| Year 16 | Number 98 | 2008 | August 15th, 2008 |
| "Unshakable
faith is only that which can face reason face to
face in every Humankind epoch." Allan Kardec |
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SPIRITUAL PHENOMENA
"How do you account for the number of scientific men who, as regards spiritual phenomena, are unscientific in that they decline even to consider the available evidence?" "Partly, I think, because scientific men are generally interested in one branch of study, and in nothing else. A large number are aware of the evidence to which you have referred, but hesitate to investigate it. They call themselves Monists, an absurd name which means nothing and explains nothing. Nevertheless there are a greater number of scientific men now than ever before who see that the deeper we go into things the more mystery there is, and the more need for Mind rather than Force. Force explains nothing, because of the infinite complexity of its results; moreover, force itself is inconceivable existing by itself. But these are things the great skeptics, such as Haeckel, never go into--they assume force." "Your use of the word 'mind,' doctor, leads me to ask if you think events can be influenced by prayer?" "I think prayer does affect those nearest and dearest to us who have died, and that they can in turn affect us. I think there is every bit as much evidence in support of this as there is for what are called scientific facts. There are innumerable and well-authenticated instances of warnings given of events that subsequently occurred which, if acted upon, would have saved from accident or death. But unbelievers do not examine the evidence. No, I have not read Professor James' 'Varieties of Religious Experience,' but everyone tells me I must, and now I will." "A last question, Dr. Wallace. Who of all the many great men you have known most impressed you with his personality?" "Oh," said Dr. Wallace, ruminatively, "that is a difficult question to answer. For combined intellectual and moral qualities I cannot think of anyone I could place above Darwin. Darwin was not only a great thinker and worker, but a really good man, thoroughly good," added the Doctor, "thoroughly kind, and thoroughly humane. For pure intellect I should place Huxley ² above Darwin, and Spencer ³ above either; Spencer was a great, a very great thinking machine." With this I left the Grand Old Man of Science, who has played so great a part in the life and thought of the nineteenth century, and from the warmth and quiet of his study, where he made in the firelight a venerable and beautiful picture, stepped out into the stillness and freshness of the night. He had given me much to think of. Scientist's 88th Birthday -
Interview with Dr. Russel Wallace. (S748: 1911)
Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: An anonymous interview printed on page one of The Daily News (London) of 9 January 1911. To link directly to this page, connect with: http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/wallace/S748.htm 2Thomas Huxley (1825-1895), English scientist and philosopher. 3Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), English philosopher and sociologist. |
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| °EDITORIAL
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| "GOD ALWAYS CONSIDERS THE INTENTION" |
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| ° THE CODIFICATION
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| GENESIS:
The Miracles and the Predictions According to Spiritism |
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| CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM by Leon Denis | |||
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| HEAVEN
AND HELL - FUTURE LIFE AND ANNIHILATION |
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| PART SECOND - EXAMPLES [CHAPTERS II, IV] | |||
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| ARE THE PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM IN
HARMONY WITH SCIENCE? THE POSSIBILITY OF SURVIVAL FROM A SCIENTIFIC POINT OF VIEW |
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FROM EMOTIONAL CONTROL TO INTEGRAL
HEALTH
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| ° EDITORIAL |
It's true that the Spiritist Doctrine combats ideas such as the eternity of punishment, the fires of hell, and the personification of the devil. Yet, isn't it true that those ideas have always stimulated disbelief and continue to do so even today? If by substituting these dogmas with a rational explanation, the Spiritist Doctrine can restore faith to those who have lost it, isn't it rendering a service to religion? A venerable man of the Church said in this regard, "The Doctrine makes one to believe in something; faith in something is always better than to have no faith at all."
Since spirit and soul are essentially the same, one cannot deny the existence of spirits without denying the existence of the soul. Once this existence is accepted, the question is reduced to its simplest expression, "Can the souls of those who passed on communicate with those who live?" The Spiritist Doctrine provides tangible proof that the answer must be in the affirmative; what proof has been offered that it is NOT possible? And if it's possible, then all the denials in the world will not make it any less so; such communication is not a theory or a system, but a law of nature. All that a person can do is to learn to accept this reality and revise his or her beliefs and behavior accordingly.
GEAE's Editorial Council
Back to Content
| ° THE CODIFICATION |
GENESIS: The Miracles and the Predictions According to Spiritism
BY Allan Kardec
Author of "The Spirits' Book," "The Mediums' Book," and "Heaven and Hell."
Translated By The Spirit-Guides of W. J. Colville
[Colby & Rich, Publishers - 1883 - Boston - USA]
The spiritual doctrine is the result of the collective and concordant teachings of spirits.
Science is called in to make the statements in Genesis agree with the laws of nature.
God proves his greatness and power by the immutability of his laws, and not by their suspension.
For God the past and the future are the present.
CHAPTER I
CHARACTER OF THE SPIRITUAL REVELATION
Spiritism having taught us of the invisible world which surrounds us, and in the midst of which we live without doubt, the laws which govern it, its connection with the visible world, the nature and state of the beings who inhabit it, and by tracing the destiny of man after death, is a veritable revelation in the scientific acceptance of the word.
By its nature, the spiritual revelation has a twofold character; it is at the same time a divine and a scientific revelation. It is the first in that its coming is providential, and not the result of the initiative and premeditative design of man; the fundamental points of the doctrine being the fact of the teaching given by spirits commissioned by God to enlighten men concerning things whereof they were ignorant, - things they could not learn by themselves, and which it is important for them to know today, as they are ready to comprehend them. It is the second because it informs us that this teaching is a privilege granted to no one individual, but that it is given to all the world by the same means (or in the same way) that those who transmit and those who receive it are not passive beings, excused from the work of observation and research; that they are not called upon to abnegate their judgment and their free will; that their control of themselves is not interdicted, but, on the contrary, recommended; and, finally, that the whole doctrine has not been enunciated in every part, nor imposed upon blind belief, but is deduced by the work of man, by the observation of facts that the spirits place before us, while the instructions that they give to us compel us to study, comment, compare, until we arrive at a knowledge of consequences and applications. I a word, that which characterizes the spiritual revelation is the divine source from which it proceeds, - that the initiative belongs to the spirits, and that the elaboration is the work of man.
As a mean of elaboration, Spiritism proceeds in exactly the same course as the exact sciences; that is to say, it applies the experimental method. Some facts of a new order present themselves, which cannot be explained by known laws. It teaches us to observe, compare, analyze them, and, from effects, arrive at causes; it reveals the laws which govern them; it then deduces the consequences, and seeks for useful applications; it establishes no one preconceived theory. Thus it has not presented as an hypothesis either the existence or intervention of spirits, neither the existence of the perispirit, or reincarnation, or any one principle of the doctrine. It has proved the existence of spirits in the beyond, and with it the other principles connected with the spiritual life. These are not facts which are revealed after a theory has been formed to confirm them; but the theory has subsequently arisen to explain the facts, and make a résumé of them. It is rigorously exact to declare that Spiritism is a science of observation, and not the product of the imagination.
Let us cite an example: there happens in the world of spirits a very singular occurrence, and one that assuredly no one would have imagined. It is that some disembodied spirits think they are still embodied. However, the superior spirits, who know it well, do not tell us, in response to our anticipation, "There are some spirits who believe that they live in the earth-life, who have preserved their states, their habits, and their instincts." We have invoked the manifestation of this category of spirits in order that we may observe them.
Having then seen spirits uncertain of their state, or affirming that they were yet of this world, attending to their ordinary occupations, the example has proved the fact. The multiplicity of similar facts has proved that it was not an exception, but one of the phases of spirit-life. We have been permitted to study all the varieties and causes of this singular illusion; have recognized that this situation is characteristic of those but little advance morally, and that it is peculiar to certain kinds of death; that it is not necessarily of very short duration, but can continue for months, and even years. It is thus that theory is born of observation. It is the same of all other principles of doctrine. Just as science, properly speaking, has for object the study of the laws of material principles, the special object of Spiritism is the knowledge of the laws of spiritual principles. Now, as this latter class of principles is one of the forces of nature, as it acts incessantly and reciprocally upon the material principles, the result of it is, that knowledge of one cannot be complete without knowledge of the other; that separated, they are incomplete; that science without Spiritism finds itself utterly powerless to explain certain phenomena by laws of matter alone; that, having abstracted the spiritual principle, it is arrested in its researches, - while Spiritism without science would lack support and control, and would be considered an illusion. Had Spiritism appeared before scientific discoveries, it would have been an abortive work, like every thing which comes before its proper time.
