LUCIEN C. GRACES * : Class U _____ /I Book_i^_ 6 Copyright^?. COPYRIGHT DEPOSH. THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT A Psychic Study and Experience BY LUCIEN C. GRAVES "He that answer eth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him," — Proverbs, 18:13 BOSTON SHERMAN FRENCH & COMPANY 1915 Copyright, 1915 Sherman, French &> Company SEP 24 I9»5 ©CI.A410624 TO OUR SON WALTER LUCIEN GRAVES who while a student at the Harvard Law School was tragically removed from this life by a railroad accident on the evening of March 30, 1911, and who from the other side, having schooled himself in the clear transmission of thought, has made himself known to us by many confirmatory and deeply personal tokens for a period of four years, and who has stimulated and inspired us beyond expression in our search for the realities of the fu- ture life; and also TO HIS BROTHER the partner in a never-to-be-forgotten fellowship and comrade- ship rarely existing among brothers; and finally TO THE MANY SPIRIT FRIENDS to whose great satisfaction a door of communion has been opened : this book is lovingly dedicated by Mr. and Mrs. Lucien C. Graves, with the hope that it may help bereaved and inquiring souls on the way to healing and assurance even as this experi- ence has brought healing and great joy to themselves. THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH SECTION B AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH NEW YORK 519 west 149th street February 18th, 1915. It is hardly necessary for me to mention Mrs. Cheno- weth and her work in connection with the book of Mr. Graves. I have worked with her for many years in my own experiments and have found her a perfectly reliable psychic. I have always found her a perfectly honest and respectable person who is interested in her work for the help that it may give to the world and to in- dividuals who are seeking consolation and belief. The mere fact that this little book is based upon experiments with her will make it unnecessary to give any elaborate explanation of her character and work. (Signed) James H. Hyslop. PREFACE This book has been a work of compulsion. A necessity has been laid upon me and for several years has led me in the direction of this expression. I venture to quote the words of Jeremiah : " But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay." There are times in life when these words of the prophet do not seem far-fetched or inappropriate. There is the sudden turn in the road when we come face to face with an experience that appalls us for the time, when the easy complacencies of life are broken up and we are led to search for reality as never before. There are times when a great truth takes possession of one's being and a new vision of life and the universe dawns upon us, when out of the pit our feet are set upon a rock and a new song put in our mouth, and then we quote this ancient scrip- ture with new understanding. In this expression, there has been also a clear consciousness of spirit guidance and urgency much more than I should want to state in this simple beginning. This writing, such as it is, has been a deliverance of soul; it has been an experience of life for which I must find a door of utterance or be untrue to myself and the divine voice within. It has also been a work of long waiting and preparation, into which many volumes and prolonged study and experimentation on psychic lines have ii PREFACE been wrought, and which I hope has made for strength and moderation in my statement. The ruling idea of the book is the natural order of spirit. Is not such a conception of the future life and its conditions pressing upon thinking minds more and more insistently? Are there not many in these inquiring days who are led by the demands of the rational faculty for law and order, by an impera- tive sense of search for the dear ones who have been truly lost to them by death — are there not many who are constrained to ponder deeply on the reason- able conditions of a future life? And in the unification and coordination of all life and knowledge, can it be otherwise, we ask, than that the conditions and besetments of the future life should be an extension of the present natural order — though it would seem on a vastly larger and more refined scale? Are there not far-reaching sugges- tions in biology, and illuminating revelations in the new knowledge of our time concerning the ether and matter, that open up wonderful vistas of the possi- bilities of the universe for life continued? An able scholar and writer has referred to this dawning vision as " a universe of infinite subtlety, and yet of solidest reality and inconceivable potentialities." And what is psychic science doing here in bringing order and consistency and natural persuasiveness into this life and world extension? What are the conclusions of the great experimenters and students in this field rather than the mere theorizers as to the reality and order of spirit? And what shall we do with this increasing and illuminating body of testimony from the other side, unmistakably, em- PREFACE iii phatically, and persistently declaring the orderly sequences of life and the affiliation and correspond- ences of the material and spiritual worlds? But what shall we do also with the old supernat- uralism? That is taking care of itself. The old lines of demarkation between the natural and super- natural have insensibly faded away, and these fields of human thought have become continuous and uni- fied. The growing wonder of life and our surround- ings have crowned all things with a halo of the mirac- ulous, and our deepening sense of law and order has brought all things into the realm of nature. Only a deeper vision was needed in both cases, and that is the growing vision of our time. And, we note, the way has been long preparing for this sober view of the natural order of spirit. There has been a long eliminating process. The modern mind is little troubled by the notion of a curse resting upon the earth, the old antagonism of matter has disappeared in its wondrous idealism ; and so the old contamination of the juxtaposition of heaven and earth and the expulsion of the spirit world into the unknown have lost their appropriate- ness. Crude pagan notions of the future life and the disjunctive and revolutionary modes of Messianic thought are becoming obsolete. The old conceptions and habitations of the soul have long since failed to furnish any evident and congenial home. The under- world with its Elysian fields or paradise, the Hebrew crystal firmament, the Egyptian course of the sun- god, the path of the Milky Way, the islands of the blessed, and the heavens of the great poets, serve as a field for the poetic imagination, but they belong to CONTENTS A PRELIMINARY TESTIMONY CHAPTER PAGE I A TESTIMONY TO OPEN-MINDED AND REV- ERENT TREATMENT OF THE FUTURE LIFE AND ITS PSYCHIC STUDY . . . . 1 The bane of inquiry: the closed door and the closed mind — Neither revelation nor science can set arbitrary bounds to our spiritual vision — Caution about asserting that it is better we should not know aught of what lies beyond — Let the winds blow and the floods come — Some knowledge vs. all faith — A notable confession of ortho- dox uncertainty and materialism — The man on the plank — God has put man on the search^ and the truth comes to us as we search. II A TESTIMONY TO CREATIVE ADAPTA- TIONS 16 " Ne plus ultra " — Limiting the creative resources — The adjustability of the crea- tive wisdom as seen in deep-sea life — He who has given us an earthly housing and a bodily tabernacle, shall He not be able to give us a spiritual housing and a spiritual tabernacle ? — Transformation story of the water grub — The magic power of life, the immanent life — Certainly life has no diffi- culty about a body. CHAPTER PAGE III A TESTIMONY TO A SPIRITUAL FOUNDA- TION 35 The two bases of existence, the material and the spiritual — Paul, the resurrectionist and student of the unseen — A man of strik- ing psychic experiences — Our concern is with these two orders of life and their vital connection — Life has to begin somewhere — The ascent from crude materiality to the re- finement of spirit — The deeper insight into the world of matter — Things are not what they seem — The romance of radio- activity, and its revelation of the inmost depths of matter — How the material and the spiritual worlds run into one another — But the energy of the material points to a higher energy of the spiritual. IV MARVELS OF THE ETHER 48 How the ether speaks for itself — Conti- nuity of the ether — Incompressibility or den- sity of the ether — A hint at the psychic sig- nificance of the ether — The ether bridges all chasms, and permeates all substance, and binds all things into a spiritual universe — Elasticity of the ether, and its marvelous and varied vibrations — Invisible rays or dark light — The diversified manifestations and functioning of the ether waves — The uni- verse is larger than it seems — Spiritual telegraphy. V SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THE ETHER, ITS ENERGY AND BASIC NATURE ... 66 Lord Kelvin's kinetic theory of rotational motion — The secret of the elastic energy and strength of the ether in its rotational cir- culation — The secret of all substance in the CHAPTER PAGE rotational ether — Plenty of material for any number of spirit worlds — What a magical substance ! — Final conclusions as to the en- ergy and vitality of spirit — Spirit more ex- pressive than matter — Augmented powers of seeing and moving — " And they sung as it were a new song " — Low ideas of the fu- ture state held by the ancient world. VI OTHER TESTIMONIES TO THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 86 Transcendence and immanence of certain great religious ideas — The drawing near of God, heaven, and spirit body — The unify- ing process in human thought — Historic ap- proach to the spirit world — The Hebrew firmament — The heavens of Dante and Mil- ton — A surrounding spirit world — The law of the counterpart. VII OBJECTIVITY OF THE SPIRIT WORLD . . 101 Shall we insist on demonstration in all this ? — Spirit testimony and the spirit spheres — Difficult to conceive of spirit adaptations — It would seem to be altogether fitting that the spirit world should be related to our mother earth. VIII HISTORIC APPROACH TO THE SPIRIT BODY 120 Alien look of spirit body — Resurrection ideas of Paul and his time — The underworld — The Hebrews developed a rising-up from the underworld — Paul's house from heaven — A word on miracle — Modern programs of the resurrection — " Let us hear the conclu- sion of the whole matter " — Why not look for the spiritual body in the natural order ? — CHAPTER PAGE The soul inseparable from a spirit envelope — With what kind of a body did the risen Christ come? IX IS THERE A WORD FURTHER ON THE ORIGIN AND DERIVATION OF SPIRIT? . 137 Some observations of the aura and fluidic body — The suggestiveness of all this — What takes place at death ? — Allegory of the spirit body and soul — Emanations. Na- ture's hints and spirit testimony as to the up- building of the spirit world. X A TESTIMONY TO SPIRIT COMMUNION AND COMMUNICATION 161 The naturalness and compulsion of spirit communion — Various testimonies on spirit communion — Spirit communication and te- lepathy — Extended telepathy and its as- sumptions — Telepathic vs. spiritistic cred- ulity — Why not go on and explain away all things as forms of social telepathic sugges- tion ? XI TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE FROM THE SPIRITISTIC THEORY 185 What shall we think of a subconscious in- telligence capable of such fiendish deception? — • Is the subconscious activity of our nature an independent ego with no limitations ? — A few testimonies on the telepathic assumption — The fatal lack of personal psychic experi- ment. XII LET US NOW COME TO THE SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 198 It is an explanation that explains — Spirit return and communication inevitable — Con- sider for a moment the high purpose and CHAPTER PAGE character of the communication — Spirit teachings in their higher aspects — Consider the manner of communication or the trance situation — Hypnotism and secondary per- sonality ruled out — Philosophy of the trance situation by Sir Oliver Lodge. XIII A TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE SCEP- TICAL INTELLECT AND SPIRIT COMMU- NICATION 222 The subjective side of proof — Scientific scepticism, and how it misses the truth — In- tellectual short-sightedness — The element of respectability in our intellectual miss of the truth — The heart has its rights and must be heard — Dogmatic bias and the spirit world — The old controversy between authority and reason — The dogmatic ascription of all psychic phenomena to Satan and demons — The old transcendence of the future life and its bar to spirit teaching — But is the loss of the old transcendence to be deplored? XIV THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 244 This little world all there is — The fatal lack of imagination — Conflict of the new with the old — The new has to force and win its way — Progress held to be of Satan — The danger of reversion to for- mer mental habitudes. AN EXPERIMENTAL TESTIMONY I A PSYCHIC BRIDGING OF THE CHASM, MAY 22, 1911 255 The incurably suspicious — A word on the situation — " He is so eager to communicate " — First attempt at reflecting symbols and CHAPTER PAGE pictures through the mediumistic lens — A never-to-be-forgotten train experience — A critical psychic estimate. II REPORT OF SECOND SITTING, OCTOBER 7, 1911 265 " Eager to tell of the wonderful life " — God's way of speaking to the aching heart — " The home over there " and the sweet home influence — A straight talk — The natural and progressive view of the future life vs. medieval transcendentalism — Spirit obj ec- tivities. III REPORT OF PSYCHIC INTERVIEW, APRIL IT, 1912 . ? 277 " The great joy of the knowledge of this life " — Mental imaging or spirit impressions — " O think of the friends over there who before us the journey have trod " — " Come and let us reason together." IV INTERVIEW THE WEEK FOLLOWING, APRIL 23, 1912 287 " Walter opens the door wide " — " He walked with you "— " Two little feet "— A letter from the world of spirit — Familiar portraits — A strain of music. V REPORT OF SITTING, OCTOBER 8, 1912 . . 294 " The old sense of separation gone " — " Waking from a troubled sleep " — " O think of the home over there " — Spirit welcome — Churches over there and cheerful humor also. VI OCTOBER 24, 1912, INTERVIEW ..... 299 A book reference interwoven — Spirit em- ployments, their variety and freedom — Mediumistic writing a natural process — A spirit procession and greetings. CHAPTER PAGE VII BRIEF REPORT OF SPIRIT MESSAGE, APRIL 24, 1913 306 Spirit visitants — " It seems so good to be talking in a language that we all under- stand " — " The place whereon thou standest is holy ground " — " Everything I studied and every step I took, of importance in my life over here " — Psychic discussions in spirit — Familiar family talk and fellowship. VIII MENTAL PICTURING, APRIL 25, 1913 ... 311 Thought-communion and its difficulties in the trance situation — Spirit guidance through the old parsonage — Putting up a wire fence by telepathic imagery — The old charge of triviality — Growth of the spirit body — A letter dictated from the spirit. IX MYERS' INTERVIEW, APRIL 27, 1913 ... 318 Mr. Myers' pronounced belief in spirit communication — Friendly introduction — A spirit questionnaire. Thirty questions and answers. X FAMILY SPIRIT INTERVIEW, APRL 30, 1913 336 " It means more to me than you can ever understand " — Cooperative plans — The vi- sion of lambs — The glasses' case righted — " The awakening was beautiful " — The eye and ear trouble — How the truth worked out on the other side — " Nobody ever loses their own." XI PSYCHIC INTERVIEW, THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1913 345 A strange reappearance and its lesson — Spirit report of complicated family relation- ship — Grandfather Daniel — "He is just away ! " CHAPTER PAGE XII FINAL TALK OVER THE BORDER, MAY 2, 1913 353 Parting exchanges — A little dramatic in- terplay — Have you ever seen Christ? — Amherst life — The postman and his leather bag — Good-bye words — " Home of your own at last " — " You are looking at the stars " — " Why don't you go on with the book? " — Closing the case. A PRELIMINARY TESTIMONY CHAPTER I A TESTIMONY TO OPEN-MINDED AND REVERENT TREATMENT OF THE FUTURE LIFE AND ITS PSYCHIC STUDY " Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Can we approach this great question of the future life and the psychic investigation thereof with an open mind and reverent spirit? Can we lay aside the assumption, at least in the interest of friendly discussion, that tradition on the one hand, or materi- alism on the other, has said the last word upon the subject or forever barred the gate of further in- quiry ? THE BANE OF INQUIRY: THE CLOSED DOOR AND THE CLOSED MIND The bane of inquiry, we admit, is the closed door and the closed mind. And whether the closed mind results from a rigid assumption that nothing can be added to or subtracted from a given discussion, or from short-sighted and sophistical notions, the result is about the same. But if this subject of life continued and its in- vestigation is to be discussed with any enlightenment and profit, it must surely be treated like any other vital subject in an earnest, fair-minded, and scientific spirit. This accords with the spirit of our age, the 2 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT zeit-geist that is abroad in human thought. It is not so much the fashion of thought, as once, to as- sume that a subject is forever closed and sealed, and that it is blasphemy to make further inquiry, and that God has no further light for countless souls that cry out for such light. Such a hard-and-fast atti- tude has been so often rebuked in the progress of discovery and invention and the onward march of great liberating ideas, that it has become an old story that he who runs may read. We have heard the story of the first steamship that crossed the Atlantic. It was loudly predicted that it could not be done, and some one in England wrote a demonstration, it is said, that it was impos- sible. It is asserted that when Marconi was experi- menting with wireless telegraphy on the Swiss lakes, there were people who called him insane and advised that he be confined in an asylum. But what a won- derful record the wireless has made in these few years in ameliorating the horrors of marine disasters and the saving of human life! And the end is not yet. The story is told of the French philosopher, Comte, that he declared it was of no use to study the stars ; they were forever beyond the reach of man's intellect. But the spectroscope soon compelled the stars to disclose their elements, and an arduous course of study is before one to-day who would learn all that the heavens have revealed to the searching mind of man. In this same category is Galileo's letter to John Kepler : " O my beloved Kepler ! How I wish we could have one good laugh together. Here at Padua is the principal professor of philosophy OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 3 whom I have repeatedly requested to look at the moon and planets through my telescope, which he pertinaciously refuses to do." Another contempo- rary, fearful of the new knowledge, is said to have averred : " I will never concede his four new planets to that Italian, though I die for it." But Galileo's four satellites of Jupiter continued on their majestic course in spite of closed eyes and ecclesiastical pro- hibitions, as they had from the beginning. And has it not been so in all the fields of human knowledge? Have not the barriers, whether seem- ingly impossible, or seemingly scientific, or seemingly religious, been swept away again and again and the horizons of human vision steadily enlarged, until now who can venture to say what shall or shall not be, or who shall dogmatize: "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further " ? Surely the open mind is becoming to us, in view of the lessons of the past, and modest assertions in our circumscribing the revealings of the future and the possibilities of the universe. So many things have been declared to be impossi- ble, so often the assumption has been made of the whole counsel of God, or the drawn veil which no man can penetrate, that we need to be wiser than we are now or very cautious, before we assert that be- yond this line we must not search, or beyond the present outlook we can know nothing. NEITHER REVELATION NOR SCIENCE CAN SET AR- BITRARY BOUNDS TO OUR SPIRITUAL VISION But what shall we say here of revelation and sci- ence? And we answer at once that neither revela- 4 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT tion, so-called, nor science can set arbitrary bounds to our spiritual vision. There has been a vital en- largement of men's thoughts here. Revelation is a larger term, and science a more ideal term than we once conceived. A clearer and profounder study of the essence and scope of revelation has been given to this age, and a notable contribution might be in- stanced in the writings of J. Brierly. We are clearly perceiving that revelation cannot be limited to any particular age, or people, or book; and in saying this we do not detract from the unique spirit- ual message and position of the Bible, the Book of all books. The vision has come to us that revelation is universal and progressive, not local and static ; that it includes science itself, its inductive method and liberalizing influence, and in fact holds in its sweep all manifestations of the infinite and indwelling Wisdom. Revelation is a seed forever growing, a light forever brightening and shining more and more unto the perfect day; and Christianity is the river of God forever receiving and incorporating into itself new tributaries from the infinite reserves of truth. " Auld Custom is a sleekit saint And sae is Fashion, And baith will watch till sinners faint, To lay the lash on; Men follow them wi' ane accord, Led by their noses, Because they cry, ' Thus saith the Lord/ The God o' Moses." And as for science, a new idealism has entered here also with the deeper insight into the nature of mat- OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 5 ter, and the new theory of electrons and radio-activ- ity; and this new idealism is fast dissolving the old hard-and-fast materialism. Sir Oliver Lodge, presi- dent of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, is a striking example of this new scientific idealism; and his address before that body (Septem- tember, 1913), on " The Continuity of Life," was quoted far and wide by the press and seems to point to a larger scientific vision. Note these excerpts : " The physical discovery of the twentieth century, so far, is the electrical theory of matter." " The universe is a larger thing than we have any conception of." " The ether of space is the great engine of con- tinuity, the one all-permeating substance that binds the whole of the particles of matter together, and the universal medium of communication between worlds." Such statements are highly significant, and they pave the way for a final declaration by this distin- guished physicist that after thirty years' experience of psychical research begun with the usual hostile prejudice, the facts have convinced him that " per- sonality persists beyond bodily death." And to this he adds the bold testimony : " The evidence to my mind goes to prove that discarnate intelligence, under certain conditions, may interact with us on the ma- terial side." Such an address on the part of science in its official robes, pointing out the significance of the electrical theory of matter in its bearing upon spirit existence and spirit world, is certainly a sign of the scientific times, and is calculated to make many people think 6 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT where they have not thought much before. And so we might repeat that neither revelation nor science can set arbitrary bounds to our spiritual vision ; reve- lation is too comprehensive and science is too pro- phetic. We have reason to be very chary, in view of the history of human thought, about assuming that we possess the whole counsel of God, and that any seri- ous consideration of the future life is out of the ques- tion. In these days when the world is so full of the sense of mystery at the wonderful works of God, we cannot dismiss the problem of survival and the exist- ence and evidences of spirit by assuming an exclusive or trifling attitude. As Dr. Hyslop has said in one of his lectures : " The time has gone by when psychic phenomena can be dismissed with a sneer." CAUTION ABOUT ASSERTING THAT IT IS BETTER WE SHOULD NOT KNOW AUGHT OF WHAT LIES BEYOND And further, the open mind, it seems to me, will be cautious about asserting that it is better we should not know aught of what lies beyond, and that no such new evidence is needed. What ground have we for saying that no new evidence is needed, and how did people find it out? We have little right to make this objection until we have fairly canvassed the whole field and come to a just understanding of what the mind requires in different situations — the mind be- reaved, the scientific mind, the perplexed mind. When the skies of life are clear and there are few obstacles in the way and no great challenge has come to us, we can seem to get along passably well with OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 7 the traditional supports we have been accustomed to. We have heard by the hearing of the ear, but we have given no special thought to circumstances widely-diverse from our own. There has been no great breaking-up of the quiet routine of life; we have not been called upon suddenly to face some unaccountable and appalling situation; we have not been led to make any special explorations into the critical world of science or the great cosmopolitan world of affairs that have sharply questioned our easy-accepted ways of thinking. LET THE WINDS BLOW AND THE FLOODS COME But let the winds blow and the floods come. Let some unexpected and paralyzing bereavement come ; let the mind be bewildered and the heart despairing; let a deathly lonesomeness hold the soul in its grip — and the world does not seem so simple. We have not lost the religious nurture of the past — that can- not be taken away, it is a part of us ; we have not lost touch with our spiritual environment. But our religious complacency as to the ordering of life, its stability and continuit}^, and the priceless values of life, may be rudely shocked. What and where is the future, after all — the future of the soul? "O my God, my soul is cast down within me. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." We are con- scious now of a new need of reality. In its supreme loss, the bereaved soul finds its conventional hope and faith not enough, and cries out in anguish for some assurance that is nearer, more personal, and human. Faith may be strained even to the last limit of tenuity. 8 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " Yes, faith is a goodly anchor, When skies are sweet as a psalm, At the bows it lolls so stalwart, In its bluff, broad-shouldered calm. " But after the shipwreck, tell me, What help in its iron thews, Still true to the broken hawser, Deep down among seawood and ooze." SOME KNOWLEDGE VS. ALL FAITH We would by no means minimize the function of faith and the religious evidences of the future life. Faith gathers up in her arms the intimations and an- ticipations of the future as interpreted by the church, and these in their highest aspect have brought unspeakable help to struggling souls. But is there no need of further token? Have we never been conscious of any further need here, as when standing dumbly by the grave of our loved ones or when deeply involved in the perplexities and prob- lems connected with life and its continuance? " And the stately ships go on To their haven under the hill: But oh ! for the touch of a vanished hand And the sound of a voice that is still ! ,3 The reticence of tradition and the Bible as to any definite and rational account of the future, and to our eager questionings about the future, is freely acknowledged. We are told that : " Ever by our side is that im- palpable wall, which, to those who go hence is as yielding vapor, but to those who would come hither OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 9 is as adamant. Every hour, every moment, the cloudy wall is pierced by departing souls; still it keeps its awful secret. No cry comes back to us, no voice to tell us of yonder realm." But it is just this awful silence that is unbearable, especially in the crises of life; and to the statement that no cry comes back to us we must take positive exception in the light of modern psychic research and spirit philosophy and the Bible, and in the light of personal experience. A wall that should be as vapor from one side and as adamant from the other, is a singular structure, to say the least. There is not a little preaching of this nature, and doubtless some of us have indulged in it in our argumentative and pious effort to justify the ways of God to men. But are the preachers in general quite satisfied with this old fatalistic, priestly position, that God cannot have any further light in store for men on this great question of human destiny? It seems to me that not the preacher nor the hearer is quite satis- fied here. There is a light that does not shine, a healing that does not come. We may charge it up to faith — the dumbness, the silence, the longings of the aching heart for some little token, the irrepressi- ble questionings of the rational faculty — but does not the heart still cry out in its bitterness and is not the intellect restless and wearied like a captive bird beating its wings against its cage? We believe there is a large confession here. We believe from our own inner life and observation that these experiences are common, and that there is a need here that affects humanity, and doubtless more in this twentieth cen- tury than in the past. For our spiritual needs in- 10 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT crease with the complexity of our growth and devel- opment. If, in one case, the heart is sick with longing and the lonesomeness of the terrible gulf that has inter- vened; in another case, the mind that is accustomed to think out its problems and to feel its way cau- tiously on grounds of rational inquiry may be equally troubled in its perplexities. And while we would not presume that it is necessary for us to know all about the future life in its nature, yet we are profoundly convinced that some direct and definite knowledge of a life and world behind the veil is of the greatest possi- ble benefit to the soul and to humanity. We want something more than " I hope so," so often heard in this connection ; than the easy conventional faith with its ups and downs in this great interest. What we need and cry out for is something of the certainty and joyous expectation of real life. But we are told that Paul says : " We walk by faith and not by sight." But it is very easy, we well know, and not uncommon to press a Scriptural text into too hard service, as the doctrinal exigencies of theological systems have abundantly evidenced in the past. Even in its spiritual aspect, a Scriptural text does not always reflect the present as well as the time and circumstances of its utterance. Paul's say- ing was natural for his time, with the Lord's absence and return in close view. They could not behold him just then, but very soon he would come in great power, or death would draw the veil. But to press the text to the extent of putting an interdict upon all inquiry and all knowledge of the life to come and of a spirit world, is to do violence to Scripture OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 11 and reason. Great harm has often been done by tak- ing a Scripture and forcing it to militate against the world's evolutionary progress into a larger vision. But we need not fear for the spiritual application of the text. We need not be concerned but that there will alwa} r s be room for the presence and exer- cise of faith in the struggle and trials of life, in the spiritual possibilities of life, and the final victory of good over evil. But to interpret faith as solemnly closing and sealing the door of the future and as putting restraint upon spiritual faculty, is to wrong life as we know it and to add greatly to the burden and despair of faith. Faith is not a passive, static attitude forever content with the past, but is rather an active, vital, outreaching mood of the soul toward the entire horizon of truth. A NOTABLE CONFESSION OF ORTHODOX UNCERTAINTY AND MATERIALISM We might notice here an illustration or two from real life, as bearing on this notion that no further light is needed — and real life, of course, abounds in such cases. There is a certain biographical con- fession by the daughter of a noted missionary and a teacher for many } T ears that seems to me typical of a certain class of inquiring minds. This teacher was Miss Judson (Abby A.), daughter of Dr. Adoniram Judson, the noted missionary to Burmah, who, in one of her books, made this frank confession of her inner life and struggles. " When a person died I supposed he was completely carried off, and there was nothing more of him here. It never once oc- curred to me that disembodied souls could come to 12 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT us and influence us. This state of mind was incipi- ent materialism. As time passed, I began to be sceptical as to the continuance of life at all after the death of the body. I thought it more than prob- able that when the body died we knew no more. I thought that spirit power animated our bodies for a little while, and that when the body dissolved its por- tion of power returned to the universal source, desti- tute of all individuality. And alas! the religion taught in my church did not make me long for im- mortality." Miss Judson was brought up in a strict orthodoxy, we may well suppose, and in the times when Calvinis- tic decrees ruled the thoughts of many. As to the possibility and fact of spirit communication, Miss Judson makes this significant statement : " I thought most of it was fraud and humbug, and that if there were any outside spiritual agency in it, it was Satan himself or his emissaries. I was also very much afraid of it." I insert these words, so compactly put, because they seem to me especially representative of a com- mon, indiscriminating, mental attitude, particularly it would seem in the church. It is a confession of fear and impatient exclusiveness that markedly shows the need of the open mind, and we may be thankful that in these days of increasing psychic light and in- quiry it is growing less and less. Those who have read aught of Miss Judson's writings know that out of her early, iron-bound philosophy she emerged an ardent believer and very able advocate of spirit com- munion. OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 13 THE MAN ON THE PLANK I am tempted to give one more confession here, as indicating this common challenging trend of mind ; the figure of the confession is so very apt, and the case is so well vouched for. The incident is from a sermon by Dr. Savage, well-known for his deep in- terest and knowledge in matters psychic. " Here I am walking on a plank, and it reaches out into the fog, and I have got to keep walking. I know that pretty soon I must walk over the end of that plank ; perhaps to-night, perhaps next year, perhaps in twenty years. I don't know when, and when I walk over it, I haven't the slightest idea into what and I don't believe anybody else knows. And," he added, " I don't like it." This is not the confession of a strong religious faith, but it is a striking and pathetic confession, laying bare the secret of many souls and their lack of heart and hope. Doubtless there are many thou- sands to whom the question of the future life has not appealed in a serious way, and who have given it lit- tle consideration ; the absorption of the present, and of material goods, and of youthful energy, has filled up their time. There has been no great awakening of the soul. Yet, on the other hand, there is a great multitude of inquiring minds and sorrowing hearts, who have been brought face to face with this great- est and most vital of all questions, and who sadly need a larger vision and a larger place on which to set their feet. " Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? "is a great inquiry still. 14< THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT This testimony to open-minded and serious treat- ment of the psychic problem, we give as a suggestive outline. It may be filled in to any extent. Other objections may be raised by the mind biased to any- thing and everything psychic, but these are often so transparent as to deceive only the unthinking. GOD HAS PUT MAN ON THE SEARCH, AND THE TRUTH COMES TO US AS WE SEARCH We might just note in passing the old assumption of passive waiting and fatalism. If God has any more light for us, He will attend to it. It is not for us, Prometheus-like, to pry into the secrets of the Almighty. This objection has had much vogue in the past, but is curiously out of place in the inquir- ing, pushing life of to-day. It is voiced in the fa- mous argument of the English Church divine with the consecrated cobbler, William Cary : " If God intends to convert the heathen, he will do it without your help or mine." This was supposed to conclude the whole matter. It is a very ancient and ecclesias- tical form of objection, and has been used to block every great advance in human knowledge, and as a principle has done untold mischief. It is easy to follow this out. If God intended that we should know anything about the all-pervad- ing ether and its energy, and the marvels of the wire- less, and electric science, or the binomial theorem, or Kepler's laws of planetary motion, or the treat- ment of disease, or certain strange, psychic phenom- ena common in all ages from the woman of Endor to modern psychic research — if God had intended we should know aught of these things, He would have OPEN-MINDED PSYCHIC STUDY 15 made them perfectly plain from the beginning, and not left men to wander about and stumble for thou- sands of years. If God had intended that Europe should know anything about this Western Continent, He would of course have made it perfectly plain cen- turies before Columbus. But this will suffice. Our modern life is not in a mood to have much patience with these pious objec- tions of the past. Psychic subjects must be investi- gated, and not weakly excluded or scoffed at on merely a priori grounds without knowledge. The simple truth is, that God has put man on the search ; man is forever a seeker and adventurer, and no de- partment of human life is exempt from this law of search, not even the future life. The truth can wait, but it will not come for mere waiting on our part. It will come when we search for it as for hidden treasure and are ready for it, and it will come in no other way. " Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; then shalt thou find the knowledge of God." CHAPTER II A TESTIMONY TO CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS " Lift up your eyes and behold who hath created these things. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding." Isaiah 40:96, 28. " NE PLUS ULTRA " A Spanish coin before Columbus is said to have borne the motto on the Pillars of Hercules, " ne plus ultra," as indicating the geographical conclusion of that age that these great rocks guarding the entrance to the Mediterranean marked the ends of the earth, and there were no lands beyond. But after Colum- bus' adventurous voyage to the West, and the open- ing up of glimpses of a new world, the coin bore the slightly changed but positive inscription, " plus ul- tra," as interpreting the larger vision and outlook which had come to the world. And is not this a parable of what has always been going on in the discoveries and disclosures of truth among men? Times without number the dictum has been pronounced, " Ne plus ultra " ; but the genera- tions have gone by, men have slowly gained in experi- ence and power of adjustment, and at length the negation has faded out, and the changed and cheer- ing motto is again seen, " Plus ultra." It is such 16 CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 17 an easy and complacent proceeding to take the nar- row view of our more or less immediate surroundings and treat the possibilities of the universe as com- prised within our little familiar circle. Now, to get this testimony in hand, let us put the question in simple form: Why does the reality of spirit existence seem so remote to us? Why does a spirit world in any scientific and every-day aspect, and spirit adaptation thereto, seem too much of a strain upon us? Why do many seem content to rest their faith in the world of spirit upon conventional and dogmatic ways of thought, made respectable and sacred by long usage? Why do we hasten to rele- gate the whole matter to the supernatural as the easi- est manner of disposing of a disturbing and unwel- come subject? LIMITING THE CREATIVE RESOURCES Now we can answer this question in part at least by carrying out the hint we have given, that our sense of unreality is due in a measure to the tacit and thoughtless assumption that the creative resources are confined largely within our little materialistic circle. We may not say this outright ; but we must frankly confess our shortsightedness, that we often miss the extent and hidden import of the wonderful creative adaptations of life everywhere about us. We are busy here and there, and their voice is not always heard clearly, and we miss the message to which they beckon us on. " As thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone." Now we live in such a world of creative adapta- tions, that, " if we should count, they are more in 18 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT number than the sands " ; and some of them, we sub- mit, are marvelously suggestive and prophetic of higher worlds and environments, which eye hath not seen nor ear heard. And we cannot pass these by without loss. For, we repeat : it is in part our fail- ure to perceive clearly the spiritual instruction and symbolism of the physical world and its life about us that brings discouragement and failure when we at- tempt to make real to ourselves a world of higher and more subtle adaptations. Confined to our local circle and enswathed in its materialistic atmosphere, and failing to take time to read the deep spiritual hints and familiar confidences of nature as to regions beyond, we say to ourselves, unconsciously perhaps, " Ne plus ultra." The spiritual imagination finds no resting place, no supports, as it attempts to wing its way from the known to the unknown. We can think and speak familiarly and deal familiarly with the surface of things in our little material round, but failing to ponder the hidden vision at our feet we fail to compass the larger and more subtle vision of the higher world. " God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." " Behold the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear." Yet our eyes may be holden through inattention, and we may fall into the dull and uninspiring habit of putting our doubts and limitations upon the creative capacity. We for- get and overlook the infinite variety of His revealings and the manifoldness of His operations. In short, there is the half-formed thought that God is so ham- pered in His resources that He cannot fashion more CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 19 than one world, our little world of daily custom, and so we fail to rise to the nobler thought of God's re- peating His creative wisdom and handiwork on a larger and finer scale. Now, after this mutual confession — and confes- sion we are told is good for the soul — let us proceed to the concrete part of our story. Let us consider by way of remembrance how worlds even here may lie in juxtaposition and relationship, one world passing into another. It will help us in our higher venture. There is a saying that has been somewhat in vogue : " One world at a time." But the sa} r ing is a half truth. For while it holds a certain truth — as that we must give due attention to the life that now is — it may also be made to suggest much error. For it may suggest that we need not concern our- selves about another world until it is thrust upon us, or that different worlds may be impassably separated with no vital and evolutionary relationships. But we do not find life so disjointed. The fact is, that two worlds may lie in near though perhaps unseen contact with one another, and even pass by insensible degrees into one another, and while differing widely, it may be, in their adaptations, yet be linked together by vital and essential bonds. THE ADJUSTABILITY OF THE CREATIVE WISDOM AS SEEN IN DEEP-SEA LIFE We are familiar with creative adaptations in the insect world as typified in the worm and butterfly. But we note that of late years the adjustability of the creative wisdom has had striking illustration in the explorations of deep-sea life. And this new 20 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT world of life sets before us strange and unheard-of phases of existence that without knowledge would seem entirely impossible, and show us how vain a con- ceit it is to limit the creative capacity, and to fancy that our own little material corner is all there is. We learn that, since 1876, a number of scientific expeditions have made explorations in the great ocean basins. And the results have been published in nu- merous bulky volumes, profusely illustrated with the strange forms of life that abound in the depths of the ocean. And among these, thirty-seven volumes (1912) have been contributed by the Prince of Monaco in his oceanographic work. Now, we will suppose the statement had been made beforehand, that living creatures of great variety could sustain life under circumstances utterly remote from the circumstances of our life and of animals about us. We will suppose that some one made the assumption that such creatures could live where there was not a ray of light, where there was no air to breathe and no food as far as could be known, and under the enormous pressure of miles of water above them. It would surely be set down as a wild and fan- tastic dream. But what is man with his experience of a few years, and his proneness to generalize from a few things, that he should set bars and doors to the infinite Life, forever brooding and manifesting itself! The old Persian poet expresses our habit of pessi- mistic limitation: " A moment's halt, a momentary taste Of Being from the well amid the waste — CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 21 And Lo ! the phantom caravan has reached The nothing it set out from — Oh, make haste." Now the deep-sea explorations have brought some strange truths to light ; and one discovery is said to be that living organisms are to be found every- where in the ocean down to the depths of three or four miles. It was a great surprise to the world, says one writer, to learn that at these great depths, where utter darkness reigns and the temperature is near freezing point and where there is the enormous pressure of four or five tons to the square inch, large and small animals belonging to nearly all marine types and even endowed with eyes could flourish in great abundance. It is like a story of some magic world. This scientist adds : " These are extremely interesting instances of the way in which life can adapt itself to remarkable and hitherto unconceived conditions of life." Multitudes of these fishes, some of very strange forms and some allied to extinct fos- sil types, have been hauled up by the deep-sea nets. But how, we ask curiously, did this deep-sea life find its way and make its home in this water under- world? And the scientist says they probably mi- grated from the shallow shores, driven out by preda- tory fishes, and in the course of ages they have be- come thoroughly conformed and habituated to these vast ocean depths. But we just spoke of eyes. And what can these deep-sea forms do with eyes in a region of black dark- ness? Well, if these fishes have eyes, we may be sure they have something to tell in justification of them, and that light in some way is provided. It 22 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT is not provided in our way, it is true; for the light of the sun, we are told, can penetrate to only 100 or 150 fathoms below the surface. But He who has ordained the sun and the moon has also ordained in His evolutionary adjustments that if these strange creatures of the underworld cannot have a light sus- pended over them, they must carry a light with them. And so they are furnished with a special light plant ; some with organs which emit a blue-green, phosphor- escent light, and serve the function of searchlights that can be turned on and off at will. Some are fur- nished with luminous bands on the sides, which " shine like the port-holes of a ship at night." An octopus discovered by the Prince of Monaco had one large eye divided into two parts, " one for seeing and the other for projecting a phosphorescent light." And luminous fish that possess eyes that serve as lan- terns and for seeing abound in these lower depths. In imagination, therefore, one may figure to one's self endless torchlight processions of fishes and lu- minous cephalopods passing through the black depths of the sea. " The deep-sea nets were expected to catch blind fish, whereas they brought up fish with large and more powerful eyes than any seen before." (See " Monaco and Monte Carlo.") And in this way the scientist tells us the eternal darkness of these deep places of the earth is illu- minated. It is a marvelous adaptation; and it is highly suggestive of other adaptations in a world in- finitely higher, of the possibilities of light and vision in a world ethereal. " And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it." CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 23 But another objection comes up. How is it pos- sible for these deep-sea inhabitants to find air and food, in a waste seemingly barren of both? I think we may fittingly answer from the facts brought out in ocean study, that air is supplied to them by means of an endless belt, and food is sifted down to them from above as in the Exodus story manna fell from above every morning for the children of Israel. " The eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in due season." " Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." Now, by the endless belt, we mean the great ocean currents which flow from the Tropics toward the Poles, and these, cooling and sinking to the bottom, return slowly as a deep-sea current to the Equator, where they are again drawn slowly to the surface. And as the pressure of the atmosphere is not sufficient to force the air down more than to an estimated depth of 1200 feet, this endless current does a good business in dragging it down and distributing it. And in this way, and on the simple principle that cold water is heavier than warm, we are told there is a supply of oxygen even at the greatest depth in the open ocean. And as for the food problem, the deep-sea explora- tions of the last fifty years have made known that the surface waters of the ocean are crowded with minute alga? or seaweeds, which are always at work converting the inorganic matter in the sea water into organic compounds. The scientist speaks of these surface waters down to a depth of two hundred fath- oms as " vast floating meadows." This microscopic 24 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT vegetation in time settles to the bottom, together with the endless remains of minute animal forms of the radiolaria that also live at the surface. And it is believed that most of the deep-sea life, the lower animal forms, live on this ooze, digesting its organic matter ; while the higher forms prey upon these lower forms. And thus it comes to pass that He gives them their meat in due season. " Touching the Al- mighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power and in judgment. » HE WHO HAS GIVEN US AN EARTHLY HOUSING AND A BODILY TABERNACLE, SHALL HE NOT BE ABLE TO GIVE US A SPIRITUAL HOUSING AND A SPIRITUAL TABERNACLE? We ask then, Is he not a bold man who shall ven- ture to limit the creative resources, who shall put bounds to the outgoings and expressions and diversi- ties of the infinite Adapter? And is he not bold who shall venture to limit the adjustments of the uni- verse in the case of man ? When He has given such evidences of versatile power in peopling with strange forms of life the most inaccessible parts of His do- minion, shall we think of limiting this creative energy and plasticity, when we come to face a new situa- tion and a higher mode of existence than that at pres- ent so apparent to our senses? Is not death itself a necessary evolutionary process, a new step in the creative adaptations, the emergence and manifesta- tion of new life? In short, He who has given us a housing here and a bodily tabernacle so fearfully and wonderfully fashioned and fitted, shall He not also be able to give us a spiritual housing and a spir- CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 25 itual tabernacle with even higher correspondences and powers, as the conditions of that larger life shall demand? " The ship may sink and I may drink A hasty death in the bitter sea; But all that I leave in the ocean grave May be slipped and spared, and no loss to me. " What care I though fall the sky, And the shrivelled earth to a cinder turn? No fires of doom can ever consume What never was made nor meant to burn. " Let go the breath ! There is no death For the living soul, nor loss, nor harm. Not of the clod is the life of God: Let it mount as it will from form to form." TRANSFORMATION STORY OF THE WATER GRUB Take another form of creative adaptation, which though familiar and close at hand, is so strikingly apt and symbolic that we need to give it a little pass- ing attention. We have in mind the case of the water grub and dragon fly, with its illuminating analogies of the onward and upward progress of man into the life of the spirit. And we will take the liberty to al- legorize this old biological story for our purpose, necessarily utilizing in our development a few hints common to all analogies of this sort. One day, some water grubs were crawling along the bottom of a pool. One of them strangely enough was actuated by a sense of wonder — and the sense of wonder has a deal to do with progress and a larger vision. This particular grub was wondering what 26 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT lay outside, what lay beyond their narrow grub world, the muddy pond in which they had always found themselves. He questioned this and the other grub, but received little light or sympathy. One hard- headed grub said to him impatiently : " Oh, what is the use of asking idle questions? This mud pool is all you and I have ever seen. Let us stick to our mud world here and now; in my judgment it is all the world there is. I haven't the time to bother about foolish notions, I'm too busy in trying to get something to eat. And if you go on this way," he added, " the grub people will soon look upon you as queer, unconventional, and infatuated, as possessed of a morbid and vain curiosity." But all this did not convince or deter our grub philosopher. A sense of grubby wonder had been stirring within him for some time ; he wondered as to the extent of the grub universe and as to a beyond. He had noticed the strange disappearance of the older members of the grub tribe from time to time, and he had long puzzled over the sudden goings and comings of his neighbor, the frog. The little grub was possessed by a great inquiry, and he refused to stifle it or to be ridiculed out of it. Then he was conscious at times, dimly perhaps, of something that prophesied to him of a fairer and brighter world than the mud bottom on which he had always lived. It was a curious fact that this grub or larva in this beginning of his career carried on his back a pair of very small, rudimentary wings, but he gave little thought to them as he had no occa- sion to use them. But they were a prophecy, and a sign and confirmation of the prophecy within. CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 27 He decided as the next step to appeal to the frog: " Respected neighbor," he said, " may I ask a ques- tion about your travels? Where do you go when you climb up out of sight, and where do you come from when you plump back again so suddenly among us? Can you tell me if there is anything beyond our world of water and mud, or is it all a foolish dream? " The frog winked his eyes ; he was so surprised at hearing such talk from such a very inquisitive grub. " Why, yes ! " he croaked, " there is something to it ; it isn't a dream to me, for I often visit this world above water. They call it dry land, and it stretches on and on a thousand times farther than our pond ; but you cannot swim in it ; it is like and yet not like our mud home. And above the dry land, there is a wonderful world they call air, and there seems no end to this world; and the strange thing about it is, you cannot see it, and you cannot swim in it, but there are wonderful creatures who can." Now his inquisitor looked at him so hard, the frog kept on and tried to tell about the wonderful bright- ness of that upper world, and the beautiful green things, and the flowers, but said they could not be described by a frog like him. And in his way he tried to give some notion of a certain unity and continuity between the two contiguous worlds, and 3 T et the upper w r orld was so unlike in its beauty and high order. The grub, of course, could not fully apprehend all this, and yet the frog's straight and earnest tes- timony was by no means lost ; something deep in the grub's nature responded to it, and it carried much 28 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT comfort and conviction. Here at least was some- thing tangible, and it made a great impression and excited the grub's wonder still more. His own low world was transfigured in a new way, for he had touched as it were the borderland of the beyond, and it gave him new hope and something great to inspire his thought. But a day came, by and by, when he was to see more clearly. He began to feel dull and heavy and his body began to swell and to change curiously, and he felt an irresistible impulse to climb up one of the rushes or sticks in the pond, and explore for himself the mysterious regions beyond. On reaching the sur- face, he felt something of a shock, but held on by the hooks on his legs ; and then one of those wonder- ful transformations that are always taking place in the insect world happened ; a thing so strange that it would be unbelievable if it were not before our eyes. It is easy, we fear, to believe anything after it be- comes conventional and respectable, but not before. Out of the old body, as the pupa skin divided along the back, there emerged a new body, and the new was recognizably like and yet so unlike the old. It had been potentially connected with the old body all the time and had evolved out of it, and now when it was needed for new and larger adaptations, lo ! it came forth. " There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body," Paul has written of a higher world. It was the resurrection of a very beautiful creature, the dragon fly, with large gauzy wings, a pair of them, that flashed in the sunlight with brilliant me- tallic colors, and with large eyes for its larger vis- ion, and other new powers. Now it would poise it- CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 29 self on its glistening wings above the old mud pond, and then dart hither and thither with great swiftness, and anon soar high up in the air and sail over a world of sunlight and beauty. The grub had found at last that it was all true, his old inquiry and instinct were not in vain. Infinite wisdom had it all in view. He found that the Wis- dom that made the mud world, was able to make an- other world a stage higher, with greater possibilities and suited to a finer form of existence. The narrow confines of the prison house had expanded into the illimitable regions of the upper air. And the emanci- pated grub, with his new powers of self-propulsion and vision no longer crawled, but winged his way under blue skies and over green things of surpassing beauty. In short, he found the new habitat all pre- pared and marvelously suited every way to the new body. And another thing this re-embodied grub found in his new home; he found that he was not really far away. The two worlds were fundamentally and ele- mentally connected ; there is air in the water and water in the air, and the two worlds were only phases of the same unity, though the grub did not know this. And so, do we not have reason to believe that our higher worlds are vitally and necessarily connected, and who shall say where the material ends and the spirit begins? And is it not all spirit, in fact? though we may distinguish between the gross, heavy substance of matter which our senses report, and the refined, ultimate substance of spirit, which in its rapid vibrations our senses do not report. 30 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " So sometimes comes to soul and sense, The feeling which is evidence That very near about us lies The realm of spiritual mysteries; The sphere of the supernal powers Impinges on this world of ours." While we have tried to use this creative adaptation fairly, we might remind ourselves in concluding that an analogy should not be pressed too strongly or at all points. For a seeming contradiction in the sym- bol sometimes simply indicates the point where a lower law is superseded by a higher law, as Drum- mond finely points out in the " Ascent of Man," where the law of the struggle for life is superseded by the struggle for the life of others. This is the parable of the dragon fly — and how many there are like unto it in the great volume of life! THE MAGIC POWER OF LIFE, THE IMMANENT LIFE Oh, the magic power of life! This life of bodily sense may seem all. We are troubled at the thought of spirit like the disciples of Jesus on the sea ; it seems foolishness to some and a stumbling block to others. But we lack primarily in vision of life. And when we speak of life, we mean the infinite life, the all-pervasive life, the immanent life of God, as manifesting itself in life everywhere. What shall we say of the out-reachings, the potentialities and compulsions, the endless adaptability, the infinite form and variety, in which Life, the Life of the uni- verse, delights to embody and reveal itself! Take CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 31 the resurrection life of springtime — and it " re- joices like a strong man to run a race"; it is irre- sistible, nothing can stay its mighty tides. It climbs the trees and swells the buds, and sweeps over the hills in great billows of green, and in the valleys by the water courses it runs and has free course. It is the sublime march of life, pushing and forcing and shaping its way. The apple tree, as the winter cold came on, seemed lifeless. Still, the apple tree was all right; its re- habilitation or rebirth was provided for in cunning fashion. But it pitied the dead grass. Yet the grass was all right ; its rebirth was provided for down out of sight. But it pitied the withered flower. Yet the flower was all right ; its life and beauty had been packed away in a seed. You think I am dead/ The apple tree said, ' Because I have never a leaf to show, Because I stoop And my branches droop, And the dull gray mosses over me grow. But I'm alive in trunk and shoot, The buds of next May I fold away — But I pity the withered grass at my root.' You think I am dead,' The quick grass said, ' Because I have parted with stem an3 blade; But under the ground I am safe and sound With the snow's thick blanket over me laid. 32 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT I'm all alive and ready to shoot Should the spring of the year Come dancing here — But I pity the flower without branch or root.' n ( You think I am dead/ A soft voice said, * Because not a branch or root I own; I have never died But close I hide In a plumy seed that the wind has sown. Patient I wait through the long winter hours, You will see me again — I shall laugh at you then Out of the eyes of a hundred flowers.' " Life is the great transformer. It lays its magic touch upon hard, intractable matter, and it becomes plastic and straightway is wrought into countless liv- ing things. Yea, we cannot speak of matter itself as dead, for it is vibrating with hidden under-cur- rent s of life. Life will lay its magic fingers upon a tiny seed or germ, and this bit of material it will fashion and transform and evolve into a most compli- cated structure, often endowed with marvelous powers. Oh, the flexibility and magical transforma- tion of life ! In seeking to fill the earth and sea and air, and in the long ascent to man, life has molded it- self into innumerable shapes and sizes, its plasticity and adaptation to situation are inexhaustible. The most vivid imagination would fail and faint in trying to picture the endless expressions and applications of life. CREATIVE ADAPTATIONS 33 CERTAINLY LIFE HAS NO DIFFICULTY ABOUT A BODY Now what is the conclusion of the whole matter? Certainly life has no difficulty about a body. It works with infinite ease and invention. And life, we may be sure, will not come short of its high com- mission, when in the course of development the old body must be sloughed off, and the spirit is ready for a higher form and greater freedom. As we have seen, there is no end to life; you cannot tell what it may do ; it always surprises you. Sir Oliver Lodge writes of the immortal part of man as necessarily having the power of constructing for itself a suitable vehicle of manifestation. If life fulfills its many promises in nature, and makes careful preparations for its rebirths, then life will not be found unforesee- ing and unprepared when it comes to the compelling and divine rebirth of all. Life had had long practice in rebirth and resurrection before man appeared; and when this highest stage of being was reached, for which the whole creation had travailed, all things were ready to lift the process of rebirth to the finest and fullest expression. The rebirth of man was spiritualized. This is life's mysterious, serene, and masterful way ; it is life's triumphant march. And it is all done so quietly, with so little seeming effort, that recipient and percipient may be unconscious of the mighty transformation. And this is like life everywhere. Unseen, silent, sure of its way, irre- spective of ignorance or prejudice, life conducts the soul out of the old corruptible lodging falling to ruin, into a habitation of the spirit. 34 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT And why not ? Is not life under direction at every step in all its magic transformations and foreseeings? When we speak of life, we surely do not mean a thing per se, an isolated gigantic something that works here and there irresponsibly and blindly. We know very well that this is not life, but in all situations and every moment life keeps its connection with the in- finite Life, and derives all its forethought and magic power from that infinite source. Life in itself ex- plains nothing, but life working as a manifestation of the infinite Life explains everything. Does God have an infinite concern for man? Then life will adapt itself to all the crises of its career, and, we add, in its own natural order. And so when the un- welcome visitor who calls once upon all, knocks at the door, life will have the appointed house in order and the tenant will not be turned out of doors. CHAPTER III A TESTIMONY TO A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION " Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure." THE TWO BASES OF EXISTENCE, THE MATERIAL AND THE SPIRITUAL " There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." In the church at Corinth there were certain ones who denied the resurrection, or in other words, the future life. And this was the occasion of Paul's writing one of the greatest, and most eloquent, and far-seeing of his messages — the resurrection chapter of the New Testament, I Corinthians 15. PAUL, THE RESURRECTIONIST AND STUDENT OF THE UNSEEN Paul was not deceived by his senses like the Corin- thians ; he by no means held that this circle of the physical around him was all there was to the world, or his physical organism all there was to him. It is well said that we are apt to be the fools of our senses. Paul was evidently a profound believer and a great student of the unseen, and he exhorts these very Corinthians farther on to " look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." And Paul 35 36 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT was a mighty enthusiast on the resurrection, which he put in the forefront of the scheme of his gospel. And to the materialistic and pleasure-loving Corin- thians he sets forth in most exalted words his philos- ophy of the resurrection — words that reflect in a measure the beliefs of his times, but that carry us along as in the sweep of a current. A MAN OF STRIKING PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES And what reason had Paul for being a resurrection- ist ? We answer : Paul was a man of striking spirit- ual manifestations. While in a trance condition, Paul in the spirit body undoubtedly visited the spirit world. We have Paul's interpretation of the event in II Corinthians 12: 1-4, not in the language of present-day psychic science, but of his day. It was not a unique experience by any means or super- natural in the old sense, but there are many such well- authenticated cases, and the psychic student affirms they are strictly in accord with law. We may any of us in our sleep and under right conditions expe- rience such a temporary transition, though it may not be distinctly registered in the memory. And Paul also had communications with spirit messengers from the unseen as in the tempest at sea. " For there stood by this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I serve." Are we so naive as to assume that a winged messenger of a Jewish angelic hierarchy was commissioned by Jehovah to fly to Paul with assurance of safety? Or shall we assume that this interesting occurrence belongs to the natural order, and that some fellow Hebrew spirit as Paul's guardian thus manifested, as in A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 37 scores of other cases authenticated in psychic an- nals? The psychic student has no hesitation and no choice but to place this appearance, clothed in Jewis mental garb, in the natural category of psychic events, with other like incidents in Holy Writ. On the road to Damascus, did not Paul experience a wonderful breaking through from the spirit world, which had a most important bearing on his outlook upon the future life, and which proved the turning- point in his history? This psychic experience or " heavenly vision " showed to Paul " the power of the world to come," and demonstrated to him that Jesus, who had most certainly been put to death, was just as certainly alive somewhere. It is not a matter of surprise that in the long past this experience should have been interpreted as supernatural and miraculous, or that in later critical times it should be looked upon by some as purely subjective, or even that some hypercritical ones should relegate it to sacred legend. But in the light and knowledge of modern psychic truth, we can hold no doubt that it was a psychic manifestation from the unseen world about us for a great missionary purpose, a manifestation belonging to the natural order and paralleled in its mode by many other spirit appearances of the past and pres- ent. One may hear clairaudiently, or one may hear by " the direct voice," as in the manifestation of W. T. Stead after his transition.