CHAPTER IV DISCARNATE SPIRITS

The existence of discarnate spirits has been proved in Chapter I. It is desirable now to state what is known as to the conditions in which they exist.

These conditions have been for thousands of years the subject-matter of positive statements. The sacred writings and inscriptions, and the traditions of the various religions that have flourished in olden times or are still professed are full of descriptions of the religions in which discarnate spirits pass their time and of the manner of their lives in the spirit-world. Magicians, wizards, witches and necromancers of all kinds have, it is said, received copious information to the same effect. And during the last seventy years Spiritualistic literature has added abundantly to the common stock.

In spite, however, of all this, great uncertainty prevails. The statements to which reference has been made are, in well-nigh all [Pg 58]cases, of what is called an "unverifiable" character; that is to say, they are not capable of test and confirmation by any mundane methods of enquiry. But although an unverifiable assertion is incapable of normal proof it may still be capable of disproof. If, for example, it be self-contradictory it must, of course, be rejected. And if two separate unverifiable statements contradict each other it is obvious that they cannot both be true: one of them, at least, must be false, while the other remains doubtful. Furthermore, if an unverifiable piece of information be opposed to some clearly-established fact or well-proved doctrine no reasonable person will regard it as worthy of credence.

This book is not concerned with the question of whether the accounts of miracles and other supernormal details in the Bible are or are not to be believed. The purely religious view of the matter need not be dwelt upon. Nor will it be of any practical utility to take into consideration the history of magic and the doings of magicians as distinguished in the popular idea from religion and its ministers. What is alone needful to be mentioned is the evidence that has been more or less scientifically [Pg 59]accumulated in modern times in connection with psychical phenomena and with communications understood to have taken place across the border-line between living humanity and the spirit-world. Much of this evidence is, as has already been said, unverifiable, and a good deal of it can be disproved. But there remains a very substantial residuum that demands recognition and acceptance by men of education who are free from prejudice and willing to be guided by reason; and this is the trustworthy source of a certain degree of precise knowledge with regard to the conditions of life beyond death.

The most striking fact that thus comes under observation is the readiness with which communication can be opened up with discarnate spirits by persons who are naturally capable of recognising their presence. It happens frequently that in less than a minute after the commencement of a "sitting" indications are given of one or more spirits being in attendance; and it is very rarely indeed that any sitting remains altogether blank. If, then, we reflect that since "Spiritualism" has become a cult sittings have taken place, and are still taking place, day by day, week in and week [Pg 60]out, and from year's end to year's end, we are forced to regard this world as being still the habitat of many a discarnate spirit. The conclusion thus arrived at is confirmed by the less systematic phenomena of dreams, phantoms, haunting, "possession," second-sight, clairvoyance, automatic speech and writing, the spontaneous movements of material objects and other like occurrences; merely, however, to the extent of their being really due to the denizens of the spirit-world, which is acknowledged to be the case in many instances.

The certainty thus arising that great numbers of spirits do not leave the earth when they become separated from the human bodies they have inhabited suggests a doubt as to whether any spirits at all go to some other sphere. The evidence available does not remove the doubt. It is true that discarnate spirits sometimes volunteer statements with regard to another world, and sometimes in reply to questions give particulars as to their residence in such a region. But this information is of the unverifiable kind, is often "nonsense," as Sir Oliver Lodge has said, and is frequently demonstrably false; while it is always discredited by the fact that the spirit who claims to be a resident [Pg 61]in a far-distant sphere of being is nevertheless self-admittedly present in a London room or wherever else the sitting may take place. The contradiction is never explained away in any reasonable manner. It may be said, therefore, to be highly probable that death merely opens the way to a further term of existence in this world, and that the spirits of the departed remain for the period of such term in the more or less near neighbourhood of the relatives and friends they have left behind them.

The idea of such post-mortem existence being also limited in time arises naturally, and is to be reasonably inferred, from the evidence now being considered. Although discarnate spirits are very numerous, their number, so far as they manifest themselves, is altogether insignificant when compared with that of the deaths that occur from day to day; while if we take into account the consideration that the entire soul-population of the earth becomes discarnate from generation to generation, that is to say, every thirty years or so, we are faced by the fact that living persons are but as a drop in the ocean of possible individual existences. We have also to bear in mind that each of these existences is separate from the rest, [Pg 62]and does not originate either from nothing or from inanimate matter or from inanimate energy, as may possibly be the case with Life. If, then, souls when disembodied remain perpetually in this world, it follows, first, that there must be a continual supply of fresh souls coming in from some other region of the universe; and, secondly, that of all these millions of millions of active intelligences only one, here and there, is able or willing to make its presence known to mankind. These conclusions are of so extravagant a character as to be unacceptable; and if it be possible to frame an hypothesis that avoids the difficulties they involve, it would be a reasonable proceeding to adopt such an alternative view.