All sciences are joined to and succeed one another in rational order. One is born of the other, according as they find support in anterior knowledge and ideas. Astronomy, one of the first which might have been cultivated, has remained in the infancy of its errors till the moment when physics came to reveal the law of the forces of natural agents. Chemistry, being unable to do any thing without physics, must needs come next in succession, in order that they should walk together, and lean one upon another. Anatomy, physiology, zoology, botany, and mineralogy have been recognized as veritable sciences only by the aid of the lights carried by physics and chemistry. Geology, born of yesterday, without astronomy, physics, chemistry, and all the others, would have failed to possesses true elements of vitality. It could not be born until they had been recognized.
Modern science has done justice to the four primitive elements of the ancients, and from observation to observation it has arrived at the conception of one generative element alone in all the transformations of matter; but matter by itself is inert; it has neither life, thought, nor sentiment; its union with spiritual principle is a necessity. Spiritism has not invented this principle, but was the first to demonstrate it by undeniable proofs. It has studied it, analyzed it, and revealed it in evident action. To the material element it has come to add the spiritual. The material and spiritual elements are the two living principles or forces of nature. By the indissoluble union of these two elements, we can explain without difficulty a crowd of facts hitherto inexplicable. In its essence simply, and as having for its object the study of one of these two constituent elements of the universe, Spiritism lays forcible hold of the greater part of the sciences. It could only work thus after the elaboration of these sciences, and, above all, after they had exhibited their powerlessness to explain all things by the laws of matter alone.
Spiritism is accused by some of being in alliance with Magic and Sorcery; but men forget that Astronomy has for her elder sister Astrology, which is not totally discarded from among the beliefs of today; that Chemistry is the daughter of Alchemy, with which no scientific man would dare to occupy himself today. No one denies, however, that there were in Astrology and Alchemy the germs of truth, from which have sprung actual sciences; And that, notwithstanding its ridiculous formulas, Alchemy has revealed the law of affinity between material bodies. Astrology was supported by its knowledge of the position and movement of the stars it had studied; but, owing to ignorance of the true laws which ruled the mechanism of the universe, the stars were, for the vulgar, mysterious beings ruling the destinies of men, superstition lending to them a moral influence and prophetic meaning. When Galileo, Newton, and Kepler had demonstrated the laws from which the telescope had withdrawn the veil, and given to men that glance into the depths of space which certain people considered so indiscreet, the planets appeared to us as simple worlds, similar to our own; and all the lattice-work of the marvelous crumbled away. It is the same with Spiritism in regard to magic and sorcery; the two latter were supported truly by spiritual manifestations, as astrology was upon the movement of the stars; but, in the ignorance of the laws which rule the spiritual world, there were joined to these communications ridiculous practices and beliefs, to which modern Spiritism, the fruit of experience and observation, has done justice. Assuredly the distance which separates Spiritism from magic and sorcery is greater than that which divides astronomy from astrology, chemistry from alchemy. The desire to confound them proves that one knows not the first thing about them. The simple fact of the possibility of communion with beings of the spiritual world opens up to us incalculable consequences of the highest gravity and importance. Here a new world is revealed to us, and one which is so much the more important in that it awaits all men without exception! Knowledge concerning it cannot fail to produce, in a general sense, a profound modification in the customs, character, habits, and beliefs which exert so great an influence upon man's social life.
It has caused a revolution in ideas, a revolution so great and powerful that it is not circumscribed to any one people, much less to one caste, but reaches simultaneously the heart of all classes, all nationalities, all civilizations. For the best of reasons, Spiritism is considered the third grand revelation. Let us see wherein the revelations differ, and how they are attached to one another. Moses, as a prophet, has revealed to men the knowledge of the only true God, Sovereign Master of all things. He has promulgated the law of Sinai, and laid the foundation of the true faith. As a man he has been the legislator of the people, through whom his primitive faith has exerted an influence over all the earth. Christ, taking from the ancient laws all that is eternal and divine, rejecting only that which was transitory, because purely disciplinary and of human conception, also adds a revelation of the future life of which Moses had not spoken, - with its retributions and recompenses which await all mankind after physical dissolution. The most important part of the revelation of Christ, its Alpha and Omega, the corner-stone of his doctrine, is the new character given to divinity. God is no more the vindictive, jealous, and terrible God of Moses, the cruel and unmerciful God who bathes the earth with human blood, who orders the massacre and extermination of nations, without excepting women, children, and the aged; who chastises those who spare the victims. He is no more the unjust God who punishes a whole community for the faults of its chief, even punishing the innocent in the stead of the guilty, visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children, but a merciful God, sovereignly just and good, full of tenderness and mercy, who pardons the repentant sinner, and rewards every one according to his works. He is no more the God of a favored people, the God of armies, presiding at combats in order to sustain his own cause against the gods of other nations, but the common Father of humanity, who extends his protection over all his children, and calls them all his own. He is no more the God who recompenses or punishes by giving or withholding earthly goods, who makes glory and good fortune to consist in conquering rival nations, and placing them in a state of slavery, or in the multiplicity of progeny; but he is the God who says to men, "Your true country is not of this world; it is in the celestial kingdom; it is there that the lowly in heart shall be elevated, and the proud abased." He is no more the God who makes a virtue of vengeance, ordering us to exact "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," but the God of mercy, who says, "Forgive if you would be forgiven; return good for evil; do unto others as ye would that others would do unto you." He is no more the exacting and tyrannical God who imposes the most rigorous laws upon us in regard to the ceremonies by which he desires to be adored, who is offended with the inobservance of a formula, but the great and good God who is honored not by the form or ceremony, but by the sincere, heartfelt thought. He is no more the God to be feared, but the God to be loved. God being the pivot of all religious beliefs, the base of all civilization, the character of all religions conform to the idea they give of God. Those which make him vindictive and cruel think they honor him by acts of cruelty, by butcheries and tortures; those who make him a partial and jealous God are intolerant, over-scrupulous in forms, according as they believe him to be more or less tainted with weaknesses and human errors. The whole doctrine of Christ is founded upon the character he attributes to divinity.
With an impartial God, perfectly just, good, and merciful, he has been able to make of the love of God and charity toward one's neighbor the express condition of salvation, and to say, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." Upon this belief alone he has been able to base the principle of the equality of men before God, and of universal fraternity. This revelation of the true attributes of divinity, joined to that of the immortality of the soul and of man's future life, deeply modified the mutual relations of men, imposed upon them new obligations, caused them to view the present life under another light. It effected a marked change for the better in the manners and social relations of humanity. It is incontestably, in its consequences, the most important point in the revelation of Christ, of which one can never fully appreciate the importance. Sad to say, it is the point least commented upon, - the one which has been misconstrued in a greater degree than all his other teachings. However, Christ adds, "Many things I say unto you which you do not understand. I have yet many things to say unto you; but ye cannot hear them now." That is why I speak to you in parables; but later I will send to you the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, and when he is come he will guide you into all truth. I Christ did not impart all the truth which he was capable of giving, he thought it better to leave some truths in shadow until men should be capable of comprehending them. From his own acknowledgment, his teachings were then incomplete. Since he announces the coming of the spirit who should add unto them, he prophesied that they would misunderstand his words; that they would deviate from his teachings; in a word, that they would deteriorate from that which he had done for them, but every thing he declared should be re-established. Now, one re-establishes only that which has been defective. Why did he call the new Messiah the Comforter? This significant name, without ambiguity, is a revelation in itself. It predicted that men would have need of consolation, which, he implies, should spring from an insufficient knowledge of truth. They would find this in a belief they could not then immediately espouse.
Scarcely ever has Christ been so clear and explicit as in these last words, which have gained the particular attention of but few people, perhaps because teachers have failed to place them in the right light to deepen their prophetic sense. If Christ has not been able to develop his teachings in a complete manner, it is because men were so ignorant, and they could acquire knowledge only with time. He treated of things which appeared to them visionary and unreal in their undeveloped state. In order to complete his mission, it was only necessary to explain and develop truths already given. It was unnecessary to add new truth; for the germ of all was found in his words; the key only was wanting which should unlock their meaning. But who dares to attempt to change the meaning of the Holy Scriptures? Who has the right? Who possesses the necessary light, if not the theologians? Who will dare to undertake it? Science first, which asks permission of no one to make known the laws of nature. She crushes under her feet the most beloved errors and prejudices. What man has this right?
| ° ELECTRONIC BOOKS |
CHRISTIANITY AND SPIRITUALISM
The History of the Gospels
The Secret Doctrine of Christianity
Intercourse with the Spirits of the Dead
The New Revelation
Vitam Impendere Vero
By
LÉON DENIS
Author of
"Après La Mort, "Dans L'Invisible," ETC.
