The Travelling Powers of the Spirit
Sir,— One remembers the portentous hints that were given out by the Theosophists, that a mysterious individual or two, who a few years ago appeared at the funeral by cremation of a certain Polish nobleman, at Boston, U.S., had arrived at that city by some process of travelling, to say the least, unusual for creatures in the flesh, and wore seen of many.
Your article of Oct. 28th, taken from a native Hindoo Journal, is further evidence of the same description, which simply implies that certain Indian “Brothers,” or more truly speaking their souls, are quite ghost-like in their movements, and as expeditious; are, in fact, probably the same thing, and that those travelling souls, when arrived at a spot were materialisation is expedient, avail themselves of that transformation precisely in the same way that materialising spirits do.
I have no book of the lives of the saints of the Church of Borne, but there are probably many tales of a like nature in their annals, more than one account of which I remember to have road in the early literature of Spiritualism. One of those histories I supplied myself, which was taken, I think, from the Revue Spirite, but I find that I have not specially preserved it; most likely because, as I did not believe it, I did not think it worth preserving. But my powers of belief seem really to be growing daily, and I should never be surprised if in the end I should take for my motto the stupendous paradox: “Credo quia impossibile est.”
The marvellous history refers to St. Anthony, of Padua. As far as I can remember, he was a monk of great eloquence and on a mission in Spain. During that mission his father, at Padua, got into difficulties, and was accused of some great crime, murder, I fancy, that had occurred some time previously; and when evidence all seemed against him, his son, Anthony, suddenly appeared at Padua, in Italy, and gave witness in his father’s favour, which cleared the old man. And all this time the body of flesh of St. Anthony was lying in Spain in a trance. And it was in consequence, I believe, of this “miracle,” that the chief church of the city of Padua took its name, that of St. Antonio.
But to come nearer home. There is a professed “spirit photograph” in existence, taken in Paris, the sitter being an English Spiritualist of good position, residing in France. The “form,” in this photograph, is that of a sleeping face, and it is so like the face of a well-known and highly respected Spiritualist who was at that moment asleep in bed, in London, that many believed that that gentleman’s double, or soul, or spiritual body was present at that seance and was photographed. I am in possession of this photograph and can speak to the likeness, for I recognised tne gentleman by it whom I had never before seen. It is true that the photograph was taken by Buguet, but Buguet took too many photographs in the presence and under the supervision of experts for those who believe that spirit photographs are possible, to doubt that ho was a powerful medium for them. And that spirit photographs are possible, and facts, and among the greatest wonders of the world, and true evidence of soul life, I, for one, as firmly believe as that my hand is on this paper.
There is a well-known story of the Emperor Tiberius seeing a man, in a temple, whose body was actually lying at that time many miles distant suffering from grievous sickness.
Anathema
Sir,—Mrs. Showers has kindly stated that I “erroneously” marked the word Tithemi with an acute, and not with a short accent. Will you allow me to state, and let your readers test my reference, that I never used the word at all, with any accent whatever? If Mrs. Showers had referred to the cited passage of “Littleton,” as I did, she might have seen that the author did give the Greek (not the “unimportant” Latin) and that in deference to your printer’s trouble, I put it into English characters, which were accurately given by him. I am not desirous to enter into any controversy with Mrs. Showers as to the spelling of words, in any language; but I am desirous to afford your readers an opportunity of judging as to what was written by me and correctly printed by your printer.
<Untitled> (On last saturday...)
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The following is from Bombay:-
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Editor's notes
- ↑ The Travelling Powers of the Spirit by Scrutator, London Spiritualist, No. 482, November 18, 1881, p. 251
- ↑ Anathema by Blake, C.Carter, London Spiritualist, No. 482, November 18, 1881, p. 251
- ↑ On last saturday... by unknown author, Brahmo Public Opinion, November 10, 1881
- ↑ The following is from Bombay:- by unknown author, Amrita Bazar Patrika, The
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 482, November 18, 1881, p. 251