2 Evidence for a Future Life (“L’Âme Est Immortelle”) By Gabriel Delanne 3 Copyright © Spiritist Group of New York, 2003 Spiritist Alliance for Books/Spiritist Group of New York http://www.sgny.org P. O. Box 2223 - Radio City Station, New York, NY 10101-2223 Email:[email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the copyright holder. Library of Congress Control Number: Main entry under title: Evidence for a Future Life 1. Religious Philosophy 2. Spiritist Doctrine 3. Christianity ISBN (translated from “L’Âme Est Immortelle”) Cover Design and Edition: Crisley Thomé Edited and revised by the Editorial and Publishing Department of the Spiritist Group of New York (SGNY) and the Spiritist Alliance for Books (SAB) 2001. The Spiritist Group of New York (SGNY) is a non-profit organization, has the sole aim to promote and disseminate the Spiritist Doctrine in English, as codified by Allan Kardec. The group was officially established on April 12th, 2001. However, the members of the group have been earnestly fostering the dissemination of the Spiritist Doctrine in the United States for over six years. As a result, a number of its founders and participating members have founded The Spiritist Alliance for Books (SAB), which is an organization that aims to unite people from all over the world who are willing to volunteer in the effort of translating spiritist books (which were originally written in other languages) into English. 4 Evidence for a Future Life (“L’Âme Est Immortelle”) by Gabriel Delanne Translated and Edited by H. A. Dallas Spiritist Alliance for Books 5 This book is out of print indefinitely. This version was edited by the Editorial and Publishing Department of the Spiritist Group of New York (SGNY) and the Spiritist Alliance for Books (SAB) team. Special thanks for the Spiritist Alliance for Books team who participated in this project: Jussara Korngold, Crisley Thomé, Marcia Lacerda, Antonio Leite. 6 EDITOR’S PREFACE1 The effect which this book will produce on readers will of course depend largely on the attitude of mind in which they approach the subject with which it deals. Many persons approach records of psychic phenomena with ingrained disinclination to accept facts and conclusions which interfere with their pre-conceived opinions and beliefs; readers of this description will be necessarily in capable of doing justice to the evidence collected in this volume. Those who are prepared to study it with an open mind will find, perhaps, that whilst they can accept the facts stated, they differ from the author in the deductions they draw from those facts—this will not invalidate the interest with which the book will be read. The facts alone, whatever conclusions may be deduced from them, are a valuable contribution to psychic science: a science whose significance is very far-reaching, and whose influence on the whole range of human thought is increasingly recognised to be a factor of immense importance. To share in bringing before the public the evidences for man’s supra-terrestrial life, even in the humble capacity of a translator, is both a privilege and a responsibility. If a sense of responsibility were more widely recognised, the cause of truth would not so often be impaired by the printing of worthless matter. It is because I regard M. Delanne’s work as a worthy contribution to the furtherance of knowledge on a subject of inestimable importance to the world that I have attempted to bring it before English readers. I am confident that it cannot fail to interest those who realise that all phenomena, however strange and obscure, are a part of the Cosmic order, and therefore owe their origin to the Inscrutable, Infinite Mind who has evolved that order. Those who reverence fact as fact, not chiefly because it is consoling or attractive, but mainly because it is true, those who “count it crime to let a truth slip,” are on the sure way to obtain the deepest insight into the significance and purpose which lies behind all phenomena, and to attain ultimately to the most profound confidence in the trustworthiness and wisdom of that purpose. The prescience of such souls has ever hailed, Long ere the dawn, the coming of the sun, And maybe, by such faith the light itself is won.” H. A. DALLAS. 1904 1 Note. — It has been necessary to considerably abridge the original work for the purpose of keeping the English translation within the prescribed limits. This has been done with as little injury as possible to the argument: should it have suffered in any degree in the process, I desire to offer my apologies to the author, to whom I tender my sincere thanks for the kind permission to translate his work which he so freely accorded to me. 7 8 CONTENTS PART I OBSERVATION Introduction 11 I Ancient Beliefs 17 II The Study of the Soul by Means of Magnetism 26 III The Witness of Mediums and Spirits to the Existence of the Perispirit 34 IV The Double 44 V The Psychic Organisation after Death 56 PART II EXPERIENCE I Psychic Experiments – The Double (continued) 65 II The Experiments of M. De Rochas and Dr. Luvs 71 III. Spirit Photograph 78 PART III SPIRITISM AND SCIENCE I A Study of the Perispirit 95 II Space – Time – Primordial Matter 99 III The Psychic Plane And Modes of Energy 105 IV Supplementary Considerations of Some Cases of Materialisation and of Phenomenon of the Double 115 Conclusion 123 9 10 INTRODUCTION EXPERIMENTAL PROOF OF SURVIVAL The advent of Spiritism throws fresh light on the problems of nature and the soul. It enables us to recognise how little has been known concerning the soul hitherto, and to gain an effectual view of it by introducing experiment into philosophy, a science which hitherto has only employed the methods of inductive reasoning as its organ of research. The study of the Ego, i.e. of the functions of sensibility, of intelligence, and of will, reveals the activity of the soul at the moment when it is in exercise, but it does not locate these phenomena, which seem only related to one another by continuity. Recent progress of physiological psychology has, however, proved that there exists an intimate interdependence between psychic life and the organic condition of its manifestation. Every condition of the soul is accompanied by a corresponding molecular modification of the substance of the brain, and vice versa. But here observation is arrested, and science is incapable of explaining why the substance which replaces that which is destroyed by vital waste preserves the previous impression made upon the mind. It is at this juncture that spiritist experiment effectually fills the gap. It proves that the soul is not an ideal entity, an immaterial substance without circumference, but that it is provided with a subtile body within which the mental phenomena of life register themselves, and to which has been given the name of perispirit. It is as necessary not to confound the perispirit with the spirit, as it is to distinguish the spirit from the matter in which it is incorporated during a man’s earthly life. The thinking Ego is quite distinct from its envelope, and is not to be identified with it, any more than the clothing of the body is to be identified with the physical organism itself; nevertheless there exists between the spirit and the perispirit the closest connection, for they are inseparable, as we shall see later on. Does this imply that we think we have discovered the true nature of the soul? Not so, it is still inaccessible to us, as also is the essential nature of matter; but we have discovered a condition, a mode of existence of the soul which elucidates a number of problems hitherto insoluble. The conception of the nature of the soul has developed in the course of the ages; a conception grossly material has been replaced by one absolutely spiritual. The teaching both of philosophy and religion has accustomed us to think of the soul as pure essence, wholly immaterial. This diversity of view results from the diverse methods by which the subject has been approached. If the soul is studied as objectively manifested in apparitions, apart from the material organism, it appears at times to be as material in character as a physical body; and if it is studied subjectively, its sole characteristic seems to be thought. All observations belonging to the first category have been classified as popular superstitions, and the notion of the soul as bodiless has prevailed. Under these circumstances it became impossible to conceive by what means this entity could operate upon the substance of the body, or receive the impressions registered upon it. Those who have insisted on the entirely spiritual character of the soul, have at the same time insisted on its immortality. How, then, are we to explain the retention of memory? Here we have a body, and within the form of this physical covering a brain, which registers records of our mental life; but when this body dies, and this physical substratum is destroyed, what will become of the memories of our experiences? Where will the acquisitions of mental activity be localised? Without these no intellectual continuity is conceivable. Is the soul destined to be merged in chaos, to vanish in the Great All by the loss of all individuality? These are logical consequences, for it is not possible to conceive of a soul as existing in space without any individualising form.