Translated from the French by
HELEN DRAPER SPEAKMAN
LONDON
PHILIP WELLBY
6 Henrietta Street Covent Garden
1904
This book is out of print indefinitely
1st Electronic Edition by
the
Advanced
Study Group of Spiritism
(GEAE)
2006
Note # 10
Here is an extract from the text of the condemnation of Galileo in 1615; photographed in the Archives of the Vatican by an ardent Catholic, Comte Henri de l'Epinois:
"Thou hast been denounced in 1615 to the Sacred Office:
"Because thou hast sustained as true a false doctrine spread by many, namely that 'the Sun is motionless in the centre of the world and that the earth has a daily movement'; because thou teachest this doctrine to thy disciples; because thou hast kept up a correspondence on this subject with the mathematicians of Germany; because thou hast published letters about the solar spots, in which thou didst present this doctrine as true; because to the objections made to thee thou didst answer by explaining the Holy Scriptures according to thine own idea...
"The tribunal has wished to prevent the inconveniences and dangers derived therefrom, which are becoming aggravated to the detriment of the faith.
"By the order of the Pope and the Cardinals, the theologians charged with this mission have thus qualified thy two propositions. First, 'The sun is the centre of the world and does not move.' An absurd proposition, false in philosophy, and heretical as to its expression, for it is contrary to the Holy Scriptures. Second, 'The earth is not the centre of the world, it is not immovable, but has a daily movement.'
"Proposition equally absurd and false in philosophy, and, considered from a theological point of view, erroneous as to the faith. ... We declare that thou hast rendered thyself strongly suspected of heresy; Because thou hast believed and upheld a doctrine false and contrary to the holy and divine Scriptures, namely: that the sun is the centre of the universe and does not move from east to west; that the earth moves and is not the centre of the world.
"Because thou hast thought that thou couldst support, as probable, an opinion which has been declared contrary to the Holy Scriptures.
"In consequence, we declare that thou hast incurred all the censures and pains decreed by the sacred canons and other general and particular constitutions against those who disobey the statutes and other decrees promulgated.
"From such censures it pleases us to absolve thee provided that, firstly, thou shalt, from a sincere heart and with a true faith, abjure before us, curse and detest, according to the formula which we will present to thee, the said errors and heresies, and all other error or heresy contrary to the Catholic, Apostolic and Roman Church. And, that thy grave and pernicious error and thy disobedience may not remain unpunished, so that in the future thou shouldst be more reserved and that thou shouldst serve as an example to others that they may avoid these sins: We declare, by public edict, that the book of "Diologues," by Galileo, is prohibited.
"We condemn thee to the ordinary prison of this Holy Office for a length of time to be set at our pleasure. As a salutary penance, we order thee to recite, during three years, once a week, the seven penitential psalms.
"We reserve to ourselves the power to moderate, to change, or to remit all or part of the pains and penances aforesaid."
A theologian dictated the following lines, five years ago, to Mr Henry Lasserre, which the author of "Notre Dame de Lourdes," and the "Traduction nouvelle des Evangiles" (this last work also placed on the Index) repeats in his "Memoires a La Sainteté": -
"This decree which anathematized the admirable discovery of the great astronomer and which punished him by imprisonment, was a double and complete error.
"It was an incidental and secondary error in astronomy, but it was, above all, a principal error in doctrine. Remarkably enough the Sacred Congregation has condemned itself by every word of the decree.
"By condemning as absurd, that is to say contrary to reason, that which is reasonable, it has convicted itself of being without reason and opposed to reason.
"By condemning as false, that is, contrary to the truth, that which is true, it has convicted itself of being without truth and opposed to truth.
"By condemning as heresy, that is, contrary to orthodoxy, that which is a divine law of the visible universe, it has convicted itself of being unorthodox and opposed to orthodoxy.
"By condemning as contrary to the Scriptures a marvelous system of the Creator, the Sacred Congregation has convicted itself of being without the science of the Scriptures, and opposed to their true interpretation.
"Every Roman, in private, in the intimacy of conversation, was not slow in confessing and in deploring the fault committed by these eminent judges.
"Nevertheless, what is still more deplorable, is that in spite of the complaints and demands, in spite of the proofs and evidence, in spite of the orders of Benoit XIV, and the sentence of eradication pronounced by this Pope on May 10th, 1754, notwithstanding a second decree of the same nature, rendered by Pius VII on Sept. 25th, 1822, the repugnance of the Roman Congregation to confess itself in error or to submit to such a decree from the Pope, was so great, that during more than two centuries and in the face of a recognized truth, this tribunal maintained its decree on the Catalogue of the index librorum prohibitorum."
The works containing the discoveries of Galileo and of Copernicus, condemned on August 23rd, 1634, as absurd, false, heretical and contrary to the holy and divine Scriptures, have only been removed from the Index in the edition of 1835. They remained forbidden for 201 years.
CONTEMPORARY SPIRITUALISTIC PHENOMENA; AND
PROOFS OF IDENTITY OF THE SPIRITS
The physical phenomena offered at the beginning an insufficient basis for argument; but since then the facts have taken on an intelligent character, and become accentuated to such a degree that negation has become impossible.
It is by positive proofs that the question of the existence of the soul and its immortality has been answered. The radiations of thought have been photographed; the spirit, clothed in its fluidic body, in its imperishable envelope, has appeared on the sensitive plate. Its existence has become as certain as that of the physical body.
The identity of the spirits has been established times without number. We may quote a few instances.
Rev. Stainton Moses (Oxon) professor of Oxford University, in his book on Spirit Identity, relates a case in which the table gave a long and circumstantial account of the death, the ages, even to the number of months, and the baptismal names (four for one and three for another) of three little children of the same family, who had died suddenly. "None of us had any knowledge of these uncommon names. They had died in India, and when the message was given us, we had no apparent means of verification." This revelation was nevertheless verified some time after and proved to be exact, by the testimony of the mother of these children, whose acquaintance Mr Stainton Moses made later on.
The same author quotes the case of one Abraham Florentine, who died in the United States, a fact absolutely unknown to the experimenters and which was carefully verified afterwards.
The story of Siegwart Lekebusch, a young tailor who was run over and killed by a train, proves again how contraty to the truth it is to assert that the personalities who manifest by the table are always known to those present. The reverse is constantly the case.
According to "Animisme and Spiritisme," of Aksakof, the posthumous identity of the spirits is proved by: -
1st. Communications from the spirit in its native tongue, which is unknown to the medium (p. 538), as in the cases of Miss Edmunds, Mr. Turner, of Miss Scougal and of Mrs Corvin, who talked with a spectator in the sign-language of the deaf-mutes, which was unknown to her.
2nd. By communication from a spirit in its own characteristic style, or with expressions peculiar to it, received in the absence of any one who had known the deceased (page 543), the completion of a novel of Dickens, Edwin Drood, by an illiterate young workman, in such a manner that it is impossible to say at which point the original manuscript stops, and the work of the medium begins.
See also the history of Louis XI, written by Mdlle Hermance Dufaux, at the age of fourteen. (Revue Spirite 1858.) This history, very detailed, contains information unpublished before.
3rd. By communications delivered by a spirit unknown to the medium, in the handwriting of its life-time (page 345). Letter of Mrs Livermore, written by herself after her death. This spirit established her identity by showing herself, by writing and by conversing as during her life. The spirit even wrote in French, which language was quite unknown to the medium, Kate Fox. Also the case where Stainton Moses obtained a signature from a spirit, which signature was recognized by a banker (see La Realité des Esprits," by Baron Guldenstubbe).
Also direct writing (not through the hand of a medium) of a relative of the author, and recognized by him as being identical with the handwriting during life. (These same proofs have been obtained many times in our own circle of experiments.)
4th. By communications coming from one deceased, containing a collection of details concerning his earthly life, and received in the absence of anyone who had known the deceased (see page 436).
