Scientific religion; or, Higher possibilities of life and practice through the operation of natural forces

Front matter

L

- i r

THE LIBRARY

Introduction

PAGE

Revolutionary tendency of modern thought — Its bearing upon theological dogma — Doubts and unsatisfied moral aspirations the result of spiritual quickening — The impending psychic crisis, and the moral and physical conflict which will result therefrom — Organic changes in man now in progress, . . 1

Chapter I

Uncertainty attending all revelation purporting to be divine — Causes of this uncertainty^The responsilnlity of every man as the final judge of revelation — None of the most ancient revelations attempted to grapple with social and economic problems— Substitution almost immediately after Christ's death of a desire for personal salvation, in lieu of the practice of daily life inculcated by him — Theosophy, occultism, and mysticism, offer no remedy for the world's malady — Nature of Biblical inspiration examined — Later inspirational writings, . . 10

Chapter II

Recent examination into tlie nature of the forces latent in the human organism — Hypnotic experiments in France, and the Psychical Research Society in J]ngland, familiarising tlie scientific mind with forces formerly ignored — Their origin in the unseen universe — Fonner conception of matter modified by recent discoveries — Sir Henry Roscoe on atoms — Inseparability

Vlll CONTENTS.

of matter and force — Dynaspheric force — Scientific facts valuable, conclusions misleading — Hypnotic expei'iments witnessed by me in Paris — Hypnotism recognised by the medical faculty in France as dangerous — Spiritual insight necessary to discover the nature and origin of these forces, and to qualify the operator to deal with them, . . . . . .28

Chapter III

The interlocking of the invisible atoms of the seen and unseen worlds form a single system of animate nature — Glimpses into the invisible, conditioned on the moral state of the observer — Deatli a liberation of grosser atoms from those more sublimated — Material particles, the vehicles of force, constantly assuming new phases — Anima mundi — Interdependence of all created nature — Psychical experience attending the composition of " Sympneumata" — Duplex cerebral action — Vital atomic interaction between the living and the dead — Method of cerebral impregnation — Inspirations which do not grapple with the earth-malady, worthless — Christ, a radiative centre of healing force — The discipline of absolute self-sacrifice essential as a preparation to the highest inspiration — Defect in the Eastern systems of asceticism, . . . . . . .49

Chapter IV

Introduction to the House-book ; a treatise on domestic living, by the late Mrs Oliphant — Reasons why households should be formed to secure the advent of ideal good — Manner of life to be neither lavish nor parsimonious — Reasons for this — Religion now to be the possession of each man — All born to enact, what was formerly taught — Family groups, a machinery for social service — Necessity for the protection and nourishment of a home — All artificial distinctions of rank, occupations, and creeds abolished — Makers and maintainers of the family responsible for its development — The qualities required for social redemption— All to stand in sympathy with the laws of society, but not to be subjugated by them — Angelic co-operation with men — Division of responsibilities — Assistance in labour — Subordination to authority — Notes of expenditure, . . 64

Chapter V

Insufiiciency of the natural reason as a guide to divine truth, because it cannot divest itself of the ideas of time and space —

CONTENTS. IX

Hence theology and science both blind guides — Man the arena of conflictiag atomic forces — Transmutation of material forces by conversion of moral particles — Methods and manifestations of infestation — Atomic constitution of moral atmosphere — Phenomena of heredity— Astrology — Will-force under specific influence — Faith-healing — Elixir of life — Radiation of divine life depends on magnetic conditions — Sufi'ering involved thereby — Religion iiseless as a means to a personal end — "World - regeneration to be accomplished by a radiation of divinely inspired human affection — Inspiration threefold : through union with God, man, and nature — Pollution of its current threefold: by pride, by selfishness, by apathy — Its force depends upon its concentration upon groups animated by the same motive, ....... 84

Chapter VI

History of the early Christian Church, a record of swift demoralisation ; partly owiag to desire to make converts, and partly to the substitution of a future life for present practice— Conflict between Rome and the East — Extinction of Gnostic sects destructive of mixch of the deeper truth — Compilation of the present canon of Scripture untrustworthy — Apocryphal gospels and epistles — "The teaching of the Twelve Apostles" — The Book of Enoch — The Church of England on the verge of a great moral revolution — The confessions of a parish priest — Need of a reformed Christianity, .... 102

