we not understand that it was\nneedful to shake mankind loose from gossip and pink teas, and\nsword-worship, and Saturday night drunks, and self-seeking politics and\ntheological quibbles--to wake them up and make them realise that they\nstand upon a narrow knife-edge between two awful eternities, and that,\nhere and now, they have to finish with make-beliefs, and with real\nearnestness and courage face those truths which have always been\npalpable where indolence, or cowardice, or vested interests have not\nobscured the vision.  Let us try to appreciate what those truths are\nand the direction which reform must take.  It is the new spiritual\ndevelopments which predominate in my own thoughts, but there are two\nother great readjustments which are necessary before they can take\ntheir full effect.  On the spiritual side I can speak with the force of\nknowledge from the beyond.  On the other two points of reform, I make\nno such claim.\n\nThe first is that in the Bible, which is the foundation of our present\nreligious thought, we have bound together the living and the dead, and\nthe dead has tainted the living.  A mummy and an angel are in most\nunnatural partnership.  There can be no clear thinking, and no logical\nteaching until the old dispensation has been placed on the shelf of the\nscholar, and removed from the desk of the teacher.  It is indeed a\nwonderful book, in parts the oldest which has come down to us, a book\nfilled with rare knowledge, with history, with poetry, with occultism,\nwith folklore.  But it has no connection with modern conceptions of\nreligion.  In the main it is actually antagonistic to them.  Two\ncontradictory codes have been circulated under one cover, and the\nresult is dire confusion.  The one is a scheme depending upon a special\ntribal God, intensely anthropomorphic and filled with rage, jealousy\nand revenge.  The conception pervades every book of the Old Testament.\nEven in the psalms, which are perhaps the most spiritual and beautiful\nsection, the psalmist, amid much that is noble, sings of the fearsome\nthings which his God will do to his enemies.  \"They shall go down alive\ninto hell.\"  There is the keynote of this ancient document--a document\nwhich advocates massacre, condones polygamy, accepts slavery, and\norders the burning of so-called witches.  Its Mosaic provisions have\nlong been laid aside.  We do not consider ourselves accursed if we fail\nto mutilate our bodies, if we eat forbidden dishes, fail to trim our\nbeards, or wear clothes of two materials.  But we cannot lay aside the\nprovisions and yet regard the document as divine.  No learned quibbles\ncan ever persuade an honest earnest mind that that is right.  One may\nsay:  \"Everyone knows that that is the old dispensation, and is not to\nbe acted upon.\"  It is not true.  It is continually acted upon, and\nalways will be so long as it is made part of one sacred book.  William\nthe Second acted upon it.  His German God which wrought such mischief\nin the world was the reflection of the dreadful being who ordered that\ncaptives be put under the harrow.  The cities of Belgium were the\nreflection of the cities of Moab.  Every hard-hearted brute in history,\nmore especially in the religious wars, has found his inspiration in the\nOld Testament.  \"Smite and spare not!\"  \"An eye for an eye!\", how\nreadily the texts spring to the grim lips of the murderous fanatic.\nFrancis on St. Bartholomew's night, Alva in the Lowlands, Tilly at\nMagdeburg, Cromwell at Drogheda, the Covenainters at Philliphaugh, the\nAnabaptists of Munster, and the early Mormons of Utah, all found their\nmurderous impulses fortified from this unholy source.  Its red trail\nruns through history.  Even where the New Testament prevails, its\nteaching must still be dulled and clouded by its sterner neighbour.\nLet us retain this honoured work of literature.  Let us remove the\ntaint which poisons the very spring of our religious thought.\n\nThis is, in my opinion, the first clearing which should be made for the\nmore beautiful building to come.  The second is less important, as it\nis a shifting of the point of view, rather than an actual change.  It\nis to be remembered that Christ's life in this world occupied, so far\nas we can estimate, 33 years, whilst from His arrest to His\nresurrection was less than a week.  Yet the whole Christian system has\ncome to revolve round His death, to the partial exclusion of the\nbeautiful lesson of His life.  Far too much weight has been placed upon\nthe one, and far too little upon the other, for the death, beautiful,\nand indeed perfect, as it was, could be matched by that of many scores\nof thousands who have died for an idea, while the life, with its\nconsistent record of charity, breadth of mind, unselfishness, courage,\nreason, and progressiveness, is absolutely unique and superhuman.  Even\nin these abbreviated, translated, and second-hand records we receive an\nimpression such as no other life can give--an impression which fills us\nwith utter reverence.  Napoleon, no mean judge of human nature, said of\nit:  \"It is different with Christ.  Everything about Him astonishes me.\nHis spirit surprises me, and His will confounds me.  Between Him and\nanything of this world there is no possible comparison.  He is really a\nbeing apart.  The nearer I approach Him and the closer I examine Him,\nthe more everything seems above me.\"\n\nIt is this wonderful life, its example and inspiration, which was the\nreal object of the descent of this high spirit on to our planet.  If\nthe human race had earnestly centred upon that instead of losing itself\nin vain dreams of vicarious sacrifices and imaginary falls, with all\nthe mystical and contentious philosophy which has centred round the\nsubject, how very different the level of human culture and happiness\nwould be to-day!  Such theories, with their absolute want of reason or\nmorality, have been the main cause why the best minds have been so\noften alienated from the Christian system and proclaimed themselves\nmaterialists.  In contemplating what shocked their instincts for truth\nthey have lost that which was both true and beautiful.  Christ's death\nwas worthy of His life, and rounded off a perfect career, but it is the\nlife which He has left as the foundation for the permanent religion of\nmankind.  All the religious wars, the private feuds, and the countless\nmiseries of sectarian contention, would have been at least minimised,\nif not avoided, had the bare example of Christ's life been adopted as\nthe standard of conduct and of religion.\n\nBut there are certain other considerations which should have weight\nwhen we contemplate this life and its efficacy as an example.  One of\nthese is that the very essence of it was that He critically examined\nreligion as He found it, and brought His robust common sense and\ncourage to bear in exposing the shams and in pointing out the better\npath.  THAT is the hall-mark of the true follower of Christ, and not\nthe mute acceptance of doctrines which are, upon the face of them,\nfalse and pernicious, because they come to us with some show of\nauthority.  What authority have we now, save this very life, which\ncould compare with those Jewish books which were so binding in their\nforce, and so immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips\nof the scribe, were most carefully preserved?  It is a simple obvious\nfact that if Christ had been orthodox, and had possessed what is so\noften praised as a \"child-like faith,\" there could have been no such\nthing as Christianity.  Let reformers who love Him take heart as they\nconsider that they are indeed following in the footsteps of the Master,\nwho has at no time said that the revelation which He brought, and which\nhas been so imperfectly used, is the last which will come to mankind.\nIn our own times an equally great one has been released from the centre\nof all truth, which will make as deep an impression upon the human race\nas Christianity, though no predominant figure has yet appeared to\nenforce its lessons.  Such a figure has appeared once when the days\nwere ripe, and I do not doubt that this may occur once more.\n\nOne other consideration must be urged.  Christ has not given His\nmessage in the first person.  If He had done so our position would be\nstronger.  It has been repeated by the hearsay and report of earnest\nbut ill-educated men.  It speaks much for education in the Roman\nprovince of Judea that these fishermen, publicans and others could even\nread or write.  Luke and Paul were, of course, of a higher class, but\ntheir information came from their lowly predecessors.  Their account is\nsplendidly satisfying in the unity of the general impression which it\nproduces, and the clear drawing of the Master's teaching and character.\nAt the same time it is full of inconsistencies and contradictions upon\nimmaterial matters.  For example, the four accounts of the resurrection\ndiffer in detail, and there is no orthodox learned lawyer who dutifully\naccepts all four versions who could not shatter the evidence if he\ndealt with it in the course of his profession.  These details are\nimmaterial to the spirit of the message.  It is not common sense to\nsuppose that every item is inspired, or that we have to make no\nallowance for imperfect reporting, individual convictions, oriental\nphraseology, or faults of translation.  These have, indeed, been\nadmitted by revised versions.  In His utterance about the letter and\nthe spirit we could almost believe that Christ had foreseen the plague\nof texts from which we have suffered, even as He Himself suffered at\nthe hands of the theologians of His day, who then, as now, have been a\ncurse to the world.  We were meant to use our reasons and brains in\nadapting His teaching to the conditions of our altered lives and times.\nMuch depended upon the society and mode of expression which belonged to\nHis era.  To suppose in these days that one has literally to give all\nto the poor, or that a starved English prisoner should literally love\nhis enemy the Kaiser, or that because Christ protested against the lax\nmarriages of His day therefore two spouses who loathe each other should\nbe for ever chained in a life servitude and martyrdom--all these\nassertions are to travesty His teaching and to take from it that robust\nquality of common sense which was its main characteristic.  To ask what\nis impossible from human nature is to weaken your appeal when you ask\nfor what is reasonable.\n\nIt has already been stated that of the three headings under which\nreforms are grouped, the exclusion of the old dispensation, the greater\nattention to Christ's life as compared to His death, and the new\nspiritual influx which is giving us psychic religion, it is only on the\nlatter that one can quote the authority of the beyond.  Here, however,\nthe case is really understated.  In regard to the Old Testament I have\nnever seen the matter treated in a spiritual communication.  The nature\nof Christ, however, and His teaching, have been expounded a score of\ntimes with some variation of detail, but in the main as reproduced\nhere.  Spirits have their individuality of view, and some carry over\nstrong earthly prepossessions which they do not easily shed; but\nreading many authentic spirit communications one finds that the idea of\nredemption is hardly ever spoken of, while that of example and\ninfluence is for ever insisted upon.  In them Christ is the highest\nspirit known, the son of God, as we all are, but nearer to God, and\ntherefore in a more particular sense His son.  He does not, save in\nmost rare and special cases, meet us when we die.  Since souls pass\nover, night and day, at the rate of about 100 a minute, this would seem\nself-evident.  After a time we may be admitted to His presence, to find\na most tender, sympathetic and helpful comrade and guide, whose spirit\ninfluences all things even when His bodily presence is not visible.\nThis is the general teaching of the other world communications\nconcerning Christ, the gentle, loving and powerful spirit which broods\never over that world which, in all its many spheres, is His special\ncare.\n\nBefore passing to the new revelation, its certain proofs and its\ndefinite teaching, let us hark back for a moment upon the two points\nwhich have already been treated.  They are not absolutely vital points.\nThe fresh developments can go on and conquer the world without them.\nThere can be no sudden change in the ancient routine of our religious\nhabits, nor is it possible to conceive that a congress of theologians\ncould take so heroic a step as to tear the Bible in twain, laying one\nhalf upon the shelf and one upon the table.  Neither is it to be\nexpected that any formal pronouncements could ever be made that the\nchurches have all laid the wrong emphasis upon the story of Christ.\nMoral courage will not rise to such a height.  But with the spiritual\nquickening and the greater earnestness which will have their roots in\nthis bloody passion of mankind, many will perceive what is reasonable\nand true, so that even if the Old Testament should remain, like some\nobsolete appendix in the animal frame, to mark a lower stage through\nwhich development has passed, it will more and more be recognised as a\ndocument which has lost all validity and which should no longer be\nallowed to influence human conduct, save by way of pointing out much\nwhich we may avoid.  So also with the teaching of Christ, the mystical\nportions may fade gently away, as the grosser views of eternal\npunishment have faded within our own lifetime, so that while mankind is\nhardly aware of the change the heresy of today will become the\ncommonplace of tomorrow.  These things will adjust themselves in God's\nown time.  What is, however, both new and vital are those fresh\ndevelopments which will now be discussed.  In them may be found the\nsigns of how the dry bones may be stirred, and how the mummy may be\nquickened with the breath of life.  With the actual certainty of a\ndefinite life after death, and a sure sense of responsibility for our\nown spiritual development, a responsibility which cannot be put upon\nany other shoulders, however exalted, but must be borne by each\nindividual for himself, there will come the greatest reinforcement of\nmorality which the human race has ever known.  We are on the verge of\nit now, but our descendants will look upon the past century as the\nculmination of the dark ages when man lost his trust in God, and was so\nengrossed in his temporary earth life that he lost all sense of\nspiritual reality.\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT\n\n\nSome sixty years ago that acute thinker Lord Brougham remarked that in\nthe clear sky of scepticism he saw only one small cloud drifting up and\nthat was Modern Spiritualism.  It was a curiously inverted simile, for\none would surely have expected him to say that in the drifting clouds\nof scepticism he saw one patch of clear sky, but at least it showed how\nconscious he was of the coming importance of the movement.  Ruskin,\ntoo, an equally agile mind, said that his assurance of immortality\ndepended upon the observed facts of Spiritualism.  Scores, and indeed\nhundreds, of famous names could be quoted who have subscribed the same\nstatement, and whose support would dignify any cause upon earth.  They\nare the higher peaks who have been the first to catch the light, but\nthe dawn will spread until none are too lowly to share it.  Let us\nturn, therefore, and inspect this movement which is most certainly\ndestined to revolutionise human thought and action as none other has\ndone within the Christian era.  We shall look at it both in its\nstrength and in its weakness, for where one is dealing with what one\nknows to be true one can fearlessly insist upon the whole of the truth.\n\nThe movement which is destined to bring vitality to the dead and cold\nreligions has been called \"Modern Spiritualism.\"  The \"modern\" is good,\nsince the thing itself, in one form or another, is as old as history,\nand has always, however obscured by forms, been the red central glow in\nthe depths of all religious ideas, permeating the Bible from end to\nend.  But the word \"Spiritualism\" has been so befouled by wicked\ncharlatans, and so cheapened by many a sad incident, that one could\nalmost wish that some such term as \"psychic religion\" would clear the\nsubject of old prejudices, just as mesmerism, after many years of\nobloquy, was rapidly accepted when its name was changed to hypnotism.\nOn the other hand, one remembers the sturdy pioneers who have fought\nunder this banner, and who were prepared to risk their careers, their\nprofessional success, and even their reputation for sanity, by publicly\nasserting what they knew to be the truth.\n\nTheir brave, unselfish devotion must do something to cleanse the name\nfor which they fought and suffered.  It was they who nursed the system\nwhich promises to be, not a new religion--it is far too big for\nthat--but part of the common heritage of knowledge shared by the whole\nhuman race.  Perfected Spiritualism, however, will probably bear about\nthe same relation to the Spiritualism of 1850 as a modern locomotive to\nthe bubbling little kettle which heralded the era of steam.  It will\nend by being rather the proof and basis of all religions than a\nreligion in itself.  We have already too many religions--but too few\nproofs.\n\nThose first manifestations at Hydesville varied in no way from many of\nwhich we have record in the past, but the result arising from them\ndiffered very much, because, for the first time, it occurred to a human\nbeing not merely to listen to inexplicable sounds, and to fear them or\nmarvel at them, but to establish communication with them.  John\nWesley's father might have done the same more than a century before had\nthe thought occurred to him when he was a witness of the manifestations\nat Epworth in 1726.  It was only when the young Fox girl struck her\nhands together and cried \"Do as I do\" that there was instant\ncompliance, and consequent proof of the presence of an INTELLIGENT\ninvisible force, thus differing from all other forces of which we know.\nThe circumstances were humble, and even rather sordid, upon both sides\nof the veil, human and spirit, yet it was, as time will more and more\nclearly show, one of the turning points of the world's history, greater\nfar than the fall of thrones or the rout of armies.  Some artist of the\nfuture will draw the scene--the sitting-room of the wooden, shack-like\nhouse, the circle of half-awed and half-critical neighbours, the child\nclapping her hands with upturned laughing face, the dark corner shadows\nwhere these strange new forces seem to lurk--forces often apparent, and\nnow come to stay and to effect the complete revolution of human\nthought.  We may well ask why should such great results arise from such\npetty sources?  So argued the highbrowed philosophers of Greece and\nRome when the outspoken Paul, with the fisherman Peter and his\nhalf-educated disciples, traversed all their learned theories, and with\nthe help of women, slaves, and schismatic Jews, subverted their ancient\ncreeds.  One can but answer that Providence has its own way of\nattaining its results, and that it seldom conforms to our opinion of\nwhat is most appropriate.\n\nWe have a larger experience of such phenomena now, and we can define\nwith some accuracy what it was that happened at Hydesville in the year\n1848.  We know that these matters are governed by law and by conditions\nas much as any other phenomena of the universe, though at the moment it\nseemed to the public to be an isolated and irregular outburst.  On the\none hand, you had a material, earth-bound spirit of a low order of\ndevelopment which needed a physical medium in order to be able to\nindicate its presence.  On the other, you had that rare thing, a good\nphysical medium.  The result followed as surely as the flash follows\nwhen the electric battery and wire are both properly adjusted.\nCorresponding experiments, where effect, and cause duly follow, are\nbeing worked out at the present moment by Professor Crawford, of\nBelfast, as detailed in his two recent books, where he shows that there\nis an actual loss of weight of the medium in exact proportion to the\nphysical phenomenon produced.