Essays in Occultism

E S S A Y S I N I M SPIRITI M CCULT S , S , DE MONOLOG Y

BY W A RRI S N R . H DEA . “ A h r o f Da and i hts in the Tro i ut o ys N g p cs, “ ” “ B a and Trail Pio neers o f the y P th , ” Cross in Canada, etc .

cCLELLAND GO D H D STEWA , O C IL RT, Limite d U BLIS HERS TORONTO ovioi die 29 e t 1 1 S ti. Lud , , S p . 9 8 .

F . G . Holweck,

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V RY R B RT McBRA DY C . S . E . E O E , A s a slight mark of gratitude fo r his kindness and of adm iratio n for his character and ab ility

H n s o f a aba W en aske if in h e land These i doo M l r, h d , t ir , ‘ ere a a ons or an oms re e : Yes b ut we look there w pp riti ph t , pli d , i e m t h o f upon them as evil spir ts . W believe th e o b e t e s uls o

ose wh o co mmit ted swicide o r er s e b a v o en ea . th , p i h d y i l t d th i u e th e Night s their favorite time for appearin g . They sed c w eak -m in ded and th e curiou s and tempt o thers in a thousand e i differen t w ays . Th y a m to do all th e injury th ey can to ’ human being s . ” Gﬁrres La s ue Vol . I I I . 63 . J , My tiq , , p

PREFACE

b As far ack as history goes , at all times , in

ds m all lan , and a ong all peoples materializations

of spirits have occurred . The spirit manifesta tions today are but a repetition of those Which

- took place in pre Christian times . The war and the publications of Sir Arthur

W. J. Cr w Conan Doyle , Sir Oliver Lodge , a

B oirac ford, and Emile have given to Spiritism B a popular vogue and impetus . y a singular k coincidence b oo s on Spiritism , published in

I t al Germany, France , and aly have appeared most simultaneously With English and Ameri M can publications on this weird subj ect . any of these have given a quasi - scientiﬁ c endorsa fﬁ i tion to Spiritism, and have contributed o c al support to the current belief in the reality of

Spiritistic phenomena . Catholic students of these phenomena have m never doubted their reality . While ad itting 11

and conceding the impositions , frauds , trickery m and deceptions of any professional mediums .

Catholic psychologists and theologians, who for nearly two thousand years have investigated the al subject , hold that materializations have w - ays taken place and are occurring to day, and that no theory of fl and or delusion can account for them . Planchette and Ouija b oard answe rs and automatic writing are facts of every- day experi ence , but that these responses , materializations ,

o spirit c mmunications and the like , are mes

e s ch sag s from the dead , Catholic p y ology de nies . A pplying the methods of physics to psychic phenomena , Professor Crawford, in his latest “ ” c a work , The Reality of Psy hic Phenomen , believes he has demonstrated not only the

s actuality and truth of these phenomena , but al o the existence of a hitherto unknown manner of manifestation of psychic or spirit energy. l k “ Conan Doy e , in his b oo , The New Revela ” a tion , asserts that these spirit communic tions “ ” establish a new religion , a New Revelation, PREFACE iii

a re birth of the Christian religion , while Emile “ B oirac informs us in his Psychology of the ” Future that these phenomena lay the founda

oh tions of a new psychology, dealing with the

m n scure forces latent in the nature of a .

These three well- known writers are ﬁ rm b e liev ers in Spiritism and in the possibility of

communicating with the souls of the dead . Professor Crawford in his brief preface says “ that he is personally s atisﬁ ed that the spirits are the souls of human beings who have passed ” into the beyond .

But Catholic psychologists , and many dis tinguished non- Catholic writers Wh o have i studied Spir tism, state that no evidence which Would be accepted in any court of law has been given to prove that the spirits responding to human summons are the souls of men and women who at one time lived upon the earth . They contend that the phenomena are produced

and controlled by fallen angels , spirits of evil, and that so far from being communications from

the dead, they are actually malign manifesta

- tions of diabolic force . They also contend that iV PREFACE these phenomena are manifestations of de moniac spirits With Whom the Catholic Church

’ forbids all those who listen to her yoice to hold intercourse .

Mr . J. G Rau ert o odfrey p , who has dev ted many years to the study of psychic phenomena , “ ” asks in his book, The Supreme Problem “ Can we reasonably believe that the heretofore relations and friends will avail themselves of means so repulsive and so disastrous as are the spiritistic methods in order to furnish evi dence to the living that they still survive ? ” The distinguished British scientist Sir Wil “ r : liam Bar ett , writing on Spiritism, says For my own part, it seems not improbable that the bulk, if not the whole of the physical mani festations é witnessed in a spiritual s ance , are

- the product of human like , but not really human , — im m’ intelligence good or bad , da o a they may b e—W hich congregate around the medium, as a rule drawn from that particular plane of mental and mo ral development in the un seen which corresponds to the mental and moral development of the medium . More u over, if there is any tr th in the view suggested PREFACE V above of a possible source of the purely physical manifestations , it seems to me that the Apostle

Paul, in the Epistle to the Ephesians , points to a race of spiritual creatures , similar to those

I have described, but of a malignant type , when he speaks of beings not made of ﬂesh and blood inhabiting the air around us and able injuri ously to affect mankind . Good as well as mis chievous agencies doubtless exist in the unseen ; this , of course , is equally true if the phenomena are due to those who once lived upon the earth .

c S In any case , granting the existen e of a pirit

a ual world, it is necessary to be on our gu rd against the invasion of our will by a lower order ” of intelligence and morality . In harmony with the will and the orders of

Almighty God, the Catholic Church not only denounces Spiritism , but also commands her children to abstain from all intercourse and m w com unication with spirits , hether they be of the dead or demoniacal . She condemns also spirit communications because of the frightful results which inevitably follow all sustained

Spiritistic practices . And in her denunciations she is supported by inﬂuential members of the vi PREFACE mi Church of England, clergymen and e nent sci entists . Members of the Spiritistic cult may protest against the severe condemnation pro n ounced on Spiritism by the C atholic Church ; “ r Rau r i D . e but, w th p t we ask them to Please examine the evidence . Putting theology aside , examine , with an unbiased mind the Spiritistic phenomena . You will quickly become convinced that a transcendental intelligence is certainly manifesting itself through these phenomena , and you will also ﬁ nd that this intelligence is a powerfully evil force . Centuries of experience have taught Catholic psychologists and doctors that devotion to Spir itism has worked ravages upon the minds of

- weak willed and impressionable people , and has driven many to suicide and insane asylums . Whether these statements and the Catholic view of Spiritism are accepted or rejected, the frightful consequences resulting from communi cation with transcendental spirits should be plainly understood, and all thoughtful Chris tians should unite in denouncing the cult of

Spiritism and spirit manifestations .

H E U TH OR T A . C ON TE N T S

PRELI M I N ARY DI S COURSE

TH E SIXTH SENS E

TH E SEN SE on ORIENTA TION

WONDERS OF BILOCATION

BI CORPOREI TY

DUAL PERSONALITY

SP R T SM N EN I I I , A CI T A N D — SPIRITISM WH AT I s I T ?

DEM ON I ACAL POSSE SSI ON

WH AT OF TH E DEAD ?

SPIRITS on AN OTH ER WORLD e e are m e hin s a in ea en and on Th r or t g , Hor tio , h v ” earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy . — AM LET H .

Amon g the occult scien ces I in clude the cult of i i ism an d I n ot en a ass a e w it Sp r t , do d y th t oci t d ith are au e e n an d e b ut can an on e fr d , d c ptio trick ry, y b elieve that scholars like de Mirville and Des Mous seaux an d s en is s i e e F amm a i n a e ci t t l k Lodg , l r o , B rr t ,

Ric e a a e an d James who a e m an ea s h t , W ll c , , , ft r y y r of ex e ien e w m e ium s a e a en exam n a i n p r c ith d , ft r p ti t i t o

o f the u an d in e i en s u the su e a an c lt , t ll g t t dy of bj ct , b don ed m e i m— at r alism for Spiritis were deceived . Th ey h ave all con fessed their absolute belief in the i i en men e s a. obj ctiv e real ty of. pir t ph o The on ly groun d of dispute between these eminent ” men an d C atholic an d An glican investigators of the cult is the n ature of the beings or intelligences which n produce the phenome a. I T M ESSA YS N OCCUL IS ,

SPIRITISM , A ND D EMONOLOG Y

PRELI MI NARY DISCOURSE — — Modern Miracles Miracles of the Bible M an Sur — roun ded by Mysteries Science and the Grain of S and — — ’ Attraction Luminous Ether Effects of Adam s Fall — — Tendency to Forget Go d Sphere of the A ngels The “ ”— — Great Apostas y An gelic Beings Statemen t of Pro — — f essor Groves Professor Tyndall an d Sound Miracles — S aint Paul and Agripp a D efect of Our Spiritual Vision - h a n T e Incarn tio .

"? Before entering upon any disquisition or explanation of miracles or phenomena of the occult sciences , it is well to bear in mind that the wonders and miracles recorded in the lives of the saints and in the annals of ecclesiastical

a history are not in the s me class with , nor so faith - compelling as are the miracles of the New

T nﬁ ' estament, which serve to co rm our faith in 2 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

the divinity of Jesus Christ and in the holines s

He and perpetuity of the religion established . Apart from the fact that these testamentary signs and miracles are recorded in books writ

ten under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and

conﬁ rm ed by the voice of the Church , it must b e remembered that they are included in the de posit of faith and may only be denied under penalty of incurring the guilt of heresy and

act committing an of manifest impiety . All

other miracles , no matter how well authenti cated , rest upon what is termed legal evidence ,

‘ and the Church leaves a s free to accept or re

c . j e t them This is not saying that, if a miracle is substantiated and approved by rightly con stituted ecclesiastical authority and we refuse i to credit t, we are not incurring a note of rash

u ness and mental arrogance . But let s bear in mind this truth . We must believe with the Apostles and the Fathers that the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church and that, while the Third Person of the Adorable Trinity dwells in and animates the Church , miracles will, i for all time, occur as manifestations of the n

4 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

a a is seized with vertigo , and at l st excl ims I ” am i o at as one grop ng in the dark . S with traction, that mysterious and wonderful power

a of primal, elemental law or force that no man has ever seen , touched or heard, and which in its silent and mysterious inﬂuence surpasses all other known powers . And what do we

inﬁnite know of that substance of tenuity, yet of immense elasticity, which permeates all space and every other substance, which cannot be seen

un or felt or weighed , and whose composition is

? S o f known far as we know, it o fers no resist ance to the motion of planetary bodies , yet its existence is made manifest by its property of transmitting chemical rays , light, radiant heat , electricity, and probably some more recondite the forms of energy , at fabulous velocity from remotest parts of the universe , and by means of vibrations , the nature of which , with their di astoun ng frequency and pitch, has been de termined unscientiﬁ by mathematicians . The c mind may be disposed to regard its existence as a myth or at most as an abstract conception

e of the human mind, and yet that great s ien PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE 5

i a t st, Lord Kelvin, has decl red that not only “ does it exist , but it is the only substance we are conﬁdent of in dynamics and that the one

f th e thing we are sure o , is reality and sub ” l min th r stantiality of this u ous e e .

How do these myriad bodies of the universe , these silent, insensible bodies , unconsciously sustain that reciprocity of action and r eaction

which holds them in marvelous equilibrium, and in accord with one another ? The visible creation is a veil behind which “ ” the invisible Creator worketh hitherto ; a

veil which conceals Him from the unbelieving,

If- ufﬁ ient the impure , the se s c and the proud, and through which the pure of heart alone may “

t. see, and even they only as S Paul saw, in a ” glass darkly, though with a promise of a revelation “face to face when “ the day ” breaks and the shadows ﬂy away . The Church explains this darkness of the intellect and weakness of perception when she

us a ﬁ r t tells th t the sin of Adam, our s parent , visited upon the human race “ the wound of ignorance by which the intellect has been weak 6 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

‘ h diﬁicult ened, so t at it has a y in discerning

truth , easily falls into error , and inclines more to things curious and temporal than to things ” - eternal . The mind of man to day, as in the “ time of the Apostles , is tossed about by every ” wind of doctrine , so that we are witnesses to the unseemly exhibition of Darwin, Maudsley,

Tyndall, and Huxley denying the existence of another world, and Sir Oliver Lodge, Conan

’ B oirac Doyle, and Emile communing with spir its and proclaiming aloud the immortality of the soul and the right of man to evoke the dead .

If God has willed, and now wills , to bestow His gifts and mercies in a certain way and on t cer ain persons , have we the right to reject

His manifestations and insist, with Naaman “ H e the leper , that shall come out and put His ” us hand on the place , and reveal to how it is done ?

a There is in fallen human n ture a tendency,

in more or less strong, but present in every dividual of our race , to forget God . Man is prone to be the slave of the material and the

H e ﬁn sensual . ds it hard to realize his de PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE 7

endence p , from hour to hour, on the sustain ing power and loving care of an unseen Father .

Underneath him are the Everlasting Arms , but

e h as they are not of ﬂ s and blood, it demands the possession of supern atural faith to perceive

n ot them . Faith is knowledge , it is not a pro duction of the laboratory, but a supernatural gift which enables us to believe in and, in a sense , to see what is not visible . It is a faculty

a of the soul which dem nds constant exercise ,

i else it will grow weak and, in time ncapable ” of seeing even as in a glass darkly, through a veil of unsubstantial phenomena , into the “ S piritual kingdom of Angels , Powers , Prin ci alities p , and Thrones .

In order, then, to quicken our faith, and to help us to understand that God hath dominion over the living and the dead, to feel our de

endence p on Him for our daily bread, our health

H e us and life , visits , as in the days of David,

afﬂiction with sorrow and , famines , wars , and H plagues . Again e makes his presence known “b through His Angels , or y the spirits of the f ” just made per ect, or in benign ity and tender 8 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM ness as in apparitions like those of Paray-le

Monial and Lourdes .

n M a in relation to animals , to the spheres of

a beings which are pl ced below him, occupies a di stinct and, to them, a supernatural position, and to these creatures his actions are miracu lous , in so far as they cannot understand them .

Now, have we any authority for believing f that there is a sphere, state , or place di ferent

es from ours , occupied by beings of a subtler sence and a higher intelligence than belong to members of the human race ? That is to say, that as we on this earth recognize the existence — of the three kingdoms animal , vegetable , and — mineral with their divisions and subdivisions ,

b e nu may there not , and are there not, in the

‘ su erio r to seen world beings of an order p ours , endowed with or possessed of attributes , powers and faculties altogether unlike and superior to

s o the endowments of our nature ? If this be , the powers of such beings would be as superior,

as from our point of vision, and their actions

th e miraculous , as are our actions from stand point of animals or of lower intelligences . PRELIMINARY mscounsn 9

Accordin g to revelation, we are surrounded by beings of a supernatural or preternatural “ order . We are told of the Prince of the power ” “ in of the air, of principalities and powers ” us . high places , that is , in the air above We are warned that “ our wrestling is not against

ﬂe h an s and blood , but against principalities d powers , against the rulers of the darkness of ” this world , that is to say, against Satan and his rebel spirits , who are in conspiracy to ruin the human race and to frustrate the purposes

nk of God towards ma ind . No mind which accepts the inspiration of the Bible may deny the existence and malign in ﬂuence on human beings of th ese rebel a ngels .

St. That wonderful Apostle , John the divine , informs us by authority of the Holy Ghost that “ ” - in the great apostasy, of the angels two thirds of the heavenly host remained loyal to their

Creator and kept their principality . Many of these angelic beings are mentioned in Holy Writ as messengers of God , obeying His divine will, and are represented as the friends of all human 10 ESSAYS I N occuurism

’ beings who do God s will here on earth as they do in Heaven . To these pure spirits are ascribed many of — the wonders and operations of n ature z the

eﬁ ects therapeutic or curative of certain waters , as in the pool of Bethsaida and the waters of the Jordan when Naaman washed himself in

u ﬁ res them ; the er ption of volcanic , as in the devastation of Sodom and the cities of the

Plains ; the control of thunder and lightning,

s a on Mount Sinai ; the ruling of the winds , as mentioned in the Apocalypse ; the producing of

ruciﬁ xion earthquakes , as at the C and Resur r ection ; the origin, direction, and cessation of pestilential diseases , as in the punishment of

’ David ; as messengers of God s mercy, as in the Passover . That these angelic beings can make them

s elves visible to man we know. from the ek peri ence of the young Tobias , and need only now refer to Abraham and his spiritual guests , to b the angels of the Annunciation , to the li eration

t rison and innum of S . Peter from p to other l erab e examples recorded in Holy Writ . The

12 ESSAYS I N occuurl sm of their existence and the actuality of their presence . It concedes that the air around us may be musical with the melody of unearthly

ri voices or the whisperings of evil spi ts . Thus “ ll ’ I t the late Dr . Funk tells S is a terribly dangerous mistake to think there are no evil spirits . There are great hosts of them . They come at times without formal invitation of the medium or of the circle and con trol to the hurt ” o the m emb er o th r l f s f e ci c e. And that em in ent scientist, Professor Groves , says in his “ Correlation of Physical Forces ” “Myriads of organized beings may exist imperceptible to our vision, even if we were in the midst of ”

. o them S with regard to sound . Notes above and below a certain ascertainable pitch are inaudible to the human ear . Professor Tyn dall in his interesting book on the “ Glaciers of ” “ the Alps writes : Once as I crossed a Swiss mountain in company with a friend, I heard dis tinctly and for a long time the shrill chirping of

a innumerable insects , which thronged the adj cent grass . My friend heard nothing of this

’ it lay quite beyond his range of hearing . This PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE 13

statement may help us to understand how it is possible for a person like Bernadette of Lourdes to be surrounded by sights and sounds unseen

and unheard by others . The eyes of the Prophet ’ s servant had to b e supernaturally opened before he could see the u angels g arding his master, and the Vision which was vouchsafed to St. Stephen before his

was martyrdom unseen by those around him . In like manner the angelic hymn which broke the silence of the midnight air of our Saviour ’ s nativity was heard only by the shepherds watch ﬂ k ing their oc s . S o the voice which spoke from the clouds at the Baptism of our Lord was

heard only by Him and John the Baptist .

