Phil 7069.19.92 BAU LOOD S . SVETRI TAS HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY THE VITAL MESSAGE ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE THE VITAL MESSAGE BY ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE AUTHOR OF "THE NEW REVELATION," ЕТС. NEW DF YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY PREFACE IN “The New Revelation” the first dawn of the coming change has been described. In “The Vital Message" the sun has risen higher, and one sees more clearly and broadly what our new relations with the Un- seen may be. As I look into the future of the human race I am reminded of how once, from amid the bleak chaos of rock and snow at the head of an Alpine pass, I looked down upon the far stretching view of Lombardy, shimmering in the sunshine and xtending in one splendid panorama of blue lakes and green rolling hills until it melted into the golden haze which draped the far horizon. Such a promised land is at our very feet which, when we attain it, will make our pres, ent civilisation seem barren and uncouth. Already our vanguard is well over the pass. Nothing can now prevent us from reaching that wonderful land which stretches SO clearly before those eyes which are opened to see it. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 11 29 52 87 I The Two NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS . . II THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT . . . . III THE GREAT ARGUMENT . . . . . . IV THE COMING WORLD . . . . . . V Is IT THE SECOND DAWN? . . . . APPENDICES A. DR. GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS. .. B. A PARTICULAR INSTANCE ... C. SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY ..., D. THE CLAIRVOYANCE OF MRS. B. . OTOGRAPHY 162 THE VITAL MESSAGE THE VITAL MESSAGE CHAPTER I THE TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS It has been our fate, among all the in- numerable generations of mankind, to face the most frightful calamity that has ever be- fallen the world. There is a basic fact which cannot be denied, and should not be over- looked. For a most important deduction must immediately follow from it. That de- duction is that we, who have borne the pains, shall also learn the lesson which they were intended to convey. If we do not learn it and proclaim it, then when can it ever be learned and proclaimed, since there can never again be such a spiritual ploughing and harrowing and preparation for the seed ? If our souls, wearied and tortured during 12 THE VITAL MESSAGE these dreadful five years of self-sacrifice and suspense, can show no radical changes, then what souls will ever respond to a fresh in- flux of heavenly inspiration? In that case the state of the human race would indeed be hopeless, and never in all the coming cen- turies would there be any prospect of im- provement. Why was this tremendous experience forced upon mankind ? Surely it is a super- ficial thinker who imagines that the great Designer of all things has set the whole planet in a ferment, and strained every na- tion to exhaustion, in order that this or that frontier be moved, or some fresh combina- tion be formed in the kaleidoscope of na- tions. No, the causes of the convulsion, and its objects, are more profound than that. They are essentially religious, not political. They lie far deeper than the national squab- bles of the day. A thousand years hence those national results may matter little, but the religious result will rule the world. That religious result is the reform of the decadent Christianity of to-day, its simplification, its purification, and its reinforcement by the facts of spirit communion and the clear TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS 18 knowledge of what lies beyond the exit-door of death. The shock of the war was meant to rouse us to mental and moral earnest- ness, to give us the courage to tear away venerable shams, and to force the human race to realise and use the vast new revela- tion which has been so clearly stated and so abundantly proved, for all who will examine the statements and proofs with an open mind. Consider the awful condition of the world before this thunder-bolt struck it. Could anyone, tracing back down the centuries and examining the record of the wickedness of man, find anything which could compare with the story of the nations during the last twenty years! Think of the condition of Russia during that time, with her bru- tal aristocracy and her drunken democracy, her murders on either side, her Siberian horrors, her Jew baitings and her corrup- tion. Think of the figure of Leopold of Belgium, an incarnate devil who from mo- tives of greed carried murder and torture through a large section of Africa, and yet was received in every court, and was eventu- ally buried after a panegyric from a Cardi- THE VITAL MESSAGE nal of the Roman Church-a church which had never once raised her voice against his diabolical career. Consider the similar crimes in the Putumayo, where British capi- talists, if not guilty of outrage, can at least not be acquitted of having condoned it by their lethargy and trust in local agents. Think of Turkey and the recurrent massa- cres of her subject races. Think of the heartless grind of the factories everywhere, where work assumed a very different and more unnatural shape than the ancient la- bour of the fields. Think of the sensuality of many rich, the brutality of many poor, the shallowness of many fashionable, the coldness and deadness of religion, the ab- sence anywhere of any deep, true spiritual impulse. Think, above all, of the organised materialism of Germany, the arrogance, the heartlessness, the negation of everything which one could possibly associate with the living spirit of Christ as evident in the utter- ances of Catholic Bishops, like Hartmann of Cologne, as in those of Lutheran Pastors. Put all this together and say if the human race has ever presented a more unlovely aspect. When we try to find the brighter TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS 15 spots they are chiefly where civilisation, as apart from religion, has built up necessities for the community, such as hospitals, uni- versities, and organised charities, as con- spicuous in Buddhist Japan as in Christian Europe. We cannot deny that there has been much virtue, much gentleness, much spirituality in individuals. But the churches were empty husks, which contained no spiritual food for the human race, and had in the main ceased to influence its actions, save in the direction of soulless forms. This is not an over-coloured picture. Can we not see, then, what was the inner reason for the war? Can we not understand that it was needful to shake mankind loose from gossip and pink teas, and sword-worship, and Saturday night drunks, and self-seeking politics and theological quibbles—to wake them up and make them realise that they stand upon a narrow knife-edge between two awful eternities, and that, here and now, they have to finish with make-beliefs, and with real earnestness and courage face those truths which have always been palpa- ble where indolence, or cowardice, or vested interests have not obscured the vision. Let TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS 17 been circulated under one cover, and the re- sult is dire confusion. The one is a scheme depending upon a special tribal God, intense- ly anthropomorphic and filled with rage, jealousy and revenge. The conception per- vades every book of the Old Testament. Even in the psalms, which are perhaps the most spiritual and beautiful section, the psalmist, amid much that is noble, sings of the fearsome things which his God will do to his enemies. "They shall go down alive into hell.” There is the keynote of this an- cient document-a document which advo- cates massacre, condones polygamy, accepts slavery, and orders the burning of so-called witches. Its Mosaic provisions have long been laid aside. We do not consider our- selves accursed if we fail to mutilate our bodies, if we eat forbidden dishes, fail to trim our beards, or wear clothes of two ma- terials. But we cannot lay aside the pro- visions and yet regard the document as di- vine. No learned quibbles can ever persuade an honest earnest mind that that is right. One may say:“Everyone knows that that is the old dispensation, and is not to be acted upon.” It is not true. It is continually 18 THE VITAL MESSAGE acted upon, and always will be so long as it is made part of one sacred book. William the Second acted upon it. His German God which wrought such mischief in the world was the reflection of the dreadful being who ordered that captives be put under the har- row. The cities of Belgium were the reflec- tion of the cities of Moab. Every hard- hearted brute in history, more especially in the religious wars, has found his inspiration in the Old Testament. “Smite and spare not!” “An eye for an eye!”, how readily the texts spring to the grim lips of the mur- derous fanatic. Francis on St. Bartholo- mow's night, Alva in the Lowlands, Tilly at Magdeburg, Cromwell at Drogheda, the Covenanters at Philliphaugh, the Anabap- tists of Munster, and the early Mormons of Utah, all found their murderous impulses fortified from this unholy source. Its red trail runs through history. Even where the New Testament prevails, its teaching must still be dulled and clouded by its sterner neighbour. Let us retain this honoured work of literature. Let us remove the taint which poisons the very spring of our reli- gious thought. TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS 21 has left as the foundation for the permanent religion of mankind. All the religious wars, the private feuds, and the countless miseries of sectarian contention, would have been at least minimised, if not avoided, had the bare example of Christ's life been adopted as the standard of conduct and of religion. But there are certain other considerations which should have weight when we con- template this life and its efficacy as an ex- ample. One of these is that the very essence of it was that He critically examined re- ligion as He found it, and brought His ro- bust common sense and courage to bear in exposing the shams and in pointing out the better path. That is the hall-mark of the true follower of Christ, and not the mute acceptance of doctrines which are, upon the face of them, false and pernicious, because they come to us with some show of authority. What authority have we now, save this very life, which could compare with those Jew- ish books which were so binding in their force, and so immutably sacred that even the misspellings or pen-slips of the scribe were most carefully preserved? It is a sim- ple obvious fact that if Christ had been TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS 23 of course, of a higher class, but their in- formation came from their lowly predeces- sors. Their account is splendidly satisfying in the unity of the general impression which it produces, and the clear drawing of the Master's teaching and character. At the same time it is full of inconsistencies and contradictions upon immaterial matters. For example, the four accounts of the resur- rection differ in detail, and there is no orthodox learned lawyer who dutifully ac- cepts all four versions who could not shat- ter the evidence if he dealt with it in the course of his profession. These details are immaterial to the spirit of the message. It is not common sense to suppose that every item is inspired, or that we have to make no allowance for imperfect reporting, in- dividual convictions, oriental phraseology, or faults of translation. These have, indeed, been admitted by revised versions. In His utterance about the letter and the spirit we could almost believe that Christ had foreseen the plague of texts from which we have suf- fered, even as He Himself suffered at the hands of the theologians of His day, who then, as now, have been a curse to the world. TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS 25 case is