CHAPTER V

SEX IN THE NEXT WORLD

There is in existence an enormous mass of recorded spirit communication concerning life and death. The one outstanding feature concerning these revelations is that they tell us extremely little. Sometimes the reason given for this withholding of information is that it is forbidden by higher spirits, and it is certainly remarkable that despite the great enthusiasm shown for the principles of democracy in this world, there have never been any revelations of a democratic principle on the higher plane.

The rule of the next world appears to be that of a benevolent autocracy, working through a hierarchy of directing spirits controlling other spirits on clearly defined planes. We know nothing of the political system of the other world except that there is no such thing as any form of elective system, no majority rule, and little social structure.

The great dominant factor of the hereafter as described by the bulk of Spiritualistic literature appears to be the acceptance of _authority_. The recently arrived spirit is taken in hand by “guides” who instruct, and the spirit then passes from grade to grade or plane to plane, until it achieves an eminence entirely beyond the bounds of human thought.

There is perhaps no limit to the speculation that can be indulged in concerning the after-life, but there are certain aspects of it that appear contradictory. There are good spirits and bad spirits, low grades and high grades and all intermediate stages. There are also low spirits that are said never to have been human and high spirits of the same non-mortal nature. But badness and goodness exist on the spiritual planes as much as on this earth.

The spirits who visit séances retain many of their earthly characteristics. They state that they are still male and female despite the assumption on the part of many writers that sex does not exist upon the spiritual plane. The least possible experience of spirit communication in any form is quite sufficient to expose this amazing fallacy.

If the differentiation of sex has any purpose at all, it can only have the same purpose in the next world as it has in this. Otherwise sex distinction would be cast off just as is the human body after death.

This brings us to the consideration of how and why the myth of the sexlessness of spirits has passed into acceptance as a fact.

The Spiritualist is open to human error and it is only human to build into our theories those things which tend to prove them and to disregard matters which are not in harmony with our ideas. Both in Britain and in America there is a certain amount of false modesty that amounts to pruriency concerning all matters of sex.

As a result, the very limited moral doctrines of sexual relationship as understood by certain Christian sects, have been tacitly held to by those dominating the after-life. Sex, as understood in conventional terms, has been seen to be such a danger to the construction of a hypothetical but perfectly moral future state, that the whole sex question has been squashed by a statement by Spiritualists that sex does not exist in after-life.

This is entirely wrong, for, as I have pointed out above, according to spirit statement sex does exist and it is only fair to suppose that it is there for the usual reason.

There exists the further problem of the origin of spirits that have never been mortal. These must come somehow from somewhere, and there is no reason to suppose that the continuation of sex upon the astral planes is not for this purpose. Its existence is indeed an absolute answer to the theories of parthenogenesis held by believers whose minds were clouded with a residuum of theological beliefs.

To sum up, we have evidence of the continuation of sex--indeed it is a cardinal point, for it is impossible to believe in continuation of personality after death unless sex continues with it. One cannot logically believe in the one without the other.

The state of error has arisen through the confusion of sex with sin. The would-be formulators of the new Spiritualistic dogmas, having been unable to effect a mental compromise between the moral and monogamous Christian and the moral and polygamous Mohammedan, attempted to solve the whole business by a bland statement that there was no sex in the other world.

Some writers do indeed recognize this permanence of sex, but gloss it over.[22] They ignore the fact that if a thing exists it exists for a purpose and the fatal conception that the gratification of a sex desire is a sin persists throughout their pages.

On the other hand, gratification of other voluptuous sense desires such as aural pleasures from music or self-abandonment to any of the pleasures of the intellect, appears to be regarded not only as permissible but as praise-worthy. In fact, any analysis of the reported habits and customs of the next world, plunges us into a mass of paradoxical contradictions.

In point of fact it is impossible to draw a hard-and-fast line between the actual spirit revelation and interpolated ideas by the medium. It is also notorious that as soon as any new concept of the next world is published in book form, the “revelations” from any different sources seem to take on an unmistakable tinge according to the latest theories. In fact, a literary psychoanalysis of reported next worlds shows the unmistakable traces of books read in the past.

Certain accounts of the spirit life obtained through Mohammedan mediums by French investigators in Algiers show what may be called a peculiarly active sexual life in the after-world. This may possibly be attributed to either early religious belief in a sensuous Mohammedan paradise or alternatively to the particular type of Arab spirits who furnished the description. In any case, the accounts could not be published for general or even private reading, but there is no conceivable reason why they should be deemed more unreliable than other spirit communications.

