« Not very many years
ago it was generally believed among the followers of spiritualism that most of
the phenomena occurring at séances were caused by the personal spirits or
ghosts of departed human beings; more recent discoveries have caused a
modification of this opinion to a certain extent and while it seems to be quite
certain that some such entities, especially earthbound ghosts of suicides and
victims of premature death can, under certain circumstances, communicate with
mortals, it is also established beyond doubt that such phenomena may have other
causes which have nothing to do with the personalities of the dead.
It is now admitted even in
scientific quarters, although such a statement would have been ridiculed a few
years ago, that thoughts
are substantial things, notwithstanding their invisibility, and that a thought
or a current of ideas brought into existence by somebody may outlive the
personality of that person and continue to exist as a substantial force in the
invisible world even after that somebody’s death.
If
such a thought current enters the mind of a sensitive person, such a person may
become a medium for the expression of the same current of thought, although the
departed originator of that current has nothing whatever to do with it.
The following occurrence goes to
confirm the truth of this statement.
1) During my investigations of
spiritualism in New Orleans, La., it repeatedly happened that what claimed to
be the spirit of a Catholic priest delivered a sermon through the mouth of a
medium; it was always the same sermon, but it always ended abruptly in the
midst of a sentence and no amount of persuasion could induce that priest to
continue it further.
It was finally discovered that
the said priest had actually, while living, delivered the same sermon and was
struck by apoplexy at the very point where that sermon stopped. Death having
interrupted his speech also made an end to his current of thoughts and there
was no more of it to be impressed upon the mind of a medium.
The ignorance of ghosts in regard
to things that happened after they left this mundane life and their inability
to reason correctly is also shown in the following case:
2) In an old castle in Tirol,
which is partly in ruins, while some parts of it are still inhabited, frequent
disturbances took place, which were caused by the apparition of a ghost in the
shape of an old man with a white beard and wearing a long fur-lined coat with
wide sleeves and a skull cap on the head.
He claimed to be the proprietor
of the castle and his desire was that some documents which he had hidden away
in a certain place in his cellar should be recovered and delivered to his daughter.
He
indicated the place, which after some troublesome research was finally found.
There was a half rotten wooden
box, but the documents were destroyed by mice and there was nothing left to
indicate that they had been deposited there except the still intact seals which
were attached to them. As
a matter of course, the daughter of that knight had died long ago. From the
records of that family it appeared that the castle had once been besieged and
the old man been murdered.
The hiding place of the documents
and the desire to have them delivered to his daughter was probably foremost on
his mind at the time of his death; but his ghost had not the power to see that
the papers were destroyed, nor to know that his daughter was dead. This kind of ghosts may be classified among
the “shells” from which the spirit and with it the power of reasoning has
departed, but in which still an automatically acting current of thought
remains, such as we may often observe in the life of our dreams.
The life of a spook is a dream
life in which free will and judgment is absent; these powers belonging to the
higher principles of the departed soul, and for this reason such empty remnants
of departed people often make the most unreasonable demands.
And other illustrative cases are the following:
3) I had some friends at Chihuahua,
Texas, Mr. D. M., a lawyer, and his wife. They were great spiritists, but they held
their sittings very secret.
At my first visit at his house I
was very much surprised to see (clairvoyantly) that the “spirit” of Napoleon
and the Empress Josephine were present. I told my friends of it, and they then
showed me whole heaps of manuscripts consisting of written communications which
they had received from these two spirits.
4) I was once present at an examination
of a school, and one young lady rehearsed Longfellow’s poem of Hiawatha and
Minnehaha.
The story of Minnehaha made a
great impression upon my mind, but after a while I thought no more of it. Perhaps a year afterwards I went to see the
well-known medium Charles Foster at Houston, Texas, for the first time, and as
I entered the room, he immediately exclaimed:
-
“Oh, what a beautiful Indian spirit comes here! Her name is Minnehaha. She
sends you a message of love.”
