The future of man

Contents

Page

T. THE GREAT QUESTION , , ,17

IT. THE MENTAL GRASP . . . 25

Foreword

psychic discovery. I know that to the limits of that plane in which he lives at first, the human voice will carry, the thought will reach. The so-called dead live here about us, know our sorrows and grieve with us. They share our happiness, they know our hopes and ambitions, and, by suggestion, through our sub-conscious brain, they influence our daily conduct. I know that there in the after-life they have feature, form and expression, and, therefore, bodies composed of matter, for there cannot be form without substance. The substance that forms the bodies of spirit-people, vibrating more than five octaves higher than the violet ray, few in earth-life ever see, though spirit people see and talk with each other, and with mortals when the necessary conditions are secured. I know that every hope, ambition and desire of earth are continued beyond this life, as is also the burden of wrong. I know that we are as much spirit now as we ever shall be ; that in death, so-called, we simply vacate and discard the gross material that gives us expression in this physical plane. All about this material world of ours, there exists, in fact, the

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

psychic or spiritual universe, more active and real than this, peopled with all the countless dead, who, no longer burdened with a physical body, move at will within the boundaries of their sphere, in what appears as space to mortal man.

Their life is an active one. All the new conditions, all the great laws by which they are to be governed, must be learned, and only by individual effort can they live intelligently and well. I know that a wrong act in earth-life must be lived over again in the next sphere, and lived right, before advancement is possible; that the labor is often long, but that families and friends are, in time, reunited and take up the thread where it was broken. I have heard them talk among themselves, and to me, and many eminent men and women, upon my invitation, have heard the same that I have heard in the material conditions that we have made. I know something of the democracy of death, and that all mankind is beginning to hear and march to the silent music of reason. I know, too, that the highest duty of every one is to contribute what he can to the prosperity of the many, 10

FOREWORD.

who though rich in worldly goods, are mentally poor in a land of opportunity, and that this individual life of ours, whether it has had birth within the palace or the hut, no matter how it turns and curves and falls among the hills as it courses from the mountain-tops, through valley-lands, or, lies at times in stagnant pools of ignorance and vice, festering in the sun, must some day reach the great ocean of eternal life, from whence it came, clean and pure.

I am told that : "Beyond the life men call material, is another so much more real, so much more vital and interesting, that, when you enter into its fullest harmony, the little lives you led on earth will fade into the dim unreality of a dream-like past."

We cannot in the nature of things know much of the every-day life of spirits who people what to us is infinite space, because we are unable to grasp, to any great extent, the realities of their conditions. All can learn a little of matter and laws that control it beyond the physical plane, and to that extent can reason from cause to ef- 11

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

feet, without which there cannot be any rational conclusion.

I know that the tendency of all people is to do right, and that an invisible world, peopled by the so-called dead of all ages past, is interested in and is aiding our progression, that it speaks to our dull ears, with silent voices heard only through the subconscious brain; and I know that the great desire and hope of those beyond is to bring the world to an understanding of what dissolution means and of what follows so-called death, so that, knowing these two things, they may learn how to live the earth-life well.

The age of faith is past. The teaching of the church no longer satisfies the hunger of heart and brain. This is an age of fact. The present calls upon all men to think, not to believe; the torch of reason has been lighted, and its day is here. Some of the churches are now teaching mental therapeutics and utilizing psychic force to heal the sick, and, in time, all must follow the example of the few. The education and development of this generation have made it possible for spirit-intelligence to direct, in

FOREWORD.

some measure, the thought and conduct of mankind; and so I thoroughly believe the churches that shall teach the truth are already built.

For many years, I have been associated with two distinguished gentlemen and, with the aid of a psychic, talked voice to voice with spirit-people. Possessing no unusual ability or powers, we have been obliged to develop one who possesses psychic force. Having observed the conditions required by spirit-people, we have found another and a busy active world here and about us, in which people live and move in such intense vibration, that they are not visible to the physical eye. They inhabit what we know as space and have, under certain conditions, power to speak to mortal man. Many of the so-called dead have honored us with their friendship and have given us much instruction. When I have used their own words, the fact is indicated by quotation marks.

