Spiritalis: Questions and Answers from the Spirit World

~~~~~~~~~~ SPIRITALIS. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FROM THE SPIRIT WORLD: OR SPIRITS INTERVIEWED. "What!--shall a breath topple down all our dear religions?" John B. Newbrough. New York. (1874) Republished - Essenes of Kosmon N. Salt Lake, Utah (1945) ~~~~~~~~~~ PREFACE. The doctrine, my countrymen! that is it, give us the doctrine first. Every fool can argue for or against it. What we want to know is, what is the good of it? What is it all about? Has not Huxley said of spiritualism and its manifestations, that, "Supposing the phenomena to be genuine, they do not interest me. If anybody would endow me with the faculty of listening to the chatter of old women and curates at the nearest cathedral town, I would decline the privilege, having better things to do. And if the folks in the spiritual world do not talk more wisely and sensibly than their friends report them to do, I put them in the same category." And do not our friends say, "Well if spiritualism is true, what of it?" Now, I do not argue for or against this matter. My mind is not made up for that. I have only investigated it for seventeen years. It is true I have seen hundreds of mediums, and had perhaps a thousand communications, and I have had the slate writing and pencil writing on paper, both independent of fraud or personal contact. I have also seen the so-called materializations, and I have witnessed the healing of the sick by the laying on of hands, and I have heard the uneducated speak intelligently in languages unknown to themselves. Still, I haven't made up my mind that these things are done by the spirits of persons who once lived in this world. In the materialization, I have seen what looked like living, bona fide human beings, both at Eddy's and at Moravia. They came without fraud. That much I will stick to as long as I live. They went away like the light of a candle when it is extinguished, and there was no more of them after the s�ances than is to be seen of the comet this day. But still my mind is not made up that these things are explained by spiritualism. The other conclusion is, that though the phenomena do occur, they are but the result of a living magnetism or electricity belonging to the living body of the medium. These assume, therefore, first, that there is such a magnetic power in mediums, and they then try to prove their assumption by quoting the phenomena. I do not affiliate, in this pamphlet, with either of these, but only show up the doctrine taught by these apparently intelligent occurrences. In this pamphlet, the questions are mine; the answers are from the so-called spirits, It is, in fact, a general summing up of the spiritual doctrine that has been brought about by my own investigations. Therefore, it is no expression of any other spiritual doctrine. For be it understood, by those unacquainted with tile subject, all the so-called spirits have a right to return to earth and preach whatever they please. And spirits do differ so much! But are they really spirits, or are they a principle belonging to certain persons called mediums? No matter; let those prove it that can, we want the doctrine. ____________ CONTENTS: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: OF THE SPIRIT WHILE IN THE BODY. SPIRIT AFTER IT HAS LEFT THE BODY. OF THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLD. CONDITION OF SPIRITS IN SPIRIT WORLD. OF WORSHIP IN DIFFERENT FORMS. OF THE GROWTH OF THE SPIRIT. OF IDENTITY. OF MARRIAGE. OF THE GOVERNMENT OF CHILDREN. ON THE GOVFRNMENT OF PRISONS. OF THE GOVERNMENT OF A NATION. REMARKS ON THE FOREGOING. DOUBTS. CONCLUSIONS. THE EFFECT. ____________ QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS: 1. Can we reflect and acquire new ideas while our physical bodies remain motionless? You can. Thought and reflection are the exercise of spiritual bodies. They may be either separate or in connection with the physical organization. 2. What are spiritual bodies? They are a subtle, ethereal substance, somewhat resembling electricity and magnetism, but having the capacity of individuality. 3. Whence their origin? Originally from Jehovih, the source of life and thought. But they are also generated into new individualities by the union of physical bodies, male and female. 4. How are these new individual spirits germinated? Such is the law of Jehovih, that the seed of physical bodies coming together, under certain conditions, causes a new life to spring into being. You have seen that an acid and alkaline solution put together in one vessel causes a violent exercise and neutralization of the two chemicals. This is decomposition, or death. The opposite of this, or life, is the germination of spirit in the union of the sexes. In the egg, these two properties may remain dormant for a considerable length of time, but by the application of heat, they change into a quickened spirit with a new physical body. The body is borrowed from other substances, but the spirit is a new individuality. In many mammals, the germination of spirit is direct, and begins with the beginning of the physical body. 5. Where is the abode of spirits? Any place, they inhabit gross matter at first; but they also float in the air, and even into the highest ethereal space. 6. Are spirits perfect when first germinated? They are not. Nothing is perfect save Jehovih, Who is the center and circumference of all things. Spirits grow with the gross bodies where they are germinated; but afterward, when the gross material loses its powers of absorption, which is physical death, the spirit leaves it. 7. Is it then perfect? No, but if it has profited in knowledge and purity, it will have some strength to ascend into a large and more exalted field of action. 8. How is it possible for a spiritual body to exist after the destruction of the material or gross body where it was germinated, and out of which it had its origin? Even as the friction of two bodies will produce electricity, or as magnetism can be impregnated with steel without the destruction of the original body, so is the spirit produced. The spirit has not its origin at the expense of the physical body, but is the result of the union of principles. Life and death are opposites. An acid and alkali will combine to die; but the seed of living bodies combines to live. A combination of dead substances produces death; a combination from the living produces life. The nearer perfect the physical bodies are, so much greater is the strength of the spiritual body produced. Nevertheless, the spirit once germinated has an independent existence, and is nurtured on the electrical or spirit principle in nature, even as the physical body is nurtured on earthly bodies. Therefore the destruction of the physical body does not destroy the spirit. 