Chapter VII

Moral pall which shrouds earth's surface — Deterioration of moral atmosphere under invasion of Western civilisation — Christ's Christianity diametrically opposed to that of the Churches — False system of religious and secular education — Christendom : its politics, commerce, and finance, all on an infernal basis- Corruption of its Churches — Blindness and indifterence of so-called Christians to the inconsistencies of their lives — Christian ethics buried under anti-Christian dogmas — A quickening of conscience taking place among the clergy — Canon Fremantle on the " New Reformation," . . . . .117

Chapter VIII

The effect of dogmatic theology upon modern thought — The prejudices which it excites — The conflict between science and reli-

X CONTENTS.

gioii to wliich it has given rise — Intolerance both of theologians and men of science — Bigotry of the latter — Contradictions in which they have become involved — Facts of nature, discovered by superficial investigations, valuable — Empirical science incompetent to arrive at the divine truths in nature — This can only be achieved by development of inner faculties in man- Hence all scientific conjectures and hypotheses worthless — Conflicting utterances and conclusions of Professors Huxley and Tyndall illustrate this, . . . . . .131

Chapter IX

Eeligious systems : their uses and abuses — Aspiration demands inspiration— Religions extracted from the husk, instead of the kernel of revelation — Impossibility of demonstrating to the superficial reason, truths discovered by the inner faculties — Various channels and methods of inspiration — Development of subsurface consciousness — Magnetic condition of unseen world as related to ours — Attraction and repulsion depends on moral atomic affinities — Groups in the unseen with which every individual in the visible world is affiliated — So also with all Churches, religions, and sects — Christian, Buddhist, Moslem, and other religious organisations exist in the unseen, and inspire those here — Hence divergency of inspiration and religious • intolerance, . . . . . . .143

Chapter X

Force inconceivable except in connection with matter as a transmitting medium — The psyche or " spiritual body," the abode of the pneuma or "spirit" — Christ's birth and death established a new atomic relation between the seen and the unseen — The organisms of the seen and the unseen man described — Their relation to each other, and the methods of their interaction — The phenomena of spiritualism, occultism, hypnotism, telepathy, faith-healing, and thought-reading accounted for and explained under the operation of natural law — Phenomena unreliable as a guide to truth— Craving for it unwholesome and attended with danger — Insanity explained — Philosophy of death — Disease not an unmixed evil — Popular ideas of heaven, hell, purgatory, erroneous — Magnetic contact established between Christ and the world, the channel of a new moral reconstructive potency — The human and spiritual magnetic batteries now charged, and the consummation at hand — Qualities refjuired in those who would co-operate in bringing it about, . . . .159

CONTENTS. XI

CHAPTER XL

The relation of man towards God, Christ, and the unseen world, here set forth, confirmed by the inner sense of the Bible — All sacred books have their hidden sense — Teaching of the Kabbalah and of the Fathers on this point — Inner sense of Christ's teaching has been lost, and the symbols and externals alone remain ; hence superstition, bigotry, and hypocrisy — Frequent allusions to the " mystery " in the New Testament — St Paul's apprehension of it — The most ancient religions contain it in their universal conception of God, as an infinite paternal and maternal principle, pervading, animating, and sustaining all things by the " Word "^Judaism, which was an improved rendering of the Egyptian and Chaldean religions, contained it concealed in the Mosaic law, of which Christ was the fulfilment — Genesis composed and compiled under a most powerful inspiration— Mysticism : its uses and abuses, . . . 184

Chapter XII

Masculine and feminine atomic elements — Sentient and non-sentient atoms — The Deity of the Bible, as well as of former sacred records, masculine and feminine — Effect of the divine maternity on man — Revelation by the Spirit, which is feminine, a personal one — This mystery contained in the hidden sense of both Old and New Testaments, . . . . .201

Chapter XIII

The generation of universes — First chapter of Genesis descj-ibcs the creation by emanation of a previous universe — Analysis of its hidden meaning— The rebellion of Lucifer— Archangels or Seraphim, ami arch-demons or Siddini — The first Adam, or Adam Cadmon, . . . . . • .219

Chapter XIV

Second chapter of Genesis describes creation by emanation of our world — Analysis of its hidden meaning — The birth of bisexual man— Ancient beliefs in liis androgynous nature — Story of his fall — And separation into two distinct sexes — Structural changes consec^uent thereon, . . . . • 229 xii CONTENTS.