[1]  The whole secret of mediumship on\nthis material side appears to lie in the power, quite independent of\noneself, of passively giving up some portion of one's bodily substance\nfor the use of outside influences.  Why should some have this power and\nsome not?  We do not know--nor do we know why one should have the ear\nfor music and another not.  Each is born in us, and each has little\nconnection with our moral natures.  At first it was only physical\nmediumship which was known, and public attention centred upon moving\ntables, automatic musical instruments, and other crude but obvious\nexamples of outside influence, which were unhappily very easily\nimitated by rogues.  Since then we have learned that there are many\nforms of mediumship, so different from each other that an expert at one\nmay have no powers at all at the other.  The automatic writer, the\nclairvoyant, the crystal-seer, the trance speaker, the photographic\nmedium, the direct voice medium, and others, are all, when genuine, the\nmanifestations of one force, which runs through varied channels as it\ndid in the gifts ascribed to the disciples.  The unhappy outburst of\nroguery was helped, no doubt, by the need for darkness claimed by the\nearly experimenters--a claim which is by no means essential, since the\ngreatest of all mediums, D. D. Home, was able by the exceptional\nstrength of his powers to dispense with it.  At the same time the fact\nthat darkness rather than light, and dryness rather than moisture, are\nhelpful to good results has been abundantly manifested, and points to\nthe physical laws which underlie the phenomena.  The observation made\nlong afterwards that wireless telegraphy, another etheric force, acts\ntwice as well by night as by day, may, corroborate the general\nconclusions of the early Spiritualists, while their assertion that the\nleast harmful light is red light has a suggestive analogy in the\nexperience of the photographer.\n\nThere is no space here for the history of the rise and development of\nthe movement.  It provoked warm adhesion and fierce opposition from the\nstart.  Professor Hare and Horace Greeley were among the educated\nminority who tested and endorsed its truth.  It was disfigured by many\ngrievous incidents, which may explain but does not excuse the perverse\nopposition which it encountered in so many quarters.  This opposition\nwas really largely based upon the absolute materialism of the age,\nwhich would not admit that there could exist at the present moment such\nconditions as might be accepted in the far past.  When actually brought\nin contact with that life beyond the grave which they professed to\nbelieve in, these people winced, recoiled, and declared it impossible.\nThe science of the day was also rooted in materialism, and discarded\nall its own very excellent axioms when it was faced by an entirely new\nand unexpected proposition.  Faraday declared that in approaching a new\nsubject one should make up one's mind a priori as to what is possible\nand what is not!  Huxley said that the messages, EVEN IF TRUE,\n\"interested him no more than the gossip of curates in a cathedral\ncity.\"  Darwin said:  \"God help us if we are to believe such things.\"\nHerbert Spencer declared against it, but had no time to go into it.  At\nthe same time all science did not come so badly out of the ordeal.  As\nalready mentioned, Professor Hare, of Philadelphia, inventor, among\nother things, of the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, was the first man of note\nwho had the moral courage, after considerable personal investigation,\nto declare that these new and strange developments were true.  He was\nfollowed by many medical men, both in America and in Britain, including\nDr. Elliotson, one of the leaders of free thought in this country.\nProfessor Crookes, the most rising chemist in Europe, Dr. Russel\nWallace the great naturalist, Varley the electrician, Flammarion the\nFrench astronomer, and many others, risked their scientific reputations\nin their brave assertions of the truth.  These men were not credulous\nfools.  They saw and deplored the existence of frauds.  Crookes'\nletters upon the subject are still extant.  In very many cases it was\nthe Spiritualists themselves who exposed the frauds.  They laughed, as\nthe public laughed, at the sham Shakespeares and vulgar Caesars who\nfigured in certain seance rooms.  They deprecated also the low moral\ntone which would turn such powers to prophecies about the issue of a\nrace or the success of a speculation.  But they had that broader vision\nand sense of proportion which assured them that behind all these\nfollies and frauds there lay a mass of solid evidence which could not\nbe shaken, though like all evidence, it had to be examined before it\ncould be appreciated.  They were not such simpletons as to be driven\naway from a great truth because there are some dishonest camp followers\nwho hang upon its skirts.\n\nA great centre of proof and of inspiration lay during those early days\nin Mr. D. D. Home, a Scottish-American, who possessed powers which make\nhim one of the most remarkable personalities of whom we have any\nrecord.  Home's life, written by his second wife, is a book which\ndeserves very careful reading.  This man, who in some aspects was more\nthan a man, was before the public for nearly thirty years.  During that\ntime he never received payment for his services, and was always ready,\nto put himself at the disposal of any bona-fide and reasonable\nenquirer.  His phenomena were produced in full light, and it was\nimmaterial to him whether the sittings were in his own rooms or in\nthose of his friends.  So high were his principles that upon one\noccasion, though he was a man of moderate means and less than moderate\nhealth, he refused the princely fee of two thousand pounds offered for\na single sitting by the Union Circle in Paris.\n\nAs to his powers, they seem to have included every form of mediumship\nin the highest degree--self-levitation, as witnessed by hundreds of\ncredible witnesses; the handling of fire, with the power of conferring\nlike immunity upon others; the movement without human touch of heavy\nobjects; the visible materialisation of spirits; miracles of healing;\nand messages from the dead, such as that which converted the\nhard-headed Scot, Robert Chambers, when Home repeated to him the actual\ndying words of his young daughter.  All this came from a man of so\nsweet a nature and of so charitable a disposition, that the union of\nall qualities would seem almost to justify those who, to Home's great\nembarrassment, were prepared to place him upon a pedestal above\nhumanity.\n\nThe genuineness of his psychic powers has never been seriously\nquestioned, and was as well recognised in Rome and Paris as in London.\nOne incident only darkened his career, and it, was one in which he was\nblameless, as anyone who carefully weighs the evidence must admit.  I\nallude to the action taken against him by Mrs. Lyon, who, after\nadopting him as her son and settling a large sum of money upon him,\nendeavoured to regain, and did regain, this money by her unsupported\nassertion that he had persuaded her illicitly to make him the\nallowance.  The facts of his life are, in my judgment, ample proof of\nthe truth of the Spiritualist position, if no other proof at all had\nbeen available.  It is to be remarked in the career of this entirely\nhonest and unvenal medium that he had periods in his life when his\npowers deserted him completely, that he could foresee these lapses, and\nthat, being honest and unvenal, he simply abstained from all attempts\nuntil the power returned.  It is this intermittent character of the\ngift which is, in my opinion, responsible for cases when a medium who\nhas passed the most rigid tests upon certain occasions is afterwards\ndetected in simulating, very clumsily, the results which he had once\nsuccessfully accomplished.  The real power having failed, he has not\nthe moral courage to admit it, nor the self-denial to forego his fee\nwhich he endeavours to earn by a travesty of what was once genuine.\nSuch an explanation would cover some facts which otherwise are hard to\nreconcile.  We must also admit that some mediums are extremely\nirresponsible and feather-headed people.  A friend of mine, who sat\nwith Eusapia Palladino, assured me that he saw her cheat in the most\nchildish and bare-faced fashion, and yet immediately afterwards\nincidents occurred which were absolutely beyond any, normal powers to\nproduce.\n\nApart from Home, another episode which marks a stage in the advance of\nthis movement was the investigation and report by the Dialectical\nSociety in the year 1869.  This body was composed of men of various\nlearned professions who gathered together to investigate the alleged\nfacts, and ended by reporting that they really WERE facts.  They were\nunbiased, and their conclusions were founded upon results which were\nvery soberly set forth in their report, a most convincing document\nwhich, even now in 1919, after the lapse of fifty years, is far more\nintelligent than the greater part of current opinion upon this subject.\nNone the less, it was greeted by a chorus of ridicule by the ignorant\nPress of that day, who, if the same men had come to the opposite\nconclusion in spite of the evidence, would have been ready to hail\ntheir verdict as the undoubted end of a pernicious movement.\n\nIn the early days, about 1863, a book was written by Mrs. de Morgan,\nthe wife of the well-known mathematician Professor de Morgan, entitled\n\"From Matter to Spirit.\"  There is a sympathetic preface by the\nhusband.  The book is still well worth reading, for it is a question\nwhether anyone has shown greater brain power in treating the subject.\nIn it the prophecy is made that as the movement develops the more\nmaterial phenomena will decrease and their place be taken by the more\nspiritual, such as automatic writing.  This forecast has been\nfulfilled, for though physical mediums still exist the other more\nsubtle forms greatly predominate, and call for far more discriminating\ncriticism in judging their value and their truth.  Two very convincing\nforms of mediumship, the direct voice and spirit photography, have also\nbecome prominent.  Each of these presents such proof that it is\nimpossible for the sceptic to face them, and he can only avoid them by\nignoring them.\n\nIn the case of the direct voice one of the leading exponents is Mrs.\nFrench, an amateur medium in America, whose work is described both by\nMr. Funk and Mr. Randall.  She is a frail elderly lady, yet in her\npresence the most masculine and robust voices make communications, even\nwhen her own mouth is covered.  I have myself investigated the direct\nvoice in the case of four different mediums, two of them amateurs, and\ncan have no doubt of the reality of the voices, and that they are not\nthe effect of ventriloquism.  I was more struck by the failures than by\nthe successes, and cannot easily forget the passionate pantings with\nwhich some entity strove hard to reveal his identity to me, but without\nsuccess.  One of these mediums was tested afterwards by having the\nmouth filled with coloured water, but the voice continued as before.\n\nAs to spirit photography, the most successful results are obtained by\nthe Crewe circle in England, under the mediumship of Mr. Hope and Mrs.\nBuxton.[2]  I have seen scores of these photographs, which in several\ncases reproduce exact images of the dead which do not correspond with\nany pictures of them taken during life.  I have seen father, mother,\nand dead soldier son, all taken together with the dead son looking far\nthe happier and not the least substantial of the three.  It is in these\nvaried forms of proof that the impregnable strength of the evidence\nlies, for how absurd do explanations of telepathy, unconscious\ncerebration or cosmic memory become when faced by such phenomena as\nspirit photography, materialisation, or the direct voice.  Only one\nhypothesis can cover every branch of these manifestations, and that is\nthe system of extraneous life and action which has always, for seventy\nyears, held the field for any reasonable mind which had impartially\nconsidered the facts.\n\nI have spoken of the need for careful and cool-headed analysis in\njudging the evidence where automatic writing is concerned.  One is\nbound to exclude spirit explanations until all natural ones have been\nexhausted, though I do not include among natural ones the extreme\nclaims of far-fetched telepathy such as that another person can read in\nyour thoughts things of which you were never yourself aware.  Such\nexplanations are not explanations, but mystifications and absurdities,\nthough they seem to have a special attraction for a certain sort of\npsychical researcher, who is obviously destined to go on researching to\nthe end of time, without ever reaching any conclusion save that of the\npatience of those who try to follow his reasoning.  To give a good\nexample of valid automatic script, chosen out of many which I could\nquote, I would draw the reader's attention to the facts as to the\nexcavations at Glastonbury, as detailed in \"The Gate of Remembrance\" by\nMr. Bligh Bond.  Mr. Bligh Bond, by the way, is not a Spiritualist, but\nthe same cannot be said of the writer of the automatic script, an\namateur medium, who was able to indicate the secrets of the buried\nabbey, which were proved to be correct when the ruins were uncovered.\nI can truly say that, though I have read much of the old monastic life,\nit has never been brought home to me so closely as by the messages and\ndescriptions of dear old Brother Johannes, the earth-bound\nspirit--earthbound by his great love for the old abbey in which he had\nspent his human life.  This book, with its practical sequel, may be\nquoted as an excellent example of automatic writing at its highest, for\nwhat telepathic explanation can cover the detailed description of\nobjects which lie unseen by any human eye?  It must be admitted,\nhowever, that in automatic writing you are at one end of the telephone,\nif one may use such a simile, and you have, no assurance as to who is\nat the other end.  You may have wildly false messages suddenly\ninterpolated among truthful ones--messages so detailed in their\nmendacity that it is impossible to think that they are not deliberately\nfalse.  When once we have accepted the central fact that spirits change\nlittle in essentials when leaving the body, and that in consequence the\nworld is infested by many low and mischievous types, one can understand\nthat these untoward incidents are rather a confirmation of Spiritualism\nthan an argument against it.  Personally I have received and have been\ndeceived by several such messages.  At the same time I can say that\nafter an experience of thirty years of such communications I have never\nknown a blasphemous, an obscene or an unkind sentence come through.  I\nadmit, however, that I have heard of such cases.  Like attracts like,\nand one should know one's human company before one joins in such\nintimate and reverent rites.  In clairvoyance the same sudden\ninexplicable deceptions appear.  I have closely followed the work of\none female medium, a professional, whose results are so extraordinarily\ngood that in a favourable case she will give the full names of the\ndeceased as well as the most definite and convincing test messages.\nYet among this splendid series of results I have notes of several in\nwhich she was a complete failure and absolutely wrong upon essentials.\nHow can this be explained?  We can only answer that conditions were\nobviously not propitious, but why or how are among the many problems of\nthe future.  It is a profound and most complicated subject, however\neasily it may be settled by the \"ridiculous nonsense\" school of\ncritics.  I look at the row of books upon the left of my desk as I\nwrite--ninety-six solid volumes, many of them annotated and well\nthumbed, and yet I know that I am like a child wading ankle deep in the\nmargin of an illimitable ocean.  But this, at least, I have very\nclearly realised, that the ocean is there and that the margin is part\nof it, and that down that shelving shore the human race is destined to\nmove slowly to deeper waters.  In the next chapter, I will endeavour to\nshow what is the purpose of the Creator in this strange revelation of\nnew intelligent forces impinging upon our planet.  It is this view of\nthe question which must justify the claim that this movement, so long\nthe subject of sneers and ridicule, is absolutely the most important\ndevelopment in the whole history of the human race, so important that,\nif we could conceive one single man discovering and publishing it, he\nwould rank before Christopher Columbus as a discoverer of new worlds,\nbefore Paul as a teacher of new religious truths, and before Isaac\nNewton as a student of the laws of the Universe.\n\nBefore opening up this subject there is one consideration which should\nhave due weight, and yet seems continually to be overlooked.  The\ndifferences between various sects are a very small thing as compared to\nthe great eternal duel between materialism and the spiritual view of\nthe Universe.  That is the real fight.  It is a fight in which the\nChurches championed the anti-material view, but they have done it so\nunintelligently, and have been continually placed in such false\npositions, that they have always been losing.  Since the days of Hume\nand Voltaire and Gibbon the fight has slowly but steadily rolled in\nfavour of the attack.  Then came Darwin, showing with apparent truth,\nthat man has never fallen but always risen.  This cut deep into the\nphilosophy of orthodoxy, and it is folly to deny it.  Then again came\nthe so-called \"Higher Criticism,\" showing alleged flaws and cracks in\nthe very foundations.  All this time the churches were yielding ground,\nand every retreat gave a fresh jumping-off place for a new assault.  It\nhas gone so far that at the present moment a very large section of the\npeople of this country, rich and poor, are out of all sympathy not only\nwith the churches but with the whole Spiritual view.  Now, we intervene\nwith our positive knowledge and actual proof--an ally so powerful that\nwe are capable of turning the whole tide of battle and rolling it back\nfor ever against materialism.  We can say:  \"We will meet you on your\nown ground and show you by material and scientific tests that the soul\nand personality survive.\"  That is the aim of Psychic Science, and it\nhas been fully attained.  It means an end to materialism for ever.  And\nyet this movement, this Spiritual movement, is hooted at and reviled by\nRome, by Canterbury and even by Little Bethel, each of them for once\nacting in concert, and including in their battle line such strange\nallies as the Scientific Agnostics and the militant Free-thinkers.\nFather Vaughan and the Bishop of London, the Rev. F. B. Meyer and Mr.\nClodd, \"The Church Times\" and \"The Freethinker,\" are united in battle,\nthough they fight with very different battle cries, the one declaring\nthat the thing is of the devil, while the other is equally clear that\nit does not exist at all.  The opposition of the materialists is\nabsolutely intelligent since it is clear that any man who has spent his\nlife in saying \"No\" to all extramundane forces is, indeed, in a\npitiable position when, after many years, he has to recognise that his\nwhole philosophy is built upon sand and that \"Yes\" was the answer from\nthe beginning.  But as to the religious bodies, what words can express\ntheir stupidity and want of all proportion in not running halfway and\nmore to meet the greatest ally who has ever intervened to change their\ndefeat into victory?  What gifts this all-powerful ally brings with\nhim, and what are the terms of his alliance, will now be considered.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE GREAT ARGUMENT\n\n\nThe physical basis of all psychic belief is that the soul is a complete\nduplicate of the body, resembling it in the smallest particular,\nalthough constructed in some far more tenuous material.  