* In this case Paul seems to have heard clairaudiently or through the sense of spirit hearing. The trance experience and vision in the temple * The London Light gives recent striking instances of " the direct voice." 38 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT (Acts 22: 17-20) is another evidence of Paul's mediumistic and clairvoyant and clairaudient powers. " While I prayed in the temple, I was in a trance, and saw him saying unto me, * Make haste and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem.' " OUR CONCERN IS WITH THESE TWO ORDERS OF LIFE AND THEIR VITAL CONNECTION And here in these earliest stories of the resurrec- tion, with their clue to the other New Testament ac- counts, we have especially the sources of the eloquent exposition Paul has given us of resurrection truth and the two bases of existence in I Corinthians 15. And it is with these bases of existence we are espe- cially concerned here. " There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual." Our life in this world is on the basis of a physical body adapted to a physical world; our life in the world of spirit will be on the basis of a spiritual body adapted to a spiritual world. The two bases of existence or adaptation differ evidently, yet we need not conclude in any supernatural way; for the time is no longer when everything pertaining to the future life can be easily disposed of in the category of the super- natural. We cannot doubt that between the two bodies there is a necessary and vital connection ; that out of the old forever comes the new, as Paul indi- cates, in a way, in his symbol of the wheat and the new body God giveth it or to its life principle accord- ing to His good pleasure. A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 39 LIFE HAS TO BEGIN SOMEWHERE First comes " that which is natural." Let us fol- low Paul's order a bit. Everything has to have a beginning ; and here on this earth, down in this phys- ical layer, is the place of beginnings for us. Here is the starting point for us ; here we take the first steps in our long ascent; here is the cradle of our human life, where come to us the first dawnings of con- sciousness and of our adaptations to the manifold as- pects of this wonderful world of physical manifesta- tion. Life has to begin somewhere. And it has pleased the infinite Wisdom that our small beginnings should find their physical setting and theater on the surface of this planet. " For who hath despised the day of small things?" If it be objected that our brief life here is disproportionate to the stupendous future, it is enough to say that the all-important thing is the birth of a soul. " The beginning is half of the whole," THE ASCENT FROM CRUDE MATERIALITY TO THE REFINEMENT OF SPIRIT There is a crude materiality in our beginnings in many ways. We shall doubtless realize more clearly later on, as we cannot now, these gross material be- ginnings and the thick, coarse texture of this lower life. But we have learned from the science of life that the divine economy begins with crude material, and through constant molding and reshaping and re- fining ascends to higher forms. So the divine method of development is out of the lower material order into the higher spiritual order, out of the grossness of 40 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT the physical into the refinement of the spirit, as out of the dark and dirty soil at our feet blossoms the white and fragrant lily. With what rhythmical antithesis does Paul set forth these two progressive orders of life! How strongly balanced, how ringing with conviction, and lighted up with vision, are the familiar words : " There are also celestial bodies and bodies terres- trial, but the glory of the celestial is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another." " It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory ; it is sown in weak- ness, it is raised in power." And how much we owe to Paul in thus definitely re- laying in the early days of Christianity the bases and boundaries of the two modes of existence! For this stream of thought has flowed down through the cen- turies, quickening and fertilizing our conceptions of the possibilities of spirit and a future life. But, we may add, while these two bases of existence are more or less imbedded in religious thought, it can- not be said that they stand together on equal and joint terms in the average mind. They are far from carrying the same sense of assurance, of reality, and vividness. For the subject of spirit has been so vague and nebulous in its conventional presentation, and has been thrust so far away into the unknown and supernatural, and unfortunately has been so lit- tle related to scientific thought, that its hold seems to be more traditional than real. We have to confess to a remoteness here in the minds of priest and peo- ple, and this remoteness has been conveniently charged to faith, and has found expression in symbol A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 41 in giving a spatial remoteness to the spirit realm. But truth, like the path of the just, is as the shining light that shineth more and more. And science is again demonstrating its right to speak in meeting in this supremely important inquiry, and to affirm it- self an integral part of all revelation; and the dis- trust and aloofness of the past, from all mat- ters of a psychic nature and from all scientific treatment of the future life, will be lost in a clearer vision. We have taken these two bases of life, as it seemed fitting, with their evolutionary relationship and with their Christian setting by Paul, as an introduction to this testimony to a spiritual foundation. But we need something more specific. THE DEEPER INSIGHT INTO THE WORLD OF MATTER We need a deeper look here into the physical world, a look not possible in Paul's day. For the deeper the look and clearer the insight into that which is " natural," the nearer we shall come to a spiritual foundation. Chemistry and physics, which deal so profoundly with matter, have been revolutionized to some extent in this generation — like other depart- ments of human thought where certain basic ideas have found development. And their new vision of matter, its nature and possibilities and idealism, has been set forth in text-book and magazine till readers are tolerably familiar with these great new concep- tions. And in smoothing our way, we might take a general word of review here on the mysterious inward- ness of matter. 42 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM Longfellow wrote, in the " Psalm of Life," " And things are not what they seem," and science strikingly confirms this truth in the case of matter ; matter is not what it seems. We are apt to judge of matter as it affects the senses ; we say it is heavy or light, hard or soft ; and when we have described its sensible properties in the way it affects us, we may think we have said all there is to be said. But with our super- ficial examination of matter — a piece of rock, a volume of water or gas — we know now we have only come to a beginning of an understanding. We have only entered the threshold of the truth; the great mysterious inner temple, the sanctuary of the truth, we have not entered at all. We see nothing, in fact, as it is ; we see only outlines and surfaces and colors; the real thing, the essence and inbeing of matter, is hid from us, somehow as God hides Himself — and in a way it is God hiding Himself. There is a hidden world of wonders in the stone or flower that would ap- pall us if our vision were magnified and intensified to a degree to take them in; worlds within worlds of molecules and atoms and electrons, worlds of order and affinity, full of life and intense activity. We have been speaking of matter as dead, but in these days we speak of it with awe as alive with divine en- ergy and a compact of intelligent force. The old- fashioned materialist had looked upon matter with complacency, and had supposedly and finally reduced all things to dull matter. When lo ! there is a stirring in the hidden depths, the bands of matter are loosed and there is a resurrection of new and unheard-of A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 43 energy and subtlety, and matter proves itself per- versely to be strangely ideal. THE ROMANCE OF RADIO-ACTIVITY, AND ITS REVELATION OF THE INMOST DEPTHS OF MATTER The story belongs to the romance of science; the discovery of the mysterious metal radium by Madame Curie ; the strange fact that it emits rays of light and throws off continuously a stream of exceedingly mi- nute particles. And then came the generalization that not only radium, uranium, polonium, etc., but supposedly all bodies are more or less radio-active. All this meant that the old atom, so long indi- visible and ultimate and indestructible, must yield its honored position as the smallest possible constituent of matter to this new-comer. And this radio-active new-comer must naturally be baptized into the nomen- clature of science, and now the " electron " with its suggestive name has been for some time respectably and fully established in the family of this inner world. In brief, the scientists have determined that radium emits three distinct rays — the alpha, beta, and gamma rays ; and, as if this were not revolutionary enough, it also produces a radio-active emanation or gas which is 100,000 times as active as radium itself and has great phosphorescent powers. The beta rays are electrons with a speed like that of light ; the gamma rays, supposedly corpuscular, are endowed with singular penetrating power and have been found capable of passing before absorption through twenty centimeters or 7.8 inches of iron and several centi- meters of lead ; while the alpha rays are regarded as a 44 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT stream of helium atoms. Such a remarkable flux and. alteration as this certainly throws new light on the mysterious inwardness of matter. It indicates, on the one hand, the dissolution of the unstable atom of radium with explosive violence, and it also indicates its resolution into another kind of atom by decrease of mass, with chemical and physical properties en- tirely distinct from the parent atom. It seems like going back to the magic of the Middle Ages to read that radium undergoes several transformations, and ionium changes directly into radium, and " there is considerable evidence that polonium changes into lead." HOW THE MATERIAL AND THE SPIRITUAL WORLDS RUN INTO ONE ANOTHER We can only add : What a breaking up of the old staid and respectable conservatism of matter is this, what unexpected fluidity, what a sudden and com- plete vanishing into the unseen! And it is all so strongly suggestive of the dissolution of all things into and their evolution from some primal source — the ether. No story of the imagination is so strange as this self-revelation of matter as to its inmost depths, and how in the last analysis it resolves itself into the invisible as a form of radiant energy. It clearly points to a truth that is finding expression more and more ; that the material and spiritual worlds are not separated by any hard and fast lines, but run into one another and are indissolubly connected. And do we not have a personal corroborative evidence of this close at hand in the vital commingling of the spirit body with the physical in this life? It cer- A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 45 tainly would seem that the material world is but the borderland of the spiritual, and linking this with other higher disclosures, how natural the presump- tion that we are surrounded by the invisible, in- tangible, but intensely active world of the spirit? BUT THE ENERGY OF THE MATERIAL POINTS TO A HIGHER ENERGY OF THE SPIRITUAL But we find that energy is involved in this mys- terious inwardness and dissolution of matter, and there is a suggestion here that we might follow a step further. Is the world of spirit a world of weakness and feebleness, a world where the strong pulsations and throbbings and energies of life are not felt? Certainly we would not anticipate such a lifeless fu- ture from the energy of our material beginnings here. We must discard the notion that matter is inert, matter-of-fact, lumpish, and created out of nothing. On the contrary, we are finding that in a bit of mat- ter there is life and mystery and romance that seem to suggest and open up all worlds, and carry us into the infinite. Matter is an enormous reservoir of en- ergy, of interatomic energy, of terrible, pent-up, locked-up energy. Faraday defined matter in sub- stance as a point of force or vehicle of energy; but the definition has taken on new verification and em- phasis. And the energy of matter cannot forever be imprisoned; its stability may be broken up, and the hidden powers released in irrepressible outburst, and the bottled-up genii summoned forth and put to service. Matter must needs be transmuted into force. In other words, the interatomic energy resident in all matter must be liberated, and nature and man are 46 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT forever engaged in this work. Through the dissocia- tions of atoms, energy in its stable forms is trans- formed into all its unstable forms ; and we have light, and heat, and electricity, and the magical transforma- tions and endless atomic rearrangements of chemis- try. And very clearly all this material force, stable and unstable, terrible and swift as light when released, manifesting itself in the works of nature and man, in chemical affinity, and all the glories of radiant energy, shows us what a compact of energy is the world we live in. And they do more than this — they make us question what higher energies we shall prophesy of the world of spirit, and what waiting possibilities of creative wisdom. In that refined sphere, where the encasement is not heavy and gross as here, what manifestations of power and motion and vision and thought may we not reason- ably anticipate far surpassing the energies of earth! As we pass from the coarse and heavy outer stages and aspects of nature to the more refined and spiritual modes of expression, the more subtle and powerful are her forces. Despite the latent energy of matter, matter itself is outwardly heavy and clogging, and everything points to the fact that this is the slow and dull stage of our existence ; while the other stage has been fittingly represented with wings and halos and swift angelic messengers and supernal glories, to indicate its increased energy and radiance. God plans no backward course and takes no backward steps. " As yet we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face." " Sown weak, it rises strong ; sown a A SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION 47 human bod} r , it rises a spiritual body ; as surely as there is a human body, there is also a spiritual body," is the way Paul writes in the Twentieth-Century New Testament. CHAPTER IV MARVELS OF THE ETHER " Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands." In this testimony to a spiritual foundation, we have so far dwelt upon the two bases of existence, and the deeper insight into the world of matter. This natur- ally brings us to a third point, which is really our main consideration and the great fact to be noticed in discussing the substantial aspect of the spirit world, and that is — the ether ; the marvels and potencies of the ether. To this end, let us briefly run over cer- tain properties and principally accepted conclusions in regard to the ether, while we deduce in connection some estimate of the psychic significance of this fundamental substance, which is the issue we are chiefly concerned about. The article, " aether," in the last edition of the " Encyclopedia Britannica " is a helpful account ; Clerk Maxwell, Saleeby, etc., have many interesting things to say ; but an especially full and fascinating exposition is " The Ether of Space " by Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S. It is one of the books which is worth while to read and re-read. HOW THE ETHER SPEAKS FOR ITSELF In a preliminary way, we might let the ether evi- dentially speak a word here for itself. The ether 48 MARVELS OF THE ETHER 49 is not a mere conjecture, but the necessity for such a medium has long been realized — a medium far more subtle and penetrating and responsive than ordinary matter. It has been proved, as by the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites and by aberration, that light takes time in passing from one body to another. The evi- dent conclusion then is, that if light occupies time in traveling, either matter or energy must be transferred from a body to the eye before we can see it. This naturally gave rise to the two rival theories of light — the old corpuscular and the undulatory. The corpuscular theory of Newton supposed light to con- sist of material particles which by their impact upon the eye produce the sensation of light. But insuper- able objections at length appeared in the utter failure of this theory to explain various optical phenomena, and in reconciling the impact of material particles of such exceeding velocity with the delicate structure of the eye. No other hypothesis was admissible but the undulatory, which finally satisfied all tests and thor- oughly established itself in science. Huygens pro- pounded this theory, which assumes from the analogy of sound in air and of waves in water the idea of the existence in all space of a highly elastic fluid — the ether. Sir Oliver Lodge now affirms that such a wave theory of light is quite certainly true, and for well- nigh a century it has been an accepted truth. He adds : " Waves we cannot have, unless they be waves in something." Ordinary matter transmits waves at a comparatively low speed — the velocity of sound in air being 1090 feet per second — while light waves travel at the well-known velocity of 186,000 miles 50 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT per second, journeying from the sun to the earth in eight minutes. Hence this new medium, the lumi- niferous medium, must transcend the category of ordi- nary matter ; and it has been named the ether, from a Greek word, to burn, indicating its alliance to fire in its subtle nature. Lord Kelvin expresses himself in these words : " That there must be a medium forming a continuous material communication throughout space to the re- motest visible body, is a fundamental assumption in the undulatory theory of light. Its existence is a fact that cannot be questioned, when the overwhelm- ing evidence in favor of the undulatory theory is considered." And we may add, what a wonderful endowment do we possess in the eye as a receptacle for these delicate waves and a mirror for their images ! We are not shut away from the ethereal floods of light, impris- oned in darkness, so that the story of the ether comes to us as unreal and illusive. But here we have a sensitive spot so specialized, that it has become as- tonishingly responsive to vibratory impressions — im- pressions that make their impact upon the retina in billions a second. And so the eye, whose psychic significance is second only to the brain, enables us to respond to this most spiritual of all appeals in nature, the appeal of the ether. And so the eye, beholding as in a glass the glories of the ether and the color splashes of sunset and rainbow, and imaging the countless objects and beauties of nature, adds its sense testimony to science. Those who, like Thomas, must touch and handle and see directly, need to be reminded that " No man MARVELS OF THE ETHER 51 hath seen God at any time," and yet " in him we live and move and have our being." A religious cult may speak lightly of the existence of the ether because, forsooth, it does not affect demonstratively the senses and may afford a substantial realism to matter, but it is shallow reasoning. If we insist on demonstrative and absolute evidence at every step in life, we shall find ourselves denying about everything. 1 Oh ! where is the sea ? ' the fishes cried As they swam the crystal clearness through, ' We've heard from of old of the ocean's tide, And we long to look on the waters blue. The wise ones speak of an infinite sea, Oh, who can tell us if such there be ! ' " CONTINUITY OF THE ETHER First, the ether is continuous. It fills all space and permeates all bodies, it is the interplanetary and interstellar connecting medium. We are not sepa- rated from the rest of the universe by vast deserts of vacuity or regions of space nearly empty, as has been conceived in the past, but we are connected in all directions with the planets and suns by the medium of the ether, which some physicists pronounce the densest of all known substances. Clerk Maxwell says here : " The vast interplane- tary and interstellar regions will no longer be re- garded as waste places in the universe, which the Creator has not seen fit to fill with the symbols of the manifold order of His kingdom. We shall find them to be already full of this wonderful medium, so full that no human power can remove it from the smallest portion of space, or produce the slightest 52 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT flaw in its infinite continuity. It extends unbroken from star to star. And when a molecule of hydro- gen vibrates in the dog star, this medium receives the impulses of these vibrations, and after carrying them in its immense bosom for several years, delivers them in due course, regular order, and full tale, into the spectroscope of Mr. Huggins at Tulse Hill." So we are not to conceive of the gulfs of space sur- rounding and shutting us in as an endless void, but as full of connecting substance, fundamental sub- stance. INCOMPRESSIBILITY OR DENSITY OF THE ETHER And this ether, science asserts, is incompressible. And if a substance is incompressible, that means that it is the densest substance known. This seems a startling inference at first thought. Rut this does not mean by any means that the ether presents it- self or impinges upon our senses after the uncom- promising fashion of iron or rock. A substance may be of such a refined ordeV, and so unrelated to our present senses, that while it may be extremely dense, it may yet not be cognizable by us directly. The subtle ether offers no resistance to a moving body and is not displaced by it, but passes through it, some- how as air and water pass through a sieve. So the ether may be extremely dense and yet so subtle that it is inappreciable by us. Rut why is the ether regarded as incompressible? For the ether has been thought of until late investi- gations as a light and rarefied substance. Now if we turn to matter, we find that the physicist considers that matter in its constitution and density is very like MARVELS OF THE ETHER 53 the cosmos. It is asserted that in the vast extent of the cosmos the bulk of actual matter is very small, " almost incredibly small*" as compared with the volume of empty space. This was confirmed by the calculations of Lord Kelvin. According to this, we are to think of matter as composed of separated par- ticles or material nuclei, so called, with great inter- vening distances in proportion to the size of the nuclei. Principal Lodge describes matter as " a very porous and gossamer-like substance, with interspaces great as compared with the spaces actually occupied by the nuclei which constitute it." Now this of course makes the massiveness or density of ordinary matter, as water or iron, very small as compared with the un- modified ether in which they exist. For " it is not unreasonable to argue that the density of a continuum is necessarily greater than the density of any discon- nected aggregate. Because the former is * all there ' everywhere, without break or intermittence of any kind, while the latter has gaps in it — it is here and there but not everywhere." In short, assuming the electrical theory of matter or the electron nature of the nucleus, for which there is " a large amount of justification and which all scientists see looming up before them," the ethereal density is laid down as of the order 10 12 times that of water. It seems evident, then, that the ether constituting a continuum in space and continuously filling the interstices between the nuclei of matter, must be of infinitesimal fineness and therefore incompress- ible. Nothing more fundamental or dense can be conceived than such a binding and pervasive ether. 54 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT A HINT AT THE PSYCHIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ETHER Now, as we follow on in this ethereal path, we can hardly fail to note at every step how rich in psychic suggestions and possibilities is this many-sided medium. And as prefacing this thought, let us cite the prophetic utterances of two authorities, who have given this subject much profound study and experi- mentation. Clerk Maxwell raises the question, " whether this vast homogeneous expanse of isotropic matter is fitted not only to be a medium of physical interaction be- tween distant bodies and to fulfill other physical func- tions, but also whether it is not fitted to constitute the material organism of beings exercising functions of life and mind as high or higher than ours at pres- ent?" These words reveal the open mind on the part of this scientist, and suggest substantial possibilities of the ether other than as a medium for light. Reports from the other side indicate spirit as ultimate, in- visible matter, but in its subtlety and powers it must be closely allied to the ether. And we may well as- sume, as reports clearly indicate, that the ether has functions in the spirit world and appeals to the heightened senses of spirit as it cannot appeal to our dull senses here. Sir Oliver Lodge in a like vein says : " The uni- verse we are living in is an extraordinary one. We know that matter has a psychical significance since it can constitute brain, which links together the phys- ical and the psychical worlds. If any one thinks that- the ether, with all its massiveness and energy, has MARVELS OF THE ETHER 55 probably no psychical significance, I find myself un- able to agree with him." THE ETHER BRIDGES ALL CHASMS, AND PERME- ATES ALL SUBSTANCE, AND BINDS ALL THINGS INTO A SPIRITUAL UNIVERSE We have noted how the scientist has come to re- gard the ether as continuous and incompressible. And does not this take us along our way or a long way toward a spiritual foundation? The ether bridges all chasms even the appalling and unthinkable stretches of space, and we are no longer separated from our celestial neighbors by immense voids, but we are connected and imbedded in the most subtle and re- sponsive, the densest and most energetic, of all media. And we can hardly doubt that in this binding and uni- fication of the ether, the worlds are constituted a real spiritual universe and are become members of a spirit- ual commonwealth without bounds. We can no longer conceive of the worlds as imprisoned in eternal lone- liness ; the palpitating oceans of ether intensely alive and impressionable have like the oceans of earth joined all continuents. As the particles of an iron rod are held together through the mediation of the ether, and if we pull one end the whole rod follows after, so we may say that the constituent particles of the cosmos, the enormous suns and their satellites, are linked and bridged together in unity, and we can find no reason to doubt in spiritual intercommunica- tion. We do not feel the full force of this in our present physical phase, but we may well believe that the free spirit will rise up into this expanded vision, and will find a larger liberty and citizenship than it 56 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT ever dreamed of on earth. Spirit so vitally related to the ether must, we cannot doubt, be entirely at home in this medium of such mysterious potencies, and must be able to transport itself therein as the bird in the air or the fish in the sea, but with a move- ment and ease and power for which we have no paral- lel on earth. And we add, testimonies from the other side unmistakably confirm this conclusion. The Hebrew heaven has enlarged the place of its tent. The word " heaven " is based upon the verb " heave " meaning something which is heaved up, and it had its beginning upon some mountain top, or the dome of our sky. But with our modern outlook into the infinite regions and the possibilities of ether and spirit, the old heaven has passed away with its set bounds and limitations, its walls and gates, and the new heaven has become co-extensive with the uni- verse. Thus all things run into the infinite at last, from the flower and pebble at our feet to the concep- tions incident to our span of years and our narrow space. ELASTICITY OF THE ETHER, AND ITS MARVEL- OUS AND VARIED VIBRATIONS Again, as we follow on, we find that the elasticity of the ether is not the least wonderful thing about this wonderful fluid. How surpassing all words and imagination is this elasticity and delicate responsive- ness of the ether to vibratory impression! How it fills space with its inconceivably minute quiverings and radiance, bathing our earth in floods of light, and bringing us into visual touch with worlds beyond. As a near example, we have doubtless noted the street electric light shining through a misty veil. We have MARVELS OF THE ETHER 57 seen it dart out numberless, needle-like rays and flash- ing bands of light in all directions, making a globe of dazzling brilliance and piercing the gulf between it and the eye with light bridges finer than gossamer, and giving us some idea of what the ether can do when it gets busy. In the phenomena of solar light and heat, we say that the rapid vibrations of the disen- gaged particles in the intense heat of the solar atmos- phere impart their vibratory motions to the elastic ether. And these agitations of the ether after span- ning the intervening gulf and breaking upon the sensitive nerves of the eye and body in billions of waves, bring us to the blessed consciousness of the beauty and order and warmth of our home here on the earth. Now the elasticity of the ether is especially seen in these vibrations from side to side, and which, as they are fast or slow, have the most varied results upon us. Some of these vibrations we are fearfully and wonderfully adapted to perceive, but of the actual extent of oscillation of which the ether is capable, a vast range is for us, as at present constituted, " un- explored territory." While the ear responds to air vibrations between 40 and 40,000 per second, the retina more highly sensitized responds to ether vibra- tions of between 400 billions and 700 billions per second. How strange that at this inconceivably high pitch, we should possess an organ fitted to serve as an intelligent receiver! INVISIBLE RAYS OR DARK LIGHT But between the highest audible, 40,000 per second, and the lowest visible, 400 billions per second, there 58 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT is a great gap for which we have no intermediate sense organ. But " waves have been there all the time in any quantity." A vast deal of light is invisible or dark light, according to science. While the color rays of the spectrum are visible to us, there are ultra- violet rays and infra-red rays which are invisible, but which affect a photographic plate and pictures have been made by them which show us a strange world in- deed. And far below the infra-red, the vibrations set up when a Ley den jar is discharged are said to be from 100,000 to 1,000,000 per second, but they are too slow for the eye. " It is light, just as good as any other light. It travels at the same pace, it is re- flected and refracted according to the same laws, every experiment known to optics can be performed with it, and yet we cannot see it." Why not? we ask. The short-coming is not in the light, it is in the eye ; it is simply not given to us, the eye is not organized to gaze into this world of low vibration. Neither is it given to us to gaze into the higher worlds of the higher vibrations, they are beyond our present sense powers. Beyond the 700 billion range, we may feel certain there are worlds of vibration of endless extent though at present inaccessible territory to us. Somewhere is the world of spirit. And where shall we anticipate and locate it but in this high range of vibration beyond us, a vibration befitting its more re- fined constitution and higher powers? The short- sighted sceptic may be inclined to disbelieve in spirit world and spirit body, because forsooth, he cannot see them now as he sees the buildings and people on the street. But has it been decreed from the foundation of the world that our range of vision shall be fixed MARVELS OF THE ETHER 59 between 400 and 700 billion pulsations, and beyond, the universe is forever barred out? Are these fleshly eyes all the eyes there are? Certainly it does not seem reasonable in a progressively evolving world and postulating man as the child of God, that our circum- scribed vision here shall never be transcended. We must be short-sighted indeed to hold seriously that this coarse material round is all the vibratory message that is open to us, and there are no more worlds to see. No, it is more reasonable to hold with Paul that now we see dimly but then face to face. THE DIVERSIFIED MANIFESTATIONS AND FUNCTIONING OF THE ETHER WAVES And how diversified are the manifestations of these unthinkably fine ether waves, and how amazing is their functioning. Electricity has not lost its myster}^, but we now recognize it as a form of ether vibration of a definite rate. And how great is the debt of humanity here in motor power, and long-distance writing and hearing — and what the future holds yet in store in electrical developments and appliances, we know not. The Hertzian waves are said to be a little faster, and wireless telegraphy is made possible. And how can " they who go down to the sea in ships " now dispense with their sympathetic appeal, when sudden danger looms up and they face the horror of the iceberg or fire or collision. The papers report that at the naval observatory in Washington the operators have picked up communications sent out from a great German wireless tower 3000 miles or more distant. How in- terpretative this subtly-piercing ether disturbance has proved to be. Then certain ethereal quiverings give 60 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT us radiant heat, or the chemical rays, and it is easily said that the earth would speedily become a desert solitude without the generous floods of solar heat. Then these excessively minute shimmerings are re- sponsible by their degree of absorption for the memory word, vibgyor, we learned at school, or the seven primary colors. And who can estimate how much these add to the beauty and glow of the world? Who can say how much the great color scheme of na- ture on sky and land and sea, and the diverse tints and color glories of the flowery kingdom, add to the general esthetic richness and enjoyment of life? THE UNIVERSE IS LARGER THAN IT SEEMS And with this passing reference to the ethereal di- versity of manifestation, which the alphabet may not suffice in time to distinguish, our proposition is plain when we assert that the universe is larger than it seems. Our universe has not only become more ex- tensive but more intensive, for we are coming into a larger appreciation and vision of an interior spiritual universe, of a universe within a universe. " I know there are sounds I cannot hear, And sights I cannot see; There are numberless doors in the universe, Of which I have not the key." Science compels us to recognize the limitations of our senses. Principal Lodge lays down that our " little fragment of total radiation is in itself trivial and in- significant." Evidently all radiations are not for us here. Most amazing is the radiant energy of the sun ; but of its enormous outflow of heat, the earth, which MARVELS OF THE ETHER 61 is only a point in the glory of its spherical radiance, receives it is said only one part in two billion. And we need not be surprised that there are higher and finer radiations with which we are not yet acquainted, and for which we are not yet fitted. Our sensory range from all accounts seems to be only a narrow strip of the universe, which on either hand stretches off from the limited into the unlimited. The world of sound we may well assume to be larger than it seems. A great scientist has claimed that if our ears could compass vibrations enough, we could hear the flowers growing in the night with a loud noise. So we might be thankful that at this stage of being we do not hear everything. But we have good reason to think that there are higher and more delicate auditory vibrations, evidently ethereal vibra- tions, and that these will be a part of our larger sensory equipment in the larger universe of the spirit. We seem to have a precursor of this quickened hear- ing in the phenomenon of clairaudience among certain sensitives in the body here. We cannot well suppose that our auditory impressions will always be con- fined to the low range of 40 to 40,000, and we would certainly assume finer auditory media in the spirit than the air and liquids and solids of earth. Spirit testimony is to the point here, and the reader can judge the following spirit testimony from " Flashes of Light " for himself. " Yes, we do have that which is equivalent to sound. It is such to the disembodied spirit. It would not be such to you, because the applications could not be made successfully to your human senses. The audi- tory nerves would not vibrate under the sound that 62 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT belongs to the spirit world proper, but the auditory nerves of the spirit body will vibrate under the sounds of the spirit world. Every condition of life is regu- lated by its own special laws." That the world of sound should take on new and higher phases and ex- pressions in the spirit, is certainly in accord with the natural evolutionary order of life. And what is true of the ear in its area of sound, is of course true of the eye in its area of vision, and in a still larger way. We live in the midst of an in- visible world in which we cannot doubt there are an infinite number of realities of which we have no visual knowledge. It would be folly to imagine that a per- son or thing cannot exist, just because we cannot see or hear it with our dull senses. We are subject to an illusion here, when we think we see or hear all. For at first we do not suspect, as has been said, the poverty of our senses, it is the general poverty of the world about us, and what is general affords no basis for comparison. But in spite of our dull short- sightedness, the universe stretches on and on and runs into the infinite and unseen. The crude and tempo- rary beginnings and narrow quarters are here, the timelessness and spaciousness are over there. Flam- marion, the astronomer and well-known student of psychic matters writes : " All that you know through the medium of your terrestrial senses, is as nothing compared to what is." And this seems en- tirely reasonable, for the countless millions of our earth alone must require a roominess of space and wealth of furnishings that we could connect only with the pure and lofty conception of infolding spiritual spheres extending far into the ethereal region. MARVELS OF THE ETHER 63 There can be no doubt that when we come to our spiritual vision, the larger world of vibration will be in much higher degree accessible to us, and we shall experience an endless unfoldment of reality beyond our present knowledge. The universe is larger than it seems. Dr. Young, who helped to establish the vibra- tory theory of light by his discovery of wave inter- ference, is quoted as committing himself distinctly to the opinion that we may be surrounded on every hand by other worlds, invisible, intangible to us, and that inhabited spheres may be all about us. SPIRITUAL TELEGRAPHY But there is another thought we might look upon as suggested at least by this amazing elastic responsive- ness of the ether. We hold that undoubtedly there is such a thing as spiritual telegraphy or the telepathic transmission of prayer and sympathy and thought force. I think many of us have had experiences that have brought uncompromising conviction that there is such a pathway of light between souls, and between souls here and over there. And while one would not dogmatize here in a matter so subtle and unexplored, we may just note a certain suggestiveness this way in this etherealizing and spiritualizing of the universe. In these inconceivably sensitive and swift ether vibra- tions, may it not be possible there lie a medium and pathway for spirit outreaching? Is not prayer an uprush and outreaching of spiritual energy, and does not every effort of earnest concentration for touch with souls and every striving of love involve an out- put of electric force? We know that psychic investi- gators consider that no satisfactory solution of the 64 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT problem of thought transference is yet at hand. But one may at least surmise that in this extreme delicacy of the ether and somewhere in the vast unexplored territory of its manifold vibrations, there may exist the requisite conditions for forms of impulse and im- pact that are interpreted by the spirit as thought and sympathy. We live in a world of vibrations. And may it not be that the energy of radiant light and warmth and the higher spiritual energies, have some- thing in common in finding their way to their goal ? If this be so, the ether has fresh interest for us ; it appeals to us in a most intimate and spiritual sense, it presents itself as a mediating friend. It not only floods the eye with its waves and billows, and brings us out of the isolation and prison of the body, but it serves as a bond for linking souls in communion. The spirit automatic writer of " Interwoven " asserts that the ether waves are everywhere, surrounding everything, filling the universe, touching the brain, the eardrum, the eye, and through these multitudinous, enveloping waves all the world can be in rapport. We have every reason to believe that our prayers im- pinge upon our friends in the spirit and blaze their path someway. In the work cited we have this from the other side : " Every prayer your spirit makes we hear. It comes on our heads as a small gentle touch and on our hearts as a knock." They tell us over there that they know when we think of them. How alive with sensitive responsiveness must be the communicative powers of that world far exceeding our beginnings here ! We have thought of our heavens as closed, as the ancients conceived of the blue dome above as solid crystal, but the blue dome is MARVELS OF THE ETHER 65 only the blue tinge of the atmosphere seen through a depth of many miles. " Moreover all living things act and react upon each other through intervening space by means of several kinds of etheric wave energy," is another spirit statement directly to the point and from an ac- credited source. " The spirit or inner consciousness liberates a series of thought waves generated through electro-magnetism within the human brain. Thought waves may be thus continued through unlimited space should sensitive minds be acted upon as receivers." And the sensitiveness of the spirit mind we cannot fully apprehend in our present coarse organisms. Do we fear our loving thought will miscarry? In a message purporting to come from W. T. Stead shortly after the sinking of the Titamc — a message I can see no reason to doubt as to its genuineness — are these words : " It is the supreme law of the spirit that you reach the one you intend to reach. The wireless of the spirit does not get caught by irresponsible craft that stops the message from going to the intended receiver. The wireless of the spirit reaches the object intended." But whatever our theory, this truth of spiritual transmission and com- munion will assert itself more and more, and it is only the newness and bewilderment of a new mode of activity that makes the thing seem unbelievable. Love bridges all chasms and can never lose its own, because the highway over which love is interpreted was laid in the anticipatory thought of God from the foundation of the world. CHAPTER V SOMETHING MORE ABOUT THE ETHER, ITS ENERGY AND BASIC NATURE But there is one more aspect of the ether which is especially rich in spiritual suggestiveness and promise. It is the remarkable property of energy, or energy combined with density, and it takes us still further on our way to a spiritual foundation. LORD KELVIN'S KINETIC THEORY OF ROTATIONAL MOTION A common notion of the ether as an extremely rarefied, inert, gaseous fluid filling space with next to nothing, does not convey any striking impression of energy or basic importance. But we have come to see that the ether is very far from being such an unreal, lifeless ghost of substance. It is substance itself, though not coarse matter, with definite proper- ties of its own that carry the conviction of tremen- dous possibilities and primal energy. While we speak of the stable and unstable energies of matter, much more can we now speak of the fundamental energies of the ether. And first we may note the law of ethe- real circulation or rotational motion. Lord Kelvin was enabled to let much light on the problem of the ether and its elastic energy by propounding the cele- brated kinetic theory thereof now in general accept- ance. Lord Kelvin laid down that the elastic strength of the ether " must be due to rotational mo- 66 SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 67 tion, intimate fine-grained motion throughout the whole ethereal region, vortex motion of a kind far more finely-grained than any waves of light, or any atomic or even electronic structure." This is cer- tainly a wonderful law, but we are in a wonderful world, and this movement is clearly akin to the vari- ous other elemental movements. And it is this in- finitesimal rotational circulation with the predi- cated velocity of light, in combination with the esti- mate of its density, which makes the internal energy of the ether so gigantic. It is a strain on the imagination as well as the ether to read the con- clusion of the physicist that a cubic millimeter of ether thus squirming internally with the speed of light, must possess the equivalent of a thousand tons. THE SECRET OF THE ELASTIC ENERGY AND STRENGTH OF THE ETHER IN ITS ROTATIONAL CIRCULATION And it is here we get some clear conception of the secret of the wonderful elastic energy of the ether which is manifested in such various ways. And we are told that " more functions will almost certainly be discovered." This elastic energy is seen in the electro-magnetic transmission of light waves and in the transmission of the great forces of the universe — gravitational attraction, the power of cohesion in the particles of an iron rod, and the pull of the magnet. The physicist makes three simple affirmations here: Contact does not exist between the atoms of matter, as it does not between worlds ; there can be no attrac- tion across empty space, there must be a connecting 68 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT medium ; and " matter acts on matter only through the ether." And matter is enabled to act and react upon itself in different ways through the immense elastic energy of the intervening rotational ether. The force with which the moon is held in its orbit and swung around the earth, Principal Lodge says, is great enough to tear asunder a steel rod four hun- dred miles thick, and even the gravitational pull of distant Sirius is estimated at thirty million tons. Now this force, like all force, must be transmitted through the ether, it can reach us in no other way. And it forcibly reminds us of the enormous energy and strength that must be stored up in this medium in order to be able to meet and handle such enormous tension. In like manner molecular attraction in co- hesion is conveyed through the ether, the binding medium is the ether. What is true here in the macrocosm is true in the microcosm. And when a steel spring is bent, the potential energy or tendency to recoil is charged to the elastic strain of the ether. We say the atoms of the spring are displaced and brought nearer, but this increase of atomic attrac- tion simply gives greater tension and strain to the binding ether. In short, Principal Lodge asserts that elastic rigidity and all potential energy exist in the ether. It would seem then that the ether is not such a weak and utterly tenuous, and so inoperative and useless a thing outside of light as once supposed. THE SECRET OF ALL SUBSTANCE IN THE ROTATIONAL ETHER And finally the secret of matter itself, and we may add of spirit substance the ultimate refinement of SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 69 matter, is to be found here in the rotational energy of the ether, or of the ether differentiated as the elec- tron. It would be difficult to say beforehand how many distinct classes of substance the ether is capable of sustaining and infilling. That must be left to the Infinite Wisdom with its unexpected disclosures. " Who by searching can find out God ? " But first, how does the electron come in? Princi- pal Lodge describes the electron as a minute struc- ture of ether, appallingly minute. The ether does not seem to lend itself to form directly. Electrons are modifications, certain irregularities, or peculiari- ties of the ether, which, as a help to mental imaging, are compared to a knot in a string. The electron has the same density as the ether, its mass is de- termined as one thousandth part of the atomic mass of hydrogen, and it is the same in all the infinite variety of substance. In its essence the electron is a concentrated unit or charge of electricity, and the atom is an aggregate of an equal number of positive and negative electrons in rapid rotation. The ro- tational energy of the ether is the rotational energy of the electron, as the rotational energy of the sun or the primeval nebula is imparted to the earth. We can have no difficulty then in postulating that the ethereal electron in its endless arrangements and aggregations may account for all needed phases of substance, the coarsest and most refined and the most widely separated. But how does the rotation and differentiation of the ether give us matter? How is it possible for sub- stance, matter or spirit, to take form and stability from the whirling ether? The answer or principle 70 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT is, in brief — that a fluid in motion can imitate the properties of a solid. It is well known that an object in very rapid rotation or movement, though loose in its structure, takes on a certain rigidity and tends to maintain position. "A jet of water at sufficient speed can be struck with a hammer and resists being cut with a sword." It is asserted that a layer of water animated by sufficient velocity would be as impervious to shells as the steel plates of an iron- clad. An invisible fluid like the air whirling in the form of a cyclone can strike with most destructive energy. Or a flexible chain set spinning can stand upon end, and it seems that Lord Kelvin originated a model of a spring balance made of nothing but rigid bodies in spinning motion. (" Ether of Space," page 120.) Says Le Bon: " Gaseous vortices with a ra- pidity of rotation like that of cathode rays, would in all probability become as hard as steel." And this distinguished physicist adds : " It is probable that matter owes its rigidity only to the rapidity of the rotary motion of its elements, and that if their move- ment stopped, it would instantaneously vanish into ether without leaving a trace behind." And the fol- lowing from such an authority as Professor Dolbear will help us on our way : " We have hints that what we have called particles of matter are vortex rings of ether, getting their energy from the ether, the ultimate substance out of which all things are made. We know enough now about matter to know that every particle of it is alive." So it has come to pass in the natural order of SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 71 physics, that the ether differentiated as a vortex ring or electrified speck is regarded as constituting in its rotations and potentialities the substratum of all matter. And we cannot doubt that all substance, visible and invisible, convincingly appealing to our present senses or making little or no appeal, must be traced directly or indirectly to this universal basic ether. On the one hand we must be very unmindful of vibrational facts and possibilities to pessimis- tically assume that there exists for us no higher and brighter worlds. And on the other hand we must be very unmindful of rotational energies and basic pow- ers to dismiss lightly and thoughtlessly the etheric origin of matter and the spirit foundation of a spirit world. Our whole lesson thus far is most clear — our lesson tends directly to the psychic significance of the ether. Our lesson is, that there may be and undoubtedly are higher forms of substance more ap- proximate to the ether in fineness of essence and vi- bration and constituting worlds and embodiments far exceeding in their powers our limited observation here. Sir Oliver Lodge speaks of the " vast though as yet largely unrecognized importance of the ether of space." And it seems fitting to close this thought of the basic nature of the ether with these words from his Introduction : " I am able to advocate a view of the ether which makes it not only uniformly pres- ent and all-pervading, but also massive and substan- tial beyond conception. It is turning out to be by far the most substantial thing — perhaps the only substantial thing in the material universe." 72 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT PLENTY OF MATERIAL FOR ANY NUMBER OF SPIRIT WORLDS " For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." It would surely seem then to any reasonable mind that we have no occasion to worry about spirit. We need not be unduly anxious lest there be no material in the universe sufficiently fine and strong which may serve as an adequate basis in some way for spirit substance. There seems to be no call for apprehen- sion lest the divine wisdom and its creative resources be exhausted by one world or one phase of existence, lest the Creator who rested on the seventh day from the material creation has been resting ever since. It would look as though the Wisdom that can dif- ferentiate the electron and build up the solid particle by motion, could also find a loom for weaving spirit substance. It really seems too late to stumble over the ancient question — " How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? " The Corin- thians may have had intelligible reasons for their dis- belief in spirit; but with the insight of this age into the subtleties and energies, the anticipations and provisions of the universe it does not seem worth while to stumble. We have everything we want, materials in endless abundance in the ether spaces or matter organic and inorganic for constructing any number of spirit worlds and spirit bodies. Modern study of the ether brings us face to face with the conclusion that the ether is potential matter, and po- tential substance in all its forms from the grossest to the most spiritual. Matter itself has become spirit- ualized by the new physics, so that now and here we SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 73 live in a spiritual universe, spiritualized intensively and extensively. It would seem then that no thoughtful and reverent soul in the face of the phys- ical wonders about us, need stumble over such nat- ural and seemingly inevitable phenomena as the sur- vival of spirit after bodily death and the existence of a spirit world about us. WHAT A MAGICAL SUBSTANCE ! How it fills the dizzy spaces and all the corners of the universe and washes all shores, and binds the worlds into a spiritual unity ! " It is the universal medium of communication between worlds and parti- cles." How it immerses and fills the inmost pores of all bodies, so that all substance is " ether-soaked " ! How it hands over to us the radiant energies of the sun, speeding them on w T aves that girdle the globe seven times in a second, bringing them to our doors and pouring them through our windows in inex- haustible fashion, and infusing their warmth into all life ! What greater wonder does science set before us than the story of its activities, vibrational and vor- tical, so varied and marvelously swift and sensitive and strong that we feel we are in the presence of an awful mystery like the presence of God! It is the medium for the intermediary world of force, and finally it is the stuff out of which all things are woven. No wonder Sir Oliver Lodge exclaims: " We live in an extraordinary universe." But in all this, we need not think apprehensively of the ether as the all in all. It hardly needs re- peating at this date that evolution is not creation, there can be no evolution without an evolver and no 74 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT involution without an involver. Back of all things and in all things is " the infinite and eternal Energy from which all things proceed," who is the infinite factor in every problem and the determining factor at every step of the way. FINAL CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE ENERGY AND VITALITY OF SPIRIT " But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly." The psychic significance of the ether cannot fail to grow upon us, and we may well presume that we have only the beginnings of its significance here, and that the full scope will be revealed only in the more responsive world of spirit. Spirit is evidently more ethereal in its structure than matter, more closely related to the primal substance, and consequently ap- proximating more nearly its activities. We are told that " matter is ever ascending in the scale, and the higher it ascends the more powerful it becomes. The finer, the more subtle an element is, the more powerful it is." Now this increased energy and more abundant life in the spirit must mean several things. It must needs mean a higher order of world, the expressions and manifestations of spirit substance we must assume to be of a finer and more varied order than is possible with the thick encasement of matter here. Its radi- ant energies must surpass all that we know here of sunset and rainbow and vibrant effulgence. It must pulsate with a life and movement beside which our world down here must seem to be slow and dull. SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 75 SPIRIT MORE EXPRESSIVE THAN MATTER Then spirit as being more ethereal, we would con- sider as more fluid and amenable to form than heavy, intractable matter. Indeed it is claimed that while the forms of earth are duplicated in spirit, there are infinitely more expressions in spirit than here. The formative principle would naturally have more free- dom and play and creative joy in expressing itself in spirit forms. We are told that thought can be so directed and concentrated as to mold and fashion spirit substance in wonderful ways that seem passing strange to us. I will venture to refer here to a paragraph on home- building in spirit from a very illuminating communi- cation through the psychic, Rev. Thomas Grimshaw. " Can you not imagine a higher method of construc- tion than those with which you are now familiar? These earthly buildings are but ideals materialized, and because of the crudeness of the materials they must forsooth be constructed with hands. Not so in the spirit world. The homes of that land are not made with hands, but by the power of thought and will acting upon spiritual substances. This state- ment may appeal to some of you as the acme of fool- ishness, but wait before you condemn." What lati- tude then, what perspective, what prodigality of play must be assigned the creative Wisdom in the furnish- ings of the home over there. And expression it would seem must be more vivid in a world so highly organized, the interpretative principle within the form must stand out more clearly. Such a world must be far more spiritual, mirroring 76 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT as it must the deeper inwardness of nature and the higher purposes and riches of the infinite Wisdom, and so more deeply revealing the divine presence. And the spirit body would become a self-creation, such a materialization and representative garment for the soul, such a delicate instrument of expression, as is not possible in our heavy encasement here. Such will doubtless be its opportunity and necessity. This is what we are told : " Whatever a man or woman is in the spirit land, the representation ap- pears upon the external. They cannot seem to be what they are not. There is no such a thing as dis- guising one's soul characteristics after death." u As yet we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face." From an inspirational address accredited to Wil- liam T. Stead not long after the sinking of the Ti- tanic — and there have been several noteworthy manifestations of Mr. Stead since that event * — I quote the following as pertinent to our thought : " I felt the giant trembling and the rushing of waters, and the thought came, would it be for long? And after the first roar, a great surging, suffocating sense, I awoke as one awakening from a horrible dream. The great light of this morning came to me, the morning of this other life; it was like awakening from a nightmare to a dawn of peace, or from a prison into freedom. It seemed as a morning of splendor after the night of earth, as wings compared to groping, as bloom and fruition after the bud of silence and darkness. Who can properly describe the indescribable? I have learned more of answer * See the book, " My Father." SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 77 to all the questions that I have asked in my life, than I have learned all my life before, because the answer is inherent in the state, in the life." This is a word wafted from the unseen as a seed for the soil prepared to receive it. Here is another : " The tale is not half told ; no language that we can command would enable us to fully interpret the reali- ties, the glory, and the grandeur of that world and life which awaits man beyond death." " Life has many a pleasant hour, Many a bright and cloudless day; Singing bird and smiling flower Scatter sunbeams on our way. But the fairest blossoms grow In the land to which we go." From Stead back to Plato is a long interval of time, but Plato in his philosophizing on immortality has some things to say about the reality and vivid- ness of the other life that may be fittingly given here. Plato compares this state of being to men sitting in a cave, bound by the feet and neck so they cannot move or look behind. Back of them where they can- not see it, is a great light. And between them and the great light is a raised causeway, and on this causeway real objects are passing along. Now the light back of the causeway naturally throws the shadows of these moving objects in front of the men in bonds, and as they never see anything but shadows they take these shadows for the realities. So Plato — termed by Professor Jowett the greatest meta- physician who has ever lived — taught in contradis- tinction to the thought and literature of his time, 78 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT that while we are chained in our physical bodies we live in a world of shadows, we see only images, while in the spiritual world are the real things. Surely this was an ideal vision of the future life and its heightened expression for 400 B. C. " 'Tis life whereof our nerves are scant, More life and fuller that we want." AUGMENTED POWERS OF SEEING AND MOVING Two characteristic things, we are always doing here, are seeing and moving. We must see in order to bring the world within ; we must move for new contacts and adjustments. Have we not wondered sometimes about our powers of perception and the freedom and buoyancy of motion in that land where we come to our own? The wings ascribed to the an- gelic messengers in the Jewish apocalyptic we take as a poetical and beautiful symbol of the ethereal nature and movement of spirit. The Egyptians be- fore this put little images of a bird with human head into the tombs of their dead, as representing the in- telligence and ethereal powers of the soul. Some- times in our dreams we have found ourselves endowed with the power of gliding rapidly over the ground in such easy and delightful fashion that we regretted the waking up. Some interpret this as a hint of the long past, an aerial memory ; may it not rather be a hint of the future in a partial release of the spirit in sleep? " I felt myself moving, and yet could not tell how it was done. It is an action of the mind, indescribable by me as yet." Says a noted psychic scholar : " The ethereal organism being of great SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 79 tenuity, the action of the will on the universal ether produces displacement. It is easily conceivable that the resistance of the ethereal medium being almost nil, the exercise of a very slight degree of force is suffi- cient to overcome it and to produce the translation of the perisprit in whatever direction the will of the ego directs." We also move by an action of the mind here and now, mind acting upon the motor nerves and thus impelling forward the heavy body. But what shall mind do on the journey when master and captain of the far more responsive craft, the spirit organism? Indeed marvelous experiences are told of spirit travels and speedy transferences through the ethereal spaces, which to one uninitiated to all problems of the spirit would only seem a mere phantasy. But we cannot doubt that all conveyances in the history of transportation here are slow beside the swift flight of spirit. " They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary." " From walking we seemed to glide into the air without effort. The world simply sank away from us as when you are in a balloon. We went through space at a great speed. I did not feel the speed so much while in motion as when we stayed and discovered how fast and how far we had come." [" Julia."] In this conclusion there is a word more for us on the possibilities of the eye in spirit. The eye is the most spiritual of our sensory powers, and must best express the intensified life of the spirit. We would expect great things of the eye. Consider its digni- fied position in the upper forefront of the head; it is the watchman on the tower overlooking and noting 80 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT all things. Consider its magnetic and compelling power, its interpretative power in giving expression to the moods of the soul, it is the mirror of the world without and the mirror of the world within, and its curious structure brings it into harmony with a sec- tion at least of its vibratory environment. But we have every reason to believe that this high office of the eye must needs be greatly magnified in spirit life, and its vibratory harmony and responsiveness be greatly increased. The eye, as we have it, is the product of this life; it is a fleshly mechanism and a conformity to its physical besetment. But the spir- itual eye must be a conformity to much higher and more exacting conditions, and in the nature of things it must be a finer organism with finer adjustments and far greater powers. The organ of sight in the water grub is formed for its habitat in the pool, the eye of the dragon fly is much larger and more com- plicated, its visual powers are fitted for a higher world. The testimony from the other side is very clear and emphatic as to the increased visual powers of that life. It is affirmed that everything seems more vivid, more real, the spiritual expression is not so covered up and eclipsed as in the heavy encasements of earth. It is even asserted in the matter of long-distance vision, that there is no sphere so far removed where by lov- ing concentration the spirit seer cannot discern friends on earth. Flammarion has predicted the spirit eye as so responsive to the subtlest vibrations of the ether that it is able to penetrate the atomic structure of matter, in which case, he says, the ob- ject itself could not be seen, the vision would pass SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 81 through it. This would seem to be true, for the ethe- real interspaces of matter are so large compared with the molecular nuclei that vision sufficiently acute could see through, somehow as we look up into the open sky on a clear night. I take the liberty to quote here a few words of witness to Prof. Hiram Corson of Cornell from his daughter in spirit : " We have a power not possessed by mortals of seeing long distances and through opaque substances. Conse- quently, wherever we are, we are able to see you and know what you are about." What an enlargement of our world extensively and intensively this must mean. " And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw." It is evident that while mortals see the material side of the universe, spirits see the spiritual side. Spirit takes cognizance and perceives clearly the more real, substantial, the more glorious, and universal part, which is hidden from us. And all else is small indeed beside the spiritual realm. We are told also that spirit perceives clearly the spirit mortal, the spirit body, and the spiritual essence in all organic and animal life, and by coming into the electro-mag- netic aura of the earthly friend finds needed support, and is enabled to perceive the external of all forms. It would not seem unreasonable that the higher vitality and vibration of spirit might be associated with subtle powers we know not now or only in germ. Helen Keller reads and sees and hears with her fin- gers. The auditory and optic nerves are the main chords we have in our harp of life here, but the in- 82 