really understated. In regard to the Old Testament I have never seen the matter treated in a spiritual communication. The nature of Christ, however, and His teach- ing, have been expounded a score of times with some variation of detail, but in the main as reproduced here. Spirits have their individuality of view, and some carry over strong earthly prepossessions which they do not easily shed; but reading many au- thentic spirit communications one finds that the idea of redemption is hardly ever spoken of, while that of example and influence is for ever insisted upon. In them Christ is the highest spirit known, the son of God, as we all are, but nearer to God, and there- fore in a more particular sense His son. He does not, save in most rare and special cases, meet us when we die. Since souls pass over, night and day, at the rate of about 100 a minute, this would seem self-evident. After a time we may be admitted to His presence, to find a most tender, sympathetic and help- ful comrade and guide, whose spirit influ- ences all things even when His bodily pres- ence is not visible. This is the general teaching of the other world communications 26 THE VITAL MESSAGE concerning Christ, the gentle, loving and powerful spirit which broods ever over that world which, in all its many spheres, is His special care. Before passing to the new revelation, its certain proofs and its definite teaching, let us hark back for a moment upon the two points which have already been treated. They are not absolutely vital points. The fresh developments can go on and conquer the world without them. There can be no sud- den change in the ancient routine of our religious habits, nor is it possible to con- ceive that a congress of theologians could take so heroic a step as to tear the Bible in twain, laying one half upon the shelf and one upon the table. Neither is it to be ex- pected that any formal pronouncements could ever be made that the churches have all laid the wrong emphasis upon the story of Christ. Moral courage will not rise to such a height. But with the spiritual quickening and the greater earnestness which will have their roots in this bloody passion of man- kind, many will perceive what is reasonable and true, so that even if the Old Testament should remain, like some obsolete appendix TWO NEEDFUL READJUSTMENTS 27 in the animal frame, to mark a lower stage through which development has passed, it will more and more be recognised as a docu- ment which has lost all validity and which should no longer be allowed to influence hu- man conduct, save by way of pointing out much which we may avoid. So also with the teaching of Christ, the mystical portions may fade gently away, as the grosser views of eternal punishment have faded within our own lifetime, so that while mankind is hardly aware of the change the heresy of to- day will become the commonplace of to- morrow. These things will adjust them- selves in God's own time. What is, however, both new and vital are those fresh develop- ments which will now be discussed. In them may be found the signs of how the dry bones may be stirred, and how the mummy may be quickened with the breath of life. With the actual certainty of a definite life after death, and a sure sense of responsibility for our own spiritual development, a responsi- bility which cannot be put upon any other shoulders, however exalted, but must be borne by each individual for himself, there will come the greatest reinforcement of 28 THE VITAL MESSAGE morality which the human race has ever known. We are on the verge of it now, but our descendants will look upon the past cen- tury as the culmination of the dark ages when man lost his trust in God, and was so engrossed in his temporary earth life that he lost all sense of spiritual reality. 30 THE VITAL MESSAGE are too lowly to share it. Let us turn, there- fore, and inspect this movement which is most certainly destined to revolutionise hu- man thought and action as none other has done within the Christian era. We shall look at it both in its strength and in its weakness, for where one is dealing with what one knows to be true one can fearlessly in- sist upon the whole of the truth. The movement which is destined to bring vitality to the dead and cold religions has been called “Modern Spiritualism.” The “modern” is good, since the thing itself, in one form or another, is as old as history, and has always, however obscured by forms, been the red central glow in the depths of all religious ideas, permeating the Bible from end to end. But the word “Spiritualism” has been so befouled by wicked charlatans, and so cheapened by many a sad incident, that one could almost wish that some such term as "psychic religion” would clear the subject of old prejudices, just as mesmerism, after many years of obloquy, was rapidly ac- cepted when its name was changed to hyp- notism. On the other hand, one remembers the sturdy pioneers who have fought under 32 THE VITAL MESSAGE John Wesley's father might have done the same more than a century before had the thought occurred to him when he was a wit- ness of the manifestations at Epworth in 1726. It was only when the young Fox girl struck her hands together and cried “Do as I do” that there was instant compliance, and consequent proof of the presence of an intelligent invisible force, thus differing from all other forces of which we know. The circumstances were humble, and even rather sordid, upon both sides of the veil, human and spirit, yet it was, as time will more and more clearly show, one of the turning points of the world's history, greater far than the fall of thrones or the rout of armies. Some artist of the future will draw the scene- the sitting-room of the wooden, shack-like house, the circle of half-awed and half-criti- cal neighbours, the child clapping her hands with upturned laughing face, the dark cor- ner shadows where these strange new forces seem to lurk-forces often apparent, and now come to stay and to effect the complete revolution of human thought. We may well ask why should such great results arise from such petty sources So argued the high- THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT 33 browed philosophers of Greece and Rome when the outspoken Paul, with the fisher- man Peter and his half-educated disciples, traversed all their learned theories, and with the help of women, slaves, and schismatic Jews, subverted their ancient creeds. One can but answer that Providence has its own way of attaining its results, and that it sel- dom conforms to our opinion of what is most appropriate. We have a larger experience of such phe- nomena now, and we can define with some accuracy what it was that happened at Hydesville in the year 1848. We know that these matters are governed by law and by conditions as much as any other phenomena of the universe, though at the moment it seemed to the public to be an isolated and irregular outburst. On the one hand, you had a material, earth-bound spirit of a low order of development which needed a physi- cal medium in order to be able to indicate its presence. On the other, you had that rare thing, a good physical medium. The result followed as surely as the flash follows when the electric battery and wire are both prop- erly adjusted. Corresponding experiments, 34 THE VITAL MESSAGE where effect and cause duly follow, are be- ing worked out at the present moment by Professor Crawford, of Belfast, as detailed in his two recent books, where he shows that there is an actual loss of weight of the me- dium in exact proportion to the physical phenomenon produced.* The whole secret of mediumship on this material side appears to lie in the power, quite independent of oneself, of passively giving up some portion of one's bodily substance for the use of out- side influences. Why should some have this power and some not? We do not know- nor do we know why one should have the ear for music and another not. Each is born in us, and each has little connection with our moral natures. At first it was only physical mediumship which was known, and public attention centred upon moving tables, auto- matic musical instruments, and other crude but obvious examples of outside influence, which were unhappily very easily imitated by rogues. Since then we have learned that there are many forms of mediumship, so different from each other that an expert at **The Reality of Psychic Phenomena." “Experiences in Psyehical Science." (Watkins.) THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT 35 one may have no powers at all at the other. The automatic writer, the clairvoyant, the crystal-seer, the trance speaker, the photo- graphic medium, the direct voice medium, and others, are all, when genuine, the mani- festations of one force, which runs through varied.channels as it did in the gifts ascribed to the disciples. The unhappy outburst of roguery was helped, no doubt, by the need for darkness claimed by the early experi- menters—a claim which is by no means es- sential, since the greatest of all mediums, D. D. Home, was able by the exceptional strength of his powers to dispense with it. At the same time the fact that darkness rather than light, and dryness rather than moisture, are helpful to good results has been abundantly manifested, and points to the physical laws which underlie the phenomena. The observation made long afterwards that wireless telegraphy, another etheric force, acts twice as well by night as by day, may, corroborate the general conclusions of the early Spiritualists, while their assertion that the least harmful light is red light has a suggestive analogy in the experience of the photographer. 38 THE VITAL MESSAGE frauds. They laughed, as the public laughed, at the sham Shakespeares and vul- gar Cæsars who figured in certain séance rooms. They deprecated also the low moral tone which would turn such powers to prophecies about the issue of a race or the success of a speculation. But they had that broader vision and sense of proportion which assured them that behind all these follies and frauds there lay a mass of solid evi- dence which could not be shaken, though like all evidence, it had to be examined before it could be appreciated. They were not such simpletons as to be driven away from a great truth because there are some dishon- est camp followers who hang upon its skirts. A great centre of proof and of inspira- tion lay during those early days in Mr. D.D. Home, a Scottish-American, who possessed powers which make him one of the most remarkable personalities of whom we have any record. Home's life, written by his sec- ond wife, is a book which deserves very care- ful reading. This man, who in some aspects was more than a man, was before the public for nearly thirty years. During that time he never received payment for his services, THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT 39 and was always ready to put himself at the disposal of any bonâ-fide and reasonable en quirer. His phenomena were produced in full light, and it was immaterial to him whether the sittings were in his own rooms or in those of his friends. So high were his principles that upon one occasion, though he was a man of moderate means and less than moderate health, he refused the prince- ly fee of two thousand pounds offered for a single sitting by the Union Circle in Paris. As to his powers, they seem to have included every form of mediumship in the highest degree-self-levitation, as witnessed by hundreds of credible witnesses; the han- dling of fire, with the power of conferring like immunity upon others; the movement without human touch of heavy objects; the visible materialisation of spirits; miracles of healing; and messages from the dead, such as that which converted the hard- headed Scot, Robert Chambers, when Home repeated to him the actual dying words of his young daughter. All this came from a man of so sweet a nature and of so charitable a disposition, that the union of all qualities THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT 41 returned. It is this intermittent character of the gift which is, in my opinion, responsi- ble for cases when a medium who has passed the most rigid tests upon certain occasions is afterwards detected in simulating, very clumsily, the results which he had once suc- cessfully accomplished. The real power hav- ing failed, he has not the moral courage to admit it, nor the self-denial to forego his fee which he endeavours to earn by a travesty of what was once genuine. Such an ex- planation would cover some facts which otherwise are hard to reconcile. We must also admit that some mediums are extreme- ly irresponsible and feather-headed people. A friend of mine, who sat with Eusapia Palladino, assured me that he saw her cheat in the most childish and bare-faced fashion, and yet immediately afterwards incidents occurred which were absolutely beyond any, normal powers to produce. Apart from Home, another episode which marks a stage in the advance of this move- ment was the investigation and report by the Dialectical Society in the year 1869. This body was composed of men of various learned professions who gathered together to . 