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

200Let it be said at once that the root of all successful spiritist phenomena is “ sympathy.”Our friends on the other side are drawn to us by that mysterious and powerful force. It might becalled “magnetism.” It is most potent in the case of relatives—mother and son, husband and wife,sisters, brothers, and so forth; but it is also strong in the case of those who have kindred tastes,professions, and interests. Two members of the same profession will be drawn together—themanager to his principal, the rector to his curate, the colonel to his subaltern, the admiral to hissubordinate. Artists will visit artists; philanthropists will materialise to philanthropists, authors toauthors, though it is quite possible that they have never met on this side of the grave. A man orwoman who has been pondering over the writings of some famous departed poet may be visited bythat poet. Thoughts reach the object though years of age may divide them in earth life. In thesummerland time ceases to be; the children appear to grow up and the aged to grow down, andtime is only reckoned when they come back to the atmosphere of this state.Why cannot we mortals see the denizens of the summerland? The reply to this is notdifficult. They are operating in more than three dimensions. Let us suppose a host of intelligentbeings who know of only two dimensions, and another host who operate in three. Put them in closeproximity, and enclose the latter in a space bounded by definite barriers— walls, if you choose tocall them so—where height or depth is added to length and breadth. Would not those who knowonly of two dimensions be puzzled at their inability to discern the beings who are separated fromthem by the vertical wall or boundary which indicates their third dimension? Extend this argument,and suppose that those who have passed out of our sight are now in some region, which wecannot realise by any stretch of the imagination, where a fourth dimension is added to those withwhich we are familiar. The ordinary mortal cannot see them, any more than the being in twodimensions can see the being in three.During the short period over which my investigations have been in progress I have learntsomething of the grave dangers to which all mediums are liable. Passivity, and consequent loss ofself-control, renders the mind of the sensitive as impressionable as the wax barrel of thephonograph. Exaltation cannot be enjoyed without a corresponding phase of depression. It isduring this latter phase that the opportunity arises for the incursions of intelligences of a low order.A real or fancied slight, fanned to flame by a low spirit, will beget a positive hallucination; and fordays, possibly months, the word of the sensitive, so far as regards the ordinary affairs of the world,is no more to be trusted than the chaotic murmurings of the insane. The woman who has beensoaring to lofty heights of symbolic mediumship in semi-trance may wake up and babble aconnected story which has not the smallest foundation in fact. This is painful; but you will find it isa correct representation of one of the prices we have to pay for communication with the unseen.Many of these entities nearest to the earth plane are what Jackson Davis calls “Diakka “—beingsneither good nor very bad; unoccupied spirits, who enter in when the gate of reason is unguarded,and sometimes do great harm to their victims—the sensitives. When there is a college for mediums,and they are trained to be on. their guard against this insidious evil, we shall get rid of one of themost serious drawbacks to our study.With regard to the devil theory, I carry myself back to the time when Sir James Simpson, ofEdinburgh, introduced anaesthetics into medical practice. For fifteen years, at least, after that itwas the cry throughout Great Britain that any attempt to alleviate physical pain by artificial meanswas the work of the devil. It was the will of God that you should suffer, and, the more you suffered,so much the better for you. If it were the extraction of a tooth, the amputation of a limb, or anyother surgical operation, the more pain you went through the better. Hundreds of thousandsrefused the proffered alleviation, especially in cases of childbirth, though Simpson calmly assuredthe world that no harm was done by a few whiffs of chloroform either to the mother or the child.Well, here we are to-day, with all those nonsensical ideas blown to the winds; the person who wentthrough any serious operation without anaesthetics would be looked upon as a lunatic, and be justlyaccused of trying to embarrass the surgeon in the performance of his duty. I do not myself believein a Prince of Darkness, though quite prepared to admit the existence of evil. I think there aredangers in the pursuit of the phenomena of spiritism, as there are dangers in over-indulgence inanything, and I should not advise people of feeble minds, or children, or even young men and