Chapter I
of this book--that a something exists which gravitates and yet is invisible to our eyes. We also know, by common psychical experience, that spirits are able to see, hear, speak and touch, and can by us be seen, heard, spoken to and touched. If these facts be co-ordinated they do not leave any room for doubt as to there being spiritual equivalents of human bodies equipped with organs of sense and perception. It does not follow necessarily that these equivalents are counter-parts or facsimiles in form and appearance, even if in many of their functions they are practically indistinguishable from their human prototypes. Racial peculiarities are admittedly absent, as also is Life with its physiological requirements. Spirits are free from wear and tear, from the need of food, clothing and shelter, and from the maintenance of health. They are not divided by sex differences and they are not characterised by any form of reproduction: they have neither ancestry nor posterity. These various features lend force to the theory of transmigration. They show the possibility of an ordinary human body being permeated, so to say, by a spirit’s body which can enter or leave at any time and which always maintains its separate existence. Here, again, there are facts of common knowledge and experience that support the doctrine of metempsychosis. Most persons are, now and then, conscious of memories or reminiscent impressions that cannot be traced to any events of the present life. It occasionally happens that when a person first visits some particular locality he finds himself in surroundings with which his mind is already familiar. The only reasonable explanation is that the soul remembers somewhat of its experiences in a previous earthly life.
Another line of thought leading in the same direction is that suggested by the marked and well-known phenomena of mental heredity. Family peculiarities of mind and character are commonly supposed to be transmitted from parents to children in the form of material germs which are imagined, but have never been proved, to exist. And yet in many cases--as also happens with physical peculiarities--an intervening generation is skipped, and it is the mental characteristic of a grandparent or great-grandparent that reappears in the descendant. It would, therefore, seem more reasonable to infer that the true cause of heredity is to be found in the preference manifested by discarnate spirits for reincarnation in the direct posterity of the human bodies they have at one time or another inhabited. Nor is it a far-fetched supposition to hold that, in the spirit-world, as in this life, souls of similar characters associate together and, to whatever extent may be possible, seek to be reincarnated in the same earthly families: a supposition that accounts for more than one child of a family presenting what are considered to be the hereditary characteristics.
It should not, however, be concluded that soul and body are without reaction on each other. We know, as a fact, that mental habits and emotional indulgences gradually affect a person’s features and disturb the functioning of various organs. We also know that bodily peculiarities warp the mind and influence the thoughts. The phrenological mapping of the brain has some foundation in reality; and probably there does not exist a single person of mature age who is not to some extent a physiognomist. Intelligent capacity, sensitiveness and moral character do, most undoubtedly, depend a good deal upon the size, form and texture of the brain. In other words, a soul when in the body is fettered and guided and is not fully able to reveal its true self. From this it follows that when a soul becomes separated from the body it cannot logically be expected to have exactly the same character that it apparently possessed in life. Psychical experience in spiritualistic sittings and otherwise is to this effect. It is customary, indeed, for sitters to say--and, emotionally, to believe--that the spirits of their deceased relatives and friends behave and speak exactly as they used to do in life; but this is not quite borne out by the recorded evidence. It is customary also, where the discrepancies are of too glaring a nature to be glozed over or hushed up, to put them down to the interference of mischievous spirits who personate the spirits called for; but this is a very lame method of explanation. The best plan in all cases of difficulty is to face boldly the facts. A disembodied spirit is less cribbed, cabined and confined than when it was attached to a living body; it is more free for both good and evil. We are familiar enough with good, bad and indifferent souls in this world: why should we expect the same souls to be otherwise simply because of a change in their environment? All that we can reasonably look for is a certain degree of revelation, a certain manifestation of what before was more or less hidden and which may be estimable or the reverse.
A feature that deserves notice as related to this view of the matter is the consensus of testimony to the effect that communicating spirits, whether those who are sought for or those who are what may be termed casual and errant, have habitually a less regard for truth than is the case with highly-educated human beings; though, if an average be struck of mankind in general, it does not seem that there is much to choose between the trustworthiness of statements made by the living inhabitants of the earth and the truth of what is said by disembodied spirits. Still, the matter is of some importance, seeing that it bears very materially upon the question of whether individual spirits are always the particular disembodied souls they profess to be.