Chapter XV

The origin of evil — Mixed conditions in the genesis of earth — Evolution of the first forms of life, under the opposing influences of Seraphim and Siddim— The Garden of Eden — Man's mission — Method of its accomplishment — The earth-malady caused by the pollution of its sex-life — Its purification possible — Nature of the struggle for purity thus involved, . . 243

Chapter XVI

The first period of the race — Esoteric sense of the conflict between Cain and Abel — The mark of Cain — The introduction of physiological birth — Of polygamy — The fate of the Lamech races — Invasion of the planet by the Siddim — Their mixed progeny— The Book of Enoch — The deluge — Earliest cosmogonic traditions— The golden age, .... 256

Chapter XVII

The Noachic race — The guardians of the mystery — Transmitted to the Abramic— Magnetic conditions of the Holy Land — The Divine Trinity of the early religions — Analogy of the religion of Accad with that of the Jews — The secret contained in the law of Moses— The fulfilment of the law— Effect of modern criticism on Judaism, . . . . . • .271

Chapter XVIII

The mission of the Jews— The mystery of the Divine Feminine confided to them — The vision of Isaiah — The Divine Feminine enfolded in Christ — The method of His birth — Jewish belief in the Messiah — The Virgin Mary — Nature of the descent of the feminine principle — Covenants with the Jews — Reasons why they should recognise in this principle their Messiah, . . 290

Chapter XIX

The true position of woman — The false position assigned her by civilisation — Her new fvmctions in life — The descent of the Divine Feminine through her — The co-operative struggle of the sexes for purity — Woman's rights — The true higher education of woman, ...... 314

CONTENTS. Xlll

Chapter XX

Method of the descent of the Divine Feminine — And of its reception by woman — The Sympneiima — Introduction of the Divine Feminine into the world, through the birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ — The outpouring on the disciples on the Day of Pentecost — The sympneumatic consciousness, ........ .326

Chapter XXI

The sympneumatic descent — Its infernal simulation — The function of bisexual atoms — Contact with pneumatic centres — Social conventionalities impede male and female co-operation — Insane delusions — The relation of Christ to man through woman illustrated by St Paul — Kabbalistic interpretations, . . 340

Chapter XXII

The twelfth and thirteenth chapters of the Book of Revelation interpreted— The effect of Christ's mission to earth upon the upper invisible region of our world — Concealment of the Divine Feminine — The two witnesses — The functions of John the Baptist— His relation to Christ — Temporary triumph of the Infernal Feminine — The Beast, Anti-Christendom, or the Gentile Church — The mark of the Beast, the false cross — Man's present relation to Christ, ...... 362

Chapter XXIII

The fourteenth and following chapters of Revelation interpreted — Collision on earth between the sympneumatic and anti-sympneumatic forces — Catastrophic changes in consequence — The fate of the Siddim — The triumph of the saints — The Second Advent, and the descent of the Bride — Recapitulation, . . 379

Appendix I., extracts from the Kabbalali, .... .391 Appendix II., by a Clergyman of tlie Cliurch of England, . 401

EEEATA.

Page 165, line 2 from top, /or "dialectric" read "dielectric. !r 235, line 2 from foot, for " Salvine " read " Salome."

PAET I.

OR,

HIGHER POSSIBILITIES OF LIFE AND PRACTICE

THROUGH THK

OPERATION OF NATURAL FORCES.

INTRODUCTION.

REVOLUTIONARY TENDENCY OF MODERN THOUGHT — IT.S BEARING UPON THEOLOGICAL DOGMA — DOUBTS AND UNSATISFIED MORAL ASPIRA- TIONS THE RESULT OF .SPIRITUAL QUICKENING — THE IMPENDING PSYCHIC CRISIS, AND THE MORAL AND PHYSICAL CONFLICT WHICH WILL RESULT THEREFROM — ORGANIC CHANGES IN MAN NOW IN PROGRESS.