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT numerable vibrations that make the universe alive may in spirit evoke other responsive chords to play upon. Is this speculative? Well, it must be said that speculation or imagination restrained and guided by reason has been a great pioneer to better things. It impelled Columbus to find a new world, it may help us on the same quest. " AND THEY SUNG AS IT WERE A NEW SONG " But there is something else that belongs to the sphere of vibratory energy par excellence, that we could not well leave here without a word. What shall we think of music in a world of ethereal vibrations? If music has had such a wonderful development on earth, if strings and reeds and columns of air have been skillfully manipulated to produce such harmo- nies here, and to so interpret feelings and sentiments too deep for words, what may we look for in a world of vastly finer vibrations? Music has always and inevitably been associated with heaven. It is an im- portant element in worship here, and must needs hold a higher position over there ; it is the highest expres- sion and interpreter of the soul here, and must in natural order reach its finest art and expressiveness and most glorious inspirations and delights in the re- fined atmosphere of the spirit. I submit here a few brief declarations from the spirit side, for to the spirit side we must naturally look in this matter. And by way of preface we might remind ourselves that not everything psychic is baseness and fraud, that human nature may some- times be worthy of confidence even this side of heaven, and that science as well as tradition has something SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 83 to offer about the future life. We are making prog- ress when we have patiently and studiously learned this. " The harmonious sounds were to me wonderful, no sound like those on earth, but melodious, perme- ating the soul, thrilling every nerve, not to a tight tension but smoothly flowing like the rippling waters of a brook, the voices, for they are voices, not dis- cordant but falling on the ear softly as chiming bells in the distance." (" Interwoven.") " They were playing upon instruments, actual in- struments, all in harmony, and I never heard any- thing like it in the earthly world. The music was divine." (Gen. A. P. Martin in " Both Sides of the Veil.") " I have been where violins were played so divinely that it seemed like a strain from heavenly heights. One musician's soul seemed to be singing through the strings." LOW IDEAS OF THE FUTURE STATE HELD BY THE ANCIENT WORLD We earnestly and devoutly hold then that life is an ascent and not a descent, that the spirit order is a great advance upon the feebleness and slowness of earth, a great advance in its vitalities and energies and glory upon the present order. We are getting acquainted with the ether, and its marvelous sug- gestiveness and promise. The enormous strength of the ether in gravitational transmission is past our comprehension. It does not take the place of right- eousness and the spiritual life, but it does point the way to a spiritual foundation and to spiritual ener- 84 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT gies and correspondencies doubtless far surpassing all that we have known in our beginnings here. In Greek and Roman thought, the future life was a pale, anaemic sort of existence, with the flash gone from the eye, the iron from the blood, and the strength from the arm, and what was left was fitly called a shade. To that ancient world of the athlete and the war- rior, the flesh-and-blood life was the only real and worth-while life ; and there seems to be a good linger- ing survival of that old idea yet in the unconscious thought of our time. It is voiced in the popular play of " Joseph and His Brethren " in the song of the jailer to the prisoner: "It is better to be alive than dead ; it is better to be alive than dead." Spirit is still unreal and seems like a shade to the minds of many. The Homeric poems preserve this old time view, as in the answer of Achilles the Greek hero when Ulysses met and conversed with him in his journey underworld : " I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some man of mean estate who makes scant cheer, Rather than reign o'er all who have gone down To death/' Such a view of survival was perhaps natural to those faraway, unscientific, and unspiritual ages. The materials for a worthy view of the future life were very largely lacking, they had no spirit body of the subtlest forces known but only the trailing shadow of the substance; and they could find no worthy home in their universe for the soul, and so they groveled and burrowed in a dim underworld. The SOMETHING MORE ABOUT ETHER 85 whole conception failed pathetically in its interpre- tation of life and death. Of course Christianity has done a great work in spiritualizing our ideals of the future, but patient scientific investigation also must be allowed its full share of credit in affording us some fundamental and believable conceptions of spirit body and spirit world and their nature and powers. There can be no doubt that this world of spirit sub- stance into which our physical passes (the outer and spiritual envelope overarching and infolding our earth home), that this world thrills and throbs with life, a life more intense than anything we now know or our senses can take cognizance of. CHAPTER VI OTHER TESTIMONIES TO THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " For in him we live and move and have our being." The question of the order of spirit is of very great importance in our religious thinking and our prac- tical outlook upon life, and so it deserves more special treatment. We have been contending for the ad- justability of the creative resources, and for the two bases of existence, the material and the spiritual, for the real existence of spirit, not in dogma but in reality, and for the wonderful functions and basic nature of the ether. And now directly and definitely we need to put the query — Shall we affirm the nat- ural order of spirit, of spirit body and spirit world, shall we assign them to the familiar domain of law and development, or shall we leave them in the old category of the supernatural? And if we give an answer first and attach a few reasons last, we must evidently and emphatically af- firm the natural order and relations of spirit. It is clearly not in harmony with the great modern con- ception of unity, that spirit should be taken up into some transcendent region, where it is exempt from the established procedure of law and order and put into some irresponsible, supernatural department by itself. We have no reason to disbelieve and every reason to 86 OTHER TESTIMONIES 87 believe, that spirit lives and moves and has its being in law as well as matter, and that the ways and be- havior of spirit are a subject of scientific deduction like the ways of matter. There could be no worthy psychic research without this confidence. It has been said that a common superstition is that when we leave the body, we are at once beyond the laws of na- ture. But we hold that nature is everywhere, and that unity is everywhere for we live in a universe. TRANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE OF CERTAIN GREAT RELIGIOUS IDEAS This question of spirit has its theological implica- tions and relationships, and for this reason it will help us to look back a bit. It is most interesting in the study of religious thought, to note the long and hard struggle between the transcendence and imma- nence of certain great fundamental religious ideas. Religious conceptions which are now very present in our midst, which we look upon as part and parcel of ourselves so thoroughly have they been assimilated in thought and life — these conceptions were for long periods held very remotely by the human mind and had such an alien, faraway look as to be devoid of all kinship. God and heaven, the spiritual world and body, law and government, were thrust far away into the unknown outside, and were all conceived of in terms of externalism and supernaturalism. The causes for such externalization were of course various and incident to the past. The universe was narrow in its bounds, spirit was intrinsically antagonistic to matter, and at any rate a curse had been pronounced upon the earth with the fall of man, and above all 88 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT God ruled like an oriental sovereign over his subjects and over nature, and had not yet come down in kin- ship and fatherhood to tabernacle among his chil- dren and work his wonders in the midst of things. THE DRAWING NEAR OF GOD, HEAVEN, AND SPIRIT BODY But all this has changed and is changing. Evo- lution has necessitated a great revival of immanence, of a present Deity working in the midst of things, and literary criticism has broken up rigid and stereo- typed modes of Jewish thought, the sweeping out- look and the amazing inlook demand that God be at hand, here and everywhere. And we must not forget also that the spirit world " impinges on this world of ours," and is always seeking to impress its nearness upon us. Man is coming to his own, though his way has been blocked by the overmuch inherited accumu- lations of ecclesiasticism and dogma. He is coming to a new sense of the unity and vitality of the uni- verse and to a new sense of kinship with God. Even now he is standing on holy ground, the old artificial distinctions between sacred and profane are passing, the sacred is spreading its mantle over all nature and life and lawful activities ; and all this is because God is drawing near in human thought as he drew near to Moses in the bush. We no longer banish God from the world. Externalism with its inevitable evolution of allied thinking, with its alien aspect of spirit and law and its constant interferences, must more and more be superseded by the vital conceptions of our day, by the working out of the divine will from OTHER TESTIMONIES 89 within nature and humanity, and by the natural order of life here and hereafter. Writers on the psy- chology of religion, like Prof. Coe, claim the natural order as large enough to include all the divine opera- tions. If God as the infinite Will and eternal En- ergy " worketh all in all," immanent in nature and man and no longer outside as the Hebrews and Mil- ton placed him, then all phenomena, strictly speaking, are natural, and there is no room for the magical and superstitious. And if the supernatural has become natural with God in the midst of things, the natural has also become supernatural so that the flower by the wayside is edged with eternal mystery and incom- prehensible to all our search. And this is not loss, but great gain. It is the profoundly spiritual view of things, it means not less but infinitely more of God. It makes the earth the outer court of the tem- ple, and allies heaven with earth, and prepares the way for a spiritual habitation not afar off but near at hand. " Surely the Lord was in this place and I knew it not." For if God has come nearer to men, it is also true that heaven has come nearer and assumed a more home-like aspect, the old apocalyptic transcendence is disappearing more and more. Many are thinking- that while " Heaven lies about us in our infancy," we may stretch a point and hold that it lies about us the whole of life. And the spirit body also is assuming a more familiar and friendly appearance and taking on a look of personal kinship and belonging, and the old separation or " tremendous jump " so called be- tween matter and spirit seems on the way to be closed. 90 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT THE UNIFYING PROCESS IN HUMAN THOUGHT Things are losing the old sense of disjunction and farawayness, and it is felt as never before that the kingdom of God is at hand. A great unifying proc- ess has been going on in human thought everywhere with the concept of evolution, in the effort to discover the relationships and homogeneities of the universe, and to simplify and coordinate all knowledge into a beautiful whole. Biology has bridged the gulf be- tween species, and linked together a chain of life from the amoeba to man. Physics has correlated the dif- ferent forces in the vibratory ether. And matter so intractable has been reduced to a form of electric energy, and the elements are considered to be differ- ent groupings of this one fundamental constituent, the electron. Law is no longer transcendent and handed down from above as Hammurabi received his famous code from the sun-god, Shamash, or Moses in sacred story the commandments from Jehovah. But the law has been written upon the tables of the heart and hammered out in human experience and struggle, and has become a part of us as the lesson of life. Law, like the spirit body, is not without but within. The universe is a unity in all its parts, coherent, self-consistent, everywhere interrelated and vitally bound together. And the drawing near of spirit may be regarded as a part of this universal, unifying process, as a part of the compelling, evolutionary demand for order and affiliation in the world. HISTORIC APPROACH TO THE SPIRIT WORLD This is better appreciated if we look back a mo- ment here on the historic approach to the spirit OTHER TESTIMONIES 91 world. The word " heaven " is deeply rooted and ap- peals to the high and holy in our nature. But the conceptions and imagery that have been associated in the mind with our spiritual abode, have been largely and highly transcendent to our poor human nature. Like some other religious generalizations heaven has had its crude beginnings, and its long spiritualization, with glimpses here and there of a kin- ship and glory close at hand. God has not directly localized and unveiled the spirit home. But far bet- ter, he has put within man the spirit of inquiry and adventure, and we are slowly throwing off the super- stitious notion that it is wrong to search. The vague idea lingering in the mind that a given doctrine comes to us full-fledged and absolutely perfected, we have learned to set down as without foundation in human experience. Everything grows in this world. THE HEBREW FIRMAMENT The Hebrew prophets held that God's throne was upon the crystalline firmament, where he was sur- rounded by his angelic court, and where he dwelt in majesty and light unapproachable. " And above the firmament, that was over their heads, was the likeness of a throne as the appearance of a sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it." And round about the throne, the glory of the Lord ap- peared as the rainbow in the cloud on the day of rain. This was an exalted description, and its great defect was not so much its limitations, as that it was pat- terned wholly after the kingly idea with all its neces- sary implications. And it is almost needless to say 92 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT that a great deal of theology has been patterned after the same idea, for this Hebrew transcendence deeply tinged Christian thought. People did not go to heaven in those old times, with the exception of Enoch and Elijah, any more than they daringly in- truded into the palace and presence of the king. They went down into Sheol, the Hebrew underworld. There was then this great gulf of a heaven inaccessi- ble and vitally unrelated to earth, with Jehovah look- ing down upon men as subjects, and communicating his sovereign decrees by angelic messengers. It was a long way from a human and democratic abode, from a home with its trustful spirit and its free and loving relations and vital interests. THE HEAVENS OF DANTE AND MILTON In later times, with the dissolution of the crystal- line expanse above and with the extension of the uni- verse, the old quarters did not suffice in men's thoughts, and heaven was pushed farther away from earth and finally into unknown realms of space, where we might add it has remained ever since more or less. It remains to be said that poetry has done much in perpetuating the Hebrew transcendence, in extending and intensifying it. Perhaps the strongest appeal and most lasting impressions of a transcendent heaven or heavens, utterly disjointed from earth, have been made by the dramatic imagery of the two Christian poets, Dante and Milton. We may recall in brief that Dante divided heaven into nine spheres, which he located in the heavenly bodies ; in the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, and curiously the stars Castor and Pollux, and the OTHER TESTIMONIES 93 center of the universe. The poet evidently felt the need of a solid material support for any heaven that could at all be reconciled to medieval ideas. But he did not realize there were other planets beyond Sat- urn, which would have saved him an excursion be- yond the limits of our system, or that the high temperature of the sun, 12,000° F. might make it inconvenient as a residence for resurrected bodies. But Dante made use of the astronomy of his time and the materialistic eschatology of his time, as the He- brew writers made use of the crude astronomy of their time. The result was a heaven remote, alien, and supernatural. Milton revived and immensely extended the Hebrew idea. He seemed to consider that all that is, was embraced in a sphere of infinite radius. Half of this sphere, the upper part where God dwells and reigns over all, is set apart as heaven, while a solid crystal floor separates this heavenly region from the starry universe below, and the abyss of the fallen angels below that. Milton's conception was the work of a bold and constructive imagination, but its utter in- adequacy is apparent now as it was not in his day. A Miltonic universe from which God is left out w T ould be entirely unthinkable for our time. The sidereal universe as at present known is assigned a diameter by Prof. Young of 20,000 or 30,000 light years, and if the infinite Presence and eternal Energy is not here in the midst of his works, we know not where he can be found. What law of physics upheld the crystalline firmament of the poet does not appear, but one thing is certain, its dissolution under mod- ern thought has been much more rapid than that 94 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT of its Hebrew prototype. A curious defect in this celestial scheme of a transcendent heaven is seen where the rebel angels required only nine days in falling from the zenith to the nadir of the universe. But the route is longer now, inasmuch as there are stars affecting the photographic plate distant " thou- sands or even tens of thousands of light years," each second of the light year covering of course 186,000 miles. Such a transcendence as this ought to be sufficiently appalling to satisfy any one, whose the- ology demands that heaven should be banished into the infinite unknown. A survival of the Miltonic scheme is seen in the hymn, " Beyond the Stars," in which hypothetical region the writer locates the home of the saints. But suppose we banish heaven 10,000 light years into space or into the quintil- lions of miles, the mind must still assume 10,000 light years further, which space we cannot conceive as empty. It would surely seem time to call a halt in this process of banishing heaven, our heaven, into unthinkable and absurd regions. Heaven has wan- dered from underworld to firmament, from moon to planet and thence to the stars, till at length it has been thrust over the edge of the universe into the land of nowhere. Now while we may give these vari- ous conceptions proper credit for service in their generation, it would seem to be high time for us to suspect at least that somehow we may have over- looked our heaven in its very nearness and vital sim- plicity. Truly all these schemes of supernatural transcendence and of heavens utterly disjointed from earth, have their little day and are then rolled up like a scroll and laid aside. OTHER TESTIMONIES 95 A SURROUNDING SPIRIT WORLD " Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses." Now from all this transcendence digression, we turn in relief to the nearer, and more human and sympathetic, and infinitely more home-like and com- pelling representation of the spirit world which is taking shape more and more in the modern mind. " The kingdom of heaven is at hand," was the preach- ing of Jesus and of John the forerunner, and it has always been at hand, and God has always been at hand, and the spirit world and body have always been at hand though veiled. And we must consider that psychic research and the higher spiritualism, and recent studies of the ether and the nature of mat- ter, have furnished a vast deal of evidence and sug- gestion in modifying the coldly remote and new Jeru- salem types of picture we have had of the other world. They have given at least some sense of proximity, and continuity, of humanness and home, and objective reality. The great number of ac- credited communications from the other side — ac- credited to those who have done them the honor to become properly and sympathetically acquainted with their modus operandi and content — have pro- duced powerful impressions of the vital nearness of the spirit world. These messages, with their per- sonal atmosphere impossible to interpret to others, with their dramatic human interplay that can be fully appreciated only in experience, with their marvelous insight into the hidden things of life and with testing circumstances of every variety, have had the logical consequences of bringing many face to face with a 96 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT surrounding spirit world. For a multitude of per- plexed souls, it has been an unspeakable relief to re- discover our lost heaven as u not very far from every one of us." Of course, there are stubborn objectors here as elsewhere, who note a few things on the sur- face and to whom the whole subject of spirit, it may be, is trivial or repellent. These are tempted to see nothing but a closed door and to present nothing but a closed mind. For such, we fear, the remote- ness and unreality of the future life must remain. Psychic investigation has given a mass of testi- mony from the other side about the nature and lo- calization of the spirit realms, as far as they can be made clear to our apprehension in language and symbol. And such testimony, while ofttimes far be- yond our knowledge, is not unrelated and contradic- tory to knowledge, but often co-ordinates itself in a striking way with later developments of knowledge. Truth often fits together like a pictured mosaic. The recent disclosures of radio-activity and the ether are most suggestive in the support they bring to spirit teachings of many years ago. It is well to remember that a statement that by itself may seem fantastic and wild, may be found reasonable and harmonious when its relations are clearly perceived. Now spirit testimony is emphatic, uniform, and con- stantly repeated that our earth is surrounded and ensphered by the spirit world. The great contention of genuine spiritualism has always been this — that our earth has its spiritual counterpart, and is sur- rounded and accompanied by spiritual spheres in its onward sweep through space, and that under proper circumstances and adjustments it is possible to have OTHER TESTIMONIES 97 communication with this world. Alfred Russell Wallace, the distinguished scientist, in his article on Spiritualism in Chambers' Encyclopedia, lays down the thesis that the cardinal truths of spiritualism, established on the experiments and experiences of millions, are those of a surrounding world of spirits, the continuity of existence through the momentary eclipse of death as it disappears on earth reappear- ing in the spirit world, and the intercommunion and intercommunication of the living and the so-called dead. Now this is sufficiently explicit and unmistak- able in its meaning. And psychic research work has furnished to most leaders of this movement and a multitude outside, suggestions and confirmations in great abundance of the presence of a spirit world about us. The numerous works of Prof. Hyslop, Sir Oliver Lodge, F. W. H. Myers, Prof. Barrett, Dr. Wallace, Sir William Crookes, Flammarion, Lom- broso, Maxwell, Richet, Carrington and others, with their long and detailed accounts of all phases of psychic phenomena, together with the vast collections of psychic material filed away in the Proceedings and Journals of the S. P. R., these have helped and guided many souls into a communion with a present spirit world. Rut there is a significant word to note here from Principal Lodge: " This is not a subject on which one comes lightly and easily to a conclusion, nor can the evidence be explained except to those who w r ill give it time and careful study." If God has put us on the search here as elsewhere, as he un- doubtedly has, it must be so. And so the world of spirit is drawing near to us. Slowly like all great movements in human thought, 98 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT out of the unknown spaces into which it had been banished, out of its apocalyptic and beatific visions, it is coming into view here and there a more human heaven for more human needs, and infinitely tran- scending the old transcendence in its wonderful ad- justments. " The heart's long prayer is answered thus, The dead through no far countries roam; As babes born into waiting arms, They die into some higher home. ,, THE LAW OF THE COUNTERPART "And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven." To pass on — the spirit world is more or less, we are told from the other side, a counterpart of our earth home, or more correctly speaking the earth is a crude prototype of the spirit world. We are real- izing more than ever that nature is a vast symbolism, with prophecies and crude representations of things not clearly seen as yet. And the invisible meaning wrapped up in the symbol is the reality in the case, the spiritual counterpart is the fulfilling of the pro- totype. Men have always believed in symbolism, and the Bible and poetry derive much of their rich- ness and picturesqueness from the symbol, from this silent lifting up of the voice and pointing forward of the symbol to higher things. And so the physical world is a symbol of the higher spiritual world, the world that is seen of the world that is unseen, and so we believe the two worlds are allied and more interrelated and interwoven in simili- tude than we had thought. Here we have the form OTHER TESTIMONIES 99 and image in its coarse and rough stage, over there the symbol is reproduced in substance more refined and radiant. And this is only a faint transcript of spirit teaching as to the vital alliance of the physical and spiritual. Such a thought may seem strange and unwelcome at first, but looking closely, are we not dealing with something of the nature of a far- reaching law? Laying aside all predilections and theological bias, is it not reasonable and beautiful, and thoroughly evolutionary in its principles, that such a unitary connection of worlds and such a re- fined translation of outward forms should hold true? It will certainly be nothing new, but in accord with nature's processes and unfoldings extending through the ages, that the type should be reproduced in higher form. It would certainly be like the wise and pru- dent ways of that infinite Life that guides and in- forms nature, if our highest physical expressions most worthy of spiritual continuity, should be trans- planted and in due time we should joyfully discover their correspondences on the spirit side. What a home-likeness and tender familiarity it must give as we step out of the old home into the new. " And best of all, it looks like home, No strange land trod by alien feet; Familiar as our childhood haunts, Clothed all in mellow sunlight sweet/' How appealing to our sense of orderly fitness, that there should be nothing utterly disjointed in a well- ordered universe. In prescientific times, and in the sphere of Jewish eschatology, the course of nature and events may be as disjointed as we please, all 100 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT things may come and go by cataclysms. But in this old world of thought we no longer live. We cannot but hold that life here and life hereafter are differ- ing aspects of the same natural order, that this phys- ical body is the coarse prototype of the finer and luminous body of spirit, and that this material order is also the symbol and prototype of an ensphering, outreaching and evolved spiritual order which is mag- netically and vitally connected. That is the law of the counterpart. " All that meets the bodily sense I deem Symbolical — one mighty alphabet For infant minds." CHAPTER VII OBJECTIVITY OF THE SPIRIT WORLD " And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones." " On being interrogated concerning his impressions of life on the other side, Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace could only explain repeatedly that it was beyond all comprehension, so astounding was the reality of it all." — " Light," London. Concerning the objectivity of the world of spirit, we shall evidently know and see more clearly when we rise to that world. But we have no difficulty in postulating an objective life beyond, for a world of chaos and nothingness would be utterly unthinkable for any form of spirit embodiment. Life in this world consists largely in reactions upon the manifold objects about us, life is constant action and reaction, and a world without such reactions would be no world at all. The creative Life is continually expressing itself in objective forms and ways, and man in the image of that life must needs express himself ob- jectively. It would seem that a greater calamity could hardly befall us than to be suddenly and ut- terly disrupted from all objective manifestation, or even from all kinship and reminder of our long asso- ciation with the outward world here. The author of " The New Knowledge " has estimated that while there are some seventy elements, these may combine to form some 250,000 different molecules or material 101 102 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT units. This surely gives a basis for an astonishing variety of form life here, but spirit substance would seem to be much more fluid and amenable to expres- sion. We say then, that if we react at all, as we surely must in any embodied expression, we must have some- thing to react upon. From a review in the Boston Transcript (Dec. 16, 1905) of the book " Interwoven," I quote as fol- lows : " In these letters every detail of the ways and manner of life in the next stage of existence is discussed in the same way that one would write of things of this world while a part of it. From these descriptions, things seem to be very much the same on the other side as here. Spirits are not we are told mere air or ether, but tangible substance, refined matter, subject to spiritual conditions, as they were before to earthy conditions." People live in houses with gardens, plants and flowers ; there are schools, institutions, amusements, galleries of pictures, and places of song. From the spirit side they speak like this: You think your flowers are beautiful, and so they are, but hardly any comparison can be made between them and those of spirit. " Why the music, the flowers, the trees, the birds, the lakes, the rivers, the hills, the gardens, the walks, are perfectly magnificent, and nothing in the earthly world hardly can ever corre- spond to them," was an experience of transition given through Mrs. Piper. The following letter from a little girl in spirit to her mother is from an unpublished manuscript auto- matically written which I insert here for its simple OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 103 ingenuousness : " O loving Mother — I wish you could have seen our pretty houses, all trimmed with grasses and tall sweet brier roses. The grasses bended over my roof and drooped on Ella's and her roses climbed even to my roof, and hundreds of bright birds alighted and chirped and sung to us. I also trimmed dear Father's house and Brother's studio, and then Grandpa, whose name was John, came to every house and stayed a little while. I found every blue bloom I could for Father's house and then Ella brought white roses, so his colors were blue and white for the new year. But Wadsworth was in golden blooms, and he laughed to see a real old-fashioned marigold. Oh, I wish you could have been with us ! " Etta." One spirit communicator makes an assumed ob- jector to inquire, if he meant to assert that the spirit world is a world of land and water, rock and soil, mountains and valleys, sea and air and sky, trees, flowers, and the multitude of forms which go to make up the earth world? The reply was : " That is just what we do mean to say " ; and the caution was given not to be too hasty in jumping to the conclusion that such a statement was preposterous. " In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits." Now what shall we say to all this? Of course we shall be wide of the mark if we picture this objective world as of the coarse material order and with the gravitational attachments we are familiar with here. In the foregoing, we are dealing strictly with spirit substance, differing widely in properties from our 104 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT gross matter and yet allied to it, and with as positive reactions as we experience here. The spirit world in its reaction or resistance to sense will of course find its correspondences in bodies like unto it. It can be simply a matter of relativity. Such concrete presentations may come to one with something of a shock, they may seem such a human and ordinary treatment of the future state. But what kind of a heaven have we been led to expect, and have we seriously thought out the problem? Do we think of finding any naturalness and homelikeness in our surroundings over there, or any humanism in our friends? Or do we cherish a vague, transcendental notion that death upsets all continuity, and that our new surroundings will be utterly supernal, and that people over there are no longer folks as they were on earth? Dr. I. K. Funk in " The Widow's Mite," writes — u We are apt to think of a dead man as either henceforth a devil or an angel. But are we quite sure that we are right in believing that at death we are changed instantly into angels ? " And are we quite sure of a heaven utterly alien to earth and its familiar scenes, with an objective aspect, if any, supernatural and monotonous? It was some such kind of heaven, a heaven of fleecy clouds and halos and beatific visions that Mark Twain once carica- tured in case of a certain sea captain who after sail- ing across infinite space found it very boresome to sit on a cloud and thrum harp strings. It would seem that we need the freshening and humanizing spirit of naturalness breathed into all our concep- tions and imagery of the future for the sake of our rational and religious peace of mind. OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 105 We add that our objective surroundings here have been our necessary basis of expression; they have helped us in making character and in rendering serv- ice. And a highly refined objective world with a larger amplitude of correspondence will not do less but more in drawing us out on the educational lines begun here, and in affording points of contact and helpfulness with one another. We have had a won- derful objective life here; we cannot imagine it to be suddenly annihilated, and the soul to be isolated from all externals and withdrawn into itself. It may well be that life will become more subjective as it ascends to higher planes over there, but that an objective nature rich and abundant, refined and luminous, fur- nishes and beautifies and makes glorious the spiritual spheres, there is great body of testimony the reason- ableness of which we cannot doubt. SHALL WE INSIST ON DEMONSTRATION IN ALL THIS? There are minds that seem to wait for demonstra- tion of mathematical precision for this or any psy- chic truth. But we do not so wait and insist on the absolute with other great truths or in ordinary life. A great working law in practical life is the law of probabilities or presumptive evidence ; this is the rule we w T alk by. Of how few things in life has the in- finite Wisdom seen proper to give us proofs of scien- tific and mathematical preciseness? The saying is attributed to Tennyson that " Nothing worth believ- ing can be proven." Our highest convictions can- not be proven with geometric precision or by sense perception, yet the soul that has grown up to the 106 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT truth of them is not troubled with doubts. Do we have absolutely demonstrative evidence of the ether/ does it react upon the senses, and thrust itself upon the scientist at every turn as he seeks to exact a con- fession? Certainly not. We cannot weigh, or taste, or smell, or hear, or see the ether directly ; it is a most elusive and self-effacing substance, and yet it is in great demand. Both the world of spirit and the world of ether present themselves to us in a most rea- sonable way and bring recommendations of the high- est order. They both are an inevitable deduction from our present knowledge, and spirit especially forms a harmonious and beautiful mosaic of truth with things as we know them here and now. They do not come with credentials to satisfy our blind opposition, or our lack of interest and stupidity. But if we reach out toward them in a reasonable mood, if we are anxious to know about this resource- ful universe in which we live, the ether and the spirit world will meet us on our search and introduce them- selves convincingly. Jesus said unto Thomas — " Because thou hast seen me thou hast believed." But we realize better now how many things and how much of the universe lie about us that we do not see. As the heavens open up to us at night and the stars come out, bringing us the mystery and solemn beauty of endless space and new worlds, so if our spiritual vision were active, we should behold another world of more excellent glory and not far distant, lying about us and over our loved ones. A glorious sunset we claim rightfully as a gateway into the invisible. As suddenly the long slanting OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 107 light rays are broken up into their prismatic colors and the clouds are transfigured, how plainly it flashes a message to our souls as we look on in wonder. Up in the dull sky, with the light beginning to fade below, has suddenly come this glorious vision. It is a vision from the unseen showing us how one world may suddenly open up into another world, already present but hitherto unrevealed, and how eye hath not seen nor ear fully heard what lies beyond the veil. Why are not the claims of the spirit world fully recognized and received in the folds of orthodoxy and science? We may state first, that more and more the spirit world is forcing recognition here, as many eminent advocates of spirit philosophy in the church and scientific world clearly show. But it will be fair to make reply by asking — Was orthodoxy ever known to welcome new truths? Or has science even been forward in hospitality in according welcome to new disclosures especially of a mystical bearing? The attitude of orthodoxy and to some extent that of science toward the strikingly new (see Le Bon), may be well likened to the management of a certain newspaper, which it was said never published any news until it was well known by everybody. SPIRIT TESTIMONY AND THE SPIRIT SPHERES In this testimony to a surrounding spirit world, a reference is in place here as to the spiritual spheres so called. And in the nature of the case, we must look for evidence from the spirit world as to the spir- itual infolding and overlaying of our earth, and as to the extension and outreaching of that world into the unknown and illimitable regions beyond. The direct 108 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT witness here is of course our spirit friends ; and look- ing upon us they may well say as did the early apos- tles — " For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." There seems to be a gen- eral consensus of agreement among spirit witnesses, that our planet is environed by a series of spiritual abodes or worlds one beyond the other (not above, for strictly speaking there is no above only beyond). These spirit worlds are spoken of as spheres, at times as belts or zones or spirit planets consisting of ethe- real or spiritual substance, and as encircling our earth something like the rings around the planet Saturn. These spheres are fixed in their relation to our planet and revolve around with it, thus showing a certain gravitational attachment — which by the way we might anticipate if spirit substance is a sub- limated form of earth matter. These spheres are described as extending from above or beyond our atmosphere far into the ethereal regions, and as be- coming more rarefied and refined until they blend with the spheres of other planets. " If we could go to the outermost circle of this wonderful system of worlds of progressive life, we should undoubtedly find ourselves coming in touch with the outermost etherealized condition of some of the grand and beautiful planets which are moving along their course in space." [Spirit, John Pier- pont.] We are told there is no line of demarcation between the spirit habitations, but one merges into another by degrees, inappreciably, so that they form a har- monious whole surpassing all description on the part of spirit or comprehension on the part of mortal. OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 109 " I went out to the next sphere, not so far away by distance but opening like a transformation scene in the theater or like the outlines of some mountain show- ing through the mist." There seems to be more or less of free interchange in passing from one sphere or condition to another, and yet there are certain natural and spiritual limitations inherent in the na- ture of the spirit world and spirit body and the on- ward progress of the soul. And so subtly interre- lated are embodiment and soul over there, and so expressive a mirror is the body of soul, that the spirit body itself seems to be a determining factor in a harmonious home. There is frequent reference to the third sphere or country beyond our atmosphere, which seems to be a natural home for the normally developed spirit. From this sphere there seems to be more or less ready access to the regions directly beyond and also to the earth plane itself, though in cases with a sense of dis- comfort and oppression. In the borderland region between the physical and the spiritual, we are told there are many undeveloped and earth-bound spirits, who are affiliated to the gross life of the earth in their bodies and desires and aspirations, and who will have to work out the salvation with fear and trembling which they failed to work out here. In " The Com- ing Science " Mr. Carrington gives an interesting ac- count of an old saloon converted into a dwelling- house, which was haunted by the former frequenters of this low resort. In particular, one low spirit gave the lady of the house much trouble, the nature of which for some time greatly puzzled her. There are outermost celestial spheres, which seem to be as be- 110 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT yond the range of our spirit friends over there as beyond our access here, and which would seem to require ages of progress in character and holiness to attain. These celestial illuminated spirits may be seen in the far distance, and they seem to have a guiding and controlling care of those nearer earth, as our spirit friends nearer earth have an angelic care over us. But to pass to a very high sphere, we are told, involves a change like passing out of our physical body here into the nearer world of spirit, for the first spirit body must be freed from grosser ele- ments and conditions before it can be harmonized with a more spiritual abode. The resurrection truth, so grandly expressed in I Corinthians 15, seems in the large sense to be a process of birth and refinement. But death as experienced here is of course utterly unknown in spirit. " And there shall be no more death." Moreover, we are given to understand that every planet in the universe of space inhabited by personal entities, has its own spiritual environment, which is designed as the next stage onward when these in- telligences have completed their physical experience. And generally speaking, the spirit world is the uni- verse itself, and stretches from planet to planet and sun to sun. And modern study of the ether, as we have seen, makes this very credible. There would, then, seem to be room enough. Have we not sometimes queried — Where is the room over there for the vast multitudes of earth of all the cen- turies and lands as numberless as the sands of the sea? In the spirit teaching given, that question is fairly solved. It goes without saying, there is endless > OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 111 room in an endless universe. In the case of the spirit domain contiguous to our own planet, it must be enormously spacious. We have only to consider the enormous disproportion existing between the size of the planets and their distances from the sun and each other, and with this the immense surface area of the spirit spheres. Prof. Young (" Lessons in Astron- omy") estimates that our earth is like a pea re- volving around a globe two feet in diameter at a distance of 215 feet. It is even stated that the amount of matter in the cosmos may be considered almost infinitesimally small compared with the endless stretches of ether-filled space. " And yet there is room." I will here insert, as in a degree illustrative of the different spiritual spheres, three spirit messages (the first two now published for the first time) which I consider thoroughly trustworthy. " My dear friends : " I was sure there was a way to return and let you know how we survived the great change. If Jesus Christ returned as the Bible says, I knew it must be a truth that all could do so. I have not been here long, but it is a glorious country as far advanced from earth , as you can conceive. It is not working for money here, but for being the kindest and best-hearted and helping the most. This is a real golden rule world, and I love to live in it. It seems worth while to have passed through earth to find harbor so cheerful and hopeful. [S. N., June 22, '98.] " I have been permitted to listen to the inspirations which have been given through sensitive spirits here by those inhabiting far-off spheres. And while all are in- structive, seeming to come from holy minds, there is 112 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT the same well-guarded secret as to God. Beautiful be- yond description was the language of one spirit who purported to come from a sphere of holiness. . . . There are those who are permitted to enter a pure sphere, but they never tarry, they are as restless as the ocean. What is supreme happiness to the inhabitants of a pure atmosphere, is not so to those not advanced so far. " Father Ambrose. " But we need another testimony to close this brief transcript of the spirit spheres and life therein, not concerning the normal or the highest and holiest, but the lowest ranges. The extracts following are from a remarkable message published in the " Harbinger of Light," Melbourne, on a visit of Mr. W. T. Stead to the places of darkness or prison houses of the spirit world. If we have followed the accounts of Mr. Stead, the spirit personality, in " My Father " and elsewhere, we may reasonably hold that his rich communicative powers did not cease with his " hasty death in the bitter sea." And no better sermon could be given in our churches on the reaping of evil than this article thrilling with life and profound earnestness. " It is not all joy, all delight in this wonderful land. Let me assure you that 'there are hells over here. . . . Do not think that any earthly rank — pope, cardinal, emperor, king, or potentate of any kind — any earthly possessions whatever can give immunity from the law of justice and love over here. Good as it has been to write about the surpassing beauty, the ineffable joy encircling those who have lived up to their highest ideals, it is just as important OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 113 for the world to know of the hells awaiting depraved souls. They are simply filled with horror and dis- may at finding the result of evil deeds. . . . But there is no eternal punishment, which is a monstrous fallacy -- — one of the cruelest and most wicked dog- mas that ever darkened the souls of mankind." He speaks of the blasphemy of ecclesiastical remission of sins and its fettering of the soul, and adds — " It is one of the immutable laws of the universe that each soul must and can only grow from within." He dwells upon the insensate madness of war, and of the thousands hurried over there dazed and unfit for spiritual life. . . ." It was my privilege to speak to some of these outcast spirits. As Christ went to speak to the spirits in prison, I reminded them that each of them could be a Christ." " Be not deceived, God is not mocked ; for whatso- ever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." DIFFICULT TO CONCEIVE OF SPIRIT ADAPTATIONS It is a difficulty associated with the reactions of spirit and the law of gravitation. And the diffi- culty of course inheres in our material besetment and conditions here, and long experience therein. In " Ivanhoe," when the Saracen was told by the cru- sader, that in the north country water became hard so that one could walk over it, the story was looked upon as a monstrous assertion. We cannot well transcend our experience, but careful study of the problem may remove the unreasonable elements. As our son, Walter, said to us from the other side, " One has to come over in order to know." Or as 114 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT another communicator remarked — " Spirit can un- derstand spirit, but not mortal." Dr. Savage in his book, " Does Telepathy Explain? " states that spirit friends informed him, it was impossible to give com- prehensive descriptions of their present state of being. Here is the exceeding refinement of spirit. Its high vibratory potential places it in our invisible range, which adds of course greatly to our sense of unreality. And we are still affected no doubt by the age-long assumption that the flesh-and-blood condi- tion is the only real existence, and an earth of rock and soil that forcibly reacts upon us is the only sub- stantial world. This idea is lodged in us through a long physical experience, and it can be dislodged only through wider knowledge. There is the old notion that spirit is weak and powerless, the idea of the shade is still with us, that spirit is no longer capable of active assertion like the workman with his strong muscles. But how short- sighted! In the nature of things, it would seem that spirit cannot well act upon matter or only to an extent ; but that spirit can deal intimately and power- fully with spirit, even to a far greater and more subtle degree than we can act upon matter we have every reason to believe. ' In truth, the potentialities of body and spirit are the reverse of all our short-sighted and antiquated notions. Here, " Change and decay in all around I see." Our bodies are in constant flux, their tissues are decomposed and renewed incessantly till the proc- ess ends in dissolution. " We all do fade as a leaf." But while the flesh body is so highly unstable and subject to reactions of heat and cold, we can by no OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 115 means so conceive of the spirit body. In the first place, it survives the destruction of the flesh ; and its substance we must conceive as primordial, ethereal, irreducible, incorruptible. Accounts agree that the psychic form has more or less admixture of earthy substance and dross when it passes over, but from this clogging matter the spirit may purge itself. It is clear the spirit body cannot be subject to the con- ditions and chemical changes of the old body. De- lanne concludes that, " Neither the heat of burning suns nor the freezing cold of infinite space can affect the incorruptible substance of the true spirit body." Then the problem of gravity faces us. Do we real- ize how the law and experience of gravity is a part of us, how it is interwoven into our entire life, present in every movement we make, in every step we take, and in all manifold observations of things about us ? Matter is well defined as that which has gravity or weight and fills space. And so all our endless as- sociations with substance and form are associations with gravity, the two are inseparable and well-nigh inconceivable without each other. We have ceased to wonder at the downward pull, and have come to re- gard it as an essential attribute of all forms. " But," says one, (D'Alembert), " it is not without reason that philosophers are astonished to see a stone fall, and those who laugh at their astonishment would soon share it themselves, if they would reflect on the subject." Some forms of matter, as iron and lead, have great weight because they have great density, but some rarefied forms are so little affected by the down- ward pull that they are buoyed up by the atmosphere, as an overspreading bank of clouds or the swarming 116 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT invisible dust motes. It is only a step farther to more sublimated and refined emanations, more allied to the ether, which would not be affected by the pull of gravity or only in a slight degree. The world of ether is an imponderable world, and the world of spirit substance as intermediate between matter and ether, would seem to approximate the imponderability of the ether on the one hand, and still as ultimate matter re- tain a slight gravitational attachment to the earth. And this is the claim made for the world of spirit. " We are justified in conceiving," says Delanne, " that matter may exist in a state so rarefied that its molecular movements would liberate it completely from the influence of terrestrial gravitation. The absence of the heavy and oppressive gravities of earth is what we would naturally expect in the spiritual world, and therein doubtless will be found an advantage, a freedom and movement and power we can only faintly conceive in our present stage. In the Hibbert Journal, July, '11, Sir Oliver Lodge writes : " Nor need all grades of intelligence be clothed in matter or inhabit the surface of a planet. That is the kind of existence with which we are now familiar truly, and anything beyond that is for the most part supersensuous, but our senses are con- fessedly limited." He who holds up and holds to- gether the Pleiades, and girds Orion with a band, and has put our earth to spinning and whirling in an orbit, and has ringed Saturn with his belts, and canopied the sky with clouds, and holds all things in their places from the whirling atom to suns; has also ensphered our planet home and doubtless count- less other planets with their spiritual counterparts, OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 117 making our orbital system and the sidereal S3'stem itself, we are told, a spiritual universe. IT WOULD SEEM TO BE ALTOGETHER FITTING THAT THE SPIRIT WORLD SHOULD BE RELATED TO OUR MOTHER EARTH In the eternal fitness of things, what could be more reasonable in any orderly succession than that we should find ourselves in due time in a spiritual world vitally belonging to our dear mother earth — in a new spiritual earth? What could better meet the needs of the soul in its natural and orderly develop- ment than an environment that is a spiritual repro- duction and counterpart of this former stage of ex- istence with many higher and unique possibilities of its own? And what could be more fitting in senti- ment ? Here we have had our experiences with physi- cal conditions, our lower training, we have countless associations and memories of this earth home and ties that bind. What seems then the more in order — that we should take a sudden and everlasting farewell of everything savoring of earth, or that in various ways we should retain some connection with the home of our beginnings? And this vital connection we would look for in a spiritual alliance and similitude of worlds, and in spirit return to friends and the scenes of our childhood stage. The soul in its on- ward progress may be weaned from the earth in time, and the earth itself may be dissolved, but we cannot think the old home, the birth-place, will be utterly forgotten even in that larger spiritual universe which remains and abides forever. This earthly sphere is as near to God as any of Dante's planets or any of the countless suns that swing in space, and its 118 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT vicinity we would consider as much more homelike. Let us then rid ourselves of the ancient notion that the world of spirit is utterly disrupted from our present order and dwelling-place. Let us also rid ourselves of the notion that there is one enormous Miltonic heaven, impossible of location, which is the common receptacle of souls from all worlds. To say the least, it would not conduce to home feeling to be switched off so far into the infinite depths as to lose all our bearings and to cause the familiar con- stellations and celestial waymarks overhead to lose all configuration. The Bible gives many intimations of the proximity of an interested and guiding spirit world — intima- tions clothed more or less in supernatural garb. The priestly prohibition of communion with the dead tended no doubt to that uncertainty and scepticism of the future life so apparent in the Old Testament; so the many intimations of spirit return from Gene- sis to Revelation are the more ingenuous and eviden- tial as pointing to real incursions here and there from the spirit world. There is something back of these angel stories. * We may add that the guidance and guardianship of our angel friends as far as we are responsive is one of the most assuring and certified tenets of spirit philosophy. Dr. Savage considers that a good deal of " Special Providence " finds its explanation on the human side in multiplied and well-attested in- stances of spirit ministry. It is interesting to lay aside our predilections derived from Jewish angel- ology and make a little psychic inquiry ourselves. OBJECTIVITY OF SPIRIT WORLD 119 " Are they not all ministering spirits ? " " The angel of the lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them." " For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways." " Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" "And it came to pass that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom." The terms " angel " and " man " are interchangeable. " And Cornelius said, at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and be- hold, a man stood before me in bright clothing." " And they said unto her, Thou are mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel." " And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment." CHAPTER VIII HISTORIC APPROACH TO THE SPIRIT BODY " For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." In the way of orderly succession, let us supple- ment the historic approach to the spirit world by a brief historic approach to the spiritual body. The spiritual body as we now conceive it in its refinement and power and origin, is the development of a long philosophical and spiritualizing process. The old in- quiry — " With what body do they come?" — has received varying answers and vast argumentation. As we glance over the ground — What resurrection philosophies have sought to justify themselves here, and have labored hard to fill this seeming gap in the economy of our embodiment ! The question is to the point. The soul, " the spark in the clod," must of course have a new body as the old clod is dissolved. ALIEN LOOK OF SPIRIT BODY But the new body has seemed to be outside of range and observation, and so the supernatural and tran- scendent have been invoked to a large degree in this persistent and noble effort to rehabilitate the soul. The result is, the spiritual body has long had an alien and far-away look. Taking certain theories of the past and present, it has seemed to us like a strange 120 HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 121 visitor out of the unknown in the manner of the New Jerusalem let down from heaven. It is a stranger with no origin or ancestry to speak of, and hardest of all to reconcile in this unifying age, it represents no vital personal expression of our life and organ- ism that we can understand. Such a spirit body has a strangely artificial look, it seems to be called up out of the void to meet a case of opportunism, it is apocalyptic in its wonder and out of joint with life. The author of that interesting book, " The Christian Hope," — Dr. Brown of Union Seminary — writes thus of the situation (page 96): "It is not strange that there should be many in our day who find in the doctrine of the resurrection a cause of serious perplexity. Some put it aside altogether as belonging to a world of thought which they have outgrown. Others hold the fact, but without clear understanding." And all this, we have to conclude, has been due to real or seeming lack of material and orderly vision, the universe has seemed to furnish scant material and scant room for such a body. RESURRECTION IDEAS OF PAUL AND HIS TIME Let us go back to Paul and especially Paul's world for a moment. And first of all, we owe to Paul a great debt of gratitude that in an age of such crude ideals and outlooks, he spiritualized the future em- bodiment and rescued it from the bare and unpro- gressive materialism of Jewish and Egyptian thought. If one believed in a resurrection at all in those times, he believed as a matter of course in the reunion of the risen spirit with the body, for this was the only resur- 122 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT rection that seemed worth while. Without the physical organism, existence seemed aimless and hopeless. For the soul was not the man, that was like a thin shadow with a thin, piping voice, the real man was the body. Now with Paul the resurrection was a matter of vision. His own vision of the risen Christ in the spiritual body, and the profound spir- itual refining of his own nature, prepared him to see the physical in its true order and limitations and to exalt the spiritual body to a transcendent plane of power and glory. " Now this I say, brethern, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God : " this was a great contention with Paul in opposition to the crude short-sightedness of his time, this was his great contribution to the resurrection. THE UNDERWORLD But Paul, with all his spiritual insight, could not be expected to wholly free himself from the influence of contemporary thought and his rabbinical training. He must needs show his human quality as a man of his age. We are on the quest for the spirit body, and this must take us a little farther into the thought world of Paul's time, and especially the underworld. In fact, one needs to live in that underworld for a period, to roam through its gloomy recesses with JEneas and Ulysses, in order to fix it in the back- ground of one's mind, and to be fully impressed with the Old Testament viewpoint and the underlying thought of the New Testament. In Hebrew, Greek, and Roman thought, we know that all souls went down into this vast cave of the underworld where they were held captive by death, so straitened was HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 123 this old world to find a suitable home for the soul. Life in the underworld, we learn, was a shadowy, un- desirable existence, and even to the Hebrew it was a land of darkness, and emptiness, where those that went down into silence praised not the Lord (Psalm 115: 17). "There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol whither thou goest." THE HEBREWS DEVELOPED A RISING-UP FROM THE UNDERWORLD But here where the Greek and Roman mind lacked in vision and saw no deliverance, it remained for the Hebrews, the world's teachers in religion, to develop under national trial and suffering the noble idea of a rising up again from Sheol of the faithful Jews, at the appearing of their great deliverer, the Messiah. Such would be reclothed with their bodies, share in the judgment of the nations, and in the glory of the Messianic kingdom upon the earth. And though mixed with much dross, this vision held a great divine and prophetic element. Now Paul had been schooled in this eschatology of his time. And when he refined the Jewish idea and transferred it to the Christian scheme, he evidently means the rising up again from this underworld, from Sheol, hades, the prison house of the dead, or the condition of the dead. This gives the word, resurrection, its full con- tent of meaning. The writer of I Peter states that Christ went and preached to these spirits in prison, and Paul plainly held that Christ broke the bands of death and gave a demonstration that death can- not hold men captive, and thus became the first fruits of them that slept. " When he ascended up 124 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth" (Eph. 4:8-9). " O death, where is thy sting? O hades, where is thy victory? " PAUL'S HOUSE FROM HEAVEN But how and when does the spiritual body come in in Paul's magnificent exposition of the rising up? Now Paul had little use for the old body, he distinctly implies that the body which is buried is not to be raised, and it is not clear that he signifies any vital connection between the two. The principle of life in the wheat finds a new body in the plant, but we can hardly press this symbol more than to indicate that to the soul also God will give a new body as it pleaseth him. But Paul could not raise up the spirit and leave it unclothed, that would be a poor and in- effective resurrection indeed, somehow and some- where suitable clothing must be provided. Paul had not heard of psychic research, and the suggestions and constructive potencies of the ether of space were not in his line or for his day. And here is where Paul felt the necessity of falling back upon the thought forms of his time, and he found at hand a fruitful suggestion in the Jewish doctrine of heavenly patterns. The spiritual body must be reserved in heaven unto the appointed time of its revealing. " For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 125 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven." The tabernacle and the temple and all their fur- nishings were constructed strictly according to heav- enly patterns, which gave to them a peculiar sanctity. " See that thou make all things according to the pat- tern shown to thee in the mount." Jerusalem was the copy of a holier and heavenly city prepared by God to be the home of the saints. And so the spir- itual body would be revealed from heaven, and the waiting souls in Sheol be resurrected and reclothed at the triumphant second advent of the Messiah in that generation. The heavenly pattern, like and yet un- like the spiritual counterpart, was a philosophical speculation of Paul's time, and it gave to him a sense of reality which it is far indeed from having for us. And the lack of reality is due to the fact that the heavenly pattern is disjointed from the earthly existence and impersonal to it. "For of the soul the body form doth take, For soul is form, and doth the body make. ,, A WORD ON MIRACLE Nevertheless, Paul gives us a wonderful approach to the spiritual body. In brief, we may state his philosophy as the resurrection of the unclothed spirit from the sleep-like existence of the underworld, its reclothing in a spiritual body reserved in heaven, and the transformation of the bodies of the living " in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump." It is wonderful what Paul did with his material at hand, but we note that when the exigency seemed to de- 126 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT mand, he could easily in that apocalyptic and un- critical age fall back upon the supernatural. The miracle-loving instinct had large scope in Paul's world, but our world is one of scientific method, and natural causations, and vital and unifying relations. The inevitable conclusion of our time is that the im- manence of God in his universe tends to make mira- cle superfluous, and that miracle ensues as the natural result of the externalization of God. Because we be- lieve in God in the midst of His works, we believe in a vital, inner process of reclothing the soul dependent upon the inherent, provisional powers of nature. An outside process depends upon an outside God. It is held that we can comprehend spiritual things with- out the startling accompaniments of violated law; and we may hold that all the furnishings demanded in the career of the soul will come not in apocalyptic marvels but in the natural order. " And so no more our hearts shall plead For miracle and sign, Thy orcler and thy faithfulness Are all in all divine/ ' MODERN PROGRAMS OF THE RESURRECTION As for modern programs of the resurrection, we know how they have partaken of the nature of Jew- ish and Pauline eschatology with additions of their own. The gradual elimination of the underworld, and the substitution of a grave resurrection for an underworld resurrection, served to perpetuate the crude original idea of a body rising, for there was nothing to rise from the grave but the body. This necessitated a larger element of the miraculous than HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 127 Paul made use of, involving as it did the utterly in- conceivable reunion of the scattered and transformed particles of the body into a vital whole, and then its spiritualization. How persistent was the hold of this idea, one has only to read the inscriptions on the me- morial tablets of our cemeteries down to the middle of the last century, or the running chapter title in the A. V. over I Corinthians 15 — " The resurrection of the body " — still to be seen. Of the later theories, we need notice but one — the putting on of some kind of an unknown body at death that shall serve as a make-shift for the soul's tenancy through an inter- mediate state, and the assumption of the real resur- rection body at some spiritual disclosure in the fu- ture. But it need hardly be said that this later ac- commodation is distinctly Jewish in its derivation and development, and that the primal idea of the rising- up has been entirely lost. " LET US HEAR THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER" We conclude that a great vital, divine truth is never lost, though it fails to find an adequate and permanent expression from age to age. The form may serve its purpose in the divine economy and pass away or the dross therein, but the informing soul, the truth itself shall live forever. The resurrection was the natural form this truth of persistent life ne- cessitated for the early church, but the truth is greater than all resurrection speculations that have gathered around it. But we conclude also that our quest so far after the spiritual body has failed. No one knows " whence it cometh nor whither it goeth." 