9. Does the spiritual body require spiritual food, even as the gross body requires gross food? It does. While the spirit inhabits the gross body, it can absorb from the same food that which it requires; but when it has left the body, it absorbs spiritual food from other things. By spiritual food, it must not be understood that which dies, but that which lives. Not that the spirit is a cannibal, and feeds on other spirits, for that would be death, and contrary to its capacity, but it absorbs from elementary substances that which is electric or living principle, which is its substance, The physical body can live only on bodies of things dead, but which once did live, and thence it too must die. But the spiritual body derives its sustenance from the opposite of these things, and so becomes eternal. 10. What proof have we that there is a spiritual or electrical body within us? Life, thought, and locomotion. That which is dead moves not, nor has it any self-controlling power. 11. That is proof of some quickening principle within us; but how shall we know that it is a veritable body? Not a pin's point can penetrate your flesh without the spirit's knowledge thereof. Hence the spirit extends to every part of the physical body and has its form and configuration. When the pin's point has given you pain, which is the interruption of your electrical or spiritual action in the physical body, your whole consciousness is arouse; but when your spiritual or electrical power has ceased, which is physical death, no consciousness exists in the body. Also, amongst you there are some who have lost an arm or a leg, and are yet conscious of the spiritual presence of the member lost. It matters not, so it be understood by you what the spirit is, whether you do interpret it to your own liking to be a veritable body or a veritable principle. 12. Have all living bodies a spirit? They have. The spirit is life; its extent and capacity are no secret to whoever may choose to learn of Jehovih's works. The ant that builds a house in the sands of the desert is a child of Jehovih. But human beings possess a wide range of thought and reflection; they have dominion over all other living beings on earth. In this, we caution you that you arrogate to yourselves no vain glory, but rather seek to know the glory and wisdom of Him who fashioned the whole world, that you may ever bear in mind the very humble position you are in. For until you have passed through many births and many deaths, you cannot fathom the grandeur and perfection of the universe. 13. What! Shall the spirit die also? In language familiar to those in the flesh, yes; but, speaking from the ethereal throne, no, the spirit never dies, and yet in the spirit world, there are countless millions endeavoring to comprehend the life that is to come after, even as you now seek to penetrate beyond the burial of your mortal bodies. OF THE SPIRIT WHILE IN THE BODY. 14. Has the spirit any capacity, while it inhabits the gross body, to do or act beyond it? In some organizations it has. It can impart its own knowledge to another of like capacity at considerable distances. 15. By what means? It is itself an electrical substance, harmonious with inanimate electricity, the elements of which extend through all atmospheres. Where one spirit is in rapport with another, a current of thought passes from one person to another. * The most sensitive organ, however, for receiving or dispersing spiritual electricity is the eye. One who is asleep can be awakened by another gazing on the eyelids. Such is normal spirit force. But there is an abnormal spirit capacity in which the person can permit the spirit to extend out of and beyond the gross body, to see and to know things at a distance. This is called clairvoyance. * When I was a young lad, going home from singing school one night, I fell from a high bridge, and was knocked senseless. At that moment, or thereabout, my mother, resident two and a half miles distant, heard me say, "Mother, my head hurts so!" So rigidly did she guard against the name of superstition, that she concealed this fact for sever al years. I have heard of many such instances, but this is the only one I can verify myself, save such as will be hereafter related under another head. 16. How can the spirit travel out of the gross body, and the body not die? The spiritual body can unite with inanimate electricity and travel thereon, somewhat as your physical body; it keeps up a connection therewith, and generally returns to it before death ensues, but not always. * Then there are cases in which the physical body is asleep, during which the spirit has power to see and know things intelligible. You have those amongst you who have slept soundly even while they toiled on, ** which should be evidence to you that there is a spiritual body with you, capable of manifesting intelligence while the gross matter is unconscious. Furthermore, you all do know that you dream while you are physically asleep. You have therefore within you that which can think even while your bodies lie dormant and helpless. * Judge Edmonds, by having a circle at Boston and another in New York sit at the same hour, demonstrated the fact that mental questions and answers could be carried on successfully at that great distance by the force above referred to. It will be seen, however, that this is not strong testimony of a life beyond the grave, since it appears to have been accomplished wholly by that which belongs to living physical bodies. ** In crossing the plains in 1849, I often saw the over-exhausted teamsters driving over difficult and dangerous roads while sound asleep. On coming to a hill, they would put on the brakes and lock the wagon exactly as if awake, and then unlock it again at the bottom of the hill. On being aroused, the poor fellows would become frightened in recollecting the dangerous places they passed safely! 17. What distinction is there between the mere action of the brain and nervous system and that of the spirit? Even as the battery is the place where inanimate electricity is generated, so is the physical body the abode of the spirit for the time being. The brain and nervous system alone have no inherit power save by the spirit, which has power even to destroy the whole body. You have also those amongst you whose spirit can go out of the body and read sealed papers; and yet others who can acquire a knowledge of things, though all their external senses he blindfolded. The action of the brain and nervous system is contained within the gross body, nor can inert matter, as a sealed letter, act upon them. 18. How are thoughts read by the spirit? The spirit extends in its normal condition to the surface of the body, and when one of the parties is positive and the other passive, the circuit is established so that the spirit or thought predominant becomes as one. * *I have been recently experimenting on this subject with a young man by the name of Brown, at my own house. Any one of us might hide a knife or other article, and he could, even though blindfolded, by holding such person's hand a moment, become so magnetized, he would walk right off to the place it was concealed. Also, we might place our mind on any particular friend's name, and he would spell it out correctly. But if we ourselves forgot the word, or the place the article was hidden, then the young man would fail. Mr. C. Foster's clairvoyance is of a different character. We would hand him any number of written names, folded so he could not see them, and yet his answers always proved to be responsive to each and every name. If, for example, I asked on the slip of paper, "Is the spirit of my cousin, Hattie Jones, present?" he would answer for my cousin, Hattie Jones, even though I had forgotten what was on the paper, and perhaps even though there never was any such a cousin. This rather goes to prove that he has a faculty or power to go outside of himself to learn what is written in the sealed paper, but that the answer comes from his own intelligence. 