Another feature, equally worthy of attention, is the apparent absence of spirits who can properly be regarded as diabolical. Sittings for the purpose of communication with “surviving” souls are not attended by devils or by beings occupied mainly in the pursuit of evil. It may, of course, be the case that the published records and the verbal accounts that are current suppress all mention of occurrences deemed to be demoniacal, in the same way that, according to Sir Oliver Lodge, spiritualists “usually either discourage or suppress” statements “about the nature of things ‘on the other side.’” The eminent authority here quoted goes on, indeed, to say--
“These are what we call the ‘unverifiable’ communications; for we cannot bring them to book by subsequent terrestrial inquiry in the same way as we can test information concerning personal or mundane affairs. _Information of the higher kind has often been received but has seldom been published_; and it is difficult to know what value to put upon it, or how far it is really trustworthy.”
This very frank confession of the reports of _séances_ being systematically garbled is a little disconcerting, especially when coming from one of the shining lights of the scientific world; but it probably means no more than that the champions of spiritualism do not desire to arouse antagonism that can be avoided. In the same way it may well be that those persons who, whether as mediums or sitters or in the privacy of individual attempts at communication, happen to come into contact with evil spirits do not feel disposed to subject themselves to the hostility of the religious world by detailing their experiences. But, however this may be, the fact remains that, so far as common knowledge and common repute are concerned, the devilish element is not likely to be encountered by those persons who seek to speak with the dead.
If, now, the particulars set forth in the present chapter be summarised we find the state of things to be as follows:--
1. Disembodied souls do not depart from this world when “death” occurs.
2. They remain for a time free from bodily environment of an ordinary material kind.
3. Sooner or later they enter into new human bodies, and perhaps, also, in some cases, into new bodies of the lower animals.
4. During the period of their free existence while awaiting transmigration, many of them make a practice of haunting localities and living human beings.
5. They possess in themselves the equivalent of bodies constructed of something analogous to matter and having organisms by which they perceive and act.
6. Each disembodied soul is an individual entity existing permanently apart from all others and not distinguished by any racial or sexual characteristics.
7. Each individual soul has its own idiosyncrasies of intellect, sense, emotion, conscience and volition. These idiosyncrasies are subject to at least temporary modification by the association of the soul with a human body.
8. The character and conduct of a disembodied soul are not necessarily the same in all respects as were apparent during life, and do not necessarily remain completely unchanged when transmigration takes place.
9. The existence of souls that are wholly evil has not yet been established by actual observation or experience of any kind.
This summary does not involve any religious views and is not based on any religious teaching. It is essentially scientific; that is to say, it puts into plain language the conclusions arrived at by impartial students of physical and psychical facts and phenomena, irrespective of whether such conclusions do or do not fit in with ecclesiastical teaching, popular notions, or “sceptical” dogmatism.
At the same time it is to be observed that the view here taken of discarnate spirits leaves the ground quite open for Religion. It is quite consistent with the existence of a Divine Ruler, with the doctrine of progression in either rightdoing or wrongdoing, and with an Eternal Justice that inflicts punishment upon souls whose volition is employed for base purposes. For example, it may well be that in transmigration the choice does not always rest with the soul concerned, but is divinely decreed; the new life may be higher or lower than the preceding life, according to whether the latter was turned to good or bad account. The number of transmigrations of any particular soul may be limited; and metempsychosis may thus correspond to the doctrine of Purgatory--an evolutionary period at the conclusion of which the soul is transferred to a Heaven or Hell beyond the confines of the earth. Even the idea of a Holy Ghost that continually appeals to the mind and will is not excluded from the psychical summary above given; nor is there therein anything that contradicts the theory of a Christ or a Buddha. What the truth is with regard to such matters as these must be determined by each person for himself or herself. The readers of the present volume are not addressed as Christians or as non-Christians, as Deists or as Atheists. They are considered merely as being interested in the subject of speaking with the dead, and as being desirous of receiving information with regard to the ascertained facts and admitted logic of the matter.
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