Though the travelling companions of St. Paul , when on his way to Damascus , heard the sound

of the voice which converted him, yet they could

distinguish no articulate words .

Assuming, then, as a hypothesis which science

admits to be possible , and which the Church ex i alts nto an article of faith, that there exist

hosts of angelic creatures , good and evil, there is no violence done to the human mind when it 14 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM is asked to believe that such beings are able to accomplish things and perform acts which

us to , with our limited powers , are prodigies or miracles . But what is a miracle ? A miracle is an effect

or without a visible , in the human order, a known, cause . When we know and understand the ﬁ cause , we no longer regard the e ect as a miracle . When we call a miracle a suspension of the law or laws of nature , the expression must be understood, not in its absolute sense ,

ﬁ r but only as it relates to ourselves . The e of Nebuchadnezzar ’ s furnace departed not from the common law of burning because it did not consume the three young men , for it destroyed those feeding the ﬁ res : the youths were simply — placed within the sphere of another law a law unknown to the spectators and which shielded them against the natural law of com

tion b us . We also give the name of miracle to a result produced without the intervention of a second ary cause . For example , the conversion of water into wine by our Blessed Lord at Cana PRELIMINARY DI SCOURSE 15

we call a miracle , but we do not apply the word to wine produced from the grape . In point of mi fact, however, the one is as much a racle as

H e the other . who , at the marriage feast of

e Cana , converted water into win , performs as great a miracle yearly before our very eyes , though by a more gradual process . It is only our familiarity with it which prevents us from recognizing its miraculous character . The miracles of grace are reﬂected in the miracles of nature . God is the author of both, and as He is daily performing miracles within ’ H the sphere of man s rebellious will, so e is also working them in the passive realm of nat ural powers , either directly, or through the min i ter hi H s s p of His angels . Day after day e changes water into wine, wine into blood, blood into milk . Surely, then, it is perilous pre

us sumption of , with our meager and frag mentary knowledge of the laws of nature , and standing as we are in the presence of a thousand

mni miracles , to prescribe limits to the o po

e tence of our Creator, or to say H cannot cure “ a helpless paralytic or command the clouds 16 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM that they rain no rain without violating a law “ of nature . Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you , 0 King, that God should ” t raise the dead ? asked S . Paul of Agrippa . And the Church asks of the Agrippas of our “ time Why should it be thought a thing in credible that an angel should appear and speak to a soul shrined in an earthly tabernacle , or that f— God should impart to the waters o Lourdes ,

— He for instance , medicinal properties , as did to the pool of Bethsaida ? While we here on earth are tabernacled in f our bodies , we are altogether in a di ferent sphere and state from angelic or demoniacal

’ beings . When , in God s good time , we are lib erated n o from the prison of the body, we shall longer see “as in a glass darkly And let me here observe that whatever difﬁculties prodi gies or miracles may present to speculative rea ff son , they o er none to the practical faith of a

Christian . H e knows in whom he believes ; his own experience and the history of the human race enable him to scatter to the winds the theories and suppositions of those much over PRELIMINARY mscounsn 17 rated scientists who are forever contradicting themselves . In the Incarnation of the Son of God the Christian has a clearer revelation than Science can give him of the ways of our Heavenly

Father with human souls . With a touch or with a word H e commands the forces and laws of nature , and they obey . The blind man by the wayside , the paralytic on his bed, the woman

‘ riev of an accursed race , whose daughter was g ” ousl d eo y vexed with a devil, the isciples in j p ardy on a stormy sea , the widow weeping by the bier of her only son , the risen Lazarus , will for all time proclaim the omnipotent power of God and His love for and oversight of His children, “ - yesterday, to day, and forever . A re there not in every community individuals ossess a m s e us we c n e n n se who p y t rio po r, o c r i g who o i n m e ac n an d imi s w an e r r gi , od of tio l t , e d th y a e alike in the dark ? I refer to such organic forces as are summe u un e the s c a an e sec d p d r word l irvoy c , ond s e e a an d h Ra ona me c ne ight, t l p thy t e like. ti l di i recogniz es their existen ce and while she attributes em m and exce ona inﬂuences c n esses th to orbid pti l , o f her an mo e e ac n w e e an d e a n s m w t of r x t k o l dg , r fr i fro ” “ ” a n — M he Ne o e n hs of t . b rr theoriz i g . yt w W rld RI N TON B .

20 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM appears on the palm of a child ’ s hand on the A demand of the sorcerer . lady present in the

c i room observed that an a qua ntance of hers ,

S eiior had, when in Cairo , purchased the secret of reproduction and had been able to do the thing, but having afterward become a prae

n it. tical Christia , he no longer practiced

A D ot t M . u e French gentleman, p , who was present with his daughter, a beautiful young girl of seventeen or eighteen , told of a strange experience which happened to him at Teguci

ni galpa, Honduras , where he went, accompa ed by his daughter, to open an agency for a hard

rm ware ﬁ of which he was senior partner . “M ” “ y daughter, he said, occupied at the

n fo da (hotel) a room which opened into mine .

e About midnight I awok suddenly, felt a touch upon my shoulder and heard the words :

‘ ‘ M on ere viehf s viens vite— p , , Father come ,

’

u . come q ick Thinking my child called me , I lighted my lamp and entered her room .

She was sleeping soundly, but to my horror, crawling on the sheet that covered her was a

a hideous white scorpion, the most de dly of its THE SIXTH SENSE 21

u kind in Central America . Q ickly lifting a rug

ﬂ it . from the oor, I fell upon and smothered Unless the voice I heard was the voice of her guardian angel, I can in no way explain the ” mystery . The father of our host remarked in the hear “ ing of us all I can well believe this happened, for we are surrounded with beings that we know

o A t u s n t. sense is wanting o , and if but a

h m ﬁlled veil dropped, we mig t see this roo with beings who look on us . Besides mysteries of

e this kind are continually happening, and I b ” He lieve it from what occurred to myself . then told of an experience he had when on a hunting expedition in the Sierra Madre Moun tains , with a man and woman who were what “ ” révo an ts he called p y , or second sight per sons who possessed a power of orientation or

a sixth sense . From what he told u s and from

am what I heard from others that evening, I

' satisﬁ ed man that the average , apart from his

understanding, has many faculties which place him in intimate relation with his fellowmen and

n H with bei gs of another world . e has an in 22 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

tellect h ; , which , as a rule , is t e faculty of know

H e ing things . is a creature of sensations , of H emotions , and sentiments . e has imagination or a faculty of reproducing in his mind the images of things seen or learned by any of his

H e senses . has external sensibility, which is

ﬁ ve — acted upon by his senses touch, smell taste — , sight , and hearing, which place him in com munication with the material world . The more intimately we study animated na ture, and, in particular, human nature , the more we are persuaded that not only men, but all other creatures have, by force of circumstances , by changes in food, climate , environment, and other conditions experienced in the course of

inher ages many structural alterations . While iting, by a slow process , powers of adaptation ,

facul they have lost, through disuse , organs and ties which in the remote past were integral and necessary parts of their being . It is of common knowledge that in the dark recesses of underground caves and rivers , k where eternal dar ness reigns , many wonder ful creatures exist and perpetuate themselves . THE SIXTH SENSE 23

One of the greatest subterranean vaults in the world is the Mammoth Cave in Kentucky . It has been penetrated for thirty miles and is not

a yet fully explored . Through this c ve the Styx

n River ﬂows in profound dark ess, and, in places whose depths cannot be sounded, swims a very

ﬁ sh C rinodon . peculiar , the yp , which is blind

It has eyes that see not ; it has lost the sense of sight , but the eyes and sight are not absolutely

rinodon dead, for the Cyp , when placed in an h aquarium and in a mild lig t, recovers a fter two generations its power of distinguishing ob j ects . In the subterranean rivers ﬂowing through the cavernous Alps of Carn iola live strange

ﬁ sh and singular creatures entirely blind .

Among these is the Proteus , a peculiar lizard shaped creature provided with lungs and gills , which seems to combine all the attributes of an amphibious animal . In some of the crabs the eye sockets remain , though the eyes are gone .

It is as if the tripod- stand of a transit was

difﬁ ul found with the transit missing . As it is c t to understand that eyes , though useless , could 24 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

ﬁ sh be of any assistance to , bird , or insect liv ing in perpetual darkness , the loss of sight must

- be attributed to disuse . The cave rat captured by Professor Silman in Guiana , was totally

in blind, but after living for a month graduated light , it acquired a dim perception of objects . There is no greater anomaly in nature than

ﬂ e a bird that cannot y, yet th re are many such,

- e . . g , the logger headed duck of Venezuela , the

o Emu and the ostrich . In time the d mestic hen, goose , and duck will no doubt entirely lose

ﬂ in L the power of y g . ong disuse will weaken “ their pinions . None of our domestic animals ” f can be named, writes Geo froy Hilaire in his “ ” “ uﬁ ered Laws of Variations, but has s a di minution of hearing, seeing, and smelling, and this is due to these animals being seldom much ” alarmed .

Structurally, men and animals have not changed in four thousand years . The men and animals embalmed or ﬁgured on the monuments

n ow of ancient Egypt , are identical with those

u m r n ow b e living . But the r di enta y organs h longing to both orders , and w ich in remote ages THE SIXTH SENS E 25

were developed and served a useful purpose ,

imply that in prehistoric times animals, and ff possibly men , were anatomically di erent from

their existing descendants . The structural changes wrought by time are due largely to altered climatic conditions , to change of food, and to the disuse of the organs themselves . “ ” e Darwin , in his Origin of Species , assur s us that the boa constrictor retains rudimentary marks of a pelvis and of hind legs , and that

- the manatee ( sea cow) has rudimentary nails . It would be difficult to name one of the higher animals in which some organ is not in a rudi mentary condition . What can be more curious than teeth in foetal whales , which , when grown u p, have not a tooth in their heads . Again, in l nearly all mamma ia , the males have rudi

ae mentary mamm (teats ) . Rudimentary or gans in some males still retain their potential

ity. This occasionally happens with the breasts and mammae of male animals which

are well developed and secrete milk, as in the t examples recorded by Von Humboldt and S .

n Fra cis Xavier, and may account for the origin 26 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

of the Couvade among certain primitive tribe s

1 in China , Brazil, Guiana, and Madras .

Von Humboldt, in the third volume of his Voyage aux Régions E quinoxiales du Nouveau ” v eriﬁ ed Continent, says he saw, and his seeing

by contact, a man in the Indian Village of Par

’ - S A . ana , Columbia, . , suckling a three months

old baby. In a letter written by St. Francis 1547 Xavier in October, , to the members of his “ : I n Society at Rome, he states this Island of Amboyna ( Malay Archipelago) I have seen what no one would believe , and what has been unheard of till now ; so perhaps it will b e worth

h - while to tell yo u. I saw a e goat giving suck

H e to his kids with his own milk . had but one breast, which gave every day as much milk as ﬁ ll would a basin . I saw it with my own eyes ,

” 2 -it it for I would not believe without seeing .

’ 1 W en a man s e was conﬁ ned for th e ﬁ rst ime he h wif t , n went to b ed for three weeks . Hi s on ly fo od duri g these e hi weeks was a sm all allowance o f water and cassava . Wh n s n -in as com e e his b reas and back e e fast and lyi g w pl t d , t w r uri s ac ce amon scarred with the teeth o f th e acco . Thi pr ti g the A ro wak s and Caribs o f Venez u el a deceived the early an s a ven ure s wh o re or e in a r a in the dis Sp i h d t r , p t d M d id th t

e e un es the men and not the omen e e conﬁ ned. cov r d co tri , w , w r ” 2 ’ l Xa ie Vo . n te of S F anc s . C oleridge s Life a d Let rs t . r i v r

I 382 . , p.

On the day of our rescue there was somethin g very s an e a u the ssi uden s tr g bo t dog, which po bly st t of an ima s m a e e ex a n H e a wa s l p ychology y b abl to pl i . l y use s a e the b ed on e the men and u d to h r of of , wo ld ema n u e un i th usua u s n B ut on r i q i t t l e l ho r of ri i g . s a u a m rn n u e n a us m he thi p rtic l r o i g, q it co tr ry to c to , ’ e ame so es ess at a u ix a the b c r tl bo t s o clock th t cook , a ea at u n ot ee him n s b ut had lr dy work, co ld k p i door , l im in e ex t o et h out . awak ea the Ly g , I h rd cook “ claim What the dickens is the m atter with the ” dog ? B eef was runnin g about on the san ds ap aren tl m ad a n an a n in a m s p y with j oy, b rki g d pl yi g o t un usua m ann r l e .

N ow s ues n a ises : H ad the an re , thi q tio r dog y p sen timen t of the comin g even t of the day ? I s it pos ’ sible the dog s instin ct was so sensitive that h e could ea ee sm e the a a the s eam e i h r, f l , or ll ppro ch of t r, wh ch ’ did n ot reach th e islan d till on e o clock ? We are all i n a m a e sa a n a u e h as s i w lli g to d it, I d r y, th t t r t ll man se e s en m us so a h u the b e y cr t hidd fro , lt o gh the m a n e s an n i en e haviour of dog y o ly b a tr ge coi c d c , sim e a e the a ea in the ex an a n I ply r l t f ct, l v g pl tio to e s —H T u a f th s c e Cath o . c a o e th r . . B ll, pt in e hipwr k d III

THE SENSE OF ORIENTATION — Animals and Their Senses Do Animals and Insects Pos — sess a Sixth S ense Exp eriments of Professor Fabre — — -The Wasps and Cylinders The Strip ed S eal Journey — — — of a Cat The Muskrat Wisdom of Rodents Opinion of — ’ — " — Von Hartmann I ntuition Goethe s Statement Opinion — — of Professor Wallace Un solved Probl ems D ecl arations of

ns n—An d nan er e— a an e Dr. Joh o of Ferdi d V r Cl irvoy c of

h aman— ss o u n t e Sh Po ible S l tio .

