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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/bookofpsychicsoc01shaf 
 
BOOK OF THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 A STUDY OF THE FOURTEEN 
 
 UNSEEN POWERS 
 
 THAT CONTROL HUMAN LIFE 
 
 AND CONTAINING 
 
 IMMORTALITY 
 
 A 
 
 SCIENTIFIC DEMONSTRATION 
 
 OF 
 
 LIFE AFTER DEATH 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMUND SHAFTESBURY 
 
 ISSUED BY 
 
 RALSTON UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 igo8 
 
-b^: 
 
 
 ingressI 
 NOV 1 1908 
 
 Copyritrnt Entry 
 CLASS CL XXc, No, 
 
 C 
 
 II 
 
 Copyright 1908 
 
 BY 
 
 RALSTON UNIVERSITY PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 All Rights Reserved 
 
Befcieatiom 
 
 To the hundreds of men and women who 
 have pursued the study of Shaftesbury philos- 
 ophy, the thousands who have ascended the 
 heights by the aid of Universal Magnetism, and 
 the hundreds of thousands who are now engaged 
 in the lesser courses of training along these 
 lines, this new work is 
 
 Hffecttonatety BeMcatefc, 
 
<!;.ivlvlvr. I -Ivlvl.lvlvlv Ivlvlvli/Mvlvivlvli/IVKI /lv<vlvlvlv<vlvlVlvlvlvlvlVIVlVIVh 
 
 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE 
 
 I TO THE SECOND EDITION 
 
 ■ ivivi.i.i.i^.i.i.i.i.i-i.i.ivi.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.i.iTi" iTtTi ,-,- 
 
 /Ivlv t /IVI vlvlvJvtvl 
 
 O many requests were made for a book entirely- 
 written by Shaftesbury, in the event that the 
 present work should ever pass to a second edi- 
 tion, that the publishers have decided to com- 
 ply with the wishes of these patrons. 
 
 While the laws and principles have not 
 changed and the conclusions are identical with 
 those of the first edition, the work now has a plan in its 
 structure that is most pleasing to the mind that seeks in- 
 formation on the greatest theme of human life. It is not 
 a broken and disconnected arrangement of facts and proofs; 
 but a well-woven fabric of law and truth, convincing at 
 every step, and satisfying to every person of intelligence. 
 
 The title employed in the first issue was " The Book of 
 the Psychic Society, a Study of the Unseen Powers that 
 Surround Human Life." For the sake of brevity this has 
 been changed to " Unseen Powers," but is still the founda- 
 tion book of admission to the higher studies known as the 
 Psychic Society. Owners of this work are known as Sub- 
 scribers. 
 
 The remarkable thoughts set forth in this book, deep and 
 far-reaching as most of them are, have been framed in the 
 most popular language in order that they may be more 
 readily grasped by every grade of intelligence. No at- 
 tempt has been made at technical statement, as it is sure to 
 weaken the usefulness of so important a study. 
 
THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY. 
 
 By far the most important study of an intelligent age is 
 the nature of life. Nothing can approach it in value or 
 interest. In the past centuries, great works have appeared 
 that presented philosophies of many kinds bearing on the 
 subject, but that were the deductions of faulty theories. 
 The yearnings of humanity for hope and promise of im- 
 mortality have in every age tempted the greatest minds to 
 build up systems that seemed most probable in the light of 
 what knowledge was to be had at the time. 
 
 Until recent years it was not supposed that the intelli- 
 gent powers of man were divided into two realms; one the 
 outcome of physical existence and subject to physical laws; 
 the other far more mysterious and wonderful because of its 
 freedom from all physical uses or control. 
 
 What is called proof of the existence of a psychic life in 
 man had its start in the discovery that there is a psychic 
 mind at work in every person. This is now so well estab- 
 lished that it is never discussed as a doubtful proposition. 
 Psychology is taught wherever there is university training. 
 Books and even libraries exist on the subject. Societies for 
 psychological research are found in every civilized country. 
 
 Through the knowledge of the psychic mind, we reach 
 proofs of the existence of the psychic body. 
 
 This step is one of the most recent in the progress made 
 along the lines of certainty. But next comes the proof that 
 psychic mind and life are not subject to physical laws, and 
 therefore know no death. 
 
 The volume which is now open before us, presents the 
 latest information on these great questions. But new light 
 is all the time rising over the horizon of mystery, and 
 knowledge spreads its wings for a loftier flight. 
 
 To keep pace with the onward march of discovery, and 
 
THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY <j 
 
 to avoid the expenditure of hundreds of dollars for works 
 that may have little recent information, the plan known as 
 the Psychic Society has been adopted, the purpose of which 
 is to cover the whole field of fact and study of these im- 
 portant themes, so that every earnest reader may be given 
 the advantage of the most recent knowledge on the subject 
 at hand. 
 
 This arrangement has been in use for nearly twenty 
 years, as may be seen by reference to the older books in 
 this series. This was more thoroughly organized under the 
 methods explained in chapters 62 and 63 of the first sec- 
 tion of the Psychic Society, the latest edition of which was 
 published in 1896. That work is still in circulation, al- 
 though the form of organization has been improved by what 
 is known as the present Psychic Society. 
 
 The volume now in its second edition, which is the 
 foundation work of the Psychic Society of to-day, admits 
 any person to the higher studies on payment of the required 
 fees, which are small compared with the advantages offered. 
 No one work can contain all the light that is demanded. 
 But whole libraries are not necessary. One man who was 
 determined to secure all the facts obtainable on psychic 
 phenomena, spent over one thousand dollars for books, be- 
 sides months upon months of hard reading without one per 
 cent, of the information that can be furnished by the Psychic 
 Society. 
 
PLAN. 
 
 1. The universe is all physical; or it is part physical and 
 part something else. 
 
 2. As the proofs are abundant that something besides 
 the physical exists, that which is not physical is necessarily 
 psychic. 
 
 3. A human being is born of earth and his five senses 
 are built of earth, being developed by his contact with 
 earthly experiences. 
 
 4. He has only his five senses with which to acquire 
 knowledge, unless he is able to derive information from 
 some other source. 
 
 5. As no other source exists outside the physical except 
 the psychic, it is necessary for man to search within the 
 latter in order to know more than his physical senses can 
 teach him. 
 
 6. The conditions that hold unseen sway over each 
 human life, are all psychic, for the reason that they are 
 not physical. 
 
 7. Any attempt to secure knowledge of such conditions 
 by the aid of the physical senses will always lead to mys- 
 tery, error and superstition. 
 
 8. If knowledge cannot be obtained by the aid of psychic 
 agencies, then it will never come, as far as such conditions 
 are concerned. 
 
 9. Conclusive proof having been secured that the psychic 
 senses occasionally break through the physical senses, much 
 valuable information is now at hand from this source. 
 
 10. All other methods of information are confined wholly 
 within the realm of the psychic world. 
 
 11. It therefore follows that there are two divisions to 
 the study of the unseen powers that surround human life; 
 one is devoted to a consideration of proofs furnished by 
 physical glimpses, and the other the direct evidence fur- 
 nished by psychic processes. 
 
FIRST GRAND DIVISION 
 
 OF 
 
 UNSEEN POWERS 
 
 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF THE 
 
 PROOFS FURNISHED BY THE 
 PHYSICAL SENSES 
 
10 
 
 SOURCES OF HELP. 
 
 Owing to the immense scope of the present work, it is 
 not possible to follow out all the details of proof and dem- 
 onstration necessary to sustain each law and principle; for 
 hundreds of pages would be consumed in so doing. , All 
 persons who w r ish to be advised where to go for these addi- 
 tional sources of help, are referred to the following studies : 
 
 First Section: — Physical Telepathy. — This deals 
 with all the functions of the physical brain in its uses apart 
 from the avenues of the ordinary senses. 
 
 Second Section: — Physical Magnetism. — This is the 
 opposite of hypnotism; and, as every mind is more or less 
 depressed by the influences of circumstances as well as the 
 forces employed through the energies of other people, it is 
 necessary that a positive condition of magnetism should be 
 developed in each individual who wishes to go beyond this 
 volume in the study of the grand themes of universal life. 
 
 Third Section : — Advanced Magnetism. — This is a 
 private system of developing with the most remarkable re- 
 sults the super-sensitive functions of the mind and nervous 
 centers in normal directions, based on the strange powers 
 referred to in chapters two, three, four, seven, eight and 
 others of the present book. 
 
 Fourth Section: — Universal Magnetism. — This is 
 the only work that teaches the principles and methods of 
 psychic control between individuals and powers; covering 
 not only the realm of this planet, but including all that is 
 now possible to know of the influences that prevail through- 
 out the entire universe. It is a book of psychic powers, not 
 telepathic knowledge. 
 
 These Sections and all subsequent editions are free to 
 progressive members of the Great Psychic Society, which is 
 described in the final pages of this book. 
 
II 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 I BEGINNING TO THINK. 1 
 
 I k 
 
 /f\/i\/fS?IV< -l,l.l»l,l,l.l.lvl,lvlVI,l.|..KI,lvl.l.l»l.l-l,i,lvkl. ~~ l~l~l ~,~t~l~t\?fc 
 
 LL persons who think beyond the five senses, 
 soon come to agree on certain facts that are 
 the primer of philosophy. As the trend of 
 their thoughts is always the same, and the 
 conclusions reached are always identical, let 
 us at this place look at them, as though we 
 were to review the first emotions of the mind. 
 
 1. Man looks at his body, and notes that it is vulnerable. 
 It is unstable. Its living activities constitute life; its dead 
 activities constitute a return to the dust of earth. 
 
 2. Man's body is born, it grows, develops, ripens and 
 dies; and there is no power within the range of his knowl- 
 edge that can stay this process. 
 
 3. The first question that arises in the mind is whence 
 came man? As far as his physical existence is concerned, 
 it is known that man is made of earth. He began in a 
 tiny cell of protoplasm, composed chiefly of four elements 
 of earth, and grew by adding to that cell the substance 
 of earth. There is nothing in his physical nature but earth. 
 
 4. The next question that arises in the mind, is where 
 man goes. As far as his physical existence is concerned, it 
 is known that he returns to the same earth that furnished 
 his body. It goes to no other planet. All that is in the 
 body of man mingles with the dust and may be found again 
 by the chemist. 
 
 5. Naturally now the mind turns to the lower forms 
 of life and is about to conclude that man is only a higher 
 animal. But closer thinking finds a wide gulf separating 
 
12 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 the human species from the higher beasts; yet as the differ- 
 ence is chief!}' one of intelligence the belief comes strong 
 that man is only an animal of high intelligence. Facts soon 
 disprove this conclusion. 
 
 6. In the species below man all intelligence is based on 
 the uses of the five senses, the instinctive requirements of 
 self-protection and the desire for companionship which ex- 
 plains every trait of the animal mind that seems to indicate 
 a psychic nature. 
 
 7. If man did not possess other traits than those involved 
 in the highly intelligent employment of the five senses, the 
 demands of selfishness, power, self-protection, companionship 
 and the uses of life, it might be believed that he is only a 
 higher form of animal. But he possesses vastly more than 
 these traits. 
 
 8. Off-hand conclusions are not valuable. An assumed 
 fact should be examined long and well ; and studied from 
 every point of view; until the truth is seen clearly. In 
 these brief paragraphs we have not space to carry on this 
 process; but the fact is agreed to by all persons who have 
 reached the only conclusion possible, that the human mind 
 is separated from that of all other species, by the one great 
 fact of its sub-divisions into the physical and psychic worlds. 
 
 9. Nothing is easier to prove than the separate existence 
 of a physical mind and a psychic mind in every human being. 
 The evidence is of such a nature that it does not admit of 
 any doubt. 
 
 10. It being a proved fact that man possesses something 
 that does not belong to the lower species, the next inquiry 
 is, whence comes it? The physical body is made from the 
 earth and returns to it. The animal, therefore, finds its 
 ultimate fate in the death of its body. That which is more 
 than animal in man is psychic; and it is natural to ask some- 
 thing about its origin. 
 
 11. The questioner, having exhausted the earth as a 
 source of life, now looks off to other worlds. It is known 
 
BEGINNING TO THINK 13 
 
 that, if the sun were to be withdrawn for a day, every living 
 thing on this globe would die. The densest clouds cannot 
 shut out one per cent, of the power of the sun ; but an hour's 
 eclipse sends a chill over the earth even in the hottest day 
 of summer. 
 
 12. It is known that all vitality, all energy, all electrical 
 life, all magnetism, all colors, all flowers, all fragrance, all 
 the miracles of growth in spring, all buoyancy of spirits, 
 all elasticity of thought and the essence of existence come 
 from the power that passes out of the sun into this orb on 
 which we dwell. Without the sun, colors die; without the 
 sun, flowers cease ; without the sun, the sight fails ; without 
 the sun, sound is a dead sea; without the sun, there can be 
 no music, for harmony perishes in a lifeless atmosphere; 
 without the sun, the earth cannot be transformed into food ; 
 without the sun, we cannot see our loved ones; without 
 the sun, we cannot think, feel, love, hope or look ahead. 
 
 13. The greatest of modern inventors, Edison, says he does 
 not know what electricity is. It is not a chemical element. 
 It is not a physical substance. It is not a force like gravity, 
 the most common of the unsolved mysteries of the universe. 
 But electricity exists. Not being physical it is the psychic 
 nature of the globe. But it is furnished daily by the sun. 
 It has been well stated that, if the sun were to be withdrawn 
 from the earth, all electricity would cease, and gravity would 
 be destroyed. It is agreed that electricity comes from the 
 sun in daily supplies. It is supposed that gravity is also a 
 gift from the sun, inasmuch as the planets are all held fast 
 to the solar center by a power that is not physical. An 
 influence that can pass out through space for a distance of 
 two thousand million miles and hold a world chained to the 
 sun, must arrest our thoughts for a while if we are disposed 
 to think deep enough. 
 
 14. As man possesses so many attributes that cannot be 
 derived from the earth, but that are gifts from the sun, the 
 mind now turns to the source whence the sun receives its 
 
i 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 wonderful powers. Is it an agent or a creating source? 
 All the orbs that twinkle are supposed to be suns, each 
 having worlds held to its system by the mysterious power 
 of gravity. But the orbs that reflect borrowed light are 
 the planets of our own solar system. As planets are held 
 to their governing power, so the suns may hold allegiance 
 to a central court of the sky. No astronomer for a moment 
 believes that each sun is independent of some government 
 greater than itself. 
 
 15. On a clear night a large telescope reveals a vapor 
 of sun-dust out of which new suns and new solar systems 
 are at this very time passing through the first stages of 
 world-formation. Suns are being born that have not as 
 yet any planets or offspring. Sit down and view this mag- 
 nificent spectacle in the sky, and think about it; think deeply 
 and think long; and see where your thoughts will carry 
 you. It is very evident that the process of this new-world 
 growth will be taking place billions of years from now; 
 that suns and planets will be born, grow, ripen and die; 
 to be resolved into the funds from which they sprang, only 
 to be made anew in some subsequent era. There is evidence 
 of dead orbs now. Others are dying. The conclusion seems 
 clear that some central power in the heavens is directing 
 every movement of the universe. 
 
 16. Physical man is born and dies; the physical mind is 
 born and dies sooner or later after it leaves the body ; worlds 
 are born and die; worlds are physical; all that is physical 
 is born and dies; and this is change. It is mutability. It 
 is mortality. There is a community of interest between the 
 physical body, the physical mind, the earth and the physical 
 worlds that abound in space. 
 
 17. Is there anything that is not physical? Gravity is 
 not a substance, nor a part of anything physical. It is a 
 power. In the solar system alone it is as long as the 
 diameter of the system, or more than four billions of miles, 
 and as wide as the cross diameter, and as high. It is as 
 
BEGINNING TO THINK 15 
 
 much in the space that separates orbs as in the orbs them- 
 selves. Electricity is not a substance. It is as much in 
 space as in the orbs of space. Thought is not a substance. 
 Magnetism is not physical. Instinct, intuition and inspira- 
 tion are not substances. Governing laws, such as are found 
 in the universe, are not physical. The special design of 
 nature is not a substance. The miracle whereby the filth 
 of the ground is transformed into food for man, or the 
 compost of the garden is translated into the exquisite beauty 
 of the rose, is not physical. These are common examples 
 only. They are but a few of the evidences of a power that 
 makes use of physical life as tools are employed to shape 
 and perfect some grand temple. 
 
 18. There are two wide worlds in this universe; the 
 physical and the psychic. All that is not physical is psychic. 
 Both are found everywhere. But the worlds that have died, 
 such as the moon and some of the planets, cease to be reached 
 by psychic influences. If this earth is solid, then only its 
 shallow surface is affected by psychic powers. These are 
 examples of the physical conditions that are separated from 
 the psychic agencies. 
 
 19. It then becomes apparent that what is psychic is 
 alive. If this power touches the physical, the latter lives; 
 just as the dead was brought to life in the olden time. The 
 human corpse is all physical. The psychic has gone out 
 of it. 
 
 20. Now comes the newer law that is not always easy 
 to comprehend. The purpose of the psychic is to find birth 
 and development; and this purpose is being expressed on 
 this globe at the present time. It is the union of life with 
 substance; and then the abandonment of that substance for 
 similar uses without end. Man is the goal of this union 
 on this globe. Man is the only life in which the psychic 
 unites with the physical earth. But what about that under- 
 life that leads up to man? Here the law becomes complex. 
 The human species is reached by the gradual rising up out 
 
16 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 of the ground of the forces that make man. The stairs 
 that lead to the golden dome are not the dome itself; nor 
 is that under-life that makes the ladder from the soil to 
 humanity the goal that it reaches. Therefore all life that 
 is not man's is physical ; while man is the union of the 
 psychic with the physical. Think this over. Think hard, 
 and long, and deeply. You will find it true, and you will 
 agree with others that it cannot be otherwise than true. 
 
 21. It being a fact that every human being possesses a 
 physical mind and a psychic mind, a physical life and a psychic 
 life, and a body that is mortal, the final inquiry is, what 
 becomes of the psychic life and the psychic mind that are 
 known to dwell during earthly existence in the physical 
 body? This question has been asked for many thousands 
 of years, and is now uppermost in the minds of all thought- 
 ful persons. 
 
 22. The physical substance does not die. The body 
 perishes as a body, but not one particle of its substance is 
 lost. It dissolves and takes part in making other bodies. 
 But as a being it is lost. Its physical mind lingers after 
 death, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and possibly 
 years; but eventually dissolves, and is lost; because it was 
 the tool of the senses only. 
 
 23. The psychic mind and the psychic life within the 
 body are not made of physical substance. They came from 
 the source of life. They are life itself in the only true 
 sense of the word. The mortal perishes because it loses its 
 identity through change, although it is in fact imperishable. 
 Yet while it served as the temple of the psychic life within 
 it, it suffered immensely from the moment of birth to the 
 last hour of its existence. This mortal body was sick, was 
 paralyzed, was unconscious, was asleep, was in a faint, was 
 broken with misery and racked with pain; was subject to 
 attack from without and from within, from invisible enemies 
 and open assailants; and has not had the semblance of power 
 to resist these hidden and manifest foes. The physical mind 
 
BEGINNING TO THINK 17 
 
 slept at night, was dulled with age, was wild with grief, 
 lost its sanity, was imbecile, and gave way to influences that 
 controlled it ; as frail as the physical body in which it dwelt. 
 24. The psychic body and the psychic mind never sleep, 
 never lose consciousness, are never sick, and are not made of 
 perishable material. Enough has been learned of them to 
 know that they are not born of earth, are not made of 
 earth, and answer to no earthly law. When this much is 
 established, the inference is plain that psychic life and its 
 mind are immortal. But we shall see. 
 
 This opening chapter may be omitted if the reader shall 
 find it wearying. 
 
 It is the beginning of thinking. Yet it starts with the 
 first and simplest of all thoughts on life; and, step by step, 
 it passes on into the deepest of all problems in the universe. 
 Just at that point where the reader finds the depth becoming 
 too great, he may pause and close the chapter. 
 
 Easier propositions are now to follow for a while. 
 
i8 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 | DIFFICULTIES OF PROOF. | 
 
 .RUTH is the goal of all study, all thought, 
 'all investigation. But who has the truth? 
 What is it, and how can it be recognized when 
 (found? If a man tells you something that 
 you are willing to accept as a fact, you incur 
 two risks of being mistaken. He may have 
 told you a deliberate falsehood ; or he may have 
 told you something that he honestly thinks is true, but about 
 which he is mistaken. Then there is a third class of error, 
 and it is that which some theorist has built up around a 
 system that he fondly wishes to be true. 
 
 Let us take the class of statements and beliefs that seem 
 most reliable. They are founded on the direct experiences 
 and proofs of the senses. Certainly they ought to be true 
 if anything in this world can be accepted as fact. But are 
 they? 
 
 If you touch hot water you know it. If you hold a piece 
 of ice in the hand, you know it is cold. If you hear sweet 
 music, the sound seems certain, and no one can make you 
 believe it is not music. If a voice speaks to you out of the 
 nothingness of the air, you are convinced that you hear the 
 voice. Even the words have a clear meaning to you. If 
 you see the form of a man standing before you in the road, 
 you are sure it is the form of a man. 
 
 These are evidences of the senses; and what the senses 
 reveal cannot for a moment be doubted. We asked ten 
 thousand persons by personal letters if they had ever seen 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF PROOF 19 
 
 or heard ghosts, or had any experiences that were so clearly 
 manifested that they would be willing to swear to the 
 facts; if they were convinced; and why? In the replies 
 were three letters containing the following assertions: 
 
 " I am a priest, clear of mind, and cool-headed. I cer- 
 tainly know what I see. I once saw very distinctly the 
 ghost of my dead brother under circumstances that admit 
 of no doubt of its reality." 
 
 " I am the wife of a physician. My sister died four years 
 ago. After she had been dead three years or more, one 
 night I was awakened by hearing her call to me, saying 
 that my little boy must be taken to her in the spirit world 
 within a month. I knew her voice, and arose, dressed 
 myself and sat up alone in the room while my husband 
 slept. My sister's voice again came to me and repated the 
 statement. My husband awoke and found me weeping in 
 my chair." 
 
 " I am a business man, called hard of mind and lacking 
 all emotion and sentiment. I lost my wife by death. For 
 three months after she died, some one would come into my 
 room and strip all the clothes from the bed. I employed 
 a male nurse to sit in the room and watch while I slept. 
 As soon as he became drowsy the bed-clothes were taken 
 from the bed. We finally sewed them on and they were 
 torn away." 
 
 Now here are evidences that were brought directly to the 
 three most important of the senses; sight, sound and touch. 
 As the assertions were made by reliable persons, and were 
 sustained by proofs, we thought it wise to undertake a 
 personal investigation of the matter in each instance. The 
 more we probed, the stronger became the verification of each 
 case. 
 
 The priest said, " I certainly know what I see." Thou- 
 sands have said, " I have a right to believe what I see with 
 my own eyes." Others say, " If I cannot believe what I 
 hear with my own ears, what can I believe? " 
 
20 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 But sight, sound, hearing and touch are interpretations 
 of the nervous system. Here is a man who is given a 
 piece of ice and is told that it is a red hot coal. Instantly 
 he jumps with pain and drops it. His sense of touch has 
 been changed by his nervous condition. True he is in a 
 state of subjection to one of the laws of hypnotism; but this 
 power affects those who are awake as well as those who 
 are asleep. 
 
 Sound is the least certain of all the senses, as the slightest 
 inflammation of the finest nerve in the brain where sound 
 has its creation, will magnify the tiny threads of dead still- 
 ness into an ocean roar in the midst of which voices are 
 heard calling from far off shores. Nothing is impossible 
 under such circumstances. 
 
 In the last throes of death, the microscopic powers of the 
 brain are enlarged until every conceivable noise is heard. 
 Conscience plays its part, and the yells of demons, the 
 shrieks of tortured souls, or the howling of the condemned 
 amid the fury of flames, will accompany the dying man 
 across the black river. On the other hand, the calm peace 
 of the pure in heart invites the songs of angels and the sweet 
 music of heaven. 
 
 How much of these experiences may be ascribed to the 
 changes taking place in the brain during the passing moments 
 of death? 
 
 Sight is likewise an interpretation of the brain. We had 
 many conversations with the actor, Edwin Booth, who stood 
 for a quarter of a century at the head of his profession. 
 He declared that he played his parts so earnestly that they 
 became real to him, and the forms of the characters in 
 the play were easily seen under certain circumstances. "One 
 morning I was rehearsing Macbeth alone. In the sword 
 scene at the end of the play I saw Macduff on the stage. 
 He loomed up so big and powerful that I hesitated about 
 fighting. Presently he vanished." This was one of the 
 frequent experiences of this great actor. The intensity of 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF PROOF 21 
 
 his genius brought forms out of nothing to stand before him. 
 
 Every person who has had a severe attack of grip knows 
 what it is to see things that are not in fact present. The 
 same is true in the fever stages of typhoid. Likewise in 
 some stages of intoxication, and following the use of certain 
 drugs, the mind beholds many forms that do not in fact 
 exist to the normal sight. When this condition of the 
 mind becomes chronic from any cause, it is one of the classes 
 of dementia or insanity. 
 
 Any very nervous man or woman, or one suffering from 
 prostration, or one who is laboring under fright or fear, 
 may see forms that are not present to others. So the power 
 of hypnotism, the lack of natural sleep, ordinary drowsiness, 
 and many other causes may conjure up visions that are as 
 unreal as the cart-wheels that chase the victim of alcohol 
 during a spell of delirium tremens. 
 
 If you look with upturned eyes on a bright ball and allow 
 your mind to lapse into a semi-sleep, and repeat this experi- 
 ment many times, you will soon be able to view scenes and 
 forms that will surprise your friends, provided you persist 
 in the efforts and have a sufficiently sensitive brain. 
 
 It is not necessary to send a person into the unconscious 
 sleep of hypnotism in order to arouse the faculty of the 
 brain for seeing things that the normal physical brain 
 cannot perceive. Many persons have been swayed by the 
 following experiment, that any one can try who is in earnest. 
 The combination of night, of dark, of secrecy, of mystery 
 and of absolute confidence bordering on fear, will make 
 almost any human brain so sensitive that it will open up 
 its highly nervous faculty of seeing forms. When analyzed 
 it comes down to the same principle by which many a 
 woman, left alone in a dreary house all night, surrounded 
 by fearful conditions, has been made prey to the inevitable 
 results of an overwrought brain; sounds, voices, knockings 
 and even visions having come to her and been absolutely 
 visible to her sight; every one of which was the creation 
 
22 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 of a slightly fevered or distraught cerebrum, bordering on 
 delirium. Fright, exhaustion, intense thinking on one sub- 
 ject, and other common causes will project visions into the 
 air or bring sounds to the brain, or even arouse the sense 
 of feeling. 
 
 How then can any man say: " I certainly have a right 
 to believe what I see with my own eyes," when perfectly 
 normal conditions are not always prevailing even in the 
 hours of wide wakefulness? 
 
 What is the truth? 
 
 Who has it? 
 
 Positive people are often unreliable people. The cheap 
 assertion that something is true because proofs have come 
 to the senses, is no longer tenable in the new world of 
 investigation. 
 
 The lover of knowledge will be slow to condemn the 
 belief or opinion of any person ; and, on the other hand, 
 the man or woman who wishes to make the greatest progress 
 in the right direction will not shut up in the mind some 
 fixed theory or doctrine when all the world is thirsting for 
 more light than shines to-day out of the realm of the un- 
 known. Let each and every one of us open the mind to 
 the admission of the proof of truth, if any one has such 
 proof to offer. 
 
23 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 I 1 
 
 IUNRELIABLE INFORMATION.! 
 
 I 1 
 
 .ii.i . ii t . i 
 
 ViVIVIvlvivlyK t . lv 4 . 4 ~ » . I . i v M.t.l. 4 - 4 v 4 . I . 4~4 , l~~\ " lTV*Ti~t~4~«Tt"74': 
 
 UCH of the information on psychic subjects 
 is unreliable. Most of it is invention. The 
 Sunday papers are given to the habit of in- 
 genious fabrication of ghost stories and other 
 phenomena; every word of which is composed 
 in the rooms of the writers, although supposed 
 affidavits and other forms of proof are added 
 to the statements. Many of these stories have been inves- 
 tigated and not one found to have even the slightest semb- 
 lance of truth. 
 
 Daily papers also freely invent such accounts and give 
 many a thrilling narrative of premonitions, warnings, dreams 
 and predictions that it would seem impossible for writers 
 to make them up out of whole cloth, as the saying goes. 
 Proofs are added when it suits the invention of the fabri- 
 cators ; but the proofs never can be verified. Yet such 
 stories are converting thousands of persons to false beliefs. 
 Not long ago a business man announced to his friends that 
 he had changed his faith from the church to that of other 
 tenets ; and it was learned that the new doctrines were based 
 wholly on newspaper articles containing accounts of ghosts, 
 premonitions and communications from the spirit world. 
 In his library were found more than seven thousand clippings 
 from the papers, all arranged and classified b3 r the aid of 
 a private secretary. He denounced some of the truths which 
 his friends stated to him, but consented to have the matter 
 reported to us. 
 
24 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 Instead of angering the man by an abuse of his judgment, 
 we inquired how many of the newspaper articles had been 
 verified by him. He replied, not one. We then suggested 
 that he verify every one of the seven thousand. He began 
 with the cases that had most impressed him; but when he 
 found that not one of the first six hundred had any founda- 
 tion in fact, he burned up the whole lot, dismissed his 
 private secretary and came back to his normal church belief, 
 a wiser and a happier man. 
 
 This is but one case in a large number where seemingly 
 truthful stories have turned the lives of men. and women 
 in a wrong direction. 
 
 Then there are persons who have heard of strange hap- 
 penings and who vouch for them as strictly true, who in 
 fact have never had any direct knowledge of the events 
 reported ; although some very honest men and women have 
 so long and so often vouched for things of the kind that 
 they have really come to believe them true. A very excellent 
 bishop told us of a most extraordinary case that he knew to 
 be exactly as stated. We asked him if he had personal 
 knowledge of it, and he quickly said he had. It required 
 outside proof to convince him that his belief was not founded 
 on personal knowledge, as he was in Europe at the time 
 the supposed events occurred in America. This shows one 
 phase of the weakness of strong minds. 
 
 There are some sources of proof that cannot deceive, and 
 they are five in number, as follows: 
 
 Absolute Facts. 
 
 Scientific Demonstration. 
 
 Evidence of the Normal Physical Senses. 
 
 Evidence of the Psychic Senses. 
 
 Established Psychic Laws. 
 
25 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 I NATURE OF SOUNDS. 
 
 7i7l~l~~~t U»l,lvl.l.l.l.lvl.lvl.l.l«l.l,I.Mvlvl,l.l,lvl/l.l.l-i.l.l.l/l ^l^lN/iX/ 
 
 HAT IS KNOWN as sound has no existence 
 in itself. It is merely a creation of the sensi- 
 tive nerves of the brain. The basis of all 
 sound is air. The air may be still or it may 
 |£ s be moving; but still air or moving air of itself 
 does not furnish the basis of sound. If you 
 will imagine a mass of gelatine very long, very 
 wide and very thick, resting upon a large platform; and 
 also imagine that one part of this mass is struck a blow 
 that vibrates the whole jelly-like mass from end to end, 
 you will obtain a fair idea of the manner in which air fur- 
 nishes the basis of sound. 
 
 If the gelatine could be extended for a long distance, a 
 blow struck at one end would vibrate the mass to the other 
 end; in fact it might travel for miles if so large a distance 
 were possible for the construction of this kind of a medium. 
 But the gelatine itself does not move. It vibrates, and the 
 waves of mass-motion reach as far as the mass extends. 
 
 A wave of the ocean is a surface action. If you drop 
 a pebble in still water, ripples will run out in all direc- 
 tions; but the water itself will not move. A chip riding 
 on its bosom would be found in the same place after the 
 ripples ceased, as before they began. A body of water 
 apparently quiet may be moving in one direction, and 
 ripples made on its surface may be moving in the opposite 
 direction; showing that the mass may sustain vibrations 
 independent of the direction in which the whole body may 
 be moving. 
 
26 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 This is true of sound in air. A strong wind may carry 
 the air in one direction while the tones of the voice may be 
 traveling in another, although the removal of the medium 
 will also take away the vibrations of its mass. 
 
 Water will carry the waves of sound; but they are not 
 like the waves of the ocean, nor the ripples on its face; 
 being merely vibrations of the mass of the water itself. 
 Solid wood will also transmit sound by vibration of its 
 molecules. 
 
 Everything is hollow and porous. 
 
 In the structure of the densest solids, the molecules that 
 make up the mass are held apart by laws similar to those 
 that keep the sun and planets from coming together; and a 
 tiny being small enough to stand upon the surface of one 
 of these particles that compose the mass, would look out 
 upon the other particles somewhat as we view the moon 
 and sun. Such small proportions are almost inconceivable. 
 
 As everything is hollow and porous it is easy to under- 
 stand how heat, magnetism, sound and other activities can 
 pass through them. If there were such things as ghosts 
 with only an ether-body, it would have no difficulty what- 
 ever in moving through a solid wall. What is solid to the 
 eye is exceedingly porous in fact. 
 
 Like water, the air is a mass; the difference being that it 
 is more porous. It is composed chiefly of two gases; and 
 the same is true of water; the former being made up of 
 nitrogen and oxygen ; while the latter consists of hydrogen 
 and oxygen. 
 
 Sound is a vibration of the molecules in any mass. We 
 are most familiar with it in the atmosphere. These vibra- 
 tions, coming against an electric current, as in the tele- 
 phone, may be carried on wires to distant places, far beyond 
 the range of the voice when employed in the air alone. 
 
 Some authorities, claim that sound is the vibration of 
 the ether or inner medium which enters into all solids and 
 passes beyond all physical bodies, even to the remotest parts 
 
NATURE OF SOUNDS 27 
 
 of the universe. This claim has been found not to be true. 
 Light is ether vibration; but sound is the vibration of the 
 molecules. The difference is important in determining 
 some questions that follow later on in this book. 
 
 But at the same time it is a fact that the vibrations of 
 the molecules in the air may be transferred into the ether 
 by the nervous action of the brain. 
 
 We now approach the peculiar part of this subject; or 
 the relation of the brain to sound. 
 
 The first sentence of this chapter states that sound has 
 no existence of itself. It makes no noise unless its vibra- 
 tions act upon the nerve-centers of the brain. The noise 
 it then makes is not actual. There must be a function in 
 the nerves of the brain that translates or interprets the 
 vibrations into what the mind accepts as sound. In the 
 core of the brain, to use a common term, the gray matter 
 of a series of cells is so acted upon by the vibrations of the 
 air that they produce the result known as sound. 
 
 Take a spoken word for example. 
 
 The larynx of the throat holds in check a column of air 
 that is passing out of the lungs. The vocal cords compress 
 the column. Each cord or part of the larynx is so deli- 
 cately hung that it trembles as the checked flow of air 
 presses against it; and this motion passes to the air itself, 
 which goes out of the mouth still trembling or vibrating. 
 The varying rapidity of the waves gives rise to the varying 
 degrees of pitch. 
 
 Having thus set up vibrations of air, the effect is like 
 that made on a mass of gelatine; the whole body of air 
 vibrates in all directions, and as many persons can hear as 
 are able to come within the range of the voice. Words 
 are combinations of vibrations, or shapes into which they 
 are -compressed. There are vowels and consonants. Vow- 
 els are round, flat or open, owing to whatever shapes are 
 given to the escaping column of air. Consonants are in- 
 terruptions of the out-going air; the column being cut off 
 
28 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 by the interference of some part of the mouth, as the lips, 
 teeth, point of tongue, middle of tongue, back of tongue 
 and the parts of the throat. 
 
 Now it is also true that the very nervous, overwrought 
 brain will hear voices, created within the head, when all 
 is perfect silence in the room; yet every word uttered within 
 the brain will employ some of the vowels and consonants 
 that only the mouth can shape. 
 
 In dreams, in delirium, in fever, in fright, in exhaustion, 
 the slightly inflamed brain acts as a magnifying power and 
 furnishes not only sounds, but articulative speech as well. 
 Likewise the supposed spirits of another world make use 
 of the vowels and consonants of human language, always 
 suiting themselves to the vernacular of the victim. 
 
 It takes but very little fever or excitement or lesion of 
 the brain-nerves to start sounds going. A man whose skull 
 had received a severe blow and was almost fractured, was 
 subject for years to the sounds of voices within his head. 
 Actual conversations were carried on and song as well as 
 instrumental music added to the visitations. An operation 
 relieved the pressure, and the sounds disappeared. 
 
 In every brain are centers of excitement that are normal 
 only when the nervous system is normal. A throbbing nerve 
 brings extra blood and greater pressure on the brain-cells; 
 and if these happen to belong to the sense of sound, the 
 result will be phenomena, both in mere noise and in actually 
 spoken words. 
 
 That the voices are the familiar tones of those we may 
 have known in life, and w 7 ho perhaps are now dead, is due 
 to the fact that the brain is a storehouse of past events and 
 reflects in its excitement what it may have received or seen 
 many years ago. Indeed it is probable that all the things 
 that have occurred in the past, from youth to old age, are 
 preserved in safety in the cells of the brain. 
 
29 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 I GHOSTLY SOUNDS. 
 
 i 
 
 'ivivivki ii.i. 1.1.1,1,1,1.1.1.1,1,1, ~4~Ti~i~i~iT.~iTi~i~ . iTiTi. ,TiT ~i . i" 
 
 OLLOWING the description given in the 
 'preceding chapter, it may be easily seen how 
 delicate a tissue of the brain is charged with 
 the duty of creating sound. The waves that 
 fill the mass of air are quiet and unobtrusive. 
 The storm-tossed ocean is destructive in its 
 violence, but has nothing of the power on the 
 brain that is possessed by the silent and unseen vibrations 
 that pass from a distant cannon and find meaning in the 
 thought-centers. The billows may wreck a mighty ship; 
 while the explosive sound will not even be heard if the 
 brain is not able to give it existence upon its sensitive 
 tissue. 
 
 Motion is all about us. Much of it appeals solely to the 
 eye. The silent growth of leaves and giant trees is a 
 tremendous process in nature; but not one sound is made 
 in its activity, because the brain is not aroused to interpret 
 such a process. Unseen, unassuming, unfelt, the slight 
 vibrations of air-masses, and not the air itself, reach the 
 delicate nerve-centers and there are so enlarged that what 
 was dead stillness outside, becomes the living impression 
 known as sound. 
 
 It is the sheer creation of the brain itself. 
 The nerves that are employed to make this creation are 
 surrounded by pulsing functions, rushing streams of blood 
 and chemical changes that are necessary to the life of the 
 brain; but, not being waves of the right kind, there is no 
 noise to this machinery of the vital government. 
 
3 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 A normal brain hears few if any sounds that are not the 
 direct result of air-vibrations. But let the nerves get out 
 of order, let there be the slightest inflammation of the 
 tissue in the sound-centers, and other creations are brought 
 into existence than those that are transmitted by air waves. 
 
 In nearly all kinds of fever there is excitement along 
 the nerve of hearing, and congestion or pressure in the cells 
 where sound is created. Noises result, and they are called 
 strange. 
 
 "Who is ringing that bell?" is asked by the fever- 
 racked patient, when all is still. 
 
 "Will you have that pounding stopped?" is also a re- 
 quest from another similar source. 
 
 The murderer who slew the traveling merchant one win- 
 ter's night, heard the sleigh-bells of his victim until he 
 sought peace by confession. The cries of those who have 
 suffered at the hands of others have haunted the guilty 
 parties for years afterward. " I have never for one day 
 been free from the piercing shrieks of the man I killed," 
 said a criminal to a member of the Psychic Society. 
 
 Criminology abounds in such confessions. 
 
 A woman left alone in a house by night may allow her 
 thoughts to run to the possible dangers of her position. 
 She may know that the doors and windows are securely 
 bolted, and thus feel safe from all physical dangers; but 
 soon her mind will run to the other channel, the super- 
 natural. Stillness is so profound that the settling of the 
 house itself, which seems to never end, produces sounds 
 that could not possibly be heard in the day time, but that 
 now are enlarged by the excited nerve-centers of her brain 
 until each creak is a sledge-hammer blow. A leaf against 
 the pane that rattles with such minuteness of motion as 
 to be hardly as active as a breath on the rose, now is mag- 
 nified into knocks by icy fingers. Tap, tap, tap, knock, 
 knock, knock, the ghostly hand plays its weird tattoo on 
 the glass, and the woman shrinks into the farthest corner 
 
GHOSTLY SOUNDS 31 
 
 of the room, expecting to see the window open and the 
 white form enter. 
 
 One case that attracted attention was that of a man who 
 had to work by night and sleep by day. He remained alone 
 in an old Suilding. One evening he took up his work with 
 an aching head which did not get better as the hours wore 
 away. Then he rested for a while. The throbs of pain 
 in his head were translated to him as the sounds of foot- 
 steps in the hallways of the building. These came to his 
 door, and a loud knock followed. 
 
 " Come in," he said rather feebly. 
 
 The knocking grew louder, and he now hurried to the 
 door to find it unlocked, as he supposed, but the hallway 
 empty. 
 
 Somewhat alarmed, but of a strong resisting mind for 
 such a belief as that a ghost were the cause of the sounds, 
 he returned to his room after securely locking the door. 
 
 He fell into a dose, but had his eyes open half the time, 
 and soon saw the door open, but no form appear. He 
 arose, went to the door and found it closed and locked. 
 He afterwards admitted that this erratic vision was due 
 to the excited state of his brain; but he could not under- 
 stand the sounds. 
 
 On a subsequent night, when he was free from the head- 
 ache, he heard what he supposed were faint sounds, as of 
 someone walking in bare feet on the hallway floor. He 
 was now sensitive and nervous, and listened. In a short 
 time the sounds changed to those of heavy steps in big 
 boots in an empty room directly over his head. This was 
 more than he could endure, and he called in an officer. 
 The two men searched the building from end to end with- 
 out result. 
 
 On the next night he had a friend remain with him for 
 the purpose of securing proof of the condition of things; 
 but, as no sounds had been heard up to three o'clock, the 
 friend went away. The man now being alone at once 
 
32 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 grew nervous and the sounds began. Footsteps were heard 
 passing from the basement to the third floor, then back 
 again, sometimes running, sometimes stamping, and finally 
 ended at his door. Silence that was horrible ensued for 
 what seemed minutes, then came a vigorous pounding at 
 the door only a few feet away from him. 
 
 He vacated the house the next day and moved into one 
 that was occupied. No sounds were ever heard there, 
 except one rainy night in winter when he imagined that he 
 was back again in the old building, and footsteps were 
 audible. As he listened he caught the rhythmic action of 
 his own heart-beats corresponding with the blows made by 
 falling feet, and he soon was satisfied that the noises were 
 due wholly to an excited state of the sensitive tissue of 
 the brain. 
 
 Fear produces excitement, and excitement produces an 
 abnormal activity of the brain. 
 
 In a nerve-center that is charged with the duty of creat- 
 ing sounds out of the silent vibrations of the air, any other 
 creation is possible when inflammation, congestion, pressure 
 or excitement may be present. 
 
 It has been the most frequent of all investigations of the 
 Psychic Society, to follow out the claims of people who 
 have been alarmed by ghostly sounds; and not in one in- 
 stance has there been any evidence that is conclusive to 
 prove that spirits are the cause of such manifestations. This 
 fact is so clearly in evidence to-day that it can be laid down 
 as an axiom that ghosts make no sound whatever, even if 
 they make themselves known at all. 
 
33 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 GHOST,LY VIOLENCE. | 
 
 rivivlVl'TlTlTlTl "Tl'lTlTlTi .I.I.UI.I .I.I.IvIvIvI«M.M.IvI»I»I.I.I.I.IvI ,(vlvlvlvi" 
 
 WO CLASSES of cases are to be considered 
 under this general subject. By violence is 
 meant the laying on of hands, or the rough 
 physical demonstrations that attend the so- 
 called visitations of the spirits. The first class 
 is that in which the person who is visited is 
 not in any way a party to a mediumistic influ- 
 ence. The second class is that in which persons or things 
 are roughly handled while a supposed medium is manipu- 
 lating the spirits. 
 
 In dealing with the first class, we have the same condi- 
 tions that arise when ghostly sounds are produced ; and 
 these have been disposed of in another part of this book. 
 But the process is different. 
 
 There are three kinds of contact with the brain of a 
 human being in the uses of the senses most often involved 
 in the manifestations: 
 
 1. Physical contact, or the sense of touch. 
 
 2. Vibrations of air-masses, or the sense of hearing. 
 
 3. Vibrations of the ether, or the sense of sight. 
 All three must reach the brain, or they will fail. 
 
 If the nerves are paralyzed that connect the surface of the 
 body with the head, the sense of touch fails; but it is none 
 the less active. It thus differs from the sense of hearing 
 and sight. 
 
 To a blind person there is no light. To a deaf person 
 there is no sound. But a blow dealt one who has lost the 
 sense of feeling may, if violent, do injury. Such a person 
 3 
 
34 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 can be pushed from a window and killed. He may be 
 burned and suffer harm and even lose his life, while not 
 feeling pain. 
 
 The sense of touch is more necessary than that of hear- 
 ing or sight; for the lack of it takes away part of the life 
 of the body, and is sure to lessen the term of duration on 
 earth. 
 
 On the other hand the over-sensitive state of the body 
 in the use of the sense of touch, is productive of many dis- 
 agreeable experiences. One who is nervous suffers most 
 from this cause. 
 
 The surface of the body deceives the mind at times by 
 sensations that are due to a defective supply of nervous 
 power at the skin. 
 
 " I felt the touch of a cold hand on my neck," is the 
 statement of a nervous woman. But the cause of that 
 feeling was an abnormal condition of the body at that 
 part. 
 
 " Every day or two a cold hand crawls down my back," 
 says a woman who is likewise afflicted with a defective sup- 
 ply of nervous vitality. 
 
 A common case occurred recently. A man insisted that 
 some one was poking a finger into the upper arm just below 
 the shoulder. He would turn suddenly as if to catch the 
 guilty party. But the fact was that he had on a stiff coat 
 which bent inward at the place affected, and caused a pres- 
 sure to come against the flesh whenever he moved. 
 
 In another similar case a woman who insisted that she 
 was being visited by spirits because a pressure was felt on 
 the wrist when no person was in the room, was shown that 
 the touch came from the wrinkling of clothing which 
 brought a pressure to bear upon her arm. The degree of 
 power was so slight that a normal individual would never 
 feel it; but the super-sensitive nerves magnified it greatly. 
 
 The opening of a door must be ascribed to physical action 
 or the sense of touch. There are ghost stories unlimited 
 
GHOSTLY VIOLENCE 35 
 
 in number and apparently sustained by conclusive proofs 
 in which doors and windows are opened, and impossible 
 feats accomplished with material matter. But these are 
 merely " stories." Not one has ever been entitled to be- 
 lief. They have been thoroughly investigated, without re- 
 sult. 
 
 A child cried to its mother in the night that some one 
 had lifted it out of bed and laid it on the floor. The 
 mother regarded this as a sign that the child would soon 
 die. But she was shown other ways of accounting for the 
 occurrence, and the child lived. The whole incident was 
 founded on a dream that seemed to be a waking transaction 
 to the mind of the child. 
 
 Many persons claim that they have been visited at night 
 by violent ghosts. One of the usual tricks is to tear the 
 clothing from the bed. In no case that has been reported 
 of this kind has the ghost been seen during the act of taking 
 the clothing off. Yet we have received hundreds of affi- 
 davits to the effect that some agency had, in the dark, 
 removed the bedclothes, and even entered into a struggle 
 with the occupant of the bed, always winning in the tug 
 of war. 
 
 In every such instance one person has had the experi- 
 ence; never two in the same room or the same bed. This 
 fact leaves the question of veracity open to doubt; for what 
 occurs in the night to a nervous person may be charged to 
 a highly excited nervous system, or to a state of half-wake- 
 fulness, or a dream. Many dreams seem to be as real as 
 the transactions of the day. 
 
 In a list of more than one thousand reported cases of 
 physical violence, not one has been based on the claim that 
 injury was done to the individual. When force has been 
 employed, it has done no harm of any kind. Some state 
 that furniture has been broken, legs wrenched from strong 
 tables, chairs demolished, pictured thrown to the floor, and 
 crockery and china ruined by strange visitations; but there 
 
36 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 is not a single instance where two or more persons were 
 witnesses of such deeds. In the very nature of the testi- 
 mony bearing on these subjects, the word of one individual 
 cannot be taken ; for all men and women, and even children, 
 who are thus visited, are highly nervous before they pass 
 through the experiences named. 
 
 Under the subject of self-hypnotism, suggestion may arise 
 from a passing thought, and the whole affair may occur in 
 a cataleptic state. In proof of this assertion, over two hun- 
 dred of the persons who made affidavits to the events stated, 
 were found to be nervously diseased along cataleptic lines. 
 
 There is a stage of this malady that admits of full con- 
 sciousness of the mind, while the occurrences are due to 
 the fault named. If two persons who were subject to the 
 malady were to witness the same event, it would undoubt- 
 edly be ascribable to suggestion from one in which both 
 concurred. No human being, placed in such a situation, 
 is able to tell the truth from the seeming facts, if he is the 
 subject of the visitation, as it is termed. The explanation 
 is apparent on its face in every such case. Yet honest men 
 and women have sworn to* a state of facts that carried 
 conviction to the unwary mind. The proof was unassail- 
 able, as it appeared. 
 
 Strict fairness requires us to state that every genuine 
 medium or clairvoyant is a cataleptic. It is also true that 
 every person who can be hypnotized, may be developed into 
 a medium or clairvoyant, with more or less power to in- 
 terpret the subconscious activities of the minds of other 
 persons. But this takes us too close to the other depart- 
 ments of this work. The laws of psychic life that apply to 
 such cases will be found fully presented and explained in 
 other pages. 
 
 This statement is made here to show the many chances 
 for error in accepting proof, even when under oath and 
 offered by persons who are sincere and honest. " I know," 
 and " I am absolutely sure," are terms that fall with ease 
 
GHOSTLY VIOLENCE 37 
 
 from such lips, while their conclusions are wholly wrong. 
 A clergyman of national reputation, and one who is uni- 
 versally respected, said: "I certainly believe what I see 
 with my own eyes, hear with my own ears, and feel with 
 my own hands." He had a combination that was impreg- 
 nable in his opinion; yet he finally admitted that he did not 
 know how to interpret the senses that had supplied him 
 with the apparent facts. 
 
 Most of the things that are seen and heard under certain 
 conditions are untrustworthy; and what is felt may be 
 also a creation of the morbid mind of a nervous person. 
 
 More troublesome to the investigator are the acts of 
 violence that occur under the direction or leadership of a 
 genuine medium. The latter term must not be accepted 
 with the belief that we have discovered genuine mediums. 
 Most of those who claim to be such, are frauds straight 
 and simple. Many who are genuine have very limited 
 powers, and are totally unable to communicate with spirits. 
 But they can arouse a certain kind of violent action. They 
 produce knocks that are heard by several persons in the 
 same group. They cause tables to move, and chairs to be 
 lifted up by invisible agencies. 
 
 The fraud enters when they claim to possess powers to 
 communicate with the dead. They have no such gift, nor 
 has one human being that ever lived been given the power 
 to bring the dead before the living, even in sound and 
 action, in writing, or otherwise. There the fraud begins. 
 Perhaps they may think in all honesty that they have such 
 powers. A part of a gift may give rise to a belief that the 
 whole faculty is present. 
 
 Nevertheless there are mediums who are able to cause 
 physical violence. We once owned a table that had been 
 broken by such an agency, and it was made of genuine 
 mahogany more than a hundred years old. The mere 
 breaking of it did not prove that a spirit had taken part in 
 
38 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 the transaction. It was the work of the subconscious fac- 
 ulties, overcoming gravity and doing exactly what would 
 occur in any successful attempt to annul that fundamental 
 law of nature. 
 
 It cannot be denied that gravity or the earth's attraction 
 may be suspended. 
 
 It has been proved that the psychical realm is one in 
 which there is no law of gravity. 
 
 Hence it is not at all wonderful that objects can be 
 made to move about and show a defiance of this great force. 
 
 Each of these conditions will be fully explained in turn 
 as the present work progresses. 
 
39 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 1 PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS. | 
 
 HOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of 
 persons have agreed during life to send back 
 information after death if there were life be- 
 lyond the grave. These agreements are gen- 
 erally made in sincerity. Some of them have 
 been put in writing and sworn to, in order 
 that the full impressiveness of the contract 
 may be understood. If you can find any two women whose 
 beliefs have turned strongly toward the future world, 
 and who are close friends, you will likely find that a pre- 
 mortem agreement has been made to the effect that the one 
 who shall die first will, as soon as possible after death, fur- 
 nish some information of the spirit life, telling what it is like 
 and giving proof of the genuine existence of the soul as an 
 immortal being. 
 
 Men likewise who are close friends have made such 
 agreements and are doing so to-day. In the several soci- 
 eties for psychical research, these compacts have been made, 
 both in England and America. In the latter organization, 
 one of the foremost investigators agreed with his co-worker 
 in the same cause, to make himself manifest in case he should 
 die first; the other party promising the same thing in the 
 event of his departing first. It seems that this case is one 
 that cannot admit of doubt. After the death of one of 
 the men, no manifestations were forthcoming until a me- 
 dium was sought, a woman who had acted as clairvoyant 
 to both of them for many years. Through her powers the 
 dead man sent word of a very indefinite character telling 
 
4 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 vaguely and disjointedly some things that had occurred in 
 the lifetime of the man. The results were such that the 
 living professor is credited with believing that he actually 
 did receive word from the spirit of his friend. 
 
 But here again they have missed connections. The 
 woman who acted as medium is a genuine clairvoyant. 
 She has not been in a position to acquire the means of 
 trickery, and has had no disposition to do so if she were 
 so inclined. She possesses what all human beings own, a 
 subconscious faculty; but hers is acute in the highest degree. 
 On the pages of her mental book are written an endless 
 number of impressions that respond to the wish of others 
 through a state of utter chaos. There is nothing to pre- 
 clude the theory that her subconscious mind unearthed after 
 death the facts that were present in the brains of those who 
 lived when she knew them. 
 
 If the spirit of the dead wished to manifest itself to a 
 living friend, it would not be necessary to select the most 
 skilful of living mediums, and the most gifted clairvoyant 
 of modern times, in order to so appear. Not many persons 
 could secure the services of so rare an individual. Nor is 
 such an appearance a fair test of the life of the spirit. 
 Currents of interest run in grooves or like gulf stream 
 lines, and a gifted medium would be able to reproduce 
 thoughts and facts even after the death of one who had 
 been a total stranger to her, and make known things that 
 would be as strange to her own mind as to those who wit- 
 nessed them. 
 
 A wish and a hope are fathers of a large family of ideas. 
 To expect an occurrence while under the excitement of a 
 nervous strain, is helpful to its happening. Then another 
 law comes into play, that of response to suggestion. Here 
 are two fields of psychic phenomena, both of which produce 
 wonderful results when measured by the ordinary trend 
 of life. 
 
 This is not the place to explain the process by which 
 
PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS 41 
 
 messages apparently come from the dead, when the latter 
 really know nothing of them and are barred from all possi- 
 bility of sending them. To tell just how each case hap- 
 pens would require the examination of the whole question 
 of telepathy, and space forbids at this stage of the work. 
 As there are a few well established instances in which the 
 evidence seems strong and genuine that the spirits of the 
 departed have actually had communications with living 
 persons, we have thrown out the above hints to show how 
 easily the mind may be misled. 
 
 It all comes down to the question of connecting an 
 occurrence with its real cause. We may not be sure that 
 the thing has happened at all, or we may be sure; but it 
 requires an expert mind to associate what is sure to have 
 happened with the thing that caused it. Here is where 
 so many mistakes are made. It is the wrong connection 
 that misleads. 
 
 If a medium attends Mr. Brown in a seance and imparts 
 to him the information, no matter how indirect, that Henry 
 Jones who died some time ago, now declares that he is 
 alive in the spirit world, and tells of secrets that were 
 known in life only to the two men, the proof seems to the lay 
 mind to be conclusive that the spirit of Henry Jones is 
 really alive and talking. Yet this all important conclu- 
 sion is drawn from the mere fact that a medium has done 
 some talking or writing. If there were no mystery or 
 wonder in the communication, there would be nothing at 
 all to it. We declare that the communication is born and 
 lives wholly in the subconscious faculty of the medium. 
 
 This assumes that the latter is honest. 
 
 In the case of one who is free from the charge of fraud, 
 the subconscious faculty does its work only when the mind 
 of the medium is dead to all knowledge of what is being 
 said or done. This makes it a senseless agent. That there 
 are genuine mediums of this kind, there is no doubt. But 
 as the medium is necessary to the manifestation, and as the 
 
42 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 communications are always chaotic and in every instance 
 more or less silly, it is not fair to charge them to the spirits 
 of the dead, but to the subconscious powers of the agent 
 employed. This is the true explanation of every supposed 
 case of communication between the dead and the living. 
 
 Through a hundred assistants, each of whom secured the 
 aid of many others, covering a period of nearly thirty years, 
 the Psychic Society has investigated in the most thorough 
 manner no less than 7,682 cases of attempts to send infor- 
 mation of spirit life after death. They were cases of 
 agreements between the closest friends when alive, where 
 one died, and the other thought that some effort was being 
 made to send some word. 
 
 Over six thousand of these cases were disposed of by 
 ascertaining that mediums had been consulted, with some 
 slight results; but fraudulent practices made the work of 
 the mediums worthless. 
 
 In nearly all the other cases, the appearance was through 
 dreams. One woman disclosed the manner in which the 
 dream would bring on the manifestation. She was alone 
 one evening, and wondered why her sister who had been 
 dead for seven months did not try to communicate with 
 her. She fell asleep in her chair, and dreamed that the 
 sister stood before her in form as of old but radiant with 
 the light of the new world. She took her hand and talked 
 with her. But it was all a dream, and dreams are the 
 work of the subconscious faculty, which performs wonders 
 under the operation of natural laws not known to ordi- 
 nary consciousness. 
 
 No dream can be taken as evidence of spirit life. 
 
 Yet in the case of the mother who was twice awakened 
 in one night by seeing the face of her living daughter who 
 was making two attempts to commit suicide, and who was 
 found after the second dream in a bath room unconscious 
 from the effects of gas, the direct work of the subconscious 
 faculty is clearly manifested. No spirit law is involved in 
 
PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS 43 
 
 such occurrences. Premonitions are common and they too 
 are the work of the subconscious faculty. But they happen 
 between the living and the living. 
 
 A man whose wife had died claims to have seen her 
 walking the street in front of him, and passing him at 
 right angles. She gave a quick turn of her head in his 
 direction and vanished in thin air. He went to his home 
 and repeated the occurrence to his three sons, telling them 
 that he was sure of having seen his wife's spirit. But the 
 vision did not indicate that he saw anything more than the 
 mirrored form of his wife in his ordinary brain, as is ex- 
 plained in another chapter of this book. Not even the sub- 
 conscious faculty was at work in this case. 
 
 In another experience a man claims to have seen the 
 spirit of his mother a few days after she died, and she was 
 beckoning to him with her hand, as though asking him to 
 follow her. He reported to his daughter and wife that 
 the vision meant that he was to soon die. But many years 
 have since elapsed and he still lives. 
 
 In another case a mother whose child was very ill, being 
 told by the doctor that she would probably die very soon, 
 prayed for help and in reply the form of her mother ap- 
 peared in the room at midnight, and the lips said : " I will 
 help you. Cheer up. Your child will not die." This 
 seems on its face to be evidence of the existence of spirits., 
 but both the sight and the sound could be easily born in 
 the ordinary brain under severe nervous strain in waking 
 hours; or such experiences could have been dreams. Tired 
 brains fall asleep without the knowledge of the sleeper. 
 An illustration of this fact is noted in the report of the 
 Bishop who saw the spirit of his brother standing close to 
 him and talking. The Bishop was asleep in the room 
 where four other persons sat reading. They were attracted 
 to the sleeper by the snoring. This ceased in a few minutes 
 and the man seemed to be passing through a nervous state 
 for a second or two when he awoke and declared that he 
 
44 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 had not slept at all. He even said that he had kept his 
 eyes wide open. He was honest but mistaken. Slumber 
 comes on so quietly and stealthily at times that it is impos- 
 sible to know that it approaches or that it has come and 
 gone. 
 
 A few strong cases of agreements made before the death 
 of one party have been found, but in every instance a me- 
 dium has been employed to bring the supposed dead into 
 the presence of the living. The reports from the mystic 
 realm have all been incoherent and unsatisfactory; leaving 
 a certainty that the brain of the medium was responsible 
 for the communications. 
 
 There has not been a verified case of the appearance of 
 the spirit to the eyes of a living person. The nearest ap- 
 proach to such manifestation has been attended by the 
 suspicion of nervous excitement or the dream state; and 
 the testimony is therefore unreliable. A fleeting vision may 
 be born in the ordinary brain under stress, as in delirium, 
 or nervous tension ; and the subconscious faculty may repro- 
 duce an endless train of visions under certain conditions. 
 Sight and sound are shifting processes of the brain centers, 
 always created by the power of the mind even when per- 
 fectly normal. 
 
 As an exception to the conclusions of this chapter, we 
 must state that the soul in its flight from the body to its 
 future home is given the power to manifest itself by vision 
 and speech also; but only in a very limited space of time. 
 There are thousands upon thousands of instances where 
 this has happened ; and to deny them would be to fly into the 
 face of what almost every intelligent person knows to be 
 the fact. 
 
 A psychic law comes into action in this class of cases, 
 and a full chapter will be devoted to its discussion. 
 
 But the soul in transit is not the spirit of the dead in 
 the generally accepted use of the term. It is the life im- 
 mortal winging its flight to other worlds, nevermore to come 
 
PRE-MORTEM COMPACTS 45 
 
 to earth or to know of earth unless it shall meet loved ones 
 in the hereafter. 
 
 That mind and that life that are psychic are imperishable ; 
 they live on in other worlds forever. 
 
 That mind and that body that are physical must die. 
 They get no farther than the earth. The body dissolves 
 in a few years unless made secure against decay. 
 
