REFLECTIONS.
It is quite possible, seeing that out of this life into the next, through the portals of death, pass all sorts and conditions of human beings, that in the next stage of existence—most closely allied to that in which we now live—mankind are not essentially different in character from what we find now. It is not, therefore, necessary to call in the agency of demons, as distinct from human spirits, to account for the phenomena of Spiritualism. If in artificial somnambulism and the phenomena of the psychic state the operating agent is an embodied human spirit, it is possible the same human spirit, albeit disembodied, may still retain power to control or influence other human beings.
There is another and more serious matter for consideration, concerning which our investigations of Spiritualism have thrown little or no light—Spirit Identity. Not only do our friends depart and never return, and many have promised to do so. How far are we certain when spirits have returned? We may have been deceived by our own impulsiveness, anxiety, and desire to feel and to know that “they are not lost but gone before.” Again, admitting the genuineness of physical phenomena, and conceding that all the communications are really made by disembodied spirits or intelligent beings like unto ourselves, what proof do we possess that they are really what they represent themselves to be, or what they appear to be in spirit circles? “A bad or mischievous spirit,” says Dr. Nichols, “may, for aught we know, personate our friends, penetrate our secrets, and deceive us with false representations.” This is certainly worth thinking about. My object in writing is not to turn my readers against Spiritualism, but to get them to bring into the investigation judgment, not only to analyse evidence, but the capacity to “judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” It is no part of my purpose to deal with the history, ethics, or even the phenomena of Spiritualism. That has been well done by others. I merely write to show that Spiritualism “has something in it,” and is of such importance that it is neither to be lightly rejected on the one hand, nor are its phenomena at all times to be attributed to agency of disembodied spirits.
Spiritualism is a many-sided subject, and too vast in its proportions to be dealt with here, and while I have no doubt that its public mediumistic exponents are no more perfect than the rest of humanity—much is laid at their door which may have a basis on fact—yet I do think they often suffer unjustly. Firstly, from the cries of the ignorant—educated or otherwise, matters little—who charge them with fraud, simply because such people are ignorant of the psychic possibilities of man; and, secondly, from the admiring and thoughtless many who are prepared to accept the commonest of psychic phases instanter as evidence of “disembodied spirit” presence and power. I have no doubt many phenomena are quite explicable on natural grounds. Setting aside the possibilities of self-deception in untrained observers, and of fraud in dishonest mediums, and of genuine phenomena traceable to the powers of the “spirit which is within each of us,” there remains, to my mind, abundant evidence of the existence of “discarnate spirit,” possessing all the attributes of the human spirit, as we know ourselves from the study of man as a psychological subject. Unfortunately, the very best evidence in favour of both “embodied” and “disembodied spirit” is not of that kind which is available for publicity. Still, I hold, if there is evidence (psychological and physical) for disembodied spirit in Spiritualism, I am also satisfied there is abundant evidence for embodied spirit in the psychological experiences of life, apart from what we know of Spiritualism.
I may fitly close these reflections by quoting the testimony of that keen scientific observer anent phenomenal Spiritualism—namely, Cromwell F. Varley, Esq., F.R.S:—“Twenty-five years ago I was a hard-headed unbeliever.... Spiritual phenomena, however, suddenly and quite unexpectedly was soon after developed in my own family.... This led me to inquire, and to try numerous experiments in such a way as to preclude, as much as circumstances would permit, the possibility of trickery and self-deception.”... He then details various phases of the phenomena which had come within the range of his personal experience, and continues:—“Other and curious phenomena had occurred, proving the existence (a) of forces unknown to science; (b) the power of instantly reading my thoughts; (c) the presence of some intelligence or intelligences controlling those powers.... That the phenomena occur there is overwhelming evidence, and it is too late to deny their existence.”
The Bibliography of Spiritualism is somewhat extensive. What books are best to recommend to beginners is not an easy matter to decide. “The Use of Spiritualism,” by the late S. C. Hall, F.S.A.,[G] however, will repay perusal, and from the intellectual fitness, high moral tone, and spotless reputation of the author, this book may be safely recommended to all readers.
THEOSOPHY.[H]
I have been frequently asked, What is Theosophy? A question more easily asked than answered, and in answering I may do even less justice to it than to Spiritualism. Theosophy is an intellectual speculation, having for its main object the supplanting of Christianity, by a Revised Version of Hindoo Metempsychosis. An attempt to foist upon our western ideas and exoteric habits of thought, the mysticisms and esoteric speculations of the mystics of India and Japan. Modern Spiritualism is not a religion. Theosophy not only claims to be a religion, but to be “the essential basis of all religions.” Modern Spiritualism may have its faults, and be as imperfect as human souls are here or hereafter. But we at least understand its faults and defects. The triple-crowned spiritual monarch—sitting on the seven hills of Rome—is not more infallible than the principles which underlie Theosophy—with its demi-gods, its Mahatmas, its adepts, miracle workers and wonders. To not understand and be able to accept these principles at once, is to proclaim oneself an ignoramus. Theosophy is a strangely fascinating religion for intellectual æsthetics.