Through the mediumship of Mrs. Conant, several thousand spirits unknown to the medium have been identified as persons having lived in other countries (page 559 and following). The cases of the old Chamberlain, of Violet, and Robert Dale Owen, etc.
5th. By communication from one deceased, of facts known during his life to him only, and that he only could communicate (see page 466). The case of the son of Mr. Davy, poisoned and robbed at sea, a statement which was afterwards found to be true. The discovery of the will of Baron Korff; the spirit of Jack, which states (as proved correctly) the amounts owing to him, what he owed, etc., etc.
6th. Bu communications which are not spontaneous, like the preceding, but provoked by direct appeal to the deceased, and received in the absence of any one who had known the deceased (see page 585). Answers given by the spirits to sealed letters (medium Mansfield). Direct writing giving the answer to a question unknown to the medium, Mr Watkins.
7th. By communications received in the absence of all persons who had known deceased, which betray certain psychic conditions or provoke physical sensations peculiar to him (p. 597). The spirit of a mad woman, still troubled in space. The case of Mr Elias Pond, of Woonsoket, etc.
8th. By the apparition of the earthly form of deceased (page 605). (These phenomena have occurred many times in the séances directed by us.)
Gabriel Delanne, in the Revue scientifique et morale du Spiritism, expresses himself thus: -
"The literature of spiritualism contains millions of similar facts, carefully observed by reliable witnesses, whose testimony is above suspicion. We have then the scientific proof that the individual principle is independent of the body, that it has its own separate existence, that it survives the disintegration of the body, and that, moreover, it preserves enough of the elements of its personality to prove the great fact of survival."
It is also possible, experimentally and irrefutably, to prove that the "I," the ego, has an objective form, which can come within ken of the senses under certain conditions, for example: -
(A) By the apparition of one deceased, seen by the mental vision of the medium, with or without the presence of persons having known him (Aksakof, p. 605 and following) see also Annales des Sciences psychique, March-April 1897, the story of John the carrier.
The case of General Drayton, to whom a medium described a friend whom he believed to be living; the dead man relating to him the extraordinary circumstances which had accompanied his death. The vision of Mme. Aksakof of the daughter of countess Tolstoi.
(B) Case in which the presence of the deceased is attested by the mental vision of the medium, and at the same time, by photography, in the absence of all persons who had known deceased.
The experiments of Mr Beattie, when the medium, in trance, gave a description of the luminous forms which appeared to his mental vision. The testimony of Stainton Moses; the vision and the photograph of the spirit of little Pauline. The recognition by Mrs Moses A. Dow, of the portrait of her deceased friend. The attestation of Dr Russel Wallace, relative to the case of Mr Blond.
We will also quote the case of the portrait of Mrs Bonner which appeared on the photograph of Mr Bronson Murray, who did not know the lady. Also the portrait of the mother of Dr G. Thomson, who had died at his birth. Forty-four years had elapsed between her death and the taking of the photograph.
(C) Apparition of the earthly form of one deceased, by means of materialization, and accompanied by intellectual proofs.
Sometimes the spirits have made use of natural deformities of their material bodies to cause themselves to be more easily recognized after their death, by reproducing these deformities in materializations. Once it is two fingers bent in towards the palm, in consequence of a burn, again the index finger is bent at the second joint, etc.
The report of Mr Scherman on the materialization of an Indian, which recalled to him an episode of his life. Also the case of Estelle, the wife of Mr. Livermore, already mentioned by Aksakof. (Page 408).
| ° SPIRIT
MESSAGES |
HEAVEN AND HELL
Or
The Divine Justice Vindicated in the Plurality of Existence
Concerning
The passage from the earthly life to spirit-life,
future rewards and punishments,
angels and devils, etc.
Followed by numerous examples of the state of the soul,
during and after death.
BEING THE PRACTICAL CONFIRMATION OF "THE SPIRITS' BOOK"
BY Allan Kardec
Translated from the Sixtieth Thousand - By Anna Blackwell
[London: Trubner & Co., Ludgate Hill - 1878]
Part First - Doctrine
CHAPTER I
FUTURE LIFE AND ANNIHILATION
4. It is in this state of things that the phenomena of Spiritism are
spontaneously developed in the order of Providence, and oppose a
barrier against the invasion of skepticism, not only by argument, not
only by the prospect of the dangers which it reveals, but by the
production of physical facts
which render the existence of the soul, and the reality of a future
life, both palpable and visible.
Each human being is, undoubtedly, free to believe anything, or to
believe nothing; but those who employ the ascendancy of their knowledge
and position in propagating, among the masses, and especially among the
rising generation, the negation of a future life, are sowing broadcast
the seeds of social confusion and dissolution, and are incurring a
heavy responsibility by so doing.
5. There is another doctrine, equally anti-social in its tendencies,
but which repudiates the qualification of "Materialistic," because it
admits the existence of a principle distinct from matter; we allude to
that which asserts that each individual soul is to be absorbed in the Universal Whole. According to this
doctrine, each human being assimilates, at birth, a particle of this
principle, which constitutes his soul and gives him life, intelligence,
and sentiment. At death, this soul returns to the common source, and is
merged in infinity as a drop of water is merged in the ocean.
This doctrine is, undoubtedly, an advance upon that of pure and simple
Materialism, inasmuch as it admits something more that matter; but its
consequences are precisely the same. Whether a man, after death,
is dissolved into nothingness, or plunged into a general reservoir, is
all one, as far as he himself ins concerned for if, in the one case, he
is annihilated, in the other, he loses his individuality, which is, for
him, exactly the same thing as though he ceased to exist; in either
case, all social relations are destroyed for ever. What is essential
for each human being is the preservation of his me; without that, what does it
matter to him whether he exists, or does not exist? In either case, for
him, the future is nil, and
his present life is the only thing of any importance to him. As regards
its moral consequences, this doctrine is, therefore, just as
pernicious, just as devoid of hope, just as powerful a stimulus to
selfishness, as Materialism properly so called.
6. The doctrine we have been considering is open, moreover, to the
following objection. All the drops of water contained in the ocean
resemble one another exactly and possess identically the same
properties, as must necessarily be the case with the several parts of
any homogeneous Whole; how is it, then, that the souls of the human
race, if they are only so many drops taken out of a great ocean of
intelligence, are so unlike one another? Why do we find genius side by
side with stupidity? The sublimest virtues, side by side with the most
ignoble vices? Kindness, gentleness, forbearance, side by side with
cruelty, violence, and barbarity? How can the parts of a homogeneous
Whole be so different from one another? Will it be said that they are
modified by education? But, if so, whence come the various qualities
which they bring with them at birth, the precious intelligence of some,
the good or bad instinct of others, that are not only independent of
education, but often altogether out of harmony with the surroundings
amidst which they are found?
Education, most undoubtedly, does modify
the intellectual and moral qualities of the soul; but here another
difficulty presents itself. Who is it that gives, to each soul, the
education which causes it to progress? Other souls, who - according to
the doctrine which makes them out to be drops of a homogeneous ocean of
soul - could be no more advanced than themselves! On the other hand, if
the soul, after having progressed during life, returns to the Universal
Whole from which it came, it gives back an improved element to that
Whole; and it would therefore follow that the general Whole will be, in
course of time, profoundly modified, and improved, by this educational
modification of its parts. How is it, in that case, that ignorant and
perverse souls are constantly being produced from it?
7. According to this doctrine, the universal source of intelligence,
from which souls are produced, is distinct
from the Divinity; it is, therefore, not quite the same as Pantheism. Pantheism, properly so
called, differs from this doctrine inasmuch as it considers the
universal principle of life and intelligence as constituting the Divinity. God,
according to Pantheism, is both spirit and matter; all the beings, all
the bodies, of nature, compose the Divinity, of which they are the
molecules, the constituent elements. God is the total of all that is;
each individual, being a part of this total, is himself God; the total
is not ruled over by any commanding and superior being; the universe is
an immense republic without a chief, endowed with absolute power.
