The proofs of life after death : a collation of opinions as to future life

Front matter

t OLIVER LODGE ■\HU OTTIRRS

I 9 f

The Proofs of Life After Death

Preface

How The Symposium Came to be Written.

"Your brother is dead!"

Such was the midnight message I received a little over a year ago. It was the first time Death had struck so near to me since the days of my childhood — the first time I had had occasion to marshal up such hazy and chaotic reasons as I possessed for the conviction and consolation that — "It is well — he is gone — I also shall follow soon or late, and we shall meet again." They seemed insufficient and trivial in the presence of the great fact that he lay there dead.

And then, the minister in the lonely little church, himself almost a stranger in the community where he worked, and altogether a stranger to the relatives of the deceased, knew not what to say. So he preached a sermon that might, at least, give some hope to infidel, agnostic or Christian. He advanced, in his simple way, from scientific analogy and philosophy, such reasons for a belief in life after death as he thought might appeal to those who could not accept, nor even cared to accept, though in the presence of Death, the doctrine and faith of religion.

(ii)

Preface

Personally, my belief in a life after death was more or less fixed, a permanent conviction, shadowed at times perhaps with puzzling questions and negative thought, but strong and vigorous, nevertheless, and seeking always the sunlight of truth.

Endeavoring to console one even nearer to my brother than myself, I realized how unprepared, how barren is the average mind in the face of this seemingly great catastrophe. In the absence of absolute demonstration, at hand and ready at all times, the reasons, principles and inferences for this belief cannot be too numerous; for they must contend with the evidence of the world of sense, a world to which the greater part of mankind for the most part confines its activities.

Hence this book — this Symposium.

Some time after returning to my home in Chicago, and in accordance with a plan to bring into a concise whole the strongest and best reasons advanced by science, philosophy and common sense as substantial evidence of a future life, I addressed the following letter to a number of eminent men in America, England, France, Germany, Italy and Russia: —

Dear Sir:

The Author of this letter, inspired by the untimely decease of a dear friend, and in contemplation of the numerous philosophical and logical theories leading to a belief in the continued existence of the soul, or personal identity

Preface after death, begs of you the great favor of a letter, setting out as briefly, or at such length as may be convenient, what you consider to be the strongest reason, or argument, advanced by science or philosophy, or by common sense, in favor of an affirmative answer to this mighty question; or preferably, a statement of your own deductions thereon.

It is our desire to obtain from thinkers and educators of the world, an expression — a twentieth century bulletin, on this subject.

Our request will impress you doubtless as an unusual one, but none the less will you see the force of it, and its possibilities. Who can measure the impetus such a compilation may have upon the inquiring human mind?

May I not have your co-operation in this matter?

Thanking you now in advance for the courtesy of a reply, I am Fraternally yours,

ROBERT J. THOMPSON.

From the answers to this letter and from references I have received in connection with it from various correspondents, some of them the most eminent of our day, and some, like the author, unknown to the world of scientific thought and research, I have put together this book. There are some repetitions of thought in it, naturally, but they will be found where most essential, that is, on the strongest points. I have taken the liberty to introduce in different places throughout the matter, in parentheses, definitions of some of the technical scientific terms, that the ordinary reader may without difficulty comprehend the thought.

14 Preface

Most persons, whether Christian, Jew or Gentile, reading here the reasons and deductions given by those whose thought make up this symposium, will, it is my belief, close the book with satisfaction, and with the conviction of knowledge, rather than faith, or, if you prefer, as well as faith, that there is — a LIFE AFTER DEATH.

ROBERT J. THOMPSON.

Chicago, Oct. 15, 1902,

Recrimination.

By Special Permission of Mrs. Wilcox. I.

Said Life to Death, "Methinks if I were you I would not carry such an awesome face To terrify the helpless human race.

And if, indeed, those wondrous tales be true

Of happiness beyond, and if I knew About the boasted blessings of that place, I would not hide so miserly all trace

Of my vast knowledge, Death, if I were you.