I have written these pages with the hope that some heart, heavy with sorrow, may come to comprehend the truth about dissolution, and to know that those called

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

dead are alive, and that all is well with them. We should ever look with eager eyes for gems of truth, and what we find, we should have the courage to express. I know better than anyone can tell me, how incomplete is this effort to give the world a Meta-psychic Philosophy, but bear with me: I have gone, in my research, beyond physical laws and the books of men, out into the wilderness of fact; beyond the beaten path into another world, more active and more real than the one in which we live, and what I have written, incomplete though it may be, are facts and they are true. Without arrogance, prejudice or preconceived and fixed notions, I have sat at the feet of learning, and, with eager and receptive brain, have listened to the teachings of splendid minds beyond the physical sphere and have weighed carefully each word in the light of reason and of experience. I know "there is no death; there are no dead;" that this life is but the creative plane, a preparatory stage of development for the reality that comes with dissolution, which is merely an increasing of our vibratory action. This is the greatest discovery of the present age,

FOREWORD.

and, when appreciated, will revolutionize the thought and conduct of the generation that shall accept it.

Some mortal lives are so lived that they stand out like trees aflame along the green and wooded shore where waters beat with endless wave; others, like undergrowth within the endless forest, remain unknown, but each must, according to the immutable laws of progression, at some time, obtain perfect development, which is the heritage of all : this is the law of life.

I know that in the kingdom of the mind there can be no personal dictation; that there is no God but universal good; no Savior but one's self; no trinity but matter, force and mind.

The twilight of fear has become to n*, who know this phase of life, a sacred hour, when, as the shadows fall, and rest follows a day of labor, Ave call to those beyond and hear voices of those so-called dead tell us of the future life of man.

Dated Buffalo, N. Y., Oct. 10th, 1908.

Edward C. Randall.

In the beginning, one of nay co-workers, in the life beyond, said:

"I find about you, Mr. Randall, a crowd of earnest spirit-people who are bending all their thought upon this which you are about to undertake. They will help you, when writing, by their suggestions, and, as the little book begins its journey to find the hearts of men, they will open many doors, and guide it to many darkened homes. The light illuminating every page will be the beacon for many in distress, and we in spirit do most sincerely thank you for your efforts to bring these great truths to all people.

"We see so many entering spirit-life who have lived and died ignorant of this natural law, and we know so well the importance of knowing and living according to that law, that we rejoice over this book of knowledge and we will speed it on its helpful journey with eagerness and with pleasure.' '

Chapter I. The Great Question

SINCE mankind came up out of .savagery, the great problem has been and ever shall be : What is the ultimate end of man? What, if anything, waits on the other side of death's mysterious door? What happens when the hour strikes that closes man's career, when, leaving all the gathered wealth of lands and goods, he goes out into the dark alone? Is death the end — annihilation and repose? Or, does he wake in some other sphere or condition, retaining individuality and identity?

Each must solve this great question, whether he like it or not. Dissolution and change have come to every form of life, and will come to all that live. With opportunity knocking at the door, mankind has but little more appreciation of it now than it had when Phallic-worship swayed the destinies of empires. It may be that, as a

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

people, our development has been such that we could heretofore grasp and comprehend only length, breadth and thickness, the three accepted dimensions of matter; that in our progression we have but now become able to appreciate and understand life forces that find their only expression beyond the physical plane.

This was when all knowledge was handed down from one generation to another by story, song and tradition. When the Persian civilization was groAving old and ambition towered above the lofty walls of Babylon; when Egypt was building her temples on the banks of the Nile; when Greece was the center of art and culture, and Rome with its wealth and luxuries held sway over the civilized world, they did not dream of type and printing press or applied electricity, and the many inventions in connection therewith that were yet to come. Those people were not ready for such progression.

The world cannot stand still. The great law of the universe is progress. Two or three generations since, the idea that a cable would one day be laid under the sea and

THE GREAT QUESTION.

that messages would be transmitted under the waters from continent to continent, was laughed at as a chimera. Only a little while ago, the world could not understand how words and sentences could be flashed across the trackless ocean from ship to ship, and from land to land, without wires, in space. And who shall now say that it is not possible to send thoughts, words, sentences, voices even, and messages, out into the ether of the spirit world, there to be heard, recorded and answered? Has man reached the end of his possibilities; will all progression stop with Marconi's achievements?

This is the age of man; we have passed the age of the gods. If our development is such that we can comprehend the life and the conditions following dissolution, it must be within our grasp as surely as progress has been possible at all times and among all people since the world began.

