Frontiers of the after life

Front matter

Class

Book

Gqpyrigliffl?-

Contents

Foreword 5

I. The Great Question 15

II. The Inner Spirit Body 22

Chapter I. The Great Question

SINCE mankind came up out of savagery, the great problem has been: What is the ultimate end? What, if anything, awaits on the other side of death's mysterious door? What happens when the hour strikes that closes man's earth 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 personality?

Each must solve this great question for himself. 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 people, our development has been such that we could heretofore grasp and comprehend only length, breadth, and thickness, the three accepted physical dimensions of matter; that in our progression we have but now become able to appreciate and understand life beyond the physical plane.

Time was when all knowledge was handed down from one generation to another by story, song and tradition. When the Persian civilization was growing 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 were not ready for, and could not appreciate, that progress which has come.

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 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 comprehend that words and sentences could be flashed across the trackless ocean from ship to ship, and from land to land, without wires.

THE GREAT QUESTION

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.

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, we can 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. 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, 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 diametrically opposite, aspect today. This is a period fruitful in scientific discoveries, and in the adaptation of the universal law of vibratory action. Much that is said now could not have been explained twenty years ago. Mankind has progressed to that point where it can comprehend life as it exists in the great beyond, and, as surely as day follows the night, he will come to understand it. That force which directs the destiny of all living things, seems to have planned it for this time, and many, like myself, are but instruments directed by that great force that we call Good and others call God.

Many have come to know what awaits over the great divide, have solved the great problem of dissolution, and, with the confidence born of

THE GREAT QUESTION knowledge, based on facts proved and demonstrated, speak with authority.

The thought that there need be no more 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.

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 eliminate false conceptions and erroneous ideas, and come to the subject with open mind. That this is a difficult task I well know, for minds filled with traditions and false or no conceptions of the after life, simply cannot at once 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, with sorrow, upon those who cannot accept a truth, because it is not as they have been taught;

but we grasp the open hand of the free, walk with them along nature's highway, and reason together.

Man, in his ignorance, is like the bewildered stream blindly groping its way down the steep hillside, turned in its course by every resistance it meets; rushing, retreating and halting, moved by the weak force of an inferior instinct. Some invisible power carries it onward. It little knows the nature of that power. It seems to be carried by an impulse from within. After a time the stream grows wider and deeper, its current less swift. Then it enlarges to the calm, peaceful river which flows steadily and unerringly through the wide valleys on its appointed way to the sea. Likewise, man is led onward by the mysterious force of a superior destiny. At first he rushes about impetuously, and murmurs because of the restrictions imposed by the law. But his consciousness grows broader and deeper with the march of the years, and in the clear waters of mind he sees a reflection of some of the great truths of the universe. His visions of the beauty of that inner world of ideas inspire him to a life of noble endeavour.

THE GREAT QUESTION

Humanity, as a whole, is like the streams and rivers of earth. All men are moving irresistibly onward, carried by some mysterious power they feel, but cannot fathom. Humanity at last will reach the boundless sea, where there will be no discord, no unrealized yearnings, no limitation. Deep down in the still waters all hearts will find peace.

Humanity is awakening. 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 is making him free. 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 Inner Spirit Body T

"f | ^HERE is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." .Those words have fallen from the lips of priests, over the bodies of the so-called dead, for thousands of years, yet not a single minister who uttered them, nor one among the millions of mourners, who for centuries past heard them, ever formed any rational conception of what they meant — and for ages the world has been filled with sorrow.

Had they understood nature's purpose, and known the advantages which the so-called dead gained through the process of dissolution, they would have been comforted. In the presence of such truth, all creeds wither and decay, and old teachings fail to satisfy. That this is a fact, every one who mourns must testify. There must be something wrong with a system of philosophy or a teaching that always fails when put to the test. When the earth clods fall upon the physical body

THE INNER SPIRIT BODY of one held dear, hope sees a star; but hope is not knowledge, and tears fall on furrowed cheeks. If those who still remain but knew that death, as it is called, was only change — a progression — and that the departed still live, and if they knew about their present abiding place, the world of gloom would turn to one of joy.

There is a natural, by that I mean a physical, body, and there is a spiritual body ; but those bare propositions, standing alone, convey nothing to the human mind. They must be followed by facts explaining, if it be a fact, how there can possibly be two bodies in one when only one is visible to sight and sensible to touch. Without knowing the law of nature involved, without proof that one survives, although the other goes back to mingle with the elements from whence it came, it is utterly impossible to comprehend what was intended by the words first quoted.