19. Cannot magnetism extend beyond a given body, and produce motion in another? It can; but the capacity to acquire or impart knowledge is more than dead magnetism. The thunder can cleave the mighty oak, but it does not receive or impart intelligence. Such magnetism or electricity is a power that springs from inanimate bodies, and it grows not. But the power that springs from the living body is spirit, and it can receive and impart knowledge. SPIRIT AFTER IT HAS LEFT THE BODY. 20. How can it be proven that the spirit lives after the death of the physical body? Rather, how will you receive proof: For except you have a spirit to receive proof from the spirit of others, you cannot be convinced. A feather cannot go against the wind; neither can the spirit out of the body come to him who will not receive it. There are many amongst you who do, daily, receive knowledge from spirits out of the body, and yet arrogate to themselves all the credit. Others are too skeptical and so spitefully opposed to spirit power, that they are deserted by even their own spirit friends. For such as these, we say to you, there is no proof of a spiritual body after death. 21. Is faith necessary, in the first place? Faith is not necessary. Even as the child must go to school to learn, so shall you come unto us; and as the child that will not go to school learns not, so will you, except you seek spirit knowledge, remain in darkness. And yet it is for these that we labor most; and more do we rejoice in the enlightenment of one such than in many that have faith. There are some who, having buried the physical body of their friend, buried from their own memory also the spirit. When the spirit returns to them in their dreams and seeks remembrance, it has no welcome. On the following morn, this infidel to spirit power seeks an explanation by referring to his stomach. This is the predominance of the gross body over spirit, and so murderous is its effect on his own living spirit, that, when he goes out of the body, his spirit lies dormant nigh unto death. Such an infidel spirit can not return to any of you and give you proof of anything. And really amongst us in the spirit world, there are more of these than the sands of the sea. We need to teach them also, for they are constantly pleading for assistance and light. Let us put this question to you: How can a man who speaks only English believe that two Latin scholars can understand each other? Verily, by becoming a Latin scholar himself, or by resting on the faith of their assurance. So is it with you in regard to the spirit. If you can rest on the faith of others, it is the spirit of truth within you that enables you to do so, but if you ignore the voice of others, then must you seek to understand the spirit by means of your own knowledge. To those who have faith, we would say, plead fondly for the spirits of those you love to come unto you, and they will come. Such persons have the proof within their own hearts. Though to those who believe nothing, but anchor all they receive on knowledge alone, we have tried many ways to make them understand. In cases of murder or other sudden death, where the phosphorus and the inanimate magnetism went down with the body, we have induced the spirit to return to the place, and take upon himself the elements necessary for your mortal vision to behold him; but you believed not in the spirit, but rather in the phosphorus and magnetism. We have given you signs and wonders for ages and ages, but you have ever ignored us. We have moved ponderable substances before your vision; we have pounded on walls, and caused huge tables to tip answers to your endless questions; and after exhausting ourselves, we have flitted silently amongst you, and heard you ignore us or call us the devil. You have denied that we manifested intelligence, but when we played on musical instruments, you told us we were merely will-power. We have written thousands of messages to you, and we are laughed at for our silly productions. If we bring a philosopher to your circles, you ask him such foolish questions as, "How many chickens have our speckled hen?" "Is it right for me to feed the old blind horse on bran or meal?" Tell me whether I trimmed my toe-nails last Sunday morning? Really, we must say to you, you are so grossly wrapped up in earthly ideas, that it is almost impossible for spirit power to manifest the things most needed. Query: When your friend visits a far-off country, and writes to you, shall he not describe the things where he is? So also he who sees colors may attempt to teach the blind what color means, but the blind understand him not. We come from the spirit world, and we are filled with joy to communicate the beauties of our homes to you, but alas! You understand us not. We talk of a spirit body which you cannot see; we describe a world that you cannot comprehend, Query: For example, color says to the blind man: "See, I am yellow, purple, blue, golden, and scarlet". But the blind man says: ``What proof can you offer?" Such is spirit pleading unto you, but until your eyes are opened, you cannot understand. 22. Can you not clothe yourselves with the emanations (If earthly bodies, and so prove your spirit existence? This we often do; but yet you see not the spirit, but rather that which conceals the spirit. Though in this have we also been ignored; for amongst you are some who assert that the will- power (whatever that is) causes these figures to appear and go through all the motions of living physical human bodies. 23. But have you not in other materializations held conversation with the audience? * We have often done so, and do so now daily. In this and many different countries. But such is the degradation and fraud amongst men and women, that they cannot trust one another, nor do they acknowledge evidence of their own senses. Neither will they trust to ropes, cords, or wires, nor any safeguard they themselves can invent. * This was a direct conversation with one of the so called, materialized. 24. Can you not so envelop a person's hands that fire will not burn him? This too we have done, and do so even yet most frequently, but the infidel believes not, though he himself does see it. 25. Whom do you mean by the term, infidel? All persons who are not true to the spirit that is within them, and such as deny our presence amongst men. 26. What? Church-members too? They too are infidels. 