Great changes are at hand. There are to-day, political, financial and religious revolutions. Honest men are demanded for public office; the day of the corruptionist is passing. Captains of finance, who ma-

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

nipulate trust funds for personal gain in violation of law, fear imprisonment. Priests are realizing that they are no longer regarded as infallible; congregations have ceased to accept their conclusions or interpretations of one great natural law ; the pulpit is losing attraction, and church attendance is slowly, but surely, diminishing. People are doing their own thinking, and with thought comes doubt, the dawn of reason, the stepping stone to the temple of knowledge.

Assuming, then, that we have come to that period, when we can look upon all subjects and propositions impartially and intelligently, no longer bound by fear, past or present, and can open the book of life, we now appreciate that it is of the greatest importance to know what follows this life.

We are swinging away from the old moorings; new views come with changing times and conditions. Knowledge is the torch that fires our enthusiasm and makes advancement possible. It is not the past but the future that commands our attention. We may learn much of nature as she

speaks, in all dialects, her various tongues. 20

THE GREAT QUESTION.

All truth is safe, nothing else will suffice, and he who holds back the truth, through expediency or fear, fails in his duty to mankind.

Our age is one of sudden and rapid changes ; the people are in a state of transition. Most minds are sensitive and each must be alert and versatile. It is a period fraught with unrest and thirst for knowledge. What was true yesterday, assumes a different, one could almost say a diameterically opposite aspect, to-day. This is a period that will be fruitful in great wonders in scientific discoveries, and in the adaptation of the universal law of vibratory action. Much that is said now could not have been explained a year ago.

Some have come to know what awaits over the great divide, have solved the great problem of dissolution, and with the confidence born of knowledge, based on facts proved and demonstrated, are ready to speak with authority. As one among the many, I again give the world the result of my continued research in the new science of Metapsychics.

The thought that there need be no more

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

groping in the dark, makes the pulse quicken. The realization that fear can now be eliminated from the human brain, fills every heart with joy. The fact that we may come into touch with those in spheres beyond and know that they live, and how and where they live, will lift the burden of sorrow from every heart that mourns its dead.

The child learns readily for two reasons, viz: (a) It has no preconceived notions or fixed ideas; (b) it has nothing to unlearn: its mind is free and receptive. We, of older growth, are but children in the wilderness of these new and subtle laws. Before we can grasp and comprehend this philosophy, we must free our minds and eliminate false conceptions and erroneous ideas. That this is a difficult task I well know, for minds filled with traditions and false conceptions of the after-life, simply cannot comprehend the truth when it is given to them. There can be no individual progression until one becomes free, mentally poised, open to reason and willing to hear facts and to weigh them honestly. The blind are entitled to

our sympathy; we look upon those who 22

THE GREAT QUESTION.

cannot grasp a truth, because it is not as they have been taught, with sorrow; but we grasp the open hands of the free and walk with them in nature's highway and reason with them.

Humanity is awakening. For two thousand years it has listened to the song and drone of priest and preacher, and, lulled into a sense of security, has lived indifferent to the end which each one fast approaches. The mind has, at last, become active, and now demands to know what fate awaits us beyond the grave. Man has learned something about himself and the universe, and this knowledge has made him free. He is no longer in spiritual bondage. This is an age of intellectual emancipation. Those who walk with open eyes will find the truth, for it lights the way across the continent of every human life.

Chapter II. The Mental Grasp

MANY will read the facts that are stated in this work and utterly fail to comprehend them or to grasp the laws that make such conditions possible. This I know from my own experience, for it took many years of research, study and deductive reasoning for me to comprehend, in a limited way, life in the physical apart from gross matter. The trouble was in the imperfect mental grasp. When Copernicus said that the earth moved around the sun, and not the sun around the earth, as had been held since the end of Egyptian astronomy, the voice of all Europe was raised in protest against such a proposition; people could not comprehend such a fact, for it appeared to them that, if the earth moved from one side of a vast orbit to the other, the stars would be displaced. Tycho Brahe, the great math-

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

ematician, gave up the Copernican theory because he said, if true, his brain could not comprehend the magnitude of the universe. Bruno was put to death for defending the proposition, and it took a century for this truth to be realized, so contrary was it to the former teaching and belief.

After Cassini upset the observations of Hooke and Flam stead, Molyneaux, an amateur, constructed the "zenithsector," and measured the distances of stars, but many years elapsed before this fact was accepted, for the human brain could not realize such tremendous distances. And Roemer, when he measured the speed of light, met the same reception and died before his discovery was accepted. The age could not grasp the stupendous conception; such inconceivable velocities were too terrific, and the minds of able men were overwhelmed and confounded in the majestic and awful presence of nature.