8. This system is open to a variety of objections, of which the
principal are the following: - It being impossible to conceive of the
Divinity without the infinitude of His perfections, how can a Perfect
Whole be formed of parts so imperfect as we see them to be, and having
so great a need of progression? These parts being subjected to the law
of progress, it follows that God himself must progress incessantly;
and, if He has been progressing from all eternity, it also follows that
He must formerly have been very imperfect. But how is is possible that
an imperfect being, made up of wills and ideas so widely divergent from
one another, should have been able to conceive the harmonious laws, so
admirable in their unity, wisdom, and forethought, that govern the
universe? If all souls are portions of the Divinity, all of them must
have concurred in establishing the laws of nature; how comes it, then,
that they are perpetually murmuring against those laws which, according
to this doctrine, are of their own inventing? No theory can be accepted as true unless
it can both satisfy our reason and furnish a rational explanation of
all the facts with which it deals; if it is belied by a single one of
those facts, it cannot be true.
9. Examined from
the point of view of its moral consequences, Pantheism is seen to be as
unsatisfactory as it is intellectually absurd. In the first place, the
destiny of each soul, according to this system, is, as in the system
previously examined, its absorption in a general Whole, with the
consequent loss of its individuality. If, on the contrary, it be
admitted, according to the opinion of certain pantheists, that souls
preserve their individuality, God can have no unitary will, but is an
amalgam of myriads of divergent individualities. Besides, each soul
being an integral part of the Divinity, no soul is subjected to the
sway of any power superior to itself; consequently, no soul incurs any
responsibility for its actions, whether good or bad, no soul has any
motive for doing right, and each soul is free to do all the wrong it
pleases, with perfect impunity, seeing that each soul is the sovereign
ruler of the universe.
[Happy Spirits]
[An excellent man, killed by an accident, and who had been known to the medium during his life. Bordeax, February 11, 1861.]
A. After the drowning, yes.
Q. Why not before?
A. You know all those particulars already. (This was the case.)
Q. Have the kindness to describe to me what you felt after your death.
A. It was long before I recovered my consciousness; but, with the grace of God and the help of the friends about me, when at length the light became visible, I was inundated by it. Be hopeful! You are sure to find, on coming here, more than you had looked for! Nothing of matter; everything perceived by senses that are hidden from you during the life of the flesh; what can neither be seen by the eye nor touched by the hand; do you understand what I mean? It is an admiration of the spirit-being ghat surpasses your power of understanding, for there are no words that can explain it; 'tis something that can only be felt by the soul.
My awaking was very happy. The life of the earth is one of those dreams which, notwithstanding the grotesqueness that you attach to the word, I can only speak of as a nightmare. Suppose you dream that you are in a filthy dungeon; that your body - devoured by worms which gnaw into the very narrow of your bones - is suspended above a fiery furnace; that your mouth, parched with thirst, finds not even a breath of air for refreshment; that your spirit, horror-stricken, sees around you only monsters ready to devour you; figure to yourself, in short, all the most hideous, most horrible fancies that the most fantastic dream can bring together for your torment, and then imagine yourself to be transported, all at once, into an Eden of delight! Imagine yourself to awake from your nightmare, and to find yourself surrounded by all those whom you loved, whose loss you have wept, and whose beloved faces you see about you, looking upon you with joyous smiles; that you inhale the most exquisite perfumes and cool your parched throat at a spring of living water; that you are floated upwards, into the infinity of space, as lightly as the flower that the breeze carries off from the tree; that you fell yourself to be enveloped in the Infinite Love as the babe is enveloped in the love of its mother; fancy all this, and you will still have formed to yourself only a dim and faint idea of the transition! I have tried, by these similes, to explain to you the happiness of the life which awaits man after the death of his body; but it is something that cannot be explained. Can the infinity of the sky be explained to the blind cripple whose eyes are closed to the light, and whose limbs have never bee able to overstep the circle of powerlessness in which they are imprisoned? To give you an idea of the happiness of eternity, I would say to you, "Love!' for only love can show you a fore glimpse of that happiness; and love implies absence of selfishness.
Q. Was your situation a happy one, at once, on your entrance into the spirit-world?
A. No; I had to pay the debt of my human life. Through my affections, I had divined the existence of a future life for the spirit; but I had no active faith in the future. I had therefore to expiate my indifference towards my Creator; but His mercy took account of the little good I had been able to do, the sorrows I had endured with resignation, notwithstanding the suffering they had caused me; and the Divine Justice, which holds the scales according to a rule that men cannot understand, weighed my deserts with so much love and kindness, that my shortcomings were speedily effaced.
Q. Will you give me news of your daughter? (Deceased four or five years before her father.)
A. She is fulfilling a mission upon your earth.
Q. Is she happy in this reincarnation? I hope my question is not indiscreet?
A. I could not regard it as being such; do I not see your thought like a picture, before my eyes? No; her human life is not a happy one, but the opposite; she has to undergo all the troubles of your world, but she will illustrate, by her example, all the noble virtues about which men make so many fine phrases. I shall aid her; she will not have much difficulty in surmounting the obstacles in her path; her present life is not an expiation, but a mission. Be easy about her; and accept my thanks for your kind remembrance.
(At this moment, the medium found a difficulty in writing, and said: - "If it be a suffering spirit that is trying to take possession of my hand, I beg him to write his name.")
A. One who is very unhappy.
Q. Be kind enough to tell me your name.
A. Valeria.
Q. Will you tell me what has brought your punishment upon you?
A. No.
Q. Do you repent of your wrong-doing?
A. You see that I do.
Q. Who brought you here?
A. Sixdeniers.
Q. For what purpose did he bring you here?
A. That you may help me.
Q. Was it you who hindered me from writing, just now?
A. He put me in his place.
Q. What connexion is there between you?
A. He guides me.
Q. As him to join in the prayer we are going to offer up for you.
(After the prayer, Sixdeniers, taking possession of the medium's hand, wrote: - Thanks for her; you have understood what she needs; think of her.)
Q. (To Sixdeniers.) Have you many suffering spirits to guide?
A. No; but, as soon as we have brought one back to the right road, we take in hand another; without, however, losing sight of those we formerly assisted.
Q. How can you suffice for exercising an oversight that must be multiplied to infinity in the course of time?
A. Those whom we bring back to virtue become purified and progress; they then give us less trouble; and besides, in raising them, we raise ourselves also, and, as we go up, our faculties progresses, and our power radiates more widely in proportion to our purity. *
* Remark. - Inferior spirits, then, are assisted by higher spirits, whose mission it is to bring them on; this task is therefore not exclusively committed to incarnates, though they, too, should take part in it, because it is, for them also, a means of advancement. When a spirit of lower degree impedes a communication, as in the present case, it is not always from a good motive; but the higher spirits permit the interruption, either as a trial for the medium's patience, or in order that he may labor for the amelioration of the interrupter. The persistence of the latter may sometimes, undoubtedly, degenerate into obsession but, the more tenacious the obsession, the greater, and the more evident, is the obsessor's need for assistance. It is therefore a mistake to repel such a spirit; we ought, on the contrary, to regard him as a mendicant who needs our charity. We should say to ourselves: - "Here is an unhappy spirit who has been sent to me by spirits of higher degree, that I may carry on his education. ** If I succeed, I shall rejoice to have led back an erring soul to goodness, and to have shortened his sufferings. The task is often a painful one; it would, no doubt, be more agreeable to receive only high and beautiful communications, and to converse only with the spirits of our choice; but it is not by the exclusive seeking of our own satisfaction, and by turning away from the opportunities presented to us of doing good, that we shall merit the protection of spirits of high degree.
** The hierarchical order of the Universe explains the fact, well-known to the members of "circles" formed for obtaining spirit-manifestations, viz., that ignorant and vicious spirits are often brought to them to be instructed and moralized, and are generally rendered better by the conversation and remonstrances of their members. "Why do you bring these low spirits to us, instead of acting upon them yourselves?" inquired the translator, on one occasion, of the higher spirit who had thus brought a lot of poor wretches to be taken in hand by a "circle" of which she was a member; "surely, you, who are so much higher than we are, must be able to act upon these unhappy spirits more effectually than we can do!"
"It is precisely because we are higher than you are," replied the Guide of the Circle, "that you can act upon them more effectually than we can do. Remember that all spiritual light comes down from above; and you will then understand how it is that we cannot act directly on spirits so low as these. They are below you; and therefore we can only reach them, and act upon the, through you." - TR.
[Suffering Spirits]
A. Be humble-minded, resigned to the will of God, patient under trial, charitable to the poor, encouraging for the weak, warm-hearted for all who suffer, and you will not have to undergo the tortures I am enduring?
Q. If you were carried away by the vices which are the opposites of the virtues you point out, you appear, at least, to regret your wrong-doing. Surely, your repentance must have brought you relief?