128 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT All pre-arranged embodiments patterned after the Messianic apocalyptic lamentably fail to satisfy crit- ical analysis or to bring lasting conviction. The mysticism of a reclothing at some undefined stage after death, seems too much like a labored effort to save the face of the Jewish end-of-the-world resur- rection. We acknowledge the service of the resur- rection doctrine in relating past generations to the future life, but the archaic symbol has been preserved too long in the interest of veneration, and we may now justly pronounce it as one of the most Judaistic, artificial, unscientific, disjointed, and fluctuating of all dogmas. Dr. Brown in his able work acknowl- edges at this point — " It is difficult to go farther if we would " ; and other theological writers of our time ignore the subject of the resurrection and treat simply of the future life. The situation seems to be this : We believe in the spiritual body, but we have no longer any theory of it, there seems to be no ma- terial for it,, and our notions of space and residence give it no room in the universe. WHY NOT LOOK FOR THE SPIRITUAL BODY IN THE NATURAL ORDER? Does not the collapse of all resurrection theories and body substitutes and metaphysical subtleties, suggest, not the loss of the vital truth, but some striking and radical defect in this age-long search? And may we not well ask ourselves if this defect is not due to the failure to bring the spiritual body out of the inherited thought form of the apocalyptic into the natural order? May not the truth be so vital, and personal, and close at hand, and interwoven with HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 129 our present existence that it has been largely over- looked? What if the spirit body and the spirit world be like the moral imperative in their nearness? " Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven or who shall descend into the deep? But the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine heart." No wonder the situation is discomposing, and many minds take an agnostic attitude. It is certainly high time that the spirit habiliment was shorn of its long-time crude and devitalized treat- ment, and a return made to the open-minded and cre- ative spirit which the genius of Paul gave to it in his day. If Paul were among us toda}^ who can doubt that with his power of creative appropriation he would utilize all the light of the science and re- search of our day without fear or prejudice in fur- ther illuminating his great discussion in I Corinthians 15? We must frankly admit that the word, " resur- rection," has lost its ancient content, its Hebrew and medieval meaning; we can use it now only by way of accommodation. What we need, imperatively, is to recognize the vital union and interaction between the future spirit embodiment and the present, its nat- ural growth and development, its constructive re- sponse to the physical, intellectual, moral, and re- ligious life of the individual. We have great reason to believe that death is a real birth of the spirit body into the spirit world — as much of a birth as our entry into this physical world. Both take nour- ishment and growth from their environment, both emerge into a new world for a new life, and both are illustrative of the law that it is the province of all life to provide its own body. Both belong to the 130 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT great natural order and resistless movement of life; only what men have mistakenly and pessimistically' called death is life, birth into a new and larger world. THE SOUL INSEPARABLE FROM A SPIRIT ENVELOPE Let us note further. Psychic Science may be said to show that the soul does not exist as an ideal, im- material entity. But the soul or thinking Ego, the divine spark or flame, is evidently inseparable from a certain envelope or embodiment of refined and ordi- narily invisible material. This subtile body is spoken of by some psychic writers as the perisprit, the around-the-spirit (peri, around, and spiritus, spirit). The sanctuary of our inner being seems to be as in- accessible and well-guarded as the secret of God. It may be premature to cite spirit testimony here, but it may help to clearness: "Wherever the spirit is incarnated, it is always associated intimately with the perisprit-, which is more or less ethereal according to the condition of moral advancement of the spirit. So that for us the idea of spirit is inseparable from that of a form of some sort, we cannot conceive the spirit without it. The perisprit forms an integral part of the spirit." Between the spirit and this inner rarefied envelope there seems to be the closest connection. It would seem that the spirit cannot individualize or manifest without it, and it is especially difficult to see how it could preserve continuity and escape diffusion with- out this protection. The nature of the soul is be- yond us, in its source we hold it to be an individual- ized expression of the infinite Life, but when we HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 131 conceive of the soul as thus set apart we must have a vehicle — and a stable vehicle. We cannot conceive of the soul as naked, as unclothed upon in any crisis of its career. This gross physical body may fit it for the temporary training of this phase of existence, but if the soul is constituted and endowed for im- mortality there must be some vehicle of transition when the old body is shed. We know that theology has assumed, perforce, that at the crisis of death, the unclothed spirit will receive some kind of a body awaiting the resurrec- tion. But where does this suddenly exigent body come from? Is it manufactured on the demand of an emergency? The notification must be extremely short in the case of the many bodies dismembered by explosions in this present explosive war. How is the essence of the soul to escape dissipation into chaos in such an instantaneous exigency? Is it possible that we have a disruption here, and in the highest life of the world? Is it possible that the evolution- ary forethought which is so conspicuous elsewhere in the scheme of life has failed -here at the highest point? Or shall we give up all thinking here and content ourselves with falling back upon the easy supernat- uralism of Paul's time? But this is only a part of the difficulty when we premise the spirit in man as pure incorporeal es- sence. The embodiment is the register of the soul, of its struggles and attainments and aspirations ; it is a character impression and growth. But what personal element, what life history do we have in a body which we put on as we put on a new suit of clothes ? And what becomes of the treasures of mem- 132 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT ory connected with the old body which relate life in continuity and unity? What becomes of the impres- sions registered upon the brain when this plastic receiver is dissolved? Does not the materialist have the advantage in claiming that the records are scat- tered and lost? Two conceptions of the soul have contributed largely to a disbelief in the future life one that the soul is a function of the nervous system, the other that it is an immaterial essence which at death would seem to resolve back by the loss of in- dividuality into the All of things. But suppose that most intimately interpenetrating this fleshly organism we have the subtile spirit form, a necessary intermediary in the reactions of the spirit upon the outer form and in shaping it and preserving its identity, then the easily-conceivable dissipation of the psychic energy with the loss of memory's treasures is at least no longer easily-conceivable. Suppose that iji these vital correspondences of nature the brain has its spirit counterpart, then we have a natural and rational basis for a far deeper and more permanent registering and for the preservation of the records of our mental life. Instead of a ma- terialistic we have a spiritualistic view of life, for man is already a spirit entity and does not become such in some incomprehensible way at death. It goes without saying that Spiritualism has always empha- sized this view of man — that man is by nature trip- artite, consisting of body, soul, and spirit; and the testimony of psychic science is also emphatic here. Trance phenomena can find no reasonable explana- tion except on the ground of this interior spirit body, which in trance vacates the organism (though main- HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 133 taining vital connection), while re-possession is es- tablished more or less and the brain controlled by the spirit intermediary. We may add in brief that the existence of the psy- chic enswathement as a constant accompaniment of the spirit is affirmed in many ways — by spirit com- munications; by the minute descriptions of clairvoy- ant mediums ; by photographs as those attested by Alfred Russell Wallace; by materializations of vari- ous degrees from a simple vision to a concrete form which can walk and talk and act upon matter; and in a wonderfully convincing way by hypnotic ex- periments like those conducted by De Rochas, Dr. Baraduc, etc. (" Evidences for a Future Life." Part II.) De Rochas, it is asserted, succeeded in es- tablishing the objectivity of the luminous aura, that these emanations from the body are of variable col- ors, and most remarkable of all he caused the mag- netic or spirit body of the hypnotized subject to ex- teriorize and manifest as an apparition. We have only room to summarize here ; the reader is referred to the detailed experiments. Finally that the spirit in the living body as well as the spirit of the de- parted can manifest as an apparition has long been thoroughly attested. (" More than two thousand well-attested cases now exist of such apparitions of the living.") There are many reliable cases on record where the inner fluidic body or double frees itself temporarily from the physical body. Among the cases mentioned by Delanne, there is an interesting account of a young French engraver who in the evening was seized with a strange lassitude. He felt giddy and 134 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT suddenly found himself transported from a reclining posture to the middle of the room. At first he thought of a dream, but felt that no dream was ever so intensely real, in fact he felt an unusual sense of reality. Then the idea presented itself that he was dead. Looking at his body or what he thought his corpse, he saw it breathing and was surprised to find he was able to see the interior of his chest and his heart beating feebly. He thought the lamp too near the bed and touched the lever of the extinguisher to put it out, but found that pull as he might with his fingers he made no impression upon it. He stood in front of the mirror, but found that he saw through the mirror, and through the wall into the adjoining room which though dark was in a measure illuminated by a ray of light from his person. The idea oc- curred to him to penetrate this room which was va- cant at the time. No sooner willed, than he found himself through the partition and in the apartment, he knew not how. He inspected the room and fixed the details in his mind, and the titles of some books in the library. He finally returned to the body and woke up stiff and cold in the morning lying on the sofa. He had never before been in the neighboring room, and finding an excuse to enter the next day he found the furniture, the pictures, and the titles of the books exactly as he had noted in his strange visit in the spirit. Delanne considered this a clear case of the exteri- orization of the ego, showing that the fluidic double or spirit body possessing a definite form, has the power of passing through material objects, and of transporting itself at will, and that its vision is more HISTORIC APPROACH TO SPIRIT 135 penetrating than in the normal state. He adds: " This inability to operate upon solid matter is a difficulty common to all discarnate spirits, but it can be overcome by an energy drawn from material bod- ies." Usually such experiences are much less vivid and impress the brain faintly. But there is another question that needs to be noted here in passing. WITH WHAT KIND OF A BODY DID THE RISEN CHRIST COME? Did he come with the supernaturally reanimated physical body as past centuries have held, or with the natural spiritual body? The contradictory and supernatural accounts in the gospels have led to some extreme views — from the rejection of their historic value as by Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt, to the theory of Mr. Brierly of a deep spiritual impression pro- duced upon the minds of the disciples. But one theory is needlessly radical, and the other too tenu- ous. Now the best thought of our time points to the reappearance as in the spiritual body. The first recorded appearance of Christ was to Paul, and if we do not refine this away to a subjective impression, it was unmistakably in the spirit embodiment. And we have every reason to believe, and psychic research abundantly sustains the belief, that such was the manner of his other appearances, naturally more or less misinterpreted especially with lapse of time, and embodied in two contradictory accounts in the gos- pels. Dr. Brown (1912) plainly holds this view — that Christ re-appeared in his spiritual body, that the testimony of Paul, the first witness, tends to 136 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT confirm this, and that in the gospel stories of the rising we have the interweaving of two traditions, an earlier and a modified later. " But some doubted." What could this mean but that the awesome impres- sion created in the minds of the beholders left some of them in doubt what the actuality was that lay behind this glimpse from the unseen ? " And their eyes were opened, and they knew him ; and he van- ished out of their sight." It is to the credit of Dr. Brown that in taking leave of the spiritual body, he could make such a significant inquiry as this : " Has matter wider pos- sibilities than our senses have yet been able to dis- cover, and must we conceive of the new body as phys- ical, though of an organization as much finer than that of the present body as the air is than the liquid into which extreme cold is able to precipitate it? " Let us have the truth of the spirit body, if not its demonstration ^at least its altogether presumptive evidence, even if the traditionalist fears it may give comfort and support to Spiritualism. If we have a real passion for the truth here, and are moved by something of the irrepressible spirit of this long search, and are conscious of a great and pressing burden of necessity for more light to shine into this valley and shadow of death, we shall lay aside our complacent prepossessions and gladly welcome the truth from any source the universe has to offer. CHAPTER IX IS THERE A WORD FURTHER ON THE ORIGIN AND DERIVATION OF SPIRIT? We are not looking for completeness of material which only the future can bring, but we want evi- dence and indications at least that have some ex- planatory value and that seem to fit well into the great scheme of things about us. An important witness to a truth is its harmony with the scheme of the universe. Now the human mind has always been intensely attracted and exercised in the search for origins, but there is no origin of equal importance if only for a reasonable and tentative acceptance, as this origin of spirit. And leaving behind apocalyptic creations, and divine fiats in world-making and dra- matic mythical origins, the great conviction remains that the natural order is flexible and comprehensive enough to include all origins and worlds. The method of the unknown and the unseen is the exten- sion of the method of the known and the seen. If the physical world with its infinite life has come into being through a divine order of unfolding, one stage anticipating and preparing the way for another, what more reasonable than to assume a spirit order of unfoldment by like natural and vital processes? Thoughtful people accustomed to work out their spiritual as well as other problems, find persuasive 137 138 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT power in an explanation that explains on orderly lines. It would seem that great truths often come to us in this way, first a sudden glimpse, a faint prophecy of the true order, then a sense of " everlast- ing fitness " and its incorporation into our thoughts as we perceive more and more its relations to all truth. Shall we think of spirit as a derivation by some refinement process from related matter? We can hardly fail to see that there is a strong trend of thought in this direction, at least in regard to the natural and vital connection of the spirit body with the physical body, and by analogy and extension this will hold true of the spirit world as bordering, enfold- ing, and enlarging our earth world. It may well be that when our eyes are opened, we shall recognize that our sphere is larger than we had assumed, and that the coarse material globe is only the core of a derivative and. vastly larger spiritual globe which has not yet come within our powers of observation. We have seen the moon surrounded with a soft, re- splendent halo, seemingly extending far into space ; may not this be a symbol of a great reality ? There seems to be increasing evidence that there is a spirit- ual side to the universe, not only in a theological but scientific sense. Our earth has its spiritual counter- part and refines away into a spiritual planet, and what is true of our planet is said to be true of other planets ; and from spirit accounts there seem to be ethereal waves from the sun, not visible to earthly eye, that illumine and irradiate the spirit world with an indescribably soft and brilliant effulgence. A large literature in radio-activity has developed IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 139 since Madame Curie's historic experiments with ra- dium, and we are now familiar with the refining away or atomic disintegration of matter and its passing into the invisible. Some scientists like Le Bon take the ground that " electrons like a species of slow and invisible evaporation are probably given off in a con- tinuous manner by every material substance and dif- fused into surrounding space." And a long list of European scientists have been experimenting in the psychic realm and with hypnotism, and one result is most interesting that the external man is more than the flesh and blood body. The idea of emanations from physical substance organic and inorganic is becoming familiar. Not a few scientists in spite of hostile prepossessions and materialistic bias, have crossed the seeming gulf between matter and spirit. SOME OBSERVATIONS OF THE AURA AND FLUIDIC BODY Now it may take some time for nature's hints and even attested observations to find an assured foothold in the mind. But the facts seem to be that there is vitally connected with the physical body a psychic radiation or emanation. It is spoken of as the aura or t spirit atmosphere, or magnetic effluvium, or peri- sprit as we have seen, and when disengaged as the magnetic, fluidic, or spirit body, or double. This emanation is claimed to be directly connected with the nervous system, it seems to be a subtle streaming from the nerves ; and the all-pervasive and exceed- ingly responsive nervous tissue would certainly sug- gest such a source. The wonderful radiation of 140 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT nerves to all parts of the body for motor and sensory purposes, uniting all parts of the body into an or- ganism and controlling its functions, and resolving itself into such exceeding fineness — this magnetic master tissue of the body evidently brings us to the borderland of spirit. Observations, it is said, have often shown this exteriorization of nervous energy in neurasthenic patients, in cases of religious ecstasy and nervous dissociation, as a flickering halo about the head. It has been suggested that the martyr and saintly halo had its origin in this phenomenon. The aura, it is claimed, surrounds the person as a misty atmosphere or the perfume emanating from a flower; it is the magnetic envelope. And from the head, psychic experiments claim to show, there is evolved at times a globular misty mass termed the mental ball and connected by a vital ligament or lien to the body. The aura and mental ball have been photographed -by a radio-active process, and repro- ductions of the various bodily fluidic emanations with the mist-like perisprit have been given. (See experiments of De Rochas, Reichenbach, Baraduc, accounts by Delanne, Hampton's, 1909, etc.) " If the experiments of Reichenbach go for any- thing," says Mr. Carrington, " indeed there is very good evidence that such emanations take place." Reichenbach speaks of the magnetic effluvium as odylic force, and thus writes : " Human beings are luminous over nearly the whole surface, but espe- cially the hand, over the palm of the hand, the points of the fingers, the eye, certain parts of the head, the pit of the stomach, the toes, and so forth. Flaming emanations stream from all the points of the fingers, IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 141 of relative great intensity, and in a line with the length of the fingers." A scientific observer, Dr. Hitchman, has stated " that from the cavity beneath the chest of the me- dium where is located the nerve center called the solar plexus, and from the same spot in the material- ized form, there has been noted a stream of rays of light, connecting the two bodies and illuminating the face of the medium. This phenonemon has been often observed during materializations." It is well known that the substance which builds up the visible spirit form is derived from the body of the psychic ; and this is shown in the way of careful tests show- ing distinct loss of weight, at times several pounds, by the ps}^chic during the experiment. And the magnetic body it is also claimed by ex- periment has been found to possess a certain weight and strength, and chemical qualities, and luminous effects in Crookes' tubes, allying it to common mat- ter. De Rochas showed that to wound the magnetic body, set free by hypnotism, inflicted a similar wound on the corresponding part of the physical body. He termed this " the exteriorization of the sensibility." This would seem to show the most intimate and de- rivative connection of this transcending, subtile body with the nervous system. By hypnotism, it is as- serted, the interior magnetic body has been coaxed out of the flesh body and sent on errands, and strange incidents of this kind are related. In sleep, the spirit body partially emerges from the physical organism, and it is suggested the way is thus opened for the recharging of the nervous system. Mr. Carrington in his treatment of sleep and dreams states : " Clair- 142 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT voyant observation bears abundant testimony to the fact that when a man falls into deep slumber, the higher principles of the astral vehicle almost invari- iably withdraw from the body and hover in its im- mediate neighborhood." And in the trance state, which is deep or lethargic sleep, it may completely emerge, retaining its bodily connection through the magnetic cord. Did not Paul slip out of his phys- ical body in a certain great experience? (II Corin- thians 12:1-4.) Says Mr. Myers, who is certainly entitled to express himself with a note of authority here : " I claim that a spirit exists in man, and that it is healthy and desirable that this spirit should be thus capable of partial and temporary dissociation from the organism — itself enjoying an increased freedom and vision, and also thereby allowing some departed spirit to make use of the partially vacated organism for the sake of communicating with other spirits still incarnate on earth." Then it is well known that Psychic Research has detailed a great number of instances of apparitions of the living and the dead. Are these apparitions altogether hallucinations and telepathic visions, or are they ofttimes veritable objective manifestations? There are so many authenticated instances of psy- chic appearances in the research volumes " Phan- tasms of the Living " — the chapter on Apparitions in " The Widow's Mite," the Psychic Journals and elsewhere, that one has little excuse for not having a fair acquaintance with studies in this field. In the past, all such appearances have been complacently disposed of as superstition, but careful scientific in- IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 143 vestigation has given them a standing more respect- able and objective. And though in cases the ap- parition may be impersonal — the projected eidolon or simulacrum of the spirit, as Mr. Myers observes — there are undoubtedly many instances in which spirit presence is absolutely necessary for any plain and reasonable account. And there is a wide dif- ference between an hallucination or telepathic im- pression, and a spirit being more or less materialized and brought for a brief minute within our range of visibility. Alfred Russell Wallace states the follow- ing considerations which indicate the reality of the apparition: the fact that the apparition is sometimes seen by several persons at once; that the apparition produces impressions upon domestic animals ; that physical effects are produced by the apparition ; and that they can be photographed. It seems very evi- dent that psychic phenomena are not simple but varied and complicated, and can by no means be neatly classified under some simple conception forci- bly stretched to cover all things, as a few writers have ambitiously attempted. Truth has a way oft- times of transcending our pigeon-holes and creeds. We very briefly note the following thoroughly ac- credited and easily accessible accounts of spirit manifestation through spirit substance from " My Father " the closing chapter, and " The Widow's Mite," page 179, etc. Miss Stead describes how her father, W. T. Stead, was able to manifest himself in the family group to eye and ear through materi- alization of face, and with audible voice saying — "It is all true." Dr. I. K. Funk, the well-known editor and a friend of Mr. Beecher, gives a wonderful 144 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT account of how at a circle he saw the materialized face of the great preacher and conversed with him. " Sure enough there was the Beecher face, won- derfully life-like." . . . " Do you see my face clearly?" Mr. Beecher inquired. "It is with great difficulty that we come back into visible form. You have no adequate thought of the nature, the large- ness, and the complexity of the difficulties that must be surmounted by the spiritual world in order to re- turn in this way. ... I can no longer hold the force by which I have come — watch me closely." The image then disappeared, but before it sank out of sight a hand was placed upon Dr. Funk's shoulder. " The hand was substantial, very human." Mr. Beecher expressed an earnest desire to Dr. Funk that spirit communication might be so perfected that it should tend to lift the world out of materialism to a much higher plane. To dismiss such cases as these and other multiplied and accredited instances with a superior wave of the hand, shows at least little ap- prehension of the reality and substantiality of the spirit world. A most interesting account of materialized, after- death appearances is given in detail in the famous " Letters from Julia " by W. T. Stead. It was the spirit manifestation of Miss Julia Ames to her friend, Ellen, in fulfillment of a solemn covenant. I cite these few lines : " For some moments she stood there, smiling but silent. Ellen was too awe-struck to speak. The sudden and unmistakable fulfillment of the desire of her heart seemed to rob her of all faculty but that of feeling unspeakable joy. Then the figure slowly, almost imperceptibly dissolved IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 145 away, and Ellen was once more alone." She only saw the light in the place where she had been stand- ing. She saw her friend on two occasions quite dis- tinctly; it was no hallucination, she knew it was Julia. THE SUGGESTIVENESS OF ALL THIS The suggestiveness of all this is most apparent. It shows what strange and unsuspected potencies are hidden away in the outer organism, and how intelli- gent are these energies or rather how intelli- gently directed in their silent, unheeded work of up- building, and how the divine workmanship is revealed in power when the great emergency is at the door. It is simply another biological miracle, we might say, and yet a miracle only because it has not become fully familiarized like other workings of nature perhaps of equal wonder. Of course we do not jump into a spirit body supplied to order so to speak as we would put on a new suit of clothes, but we are always put- ting it on in this life ; it grows with the outer body and grows with the soul. Such is the fluidity and ex- pressiveness of this interior organism that its devel- opment and nature are affected by our very thoughts and aspirations. " It is crude or fine according to the life which a man has lived; the consequence is that some people are born into the spirit world with- out the capacity to harmoniously relate themselves to its beatitudes. Nay more, their sordid, selfish, unspiritual life has dwarfed the development of their spiritual bodies, they are in the spirit world but not of it." Such is spirit testimony. In the earth life, it is said, spirit substance is allied with a lower order 146 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT of matter, and differs as the spiritual quality of life. There would seem then to be a great extension of the bodily substance. Man is greater and more com- plex than he seems, and transcends himself in ways he has only dimly perceived or viewed as superstitions and incredible. The cases of spirit appearances in some form and stage of material condensation, the dissociation of the magnetic body in hypnotism and trance, the various magnetic effluvia of the body, as the aura and fluctuant halo, and the strange mental ball so often remarked, and other allied phenomena, all point to a spiritual side of our present organism. It is the confirmation of the far-seeing vision of the spiritual genius who wrote I Corinthians 15. May we not venture to think then of the inner body as vitally related to the mysterious nerve system and its mag- netic fires and woven out of its emanations? To a question on the assumption of the celestial body, the spirit response was — " It is with you now. It forms an ethereal, mystic covering for the nervous system, and it passes out or is expelled from the body by the electrical forces." WHAT TAKES PJLACE AT DEATH? But what about the final breaking-up of the con- nection between body and spirit? Are there any cir- cumstances in which this dissolution of partnership can be made to give any account of itself and to throw light upon the new body formation ? Now this is a problem to be approached like any other prob- lem. And if the solution is not readily open to us, shall we take it upon ourselves to affirm that no so- lution has been given by others, and that no solution IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 147 whatever is possible? What takes place at what we call death? Now there is a considerable body of testimony, both from this and the other side of the veil, which bears directly upon this problem, and which in itself is most interesting and will stir the thought of any one who loves nature's unfolding ways of order and beauty. The separation or birth of the spirit body has been frequently noted and somewhat minutely described by certain seers pos- sessed of clairvoyant power. And of late years there have been some scientific observations of death phenomena through radio-photography, we are told, which unwittingly confirm clairvoyant and spirit testimony. The one-theory man would explain away independent clairvoj^ance, and as long as his main contention is for his theory he will probably see noth- ing that does not conform thereto. But that the gift of clairvoyance or clear seeing is possessed by cer- tain individuals — whether we explain it as a devel- opment of the inner spirit vision or in some other way — the average investigator can hold no doubt. The " discerning of spirits " in I Corinthians 12: 10 would seem to indicate cases of clairvoyant vision. In brief, it is said that a light cloud is seen to form and thicken over the body of the dying person. As the lower limbs become cold, this cloud gathers towards the vital parts of the body. The process continues and the light cloud gradually becomes more dense and firm, and then assumes a globular shape and hovers over the head of the dying one. This globe of misty light is connected with the top of the head by a fine electric cord, a shining filament or lien. The next step is described as the assumption of form, 148 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT the globe of light begins to assume the form and features of the person as in the earth life. Around this form other spirit forms are seen, the friends of the new-comer into spirit life, who seem to be able to aid the process at times, and who receive and wel- come the new-born one. Death seems to be birth to all intents, and we shall not be born into the other life unattended any more than when we came into this life. At length the magnetic cord separates, and the spirit lighter than air naturally and easily ascends to its spirit home. It is claimed that the psychic power of reluctant friends may make it hard for the spirit to find its freedom of release. It is known to many interested in the problems of the spirit that the seer, Andrew Jackson Davis, left on record a detailed account of what transpires at death. This beautiful and lucid description I con- dense somewhat as follows : " I saw that the phys- ical organism could no longer subserve the require- ments of the spiritual principle. But the various internal organs of the body appeared to resist the withdrawal of the animating soul. The body and soul, like two friends, strongly resisted the various circumstances which rendered their eternal separation imperative and absolute. Now the head of the body became suddenly enveloped in a fine, soft, mellow, luminous atmosphere. The process of dying or of the spirit's departure from the body was fully com- menced. . . . The head became intensely brilliant, and as the extremities of the organism grew cold the brain appeared light and glowing. Now I saw on the mellow spiritual atmosphere which emanated from and encircled her head, the indistinct outlines of the IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 149 formation of another head. The new head unfolded more and more distinctly. In the identical manner in which the spiritual head was eliminated and or- ganized, I saw unfolding in their natural progressive order the neck, the shoulders, and the entire spiritual organization. While this spiritual formation was going on, the material body manifested to the outer vision many symptoms of uneasiness and pain, but these indications were totally deceptive. The spirit rose at right angles over the head or brain of the de- serted body. I saw playing energetically between the feet of the elevated spiritual body and the head of the prostrate physical body, a bright stream or current of vital electricity. This taught me that what is customarily called death is but a birth of the spirit from a lower into a higher state. I learned that the correspondence between the birth of a child into this world and the birth of the spirit from the material body into a higher world, is absolute and complete, even to the umbilical cord which was repre- sented by the thread of vital electricity which for a few minutes subsisted between and connected the two organisms together. I continued to observe the movements of her new-born spirit. She descended from her elevated position, which was immediately over the body, and I saw her pass through the ad- joining room and step from the house into the at- mosphere." . . . This clairvoyant account of what takes place at death would seem incomplete without adding a brief testimony from the other side. And so I take the liberty to quote a few sentences from a very beautiful account of spirit transition purporting to come from 150 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT Rev. John Pierpont, a Unitarian minister, and poet, and avowed spiritualist for many years. " The sen- sation was one of pleasure and of infinite seren- ity. . . . Life was surging within me and it had no notion of being quelled. ... I noticed that the air seemed wondrously balmy and fragrant, that it was surcharged with glorious tints of perfect color, that billows upon billows of beautiful light were surg- ing around. . . . My attention was fastened upon the magnetic cord still holding me to the other body. For I was possessed now of a spirit form resembling somewhat the one I had vacated, yet stronger, lighter in sense of weight, more youthful and more comfortable. The slender cord had lost its power to contract toward the mortal, it appeared to me as a thread of light. This thread presently seemed to be endowed with life, for it began to scintillate and to pulsate toward myself as with vibrant power, until from this energetic action it became detached from the physical form, and became absorbed within my newly donned body." Whoever has read " Dr. Luke of the Labrador," will remember " Skipper Tommy " and his preach- ing to the dying girl. " { 'Tis but like wakin' from a troubled dream. 'Tis but wakin' to the sunlight of a new, clear day. . . . Hush! Don't you go gettin' scared. 'Tis a lovely thing that's comin' to you.' " Now all this is not a medieval or Miltonic picture of death, a king of terrors with hideous mien and upraised dart, and that is because death and the spirit body simply belong to the natural order. IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 151 " Passing out of the shadow Into eternal day, Why do we call it dying, This sweet passing away? " ALLEGORY OF THE SPIRIT BODY AND SOUL The spirit body is coming to its own. This age- long quest for the spirit body and a home for the spirit body, is finding more and more assured results. When men follow the divine spirit of search within, they will discover the secret of the Lord in due time. In this great transition, as the soul in wonder finds itself still clothed upon and mated to a body, it will not be a far stretch of the imagination to allegorize the situation, and thus let the spirit body assert its reality and rightful dignity as it introduces itself to the astonished soul. " soul, thou regardest me strangely, and I seem to thee as one born out of the unknown. But let me tell thee, I am no alien thrust upon thee to clothe thy nakedness in this emergency. I am thine from the beginning, being of thy being, life of thy life, born of the old body and of thy very thoughts and aspirations. Thou hast considered too little, that in the divine wisdom thou art somewhat of a creator ; for thou hast helped to fashion me as thy companion, for thine own correspondence and reflection. No other encasement could now fulfill the far-seeing law, no other representative will represent thee. I am thine own incarnation. Unseen, I have always been with thee; I have sat down with thee by the fire- side, I have walked with thee by the way, in all your goings and comings, as you have lain down and risen 152 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT up, I have been inseparable from you. I have grown with thy growth, and rejoiced in all thine aspira- tions and upward strivings, and fed upon thy good thoughts and good deeds ; and I have been enfeebled and made heavy and dull by the debasing of thine ideals and forgetfulness of the true life of the spirit. I have been your real body, fitting you for the real world in the long perspective of life. " But how little recognition I received from you. Yet you did not fail to acknowledge the earth body before me, though it was only a temporary adjustment, and in its corruptible nature was bound to break down and pass away. How strangely thou hast missed the truth lying so near you all these years. soul of mine, thou hast pictured the kingdom of God as coming with observation, and behold! it is wrought out within. So in truth, thou hast made thine own garments, thou hast selected the materials, and woven them in thine own loom, and put in thine own colors, and made the whole expressive of thine own real individuality. And yet, strange to say, so naturally and unconsciously hast thou done all this whilst thou hast been here and there busy about many things, that as you look upon me you are surprised and bewildered. Thou questionest whence 1 came, and to what order I belong, and if you are really yourself. Thou must confess also that thou hast had low and unworthy thoughts of me. Thou hast given me little thought enough considering my vital importance to you, but when at times your at- tention has been drawn to me you have put me down as a weak and undesirable companion, as a pale, anaemic thing, if you have not doubted me IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 153 altogether. Your flesh and blood life and your heavy material besettings have seemed to you the real thing, you had never seen any other correspond- ences in life and took no time to seriously consider them, and felt less desire for them. You must feel that you have had antiquated thoughts of me. You have had a survival in mind of a realm of shades, of a spirit world like unto ' the unsubstantial fabric of a dream, 5 and your conventional notion of me has been weird and repellent. " Now, my soul, you will excuse this plain dis- course, I have felt the compulsion of this introduc- tion, and confess a sense of reproach you have so long ignored me. Our relationship has now reached a new stage, it has come out from the hidden into the open, out of the realm of mystery and apoca- lyptic wonders into a new realm of reality and vital relations. And now, do not longer think of me as loss but as gain. I was made to be your helpmeet, to make life richer not poorer, stronger not weaker, higher not lower, to clothe you not in mortality, but in garments of light, in form radiant and luminous. I was ordained to be your correspondence to this in- finitely broader life of the spirit, to relate you to life in a thousand ways not possible in the weak and cor- ruptible body of earth, and to bring you to your highest realization and expression. Henceforth we shall live together. And with your cooperation and high purposes, we shall find that all has been fore- told by seer and prophet, all that the poet has dreamed of the land of pure* delight, all that apoca- lyptic has conjured up in its bold imaginings, will be more than fulfilled as together we shall enter into 154 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT this heavenly life, and its glory of love and service and of progress onward and upward forever shall be revealed in us." EMANATIONS. NATURE'S HINTS AND SPIRIT TESTIMONY AS TO THE UPBUILDING OF THE SPIRIT WORLD We have dwelt upon the spirit body so long, be- cause its derivative and vital connection as a part of our organism is becoming more and more evident, and because the spirit body is a natural introduction to the spirit world and inevitably pre-supposes such a world. But is there any word further on the primal origin of the spirit world? Is there any cos- mology of the unseen world? Man has thought upon the world beneath his feet, and after long question- ing and investigation has traced back our system to the primeval, misty nebula, and found reasons for things as they are. And if the spirit world is measurably a counterpart of our physical world and besetment, equally valid reasons may be forthcoming in due time for the formation and conformation that world may present to spirit sense. We no longer look around for the supernatural in our surround- ings here, neither when we move into the larger and more refined quarters of the spirit need we look for disruption of law and order there. Of course, primarily and fundamentally spirit substance is de- rived from the original substance of all things — the ether; but it is nature's familiar way or the divine method to make use of intermediate forms for the propagation of other forms, as out of the soil, the water, and the air are produced countless other creations. IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 155 Not to pass by simple things at hand, we might reflect on the manner in which the surface water and snow throw off their invisible molecules, and these ascending to their place of gravitational equilibrium form the beautiful cloud scenery and cloud platforms overhead. The volumes of steam particles issuing from a steam pipe on a cold morning, or the volumes of innumerable carbon particles ascending in bil- lowy waves from a smoking fire, teach us familiarly the disintegration of matter and its ascent in ele- mentally fine forms. Or we might well ask our- selves — How did our planet become ensphered with an atmosphere, a gaseous ocean forty miles or so in depth or height, and of varying purity from carboniferous times down? How does it happen that three quarters of our globe's surface are covered with a liquid ocean of somewhat differently combined gases, and the home of an endlessly varied life? Without previous knowledge and life-long familiarity, we should certainly consider such creations and adaptations of matter as too marvelous for credence. But their appeal to us now is of course perfectly natural, and their origins seem entirely natural. The dust motes of the atmosphere are an example of matter finely comminuted and ascending to a great height. And the physicist tells us how they serve a very important purpose in nature's economy in affording a center of condensation for clouds and mists and a nucleus for the formation of rain drops and snow. Water vapor in itself is said to be in- visible, like spirit substance. The air is charged with the pollen dust of countless flowers in the sum- mer season; carbonic acid gas is given off by the 156 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT decomposition of organic matter everywhere and blends with the atmosphere unperceived by us. And if our spiritual environment is substantial and basic, as it must be to spirit sense, why should it not be- long to some refined form of the sublimation of matter which may be pre-figured for us in these various emanations? Nature's laboratory has furnished many surprises, and we cannot suppose them ex- hausted yet. We may remind ourselves again of that most revolutionary idea of modern science — the dissocia- tion of matter or radioactivity. Such fascinating expositions of the subject as Professor Duncan's " The New Knowledge," and Le Bon's writings give us a wonderful new insight into the romance and the evolutionary possibilities of matter. Le Bon men- tions six ways in which matter may be dissociated and resolved ^into effluves or invisible particles — by light, heat, electricity, chemical reactions, combus- tion, and spontaneous action. He adds that " sub- stances such as radium simply possess in a high degree a phenomenon which all matter possesses to some extent." Now this evaporation of matter by heat, radio- activity, etc., has established the truth of material emanations, and this prepares the way and relieves the strangeness of the phenomenon of other emana- tions, if such there be. And going on from these precursory hints, are we not justified in conceiving and indeed anticipating that in the divine economy there may be emanations, radiations of matter, if not of the inorganic then of the organic kingdom, of such a nature as to make for the upbuilding of IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 157 a spiritual world? Organized and vitalized matter is of course of a higher grade than the crude and inorganic, and we might well expect where there is so much life and growth that a form of physical emanation or effluence would hold here in a higher degree. The organic life of the earth would then be the mills of God grinding slowly and exceedingly small, by which ultimately refined matter is provided for the constructive purposes of a greatly advanced stage of existence. Out of the soil comes the lily, and out of this earthly organic life on its spiritual side may come the refined and purified material for the new spiritual earth. And we would suppose that only the higher and finer forms of organic life could provide this refined material for the utilities of the spirit. We seem to have a worthy indicator here in this spiritual refinement in the perfume of the flower. The physicist thinks this may belong to the finest state of division in which matter is known to us. The flower will diffuse its fragrance for a long period, and fill a considerable space about it with its invisible emanations, but its lavish generosity is not sensible to weight, and it might elude search altogether were it not for the olfactory sense more sensitive than any balance. Now we would walk with caution here realizing the incompleteness of our knowledge, but we can- not fail to ponder these hints and indications which nature gives so freely, in her processes of things yet higher. It remains of course to make brief appeal to spirit testimony here. We may overlook the fact that the general truth of emanations was 158 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT plainly taught and asserted through spirit testimony long before the thought of radium came to disturb the long-settled and complacent calculations of the scientist. It illustrates what a certain psychic writer has stated — that the psychical often pre- cedes the physical. " The vibrations of the body and mind both send out an emanation of matter, though it is not perceived by the mortal eye, and it enters into the composition of the spirit body. The higher and more refined the vibratory force and emanation, the more ethereal and clear the spirit body will be. . . . As nature replaces bit by bit her material in the form of a scar that in early life was formed from some wound on the body, so nature replaces in the spirit body the characteristics of the earth body, the contour of feature and even of expression." The soul or soul flame, it is said, permeates every nerve and tissue, and gathers to it- self those elements and atoms which enable it to build up the spiritual form which hereafter it will claim in grander worlds than this. This is a definite account from an accredited book of spirit teachings of the utilization of bodily and mental emanations in the upbuilding process of the spiritual body. The process might be termed a bodily radio-activity. And does this not suggest strongly some such co-ordinate process in connection with the magnetic substance of the spirit world? And in that case, something about the flower and the grass blade survives. And may not this be a hint or germ of immortality showing that even the lower life is not altogether " cast as rubbish to the void "? In the famous " Banner of Light " sittings of IS THERE A WORD FURTHER? 159 nearly fifty years ago, some exceedingly interesting answers were returned to all sorts of inquiries, sci- entific, theological and otherwise — answers that seem not unworthy of the characters who purported to serve as messengers. Concerning the nature of the spirit world, it was said : " The summer land or spirit world is composed of particles that once inhabited material forms. It comes up from the lower, growing into the higher, forever and forever leaving the lower and entering the higher. In this sense the summer land is constructed of atoms that w r ere once in crude forms." Again — " The spirit world proper has been derived from the spiritual ema- nations of this world, therefore it is like unto it only superior to it. Matter is ever ascending in the scale." . . . Again take the well-known " Outlines of Spirit Teachings" (M. A., Oxon.). "I have explained to you how the spirit body is formed — that it is the spiritualized or refined particles of our physical body. So that you will understand when I tell you that the spirit world is made up of refined or spirit- ualized particles given off by the earth. Every blade of grass, every tiny flower, shrub and tree, in- sect and animal, by their lives cause matter to be- come refined and spiritualized, which then ascends high above the clouds, and there spreads out in a broad belt and surrounds the earth like the rings of Saturn surround that planet." Let us round up this testimony with these sug- gestive sentences from a well-known psychic work — " When you are alone evenings we can talk almost out loud to you, for it is then when you come out of 160 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT yourself as a white mist, although not shaped as a spirit." " It is always the spiritual self that we see. Of course it does separate and come out beside the shell body sometimes, but usually we see it through the shell." " And when we see a tree, it is always the magnetic part shining through and not the real earth bark. The sap is like fire. . . ." " Nothing rises unless it has a building principle." There seems nothing incredible about all this to present-day trend of thought; science has many greater wonders which we cheerfully accept. In a certain pamphlet series styled " The Fundamentals " assiduously scattered abroad to correct deviations from orthodoxy, a certain ecclesiastic refers to these spirit teachings as " bombastic nonsense," but it may be that the bombastic nonsense lies in another quar- ter. These teachings, many of them, be it noted, were given many years before the terms " Emana- tions," " Radiations," " Effluves," " Disengaged par- ticles," and " Dissociation," had found their way in such frequency into science. In conclusion, I have tried to treat this topic not in a dogmatic but in a suggestive spirit, to note the coincidence between pioneer scientific thinking to- day and spirit testimony, and to suggest the creative possibilities of a spirit world not in the old supernat- uralism, but already enfolded and operative in the noiseless looms of nature about us. And how very like is such an unobtrusive and hidden process to the divine method elsewhere. CHAPTER X A TESTIMONY TO SPIRIT COMMUNION AND COMMUNICATION THE NATURALNESS AND COMPULSION OF SPIRIT COMMUNION On the face of it and at the heart of it, nothing would seem to be more human, more natural, more compelling, than some sense of touch and communion with our friends on the other side, and especially when they have made the great transition and mind is bewildered and heart desolate. When can the soul need a token of nearness and a sense of the familiar presence as then when the body that so long mediated for the spirit within has been stricken down in ruin, and the light has gone out of the dear face and everything seems to be lost? Does it not seem a cruel fate that our dear ones should then be banished into the deeps of space, and should be kept there, when the friends left behind and the very friends who have gone before, both need the human touch that brings healing? And the very friends who have gone before, especially if called suddenly from earth, from all indications need the human healing touch more even perhaps than those left to linger on the shores of time. But we are far indeed from holding that God has so ordered the universe, and that he has ordained 161 162 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT any such irrevocable gulf of separation. And while averring this we do not of course imply there is no separation. There is the inevitable separation that belongs to two different natural orders of life, a lower and a higher order, it inheres in the nature and vibratory life of matter and spirit. But these two orders may and do interblend in vital relation, and intercommune and intercommunicate according to the faith of souls. Tradition, and convention, and spiritual unconcern may say there is no return, and may make no in- quiry. We may ascribe our sense of remoteness to the inscrutable decree of God, and excuse our lack of interest and whole-souled search by relegating the future life altogether to the domain of faith. But consider what a breaking up of the precious continu- ities of life, what a burden for bewildered souls, and what a deprivation for friends over there. But there is a great multitude, we hold, who be- long to this order of spirit communion, it wells up richly in poetry, it runs through all the past, it greets us unexpectedly in common life. No doubt the compulsion of personal experience often brings to the soul its heavenly vision. VARIOUS TESTIMONIES ON SPIRIT COMMUNION In a letter received from a revered professor of my college days, a man of wide experience and great scholarly attainments, he made this statement — " I would be the last person to deny the truth of spirit communion." From another, who had learned to look upon life with open vision, came to us this endorsement — SPIRIT COMMUNION 163 U For all these years I have been sure of the near- ness of my dear sister who passed on nearly nine years ago." It was directly given to us that a certain widely known writer of public spirit, meeting a friend on the street, remarked in substance that people might think he was bearing his loss better than he should. But he could not feel otherwise than comforted, for he felt the presence of his son with him and he could not feel the lonesomeness as he would otherwise. When Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote " The Other World," she had learned through experience and the discipline of sorrow the great truth of spirit com- munion. The loss of her dearly loved son Henry, who was drowned in 1857 while a student at Dart- mouth College, seems to have been ever with her, and she wrote at the time that she would have been glad to lie down and sleep away into a brighter scene. " It lies around us like a cloud, A world we do not see; Yet the sweet closing of an eye May bring us there to be. " Sweet hearts around us throb and beat, Sweet helping hands are stirred, And palpitates the veil between With breathings almost heard. . . . " Let death between us be as naught, A dried and vanished stream; Your joy be the reality Our suffering life the dream/' Not long since the bishop of London excited some 164 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT little comment by renewing emphasis on the old teaching of the communion of saints. He is quoted from a sermon : " I would ask you to turn your eyes from this world to another, and look up from the heat and struggle of the stadium to those tiers after tiers of spectators, who look down upon the conflict which they once knew so well. There they are in their millions and tens of millions." The bishop then referred to a conversation he had had with the au- thorities of the Russian church, and nothing seemed to strike them more forcibly than the little connec- tion which the English church seemed to have with that multitude. They ended by saying: " Surely, bishop, yours is a very unloving doctrine. We love our dear ones in the other world, they are close to us." The bishop further said: "It would strengthen the wavering line more than one knows if we thought more of those noble souls who still think of us, still pray for us, and still love us. I would plead for a revival in the church of a belief in the great doctrine of the communion of saints." The editor added this singular comment — " The sermon is regarded by some as revolutionary." We must needs be brief in these testimonies, but it is plain our testimony would lack greatly in com- pleteness without some word from the other side as to the value and joy of spirit communion and the spirit message. Now it is precisely here, that there is such a strong and appealing body of evidence as to the importance of spirit communication, that it is difficult to make selections. Psychic literature abounds with emphatic declarations from the spirit side of the need and value of the open door for in- SPIRIT COMMUNION 165 tercommunication between the two worlds. The children of light seem to realize tenfold more clearly than we in our ignorance and short-sightedness, the prime importance of the interpenetration of our life and world from the spirit, not only for mutual com- fort and joy, but also for the progressiveness of life here, for emancipation from error and the bringing in of truth and righteousness and love. Doubtless we shall never know till we awake into the understand- ing of the other side of life and the constant and powerful reaction of that world upon this, how much we owe in every sense, in growing religious light and knowledge, and in all progress and inventions to spirit impressions. Postulating the surrounding of such a spirit host, we cannot for a moment suppose that they can look down upon us simply as uncon- cerned and inactive spectators. In the spirit messages given to Prof. Corson of Cornell, there is such a rare body of witness on this point that I venture to make a brief reference. "I cannot express to you the joy it is to find a responsive spirit in the world of mortals. So long it mourned its dead as if there were nothing but dumb lips, and deaf ears, and sightless eyes, and vacant places, that the very thought of a message was doubt- ful and displeasing, and so we were put away like some rare treasure to wait until a day dawned when the door of our dark hiding place would be opened and we should once more be revealed." How convincingly and ilium in at in gly this puts the whole matter of our treatment of the dead, as we call them in our blind and faithless way. From another, who was a great and shining light in his day and min- 166 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT istry : " Of this I am assured, the comfort, the com- panionship, the sweet solace of the communion be- tween dead and living are needed in every church, in every family, and in every aching heart." " I am sure that all religions fail in trying to give comfort to the bereaved heart." What minister, we add, has not felt the inadequacy of the common message on funeral occasions to bring healing to wounded souls, and to stay the tide of sor- row and bitterness toward God! And how little is ventured on the reality and definiteness of the life of the spirit, and its consciousness of, and interest in, and touch with this life and its loved ones ! Very interesting is the statement of Prof. Corson's wife, that when in the earth life the spirit message did not mean so much to her as to him, but from the spirit standpoint she saw the supreme importance of this interpenetrating power of spirit life. And from the daughter in the spirit, as she spoke of the mourn- ing friends and the sighs and sobs of those without vision, came this fine outburst — " O daddy dear, I think ignorance is the sin of the world. Why do the ministers keep so still about these truths? Are they cowardly, or do they believe men are insane when they talk as you do? And if they don't know, why don't they find out? " One great spirit speaks of his " almost unforgiv- able ignorance " of psychic matters while in the earth life, and adds — " Nothing is of such vital importance as to find out about the truth of spirit intercourse." We will have to bring this witness to a close here SPIRIT COMMUNION 167 by a brief citation from a spirit son to a mother (the mother being well-known to us): "The great joy that comes to me when I write to you is greater than I can tell you on paper. Why, we are all as eager to open gates into earth as many mortals are to hear from this side. . . . We are trying in every con- ceivable place where we find a sensitive, and so sweet it is to know that our minds are not separated by death that it gives me higher and more noble purpose than I had on earth." We have referred to the witness of poetry. And at its best, poetry has been a great witness in its intuitions of a future life, and in a sensitive appre- hension of the nearness and reactions of the spirit world upon us. " Where there is no vision, the peo- ple perish." And of all men we expect the poet to be a man of vision, to be a prophet of the future, to be sensitive to spiritual values, and to have some clear cognizance and responsive touch with spirit realities about us. We need the witness of poetry to " the good land that is beyond Jordan," to the beyond in human life, that heaven is more than a fond dream and the angelic vision than a beautiful figment of the imagination. Longfellow was a spiritual seer. In the " Foot- steps of Angels," what a picture we have of the quiet evening hour, the hour of the spirit, when the hard outlines of the day are softened and the brooding twilight and the passivity of the soul invite our spirit friends to commune with us. The practice of the quiet hour and outreaching of the soul toward our loved ones will create a magnetic current of attrac- 168 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT tion that will bring them to us and bring us to them, and will make the unseen world very near and home- like. " When the hours of day are numbered, And the voices of the night Wake the better soul that slumbered, To a holy calm delight; " Ere the evening lamps are lighted, And like phantoms grim and tall, Shadows from the fitful fire-light Dance upon the parlor wall; " Then the forms of the departed Enter at the open door, The beloved, the true hearted, Come to visit me once more. ,, In the chapter on the ghosts in " Hiawatha," the poet sings in pathetic fashion of the reality of our friends departed and the keeping alive of our inter- est in them. Does not this river of life tend to dry up more or less through a sense of unreality? Hia- watha heard his pallid visitors from the Islands of the Blessed " weeping in the silent midnight. 95 " And he said : ' O guests ! why is it That your hearts are so afflicted, That you sob so in the midnight ? ' And the answer came, — " ' We are ghosts of the departed, Souls of those who once were with you, Therefore have we come to try you, SPIRIT COMMUNION 169 No one knows us, no one heeds us, We are but a burden to you, And we see that the departed Have no place among the living/ ' Perhaps no verse of Longfellow is better known as expressing his philosophy of death and the spirit world than the lines in " Resignation 55 " There is no death ! What seems so is transition ; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life elysian, Whose portal we call death. " And last, how explicitly the faith of the poet in spirit visitation is brought out in the solemn beauty of " Haunted Houses." " All houses wherein men have lived and died Are haunted houses. Through the open doors The harmless phantoms on their errands glide, With feet that make no sound upon the floors. 1 We meet them at the doorway, on the stair, Along the passages they come and go, Impalpable impressions on the air, A sense of something njoving to and fro. ' There are more guests at table than the hosts Invited; the illuminated hall Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts, As silent as the pictures on the wall. ' The spirit world around this world of sense Floats like an atmosphere, and everywhere Wafts through these earthly mists and vapors dense A vital breath of more ethereal air." 170 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT And it does one good to note the emphasis on spirit return in these clear-seeing verses from the Bryant selection of poems: " O hearts that never cease to yearn ! O brimming tears that ne'er are dried ! The dead, though they depart, return As though they had not died. " The living are the only dead, The dead live, nevermore to die; And often, when we mourn them fled, They never were so nigh." And with what musical and passionate conviction does Edwin Arnold in " She and He," and " After Death in Arabia," involve the essential truths of spirit philosophy : — " Who wiil believe that he heard her say, With the soft, rich voice, in the dear old way, — The utmost wonder is this — I hear And see you, and love you, and kiss you, Dear; ' * I can speak, now you listen with soul alone; If your soul could see, it would all be shown. What a strange, delicious amazement is death To be without body and breathe without breath. " ' I should laugh for joy if you did not cry: Oh, listen! Love lasts, love never will die. " ' I am only your angel who was your bride, And I know, that though dead, I have never died ! ' " SPIRIT COMMUNION 171 Abdallah seems to have been present at his own funeral, which may seem a thing strange and bizarre to the stranger, but which spirit testimony has often confirmed. " He who died at Azan sends This to comfort all his friends: " Faithful friends ! It lies, I know, Pale and white and cold as snow. And ye say, ' Abdallah's dead ! ' Weeping at his feet and head, I can see your falling tears, I can hear your sighs and prayers; Yet I smile and whisper this, — ' I am not the thing you kiss, Cease your tears, and let it lie, It was mine, it is not 1/ " And how quiet and attentive and well-attuned should that soul be that seeks to realize as a living experience this spiritual acquaintance and commun- ion with friends on the other side. Here manifestly is no place for the scientific sceptic or the short- sighted one who has no vision beyond the barriers of sense and dogma. " How pure at heart and sound in head, With what divine affections bold, Should be the man whose thought would hold An hour's communion with the dead. " In vain shalt thou or any call The spirits from their golden day, Except like them thou too canst say, My spirit is at peace with all. 172 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " But when the heart is full of din, And doubt beside the portal waits, They can but listen at the gates And hear the household jar within.' ' The spiritual philosophy of Tennyson is seen in these lines : — " The ghost in man, the ghost that once was man But cannot wholly free itself from man, Are calling to each other through a dawn Stranger than earth has ever seen, the veil Is rending, and the voices of the day Are heard across the voices of the dark. No sudden heaven, no sudden hell for man, But through the will of One who knows and rules, JEonian evolution, swift or slow, Through all the spheres — an ever-opening height, An ever-lessening earth. " And the*. poet Rogers gives this home-like pic- ture : — " Oft may the spirits of the dead descend To watch the silent slumbers of a friend; To hover round his evening-walk unseen, And hold sweet converse on the dusky green; To hail the spot where first their friendship grew, And heaven and nature opened to their view. . . . There may these gentle guests delight to dwell, And bless the scene they loved in life so well. ,, "Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named. " Ephesians 3: 15. The fundamental need of the sorrowing heart for this spiritual knowledge and communion is finely in- timated in these lines from John Pierpont : SPIRIT COMMUNION 173 " I cannot make him dead ! His fair sunshiny head Is ever bounding round my study chair; Yet when my eyes, now dim With tears, I turn to him, The vision vanishes — he is not there. " I walk my parlor floor, And through the open door I hear a footfall on the chamber stair; I'm stepping toward the hall To give the boy a call, And then bethink me — he is not there." And by way of answer to this sorrowing cry, let us conclude this witness of song with a message of comfort purporting to have been given by a spirit teacher to mothers who have lost children. It would be natural to suppose that the spirit teacher spoke out of the deeps of her own earthly experience. " Oh, could the sunshine of the heart Dispel the blinding tears that start, And all your doubts and fears depart, — Those forms, concealed Like blossoms 'neath the shades of night, Before your spirits' quickening sight Would stand revealed. " O gentle mothers of the earth, Who gave these precious spirits birth, Your homes have lost their sounds of mirth And childish glee; But not in Death's embrace they sleep — Nay, gentle mothers, cease to weep — They dwell with me. . . . 