THIS WORLD-AND BEYOND BY MRS. PHILIP CHAMPION DE CRESPIGNY Ifin Principal of the Brtttth College o f Psychic Science CASSELL & CO. LTD. LONDON MELBOURNE TORONTO SYDNEY First Published 1934 PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY EBENEZRR BAYLIS AND SON, UMITED, THE TRINITY PRESS, WORCESTER, AND IONDON FiS 534 By the same Author From Behind the Airas The Mischief of a Glove The Rose Brocade The Grey Domino The Spanish Prisonei My Cousin Cynthia The Coming of Aurora The Valley of Achor The Mark The Five of r f^ades Mallory’s Tryst Hester and I Stones of To-day and Yesterday The Mind of a Woman Tangled Evidence The Missing Piece The Dark Sea Straws in the Wind The Riddle of the Emeralds Ih e Eye of Nemesis A Case for the C I D FOREWORD : ¥ Sir O liver Lodge \ J j[Y friend Mrs. de Crespigny has asked me 4 V I to write an introduction to her book on the Beyond. She is so well-known that it seems to me quite unnecessary* assuming it is any help, I agree. The book h pjfccdcaHy an autobiography, and relates her struggles with scepticism at the beginning, until an intferviev with Mars. Etta Wriedt of Detroit opened her eyes to the truth. Mrs- de 'iiaay' be c^ed a;;.sciehtmc:." which rendered her rather specially sceptical; but she had am ind that was .©pea,. and ■ the evidence was too strong. Mrs. Wriedt is a good medium, with whom I have had sittings myselfi her special phenomenon being what is called “the direct ” which sometimes was so loud that, when ; with the windows open, as Mr. Appleyard of - i testifies, people walking in the road outside the raidings sometimes to hsteaf Mrs. de Chespigny’s father was President of the FOREWORD Royal Naval College at Greenwich, and First Sea- , Lord of the Admiralty, and was made an F R S She received ultimately very convincing messages both from her father and her husband, of which she tells The result is that she has devoted her hfe to the work, has accepted the Honorary Principalship of the Psychic College, at 15, Queen’s Gate, where she continues to do good work. One episode m the book bears on a much con­ troverted subject She went through the Fire Test, and relates her experience,—it is a thing for which Crookes’ testimony is very good, though the ex­ traordinary nature of the phenomenon makes it difficult to believe without confirmatory evidence, which is here forthcoming. But the whole book represents the passage from incredulity to conviction, not only about survival, but about many other more unlikely things; and I commend it to anyone inter­ ested or willing to allow their mind to become interested in a subject which m spite of a growing tendency towards open-mindedness is still too much taboo But Mrs de Crespigny has many ideas, some of which sound extraordinary but have a bearing on deep questions of Theology. She has expressed some of these to lofty spirits on the other side and has received from them approbation to a surprising extent The most striking of these she narrates at the end of this book, and those who know the reverence usually felt for a personality as high as “Imperator” vl FOREWORD may well be astonished at her recorded rephes, yet they will feel it is a genuine record Perhaps there may be truth in other modes of expression arrived at by the intuition to which she lays some claim 8th May, 1934 Acknowledgment is here made of the courtesy of various publishers for permission to use extracts which appear in these pages Geo A llen & Unwin Ltd (“Science m the Changing World” ) Ernest Benn Ltd (“My Philosophy”) Blackwell, of O xford (“Waters’ Club Anthology”) R ider & Co (“The Story of Psychic Science”) THIS WORLD-AND BEYOND CHAPTER ONE LTHOUGH I am well aware that there is already an overwhelming amount of literature on the subject of psychic research, I make no excuse for adding to it Life, being made up of experience in every form, must be to some extent enriched by the presentment of facts, great and small, which may vary according to the outlook and mentality of the percipient. Therefore these pages are written in the hope that they may be of some use to others in search of a truth hidden more effectually than at the bottom of any well With so many aspects of this difficult subject, it is not easy to decide upon which of them to begin; perhaps, before passing on to the more practical angle of personal experience, it will be well to approach it from the purely academical and logical point of view. Instead of asking “Does man sur­ vive'”’ let us put it the other way and ask “Why should he not survive?” From the very beginnings of the race man has believed m the continuity of his personality after the death -of-the body We know this was the THIS WORLD— AND BEYOND philosophy of primitive man by the traces of it he has left behind him, the unmistakable evidence that this was his creed The ancient mounds and burial grounds all tell the same story of this primitive belief m survived In those bygone days of Neanderthal Man, when the ape-hke superciheury ridges were still a characteristic and he could only just walk upright, the traces of primeval burial rites eire still eloquent of his belief in what is commonly called a soul. The dead were buned with a respect not accorded to the lesser animals, whose bones are found thrown carelessly aside, but with the obvious signs of cere­ monial practices, with moreover the tools, drinking utensils and weapons that had been used in this life placed conveniently, and bearing the one explana­ tion—-that they might still be of use in a further condition of existence to which their owner had presumably departed How this behef became rooted in the mind of man at this early stage in his evolution is an interesting conjecture The scientist admits the fact but, so far as I know, offers no explanation. The sceptic has suggested that man’s innate egotism is responsible for what he would term this primeval form of super­ stition; that an overweening opinion of his own importance in the universe was the origin of his refusal to accept the fact of his final extinction But that will hardly hold water The power of argument from abstract principles necessarily based on experience was still in the future ''TEs-Oniy basis for the for-ming^o f judgments and THIS WORLD— AND BEYOND drawing conclusions lay m his powers of observa­ tion, his arguments purely empirical Through these channels he learnt that the physical body dies, decays and disintegrates, that dust returns to dust, and there is an end of it What led him to suppose there was any part of man capable of survival? And yet he did believe it1 Intuition would likewise be ruled out by the sceptic The actual meaning of the word being “the power of knowing without being taught” the materialist would object that when it comes to un­ seen worlds there is nothing to know, and that intuition is a false jade at best That the idea was pure invention cannot be upheld as an explanation Our limited intellect is unable to conceive anything new That there is nothing new under the sun is not only a platitude, it is a truth. Man cannot postulate anything that has not been m some form presented to him , he can invent neither colour, nor shape, nor circumstance He can adapt, re-arrange, discover, but he cannot mvent nor con­ ceive anything that has not come within the range or experience of humanity And yet again—Neanderthal Man did believe m survival! From the materialist’s point of view what is the answer'* So far as I know none is forthcoming But to those of us familiar with psychic research and its attendant phenomena surely there need be no mystery? 3 THIS WORLD— AND BEYOND Natural law is the same yesterday, to-day and to­ morrow. We hear it argued that if “miracles” _so called—could be worked m the past they can be produced in the present, an argument of equal value if applied in the opposite direction If supernormal phenomena can be produced to-day—and the evidence of those with experience goes to prove that they can—they could equally have been pro­ duced m the past, and the visions and voices seen and heard by sensitive to-day may also have been heard by primeval man, from the time God walked with Adam in the Garden of Eden. In fact, man, in all probability, obtained his knowledge of the truth of survival from the same source whence we get it to-day—from those who have survived. It is also possible that then, as now, there were those who believed and those who did not; that the burial-grounds still extant only represent the belief of a certain proportion of the population. It would be interesting to learn from the expert whether there are any signs of sceptics on this point who disposed of the remains of their relations as carelessly and irreverently as those of the animals. If we attach any weight to legend and tradition, man learnt the greater truths through the early contacts with higher spiritual beings, which psychic research is now teaching us to be within the bounds of reason.