Legend
< The Spiritual Body (continued from page 8-23) >
pressed views similar to those which. Vogt, Buechner, Hoeekel, and other extreme materialists advocate now, was fully convinced by the phenomena of mesmerism that he had made a great mistake in limiting the life of man to its material earthly manifestations. He manfully retracted his whole materialistic philosophy, and, in his last will and testament, proclaimed that he had arrived at a “profound conviction, founded upon incontestable facts,” that there exists “an intelligent principle, altogether different from material existences; in a word, the soul and God.”
If, in their experience the light of Spiritualism had been added to the cognate facts of mesmerism and clairvoyance, the conclusions of both Chavee and Georget would have been still more decisively illustrated.
It was the opinion of Charles Bonnet, the great Swiss nationalist (1720-1793), that man’s future body exists already with the body visible; and he believed that science would “some day have instruments which would enable it to detect this body, formed as it probably is of the elements of ether or of light.” The experiments in spirit photography point to the verification of this prediction; while the form-manifestations through Dr. Monck, as recorded by the Rev. M. Colley and M.A., Oxon, show what science may expect from further persistent investigations in this direction.
Of the operation of an intelligent force, independently of any visible organism, the slate-writing phenomenon gives us a most conclusive proof. This phenomenon is destined to be placed upon a basis of testimony sufficient to meet the most rigorous demands of science. It will go far to confirm the theory of an invisible organism through which the veritable man survives the dissolution of his earthly body.
For a vast amount of learning and testimony on this subject of a spiritual body, see Ralph Cudworth’s Intellectual System of the Universe, first published in the year 1678. He tells us that, “The luciform body can pass through any solid thing. It lieth in this mortal body, continually inspiring it with life. By it is the soul connected with the mortal body. Plato and Aristotle concur in this idea of a luciform body. The latter says, ‘All souls seem to have another body and diviner than that of the elements.’”
In the North American Review (May—June, 1877), Mr. Thomas Hitchcock happily remarks, “The advantage of thus conceiving of the soul as a substantial organism analogous to the body, and affected by mediums similar to those which affect sight and hearing, is that it explains the mystery which surrounds the relations of mind and matter, and accounts for many things which now puzzle the scientific explorer. Allow the soul to be a real substance co-extensive with the body, and intimately interwoven with it, and the difficulty expressed by Professor Tyndall and others in "perceiving the connection between its operations and the molecular changes of the brain need be no greater than that of perceiving the connection between magnetism and the motion of the magnetic needle.”
I have but skimmed a fragment of a subject vast in its proportions and spreading out into the most ample fields of fact and of speculation; a subject on which much more has been written than we seem to be aware of, and the testimony in regard to which is co-extensive with all extant literature.
No. 68, Moreland-street, Boston, U.S.A.
<Untitled> (Mr. J.J. Morse has...)
Mr. J. J. Morse has left London to reside in the provinces.
M. Gustave de Veh is in London, on a temporary visit to this country.
Allan Kardec’s Heaven and Hell, translated by Miss Blackwell, and Rifts in the Veil, consisting of choice extracts from the medial and normal literature of Spiritualism, have been published in London this week.
Prince Wittgenstein, who for some months commanded a section of the Russian army in the war against Turkey, has returned to his home in Vevey, Switzerland. All the readers of these lines will be glad to hear that he is safe and well.
We are informed of a poor man who is a medium, and conscientiously cannot think of taking money for his stances. We recommend him not to publish this fact, but to give sittings to the poor gratis. If he publishes it, not a few of the worthless rich will “sponge” him, by civilly persuading him to give gratuitous seances, that they may avoid paying a professional medium fair value for benefits appropriated.
A Strange Visitation
One night in the month of October, 1875, I had retired to rest, and after a preliminary perusal of a book, as is my habit, I fell into a half-wakeful sleep. It was between the hours of ten and eleven, when all my faculties were becoming dormant, that I experienced a peculiar sensation as of something hovering about me. Whether it was a visitant from the land of spirits I cannot undertake to say, but I clearly observed two hands, with the fingers pointing towards me, and which were gradually passed along my body from head to foot. At every pause of this movement I experienced a soothing yet shooting sensation through me, as if I were the subject of an electrician. This feeling, moreover, was not confined to any particular part of my system, but was felt forcibly at the parts where the fingers pointed to during the pauses in their movement, as I have described. Fear I had none, but in its place a peculiar sort of pleasurable calm came over me, exercising a soothing influence over my senses, which, at this stage, were keenly sensitive. After this exercise of the digits over me, I imagined the figure had placed itself at my head, and in a voice of mellowness blended with power, commanded me in the English language, “Do not tell!” Although the mandate was, I may say, authoritative, yet its sternness was so mollified by the deep and sepulchral tones in which it was uttered, that with me to “hear was to obey.” After this I started up with indescribable feelings, and endeavoured to find some cause for this strange effect, but there was nothing apparent. As for my having been a victim to the trickery of some individual, it was simply impossible, for my bed was in an upper story, and no means of ingress were available, except the window. My wife was reclining by me in a sound sleep, nor was she disturbed in the least. Imputing the circumstance to an incipient attack of indigestion, which, we all know, gives rise at times to strange dreams, I thought no more of it; but, strange to relate, the same thing was repeated the following night, and seven successive nights about the same hour almost. My imagination was so worked upon, that I awoke on the eighth night with a start, which aroused my wife, who inquired what was the matter, and observed an undue beating of my heart. Bearing in mind (although placing no great stress upon) the strangely delivered mandate, I tried to pass it off until after much importunity I unburthened myself to my wife, and it is remarkable I have not experienced a recurrence of these sensations since. Very probably my violation of the command dissolved the “Fatal spell around me so entwined.” Yet, judging from the ill-luck that has since attended me in my mundane affairs, even in the most trivial items, I am forced to conclude (though not prone to superstition) that my having disobeyed the order by not keeping the affair locked up in my breast, has led to the misfortunes I have subsequently endured. In short almost every thing that I undertake proves a failure. There may be legitimate causes to account for my unsuccessfulness, but the coincidence is so strong, and above all, following immediately after the breaking of faith, that I can hardly wean myself from imputing my failures to the very cause.
It will be considered an obliging aet if any one more enlightened would trace out the origin of this event, more so as it is generally supposed to have a strong leaning to mesmerism.
Hyderabad, Deccan, India, December 7th, 1877.
<Untitled> (The discussion...)
The discussion on Dr. Wyld’s paper will be published with the next one on the same subject.
Mr. and Miss Ella Dietz will next month begin to give a series of entertainments at the Langham Hall.
A sufficient number of persons desire to attend the next meeting of the Psychological Society on slate-writing to fill the hall twice over.
Mr. J. Coates will shortly give a mesmeric lecture at the Queen’s Hall, Liverpool, for the benefit of the distressed miners in South Wales.
Editor's notes
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 281, January 11, 1878, p. 18