I have seen spirit bodies materialize, have touched them and found them as the natural. I have heard them speak and tell over and over again that they had bodies, the same bodies as when they lived the earth life. Still I was not satisfied, and sought to know the character of the two, how they blended, how they worked as one, what natural law was involved, what happened in the dissolution process, why two were necessary, to the end that I might comprehend the fact, for until such knowledge was acquired I had only a very hazy idea, if any, of the situation.

As fast as I was able to comprehend the facts, they were given me, and lo and behold, like all natural laws, I found all simple.

This planet is but one in the federation of the infinite. All the universe is filled with life, and on this earth, as on others, this force impregnates, finds lodgment, and is clothed in physical garments, to the end that it may increase, multiply, develop, and in time go back to the infinite from whence it came. In that manner and through that process, it increases the sum total of what we call God or universal good, but it is only by change that that process designed by the Infinite can be carried forward, and death, so-called, is but one of the steps in life's progression.

When matter is receptive, an atom from the life mass is clothed, and from the moment of conception commences its journey back to its source. How fast it develops, what progress it

THE INNER SPIRIT BODY makes, depends much on environment. Its form depends upon the substance which clothes it. Whether physical expression appears as man or animal, in earth, rocks, growing things or the water of the sea, depends on how, and under what conditions, it obtains its start here. All is life, expressed in visible form, and where there is life there is thought, and neither life nor thought can be destroyed.

There is also physical evidence tending to prove the same proposition. One has his leg amputated, and still feels that he can move his foot; another loses his arm, but still can use his hand and move his fingers. Such is their impression and feeling. Many with whom I have talked are very serious in this matter, and they are right, — amputation can only remove the covering of an arm or leg; no part of the etheric body form can be cut off. This remains intact, whatever occurs to the outer covering, for in dissolution it appears intact. A body in that advanced plane may be undeveloped, shrunken and deformed, but it will be all there, and it will appear just as one has made it.

Life is expressed in form ; without form it could not function. We cannot see the mighty oak in the heart of the acorn, but it is there in all its splendid promise. We cannot see man, the wonder of creation, in the fluid that first clothes it in its conception, but man is there with form and feature, strength and character, which will ever have continuity. With mankind the spirit body is clothed, in the beginning, with a flesh garment, a material vibrating more slowly than the ether of which it is composed, and the process of growth commences. The next change is the physical birth; then comes earth life and the development, physical and spiritual; next is the separation of the spiritual from the outer covering in the change called death — no more wonderful and not half so mysterious as birth; then on, to climb the heights in everlasting life. Such are the teachings that have come to me, voice to voice, from spirit people — some whom I personally have known, and others whom I have come to know and respect in this work.

Volumes could be written on this subject from what is now known. Every man, woman and child living on this earth plane, did possess in the beginning, and possesses now, an inner or spirit body, composed and made up of that material we

THE INNER SPIRIT BODY call ether, a substance and material so fine and of such rapid vibration that the physical eye can not see it. This inner or etheric body alone has sensation. It takes form and feature, stature and expression, while earth life lasts, and retains these in the next life as well.

This inner spirit body, during this stage of its development, is simply clothed, covered or housed in a visible, slowly vibrating garment that we call flesh, which has no sensation. This is evident from the fact that when the one is separated from the other, the outer body has no sensation or motion, so that it decays and loses form.

That experience called death is nature's process by which the two are separated. The habitation, for some cause, becomes unfit for further occupancy. The spirit, or the inner body, is released for further progression from the tenement which is no longer habitable. The earth body goes back into its elements, to be used again to clothe other forms of life. The inner or spirit body, holding its same form, invisible then as before, but functioning as before, labours and finds further opportunity for growth and spirituality. This it finds in the zones or belts that surround this globe, and, when proper conditions are made, it answers to our call, and tells us of life in its new plane, invisible to mortal eye.

I asked this question of Dr. David Hossack, who has been in spirit life nearly a century:

"Is my understanding correct, that here and now we have, and possess, an inner etheric body, which, divested of its flesh garment, passes intact to the spirit world?"

In reply he said:

"There is an inner, etheric body, composed of minute particles, of such substance that it can, and does, pass into spirit life. Your outer bodies are too gross and material to effect the change. The inner body is but the mind, the thought, the soul of the person. It is in the semblance of the material body, but whether beautiful or ugly, strong or weak, depends upon the inner life of the person to whom belongs that particular spark of the great radiance called life, or God.

