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To think that the severing of flesh and bones and blood from the focus of forces like these alters their direction, is surely to stultify the mind with a superstition quite as gross as any that leads to terror from the proximity of disembodied Spirits. I have under my hand many score of detailed communications from Spirits inter-audited,—if one may coin a word for the occasion—and the concurrence of their testimony is overwhelming as to the eagerness with which they make themselves known, the evidently characteristic peculiarities of habit and thought they betray, and the life-like simplicity of their revelations;—revelations. of what had happened to them before death, or in dying, never beyond the vaguest generalities as to present state. Eliphaz Levi is quite justified in saying that revelations as to the unseen world are not gained by evocation of Spirits: and this I think is explained by what has already been cited from Swedenborg regarding memory. When that which in the Spirit-world is quiescent rouses again, the conditions of consciousness are probably as different as those of a person in trance and out of it. The secrets of death are kept from ago to age, and by these very people who have most importunately clamoured at the threshold of the hidden world for some faintest intimation of what befel those who went before. One by one all pass beyond ken and the mystery remains; no doubt because its key is ''incommunicable.'' | To think that the severing of flesh and bones and blood from the focus of forces like these alters their direction, is surely to stultify the mind with a superstition quite as gross as any that leads to terror from the proximity of disembodied Spirits. I have under my hand many score of detailed communications from Spirits inter-audited,—if one may coin a word for the occasion—and the concurrence of their testimony is overwhelming as to the eagerness with which they make themselves known, the evidently characteristic peculiarities of habit and thought they betray, and the life-like simplicity of their revelations;—revelations. of what had happened to them before death, or in dying, never beyond the vaguest generalities as to present state. Eliphaz Levi is quite justified in saying that revelations as to the unseen world are not gained by evocation of Spirits: and this I think is explained by what has already been cited from Swedenborg regarding memory. When that which in the Spirit-world is quiescent rouses again, the conditions of consciousness are probably as different as those of a person in trance and out of it. The secrets of death are kept from ago to age, and by these very people who have most importunately clamoured at the threshold of the hidden world for some faintest intimation of what befel those who went before. One by one all pass beyond ken and the mystery remains; no doubt because its key is ''incommunicable.'' | ||
Again Eliphaz Levi says: “Les Lines des morts ne sont done pas autour de nous, comme le supposent les tourneurs de tables. Ceux que nous aimons peuvent nous voir encore et nous apparaitre, mais seulement par mirage ct par reflet dans le miroir common qui est la lumiere.” (''“Histoire de la Haute Magic,” p. ''114.)* | Again Eliphaz Levi says: “Les Lines des morts ne sont done pas autour de nous, comme le supposent les tourneurs de tables. Ceux que nous aimons peuvent nous voir encore et nous apparaitre, mais seulement par mirage ct par reflet dans le miroir common qui est la lumiere.” (''“Histoire de la Haute Magic,” p. ''114.){{Footnote mark|*|}} | ||
Leaving on one side for the moment the question of ''where ''they are, I accept this conclusion of his only so far that, unless our spirits are in harmony with theirs, we probably do not fall within range of their vision. For instance, if in loving peace themselves, they cannot, I suppose, perceive us in our angry, troubled moods (though they may miss our unison with their dominant feeling); and this on the same grounds that Böhme declares evil Spirits to be unable to see ours when they are quieted by love and humility, because, as a rule, Spirits have no perceptions beyond their own “principle” or internal world. But when we approach the question of ''where they are ''who have vanished from our life, dogmatism is peculiarly impertinent. Few writers have indulged in it with more impressive weight than William Law, on precisely this point—the fate of the dead; and I must confess that his revered teacher Böhme occasionally supports the hypothesis I find so untenable, that at the death of the body no light of our sun can remain to the Spirit—that unless the light of eternal life is kindled by regeneration ''before ''decease, the Spirit finds itself in darkness. | Leaving on one side for the moment the question of ''where ''they are, I accept this conclusion of his only so far that, unless our spirits are in harmony with theirs, we probably do not fall within range of their vision. For instance, if in loving peace themselves, they cannot, I suppose, perceive us in our angry, troubled moods (though they may miss our unison with their dominant feeling); and this on the same grounds that Böhme declares evil Spirits to be unable to see ours when they are quieted by love and humility, because, as a rule, Spirits have no perceptions beyond their own “principle” or internal world. But when we approach the question of ''where they are ''who have vanished from our life, dogmatism is peculiarly impertinent. Few writers have indulged in it with more impressive weight than William Law, on precisely this point—the fate of the dead; and I must confess that his revered teacher Böhme occasionally supports the hypothesis I find so untenable, that at the death of the body no light of our sun can remain to the Spirit—that unless the light of eternal life is kindled by regeneration ''before ''decease, the Spirit finds itself in darkness. | ||
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{{Footnotes start}} | {{Footnotes start}} | ||
{{Footnote return|*}} “The souls of the dead are not them about us, as the table-turners suppose. Those we love can see us still and appear to us, but only by mirage, and reflection in the common mirror which is light.’’ | |||
{{Footnotes end}} | {{Footnotes end}} | ||