It would be supertiuous here to do more than cursorily allude to the remarkable moral and intellectual movement which has characterised the la.st half-century; it has been resumed in the literature of the jubilee year. The great ])roblems of life are assuming a new form, as the theological landmarks are gradually fading away beneath the Hood of light which has been let into them by theological research, antiquarian discovery, scientific investigation, and ])Sychiciil ]»henomena ; and men in their trouble arc. peering earnestly into the new region whicli is being thus illuminated, for a new order which they may substitute for the old — some vital tnitb-]»rincipl(' wliicli sliall conduce to a purer

A ami nobler social life; for, though the dogmas crumble away one after the other, and the dry-rot of ecclesiasticism becomes daily more apparent, the religious instinct is more quickened than ever, and in proportion as men under its intluence emancipate themselves from what they now perceive to be the ignorance, prejudice, or superstition of a dark age, do their aspirations strain after something higher and better, while their belief in the possible realisation of ideals, hitherto deemed unattainable, grows stronger. Nevertheless, this yearning for, and searching after, higher truth by the more advanced minds of the age, is attended by a consciousness of unrest and anxiety, often almost amounting to a vague feeling of alarm. There is a sense of chaotic surroundings, of unstable footing, of shrinking from the plunge into the unknown ; and many of the weaker sort, after going a little way, become troubled as to their own future, and — deficient in such a love for humanity as should induce them to dare all for its sake, and in such a faith in God as should lift them out of all personal anxieties — they scramble back into what they were brought up to believe was an ark of personal safety. There they find comparative rest among those whose consciences have not yet been stirred to any perception of the fearful inconsistencies of their conduct ; who distinguish between things religious and things secular ; who are content to profess in pulpit and in pew on Sunday, moral axioms which they openly violate in almost every act of their daily lives, and who do this in all good faith, in the sincere belief that they are pleasing God, and following the example of their Lord and Master Jesus Christ, and will win for themselves heaven thereby. It is because they are in this morally darkened condition — the result mainly of fear of punishment and hope of reward — that they shrink appalled from the conelusions of modern investigations, and refuse to receive any light which should pierce into the gloomy nooks and musty corners of their most unchristian creed, and which should force upon them an investigation into the errors of their present faith, and into the reasons why they are utterly unable to carry out in their daily conduct, and not merely to pronounce with their lips, the moral teachings of their nominal Master.

ECCLESIASTICISM AND SCIENCE. 3

In strong contrast with these is the class who live under the full blaze of the light to which I have alluded, but who are morally unaffected by it. "It is a useful light," they say, "for looking into the past, — it has even some interest materially with regard to the present, — but it is useless so far as the future is concerned. It has been valuable as showing us the extent of our ignorance, and in revealing to us the many delusions in which we have been living, but it conveys no other truth to us ; on the contrary, it presents to us insoluble problems with more distinctness than before, and it has no power of penetrating these for others, further than it penetrates them for us. The limit of our range of vision under its influence must necessarily be the limit of theirs, and inasmuch as all that it shows us is that we don't know more than it shows us, (which is very little, because it does not penetrate below the surface of things, or beyond what we call the ' material '), therefore, what is impenetrable surface for us must be impenetrable surface for everybody else, and what we call the material must be material for everybody else, and we refuse to admit that anybody can see further or have more light than we have." The analog}' does not seem to occur to such persons, that some people are naturally more short-sighted than others, and are obliged to wear spectacles ; did they not refuse to admit that spectacles exist for facilitating such internal vision as I am about to describe, they might possibly be furnished with them. In the meantime, there is far more hope for this class than for the one with which I liave contrasted it, for though " the light that is in them is darkness," they have the honesty to say so, — moreover, the light is in them unconsciously to themselves, and may burst out at any moment; but the others, more especially in the countries where the Greek or Ptoman Catholic religions prevail, have created their own darkness out of the l)igotries, the superstitions, ignorance, and cruelty of ages, and they wrap it round them and call it light.

Tliere is another class, again, who are not troubled l)y the problems of life ; who consider that the pursuit of pleasure, fame, or wealth is the sane, laudable, and reasonable occupation of a liuman being, inasmuch as, for aught they know, they may have no continuity of existence beyond this life. They ordinarily profess so-called Christianity, nevertheless, as a matter of convenience, but differ from the ardent votaries of that cult, in that they are governed by an enlightened selfishness as to the present, instead of as to the hereafter. They also are in a more hopeful condition than these latter ; for their consciences are torpid, not perverted, and are therefore more susceptible to the electric shock of the divine touch.

