CHAPTER VI.

CONCLUSION.

It has been heretofore stated that everything known as Spiritualism is due to pure Magnetism.

Magnetism may be classed under three heads: Terrestrial, Aerial, and Ethereal or Spiritual Magnetism. These are only different modes or grades of expression of the same thing; and may be compared, in their order, to earth, air and ether;--heat, force, and light;--or root, stock, and flower in plants.

Ethereal Magnetism is the medium of thought, as is clearly proved by what is sometimes called telepathy, or mind-reading, and by well attested facts of communication between persons widely separated. It is also known to Mesmerizers that, when they have established magnetic relations between themselves and their subjects, they can often control them without reference to distance.

Outside of the domain of this subtle fluid, there can be no connection between the seen and the unseen worlds, or between any of the individual forms of life. More attenuated than Electricity, it holds the same relation to life that Terrestrial Magnetism holds to the grosser particles of matter. It enables what we call intellectual force to command and control all forms.

Through it, Thought, which is the Principle of everything, builds and unbuilds; clothing itself in material garments, and filling the earth with countless millions of individual beings, made visible to our outward senses.

The process by which this is accomplished is the same, whether done instantaneously or extending through a series of years. Materialization, then, is only the manifestation of a law everywhere acknowledged, with this difference: the external forms, under a superior force and intelligence, are more quickly wrought.

It is the question of time, more than anything else, that challenges our skepticism. That which we call progress, or evolution, is only so many steps by which mind exerts itself, with increasing force, over matter. We are in the habit of regarding matter as a solid substance; whereas, in its primitive state, it is invisible. It is only by different combinations, in its aerial form, that it becomes solid. In a fluidic state, it probably pervades all space. In this condition, spirits, it would seem, have power to condense it and shape it at pleasure.

Existing as individual beings, complete in their organization, many of them are able, under certain conditions, to draw from their surroundings sufficient matter to clothe themselves in garments, for the time being, as substantial as any forms in life.

I have witnessed the processes of materialization and of dematerialization in the middle of the room, several feet from the cabinet,--have taken hold of the hands of these beings, and gone down with them to the floor, until the last things that disappeared were the hands that were in mine.

I have been taken into the cabinet by one of these forms, and, with my left arm around the form (to all appearance as solid as my own), have put my right hand on the entranced medium, and while in this position have seen a white, luminous cloud rise slowly from the side of the medium until it reached the height of nearly six feet. I could have passed my hand through it without resistance. In a few seconds it condensed into a human form that cordially greeted and shook hands with me, having a hand as substantial as my own. It was the form of "Auntie," the control, who greeted me with "How do you do? What do you think of this?" At the same time, there were many hands patting me on the head and shoulders.

All this occurred in a cabinet where a confederate was impossible. Was I deceived,--laboring under a state of hallucination? Not if I now have or ever had any knowledge of myself.

I have studied these things as quietly as I would have studied a statue or a picture; have not been satisfied with witnessing them once, but have had them repeated many times, that I might feel certain that I had given them a thorough investigation. If I have been mistaken, those who come after me will have small chance of better success. I have stated some things positively, because I know that they are true, and can be scientifically demonstrated.

We may discover and accept the conditions that best enable these beings to reach and communicate with us, thereby extending our knowledge and our association with them, but neither our observation nor what they may tell us will enable us to comprehend what our experience has not fitted us to understand.

At best we have only established our pickets on the other side of the river. The problem of life still remains unsolved.

The erroneous ideas so generally entertained regarding beings of another life render it important that we should fully understand that no one, whether on this or the other side of life, can set aside the laws necessary to our individual growth.

The assimilation of thought; the gestation of ideas, the mental digestion which is analogous to the process of physical growth, must ever remain the source of a healthy development. To abandon this to the dictation of authority, whether real or supposed, or to accept anything in violation of these laws, only leads to disorder and mental dyspepsia.

What we most desire does not always come; but in its place, often, something unexpected and surprising. The power which operates suffers no dictation or control; and, like the reflection of an object in water, the phenomena become distorted the moment the magnetic currents are disturbed.