174 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " O ye, who tears of anguish shed Above some cradle bed Where once reposed a precious head — Be reconciled. For yet your longing eyes shall see In heaven's broad sunshine, glad and free, Your spirit child. " They are all there — they are all there — The young, the beautiful, the fair; They know no want, they feel no care, They are not dead; But quickened in their spirits' powers, Life crowns with her immortal flowers Each shining head. ,, . . . " Is there no balm in Gilead ? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? " SPIRIT COMMUNICATION AND TELEPATHY " And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it." Gen. 28:12. Spirit communion leads most naturally to spirit communication. They are vitally correlated, the one is the inward expression and experience and the other the outward symbol of the greatest truth of the soul. We may think of communion as one form and the deepest form of communication, but it reaches its social perfection and satisfaction only through the communication and interchange of our thoughts. The great contention of the higher spiritualism has been the possibility of communication with our SPIRIT COMMUNION 175 spirit friends in a surrounding spirit world. This great contention has been exploited and prostituted on a large scale by unprincipled men and women for mercenary purposes. But medicine in its charlatan- ism and Christianity itself in its corruptions and priestly assumptions and other great social truths have gone the same way, and given constant illustra- tion that the highest impulses are capable of the worst perversion and that " the love of money is the root of all evil." " If our inquiry first lead us through a jungle of fraud and folly, need that alarm us? As well might Columbus have yielded to the sailors' panic when he was entangled in the Sara- gossa Sea." [" Proofs of Life after Death."] But despite all perversion, this most significant truth of communication with an unseen world of spirit has kept itself before the world, not merely in more recent times but in classical and biblical times and all time, and has in these latter days compelled scientific attention. The amount of evidential ma- terial for spirit survival and manifestation that has accumulated since 1882 in the S. P. R. Journals, English and American, and the highly critical char- acter of the investigations and the distinguished names associated therewith, can only be appreciated by one who has given them at least some good degree of consideration and study. It is true here as else- where, that the truth comes not by hearsay or the ipse dixit of one who echoes our own pre-judgments, but evidently the confirmatory way is to squarely face the question and think and experience our way through. We add that already the great truth of intercom- 176 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT munion and intercommunication with the spirit world has appreciably affected the orthodox conception of the future life, and we cannot doubt that ere long it will incorporate itself into the great stream of Christian thought like other contributory concep- tions of the past, and notably the evolutionary phi- losophy and literary criticism. We are not apt to think of a duty here. But do we stop to think about this great matter of the healing of souls anguished by the disruptions of death? Mr. Stead writes in the preface to " Letters from Julia " : " It is not only possible but lawful, and not only lawful but an ab- solute duty on the part of mortals to renew and keep up a loving intercourse with the loved ones who have gone before." EXTENDED TELEPATHY AND ITS ASSUMPTIONS But at this point the way is obscured or even blocked for some minds by an assumption much put forward of late years — the telepathic assumption. And first of all, it is most helpful to squarely meet this assumption. It is helpful to consider the utmost that has been set forth or conjectured in its behalf, and the easy and all-inclusive extension that perforce must be given to it, and then reflect where our theory has carried us and what a psychological complication we have. The sense of incongruity and dispropor- tion is often a saving element, when an idea has been worked beyond all legitimate bounds. Certain re- stricted mental phenomena are made to go such a long way, and the theory is made to apply to such diverse psychic manifestations and problems in such an easy and off-hand manner, that one experiences SPIRIT COMMUNION 177 certainly a shock of surprise. The term " telep- athy," Dr. Hyslop asserts, is simply descriptive and in no wise explanatory, and all that we know about is, that there are a number of coincidences between the thoughts of A and B not due to chance. The psychic reader is familiar with illustrative cases where words or commands have been conveyed to some sensitive recipient in a passive condition in a manner outside the ordinary channels of communication. The mode of action of this thought transference is not precisely determined. But the process of theo- retical evolution by which this interesting truth has grown out of its sphere into surprising and unwieldy proportions, is well known. We very soon discover that mental and spiritual impressions are rigidly confined as to origin to the minds of the living, and then follows the labored at- tempt to accommodate the telepathic idea to psychic phenomena of diverse and most complicated type. But it is with a wrench and a jar and a sense of surprise to the reader. And the wrench is so great, and so many unmanageable details are quietly ig- nored in the final hasty application, that conviction hesitates. All historic psychic phenonema from the attendant daimon of Socrates, and the angel voices of Joan, and necessarily the abounding spirit phe- nomena of the Bible, all automatic speaking and writing, and all physical manifestations whatever whether accredited by Sir William Crookes, Prof. Lombroso, or a dozen distinguished men of science, must all be made by hook or by crook to lose their spiritual reality and all objective semblance under the hallucinatory touch of magic telepathy. Every- 178 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT thing is hallucination so to speak except the bare earth beneath our feet. A combination is made of telepathy — this name for certain mental coincidences — and the subcon- scious mental region, and both are given unlimited powers, and strange things happen. One part of ourselves is made to telepath to another part, and even to speak in an audible voice of warning, or to conjure up a vision. And this helps to explain away the supposed supernatural and spirit interposition, and to locate ministering spirits and divine provi- dences within ourselves. It seems possible to develop a fatal facility for explaining away, especially in the interest of deep-seated scepticism of spirit and even in the interest of respectability. We may enjoy be- ing on the highly respectable side more than we think. An able critic writes — " It is exceedingly respectable to be a doubter about spirits." A case is given of a guest at a Back Bay Hotel in Boston, who was hurrying along a corridor to catch an elevator, when unexpectedly the form of a man appeared at the entrance of the elevator. She stopped short, when the form disappeared, and she found though the door in the shaft was open, the car was at the bottom of the shaft, into which she would certainly have fallen but for the spirit figure. Those of us who see no reason for doubting the existence of a spirit world, and the interest, and guardianship when possible, of spirit friends, see no reason also for doubting this to be a case of spirit interposition, and the more so from the fact that it fits into a multitude of similar accredited providences, some of which are afterwards authenticated in spirit SPIRIT COMMUNION 179 communication. (See "Can Telepathy Explain?" Page 124.) What saith the Scriptures? " Are they not all ministering spirits? " Were the angel voices to Joan simply Joan talking to herself? It re- quires a good deal of credulousness and cynical mini- mizing to believe that, considering her marvelous ca- reer. And was Socrates with his wonderful acute- ness under a great self-delusion in testifying to his " familiar oracle " and its guidance? " The custom- ary sign would surely have opposed me had I been going to evil and not to good." (Page 132, Jow- ett's " Plato.") Socrates declared before his judges that from his childhood he was moved by a certain spiritual influence or guardian spirit who diverted him from dangerous courses ; and Xenophon refers to the warnings of Socrates' Genius and his accusers charged him with a familiar spirit. But so far, this is a small part of telepathic elas- ticity. It is assumed that the subconscious part of us unconsciously reveals or is made to reveal its inti- mate life history — an assumption first of all not in accord with the supposed seclusion and sanctity of our inner being. In other words the subliminal of B rummages among the endless stores of A 's memory and with amazing selective intelligence filches the material for constructing a case of per- sonal identity, and then brings this to surface view unconsciously and automatically in order to convince A that he is conversing with a deceased friend. It might be well to inquire here what is the end in view, what in the world is this strangely independent, all-prying, all-cunning subliminal aiming at? And why should Divine Wisdom first of all have endowed 180 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT this substratum of our being with such fiendish pow- ers of deceit, and of mockery of the tenderest and holiest hopes of humanity ? It is a long question, but it seems pertinent. But telepathy can easily stretch farther than this. In clairvoyant and clairaudient phenomena, even such as at once strikingly suggest spirit action and spirit telepathy, and spirit vision of the recipient, the subconscious part of some unknown person, or of some person entirely unconscious of the process, or seemingly literally unconscious, telepaths to the sub- consciousness of the second person which telepaths or impresses the upper consciousness in visions and voices, and the trick is done. This has the beautiful effect of shutting out all spirit agency, or even the acknowledgment that man possesses independent spirit powers. A case is* cited by Mr. Bruce of a Mrs. Bettany walking in a country lane, who has a vision of her mother lying prostrate on the floor of the white room of the house. Mrs. B 's real surroundings seemed to pale and die out, but as the mental vision faded, her actual surroundings came back dimly and at last clearly. It is to be noted the vision was true to minute details, and was the means of saving the mother's life. To the unbiassed psychic student, the case has every appearance of spirit intervention and providential mental impression; and what we might reasonably expect at times under favoring conditions if we actually have surrounding spirit friends with some power of access to us. But the telepathist is forced to work out the case by devious ways of tele- pathic tunneling, in a manner unbelievable to the SPIRIT COMMUNION 181 practical common sense and devoid of scientific cre- dentials. It illustrates the labor and complexity a theory sometimes involves when it is forced to substi- tute through bias for a naturally simple and explana- tory theory. In this same category, a more devious case still is where the subconsciousness of some member of a fam- ily group, perceiving an event as a death entirely un- suspected by the other members or by this member himself, finds the way somehow closed to the every- day consciousness, but artfully escapes restraint by telepathing to the subconsciousness of a stranger in the vicinity, which manages to report to the upper consciousness, in audible voice it may be, and thus the communication at last leaks out through this amazing subterranean process. We must suppose it a relief to some people to try to hold this tortuous notion, but they should certainly have a care in ascribing credulity to the spiritualist even in his wild- est vagaries. TELEPATHIC VS. SPIRITISTIC CREDULITY Apropos of credulity, in the Hibbert Journal (Oct., 1913) the writer of " The Significance of Non-evi- dential Material in Psychic Research " expresses himself in these words concerning a psychic of high character : " Did she in a state of dissociation subconsciously fabricate the w r hole thing? Or was she merely an instrument, is there really a life after death, and did the personalities who assumed to com- municate, personalities thoughtful and of high re- solve, use her hand to convey their messages to the world? For myself I cannot but feel that it is those 182 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT who can adopt the former hypothesis not the latter, who are the uncritical and the credulous people." H. Addington Bruce who works out his anti- spiritistic theory in the devious method noted remarks in one place — "It must be acknowledged however that the telepathic connection is sometimes extremely difficult to trace." No one can fail to agree with this admission. Mr. Bruce thinks that the scientist is doomed to perpetual unbelief in telepathy because he insists on dealing with it as he would with chemi- cals ; so Mr. B is doomed to the same state of mind as to spirit interposition in any form because of the elastic and practically omniscient assumption to which he is committed. A phenomenon however com- plicated or unwilling or remote, has no choice in Mr. B 's hands but to fit into its procrustean bed though it be distorted out of all recognition in the process. Many are familiar with the marvels con- nected with the mediumship of D. D. Home, and which are set forth so cautiously and convincingly by Sir William Crookes, and the objective phenomena pre- sented in " After Death — What? " by Prof. Cesare Lombroso and vouched for by other eminent scientists. And the psychic student we assume is acquainted with the famous detailed accounts of poltergeist and other physical phenomena in the works of Robert Hare, M.D., and Robert Dale Owen and in the psychic jour- nals, as well as with the spurious exploitations in this field as given by Mr. Carrington. But when the telepathist can cooly dismiss in a few words all such manifestations and much more however well au- thenticated, and can pronounce their disappearance in a mirage of telepathic hallucination, the theory SPIRIT COMMUNION 183 has certainly reached its limit. If consistent he should call himself henceforth agnostic and be sure of nothing. Shakespeare considered there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philoso- phy ; but that was before certain psychic researchers found out that we had a subliminal that could tap all knowledge and draw at will from a cosmic con- sciousness. Shakespeare introduced the ghost, some- what freely implying spirit return, and that is the biblical and age-long interpretation, but the telepa- thist would have us think that the spirit world is not at all necessary and would exclude all reaction and visitants from such a world. WHY NOT GO ON AND EXPLAIN AWAY ALL THINGS AS FORMS OF SOCIAL TELEPATHIC SUGGESTION? Now it seems that having gone so far, it is fitting to take one more step and inquire — Why not ex- plain away all things as forms of collective tele- pathic hallucination? Why not write telepathy over all things? First we fool ourselves and then we fool others, and consistently we might go on and fool our- selves and others to the limit. What is the idea of God but a social telepathic suggestion, and this outer world of phenomena but the unsubstantial fabric of a dream? Can we fur- nish absolute demonstration of the existence of God and of the concrete reality of our surroundings? Then why babble of these things so seriously? Why not get rid entirely of this superstitious notion of spirit (for as long as God is spirit there is danger 184 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT that we are spirits by kinship), by asserting there is no foundation to existence but telepathy? By fool- ing the mind and hallucinating the various senses you can neatly explain away everything. We are dream creatures in a dream world. Sometimes we think of ourselves as awake and sometimes as asleep, but it is all the same; people and things are only a phantasmagoria, a succession of telepathic images which we mistake for reality. Telepathy attenuates all things into nothingness, all religion, all theology and philosophy, all notions about a future life. Everything runs into telepathy at last as the rivers run into the sea. And now we may write " finis " to extended telepathy, for it isn't necessary to extend it any farther. CHAPTER XI TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE FROM THE SPIRITISTIC THEORY But lest we accept this conclusion too hastily, we might note a few things more that do not tend to this conviction. In the first place, let us note that in this gradual and amazing telepathic extension from simple mental coincidences to the labored inclusion of all psychic manifestations, even those highly au- thenticated and of most refractory type, we have all the marks of a subterfuge to meet an anti-spiritistic emergency. It is so evidently convenient as a refuge for the spirit sceptic, that one is led to suspect more and more, especially in reading the writings of Mr. Podmore, that it does not belong so much to the natural order as to the artificial order in the interest of controversial necessity. Mr. Podmore' s last book, " The Naturalization of the Supernatural," with its palpably outworn distinction between natural and supernatural, would be far more truthfully desig- nated — " The Artificialization of the Natural." For that is precisely what the book does ; it takes spiritual phenomena which belong to the realm of law and order and deprives them of all vitality and prophecy by a process of artificial and materialistic mind imposition. Mr. Podmore has well been termed " a professional sceptic." The question was once 185 186 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT put to him, it is claimed, what he would regard as evidence of the spiritistic theory, and the reply was he did not know. Dr. Hyslop writes (Am. Jour. S. P. R., Vol. Ill, page 152) : " Many accept its pos- sibility (telepathy) in order to avoid any sympathy with the evidence of spirits, but this is a subterfuge to gain respectability. In so far as the data, that is, facts and arguments, are concerned, the proof of spiritism is far larger in quantity and quality than that for telepathy." " It is only the superstition that anything is scientific but spirits that keeps up this stretching of telepathy." There is a grave danger in running so easily to this subterfuge of extended telepathy not fully realized. We may, as already hinted, escape spir- its altogether — not to admit any spirit interposi- tion whatever, is dangerously equivalent to not ad- mitting the existence of any spirit world whatever. For if there be a surrounding spirit world, it is in- conceivable but that there should be some manifesta- tion of that fact in some form, or that world in the minds of many thinking people at least becomes more and more coldly remote and supposititious. The uni- verse is too closely and compactly knit together to admit of any such absolute disjointing. The Bible abounds in evidences direct and implied of spirit agency and appearances, and only the conventional veil of supernaturalism conceals this truth from the common reader. Let one suspend his conventional impressions of the angel stories and sacred legends of the Bible, so rich in their spiritual appeal, as iso- lated and supernatural events, and devote to them a little first-hand and unbiassed study with the help of TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 187 such a book as " A Careful Comparison of Biblical and Modern Spiritualism " or " Primitive Christian- ity and Modern Spiritualism " ; and he will surely gain new light on spiritualism in the Bible. And to utterly ignore or deny spirit presence or agency dangerously approximates a denial of re- ligious origins, and of spirit survival. Such a telep- athist as Mr. Bruce may still cling to the hope of survival, but, as Dr. Hyslop has observed, on what evidence no one knows. WHAT SHALL WE THINK OF A SUBCONSCIOUS INTELLIGENCE CAPABLE OF SUCH FIENDISH DECEPTION? To this we add that in the exercise of sober thought and common sense, it is exceedingly difficult for us to believe that any part of our nature is pos- sessed of any such extraordinary powers of eliciting information and such diabolical ingenuity in cover- ing up its tracks. Why should it cover up its tracks anyway? What game is it playing? What is the object of all this spiritistic assumption and lying? Are we in essential conflict with ourselves, and has the goodness of God set our members at war with one another? Certainly Christ's words would seem to apply here : " Every kingdom divided against it- self is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." We think we behold a Promised Land and all the guide books point to it, and the next thing we discover it is all a mirage, a vision conjured up for our delight and then deeper despair by some submerged and diabol- ically deceptive part of our personality. 188 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT What shall we think of such a nature? What shall we think of a nature, though it be our human nature, that in the most subtle and tortuous of ways professes to bring us into communion with our loved ones in the spirit, and assumes continually and most earnestly and solemnly that such are the conditions, and supports this assertion with identifying detail and sacred memories to satisfy the most exacting? What shall we think of a nature that can rouse our highest hopes, and build up a heavenly vision of life onward and upward such as no apocalyptic ever set forth, and then at length turn upon us in mockery and outrage all that is highest and holiest in us? And those of us who have come into this great and satisfying experience of spirit communion, and with a personal atmosphere at peculiar times which the earth life did not afford, are we to deny our own consciousness "and intelligence here and be persuaded by the spirit sceptic that this is all illusion? And is it a part of all this foolery and self-delusion that man has dared to assert and repeat all these cen- turies — " So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he them " ? And if man is in a conspiracy to deceive himself, what can we be- lieve anyway? And what is there about us worth immortalizing? Certainly not the subliminal part, as Hudson proposed and Bruce assumes after him. I cannot forbear quoting again here from Dr. Hys- lop (Am. Jr. S. P. R., Vol. 2, Page 340), and I do it with full conviction of the critical authority that pertains to such first-hand experimental work as this investigator has carried on for many years. " This intelligence knows what facts to select to palm off as TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 189 memories of deceased persons, and yet with all this in- telligence it either does not know their real source or it is lying about where it gets them. Its assumed ignorance of the source is incompatible with its nec- essary knowledge about their pertinence, and we can- not but attribute to it a monumental amount of lying about their origin. There can be no doubt that this assumed telepathic process asserts that the facts come from spirits, and its intelligence in selecting the right facts to deceive us must naturally be re- garded as fiendish and devilish." And Dr. H adds that " the appalling character of the devilish- ness involved in any other theory might lead us at least to tolerate that view [the spiritistic] as one to think about as an escape from a terrible indictment of nature." And in conclusion it is impossible to believe that God our Father who enjoins His children to put away guile, should so arrange the spirit world and our relations thereto, and should so fearfully and de- ceptively construct our inner being as to lead us into endless delusion and mocking promises and blasted hopes. If such is the cosmical arrangement, it looks like the work of some cynical, pessimistic, and mock- ing Mephistopheles and not of God our Father as we have learned Him elsewhere. But God is not mocked, neither does He mock His children. In this great quest for a spiritual foundation, which God Himself has inspired in the minds and hearts of His children, it is impossible to believe that He has so beset the way with snares and pitfalls that we are forever stumbling and never reaching the goal. 190 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT IS THE SUBCONSCIOUS ACTIVITY OF OUR NATURE AN INDEPENDENT EGO WITH NO LIMITATIONS? We have referred to extended telepathy as a sub- terfuge, and of the fiendish deception of telepathic subconsciousness. And our third point must be this — Is the subconscious activity of our nature an in- dependent ego? Does it have no limitations? Can it roam up and down the earth, so to speak, in inde- pendent fashion, extracting information from a world consciousness (whatever that may be), and so be able to simulate all dead people and to fool forever the deepest searchings and the tenderest hopes of human- ity ? Let him believe this who can, but whether his bias be scientific, dogmatic, materialistic, or Phara- saic, it is a bias we need not envy. But the question seems to force itself here. We have read such wonderful accounts of subconscious ways and pranks from telepathic romancers, that we somehow get to thinking of some entity, a queer self who is a near neighbor and yet a stranger, and who does most unaccountable things and unless we look out for him will utterly deceive us. How shall we conceive of this new phase of our nature? Do we have here an independent ego with unlimited credit? Now the subconsciousness is defined as a sort of reservoir in which is stored up the things learned through education and experience and received through the normal channels of sense, and also as possessing a limited dynamic power that economizes and enlarges the operations of the upper consciousness as in the automatic action of piano playing. This is evidently and undoubtedly the great function of this phase of our nature — to serve as a storehouse of ex- TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 191 perience and character and to strengthen and aug- ment our active life by automatic habits. The other extraordinary and unheard-of powers which have been delegated to it of late years have been clearly in the interest of anti-spiritistic bias. Dr. Hyslop points out that in the whole history of the subcon- scious from " unconscious cerebration " down, it has been associated with strict limitations. He also points out the great importance of clear thinking and definition in the matter of the subconscious and of secondary and multiple personality so called. And he criticises Mr. Bruce in these words : " The author shows an entire misunderstanding of the whole prob- lem of the ego and the personality." It is insisted first of all that the ego is always a unity, the totality of being, the subject of all con- sciousness, the entire being of man in short. But the easy telepathic treatment of this matter leads one to think that his soul is not his own, and that so to speak we may have seven distinct individual devils wrapped up within us somewhere after the manner of Mary Magdalene. Now it is strongly insisted that the subconscious is not the ego, nor a division of the ego, nor an individual entity by itself, but is a name only for certain functional activities of the ego. It helps to clear the air to perceive clearly what we are talking about. The ego may function on a high plane, it may descend to a low plane ; this is common experience, and in case of certain dissociations it may function quite differently as A., B. and C. But the ego is always intact, the sum of all functions, the soul is one's own. And though functioning on a low plane in dissociation and disordered and unbal- 192 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT anced in various ways, when the healing comes the ego rights itself and the submerged normal function- ing is restored. But how does the telepathist treat the ego and the subconscious functioning? We get the impression of split-up egos and we wonder if we ought not to say — " My name is legion, for we are many." And to the self, functioning subconsciously, is allotted such a degree of independence and domain as to war- rant another scripture — " Ye shall be as gods." This functioning has been given quite an independent existence of its own, it has been given irresponsible freedom to go and come " whithersoever the governor (that is the telepathist) listeth," and however great the psj^chic task set before it, it must be able to give some account of it. The result is, we have come to hold a vague notion that this unnatural perversion of subconscious ^functions is another ego, and to this alter ego we are linked partly as to an automatic servant and partly as Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde with the latter's powers greatly extended. And this in- dependent functionary will magically explain away all spirits and thus relieve science and dogmatism of this disturbing superstition, and Hudson assumes that as "the subjective self" it may be independent enough to survive bodily death. But it is a question whether we should be grateful to Mr. Hudson for this concession. Now for all this we believe as the most eminent phychic researchers hold, there is no evidence what- ever. And we have in mind those especially who have not merely theorized in their study chair, but have devoted long years to psychic demonstration and TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 193 have won their way through all obstacles and prepos- sessions at last to a firm faith in spirit and spirit return. While the subliminal holds the treasures of memory and experience, and in its automatic and in- spirational reactions economizes effort and brings to our help the accumulations of the past, it is most strongly affirmed that it is no such independent entity as to do the business of the telepathist and to select and send whatsoever message it will. In telepathy, says Dr. Hyslop, " absolutely all the evidence is for the influence of the normal and supraliminal con- sciousness on the percipient." Let telepathy have its reasonable due, has been the attitude of such investi- gators as Hodgson, Hyslop, Lodge, Myers and others, but it is maintained " there is not a single case among the many thousands in which we have any evidence that the message was subliminally sent." Even if prolonged experiments necessitate some ex- ception to this statement and we postulate sporadic cases of subconscious or unconscious telepathy under peculiar circumstances of stress and emotion, it would by no means justify such enormous powers and universal psychic application as the anti-spiritistic theorizer requires for his case. It is a truism that a general working rule at times admits of an exception, such is the flexibility of all things. And when it comes to the highly selective and complex and tran- scendent nature of trance communication, we must absolutely excuse ourselves from following a subter- fuge. We must be excused from a subterfuge that would nullify our rational and straightforward con- clusions, that would seal the gates of the spirit world with a bias, and would make a certain useful 191 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT and limited functioning of the ego act the parts of the serpent and the tree of knowledge and an inde- pendent and irresponsible alter ego besides. A FEW TESTIMONIES ON THE TELEPATHIC ASSUMPTION Take the testimony of an amateur investigator (Hibbert Jour., Oct., 1913.) " Just how strong the evidence for the reality of spirit return and for the genuineness of communica- tion from those we call dead, only those who have some familiarity with the hundreds of pages of de- tailed accounts which have accumulated giving identi- ficatory data, are in position to judge." Fabrica- tion the writer considers out of the question, and then adds : " To ascribe these communications to sub- conscious personalities involves an extension of mul- tiple personality to meet this form of argument simi- lar to the extension of telepathy to explain the refer- ence to detailed events. There comes a time at last when such elaborate straining to avoid an undesired conclusion must give way." Dr. Hodgson in reply to a friend who had inquired if there were any theories alternative to the spirit- istic, wrote: " Various fool hypotheses may be put forward which by the perfectly rational mind might be regarded as conceivable but not credible. That is, they appear so highly improbable that they do not affect appreciably the practical certainty of the spirit theory, but they prevent its mathematical cer- tainty." And Dr. Hodgson's opinion, won over as he was from a position of scepticism, and noted for the keenness of his pioneer research and serving so TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 195 many years as S. P. R. secretary, is entitled to great weight. He also put on record this emphatic word — " Having tried the hypothesis of telepathy from the living for several years, I have no hesitation in affirm- ing with the utmost assurance that the spiritistic hypothesis is justified by its fruits while the other hypothesis is not." And the eminent psychic authority, Dr. Hyslop, in a critique of Mr. Bruce remarks (Amer. Jr. S. P. R., Vol. 2) : " His perfectly enormous telepathy, with apparently infinite powers of selection, with perfect command of all human consciousness for simulating the existence of dead people, cannot read the mind and memory well enough to make money out of the stock market." ..." We have no evidence whatever that one mind can read the memory of another." Again Dr. H in speaking of our subliminals as a sort of independent self, and carrying on conversa- tion with each other in utterly unconscious fashion, and filching information from minds at a distance " with all the capacity of Deity and all the devilish- ness of Satan," adds : " If you ask me whether I believe in any such hypothesis I should answer em- phatically that I do not. I do not even admit its possibility as suggested by evidence of any kind. Scientifically it is preposterous. . . . But I have called attention to it for the purpose of showing how little sense of humor and intelligence its advocates exhibit, when they suppose that it sets aside the credi- bility of spirit existence." " If we are going to in- dulge hypotheses of explanation at all, it [the spiritistic] has a thousand rights where telepathy 196 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT has one, and this merely on the ground that it actu- ally explains while telepathy of any kind does not." (Vol. &, Am. Jr.S.P.R.) Dr. Savage well says here — " The law of parsi- mony demands that the nearest and easiest theory which will explain the facts should have the prefer- ence. That is, a strained or farfetched theory must not be dragged in where the facts can be explained by an easier or more natural method." Mr. W. T. Stead gives this interesting testimony : " Her name [Miss Julia ] is of course perfectly familiar to me, but in a dozen years, out of scores of psychics and mediums of all kinds, all of whom on the tele- pathic hypothesis ought to have had no difficulty in reading her name in my mind, only two have ever been able to tell me her surname." The spirit com- municator does not get the name through unless he has knowledge of it. THE FATAL LACK OF PERSONAL PSYCHIC EXPERIMENT It is significant to add here that the gravest charge that is made against those who so freely handle and expand the telepathic assumption, is the lack of first- hand knowledge or the lack of patient, long-continued experimental work. If all psychics are frauds, con- scious or unconscious, they naturally have little in- terest for the spirit sceptic. Mr. Bruce has been criticised as depending largely upon book knowledge for his data, and that to this fact are due his limita- tions. Nothing of course can take the place of the long-continued and many-sided experimental work of such psychic investigators as Hyslop, Myers, Lodge, TELEPATHY AS A SUBTERFUGE 197 etc. In the removal of the sense of strangeness and personal prepossessions, in the sense of reality and humanness, in short in the matter of those deeper persuasions and convictions which gradually seize upon you and hold you as in the realities of daily human intercourse, in this deeper personal sense nothing can take the place of direct and open-minded spirit communication. If the traveler has seen Lon- don and visited its points of interest and felt their historic charm, you may invoke all the dialectics and telepathic crookedness in the books, but how will you convince him it was all illusion? " One thing I know that whereas I was blind, now I see." CHAPTER XII LET US NOW COME TO THE SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION We have given this much space to the telepathic discussion, for it seemed necessary to clear the ground. But it is a relief to come back from these vagaries to a natural and sane view of the situation. If one has had experience in psychic work, he knows very well that there are a multitude of cases (and it is to be noted, many of the cases cited by the telep- athist for his own purpose) in which the spirit in- terpretation is the only natural and unbiassed solu- tion of the facts. At once it brings simplicity and harmony. We no longer strain after some psycho- logic complexity to degrade and nullify the phe- nomena. We are often surprised at the selective capacity and the organic unity of the communication, at times giving incidents and facts utterly unknown to us and afterwards verified, and revealing a glad and holy purpose of ministry and assurance and comfort. And it is a joyful and exalted surprise, the surprise of finding the natural order and con- tinuity of this life extended into the world of spirit. IT IS AN EXPLANATION THAT EXPLAINS And an explanation that explains has great signifi- cance and advantage, as the philosophy of evolution has found vast significance in giving a natural ex- 198 SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 199 planation of the universe and its unfolding and diver- sity. The spiritistic explanation gives us a process of intercommunication and causation which we might reasonably expect under the circumstances, it brings consistency into the psychic details, and with experi- mental work on a high plane united with critical study the explanation fulfills its claims more and more. And as before stated, there is present a per- sonal and dramatic quality which the book theorist knows nothing about, and which is especially notice- able for its absence in the psychic writings of this class. These may well be compared to the dogmatic utterances of a preacher who has himself no deep per- sonal experience in the matter he is preaching about. SPIRIT RETURN AND COMMUNICATION INEVITABLE It would seem to be inevitable on a spiritistic hypothesis of the universe — if God is Spirit, and man is spirit, and all things run into spirit — that there should be spirit communication in some form if not many forms. It would seem to be inevitable that our spirit friends should make an effort to make themselves known and express the fact of continued life and love, unless we relegate them to an utterly transcendent heaven removed by trillions of miles from a vile earth, or shut them up in an apocalyptic walled Jerusalem from which there is no egress. With how little critical insight do we read of angelic visitations in Bible times, if in easy conven- tionalism we assign them to a supernatural order. Ought not clergymen, for instance, to see as clearly here as the Rev. Heber Newton, who in a lecture on Ci 00 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT the legends of Genesis and in speaking of angels' visits in patriarchal times is reported to have said: " There may be other and higher beings than men, and communications may well be made from the spiritual world to human spirits in human form, and these tales may be only the poetic forms of such spiritual experiences." The spiritual history of man in all ages unmistakably indicates spirit communica- tion. Spirit return is inevitable, if we think the problem through. But how much longer is the old- time notion of heaven, rooted partly in the exclusive- ness of the pagan and Jewish heavens, and partly in the ancient antagonism of matter and spirit, and partly in the theological notion of a sin-cursed earth and that the farther we get away from it the better — how much longer shall this disjointed, unevolution- ary, utterly remote, accessible-only-to-the-elect, ec- statically beatific, unnatural and supernatural con- ception have sway in our imagination, cutting us off from the blessed sense of nearness of the world of spirit, and so clogging our minds that spirit return seems strange, weird, and impossible? CONSIDER FOR A MOMENT THE HIGH PURPOSE AND CHARACTER OF THE COMMUNICATION " The whole purpose of the work is to save the world from its woe by letting the light of truth shine on its face. It becomes an incentive to righteousness in its best and truest sense, and makes the brother- hood of humanity a real and dominant note in the progress of civilization." This is the high purpose expressed by one spirit communicator [Hibbert Jour., Oct., 1913] and the writer adds — " Shall we SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 201 interpret these utterances as a piece of unconscious shamming? " " I can say in truth that my whole moral nature has been purified and elevated by the influences which have flowed in upon me during the investigation of this subject. Others I am sure can say the same. There are those no doubt who have abused the whole thing, befooling themselves and others in a lamentable manner. What is there in the wide world that has wholly escaped abuse and perversion? " [Rev. Adin Ballou.] No doubt spirit intercourse has had its shadows as well as its lights, and there are psychic manifesta- tions of a low and crude order, and this fact we may well suppose found a certain expression in so-called sorcery, witchcraft, and possession. It is evidently a law in the spirit world that like draws like. An able psychic writer has said : " Again and again have the good spirits warned those with whom they wished to communicate to preserve prayerful inclina- tions, or the communications would be broken in upon by unprogressed spirits." Alfred Russell Wallace, in a late number of the London Light, is quoted on the moral incentive of spirit faith : " The spiritualist who becomes con- vinced of the absolute reality and complete reason- ableness of the future state, who knows that just in proportion as he has developed his higher intellectual and moral nature or starved it by disuse, shall he be well or ill fitted for the next life he shall enter, that as he indulges in passion or selfishness or the reckless pursuit of wealth, so does he inevitably prepare him- self for misery in that life, is impelled into a pure and 202 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT moral life by motives far stronger than any which either philosophy or religion can supply." By " religion " we may suppose is meant here the conventional type and conventional rewards and punishments. If out of personal experience we add a word, it will be a strong affirmation that in genuine spirit com- munication on a high plane the heart here and the heart over there are comforted and healed, the con- tinued fellowship with friends who have made the great transition is unspeakably blessed to both sides, the greatly strengthened assurance that our dead are still alive and not far off is something that makes life worth living, and all supernaturalism of the old order is gloriously surpassed by the living reality. More- over, we have here in these expressions a potential religious experience and exaltation of the highest value. And *one can but smile at the horrified notion of some good people about summoning back the dead. " Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the ground whereon thou standest is holy ground," should be our reverent conception in approaching the precincts of this higher world through the gateway of the psychic intermediary. The expression is incomplete and has certain limitations through its various media, but the common notion of triviality is far from correct, and the trivial itself in its evidential import is anything but trivial. There are few nobler and richer utterances for the inspiration and enlargement of life, for lighting up its horizon with endless hope and bringing vision and healing to darkened and bereaved souls, and for true freedom of the spirit, than are to be found in the SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 203 highest spirit teachings. And if we hear of contra- dictory and even irreverent reports from the other side, it may be said that on this side there are plenty of such oracles, and why not over there? We need not invite such oracles, and whatever their source we exercise our reason about them. But we need not timidly fear for Christian teaching and the Sermon on the Mount, for nowhere do the abiding things of religion as Christ gave them receive greater emphasis than here. SPIRIT TEACHINGS IN THEIR HIGHER ASPECTS We have heard the old objection that spirit teach- ings are anti-Christ. But what is really meant is that they are anti-creedal, anti-speculative. Spirit teachings have been under suspicion because they deal with the vital and essential things of religion as Jesus did rather than with extraneous dogmatics. That able expositor, Robert Dale Owen, in ad- dressing his book, " The Debatable Land," to the Protestant Clergy, writes that probably many of them are deterred from the task of discriminating in this field from the notion that such teachings are anti- Christian. But he adds : " If such spiritual com- munication be sought in an earnest, becoming spirit, the views presented will in the vast majority of cases be in strict accordance with the teachings of Christ. They touch upon many things indeed which he left untouched, but the spirit is absolutely identical. They breathe the very essence of his divine philos- ophy." A later writer (Henry Kiddle, A.M.) who treats this subject in the same broad spirit, declares that 204 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT the spirit teachings he received breathed the purest spirit of religious truth. " They correspond exactly with the teachings of the blessed Savior — those Beatitudes which ought to be written upon the tablet of every person's heart as his guide to virtue here and a glorious immortality hereafter. They inculcate Christ's great law of love to God and love to man. They teach the infinite mercy of God, that repentance always and everywhere brings the forgiveness of God." Take " the greatest thing in the world "— Love. And it is something to be remembered the emphasis that is laid in the higher spirit teachings upon Love and the Golden Rule. " In the next world Love ranks higher than what we call wisdom. There sim- ple goodness rates above intellectual power. There the humble are exalted. There the merciful obtain mercy. The better denizens of that world are chari- table to frailty and compassionate to sin far beyond the dwellers in this. There is no respect of persons. There, too, self-righteousness is rebuked and pride brought low." The highest spirit teachings are resplendent with the warmth and glory of love and service, even as was Christ's life upon the earth. Love is in the bud here with some promise at times, over there it is in the full glory of florescence, filling the heavens with its fragrance and beauty. The natural order and continuity of all life is of course emphasized in spirit teachings. And spirit teaching anticipated evolution in this respect. Death is a brief transition slumber, and life continues into the next stage even as it continues from one day to SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 205 another. " Our virtues, our vices, our intelligence, our ignorance, our aspirations, our grovellings, our habits, our prejudices even — all pass over with us," (what Swedenborg calls " our ruling loves "). The view has prevailed that life was a probationary affair in a rigid governmental scheme, and death closed the books and character became stereotyped. But such theological and paralyzing fatalisms find no confirma- tion in spirit teaching. Spirit teaching interprets the future life in the terms of unity and continuity on all lines, we do not leave nature behind but all things grow over there as here. The Bible student literalist may still publish abroad the old supernatu- ral disruptions, and send us tracts on the literal resur- rection and the literal advent, and zealously inform us that spiritism is the work of angels who fell before the flood and that tartarus is the circumambient air of our planet. But it is a sadly wasted effort, for nature is against it. Contrast with this these signifi- cant words from a sermon by Rev. R. Heber Newton which well express spirit teaching : " It is the sheer- est audacity of dogmatism that undertakes to deny the endless possibilities of change in character." " Heaven and hell are not shut off from each other as we traditionally conceive of them." " When life sheds one body, it is but to grow another." When it comes to immortality, spirit teaching " speaks as one having authority and not as the scribes." We renew the evidence which Christ's dis- ciples enjoyed. " It brings immortality to light under a blaze of evidence which outshines, as the sun the stars, all traditional and historical testimonies." Is orthodox teaching enough here? Most assuredly 206 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT a great multitude of thoughtful souls do not find it so. " If we only realized," says one, " in what deep earnest millions on millions have longed for some sure token of another life with a longing past expression." And here is the immeasurable, unspeakable service which spirit investigation has given to the world — it gives us assurance in place of hope. Religion in its varying phases has hoped and believed in immortality, but psychic science in its reinforcement of religion demonstrates it. Take this feeling testimony of W. T. Stead in the recent book by his daughter : " I had always said I would never make my final pronouncement on the truths of Spiritualism until some one near and dear in my own family passed into the great beyond. Then I should know better whether spiritualism stood the test of a great bereavement bringing life and im- mortality to Jight. And I am here to tell you that the reality of my son's continued existence and of his tender care for men have annulled the bitterness of death. I myself have seen his materialized face. One friend has seen him at least three times fully ma- terialized, as was our Lord after His resurrection. When I realize the difference it makes to have this knowledge and to be without it, I feel I must testify to you as to the reality of the unseen world around us." The cry goes up day and night — " Where are the loved ones who have been removed from our sight? We see the cold, silent form before us, but where is the spark that made glad its being? Where, oh, where is that that recognized and answered to our love? " We may get along somehow when life is full and brimming SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 207 over. But when the shadow of the wing of the Angel of Death falls across our hearts, and a deathly sense of separation comes over us, then it is that we need assurance and healing. And then it is that spirit communion bridges the gulf, and meets the anguished need of the human heart. Take the ancient problem of evil. There seems to be a vague impression that spirit philosophy makes light of moral distinctions and obliquities, and that everybody goes to heaven so to speak. If such be the case, there certainly can be no moral sequence between the two worlds, and cause and effect in the moral realm would come to an end over there. But the old law that reaping follows sowing may not easily be set aside. A Persian story is said to represent the soul in the next life as confronted by a beautiful being, who says, " I am thy good deeds," and shadowed by an evil being who declares. " I am thy evil deeds." From the spirit John Pierpont, I will select this testimony : " There must be some souls who would desire oblivion, if it were possible to be bestowed upon them. There are some who are so miserable in the spirit land that they would fain curse God and die. But even these unhappy souls are not outside the law of progress." . . . Another noble spirit makes this utterance on this problem of evil : " Now when the criminal descends lower and still lower in crime, when his spirit has been deluged again and again with that which follows crime — that mental suffering, that unrest, that dissatis- faction — when I say it has been deluged again and again, by and by it begins to reason. The God with- out says to the God within — c Come and let us reason 208 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT together,' and the result is the man or woman begins to feel there is a better way, and that that way is for them as for others." This spirit believes there is a divine germ of pro- gression implanted in every soul by the infinite Father, and that this germ will eventually find its way to the light. From a series of well-authenticated communications conducted on a high religious plane, I select the fol- lowing ejaculations from a burdened and repentant spirit : " Help me to pray. I am a wicked spirit. God look upon me in my affliction ! Behold the sor- row of this wretched soul in the darkness of purga- tory ! My God ! for the life of me I cannot see my way. God is my Father. Show pity, good Lord." . . . Later on after earnest, sympathetic prayer with this spirit friend, the sitter received this message: " Oh, the light of heaven is dawning. Thank God ! " The writer added it was a wonderful presentment with dramatic vividness of his spirit friend writhing in con- trition for his misspent life, and finding inexpressible relief in prayer and the effort to turn to the light. Still later on came these words : " Believe me, I have suffered such punishment that I would have given my life to escape it. But alas ! I chose my own career and suffered therefrom. But God is gracious beyond expression, and after being relieved through prayer I was enabled to indulge in a faint hope which soon sprung into abundant trust. I have been lifted higher." . . . Here is another case. " Believe me, I have more than suffered, I have agonized in my state of pain SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 209 without the help of a soul to afford me relief. And what was the cause of all this? I cannot scrawl it black enough for my satisfaction — villainy." . . . But it is added — " Tell the people of the world that Boss Tweed is no longer a reptile. ... In sorrow of night I am waiting for bright day." The sitter, Henry Kiddle, Superintendent of New York City schools, who had known this bold and cor- rupt political boss in life, declares he could discern in almost every movement of the medium's hand the distinguishing traits of the man — force, decision, self-reliance, quickness. " May the Lord bless you and help you to protect me from the terror of contemplation. I never thought to be in this state. Horror of horrors ! I am surrounded by black darkness, so black I almost feel it. Good people, I ask your help, O pray for me. God deliver me, Amen ! " This also was from a spirit of " bad eminence " in his earth career, but who in the self-revelation of the spirit turned from himself in terror and sought the light. It is added that the medium here burst into tears and wept passionately and hysterically for sev- eral minutes. Certainly spirit teachings do not seem to reveal any royal road to heaven, or to be morally indis- criminative. The materialist, the corruptionist, the evil-minded man in the clear light of the spirit, come to a sorrowful and remorseful awakening. " When the bad man succeeds he fails, when the good man fails, he succeeds." Christ's words are confirmed — " If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." 210 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT But as a light in the darkness of retribution, I must add these noble words from a noble spirit on the re- demptive progress of the soul : " The soul is not forced into the better way through fear, but always through love. And love is always attended by wis- dom and justice. With these three angels no soul can for any great length of time remain in evil or spiritual darkness. All the consequences of evil are distinctly portrayed to the soul in all their power, and at the same time the consequences of a pure and holy life are portrayed to the soul. It instinctively chooses the better way, and if it is weak there are plenty who are strong to give the helping hand. There are no Levites in the spirit world. Good Samaritans meet you at every turn." Spirit teaching gives us new and needed light on the efficacy of prayer. Why is it we have forgotten to pray for ^our dead as the church anciently did? " If he had not hoped that they that w T ere slain should have risen again, it had been superfluous and vain to pray for the dead." II Maccabees 12 : 44. The reason of our neglect seems to be in our blind theo- logical fatalism. Here is the request of one spirit : " Pray for me. Ask all my friends to pray for me, for it makes me feel very much better." There is much evidence to show that our friends over there have an appreciative knowledge of our prayers. It is significant that Archdeacon Wilberforce at the outbreak of the Euro- pean war plead in Westminster Abbey for interces- sion for the wounded soldiers and the newly dead. " Wing them into the other world with your prayers. The dead always know when you are praying for SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 211 them." If we have come to a faith in the natural order of spirit, we shall pray for our friends over there as we pray for them here. Finally, what of the Bible in this connection? The Bible as a spiritual message of supreme impor- tance to the world is not in danger from any quarter. And psychic research and the higher spirit message are not concerned in superseding the Bible or in rash and indiscriminate strictures upon the Bible, what- ever the spiritualist bigot may do. (" There are other bigots than theological bigots, and quite as many bigots in Spiritualism as in any other ism," a wise spirit has said.) The higher spirit message is undoubtedly profoundly in sympathy with the spirit- ual message of the Bible and the deepest truths of the soul and religion. If we take Christ's essential teach- ings as evidenced in the summary of the law, the parables of the Prodigal and Good Samaritan, the Golden Rule, and the Sermon on the Mount, we find they cluster around two great words — love and service. And it is evidently and monumentally true that this is the great summary of teaching from the higher spheres. But let it be said that spirit teach- ing seems to be fully in accord with the best results of the literary criticism of the Bible, though we give to spirit teaching the priority here. Spirit teach- ing gives no support to a bibliolatry that would keep us in literalistic bondage to the Bible, that would make the book the absolute foundation of all religious hope and outlook, and that opposes blindly all devout criticism as though thereby our hope would be forever shattered. Spirit teaching gives no support to the infallibilism which developed after the Reformation, 212 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT to what we may call the mechanical, dogmatic, tradi- tional, superstitious Bible. Spirit teaching is utterly opposed to a Bible interpretation that would fetter the mind with iron creeds, and dogmatize a pagan hell with eternal punishment, and perpetuate a Jewish supernaturalism and fatalism, and assign the king- dom of this world to Satan, and denounce all psychic inquiry into the future as blasphemy. But it remains a simple thing to say that we need not fear for the Scriptures, its great spiritual testimonies are intact, the dross in its earthen setting will never conceal the gold, and it is the gold we dig for. But let us mind also — and we must insist here strenuously — that the Scriptures by no means supersede present-day spirit communication, but absolutely need to be sup- plemented thereby for the healing of souls and the renaissance and constant freshening of our faith in immortality. * And we must needs add that psychic science ren- ders a great service in renewing the Bible by reviving faith in its spiritual phenomena. The fascinating psychic stories of the Bible have long been hidden under a miraculous veil or interpreted as legends, but their true psychic character, spirit teaching has pro- claimed for many years, and there is no doubt this view is supplanting the old. We say again — It is an explanation that explains. And it shows clearly how religion, to an extent unsuspected or ignored by theology, has been influenced by spirit impact and communication from the spheres. Take such familiar manifestations as the appear- ance of the three angels or men to Abraham as he sat in the door of his tent ; the mysterious man who ap- SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 213 peared to Joshua ; the angel of deliverance who came to Gideon; the angel of the Lord who manifested to Moses out of the illuminated bush ; the conference of Saul with the woman (not witch) of Endor; the ap- pearance of a man's hand in the writing of judgment upon " the plaster of the wall of the king's palace " ; the preservation of the four men in the fiery furnace, the form of one of them like unto a son of God; the prayer of Elijah at Do than that the eyes of the young man might be opened to the spirit world; Paul's epoch-marking experience near Damascus with mention of spirit light and spirit voice ; the Trans- figuration experience and its evidence of presence of the spirit realm; the resurrection narratives in which Jesus suddenly appeared and disappeared, as on the road to Emmaus when " he vanished out of their sight " ; Peter's entrancement and vision on the house- top together with the appearing to Cornelius of a man in bright clothing ; the dramatic story of Peter's release from prison; Paul's transference in the spirit body to the spirit world, and his clairvoyant vision of spirit messengers, — all these accounts and more are undoubtedly to be classified as spirit phenomena. They belong to the natural order of spirit. Indeed it is claimed there is not a manifestation in the Bible such as listed that cannot be duplicated in modern manifestations and vice versa. " If those things were true in those days they are true now, if authentic then they are authentic now." It will not do to forget the unitary significance and continuity of life and the universe. The literalist and supernaturalist may feel of course the attach- ment to tradition and persist in the old interpreta- 214 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT tion, but it can only make more painful the day of disillusionment. What we should do is to thank God that the spiritual faculties of men have an altogether larger range than theological materialism on the one hand and scientific materialism on the other have given credit. Many things are emphasized in the spirit creed which have been overlooked in our credal convention- alities here. One truth strikingly enforced again and again is the power of thought — and thought power not merely in molding spirit substance but in molding character. There seems to be a creative and far-reaching power in thought which we only par- tially recognize here. "Long indulged thoughts of evil come at last to poison the whole soul," we are told, and when the body is cast off, the real state of the case is visible. Another constant testimony is the nothingness of things — of money, material goods, the station, pomp and circumstances of this life. " In these worlds money has no meaning." In the clearer vision of that life into reality, it comes to pass that many things " that are first shall be last and the last shall be first." While much more might be added to these great principles of spirit teaching, we may only add that the higher spiritualism should regain the ancient place and recognition it had in Bible times. Into the great historic stream of Christianity spirit teaching has infused itself to some extent, but its healing waters should be fully commingled therewith. In the terrible recrudescence of the war spirit in Europe, the unreality and hollowness of conventional and SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 215 court religion is painfully revealed. The world in its blind and brutal materialism has perishing need of a return to reality, to a clear vision of the spirit universe and its laws, and to a knowledge of the in- evitable sequences and retributions of life, and of the infinite Righteousness and Love in all things below and above. Only the everlasting reality of the natural order of the spirit can bring men face to face with themselves. " For Nature will avenge her cause On ilka creature, Who will na' take her, wi' her laws, For guide and teacher." CONSIDER THE MANNER OF COMMUNICATION OR THE TRANCE SITUATION And if man is first of all spirit, we can see nothing unreasonable about the trance situation, but on the contrary its delicate mechanism seems wonderfully adapted to serve the end in view. It serves the pur- pose of a living telephone between the two worlds. The voice and manner of the psychic control in auto- matic communication are as natural as in any ordi- nary conversation. There is distinctness of per- sonality in the control as in human life everywhere, and this is maintained through a long series and years of sittings. The peculiar inflections of tone and endless tokens of individuality that are better recognized than described, together with decided dif- ferentiation from the medium, are strikingly apparent to the psychic student in these matters. Prof. Bar- rett (" Psychic Research," by W. F. Barrett, F.R.S.) testifies to have recognized repeatedly in trance com- 216 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT munication " the familiar traits material and trivial, habits of thought and tricks of speech that betoken a personality or its vraisemblance still existing/' There is no evidence or thought of dreaminess or hypnotism on the part of the psychic, everything ap- pears exactly what it purports to be. HYPNOTISM AND SECONDARY PERSONALITY RULED OUT Dr. Hyslop emphatically rules out hypnotism and secondary personality from the conditions of trance communication. And we may well suppose that with his profound study of the problem and his exceedingly wide range of psychic experimentation, he is entitled to this judgment. Of the trance state he says: " I have never found the slightest traces of suggestibility as that is known to the practitioner. Any man who has the slightest personal knowledge of such cases can easily see that the phenomena have no essential re- semblance to hypnotic phenomena." In all his ex- periments with Mrs. Piper, Dr. H declares that he never found the two conditions of mediumistic trance and the hypnotic condition of psychiatry iden- tical in her. And this is also given as the testimony of Dr. Hodgson who spent eighteen years of experi- ment and observation with Mrs. Piper. If one has had any observation of the two conditions, it does not seem possible to confound them. It is interesting to note further a statement of Dr. Hyslop on secondary personality, that where indubitable cases of secondary personality exist, they never attempt phenomena like personal identity, and this is one of the means of detecting such cases. And further, the ordinary SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 217 simulation or representation of hypnotism and sec- ondary personality is all based on the normal sensory experience of the subject. That is, in brief, hypno- tism and secondary personality do not transcend the subject, but it goes without saying that the trance expression infinitely transcends the subject. Returning to the mediumistic trance situation — we are given to understand by spirit testimony and the clairvoyant seer that there is often detachment of the spirit body which yet preserves a vital connection with the physical. And meanwhile the spirit control possesses the organism more or less, and, if interpre- ter, as is often the case, expresses himself or herself by words and telepathic symbols as impressed by the spirit communicator, or the control may manage the entire expression. Unless we deny spirit altogether, it is simple, reasonable, and in fair measure under- standable modus operandi. The Hibbert Journal writer referred to states the case thus : " Only experience and familiarity can enable one to realize how the mechanism of spirit com- munication through mortal bodies comes to seem as definite and concrete a problem to be worked out under natural law as was the problem of aviation or the perfection of the telephone. The way the unseen spirit enters into the unconscious body, which is like a dead body to it, the need of practice to learn to control it just as the young child must practice to gain dexterity in the use of its limbs, the extent to which the spirit can see earthly objects when unat- tached or when working through the body of the medium, the gradual waning