In ordinary\nconditions these two bodies are intermingled so that the identity of\nthe finer one is entirely obscured.  At death, however, and under\ncertain conditions in the course of life, the two divide and can be\nseen separately.  Death differs from the conditions of separation\nbefore death in that there is a complete break between the two bodies,\nand life is carried on entirely by the lighter of the two, while the\nheavier, like a cocoon from which the living occupant has escaped,\ndegenerates and disappears, the world burying the cocoon with much\nsolemnity by taking little pains to ascertain what has become of its\nnobler contents.  It is a vain thing to urge that science has not\nadmitted this contention, and that the statement is pure dogmatism.\nThe science which has not examined the facts has, it is true, not\nadmitted the contention, but its opinion is manifestly worthless, or at\nthe best of less weight than that of the humblest student of psychic\nphenomena.  The real science which has examined the facts is the only\nvalid authority, and it is practically unanimous.  I have made personal\nappeals to at least one great leader of science to examine the facts,\nhowever superficially, without any success, while Sir William Crookes\nappealed to Sir George Stokes, the Secretary of the Royal Society, one\nof the most bitter opponents of the movement, to come down to his\nlaboratory and see the psychic force at work, but he took no notice.\nWhat weight has science of that sort?  It can only be compared to that\ntheological prejudice which caused the Ecclesiastics in the days of\nGalileo to refuse to look through the telescope which he held out to\nthem.\n\nIt is possible to write down the names of fifty professors in great\nseats of learning who have examined and endorsed these facts, and the\nlist would include many of the greatest intellects which the world has\nproduced in our time--Flammarion and Lombroso, Charles Richet and\nRussel Wallace, Willie Reichel, Myers, Zollner, James, Lodge, and\nCrookes.  Therefore the facts HAVE been endorsed by the only science\nthat has the right to express an opinion.  I have never, in my thirty\nyears of experience, known one single scientific man who went\nthoroughly into this matter and did not end by accepting the Spiritual\nsolution.  Such may exist, but I repeat that I have never heard of him.\nLet us, then, with confidence examine this matter of the \"spiritual\nbody,\" to use the term made classical by Saint Paul.  There are many\nsigns in his writings that Paul was deeply versed in psychic matters,\nand one of these is his exact definition of the natural and spiritual\nbodies in the service which is the final farewell to life of every\nChristian.  Paul picked his words, and if he had meant that man\nconsisted of a natural body and a spirit he would have said so.  When\nhe said \"a spiritual body\" he meant a body which contained the spirit\nand yet was distinct from the ordinary natural body.  That is exactly\nwhat psychic science has now shown to be true.\n\nWhen a man has taken hashish or certain other drugs, he not\ninfrequently has the experience that he is standing or floating beside\nhis own body, which he can see stretched senseless upon the couch.  So\nalso under anaesthetics, particularly under laughing gas, many people\nare conscious of a detachment from their bodies, and of experiences at\na distance.  I have myself seen very clearly my wife and children\ninside a cab while I was senseless in the dentist's chair.  Again, when\na man is fainting or dying, and his system in an unstable condition, it\nis asserted in very many definite instances that he can, and does,\nmanifest himself to others at a distance.  These phantasms of the\nliving, which have been so carefully explored and docketed by Messrs.\nMyers and Gurney, ran into hundreds of cases.  Some people claim that\nby an effort of will they can, after going to sleep, propel their own\ndoubles in the direction which they desire, and visit those whom they\nwish to see.  Thus there is a great volume of evidence--how great no\nman can say who has not spent diligent years in exploring it--which\nvouches for the existence of this finer body containing the precious\njewels of the mind and spirit, and leaving only gross confused animal\nfunctions in its heavier companion.\n\nMr. Funk, who is a critical student of psychic phenomena, and also the\njoint compiler of the standard American dictionary, narrates a story in\npoint which could be matched from other sources.  He tells of an\nAmerican doctor of his acquaintance, and he vouches personally for the\ntruth of the incident.  This doctor, in the course of a cataleptic\nseizure in Florida, was aware that he had left his body, which he saw\nlying beside him.  He had none the less preserved his figure and his\nidentity.  The thought of some friend at a distance came into his mind,\nand after an appreciable interval he found himself in that friend's\nroom, half way across the continent.  He saw his friend, and was\nconscious that his friend saw him.  He afterwards returned to his own\nroom, stood beside his own senseless body, argued within himself\nwhether he should re-occupy it or not, and finally, duty overcoming\ninclination, he merged his two frames together and continued his life.\nA letter from him to his friend explaining matters crossed a letter\nfrom the friend, in which he told how he also had been aware of his\npresence.  The incident is narrated in detail in Mr. Funk's \"Psychic\nRiddle.\"\n\nI do not understand how any man can examine the many instances coming\nfrom various angles of approach without recognising that there really\nis a second body of this sort, which incidentally goes far to account\nfor all stories, sacred or profane, of ghosts, apparitions and visions.\nNow, what is this second body, and how does it fit into modern\nreligious revelation?\n\nWhat it is, is a difficult question, and yet when science and\nimagination unite, as Tyndall said they should unite, to throw a\nsearchlight into the unknown, they may produce a beam sufficient to\noutline vaguely what will become clearer with the future advance of our\nrace.  Science has demonstrated that while ether pervades everything\nthe ether which is actually in a body is different from the ether\noutside it.  \"Bound\" ether is the name given to this, which Fresnel and\nothers have shown to be denser.  Now, if this fact be applied to the\nhuman body, the result would be that, if all that is visible of that\nbody were removed, there would still remain a complete and absolute\nmould of the body, formed in bound ether which would be different from\nthe ether around it.  This argument is more solid than mere\nspeculation, and it shows that even the soul may come to be defined in\nterms of matter and is not altogether \"such stuff as dreams are made\nof.\"\n\nIt has been shown that there is some good evidence for the existence of\nthis second body apart from psychic religion, but to those who have\nexamined that religion it is the centre of the whole system,\nsufficiently real to be recognised by clairvoyants, to be heard by\nclairaudients, and even to make an exact impression upon a photographic\nplate.  Of the latter phenomenon, of which I have had some very\nparticular opportunities of judging, I have no more doubt than I have\nof the ordinary photography of commerce.  It had already been shown by\nthe astronomers that the sensitized plate is a more delicate recording\ninstrument than the human retina, and that it can show stars upon a\nlong exposure which the eye has never seen.  It would appear that the\nspirit world is really so near to us that a very little extra help\nunder correct conditions of mediumship will make all the difference.\nThus the plate, instead of the eye, may bring the loved face within the\nrange of vision, while the trumpet, acting as a megaphone, may bring\nback the familiar voice where the spirit whisper with no mechanical aid\nwas still inaudible.  So loud may the latter phenomenon be that in one\ncase, of which I have the record, the dead man's dog was so excited at\nhearing once more his master's voice that he broke his chain, and\ndeeply scarred the outside of the seance room door in his efforts to\nforce an entrance.\n\nNow, having said so much of the spirit body, and having indicated that\nits presence is not vouched for by only one line of evidence or school\nof thought, let us turn to what happens at the time of death, according\nto the observation of clairvoyants on this side and the posthumous\naccounts of the dead upon the other.  It is exactly what we should\nexpect to happen, granted the double identity.  In a painless and\nnatural process the lighter disengages itself from the heavier, and\nslowly draws itself off until it stands with the same mind, the same\nemotions, and an exactly similar body, beside the couch of death, aware\nof those around and yet unable to make them aware of it, save where\nthat finer spiritual eyesight called clairvoyance exists.  How, we may\nwell ask, can it see without the natural organs?  How did the hashish\nvictim see his own unconscious body?  How did the Florida doctor see\nhis friend?  There is a power of perception in the spiritual body which\ndoes give the power.  We can say no more.  To the clairvoyant the new\nspirit seems like a filmy outline.  To the ordinary man it is\ninvisible.  To another spirit it would, no doubt, seem as normal and\nsubstantial as we appear to each other.  There is some evidence that it\nrefines with time, and is therefore nearer to the material at the\nmoment of death or closely after it, than after a lapse of months or\nyears.  Hence, it is that apparitions of the dead are most clear and\nmost common about the time of death, and hence also, no doubt, the fact\nthat the cataleptic physician already quoted was seen and recognised by\nhis friend.  The meshes of his ether, if the phrase be permitted, were\nstill heavy with the matter from which they had only just been\ndisentangled.\n\nHaving disengaged itself from grosser matter, what happens to this\nspirit body, the precious bark which bears our all in all upon this\nvoyage into unknown seas?  Very many accounts have come back to us,\nverbal and written, detailing the experiences of those who have passed\non.  The verbal are by trance mediums, whose utterances appear to be\ncontrolled by outside intelligences.  The written from automatic\nwriters whose script is produced in the same way.  At these words the\ncritic naturally and reasonably shies, with a \"What nonsense!  How can\nyou control the statement of this medium who is consciously or\nunconsciously pretending to inspiration?\"  This is a healthy\nscepticism, and should animate every experimenter who tests a new\nmedium.  The proofs must lie in the communication itself.  If they are\nnot present, then, as always, we must accept natural rather than\nunknown explanations.  But they are continually present, and in such\nobvious forms that no one can deny them.  There is a certain\nprofessional medium to whom I have sent many, mothers who were in need\nof consolation.  I always ask the applicants to report the result to\nme, and I have their letters of surprise and gratitude before me as I\nwrite.  \"Thank you for this beautiful and interesting experience.  She\ndid not make a single mistake about their names, and everything she\nsaid was correct.\"  In this case there was a rift between husband and\nwife before death, but the medium was able, unaided, to explain and\nclear up the whole matter, mentioning the correct circumstances, and\nnames of everyone concerned, and showing the reasons for the\nnon-arrival of certain letters, which had been the cause of the\nmisunderstanding.  The next case was also one of husband and wife, but\nit is the husband who is the survivor.  He says:  \"It was a most\nsuccessful sitting.  Among other things, I addressed a remark in Danish\nto my wife (who is a Danish girl), and the answer came back in English\nwithout the least hesitation.\"  The next case was again of a man who\nhad lost a very dear male friend.  \"I have had the most wonderful\nresults with Mrs. ---- to-day.  I cannot tell you the joy it has been\nto me.  Many grateful thanks for your help.\"  The next one says:  \"Mrs.\n---- was simply wonderful.  If only more people knew, what agony they\nwould be spared.\"  In this case the wife got in touch with the husband,\nand the medium mentioned correctly five dead relatives who were in his\ncompany.  The next is a case of mother and son.  \"I saw Mrs. ----\nto-day, and obtained very wonderful results.  She told me nearly\neverything quite correctly--a very few mistakes.\"  The next is similar.\n\"We were quite successful.  My boy even reminded me of something that\nonly he and I knew.\"  Says another:  \"My boy reminded me of the day\nwhen he sowed turnip seed upon the lawn.  Only he could have known of\nthis.\"  These are fair samples of the letters, of which I hold a large\nnumber.  They are from people who present themselves from among the\nmillions living in London, or the provinces, and about whose affairs\nthe medium had no possible normal way of knowing.  Of all the very\nnumerous cases which I have sent to this medium I have only had a few\nwhich have been complete failures.  On quoting my results to Sir Oliver\nLodge, he remarked that his own experience with another medium had been\nalmost identical.  It is no exaggeration to say that our British\ntelephone systems would probably give a larger proportion of useless\ncalls.  How is any critic to get beyond these facts save by ignoring or\nmisrepresenting them?  Healthy, scepticism is the basis of all accurate\nobservation, but there comes a time when incredulity means either\nculpable ignorance or else imbecility, and this time has been long past\nin the matter of spirit intercourse.\n\nIn my own case, this medium mentioned correctly the first name of a\nlady who had died in our house, gave several very characteristic\nmessages from her, described the only two dogs which we have ever kept,\nand ended by saying that a young officer was holding up a gold coin by\nwhich I would recognise him.  I had lost my brother-in-law, an army\ndoctor, in the war, and I had given him a spade guinea for his first\nfee, which he always wore on his chain.  There were not more than two\nor three close relatives who knew about this incident, so that the test\nwas a particularly good one.  She made no incorrect statements, though\nsome were vague.  After I had revealed the identity of this medium\nseveral pressmen attempted to have test seances with her--a test seance\nbeing, in most cases, a seance which begins by breaking every psychic\ncondition and making success most improbable.  One of these gentlemen,\nMr. Ulyss Rogers, had very fair results.  Another sent from \"Truth\" had\ncomplete failure.  It must be understood that these powers do not work\nfrom the medium, but through the medium, and that the forces in the\nbeyond have not the least sympathy with a smart young pressman in\nsearch of clever copy, while they have a very different feeling to a\nbereaved mother who prays with all her broken heart that some assurance\nmay be given her that the child of her love is not gone from her for\never.  When this fact is mastered, and it is understood that \"Stand and\ndeliver\" methods only excite gentle derision on the other side, we\nshall find some more intelligent manner of putting things of the spirit\nto the proof.[3]\n\nI have dwelt upon these results, which could be matched by other\nmediums, to show that we have solid and certain reasons to say that the\nverbal reports are not from the mediums themselves.  Readers of Arthur\nHill's \"Psychical Investigations\" will find many even more convincing\ncases.  So in the written communications, I have in a previous paper\npointed to the \"Gate of Remembrance\" case, but there is a great mass of\nmaterial which proves that, in spite of mistakes and failures, there\nreally is a channel of communication, fitful and evasive sometimes, but\nentirely beyond coincidence or fraud.  These, then, are the usual means\nby which we receive psychic messages, though table tilting, ouija\nboards, glasses upon a smooth surface, or anything which can be moved\nby the vital animal-magnetic force already discussed will equally serve\nthe purpose.  Often information is conveyed orally or by writing which\ncould not have been known to anyone concerned.  Mr. Wilkinson has given\ndetails of the case where his dead son drew attention to the fact that\na curio (a coin bent by a bullet) had been overlooked among his\neffects.  Sir William Barrett has narrated how a young officer sent a\nmessage leaving a pearl tie-pin to a friend.  No one knew that such a\npin existed, but it was found among his things.  The death of Sir Hugh\nLane was given at a private seance in Dublin before the details of the\nLusitania disaster had been published.[4]  On that morning we\nourselves, in a small seance, got the message \"It is terrible,\nterrible, and will greatly affect the war,\" at a time when we were\nconvinced that no great loss of life could have occurred.  Such\nexamples are very numerous, and are only quoted here to show how\nimpossible it is to invoke telepathy as the origin of such messages.\nThere is only one explanation which covers the facts.  They are what\nthey say they are, messages from those who have passed on, from the\nspiritual body which was seen to rise from the deathbed, which has been\nso often photographed, which pervades all religion in every age, and\nwhich has been able, under proper circumstances, to materialise back\ninto a temporary solidity so that it could walk and talk like a mortal,\nwhether in Jerusalem two thousand years ago, or in the laboratory of\nMr. Crookes, in Mornington Road, London.\n\nLet us for a moment examine the facts in this Crookes' episode.  A\nsmall book exists which describes them, though it is not as accessible\nas it should be.  In these wonderful experiments, which extended over\nseveral years, Miss Florrie Cook, who was a young lady of from 16 to 18\nyears of age, was repeatedly confined in Prof. Crookes' study, the door\nbeing locked on the inside.  Here she lay unconscious upon a couch.\nThe spectators assembled in the laboratory, which was separated by a\ncurtained opening from the study.  After a short interval, through this\nopening there emerged a lady who was in all ways different from Miss\nCook.  She gave her earth name as Katie King, and she proclaimed\nherself to be a materialised spirit, whose mission it was to carry the\nknowledge of immortality to mortals.\n\nShe was of great beauty of face, figure, and manner.  She was four and\na half inches taller than Miss Cook, fair, whereas the latter was dark,\nand as different from her as one woman could be from another.  Her\npulse rate was markedly slower.  She became for the time entirely one\nof the company, walking about, addressing each person present, and\ntaking delight in the children.  She made no objection to photography\nor any other test.  Forty-eight photographs of different degrees of\nexcellence were made of her.  She was seen at the same time as the\nmedium on several occasions.  Finally she departed, saying that her\nmission was over and that she had other work to do.  When she vanished\nmaterialism should have vanished also, if mankind had taken adequate\nnotice of the facts.\n\nNow, what can the fair-minded inquirer say to such a story as that--one\nof many, but for the moment we are concentrating upon it?  Was Mr.\nCrookes a blasphemous liar?  But there were very many witnesses, as\nmany sometimes as eight at a single sitting.  And there are the\nphotographs which include Miss Cook and show that the two women were\nquite different.  Was he honestly mistaken?  But that is inconceivable.\nRead the original narrative and see if you can find any solution save\nthat it is true.  If a man can read that sober, cautious statement and\nnot be convinced, then assuredly his brain, is out of gear.  Finally,\nask yourself whether any religious manifestation in the world has had\nanything like the absolute proof which lies in this one.  