Far be it from me to say, however, that there are not thousands still embedded in existing forms of ecclesiasticism, who are daily becoming more highly sensitised morally ; whose aspirations are as noble, whose loves are as pure, whose motives are as disinterested, as those of any of the earnest and devout truth-seekers and unbelievers in the popular theology ; but this is in spite of its dogmas, not in consequence of them. Such men have always existed in the period immediately preceding reform in any religion, but they have always had the masses of their co-religionists against them ; and indications of an approaching schism of a far more profound character than any of which we have any historical record since the disciples were first called Cliristians at Antioch, are apparent to those who watch the spiritual horizon. To them a cloud bigger than a man's hand is visible above it.

For the processes of the divine quickening are moving steadily forward, generating vital impulses which will prove uncontrollable to those who come under their influence, and suggesting an irresistible instinct for aggregation. Upon all classes, and in diverse countries, taking no account of race, or creed, or colour, does this new life descend ; and as those who are stirred by it move, do they recognise their aiSinity to others similarly affected, and the magnetic attraction which is inherent in the vivifying principle, draws them together, at present slowly and athwart obstacles that would seem insurmountable— for in the early stages the recipients of this life feel weak and bewildered. Crushed by the weight of dry bones around tliem and above them, their first struggles are feeble and misdirected ; they know not in which direction to look for help ; the old deadness seems still to chain them to the spot where they first felt the vital touch, and yet they long

NEW VITAL IMPULSES. 5

above all things to leave it. Progress they feel is impossible in the midst of the old surroundings. The atmosphere feels charged with mephitic vapour, which sometimes appears even to interfere with the ordinary respiration. There is a sensation of struggle between the new life and the old, and the potency of the descending vigours seems at times as though it would destroy the outer bodily frame. It is the putting " the new wine into the old bottles," but the new wine takes no account of the condition of the bottle. Often it bursts it, and the spirit, vitalised and released, leaves its earthly shell, to carry on, from another vantage-point, the same work for humanity on this globe, which would have been allotted to it in its fleshly tabernacle.

It would be hopeless, however, to attempt to give any complete description of the mode of operation of this new life-principle, for in no two cases are the phenomena which attend its descent into the human organism similar in their manifestation, while each who has been conscious of its influence has a varied experience to recount.

With some, as I have said, it produces what may be called a life-and-death struggle ; with others the physical organism does not suffer, while the mor^l anguish is acute ; with some it is sudden, and seems to overwhelm and paralyse by the intensity of the shock; with others, it steals over them so slowly and so gradually — the preparation for its reception has been spread over so long a period of time — that there is comparatively little suffering, as the first perception of the change which is being operated dawns upon the consciousness. Sooner or later, however, spiritual suffering must ensue, though this varies much in degree, depending on moral conditions which it is not necessary now to enter upon. The main point upon which I wish to insist is the fact, with regard to which I have had abundant evidence during the last quarter of a century — and not I alone — that a spiritual wave is at present rolling in upon tlie world of a character unprecedented in its past history ; that it is daily gathering force, and is already crest high. Before very long it will break ; and the object of tliis book is to prepare men's minds for a crisis in the history of tlie phiiiet wliich cannot, I think, be very long deferred, but which will take a very different form from tliat wliich is

\isually anticipated ; for it is anticipated — anticipated in all the existing forms of religion, down to those which may almost be called heathen superstitions — anticipated by a dumb instinct in the minds of men who cannot be said to have any religion. It is in the air ; and only those of a peculiarly dense and unsusceptible temperament are absolutely without consciousness of it. It will be a moral rather than a physical crisis ; and its tendency will be (to use a Scriptural expression) to separate the sheep from the goats, and to bind together, in a way which no Churches have ever succeeded in doing, those who fight for the Powers of Light against those who fight for the Powers of Darkness. It will sweep away the present ecclesiasticisms, and substitute for them a religion in which there shall be " one body that hath many ' members, and all the members of that one body, being many, ' shall be one body. So also is Christ. For by one spirit we ' shall all be baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or ' Gentiles, whether we be bond or free ; and we shall all be ' made to drink into one Spirit." ^ Now this one body can only be created, under the influence of that one vitalising principle to which I have already referred, by the strenuous co-operation and ardent effort of those who are conscious that they have received it, and the effort to create it will entail a struggle of stupendous proportions with the corrupt principle to which the misery and degradation of the world has been due. It is this struggle which will be so critical for the human race, for it involves an issue of inconceivable magnitude, and must be carried on under conditions which will develop many new and terrible experiences, and call into operation laws which have been more or less hidden from scientific investigation, though of late years these have been dimly perceived, and in a superficial manner experimented upon by some of the first scientific men in Europe. In a word, it will be a psychical rather than a physical conflict, though I do not mean to say that the ordinary weapons of so - called " civilised warfare " will not be called into requisition.

