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Some Thoughts About
Human Life.
SPIRIT — MATTER — INDIVIDUALISM
REINCARNATION.
*
By ROBERT MAITLAND BRERETON.
WOODSTOCK, OREGON, EASTER 1906.

INDIVIDUALISM OF LIFE IN NATURE.
Few of us realize fully enough the important truth that
we are, in a way, living in the past, present and future—
the Trinity of Eternity. History—the past history of our
Anglo-Saxon race through its evolutionary stages—is a con-
tinuing subject of interest to us in earth-life; it will be the
same to our posterity. Deeds and inscribed thoughts—noble
and wicked—follow us into the World of Spirit; leave rec-
ords behind on earth. We may view the present as an
evidence of the revolutionary stage in civilized progression,
from the past lower humanism of our ancestors: our pos-
terity will view it in like manner. In the time of the Roman
conquest of Britain our race was barbarian and heathenish ;
today we rank as the most enlightened and most highly civ-
ilized race on earth. This present higher mental and ethical
growth cannot be derived from any material or physical
force of inheritance; it can only be the result of the evolu-
tion of a higher form of the spiritual life-forces, peculiar
to man in the flesh. The clear evidence of this humanizing
growth, outside of the material life, should form one of
the strongest props of our faith and hope in the continuity
of human life. The wonderful drama of human possibility
in earth-life is more beautifully unfolded than ever before
in the discovery and utilization of some of the occult forces
Of nature. The more popular recognition of the marvelous
individualism, which prevails through this material world,
greatly increases the human interest in life in its spiritual
and material forms. Throughout animated and inanimated
nature we may observe this peculiar feature which makes
us reflect on the occult cause and the materializing effect
thereof. Man and beast, bird, reptile, fish and insect,
3
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flower and mineral, all display the occult designing will and
the material forming of the individualized object. The
senses of touch, taste, sight, sound and smell are individual-
ized in each case. The dog distinguishes his owner's scent
of foot and clothing from those of others; the shepherd's
dog will separate, one by one, his master's sheep from a
mixed up flock; animals recognize by their scent their own
young, and will only suckle such, except when fooled by
man's master-devices. Every crystal has its own mathe-
matically precise proportion of sides and angles; so also
bas each triangle. The material make-up of each living
object in nature is one of occult individualized design and
will-force, which are not of the earth, air and water that
form the substance. The body and the perfume thereof
are from the soil, air and water, obtained through the ser
lective life-force of nature to suit the individual case. Thus
from the same general storehouse of earth, air and water,
this occult life is materialized after its own individualized
intention in form, odor and development, under the natural
conditions and surroundings of its temporal life. If we 22
knew and could command the highest conditions of materialić
zation on earth, we could achieve instantaneous manifesta-
tion of objects from earth, air and water. In the tropics
we may see the bamboo, at certain seasons and under favor-
able conditions of soil, moisture and temperature, sprout at
the rate of three-quarter inch per hour. Mushrooms spring
up in a night with fully developed cells and spores. Jonah's
gourd grew up in a night and covered his sheltering booth,
and perished in a night (Jo. Iv-Io). The Zarephath's
widow’s barrel of meal and cruse of oil were materialized
from day to day showing no exhaustion of the supply
though three persons fed therefrom for a full year (IKi.
xvii-I6). A chariot and horses materialized before the
eyes of Elisha and as suddenly dematerialized, and with it
the earthly living body of Elijah (2 Ki. 2-11). Christ ma-
terialized and dematerialized before his disciples, and
showed them that the materialization was real by making.
them feel him.
It is through our present ignorance of nature's laws of
chemical and assimilating properties, and occult life forces,
that we view all abnormal material manifestations as either
miracles or fakes. Our ancestors would have looked upon
the electrical illuminations and communications of today as
miracles. Daily scientists, philosophers and other workers,
are gaining more light and more accurate knowledge about
these life-forces in nature. We are better able, than our
forefathers were, to realize with St. Paul that “there is a
natural (carnal) body, and there is a spiritual body.” This
dual nature of man in earth-life was known to Job: “There
is a spirit in man.” “Then shall the dust (body) return to
the dust as it was (from whence it came) and the Spirit
(the true man) shall return to God who gave it.” Man
being mentally and physically the highest form of material-
ization of spirit-life on earth, is the only material being that
can comprehend the reality of the eternity of life. In no
other sense can he think of the Great Spirit as his Father
and say with the Psalmist of Israel, “Bless the Lord, O my
Soul, and all that is within me”; neither can the Christian
ignore those vital words of Christ, “God is a Spirit—He is
my Father and your Father—Call no man your Father
(that is the Father of your true Spirit-Self) on the Earth,
for One is your Father—He is God.” Thus we logically
conceive the idea that the Great Spirit of Life “is above all,
and through all, and is in tis all,” in this earth-life.