"Some there be who build a fair body, and some there be who come into this life with a body so mis-shapen and sickly it takes much effort to effect an upright, clean one. They all come with bodies

THE INNER SPIRIT BODY naturally, as all things have minds, after one fashion or another; but the conditions of these bodies are very different. Naturally, the mind, being the reality of man, is that which lives on, — beautiful or disfigured by good or evil thoughts, as the case may be. The only comfort is that every one has opportunity here to work out the change in himself, and sometime? those changes are very rapid."

"In earth life I gave all for wearing apparel; and when I reached the spirit world, I did not have rags enough to cover me, and the beauty of my form had vanished. I was mis-shapen and distorted. At first I could not understand that it was my spiritual body that was so deformed, for I had not given the spiritual part of me a thought while on earth. In fact, the earth was all in all for me, and I did not trouble myself to think of another life, deeming the time better spent in enjoying the things I knew I possessed.

"A spirit came and offered to clothe me, but no sooner did the garments touch my body than they were discolored. My progress has been slow, but after many years of suffering I have developed my spirit and restored its beauty, but it is different from what it was in the life below."

But evidence of all things spiritual must, of necessity, come from those who live there. Their condition is different, their laws are different, for they live in a world invisible to our eyes, and we can not insist, if we would understand their life, on applying physical laws and methods. It is from spirit people that I have sought knowledge, and from them, and through years of investigation and research, I have come to know as a fact that "there is a natural body and there is a spiritual body."

Chapter III. The Death Change

WHAT happens at Death? What are one's sensations, and what meets the vision on awakening? This has been described thousands of times, and I quote from my records something of what I have been told on the important subject:

"It is a privilege to tell you of my transition. The last physical sensation that I recall was one of falling, but I had no fear — it seemed so natural. At the same time I heard voices speaking words of encouragement, voices that I recognized as those of loved ones that I thought dead. For a time I had no recollection. Then I awoke in this spirit sphere, and never will I forget the joy that was mine. I found myself, saw my body, which appeared as usual, except lighter and more ethereal. I was resting on a couch in a beautiful room filled with flowers. I looked through a window and saw the landscape, bathed in rose-colored light. There was a quiet that was impressive, then music, the harmonious vibration of which seemed to rise and fall softly. Then one appeared, and, though she spoke no words, I seemed to understand and answered.

"In this thought language she told me that she had been my guardian while in the old body, and now that I had been released she would take me over the home that I had in my life been building.

"She said: 'This room so beautiful is the result of 'your self-denial and the happiness you brought to 'others, but there are others not so pleasing'; and we passed into another that was dark and filled with rubbish; the air was heavy. This my guide said was builded through my selfishness. Then to another, a little better lighted. I was told that every effort to do better created something brighter. Then into the garden where, among beautiful flowers, grew obnoxious weeds, the result of spiritual idleness.

" 'The house must all be made beautiful,' she said, 'the weeds of idleness uprooted; and this can only 'be done by yourself, through work in the lower 'planes, by helping others.' "

My father's experience he described to me as follows:

"You will recall the day of my dissolution. I had [32]

been in poor health for some months. That morning the air was so soft and warm, and the sun so bright, I wanted to be out in it, so I took my horse and buggy and started for a village about seven miles distant. As I drove along, a weakness seemed to come upon me and I partially reclined on the seat. Even then, though seventy-six years of age, I had no thought that my passing was near. As I arrived at the house where I was going, the sensation of weakness increased, but I was able to walk in unaided and sat in a chair. The faintness increased, and, raising my eyes, I saw your mother standing in the room, smiling. Startled, I arose to my feet, and my last earthly sensation was falling — and, as I now know, I did pitch forward on my face. I do not recall striking the floor, or pain in my death change. When the separation came, I was like one in sleep.

"The next I recall was awaking in the same room, with the leader of your spirit group holding my hand, helping me up. I had heard his wonderful voice many times when I was privileged to come into your work, but it took me some little time to realize what happened to me. I saw my body on the floor. This startled me, for the body I then had was to my sight and touch identical with the one lying so quiet. I saw people hurrying, and heard the anxious talk, not yet comprehending my separation from the physical body.

"I turned to your old friend, and mine, and asked him what had happened. He answered:

" 'Have you not been told when you talked with us 'in your son's home, that death was the separation 'of the inner from the outward body?' '"I recall 'that statement,' I replied, 'but I never comprehended it.'

"'You have just made that change,' he said; 'you are now an inhabitant of the spirit world and one of us'.

"I was deeply impressed with what he said, but dazed. I could not realize that the something called death was behind me, and that in me there had been no change, for I was the same in appearance and thought as before. Then memory quickened, and I commenced to think of what it meant. I could not think clearly, and my guide said, 'Come with me for a little time and rest, and 'all will be well with you.' I went with him, and those I saw and what I was I will tell you another time."