Psychical philosophy has in all ages been furnished with at least one "working hypothesis" of the kind required. Its scientific name is "metempsychosis," which in more popular language is known as "transmigration." It teaches that after death the spirit enters into some other human body which happens to be living and unprovided with a soul; and the doctrine is frequently extended to include the idea that the new habitat may even be the body of one of the lower animals. Many of the [Pg 63]most famous thinkers of Greece and the Orient were associated with the belief in question. It is to be found in the Bible and other sacred writings, and forms a part of the religions of many races throughout the world. It cannot, therefore, be lightly disregarded as a mere fantasy unworthy of consideration by civilised people in the twentieth century.

As a matter of fact, the theory of transmigration fits in with modern observations. It does away with the necessity of a perpetual supply of fresh souls from extra-mundane regions. It also is consistent with, and explains, the absence of any vast overwhelming spirit-population. Moreover, it is the logical concomitant of our common, everyday experience. We are familiar with the occurrence of what we call "births," that is, the coming into existence of new human bodies. We know also that these new bodies become, in some way or other, the temporary abodes of souls—the tenancy being sometimes a matter of minutes only and sometimes enduring for rather more than one hundred years. We see for ourselves that the habitation suits the tenant and that the tenant suits the habitation. What, then, can be more natural and fitting than that, when the [Pg 64]tenant, for some reason or another, has to quit his dwelling, he looks out for another abode of much the same kind? So far from this course of action being fantastic and improbable, it is pre-eminently likely. The play of mere imagination is to be found altogether with those mental speculators who talk of the supposed departure of discarnate spirits to supposed spheres of existence beyond the earth.

It is quite conceivable, and probable enough, that some little time elapses between "death" and "reincarnation." Hence it is to be expected that there is always a greater or less number of discarnate spirits dwelling temporarily, and a little disconsolately, perhaps, in the air-occupied space surrounding the earth; and this expectation is borne out by actual observation. It is to be surmised, furthermore, that spirits awaiting re-embodiment will feel themselves more at home, as it were, if they remain in the immediate proximity of the localities they inhabited and the persons they knew before "death." Here, again, we find the surmise to accord with experience. Some places are undoubtedly "haunted"; and it is equally certain that some persons are haunted also; for it would otherwise be impossible to [Pg 65]account reasonably for the well-known fact that sitters at séances habitually open up communications with their deceased relatives and friends who have always been perfect strangers to the mediums with whom the sittings take place. The spirits are not brought by the mediums; they are introduced by the sitters themselves, who are quite unconscious of being thus accompanied or "haunted." To deny this is equivalent to maintaining the absurdity that every real medium is en rapport with all the deceased relatives and friends of every living human being. The soul of a medium is not endowed with powers vastly greater than those of ordinary souls; any more than a discarnate spirit is able to know and do very much beyond what he was aware of or could accomplish during life. If either mediums or spirits were capable of really marvellous achievements we may be sure that now and again some daring soul would contrive to startle mankind; and as no such feat has been recorded through the ages ("miracles," religious and otherwise, are not here referred to), it is a fair inference that our deceased friends are not vastly different from, or, at any rate, are not vastly superior to, what they were when we knew them here.

Coming now to the question of the form in which discarnate spirits exist, all the available evidence of a verifiable or logically-acceptable character goes to show that in the spirit-world there are not any differences of type corresponding to what are found among human beings. Spirits are not white, black, brown, yellow and red; they are not Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, Scandinavian, Gaelic, Arab, negro, Mongolian or Polynesian. If the contrary were the case it would, by this time, have become apparent. Something of this lack of evidence may perhaps be due to the fact that modern psychical research has for the most part been conducted by English and American investigators, while most of the communications with spirits have involved the use of the English language and have been recorded in that tongue. Hence it is to be supposed that the spirits who have taken part in the proceedings have been only those possessing a knowledge of English; yet, even in that case, souls of many earthly races might have been expected to come forward. And as the same argument applies to the less numerous instances of psychical investigations by French, Italian, Spanish, German, Swedish, Russian, [Pg 67]etc., students of the occult, the conclusion is inevitable that spirits are not divided into racial categories even though they may differ in what may be termed bodily characteristics and developments.