But like a glorious angel I would lean

Above the pathway of each sorrowing soul, Hope in my eyes and comfort in my breathy

And strong conviction in my radiant mien, The while I whispered of that beauteous goal. This would I do if I were you, O Death!"

II

Said Death to Life, "If I were you, my friend, I would not lure confiding souls each day With fair, false smiles to enter on a way

So filled with pain and trouble to the end.

I would not tempt those whom I should defend, Nor stand unmoved and see them go astray. Nor would I force unwilling souls to stay

Who longed for freedom, were I you, my friend.

But like a tender mother I would take

The weary world upon my sheltering breast And wipe away its tears and soothe its strife.

I would fulfill my promises, and make My children bless me as they sank to rest,

Where now they curse — if I were you, 0 Life!"

III

Life made no answer; and Death spoke again: "I would not woo from God's sweet nothingness A soul to being, if I could not bless And crown it with all joy. If unto men My face seems awesome, tell me, Life, why, then, Do they pursue me, mad for my caress, Believing in my silence lies redress For your loud falsehoods? (So Death spoke again.) Oh, it is well for you I am not fair, Well that I hide behind a voiceless tomb The mighty secrets of that other place. Else would you stand in impotent despair

While unfledged souls straight from the mother womb

Bushed to my arms and spat upon your face."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

"The immortality of the soul is a matter that concerns us so much, that affects us so deeply, that we must have lost all sentiment if its investigation leaves us indifferent. All our actions and thoughts follow paths so different, varying according to the hope of gaining eternal blessings or not, that it is impossible to take any sensible or judicious step without regulating it from this standpoint, which must be our final object"

—Pascal,

The Idea of the Book.

The facts, statements and expressions of opinion contained in this volume — THE PROOFS OF LIFE AFTER DEATH— are grouped under the several headings of Science, Psychical Research, Philosophy, and Spiritualism. This classification has been made in order to divide the work into parts; and for the purpose, too, of placing the various persons whose thought I have used under the standards they would perhaps prefer to be found. The grouping is not altogether correct; for all knowledge eventually comes under the broad head of Science. Psychical Research, for example, has become during its twent:r years of systematic organization quite as respectable a branch of science as medicine or astronomy. Spiritualism, aside from its phenomenal aspect, is the highest kind of philosophy, and in its phenomenal aspect, according to Professor Alfred Russel Wallace, Sir William Crookes and other noted and conscientious scientists, one of the most enticing and important fields of scientific investigation.

If it were not for the fact that among the conservi8 ative, the materialist class of scientists, the theory is accepted that thought is a product or function of the pasty gray matter of the brain, it might well be said that philosophy had already definitely proven the immortality of the soul. This scientific doctrine that thought is a function of the brain seems, however, to be rapidly falling into the limbo of mistaken deductions, especially so, in the face of the introduction into our universities and colleges of the study of experimental psychology, and the more or less approved demonstrations furnished by the Psychic Research Society that certain marked phases of thought and intelligence exist independent of any brain whatever.

The idea, of which this book is the result, has been to bring together into a combined form and in accordance, I may add, with the modern commercial scheme of economy the various thoughts and reasons men possess for a belief in the continued conscious existence of the soul after death. In presenting such a symposium to the world of books, it has been the thought of the author, as well, to awaken in the minds of those before whose eyes it may pass, the hope, if not the conviction, that this profound problem is not unanswerable; that it is a practical question, open and demanding investigation and solution; that upon its issue rests the most stupendous results in civilization and the relations of man to man in all their varied aspects.

Introduction ig

Full knowledge of the value of human life, its necessity in the evolution of an individual soul, and the essential worth to the whole of that spirit atom, if such it be, such knowledge would doubtless contribute more toward the relief of distress, the speedy and certain upbuilding of the race, its evolution and progress, than any or even all conceivable knowledge, other than this, to which the mind of man could aspire.