 The physical mind is taken from its fund to enter into 
 the brain of man, just as the earth is taken from its fund 
 to enter into the body. Sooner or later after death, the 
 physical mind dissolves and disappears. 
 
 In rare instances some knowledge of the post-mortem 
 existence of the physical mind is secured ; generally within 
 a few months after the death of the body. Some of the 
 few genuine clairvoyants have succeeded in holding telep- 
 athic communications with the intelligence of the physical 
 mind after death. Many private experiments are being 
 carried on by the aid of sensitive subjects of hypnotism; for 
 a large percentage of persons who are put into the deep 
 hypnotic sleep become more or less useful as telepathic 
 agents. Three successful hypnotists have secured a total 
 of seventeen such agents, every one of whom belongs to a 
 good family and is in good circumstances, thereby precluding 
 any employment for gain. This method is the most accurate 
 channel for securing certain facts that can be found to-day. 
 
 The world of investigation is just waking up. The next 
 few years will bring to light an abundance of proofs that 
 will sweep away old beliefs. Enough is already known to 
 justify the assertion that the physical mind becomes a wander- 
 ing intelligence after death, occasionally manifesting itself 
 in form and speech, and eventually dissolving to join the 
 fund from which it came. 
 
4 6 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 I PREMONITIONS. 
 
 
 OT LONG AGO the higher class of intelli- 
 gent persons rejected all beliefs in what are 
 known as premonitions. They had two rea- 
 sons for discarding them. One was the sup- 
 position that there had never been any satis- 
 factory evidence to sustain the claim that 
 people could receive warnings in advance of 
 an actual occurrence. They argued that telepathy was 
 merely the operation of the subconscious mind having the 
 power to see happenings through channels other than the 
 ordinary senses; and, as an event prior to its happening could 
 not be seen by any faculty, there could be no premonition 
 of it. 
 
 This is good reasoning; but proofs that have been secured 
 in the past few years, tend to show that it is not in harmony 
 with known facts. 
 
 The second reason for discarding such belief, was the 
 supposed ill that would fall upon humanity if events could 
 be seen ahead of their occurrence. 
 
 In the first records made by this society we find the fol- 
 lowing assertion : " It is the unanimous opinion of the mem- 
 bers of the Psychic Society that fore-warnings and premo- 
 nitions, as well as fortune-telling and forecasting of human 
 history in every phase, are without foundation either in fact 
 or principle, and must be regarded as species of error and 
 charlatanry." 
 
 This view has been changed to some extent. A mass of 
 
PREMONITIONS 47 
 
 evidence has been secured, and it has all been sifted to the 
 substantial facts as we now present them: 
 
 1. There are many well sustained accounts of premoni- 
 tions; so many and so well proved, that we cannot deny any 
 longer our belief in them. 
 
 2. The same is true of fore-warnings. They undoubt- 
 edly occur. 
 
 3. Special attention has been given to the problem of 
 fortune-telling. There are some cases where the future has 
 been correctly foretold, but they are few and of insub- 
 stantial character. We therefore assert that fortune-telling 
 is largely a matter of guesswork, coincidence or trickery. 
 
 We obtained a stenographic report of one sitting where 
 the fortune-teller, a woman of great success in her pro- 
 fession, convinced a United States Senator of her genuine 
 powers, for the reason that she told him things that were 
 true in his past, which she had no means of knowing; yet 
 so skilfully had she led him on in conversation that she had 
 drawn from him the very facts that she related. To this 
 skill was added some telepathic and clairvoyant powers that 
 enabled her to make the chain complete. When the steno- 
 graphic report was shown to him, he recalled- every part 
 of it, and said : " I remember now that these things were 
 said, but they had so completely escaped me that I would 
 have sworn that they were never uttered." He thereupon 
 lost all faith in the woman's gifts. 
 
 A first class fortune-teller must possess the power of 
 physical telepathy to begin with. Then there must be the 
 ability to read the face, the form, the make-up and appear- 
 ance of the client. There must be a good mind for guess- 
 ing. The art of asking suggestive questions which will set 
 the client talking, is also essential. One correct guess wins 
 the faith of the individual, after which everything is easy. 
 
 Under such a course of training as Universal Magnetism 
 almost any person might acquire the power of substitution, 
 which means the ability to so thoroughly sympathize with 
 
48 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 the client that his personality gives way to that of the 
 fortune-teller. As soon as the substitution is made the 
 thoughts, feelings, hopes and fears of the client are all taken 
 into the immediate life of the other, and so known. Great 
 genius could carry this process to an unlimited extent, but 
 it would require time and hard work to so school oneself 
 to do all this. On the other hand any person however un- 
 skilful may do the same thing in lesser degree and win pro- 
 portionately. We can cite thousands of cases where this 
 use of sympathy aided by Universal Magnetism has accom- 
 plished wonders in countless ways; all helpful to both 
 parties. In the family, in the school room, in the business 
 and social worlds, in the professions, and in all walks of 
 life, this phase of magnetism, noble and uplifting, is doing 
 a vast amount of good that could not be done in any other 
 way. 
 
 The foregoing suggestions are made here solely to show 
 the ease with which a sincere mind may be made to believe 
 in forecasts of life that are unfounded and unreliable. 
 
 Premonitions, however, are in a different class. 
 
 They look into the future, but only a brief distance. 
 
 The cases that have proved to be genuine are too many 
 to be cast aside as coincidences. They are actual fore- 
 warnings, but they have relationship only to the immediate 
 future. 
 
 There is not a case where satisfactory proof has been 
 obtained showing a premonition that related to a coming 
 event at some distant period in the future. If any person 
 claims to have evidence on this point we will have it fully 
 investigated. Of course it is true that many people really 
 believe in length of premonitions, as they have had experi- 
 ences that seem to sustain that view. But each instance of 
 the kind is faulty in its chain of proof. 
 
 The sensitive condition of the nervous system leads to 
 many impressions that are built in the imagination, so that 
 
PREMONITIONS 49 
 
 the party who is most in interest is most unfitted to tes- 
 tify. 
 
 The following account is a typical illustration of an 
 authentic case of premonition : 
 
 An engine-driver on a fast express train was killed along 
 a straight piece of track by a blow from the end of a stick 
 of timber on a freight car that was standing on another 
 track. The timber had swung around far enough to reach 
 the engineer as he looked out of his cab window. 
 
 This kind of occurrence was unusual. It had never hap- 
 pened to his knowledge during a period of thirty years. On 
 the morning of the day that he was killed, he awoke from 
 his bed with a sudden spring, saying he had just passed 
 through a bad dream. He related the events to his wife, 
 and said that he had seen the straight road, and the freight 
 train on a siding with the lumber out of place on one of 
 the cars. He received a severe blow on the head that felled 
 him to the floor of his cab. The wife related this dream to 
 her sister. Not one of them seemed to think it a serious 
 fore-warning, and so he went to his work as usual. But 
 before the hour of the accident, the wife called upon her 
 pastor and related the full details of the dream, and she said 
 it was depressing her so much that she could not think of 
 anything else. 
 
 We had the testimony of the wife, her sister, the min- 
 ister and his family all of whom stated that they knew of 
 the details of the dream for hours before the death oc- 
 curred. 
 
 Here is proof of a law different from that of telepathy 
 in the physical sense. The latter is limited to physical 
 happenings, and can portray only those things that exist 
 in mind or in fact. On the other hand psychic telepathy 
 discloses the events that are close at hand, and yet that have 
 not yet occurred. 
 
 It seems that somewhere in the universe there are beings 
 who know what is about to happen to the detriment of 
 4 
 
50 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 humanity, and who are interested enough to send warning 
 in time to save them. No human agency and no human 
 law can accomplish this end. 
 
 A wife had gone to bed and was almost asleep when she 
 saw the vision of her son standing before her, extending 
 his hands and seeming to ask her to help him. As the 
 vision lingered, the form of her husband was added to it, 
 and he had an uplifted knife aimed at the boy's heart. She 
 sprang out of bed, not knowing where to go. The room 
 was as dark as it could be. In her nervousness she failed 
 to find a light for some time. While groping in the dark 
 she found herself in a store, the shelves of which with their 
 contents stood clearly out before her view. 
 
 A match was close at hand. She said she took it from a 
 box on the shelf at the store. But when it was lighted, she 
 was still in her own home, and bewildered. She dressed 
 hurriedly. It was nearly ten o'clock. Out of doors she 
 went and sought the services of a policeman. It seemed 
 that her husband carried on a business at some distance 
 from the house, and the officer referred her to the private 
 on that beat. He thought her demented, especially as her 
 hair was disheveled, and her eyes showed great excite- 
 ment. 
 
 On she went and found the officer. 
 
 He took an immediate interest in the affair and accom- 
 panied her to the store. As they reached the outer door 
 they found it locked, but the sounds of a quarrel and scuffle 
 were heard within. By pounding vigorously on the glass 
 panel of the door, they were rewarded by the approach of 
 steps and the appearance of the husband and son. It ap- 
 pears that the man had made an accusation against the 
 young man, and the quarrel followed. But the father, 
 being the stronger of the two, had about vanquished the 
 boy. He had been drinking, and stood with open knife 
 over the form of the son, when the pounding on the door 
 caused him to realize what he was about to do. This is 
 
PREMONITIONS 51 
 
 the version told by son to his mother before she gave him 
 any information about the vision that had come to her. 
 
 In the investigation of this case it was proved that the 
 woman told the first police officer that she had seen the 
 vision of the father about to drive a knife into the boy's 
 heart. This was actually related a full half hour before the 
 quarrel began. The same story was also told to the second 
 officer some time before there was any quarrel. Both the 
 father and son stated that they had been on terms of peace 
 all that evening, and that the father had just entered the 
 store, made the accusation and entered into the scuffle. 
 
 The result of the premonition was that the husband was 
 cured of the drink habit. 
 
 The law of physical telepathy sets forth the principle that 
 the subconscious faculty is able to convey information of 
 any physical transaction that is occurring or that ever oc- 
 curred; as well as any sight present or past. In this case 
 the woman saw something that had not happened, but that 
 was about to occur. The event had not existed in the 
 mind of either the father or the son until it actually began 
 to take place. The son did not expect his father at the 
 store, and the father did not expect to find him there. He 
 was passing, saw the light within, and entered to ascertain 
 what the young man was doing there at that time of night. 
 Both had keys to the door. 
 
 As there was no possibility of the thought existing in 
 the mind of either, the vision could not be ascribed to 
 physical telepathy, and therefore was due to the process 
 known as psychic telepathy, which is a knowledge of what 
 is to occur in the immediate future. Some power desired to 
 save the life of the young man, and so sent premonition to 
 his mother. 
 
 There is a class of similar cases that prove this law to be 
 a true one. Nor is it difficult to find a constant stream of 
 instances of premonition going on at the present day. 
 
 The Society was unusually desirous of ascertaining how 
 
52 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 long in advance a warning had come to any person. The 
 cases that admit of the best proof all tend to show that 
 premonitions do not arrive very long ahead of the occur- 
 rence. They are almost always in dreams or in half wak- 
 ing moments; but nevertheless as substantial as if they had 
 come when persons are wide awake. 
 
 There are more than forty records of visions that have 
 appeared in broad day light, passing like a flash and leav- 
 ing one dazed with wonderment. Nearly all of these re- 
 lated to the death of the person to whom they appeared. 
 
 A man saw before him a street car and thought he saw 
 his mangled form beneath its wheels. He told two friends 
 of what he had seen, and both advised him to keep away 
 from car lines. It was early in the forenoon when the 
 vision came to him. About five o'clock in the afternoon of 
 the same day he was struck by a street car and killed in 
 the manner in which the apparition had manifested itself. 
 It is supposed that the incident had escaped his mind, and 
 that he paid no attention to the warning. 
 
 Premonitions sometimes come in voices, but the voices are 
 in dreams as far as we have been able to ascertain. 
 
 Several lines of proof are secured by the investigation of 
 premonitions of deaths. They show: 
 
 1. That psychic telepathy is at work. 
 
 2. That some power has knowledge of events that are 
 about to occur. 
 
 3. That this power cannot be physical. 
 
 4. That this power must be psychic. 
 
 5. That such psychic power must exist beyond the earth. 
 
 6. That some agency in heaven is interested in human 
 affairs, and seeks to protect its favorites of earth. 
 
 7. That the eternal principle of free choice is left open 
 to humanity, which prevents the psychic power from inter- 
 vening to actually save the life. 
 
 8. No instance is known to the Society of a premonition 
 of death having been obeyed and the event avoided. 
 
PREMONITIONS 53 
 
 It would seem as if some person would give heed to the 
 warning, and so be saved from the casualty. There are, 
 however, cases of general forebodings that have been obeyed. 
 They have been vague and indefinite. Many of them have 
 come in time to save lives. In a clear case of a citizen of 
 Cleveland, Ohio, who was about to take a train for New 
 York City, it appears that he was seized with a chilly sen- 
 sation whenever his thoughts turned to the trip. He told 
 his wife of the strange feelings, and she advised him to 
 take another train. It so happened that there was a wreck 
 and he would have been in it had he gone at the time he 
 first planned. This kind of case is quite common, and 
 there is abundant proof of the warnings having saved life. 
 But no direct vision has appeared, as in the approach of 
 death. 
 
 The distinction between the two classes of cases is a 
 broad one and should be given careful thought. 
 
 But in both lines of occurrence it is clear that some power 
 has knowledge of what is to happen in advance of the fact, 
 and before it has been crystallized into a substantial trans- 
 action or even considered in any human mind. 
 
 Here is solid evidence of a psychic power. 
 
54 
 
 CHAPTEER IX. 
 
 DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM. 
 
 I 
 
 LARGE MAJORITY of the people who 
 think they believe in spiritualism, do not do 
 so in fact. They are not deceived, but have 
 made the wrong connections. The most in- 
 telligent of their number admit that much of 
 the work of mediums is fraudulent, but they 
 know that some is genuine; and they rightly 
 cling to the axiom that one truth is sufficient no matter 
 how much falsehood it travels with. A dollar's worth of 
 gold in a ton of earth is worth a dollar, no matter how 
 little the dirt is worth. 
 
 This is the situation with the so-called science of spirit- 
 ualism. 
 
 There is a ton of fraud, and a mite of truth. 
 But the truth, no matter how firmly established, is not 
 the kind of proof that must be required to make clear the 
 fact that human beings are able to hold communications 
 with the spirits of the dead. 
 
 This chapter will be devoted to the latest and best known 
 results obtained from a perfectly fair and impartial inves- 
 tigation of the claims made in behalf of such doctrines. 
 
 What is stated herein is not only the truth, but is con- 
 curred in by all qualified experts who have gone into the 
 analysis of the subject to the fullest extent. Opinions and 
 theories are given no standing. If there is not a clear 
 line of proof, and a psychic law to sustain it, the matter is 
 left undecided. 
 
DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 55 
 
 Spiritualism has always relied upon physical manifesta- 
 tions. 
 
 There is a constant suggestion of what is to occur. Per- 
 sons who are present, being nervous and more or less ex- 
 cited, fall under the influence of this suggestive power. The 
 familiar mask seems to them to be the exact face of father, 
 mother, sister, brother or friend, looking out of the spirit 
 world upon them. 
 
 Luminous phenomena have recently been produced by 
 Dr. J. Maxwell of Bordeaux, France, that seem to baffle 
 all attempts at explanation except on the theory of being 
 ethereal bodies; but they have not been as thoroughly inves- 
 tigated as they will be in the near future. If they should 
 be pronounced free from fraud and deception, they will 
 merely take rank as additional proofs of the assertions made 
 in the latter part of this book. 
 
 Prof. Charles Richet has recorded an extraordinary case 
 of materialization that was obtained under open conditions 
 where fraud was seemingly impossible. Sir William 
 Crookes gave personal testimony of physical manifestations, 
 but his case comes under the conditions described in the 
 chapter concerning ghostly violence. 
 
 One class of cases seems to be free from the possibility of 
 fraud. The medium will cause a cloud to issue from the 
 side of the body, and a spirit will appear in the cloud. Yet 
 in October, 1906, a showman by name of Maskelyne at St. 
 George's Hall, London, reproduced the whole phenomena, 
 and admitted that it was done by trickery. 
 
 Editor William T. Stead of London announced to the 
 world that he had found in a Mrs. Mellon, an English 
 medium, the only person of undoubted materializing fac- 
 ulty and undoubted character in the United Kingdom. 
 Shortly after a seance held at Melbourne, Australia, a skep- 
 tical individual in the audience seized the materialized spirit, 
 and found it to be Mrs. Mellon herself. The investigating 
 skeptic was assaulted by several persons present, but he held 
 
56 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 on to the spirit, and thus the only medium of materializing 
 faculty and character in the United Kingdom was caught 
 red-handed. 
 
 In addition to gauze masks, there are robes so thin and 
 light that they can be folded and concealed in the hollow 
 metal heel of the shoe worn by the medium, or the con- 
 cealed hollow belt that is fastened to the inside of a skirt, 
 or in hollow legs of chairs, or seats. One robe that con- 
 tained yards of cloth, was folded small enough to be shut 
 up in a watch case. A dozen masks may be so attached 
 to the clothing as to seem a part of it. All is gauze, light 
 and flimsy. They are dipped in phosphorous paint thinned 
 with turpentine, and then perfumed and dried. 
 
 Different heights of spirits are shown by various tricks. 
 A child was portrayed by a stooping attitude in One case 
 assisted by a proper mask; and in another instance by hold- 
 ing out a mask with a small robe dangling from it. The 
 excited person in the audience who imagined the child to be 
 the spirit of one whom she had lost a year before, sprang 
 to embrace it, and found only the mask and the gauze held 
 by the extended hand of the medium. 
 
 The tied hands and legs of mediums that are so quickly 
 released are manipulated in the well known manner em- 
 ployed by the Davenports, who were assisted by the Ma- 
 gician Kellar, who has reproduced about every manifesta- 
 tion ascribed to mediums. 
 
 The cabinets often contain hollow doors, or hollow base- 
 boards in which many things may be hidden. 
 
 In one series of seances in which the medium remained 
 tied all the time, and in full view of those present, seven 
 others assisted by coming down through a trap door in the 
 ceiling above, entering the cabinet, one after the other. 
 One of them was dressed wholly in black, with a black 
 mask over his face, but the right arm was coated with 
 luminous paint. He walked among the people, writing 
 messages with the arm, which seemed to float in space, as the 
 
DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 57 
 
 body was almost invisible. He thrust these messages in the 
 pockets of persons and gave other evidences of being a real 
 spirit. 
 
 One of the most convincing manifestations of recent years 
 is that in which a ball of light gradually enlarges and pro- 
 duces a full size spirit. Many persons have been converted 
 to a belief in the spirit doctrine by such a display. But the 
 method has been exposed. The person who acted the part 
 of the ball of light was a woman who was let down from a 
 room above into the cabinet. She was clad in white with 
 a black mask. She thrust a rounded foot under the curtain 
 of the cabinet and the light being concentrated on this white 
 object made it shine like a ball. " Then she gradually thrust 
 the lower part of her dress under the curtain until her 
 crouched form look like an enlarged ball of white. Finally 
 she stood erect and laid aside the black mask, making it 
 appear as if her head was the last part of the body to grow 
 into place. The process was reversed, until she had again 
 shrunk to the small white ball and wholly disappeared. 
 
 Hereward Carrington, a member of the famous English 
 Society for Psychical Research, and also of the independent 
 American Branch and a member of the Council of the 
 American Institute for Psychical Research, has devoted 
 many years to an almost unbroken series of investigations, 
 and sums up his knowledge in the following statement: 
 
 1. He started out in cold skepticism, expecting to find 
 everything psychic to be fraudulent. 
 
 2. He now believes thoroughly in telepathy. 
 
 3. He now believes thoroughly that some trance mani- 
 festations, some clairvoyance, some premonitions, most hyp- 
 notic phenomena, alterations of personality, and subcon- 
 scious mental activities are absolutely proved beyond cavil 
 or doubt of any kind. 
 
 He says also that it is possible that genuine materializa- 
 tion exists as a fact in nature. To use his own words: 
 " There must be some force in the world as yet unknown." 
 
58 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 It is an indisputable fact that all the manifestations of 
 mediums have been reproduced by magicians; and that 
 mediums are either themselves magicians or employ that 
 profession to aid them. 
 
 The Psychic Society had in its employ a man not over 
 thirty years of age, who was at the same time in the em- 
 ploy of mediums. The latter were converting skeptics by 
 the scores every year to a belief in spiritualism, on the 
 ground that their manifestations and materializations could 
 not possibly be the work of human agencies, and must there- 
 fore be accepted as the product of spirit powers. 
 
 The world of advanced investigation has come to the 
 conclusion that the reasoning faculties are not endowed 
 with the ability to draw conclusions from any supernatural 
 phenomena, for the latter are not in the same realm as the 
 mind. A person whose experience has been confined to one 
 world cannot, without a taste of another world, pass judg- 
 ment on the operations thereof. The reasoning powers are 
 not qualified to settle the claims of any religion ; and the 
 age of reason is an era wholly deprived of any right to sit 
 as arbitrator over a world that it cannot even enter, to say 
 nothing of its helplessness to become a ruler of the same. 
 
 Of all the erring faculties, the process of reason is the 
 weakest and most unreliable. The same proofs and the 
 same chain of reasoning can be made to lead to exactly op- 
 posite conclusions in the hands of skilful thinkers. Take 
 the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
 and the Courts of highest appeal in the various States, as 
 examples of this faulty operation of the human mind. The 
 same state of facts will lead by the soundest kind of rea- 
 soning to results that are in violent conflict all along the 
 line. 
 
 A short time ago a body of able lawyers and keenest 
 minded business men who had won gigantic fortunes, spent 
 three weeks in dissecting the decisions of the highest court 
 in a great State on criminal cases; and as hair-splitting 
 
DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM 59 
 
 followed hair-splitting, and discrepancy followed discrep- 
 anc)'', they saw nothing but ridicule in their analysis of 
 those decisions that are famous all over the world for their 
 microscopic technicalities. A business man said: "If the 
 business of the nation were to be conducted on the same 
 mental methods as the business of the courts must be under 
 those decisions, every man of sound sense would go out of the 
 commercial world into one of dreams. I never realized 
 that high courts could split hairs so fine. I always sup- 
 posed that the rulings of the courts were made for the 
 purpose of simplifying the effort to get at the facts and do 
 justice." 
 
 Yet the peculiarity is that those decisions are founded on 
 what seems on its face to be good reasoning. The logic 
 is invincible. They read nicely as they progress toward 
 their conclusions. But it is when those conclusions are 
 taken and held up to the admitted facts that the mind re- 
 ceives a shock from which it cannot easily recover. 
 
 The highest tribunal in the land, the United States 
 Supreme Court, has reversed itself many times on facts 
 that are identical, but that have occurred at different peri- 
 ods in the political history of the nation; showing the bias 
 of a court that should be free from all such influences. Yet 
 the reasoning is perfect, and must stand as a model to the 
 end of time of the manner in which the same sign-post can 
 guide the mind on the same road in two directions at the 
 same time, one diametrically opposite the other. 
 
 Thus we see the infallibility of reason to draw conclu- 
 sions from a proved state of facts. 
 
 Take the same conditions in the study of spiritualism. 
 
 Suppose it is proved that actual knocking is heard, 
 and that the knocks respond to questions that are asked ; 
 thereby securing replies to almost any line of inquiry that 
 may be made. One person says that this is proof that a 
 spirit did the knocking. But the fact is that there is no 
 connection between a spirit and the manifestation. There 
 
60 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 are twenty better explanations of the knocking than that. 
 
 Now suppose that the slate-writing were true, despite 
 the fact that it has been proved to be a clever trick. The 
 slate is made to write the words: " I am John Smith. I 
 died eight years ago. I have been in the spirit world 
 ever since." Suppose all that were actually written with- 
 out fraud upon a slate. Does it prove that the assertions 
 are true? There are a score of explanations for such writ- 
 ing, better than the theory that a spirit produced the 
 words. One man says: "It must be true for it says so. 
 A spirit would not lie. If it would not lie, then what is 
 written is the work of a spirit, because it says so." Here 
 the reasoning is wholly faulty. The mind has the wrong 
 connections. A young man tells his sweetheart that she is 
 the first girl that he ever loved. She carries the state- 
 ment in triumph to her mother, who asks her why she be- 
 lieves it to be true, and she replies: " I am sure that I am 
 the only girl he ever loved because he told me so." 
 
 When we come to the study of psychic telepathy, we 
 will see the source of all the so-called communications with 
 departed spirits. 
 
 As to the methods of writing on the inside surface of 
 slates that are securely tied together, we will state that 
 such writing is being done to-day by mixing iron filings 
 with chalk and mucilage, slipping a small lump of the same 
 between the slates, and then using on the finger outside a 
 magnet that will cause the lump to write. Another method 
 is to control the tying of the slates so that a long piece of 
 thin wire can be slipped between them, and move a tiny 
 bit of chalk over the surface. 
 
 The first qualifications of a medium seem to be that he 
 must possess the agility of a magician, perform slight of 
 hand with ease, and be a genius at invention or imitation. 
 There are scores of fakirs over the world who can do amaz- 
 ing things that cannot be accounted for by the first thought 
 except on the thory of the supernatural. 
 
DOWNFALL OF SPIRITUALISM (5i 
 
 In closing this chapter, we wish to mention one kind 
 of manifestation that seems most puzzling. It has been 
 sufficiently proved to be now accepted as a fact. It is the 
 vibration that will sometimes concentrate on a given spot 
 especially in the dark hours of night, when a person is 
 alone. In one case a man heard it in his room at the top 
 of his door, and a family overhead was awakened by it. 
 He got a chair and stood close to the spot where the vi- 
 brations were occurring, and saw the trembling of the door. 
 This manifestation was repeated for one hundred nights 
 and then ceased, never to return. Mr. Carrington, to 
 whom we have referred, and whose testimony is regarded 
 by his scientific brethren as fully reliable, says: 
 
 " In considering the evidence in favor of and against 
 ' raps ' I find that there is a certain weight of evidence in 
 favor of their genuine character. But the principal rea- 
 son that I believe that raps are sometimes genuine is that 
 I myself have obtained them in my own apartment, where 
 I live alone — no other person being present at the time. 
 For four or five weeks rappings would begin in my room 
 about 10 o'clock and continue until I went to sleep and 
 would increase in violence at the time I went to bed. They 
 did not sound like creaks of the furniture, but like knocks 
 made through thick cloth and upon woodwork. One night 
 when they were louder than usual and keeping me awake 
 I got out of bed and located them on my mantel-piece, 
 where I could feel their vibrations. It was a queer sensa- 
 tion to feel them coming at the very spot I was intently 
 watching. An unexplainable feeling of apprehension would 
 often come just before such raps would be heard there 
 and in other parts of the room. Several other per- 
 sons distinctly heard them on various occasions. One night 
 I received them by concentrating my attention while await- 
 ing a communication. Once I placed upon my couch a 
 package of papers, fastened together with rubber bands. 
 Instantly there was a loud, quick snap, just as if the 
 
62 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 band had been lifted and allowed to fly back. During 
 the time the raps were loudest I would feel a distinct pres- 
 ence in the room or in the hallway, and once during these ap- 
 parent hauntings a person occupying a flat on the same floor 
 with me and having no inkling of my experiences, suddenly 
 felt this presence, unsuggested. These raps have now ceased 
 and I am well pleased that they have." 
 
 That such phenomena are the result of a power within 
 the human body will be seen later on in our work. But, in 
 the absence of such proof, no one is justified in ascribing 
 the cause to spirits. 
 
 The dead depart for one of two purposes: either to take 
 flight from this earth and all its scenes, or else to pass 
 again through the experiences of earthly existence. In the 
 pages of the second division of this volume, these facts will 
 be clearly shown. 
 
 But the dead, after the spirit has freed itself from the 
 body and its environments, are forever helpless as far as 
 any communication with the living is concerned. 
 
 It is to show this utter helplessness on the part of the 
 departed souls, that this book is written ; or, at least, that is 
 one of its great purposes. 
 
 Facts are facts. 
 
 They are more than recorded statements; they are actual 
 living things. 
 
 Let every person who feels willing to know the truth, 
 lay aside all preconceived beliefs and come into close study 
 of the subject for the sole end of learning the facts, no 
 more and no less. To close the mind against any other 
 belief than the one which has been nurtured until it has 
 become a second nature, will not advance any man or 
 woman along the royal highway of knowledge. 
 
 Let us have the truth. 
 
 Many persons who thought they believed in spiritualism 
 will see, before this book is closed, that they have uncon- 
 sciously had faith in the true thing under another name. 
 
63 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ^f>3R/K/K?i"lTt ~lVl~ riTttl "V llTl". i l,l,l..,l.l.l.lvlvKI.I.I.I.I . I , Ivlvklvlvl V"i\/l\/i\^ 
 
 I THE SOUL IN PASSAGE. f 
 
 ;i'vV.v.'i""i~~"i~ i i. i.i.i.i.i,i.i.ivi,i.i.i.kc.i,i,i,i.i.i.i.i.i.iu»i .i^i.ivi* 
 
 OME THINGS are so well known that 
 they afford no room for doubt, and very little 
 for discussion. While it is quite well estab- 
 lished that the spirits of the dead do not live 
 on and maintain communications with the liv- 
 ing, it is a proved fact that the soul in its 
 flight makes its presence known at times and 
 places, on its way out from the environments of earth. Each 
 individual case does not exert an influence on the mind and 
 belief of the general public ; but when the authentic instances 
 are collected, they make an amazing mass of testimony that 
 cannot fail to settle a question that should not be in doubt 
 even in this era of speculative thought. 
 
 If any Psychic Society were to devote itself to this one 
 phase of the study of such phenomena, it would have but 
 one verdict to report. Its chief work has been assigned to 
 the investigation of ghosts, or the spirits that live on, as it 
 has been claimed, long after death. 
 
 The departure of the soul is manifested, if at all, to 
 those who are interested in the individual from which it 
 has gone forth. This being true, it follows that its mani- 
 festations are confined to a close relationship or friendship. 
 Such ties are sacred, and the experiences are rarely ever 
 paraded before the public. They are both the most con- 
 vincing and the most obscure of proofs. 
 
 In the beginning of this account let the distinction be un- 
 derstood between the ghosts and sprits of the dead, remain- 
 ing in communication for months and years after life has 
 
64 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 ceased in the body, and the passage of the soul in its flight 
 from earth. There is a vast gulf between the two classes 
 of cases. In the first class it has been shown that there 
 is no proof of and no possibility for any ghost or spirit to 
 continue in communication with the living. Every psychic 
 law is against it, and not one tangible fact of any kind has 
 been sustained that proves it. 
 
 On the other hand the soul in its passage makes itself 
 known in various ways for a brief period, and then is gone 
 forever. Its fate is given many chapters of consideration in 
 the second division of this treatise. 
 
 There is no field of psychic investigation where so much 
 is known of so small a stage of the existence of the soul. 
 By the use of the word much the idea to be conveyed is 
 that there is an overwhelming mass of testimony on this 
 brief span of spirit life. 
 
 Not every person has had evidence of the passing of the 
 soul. 
 
 It is possible that not more than one person in a hun- 
 dred, if as many, can state with certainty that manifestations 
 of this kind have occurred. But the total number of per- 
 sons who can so testify is, nevertheless, very great. Mem- 
 bers of investigating committees have not in the beginning 
 of their work directed their attention to the claims of those 
 who have had evidence of the flight of the soul; but they 
 soon find that such evidence is the most abundant of any 
 that bears upon these problems. The result is that they 
 soon learn to take for granted the fact that the soul does 
 pass out of the body in a way that can be understood by all 
 classes of people. Scientists who had no opinions on the 
 subject before they came across this line of testimony, are 
 quickly converted to a fixed belief in the fact. 
 
 What transactions have convinced them? 
 
 A man who was at work in 1906 in his place of business 
 at the hour of ten o'clock in the morning, with the bright 
 sun shining in the room, saw the form of his wife enter- 
 
THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 65 
 
 ing at the door. She came directly to him, but said noth- 
 ing. He supposed that she had come for money with which 
 to do some shopping, and he pulled forth two bills to give 
 to her. But she had gone. Three others in the room saw 
 him take out the money, and noted the look of alarm on his 
 face when he was about to hand it to her. 
 
 " That was my wife," he said. 
 
 They told him that no one had been there. But he ran 
 to the door and called loudly to her. In distress he put 
 on his hat and coat to go to his home, when a messenger 
 brought the news that his wife had been killed by an auto- 
 mobile as she was about to pass in at the gate to her home. 
 The car had left the road in making a sudden turn at a 
 speed of a steam locomotive, and, dashing on the sidewalk, 
 had crushed out the life of the woman. 
 
 She had been dead not more than two minutes when the 
 vision entered the husband's office. 
 
 This kind of an occurrence is common. It seems that the 
 spirit is helpless to speak. It cannot be accounted for on 
 the theory of the subconscious power of the person visited, 
 for the process is the reverse of that. 
 
 A woman was walking along a public highway on a 
 bright afternoon and saw her sister running hard towards 
 her. As they met, the sister stopped, held out her hand 
 which was very white, looked with eyes that were large, 
 full and melting, into the eyes of the woman, and was no 
 more. Two passers-by noted the fact that the woman had 
 stopped, and that she was evidently in trouble. They ad- 
 dressed her when they saw that she was faint. But it was 
 clearly established that she showed no signs of being faint 
 until after she had stopped. She told her story to them 
 and took their addresses, and they received hers, as it was 
 the desire of all to know what the vision portended. That 
 night a telegram came from a city four hundred miles away, 
 telling of the death of the sister that had occurred at about 
 the moment of the vision. 
 5 
 
C6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 The time is important as it shows the rapidity with which 
 a soul may move. 
 
 Another fact is important. The woman who saw the 
 vision was east of the sister's home. In view of the uni- 
 versal fact that the spirits move in an easterly direction, it 
 is well to note the relationship between this point of the 
 compass and the other operations of nature. 
 
 A physician who had lived all his life in New York and 
 most of it in New York City, and who held prominent po- 
 sitions in medical organizations, lost his wife. She had a 
 sister living in Brooklyn, east of New York. At the hour 
 of her death, according to letters written to the author by 
 the doctor, the passage of some unusual vitality made its 
 course through the city, giving evidence at the homes of 
 several dear frinds, and finally appearing to a living sister 
 across the bridge. Investigation proved that every detail 
 of the account was true. 
 
 A man died in the city of Washington, D. C, and his 
 form appeared in London, then in Paris, then in Rome, 
 and finally in Calcutta, India, all in a space of ten hours. 
 The vision was so distinct in each case that the time was 
 noted, as some accident was feared. They all compared 
 notes afterward, and the time was adjusted to that at 
 Washington, showing a lapse of ten hours from the time 
 of the death there before the final appearance at Calcutta. 
 There was a lapse of but thirty minutes from the demise 
 to the vision in London ; then a lapse of three hours be- 
 tween the presence in London and that in Paris. Two 
 hours and ten minutes afterward the vision appeared in 
 Rome, and a little more than four hours later it was in 
 Calcutta. 
 
 These different periods in time indicate that the spirit 
 had the power to remain in one place for a while. If this 
 is so, where is its abode, and how does it busy itself? 
 
 An officer of the English army died while visiting a dis- 
 tant relative in Berlin. Almost nineteen hours later his 
 
THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 67 
 
 presence was distinctly seen by three fellow officers in Lon- 
 don. On its face this shows that the spirit moved in a 
 westerly direction. But a letter from Bombay, India, ar- 
 rived in due course of time, stating that the vision was seen 
 in that city. The date and hour were fixed beyond doubt, 
 and they proved conclusively that the spirit had moved in an 
 easterly direction, having been in Bombay within four hours 
 after death, and thence showing itself in London fifteen 
 hours after that time. The course must, therefore, have 
 been easterly, and the spirit nearly traversed the earth. 
 
 A man in Washington, D. C, whose nephew was in office 
 in the same city, received a telegram from his sister asking 
 if anything had happened to the young man, who was her 
 son. The despatch said nothing further. It arrived over 
 the wires at 9:32 in the morning. It left New Haven at 
 8:13 the same afternoon. A letter was mailed soon after 
 the telegram was sent, saying that the mother while dressing 
 in her bedroom that morning looked out the window and 
 saw her son coming across the lawn. He staggered and 
 fell to the ground. Calling to another person in the house 
 she told him to hurry out and help the young man as he 
 had come home sick and was lying on the grass. When she 
 looked out again he was not there, but she supposed that 
 he had arisen and found his way into the house. A search 
 resulted in nothing but deep mystery. The mother at once 
 surmised that the sight she saw was a vision of her son, and 
 she sent the telegram to Washington for information. 
 
 The man who received it called as soon as possible at 
 the boarding place of his nephew. They said that the 
 young man had not been seen that morning. Search was 
 made and he was found in his room still in bed. Physi- 
 cians were summoned who stated that his death had oc- 
 curred early that morning. The mother fixed the time of 
 seeing the vision as about ten minutes past seven, as she 
 arose promptly at seven and had but partly dressed. 
 
 In this instance the spirit moved in a northerly direction, 
 
68 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 but to the east. It is not possible to assert that had the 
 death occurred in Connecticut, and the mother been in 
 Washington, the spirit would have taken flight around the 
 whole world in order to have made the visit at Washington ; 
 but the chances are that it would have done that or not 
 appeared at all. In all the cases investigated there is 
 nothing to indicate that such a flight would not be taken. 
 
 Another army officer died in Lyons, France, and his spirit 
 appeared in Manchester, England, within seven hours. In 
 that period of time, it was seen in Egypt and also in China, 
 but in successive passage, showing that it did not manifest 
 itself simultaneously at any two places, but maintained a 
 journey. 
 
 All authentic accounts of the passage of the soul have con- 
 formed to this habit of traveling in an easterly direction, 
 deviating to the north or south at will, but not reversing the 
 direction. 
 
 There are over three hundred verified cases of visions 
 of persons who have died in India appearing in England. 
 In most of them there have been no middle stations or stop- 
 ping places between India and England, and the first 
 thought would be, if considered at all, that the flight had 
 been westerly. But in a few cases there have been inter- 
 vening visions of the same spirit, and these prove that the 
 flight was easterly all the way. This warrants the asser- 
 tion that all the other journeys have conformed to the 
 natural law of an easterly flight. 
 
 The earth revolves on its axis in an easterly direction. 
 This makes the sun seem to rise in the east and set in the 
 west. The earth makes its annual course around the sun 
 in an easterly direction. This fact is shown by the stars 
 and constellations all rising in the eastern sky. The moon 
 revolves around the earth in an easterly direction. She is 
 seen in the west as a crescent; but night after night she 
 travels more and more away from the west, going to her 
 eastern home. 
 
THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 69 
 
 The sun throws off its light and fire in an easterly di- 
 rection and the planets move on their orbits also in an east- 
 erly course. The solar system is making its journey in the 
 same harmonious way around the other systems of the sky. 
 
 All life is directly derived from the sun. All vitality 
 springs from that giant orb. Whatever has come to man 
 on earth, whether in substance or in psychic character, has 
 been donated by the sun. All the light and heat of the 
 earth is borrowed. There is harmony in the heavens. 
 Suns, planets, satellites and star-dust all move in one stream 
 of flight, trending to the east; and in their sweep the soul 
 is very likely engulfed. Ether is the universal atmosphere 
 of the entire sky; and, as the soul is ethereal, it probably 
 has the power to assume inconceivable speed in its passage. 
 
 In ninety-five per cent, of the cases investigated, the 
 parties involved have been blood relations or husband and 
 wife. In the other five per cent, they have been close 
 friends. In no case has there been a manifestation from the 
 spirit of a stranger or a mere acquaintance or ordinary 
 friend. Two men who were closely associated in study 
 were seperated by the death of one, and his spirit came in a 
 very distinct manner to the survivor. 
 
 This occurred one minute after death. 
 
 Three women in a small village were allied in church 
 work for many years, and had become fast friends. One 
 of them died at a hospital to which she had been carried in 
 her last sickness. The two others were at their homes nine 
 miles away, each alone in her room, the houses being about 
 two hundred yards apart. When their friend had gone 
 to the hospital, they were assured that she would get well 
 and be about in a few weeks. The demise occurred at 
 fourteen minutes past nine. One of the survivors sat in 
 her room winding her watch, which was afterwards found 
 to be three minutes fast. As she held the watch in her 
 hand the spirit of the dead woman, or the form itself as 
 though living, entered and stood before the surprised be- 
 
7 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 holder. The watch stopped at eighteen minutes past nine, 
 or one minute after the death. 
 
 " How did you get here? " she asked. 
 
 No reply came, but still the woman saw the face and 
 form, and the well known dress; and, as she sprang for- 
 ward to greet her, the vision receded, not by steps, but by a 
 gliding motion, and left the room at the wall. 
 
 Calling another person in the house, the frightened 
 woman told what had happened, and decided to call at once 
 on the other friend, who lived about six hundred feet 
 away. 
 
 It seems that the latter had begun preparations for re- 
 tiring, and was alone in her room, seated on the edge of the 
 bed. She turned to place something on the pillow when 
 she felt the touch of a warm hand on her arm. She ut- 
 tered a scream that was heard by others in the house, who 
 ran to her. Before they came, however, she saw the arm, 
 then the head and upper half of the body of the woman 
 who had died, and the vision ended in less than four sec- 
 onds. The time was two minutes later than that of the 
 manifestation at the house of the other woman, or three 
 minutes after the death nine miles away. 
 
 Here were facts enough, with witnesses enough to make 
 a clear case. But when the first woman reached the house 
 of the second and found all in commotion, the entire village 
 knew of it, although as yet there had been no news of the 
 result at the hospital. Everybody seemed to feel certain 
 that the invalid had died, and this fact was confirmed the 
 next day. 
 
 Case after case might be cited along the same line. 
 
 One great law seems to run through them all, and that 
 is the close proximity of time between the death and the 
 manifestation. 
 
 There is not a single instance of a manifestation more 
 than fifty hours after the death, and but one in our records 
 as late as that. In this case the spirit visited a home four 
 
THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 71 
 
 times. It was the husband of a woman who had no chil- 
 dren and was living in her own house with two sisters. 
 The man had died in a railroad wreck. He had been badly 
 injured, and his head was bandaged after he was pulled 
 from the car. In the effort to save other sufferers, he was 
 placed along the bank near the track, and left there for 
 hours, when he died. The wreck occurred at a few minutes 
 past six in the evening, and he passed away before ten o'clock 
 the same night. 
 
 The wife lived in Newark, New Jersey, and the hus- 
 band died in the State of Illinois. Making due allowance 
 for the difference in time, the first vision appeared ten 
 minutes after the demise. The wife was terribly fright- 
 ened when it passed out of the room, for she had thought 
 her husband had actually returned sooner than he was ex- 
 pected, and she rose to greet him, calling him by name. 
 Her voice was distinctly heard by her two sisters; then her 
 scream followed and brought them to her assistance. 
 
 " He has been killed ! He has been killed ! I just saw 
 him! His face was white!" These were her ejaculations 
 as she tried to explain to her sisters what she had seen. 
 
 The wife refused to go to bed that night. 
 
 Her sister sat up with her. At about three o'clock in 
 the morning the form of the man was seen, this time with 
 the bandage about his head. One of the sisters also saw the 
 face, and the other sister saw the general outline, although 
 dimly. He seemed to appear directly to the wife. He 
 tried to speak, but could not. He raised his hand and 
 placed it to his head, and closed his eyes, then opened them 
 again. The women were paralyzed with fear, and could 
 not speak. The vision then passed away. 
 
 Two days afterwards, the man came in a clear white 
 vision with a radiant face and bright features, and stood by 
 her side. He lifted his hand and pointed upward, and 
 vanished. 
 
 At just fifty hours after the time of the death, as the evi- 
 
72 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 dence afterward showed, he came once more into the pres- 
 ence of the three women, and again pointed upward. Com- 
 ing somewhat closer he extended both hands to the wife, 
 and raised them, adding a gesture of beckoning as though 
 asking her to follow him. Then his body floated away, 
 and, as she declared, in an upward direction. The final 
 visit was witnessed almost wholly by all the three sisters. At 
 this time two other relatives were in the house, as the news 
 had come of the accident; and they heard the commotion 
 that followed. 
 
 The widow expected soon to die and follow him; but 
 has lived on for many years. She had no belief in spiritual- 
 ism prior to the death of her husband ; but afterward, as he 
 did not again appear to her, she sought the aid of mediums, 
 but without avail. 
 
 In this case the evidence was trustworthy. 
 
 It should be noted as a constant fact that the manifesta- 
 tions of the passing soul do not occur by the aid of mediums ; 
 while almost all communications with the spirits of the dead, 
 as claimed, are wholly through the agency of mediums. 
 This fact alone helps to settle the much discussed question 
 of the genuineness of the seances. 
 
 This peculiar phase of the phenomena will be found uni- 
 formly present in every case that has been investigated by 
 the committees of other psychical societies. The communi- 
 cations with the dead require the aid of mediums; but the 
 manifestations of the departing spirit are made to the rela- 
 tives or friends direct. Thus the honesty of the latter and 
 the unreliability of the former can at once be assumed. 
 
 The facts that have been established are as follows: 
 
 1. The spirit of the person who has recently died does 
 in fact leave the body. 
 
 2. It takes passage at once. 
 
 3. It may linger about its old haunts or be delayed in 
 transit in other places; but never more than a day or two. 
 
 4. It journeys in an easterly direction. 
 
THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 73 
 
 5. It appears only to those who are related or otherwise 
 dear in association or friendship. 
 
 6. It rarely speaks or makes a sound, although there 
 are claimed instances of the use of words. 
 
 7. It is seen but briefly, rarely more than a second or two 
 of time being the duration of its visit. 
 
 8. Its purpose seems to be a desire to see some one that 
 it has loved in life, and to pass on. 
 
 9. The deduction can be safely drawn that the departing 
 spirit does in fact come into the presence of those it has 
 loved in life, and sees them while in most cases it is not 
 seen. 
 
 10. When it is seen by a living person the latter is un- 
 doubtedly acutely developed in the subconscious faculty. 
 But there is rarely if ever any appearance to those who pro- 
 fess to believe in spiritualism. 
 
 11. It may be assumed that the soul visits in a small 
 space of time many places where it has lived and many per- 
 sons it has known. 
 
 The use of words is rare in such phenomena. 
 
 Some have claimed to have heard the well known voice ; 
 but we have not found an instance of the combination of 
 sight and sound. The spoken words are connected with 
 dreams rather than with waking hours. The psychic law 
 states that the soul does not employ the language of the 
 human voice of flesh; and this law has been made in order 
 to prevent the openness of knowledge that would follow if it 
 were possible for the mind of a person to know the thoughts 
 of all other persons. 
 
 If you knew everything that was in the minds of other 
 people, and they knew all that was in your mind, life on 
 earth would be suddenly transformed into a paradise of per- 
 fection, for wrong would cease in the instant. Sin and 
 crime cannot exist in openness of knowledge. 
 
 It is because nature intends that a free mind and a volun- 
 tary virtue shall be developed in the life of every human 
 
74 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 being, that a wall is built up between the conscious and the 
 subconscious minds, and the language of one shall not be 
 the language of the other. 
 
 This being true, it follows that the spirit must be de- 
 prived of the speech of humanity. 
 
 Sounds, vibrations and various kinds of plrysical demon- 
 strations have attended the flight of the soul ; but never 
 long after the death of the body. 
 
 In a few cases other senses have been employed. 
 
 A woman who was exceedingly fond of one kind of rose 
 relates a very strong manifestation that involved the use of 
 the sense of smell. Her husband was more than a thou- 
 sand miles away, and was killed in an accident. He had 
 been in the habit of bringing her bouquets of the roses that 
 pleased her so much. During his absence she had not had 
 them, nor had one been in the house. One evening she 
 turned sharply about in her chair and inquired who had 
 brought those beautiful roses into the room. 
 
 " I was just about to ask you that question," was the 
 statement of the person addressed. 
 
 They were indeed very fragrant, but could not be found. 
 The wife declared that she knew they were somewhere in 
 the room, and a search was made, but the intensity grew more 
 and more, while not a sign of a flower could be found. At 
 length they traced the odor to a certain place on the dresser 
 where a small photograph of the husband was standing in a 
 metal frame. 
 
 There was no mistaking the fragrance and the variety of 
 rose from which it seemed to emanate. There was no ces- 
 sation that evening of the odor; nor the next day. Think- 
 ing that it might be some form of deception in which the 
 senses of two persons were duped, the wife called in ten 
 friends the next day, one at a time, and said nothing to any 
 of them on the subject in mind. As each entered the house 
 the fragrance was at once noticed, and generally commented 
 upon, as it filled the house, although its intensity was con- 
 
THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 75 
 
 fined to one place. She even had the visitors go to the 
 room and locate the place where it seemed to be strongest, 
 and not one failed to do so. 
 
 When a suggestion was made that it boded ill, the wife 
 laughed down the idea. At noon of the next day the odor 
 ceased as suddenly as if it had not existed at all. Not the 
 remotest trace remained. In a few minutes a telegram ar- 
 rived telling of the fatal accident and the time when it oc- 
 curred. This was found to coincide with the time when 
 the fragrance of the roses was noticed. 
 
 So rare is such a case that this would have been disposed 
 of with little credence were it not for the fact that it cre- 
 ated such a stir and involved so many persons. 
 
 Although the fact of the passage of the soul is well es- 
 tablished and is believed by even the skeptics in all the 
 psychical societies of the world, the further investigation of 
 cases should be continued without limit, as too much testi- 
 mony cannot be had on the subject. We hope that all 
 members of the Psychic Society will participate in furnish- 
 ing authentic accounts of such phenomena, provided per- 
 sonal knowledge and not hearsay is made the basis of all 
 statements. It should be the duty of the member to sift 
 by the most rigid methods all stories of such manifestations, 
 and enter into a personal investigation of the happenings. 
 
 Much depends on the degree of development of a person 
 in the use of the subconscious faculty, in his or her power to 
 receive manifestations. It has been stated by a keen ob- 
 server that, when more people are able to employ that 
 faculty, then more evidence will be forthcoming on this 
 subject; for, with subconscious eyes, everything in the uni- 
 verse can be seen with absolute clearness. 
 
 The truth is wanted at all times. 
 
 If the Psychic Society can be the means of stimulating the 
 determination to secure the truth and nothing but the truth, 
 half the mysteries of life will have been driven away. 
 
 When spirits are supposed to hold communications with 
 
76 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 the living, it is done as has been stated through the agency 
 of mediums; and here the subconscious faculty of the medi- 
 ums are employed, if they are genuine. About one in a 
 thousand is reliable. But no medium professes to know 
 what occurs during the trance. The natural voice speaks, 
 and natural agencies write or otherwise carry on the com- 
 munication. This is a translation of the psychic into the 
 ordinary, with the mind of the medium a blank, although 
 that mind receives the messages. 
 
 Such a combination is both inconvenient and unsavory. 
 
 On the other hand, the clear mind of the person visited 
 receives the communication or witnesses the vision ; thus tak- 
 ing away the argument that the manifestation are subcon- 
 scious impressions made by the dying person on the mind 
 of the recipient, and not the actual spirit on its journey. 
 
 Here is the pivotal point in this study. 
 
 To settle all doubt every member of the Psychic Society 
 should aid us in following out all evidence to the farthest 
 extreme, for it means much to every living person. 
 
 Some clearly presented facts have been secured which 
 make it positive to our minds that the soul does in reality 
 take its flight. There is evidence of a progressive condi- 
 tion. 
 
 The man who was hurt and so appeared, and whose head 
 was bandaged as was shown in his second appearance, and 
 who afterwards showed his face radiant and out of pain, 
 certainly proved that the soul was progressive. If this is 
 true, then the subconscious impression was proof of the 
 existence of the soul. 
 
 A person who is alive can make a subconscious impression 
 on any other person at any distance. But after death such 
 power ceases. This law is well established. 
 
 The vision of a person hurt or in trouble, which is so 
 common as to attract little wonder now-a-days, is a pre- 
 monition in the form of a subconscious picture or impression. 
 It can only be made by the living on the living. Never has 
 
THE SOUL IN PASSAGE 77 
 
 there been an instance of a dead person impressing a living 
 being, except under the laws of the passage of the soul. All 
 impressions after death must come from the vitality that has 
 left the body, and that is the immortal part of it. 
 
 To discuss this subject thoroughly would invite into this 
 work another volume several times the size of this book. 
 Any reader who is anxious to go more deeply into it, is re- 
 ferred to the higher systems that deal with the laws and 
 their proofs in a most convincing manner. 
 
 In closing this chapter we again repeat that the skeptics 
 who are connected with the various psychical societies have 
 been converted absolutely to the belief in the fact that there 
 is a spirit in the human body, which separates from it at the 
 moment of death, and takes its journey over the world and 
 out into space, never again to return. 
 
 This view is in accord with all the highest forms of re- 
 ligion throughout the earth. On the other hand the be- 
 liever in spiritualism, or the continuous power of the dead 
 to communicate with the living, is regarded as the enemy of 
 the church and the adherent to a false religion. These 
 views have been submitted to the leading men in all the 
 great denominations, and they are heartily endorsed. It is 
 a satisfaction to be in harmony with the leading thought of 
 the best minds on earth to-day. 
 
 The conclusions reached after the examination of thou- 
 sands of cases on this branch of the work of the Psychic 
 Society, were all agreed to without in any way seeking light 
 from the advanced systems of study on the same subject, to 
 which reference is made in the latter part of this volume. 
 Thus two roads that pass through entirely different realms, 
 converge and come together at the end. Thus double proof 
 of the existence and habits of the soul is secured. 
 
 The third great highway of satisfying evidence on the 
 same subject is found in the religions of the civilized world. 
 These have not been consulted in the investigations, for the 
 Society desired to prove its way by the fixed laws of life. 
 
78 
 
 CHAPTERXI. 
 
 • '.", i r i . . i* i i i i . i . iTiTiTiTi i.i.iii . i i i i TiTi iTi ' 
 
 T 
 
 BREAKING THROUGH. 
 
 VERYWHERE we see evidences of the 
 psychic breaking through the physical. Of 
 this there is not the slightest doubt. If it 
 were not true there would be no evidence ob- 
 tainable by the aid of the physical senses. A 
 vision must affect the sense of sight, or it would 
 not be seen. It is a well understood fact that 
 the psychical world has. its own methods of speech and these, 
 for good reasons, are not capable of being interpreted into 
 the physical world so as to be recognized by any of the five 
 senses. 
 
 But some few thoughts and transactions break through at 
 times, with the result that the physical senses are shocked 
 by what is seen or experienced. If you should see your 
 friend whom you know to be a thousand or more miles away, 
 coming toward you with extended hand, you would be sur- 
 prised. The psychic realm has broken through your sense 
 of sight and the result startles you. Were such an experi- 
 ence to happen very often, you would cease to find it amaz- 
 ing. 
 
 As the sense of sight is founded on ether waves, and as 
 the psychic processes are wholly originated in such waves, 
 it is natural that the vision should be the agency by which 
 the psychic should break through. Sound is founded on 
 waves of air, or vibrations of air masses. For this reason, it 
 is not possible for ethereal life to make itself manifest to the 
 hearing. 
 
 It will be noted that there is no reliable evidence of a 
 
BREAKING THROUGH 79 
 
 manifestation occurring by the use of sound or touch. 
 Every man and woman should understand this law. 
 
 If you hear sounds, be sure they are the result of the cre- 
 ations of your nervous system acting on the brain, or else 
 are produced by mechanical magnetism, as explained in 
 books on that subject. 
 
 If you feel touches, or imagine that you see things move, 
 or if they in fact do move, you should be certain that they 
 are mechanical or magnetic. 
 
 A highly magnetized man or woman is able to suspend 
 the law of gravity, or to cause substances of great weight 
 to move easily, or produce sounds of a certain character ; 
 but such individuals are rare, and their work is the result of 
 a special gift. This book does not devote itself to that line 
 of investigation, as it belongs to the magnetism series. 
 
 Gravity itself is merely one form of magnetism. 
 
 Touch is the action of substance. 
 
 Sound is the action of molecules, generally of the air. 
 
 Sight is the action of ether waves. 
 
 If manifestations come in sleep that carry with them the 
 sensations of sound and touch, they are purely dreams, in 
 which of course no sound or touch actually occurs. But 
 if visions come in dreams they may be borne on ether waves, 
 and prove genuine, or be the result of imaginings. 
 
 It is satisfying to the mind of the investigator, to learn 
 that there is a uniformity of proof showing that all reliable 
 psychic phenomena is confined solely to visions, or the use 
 of the sense of sight. 
 
 No dependence should be placed in manifestations of sound 
 or touch. The sense of smell is supposed to be etheral, but 
 the proofs are not fully convincing. Here the Society has 
 work to do to follow out such claims as may be made on 
 this subject. 
 
 The laws of light and of ether are stated in the next di- 
 vision of this book, and they will furnish interesting reading 
 on the problems that confront humanity in this era. 
 
80 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 Thought is known also to be the action of the waves of 
 ether. 
 
 Subconscious thought belongs to the psychic mind. 
 
 As is stated later on, it cannot be translated into the 
 language of earth, for the reasons given ; but it breaks 
 through at times and takes on the ideas and some of the 
 words and phrases that are employed in earthly or physical 
 communication. 
 
 A spirit, if one existed, would find it impossible to actually 
 use the words of our physical speech. This leads to the 
 conclusion that all spoken and written words and sentences 
 are imaginations or assumptions. 
 
 We think in two channels. 
 
 In one we employ the words and ideas of the physical 
 world. 
 
 In the other we are in the psychic world, but prevented 
 from crystallizing the thoughts into physical speech, and for 
 the following reasons: 
 
 Thought employs ether waves. 
 
 Speech employs physical agencies only, as the sound of 
 passing air, the articulation of consonants, and the framing 
 of letters by physical shapes. Thus a barrier is placed be- 
 tween thought and speech, except that division of thought 
 which uses the substances of life to make sound and shape 
 for words and letters. 
 
 Ether waves have a double function. They give light to 
 the world, and they give thought to the world. They span 
 two worlds; for they give material senses their light and 
 thought, and are hidden from us in their psychic processes 
 except when they break through the barrieres. 
 
SECOND GRAND DIVISION 
 
 OF 
 
 UNSEEN POWERS 
 
 DEVOTED TO THE STUDY OF 
 
 PROOFS FURNISHED BY 
 PSYCHIC PROCESSES 
 
 Si 
 
82 
 
 A LESSON IN REVIEW. 
 
 Once reading a work of this character is not by any means 
 enough. The review of the first chapter is recommended, 
 and several re-readings will prove of great advantage. Even 
 the memorizing of the twenty-four propositions of that 
 chapter will furnish an abiding power to the true student. 
 
 Then it must be borne in mind that the division of the 
 human mind into physical and psychic departments is now 
 recognized as a proved fact. No intelligent person doubts 
 it. 
 
 The body that is made of earth is physical and perishable ; 
 but the life that is psychic is immortal. This proposition 
 cannot be proved in the scope of this work; but some of 
 the laws that attend its unfolding are set forth in the present 
 volume. 
 
 The physical mind dies, but does not always pass away 
 with the death of the physical body. It hovers like a wan- 
 dering ball of intelligence, occasionally sending back reports 
 of itself, until it finally vanishes. 
 
 Manifestations supposed to include visitations or messages 
 from departed spirits are now known to be reflected telep- 
 athic impressions left in the minds of those who are still 
 alive; or else wireless responses from wandering intelligences 
 of people who have since died; or finally the creations of 
 abnormal brain-cells. 
 
 While the psychic world is more and more breaking down 
 the barriers that separate it from the physical world, every 
 unusual occurrence must not be accepted as psychic. The 
 physical senses are often deceived in the most amazing man- 
 ner. It is the purpose of this book to make clear the differ- 
 ence between the psychic and that which seems to be psychic ; 
 and for this reason the reader should not adopt fixed beliefs 
 without carefully considering every phase of the great ques- 
 tion. 
 
83 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 I ON THE THRESHOLD. f 
 
 ^ v. ' "SB 
 
 EFORE ENTERING into the direct work 
 of the Second Division of this book it is im- 
 portant that the reader should understand the 
 different nature of the laws that are to claim 
 our attention. As a special preparation for 
 the study now ahead of us, all persons who 
 own the books referred to in the early chap- 
 ter entitled, Sources of Help, are asked to refresh their 
 minds with the principles and facts there presented, ac- 
 companied by the long lines of proofs on every hand. To 
 encumber this volume with that matter would add thou- 
 sands of pages in repetition. 
 
 It will be seen that there are two worlds; one is the 
 physical and the other the psychic. 
 
 The former is born in earth and is made of earth. The 
 intelligence that is everywhere seen in matter, is that which 
 only contact with experiences of earth can develop. There- 
 fore it must have such senses as are useful for a form of 
 life on this planet. Hearing, taste, smell and touch, can- 
 not possibly be born unless used, and they grow only as 
 they are used. 
 
 Sight as we see it with the eyes, is merely a fragment of 
 the action of the ether waves, as it shows us nothing but 
 the surface of things. In order to successfully exist amid 
 the dangers and vicissitudes of this world, we should have 
 the power to view what is about us of a physical character. 
 Hence part of the function of the ether process of sight is 
 given to humanity. It shows only what is on the surface, 
 
84 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 a thin layer so small that its thickness is nothing as meas- 
 ured by physical standards. What is known as transparent 
 matter, is only an arrangement of molecules that permits 
 the light to pass through unheeded; but, even then, the sur- 
 face of the molecules is all that can be seen. 
 
 True ether waves with the psychic vision, know no more 
 of surfaces than they do of the whole inward structure of 
 substances. 
 
 Sight also acts on matter only. 
 
 In the psychic world what is now for convenience called 
 sight, acts as the whole channel of knowledge. 
 
 The first division of the present book is devoted to the 
 study of proofs that are furnished by the physical senses. 
 It is supposed that what we see must be a fact. The 
 chapter on Premonitions will explain to what extent that is 
 true. The same subject is also treated in other chapters 
 of the First Division. 
 
 Many persons are convinced that what they hear must 
 be true, as far as the sound is concerned. " If I hear a 
 knock at the door of my room, I know that some one or 
 something caused it or executed it," says the practical 
 man. The chapter on Sounds in the First Division will 
 make clear how much or how little value can be attached 
 to the noises that enter the brain. The same is true of 
 touch. Smell and taste do not often enter into the phe- 
 nomena, although there are a few remarkable cases that 
 have been investigated. 
 