Materialism is the dark veil between our material and
spiritual view of life on earth. We base our faith so much
on our material senses, forgetting how very imperfect these
often are found, and give so little careful thought and study
to the true spiritual side of our divine mentality. Mesmer-
ism, clairvoyance, electro-biology and telepathy, all of which
belong to our spiritual nature, are uncanny and awesome to
the material mind; true is the saying, “to be carnally minded
is death; to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” The
spirit-soul of man is the vital theme, not the flesh, “which
profiteth nothing” in the evolution of human life. This is
nature's own teaching manifested in a thousand forms—
5
“dust to dust, spirit to spirit.” Flesh and blood cannot
enter the spirit-world. Christ laid his axe to the material
idea of the Resurrection when he said: “Ye must be reborn”
into the spirit-world; thus indicating the existence of the
human spirit before it entered into the material life. This
is the Christian's argument for the continuity of the human
life. The only real thought, in regard to future material
life that is worth while meditating on, is that of reincarna-
tion for which we may find a wide field in nature. It forms
the thought and the belief of millions of the human race on
earth. If the pre-existing human-spirit has the power, or
the all-ruling destiny, to enter into earth-life once, it could
do SO again and again. This theory supports the evolution-
ary evidence of higher human progression. It removes the
mental difficulty experienced in thinking about the vast
capacity of the unseen world of many thousands of
billions of human spirits that have left the earth life. The
bible relates incidents of the human form of materialization.
Christ said of John the Baptist, “this is Elijah which was
for to come.” (Matt. x1:I4.) In this sense only is material
resurrection conceivable from nature's standpoint. It is not
supposable that John's body could have been composed of
the identical constituents of Elijah's original body; it was
the spirit-soul of Elijah that Christ spoke of. Reincarna-
tion may be the destiny-scheme of the Wisdom of the
Universe, for the evolution of spirit-humanity to higher
and higher stages, during the past, present and future
periods of life on earth.
The supposable intermittent or alternating periods of
human life and experiences, in the worlds of spirit and mat-
ter, may be the true source and motor force of the marvel-
Ous evolutionary progression, from the past barbarian stage
to the present highest civilized one on earth of the Anglo-
Saxon race, during the past 2,000 years. Electricity,
X-Rays, Radio-Activity, and other occult civilizing forces
in nature have been in earth's store during the whole of
human material life, but have been withheld from human
cognizance and application until of late years. The future
6
will still more wonderfully unfold these and other sources
of occult natural forces for the use of the still higher evo-
lutionized posterity. It is only a few years since we thought
electrical power transmission over fifty miles a marvelous
achievement; now scientists and electrical experts believe in
the probable extension of the radius of transmission to five
hundred miles. The discovery of the universality of Radio-
Activity has opened out the largest conceivable field for
speculative human thought to expand in, evolving the long
hoped-for intercommunication between the planets of the
sun. It has upset the mundane calculations of the greatest
living physicists and mathematicians of the age, to the ex-
tent of millions of years, in the earth's birth, the moon's
separation from the earth, and the geological periods of the
consolidated earth. The sun and its planets are steadily
decreasing in speed of rotation, and the sun is as steadily
contracting. This serves to keep up the emission of heat
which vivifies man's earth. Thus so long as this endures
the material form of man may exhibit itself, and so long
may the theory of reincarnation be naturally conceivable.
The idea of individualized material resurrection is not con-
ceivable, because that is of the nature of the miraculous,
which is not the law of nature. Forgetfulness of former
material and spiritual existence, offers no serious objection
to the surmise of reincarnation on earth. Everywhere we
have heard of well-established evidence of instances of the
temporal loss of memory of past scenes, of the mother-
tongue and of other matter through accident, sickness, in-
sanity, etc. Our physically formed brain matter may be of
too imperfect construction to act as a suitable machine for
the touch of past spiritual reminiscences. This may be a
providential ordering for the present stage of man’s life in
the world. Mentally and physically constituted as we are,
we can best fulfil our destiny in the material life that now
is, and await the advent of the next rebirth in the eternity
of our life.
