CHAPTER VIII.
CONDITION OF THE SPIRIT IN THE SPIRIT-WORLD.
In order that I may present the general condition of the Spirit in the Spirit-world in the most intelligible form, it will be necessary for us to enter into a very close and accurate analysis of what constitutes the Spirit, because if we do not well understand what constitutes the Spirit, we shall only be able to conjecture of its condition of happiness in the Spirit-world; and if we are to have a close and rigid analysis of the Spirit, we, can only have it by having a close and rigid analysis of our own conscious being, because we can know nothing but our own consciousness; and if we are to learn of the condition of Spirits in the other world, that condition must be translated into our consciousness, and we must find it therein recorded, or we can only conjecture of their condition.
Then the first point to which I wish to call your attention, is that which distinguishes the condition of absolute consciousness from that condition which goes to make up individuality—that which is universal and applicable to all, and that which is only individual and applicable to each and every individual. Every individual has the means of determining how much of this being—“I, myself”—belongs to the external and finite, and how much to the internal and infinite; because that which makes me to differ from you is finite; but that which makes myself or yourself one and the same with every other individual being in the universe, is infinite. Therefore the first point of investigation is to ascertain what it is that makes you and me differ from every other individual being in the universe—in what that difference consists—because when I speak of you as a Spiritual being, I speak of you in view of that difference, and not in view of that sameness.
You understand that individuality makes the difference between us. My individuality makes me to differ as an individual being from you. The question now arises, what constitutes my individuality, this “I, myself”—what enables me, when speaking of the events Of childhood, to say, “When I was a child,” though every thing has changed that pertained to my individuality as a child—thoughts, feelings, tastes, pleasures, form? What is it that connects the events of twenty or thirty years ago with my present being?
I wish each one to go down into his own mind and solve that problem, because if we are to talk about Spirits we must learn about ourselves. When each man understands thoroughly the Spirit that is at present speaking to him, he will be able to form some correct ideas respecting its condition in the Spiritual world.
Upon examination, each will find that there is within himself a principle of absolute consciousness—a principle which is self-conscious, which represents itself to itself, and is not represented by any thing but itself. It can not be analyzed. It is absolute in itself. To prove to you that your consciousness of identity has undergone no change, I need but attempt to prove to you that you are the same individual that you were when a child, by referring to scars made upon your fingers in childhood, which still remain, by calling to mind traits of your childish character. All these proofs you would consider very much inferior to that proof afforded by an affirmation within you, which rises above all outward evidence. It is that to which the Book alludes when it says, “As he could swear by no greater, therefore he swore by himself.” Although in your physical, intellectual, and moral being you have changed in every thing pertaining to your finite consciousness, yet there is that within you which tells you you are the same. Let one change follow another to eternity, you will not lose your consciousness of identity.
That which makes you differ from others does not enter into this absolute consciousness of identity. In other words, the thought, feeling, and affection which characterized you at any particular time of life has nothing to do with this absolute identification of self. Nothing by which the world knows me, or by which it knows you, enters in to form our inmost identity. We have an identity which lies deeper than everything external; and it is this identity, which admits of no change, which says that we are the same, and will forever remain the same identical beings to all eternity. No change of position, no change of character, no destruction of reputation, no conversion of happiness into suffering, presents the least difficulty in the way of identification. The man who has fallen, been ruined in reputation, and is steeped in suffering, finds no difficulty in identifying himself as the same being who was once good, respected, and happy. He does not say that there was once a being who was happy and good, but who has changed and become another being, but he says that the character and position of this individual identity has changed, while his identity has undergone no change. I wish to call your attention to that principle of absolute consciousness in you, by means of which you know yourself, but by which nobody else knows you. You know that that principle in you does not constitute your individuality. It constitutes your personality; but that in you which is undergoing change, and develops from a lower to a higher degree of knowledge, constitutes your individuality. This unchanging, ever-present, conscious identity is the very divine life within you, from which you derive all life. This outside identity, which thinks and wills, is no part of my immortal nature, separate from this divine principle within me. This outside consciousness can never be in any other state than the finite. For wherever you have succession and duration, you have time. Where you have succession in extent, you have space. In regard to this outward finite nature, one change follows another; and if change follows change, there must, in respect to such change, always be succession; and where you get succession, you must necessarily have time. Hence the spirit, in its finite nature, must always be in time till it shall cease to change; when progress ends, time will cease with the finite. This is a proposition so plain that no mind can for a moment be lost in considering it.
We can form some definite idea of the Spirit-world by first learning something of ourselves. You know that this conscious principle within me and you knows nothing about time or space. Suppose I instantly become unconscious, and remain so twenty-four hours, and am then suddenly restored to my consciousness. During this twenty-four hours there has been no additional record of events made within me; therefore that twenty-four hours is obliterated so far as my consciousness is concerned. I take up the time where I left it. To the unconscious there is no time. To the unchangeable there can be no time. Time is but the marking of succession. The inmost principle by means of which we become acquainted with ourselves, knows nothing about time. When one is restored from unconsciousness to consciousness, he knows instantly who he is, but he can not say how much time elapsed to the outward world. Clairvoyants who pass into a condition of unconsciousness to all exterior things, have no recollection of what occurs while they are in that condition, though they may have been in it for several hours.
I knew an individual once to be put into the mesmeric condition, who was unconscious in his normal condition of what occurred in the mesmeric state, though he was in it for five hours, and during that time performed many interesting experiments. At the time of sitting down to be mesmerized he was in so great hurry that he thought he could spend but a very few minutes’ time. On being brought to consciousness, he started off again in great haste, supposing that he had sufficient time to attend to his business, showing clearly that he had not been in a condition to mark succession of events.
The inmost principle of consciousness which identifies me of to-day with what I was thirty years ago, does not, of itself, notice time, except as it is connected with this outward part of me. It counts time by changes; but when you come into itself and separate it from those changes, it does not know time at all. Between my infancy and the present time it has been a constant now. It is the presence of the infinite and eternal in man, and the means by which he is connected with the infinite and eternal. It is by the presence of this infinite and eternal consciousness that man knows that he possesses a finite and changeable nature. It is a lamp within, which shines out and reveals to him his finite consciousness, and the changes transpiring there. So man has two selfhoods, an inward, and an outward which is changing from day to day.