It might be, however, that an absolute, settled solution of the question of future life, without a corresponding knowledge and appreciation of the purpose of life, would mean, whatever the solution, the quick destruction of mankind. For, as in the midst of a journey when the voyager is hurried on with increasing speed to a destination he knows not of, there comes to him the knowledge, fixed, inexorable, implacable and unquestioned, of not only the utter fruitlessness of his journey, but of appalling annihilation at its end; would he bear the agonies, the failures, the storms and wrecks bestrewing his onward course? What conscious being does not live in anticipation of the coming hour, of the morrow, or in the hopes of fulfillment of the aspirations and ambitions of to-day? If his train were bound to destruction- —there were no uncertainty, no hope, no future — the traveler, whether on life's journey or the Twentieth Century Express, would, with all his companions, leap, not for life, but for death, and dying would leave no progeny to face the hideous mockery they had escaped.

And yet —

On the other hand, the traveler, moving onward to a goal, far away seemingly — lovely possibly, and harmonious as the summer days of youth; the hours, the days and years drag on with the same pains and storms and despondent wrecks; he travels on. Suddenly there comes to him the ultimate conviction, the demonstration and certain knowledge, that death is the doorway here and now not less open than at the end of the journey, to the freedom, harmony, joy and greater life of man — the race might live, but the individual would rush quickly, happily and without hesitation into the arms of the Deliverer.

The million years or centuries or ages, as the case may be, of evolution of this wondrous animal man might thus be defeated; for free will, reason, justice, sentiment and love are qualities not belonging to toys and playthings. And "a little learning is a dangerous thing."

So a realization of the purport and value or necessity of this life must come with the final demonstration that there is continued life after this.

Supposing we go back in thought some eighty generations. Counting from father to son and then to grandson as thirty and sixty years and so on, it would take us back into the palmy days of Greece.

Whether we would find our eightieth progenitor a savage denizen of the links of Scotland or a polished philosopher of Greece, it would be difficult even to make a guess. If we could forget for a moment the affairs of to-day, it would not seem so very long ago; yet the most learned men of those days accepted as truth the idea that the Sun was harnessed to a team of powerful horses that during the space of twenty-four hours dragged that shining body around the Earth.

Now while these eighty generations of our fathers have lived and died on the planet Earth, man's knowledge has so increased as to enable us with perfect accuracy to ascertain the Sun's distance from the Earth — ninety odd millions of miles, its size — nearly a million and a half times greater than that of the Earth, its weight — over two octillions of tons, or three hundred and fifty thousand times that of the Earth. We know its composition, the distance, and the direction it travels.

Organized and concentrated research grows rapidly; it waters its own roots. We learn to-day as much in ten years as we learned a century or two ago in a hundred years. Where is it going to lead us? How many more generations of Thompsons or Smiths or Hohenzollerns are to come and go before this persistently questioning human mind of ours will have laid before us a complete and unconditional demonstration of this, the supreme problem of existence? Can anyone doubt that the question will be eventually solved? Can anyone imagine a time, unless it be when once the question is solved and that forever, when mankind will not demand an answer to it?

Has it occurred to you, my friend, that "the country from whose bourne no traveler returns" has an innumerable, stupendous population? Do you know we are supplying it at the rate of one for each second of time, sixty to the minute and three thousand six hundred to the hour, a rate of departure which means eighty-six thousand four hundred emigrants each twenty-four hours; or the nation making population of thirty-one and a half millions of individuals that take ship for that country each year?1

No, it has not occurred to you perhaps. Nor has it often come to your mind that you, too, sooner or later — at most after a few lightning revolutions of the planet Earth around the Sun — shall also pass up the gang-plank with your day's quota of emigrants and take passage to the new country.