Man , in the order of creation, represents the completion and perfection of the animal king At dom . an early period in his existence his ﬁ v e senses were possibly more highly devel oped than those of animals . In addition to the possession of these senses he was endowed with other faculties which to - day belong to mem bers of the lower animal kingdom . As certain wild animals can foresee and make provision

n a for changes in weather, comi g storms, nd 29 30 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

w severe inters , and moreover have a sensé of

n o t m an in es orientation , may also , early , have been dowered with similar faculties ch " have become atrophied through disuse? If

- animals , even to day, possess a sense of‘ direc

assumdd tion or orientation, may it not be that ? primitive man also was gifted with this , sense In order to satisfy himself that insects and animals possess a sixth sense or a sense of

ﬁ nd orientation, which directs them to their way home after being transported to great dis

tances , Professor Fabre , the French naturalist, captured a dozen wasps and painted their ah

n H e e dome s white . then put each of th min a separate cylinder and placed all the cylinders in a sealed box which he carried to a forest two

and a half miles away from the nest . Here he liberated them and walked back to the nest . In

ﬁ ve us u . hours , he informs , they all ret rned They could not possibly ﬁ nd their way home by

sight or any known physical sense ; so Fabre

contends that wasps possess a sixth sense , which naturalists term sense of direction or

orientation . THE SENSE or ORIENTATION 31

his To verify his conclusion , Fabre continued

H e s experiments . captured six other wasp , painted and carried them in sealed cylinders four miles into the heart of a populous city,

flew and liberated them . They upwards , above the highest buildings , paused for a time and disappeared . Next day, Fabre visited the nest and found fi ve of the six marked wasps he had carried away . Take as another example the case of the striped seal recorded by Amundsen This seal dives under a great flo e and swims for miles until she is satisfi ed she is near a place shel tered from sea and wind . She now breaks the ice, and under the snow builds a vaulted chamber, where her young are born and re main till they are old enough to take to the

The r water . st iped s eal swims away every

ﬁ sh morning to in the open sea . She has ab so lutely no mark to guide her on the return v oy

- age. It is pitch dark in the water and un der the ice , yet every night she returns home as if her way through the dark waters were il lumined by a thousand lights . She swims 3 2 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM straight and true for the exact spot where the

hole was made , rises and feeds her young .

re Take as another illustration this example , “ ” 16 corded by the London Standard, May ,

1917. O Towards the end of April, a cat, wned

m 1n by Squire Love , of Wycombe, was 1ss g . The Squire thought that his cat had been stolen

’ or killed . Two weeks after the cat s disap

earance M r p . Love received a letter informing him that the cat had return ed to its ﬁ rst home

St. in Neats , Huntingdonshire , where it had been raised and lived for two years . The dis — tance travelled by the cat was ninety nine miles , and as it had been brought in a bag to Wycombe it in a closed car, how did , through woods and plains and across streams , know the direction by which to travel ? No one will concede to ani

. mals a power of foreseeing changes in the

weather , months before these changes occur, by means of inferences formed from a series B of observations . y what faculty then is the beaver governed when he builds his house at

a much higher level in anticipation of a ﬂood

e or that would sweep away his old dw lling, THE SENSE or ORIENTATION 33 whence comes the foreknowledge of the ﬁ eld mouse that , days before an inundation, leaves his home for higher and safer quarters ? u D ring September and October , the squirrel,

- the musk rat, and other rodents lay up for themselves enough food for a long or a short

n winter . How can the squirrel k ow, as he

ﬁ rst enters his autumn , when the winter will

in how set , and in the absence of experience , does he sense the duration , the mildness or severity of the winter and measure the quantity of food he must bring to his nest ? The power of forecasting the weather seems to be part of a sixth sense or an unconscious clairvoyance , of which the wild goose , when it wings for the South much earlier than usual, knows no more than the moose when , before an exceptionally cold winter , he grows a heavier pelt and thicker fur than is his wont . What is the intermediate link between the unconscious cerebration of these animals and their acts ? Is this prescience an unconscious memory or an attribute of their being, which is neither given directly to them through sense 34 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM perception nor deduced inferentially through ? their understanding Have animals, then, a

sixth sense , and are they controlled by intui

tion, or by some faculty which may not inaptly be called a sixth sense ?

v on Dr . Edward Hartmann , in his profound “ ” work, The Philosophy of The Unconscious , says that “all animals and some men possess unconscious knowledge w hich is not acquired through the senses , but which will be found to be in their possession, though obtained without the instrumentality of the senses , by experience ” or by exercise . This ‘ unconscious kn owledge von Hartmann calls clairvoyance ; I would term it a psychic or “ ” sixth sense . It is not an illative sense, “ which Cardinal Newman deﬁ nes to be a rea soning faculty exercised by gifted and highly ” hronesis educated minds , nor the p of Aris totle Nichomachean he , which , in his Ethics , “ ” calls humaii forethought . It is not external im prevision , nor instinct , which is a natural pulse impelling animals to do certain acts lead ing to their own welfare . Its nearest faculty

36 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

He ‘ detail . calls second sight fa condition of the unconscious mind an automatic action of the human organism . Facts connected with this class of phenomena are often ignored because they cannot be ex plained from a materialistic side , are not in harmony with human experience , and cannot be proved by the inductive or experimental method , as though the last contention is not equally im possible when applied to morals , social science , and politics .

Nature everywhere is full of mysteries . Pro

A R ci n iﬁ o r . s e t c fesso . Wallace and other h servers furnish in their writings interesting examples of correlation of colors with consti tutional peculiarities among certain animals . No one has been able to explain why all male cats with blue eyes and white color are deaf, or why female cats with tortoise shell markings E are un able to hear . qually remarkable and impossible of explanation is that the young of

- - white , pale blue , yellow tinted , or dun pigeons of all breeds are born naked , while the young of

n all other colors are covered with dow . This THE SENSE or ORIENTATION 37

is a case , as Professor Wallace remarks , where color seems of more physiological importance than all the structural differences between the

varieties and breeds of pigeons . Nor can anyone give a reason why the ele m ent in yellow phosphorus is an active poison ,

while the same element in red is harmless .

Again, Professor Tidy declares that peperine

u is the poison of all poisons to keep s awake ,

while morphine induces sleep , though to the chemist and analyst these two poisons are of

identical composition . “ hn on " Dr . Jo s tells us in his book, The Dis ” eases of Tropical Climates , that in Virginia there is a plant locally known as the “ paint ” root , which , when eaten by any other than

n black pigs , colors their bones pi k and rots the

an hoofs , and that black pigs alone c thrive

re where the root grows . In the Tarentina , a if gion in Spain , white sheep die they eat the — ’ Hypericum Crispum a species of S t. John s

t — ef wor , while black sheep are immune to its

feets . That we cannot understand nor explain

a some phenomen of animal, or human life, is 38 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM not an adequate reason for rej ecting them as im possibilities .

We have seen that animals are endowed with a highly developed sense of direction . It is n ow in order to inquire if man at any time in his history possessed this sense . That savages have some power of orientation in common with animals is admitted by Stanley, Burton, Bruce ,

Speake , and Grant . In civilized man this fac l u ty is only just traceable . The power de clined as his self-conscious mind assumed con trol, and is no longer essential . The African savage and the Australian bush man , in common with animals , are still pos sessed of an intuition or a sixth sense which in civilized man has , through disuse , been atro “ phied. Ferdinand Verne , in his African ” n B ashutos Wanderi gs , says that among the he met several men who were gifted with sec ond sight and a sense of orientation . Apol D l lonia s ysco us, the Alexandrian rhetorician ,

n states that , to his own k owledge , when a com pany of Roman soldiers , in the reign of Adrian THE SENSE or ORIENTATION 39

A ( 170 . were lost and perishing of thirst in the Libyan desert, a party of camel riders came to their rescue . The riders declared they were

-ﬁ v sent from their camp , thirty e miles to the b north, y the Cadi who in a trance saw and de scribed the region and the perishing soldiers .

- Certain it is that to day, as in past times ,

aﬁinit there are individuals who by sympathy, y, or other unknown quality, are able instantane ously to commune with intimate friends in other places , and this is practised by persons said

h ra ort . to be e pp , the one with the other The limit to this we do not know, but it is not unlikely

n that telepathy, clairvoyance , orientation, a d

afﬁn itie second sight are s . “ ” In his Travels in North America , Carver, a practical and experienced Englishman , says K li — that , when he was with the i stin ons a Cree

—in 1767 tribe , famine threatened them unles s some traders , whom they expected, came to

. A n their relief shaman or medici e chief, leav ing his tent, called the people together and an

' n ounced a s eciﬁ ed that at p hour, the next day, a canoe would arrive and report the coming of 40 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

the traders . Carver and the band were on the beach the following morning, and at the hour foretold by the shaman, a canoe appeared in b the distance, and, after eaching, its paddlers announced to the people the coming of the ﬂo tilla . Sagard and the Jesuit historian and travel ler, Charlevoix, record in their works equally singular instances .

A tlan tic M onthl 1866 The y, July, , published

M . an article written by General J Brown , who vouches for the accuracy of every detail of th 185 e narrative . In 5, General, then Captain

ﬁn Brown , was commissioned to d a band of In dians supposed to be hunting in the regions b e

- tween the Mackenzie and Copper mine rivers .

He was accompanied by a detail of voyageurs , many of whom through hunger, sickness , and fatigue abandoned the expedition . The Cap tain was seriously thinking of giving up the search when , unexpectedly, he met three hunters of the very band he was seeking . The warriors told him that they were sent out the day before d to meet him by their medicine chief, who tol THE SENSE or ORIENTATION 41

them what route they should follow, the number — of men in the party and described their arms ,

dress , and personal appearance . When the Captain and his men were conducted to the vi"

lage of the Indians , he asked to see the shaman who had despatched the messengers . The — — shaman an intelligent middle - aged man ap

eared p , and when asked how he knew of the “ : coming of the white men , answered I shut my eyes , my spirit told me to look I saw a place ” H e and four white men standing . could or would offer no other explanation . However much these examples of a sixth

x sense may t a our credulity, there are , in all literature , very many instances of a similar kind .

Now, what is the explanation of these phe n omena ? Are they caused by the subliminal or subconscious mind of the operator ? Psycholo gists tell u s that there are certain undeﬁ ned functions of the mind which act independently of our senses and are outside our ordinary con “ sciousn ess . Ps Father Maher, in his y ” “ cholo : gy, says I t ought not to be forgotten 42 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

that besides the mental operations which re

veal themselves in consciousness , there is much evidence to establish the existence of vital ao tivities hi of w ch we are not at times aware . There is considerable dispute as to their exact nature and how their relation to the mind

fﬁ ien should be conceived . It is su c t to call at

tention to their reality and to admit that, al though unsusceptible of introspective observa

tion , some of these activities are intimately con ” nected with our conscious life . There is apparently beneath our conscious mind a secondary and mysterious process of

mind action , distinct from and independent of

our primary self, as if there were two minds ,

a conscious and subconscious mind , each per

forming its own distinctive function . In o r dinary terms the diﬁ erence between the two

may be stated as follows : The one or obj ective mind takes cognizance of the visible or obj ec

ﬁ ve tive world . It acts through the senses , and

its highest function is that of reasoning . The subjective or subliminal mind perceives things

r o r persons, as do clai voyants, independently of

44 ESSAYS IN oocumism rational to accept the facts than to conclude in spite of overwhelming testimony that those who have seen and testify to the occurrences are enthusiasts who were deceived, or are deceiving others . There is such an intimate conn ection between clairvoyance , second sight, and orientation that

‘ diﬁicult it becomes to draw lines of separation . P ossibly, however, savage man and wild ani mals have the ﬁ ve senses so highly develop ed and perfected that in the very long time de m anded for that development the psychic facul ties or sense perceptions may have also ac quired a development resulting in clairvoyance , hi conscious or subconscious . In attacking t s hypothesis as simply a connected chain of

Opinions , those who undertake to destroy a link of the chain should supply its place by a

s stronger link . Now that comparative p y ch ology is reaching the dignity of a science , there ought not to be insuperable obstacles in the path leading to a solution of the problem. It is time that a consistent theory should be h propounded regarding t e subj ect, if only on THE SENSE or ORIENT ATION 45 the foundation of the old adage that even a faulty hypothesis is better than none at all and that all progress must have a point from which it moves forward . When confronted with the problems of clairvoyance and orientation we “ Oh es t ris are tempted to exclaim with Renan , p ’ d v rti — e e g e one s head is seized with dizziness . A nd whil e they were beholding him going up to ea en e two m en s em in w i e ar h v , b hold tood by th h t g men s who a s sai : Ye men Ga i ee t , l o d of l l , why stan d ye lookin g up to heaven ? This Jesus who is a en u m ou n ea en s a so c me as ou t k p fro y i to h v , h ll o , y — I 0 a e n him n n o a en . c s 1 s . h v see goi g i t he v A t , q WONDERS OF BILOCATION

’ — — Villasenor s Report The Sp anish Nun C ase of Bilo ca — “ ”— “ tion A n Ecstatica Was She Transported to America ? — — “ ” The Indi an Tribe Visited by Her The D emon Priests — ’ — — B enavide s Exp erience His Statements D eclaration of — — the Nun Signs an d Won ders Meaning of the Word — — Bilocation E xamples from Holy Writ An gelic App ari tions .

The late Professor Cooke Taylor , in his work “ ” on Occult Power, contends that there are many examples in the history of occultism in favor of the belief which was held by many of i the early Spanish m ssionaries to America , and by learned men at Madrid, that the white and bearded patriarch deiﬁ ed by the aborigines of Mexico as the “Fair God ” who preached Chris tianit - y to the natives in pre Columbian times , was Saint Thomas the Apostle . From a tradi tion coming down from the ages and still linger 48 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

ing with the Latin races , the description and ap p earance of Saint Thomas corresponded with the outward form and personality of the “ Fair ” God of the Mexicans . And did not the S a viour H include this land when, after e rose from “ He the tomb , said to His Apostles : You shall

eru alem be witnesses unto me in J s , and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the uttermost

’ t earth ? par s of the j Moreover, Saint Thomas was a twin , and , in the Nahual language , the last syllable in the name of the “ Fair God ” meant one of two born of the same mother and at the same time . Again the sixteenth cen tury was closing the long period known as the “ ” Ages of Faith , when alchemy, miracles , prod i ies own g , and legends yet held their with the march of the human intellect . Nor from the authenticated cases with which theologians and students of occult subjects were , in those days ,

b icor oreit familiar, cases of bilocation , p y, and

in ae rial transportation, was there anything credible in the living body being apparently in

fa two places at the same time . They were miliar with the eighth chapter of the “Acts of BILOCATION 49

” n the Apostles, telli g of the aerial transporta

a tion of Philip from the road to Gaz to Azotus, and with the fourteenth chapter of Daniel re cording the aerial and instantaneous ﬂight of the prophet Habacuc from Judea to Babylon and from Babylon to Judea . “ “ But how, you may ask, was it possible for these men of learning and common sense to ” believe an absurdity, even an impossibility ? — But is bilocation that is , the same person, at the same instant of time , appearing in two — h places , no matter how near or how remote a d ? sur , contradictory, and impossible Well, let us appeal to history and then each one of us may form his o wn opinion .

A word as to the historian . I know of no h man who , in his day, stood igher in America for historical research, accuracy of citations , and incorruptible honesty than John Gilmary

’ Shea . Dr . Shea s many and varied aecom

lishm ents p , his knowledge of languages , both ancient and modern , his diligence in prosecuting his investigations , his antiquarian lore , his care ful discrimination in arranging and collecting 50 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

the results of his investigations , his power of analysis and marvelous ability to enter upon the right path and thread his way through laby rinths of confused statements and separate truth from falsehood, were recognized by Euro pean and Am erican scholars long before his 18 2 w 9 . o death, in N , when a man of his scholar

ship and historical honesty, after the most care ful examination , lends his name to the support

of that which appears to be incredible , this

th e ’ fact , to use words of one of Shakespeare s “ ”

u . characters , at least must give s pause In Shea ’ s “ History of Catholic Missions Among the Indian Tribes of the United States ” (Dun E 1854 d. igan , ) there is a very interesting chap ter on the labors of the early Spanish mission ary fathers in Arizona and New Mexico . Writ ing of the wonderful labors and success of the missionaries with the tribes of New Mexico , “ con Dr . Shea says Among those who tributed to bring about so happy a result are included the names of Fathers Benavides , Lo pez and Salas at Tumanas , Father Ortego , and, we may add, the venerable Maria de Jesus

52 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM importance in association with the possibility

S o r t S . of t. Thomas Brendan teaching Chris

tianity to the Maya tribes of pre - Columbian Yu

catan, that I will condense it from the French

work .

Remember, however, that I do not adopt the

t. opinion that S Thomas , the Apostle , did visit

America ; I merely contend that the Spanish friars and Spanish writers had plausible rea

un sons , supported by the sworn testimony of impeachable witnesses in analogous cases , for “ ” ue z al oatle believing that Q t c , the Fair God,

St. was the Apostle , Thomas

’ I opened this chapter with St. Luke s account of the Ascension of our Lord in order to show that human bodies and a human language were given by God to the Angels who stood by them ” (the Apostles ) in white garments . This ex ample will be interesting when I come to treat

’ e d A reda of the singular cas of Maria g , the

Fran ciscan nun . When Frederico Villasenor returned from his “ 1748 a expedition , in , he included in his Te tro ” Americano a brief but illuminating report of BILOCATION 53

i “ h the Indians then living in New Mex co . T e ” “ us m natives , he tells , are co fortably clothed in garments woven by themselves ; they are an industrious and contented people . The

churches , built under the direction of the Fran

i c n are ﬁ ne i c s a Fathers , as and mposing as those in the rural districts of Southern Europe , and the serv ices for the Indians as grand and as scrupulously carried out as in Spain . There

- e av era are twenty seven parishes stablished , g ” ing one hundred families to a mi ssion . Included among the names of the zealous mis

naries t s sm who accomplished he e results is , strange to say, that of a Spanish nun, whom the

n Fathers had never seen . She was k own in her

s community as Maria de J sus , and was one of that privileged class of souls in whom the effects of original sin or the ﬁ rst transgression seemed ff to be almost e aced, and who are admitted ,

ﬂe h while still in the s , to that intimate union with God which the elect enjoy only in the b eatiﬁ c state . In the lives of the Saints we perceive that each one of them, when he or she was , by sublim 54 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

ity and intensity of prayer and meditation, ad mitted into privileged union with God, was distinguished for what is called by ascetical “ ” writers a particular devotion . Maria de

esus o r J , , as she is at times referred to by her

’ d A reda contemporaries , Maria g , was , during f the waning years of her conventual life , o fering

i f " to God her prayers , mortif cations , and su fer ings for the conversion of the American tribes . The conversion of the Indians of New Mexico was a particular object of her private devotions .