42 THE VITAL MESSAGE investigate the alleged facts, and ended by reporting that they really were facts. They were unbiased, and their conclusions were founded upon results which were very sober- ly set forth in their report, a most convinc- ing document which, even now in 1919, after the lapse of fifty years, is far more intelli- gent than the greater part of current opinion upon this subject. None the less, it was greeted by a chorus of ridicule by the igno- rant Press of that day, who, if the same men had come to the opposite conclusion in spite of the evidence, would have been ready to hail their verdict as the undoubted end of a pernicious movement. In the early days, about 1863, a book was written by Mrs. de Morgan, the wife of the well-known mathematician Professor de Morgan, entitled “From Matter to Spirit.” There is a sympathetic preface by the husband. The book is still well worth reading, for it is a question whether any- one has shown greater brain power in treat- ing the subject. In it the prophecy is made that as the movement develops the more ma- terial phenomena will decrease and their place be taken by the more spiritual, such THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT 43 as automatic writing. This forecast has been fulfilled, for though physical mediums still exist the other more subtle forms great- ly predominate, and call for far more dis- criminating criticism in judging their value and their truth. Two very convincing forms of mediumship, the direct voice and spirit photography, have also become prominent. Each of these presents such proof that it is impossible for the sceptic to face them, and he can only avoid them by ignoring them. In the case of the direct voice one of the leading exponents is Mrs. French, an ama- teur medium in America, whose work is described both by Mr. Funk and Mr. Ran- dall. She is a frail elderly lady, yet in her presence the most masculine and robust voices make communications, even when her own mouth is covered. I have myself inves- tigated the direct voice in the case of four different mediums, two of them amateurs, and can have no doubt of the reality of the voices, and that they are not the effect of ventriloquism. I was more struck by the failures than by the successes, and cannot easily forget the passionate pantings with which some entity strove hard to reveal his 44 THE VITAL MESSAGE identity to me, but without success. One of these mediums was tested afterwards by having the mouth filled with coloured water, but the voices continued as before. As to spirit photography, the most suc- cessful results are obtained by the Crewe circle in England, under the mediumship of Mr. Hope and Mrs. Buxton.* I have seen scores of these photographs, which in sev- eral cases reproduce exact images of the dead which do not correspond with any pic- tures of them taken during life. I have seen father, mother, and dead soldier son, all taken together with the dead son looking far the happier and not the least substan- tial of the three. It is in these varied forms of proof that the impregnable strength of the evidence lies, for how absurd do explana- tions of telepathy, unconscious cerebration or cosmic memory become when faced by such phenomena as spirit photography, ma- terialisation, or the direct voice. Only one hypothesis can cover every branch of these manifestations, and that is the system of ex- traneous life and action which has always, for seventy years, held the field for any * Bee Appendix. 46 THE VITAL MESSAGE of the automatic script, an amateur medium, who was able to indicate the secrets of the buried abbey, which were proved to be cor- rect when the ruins were uncovered. I can truly say that, though I have read much of the old monastic life, it has never been brought home to me so closely as by the mes- sages and descriptions of dear old Brother Johannes, the earth-bound spirit-earth- bound by his great love for the old abbey in which he had spent his human life. This book, with its practical sequel, may be quoted as an excellent example of automatic writing at its highest, for what telepathic explanation can cover the detailed descrip- tion of objects which lie unseen by any hu- man eye? It must be admitted, however, that in automatic writing you are at one end of the telephone, if one may use such a simile, and you have no assurance as to who is at the other end. You may have wildly false mes- sages suddenly interpolated among truthful ones—messages so detailed in their men- dacity that it is impossible to think that they are not deliberately false. When once we have accepted the central fact that spirits change little in essentials when leaving the 48 THE VITAL MESSAGE viously not propitious, but why or how are among the many problems of the future. It is a profound and most complicated sub- ject, however easily it may be settled by the "ridiculous nonsense” school of critics. I look at the row of books upon the left of my desk as I write-ninety-six solid volumes, many of them annotated and well thumbed, and yet I know that I am like a child wading ankle deep in the margin of an illimitable ocean. But this, at least, I have very clearly realised, that the ocean is there and that the margin is part of it, and that down that shelving shore the human race is destined to move slowly to deeper waters. In the next chapter, I will endeavour to show what is the purpose of the Creator in this strange revelation of new intelligent forces imping- ing upon our planet. It is this view of the question which must justify the claim that this movement, so long the subject of sneers and ridicule, is absolutely the most impor- tant development in the whole history of the human race, so important that if we could conceive one single man discovering and publishing it, he would rank before Chris- THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT 49 topher Columbus as a discoverer of new worlds, before Paul as a teacher of new re- ligious truths, and before Isaac Newton as a student of the laws of the Universe. Before opening up this subject there is one consideration which should have due weight, and yet seems continually to be over- looked. The differences between various sects are a very small thing as compared to the great eternal duel between materialism and the spiritual view of the Universe. That is the real fight. It is a fight in which the Churches championed the anti-material view., but they have done it so unintelligently, and have been continually placed in such false positions, that they have always been losing. Since the days of Hume and Vol- taire and Gibbon the fight has slowly but steadily rolled in favour of the attack. Then came Darwin, showing with apparent truth, that man has never fallen but always risen. This cut deep into the philosophy of ortho- doxy, and it is folly to deny it. Then again came the so-called “Higher Criticism," showing alleged flaws and cracks in the very foundations. All this time the churches were yielding ground, and every retreat gave THE DAWNING OF THE LIGHT 51 cries, the one declaring that the thing is of the devil, while the other is equally clear that it does not exist at all. The opposition of the materialists is absolutely intelligent since it is clear that any man who has spent his life in saying “No” to all extramundane forces is, indeed, in a pitiable position when, after many years, he has to recognise that his whole philosophy is built upon sand and that “Yes” was the answer from the be- ginning. But as to the religious bodies, what words can express their stupidity and want of all proportion in not running half- way and more to meet the greatest ally who has ever intervened to change their defeat into victory? What gifts this all-powerful ally brings with him, and what are the terms of his alliance, will now be considered. THE GREAT ARGUMENT 53 contents. It is a vain thing to urge that science has not admitted this contention, and that the statement is pure dogmatism. The science which has not examined the facts has, it is true, not admitted the contention, but its opinion is manifestly worthless, or at the best of less weight than that of the humblest student of psychic phenomena. The real science which has examined the facts is the only valid authority, and it is practically unanimous. I have made per- sonal appeals to at least one great leader of science to examine the facts, however super- ficially, without any success, while Sir Wil- liam Crookes appealed to Sir George Stokes, the Secretary of the Royal Society, one of the most bitter opponents of the movement, to come down to his laboratory and see the psychic force at work, but he took no no- tice. What weight has science of that sort? It can only be compared to that theological prejudice which caused the Ecclesiastics in the days of Galileo to refuse to look through the telescope which he held out to them. It is possible to write down the names of fifty professors in great seats of learning who have examined and endorsed these facts, 54 THE VITAL MESSAGE and the list would include many of the great- est intellects which the world has produced in our time-Flammarion and Lombroso, Charles Richet and Russel Wallace, Willie Reichel, Myers, Zollner, James, Lodge, and Crookes. Therefore the facts have been en- dorsed by the only science that has the right to express an opinion. I have never, in my thirty years of experience, known one sin- gle scientific man who went thoroughly into this matter and did not end by accepting the Spiritual solution. Such may exist, but I repeat that I have never heard of him. Let us, then, with confidence examine this mat- ter of the “spiritual body,' to use the term made classical by Saint Paul. There are many signs in his writings that Paul was deeply versed in psychic matters, and one of these is his exact definition of the natural and spiritual bodies in the service which is the final farewell to life of every Christian. Paul picked his words, and if he had meant that man consisted of a natural body and a spirit he would have said so. When he said "a spiritual body” he meant a body which contained the spirit and yet was distinct from the ordinary natural body. That is 56 THE VITAL MESSAGE years in exploring it—which vouches for the existence of this finer body containing the precious jewels of the mind and spirit, and leaving only gross confused animal func- tions in its heavier companion. Mr. Funk, who is a critical student of psychic phenomena, and also the joint com- piler of the standard American dictionary, narrates a story in point which could be matched from other sources. He tells of an American doctor of his acquaintance, and he vouches personally for the truth of the incident. This doctor, in the course of a cataleptic seizure in Florida, was aware that he had left his body, which he saw lying be- side him. He had none the less