Cannot the\northodox see that instead of combating such a story, or talking\nnonsense about devils, they should hail that which is indeed the final\nanswer to that materialism which is their really dangerous enemy.  Even\nas I write, my eye falls upon a letter on my desk from an officer who\nhad lost all faith in immortality and become an absolute materialist.\n\"I came to dread my return home, for I cannot stand hypocrisy, and I\nknew well my attitude would cause some members of my family deep grief.\nYour book has now brought me untold comfort, and I can face the future\ncheerfully.\"  Are these fruits from the Devil's tree, you timid\northodox critic?\n\nHaving then got in touch with our dead, we proceed, naturally, to ask\nthem how it is with them, and under what conditions they exist.  It is\na very vital question, since what has befallen them yesterday will\nsurely befall us to-morrow.  But the answer is tidings of great joy.\nOf the new vital message to humanity nothing is more important than\nthat.  It rolls away all those horrible man-bred fears and fancies,\nfounded upon morbid imaginations and the wild phrases of the oriental.\nWe come upon what is sane, what is moderate, what is reasonable, what\nis consistent with gradual evolution and with the benevolence of God.\nWere there ever any conscious blasphemers upon earth who have insulted\nthe Deity so deeply as those extremists, be they Calvinist, Roman\nCatholic, Anglican, or Jew, who pictured with their distorted minds an\nimplacable torturer as the Ruler of the Universe!\n\nThe truth of what is told us as to the life beyond can in its very\nnature never be absolutely established.  It is far nearer to complete\nproof, however, than any religious revelation which has ever preceded\nit.  We have the fact that these accounts are mixed up with others\nconcerning our present life which are often absolutely true.  If a\nspirit can tell the truth about our sphere, it is difficult to suppose\nthat he is entirely false about his own.  Then, again, there is a very\ngreat similarity about such accounts, though their origin may be from\npeople very far apart.  Thus though \"non-veridical,\" to use the modern\njargon, they do conform to all our canons of evidence.  A series of\nbooks which have attracted far less attention than they deserve have\ndrawn the coming life in very close detail.  These books are not found\non railway bookstalls or in popular libraries, but the successive\neditions through which they pass show that there is a deeper public\nwhich gets what it wants in spite of artificial obstacles.\n\nLooking over the list of my reading I find, besides nearly a dozen very\ninteresting and detailed manuscript accounts, such published narratives\nas \"Claude's Book,\" purporting to come from a young British  aviator;\n\"Thy Son Liveth,\" from an American soldier, \"Private Dowding\";\n\"Raymond,\" from a British soldier; \"Do Thoughts Perish?\" which contains\naccounts from several British soldiers and others; \"I Heard a Voice,\"\nwhere a well-known K.C., through the mediumship of his two young\ndaughters, has a very full revelation of the life beyond; \"After\nDeath,\" with the alleged experiences of the famous Miss Julia Ames;\n\"The Seven Purposes,\" from an American pressman, and many others.  They\ndiffer much in literary skill and are not all equally impressive, but\nthe point which must strike any impartial mind is the general agreement\nof these various accounts as to the conditions of spirit life.  An\nexamination would show that some of them must have been in the press at\nthe same time, so that they could not have each inspired the other.\n\"Claude's Book\" and \"Thy Son Liveth\" appeared at nearly the same time\non different sides of the Atlantic, but they agree very closely.\n\"Raymond\" and \"Do Thoughts Perish?\" must also have been in the press\ntogether, but the scheme of things is exactly the same.  Surely the\nagreement of witnesses must here, as in all cases, be accounted as a\ntest of truth.  They differ mainly, as it seems to me, when they deal\nwith their own future including speculations as to reincarnation, etc.,\nwhich may well be as foggy to them as it is to us, or systems of\nphilosophy where again individual opinion is apparent.\n\nOf all these accounts the one which is most deserving of study is\n\"Raymond.\"  This is so because it has been compiled from several famous\nmediums working independently of each other, and has been checked and\nchronicled by a man who is not only one of the foremost scientists of\nthe world, and probably the leading intellectual force in Europe, but\none who has also had a unique experience of the precautions necessary\nfor the observation of psychic phenomena.  The bright and sweet nature\nof the young soldier upon the other side, and his eagerness to tell of\nhis experience is also a factor which will appeal to those who are\nalready satisfied as to the truth of the communications.  For all these\nreasons it is a most important document--indeed it would be no\nexaggeration to say that it is one of the most important in recent\nliterature.  It is, as I believe, an authentic account of the life in\nthe beyond, and it is often more interesting from its sidelights and\nreservations than for its actual assertions, though the latter bear the\nstamp of absolute frankness and sincerity.  The compilation is in some\nways faulty.  Sir Oliver has not always the art of writing so as to be\nunderstanded of the people, and his deeper and more weighty thoughts\nget in the way of the clear utterances of his son.  Then again, in his\nanxiety to be absolutely accurate, Sir Oliver has reproduced the fact\nthat sometimes Raymond is speaking direct, and sometimes the control is\nreporting what Raymond is saying, so that the same paragraph may turn\nseveral times from the first person to the third in a manner which must\nbe utterly unintelligible to those who are not versed in the subject.\nSir Oliver will, I am sure, not be offended if I say that, having\nsatisfied his conscience by the present edition, he should now leave it\nfor reference, and put forth a new one which should contain nothing but\nthe words of Raymond and his spirit friends.  Such a book, published at\na low price, would, I think, have an amazing effect, and get all this\nnew teaching to the spot that God has marked for it--the minds and\nhearts of the people.\n\nSo much has been said here about mediumship that perhaps it would be\nwell to consider this curious condition a little more closely.  The\nquestion of mediumship, what it is and how it acts, is one of the most\nmysterious in the whole range of science.  It is a common objection to\nsay if our dead are there why should we only hear of them through\npeople by no means remarkable for moral or mental gifts, who are often\npaid for their ministration.  It is a plausible argument, and yet when\nwe receive a telegram from a brother in Australia we do not say: \"It is\nstrange that Tom should not communicate with me direct, but that the\npresence of that half-educated fellow in the telegraph office should be\nnecessary.\"  The medium is in truth a mere passive machine, clerk and\ntelegraph in one.  Nothing comes FROM him.  Every message is THROUGH\nhim.  Why he or she should have the power more than anyone else is a\nvery interesting problem.  This power may best be defined as the\ncapacity for allowing the bodily powers, physical or mental, to be used\nby an outside influence.  In its higher forms there is temporary\nextinction of personality and the substitution of some other\ncontrolling spirit.  At such times the medium may entirely lose\nconsciousness, or he may retain it and be aware of some external\nexperience which has been enjoyed by his own entity while his bodily\nhouse has been filled by the temporary tenant.  Or the medium may\nretain consciousness, and with eyes and ears attuned to a higher key\nthan the normal man can attain, he may see and hear what is beyond our\nsenses.  Or in writing mediumship, a motor centre of the brain\nregulating the nerves and muscles of the arm may be controlled while\nall else seems to be normal.  Or it may take the more material form of\nthe exudation of a strange white evanescent dough-like substance called\nthe ectoplasm, which has been frequently photographed by scientific\nenquirers in different stages of its evolution, and which seems to\npossess an inherent quality of shaping itself into parts or the whole\nof a body, beginning in a putty-like mould and ending in a resemblance\nto perfect human members.  Or the ectoplasm, which seems to be an\nemanation of the medium to the extent that whatever it may weigh is so\nmuch subtracted from his substance, may be used as projections or rods\nwhich can convey objects or lift weights.  A friend, in whose judgment\nand veracity I have absolute confidence, was present at one of Dr.\nCrawford's experiments with Kathleen Goligher, who is, it may be\nremarked, an unpaid medium.  My friend touched the column of force, and\nfound it could be felt by the hand though invisible to the eye.  It is\nclear that we are in touch with some entirely new form both of matter\nand of energy.  We know little of the properties of this extraordinary\nsubstance save that in its materialising form it seems extremely\nsensitive to the action of light.  A figure built up in it and detached\nfrom the medium dissolves in light quicker than a snow image under a\ntropical sun, so that two successive flash-light photographs would show\nthe one a perfect figure, and the next an amorphous mass.  When still\nattached to the medium the ectoplasm flies back with great force on\nexposure to light, and, in spite of the laughter of the scoffers, there\nis none the less good evidence that several mediums have been badly\ninjured by the recoil after a light has suddenly been struck by some\namateur detective.  Professor Geley has, in his recent experiments,\ndescribed the ectoplasm as appearing outside the black dress of his\nmedium as if a hoar frost had descended upon her, then coalescing into\na continuous sheet of white substance, and oozing down until it formed\na sort of apron in front of her.[5] This process he has illustrated by\na very complete series of photographs.\n\nThese are a few of the properties of mediumship.  There are also the\nbeautiful phenomena of the production of lights, and the rarer, but for\nevidential purposes even more valuable, manifestations of spirit\nphotography.  The fact that the photograph does not correspond in many\ncases with any which existed in life, must surely silence the scoffer,\nthough there is a class of bigoted sceptic who would still be sneering\nif an Archangel alighted in Trafalgar Square.  Mr. Hope and Mrs.\nBuxton, of Crewe, have brought this phase of mediumship to great\nperfection, though others have powers in that direction.  Indeed, in\nsome cases it is difficult to say who the medium may have been, for in\none collective family group which was taken in the ordinary way, and\nwas sent me by a master in a well known public school, the young son\nwho died has appeared in the plate seated between his two little\nbrothers.\n\nAs to the personality of mediums, they have seemed to me to be very\naverage specimens of the community, neither markedly better nor\nmarkedly worse.  I know many, and I have never met anything in the\nleast like \"Sludge,\" a poem which Browning might be excused for writing\nin some crisis of domestic disagreement, but which it was inexcusable\nto republish since it is admitted to be a concoction, and the exposure\ndescribed to have been imaginary.  The critic often uses the term\nmedium as if it necessarily meant a professional, whereas every\ninvestigator has found some of his best results among amateurs.  In the\ntwo finest seances I ever attended, the psychic, in each case a man of\nmoderate means, was resolutely determined never directly or indirectly\nto profit by his gift, though it entailed very exhausting physical\nconditions.  I have not heard of a clergyman of any denomination who\nhas attained such a pitch of altruism--nor is it reasonable to expect\nit.  As to professional mediums, Mr. Vout Peters, one of the most\nfamous, is a diligent collector of old books and an authority upon the\nElizabethan drama; while Mr. Dickinson, another very remarkable\ndiscerner of spirits, who named twenty-four correctly during two\nmeetings held on the same day, is employed in loading canal barges.\nThis man is one gifted clairvoyants in  England, though Tom Tyrrell the\nweaver, Aaron Wilkinson, and others are very marvellous.  Tyrrell, who\nis a man of the Anthony of Padua type, a walking saint, beloved of\nanimals and children, is a figure who might have stepped out of some\nlegend of the church.  Thomas, the powerful physical medium, is a\nworking coal miner.  Most mediums take their responsibilities very\nseriously and view their work in a religious light.  There is no\ndenying that they are exposed to very particular temptations, for the\ngift is, as I have explained elsewhere, an intermittent one, and to\nadmit its temporary absence, and so discourage one's clients, needs\ngreater moral principle than all men possess.  Another temptation to\nwhich several great mediums have succumbed is that of drink.  This\ncomes about in a very natural way, for overworking the power leaves\nthem in a state of physical prostration, and the stimulus of alcohol\naffords a welcome relief, and may tend at last to become a custom and\nfinally a curse.  Alcoholism always weakens the moral sense, so that\nthese degenerate mediums yield themselves more readily to fraud, with\nthe result that several who had deservedly won honoured names and met\nall hostile criticism have, in their later years, been detected in the\nmost contemptible tricks.  It is a thousand pities that it should be\nso, but if the Court of Arches were to give up its secrets, it would be\nfound that tippling and moral degeneration were by no means confined to\npsychics.  At the same time, a psychic is so peculiarly sensitive that\nI think he or she would always be well advised to be a life long\nabstainer--as many actually are.\n\nAs to the method by which they attain their results they have, when in\nthe trance state, no recollection.  In the case of normal clairvoyants\nand clairaudients, the information comes in different ways.  Sometimes\nit is no more than a strong mental impression which gives a name or an\naddress.  Sometimes they say that they see it written up before them.\nSometimes the spirit figures seem to call it to them.  \"They yell it at\nme,\" said one.\n\nWe need more first-hand accounts of these matters before we can\nformulate laws.\n\nIt has been stated in a previous book by the author, but it will bear\nrepetition, that the use of the seance should, in his opinion, be\ncarefully regulated as well as reverently conducted.  Having once\nsatisfied himself of the absolute existence of the unseen world, and of\nits proximity to our own, the inquirer has got the great gift which\npsychical investigation can give him, and thenceforth he can regulate\nhis life upon the lines which the teaching from beyond has shown to be\nthe best.  There is much force in the criticism that too constant\nintercourse with the affairs of another world may distract our\nattention and weaken our powers in dealing with our obvious duties in\nthis one.  A seance, with the object of satisfying curiosity or of\nrousing interest, cannot be an elevating influence, and the mere\nsensation-monger can make this holy and wonderful thing as base as the\nover-indulgence in a stimulant.  On the other hand, where the seance is\nused for the purpose of satisfying ourselves as to the condition of\nthose whom we have lost, or of giving comfort to others who crave for a\nword from beyond, then it is, indeed, a blessed gift from God to be\nused with moderation and with thankfulness.  Our loved ones have their\nown pleasant tasks in their new surroundings, and though they assure us\nthat they love to clasp the hands which we stretch out to them, we\nshould still have some hesitation in intruding to an unreasonable\nextent upon the routine of their lives.\n\nA word should be said as to that fear of fiends and evil spirits which\nappears to have so much weight with some of the critics of this\nsubject.  When one looks more closely at this emotion it seems somewhat\nselfish and cowardly.  These creatures are in truth our own backward\nbrothers, bound for the same ultimate destination as ourselves, but\nretarded by causes for which our earth conditions may have been partly\nresponsible.  Our pity and sympathy should go out to them, and if they\ndo indeed manifest at a seance, the proper Christian attitude is, as it\nseems to me, that we should reason with them and pray for them in order\nto help them upon their difficult way.  Those who have treated them in\nthis way have found a very marked difference in the subsequent\ncommunications.  In Admiral Usborne Moore's \"Glimpses of the Next\nState\" there will be found some records of an American circle which\ndevoted itself entirely to missionary work of this sort.  There is some\nreason to believe that there are forms of imperfect development which\ncan be helped more by earthly than by purely spiritual influences, for\nthe reason, perhaps, that they are closer to the material.\n\nIn a recent case I was called in to endeavour to check a very noisy\nentity which frequented an old house in which there were strong reasons\nto believe that crime had been committed, and also that the criminal\nwas earth-bound.  Names were given by the unhappy spirit which proved\nto be correct, and a cupboard was described, which was duly found,\nthough it had never before been suspected.  On getting into touch with\nthe spirit I endeavoured to reason with it and to explain how selfish\nit was to cause misery to others in order to satisfy any feelings of\nrevenge which it might have carried over from earth life.  We then\nprayed for its welfare, exhorted it to rise higher, and received a very\nsolemn assurance, tilted out at the table, that it would mend its ways.\nI have very gratifying reports that it has done so, and that all is now\nquiet in the old house.\n\nLet us now consider the life in the Beyond as it is shown to us by the\nnew revelation.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE COMING WORLD\n\n\nWe come first to the messages which tell us of the life beyond the\ngrave, sent by those who are actually living it.  I have already\ninsisted upon the fact that they have three weighty claims to our\nbelief.  The one is, that they are accompanied by \"signs,\" in the\nBiblical sense, in the shape of \"miracles\" or phenomena.  The second\nis, that in many cases they are accompanied by assertions about this\nlife of ours which prove to be correct, and which are beyond the\npossible knowledge of the medium after every deduction has been made\nfor telepathy or for unconscious memory.  The third is, that they have\na remarkable, though not a complete, similarity from whatever source\nthey come.\n\nIt may be noted that the differences of opinion become most marked when\nthey deal with their own future, which may well be a matter of\nspeculation to them as to us.  Thus, upon the question of reincarnation\nthere is a distinct cleavage, and though I am myself of opinion that\nthe general evidence is against this oriental doctrine, it is none the\nless an undeniable fact that it has been maintained by some messages\nwhich appear in other ways to be authentic, and, therefore, it is\nnecessary to keep one's mind open on the subject.\n\nBefore entering upon the substance of the messages I should wish to\nemphasize the second of these two points, so as to reinforce the\nreader's confidence in the authenticity of these assertions.  To this\nend I will give a detailed example, with names almost exact.  The\nmedium was Mr. Phoenix, of Glasgow, with whom I have myself had some\nremarkable experiences.  The sitter was Mr. Ernest Oaten, the President\nof the Northern Spiritual Union, a man of the utmost veracity and\nprecision of statement.  The dialogue, which came by the direct voice,\na trumpet acting as megaphone, ran like this:--\n\n\n   The Voice:  Good evening, Mr. Oaten.\n      Mr. O.:  Good evening.  Who are you?