One morning, while in intimate union with her

Go d Saviour, she received a revelation that would soon confer upon the missionaries and

. Indians of. New Mexico a special favor Then it was that this holy nun experienced for the

or ﬁ rst time in her pious life these visitations , , “ n er as Dom Guéra g writes , phenomena of ” grace , which entitle her to be ranked among

he the apostles of these idolatrous lands . She “ ” miracu came an Ecstatica and , while under

ﬂ n e lous in ue c , experienced sensations like unto one carried on an aerial journey to BILO CATION 55

unkown and distant regions . The climate of the country to which she was transported was

not unlike that of her own Castile , but she was

surrounded by men, women , and children the

like of whom she had never looked upon . The

vegetation was unfamiliar, and there were no I m cities , towns , great buildings or bridges .

ll nf pe ed by a mysterious inner voice or i luence , she began to teach the strange people the doc

trines of Christianity, and though she ex

pounded the mysteries of religion in Spanish , her audience listened attentively and seemed to

re understand her speech . Many times she s lap ed into the ecstatic state , and on each occa sion was transported acro ss a great waste of water into a region where dwelt the people to whom she was commissioned to preach . She , at last , succeeded in winning to Christianity all the members of the tribe , including the chiefs “ ” and shamans or demon priests , as she called them . While among these Indians she saw,

off afar , the Franciscan missionaries reaping a harvest of souls like unto those she was in 56 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM structin g . She counseled her converts to dis patch messengers to these missionaries and ask for a priest to return with them .

1622 esus It was in the year that Maria de J , in ecstasy, experienced the sensations of aerial transportation and in the same year instructed “ ” the tribe Before this time , writes Dom “ Guéran er g , the Franciscans laboring among the Indians of New Mexico had not reaped a harvest of souls commensurate with their zeal ” and their expectations . One morning, as one of the Fathers , on the mission of San Augustin de Isleta , was coming out of his adobe church , he was met by ﬁ v e Indians whom he had never before seen . Their speech was that of his own mission tribe , with dialectic variations . They claimed to have come from beyond the Rio P e cos , said they came as messengers sent by their chief who asked for a priest to live among t hem, and concluded by requesting to be bap ti sed. The missionary inquired the name of t heir tribe , in what direction their country lay i H h and what river ﬂ owed through t. e added e could not accede to their request for baptism BILOCATION 57

until they were instructed in the faith . They replied that they and the members of their

tribe were already instructed ; that a woman strangely dressed had Visited their people and made known to them the life and doctrines of

Jesus Christ ; that her visits to them were many, and that it was she who had told them to come to the missionaries . Where she lived and how she came they did not know . The missionary— Father Alonzo de Bena Vides—examined the messengers in the doc trines of Christianity and found them well in H structed . e pressed them for a description

i of the myster ous woman , but the Indians after describing her dress and appearance , could only repeat that they had never seen any one like her . Benavides , with a companion , started that afternoon With the Indians for their dis h ’ tant Village . When , after t ree days travel , he entered their Village , he was received with the most lively manifestations of j oy and, to his amazement , found that all the adult members of the tribe were well instructed in Christian doc trines . 58 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

’ “ But, I almost hear you exclaim, this is in ”

. ou Fa credible if not absurd Well, read . ther Alonzo de B enavides was satisﬁ ed from the description he received that the lady was a Span

I n 1 3 ish nun . 6 0 he was in Seville on business

ad of his community in New Mexico , and took vantage of his visit to discover, if possible, the personality and the dwelling of the mysterious H woman . e made known to the Superior Gen eral of the Franciscan Order in Spain—the

a— Very Rev . Bernadine de Sienn the history of the miraculous conversion of the Indians and his desire to trace the identity of the nun . The Superior had already made the acquaintance of

Maria de Jesus and had heard of her ecstasies .

It occurred to him that, possibly, this saintly nun might be the privileged soul referred to by

H e Father Benavides . furnished him with let ters to the superior of the convent and to Maria

s de J sus herself, in which he begged her to give to the missionary any information in her pos session bearing on the subj ect of his quest . Soon after Benavides entered the city of Agreda he obtained an interview with the

60 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM sibilities and, leaving the regions of the absurd, enters the exalted circle of thaumaturgy or the sphere of the marvelous . Every discussion about any subject will best proceed from an examination of its name or of

n that by which it is ge erally known . In the name we have the true declaration of the inner most nature of anything ; we have a witness to

ﬁ ndin that which the universal sense of men , g expression in language , has ever felt to lie at its

in heart . If we would learn to kn ow anything timatel ﬁ ndin y, we must begin by g the name which it bears . Thus , what we commonly term “ miracles , are in Sacred Scripture called won ” “ ” “ ” n ders , sometimes sig s , often powers , or “ ” “ ” A W . n simply orks , or mighty works ex ample drawn from one of our Divine Lord ’ s acts of kindness may help to illustrate how a “miracle ” may at once include all the above “ terms . The healing of the man sick of the ” I palsy ( Mark , for example , was a wonder, “ ” for they who beheld it were all amazed ; it “ ” i was a power, for the man , hear ng the words “ of Christ, arose , took up his bed and went his BILOCATION 61

” way in the sight of them all ; it was a sign , for it proved that One greater than men thought

e him to b , was among them ; it stood in connec t tion with a higher personali y, of whom the “ ” sign, and the seal, and the cure was wrought “ that those Who witnessed it might know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive ” sins .

ac Now, the meaning of the word bilocation , cording to masters of ascetic theology , is that i an apparition , which is V sible to one or to many individuals , of a person known to be living hundreds of miles distant from where the ap

arition p appears , is that of a good or evil angel which assumes a body like unto that of the liv ing person and clothes the same as tho se worn by that person .

Bilocation, then, may mean the same. body apparently occupying two spaces ; or it may.

the mean two bodies identically same , which is

b i- o r called corporeity ; , again, the same body, 24 as in the case of the prophet Ezekiel (XI , ;

I 1 1 2 D n XXV I, ; XL, , ) and of Habacuc ( a .

XIV, may be transported with such intense 62 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM velocity from place to place as to lead to a con “ ' v iction of a replicatio co rp o ms or a double body . If at any time you have read Charles F

’ “ I n P 0 0 Lummis book, the Land of 0 Tiempo , “ ”

E . T. or the Occult World, by Sennett, or, “ ” Phénoméne better still, Les Hauts s , by

G ou net g Des Mousseaux, you must be familiar with authenticated examples of aerial trans

r i p o tat on . “ And now having, in a measure , blazed the ” u trail, let s give ear to the wonderful narra

' esu tive from the lips of Maria de J s .

difﬁdence With becoming , yet with the ut

most candor, the nun unfolded the story of her

W ﬁ rst ecstasies , beginning ith the Visitation she

experienced and recording, as she advanced , a

i remarkable series of ecstatic exper ences . She frankly confessed that she was unable to ”— explain the process el modo by Which her spirit appeared and was able to exert inﬂuence

at so great a distance . After having been privileged with her con ﬁdence Benavides began to question her in de — tail on the distant regions of New Mexico , with BILOCATION 63

H which he was intimately familiar . e exam ined her on the topography of the country, the landmarks of the locality she claimed to have visited , the dress and habits of the tribe she converted and on minute particulars of the land and its peop le , with which only one who had lived for some time in the country could be at all familiar . To his astonishment he found her as well acquainted as himself with every thing concerning the particular village and its people . She was not only familiar with the topography of the country, but told him the names of the Indian tribes and the names of the towns and rivers which could only be known to

b . one who had lived with the tri es She stated , moreover, that she had many times seen the priest and his companions , corroborating her statements by furnishing the names of places t he had Visited on cer ain days , and supplying

’ minute details of the missionary s life .

Benavides , intending to reduce to writing not only the strange history of the miraculously con verted tribe , but also his interview with Maria ’ d A reda g , ventured to question her critically 64 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

”—¥ on the means el modo b y which she was H able to Visit the Indians . e put a straight question to her by asking if she was there phy

i all s c y or in person . In answer to this inquiry

‘ diﬁidence she showed apparent and reserve , but later in a declaration which she made and wrote out she expressed her opinion in the words of

S t. Paul when recounting for the Corinthians “ his wonderful experience : I know a man in

Christ, whether in the body, I know not, or out

of the body, I know not . caught up into

Paradise , and heard secret words , which it is ”

2 . 2 not granted to man to utter . ( Cor , XII, 4 ) She concluded her statement as follows That which appears to me to be more cer tain as regards the manner by which these o c

rr n cu e ces took place, is that an angel from heaven appeared among these people under

ﬁ ure my g , preached to and instructed them and

that I saw here , while in the ecstatic state , all that there happened in the country so far

away. I deem this remarkable case of such import ance in association with the Mexican tradition BILOCATION 65 I

“ ” of the Fair God, or white patriarch, who , in pre - Columbian times preached Christianity in Mexico and Yucatan , that I feel warranted in introducing additional authorities in support of the contentions of Gilmary Shea and Dom

Gué ranger. In the life of that beloved Fran ciscan Juni ero priest , p Serra , the Apostle of

California , by Palacio, there is published a let ter of Benavides recording the miraculous con

’ A re a version and also a letter from Maria d g d . “ ” Benavides Memorial was printed in Madrid, 1 3 6 0 . The whole history of the case is told in “ ” La Mistica Ciudad de Dios . The title of

’ “ ’ Dom Guéran ger s book is " Maria d A g réda e t la Cite Mystique de Dieu .

’ When Benavides Memorial appeared , several

eminent writers attacked, whereas others de fended the reality of the apparition . The dis

e ﬁ ll ed cussi n many volumes , but Rome has given no decision, and we are free to believe or not b e lieve the history, just as we are the writings of

Plutarch or the younger Pliny . To me it ap pears to be an established case of clairvoyant trance , and in a process of canonization would

am not , I of the opinion, have aplace with the 66 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

done su ernaturalia p , nor among proved miracles . The possibility of an angel appearing in hu man form and instructing the tribe is not open to contradiction . The Scriptures record many instances of such angelic apparitions . We have a notable example in the case of the angel who T accompanied young obias to Rages , the City of the Medes .

ese n s of Ma a a en as e if in e Th Hi doo l b r , wh k d , th ir an e e e e a a i ns an m s e ie l d, th r w r pp rit o or ph to , r pl d “ Yes b ut we u n em s evil s irits We b e , look po th a p . lieve them to b e the s ouls of those who committed sui ide eri e n i ei c s V e ea . is , or p h d by a iol t d th N ght th r a e im a a n e se u e the wea f vorit t e for pp e ri g . Th y d c k min ded an d the cu rious an d tempt others in a thou san ffe en a s e aim all the in u d di r t w y . Th y to do j ry they can to human b eings . “ M l 3 G s L ue V . 6 J. e e a s o . . rr , y tiq , III, p V

B I CORPORE I TY — — Classiﬁ cation of Ph enomena Rita of C ascia Gorres — His History of her A eri al Transportation Cas e of th e

— h John Blessed Lidwine E xample from t e Life of St. of — — Cop ertino The App arition at the B edside Won derful E x ample of Bicorp oreity Recounted by Count des Mousseaux — n— Double Appearance of a Living Ma Opinion of St.

Thomas .

icor oreit The phenomena of bilocation , b p y and aerial transportation may be classiﬁ ed into

aﬁinit o r separate groups , having an intimate y relationship to one another .

For example , a person may be carried with incredible velocity to a distant place and then the sys teme m oteur or moving agent acts in an especial manner in producing wonders of this order . Perhaps the most voluminous and ac credited writer on Christian Mysticism, as con trasted with naturalism and rationalism, was

‘ o se h e J p von G rres , who wrote Die Christliche 69 70 ESSAYS IN OCCULTIS M

H Mystik . e was a teacher at the University of Munich, a writer of marked distinction, and

a one of the most scholarly men of his time , s y 1 98 1848 from 7 to . Dealing with the authenticated case of the “ Blessed Rita of Cascia , he writes in his Mys ” “ tik " We record as an example of aerial

ﬂ who transportation the ight of Rita of Cascia , enjoyed the privilege of passing through closed ” doors . This holy woman desiring, after the b death of her hus and, to become an Augustinian nun , was refused admission to the community .

She then appealed to God in prayer, and while she prayed, was transported through the air , carried into a convent and deposited in the midst of cloistered nuns . Great was the amazement of the nuns when she appeared , for they knew all entrances to the building were barred .

When she made known who she was , how she w had been transported, and her ish to dedicate herself to the service of God in prayer and adoration , she was admitted to the privileges of the community.

Another example is that of St. Peter Rogala, BI CORPOREI TY 71

for who, in sight of a multitude of people, was

sur three hours suspended in the air, and

i a rounded by such a lum nous halo of glory, th t those who saw him thought his body was on

ﬁ re .

Facts of the second class : The person con

ﬁ ned s to a certain locality, is in pirit carried to another place and in that place accomplishes the will of God as did Ezekiel and Habacuc . A touching and beautiful example of this second order of phenomena are the mystic voyages of

Lidwin e al ﬂi h s the Bless ed e, who in her a ri g t was often accompanied by her guardian angel .

One day, while her spirit was passing from t church to church in the Ci y of Rome , she suf

fere n d as if thorns had entered her ha d, though her body remained in her own room and did i h not accompanyher in her ﬂ g t. The next day,

ﬁ n r returning to her natural self, her ge pained

ﬁ n er her greatly and, in her g , the prick of the

thorn was quite Visible .

Facts of the third order : Among the ex periences of the third class are those of actual

bilocation . Here we ﬁnd the individual is in a 72 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM particular place and is seen and spoken to by

the others and, at same time , is seen elsewhere and acts as if he was really and substantially

ex eri present . This , for instance, was the p ence of St. John of Copertino , who lived in the

Village of Assisi , Italy. When his mother lay

’ t ' at death s door, in Coper ino , she bewailed the

i absence of her son, and in the intens ty of her “ yearning for him cried aloud Oh, my son , my son " Shall I never again m eet you on ” earth ? A t once the room in which she was dy t mi ing blazed wi h exceptional illu nation , and the mother beholding her son coming through the ﬂ aming light to her bed , extended her arms and exclaimed in the hearing of those present : “Joseph " 0 my son "” Now on this same day and at the same hour there were those in Assisi who saw Jo seph leave his house hurriedly and t Al m enter the church , os ensibly to pray . ar ed at his excited appearance and haste, one of the men followed and asked him “ Is there ” “ ? an anything the matter Yes , he “ ” wered m s , y poor mother is dying . The neighbor went out , leaving him with God . BI CORPOREI TY 73

This apparition of the living man by his

’ mother s side at Copertino was conﬁ rm ed by

a letters which, soon after the de th of the mother, were received in Assisi, and the fact was after wards proved by th e sworn testimony of those who saw the saintly man at the bedside o f his mother . it Let , however, be understood that according to the decision of the learned Pope Benedict

th eol o XIV, and the statements of eminent

gians , these prodigies , and others mentioned in ecclesiastical histories and biographies and in the “ Lives of the Saints ” are not to be classed with the miracles so intimately associated in the N ew Testament with the foundation and expan

sion of Christianity .

We may or may not accept them . But if

the evidence in their favor carries legal weight , if the witnesses testifying to what they claimed

to have seen and heard are kn own to b e ‘ h on

m en mm est of good , co on sense, are reputed among their neighbors to be respectable and

th can mi e trustwor y, and have no reason for sr p

resenting what they witnessed and heard , then 74 ESS AYS IN OCCULTISM

a r i r ju y of the r count ymen will believe them.

a he T ke , for instance , t case critically exam ined and scrupulously gone into by lCount Des “ Mousseaux in his extraordinary book, Les ” Phenomenes Hauts , and accepted by him as an actual occurrence which happened in his own lifetime . “ “ Early in writes the Count , I met in n Paris the Revere d Father Palgrave , form

ﬁice erly a cavalry o r in the French service, who resign ed his command and became a Jesuit mis

ion r the s a y in India . Among passengers who sailed on the same ship with Father Palgrave ,

n 1857 when he was retur ing from India in , was

li ofﬁcer an Eng sh , who was sailing for England t on furlough or mili ary leave of absence . After

e ﬁfteen of they had b en at sea some days , the ﬁ cer said to the captain in the hearing of Pere Palgrave

‘ a t ou Capt in, who is his stranger whom y

’ are hiding from us ?