of the energy toward the 218 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT close of the interview ; " all these he concludes are matters of law and subjects of study and inquiry like any other phenomena. Spirit communication belongs to the great world of law and order. Further, in a matter which we may assume to be better understood on the other side than on this, it will be interesting to hear somewhat of the spirit in- terpretation of the situation. A medium, we are told, possesses a peculiar quality of magnetism and electricity, and is particularly sensitive to mind out of the body. The well-developed medium is surrounded with a peculiar atmosphere, and the spirit who can enter that atmosphere (for not all can) becomes at once in rapport with the medium. The spirit control acts upon the passive subject in various ways and degrees, while the subject may remain in a dormant state, but oftener it is said retires or is externalized from the form. The spirit control in the latter case possesses the organism or is absorbed, manipulating it to a certain extent and acting from within and controlling the vocal organs. Or the control may be more external, the spirit overshadowing the subject, and expressing and acting upon the instrument as the musician plays upon the organ. In inspirational speaking, it is claimed the spirit control simply comes into rapport with the conscious subject and impresses its ideas. In trance, the animal magnetism is not absent from the body for that would result in death, but the magnetic spirit body very often absents itself. Such in outline is the rationale of trance communi- cation from the other side. It is an exceedingly deli- cate operation and requires practice like all other arts SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 219 or mechanisms. It is all a part of the infinite diver- sity of nature, and according to the spirit of our quest, according to our levity or reverent earnest- ness, crude manifestations may be given or most lovely and exalted ones full of peace and assurance unspeakable. Let him who would draw nigh hither approach with the reverence and devoutness of Moses at the burning bush. PHILOSOPHY OF THE TRANCE SITUATION BY SIR OLIVER LODGE The psychic elucidations of Sir Oliver Lodge are always important, and his philosophy of the trance situation we will give here in substance. He begins with the radical relations of thought and matter. Thought of itself cannot move objects. It has to stimulate and work through the nerves and muscles of the living body, and through this medium it is able to move matter and is forever engaged in its rear- rangement. " By what means the stimulus gets out of the psychical region into the physical and liberates energy from the brain center, I have not the remotest idea, nor, I venture to say, has any one." But the operation is the commonest of all human experiences, thought is forever playing upon the brain as a musi- cian plays upon a key-board, and the psychical con- tent is forever translating itself into terms of me- chanical motion. But thought or psychic energy is social in its nature and is able to affect other minds, and by the external medium of air waves does this con- tinually in our conversation and speaking. And telepathy shows that thought transference may have 220 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT an even more spiritual quality, and the brain of the second person may be impressed in some way outside of regular channels. Now at death it is religiously orthodox to suppose that we shall give up this material mode of manifesta- tion for good, no more can we move matter, no more impress the minds of our friends. But does this sweeping assumption necessarily follow? It does not, if one of three things may happen. The telepathic power may continue after death, and the spirit intelli- gence may operate directly upon the mind here in such a way as to lead to some physical effect. This is spirit impression. And by the way, it is a simple statement to make that all the evidence shows that thought transference takes on expansion and power over there such as we can but faintly conceive here. Then the materializing power which enables us here to assimilate* various sorts of material and incorpor- ate them into our physical organism, may continue over there in a higher form. In this way, the claim has been strongly made that Jesus made himself ap- parent to the senses of his disciples after the resur- rection, and such materializations as that of " Katie King " testified to by Sir William Crookes are ac- counted for. And more likely still, it is asserted, the psychical unit may be able to detect and make use of some other, specially sensitive organism, so that the hand, or dur- ing the temporary vacation of the usual possessor the brain and nerves and vocal organs may be utilized for a time. And thus in a more or less unpracticed fashion, with mediumistic difficulties which forbid more than an incomplete expression and which we cannot SPIRITISTIC INTERPRETATION 221 fully appreciate on this side, the message is conveyed through this living telephone from spirit to mortal, from the world of spirit to the world of matter. Is there anything unreasonable about this? But how unreasonable it seems to talk over a wire, and to interpret a distant friend through the absurd click- ings of a telegraphic machine ! But run all this through the telepathic mill. We know the materialistic grist we shall get here. All things are strictly of the earth earthy, everything is reduced to dust and ashes, and as for spirits we need not look any further than to lying spirits within our- selves. And in place of a new sense of dignity and assurance and outlook, we wonder what the Lord had in mind when He made us so, and if it is worth while to think further of anything anywhere beyond, when He has so artfully raised our hopes here only to mock them at last in the cunning duplicity of our own being made in the image of God. What we get is a be- wildering complex of irresponsible theorizing and meaningless mockery, that distinctly adds to the pes- simism and materialism of life. CHAPTER XIII A TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE SCEPTI- CAL INTELLECT AND SPIRIT COM- MUNICATION " The formation of opinion is a curious matter. Rarely does it begin with patient and thorough accumulation of facts. It generally starts with a sympathy, a liking, or an antipathy." That there are various attitudes of mind toward psychic research and spirit return and communica- tion, needs no argument. The facts have been here all the time, but like other great truths as the Coper- nical theory of the universe and evolution, they have been slowly perceived in their significance and they are slowly adjusted in human belief. They have had to meet every conceivable form of scepticism and opposition from modes of thought long entrenched, and have suffered from mercenary perversions like other truths. But such a struggle and sifting process we may suppose make for a firmer establish- ment in the end. For convenience and brevity we might consider the relations of the sceptical intel- lect here under the four heads of scientific, dogmatic, materialistic, and conservative scepticism. There may be other forms of mental opposition, but these will do. 222 THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 223 THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE OF PROOF " I being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my mas- ter's brethren." It is well laid down that proof has its subjective as well as objective side. Clearly, it is not sufficient to marshal the facts and attempt to put them in persuasive form, but proof involves the responsibility and insight of the subject. Otherwise the old couplet will apply: " A man convinced against his will Is of the same opinion still." A good example, it seems to me, of a mind that recognizes its subjective responsibility toward the truth and treated the truth fairly, is Prof. Hiram Corson previously referred to. His son wrote of him : " The reality of this other world was believed in just as he believed in the reality of this world." He ap- plied the same standards of judgment to all psychic matters as he did to every-day life and the literature of the world. With the " insulated intellect," that deigned to look at the subject of spirit only to dis- prove, and whose research was wholly based on the assumption of fraud or a materialistic psychology — with this cast of mind Prof. Corson freely expressed his indignation and impatience. Now we can hardly gainsay that we may so recognize the subjective ap- peal of truth as did Prof. Corson, that when the time of visitation comes we shall meet a great truth not with the shock and repugnance of a smug com- placency in our system, but with the joy and liberty of a large discovery — a truth for which perhaps we 224 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT had long prepared and waited as Simeon waited for the consolation of Israel. SCIENTIFIC SCEPTICISM, AND HOW IT MISSES THE TRUTH Now when it comes to science, I think we are apt to take it for granted that in this domain of exact thought we shall find the open mind, the unbiassed at- titude, the impartial and judicial judgment on the claims of truth, and eagerness to authenticate the truth when its credentials are duly presented. That such is by no means the case, we learn after some ex- perience and observation. Too much cannot be said of the great mission of science in liberalizing religious faith, but in its long contention with the intolerance of dogmatism it has not kept itself clear from a bias and intolerance of its own. Sir Oliver Lodge made bold to accuse his brethren of a lack of sympathy and occasional hostility to more spiritual forms of truth. The materialistic trend of thought in scientific cir- cles but a few years ago is well known. And this agnosticism had the effect of imposing silence even on such great themes as God and immortality, while psychic research was considered disreputable and spiritistic claims were treated with contempt. Says Mr. Carrington — " Huxley, Tyndall, Faraday, Haeckel, all showed themselves highly prejudiced when it came to this subject, and worse still totally ignorant of the evidence that had been accumulated by others." A new idealism has come into science since those days, but it hardly needs to be said that this type of scepticism still exists. The scientific sceptic may THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 225 conveniently consign all psychic phenomena to fraud, or if he has honored the subject sufficiently to look it up somewhat, he is likely to prefer a labored theoriz- ing as the tortuous insinuations of telepathy to an admission of spirits. Nothing seems to be more re- pugnant to the scientific materialist than spirits. " Only keep spirits away from this earth and all is well," some one has said. And it is easy to see, if we reflect on the situation, that here is our real scepti- cism — unacknowledged scepticism of spirit, which means scepticism of the future life and its possibili- ties. Spirit is so unfamiliar and so outside our pres- ent material category, our narrow valley so limits the view, that anything beyond, a new world of higher order of substance, is passing strange to us. To the scientific materialist spirit is superstition, a primitive illusion, but it is quite possible that we have a worse superstition in making matter our fetish, our " all in all." We can only wonder when the material- istic telepathist gets to heaven, if he can ever persuade himself that he is there. It looks very much as if his mental habitudes must needs so overrule that he will deem it all a dream, a telepathic hallucination that must surely pass away. His mind so long inured to spirit scepticism and scientific credulity, may readily doubt the spiritual evidences about him as he re- nounced them in life. INTELLECTUAL SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS The trouble with the scientific sceptic is intellec- tual short-sightedness. He is sure to miss the truth. He interprets law too narrowly, he allows no margins for the mysterious unknown. We could sooner trust 226 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT the intuitions and plain sense of an honest and earnest spiritualistic layman in his search for the truth here, than the laboriously narrow conclusions of the theo- rizing sceptic. " Who by searching can find out God? " How little did Paul know about the spirit body and world till after his Damascus vision ! And how little was the mind of Festus, with its hard and worldly limitations, able to apprehend Paul's vision when he cried out to him that he was beside himself ! And likewise it is temptingly easy for the isolated in- tellect, with its scientific and academic prejudices and respectabilities, to miss the great truth of a present spirit world. Such a world cannot be revealed to the inhospitable mind. Subject a mother's love or the perfume of a rose or lily to simply the psychological or chemical tests of the laboratory, and what is re- vealed? The pride of intellect may coolly scrutinize the reports W psychic phenomena in its study, and resolving them into fair psychologic terms of the ma- terial life stow away the entire lot in its telepathic pigeonhole, but what it may see is dust and ashes beside the real soul of the truth which is destined for- ever to elude all such search. It is the story of Strauss over again, who having made up his mind that an apparition was a miracle and impossibility, rejected the fact of Christ's resurrection or his after- death appearances. Telepathy explains all things, believes all things except spirit, and comprehends all things in its little measure, and with the air of a magician assures you there is nothing here outside of the mundane. It is all so simple. Some telepathic sceptics do not admit the future life, while others express incidentally the THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 227 idea that man's subconscious functions may entitle him to survival. There remains the possibility that we may get to heaven through telepathy. THE ELEMENT OF RESPECTABILITY IN OUR INTELLECTUAL MISS OF THE TRUTH Another element in this intellectual miss of the truth might fairly be stated, as it sometimes has been, as the element of respectability. It seems to be good form not to mention psychic matters in certain sur- roundings, least of all the word " spirit." A proper thing is to be sceptical and perhaps condescendingly cynical about all matters of the psychic realm, and even the future life may be under the ban, and the proper thing is not to discuss it or bring it up in com- pany. If you want to hold to your respectable, orthodox bringing-up in the matter that will do very well, but keep the whole matter out of sight and do not allow yourself to betray the slightest interest in it. Of course with the earnest seeker of the truth or the pioneer spirit, the mere attitude of good form, which has blocked the way of about every command- ing spiritual truth, will pass for what it is worth. THE HEART HAS ITS RIGHTS AND MUST BE HEARD But it is significant that the scientific sceptical in- tellect fails to take the heart into its counsel in its search for the truth. The heart has its rights and must be heard. The lines of Tennyson are familiar : — " A warmth within the heart would melt The freezing reason's colder part — 228 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT And like a man in wrath the heart Stood up and answered, ' I have felt/ " When mind, and heart and the subtlest intuitions of the soul are in conflict, the heart is often destined to win. It has been so with the burdensome and refrac- tory dogmas of theology. The heart may hold its own by a superior law in spite of seeming irreconcile- ments and protests of the coldly critical faculties, and at last when the fogs and mists that more or less obscured the outlook have cleared away, its day of vindication comes. It cannot be otherwise with this great and vital and most commanding issue of com- munion and communication with our loved ones who have passed into the unseen. The human heart is demanding its response here more and more and must have it. %ii Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted, because they were not." Orthodoxy cannot or does not meet the exigency, it is slow in appropriating new truth, and it is slow in recovering this lost truth of the early church. At present it has to confess its shortsightedness and utter inability to construct the future. Science at its best has done much to prepare the way, but merely critical study with no vision beyond materialistic standards and measurements and no greater interest than to establish a scientific dogma, this is the last thing that can ever bring inspiration and satisfaction to the soul of man. " Oh, we have learned to peer and pore On tortured puzzles from our youth ! We know all labyrinthine lore, And know all things but the truth." THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 229 Meanwhile the heart will be heard, it insists upon a certain guidance in great spiritual matters that vitally concern it, and from its inner sanctuary it sheds an effulgence of its own upon the path of life. There is a light that was never on land or sea, which the critical probing intellect does not give, it is the light the soul emanates at its highest and best, the light that lights up the way between the soul and God, and between the two worlds or the human heart and its loved ones over there. And the theorizing intellect that cannot see beyond its materialistic psy- chology has no power to extinguish this light. The heart in its high and holy impulses does not vitiate the truth, but is absolutely indispensable in the dis- covery of the highest truth. The heart will come to its own, and love is destined to bridge all chasms. DOGMATIC BIAS AND THE SPIRIT WORLD A more common phase of the sceptical intellect here, is the mind held fast by ecclesiastical and dog- matic prepossessions instilled by long training and revered associations. Such a mental type will not easily be hospitable to any truth not congenial to the old order, and if summoned to meet a larger truth with disturbance or disruption of some cherished con- ceptions supposed to be final and conclusive, may strongly react. Of course much depends upon the temperament of the individual and broadness of out- look. If one's motto is " Think and let think," as Dean Brown of Yale asserts of the religious mental attitude of the Pacific Coast, then the advent of a larger spiritual truth in the divine order may not awaken such antagonism but that it may receive some 230 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT degree of fair examination. But we well know that not all minds have their windows open toward the east. A mind may be so intolerant and self-opinion- ated that it will militate any and all things that offend the conventional and transcendental concep- tions imbibed in its particular church atmosphere. The most depressing scepticism is not always outside of the creeds but within the creeds. A well-known writer says on the matter of evi- dence : " I know men, who, if you should offer them evidence in a certain direction, would in a lordly fashion with a wave of the hand sweep it out of exist- ence. They will not go two steps to see whether you have any evidence or not." Now this is not simply prejudice, it is deep personal bias or unreasoning bigotry. ^This spirit has happily much abated in the light flooding our modern life, but it is the spirit that misses the higher truth and has wrought untold mis- chief and persecution in history. THE OLD CONTROVERSY BETWEEN AUTHORITY AND REASON One fundamental cause of the dogmatic confusion and bigotry of the past still affecting the present, we may well set down as the exaggerated assumptions of ecclesiastical authority with the slur cast upon human reason. It is the old controversy between Abelard and Bernard. Bernard took the position that in- quiry should be altogether banished from the prov- ince of religion. Abelard ventured to suggest that it might be well to inquire somewhat into the reason of things. In the development of this long struggle be- tween authority and reason, the church instinctively THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 231 denounced rationalism, which term came to have an evil repute, and prescribed terrible penalties for those who presumed to set human reason above her author- ity. This could not but result in the exaggeration of the dogmatic spirit and the inflexibility and exclu- siveness of the creeds. But the despotic reign of dogma is by no means what it was, and the mind of man is learning to rea- son about its relations to the universe as never be- fore. Human reason, notwithstanding its limita- tions, is our guide in the practical affairs of life, it is a divine guide which God himself has given us, and our guide it must be in the interpretation and accept- ance of the highest truths of life. Reason is to be disciplined and clarified, but it is our final interpreter of life and truth. If we cannot depend upon reason, though we make mistakes and have to learn by our mistakes, really what have we to depend upon ? And history and science and literary criticism have shown us unmistakably that church and Bible cannot speak ex cathedra as once, that they are not literally and finally authoritative in themselves, but are to be in- terpreted always by the enlightened reason. " The reason which we have in human life is the oracle that stands between our God and ourselves, al- ways pointing the way." This is spirit testimony, but it seems reasonable. If one prefers to put reason in the background and follow ecclesiastical authority without reason, we do not covet their position. THE DOGMATIC ASCRIPTION OF ALL PSYCHIC PHENOMENA TO SATAN AND DEMONS But with this explanatory beginning, let us pass at once to the relation of the dogmatic spirit to psy- 232 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT chic teaching. In a late article on spiritualism by an English rector, circulated in " The Fundamen- tals," all spiritistic phenomena and teaching are cheerfully ascribed with a show of Biblical learning to Satan and seducing spirits. He asserts that spirit communication is sternly forbidden by God, that God would destroy those concerned in it, and its mediums God commanded to be stoned. Such a conception of God might well lead one to reflect a little, for it would inevitably include the ablest psychic research- ers and a multitude of earnest souls who have pro- foundly believed that divine wisdom itself has estab- lished this path of communication between the two worlds. The writer easily and solemnly ascribes to God the Infinite One all the " familiar spirit " legislation of the Old Testament, and which seemingly was formu- lated by the priesthood in the jealous interest of its prerogatives. It may well be that there were crudity and perversion in the mediumship of that age. But it remains that the priest has always been jealous of the prophet, and of any vision but his own, and when in power has put under stern penalties any mediation with the unseen except through his own appointed forms. " A man or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death, they shall stone them with stones," Leviticus 20:27. That the writer would seriously restore me- dieval authority to a text perverted so long in the in- terest of witchcraft delusion and its unspeakable horrors, reveals if nothing else the bias of his mind and his entire ignorance of any true experimental THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT £33 knowledge of the matter he treats. The dogmatic attitude that once looked upon all priestly legislation and every " Thus saith the Lord " as a veritable di- vine oracle has abated no doubt, but there is evidently something of it left. There has always existed this egotistical tendency to appropriate the Almighty on our side to the con- fusion of our enemies. It is exemplified among re- ligious zealots, and this strained assumption has been much commented upon in the despatches of a cer- tain ruler who has been looming large of late before the world. The writer of this anti-spiritistic article is much concerned that spirit philosophy denies or ignores the existence of a personal devil, of demons, and an- gels, of heaven and hell, of infallible inspiration, and the Genesis story of the fall of man, and the office and work of Christ, presumably as laid down in the Westminster Confession of his church. It is most evident, first of all, that there is no fel- lowship here with the great liberalizing movement of modern thought. And a bare sense of humor ought to show one that a devil made up so largely out of Milton's " Paradise Lost " and Dante's " Inferno " and so long rampant in the superstitions of the Mid- dle Ages, with demons borrowed from the demonology of ancient Persia and Babylonia, might be a good riddance after all. If the writer insists on peopling his imagination with these picturesque beings, or with the Jewish type of angels the court attendants and messengers of King Jehovah, or if he will have the unseen world in two vast compartments, a Jew- 234 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT ish, New Jerusalem type of heaven and a pagan hell with its unspeakably degrading and burdensome her- itage, he has his rights but he needs sympathy. Everything goes to show there is a moral separa- tion between the good and the really evil in the world of spirit, though with opportunity for progress al- ways open. But they are not separated by the neth- ermost bounds of the universe as Milton and Dante conceived. There is evidently a certain unity of the spirit world, though adapted to all degrees of spir- itual condition ; the universe is not infinitely disrupted in twain. The author quotes with disapproval: " All spirit people of wisdom, knowledge, and love say the^e is no burning hell, no fearful devil." Well, people differ in their religious views and tastes. But when shall we learn that a literalistic idolatry of the Bible is not so pious an enterprise as it seems on the surface, but is most degrading to the book ; and that it is a dangerous thing to appropriate all the truth and sincerity and godliness at large and leave noth- ing for those who have come to profoundly believe that the infinite Wisdom has some truth for us in psychic research. Christianity is not like the Nile with no tributary, but has in the past and will in the future, though it be slowly, take to itself new forms of truth. I have taken this case because it is of very recent date, and is a good illustration of a certain dogmatic attitude toward spirit philosophy. The famous anti- spiritualist argument of Prof. Austin Phelps (1871) was much more ably written, but it was before the days of psychic research, and the situation has greatly changed. His strictures on the vagaries of THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 235 the Spiritualism of his day we may well suppose to be just to a large extent. But while the professor holds up the objectionable features and perversions of the lower forms of Spiritualism or what has passed for it, he is markedly ungenerous in ignoring the higher Spiritualism, and such an able and philosophical treatment as that by Dr. Robert Hare, professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, he no- tices not at all. He conceded a certain basis of phe- nomenal facts, which he could not otherwise than do considering the well-known poltergeist performances at the house of Dr. Eliakim Phelps, his father, at Stratford, Conn. But he quotes with approval a saying of Pres. Day of Yale — " Either nothing is in it [Spiritualism], or the devil is in it," and he pushes to the front as " a sufficient cause " for all that Spiritualism has to offer the old biblical doctrine of a personal devil. In the days when the devil sufficed to explain so many things, this charge had some in- fluence, but to the intelligent psychic student of to- day, it is unworthy of the slightest serious considera- tion, and in fact has only an amusing and childish sound. " Credo " came later, and its writer, Dr. L. T. Townsend, admits there is a spiritualism of the Bible which the church has neglected to teach, and which implies the nearness of a spirit world, and also admits unexpectedly — " The effort of the church has been to banish the dead to the greatest possible distance from the earth." But against spirit communication through the gifted organism of a sensitive medium, he is violently antipathetic. Our spirit friends may visit us freely and make impressions directly upon our 236 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT brains or spirits, but this is the utmost permissible limit with Dr. T. ; there must be no attempt to voice a message through the mediation of the human organ- ism. Just why this psychologic limit is laid down is apparent when the author with great approval quotes the familiar priestly statutes of the Old Testament after the manner of the two previous writers. The living truth of to-day has thus no chance, if it clashes with ecclesiastical prohibitions of 3000 years ago and offends a bibliolatry that casts a halo even over the moral barbarisms of the Old Testament. The solution of Spiritualism in this book is of course — demonism. The writer renders II Peter 2:4, " God spared not the angels that sinned but cast them down to the atmosphere of earth." Our atmosphere, he assumes, is the home of those demons expelled in Satan's rebellion, and Satan himself is " the prince of the power of the air." Now if disposed we may take this ancient conception seriously, but the candid stu- dent knows that this is plain Christian mythology, and involves the Ptolemaic world system with God enthroned upon the firmament. But the passage served the writer's purpose and the setting did not concern him. He closes his indictment thus : " In the darkened circle man stands in another world, face to face with supernatural and malevolent beings — demons." This is as far as Dr. Townsend got. One must at once and heartily concur in the writ- er's condemnation of the delinquencies of Spiritual- ism, its excessive criticism of church and Bible in its revolt from orthodoxy, and in the early movement a free love agitation in certain quarters as a revolt, so THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 237 claimed, from marital and sexual tyranny. But we must add also that the writer is intemperate in his language, he lacks the restraint of Prof. Phelps, and he is blindly ungenerous in the acknowledgment of any truth. He charges Spiritualism as a treasonable plot against society, morality, and religion. " Noth- ing in society should receive a more bitter and scath- ing condemnation than medium spiritualism." What can we think of such biassed words as these other than the utterance of a fearful and jealous dogmatism? Spiritualism is justly charged with much intemperate language, but this surely will not be rebuked and allayed by similar indiscriminating and unjust charges from the defenders of orthodoxy. It seems to be the fate of all great revelations of truth to suffer many perversions. There is another curious blind spot in the eye of this writer. He applies to the spirit body and world a certain superstitious popular notion of ghostly un- reality. " Let us have done with spiritualistic and anti-scriptural notions which reduce the universe to gas and our deceased friends to atmospheric phenom- ena. We are not to become ghosts and nothings." There is a curious perversion of imagination in this picture, and the lack of knowledge it betrays of real psychic study and experiment and of the possibilities of the ethereal universe needs no comment. The dogmatic bias, we must admit, has found strong expression in the past at least. I cull the fol- lowing from an anti-spiritistic book expanded from an essay before the Providence ministers' associa- tion : " To seek unto mediums is to forsake God. We are to turn from them as from the path to hell. 238 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT Either the Bible is false, or the wrath of God is de- nounced against this whole system with all its abet- tors and agents " (Page 142, etc.). It certainly seems rash to put the Bible on so un- certain a foundation. As a contrast to these rather violent words, I quote the following recent utterance from the psychic stu- dent, Mr. Hereward Carrington, whose first-hand and critical knowledge of Spiritualism and of its parasitic exploitations it would be hard to excel. " And its philosophy we find to be what the broad- est religion teaches, love of God and of humanity, that* there is no royal road to heaven, that unselfish- ness, purity of conduct and thought are the standards for all, and by which all advance here and hereafter. In many ways spiritualism has accomplished vast good." (" Annals of Psychic Science.") It is fair to state here that the dogmatic bias does not find so general or pronounced expression now as formerly. The whole subject of investigation of the spirit world has taken on a scientific prestige and re- spectability which were formerly not accorded, and not a few ministers have reached a stable foundation of spiritual reality in these psychic demonstrations. Indeed the total influence of the psychic movement upon assurance of immortality is probably greater than has been credited. But it remains that the old bias is still in force in large quarters. THE OLD TRANSCENDENCE OF THE FUTURE LIFE AND ITS BAR TO SPIRIT TEACHING This account of the dogmatic influence would be THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 239 incomplete without a little supplemental reference here to the transcendentalism of the future life. This is well set forth in a story worth repeating for the point at issue, in which the minister's wife was con- cerned about recognition in heaven. On questioning her husband, the reply, after the fashion of the day, was that he expected he should be so absorbed and enraptured in contemplating the glory of God that he would not be mindful of her existence or of anything else for the first thousand years. The poor woman felt uncomfortable as well she might. Such a state of ecstatic absorption and bewildering glory doubt- less seemed a sudden and tremendous jump from the human touch and home-likeness of her surroundings. And the unsocial element of the strained reply was disturbing. We can but feel that only confusion and paralysis could result from such a revolutionary breaking up of all life's continuities. A spirit communicator has said, " I used to think sometimes that it was the human element in the com- munication that made the religious world balk at their acceptance. If the agonized cries of souls in Purgatory or triumphant strains of saints in Para- dise had broken through the blue, the church would have found its verification and been with us." And undoubtedly such ecclesiastical representations of the future state, fostered by the great poems of Dante and Milton and by Bunyan's Allegory and fervid hymns and represented widely in art and painted window, have tended strongly to bias the mind in favor of the utter transcendence of the future and to rob it of all humanness and natural quality. 240 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT BUT IS THE LOSS OF THE OLD TRANSCENDENCE TO BE DEPLORED? It seems to be generally true that where scientific thought and knowledge enter some field previously but little investigated or left to tradition, we are called upon to modify our conceptions and perhaps in a large degree. We have a striking instance out of many in the light which science has shed upon the origin of man, with the consequent bearings of the evolutionary principle upon theological thinking. Tradition is always disturbed at first, but in the end is greatly transcended by the truth. And if spirit communication be valid, we must naturally expect some modification of our traditional and apocalyptic conceptions of the unseen world and the life contin- ued. And though the world of spirit so differing in nature cannot be reproduced for us in reality, yet some real knowledge such as we do obtain is worth a great deal of pious conjecture. We are assured from the other side that the actuality of the spirit abodes, their marvelous fitness to all conditions of progress, the multiplicity and congeniality of the interests and employments of the spirit worlds, the many mansions or the infinite spaciousness of the spirit universe, the vastly heightened powers of our being, and the in- creasing beauty and glories of the onward and up- ward course, surpass all possible imagery of seer and poet. Tradition fears that our hopes of immor- tality may be bedraggled, but the whole conception has been immensely ennobled and lifted to a higher plane, and freed from certain intolerable features, and given a certain unity and scientific consistency which were hopeless under the old order. How we THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 241 fear the light and are afraid to go beyond our half truths ! Sir Oliver Lodge has this to say : " The future state has been thought of as if it were altogether transcendental. It is not necessarily so at all. I do not consider by any means that it conveys a feel- ing of immediate vast difference and change, some- thing much more like terrestrial existence. It ap- pears to be a state which leaves personality and char- acter and intelligence much where it was. No sudden jump into something supernal, but steady and contin- ued progress, with many activities and interests be- yond our present ken. . . . We need not search after something so far removed from humanity as to be unintelligible." These words cannot but commend themselves to our reasonable self as wise and weighty words from an unusually wise and devout student of the unseen. Dr. Hyslop says on this point : " After the doctrine of evolution it is absurd to take any cross section of this process and assume that the next stage of it will mark an immeasurable distance and degree of progress. It is flatly against all the laws and analo- gies of nature to do this." " It is so different from what we deemed it would be. It is not a life to fear, but one to wonder at, and be constantly surprised and confounded." " It is better, but different, far different than what she thought. She had no idea of the reality of the spirit life, and it came as a joyous revelation to her." These are samples of many like reports from the other side. 242 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " The other side was all unknown, But as I slowly toiled along, Sweeter to me than any song My dream of visions to be shown. " At length the topmost height was gained, The other side was full in view; My dreams — not one of them was true, But better far had I attained. " For far and wide on either hand There stretched a valley broad and fair, With greenness flashing everywhere — A pleasant, smiling, home-like land." J. W. Chadwick. Prof. Barrett makes an interesting reference in his book " Psychic Research V to the reluctance of Mrs. Piper in her emergence from trance to relinquish her vision or to withdraw from the bright scenes of the spirit realm. At one time she addressed the friends about her with uncompromising frankness : " I don't want you. I want the other place. You look funny. You are ugly to say the least. I never. I wouldn't look like you. Are you alive ? There are others more alive than you are up there." Is the loss of the old transcendence to be deplored? Here are three brief extracts from as many different spirit testimonials on this point, and with these we forbear. " Your eyes cannot see, your ears cannot hear, neither can it enter into your hearts to conceive all the glories that pertain particularly to the spirit world. You may catch faint glimpses of its reality, THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 243 but the clear noon-tide glory of the reality you can- not understand, until you too shall become disrobed of the flesh, and shall stand gazing upon it through spiritual senses." " It is not a vague, unsubstantial, unreal world. No ! It is a world substantial and real. It is a step beyond this mundane physical world. It is the beau- tiful perfection of this world. If the rose is beauti- ful here, it is far more beautiful there. . . . We tell you again and again, there are beautiful things in the spirit world, trees, flowers, grasses, fruits, all that you have here are faithfully represented there. You may be sure of that." " There is music in the land of souls, so far beyond the music of earth's sphere, that were you this hour to be translated there, you would scarcely compre- hend it." (From " Flashes of Light.") We may rest assured that the new transcendence will far exceed the old, and truth will always hold its own and do us good and not evil. CHAPTER XIV THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT THIS LITTLE WORLD ALL THERE IS We have referred to a materialistic bias. And it is something to be taken account of; we can detect it in our thoughts as we come to the spiritual. The bald idea is — this little world is all there is, and * anything assumed to transcend this is superstition, stands above. If any evidence for spirit is offered with some credentials of authority, this undisciplined bias assumes that the whole thing is reducible to mat- ter. If there are those who find unspeakable per- sonal assurance and comfort in spirit communion, this native bias may set them down as visionaries and not well-balanced. In its secret heart it is sceptical, unconsciously perhaps, of any spiritual interpreta- tion of life at all. To some minds spirit and spirit philosophy seem to be inherently absurd, this world of matter is so familiarized to perception and so in- wrought into their life and seemingly so indispen- sable, they think they cannot think out of it. " Spirit is the last thing I will give in to," said Sir David Brewster. With a conventional ecclesiasticism or dogmatism which themselves involve a large heritage of materialistic elements and ordinances, this type of materialist may find himself in sympathy. But to religious mysticism it does not take easily, and in psy- chic research it has no interest, and spirit philosophy it may look upon as strange and repugnant. 244 THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 245 THE FATAL LACK OF IMAGINATION Now the fatal lack here is, of course, imagination. It needs to be emphasized that there is a function of the religious imagination in our search for truth which cannot well be too much magnified. The sweep and far-seeing of the imagination may be likened to a view from a mountain top, it keeps us from seeing only the things near our feet. We may say there is no world but of the senses, and no truth but the bare facts of the materialistic life, but the world of the senses is confessedly limited, and material forms about us have a halo of mystery that passes into the unseen. We are under the tyranny of the fact. Prof. Richet confesses that his mind moved habitually along a road of materialistic facts. He was taught respect for fact, a habit of exact and prosaic ob- servation controlled by rigorous tests. Such a mind in the nature of things will find it difficult to rise above its hard path and bare surroundings into the more ethereal region of the spirit. But the fact is by no means what the materialist and literalist think it is. It is only a partial truth, a symbol, or an amalgam of some truth with much error, while the larger interpretation is unperceived and extends away into a world of unseen facts. We may say there is no truth in religion or in im- mortality but what is contained in the bare literal dogmas of the creeds, but here again there is a sad lack of spiritual imagination, and this is one great reason of the unsatisfactoriness and insecurity of formal creeds. They attempt to imprison that which cannot be imprisoned, they ignore the larger, elusive, imaginative element in spiritual truth, that is ever 246 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT hinting its existence like some angel spirit hovering about us and inviting us to further search. Take two instances out of not a few. In the ancient Atha- nasian creed, out of forty-two articles I have counted twenty-six devoted to a metaphysical exposition of the Trinity, and the creed closes with this injunction: " Let him therefore that would be saved think thus of the Trinity." And again the time-lingering doc- trine of a bodily resurrection has its origin and per- petuation in this lack of spiritual imagination, in lack of spiritual insight into our spiritual constitu- tion, and in the effort to make real in a gross physical way to the man of the world a life after death. Very impressively does the spiritual imagination teach us that we must make our creeds as we go along. What shall we say then? If the infinite Being of the infinite universe of to-day cannot be imprisoned or exactly defined in twenty-six phrases of materialis- tic, incomprehensible metaphysics, and if the truth is forever overleaping its literal and conventional bounds, what shall we say of the spirit world? In this progressive revelation of God out of the letter into the spirit, shall we look for any new light here? We will let the question answer itself. CONFLICT OF THE NEW WITH THE OLD And then there is a certain conflict of the new with the old we must just note. How inevitable this con- flict is and how historical has been its range, one can- not well appreciate till he has devoted some consider- able research into this attitude of the human mind toward new ideas and discoveries. The divine pro- gram for man is undoubtedly progress, and the divine THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 247 invitation has been in the words of Jehovah to Moses, — " Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward." But the conservative and reactionary tendency of the human mind has been to walk in the old paths, the ancestral ways, and avoid the strange and untried new ways. " Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, and walk therein," has been the cry. THE NEW HAS TO FORCE AND WIN ITS WAY The world is apt to resent anything to which it is not used; there is some disturbance and rearrange- ment of life involved, an uncertainty and alarm, which excite opposition. The remark is ascribed to Goe- the : " If any one advances anything new people resist with all their might, they speak of the new view with contempt, as if it were not worth the trouble of even so much as an investigation or a regard, and thus a new truth may wait a long time before it can make its way." It seems to be true that progress in the world on almost all lines has had to force its way. We might suppose beforehand that the world would put itself in the way of all progress and welcome every new truth and vitalizing idea, every enlarge- ment of human thought that tended to clear the way and bring new freedom and privilege to life. But we do not sufficiently reflect on the aversion and in- ertia of the human mind to change, and on the lack of clear understanding of the nature and fitness of the new truth in the scheme of life. The new has so often met with ridicule and persecution that it is an old story. Great reforming ideas and movements are not invited, but they have to win and fight their way 248 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT patiently against the older long-entrenched positions. We may perceive a certain divine economy in this, that the new has the opportunity to prove itself and free itself of errors and crudities and so establish it- self in the end the more firmly. But the world did not want any of them at first. New scientific truths according to Le Bon are not received on their merit, but are propagated by pres- tige and official position. And this is like a saying of Dr. Hyslop — " Good company is often more ef- fective than logic in establishing proof." It is said that Galileo thought to prove by experiment before the faculty of the University of Pisa, that bodies of different weights fall with the same velocity. He let fall at the same moment a small leaden ball and a cannon shot of the same metal from the top of a tower, and showed they both reached the ground to- gether. The professors, notwithstanding the visual evidence before them, appealed to Aristotle and re- fused to modify their opinions. Flammarion tells a strange story in " The Un- known " of the presentation of Edison's phonograph to the French Academy in 1878. An acadamician whose mind was stored with classical traditions, in- dignant at the audacity of the demonstrator, rushed toward him and seizing him by the collar cried out — « Wretch, we are not to be made dupes by a ventrilo- quist." And six months later in the same learned assembly, this scientific sceptic declared after a close examination that the instrument was nothing but an acoustic illusion and that it was impossible to admit that mere vile metal could give out the sounds of the human voice. And so we have scientific sceptics who THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 249 can see nothing in the whole field of psychic phenom- ena but hallucination. The new thing looks suspicious to us ; it is not in our philosophy of life, or in the religion of our fa- thers we think, it is a stranger and intruder and is to be treated as such. We doubtless have not entirely got over that primitive instinct which, it is said, led every community to regard a newcomer as an enemy, and an enemy to be despoiled and maltreated and even put to death. PROGRESS HELD TO BE OF SATAN It has been taught that God has ordained things to be as they are, to be as they are in religion and creed, and government and industry. All these things are divinely established it is claimed, priests and kings rule by divine right, and any questioning or meddling is of Satan. It is a great doctrine for tyrants and orthodoxies. Many utilizations of na- ture's forces and laws were regarded at first as pro- fane interferences with the divine order. The first fanning-mill, it is said, was " a wicked invention to raise the devil's wind," and the application of water for propelling a saw mill was a league with the same individual. And one of the common accusations against spiritualism and all psychic phenomena as we have noted, has been this old familiar charge of Satanic agency. A new idea in religion, a larger conception of the future life, or any spirit of inquiry and search must of course be a Satanic intrusion. The scientist cannot conscientiously subscribe to the devil, but he substitutes telepathy, which in his hands is only another name for the same agency. 250 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT The new idea ! how it disturbs our little world, and we find no place for it. The new light ! how we turn away from it. Is not the truth of our little system changeless and complete? Was not the light ad- justed once for all? Dr. Washington Gladden in a late number of " The Biblical World " tells an incident of a man of many degrees, president of a university, who, when asked if he had read any of the scholarly critical literature on the Bible, replied — " No, and I don't intend to. I got my views about inspiration settled when I was in the seminary and I don't wish to have them unset- tled." There are those still who seek every occasion to discredit and reprehend the whole critical and evo- lutionary movement of modern thought. They are aggressive and denunciatory in their propaganda of infallibilism and the old mechanical order. But with the writer quoted, we believe their sophistications are not good for the soul ; they tend to blunt moral vision and to make men narrow and petty and intolerant. Neither are such sophistications good for the soul when in passing from the old to the new we are brought face to face with the revelation of the unseen through physics and psychic research. THE DANGER OF REVERSION TO FORMER MENTAL HABITUDES Then there is the very present danger of reversion to former dominant ideas and mental habitudes. " And they said one to another, Let us make a cap- tain and let us return into Egypt." The mind does not easily and at once change its outlook, and reshape its convictions, and escape from its prepossessions. THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT 251 It seems to be a psychological law that certainty does not follow on the first evidential view of a new order of truth, the mind must become gradually habituated to the new view and the evidence must be allowed a certain cumulative force. In psychic observations, it is claimed, we must reckon with a very general in- clination to deny on second thoughts what seemed absolutely convincing on the spot and at the moment. Certainty follows on habit. The world about us has its peculiar mental atmosphere, we are beset by its opinions and prejudices, and these hold us in so strong a grip that we do not easily free ourselves. Prof. Richet averred that it took twenty years of patient research and sixty experiments with Eusapia Paladino for him to arrive at his then present con- viction. On the other hand, Prof. Muensterburg after two sittings, it is said, asserted that all Eu- sapia's phenomena were " nothing but fraud and humbug." The one passed satisfactorily after years of study from the old to the new ; the other had not taken the first real step and loudly proclaimed that he knew all about it. If we would arrive at the truth then in this psy- chic problem, let us remember the psychologic work- ings of our minds, let us understand our personal equations, let us take note of the besetting sins of our dogmatic, scientific, and materialistic biases, and let us give the truth its time and opportunity. " Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." AN EXPERIMENTAL TESTIMONY " It was very, very hard for Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller to grasp the thought that there was another world, that besides their world of touch and smell and taste, there was a world of sound and sight far greater than their world and that interpenetrated their own. And it was a complicated matter for friends to make themselves known, to communicate with these unfortu- nates, to enter their world." " Proofs of Life After Death." CHAPTER I A PSYCHIC BRIDGING OF THE CHASM, MAY 22, 1911 I will preface this account by stating that I did not act without knowledge and that I had good and experienced counsel in my psychic venture. As I look back upon it at this time, after the diligent study of several years since in psychic matters and some degree of experience, it seems I could not have done better. How far I was guided by spirit friends I cannot say, but I was expected, and the way to " the gates ajar" opened step by step in an orderly man- ner. We had good precedent and sympathetic coun- sel to favor us. And our various conversations with Miss Manning, the writer of " Both Sides of the Veil," and Dr. James H. Hyslop, and Miss Lillian Whiting, the well-known author and a friend of the psychic, Mrs. Chenoweth, helped to prepare and establish our ways. Miss Manning had been associ- ated with Professor William James in his psychic studies and interviews with Mrs. Piper, and was thereby won over from a state of doubt to a " faith in human survival in a spiritual order which contin- ues the visible order." While to Dr. Hyslop, our psychic was well known, and her gift of clear me- diumship he has made use of for several years in his psychic work and studies. I also further learned of the high esteem in which 255 256 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT the powers of this psychic were held through the re- markable spirit messages received by Prof. Hiram' Corson, LL.D., Litt.D., formerly of the department of English Literature in Cornell University. I might add that Prof, and Mrs. Corson were ac- quainted with and had literary connection with the poets, Browning, Tennyson, Whitman, Longfellow, etc., and the inspiring communications received through this mediumship from these personalities seem altogether worthy of their reputed source. THE INCURABLY SUSPICIOUS " And their words seemed to them as idle tales." Luke 24:11. It hardly seems necessary to add that I was an utter stranger to the psychic in every sense and never saw her till the hour appointed for the sitting, when she was in trance condition. If there are those whose minds are incurably suspicious in these mat- ters and possibly also invincibly ignorant, we cer- tainly have not the time to argue the case further here. Their only hope is to find out that proof here as everywhere else has its subjective aspect and responsibility as well as objective. Every soul must bear the burden of its own responsibility to the truth. There may be those who are worthy of confidence among psychic students and among such as possess the noble and prophetic gift of mediumship as well as among the skeptical materialists and dogmatists. On the memorial tablet of Mr. Myers was in- scribed this line in Greek, " Striving to win his soul's and comrades' homeward way." Such an effort on the part of the devoted psychic researcher and the WALTER LUCIEN GRAVES Junior year, Amherst College MAY 22, 1911 257 psychic will be found in due time, when the fogs of prejudice and ignorance have cleared away, to have been one of the greatest and most far-reaching efforts of the human mind. " Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant." At this first psychic interview, I took notes of all important points, and directly on my return to my room I wrote out my notes in connected form. At the subsequent sittings, I was fully prepared and took full notes on the spot. A WORD ON THE SITUATION To the uninitiated, a clear conception of the trance situation and interview needs to be kept in mind, and I may be excused if " I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance." A genuine sitting indicates and demands usually four distinct parties — the in- quirer or interviewer, the psychic or medium (who in trance is more or less detached in spirit body from the physical), the control or spirit interpreter (who is in partial possession or control of the physical organism of the psychic), and the spirit communi- cator. The control is markedly differentiated from the psychic in the same way one individuality every- where differs from another. The control has been known to speak in a native language of which the psychic was entirely ignorant, and I have myself had opportunity to hear a case of this kind. In this case, Prof. Corson wrote of the control, " She had a voice of great charm." " HE IS SO EAGER TO COMMUNICATE " At the sitting of May 22, the control expressed herself with much fullness and in good terms, and 258 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT was sympathetic and genial, seeking to put us at ease. The conversation, which lasted for an hour and more, was intensely absorbing, it had some strik- ing evidential aspects, and it brought a sense of as- surance not to be gainsaid. " It helped to put us on our feet." Very soon the control called attention to an elderly woman whom she saw, and then to a young man who was full of life and energy, and had great eagerness of spirit. " He is so eager to communicate," she said. She said he had been studying, and was full of plans for the future. She dwelt upon his planning and his aspiring spirit. " He has a very good face. . . . He has such clear eyes, and such a straightforward look, and he looks straight at you. 66 The elderly woman has a sense of proprietorship in the young man ; she feels she has a certain owner- ship, and the elderly woman is your mother. The friends say, ' We are all glad to have him with us. It is a joy to us to have his young, radiant spirit with us. 5 5? Then she spoke of the surprise which came to the young man in the passing on : " It was a surprise to him, it was so sudden." At a subsequent sitting in October, I asked the control if the surprise was very great to Walter in the passing over. And she replied softly, " Yes." She said the body was carried away, some way to the home. (It was a journey of one hundred miles and more.) There was same one bending over the MAY 22, 1911 259 body. . . . She added, he did not fully realize that he could not return to the body till he felt the grief and desolation in the heart of his mother. But the tragedy which was so great for us, was not near so much a tragedy to him. At another sitting, Walter gave me to understand that the whole affair of the accident was like a dream to him. He felt we made too much of his death, as though no one ever died before. " This feeling was from a certain sense of modesty. It is his way. But he is appreciative of all that has been done." The con- trol spoke of the sorrow and sense of loss in the community. There was a universal note of sorrow and bereavement in the place where he lived at the time of the tragedy. He was conscious of what was going on at the time. She added that we, that is M and I, live apart and are separated in place. And the young man is back and forth from one to the other. He is not limited as in body. The control then said that she saw me and another person, a woman alive, a lady still in the body. This is the mother. And it was added, " He thinks a great deal of his mother." He makes her feel that he is with her. " I am there many times when she does not know." He wants us to go on talking about him, and just feel that he is there. " I want to tell them how much I care for them, and how sorry I was to leave them." The control then dwelt upon the intimacy between the two brothers. There was so much of comrade- ship, and they were in such beautiful accord. Rarely are two brothers so attached. 260 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT FIRST ATTEMPT AT REFLECTING SYMBOLS AND PICTURES THROUGH THE MEDIUMISTIC LENS At this stage, Walter attempted a few particular points in the evidential line, and for which we found later he had taken counsel over there. He had stud- ied evidence at the Law School, and this he found a help to him. The control asked - — " Does his name begin with G? His finger traced the letter." I replied, " Yes." " Do you know anything about a watch ? " was then asked. I said it was safe at home. She said he knew it. W had a gold watch as also his brother, gifts from a friend (E V ) on their graduation from Amherst College, 1908. Walter also got through correctly at this point the initials of his brother, etc., the several familiar pet names we used in the family, and indicated recog- nizably the name of his street in Cambridge (Mellen). Then the control gave us a few mental pictures as they were impressed upon her mind by Walter. She saw Walter going to the room of another student, and they stretched out their long legs in their chairs and looked so happy. She said the young man's name was " Fred." This had no meaning to me at the time, but M told me afterwards it was " Fred S." and was a true incident. I can only refer in few words to a camp picture that followed, and that was most impressive at the time. There was a place where the control saw water. There was a lot of boys there, and he MAY 22, 1911 261 (the spirit communicator) was looking after them. Walter spent the summers of 1909 and 1910 at Camp Wyanoke, Lake Winnepesaukee, N. H., as councilor in a camp of boys. The control also described a valise or suit-case full of things sacred. Over in the rooms in Cambridge, W 's suitcase had been packed with his more personal effects, which I took home with me next day. Reference was made to how Walter used to like to take walks — a striking characteristic. He kept a pretty strict account of money ; he wanted to be independent and help himself. He would like to bring us out into a brighter life, out of our sadness and depression. (The root of our trouble, no doubt, after the first shock of bereavement, is our lack of vision and sense of reality. The spirit life is not at all real to us, and it seems as though we had lost all.) A closing remark from the control was : " God never sent him into our lives here but to draw us on into his life." And our closing comment is : What the control said about Walter's personal traits, his straightfor- wardness and aspiration, his studying, his planning and economy, the tragedy of his sudden death, the note of sorrow, the comradeship of the brothers, and the mental pictures with details were all vividly true. A NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN TRAIN EXPERIENCE Next in order to this account comes the supplemen- tary experience of the following day, which to my 262 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT mind will always be convincingly and thoroughly con- firmatory of the interview I have given. On my re- turn home the next morning, I had an overwhelming sense of Walter's presence with me. We have had such evidences before and since, many of them, but now the dear boy impressed himself upon me in a most convincing manner. I cannot express in words the sense I had of Walter's presence with me on the train ride from Boston to Westfield. This experience was so vivid that I wrote an account of it at the South Station and on the train, which I reproduce here in good part : " South Station, Middlesex Bench, May 23, 1911. " I have a wonderful sense of Walter's presence with me this morning, as I am about to take the train for home. He comforts and assures me wonderfully. While eating breakfast in the railroad restaurant, I was impressed deeply with the sense of Walters nearness. " " On the train. " I have been having an overwhelming sense of the presence of Walter. He seems to be trying to express his gratitude and appreciation for what I have done and for the way I arranged to bring M and myself into communication with him. Walter is with me as I am riding here on the train back home. It may be incom- municable to others, but it is perfectly clear and over- whelmingly assuring to me. I feel it would be unrea- sonable to ask for more. My heart is full of content and sweet conviction. No words can express this sense of spirit communion. If Walter were here in the flesh on the seat beside me, I could hardly have such a sense of inner and close fellowship with him as I now ex- MAY 22, 1911 263 perience. Dear Walter is unmistakably with me. My experience this morning in the South Station and on the train is immensely confirmatory of what we heard and received yesterday at our psychic interview/' A CRITICAL PSYCHIC ESTIMATE I annex to this account by way of making it more complete a communication which I received from the author of " Both Sides of the Veil " in reply to a note of inquiry from me of May 26. I wrote that I might obtain a critical estimate from one who had had con- siderable experience in matters psychic, and was as- sociated with Prof. James in the Piper case. " From what you say I should judge that the sitting was a remarkably good one, as sittings go. It appears that all the statements made by Sunbeam, mentioned by you, were correct, with the possible exception that she thought she saw a woman bending over the body, whereas it was you — a trifling inaccuracy. I do not think that she pretends to give many names, but it seems that the initials given were all of them right. Of course some of the statements were general, and might be applicable to almost any relationship — such as the sorrow felt by the family, etc., but on the other hand, other statements were specially pertinent to the actual case. It seems to me that the reference to the comradeship between the two brothers was a very good test, since so often in real life quite the contrary is the case. And the reference to the place where the water was, the boys, and the young man's care of them, was another very good point in the reading. Each thinker must be his own judge as to what these phe- nomena are, and how they occur, but I feel very strongly and practically believe that ' Sunbeam ' is a veritable discarnate being, and that we are actually in communi- 264 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT cation, more or less clear and directly, with our friends in the other life. There is no psychic with whom I have had experience who makes me feel that my friends are actually speaking so much as does Mrs. Piper. But we all know that light passing through any medium must be more or less refracted and distorted, and I presume the same is true of spirit light. Still I believe it is the light just the same that is shining down upon us, and trying to clarify for us the density of our material constitutions. I think ' Sunbeam ' is a control who sees the situation, the relationship and the personalities clearly. " And now what you say about the overwhelming sense of the presence of your son on the train-ride home interests me almost more than any other part of your letter. It is not every one who can feel spiritual presence so strongly. Such experiences as these, added to what we get through investigation, are most convinc- ing. . . . " Very sincerely, " Anne Manning Robbins." CHAPTER II REPORT OF SECOND SITTING, OCTOBER 7, 1911 This approach to the world unseen through the psychic intermediary was one of the most wonderful experiences in my life. I was better prepared than before, and also Walter was better prepared and ex- pecting me. We did not premeditate special tests, but the personal touches and the intensely personal atmosphere of the whole sitting, and the beautiful ac- count Walter gave of his new life, carried a deep conviction and left no questioning. The whole con- versation was natural and heart to heart, and as I wrote afterwards, it was Walter through and through. We have had abundance of tests, but it seems to me that what brings deepest conviction and contentment in a psychic communication like this is the tender personal element. The whole sitting was a religious experience of the highest kind. As soon as I was seated, the control at once began, and I took the following notes very carefully as the control in- terpreted and dictated. " EAGER TO TELL OF THE WONDERFUL LIFE " " I have seen your boy ever so many times since you were here. And I have always found him happy and full of courage, and with an understanding of the possibilities of his approach to you. He seeks you, 265 266 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT because he is eager to tell you of the wonderful life that is his now. And many times when you are alone,' and it seems as if you could put out your hand and touch him, it is true he is there. He has such a ten- der way. And he thanks you for all the teaching you gave him, which helps him to be patient." [Walter refers here to some psychic talks I had with him and his brother the summer of 1908. Walter was not prepared then to accept definite conclusions favoring spirit phenomena.] " It is easier for him to grasp it for having talked with you. It was not entirely an unknown subject to him." GOD'S WAY OF SPEAKING TO THE ACHING HEART At this point the control passes from interpreta- tion to dictation, giving Walter's exact words. She passes easily from one method of speech to the other, now interpreting in her own words, and again dictat- ing in exact words of spirit communicator. Walter says: " I went immediately to the people in the spirit world who had made these matters a life study and work, and I talked with them about it, and so I knew that many of these experiences were true and real and helpful. It is God's way of speaking to the ach- ing heart. Psychic phenomena are not enough, but you must look beyond that and find God's spirit be- hind it. I have been thinking of all the things that I could say to you that would help you to understand my attitude and my study of these things. I am not lost in the mystery of occultism. I am living in the light of the revealed truth of spirit communion. I OCTOBER 7, 1911 267 wish I could make it perfectly plain to all those I love." Control : " He is happy to think that you have this receptive power." "You reason it out all right, Dad." ["He laughed when he said that," the control added.] The control continues : " He often goes to his brother, and tries to help him in his problems " ; and then she gives Walter's words : " He is working so hard to get his degree that he doesn't have time to think of these things. . . . We planned so many things together, I can't forget them, or substitute the new experiences for those we hoped to have." The control remarks : " He is very bright. Wal- ter is a splendid boy to have in the spirit world. It is beautiful to have a son in the other life. It is like having a beautiful hand to put in your own. The other world is a wonderland. At the same time Wal- ter doesn't lose one particle of interest in what is going on among his friends." Here W continues with some account of the spirit world and his life over there : " All that is lovely and true and expressive lives in this life with the same vitality, like flowers, and music, and all the scientific discoveries ; all these things are a part of our life in the spirit. The touch of a baby finger, the smile on an old man's face, will bring the same thrill of rapture in this life as in your life. And that goes to prove that we are human beings. Father dear, we are clothed with bodies, and we know each other by form, and when you come over here you will see the same old Walter, and you will 268 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT know him by the light in his eyes and the grasp of his hand." [Walter had a very hearty hand grasp.]