New light on immortality

Front matter

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Preface

The present work has arisen out of the cosmological speculations embodied in " Two New Worlds," which themselves were suggested by certain recent advances in our knowledge of the atoms of matter and of electricity. It seemed to me desirable that the new materials should be used as soon as possible to further the solution of the " question of questions," the possibility of human immortality.

Lest it appear presumptuous for a physicist to venture an opinion on such a subject, which is usually associated with psychology and theology rather than experimental science, I may plead that the relations between mind and matter require for their elucidation an extensive acquaintance with what is actually known about matter and what is not known about it. And every one, I think, will acknowledge that the relations between mind and matter are at the very root of all possible theories concerning immortality. Now the physicist is permanently confronted with problems concerning the ultimate nature of matter, more so even than the chemist, and much more than the physiologist, who usually derives his ideas concerning matter from elementary text-books of physics and chemistry. This explains the fascination which ultimate ques-

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tions are found to exert upon representatives of physics rather than upon devotees of other branches of science.

This book, then, is an attempt at what we might call a Physical Theory of Immortality. Such a theory must make the minimum of new assumptions, must not contradict any known law of physics, and must bear thinking out in all its consequences without leading to qualitative and quantitative absurdities. These requisites I have borne steadily in mind. The result, to me at all events, has been distinctly satisfactory, and although not all the points are fully worked out yet, I have, so far, failed to discover any inconsistency with the laws and experiences of the world we live in.

I have taken pains to remain throughout in close touch with the facts of physiology, and have embodied some of the most recent results of that great science in the following pages. At the same time I have guarded myself against accepting those crude hypotheses and speculations concerning ultimate realities with which some physiologists are inclined to cloak their real ignorance concerning the inner working of the phenomena they investigate.

The theory developed in the first two parts of this book may be taken, at all events, as a type of a theory of immortality which has a chance of being accepted by the scientifically trained mind. It remains for theologians to declare whether a theory of this type can be satisfactorily embodied in their systems. On this question I cannot venture to express any opinion, but I think they will acknow-

PREFACE IX

ledge the obvious advantage of having even a working hypothesis of a future life presented to them, such as both parties could possibly be brought to agree upon.

In Part III. I have gone a step further. I have ventured to include in my survey a large class of phenomena which official science has not yet accepted. I refer to what are now most usually styled " metapsychical " phenomena, and which form the subjectmatter of what is known as psychical research. Of these I have had little personal experience, but a careful examination of the extensive literature of the subject has forced upon me the conclusion that a large and solid basis of reality is at the bottom of these somewhat rare and elusive happenings. That being so, it seems naturally a little strange that they have not yet been fully recognised. But that fate has historically been shared by many other facts which did not happen to fit in with the views prevailing at the time. To judge from the trend of modern opinion, the time is approaching when a slight rearrangement of our general principles will provide the elasticity necessary to allow of these facts being duly placed and catalogued. The step I have here taken is therefore not fraught with such dire dangers of heterodoxy as some of my scientific friends have so kindly warned me of. And, even if it were, I should regard it as an obvious and imperative duty to state in precise and unambiguous language the conclusion I have, after careful examination of witnesses on both sides, deliberately arrived at.

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But it should be understood that the views advanced in this book do not stand or fall with the reality or otherwise of metapsychieal phenomena. The hypothesis sketched out, or something like it, is necessary to explain the phenomena of every-day life and growth, which are not fully accounted for by any theory so far put forward.

The central beam of the " new light " is the rehabilitation of life as the primary and ultimate reality. The reduction of the laws of nature to the laws of life of that congeries of inferior strata of life which we call " matter " is the most important of the new conceptions here established. It is, of course, an obvious corollary of the theorems proposed in my " Infra- World."

In conclusion I beg to thank those kind Dublin friends who have assisted me with the loan of books and the verification of references, and Mr. E. Dawson Rogers and Mr. Henry Withall for the loan of valuable photographs.

E. E. FOURNIER d'ALBE.

11 Sunbuky Gardens, Dublin,

September 1908.