A. No; repentance is sterile when it is a consequence of suffering. Productive repentance is that which springs from regret for having offended God and from an ardent desire to make reparation for that offense. Unhappily for me, I have not yet reached that standpoint. Speak for me to those who consecrate themselves to the help of the suffering; I am in sad need of their prayers.
This is a great truth. Suffering sometimes drags from the sufferer a cry of repentance which is not the expression of a sincere regret for having done wrong; for, if he no longer suffered, he would be ready to repeat his wrong-doing. Mere repentance, therefore, does not always procure the sufferer's deliverance; it prepares the way for deliverance, but that is all. Before the wrong-doer can be delivered from the results of his wrong-doing, he must prove the sincerity and the thoroughness of his good resolutions by undergoing new trials which will give him the means of making reparation for the evil he has done. If the reader carefully ponders the various examples we have brought forward in the present work, he will find valuable instruction in the statements of even the most backward spirits, because they all show us some details of the life of their world. While the superficial reader sees, in these examples, only histories more or less picturesque, reflective minds will find in them an abundant stock of subjects for serious study.
Q. I will do what you ask. Will you give me some details concerning your last existence? Such details may be instructive for us; and you will thus render your repentance productive.
(The spirit manifested a good deal of hesitation in replying to this question, and also to several of the subsequent ones.)
A. I was born in a high position. I had everything that men regard as conducive to happiness. Rich, I was selfish; handsome, I was coquettish, cold-hearted, and deceitful; of noble rank, I was ambitious. With my power, I crushed those who did not prostrate themselves sufficiently low before me; I crushed even those who threw themselves under my feet, without reflecting that the Master also crushes, sooner or later, the haughtiest brows.
Q. At what period did you live:
A. One hundred and fifty years ago, in Prussian.
Q. Have you, in that time, made no progress as a spirit?
A. No; the influence of matter has kept me in a state of constant revolt. You cannot comprehend the influence exerted by matter upon the spirit, notwithstanding the separation of the latter from the body. Pride winds around the soul its chains of brass, whose links grow tighter and tighter about the wretch who has abandoned his heart to its action. Pride! The hydra whose hundred heads - perpetually renewed - have the art of modulating their poisoned hisses so cunningly that its victims mistake them for celestial music! Pride! The Protean demon who lends himself to all the aberrations of your spirit, who hides himself in the deepest recesses of your heart, who penetrates into your veins, envelops your being, absorbs you, and draws you after him into the darkness of the eternal Gehenna! ... Yes, eternal!
The spirit denies have made any progress; doubtless, because still in a painful situation; but the description given of pride, and the horror expressed of the consequences of that vice, are incontestable proofs of progress; for, during life, he would certainly not have reasoned thus. The understanding of evil is the first step towards amendment; the will, and the power, to avoid evil, come afterwards.
Q. God is too good to condemn His creatures to eternal punishment; you should hope in His mercy.
A. There may be an end to suffering; it is said that there is; but when? where? I have sought it long; but I see only suffering, everywhere and for ever! For ever! For ever!
Q. What brought you here today?
A. A spirit, who often follows me, brought me here.
Q. Since when you have seen that spirit?
A. Not very long.
Q. And since when have you begun to repent of your faults?
A. (After reflecting for some minutes.) Yes; you are right; 'twas then that I began to see him.
Q. Do you not understand the connexion which exists between your repentance and the visible aid given you by your spirit-guardian? You should see, as the origin of this aid, the love of God, and, as its aim, the forgiveness which His infinite mercy is waiting to accord to you.
A. Oh, how much I wish it might be so!
Q. I think I can promise you this forgiveness in the sacred name of Him who is never deaf to the cry of His children in distress. Call to Him from the depths of your repentance; He will hear you.
A. I cannot! I am afraid.
Q. Let us pray together; we shall certainly be heard by Him. (After the prayer.) Are you still here?
A. Yes; thanks; do not forget me!
Q. Come to me, and write your name, every day.
A. Yes, yes; I will come every day.
The Medium's Guide. - Never forget the teachings you derive from the sufferings of those whom you assist, especially as regards the causes of those sufferings; let them serve to preserve you from the same dangers and the same chastisements. Purify your hearts; be humble, loving, helpful; the more diligently you spread blessing around you, the more richly will you be blessed. Point out to your brethren the dangers of the way; show them, by your example, how to avoid them and the blessing of the Highest will be with you, and with those who listen to you.
| ° ARTICLES |
BY Alfred Russel Wallace
The article below and the introductory comments were taken from Charles H. Smith's website at http://www.wku.edu/~smithch/
Originally published in The Sunday Herald (Boston) of 26 April 1885. The very lightly revised version reproduced here appeared in The Medium and Daybreak of 18 December 1885.
"Life is the elaboration of soul through the varied transformations of matter." - Spiritual Evolution
IT IS a common, but I believe a mistaken notion, that the conclusions of Science are antagonistic to the alleged phenomena of modern Spiritualism. The majority of our teachers and students of science are, no doubt, antagonistic, but their opinions and prejudices are not science. Every discoverer who has promulgated new and startling truths, even in the domain of physics, has been denounced or ignored by those who represented the science of the day, as witness the long line of great teachers from Galileo in the dark ages to Boucher de Perthes in our own times. But the opponents of Spiritualism have the additional advantage of being able to brand the new belief as a degrading superstition, and to accuse those who accept its facts and its teachings of being the victims of delusion or imposture - of being, in fact, either half-insane enthusiasts or credulous fools. Such denunciations, however, affect us little. The fact that Spiritualism has firmly established itself in our skeptical and materialistic age, that it has continuously grown and developed for nearly forty years, that by mere weight of evidence, and in spite of the most powerful prepossessions, it has compelled recognition by an ever-increasing body of men in all classes of society, and has gained adherents in the highest ranks of science and philosophy, and, finally, that despite abuse and misrepresentation, the folly of enthusiasts and the knavery of impostors, it has rarely failed to convince those who have made a thorough and painstaking investigation, and has never lost a convert thus made - all this affords a conclusive answer to the objections so commonly urged against it. Let us, then, simply ignore the scorn and incredulity of those who really know nothing of the matter, and consider, briefly, what are the actual relations of Science and Spiritualism, and to what extent the latter supplements and illumines the former.
Science may be defined as knowledge of the universe in which we live - full and systematized knowledge leading to the discovery of laws and the comprehension of causes. The true student of science neglects nothing and despises nothing that may widen and deepen his knowledge of nature, and if he is wise as well as learned he will hesitate before he applies the term "impossible" to any facts which are widely believed and have been repeatedly observed by men as intelligent and honest as himself. Now, modern Spiritualism rests solely on the observation and comparison of facts in a domain of nature which has been hitherto little explored, and it is a contradiction in terms to say that such an investigation is opposed to science. Equally absurd is the allegation that some of the phenomena of Spiritualism "contradict the laws of nature," since there is no law of nature yet known to us but may be apparently contravened by the action of more recondite laws or forces. Spiritualists observe facts and record experiments, and then construct hypotheses which will best explain and co-ordinate the facts, and in so doing they are pursuing a truly scientific course. They have now collected an enormous body of observations tested and verified in every possible way, and they have determined many of the conditions necessary for the production of the phenomena. They have also arrived at certain general conclusions as to the causes of these phenomena, and they simply refuse to recognize the competence of those who have no acquaintance whatever with the facts, to determine the value or correctness of those conclusions.
We who have satisfied ourselves of the reality of the phenomena of modern Spiritualism in all their wide-reaching extent and endless variety, are enabled to look upon the records of the past with new interest and fuller appreciation. It is surely something to be relieved from the necessity of classing Socrates and St. Augustine, Luther and Swedenborg, as the credulous victims of delusion or imposture. The so-called miracles and supernatural events which pervade the sacred books and historical records of all nations find their place among natural phenomena, and need no longer be laboriously explained away. The witchcraft mania of Europe and America affords the materials for an important study, since we are now able to detect the basis of fact on which it rested, and to separate from it the Satanic interpretation which invested it with horror, and appeared to justify the cruel punishments by which it was attempted to be suppressed. Local folklore and superstitions acquire a living interest, since they are often based on phenomena which we can reproduce under proper conditions, and the same may be said of much of the sorcery and magic of the Middle Ages. In these and many other ways history and anthropology are illuminated by Spiritualism.