Some idea of the theme of these revelations can be gathered if I may say that one of the communicators, called Sidi Aissa Ben S’dub, prefaces his words by the cryptic statement: “Know then, O mortals, that here are neither camels nor horses--nor virtuous women,--for us virtue, as ye know it, exists not. And, as I have related, there being neither camels nor horses nor virtuous women, what think ye then occupies the time of us who were strong men?”

Oriental imagery is rich in terms concerning sex, and the revelation as taken down in Arabic is a document of some literary value. Its translation into precise French leaves us under no misapprehension as to the actual technique of sex gratification on the next plane. Their methods appear to be our methods, but it is of course impossible to arrive at any conception of relative degrees of pleasure. It is also curious to note that in the Arab revelations given there was no reference at all to any ensuing spirit birth, but one interpretation of and obscure text might lead one to suppose that the offspring of these unions were “djinni,” i.e. non-mortal and soulless spirits.

Cases of intercourse between djinns and mortals are the basis of many Moslem tales and legends in which the sex interest is paramount. But it must be borne in mind that the Mohammedan idea of the invisible world is so different from that prescribed either by Eastern or Western thought that it is almost impossible to co-ordinate it with any of our accepted theories.

On the other hand, no Spiritualist revelation or theory is of value unless it fits all lands and all creeds. Thus, when the number of spirit visitants of African, Red Indian, or other origin, is taken into account, it is manifest that no _abstract theory of morality which is not in accordance with the known physical facts concerning the spirit world, is likely to be practised there_.

As time goes on, it will become increasingly impossible for the practising Spiritualist to ignore the enormous fact of sex. At present various beliefs are held. These range from the pure sexlessness theory, which is manifestly untenable to variations like a “perfectly pure and spiritual sex relationship in no way physical,” or some such platitude.

This kind of expression is pure mental flatulence, for it is clear that in the spirit world there is nothing _physical_ as we know it, and that everything there is _psychical_--again as we know it.

The conception of the spirit world that is most widely held does away with all idea of penal restrictions. Hell, purgatory, and the theological varieties of damnation are contrary to the whole conception. Once again we are dependent on spirit teaching for our visualization of life in the hereafter, and having established the existence of sex, which would not exist unless it implied the permanence of sexual attraction and sex gratification, we not unreasonably desire to know what, if any, are the sex limits in the next life.

The realm of speculation thus opened up is enormous. It is possibly the vision of a voluptuous sensualist heaven. It is possibly the vision of a new theory of hell in which spirits are unable to obtain the gratification of those desires which they are equipped to experience.

There is no particular reason to suppose that the married state continues--indeed, there is evidence to the reverse. Altogether the problems raised are far too great for the little evidence we have yet obtained from the spirit world to lead us to a true solution.

As ever we come back to the point of: How much is real spirit communication? How much is simply well-meaning but inaccurate Spiritualist interpretation or interpolation?

The answer of the Spiritualist to such a question is usually the affirmation that “desire does not exist in the spirit world.”

This may be good enough to hoodwink the amateur or the shallow thinker, but it must be remembered that the whole of what we must admit is the dark side of Spiritualism, the bad or lying spirits, the demons of possession and the demons of obsession, all these are active affirmations of the reality of desire persisting.

It is not enough for us to affirm that the dark elements are either non-existent or simply the effects of our subconscious minds. If these rules apply to the dark side they must apply to the light side, too. If this were the case the whole fabric of Spiritualism crumbles to the ground. If we accept any spirit evidence we must accept _all_ spirit evidence, and we have no right to reject as unsound statements that do not fall in with the theories which we have accepted on the strength of similar statements.

The continuation of sexual activity on the psychic planes may be a staggering conception to some people, but a little thought will show that it is not half such a shattering idea as the perfectly unjustifiable hypothesis that there is none.

The existence of sex in the spirit world leads us to the supposition that there are there some organized forces of law and order, otherwise this conception of the next world would seem to be a field where a highly intellectual, intelligent, and powerful individual soul might enjoy a limitless orgy of psychic rape.

There is no reason to think that such a thing is impossible, for cases of demoniac or spirit possession are in effect cases of psychic rape of a mortal and often present instances of the most amazing sexual aberration owing to the terrible desires of the uninvited tenant of the mind.

The believing Spiritualist has built on slender grounds a wonderful conception of the spirit world, but it is a one-sided structure, and it is important to note that the “Everything in the garden is lovely!” idea of the next world is not by any means borne out by the revelations of its inhabitants. One can indeed ask oneself what ground is there for optimism?

What reasons other than self-deception, self-assurance, and self-flattery are there for sweeping away the idea of terror, punishment, and the inexorable law of Abstract Justice that has for ages been held to be implicit in the life hereafter?