Forced, by the accumulation of facts that cannot be set aside, to acknowledge the existence of these beings, they are, nevertheless, shrouded in mystery. That they are from the other life is more than probable; no other theory will, in the long run, be found tenable. Whether they are our departed friends and relatives must be determined by the exercise of those faculties which enable us to settle the relations of objects in this life. While they exhibit no feelings of selfishness or jealousy in their associations with us, the same cannot always be said of "the control." For some reason which we do not understand, but which may be a necessity, the controlling spirit of the seance exercises a more or less despotic power over the manifestations; sometimes denying the privilege of manifestation, and forcing back spirits who have been accustomed to appear at other seances. In other words, there seems to be a good deal of human nature in their make-up, and the likes and dislikes of the medium or manager, are often shared by "the control."

While the theory is correct that the medium is nothing but the instrument through which the spirits are evoked, there can be no question that his or her mental and moral atmosphere affects the quality of the manifestations.

Your personal relations with the medium are known to the controlling spirit, and if the medium is prejudiced against you, you are, in most cases, debarred from any satisfactory results. On the other hand, your relations to these beings are known to "the control," but not necessarily to the medium,--never unless the controlling spirit thinks best to communicate them.

What you learn of the character of these beings depends upon your personality,--the magnetic atmosphere that surrounds you. Many of them, if they are able to penetrate your atmosphere, are so exhausted by the effort that they cannot talk much with you; while others, overcoming all obstacles, are able to throw themselves around you with all the abandon of childhood, talking freely, and often so fast that it requires the closest attention to follow them. In such cases, however strong the resemblance may be to the medium in the outward form, the mental characteristics are as different as it is possible to be between any two individuals.

I have refrained from saying much about the quality of these manifestations. It is a matter upon which there must always be a wide difference of opinion. Every one will find _himself_ more or less reflected in them. It is the inevitable law of association. "You are a cheat and a scoundrel!" said an enraged man to my friend. "I know it," was the prompt reply; "it is the rascality and cussedness in you that have called it out. I never was conscious of it until I met you."

No selfishness, deceit, or diplomacy avails with these beings; what you truly think and feel, your moral atmosphere, makes or mars your relations with them. Until you can learn to meet them in perfect confidence, you can know nothing of the beauty which emanates from them.

Materialization is denounced by the learned and the ignorant, and in both cases the denial springs from the same cause. It is a fair illustration of high life with the bottom turned up; both classes meet on the same plane. It is also bitterly condemned by a class of Spiritualists whose brains are saturated with trance and inspirational communications. In their conceit, the little they know is the whole world to them.

As a rule, all nations and tribes hold in some form or another to a belief in the continued existence of man after death. However desirable such a belief may be, it is generally admitted that it rests entirely on faith, there being no substantial evidence by which it can be scientifically demonstrated. In both the Old and New Testaments are records of occult manifestations similar to what has been related here, but the materialistic tendency of science has long since caused them to be regarded as Oriental fictions.

In the materializing seance come, for the time being, living, breathing, intelligent, human forms, that are not confederates or personations by the medium. If not beings from another life, what are they? The probability, or even possibility, they offer of scientific evidence of the existence of man after death, commends them to the serious consideration of every intelligent person.

It is not a difficult task, nor one requiring a great amount of labor, to determine that these forms are distinct embodiments. To settle this is, however, only the A B C of the matter. To learn what these beings are, and their relations to us, requires the most patient investigation and the most delicate and far-reaching exercise of the mind. Facts, in themselves, unless they suggest something higher, are of little consequence. They derive their importance solely from their connection with some general law around which they are grouped.

While I have stated positively that at Mrs. Fay's no confederates are used, and that the forms that have come to me are not personations by the medium, yet, in the _legal_ definition of the word, I do not _know_ who or what they are. I have my convictions, based upon what is satisfactory evidence to me. I do not ask any one to accept my theories, but upon what have been stated as facts there need be no controversy, since any one who will give the matter the same attention can verify all that has been said.

