Talking With The Dead (1920)

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Published by

International Bible Students Association

Brooklyn, New York, Unital States of America

rpHIS little booklet is written and specially **■ dedicated to certain inquiring friends, and to all of mankind who are sincerely interested in their departed loved ones.

J. F. Rutherford

New York, N. Y., U. S. A.

January, 1920

Copyrighted 1920 by International Bible Stiuionl* Association

FOREWORD

AMONG the topics of absorbing interest "which are before the public mind today none can be of greater importance to men and women of every nation than “Talking with the Dead” and “'Millions now Living will Never Die”.

The first of these topics is treated in this booklet in such a manner, we trust, as to satisfy the desire of all honest truth-seekers and to free them from the distress of superstition and needless fear.

Manuscript on the second topic, “Millions now Living will Nover Die,” is in the course of preparation and is expected to be published and sent forth as a companion piece to this booklet.

The demand for these treatises has arisen from the fact that lectures on both of these subjects have been and still are being delivered in the great cities of Europe, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States. Judge Rutherford, of New York, probably the world’s best known lawyer-Biblicist, after treating these topics orally has been urgently and repeatedly requested to put his treatises into printed form. This booklet is a response to these nrgings.

INTERNATIONA! BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION

Brooklyn, N. Y., January 15, 1920

TABLE of CONTENTS

CHAPTER I The Colt.oqoy Three Gentlemen discuss the subject of Communication with the Dead—Two Opposing Views presented, for the purpose of convincing the third man—Strong arguments pro and con............7

CHAPTER II

Psychic’s Abcdmknt

Holds Hint such communication is an established fact—Quotes from Professor Hyslop and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle—Demonstrates Hint a willing mind, a desire to penetrate into the unknown, is the first essential to conviction—Evidence produced in alleged letters from a dead soldier to His mother................11

CHAPTER III

LrGHTTUiAnF.n’s Aucumbht

Presents negative side of the proposition—Declares that the argument stands or falls with the doctrine of the Inherent Immortality of man’s soul—Cites Scriptures to prove his position—What is the soul?—Death the penalty for sin— Satan’s great deception in Eden—Origin of evil spirits or demons—Meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection—Satan's seed and their work—“The Mystery of Iniquity—Demons in Babylon.................................................. 53

CHAPTER IV

Nbwpai-’s Coxcr-rstox

Holds to the Scriptural evidence—Jian’s hope of future life lies- in the Resurrection.................................................-............................97

CHAPTER V Demos I’hexomexa analyzed Spiritism as reported in the Public Press—Demon methods of manifestation—Evil spirits hate and fear the Bible—Have no real interest in humanity—Encourage loose morals—Incite to murder and other crimes—Have power to inject thoughts into men's minds—Deceive the senses by supposed materializations —Actual materializations have occurcd, but at cost of suffering to the medium—Downward tendency of all spiritist phenomena __Victims frequently driven insane............................................99

CHAPTER VI “Sfimts In Pbison” t'riticnl analysis of a much misunderstood Bible passage—-Demons under condemnation—Where they are imprisoned—How Jesus preached to them......................................................._.................131

CHAPTER VII

Tin: Hope fob Tin: Heap

God's method of dealing with the demons—His plan for the Restoration of fallen Humanity—Satan’s repeated endeavors to confuse mankind and to turn them from God—Our Lord’s Ransom the basis for Reconciliation—Jesus the Savior of men................145

Talking with the Dead

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CHAPTER I

THE COLLOQUY

M.R. PSYCHIC: Good morning, Mr. Newday. I read in the paper that your son has fallen in the great world war while fighting in France. Permit me to extend my condolence and deep sympathy.

Mb. Newday : Yes, it is true. My beloved son. the idol of my life, is gone and my heart is almost broken.

Psychic : But bo of good courage, Mr. New day; I do not believe he is dead. Can you really think your son is dead?

Newday: Oh yes, there is no doubt about it: the proof has been brought to me by men who saw him drop, pierced with an enemy ball. If only I could have spoken to him once before lie departed.

Psychic: I am sure, Mr. Newday, what I am about to tell you will bring some consolation to your heart; hence I bring this message to you. For some time I have been reading in books, papers and magazines some very remarkable facts, which seem to show that our dead friends are not really dead, but have passed on to another world, and that they are. progressing in happiness; and that we on the earth, under certain conditions, can communicate with them.

Newday : But is not that what is known as spiritism, which has been attended by so much fraud? How do we know that this is not some, fraud practiced upon us ? Does not human experience show that men have been

dying for centuries, and why should we now think we are able to talk with the dead; particularly why should this be so since the war?

Psychic : 1 know the majority of people have little or no confidence in the ability of one to communicate with the spirit world—those who have died and gone; that they believe it to be fraudulent. But when so many great men come forward with their testimony, giving their experience—men who have no purpose whatsoever in practicing fraud upon others—the situation seems to be changed. I know there are many who deny that there is even such a thing as a spirit being; but did not Jesus of Nazareth go and preach to the spirits in prison, and does not that prove that men who had previously died were then alive and able to hear his preaching? And if so, is it at all unreasonable to think that they can communicate with us? Let me encourage you to investigate this, Mr. Newday.

Newday: Yes, there seems to be some force in your argument; but it would really seem too good to believe that my son is where I can now talk to him. Ah, but here comes Mr. Lightbearer. I know him to be a man of sterling honesty and a lover of the truth—one who has given much study to the question concerning the dead. Let us ask him what he thinks about it.

Mr. Psychic, please make the acquaintance of Mr. Lightbearer.

Psychic: I am glad to meet you, Mr. Lightbearer. Our mutual friend, Mr, Newday, lost his only son in this great war and I have just been telling him that I am sure his son is not dead and I believe he can talk with him if he desires; and he. proposed that we ask your opinion about this matter. May we be favored with what you think upon this subject?

Mh. Lightbeabeb : I do not believe we can communicate with the dead, for the reason that they are dead. I do not believe that Mr. Newday can communicate with his <lead son. To my mind such a conclusion is wholly illogical, unreasonable, and above all it is un-Seriptural. By this you will understand'that I. believe in the Bible.