27. To refer back, have you not carried actual living human beings in the air? Very frequently, and for great distances, but the feat has been pronounced a mere phantom or a fraud amongst men. 28. Have you not given messages from the dead? We have; but the infidel said it was magnetism that did it. 29. Have you not caused persons comparatively illiterate to speak in unknown tongues, even as recorded in the Bible? We have; and we have caused persons to speak in many different languages; which were wholly unknown to themselves; * but for these achievements, the persons influenced have been supposed to be possessed by the devil. * Judge Edmond's daughter has been caused to speak seven different languages wholly unknown to her. There are many other persons. perhaps a thousand, who have been influenced in the same way. 30. Can you cause a pencil to write without any person touching it? Save the spirit, yes. We have caused a luminous hand to appear, not attached to any apparent physical thing, to raise a pencil from the table, and write distinctly on a piece of paper, and also on slates; but our reward has been, to be denounced as merely some kind of magnetism.* * Professor Crookes, Robert Dale Owen, and many other intelligent and honorable gentlemen, have witnessed these things frequently. Also there are upward of ten thousand people in New York alone (not known to scientists) who have witnessed the writing, coming as stated above, without any trick whatever. 31. If you are veritable beings, can you not at appear before the camera, and be photographed? We have done that also. It was one of our greatest rejoicings in the spirit world when we discovered this, for we could scarcely imagine how our fellow creatures who were yet in the flesh could find a flaw in our reality any longer. But our first medium was persecuted for being a devil and a fraud. This made us wary, but after his liberation, we began on a more scientific basis. Now, we are rewarded by scientists saying, the force of the will-power of some person present causes the emanations of the body to take a human shape, and that there is no spirit about it. 32. Can you not devise some manifestation beyond what human beings in the flesh can accomplish? We have carried flowers and plants into a room when it was all shut up, doors and windows. We have threaded a chair-back on a person's arm even while his hands We're joined to another; we have put a solid-iron ring over a person's head or hand, the ring being considerably smaller than the head or hand that passed through it. But the infidel, discomfited on scientific grounds, always falls back on the devil, as a hidden cause. We have held a flower in full bloom before an audience, and caused it to melt down into a small crystal, and then again to conic out into full bloom while the eyes of the multitude were upon it, and the achievement was merely complimented as a clever trick, and inexplicable. We have manufactured that which had the firmness and texture of earthly things, such as the physical body and the clothes to hide its nakedness, when you yourselves did behold that we produced them in a cabinet; which contained nothing. Even more, we have, thus materialized, come into your circles, talked with you, danced with and rejoiced with you. We have thus sat down amongst you, and with your own scissors, cut pieces out of our dresses and left them with you, and you found the fabric not unlike any other. And while we thus sat with our dress full of holes, we have taken it at your request and made it whole, even by the shake of our hand. Of all the things we have devised for convincing our fellow creatures in the flesh that the spirit can and does return, there is not one but the infidel can find a way to disbelieve. The people's hearts are steeped in false religions; their desires are wholly of the earth; they are even infidels to themselves and to their own pretensions. Many of them affect to believe in Jehovih, and that they have a soul that lives after the death of the body; and in their stiff-necked infidelity, their hearts are so hardened, that when the very evidence of their own pretensions is placed before them, they deny it. How can we prove ourselves to such as these? And further than this, when such people are born into the spirit world, they are premature births, and know not themselves who they are. * But amongst you there are many who receive the spirit, and to those we are apt to bestow our love and benefits. Let us bear in mind, that when a man has two sons, one who is wayward, wicked, and deserts his father, and the other remains with him and takes pleasure in his council, the father seeks to do the latter all the good he can. It is so of the spirit; to those who love us, we are a comfort and guide. To these we can prove ourselves at all times and places, and by such simple devices as may occur in the daily walks of life. When these persons are born ** into the spirit world, they are in the light, and can behold the course that leads on toward the throne of Jehovih. *** * Mr. Crookes, F.R.S. and many members of the circle, all attest to this, and further state that the light within the room was such that they could not be mistaken. I have myself witnessed the making of material shawls by the so-called spirit, merely passing one hand over a vase of flowers; but the light was too dim to be attested to by me. It looked so very much like the tricks of the prestidigateurs, that I could not believe even what I saw. The being or spirit, if it was one, was itself equally astounding, for it came and also disappeared I knew not whither, though I went and examined the place. ** That which we denominate death is called here the birth into the spirit world. *** I have been very frequently amused at the extreme shallowness of spirit testimony which was taken in confidence by many believers. I have even wished that I had the capacity to believe these things on such easy terms. I have so far passed through all the degrees of skepticism which have been set forth above. Not knowing but my skepticism might be wrong, owing to my much research, I have taken children to witness the spirit phenomena, in order that I might have the benefit of their unbiased judgment. But, strange to say, all of these immediately became spiritualists in fact, and then I ignored their judgments, because they were children, and too easily convinced. In this respect, I have often pondered of a remark said to have been made by Jesus in reference to little children. He had most likely made the discovery, too, that their unbiased minds and confiding hearts made them the best recipients of spiritual power. OF THE MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLD. 33. What distinction can you draw between the spirit world and the material world? For convenience of expression, solids which have the capacity of gravitation, you may call material bodies, and also for convenience of expression, you may call spirit all such rarefied material as has no gravitation, such as you understand. 