That spirits have organised bodies is clear. The "stuff" of which their bodies are made is, however, not ordinary matter. We already know by Dr. Crawford's experiments—mentioned in Chapter I of this book—that a something exists which gravitates and yet is invisible to our eyes. We also know, by common psychical experience, that spirits are able to see, hear, speak and touch, and can by us be seen, heard, spoken to and touched. If these facts be co-ordinated they do not leave any room for doubt as to there being spiritual equivalents of human bodies equipped with organs of sense and perception. It does not follow necessarily that these equivalents are counter-parts or facsimiles in form and appearance, even if in many of their functions they are practically indistinguishable from their human prototypes. Racial peculiarities are admittedly absent, as also is Life with its physiological requirements. Spirits are free from wear and tear, from the need of food, clothing [Pg 68]and shelter, and from the maintenance of health. They are not divided by sex differences and they are not characterised by any form of reproduction: they have neither ancestry nor posterity. These various features lend force to the theory of transmigration. They show the possibility of an ordinary human body being permeated, so to say, by a spirit's body which can enter or leave at any time and which always maintains its separate existence. Here, again, there are facts of common knowledge and experience that support the doctrine of metempsychosis. Most persons are, now and then, conscious of memories or reminiscent impressions that cannot be traced to any events of the present life. It occasionally happens that when a person first visits some particular locality he finds himself in surroundings with which his mind is already familiar. The only reasonable explanation is that the soul remembers somewhat of its experiences in a previous earthly life.

Another line of thought leading in the same direction is that suggested by the marked and well-known phenomena of mental heredity. Family peculiarities of mind and character are commonly supposed to be transmitted from [Pg 69]parents to children in the form of material germs which are imagined, but have never been proved, to exist. And yet in many cases—as also happens with physical peculiarities—an intervening generation is skipped, and it is the mental characteristic of a grandparent or great-grandparent that reappears in the descendant. It would, therefore, seem more reasonable to infer that the true cause of heredity is to be found in the preference manifested by discarnate spirits for reincarnation in the direct posterity of the human bodies they have at one time or another inhabited. Nor is it a far-fetched supposition to hold that, in the spirit-world, as in this life, souls of similar characters associate together and, to whatever extent may be possible, seek to be reincarnated in the same earthly families: a supposition that accounts for more than one child of a family presenting what are considered to be the hereditary characteristics.

It should not, however, be concluded that soul and body are without reaction on each other. We know, as a fact, that mental habits and emotional indulgences gradually affect a person's features and disturb the functioning of various organs. We also know that bodily [Pg 70]peculiarities warp the mind and influence the thoughts. The phrenological mapping of the brain has some foundation in reality; and probably there does not exist a single person of mature age who is not to some extent a physiognomist. Intelligent capacity, sensitiveness and moral character do, most undoubtedly, depend a good deal upon the size, form and texture of the brain. In other words, a soul when in the body is fettered and guided and is not fully able to reveal its true self. From this it follows that when a soul becomes separated from the body it cannot logically be expected to have exactly the same character that it apparently possessed in life. Psychical experience in spiritualistic sittings and otherwise is to this effect. It is customary, indeed, for sitters to say—and, emotionally, to believe—that the spirits of their deceased relatives and friends behave and speak exactly as they used to do in life; but this is not quite borne out by the recorded evidence. It is customary also, where the discrepancies are of too glaring a nature to be glozed over or hushed up, to put them down to the interference of mischievous spirits who personate the spirits called for; but this is a [Pg 71]very lame method of explanation. The best plan in all cases of difficulty is to face boldly the facts. A disembodied spirit is less cribbed, cabined and confined than when it was attached to a living body; it is more free for both good and evil. We are familiar enough with good, bad and indifferent souls in this world: why should we expect the same souls to be otherwise simply because of a change in their environment? All that we can reasonably look for is a certain degree of revelation, a certain manifestation of what before was more or less hidden and which may be estimable or the reverse.