Psyckic : Ah, but we all believe in the Bible.

Nfavday : Yes, indeed, I have been a Christian all my life and believe the Bible is God’s word of truth, given to us for our instruction.

Ltghtbearer : Well, gentlemen, it is gratifying to know that all of us believe in the .Bible. We have now some reasonable point from which to view this question : and, according to my way of looking at the matter, the Bible is the only true and reliable source of knowledge concerning it. I consider this a great and vital question to the people today and believe that a wrong conclusion upon it will, have much to do with wrecking society.

Since we all believe in the Bible as God’s inspired word of truth, we will surely all agree that the Bible must he the final arbiter of this great question. Do we all so agree ? Thank you, gentlemen; I am glad that you indicate your assent.

Nevtday: Gentlemen, I am at this time more vitally interested in this question than either of you, seeing I have just lost my beloved son. I believe I am competent to weigh dispassionately the arguments pro and contra, and I know my desire is to have the truth upon the subject. Therefore I. propose that each of you present your respective arguments and let me make up my mind at the conclusion. There can be no harm resulting from hearing both sides of the question, and all of us may be greatly blessed if we are honest in our endeavors to reach a just conclusion. Arc yon willing to do this?

Since you both signify your willingness, we will first hear Mr. Psychic present his side..

CHAPTER II

PSYCHIC’S ARGUMENT

Psychic: The evidence now available proving that the Jiving can talk with the dead is so cumulative and overwhelming that I attempt to present it to you, Mr. Newday, with confidence that I will convince your reasonable mind of the correctness of the claim; and if I do, then I am certain I have done you a great good and brought much comfort to your heart,

1 am fully aware of the fact that for many years men of strong reasoning faculties have refused to consider any evidence on this subject, looking upon it as partaking of fraud and misrepresentation, or due to some hallucination. For a long while the ultra-ignorant and superstitious have been willing to listen to such testimony, hut. not so with those who desired to have something more substantial or tangible upon which to base a conclusion. In modem times, however, the conditions have been exactly reversed. The world war seems to have awakened many and now the greatest thinkers among worldly men have become devotees of the psychic science and phenomena—men of character, who have no desire o?' purpose to mislead and who would positively refuse to be parties to anything that would have a semblance of fraud or deceit. Among the great men who have testified that the living can communicate with the dead are the late William T. Stead, the greatest of modem journalists ; Prof. Lombroso, the great scientist; Prof. James H. Hyslop; Crookes, the great chemist; Wallace, Darwin, Flammarion, Sir Oliver Lodge, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Reverend Fielding Ould, the Reverend

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Arthur Chambers, the Reverend Charles Tweedale, the late Archdeacon Wilberforce, and many others.

It will be conceded that man’s greatest desire is to have and enjoy endless life. Nearly every living person has some friend or relative ot loved one who has been taken away from him by death. The living, of course, are deeply interested in their loved ones who have gone. They also desire to have some knowledge themselves of what the future holds for them. This desire to communicate with their departed ones has greatly increased and especially has this been augmented by the conditions resulting from the world war. When we consider the fact that the flower of civilization, the stalwart young men of the world by the millions have fallen in the last few years, we are not surprised that scientific minds have moved with greater energy and a keener desire to know what there is beyond the grave. Probably this is the reason we have such a great abundance of testimony today that the dead are not dead, but are more alive than before they died; and that they can communicate with those on the earth who have a desire to communicate with them and who are willing to meet the necessary requirements to do so.

All the evidence shows, as you will observe, that the first thing essential is a zvillingness to be convinced of the truth of psychic claims—a consent of the mil and the mind to hear, to understand and to believe that our dead friends are really alive and that we can commun i-cate with them; and with such an open mind we arc in a proper attitude to receive the proof, and without it we cannot.

I first desire to call attention to the Various tested methods by which the living can communicate with the dead. I make the following quotation from the book* ’"Contact With the Other World”, Chapter X. by James H. Hyslop, Ph. D., LL.D., formerly Professor of Logic and Ethics in Columbia University:

“The popular terms for the method of communicating with the dead are automatic writing, raps, table-tipping, planchette writing, spelling by the ouija board, impresstons, and the more technical terms of clairvoyance and cl airaudience. All but the last two take their names from the physical instruments or the physical means employed in the work. The last two are names for peculiar phenomena in vision and hearing, which will be more fully described a little later.

“Automatic writing is distinguished from ordinary writing only in being unconscious or involuntary. Only certain tests, such ns trance or anaesthesia, or the testimony of a trustworthy subject, will decide whether a person is writing automatically. . . .

“The methods of table-tipping, the planchette and the ouija board are only modifications of automatic writing. Many people suppose that there is some mystery or virtue about the ouija, which enables it to spell out messages from other minds. They do not reflect that the same process is involved-in all the methods named. The muscular system of the operators is in action in each of them in the same way, The instrument, or means of expression has nothing to do with the result, when the human organism must, intervene in the phenomena. There is no mysterious power in the ouija, the planchette, or the table, any more than there is in the pencil. They are all agents or media, as they are in normal action of the same kind. The actual evidence for the supernormal lies, not in the action of automatic writing, of the ouija or planchette. or of the table, but in the contents of (he message. If the content represents normally acquired information, we explain the message by subconscious action of the writer’s mind. If the content is unmistakably foreign to normal experience, we seek for the external stimulus or mind that may account for it. The method of delivery is of secondary importance.

“Another method of communication is by raps. They arc not always connected with the motor action of the psychic. No doubt some raps are simply ordinary automatisms like automatic writing and other unconscious actions. -But they are often independent of any intervention by the human or--janism as revealed to sense-perception. They are used as signals of answers to questions: and, being foreign to either conscious or unconscious action of the organism, another explanation must be sought for theta than for automatic writing. The latter assumes at. least the intervention of the physical organism with its powers and habits. But raps may involve no such intermediary and in this case they must be regarded as independent physical phenomena. They can be used only for answers to questions or for spelling out words in various ways. Their method of communication is crude, in the sense that it takes time and trouble to get intelligible messages; but they signify the possibility of communication with an outside world without the mediation of the subconscious or normal machinery of the human organism.