‘ ’ ’ a . You re joking, answered the capt in

‘ o No, on my honor, I saw him yesterday f r

’ ’ the ﬁ rst . time, but he hasn t appeared today

7 6 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM ‘ Where do you think I have been since I fell asleep ? I crossed over a great part of the

’ sea , Visited my son s ship , searched high and low

‘ ’ ’ didn e t s e . for him, but him

u t a Ass ming the tru h of this rel tion , we nat “ urall . y ask ourselves , Did the soul of the dying man leave his body ? ” “ St. Thomas , the Angel of the Schools ,

would answer No . The will to act which

the belongs to soul is shut up in the body, to which the soul is united . Where the body is at i ” t. one time , the will is with “ I can only repeat with the Ps almist that We

are fearfully and wonderfully made . DUAL PERSONALITY — Does Bilocation Involve a Contradiction The Voice of — — — History App arition of A n an ias S aul of T arsus C as e of — St nsus u —His u e esence u t es . Alpho Lig ori Do bl Pr A horiti

u a — a emen Eli has Le the S pportin g its Re lity St t t of p vi, — — Spiritist Acts of the C anoniz ation of S aints E xtract

m he R man e ar —St an s Xa e —A Won fro t o Br vi y . Fr ci vi r — ' — derful Cas e of Bilocation T estimony of Eye Witnesses

That bilocation contradicts all the properties of matter, so far as our understanding has reached, and is physically impossible , is the unanimous conclusion of all scientiﬁ c material i sts . Whether or not it is absolutely, or meta physically impossible ( and by this I mean whether it involves an intrinsic contradiction, so that by no exercise of power , even omnipotent

b e power, could the same body , at the same in stant of time , in two places ) is a subj ect too

s e to u ab trus be disc ssed in these pages . 77 78 ESS AYS I N OCCULTISM

di she The stmgm d philosophic writer , F ather “ Dal airn s g , in his treatise on Holy Commun ” ion, where he deals with the extension of mat

he ter, contends for t possibility of absolute bilo cation and, if you take an interest in. the subj ect ,

‘

i . I advise you to read h s book Just now , how ever, it will be of more interest for us to con sult history for authentic examples of the phe n om enon m steri , leaving the philosophy of the y ous and occult for theologians and m etaphysi eiaus . I regard the apparition of Ananias recorded in the ninth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles as a very remarkable instance in the h istory of bilo cation and the ﬁ rst of its kind to be found in Holy Writ . — t. Saul of Tarsus , canonized as S Paul, the — “ Apostle, retired by the command of the Lord ” Jesu s who appeared to me on the way, to th e house of a disciple named Judas in the “ ” a street th t is called Strait . While alone in “ his room, Saul saw a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hands upon him that he ” ul r might receive his sight . Sa , after our Lo d DUAL PERS ONALITY 79

Jesus Christ appeared and spoke to him on the “ a his w y, rose from the ground and, eyes being ” a open , he saw nothing, th t is to say, he was blind . Now at the time when this occurred Ananias was in another part of the city and did not for three days after Saul saw him com ing and laying his hands upon him, actually in

‘ an d s a person enterthe room y to Saul Saul ,

o esu s br ther, the Lord J hath sent me that thou mayest receive thy sight and be ﬁlled with

’ the Holy Ghost . This scriptural case I regard as a true ex

m an ﬁllin ample of bilocation , that is a living g space in a certain place and his simulwcm m or other self actually appearing, at the same time ,

us a an a in another . Now let t ke inst nce or two from the lives of the Saints .

t . Al Early one morning S phonsus Liguori,

o r bishop and founder of the Redemptorists , , to “ be precise, the Congregation of the Most Holy

Redeemer, entered his chapel , as was his daily

m . wont , to say ass Suddenly, as he was pre

t the S acriﬁ ce paring o vest for Holy , he was overcome with weakness and his face took on a 80 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

look of sadness and wonder . In silence he

1 A t walked to his cha r and sat down . once his

head fell forward and rested on his breast .

There was no movement of the lips in prayer ,

there was no rising or falling of the bosom ; the

s eyes of the venerable man clo ed as if in sleep ,

and the diverse functions of life were , to all

outward seeming, suspended . H e remained in this state of immobility for

r hours , and no one ventured to trouble his e

pose . When he regained consciousne ss , he rang

his chair bell and rose to robe for mass . When the brother who usually served his mass en tered the chapel he told Alphonsus he was too

f acriﬁ ce A t ill to o fer up the S . once the chapel was ﬁ lled with the priests and domestics of the

house , who had watched with anxiety the end

of the cataleptic sleep . When Alphonsus , in

ri surp se , asked a reason for their presence , he was told that for many hours he was as a “ " ” dead man . Ah yes indeed, he answered,

but I have come from the bedside of the Pope , ” who is now dead . Those who heard him deemed this to be the hallucination of a sick ' DUAL PERSONALITY 81 man ; but when the report of the death of Pope

’

St. Clement came to the bishop s city of Agatha , it corresponded exactly with the day and the 22 1774 hour, September , , when Alphonsus had

returned to himself . “ re Novaes , in his History of the Popes , “ i cording th s phenomenon , writes Clement XIV expired on September 22 at the thirteenth

hour ( 7 A . There were present at his

death the superiors general of the Augustinians ,

Dominicans , Observantines and Conventuals ;

and with them, in their midst, was the saintly ’ t Alphonsus de Liguori , who , hough his body

was elsewhere , was miraculously in the chamber

of death . The presence of Alphonsus was cited at the judicial process for his canonization and was accepted and approved by the Holy Congre ” i n t er r ier 183 at o S . V e d 3 g of Rites ( Liguori , , ,

p . To the weight of the authority of the Congre gation of Rites allow me to add this declaration

Eli ha of the spiritist , p s Levi , who apostatized from the Church and entered the ranks of her mi hi ” ene es There is no fact of story, he 82 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

“ ff writes , more incontestable or more e ectually proved than the fact of the real and visible presence of Father Al phonsus de Liguori at the

th e bedside of Pope when in his last agony, while the same Al phonsus was in ecstasy and

‘ in prayer in a remote district of Italy. Rit ”

I . ual of Spiritism, Vol . , p I am here this morning in the Mexican town

. c A M 8 . of Tlaxcala It is exa tly . . , July Let us suppose for the sake of elucidation that at precisely the same hour and day I entered

ofﬁ ce your , sat down , and spoke to you, then dis

- appeared bidding you good bye . Would you not be ready to testify on oath that at July

ofﬁ c 8, I was in your e and that you held conver sation with me ? But the pro prietor of the little

am w t fonda where I now , ill swear that a that

d a . hour, y, and date I was in his hostelry To be in a given place at a particular time and an exact duplicate or s imulacrum of the same per son to be in another place many miles away at exactly the same time ; t o be not only the double

identiﬁ cation of the same person , but the to be made by many persons and the apparition to be

84 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

test , than those presented for the canoniz ation ” of Saint Francis .

ovemb er 1551 i Early in N , , the sh p on which the saintly missionary was sailing from Japan

a to Indi entered the Straits of Korea . Early one morning the vessel rode into one of those ﬁ erce and prolonged storms which carry fear A to the hearts of seasoned mariners . hurri

cane swept the decks , carried away the sails ,

tore out the masts , and threatened destruction

to the ship and all on board . Then Francis

fell upon his knees in prayer, when presently the

- sea went down and the ship , water logged,

ﬂoated helplessly . The crew got out the boat

and began to tow the ship to the nearest land . w While they were ro ing the storm again rose , — the tow line was snapped and the oarsmen and their boat swept out to sea . The tempest grew

to a tornado , when the holy man Francis retired

b e to his room and invoking the Holy Name , sought Jesus Christ by the ﬁ v e wounds in

ﬂicted on Him when nailed to the cross to save

he them . As prayed, the storm passed beyond

a them . The s ilors on the ship were now over DUAL PERSONALITY 85 whelmed with sorrow for the fate of their com

a panions driven out to sea . Then Fr ncis said “ B e to them of good cheer, my friends, for before the exp1ration of the third day the daugh ” ter that is lost will return to her mother .

Their water- logged wreck rose and sank with

et . the waves , and y no boat returned In vain they scanned the horizon and saw no sign of a

boat . They were giving up all hope , when

again Francis cheered their drooping spirits : “ ” “ Have courage , my children, he pleaded, I

n tell you they are retur ing to us . Then he

retired to his berth and, once again, fell upon “ ” his knees in prayer . Presently the lookout

‘ ’ m ev er e e shouted, They are co ing, and y y took A in the rowing men . cry of j oy greeted the

saved men , who , reaching the side of the ship , mounted and were embraced by their compan

- ions . When the hand shakings and congratula

tions were over, the quartermaster gave orders

n to have the retur ed boat brought on deck . “ ” Wait, wait, cried one of the rescued men ,

i Father Franc s , where is he ? He has not ” come aboard . The sailors who remained on 86 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

the ship , hearing the man and his companions

thus express themselves , said one to the other : ‘

“ ‘ The poor fellows are out of th eir minds from long suffering and starvation But in vain they tried to disabuse the minds of the returned men by pointing to the empty boat , and by assur ing them that Father Francis was now on board and had, at no time , left the ship . To the amazement of every one the saved men persisted in asserting that from morning till night and from night till morning, Francis was with them “ ” for three days . No , No , they exclaimed, “ e w had no fear of being lost or of perishing, for the holy man was with us and told us we ” would be saved .

This is the case as recorded in the Life of St. e — Francis Xavier by P re Bouhours , and in the Lives of the Saint by Massei and the learned

e uit . English J s , Henry James Coleridge It was proved by the sworn declarations of the captain and crew of the vessel and the rescued

a nd men , was accepted as a fact in the process

n for the ca onization of Francis Xavier .

88 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM ( his duplicated self) on the boat among the drifting men , and was assured by an inward voice that the men would be saved . When he went on deck he carried with him the divine as

surance that all would be well, and with this cer

’ titude he fearlessly announced to the ship s crew their own safety and the return of those they thought lost .

Allow me, even though I may weary you , to enlarge somewhat on the phenomenon of bilo cation . I know that for those unfamiliar with mystic literature , prodigies of this order are as opposed to their established opinions and as puzzling to the mind as are the intricacies of f di ferential calculus to the uneducated, or the

the action of electric forces , instantaneous change wrought on certain liquids by the intu

sion of a reactive , the Plutonian theory of the

a in imperceptible rising of mount ins , or the candescence of the globe to the undeveloped

- mind of the sheep herder . I am convinced that in this age when Satanism assumes a most alluring and seductive guise , it is well for thos e who have the time , the means , DUAL PERSONAL ITY 89 and the opportunity to devote some study to the strange manifestations of occult science as presented to us early in the morning of the twentieth century . Man his an s ess on a we ms e , by tr gr i , llo d hi elf to b m N th . e e e e s ow St . e e in s ov rco by vil pirit , P t r form ‘ us a b m m an is e c me the sam e a s th t y who ov r o , of l o ’ l hi m n n ns is he the s ave. T s do i io co ists in the power em ns em us sess n our es of d o to t pt by ob i g bodi , by sess n m es an d v ex m an in ers a s an d ob io to ol t div w y , by possession Violen tly an d despotic ally to tu rn his i m in a in s um en u he v ct to tool or tr t , thro gh h ch i —w i n ff . Go produc es very strange an d startli g e ects J. d “ ” e R u ert The u eme em . fr y a p , S pr Probl

92 ESS AYS IN OCCULTISM, “ who , a few years ago , reviewed for the Cath olic World ” Father Searle ’ s treatise on “ Spirit ” the Phenomena , leaned to opinions of Owen and the scientists mentioned . This immortality plea was also Daniel Homes ’ defense when accused of holding communica

- tion with the devil, and is to day repeated, iter ated and reiterated by Spiritists in their litera ture , lectures , and conversations . Until it be proved that the spirits which an swer the call and hold converse with human beings are souls of men or women who once ﬂ lived in the esh , and are not companions of “ those who said to our Blessed Lord : What ” esus ? have we to do with thee , J , Son of God this immortality claim of Spiritists does not convince minds well informed on the history of necromancy or evocation of the dead . If the immortality of the soul rested on no better au

hor t ity than the statements of those whom S t. “ ” Paul denounced as lying spirits , the belief in its reality would long ago have disappeared from the minds of all peoples .

Strange, is it not, that thousands who pro SPIRITISM 93

fess to believe in the immortality of the soul , “ on the testimony of what they call disem ” resurrec bodied spirits , refuse to accept the tion of Jesus Christ on the testimony of men who were eye -witnesses to the Cruciﬁ xion of

H e the Son of God, who spoke with Him after had So risen from the tomb , and were positive and convinced that it was the same Christ whom they saw hanging on the cross that they suf fered martyrdom rather than deny His resur rection . Faith in the divinity of our Lord and His doctrines is dead in the brain and hearts of men and women who abandon them “ ” selves to seeking the truth from the dead . They are the legitimate descendants of the apostates from the Church of Ephesus , of “ whom St. Paul said They have departed from the faith and are now giving heed to spirits ” of error and to doctrines of devils . Conceding the phenomena and spirit com munication s alleged by S piritists in favor of their cult , there is absolutely no proof that the spirits which respond to the questions of the m d who a e iums or others , or materialize and p 94 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

é l pear at the s ances , are the s ou s of deceased

iriti m . S s then con trar to th r persons p , , y e p e

tensions o its e ate ries roves n either th f , p at the dead live ag ain n or that the s o ul survives the

o I t do es n o t even r ve th h r b dy. p o at t e e 28 m m an a s oul dis tinct rom the b od f y . I call

o particular attenti n to this statement, which merits more consideration than it has hitherto received . We need no ghost from hell or elsewhere to convince us that the immortality of the soul fol lows necessarily from the immateriality of the soul, for that is demonstrable from reason , and was so understood by nearly all heathen philos h r . op e s What was not believed by the heathen, and is not provable from reason, is the Chris tian doctrine of the resurrection of our bodies .

This , the supernatural life , and the Incarnation the spirits and the Spiritists do not teach and do not pretend to teach . We are on fairly inti mate terms with Italian , French , and English literature dealing with the three broad divisions

of Occultism and Spiritism, but we have no where found in that literature a statement of

96 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

2 . The members of the American Society of

Psychical Research are Spiritists , not Spiritual

ists . , who are fakers

3 . Ghosts , in many instances , are simply phantoms or creatures of the imagination .

4 . Communications between disembodied

souls and human beings of this earth are es tab li h d t s e fac s .

5 . Spirits or disembodied souls have all the physical organs which were theirs when on

earth, but these organs in the spirit sphere are l now etherea ized . Except the substitution of the correct word

’ Mr H slo s Spiritism for Spiritualism . y p pres

’ entation of the Society s views suggests noth ing new or indeed interesting . For the man who professes to believe in the Divinity of Jesu s

Christ , that is in the accepted Christian sense ,

n t which Spiritists do o , the position and line of

action of such a man , face to face with the

awful mystery of the unseen world, and with necromancy or evocation of the dead , is settled

u for all time . For those of s who are members of the Judaic or of the imperishable Catholic SPIRITISM 97

Church, the grave question of Spiritism is for ever answered and our attitude clear and in lli i l te g b e . The Judaic and Catholic Churches have ofﬁ cially and authoritatively declared that

in of the belief , and practice , Spiritism, consult ing spirits and entering into comm unication t wi h them, evocation or calling up the dead — necromancy are unlawful and against the com

e mand of God . The Catholic and Jndai Churches condemn Spiritism and everything in timatel it y or remotely associated with , and this condemnation is extended to planchette and ouija board . And thes e ever ancient and ever new churches know what they are doing, for they have in their keeping the knowledge and experience of the human race back to the days of Abraham . The Jew or Catholic who mixes himself up with Spiritism is a fool, and though he may not now admit his folly, he will do so before he is through with the spirits . We know of no more fruitful cause of insanity and immorality than necromancy and promiscuous intercourse with “ St. ri those whom John calls spi ts of devils . 98 ESS AYS I N OCCULTISM

Moses , by command of God, entreated the Is — — raelites the Jewish people to abstain from

all intercourse with spirits or fallen angels .

Read this extract from Deuteronomy, Chap . XVII “ Neither let there be found among you

anyone that consulteth spirits , or that seeketh ” the truth from the dead . This warning was delivered about three thousand six hundred years ago to human beings like ourselves , who ,

professing themselves to be wise , became ” fools . Once again let us consult the word of God And when Jesus was come to the other side

Gerasen s of the water, into the country of the , there met him two men possessed of devils ,

‘ and behold they cried out saying, What

’ O esus ? have we to do with thee , J , Son of God

S ( Matt . VIII) . Who told the pirits who pos sessed these men that Jesus was the Son of

God, and why did they openly declare that they were not on His side ? Notwithstanding the claims put forward by Spiritists that their cult has opened to the nu derstanding and knowledge of man a mine of

100 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM They were more common among the polished

G reeks and all - conquering Romans than they are in any American and European nation to

. ul day Tert lian, Origen, and many of the ante Nicene Fathers warned Christians not to be de

ceiv e d by them . If we may credit the state

M r P . ments of . J Sinnet , the theosophist, in “ ” his Occult World, the Thibetan mystics and Mahatmas of India claim to inherit from im memorial times extraordinary psychic powers and an intimate acquaintance with transmun d ane spirits . The Catholic Church has in every

age , since the Redemption, encountered them, and she has uniformly associated them with

a S tan and his angels . Spiritism is a heresy with which the members

i of Christianity have nothing n common . And

an d yet men and women of high aim, sincere

i i b e honest, if not always of avowedly Chr st an lief, are every day enmeshed in the subtleties of this pernicious deception . For Catholics , and indeed for all Christians , the Catholic Church answers s atisfactorily and conclusively every appeal of the soul over our present life SPIRITISM 101

f and our future destiny . Away rom her side there is nothing positive , nothing dogmatic, nothing trustworthy in any of our notions as to whence we came or whither we go when the light of human existence dies out in us . Away from her there is darkness , confusion, and de

a sp ir of the future . seems to me a the s e au in the It th t Apo tl P l ,

E is e the E es an s n s a a e s i ua p tl to ph i , poi t to r c of pir t l ea u es s m a a a e es e but o a cr t r , i il r to th t I h v d crib d , f mali n ant t e w en he s ea s in s n ot m a e g yp , h p k of be g d of ﬂ esh and blood inhabitin g the air aroun d us an d a e n u us aff m an n ese bl i j rio ly to ect ki d . Th practices [ of consultin g spirits "were co ndemn ed in e unm easured terms by th e H ebrew prophets . Th y were prohibited n ot only b ecau se th ey were the prae

i e the a an n a i ns b ut m ain e ause e t c of p g t o , ly b c th y ten ded to obscure the divin e idea an d to weaken the supreme faith in the reveren t worship of the One “ mn n ein Sir i am a e ec o O ipote t B g . W lli B rr tt, N r

m an cy ar d Modern Magic.