\n   The Voice:  My name is Mill.  You know my father.\n      Mr. O.:  No, I don't remember anyone of the name.\n   The Voice:  Yes, you were speaking to him the other day.\n      Mr. O.:  To be sure.  I remember now.  I only met him casually.\n   The Voice:  I want you to give him a message from me.\n      Mr. O.:  What is it?\n   The Voice:  Tell him that he was not mistaken at midnight on\n               Tuesday last.\n      Mr. O.:  Very good.  I will say so.  Have you passed long?\n   The Voice:  Some time.  But our time is different from yours.\n      Mr. O.:  What were you?\n   The Voice:  A Surgeon.\n      Mr. O.:  How did you pass?\n   The Voice:  Blown up in a battleship during the war.\n      Mr. O.:  Anything more?\n\nThe answer was the Gipsy song from \"Il Trovatore,\" very accurately\nwhistled, and then a quick-step.  After the latter, the voice said:\n\"That is a test for father.\"\n\nThis reproduction of conversation is not quite verbatim, but gives the\ncondensed essence.  Mr. Oaten at once visited Mr. Mill, who was not a\nSpiritualist, and found that every detail was correct.  Young Mill had\nlost his life as narrated.  Mr. Mill, senior, explained that while\nsitting in his study at midnight on the date named he had heard the\nGipsy song from \"Il Trovatore,\" which had been a favourite of his\nboy's, and being unable to trace the origin of the music, had finally\nthought that it was a freak of his imagination.  The test connected\nwith the quick-step had reference to a tune which the young man used to\nplay upon the piccolo, but which was so rapid that he never could get\nit right, for which he was chaffed by the family.\n\nI tell this story at length to make the reader realise that when young\nMill, and others like him, give such proofs of accuracy, which we can\ntest for ourselves, we are bound to take their assertions very\nseriously when they deal with the life they are actually leading,\nthough in their very nature we can only check their accounts by\ncomparison with others.\n\nNow let me epitomise what these assertions are.  They say that they are\nexceedingly happy, and that they do not wish to return.  They are among\nthe friends whom they had loved and lost, who meet them when they die\nand continue their careers together.  They are very busy on all forms\nof congenial work.  The world in which they find themselves is very\nmuch like that which they have quitted, but everything keyed to a\nhigher octave.  As in a higher octave the rhythm is the same, and the\nrelation of notes to each other the same, but the total effect\ndifferent, so it is here.  Every earthly thing has its equivalent.\nScoffers have guffawed over alcohol and tobacco, but if all things are\nreproduced it would be a flaw if these were not reproduced also.  That\nthey should be abused, as they are here, would, indeed, be evil\ntidings, but nothing of the sort has been said, and in the much\ndiscussed passage in \"Raymond,\" their production was alluded to as\nthough it were an unusual, and in a way a humorous, instance of the\nresources of the beyond.  I wonder how many of the preachers, who have\ntaken advantage of this passage in order to attack the whole new\nrevelation, have remembered that the only other message which ever\nassociated alcohol with the life beyond is that of Christ Himself, when\nHe said:  \"I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until\nthat day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.\"\n\nThis matter is a detail, however, and it is always dangerous to discuss\ndetails in a subject which is so enormous, so dimly seen.  As the\nwisest woman I have known remarked to me:  \"Things may well be\nsurprising over there, for if we had been told the facts of this life\nbefore we entered it, we should never have believed it.\"  In its larger\nissues this happy life to come consists in the development of those\ngifts which we possess.  There is action for the man of action,\nintellectual work for the thinker, artistic, literary, dramatic and\nreligious for those whose God-given powers lie that way.  What we have\nboth in brain and character we carry over with us.  No man is too old\nto learn, for what he learns he keeps.  There is no physical side to\nlove and no child-birth, though there is close union between those\nmarried people who really love each other, and, generally, there is\ndeep sympathetic friendship and comradeship between the sexes.  Every\nman or woman finds a soul mate sooner or later.  The child grows up to\nthe normal, so that the mother who lost a babe of two years old, and\ndies herself twenty years later finds a grown-up daughter of twenty-two\nawaiting her coming.  Age, which is produced chiefly by the mechanical\npresence of lime in our arteries, disappears, and the individual\nreverts to the full normal growth and appearance of completed man--or\nwomanhood.  Let no woman mourn her lost beauty, and no man his lost\nstrength or weakening brain.  It all awaits them once more upon the\nother side.  Nor is any deformity or bodily weakness there, for all is\nnormal and at its best.\n\nBefore leaving this section of the subject, I should say a few more\nwords upon the evidence as it affects the etheric body.  This body is a\nperfect thing.  This is a matter of consequence in these days when so\nmany of our heroes have been mutilated in the wars.  One cannot\nmutilate the etheric body, and it remains always intact.  The first\nwords uttered by a returning spirit in the recent experience of Dr.\nAbraham Wallace were \"I have got my left arm again.\"  The same applies\nto all birth marks, deformities, blindness, and other imperfections.\nNone of them are permanent, and all will vanish in that happier life\nthat awaits us.  Such is the teaching from the beyond--that a perfect\nbody waits for each.\n\n\"But,\" says the critic, \"what then of the clairvoyant descriptions, or\nthe visions where the aged father is seen, clad in the old-fashioned\ngarments of another age, or the grandmother with crinoline and chignon?\nAre these the habiliments of heaven?\"  Such visions are not spirits,\nbut they are pictures which are built up before us or shot by spirits\ninto our brains or those of the seer for the purposes of recognition.\nHence the grey hair and hence the ancient garb.  When a real spirit is\nindeed seen it comes in another form to this, where the flowing robe,\nsuch as has always been traditionally ascribed to the angels, is a\nvital thing which, by its very colour and texture, proclaims the\nspiritual condition of the wearer, and is probably a condensation of\nthat aura which surrounds us upon earth.\n\nIt is a world of sympathy.  Only those who have this tie foregather.\nThe sullen husband, the flighty wife, is no longer there to plague the\ninnocent spouse.  All is sweet and peaceful.  It is the long rest cure\nafter the nerve strain of life, and before new experiences in the\nfuture.  The circumstances are homely and familiar.  Happy circles live\nin pleasant homesteads with every amenity of beauty and of music.\nBeautiful gardens, lovely flowers, green woods, pleasant lakes,\ndomestic pets--all of these things are fully described in the messages\nof the pioneer travellers who have at last got news back to those who\nloiter in the old dingy home.  There are no poor and no rich.  The\ncraftsman may still pursue his craft, but he does it for the joy of his\nwork.  Each serves the community as best he can, while from above come\nhigher ministers of grace, the \"Angels\" of holy writ, to direct and\nhelp.  Above all, shedding down His atmosphere upon all, broods that\ngreat Christ spirit, the very soul of reason, of justice, and of\nsympathetic understanding, who has the earth sphere, with all its\ncircles, under His very special care.  It is a place of joy and\nlaughter.  There are games and sports of all sorts, though none which\ncause pain to lower life.  Food and drink in the grosser sense do not\nexist, but there seem to be pleasures of taste, and this distinction\ncauses some confusion in the messages upon the point.\n\nBut above all, brain, energy, character, driving power, if exerted for\ngood, makes a man a leader there as here, while unselfishness, patience\nand spirituality there, as here, qualify the soul for the higher\nplaces, which have often been won by those very tribulations down here\nwhich seem so purposeless and so cruel, and are in truth our chances of\nspiritual quickening and promotion, without which life would have been\nbarren and without profit.\n\nThe revelation abolishes the idea of a grotesque hell and of a\nfantastic heaven, while it substitutes the conception of a gradual rise\nin the scale of existence without any monstrous change which would turn\nus in an instant from man to angel or devil.  The system, though\ndifferent from previous ideas, does not, as it seems to me, run counter\nin any radical fashion to the old beliefs.  In ancient maps it was\nusual for the cartographer to mark blank spaces for the unexplored\nregions, with some such legend as \"here are anthropophagi,\" or \"here\nare mandrakes,\" scrawled across them.  So in our theology there have\nbeen ill-defined areas which have admittedly been left unfilled, for\nwhat sane man has ever believed in such a heaven as is depicted in our\nhymn books, a land of musical idleness and barren monotonous adoration!\nThus in furnishing a clearer conception this new system has nothing to\nsupplant.  It paints upon a blank sheet.\n\nOne may well ask, however, granting that there is evidence for such a\nlife and such a world as has been described, what about those who have\nnot merited such a destination?  What do the messages from beyond say\nabout these?  And here one cannot be too definite, for there is no use\nexchanging one dogma for another.  One can but give the general purport\nof such information as has been vouchsafed to us.  It is natural that\nthose with whom we come in contact are those whom we may truly call the\nblessed, for if the thing be approached in a reverent and religious\nspirit it is those whom we should naturally attract.  That there are\nmany less fortunate than themselves is evident from their own constant\nallusions to that regenerating and elevating missionary work which is\namong their own functions.  They descend apparently and help others to\ngain that degree of spirituality which fits them for this upper sphere,\nas a higher student might descend to a lower class in order to bring\nforward a backward pupil.  Such a conception gives point to Christ's\nremark that there was more joy in heaven over saving one sinner than\nover ninety-nine just, for if He had spoken of an earthly sinner he\nwould surely have had to become just in this life and so ceased to be a\nsinner before he had reached Paradise.  It would apply very exactly,\nhowever, to a sinner rescued from a lower sphere and brought to a\nhigher one.\n\nWhen we view sin in the light of modern science, with the tenderness of\nthe modern conscience and with a sense of justice and proportion, it\nceases to be that monstrous cloud which darkened the whole vision of\nthe mediaeval theologian.  Man has been more harsh with himself than an\nall-merciful God will ever be.  It is true that with all deductions\nthere remains a great residuum which means want of individual effort,\nconscious weakness of will, and culpable failure of character when the\nsinner, like Horace, sees and applauds the higher while he follows the\nlower.  But when, on the other hand, one has made allowances--and can\nour human allowance be as generous as God's?--for the sins which are\nthe inevitable product of early environment, for the sins which are due\nto hereditary and inborn taint, and to the sins which are due to clear\nphysical causes, then the total of active sin is greatly reduced.\nCould one, for example, imagine that Providence, all-wise and\nall-merciful, as every creed proclaims, could punish the unfortunate\nwretch who hatches criminal thoughts behind the slanting brows of a\ncriminal head?  A doctor has but to glance at the cranium to predicate\nthe crime.  In its worst forms all crime, from Nero to Jack the Ripper,\nis the product of absolute lunacy, and those gross national sins to\nwhich allusion has been made seem to point to collective national\ninsanity.  Surely, then, there is hope that no very terrible inferno is\nneeded to further punish those who have been so afflicted upon earth.\nSome of our dead have remarked that nothing has surprised them so much\nas to find who have been chosen for honour, and certainly, without in\nany way condoning sin, one could well imagine that the man whose\norganic makeup predisposed him with irresistible force in that\ndirection should, in justice, receive condolence and sympathy.\nPossibly such a sinner, if he had not sinned so deeply as he might have\ndone, stands higher than the man who was born good, and remained so,\nbut was no better at the end of his life.  The one has made some\nprogress and the other has not.  But the commonest failing, the one\nwhich fills the spiritual hospitals of the other world, and is a\ntemporary bar to the normal happiness of the after-life, is the sin of\nTomlinson in Kipling's poem, the commonest of all sins in respectable\nBritish circles, the sin of conventionality, of want of conscious\neffort and development, of a sluggish spirituality, fatted over by a\ncomplacent mind and by the comforts of life.  It is the man who is\nsatisfied, the man who refers his salvation to some church or higher\npower without steady travail of his own soul, who is in deadly danger.\nAll churches are good, Christian or non-Christian, so long as they\npromote the actual spirit life of the individual, but all are noxious\nthe instant that they allow him to think that by any form of ceremony,\nor by any fashion of creed, he obtains the least advantage over his\nneighbour, or can in any way dispense with that personal effort which\nis the only road to the higher places.\n\nThis is, of course, as applicable to believers in Spiritualism as to\nany other belief.  If it does not show in practice then it is vain.\nOne can get through this life very comfortably following without\nquestion in some procession with a venerable leader.  But one does not\ndie in a procession.  One dies alone.  And it is then that one has\nalone to accept the level gained by the work of life.\n\nAnd what is the punishment of the undeveloped soul?  It is that it\nshould be placed where it WILL develop, and sorrow would seem always to\nbe the forcing ground of souls.  That surely is our own experience in\nlife where the insufferably complacent and unsympathetic person softens\nand mellows into beauty of character and charity of thought, when tried\nlong enough and high enough in the fires of life.  The Bible has talked\nabout the \"Outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of\nteeth.\"  The influence of the Bible has sometimes been an evil one\nthrough our own habit of reading a book of Oriental poetry and treating\nit as literally as if it were Occidental prose.  When an Eastern\ndescribes a herd of a thousand camels he talks of camels which are more\nnumerous than the hairs of your head or the stars in the sky.  In this\nspirit of allowance for Eastern expression, one must approach those\nlurid and terrible descriptions which have darkened the lives of so\nmany imaginative children and sent so many earnest adults into asylums.\nFrom all that we learn there are indeed places of outer darkness, but\ndim as these uncomfortable waiting-rooms may be, they all admit to\nheaven in the end.  That is the final destination of the human race,\nand it would indeed be a reproach to the Almighty if it were not so.\nWe cannot dogmatise upon this subject of the penal spheres, and yet we\nhave very clear teaching that they are there and that the no-man's-land\nwhich separates us from the normal heaven, that third heaven to which\nSt. Paul seems to have been wafted in one short strange experience of\nhis lifetime, is a place which corresponds with the Astral plane of the\nmystics and with the \"outer darkness\" of the Bible.  Here linger those\nearth-bound spirits whose worldly interests have clogged them and\nweighed them down, until every spiritual impulse had vanished; the man\nwhose life has been centred on money, on worldly ambition, or on\nsensual indulgence.  The one-idea'd man will surely be there, if his\none idea was not a spiritual one.  Nor is it necessary that he should\nbe an evil man, if dear old brother John of Glastonbury, who loved the\ngreat Abbey so that he could never detach himself from it, is to be\nclassed among earth-bound spirits.  In the most material and pronounced\nclasses of these are the ghosts who impinge very closely upon matter\nand have been seen so often by those who have no strong psychic sense.\nIt is probable, from what we know of the material laws which govern\nsuch matters, that a ghost could never manifest itself if it were\nalone, that the substance for the manifestation is drawn from the\nspectator, and that the coldness, raising of hair, and other symptoms\nof which he complains are caused largely by the sudden drain upon his\nown vitality.  This, however, is to wander into speculation, and far\nfrom that correlation of psychic knowledge with religion, which has\nbeen the aim of these chapters.\n\nBy one of those strange coincidences, which seem to me sometimes to be\nmore than coincidences, I had reached this point in my explanation of\nthe difficult question of the intermediate state, and was myself\ndesiring further enlightenment, when an old book reached me through the\npost, sent by someone whom I have never met, and in it is the following\npassage, written by an automatic writer, and in existence since 1880.\nIt makes the matter plain, endorsing what has been said and adding new\npoints.\n\n\"Some cannot advance further than the borderland--such as never thought\nof spirit life and have lived entirely for the earth, its cares and\npleasures--even clever men and women, who have lived simply\nintellectual lives without spirituality.  There are many who have\nmisused their opportunities, and are now longing for the time misspent\nand wishing to recall the earth-life.  They will learn that on this\nside the time can be redeemed, though at much cost.  The borderland has\nmany among the restless money-getters of earth, who still haunt the\nplaces where they had their hopes and joys.  These are often the\nlongest to remain . . . many are not unhappy.  They feel the relief to\nbe sufficient to be without their earth bodies.  All pass through the\nborderland, but some hardly perceive it.  It is so immediate, and there\nis no resting there for them.  They pass on at once to the refreshment\nplace of which we tell you.\"  The anonymous author, after recording\nthis spirit message, mentions the interesting fact that there is a\nChristian inscription in the Catacombs which runs:  NICEFORUS ANIMA\nDULCIS IN REFRIGERIO, \"Nicephorus, a sweet soul in the refreshment\nplace.\"  One more scrap of evidence that the early Christian scheme of\nthings was very like that of the modern psychic.\n\nSo much for the borderland, the intermediate condition.  The present\nChristian dogma has no name for it, unless it be that nebulous limbo\nwhich is occasionally mentioned, and is usually defined as the place\nwhere the souls of the just who died before Christ were detained.  The\nidea of crossing a space before reaching a permanent state on the other\nside is common to many religions, and took the allegorical form of a\nriver with a ferry-boat among the Romans and Greeks.  Continually, one\ncomes on points which make one realise that far back in the world's\nhistory there has been a true revelation, which has been blurred and\ntwisted in time.  Thus in Dr. Muir's summary of the RIG.  VEDA, he\nsays, epitomising the beliefs of the first Aryan conquerors of India:\n\"Before, however, the unborn part\" (that is, the etheric body) \"can\ncomplete its course to the third heaven it has to traverse a vast gulf\nof darkness, leaving behind on earth all that is evil, and proceeding\nby the paths the fathers trod, the spirit soars to the realms of\neternal light, recovers there his body in a glorified form, and obtains\nfrom God a delectable abode and enters upon a more perfect life, which\nis crowned with the fulfilment of all desires, is passed in the\npresence of the Gods and employed in the fulfilment of their pleasure.