A feature that deserves notice as related to this view of the matter is the consensus of testimony to the effect that communicating spirits, whether those who are sought for or those who are what may be termed casual and errant, have habitually a less regard for truth than is the case with highly-educated human beings; though, if an average be struck of mankind in general, it does not seem that there is much to choose between the trustworthiness of statements made by the living inhabitants of the earth and the truth of what is said by disembodied spirits. Still, the matter is of some [Pg 72]importance, seeing that it bears very materially upon the question of whether individual spirits are always the particular disembodied souls they profess to be.

Another feature, equally worthy of attention, is the apparent absence of spirits who can properly be regarded as diabolical. Sittings for the purpose of communication with "surviving" souls are not attended by devils or by beings occupied mainly in the pursuit of evil. It may, of course, be the case that the published records and the verbal accounts that are current suppress all mention of occurrences deemed to be demoniacal, in the same way that, according to Sir Oliver Lodge, spiritualists "usually either discourage or suppress" statements "about the nature of things 'on the other side.'" The eminent authority here quoted goes on, indeed, to say—

"These are what we call the 'unverifiable' communications; for we cannot bring them to book by subsequent terrestrial inquiry in the same way as we can test information concerning personal or mundane affairs. Information of the higher kind has often been received but has seldom been published; and it is difficult to know what value to put upon it, or how far it is really trustworthy."

This very frank confession of the reports of séances being systematically garbled is a little disconcerting, especially when coming from one of the shining lights of the scientific world; but it probably means no more than that the champions of spiritualism do not desire to arouse antagonism that can be avoided. In the same way it may well be that those persons who, whether as mediums or sitters or in the privacy of individual attempts at communication, happen to come into contact with evil spirits do not feel disposed to subject themselves to the hostility of the religious world by detailing their experiences. But, however this may be, the fact remains that, so far as common knowledge and common repute are concerned, the devilish element is not likely to be encountered by those persons who seek to speak with the dead.

If, now, the particulars set forth in the present chapter be summarised we find the state of things to be as follows:—

1. Disembodied souls do not depart from this world when "death" occurs.

2. They remain for a time free from bodily environment of an ordinary material kind.

3. Sooner or later they enter into new human bodies, and perhaps, also, in some cases, into new bodies of the lower animals.

4. During the period of their free existence while awaiting transmigration, many of them make a practice of haunting localities and living human beings.

5. They possess in themselves the equivalent of bodies constructed of something analogous to matter and having organisms by which they perceive and act.

6. Each disembodied soul is an individual entity existing permanently apart from all others and not distinguished by any racial or sexual characteristics.

7. Each individual soul has its own idiosyncrasies of intellect, sense, emotion, conscience and volition. These idiosyncrasies are subject to at least temporary modification by the association of the soul with a human body.

8. The character and conduct of a disembodied soul are not necessarily the same in all respects as were apparent during life, and do not necessarily [Pg 75]remain completely unchanged when transmigration takes place.

9. The existence of souls that are wholly evil has not yet been established by actual observation or experience of any kind.

This summary does not involve any religious views and is not based on any religious teaching. It is essentially scientific; that is to say, it puts into plain language the conclusions arrived at by impartial students of physical and psychical facts and phenomena, irrespective of whether such conclusions do or do not fit in with ecclesiastical teaching, popular notions, or "sceptical" dogmatism.

At the same time it is to be observed that the view here taken of discarnate spirits leaves the ground quite open for Religion. It is quite consistent with the existence of a Divine Ruler, with the doctrine of progression in either rightdoing or wrongdoing, and with an Eternal Justice that inflicts punishment upon souls whose volition is employed for base purposes. For example, it may well be that in transmigration the choice does not always rest with the soul concerned, but is divinely [Pg 76]decreed; the new life may be higher or lower than the preceding life, according to whether the latter was turned to good or bad account. The number of transmigrations of any particular soul may be limited; and metempsychosis may thus correspond to the doctrine of Purgatory—an evolutionary period at the conclusion of which the soul is transferred to a Heaven or Hell beyond the confines of the earth. Even the idea of a Holy Ghost that continually appeals to the mind and will is not excluded from the psychical summary above given; nor is there therein anything that contradicts the theory of a Christ or a Buddha. What the truth is with regard to such matters as these must be determined by each person for himself or herself. The readers of the present volume are not addressed as Christians or as non-Christians, as Deists or as Atheists. They are considered merely as being interested in the subject of speaking with the dead, and as being desirous of receiving information with regard to the ascertained facts and admitted logic of the matter.