104 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

th e a ? spirits speaking for de d In fact, is not — all literature, all history sacred and profane

o ha Plutarch, H mer, the Lives of the Saints , all

iolo g gy, punctuated with instances of the living communicating with the dead ? The experience of Sir Oliver Lodge is noth ing new . Holding converse with the dead is the daily experience of thousands living in Eu

an r c rope , Asia , d America , and is a cult or p a e tice almost co val with the human race . The idea of the possibility of spirit communi cation is , of itself, in no way opposed to rea sonable belief, but is a matter altogether de

the pendent on testimony of witnesses , whose li evidence is legally entitled to be ef . It has already been decided by rigid examination .

a Seventy ye rs ago , when Darwin and Huxley thought they had pushed back the frontiers of the unknowable to the farthe st point attain

' able , that is to a negation of God , the still but impressive voice of the scientist , Alfred Rus

n sel Wallace , was heard , crying in a wilder ess

- of scoffs and j eers . To day Sir Oliver Lodge has swung the pendulum back to where it was SPIRITISM 105

a hi two hundred ye rs ago . And all the w le the natural and the supernatural maintain their in alterable laws , while only the minds of the sci entists are vacillating . It is a melancholy reﬂection upon our proc

a esses of thought th t, after emerging from “ what scientists are pleased to call supersti

e tion , and establishing elaborate cosmog nies

ﬁ x e and theories seemingly d and unalterable , the human mind should be driven back upon the

old traditions and the old practices .

Is it not deplorable that, when the intellect of man has lost the truths made known by God

from the beginning, he is driven to take refuge in pure negation of all revelation or indulge

himself with evocation of the dead , as Sir Oliver

Lodge is now doing, or seek for information on

’ the soul s destiny from those whom St. Mark calls “ spirits of evil ” and “ unclean spirits ” ?

Spiritism , or the practice of necromancy, is

- the c m evi to day, as it was in time of Moses ,

den ce o m o ral n f decade ce. As in the days of

old , it has grown into a cult with which thou

sands are obsessed . It has a copious litera 106 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM ture punctuated by such startling terms as

r telopsis , telepathy, telote opathy, ” “ ” ti- teleken sis zo magnetic force , , and many other ﬁ ne words i nvented by the Psychical Re c sear hers .

a Spiritism is development of paganism, an outgrowth of heathenism in every age of his m tory, and is found with pitiable for s of devil worship among nations that are most deeply

r . a sunk in idolat y Its permanency, then , mong Japhetic races in modern times is an alarming mark of the degeneracy of our boasted civiliza

tion . Three thousand four hundred years ago the pagan world was so steeped in Spiritism that

e God, under pain of death, prohibited its pra tice to the Israelites Neither let there be

“ found among you any one that consulteth

S th e pirits , or that seeketh truth from the

dead . ( Deut . XVIII,

S o that Spiritism , or communing with spirits and summoning the souls of the dead to hold

converse with the living, goes back very far in the annals of the human race . It was prohibited

108 ESS AYS I N OCCULTISM devils who brought shameful abominations to ” their sons and daughters . All through the

Old and New Testaments there runs , as dis tinctly Visible as a black thread woven into

inﬂ uence disem white silk, the malign , not of d bodie souls , but of spirits lost in hopeless

a desp ir . There is no fact of hi story more strongly attested than this . Submitting our obedience to the records and revelations of divinely inspired writers and to the doctrinal teaching of the imperishable

Church of God, we hold that the spirits that w appear, or make their presence kno n , to the necromancers and accredited “ mediums ” of the

o r cult of Spiritism, are demons , according to “

t . S . St Peter and Jude, angels who kept not ” their principality, angels that sinned . We know that the souls of the dead do not return t o amuse the living or to satisfy their curiosity, and we also know that pernicous intermeddling with the unseen world of evil spirits is , sooner or later,sure to end disastrously.

The historic Catholic Church teaches now, and for two thousand years has uniformly SPIRITISM 109

ir1 taught, the existence of Satan , of lost sp ts , their unquenchable hatred for the human race and their sinister inﬂuence upon persons who

abandon themselves to intercourse with them . l If there be no devi or evil spirits , what is the

meaning of the exorcisms in Baptism , of the th ’ appeals to God in e Church s Missal, ritual,

us in and public prayers , to save from the evil ﬂuence and enmity of Satan and the angels “ who sinned ” ? To this end she commands her

tt S acriﬁ e priests , after they have o ered up the c

of the Mass , to say aloud this suggestive and S doctrinal prayer May God rebuke atan, we

humbly pray, and do thou , Michael , Prince of

the Heavenly Host, by the power of God , drive back into hell all the evil spirits who wander i through the world seek ng the ruin of souls . If there be no Satan and no evil spirits there

can be no Saviour , for, from whom does the

us t Saviour save There can be no Redeemer,

for, from what are we rescued, and if there be

no no Saviour and Redeemer , can there be Chris

tianit ? esus y Now, why did J Christ, the Son

R e and of God, our ede mer Saviour, become 110 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

man ? St. John removes all doubt from our

minds when , in language emphatic and convinc “ u ﬁ r ing, he tells s in his st Epistle The S on of God appeared upon earth that he might de ” stroy the works of the devil .

all All the ribald laughter of scoffers , the

inﬁ dels ridicule of sceptics , all the sophisms of , and the incredulity of those “ wise in their own ” conceits , cannot alter facts . The existence of evil spirits and their malign inﬂ uence over the souls of men and women are not alone facts of history, sacred and profane , they are facts in

a the life and experience of the hum n race . Clairvoyants and mediums represent as dehn ite a profession among u s to - day as did python esses , necromancers , and soothsayers among e the Romans and earlier races . S ances and con — versation s with spirits of the dead in reality with powers of darkness—are entered upon without fear and spoken of without abhorrence . Nor do we believe with some learn ed theolo gians that the unchangeable enmity of the devil and the malevolent operations of evil spirits on human souls are less now than before the

112 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

insanity and to utter moral depravity . She commands her a dherents to have nothing to do with anything or any person mediately or im mediately associated with diabolism and spirits of evil . She has behind her the experience of two thousand years and, when she speaks , she speaks with authority and with a knowledge that covers the religious and social history of the human race .

I do not kn ow of any belief that has so universally e ai e am n m em e s the uman a e at all pr v l d o g b r of h r c ,

i es an d in l l an s as the e ie in th in ﬂuen ce t m a l d , b l f e of em ns an d an e s on um an e n s an d an nu d o good g l h b i g , alterable faith in the appearan ce an d visits of the souls — of th e dead to the Gougenot D es Mous x L M e seau a a . , gi

116 FSSAYS I N OCCULTISM

did chapter, the soul bring its body with it t

ofﬁ er No , certam not , for when the English c on board the homeward bound ship saw the ap

arition ’ p of the living man , the Captain s father,

the sick man , was in his bed hundreds of miles

away, and at no time was he left alone . “ ” “ How then, you ask, account for the ‘ double ’ on board the ship ? ”

Well , before we enter upon this problem , let us make reasonably sure that these apparitions

us occur ; in fact, let be convincingly sure , and then we can penetrate with a contented mind — — into the arcah a the secrets of the very heart of these wonderful facts .

Robert Bruce , originally descended from some m branch of the Scottish fa ily of that name , was born , in humble circumstances , about the close of the last century, at Torbay, in the south of

England, and there bred up to a seafaring life . When about thirty years of age , in the

1828 ﬁ rst year , he was mate on a bark trading h ’ t. o n s between Liverpool and S J , New Bruns

On a wick . one of her voy ges bound westward , being then some ﬁv e or six weeks out and having APPARITIONS 117

n eared the eastern part of the Banks of New

n l nd fou d a , the captain and mate had been on

deck at noon , taking an observation of the sun ; after which they both returned to the cabin to

compound reckonings . The cabin , a small one ,

was immediately at the stern of the vessel , and the short stairway descending to it ran athwart

rw ships . Immediately opposite to this stai ay

just beyond a small square landing, was the

’ mate s state - room ; and from that landing there

were two doors , close to each other , the one

th e opening aft into cabin, the other, fronting the

- stairway, into the state room . The desk in the

- it state room was in the forward part of , close

to the door ; so that any one sitting at it and looking over his shoulder could see into the

cabin .

The mate , absorbed in his calculation, which

con id did not result as he expected, varying s

erabl - y from the dead reckoning, had not noticed

’ the captain s absence . When he had completed

his calculations , he called out, without looking “ round, I make our latitude and longitude so ” and so . Can that be right ? How is yours ? 118 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

Receiving no reply, he repeated his question , s glancing over his houlder and perceiving, as he thought, the captain busy writing on his slate . Still no answer . Thereupon he rose ;

- ﬁ ure and , as he fronted the cabin door, the g he had mistaken for the captain raised its head and disclosed to the astonished mate the features of an entire stranger .

Bruce was no coward ; but, as he met that ﬁ xed gaze looking directly at him in grave si lence , and became assured that it was no one whom he had ever seen before , it was too much for him ; and, instead of stopping to question the

intruder h seeming t e rushed upon deck in such evident alarm that it instantly attracted the

’ “ ”

M r. captain s attention . Why, Bruce , said “ the latter, what in the world is the matter with you ? ” “ ? The matter, Sir Who is that man at your desk ? ” “ f No one that I know o .

’ ” i : . But there s , Sir there s a stranger there A " stranger Why, man , you must be dream

a ing . You must h ve seen the steward there , or

120 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

followed him . Nobody in the cabin " They

n - exami ed the state rooms . Not a soul to be found " “ “ M r Well, . Bruce , said the captain, did not I tell you you had been dreaming ?

’ so It s all very well to say , Sir ; but if I

’ didn t see that man writing on your slate , may I never see my home and family again "” “ Ah writing on the slate " Then it should be ” u there still . And the captain took it p . “B ” “ ’ y God, he exclaimed , here s something,

" Mr. sure enough Is that your writing, Bruce ? ”

the The mate took slate ; and there , in plain, “ S -TEER TO legible characters , stood the words , ’ w ” TH E N on nsr . “ triﬂin ? Have you been g with me, Sir added the captain, in a stern manner .

On my word as a man and as a sailor, Sir, “ replied Bruce , I know no more of this matter ” than you do . I have told you the exact truth .

The captain sat down at his desk , the slate A before him, in deep thought . t last, turning the slate over and pushing it toward Bruce, he APPARITIONS 121

“ ‘ ’ ’ said, Write down, Steer to the nor west .

The mate complied ; and the captain , after

a narrowly comparing the two h ndwritings , said, “

Mr. o Bruce , g and tell the second mate to come ” down here .

’ He came ; and, at the captain s request , he also

S e . wrote the same words . did the steward

o S , in succession , did every man of the crew who

a could write t all . But not one of the various

a h nds resembled, in any degree , the mysterious writing .

the When the crew retired, captain sat in “ deep thought . Could any one have been

stowed away ? at last he said . The ship must

’ ﬁ n d be searched ; and if I don t the fellow, he

a l - must be good hand at hide and seek . Order

’ up all hands .

Every nook and corner of the vessel , from

stem to stern , was thoroughly searched, and

that with all the eagerness of excited curiosity, —for the report had gone out that a stranger

had shown himself on board ; 'but not a living

the oﬂicer soul beyond the crew and s was found . Returning to the cabin after their fruitless 122 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM “M r. a search, Bruce , s id the captain, ” the devil do you make of all this ?

“ ’ I m an Can t tell , Sir . saw the write ; you i see the writing . There must be someth ng in it 7 7

o . Well, it would seem s We have the wind free , and I have a great mind to keep her away ” a i and see wh t will come of t. “ I surely would, Sir, if I were in your place .

’ ”

a . It s only few hours lost , at the worst

“ ’ 11 o Well, we see . G on deck and give the

’ ” M r course nor west . And, . Bruce , he added , “ o o - as the mate rose t g , have a look out aloft,

n and let it be a hand you can depend o .

’ His orders were obeyed . About three o clock

- the look out reported an iceberg nearly ahead,

r a and , sho tly after, wh t he thought was a Vessel i of some kind close to t.

’ a As they approached , the captain s gl ss dis closed the fact that it was a dismantled ship ,

ice apparently frozen to the , and with a good

it. many human beings on Shortly after, they hove to , and sent out the boats to the relief of f the s u ferers .

124 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

her course again , the mate called the captain “ I aside . t seems that was not a ghost I saw

’ ” - : . to day, Sir the man s alive “ What do you mean ? Who ’ s alive ?

Why, Sir, one of the passengers we have just saved is the same man I saw writing on your slate at noon . I would swear to it in a court of j ustice . “ Mr Upon my word, . Bruce , replied the “ captain, this gets more and more singular . ” u s Let g o and see this man . They found him in conversation with the cap tain of the rescued ship . They both came for ward, and expressed, in the warmest terms , their gratitude for deliverance from a horrible

— - mi and fate , slow co ng death by exposure

starvation . The captain replied that he had but done what he was certain they would have done for him

n under the same circumstances , a d asked them

both to step down into the cabin . Then, turn “ m a g to the passenger, he s id, I hope , Sir, you

will not think I am triﬂing with you ; but I would be much obliged to you if you would write a APPARITIONS 125

” few words on this slate . And he handed him

t m steri the sla e , with that side up on which the y “ ous writing was not . I will do anything you ” “ ask, replied the passenger ; but what shall I write ? ” “ A few words are all I want . Suppose you

‘ ’ ’ write, Steer to the nor west .

The passenger, evidently puzzled to make out the motive for such a request, complied , how w ever, ith a smile The captain took up the slate and examined it closely ; then, stepping aside so as to conceal the slate from the pas senger, he turned it over, and gave it to him

w u again ith the other side p . “ You say that is your handwriting ? ” said

so I need not say , rejoined the other, look it “ i ” ing at , for you saw me write t. hi ? ” And t s said the captain , turning the slate over .

ﬁ rst The man looked at one writing, then at A “ . t the other, quite confounded last, What is the meaning of this “I said he “I only wrote ” one of these . Who wrote the other ? 126 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

’ That s more than I can tell you , Sir. My it mate here says you wrote , sitting at this desk, ” - at noon to day . The captain of the wreck and the passenger

in looked at each other, exchanging glances of telligence and surprise ; and the former asked “ the latter , Did you dream that you wrote on this slate ? ” “ o ir . N , s , not that I remember

You speak of dreaming, said the captain of “ W the bark . hat was this gentleman about

‘ at noon to - day ? “ ” “ l Captain , rejoined the other , the who e

thing is most mysterious and extraordinary ; and I had intended to speak to you about it as

soon as we got a little quiet . This gentleman

(pointing to the passenger) , being much ex

hansted , fell into a heavy sleep , or what seemed

such, some time before noon . After an hour or

‘ more , he awoke , and said to me , Captain , we

’ shall be relieved this very day . When I asked

so him what reason he had for saying , he replied that he had dreamed that he was on board a

bark, and that she was coming to our rescue .

128 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

it ” is another very strange thing about , he “ added . Everything here on board seems to me quite familiar ; yet I am very sure I never was in your vessel before . It is all a puzzle to ” me . What did your mate see ?