To deny the facts without an investigation, on the ground that they are impossible, can have no weight, for it has been truly said by Arago that "outside the domain of pure mathematics, the word impossible has no meaning."

I have imperfectly related only a few of the many hundred strange things that have come under my observation, selecting them at random without any special regard to order. The same may be said of the thoughts expressed; their value, if they have any, will be found in the closeness with which I have pursued the investigation. My experience has extended over more than a hundred seances, and to have given them in detail would have exceeded my time.

These things are open to any who will approach them honestly. Let us hope that some fair-minded specialist, whose brain is not lumbered with the debris of old ideas, will yet be able to lift the veil that surrounds them.

I feel confident that I have exhausted almost every conceivable test necessary to establish the reality of these wonderful apparitions. Some of these tests, in the light of a more extended experience, now seem very absurd. Ridiculous as they must have appeared to these beings, they were never vexed, nor showed any impatience with my ignorant and unreasonable demands, but either met them squarely or playfully turned them aside. My investigations have been confined mostly to Mrs. Fay's seances, for the simple reason that here the cabinet and surroundings were known to me to be above suspicion, and from the beginning greater facilities for study were granted me than elsewhere. Such is the skeptical nature of my mind that if I had been obliged to conform to the role of an ordinary visitor, I should, in all probability, have never been fully convinced of the truth of materialization.

In dealing with a subject so new to the mass of people, it is hardly to be expected that it will be accepted on the testimony of any one. Facts, however clearly stated, will have but little weight with those who have had no practical experience. Fortunately, the rapid increase in the number of mediums, both public and private, is bringing these things within the reach of every one.

If what I have stated be true,--if the experience of others shall prove that I have not been deceived,--then the whole system of ethics must undergo a complete revolution. Man will no longer be regarded as an animal, confined to earth, but a direct emanation from a superior intelligence, holding in his nature a dual existence, connecting him at one and the same time with both the seen and unseen worlds.

There is no estimating the influence which a realization of these things, rightly understood, would have upon the moral and social condition of society. What has been held in the past as a vague and uncertain belief, would be supplanted by knowledge; and the skeptical tendency of modern thought would be checked by a fuller sense of the inspirational and spiritual nature of man.

The dread of death, throwing a gloom over the domestic circle, would glide away as the darkness of night disappears before the coming morn. The parting of friends and relatives would find its compensation in renewed companionship and the perfect consciousness that there is no real separation.

For the fullness and tenderness with which these beings have overwhelmed me with demonstrations of regard, promptly responding to every reasonable request, I am under the deepest obligations. As I go back in my mind over the various seances which it has been my privilege to enjoy, I linger fondly over the stately form and affectionate bearing of what claimed to be my wife; the rich girlish nature of Bertha, with her marvellous beauty of expression; and the tender pleadings of one who must be nameless here, begging that I would bring those she loved nearer to her.

All along the pathway of my investigations glow a thousand things never to be forgotten. Who shall say the gates are not ajar, and that our loved but not lost ones are not passing to and fro?

Poor in spirit and weak in affection must they be who can meet these beings as I have met them, and not feel that there comes, from the association with them, a richer and fuller life.

Transcriber's Note:

Punctuation has been standardised. Changes to the original have been made as follows:

Contents PERSONIFICATION BY THE MEDIUM OF MATERIALIZED FORMS _changed to_ PERSONIFICATION BY THE MEDIUM, OR MATERIALIZED FORMs

SEANCE AT THE BERRY SISTERS IN BOSTON _changed to_ SEANCE AT THE BERRY SISTERS' IN BOSTON

Page 98 With outstreched arms they beckoned me _changed to_ With outstretched arms they beckoned me

Page 136 may conflict with preconceived _changed to_ may conflict with pre-conceived

Page 170 ever remain the source of a a healthy development _changed to_ ever remain the source of a healthy development

Page 171 exercises a more or less depotic power _changed to_ exercises a more or less despotic power

Page 171 the magnetic atmostphere that surrounds _changed to_ the magnetic atmosphere that surrounds