 To sum up the First Division it may be said that an 
 immense mass of testimony has been received, and that the 
 physical senses, chiefly the sense of sight, can be credited 
 with furnishing proofs of the fact that the psychic world is 
 seeking all the time to break through into the physical 
 world ; and, as it can come only by employing the senses, 
 the latter must be depended on to furnish the facts. 
 
 On the other hand all intelligent men have come to 
 agree that there is a faculty or series of faculties that man- 
 
ON THE THRESHOLD 85 
 
 ifest themselves through other agencies than the physical 
 senses. They refer to such faculty as some power that 
 either has had its sway and is dying out, or that is yet to 
 make itself known more and more as the progress of the 
 universe is maintained. Everything is improving, earth, 
 suns, planets, stars, and the great communion of distant 
 worlds. All are tending to some grand finale. 
 
 What we of earth want to know is the facts. 
 
 We want a practical knowledge of the facts. 
 
 We seek the truth, not as served to us by some thin- 
 brained theorist, or flimsy cult; but the solid truth, strong, 
 provable, knowable, honest and full of the meat of fact from 
 center to circumference. 
 
 There is not a sensible man or woman on the earth to- 
 day who would not gladly welcome the truth, if he or she 
 could be convinced that it is the truth and nothing else. 
 
 Enough has already been ascertained and depicted in the 
 First Division of this book to show beyond all doubt that 
 there is a psychic world. This is the basis of further in- 
 vestigation. Here we have an acknowledged fact to begin 
 with. Let every step of the way be as sure and as solid 
 as the start. 
 
 Laws and principles are evolved and proved as they come 
 to light.. 
 
 For instance, it is well known that the light of the 
 universe travels along the ether, and is the vibration of the 
 ether itself. Here is another fact of prime importance. 
 
 In the use of the physical senses, it has been clearly 
 shown that manifestations of the psychic world are not able 
 to break through except by the aid of light; and they ap- 
 pear, when genuine, only as visions, never by sound or 
 touch. This confirms the law that the psychic is ethereal, 
 and that light is the connecting link between the two 
 worlds. 
 
 Then it has been absolutely established by the aid of the 
 physical senses that there is such a power as telepathy. It 
 
86 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 may be said that no person of intelligence denies this to-day, 
 unless he has been excluded by circumstances from the facts 
 that are everywhere known. When, in the years gone by, 
 so many hard-headed, practical men entered into the psy- 
 chical societies in all civilized countries, fixed in their be- 
 liefs that telepathy was not a fact, and they have all changed 
 their views and not known it to be a fact, there is nothing 
 left for proof as to this law. 
 
 Telepathy is of two classes: 
 
 It is physical when it reveals facts related to physical life. 
 
 It is psychic when it reveals facts related to psychic life. 
 
 Both kinds of telepathy can be cultivated, but not easily, 
 if one expects to interpret psychic thoughts into physical 
 words. Here some power has placed a barrier in order 
 that destiny might not be known in advance of its fulfilment. 
 
 Already it has been seen that proofs are accumulating that 
 satisfy the most skeptical minds, and they are so satisfying 
 them to-day by the thousands. 
 
 Long ago it was supposed that hypnotism and magnetism 
 were the same processes. Now it is established that hypno- 
 tism is a power that acts on certain subjects, putting them 
 into a cataleptic sleep, and deadening their physical faculties 
 only to awaken the same faculties into an obedience to the 
 suggestions of another. 
 
 It is also now established that magnetism awakens all 
 persons whom it touches; the used and the user. It is an 
 inspiration to all who are acted upon. Whereas hypnotism 
 leaves its subject poorer in will and meaner m character, 
 magnetism makes its subject a nobler, grander being. Mag- 
 netism does not win by subduing, but by imparting a better 
 life and a better will. Take away personal magnetism from 
 the minister, and he cannot uplift his hearers. He cannot 
 encourage chem. He cannot give them his genuine sympathy. 
 He cannot arouse them to new ambitions and efforts to win 
 success in life or salvation for eternity. 
 
 The more magnetism that the preacher possesses, the more 
 
ON THE THRESHOLD 87 
 
 good he will accomplish, the more men and women he will 
 save, and the more rewards he will earn for himself. If 
 he lacks magnetism, he has no right to preach. But if he 
 were to hypnotize his hearers, he would put them to sleep 
 and make them useless timber for the church. 
 
 It is only in recent years that people have came to under- 
 stand the difference between magnetism and hypnotism. It 
 is well that they now know. 
 
 Personal magnetism acts on ether waves, as is clearly 
 shown in the systems of training; but it acts on physical 
 life, and for the purposes of helping such existence. In 
 advance magnetism, the power extends itself into the psychic 
 world, and in universal magnetism it makes one great com- 
 munity of all the worlds in space, including even the 
 minutest detail of human life. 
 
 Proofs of these powers are found in the remarkable re- 
 sults they achieve. 
 
 It is important that the double-functions of the leading 
 powers be seen ; among them the following being closer to 
 the investigations of the Psychic Society: 
 
 1. Light has a double- function ; it is the agency of the 
 psychic world, and also the only method known to the 
 physical senses whereby proof of the former world is made 
 manifest to the physical world. 
 
 2. Telepathy has a double-function ; it reveals the hid- 
 den knowledge of the physical world, and gives glimpses of 
 the psychic world. It has the greatest immediate future of 
 any power in all the universe. It can be examined under 
 accurate laws that leave no doubt of its certainty as a 
 power. 
 
 3. Magnetism has a double-function; and reaches farther 
 than any other known agency. It furnishes a vast fund of 
 proof for the investigator into the psychic world. 
 
 4. The double-functions of the unseen powers are proof 
 of the law that the psychic extends into the physical world ; 
 and this is what humanity needs most to know. 
 
88 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 Having thus come to the threshold of proof along the 
 higher lines of investigation, we will now deal with laws 
 and principles rather than with evidences furnished by the 
 senses. A law is something greater than a fact. It stands 
 out immutable and eternal, surviving the wreck of change, 
 and pointing the way to the realm of fixed facts and truths. 
 
8 9 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ^KTrvivivi v i v ■■( v < v ivwivi. iviviv i v ~t ,1,1 ^ ivivi"i ^ i~iTiTi"i~" ~ "i~ ~iT<Ti vl\7i~iN/i~ 
 Si 
 
 THE UNSEEN POWERS. 
 
 ,l»lvl.lvlvlvl,lvl,lvl. l ...l,lvl,l.l.l,KI,l,,.l,l.l ,.,,1,'l.i.WI J1T1 * 
 
 RRIVING NOW at the first realm of the 
 newly discovered world, we find it necessary 
 to understand what powers are unseen and 
 what influences are holding sway in the sight- 
 less air about us. An unhealthy mind conjures 
 up all sorts of goblins and fearful spirits; and 
 the brain can create almost everything it fears. 
 A wholesome, sane, normal mind, has no fancies that are mor- 
 bid. To it all things are clean and free from apprehension. 
 It is the purpose of this book to destroy fear and superstition. 
 Let us start by studying the following group of the un- 
 seen powers and influences that surround life or exist about 
 us somewhere; beginning at the Supreme Being, and drop- 
 ping step by step from Him, as we descend. 
 i. GOD. 
 
 2. HEAVEN. 
 
 3. RELIGION. 
 
 4. INSPIRATION. 
 
 5. GENIUS. 
 
 6. UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM. 
 
 7. PSYCHIC TELEPATHY. 
 
 8. INTUITION. 
 
 9. INSTINCT. 
 
 io. PHYSICAL MAGNETISM. 
 ii. PHYSICAL TELEPATHY. 
 
 12. HYPNOTISM. 
 
 13. SUPERSTITION. 
 
 14. DEMONS. 
 
go 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 I GOD. 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 HERE IS A LIVING GOD whose pres- 
 ence fills the universe. Of this fact there is no 
 doubt. No person can study psychic telepathy 
 jor universal magnetism and have any misgiv- 
 ings as to the existence of a living, ever-present 
 Supreme Being. It is not our purpose to 
 enter into the discussion of this assertion. 
 There has not been a nation or people since first the world 
 began, who has not been reaching out after the Divine in 
 response to the psychic longings within the human breast; 
 and that which is longed for or hoped for, exists somewhere. 
 But this line of argument is speculative, and does not 
 suit the methods of this book. The point we make is 
 that the existence of God is a generally accepted fact. 
 Further than this, it is also a proved fact. 
 LAW. — God is a multiple being. 
 
 He is not a giant of undue and inharmonious proportions 
 with the rest of creation ; but is omnipresent by reason of the 
 fact that His personality is multiple. It may occupy every 
 one of the countless worlds in space. It may be present in 
 many parts of the same world, and so exist without limita- 
 tion. 
 
 There is no doubt that God is seen and known in all 
 the worlds of the universe except the earth. 
 
 The best conception of Him that is obtainable from any 
 source, whether religious or psychic, may be had by a careful 
 analysis of the Bible, as far as it shows His character and 
 purposes. It also discloses in wonderful review the many- 
 
GOD 91 
 
 sided nature of humanity in the midst of temptations, doubts 
 and struggles that were titanic. 
 
 It is not possible to obtain a knowledge of God by the 
 mere use of the reasoning faculties. They are born of 
 physical parentage, and God is wholly apart from that 
 realm, both as to His being and His mode of dealing with 
 humanity. Yet it is true that, as we catch glimpses of the 
 psychic through the material realm, so we see the plan of 
 God at times in the creation about us. 
 
 In the study of the idea of sex nature, it is shown that 
 all the universe and all life of every kind is sexed. God 
 is the Father, and is so known. Nature is the Mother, and 
 she has always been referred to by that term. The physical 
 construction of the universe is the product of the union be- 
 tween God and Nature. This Mother of us all is physical 
 life in all its processes. 
 
 LAW. — Nature is a conscious personality knoiving hu- 
 manity in its smallest and its greatest needs. 
 
 LAW. — The product of Nature is humanity with its 
 physical and psychic possibilities. 
 
9 2 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 • ,' . . . , I . I I I I I 1 I I I . I I . . . , I i , I I I .Ivl yl~.C!~l"l~l~<~l\7(ViVi\ 
 
 HEAVEN. 
 
 ROM THE REMOTEST era all peoples 
 'have believed in a place of abode after death; 
 and it is not surprising that their belief was 
 colored by their grades of civilization. The 
 f higher the scale of intelligence rose, the nobler 
 became their conception of heaven. Nothing 
 reflects better the character of a people than 
 their views of the hereafter. As reason grew apace, some 
 minds thought that the will should be unchained, and its 
 flights given free wing. This plunged us into an era of 
 skepticism, using the term in its sense of relationship to the 
 prevailing religion. 
 
 Laying aside all influences that come from such sources, 
 whether for or against a belief in heaven, we come to the 
 direct proofs furnished by psychic telepathy, universal mag- 
 netism, and the efforts of the psychic world to break through 
 the ordinary senses. 
 
 LAW. — Nothing is lost, wasted, or in vain. 
 The sky is full of worlds. They are called suns because 
 they give out original light, or light of their own. Each 
 sun has planets, as our own sun has; and each planet has 
 satellites, as our earth has. Some scientists regard space as 
 having no limit. Some think that all the sky is inhabited 
 with stars which are parts of a great mass of matter; and 
 that we are insects crawling on grains of sand, of which 
 the earth is a very small individual. 
 This view is incorrect. 
 In the use of the microscope we get very close to the 
 
HEAVEN 93 
 
 atoms which compose the sunlight, showing the limit of 
 creation in that direction. From the atom everything be- 
 gins. 
 
 LAW. — Ether fills all occupied space in the sky. 
 
 This atmosphere which is now known everywhere as 
 ether, is the sunlight that has gone forth as rays, in lines 
 of atoms. The sky is filled with it, as far as the sky is 
 occupied. There is a limited number of worlds, even 
 though they are seemingly countless and amaze the math- 
 ematician by their vastness of size and endless procession. 
 Where the worlds end, there the ether ends. All else is 
 nothing. 
 
 LAW. — Light is an impulse that vibrates the ether 
 throughout all the occupied realms of the sky. 
 
 In the beginning the suns went forth. Then they sent 
 out their flaming light. This light, finding space unoc- 
 cupied, took possession of it, until all was filled with ether. 
 Since then the impulses of light vibrate the ether that oc- 
 cupies space, taking the place of all is woven into worlds. 
 The process of world-building is part of our higher system 
 of training, known as philosophy. 
 
 LAW. — A psychic impulse travels faster than a wave of 
 light. 
 
 It requires but a few minutes for an impulse of light to 
 journey from the sun to the earth, more than ninety millions 
 of miles. 
 
 LAW. — Light is material. 
 
 In fact the ether is material, and really physical, but we 
 fall partly into line with others who assert that it is super- 
 natural, for we take the word itself as the key to the 
 proper term to be applied. 
 
 We call light material, and yet it furnishes the medium 
 whereby all ethereal life travels or exists. There is noth- 
 ing smaller than an atom of light. A body of air is ma- 
 terial, yet sound travels on it by using the mass for the 
 purposes of vibration. Sound is not air, and air need not 
 
94 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 have any motion whatever, yet sound moves along its 
 mass at a rate of speed that is inconceivable when compared 
 with any form of physical motion. 
 
 Light occupies several minutes of time in coming a dis- 
 tance of ninety millions of miles. Air may move at the 
 rate of a hundred miles an hour or even faster than that, 
 although it keeps within a more reasonable rate of speed 
 most of the time. Sound which is the vibration of a body of 
 air, travels so much faster than the gale, or air-body itself, 
 that it cannot be compared to it. Yet sound is not air. 
 
 We now see that the occupied space of the sky is filled 
 with worlds sailing in a sea of ether, and that this ether 
 is the medium of communication from world to world, just 
 as the ocean enables man to have converse with the conti- 
 nents and islands of earth, and air gives him the promise of 
 other triumphs. 
 
 The law tells us that nothing is lost, nothing is wasted, 
 and nothing is in vain. In fact there is no way of losing 
 anything. The substance of the sun goes forth as atomic 
 matter, but it cannot get lost, not even if it strays billions 
 of miles off. Magnetism holds it in leash. Every atom 
 must be accounted for, and there are more billions of atoms 
 in a drop of water than you could count in ten billion cen- 
 turies, if you counted a billion every second of the time. 
 Here we have an example of infinitude. 
 
 LAW. — Every world in the sky is the abode of created 
 beings. 
 
 Nothing is lost. Nothing is in vain. Nothing is useless. 
 
 Every atom has its use. 
 
 As out of the abundance of earth each and every particle 
 is made to serve some useful purpose, so all the worlds in 
 the sky contribute to the service of the Creator and the be- 
 ings that are subject to His rule. The idea of orbs that 
 are dead and dried up, or that have cooled off and are no 
 longer useful, is erroneous, as it is contradicted by every 
 known principle of creation. 
 
HEAVEN 95 
 
 LAW. — Beautiful worlds are the abodes and visiting 
 places of the psychic body. 
 
 What earth is, will be seen later in this book. 
 
 It was once supposed that our planet was the center of 
 the sky, that the sun revolved around it, that the stars 
 were made for no other purpose than to give light on nights 
 when the moon was away, and that heaven was above the 
 earth. 
 
 The fact is that we are some distance away from the 
 center of the universe, but not relatively far ofr. What is 
 called the milky way holds the central orbs. But the best 
 telescope ever made cannot peer within its courts. 
 
 As the miscroscope becomes a confused mass when it 
 reaches its utmost power of magnifying, so the telescope 
 gives nothing but a blur just when we think that we can 
 look in upon Mars, the most favored of all the heavenly 
 bodies for our study. To combat this difficulty the inge- 
 nuity of inventive man has conceived the idea of taking 
 photographic views of that planet, and then magnifying those 
 views, again photographing, until at last we can see an ob- 
 ject on Mars as big as the head of a pin, and read the facial 
 expression on the nearest inhabitant. But the barrier is 
 purposely placed against such discovery. 
 
 No physical invention will look upon any star or orb and 
 reveal the life that dwells there. 
 
 It is a psychic existence. 
 
 The study of the planet Mars discloses canals that change 
 their shape and conditions twice a year, as though beings 
 were working on them. A plausible account of the purpose 
 involved in such operations makes it look as if there might be 
 people there who take advantage of the peculiar seasons in 
 order to raise vegetation, which it is claimed appears every 
 summer in the warm portions of the orb. But the best 
 astronomers refuse to advance such theory and merely say 
 that not enough is known to warrant the suggestion that 
 there is any life on Mars. 
 
96 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 Other planets are given special seasons and habits, owing 
 to their varying relationship to the sun. One has eternal 
 summer throughout one great zone, with eternal winter on 
 the extremes. It is as though we lived in Canada in an 
 endless January, and others lived in New York in an endless 
 June, while others lived in Florida in an endless August. 
 
 Another planet gives one-half of itself to constant winter 
 and another half to constant summer. So they change to 
 set up variety. No two are alike, and each has some distinct 
 characteristic that marks it as specially arranged for life on 
 its surface. 
 
 The one law of variety alone gives certainty that a pur- 
 pose is involved in the plan of creation. What is true of 
 one orb is true of all the suns and all their planets and 
 attendant globes. Each world is different from all others. 
 
 This variation is intended to bring an endless succession of 
 glories to the psychic body when, once it is set free from the 
 bondage of earth. 
 
 LAW. — Heaven includes all the universe beyond the 
 earth. 
 
 God is an unseen power. There may have been good men 
 who have looked upon Him or some one of His multiple 
 personality, but they are not living to-day. 
 
 Heaven is an unseen power. It is not only the places of 
 abode and visitation, but the peoples that are there. They 
 exert in some way an influence over the better part of human 
 nature on earth. 
 
97 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 I RELIGION. 
 
 "f.i.ivivi.ivivUvivMviv ~ ~ ~~~ ~t ~ t ~ ~ (Tn iTiri~ r ~i <r. <~ t.~ ~i\7Krftn • 
 
 ITH THE FIRST COMING of human 
 families on earth, there arose the question, 
 What becomes of our loved ones when they 
 die? That inquiry of itself is enough to give 
 s s rise to every religion on the face of the globe. 
 The desire to live, the dread of death, and the 
 hope of continued existence, make it easy for 
 any leader among a people to frame the tenets of a religion 
 and find followers until something better is offered. 
 Death is both mysterious and alarming. 
 Sadness, grief, the fear of dark agencies, the high tension 
 of the nervous system among the ignorant classes, all make 
 religion a natural offering from those who are able to take 
 the leadership. Strong men and all women lean to the 
 hope that religion gives. So pleasing is it in the minds of 
 certain peoples that death is welcomed rather than feared 
 because of the prospect of greater happiness forthwith. 
 Any motive that will urge one to court death on the promise 
 of happiness in another world, is a religious disease ; for it 
 invites suicide, and suicide is death to the psychic body, and 
 to hope hereafter. 
 
 Instinct is one of the unseen powers. 
 It cannot tell a lie. When its meaning is fully under- 
 stood, what it has to say in its way is the truth. 
 
 There are grades of instinct running the gamut from the 
 
 realm of the lower animals to that of the highest genius in 
 
 man. In all normal hearts there is the instinct for a true 
 
 religion. It is not only inborn but is a part of the existence 
 
 7 
 
98 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 of the psychic nature in the human body. Death excites and 
 inspires it among those who survive and is made an agency 
 for just such purposes; in the same way that love inspires 
 and excites the function that reproduces the race. 
 
 The one purpose of any religion is to set the soul free 
 from the bondage of earth. The method by which it sets 
 the soul free is in making it worthy to pass on to other 
 worlds in the sky, and thus to enter heaven. 
 
 Hope is a form of religious instinct. So is faith. So is 
 the longing for a life hereafter. So are all the teachings 
 and doctrines that actually make man stop before he commits 
 crime and realize that there is a God that sees him and that 
 will leave him to a dreaded fate if he goes wrong. 
 
 The function of religion is to destroy the feeling of se- 
 curity in wrong doing. When any man or woman feels safe 
 in such acts as are prohibited in the code of an upright life, 
 then religion is lacking. When the sense of security is 
 present because no one is looking, then there is no religion. 
 
 From a scientific standpoint the definition of religion is 
 that it is the highest ethical instinct in the human heart seek- 
 ing a code that will compel each individual to stop before he 
 commits crime, that will show him the ever-present Eye of 
 the Creator looking down into his heart, that will rescue 
 him from the sway of temptation and give him clear passage 
 to another world if death were to come unannounced. 
 
99 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 <f ?fTt~iT >T iTi" t .TlT.Ti '- l.l»l.lvl.l-ivlvivl.KI,lvi\I.KI,I.IVl/l.l,IVlvlvl VtViViX/JS, 
 
 I INSPIRATION. 1 
 
 /J~l\?~i~ TiT.TiTiT." i. i,ivi\ i~~.~iX.i~i~i~.TiT.Tit . . ,k . yivi «. ...i ^v i^iv.n/In/i - Jvfs?<\ 
 
 OWEVER HUMBLE the mind or heart 
 may be, no person is denied the power that 
 comes from inspiration. There are several 
 grades of this faculty. Like instinct it appears 
 in the lowly and in the highborn, in the lesser 
 scale of life and in the greatest ranks of intel- 
 ligence. It often takes the place of education, 
 as in the case of Shakespeare. How any lad who had not 
 been taught enough to have given him qualification to enter 
 the first schools of our day could become master of the 
 English language and set the pace for the grandest geniuses 
 to follow through endless generations, is hard to understand. 
 A person is inspired when he receives help from the 
 psychic world, no matter whether or not he hears any voice, 
 or sees any visions or comes in contact with any other being ; 
 it is enough if he is given knowledge or power. 
 
 Like instinct, inspiration will not mislead or falsify. 
 Were it not for the facts that are breathed into the minds 
 of the lower animals, all would perish. Birds know when 
 to go south and when to come north, when to build and 
 where to make their stay. Many of the smaller quadrupeds 
 lay by their stock of food for the winter, and perform deeds 
 that excite the admiration of human beings; acts that are 
 not told them by their parents, for there are countless cases 
 where the young have been orphaned at birth, and yet have 
 taken up instinctively the methods that are necessary to 
 sustain life. A person who has not studied the habits of the 
 animals will be surprised at the many acts of a superior in- 
 
ioo THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 telligence they perform, outwitting man both in skill and 
 cunning. As they have had no one to teach them, it must 
 follow that they are given knowledge by a psychic power 
 which for convenience is called instinct. 
 
 This power does not lie. 
 
 It is keener than most persons believe. The more it is 
 studied the greater becomes its wonders, and the more re- 
 spect one has for it. To the unobservant mind it is almost 
 nothing. We recall the case of a man of great intelligence 
 who asked to be advised how to cultivate a belief in some 
 unseen power, no matter what it was, so that it was genuine ; 
 and we asked him to make a persistent and exhaustive study 
 of instinct in all the uses that he could ascertain. In other 
 words, to make a long and thorough investigation into its 
 operations from its humblest acts to its greatest. 
 
 At first he hesitated on the ground that the scope was too 
 limited to afford deep study. But he started in, and soon 
 was absorbed in the unfolding fields of labor before him. 
 Acts, deeds, transactions, wonderful habits and traits, all 
 held him spellbound for months. At last he wrote us as 
 follows : " I find that instinct is indeed an unseen power, 
 and I lift my hat to it with the deepest worship. No law 
 of nature can account for the specific acts of high intelligence 
 that I have met in my researches. At times I have felt 
 sure that I am putting my hand in God's own hand and 
 being led into a belief in His personal presence; but I have 
 decided that He consigns to other powers each department 
 of His government. I would like to publish a book of in- 
 stinct by which I might tell the world the miracles that it 
 knows nothing about. In closing I wish to say that this 
 power is not a thing to be theorized over. It is a fact all 
 the way along. It is as plain as the sun in the heavens. Its 
 methods are convincing. They prove that we exist in the 
 midst of an unseen government, to deny which is the highest 
 evidence of an unfolded mind. I did deny it once, and I 
 deserve censure for it." 
 
INSPIRATION 101 
 
 The knowledge that instinct furnishes is most amazing in 
 its volume and power. The things that it tells are draughts 
 from the psychic world. 
 
 Rising to higher gifts, a new power dawns on the horizon. 
 It is inspiration. It is all the time knocking at the door 
 of every life where it is likely to receive the slightest wel- 
 come. 
 
 All the worthy battles of the world have been planned 
 and won by the aid of inspiration. 
 
 All the deeds that have set on the tide of progress have 
 had their origin in this unseen power. 
 
 Without inspiration everything is ordinary. It follows 
 the humdrum of a daily physical existence. It is work with- 
 out reward, when it is work without inspiration. 
 
 The inventions of the world were born in inspiration. 
 The good deeds, the gifts of art, of sculpture, of painting, 
 of literature, of poetry, of music, of architecture, and of all 
 that draws the heart of man up nearer to heaven, are con- 
 ceived in this power known as inspiration. 
 
 As life in the body is both physical and psychic, it follows 
 that the predominance of one subdues the other, and the 
 subjection of one permits the other to have greater sway. 
 It also follows that, when one is neglected, the other will 
 seek to take its place. 
 
 Examples of this tendency are found in the lives of those 
 men who have had frail physical bodies and whose psychic 
 natures have been more active in consequence. Hundreds 
 of cases of the kind may be summoned at once from the 
 pages of history. This shows a conformance with the gen- 
 eral principle stated, and confirms the psychic law. 
 
 The power known as inspiration can be cultivated to a 
 very high degree by any person. No matter how long you 
 have denied admission to your mind of this agency from 
 the psychic world, it still stands at the outer door waiting 
 for recognition. Its knocks will be faint or loud in pro- 
 portion as you have given it entrance in the past. Whether 
 
102 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 you are in business, or in society, or in a profession, or at 
 work for another person, there is opportunity to find aid 
 from this power. 
 
 The psychic world is seeking all the while to break through 
 into your physical life. This is one of its well known and 
 certain channels. It may come in the form of a valuable 
 idea. Seize that at once. Go to some book and write it 
 down. Do not wait one minute. Stop wherever you are, 
 and secure the idea just as you received it. This has been 
 the practice of the greatest men of the world. Whether 
 poet, or prose writer, orator, painter, sculptor, painter, ar- 
 chitect, lawyer, doctor, inventor, business man, no matter 
 in what walk of life, when an idea of value comes to you, 
 secure it in black and white. Longfellow, the poet, used to 
 leap from his bed and note down his ideas. The same fact 
 has been related of others so many times as to be a by-word 
 in the class of great men. 
 
 A strange arrangement of words, a beautifully framed 
 thought, an epigram, a plan for important achievement, or 
 other visit of this power should be recognized by being 
 placed on paper where it may be reviewed from time to 
 time. The thought of it, the seeing of it, and the repeating 
 of it become stimulants to the very faculty that gave birth 
 to the inspiration. The power comes more readily the next 
 time, if so encouraged. There is but one way to encourage 
 it, and that is by putting the facts on paper at once, and 
 then keeping them in mind from time to time. 
 
 This method has been advised in our books for more than 
 a quarter of a century, and a few persons have followed it 
 with stupendous success. The result is that the power of 
 inspiration opens up the pages of the books of knowledge 
 that are closed to all other human beings. All may be ad- 
 mitted to the class of favored people who receive the rewards 
 of such knowledge. You can make the effort in your own 
 life, and you will soon witness the presence of the power. 
 
 For fear that some reader may deem the task too difficult, 
 
INSPIRATION 163 
 
 we wish to repeat the advice to have pencil and paper at 
 hand at all times, and when any idea that seems valuable 
 occurs to the mind, note it at once. Do not depend on the 
 memory. \ 
 
 The purpose of this habit is to set in motion the process 
 of this unseen power. It will do it. At first the ideas 
 may not seem strong or useful. No matter. Keep up the 
 practice. Read over from time to time what you have writ- 
 ten down. Keep them all in one book, and get them as near 
 like the first impression as possible, using the same words 
 that you first employed in thinking of the idea. These are 
 nearest to the power itself. 
 
 In a few months you should have hundreds of ideas that 
 seemed to leap into your life. You will enjoy reviewing 
 them, and will never tire of this practice, when once you 
 have got it well started. 
 
 Day by day, if you persevere, the power will grow stronger, 
 especially if you have persisted in it for some months. 
 Nothing can be accomplished in a day. 
 
 We wish you to see for yourself what can be achieved in 
 your life by developing this psychic power. Just for the 
 sake of making the test arfd pursuing one line of worthy 
 ambition, follow this to the greatest end and report to our 
 Society the result. We know what will be the outcome if 
 you stick to it with a dogged will. The power will grow 
 and your ideas will become greater and greater until one of 
 them brings you success in a degree beyond your fondest 
 dreams. This fact is so easily proved that you should give it 
 a fair trial. The test is within your grasp. It will cost 
 you nothing. We want to know what results, as it is the 
 purpose of our existence as a society to secure all the facts 
 possible under each of the great unseen powers. 
 
 It may be as an inventor that you will obtain an enormous 
 fortune. It may be in some profession that you will achieve 
 success. It may be in art or literature that fame will be 
 won. It may be in business ventures, and they require the 
 
io4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 aid of inspiration and inspired ideas to bring gigantic results. 
 No matter how humble you are in life at the present day, 
 you will rise, rise, rise, until you hold the reins instead of 
 being driven. 
 
 This fact is as certain as that the morrow's sun will rise. 
 
 A writer began nearly forty years ago to pursue the course 
 advised in this chapter, and he was given the suggestion in 
 private by one of the most famous and most successful men 
 that have ever lived in America who took an interest in 
 him then. He has not always obeyed the appeal of the 
 power when it seemed to knock at the door of his life, but 
 to a great extent he followed that advice. The result has 
 been this: There are times when great facts will leap out 
 of the universe upon his pen, and he will sit amazed by 
 them, unwilling to give them place for fear he is drawing 
 too boldly on the unseen fund. But analysis and study and 
 investigation have always found these truths to be invincible. 
 His works are the product of just such help, and they have 
 become more and more proved as the years have advanced. 
 He knows that the laws and statements made in this book 
 are true. Yet many of them are ahead of the times. Proofs 
 abundant have hemmed them all in on every side until the 
 Society accepts them as established facts. 
 
105 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 | GENIUS. 1 
 
 I I 
 
 ESSER IN DEGREE, but none the less true 
 are the evidences of power known as genius. 
 Men and women, some uneducated and others 
 favored with book learning, have been found 
 to be geniuses. The inspired writer may re- 
 veal the story of heaven told to him by an- 
 gels, as occurred in the olden times. Or he 
 may arise to heights of achievement in any line of life, seizing 
 the thunderbolt and arresting its course on the mount of 
 glory, to send it forth in the name of progress for the earth. 
 A genius would not write a great poem, but he might plan 
 and execute some piece of workmanship, or lead the way 
 into new fields of discovery. 
 
 The main difference between the unseen power of inspira- 
 tion and the unseen power of genius is this : 
 
 Inspiration secures knowledge, while genius executes the 
 work of humanity in a better way than it has ever been 
 done before. 
 
 It may be courted or cultivated by following the sugges- 
 tions and practice of the preceding chapter. 
 
 But such suggestions belong rather to the work to be 
 done than to the ideas or principles that underlie that work. 
 The ability to make a perfect circle in one sweep of the 
 brush shows remarkable genius in an artist, as does the 
 playing of the piano in such a way as to cause the notes to 
 sing. The same kind of power makes the actor a genius, 
 for he does not originate the thoughts he utters. Yet he 
 may achieve greatness by his interpretation. 
 
io6 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 1 UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM. 1 
 
 I 1 
 
 ELD TOGETHER by chains of unseen 
 power all the worlds of the sky are drawn into 
 a common family of relationship. Looking at 
 the sun, the mind that had not studied the sub- 
 ject would say at once that it had no control 
 over the earth; but, when he learned that it 
 was more than ninety millions of miles away, 
 he would feel sure that it could not be subjected to any in- 
 fluence that came from so great a distance. 
 
 Again, when he was shown a planet that seemed so small 
 an object as to have no claim whatever on his attention, and 
 was told that it was more than a billion miles away from 
 the sun, he would ridicule the idea of its being held tightly 
 within the control of the great star that centers our system. 
 Swinging out through space, retracing in their years the 
 same pathway all the while, yet flying rapidly away from 
 the power that binds them to their orbit, they find them- 
 selves all the time coming back into subjection. 
 How can this happen? 
 
 Gravity is an unseen power. It is not a substance, any 
 more than sound is a substance. By gravity the body of 
 man is chained to the earth much more securely than cords 
 or irons could hold him. He cannot defeat gravity, and he 
 might cut the chains and ropes. 
 But what is gravity? 
 
 It has no existence except in the will of the Creator. It 
 actually takes hold of nothing. The planets that are more 
 than a billion miles away are tied to the sun ; yet they are 
 
UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 107 
 
 thrown from the sun by the opposite power. What is there 
 in a planet that can exert an influence through a distance of 
 a billion miles, with nothing but ether between? This un- 
 seen power must act on the ether and through it, as that 
 medium must carry the message and execute the will of the 
 power ordained. 
 
 In ether, which penetrates every solid as easily as it per- 
 meates space, there is the element that holds molecules to- 
 gether in such a way that some make iron, some gold, some 
 diamonds, some wood, some water, some air, and others every 
 conceivable shape and substance. In ether is the element 
 that generates electricity. In ether is the element that exe- 
 cutes the law of gravity. In ether is the element that exe- 
 cutes the law of magnetism. In ether is the element that 
 reaches out through infinite space and holds worlds to- 
 gether. Neptune is as closely bound to the sun as is Venus 
 or Mercury. 
 
 This is the power of magnetism. 
 
 As far as ether extends through space, so far does it carry 
 the influences known as magnetism and telepathy; and it 
 reaches to all the worlds that exist in the sky. No one can 
 deny that there is such a power as gravity or attraction that 
 is exerted for more than a billion miles in our solar system. 
 This fact is elementary. It shows in the simplest form one 
 of the unseen powers that are at work. Yet gravity is a 
 division of magnetism. The following principles will help 
 to give a clear understanding of this quality of the psychic 
 world : 
 
 1. What is known as magnetism is power. 
 
 2. Magnetism is the opposite of hypnotism. 
 
 3. There are two classes of magnetism: the physical and 
 the psychic. 
 
 4. Physical magnetism includes the power of action, 
 thought and feeling. 
 
 5. Psychic magnetism is the power that rules all subcon- 
 scious existence. 
 
io8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 6. It is by magnetism that growth of every kind takes 
 place. 
 
 7. It is by magnetism that gravity, cohesion, adhesion, 
 and other forces operate. 
 
 8. It is by magnetism that the earth is held in the solar 
 system, and yet is kept from rushing to the sun. 
 
 9. It is by magnetism that distant influences extend 
 throughout all the realms of the sky. 
 
 10. Universal magnetism throws its lines to every world 
 in space, unites the most distant orbs with all others, con- 
 nects every form of power with every other, reaches the 
 smallest forms of life in our planet and opens to them the 
 powers of communication with the whole universe. 
 
 These conditions have always existed. The ability to 
 know them, to recognize them, to take up the thread of con- 
 nection with them, and to use them, is open to every human 
 being. 
 
 Personal magnetism is one of the divisions of physical 
 power. It deals w 7 ith the influences that are exerted by 
 animal electricity and its charms over others who come 
 directly under such processes. It is the first great training 
 school of self-control, without which no person can hope to 
 control others. 
 
 No power can be exerted without some medium through 
 which to act. In universal magnetism the medium is ether, 
 which has already been described. Of its existence there is 
 ample proof, and it is accepted as the one great sea in space 
 through which all influences travel. All writers on psychic 
 subjects to-day, whose works are given standing as reliable, 
 refer to the spiritual body as the psychic body or the ethereal 
 body. It is not made of ether, but employs that agency as 
 the medium through which it passes on to other worlds. 
 
 It is thus seen that some kind of substance is everywhere 
 present. Water is more unstable than land, as land is more 
 stable than sand, and sand than mud, or mud than water, or 
 water than air, or air than gases, and so ether is lighter 
 
UNIVERSAL MAGNETISM 109 
 
 than gases. Under this theory, the whole universe is phys- 
 ical; but science still regards the ethereal as psychic, and 
 the distinction should be maintained for convenience, if for 
 no other reason. 
 
 Personal magnetism is the power of control between minds 
 and bodies in their physical relations. 
 
 Universal magnetism is the power of control between 
 psychic minds and psychic life, in their psychic relations. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that: — 
 
 Telepathy is knowledge, 
 
 Magnetism is power. 
 
 In the functions of the physical mind and the physical 
 body, telepathy has always been more or less active ; but 
 it has been found that personal magnetism, under the highest 
 cultivation, will increase the activity of the telepathic func- 
 tions to a degree that borders on the wonderful. The 
 results are so remarkable and startling that they amaze the 
 student at every step of progress in these twin studies. 
 
 Every intelligent persons knows that there is a physical 
 mind and a physical body; a psychic mind and a psychic life. 
 These primary facts being true, it must needs follows that, 
 inasmuch as magnetism is power and telepathy knowledge, 
 there should be both power and knowledge within reach of 
 the student of psychic phenomena, as well as on the physical 
 side. Psychic telepathy is not only a new science, but is 
 the direct result of the study of universal magnetism, and 
 has been made possible only by that system. In fact it was 
 discovered through that channel only; and this accounts for 
 the absence hitherto of any work on psychic telepathy. 
 
 Magnetism develops telepathy. 
 
 Universal magnetism, being psychic power, develops 
 psychic telepathy. 
 
no 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 PSYCHIC TELEPATHY. 
 
 ■j". >.i • . . j . -. . ........ . ."".".".". i ". _ .". ■".". ~.~. - .~."i _ . - r."< "... .";.- 
 
 ROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD of the 
 
 'world's history, the power of conveying 
 thoughts through channels other than the 
 senses, has been recognized and wondered at. 
 Strange things have been performed in the 
 name of this seemingly subtle influence. But 
 as we have come to know it better, we find 
 that it is nothing but the union of the ordinary senses with 
 the subconscious mind. A glimpse of what is meant by the 
 latter is caught when a person is hypnotized. Nature does 
 not want the two minds to know each other; so she re- 
 quires that the ordinary brain shall be put to sleep, and on 
 awaking it will have no recollection of what it saw during 
 its hypnotic slumber. 
 
 By comparing this fact with the account of hypnotism 
 given in a subsequent chapter, the difference between the 
 two powers may be readily seen. 
 
 But it is not true that every kind of hypnotism results 
 in telepathy. Nor is it true that telepathy depends always 
 on hypnotism. The use of the latter is a very quick way 
 in which to get proofs of the existence of such a power as 
 telepathy. The method to be pursued is too extensive for 
 this work, but it is referred to in the chapter mentioned. 
 After a succession of hypnotic sleeps the mind of the subject 
 becomes very sensitive and soon gives evidence of having 
 knowledge of affairs that have occurred and are occurring 
 in other places, no matter how far away. He very rarely 
 knows what is going on about him. He seems to get his 
 
PSYCHIC TELEPATHY in 
 
 information from the minds of others rather than from 
 the occurrences themselves. This distinction is important. 
 
 It is interesting to note the progress that has been made 
 in the development of the true studies of psychic phenomena. 
 
 The first step was taken nearly thirty years ago when we 
 discovered the habits of men and women who possessed 
 natural magnetism. They were conscious of their powers, 
 but seemed to have no knowledge of the habits of living 
 that gave rise to those powers. Certain secret processes were 
 developed until a very effective system was originated that 
 in every instance led to the cultivation of personal magnet- 
 ism, based on natural habits. Failure was impossible, be- 
 cause nature was copied and really installed in the lives of 
 those who practiced the system. 
 
 That was physical magnetism, and it still is being used 
 all over the civilized world. It has proved a blessing to over 
 six hundred thousand persons who have adopted its methods. 
 
 The next step was the fruit of magnetism. For centuries 
 it had been noticed that the common thoughts of one mind 
 would be flashed into other minds, without the aid of the 
 ordinary senses. No person has lived in the last five thou- 
 sand years who has not had countless experiences of thought 
 transference. It was surmised that there were some laws 
 that controlled this function ; but it was at last found 
 that the greater the degree of physical magnetism present 
 in the person, the more frequently came the flashing of 
 thoughts from other minds. The result was the publication 
 of the system known as physical telepathy, or thought trans- 
 ference. 
 
 For centuries there have been mediums and clairvoyants; 
 ninety-nine per cent, of whom have either been mere pre- 
 tenders or weak and ineffective agents. There is no profes- 
 sion in which so small a percentage is genuine. But the fact 
 that one in a hundred is reliable has made it possible for 
 the other ninety-nine to gain the confidence of some of the 
 public, especially when they offer seemingly perfect proofs 
 
ii2 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 of success in their work. The peculiar method of the 
 medium involves the use of a trance state. The same is 
 true of the clairvoyant, in most instances ; and always when 
 genuine. The same is true of the hypnotized person. But 
 the trance of the medium and clairvoyant is self-invited; 
 while that of hypnosis is brought about by a manipulator or 
 controller. 
 
 There is no doubt that some genuine telepathy has been 
 produced by these three classes of persons. Indeed the 
 societies for psychical research, including in their membership 
 some of the ablest men of the civilized world, and thousands 
 of such men too, have piled up immense records containing 
 accurate and reliable results of a telepathic nature. 
 
 The handicap is the unconscious condition of the mind 
 of the agent. What satisfaction will you derive from being 
 used by others to transmit knowledge w T hen you know noth- 
 ing of what transpires? This disadvantage will always 
 reduce the telepathy of the medium, the clairvoyant and the 
 hypnotic subject to the lowest degree of value. 
 
 On the other hand, the use of physical magnetism so 
 wonderfully develops the power of the mind to receive 
 flashes of thoughts from other persons that it serves the 
 highest value. Out of thousands of cases that may be re- 
 ferred to as examples, we wish to present one for the purpose 
 of explaining what is meant. A very ordinary lawyer who 
 had more leisure than clients, took up the practice of physical 
 magnetism, known popularly as personal magnetism, and per- 
 sisted in it day after day until he felt himself to be a new 
 being. Prior to this, he had been in the courts rarely, and 
 did not try more than half a dozen cases a year. After this, 
 however, his clients gradually became more numerous, and 
 he w y on success by his skill in cross-examination. In his 
 own words he says : " I found that I could get glimpses 
 of ideas that were in the minds of witnesses, and I never 
 failed to get at the truth. I could not read the words of 
 others, but I caught their meaning and purpose, which was 
 
PSYCHIC TELEPATHY 113 
 
 more valuable." — This is one case only. — A very recent 
 report from a physician says: "After I had studied mag- 
 netism and followed it with the system of thought transfer- 
 ence, I found the thoughts and conditions of my patients 
 coming into my mind, not in words, but in tangible evidence ; 
 and I have been of more service to humanity because of this 
 added function." 
 
 These examples are types of countless experiences, and 
 they are cited here to show the high value of that form of 
 telepathy that will not be compelled to pass into the trance 
 state. Of what use is a power that requires unconsciousness 
 on the part of the person using it in order to secure facts 
 that cannot be obtained by ordinary channels? 
 
 We class hypnotism, clairvoyance and trance conditions all 
 in the very lowest stratum of value. 
 
 As magnetism is the opposite of hypnotism, and is so re- 
 garded by every person familiar with the two functions, so 
 the kind of telepathy that attends hypnotism and clair- 
 voyance is the opposite of that power which follows the 
 development of magnetism. 
 
 This distinction is so important that it should never be 
 lost sight of for a moment in these studies. 
 
 The third step was a departure out of the realm of 
 physical magnetism into that of psychic magnetism, resulting 
 in a series of private works known as Higher Magnetism, 
 Advanced Magnetism and Universal Magnetism, all asso- 
 ciated with the physical side, but taking wide leaps into 
 psychic considerations, and going as far as it is possible for 
 human knowledge to reach in the light of recent discoveries. 
 These works have attracted attention among thoughtful 
 people everywhere. 
 
 The advance made by such systems has been seen in the 
 loftier conception of life by those who have pursued the 
 studies in all earnestness. 
 
 Through physical magnetism it is possible to find the way 
 to physical telepathy. 
 
ii 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 Through physical telepathy it is possible to find the way 
 to psychic magnetism, and up to the grand heights of univer- 
 sal magnetism. 
 
 Through universal magnetism it is possible to find the 
 way to psychic telepathy; and here the control is between 
 forms of psychic life everywhere; and the knowledge that 
 this exalted telepathy brings is of psychic powers everywhere. 
 Magnetism is power; physical magnetism is power over the 
 physical mind and the physical body; physical telepathy is 
 knowledge of the physical body and the physical mind; 
 universal magnetism is power over the psychic mind and 
 psychic life; and psychic telepathy is knowledge of such 
 life and mind. These propositions should be memorized and 
 repeated daily until they become a second self in your 
 existence. 
 
 Now let us look back to the first principles of this study: 
 
 Physical mind and physical life perish; both returning to 
 the funds from which they are taken in their birth and 
 growth. Psychic mind and psychic life are deathless; noth- 
 ing can harm them. 
 
 All that is physical is confined to this earth. Nothing 
 physical can get away from here. Therefore all that dies 
 returns to earth and can go no further. On the other hand 
 the psychic came to the earth from other worlds, and goes 
 hence in due time. The universe is the home of the psychic 
 mind and psychic life. Universal magnetism deals with 
 the entire universe. Psychic telepathy is knowledge of the 
 psychic mind on earth and in the universe; and of psychic 
 life on earth and in other worlds. 
 
 These propositions are not only logical and sound, but 
 stand as the giant pillars of creation, their shafts sunk deep 
 into the foundations of existence and rising to the highest 
 pinnacles of the sky. 
 
 In place of the word magnetism substitute the word 
 poiver, and you will have a better understanding of its 
 meaning. The human body is an organism of faculties 
 
PSYCHIC TELEPATHY 115 
 
 and functions. Whatever mode of use that will increase 
 their powers in wholesome directions, is magnetism. The 
 greater the natural power, the less likelihood there is of 
 lapses and hypnotic tendencies; therefore these traits are 
 faults that weaken and harm a person. 
 
 Law. — The lower the grade of telepathy the more ob- 
 scure it is. 
 
 Knowledge of the life beyond the grave cannot come 
 safely and cleanly through the sewerage of the mind of 
 the medium, the clairvoyant or the hypnotic subject. They 
 have no power beyond the physical. They may reflect the 
 mental impressions that have endured in other brains after 
 the death of another, or they may interpret the wandering 
 intelligence of physical minds that have passed out of the 
 body and have not yet dissolved into their general funds. 
 
 These are truths. 
 
 Let them be examined closely and under the searchlight 
 of the most powerful analysis; the more they are studied 
 and tested, the more impregnable they become. Persons 
 who will not accept at first any facts that antagonize their 
 pet beliefs, will in time come to recognize the force of these 
 tremendous laws. 
 
 It would be the most stupid mind that would deny the 
 existence of a physical and a psychic life in the human body. 
 Such dual organisms are everywhere admitted to exist. This 
 fact alone opens wide the door to all the truths that have 
 been presented in this chapter. And, in the light of psychic 
 telepathy, that door will not close again until the hope that 
 springs eternal in the human breast shall have been registered 
 in the highest courts of heaven. 
 
n6 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 ;r:-:-:--:--:--:-:--:--:--:-:-;--:-;-:-:--:-:--;-:-:--:--:-;-:--:-;--:-:--:-;--:-;--:--:-:-;--:--:-:- : :- 
 
 INTUITION. 
 
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 |\ ITTLE BY LITTLE the powers come down 
 the scale into the busy scenes of physical life. 
 Their duties seem now to be confined to the 
 purpose of helping struggling humanity. 
 What is called an education is supposed to be 
 book learning. The use of words, the correct 
 way of spelling them, the ability to do mathe- 
 matical work enough to secure an understanding of the 
 values of things, and a few other branches, more or less 
 useful, make up necessary book learning. 
 
 But wisdom does not come in that way. Nor is any 
 part of the book learning of earth useful in the life be- 
 yond. In other words, the psychic world has no occasion 
 to employ grammar, spelling, reading, arithmetic, or lan- 
 guages. The best examples of college training have gone 
 down to the grave carrying in the dead brain all the acquisi- 
 tions of the university, every part of which dissolves and 
 molders back to the soil. 
 
 There is but one genuine education, and that tells us 
 what man is, whence he came, where he goes, and what 
 duties and lines of usefulness in this life are best adapted to 
 his happiness and success both here and hereafter. 
 
 He should know what his needs here are, what he can 
 best do and do at his best, what he can accomplish here to 
 make him a credit to this world; for as he fits himself to 
 live here most nobly, he at the same time secures citizenship 
 in the universe. 
 
 To lead such a life as that, he must make his earthly ex- 
 
INTUITION 117 
 
 istence a success. He must met the counter-efforts of the 
 thousands whose interests are ever encroaching on his field 
 of labor, and on the results of his struggles. He ought to 
 know the motives, the purposes and the plans of all men 
 and women who can do him a wrong or wrest from him 
 the fruits of his work. 
 
 There comes into his life a power called intuition, which 
 performs the service of taking him as far as the outskirts of 
 the motives of others. He can cultivate this faculty by lis- 
 tening to it, or he may allow it to hover all the while about 
 him without recognition. It never speaks so plainly that 
 its voice is absolutely certain. If it did, no man would be 
 called upon to exercise his judgment and to weigh both 
 sides of the important questions of life. 
 
 But it comes to all men and women. 
 
 It is increased when it is given attention and acted on. 
 It is decreased when passion or prejudice holds sway. In 
 successful lives it becomes a second nature. Human na- 
 ture is read like an open book, and the plans of others are 
 all discounted long before they are acted upon. It is said 
 that women have intuition in greater degree than men 
 because they are not capable of reasoning. The average 
 woman runs to the following chain of argument: "It 
 must be so, for there cannot be so much smoke without 
 some fire;" referring to the usual subject of conversation, 
 the misdeeds of others. Another feminine argument is this: 
 A Bishop acknowledged paying money to keep from the 
 newspapers a bit of scandal that reflected on his chastity. 
 A woman claimed to have knowledge of his misconduct, 
 and he paid her money to keep the affair from the press. 
 When this fact was known, every feminine mind said: " If 
 he was innocent he never would have paid that money. Do 
 you think that / would ever pay hush money unless I was 
 guilty. No, a thousand times no! " To test this princi- 
 ple a society with the consent of the police in a large city 
 selected at random twenty families who were approached 
 
n8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 with absurd charges. All were wealthy. All were given 
 the opportunity to buy silence on payment of a certain sum 
 of money, and to the surprise of the society, every family 
 decided to pay the money. Yet not one was guilty. On 
 hearing of this, the feminine mind will reason as follows: 
 " They must have all been guilty of something, or they 
 would not have paid hush money so readily." And to such 
 minds as have weak reasoning powers, conclusions are 
 jumped at with bounds. 
 
 Intuition therefore is a keener faculty with women than 
 with ordinary men. But it is a more dangerous weapon; 
 for men who have acquired experience in dealing with hu- 
 man nature are far more able to estimate the reliability of 
 intuition and possibly to avert error. A woman of large 
 experience in the world, coupling intuition with that ac- 
 quisition, is a formidable individual. Some wives are better 
 managers than their husbands and bring financial success 
 into the family because of their combination of experience 
 and intuition. 
 
 We have just met a case where a man of active habits 
 and great willingness to work, was made a widower when 
 he was forty years of age. He had lost his farm by bad 
 management. In a year he re-married. The farm was 
 re-bought without any money, as neither had any; the same 
 routine was re-established; dairy; crops; trading; and the 
 humdrum details of the life in the country. But the new 
 wife managed the husband. She stopped buying fertilizers. 
 Crimson clover and lime were substituted, and the compost 
 from the barnyard was mixed with old sod and made into 
 a rich natural loam by the aid of deep plowing. She com- 
 pelled her husband to cultivate the soil more deeply and 
 oftener, on the principle that such manipulation took the 
 place of expensive fertilizers which plaster mortgages all 
 over farms. In three years their farm produced twice the 
 crops per acre of any land in the county. 
 
 Her intuition told her when to sell and not to sell the 
 
INTUITION tig 
 
 products. Her neighbors got eighteen cents a pound for 
 butter; she put it in molds nicely stamped, and got ten 
 cents more a pound for it. They sold milk for one and a 
 half cents a quart. She got five cents a quart. Nothing 
 was wasted. It required no more work to do things right 
 than in the old ways. Eggs were sold for thirty-six cents 
 a dozen on an average the year round ; while her neighbors 
 received less than twenty-four cents on an average. Hay 
 was marketed at opportune times, and so were all the crops. 
 
 In the fourth year, after the interest and taxes had been 
 kept paid promptly, they began to reduce the mortgage 
 which had been assumed owing to the fact that the holder 
 of the security was a deacon in the church to which the man 
 belonged, and he desired to help him all he could. In 
 three more years the whole debt had been paid, and they 
 are now saving money, with every prospect of being well- 
 to-do some day. It is all the result of the intuitive powers 
 of the wife. She is known as smart. Many business men 
 and agents have tried to pull the wool over her eyes, but she 
 knows them better than they know her. 
 
 Many times we have been asked the question, What is 
 the difference between inspiration and intuition? The an- 
 swer may be given as follows: Inspiration is the power of 
 revealing to great men and women and to geniuses, the 
 knowledge of higher realms by which they are led to fame 
 and lofty success. Intuition is the practical power that 
 gives help to those who are engaged in the commonplace 
 duties of life. 
 
 But it has a broader scope under elevating conditions. 
 It has been the good right hand of many a person in dan- 
 ger. In detective life it is the sole source of success at 
 crucial moments. We have volumes of letters and reports 
 on this subject, and have learned from the lips of the 
 world's best detectives of their constant use of the intuitive 
 faculty. Pinkerton said that no man can hope to become a 
 successful detective unless he possesses this gift. Impossible 
 
120 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 clews are run down and criminals caught by the quick leaps 
 of thought from the mind of the intuitive realm. Could 
 we devote here five hundred page to this one subject we 
 could place before the reader the most wonderful cases of 
 that kind that have ever claimed attention. 
 
 No person denies that there is such a power as intuition. 
 
 Some have had the direct help of this psychic agency and 
 have been saved from misfortune or disaster by its aid. 
 Being psychic it is closely allied to the class of warnings 
 known as premonitions; but the latter are suggestive of ac- 
 tual beings at work to help humanity, while intuition is a 
 power rather than a personality. 
 
 Here is a man about to pass a tree as he goes home in 
 the early evening. Just before he reaches the tree, a form 
 comes to him and a hand points to the other side of the 
 street. That actually occurred. It was a premonition. 
 In another case that actually occurred, a man was approach- 
 ing a tree under similar circumstances, and something 
 seemed to tell him that there was a man concealed behind 
 it. He crossed the road. In both cases a highwayman 
 stood ready to strike down the approaching man, and in 
 both cases he was foiled. But the latter case was an ex- 
 ample of intuition. The close association of the two pow- 
 ers only serves to show their genuineness. 
 
 We have had communications with people for many 
 years and have never yet found one man or woman who 
 did not believe in intuition ; while more than ninety-five 
 per cent, now believe in premonitions; but comparatively few 
 believe in spiritualism. 
 
121 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
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 INSTINCT. 
 
 OWN STILL LOWER In the scale of 
 everyday, practical life, comes the power known 
 as instinct. It serves the purpose of directing 
 the action of the lower forms of creation. 
 Birds and beasts are all led by its aid. The 
 new born child is also assisted in some of 
 its early habits. Were it not for instinct, the 
 lips of the babe would not suck its food, and it would 
 starve. This action is as complete in all its details as if 
 it had months of experience back of it. Yet without so 
 much as a first lesson, the child as soon as it is born will 
 begin to take its food like a veteran. 
 
 The swallowing action is also taught by instinct. With- 
 out it the taking of food into the stomach would be im- 
 possible. 
 
 As the child grows older it does not need the aid of 
 instinct; and this trait is abandoned in its operations, as 
 fast as the imitation that comes from education or experi- 
 ence is employed. 
 
 If it were true that only the simplest habits in the lower 
 animals were adopted without training, they might be at- 
 tributed to heredity; although heredity is so great a mys- 
 tery that it may be ascribed to a power akin to instinct. 
 But animals, birds and all forms of lower life are constantly 
 giving fresh evidence of a source of knowledge that cannot 
 be accounted for on the theory of heredity. Nor is it a 
 blind impulse. There is a power that speaks to the mind 
 
122 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 of the beast or bird and conveys specific information in 
 some peculiar way. 
 
 How does the bee know that the six-sided cell is the 
 most economical shape for saving room and holding the 
 greatest quantity of honey? It is not reasoning, for there 
 is nothing on which to base the logical process of thought. 
 It is not imitation, for there is no difference in the habits 
 between bees that are orphaned without having gathered 
 honey, and those that have been led by older companions. 
 
 How do birds know when an early spring or a late spring 
 is coming? The educated weatherman does not that. But 
 many birds will delay their flight to the north in order to 
 await the coming of a belated season ; while others will 
 start earlier than usual when the spring is to be premature. 
 Surely this cannot be heredity, nor is it taught by imita- 
 tion. There is nothing in the sky or air to lead them on, 
 for the freaks of the weather rarely deceive the feathered 
 hosts. 
 
 There are many reliable works on this subject; and they 
 are worth reading if any person wishes to study this prob- 
 lem for himself, and form an opinion as to what kind of 
 power conveys information to the lower species of life. 
 
123 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
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 | HYPNOTISM. 
 
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 LEEP IS OF SEVERAL KINDS. If the 
 nerves are weary, they must be given rest, and 
 this is done by causing the brain to stop think- 
 ing or acting, whether in study, or worry, or 
 fear, or any other mental operation. If the 
 muscles are tired, they need rest. When the 
 vital centers which are known as the gan- 
 glionic cells are exhausted, there should be the sleep of un- 
 consciousness. Body, nerves and brain should be still. At 
 the end of life, when the organic structure has run down, 
 death is the sleep that cures all. 
 
 But there is a kind of sleep that shuts off the conscious 
 mind without putting the body or nerves into a state of 
 slumber. This is a peculiar state of existence. One goes 
 out of consciousness and immediately awakes into another 
 state of consciousness, neither state knowing what is in the 
 mind of the other. Nothing stranger can be imagined, and 
 for years it was difficult to convince people that such a 
 change was genuine. To-day every hospital of high stand- 
 ing makes use of the hypnotic sleep to aid in effecting cures, 
 especially if the heart is weak and some painful operation 
 is needed. The body in such sleep feels no pain. You 
 may cut off a leg and tell the patient that it is merely the 
 act of putting on a fine suit of clothes and he will laugh 
 with joy. You may stick pins all over him, run red hot 
 irons into the flesh and do other acts of cruelty, and he will 
 know nothing about the suffering until he wakes up. As 
 long as the hypnotic sleep continues he will enter into any 
 
i2 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 mood that is suggested to his mind. After he comes into 
 ordinary consciousness, then the pain of the torn and muti- 
 lated flesh will be felt in all its agony. 
 
 Between the mind that has physical knowledge and the 
 mind that has subconscious knowledge, there is a barrier that 
 is not often pierced. It is the purpose of nature to close the 
 clairvoyant faculty that is quite sure to follow the continued 
 use of the hypnotic sleep in the same person, so that too 
 much evidence of the psychic world may not be available. 
 As it is, despite the fact that such evidence is all the time 
 coming to hand, she makes it as difficult to understand as 
 possible. 
 
 If a person is in the conscious mind, it is a hard 
 struggle to get hold of the facts that are running free 
 in the subconscious mind. Hence hypnotism must pass 
 through several stages of the most skillful manipulation 
 before the subject will be permitted to give up the secrets 
 beyond. 
 
 This kind of sleep has many stages. 
 
 In its lowest form it is a disease known as catalepsy. 
 
 In a stage next above that it is merely the sluggish 
 slumber that makes the person a tool for the performer 
 and exhibitor, or the patient on the operating table at 
 the hospital. 
 
 After long continued practice and repetition, the nervous 
 mentality of the subject becomes acute enough to develop 
 a fair degree of clairvoyance, and then hypnosis is called 
 the trance state. Two persons are needed in most cases 
 of this kind; one to cause the sleep and the other to be 
 put to sleep, coming out of which in the subconscious state, 
 the psychic mind is active. 
 
 The English Society for Psychical Research and its 
 American Branch also, as well as other similar organ- 
 izations have all decided that hypnosis leads the way to 
 clairvoyance or the trance condition employed by mediums. 
 They have with equal certainty reported that there are 
 
Hypnotism 125 
 
 some genuine mediums in the world who are able to 
 reveal facts and secrets in the most amazing manner, but 
 they stop this side of accepting the revelations as proof 
 of the presence of spirits who talk to living persons through 
 such mediums. 
 
 By the use of the methods stated in the higher systems 
 of magnetism any man or woman can practice self-hypno- 
 tism and in time become a highly developed medium for 
 clairvoyance and physical telepathy; but never for psychic 
 telepathy. The latter branches off into a much more ethical 
 process. 
 
 When self-hypnotism has produced the results desired, 
 it still stands alone and useless until the second person is 
 present to call into action the powers that are thus be- 
 stowed. Even when that is done, the subconscious mind 
 of the individual is ignorant of what is known in the 
 ordinary mind ; and the latter, on waking,, has not the 
 slightest perception of what has been conveyed to the 
 subconscious mind.. Thus the gift is a useless affair, and 
 some method is required to connect the two minds. 
 
 What has most puzzled the investigators is the fact that 
 this barrier exists between the two minds. Nothing is 
 more certain than that it does exist. How to break it 
 down has been the study of the keenest minds during the 
 past fifteen years. 
 
 It was at one time thought that an important step had 
 been taken toward the solution when it was known that 
 a person may enter into a wakeful state of hypnotism. 
 That is, many persons act readily upon suggestions of others, 
 whether spoken or written, and seem to be powerless to 
 disobey except when a strong counter influence has been 
 brought to bear. This class has two divisions: The first 
 is that which includes persons who have once been placed 
 under the hypnotic control of others, and who become 
 obedient to the will of the latter without being manipu- 
 lated or put into a specific sleep. We recall the case 
 
126 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 of a man who was passing on the other side of the street 
 and who stopped at the demand of one who stood in the office 
 on the second floor of a building. The demand was made 
 in a whisper. It was winter and there was no possibility 
 of the man hearing the whisper. At our suggestion, he 
 was made to retrace his steps, then go ahead, then enter 
 at the doorway of a building opposite,' and finally come 
 on the run into the office where we stood. The details 
 were such, and our own requests so varied that it was 
 wholly impossible for the man to have rehearsed the strange 
 performance in advance. It was clearly the case of one 
 who had secured hypnotic control so often that distance 
 made no difference, and sleep was not required. The poor 
 fellow was weak in mind, and died in less than a year. 
 