preserved his figure and his identity. The thought of some friend at a distance came into his mind, and after an appreciable interval he found himself in that friend's room, half way across the continent. He saw his friend, and was conscious that his friend saw him. He afterwards returned to his own room, stood beside his own senseless body, argued with- in himself whether he should re-occupy it or not, and finally, duty overcoming inclina- tion, he merged his two frames together and 58 THE VITAL MESSAGE be applied to the human body, the result would be that, if all that is visible of that body were removed, there would still re- main a complete and absolute mould of the body, formed in bound ether which would be different from the ether around it. This argument is more solid than mere specula- tion, and it shows that even the soul may come to be defined in terms of matter and is not altogether "such stuff as dreams are made of." It has been shown that there is some good evidence for the existence of this second body apart from psychic religion, but to those who have examined that religion it is the centre of the whole system, sufficiently real to be recognised by clairvoyants, to be heard by clairaudients, and even to make an exact impression upon a photographic plate. Of the latter phenomenon, of which I have had some very particular opportunities of judging, I have no more doubt than I have of the ordinary photography of commerce. It had already been shown by the astrono- mers that the sensitized plate is a more deli- cate recording instrument than the human retina, and that it can show stars upon a THE GREAT ARGUMENT 59 long exposure which the eye has never seen. It would appear that the spirit world is really so near to us that a very little extra help under correct conditions of medium- ship will make all the difference. Thus the plate, instead of the eye, may bring the loved face within the range of vision, while the trumpet, acting as a megaphone, may bring back the familiar voice where the spirit whisper with no mechanical aid was still inaudible. So loud may the latter phe- nomenon be that in one case, of which I have the record, the dead man's dog was so ex- cited at hearing once more his master's voice that he broke his chain, and deeply scarred the outside of the séance room door in his efforts to force an entrance. Now, having said so much of the spirit body, and having indicated that its presence is not vouched for by only one line of evi- dence or school of thought, let us turn to what happens at the time of death, accord- ing to the observation of clairvoyants on this side and the posthumous accounts of the dead upon the other. It is exactly what we should expect to happen, granted the double identity. In a painless and natural process THE GREAT ARGUMENT 61 and recognised by his friend. The meshes of his ether, if the phrase be permitted, were still heavy with the matter from which they had only just been disentangled. Having disengaged itself from grosser matter, what happens to this spirit body, the precious bark which bears our all in all upon this voyage into unknown seas ? Very many accounts have come back to us, verbal and written, detailing the experiences of those who have passed on. The verbal are by trance mediums, whose utterances appear to be controlled by outside intelligences. The written from automatic writers whose script is produced in the same way. At these words the critic naturally and reasonably shies, with a “What nonsense! How can you control the statement of this medium who is consciously or unconsciously pre- tending to inspiration ?” This is a healthy scepticism, and should animate every ex- perimenter who tests a new medium. The proofs must lie in the communication itself. If they are not present, then, as always, we must accept natural rather than unknown explanations. But they are continually present, and in such obvious forms that no THE GREAT ARGUMENT 63 Mrs. — to-day. I cannot tell you the joy it has been to me. Many grateful thanks for your help.” The next one says: “Mrs. — was simply wonderful. If only more people knew, what agony they would be spared." In this case the wife got in touch with the husband, and the medium mentioned cor- rectly five dead relatives who were in his company. The next is a case of mother and son. “I saw Mrs. - to-day, and obtained very wonderful results. She told me near- ly everything quite correctly—a very few mistakes." The next is similar. “We were quite successful. My boy even reminded me of something that only he and I knew." Says another:“My boy reminded me of the day when he sowed turnip seed upon the lawn. Only he could have known of this." These are fair samples of the letters, of which I hold a large number. They are from people who present themselves from among the millions living in London, or the provinces, and about whose affairs the me- dium had no possible normal way of know- ing. Of all the very numerous cases which I have sent to this medium I have only had a few which have been complete failures. On THE GREAT ARGUMENT 65 made no incorrect statements, though some were vague. After I had revealed the iden- tity of this medium several pressmen at- tempted to have test séances with her- a test séance being, in most cases, a séance which begins by breaking every psychic con- dition and making success most improbable. One of these gentlemen, Mr. Ulyss Rogers, had very fair results. Another sent from “Truth” had complete failure. It must be understood that these powers do not work from the medium, but through the medium, and that the forces in the beyond have not the least sympathy with a smart young press- man in search of clever copy, while they have a very different feeling to a bereaved mother who prays with all her broken heart that some assurance may be given her that the child of her love is not gone from her for ever. When this fact is mastered, and it is understood that “Stand and deliver” methods only excite gentle derision on the other side, we shall find some more intelli- gent manner of putting things of the spirit to the proof.* I have dwelt upon these results, which * See Appendix D. 66 THE VITAL MESSAGE could be matched by other mediums, to show that we have solid and certain reasons to say that the verbal reports are not from the mediums themselves. Readers of Ar- thur Hill's “Psychical Investigations” will find many even more convincing cases. So in the written communications, I have in a previous paper pointed to the “Gate of Re- membrance” case, but there is a great mass of material which proves that, in spite of mistakes and failures, there really is a chan- nel of communication, fitful and evasive sometimes, but entirely beyond coincidence or fraud. These, then, are the usual means by which we receive psychic messages, though table tilting, ouija boards, glasses upon a smooth surface, or anything which can be moved by the vital animal-magnetic force already discussed will equally serve the purpose. Often information is con- veyed orally or by writing which could not have been known to anyone concerned. Mr. Wilkinson has given details of the case where his dead son drew attention to the fact that a curio (a coin bent by a bullet) had been overlooked among his effects. Sir William Barrett has narrated how á young THE GREAT ARGUMENT 67. officer sent a message leaving a pearl tie-pin to a friend. No one knew that such a pin existed, but it was found among his things. The death of Sir Hugh Lane was given at a, private séance in Dublin before the de- tails of the Lusitania disaster had been pub- lished.* On that morning we ourselves, in a small séance, got the message “It is ter- rible, terrible, and will greatly affect the war," at a time when we were convinced that no great loss of life could have occurred. Such examples are very numerous, and are only quoted here to show how impossible it is to invoke telepathy as the origin of such messages. There is only one explanation which covers the facts. They are what they say they are, messages from those who have passed on, from the spiritual body which was seen to rise from the deathbed, which has been so often photographed, which per- vades all religion in every age, and which has been able, under proper circumstances, to materialise back into a temporary solidity so that it could walk and talk like a mortal, whether in Jerusalem two thousand years * The details of both these latter cases are to be found in "Voices from the Void” by Mrs. Travers Smith, a book con. taining some well weighed evidence. THE GREAT ARGUMENT 71 sage to humanity nothing is more important than that. It rolls away all those horrible man-bred fears and fancies, founded upon morbid imaginations and the wild phrases of the oriental. We come upon what is sane, what is moderate, what is reasonable, what is consistent with gradual evolution and with the benevolence of God. Were there ever any conscious blasphemers upon earth who have insulted the Deity so deeply as those extremists, be they Calvinist, Roman Catholic, Anglican, or Jew, who pictured with their distorted minds an implacable torturer as the Ruler of the Universe! The truth of what is told us as to the life beyond can in its very nature never be ab- solutely established. It is far nearer to complete proof, however, than any religious revelation which has ever preceded it. We have the fact that these accounts are mixed up with others concerning our present life which are often absolutely true. If a spirit can tell the truth about our sphere, it is diffi- cult to suppose that he is entirely false about his own. Then, again, there is a very great similarity about such accounts, though their origin may be from people very far apart. 72 THE VITAL MESSAGE Thus though “non-veridical,” to use the modern jargon, they do conform to all our canons of evidence. A series of books which have attracted far less attention than they deserve have drawn the coming life in very close detail. These books are not found on railway bookstalls or in popular libraries, but the successive editions through which they pass show that there is a deeper public which gets what it wants in spite of artificial obstacles. Looking over the list of my reading I find, besides nearly a dozen very interesting and detailed manuscript accounts, such pub- lished narratives as “Claude's Book," pur- porting to come from a young British avi- ator; “Thy Son Liveth," from an American soldier, “Private Dowding”; “Raymond," from a British soldier; “Do Thoughts Per- ish?” which contains accounts from several British soldiers and others; “I Heard a Voice," where a well-known K.C., through the mediumship of his two young daughters," has a very full revelation of the life be- yond; “After Death,” with the alleged ex- periences of the famous Miss Julia Ames; “The Seven Purposes," from an American THE GREAT ARGUMENT pressman, and many others. They differ much in literary skill and are not all equally impressive, but the point which must strike any impartial mind is the general agreement of these various accounts as to the conditions of spirit life. An examination would show that some of them must have been in the press at the same time, so that they could not have each inspired the other. “Claude's Book” and “Thy Son Liveth” appeared at nearly the same time on different sides of the Atlantic, but they agree very closely. “Raymond” and “Do Thoughts Perish ?'' must also have been in the press together, but the scheme of things is exactly the same. Surely the agreement of witnesses must here, as in all cases, be accounted as a test of truth. They differ mainly, as it seems to me, when they deal with their own future, including speculations as to reincarnation, etc., which may well be as foggy to them as it is to us, or systems of philosophy where again individual opinion is apparent. Of all these accounts the one which is most deserving of study is “Raymond.” This is so because it has been compiled from sev- eral famous mediums