Thereupon M r. Bruce related to them all the circumstances above detailed . The conclusion

ﬁ nall they y arrived at was , that it was a special interposition of Providence to save them from what seemed a hopeless fate . The above narrative was communicated to me H . . li l by Capt J S Clarke , of the schooner Ju a a l h M r. o u . c , who had it directly from Br ce himself

They sailed together for seventeen months , in the years 1836 and ’ 37 so that Captain Clarke had the story from the mate about eight years H after the occurrence . e has since lost sight of

him , and does not know whether he is yet alive . All he has heard of him since they were ship

mates is , that he continued to trade to New

Brunswick, that he became the master of the m t o e . brig C , and that she was lost I asked Captain Clarke if he knew Bruce well

and what sort of man he was . APPARITIONS 129

As truthful and straightforward a man , “ he replied, as ever I met in all my life . We ’ were as intimate as brothers ; and two men can t be together, shut up for seventeen months in the same ship , without getting to know whether

’ H e they can trust one another s word or not . always spoke of th e circumstance in terms of reverence , as of an incident that seemed to bring I ’ d him nearer to God and to another world . stake my life upon it that he told me no lie .

ilk

This singular example of the apparition of a living man is copied from the “ Memoirs of Sir ” Robert Bruce , by Robert Dale Owens in his “ book, Footfalls on the Boundary of Another ”

M . World . It was critically examined by “ ” Piérart La G ou en ot in Revue Spirite , by g

Des Mousseaux in his La Magie , and by many other eminent searchers into the secrets of pneu m t l a o o . gy, and accepted by them as a possibility

The reader will , of course , understand that for the sake of brevity, I omit many interesting details in the examples of bilocation I am now

citing. We do not yet know the properties of 130 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

. n matter Perhaps , if we k ew them , we should discover secrets by which we should be able to

ad explain the phenomenon of bilocation . But,

the mitting experience of Bruce to be a fact, we are confronted with a f ew questions meriting serious attention . We have already been told

St. a by Thomas , whose prodigious intellect p

ro ached p , in its power of analysis , angelic “ subtlety, that The soul cannot leave its body either in natural ecstasy or in divine ec

b e r stasy, unless it ce tain that by divine per mission and by the will of God the soul leaves i the body again to return to t . The body from which the soul has departed

re is dead . Can the soul come back again to f animate it t O itself it has no power to do s o .

Such a phenomenon or miracle , if it occurred, would be at once a resurrection . To leave the body and enter it again, as one goes out of a house and comes back , would be a miracle like unto that which our Divine Lord in His o mnipo tence wrought on that ever memorable and por tentous occasion when H e came out victorious from the tomb .

132 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

w world of darkness , against the spirits of icked ” “ ness in high places , that is to say, spirits in ” l u the air . The inspired Psalmist a so tells s that God visited the Egyptians with His wrath “ and indignation, which He sent by evil ” angels .

— As to bein g different from ourselves what their n m a u e a b e s we ann m an i ea. t r y , of thi c ot for y d Souls of the dead ? This is far from bein g demon

r Th n nume se a i n -I a e st ated . e i rable ob rv t o s which h v

‘ e e durin m ore an e s all e coll ct d g th forty y ar , prov to m n a is a iden tiﬁ cation has e the co trary . No s t f ctory ” “ — m F amma i n L Re vue des een m a e. a b d C ille l r o , a D eux M n es o d .

136 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

the grave . As Sir Oliver does not inform us “ ” “ ” what he means by church or dogma , we are free to put our own interpretation on the

r te ms . But if he includes in his appeal the

udaic J and Catholic Churches , then the eminent

scientist is not as familiar with the Scriptures , the Talmud and the literature of the Catholic Church and her provincial and synodical decrees as we should expect from one of his enviable rep

a i n ut t o . There is hardly one of the great doc

- F tors of the Church, or one of the ante Nicene a

thers St. , not a single theologian of repute , from

Augustine to Bellarmine and Suarez , that has n o t dealt, and dealt exhaustively, with inter communication between this world and the spirit

world . And they all, without an exception , as sure us that the spirits who answer the call of

mediums , evocators , and necromancers are not “ souls of the dead , but demons or angels that ” sinned and forsook their own habitation . The very great number of m ediums or py

n es es tho s among the Gentile nations , and among

some of the Hebrew tribes , in the time of Moses , and the universality and frequency of this prac DEMONI ACAL POS SESSION 137

tice of consulting the spiri ts believed to be the

souls of the dead, led the great lawgiver to pro bibit, by order of God, the presence of mediums “ ” among the chosen people . Here is what we “ : read in Deuteronomy, Chap . XVIII Neither let there be found among you any one that

consulteth soothsayers or pythonic spirits ,

or fortune tellers , or that seeketh the truth from

the dead . For the Lord abhorreth all these

things , and for these abominations he will de

stroy them .

In obedience to the advice of Samuel, the

prophet, Saul , King of Israel , renewed the prohibition of Moses and “ drove out of the land ” all necromancers and sorcerers . And what inference are we to draw from the many examples of demoni acal possession and the evil inﬂuence of lost spirits upon man recorded in the New Testament ? Listen to “ this And when Jesus was come on the other

side of the water , into the country of the Ger

asen s , there met him two that were possessed

with devils . And behold they cried out, say

: ing What have we to do with thee , Jesus , 5138 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM son of God ? Art thou come hither to torment us before the time ?

u Does not the appeal of these nhappy spirits , l lost in end ess woe , to our Saviour not to send them into the abyss , but to permit them to enter the herd of swine , hint that these evil spirits found some relief of pain in being permitted to remain on earth ? The fear of torment b efo re the tim e intimates that the time of their extreme punishment was not yet come ( Luke VIII, If you say our credulity has been imposed upon by what is termed ﬁ ctitious possessions produced by diseases of the mind, by hallucina tions , by the distempered imagination of those who thought themselves possessed, or that feigned to be so for a purpose ; and that there never was and is not now any case of demoniac possession, we reply that if there was and is no real possession, Christ and His Apostles and the Christian Church are in error and must

u wilfully involve all tr e believers in error, by

Speaking, acting, and praying as if these cases were a reality and not a ﬁ gment of our imagina

Our to tion . Saviour spoke and commanded

140 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM found and sublime subjects he never studied and of which an hour before he was densely ignorant, or discovers the unspoken and secret thoughts of another ; if he is lifted into the air without Visible assistance , and all this be done without any personal motive , interest or pas sion , what conclusion must we come to ? If it be said that speaking foreign languages by one who can only express himself normally

f air in his mother tongue , or that loating in the im i by a man without visible help , are an poss ilit b y, then those hierophants of Spiritism

Re az oni Du otet Weir, Home , gg , p , Owens , and

u s others are deceiving . But supposing them to be parties to a conspiracy of lies , what are

ewish we to say of the Bible , of the J Talmud ,

Mis hh a G em o m the Hebrew and , all of which

u emphatically tell s of demoniac possession , of the speaking of foreign tongues and of levi tation ? And how can we explain away the

t. t statements of S Augustine , S . Thomas , Bos

suet , de Merville , and above all and over all the prayer of the historic Catholic Church in her Exorcism of the Possessed ? ' DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 141

“ It may be asked , How can God, our Creator , allow these ‘ sons of malediction ’ to possess ? ” our souls or obsess our bodies We reply, “ Does not God permit the lustful man to ruin ” the innocent girl ? A n evil spirit out of the

it in human body, and an evil soul within , can jure only those who consort with them and sur

inﬂ en e render their will to their baneful u c .

ov God, through His own mysterious ways , g erns the universe and all who dwell within it d till the Ju gment of the Great Day, when justice shall be meted to all with rigorous im

On partiality . that day unrepenting evil men and unrepenting rebellious angels will alike hear “ ff e and su er the Depart , y cursed , into ever lasting ﬁ re which was prepared for the devil ” XX . V and his angels ( Matt ,

The Sacred Scriptures , the Catholic Church , her theologians , her great doctors and her early — Fathers , all teach that rebel angels , called, to

irits — day, sp by the Spiritists , are unclean , pro m o ters of spiritual darkness and spiritual wick “ ” edness . They are called angels of darkness

t. by S Paul , who also says that they sometimes 142 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

transform themselves into angels of light , in

order that they may the more easily seduce men ,

a f and th t they su fer grief, despair and rage in

their state of irrevocable damnation . Among early Christian writers there per haps was none who had a more intimate ac quaintance with the spiritual phenomena of his

r . age ( second centu y) , than Tertullian In his “ ” “ A lo i m XI : po get cu ( Chap . X I ) he says The subtility of the substance of these spirits gives to them a marvelous aptitude for penetrating the double substance of man . The body and the soul can be tainted and Vitiated by their sinister

n inﬂue ce and their impure contact . And when these necromancers (mediums ) evoke the dead,

and spirits answer, it is by the aid and help of ” demons . Down the avenue of time all history is punctu ated with multitudinous and pitiable examples

A n d auth en of demoniac possession . so well ticated and thoroughly v eriﬁ ed are these cases of human possession that we cannot refuse to accept them as facts without using methods of

144 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

. a lessly slaughtered A man n med John D . Lee

was the leader of the murderers . That we may realize the value of his statement when about

to be executed , twenty years after the whole

sale murder, I insert this extract taken from a

r i ' M . o s ah F . au sketch of his life by J Gibbs , “ ” thor of Lights and Shadows of Mormonism “ I n stature John D . Lee was about ﬁ ve feet

eight inches , of powerful build, tireless energy

H e and unchallenged courage . was also a man

e re of more than av rage intelligence , of deep li ious g convictions , love for his family and i t. friends , and loyal to his duty as he saw

n 23rd a 18 6 O the morning of the of M rch, 7 ,

Lee , after his trial and conviction , was executed

for his part in the awful slaughter . Standing

fﬁn near his co he made a brief farewell address , in which he denied any intent to do wrong “ ” “ There are , he said , thousands of people in this church (Mormon) that are honorable and

- there is a kind o good hearted friends . But f

livin m a n etic in luence g , g f that has come over

u s, and I cannot compare it to anything than hi the reptile that enamors s prey, till it cap DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 145 tivates it it ' t , paralyzes , and rushes it into he

in uen ce jaws of death . I cannot compare this ﬂ

o am ati ﬁ e i to anything else . It is s , I s s d of t. ” I kn it ow . i N . Y m 1 h T . 4t . es And read this from the , Feb ,

1918 : “ The National Association for the Advance ment of Colored People sent this telegram last

‘ night to President Wilson : Speaking on b e half of millions of Americans , we respectfully call your attention to the horrible crime at E s

- t . ill Springs , Tenn , where a fellow American ,

ﬁ rst accused of murder, was tortured by hot irons and then slowly burned to death by a mob,

’ the second burning recently of this kind .

Is it possible to believe that man , made in the image and likeness of God, civilized man,

- hi n oli i n church going man , could of s ow v t o

? b e be so atrociously cruel If it , where, then, is the difference between these men and the

? Tim es demons of hell The , moreover , did not tell all , for present by invitation at this unbe liev ab le act of savagery, were women, young

con maidens and little children . Are we not £146 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

M strained to admit with the illustrious . Ratis bonne that “ There are many evil men and Women in our midst who are possessed with evil

spirits and , like the Magdalene , are not con

scious of it.

If the disembodied soul cann ot in any way move the e em en s ma e a are w sa es e n l t of tt r, wh t e to y r p cti g the ph enomen on takin g place at spiristic S eances ? Can that tran sfer of obj ects from on e place to an e se m s e i us n ses eman a n m a rs oth r, tho y t r o oi ti g fro ch i and a es an d mus a ins umen s a s n an e us t bl ic l tr t , th t po t o Op enin g of doors an d windows an d the many other oft reported an d n ow so well - attested phen omen a b e at tributed to the agen cy of dep arted souls ? We reply a is is im ss e sin e su ef e s are th t th wholly po ibl , c ch f ct altogether beyon d the n atural powers of the sep arated s u a u e are u se ss e an e o l , ltho gh th y , of co r , po ibl to g lic “ ” s —Lé icier The Unseen b ein g . p , W orld . WHAT OF THE DEA D ? — Evocation of the D ea d Was probably practised before — e e — a a the Deluge Statement of M . d Mirvill Evoc tion p — peals to the Curiosity of P eople Prep aring for Initiation — — into Spiritism P lan chette and Ouij a B o ardr The Tran ce — — M edium Sin cerity of Spiritists Souls of the D ead do not — com e back to E arth Evocation con demned by Moses and a — n e Ex am by S ul Wo d rful ples .

The practice of “ calling up the dead ” and conversing with them, which is opposed to the teaching of the Catholic Church and to the in stinct and reason of man , obtained probably in — ante diluvian times . We know from the pages of Holy Writ that in the days of the patriarchs and prophets the custom was universal and tended largely to a physical and moral de

enerac g y which belongs , even t o day, to all ori ental races . M We do not altogether agree with . de Mir “ ville in h1s statement that : Among the civil 149 150 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM iz ed races of Europe and America the cult of Evocation or Spiritism is conﬁn ed to persons of weak mentality and of a low order of intelli ” s gene . We are of the opinion that among the believers in the cult are many men and women of good and trained intellects who believe what they believe because they have not studied Spir itism and its development from the pages of

the Sacred Scriptures , from the writings of the

early Christian Fathers , theologians , and doc

tors of the Church , from the decrees of provin

cial hi councils and from the briefs , or pro bitions

Leo of many Popes , notably Benedict XIV and

XI . The methods of the Spiritism of to -day ap peal urgently to innate curiosity and to an in satiable craving in many persons for the new

and the untried . In nearly all initial experiments the novice experiences sensations like unto those which the hypnotised feels when surrendering his will

ex eri to the hypnotiser . After additional p

n es e c , his curiosity, the books he reads , or the promptings of a Spiritist acquaintance induce

152 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

“ those living in Apostolic times , giving heed to ” seducing spirits and doctrines of devils ? ( 1

Timothy IV, Is it permitted for man by sacrilegious in cantation s , from curiosity, whim or caprice or for any motive to disturb the repose of the tomb ? The souls of the dead—saved or lost—do not respond to the evocations of man . This i s the teaching of the Old and New Testaments , of the Catholic Church , and of the Fathers and “ Doctors of the Church . The souls of the Just are in the hands of God and the torment of ” death shall not touch them . (Wisdom III, 11 “ When we read in Deut . (XVIII, ) Neither let there be found among you any one that

S or consulteth pythonic pirits , ‘ seeketh the ” — truth from the dead, are we to believe that th e souls of the dead, like obedient servants , will come at th e sound of our voice and give answer to our questions ? Certainly not . The language of th e "Sacred Text simply conform s to h the prevailing belief of the time . W en we “ read in Genesis : Remember, man, thou art WHAT or THE DEAD ? 153

” but dust, and into dust thou shalt return , we kn ow that the prophecy refers only to the body of man . The same form of expression obtains when the evil spirits adored by the heathen are “ ods called g , in the verse , the gods of the Gen ” tiles are demons . It is not in the power of man certainly not in that of a medium, to summon the dead , di trouble their repose , or sturb their hallowed rest . But under very exceptional circum

s stances , or for a very special rea on, does God ever p ermit a departed soul to return to earth

? m a by request of the living It y happen, for confronted with the narrative in the ﬁ rst B ook of Kings recording the appearance of the dead prophet, Samuel , we cannot deny the possibility

difﬁcult of human apparitions . Our y consists in determining whether these apparitions are the absolute personalities themselves or go od o r bad angels representing them . If the souls of

can the just ever return to this earth , it only happen by an act of their own pure wills , and by divine permission . The eternally lost soul

ob cannot come back to earth . The patriarch J 154 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

informs us that As a cloud is dissipated and passeth away ; so he that has gone down to

u hell shall not come p . Nor shall he return any hi more into s house , neither shall his place kn ow ” 9 him again ( Job VII,

selﬁ sh If Dives , the and proud rich man who ” was buried in hell, could return to earth , he would not have begged of Abraham to send some one to his ﬁ v e brothers on earth to warn them l “ l to lead better ives , lest they a so come into ” hi m ' t s place of tor ents ( Luke XVI,

e That the dead do not r turn to earth , except by the permission of God and for a sp ecial rea

n s o , is a truth of Scripture and of Catholic theology . — Neither does Holy Writ , or theology, which is the science that treats of divine things and of the relations of man with God, and is inti mately acquainted with an d contrasts and com pares the texts and verses of the Sacred Books , —raise an eternal and unscalable rampart b e tween our eyes an d the vision of departed souls . Theologians are of the opinion that there have been occasions and times when redeemed

156 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

tion to a young married lady. I found h er in the agony of death, screaming fearfully ; her husband was supporting her in his arm s on the bed . I administered the last unction to her ; and an eﬁ ect followed which I have often ob

: served she became calm, and died in the ut most peace . Some days afterwards I was in my room about noon, looking out on the garden .

Suddenly I saw her within two steps of me , the same exactly as when living, but with a great brightness all around her . She made a motion to me of inexpressible sweetness and happiness ,

r as if thanking me for a great se vice , and dis

A t ﬁ rst appeared . the moment I felt a thrill hi like an electric shock ; but t s passed . I men

n tio ed this vision afterwards to a friend, and l to her husband . I had known but ittle of her .

- I asked if he was quite sure this was not an i f t. O illusion , but he had no doubt about the many stories of this kind one has heard this is the ﬁ rst told me by the person to whom it hap ” pened .

e It seems to b , however, the prevailing

a d opinion among theologians that disembo ied, WHAT or THE DEAD ? 157

or , more correctly, a separated soul , whether lost or saved, never appears in person . They do not deny that God may confer on disem bodied souls a power possessed by good and bad angels over matter , but contend that this power would mean an intrinsic change in the proper ties and nature of the soul . But if this opinion

ﬁ n alit b e accepted as a judgment and a y, how are we to explain the presence of Moses and Elias at the Tran sﬁguration on Mount Tabor ?