Here we gaze upon the locked and forever abandoned dwellings left by our loved ones — father,

i The death rate throughout the world Is conservatively estimated at two per cent of the population per annum. It ranges below, and of course considerably above, that figure. But mortality experts generally count on a rate of twenty deaths yearly to the one thousand of individuals. The world's population is estimated at not less than 1,500,000,000. Or one million five hundred thousand-thousand souls. Twenty times this number gives the appalling total of thirty millions, the average number of deaths occurring each year among the peoples of the Earth.

Introduction 23

mother, brother, sister, sweetheart, wife, son or daughter — they have fled. The houses are tenantless and soon to fall into decay. We think: Why not look into this matter, this voyage? True, we cannot escape the journey and consequently have concerned ourselves little regarding it. It might be, however, that if we could learn something of this new country, so populous, so evidently attractive, could look beyond the horizon by aid of telescope or higher altitude and see the course taken by the travelers, whether into some dark vortex of nothingness or into the sunny seas of persistent consciousness and evolution; if we could do this, it would be the part of wisdom, certainly. Whither away?

So we begin to bestir ourselves We climb out and upward, somewhat above, as we suppose, the heads of our fellows; those engrossed solely in the affairs of the old country, and not caring to widen their horizon, especially that part embraced in the sea-line. And as we reach higher altitudes the atmosphere clears perceptibly, our first observation being that above and below, and all about us, from every point of vantage imaginable, fellowcountrymen are stationed with telescope and various inventions calculated to intensify the powers of the senses, gazing into the distant haze with a single eye — with an eye for signals from the emigrants.

Thirty-one and a half millions a year! Why it

24 Introduction

requires less than three years for the world to furnish this new country with a population equal to, or greater, than that of the entire United States in the year of Christ Nineteen Hundred.

Up the gang-plank they pass, to the tick of the everlasting chronometer of Time — one per second.

Count them, you cannot ! For if you live over the common span of fourscore years the inconceivable number of two billion four hundred million of fellow human creatures of the planet Earth will have died, while you have lived.

To-day, after waiting some ages in the valleys, expecting or hoping to hear from those travelers outward bound, we stand — in the silence. But it is a portentous silence, a whispering, breathing silence, a catching of the breath and a trembling before the song bursts forth.

The supreme appetite of man is for life, harmonious, immortal life. Nature provides for the fulfillment, the complete fulfillment at some time or place of all the appetites of man. What then of this, the supreme, the eternal, the everlasting appetite — the desire for immortality?

Who shall place a limitation here?

"Knowledge is the win^ wherewith we fly to Heaven." All things are for its acquirement. How vast it is looking backward,, how infinitesimal looking forward. Increasing knowledge demands more knowledge, larger fields and vaster efforts. Man will not travel forever toward an unknown goal. And when the day arrives that he may look forward to the end of his life's journey, when he may look beyond the sea-line and view there, clear and beyond peradventure of doubt the quickening clutch of the dread maelstrom, the yawning maw of annihilation, blank death — then would human nature turn back upon itself in throes of revolt; evolution would cease, and the human race, after a few reactionary generations, obliterate itself completely from the face of the Earth.

Such a conception of the finality of man's existence on the Earth is not impossible; yet it does such violence to common sense, to all the schools of learning, known, or conceivable to man, that we are forced to the conclusion that the demonstration of this question of life after death must be affirmative and cannot be negative.

What is the value of a human soul? Is it nothing, or is it everything, infinitesimal, or is it infinite? Let that question be answered and the sociological problem is solved forever. No man would knowingly grind jewels into the dust. And if the human life is not an immortal soul in evolution the sooner it is known the better, that the useless, unnecessary struggle may cease. Would we consciously sow germless seed? Do we plant in ashes? What reasonable being, capable of justice, sympathy and attachment, could breed a child for annihilation? For, in the language of the good gray poet,

" If all came but to ashes of dung,

If maggots and rats ended us, then Alarum 1 for we are betrayed,

Then indeed suspicion of death.

Do you suspect death ? If I were to suspect death I should die now

Bo you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited toward annihilation ? ' '