working independent- 74 THE VITAL MESSAGE ly of each other, and has been checked and chronicled by a man who is not only one of the foremost scientists of the world, and probably the leading intellectual force in Europe, but one who has also had a unique experience of the precautions necessary for the observation of psychic phenomena. The bright and sweet nature of the young soldier upon the other side, and his eagerness to tell of his experience is also a factor which will appeal to those who are already satis- fied as to the truth of the communications. For all these reasons it is a most important document-indeed it would be no exaggera- tion to say that it is one of the most impor- tant in recent literature. It is, as I believe, an authentic account of the life in the be- yond, and it is often more interesting from its sidelights and reservations than for its actual assertions, though the latter bear the stamp of absolute frankness and sincerity. The compilation is in some ways faulty. Sir Oliver has not always the art of writing so as to be understanded of the people, and his deeper and more weighty thoughts get in the way of the clear utterances of his son. Then again, in his anxiety to be absolutely 76 THE VITAL MESSAGE moral or mental gifts, who are often paid for their ministration. It is a plausible ar- gument, and yet when we receive a telegram from a brother in Australia we do not say: “It is strange that Tom should not com- municate with me direct, but that the pres- ence of that half-educated fellow in the tele- graph office should be necessary." The medium is in truth a mere passive machine, clerk and telegraph in one. Nothing comes from him. Every message is through him. Why he or she should have the power more than anyone else is a very interesting prob- lem. This power may best be defined as the capacity for allowing the bodily powers, physical or mental, to be used by an outside influence. In its higher forms there is tem- porary extinction of personality and the sub- stitution of some other controlling spirit. At such times the medium may entirely lose consciousness, or he may retain it and be aware of some external experience which has been enjoyed by his own entity while his bodily house has been filled by the temporary tenant. Or the medium may retain con- sciousness, and with eyes and ears attuned to a higher key than the normal man can at- 78 THE VITAL MESSAGE It is clear that we are in touch with some entirely new form both of matter and of energy. We know little of the properties of this extraordinary substance save that in its materialising form it seems extremely sen- sitive to the action of light. A figure built up in it and detached from the medium dis- solves in light quicker than a snow image under a tropical sun, so that two successive flash-light photographs would show the one a perfect figure, and the next an amorphous mass. When still attached to the medium the ectoplasm flies back with great force on exposure to light, and, in spite of the laugh- ter of the scoffers, there is none the less good evidence that several mediums have been badly injured by the recoil after a light has suddenly been struck by some amateur de- tective. Professor Geley has, in his recent experiments, described the ectoplasm as ap- pearing outside the black dress of his me- dium as if a hoar frost had descended upon her, then coalescing into a continuous sheet of white substance, and oozing down until it formed a sort of apron in front of her.* * For Geley's Experiments, vide Appendix A. 80 THE VITAL MESSAGE and I have never met anything in the least like “Sludge,” a poem which Browning might be excused for writing in some crisis of domestic disagreement, but which it was inexcusable to republish since it is admitted to be a concoction, and the exposure de- scribed to have been imaginary. The critic often uses the term medium as if it neces- sarily meant a professional, whereas every investigator has found some of his best re- sults among amateurs. In the two finest .. séances I ever attended, the psychic, in each case a man of moderate means, was resolute- ly determined never directly or indirectly to profit by his gift, though it entailed very exhausting physical conditions. I have not heard of a clergyman of any denomination who has attained such a pitch of altruism- nor is it reasonable to expect it. As to pro- fessional mediums, Mr. Vout Peters, one of the most famous, is a diligent collector of old books and an authority upon the Eliza- bethan drama; while Mr. Dickinson, another very remarkable discerner of spirits, who named twenty-four correctly during two meetings held on the same day, is employed in loading canal barges. This man is one 82 THE VITAL MESSAGE that several who had deservedly won hon- oured names and met all hostile criticism have, in their later years, been detected in the most contemptible tricks. It is a thou- sand pities that it should be so, but if the Court of Arches were to give up its secrets, it would be found that tippling and moral degeneration were by no means confined to psychics. At the same time, a psychic is so peculiarly sensitive that I think he or she would always be well advised to be a life long abstainer-as many actually are. As to the method by which they attain their results they have, when in the trance state, no recollection. In the case of normal clairvoyants and clairaudients, the informa- tion comes in different ways. Sometimes it is no more than a strong mental impression which gives a name or an address. Some- times they say that they see it written up before them. Sometimes the spirit figures seem to call it to them. “They yell it at me," said one. We need more first-hand accounts of these matters before we can formulate laws. It has been stated in a previous book by the author, but it will bear repetition, that THE GREAT ARGUMENT 83 . the use of the séance should, in his opinion, be carefully regulated as well as reverently conducted. Having once satisfied himself of the absolute existence of the unseen world, and of its proximity to our own, the inquirer has got the great gift which psychical investi- gation can give him, and thenceforth he can regulate his life upon the lines which the teaching from beyond has shown to be the best. There is much force in the criticism that too constant intercourse with the af- fairs of another world may distract our at- tention and weaken our powers in dealing with our obvious duties in this one. A sé- ance, with the object of satisfying curiosity or of rousing interest, cannot be an elevating influence, and the mere sensation-monger can make this holy and wonderful thing as base as the over-indulgence in a stimulant. On the other hand, where the séance is used for the purpose of satisfying ourselves as to the condition of those whom we have lost, or of giving comfort to others who crave for a word from beyond, then it is, indeed, a blessed gift from God to be used with moderation and with thankfulness. Our loved ones have their own pleasant tasks in 84 THE VITAL MESSAGE their new surroundings, and though they as- sure us that they love to clasp the hands which we stretch out to them, we should still have some hesitation in intruding to an un- reasonable extent upon the routine of their lives. A word should be said as to that fear of fiends and evil spirits which appears to have so much weight with some of the critics of this subject. When one looks more closely at this emotion it seems somewhat selfish and cowardly. These creatures are in truth our own backward brothers, bound for the same ultimate destination as ourselves, but retarded by causes for which our earth con- ditions may have been partly responsible. Our pity and sympathy should go out to them, and if they do indeed manifest at a séance, the proper Christian attitude is, as it seems to me, that we should reason with them and pray for them in order to help them upon their difficult way. Those who have treated them in this way have found a very marked difference in the subsequent communications. In Admiral Usborne Moore's“Glimpses of the Next State" there THE GREAT ARGUMENT 85 will be found some records of an American circle which devoted itself entirely to mis- sionary work of this sort. There is some reason to believe that there are forms of imperfect development which can be helped more by earthly than by purely spiritual in- fluences, for the reason, perhaps, that they are closer to the material. In a recent case I was called in to en- deavour to check a very noisy entity which frequented an old house in which there were strong reasons to believe that crime had been committed, and also that the criminal was earth-bound. Names were given by the un- happy spirit which proved to be correct, and a cupboard was described, which was duly found, though it had never before been suspected. On getting into touch with the spirit I endeavoured to reason with it and to explain how selfish it was to cause misery to others in order to satisfy any feelings of revenge which it might have carried over from earth life. We then prayed for its welfare, exhorted it to rise higher, and re- ceived a very solemn assurance, tilted out at the table, that it would mend its ways. I CHAPTER IV THE COMING WORLD WE come first to the messages which tell us of the life beyond the grave, sent by those who are actually living it. I have already insisted upon the fact that they have three weighty claims to our belief. The one is, that they are accompanied by “signs,” in the Bib- lical sense, in the shape of “miracles” or phe- nomena. The second is, that in many cases they are accompanied by assertions about this life of ours which prove to be correct, and which are beyond the possible knowl- edge of the medium after every deduction has been made for telepathy or for uncon- scious memory. The third is, that they have a remarkable, though not a complete, simi- larity from whatever source they come. It may be noted that the differences of opinion become most marked when they deal with their own future, which may well be a mat- 87 88 THE VITAL MESSAGE ter of speculation to them as to us. Thus, upon the question of reincarnation there is a distinct cleavage, and though I am myself of opinion that the general evidence is against this oriental doctrine, it is none the less an undeniable fact that it has been main- tained by some messages which appear in other ways to be authentic, and, therefore, it is necessary to keep one's mind open on the subject. Before entering upon the substance of the messages I should wish to emphasize the second of these two points, so as to reinforce the reader's confidence in the authenticity of these assertions. To this end I will give a detailed example, with names almost exact. The medium was Mr. Phoenix, of Glasgow, with whom I have myself had some remark- able experiences. The sitter was Mr. Ernest Oaten, the President of the Northern Spiritual Union, a man of the utmost veracity and precision of statement. The dialogue, which came by the direct voice, a trumpet acting as megaphone, ran like this: The Voice: Good evening, Mr. Oaten. THE COMING WORLD 89 Mr. 0.: Good evening. Who are you? The Voice: My name is Mill. You know my father. Mr. 0.: No, I don't remember any- one of the name. The Voice: Yes, you were speaking to him the other day. Mr. 0.: To be sure. I remember now. I only met him casu- ally. The Voice: I want you to give him a mes- sage from me. ' Mr. 0.: What is it? The Voice: Tell him that he was not mis- taken at midnight on Tues- day last. Mr. 0.: Very good. I will say so. Have you passed long? The Voice: Some time. But our time is different from yours. Mr. 0.: What were you? The Voice: A Surgeon. Mr. 0.: How did you pass ? The Voice: Blown up in a battleship dur- ing the war. 