Chapter I Page

The modern attitude towards death — Quantitative aspects of death — Unknown territories to explore — Man's growing optimism — Attitudes of science and theology — What we want to know 1

WHAT IS LIFE?

Ancient and modern definitions — Attempts to define life in terms of matter — No sharp demarcation between living and dead matter — Life more fundamental and " knowable" than matter — What do we know about matter? — The prestige of matter — Practical evidence of " existence" — Orders of reality — Matter expressed in terms of life — Laws of Nature — The life of " dead matter " — Low-order consciousness — The laws of Nature are the moral laws of lower universes — The life period of atoms . . .10

The human messenger — The organic life-work — Pre-natal activity — Development after birth — Social or "waking" consciousness takes the place of the organic consciousness

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— Vicarious : experience — The function of language — The submergence of the organic consciousness — Maturity a birth into the social world — The social business of life — Racial consciousness — Extension of personality — The personality lof communities — Selfishness — The interpretation of ordinary avocations — Happiness — Wisdom . 30

A problem of chemical physics — The human machine — A cell mechanism — Wilson on co-ordination — -Intercellular connections — Protoplasmic continuity — Grades of vitality — The organic hierarchy — Self-determination — No purely local phenomena — Regeneration — The death penalty — The deathless amoeba — Heredity and the Chromosomes — The centre of vitality of the cell — An invisible body . 50

A security or a restraint — Who frames the laws ?— Impossibility — How we generalise — Majesty of natural law — Its human import — Discrediting of speculation — British and continental schools — Materialism still in power — Pax Romano, — Universality of life — Definition of a world — The world of atoms — Life of atomic species — The laws of nature are the social laws of inferior worlds — Souls within souls — Our blood relationship with all life, and with all that exists — Superior aggregations ... 76

No room for a universal cataclysm — A new monism — Diagram of existences — The individual covers an infinite series of worlds — Death is the extraction of the vital or directing

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elements — The search for a spiritual body — Possibility of its extraction — Externalisation of personality — Properties of the externalised body — A gaseous constitution — Where is heaven 1 96

Part II Chapter I

If life were reversible — Unicellular cell-division — Tetramitus — Conjugation — Union of the nuclei — Alternation of generations — Necessity of subdivision — The multiplication of nuclei — Division and fusion of souls — The function of sex — Germ -cells — The problem of development — No physical causality conceivable — Infra-world memories . 115

Are we prepared for a theory? — Orthodox reticence— The negative attitude of materialism — No real belief in a future life — A scientific demonstration required — No room for dogma — Modern tests and requirements — Unexpected complexity— No finality — Popular ideas reduced to absurdity — Our guiding principles — No world outside God 131

Self-determination and the conservation of energy — The soul-body consists of material particles or structures— Proposal to call them " Psychomeres " — Darwin's "gemmules" — Weismann's " determinants "—Relation to chromosomes

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and centrosomes — Weight of the soul-body— Effects of withdrawal of the psychomeres— Probable experiences — Time required for withdrawal — Comparison with chloroform — defence of the organism — The final struggle — The moment after — The liberated soul — New functions — Earth-memories — Can a soul be wounded ? — The souls of cripples — Shape of the soul — Probable resemblance to a flame — Familiar instances — Cohesion of the soul-body — Assumption of former terrestrial shape .... 144

Where is it ? — Alternative locations — Non-euclidian space — The fourth dimension — Three-dimensional space — Choice of worlds — The claims of our atmosphere — No valid objection — Structure of the atmosphere — Recent investigations — The isothermal layer — Evidences of stratification — Conditions of aerial life — Anatomical peculiarities — Sense-organs — Life in the soul-world .... 160

The soul-world as seen from the earth — The earth as seen from the soul-world — Difficulties of intercourse — Relations between the two worlds — Not necessarily amicable — No absolute separation — Community of ideals necessary — The struggle between opposite ideals — The basis of ethics — Public aspects of intercommunication — Stamping it out — How a truth becomes a myth — The flight of the fairies — Recent revivals — Methods of communication — Alternative methods — Method of the soul- world — Method of the earth-world — Spirit control of an earthly organism — Passivity and familiarity — No revelations concerning earth-life to be expected — No terrors ahead — Disease and death 175