- " This is the happiest moment I have had for a long time. It seems as though we are having one of our talks out." [We had many talks, and often in walk- ing down " Trumble Lane," about plans for the fu- ture.] The control interjected here: "Walter has un- usual capacity. He seems to have a reasoning power that belongs to a brain of maturity and experience." (" Now don't say too much in my favor," the control smilingly said was Walter's comment. ) " He grasped the whole situation in the spirit life with won- derful quickness and clearness." " THE HOME OVER THERE " AND THE SWEET HOME INFLUENCE " There is a lady with him, his grandmother, and she took him when he first came over and cared for him, and told him what had happened. And this grandmother put round him a sweet home influence, so that he didn't feel like a wanderer, but had the beautiful home element round him which he so much needed. She it was who first told him that it was perfectly possible for him to see the ones he loved and had left, and with her as his attendant he went at once to your home. Then he was at peace, be- cause he could see, and he knew it was only a question of time when he would be able to express his knowledge and give some word of his whereabouts. Your mother is a Christian woman, and whatever comes to her of beauty or love or tenderness, she al- ways thanks her Heavenly Father for it. She wants OCTOBER 7, 1911 269 me to say to you : i I have not seen God any more definitely than I did when living, but I feel his spirit much more intimately, because many of the coarser and more material elements are left behind. I have much to be proud of ; God has blessed me in my chil- dren.' She is always proud of you when you preach. Sometimes she is right with you, w r hen you are trying to lead the people to a larger and broader under- standing of God's love. " Your father lives with your mother, and they have a home together. And your father wants me to say to you — ' Your Walter is the joy of my life, and puts me as an opponent and uses out his ideas with me just as he would with you. But he knows so much more than I do that I am pushed into a corner in almost the first sentence. But he wouldn't be quite happy unless he could argue it out ; the legal tendency is strong within him. And I generally subside, and admire him and feel proud that he is with us.' 55 A STRAIGHT TALK Here W resumes : " Sometimes when the old longing comes over me to see you and talk with you, I rush away from whatever I am doing here and seek your side, and feel happy just to be there with you. I am afraid, Pop, that I didn't always let you know how much I thought of you, and how much I appre- ciate the sacrifices you made for me that I might do what I wished with my life. And when I first came over, I had a great sense of disappointment that now it was all lost, all the sacrifices had been for nought, and the bright plans and hopes had died with me. And I had promised myself to do so many things for 270 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT you when I got my career, and now all I can do is to tell you about those plans and hopes. But my^ grandma talked so lovely to me about it, and she said that all that was lost was the material care, and the hopes I had for giving you comfort and time to study and read as you wanted to. And she told me I could serve you in a thousand ways that would have been impossible in a successful legal career. The money I might have made and the reputation, but this heart- to-heart life and spirit understanding would not have been the same. You understand, don't you, Pop, how the material and physical things were what I wanted for you and Momsie and all of us? But that disappointment is all over now. And I am reconciled, and I am making home conditions over here for you both, and when you come over you will find me in a home that is fitted to my taste for you both." " He sends Momsie all the love she can accept," the control adds. I omit several pages here as too personal for gen- eral interest. Do you remember my ride home next day on the train ? " I was there on the train, and wanted and tried to tell you how glad I was that you had been where I could communicate with you. And you knew it." This was my assuring answer. . . . Do you know that M and I still walk down Trumble Lane? You remember all our family walks down there? " A bit of a tear comes in his eye as you say that." The allusion could not but stir sweet memories in Walter's mind. But the reference to a tear may OCTOBER 7, 1911 271 awaken surprise in the mind of one who has not given thought to the analogies between the two worlds. We soon learn that the earthly in many things has its counterpart in the spirit. We keep this matter of communication with you very quiet, I said. " You don't want them to think that you are grow- ing daffy," Walter said playfully. [" Daffy " was not in the control's vocabulary, and it made her think of daffodil. I said in substance it was a term that meant a little out of mind or fool- ish.] " It is up to us," Walter said, " to express and prove in such a practical and beneficent way spirit communication that they will be curious to know about it." I often meet him, your boy," the control said. Do you want to know where? I meet him the most at Psychic Research Headquarters in spirit land. Have you heard of Stainton Moses, Prof. Sidgewick, Dr. Hodgson, and Prof. James? They have a loca- tion for psychic research." At a later sitting in April, 1912, the control told us that Walter had made the acquaintance of Dr. Hodgson. About here I remarked that I had succeeded in taking notes so far of all our talk. " You are a dandy, Pop," Sunbeam smilingly said was Walter's comment. I bring this in for its human- ness, and I am devoutfully thankful, as spirit com- munication shows abundantly, that the other life is not robbed of all humanness and humor, as inherited ideas of death and utterly transcendent ideas of the future life would lead us to imply. a 272 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT THE NATURAL AND PROGRESSIVE VIEW OF THE FUTURE LIFE VS. MEDIEVAL TRANSCENDENT- ALISM Tell me something of the religious life over there. " The religious life has very much more meaning to Walter over here," the control replied. I quoted the familiar Scripture " Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart." " Walter says you had a way of taking the finest things in Scripture." Then Walter gave this direct word : " Why, somehow you come into such an attitude of awe and w onder at the power of God when you come over here ! And you are no sooner lost in that awe than you become conscious of a great and unspeakable love for the Author of all life who has so cared for you and made all these steps upward to fuller and more glori- ous expression of His love. This makes God seem nearer." There was some reference here to the conventional idea of heaven that has come down to us from medieval and apocalyptic times, and about the pictures of saints with harps sitting on clouds. " I agree with Mark Twain that it would be very tiresome, and the chances are the music would be all out of tune." (I strongly incline to think there is a reference here to a certain sea-captain's adventures in heaven by M. T in a magazine at our home.) W added : " Forgive me, Dad, I do not seek out the religious enthusiasts. I seek those who give me something to think of and something to do." OCTOBER 7, 1911 273 I could say nothing against this, for it would be my own course. I quote here from " Interwoven " : " In border- land there are churches with the old names, as Bap- tist or Methodist or Catholic, and the old forms are carried on as usual. But soon there comes the ridicu- lous view of it all, for no one finds a hell, and they find heaven is reached more by kind deeds and useful labor than by baptism or by communion or any other ceremony." All things indicate that we take just ourselves over in the great transition. And that means that we take the long-cherished habits of earth and our religious ideas and misconceptions. If our minds still run to the Old Testament conception of Deity, we may look for " the beatific vision," but really find that we see God no more clearly than on the earth plane except as He is revealed more clearly in His works and in His people over there. The materialist has been known to maintain that he has not passed through death and that his spirit friends are illusory; the Advent may be surprised to find himself conscious and clothed upon and still look for some revolutionary manifestation of Christ; and the Catholic looks around for purgatory. If there is unity in the uni- verse, then life is a process of growth and education and emancipation over there as here. SPIRIT OBJECTIVITIES Does the world over there seem to you as much reality and as objective as the earthly world? " Of course it is objective," the control replied. 274 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT And with hands clasped together, she said impres- sively — " It is wonderful." Walter added : " I've got a lot of places already picked out that I want you to see. You know how I always liked to get upon top of a hill and get a good view way off, and I want you to climb some little hills over here, and we will have some views that will make you surrender to the beauty of this life." I have read of houses over there, and of flowers, and pictures. Are these real to you ? " Just as real as anything you have and handle, and even more so." [I think this was from the con- trol.] Do they have books over there or something like books ? " You wait, Dad, till you come over here, and you shall have a library so big that it will take a thousand years to read it through." Somehow there was a reference to the stars. " He loves the stars himself, and loves to have you look at them too." Walter knew of the interest his mother and I had in tracing out the constellations, and in Gilmanton Academy, N. H., had taken under me the course in " Young's Lessons in Astronomy." It came to me afterwards that a few weeks before this sitting on Monday evening, September 18, we traced out con- stellations. The control continued : " Each planet has round it a spiritual belt, and that is the spirit world. And you look off to the other planets just the same as you do here, only you see the spirit part." I put the question : Have you made new acquaint- ances over there? OCTOBER 7, 1911 275 The control replied for W , " Yes, indeed." Then she asked, " Have you a friend over here whose name begins with H? " And she added almost at once that he was a brother to me, and he went quickly. [This was true ; he passed out suddenly in 1893.] " He is with your mother. He always had an awfully good heart." And Walter added : " I wanted to tell you about him, Dad." The control tried to get the name through, and made out with some difficulty the letters H — A — R — T [which was correct so far, but as time was about up, I sug- gested we pass on]. She then referred to a sister whom she saw, who died in infancy but was now a woman. I here read to Walter an account of the accident as given by an eye-witness. " In a twinkling the engine was past, and the body lay there." I also re- ferred to our memorial and the inscription. The con- trol at once said that Walter was especially pleased with "Nair" and " Love Bridges All Chasms." (" Nair " was the familiar home name.) A word as to the control. At the first sitting, in response to some inquiry, the control said her name was " Sunbeam." But there was a dignity blended with sweetness in the manner of reply as though I might object to the name as having a fake sound. " Sunbeam " is the rendering of an Indian name, the name she bore in the earth life. The instinct of the guide which has been developed in the Indian by centuries of experience, we may well suppose also fits them for guides and media in the spirit world. One spirit communicator said of this control : " It has been so easy for us to express through her, and her 276 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT charm is in her obedience." She is a clear and ex- pressive interpreter, and the sitter learns to see the force of Prof. Hyslop's remark that this control is a visuel, for she interprets much by mental pictures as they are impressed upon her mind by the spirit com- municator. She impresses the sitter as a beautiful character and as bringing something of the atmos- phere of the other world. I have rarely had such a sense of religious exalta- tion as at the close of this interview, the whole sitting, as I have said, was a religious experience of the high- est order. " Behold, a door was opened in heaven " (Revelation 4:1) would be the appropriate text to describe my feelings and the illumination that came to me. I was fully conscious that I had been in very close touch and communion with the world unseen. The many tests and external proofs that have been given, and which have increased with the sittings, carry their conviction to the exacting reason, but it is the warm, personal atmosphere, as I have noted, that seals such an interview and makes it holy. Walter was simply there, and we were talking with one another heart to heart as in the former days. For some time after I had a sense of bewilderment, so strong had been my impressions. 7 CHAPTER III REPORT OF PSYCHIC INTERVIEW, APRIL 17, 1912 Mrs. Graves was present with me at this sitting, which fact enlarged the field of communication in bringing us more messages of a personal nature. I had prepared myself carefully for this interview, as Walter very evidently had also. We learned that Walter had formed a spirit band, on the other side, of family relatives, and infused them with the desire " to have the satisfaction of the communicative light." The control greeted us with a smile of friendly recog- nition, and at once began. (The eyes of the psychic are closed, but the control sees with spirit vision. ) " THE GREAT JOY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF THIS LIFE" " There is so much eagerness on his part to say all that is in his heart for his mother and for you. He steps right over to her first, and stands by her with his face all illumined with love and joy and gratitude that she has come. Walter says : ' Every little while it comes over me that all the plans I made for you and Momsie were broken by my passing. But new plans and new hopes come with the new life.' He comes right to her and looks into her face and says : ' Do you think that if I have consciousness anywhere, I could be doing anything else but planning and work- 277 278 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT ing, and making all my days count for your happi- ness — you who did so much for me that I was never able to repay, and yet always planned I would? I want to bring this great joy of the knowledge of this life to you. It changes the whole face of creation, (" That is what he says," the control emphasized here to satisfy an inquiry of mine) and makes life and death seem entirely different from what I had previ- ously believed/ " I interjected here for greater confirmation — Does Walter hear me now as I speak? " He hears you now and hears you at home. You are the blind and the deaf one," the control replied. Walter continued : " One has to go over in order to know. And the explanation in books and journals such as you have been reading do not give as definite an idea of the life here as I would like you to have. I did not want to die, I wanted to live and take care of you both. And when I came to consciousness and found that it was all over, I just put my wits to work to see how much was true of these theories you had been interested in. And I found headquarters, and tried to make myself conversant with the methods of communication. I have studied harder and made more experiments in the time I have been over here than I did in any five years before I came. I am happy, so happy now at this moment that I hardly know how to tell you about it. You miss my letters so much, and I miss yours too, only I am able to see what is in your heart. But you have to take it for granted that I am loving you and working for you. If I could write a letter to you, just as I used to after I had been anywhere or had any special good APRIL 17, 1912 279 time, and let you share in it just as I used to, I would feel there was no break. I wish (" half whisper in half fun," the control explained) I could take you both over here, and let you see how lovely the life is, but you are needed yet in the world. These very experiences help you to understand the agony of other fathers and mothers, and you may be able to help them and minister to the inner life." Walter went on : "I have added to my other pro- fession the art of preaching." [Tell Walter I am awfully glad to hear about this, I said.] The con- trol interpreted — " He has learned to tell people over there about God, through his experiences that have come through his passing. This draws him nearer to an understanding of God." I asked here: Do you think that the life and world over there correspond fairly well with the way in which you heard me present it? " The life over here is more real and tangible. It is not an unreal existence. It is full of experiences, and not everybody who comes over here perceives the truth immediately. ... I wish I had taken more stock in what you were trying to tell me. " I have often been in the home and have sat there with you evenings, sometimes when you were reading, sometimes when you were talking." [The allusion to reading is significant. Mrs. G had been reading history (Myers') to me through the winter and spring evenings.] " I find it so much easier to come to you in the home now than I did to run away from my duties when I was teaching or studying." [The allu- sion to teaching is also significant; Walter taught a year in Quincy High School, 1908-1909.] 280 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT MENTAL IMAGING OR SPIRIT IMPRESSIONS Hitherto in the sitting, Walter had been trying to bring us something of the great joy of the knowledge of the spirit world. Now he gives us a few mental pictures, and they naturally follow the allusion to teaching and studying. The control says : " Do you know anything about a place, it is more like a country place or village or small town? He shows me a picture of the place, where there are buildings grouped together like semi- nary buildings and faculty houses. And I see him walking there and in and out through some grounds. It is like a college." (Amherst.) " As he thinks it, I see it." The control speaks here as a visuel, and we have a hint of the power of spirit telepathy or mental impression. " Did he ever teach anywhere ? " The control added in substance : " I see him walking about with an air of authority as though he had responsibility. Where he taught was only a little way from here." (Quincy, Mass.) "He left that line of work and took up something else. He must have been con- nected with Harvard." Then she quoted Walter: " ' Then I left my career here to take up one on the other side.' He took up this life on the other side with the same energy that he left his teaching to push himself forward to take a better position by and by. " He used to take long walks with you. Just about this time of year, I see him walking off with you along a country road where I see a lot of trees, and looking down for something on the ground. Near this I see and hear water like a small stream, and then I see him APRIL 17, 1912 281 pick up small flowers like violets, and he lays them on a table and Momsie puts them in a glass." This incident is a mental picture of our walks down Trumble Lane near the parsonage and to Trumble Brook that crossed the lane. "O THINK OF THE FRIENDS OVER THERE WHO BEFORE US THE JOURNEY HAVE TROD " At this point there is a change from the mental pic- tures to communications from my mother and other spirit friends present. " He " (Walter) " wants to talk about somebody with him. His grandmother is here. And she looks at you and then at the lady : — " ' What was loss to you was gain to us. Think of the years that I have been gone, and I had no op- portunity to say how much I love you both and wanted to help you both until this boy came and opened the door. He worries about the money, so much money spent for him that never came back, and he wants money put into your hands to help you for what you did. He talks about you two all the time. You would think there never was such another father and mother in the world like you two." " Another lady, a younger woman, stands right beside Walter's mother. She has been gone a long time to the spirit. She has a broad forehead, sort of round face, and pretty eyes. She went out after a little illness, not as quick as Walter did. Her illness was rather pathetic and sad. She is so close, she seems as though she belonged to Walter's mother. She is a relation to Momsie. She is a beautiful angel, and has a splendid influence for her. Walter is so 282 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT pleased about it." (The control explains that they often speak of spirits as angels.) Mrs. G recognized this portrait with the iden- tifying detail as that of a young cousin and playmate who passed over some thirty-five years ago. " I see your father, and now I see another man who is your brother, and his name is Hartson. He smiles when I say so. There was a little kick of his foot " (as he got the name through) " that was his joy." At the previous sitting the control was able to interpret only the first syllable of the name, hence my brother's joy that now he was successful in getting the whole name through, and it came quickly. Psy- chic communication is very far indeed removed from the cheap conceptions often held by those who have given little or no serious thought and study to the problem, and it is removed also from the easy sim- plicity which the beginner might attach to it. The control continues : " I see her father, and he loves her, and would take her into his arms and let her cry it out on his shoulder. She would cry for joy, if she could only see it (the spirit world) as it is." " COME AND LET US REASON TOGETHER " The control interjected here suddenly — "I hear a name, Dolph." It was from Walter, she said. And the other name she could not make out clearly. She said, Moody, and then no, that was not it, but there was an oo sound in the name, and this she emphasized. Then followed this account: " He is a young man, and fair, has blue eyes, is not very stout, and is not quite as tall as Walter. APRIL 17, 1912 283 He was somebody Walter knew, and was in college with Walter." He thought M would know about Dolph. We gave but little thought to this account at the time, and we could make nothing out of it. But on Friday, April 19, I asked M at his rooms in Cambridge if he knew a young man whose given name was Dolph and who was a fellow student at Amherst. He did not recall such a name at first. Then I asked him to look it up in the Amherst College Address List. He took the catalogue and ran over the names of the class to which he and Walter belonged. He soon exclaimed there was a Dolph L. Koomis whom he and Walter knew. The oo sound at once occurred to us, and our intense interest showed itself as we told M of this oo sound asserted by the control to be in the last name. I asked if this Dolph had blue eyes, and M replied, " Yes, he had blue eyes," and shortly he added that he had " unusually blue eyes, and light hair." Mrs. G and I knew nothing whatever of this fellow-student and it was a most interesting and impressive test for us all. At a second sitting we had on the following week, on my referring to this case and the happy surprise it gave us, Walter spoke of the eyes again as being almost as blue as forget-me-nots. Walter had evidently seized upon a fellow student somewhat known to both him and M but unknown to us, with a noticeable color of eye certainly fortunate to the possessor as a personal confirmation to us all. Shall we exercise our reason and common sense here and consider this effort as spirit intelligence exer- cised for a high purpose? Or was it deliberate, 284 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT coolly-planned, subconscious and unconscious tapping of a general consciousness, through devious under- ground channels, by an independent ego who lurks as a Mephistopheles in our nature and in the way of fiendish deception and mockery of our highest hopes ? If one has an incurable repugnance to spirit, let him by all means find what consolation he can in this subterfuge of telepathic crookedness. The control went on in her description of the spirit friends present. I was not able to take full notes here, but she said in substance: "There is a woman present who is quite stout, with red face ; she has blue eyes, and gray hair, and there is a little ring on her finger." [I understood this as her earth ap- pearance.] " She is right beside your father. She seems like an aunt to you. She is so good-natured. I see a road where there are trees on each side, and it is curved, and I come to a good-sized, comfortable wooden house. The first thing you notice is there is such an air of hospitality, and there is plenty of everything and such a lot to eat. You feel that you are welcome. This aunt had a hard sickness, a struggle, and she was glad when she got over." The control said she saw the letter S, then she said tentatively " Susan " but remarked that the woman shook her head. Then almost immediately she got it clearly and said " Susannah." I then asked if Aunt remembered how we boys called her " Aunt Sukie," and the control said she laughed. I asked if that meant assent, and was told that it did. This was my Aunt Susannah B , my father's sister, whom I remember as a small boy, and who died after a lingering sickness with cancer. I recognize APRIL 17, 1912 285 the road and the house. The road led from the home of Aunt S to the Graves' home place, where she was born and where my father lived. It wound some distance through the woods, and the large two-story house entertained many people, especially at religious gatherings. The control added there was another aunt present, and her name was " Sarah." I was surprised the name came through so quickly, and said: How did you know her name is Sarah? She replied, " She told me so ; she said so right off." One may suppose that the familiarity of this name helped its coming through so easily. This was my Aunt Sarah F , my father's oldest sister. Then my grandfather (Jacob Graves) was an- nounced. When my grandfather said a thing must be done, that was all there was to it. Then she gave a mental image. " I see a cemetery ; it is a small country burying-ground on a little hill." Then a moment later she said smilingly as the discovery came to her, that my grandfather had a double object in view ; he gave a mental picture of graves and his name is Graves, the graves in the cemetery he used as a symbol of the family name. She added that spirits sometimes communicate in this way of symbolism. The yard was laid out by Grandfather himself; it crowned a little hill, and was familiar to me as a boy, but the memorials had been removed and the yard disused many years, fifty or more years. Grand- father could hardly have given me a more suggestive picture of the old place than this of the Graves' graveyard. 286 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT The control also saw an old lady, very old and much wrinkled. She was with Father, and was an aunt to him. " But," it was added, " the wrinkles are all gone now; this was her earth appearance." This must have been Aunt B , Father's maternal aunt, whom I saw often as a boy, and she was then " very old and much wrinkled." In that able work, Delanne's " Evidence for a Fu- ture Life," it is shown that " the spirit preserves or can reassume in space the form it had on earth. It is reproduced with extraordinary fidelity in such a way that it can be recognized." " We can, when we please, assume the old bodies or their spiritual counterparts, as we can assume our old clothes, for purposes of identification." So subtle is the power of thought in that subtile world. CHAPTER IV INTERVIEW THE WEEK FOLLOWING, APRIL 23, 1912 " WALTER OPENS THE DOOR WIDE " At first there was a little talk about our com- municating. It is evident that Walter had perfected himself over there in a careful manner with this end in view, and that he had made fine progress and had enlisted the interest and cooperation of many of our family friends in the spirit. The control said: " Walter has done better than most spirits do. He knows Dr. Hodgson. They discuss these things." [Tell Walter I am delighted to hear it, I said.] " Walter has talked to all your friends, and got them into this attitude of mind where they desire to com- municate and where they want to do as he says. He is like a prompter. He wants them to have the satis- faction of the communicative light, the intercommun- ion of spirit. They had no opportunity. Walter opens the door wide, and has the happiest time you ever knew." " HE WALKED WITH YOU " Did Walter know where we were on the inter- vening Sunday (April 21) and about our doings? I give the mental picture that followed, and for which Walter did not have time to prepare himself, but at 287 288 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT once imaged the events of the day in which we were concerned, and the visuel saw them and gave them to us. The control began : " He shows a picture. There is a group of friends, of his and yours, all together. I get a picture of a table, and food and eating, and I hear talk. I see in moving pictures. There is another place where there are more people, and much that was interesting to Walter." Walter then speaks of the preaching and remarks : " The man was pretty progressive and so are you." The subject was a disaster at sea, and referring to those who went down W added : " I was not so much interested in the wealth as in the caliber of the men." And they were concerned in it on the spirit side, especially on account of Mr. Stead. Why, I said, I did not know that Mr. Stead was there or that he went down. " Walter thinks so," the control replied. The news came early on our trip of the great dis- aster of the sinking of the Titanic, and I had time to read about it only in a general way. It seemed a strange incident that I should first learn of the pass- ing over in this way of Mr. Stead, the noted English writer and psychic investigator, from Walter on the other side. The control added : " You must have gone somewhere to walk Sunday. I see trees and sky and flowers. Walter shows the picture. He walked with you." Now to comment on this moving picture in a few words : I will say it is an outline in a few strokes accurately drawn of our Sunday in Boston and Cam- APRIL 23, 1912 289 bridge, April 31. We walked to the Old South Church that morning across the Public Garden and along Commonwealth Avenue. At the service, Dr. Gordon preached on the loss of the Titanic, and at the close the large congregation sang in moving fashion, " Nearer My God to Thee." In the after- noon, we took dinner in Cambridge with M and C and two friends. I certainly do not question that our dear boy was with us that Sunday, on our walk, at the church service, and in our family gathering. " Millions of spiritual beings walk the earth, Both when we wake and when we sleep/' I will bring in here another brief incident which naturally follows the foregoing. I asked if Walter knew of anything that had taken place of late in the home of M and C . The reply was in brief as follows: " TWO LITTLE FEET " " Something has brought a joy to them both. There is some addition, and they will have to make changes on account of what has happened and will happen. I see a lot of things around. They have not got a baby, have they? I seem to see two little feet. Walter laughs and means assent. There are little feet kicking up, and they are too cunning for anything." I inquired if Walter could give the name. And at once the control said, " Is there a W in baby's name? " And slowly she repeated, "A — L — T — E — R. It is Walter, too," she said; the baby is named for him." u 290 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT A LETTER FROM THE WORLD OF SPIRIT Next in this group order I give Walter's beautiful message to his brother M . " Take this to M for him," the control said : " How can I tell you how much I long to be with you in the old way sometimes, and yet how glad and happy I am that you are beginning to feel more reconciled to my going, and can find comfort in the assurance that I am alive and interested in every- thing you do. My plans were not alone for Father and Mother, but together we planned what we would do when you got your degree and I mine. And now you are most through. And I know you understand a little bit of my fun when I tell you — I took my degree in a somewhat too summary fashion. But I entered at once on a good practice, as you will see. No lack of work, no loss of time in looking for clients, for I at once found I must work to save our father and mother from despair. And now we are all happy together. Please do not think of me as far away, or silent, or disinterested. Heaven would not be heaven unless I could know how my dear ones fare. . . . Oh, such love I send ! I must not take any more time from Dad." (" He laughs when he says that," added Sunbeam; it was a characteristic little way of Walter's.) The control made an interesting remark here: " When in spirit I talk with Walter as we do, but here I am in a denser atmosphere. And the trouble is to make sounds carry down through and pictures go down through." APRIL 23, 1912 291 FAMILIAR PORTRAITS There were a few other communications from new ones. " I see a new one, another man. I see your father, and your mother, and Grandfather Graves and Grandmother Graves, and this little group of women, family connections. I see two or three uncles, some of each family. The new man stands beside Momsie, but is not her father. He is quite tall, nice looking, rather dark eyes and dark hair, and has a very straightforward manner. I think he is her uncle. The name begins with C," and then quickly she added that he was " Uncle Charles." " He puts his hands on her shoulders and says : 6 1 want to give strength to you, and to be counted among those who would be of use to you in your investigations.' " Then the control referred to a woman present: " She is quite an old lady, short and plump, a little dumpling woman, very active and efficient. She keeps looking up at your boy, and he laughs and she laughs. He never knew her until he went away ; he found her in the ' family pew,' he says." [I interjected, re- ferring to the expression — That is awfully good, I am glad there is some humor over there.] " She has been over quite a long time ; she is closer to M. [Mrs. G ] than to you." We both recognized this as a good description of Aunt S. L on Mrs. Graves' side, who passed over in 1890. The control called attention to another woman present, and described the impression she received. " I see an old-fashioned house, and an old-fashioned room in it. There is a big wheel like an old-fashioned spinning wheel. There are country conditions 292 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT around her. It seems she was either visiting or living there, when she knew M." [Mrs. G ]. This seemed to us both a very clear reference to Mrs. G 's step-grandmother, whom we both knew. It was a characteristic picture the pastures and fields around the house, and Grandmother D spinning yarn. In short, these three friends in the spirit who unexpectedly greeted us in this way were known to us both, and especially to Mrs. G , and we pronounce these portraitures as faithful and even vivid. I hardly need add that W got through the mental pictures in strikingly accurate shape. A STRAIN OF MUSIC Near the close of the sitting there came through this sentence from our dear boy, which lingers with us like a haunting strain of music. The control was saying that his room was always ready for him when he came home. " I come there now and I go into the house and say : ' I am here, Momsie dear ; I don't make an imprint on the bed, or any noise, but I am here with you and nearer than ever in life, and just as happy as when I used to come home and say, " Oh, isn't it good to get back home again ! " ' " Then follows a deep personal family talk out of place here, but inexpressibly revealing of Walter's presence. At the last I speak of the glorious pros- pect of progress and service before us all. Don't you think these two words, progress and service sum it all up? " Progress and service," Sunbeam repeated im- pressively. Walter then closed this delightful interview : " It APRIL 23, 1912 293 isn't alone your reading and your study and your grasp of this wonderful truth that has sustained you all, but it is because I have been right there with you, and you couldn't feel the desolation while I was there." I consider this a wonderfully revealing statement. CHAPTER V REPORT OF SITTING, OCTOBER 8, 1912 The conditions seemed to be harmonious and the communications were clear. " THE OLD SENSE OF SEPARATION GONE " After a pleasant greeting, the control began: " The first thing the boy walks right over beside you, puts his hand on your shoulder, and with a smile says: ' Dear Pop and Momsie, I have greater joy than ever before in coming to you to-day. The old sense of separation is gone, and at this moment I feel only peace and satisfaction. I have been studying and working to know this beautiful truth of spirit communication. For how could we have managed to get through these long months if you hadn't made it possible for me to speak to you? O dear Pop, so many times I think of that first day when I tried to let you know that I was still conscious of you and could see you. You know I was confident that you would understand if I had conscious existence any- where, that I would have the same old love that I had always been talking about. But that was not quite enough for me, and when you and M came, and I was able to get even a little word through to you, I felt so much better than I had at any moment after the accident.' " 294 OCTOBER 8, 1912 295 " WAKING FROM A TROUBLED SLEEP " " Sometimes you have wondered, and Momsie, if I suffered before I died. I have to laugh when I say died, for I couldn't realize that death had anything to do with me." [That is glorious, I said.] " And I want to tell you that I had no pain, no sense of horror, and not even a fear crossed my mind. They tell me over here that I lost hold of the body at the first blow, but lived on half mechanically until the body refused to work any longer. The first thing I remember was waking as from a sleep, as if I had been in a troubled sleep, and I saw faces all about me, and I asked what had happened. And Grandma was there, and put her hand on my head, and there were tears in her eyes just as real as the tears in yours, as she told me what occurred. But she added almost in the same sentence that I could see you, and know all about you just the same, because she had been able to do so. From that moment I never had the least doubt of the possibility of my communicating with you. I waited for your coming with the same assurance that I would wait in the station for you to come on the train. Right here, I want to say that Grandmother's tears were not for her own sorrow, but for yours. And when I spoke of my spoiled plans, plans that involved the dearest, those who loved as no family ever loved before, she chided me and said new and better plans would come to my mind. And so they have. One of them is that I may make it so plain to you that no separation can come to the spiritually united, that all sorrow and pain will be forever taken away from you two. 296 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " O THINK OF THE HOME OVER THERE " " If I could have my way, I would snatch you and Momsie right out together some day like the prophet of old. And the first thing you would know, you would find yourselves established in the home I am preparing for you. I have seen you thinking and wondering what kind of home I live in, and so I wanted to tell you a little about it to-day. It is a real place, just as real, Dad, as any house you ever saw. And I have already begun to plan for a library, where you can sit and read and read and read, while Momsie and I go off and take a look at some of the beauties of the world over here. She won't have to see that the table is filled with all kinds of food to fill up three hungry men. I am going to see that she has her picnic over here and we take care of things." (" This is a bit of fun," the control puts in.) " If I had stayed here, and had a home of my own with a whole lot of children as I always wanted, and some day you and Pop had gone away, there would have been the same sense of separation, and worse to bear because I am afraid I wouldn't have had the courage or known how to establish this relation as you have done for me. Now nothing can ever separate us. It is a different way I am taking care of you than I planned, but it is just as real, and it has a future. M is happy in his life and his new home, and he will go on with ties and associations that will help him into full expression of his powers. I know he misses me, and I know he often wishes he could talk with me or get a letter in the old fashion." . . . OCTOBER 8, 1912 297 SPIRIT WELCOME " I have wanted to tell you how good all these people are, those I never knew but who belong to you, and who seem to take me right into their home and heart for your sakes, because I was your son. Grandma is just as dear as can be, and she never tries to take Momsie's place. She says there is only one mother for a boy, and she is quite content to be grandmother. She wouldn't want you to have any mother but her, and so she knows how Momsie feels about me. " I often think of the old days, when I had been away and came home, how good it seemed to get into the house and walk all round and stretch myself out. I used to think if I could only go home oftener, I could do better work. I have the same pride now to do something you both would be proud of." [That is just like Walter, I said.] " I don't want M to forget the things we used to talk about." [There is no danger, M said, as he read these words.] " I haven't told you much about Grandfather, but I want to say a little bit about him. He keeps up a good deal of deep thought about these things. And he doesn't rush to the conclusion of the advisability of the communion as quickly as Grandmother does. She is all intuition and heart and responsiveness. He is more matter-of-fact and take-your-time sort." [Bless them both, I said.] " I heard you say, ' Bless them both,' and I say ' Amen ' to that." These are characteristic touches, and well exem- plify the human quality of life over there as here and the continuity of temperament and mental habit. 298 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT CHURCHES OVER THERE AND CHEERFUL HUMOR ALSO a There are churches over here, and some people are no farther along in their discernment of eternal truths than they were when trying to save their little souls. I don't know what will awaken them if coming into this life doesn't. But I will leave that for you to do when you get over here. You will want to do some preaching over here. And I'll see that you have the sleepiest and most degenerate pastorate that I can find." " He puts his hand right down to his knee, and laughs as though it were the best joke that ever was. He doesn't mean it at all," the control explains. This bit of humor was decidedly characteristic of Walter, and his way of lighting up the talk. If we ever got the impression that life loses its humanism and sense of humor over there, it is good to lay it aside. Whatever the ascetics of the church and the fearful dogmatist may have thought, we are not in- clined to hold to-day that a long, unwholesome coun- tenance is a mark of piety. Walter resumes : " I am not wholly detached from the world and my interest in it. I am eager to have better conditions established in the world, and I am associated with groups of people over here who are everywhere striving with the souls of men." I am so glad, I said, to hear of this. " I knew you would be glad of it ; that is why I told you." At the last Walter added in a spirit of fun : " If there is anything you don't know, Pop, ask me." CHAPTER VI OCTOBER 24, 1912, INTERVIEW The control began : " The last time you were here there were so many questions left unanswered that Walter laughed and said — ' I think it would take a week of steady work for Pop to get all of the news he wants from us.' " A BOOK REFERENCE INTERWOVEN " But one of the particular things I am going to speak about first. I have brought the young friend, the young doctor whom you have been so interested in. . . . The work which he did led him to communi- cate on that subject to his mother, who understood the subject almost better than he did." We had been interested in the book " Interwoven," and this led to an acquaintance with the spirit writ- er's mother, Mrs. Dr. T . The letters consti- tuting the book were written from the standpoint of a spirit physician. " All through his messages was a current of thought speaking of the usefulness and beauty of intercommunion," W continued. I cannot conceive how Walter could have said this about the mother and the nature of the book except through observation of our reading of the book and the visit of Mrs. Dr. T at our home a few months previous, or by conversation with Dr. T on the spirit side. 299 300 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT At an interview one year later, Walter made it very evident that he knew of a later visit of Mrs. Dr. T at our new home. I will add that at this later sitting Mr. T , the father, reported. " He wishes to send a greeting and assure you that he appreciates all you have done to make his loved companion's life brighter and broader." [Don't know what it means, commented the control.] " He turns to M. [Mrs. G ] and says she can never know what it means to have an honest friend- ship when years have brought separation and pain and loneliness. But he says she is a pretty cheery and bright woman even with all her years, and when she comes over here it will be with a spirit of youth and progressiveness that makes for rapid achievement on this side, and that is — my Lucy." [Name cor- rect and personal touch decidedly so.] I give room to the above account for its evidential quality, and also as showing the reciprocal play of influence between spirit and mortal. SPIRIT EMPLOYMENTS, THEIR VARIETY AND FREEDOM Walter goes on : " There are so many of our family who keep questioning and begging me to give you some word from them that I hardly have time to tell you about the gentlemen who are interested in this phenomenal expression. But I have met many of them. Myers I admire greatly, he is so sincere and clear. And I have several times had him at the home, and we have talked about you and your desire to know so much about these things. And Stainton OCTOBER 24, 1912 301 Moses, I like him much — a group of souls dedicated to the understanding of God's love and truth in the world. And think of it, Pop, I am with them, and just as anxious to have my evidence and my efforts go towards the larger unfolding of these wonderful things as can be. It makes me happy to feel that I have some specific work to do. And the way I am able to come to you at home and to see things there, I have largely attained through my connection with these people who have made a study of this work." Everything seems to show that the world of the future is not a state of passivity, or absorption in contemplation and visions of glory, but a world, though transcendent, yet of human adaptations and interests. We have heard of the Scotchwoman who described the traditional heaven in this way : " We shall sit upon stules and sing psalms all the day long." Such conceptions of the hereafter are undoubtedly passing away. A certain spirit communicator has said: " There are an infinite number of ways by which the spirits employ their time or are occupied in the spirit world. Each one pursues the course that is best adapted to him, but none are forced into the pursuance of any course. All that the soul enjoys to be occupied upon, it will find ample means to reach in the spirit world." There is a sense of humanness, and sound wisdom, and freedom in these words that is impressive. MEDIUMISTIC WRITING A NATURAL PROCESS At this point Walter gave a brief message in auto- matic writing of which we were very glad, apart from 302 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT the message, as showing that he could make use of this method of communication. The automatic ac- tion seemed very evident as we looked on, and I held the paper in place, and the medium's face reflected the agitation of her arm. In " Interwoven " the process is described in these words : " Some of them are here to-day watching me write. They see my fire stream out and attach to the fire from the medium's white nerve cords, and then press along into type. Just as when on earth my sense went down on my own white nerves and out into my fingers, and then into words. Why, it is a natu- ral process ! " The main part of the script was the following: " Yes, Pop, I can hear you when you ask God to let me come to you, and to make the life of the spirit real to all of us. And you never forget. " Dearest Momsie, how good to be so consciously near to you both. (Signed) " Walter Graves. '* Better read this with your glasses on, Pop." A SPIRIT PROCESSION AND GREETINGS The control then rapidly introduces one spirit friend after another in a way dramatic and intensely interesting to us. A few of these messages I omit as not full enough to point unmistakably to identity. " The first one is your mother. Walter takes her right by the hand. She wants to say something in her own right to you." " i Dear Children, both mine, how can I say all that I feel in so short a time. But this is the one thought uppermost in my mind: I thank God for OCTOBER 24, 1912 303 this opportunity to tell you of my interest, my love, and that all the weariness and pain are things of the past. And I am often with you, and have been with you many times through the summer, when there was a happy, happy time, with only one shadow — the absence of Walter in the body.' " And your father — he is different from your mother : " " 4 1 waste no words in telling you of how much I think of you. My interest is in the boy, and I am proud of him, and glad he is here.' " I interjected — Take good care of him. " ' I can't take care of him ; he is more likely to take care of me. My knowledge of life seems rather meager compared to his. But he is so bright, full of joviality and spirit, and he keeps us all on the move to tell him everything about you that we can remem- ber. He is a good boy, and he is yours shared with us till you come over.' " And right with your father is your father's mother, your grandmother, gone a long time. She just stands by you one second, and steps right over by the side of your wife, and she says : " ' I want to send my message to her in the home and about her tasks.' . . . And she says — ' I know what the sorrow is of a mother who peers out into the dark and sees no face looking back to her of the boy she loved.' " The procession of spirit friends continues. " An Uncle Jon. comes to her." [Mrs. G .] Doubtless the control took the name to be John, but Mrs. G knew it to be Jon., an abbreviated form of Jonathan used in the family connection. 304 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " He is full of fun, and he says, ' I don't want to make this so serious that it seems like giving testi- mony in a prayer meeting. I want to bring some of the glad joy.' " [This was like the breezy manner of Uncle J as we both knew him.] Then a woman at once succeeded. " She seems like an old maid woman, slim and straight, but awfully faithful and good. She seems more like a cousin to your father, as though she belonged to that part of the family." This was only a touch, but it was an evidential picture to me of a Mrs. P. M , a paternal cousin to my father, who lived for many years in the same village with us and was a frequent caller at our home. " That Uncle Charles wants to speak : ' This is my effort to let you know that I am here, and not only interested in the subject, but interested in you both.' " Then a woman younger than those previously in- troduced came forward. " As I see her, she went out quick to the spirit, and the name begins with L." And at once the con- trol added, " Lilly." " She says and laughs : * Oh, it makes me happy to see everybody over here ! ' She talks about the beauty and life over there, and the flowers. First she was very lonesome, she didn't want to die. If she could send to her people messages as clear as Walter sends to you, she would think it was heaven upon earth." This was clearly my niece, Mrs. Lillian S , whom we used to speak of as " Lilly." She passed over suddenly the fall of 1911. OCTOBER 24, 1912 305 I will add here that in these messages there are now and then touches of remembered ways and man- nerisms and tastes that cannot always be well ex- pressed, and that while they do not come home to the reader, they have a quiet evidential force with those who long knew these spirit friends in the body. My niece, " Lilly," for instance, was brought up in a home where plants and flowers were much cultivated and loved. CHAPTER VII BRIEF REPORT OF SPIRIT MESSAGE, APRIL 24, 1913 SPIRIT VISITANTS The control : " You would be surprised to know how many of your people come out to your home, and see you at home. They are becoming accustomed to this sort of spiritual unity in life, and do not feel the separation as in the past, but feel the naturalness of the association." " IT SEEMS SO GOOD TO BE TALKING IN A LAN- GUAGE THAT WE ALL UNDERSTAND " " The boy the very first thing says : ' Let me give you my tenderest love, and tell you how glad it makes me to have you come and give me this chance to tell you some of the things I have experienced, and some of the new happiness that is mine.' There are tears in his eyes. They are partly from recollection of the past, partly from the joy which he feels to-day. 6 It seems so good, 5 he says, ' to be talking in a lan- guage that we all understand. And I have so many things to tell you, how I have grown in knowledge, and how stupendous this truth seems to me to-day.' " [Walter has in mind the truth of communion and communication between the two worlds.] " ' I wonder that I ever thought lightly of it. I had to have experience to show me how important it 306 APRIL 24, 1913 307 is that life after death be a proved subject for those who are left.' " " THE PLACE WHEREON THOU STANDEST IS HOLY GROUND " Then Walter adds this meaningful statement as to the motive and attitude of spirit in which we make approaches to the spirit world : — " Then you can imagine according to the spirit in which this matter is taken up, the materialistic per- son gets only materialistic evidence, and the spirit- ually-minded man like you, who finds in this expres- sion a religious rite and ecstasy, gets that expression out of this truth. And when you pray and feel the exaltation of the presence of God we are exhorted to, I feel that same uplift which comes to you and Mom- sie." This was a great sentence for us, and a revelation of the spiritual unity and subtle interaction of souls. It was indicative also of the reverent and religious spirit in which all drawing nigh to the world unseen should be made. And we want to say here that all our approaches to the spirit realm, and all this reach- ing out in effort to break the terrible silence of death, have always been made with as much reverence and devoutness as I would seek to carry into the pulpit on a Sunday morning. In a brief interview with Dr. Hyslop at the time of these sittings, I stated that I disliked the attitude of those whose only motive in psychic experiments seemed to be amusement or idle curiosity. " So do I," affirmed the doctor. And while we hold that the notion of spirit com- 308 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT munication as a meddlesome and blasphemous prying into the jealously-guarded secrets of God is an in- herited superstition, at the same time we must hold that the dignity and tremendous import of the mat- ter should inyest it with reverence and a religious at- mosphere. "EVERYTHING I STUDIED AND EVERY STEP I TOOK, OF IMPORTANCE IN MY LIFE OVER HERE " " I almost wish I could crowd all the rest out, and just sit down in the way we used to, and ask you all kinds of questions and answer all yours. The first thing I want to say, now I have told that I haven't lost an iota of my love, is that I am study- ing, and all this logic that I tried to get into my head serves me to-day in my work here. Sometimes it seemed as if all the money and time had been wasted, I mean the money and time put into my education. And yet I find that everything I studied and every step I took was of importance to me in my life here. Instead of forgetting what I learned, it became clearer to me what was intended by that education, and I am putting it into practice over here. It is a paying practice too, not money in the way I had planned to make it, but superior values that make you and Momsie and me richer. 5? PSYCHIC DISCUSSIONS IN SPIRIT Then Walter tells us of the recognition that had been given him by people over there who had made a long and deep study of this psychic problem. " I think it is because I am so eager to make all this plain to you, and because I am enthusiastic about it. APRIL 24, 1913 309 I have had opportunity and invitation to attend lec- tures and meetings over here where all these things are discussed." FAMILIAR FAMILY TALK AND FELLOWSHIP He says : " Of course I couldn't come alone this morning even though I wanted to. Grandmother is about as anxious to get to you as I am. It is a dif- ferent relation, but she thinks as much of you as you do of me, so she says." And then he smiles — " I don't believe it. No family ever loved each other as much as ours, and anyway we were never afraid to express it. We never grew up. . . . " She has been good to me. She has never talked very much about what has happened. But in those first days, when we were all so dazed by what had happened to me, she was like an angel, and quietly and gently took care of me, and answered all my questions, and seemed to know at once my one desire would be to go home. I can talk calmly now about those first days. They were so uncertain to me, I couldn't seem to get hold of anything to give me peace until I remembered your talk and interest in this subject. And then I talked with Grandmother about it, and the rest was easy. The minute I came where you were, my desires found some expression. I do not know of anything so important as this, and I feel ashamed that I didn't help you more. But it gave me an incentive to work. . . . " She, Grandmother, wants to speak for herself." " In a little low, quiet voice, she begins to talk," said the control, " if I can catch what she says : — " I wish I could tell you what comfort it is to us « 310 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT to feel that we are actually doing something for you. And so many things in my life I have to thank you for, that to be able now to take Walter into my home and have him part of my life here and have him talk about you all, makes my life happier, more complete." " She doesn't smile very much ; she is sweet and lovely, but not full of fun like Walter," the control commented. " He tries to fool with her some as with his mother. He says : ' I think it is good for her, and I wouldn't know how to get along with anyone who was kind and good to me unless I could do just what I felt like doing.' " This is certainly like Walter and his sense of humor, and incidentally it gives another relieving touch of humanness to the other life. Most of us, I think, do not desire that when we change our bodies we shall lose the sense of being folks. A little further on, I asked Walter if he remem- bered anything about my order. At once he replied, " Ask Momsie if she knows anything about it. We'll fix him when we get him over here ; we won't let him find anything for a week." CHAPTER VIII MENTAL PICTURING, APRIL 25, 1913 The following is of a different character from the preceding heart-to-heart talk, and involves mental imagery. THOUGHT-COMMUNION AND ITS DIFFICULTIES IN THE TRANCE SITUATION Spirit testimony indicates that thought-communion has possibilities in the spirit world and body which it is far indeed from possessing with the gross media of this life. Over there, w T e have good reason to be- lieve, there is a language without words as well as language with words, and ideas and mental pictures may be flashed from mind to mind. Said one spirit: " When I tried to speak I found that my thoughts were understood, actually understood, and their thoughts were returned to me." As we reflect, it would certainly seem in order that along with all other heightened powers of our spirit nature, this fac- ulty of thought transmission should be augmented in scope and facility. Now the trance condition affords strong evidences of this heightened thought-communion, but it is ham- pered with difficulties and limitations incident to the peculiar situation. The visuel says again and again, " I see," as the impression or image is received from the spirit communicator. But the message does not 311 812 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT always come through distinctly, and the image may be blurred and the real object mistaken for some- thing like unto it. In our sittings, the control stated several times that she was in a thicker medium than the spirit communicators ; it was, she said, as though she were submerged in water and the spirit friends were above her in the air, and seeking anxiously and by various devices to get their message down to her. The control often has an intent and listening atti- tude, and at times even seems to struggle to catch the thought impressions of the operators above. The light, in passing through, may be refracted by the thicker medium or fail to get through at all. This little digression may serve as an introduction to the interview. SPIRIT GUIDANCE THROUGH THE OLD PARSONAGE I suddenly asked Walter about the old parsonage where we lived. The control said, interpreting Wal- ter indirectly: " There is a brown house just before one gets to your house. When I look at yours, that seems lighter and brighter and prettier. Walter runs up two or three steps quickly and right into a door. When I get in there, it is a room filled with sun- shine. You can walk through this room out into another room — that is just home-like like the other one, more like a room where you eat. And then I go out through again into another room, and that looks like a kitchen. Then you go down some steps and get something out of the shed, and come back into the kitchen; you get wood, kindlings and build APRIL 25, 1913 313 a fire. Out of one window you see fields, grass, and trees and out of the other you see houses. There is another room ; when you are there you are not dis- turbed; I think it is your study. He shows to me books, and a table, and there is another thing near the windows and looks like a table with papers on it. You see bookcases around. I look up and see a pic- ture of a person, and you look up with a feeling of love to it, and almost talking to it. I think it is Walter's picture." " Does he like the picture? " I ask. " Of course Walter likes the picture. Sometimes when you are working there, he is there. You can sit in the study and look out into another room. There is an outside porch." At a previous time, the control said there were three beds upstairs. Of course this is only a descriptive outline, and the square piano by the window with its pile of music seemed in her mental picture like a big table, but as a general guide to the parsonage it gives a very good account, and it has sufficient peculiarities to distinguish it from houses in general. All the de- tails given of the rooms and surroundings were cor- rect except the piano. PUTTING UP A WIRE FENCE BY TELEPATHIC IMAGERY This was followed at once by another piece of ob- jective evidential work in the same surroundings, where the results were still more satisfactory because more specific, and there did not seem to be a flaw or break in the evidence. 