The sceptic is indeed justified when, after reading reams of well-meant pseudo-religious twaddle, he asks the supporters of the new revelation: “And _why_ should it all be _couleur de rose_?”

Faith may do many things, but Faith cannot make black white--even in the realm of the spirit.

There is good reason to suppose that in the past many revelations concerning sex-life in the spirit plane have been suppressed or destroyed. The well-meaning Spiritualist with mediumistic gifts or the capacity for automatic writing does not always get the precise kind of spirit teaching expected. On the other hand, there is a wide difference between the meaningless obscenities that are sometimes sent and various coherent statements that can be classed as definite revelations. The private operator, knowing little of the matters with which he or she is dealing, is frequently ashamed to let these strange, frank manuscripts or records be seen by others. Often they are shown to a wrong person, classed as evil spirit writings, and the great question that animates the spirit world: “Should mortals be told?” again goes on.

At a séance held in Paris some interesting statements concerning the psychic world were vouchsafed by a spirit calling itself Zaza Guilbert. There were five of us at the table and two of the party were practised automatists.

First came some personal particulars of the spirit. She was born near Grenoble, in Dauphine, in 1826, but was in Paris when Napoleon the Third was proclaimed Emperor (1852) and was employed with theatrical dressmaking. She married and left two girl children.

It was the question: “Is life in the spirit world as gay and gallant[23] as it was in those days in this sphere?” that set the ball rolling.

A. That depends on how you look at things. We are men and women over here in so far as that goes.

Q. Is life on the spirit plane sexless?

A. Certainly not! (Emphasis conveyed by violent knocking of the table.)

Q. (By one of the ladies of the party.) Is there childbirth in the spirit world?

A. Not in the same way as on earth. (No answer was returned to some further inquiries on this subject.)

Q. Is there separation of the sexes?

A. No; it would be intolerable.

Q. Is morality of earth binding on the spirit plane?

A. No; that would be still more intolerable.

Q. Have you a husband there?

A. No; several affinities.

Q. Intellectual affinities only?

A. By no means.

Q. Can you compare the relationship to any earthly parallel?

A. Yes. Living _une vie de demi-mondaine sans reproche_.

Q. Do all spirits enjoy life in this manner?

A. It is not obligatory.

Q. (By one of the ladies.) Are there scandals in the spirit world?

A. Sometimes.

Q. Are they due to moral censure of higher spirits?

A. No; jealousy, because higher spirits mix themselves up in it.

Q. Can you describe one of these scandals?

A. Not through the table. Write.

Q. You will give it as automatic writing?

A. Yes.

One of the automatists left the circle to fetch pencil and paper. Then we resumed. The power appeared to be instantly forthcoming, and the writing stated that:

“Benedetta Chiesole was the mistress of Théodule Affra and several other spirits on our plane.

“This intimacy became obnoxious to a spirit called du Paits Herbault, who was a monk of Montpellier in the sixteenth century. He was not on our plane but higher up, but was permitted to come down to us for certain purposes. Being on a higher plane, there was no way of keeping him out when he was not wanted, for he had the power of passing through all psycho-material substances that serve us as material substances serve you.

“His persecution of Benedetta was remarkable, for he was astonishingly enamoured of her. At length matters got to such a pitch that the others protested through the guides. But they got cold comfort. They were told not to interfere with the higher spirits or it would be the worse for them, and Benedetta was told that it was natural for her to have to expiate her earthly shortcomings in this manner.”

The results of other sittings at which other spirits have made communications are in some cases quite as detailed and a great deal more startling than the above. In addition, a great mass of what may be definitely termed abnormal sex literature has come from the pens of people practising automatic writing--and it is an indubitable fact that some of these writings have been written under control by people of irreproachable life and character.

The common-sense explanation is that these writings and communications have nothing whatever to do with spirits and that these are, so to speak, a seething up of illegal desires and ideas which have been repressed by the conscious mind into the censorship of the subliminal self. This theory is only tenable if the whole basic doctrine that these things are communicated by spirits is given up.

If, on the other hand, we hold that there is anything at all in Spiritualism we are faced with the inevitable conclusion that, however much we may desire to get rid of it, sex is as troublesome in the next world as in this.[24]

FOOTNOTES:

[22] “People live in communities as one would expect if like attracts like, and the male spirit still finds his true mate though there is no sensuality in the grosser sense and no childbirth.” Sir A. Conan Doyle, Chapter III, _The New Revelation_.

[23] The word “gallant” carries rather different implications in French than are covered by the literal English rendering of “gallant.”

[24] The notes and papers concerning the physiological side of sex in the next world that have been collected are not suitable for general reading. Experienced Spiritualists will have no difficulty in surmising the general character of these records.