34. Then the spirit is also a material body? It is well that you so call it. Many years ago, the scientist taught that there were but five primitive elements, now they are subdivided into many, the materialist teaches that there is hut one body in man, hut we have shown you that there is also a spirit body which separates out of the gross material. But when you ask us, "Is the spirit body also a material body'' we answer in the affirmative. Even as you have magnetism in iron, so is the spirit in man. And even as the spirit of man is in him and can go out of him, so are the elements out of which that spirit was made in the spirit world. The material body is made out of the gross matter of earth: the spirit has its originating source in the spirit world, but it is quickened into an individuality in gross matter. The spirit world is the elementary condition of simples out of which the spirit springs into being, and the home to which it returns after it has established its individuality in an earthly form. Somewhat as gas may be extracted from wood, when it will float off to a kindred refinement, so does the spirit, on its liberation from the gross body, float into the spirit world. Yet this comparison is defective from our standpoint in the spirit world, for spirit is not like a gas, but a quickening element. Nor can we teach you what spirit really is, nor of the spirit world, for you have not that perception within you while in the flesh which will enable you to understand. As we stated before, you cannot teach a blind man to understand colors, though you may teach him elementary principles by comparison to the things he can feel, even so do we labor to a disadvantage in trying to teach you of the nature and capacity of the spirit world. When you speak of the intellectual world, you allude to the wisdom of man; but when we speak of the intellectual world, we allude to that above you, from which you draw your intelligence. When you speak of carbon, you allude to coal or the diamond; but when we speak of carbon, we allude to that element beyond your research, and out of which your gross material is made. Your wisdom partakes of a knowledge of the things earthly, but ours deals with the elements from which earthly things are made. Our field of research is more extensive, for we must acquire a knowledge of earthly things before we can proceed far with elements in the spirit world. And yet beyond us there is a still higher sublimated existence beyond our present capacity to comprehend. This much we are made to understand, and we impart it to you also that is, the more knowledge you acquire on earth pertaining to Jehovih's laws, the easier will he your progress in the spirit world. CONDITION OF SPIRITS IN SPIRIT WORLD. 35. What is the general condition and occupation of spirits in the Spirit world? In condition, the spirits are somewhat similar to what they were on earth; some are poor and wretched; others happy and prosperous. The poor are the blind ones, and the wretched ones are those that lived in sin and iniquity on earth. The good and intelligent spirits are prosperous and happy. The occupation here is, broadly, as it was on earth, namely, struggling to better their condition. 36. What! Can spirits be blind? Even so. Some of them are blind by disease, but many of them extinguished their own sight. But lest you do not understand, we caution you that you weigh this matter from a spiritual standpoint.  You who cannot see and feel the influence of spirit power are weak or diseased in spiritual sight. But those who could see and feel our presence, but would not, do bring blindness on themselves. The birth of such spirits into the spirit world gives us great labor and sorrow. With them, we find it necessary to begin with the simplest forces, and to gradually increase their lessons until they begin to have a spiritual vision. In this, we find that the spiritual knowledge they might have gained on earth In a life-time, requires here hundreds of years, reckoning our time by yours. 37. What of the wretched ones who sinned all their lives on earth? Of these, we address you with fear and trembling; for the things which you call sin are not all sin; all the things which you call righteousness are often sin and wickedness. Therefore, when we say that all men, women, and children must answer for the deeds done in the body, be not hasty to conclude the meaning of that which we wish you to know. Know then there are men who are plated-ware, and some who are genuine metal. The outside life and character of men are all that you of earth can see and understand; but each and every one of you has an inside life and character known to yourself and to the spirits around you. When you leave your earthly bodies, your gilded or earthly character is stripped off, and we all behold you and know just what you are, for your inside life is your real spirit. On this spirit are stamped all the good and evil deeds ever done in the body and the name of this print is called conscience. While on earth, the wicked can divert and hold his conscience in abeyance by seeking amusement or recreation, but when he is born into spirit life, his victims are a stain on his garment that he can not hide even from his own vision. 38. Can you give us an illustration? Suppose a lawyer defrauds a widow and brings misery and wretchedness on her and her children -- when he is born into spirit life, his first acquaintance is the suffering face of the widow and children. Not that they are there in propria personce, but the imprint of their griefs. For a long while, he will endeavor to fight off the vision and to dissuade himself from his suffering, but he can do nothing, study nothing, nor enjoy any spirit society save such other miserable fellows as himself. In due time, he takes to prayer, he asks Jehovih to remove the haunting vision, and to give him peace and companions. His calls will bring to him other spirits, who, seeing his sin and distress, engage to help him onward and upward. They will say to him: By wronging the widow and children, your spirit has become bound in servitude to them and theirs. Go now and do service unto them and to those that love them, until you have recompensed for the sin committed. So much shall your service be to those you have injured that you can say to them: "Tell me, in Jehovih's name, what more I can do that I may win your love and be cherished as your brother?" Then will the widow and the children say: "We are more than paid. Come into our house, and be as one of us.'' Such shall be the end of his punishment, and the purity of his spirit shall be beholden by those above him, and he shall be welcomed among them. But if he committed other crimes against other persons, then shall he so pay unto each and all of them accordingly before he shall have peace. Now, even as it is thus told to you of one man; so is it of all men. The thief and the murderer must also work out their own salvation in like manner. But there are other sins which we would call to your mind. First, the mother who had destroyed her offspring before it was born. In her sin, she said to herself; "I will not have the cares of motherhood, for I will enjoy the pleasures of affluence and fashion." Now, to her we would have you say, that when she is born into spirit life, her first acquaintance will be her own murdered offspring. The