Glimpses Of The Next State.Pdf - Spiritualists' National Union

191for nothing? Is there any man of nice feeling who would like to occupy the time of a medium, orto drain his vitality, for his own convenience, without payment? Surely not! If you think mediumsought to give their services gratuitously, why do you not object to pay your parson, your doctor, oryour lawyer? and why, pray, do you not object to pay for your coals? The exercise of psychic gifts isperfectly legitimate if performed in the right way. When human beings sit with the deliberateintention of encouraging visits from sub-human spirits, or spirits of the second sphere, theintercourse is called “black magic,” and is of evil; it is distinctly wrong to part with a portion ofyour vitality to enable any but human and decent spirits to manifest. But if. you have assuredyourself that you are dealing with none but the discarnate spirits of those who have lived upon theearth, without committing crimes which would place them in the second sphere, you are conductinga legitimate intercourse, and one which leads to good. Mediums, when once they have developedtheir gift, are quite unfit for other walks in life. Has anyone a right to say:“ You are impostors because you accept payment for your work”? The idea is pure folly.(4) Why are mediums always ignorant and uncultured people? Answer: They are not; thereare as many psychics among the well-to-do, per thousand, as there are among the poor anduneducated. Many of the well-born do not know that they have these gifts, but there are thousandsin the world who do, and who exercise them for the benefit of their intimate friends. These privatepsychics are little known. It requires great effrontery for a man to ask his friend to deplete himselffor his exclusive benefit; the gift must be exercised in a purely voluntary manner, and in such a waythat secrecy is ensured. We have not arrived yet, even in England, at that state of toleration whenmen or women, in what is termed “society,” can afford to let it be known that they possess uncannygifts.There is another side to this question. The uncultured medium is of the greatest value onaccount of his ignorance; he gives utterance, in trance and out of it, to names, incidents, anddescriptions of personalities of which, in his normal condition, it is impossible he can knowanything. Evidence through such a source is far more valuable than when the psychic is well readand has a rich subliminal record. This is one of the features which make the phenomena throughthe mediumship of Mrs. Wriedt so intrinsically important. She comes to England on a visit to Mr.W. T. Stead; her knowledge of the history of the United States is scanty enough, of that of GreatBritain nothing at all. Within a fortnight of her arrival the spirit of an eminent Englishman whodied the possessor of great wealth manifests to me, who did not know him in his earth life; hewhispers in my ear a statement of great importance—the story of a wrong done in haste to afriend—another distinguished Englishman whom it is my privilege to know well. I am not to writeit down, but to tell my friend when I see him of his bitter regrets. I find later that the statementmade to me by the spirit is true. The psychic knew nothing of the life history of the spirit, nor didshe hear the message given to me. The evidential value of the communication would have beenstrong even if Mrs. Wriedt had known of the spirit in his earth life, and heard what he said to me,because it was conveyed by the “ direct voice “; but how much stronger does it become when Iknow that the psychic never had any knowledge of the history of my distinguished countryman?The greatest psychic in history is Jesus of Nazareth. Whom did he choose to assist him in hismission? Was it the rich or the well-born? Neither ! It was the poor and uneducated. Note, three ofhis disciples were specially favoured as his companions when any of his most spiritual acts were tobe performed—Peter, James, and the youth John. They possessed more psychic power than theremaining nine.(5) Why is no useful, material information given by mediums? Answer: The efforts ofcontrols at promiscuous seances are devoted to proving, in the simplest manner, that immortality isa fact; to achieve this they assist discarnate spirits, who once lived on the earth plane, to identifythemselves to their friends. At private seances an item here and there of scientific interest is givento the sitter. I shall be surprised if some of the statements made to me by spirits during my sittingswith Mr. A. W. Kaiser, at Detroit, do not prove of value in the future. Scientific information andforecasts of discoveries are not usually conveyed in this way; they are impressed directly on theminds of those who are, in the opinion of the communicator, best able to make use of them. When