 The other class includes those who are of feeble will 
 power. They may be bent at the whim of almost every- 
 body to do or not to do anythingg. They see in every 
 suggestion an idea of command without choice on their 
 part. They are not fools, so much as weak-willed people. 
 Even that class has several sub-divisions that need not now 
 receive our attention, except that there is a kind of indi- 
 vidual who believes what his passions and prejudices tell 
 him. He is the man who is first to join a mob. He 
 wreaks vengeance on the innocent and, finding the truth 
 at last, slinks home, hoping that he will not. be discovered. 
 You will see him at political meetings, making up the 
 majority of the shouters. His mouth is wide open when 
 in repose, and wider open when active. The peculiarity 
 about him is that he believes what the speakers say: the 
 country is going to the bowwows because of the misdeeds of 
 the political party to which he does not belong. Hearing 
 that statement, he looks from one man to another on either 
 side of him, nods his head violently in approval, and begins 
 to shout defiance to every party except his own. 
 
 The same man is on the jury. He is swayed by passion, 
 prejudice and mock sympathy. He has rendered more ver- 
 
HYPNOTISM 127 
 
 diets of mis-justice than any other power in any age; and 
 in this respect he is exclusively American. In higher rank 
 we see the same kind of man sitting on the bench, known as 
 the judge, allowing the lawyers to swing the wheel of justice 
 out of its tracks by cheap and tawdry technicalities. To 
 the hypnotized judicial mind a small point of law that serves 
 no purpose except to impede the progress of justice, seems 
 the only important thing in the whole universe, and he 
 struggles to give birth to the hair-splitting decision which 
 every sensible man outside of the court recognizes at once 
 as a monstrosity. 
 
 Thus we see the grades of hypnosis. 
 
 Diseased minds, such as those of catelepsy, are often 
 clairvoyant to a remarkable degree. There are three stages 
 of this malady ; one in which the victim is wholly unconscious 
 and has no after memory of the knowledge that passes 
 through his mind. Other persons may use him and secure 
 some telepathic communications; making the condition akin 
 to that hypnosis. The relation between the tw T o classes of 
 subjects is seen from the fact that those who are inclined 
 to catalepsy are most readily hypnotized. 
 
 The second stage of catalepsy is found in the exalted 
 flights of the mind, the events and knowledge being held 
 like the details of a dream. Revelation may have come in 
 this way. It is possible that the inspiration that befell 
 Mohammed occurred in such a state, unless he was an 
 inventor of every part of his religion. 
 
 Gigantic results invite the study of their causes. 
 
 The only really practical and useful stage of catalepsy 
 is that which allows the subject to remain awake during the 
 clairvoyant activities. History contains many notable ex- 
 amples of this stage. In fact almost every case of extraor- 
 dinary genius in physical operations has been associated 
 with the higher form of this disease. Instead of putting 
 the mind into a hypnotic sleep, it has been made more wide 
 awake, and far keener. 
 
is8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 It is well known that Napoleon was a cataleptic, that Alex- 
 ander the Great was a cataleptic, and that Julius Caesar 
 had the same disease. Hundred of others have been placed 
 in the same category. But the extraordinary keenness of 
 their minds has always led to early death or downfall. 
 Napoleon was a wizard in his perception of the purposes 
 of his enemies in battle. He knew what they expected, 
 and did not expect, in his operations; and he never allowed 
 them to surmise his purposes. Yet, while still in the prime 
 of life, he was unable to maintain this keenness of perception. 
 On the bloody field of Waterloo, with empire and liberty at 
 stake, he rode in his saddle asleep. 
 
 It is being claimed to-day that all phases of trance sleep 
 and cataleptic drowsiness are forms of physical telepathy, 
 and do not affect the psychic mind. Of this fact we are 
 not sure ; and many observations will be made of the opera- 
 tions of this function in order that the real law may be 
 ascertained. 
 
 There are times in the lives of all men and women when 
 they are misled by the influence of others; and thus show 
 a deficiency in magnetism. They believe things that are not 
 true, although most of the time they are safe from such 
 influence. 
 
 Slightly lower in the scale are those persons who believe 
 most readily the assertions they hear, or that they read in 
 the papers; they are in a partial hypnotic state. Still lower 
 down in the grade, not so much of intelligence as of lack 
 of magnetism, are the people who are swayed in their beliefs 
 and passions by almost every whim, feeling, or report. 
 They include the usual jurors, the members of the mob, 
 the great body of cheerers at political meetings, and all hasty 
 thinkers. They are examples of waking-hypnosis. 
 
 Then comes the lowest grade of all, the actual sleep that 
 is induced by manipulation at first, and by suggestion later 
 on. We have seen cases where the subjects had been so 
 often controlled that there was no dividing line between 
 
HYPNOTISM 129 
 
 wakefulness and sleep. The victims all died in a very few- 
 years, despite the claim of physicians that hypnotism is an 
 aid in the cure of disease. 
 
 We have observed hundreds of cases of actual hypnotism. 
 In some of them the subjects were conquered against their 
 wills, although they were apparently willing to be controlled 
 after their will had been over-ridden. " I will not seek 
 to control any person who is not perfectly willing," was 
 the claim of one hypnotist; yet he found many who came 
 under his power whc tried at first to avoid it. 
 
 In the sleep, the subject seems to wake up and to be 
 alert, but he is a somnambulist at the time; a wide awake 
 sleeper. Suggestions are acted upon with a blind obedience 
 to another's will. 
 
 Now it happens that many thousands of people are subjects 
 — possible of hypnosis, who may never be actually put to 
 sleep, because they may not come in contact with a hypnotist. 
 They 'nevertheless show the symptoms of the failing by their 
 ready consent to suggestions made by friends or acquaint- 
 ances. They are the people who are tricked all along the 
 pathway of life. They are credulous, acquiescent and yield- 
 ing. They cannot make a good fight against temptation. 
 In the criminal careers which some choose, in debauchery, 
 in their inability to avoid alcohol, in their gambling at the 
 race-tracks, and in other lines of wickedness, they are victims 
 of suggestion or influences before which their natures fall 
 paralyzed. 
 
 Superstitious fear, belief in luck good or bad, worshipping 
 the oracle of chance, or seeking the services of those who 
 pretend to read the past, present and future, all induce the 
 semi-hypnotic state that wrecks the mind and ruins the 
 faculties. 
 
130 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 SUPERSTITION. 
 
 TILL LOWER we descend into the oper- 
 ations of life, and come now to a study of 
 the influence that enslaves more than ninety- 
 nine per cent, of all the inhabitants of the 
 world. There is no one so ignorant or so 
 educated that superstition does not taint their 
 daily existence. In this age of advanced 
 thought more recruits to the ranks of the free are being 
 made and we often hear the remark : "I am not super- 
 stitious in the least, but I would not sit down to a table 
 of thirteen, nor would I begin anything on a Friday." 
 
 Yet such person is sure that superstition is a mere mental 
 fear. 
 
 Not long ago we heard a very refined and highly sensible 
 woman decry against the belief in superstition; but at 
 the dining table she would not pass a dish of salt from 
 her hand to another person's hand. Why not? It would 
 be a sure sign of a quarrel. 
 
 This fear may not be regarded as a power, but it 
 exerts the full influence of a power, and that it stamps 
 it as an evil ruler of humanity. 
 
 A man who had built up a large fortune by his ability 
 and who repudiated all opinions that leaned toward this 
 power, afterwards became the most superstitious in- 
 dividual we have ever met, and for the following reason : 
 One Christmas day he sat at the table where thirteen 
 persons were present. Next Christmas all of them had 
 died but himself. He knew this to be the fact, because 
 
SUPERSTITION. 131 
 
 they were his personal friends and he was present at their 
 funerals. After that he lived in dread and died in the 
 course of a few years. It was the fear that depressed 
 him; and, whether there is any real power in superstition, 
 it does incalculable harm by instilling fear into the mind. 
 
 Many ocean vessels will not start on Friday for their 
 voyages; their officers may not be superstitious, but they 
 say the injury is done to the service by the dread which 
 sailors would have of setting sail on that day. One 
 captain remarked to us: "Why if we had a storm or 
 danger arose in any form, the sailors who had left port 
 on a Friday would be useless. They would feel sure of 
 the coming disaster and would become cowards." 
 
 Without exception it is true that the lower the grade 
 of intelligence in the human mind the more it is swayed 
 by superstition. In the African families there is constant 
 fear of this power, and it does more than anything else 
 to keep them ignorant and debased. Among negro serv- 
 ants this same slavery of the mind is many times more 
 abject than among the educated classes of the same race. 
 Their employers have found it necessary to yield to their 
 superstitious dread when they would not take one word 
 or look of impudence from them. 
 
 A book would be required to contain all the catalogue 
 of superstitions that prevail among the educated white 
 classes. Young women have the most abundant vocabulary 
 in this respect. When they are grown up and get some 
 hard knocks in the world of experience, they drop a few 
 score signs from the list. It is a beautiful phase of human 
 nature to hear the mature woman of sense describe the 
 follies of believing in this power, and then give her friends a 
 constant stream of evidence to the contrary, explaining each 
 exception by saying: "It is a pet idea of mine not to 
 do this or that, but it has nothing to do with superstition." 
 
 The full measure of this power is seen only when the 
 nervous system is thrown into a cataleptic fear by which 
 
132 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 self-hypnotism is induced. If you are weighted down by 
 dread of any kind, you will do a great injury to your 
 nerves and mind. Out of this fear came the influences 
 known as witchcraft. If a shrewd man or woman knew 
 of any person who had become a slave to superstitious fear, 
 a control of a very serious nature could be secured, and 
 thus it opened up a special kind of hypnotism. 
 
 Physicians who have made investigations along this line 
 have come to the conclusion that witchcraft did in fact 
 exist. The age in which history charges it with most 
 offenses was peculiarly an age of great superstitious fear. 
 Some persons had over one thousand signs of evil, so 
 many in fact that it was impossible to turn to the right 
 or the left without invoking the spirits of demons, as they 
 thought. 
 
 Added to this was the mental darkness of the age in 
 which they lived, and the criminal tendencies of the masses 
 in Europe or the heavy religious melancholy of the Puritans 
 in America, all of which destroyed the normal power of 
 the nervous system. 
 
 If you will note the effect of a nervous person alone 
 in an old house at midnight, with strange noises in the 
 room above and the cellar below, you have a condition that 
 gives rise to the presence of spirits, so-called. Self-hypno- 
 tism enters into the scene and creates sights and sounds at 
 the will of the frightened mind. If in that lonely house 
 where you are sitting in the dark at midnight, you have 
 the corpse of a dead man in the adjoining room, you can 
 get an idea of the age which gave birth to witchcraft. 
 
 The demon-world is pregnant with such progeny. 
 
 Superstition is the basis of ignorance. Not the kind 
 of ignorance that is indicated by the inability to read and 
 write, but the denser kind that has an incoherent idea of 
 the duties and needs of life on this earth. Educated 
 people are superstitious. Geniuses are enslaved by this 
 power. Every actor is likewise weighted down. Nearly 
 
SUPERSTITION 133 
 
 all business men are superstitious. Bankers have the same 
 weakness, showing that a keen money-making mind is not 
 free from ignorance. 
 
 Whoever allows this power to influence them is sure to 
 be hindered in their duties, for the latter must of necessity 
 give way to the interference of this agency. When a boat 
 is ready to sail on Friday, it should leave port, and not lose 
 a day. When there are thirteen at a table, whether to dine 
 or do business, there is some loss somewhere if the function 
 is delayed or broken up. These are but examples. The 
 grand total of notions or signs embraced in the whole 
 category of the superstitious realm is so large that it would 
 take a book to properly classify and describe them. 
 
134 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
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 THE DEMONS. 
 
 NE MORE DESCENT In the scale of the 
 unseen powers and we come to the lowest 
 realm of all. Here are the demons. In the 
 making of the many wonderful and beautiful 
 worlds in the universe, with freedom of will 
 in every created being, some must fall, and 
 there must be some place to which they fall. 
 It is the opinion among the best minds of to-day that writers 
 who are not directly inspired by the Supreme Being may 
 nevertheless receive inspired thoughts as stated in an earlier 
 chapter of this division. 
 
 Among such writers are men like Milton. 
 In his Paradise Lost he depicts the fall of the lost angels 
 or beings, giving vivid accounts of their long descent 
 through space, and their apparent endless falling headlong 
 to the nether regions. So much potency of description 
 cannot be the imagination of a mere physical mind. The 
 very essence of the motive in that sublime poem is the 
 dropping out of heaven of beings that might have inherited 
 eternal bliss but for the fact that they have been allowed 
 to choose their fates for themselves, just as you and all 
 others have been given freedom of choice. 
 
 In the same character of description the Bible confirms 
 the story of the falling of the beings out of heaven. In 
 fact that book of books cannot be interpreted in any other 
 meaning. It will not do to ascribe to everything sacred 
 an allegorical meaning, although that is an easy way in 
 which to dispose of the otherwise unsolvable problems of 
 
THE DEMONS 135 
 
 the Scriptures. Where the trope is, in the accounts of 
 the fall of man and the fallen angels we have never yet 
 been able to discover. 
 
 Such a work as the Inferno of Dante has more or less 
 of the semi-inspiration of Milton in it. It reflects some 
 degree of psychic power. In it we are taught that there 
 was a fall, and the nether regions are crudely depicted 
 in the midst of a chaos of description that is more poetical 
 than coherent. But there is the central idea in it that 
 cannot be shaken by all these shortcomings. 
 
 No person can go very far in the study of psychic 
 telepathy without finding out the facts and laws that are 
 set forth in the pages of this work that follow. 
 
 LAW.— Earth is hell. 
 
 To what extent this statement may shock the mind of 
 the reader it is not possible to conceive. No one has ever 
 pretended that earth is heaven. Most students of crimi- 
 nology have already come to the conclusion that earth is 
 hell. But crimes and criminals alone cannot make a hell 
 of any planet. 
 
 LAW. — All created beings have been endowed with the 
 freedom to choose their own fates and destined careers. 
 
 This law is so well recognized that it need not be dis- 
 cussed. 
 
 The Creator could not associate with Himself any form 
 of life that was not free. If one being in a million were 
 to become rebellious, the percentage would be hardly a 
 marring influence on the state of absolute perfection ; yet 
 one in a million would, in the aggregate, produce a total 
 of hundreds of millions or billions perhaps in the entire 
 universe. 
 
 Whether the fall was completed in one era, or is now 
 in progress, cannot affect the principle involved ; although 
 it is supposed that it occurred at one period only. Scien- 
 tists agree that humanity is the acme of imperfection, judged 
 by any standard; that it is as diabolical in nature as any 
 
i 3 6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 creatures can be and not totally annihilate each other. In 
 fact, from the beginning of time, the chief aim of man 
 seems to have been to slay his fellow beings, and to add 
 to the doom of death all the torture that can be invented 
 in the diabolical genius of the human heart. 
 
 There has never been an age of honesty or peace. 
 
 The present time seems to us the best in all the history 
 of the world, and it is full to the brim and running over 
 with dishonesty, cruelty and evil. In all parts of the 
 world, but more especially in the civilized countries, crime 
 and wickedness of every description are on the rapid in- 
 crease. Reports of investigators, including heads of police, 
 say that in the past fifteen years there has been an alarm- 
 ing increase in the number of all grades of crime and all 
 kinds of penal offenses. 
 
 The tortures that were practiced in all ages down to 
 the most recent date in the leading countries, and that are 
 practiced now in ninety per cent, of the world, have put 
 Satan to the blush if the sacred accounts are to be taken 
 for their face value. Diabolical, cruel, barbarous, fiendish 
 and terribly demoniacal are the inventions that man has 
 put into practice with the one idea of making his fellow 
 beings suffer the most excruciating agony prolonged through 
 as great a period of time as possible. No government has 
 been exempt from this condition. No creed has not 
 been stained by its guilt. In fact more people, more brave 
 men, more helpless women and innocent children have been 
 burned alive, or racked, or broken on the wheel, or pinched 
 day after day with red hot irons, or otherwise mutilated 
 by orders of the church than by the state in the countries 
 that boast of the greatest civilization. To murder met 
 the penalty of hanging, a painless death. But to have an 
 opinion, a mere breath of the mind, was met by the most 
 devilish tortures that human ingenuity could conjure up. 
 
 It has been said that the age of such conditions has 
 passed forever. This is not true. Men have been 
 
THE DEMONS 137 
 
 burned alive in the United States within the past six 
 months; some at the stake, some in houses for purposes of 
 robbery, and some for revenge. Only last week a band of 
 men forced three men, two women, and five children into 
 a house, piled up faggots about it, and set it on fire. In 
 the old times the victim at the stake was quickly relieved 
 from consciousness by the smoke and flames; but in a house 
 where the inmates must fly from room to room as the 
 hot flames creep upon them, the death is slow and torturing. 
 The human heart is as hard now as ever, but the power 
 of police suppression is greater. 
 
 At a military college a young man was taken from his 
 room at midnight, stripped of all his clothing, and carried 
 to a river, the ice broken, and the poor fellow forced to 
 stay under water until unconscious and nearly dead from 
 the flooding of his lungs. On being taken out, he was re- 
 vived, and the same treatment given him again and again. 
 From a rugged and vigorous constitution, he was made 
 so ill that he fell away and in a short time died. His name 
 was William Jarvis and the hazing took place at West 
 Point, the national military school. This young man was 
 the personal friend and associate of the author in his young 
 manhood, and he related these experiences in person. 
 
 In one of the Western States within a few months, a 
 young man was hazed by being tied to a tree and then 
 burned slowly. The fire made more rapid progress than 
 was expected ; and the boy, after suffering the most ex- 
 cruciating tortures by slow burning, died. 
 
 These are merely sample cases. They are equalled on 
 every hand by the disposition to torture with the most 
 fiendish cruelty the pupils who attend institutions of 
 learning. A college president said : " I do not like to say 
 it, but I think that more good will come from letting the 
 public know the opinion of a man in my position than to 
 keep silence, when I assert that there are many students 
 who, if given freedom to haze their fellows, would revive 
 
i 3 8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 all the tortures of the dark ages. The demon spirit is 
 only dormant in the human breast in this age of advanced 
 morality." 
 
 In a leading magazine, a very able article on Chicago 
 stated recently that the immense numbers of diabolical 
 criminals of every grade from cutthroats up to runners 
 and managers of houses of prostitution and politically sup- 
 ported saloons, where crimes are nightly enacted without 
 fear of punishment, proved beyond all doubt that humanity 
 to-day is just as savage and just as fiendish as in the blackest 
 period of Roman history when women and children were 
 fed to famished wild beasts in the arena for the amusement 
 of the assembled thousands. 
 
 Surely a just God never made such beings as these. 
 Either the inhabitants of this planet are freshly created at 
 birth by the hand of the God of Love, or they are the 
 product of the demons. As the earth is seeking always to 
 blossom into beauty and kindliness, through its flowers, its 
 adornment, its color, its exquisite dress and rich emblems 
 of peace and sweetest tenderness, and through the noble 
 characters that rise from the debris of its wickedness, there 
 can be no doubt that God lives. 
 
 This being true, there can be no reason to believe that 
 the devilish beings that infest this globe are His direct 
 work. In fact they are the product of their own past. 
 
 LAW. — The earth is the dumping ground of the uni- 
 verse. 
 
 If the beings that dwell on this planet were created by 
 the Supreme Being in just the moral condition in which 
 they now exist, then that Creator is not God. If they were 
 once brought into life pure and perfect, endowed with the 
 power to choose their own fate, and have rebelled against 
 the government of heaven, they are no longer fit to remain 
 in an abode of peace and love. They must of necessity fall. 
 If they are allowed to remain where they fall, their presence 
 must always be a source of pain and suffering to those who 
 
THE DEMONS 139 
 
 see them. It is not right that any part of a happy world 
 should be devoted to the incarceration of demons, as fallen 
 beings are called. It certainly would be a wrong to set 
 off in each orb in the sky, a place where these demons could 
 dwell. 
 
 LAW. — A soul once created is immortal. 
 
 As these demon souls must live on forever, it would be 
 an injustice to inflict them on other beings who had been 
 loyal to God. As they are immortal, they would then 
 remain in those world-prisons forever. In such prisons 
 they would be deprived of the power to free themselves. 
 As they are all psychic beings the question of transit to 
 one specific world is of no importance. 
 
 The whole universe may be traversed. 
 
 It was decreed that one orb alone should hold all the 
 demon spirits of the universe, and they were sent to this 
 earth. 
 
 In order to maintain their own independence they were 
 allowed to run as wild as they chose, and given food and 
 drink with opportunities to clothe and shelter themselves 
 as best they could. 
 
 LAW. — The earth began as a rejected rock world, and 
 has evolved its own progress until it was fit for the physical 
 existence of the demons. 
 
 Hardship after hardship has been placed in the path of 
 man from the beginning of time. The rock has been cold 
 on this globe for about one hundred million years. Man 
 began life here about one hundred thousand years ago, and 
 it is probable that the beings fell from their rank in the 
 universe at that time. 
 
 Days and nights, weeks, months and years are nothing 
 in the psychic world. Whether it requires an aeon or a 
 million centuries, is of no importance. Humanity might 
 occupy a hundred thousand years in evolving from rock to 
 physical life, and it would pass as instantaneous creation. 
 Therefore it is immaterial whether man was directly given 
 
140 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 life on earth, or came to his present stage by the processes 
 of improvement. 
 
 LAW. — Physical life is the union of matter with the 
 soul. 
 
 When the beings fell out of heaven they could not ap- 
 pear as physical beings until the rock of this planet had 
 been molded into shape to receive them. Many changes 
 were required. There must be pliable matter capable of 
 living, of which the plant was the first type, containing 
 sap which was the forerunner of blood, leaves which were 
 the forerunner of the lungs, and roots which were the fore- 
 runner of the stomach having digestive powers. 
 
 Then food was essential before man took bodily shape, and 
 this was brought about by the operations of nature such 
 as rain, frost and the flow of waters, to wear away the 
 rock, reduce it to sand and afterward mingle it with decay 
 in order to produce loam, out of which man would be able 
 to secure his food. All that he eats of whatever nature, 
 comes from such loam, even if he takes the flesh of animal 
 life as part of his diet. 
 
 To accomplish all these changes required many thousands 
 of years. In time the material of the earth was fit to 
 be united with the soul of a demon, and man appeared. 
 The proofs furnished by geology and other sources, show 
 conclusively that every grade of prehistoric man was a 
 demon; and there could have been no exception to that 
 rule. After humanity had occupied this globe for many 
 centuries, all the while in the form of savages, which are 
 the basest of the human demons, the better spirits of peace 
 and love sought to find scope in which to develop, and 
 religion, inspiration and hope of immortality began to find 
 room in the breast of mankind. 
 
 Every statement in this chapter is a fact. 
 It is an absolute, provable fact. It is verified beyond 
 all doubt by the uses and practice of psychic telepathy; but, 
 in addition thereto, it is proved by every writing on the 
 
THE DEMONS 141 
 
 subject that has ever been issued. It is proved by every 
 science that touches the subject, by every form of religion, 
 by every substantiated belief, and by the conditions of the 
 earth and its people, past and present. It is being proved 
 here and now day and night, year in and year out. It is 
 in harmony with all the problems that stand before the 
 mind. It explains every phenomena of every kind. With- 
 out it there is a hopeless tangle in the philosophies of the 
 world. 
 
 The laws and statements, therefore, that have thus far 
 been made must be accepted as the only truths that bear 
 on this great theme. 
 
 They are proved with absolute certainty up to the present 
 moment. 
 
 But they will be sustained with cumulative evidence all 
 along the way to the end of this book. 
 
142 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
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 I' THE DUMPING GROUND. 1 
 
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 ROOFS IN ABUNDANCE are everywhere 
 
 obtainable of the fact that earth is the dump- 
 ground of the universe. What is called evo- 
 lution is merely the effort of nature to unite 
 the lost souls with matter and effect a union 
 that will give man, through the exercise of his 
 free choice, the opportunity to make his fate for 
 himself. It is the struggle of the ages to bring about this 
 condition. In later laws we will see what are the direct 
 sources of supply in maintaining the progress of life on this 
 planet. 
 
 The present chapter must be devoted to the consideration 
 of the earth as the dumping ground of the universe. 
 
 The universe is the whole sky with all the orbs that 
 occupy it. 
 
 To be a dumping ground means that there must be a 
 place to send or dump the discarded beings collected from 
 all the orbs of the sky. 
 
 The first idea of a gentle religion is that the Creator 
 is love, all love, all peace, all beauty of mind and spirit. 
 It has also been taught that such a Creator brought into 
 life the beings that first dwelt on this globe. It is well 
 known that prehistoric man was a cruel and fiendish savage 
 in whose breast not one particle of love or gentleness could 
 find a lodging place. Since the dawn of history, the 
 Mongolians, Egyptians and Ethiopians were the first peoples 
 to come forward ; as the inhabitants of the southern part 
 of Central Asia whence sprang the foundation of civiliz- 
 ation, were much later in point of time. Yet if you look 
 
THE DUMPING GROUND 143 
 
 into the character of the Mongolians, the Egyptians and 
 the Ethiopians, you will find nothing but demoniac nature. 
 They found their chief pleasures in cruelties, tortures and 
 sensual debauch. 
 
 The fact that is thus made prominent is that the first 
 beings that came upon earth were demons; the second ar- 
 rivals were descended from these and were also demons; 
 the third arrivals were descended from them and were also 
 demons; and it is only after a great lapse of time that 
 the light of God, of peace, of love, and of the heaven-born 
 desire for a true religion has found place in the heart of 
 man. At the first, second, third, fourth, fifth and all other 
 stages, the beings that came upon the earth were demons, 
 demons, demons, demons, demons; and to-day the great 
 mass of life on this planet is demoniacal, as has been ex- 
 plained in the preceding chapter. 
 
 That earth is a dumping ground is taken for granted. 
 It is also proved by stronger evidence than any other fact 
 in all the universe. 
 
 That God is love and peace is also established from the 
 other gigantic fact that He is rising up out of every mist 
 of earth with love, peace and immortality in His trident. 
 No one will deny that these attributes are seeking as- 
 cendency to-day, and have been for centuries, slowly but 
 surely; and they cannot come from out the heart of 
 demons. Therefore they point with unmistakable proof 
 to the sublime fact that there is a God and that the souls 
 of men and women are reaching out for His hand. 
 
 Here are two armies of facts marshaled against each 
 other. 
 
 Painful as it seems, it is our duty to show something 
 of the conditions of this world that stamp it as the dump- 
 ing ground of the universe. Volumes could be written on 
 this theme. But a few salient facts will suffice. 
 
 1. We start with the assertion that God is the Creator, 
 and all is love and peace and gentleness. 
 
i 4 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 2. Having brought into life the beings that occupied 
 the orbs of the sky, it was necessary in order to maintain 
 love and peace in those worlds, to cast forth all rebellious 
 souls; for it would have been contrary to the doctrines and 
 the principles of love and peace to allow them to remain at 
 large, a menace to all other human beings. On the same 
 principle it is a wrong to loyal citizens on earth to permit 
 criminals to have a share in their lives. 
 
 3. The discarded souls were dumped on one orb in order 
 that they might work out their own fate under the doctrine 
 of freedom of choice. 
 
 4. The first and all the hordes that have come on this 
 planet have been demons and only demons, except in so 
 far as now and then some soul chooses its better destiny 
 and becomes again an inhabitant of heaven, as will be fully 
 described in the later pages of this book. 
 
 5. This earth is that dumping ground. A loving and 
 peaceful God could not create the demons that have oc- 
 cupied this globe for one hundred thousand years. They, 
 therefore, must have been driven out of heaven as told by 
 the inspired Milton ; or else they are an endless succession 
 of demon generations. 
 
 6. The latter claim cannot be true, for it is denied by 
 the fact that the love and peace of God are breaking through 
 the demon life of earth all the time. It is also denied by 
 psychic telepathy. 
 
 7. For more than ninety-six thousand years of demon life 
 on this earth there was not one ray of hope, or peace, or 
 love in the countless millions that dwelt here. 
 
 8. Out of the succession of generations since history began, 
 less than two per cent, of humanity have been free from 
 the influences of demon life and character. 
 
 9. When America was discovered, it was drenched from 
 the northern limits to the southern seas with the blood of 
 victims that was shed to satisfy the hellish spirit of the 
 people who lived here. To murder, to kill, to cut to pieces, 
 
THE DUMPING GROUND 145 
 
 to burn at the stake, to torture, to prolong suffering into 
 aeons of agony, — these were the controlling forces in human 
 nature, and would be to-day were it not for the advance 
 of another rank of life that is carrying the banner of 
 peace and love. 
 
 10. Similar tortures _ and demoniacal practices are 
 abundant even now all over the globe. All Asia is given 
 to them. All the Old World except a few nations still 
 clings to the barbaric, although the barriers are fast 
 crumbling before the march of better things. Russia that 
 asks to be taken seriously in its claims to civilization, is 
 a hot bed of torture and unceasing cruelties. 
 
 11. In the few nations that call themselves civilized, such 
 as the better peoples, the spirit of demon life takes on a 
 higher coloring. Once when a savage wanted to take a 
 wife, he went to where the maiden lived, clubbed her 
 over the head until she was insensible, then carried her 
 to his home. He did not ravish her until he had gone 
 through this striking ceremony of marriage. To-day the 
 demon spirits of rape, of fornication, of adultery, of Sodomy, 
 of masturbation, of gonorrhoea, of syphilis, of venery, of 
 sensuality in low and foul degrees, are everywhere filling 
 the lives of humanity in the civilized nations. More than 
 two-thirds of the better sections of New York City are 
 called the tenderloin. If the prostitutes of Chicago and 
 their male patrons were all coralled in one field, they 
 would have numbers enough to set up a city larger than 
 Boston. This one class of crime is cited merely to show 
 to what an extent the demon character is still rampant. It 
 is one example only. 
 
 12. In London and Paris all the good of men and 
 women, all that is worthy in soul and body of the great 
 majority is given over to the infection of venery and 
 venereal diseases. Eighty per cent, of the population of 
 those great cities is thus devoted to demon life. The 
 police know it. They say the only way is to let the 
 
 10 
 
146 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 criminal tendencies run their course, and the fires will 
 burn out in death or hopeless disease. There is no cure. 
 
 13. The accumulated murders that occur in the civilized 
 countries make an immense total. They are so common 
 that the public mind is indifferent to them. Even self- 
 defense is murder, although the slayer is not the guilty 
 party. The assailant invited his own death. Suicides 
 are murders, or the result of wasted lives or blasted hopes, 
 with the spirit of demons running riot after years of defiance 
 of the laws of life. Wanton negligence resulting in death 
 is a murderous spirit; and the two hundred thousand deaths 
 from accidents in America every year are the fruit of this 
 wanton disregard for human life. 
 
 14. Lesser crimes are so abundant that there are hun- 
 dreds of books written to describe them. There are endless 
 laws made to punish them. There are prisons, jails, peni- 
 tentiaries, and penal institutions in every part of our fair 
 land; despite which fact, only one per cent, of the criminals 
 are ever punished. What the demon spirit is may be seen 
 in mob violence. In the wild West all men and women are 
 rough in manner and many an innocent victim has fallen to 
 earth by the hand of summary vengeance. The hanging bee 
 may often be deserved, but it denotes a vicious soul both 
 in the victim and the mob. In the olden days of the 
 past few generations, men and women were tarred and 
 feathered. Even if they deserved it, the heart that can 
 participate in such methods is not the offspring of love and 
 peace. Few of the mob are ever punished. 
 
 15. In the past twelve months, right in the very age 
 in which we live, more than one hundred mobs have taken 
 life in the United States, the land of the highest moral aims. 
 Of the victims of such rule not all are guilty. Men are 
 brutally mutilated. Despite the fact that we boast of the 
 enforcement of law, very little is done to check the progress 
 of riots. In any city a crowd may assemble on short notice, 
 may wreck property, slay innocent people, and melt away 
 
THE DUMPING GROUND 147 
 
 into their haunts without a finger being raised to bring the 
 guilty to justice. The claim that we are a government by 
 the people is true ; for there might arise one thousand mobs 
 in this country and instantly render the government helpless. 
 One mob can do that much. In the summer of this year 
 a man in the most public streets of New York City was 
 carrying his boy home. Some one raised the cry that it 
 was a case of kidnapping. In a few moments a thousand 
 furious people were chasing the father. He ran into a door- 
 way, but was unmercifully beaten and nearly killed before 
 the police rescued him. When the mob learned its mistake, 
 it slunk away. Deaths have followed such uprisings, and 
 if proof comes of the innocence of the victim, the mob slinks 
 away to its lair, licking their blood-red chops like the savage 
 beasts of which they are cousins. There is no redress. The 
 government is helpless. 
 
 16. There are records made in the past eight years of over 
 one thousand instances of cruel and horrible tortures inflicted 
 on men and women by robbers to compel them to give up 
 the secret of their hoarded earnings. The agony that is 
 inflicted on the physical body by such demons is the result 
 of cunning invention as deliberate as the character of hell 
 can make it. And the fiends are not punished. If earth 
 were a world of peace and love, there would not be one 
 fiend on its surface. Now there are hundreds of millions. 
 
 17. In every department of existence the spirit of the 
 demon is seen. Beasts are all savage by nature. Some 
 have been tamed by long association with the gentler people, 
 but from motives of selfishness, as the help that can be 
 rendered by cattle, horses and other animals is coveted. 
 Man will be tame to an animal that he wishes to tame, 
 yet will use that animal for his savagery against his fellow 
 beings. Some of the noblest types of horses are ridden 
 by the millions of warriors of the Mohammedan religion 
 whose cry of encouragement is: "Paradise will be found 
 in the shadow of the crossing of swords." This means 
 
148 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 that battle, whereby the swords of their own followers are 
 crossed with the swords of their enemies, is the threshold 
 of heaven ; or in other words, that murder, slaying, tortured 
 bodies and hellish minds are the necessary steps to eternal 
 happiness and immortality. The motto itself is the brand 
 of demon life. The sought for goal is the hope of a demon. 
 Nothing more fiendish can be conceived than the doctrine 
 that paradise or heaven can be bought by murder. Yet 
 there are more millions that live in that light than are 
 found in all the civilized nations of earth put together. 
 
 1 8. A band of emigrants left Europe to get rid of op- 
 pression. They came to America. Here they found not 
 one tame beast; all was savagery. Reptiles, insects, vermin, 
 and the barbarous Indians. They lived in the midst of 
 demon life of every kind. To-day the savage beasts and 
 reptiles have been pushed to the woods, and the Indians have 
 been almost exterminated by the hand of civilization. But 
 earth when it became the dwelling place of humanity was 
 nothing but a dumping ground for the lost souls that were 
 compelled to seek hope here amid the most uninviting 
 prospects of all the universe. Millions have fallen prey to 
 poison. Millions have been slain by wild beasts. Billions 
 have been killed by the hand of their fellow beings. What 
 greater chain of proof could be wanted to show that this 
 earth is the dumping ground of all the sky? 
 
 19. How many billions upon billions have been slain by 
 disease? Is sickness, suffering and premature death a 
 heritage from a loving God, or a fitting association for 
 demon life? If this earth were an abode of peace and a 
 mere stamping ground for a better land, there would be no 
 necessity for such a chapter as this. There would be no 
 reason for all the suffering, all the agony, all the tortures, all 
 the malice and hatred that have piled to the height of moun- 
 tains in the centuries that have rolled away. Disease is a 
 terrible infliction. Yet it is universal on this globe. Its 
 very presence is a lie to the idea that the people are created 
 
THE DUMPING GROUND 149 
 
 originally in such conditions. The mind that made the 
 millions of stars and star-worlds is a Master Genius. Im- 
 perfections have no place in such a creation, as they are 
 wholly unnecessary. There can be no other conclusion 
 but that the freedom of each soul has been the undoing 
 of some, and that they are here in hell to work themselves 
 out by the exercise of the same dominant spirit of liberty 
 that brought them here. 
 
 20. Everywhere the evidence is cumulative that this planet 
 is filled with demon life. Weeds, vermin, inseces, reptiles, 
 savage beasts and foul diseases of both the vegetable and 
 animal kingdoms, furnish a ceaseless dirge in the march 
 of evil influences that hover about this realm. 
 
 21. The kind of moral power that was brought here with 
 the fallen souls is easily seen in the malignant motives of 
 the human heart. Revenge is a common trait and will 
 blind all the other faculties. Libel and slander, envy, ar- 
 rogance, a disdain for the people who are lower in the scale 
 of wealth but far more honest than those who, through graft, 
 have robbed the great worthy classes of their rightful 
 winnings, the wanton waste of time in the debauchery of 
 society, the silly and imbecile pleasures of the night-men 
 and the night-women who waste life, moral health and the 
 hope of happiness in their carousals, all tell the one plain 
 story of the demons. 
 
 22. Selfishness is so mean an attribute that it ought not 
 to find lodgment in any heart; but it is as nearly universal 
 as the air itself. To gratify this passion for gain by unfair 
 means, all the moral code is thrown to the winds in the 
 belief that there is no one to see or to know what the mind 
 and heart conceiveth. So wrongs have been done in the 
 name of shrewdness, and robbery has been committed for 
 the sake of taking from others what the dishonest heart 
 cannot win by its own merits, leaving the innocent victims 
 to their griefs. The crafty mind is the demon mind. 
 
 Earth is the dumping ground of the universe. 
 
150 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ,l>l.l»K^M.KIvlvlvlvl»l«lil,l,l,l^. I. I.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l.l. l~.~l~l~iTlTl v I - I - 
 
 UNSEEN FUNDS. 
 
 HAT WE CALL A FUND Is a massed col- 
 lection of an unseen power; each giving rise to 
 a separate fund. It is not in fact set apart from 
 the location of other vitalities, but fills the 
 i s ether that surrounds the earth in association 
 with other massed collections. These may be 
 studied by the direct aid of psychic telepathy, 
 or may be fully understood by an analysis of the laws which 
 control them. For the purposes of the present work we 
 will describe them from the latter standpoint. 
 
 LAW. — There is a universal fund of mind that surrounds 
 the earth. 
 
 This massed collection of intelligence is found at work in 
 the smallest forms of existence, and it is never absent no 
 matter how high or low the grades may run. It is known 
 that the basis of life is protoplasm. This begins every kind 
 of living thing, whether of plant or animal creation. The 
 composition of protoplasm is the cell. Every cell has a 
 nucleus. Every nucleus has a nucleolus, and every nucleolus 
 has an id. Here is held the brain of the drop of matter. 
 
 This brain comes into existence by drawing its intelligence 
 from the fund of mind that is universal. Propagation is 
 carried on by division. Each cell feeds on the matter 
 around it, then grows larger and separates. One becomes 
 two. Two become four. Four become eight, and so on. 
 This is growth. It is the only way in which a plant, a 
 tree, a blade of grass, a drop of blood, and animal or a hu- 
 man being can grow. 
 
UNSEEN FUNDS 151 
 
 The same protoplasm that feeds a plant, also feeds a man. 
 The reason why one develops in place of the other is because 
 the brain in the cell learns the purpose of its existence and 
 executes it accordingly. If a plant is in process of formation, 
 the cell will make a plant. If that plant is a rose, the cell 
 will make it nothing else. If the rose is a wild one or 
 a cultivated one, then the cell must see that the right kind is 
 produced. If the cultivated rose is of a special variety, that 
 variety alone must be secured. 
 
 Color of flower, shape of leaf, length of stem and kind of 
 fragrance, all are locked up in the tiny brain of the id in 
 the cell or drop of protoplasm. This cell grows, as we have 
 said, by absorbing matter around it; but the matter which 
 it absorbs has no brain, no id, no mind. Yet as soon as the 
 cell has divided, there are two brains in place of one; and, in 
 about twenty-one generations, there will be a million brains 
 in place of one. Each will have a share of the fund of 
 mind that surrounds the earth. 
 
 In each cell is locked up the whole history of the individual. 
 You begin life in a drop of protoplasm so small that it could 
 not be seen without the aid of a microscope. Yet in that 
 drop was enclosed all that you have grown to be, all the 
 characteristics of your mind and body, all the diseases that 
 you inherited taints of, if any, all the peculiarities that 
 past generations for centuries have handed down to you, all 
 you will be on this earth, and the inclination of your per- 
 sonality toward one goal or another in the great divide. 
 
 When that cell began its life, it was certainly very small 
 to hold so much. Even the soul might be compressed into 
 a space as tiny, as size is of less importance than energy. As 
 soon as growth began the cell grew, divided and made two ; 
 and so on until you were born. Every detail of the won- 
 derful body in which you dwell was thought out in that cell ; 
 and, as new cells came to add to it, they were given their 
 share of the fund of the universal mind. Every drop that is 
 large enough to be seen by the naked eye contains countless 
 
i 5 2 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 billions of such cells; and there are countless billions of big 
 drops in your body. When bones were wanted, the brains 
 of the cells were alert to build bone. When hair, or skin, or 
 nerves, or veins, or organs, or other details were needed, the 
 brains of the cells built just what was wanted. Thus the 
 mind in the body became a greatly increased mass, sprung 
 from one tiny cell. The increase could not have come from 
 nothing. It must have come from something. That some- 
 thing may be anything you please to call it, and we will 
 name it the fund of mind. It is not essential what it is. 
 Names are only for convenience. Therefore you may desig- 
 nate what furnished the increase of intelligence in the body 
 as it grew from the cell to a great organism, and we will 
 call it the fund of mind. 
 
 Whatever has cell life, has its part of this fund of mind. 
 
 Every living part of your body is a mass of cells, and each 
 has its brain. Where they most congregate we find the 
 collective mind, as in the head ; for there must be a centrali- 
 zation of power and thought. But the evidence of intelli- 
 gence in all parts of the body is abundant, and leaves no 
 doubt that a man thinks with his whole being, not alone 
 with the brain within the skull. 
 
 In a mass of earth we see nothing that would make a 
 peach tree grow in one place and an oak in another. The 
 dirt is the same. But let the seed of either be planted, 
 and it will open out its germs and send forth a tiny cell. 
 One only begins the life of a tree. It grows in the same way 
 as does the human cell, and is the same in fact; yet it will 
 produce, not a human body, nor a dog, nor a horse, but 
 a tree; not any kind of a tree, but the kind that is intended 
 from the nature of the seed to be grown. It will take from 
 the earth the identical particles that might have gone into the 
 oak, and weave them into its own cell-increase to produce 
 the peach. 
 
 If the exact variety of an improved peach is wanted, the 
 branch is cut off and made to root. This is fed by the same 
 
UNSEEN FUNDS 153 
 
 soil, cell by cell, and each blind particle of dirt that is drawn 
 into the organism will learn what variety of peach is needed, 
 and will draw from the fund of mind just what intelligence 
 is required, and the new tree will be a counterpart of the old. 
 
 The human brain may take as much from the fund of 
 mind as it can use, just as the electric battery is supplied 
 from the fund of electricity, as much as it can hold. One 
 man draws more than another. Some men use little. The 
 collected mass is free to all to take what they can assimilate. 
 
 Thus minds differ in their intelligence. 
 
 Nature herself is an intelligent personality that knows 
 every need of humanity, and she is ever present in the great 
 mind of the world. 
 
 LAW. — The earth is surrounded by a universal fund of 
 demon life. 
 
 A psychic being lives in the ether. Demons are kept 
 within range of this planet. They have no tendency heaven- 
 ward. -Their faces are turned toward the soil. They are 
 not permitted to harass or come near those human beings 
 who are seeking escape from their influence. But they 
 stand at the side of every wrong doer. 
 
 What evidence is there of these facts? 
 
 Proofs are abundant on every side. The study and prac- 
 tice of psychic telepathy will bring complete knowledge of 
 these demons to the very door of the investigator. But 
 such means of proof need not be resorted to, as we find 
 evidence in many other ways. 
 
 In the first place let us talk for a moment with the be- 
 liever in religion. You wish to know more about the ques- 
 tion of the presence of demon life all around the earth. You 
 already have learned that the lost souls have been cast out of 
 the sky and that this planet is the dumping ground for 
 them. In harmony with this thought is the oft repeated ref- 
 erence in the Bible to the devils that gain entrance into the 
 lives of men and women. Christ said to one of them: 
 " Get thee behind me, Satan." In His ministrations He cast 
 
154 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 out devils from humanity and these demons went into the 
 swine. 
 
 There are many intelligent people to-day, as there have 
 always been, who believe that demons infest some lives. 
 Then we have the reports of criminals who have declared that 
 they have been impelled on to the commission of their deeds 
 by personal devils that have come into them. So strong is 
 this testimony that it must be accepted as having much 
 weight. We could cite case after case that has met with the 
 approval of learned investigators where men have been pos- 
 itive that they have been in the power of demons. The old 
 time expression that is used in the scriptures, " possessed of 
 the devil," and " possessed by devils," cannot be taken as a 
 figure of speech. 
 
 A brain that is excited by fever or inflamed by drink, 
 or that is on the verge of nervous collapse, assumes a magni- 
 fying power that is remarkable. In typhoid the brain is 
 distorted. Things that actually are seen by the normal eye, 
 now grow longer, taller and grotesque in shape; but their 
 identity is not lost. Yet when the excited cells are given 
 still greater power of vision, beings come before the eyes. 
 They are not shapes of things turned into monstrosities; but 
 are actual figures of demons. Whence do they come? 
 
 The hasty reply is: " They are imaginary images." How 
 can they be imaginary? It is true that they do not exist in 
 fact before the eyes when the brain is in health; but the 
 distorted optic nerve now is endowed with a keener power 
 through the fever that racks and heats the blood; and the 
 images that come before it, while they seem to stand forth 
 in the room or to move about the sufferer, are viewed only 
 by that individual. They may be in the head, inside the 
 brain; but that does not make them imaginary. How can 
 the sense of sight behold demons that do not exist some- 
 where? How can a thing be imagined that has such definite 
 shape and is so active? 
 
 Here is a man who has too long indulged in liquor. He 
 
UNSEEN FUNDS 155 
 
 sees snakes. They are coming to him. Now they crawl up 
 his legs, wind themselves about his body, and stifle him by 
 tightening their folds around his neck. He is fighting them. 
 He avoids the fangs, but strives to drive the body away, 
 using almost superhuman strength in the struggle. To him 
 these reptiles are real. As all men who have delirium see 
 actual beings of some kind, always horrible and demon-like, 
 it must be true that the brain is given a power similar to 
 that of the hypnotic. He beholds facts that are not known 
 by the people about him. He unfolds secrets that are some- 
 times very important. In the peculiar condition of the brain 
 that attends hypnosis, these unusual powers follow. At this 
 writing we have the results of a new case that has been called 
 to our personal attention, and of which there can be no 
 doubt. A young man who had been hypnotized, was made 
 to talk on a charge of theft that had been lodged against a 
 servant, who had been arrested. The circumstances were 
 against the latter. But the hypnotized young man saw the 
 article that had been lost. He went to the place where it 
 lay, and handed it to the owner who at once admitted that it 
 had been dropped there by accident, and that the servant 
 was wholly innocent. 
 
 In preceding chapters in this division we have discussed 
 the power of clairvoyance that follows oft repeated uses of 
 the hypnotic sleep. The subject takes up any suggestion that 
 is given him, and obeys to such an extent that he will perform 
 deeds that are impossible to those who control him. In other 
 words, the hypnotic is capable of doing things that only a 
 psychic power can execute. In a long line of experiments, 
 such persons have been told to describe the demons that 
 are all about them. They at once proceed to this task, and 
 what they reveal corresponds with the visions seen by fevered 
 patients, as well as sufferers from delirium tremens and per- 
 sons whose nerves are broken down. 
 
 Of all the mediums in the world, about one in a thousand 
 is genuine; all the others being skilful frauds, although 
 
i 5 6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 even they may be partly endowed with clairvoyant gifts. 
 The English and American Societies for Psychical Research 
 have employed many mediums; and have found a very limited 
 number for whose genuineness and reliability they are able to 
 vouch without hesitation. 
 
 When a medium is found that commands the full faith of 
 scientific men, the revelations made are always astounding; 
 and many of them have been found to be not only true but 
 of a nature that baffles all explanation except on the theory 
 of clairvoyance. Now let any of the genuine mediums be 
 asked to interpret the demon life that surrounds the earth, 
 and the results are amazing. The medium is at home in 
 that circle. Proof after proof is furnished of such life, and 
 the demons are similar to those seen by the fevered brain. 
 
 They are abundant everywhere. 
 
 The drunken man who is confronted by a horrible shape, 
 is not deluded. The only seemingly unreal thing about it is 
 that no one else can see the shape. He beholds it because it 
 is there. Others cannot see it because they do not possess the 
 inflamed brain that is given the power to peer into the 
 psychic atmosphere. 
 
 It would be absurd to say that the horrible image is a 
 vagary of the mind, that it dwells only inside his brain. But 
 suppose that were true. What of it ? A shape cannot dwell 
 within the brain unless it is there. A drop of blood cannot 
 contain the form of a giant whose eyes, head, horns, hoofs and 
 general appearance are those of a complete being, unless such 
 being exists either in the brain or in the air about the suf- 
 ferer. 
 
 Snakes, beasts of the most savage mien, spiders that ex- 
 ceed in their terrifying make-up the most detestable shapes 
 that ever crawled on earth in open life, fiends, devils, dragons, 
 and grotesque images are actually present to the fevered 
 brain. From them the idols and forms that are worshipped 
 in the Orient were designed, as has been claimed by some in- 
 vestigators. The gods of mythology must have had some 
 
UNSEEN FUNDS 157 
 
 instigation, for they were numerous and almost as varied as 
 the shapes seen by the drunken man. 
 
 In the early chapters of this book that discuss the nature 
 of sound, as well as ghostly sounds and ghostly violence, it 
 has been shown that the brain-cells are endowed with a seem- 
 ingly strong magnifying power. When applied to sound 
 waves, it turns into loud blows the gentlest throbbing of 
 the blood vessels. But undue nervous strain is necessary to 
 effect this condition. Sound makes use of the air masses. 
 Light travels by impulses of the ether. In the ether the 
 demons dwell, even occupying solids, as substance is not 
 known to them until they are habilitated in bodies of flesh 
 and blood. 
 
 These laws being true, it follows that the vision alone 
 must recognize the demons. They have no part in sound or 
 touch. 
 
 The inflamed brain that magnifies its own sounds into 
 blows of violence, can thus make them seem to be created 
 sounds; and for convenience it is said that the brain in fact 
 creates the sounds. But it does not. The sounds are there. 
 No matter how badly frightened the nervous woman is, no 
 matter how much over-wrought her nerves are, no matter 
 how loudly the vibrations of the blood vessels in her brain 
 may seem to pound, or what sounds she may hear, they are all 
 actually there although magnified. The brain cannot create 
 something out of nothing. 
 
 If there were no pulsations of the veins and no flow of 
 blood in and out of the brain, and nothing to be magnified, 
 she would sit in absolute silence. What seems to be a total 
 absence of sound is a veritable racket to the inflamed or 
 frightened and nervous brain. But the sounds are there. 
 The normal mind cannot hear them, but the excited brain 
 will surely be overwhelmed by them, because they are there. 
 It is merely a question of something small to start with, and 
 a fevered brain to magnify it to size in the one sense of hear- 
 ing. You cannot extract something from nothing. 
 
158 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 On the same principle the sight of horrible shapes must 
 have a basis in fact. That basis may be very small. The 
 demons that are seen are present either inside the brain or 
 out in the space in front of the individual who beholds them. 
 If they are inside the brain, they are of microscopic size, but 
 have a complete form and complete intelligence. 
 
 By referring to the early pages of this chapter, an account 
 will be found of the tiny cell which holds the intelligence of 
 a complete human being, soul, mind, heredity and all the 
 characteristics of a coming man, wrapped up in a compass so 
 small that it can be seen only by a microscope. If the hu- 
 man body can be condensed in a shape so small as that, it 
 would not be difficult for a demon to likewise dwell in an 
 unseen cell that could come to view only when the inflamed 
 power of the brain enlarges it to the mind. 
 
 This claim is based on the supposition that the demons 
 are seen inside the brain, and is interposed here for the pur- 
 pose of meeting the doubts of the student. In either case the 
 demon is a reality. If it is of microscopic size it is real. If 
 it is of full grown size it is just as real. Therefore it makes 
 no difference in principle what size it has or where it act- 
 ually dwells. 
 
 But history, religious knowledge, scientific facts and the 
 revelations furnished by psychic telepathy confirm the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 LAW. — Demons co-exist with all earthly matter and life. 
 
 By this is meant that they are of every size, and that they 
 are in solids and substances. They simply occupy everything. 
 The only exception is the body and home and surroundings 
 of the man or woman who is free from them, as will be 
 shown in the next division of this book. 
 
 A conception of any psychic condition that has been long 
 held by the general world is true in fact, or has some basis. 
 Knowledge may not come through the process of reasoning, 
 but arrives through inspiration or intuition, or some of the 
 powers that surround humanity. 
 
UNSEEN FUNDS 159 
 
 You cannot turn to the history of any country, whether it 
 be religious or common, without finding an overwhelming 
 mass of evidence to prove the belief in demons and various 
 forms of unseen life. We make full allowance for the cre- 
 ations of superstition and the warped science of the dark 
 ages; but superstition is a power, and out of its depressing 
 influences grew witchcraft, an art that is practiced extensively 
 to-day by the negroes of this country. Such influences are 
 subdued as higher powers dethrone them, but they have not 
 been driven out of the world. 
 
 No one doubts the fact that Milton wrote largely from 
 inspiration, as did Shakespeare and other geniuses. In II 
 Penseroso, we find the following lines from Milton's pen : 
 
 " Those demons that are found 
 In fire, air, flood, or underground, 
 Whose power hath a true consent 
 With planet or with element" 
 
 Quotation after quotation might be made from this and 
 other writers demonstrating the existence of a belief in de- 
 mons that has not died out to this day. Christ taught the 
 presence of devils and of evil spirits. All mythology is filled 
 full to the brim with countless demons and unseen deities that 
 are all around humanity. Of course, such evidence is not 
 scientific; but it shows that, in an age of grand civilization 
 far surpassing the intelligence of our own era, the people, not 
 having any other religion, built upon their own experiences. 
 There is surely some basis for their immense population of 
 demons and deities. 
 
 Human activities are reflections of the unseen powers. 
 
 In sacred lore as well as in the Scriptures themselves, Sa- 
 tan is referred to as " the prince of the powers of the air." 
 Whether the Bible was inspired or not in the sense usually 
 attributed to it, its assertion stands forth as one of the towers 
 of strength throughout all the centuries in which the chief 
 religion of civilization was developing and taking on its best 
 
160 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 growth. The fall of man, if it did not occur in heaven, as 
 Milton describes, had its enactment on this planet. 
 
 It has occurred somewhere, and that is all that is im- 
 portant about it, as far as this present consideration is con- 
 cerned. The entire human family has fallen, is debased and 
 wretched, save the few here and there who are determined 
 to extricate themselves from the bondage of the demons. 
 
 Since it is true that man has fallen, whether from heaven 
 or from a better condition that once prevailed on earth, 
 there can be no doubt that evil is everywhere on this planet. 
 When a child is born, it takes to itself a soul that does not 
 and cannot come from heaven, but that fulfils the routine 
 of life now being carried along the generations that succeed 
 each other. The story of this soul is told in the third di- 
 vision of this work. 
 
 LAW. — Crime, dishonesty, insanity and suicide are in- 
 stigated by the demons. 
 
 All forms of life that exist about the earth, waiting to be 
 born into the body, are eager for the opportunity to take the 
 place of those living. The)'- therefore exert a bad influence 
 over every human being if they are so permitted. Not one 
 person in a million would commit a crime, or would be dis- 
 honest, or break down in mind or take life if it were not for 
 the sway which the demons have over the minds and pur- 
 poses of those whom they can lead into such debasement. 
 The idle person is most readily recruited into the army of the 
 demons, and falls most easily. The idle poor and the idle 
 rich are ripe for evil work. The performance of honest 
 duties makes the mind busy and the individual safer. Once 
 the shackles of the demons are thrown off, it is hard for 
 them to be again placed about the victims. Christ knew 
 this when He said : " Get thee behind me, Satan." He was 
 addressing the actual prince of devils. It was no figure of 
 speech. It was no imagined devil. Such a view is flatly 
 contradicted by the statement that He cast out devils, and 
 the devils fled into the swine and drove them into the sea. 
 
UNSEEN FUNDS 161 
 
 There are to-day, and have always been since the birth 
 of humanity, three classes of people, divided according to 
 their relationship to the influence of demons: 
 
 I. The lowest class are wholly controlled by evil ten- 
 dencies; their skull formation and brains showing an incura- 
 ble bondage to criminal instincts. They are a menace to 
 the world, not only in the generation in which they live, 
 but also through their progeny. No attempt is made to pre- 
 vent them from sending millions of criminals into the world 
 during their lives, and these new recruits to the army of 
 wickedness add extra menace to each succeeding age. 
 
 In the old days when wars and capital punishment re- 
 moved evil-doers in great numbers, the dangers were less 
 than to-day, when crimes grow much faster than the popula- 
 tion. The modern mistake is in the belief that born crim- 
 inals may be reformed, while criminology shows that such 
 a thing is wholly impossible. But sentiment permits lax 
 methods; the man who rapes a woman is given a term in 
 prison, is then set free, and invariably renews the offence, 
 generally ending in murder. Burglars are almost always 
 ready to kill when resisted ; yet they are sent to prison when 
 convicted, are set free again when the term expires, and in- 
 variably renew the crime. There are burglars now free 
 who have served several terms. The duty of the public is 
 to hold them prisoners for life, or else to execute them. The 
 Supreme Court of the United States upholds the right of 
 a State to make rape a capital offence, or even an attempt 
 at rape. The burglar, or any man who is willing to take 
 life when necessary for the purpose of his crime, has no 
 place in civilization. Thousands of murders are recklessly 
 committed in order to secure a few dollars, and this dis- 
 position to kill is on the increase to-day. God's decree is: 
 Whoever has it in his heart to take human life in defiance 
 of the peace of the world, is already a murderer, and should 
 be put to death. It is better to save innocent lives than to 
 punish criminals after they have slain their victims. In 
 
1 62 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 defiance of this principle, the men and women who are 
 advocates of mercy to the criminals rather than to their 
 victims, are responsible for the fearful increase of murders 
 in this country. 
 
 2. The next class includes men and women who are 
 alternately swayed by the demons on the one hand, and 
 their psychic tendencies on the other. If you teach them 
 to cultivate the latter, they make good citizens, and some 
 of the world's best inhabitants are found in this class. If 
 you arouse their evil natures, the demons at once take 
 possession and havoc ensues in their lives. Some men are 
 good only when all skies are fair; they are contemptible 
 when things go wrong. They swing on the pendulum of 
 events, escaping the influence of the demons " if fortune 
 smiles on their paths," as they say. Many experiments may 
 be made with this class of people; and anyone can always 
 succeed in sending them under the power of demons. Here 
 is a typical assertion of a man of intelligence, who is easily 
 made ugly: "Why did you say that to me? I felt the 
 very devil coming into my heart when I heard that remark." 
 Many a wife has seen her husband in the control of the 
 demons when he is displeased with her; too well she knows 
 the meaning of this chapter. 
 
 3. The final class includes all persons who realize the 
 presence and power of the demons, and who keep far away 
 from them. They are strong to resist temptation. A man 
 advertised for a coachman and three applicants came to him. 
 — "How close to the precipice yonder can you drive?" — 
 The first coachman tried it, went to the very edge and was 
 killed by falling over. — The second coachman drove very 
 near the edge, and at times was in peril, but escaped without 
 harm. — The third coachman turned his back on the preci- 
 pice and drove in the other direction. That was the man 
 who was employed. 
 
163 
 
 THIRD GRAND DIVISION 
 
 OF 
 
 UNSEEN POWERS 
 
 THE GREAT DIVIDE 
 
164 
 
 THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. 
 
 The structure of the present system should be carefully 
 studied by every reader who wishes to master the complex 
 problems of life. 
 
 The first division of the work relates to the physical 
 mind and the physical body; ending with glimpses of the 
 psychic world through the curtain that separates the two. 
 
 The next division brings us into the midst of the psychic 
 operations as far as they have association with the physical 
 mind and the physical body. 
 
 We now have reached the ridge of highest life on earth, 
 as far up as we can ascend and still drag with us the muddy 
 vestment of our physical nature. Looking back over the 
 past we see the valley out of which our studies have led us. 
 Looking forward we find only blue skies, fair gardens, 
 bright uplands and gentle peace. 
 
 Which way shall we proceed? 
 
 The footsteps easily fall back in any road that requires 
 ascent; but the forward landscape has no difficulties to those 
 who have gone thus far in the journey. 
 
 The one requirement is that each student of this book 
 shall have made the propositions a part of his or her daily 
 thoughts until they are fully absorbed. To a reader this 
 is a book of reading. To a student this is a book of study. 
 But to a traveler along life's highway this is a book of 
 light. It helps all other duties, no matter what they are, 
 and conflicts w T ith none. It brings harmony into any legiti- 
 mate or normal belief, and assists in making clear the 
 troubling enigmas of existence. 
 
 Review is necessary. 
 
 Study, read, think and absorb all truths until they shine 
 forth in your daily life. 
 
i65 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 7i\ s^~ 
 
 DOUBLE LIFE. 
 
 N EVERY HAND the proofs of two kinds 
 ,of life are abundant. The man who fails to 
 acquire a belief in the future existence, is sure 
 that this life is all there is for him. He goes 
 'down to his grave thinking that he will not 
 wake again ; that his body will be food for 
 worms, which may be true, and that when it 
 has dissolved he will have gone back to earth. The particles 
 of material that pass into the general fund of soil will un- 
 doubtedly serve to fertilize some patch of sod or nourish a 
 tree; but will never again live as a new being. 
 As far as the body is concerned, he is correct. 
 Science tells us that in the body a vitality lives; also a 
 mind ; and something that is neither, but that passes out at 
 the moment of death. Substantial proof has been obtained 
 of this last fact, as will be seen by referring to the first 
 division of this book. 
 