motherhood she did avoid on earth must now begin; and even as much as she robbed them of their material growth, so now shall she impart to them from her own spirit. Her sin, in destroying the physical body, shall cause her to labor perhaps a hundred years in order to pacify her burdened spirit. So also shall it be with those who are accomplices with her in the same sin. But all such sins as these can be recompensed and pardoned in due time. Though the sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven; for it is the sin against one's own spirit, and one cannot forgive himself. This is the sin of imparting with one's own spirit by physical gratification, which tends to destruction. We would give you this illustration: A boy climbed to the top of a high monument, carrying with him a basket of eggs. When on the top, he would, for the pleasure of seeing an egg burst, let one egg drop over the banisters. In a little while, he would let drop another egg, and then another, and so on until his eggs were nearly all gone. Then he beheld, alas! That no amount of prayer or forgiveness could ever restore the loss. Thus it is of those who sin against their own spirit by doing that which detracts from its very self. When such persons are born into spirit life, they bear with them the weakness of their indulgence. All eyes in the spirit world are upon them. 39. Can you convey to our minds what length of time is required in spirit life to pay off or balance the sins done in the material body? He who repents and seeks forgiveness from his victims with all his heart and strength, may do it in a few years, or a few centuries at most; but he who is perverse, and will not acknowledge the wisdom and glory of Jehovih by obeying these laws, shall remain in torment perhaps a million years. Yet we would have you ever bear in mind that our time is not as your time, though we show you the principle by which obedience to Jehovih's laws must be given. 40. Amongst the different religions we have on earth, there are some that teach us to call on the name of certain personages claiming to be prophets or christs, and ask forgiveness for our sins, and it shall be done, what shall we believe? Doctrines are taught by our own fallible children. You yourselves may teach some doctrine, but will it carry the evidence of truth and justice in it? Now, would we ask you, who should restore to the widow and children an equivalent for the things of which she has been wronged? Shall the thief escape by asking the prophet or the 'Christ' to excuse him, and no reimbursement come to the widow and children? To all such as have the spirit of truth and justice within themselves, they can perceive that which to believe; but you shall use arguments to those who do not understand, that they be not led astray with false doctrines. 41. Of the blindness of which you said spirits suffered in the spirit world, can you give us a comparative illustration of what we should understand? Spirit blindness may be likened to a drunken man, who sees, but can not go, but the spirit is quickened, so it can go, but it sees not. It is a nightmare to the understanding. Have you not the insane amongst you who believe that they see hideous creatures in the air? Who are delirious with their own imaginings? So, not so is it with the blind in spirit life. They believe the things they do see are a delusion; they believe they themselves are a delusion; they believe not that they are out of their earth bodies; and they are ever pleading to their fellow spirits to help them remove these delusions so they can live as before, believing they are still on earth, but haunted by things they see. 42. What is the cause of this blindness? Mainly stubbornness and false religions in the earth-life. Instead of becoming in spirit like little children while they were on earth, they set up stubborn doctrines, making a god and a heaven to suit their own various conceptions. Their vanity and belief became a part of their spirit, and when they came into the spirit world, they found not that which they had imagined, and so do believe they are only in a diseased condition still in the body. There are many of these who were upright people on earth and fierce advocates of their own religion. 43. How Can people know what is the true religion in order to avoid this blindness? All people have the spirit within them which, if not wrongly taught, can lead the way to light and knowledge. We have a short catechism that we value highly in the spirit world, and we will give it to you: how shall we instruct our children in the true religion? The answer is: Teach them charity and justice to one another, and to rest in confidence on Him who created the universe. 44. You have said the occupations of the spirits are similar to what we have on earth; how can that be? Similar, but spiritual. Every one works for himself. On earth, you seek for earthly treasures, in the spirit world we seek for spiritual treasures. On earth, you seek your desires, even at the expense of your brethren, and you take fraudulently from one another. In the spirit world, we do not do this, for we take only from the original elements, and make the things we require. To do this our knowledge must he cultivated; and therefore the more knowledge we obtained on earth in reference to the laws of solids and compounds, of which we were once a part, the easier can we proceed in this life. 45. Can you give an idea of the experience of a truly good man on entering the spirit world? Even as a child is born on earth, with friends around it to rejoice at its coming, so do kind and loving spirit friends welcome into the spirit world a truly good man's spirit. The incorruptible leaves the corruptible in the twinkling of an eye; but before his spirit has thus departed, and while the dissolution is about to take place, the spirit friends enter into communion with him, and magnetize the body, which gives him liberty to go out. As soon as he has departed, his friends also withdraw from the body, and hear him hence. For a long while it is like a pleasant dream, and he begins to reflect within himself as to the cause of his not waking up; he looks around him now, and beholds many of his friends whom he remembers to have been long since dead. As fast as he remembers them, they come to him and greet him kindly, lovingly. Then comes his loving wife and daughter; then perhaps a little son that he once almost idolized. Next comes his aged father and mother. The latter, being near akin and more in his confidence than any other, converses with him awhile, as if she would not too suddenly apprise him of his birth. At last, she assures him how she has longed for him to come home to heaven; how she has watched and prayed for many long years to have her children once more near her. Then she asks him if he can collect his thoughts now so as to realize that he is really in heaven. At first, he may doubt, but she tells him to look about him, and see that he has indeed left his friends and the earth behind. A great sorrow begins to cloud his vision, for he remembers the loved ones still behind; but his