“Clairvoyance and ciairaudience are very different processes. Clairaudience is the hearing of apparently foreign messages, by means of voices, usually ‘internal voices’. Possibly they are sometimes apparently external, but since those who experience the facts are not always adept in analyzing and describing the experiences, we are not sure that the experiences are other than subjective or hallucinatory, though the stimulus may be foreign. Both clairaudience and clairvoyance are sensory phenomena,unconnected with motor action, whereas automatic writing and other forms of communication, except independent raps, are connected with the motor functions.

“Clairvoyance, however, is a term that does duty for three distinct, types of phenomena. (1) It denotes generally the power of mediumship in so far as the messages are obtained by impressions or visual pictures. It is oven very often used to denote any type of communication with the dead, and so is made synonymous with mediumship, excluding purely physical phenomena. (2) It is more technically used to denote the acquisition of foreign information through visual phantasms, as clairaudience is used to denote auditory hnllucinations of the veridical type. (3) Lastly, still more technically, it donates the perception of concealed physical objects whose whereabouts are not known by any living being. It represents the visual perception, transcendental in nature, of facts or tilings that cannot be known through telepathy. It presupposes supernormal perception at a (list-nice, and excludes all mind-reading. This is the more tech-nlcal conception of the process. Telsethesia is probably a better term for this conception of clairvoyance.”

It will be observed that in order to communicate with those in the spirit world it is necessary for a living person on the earth to be willing to be used and to be used for that purpose. In other words, there must be a medium. The word medium denotes a middle, or intermediary, between two things—a. means of communication. Further quoting Dr. Hyslop:

“It was adopted to denote the agency which intervenes between the physical and the transcendental world. Tin* only means of communicating with the dead has been found to be a living organism capable of connecting the two worlds.”

You will observe that all the evidence tending to prove that the living can talk with the dead is founded upon the great teaching that the soul of man is immortal. Is it not time that the Catholic and Protestant churches, almost without a single exception, for many centuries have taught that the soul is immortal, that it cannot die; hence when one dies it is merely the body that is dead, but the soul lives on? Have not these great religious teachers founded their teachings upon the Bible? Would any of us dare say that they do not believe in the Bible? I am free to admit that, aside from the doctrine of inherent immortality of the soul, it would be impossible for us to believe that the dead are able to communicate-with those who are on the earth.

But is it not also true that the best evidence that the soul is immortal is the fact that the dead do actually talk or communicate with the living ? I first offer the evidence by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the noted author, who has recently published a book entitled, “The New Bevelation”. I quote here liberally from Sir Arthur:

“Apart frpm personal experiences, this movement must gain additional solidity from the -wonderful literature which has sprung up around it during the last few years. . . .

“Before going into this question of a new religious revelation, how it is reached, and what it consists of, I would say a word upon one other subject. There have always been two lines of attack by our opponents, The one is that our facts are not true. The other is that we are upon forbidden ground and should come off it and leave it alone.

"... When the war came it brought earnestness into all our souls and made us look more closely at our own beliefs and reassess their values. In the presence of an agonized world, hearing every day of the deaths of the flower of our race in the first promise of their unfulfilled youth, seeing around one the wives and mothers who hud no clear conception whither their loved ones had gone, I seemed suddenly to see that this subject, with which I had so long dallied was not merely a study' of a force outside the rules of science, but that it was really something tremendous, a breaking down of the wails between two worlds, a direct undeniable message from beyond, a call of hope and guidance to the human race at the time of its deepest affliction. The objective side of it ceased to interest; for, having made up one’s mind that it was true there was an end of the matter. The religious side of it was clearly of infinitely greater importance.”

The evidence seems to show with clearness that, those beings who are communicating with the living are not so far away, but arc in fact right near the earth. On this point Sir Conan Doyle says:

“On my asking that lady to raise her hands and give a succession of names, that table tilted at the correct name of the head mistress of the school. This seemed in the nature of a test. She went on to say that the sphere she inhabited was all round the earth; that she knew about (he planets.”

Continuing, in Chapter II of “The New Revelation”, Sir Arthur says:

“I can now turn with some relief to a more impersonal view of this great subject. Allusion has been made to a body of fresh doctrine. Whence does this come? It comes in the main through automatic writing where the hand of the human medium is controlled, either by an alleged cleat] human being, as in. the case of Miss Julia Ames, or by an alleged higher teacher, as in that of Mr. Stainton Moses. These written communications are supplemented by a vast number of trance utterances, and by the verbal messages of spirits, given through the lips of mediums. Sometimes It has even come by direct voices, as in the numerous cases detailed by Admiral Usborne Moore in his book The Voices. Occasionally it has come through the family circle and tabletilting. . . .

“It has been asserted by men for whose opinion I have a deep regard—notably by Sir William Barratt—that psychical research is quite distinct from religion. Certainly it is so, in the sense that a man might lie a very good psychical researcher but a very bad man. But the results of psychical research, the deductions which we may draw, and the lessons we may learn, teach us of the continued life of the soul, of the nature of that life, and of how it is influenced by our conduct here. If this is distinct from religion, I must confess that I do not understand the distinction. To me it is religion—the very essence of it.

“But that does not mean that it will necessarily crystallize into a new religion. Personally I trust that it will not do so. Surely we are disunited enough already? Bather would I see it the great unifying force, the one provable thing connected with every religion, Christian or non-Christfnn, forming the common solid basis upon which each raises, if it must needs raise, that separate system which appeals to the varied types of mind. The Southern races will always demand what is less austere than the North, the West will always be more critical than the East. One cannot shape all to a level conformity. But if the broad premises which are guaranteed by this teaching from beyond are accepted, then the human race has made a great stride towards religious peace and unity. Tire question which faces us, then, is how will this influence bear upon the older organized religions and philosophies which have influenced the actions of men?