'Mr. 0.: Anything more? Tanu. 90 THE VITAL MESSAGE The answer was the Gipsy song from “Il Trovatore,” very accurately whistled, and then a quick-step. After the latter, the voice said: “That is a test for father.” This reproduction of conversation is not quite verbatim, but gives the condensed es- sence. Mr. Oaten at once visited Mr. Mill, who was not a Spiritualist, and found that every detail was correct. Young Mill had lost his life as narrated. Mr. Mill, senior, explained that while sitting in his study at midnight on the date named he had heard the Gipsy song from “Il Trovatore," which had been a favourite of his boy's, and being unable to trace the origin of the music, had finally thought that it was a freak of his imagination. The test connected with the quick-step had reference to a tune which the young man used to play upon the piccolo, but which was so rapid that he never could get it right, for which he was chaffed by the family. I tell this story at length to make the reader realise that when young Mill, and others like him, give such proofs of accu- racy, which we can test for ourselves, we are bound to take their assertions very seriously THE COMING WORLD 91 when they deal with the life they are actu- ally leading, though in their very nature we can only check their accounts by comparison with others. Now let me epitomise what these asser- tions are. They say that they are exceed- ingly happy, and that they do not wish to return. They are among the friends whom they had loved and lost, who meet them when they die and continue their careers together. They are very busy on all forms of congenial work. The world in which they find them- selves is very much like that which they have quitted, but everything keyed to a higher octave. As in a higher octave the rhythm is the same, and the relation of notes to each other the same, but the total effect different, so it is here. Every earthly thing has its equivalent. Scoffers have guffaw.ed over alcohol and tobacco, but if all things are re- produced it would be a flaw if these were not reproduced also. That they should be abused, as they are here, would, indeed, be evil tidings, but nothing of the sort has been said, and in the much discussed passage in “Raymond,” their production was alluded to as though it were an unusual, and in a way a THE COMING WORLD 93 for what he learns he keeps. There is no physical side to love and no child-birth, though there is close union between those married people who really love each other, and, generally, there is deep sympathetic friendship and comradeship between the sexes. Every man or woman finds a soul mate sooner or later. The child grows up to the normal, so that the mother who lost a babe of two years old, and dies herself twenty years later finds a grown-up daughter of twenty-two awaiting her coming. Age, which is produced chiefly by the mechanical presence of lime in our arteries, disappears, and the individual reverts to the full nor- mal growth and appearance of completed man-or womanhood. Let no woman mourn her lost beauty, and no man his lost strength or weakening brain. It all awaits them once more upon the other side. Nor is any de- formity or bodily weakness there, for all is normal and at its best. Before leaving this section of the subject, I should say a few more words upon the evi- dence as it affects the etheric body. This body is a perfect thing. This is a matter of consequence in these days when so many 96 THE VITAL MESSAGE the very soul of reason, of justice, and of sympathetic understanding, who has the earth sphere, with all its circles, under His very special care. It is a place of joy and laughter. There are games and sports of all sorts, though none which cause pain to lower life. Food and drink in the grosser sense do not exist, but there seem to be pleasures of taste, and this distinction causes some con- fusion in the messages upon the point. But above all, brain, energy, character, driving power, if exerted for good, makes a man a leader there as here, while unselfishness, pa- tience and spirituality there, as here, qualify the soul for the higher places, which have often been won by those very tribulations down here which seem so purposeless and so cruel, and are in truth our chances of spirit- ual quickening and promotion, without which life would have been barren and with- out profit. The revelation abolishes the idea of a grotesque hell and of a fantastic heaven, while it substitutes the conception of a gradual rise in the scale of existence without any monstrous change which would turn us in an instant from man to angel or devil. THE COMING WORLD 97 The system, though different from previous ideas, does not, as it seems to me, run counter in any radical fashion to the old beliefs. In ancient maps it was usual for the carto- grapher to mark blank spaces for the unex- plored regions, with some such legend as “here are anthropophagi,” or “here are mandrakes," scrawled across them. So in our theology there have been ill-defined areas which have admittedly been left unfilled, for what sane man has ever believed in such a heaven as is depicted in our hymn books, a land of musical idleness and barren monoto- nous adoration! Thus in furnishing a clearer conception this new system has noth- ing to supplant. It paints upon a blank sheet. One may well ask, however, granting that there is evidence for such a life and such a world as has been described, what about those who have not merited such a destina- tion? What do the messages from beyond say about these? And here one cannot be too definite, for there is no use exchanging one dogma for another. One can but give the general purport of such information as has been vouchsafed to us. It is natural 98 THE VITAL MESSAGE that those with whom we come in contact are those whom we may truly call the blessed, for if the thing be approached in a reverent and religious spirit it is those whom we should naturally attract. That there are many less fortunate than themselves is evi- dent from their own constant allusions to that regenerating and elevating missionary work which is among their own functions. They descend apparently and help others to gain that degree of spirituality which fits them for this upper sphere, as a higher stu- dent might descend to a lower class in order to bring forward a backward pupil. Such a conception gives point to Christ's remark that there was more joy in heaven over sav- ing one sinner than over ninety-nine just, for if He had spoken of an earthly sinner he would surely have had to become just in this life and so ceased to be a sinner before he had reached Paradise. It would apply very exactly, however, to a sinner rescued from a lower sphere and brought to a higher one. When we view sin in the light of modern science, with the tenderness of the modern conscience and with a sense of justice and THE COMING WORLD 99 proportion, it ceases to be that monstrous cloud which darkened the whole vision of the mediæval theologian. Man has been more harsh with himself than an all-merci- ful God will ever be. It is true that with all deductions there remains a great re- siduum which means want of individual ef- fort, conscious weakness of will, and culpa- ble failure of character when the sinner, like Horace, sees and applauds the higher while he follows the lower. But when, on the other hand, one has made allowances—and can our human allowance be as generous as God's?-for the sins which are the inev- itable product of early environment, for the sins which are due to hereditary and inborn taint, and to the sins which are due to clear physical causes, then the total of active sin is greatly reduced. Could one, for example, imagine that Providence, all-wise and all- merciful, as every creed proclaims, could punish the unfortunate wretch who hatches criminal thoughts behind the slanting brows of a criminal head? A doctor has but to glance at the cranium to predicate the crime. In its worst forms all crime, form Nero to Jack the Ripper, is the product of absolute 100 THE VITAL MESSAGE lunacy, and those gross national sins to which allusion has been made seem to point to collective national insanity. Surely, then, there is hope that no very terrible inferno is needed to further punish those who have been so afflicted upon earth. Some of our dead have remarked that nothing has sur- prised them so much as to find who have been chosen for honour, and certainly, with- out in any way condoning sin, one could well imagine that the man whose organic make- up predisposed him with irresistible force in that direction should, in justice, receive con- dolence and sympathy. Possibly such a sin- ner, if he had not sinned so deeply as he might have done, stands higher than the man who was born good, and remained so, but was no better at the end of his life. The one has made some progress and the other has not. But the commonest failing, the one which fills the spiritual hospitals of the other world, and is a temporary bar to the normal happiness of the after-life, is the sin of Tomlinson in Kipling's poem, the commonest of all sins in respectable British circles, the sin of conventionality, of want of conscious effort and development, of a 102 THE VITAL MESSAGE seem always to be the forcing ground of souls. That surely is our own experience in life where the insufferably complacent, and unsympathetic person softens and mellow.s into beauty of character and charity of thought, when tried long enough and high enough in the fires of life. The Bible has talked about the “Outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” The influence of the Bible has sometimes been an evil one through our own habit of reading a book of Oriental poetry and treat- ing it as literally as if it were Occidental prose. When an Eastern describes a herd of a thousand camels he talks of camels which are more numerous than the hairs of your head or the stars in the sky. In this spirit of allowance for Eastern expression, one must approach those lurid and terrible descriptions which have darkened the lives of so many imaginative children and sent so many earnest adults into asylums. From all that we learn there are indeed places of outer darkness, but dim as these uncom- fortable waiting-rooms may be, they all ad- mit to heaven in the end. That is the final destination of the human race, and it would THE COMING WORLD 103 indeed be a reproach to the Almighty if it were not so. We cannot dogmatise upon this subject of the penal spheres, and yet we have very clear teaching that they are there and that the no-man's-land which separates us from the normal heaven, that third heaven to which St. Paul seems to have been wafted in one short strange experience of his lifetime, is a place which corresponds with the Astral plane of the mystics and with the “outer darkness” of the Bible. Here linger those earth-bound spirits whose worldly interests have clogged them and weighed them down, until every spiritual impulse had vanished; the man whose life has been centred on money, on worldly am- bition, or on sensual indulgence. The one- idea'd man will surely be there, if his one idea was not a spiritual one. Nor is it nec- essary that he should be an evil man, if dear old brother John of Glastonbury, who loved the great Abbey so that he could never de- tach himself from it, is to be classed among earth-bound spirits. In the most material and pronounced classes of these are the ghosts who impinge very closely upon mat- ter and have been seen so often by those who THE COMING WORLD 105 entirely for the earth, its cares and pleas- ures—even clever men and women, who have lived simply intellectual lives without spirituality. There are many who have misused their opportunities, and are now longing for the time misspent and wishing to recall the earth-life. They will learn that on this side the time can be redeemed, though at much cost. The borderland has many among the restless money-getters of earth, who still haunt the places where they had their hopes and joys. These are often the longest to remain ... many are not un- happy. They feel the relief to be sufficient to be without their earth bodies. All pass through the borderland, but some hardly