 LAW. — All life is divided into two parts, physical and 
 psychic. 
 
 That which is physical is material only. It is that part 
 that will be resolved into earth after the body dies. What- 
 ever lives on is psychic. It is a question whether or not the 
 mind will survive. In dying, if it does in fact perish, it 
 may hang for a period in suspense before it dissolves. The 
 probability is that only the psychic mind lives after death. 
 
 What we call the psychic life is a finer form of the phys- 
 ical. This has been explained in a preceding chapter. Light 
 is really physical, but is called psychic because it is the im- 
 
166 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 pulse of ether waves, and is associated with that division of 
 existence. So the subconscious mind is psychic. And so 
 must be the soul or spirit. 
 
 LAW. — There are two kinds of interpretation, the phys- 
 ical and the psychic. 
 
 The physical form of interpretation is that which depends 
 on the proofs offered by the five senses. If a flower has a 
 certain odor, the translation of that odor is made by the sense 
 of smell and conveyed to the brain. Without the sense of 
 smell there could be no interpretation of that fragrance, and 
 it would be wholly lost on the individual. The same is true 
 of the sense of taste. Some things are bad for the health and 
 they are generally recognized by the palate, in case they es- 
 cape the sentry of the nose. Some things attract the appetite. 
 Some articles of food or drink appeal more strongly than 
 others because the sense of taste so interprets them. 
 
 These are physical powers. 
 
 Sound is merely the action of air-waves on the nerves of 
 hearing, which carry some idea to the brain. It may be dis- 
 cord, or painful noise like the scratching of a nail on glass; 
 or it may be sweet music ; it may be the gentle voice of love, 
 or the stern tones of command, or the growl of hatred. It 
 all depends on the interpretation given the air-waves to the 
 brain by the nerves of hearing. 
 
 Touch and sight are likewise made to wait upon the agents 
 of the mind for their recognition. 
 
 If a thought is spoken or written it must find scope in 
 words, and these have meaning. They depend on sight or 
 sound to carry the words, and the latters are tools of meaning 
 which the brain will understand. 
 
 All this is physical interpretation. 
 
 Now if you are in the room with another person and he 
 says nothing, although he is thinking hard and rapidly, you 
 might give a small fortune if you were able to know what is 
 passing through his mind. His thoughts are coming in 
 w T aves into your own brain, but as they enter the subconscious 
 
DOUBLE LIFE 167 
 
 mind you cannot interpret them, and so they are as dead to 
 yon as if they had not actually become your property. 
 
 It is a well proved fact that the thoughts of other persons 
 are continually entering your brain. 
 
 You think, talk, write and plan in the words which belong 
 to your physical existence. But the waves that carry 
 thoughts are ether impulses, and the brain that receives them 
 is in the subconscious realm. It is like having a fortune in 
 a safe which you cannot unlock. You possess the subcon- 
 scious mind, and the thoughts of other people are entering 
 that mind every minute. But you cannot get them into your 
 physical mind, and the latter is all that you can understand. 
 
 LAW. — The physical mind cannot interpret the thoughts 
 of the psychic mind. 
 
 The reason why this interpretation cannot be carried on is 
 that the two minds operate in two languages. The physical 
 mind understands the alphabet, say of twenty-six letters, and 
 the words that are composed of that alphabet, say less than 
 eight hundred, except in cases of excellent education. No 
 people on earth understand those words unless they belong to 
 the nation that speaks them or have also learned to use them. 
 Even the greatest of languages is a small affair to the sub- 
 conscious mind that can talk not only to the people every- 
 where in the world, but also to all the peoples in all the uni- 
 verse. The English speech is quite insignificant compared 
 with so extensive a tongue as the psychic language. 
 
 There is not one word in the latter that is found in the 
 English or any other language of earth. It thus appears why 
 the physical mind is helpless when it is in possession of the 
 thoughts of others. 
 
 We possess those thoughts and we do not know them. 
 
 Yet they are seeking at all times to break through our 
 physical minds, and they do break through to a very slight 
 extent and stand forth in the language of the latter mind. 
 This is then called thought transference or physical telep- 
 athy. 
 
168 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 It is probable that fifty times a day the thoughts of other 
 minds actually get some kind of faint interpretation in our 
 own, in yours, in everybody's. They are there all the while 
 in full power, but simply lack the means of being interpreted 
 in the physical brain. If only some system could be invented 
 whereby they can be given the language of that mind, then 
 thought transference would be a perfect art and would revo- 
 lutionize all forms of life on earth. 
 
 How many times, when you are walking with a companion, 
 he utters some thought that you were about to speak, and you 
 have said : " Why, that is what I was just going to say. 
 How strange! Those very words were on my tongue's end 
 and you took them out of my mouth. Did you know that I 
 was thinking of the very same thing, too ? " And all that. 
 
 Case after case has been reported on this power of the 
 mind. Men, who have spent years in investigating psychic 
 laws, have found the most abundant and reliable evidence on 
 this one point, the passage of thoughts in silence between two 
 minds. Says a very able scientist and author, who also holds 
 a high place as a university professor in England : 
 
 " Of all the evidence received in the past eighteen years, 
 that which proves the passing of thoughts from one mind to 
 another is the most common and the most convincing." 
 
 Therefore, while the physical mind cannot interpret the 
 thoughts of the psychic mind as an open book, the latter is 
 seeking all the time to break through into the former and 
 does succeed very often ; needing only greater attention in or- 
 der to be recognized more frequently; just as the other psy- 
 chic powers are breaking through the physical faculties as is 
 described in the final chapter of the first division of this 
 book. It may be due to accident, or to greater sensitiveness 
 of the nerves at times, or to a fixed purpose on the part of 
 nature. 
 
 Now comes a remarkable explanation with which we are 
 not yet prepared to agree ; but we wish every member of the 
 Psychic Society to assist in carrying on the investigation so 
 
DOUBLE LIFE 169 
 
 that the truth may sooner or later be known. It is true 
 that there are two minds, the physical and the psychic. It 
 is true that the physical mind has one language and the psy- 
 chic another. It is true that the former cannot understand 
 the latter, as a general rule. It is true that the latter is 
 seeking to break through into the former. All these things 
 are known with absolute certainty to be true. 
 
 But the following explanation goes a step beyond what we 
 are willing to assert in this stage of our history: 
 
 Inasmuch as the psychic mind is seeking all the time or 
 much of the time to break through into the physicial mind, 
 and also inasmuch as the language of one differs from the 
 language of the other, i-t must be reasonable to believe that 
 what is known as intuition, instinct and inspiration, occurring 
 as they do in the periods of normal wakefulness, are the 
 knockings or efforts of the psychic mind to convey its infor- 
 mation to the ordinary mind. To sustain this reasoning ; the 
 cases are cited of the strange feelings that attend a fore- 
 warning, or a presentiment. 
 
 " I have had a presentiment to-day," says a woman, and 
 she tells how vague it is. Another woman says : " I have a 
 strange feeling that something is to happen," but she can- 
 *not interpret it. Another woman seems to hold back from 
 entering into some bargain or transaction because she has a 
 feeling that it is not all right. It may be true that the 
 language of the psychic mind is partly in the feelings, and 
 we all know that only the commonest feeling can be put into 
 words ; all others being what is called inexpressible. 
 
 Inspiration can tell the human part of man many things 
 that will lead him on to wonderful achievements in this 
 world. It speaks with a greater degree of certainty than 
 either presentiments or intuition. Instinct is merely a blind 
 leader, compelling the individual to obey. It is undoubtedly 
 a low form of psychic power. 
 
 If inspiration could have full sway, man would be a god. 
 
 It is often made active under the influence of excitement. 
 
170 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 In a nervous, highly tense and well-balanced religious life, 
 inspiration will open up the heavens and such a book as 
 Revelation will result. The truth of that writing cannot 
 be denied, no matter whether you examine it from the 
 standpoint of science, ethics, reasoning or doctrinal theology. 
 Revelation, and all the religious part of the Bible can be 
 conclusively proved by the facts now known to psychic te- 
 lepathy, or by the ordinary laws of advanced science, such as 
 is required to convince the hard-headed investigators of to- 
 day. Yet this could not be said with equal certainty ten 
 years ago. In fact then and for many generations of in- 
 vestigation the trend of the reasoning faculties was against 
 such a conclusion. 
 
 From all parts of a great country all roads lead to its 
 capital. 
 
 From all the fields of study and investigation, all paths 
 draw to one focus, — the efforts of the psychic mind to break 
 through into the physical thoughts and there find interpreta- 
 tion. 
 
 The poet who feels that great ideas and sublime pictures 
 are taking form in his soul, knows that some power is at 
 work within him. In the case of Poe, of Byron, and of many 
 other geniuses whose bodies fell away to give place to their 
 psychic tendencies, we see the difficulty of maintaining the 
 genius and the plain physical existence. In the catalepsy 
 of Napoleon, of Caesar, of Alexander, and of mighty leaders 
 of the world in every department and profession, we see the 
 sleep that dulls the conscious mind in order to open up the 
 subconscious. In the lesser instances where this power is 
 used for impracticable purposes, the same closing out of one 
 mind in order to open the other is witnessed with wonder- 
 ment. 
 
 Shakespeare must have walked largely in the psychic 
 world. 
 
 Of him it is said that he is the only genius that the world 
 has ever produced who has not left one written letter, one 
 
DOUBLE LIFE 171 
 
 authentic message, or one recognizable act, although he lived 
 within comparatively recent times. The letters of the great 
 men of one and two thousand years ago, are now read ; but 
 Shakespeare left not a word. The will that is attributed to 
 him was not in his handwriting. He has shut off all sources 
 of tracing his identity. This is strange for the man who is 
 sung as the " thousand-souled bard." He wrote not for one 
 age but for all time. His works and his influence are im- 
 mortal. 
 
 The absence of all evidence from personal letters and acts 
 is taken to mean that some other man wrote the plays under 
 that name. It is argued that, if he actually lived, and was 
 the man of Stratford, he would have written at least one 
 letter to some friend of whom he must have had many. 
 Here reason fails. Shakespeare was a man who dwelt 
 largely in the psychic world, and succeeded in drawing from 
 its fields the beauty, the eloquence, the splendor and the 
 royal magnificence of thought and feeling, putting them into 
 the language of the physical mind and embellishing them 
 with the garlands of exquisite phrases. He was not of the 
 physical world, except in moments of respite. Letters to 
 friends could not be the product of the inner mind, and he 
 had little time to write anything else. 
 
 But he walked in groves and fields, along vales, by the 
 foothills, on the mountain side, in the deep forests, beside 
 the running brooks, against the banks of rushing rivers, in 
 the calm peace of dells, and through the tempestuous fury of 
 storms, alone in his masterwork, knowing the delights of a 
 life that is as far from earth as this globe is distant from the 
 courts of heaven. Thus many human beings dwell in a 
 partly inspired existence. 
 
 On every hand are evidences of the psychic mind seeking 
 to push its way through the barrier that closes it out from the 
 physical world. It is not necessary to enter into a trance 
 state to find it out. On the other hand there is admission 
 into the psychic world for every man and woman who un- 
 
172 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 derstands that this earth is the choosing ground for the fate 
 that is to be selected. 
 
 You are the architect of your destiny, the arbiter of your 
 own doom. 
 
 LAW. — In the psychic world all thoughts, feelings and 
 purposes are an open book. 
 
 In this physical form of life they are certainly pretty well 
 closed. We invent microscopes and feel sure that we will 
 not find the indivisible atom ; and behold it ceases to show the 
 secrets when it is too powerful a magnifier, because the atom 
 is a part of the very light that shines on the plate. We can- 
 not use the agency as an aid to discover the thing of which 
 the agency is built. On the other hand we make the largest 
 telescopes, and say now we will look on the surface of the 
 planets and stars and peep into the very homes of the peoples 
 that dwell there ; but the most we can see is the coarser out- 
 lines of what is revealed by the smaller glasses. 
 
 We hunt in the growing plasm and find the cell to be the 
 basis of life, but we cannot get farther than the seat of intel- 
 ligence in that cell. We supposed for a long time that the 
 four leading elements of the universe, oxygen, nitrogen, hy- 
 drogen and carbon, made up the cell from which all animal, 
 plant and human bodies were created ; and so we got them 
 together in their right proportions and tried to build a being 
 from them. But that humble beginning, great as it seemed 
 in comparison with the dark that preceded it, was so simple, 
 so small, so trifling that it is not even the starting point of 
 life itself. 
 
 By dint of straining and struggling and toiling in the 
 midnight vigils, we found the id, the home where the brain 
 of the cell dwells; and we thought to expose its nature; but 
 it throbbed on while we sat helpless. The human stomach 
 has been placed under a pane of glass during a surgical op- 
 eration that saved the life of the patient. While thus open 
 to view, the process of digestion has been seen and studied. 
 The rough fibrous lining of the organ has been seen to put 
 
DOUBLE LIFE 173 
 
 out its fingers and tear the food into shreds, thus macerating 
 it for assimilation with the blood. But this is a physical 
 operation. 
 
 The skull of a man has been laid bare, and the uninjured 
 brain has been seen to do its work; The acids and juices 
 flow over the surface of the convolutions, and excite them to 
 thought. They vibrate and throb and pulsate, while the 
 mind takes in and gives out knowledge, plans, schemes and 
 takes wide flights in the realm of reason. Now we think the 
 secret is learned at last. But the presence of the intelligence 
 is not seen. What it is remains a mystery. The soul is well 
 nigh a sealed book. What preceded our birth and what fol- 
 lows death, is as closely guarded by the sentinels of fate as 
 any facts can be; and man searches, delves, theorizes and 
 falls to sleep dismayed. 
 
 There is an apparent reason for this secrecy. 
 
 The fallen man is made to rise by his own initiative. 
 When he fell he lost his right to communicate with the be- 
 ings that were left behind in the heavens. He will not know 
 them again until he works out his new destiny. The curtain 
 is drawn over his vision and a barrier is lifted between his 
 physical consciousness and his psychic mind. He is given 
 both in order that he may have hope ; for, if he were only a 
 conscious organism his fate would be sealed when the grave 
 closed over him. His destiny is therefore linked with the 
 hope that reposes in his psychic mind. 
 
 This plan will probably continue as long as he has any des- 
 tiny yet unsolved. 
 
 On the contrary the psychic world is an open book. 
 
 Its thoughts are known to all its inhabitants; and they 
 live on earth as well as elsewhere. Its mind is like a glass 
 case enveloping a mass of intricate machinery, every move- 
 ment of which is seen by the eye. The child beholds trie 
 hands of the watch move and record the passing of time. 
 He wonders what makes them move, and no one opens the 
 case to show him. So to him it is a mysterious proceeding. 
 
174 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 At length the watchmaker sets the works in glass and all is 
 visible. People of the psychic world live in glass houses. 
 Their minds are open and known. Their thoughts are all as 
 visible as if they were written. Their motives, plans, pur- 
 poses and schemes are like the bulwarks of a city; plain to 
 all who care to look upon them and read what they import. 
 
 LAW. — The psychic mind knows all the thoughts of the 
 physical mind. 
 
 The knowledge referred to is a two-edged sword ; it works 
 both ways. The physical consciousness does not know what 
 is in the psychic mind unless the thoughts of the latter oc- 
 casionally break through the barrier as is the case in telep- 
 athy, intuition, instinct, inspiration, presentiments, premoni- 
 tions and other manifestations of the same class. 
 
 What is going on in your physical mind, which is the seat 
 of ordinary intelligence, is fully known to your psychic 
 mind ; but the reverse is not true. What is going on in the 
 brain of every human being is known to your psychic mind ; 
 but, as you have no interpreter to translate one into the 
 other, your ordinary intelligence is not aware of the oper- 
 ations, and so, like the waves of the ocean, they beat out 
 their vibrations on the shores of an unresponsive realm. 
 
 The many laws and facts set forth in this chapter open 
 now the way to the building of deeper and grander structures 
 in the plan of this work. 
 
 At no stage of the progress of our study has any matter 
 been left to doubt or theory. The proofs have been con- 
 clusive and there is no opportunity to challenge any law or 
 statement. More than this, they are all in harmony with the 
 prevailing opinions and beliefs of every intelligent people on 
 the globe. They fit in every doctrine that is basic. They 
 conform to the inspiration of the great writers in all the 
 centuries. They afford a complete explanation to the prob- 
 lems that have puzzled the mind of scholar, sage or theo- 
 logian. The more they are considered the more clear they 
 become. 
 
175 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 1 
 
 MEANING OF BIRTH. 1 
 
 I I 
 
 HAT IS THE PURPOSE of being born in 
 the physical body will now claim our attention 
 for a chapter. We must start with a review 
 of the preceding chapters in the socond division 
 of this book. This can be done by the reader 
 without iteration here, as it would merely fill 
 pages for nothing. The first great fact to be 
 recalled is that the earth is surrounded by a fund of demon 
 life. There are bad demons and neutral demons. There 
 are no good demons ; for, if they were good, they would have 
 worked out their destiny and have passed beyond control of 
 the leash of earth. 
 
 A parent who brings into the world a child after such 
 parent has been freed from demon control, places in the life 
 of that child a neutral demon ; it will itself be free if it dies 
 before it falls into the ways of the, evil demons. 
 
 So on the same principle every human being that does not 
 fall into evil influence, will be freed. 
 
 But these are speculations, and our work is with facts. 
 The demon life that surrounds the earth is awaiting op- 
 portunity to be born into a physical body so that it may be 
 given the right to seek to free itself. In order that there 
 may be such a chance, the earth has been formed of soil and 
 protoplasm given to that soil out of which a living organism 
 might take shape and grow. A fund of mind has also been 
 thrown around the world, as well as a fund of vitality, of 
 electricity and other powers, suited to the needs of a life tak- 
 ing on earth as its garment. 
 
176 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 From the lap of earth we are all sprung. Ashes to ashes 
 is the fate of that body. There is not a particle of the 
 physical organism that is not earth, earthy. Whatever 
 is physical we can see with the eye or the microscope. The 
 purpose of it all is to afford the soul of the demon the cloth- 
 ing of flesh with, which he can grow and have his opportunity. 
 How many times it is given to him, is immaterial. It is at 
 least his once. He fell from a better estate. Of this there 
 is no doubt, and few doubters living or that have ever lived. 
 Having fallen, he comes to earth, the dumping ground of 
 the universe, the hell of all creation, and here awaits the 
 chance to take on the robe of flesh. This means that he 
 must be born, and it is the meaning of being born. 
 
 Certain laws are made to give him birth and progress. 
 The starting point is the cell. It is guarded and protected. 
 He is cared for by nature and instinct until he is able to 
 look after himself ; then he is let go, and the rest of the affair 
 is in his hands. He can do with himself as he pleases, and 
 can also do pretty much as he pleases with the rest of man- 
 kind, for he is living in hell in this world, and demon life 
 predominates. 
 
 LAW. — The fund of life out of which a person is born 
 is general. 
 
 It is not a fact that the identity of the soul is main- 
 tained after the fall and the casting out of heaven. If you 
 are born you come from a general fund of demon life. You 
 have not, as an individual, been alive before on earth; but 
 the fund out of which you are produced has many times sent 
 into a body of flesh the life essence that you possess. There 
 could be no other method. 
 
 A family of fourteen persons were buried on a farm in a 
 private plot. One alone survived. He married, had ten 
 children by two wives, and they all lived. By some mistake 
 following the ravages of war, the original fourteen graves 
 were torn up, the bodies were mingled with the soil, even the 
 bones decaying to a great extent, and the family of two 
 
MEANING OF BIRTH 177 
 
 parents and ten children ate the vegetables, the grain and 
 fruits that grew from this land. There is not the slightest 
 doubt that every one of the original fourteen members of the 
 family were food in changed form, and in some portions, 
 particle for particle, for the bodies of the others who fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 An army of two hundred thousand soldiers fell on the 
 soil of Russia following the invasion by Napoleon. They 
 were not given burial. For the most part they merely en- 
 riched the soil from which great crops were raised and the 
 food taken for others to eat. One million Persians fell in the 
 olden time, occupying a rather narrow compass of ground, 
 which was fertilized by their bodies. Their own identical 
 flesh passed into other bodies. 
 
 But this is the story of change, or death, of birth, and of 
 the process of the ages. It is well understood by all thought- 
 ful persons and needs no sustaining data. 
 
 Not so well understood, but equally as well proved, is the 
 fact that the fund of soul life that enters into the born hu- 
 man being, comes from a general fund of soul life, called de- 
 mon life, that is as abundant as the earth in which it must 
 take form and develop. 
 
 The earth is a physical fund. Flesh is earth and nothing 
 else. It is taken from the soil, and returns to the fund 
 from which it is derived. Blood is earth likewise. It is 
 coming and going every day in the building up and the break- 
 down of the body. 
 
 There is a fund of electricity that surrounds the earth. 
 If some of it is caught and stored it goes back to its fund 
 as soon as it is released. 
 
 There is a fund of vitality that attends all kinds of life, 
 from which supplies are drawn as needed. When cattle are 
 killed this vitality is a marked force, and many sickly per- 
 sons have been restored to good health by staying near by to 
 receive some of the vitality that otherwise would all pass 
 into its, fund; for it is easier for an invalid to take some of 
 12 
 
i 7 8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 the passing energy that the cattle give up, than to fight for 
 it against the human race after such vitality has been scat- 
 tered. It is easier to secure gold that lies in heaps extracted 
 from the ground, than it is to dig and wash and pick out the 
 scattered particles. 
 
 So many tests and measurements have been made of the 
 passing vitality from dying cattle that no person familiar with 
 the facts doubts the existence of a general fund of vitality, 
 out of which comes what each person can assimilate, and to 
 which all that die must yield what they have. 
 
 Likewise the fund of life out of which a person is born is 
 general. For a long time we thought that the fund of vital- 
 ity might be proved to be the only kind of life that dwelt in 
 the body. It seemed also as though the energy that passed 
 from the body at death was the only life within it. But 
 escaping vitality is now thoroughly and conclusively proved 
 to be evanescent, flying quickly into its general fund, and 
 is closely akin to electricity, which in the same manner flies 
 to its fund. But the soul is a complete and imperishable be- 
 ing that makes its existence clearly manifest, and about the 
 separate entity of which at this date there cannot be enter- 
 tained the shadow of a doubt. 
 
 LAW. — The fund of life consists of every kind of de- 
 mon nature. 
 
 When the lost beings fell out of heaven, they were con- 
 signed to this planet as a special abode. They arrived here 
 at a time when the earth was ripe to receive them. Before 
 that time there was no existence of any kind whatever here. 
 Not even a tree or blade of grass existed. The fallen beings 
 entered into a general fund which adopted as its basis the 
 protoplasmic cell. From this ' cell all human beings are 
 created. From the same cell all animal life takes its start. 
 From the same cell all vegetable life has its origin. 
 
 Before man can exist, there must be animal life to precede 
 him, and before animal life can exist, there must be vegetable 
 life to precede it. One eats the other. The animal eats the 
 
MEANING OF BIRTH 179 
 
 plant structure, and man eats the animal as well as the plant 
 structure. The cell of protoplasm that finds its way into 
 the blade of grass, passes thence into the steer, and its flesh 
 enters the body of man. It comes out as effete matter, no 
 longer protoplasm, for it has carried the intelligence of its 
 nucleus into the organism of man, and is now dissolved into 
 its elements. Thus life proceeds. 
 
 The protoplasmic cell is therefore the basis of all forms 
 of life, the goal of which is the human body. No higher 
 being ever has lived on earth, and there is not the slightest 
 indication that it will. 
 
 We find this demon fund excessively abundant in the 
 early history of the globe. Animals and vegetation were of 
 gigantic proportions. 
 
 As humanity became more abundant the fund was required 
 to supply its life; and as there is a general freedom from the 
 leash of this world, the fund will grow still smaller. 
 
 If all the animals and all the vegetation of a hundred 
 thousand years ago were to be taken account-of-stock of, we 
 would find that, as compared with all the life of every kind 
 now existing here, there had been a decided decrease. Some 
 of the fund of life has left the earth, never to return. It has 
 been freed. 
 
 Each soul, although mingled in the general fund, awaits 
 its turn to be born, so that it may have the opportunity to 
 take up the story of its final fate. No more human beings 
 can come into birth than there are parents to produce them. 
 Each mated pair may bring one or two, or more children 
 into being. If every mated pair on earth were to become 
 parents as often as possible, it is likely that the whole fund 
 of demon life would soon be exhausted, and the earth would 
 be peopled with billions who are seeking to throw off the 
 bondage of this hell. 
 
 But the channels of parentage are now fixed. Nature 
 will not permit it to cease, but does not hurry or crowd it. 
 Writers who have been engaged in experiments on growing 
 
i8o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 vegetation tell the public that some of the elements needed 
 to maintain growth are being rapidly and mysteriously re- 
 duced, and will soon be exhausted. This would mean that 
 vegetation would in time cease, and the channels of further 
 parentage and growth would be limited accordingly unless 
 some other means of supplying the body are found. 
 
 The first condition of the fund of life was terribly demo- 
 niac. 
 
 Every kind of animal that came into being was a monstros- 
 ity, and there were few small insects. As man increased and 
 used more of the fund, the animals became of small size, 
 and the insects much smaller. Since the progress has con- 
 tinued, the animals have become less ferocious, even the wild 
 beasts and the reptiles and vermin are not as savage. Their 
 numbers have become less year by year. Smallness prevails. 
 Every nation and every people tells of the early history of 
 their race when their men and women were giants. Fossil 
 remains indicate that there were giants in all the species, in- 
 cluding man. Trees and leaves and plants were gigantic, as 
 is easily proved by geology. 
 
 Almost every year of the present era some new kind of 
 small insect is discovered. Pests are being fought now when 
 a generation ago they were not known at all. Smallness is 
 the sign of the times. It means that the fund of life thut 
 surrounds the world is being used more and more for the 
 building of the bodies of human beings, and less and less for 
 the animals. Indeed ninety-eight per cent, of the latter have 
 been exterminated. 
 
 When w r e compare the vitality of a hundred thousand 
 years ago with that now prevailing, including all that 
 lives in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, we are quickly 
 impressed with the fact that it is being exhausted. Learned 
 men say it is due to the weakening of the earth which is 
 getting old, and will some day be played out, and be- 
 come a dead orb floating in the sky. This is not true. 
 
 Nothing is wasted in the universe. 
 
MEANING OF BIRTH 181 
 
 The life that is lessening on this globe is passing out into 
 the other worlds. Of this there are many forms of proof. 
 
 Birth is only a process whereby a soul from the fund 
 of life may be clothed with earth and grow to a being 
 capable of determining its own fate. 
 
 As a body of flesh comes from the ground and is made 
 up of the soil into which other bodies of flesh have entered 
 and become mingled in the general fund, so the entity of 
 the soul has come out of a general fund. If it were 
 otherwise, the same being would live over and over again. 
 As it is there is some part of a former being in the new 
 born body, but it is not re-incarnation. It is merely a 
 new mold from old material. The mind, as Victor Hugo 
 says with so much force, seems to have been born over 
 and over again and retains but faintly its recollection of 
 its old time bodies. But that is speculation and need not 
 be discussed. 
 
 There are cases where a pre-natal recollection has been 
 followed into some proof of a previous existence for the 
 same individual on this earth. They are not conclusive 
 proof of the fact however. Many such instances have been 
 the subject of investigation by our Society, and some are 
 still pending. We wish every person who becomes a mem- 
 ber of the Psychic Society to aid us when there is a 
 possibility of further proof being obtained ; for some have 
 made a positive claim that there is important evi- 
 dence waiting to be investigated. As the matter now 
 stands it would be unwise to make any assertion in posi- 
 tive terms for or against the theory that the same be- 
 ing has lived before as an identical individual. If our 
 members are active and can bring to our attention any 
 genuine evidence, or can assist us in pursuing the matter 
 we may be able to secure proofs that will be convincing. 
 At the present time we do not believe that the same 
 person has lived before as a separate identity. 
 
 Two recent cases have been reported on out of over 
 
182 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 forty altogether; and they are but stepping stones toward 
 the conclusion that at first seems warranted. 
 
 In one case a very young woman was travelling in 
 England. As she came near a very old house, she sud- 
 denly said : " I once lived here." Then she described 
 many localities, and gave the history of the times when she 
 was there, as she claimed. She was in fact born in 
 America and it was conclusively proved that this was her 
 first crossing of the ocean. Only Americans were with 
 her, and she reached the locality in question less than 
 twenty-four hours after she landed in England. She had 
 not talked with any persons who could have offered any 
 information of the history of the place. 
 
 As she described the scenes of her childhood, an old 
 man who stood by listening, suddenly exclaimed : " I was 
 a lad at the time you were here. But it was your mother. 
 You are the image of her. The old stone house that you 
 say stood there at the brook, was torn down well nigh 
 onto fifty years ago. I helped to destroy it." . Incident 
 after incident was stated, old inhabitants were invited to 
 the scene and they confirmed the story. Some of them 
 remembered a young girl just like the one talking. Some 
 members of a society heard of the strange account and 
 pursued the matter privately; and to their surprise they found 
 that this girl's mother and grandmother had in fact lived 
 there; the former having crossed the ocean before the young 
 woman was born. 
 
 Of the present case there can be no doubt as to the 
 reliability of the testimony. But what kind of a con- 
 clusion shall be drawn? One swallow does not make a 
 summer. One case cannot set up a new law. There is 
 another case like it occurring in Germany, that is fully 
 sustained as to reliability of account, and freedom from 
 connivance with others. Thus these two cases make a 
 stepping stone toward a line of proof. But the field is 
 too new for further discussion. If the facts related by 
 
MEANING OF BIRTH 183 
 
 the young woman who found the playgrounds of a child- 
 hood are true, and they are so admitted by the severest 
 investigators, then it seems that somehow this woman had 
 knowledge of a prior existence that occurred fifty years 
 before the time she visited the locality. It is possible that 
 she inherited a memory of those da)^s from her grandmother. 
 The old man said it was her mother who played there. 
 But the ages of the women, as afterwards investigated, 
 showed that it must have been her grandmother. So she 
 either inherited the memory from two generations back, 
 or else she actually lived there herself two generations be- 
 fore. 
 
 If the latter supposition were true, she must have lain 
 insensible for the intervening generation, or was living in 
 some other human body. We do not believe that either 
 conculsion is the correct solution. 
 
 We do not know. 
 
 It is said by many persons that there have been 
 thousands of such cases in the various part of the civilized 
 world which have never been investigated. There are 
 numerous other problems that call for attention. These 
 matters accumulate so fast that a large membership is 
 needed in the Psychic Society in order to help push the 
 investigation to successful results. 
 
 No line of study is as important. 
 
 In fact you can put together all the learning in the 
 world, all the books that have been written, all the work 
 of college and university, and you will find nothing that 
 will compare in importance with the facts that are now 
 being sought by societies such as this. 
 
 It is the highest form of education. 
 
 A duty rests on each individual to assist in arousing a 
 wide spread interest in the study. Let us help in every 
 way to reach a line of conclusions that will be so strongly 
 founded in fact as to defy all doubt. On themes like 
 these the mind longs for the truth, and the whole truth. 
 
184 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 . I . ii. i i l i i i 1T1 i i i i * i i i i i i i i i i i i 1T1T1 iTiTi i~~~.~l~~ 
 
 PARENTAGE. 1 
 
 I P 
 
 -:-:--:--:--:-:-:--:-:--:-;-;"!-:-:--;-:--:-:-:--:-!~:-:~:-!T^-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:":-:-!-Fri: 
 
 S HAS BEEN STATED In a preceding 
 chapter parentage is a channel only by which 
 demon life may become connected with the 
 body of earth and thus begin existence. This 
 channel may delay for a long time the freeing 
 of the soul from the leash of earth. At the 
 beginning of human existence here, all life 
 was of the demon class, pure and straight, without a 
 redeeming ray of light. We see the pages of geology lying 
 open before us, and they bear on their faces records that 
 cannot be misinterpreted. 
 
 Could we stand now in the presence of the first humanity 
 of one hundred thousand years ago, we would see a mass 
 of people of every sort, all savage, all cruel, all with tusks 
 in their mouths and claws in their hands, all tearing the 
 flesh of wild animals and birds, all disposed to quarrel, to 
 fight, to kill, to torture, to enter into barbaric rites, and 
 make their dwelling place on earth a hideous hell. This 
 was the first born of the planet. The evidence is ample, 
 in fact more than ample. The time when they lived is 
 known by the place their remains now occupy; or where 
 their fossils, as geology states, are found with reference to 
 the accumulation of the debris of the many centuries that 
 have passed. 
 
 Skulls, forms of their bodies stamped in the strata where 
 they died, the implements they used, all tell a story that 
 cannot be disputed. 
 
 Here was the first born of earth. 
 
PARENTAGE 185 
 
 Not the creation of a loving God, for the Maker of 
 the universe never conceived such forms, such natures, 
 such devils. Only good can spring from that fountain 
 head; and there was nothing good in the first born of 
 earth. It took nearly a hundred thousand years before 
 the good began to break through the demon life that 
 occupied all the globe; but the good was there and it 
 was destined to come to light. 
 
 It is growing all the time. 
 
 Here is unmistakable evidence of the fact that the 
 humanity that came to earth were doomed to this place 
 as a hell; that the planet is the dumping ground of the 
 whole sky; and that these beings, having undertaken to 
 rebel against the government of heaven as has been so 
 well set forth by the inspired Milton, were cast out and 
 left to work out their own destiny here. They were devils, 
 but they were immortal. 
 
 We see the kind of spirits that left the sky to suffer 
 their isolation here. They are exiles. 
 
 To have lived on this orb at any time except the last 
 hundred years or so, means to have been in the midst 
 of demons without hope of being extricated. To have 
 lived six thousand years ago, means to have been in the 
 midst of savages where nothing but cruelty and torture 
 were possible in the treatment of one another. The light 
 had not begun to break. To have lived here fifty thousand 
 years ago, means to have dwelt in the very bosom of a mass 
 of hideous life such as the fever of delirium now brings be- 
 fore the gaze of the demented or inflamed brain. 
 
 Improvement has been going on all along the ages. 
 
 But the demons are still abundant. They are less fre- 
 quent in the forms of beasts and humanity than ever be- 
 fore, but the air and all the earth teems with them. They 
 await their turn and time to be born. As far as the dis- 
 position of the demon is concerned, it is still in the vast 
 majority all over the globe. It is in the child, in the 
 
186 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 man and in the woman. Not in all, for the sweeter 
 impulses are also at work, and the light is breaking. 
 
 If there is any person who doubts the assertion that 
 demon spirits are everywhere present about the earth, let 
 him subscribe for one year to a daily newspaper that is 
 published in each of the great cities of the United States. 
 Then let him secure a set of books, say a dozen in all, 
 containing each about one thousand pages, and divide them 
 so that they will be indexed from the first to the last. 
 
 Let him enter in alphabetical order under the proper 
 letters in the various books, the names of all those who 
 commit crimes of a fiendish nature, or who show a wanton 
 disregard of the rights and feelings of others, showing 
 the demon character. He will need a secretary and many 
 assistants. In making the record the name should be 
 entered carefully so as to avoid doubling the same act. 
 Against the name let the crime be written. Everything 
 that is diabolical is to go in these books. He will average 
 from one to three thousand crimes of such nature each and 
 every day in the year if he takes papers enough to cover 
 the whole scope of the country. He may find from half 
 a million to a million diabolical acts during the year. 
 
 These will disclose only the offenses that happen to 
 come to light. What is he to do about the millions of 
 men and women who are criminal in the darkness of their 
 private lives? What about the secret murders, rapes, 
 adultery, fornication, thefts, graft, corruption, cheating, 
 and countless wrongs that denote the blackened heart? 
 These will not appear in the papers. 
 
 But he will sicken as he cons what he does find published. 
 He will no longer apologize for the imperfections of his 
 fellow beings, but will know in unmistakable terms that 
 a demon life is everywhere abundant. 
 
 Attorney General Bonaparte in a recent speech declared 
 that the effect of abolishing capital punishment for murder 
 was rapidly increasing that crime. This is true. The 
 
PARENTAGE 187 
 
 records show it. A man that is to be housed and fed all 
 his life, is less deterred from hasty or premeditated killing 
 than one who knows to a certainty that his own life will 
 pay the penalty. The Attorney General also declared that 
 when a man has been convicted of an attempt to kill 
 another by any means he should suffer death. This is 
 right in principle. He further said with a truth almost 
 inspired that when a criminal had been several times con- 
 victed of any serious crime he should be put to death. The 
 reason he gave was also sound in logic and in truth. It 
 is this : In the last century there was a much smaller propor- 
 tion of criminals in England than there are now; and there 
 are now many less there than there are to-day in the United 
 States. This is due to the fact that confirmed criminals 
 were executed and prevented from parentage, no matter 
 what the nature of their crimes. 
 
 This is right in principle. 
 
 In this country no criminals are executed except for 
 murder or rape, and very few for either. It is said by 
 police authorities that one murderer in every nineteen is 
 executed; and one rapist in every two thousand. Here 
 we find the reason for the rapid increase of crime. 
 
 The principle involved in this fact is seen in the re- 
 lation of such parentage to the increase of crime. 
 
 LAW. — Life drawn from the universal fund through 
 criminals should be kept from parentage. 
 
 Of course the inhabitants of earth are left to settle this 
 question as best may suit them. They alone bear the bur- 
 den of responsibility. They are given freedom of choice. 
 They had freedom of choice in their first heritage in the 
 sky. They rebelled and fell. They are now having free- 
 dom of choice in the management of their fate on earth. 
 This kind of liberty is seen in the character of the twelve 
 disciples. Christ knew what each man was, and the nature 
 of each mind and heart. He knew that His followers were 
 free to act as they chose; and when He w T as betrayed it 
 
iS8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 was the happening of evil in the midst of good. So " fell 
 the angels," as Shakespeare says. 
 
 A criminal is a man or woman whose natural bent is 
 to commit offenses against the law. As a rule the con- 
 firmed criminal is not capable of being reformed. He may 
 be improved, but rarely made an honest man. His brain 
 bears the shape of the felon. His blood is tainted. He 
 has come from the fund of demon life, and back to it 
 he will go when he dies. He came on earth through 
 criminal parentage, or else has been brought under the sway 
 of the unseen demons that rule his life. There is no hope 
 for him except through the button-molder, who will melt 
 him in the crucible and recast him. But his identity is 
 lost. He goes back to the fund of demon life, and comes 
 out again in a new being, but not necessarily a better one. 
 
 In the city of New York there are three hundred 
 thousand confirmed criminals. In Philadelphia there are 
 more than one hundred thousand. In Boston there are 
 seventy-five thousand. In Chicago there are two hundred 
 and fifty thousand. In each city there is a very large 
 proportion. They slink away to their homes for sleep 
 and rest; but are plying their trade of crime whenever 
 they dare do so. They fear punishment only as they 
 dislike to be deprived of their freedom to commit felony. 
 They are not capable of being reformed. Not one in 
 a hundred thousand can be made better ; and they bring 
 to ruin many others by contact with them. They do 
 some work, but are not a help to the nation, but become 
 a burden on society. It would be much better for them 
 if they had never been born. They have gained nothing 
 by coming into the world, and society has lost much. 
 
 The logical thing to do is to follow the advice of 
 Attorney General Bonaparte, and execute those who are 
 continual offenders. But the law T -makers will not consent to 
 that. These criminals have votes. The next best thing to 
 do is to segregate them, putting them where they cannot breed 
 
PARENTAGE 189 
 
 and must live and die by themselves, just as we separate 
 the cat from the canary before it is too late. But the 
 law-makers will not consent to that, for these criminals 
 have votes. 
 
 Every criminal who has become a parent brings into the 
 world offspring that cannot escape the doom of the criminal 
 heritage. From the accursed demon fund they come, and 
 back to it they will go. The best thing for the coming 
 generations is to cut off all possibilities of such parentage. 
 But as the dangers are ahead and will not be lessened in 
 this era, the present generation is too selfish to take such 
 steps. They are indifferent to the fate that awaits their 
 children. 
 
 Man has been given the reins of his own government 
 and the control of the life-making power. He can train 
 any animal breeder into better or worse offspring. In his 
 hands alone the cattle, horses, dogs and other beasts have 
 been wonderfully improved. Nature waited till he came 
 before she undertook the work of making better life. The 
 same is true of flowers, fruits and grains. Once there was 
 but one kind of wheat; now there are several kinds. Once 
 there was but one variety of apple; now there are nearly 
 two hundred varieties. Once there was but one variety 
 of grape, and now there are nearly one hundred. Once 
 the pink was wild and single; now man has made it 
 double and cultured, bringing out of the one kind of a few 
 generations ago, a marvelous group of exquisitely beautiful 
 flowers. Man has improved all forms of life he has taken 
 an interest in as producers of money or profit. But he 
 has allowed his own race to grow more and more depraved. 
 The high moral status of forty years ago is displayed by 
 a burlesque of ethics and an array of silly ideas with which 
 he kills time if he can afford it; and when he slaves for 
 a living he robs himself of all hope of betterment by his 
 misuse of the privileges of life. 
 
 To the serious phases of earthly existence he is learning 
 
i go 
 
 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 to pay no attention. Not long ago he was impressed by 
 the death of his loved ones; now he defies all thoughts 
 and feelings that should turn his mind- toward the sublime 
 heights of existence; and if the penalties are too burdensome 
 he takes his own life. Suicide is so common now that 
 it ceases to shock the public mind. It is looked for 
 as one of the usual means of exit from a world that has 
 been filled with failures and disappointments. 
 
 In such a mood as this the present generation will pass 
 back for the most part into the demon fund from which 
 they sprung. When on the other hand there shall be a 
 general awakening, the people will cut off all criminal 
 parentage either by execution or segregation of the criminals 
 that are confirmed in their degradation, and will thus make 
 it difficult for the demon to come into this world through 
 birth. 
 
 LAW. — All persons that are born of honest parentage 
 transform demons into human beings for whom there is 
 hope. 
 
 There is no hope for the offspring of criminal parents. 
 
 The experts who have studied them have come to the 
 agreement that they will remain criminals and so die in 
 their boots. 
 
 The hope of rapidly reducing the demon life that sur- 
 rounds earth and that comes into being here, rests in the 
 method that causes them to be born of honest parentage. 
 That is the starting point. It is not all that is necessary. 
 But it is a beginning. If they are born of criminal 
 parentage, there is then no starting point. 
 
 This law may be as easily applied to the human species 
 as to horses, cows, sheep, dogs and other forms of life; 
 or to roses, carnations, pears, apples, grapes or grains. The 
 betterment takes place through the manner of breeding or 
 propagation. Man has never once in all the history of the 
 world applied it to his own race. Nature applied it when 
 man was being brought upward toward civilization; for 
 
PARENTAGE 191 
 
 she created the law of the survival of the fittest. Now 
 man is reversing that law, and is permitting the unfittest 
 to survive. 
 
 At this time in his history when the nitrogen that sup- 
 ports the growth of the vegetable kingdom is becoming ex- 
 hausted, when animal existence is lessening all over the globe, 
 when the mammoth forms of creation of the once great 
 past are coming down to the ranks of insects and micro- 
 scopic germs, when the time for the renewal of life is 
 being perceptibly shortened, man should have a care lest 
 the last round of his recall to earth shall have been spent 
 and his future become the blackness of an unending demon 
 existence. 
 
 It may be that the spirit that set in motion the rebellion 
 in the sky of which Milton wrote, is being concentrated 
 in the demons that remain or soon will remain, and they 
 will be finally sentenced to eternal death, removing forever 
 all portent of further anarchy in heaven. 
 
192 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 GETTING FREE. 
 
 * 1 
 
 ii.i,i.i « . i . i . i i.i.kkiTk iTi. i i~i . 1T1T1T1 . i i iTi i i i i i i i iTi . i i i /)* 
 
 EAVING THE darker phases of this study 
 we come now to the uplands from which we 
 can behold a better country. We still must 
 deal only with facts, despite the tendency to 
 discuss the probabilities and possibilities that 
 open before us as the theme grows greater. It 
 is undoubtedly a fact that the beings that are 
 born on earth are descended from those that fell from 
 heaven. The fund from which they are drawn into the 
 process of birth is still a large one although it has been 
 materially reduced as the centuries have rolled on. 
 
 LAW. — Every life that dies in earth passes into the fund 
 of demon existence. 
 
 To die in earth is to remain earth-bound by failing to 
 gain the freedom of the universe. All persons die either 
 in earth or in the psychic world. 
 
 LAW. — Re-born lives are not identical with those that 
 died in earth. 
 
 If there is any exception to this law it may be classed 
 with the cases referred to in a preceding chapter. A re- 
 born body is one that comes into life containing the material 
 that has previously lived on earth. As there have been 
 countless billions of beings on this orb, and as their bodies 
 would fully consume all the soil on the habitable portion 
 of the globe, it is not possible for any person to be born 
 now who does not take the very material into his body 
 that has been used more than once for making the bodies 
 of other beings that have lived before. Therefore every 
 
GETTING FREE 193 
 
 body is re-born, but there is not a continuing of the same 
 identity. 
 
 There is no person of intelligence who doubts the fact 
 that all the soil now on earth has been used one or more 
 times in the making of bodies that have lived. This being 
 true, no one can deny that the bodies are re-born. But 
 they do not preserve identity. 
 
 As the soil is a general fund to which all beings in earth 
 return, so the fund of demon life is general, and to it every 
 person who dies in earth must of necessity return. There 
 can be no other method of carrying on the process of the 
 generations. 
 
 LAW. — A person dies in earth who is not freed from 
 demon life during the period of natural existence in the 
 flesh. 
 
 To die in earth is to be resolved back to the funds from 
 which the life was drawn; it is to go back to the ashes 
 of the earth, to go back to the vital storehouse, to go back 
 to the fund of demons, to go back to that bourne from 
 which the whole being came. Or, as Tennyson wrote : 
 
 " When that which drew from out the boundless deep, 
 turns again home." 
 
 To die in earth is to be earth-bound. 
 
 Law. — There are two kinds of death : the physical and 
 the psychic. 
 
 The physical death is that which sends the being back 
 to the fund of demons from which it was drawn at birth. 
 
 The psychic death is that which sets the being free from 
 earth and gives him the power to return to heaven from 
 which he fell. He will be extricated from all demon in- 
 fluence, and the spirit of rebellion will be condensed into a 
 comparatively few whose lives will be eternally doomed. 
 
 As that spirit was born millions of years ago, its being 
 
 crushed here will prevent its ever becoming manifest again 
 
 in heaven. It is likened to the black sheep in the fold. 
 
 It is the Judas in the twelve disciples. When Christ in- 
 
 13 
 
194 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 troduced that proportion of evil into the best men that were 
 at His command in His own life, it was the clear intention 
 to hold up the necessary presence of fallen man as a part 
 of the economy of the universe. There can be no other 
 meaning in the incident. It was as possible to select twelve 
 good men as eleven. Not that the proportion is one in 
 twelve. Proportions count nothing. It is the principle. 
 
 Even heaven was not always perfect. 
 
 All forms of life on earth are being contracted or reduced, 
 and the supporting powers are likewise becoming less. This 
 is apparent even within the observation of the men of to- 
 day. When nature moves so slowly that any one generation 
 can measure off its degree of activity it is certainly coming 
 close to a stop. In order to save repetition and review, 
 the reader should peruse again the laws and statements made 
 in the present division of this book. They show con- 
 clusively in what ways life is being contracted. 
 
 But before the final curtain is rung down, millions upon 
 millions will have been freed from the dominant influence 
 of the demons that surround the earth. 
 
 Death that goes back to earth with body, soul, mind 
 and vitality, will not free any man. 
 
 The psychic death alone can do that. 
 
 LAW. — The immortal being does not die. 
 
 It may not be an easy matter to harmonize the fact that 
 eternal life is the attribute of any created being, while death 
 is the doom of all who live on earth. There are therefore 
 three attributes: 
 
 1. Immortality. 
 
 2. The fall. 
 
 3. Death. 
 
 A created being lives forever. He may fall. Having 
 fallen he then enters a fund of demon life where he be- 
 longs. Earth is his place of exile until he either enters his 
 eternal doom or is restored again to immortality. 
 
 In order to give him his opportunity he is placed on 
 
GETTING FREE 195 
 
 earth, but must come here in the demon or spirit life, as 
 there is no other means of transit through the sky. 
 
 LAW. — Matter dissolves, but life lives forever. 
 
 The earth is made of rock which has been washed by rains 
 and water into sand and from this there has been produced 
 the loam by which the germ of life may find its beginning 
 in the cell of protoplasm and thus clothe the spirit with 
 a material body. 
 
 LAW. — Death is necessary in order to free the soul and 
 to give it opportunity to seek immortality. 
 
 Death is also necessary in order to afford to each life 
 in turn the chance to take on the material body. If there 
 were no death on earth there would be no turn awaiting 
 others. Death is change. The essential part of life does 
 not die. 
 
 The germ begins its existence, grows, takes on maturity, 
 exercises its right to choose for itself, is hemmed in by all 
 the evil influences from which it is sprung, and is attended 
 by opportunities to free itself at every stage of life. 
 
 When the period of a fair trial has ended, the body ripens, 
 the earth from which it came gets ready to dissolve, the 
 mind grows tired and the organism of clay is laid down 
 into the lap of earth again ; ashes to ashes, dust to dust. 
 
 The electricity that sustains the nervous system goes to its 
 general fund, the vitality flies to its source, the mind again 
 seeks resting place in the mass of intelligence that pervades 
 all matter, and the soul is once more sent back to the demon 
 fund unless it has worked out its right to pass on to other 
 worlds. 
 
 LAW. — Every person who enters the psychic world while 
 on earth becomes immortal. 
 
 As has been stated there are two worlds, one physical 
 and the other psychic. 
 
 Also as has been stated there are two minds, one physical 
 and one psychic. 
 
 In addition to this there are two deaths, one physical and 
 
i 9 6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 one psychic. We refer to the latter as a death, on the 
 principle that death is merely a change from one state to 
 another. When a person dies in earth, the change is 
 complete back to earth and to all the funds from which 
 life was drawn. 
 
 LAW. — The psychic life begins on earth. 
 
 By this is meant that it has its origin here for those who 
 are here. The word psychic is used with reference only 
 to the conditions that are found on this planet. A larger 
 word would be required to describe the conditions out of 
 which man was first created, and from which he fell, and 
 which are now and ever will be maintained in the other 
 worlds of the sky. 
 
 As there are two kinds of mind, and two worlds, one for 
 each; as there are two kinds of death, so there are two 
 kinds of life. It has been shown that the physical existence 
 is made of earth, that the five senses which are its agents 
 are made of earth, and that there the psychic life is trying 
 to break through the wall that separates the one existence 
 from the other. Look once more at the final chapter in the 
 first division of this book, telling in what way the powers 
 of the psychic world are ever trying to find their way into 
 the intelligence of the physical mind so that they may be 
 recognized and understood. All the eleven chapters of that 
 division lay the foundation for this one great fact. Take 
 up the thread of human experience and note the thousands 
 of ways in which the psychic life is seeking to help humanity ; 
 by the devious methods of inspiration, of intuition, of pre- 
 monitions, of grand thoughts that are inexpressible in words, 
 by common warnings and presentiments, and by the actual 
 presence at times of the psychic body before it takes its 
 long flight upward. These efforts cannot be doubted. 
 They are a part of the day history of life in the flesh. 
 
 A man once came to the author and said that he had ac- 
 quired wealth enough to keep him as long as he lived. He 
 was not satisfied to live well in a physical sense, but was 
 
GETTING FREE 197 
 
 eager to test some of the psychic laws to their utmost. The 
 subject of inspiration was most interesting to him, for he 
 believed that through that power he could touch the edge 
 of the life to come. 
 
 He took up the very simple process of writing down all 
 ideas of value as they came to him, and afterwards referring 
 to them in order to constantly excite the function that pro- 
 duced them. In a year he found that thoughts entered 
 his mind with great rapidity and that the value increased 
 day by day, although almost imperceptibly. His next step 
 was to select only the grandest of the new ideas, and en- 
 courage his mind to give birth to them. 
 
 But he wrote them down in the instant. 
 
 Let this one provision be omitted, and the process ceases. 
 
 The nervous system in the act of writing employs the 
 sense of touch, and conforms to the sense of sight, aiding 
 thus the operation of the thought itself. Little as this help 
 may be, it is just great enough to make or mar the whole 
 plan. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary to adopt this plan of writing, 
 of seeing, of reviewing from time to time, and of stimulat- 
 ing the mind by keeping an exact transcription of the ideas. 
 Then they must be instantly written down. To wait a 
 minute may lose one word in the idea, and thus weaken 
 the whole. Tennyson stated to a friend that he lost the 
 arrangement of four of the simplest words of a poem, 
 having delayed writing them down in connection with a 
 couplet which formed a part of the poem, and he never 
 got them as they came to him; the result being that he 
 never published the poem. It is said of Shakespeare that 
 not one word can be taken from his writings and replaced 
 by another and leave the work as good as he made it. This 
 is a wonderful tribute to his genius and inspiration. 
 
 The case which we were relating progressed a year or 
 more further, and the man found that he was gaining not 
 only in new ideas of great value, but was reaching the 
 
i 9 8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY ■ 
 
 goal which he sought. Having made so much headway 
 he became interested in the study of psychic telepathy, and 
 found the light that was so much desired. 
 
 Victory crowned his efforts. 
 
 This and thousands upon thousands of other proofs show 
 conclusively that the psychic life begins on earth. It does 
 not have its origin in the sky. It is the other part of man 
 in this world. Everywhere we find evidence of his double 
 nature. One seeks to help him when he is in need if he is 
 worthy of that aid. 
 
 In a recent case that has been called to our attention it 
 seems that Dr. Henry van Dyke of the faculty of a leading 
 university wrote a book which, owing to its exquisite beauty 
 has been translated into German, French, Spanish, Italian, 
 Turkish and other languages. In the second edition he 
 prints an additional preface, a portion of which is given 
 here word for word. The public press comments on the 
 preface as though it indicated a claim of sacred inspiration ; 
 but this is not apparent. 
 
 Dr. van Dyke writes that he has been asked to tell where 
 the story came from. This is his answer : — 
 
 " I do not know where it came from — out of the air, 
 perhaps. One thing is certain, it is not written in any 
 other book, nor is it to be found among the ancient lore of 
 the East. And yet I have never felt as if it were my own. 
 It was a gift. It was sent to me; and it has seemed as if 
 I knew the Giver, though His name was not spoken. 
 
 " The year had been full of sickness and sorrow. Every 
 day brought trouble. Every night was tormented with pain. 
 They are very long — those nights when one lies awake and 
 hears the laboring heart pumping wearily at its task. 
 
 " Well, it was in one of these long, lonely nights that this 
 story came to me. Of the man I had never heard until that 
 night. Then I saw him distinctly, moving through the 
 shadow of a little circle of light. 
 
 " His countenance was as clear as the memory of my 
 
GETTING FREE 199 
 
 father's face as I saw it for the last time a few months 
 before. 
 
 " The narrative of his journeyings and trials and disap- 
 pointments ran on without a break. Even certain sentences 
 came to me complete and unforgettable, clear-cut like a 
 cameo." 
 
 We know from the lips of many of the greatest men of 
 the world who have lived in our own time that they re- 
 ceived just as decided manifestations as that which is indi- 
 cated in the above preface. 
 
 It all proves that the psychic life is here, is trying to 
 break through the walls of human resistance, and has its 
 first stage on this globe. 
 
 As has been stated, it does not begin in the sky, for the 
 life there is known by another name. It makes one worthy 
 to go to other worlds in the sky, but starts here on this orb 
 for the very purpose of affording the opportunity of becom- 
 ing free from the demon fund here. 
 
 LAW. — As the psychic life is included in earthly exist- 
 ence, it can be entered only during life on earth. 
 
 The claim that a man can die in earth and rise to im- 
 mortal estates after death, is absolutely without foundation. 
 There is nothing in any religion to show such a hope. The 
 facts that are known and proven here all contradict it, and 
 psychic telepathy settles the matter for all time by its evi- 
 dence. 
 
 There is but one kind of death that will open the gates 
 to immortality; and that is the death in the psychic world. 
 As that world has its threshold here, it has no door that 
 opens hereafter to the soul that seeks it; nor is the soul 
 permitted to get away from earth unless it has first entered 
 the psychic realm. 
 
 The fact that this better life has been knocking at one's 
 mind for many years, is not proof that it will remain on 
 terms of association for all time. It is not fully under- 
 stood whether or not the efforts of the subconscious powers 
 
200 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 to break through into the physical mind are accidental. If 
 they are, it merely means that the power is so great and the 
 barrier so weak that there is an overflow of the presence of 
 the former. 
 
 If, on the other hand, such efforts were known to be in- 
 tentional, it would greatly encourage the whole human race; 
 for it would show that there is help awaiting the invitation 
 to uplift man. He has been left to choose for himself the 
 fate that he will be compelled to endure. He has been 
 given the light that instinct affords to guide him in his 
 feeblest struggles for existence on the earth; but this may 
 be given for the sole purpose of keeping the race alive. If 
 parentage were to cease all humanity would become extinct, 
 and the waiting demons would be deprived of the opportu- 
 nity of being born so that they may work out their destiny 
 in the flesh. 
 
 But aside from this slight help, man has been left to find 
 out everything for himself. Nature has laughed at his ef- 
 forts to master fire, heat, gravity, lightning, electricity and 
 other elements; for she has gathered millions to her bosom 
 as his luckless mishaps have felled him to death. She 
 laughs at his untimely taking off in crowds of several hun- 
 dred thousand every year through accident. The sooner the 
 reckless folk are in the grave, the sooner the other demons 
 will be given the opportunity to enter earthly life and try 
 their chances with fate. 
 
 It is an old and a true saying that " God will never do 
 for man what man can do for himself." The race has had 
 to find out everything without aid, and knows very little 
 now of the real meaning of life and natural forces. 
 
 Yet there may be an intent in the countless small in- 
 stances in which the psychic world has shown glimpses of 
 itself. Let us hope that this is true. But let us not cease 
 to follow up a ceaseless hunt for more light on this very 
 theme. This is one of the main purposes for which our 
 Psychic Society exists. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 lu 
 
 AFTER DEATH. 
 
 ^ivivtvivi -i.i.ivivi-. "i „i . "i~ i i i~vi i iTiuTiTCivi. ivkivi-uI. iviv-(CK?fviK?K 
 
 EYOND THE FINAL CHANGE that dis- 
 solves the body of flesh, separates the spirit 
 and ends the brief span here, there is dark- 
 ness or light, depending on what decision was 
 made before the change occurred. It can very 
 readily be seen that the dividing of the ways 
 must occur in the lifetime of the body. There 
 is no opportunity hereafter to decide the matter. Here on 
 earth the mind is given to man so that he may think and 
 know, compare and see for himself what he faces. He has 
 everything at hand with which to find the solution. He 
 learns that in proportion as he lives aright he is rewarded; 
 and that the opposite course brings ill. These facts alone 
 ought to carry conviction. But he has more. 
 
 On every hand are beauties, pleasures that are wholesome, 
 sweet influences and tender love to indicate what heaven is 
 like. He walks between two fields. On one side there are 
 exquisite evidences of bliss attainable even in this rough 
 world. On the other side dark and yawning gulfs threaten 
 him as they arch their grim entrances with the signs of prosti- 
 tution, of gambling, of theft, of murder, of hell; and all is 
 pain and suffering. As he turns to look on one field he sees 
 nothing of the other, for his back is toward it and it is 
 hidden. 
 
 LAW. — After death there is no individual life except in 
 the psychic world. 
 
 This truth has been shouted into the ears and stamped on 
 the hearts of all intelligent men and women for thousands 
 
202 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 of years ; sometimes in one form of religion, sometimes in 
 another. But the doctrines of the leading theology of civili- 
 zation are closest to the divine fact. It makes no difference 
 what is believed ; the dividing line between the physical and 
 and the psychic life is clear, sharp and decisive. There is 
 never any doubt when a person has entered the psychic 
 world. 
 
 LAW. — Unseen life is either demon or psychic. 
 
 Heretofore for convenience as has been explained the term 
 psychic has been applied to all forms of unseen powers and 
 existences ; but the time has come when it is necessary to so 
 divide such life as to place the demons on one side and the 
 psychic powers on the other. For the purposes of this work, 
 the general term psychic has been sufficient, and it has been 
 used to avoid too much classification and division. As we 
 will soon leave the demons behind, we will merely refer to 
 them in the remaining pages by that term. 
 
 It has been stated that after death there is no individual 
 life except in the psychic world. The demons exist as a 
 fund, but there is no single personality that can have knowl- 
 edge of its existence or remain a separate entity. The soul of 
 one who dies in earth and is about to pass into the demon 
 fund is often capable of marking its way along the path, but 
 does not linger beyond the allotted time for dissolution. It 
 has been stated that some souls are earth-bound ; by which 
 is meant that they cannot leave this planet for some time 
 if they are destined for the worlds beyond ; or that they 
 dissolve into their funds so slowly that weeks, months and 
 years are occupied in their procrastination. But this asser- 
 tion has never been proved. If there is any evidence to 
 sustain it, let the Ps}'chic Society have it. We want the 
 facts, and our members wish the truth. But we will not 
 accept theories. We do not deal in them, and will not 
 tolerate them. Nor do we care for explanation. Every- 
 thing that occurs can be explained, not in one way, but in a 
 dozen. Conclusions are the claims made after facts have 
 
AFTER DEATH 203 
 
 been presented. But who is sure of reaching the right con- 
 clusions unless the facts show them to be certain and un- 
 mistakable? "What I see with my own eyes I am sure 
 of," is the usual argument. But is the conclusion always 
 warranted ? 
 
 Let us have the truth in such a way that there will be 
 nothing to dispute, nothing to entertain doubts of, nothing 
 to leave the mind in a quandary, nothing for after altera- 
 tion in our views. 
 
 LAW. — It is impossible for the soul in the psychic world 
 to communicate with human beings. 
 
 Earth is a thing of the past. There must be no knowl- 
 edge of it. Loved ones who fail to get free in one genera- 
 tion are returned to the demon fund to be re-melted, and 
 re-molded. They may secure freedom in the next coming 
 on earth. If they do, although they lose their identity in 
 the interim, it is restored in the final journey to heaven, and 
 they know and are known there. 
 