For in the seventeenth chapter of S t. Matthew it is mentioned without any equivocation that

Moses and Elias were actually present . More over, the apparition of Lourdes would not be

an that of the Blessed Virgin , but , possibly, of

t A u angel representing her . The great S . gustine hesitated to comm it himself to a positive answer to the question of the possibility of de

H e parted souls returning to earth . writes Some of the dead can be transported among the living ; not that the act is accomplished by virtue of their own nature , for it can only occur by consent and effect of divine power ; but, when these things happen, is the presence of 158 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

h the dead positive and real , or is it that t ey are represented by a spirit , clothed in their garb and resembling them ? This is what I can ” D M . e Cum ro ortuis not determine ( p , Chap .

. A D XV) More than once since the death, . . 430 , of the illustrious Bishop of Hippo has this “ t question troubled thoughtful minds . Is i , ” then, the real soul itself, asks the orthodox “ or Count de Mirville , a good or bad angel, which deceives our eyes when we believe we have seen and spoken with a departed soul ? ” While the prevailing opinion of the masters of the science of theology, and of S t. Thomas , “ ” n surnamed the A gel of the Schools , is that an angel, good or bad, appears in the place of w the soul, we have no here read that the appari tion of the soul itself is impossible . Lord — — Byron , poet, sceptic, and philosopher, posi tively asserted that he saw the ghost of his friend Shelley soon after he was drowned . And he is just as positive when he states that “with his own eyes ” he saw the phantom monk who haunted Newstead Abbey, a spoliation which Byron ’ s ancestors received as a gift from

160 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

’ “ Dale Owen s Footfalls on the Boundary of ” A h auht nother World, why should a spirit a man who had in no way injured it? I give the

Mr. history, writes Owen , as extracted from

’ Mrs . Hall s letter to me , dated London, March 31 1 59. L n , 8 The circumstances occurred in o don . “All young girls have friendships one with another ; and when I was seventeen my friend,

L a above all others , was Kate She was young Irish lady, my senior by three years , a ff gentle , a ectionate , pretty creature , much de c voted to her old mother, and exercising onstant forbearance toward a disagreeable brother who

ﬂute would persist in playing the , though he hi played both out of time and tune . T s brother was my béte n oire; and whenever I complained

‘ of his bad playing, Kate would say, Ah , wait till Robert comes home ; he plays and sings like

’ s " an angel , and is o handsome This Robert had been with his regiment for some years in

Canada ; and his coming home was to be the happiness of mother and daughter . For three months before his return nothing else was l WHA T or THE DEAD ? 161

of talked . If I had had any talent for falling

so in love, I should have done , in anticipation , with Robert L but that was not my weak

’ ness ; and I was much amused with my friend s speculations as to whether Robert would fall

r t in love with me , or I with him, ﬁ s .

When we met , there was , happily, no danger

He to either . told Kate that her friend was always laughing ; and I thought I had never looked on a face so beautiful in outline and yet so haggard and painful . His large blue eyes were deeply set, but always seemed looking

hn for something they could not d. To look at him made me uncomfortable . But this was not so strange as the change which , after a time , was evident in Kate . She had become , in less than a week , cold and constrained . I was to have spent the day with her ; but she made some

s o apology, and, in doing , burst into tears .

v Something was e idently wrong, which I felt satisﬁ ed k time must disclose . In about a wee more she came to see me by myself, looking ten years older . She closed the door of my room, and then said she desired to tell me something 162 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

which she felt I could hardly believe , but that, mi if I was not afraid, I ght come and judge for

’ myself . After Robert s return, she said, for a week or so they had been delightfully happy. But Very soon—she thought about the tenth

- day, or rather night they were alarmed by

’ loud raps and knocks in Robert s room . It was

ﬂo o r c the back room on the same on whi h Mrs . L and her daughter slept together in a

- large front bed chamber . They heard him

his swearing at the noise, as if it had been servant ; but the man did not sleep in the house .

A t last he threw his boots at it ; and the more violent he became , the more Violent seemed to

A t e v en grow the disturbance . last his moth r tured to kn ock at his door and ask what was the

H e in . matter . told her to come She brought

sh e a lighted candle and set it on the table . As

’ out entered, her son s favorite pointer rushed

‘ ’ ‘ ’ S o " of the room . , he said, the dog s gone I have not been able to keep a dog in my room at night for years ; but under your roof, mother,

ersecu I fancied, I hoped , I might escape a p tion that I see now pursues me even here . I

ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM times the sounds appearing to trickle around A . t the room last her other son, roused by the

in disturbance , came , and found his mother on her knees , praying. That night she slept in

’ her son s room, or rather attempted to do so ; for sleep was impossible , though her bed was not touched or shaken . Kate remained outside

. b e the open door It was impossible to see ,

ﬁ r cause , immediately after the st plunge down the chimney, the lights were extinguished .

The next morning, Robert told his family that for more than ten years he had been the victim o hi - f t s spirit persecution . If he lay in his tent,

t ofﬁcers it was there , disturbing his bro her , who gradually shunned the society of ‘ the

’ m an t — haunted , as hey called him, one who

‘ must have done something to draw down such

’ punishment . When on leave of absence, he was generally free from the visitation for three or

H e four nights ; then it found him out again .

never was suffered to remain in a lodging ; b e

‘ ’ ing regularly warned out by the house

the . holders , who would not endure noise “ — After breakfast, the next door neighbors WHAT or THE DEAD ? 165

sent in to complain of the noises of th e pre

Ou ceding night . the succeeding nights , sev eral friends ( two or three of whom I knew) ' L s at up with Mrs . and sought to investi

gate , according to human means , the cause . In

vain " They v eriﬁ ed the fact ; the cause re mained hidden in mystery .

Kate wished me to hear for myself ; but I

so had not courage to do , nor would my dear m it other have permitted . “No inducement could prevail on the pointer

’ to return to his master s room, by day or night .

He ﬁ rst was a recent purchase , and, until the

’ a noise in London came , had appreci ted Robert s i i kindness . After that, he evidently d sl ked his

‘ ’ I t a master . is the old story over gain, said

‘ Robert . I could never keep a dog . I thought

I would try again ; but I shall never have any i thing to love , and nothing w ll ever be permit

’ ted to love me . The animal soon after got

out ; and they supposed it ran away, or was

stolen . “ The young man , seeing his mother and sister

fading away under anxiety and want of rest, 166 ESSAYS IN ocouurism told them he could bear his affliction better by

o himself, and would therefore g to Ireland, his

n ative country, and reside in some detached

o ﬁ sh c untry cottage , where he could and shoot . “ H e went . Before his departure I once

‘ I t a heard the poor fellow say, is h rd to be so

’ punished ; but perhaps I have deserved it. “ r I learned, afte ward , that there was more than a suspicion that he had abandoned an un

‘ fortunate girl who loved not Wisely, but too

’ well . If lost souls can by anticip ation revenge themselves on their betrayers and victims , may we not , without an excess of temerity, apply to them the words of the patri arch to the Lord : “ For thou scourgest and th ou savest : thou leadest down to hell and bringest up again : and ” there is none that can escape thy hand . “ Now it m ay be asked Notwiﬁhstanding the denials seriously expressed by many the

ol ogian s of the possibility of -a departed soul

ni retur ng to earth , is not the belief in the real and actual appearan ces of dead persons re

n c e to a tur ing, an in ont stable fact going back

se en the ea ese a s se Tho who d y r lity of th f ct , tho who ea the w e em as a e e a an tr t hol probl jok , r g rd pl ch

e e as a an d en the ea i e s an d in tt toy , d y r l ty of pow r

ﬂ uen ces W i w unseen s u se e the ff e s h ch ork , ho ld ob rv e ct

s me the ua is i m an es a ns e of o of Spirit l t c if t tio . Th y

u n o n e im a in e sooﬁ at a n es a n wo ld lo g r , I g , th t i v tig tio an d b e em e a all m e ums au s b ut w u t pt d to c ll di fr d , o ld b e in clined to admit that there is a true terror of the ‘ ’ a an d a e e are in i a i ies an d we s d rk, th t th r pr c p l t po r i w we in our n an e wi u n win w th hich , ig or c , toy, tho t k o g an d realiz in g the frightful con sequen ces which may ” n result from this tamp erin g with the unsee world .

e wa a n n s c . H re rd C rri gto , P y hology SPIRIT S OF ANOTHER WORLD — Preval ence of Materi alism before the War Denial of the — — S upernatural Swing of the Pen dul um to S piriti sm Sir — — — n n o e t an a t. Oliver Lodge Co a D yl S . Fr cis of S les S “ ” — h a — — n Hilary T e E gle of Meaux St. P aul H . C arringto — — Stainton Moses Godfrey J Raupert The Nine A rticles m of Spiritis .

th e m Before war Materialism was , a ong men

scientiﬁ c who professed to be wise , the accepted

ri philosophy of Europe and Ame ca . It de manded high courage on the part of any man who dared to oppose himself to this Material i i st c philosophy .

The immortality of the soul , rewards and pun

’ ishments in another world, man s responsibility

on to , and dependence , God , and even the ex istence of God , were denounced as the remains and wreckage of the ﬂo o d of superstition Which deluged the dark and unscientiﬁc ages of the past . The believers in the Materialistic 169 170 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

philosophy of Maudsley, Spencer , Huxley, Dar

- win, and Clifford relegated to the ash heap all trust in the supern atural and all belief in a here after . To the student of the history of human thought and of natural philosophy there is nothing new in the pendulum of the Material istic mind swinging now to the other extreme and resting in the very antithesis of Material —i n . ism, gross Spiritism That the sons of the men who denied and scoffed at the possibility of

b n o a life eyond the grave , should w reject the crude denials of their fathers and embrace a

Spiritistic philosophy of life , is one of those strange anomalies with which all history is ﬁ ll “ ed. The fathers changed the truth of God into a lie ; they have eaten sour grapes and their ’ ” w . o children s teeth are on edge N , as in “ n Apostoli c times , thes e men are ever lear ing and never attaining to the knowledge of the ” truth .

The lectures , reviews , and especially the book , ” Raymond, of Sir Oliver Lodge , now passing 20th through its edition, have set the heather of

172. ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

to the call of a medium or of any man . Who , then, are they who come from the spirit world at our bidding and say and do such extraordi ? “ ” nary things They are , writes St. Francis “ of Sales , evil spirits who , since the sin of

eh ra Adam , are in communication with man ( p

’ ort avec l homm e p ) , at one time seducing him

v n to e il acts to the injury of his soul, and at a

t— o other time , when God permits i and that G d does often permit the Sacred Scriptures and

r — all histo y attest tormenting his body, speak ing and acting with his organs , as if for the time these evil spirits were absolutely his mas ters . “ Spirits are so numerous and so powerful,

t . writes S Hilary , one of the greatest and most “ m en learned of his century, that without the help of God and that of his holy angels safe u g arding and protecting our weakness , we could not resist their conspiracy of trickery and

” 2 hatred . Nor must we assume that the opinions of

1 ’ i de ain t F ran o is de ales b M . l A bé h amon V e S c S , y b , 4 1 a Vol . . 2 s I . P ri , , p 2 Cam . in Ps alm . cxxx . , iv ' R or H W 173 SPI ITS ANOT ER ORLD , men of great learning and genius have changed with the advance of civilization and the progress of time . Those familiar with the writings and sermons “ ” of Bossuet, the Eagle of Meaux, will con cede that no greater mind or personality ever . entered upon the world of lofty thought than the mind and personality of the gre at French prelate . In the eighth volume of his works ,

l 1845 his P remier pub ished at Paris in , is found

m n S erm on sur les D é o s . In that great sermon “ he tells u s that : I f God did not limit the power to act of these evil angels , they would destroy u s all . And that these malicious

m al aisants ( f ) spirits , known of old as demons ,

in in exist , is a truth so lum ously clear the

ertiﬁ e Divine Writings , so c d to by the universal consent of all nations and peoples , that it is

G o d not open to controversy . forbid that I should so far forget the dignity belonging to this sacred tribune as to advance re asons or extraneous proofs in support of that which is so openly taught by the Sacred Word of God and by ecclesiastical tradition . 174 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM There is nothing in Sir Oliver Lodge ’ s book or Conan Doyle ’ s a” rticles that has not been known from immemorial time or that is not familiar to all dispassionate students of demon ology. Their experiences are but repetitions

b Du otet Re az of those recorded y Home , p , g zoni, and others , on whom the same spirits , claiming to be departed souls , imposed their pernicious negations and false philosophy .

And here we may, not inaptly, reproduce the statement of Sir William Barrett , President of the English Society for Psychical Research . “ In his book on Necromancy and Modern Magic ” he says “ I t seems to me that the Apostle Paul , in his Epistle to the Ephesians , points to a race of spiritual creatures , similar to those I have

but o a mali nan t t e described , f g yp , when he

ﬂ esh speaks of beings not made of and blood, inhabiting the air around u s and able injuri ” f n ously to a fect ma kind . Alluding to the dangers attending s éah ces and consulting spir “ Of n ow its he writes course , it is true , as then, that these practices are dangerous in

176 ESSAYS I N OCCULTISM

sneed me had I not seen several examples of — such detrimental inﬂuence myself cases of de

lusion , insanity and all the horrors of obsession .

Those who deny the reality of these facts , those

who treat the whole problem as a joke , regard

lanch tt p e e as a toy, and deny the reality of

inﬂuences powers and which work unseen, should observe the effects of some of the Spiritistic

manifestations . They would no longer , I ff imagine , sco at that investigation and be

tempted to call all mediums frauds , but would be inclined to admit that there is a true terror

‘ of the dark, and there are principalities and

’ w e powers with which , in our ignorance , toy, without knowing and realizing the frightful con sequences which may result from this tamper ” ing with the unseen world . We have already mentioned that these spirits

who respond to the summons of the medium,

are not the souls of the dead . Camille Flam w marion , the widely kno n French astronomer, who devoted many hours of his long life to the

study of Spiritism and spirit phenomena , writes SPIRITS or A N OTHER WORLD 177

Souls of the dead ? This is far from being demonstrated . My observations of forty years

n i prove the contrary . No satisfactory ide t i ” ﬁ cat on has been made by me .

r This is also the opinion of M . Stainton

Moses , of University College , London, and a “ member of the London Dialectical Society . I ” “ of could not get rid, he wrote , the idea that the faith of Christendom was practically upset

’ - b e by their [the spirit teachings "issue . I lieve d that , however it might be disguised, such would be their outcome in the end . The cen

and tral dogmas seemed especially attacked , it was this that startled me . Then came the doubt as to how far all might be the work of

‘ ’ Satan, transformed into an angel of light , ” laboring for the subversion of the faith .

S o 1871 far back as , a member of a Committee

‘ of the London Dialectical Society, which had been formed for the purpose of investigating and reporting upon the much disputed phe n omena , made the following emphatic state ment My opinion of these phenomena is that the intelligence which is put in communica 178 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

us tion with , is a fallen one . It is of the devil, the prince of the power of the air . I believe that we commit the crime of necromancy when

’ an we take part in these spiritistic s e ces . No man in modern times has given more thought and intelligent study to psychic and spirit phenomena , or has written so luminously, dispassionately, and calmly on Spiritism than “ M r . Rau ert. J Godfrey p In his work , Mod ” ern Spiritism, he summarises the profession of faith of modern Spiritism in these nine ar ticles of denial “ 1 n . That Christianity can ot be regarded as a revelation of an unique and speciﬁc char

ewish acter , foreshadowed in the J ordinances , foretold by prophet and seer, and completed and consummated on Calvary and on the day of

Pentecost ; but that it is one of many forms of high spirit - manifestation designed to enforce upon man the binding obligations of the moral hi t law inherent in s na ure , and to remind him of the true character of his high origin and destiny . “2 . That Christ is not divine in the sense in

180 ESSAYS IN OCCULTISM

a a supernatur l life , for the imparting to it of

e rnatural an d c m gifts gra es , is a vain thing

fondly invented , and at best an institution of mere human origin and doing a purely human work . “ i 6. That the scr ptural notion of retribution after death and of punishment for sin committed in the ﬂ esh is a misre ading and misrepres enta tion of the words of Christ and of those feelings of failure and of loss which necess arily attend

e retrib u the slow proc ss of human evolution, tion only taking place in the sense that suffer

i no ing must follow upon wrong, wilfully or g rantl e h y don , in order that thus the way to rig t doing and to right conduct may be found . “ 7 . That man is daily and hourly, by his own deeds and misdeeds , and by the general mould

a ing and sh ping of his character, preparing for himself his own h eaven or his own hell ; that hi these are, however , far other than those w ch theology holds and inculcates . “ 8. That physical death does not in any sense determine the destiny of the human spirit ; but that, irrespective of personal beliefs or dis or