“The answer is, that to only one of these religions or philosophies is this new revelation absolutely fatal. That is to Materialism. I do not say this in any spirit of hostility to Materialists, who, so far ns they are an organized body, are, I think, as earnest and moral as any other class. But the fact is manifest that if spirit can live without matter, then the foundation of Materialism is gone, and the whole scheme of thought crashes to the ground.

“As to other creeds, it must be admitted that an acceptance of the teaching brought to us from beyond would deeply modify conventional Christianity. But these modifications would be rather in the direction of explanation and development than of contradiction. It would set right, grave misunderstandings whicb have always offended the reason of every thoughtful man, but it would also confirm and make absolutely certain the fact of life after death, the base of all religion. It would confirm the unhappy’ results of sin, though it would show that those results are never absolutely permanent. It would confirm the existence of higher beings, whom we have called angels, and of an ever ascending hierarchy above us, in which the Christ spirit finds its place, culminating in heights of the infinite with which we associate the idea of all-power or of God. It would confirm the idea of heaven and of a temporary penal state which corresponds to purgatory rather than to hell. Thus this new revelation, on some of the most vital points, is not destructive of the beliefs, and it should be hailed by really earnest men of all creeds as a most powerful ally, rather than a dangerous, devil-begotten enemy.

“On the other hand, let us turn to the points in which Christianity must be modified by this new revelation.

"First of all I would say this, which must be obvious to many, however much they deplore it: Christianity must change or must perish. That is the law of life—that things must adapt themselves or perish. Christianity has deferred the change very long, she has deferred it until her churches are half empty, until women are her chief supporters, and until both the learned part of the community on one side, and the poorest class on the other, both in town and country, are largely alienated from her. Let us try to trace the reason for this. It is apparent in all sects, and conies, therefore. from some deep common cause.

“People are alienated because they frankly do not believe the facts as presented to them to he true. Their reason and their sense of justice are equally offended. One can sec m> justice in a vicarious sacrifice, nor in the God who could he placated by such means. Above all, many cannot understand such expressions as the ‘redemption from sin’, ’cleansed by the blood of the Lamb,’ and so forth. So long as there was any question of the fall of man there was at least some sort of explanation of such phrases; hut when it became certain that man had never fallen—when with ever fuller knowledge we could trace our ancestral course clown through the cave-man and the drift-man, back to that shadowy and far-off time when the man-like ape slowly evolved into the apelike man—looking back on all this vast succession of life, we knew that it had always been rising from step to step. Never was there any evidence of a fall. But if there were no fall, then what became of the atonement, of the redemption, of original sin, of a large part of Christian mystical philosophy? Even if it were as reasonable in itself as it is actually unreasonable, it would still be quite divorced from the facts.

“Again, too much seemed to be made of Christ’s death-It is no uncommon thing to die for an idea. Every religion has equally had its martyrs. Men die continually for their convictions. Thousands of our lads are doing it at this Instant in France. Therefore the death of Christ, beautiful as it is in the Gospel narrative, has seemed to assume an undue Importance, as though it were an isolated phenomenon, for a man to die in pursuit of a reform. In my opinion, far too much stress has been laid upon Christ’s death, and far too little upon his life. That was where the true grandeur and the true lesson lay. It was a life which even in those limited records shows ns no trait which is not beautiful—a life full of easy tolerance for others, of kindly charity, of broad-minded moderation, of gentle courage, always progressive and open to new ideas, and yet never bitter to those ideas which he was really supplanting, though he did occasionally lose his temper with their more bigoted and narrow supporters. Especially one loves his readiness to get at the spirit of religion, sweeping aside the texts and the forms. Never had any one such a robust common sense, or such a sympathy for weakness. It was this most wonderful and uncommon life, and not his death, which is the true center of the Christian religion.

“Now, let us look at the light which we get from the spirit guides upon this question of Christianity. Opinion is not absolutely uniform yonder, any more than it is here; but reading a number of messages upon this subject,they amount to this: There are many higher spirits with our departed.

They vary in degree. Call them 'angels’, and you are in touch with old religious thought High above all these is the greatest spirit of whom they have cognizance—not God, since God is so infinite that he is not within their ken—but one •who is nearer God and to that extent represents God. This, is the Christ Spirit His special care is the earth. He came down upon it at a time of great earthly depravity—a time When the world was almost as wicked as it is now, in order to give the people the lesson of an ideal life. Then he re-turned to his own high station, having left an example which is still occasionally followed. That is the story of Christ as spirits have described it. There is nothing here of Atonement or Redemption. But there is a perfectly feasible and reasonable scheme, which I, for one, could readily believe.

“If such a view of Christianity were generally accepted, and if it were enforced by assurance and demonstration from tile New Revelation which is coming to us from the other side, then we should have a creed which might, unite the churches, which might be reconciled to science, which might defy all attacks, and which might carry the Christian Faith on for an indefinite period. Reason and faith would at least be reconciled, a nightmare would be lifted from our minds, and spiritual peace would prevail. . . .

“When I read the New Testament with the knowledge which I have of Spiritualism, I am left with a deep conviction that the teaching of Christ was in many most important respects lost by the early church, and has not come down to us. All these allusions to a conquest over death have, as it seems to me, little meaning in the present Christian philosophy, whereas for those who have seen, however dimly, through the veil, and touched, however slightly, the outstretched hands beyond, death has indeed been conquered. When we read so many references to the phenomena with which we are familiar, the levitations, the tongues of Are, the rushing wind, the spiritual gifts, the working of wonders, we feel that the central fact of all, the continuity of life and the communication with the dead, was most certainly known. Our attention is arrested by such a saying as: ‘Here he worked no wonders because the people were wanting in faith’. Is this not absolutely in accordance with psychic law as we know it? Or when Christ, on being touched by the sick woman, said: ‘Who has touched me? Much virtue has passed out of me,’ could lie say more clearly what a healing med him would say now, save that he would use the word ‘power’ instead of ‘virtue’. Or when we read: ‘Try the spirits whether they be of God,’ is it not the very advice which would now be given to a novice approaching a stance? . . , Two examples have already been given. One which convinced me as a truth was the thesis that the story of the materialization of the two prophets upon, the mountain was extraordinarily accurate when judged by psychic law. There is the fact that Veter, James, and John (who formed the psychic circle when the dead was restored to life, and were presumably the most helpful of the group) were taken. Then there is the choice of the high pure air of the mountain, the drowsiness of the attendant mediums, the transfiguring, the shining robes, the cloud, the words: ‘Let us make three tabernacles', with its alternate reading: ‘Let us make three booths or cabinets’ (the ideal way of condensing power and producing materializations)—all these make a very consistent theory of the nature of the proceedings. For the rest, The list of gifts which St. Paul gives as being necessary for the Christian disciple, is simply the list of gifts of a very powerful medium, including prophecy, healing, causing miracles (or physical phenomena), clairvoyance, and other powers. (1 Corinthians 12:8,11) The early Christian church was saturated with spiritualism, and they seem to have paid no attention to those Old Testament prohibitions which were meant to keep these powers pnly for the use and profit of the priesthood.”

You will see that this witness "bases much of his con-1 elusion upon the Bible. I further quote from him:

“ . . . Communications usually come from those who have not long passed over, and tend to grow fainter, as one would expect. . . . There is, in Mr. Dawson Roger’s life, a very good case of a spirit who called himself Manton, and claimed to have been born at Lawrence Lydiard and buried at Stoke Newington in 1617. It was clearly shown afterwards that there was such a man, and that he was Oliver Cromwell’s chaplain. So far as my own reading goes, this is the oldest spirit who is on record as returning, and generally they are quite recent.

"... It may be remarked in passing that these and other examples show clearly either that the spirits have the use of an excellent reference library or else that they have memories which produce some!lung like omniscience. No hitman memory could possibly carry all the exact quotations which occur in such communications as 'The Ear of Dio-ni/siits.”

The powers of those beyond the grave seem to be limited, as Sir Conan Boyle says: “The spirits seem to know exactly what they impress upon the minds of the living, but they do not know how far they carry their instructions out”. There also seem, to be lying and wicked ones beyond the grave who seek to deceive those on this side, according to Sir Arthur, who says:

“ . . . We have, unhappily, to deal with absolute coldblooded lying on the part: of wicked or mischievous intelligences. Every one who has investigated the matter has, I suppose, met. with examples of willful deception, which occasionally are mixed up with good and true communications.”

“The conclusion, then, of my long search after truth, is that in spite of occasional fraud, which Spiritualists deplore, and in spite of wild imaginings, which they discourage, there remains a great solid core in this movement which is infinitely nearer to positive proof than any other religious development with which I am acquainted. As I have shown, it would appear to be a rediscovery rather than an absolutely new thing, but the result in this material age is the same. The days are surely passing when the mature and considered opinions of such men as Crookes. Wallace. Flam-marion, Chas. Bichet, Lodge, Barratt, Lombroso, Generals Druyson and Turner, Sergeant Ballantyne, IV. T. Stead, Judge Edmunds, Admiral Usborne Moore, the late Archdeacon Wilberforce, and such a cloud of other witnesses, can be dismissed with the empty ‘AU rot’ or ‘Nauseating drivel’ formulae. As Mr. Arthur Hill has well said, we have reached a point where further proof is superfluous, and where the v>eight of disproof lies upon those who deny. . . .

“ . . .The situation may, as it seems to me, be summed up in a simple alternative. The one supposition is that there has been an outbreak of lunacy extending over two generations of mankind, and two great continents—a lunacy which assails men or women who are otherwise eminently sane. The alternative supposition is that in recent years there has come to us from divine sources a new revelation which con-statutes by far the greatest religious event since the death of Christ (for the Reformation was a re-arrangement of the old, not a revelation of the new), a revelation which alters the whole aspect of death and the fate of man. Between these two suppositions there is no solid position. Theories of fraud or of delusion will not meet the evidence. It is absolute lunacy or it is a revolution in religious thought, a revolution which gives us as by-products an utter fearlessness of death, and an immense consolation when those who are dear to us pass behind the veil.”

As to who may be able to communicate directly with their dead friends, Sir Conan Doyle says:

“ . . . "We cannot lay clown laws, because the law works from the other side as well as this. Nearly every woman is an undeveloped medium. . . .

“The clear call for our help comes from those who have had a loss and who yearn to re-estnblish connection. This also can be overdone. If your boy were in Australia, you would not expect him to continually stop his work and write long letters at all seasons. Having got in touch, be pjoder-ate in your demands. Do not be satisfied with any evidence short of the best, but having got that, you can, it seems to me, wait for that short period when we shall all be re-united. I am in touch at present with thirteen mothers who are in correspondence with their dead sons. In each case, the husband, where he is alive, is agreed as to the evidence. In only one case so far as I know was the parent acquainted with psychic matters before the war.

“Several of these cases have peculiarities of their own. In two of them the figures of the dead lads have appeared beside the mothers in a photograph. In one case the first message to the mother came through a stranger to whom the correct address of the mother was given. The communication afterwards became direct. In another ease the method of sending messages was to give references to particular pages and lines of books in distant libraries, the whole conveying a message. The procedure was to weed out all fear of telepathy. Verily there is no possible way by which a truth can be proved by which this truth has not been proved.”

Sir Conan Doyle’s testimony also shows that this phc-nomena of communicating with the dead was known centuries ago. Upon this point we quote:

“ . . . Then or afterwards I read a book by Monsieur IncoUiot upon occult phenomena in India, Jacolliot was Chief Judge of the French Colony of Crnndenngur, with a very judicial mind, but rather biased against spiritualism. He conducted a series of experiments with native fakirs, who gave him their confidence because he was a sympathetic man and spoke their language. He describes the pains he took to eliminate fraud. To cut a long story short he found among them every phenomenon of advanced European mediumship, everything which Home, for example, had ever done. He got levitation of the body, the handling of fire, movement of articles at a distance, rapid growth of plants, raising of tables. Their explanation of these phenomena was that they wore done by the Pitris or spirits, and their only difference in procedure from ours seemed to be that they made more use of direct' evocation. They claimed that those powers were handed down from time immemorial and traced back to the Chaldees.”

I now present sonic testimony which to me is unusual and seems to prove conclusively that the living communicate with the dead. In November, 1019, The Ladies’ Home Journal published a manuscript, concerning which the Editor of that journal says: “The manuscript was received from a known author. Convinced of the sincerity of the author, and realizing that these messages from an American soldier were no ordinary spirit communications, the publishers asked for further information. The author replied: *1 ask you to regard the book as truth, unaccompanied by proofs of any sort, making its own explanation and appeal*?*

Briefly epitomized, this testimony is to the effect that a mother and her only son were much devoted to each other. The son was interested in wireless telegraphy. The war came on and the son received word from Washington to dismantle the wireless apparatus immediately. The son was very much disappointed, saying that ho believed he was just on the verge of hitting a plan to do away with a lot of unnecessary paraphernalia with reference to wireless. The son was sent to France, assigned to an engineers’ corps and became a second lieutenant. In one of the battles in France he was killed. Immediately thereafter the mother received a wireless message in the Morse code as follows:

“Mother, be game. I am alive and loving you. But my body is with thousands of other mothers’ boys near I^ns. Get this fact to others if you can. It’s awful for us when you grieve, and we can’t get in touch with you to tell yon we are all right. This is a clumsy way. I’ll figure out something easier. I’m confused yet. Bob,”

This communication continued between the mother and son by wireless, but soon the wireless was laid aside. To quote her: ‘T have had, up to the time that 1 began to arrange for publishing, almost daily communications from my son. As will be noted by an early letter, the use of the wireless telegraph was soon abandoned for the better-known automatic writing simply as a matter of convenience.”

The letters which follow, and which ! herewith submit from the manuscript sis. published, seem to me to be subject to explanation by no other means than that they came from the spirit of her dead son. Prefatorily the mother says:

“So the news that my son had been killed came to ma from his own intelligence by the methods we bad used together in our experiments here in this very room. And so I am transcribing it, as he told me to do, for all to see who can be convinced of its sincerity. I have no explanations or proofs other than those that are given here: A man who teas killed in battle and is yet alive, and able to communicate with the one closest to him in sj/mpath?/, must make, Ms own arynmenis. I Juirc no knowledge of established psychic, lams or N»n Hations. But I know ichaf J know.”

The science of communicating with the. dead seems to have advanced with this witness. The use of cabinets and like paraphernalia seems unnecessary. The manuscript reads;

"Bob dwells upon the simplicity of it- He makes it plain —1<> me—that (here is no need of the outside ‘hocus-pocus' of mystery trumpery and cabinets and ignorant go-betweens, trances and crystal gazings, and al) that sort of thing. He dwells <>n the discovery that the mortal really puls on immortality.

“He finds it difficult to describe what the difference is in what we call the spiritual world: the ways of living, eating, drinking and dressing. ‘As far as I can see,’ he says, in one of his very late letters, ‘this is a place where one can carry out his own inclinations; for instance, I am plugging away nt the wireless as I wanted to do before I came, 1 live with si lot of other fellows in camp just now.’ ”

And now, Hr. Newday, I call your attention to a number of letters communicated by that son to his mother direct, and which I believe will be sufficient to convince you that your son is not dead but lives, and that you can communicate with him if you have tho v: Ulina desire so to do. I submit these letters, which speak for themselves;

"Letter Number Two (try wireless).

“Attention : Get this across—there is no horror in death. I was one minute in the thick of things, with my company, and the next minute Lieutenant Wells touched my arm and said: 'Our command has crossed. Let’s go.’ I thought he meant the river, and followed him, under the crossfire barrage the Tommies made, up to a hillside that I had not. noticed before—a clean spot not blackened by the guns. Lots of fellows I knew were there, and strange troops. But they looked queer. I glanced down at myself. I was olive-drab all right. But my uniform was not khaki; it seemed to be a fabric of some more tenuous kind. I had no gun.

"I overtook Wells. ‘What in the deuce is the matter with me, with us all?’ I asked. He said: ‘Boh, we’re dead’. 1 didn’t believe it at first. I felt all right. But the men were, moving, and I fell in line. When we inarched through the German barbed-wire barricades and in front of the howitzers, I realized that the body tbid: could lie hurt had been sited on the red field. Then I thought of you—sent that wireless from an enemy station in the field. The officer in charge couldn’t have seen me. But he heard, I guess, by the way his eyes poppl'd. He sent a few shots in my direction, anyway.

“I am using an abandoned apparatus in a trench today, depending on relays. We are assigned to duty here for the present, according to Wells. I don’t know how he knows. It seems while we have no supernatural power to divert or Stop bullets, we can comfort and reassure those who are about to join us. There has been much talk about the presence of one supposed to be the Savior among the dying. I should not wonder if that were true. The capacity for believing is enlarged by experience. But as yet I have no more real knowledge than any of the other fellows. I will let you know as I gain information. Others, like mo, will pick up and relay’ the messages.

“Letter Number Three (6?/ wireless),

“Attention: As I see this war, a curious understanding of ils purpose and ultimate result is dawning in my mind. The soldiers are the pick of humanity: the young, brave, blameless manhood that has been brought to its majority on the earth so that it may form an ideal democracy in this existence which, I am told, is of permanent character. I am bungling the big idea. But, yon know what I mean, mother. I’ll grow clearer, maybe. Wells is getting to he a whale of an oracle. Some of the fellows are in a funk, and others are sullen and unhappy; homesick, I guess. The young married men mostly. If they could get in touch with their folks it would be all right. That’s why I want to try and simplify some system of communication. You have never failed me; and now if yon can get it firmly fixed in your mind that I am I, not what is vulgarly called a ghost but a being just as much as I ever was, we can start something worth while. It’s got to begin with some one as levelheaded as you are. I’m called away.

“Letter Number Four (by wireless).

“Attention; We hit upon the key word when we agreed to use the word ‘Attention’ in our wireless practice. It is the word that unlocks the inner, or secret, ear to hear otherwise inaudible voices. Do you get me? I mean: when you want to talk with me, concentrate your mind by calling your cr.vn faculties, the unused ones, mostly, to ‘attention’. See if they don’t respond. It may require practice, but I am told there is no reason in the worlds—notice the plural—why we should not talk with the greatest ease and without any mechanics. Come up and try tomorrow. See if I can't project my thouyli'l direct to yours. Bring pencil and tablet if you want to. But a fellow here who knows all about automatic writing says there is no pencil guiding by unseen hands about it. The recipient just takes dictation. Better bring the pencil. You will want to report this just as it is for our purpose. I’ll And out all I can, but just now we are engaged here In relief work. Some of the chaps are very young, and we see them through. I’ll explain about those unused faculties when I learn more definitely about them.

“Ed. note (by the mother): I tried to write automatically that afternoon, but what I got did not satisfy me. I seemed to be ‘faking’ the message. I gave it up and called Bob by wireless- as I used to call him. He did not answer. I tried it again with the pencil and had a few words. But afterward we progressed with increasing ease and freedom by means of that method. The unnumbered messages following were all automatically written.

T* * ♦

Bill it can be

“This is harder—will have to practice, done.

“Try to realize that thought is the one thing that is absolutely unlimited. You can send your thought to the most remote place as easily as you can direct it to something in your immediate neighborhood. Science has not explained why. Interspace communication is not more mysterious than this. I want to put this over, mother. Not on our account alone. But because the little old world needs comforting. If we can convince folks that this is true, we can go a long way toward wiping out sorrow. I must go.

“Don’t go to mediums. Some are, of course, genuine. But the dollar sign is apt to cover fraud. If you want to get in touch with us—get in touch. That, is, get into a quiet corner and listen with your inner ear, your unused finer perceptions. You will be able really to hear what I am saying, after some practice. I am told this by a man who has come to instruct us. I think, on my own hook, that you will have to rid your mind of worry or prejudice before we can make much headway. Any one who wants [wills] to can put out a mental wire.rt.bat will be picked up. But you must 'beware of strangers I’ Quote that. There are scalawags ready to Jump into all conversations and mix up things if permitted. Keep your wires clear.

“You ask how to keep the scalawags away—-and who and what are they? I d< n’t just know who they are. I‘ll try and find out. But you have to ‘make a law’. That sounds occult and I do not vant anything to be spooky or unnatural in these letters. Jut that is the expression I hear often concerning this particular difficulty. These wire tappers cannot get by, it-seems, unless you permit them to fool you. Yon say: ‘I millnot entertain mischievous spirits’—or something like that, and they heat it. T do not know why that is efficacious. But it is.

“I have just come in from duty. I mean by coming in that I have come back to what. I may describe as field headquarters. A i I get more accustomed to conditions, I see that there are ii’joiit a thousand men here, some of them boys from my r» gimcnt. Mother, the soul leaves the body as a boy jumps put. of a school door. That is suddenly and with joy. ‘But there is a period of confusion when a fellow needs a friend.’ Quote that. We are the friends. I guess that is the be it explanation I can give. I told you Jack Wells came tbr <>ugh With me. He has gone away now. I atn told we go t<t other departments of usefulness, as others, suited to this field work, tome on. here. I will tell you as much as I ea 1.

“For,’complain that you cannot really get much of an idea of coi .ditions from what I tell you. I want you to be able to tr ite my dictation like a prize winner and, in the meantime. I’ll try and get a line on things here. So far it is not) ing very different from what we knew liefore the change. We go and come and serve. But evidently we are not. seen. We do not seem to need food or sleep. I suppose we absorb moisture. I think our tennons bodies are composed like

page thirty 9 J ? Talking with the dead

clouds. But I do not know. Anyway, your boy’s heart is still in the right place.

“I see your mind like a white screen, and I know I can write on it. Let’s make a regular job of this book. You can edit the copy you get, of course. But don’t put any literary frills in it, will you? When we get into the swing of it tell some of the other motheix But teach them how to establish communication with their boys, themselves.

“I guess you had better wait until you feel me calling you after this. We have important duties that we should not leave. About telling others; that is wLat we are doing this for, isn’t it? A. kind of a ‘comfort ye my people’ idea. But we must be very wise and level-headel. I don’t believe I should try to get messages for others. Ivery man his own medium is the best plan. It would In human nature to doubt the genuineness of Z letter from this side. Faith stops short at this threshold. But show sime friends who need this particular kind of comfort what yon know. Don’t hack out when you are laughed at. It’s all ’n the big business we have taken on.”

And. now, Mr. Newday, I want to impi ass upon you again the great doctrinal teaching we have received in our churches from time immemorial, which, our clergymen have told us time and time again; viz., that the soul is immortal; and this is the very ban's for our communication with the dead. Mark the next message in this manuscript:

"For we must start on the fact that the soul fs immortal. There is no death for the individual. As so many—even material-minded men—realize, the tody is an each’angeable garment and does not count in the history of the ■man. It seems that there have been an interminable number of races and nations lost in obscurity. They have moved on to other worlds, as tins present race must be moved .on. I do not know why civilization is allowed to reach a high mark before it is wiped off the slate. But that has been the rule, and so the Creator must have a purpose.

“I asked one of the teachers, and he said that the e.nrtte is a preparatory planet. The human race is marked foi • an advanced existence and is brought to as high a degree of

perfection as may be necessary to bring up the average. That is, the high degree of Intelligence of the greater number lifts the lesser in the scale. We begin the new existence where we left off in the old. The more we have gained, the greater our advancement among far more favorable conditions. That is not clear. I’ll get a better hold on the idea.