We are told that on a clear night, 6874 stars, from the brightest to the sixth magnitude, are visible without optical aid, half of them being above the horizon at the same time. Down to the present time, more than

THE MENTAL GRASP.

one million others have, with the aid of the telescope, been counted with more or less accuracy. Sirius, the brightest of all, is seven hundred thousand times farther from our earth than the sun, and it would taka ten thousand stars of the eleventh magnitude and one million of the sixteenth, to emit the quantity of light poured forth by the mighty Aldebaran. Every star is really a colossal sun at terrific heat, and the center of a solar system like our own. Who shall say how many more shall be found in the depth of infinite space? To the average mind these facts and figures mean nothing; such distances are incomprehensible; such numbers stagger us; we have heretofore had nothing with which to compare them. No mortal has journeyed to other planets or suns, or gone such distances; therefore, these facts are practically beyond the mental grasp, like many here presented. Any subject outside one's knowledge and experience is beyond his comprehension.

It is a law that knowledge, which precedes appreciation, must be acquired by individual effort, by study, by labor, deduc-

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

tion, reason ; and, as the world has devoted its research almost entirely to matter, meaning thereby matter in its lowest form, it is, therefore, densely ignorant of anything beyond the physical plane.

When anyone fails to understand the simple facts here presented, it is because he has not carried his observation beyond the physical, for I have discovered only what anyone can by making well-directed and persistent effort. The situation as to these propositions is not very different now from what it was when Copernicus discovered the earth's movement, except that they do not now burn men for proclaiming a new discovery. It is as difficult for the mass of people to realize today that there is an invisible world about us, filled with actual people, as it was when Bruno lived, to comprehend the movements of this earth.

When I say that there is life after so-called death, and that spirit people have form, feature, individuality, identity and occupation; that this world invisible to our physical eye is here, on and about this earth, and in what we know as space ; when I say that those thought to be dead walk

THE MENTAL GRASP.

our streets, enter our homes, and are with us much as before, the great majority can no more comprehend such a condition of things than they can the number of stars in the sky or the distance of Sirius, the brightest of our constellations, or what the parallax of Canopus is. I knoAV of the after-life by reason of having talked with thousands of persons now there, who have proved identity in a most emphatic manner; but, after many years of conversation with spirit-people, I frankly admit that I can comprehend only in a limited way their life and environment, so different is it from the physical. If I do fail to comprehend their daily life fully, what will one do who has never devoted an hour to the study of matter and life-forces in their higher vibratory conditions?

We should not expect to understand and appreciate individual progression beyond the physical, or where and how people live in the next sphere, from an abstract statement of the fact. To gain knowledge of this condition, we must approach this vast problem as we would any other great subject we desire to master. First, we must

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

know something of the origin of physical life, how it is started, how it develops and grows; the object of material existence; how soul and body are nourished and held together; something of the theory of heartaction, blood circulation and the vibratory conditions of matter ; what dissolution really means; what life-force is and where it comes from; the effect of conduct here on conditions in the after-life, and how to live so as to enrich ourselves when we cast aside that physical substance that gives us expression. These propositions, stupendous as they seem, are in fact only elementary, and their mastery is a condition precedent to appreciation of life and environment in spirit-spheres. Knowledge on this subject, as in any other field of research, must be acquired by study. You would not expect to know the history of the earth's evolution and movements without studying geology and gravity, or the difference in the flora without knowing something of botany, or the chemical constituents of matter without the study of chemistry. The same law applies to psychic force and to life beyond the earth-plane, as on the earth-plane. It

THE MENTAL GRASP.

is a great science — a wholly new philosophy. Few intelligent minds have ever entered this great field of knowledge; little effort has been systematically expended on it, and the results are, at best, only commensurate with the effort. No one man, or class of men, can bring these laws comprehensively to the human mind. All who stud}- the subject can help, but the knowledge and appreciation that will reach the inner chamber of thought must be acquired by individual effort born of the desire to know. Those who cannot comprehend new propositions, must remember there are problems in trigonometry that many do not understand; but if we commence with simple mathematics, and work along step by step, they will become as simple to us as the multiplication table. The same process must be used if we would grasp the principles and laws of Metapsychics. Abstract statements are of little value except to stimulate interest. Effort and well-directed study are of great importance. There are no schools or universities where this philosophy is taught, and few are qualified to teach it. Few books have been written that