\"\nIf we substitute \"angels\" for \"Gods\" we must admit that the new\nrevelation from modern spirit sources has much in common with the\nbelief of our Aryan fathers.\n\nSuch, in very condensed form, is the world which is revealed to us by\nthese wonderful messages from the beyond.  Is it an unreasonable\nvision?  Is it in any way opposed to just principles?  Is it not rather\nso reasonable that having got the clue we could now see that, given any\nlife at all, this is exactly the line upon which we should expect to\nmove?  Nature and evolution are averse from sudden disconnected\ndevelopments.  If a human being has technical, literary, musical, or\nother tendencies, they are an essential part of his character, and to\nsurvive without them would be to lose his identity and to become an\nentirely different man.  They must therefore survive death if\npersonality is to be maintained.  But it is no use their surviving\nunless they can find means of expression, and means of expression seem\nto require certain material agents, and also a discriminating audience.\nSo also the sense of modesty among civilised races has become part of\nour very selves, and implies some covering of our forms if personality\nis to continue.  Our desires and sympathies would prompt us to live\nwith those we love, which implies something in the nature of a house,\nwhile the human need for mental rest and privacy would predicate the\nexistence of separate rooms.  Thus, merely starting from the basis of\nthe continuity of personality one might, even without the revelation\nfrom the beyond, have built up some such system by the use of pure\nreason and deduction.\n\nSo far as the existence of this land of happiness goes, it would seem\nto have been more fully proved than any other religious conception\nwithin our knowledge.\n\nIt may very reasonably be asked, how far this precise description of\nlife beyond the grave is my own conception, and how far it has been\naccepted by the greater minds who have studied this subject?  I would\nanswer, that it is my own conclusion as gathered from a very large\namount of existing testimony, and that in its main lines it has for\nmany years been accepted by those great numbers of silent active\nworkers all over the world, who look upon this matter from a strictly\nreligious point of view.  I think that the evidence amply justifies us\nin this belief.  On the other hand, those who have approached this\nsubject with cold and cautious scientific brains, endowed, in many\ncases, with the strongest prejudices against dogmatic creeds and with\nvery natural fears about the possible re-growth of theological\nquarrels, have in most cases stopped short of a complete acceptance,\ndeclaring that there can be no positive proof upon such matters, and\nthat we may deceive ourselves either by a reflection of our own\nthoughts or by receiving the impressions of the medium.  Professor\nZollner, for example, says:\n\n\"Science can make no use of the substance of intellectual revelations,\nbut must be guided by observed facts and by the conclusions logically\nand mathematically uniting them\"--a passage which is quoted with\napproval by Professor Reichel, and would seem to be endorsed by the\nsilence concerning the religious side of the question which is observed\nby most of our great scientific supporters.  It is a point of view\nwhich can well be understood, and yet, closely examined, it would\nappear to be a species of enlarged materialism.  To admit, as these\nobservers do, that spirits do return, that they give every proof of\nbeing the actual friends whom we have lost, and yet to turn a deaf ear\nto the messages which they send would seem to be pushing caution to the\nverge of unreason.  To get so far, and yet not to go further, is\nimpossible as a permanent position.  If, for example, in Raymond's case\nwe find so many allusions to the small details of his home upon earth,\nwhich prove to be surprisingly correct, is it reasonable to put a blue\npencil through all he says of the home which he actually inhabits?\nLong before I had convinced my mind of the truth of things which\nappeared so grotesque and incredible, I had a long account sent by\ntable tilting about the conditions of life beyond.  The details seemed\nto me impossible and I set them aside, and yet they harmonise, as I now\ndiscover, with other revelations.  So, too, with the automatic script\nof Mr. Hubert Wales, which has been described in my previous book.  He\nhad tossed it aside into a drawer as being unworthy of serious\nconsideration, and yet it also proved to be in harmony.  In neither of\nthese cases was telepathy or the prepossession of the medium a possible\nexplanation.  On the whole, I am inclined to think that these doubtful\nor dissentient scientific men, having their own weighty studies to\nattend to, have confined their reading and thought to the more\nobjective side of the question, and are not aware of the vast amount of\nconcurrent evidence which appears to give us an exact picture of the\nlife beyond.  They despise documents which cannot be proved, and they\ndo not, in my opinion, sufficiently realise that a general agreement of\ntestimony, and the already established character of a witness, are\nthemselves arguments for truth.  Some complicate the question by\npredicating the existence of a fourth dimension in that world, but the\nterm is an absurdity, as are all terms which find no corresponding\nimpression in the human brain.  We have mysteries enough to solve\nwithout gratuitously introducing fresh ones.  When solid passes through\nsolid, it is, surely, simpler to assume that it is done by a\ndematerialisation, and subsequent reassembly--a process which can, at\nleast, be imagined by the human mind--than to invoke an explanation\nwhich itself needs to be explained.\n\nIn the next and final chapter I will ask the reader to accompany me in\nan examination of the New Testament by the light of this psychic\nknowledge, and to judge how far it makes clear and reasonable much\nwhich was obscure and confused.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nIS IT THE SECOND DAWN?\n\n\nThere are many incidents in the New Testament which might be taken as\nstarting points in tracing a close analogy between the phenomenal\nevents which are associated with the early days of Christianity, and\nthose which have perplexed the world in connection with modern\nSpiritualism.  Most of us are prepared to admit that the lasting claims\nof Christianity upon the human race are due to its own intrinsic\nteachings, which are quite independent of those wonders which can only\nhave had a use in startling the solid complacence of an unspiritual\nrace, and so directing their attention violently to this new system of\nthought.  Exactly the same may be said of the new revelation.  The\nexhibitions of a force which is beyond human experience and human\nguidance is but a method of calling attention.  To repeat a simile\nwhich has been used elsewhere, it is the humble telephone bell which\nheralds the all-important message.  In the case of Christ, the Sermon\non the Mount was more than many miracles.  In the case of this new\ndevelopment, the messages from beyond are more than any phenomena.  A\nvulgar mind might make Christ's story seem vulgar, if it insisted upon\nloaves of bread and the bodies of fish.  So, also, a vulgar mind may\nmake psychic religion vulgar by insisting upon moving furniture or\ntambourines in the air.  In each case they are crude signs of power,\nand the essence of the matter lies upon higher planes.\n\nIt is stated in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, that\nthey, the Christian leaders, were all \"with one accord\" in one place.\n\"With one accord\" expresses admirably those sympathetic conditions\nwhich have always been found, in psychic circles, to be conducive of\nthe best results, and which are so persistently ignored by a certain\nclass of investigators.  Then there came \"a mighty rushing wind,\" and\nafterwards \"there appeared cloven tongues like unto fire and it sat\nupon each of them.\"  Here is a very definite and clear account of a\nremarkable sequence of phenomena.  Now, let us compare with this the\nresults which were obtained by Professor Crookes in his investigation\nin 1873, after he had taken every possible precaution against fraud\nwhich his experience, as an accurate observer and experimenter, could\nsuggest.  He says in his published notes:  \"I have seen luminous points\nof light darting about, sitting on the heads of different persons\" and\nthen again:\n\n\"These movements, and, indeed, I may say the same of every class of\nphenomena, are generally preceded by a peculiar cold air, sometimes\namounting to a decided wind.  I have had sheets of paper blown about by\nit. . . .\"  Now, is it not singular, not merely that the phenomena\nshould be of the same order, but that they should come in exactly the\nsame sequence, the wind first and the lights afterwards?  In our\nignorance of etheric physics, an ignorance which is now slowly\nclearing, one can only say that there is some indication here of a\ngeneral law which links those two episodes together in spite of the\nnineteen centuries which divide them.  A little later, it is stated\nthat \"the place was shaken where they were assembled together.\"  Many\nmodern observers of psychic phenomena have testified to vibration of\nthe walls of an apartment, as if a heavy lorry were passing.  It is,\nevidently, to such experiences that Paul alludes when he says: \"Our\ngospel came unto you not in word only, but also in power.\" The preacher\nof the New Revelation can most truly say the same words.  In connection\nwith the signs of the pentecost, I can most truly say that I have\nmyself experienced them all, the cold sudden wind, the lambent misty\nflames, all under the mediumship of Mr. Phoenix, an amateur psychic of\nGlasgow.  The fifteen sitters were of one accord upon that occasion,\nand, by a coincidence, it was in an upper room, at the very top of the\nhouse.\n\nIn a previous section of this essay, I have remarked that no\nphilosophical explanation of these phenomena, known as spiritual, could\nbe conceived which did not show that all, however different in their\nworking, came from the same central source.  St. Paul seems to state\nthis in so many words when he says:  \"But all these worketh that one\nand the selfsame spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.\"\nCould our modern speculation, forced upon us by the facts, be more\ntersely stated?  He has just enumerated the various gifts, and we find\nthem very close to those of which we have experience.  There is first\n\"the word of wisdom,\" \"the word of knowledge\" and \"faith.\"  All these\ntaken in connection with the Spirit would seem to mean the higher\ncommunications from the other side.  Then comes healing, which is still\npractised in certain conditions by a highly virile medium, who has the\npower of discharging strength, losing just as much as the weakling\ngains, as instanced by Christ when He said:  \"Who has touched me?  Much\nvirtue\" (or power) \"has gone out of me.\" Then we come upon the working\nof miracles, which we should call the production of phenomena, and\nwhich would cover many different types, such as apports, where objects\nare brought from a distance, levitation of objects or of the human\nframe into the air, the production of lights and other wonders.  Then\ncomes prophecy, which is a real and yet a fitful and often delusive\nform of mediumship--never so delusive as among the early Christians,\nwho seem all to have mistaken the approaching fall of Jerusalem and the\ndestruction of the Temple, which they could dimly see, as being the end\nof the world.  This mistake is repeated so often and so clearly that it\nis really not honest to ignore or deny it.  Then we come to the power\nof \"discerning the spirits,\" which corresponds to our clairvoyance, and\nfinally that curious and usually useless gift of tongues, which is also\na modern phenomenon.  I can remember that some time ago I read the\nbook, \"I Heard a Voice,\" by an eminent barrister, in which he describes\nhow his young daughter began to write Greek fluently with all the\ncomplex accents in their correct places.  Just after I read it I\nreceived a letter from a no less famous physician, who asked my opinion\nabout one of his children who had written a considerable amount of\nscript in mediaeval French.  These two recent cases are beyond all\ndoubt, but I have not had convincing evidence of the case where some\nunintelligible signs drawn by an unlettered man were pronounced by an\nexpert to be in the Ogham or early Celtic character.  As the Ogham\nscript is really a combination of straight lines, the latter case may\nbe taken with considerable reserve.\n\nThus the phenomena associated with the rise of Christianity and those\nwhich have appeared during the present spiritual ferment are very\nanalogous.  In examining the gifts of the disciples, as mentioned by\nMatthew and Mark, the only additional point is the raising of the dead.\nIf any of them besides their great leader did in truth rise to this\nheight of power, where life was actually extinct, then he, undoubtedly,\nfar transcended anything which is recorded of modern mediumship.  It is\nclear, however, that such a power must have been very rare, since it\nwould otherwise have been used to revive the bodies of their own\nmartyrs, which does not seem to have been attempted.  For Christ the\npower is clearly admitted, and there are little touches in the\ndescription of how it was exercised by Him which are extremely\nconvincing to a psychic student.  In the account of how He raised\nLazarus from the grave after he had been four days dead--far the most\nwonderful of all Christ's miracles--it is recorded that as He went down\nto the graveside He was \"groaning.\"  Why was He groaning?  No Biblical\nstudent seems to have given a satisfactory reason.  But anyone who has\nheard a medium groaning before any great manifestation of power will\nread into this passage just that touch of practical knowledge, which\nwill convince him of its truth.  The miracle, I may add, is none the\nless wonderful or beyond our human powers, because it was wrought by an\nextension of natural law, differing only in degree with that which we\ncan ourselves test and even do.\n\nAlthough our modern manifestations have never attained the power\nmentioned in the Biblical records, they present some features which are\nnot related in the New Testament.  Clairaudience, that is the hearing\nof a spirit voice, is common to both, but the direct voice, that is the\nhearing of a voice which all can discern with their material ears, is a\nwell-authenticated phenomenon now which is more rarely mentioned of\nold.  So, too, Spirit-photography, where the camera records what the\nhuman eye cannot see, is necessarily a new testimony.  Nothing is\nevidence to those who do not examine evidence, but I can attest most\nsolemnly that I personally know of several cases where the image upon\nthe plate after death has not only been unmistakable, but also has\ndiffered entirely from any pre-existing photograph.\n\nAs to the methods by which the early Christians communicated with the\nspirits, or with the \"Saints\" as they called their dead brethren, we\nhave, so far as I know, no record, though the words of John:\n\"Brothers, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they\nare of God,\" show very clearly that spirit communion was a familiar\nidea, and also that they were plagued, as we are, by the intrusion of\nunwelcome spiritual elements in their intercourse.  Some have\nconjectured that the \"Angel of the Church,\" who is alluded to in terms\nwhich suggest that he was a human being, was really a medium sanctified\nto the use of that particular congregation.  As we have early\nindications of bishops, deacons and other officials, it is difficult to\nsay what else the \"angel\" could have been.  This, however, must remain\na pure speculation.\n\nAnother speculation which is, perhaps, rather more fruitful is upon\nwhat principle did Christ select his twelve chief followers.  Out of\nall the multitudes he chose twelve men.  Why these particular ones?  It\nwas not for their intelligence or learning, for Peter and John, who\nwere among the most prominent, are expressly described as \"unlearned\nand ignorant men.\"  It was not for their virtue, for one of them proved\nto be a great villain, and all of them deserted their Master in His\nneed.  It was not for their belief, for there were great numbers of\nbelievers.  And yet it is clear that they were chosen on some principle\nof selection since they were called in ones and in twos.  In at least\ntwo cases they were pairs of brothers, as though some family gift or\npeculiarity, might underlie the choice.\n\nIs it not at least possible that this gift was psychic power, and that\nChrist, as the greatest exponent who has ever appeared upon earth of\nthat power, desired to surround Himself with others who possessed it to\na lesser degree?  This He would do for two reasons.  The first is that\na psychic circle is a great source of strength to one who is himself\npsychic, as is shown continually in our own experience, where, with a\nsympathetic and helpful surrounding, an atmosphere is created where all\nthe powers are drawn out.  How sensitive Christ was to such an\natmosphere is shown by the remark of the Evangelist, that when He\nvisited His own native town, where the townspeople could not take Him\nseriously, He was unable to do any wonders.  The second reason may have\nbeen that He desired them to act as His deputies, either during his\nlifetime or after His death, and that for this reason some natural\npsychic powers were necessary.\n\nThe close connection which appears to exist between the Apostles and\nthe miracles, has been worked out in an interesting fashion by Dr.\nAbraham Wallace, in his little pamphlet \"Jesus of Nazareth.\"[6]\nCertainly, no miracle or wonder working, save that of exorcism, is\nrecorded in any of the Evangelists until after the time when Christ\nbegan to assemble His circle.  Of this circle the three who would\nappear to have been the most psychic were Peter and the two\nfellow-fishermen, sons of Zebedee, John and James.  These were the\nthree who were summoned when an ideal atmosphere was needed.  It will\nbe remembered that when the daughter of Jairus was raised from the dead\nit was in the presence, and possibly, with the co-operation, of these\nthree assistants.  Again, in the case of the Transfiguration, it is\nimpossible to read the account of that wonderful manifestation without\nbeing reminded at every turn of one's own spiritual experiences.  Here,\nagain, the points are admirably made in \"Jesus of Nazareth,\" and it\nwould be well if that little book, with its scholarly tone, its breadth\nof treatment and its psychic knowledge, was in the hands of every\nBiblical student.  Dr. Wallace points out that the place, the summit of\na hill, was the ideal one for such a manifestation, in its pure air and\nfreedom from interruption; that the drowsy state of the Apostles is\nparalleled by the members of any circle who are contributing psychic\npower; that the transfiguring of the face and the shining raiment are\nknown phenomena; above all, that the erection of three altars is\nmeaningless, but that the alternate reading, the erection of three\nbooths or cabinets, one for the medium and one for each materialised\nform, would absolutely fulfil the most perfect conditions for getting\nresults.  This explanation of Wallace's is a remarkable example of a\nmodern brain, with modern knowledge, throwing a clear searchlight\nacross all the centuries and illuminating an incident which has always\nbeen obscure.\n\nWhen we translate Bible language into the terms of modern psychic\nreligion the correspondence becomes evident.  It does not take much\nalteration.  Thus for \"Lo, a miracle!\" we say \"This is a\nmanifestation.\"  \"The angel of the Lord\" becomes \"a high spirit.