perceive it. It is so immediate, and there is no resting there for them. They pass on at once to the refreshment place of which we tell you." The anonymous author, after re- cording this spirit message, mentions the in- teresting fact that there is a Christian in- scription in the Catacombs which runs: NICEFORUS ANIMA DULCIS IN REFRIGERIO, “Nicephorus, a sweet soul in the refresh- ment place.” One more scrap of evidence THE COMING WORLD 109 that it is my own conclusion as gathered from a very large amount of existing testi- mony, and that in its main lines it has for many years been accepted by those great numbers of silent active workers all over the world, who look upon this matter from a strictly religious point of view. I think that the evidence amply justifies us in this belief. On the other hand, those who have approached this subject with cold and cau- tious scientific brains, endowed, in many cases, with the strongest prejudices against dogmatic creeds and with very natural fears about the possible re-growth of theological quarrels, have in most cases stopped short of a complete acceptance, declaring that there can be no positive proof upon such matters, and that we may deceive ourselves either by a reflection of our own thoughts or by receiving the impressions of the medium. Professor Zollner, for example, says: “Sci- ence can make no use of the substance of in- tellectual revelations, but must be guided by observed facts and by the conclusions log- ically and mathematically uniting them”— a passage which is quoted with approval by Professor Reichel, and would seem to be 110 THE VITAL MESSAGE endorsed by the silence concerning the re- ligious side of the question which is ob- served by most of our great scientific sup- porters. It is a point of view which can well be understood, and yet, closely examined, it would appear to be a species of enlarged ma- terialism. To admit, as these observers do, that spirits do return, that they give every proof of being the actual friends whom we have lost, and yet to turn a deaf ear to the messages which they send would seem to be pushing caution to the verge of unreason. To get so far, and yet not to go further, is impossible as a permanent position. If, for example, in Raymond's case we find so many allusions to the small details of his home upon earth, which prove to be surprisingly correct, is it reasonable to put a blue pencil through all he says of the home which he actually inhabits ? Long before I had con- vinced my mind of the truth of things which appeared so grotesque and incredible, I had a long account sent by table tilting about the conditions of life beyond. The details seemed to me impossible and I set them aside, and yet they harmonise, as I now dis- cover, with other revelations. So, too, with IS IT THE SECOND DAWN? 115 Here is a very definite and clear account of a remarkable sequence of phenomena. Now, let us compare with this the results which were obtained by Professor Crookes in his investigation in 1873, after he had taken every possible precaution against fraud which his experience, as an accurate observer and experimenter, could suggest. He says in his published notes: "I have seen lumi- nous points of light darting about, sitting on the heads of different persons” and then again: "These movements, and, indeed, I may say the same of every class of phenom- ena, are generally preceded by a peculiar cold air, sometimes amounting to a decided wind. I have had sheets of paper blown about by it. ..." Now, is it not singular, not merely that the phenomena should be of the same order, but that they should come in exactly the same sequence, the wind first and the lights afterwards? In our ignorance of etheric physics, an ignorance which is now slowly clearing, one can only say that there is some indication here of a general law which links those two episodes together in spite of the nineteen centuries which divide them. A little later, it is stated that “the 116 THE VITAL MESSAGE place was shaken where they were assem- bled together.” Many modern observers of psychic phenomena have testified to vibra- tion of the walls of an apartment, as if a heavy lorry were passing. It is, evidently, to such experiences that Paul alludes when he says: “Our gospel came unto you not in word only, but also in power." The preacher of the New Revelation can most truly say the same words. In connection with the signs of the pentecost, I can most truly say that I have myself experienced them all, the cold sudden wind, the lambent misty flames, all under the mediumship of Mr. Phoenix, an amateur psychic of Glas- gow. The fifteen sitters were of one accord upon that occasion, and, by a coincidence, it was in an upper room, at the very top of the house. In a previous section of this essay, I have remarked that no philosophical explanation of these phenomena, known as spiritual, could be conceived which did not show that all, however different in their working, came from the same central source. St. Paul seems to state this in so many words when he says: “But all these worketh that one 122 THE VITAL MESSAGE rather more fruitful is upon what principle did Christ select his twelve chief followers. Out of all the multitudes he chose twelve men. Why these particular ones? It was not for their intelligence or learning, for Peter and John, who were among the most prominent, are expressly described as “un- learned and ignorant men.” It was not for their virtue, for one of them proved to be a great villain, and all of them deserted their Master in His need. It was not for their belief, for there were great numbers of be- lievers. And yet it is clear that they were chosen on some principle of selection since they were called in ones and in tw.os. In at least two cases they were pairs of brothers, as though some family gift or peculiarity might underlie the choice. Is it not at least possible that this gift was psychic power, and that Christ, as the greatest exponent who has ever appeared upon earth of that power, desired to sur- round Himself with others who possessed it to a lesser degree? This He would do for two reasons. The first is that a psychic cir- cle is a great source of strength to one who is himself psychic, as is shown continually 126 THE VITAL MESSAGE close accuracy of some of the New Testa- ment narrative. One which appeals to me greatly is the action of Christ when He was asked a question which called for a sudden decision, namely the fate of the woman who had been taken in sin. What did He do? The very last thing that one would have ex- pected or invented. He stooped down be- fore answering and wrote with his finger in the sand. This he did a second time upon a second catch-question being addressed to Him. Can any theologian give a reason for such an action? I hazard the opinion that among the many forms of mediumship which were possessed in the highest form by Christ, was the power of automatic writ- ing, by which He summoned those great forces which were under His control to sup- ply Him with the answer. Granting, as I freely do, that Christ was preternatural, in the sense that He was above and beyond or- dinary humanity in His attributes, one may still inquire how far these powers were con- tained always within His human body, or how far He referred back to spiritual re- serves beyond it. When He spoke merely from His human body He was certainly IS IT THE SECOND DAWN? 127 open to error, like the rest of us, for it is recorded how He questioned the woman of Samaria about her husband, to which she replied that she had no husband. In the case of the woman taken in sin, one can only explain His action by the supposition that He opened a channel instantly for the knowledge and wisdom which was preter- human, and which at once gave a decision in favor of large-minded charity. It is interesting to observe the effect which these phenomena, or the report of them, produced upon the orthodox Jews of those days. The greater part obviously dis- credited them, otherwise they could not have failed to become followers, or at the least to have regarded such a wonder-worker with respect and admiration. One can well imagine how they shook their bearded heads, declared that such occurrences were outside their own experience, and possibly pointed to the local conjuror who earned a few not over-clean denarii by imitating the phe- nomena. There were others, however, who could not possibly deny, because they either saw. or met with witnesses who had seen. These declared roundly that the whole thing 128 THE VITAL MESSAGE was of the devil, drawing from Christ one of those pithy, common-sense arguments in which He excelled. The same two classes of opponents, the scoffers and the diabolists, face us to-day. Verily the old world goes round and so do the events upon its surface. There is one line of thought which may, be indicated in the hope that it will find development from the minds and pens of those who have studied most deeply the pos- sibilities of psychic power. It is at least possible, though I admit that under modern conditions it has not been clearly proved, that a medium of great power can charge another with his own force, just as a magnet when rubbed upon a piece of inert steel can turn it also into a magnet. One of the best attested powers of D. D. Home was that he could take burning coals from the fire with impunity and carry them in his hand. He could then—and this comes nearer to the point at issue-place them on the head of anyone who was fearless without their being burned. Spectators have described how the silver filigree of the hair of Mr. Carter Hall used to be gathered over the glowing ember, and Mrs. Hall has mentioned how she IS IT THE SECOND DAWN 129 combed out the ashes afterwards. Now, in this case, Home was clearly able to convey a power to another person, just as Christ, when He was levitated over the lake, was able to convey the same power to Peter, so long as Peter's faith held firm. The ques- tion then arises if Home concentrated all his force upon transferring such a power how long would that power last? The experi- ment was never tried, but it would have borne very directly upon this argument. For, granting that the power can be trans- ferred, then it is very clear how the Christ circle was able to send forth seventy disci- ples who were endowed with miraculous functions. It is clear also why new disciples had to return to Jerusalem to be “baptised of the spirit,” to use their phrase, before setting forth upon their wanderings. And when in turn they desired to send forth rep- resentatives would not they lay hands upon them, make passes over them and endeavour. to magnetise them in the same way—if that word may express the process? Have we here the meaning of the laying on of hands by the bishop at ordination, a ceremony to which vast importance is still attached, but 130 THE VITAL MESSAGE which may well be the survival of something really vital, the bestowal of the thaumaturgic power? When, at last, through lapse of time or neglect of fresh cultivation, the power ran out, the empty formula may have been car- ried on, without either the blesser or the blessed understanding what it was that the hands of the bishop, and the force which streamed from them, were meant to bestow.. The very words “laying on of hands” would seem to suggest something different from a mere benediction. Enough has been said, perhaps, to show the reader that it is possible to put forward a view of Christ's life which would be in strict accord with the most modern psychic knowledge, and which, far from supplant- ing Christianity, would show the surprising accuracy of some of the details handed down to us, and would support the novel conclu- sion that those very miracles, which have been the stumbling block to so many truth- ful, earnest minds, may finally offer some very cogent arguments for the truth of the whole narrative. Is this then a line of thought which merits the wholesale condem- nations and anathemas hurled at it by those IS