Spiritualism is at least susceptible of being observed and investigated, and the hypothesis of Spiritualism is naturally a reasonable deduction from the facts. Not so Theosophy, which is merely a theory, an a priori assumption pleasing to those with more reflective and imaginative powers than capacity for practical observation. Spiritualism has given facts to be examined and tested, Theosophy nothing save gigantic and baseless assertions. Its astral shells and elementals are like its Mahatmas, flimsy phantasies, less tangible than the ghost seen and described by Dr. Jessop, or visions of the shade of shades, seen by psychometers. For these latter we have at least a basis in psychic phenomena.
Re-incarnation is the back bone of Theosophy, and Karma its necessary adjunct. The Kismet of Mahomet and the doctrines of election of Calvinism are not more inexorable than the Karma of Theosophy. Karma is a combination of earthly experiences and expiations of the soul of man in time, during its everlasting process of incarnating and re-incarnating in search of Wisdom, the Eternal Reality, and the final extinction of all individuality in the Nirvana. Devachan is the intermediate state of oblivion, in which personality is blotted out, and into which the spiritual soul, etc., enters between the periods of incarnation.
Theosophy—the Wisdom of God religion—attempts to explain all the inequalities of life, the intellectual and moral differences in men, of sin and suffering, by its working theory, Re-incarnation, which doubtless has many attractive features.
The phenomena Theosophists place so much reliance upon are the property of mankind—somnambulism, psychic consciousness, clairvoyance, psychometry, thought-transference, etc. The “Theosophic miracles of communication with persons in other parts of the world” are explicable by thought-transference, and in time may be no more inherently impossible than telegraphy without wires and poles. The physical wonders of Theosophy, akin to those of Spiritualism, are attributed to shells, the astral carcases of once embodied but now rapidly dissolving personality of man, and elementals, fragmentary spirit imps or sprites, who up to the present have not been as yet incorporated in some incarnated human soul.
As to the ethics of Theosophy, brotherly kindness, charity, and self-sacrifice—most desirable virtues and divine attainments—are neither new nor the special property of Theosophy. Such divine qualities and virtues are common to all religions and religious teaching, and if they ever reached their climax in human form, they did in the person of Jesus, the Lord’s Christ. He was the embodiment of these, and a living example for all time, long, long before unthinkable and “ungetatable” Mahatmas were announced by Madame Blavatsky, or believed in by Mrs. Besant.
Theosophists recognise seven distinct parts in man, i.e., four transitory and three eternal. The transitory elements are—the physical body, the vital principle, the astral body, and the animal soul. These four comprise man’s personality, and being transitory are perishable. Hence the personality of man is annihilated at death. The three eternal elements are—the spirit, the spiritual soul, and the mind. These being imperishable form man’s individuality, and constitute the immortal part of man. This immortal part incarnates and re-incarnates throughout innumerable personalities on this globe, and the rest of the planets, beside having alternate periods of “rosy slumber” and of activity. Our individuality has no sex, consequently we may be a little negro wench in one incarnation, an Egyptian monarch in another, a Nero in another, a John Knox in another, and so on. Others may not progress, but sink from incarnation to incarnation, from a mother in Israel, to a Deeming in Australia, and, finally, to utter annihilation. Those good souls who live the life, and perfect their souls through much suffering, will become as one with “the Eternal Reality, the Rootless Root of all that was, or is, or ever shall be.” The higher and ever advancing Theosophist may, however, stop short before he reaches the Nirvana, and elect to become a Mahatma, or great soul, and reside on this or some other planet to exercise power and precipitate wisdom, by letters and otherwise, to the world, through chosen adepts. The good Theosophist in this world and the next is surrounded by “thought-forms,” which influence him in his upward career. The Spiritualist has his departed friends for guides, and the Christian (Spiritualist) is comforted by “messengers sent forth to minister to them that are heirs of salvation.” I don’t know that “thought-forms” administering counsel to a spirit having no personality is an improvement on the old ideas.
It is impossible to do justice to this Wisdom-Religion with its orders, grades, and bewildering phraseology. It is a fancy religion for the intellectual, without a personal God or a personal soul. Its circles are masonic lodges for the rich. In no sense is it a religion to meet the wants of man as man, like that founded on the life and death of Jesus Christ. I do not pretend to explain Theosophy, for the task is beyond me. It is a religion intended for those who realise they are divine sparks of the Rootless Root, and not for the common people, who are incapable of understanding a system of morals thus veiled in allegory, and illustrated by signs and symbols. Amid the perplexities of many words, we learn that Theosophy teaches what St. Paul indicates as the divine order of morals by the words: “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” To work out one’s own salvation is as old as the race. We may all be Theosophists without knowing it, as we don’t know who we are, what we were, or who we are going to be, such is Karma. Spiritualism and Theosophy are only referred to here seeing how largely the phenomena on which they are based, is explained by “How to Thought-Read.”