THE FUTURE OF MAX.

one can accept. But, for all that, one has nature all about him, at all times, calling in all tongues, and in all languages. The fact that life is everywhere, that nothing can die or be destroyed, speaks to our dull senses in a thousand ways ; sings of joy and peace through the forest-trees and woos us with bud, flower and growing grain. But so blind is the world that but few can read intelligently the book of nature, ever open to view. It is the great misfortune of the human race that these laws, more important than others that have been mastered, are practically unknown, though the peace and happiness of everyone depend upon an understanding of them.

Let me make a more simple statement. Before all form is mind. The desk I write on, the pen I use, the chair upon which I sit, the books on the shelves, the rugs on the floor, the lamp on the table, and the telephone on the wall, every machine that moves; each was conceived and fashioned in the mind before it was physically constructed. All matter, as we use that term, is the expression of thought; every planet in our solar system and all the countless

THE MENTAL GRASP.

suns tbat light the night, are but the expressions of thought.

All the great discoveries of modern times are simple when understood; the difficulty is with the understanding. When once we know the why and the wherefore, all natural laws become so plain that "he who runs may read." What we cannot grasp, we regard as mysterious. When we discover one of nature's laws, we marvel at its simplicity. There is nothing in nature that is supernatural; there is no supernormal, these are but names given to conditions not understood.

The working and development of a human mind is intensely interesting. Mr. K., who spent one year with me in this research, was a man of much learning and a great thinker along material lines, and when I endeavored to explain life, apart from the physical, it was so different from his experience that he was at first utterly unable to grasp it. As we progressed, step by step, confining our discussion to cause and effect, he came to appreciate the force of simple facts, and when he heard and talked, voice to voice, with spirit-people,

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

his progress was wonderful, lie could appreciate the fact and the reason for it. On the other hand, I tried for weeks, with as simple words as I could use, to explain this philosophy to another who was anxious to know, but who had an untrained mind, practically without making any impression. The one was a thinker and a worker ; the other was indolent and undeveloped mentally, and consequently had a limited grasp of such facts.

From these experiences, and many others, I conclude that the vast majority of mankind, having but little knowledge of this subject, cannot appreciate much beyond the visible and tangible, though they may be learned in other ways. Individual life, beyond the physical and similar to it, will be hard for many to grasp, because they have not investigated the elementary laws that form the groundwork of Metapsychics.

If I can arouse human beings from their indifference to this great question, more vital to them than money, and get them interested in this new philosophy, they will find the truth in their own way. For a thousand years the individual has lived

THE MENTAL GRASP.

in fear, bound by creeds and dogmas, and has been told what he should and should not do, how he must think, what he must think, — a slave to superstition and prejudice. But fear no longer sways the mind, superstitions have been outgrown, creeds have lost their meaning, and prejudice, the child of ignorance, no longer dominates the way on the crowded avenue of knowledge.

Chapter III. Truth And Appearance

TRUTH is always an achievement; it becomes such by reversing appearances, turning rest into motion, solids into fluids, centers into orbits, and by breaking up inclosing firmaments into infinite space. The sun, the moon, the stars seem to revolve, but they do not. We feel that the earth is motionless; that idea is erroneous too. We see the sun ritse above the horizon; it is beneath us. We touch what we think is a solid body; there is no such thing. We think we hear harmonious sounds; but the air has only brought us silent undulations. We admire the effects of light, and the colors that bring vividly before our eyes the splendid scenes of nature; but in fact there is no light, there are no colors. It is the movement of colorless ether striking on our optic nerve which gives us the

THE FUTURE OF MAN.

impression of light and color. We speak of heat and cold; there is neither heat nor cold in the universe, only motion.

Once it was said "This is as it appears." Now we say "The reality is not according to first appearance, but usually the reverse." Knowledge has reversed these beliefs, and the contrary is now proved to be the fact. The energy of an active agent seems to end with disorganization, but it really passes into another form. The appearance of nature is almost always elusive; and our first interpretation of natural conditions is usually the reverse of the reality. Of course this must be so ; it is the wisdom of creation and the secret of the world; else knowledge would he immediate and icithout process. Nature has put reality at a distance, and a natural law compels each to travel that distance, and, by labor and study, to distinguish reality from appearance.