"THE OTHER SIDE."

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 78, 26 December 1907, Page 3

"THE OTHER SIDE."

A SPIRITUALIST VISITOR. SOME REMABKABLE STATEMENTS. A. Spiritualist medium is born, not made, and Mrs. G.G. Copley, a well-known American medium, who arrived on Saturday to fulfil a six-months' engagomont to the AYollington Association of Spiritualists, Limited, claims to have received communications from spirits from her childhood's years. There is no ."limited" attached to Mrs. Cooley's belief in spiritualism. Spirits are to her'as familiar presences as the people with whoiri one walks the streets; she declares, in fact, that she has even come in contact with them in tho streets, when she has been thinking of quite other things. She has her "band of helpers," spiritual, presences, who cured her of a dangerous illness eighteen or twonty years ago, and have stayed by her ever since. The unseen world is to her ■■"tho othor side," a realm quite near, and friendly, if not yot thoroughly explored. Yot she is by no means a person who, in the dark ages, would have been suspected, on sight, of dealings with the Prince of Darkness. A Dominion representative found her a quiet, cultivated lady, who talks quietly and calmly of tho wonders sho relatos, and whoso face shines with enthusiasm as she expounds what is to her a religious faith. WHAT SPIRITUALISM MEANS, . Mrs. Cooloy might he called a travelling missionary of tho National Spiritualists' Association of America and Canada, which has a membership of at least 300,000. "I have been for sixteen or eighteen years before the public as a medium and Spiritualist worker," she remarked. "I havo visited all the States in tho Union, and now lliavQ como here to do what 1 can for the pooplo of the Dominion. I nevor prepare a lecture. I give tho words as they come to mo at the time, and follow with such psychical demonstrations in the way of messages as may come. I also read characters sometimes. I don't-call that tho strongest part of, my work, but it enables me to reach the scoptical ■ pqople in my audiences. "I think wo'have, all a message for, tho world," explained the visitor, "and mine comes in tho way of'inspirational speaking and demonstrations. , I try to reach as many as I can who look for enlightenment along that line. We don't particularly proselytise; .we have, our thought and belief, which, we are always glad to give other 3 who are seeking, and we are glad to say that we find seekers in every rank of )ife, in tho Churches as ' well as out'of the Churches: There is a very. intelligent class investigating Spiritualism, or,/ as. I mysejf prefer to call it, . Naturalism, for there is nothing supernatural'involved'. A great many people, think that we have to do with ghosts, hobgobline, etc., hut- that is quito erroneous. Wo know that we live here, and that after the change called death, we .continue living in another form, and we claim that after death we inhabit a spiritual body,-wo progress, and become more enlightened. It should.be at least the aim.of overyono to grow towards perfection, and it is quite right that we should; begin to progress here, because the earlier wo begin the better. Consequently,' Spiritualists as n rule havo no fear of doath. ' I.' have never been at the death-bed of a Spiritualist whore I saw one quiver with fear. Ono has only to road tho Biblo to learn that if is quite possible for the spirits-of our departed to return. There has been no time in history, practically, when spirits were not known- to return and communicate with mortals."

"RED FOX." Mrs. Cooley then recounted tho history of her own communications with tho spirit, 'world. Sho could not remember' the time in her childhood when sho did not. sen forms iind apparitions.' She received communications from spirits, which she.used to repent, to thcaniazement of. her relatives and of the doctor's they called in. Tho doctors put her under chloroform and ether, hut could, not stop her talking. For about twenty years slip was an invalid,.till by tho agency of certain-spirits-sho was enrrd.. Tho doctors bad'determined on tin operation; they wero about to-ndminister tlio o.thej, when tlio patient heard a voice, which said, '.'Dp.not permit- this, .you do not need it. You will outgrow this t-roublo." Siio refused to take tho ether, though tho doctors tried to persuado Mr..-'.. The-, spirit who had addressed her first toW her that she .was to know him as-Red Fox. and that if sho would follow t.ho advice of her spirit helpers she would bo cured. • She sent .away the doctors, and tho spirits made-: known , a ,course of treatment by. means of, pictures wjiich appeared' before her on tho wa.ll. Among these was a human chart, on which- tho organs that were unwell in her we.ro darkly shaded, tho healthy organs being light. Sho was directed to-sit-by herself in'silences at nine-o'clock each morning,: and receivo tho spirits' treatment. At those times she .felt 'hands passing ove-r her,body,,currents ns though of electricity, and -very strong , - vibrations .of healing thought... SJho would, also seo, quite plainly, circles of people round her.- By this treatment she was entirely cured, and tho same band of spirits kept by her afterwards, and, through her, had mado well and strong persons whom she had foimd ill, and oven dying. Sho attributed tho spirits' influenco over her in curing her of her illness to tho fact that she was born a natural medium, and was. therefore able to sc<* with tho spiritual sight, and hear with the spiritual hearing. - PRESENT METHODS. Another familiar spirit of Mrs. Ccoley, that lady gravely affirmed, is known as tinclo Ely. He is the spirit of h«r fnthci-m-law's uncle, who was acquainted with spiritualistic affairs before his death, and has established his identity since- by incontostible proofs. Mrs. Cooley states that sho does not always go into a franco now-to ro%eivo spiritualistic manifestations. Sho merely puts herself in a very passive condition, and sho can never bo quite sure that tho communications will. come. It is impossible to, force them. One of these communications, which had beoii committed to print, sho read to our representative. It was a. somewhat".eloquent little homily, but boro no internal. evidence of' an origin on "tho other side."

Mrs. Cooley claims to havo held communication with many historical characters, but sho does not. talk' about them. Sho oxpiained that after ho has been dead a quarter of a century, half a century, or a century, a celebrity's views often ohange, and. ho" may not-caro to be identified with tho name that covered cuch a different bundle of beliefs. Some such spirits havo askod her not- to disclose their names.

Thero is in spiritualism a strong moral spur. "Wo feel that in proportion as we livo a true and-clean life bore, we aro-prc-parinc'-bettor'conditions-, for ourselves after tho change called doath. We nre building the homes'now , that we shall occupy beyoud the grave."-. ...