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THE WIDER PROBLEMS OP IMMORTALITY

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Do animals possess souls ? — Are animals and plants immortal ? — Conditions of immortality — Will and utility — Optional immortality — Amalgamation of individuals — Grades of disintegration — Blood relationship — Eeincarnation — Its difficulties — Karma — Higher entities — Kingly souls — Our responsibility — Human power ...... 191

Part III Chapter I

Decay of the introspective method — The psychophysical laboratory — Psychopathology — Hypnotism — Known and unknown — A theory more necessary than further facts — Summary of our theory in 19 articles — New data to be embodied — Boirac's classification — Hypnoid, Magnetoid, Spiritoid — Misuse of the word "force" — Definition of " force " — The specialisation of science — Most modern theories are specialist devices applicable to a limited range of facts — Frederick Myers — The panorama of the soul — Our modification — Refutable and verifiable — The subliminal self — The spirit hypothesis .... 203

THE STORY OP " KATIE KING "

The best-aiithenticated record — Miss Florence Cook — Annie Morgan, alias " Katie King " — Her full form photographed by magnesium light — Reproduced as a wood- engraving — May 7, 1873 — Exceptional conditions — Stringent tests — Mr. Luxmoore's account — Mr. Harrison's account — Difficulties of exposure to light — An authentic photograph — Alleged " exposure" of the medium — Cromwell Varley's

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electrical test — Full report — Further particulars— Mr. Coleman's account of the farewell scene — Portrait of Miss Florence Cook in 1874 — Separate identities of Miss Cook and "Katie King" — Later portrait of Mrs. Corner (Florence Cook) — Preserved pieces of "Katie King's" dress — Mr. Harrison's account — Souvenirs of hair — Parting words — "Florence Marryat's" account — Thorough examination of the form — The question of separate identity — The press on " Katie King "— Lombroso and Richet . 218

INTERPRETATION OF THE PHENOMENA

Clearly impossible" — Why official science was not convinced — Sir William Crookes' advantages — Why he succeeded — A remarkable test — Hasty generalisations — Spiritualism in Europe and America — Physical characteristics of "spirit forms" — Mental characteristics — No shadow ghosts — Voice manifestations — Moral characteristics — Sensations of the medium — Drapery — Harrison's hypothesis — Alternative interpretations — "Katie King" an independent entity — "Katie King" a "double" of Florence Cook — The spirit hypothesis the simplest — Mechanism of materialisation — Risks and limitations . 268

SUPERNORMAL PHYSICAL PHENOMENA

The Dialectical Society's Report — Movements of furniture — Method of the spiritualists — Instructions for private investigations — Dr. Maxwell on raps — Eusapia Paladino at Cambridge — Crookes'catalogue of phenomena — Weighing of evidence — Science cannot recognise miracles pure and simple— Man supreme in his own sphere — Externalisation of energy — Source of power — The demon theory — The effect of enlightenment 294

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Difficulties of identification — Identification of living persons — Similarity of methods and of evidence — The case of Frau von Bille-Dahl — Mr. Aksakoff's observations — Mental tests — Communications from Myers, Hodgson, and Gurney — Cross-references to "Mrs. Holland" and Mrs. Verrall — Sir Oliver Lodge's announcement . . 310

The road behind us — How we found the soul — Survival a thinkable contingency — A question of physics and physiology — The fear of death — The needs of the heart — Reward and punishment — A boundless prospect . . 321

Index 329

ILLUSTRATIONS

' PORTRAIT OF "KATIE KING". . . . To face p. 222

-.A PHOTOGRAPH OF "KATIE KING" . . „ 232

•MISS FLORENCE COOK IN 1874 ... „ 250

• A LATER PORTRAIT OF MISS FLORENCE

COOK (Mrs. Elgib Corner) .... ,,253

NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY