CHAPTER I

THE QUESTION OF SPIRIT IDENTITY

THE vexed question of spirit identity is one which is always liable to occasion considerable discussion, chiefly by reason of the fact that what appears thoroughly conclusive to some types of mind seems inconclusive to others. It is, therefore, necessary to approach this immense and vital subject not only entirely free from prejudice, but also fortified with clear understanding of the actual worth of the various theories now submitted for popular acceptance as substitutes for what is often termed the spiritualistic hypothesis.

We are often asked whether it is possible for us to explain clearly how we discriminate between telepathic and spiritistic messages. Frankly, we admit that it is often quite beyond our present ability to discriminate completely between them, but this lack of ability always to discriminate, far from weakening the testimony favorable to simple Spiritualism, only necessitates a reconsideration of the entire problem of our human constitution before we attempt to formulate an inclusive theory to explain the entire bulk of our diversified psychic experiences. A very large number of thoughtful readers have been much impressed by Thomson Jay Hudson's five celebrated books: “The Law of Psychic Phenomena," "A Scientific Demonstration of the Future Life," "The Divine Pedigree of Man," "The Law of Mental Medicine," and "The Evolution of the Soul," in which the hypothesis known as the dual theory of the human mind is very fully and forcibly expounded. Professor Hudson, in common with many other able writers, labors to some extent under a burden of preconception adverse to Spiritualism, which often mars the beauty and consistency of his otherwise excellent literary work. The evidence for telepathy which this author puts forward is very strong and in some instances unimpeachable, but the alleged evidence against Spiritualism is rationally inadmissible, because it is of a singularly negative and supposititious character. We must face our problem bravely, not attempting to disguise the fact that during the past several years much evidence has accumulated in favor of simple telepathy which some over-enthusiastic Spiritualists may have been liable to undervalue because it has been erroneously supposed that, if accepted, it would tend against the interests of the cause which is nearest of all to their hearts. A better understanding of telepathy, and a fuller comprehension of what is logically involved in Hudson's "two minds" theory, may serve to set many doubters at rest. We must not forget that the title of Hudson's second book is utterly misleading and an entire misnomer, if the evidences of telepathy prove communion between friends on earth but throw no light on the condition of those who have "crossed the border." The author persistently claims that of our two minds, which he persistently designates objective and subjective, the former perishes at the time of physical dissolution, but the latter lives on and finds a sphere for fuller and more perfect functioning than it ever enjoyed on earth. This theory accounts for telepathy as a sort of foretaste of the method of communion between friendly entities which will prevail unceasingly in the future life. The only flaw that we have been able to detect in Hudson's chain of reasoning is the poor opinion he seems to entertain of the moral integrity of the subjective mind, coupled with the utterly foundationless assertion that overwhelming evidence of unrestricted telepathy will drive Spiritualists, ere long, even out of that “last ditch” in which they are now desperately fighting (according to Hudson) to save a lost cause and rescue a forlorn hope.

Reasonable identification of telepathy with direct spirit-communion, instead of introducing a new perplexity and further complicating an already complicated situation, introduces us for the first time to an orderly, harmonious, and easily comprehended interpretation of many analogous facts and parallel experiences which have long perplexed the average student of psychic phenomena, though there have always been singularly luminous exponents of mental and spiritual science and philosophy, who have gone a long distance on the road which must lead eventually to universal understanding of man as a spiritual being.

We have frequently been asked to define clearly wherein consists the difference between a message received from a friend yet on earth, and a similar communication from one who has “passed over.” Spiritualistic literature has largely been encumbered with two oft-repeated phrases, “spirit return” and “spirits coming back to earth.” These phrases are to a large extent misleading, for, though there are instances where such language may accurately and adequately describe the nature of certain manifestations, such expressions do not by any means correctly serve to describe the actual experiences of the great majority of seers and seeresses of ancient or modern times. Intromission to the spiritual state is a phrase full of deep significance, and, were it used more frequently, it would serve to elucidate many a problem of clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, and psychometry. Professors Denton and Buchanan, in their learned dissertations concerning psychometry, illustrated by numerous recitals of personal experience, have insisted that a true psychometer perceives the aura of an object, and can at times distinctly see into the spirit-world and become consciously en rapport with denizens thereof. Such quickened perception may fairly be considered as in some degree an anticipation of the means of intercourse we shall enjoy one with another when we have bade farewell to our robes of flesh.

We may surely claim that if we are called upon to identify those intelligent beings with whom we are in communication, we must apply the same laws of evidence to this matter as to questions of individual identification when only mundane matters are involved. To identify a fellow-being in any world is not always easy, and indeed it often is found to be extremely difficult when we rely solely on outward tests. “The hands are the hands of Esau, but the voice is the voice of Jacob” is a vivid Scriptural instance of the extreme difficulty experienced by an ancient patriarch in deciding which of his two sons was actually in his presence. The blindness of Isaac is easily typical of the condition in which most people are found when some sort of deception is successfully practiced upon them. Evidences of two kinds are presented together. One set of evidences appeal to feeling, the other to intelligence.

We judge people very often by outward appearances which we subsequently find to have been altogether deceptive, and if it be admitted in any degree that there are deceiving spirits who sometimes visit us, we are obviously placed in precisely the same position with reference to them as with regard to persons yet on earth who play us false because we are open to deception. The difficulties attending spirit identification are not necessarily greater than those surrounding the identity of persons who are yet encased in mortal garments.

No purely external tests are always valid. Indeed, to place extreme reliance upon such alone is to encourage swindling, and play into the hands of forgers who are usually very capable of simulating perfectly the outward garb of those they seek to personate. Testimonials, references, and letters of introduction constitute no infallible criteria, as these may all be counterfeit or stolen. The only sure way to identify any one absolutely is by cultivating psychic perceptiveness, and this is more apt to be strongly developed in highly sensitive persons than in any others. Deception is, however, less likely to be practiced on the spiritual than on the material side of existence, because the motive to deceive is far less strong. Expectation of worldly gain urges most deceivers on earth to ply their nefarious vocation, and it may be safely assumed that at least ninety per cent. of all deception would vanish from the earth if no financial or other ulterior gain could accrue from it. To palm oneself off as another would be objectless folly in which very few people would care to indulge did they not think they saw in such deception a means for self-enrichment or aggrandizement.

It may with some fairness be assumed that when communicating intelligences who display only very meagre intelligence profess to be very celebrated and illustrious personages, they may be hankering for the incense of adulation, but when no great names are given and no pretentious claims are made, it is difficult to see what reason could be fairly given for simply stupid masquerading or deliberate misrepresentation of any sort. We know from experience that auto-suggestion on the part of the alleged recipient of a spiritual communication may account for some instances of falsification, especially when such self-deception tends largely to self-glorification or the gratifying of personal vanity. A great drawback to untainted spirit-communion is the prejudice and vanity of many sensitives, but this very foolishness on their part sometimes serves to reveal an aspect of truth which is frequently neglected, viz., that there may be perfect sincerity and frankness on the side of the unseen communicator, while the person to whom the communication is made may be the sole suggester of the deceptive element.

A lady in one of the Southern States of America declared that she was in direct communion with George Washington, the first President of the United States; but her friends as a rule laughed at her claim, because by means of automatic writing through the lady’s hand, and by means of trance speaking through her lips, “George Washington” expressed himself most ungrammatically and in negro dialect. On a notable occasion when “George Washington” was speaking through this lady’s mediumship, he was distinctly seen by a fine clairvoyant who had been invited to a seance, and at the conclusion of the address this seeress described what she had witnessed during its delivery, which was the presence of a very decided African of Ethiopian tint and cast of feature, and who appeared strongly attached to the lady through whose mediumship he had been able to deliver a lengthy message. On being requested to describe all she saw, the seeress went on to give particulars of a venerable old servant who had been named “George Washington,” who had been a faithful retainer of the family prior to the Emancipation Proclamation issued in 1865, and had in that year steadily refused to accept his freedom, as he dearly loved the old estate and was devotedly attached to his master and mistress, parents of the lady through whom he was then able to communicate and whom he had often nursed during her earliest girlhood, ere he passed to spirit life, when she was not over eight years of age. That simple incident served to explain the entire problem, and it afforded a thoroughly rational explanation of a phenomenon belonging to a class, by no means uncommon in America, which have led to denunciations of fraud where none existed—theories of wicked personating spirits, and many other vagaries of unbalanced judgment—to say nothing of the would-be clever remark made by people who were more “smart” than wise, that it must be a terrible thing to die if in our post mortem condition we so quickly and sadly deteriorate. An instance like the foregoing will bear thorough sifting, and it is surely much easier to explain such an instance in the light of direct spirit communion than by straining an auto-suggestive or telepathic hypothesis to the breaking point to invent an improbable, in place of a probable, interpretation. Had the lady referred to suggested the matter to herself she would certainly have been fairly grammatical, as she was a comparatively well-educated woman, and not being a negress she would not have clothed an imaginary message from George Washington, as she conceived of him, in negro dialect. Admitting telepathy, mental telegraphy, or telephony, or aught else that is in any measure psychical, nothing can well be more likely than that a good old negro who had been for many years a faithful servant to the family residing on that particular estate, should seek an avenue of communion with it through the agency of a member to whom he had been greatly attached just before he passed into the realm of spirit.

It is doubtless true that many spirits leave the earth and all pertaining to it, very shortly after the demise of the physical body, while others remain closely connected with the scenes of their earth existence, not because they are earth-bound in the sense of being unhappy creatures who cannot, on account of their sensual vices, rise above the mundane level, but because their affections still cling to persons and places with which they have enjoyed pleasing associations up to the latest moment of their terrestrial existence. Andrew Jackson Davis, as well as Swedenborg, and many other gifted seers, have said much concerning the many spheres in this solar system encircling the various planets, which have often been numbered from one to seven, and then again divided and subdivided into circles within circles, like wheels within wheels in Ezekiel’s visions; and those who have become strongly attracted to such teaching—and their name is legion—have brought forward the revelations of these prophets to disavow the declaration, made from a somewhat different standpoint, that multitudes of spirits cannot return to earth as they have not yet taken their departure from this planet’s immediate atmosphere, or even from the exact localities where a large portion of their earthly days were spent in work or amusements in which they took a decided interest.

When indulging in personal reminiscences, I often narrate an instance of what seems to me clear evidence of spirit identity. When I was in Australia, in 1900-1, I frequently employed the services of a bright, enterprising young man, who was an excellent typist, and to whom I dictated portions of several books and numerous magazine articles. Before taking my last earthly farewell of this young gentleman, on the eve of his departure for New Guinea, whither he went to occupy a post of trust and influence, he said to me that he hoped when I returned to England he might accompany me on the ocean, as he much desired, though by birth an Australian, to visit the Mother Country, which, though 12,000 miles distant, is invariably called “home” by Australasians. My reply was that though I could not definitely foresee my own plans for the near future, and could, therefore, promise nothing, I held myself in full readiness to fall in with his wishes should opportunity occur to favor the carrying out of the project. Shortly after his arrival in New Guinea in full possession of health, and seemingly of vigorous constitution, he caught the local fever, and in three days he had made his exit from the mortal body. I cannot say that he was very frequently in my thoughts, or that his loss would seem to me irreparable; still there was a link of sympathy between us which evidently made it possible for him to manifest his presence to me on more than one occasion during three distinct stages of my voyage from Sydney, via New Zealand and across America, to England. The first time he attempted to make himself known to me was between Sydney and Auckland, but as I was seldom alone during the four brief days that voyage occupied I cannot remember any very definite evidence of his identity, though I was fully conscious of his presence. The second visit which I know he made me was en route to California, when I had a large cabin to myself on the Sonoma and not being much acquainted with any of my fellow passengers I had many opportunities for quiet silence and uninterrupted meditation. I well remember distinctly feeling the presence of my young friend with me, just as I had known him in Australia, and so real and tangible was the sense of that presence that it seemed exactly as though another person was sharing the cabin with me. I was quite awake, perfectly calm, and fully able to determine all he said to me, and yet I am certain I heard nothing with my external ears except the motion of the vessel passing through the water. Not only did I feel, or sense, his presence, but he gave me information concerning his situation in New Guinea, and the circumstances of his life there, which I subsequently learned, through correspondence with a mutual acquaintance, were correct in every detail. On the third occasion, when I as strongly realized his presence, I was nearing Plymouth on my voyage from New York in February, 1902, and on that occasion he gave me information concerning his present state and occupation, and told me several things in regard to my own near future, which have since been fully verified. Such definite, direct, and truthful communications certainly do not proceed from lying spirits, nor do they emanate from my own sub-self, whose reputation for veracity and sanity I am naturally interested to maintain; and when I speak a good word for my own subjective mind—which is to live hereafter when my objective mind has perished—I stand up equally for the corresponding sub-selves or subjective minds of all my neighbors. It is immeasurably more rational to maintain a reasonable spiritualistic version of such facts as I have just related than to invent, and uphold at all hazard, a contradictory and extremely complicated theory of the mysteries of telepathy, which serves to befog far more than to enlighten rational inquirers. In seeking to reply definitely to the very natural inquiry whether there is any marked difference in appearance between the psychic, or astral, body of a person yet on earth, and of one who has parted company with earthly raiments, I venture to suggest that only when the factor of clairvoyance is added to telepathy is this clearly determinable. Usually the appearance to psychic vision of one who has left the flesh is more ethereal than that of one who is still connected with it, but when only a sense of presence is realized, and intelligence is inwardly communicated, it is often impossible to decide whether the despatch in question is being received from a friend yet on earth or from one who is more frequently designated a “spirit.”

Unnecessary difficulties in the way of rational spiritual identification are created by many persons who evidently mistake identity which pertains to abiding individuality for the most external incidences of ever-fluctuating exterior personality. Such questions are often raised as, “If you see my father can you describe his appearance? does he wear a beard? how is he dressed?” and much else of the same almost ridiculous character. A little sober reflection must convince the veriest tyro that such questions, answered one way or another, cannot determine identity. We all know that fashions alter and habits change with wonderful rapidity, and it is by no means difficult for a man to remove a full beard in a few moments, or let one grow in a few weeks, thereby completely altering one aspect of his appearance. Black hair easily turns white, stout persons grow thin, and slender persons become stout, very frequently, while changes wrought by passing years and varying emotions frequently suffice to render old photographs, once speaking likenesses, no longer discernible, unless to the acutest students of physiognomy. It is, however, continually declared that clairvoyants see our spirit friends as they were when we last beheld them or as they appeared when we were most intimately associated with them. And such testimony, founded as it often is on actual fact, needs to be interpreted in the light of other knowledge than that obtainable by simple and often mysterious clairvoyance. Astral pictures are often beheld in the air of old houses, where certain people have lived long periods, and to which they have become greatly attached, and these psychic photographs are often mistaken for the actual presence of departed spirits by persons who rely on sight as evidence apart from feeling or manifest intelligence. A fact in my own experience may serve to illustrate two features of this portion of the subject of spirit identity.

Some years ago I was sojourning in an old country house which had been the abiding place of a single family ever since its erection. The room assigned me as a sleeping apartment had, as I afterwards learned, been for many years the special working and reading room of a maiden aunt who had been quite a second mother to the family. In that room she had spent a great part of her time during her latest years on earth, and one of her favorite occupations was knitting stockings by the fire. For four nights in succession, during my occupancy of that room, did I see that quiet elderly lady, with knitting in her hands, seated before a fire in the grate, which was at that season of the year filled with a summer ornament. At first I thought I must be actually in communion with the kindly, placid dame, and that she might have a message to convey through me to some member of the household; but, concentrate my thoughts and attention intently as I could upon the vision, I could detect no animation, nor could I receive even the faintest intimation of intelligence. The people with whom I was residing were not at all averse to Spiritualism, and when I told them exactly what I had seen four nights in succession in that particular bedroom, they all agreed that it was an exact description of their aunt, even to the smooth bands of brown front hair, and the cap with lilac satin ribbons tied under the chin; but they, in common with myself, wondered why, if I could see their aunt so clearly, I never saw her move and could obtain no impression of her intelligence. On the fifth night of my occupancy of that apartment I experienced a totally different sensation in connection with the same apparition, which I again beheld stationary and unresponsive as before; but on this occasion, hovering over the astral picture I beheld a radiant, youthful form bearing a certain family resemblance to the abiding simulacrum, but instinct with the fire and energy of active life and operating intelligence. Contemporaneously with this new additional experience, information clearly flowed into some receptacle of my consciousness, causing me to become aware that the original of the portrait desired her nieces and nephews to find in her old writing desk certain papers she had written long ago and which she desired should be revised, edited, and published. Following the minute directions given me by this guiding intelligence, I accompanied several members of the family to a lumber room in which many discarded articles of furniture had long been stored; and there among them stood an ancient escritoire, in which we found a completed story setting forth a romantic and highly edifying history of marvelous episodes in what the world would doubtless have looked upon as a secluded and uneventful career. After this startling confirmation of the veracity of my vision, we formed a private family circle for further investigation, and thereat, by means of automatic writing, supplemented by clairvoyance, we verified many extraordinary statements made by this living relative of the family, who assured us that she was no longer sitting by a fire engaged in knitting, but most actively employed in spiritual occupations, which did not, however, alienate her in the least from her old associates but, on the contrary, kept her in close vital touch with all of them, though in a subtler and more ethereal manner than before she had quitted the material frame.

Another interesting experience of my own dates back to the autumn of 1899, shortly before my first visit to Australia. I had long known Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten, but my first interview with her was in 1877, at a lecture delivered in Manchester, when she was a middle-aged woman, dressed in much the same style as she continued to adopt till she finally withdrew from the public platform. Since her passing to spirit life, this earnest worker has occasionally made herself distinctly known to me, both on and off the platform, and in November, 1899, I distinctly saw, in connection with a most forceful realization of her close proximity, the likeness of a radiant maiden with light golden curls, somewhat resembling the earliest pictures of Mrs. Richmond when she was Cora Hatch, but in no way suggesting Mrs. Britten to me by the appearance. I never could have understood that vision had I not visited Mrs. Wilkinson (Mrs. Britten's sister), about a month later, and, while her guest in Manchester, been shown a picture taken many years ago, representing Emma Hardinge in youthful costume as “Queen of the Fairies.” This picture represents the young lady who afterwards became Mrs. Britten with flaxen ringlets, and in every way precisely as she showed herself to me on the occasion of my vision. Had I suggested to myself a similitude of Mrs. Britten, I should certainly have conjured up from the depths of memory a likeness of her as I had known her; and when I interrogated her spiritually through the mediumship of automatic writing, subsequent to beholding the portrait at Mrs. Wilkinson's, the following message was communicated: “I knew you were going to my sister's; therefore, I wished to give you a singular test of my identity, which I find I have succeeded in doing; and there is another reason why I showed myself to you thus—I wished to impress you with the knowledge that I can now show myself in various forms to my friends, and my present appearance far more closely resembles that of my youth on earth than that of my later age.”

“How do we know each other here?” is quite as grave a question as “Shall we know each other there?” I remember some years ago, in New York, being asked by a mutual friend to meet a gentleman who was returning to America after ten years' residence in Germany, and who was described to me from a portrait as a slender man with jet black hair. And such he doubtless was when he embarked for Germany, but during the decade of years he had spent in Europe, he had grown decidedly corpulent and his hair had become positively white. I nevertheless knew him by instinct, though I had never met him previously, and I accosted him by name, greatly to his surprise, directly he had left the steamer. Had I been slavishly governed by my physical senses instead of trusting to some surer and subtler faculty of discernment, I should certainly have failed to acknowledge him, so greatly did he differ in appearance from the description I had been given of him. We cannot expect that when we change in outward aspects thus rapidly on earth, we shall remain stationary in external aspect in the world of spirits. There is, however, this to be said concerning relatively fixed appearance in the life beyond. We are not there, as here, so greatly affected by outward climate, and outer appearance changes only as it indicates alterations in our interior state. Such is the unanimous and unfaltering verdict of spiritual testifiers wherever they have made their presence known.

And now, finally, concerning the weighing of evidence in the scales of reason. We may certainly maintain in the face of all opposition that every individual communication should be judged on its particular merits, and neither be accepted nor rejected on the merits or demerits of any other submitted message. We cannot believe, unless we part company with reason, that we are victims of stupid or wicked deception in cases where the teachings given are of the highest moral import, and where the information offered is proved correct in every detail as far as we can possibly verify it. The crude and intricate theories now afloat to discredit evidence of spirit intercourse are far more difficult and far less probable than the plain satisfactory conclusion long ago reached by all intelligent and dispassionate inquirers—that we do on many occasions receive convincing proof of the identity of communicating spirits. In conclusion, let us look for an instant at the mental characteristics of a few of the typical students of psychic phenomena who during recent years have become thoroughly satisfied that in many instances, though not in all, proof positive of spirit identity has been obtained. Professor Hodgson and Mr. Myers were thoroughly satisfied at length, through Mrs. Piper's mediumship and that of other sensitives; and so were Miss Lilian Whiting and Rev. Minot J. Savage, as well as many other representative and cautious investigators. These famous persons had nothing to gain and possibly something to lose, by outspoken advocacy of Spiritualism; and in the case of Dr. Savage it is well known that his tendency of thought was decidedly agnostic, and for many years during his popular ministry in Boston he was largely a champion and exponent of the philosophy of Herbert Spencer. It is difficult to see why people should prefer the devil to their own friends who have passed beyond the mystic portals, and it surely cannot be easier for normal intellects to believe in imaginary evil demons, of whom we know practically nothing, except on unsupported hearsay, than in the presence and activity of the very people whom we have known on earth as real personages, and who reappear with their own well-known characteristics. Telepathy and all other demonstrable phases of psychic phenomena, must be freely admitted by every student of psychic science, and it has now become the imperative duty and solemn privilege of all who have knowledge in this direction to elucidate as far as possible the truthful doctrine of the close resemblance and intimate relation of telepathy to Spiritualism. Simple telepathy throws much clear light on our present spiritual abilities, and spirit communion transcends mundane telepathic experience by carrying telepathy across the unseen border into those sympathetic realms of spiritual activity where the powers and functions of our “sub­selves” or “subjective minds” are more fully unfolded and more freely and extensively exercised than they seemingly ever can be during terrestrial embodiment. Let us be open to all classes of evidence, and construct theories to account for facts, but never seek to squeeze facts into grooves of premeditated theory.