This is another's description:

"I remember seeing about me those that had been dead for a long time. This impressed me greatly, but I did not realize it fully. Then I felt a peculiar sensation all through my body. Then I seemed to rise up out of my body and come down quietly on the floor.

'I was in the same room, but there seemed to be two of me, one on the bed and one beside the bed. All about were my family in deep grief, why I could not tell, for my great pain was gone and I felt much better. Some of those whom I recognized as persons who had died, asked me to go, and with that thought I was outside and apparently could walk on the air. My next thought was that it was a dream and that I would awake and feel again the terrible pain. I was gently told what had happened, and I felt that God had been unjust to take me when I had so much to do, and when I was so needed by my family. I was not satisfied with the place I was in. About me there was a fog, and I started to walk out of it, but the farther 1} walked, the more dense it got, and I became discouraged and sat down by the wayside in deep grief. I had ever tried to provide the very best for those dependent on me. Where was my reward? Then some one approached, came as it were out of the fog, and I told him of my life work and complained of the condition I was in, and questioned the justice of it. He replied, 'Yours 'was a selfish love; you worked for self. You should 'have made others happy as well as your own.' He promised to help me in my great trouble, if I would help myself. Together we have worked, and now all is well; it is light and glorious. But that first awakening was not all that could be desired. My greatest disappointment after my awakening was when I returned to my old home, for I discovered that none could see or feel me and all grieved for me as one dead, and their sorrow held me. I wept with them, and could not get away, until time healed their sorrow."

How terrible it is that the world that has made so much progress in many things knows little of this greatest change, and the little it does know has almost been forced upon it by a few that know this truth and have the courage to stand for it.

These descriptions, as I review what I have written, do not give a fair idea of an average death change, and looking through my records I find another more normal:

"I left the physical world rich. I had little money, but day by day, during a fairly long life, by some act I made others happier, and so spiritualized and uplifted my spirit. Such was my only religion.

"When the separation approached, though I had no actual knowledge of what was to come, I had no fear. I had been very sick, felt greatly exhausted, and longed for rest. I realized the presence of my family and their grief. There came to my senses harmonious vibrations that sounded afar off, like string and reed instruments played by master hands. It seemed to approach and then recede, and was lost. It soothed and comforted me. Then I realized that others were in the room. I could not see their faces distinctly, and wondered at strangers coming in at such a time. Some one spoke, and, rousing up, I saw more clearly and recognized many of my friends whom I had thought dead.

'I was not startled or frightened — it was all so natural. They greeted me cordially and asked me to go with them. Without effort, other than desire, I arose and joined them and went with them, for the moment forgetting the grief of my family. I seemed to travel without effort. Then I met a great company of men and women with radiant faces, clothed in white and blending colors. Their greeting was one of joyous welcome, and happiness was in everything. It was like meeting old friends that had been gone for a long time; it was simply glorious and so intense that for a time I gave no thought to the tremendous import of it all. Then I looked about. There was harmony in everything. I was in a new country. About me I saw great variety of landscape, most picturesque mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, lakes, forests, and the corresponding vegetable life of all that I had known.

It was suggested that I go to a rest house, where my strength would be restored. I did and seemed to fall into a deep sleep almost immediately. After a time I awoke, when some one whom I knew and loved said, 'Come with me now and view your inheritance.' I went, and the glory of it was, and is, beyond my power of description.

"I should like the privilege some time to tell the world of the beauty in which I live, and the pleasure I find in the work allotted to me. This plane, and all planes, I am told, is governed by law — nature's law, the same as yours — and it is the privilege and duty of every one to develop the spirit by study and helping others. There is much that I should like to say of my return to my family, but, as I am asked only to describe my spirit passage, I will leave that and tell you more concerning the joy of the spirit at some more opportune time."

There are those in the next life who have qualified for, and are assigned to, the reception department, whose duty it is to solace and comfort such as are grief-stricken because of the sudden severing of social ties, as it seems to those taken suddenly out of the mortal. This is a description:

"I am here to describe as well as I can the actual [38]

scenes over here, as the new born spirits, divested of their physical bodies, come over. They come to us, not one or two or three, but in crowds, by thousands and more, some not awakened to consciousness, some just waking, some fully conscious. Few realize for some time that they have passed the portal you call death, but as realization comes and they understand, their thoughts are of their strongest ties. What a commotion of feeling one hears! The same intense feelings exist when out of the old body as when in the physical, and those feelings are just as discernible to spirit sensation as before, only the mode of expression and reception is changed.