Now many have received, and are receiving, accessions of the special potency which shall enable them to engage in this

■* Romans xii. 4. 5 ; 1 Corinthians xii. 12, 13.

PSYCHIC CONFLICT. 7

warfare, without any due conception of its nature. They are conscious of a moral disturbance within them, of new experiences which they shrink from alluding to, and of which in some instances they even entertain a certain feeling of dread. Sometimes new light dawns upon them, relieving them of moral perplexity — at others, new sensations stir their nervous centres ; they rise at times to conditions of exaltation which fill them with joy for which there is no adequate external cause, or sink into profound depths of despondency equally unaccountable. They may even be treated for hysteria by their doctors, wlio are none the less profoundly puzzled to know wliat hysteria is, and totally in the dark on the subject. All these are indications that they are beingsubject to the influences which are about to make war against each other in human organisms, and that the moment has come when those who know, or tliink they know, what these signs of the times mean, should not be deterred from throwing whatever light may have been vouchsafed upon it, by the hostile criticism of the majority — whose intelligence, by reason of their organic denseness, is still beclouded upon the subject. But before attempting to do this, it is expedient that I should explain how this light may be gained ; for rays are shot athwart the spiritual firmament from opposing directions— lurid rays from below, flickering rays of many colours and from many diverse quarters. To no human being has it ever been given to transmit untainted the white ray that issues from the throne of the Most High, for our world could not bear the fierceness of its splendour. All revelation wliich proceeds from the invisible must be relative in its value, all inspiration imperfect. It behoves us, therefore, to consider, in our searcli after divine truth, liow we are to judge of the value of revelation, and to arrive in our minds at a definite idea of what we mean by " inspiration."

I shall endeavour in the following pages to discuss the functions and cliaracteristics of those subtle atomic forces in nature, which are now attracting increased attention on the l)art of the learned and the thouglitful, — show liow they act upon man morally, intellectually, and pliysically ; or, in otlier words, in what sense they stimulate his aspirations, control liis inspirations, and aff'ect liis l)odily liealtli, — and consider further their practical bearing upon those biological and theological theories and problems which tend at present to confuse liis religious instinct, and cloud his perceptions of the beautiful, the good, and the true.

Finally, I will offer the solution of those problems and theories which, under tlie operation of these forces, has been revealed to me.

] would only say in conclusion, that it would not be right for any man, desiring to know whether this inspiration is true or not, to begin by believing it after the manner of the Churches : no belief can stand in these days that is not based upon the evidence of personal experience. These are not things that one man can prove to another ; all he can do is to say, that in all cases where certain experiments have been faithfully made, they have been attended with the same results. It is left to each to make them or not, as he chooses ; but I should be highly culpable, — having tested them in my own person, having seen them tested in the persons of others, and having received what I feel to be a strong internal direction to place before others the conclusion at which I have arrived, — to allow myself to be deterred from doing so by any sense of my own incapacity to do justice to so great a theme — which is profound— by any fear of the hostility or ridicule which it may excite, or by any anticipation of failure to reach the hearts of those to whom it is addressed. The issues are with God, and His servants know not the word disappointment, for they are incapable of reading His designs. Only this they know, that the slightest hesitation in obeying what they believe to be a divine impulse, produces a suffering more intense than any consequences which may accrue to them from the world. If, in my attempt to exhibit the dangers to which moral progress is exposed l)y the present methods of theology and science, and their antagonism to each other, I have spoken more hardly of the two classes engaged in these pursuits than the circumstances seem to warrant, it has not been from any want of the deepest respect for good men wherever they are to be found, or however much in error they may appear to me to be.