“There are a number of dogs with us. I do not know whether they are astral dogs or not. They look just the same to me, and they go with us and help with our work. The boys who come out are simply delighted to see them.

“Jack Wells is back with us and in immediate command of our company. He has been to see his mother, and he is one happy boy. She is somewhere here. Has been out for n long time. ,*ut one of the messengers found him for her and he got immediate leave to go. That sounded pretty good to ine. He will tell me about things later. We are very busy.

“Don’t try to hold your pencil any differently than you hold it ordinarily, mother dear. I am not guiding your pencil. As I figure it out, I am simply dictating these letters, by some improved form of telepathy, to your mind. You do the writing.' It is wholly simple. I really talk, and yon hear. Please‘■get that to our audience. We al! have perceptions and faculties that are capable of lifting us into supermen. The rub is we do not suspect our own powers. Do not. let yourself be Jed into a maze of reasons why this thing cannot be. What is, is. If a theory of cosmic consciousness accounts for these communications to any one, if he thinks your mind is drawing them from a reservoir which holds dream stuff and the intangible echoes of the thought of all ages, let it go at that. Don’t argue.

“I told you that we are not given any power over bullets. That we can comfort but not save from what you call death. That is not quite the case, I fflid. Jack Wells directed me to stand by a junior lieutenant today and impel him this way or that to avoid danger. In this way I discovered that my perceptions are much more sensitive than they were before I came out. I can estimate the speed and determine the course of shells. I stood by this fellow and nudged him here and there—kept him from being hurt. I asked Wells if that was an answer to prayer. Wells said: ‘No, the young chap is an inventor, and has a job ahead of him that’s of importance to the world’. An older man spoke up and

said: Trayers are answered. Don’t make any mistake about that. But they are not answered according to material ways of looking at things.’ I did not get his explanation well enough to venture to repeat it. I’ll know more, probably, as I go on.

“Mother dear, you are behaving like a brick. I tell you we are going to get this mortality play across the footlights. And it must be kno-wn as truth. I don’t mean to call it that. But you know what is ’ 'my mind. If you could hear the cries that come to us from mothers and fathers and wives and orphans, you would know* how continuously I plan and mull over this proposition. If you could just make them understand that there is no death. If you could just make them know that they can call their own loved ones to them and hear, at first-hand, that all is well beyond what has truly been called 'the veil’. It is not more than that. It is not as much. A veil is woven fabric more or less resistant. We are separated from our living (I wrote ‘living’; please cross it out, because it would indicate that we are dead, and we are not), our own folks, by nothing but those unused faculties I spoke of on your side. Urge immediate rlerelopment 0/ these lacnlties. Teachers will, I am told, soon appear who are capable of waking these sleeping senses. With that accomplishment we shall be face to face.”

The evidence seems to show that those who are beyond cannot against our wills read our thoughts who are on this side, but that they can hear our words. This would seem, to indicate that we can keep our secrets only by not tolling them out to any one. The next communication reads:

“I can’t read your mind yet. Speak to me as you would if you could see my face. Fancy that we are sitting in the dark but fully aware of each other’s presence. If you ever need me especially do not hesitate to call me, or at any other time. If I do not hear you some one will carry the message on until I get it. I have been so engrossed with these strange happenings that I nmy hove seemed cold. But dear, dear mother, I never loved you better than I do now. And I understand nil the subtle wonders of your love for me, as your son, far better than I did before.

« « «

•‘You remember that, we fell: rather a shock when that woman you know edited n book of letters from this side in which clothes and victuals and drink were much dwelt upon. I think some one of those mischief makers that I referred to some time ago was fooling her. There are, as I explained, many intelligences here that delight in playing jokes on the credulous when they cnn get on the etheric wave that, is l>eiiig used by communicants. Of course I am not competent to make any positive statement. But I think the conditions here are wholly spiritual. The physical body and its functions have been discharged. Only the emotions of the soul remain. I wonder if I can make that more plain.

“I surely want to be a reliable correspondent, and I want to show that while the human machine censes with the body, all the fine raptures that made the happinesses of earth are with the spirit. I, myself, appear just as you hist saw me. But I am doubtless clothed in that same elmullike vapor that composes my body. I am the same, yer not. the same, freed from the gross conditions that attend humanity and yet capable of love and the higher expressions of marriage. I shall have opportunities to learn definitely concerning these things and I will tell you—as frankly as I have always told you—things that boys generally keep from their mothers.

“I have not seen any one with wings. We cover any number of miles without fatigue. That is a good thing, for I have not heard of any rest, from labor heing advocated. We do, however, rest others. We ease the boys in the trenches—they wonder how they can sleep so comfortably on the hard, wet ground—and for several nights, now, I have been holding a sick boy in my arms. These duties keep us occupied almost all the time, but we have undimitiished force and are never weary. I hear continually of the presence of the Savior on the battlefields. I think this must be true. Anyway, the dying are certain that he has been with them, and they ar.e happy. They speak of his love.

“Tell thip to mothers. Jack Wells talked with me last night, and he gave me a great description of what he saw when he went away for his visit. His mother heard that

he hail come west, and she sent a messenger for him. It seems the messengers are somewhat different from the rest of us. I will speak of that later. Jack accompanied this messenger. They pierced the envelope of the earth, or at least found some exit. From what Jack gleaned, he thought the world we have believed to be so tremendously powerful is really much like the smallest ball in the nest of balls that are carved out of ivory by Orientals. One within the other, you know’. You have to penetrate one to gain access to another of larger size. So, as I understand it, the spiritual worlds of our solar system are swung into space, not separately, but together, each on its own axis but all moving in harmony as one. .

“The progress of the soul is through these spheres up to the highest development. The earth is the material or lowest form. We have often wondered why Christ came to save one little planet when he seemed to belong equally to the whole universe. But it seems that this is the cradle of humanity. That herein was established the race of men, an independent order of creation that was to acquire through knowledge of sin and pain and sacrifice, n strength that should fit men for leadership among supermen. Jack’s mother is in the next world, and front what he says I was not right about the manner of living.

…