mother bids him to remember Jehovih's laws, and to conform his desires therewith. His heart is almost bursting with love, for he has loved ones in both the worlds. His friends perceive that this emotion is too great, and with a kind salutation, he is magnetized into another sweet slumber until he gains more strength. By and by, he awakes again, and so again do the spirit friends attend him and teach him to realize his new birth. But when the trials are too severe, he is again put into a sweet slumber for awhile, and then again awakes for more enlightenment, but, like a child on earth, he soon desires to run alone. But he cannot. His instructors bring forth music, by which he concentrates thought, and now he discovers how to move from place to place. Like a youth of earth, his first desire is to travel. He would see all the spirit world at once. But even as a youth of earth will find impenetrable forests, so will he find impenetrable space too rarefied for his procedure. As a youth of earth discovers that he needs a compass to find the way, and axes to hew out a path, so does our spirit friend need science and various electric forces to enable him to enter into the worlds peopled by spirits of millions and millions of years ago. Then does he really, for the first time in his life, begin to adore the glory and wisdom of Jehovih. He is almost overcome with emotion. He would fly back to earth, and tell his loved ones of the glories he has seen. He does so; he comes to them in the night-time; he watches them in their sleep when the gross body interferes not, and he tells his story, he smiles on them, and they rejoice with him; and when they awake, they thank Jehovih for the sweetness of their dreams, for they realize that a loved one did visit them, and the spirit lives after the body is dead. But this spirit knows no rest, for he could carry the joys unto all people. He would whisper the love of Jehovih into all ears. So he looks about, and, lo and behold! He ventures into an audience amongst you earthly investigators of spirits; and the first question you ask him is some such silly question as the price of salt pork in South America! He is shocked. His concentration of thought is broken, and he vanishes back to his spirit home. Here he contemplates on the real work before him, endeavoring to devise a method to convert the whole world to spirit truths. He thinks it is easy. Again he visits you in strange circles; but is again and again shocked and rebuffed by your infidelity to spirit law, he finds that his labors are too much for him, and that he must look to his own enlightenment in order to keep pace with his spirit companions. Then he quits the earth perhaps forever, or perhaps returning only to those who are dear and sweet to him. And when they too join him in spirit life, he looks scarcely ever more to earth, but looks onward, upward to the changes that lie before him. OF WORSHIP IN DIFFERENT FORMS. 46. What is the true mode of worship? To ever call (in Jehovih, and to deal with justice and charity to all of His living creatures. 47. Is it a sin to worship the sun? That harms no man, but it is a great folly. There are many who worship the sun, believing it to be Jehovih. These do worship truly the Great Spirit, though in ignorance of what spirit is, choose that which seems to them the most powerful. This is no sin, but folly. 48. Is it a sin to worship Jesus and the Prophets? To those that believe these are Jehovih, no; and yet their worship is also a great folly. The spirits endeavor to enlighten all men so as to make them honest and charitable to one another. This we have found, many men have a symbol to remind them of the Almighty. Some use the sun as a symbol; some have an animal, such as a white bull; some have legendary tales and history, and yet others have their prophet or their Christ. Now, do we say to you that in as much as any of these awaken in man the knowledge of spirit power and an inclination to charity and justice, so far are they holy and above sin. Yet in many of these religions where it is taught that man can do any wickedness while in the body, and repent and call on the names of these idols the hour before he leaves the body, that he will that day be received in paradise, is a heinous sin against the laws of the Almighty. 49. Some people say they have felt the spirit and power of Jesus, how is that?  We once knew a man on earth who called all his servants Mary. He treated them with great deference, and they rendered to him good service. One day, his neighbor said to him: ''Sir, why do you call that woman Mary; that is not her real name And he replied: ''I know her name is Mary, for she came when I called, and she has given me great comfort.'' Even so do many people call the Creator by the name of Jesus; and when the spirits come and comfort them and bless them, they verily believe in their blindness that the man Jesus was with them. This is no sin, but blindness. OF THE GROWTH OF THE SPIRIT. 50. By what process does the spirit grow? Similar to the growth of the gross body. While the body grows by absorption of gross materials, the spirit extracts from the same materials the elements that increase the spiritual body. 51. How then of the children that die in infancy? They grow also, bur more rarified, for their sustenance comes from a spiritual source. They have nurses and guardians. 52. Have we not all guardian spirits around us? No. Originally, yes. Those amongst you who have become base or stiff-necked are deserted by all spirits save the evil ones. 53. What are evil spirits? Perverse creatures who led evil lives on earth, and who being born into the spirit world found no friends. They cannot rise out of their own degradation, nor do they know who they are. They grope about on earth, seeking fellows like themselves, and they lead men and women into crime. Some of these spirits were murderers on earth, and you hung them, and thought you got rid of them by sending them to us. This was a crime in you, for these hangings are visited back upon your society. * * In looking over the so-called civilized portions of the globe, one cannot but believe that our laws for capital punishment are based on a false religion. If there ever is a mockery in the face of God, it is in ourselves and our priests kneeling on one side of a man, while the hangman on the other is preparing to send his soul into eternity. We are virtually saying, "Here, God, come and take him. He is not good enough for us." But in reference to spirits influencing people to criminal acts, how can we prove that it is not so? The little girl recently arrested here for trying to burn up babies, said something in her made her do it. So did the Boston boy, arrested for mutilating other little boys. 54. You spoke of music in the spirit world: what can we understand of that? We have music, instrumental and vocal. We have produced them wholly within ourselves at some of your circles. * * This is attested to by several circles in this country and in England. For my own part, I have never heard it. OF IDENTITY. 