To the teacher of religion it is of vital importance, since it enables him to meet the skeptic on his own ground, to adduce facts and evidence for the faith that he professes, and to avoid that attitude of apology and doubt which renders him altogether helpless against the vigorous assaults of Agnosticism and materialistic science. Theology, when vivified and strengthened by Spiritualism, may regain some of the influence and power of its earlier years.
Science will equally benefit, since it will have opened to it a new domain of surpassing interest. Just as there is behind the visible world of nature an "unseen universe" of forces, the study of which continually opens up fresh worlds of knowledge often intimately connected with the true comprehension of the most familiar phenomena of nature, so the world of mind will be illuminated by the new facts and principles which the study of Spiritualism makes known to us. Modern science utterly fails to realize the nature of mind or to account for its presence in the universe, except by the mere verbal and unthinkable dogma that it is "the product of organization." Spiritualism, on the other hand, recognizes in Mind the cause of organization, and, perhaps, even of matter itself; and it has added greatly to our knowledge of man's nature, by demonstrating the existence of individual minds indistinguishable from those of human beings, yet separate from any human body. It has made us acquainted with forms of matter of which materialistic science has no cognizance, and with an ethereal chemistry whose transformations are far more marvelous than any of those with which science deals. It thus gives us proof that there are possibilities of organized existence beyond those of our material world, and in doing so removes the greatest stumbling-block in the way of belief in a future state of existence - the impossibility so often felt by the student of material science of separating the conscious mind from its partnership with the brain and nervous system.
On the spiritual theory man consists essentially of a spiritual nature or mind intimately associated with a spiritual body or soul, both of which are developed in and by means of a material organism. Thus the whole raison d'être of the material universe - with all its marvelous changes and adaptations, the infinite complexity of matter and of the ethereal forces which pervade and vivify it, the vast wealth of nature in the vegetable and animal kingdoms - is to serve the grand purpose of developing human spirits in human bodies.
This world-life not only lends itself to the production, by gradual evolution, of the physical body needed for the growth and nourishment of the human soul, but by its very imperfections tends to the continuous development of the higher spiritual nature of man. In a perfect and harmonious world perfect beings might possibly have been created but could hardly have been evolved, and it may well be that evolution is the great fundamental law of the universe of mind as well as of that of matter. The need for labor in order to live, the constant struggle against the forces of nature, the antagonism of the good and the bad, the oppression of the weak by the strong, the painstaking and devoted search required to wrest from nature her secret powers and hidden treasures - all directly assist in developing the varied powers of mind and body and the nobler impulses of our nature. Thus, all the material imperfections of our globe, the wintry blasts and summer heats, the volcano, the whirlwind and the flood, the barren desert and the gloomy forest, have each served as stimuli to develop and strengthen man's intellectual nature; while the oppression and wrong, the ignorance and crime, the misery and pain, that always and everywhere pervade the world, have been the means of exercising and strengthening the higher sentiments of justice, mercy, charity, and love, which we all feel to be our best and noblest characteristics, and which it is hardly possible to conceive could have been developed by any other means.*
* This argument applies of course to other worlds and systems, all of which, on the spiritual hypothesis, either have been or will be the scenes of the development of human souls.
Such a view as this affords us the best attainable solution of the great world-old problem of the origin of evil; for it is the very means of creating and developing the higher moral attributes of man, those attributes which alone render him fit for a permanent spiritual existence and for continuous progression, then the mere temporary sin and misery of the world must be held to be fully justified by the supreme nature and permanent character of what they lead to. From this point of view the vision of the poet becomes to us the best expression of the truth. We, too, believe that
All Nature is but Art, unknown to thee;
All Chance, Direction which thus canst not see;
All Discord, Harmony not understood;
All partial Evil, universal Good.
Finally, these teachings of modern Spiritualism furnish us with the much needed basis of a true ethical system. We learn by them that our earth-life is not only a preparation for a higher state of progressive spiritual existence, but that what we have usually considered as its very worst features, its all-pervading sin and suffering, are in all probability the only means of developing in us those highest moral qualities summarized as "love" by St. Paul and "altruism" by our modern teachers, which all admit must be cultivated and extended to the utmost if we are really to make progress toward a higher social state. Modern philosophers can, however, give no sufficient reason why we should practize these virtues. If, as they teach us, not only our own lives end here, but the life of the whole human race is sure to end some day, it is difficult to see any adequate outcome of the painful self-sacrifice they inculcate; while there is certainly no motive adduced which will be sufficiently powerful to withdraw from selfish pleasures that numerous class which derives from them its chief enjoyment. But when men are taught from childhood that the whole material universe exists for the very purpose of developing beings possessing these attributes, that evil and pain, sin and suffering, all tend to the same end, and that the characters developed in this world will make further progress towards a nobler and happier existence in the spiritual world, just in proportion as their higher moral feelings are cultivated here - and when all this can be taught, not as a set of dogmas to be blindly accepted on the authority of unknown ancient writers, but as being founded on direct knowledge of the spirit-world, and the continued actual reception of teachings from it, then indeed we shall have in our midst "a power that makes for righteousness."
Thus, modern Spiritualism, though usually despised and rejected by the learned, is yet able to give valuable aid to science and to religion, to philosophy and to morals. Not only does it offer us a solid basis for a solution of some of the profoundest mysteries of our being, but it affords us a secure hope, founded not on reason and faith only, but on actual knowledge, that our conscious life does not perish with our physical body. To all who will earnestly inquire it gives:
The deep assurance that the wrongs of
life
Will find their perfect guerdon! That the scheme
So broken here will elsewhere be fulfilled!
Hope not a dreamer's dream!
Love's long last yearnings satisfied, not stilled!
BY Sir Oliver Lodge
The hesitating attraction which some people feel for the subject of what is often called spirit communication, and the instinctive dislike or repulsion which others feel for the same subject, is due partly to the influence of surroundings, and partly to the general attitude of the community in which they live. If ever the facts became generally accepted by scientific men, the attitude of the public would be gradually changed; religious people also would without insuperable difficulty adjust their views to acceptance of phenomena generally agreed upon, as they have already done in connection with the first heterodox discoveries of astronomers, geologists, and biologists. But as long as scientific acceptance is limited to a comparatively few individuals here and there, the general public if uninstructed do well to be cautious, and to wait for a clearer consensus of opinion among those presumably best qualified to judge of reality. For science is or ought to be a study of reality wherever it is to be found, independent of any conclusions or consequences that may be drawn from it, and irrespective of any influence that the spread of knowledge may exert upon human life and conduct.
Assertions about supernormal or unusual phenomena are plentiful enough; but at present there is an element of uncertainty about them which militates against their general acceptance as fact. Trustworthy and crucial evidence is difficult to obtain, and there is a natural disinclination to enter upon a course of research without some a priori probability that the quest would lead to something real, and not into a quagmire of popular superstition and folklore. Testimony about obscure mental phenomena and psycho-physical happenings has been prevalent throughout human history, and among all races of men; but the phenomena testified to are at first sight so contrary to the general trend of human experience that they are naturally looked at askance, and are not examined with the same keenness and perspicacity as have been devoted during the last century or two to what seemed to be more natural phenomena, - that is to say phenomena which can be repeated in the laboratory at will, about which some guiding theory can be formulated, and which are more harmonious with the general trend of scientific progress. It can hardly be merely because the asserted facts are extraordinary, or because they do not appeal to the senses in the ordinary way, that they are disregarded and suspected: for many of the facts in orthodox science are of this character. The constitution of an atom, and the orbits of in electron, make no direct appeal to the senses; they have to be explored by recondite methods; yet the difficulty of a complete comprehension of them does not deter competent explorers from giving them minute and sustained attention, or from elaborating theories, which, however imperfect, are susceptible of gradual improvement, and seem to open the way to a wider truth. The supersensual phenomena dealt with by mathematicians are just as difficult of direct apprehension, and involve just as much speculation and hypothesis, as any of the barely credible mental phenomena which come under discussion.