\"\nWhere we talked of \"a voice from heaven,\" we say \"the direct voice.\"\n\"His eyes were opened and he saw a vision\" means \"he became\nclairvoyant.\"  It is only the occultist who can possibly understand the\nScriptures as being a real exact record of events.\n\nThere are many other small points which seem to bring the story of\nChrist and of the Apostles into very close touch with modern psychic\nresearch, and greatly support the close accuracy of some of the New\nTestament narrative.  One which appeals to me greatly is the action of\nChrist when He was asked a question which called for a sudden decision,\nnamely the fate of the woman who had been taken in sin.  What did He\ndo?  The very last thing that one would have expected or invented.  He\nstooped down before answering and wrote with his finger in the sand.\nThis he did a second time upon a second catch-question being addressed\nto Him.  Can any theologian give a reason for such an action?  I hazard\nthe opinion that among the many forms of mediumship which were\npossessed in the highest form by Christ, was the power of automatic\nwriting, by which He summoned those great forces which were under His\ncontrol to supply Him with the answer.  Granting, as I freely do, that\nChrist was preternatural, in the sense that He was above and beyond\nordinary humanity in His attributes, one may still inquire how far\nthese powers were contained always within His human body, or how far He\nreferred back to spiritual reserves beyond it.  When He spoke merely\nfrom His human body He was certainly open to error, like the rest of\nus, for it is recorded how He questioned the woman of Samaria about her\nhusband, to which she replied that she had no husband.  In the case of\nthe woman taken in sin, one can only explain His action by the\nsupposition that He opened a channel instantly for the knowledge and\nwisdom which was preter-human, and which at once gave a decision in\nfavor of large-minded charity.\n\nIt is interesting to observe the effect which these phenomena, or the\nreport of them, produced upon the orthodox Jews of those days.  The\ngreater part obviously discredited them, otherwise they could not have\nfailed to become followers, or at the least to have regarded such a\nwonder-worker with respect and admiration.  One can well imagine how\nthey shook their bearded heads, declared that such occurrences were\noutside their own experience, and possibly pointed to the local\nconjuror who earned a few not over-clean denarii by imitating the\nphenomena.  There were others, however, who could not possibly deny,\nbecause they either saw or met with witnesses who had seen.  These\ndeclared roundly that the whole thing was of the devil, drawing from\nChrist one of those pithy, common-sense arguments in which He excelled.\nThe same two classes of opponents, the scoffers and the diabolists,\nface us to-day.  Verily the old world goes round and so do the events\nupon its surface.\n\nThere is one line of thought which may be indicated in the hope that it\nwill find development from the minds and pens of those who have studied\nmost deeply the possibilities of psychic power.  It is at least\npossible, though I admit that under modern conditions it has not been\nclearly proved, that a medium of great power can charge another with\nhis own force, just as a magnet when rubbed upon a piece of inert steel\ncan turn it also into a magnet.  One of the best attested powers of D.\nD. Home was that he could take burning coals from the fire with\nimpunity and carry them in his hand.  He could then--and this comes\nnearer to the point at issue--place them on the head of anyone who was\nfearless without their being burned.  Spectators have described how the\nsilver filigree of the hair of Mr. Carter Hall used to be gathered over\nthe glowing ember, and Mrs. Hall has mentioned how she combed out the\nashes afterwards.  Now, in this case, Home was clearly, able to convey,\na power to another person, just as Christ, when He was levitated over\nthe lake, was able to convey the same power to Peter, so long as\nPeter's faith held firm.  The question then arises if Home concentrated\nall his force upon transferring such a power how long would that power\nlast?  The experiment was never tried, but it would have borne very,\ndirectly upon this argument.  For, granting that the power can be\ntransferred, then it is very clear how the Christ circle was able to\nsend forth seventy disciples who were endowed with miraculous\nfunctions.  It is clear also why, new disciples had to return to\nJerusalem to be \"baptised of the spirit,\" to use their phrase, before\nsetting forth upon their wanderings.  And when in turn they, desired to\nsend forth representatives would not they lay hands upon them, make\npasses over them and endeavour to magnetise them in the same way--if\nthat word may express the process?  Have we here the meaning of the\nlaying on of hands by the bishop at ordination, a ceremony to which\nvast importance is still attached, but which may well be the survival\nof something really vital, the bestowal of the thaumaturgic power?\nWhen, at last, through lapse of time or neglect of fresh cultivation,\nthe power ran out, the empty formula may have been carried on, without\neither the blesser or the blessed understanding what it was that the\nhands of the bishop, and the force which streamed from them, were meant\nto bestow.  The very words \"laying on of hands\" would seem to suggest\nsomething different from a mere benediction.\n\nEnough has been said, perhaps, to show the reader that it is possible\nto put forward a view of Christ's life which would be in strict accord\nwith the most modern psychic knowledge, and which, far from supplanting\nChristianity, would show the surprising accuracy of some of the details\nhanded down to us, and would support the novel conclusion that those\nvery miracles, which have been the stumbling block to so many truthful,\nearnest minds, may finally offer some very cogent arguments for the\ntruth of the whole narrative.  Is this then a line of thought which\nmerits the wholesale condemnations and anathemas hurled at it by those\nwho profess to speak in the name of religion?  At the same time, though\nwe bring support to the New Testament, it would, indeed, be a\nmisconception if these, or any such remarks, were quoted as sustaining\nits literal accuracy--an idea from which so much harm has come in the\npast.  It would, indeed, be a good, though an unattainable thing, that\na really honest and open-minded attempt should be made to weed out from\nthat record the obvious forgeries and interpolations which disfigure\nit, and lessen the value of those parts which are really above\nsuspicion.\n\nIs it necessary, for example, to be told, as an inspired fact from\nChrist's own lips, that Zacharias, the son of Barachias,[7] was struck\ndead within the precincts of the Temple in the time of Christ, when, by\na curious chance, Josephus has independently narrated the incident as\nhaving occurred during the siege of Jerusalem, thirty-seven years\nlater?  This makes it very clear that this particular Gospel, in its\npresent form, was written after that event, and that the writer fitted\ninto it at least one other incident which had struck his imagination.\nUnfortunately, a revision by general agreement would be the greatest of\nall miracles, for two of the very first texts to go would be those\nwhich refer to the \"Church,\" an institution and an idea utterly\nunfamiliar in the days of Christ.  Since the object of the insertion of\nthese texts is perfectly clear, there can be no doubt that they are\nforgeries, but as the whole system of the Papacy rests upon one of\nthem, they are likely to survive for a long time to come.  The text\nalluded to is made further impossible because it is based upon the\nsupposition that Christ and His fishermen conversed together in Latin\nor Greek, even to the extent of making puns in that language.  Surely\nthe want of moral courage and intellectual honesty among Christians\nwill seem as strange to our descendants as it appears marvellous to us\nthat the great thinkers of old could have believed, or at least have\npretended to believe, in the fighting sexual deities of Mount Olympus.\n\nRevision is, indeed, needed, and as I have already pleaded, a change of\nemphasis is also needed, in order to get the grand Christian conception\nback into the current of reason and progress.  The orthodox who,\nwhether from humble faith or some other cause, do not look deeply into\nsuch matters, can hardly conceive the stumbling-blocks which are\nlittered about before the feet of their more critical brethren.  What\nis easy, for faith is impossible for reflection.  Such expressions as\n\"Saved by the blood of the Lamb\" or \"Baptised by His precious blood\"\nfill their souls with a gentle and sweet emotion, while upon a more\nthoughtful mind they have a very different effect.\n\nApart from the apparent injustice of vicarious atonement, the student\nis well aware that the whole of this sanguinary metaphor is drawn\nreally from the Pagan rites of Mithra, where the neophyte was actually\nplaced under a bull at the ceremony of the TAUROBOLIUM, and was\ndrenched, through a grating, with the blood of the slaughtered animal.\nSuch reminiscences of the more brutal side of Paganism are not helpful\nto the thoughtful and sensitive modern mind.  But what is always fresh\nand always useful and always beautiful, is the memory of the sweet\nSpirit who wandered on the hillsides of Galilee; who gathered the\nchildren around him; who met his friends in innocent good-fellowship;\nwho shrank from forms and ceremonies, craving always for the inner\nmeaning; who forgave the sinner; who championed the poor, and who in\nevery decision threw his weight upon the side of charity and breadth of\nview.  When to this character you add those wondrous psychic powers\nalready analysed, you do, indeed, find a supreme character in the\nworld's history who obviously stands nearer to the Highest than any\nother.  When one compares the general effect of His teaching with that\nof the more rigid churches, one marvels how in their dogmatism, their\ninsistence upon forms, their exclusiveness, their pomp and their\nintolerance, they could have got so far away from the example of their\nMaster, so that as one looks upon Him and them, one feels that there is\nabsolute deep antagonism and that one cannot speak of the Church and\nChrist, but only of the Church or Christ.\n\nAnd yet every Church produces beautiful souls, though it may be debated\nwhether \"produces\" or \"contains\" is the truthful word.  We have but to\nfall back upon our own personal experience if we have lived long and\nmixed much with our fellow-men.  I have myself lived during the seven\nmost impressionable years of my life among Jesuits, the most maligned\nof all ecclesiastical orders, and I have found them honourable and good\nmen, in all ways estimable outside the narrowness which limits the\nworld to Mother Church.  They were athletes, scholars, and gentlemen,\nnor can I ever remember any examples of that casuistry with which they\nare reproached.  Some of my best friends have been among the parochial\nclergy of the Church of England, men of sweet and saintly character,\nwhose pecuniary straits were often a scandal and a reproach to the\nhalf-hearted folk who accepted their spiritual guidance.  I have known,\nalso, splendid men among the Nonconformist clergy, who have often been\nthe champions of liberty, though their views upon that subject have\nsometimes seemed to contract when one ventured upon their own domain of\nthought.  Each creed has brought out men who were  an honour to the\nhuman race, and Manning or Shrewsbury, Gordon or Dolling, Booth or\nStopford Brooke, are all equally admirable, however diverse the roots\nfrom which they grow.  Among the great mass of the people, too, there\nare very many thousands of beautiful souls who have been brought up on\nthe old-fashioned lines, and who never heard of spiritual communion or\nany other of those matters which have been discussed in these essays,\nand yet have reached a condition of pure spirituality such as all of us\nmay envy.  Who does not know the maiden aunt, the widowed mother, the\nmellowed elderly man, who live upon the hilltops of unselfishness,\nshedding kindly thoughts and deeds around them, but with their simple\nfaith deeply, rooted in anything or everything which has come to them\nin a hereditary fashion with the sanction of some particular authority?\nI had an aunt who was such an one, and can see her now, worn with\nausterity and charity, a small, humble figure, creeping to church at\nall hours from a house which was to her but a waiting-room between\nservices, while she looked at me with sad, wondering, grey eyes.  Such\npeople have often reached by instinct, and in spite of dogma, heights,\nto which no system of philosophy can ever raise us.\n\nBut making full allowance for the high products of every creed, which\nmay be only, a proof of the innate goodness of civilised humanity, it\nis still beyond all doubt that Christianity has broken down, and that\nthis breakdown has been brought home to everyone by the terrible\ncatastrophe which has befallen the world.  Can the most optimistic\napologist contend that this is a satisfactory, outcome from a religion\nwhich has had the unopposed run of Europe for so many centuries?  Which\nhas come out of it worst, the Lutheran Prussian, the Catholic Bavarian,\nor the peoples who have been nurtured by the Greek Church?  If we, of\nthe West, have done better, is it not rather an older and higher\ncivilisation and freer political institutions that have held us back\nfrom all the cruelties, excesses and immoralities which have taken the\nworld back to the dark ages?  It will not do to say that they have\noccurred in spite of Christianity, and that Christianity is, therefore,\nnot to blame.  It is true that Christ's teaching is not to blame, for\nit is often spoiled in the transmission.  But Christianity has taken\nover control of the morals of Europe, and should have the compelling\nforce which would ensure that those morals would not go to pieces upon\nthe first strain.  It is on this point that Christianity must be\njudged, and the judgment can only be that it has failed.  It has not\nbeen an active controlling force upon the minds of men.  And why?  It\ncan only be because there is something essential which is wanting.  Men\ndo not take it seriously.  Men do not believe in it.  Lip service is\nthe only service in innumerable cases, and even lip service grows\nfainter.\n\nMen, as distinct from women, have, both in the higher and lower classes\nof life, ceased, in the greater number of cases, to show a living\ninterest in religion.  The churches lose their grip upon the\npeople--and lose it rapidly.  Small inner circles, convocations,\ncommittees, assemblies, meet and debate and pass resolutions of an ever\nnarrower character.  But the people go their way and religion is dead,\nsave in so far as intellectual culture and good taste can take its\nplace.  But when religion is dead, materialism becomes active, and what\nactive materialism may produce has been seen in Germany.\n\nIs it not time, then, for the religious bodies to discourage their own\nbigots and sectarians, and to seriously consider, if only for\nself-preservation, how they can get into line once more with that\ngeneral level of human thought which is now so far in front of them?  I\nsay that they can do more than get level--they can lead.  But to do so\nthey must, on the one hand, have the firm courage to cut away from\ntheir own bodies all that dead tissue which is but a disfigurement and\nan encumbrance.  They must face difficulties of reason, and adapt\nthemselves to the demands of the human intelligence which rejects, and\nis right in rejecting, much which they offer.  Finally, they must\ngather fresh strength by drawing in all the new truth and all the new\npower which are afforded by this new wave of inspiration which has been\nsent into the world by God, and which the human race, deluded and\nbemused by the would-be clever, has received with such perverse and\nobstinate incredulity.  When they have done all this, they will find\nnot only that they are leading the world with an obvious right to the\nleadership, but, in addition, that they have come round once more to\nthe very teaching of that Master whom they have so long misrepresented.\n\n\n\n\nAPPENDICES\n\n\nA\n\nDOCTOR GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS\n\n\nNothing could be imagined more fantastic and grotesque than the results\nof the recent experiments of Professor Geley, in France.  Before such\nresults the brain, even of the trained psychical student, is dazed,\nwhile that of the orthodox man of science, who has given no heed to\nthese developments, is absolutely helpless.  In the account of the\nproceedings which he read lately before the Institut General\nPsychologique in Paris, on January of last year, Dr. Geley says:  \"I do\nnot merely say that there has been no fraud; I say, 'there has been no\npossibility of fraud.'  In nearly every case the materialisations were\ndone under my eyes, and I have observed their whole genesis and\ndevelopment.\"  He adds that, in the course of the experiments, more\nthan a hundred experts, mostly doctors, checked the results.\n\nThese results may be briefly stated thus.  A peculiar whitish matter\nexuded from the subject, a girl named Eva, coming partly through her\nskin, partly from her hands, partly from the orifices of her face,\nespecially her mouth.  This was photographed repeatedly at every stage\nof its production, these photographs being appended to the printed\ntreatise.  This stuff, solid enough to enable one to touch and to\nphotograph, has been called the ectoplasm.  It is a new order of\nmatter, and it is clearly derived from the subject herself, absorbing\ninto her system once more at the end of the experiment.  It exudes in\nsuch quantities as to entirely, cover her sometimes as with an apron.\nIt is soft and glutinous to the touch, but varies in form and even in\ncolour.  Its production causes pain and groans from the subject, and\nany violence towards it would appear also to affect her.  A sudden\nflash of light, as in a flash-photograph, may or may not cause a\nretraction of the ectoplasm, but always causes a spasm of the subject.\nWhen re-absorbed, it leaves no trace upon the garments through which it\nhas passed.\n\nThis is wonderful enough, but far more fantastic is what has still to\nbe told.  The most marked property of this ectoplasm, very fully\nillustrated in the photographs, is that it sets or curdles into the\nshapes of human members--of fingers, of hands, of faces, which are at\nfirst quite sketchy and rudimentary, but rapidly coalesce and develop\nuntil they are undistinguishable from those of living beings.  Is not\nthis the very strangest and most inexplicable thing that has ever yet\nbeen observed by human eyes?  These faces or limbs are usually the size\nof life, but they frequently are quite miniatures.  Occasionally they\nbegin by being miniatures, and grow into full size.  On their first\nappearance in the ectoplasm the limb is only on one plane of matter, a\nmere flat appearance, which rapidly rounds itself off, until it has\nassumed all three planes and is complete.  It may be a mere simulacrum,\nlike a wax hand, or it may be endowed with full power of grasping\nanother hand, with every articulation in perfect working order.\n\nThe faces which are produced in this amazing way are worthy of study.\nThey do not appear to have represented anyone who has ever been known\nin life by Doctor Geley.[8]  My impression after examining them is that\nthey are much more likely to be within the knowledge of the subject,\nbeing girls of the French lower middle class type, such as Eva was, I\nshould imagine, in the habit of meeting.  It should be added that Eva\nherself appears in the photograph as well as the simulacra of humanity.\nThe faces are, on the whole, both pretty and piquant, though of a\nrather worldly and unrefined type.  The latter adjective would not\napply to the larger and most elaborate photograph, which represents a\nvery beautiful young woman of a truly spiritual cast of face.  