 But it would be a source of constant grief to know of 
 earth after once being free from it. All demon existence 
 is wiped out, just as the wet sponge rubs the sum off the 
 blackboard. Knowledge of this vale of tears, of this abode 
 of hatred, of this hell, would open up the wounds of a life- 
 time of suffering here, and make heaven a place not wholly 
 free from hell. 
 
 This then may be the reason why there is a barrier between 
 the physical being and the psychic being; why the thoughts 
 of the latter may not be known to the former; and, while 
 there is universal knowledge in the latter, it is cut off from 
 earth as soon as its connection ceases with the body of 
 flesh. 
 
 While abundant evidence is at hand to show the appear- 
 ance of the soul in its flight for a day or two after death, 
 all evidence soon ceases; and never, in all the long years 
 that follow, does the psychic being manifest itself to those 
 who remain on earth. If there are spirits at all, they are 
 
204 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 in the demon world ; but they exist there in horrible forms 
 such as the thoughts of criminals and devils would assume, 
 and those are the visions that appear to the fevered brain of 
 the invalid, the insane and the drunkard. 
 
 LAW. — The psychic body, once free, leaves earth, never 
 to know it again. 
 
 The conditions that lead to happiness after the flight to 
 other worlds compel the soul to close out all knowledge of 
 this planet. It is bad enough to have been in hell without 
 being reminded of it. The kind of life that was created 
 in heaven was as near perfect as any free being could be 
 made. Not all fell. There was only one Judas in the 
 band of disciples that surrounded the Son of God ; and 
 there could not have been a greater proportion of evil beings 
 in the hosts that attended the Creator. Therefore only a 
 small relative number fell ; yet they may have been thou- 
 sands of millions, while forming a proportion of not more 
 than one in a thousand. The misfortune came to compara- 
 tively few, leaving the great majority untouched. Like a 
 cancerous sore it festered to rebellion, and even the courts 
 of heaven needed cleaning just as the band of disciples re- 
 quired the elimination of the evil member. 
 
 One is typified in the other. 
 
 To be one of the number that belonged to that festering 
 sore was a misfortune; and all memory of it should cease 
 when the cleansing has reached its end. 
 
 LAW. — Every earthly life is a coriiplete existence with 
 the full possibilities of immortality. 
 
 Despite the fact that the demon fund supplies all the 
 beings that are born on earth, each individual is given the 
 opportunity of freeing himself from the bondage of that influ- 
 ence if he passes the divide. This is the line that separates 
 the physical life from the psychic. Freedom occurs when 
 all the demon nature is driven from the physical life. This 
 is fully explained in the next chapter. As soon as this free- 
 dom has been won, the being enters the psychic world as 
 
AFTER DEATH 205 
 
 far as it exists on earth, and passes on to the other worlds 
 in the sky. 
 
 As the earth was made of material suited to build the 
 bodies of flesh, and as its purpose is to give birth to the 
 waiting souls that have been cast forth from the sky, that 
 body of flesh is no longer required and is dropped. It is 
 merely the physical part of the real existence. While it is 
 the most substantial when measured by the standards of this 
 world, it is really the least important. The mind may grow 
 and develop, but it does not lose any part of itself. The 
 soul and its psychic life are the same from before birth 
 until after death. They never change. But the body of 
 flesh is a constantly changing mass, unstable as the waves 
 of the ocean. It lives only by change, and what is called 
 life is the very process of alteration. To break down and 
 re-build is necessary to the health of the body. It has no 
 bearings, no anchorage, no fixed value, no final structure; 
 but from the hour of first inception until it drops away in 
 the last sleep it changes moment by moment. Such a body 
 is of no use to an immortal being. 
 
 It is a thing of earth. 
 
 Therefore when death comes the soul either falls back 
 to its demon fund to be re-melted and re-molded, or else it 
 mounts up to the heavens for its place again among the 
 higher beings. 
 
 The body is left behind. 
 
 The psychic being is the only important, the only un- 
 changing existence of the individual. 
 
 It lives regardless of substance. It is in the ether. It 
 moves by the aid of the ether. It knows no law of gravity, 
 and is not bound to earth. It is drawn by the power of 
 universal magnetism to the world that is to become its first 
 abode beyond. 
 
 Time is made by the revolution of the earth on its axis, 
 setting the pace of the day and night; and by the moon's 
 passage around this orb, giving the months; and further by 
 
206 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 the circuit of the earth around the sun, reeling off the 
 years. 
 
 As the soul in its distant home knows nothing of such 
 revolutions, it is not involved in the passing of time. 
 
 As it travels by the law of ethereal impulse, it knows 
 nothing of space. 
 
 As it is not a substance, it knows nothing of heat and 
 cold. The flaming suns and the ice cold planets are one 
 and the same to its ethereal body. 
 
 Mind is not substance; therefore it would carry with it 
 the full degree of intelligence. As the psychic mind knows 
 everything without limitation, as far as the transactions of 
 its own realm are concerned, it would be all-wise. Earth 
 with its physical barriers alone are closed to it forever. The 
 experiences in this world have been such that forgetfulness 
 is a mercy. There has been nothing pleasant here for the 
 greater numbers of the inhabitants. In an age when five 
 hundred thousand men, women and children were put to a 
 torturing death as occurred in the reign of one of the Roman 
 emperors, and which stands forth as a type of the innate 
 cruelty and demon character of earth, there is nothing that 
 calls up loving recollections of an experience here. 
 
 LAW. — Suicides and criminals are sent back to the 
 demon fund and enter into the hideous forms of life that 
 hover about the earth. 
 
 No criminal can enter the psychic world. No suicide can 
 have admission there; for suicide is murder. Nearly all the 
 supposedly insane are those who have wantonly ruined their 
 lives and hopes and thus broken down their minds, or who 
 have disregarded the laws of health and given themselves 
 up to perish in any way that fate may overtake them. They 
 are parties to the demons that ruin them. 
 
 There is a class of insane people who are descended from 
 an ancestry that has indulged in habits that tend to ruin 
 the body and its offspring; and on those parents rests the 
 curse that follows to other generations, as God has expressly 
 
AFTER DEATH 207 
 
 decreed. They and their offspring are re-melted and re- 
 molded in demon life. Wherever there is insanity some one 
 is to blame. The victim need not be the guilty party, but 
 nature looks upon the line connectedly and the whole is 
 rejected. An insane mind cannot enter eternal life. It is 
 a blank, and must live again in order to make the effort to 
 secure freedom from earth. 
 
 The drinking man or woman ruins both body and soul, as 
 well as the man or woman who assists in making the drunk- 
 ard. This crime brings death to all who are parties to it. 
 No one is innocent no matter under what guise he may 
 serve. 
 
 Gambling is an abject and debasing crime, whether it 
 occurs in the filthy den, in the gilded hell, or the fashion- 
 able parlor. It curses every person who indulges in it, or 
 is associated with it. The pretended love of the noble horse 
 which is used as a pretence to enter a life of gambling at 
 the race track, damns the man or woman who yields to its 
 criminal influence. The so-called innocent games in the 
 drawing room that teach the spirit of gambling are on the 
 same level with the bunco game and the moral character 
 is no higher. 
 
 There are four direct causes of insanity; any one of 
 which may break down the mind. One is venery or the 
 sensual waste of the body, which eats out the brain-cells. 
 Another is the use of alcohol. The third is the spirit of 
 gambling in any and every form. The fourth is the waste 
 of the vitality of the body, whether by using the night hours 
 for carousals, or drugging the blood with an excess of medi- 
 cines, or any neglect or abuse of the splendid temple that 
 God has made in which the soul is to make a trial for 
 eternity. Whatever weakens the brain will bring on in- 
 sanity, or set up a tendency in that direction. 
 
 It is like taking changes in any desperate venture with 
 possibilities of death standing on every hand. When at 
 least the mind is gone, folks say: "Poor man, or poor 
 
208 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 woman, it is too bad, but it could not be helped." Nature 
 knows better. If the human mind cannot learn better, it will 
 have to suffer. Heaven wants mind and soul purged from 
 the muddy vesture of earth, and so insanity cuts off all hope 
 of immortality in that generation for the individual who 
 suffers from it. 
 
 Suicide, whether from insanity, as is sometimes the cause, 
 or from a wanton disgust with life, or from mere pique, as 
 in the case of the fellow whose girl has jilted him, or the 
 girl who has been reprimanded by her mother, or from any 
 other cause, great or little, is the most contemptible kind 
 of murder known to nature. It is getting so common now 
 that any person who has been offended or even slighted, will 
 just as likely as not blow out his brains, as happened when a 
 young man of good intellect ended his life because he had 
 not been invited to a party. 
 
 Suicides become the most hideous of all demons, taking 
 rank with the murderers. They may be forced to have their 
 birth in grovelling beasts or savages or other degraded beings 
 such as snakes, reptiles or vermin ; and long generations must 
 pass before they are reached by civilized parentage, if ever. 
 The time is rapidly drawing nigh when the last vestige of 
 hope will have fled and those who do not find escape from 
 earth will constitute an endless hell here. 
 
 One of the most eminent physiologists in Germany, a man 
 who has devoted his life work to an investigation of the 
 progress of humanity, and whose opinions have been received 
 by all learned men as most valuable in the study of life, 
 has recently written a work on the subject under discussion. 
 He is Dr. Emil Koenig. He is positive that humanity is fast 
 approaching its final doom. He is not a religious man and 
 does not. write from the standpoint of the theologist ; but ob- 
 tains his information from a study and close investigation of 
 the present and past conditions of man, of the earth, and the 
 remarkable changes that are now in progress. The chemical 
 and physical alterations of nature are distinct and decided, 
 
AFTER DEATH 209 
 
 he says. Humanity has reached the zenith of its development 
 and stands now at the dead point where the next movement 
 will be a rapid decadence. There is certainly no physical 
 hope for the race, if his conclusions are warranted. 
 
 Diseases are increasing with such speed that the doctors 
 will soon outrank the patients. In a population of about 
 eighty millions, not five hundred thousand persons are in good 
 health. The nitrogen is being taken fast out of the air, and 
 without it no plant can live, nor will man or beast have 
 food. One investigator has estimated that at the present 
 rate of loss, the nitrogen will have been so decreased that in 
 ten years life will begin to fade from the earth. 
 
 LAW. — When the opportunity for parentage ceases, all 
 unborn demons will remain forever shut out of the psychic 
 world. 
 
 Great changes are certainly at hand on this globe. The 
 facts are gathered from the investigations made by men of 
 the highest learning independent of any religious views. 
 Chemistry, physiology and physical processes are studied and 
 analyzed with a keen knowledge that allows no important 
 fact to escape, and they furnish the laws which control the 
 fate of every human being. 
 
 14 
 
210 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 STEPPING STONES. 
 
 OPE IS THE STAR WORD of humanity. 
 In its meaning is contained all that can be 
 , sought or won through the efforts of man to 
 free himself from the leash of earth. With the 
 fulfilment of victory he is ready to set out on 
 his voyage across the sky. The prospect is 
 glorious. But will he have earned his passage? 
 Let us see. To begin with he came from the demon fund 
 that surrounds this orb. In coming into a body of flesh, he 
 has been given the trial experience here in order to test his 
 ability to free himself. 
 
 What are the requirements? 
 What are the roads ahead? 
 
 If he fails, he goes back to that demon fund. In the 
 Psychic Society there are men and women of every church 
 denomination in the civilized world ; and one and all they 
 believe in these laws as the first great exposition of the 
 supreme facts of the universe. Not only are there many of 
 the Protestant denominations, all included, not one faith 
 being without representation ; but there are Catholics who 
 are just as loyal and just as eager to have these doctrines 
 told to all mankind. To them the scientific and physical 
 demonstration of the existence of a demon fund answers the 
 demand for a purgatory, or purging condition through which 
 the unsaved individual is given a chance to come into im- 
 mortality. " It is a perfect plan," writes one of the leading 
 thinkers in that denomination, " and is indeed proved." 
 There are two roads ahead. 
 
STEPPING STONES 211 
 
 You may call the return to demon life a passage to purga- 
 tory, or whatever process you please ; it is described in this 
 book as a proved fact and must stand for its face value as 
 such. 
 
 Assuming that you choose the other road, what are the 
 requirements that must precede your winning the coveted 
 goal ? We will state them as they must occur, although all 
 are as one single act on your part : 
 
 1. You must in the first place want to free yourself from 
 demon influences. Many persons do not care. 
 
 2. Then you must have time and disposition on earth to 
 perform your duties in the body of flesh. 
 
 3. Finally you must in fact pass the dividing line between 
 the demon influences and the psychic life. 
 
 Let us look at these three conditions precedent. 
 
 If you are indifferent about your freedom, if you must 
 be urged by others to free yourself; in fact, if you have not 
 a strong and ceaseless desire to escape from the demon influ- 
 ences, then you will never get free. You will be returned 
 to the demon fund, and in the course of time your indi- 
 viduality will be restored and as a feeling, knowing being, 
 you will enter into an endless state of suffering and pitiless 
 tortures such as the former masses of humanity indulged in 
 for their pastime, reflecting the fate that will bring all earthly 
 life to an end. 
 
 If you want to free yourself from such influences, you 
 must choose for yourself, and not be led or coaxed to the 
 change. 
 
 Having found that you are of such desire, then you must 
 lay in this life the foundation for the existence that may be 
 gained after death. A sudden change of your nature will 
 not help you at the last moment. There is no such thing 
 as an immediate transfer of worlds without a test and proof 
 of fitness. The criminal who reforms in jail prior to his 
 execution goes to the demons; and, if he has slain a human 
 being in wanton disregard of the laws of life, he will find 
 
212 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 his soul scourged in demon life to the very last dregs of 
 hell, although he may have died in peace singing songs of 
 salvation. There is no forgiveness for the villainy that has 
 not reformed itself by an open life on earth during years 
 of trial. 
 
 Nature is too shrewd to be deceived by pretence. Many a 
 so-called conversion and after-feeling of safety, are but the 
 hypnotic effects of suggestion under great fear, the most 
 potent of all self-hypnotizing influences in the world. 
 
 Life here is full of duties. 
 
 There are many things that every man and woman must 
 know, the greatest of which is how to become useful and 
 helpfully industrious; not necessarily by drudging toil, but 
 in some way through the hours, days and weeks of the passing 
 years, doing something that will be of value to self and 
 others, not from the standpoint of money, but measured by 
 the weight of good it may do in making life on earth a 
 paradise. It need not be a great paradise, nor one of mag- 
 nificence in a substantial sense ; for that which makes the 
 heart love the earth is sure to be a type of heaven. 
 
 At this stage of our work let us count up the Stepping 
 Stones by which the demon life is transferred to the psychic 
 life: It is not necessary to describe them at length. 
 
 LAW. — Enough time must elapse between the decision 
 and first step in the psychic life on the one hand, and the 
 death of the body on the other hand, to enable the individual 
 to establish on earth a type of heaven. 
 
 This law is the basis of the Stepping Stones. 
 
 Without it there can be no hope for immortality unless 
 the spirit returns again to the demons for remelting and 
 re-molding. 
 
 LAW. — There is no past. 
 
 Everything is in the present and the future. 
 
 What the past is, cannot exist. Memory has no abiding 
 place in the psychic world. No one knows what has taken 
 place. All beings see and know the ever present. 
 
STEPPING STONES 213 
 
 In this law is the hope of immortality for those who have 
 once been demons, and for those who, having been under 
 evil influence, have succeeded in freeing themselves. In this 
 law lies all the hope of safety for the man or woman who 
 has committed crime, who has sinned, who has fallen into 
 the abyss of shame and degradation. This law does not 
 take away the function of any religion, but confirms it from 
 the standpoint of a scientific demonstration. 
 
 Where the past leaves a man or woman, there will the 
 soul remain. 
 
 If there is genuine reform in any life, no matter how 
 bad it may have been, and if there is time left on earth for 
 setting up a type of heaven here, then the wickedest soul 
 gains a passport to the worlds beyond and to immortality. 
 
 Repentance on the death-bed will not avail a person, for 
 the reason that there is no time left for earthly tests. Such 
 a repentance is the act of the physical mind only, and that 
 function cannot take much part in a psychic life. 
 
 The habit of converting criminals in the cells of our 
 prisons when they are awaiting execution is not by any means 
 to be discouraged, but it will serve only to lessen to a slight 
 extent the grade of demon life to which that soul is to be 
 consigned. You cannot send a murderer to heaven from 
 the four walls of a prison cell. 
 
 If such a process were possible, then the men who have 
 been demons and fiends, who have led diabolical lives, who 
 have slain without mercy, who have raped and torn open 
 innocent women and girls, who have tortured without re- 
 morse, or who have defied the laws of earth by committing 
 the most devilish crimes in the name of lust or greed, then 
 such men could take their chances until they were caught, 
 after which all they need do is to repent and be launched 
 upon a career of eternal bliss. No such law was ever or- 
 dained by the Creator. 
 
 Earth holds all that is most pure and most hellish in its 
 bosom. 
 
2i 4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 It spans both extremes. 
 
 There is nothing so horrible in any conceived abode of pun- 
 ishment after death that it has not been duplicated here on 
 this globe. 
 
 There is nothing so beautiful and glorious in the noblest 
 conceptions of heaven that it has not been aspired to in this 
 world. 
 
 Between these two ultra extremes every intermediate has 
 been set up on earth. 
 
 Here then is the opportunity for the individual who would 
 pass the dividing line in time to win his passage to a better 
 condition beyond. The Stepping Stones are each and every 
 one essential. Let us see what they are, and how the journey 
 may be started in this life; for here we take our first steps 
 toward immortality. 
 
 FIRST STEPPING STONE.— Each person must de- 
 cide for self without coaxing or urging or suggestion under 
 great stress of fear or suffering, that the demon life is not to 
 be longer desired, and that the psychic world is the only hope 
 of immortality. 
 
 SECONL STEPPING STONE.— There must be both 
 time and opportunity to set up on this earth a type of heaven 
 in the heart, in the home if there be any, and in public. 
 
 This requires time. Some prisons may afford such oppor- 
 tunities, but the presumption is that they do not. It is true 
 that men have in the past centuries been thrown into prison 
 because of their goodness and religious belief, but they had 
 won heaven before their incarceration. If they were bad 
 and unworthy before they went to prison, they very likely 
 deserved all or part of their punishment. 
 
 THIRD STEPPING STONE.— The duties of life 
 must be taken up and faithfully performed. 
 
 One of the first of all duties is to assist in the support of 
 the body, the making of a home where honest children may 
 be brought into the world, and the maintenance of high pub- 
 lic standards of purity. Life is so complex that these obliga- 
 
STEPPING STONES 215 
 
 tions cannot be avoided. The hermit, the recluse, or the 
 wholly ostracized individual cannot set up on earth a type 
 of heaven. People must mingle with people and sustain a 
 share of the burdens of existence in order that others may be 
 encouraged to follow in the path of right. 
 
 Idleness, whether in the home of the rich or the poor, is 
 a natural crime. Useless pleasures that weary the soul and 
 bring no healthful relief to the toiler, are ashes of death. 
 The profession of social life whereby a woman exists solely 
 for outdoing her neighbor in display and scenes of eating, 
 cannot be atoned for by a few weeks of retirement and cessa- 
 tion during Lent, nor by attendance at a fashionable church 
 once a week, nor gifts to charity in any form. All these 
 things are dead ashes in the moral body. 
 
 FOURTH STEPPING STONE.— Simple methods of 
 living must be adopted. 
 
 Not only the physical body and the mind require that 
 there shall be a return to simple habits, but the soul stands 
 most in need of such a regime. 
 
 The complexity of modern foods is ruining one by one 
 every organ in the body. A few items of food will sustain 
 life, if taken in reasonable variety. No nobler specimen of 
 created beings of flesh can be found than the perfect horse. 
 In bone, sinew, muscle, nerves, blood and organic life, he is 
 without flaw. A human being who could attain to such a 
 physical condition would be a marvel. Yet the perfect horse 
 gets along with three or four articles of food and with noth- 
 ing but pure water. He takes no stimulants, no alcohol, no 
 tea, no coffee, no chocolate, no soda water, no ice cream, no 
 pastry, no cake, no puddings, nothing but plain, wholesome 
 food and drink. It has been proved that the identical foods 
 that will support a perfect horse will best support a human 
 being, substituting for the hay the leaf foods of the vegetable 
 garden, such as celery, lettuce, greens, cabbage, asparagus, 
 spinach, beet tops, and the like ; all of which are in the grass 
 class. 
 
2x6 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 If man had a half dozen or a dozen items of food, he 
 would be better off physically. 
 
 Not alone in foods, but in habits of occupying the time 
 by day and night, and in the occupations that fill up the 
 passing of the months, should the regime be simplified. 
 
 It is admitted that humanity has a physical and a psychic 
 nature; but the crowding of the days and nights with the 
 mere physical and the complete denial of the psychic life 
 within the former, breaks down all moral respect for the 
 things that are most attractive when the bed of death is occu- 
 pied. 
 
 It all comes down to this proposition: 
 
 There is a purpose in everything. There is usefulness in 
 everything that belongs to the process of living. Is your 
 day spent usefully and in accord with any definite purpose, 
 or is it a drift of time, aimless, and useless? Recreation is 
 useful, if it is wholesome. But it is not the goal of the day's 
 existence. 
 
 Complex and elaborate methods of living are hurtful, 
 whether in the diet, or in the home, or in business, or in the 
 professions, or in society. 
 
 FIFTH STEPPING STONE.— There must be heaven 
 in the heart. 
 
 It is either demons or heaven; you cannot escape that 
 fact. 
 
 There are all grades of demons. The magnifying power 
 of the fevered brain, or the inflamed sense of vision of the 
 sufferer from delirium, or the enlargement of the optic nerve 
 during great stress or excitement of any kind, will show all 
 grades of demons. They must exist, or the brain could not 
 possibly show them. We should be thankful that we cannot 
 see them during the period of normal health. 
 
 Some of these demons are in the lower ranks of animal life ; 
 some are higher up ; some are apparently human ; some are 
 weak in their evil character, suggesting that they are not 
 disposed to do harm; but none are attractive or inviting in 
 
STEPPING STONES 217 
 
 any respect. They are all awaiting their time to be born in 
 bodies of flesh on earth and thus seek to win a passport to 
 their home in the sky from which they fell. While so wait- 
 ing, they take on almost any guise in the demon fund, but 
 cannot be dormant. In that condition they exert an influence 
 over all human beings whose affiliations are of their kind. 
 Some of these influences are horribly hideous, and seem to be 
 exerted solely for the purpose of hurrying the living into their 
 graves in order to hasten the time when they may come into 
 bodies of flesh. Thus they inspire the feeling of war that 
 sends hundreds of thousands of men into their graves, and 
 deprives women and children of the joys of life, and thus 
 hurries them to untimely death. This is but a small part of 
 their work. 
 
 The point here made is that they hold sway over the heart 
 and mind of all human beings who are not living in the 
 psychic world. 
 
 If there is heaven in the heart, these evil influences will not 
 have power. They will leave the home and hearth. They 
 will not walk with the person who has succeeded in over- 
 coming their influence. 
 
 Heaven in the heart is founded upon one condition only; 
 and this is summed up in the word : HONESTY. 
 
 A person who is honest may test it by the only method 
 known or that can ever be known, and that is this : in every 
 act, in every thought, in every utterance, ask the question: 
 Is it what I would do, or think, or say if I stood face to 
 face with my Creator? 
 
 One man of world-wide fame writes this definition of 
 heaven in the heart: "Will I do any act as freely before 
 the eyes of my trusting friends as I will do it if I am sure 
 that they will .never know it ? " 
 
 Thinking over the foregoing inquiries, the accurate thinker 
 will soon learn where to find the dividing line between evil 
 and good. 
 
 A man slept in a house with ten Italians. Had they 
 
218 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 murdered him, they would have been detected, and they 
 knew it. He had money with him, and although it was 
 small, there was not one Italian who would have hesitated 
 to take his life if he was sure that no human being would 
 find it out and bring him to an account for it. In fact, 
 even if the sum of money was not more than ten dollars, 
 every Italian in that gang would have committed murder 
 for the pittance if detection were not possible. Their 
 knowledge that they would have been arrested and tried as 
 felons was all that saved the life of this man. 
 
 But the ability to do wrong and escape detection of human 
 sleuths, is not the test of a psychic life. Many a person 
 passes in the public eye as honorable who is leading the life 
 of a demon of evil and wickedness. The test in such case 
 is in what the public may learn of the real facts. But that 
 is not the true test. 
 
 The psychic world is as open to all acts, all thoughts, all 
 motives, all uttered and unuttered operations of the mind, 
 as if they were proclaimed in tones of thunder from the 
 housetops. How will you stand that test ? 
 
 You are about to commit an act of some kind. Ask your- 
 self the question, Would I do this thing if I stood face to 
 face with my Creator? 
 
 When you can reply in the affirmative at any and all times, 
 then you have brought heaven in your heart, and the great 
 divide is crossed. 
 
 You will be honest in deed, honest in word, honest in 
 thought, and no dogma of religion, no creed of theology 
 can take you out of the ranks that are marching to eternal 
 bliss. 
 
 Keep this keynote in your mind at all times. 
 
 Beyond earth there is no phase of life that is not honest. 
 There is no being that can suppose any other condition 
 than honesty. It is the straight line of thought and deed. 
 It is the clear light of every act. Dishonesty is a warped 
 condition ; straight lines become crooked ; things are said 
 
STEPPING STONES 219 
 
 that are not so, and acts are performed that deal out evil 
 and wrong to others. 
 
 In heaven such departure from straightness would amaze 
 the beings there. It would seem like an insane condition the 
 terror of which would throw all the courts of heaven into 
 chaos. As they cannot conceive that a created being can say 
 what is not true, or do what is not honest, they know noth- 
 ing of it. 
 
 Dishonesty, graft, theft, lies, evil in all guises, deceit, 
 concealment of purpose under fair promises, all these things 
 are part of earth, and there is no other orb in all the universe 
 that can give birth to such moral monstrosities. 
 
 The man or woman who would seek admission to the 
 psychic world by pretence, by sham, by hypocrisy, or by 
 show of good intent when evil is in the heart, will gain 
 nothing; for it is impossible to succeed in such disguises. 
 
 Ask the question : " Am I honest ? " and see how you 
 can answer it. Or the question, " Am I deceiving any 
 human being in what I do or say?" and see what your 
 reply will be. Here is the test. 
 
 There is no religion superior to that which teaches hon- 
 esty. If you can make your every act and word and thought 
 honest, just as honest as you would like to have it appear 
 when you stand in the presence of your God, then you have 
 nothing to fear. 
 
 You may cover up your deeds and hide them from your 
 fellow beings, but it will not pay. The goal is a return to 
 the demon fund after death. Nothing but the white light, 
 the pure white light, the absolutely clear and immaculate 
 white light of honesty can save you. Religion does not al- 
 ways make a person honest. Therefore religion cannot save 
 you when it falls short of this end. If you belong to a 
 church that does not make you honest, the church will not 
 bring you to safety. You who are members of churches 
 know what we mean. If in spite of that membership, if in 
 spite of your affiliation with good men, if in spite of your 
 
22o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 attendance upon communion and all the charity that you are 
 credited with on the books, you are honest, you know it. 
 No one else wants to know it. If you know you are not 
 honest, it is time to know further that you have not crossed 
 the great divide; you are in the demon world and your souls 
 will go back to its last source. 
 
 There is not the slightest doubt about this fact. 
 
 Therefore it is time that you should take an account of 
 stock of yourself. 
 
 Do not let the opinions of others influence you. 
 
 You have sense enough to know that there can be no 
 other test than that which is here presented. 
 
 Do not allow yourself to be deceived. 
 
 Think it over, and if you find that your church has not 
 made your life honest, do not leave that church, but turn 
 about and do the right thing: Get honest. It will not hurt 
 you, or your creed, or your church, and it may do good all 
 along the line. Study these things. Be sensible. 
 
 If you will make everything bend to this one law, if you 
 will stop splitting hairs about beliefs, if you will drop the- 
 ories and cling to facts, if you will wake up to the clear 
 light of a new morn the radiance of which is so full and 
 strong that it will not admit of mistakes, then you will pin 
 your faith and your creed and your dogmas and your theol- 
 ogy to the highest of all rules of human conduct: Be honest. 
 
 You then cannot fail. You cannot go down. You can- 
 not be sent back, the body to the earth and the soul to the 
 demons; but your spirit will have entered the psychic world, 
 and it will be safe. 
 
 A sudden shifting from your present methods to a brief 
 period of honesty will not do. You may be honest as long 
 as it is convenient, but nature will not be deceived. 
 
 Your honesty must show in your life, in your home, 
 in your conduct towards others, in your public relationship. 
 There must be time for it to develop and set up heaven in 
 your heart. This cannot come at the mere word of com- 
 
STEPPING STONES 221 
 
 mand. It is a growth that must put on foliage, and send 
 out branches, and blossom into flowers, many of which 
 must bear fruit. Just as it requires time to re-work the 
 soil in the orchard where a decrepit and crooked tree has 
 been wasting the vitality of the land to no purpose, and just 
 as it requires time to start the new growth, the buds of 
 spring, the blossoms, the setting of the fruit, the long waiting 
 during the heat of a battling summer, and the cropping in 
 the fall, so your new life must take its period of change and 
 development. 
 
 Honesty is not a fiat. 
 
 It cannot be decreed by the command of the will or the 
 decision of the mind alone. These are necessary, but they 
 are not enough. 
 
 Take time. Set up a type of heaven on earth. When 
 you die you will go from what you are and what you have 
 actually adopted in your life as a genuinely new condition. 
 
 Your mind cannot take you to heaven. 
 
 It is what of heaven you help to establish on this earth 
 that must determine your success or your failure. 
 
 SIXTH STEPPING STONE.— Love of life on earth 
 must never cease. 
 
 The meaning of this command is that an honest person 
 must remain here and do all in his power to help others. 
 A good example, even without words, is an influence that 
 is sure to encourage those who behold it. To such an 
 example may be added speech, kindly deeds and a sweet com- 
 panionship that shall be a token of a better world. 
 
 Earth holds in its widest scope the broadest extremes of 
 good and evil. While wrong is in so large a majority that 
 time can never efface it all, every inch of progress made 
 toward a better condition is genuine helpfulness. Charity 
 that consists of alms alone, or of building institutions, does 
 almost no good, for it takes away the ambition and self- 
 effort that are necessary in each individual. The best char- 
 ity is that which reduces the causes of evil and misfortune. 
 
222 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 rather than that which heals the wounds they inflict. Earth 
 to-day has very little of such charity. 
 
 Never in the history of an advanced civilization was there 
 such a combination of puerile and silly influences as now 
 exist, all tending to drag down both mind and soul. You 
 may not realize what is meant; but you should obtain a 
 blank book and begin to note down these things and see 
 what you have gathered in a year. Both from a public 
 and a private standpoint such influences are abundant and 
 prominent in the effects they produce on each individual 
 life. 
 
 The idea of heaven is practical when it is sound. 
 
 Very little is known or can be imagined of the occupa- 
 tions in the far away worlds of the sky; and so there has 
 come into most minds a series of pictures that have no place 
 in fact. The nearest approach to a realization in this world 
 of what is in store beyond, is to be had through the aid of 
 psychic telepathy, and that tells us that all life worth living 
 here or hereafter is practical and not merely sentimental. 
 
 For this reason it is the duty of every man and woman to 
 seek the better things that are at hand on every side in 
 this world. Nature teems with blessings that need only 
 the taking to be had ; and there are others that yield in 
 abundance under the guidance of man. 
 
 If life here is a failure, it means the doom of the indi- 
 vidual who so finds it. Wealth brings less happiness than 
 poverty; but grinding starvation is a penalty that is being 
 paid for the offenses committed at some stage of life. There 
 is no person so poor that he cannot rise out of his condition 
 by combining sensible thinking with sensible conduct. 
 When these two agencies are dead, then the mind is too 
 warped for physical existence, or too criminal for advance- 
 ment. 
 
 Where the nature of a person runs to the sensual and 
 the beastly, nothing can be hoped for. Appetite must have 
 its sway, and the end is in the fund of demon life. 
 
STEPPING STONES 223 
 
 It is a mistake to look for phenomena as signs of some- 
 thing better. It is a mistake to build hope on a supposed 
 previous existence on earth. If you think that you once 
 lived on this globe, the sooner you forget it the better; for 
 you are in the same position as the newly-rich man who had 
 his ancestors investigated and found that every one of them 
 had been hanged. 
 
 It is a mistake to seek in thin-brained systems some tinsel 
 hope of a better life. Your duty is to yourself and those 
 who depend on you, and it begins here and now. Chase no 
 rainbows. 
 
 When you have crossed the dividing line and have come 
 into the new world, you will know it with a certainty. 
 There can be no doubt on that point, as the experience will 
 be decided and permanent. But that world has its begin- 
 ning in this life, and you will deceive yourself if you build 
 hope on a belief that it is wholly beyond. 
 
 It is like a ladder that rests on earth. If it lacks this 
 anchorage it cannot be ascended. It is both a beginning 
 and a means of transit. It somewhat resembles the recruit- 
 ing school where sculptors were developed until they were 
 qualified to be sent far away to work on a grand temple ; 
 they could not start on that journey as long as they showed 
 a lack of qualification for the conditions elsewhere. 
 
224 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 . ; i . i . I . i i^.i.i.li.mv^m.m.ki i . I . i . I . I . i . I . I . I . I , ~i I iTl TlTl . i~~r. 
 
 WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE. 
 
 iivr.i.Kj.i.i.i.i.M.ivivwi" "iViTi - iTi ~i~iTi~. iTi^i.i.i.iTi.i.i .i.i.i.i^ui ^l\Tiri: 
 
 ID YOU EVER STOP to think that the 
 ball on which you live is an active world travel- 
 ing three kinds of journeys at one and the 
 same time? It is a rolling orb, having an 
 imaginary axis on which it spins at the rate 
 of about one thousand miles an hour. That 
 is, its surface if viewed by some person sta- 
 tioned away from it, would sweep past at that rate. In 
 addition to this motion, the earth has been whipped off 
 from the sun and sent whirling through space at another 
 rate of speed that would seem appalling to one who is used 
 only to the laws that are at work on the surface of the 
 globe. This rate is about thirty times faster than that of 
 the earth on its axis. 
 
 The third journey is that of the whole solar system 
 through space. This has been variously estimated, but it 
 is known to exceed one million miles an hour. 
 
 To train the mind to understand the meaning and im- 
 mensity of these great rates of speed, let us suppose that 
 we are stationed far away from the earth, but not beyond 
 the range of vision of all the details of form, shape and 
 movement on the outside of the giant ball. We must pass 
 beyond its atmosphere, and must suppose that we are not 
 affected by heat or cold, or lack of the necessaries of life. 
 Of course this is all imaginary, as it would be physically 
 impossible. The only thing certain about it is what we will 
 see, and this will be described with accuracy. 
 
 The first fact that will impress us is the wonderful 
 
WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE 225 
 
 rapidity of passing objects on the face of the globe. They 
 will go by us at the rate of about one thousand miles an 
 hour. If we stand on a hillside and note the movement of 
 a train that is known to be running at the rate of a mile 
 a minute, or sixty miles an hour, the thing does not seem 
 speedy; but if we are close to the track, it is most rapid, 
 and we catch our breath at the thought that anything made 
 of substance can fly over the ground with such amazing 
 swiftness. 
 
 Now sixty miles is a snail-like, creeping motion when 
 compared with the sweep of one thousand miles an hour 
 which the surface of the earth makes as it whirls its con- 
 tents past our startled vision, even if we are some distance 
 away. 
 
 The second fact that will impress us is the apparent 
 solidity of this ball. It has all the appearance of a big, 
 over-grown, massive missile, set whirling by some unexplain- 
 able power, and carrying on its face so many countless bil- 
 lion tons of substance that it ought to be furnished with a 
 rock center of adamant, else it would break and crack up 
 into fragments. Still if such an accident were to occur, 
 the pieces would all be held to the planet by the law of 
 gravity. 
 
 The third fact that will impress us is the panoramic 
 display that whizzes past as though a gale blowing at the 
 rate of a thousand miles an hour were chasing everything 
 before it. This series of incomparable pictures is more 
 varied than the mind of man can conceive, and their inter- 
 minable rush puzzles and stupefies the brain. 
 
 The fourth fact that will impress us is the dignity and 
 steadiness of every part of the face of this madly whirling 
 world. There is no confusion, no mishap, no chaotic con- 
 dition out of which we may expect disaster. All is calm 
 and supreme repression. 
 
 If our position is taken directly over the tropics, we see 
 the lands of the thinly clad peoples, of giant foliage, of 
 15 
 
226 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 mountains topped with rock and snow, or rivers like silver 
 threads winding their way through vales and down steep 
 valleys into the meadows from which they escape into the 
 great seas. Cities perched high on rocky seats; villages 
 nestling along the open plateaux; high spires pointing directly 
 toward us for the brief fraction of a second and then 
 seemingly inclining over to their sides until they disappear 
 off the edge of the horizon; mills puffing their smoke and 
 darting out of sight ere they have given vent to their 
 activities; fields stretching away like carpets that are rest- 
 less to reveal their intricate patterns; deserts of sand that 
 glitter in golden brown beneath a hot sun ; the wide oceans 
 that come and go, now like a sheet of glass, and again in 
 tossing swells reaching from continent to continent; all 
 these things pass in review before the reeling brain. 
 
 If we are along the southern belt of the earth, there is 
 a succession of water and ice, all beautiful to behold, and 
 even more attractive because of the welcome arrival from 
 time to time of islands and polar continents. 
 
 But the northern belt is that of civilization. The whole 
 w T idth of the United States is speeding by spread out before 
 the eye, and disclosing a varied panorama that is en- 
 chanting. The Atlantic waters have just swept on, and 
 the long and rugged coast line looms up from Maine to 
 Florida, rock-bound, fringed, jagged, pointing, sandy, 
 marshy, full of inlets, and terminating in scattered drops 
 of islands far away to the south. 
 
 The pine forests bending to the west now rise in majesty, 
 hold high their heads for a shadow of a second, then rapidly 
 bend to the east as they are hurried off the scene. The 
 eastern coast line runs away so fast that we think it is an 
 elusive serpent of rock-made hide. 
 
 The king of the New England mountains with its sea 
 of devoted attendants, touched with a hoar frost leaps out 
 of the west and is erect for a moment and then rushes wildly 
 to the fading edge of the horizon, followed by the less 
 
WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE 227 
 
 ambitious elevations of the greener state. Cities with build- 
 ings that kiss the sky, rock and roll and tip and bend and 
 plunge to the mists of the falling east, as they come and 
 go in a marvelous succession. 
 
 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington are 
 dots on the great ball, and they seem with their countless 
 buildings to be ant-hills checkered with grooves. In one 
 mad dash the capitol, seemingly attached to the monument 
 that pierces the air, speeds by. We think that the spire will 
 break, so low and flat it looks when first it comes up over the 
 western edge of the earth, but as the globe rolls onward, 
 the granite shaft begins to right itself, and finally stands 
 erect and proud in its glory, then leans, leans, leans more 
 and more, and still more till it is almost level and is gone 
 toward the waters of the Atlantic, following the historic 
 Potomac and the lashing Chesapeake. 
 
 The smoky city rushes on the scene after hills and rivers 
 have been sent before it to clear the path. In the tier of 
 states running to the gulf there are many events being en- 
 acted, and life takes on a new appearance. To the far 
 north are lakes like seas, a veritable inland ocean, and sterile 
 countries are barely visible over the chain of waters. Again 
 mighty cities rise, stand up to be seen, and fall eastward to 
 be lost in the cloudy haze. The uplands grow in height 
 from one end of the continent to the other and are cut with 
 rivers that wind in and out through them, sustaining on their 
 banks the crowded habitations of men. Fences and walls 
 give a veined appearance to the open land as though a puls- 
 ing life-blood were throbbing over all the surface. 
 
 It is a busy scene. 
 
 Higher and higher the face of the globe uplifts itself until 
 the rocky range sweeps past hurrying to the eastward at the 
 rate of a thousand miles an hour. There is no tremor, no 
 unsteadiness as this vast upheaval is carried on in its daz- 
 zling speed, for its foundations are sunk deep in the globe. 
 More mountains appear and disappear; and at length the 
 
228 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 Pacific Ocean gleams bright like a boundless sheet of ice 
 fringed with the golden land of the west. 
 
 There is now nothing but ocean, nothing but water, 
 nothing but monotony, save for specks that may be ships 
 and up-tossed rocks, and land that must be islands. On, 
 on the sweeping waters rush, whirling ever past us like a 
 sliding sheen that throws back the light of the sun more 
 bright than mirror or jeweled glass. Far away a new con- 
 tinent begins to awake; the Orient is at hand. Here the 
 yellow races and the brown races and the black races, all 
 in multiplied confusion, take up their dreary duties like 
 swarms of ants on sodden ground. 
 
 The panorama shifts with hastening change; and sea, 
 mountain and upland vie with the plains and wilderness to 
 make up a passing picture; the great ranges, snow-topped 
 and so sharp and tall that they must, we would think, stag- 
 ger the reeling world and throw it off its center, come 
 grandly up out of the west, and run their course in open 
 view for many minutes, then cut new paths down the eastern 
 side of the globe, and so are gone. 
 
 Oldest earth is beneath us. It is the birthplace of man. 
 And we view with increasing wonder the course once taken 
 by the migrating hordes thousands of years ago when civ- 
 ilization marched forth to conquer Europe. We travel 
 the same journey in four hours that they traversed in four 
 thousand years. Old Palestine sweeps by; the ancient sea 
 comes on, and in its bosom is seen the land where the mind 
 of man rose to dizzy heights. From Greece to Italy, from 
 Athens to Rome, we seem to sail, as the speeding surface 
 rushes swiftly by; and the waters where teeming millions 
 came and went, and on which nature enacted many a 
 tragedy, are passing beneath us in wondrous flight. All the 
 continent, sharpened to a point at the topmost peak of the 
 Alps, lies spread out before us ; while the snug little islands 
 where civilization was re-born, are dimly viewed away to 
 the north. 
 
WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE 229 
 
 Westward the course of passage takes its way, and over 
 the broad Atlantic the scene sweeps on to the new world. 
 
 What a wonderful ball is this that is flung into space! 
 
 What magnificent pictures are made to pass in review be- 
 fore us! 
 
 The face of the earth is carpeted in green, sometimes 
 bright, sometimes dark, and the furry coat that wraps it like 
 a garment is an endless cover of trees, bright and fresh in 
 the spring, deep and dark in the summer, then gold, yellow, 
 red and brown in the autumn, until all is bare, and the 
 winding sheet of pure white overspreads the world. 
 
 It is a rich variety. 
 
 Shore and sea ; lake, river and pond ; brook, field and 
 meadow; hill, vale and ravine; mountain, cliff and preci- 
 pice; woods, plains and prairie; sand, desert, and plateau; 
 city, village and town ; rich and fertile farms, or dull and 
 barren rocks ; forest and glen ; cave and morass ; all, all 
 are mixed and mingled in unceasing change to suit the needs 
 and the vagaries of man. 
 
 This is the earth, or that small portion of it that appears 
 on the thin and filmy surface. It is a ball of rock, mellowed 
 at the outer part in order that man may have its uses and its 
 gifts. 
 
 It was planned many millions of years ago and brought 
 through all its vicissitudes that it might meet the require- 
 ments of the beings that were destined to people it. 
 
 If one world can be so constructed that it will suit the 
 wants of physical life, then each and every world in the sky 
 can be given equal attention in the planning and making so 
 that it will adapt itself to every need and wish of those 
 higher beings that dwell there. There is evidence on every 
 hand of a creative thought that makes all things for a defi- 
 nite purpose, without waste or loss. 
 
 Our position will now change. 
 
 We have been placed in the path of the sun where we 
 could see the ever bright face of the earth. We have been 
 
2 3 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 held in the same orbital radius, so that the planet has not 
 left us, but its surface has been rolling by. 
 
 Now the imagination will take us to some outer position 
 in the solar system, but only for a second. We see the great 
 ball of rock whizz past on its annual circle, but its speed of 
 thirty thousand miles an hour is too great to be realized, 
 for it is come and gone ere we can understand what the swift 
 flight means. But as it swings by, its rolling surface main- 
 tains its first motion in combination with the second, like a 
 spinning top rotating in a large ring. 
 
 The third and last position in the imagination is that 
 which puts us in space beyond all the planets of our sun- 
 system. Now the sun itself and all its followers sweep 
 past us as a group, impelled on a journey among the other 
 stars, travelling at the rate of nearly a million miles an 
 hour; yet we are so far away from the nearest star in space 
 that it would require thousands of years to effect a relative 
 change of position. If you will look out to the north on 
 some clear night, you will see the plow, or what is popu- 
 larly known as the big dipper. The basin of the constella- 
 tion is perfectly shaped, and has been for the past two 
 thousand years; but in twice that time in the future, its 
 stars will have changed so that there is no semblance to a 
 dipper in its shape. Like all other stars in the sky, they each 
 have planets and satellites, and are distinct from their near- 
 est neighbors by so many billions of miles that the mind can- 
 not conceive or compute it. 
 
 The earth is probably a solid rock, containing all the 
 elements in its composition. In trying to cut a compara- 
 tively small channel across the Isthmus of Panama, a 
 scratch so very slight that it would not have received any 
 attention from our first position in space, we find that mil- 
 lions of tons of heavy earth must be moved. To a single 
 individual, this mass of weight seems most ponderous; yet 
 it is as nothing to the whole globe itself. 
 
 Whence came this mass ? 
 
WHIRLING THROUGH SPACE 231 
 
 How did all this substance reach the present form and 
 shape and position in the sky? 
 
 Was it contributed from some greater world afar off? 
 
 Was it made to order, and given birth here? 
 
 Was so much weight and ponderous material thrown forth 
 from the sun, despite the fact that the sun seems to have 
 no weight whatever except what may be contained in flaming 
 gases ? 
 
 This wonderful world with its differing elements; its 
 coal and other fuel stored away in its bosom ; its mines of 
 iron, copper, lead, tin, silver and gold; its jewels, diamonds, 
 rubies, and precious stones; its yield of every kind of paper 
 and fabric, of countless species of animal and vegetable life, 
 of flower and herb unlimited; this wonderful world is but a 
 feeble reminder of the more glorious orbs that float in the 
 sky, each one of which is equipped with attractions that far 
 surpass our own little globe. 
 
 But from what source came the substance that makes up 
 this tremendous weight that rolls in space? No person can 
 ignore the question, for it is the test of a thoughtful and ap- 
 preciative mind. 
 
 How could all this material be brought out here and 
 formed into a ball and set going on its axis whirling through 
 the sky? 
 
 Are the other worlds made of substance or of light? 
 
 Let us think over this problem, and see what way it points 
 our minds. 
 
 Nothing can happen without a cause. Nothing takes place 
 by accident. If any person thinks otherwise, the study of 
 psychic telepathy will settle that doubt so quickly that only 
 humility and shame will be left. Nothing is wasted. Every- 
 thing has a purpose and a goal. For each man or woman 
 that breathes at this moment there is a fate, a destiny. Born 
 of the very soil that makes the earth, holding in his body not 
 less than fourteen of the elements of which the globe is com- 
 posed, he sprang out of the very clay on which he treads, and 
 
232 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 to it he will of necessity return. When the years have 
 elapsed into centuries and the centuries have moldered into 
 a^ons, will that living, breathing, human organism be wrap- 
 ped in the silent crust of this earth and so go on whirling 
 forever through space? 
 
 Or is there something that passes out into the sky and seeks 
 its home amid the glories of other realms whose dazzling 
 splendors outshine the brilliant promises of our fondest 
 hopes? 
 
 Without the shadow of a doubt the sun-system in which 
 we now live, is part of the general heavens, and is bound to 
 the great plan that made them all one. This being true, 
 the answer to our query is plain, and it will be discussed 
 in the following pages. 
 
233 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV. 
 OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS. J 
 
 ANY GENERATIONS AGO, long before 
 the great astronomer of our own times used the 
 phrase as the name of his most popular book, 
 the title of this chapter was a common theme 
 for discussion and learned essays. The belief 
 in the flatness of the earth had given way slowly 
 but steadily, and at length the orb was circled 
 by navigators which left no doubt of the shape of our planet, 
 Then it was known that there were other worlds in space. 
 The sun was seen as a fixed center, but the stars were of dif- 
 ferent character. Some of them moved past each other, 
 while all took their course to the west. Even the stars in 
 their constellations displaced other groups, and the zodiac 
 was then understood to be a circle of star-pictures occupy- 
 ing the whole range of the middle heavens. 
 
 The orbs that shone with borrowed light were found to 
 belong to our own solar system, and were held in their paths 
 by the magnetism of the sun. 
 
 Each star in the sky is the center and seat of government 
 of a group of planets, more or less numerous, if it follows 
 the plan that is visible to us. As every planet in the solar 
 group differs from every other one in marked characteristics, 
 some of them being exceedingly beautiful and attractive to 
 the mind in its contemplation of life on them, so it is reasona- 
 ble to assume that all the billions of other planets are sep- 
 arately designed with a view to affording an endless chain 
 of interest and occupation. 
 
 When Proctor sat near the summit of a mountain one 
 
234 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 moonless night and saw the massed galaxy before him, saw 
 the great stars of giant magnitude and the lesser ones nearer 
 or farther away, and realized that the telescope which digs 
 depths in the abyss of space that are unfathomable, serves 
 only to reveal more and more worlds like an accumulation 
 of sands in the strand by the sea, all uncountable and in- 
 comprehensible because of their vast numbers, he suddenly 
 became white and exclaimed : "Every star is a sun, and every 
 sun has its system of planets and satellites, and not one of 
 them is wasted. No, not one. I am sure of it. I have 
 studied the stars, have written many books on them, have 
 been active with the telescope for more than half my life, and 
 have been given all the light that can come to humanity 
 by hard study and hard thinking, and I say that I know 
 that not one orb in the whole sky is wasted. It plays some 
 part in the great drama that is being enacted beyond." 
 
 He stood foremost in his day as a deep thinker, a careful 
 scholar, and an exact scientist in his great profession. His 
 close investigations of the orbs of the sky gave him a pecul- 
 iar power to discern facts that might not otherwise have 
 come to him. He had an almost sublime faith in psychic 
 telepathy, as he personally told the writer of these pages. 
 
 And he had reached the right conclusion. 
 
 Nothing is wasted. Nothing is allowed to die that will 
 not live again. Nothing is kept forever in a dead condition. 
 There are no worlds that are useless. To believe such a 
 thing would take from the purpose of the Ruler of the uni- 
 verse the very essence of existence. 
 
 If you were to take one million steps, each thirty inches 
 long, which is the average pace, you would have walked 2,- 
 500,000 feet, or nearly 500 miles. 
 
 If you were to take ten million steps you would have 
 walked nearly five thousand miles. One hundred million 
 steps would bring you almost 50,000 miles, or twice around 
 the globe. One billion steps would constitute a journey of 
 about 500,000 miles. 
 
OTHER WORLDS THAN OURS 235 
 
 Now supposing that you could travel that number of steps, 
 one billion, or one thousand million paces, and at each step 
 you could touch a world, you would have touched only a 
 billion of the orbs in space. 
 
 If your mind is able to keep up its chain of thought along 
 these lines, see if you can imagine what length of time it 
 would require for you to stop off at each of the worlds, not 
 for a minute, but for an hour. You would make one thou- 
 sand million visits. Go farther now, and instead of stopping 
 off, suppose you make each world your abode, not for a day, 
 nor a year, but for a long lifetime. There were one thou- 
 sand million such worlds before you, and as many periods of 
 existence. 
 
 Having gone thus far, let us see if you are able to grasp 
 one more idea. Instead of a thousand million or a billion 
 worlds, there are in fact more billions than you can multiply 
 by billions. Take a large piece of paper, say ten feet long 
 and ten feet wide, and write on both sides of it with a fine 
 pointed pencil so that you will not waste the smallest part 
 of the eighth of an inch of space on that paper; and com- 
 mence to multiply billions times billions until the two sides 
 of the sheet are covered with figures. Or, better still, be- 
 gin with the sands on the Atlantic coast as far north as you 
 can find them, and count every grain that exists around the 
 whole continent from north to south and from south to 
 north again, and as you count them, regard each as a world 
 in the sky, and the sky as full of such worlds as the beaches 
 of earth are full of grains of sand, and you will begin to 
 have an idea of the immensity of creation. 
 
 Now think that each such world is probably much larger 
 than our earth, that it is a complete and complex realm as 
 full of beauties, splendors and glories as the infinite art of 
 God can conceive, that it is also the abode of created beings, 
 that there are occupations that round out the years as we may 
 call them for convenience of terms, that there is a develop- 
 ment and progress, pleasure and satisfaction in every act, 
 
236 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 freedom from the ills that abound in this world, and no 
 possibility of death or trouble, enmity or suffering. 
 
 Think of the fact that each and every life that passes 
 from earth to the sky, will live a long and perfect era in 
 each and every world in the universe; and that there are as 
 many such worlds as there are grains of sand on the conti- 
 nents; uncountable, numberless, endless in their succession, 
 each a magnificent kingdom. 
 
 All these worlds are yours. 
 
237 
 
 FOURTH GRAND DIVISION 
 THE PSYCHIC LIFE 
 
 AND 
 
 IMMORTALITY 
 
 AS TAUGHT IN THE 
 
 SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 
 
238 
 
 THE SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY. 
 
 Pleasant relations should exist between author and reader ; 
 between teacher and pupil. A friendship at least of feeling, 
 a companionship in the search after truth, a fellowship in 
 the enjoyment of the fruits of knowledge, are always de- 
 sirable and helpful. In spite of the fact that fifty-three 
 works have been issued in less than thirty years, and that a 
 vast army of readers and students still maintain an un- 
 abated interest in the lessons taught, there has never yet 
 been an attempt made to organize a private class among 
 our followers. 
 
 Such a society is now suggested. 
 
 Its purpose is to establish a bond of interest between the 
 author and those who are helped by his teachings. Many 
 of these doctrines have been regarded as being ahead of 
 the times, and it has been stated that the times have been 
 steadily coming up to them ; but this claim is probably not 
 true, for the principles set forth in these many works have 
 struck deep in hundreds of thousands of lives, and have 
 completely rebuilt most of them on better lines. 
 
 The time is now ripe for advanced methods of thought. 
 
 Whatever does in fact help a reader or student, is of 
 vital interest to the author. Reports and communications 
 describing the results of adopting or applying some law 
 or principle, will always increase the interest of the persons 
 who furnish them, and will add power to the future efforts 
 of the author. 
 
 In obedience to the expressed wishes of others, the name 
 of the proposed organization is the Shaftesbury Society. Its 
 plan and methods of usefulness will be found stated in the 
 chapters that will now follow. 
 
239 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 I 1 
 
 I TREND OF THE TIMES. | 
 
 ACTS that should not be published broadcast,, 
 'but that are potent in their significance, re- 
 , quire the attention to-day of every thinking 
 man and woman. It is right that a plain state- 
 T ment of these facts should be made at this stage 
 of the present work. Many persons will not 
 like them ; others will deny that such condi- 
 tions exist; and some will be angry at the suggestions that 
 they do exist. 
 
 At the outset we have been very careful to consult with 
 leading thinkers in all departments of life. There is no 
 denomination of the church, and no civilized form of reli- 
 gion that is not represented in our following. This book has 
 the good will and approval of all these classes of people. 
 Every creed has placed its stamp of endorsement on what we 
 are about to say. 
 
 In addition to these prominent friendships, we have the 
 support of every profession and every line of business. Sensi- 
 ble and thoughtful people are very much in earnest in their 
 approval of the plan and purposes of this book. A vast out- 
 side class has also been reached ; including men and women 
 who are either lukewarm toward religion or who are arrayed 
 against it. The teaching of psychic laws has softened their 
 hostility, and brought them much nearer to the beliefs that 
 they at first denied. 
 
 We oppose no creed and no belief. 
 
 We enjoy the friendship of all people, except those who 
 
2 4 o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 are steeped in the rank teachings of charlatans whose pre- 
 tended systems are sheer fabrications. When this book comes 
 into the hands of some such hair-brained believer, it is un- 
 welcome, and we are glad that this is so. The support of 
 that class of persons would discredit any work that exposed 
 their follies. 
 
 All men and women of well-balanced minds and good 
 sense are arrayed against any belief that drags in the mud the 
 most sacred ties of existence. Their minds are well-balanced 
 and their judgment is sound because they are thoughtful. 
 They think not merely on the surface of things, but deep 
 down into the causes. They think of the past out of which 
 humanity originated; and of the future toward which hu- 
 manity is rushing in the river of ceaseless flow. 
 
 They see their friends cut down in life; their loved ones 
 swept away from their midst, never more to return. At the 
 grave they linger, and soon realize that the body will molder 
 into the very clay out of which it was made. They look up- 
 ward and ask themselves the question, Is there another life, 
 or is this the end of all? 
 
 Do you know that at this very hour there are millions of 
 men and women of the highest intelligence who are asking 
 that question? For an answer they are directed to some 
 preacher. He opens the Old Testament or the New, and 
 finds there an affirmative reply. But it does not convince. 
 How do you know? they ask. My faith tells me so, is the 
 reply. It does not satisfy, and the awful fact stands out to- 
 day that those who have built their hopes on faith find their 
 hold slipping away in the moments of crucial test. This is 
 to be deplored. We wish it were not so. 
 
 A blind belief closes the mind against truth. 
 
 Results alone are the proofs of power. At the beginning 
 of the era in which we live, which takes us back nearly two 
 thousand years, there was almost no sincerity in any religion. 
 The conscience was seared ; the soul was paralyzed in every 
 kind of worship. No moral or religious system had appeared 
 
TREND OF THE TIMES 241 
 
 on earth that could prevent the increase of wickedness. The 
 facts are too well known to be in dispute. The person who 
 challenges them is ignorant of history, both secular and 
 scriptural. 
 
 Results are the only proofs of power. 
 
 Since the dawn of the new era the world at times has been 
 better than ever before in its existence. Christianity is the 
 best offering in the form of religion that has ever come to 
 humanity; but it lacks the power to check wickedness; not 
 because of its own inherent virtue, but through ignorance 
 of its meaning. The world sadly needs a practical and uni- 
 versal adoption of its three great precepts: " Peace on earth, 
 good will to men;" "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" and 
 " Do unto others as ye would that they should do unto you." 
 
 Proofs of the results of any teachings are the only meas- 
 ure of their value. 
 
 Where can peace on earth be found? 
 
 Among the Christian nations of earth, what one is not 
 armed for war? In the cities of the land what one will 
 dismiss its police and take the consequences? Why are 
 more than one hundred thousand policemen parading the 
 streets of our Christian cities in America this very night? 
 A chief said to us not long ago: " If the police of this city 
 were to be dismissed, in three hours there would arise an 
 army of criminals, mingled with five times their number of 
 others who would take possession of the property and as- 
 sault the women of all our better homes." 
 
 There is supreme potency in the teachings of religion 
 if they were administered in a manner that would take hold 
 of the consciences of men. But results tell the story of 
 failure and success. Where they have succeeded they have 
 reached the psychic life within. Where they have failed, 
 they have touched only the physical mind and the physical 
 existence. Lift the curtain from over the many centuries 
 of bigotry, torture and bloodshed that have marked the 
 progress of this religion; and you will find the rack, the 
 
242 
 
 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 wheel, the dungeon, the Inquisition, and the stake; these 
 indeed are not the teachings of a religion of peace on earth 
 and good will to men. All through the centuries the bloody 
 trail of suffering has left its marks on the face of the globe, 
 telling of man's inhumanity to man. It was one long cry 
 of horror that arose from the administration of this re- 
 ligion. 
 
 Yet the fault is not an inherent one. 
 
 It is sublime in its teachings. They can never be ex- 
 celled. The world needs them. But they are not suited to 
 the physical mind and the physical existence of humanity ; 
 nor were they so intended. The fault then is with the ad- 
 ministration of that religion. 
 
 It is wrong to condemn the religion itself. The Ten 
 Commandments of the old regime constitute a perfect re- 
 ligion in themselves. The New and the Old Testaments 
 together have a value that the world cannot find elsewhere. 
 
 Because civilization and the Caucasian or white race 
 came out of the East hand in hand with the teachings of 
 the Old Testament, and because modern progress has been 
 always associated with that and the New Testament, no 
 person has a right to oppose them. There is nothing to 
 take their places. But their greatest enemies are those who 
 blindly defend the administration of these great teachings. 
 
 The ostrich who, when pursued, hides his head in the 
 sand, and exposes his whole body to assault, is not less wise 
 than the people who refuse to understand that the trend of 
 the times is decidedly against the highest and noblest re- 
 ligion ever given to the world. When the barbarians began 
 to draw close to Rome, the citizens of that great empire 
 closed their eyes to the fact and ridiculed those who saw the 
 impending crisis. When the American nation was invaded 
 in the war of 1812, a few of its people saw the peril of the 
 Capital; but they were maligned for their foresight, with 
 the result that the city fell and its grand public buildings 
 were burned. 
 
TREND OF THE TIMES 243 
 
 Every disaster casts its shadow before it. 
 
 The trouble is to-day that the people who array them- 
 selves against the church, do not desire to locate the real 
 cause of the danger; they would raze to the ground the 
 structure itself instead of changing the methods of its ad- 
 ministration. They hide their heads in the sand and do 
 not see the approach of conditions that make the trend of 
 the times extremely hazardous. 
 
 On the other hand the blind defenders of everything con- 
 nected with religion, refuse to arouse themselves to the 
 needs of the hour. They content themselves with a self- 
 satisfied belief that they are all right. To them the fol- 
 lowing facts, which they indignantly deny, are a source of 
 annoyance : 
 
 1. The splitting up of the creeds and denominations of 
 religion into innumerable enmities, each against the other, 
 or the refusal to accept one another's beliefs, is absolutely 
 positive evidence of gross wrong in the administration of 
 religion. If the teachings reached the psychic life of men 
 and women, there could not possibly be more than one 
 creed and one denomination. Now the diamond is ground 
 into diamond dust. Still new creeds appear. Every new 
 effort to establish unity of religion, results in a new de- 
 nomination. This is bound to demoralize the world. 
 