IT THE SECOND DAWN? 131 who profess to speak in the name of religion? At the same time, though we bring support to the New Testament, it would, indeed, be a misconception if these, or any such re- marks, were quoted as sustaining its literal accuracy-an idea from which so much harm has come in the past. It would, in- deed, be a good, though an unattainable thing, that a really honest and open-minded attempt should be made to weed out from that record the obvious forgeries and inter- polations which disfigure it, and lessen the value of those parts which are really above suspicion. Is it necessary, for example, to be told, as an inspired fact from Christ's own lips, that Zacharias, the son of Bara- chias,* was struck dead within the precincts of the Temple in the time of Christ, when, by a curious chance, Josephus has independ- ently narrated the incident as having oc- curred during the siege of Jerusalem, thirty- seven years later? This makes it very clear that this particular Gospel, in its present form, was written after that event, and that the writer fitted into it at least one other * The References are to Matthew, xxii 35, and to Josephus, Wars of the Jews, Book IV, Chapter 5. IS IT THE SECOND DAWN? 135 word. We have but to fall back upon our own personal experience if we have lived long and mixed much with our fellow-men. I have myself lived during the seven most impressionable years of my life among Jes- uits, the most maligned of all ecclesiastical órders, and I have found them honourable and good men, in all ways estimable outside the narrowness which limits the world to Mother Church. They were athletes, schol- ars, and gentlemen, nor can I ever remem- ber any examples of that casuistry with which they are reproached. Some of my best friends have been among the parochial clergy of the Church of England, men of sweet and saintly character, whose pecuni- ary straits were often a scandal and a re- proach to the half-hearted folk who ac- cepted their spiritual guidance. I have known, also, splendid men among the Non- conformist clergy, who have often been the champions of liberty, though their views upon that subject have sometimes seemed to contract when one ventured upon their own domain of thought. Each creed has brought out men who were an honour to the human race, and Manning or Shrewsbury, 136 THE VITAL MESSAGE Gordon or Dolling, Booth or Stopford Brooke, are all equally admirable, however diverse the roots from which they grow. Among the great mass of the people, too, there are very many thousands of beautiful souls who have been brought up on the old- fashioned lines, and who never heard of spiritual communion or any other of those matters which have been discussed in these essays, and yet have reached a condition of pure spirituality such as all of us may envy. Who does not know the maiden aunt, the widowed mother, the mellowed elderly man, who live upon the hilltops of unselfishness, shedding kindly thoughts and deeds around them, but with their simple faith deeply rooted in anything or everything which has come to them in a hereditary fashion with the sanction of some particular authority I had an aunt who was such an one, and can see her now, worn with austerity and charity, a small, humble figure, creeping to church at all hours from a house which was to her but a waiting-room between services, while she looked at me with sad, wondering, grey eyes. Such people have often reached by instinct, and in spite of dogma, heights 138 THE VITAL MESSAGE 1 But Christianity has taken over control of the morals of Europe, and should have the compelling force which would ensure that those morals would not go to pieces upon the first strain. It is on this point that Christianity must be judged, and the judg- ment can only be that it has failed. It has not been an active controlling force upon the minds of men. And why? It can only be because there is something essential which is wanting. Men do not take it seriously. Men do not believe in it. Lip service is the only service in innumerable cases, and even lip service grows fainter. Men, as distinct from women, have, both in the higher and lower classes of life, ceased, in the greater number of cases, to show a living interest in religion. The churches lose their grip upon the people—and lose it rapidly. Small inner circles, convocations, committees, as- semblies, meet and debate and pass resolu- tions of an ever narrower character. But the people go their way and religion is dead, save in so far as intellectual culture and good taste can take its place. But when religion is dead, materialism becomes active, IS IT THE SECOND DAWN? 139 and what active materialism may produce has been seen in Germany. Is it not time, then, for the religious bodies to discourage their own bigots and sectarians, and to seriously consider, if only for self-preservation, how they can get into line once more with that general level of human thought which is now so far in front of them? I say that they can do more than get level—they can lead. But to do so they must, on the one hand, have the firm courage to cut away from their own bodies all that dead tissue which is but a disfigure- ment and an encumbrance. They must face difficulties of reason, and adapt them- selves to the demands of the human intelli- gence which rejects, and is right in reject- ing, much which they offer. Finally, they must gather fresh strength by drawing in all the new truth and all the new power which are afforded by this new wave of in- spiration which has been sent into the world by God, and which the human race, deluded and bemused by the would-be clever, has received with such perverse and obstinate incredulity. When they have done all this, they will find not only that they are leading DOCTOR GELEY'S EXPERIMENTS 147 Crookes'classic experiments with Katie King, a result which for a long time stood alone and isolated but now can be ap- proached by intermittent but definite stages. Thus we can well suppose that during those long periods when Florrie Cook lay in the laboratory in the dark, periods which lasted an hour or more upon some occasions, the ectoplasm was flowing from her as from Eva. Then it was gathering itself into a viscous cloud or pillar close to her frame; then the form of Katie King was evolved from this cloud, in the manner already de- scribed, and finally the nexus was broken and the completed body advanced to present itself at the door of communication, show- ing a person different in every possible at- tribute save that of sex from the medium, and yet composed wholly or in part from elements extracted from her senseless body. So far, Geley's experiments throw a strong explanatory light upon those of Crookes. And here the Spiritualist must, as it seems to me, be prepared to meet an objection more formidable than the absurd ones of fraud or optical delusion. It is this. If the body of Katie King the spirit is derived 148 THE VITAL MESSAGE from the body of Florrie Cook the psychic, then what assurance have we that the life therein is not really one of the personalities out of which the complex being named Florrie Cook is constructed ? It is a thesis which requires careful handling. It is not enough to say that the nature is manifestly superior, for supposing that Florrie Cook represented the average of a number of conflicting personalities, then a single one of these personalities might be far higher than the total effect. Without going deeply into this problem, one can but say that the spirit's own account of its own personality must count for something, and also that an isolated phenomenon must be taken in con- junction with all other psychic phenomena when we are seeking for a correct explana- tion. But now let us take this idea of a human being who has the power of emitting a visi- ble substance in which are formed faces which appear to represent distinct individ- ualities, and in extreme cases develop into complete independent human forms. Take this extraordinary fact, and let us see whether, by an extension or modification of A PARTICULAR INSTANCE 153 ing, which was partly done by planchette, the script was written upside down and from right to left, as though the writer was seated opposite. Such script could not possibly be. written by the lady herself. Upon making enquiry as to who was using her hand, the answer came in writing that it was a certain Fred Gaylord, and that his object was to get a message to his mother. The youth was un- known to Miss Cameron, but she knew the family and forwarded the message, with the result that the mother came to see her, ex- amined the evidence, communicated with the son, and finally, returning home, buried all her evidences of mourning, feeling that the boy was no more dead in the old sense than if he were alive in a foreign country. There is the first proof of preternatural agency, since Miss Cameron developed so much knowledge which she could not have normally acquired, using many phrases and ideas which were characteristic of the de- ceased. But mark the sequel. Gaylord was merely a pseudonym, as the matter was so private that the real name, which we will put as Bridger, was not disclosed. A few months after the book was published Miss SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 157 with no pre-existing picture or photograph. One such case absolutely critic-proof is enough, one would think, to establish sur- vival, and these valid cases are to be counted not in ones, but in hundreds. On the other hand, many of the likenesses, obtained under the same test conditions, are obvi- ously simulacra or pictures built up by some psychic force, not necessarily by the individual spirits themselves, to represent the dead. In some undoubtedly genuine cases it is an exact, or almost exact, repro- duction of an existing picture, as if the conscious intelligent force, whatever it might be, had consulted it as to the former appearance of the deceased, and had then built it up in exact accordance with the original. In such cases the spirit face may show as a flat surface instead of a contour. Rigid examination has shown that the exist- ing model was usually outside the ken of the photographer. Two of the bravest champions whom Spiritualism has ever produced, the late W. T. Stead and the late Archdeacon Colley -names which will bulk large in days to come-attached great importance to spirit 158 THE VITAL MESSAGE photography as a final and incontestable proof of survival. In his recent work, "Proofs of the Truth of Spiritualism” (Kegan Paul), the eminent botanist, Pro- fessor Henslow, has given one case which would really appear to be above criticism. He narrates how the inquirer subjected a sealed packet of plates to the Crewe circle without exposure, endeavoring to get a psychograph. Upon being asked on which plate he desired it, he said “the fifth.” Upon this plate being developed, there was found on it a copy of a passage from the Codex Alexandrinus of the New Testament in the British Museum. Reproductions, both of the original and of the copy, will be found in Professor Henslow's book. I have myself been to Crewe and have had results which would be amazing were it not that familiarity blunts the mind to miracles. Three marked plates brought by myself, and handled, developed and fixed by no hand but mine, gave psychic extras. In each case I saw the extra in the negative when it was still wet in the dark room. I reproduce in Plate I a specimen of the results, which is enough in itself to prove the whole case of Glease SEL tell me if you havin any book that explans to matter specially a regard the taking of hot anon a anllituile Belive one Taillfully yours een li 11.-SPECIMEN OF ARCHDEACON COLLEY'S WRITING DURING HIS LIFETIME CE IV.-PHOTOGRAPH OF LIEUT. WILL. HEWAT MACKEN- ZIE, TAKEN SOME MONTHS AFTER HIS DEATH, IN THE CIRCUMSTANCES DESCRIBED IN THE TEXT This book should be returned to the Library on or before the last date stamped below. 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