5) For several years I received
beautiful communications in prose and in verses through different mediums from
a spirit giving its name as E., and on one occasion this spirit appeared to me
lifelike and most beautiful; it was a truly angelic vision.
Finally I discovered that this
apparition was caused by the thoughts of a dear friend of mine whose name was E.
6) A few months ago the Countess
B was taken ill. With in a few days her illness assumed a serious character,
and shortly afterwards she died. On the evening before her disease became serious
her husband and daughter, both, while standing at the window saw an ugly old
woman in the yard. She was dressed like a gipsy; her hair was dishevelled, and
she assumed a threatening attitude, shaking her fist towards the sick-room of
the Countess.
The Count immediately went to the
door to investigate the matter, but when he opened it, nobody was there; the
gipsy woman had disappeared.
It may be supposed that this
gipsy woman was a thought form created by the sick Countess, and that it was a
representation of her own fears and of the state of her mind, for she was at
that time not of a very sweet temper, but rather impatient. Perhaps many
“unexplainable” premonitions may be explained in this way.
Thus the study of spiritistic
phenomena and their causes may be the cure for a great many superstitions.
7) While I was at Philadelphia in
the year 1888 I was walking through Chestnut Street at 11 a.m., when suddenly I
saw the image of my friend Mrs. B.M. floating in the air in the bright sunshine
about ten feet above my head and in front of me.
This lady was at that time in London,
and I did not think of her at that time.
About an hour afterwards I received a cable dispatch from her, urging me
to come to London to meet her.
8) The Duchess of P. imagined
herself to be a reincarnation of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and to be in constant
communication with her “actual self.” While I was a guest at her palace at
Paris I saw very unexpectedly (clairvoyantly) that “spirit” of “Mary Stuart,”
which appeared to me a very material and substantial thing, probably owing to
the fact that the Duchess had caused it to be so by her continual thoughts.
The very gross aspect of this
apparition also made it evident to my mind that there are certain astral forms which
seem to be far more material and spiritless than anything on the physical
plane; for while on our plane even a stone or rock appears to be endowed with
latent life, such astral forms seem to be entirely lifeless.
9) I have already alluded in this
magazine to another case in point which occurred when I was at Philadelphia at
the house of a friend of mine, Mr. W. F., where I stayed for several weeks,
being engaged in trying to investigate the secrets of Mr. J.W. Keeley.
Here I was actually slapped in
the face by the apparition of a woman who was not dead at all but was living in
the same neighborhood at the time.
~ *
~
It seems clear that in all these cases
the “occult phenomena” were not caused by the real spirits either of the living
or the dead, but that they were astral forms or “false egos” created by the
will and imagination of living people, and of the creative power of these two forces
a great deal more may be known.
All such experiences are very interesting
and instructive; for they go to show that the thought forms, which we create by
our willing or desiring and thinking, are real entities, having a life and
intelligence of their own. Napoleon and the Empress Josephine would surely not
have consented to be the constant companions of a lawyer at Chihuahua, and the
princess Minnehaha never existed as a person, but was a creation of
Longfellow’s brain.
Many so-called “spirits” may have
a similar origin; because, as one of the Adepts teaches:
-
“Every thought having
attained a certain maturity combines with a corresponding power from the astral
plane, and forms a self-existing entity of shorter or longer duration according
to the intensity of thought by which it has been formed.”
»
(The
Occult Review April 1907, p.199-200, and August 1907, p.100-101)
OBSERVATIONS
The Masters of Wisdom explain
that only a small portion of the spiritualistic communications is carried out with
the souls of deceased human.
But here, Franz Hartmann
emphasizes only on the astral entities that are formed through thoughts, when
there are also other entities that communicate with the mediums, and the main
ones are the "elementary," which are the vibratory waste that remains
floating in the Beyond, after the better part of the person has ascended to the
divine world.
And there is also the case of other
entities that I will discuss in more detail in another chapter.
No comments:
Post a Comment