 2. The eagerness with which thousands and hundreds of 
 thousands embrace new religious cults, shows the yearning 
 after something more effective than the prevailing creeds 
 of to-day. Spiritualism, Theosophy, Christian Science, Mor- 
 monism and numerous other digressions from the religion 
 that has marched side by side with civilization, are sweep- 
 ing into their ranks millions of people who have lost faith 
 in the efficacy of the old time doctrines ; and this splitting up 
 of the theology of the past will continue until there will be 
 more church denominations than the human mind can di- 
 gest. This tendency is proof positive of the failure in the 
 administration of the prevailing religion. How any de- 
 
244 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 fender of the church can stand idly by and behold the en- 
 croaching sea engulf his possessions, is hard to understand, 
 except on the short-sighted policy of the ostrich. Rev. Dr. 
 Aked regards the situation as extremely dangerous. 
 
 3. As a result of the decadence of unity in the church, 
 those who remain loyal to its spirit, have only a weak al- 
 legiance. One of our closest friends, a clergyman of the 
 very best standing, told us that he saw a great church of 
 his youth grow up and increase ; and when the tide of 
 wealth brought success and luxury, he saw ninety per cent, 
 of the members drift out of religious habits into wanton 
 amusement and debauchery. In another city, a pastor told 
 us that his people who had been more devout, had become 
 gamblers ; the men and some of the women patronizing the 
 race track, and the wealthy classes enslaving themselves with 
 the gambling game of bridge whist. Divorces, suicides and 
 double lives had followed. He asked, " Where then was the 
 power in the religion they professed?" — He still preaches, 
 but in a smaller locality where he can be at peace with his 
 God. — Clergymen themselves are discouraged at the weak- 
 ening of religion throughout the civilized world. In Rus- 
 sia, Austria, Italy, Spain, France and other Christian coun- 
 tries, there is so little sincerity in the practice of religion 
 that no one really expects anything purely devout from them. 
 In America, despite the fact that a small percentage of 
 men and a larger percentage of women are inclined to be 
 in earnest, the fact remains that they are growing fewer in 
 numbers all the time. 
 
 4. This is the hand-writing on the wall. If you could 
 look into the personal and private lives of church members, 
 how many would by their example induce you to take up 
 their profession of faith and mode of worship? Some there 
 are who are noble, true, exalted even in their sincerity. 
 But the great majority are weak, and their ranks are re- 
 ceiving accretions all the time. This fact is known, and 
 it is most disheartening to clergymen. 
 
TREND OF THE TIMES 245 
 
 5. Never before in the history of the world has the pre- 
 vailing religion been subject to the allied attacks of learned 
 men within and without its walls. Colleges, universities, 
 writers, scientists, theologians, and even the wise men who 
 hold places of trust in the pulpit and in the offices of the 
 church, find flaws with the writings on which their teach- 
 ings are based. They ask for freedom of thought, and 
 often indulge in freedom of speech. Once the followers of 
 Voltaire and Paine made up the army of attack; but now 
 the defection is within the walls. 
 
 6. Finally in the rank and file of the church members 
 themselves we see the weakening of the hold of religion. 
 Nine men out of ten are much more strongly drawn to the 
 comic pages of the great Sunday newspapers than to the 
 services in the church. The baseball games of the day be- 
 fore and the Sunday contests arouse their enthusiasm to the 
 highest pitch ; while their wives, pitying them, allow them 
 the much needed rest on the Sabbath morning. The eager 
 rush for wealth, the desire to move in fashionable circles, 
 the indulgence in entertainments, amusements, night din- 
 ners and club life, all conspire to make religion a dull theme. 
 
 No honest, thinking, conservative person can deny any 
 of these impeachments. They are true, and only the blinded 
 brain refuses to recognize the fact. 
 
 What holds the church together to-day? 
 
 It is the onward march of the Angel of Death. When 
 our loved ones die, we ask the question, shall we meet them 
 again? It seems an outrage on the race to think that death 
 ends all. There is so much suffering in this world, that 
 some recompense should be offered in another life. Justice 
 Brewer of the Supreme Court of the United States says 
 that injustice is so prevalent in this life, there must be a 
 further existence to give a counter balance to our ills. The 
 sheer mockery of living on this planet, being born without 
 choice, growing up amid dangers that are constantly threat- 
 ening death, and finding nothing but an ever vanishing end 
 
246 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 of a rainbow of hope leading us on to the grave, these and 
 scores of other forms of emptiness make life here a gloomy 
 failure. Not one person would accept such a tenure of ex- 
 istence, if the choice could be made at the start. 
 
 The sweetest thing in life is the bondage of love ; the 
 love of parents for their children; of children for their par- 
 ents ; of brothers and sisters ; of husband and wife when 
 truly mated ; of friends and dear companions ; and where 
 love springs out of the psychic nature, it is as enduring as 
 the skies. Death breaks this bondage. Loved faces are 
 hidden by the shroud ; eyes are closed forever ; the clods fall 
 heavily on the encased body; and there is an end. 
 
 Then the mute appeal, the prayer, the hope, the tears, the 
 anguish, the awful doubt will come and touch deeply the 
 psychic nature. Advice is sought. Who can bury your 
 dead ? The church. Who can suggest what the future has 
 in store? The church. Man has nowhere else to turn. 
 He is helpless. When the years have piled on their weight, 
 he lifts up his heart to the song of hope, but it is sung only 
 in the church. For these reasons, weak as its administra- 
 tion may be, religion will always take some hold on human- 
 ity, and the preacher will always be in demand. 
 
 But the trend of the times is toward a new administra- 
 tion of the religion of the church. All classes of thoughtful 
 men believe this; and it is being proclaimed world-wide in 
 every land. 
 
 This chapter was written for a year before it was sent to 
 press. During that time copies were sent to leading clergy- 
 men in all the great religious denominations for their ap- 
 proval or disapproval; and in every instance the reply came 
 back in substance: "By all means print it and send it 
 broadcast over the world. It will do needed good." And, 
 wherever it has gone, it has aroused the psychic spirit and 
 set in motion a new administration of the prevailing religion. 
 
247 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 1THE PSYCHIC AWAKENING.! 
 I I 
 
 INCERE men and women are the only vic- 
 tors in any movement. They are slow to 
 anger. They are patient with the beliefs of 
 others. They antagonize very few. They see 
 a certain goal, and aim to reach it in their 
 work ; letting opposition and antagonism crum- 
 ble of their own weight as they go onward and 
 upward. The first rule for success in any undertaking is 
 to be in earnest. A great man, giving advice to a young 
 friend, said: " If you are always in earnest, fully in earnest, 
 you cannot fail in anything." Insincerity is a falsehood ut- 
 tered by the soul. 
 
 Some facts are so well known that they are corner stones 
 in life. 
 
 The first two such facts are these : Man possesses a physi- 
 cal mind and a physical body. But as a structure cannot be 
 built of two corners alone, there are two more and they 
 are these: Man possesses a psychic mind and a psychic life. 
 We now have the four corner stones on which to build. 
 All species below man are inferior in faculties. They are 
 only physical, and of lesser value even in that respect. The 
 possession of a psychic nature may ennoble even the lesser 
 classes of men. 
 
 But the sharp line that is drawn between the human 
 species and those below it, is one that separates the first two 
 endowments from the last two. Man alone is given the 
 psychic mind and life. Yet faculties may exist and remain 
 dormant from non-use. A child that talks to no other per- 
 
248 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 son would never possess the gift of speech. If he is kept in 
 prison from birth and has no experiences except to eat and 
 sleep, he would have no mind at all, not even the physical; 
 his brain would be smooth and imbecile. If he is shut up 
 in a dark cave, he would be blind. Thus the gifts of na- 
 ture are useful only as they are developed by activity. 
 
 Following out this law, it is known that the great masses 
 of humanity, all of whom are given a psychic mind and a 
 psychic life, fail to develop these natures if they do not use 
 them. 
 
 The purpose of the Shaftesbury Society is to teach men and 
 women how to become acquainted with their psychic na- 
 tures. Most people live and die in their physical being. 
 There is not the slightest doubt of this fact. To-day more 
 than any time in the history of recent civilization, the phys- 
 ical nature is paramount. Hence the trend of the times is 
 toward no church and no religion; but instead it leads to 
 doubt, insincerity, failure and suicide. 
 
 The psychic nature cannot take the life of the body. 
 
 The physical has nothing to live for, and sees in this life 
 only emptiness and abject mockery on every hand. The 
 physical nature is reckless of existence. The hordes of bar- 
 barians, cruel and debased in every sentiment in life, have 
 no fear of death; and when you see a people that believes it 
 is better to die than to live, you have only a physical mass 
 of humanity. 
 
 The psychic nature enjoys life on earth, and has an in- 
 stinctive feeling that heaven is a step beyond the purposes 
 of true living here; in which creed they are not mistaken. 
 
 The physical nature seeks power, gain and advantage 
 over others. This leads to graft, deception and crime. 
 The psychic nature is given enough for the full enjoyment 
 of living, and is happy in its possession. Poverty is rarely 
 the continued lot of such a person. 
 
 The reason of this fact is the better development of the 
 faculties of physical magnetism, physical telepathy, psychic 
 
THE PSYCHIC AWAKENING 249 
 
 magnetism and psychic telepathy; all of which furnish su- 
 preme mastery over the vicissitudes of life. In furtherance 
 of these advantages, it is the hope of the Shaftesbury So- 
 ciety to enroll men and women of every grade of rank and 
 position, and note their steady progress toward better suc- 
 cess and better possessions on earth. We teach the improve- 
 ment of the body and its faculties, and the acquisition of 
 wealth and pleasure along psychic lines; not the gloomy as- 
 pect of a depressing religion. 
 
 The physical nature feeds the stomach until it breaks 
 down, or is a slave to stimulants, or caters to its mouth and 
 palate, seeks constant amusement, is nervously over-wrought 
 or sluggishly lazy, hates the duties of practical life, and 
 sees nothing but what can serve its selfish desires. A po- 
 litical leader that would sway such natures must appeal to 
 the dinner pail, or arouse prejudices that are founded on the 
 hatred of others. A religious leader that would sway such 
 natures must preach hell fire, or predict the end of the 
 world. 
 
 On the other hand the psychic nature is content with 
 enough to eat, does not abuse the temple of the body with 
 rich food, avoids riotous pleasures, invites calm nerves, well 
 balanced minds and unselfish traits of character, and is at 
 peace with all the world. Only to such a nature have the 
 words any meaning which say: " Peace on earth, good will 
 to men." 
 
 To a physical mind and physical body, peace brings only 
 sluggishness, or laziness, or idleness, or a restless discon- 
 tent. Life appears dead, and it seems as if nothing is go- 
 ing on. To the psychic nature, peace is not inactivity; for 
 the psychic life is full of action, full of events, full of in- 
 tense pleasures and full of results. 
 
 Thus you can see that this new kind of life is very little 
 understood. It is the dawn of something that the world 
 has never seen before. Let us go further and find an 
 awakening into its realm. 
 
250 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 In all genuineness of belief, you who have followed the 
 present work up to this stage, are surely of the opinion that 
 the trend of the times, as shown in the preceding chapter, 
 is to be deplored; and you do not 'doubt any of the state- 
 ments made therein. You are willing to lend a hand in 
 improving these conditions; especially when we say that 
 we do not wish to set up a new religion. Our purpose is 
 to oppose no creed and no denomination. We will not con- 
 sent to the introduction of any further sects, as the world 
 has hundreds too many now. 
 
 The Shaftesbury Society is personal ; not private, and not 
 secret. 
 
 It seeks no new public organization; it is merely a friendly 
 association for home thoughts and home study. What prog- 
 ress its members make will be personal and purely within 
 the home life. There is to be no coming out to meetings; 
 no union with any people that will bring members together ; 
 no neglect of other duties or affiliations; no taking away of 
 an interest in church or creed; but merely such a personal 
 class as might exist for the purpose of gaining knowledge on 
 any subject. One person may enjoy the study of botany; 
 another of history ; another of nature ; and so on ; and yet 
 such studies would not take away the interest in other duties 
 and associations, but rather might increase it. 
 
 With this understanding, let us proceed to the steps that 
 will tend to develop and build up the psychic nature w r ithin 
 every man and woman. 
 
 The underlying principle is that use develops, and non- 
 use destroys any faculty or endowment. For this reason 
 most people go through life with physical minds- and phys- 
 ical natures; dying and returning to the fund from which 
 they came; useless, aimless and hopeless. Their psychic na- 
 tures have never been developed, and hence the adminis- 
 tration of religion cannot be of help to them. 
 
251 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 i i 
 
 <!> 
 
 THE DAWN. 
 
 
 EW PERSONS are able to clearly recognize 
 •their psychic natures. It is true they have 
 .glimpses of such existence, but for lack of cul- 
 tivation they are not frequent. It is true that 
 the psychic has all the time been trying to break 
 through the physical; and more persistently in 
 the present era than in any other age in the his- 
 tory of the world. The phenomena that are so numerous 
 when viewed in their total sum, are unimpeachable proofs 
 of the purpose of some higher power to force a new regime 
 upon humanity at this stage of the progress of civilization. 
 There is a way in which these glimpses may be increased 
 and the presence of the psychic life made decided and per- 
 manent. Before taking up the consideration of this sub- 
 ject, it is important that the value of such life should be un- 
 derstood. 
 
 The two natures should be carefully compared. 
 
 1. The physical nature is restless, discontented and fret- 
 ful; or else lazy, indifferent and sluggish. 
 
 2. The psychic nature is calm, contented, progressive, 
 active and full of the enjoyment of life. 
 
 3. The physical nature is selfish and complaining, or use- 
 less and weak. 
 
 4. The psychic nature is interested in the welfare of 
 others, is generous, noble, useful and strong. 
 
 5. The physical nature is cowardly, or else reckless. If 
 reckless it is willing to kill for gain, or slay its own body 
 when tired of living. 
 
252 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 6. The psychic nature never has homicide in its heart. 
 It can never be induced to take human life for gain, or its 
 own life because of recklessness. 
 
 7. The physical nature allows its body to become dis- 
 eased and its mind to become insane under strain. 
 
 8. The psychic nature honors the physical body as the 
 temple of life, and the physical mind as the intelligent and 
 controlling power of physical existence. The psychic mind 
 maintains both health and guardianship over the physical 
 body and mind. For this reason, if for no other, there 
 should be a general adoption of psychic regime among the 
 people everywhere. 
 
 9. The physical nature seeks amusement and interest in 
 gossip, entertainment, feeding, excitement, chance and many 
 prohibited temptations. Luck, fortune-telling, supersti- 
 tion, nervous fears and excesses of various kinds produce re- 
 sults that the cowardly repent of too late in life, and the 
 reckless curse till they die. 
 
 10. The psychic nature does not believe in luck, but 
 studies cause and effect. Superstition and occultism are 
 regarded as the shadows of ignorance, as the truth never 
 hides in the dark. 
 
 There are two roads to the development of the psychic 
 nature : 
 
 The first is taken by the direct route of power and knowl- 
 edge ; but as these four processes are complex and expensive, 
 they are placed wholly within the Psychic Society as de- 
 scribed in the final pages of this book. It is to avoid the 
 cost of the four systems set forth therein that the Shaftes- 
 bury Society has been founded. Books of the kind that 
 make up the Great Psychic Society represent immense ex- 
 pense in their production, and are the result of years of 
 tremendous labor in conjunction with thousands of associates 
 and co-workers. It is very evident that they could not be 
 issued without involving cost that cannot be borne by one 
 person in a hundred of those who own the present volume. 
 
THE DA WN 253 
 
 For this reason a plain, easy and popular course of de- 
 velopment of the psychic nature should be provided in the 
 present book; and herein the Shaftesbury Society, with its 
 freedom from cost to members, is privileged to do a vast 
 amount of public good. 
 
 It is the personal wish of the author that there shall be 
 no expense of any kind placed upon members. 
 
 We come now to the second road to be pursued, and this 
 belongs exclusively to this Society. It will be traveled in 
 stages and these will follow in the order of their effective- 
 ness. 
 
 RECOGNITION of the PSYCHIC MIND. 
 
 The method to be adopted in securing a recognition of 
 the fact that you possess a psychic mind, is to begin with 
 questions. It is one of the first laws of psychic life that 
 the mind opens as it is used. All faculties depend on this 
 law for their unfolding; and it is a well recognized princi- 
 ple in every kind of existence. 
 
 In order to begin the development of your psychic mind, 
 let it be set to doing some of the work that now is thrown 
 on the physical mind, or that is never done at all. 
 
 Go to some room by yourself where all influences about 
 you may be withdrawn ; or, better still, follow the habits 
 of geniuses in the professions and take the first minutes of 
 of the morning or the last minutes of the evening that be- 
 long to the waking state of your physical brain. We will 
 see what this is. 
 
 To understand it, it is well to remember that the physic 
 mind breaks through its barriers into the physical mind when 
 the latter is thrown into a condition known as lapse or 
 total inactivity. For this reason there is a close relation- 
 ship between the operations of the medium, the clairvoyant, 
 the subject of hypnotism and the genius. The first two go 
 into a trance and it is true that, when their work is gen- 
 uine, they have no knowledge of what transpires, no mat- 
 
25<. THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 ter how startling their revelations may be. The subject 
 of hypnosis also passes into a sleep and has no memory of 
 what takes place, even when he wakes into the condition of 
 control. 
 
 With the genius it is the same, but he is not in a trance; 
 for the higher up the scale of telepathy we ascend the less 
 necessity there is to pass into the state of unconsciousness and 
 to cut off the physical mind from the knowledge of what is 
 taking place. 
 
 Yet the physical mind must be emptied of all its activ- 
 ities if we wish to recognize the psychic mind. This does 
 not mean sleep or the loss of consciousness in any degree. 
 
 No person can go to sleep at night whose brain is full of 
 thought. Perfect slumber is caught just at that point where 
 the mind empties itself of all thought. One degree this 
 side of that emptying, and the mind is not empty. One de- 
 gree the other side of it and the physical mind sleeps. 
 
 But the psychic mind never slumbers, is never uncon- 
 scious and is never ill or weak. It is either present or ab- 
 sent, but goes through life waiting for the call that in most 
 instances never comes. It is always at hand, always ready, 
 but rarely a known guest. As far as it is present at all it is 
 perfect in all its endowments. 
 
 The difficulty is to bring into the physical mind a knowl- 
 edge of the presence of the psychic mind. While the latter 
 breaks through in many small ways, and sometimes in start- 
 ling phenomena, it so easily alarms the former that there is 
 an inclination to avoid it as much as possible. Hence it 
 does not make itself manifest very often. 
 
 To show the tremendous importance of catching the 
 period of lapse when the physical brain is emptied of its 
 activities, let us see what actually occurs then. 
 
 i. This period comes when sleep draws near or when it 
 is passing off. 
 
 2. The using of the psychic mind is most effective when 
 the physical mind is in a state of lapse. All geniuses have 
 
THE DAWN 255 
 
 been examples of this law, and there is not one exception 
 to be found in all history. 
 
 3. All dreams occur in a lapse, but generally in that 
 which attends waking up. No person dreams who is not 
 almost awake. 
 
 4. All thinkers make use of the flashes of thought that 
 come out of the psychic mind, and always at the time they 
 are flashed into the physical brain. In this way all the in- 
 ventions have occurred, all new ideas have been saved to 
 the world, all the brilliant powers of art, of sculpture, of 
 architecture, of human betterment and literary genius have 
 had their birth. 
 
 5. By the admission of men and women who have been 
 of service to mankind in remarkable degree, it is a well 
 proved fact that the moment of lapse just before going to 
 sleep at night, and just after awakening in the night or at 
 morning, is the most fruitful of all the periods in the twenty- 
 four hours in which to catch the thoughts as they are flashed 
 out of the psychic mind into the physical brain. If advan- 
 tage were not taken of this law, the world would never know 
 progress. 
 
 6. Instance after instance might be recorded in these 
 pages of the wonders of knowledge and light, of power and 
 revelation, that have been lifted bodily, as it were, out of 
 the psychic world into that of everyday existence. Almost 
 every intelligent human being has had some notable expe- 
 rience that might be related in support of this law. It is 
 so well understood and so generally known, that no proof 
 is required to maintain the proposition. 
 
 7. It would thus appear that every man and woman has 
 some of the elements of genius, since all have had wonder- 
 ful ideas at times flashed out of the psychic mind into the 
 physical brain. 
 
 8. The lapse occurs not only at the time stated, but also 
 in any important period when a gigantic effort of the mind 
 is required, and the individual is not swept away by its 
 
256 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 greatness. In the latter case, he is made nervous and be- 
 comes weak and useless. But, like Edison locking himself 
 up for the night to solve a problem of importance to the 
 world, he faces the task with the consciousness of being its 
 master, and he is alone with it. But he can do nothing ex- 
 traordinary as long as his physical brain is in the supremacy. 
 There comes the lapse, and if he cannot pass into that state, 
 he can do nothing. This he very well knows. If some 
 person could look into the room, he would see the inventor 
 oblivious to all that was transpiring about him. If the 
 building were on fire, it might take several calls to arouse 
 him to the fact. Such experiences are common among men 
 and women who have done gigantic tasks. Problems have 
 been met and settled in the same way. Wives of great men 
 know what it means to intrude upon them during their 
 periods of absorption. 
 
 9. A man who invented one of the most remarkable suc- 
 cesses of the age, was a pupil of the author's, and after his 
 great achievement told us that he got all his ideas at night 
 just before falling asleep. Similar testimony has come from 
 poets, writers, orators and others ; and it seems to have been 
 their custom to take some part of their work to bed with 
 them, place it under the pillow, and allow the physical mind 
 to pass into its lapse. If they were too tired, they fell 
 asleep. But often they were rewarded by the opening of 
 the psychic mind and the flashing of some great idea into the 
 physical brain. 
 
 Having thus shown the method to be pursued we will 
 next take up the system of questions that are to serve as a 
 stimulant to the activities of the life behind the barrier. 
 
 As this is a very important step, the next chapter will be 
 devoted to it. 
 
257 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 1 QUESTIONS. I 
 
 W i 
 
 /t\ZjVTV»\/l V< V I VlvlvlVlvIv I. I Vivlv IV I, IV IV I , I V I v I v I V I V I V I V ~l~ ~ V l~ 7l Tl V ~ ~l~ VI V|" 
 
 O YOU WISH to know that you possess a 
 psychic mind? If so, the proof can be brought 
 home to you in a most remarkable manner. 
 The first step is to read the last chapter over 
 and over again until you thoroughly under- 
 stand its meaning. Adopt the suggestions as to 
 the use of the mind at that part of the even- 
 ing when it will lapse in the coming on of sleep. Follow 
 the instructions as now given below: 
 
 1. As you retire at night, take this book with you. Just 
 before going to sleep, read carefully every word of chapter 
 thirty-eight, which is the next preceding this chapter; no 
 matter how many times you may have read it before. 
 
 2. Then turn to page eight of this book and read the 
 first statement which says : The universe is all physical ; or 
 it is part physical and part something else. 
 
 3. Then read the following questions: 
 
 FIRST QUESTION.— Do you believe that the uriw 
 verse is all physical ; the sun, the planets, the stars, the sky, 
 the ether that fills all solids, liquids and space, the powers 
 of gravity, of light, magnetism, thought, feeling, affection, 
 love, telepathy, hope and reward ?..... 
 
 SECOND QUESTION.— Do you believe that a part 
 of the universe is physical ; by which is meant material ; 
 while a part of it is something else that is not plwsical?. . . . 
 
 It does not make any difference what you call the part 
 that is not physical. That which is material, or which is re- 
 
258 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 latcd to material conditions, is called physical. The sub- 
 stance of the earth is physical ; so are the animal and veg- 
 etable kingdoms; so is the animal part of humanity; even 
 the mind and the thoughts, feelings, desires and habits are 
 physical when they have relation only to the animal nature. 
 Thus hunger, lust, greed, selfishness and kindred moods are 
 all physical. The lowest beast may possess them. 
 
 If anything else exists in the universe it is called psychic 
 for convenience of terms. This is the word that most aptly 
 describes it. But if any person does not understand why 
 the word psychic is employed, you may reply that it is so 
 used because there is no other one word that can compre- 
 hend as much. Nevertheless any person familiar with the 
 true meaning of the word will agree that it is the exact 
 term that describes what is included in its meaning. The 
 word soul is not enough ; for that refers to the ethical or 
 else to the spiritual nature of man, or perhaps to both; or 
 maybe to the essence of life in all the animal kingdom. Phi- 
 losophers differ in its use. Some regard the soul as both 
 physical and psychic. The word spirit is also limited in its 
 scope. Ethereal has come into use, but is discredited as 
 being only the medium of passage for psychic life, as is seen 
 in the deeper study of psychic telepathy. Psychic therefore 
 is the needed word, and embraces all that is not physical. 
 
 THIRD QUESTION.— Do you understand that the 
 physical mind is the agent of intelligence of the five senses, 
 including sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste? 
 
 FOURTH QUESTION.— Do you understand that 
 practically all human experiences and processes of reason- 
 ing are the outgrowth of the many uses of the senses, run- 
 ning often into the greatest depths of learning? 
 
 FIFTH QUESTION.— Do you believe that there are 
 unseen powers that surround or control human life? 
 
QUESTIONS 259 
 
 SIXTH QUESTION. — How many unseen powers do 
 you believe exist in this world, or about it, or beyond it?. . 
 
 SEVENTH QUESTION.— Of the fourteen unseen 
 powers referred to in chapter thirteen of this book, what 
 ones can you state by name that you believe to exist ? 
 
 It is not necessary to state what form or kind of being any 
 power may seem to be. An influence, such as gravity, is a 
 power, and a very great one at that. Whether any power 
 has shape and exists as a person or personality, is immaterial 
 at this stage of the work. 
 
 It is not necessary that you believe in all fourteen of the 
 unseen powers. For the purposes of this work, it is suffi- 
 cient if you are convinced that there is at least one unseen 
 power. Such influences as gravity, adhesion, cohesion, at- 
 traction, centripetal force and centrifugal force, are parts of 
 magnetism and altogether make up only the one power. 
 Others also include lesser powers. 
 
 EIGHTH QUESTION.— How many of the twenty- 
 four propositions set forth in chapter one of this book are 
 well understood by you ? 
 
 NINTH QUESTION.— Read the twelfth proposition 
 of chapter one and state if you understand that the earth is 
 bound to the sun by the latter's influence, although more 
 than ninety millions of miles away? 
 
 TENTH QUESTION.— If man is controlled by the 
 influence of the earth, and the earth is controlled by the in- 
 fluence of the sun, can you believe it possible and even prob- 
 able that the sun and its system are controlled by an in- 
 fluence beyond the vision of the most powerful aids to the 
 physical senses ? 
 
 During the past year we have given these ten questions 
 to a large number of our students and have asked them to 
 
2 6o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 follow the methods here prescribed ; adding the suggestion 
 that the twelfth proposition of chapter one be made the ob- 
 jective point of the thoughts just before falling to sleep at 
 night; and to continue this for one month. In every in- 
 stance the results have been decided. 
 
 The psychic mind has made itself clearly known to all 
 of them, and they were scattered in all parts of the civil- 
 ized globe. There was no assistance from any other source, 
 and no community of interest. The psychic mind became 
 sharply defined as a separate mentality apart from the or- 
 dinary brain. 
 
 These students included men and women of the highest 
 intelligence. There were officers of the army, officials of 
 the government, judges of the highest courts, and practical 
 business men, some prominent bankers, and well educated 
 women in the ranks of our experimenters. Many of them 
 did not believe the outcome possible until they experienced it. 
 
 What they accomplished can be done likewise by you. 
 We advised them to take these lessons, which were in manu- 
 script form, to bed with them, and to dwell on the matters 
 until they became very drowsy; then place the lessons under 
 the pillow. This book should be treated in the same way. 
 The reason for this is that the psychic mind does not sleep, 
 and is active during the slumbers of the physical brain. A 
 dream is a breaking through the latter, if it is a psychic 
 dream. The nearness of the book is instinctively known. 
 Wilson Barret, one of the greatest of English actors, stated 
 that he always slept with the book of his play under his 
 pillow every night. This seems like a weak bit of supersti- 
 tion, but instead it is a psychological fact. 
 
 The one great result is the recognition of the existence 
 of the psychic brain. " I no longer have any doubt about 
 it," is the general statement of all who have tried these 
 tests. The habit of turning the mind over to the psychic 
 function just before going to sleep at night is the best and 
 most glorious of all experiences. The physical brain is given 
 
QUESTIONS 261 
 
 its rest. It will not dream, for it cannot when the psychic 
 is in control. 
 
 God is a psychic being, and has none of the qualities of 
 the physical ; and when you pass out of the waking hours 
 into slumber at night, if you stimulate the psychic mind in 
 so doing, you place yourself directly in the care and keeping 
 of your Creator. This is a most beautiful experience. 
 Here is a statement that has been concurred in by many 
 others : " I have thought night after night for months of the 
 twenty-four propositions, and have concentrated my mind 
 on the twelfth, the fifteenth, and the last two; always just 
 before falling asleep. I seem to drop into a most delicious 
 repose, resting, delightful, clear as crystal in its scenes, and 
 yet filled with consciousness for some minutes. The thought 
 of new worlds being born, or new sun-systems being created, 
 of kingdoms and empires in the heavens rising and falling, 
 leads to long trains of other pictures until I believe that my 
 mind has the power to visit other parts of the universe. It 
 is all helpful to me in daily life, for I am stronger for it in 
 every way." 
 
 The experience recounted is merely the first activities of 
 a long dormant psychic mind. 
 
 The practical usefulness of this method is shown in the 
 following extract from a letter written by a woman : 
 " Three months ago, as you will recall, I was in great dis- 
 tress of mind because my husband had met with misfortune 
 in his business and was gradually losing his mind. He was 
 despondent and constantly on the point of ending his life. 
 I had to stay with him day and night. At that time I re- 
 ceived the experiment lessons and got him interested in them 
 with me. He fell asleep the first night after having been 
 a victim for three weeks of insomnia. So much interested 
 was he that he insisted on obeying every word of the in- 
 structions for using the lessons, and he talked with me night 
 after night of the twenty-four propositions, saying they were 
 the greatest things he ever knew in all his life. I used to 
 
262 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 lie awake to watch him; but now he drops asleep easily with 
 his face all happiness and a smile and kind word of good 
 cheer on his lips. The change is genuine. He declares that 
 his psychic mind will help him find a way out of his 
 troubles." — One month later came a letter with these 
 words : " The business trouble has been met and is no more. 
 My husband has been given wonderful help from some 
 power greater than his poor brain could understand. He 
 has seen a great light." 
 
 All true success in life is born of some power that man 
 does not create. 
 
 We wish to hear from all our readers who pursue these 
 methods. 
 
 We wish to know what are your answers to the ten ques- 
 tions of this chapter. We wish to have you write them in 
 ink on the dotted lines following the questions, and send us 
 a copy of what you have written. We also w T ish you to 
 repeat this test for one month, omitting no night in that 
 period, and let us know what strength of evidence you have 
 had of the presence of a psychic mind. 
 
 The Shaftesbury Society will be able to accomplish more 
 for the progress of civilization in the next few years than 
 all other agencies combined have achieved in thousands of 
 years, if we can have your replies to these questions, follow- 
 ing a strict adoption of the plan suggested. Why? Be- 
 cause every person who makes the test for a month, will 
 have come into the possession of a new estate and new pow- 
 ers. The accumulation of great numbers of people, making 
 an irresistible mass of humanity, will move the whole world. 
 
 It is not to be expected that anything can be accomplished 
 if you go to bed exhausted with weariness, for sleep is sure 
 to come on quickly. If you have the habit of falling in- 
 stantly into sound slumber, it is better to adopt the fore- 
 going methods by secluding yourself in some room in the 
 early evening where you will not be interrupted, and at a 
 time when you are not likely to need sleep. But in addition 
 
QUESTIONS 263 
 
 to this it is always advisable to take a look at the propositions 
 in chapter one for thirty nights in succession. They turn 
 the mind in the psychic direction. The practice is a good 
 one to maintain every night in the year. 
 
 The psychic mind, no matter how slightly it may be stim- 
 ulated, exercises a master influence over the physical mind. 
 Many cases have come to our attention of persons being 
 troubled with bad dreams and some with unpleasant sensa- 
 tions bordering almost on visions when they would retire 
 to their rooms at night. Some have been afraid to remain 
 alone in any part of the house, even if it were well lighted. 
 In all such cases where the psychic mind has been aroused, 
 the effect has been to bring a wonderful clearness to the 
 brain and to put an end to all bad dreams. 
 
 A woman who had become quite nervous since the death 
 of her husband, imagined at night after she had gone to bed 
 and closed her eyes that he was walking about the room as 
 had been his custom in life. So strong and fearful did this 
 s.ensation become that she soon saw his form and believed 
 he came to her and placed his hands on her face as she would 
 fall into the first stages of sleep. She wrote: " I am sure 
 that I shall go insane. I cannot endure this any longer." — 
 At that time we were sending out the experiments referred 
 to in several of our earlier works on this and other subjects, 
 and one set of test-lessons were sent to her, embodying the 
 teachings of this chapter. She gladly hailed them, and lost 
 no time in mastering their requirements. The result was 
 speedy and certain. In a month she sent word : " I have 
 found the only cure that can be had. I am now in perfect 
 control of myself, and I do not care whether or not my dead 
 husband or any other ghost comes to me; they cannot 
 frighten me. . . . What I have learned is this: the 
 visions and sounds that I had thought were signs of ghostly 
 visits, and which would have been held up as proofs of 
 ghosts, were only the fear within my own brain, and this 
 has gone, and the visits too." — The accumulation of such 
 
264 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 testimony from all parts of the world and all classes of peo- 
 ple of intelligence, cannot be passed lightly over. 
 
 What is true in any one case, is true in any other similar 
 case, and this fact we have found out with certainty. 
 
 Whatever is unpleasant in the brain, whatever leads to 
 fear, illness of mind, bad dreams, visions, apprehension and 
 repulsive moods, is born of the physical brain or is con- 
 taminated there. When the psychic mind has sway, all is 
 reversed. There are no ghosts, no delirium, no uncanny 
 sounds, no ice-cold hands to alarm, no horrible forms any- 
 where that come to drive the brain mad. All is peace and 
 calm. 
 
 This early stage in our studies has done great service, 
 for it has shown the nature of the psychic mind, slight 
 though it may be; and it has produced convincing proof of 
 the purpose of the higher powers to lead humanity away 
 from the darkness of superstition, fear and occult beliefs. 
 
 Later on it will be seen that the psychic mind lives in a 
 white light. 
 
 While separated by barriers from the physical mind, it 
 is a part of human life and as such it exercises control over 
 both the mind and the body, affecting even the lowest ani- 
 mal instincts and transforming them. Doubtless for cen- 
 turies there have been these experiences and they have done 
 much to satisfy pure men and women of the exalted nature 
 of a higher existence. 
 
265 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 1 UNSEEN AGENCIES. 1 
 
 •E HAVE THUS FAR taken the only step 
 that is possible in the opening of the psychic 
 mind without the aid of other training courses : 
 but what has been accomplished may be made 
 ^ s larger in scope by pursuing the plan of ques- 
 tions in a broader way. As has been repeatedly 
 announced, the development of physical mag- 
 netism brings much more power, as it causes the nervous sys- 
 tem and the vital life of the body to take on a new exist- 
 ence. The power of physical magnetism quickly magnifies 
 the clearness of the physical brain, and thus prevents that 
 contamination that has been referred to in the latter part 
 of the last chapter. Magnetism is power and telepathy is 
 knowledge; and these two corner stones have, since the 
 world began, been the foundation principles of power and 
 knowledge in every successful human life. 
 
 But great progress and great gain may be achieved 
 through this present book alone. It is the purpose of the 
 Shaftesbury Society to save to you the expense and labor 
 of going to those fountain-heads of life that give name and 
 activity to the Great Psychic Society. In as much as we 
 can be helpful in this lesser way, we wish to do so in the 
 highest degree possible. 
 
 The ten questions of the last chapter have been selected 
 because they compel the psychic mind to awaken. To a 
 physical brain they lack interest. Until they set you to 
 thinking, they have not aroused your psychic mind. When 
 you begin to take the least interest in any of them, then 
 
266 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 your psychic mind is awakening. To hasten and increase 
 this activity, the periods of seclusion and lapse from the 
 active physical mind have been selected, as experience proves 
 such times to be important aids to this development. 
 
 You must remember that the man who has a great work 
 to do, must be left alone. The writer who cannot be sep- 
 arated from the interruptions of the day, never accomplishes 
 anything. The preacher who, in the midst of writing his 
 sermon, must respond to the calls of others, will give his 
 hearers on the following Sunday a dull production. Power 
 comes from inspiration, and inspiration comes from the lapse 
 of the physical mind, secured in the ways that great men 
 have adopted in all the centuries that have followed. You 
 must therefore respect such usages. 
 
 The first ten questions belong to the first month of tests. 
 They take no time from your other duties, as you can form 
 no better habit than that of falling asleep at night with 
 your thoughts on the problems of the universe. It is an old 
 saying that what you are when you fall to sleep at night 
 and when you first awaken in the morning, year in and year 
 out, will be what you are all day long, all the year long, all 
 the life long, and in the great hereafter. Think this over. 
 
 It is a great proposition. 
 
 There are ten more questions that should follow and not 
 precede those given in the last chapter. Be careful to re- 
 serve them until you have made the full month of tests as 
 stated. These new questions refer to channels of informa- 
 tion that do not employ the five senses. 
 
 ELEVENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever received 
 in your mind the ideas, thoughts or purposes of other per- 
 sons ? 
 
 TWELFTH QUESTION.— Have such ideas and 
 thoughts related to ordinary matters ? 
 
 THIRTEENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever re- 
 ceived ideas or thoughts that seemed greater than you 
 could express in words? 
 
UNSEEN AGENCIES 267 
 
 FOURTEENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever had 
 flashed into your mind some great thought that pertained 
 to matters not of earth and not of this life? 
 
 FIFTEENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever had 
 premonitions, warnings, or feelings that have related to 
 events about to happen or to some theme of great moment 
 and importance ? 
 
 These five questions will mean more to you after you 
 have been careful to complete .the tests of the last chapter, 
 and w T hen your psychic mind is more alert. 
 
 As all human beings have at times received the ideas and 
 thoughts of others, there will be no one who will fail to 
 answer yes to the eleventh question. We know thousands 
 of people and have never yet found one who had not 
 had thoughts come into his mind from the minds of others 
 and by channels other than the senses. 
 
 All the questions imply means of transit not ordinary. 
 
 The physical mind is constantly receiving ideas, thoughts 
 and purposes on subjects that pertain to material life. As 
 human activities are far greater in such existence, the pass- 
 ing of thoughts is more frequent in this realm. Some brains 
 become so acute that they are able to divine the words and 
 plans that are about to be spoken, but in advance. Hun- 
 dreds of pages might be written on the aid that keen brains 
 get from surmising what is left unsaid in the minds of 
 others who think they are able to conceal their designs. 
 Strongly developed psychic minds are never deceived. 
 
 More than this the capable man of affairs will keep ahead 
 of those with whom he does business, and will often cut 
 matters short without lessening their importance. Mr. J. 
 P. Morgan furnishes an illustration of this fact in thou- 
 sands of instances every year. His time is so valuable and 
 his undertakings so vast that he is compelled to come to the 
 point in the shortest space of time with all whom he meets. 
 To their surprise he arrives at the focus of their purposes 
 before they have more than unfolded their first ideas to him. 
 
268 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 He knows what they seek and a few sentences settle the 
 business one way or the other. 
 
 SIXTEENTH QUESTION.— When an idea comes 
 into your mind from the mind of another person, and not 
 through the channels of the ordinary senses, how do you 
 think it is conveyed ? 
 
 SEVENTEENTH QUESTION.— How do you think 
 the power operates that keeps the earth within control of 
 the sun ? 
 
 As the earth is a heavy ball floating by itself in space, 
 and the sun is another orb, more than ninety millions of 
 miles away; and, as there is no cord, chain or leash that 
 holds the earth to the sun, in what way does the power act 
 that controls this planet? If you have ideas that help to 
 make such influence clear, you will begin to understand 
 the subtle power that one mind can send out to another, 
 called magnetism ; and also the method by which one mind 
 can secure the ideas, thoughts and purposes from the mind 
 of another person. In other words, you must get away 
 from the belief that nothing is known unless it is conveyed 
 by the sense of sight, hearing, touch, smell or taste. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH QUESTION.— Have you ever felt 
 the power of intuition? State in what way 
 
 NINETEENTH QUESTION.— Assuming that na- 
 ture in hundreds of ways displays special design toward 
 humanity, can you understand that she is an intelligent 
 power that is given the duty of sustaining life on earth until 
 some goal has been reached for which this world was created ? 
 
 TWENTIETH QUESTION.— Acting through the 
 law of instinct, does nature seem to you to be an aimless 
 blind force? 
 
 These inquiries demand some genuine thought, and they 
 cannot be tossed aside as of little value. Let your replies 
 
UNSEEN AGENCIES 269 
 
 be made with ink in the places left for them in this chapter, 
 so that you may have them to look back upon as other steps 
 of progress may be made in the years to come. 
 
 No human being can live on earth in the true purpose of 
 existence until he understands more of the powers that sur- 
 round him than the animal mind of man can ever know. 
 He has something within him that is of far greater value 
 than the entity of the beast. He may never know it ; and, so, 
 he has but one destiny, that of the animal. There is no re- 
 ligion that can save him, and failure has been marked all 
 along the trail of the last twenty bloody centuries. Charity 
 is not the forgiving angel that will make of him something 
 more than he was willing to make of himself. 
 
 The first thing to be accomplished is for man to recog- 
 nize the existence and presence of his psychic mind ; and 
 from that step he will rise to a knowledge of the psychic 
 life that is also his, if he pursues the only course that can 
 bring such knowledge. 
 
 To ascertain that there are such powers about him as the 
 ten questions of this chapter imply, must result in a wide 
 unfolding of his psychic nature. The animal mind has 
 never thought of anything but the relationship of animal 
 life; no matter how civilized it may become. When the 
 psychic mind starts its activities, they affect every phase 
 of the animal nature, turning all paths around and making 
 a new destiny for man. 
 
 Thinking is life. It is power. It is greater than any 
 of the facts that fill in the details of routine existence. If 
 you think in the right direction, you will live in the right 
 way. If you think as an animal, you will so live. If you 
 turn your face down, your mind will grovel ; if you turn it 
 up, you will become exalted. If you start with the study of 
 the unseen powers that surround human life, and think deep 
 enough and far enough, you will think clear through to 
 God. 
 
270 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 COMPOSITE LIFE. I 
 
 UBMITTING these propositions to many 
 leaders in the advanced thought of the world 
 today, the unanimous opinion has been ex- 
 pressed that they constitute the most important 
 theme as well as the highest duty of the age 
 in which we live; first to understand and then 
 to adopt them. Never before has the four- 
 sided temple of existence been seen in its true meaning. 
 The old divisions started with but two ideas; the body and 
 the soul. Then the third was introduced, that of the mind. 
 But since the physical brain is the agent of the five senses, 
 and since it has been established that there is a psychic mind, 
 a new division is necessary. 
 
 It is generally agreed that the name of the psychic mind 
 is the sub-conscious faculty. Yet it is as distinctly a mind 
 as is the physical; and if one is to be called mind the other 
 is fully entitled to that name. 
 
 More than this, as time goes on, and certainly in the next 
 five years, further discoveries of the powers and endowments 
 of the psychic mind will be made on such a scale as to 
 startle the world ; for we are now on the threshold of new 
 facts never before dreamed of. The Shaftesbury Society, 
 in which membership is free, will help in many ways; and 
 the more technical organization, the Great Psychic Society, 
 will secure broader and deeper knowledge of the purposes 
 of life. The results are constantly proving more and more 
 the important nature of the psychic mind as a grand division 
 of existence. 
 
 Thus far it is certain that the physical body, the physical 
 
COMPOSITE LIFE 271 
 
 mind and the psychic mind constitute three of the parts of 
 man. 
 
 Inasmuch as there is a psychic mind in addition to a physi- 
 cal mind, the plan of life would be most incomplete if 
 there were no psychic body to make the fourth part. But 
 this is merely a deduction, and logic does not always prove 
 a fact. 
 
 Investigation turns to other sources than theory, and the 
 evidence of the existence of the psychic body are many and 
 conclusive. This grand division belongs to the gigantic 
 work, Psychic Telepathy, now in preparation. 
 
 But every member of the Shaftesbury Society may secure 
 recognition of the psychic body by the methods to be sug- 
 gested in the next few chapters. This recognition is de- 
 cisive and satisfactory. 
 
 In the start it is important that the few basic facts already 
 set forth in the earlier parts of this book shall be clearly 
 understood. 
 
 1. The physical body is born of earth, is material, lives 
 by constant processes of change, ripens, dies and returns to 
 the lap of earth. 
 
 2. It contains something more than earth, for it is known 
 to possess a guiding physical intelligence, called the mind. 
 
 3. It also contains something still beyond its physical in- 
 telligence, for the proofs of the existence of the psychic mind 
 are overwhelming at the present day. 
 
 4. As the physical mind is required to guide the activities 
 of the physical body, so the psychic mind is needed for the 
 purpose of affording an intelligent leadership to the psychic 
 body. 
 
 5. The greatest fact connected with the phys'cal body is 
 its certainty of death. 
 
 6. The psychic mind is known to be invulnerable against 
 any of the influences that break up the physical life of 
 either the body or mind. The latter sleeps, becomes uncon- 
 scious, becomes insane, depends on the vicissitudes of earth 
 
272 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 for its own conditions, and is in every way a developing, 
 ripening and dying existence. 
 
 7. The psychic mind is known to be indestructible, and 
 for that reason it must be immortal. The psychic body 
 keeps pace with the endowments of the psychic mind; just 
 as the physical body and mind are mortal and vulnerable. 
 
 These seven propositions are to be given thought in the 
 same manner as the twenty-four propositions of chapter one 
 have been employed in recent pages of this book. They 
 should be studied until their full meaning is comprehended. 
 To read them a few times will not bring the results needed. 
 
 You can stimulate any faculty and any power. 
 
 It has already been stated that the physical mind never 
 begins to grow until it is stimulated ; and wise parents under- 
 stand the importance of surrounding infants with matters 
 that interest them, including an abundance of playthings 
 suited to their age. Stupid brains are sure to follow the 
 habit of allowing children to be left much to themselves 
 with nothing to interest them. This shows merely the 
 principle involved. It applies to every faculty connected 
 with man. 
 
 Everything that lives responds to influences that stimulate 
 it. 
 
 An idle body never develops. If you lie in bed for a few 
 weeks your strength will have gone from muscles and bones. 
 
 The most important part of man is the psychic body, and 
 it is very little known because it is very little used. Hu- 
 manity has been compelled to face three conditions ever 
 since it came upon the earth, and they may be briefly re- 
 ferred to as follows: 
 
 A. — It has pursued the life of the physical body and 
 mind, and so lived and died. 
 
 B. — Or it has simulated the life of the psychic body and 
 mind at the expense of the physical body and mind, and so 
 died. 
 
COMPOSITE LIFE . 273 
 
 C. — Or it has sustained the inter-relationship of the four 
 great sides of existence, and so lived well in this world and 
 passed on to immortality. 
 
 From these propositions it appears that the psychic life 
 in the physical body is but the fore-taste of its true life here- 
 after. It does not and cannot take on perfection here. The 
 four sides of man are : 
 
 First, a physical body. 
 
 Second, a physical mind. 
 
 Third, a psychic mind. 
 
 Fourth, a psychic body. 
 
 These are stated in the order of their development. The 
 body makes the mind possible in the physical estates; while 
 the psychic mind is the guiding power out of which the 
 psychic body takes its life. 
 
 The common condition is that which employs only the 
 physical body and mind. It is amazing to think of the great 
 proportions of human beings that get nothing more out of 
 living. The past ages have teemed with them. We see 
 them all about us now. 
 
 What is physical existence? 
 
 It is that which feeds the body, clothes it, finds shelter 
 for it and provides entertainment for the mind within it; 
 or else does these things in some degree. The very poor 
 man may have less food than he needs; the very rich may 
 have more. One is weak, the other sick. The very poor 
 man may be badly or scantily clothed ; the very rich may be 
 sumptuously dressed. Both suffer from exposure caused by 
 the extremes. The very poor man may dwell in a rain- 
 soaked hovel; the very rich in a mansion. One gets the 
 fresh air, the other is sepulchred. One may go out into the 
 green field or find employment amid the elements ; the other 
 hangs pictures on his walls, displaying the scenes of nature, 
 and so enjoys them in their absence. 
 
 A man is said to succeed in life if he is able to support 
 himself and his family in abundance, and leave some of his 
 
274 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 wealth to his heirs. A man is said to fail in life if he is 
 not able to support himself and those who are dependent on 
 him. Whether in business, in the professions, or in art, if 
 there is not substantial reward in money, life is put down as 
 a failure. 
 
 But what is the use of living if the results are no more 
 than to sustain the body, to feed, clothe and house it, and 
 furnish entertainment for the mind? It is the physical body 
 that has grown up out of the earth and that goes down into 
 it when death comes; and the journey is made in a circle. 
 You go forth to victory, and bring back to your starting 
 place nothing more than the body you took with you when 
 you ventured out. This is not victory. The goal of life 
 is not the soil from which you sprang. 
 
 Yet all about you are men and women whose one object 
 of the day from rising to retiring is to take care of the body, 
 to feed it, to clothe it, to shelter it, and to give its mind some 
 entertainment. If they have religious inclinations, they give 
 them no scope and no growth. Their devotions are routine 
 and perfunctory. But most of them have not even the pri- 
 mary instincts of religion. They are physical in body and in 
 mind. 
 
 They have but one end, and that is to return to the 
 physical fund from which they came. 
 
 On the other hand there are persons whose psychic na- 
 tures have been approached and made to overload the physical 
 mind with an unnatural taint. They seclude themselves 
 wholly from the physical, immure themselves, become mor- 
 bidly devotional, have no faith in the flesh, and deny them- 
 selves the glories of earth. Heaven has no place and no 
 use for them ; for man's first duty in the flesh is to exalt the 
 earth in which he dwells, and to build his heaven in minia- 
 ture out of the wreckage of human failure. 
 
275 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 RECOGNITION. 
 
 i 
 
 O THINKING PERSON can fail to notice 
 'the change that sometimes comes over the man 
 'or woman whose psychic nature has been 
 touched. Many explanations have been given 
 of the real process whereby such change has 
 come about. The result of a close investiga- 
 tion of the matter has been a better under- 
 standing of the psychic side of humanity; and the conclu- 
 sions are grouped in three classes: 
 
 1. The change has been fixed and permanent in a small 
 number of instances as compared with the whole number 
 involved. 
 
 2. The change has been effective for some length of time 
 and then has ceased. 
 
 3. The change has been fleeting and short-lived. 
 
 The starting principle is this: All men and women are 
 physical unless something happens to cause them to change 
 to their psychic nature. They are born physical because 
 they come up out of the earth which is physical. They eat, 
 sleep, work, think, find entertainment, suffer and die. If 
 nothing were to occur to awaken some other nature, they 
 would never know they were anything but physical. 
 
 The most common power that affects them and stimu- 
 lates their desire to know something of a different nature 
 than that which they see is only physical, is the death of 
 loved ones. It cannot be said that death is created for this 
 purpose, for it has other meanings; but it in reality brings 
 
276 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 many a hardened heart face to face with the psychic nature 
 within. 
 
 Here is an example: A man who had acquired some 
 wealth in the saloon business, had a child whose life was 
 dearer to him than all else in the world. He saw the little 
 girl develop from the tender years of infancy to the period 
 of youth, and he looked upon the business which brought 
 him his income. He often thought of the sadness and gloom 
 that would fill his life if she were to die; and little by little 
 he was drawn into unconscious wishing that she might be 
 spared to him for a long lifetime. From wishing he passed 
 into praying, and repeated every night the simple prayer 
 that his mother had taught him when he used to kneel at 
 her side; adding the earnest hope that his little girl would 
 live many years. Then he would go to his saloon the next 
 morning and see the effect of his traffic on the lives of others. 
 He felt that he w T as asking too much in the face of his evil 
 business. He began to add other goods to sell, at the same 
 time reducing his stock of liquors. Little by little he elimi- 
 nated the alcoholic drinks, and entered at last fully into a 
 new line of trade. His girl grew up to be a good woman, 
 and he was changed permanently. 
 
 In that case his psychic nature had been stimulated by 
 his love for his daughter. It was a healthy and wholesome 
 transformation ; of such a kind that it could be reasonably 
 predicted of it that it would not suffer relapse. 
 
 In another case a man who had been wholly indifferent 
 to everything except the physical, lost his wife. Her death 
 did not seem to affect him very deeply; but the funeral ser- 
 mon was of such a character that he suffered the most in- 
 tense agony during its delivery. That afternoon, returning 
 from the grave, he informed the minister that he had been 
 converted and intended to lead a religious life. After many 
 years of trial, he has remained true to his convictions. The 
 sudden awakening of his psychic nature was due to the 
 influence of the powerful funeral sermon. 
 
RECOGNITION 277 
 
 On the other hand we have reports that are undoubtedly 
 true of many similar cases where the psychic nature has been 
 just touched, and vows made of a better life, to be followed 
 by a relapse into the physical condition ; the nearest ap- 
 proaches to change that have ever occurred in such lives. 
 
 In one instance a young husband was made very solemn 
 and serious by the death of his wife. She knew he was 
 aware of her condition, and spoke to him of her desire to 
 meet him in heaven, saying that he must so live that he 
 would inherit immortal life. He was deeply affected and 
 assured her that he would do as she wished. During the 
 funeral services he seemed stricken by the awful meaning of 
 death, and for some days thereafter was very much in earnest 
 in his new found hope. But little by little the impres- 
 siveness of the affair passed off and he was again hardened. 
 After the lapse of many years he was still hopeless ; showing 
 that his psychic nature was just touched and no more. 
 
 The mother who sees her boy laid in the grave, if she has 
 held the fullness of love for him, and has found a response 
 in his life for her, can never separate her life from the be- 
 lief that they will meet in another world. The mother love 
 is said by the biologist to be a phase of nature intended to 
 protect the young in order that they may escape the many 
 perils of infancy and youth. This is true of the lower ani- 
 mals, but lives only while protection is actually needed. 
 When the young are able to take care of themselves, the 
 mother discards them. In the human species the mother 
 love endures through life. It would be abnormal and even 
 monstrous if any sane mother were to hate her offspring or 
 wish to discard them. 
 
 It has been said that death has opened many a psychic 
 nature. Perhaps the mother love has served to accomplish 
 the same end; for deeply rooted love thinks farther than 
 earth. It seeks to find some reason for believing that there 
 is to be an eternity of companionship after this life has ended. 
 
 It hungers for heaven. 
 
278 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 It is possible that this feeling, so universal among mothers, 
 has had much to do with the religious tendency of women, 
 and with the fact that the feminine character averages much 
 more gentle and beautiful than that of man. 
 
 Great calamities affect the normal individual by stimulat- 
 ing the psychic nature ; while the abnormal seek self-destruc- 
 tion. The absence of every trace of the psychic nature 
 leads logically to suicide; for the physical being, having 
 nothing to live for, finds it out and hastens the event that 
 will return the body to dust. 
 
 In every century the records of the church show that 
 revivals have followed public disasters, hard times, epidemics 
 and calamities. Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, is 
 an old belief; and its solution, if true in principle, is that 
 the psychic nature has been awakened by adversity, and the 
 way thus opened for immortality. At that period of the 
 world's history when the Christians were crucified, or 
 thrown to the wild beasts, or burned alive, sincerity of de- 
 votion was at its zenith. 
 
 As the end of the first thousand years of the Christian era 
 approached, the belief was universal in Europe that the 
 world would come to its doom at the exact close of the 
 tenth century. Few if any persons doubted this claim. 
 On every hand there was preparation for the coming end. 
 Then wars ceased and religion held absolute sway among 
 all followers of the Christian faith, as well as millions who 
 were brought into that belief. As a result the people for 
 several generations felt the influence of this power. Their 
 fighting was changed to the crusades, and these prevailed 
 for many generations more. There can be no doubt that the 
 darkness of the world was overcome by the psychic tenden- 
 cies thus aroused. 
 
 Many beautiful systems of living sprang up. 
 
 What part fear played in the matter cannot be stated ; 
 nor can it be asserted that fear is not a legitimate agency for 
 stimulating the psychic nature. 
 
RECOGNITION 279 
 
 In those centuries when the preaching of hell-fire drove 
 millions into the church, fear was of course the chief instru- 
 ment; but if it actually awakened the ps3'chic life, it served 
 its purpose well. 
 
 It has been said that the death of a loved one will often 
 touch the psychic nature. On the same principle it is also 
 said that the knowledge of approaching death will generally 
 arouse the psychic tendency. Condemned prisoners whose 
 day of execution has been fixed, are in nine cases out of ten 
 easily led to profess religion; whereas the same criminals, 
 left to the chance of death by conflict or in the hazard of 
 their business, would face such an end with indifference. 
 The slightest uncertainty shuts up all approach to their 
 psychic natures. 
 
 Certainty of punishment reduces crime. 
 
 We recall the case of a small city of about ten thousand 
 inhabitants, where an epidemic of small pox swept away 
 many hundreds; and the survivors became so religious that 
 several new churches were built to accommodate them. 
 
 The greatest revivals in times of peace in this country 
 occurred after the panic of the early fifties, and that of the 
 early seventies. It was following the latter troublous times 
 that Moody found his immense harvest of souls. 
 
 When the twentieth century shall be drawing to a close, 
 the world will probably witness the most complete religious 
 and moral sweeping of the earth that has ever occurred ; 
 for the rounding out of the Biblical six days of a thousand 
 years each, will appall humanity. Such is the nature of man. 
 
 The worst enemy of the church is prosperity. Good times 
 will bring plenty of food, drink, clothing and shelter, as well 
 as entertainment for the mind ; and this is the complete 
 equipment for physical living. The comic sheet, sporting 
 pages and scandal columns of the Sunday papers will just 
 harmonize with the man who has eaten well, and who- has 
 all the comforts of life about him. To him the psychic life 
 has no attractions, and the church is a bore. 
 
28o THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 How much sincerity is involved in these awakenings of 
 the better part of man, is not so important as how long 
 their effects will endure. In most cases they are in earnest; 
 but as the psychic nature has not been really aroused, it 
 lapses sooner or later into the dormant state where it was 
 found. 
 
 When the plan of life on earth is considered, no one can 
 say in good sense that the state of fear is a psychic condi- 
 tion. It may serve as the means of awakening that part of 
 man ; but, like the key that opened the door, it is not the 
 house within. 
 
 Excitement during revivals has been defended as a means 
 to an end. Any method that will actually wake up the psy- 
 chic life and bring it into a permanent status, is justifiable. 
 But the hysterics of the man whose remorse made him re- 
 pentant of his murder of a friend, may not be more than an 
 intensified form of emotion similar to that which attends 
 passionate appeals to audiences. Colored folks shout, leap 
 in the air, and fall into cataleptic fits during some of their 
 revival meetings. 
 
 Thus we see that the subject is many-sided. 
 
 Storms at sea have occasionally converted pretty wicked 
 sailors, a few of whom have held fast to their new-found 
 hope; but most of them fall back to their physical conditions 
 and so live and die. 
 
 There is another way that leads to the awakening of the 
 psychic life within man, and this will be considered in the 
 next chapter. 
 
28l 
 
 CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 1 THINKING ONWARD. 
 
 1 1 
 
 ROM EARTH the physical body was created. 
 'It was physical at birth and will so remain 
 unless something shall intervene to develop 
 other parts of its life. Even the physical mind 
 will not come into existence unless it is stimu- 
 lated and aroused. This fact has been many 
 times proved, as in the cases of infant prisoners 
 who have been kept under close guard lest they might some 
 day become contenders for the thrones of great empires. 
 Lacking the stimulus to develop the mind, they have grown 
 up with smooth brains and imbecile natures. The healthiest 
 child that may be born, if kept wholly apart from the 
 sources of knowledge, will totally lack mind. 
 
 But if there is to be a mental side built in life, it must 
 first take root in the physical body. Without the latter, it 
 cannot find the temple in which to grow. 
 
 The first step therefore in human life is the birth and 
 development of the physical body. The second step is the 
 coming of the mind in that body. Thus far the physical 
 can go and no farther. 
 
 But one part leads out of another. It all starts with 
 earth. This basis is necessary, because earth is the first step 
 in everything connected with this planet. Through the 
 experiences of the physical body, the physical mind is de- 
 veloped. Through the experiences of the physical mind, 
 the psychic mind is developed. Through the experiences of 
 the latter, the psychic life is reached. These steps are im- 
 portant and should be borne clearly in mind. 
 
282 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 At the end of the fortieth chapter it was said that if you 
 start with the study of the unseen powers that surround 
 human life, and think deep enough and far enough, you will 
 think clear through to God. As God is wholly psychic, this 
 process is in line with the steps that follow one another in 
 the development of the complete man. It is by physical 
 experiences of the body that the physical mind is developed. 
 It is by thinking with such faculty on themes that are be- 
 yond its powers, that the psychic mind is awakened ; and 
 the methods set forth in chapters thirty-nine and forty are 
 absolutely sure to bring this result if they are pursued in 
 the manner stated. 
 
 The next step is easily seen. 
 
 Having awakened the psychic mind by the process de- 
 scribed, the purpose now is to stimulate the psychic life by 
 going one pace farther. 
 
 This is to be done apart from the employment of the 
 usual agencies of fear, alarm, emotion or disaster. It can 
 be accomplished through the use of the psychic mind, even 
 taking the slight awakening that is secured under the meth- 
 ods stated, as the basis for further progress. It is not sup- 
 posed that these primary beginnings are to bring us into the 
 full measure of the powers of psychic existence. The at- 
 tempt is made here merely to stimulate the psychic mind 
 and the psychic life; not to develop them into powerful 
 agencies. That line of work belongs almost wholly to the 
 Psychic Society, as described in the final pages of this book. 
 
