< Disorganization among America Spiritualists (continued from page 2-5) >
ment which it never possessed before, and it has given the members the power of appointing by vote those representatives in whom they have confidence, and who can command the respect of the outside public. Our brethren in America should do likewise, and form a National Organization. As Mr. Paul said at Marylebone, there is nothing good or bad in organization itself, its function merely being to give strength, so that if organization in Spiritualism is bad. Spiritualism must be bad also ; the evil cannot lie in the circumstance of individuals deciding in favor of union instead of disintegration. No doubt the eleven millions of American Spiritualists exist only as a brilliant figure of rhetoric. Nevertheless, the number of American Spiritualists is much greater than the number of Spiritualists in England, yet in this country the movement is probably strongest, in consequence of educated Spiritualists having resolved to pull together in amity and good will. That the whole of our body is not as yet working in unanimity, is not the fault of those of us who have raised the cry of anti-dissension, and invited all, high and low, to work unitedly on terms of equality, under a constitutional system resting upon vote by ballot.—London Spiritualist.
A Reincarnated Baby
Here is a curious experience which has occurred through the mediumship of my second son, aged three years. Some time before his birth, spirits announced to me that the child would be gifted with powerful medial faculties; and many very singular physical manifestations which have occurred in his presence, at different times, have confirmed me in the faith that I had in their word. I was given to understand that, several ages ago, this child was incarnated in England, where he gave himself up to the practice of necromancy, alchemy, and astrology, by means of which much evil accrued, and which at length brought upon him a miserable death. His present incarnation, I am assured, is accorded in order to give him an opportunity of repairing the evil which he committed long ago, by contributing to the building up the Spiritist temple at which we are working, by means of the medial powers which he has brought with him as a legacy from his last incarnation. All this is logical, and entirely in agreement with our notions respecting the object of reincarnation. Well then, some weeks back, the child was playing and prattling in my study, when I suddenly heard him talking about England, concerning which country nobody, to my knowledge, had ever spoken to him. This roused my attention, and I asked him if he knew what England meant? He answered me: “Oh yes; it is a country where I was a very, very long time ago.”
Q. Were you a little boy then as you are now?—A. Oh no; I was tall, taller than you are, and I had a long beard!
O. Were mamma and I with you then?—A. No; I had another papa and another mamma:
Q. And what were you doing?—A. I played a good deal with fire, and once I burnt myself so that I died.
I think you must acknowledge that if even all this is no other than a child’s reverie, yet that the coincidence is sufficiently strange to make one believe that reminiscences may come even to a child in his play.
Some weeks back, the same little boy went to his mother in the morning, telling her that his grandmother, (whom he had only seen when a baby of some months old, therefore of whom he could have had no recollection) had come to her and that he had seen her well and had heard her. Now it so happened, that my wife had been dreaming much about her mother, who had died some months previously. What think you of this ?
<Untitled> (We regret to announce)
We regret to announce that Madame Blavatsky is seriously ill, and her life has been in great danger. East winter she fell with great force upon one of her knees, on the sidewalk, and the result was an inflamation of the periosteum or covering of the bone, which has progressed so far that it is now uncertain if the limb will mortify and be amputated, or become paralyzed. It would be a great loss to the cause of Spiritualism if this distinguished lady should die, for her devotion, learning, and enthusiasm are unsurpassed, while in "spiritual gifts"’ she has scarcely an equal.
Editor's notes
Sources
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Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 2, Marth 18, 1875, p.22