314 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT I asked Walter if he remembered any job of work he did in September, 1910, back of the house. The control at once repeated what she saw : " I see something like a hammer with which he pounds. He walks and does something out there on the ground; I don't know whether he is building some- thing or putting up something. It is still there, and he is glad that he did it. It seems more like something put up to make things better. I see him working away, and making measurements and sight- ing. I hear a noise, there is pounding, it makes me think there is wood connected with it." W used three stakes which he pieced out as they were not long enough. He also used hammer and nails in affixing bottom boards to the stakes and buildings. " I see his hands reach up, there is some stretching to it, that makes it good. He puts down the letter H " ; and slowly the control spelled the following : " H-e-n y-a-r-d, hen yard." That is good, I said. And Walter instantly replied : " It is not only good for you, but good for the hens." " He made the frame, the thing around it," the control went on, " to keep the hens out of the gar- den." I inquired, What is the thing called that goes around it? And she replied : " Walter says, ' Chicken wire.' It is measured by the yard." It occurred to me to ask the control if she knew about chicken wire, though from her history I knew APRIL 25, 1913 315 she passed over very young. She replied, she did not. The whole account is a strikingly accurate and vivid piece of spirit mental picturing. These notes, I may add, like all my psychic notes, I took on the spot, the communicator from the other side adapting himself or herself to my pace. Mrs. G also took duplicate notes of much of the ma- terial. THE OLD CHARGE OF TRIVIALITY It may be charged that such evidence as the fore- going is of a trivial nature, but we well know that in this complicated world of human life many things that may be called trivial in themselves are by no means trivial in their bearings and implications. And this seems to me preeminently true in this case. In the matter of legal evidence, when an important question of justice or of personal identity is at stake, we would not look upon any circumstance that served to establish the truth as irrelevant and trivial. But this question of personal identity assumes great im- portance indeed as we transfer it to a spiritual state of existence, and we must assume that trifles here have the same force and validity as in common life. We should not account anything as trivial that makes the truth clearer and more familiar. GROWTH OF THE SPIRIT BODY At the last, we had a little talk on the spirit body. " It comes over here partially developed, and it grows into completeness as it comes in contact with expressions of life here which call out certain ca- 316 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT pacities. In other words, the need of a spirit body creates it. I find myself that I grow as I express." In case of the spirit body, it is evident from this and in many ways that it is more intimately the in- strument of the soul than the flesh and bone body. It is less gross and rigid, more fluidic, and more readily conforms itself to the moulding, transforming power within. It is more expressive of the soul. " My body looks about the same as the body you knew," Walter continued. " Rut as I need to express some purpose or aspiration, I find myself growing to that aspiration with capacity and form." W adds that many times he had looked upon people over there who looked as incomplete as in- fants. That was because they failed to take hold of the spiritual life with a spiritual purpose. He spoke of some who were very sure of what they would find when they got to heaven, and they lacked in the fac- ulty of spiritual comprehension and adaptability. If we are going to make a long sojourn in a strange country, it would seem to be the wise thing to learn of the possibilities and adaptabilities of life there that the effect upon us may not prove bewildering and disappointing to our traditions. A LETTER DICTATED FROM THE SPIRIT " As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country." A letter has to be written, perhaps dictated, trans- mitted and delivered. And why should not the way of earth find some counterpart in spirit, differing in detail, of course, according to the conditions and adaptabilities of the new channel? And if we object APRIL 25, 1913 317 to the spirit way through transmitter, spirit tele- phone, and amanuensis, we might as well be consistent and thorough and object to all our mechanisms for getting messages through here. Nevertheless, there has to be a telephone, and some one has to listen. "To M , my Beloved Brother: — " Out of all this seeming tragedy has come the most wonderful expression to us all, and never again can we feel that there is the least separation for those who are bound together as we were by an understanding love. Whatever I am able to do for the little one who bears my name, I need not tell you shall be done with joy. " So much I do want to say to you about the reality of this life, of the people I have met, of the glorious opportunities for work, of the enthusiasm that comes to men over here when the horror of the end of life is taken away. But I cannot take time from this effort being made, to give more definite and conclusive evi- dence of my associations with people over here, and must let this brief message speak of my undying af- fection. No two brothers ever loved each other more. And M , dear, never think that my life has been completed; it is just begun, it is just begun. And I take you all with me in my thoughts up the paths of spiritual usefulness; I could not go on without you." Control : " He turns away and brushes the tears away. It is his happiness. With a little smile he says : " ' How could a man help becoming a good angel, when he is ousted into angelhood by such devotion as I have had given me.' " As the interview closed, the control announced, to our great satisfaction — " To-morrow Mr. Myers is going to speak." CHAPTER IX MYERS' INTERVIEW, APRIL 27, 1913 In October, 1912, Walter had spoken of his ac- quaintanceship and his admiration for Mr. Myers, and at the sitting, April 24, I had inquired if it were possible for us to obtain a communication from him. MR. MYERS' PRONOUNCED BELIEF IN SPIRIT COMMUNICATION Few names are better known in the annals of Psy- chic Research than that of Frederick W. H. Myers of England, who devoted thirty years in an indefat- igable search for proof absolute and convincing of the immortal life. This search is embodied in his monumental work in two volumes, entitled, " Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death." Mr. Myers' long and profound studies of all classes of psychological phenomena led him to a pronounced belief in spirit communication. Here is his own statement : " It seems to me now that the evidence for com- munication with the spirits of identified deceased per- sons through the trance utterances and writings of sensitives apparently controlled by those spirits, is established beyond serious attack." Sir Oliver Lodge was fully in sympathy with Mr. Myers and his work, and at the erection of his me- 318 APRIL 27, 1913 319 morial gave an address on " The Communion of Saints." He expressed his judgment that Mr. Myers had found in his life study scientific proof of the immor- tality of the soul, and the harmony of the universe with the highest aspirations of man. FRIENDLY INTRODUCTION As soon as we were seated, the control announced that Mr. Myers was present, with Walter and other friends. Mr. Myers at once began : — " It is a pleasure and gratification to come directly to a man who seeks to know about the life and op- portunities and limitations of the spirit disembodied. More than this, it gives me personal pleasure to tell you of my interest in your son, who is making very rapid growth in the understanding of all these prin- ciples of immortal life. It is because of him and his earnest desire to give you clear and convincing evi- dence of his presence, his knowledge, his memories, that I come and desire to be known as your friend over here. We assemble with common purposes and interests, and talk over all these perplexing difficul- ties and try to find the explanation. And it is at such meetings that I have met and become interested in this young man that came to you. And whatever I am able to give you which may throw light on the subject, I give gladly and freely, and hope it may give you more power to help the world. My interest was always in the great world, which needs this illu- minating religion. I am now ready for your ques- tions." Mr. Myers then adds — " One word more ; let me greet your wife. ! ?? 320 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT I would say here, I had planned this sitting as a questionaire and Walter had advised me to do this for the most satisfactory results to ourselves, and had told me " to fire my questions." A SPIRIT QUESTIONAIRE. THIRTY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 1. It is especially difficult on this side to clearly apprehend the location of the spirit world, and the foundation or support of the spirit world. Here we live on the surface of a planet, we have a definite lo- cation and foundation; but how shall we conceive of location and foundation in the spirit world? " The fishes swim in the sea, and are as much at home as to location and foundation and motion as quadrupeds who walk only on the crust of the earth. It is hard for one who has never been in the spirit life to comprehend the reality of the world where spirits dwell. There is a foundation as real and tangible to us as your world is to you. Likei a belt, it sur- rounds THE PLANET, AND EXACTLY SUITS THE NEEDS OF THE SPIRIT BODY." 2. Must not this foundation and floor of a spiritual sphere be more substantial and condensed than the space above it? " Yes, in a degree. But everything in the spirit life is more fluidic, more elastic, just as real and tan- gible but not so solid." We would infer from this that while the spirit world has a real and sensible foundation for spirit existence, yet spirit form is so fluidic that life is not on one plane, nor movement restricted as with us, but APRIL 27, 1913 321 for our apprehension is likened to the freedom and buoyancy of motion of the fishes in the sea. 3. Gen. A. P. Martin in the book " Both Sides of the Veil," in giving his experience after leaving the body, speaks of passing behind the veil, a veil of mist. What does it mean? [The control remarked here that Mr. Myers knew Gen. Martin.] " Between the physical life and the spirit life is an atmosphere created by physical expressions and de- sires which seems like a veil of fog, a mist, and the soul passes through that into a lighter and clearer atmosphere, which is rarefied by the loftier desires and purposes of freed spirits. To come above that mist and fog of physical life, one has but to clarify the spirit with pure aspirations and godlike purpose, and the spirit life becomes at once the real life." This tends to show there are subtilities in the uni- verse which the physicist has not reckoned with, and while these subtle expressions are withdrawn from fleshly vision, they have tangibility and meaning to spirit life. It seems to be a part of the general theory of emanations. 4. How is the spirit world related in motion to the earth? Are the spirit spheres fixed in relation to the earth, and do they revolve around with the earth? " Yes ! Each condition of the physical world has its correspondent in the spirit world." 5. Does the spirit world encompassing our earth have several somewhat distinct spheres? What is meant by the third sphere, the fifth sphere, etc.? " They are terms used by some spirits to designate 322 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT different states of conscious spirit existence. But they have no fixed meaning, as they are used quite independently, with their own interpretation de- pending upon the thought of the person using it. It is not a question of grades, like one being pro- moted from one sphere to another. For instance, one might walk in the valley a few feet up the hill and so on until they attained the heights, but it would be no matter of promotion, simply a matter of location at the time." While we assume there are all degrees of progress, and spiritual heights always beyond, and many con- genial social groups, we do not enjoy associating heaven with the thought of a graded school and its promotions. It would seem that a spirit who had been over there for centuries might be so weaned from the earth as to pass out naturally from the earth plane, and yet be no farther developed than some spirits nearer earth. 6. Then again, are there spirit worlds or spheres connected with any or all of the other planets, Mer- cury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune? We know it is not supposed by astrono- mers that the surface of any of these planets is in- habited, with the exception of Mars which some, like Prof. Lowell, contend is inhabited. Does the spirit world have any positive light on this problem? " As far as I have been able to discern or to deter- mine, the same conditions exist around every planet, which is another universe like our own. The ques- tion of inhabitants is a mooted one. Many planets supposed to be uninhabited are peopled, I am told. APRIL 27, 1913 323 But that I have not yet had personal evidence of." From this it seems that the planets are spirit- ually-sphered, and more of them inhabited than has been assumed. 7. At this point, I referred to Mr. Martin again, and how he stated through Mrs. Piper that he had seen Mr. Myers at one time about to undertake an excursion to the planet Mars. " Mr. Martin was aware of an expedition of spirits toward the spirit belt of the planet Mars, and I was in the party. But what we discovered is still a mat- ter of study and interest to us, and I am not at lib- erty to give to the world the discoveries which we then made. I haven't the slightest doubt from what I have already learned that the first statement I made to you about inhabited planets is true. And THE INHABITANTS OF THE PLANET MARS ARE IN MANY RESPECTS SIMILAR TO THE INHABITANTS OF THE planet Earth. There is a common meeting place outside the belt which surrounds every planet, for spirits of other planets to meet and commune. The world is far from ready to accept these truths which are real to us, and we must first make a clearer and better case for identity, before we put forth our newly-discovered truths. We would be laughed out of court if we attempted to tell about the things which are perfectly real to us, but sound like fairy stories to the uninitiated, and especially when we find it so hard to tell about the life we have lived." I could not help laughing at this, we are so slow to believe what lies beyond our little world of ex- perience. 324 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 8. Is it a matter of knowledge over there whether there are spirit worlds connected with other solar systems ? " Yes ! and men who are interested in that particu- lar field of inquiry are as sure of it as you are of anything which you weigh, and measure, and handle in your world. Prof. James is an indefatigable in- vestigator into all these things; he is like a child asking a thousand questions of people who have been over here a long time. Your Walter has the great- est respect for Prof. James." 9. And is it possible to have spirit communication with spiritual spheres connected with distant sun systems ? There is such an awful gulf. If the near- est star is eighteen trillion and six hundred billion miles distant, as the astronomer estimates, and it takes a ray of light about four years to travel that distance, how is it possible to traverse such an ap- palling space? [" He smiles," the control interpreted.] " It is hard for an infant to comprehend how his little sailboat might cross the ocean. The pond at the foot of his garden is the biggest bit of water his childish mind may imagine. But when he grows to manhood, the ocean is easily spanned and com- munication between England and America is a mat- ter of moments. So the infinite distances become clear to the finite mind, as the finite mind grows toward infinity." As Mr. Myers has himself journeyed from our earth to Mars through interplanetary space, we can better understand how the vast oceans of interstellar APRIL 27, 1913 325 space have been simplified for him. It is an impos- sible problem for us in the physical body, but in spirit, no doubt, transportation through space as- sumes an entirely different aspect. We have hints of the possibility, at least for some, of traveling over there by power of will in such a way as to exceed the speed of light. We really travel by will here, in what might be called a rudimentary and clumsy method of locomotion. 10. Are we to assume that the spirit world is in- finite and co-extensive with the material universe? " Yes ! No other 1 assumption is possible, after you begin to understand the subject of how life stretches off into the limitless." 11. Does our moon have a spirit sphere? "The moon has a definite spirit sphere. And there are some revelations to be made about the moon which will completely revolutionize the ac- cepted theory that the moon is a dead planet." 12. Do you seem to be far away from Earth in your normal life and residence? " It is above your atmosphere. One doesn't seem to be so far away, because of the added powers. For instance, the eyes have capacity to see long dis- tances, so spirits do not necessarily have to be pres- ent in the room where you are working to see what you are doing." This long-distance vision is one of the most inter- esting phenomena among " the added powers " con- nected with the great change from matter to spirit. In spirit, vision must needs become still more spirit- 326 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT ual, and must needs minister, we would anticipate, to broader and more subtle needs of our spiritual environment. We have long-distance hearing well- established, and we may reasonably presume that long-distance seeing will also be impressed upon us in due time from the spirit world. 13. What would you say of the possibilities of long-distance vision? Is it possible for a spirit in the third sphere ever to behold a friend on the earth plane ? " I HAVE YET TO FIND ANY SPHERE SO FAR RE- MOVED FROM FRIENDS LOVED STILL ON EARTH THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO SEE THEM AT ANY MOMENT WHEN LOVE TURNS THE SPIRIT EYE EARTHWARD." 14. Of what substance is the spirit world and its objective forms composed? Do you speak of the fundamental substance of the spirit world as ether or as refined and ultimate matter? " Refined and ultimate matter. Spirit always expresses itself through form, the only way it could be recognized. And man is always expressed through a man form, of finer and finer substance, but substance still." 15. How is it possible for the spirit body to pass through material forms? In your movements, is a building or any form of matter as though they did not exist? How did you come here to-day? [Control: "He smiles."] " Usually we spirit men use orderly means in mov- ing about, and enter and leave your homes through the same doorway which you pass. When I come APRIL 27, 1913 327 into this house, I do not come down through the roof or in through the window, but I walk through the door in the same orderly fashion in which you do. [A few words are lost here.] " It is possible for spirits to pass through matter; just how it is done, I cannot tell you. But I have seen spirits on one side of a wall at one in- stant, and on the other side at the next instant. It is a law of mechanics." " Then the same day at evening, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you." (John 20: 19.) 16. Is the spirit world considered over there as a special creation by divine fiat, or has it come into existence through some orderly, evolutionary proc- ess, like our Earth and its life? " It comes into being as the world comes into being; it is co-existent with the world and grows as the world. The divine fiat is the begin- ning." There was a little more said, but Mr. Myers con- firmed, what the evolutionist might anticipate, that the spirit world is a part of the general world proc- ess, and is naturally connected with our Earth. And would it not seem that if the planets have their spiritual spheres and counterparts, and the sub- stance of spirit form is refined and ultimate matter, we could hardly think of these spheres otherwise than as vitally related to the planet itself through refined emanations ? 328 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 17. And I would like to make an inquiry here about the objectivity and variety of the spirit world. Is it proper to speak of the spirit world as in a large sense a duplication of Earth scenes and forms, the essential difference being in constitution? " Exactly that ! Your question is your answer. For instance, every rock has a spiritual rock. Your home is duplicated in the spirit. When you go over to the spirit you will find the home you desire, with rooms, apartments, and all the things that are nec- essary for the life that you live there. " And the life you live in the spirit will be the life you desire to live here. Sometimes the life one de- sires to live in the physical world is quite impossi- ble, because of contact and association with people and conditions which hinder perfect freedom. The spirit world gives perfect freedom." This certainly gives a home-like and inviting as- pect to our heavenly home. The prospect is not so foreign and revolutionary as to necessitate the be- ginning of life all over again. Indeed, how can it be but that the associations and habits of life must have a compelling voice in any sane scheme of life continued, as a second volume must be related in sequence and substance to the first? 18. What would you say about the reality and vividness of objective forms over there as compared with similar forms on Earth? " They are much more vivid and real. The en- casement is so heavy and gross that it is difficult to see through and get at the vital expression on Earth. In the spirit land, everything being less gross, the APRIL 27, 1913 329 matter of identification of the real essence is much simpler." We can well believe that flowers in spirit land are much more beautiful than here, as spirit friends as- sert. 19. How does the variety of forms and scenes in the spirit world compare with the variety of Earth? How about such things as soil, grass, flowers, trees, birds, landscapes, hills, streams and lakes, houses, and the scientific inventions? " They are all there." 20. Is the spirit world a scientific world as dis- tinguished from a supernatural world, and subject to law the same as our Earth? " If by scientific you mean, does the spirit world conform to law and growth, I say, Yes. It con- forms TO A LAW OF GROWTH AND UNFOLDMENT W r hicll man knows very little more about over here than in your world. Still at the center of things is an in- finite Power, and spirits watch the manifestations of that power with the same consciousness of infinity as you do here." Such a declaration from Mr. Myers that the great principle of unfoldment holds over there as here is at least interesting. 21. What do you think of the scientific investiga- tion and treatment of the future life that is being carried on here by psychic researchers? (As Mr. Myers himself was a most distinguished and acute student of all psychic problems, I hardly needed to put this question, but thought a reply might be helpful.) 330 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " There is no other way to investigate it. The spiritual growth of the world has been crippled and retarded by nonsensical notions that there were to be no definite searchings after the real truth." I here referred to a book, " Our Life Beyond," in which the writer, Rev. J. D. Jones, says : " I re- gard with aversion and almost repugnance the ex- periments of spiritualists, because they seem to me to trench upon forbidden ground. I dislike and fear these attempts to pry into the secret things of God." I stated briefly this mental attitude of aversion and aloofness toward psychic inquiry, and in reply Mr. Myers expressed himself forcibly. The control, in- terpreting and imitating Mr. Myers, brought her hands down upon the stand and exclaimed, " What did God give brains for? " We must agree the reply was most apt. We are all seekers and explorers and adventurers ; this is the way the world has been subdued and possessed. The writer evidently had in mind in his book a cer- tain low commercial exploitation of the spiritualistic idea associated with fraud. But in this, as in all great commanding truths, we can look up to the hills of God or fasten our eyes on the swamps and bogs below. 22. Does the life here, the good life and the evil life, have an effect upon the spirit body? " Of course it does. The life a man lives in the world creates the body and its conditions where he is to live after this life." 23. Do disease and old age leave any ill effect on APRIL 27, 1913 331 the spirit body? And if so, is it necessarily perma- nent? " Disease and old age will pass away from the world as men begin to realize that all life is one, and that they simply unfold into the spirit life. But your very pertinent question as to the effect of old age and illness on the spirit body and spirit expres- sion I can only answer by saying, it depends entirely on what caused the disease and how old age is born. One ripens off into the spirit, and leaves the body diseased or enfeebled by age as a husk or shell which has absolutely no power to dim the luster of the new born soul." And when I spoke about a spirit body of abiding youth, the statement was changed to a spirit body of maturity. 24. How does the spirit body find garments? " You create them. They are provided for you when you go, exactly as in the case of infants here ; but after you have attained a certain individual strength you express your individuality through your garments." The control remarked this was true in a measure among people in this life. " I do not remember putting on any garments. There is just the sense of need, and the need is sup- plied. The idea with us is creative. We think, and the thing is." [" Julia."] " He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment." (Revelation 3:5.) 25. How is the Pauline theology looked upon by advanced spirits over there? 332 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " Partly right, but failing in the fullest expres- sion, probably of much more vital meaning to the people of his time than to the people of to-day, who have grown. I, too, was intensely interested in Paul, his zeal, his thorough purpose, his masterful spirit. But I find he had only climbed half way up, got par- tial light on the problem of immortality. If Paul could speak to-day, he would flood his epistles with the light of divine knowledge." 26. Do the terms, " miraculous " and " supernat- ural," have any place in the teaching and thought of the spirit world? Would it be well to discard these terms here? " The nature of the spirit world far surpasses any old supernatural ideas in its power and wonder. And miracles becoming normal expressions of spirit are miracles still to the uninitiated. And to loose a people who are bound to idols is no loss at all to the onward moving race." This seems to accord with the statement that the supernatural is the natural raised to a higher plane. I remarked here that I heard a clergyman say with some vehemence that unless we held on to the super- natural in theology, the Catholics would take the people and carry everything before them. The reply was made, " Let the Catholics take them. You join the onward-moving people. The Catholics can never hold them; nothing but light can save them. Your clergyman is old-fashioned enough to be zealous to keep the souls of people even in bondage. Let them be free, go where they will; eventually they must come to God. : ?> APRIL 27, 1913 333 There is certainly no timidity about this answer, no timid distrust of God or of man. It seems to hold that the truth will do us good and not evil, and inci- dentally it may help our thought of the spiritual freedom of the spirit world. 27. What would spirit teaching say of the errors of omission in the creeds of the church? The control interpreted Mr. Myers in this way: " To him the errors of omission are fully as grievous as the errors of commission. For instance, if they omit to open their windows and let in all the light that can come, it is fully as grievous as to commit some sin which to them means sin." Many have no doubt felt that while the creeds have sought to express truth, they have also failed in expression, and that great and important truths have been unrecognized or ignored. For instance, what expression or intimation do we find even in our revised and latest creeds of the truth of the spiritual body as a vital and essential part of our organism here, and related to the moral and spiritual quality of the life; what expression or hint of the truth of spirit return and ministry and the great truth of spirit communion and communication ; what expres- sion of the location of the spirit world as connected with our Earth and of its natural character and cor- respondences ; or what emphasis on the great truth that character and aspiration and the life as depicted by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount should claim our commanding attention rather than ecclesiasticism and dogma? Mr. Brierly insists our revelation has been too limited. 334 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT 28. Do spirit teachers consider it best for us mor- tals as a moral discipline to walk here in obscurity and perplexity as to the survival of death? (I also referred here to the utterances of a certain preacher who had dwelt upon the moral effect of un- certainty and doubt in life. But it seems easy to overdo this idea, and to relegate too much to faith and stoicism.) " It may be moral discipline to have men born blind, and it is quite true that some great souls have been blind, like Milton. But there is no reason why the average man should pray for blindness, hoping through blindness he might become a Milton. Why doesn't Dr. shut himself away from his wife and his dearest friends while he is still alive, and discipline himself to do without this sweet human love? This has always been God's hand to lift men to their highest and best estate, and their sweetest service for Him. Until he can prove to us that it is best to shut out all human relations and cut away all splendid companionship and make men mock at these finer sentiments, and so find God, we shall per- sist that these same sweet associations are important and necessary for the soul's grandest achievement. Why blindfold yourself and feel your way along through the passage, and trust that somehow you will come out right, when by opening the eyes the face of God is plainly seen in his loving expressions of continued presence after death ? " 29. Is it considered over there that all, even the most degenerate spirits, will in time adapt themselves to the laws upon which progression depends? APRIL 27, 1913 335 " No soul is ever lost. Sometime it must come into its birthright of divinity." 30. At the last I put this question : How do we people here in the body seem to people in the spirit? " You seem stupid a greater part of the time, like heedless children to our touch and expressions of any sort, just as often you are to expressions of your companions in your mortal life. But with all this, we have patience and love and desire to help you grow away from that heedless, irresponsive condition into the true knowledge and true response to spirit- ual influence." (This last came quite rapidly, but I was able to take it down with the loss of a word here and there.) At the close of this very illuminating and uplifting interview — which we clearly owed to the earnest study and effort of Walter to make himself known to us — I said we wished to express some sense of the honor we felt in Mr. Myers' consenting to come and give us this interview. And the control replied: " He says the honor is his." As we rose to go, I asked if the friends were all there, and the control said they were, and had all enjoyed the interview. CHAPTER X FAMILY SPIRIT INTERVIEW, APRIL 30, 1913 " I am glad to see you," said the control as we entered the room. " IT MEANS MORE TO ME THAN YOU CAN EVER UNDERSTAND " " There are so many of them present ; there are two grandfathers here with Walter and a grand- mother. I wish you could see him, Walter, as I see him this afternoon. His face is radiant, and not only does his face express his joy, but there seems to be something that emanates from him which speaks of peace, contentment, and adjustment. " ' It comes,' he says, ' from having this association with you. It means more to me than you can ever understood, until you come over here and stand with me and realize the conscious life of the spirit, and what it must mean to those whose friends put them away as if death had sealed their lips and eyes and dried up the fountains of love.' " COOPERATIVE PLANS At this point, I think, I put the question if Wal- ter knew about our plans — for a change was at hand. " I know all your plans and often have a part in 336 APRIL 30, 1913 337 them, often suggesting to you and Momsie or M something which I think would be better for you. And I always find you three very responsive." And then Walter added this testimony, old, very old, but always significant and personal with the force of discovery : " I am convinced that love is the strongest factor in the world." " To-day, I have my two grandfathers and my grandmother on my hands " (" and he laughs "). "I have told you much about your father with his kind stateliness which does not frighten me. We feel quite like comrades. Momsie's father is as gentle as a woman, and he follows me around as if he thought I were Momsie. He wants to talk about her all the time, and has many times expressed regret that he had to go and leave her. But I tell him there is no room for regret over here, and so we busy ourselves about something we think will please you when you come. You see we have to plan for your future, as well as take care of your present. The conditions seem somehow reversed, and I am now taking care of you. I am planning a home for you and Momsie where you can sit as many hours as you like without interruption, and study, study, study to your heart's content." I said something here about our coming over, and W continued: " I don't want it too soon, because I want you to do something for me in this world. I feel as if it were a blight on my career unless I can finish it with you. " Uncle Hartson wants me to tell you that it would have meant everything to him to have been able to 338 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT have connected so soon with his people when his tragedy came. But he had to wait. He says, too, that he tried to finish some of his work after he went, but it was in such a round-about way that it didn't give him the same satisfaction. It wasn't because he wanted recognition for what he did, but he could have worked faster and better if he had had cooperative assistance." This evidence comes again and again of the desire and outreaching of spirit friends over there to estab- lish some connection with friends left behind on earth. There is healing here. There is mutual fellowship and mutual cooperation in ways we are only begin- ning to understand. How much the old assumption that death is a blank wall and beyond is a terra incognita shrouded in mystery, unapproachable, and guarded by cherubim with flaming swords, — how much of evil this stupid materialism is responsible for we can never fully know. " It is a strange spec- tacle. On your side, souls full of anguish for be- reavement; on this side souls full of sadness because they cannot communicate with those whom they love." [" Julia."] THE VISION OF LAMBS The control, suddenly making a change here in this interpretation of my brother, says: " Do you know about any lambs ? Did your brother ever live where there were any lambs ? I see all round about him lambs, lambs. And he says he doesn't have anything to do with them now, it was only an earthly work. But whatever your brother did, he did thoroughly. And he is just as happy as if he had been in your business instead of his own. APRIL 30, 1913 339 " He says he used his lambs to take care of your lambs. Half of the world must be material-minded in order to take care of the flocks that are spiritually tended by the shepherd of the Lord." This reiterated reference to lambs and the vision of lambs all about my brother H seemed to us both a beautiful and revealing piece of mental sym- bolism. At first we were mystified, but the truth soon dawned on us as we recalled how my brother dealt with wool and became in time an expert wool-grader, working in Lawrence, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc. " He also says : ' I had no sense of fear when I died, only a great surprise. I couldn't believe for a long time that it [life] was ended. I thought it must be a dream, and when my friends talked to me about the change, it still seemed too unreal to be true." THE GLASSES' CASE RIGHTED " Now he puts down on this table a little leather case that seems to be made for glasses or spectacles. It isn't his, it is your father's, but he puts it down as if he had seen it since he went away in your sur- roundings. And the glasses slip down into the case.- And he says : ' They don't have to put glasses on over here.' " " Then he speaks of his mother and yours, as if it were the greatest joy to her to be able to see when she got over there, because she had been troubled with her eyes. ' She died in the Lord, and her faith was her staff to the end,' he says." Now this account of the glasses was all good with the exception of one statement, the glasses belonged to mother and not to father. I had carefully pre- 340 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT served them, and H could well have seen them in my surroundings. But the point of interest is this : At the sitting on Friday following, I brought the glasses referred to with me, and near the close the control interjected: — " Your mother touches those glasses with a kind of air as though they were hers. Her eyes used to get so tired, she pushes her glasses up a bit and rubs her eyes. She says : ' Your father wanted to recall about the glasses, because I always wore them.' I see little wrinkles all round her eyes." The remark brought the truth of it to mind. " THE AWAKENING WAS BEAUTIFUL " " I see some cross that came to your mother before she died. No one could wish for your mother to stay. It seemed such a relief to her, her spirit flies, flies from its bondage. I don't know whether it was a physical bondage or not, only it was joyous to her when she went. She forgets that bondage now. What a dreadful thing for such a good woman to have to bear that ! But she says : ' It wasn't so dreadful because I didn't realize it, and the awakening was beautiful.' I see her put her hand right on your head and all over it." It could not have been otherwise than a most happy release when my mother's spirit was at last freed from its worn-out tenement. The account was graphic and most convincing. " And it was a dreadful thing for her to see you two suffer so when the boy came to her. And she says that he had no sense of pain, and your father says the first blow rendered him insensible to the APRIL 30, 1913 341 consequences ; he was practically free although he still breathed. " There is such a happy group, this little family group — the two grandfathers, the grandmother, and the uncle and the aunt. " One thing more I want to tell you. You know anything about a Bible your father had? I see him open it. I can see big letters there; I see him pon- der and ponder over these things in the Bible. " ' My Son, some of its mysteries are never made plain till you know about this life after death in all its reality.' " This big-type Bible or New Testament is now in the possession of a sister. THE EYE AND EAR TROUBLE At this closing point I put in a few questions. Dear Brother, can you tell anything about a sick- ness you and I had at the same time when we were small boys and how it left us? The reply at once came : " Is that fever you have ? It seems like a fever. There is one that has some- thing the matter with the ears, because he puts his hand right up to his ear. It is like pain, earache. The other brother has trouble with the eyes ; they are red, inflamed, and I can't see, I can't have the light on them. He laughs about thinness and hunger — he is funny; your Walter is like him. There was weakness afterwards ; it is quite serious and left quite serious conditions." What about the eyes ? I ventured. " You find trouble there clear to the end of his life, but more with one eye than with two. It is about 342 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT gone, I don't know whether they took the eye out or whether he couldn't see with it. It was practically no good. It is all closed up so that I can't see any eye at all, as if there were no eye in there at all." This answer, readily given, was a good general exposition of the facts. My brother H and my- self were seriously sick with scarlet fever when small boys, leaving him blind in one eye and myself deaf in one ear. The eye trouble is well put, for in later life the eye was removed. This little episode was fully convincing at the time and has not failed in conviction since. I subjoin that F. W. H. Myers from the spirit side, in referring to Hudson's theory of a subjective self with powers of wholesale mind-tapping and endless delusion, made this comment : " He had some of the conceit taken out of him when he came over here, for all his experi- ments failed." [" Spirit Messages." Prof. Corson, page 194.] HOW THE TRUTH WORKED OUT ON THE OTHER SIDE I here put another question to H . Did you ever see our boy Walter in the body, when you were in the body? The control interpreted by saying that Walter shook his head, indicating he did not remember meet- ing his Uncle H in the body here. But she at once added, correcting this first impression, that H nodded his head and smiled. And that meant yes, he had seen Walter when he (H ) was in the body. APRIL 30, 1913 343 This was a significant bit of evidence, and showed how the truth worked out on the other side. The circumstance was this : In September, 1893, Mrs. G and I with the boys stopped over night with my brother H in Baltimore while en route to the World's Fair in Chicago. Walter was seven years old, and I thought might remember the incident, but this was the only time he ever met his Uncle H , and the very short time he saw him naturally did not impress him as it did his uncle. " NOBODY EVER LOSES THEIR OWN " I directed my attention in closing to my sister, who is mentioned in this sitting as the aunt. " Right beside your mother I see this grown-up young lady," said the control. " When I see her, she seems to have been little when she passed over." How do you make that out? I asked. " I saw this grown-up young woman beside your mother, and then I saw a little grave that she couldn't have got into. And I saw your mother doing some- thing to it, as if she felt sorrow over that little grave. But she found her here in the spirit. Nobody ever loses their own. " Your mother says, ' Annie, Annie, Annie ! I send my love to Annie,' and this girl sends her love, too, because you are her sister." It is worth noting how this name (Mrs. G 's given name not mentioned hitherto) is interjected in the midst of the message. There was a purpose in it. The name came through more readily in this way, as often when we cease straining after an elusive name 344 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT here it suddenly comes to view. It is a part of the give and take, of the unexpected announcement in a vivid and intensely interesting conversation. I went on with my questioning. Does our Earth life seem unreal to you, as the life over there seems somewhat unreal to us on earth? Can you tell me who cared for you over there in your infancy and early life? " Not as unreal to us is your earth life as our spirit life to you, because we are in constant communication with those who have loved us, even if only as a promise of what we were to be. The mother love which would have been given me as it was to you and my brothers, followed me into the new life, and I was early made aware of the home life of which I was a part. No other mother was ever given me, only care and loving-kindness and attention. But for the mother's companionship I waited till our mother came here. I shall know you when you come over here better than you will know me." This first communication out of the silence of the years from a sister who just entered the vestibule of the earthly life in 1846, passing out to the spirit after a sojourn of six months, naturally deeply im- pressed me. The reference to " you and my brothers " was significant, as this was the first inti- mation of more than two brothers in the family, whereas there are three. CHAPTER XI PSYCHIC INTERVIEW, THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1913 Referring to the interview of Wednesday, the inti- mate family talk, the control said : " Walter went away happy, walking just as straight, so proud." Walter had pioneered the way and helped them to express, and he had a double share in this joy of intercommunion. And referring to a certain test : " I talked with him quite a lot last night over in the spirit. We meet, and I know about where he goes at certain times, and I can find him there." This is but an in- troductory remark, but it seemed worth while just as a little sidelight on the human quality of social life " over in the spirit." A STRANGE REAPPEARANCE AND ITS LESSON I will first note here a certain reference of interest that had come up before, but was not as explicit as I wanted. In October, 1912, Walter in a genial way had referred to a neighbor of ours and a dog we used to know. Here is the October account, not given under that date: " I see a lady, alive ; her hair is quite gray. She is familiar with the house ; she goes in and out. She talks more with Momsie than with you ; she is quite a talker. It is somebody your boy knew before he went 345 346 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT to spirit. She is a worker ; she wouldn't sit down and do nothing. There are flowers about her house." How does her name begin? I inquired. " I see the letter S," was the reply. . . . At this point, there was a brief reference to a dog that once belonged here, and which Walter had seen somewhere over there. It was an interesting an- nouncement, and would be startling were it not for a long concurrent testimony from the other side of the survival of certain intelligent forms of animal life. At the present sitting it occurred to me to put the question : Does this Mrs. S live on the same side or opposite side of street from us? " I don't seem to cross the street," was the answer. " I seem to walk right straight to your house without crossing over." I then mentioned the dog. " He smiles, and then he says : ' I remember that dog.' "Did that dog get old? I see it old and I feel sorry for the dog. The dog is dead now, but it is over in spirit land. There was something sad about its going. I don't know whether it was accident or it had to be put away. Walter has seen the dog over here. There are six letters to its name." Then in some way referring to Mr. S , it was added : " This man will pass the house ; he is up a little." It was a familiar sight to see Mr. S pass the house seated on his load of wood. The dog, whose name was Towser, on account of the infirmities of age was finally put to sleep with chloroform. We all knew the dog, and he often came down and barked at MAY 1, 1913 347 the kitchen door for a bone or followed us on our walks down Trumble Lane. The significance of these details which came through so accurately, lies partly in the fact that it was a familiar neighborly surrounding, but also in the allusion to the dog of which we were all fond. That there may be a spiritual principle in an intelligent, affectionate dog may seem a strange innovation to many, and yet it has been surmised and advocated by several able writers. We are given to understand from the spirit side that such a spiritual principle exists in a degree in the highest forms of life below man, animal and plant, and in certain cases this principle has such consistency and development as to be able to come into form after death. How long this principle persists in such cases may depend. Certainly all accounts agree that there are birds of beauty and song in abundance in spirit land. In the case of man we cannot doubt the spiritual principle is immortal. " God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Mes- sages are claimed from spirits who affirm that they have lived in spirit life for forty centuries and that they see as yet no prospect of annihilation. " And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." SPIRIT REPORT OF COMPLICATED FAMILY RELATIONSHIP The next incident in this sitting concerns a niece who had reported briefly in October, 1912, though nothing was said about any relationship at the time. 348 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " As I see her, she went out quick to the spirit, and the name begins with L," and at once the control added — " Lilly." Both statements were correct. Finding she was present at this time, I put the questions : Are your father and mother on this side or on the other side with you? Do you have any brothers or sisters? I was careful to avoid anything leading or suggestive in the questions ; in fact I planned them to mislead. The reply came : " Some are over here and some in the body. They are divided. She writes : ' F — a — t — h — e — r'; that means that he is in the spirit land. She is something to Walter, they are connected some way. Is there a brother left in the body down here in the earth life? She speaks of him as left in the body. Something pleasant has hap- pened to him since she went away. Then she puts her hand out and takes hold of the hand of a woman older than she. Your mother knows her (Lilly) and the other woman. Her one word to you is — 6 1 am happy now.' I see a young woman over in the spirit land with her. She went before Lilly did and she belongs to Lilly. It seems more like a sister. Lilly is equally divided in her interest. I would think there was a sister here because she nods." Is the mother over there or here ? I put in. " I don't see the mother with Lilly, as I think she would be if she were in the spirit. The mother feels a sadness ; there is some sort of separation in the physical body. You know her mother," the control asserted here. " I think if she could believe about Lilly what you believe about Walter, she would be happy. Lilly puts up three fingers, as if there were MAY 1, 1913 349 three together on Earth, three dear to her. Do you know about another man beside her brother that Lilly would be anxious to come to? " Then she added that she saw the latter E in this association of connections. " It stands for some person." Where does the mother live? I then asked. " It isn't near you, for I go some distance. I go across land but not water, I go by train. I go west across the country ; it is lovely there. The abbre- viation of the state where I want to go to see them looks like three letters. Is one of them aC?" And then she added, " A," and after some hesitation, " L." I again put a question as to where Lilly lived the last part of her life. " Where she lived is not near you." She said it needed two words to express it, but she did not read- ily catch the words, and I was anxious to pass on. " Lilly and Walter are cousins ; they seem like that, there is good friendship between them. Her mother seems older, but she belongs to you and you to her; it is more like brother and sister. She (Lilly) speaks of Momsie as Aunt Annie and of you as Uncle Lucien." This was a straightforward talk, with a large and complicated disclosure of correct family relation- ship. My sister was living at Long Beach, Califor- nia, and this account given us was accurate in all the main details. The reference to the brother's pleasant happening I was not able to establish by an inquiry indirectly made. The talk is so involved in its tangle of kinship and inner shadings — the father over there, and the mother here, the sister over there 350 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT and the sister here, the brother here and husband, etc, — that it is utterly incredible to me on any theory but the one simple theory that looks one squarely in the face through all this testimony. If there is a spirit in man, and that spirit survives, and there is a spirit world belonging to the natural order, then there is nothing that stands in the way of spirit com- munication but our transcendental prejudices. And I venture to say that if any one with open mind will give himself in work and study and wisely-directed experimentation to this most fascinating and exceed- ingly important subject, all uncertainty and vague- ness of mental attitude will disappear. GRANDFATHER DANIEL Directly following this came one of those flying personal references that are interjected suddenly. As before noted, the name often comes through clearly and at once in this way. I did not get full notes of this, but took down as follows: "Do you know of anyone whose name is Daniel? He is an oldish man, he is in the family association. He takes everything earnestly, seriously; he is a dear old man. Your family keep together in a beautiful way." I did not locate this man in the quick transition, but Mrs. Graves did, and she was no doubt correct in placing this personality as my mother's father — Deacon Daniel Eaton. "HE IS JUST AWAY!" At the very close of the sitting, I asked Walter if he knew anything of a poem called " Away." The MAY 1, 1913 :*5l control at once reflected his interest, and said as if listening — "Riley"; and then stretching out her arm, she repeated: — With a wave of the hand He has wandered into an unknown land/ ' "'With a wave of the hand,' little tears came to his eyes," she said. This little incident was very personal and dramatic, as we were making ready to leave. The little poem of James Whitcomb Riley, " Away," we had framed and hung it under Walter's picture: " I cannot say, and I will not say That he is dead. He is just away! ' With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand He has wandered into an unknown Land, " And left us dreaming how very fair Tt needs must he, since he lingers there. . . . 1 Think of him still as the same, I say; He is not dead — he is just away." And I might add also that when the little framed poem was put in place, I had a distinct impression that Walter was there and tried to express to us his sympathetic knowledge of it all. In an interview we had with Mrs. Chcnowcth, the psychic, the next day, it occurred to me to inquire if she had ever heard of a poem entitled " Away." She replied she never had, and then smiling asked if she were confessing her ignorance. 352 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT Mrs. G and I were not aware of the poem until it was brought to our attention shortly after our boy passed over, and we are glad to refer to it here, for it is a poetic gem struck from the heart and it gives a true human connection with the life to come. The words, '* With a cheery smile and a wave of the hand," were eminently characteristic of Wal- ter, and have helped to endear the little poem. CHAPTER XII FINAL TALK OVER THE BORDER, MAY 2, 1913 PARTING EXCHANGES As we came in, I said : If I could see a little more clearly, I would shake hands all round. " Walter laughs at that ; it would be like shaking hands with the air," the control said. As this was the last sitting of the series, I ex- pressed a short personal message which I give here in part : — We want to say we cannot express how much these interviews mean to us, how greatly they have com- forted us, and what a door Walter and the others have opened for us into the spirit world. We feel as though we were walking on air as we go away from here. Above all we are so thankful our dear boy is progressing. As you say, " Love is the strong- est thing." The spiritual elements of life are the abiding elements. What Brother said about the lambs I shall not forget, and the messages from him and Lilly are very evidential. I am sorry I could not seem to make this connection with Brother before. " He is glad to come to you now in this way," the control said. And to her we sought to express a sense of our ap- preciation : 353 354 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT We realize something of the great and sacred gift you have of spirit interpretation, and we feel we cannot express our thanks to you for the wonderful way in which you have bridged the chasm and brought Walter and the others into this close communication with us. " It is joy to me to have some one to cooperate with me," was the reply. " Walter is the smart one. When Lilly was trying to talk, Hartson wanted to help, but Walter pushed him right back. Walter is the general; I shall have to call him General Wal- ter." A LITTLE DRAMATIC INTERPLAY Then followed a message in few words from Mr. Dixon, Mrs. G 's father. " He says he wants to be recognized as one of the interested ones in this work. Not only does he love Walter, but M , and he wants that put down — his interest in the living boy." The control added she would hardly put it that way. " The living boy," was a natural survival of an earthly mode of expression. " He is a good boy, and you tell him that in every possible way I shall help him in his life work." " Aunt S is right over there watching the pro- ceedings." [The control points to a corner of the room.] " She can't watch very long without taking a part." This fine touch was like Aunt S -'s stirring, in- terested way, as we remember her more than twenty years ago. In a previous reference to Aunt S , it was remarked — " She is very pushing, a bustling MAY % 1913 355 kind of woman. She breaks right in to say what she wants to say." It was a good bit of characteriza- tion. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN CHRIST? At this point, I interjected a question suddenly which I had had in reserve among my religious and theological queries awaiting opportunity. It was the question that is often put to the spirit inter- preter — Have you ever seen Christ ? " No, I never have, but I have seen people who, have, and I could if I could be spared from the work I am doing. It is like going to see the king; if you are busy washing dishes all day, you can't go. But there is such a person; his disciples are everywhere present. But they are far different in their work and effort from some of the people who live in your world, and who sincerely believe they are carrying out his will in special ways which they are interested in. He is still teaching, he was always The Teacher. Let those who preach remember what he taught." Another spirit interpreter in a different situation, who said she had been in the spirit for a long period and was in the sixth sphere condition, told me she had seen Christ, but that he was in the highest sphere. She had not seen him so as to touch him, and my im- pression was she saw him as an illuminated spirit through extended spirit vision. She gave me to un- derstand in a quiet and sweet manner that she did not regard Christ in the theological sense as God or as born of a virgin. Many to whom the natural order and progressive- ness of the future life has not been a subject of 856 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT thought and interest have fully expected to go into the immediate presence of Christ after death. In a certain psychic account (Hibbert Journal) the ques- tion is asked : "Did she see Christ?" " Not yet, friend. There are few able to see him when they enter this world of light. They must be thoroughly cleansed and get away from earthly condi- tions in order to meet him. He did not the things of life that mortal souls did, hence he went to the world of purer light." . . . We are told he is in the highest sphere, that he passed on ages ago. The secret of endless confusion here is the lingering pagan and ecclesiastical concep- tion of the realm of the future as divided into two vast compartments. " In my Father's house are many mansions." The reader of " Letters from Julia " will recall how the spirit author, Miss Julia A. Ames, had a differ- ent experience from those here given. Conducted by a guide, she testified to hearing the voice and holding converse with Christ, who at first was invisible to her, but soon revealed himself in human shape as " the flamebright One," full of " wonderful sweet mildness." We must suppose that experiences differ endlessly over there as here. " I do not for a moment believe," writes Mr. Stead, " that her experiences are to be accepted as those common to all the departed." AMHERST LIFE I wanted in closing to touch on the old Amherst life. I asked as few questions as possible, just enough to start the communication. MAY 2, 1913 357 Did you and M or did you not room in more than one place while in college? " I say, Yes," was the reply. " In one place they were a long time." How many inmates were in the first place ? " Two," was at once given. Tell about your room. " He shows me a picture of a good-sized room, and a lot of things in it. I go upstairs to get to it ; it is a pleasant, home-like room. You go into a room that is in front, and then I see a door that is open into another place, and everything about it is like home. I see a bed right in that first room where I went in to the front. I see two connected rooms, the small one seems to be the bedroom." " It was a good lay-out," Walter says. In how many places did you have rooms ? " I see a 3 now, as I saw a 2 before," was at once given. I would put down here that these answers to my questions are correct, and three of them seem to me strikingly good. These three are the number of inmates, two, in the first lodging, the suite of two rooms upstairs (I was careful to speak of only "a room") and the bed in the front room when one would rather expect it in the back room. The long time in one place included the Junior and Senior years. THE POSTMAN AND HIS LEATHER BAG I tried to put questions that involved definite, cir- cumstantial knowledge, and I made inquiry here as to the business of the man on the place where the boys rented last. The reply came in this way : 358 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT " I see the man coming home and sitting down. It is no business condition like a merchant ; he goes out to it. I see the man (broader in shoulders than you) start off ; he has a little bag in his hands, looks like a leather bag. In that leather bag are things he has to do with in his profession, he could not do without it. When he opens the bag, I see a whole lot of things in there. He picks them up and looks at them, and lays them down and picks them up again, and finally finds the thing he wants. There are dif- ferent sizes, are not exactly alike. They seem to be connected with other people, and they know about it. He does some work with these things, it means good money to him. He is still alive and thinks a lot of Walter. He is the heartiest kind of a man ; he likes your boys." And then, as if searching and hesitating for a name that should express all this, the control says : " Wal- ter laughs at me, for he thinks I ought to know it." Walter had certainly projected the man's business in recognizable shape to people familiar with city postal ways. One can hardly fail to recognize the mail-carrier and his leather bag, and the sorting of letters. But while the control so well reproduced Walter's descriptive symbolism, her earth experience was very limited, I am told, and that might well ac- count for the failure to attach the business name. The personal touch was good. The broad shoulders of the man and his hearty manner are noticeable fea- tures of his personality. I put one last question on the Amherst life : How many of your professors have passed over? " Two or three," was the interpretation. " One MAY 2, 1913 359 was an old man whom Walter liked, and whom he has seen in spirit land. You know anybody, a gray- haired man, and not an awfully big man, a very kind face, and somebody the boys all liked? The boys loved him just as much as his confreres, because he was good. They call him ' Doctor ' ; it is a title that belongs to him." The word, " confreres," the control pronounced hesitatingly, but she got hold of it, though she said it was not familiar to her. This is a very apt description and I need not en- large upon it. The personal relation between the venerable Doctor and his pupils was peculiarly strong. Walter also stated he had seen in the spirit another revered Amherst teacher — Prof. G . " We have had many discussions, and he is much interested in the psychological work between spirit and mortal." GOOD-BYE WORDS Then came Walter's good-bye words, which were the closing message in this wonderful series of sit- tings, which had been to us a veritable gateway into the spiritual and heavenly world. " I dread to go, because I have as many things as you that I would like to talk about. I have talked with Mr. Myers, and he says he will continue to help me. . . . And M ! how much I have to be glad of — those years we had together, never-to-be-for- gotten. And you two! I put my arms about you both, and tell you again that there never was such a father and mother as I had and have. And it is the greatest joy that has come to me to be still working 360 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT with you. Don't go too fast, Pop, about the things you want to do." . . . Of course these words were given through the con- trol of the psychic, but their tender impressiveness as they came that way I cannot well describe. Of this we know with a knowledge too deep for words, they came from Walter. To this last report, I venture to make the following brief psychic addenda from subsequent sittings (Nov. and Dec, 1913) for their evidential interest. " HOME OF YOUR OWN AT LAST " a The changes I know all about, and I am happy and glad. I know you wish so many times that I could be with you in the new conditions. So many things I could do if I were there. But I love the house, and am glad that you have got it. You deserve it. It will make for happiness for the rest of your days. Now you will have opportunity to do some of the things you have always wanted to do, and some of the restrictions of your life are removed. I do feel that I am a part of this new life with you. I am too happy trying to make your lives right ; you both worked hard, and you did so much for us, M and me. Now I am glad to see that one of your dreams is being realized.' 5 Control : " And then he puts out a big H, big O, big M, and big E, o — f, y — o u — r, O W N, A T, !L A S T." " I am not alone in this rejoicing; we had a kind of housewarming over here. We all came to the house and began our arrangements for better connections MAY 2, 1913 361 and communications with you both. Some things you will have to wait a little while for ; they will come fitting in from time to time, until you are just as well adjusted as though you had lived there for forty years. Some of the old walks and scenes that were familiar to me and to you, and old associations that seemed a part of that life of ours, were hard to leave, and it was rather hard the last few days. But it made little difference to me about the past; it was what was going to be best for your old age." " He laughs. He is full of life and fun this morn- ing, joyous and happ}^," the control adds. " I go up where street cars go, and look down and see a lot of houses like a city. We like the view, we like the location. It is healthy. It isn't an old house, it is a new house, it is all clean and sweet. There is a place where no paper is on ; I can touch the plaster. It is sunny, it is where the sun comes in. " There is another thing. You have been to church where you didn't preach (I mean lately), a good-sized church, a big affair, and lots of people. I see you going in, but I see you sitting down with the sinners." We laughed heartily at Walter's joke. " That is what he says," added the control ; " ' I wouldn't lose my sense of a humorous situation in life for any- thing.' " Walter continued: " Walter sees what is going on in your home. Is there anybody in your home with you? There is some one who brings you a certain care and responsi- bility." 362 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT "YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE STARS" Control: "I see you out somewhere, it is just two or three nights ago. You are out doors and the stars are out ; I can see them shining in the sky. You are looking at the stars. You like the stars, don't you? When they are out, you always look up at the sky and speak of the stars. Walter says: 6 You taught me that, I love them just as you do.' " We traced out the constellations with Walter and M in their course in Astronomy. Can you see the stars over there? I asked. " I have to get in a dark place. When spirits want to see them, they have to get into shadow somewhere." He says it is significant — this looking up at the stars in the dark. " Now your Walter wasn't pious, but had the true religion in him, no foolish nonsense or fanatical piety in him. He always stood for truth. His reverence is one of the strongest things in him, and his grand- mother loves that in him." I will add that the various details here given and implied — as our gazing at the friendly stars at the time referred to and our interest in their study, our recent settlement in our new house on Springfield Highlands, the special arrangement of the house for sunlight, the reference to a third one in the home, a pupil in the High School, Walter's characteristic sense of humor and reverence, and some details not given, as my fussiness in arranging our books — were correctly and strikingly given. To the psychic student these revelations come to be a matter of MAY 2, 1913 363 course and hardly awaken surprise, but to the skep- tical beginner they are, of course, startling and may suggest fraud as the shortest way out. But the skeptical beginner has the same recourse here as all earnest psychic students — and that is to pay the price of long, hard, and devoted investigation. " Buy the truth and sell it not." I may say that the psychic knew nothing of our change of residence at this time, and to speak of her knowledge of the inner details and shadings of our life is too simple to con- sider. In all our sittings Mrs. G and I had no communication with the psychic, Mrs. C , and did not see her in her normal condition, except on two occasions as we were ready to leave we saw her by our own request for a few minutes' friendly talk. At an interview of this period through another psychic who stands well in spiritualistic circles, I quote the following from brief notes made at the time : — " A man stands here now, he went out of life so suddenly, so suddenly," the control said feelingly. " He says : ' I had to go quickly. I wouldn't come back into flesh if I could. I am satisfied, I am all right.' " "WHY DON'T YOU GO ON WITH THE BOOK?" Mr. W. T. Stead seems to have manifested at this sitting. Walter has an acquaintance with Mr. Stead and his son on the other side through a common psy- chic interest, and this would seem to account for the following : " This man says — ' I am Stead. Why don't you 364 THE NATURAL ORDER OF SPIRIT go on> with the booh? The book I will try to help you with.' He refers to some manuscript. You have a work to do, keep seeking." . . . This was most remarkable indeed. I had not done much on the book in view for some time on account of settling in our new home, and my mind at the time was not at all on this matter. And it was utterly out of the question that the psychic could have known anything whatever about the book or about me either. I was a total stranger to her in every sense. CLOSING THE CASE It is of great advantage that we seek to look at the truth of life proportionately. And there is no ques- tion here that our religious outlook, our theology, is sadly imperfect in its scheme and philosophy of the future life. There is no question of the cry that goes up from millions of human hearts for assurance here, and for the vital touch of communion, the old sense of nearness and communication with loved ones lost that shall bring healing. How can we help the world and ourselves here? Racon speaks of the dens and caves in which the human mind is prone to shut itself up. No one likes to think he is doing that. " A reasonable man ought to act reasonably," is a wise saying. Racon gave us the inductive method for examining phenomena and finding out their laws and principles. We must concede a wide difference be- tween the earnest inductive search and experimental evidence of a fact and a merely a priori or theologi- cally-necessary assumption in regard to it. It is easy to be an a priori philosopher. We plead, then, for the reasonable attitude of the patient inductive MAY 2, 1913 365 method in psychic inquiry which has accomplished so much on other lines of search. There should be real and persistent study of psychic truth, a docile and unprejudiced spirit, a desire to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and with all a high and holy appreciation of the commanding magnitude of this truth of spirit communication. Nothing can cover up this great issue. We may ignore it, we may let the materialistic sense or re- spectable distaste and prepossessions rule our minds, we may be tempted to support that system which sup- ports us, but this psychic question will have its hear- ing more and more, for it holds a great saving truth for humanity. Said a noted investigator here — " It is the most interesting and important subject that can possibly engage the attention of any human being." And Mr. Myers : " What other effort after knowledge is equally worth our pains ? " And taking it all in all, in all its bearings upon the life to come and the life that now is ; in its bearing upon a revival of the simple, practical, and spiritual religion of Christ; in the reaffirmation of Paul's law of sowing and reaping; in the striking emphasis of the higher spirit teachings upon Love as the supreme principle in life, and upon the molding power of habitual thought ; in its bearing upon human brotherhood ; in deepening the sense of reality; and above all in its demonstration of immortality along the natural order, releasing us from our doubts and fears and material- istic illusions, healing our bereaved hearts and putting a new song into our mouth — taking the psychic quest in all these and other bearings, I fully agree with the statements given. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 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