55. Can you explain why it is that the spirits can so seldom identify themselves to us, in their otherwise lengthy communications?  Many of the spirits are entirely different from what you would suppose. As stated before, you on earth behold the silver-plating only; we see the raw material after the plating is stripped off. Do you understand us? We would like a further illustration. We thought so. Well, amongst you are many persons who may be called intelligent by you, who only have borrowed stuff. When they come to the spirit world, and are obliged to manufacture ideas of their own, and when they are no longer mere quoters of other men's ideas, they are real dummies. On earth, they could please you amazingly by quoting Milton or Dante, but here they find everything so different that nothing which they were acquainted with applies to the case. They make a mess of everything they touch. If you will remember, in the early discoveries of gold in California, you had many men at home who were free to tell you of an easy method to dig all you wanted. They could devise steam plows and sifters that would render it mere child's play to be a gold-miner. Their ideas were quoted in the newspapers as wonderfully intelligent. Well, by and by, they went there, and when they were confronted by the rocks and rushing rivers they were dumbfounded. The intelligence they thought they had was mere nonsense; so when they wrote home, they contented themselves by merely relating what the hard-fisted miners told them. When the spirit comes into the spirit world, he finds that, in order to send a message back to his friends on earth, through some medium, he is headed off on all sides by rocks and rivers that he knew not of. So, he is often obliged to content himself by conveying his intelligence viva voce through perhaps a hundred different spirits before the message reaches you. And, in the next place, he learns that what seemed like good sense on earth is mere nonsense when viewed from the spirit world. And yet there is another difficulty from your side of the question; that is, when your millionaire comes amongst us, and finds that although on earth he was of such great magnitude, here his spirit is a poor sickly nobody, that was robbed of its legitimate growth by too much devotion to earthly matters. He is ashamed to tell you who he is, even if he could. This man lived two lives. You saw the outside one, and thought he was great; but his real spirit you saw not. That part which you saw is really and virtually dead. The connecting link between his earthly thoughts and his thoughts of spirit life was too weak to stand the strain. He is for a long time in spirit life occupying a back seat, and with as little noise as possible. Let us give you an illustration: You have amongst you a millionaire, who visits France and loses all his money. Now, he moves into a backstreet, and keeps quiet lest his friends find him, and shame him. So it is with many who are proud and haughty on earth, their cloak is stripped off in the spirit world; their poverty in truth and love is lamentable, and they are written all over with crimes done in the body. None of these classes will identify themselves to you. They do not wish to attract attention on our side either, or to call our attention to the fact that they carried false colors before you. 56. They can constitute but a small part of a community? That is true; but your acknowledged prominent men are mostly under this head. The poor mechanic or laborer whose identity was only known to a few of his neighbors, for he carried his soul in open view, and his heart was as pure as snow; he can come back and identify himself to his dear ones. One reason why he can come is because he knows that he will be received by warm, loving hearts.  Their attraction helps to draw him back; their love me meets him half way. But in the other cases, no love goes forth to meet them on the road. On this point, let us charge you to lay it tenderly to your most sacred thoughts; love attracts and hate repels spirits. We do know a spirit who would like to communicate with his friends in New York, and were persons who loved him. But while he was in earth life, he cheated several parties out of their fortunes, in fact, ruined them: Their curse is upon him. Now, because of their curse, he cannot approach your great city, for as soon as he comes near the place, his great crimes swallow up his whole concentration of thought and he is helpless. Therefore, we charge you, live with no man's curse upon you, for if it be grounded in justice, your torment will be terrible indeed. To those you have wronged, seek at once to make amends; for while you are in the flesh, you have tools to work with, and may repair the damage quickly, which if left until you enter spirit-life may require a thousand years to accomplish it. You who were devoted in love to those gone before can have their spirits return to you almost whenever you wish, provided you conform to the now known laws of spirit communion, and especially if you all are pure and good. 57. Why do spirit circles require to be held in the dark? We have nearly overcome that, and in a few generations hope to do so entirely. In the early sitting of a circle, it should be dark, because darkness interrupts your positive concentration of thought, and because it promotes the same concentration of thought in the spirit. But when you yourselves have advanced in spirit intercourse so that you can render your thoughts in daylight, then the spirits will have power to convey intelligence to you without darkness. 58. You have spoken of spirits coming back to us when we are alone, and especially when asleep; how is that? Provided your system is in a perfectly quiet state, and your thoughts peaceful, we can come and enter into conversation with you. We can often thus talk directly with you, and you do answer us. We can show you pictures and convey various illustrations to your own spirit. Of course when you wake up, you see us not, and so you call it a dream. But this we assure you, there is no such thing as thinking the talk of two or more characters within one's self but by other spirits; 59. Do we not often hold conversation within our own selves when we are walking alone? One side of it is yours; the other side is generally carried on by means of your spirit companions who are consulting or contending with you, and they do use your organs and make you seem to talk both sides. 60. How did Shakespeare write different characters? He was attended to by a vast multitude of spirits, and they virtually and really played and spoke their parts, entering within his own spirit. And in this way also there are many amongst you who do have spirits enter into their own organism, and help them to speak and write, and yet such persons, not knowing the laws of spirit power, do arrogate to themselves all they accomplish. In this way, as we told you before, you have many literary men with you, who on entering the spirit world, are seemingly vastly inferior to what they were on earth. 61. What is a trance? Even [... excerpt truncated; full document held on file, contact an admin for the complete text ...]