Assuming the correctness of the popular thought of man
on earth, from earliest days of his earth-birth to the present
7
time, that the fatherland of mankind is the spirit-world, and
that the earth forms the scene for the manifestation of the
materialization of every known object of spirit-life thereon,
we realize the ever unfolding drama of human existence and
periods of evolutionary progression, in both the spiritual
and the material worlds. The emigrations from this father-
land of human spirits of every race, and of every grade of
ethical consciousness—from the “hell-born to the heaven-
born”—form the most interesting biological study to civil-
ized man on earth. Spirit-man possessing divine free-will,
and under the influence of destiny or Providence, could be-
come incarnate in any age, in any family of any race on
earth. This theory may account for the birth of a child in
a family with natural instincts totally foreign to those of its
parents, brothers and sisters, and hence it is termed “a black
sheep” of the family. It is called “a degenerate,” which is
clearly a misnomer; since spiritual and mental evolution in
humanism indicates betterment, not degeneracy. This
“black sheep” is simply a human spirit “out-of-place” within
its family, and belongs to some other race on earth less
civilized. We should recognize the probable fact that we
are the parents of our children's material bodies only; we
cannot select or refuse the spirit-souls which enter them ;
we can only, as it were, foster them through the period of
materializing gestation. Every human parent on earth can
perceive that no two of the children are exactly alike in
their mentality, even though they be twin-born and phys-
ically the counterpart of each other. This mental unique-
ness in the human teaches us many important lessons in
human Socialism and ethics. Egoism, as opposed to altru-
ism, is the effect of this human individualism; it may be
modified by the associations and conditions of earthly life,
but never eradicated. Parental love, mating love, marital
love and patriotic love, as developed in humanity on earth,
are all, more or less, of a material and temporal nature,
suitable to the earthly conditions of life; whereas altruistic
love is the very opposite to the material. In it we recognize
the divine or Spiritual side of humanity. It embraces our
8
love and reverence of the Fatherhood of the Great Spirit of
Life, and of the brotherhood of man. It is displayed in the
prayers and aspirations of the spirit-soul; in the various
works of charity or love; in the study and admiration of the
marvelous beauties and workings of mature. In being
spiritually minded we are best in touch with our real life
and are best fitted to fulfil our destiny in the present life on
earth. We become in closer touch with friends and rela-
tives who have been reborn into the spirit-world—the spirit-
ual fac-simile of our material world. “Lo, I am with you
alway even unto the end of the world,” said Christ; “We
are compassed about with a great crowd of witnesses.”
wrote St. Paul; “I believe in the Communion (society, social
intercourse) of Saints (the spiritual fellowship of all true
believers, both lizing and dead) and in the Life everlast-
ing,” is the weekly Sunday-uttered Creed of the Church of
England and of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the
United States. w
From this innate psychical consciousness of the spirit
side of man, grows the belief in the survival of the fittest—
the spirit-soul—throughout the periods of evolutionary
metamorphosis. Telepathy or thought-transference between
human beings in earth life has been proved to exist without
any assistance from nearness of physical contact. This nat-
ural, though invisible, touch of fellow-feeling in physical
form of life must be still more sensitive in the metaphysical
and more refined stage; so that the ever-existing belief that
there is this touch and communion existing between mem-
bers of the human society on earth and those of the de-
parted is in the ascendant, and as fast and wide spreading
as there is more enlightenment. If the soul of man can
truly believe in being in spiritual intercourse and touch with
its Spirit-Father—as shown in words of prayer and praise—
we should have no hesitation about believing in the com-
munion with departed friends and relatives whom we have
seen and loved; we should have no ignorant fears about
ghosts and haunted places. In token of loving remembrance
we decorate, periodically, the last resting spots of the mortal
9
remains of our friends, relatives, patriotic and philanthropic
men and women with living flower and greenery. These
are a proof of the universal faith in the continuity of the
individual human life. But for this innate faith and hope
in a future, man would be better off if he had been created
with the unmoral standard of the brute and bird creation
of life on earth. To know good and evil—right and wrong
—to possess the free-will to choose, and to be sensible of
the feeling of remorse would be useless endowments to man
On earth and in the spirit-world if everlasting evolutionary
progression in higher features of mentality and morality
were not a reality. The old saying that “the child is the
father of the man” is strikingly verified in the present civ-
ilized outcome of the Anglo-Saxon race from the barbarian
cradle. Individualism in man is a wonderful object in
Nature. Its egoistical side is splendidly rendered in Job’s
diction: “A Amoze) that my Redeemer liveth,” which Handel
has exquisitely improvised in the music of the anthem we
hear rendered with beautiful effect at this Eastertide. With
this truth realized in our soul, with this music in our ears,
we can laugh at materialism and its sequence, pessimism,
and perceive more clearly the force of the sarcastic ques-
tion, “O Death! where is thy sting? O Grave! where is
thy victory P’’
I O
Brereton
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Some thoughts about
human life
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