The aloofness of science is not really because the phenomena are elusive and difficult of observation; rather it is because they appear to run counter to preconceptions or prejudgments, or what may be called rational prejudices, based upon a long course of study of natural phenomena, with which these asserted occurrences appear to be inconsistent; so that any favoring testimony has to be criticized, continually suspected, and frequently discarded, because it appears to be testimony in favor of what is a priori impossible or absurd. The aim of science has been for the most part a study of materialistic phenomena, a study of mechanism, the mechanism whereby results are achieved, an investigation into the physical processes which go on, and which appear to he coextensive with nature. Any theory which seems to involve the action of Higher Beings, or of any unknown entity controlling and working the mechanism, is apt to be extruded or discountenanced as a relic of primitive superstition, coming down from times when such infantile explanations were prevalent. Such ideas seem to belong to a time when there was no adequate notion of the coherent scheme of physical process which must underlie all the baffling and inscrutable operations of nature.
There was a time, for instance, when the movements of the planets were attributed to psychic guidance, the action of angels or some other beings; when thunder and lightning were the direct manifestations of the wrath of Zeus; when plague pestilence and famine were a commentary on human sinfulness, and were stemmed, not by medical and sanitary effort, but by the erection of altars and the humble submission of sacrificial atonements. The triumph of Newton and Laplace consisted in showing that the regular though puzzling phenomena occurring in the heavens were to be accounted for mechanically by the force of gravitation. Thus it was that modern science was born; and on those lines it has continued its successful career. Portents were thus reduced to order. Lightning became one of the inanimate manifestations of electricity: volcanoes were due to the spontaneous radioactivity of complex atoms: disease was due to the secretions of microbes and bacteria, which were visible under the microscope. And the ambition of science was to find a physical cause, on the same sort of lines, for every occurrence of whatever nature it might be. This ambition, which was formulated by Newton himself as a hope and aspiration, has been justified by long, continued experience. A physical process underlies every class of phenomenon. The evolution of living things, the evolution of the stars and planets, the birth and death of worlds, are going on before our eyes. Even the evolution of matter itself is under consideration. The stars have yielded up their secrets, the atoms also. The laws of physics and chemistry reign supreme throughout the cosmos.
What wonder then, in face of this magnificent achievement, if spiritualistic views and hypotheses are looked at askance as a backward step, a reversion to barbarism, a giving up of the clue which human genius has found so successful; or even as treachery to the pioneers and architects who have erected the splendid structure of modern science. What wonder if the attempt is made to explain every mental process as a chemical action in the cells of the brain, to explain every action of live things as the activity of physiological mechanism, and to hold that when the physiological process is interrupted, or the machinery destroyed, all vitality necessarily ceases; in other words that life and mind are the working of an organism, and that when the organism ceases to function, they completely perish.
And yet many biologists have themselves, when they began to philosophize, encountered a real difficulty. The mechanism was complete as far as it went: the physical processes of every action could be traced, either in fact or in imagination: but there was an outstanding difficulty about consciousness, which could not be explained by mechanism. Their own awareness of the processes going on was itself something more than the mere processes. There were things in human nature which escaped their physiological ken, which seemed to be of a different order, something which made use of mechanism, but which transcended it, something towards which mechanical science give no clue. The sense of beauty, for instance. What piece of mechanism could contemplate its own beauty? What mechanical device could understand its own working? How could human beings plan and contrive and design, and form theories, and seek to apprehend the universe, if they were nothing more than mechanical structures? The only way consistent with philosophic materialism was to suppose that consciousness was a kind of illusion, and that these mysterious functions could probably be themselves reduced to mechanism if only we had sufficient knowledge. But the formation of such a hypothesis as that is conspicuously irrational. It is leaving the safe ground of science, the exploration of reality, and denying some parts of reality itself. Such denials are illegitimate, and are themselves superstitious.
It has become pretty obvious that human nature is more than mechanism, that it utilizes the physical energy and the physical and chemical processes of its organism, but that in every important aspect it transcends those processes. Even the mere sensation of color and tone are more than belong to the physical world: physically there is nothing except vibrations of different frequency. Emotion again, the emotion raised by poetry, drama, music, far transcends the admittedly physical basis of these things. Man plans and contrives and directs the forces of nature to higher ends: he uses and dominates the material universe: he has some understanding of it: he feels sympathy and affection: he has faith and hope - and love. These elements in his nature are far more than molecular processes going on in the brain. These higher attributes are displayed and manifested by chemical processes, but in themselves they transcend and outlast them; they belong to another order of existence, interpenetrating and utilizing the material, but not limited by or coextensive with it.
Well, that is the view to which some of us have been led: that is the view which I think most philosophers now take. Hence the a priori prejudgments and prejudices are now altered. If there is testimony bearing upon the perennial existence and survival of these higher things, we need no longer look at it askance, or consider it as foreign to our perception of reality. Reality is a much bigger thing than the mechanicians had thought. Their perceptions are true as far as they go, but we can go much further. Testimony to survival need no longer be unacceptable. Indeed we should expect something of the kind. What survival means, and what its implications are, may still remain to be ascertained, but there is a prima facie case for investigation. We are not traitors to science when we explore mental processes, however unusual and surprising they may be. There is a large amount of evidence that personality persists, that individuals continue after the destruction of their bodily organism. They may find it difficult to manifest their continued existence; but, according to the evidence, they have managed to do so. The evidence must be scrutinized with great care; but there is no reason to disbelieve it on a priori grounds. The body of evidence has grown of late years, and is growing. So that many now have no doubt that their loved ones continue, that they are still watching and helping and guiding, as of old; that realities do not go out of existence, that these higher attributes of man are just as real as any others, more real because more persistent. We feel assured that there will come a time of reunion, that intelligence and character and tastes and aptitudes persist, and that love is the dominating power in the universe, - a universe far greater and higher than its merely material manifestations.
In its own field the revelations of science are magnificent; and, if we exclude the element of Personality, which science hardly deals with, it may be true, as Lord Moynihan has recently declared, that the God of science is a greater and more glorious Being than the God of the Theologians.
God of the star-swarm and the soul,
The conscious Will that made the world
From ether-drift and cosmic dust,
Such is the God we know and trust.
| ° NEWS,
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Workshop at the
Spiritist Society of San Diego
From Emotional
Control to Integral Health
This inspirational workshop will redifine the concept of emotions and their role in our integral health. Insights from neuroscience to psychology and the profound Spiritist teachings may propel life changing experiences.
About Spiritism
Spiritist Ideas are built around the belief that the only mandatory requirement for Spiritual Evolution is “Love in Action”. Therefore Spiritism embraces and supports all individuals, regardless of their beliefs.
Join us in this wonderful opportunity to hear from one of the most active Spiritist speakers in America.
This Workshop is FREE, but registration is encouraged (This helps us make proper arrangements beforehand).
You can register on-line or call us at
858 784 1811 for phone
registration.
* Special Notes
A great selection of Spiritist books
will be available for purchaseHope to see you there.
Vanessa Anseloni, Psy.D.,
Ph.D. is a fifth generation
Spiritist from Brazil. She is a neuroscientist and assistant professor
at the University of Maryland.
Vanessa is also the president and founder of the Spiritist Society of Baltimore, Maryland.
Vanessa Anseloni is a medium, and trains and conducts mediumship meetings, spiritual treatments and workshops in the U.S. and worldwide.
DATE
FROM
This event will take place at the Concert Hall at the
There is no cost to attend, however, pre-registration is required. See below
Divaldo Pereira Franco Humanitarian and worldwide renowned Spiritist speaker and medium, was born in Bahia,
In August, year 2000, Divaldo Franco was an official participant at the United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders.As a delegate he signed the Commitment that condemns all violence in the name of religion and makes a appeal to all religious, ethnic and national groups to respect the right of freedom of religion.
In 2004, Divaldo presented the seminar Understanding Spiritual
and Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, in
In 2006, as part of the U.S. Conferences tour Divaldo presented a
Special Seminar with Raymond Moody Jr. MD, PhD. Recently,
in London, Divaldo realized a seminar with Dr.
Andrew Power, President of Institute for Psychiatry of Real
English College.
Dr. Bernard S. Siegel, was born in
Bernie wrote his fourth book in 1998 Prescriptions for Living. Published in 2003 are Help Me To Heal and 365 Prescriptions For The Soul, in 2004 a children’s book, Smudge Bunny, in 2005 101 Exercises For The Soul and coming out in the Fall of 2006 a prescriptions for parenting book Love, Magic & Mud Pies.
Allan Kardec Spiritist Center:
40-16 74 Street Jackson Heights, NY
(718) 429-6626 ou (1718) 639-3041
http://www.akscenter.com
e-mail: pontodeluz@aol.com
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