 It should be understood that the Shaftesbury Society is 
 seeking to lend as much aid as can come from this work to 
 every person who is taught its lessons, in the hope that 
 those who cannot devote themselves to the greater society 
 will gain results here and now. 
 
 Therefore the slight progress made herein, being hardly 
 more than to the threshold of the powers sought, will serve 
 only to stimulate the psychic mind and the psychic life; but 
 the impulse thus given by so slight a start may, in thousands 
 
THINKING ONWARD 283 
 
 of cases, prove sufficient to arouse the full faculties to their 
 own acquired momentum. If the rock that is poised on 
 the mountain side needs only a gentle push to set it in mo- 
 tion, it may roll onward down the slope to the temple that 
 awaits its coming and be placed at the corner of the foun- 
 dation to be honored through all time. 
 
 Before seeking to stimulate the psychic life into a state 
 that will enable you to recognize it, you should review 
 very carefully the questions and your answers as written in 
 chapters thirty-nine and forty. Assure yourself that you 
 have taken the time to fully arouse the psychic mind by the 
 method therein set forth. 
 
 Select such times and conditions as were required in those 
 chapters, and continue the work under the following plan. 
 You have now the additional advantage of a quickened 
 psychic mind, which is the closest step to the final result. 
 
 We will go back to physical conditions as a means of 
 starting. 
 
 In the hour of solitude or when about to enter the first 
 sleep of the night, try to grasp the meaning of the follow- 
 ing propositions, all of which are primary steps in thought : 
 
 1. There was once a time when this part of the sky, now 
 occupied by the sun and its planets, was empty. 
 
 2. Out from a distant court of the heavens, too far away 
 to be seen by the largest telescope, the mass of matter 
 of which the sun is made, was hurled to this part of the 
 universe. 
 
 3. From the sun thus sent to this region in space, came 
 the earth and other dependencies. 
 
 4. The earth is heavy, very heavy. A tiny spot on its 
 surface contains so many millions of tons of weight that it 
 can hardly be contemplated by the mind of man. The 
 great canal at Panama that is to cost hundreds of millions 
 of dollars and many years of labor, is so slight a scratch 
 on the surface of the earth that it could not be seen with a 
 Lick telescope placed upon the nearby moon. Archimedes 
 
284 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 once said he would move this world if he could secure a 
 leverage: but the combined strength of all the horse power 
 and engine power on earth to-day would not make the 
 planet budge an inch. 
 
 5. This tremendous weight came out of a distant part 
 of the heavens ; was in fact sent out ; appeared in this 
 region as a portion of the sun; and was thrown from that 
 body. Such was the process of transportation. If Archi- 
 medes could not move the world an inch with all the energy 
 afforded by earth itself, how could it be transported billions 
 of miles as a mass and brought to its present abode, unless 
 some power mightier than the mind of man can conceive 
 directed the transaction? 
 
 6. If a mass of matter as great as this world were to be 
 moved from the central courts of heaven to a place count- 
 less billions of miles away, can you think of any better plan 
 than to wrap that mass in living flame, hurl it out from the 
 sky into its future abode, give to the flame the power to 
 throw off worlds of its own, and then reduce that fire by 
 cooling processes to a solid world? Any other method 
 would have been dangerous even if feasible. 
 
 7. This mass on which we dwell and from which we are 
 powerless to escape, contains something more than acci- 
 dental composition. Its material consists of food for all 
 the kinds of life that exist here; and this is not accident. 
 Its material contains stones, woods, minerals and metals 
 all in wonderful diversity, variety and conditions of hard- 
 ness, softness and quality, capable of being used in con- 
 structing the houses needed by man ; and such a wealth of 
 matter coming from the distant realms of the sky could not 
 be the result of chance, accident, or blind law. Its ma- 
 terial contains plants and animals from which clothing can 
 be made in every conceivable manner and of every con- 
 ceivable value and usefulness; a condition that could not 
 possibly result from accident. Its material also contains 
 special values, precious stones, gems, diamonds, gold, and 
 
THINKING ONWARD 285 
 
 energies suited to the pleasure of man; as well as every aid 
 to art that can be desired, and every aid to the sense of 
 beauty through flowers and colors that the most exalted in- 
 genuity can invent. Surely not one of these attributes 
 came about by accident. 
 
 8. Now put these two lines of thought together: (a) 
 This world was sent forth into space from a remote part of 
 the sky as a mass of great weight; (b) and this mass is full 
 to overflowing of the needs of human life on its bosom. 
 
 The purpose thus far of these propositions is to set in 
 motion your thoughts until something shall touch them that 
 will satisfy you that chance and accident have had no part 
 in the unfolding of life on this globe ; but that design and 
 intelligence are everywhere in evidence. As soon as that 
 conclusion is fixed in your mind, the rest of the process is 
 easy. 
 
 Nothing is clearer than the power of the mind after it 
 is wholly satisfied of the existence of a definite purpose in 
 creation; and that man may share in that purpose. Let 
 every person realize this fact. 
 
 It is not enough to believe this. Belief is merely the 
 action of the physical mind ; and we are seeking to start at 
 that mind and come up into the higher faculty that is quick- 
 ened by a strong conviction. We are not teaching faith, 
 nor belittling its usefulness. We are not employing the 
 agencies of emotion, fear, superstition, threats, alarms, dis- 
 aster, suffering or other calamity. All these have had their 
 day, and the best religious minds of this era look back with 
 sorrow upon the fact that such methods have been most 
 active in building up the church. Even at this time one de- 
 nomination holds its followers through the fear that the 
 world is speedily coming to an end ; a fear that, if it could 
 be founded on absolute certainty, would drive every sane 
 man or woman into the church. 
 
 But we look up through the sublime trend of thoughts 
 that carry the mind of man into the solid assurances that 
 
286 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 there is a purpose in the creation of this world, and that 
 man is the central object of existence. 
 
 It is not fear that is to bring us to heaven, but knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 The mind has too long looked downward. It has rarely 
 looked up to the plan of the universe. But to-day it can 
 be proved that, whereas fear, or emotion, or calamity, may 
 drive the heart into a serious contemplation of the psychic 
 life, only to fall back perchance to the physical again and 
 be lost, on the other hand the realization of the unseen 
 powers that control matter is sure to awaken to permanent 
 hope the most abject physical being if once the psychic na- 
 ture is fully aroused. There is more to amaze man in 
 looking upward through the exalted trend of thought, than in 
 looking downward through fear, emotions, superstition, ap- 
 prehension, suffering and death. 
 
 But man rarely looks upward. 
 
 When he does he fails to turn his psychic mind to the 
 wonders of thought and intelligence that must thrill him 
 when understood. If he is moved at all it is only in the 
 midst of material contemplation. He has but one great 
 lesson to learn and that is to take advantage of the hour 
 when he can empty his physical thoughts out of his chaotic 
 brain, and in their place invite the deeper activities of his 
 mind until the psychic life shines alone. 
 
287 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 1 THE TWO PICTURES. 1 
 
 1 I 
 
 ivivi /lvi J Ki,,i,i.i,i, l .K,.Ki-i.i,i.Ki,i.i.i.,. i^i ^iTiTiTiTiTiTi ~iTiTiTi~t~t~i"?i^ 
 
 TEP BY STEP our course has led us on- 
 ,ward and upward to the very threshold of 
 the life we seek to enter; and the last stage of 
 progress is now at hand. It will be noted that 
 the time that is most favorable to the unfold- 
 ing of the psychic nature is that referred to 
 under the plan of chapters thirty-nine and 
 forty; and for the reason that all straggling and diverting 
 thoughts of the physical brain must be avoided. It will be 
 fruitless to seek results that could not possibly come to the 
 world's greatest geniuses who one and all require solitude 
 and concentration of thought in order to secure power of 
 progress in their achievements. 
 
 Two months should be spent in night thoughts on the 
 questions of chapters thirty-nine and forty. Then a third 
 month ought to be devoted to the work of chapter forty- 
 three. It takes no time that is valuable for other things; 
 for it employs the least period of the waking day, just as 
 the mind is about to enter the lapse that follows physical 
 consciousness. 
 
 The fourth and last month of this training in the Shaftes- 
 bury Society is now at hand. 
 
 Having come into the conviction that this earth was 
 thrown out of the sky in a mass of flame, and that the latter 
 has sent it out from its heat in order that it might become 
 cool and take on life while yet chained to the sun ; and, 
 still further, having found it true that this mass of immense 
 weight which is known as the earth is not an accidental col- 
 
288 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 lection of material, but contains everything needed for the 
 life and comfort of humanity; the psychic mind sees at once 
 the fact that there is a purpose in it all. 
 
 What that purpose is, must now engage our attention. 
 
 To start the process of investigation, let us look at some 
 of the acknowledged principles involved in the plan of crea- 
 tion. 
 
 I. There is nothing to indicate that absolute generosity 
 prevails in the making of this earth with its freight of hu- 
 manity. 
 
 By generosity is meant the giving of everything and the 
 requiring of nothing. If you receive as a present from 
 a man of wealth a great gift, and you are asked to yield 
 nothing in return, that is absolute generosity. But if the 
 donor requires that you use the gift in a manner which he 
 deems wisest for you, then it is generous, but not fully and 
 freely so; for you will be hemmed in by conditions that are 
 restrictive. 
 
 2. There are unmistakable proofs that this earth and its 
 life are two-sided. 
 
 3. As a definite purpose and intelligence can be every- 
 where seen in the creation of this earth and its life, it must 
 follow that the two-sided condition of existence is part of a 
 fixed plan. 
 
 4. If the Creator had been absolutely generous; that is, 
 had given everything and required nothing in return ; this 
 world would have been a scene of perfection. 
 
 5. Everything physical tends to imperfection, because it 
 is always disintegrating, or breaking up into change. 
 
 6. Everything psychic tends to perfection, because it is 
 indestructible. 
 
 7. It is for this last named reason that the sway of the 
 psychic nature over the physical mind and body tends always 
 to heal them and drive away disease. Physical methods, 
 founded on physical reasoning, are not curative or healing; 
 but the predominance of the psychic mind and life will al- 
 
THE TWO PICTURES 289 
 
 ways hold sickness aloof and bring healing to mind and 
 body. No brain ever goes insane that is under the associate 
 mastery of the psychic mind ; but the more a person studies 
 spiritism and occult theories, the weaker the physical 
 mind and body become; ending sooner or later in a break- 
 ing up of one or both. Psychic training is a certain remedy 
 for approaching insanity. But the trouble is that there are 
 so many false claims as to what is psychic, and so many sys- 
 tems exist to-day that are mere inventions founded on oc- 
 cult superstition, that the public may grasp the venomous 
 asp in the belief that it is a beauteous rose. There was never 
 a period in human history when truth and right training 
 were so much needed as now, while the age is entering on 
 a new trend of development. For this reason there should 
 be free and widespread efforts made to bring the public into 
 these studies. Physical methods and physical reasoning, 
 processes of reasoning in the cure of diseases and the healing 
 of body and mind, have had their full opportunity; but 
 they have failed in greater degree than they have been 
 proved effective, for the human race is weaker and sicker 
 to-day than ever before in all the history of civilization. 
 
 The next great step is necessarily psychic; for it has no 
 limits, while the physical is everywhere limited. 
 
 8. There is a fixed purpose in the lack of absolute gener- 
 osity toward humanity. Let us see what that purpose is. 
 In the first place it is important that two pictures shall be 
 seen and understood. 
 
 FIRST PICTURE.— This world contains everything 
 that is bad, wicked, base, mean, despicable, vile, filthy, crim- 
 inal, and horrible. The human heart can be criminal and 
 murderous ; it can torture, rob and kill. The most cun- 
 ning and most devilish ingenuity, seeking in all the inven- 
 tions of grossest cruelty and most terrible wickedness for 
 exhibitions of hellish, fiendish and diabolical depravity, could 
 add nothing to what the present day and all past ages con- 
 tain and have contained in the life of man on earth. The 
 
2go THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 extreme has been reached, and there is no hell and no Satan 
 that can pass below that limit. Earth is the scene of the 
 very worst conditions that can be found in any part of the 
 universe, for there is nothing that can fall lower than the 
 debased nature that may be present in the heart of man. 
 
 SECOND PICTURE.— This world does not contain 
 everything that is good and beautiful, nor is it the scene of 
 the highest happiness; but it holds the beginnings of all 
 these things. Purity, refinement, sweetness, beauty, friend- 
 ship, love and devotion are all here; and await the choice 
 of humanity for their appearance in life. There is no noble 
 quality of mind or heart that is not possible in some degree 
 in this life. There are men and women who will not kill, 
 who will not falsify, who will not do wrong. There are 
 some who love their neighbors as themselves, who do unto 
 others as they would be done by, and who live the precept 
 of peace on earth and good will to men. There are loving 
 and lovable hearts in this world. They are in harmony 
 with the teeming goodness of nature that gives to human- 
 ity the rich colorings and fragrance of flowers, the music of 
 voice and instrument, the glories of the morning and even- 
 ing skies, the gentleness of art, and the profuse wealth of 
 pleasure that the physical mind ignores but that the psychic 
 life enjoys. These are beginnings only, but they are substan- 
 tial proofs of the sources from which they are sprung. 
 The ladder to heaven rests on the earth. 
 
 9. It being true that earth holds all that can be possible 
 in hell, and but the beginnings of what may be possible in 
 heaven, it must follow that the world in which we live is 
 the lowest form of all existence in the universe, and not the 
 highest. Nothing can be under it in the scale of moral or 
 material life. If it contained nothing but the first picture, 
 there would be the end of all things. 
 
 10. If earth is the bottom notch of the scale of universal 
 life, it must be lower than all else in creation ; and history 
 seems to confirm the first part of this fact. If earth is 
 
THE TWO PICTURES 291 
 
 lower, all else must be higher. Therefore there is a better 
 condition beyond this world. 
 
 11. The second picture is proof positive of the purpose 
 that planned this orb and placed humanity on it. It is 
 proof positive of the existence of better things somewhere 
 else in the universe. All powers come to this planet 
 through the agency of the sun. Flowers, music, harmony, 
 beauty, sweetness, love and exalted hopes are brought to this 
 world from other realms. The very fact that they come 
 here, shows that they exist somewhere else. The very fact 
 that they are beginnings here is proof positive that they have 
 an enlarged existence in other worlds. 
 
 12. The work of the sun is always along psychic lines, 
 and the higher forms of physical life. There is nothing of 
 real value in the world that is not the gift of the sun. Na- 
 ture performs all her wonders by association with that great 
 orb. Her fascinations are many; her marvels are constant 
 miracles ; her deeds are the handiwork of God ; and not one 
 of them can be separated from the influence of the sun. 
 Activity and usefulness are always evident under the sway 
 of light and warmth given by the center of our system in 
 the sky. 
 
 13. The work of darkness and idleness, of crime and evil, 
 are physical in birth and in results. They are not the 
 gifts of heaven's material agent, the sun. Their ways are 
 dark and they love darkness. So gloom, superstition, oc- 
 cult beliefs, mystery, fear and the whole black brood are 
 the progeny of minds that hate the light. These physical 
 traits are born of the earth and can never get away from 
 this orb. They are doomed to remain here and be locked 
 up in the frozen world when it shall have lost all its heat. 
 
 14. Nothing evil comes to the earth. All that is evil 
 here has been here for ages. What arrives now is bright 
 and good. But there is a vast fund of evil already dumped 
 to this orb ; which, like the dew distilled from rank waters, 
 may rise pure to the sky again. It is only by alliance 
 
292 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 with the psychic world that man finds hope of escape from 
 the doom of earth. 
 
 15. The two pictures show the lack of absolute generos- 
 ity on the part of the power that controls this world; for 
 the first picture contains nothing but the ugly horrors of 
 a cruel and hideous evil that haunts this earth; while the 
 second picture offers hope only with a price attached. Pun- 
 ishment is written in every line of life. These facts place 
 upon man the burden of his own escape. 
 
 16. Religion teaches that God is love; that He created 
 humanity in His own image; and that He destroyed them 
 all, excepting eight, by the flood, and many thousands after- 
 wards by fire. There are to-day on this globe more than 
 eight hundred millions of human beings who would murder 
 their fellow beings if they could do so with impunity. The 
 vast majority of all the population of the world are fiends, 
 utterly and hopelessly wicked and criminal. No sane per- 
 son can claim that they are the product of a God of love. 
 The people who preach universal salvation claim that God 
 could not create any being to be punished or eternally 
 damned. The falsity of such argument begins with the un- 
 warranted assumption that God is responsible for the hun- 
 dreds of millions of lecherous souls that infest this earth. 
 There is not one bit of proof to sustain such a claim. Uni- 
 versal salvation therefore has nothing on which to rest a sin- 
 gle ray of hope. Psychic telepathy tells quite a different 
 story. 
 
 17. The only means of escape from the bondage of earth 
 is by developing the psychic life. It is the story told by the 
 second picture which has been described earlier in this chap- 
 ter. 
 
 18. That there should be doom and punishment for those 
 who cling to their physical nature when a fairer hope is 
 offered them, is the only logical mode of dealing with wick- 
 edness. 
 
 19. On the other hand, the life that has developed its 
 
THE TWO PICTURES 293 
 
 psychic nature and come into the second picture of earth, has 
 claims on the Creator that He cannot justly ignore. To 
 reject and leave to their fate all who die in the physical 
 nature, is right. But to discard those who have been born 
 into a new life, would be a mockery of eternal justice and 
 a species of cruelty that has no parallel among the crimes of 
 earth. God is just. 
 
 20. There is a fixed dividing line between the physical 
 life and the psychic life. You are either in the second pic- 
 ture or out of it. If you are in that reckoning, you belong 
 to the army that is moving onward, happy during the years 
 of existence on this globe, and certain of immortal life be- 
 yond. 
 
 21. That which is physical perishes. That which is 
 psychic is indestructible. If you die in the physical life, you 
 will perish. If you die in the psychic life, you will have 
 gained immortality because your indestructible nature has 
 earned its release from the flesh. 
 
 22. It is a real birth, that of the psychic life. As the 
 mind is born after the body has come into the world ; and 
 as the psychic nature is produced from the stimulus given 
 it by the new-born mind ; so the psychic body is a new birth. 
 Every step is necessary for the development of the immortal 
 man. 
 
 These propositions are offered here for the purpose of 
 arousing such thoughts as will lead the mind on to the goal 
 ahead. You are thinking deeper and farther all the time. 
 The climax is not far away. After spending a month in 
 this contemplation, your last stage will be found in the next 
 chapter. 
 
294 
 
 CHAPTER LXV. 
 | PROOF OF IMMORTALITY. | 
 
 IFE is so constituted that it is only a reflec- 
 tion of the source of its origin. The 
 strongest peculiarity of the physical mind is 
 its power to store up all the impressions that 
 ■ have come to it during the years of early life. 
 Every experience and thought makes an in- 
 denture on the brain, enlarging it by infin- 
 itesimally small degrees until the surface in need of more 
 room becomes convoluted. The idiots and imbeciles have 
 nearly smooth brains, because their mental activities have 
 been small or confined to narrow limits. The wiser the 
 man, and the more scope his brain has had in life, the more 
 numerous will be the convolutions of his cerebrum. It is 
 not size or weight, but the number of corrugations that indi- 
 cate great mental powers. 
 
 It is surprising to note the wonderful unfolding of past 
 thoughts that may occur in the human mind in after years. 
 Indentures are made, and memory forgets them ; but excite- 
 ment or fever will bring them to life in the most distinct 
 and remarkable manner. The awful fear of instant death 
 in a person who is drowning, with but a few seconds of time 
 to call his own, will so excite the old indentures that ages of 
 the past will travel before the mind. 
 
 In addition to this faculty, there is the power of physical 
 telepathy, which means that impressions, thoughts and feel- 
 ings from the lives of other persons are constantly enter- 
 ing the telepathic realm of every individual, who has no 
 consciousness of this process while it is going on ; but if some 
 
PROOF OF IMMORTALITY 295 
 
 change shall occur in the mental activities of that person, 
 such impressions will awaken and be made clear and vivid. 
 Many persons, in the desire to open up that faculty, have 
 tried all the known methods of awakening it, and some with 
 a degree of success. 
 
 Now it must be learned at this stage of the work that 
 nothing can come out of the mind that is not already in it. 
 
 The brain is not creative; it is reflective. 
 
 If the man who has a fever shall become profane and 
 filthy in his ravings, he is but putting out what has been put 
 in his brain. The same is true even of the subject of hyp- 
 notism. You cannot incite him to commit murder unless he 
 would be willing to do so in his normal condition. Sug- 
 gestion arouses only what exists already in his heart or mind. 
 Despite some contradictions of this assertion, it has been 
 well proved and is to-day sustained in criminology, as far as 
 that science relates to hypnotism. 
 
 Women have set up as defenses the claim that they were 
 hypnotized before they committed some wrong, and in the 
 semi-light of knowledge on the subject, juries have been al- 
 lowed to free them. But that time has passed. If the dis- 
 position to commit adultery is in the heart it may be brought 
 into action by suggestion under hypnotic influences. And 
 the same is true of other crimes. Men ask juries to free 
 them from the charge of murder on the ground that they 
 were in a hypnotic sleep or condition at the time. But men 
 who are thus made dangerous to the public should at least 
 be placed where their propensities cannot be harmful. 
 
 Crime may be prevented. 
 
 Much broader in its scope is the power of the psychic 
 mind to reflect conditions that exist somewhere in the uni- 
 verse. It cannot feel something that has no existence any- 
 where. Every impulse, mood and activity of the psychic 
 mind is therefore only a reflection of a fact, the substantial 
 knowledge of which cannot be acquired through any of the 
 ordinary senses. 
 
296 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 We now stand face to face with the greatest and grandest 
 law of all creation. 
 
 It may be stated in many ways. 
 
 You cannot get something from nothing unless you are 
 a creator; and you are not. Even the demons and fright- 
 ful apparitions that trouble the mind of a person in fever 
 or delirium, have existence in fact. They are called crea- 
 tions of the disturbed mind ; but that term is merely a popu- 
 lar phrase. 
 
 A genius who invents something that the world needs, 
 is only a discoverer, not a creator. What he invented al- 
 ways had lived in principle. He applied a law that God 
 had created. Without the law his application would have 
 been impossible. 
 
 The sublime themes of music come like inspirations; so 
 do the so-called creations of art ; so the exalted poetry of the 
 world; so the architecture and structural beauty of builded 
 piles; so everything that is new to the human mind; but 
 they have existence somewhere beyond this world, and the 
 psychic force of man has caught gleams of them in the flashes 
 of a keener insight. 
 
 While the physical body is only a reflected reproduction 
 of the physical life that has gone before in the generations 
 that led up to it; while the physical mind is merely the sum 
 total of all that has preceded it in the same line ; it is never- 
 theless true that brilliant achievements reach beyond the 
 bounds of the physical and take in facts that are discoverable 
 in realms beyond the earth. 
 
 The physical is limited, and can be almost measured. 
 
 The psychic is boundless and no human mind can con- 
 template more than a flash here and there of its endless 
 wonders. 
 
 The physical body and mind are coexistent with earth. 
 They are discontented in proportion as they gain wealth and 
 power; always wanting something beyond what they ac- 
 quire. Opulence brings them worry and cravings that 
 
PROOF OF IMMORTALITY 297 
 
 weigh them down. In days of want they look forward to 
 hopes of success and ask only enough to make them inde- 
 pendent; but when they secure more than enough they find 
 themselves more in want than ever. If overwhelming 
 riches fall to their lot, then life is a burden, and killing time 
 is the grossest of annoyances to them. Excitement and en- 
 tertainment must be piled on more and more from day to 
 day, until the nerves and mind are wrecks. This is the 
 highest end of physical existence and its so-called success. 
 
 But they win what they sought. 
 
 They asked for wealth, and it came to them. If there 
 were no wealth in the world, they would not have desired it. 
 
 No person can hope or wish for something that is not a 
 fact somewhere. If the physical mind yearns for a thing, it 
 exists in the physical world. The physical mind never 
 wishes something that exists in another world. 
 
 The poor Indian wanted dogs and horses and his hunting 
 outfit for his convenience in the happy world to which he 
 longed to go ; showing the double nature of the savage. Im- 
 mortality was desired ; but that was the gleam of his limited 
 psychic nature. That it did not control psychic life was 
 seen from the fact that he wanted physical things in a 
 psychic world. His ideas of heaven were wholly based on 
 earth, which proves that they never got farther than this 
 world in their source of inspiration. He wanted a hunting 
 ground and hunting equipment, with dogs and horses ; all of 
 which existed. He sought nothing that was not a fact. 
 
 No wish can live for anything that is not a fact. 
 
 A wish is the reflection of a fact. 
 
 If you wish for something that will amuse or entertain or 
 please the physical body or mind, that something exists some- 
 where in this world. No wish or hope of such a thing has 
 ever passed into the human mind or heart unless, it has. re- 
 flected the thing itself. Take away the latter and you 
 cannot wish for it. 
 
 You cannot hope for something that does not exist. 
 
298 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 Tests in many ways have been made of this law for years 
 and years, and the more it is investigated the more it proves 
 itself. 
 
 In fact it is an axiom: You cannot wish for something 
 that does not exist. 
 
 It is worth while to think and study over this great prin- 
 ciple which we will repeat in the following statement: 
 
 LAW. — Every impulse, and mood and activity of the 
 psychic mind is a reflection of a fact, the substantial knowl- 
 edge of which cannot be acquired through the ordinary 
 senses. 
 
 The physical mind wishes for physical things for its own 
 use and enjoyment. It cannot include psychic things. 
 
 The psychic mind wishes only for psychic things. The 
 first and greatest of this class of hoped-for attainments is 
 immortality. In other words where there is a fixed, per- 
 manent and unyielding desire to pass from earth when death 
 comes and to live again, such desire is proof positive of the 
 existence of the very state that is sought. You cannot wish 
 for something that does not exist. Life in a world beyond 
 this earth could not possibly have any attractions if such life 
 were not a fact ; the whole psychic nature would be dead to 
 it, if in fact there could be such a nature in the absence of 
 such a world. 
 
 A man of great learning and research wrote a book on 
 the one theme of the existence of the psychic mind; and, 
 having proved that by abundant evidence, thereupon drew 
 the conclusion that it proved immortality. He went a long 
 way toward establishing the law that the psychic mind 
 was given life because such life was to be its reward. If 
 a body that is of earth, lives and dies in earth, its goal is 
 nothing but the earth. But if a life that is of a nature be- 
 yond the limits of earth, is found within the highest organism 
 that dwells in this world, the conclusion seems inevitable 
 that it is developing here for hereafter. 
 
 But we are not going so far as that in our position now. 
 
PROOF OF IMMORTALITY 299 
 
 There can be no dispute of the law that every psychic 
 mood, impulse, wish and activity, reflects a fact that exists in 
 some part of the universe beyond the earth. 
 
 A wish for immortality cannot come to man unless there is 
 such a state possible for him. Hope is stronger than a wish, 
 and faith is psychic certainty. 
 
 Do these activities of the mind exist? 
 
 From the first records of history the one greatest yearn- 
 ing of the better part of humanity has been for life beyond 
 the grave; and at no time has that desire been absent. All 
 peoples crave it. You may travel to the remotest parts of 
 the world, and this yearning is there. In the zenith of high- 
 est civilization, in the valley of depression, in the ranks of the 
 obscure, in the uplands of progress or the stagnant fields of 
 ignorance, there is something always knocking at the hum- 
 blest heart and the grandest, asking admission for light on 
 the hope of immortality. 
 
 These thoughts bring us close to the goal sought in our 
 present work. 
 
 It is not intended that training shall be employed in the 
 study of this book; the most that can be sought is the awak- 
 ening of the psychic mind and life. Just some stimulus that 
 will rouse it into action. Just a step to the threshold of the 
 realm whose wide fields are brought into full view through 
 the aid of the study and practice of psychic telepathy. All 
 that is beyond us. But here and now we can take such a 
 step as will in countless cases serve to bring the mind and 
 life naturally into its better state. 
 
 The twenty-two propositions and the two pictures of chap- 
 ter forty-four are to be given the full power of psychic 
 thought after the two months have been spent under the 
 plan of chapters thirty-nine and forty, and another month in 
 the night thoughts of chapter forty-three. Be faithful and 
 earnest in that part of the study. 
 
 In entering on the fourth month of stimulus to the 
 psychic mind, under chapter forty-four, try to absorb each 
 
300 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 night at the moment of falling asleep as few of the proposi- 
 tions as possible. Remember that the psychic mind is most 
 alert and keen when the physical mind is emptied of phys- 
 ical thoughts. This is the most important aid to success. 
 It is the universal rule of great inventors, composers and 
 geniuses; it always has been and always will be; for it is a 
 fixed law of life. 
 
 If you do not understand this law, you should devote 
 yourself to its analysis until you realize its immense value. 
 It is a self-evident truth. 
 
 In such periods seek to absorb the meaning of the twenty- 
 two propositions of chapter forty-four. One or two each 
 night will suffice, until more light comes to you. Little by 
 little you will find your psychic nature awakened, aroused 
 and made clear in its powers to see beyond the limits of 
 earth. 
 
 The propositions stated are presented solely to set you to 
 thinking along psychic lines. Whether you find them agree- 
 ing with your convictions or not, is immaterial ; for the truth 
 will come sooner or later and you will then know it as it is, 
 in all its wondrous glories. 
 
 Finally you will come face to face with the grandest of 
 all laws, which is given in this chapter. 
 
 The steps thus far taken are all practical. They are the 
 opposite of the usual method of seeking to excite the higher 
 longings by fear, threats, alarms, emotions and awful fore- 
 bodings. 
 
 Here the line of development is taken on the upland 
 course where light shines all the time. Nothing occult or 
 mysterious is given place. The true psychic mind loves the 
 light. It rejoices in the high planes from which it can 
 overlook the black valleys below. It does not, like the 
 seance, need the darkness in order to move the forces of 
 hidden life into action ; where, if someone turns on the light, 
 the whole thing is spoiled. Too long has the brain of man 
 been made the tool of shadows. 
 
PROOF OF IMMORTALITY 301 
 
 Everything that the Shaftesbury Society teaches is open, 
 sensible and eminently practical. 
 
 The only appearance of the use of darkness is in that mo- 
 ment when the physical mind is ready to empty itself of 
 physical thoughts ; and we will show that darkness is not by 
 any means essential. The law involved is plain and easily 
 understood. The genius is the user of psychic thoughts; 
 and he must invite them. If he can in the broad light of 
 day throw out of his mind, as some can, all such things as 
 are physical, he is then free to move in his grander work. 
 Great orators have succeeded in such uses of the psychic 
 powers. Painters such as Angelo, Titians and others have 
 been wide awake in their wonderful achievements. So have 
 writers, poets and inventors. 
 
 But even all of them do their best planning and are most 
 easily inspired when left to themselves, day or night. Great 
 men toil in the night, simply because they cannot be dis- 
 turbed so easily as in the day. 
 
 It is well known that there are a few, but a very few, 
 clairvoyants and mediums who are honest and genuine. 
 They are of no use to themselves or to others until they close 
 out all physical thoughts ; and thus they enter into hypnotic 
 sleep in order to empty the mind. 
 
 In the study of physical telepathy, the first great end 
 sought is to empty the physical mind ; not in hypnotic sleep 
 or trance states, but openly and quickly. The man or 
 woman who can learn to do that by the day methods which 
 are to be made public under the auspices of the Great 
 Psychic Society, will surely succeed in catching the thoughts 
 and purposes of other minds, and almost as easily as if they 
 were openly written or spoken. But that system belongs 
 to a greater work than this, which is now in press. 
 
 It is necessary, therefore, to be able to throw out all 
 thoughts at will; but it requires the most scientific training 
 to do so. Then the gain is made along the lines of physical 
 telepathy. 
 
3 02 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 But the psychic nature, while not seeking the cover of 
 the dark, is most keen when alone; and to the majority of 
 men and women this time of seclusion is at night ; for no one 
 is supposed to interrupt the attempts to fall asleep. 
 
 We know of thousands of cases where, in the secluded 
 walk in the summer garden, in the woodland, by the running 
 brooks, in flower paths, in the fields, or wherever God and 
 Nature are, the psychic life has been born and grown to its 
 full measure. To be sometimes alone, is the secret. 
 
 The effectiveness of the present plan is that it accom- 
 plishes real results of a higher nature by the open method 
 of psychic study and practice. Heretofore all systems have 
 dealt with the occult, and much harm has been done mind 
 and body thereby. Such a plan is the closed method ; as 
 also is the use of hypnotism, seances, trances, spiritism and 
 other abnormal practices. 
 
 We teach that it is not necessary to go into any occult 
 condition in order to gain psychic knowledge. We also 
 teach that the gains are very little and almost worthless by 
 the closed or occult method; while they are grand and 
 mighty in every way by the open method. 
 
 Thus far this work has proceeded by strictly logical and 
 scientific steps to its climax, the proof of immortality. Let 
 us assume for a moment that this is all the proof to be had ; 
 it is certainly sufficient; not as found merely from a casual 
 reading of the statements herein made, but by that powerful 
 grasp which the use of the four months' course of this di- 
 vision will afford. 
 
 Certainty will be reached by every mind that devotes itself 
 to this study and practice. 
 
 More than this, and better still, all that is thus proved 
 is sustained by the clear revelations of the surpassing study 
 of psychic telepathy. 
 
3°3 
 
 CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 Ithe four corner STONES. 1 
 I 1 
 
 NDER the four months' regime the descrip- 
 tion of which has just ended with the preced- 
 ing chapter, the first glimpses of the psychic 
 power will have been seen by the aid of the 
 open method, which is the only plan that is 
 useful and satisfying. It is natural, for it is 
 identical with the habits of men and women 
 whose attainments have made them of service to the world. 
 Erratic and abnormal traits of character are of no value to 
 humanity. 
 
 As the physical body grows useful by its activities and 
 experience, and in no other way, so the psychic nature is 
 likewise made strong and alert. As the physical mind is de- 
 veloped only by the stimulating power of use and action, so 
 the psychic mind and life are brought into being by use and 
 action. This is a law that has no exception in the use of 
 any of the faculties. 
 
 The four months' regime is provided for the purpose of 
 employing this law of development. 
 
 Whatever may be the opinion of it in advance of a thor- 
 ough adoption of the regime, the results will speak for them- 
 selves, and in a succession of surprises that will be most 
 gratifying. A report from a man of high standing in the 
 business world is representative of the experiences of all per- 
 sons who earnestly adopt this four months' regime. A brief 
 part of the report will be quoted here: " I have so many 
 cares in the daytime that I do not easily fall asleep at 
 night. But during the past four months I have followed 
 
304 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 the plan stated in your private experiment communication. 
 I took up this matter because I wanted to have something 
 to occupy my mind when I was trying to get asleep. It 
 took no time and did not interfere with any of my duties; 
 merely filling in the waiting moments. I became very much 
 interested from the start. At the end of two months I was 
 able to throw out of my mind all my physical thoughts, 
 which were the cause of my being unable to get sleep nights. 
 I could swing my mind at will to its psychic uses, though 
 in limited degree only. At the end of the four months' 
 course I had made still further progress, and I wish to say 
 that the glimpses that I now have of psychic telepathy 
 are the normal and natural unfolding of faculties that have 
 remained dormant, and would, but for this method, have 
 been wholly unknown to me all my life. I realize that this 
 regime is not the psychic course, but is an attempt to pro- 
 vide help for those who are not so situated that they can 
 devote themselves to the full psychic course. I appreciate 
 the generosity that provides this regime." As a result of 
 years of experiments, it can be stated that the experience 
 related in the foregoing report has been the same in all 
 cases. Different temperaments do not seem to bring varia- 
 tions of result, and this is due to the fact that the psychic 
 laws themselves are always the same. 
 
 It is true that the " normal and natural unfolding " of 
 this faculty leads on and on to greater keenness of the psychic 
 nature until something more than glimpses are reached. It 
 does not seem to involve moral questions except insofar as 
 the influences of peace in one's life and honesty of the mind 
 tend always to make the progress easier, on the principle 
 that restlessness and dishonesty fill the mind with physical 
 activities that will not down until they are driven out for 
 good. 
 
 To make it a moral matter, outside of these two condi- 
 tions, is to run off to asceticism which is a crime against 
 nature. The man or woman whose psychic life is devel- 
 
THE FOUR CORNER STONES 305 
 
 oped in this world, has no need of a moral code; for such 
 life is part of the great world beyond. 
 
 There are such lives all about us. 
 
 You meet them, we meet them, and all the earth holds 
 them. There has never been an age since the dawn of civ- 
 ilization when some men and women did not have glimpses 
 of psychic telepathy. Physical telepathy, as is well known, 
 is always trying to force itself through the physical mind. 
 That is a very common affair, when the countless thousands 
 of experiences are seen in their great total. 
 
 But psychic telepathy, while known to all ages, is not 
 a common faculty; unless the slight glimpses that occur to 
 so many persons may be regarded as important because of 
 their frequency of occurrence. Physical telepathy is com- 
 mon, and in fact has come hundreds of times into every 
 normal mind ; sometimes manifesting itself most powerfully. 
 Psychic telepathy is active only in glimpses, and very rarely 
 Math power. By a series of questions asked of a group of 
 men and women, we found that all of them had clear recol- 
 lection of such glimpses, more or less faint, and some quite 
 indistinct, but sufficient to warrant the assertion that all 
 persons possess such life in a dormant state. 
 
 In closing this volume, the statement should be made that 
 remarkable success has been attained by educating the facul- 
 ties through the use of magnetism, which is the source of 
 telepathic power. Knowledge that comes from such ex- 
 tended development, and that is beyond the limits of proof 
 in this book, can be sustained only by psychic telepathy itself. 
 The purpose of universal life toward humanity on this 
 planet is thus learned. As a summary of the teachings of 
 this book, the following requirements of a higher power in 
 the life of every human being who seeks to get free from 
 earth at death, and to pass on to other worlds in the enjoy- 
 ment of immortality, are set forth now in order that they 
 may be undersood and adopted if such is the wish of those 
 who read these words: 
 
306 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 THE PURPOSE OF UNIVERSAL LIFE TOWARD 
 HUMANITY 
 
 AND THE 
 
 REQUIREMENTS OF A HIGHER POWER IN 
 THIS WORLD. 
 
 FIRST. — The desire for life after death must be bom 
 of itself in the human heart. 
 
 This desire is not to be frightened in, or driven in, but 
 must spring up of itself. Of course it may be suggested, 
 encouraged and taught by others; but such help comes only 
 in the form of unfolding the knowledge required to arouse 
 an interest in the matter. 
 
 SECOND. — Every person must become in this world 
 the founder of a life out of which immortality is to have its 
 beginning. 
 
 This requirement is not liked by those who turn their 
 thoughts heavenward too late. When all the physical 
 pleasures have been extracted from earthly existence, when 
 the faculties are dimmed and no longer bring allurements 
 to the individual, when there is nothing left that interests 
 and amuses, then the weary soul droops in fear of the in- 
 evitable end and endeavors to make amends for a career that 
 has been a failure by every standard of measurement. 
 
 The unmistakable evidences of approaching decrepitude 
 are appalling. They seem to come like the hand of fate 
 beckoning the pilgrim into the darkness. He does not want 
 to go ; but knows that there is no choice. He is frightened, 
 alarmed, and at last touched. He has but one way to turn, 
 and that is to religion. Some are stricken suddenly and 
 make sorry spectacles in their frantic efforts to seek safety 
 through an acquired peace of mind that may be nothing 
 more than the result of self-suggestion; thinking that so 
 priceless a boon as an eternity of happiness can be obtained 
 by reform in the last days of a wasted life. 
 
 Earth is the place where you must begin to build. It was 
 created for this purpose. 
 
THE FOUR CORNER STONES 307 
 
 The structure must have its base here ; its four corner- 
 stones must be laid in this life; and the whole architectural 
 plan must be formed before death. You cannot go to 
 heaven in a moral balloon. 
 
 THIRD. — Earthly duties constitute the first corner 
 stone in the edifice of immortal life. 
 
 Wholesome activities are necessary to development. 
 
 Asceticism teaches the neglect of earthly duties. Social 
 hermits are those who shut themselves up with themselves 
 and do not mingle with the great tide of humanity. Re- 
 ligious hermits are those who live apart from the rest of 
 the world, thinking that they can better prepare themselves 
 for heaven by neglecting their duties to their fellow beings 
 on earth. They close the doors on this life while yet they 
 have health and strength, two arms, two legs, a living body 
 and an active mind. They are morally bed-ridden. 
 Heaven has no place for them, and they stand no more 
 chance of getting there than the pirate on the high seas. 
 To neglect the many duties of the day, is the most des- 
 picable crime against nature; while it is not a wrong in 
 the penal code. But God made the former, and man made 
 the latter. 
 
 The use of the arms, legs, body and mind, day in and day 
 out, in taking care of the temple of flesh, in helping others 
 to do the same, in maintaining the home in its most whole- 
 some and attractive conditions, in leading others to know and 
 to love home life, in performing the necessary work to provide 
 the needs and comforts of living, in bettering the house and 
 its surrounding land, in acquiring knowledge, in spreading 
 a taste for study, and in sharing the burdens of others as 
 far as consistency will permit; these are the main duties of 
 life. Business and professional affairs are useful only when 
 they contribute to the foregoing purposes ; but they are, in 
 the sight of a higher power, small incidents compared with 
 the grander duty of making a home what its name implies, 
 a heaven on earth. 
 
3 o8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 You must do something useful every day, no matter what 
 may be its money value. All work is honorable that helps 
 make a home more attractive. Instead of allowing others 
 to do your work and to wait on you, do your own work and 
 wait on yourself, and have a superabundance of energy for 
 the benefit of others. See how many useful things you can 
 do in a day, and how many useless things you can avoid. 
 The best pleasure is in improvement of yourself and your 
 surroundings. 
 
 Herein you will build for eternity. 
 
 FOURTH. — Simplicity of living constitutes the second 
 corner stone in the edifice of immortal life. 
 
 Simplicity is always the best, whether in clothing, in eat- 
 ing, in home-building, in worship, in social affairs, in amuse- 
 ments or in the habits of life. The complex and extrava- 
 gant styles of dress and jewelry, take away many of the 
 pleasures of the world, and serve only to exaggerate the 
 vanity of a few. Complex methods of eating and banquet- 
 ing, the inordinate hospitality of society at their dinners, 
 and the wide variety of cooking, result in the sheer loss 
 through waste of more food each day than is necessary to 
 feed every stomach in the ranks of the world's poor. 
 
 FIFTH. — The nature of heaven must be developed in 
 the human heart; and this is the third corner stone in the 
 edifice of immortal life. 
 
 The full explanation of this requirement will be found on 
 pages 216 to 221 of this book. 
 
 SIXTH. — An intense longing to live on earth consti- 
 tutes the fourth corner stone in the edifice of immortal life. 
 
 At first thought, reasoned out by the physical brain, it 
 would seem as if heaven, being so full of promise, ought to 
 be gained as soon as possible, and the new career there begun 
 without delay. But the psychic laws are decidedly against 
 such teachings. The more light we have on the plans and 
 purposes of a higher power, the clearer it appears that this 
 earthly existence is necessary for the life to come. 
 
THE FOUR CORNER STONES 300 
 
 Every day we live aright on this planet, we gain a stronger 
 hold on the future. To live aright does not involve the 
 moral question. To a psychic life there is no moral code 
 and no criminal code. These were made for the physical 
 body and mind. It was after the fall of man that the ten 
 commandments appeared. 
 
 The powers and beauties of this world are all suggestions 
 of the coming universal life. Once, it is said, there was 
 a Garden of Eden, which was a paradise. The physical 
 body and mind destroyed that Eden. The psychic body and 
 mind tend always to restore it. When restored it is the 
 earthly type of heaven. 
 
 It is thus clear that the longer a person lives on earth 
 under the sway of these psychic powers, the more fascinat- 
 ing this planet becomes, and the more intense will be the 
 longing to remain here. 
 
 The religion that teaches the neglect of the body, of the 
 home, of the gardens that are possible around every house, 
 of the duties of home life, and of the broadening influences 
 of true education, is founded in error; and whoever preaches 
 or practices it will not see heaven. 
 
 You cannot abuse, scoff at, neglect or ignore the require- 
 ments set forth herein. They are seen to be true in pro- 
 portion as the keen mind, in its deepest reasoning, subjects 
 them to analysis and study. More than this, you cannot go 
 very far in the realms of psychic telepathy before you will 
 know why they are true. Give them thought, dissect them 
 as you will, view them from every point of consideration, 
 and throw on them the white light of the highest wisdom; 
 the more you think of them, the more you will come under 
 their sway. 
 
 Build your four corner stones now. 
 
 Make your life on earth practical and sensible. Do not 
 neglect your physical body or physical mind ; give them their 
 highest usefulness; and remember that the best of earth is 
 good enough for heaven. 
 
3io 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 I SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY. 
 
 1 
 
 •- HE AUTHOR has often desired a personal 
 class organized for the study of the higher 
 
 themes of life. Not a class of pupils who pay 
 fees for the privilege of belonging to it, but a 
 friendly association of ladies and gentlemen, 
 not one of whom he may ever meet, but who 
 are all alive to the importance of the great 
 work that now confronts the world. 
 
 Under the advice of powerful friends, and in accordance 
 with the suggestions set forth on page 238 of this book, it is 
 now proposed to organize the Shaftesbury Society. 
 
 PURPOSES. 
 
 The Shaftesbury Society is organized for the following 
 clear cut purposes : 
 
 1. To develop the psychic life in each member. 
 
 2. To study immortality ivith the author. 
 
 3. To prove the truth of the tivo sublime laws. 
 
 These are summaries of the present work, and are stated 
 as follows: 
 
 FIRST SUBLIME LAW. 
 It is impossible to wish or hope for something that does 
 not exist. 
 
 SECOND SUBLIME LAW. 
 
 If you think deep enough and far enough you will think 
 clear through to God. 
 
 Thus in a few words the whole plan and scheme of the 
 Shaftesbury Society may be read and understood. The 
 
SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 311 
 
 greater a theme the fewer words will express its meaning. 
 How to join the Shaftesbury Society and how to meet its 
 simple obligations, will be stated in the following brief re- 
 quirements : 
 
 RULES. 
 
 Rule i. — Any person may become a member of the 
 Shaftesbury Society. While the possession of this book is 
 helpful, it is not insisted upon as the basis of membership. 
 Any person, after finishing the four months' course, may 
 loan the book to another, and so it may continue in circu- 
 lation. 
 
 Rule 2. — There are no fees or expense of any kind aris- 
 ing from membership. It is our desire to establish only a 
 friendly association between the author and the ladies and 
 gentlemen who join the Society. 
 
 Rule 3. — No meetings will be held. The Society will 
 exist solely by private study and reports. 
 
 Rule 4. — Each member, in order to retain standing, 
 must take the Four Months Course described in chapters 
 39, 40, 43 and 44 of this book. Each month of the course 
 must be taken slowly and deliberately. There should be 
 careful reading of the whole book before the course begins. 
 Every word should be understood. Hasty or superficial 
 reading will not form the proper basis. Disturbed or inter- 
 rupted reading and study are not the best. Start right and 
 you will succeed. 
 
 Rule 5. — The goal to be attained is the accomplishment 
 of the three purposes set forth in the first page of this chap- 
 ter. This must be secured without fail. The Four Months 
 Course will develop the psychic nature. When your reports 
 have come full and strong to this effect, then the deeper 
 study of immortality with the author will be continued 
 through the years of your membership. Each month of the 
 course should be complete in its success. If interruption 
 or other cause has prevented such success, prolong the 
 
3 i2 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 month's tests and study until you have won full victory; 
 and so continue for the remaining months. Be sincere. Be 
 in earnest. Be one hundred per cent in earnest. Then you 
 cannot fail. 
 
 Rule 6. — In order to join the Society you must send the 
 following notice: "To the Shaftesbury Society, Box 444, 
 Washington, D. C. — I have carefully read every word of 
 the book of ' Unseen Powers ' and I wish to be recorded as 
 a member of the Shaftesbury Society. My full name and 
 address are as follows : " 
 
 Rule 7. — When you have finished the first month of 
 the course, send copies of your answers to the questions of 
 chapter 39. When you have finished the second month, send 
 copies of your answers to the questions in chapter 40. 
 When you have finished the third month send a brief ac- 
 count of the impressions made upon you by the eight proposi- 
 tions of chapter 43. When you have finished the fourth 
 month send a brief statement of the impressions made upon 
 you of the Two Pictures and twenty-two propositions of 
 chapter 44. Each of these four chapters requires not less 
 than one full month of solid study and thinking, always at 
 the last hour of the evening and absolutely free from inter- 
 ruption. — All notices must be sent to Shaftesbury Society, 
 Washington, D. C. — Personal replies will not be sent to 
 members, as their number will make that impossible; but, 
 after due progress, printed study lessons will appear, and all 
 members will be given the light of new facts as they are 
 gathered through the coming years of change. 
 
 By the foregoing methods the psychic nature, the only 
 true and the only immortal part of life, will be developed, 
 will be known, and will be understood. It has long been 
 dormant in every human being. With sledge-hammer blows 
 it has been pounding its way to recognition, and now has 
 come to make itself manifest. Woe to that man or woman 
 who idly turns it away at this time ! 
 
SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 313 
 
 PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENT. 
 
 A few facts should be understood by the public. 
 
 1. The Ralston Company, often known as the Ralston 
 Publishing Co., prints and issues the works of Shaftesbury, 
 as well as other books; and attends to the business matters 
 naturally arising therefrom. All orders, remittances and 
 business letters should be addressed to Ralston Company, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 2. The Shaftesbury Society is a gratuitous affair. It 
 came about by the wish of Shaftesbury to associate with 
 himself a large following who should not be allowed to 
 pay for the privileges offered. To use his own words, " I 
 have more than ample means. I wish to be free from the 
 hire of others. I decline to allow the name Shaftesbury 
 to be associated with fees and costs that others must pay for 
 my use." 
 
 3. Despite the fact that the receipts from some of the 
 works issued as the Sections of the Psychic Society, have 
 never yet in twenty years paid the cost of preparing and 
 publishing them, Shaftesbury has set in motion the organiza- 
 tion referred to in chapter 47 of this book, the direct pur- 
 pose of which is to make membership in the Psychic Society 
 unnecessary to those who are unable to meet the cost. The 
 Shaftesbury Society is, therefore, antagonistic to the Psychic 
 Society's finances; as the author has, by adding all of chap- 
 ters 36 to 47 of the present edition, sought to help his fol- 
 lowers as much as possible and save most of them the need 
 of entering the greater society. 
 
 4. The foregoing facts are stated here to call the atten- 
 tion of those of our patrons who are wealthy or at least well- 
 to-do, to the necessity of supporting the Psychic Society and 
 its gigantic undertakings. There is something more at stake 
 than the making of money. So great a work as Universal 
 Magnetism, many copies of which have been sold for fifty 
 dollars each, has never paid for its preparation ; yet Shaftes- 
 
3 i4 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 bury ordered it given away as an emolument during the 
 past ten years, and nineteen copies out of every twenty dis- 
 posed of have been sent out free as awards of honor. To 
 make up the loss, the profits from the immense sales of an- 
 other work were used in the support of the greater one. 
 
 5. As has always been stated in advance notices and ad- 
 vertisements, the book of " Unseen Powers " is the first step 
 in the Great Psychic Society. Page 10 of this book also 
 briefly refers to the Sections of the latter as helpful in the 
 present study. If it had not been for the work accom- 
 plished by the Psychic Society, the book now before you 
 would not have been possible. It has other work to per- 
 form, and accordingly appeals to every person of means to 
 assist it. 
 
 6. It has existed in one form or another for more than 
 thirty years. It began its investigations by the study of 
 magnetism, the one power that controls the universe in all 
 its departments both great and small. It discovered the 
 first of all laws, that " magnetism is power/' It is not only 
 electric and mechanical, but pervades the realm of mind and 
 matter throughout all existence. It holds the sun subject 
 to the central court of heaven. It holds the planets subject 
 to the sun. It carries thoughts and hopes beyond the earth 
 and brings back knowledge. 
 
 7. The discovery of the systems of magnetism that have 
 so long commanded public attention, at last led to the newer 
 law that " telepathy is knowledge." Thus power and 
 knowledge, harnessed together, constitute the agencies that 
 are being employed in the researches of the Psychic Society. 
 By these powers all the marvels of the universe may be 
 unfolded. There can be no limit to research and discov- 
 ery. Every step is necessarily expensive. The Psychic So- 
 ciety stands in need of funds. These are sought solely by 
 the small fee of fifty cents a month during a special period. 
 In return for that fee, values that are much more than 
 equivalents are given in the form of the Sections. 
 
SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 315 
 
 RULES OF THE GREAT PSYCHIC SOCIETY. 
 
 Rule i. — Every person who possesses a copy of the book 
 of " Unseen Powers " is known as a Subscriber thereto ; 
 and no duties or obligations are involved thereby. 
 
 Rule 2. — Every Subscriber who so desires may apply for 
 admission into the Great Psychic Society, which consists of 
 persons who are studying the higher works along these 
 lines, in an extended private course of instruction and train- 
 ing. 
 
 Rule 3. — Membership in the Great Psychic Society lasts 
 for ten years; the first year beginning January first, 1908; 
 and the final year ending December 31, 19 1 7. 
 
 THE FOUR ADVANCEMENTS. 
 
 Rule 4. — There are Four Advancements in these years 
 of membership. Each Advancement includes a Section of 
 study-lessons.— The FIRST ADVANCEMENT is made 
 when the dues for the year 1908 have been paid. — The 
 SECOND ADVANCEMENT is made when the dues for 
 the year 1909 have been paid.— The THIRD ADVANCE- 
 MENT is made when the dues for the years 1910, 191 1 
 and 19 12 have been paid.— The FOURTH ADVANCE- 
 MENT is made when the dues to the end of the year 191 7 
 have been paid. — The advancements must be made in their' 
 order and the dues paid for each year in succession. No 
 year can be omitted. 
 
 Rule 5. — The dues are fifty cents per month. As many 
 months can be paid at one time as the member wishes. Some 
 have already paid the whole ten years in advance. 
 
 EXEMPT FROM PAYMENT OF DUES. 
 
 Rule 6. — Any person who has become a member of the 
 free Shaftesbury Society under the provisions of the last 
 chapter of this book, page 312, is entitled to exemption from 
 
316 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 dues by substituting subscriptions in place of cash. The 
 method is this: Owing to the popularity of this book and 
 the demand for copies, any person who is known to possess 
 the book will find many applicants who wish such member 
 to secure copies for them. This is a common experience in 
 all parts of the civilized world to-day. Each new Sub- 
 scriber procured by a Subscriber will exempt the member 
 from the payment of four months' dues. In this way the 
 whole ten years' dues may be quickly paid, and as rapidly 
 as the member wishes. 
 
 Rule 7.— The FOUR SECTIONS are described as 
 embracing the following scope : 
 
 FIRST SECTION.— Study-Lessons in Physical Te- 
 lepathy, or the functions of the physical mind and their 
 uses apart from the ordinary channels of the senses ; the 
 present work having the popular title of " Thought Trans- 
 ference." — Also the new edition which will be issued when 
 the present edition is exhausted, adding the recently discov- 
 ered methods for the cultivation of physical telepathy in all 
 its branches, and the new methods now being worked out 
 by tested experiments. 
 
 SECOND SECTION.— Study-Lessons in Physical 
 Magnetism and Life Powers ; the present work being known 
 as the " Exercise Book of the Magnetism Club." — Also the 
 new edition which will be issued when the present edition 
 is exhausted, adding two hundred new departments of use 
 in the personal relations of life, and a vast field of influ- 
 ence never before included in any work on the subject. — 
 Also any subsequent editions that may be issued. 
 
 THIRD SECTION.— Study-Lessons in the first at- 
 tempts to combine magnetism and psychic telepathy; the 
 work being known as Advanced Magnetism. Under the 
 power of this course, if practiced in every detail, what were 
 glimpses of psychic life in the fourth grand division of 
 " UNSEEN POWERS " are widened into closer knowl- 
 edge. — The book is wonderful beyond all words, and it is 
 
SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 317 
 
 practical, as it brings the best things of the universe into 
 the every day life of its students. — It is a strictly private 
 course ; the reasons being self-evident as the lessons progress. 
 
 — Also any new editions that may be issued. 
 FOURTH SECTION.— This is the greatest of all 
 
 works. It includes Lesson-Studies in Universal Magnet- 
 ism. See page 10 of the present volume, also chapter nine- 
 teen for an extended description. The best words that can 
 be quoted concerning this stupendous course are those just 
 written to us by a great biologist: " I have read Universal 
 Magnetism fifty times, not omitting a line, and I find that 
 it brings the human mind closer to the secrets of the uni- 
 verse than any other study possibly could except psychic 
 telepathy. Universal Magnetism is so large and compre- 
 hensive that reading it once is a great task, but constantly 
 fascinating." — When the present edition is exhausted, it 
 will be succeeded by the still greater work, now in prepara- 
 tion, Psychic Telepathy. The claim is made and sustained 
 that the psychic life of a person may be so developed and 
 exalted that, even in the body of flesh, it can secure some 
 definite knowledge of the laws of universal life. It is a 
 clear leap out of the dark. 
 
 For a brief study of the meaning of this power, see chap- 
 ter twenty of the present volume. 
 
 Rule 8. — While Rule 6 exempts certain persons from 
 cash payments of dues, the reverse is made for members who 
 are financially able to pay the full ten years' dues at once. 
 
 — They will be allowed to draw on us for copies of the 
 book "UNSEEN POWERS" until thirty copies have 
 been so drawn. 
 
 Rule 9. — When copies of the Book of " Unseen Pow- 
 ers " are drawn by Members for new Subscribers, or when 
 dues are paid by new Subscribers, the cost of sending same 
 is to be paid by the Member, which is sixteen cents. — All 
 Sections are to be sent at the expense of the Member. 
 Transit on the First Section is thirty-two cents; on the Sec- 
 
3 i8 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 ond Section, twenty-five cents; on the Third Section, thirty- 
 five cents; and on the Fourth Section, fifty cents. This in- 
 cludes guaranteed delivery, either by express or registered 
 mail. 
 
 Rule io. — Members of the Psychic Society may be as- 
 sured that their names will never be made known either 
 to the public or to others. For over thirty years such a 
 vast organization as the Ralston Health Club has existed 
 under our control, and this rule has never been broken. 
 
 Rule ii. — It must be understood that the Third and 
 Fourth Sections, and also Psychic Telepathy are personal 
 and private systems that are to be used only by Members 
 who receive them from us ; as their general use would work 
 injury and injustice. They are to be retained as private 
 in the same sense as you would treat any matter that you 
 regard as private, keeping it from those from whom you 
 have a right to deny access to your private affairs. 
 
 Rule 12. — Invitations to become Subscribers to the Book 
 of " Unseen Powers " will be furnished freely by Ralston 
 Company, on your agreement to deliver them to others with 
 some written or spoken explanation of the great importance 
 of the work. Nothing is accomplished by carelessly send- 
 ing or giving these invitations away. 
 
 THE APPLICATIONS. 
 
 No person is urged to enter the Great Psychic Society. 
 A large membership is not expected, because the studies are 
 very intricate, elaborate and extended ; embracing the most 
 profound thought of this or any age in the history of civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 Two APPLICATIONS are provided on the next pages. 
 The first provides for the payment of the dues in yearly 
 installments; the second in one installment for the ten 
 years. The latter is of especial advantage to the member, 
 because it at once gives possession of the entire series of the 
 FOUR SECTIONS, and also allows the member to draw 
 from time to time in the ten years a total of thirty copies 
 of the present volume and thus receive back the full amount 
 of sixty dollars; making the ten years' membership wholly 
 free. 
 
SHAFTESBURY SOCIETY 319 
 
 THE ONE YEAR APPLICATION. 
 
 Dated 
 
 To Ralston Company, 
 
 Box 444, Washington, D. C. 
 
 I have carefully read the Rules of the Great Psychic So- 
 ciety, and have decided to become a member of said Society, 
 and will pay as dues the sum of six dollars a year in ad- 
 vance, for the period of ten years. 
 
 I hereby enclose the sum of six dollars as dues for the 
 first year; and will be prompt in all further payments. As 
 I complete each Advancement, I shall expect the Sections 
 due me. 
 
 I pledge my honor that I will not make known to any per- 
 son from whom I have a right to keep my private affairs, 
 the contents or any part of the contents of the systems of 
 Advanced Magnetism and Universal Magnetism, in present 
 or subsequent editions, or of Psychic Telepathy when pub- 
 lished. 
 
 On receipt of Certificate of Admission I will securely in- 
 sert the same in the place from which this Application has 
 been cut out, in order that this book may be made complete. 
 
 [Name] 
 
 [City or Town] 
 
 [State] 
 
 Fill out only one of the Applications. Draw an ink line 
 through the page not used. 
 
 Do not send a copy of the Application. Cut out at edge 
 of printed matter so as to leave a strip of the page on which 
 to paste your Certificate of Admission to the Great Psychic 
 Society. 
 
 If any Section is asked for at this time, add cost of send- 
 ing same to you, as stated in Rule 9. 
 
320 THE PSYCHIC SOCIETY 
 
 THE TEN YEAR APPLICATION. 
 
 Dated 
 
 To Ralston Company, 
 
 Box 444, Washington, D. C. 
 
 I have read carefully the Rules of the Great Psychic So- 
 ciety, and have decided to become a Member of said Society. 
 In order that I may, if I so elect, receive back full value, I 
 herewith enclose all my dues for the full ten years of Mem- 
 bership ; and I am to receive from time to time as I find new 
 subscribers to the Book of " Unseen Powers," copies of said 
 book the price of which I am to retain as my own, until I 
 have received back from the thirty copies during the ten 
 years the full sum of sixty dollars, thus securing for me the 
 full ten years' Membership without cost except for transpor- 
 tation on the books. 
 
 I pledge my honor that I will not make known to any 
 person from whom I have a right to keep my private affairs, 
 the contents or any part of the contents of the systems of 
 Advanced Magnetism and Universal Magnetism, in present 
 or subsequent editions, or of Psychic Telepathy when pub- 
 lished. 
 
 On receipt of Certificate of Admission I will securely in- 
 sert the same in the place from which this Application has 
 been cut out, in order that this book may be made complete. 
 
 [Name] 
 
 [City or Town] 
 
 [State] 
 
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