Some of\nthe faces are but partially formed, which gives them a grotesque or\nrepellant appearance.  What are we to make of such phenomena?  There is\nno use deluding ourselves by the idea that there may be some mistake or\nsome deception.  There is neither one nor the other.  Apart from the\nelaborate checks upon these particular results, they correspond closely\nwith those got by Lombroso in Italy, by Schrenk-Notzing in Germany, and\nby other careful observers.  One thing we must bear in mind constantly\nin considering them, and that is their abnormality.  At a liberal\nestimate, it is not one person in a million who possesses such\npowers--if a thing which is outside our volition can be described as a\npower.  It is the mechanism of the materialisation medium which has\nbeen explored by the acute brain and untiring industry of Doctor Geley,\nand even presuming, as one may fairly presume, that every materialising\nmedium goes through the same process in order to produce results, still\nsuch mediums are exceedingly, rare.  Dr. Geley mentions, as an\nanalogous phenomenon on the material side, the presence of dermoid\ncysts, those mysterious formations, which rise as small tumors in any\npart of the body, particularly above the eyebrow, and which when opened\nby the surgeon are found to contain hair, teeth or embryonic bones.\nThere is no doubt, as he claims, some rough analogy, but the dermoid\ncyst is, at least, in the same flesh and blood plane of nature as the\nfoetus inside it, while in the ectoplasm we are dealing with an\nentirely new and strange development.\n\nIt is not possible to define exactly what occurs in the case of the\nectoplasm, nor, on account of its vital connection with the medium and\nits evanescent nature, has it been separated and subjected to even the\nroughest chemical analysis which might show whether it is composed of\nthose earthly elements with which we are familiar.  Is it rather some\ncoagulation of ether which introduces an absolutely new substance into\nour world?  Such a supposition seems most probable, for a comparison\nwith the analogous substance examined at Dr. Crawford's seances at\nBelfast, which is at the same time hardly visible to the eye and yet\ncapable of handling a weight of 150 pounds, suggests something entirely\nnew in the way of matter.\n\nBut setting aside, as beyond the present speculation, what the exact\norigin and nature of the ectoplasm may be, it seems to me that there is\nroom for a very suggestive line of thought if we make Geley's\nexperiments the starting point, and lead it in the direction of other\nmanifestations of psychomaterial activity.  First of all, let us take\nCrookes' classic experiments with Katie King, a result which for a long\ntime stood alone and isolated but now can be approached by intermittent\nbut definite stages.  Thus we can well suppose that during those long\nperiods when Florrie Cook lay in the laboratory in the dark, periods\nwhich lasted an hour or more upon some occasions, the ectoplasm was\nflowing from her as from Eva.  Then it was gathering itself into a\nviscous cloud or pillar close to her frame; then the form of Katie King\nwas evolved from this cloud, in the manner already described, and\nfinally the nexus was broken and the completed body advanced to present\nitself at the door of communication, showing a person different in\nevery possible attribute save that of sex from the medium, and yet\ncomposed wholly or in part from elements extracted from her senseless\nbody.  So far, Geley's experiments throw a strong explanatory light\nupon those of Crookes.  And here the Spiritualist must, as it seems to\nme, be prepared to meet an objection more formidable than the absurd\nones of fraud or optical delusion.  It is this.  If the body of Katie\nKing the spirit is derived from the body of Florrie Cook the psychic,\nthen what assurance have we that the life therein is not really one of\nthe personalities out of which the complex being named Florrie Cook is\nconstructed?  It is a thesis which requires careful handling.  It is\nnot enough to say that the nature is manifestly superior, for supposing\nthat Florrie Cook represented the average of a number of conflicting\npersonalities, then a single one of these personalities might be far\nhigher than the total effect.  Without going deeply into this problem,\none can but say that the spirit's own account of its own personality\nmust count for something, and also that an isolated phenomenon must be\ntaken in conjunction with all other psychic phenomena when we are\nseeking for a correct explanation.\n\nBut now let us take this idea of a human being who has the power of\nemitting a visible substance in which are formed faces which appear to\nrepresent distinct individualities, and in extreme cases develop into\ncomplete independent human forms.  Take this extraordinary fact, and\nlet us see whether, by an extension or modification of this\ndemonstrated process, we may not get some sort of clue as to the modus\noperandi in other psychic phenomena.  It seems to me that we may, at\nleast, obtain indications which amount to a probability, though not to\na certainty, as to how some results, hitherto inexplicable, are\nattained.  It is at any rate a provisional speculation, which may\nsuggest a hypothesis for future observers to destroy, modify, or\nconfirm.\n\nThe argument which I would advance is this.  If a strong\nmaterialisation medium can throw out a cloud of stuff which is actually\nvisible, may not a medium of a less pronounced type throw out a similar\ncloud with analogous properties which is not opaque enough to be seen\nby the average eye, but can make an impression both on the dry plate in\nthe camera and on the clairvoyant faculty?  If that be so--and it would\nnot seem to be a very far-fetched proposition--we have at once an\nexplanation both of psychic photographs and of the visions of the\nclairvoyant seer.  When I say an explanation, I mean of its superficial\nmethod of formation, and not of the forces at work behind, which remain\nno less a mystery even when we accept Dr. Geley's statement that they\nare \"ideoplastic.\"\n\nHere we have, I think, some attempt at a generalisation, which might,\nperhaps, be useful in evolving some first signs of order out of this\nchaos.  It is conceivable that the thinner emanation of the clairvoyant\nwould extend far further than the thick material ectoplasm, but have\nthe same property of moulding itself into life, though the life forms\nwould only be visible to the clairvoyant eye.  Thus, when Mr. Tom\nTyrrell, or any other competent exponent, stands upon the platform his\nemanation fills the hall.  Into this emanation, as into the visible\nectoplasm in Geley's experiments, break the faces and forms of those\nfrom the other side who are attracted to the scene by their sympathy\nwith various members of the audience.  They are seen and described by\nMr. Tyrrell, who with his finely attuned senses, carefully conserved\n(he hardly eats or drinks upon a day when he demonstrates), can hear\nthat thinner higher voice that calls their names, their old addresses\nand their messages.  So, too, when Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton stand with\ntheir hands joined over the cap of the camera, they are really throwing\nout a misty ectoplasm from which the forms loom up which appear upon\nthe photographic plate.  It may be that I mistake an analogy for an\nexplanation, but I put the theory on record for what it is worth.\n\n\n\n\nB\n\nA PARTICULAR INSTANCE\n\n\nI have been in touch with a series of events in America lately, and can\nvouch for the facts as much as any man can vouch for facts which did\nnot occur to himself.  I have not the least doubt in my own mind that\nthey are true, and a more remarkable double proof of the continuity of\nlife has, I should think, seldom been published.  A book has recently\nbeen issued by Harpers, of New York, called \"The Seven Purposes.\"  In\nthis book the authoress, Miss Margaret Cameron, describes how she\nsuddenly developed the power of automatic writing.  She was not a\nSpiritualist at the time.  Her hand was controlled and she wrote a\nquantity of matter which was entirely outside her own knowledge or\ncharacter.  Upon her doubting whether her sub-conscious self might in\nsome way be producing the writing, which was partly done by planchette,\nthe script was written upside down and from right to left, as though\nthe writer was seated opposite.  Such script could not possibly be\nwritten by the lady herself.  Upon making enquiry as to who was using\nher hand, the answer came in writing that it was a certain Fred\nGaylord, and that his object was to get a message to his mother.  The\nyouth was unknown to Miss Cameron, but she knew the family and\nforwarded the message, with the result that the mother came to see her,\nexamined the evidence, communicated with the son, and finally,\nreturning home, buried all her evidences of mourning, feeling that the\nboy was no more dead in the old sense than if he were alive in a\nforeign country.\n\nThere is the first proof of preternatural agency, since Miss Cameron\ndeveloped so much knowledge which she could not have normally acquired,\nusing many phrases and ideas which were characteristic of the deceased.\nBut mark the sequel.  Gaylord was merely a pseudonym, as the matter was\nso private that the real name, which we will put as Bridger, was not\ndisclosed.  A few months after the book was published Miss Cameron\nreceived a letter from a stranger living a thousand miles away.  This\nletter and the whole correspondence I have seen.  The stranger, Mrs.\nNicol, says that as a test she would like to ask whether the real name\ngiven as Fred Gaylord in the book is not Fred Bridger, as she had\npsychic reasons for believing so.  Miss Cameron replied that it was so,\nand expressed her great surprise that so secret and private a matter\nshould have been correctly stated.  Mrs. Nicol then explained that she\nand her husband, both connected with journalism and both absolutely\nagnostic, had discovered that she had the power of automatic writing.\nThat while, using this power she had received communications purporting\nto come from Fred Bridger whom they had known in life, and that upon\nreading Miss Cameron's book they had received from Fred Bridger the\nassurance that he was the same person as the Fred Gaylord of Miss\nCameron.\n\nNow, arguing upon these facts, and they would appear most undoubtedly\nto be facts, what possible answer can the materialist or the sceptic\ngive to the assertion that they are a double proof of the continuity of\npersonality and the possibility of communication?  Can any reasonable\nsystem of telepathy explain how Miss Cameron discovered the intimate\npoints characteristic of young Gaylord?  And then, how are we\nafterwards, by any possible telepathy, to explain the revelation to\nMrs. Nicol of the identity of her communicant, Fred Bridger, with the\nFred Gaylord who had been written of by Miss Cameron.  The case for\nreturn seems to me a very convincing one, though I contend now, as\never, that it is not the return of the lost ones which is of such\ncogent interest as the message from the beyond which they bear with\nthem.\n\n\n\n\nC\n\nSPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY\n\n\nOn this subject I should recommend the reader to consult Coates'\n\"Photographing the Invisible,\" which states, in a thoughtful and\nmoderate way, the evidence for this most remarkable phase, and\nillustrates it with many examples.  It is pointed out that here, as\nalways, fraud must be carefully guarded against, having been admitted\nin the case of the French spirit photographer, Buguet.\n\nThere are, however, a large number of cases where the photograph, under\nrigid test conditions in which fraud has been absolutely barred, has\nreproduced the features of the dead.  Here there are limitations and\nrestrictions which call for careful study and observation.  These faces\nof the dead are in some cases as contoured and as recognisable as they\nwere in life, and correspond with no pre-existing picture or\nphotograph.  One such case absolutely critic-proof is enough, one would\nthink, to establish survival, and these valid cases are to be counted\nnot in ones, but in hundreds.  On the other hand, many of the\nlikenesses, obtained under the same test conditions, are obviously\nsimulacra or pictures built up by some psychic force, not necessarily\nby the individual spirits themselves, to represent the dead.  In some\nundoubtedly genuine cases it is an exact, or almost exact, reproduction\nof an existing picture, as if the conscious intelligent force, whatever\nit might be, had consulted it as to the former appearance of the\ndeceased, and had then built it up in exact accordance with the\noriginal.  In such cases the spirit face may show as a flat surface\ninstead of a contour.  Rigid examination has shown that the existing\nmodel was usually outside the ken of the photographer.\n\nTwo of the bravest champions whom Spiritualism has ever produced, the\nlate W. T. Stead and the late Archdeacon Colley--names which will bulk\nlarge in days to come--attached great importance to spirit photography\nas a final and incontestable proof of survival.  In his recent work,\n\"Proofs of the Truth of Spiritualism\" (Kegan Paul), the eminent\nbotanist, Professor Henslow, has given one case which would really\nappear to be above criticism.  He narrates how the inquirer subjected a\nsealed packet of plates to the Crewe circle without exposure,\nendeavoring to get a psychograph.  Upon being asked on which plate he\ndesired it, he said \"the fifth.\"  Upon this plate being developed,\nthere was found on it a copy of a passage from the Codex Alexandrinus\nof the New Testament in the British Museum.  Reproductions, both of the\noriginal and of the copy, will be found in Professor Henslow's book.\n\nI have myself been to Crewe and have had results which would be amazing\nwere it not that familiarity blunts the mind to miracles.  Three marked\nplates brought by myself, and handled, developed and fixed by no hand\nbut mine, gave psychic extras.  In each case I saw the extra in the\nnegative when it was still wet in the dark room.  I reproduce in Plate\nI a specimen of the results, which is enough in itself to prove the\nwhole case of survival to any reasonable mind.  The three sitters are\nMr. Oaten, Mr. Walker, and myself, I being obscured by the psychic\ncloud.  In this cloud appears a message of welcome to me from the late\nArchdeacon Colley.  A specimen of the Archdeacon's own handwriting is\nreproduced in Plate II for the purpose of comparison.  Behind, there is\nan attempt at materialisation obscured by the cloud.  The mark on the\nside of the plate is my identification mark.  I trust that I make it\nclear that no hand but mine ever touched this plate, nor did I ever\nlose sight of it for a second save when it was in the carrier, which\nwas conveyed straight back to the dark room and there opened.  What has\nany critic to say to that?\n\nBy the kindness of those fearless pioneers of the movement, Mr. and\nMrs. Hewat Mackenzie, I am allowed to publish another example of spirit\nphotography.  The circumstances were very remarkable.  The visit of the\nparents to Crewe was unproductive and their plate a blank save for\ntheir own presentment.  Returning disappointed, to London they managed,\nthrough the mediumship of Mrs. Leonard, to get into touch with their\nboy, and asked him why they had failed.  He replied that the conditions\nhad been bad, but that he had actually succeeded some days later in\ngetting on to the plate of Lady Glenconnor, who had been to Crewe upon\na similar errand.  The parents communicated with this lady, who replied\nsaying that she had found the image of a stranger upon her plate.  On\nreceiving a print they at once recognised their son, and could even see\nthat, as a proof of identity, he had reproduced the bullet wound on his\nleft temple.  No. 3 is their gallant son as he appeared in the flesh,\nNo. 4 is his reappearance after death.  The opinion of a miniature\npainter who had done a picture of the young soldier is worth recording\nas evidence of identity.  The artist says:  \"After painting the\nminiature of your son Will, I feel I know every turn of his face, and\nam quite convinced of the likeness of the psychic photograph.  All the\nmodelling of the brow, nose and eyes is marked by illness--especially\nis the mouth slightly contracted--but this does not interfere with the\nreal form.  The way the hair grows on the brow and temple is noticeably\nlike the photograph taken before he was wounded.\"\n\n\n\n\nD\n\nTHE CLAIRVOYANCE OF MRS. B.\n\n\nAt the time of this volume going to press the results obtained by\nclients of this medium have been forty-two successes out of fifty\nattempts, checked and docketted by the author.  This series forms a\nmost conclusive proof of spirit clairvoyance.  An attempt has been made\nby Mr. E. F. Benson, who examined some of the letters, to explain the\nresults upon the grounds of telepathy.  He admits that \"The tastes,\nappearance and character of the deceased are often given, and many\nnames are introduced by the medium, some not traceable, but most of\nthem identical with relations or friends.\"  Such an admission would\nalone banish thought-reading as an explanation, for there is no\nevidence in existence to show that this power ever reaches such\nperfection that one who possesses it could draw the image of a dead man\nfrom your brain, fit a correct name to him, and then associate him with\nall sorts of definite and detailed actions in which he was engaged.\nSuch an explanation is not an explanation but a pretence.  But even if\none were to allow such a theory to pass, there are numerous incidents\nin these accounts which could not be explained in such a fashion, where\nunknown details have been given which were afterwards verified, and\neven where mistakes in thought upon the part of the sitter were\ncorrected by the medium under spirit guidance.  Personally I believe\nthat the medium's own account of how she gets her remarkable results is\nthe absolute truth, and I can imagine no other fashion in which they\ncan be explained.  She has, of course, her bad days, and the conditions\nare always worst when there is an inquisitorial rather than a religious\natmosphere in the interview.  This intermittent character of the\nresults is, according to my experience, characteristic of spirit\nclairvoyance as compared with thought-reading, which can, in its more\nperfect form, become almost automatic within certain marked limits.  I\nmay add that the constant practice of some psychical researchers to\ntake no notice at all of the medium's own account of how he or she\nattains results, but to substitute some complicated and unproved\nexplanation of their own, is as insulting as it is unreasonable.  It\nhas been alleged as a slur upon Mrs. B's results and character that she\nhas been twice prosecuted by the police.  This is, in fact, not a slur\nupon the medium but rather upon the law, which is in so barbarous a\ncondition that the true seer fares no better than the impostor, and\nthat no definite psychic principles are recognised.  A medium may under\nsuch circumstances be a martyr rather than a criminal, and a conviction\nceases to be a stain upon the character.\n\n\n\n[1]  \"The Reality of Psychic Phenomena.\"  \"Experiences in Psychical\nScience.\" (Watkins.)\n\n[2]  See Appendix.\n\n[3]  See Appendix D.\n\n[4]  The details of both these latter cases are to be found in \"Voices\nfrom the Void\" by Mrs. Travers Smith, a book containing some well\nweighed evidence.\n\n[5]  For Geley's Experiments,  Appendix A.\n\n[6]  Published at sixpence by the Light Publishing Co., 6, Queen\nSquare, London, W.C.  The same firm supplies Dr. Ellis Powell's\nconvincing little book on the same subject.\n\n[7]  The References are to Matthew, xxiii 35, and to  Josephus, Wars of\nthe Jews, Book IV, Chapter 5.\n\n[8]  Dr. Geley writes to me that they are unknown either to him or to\nthe medium.","title":"The Vital Message","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":28920}