SPIRITUALISM

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 7550, 25 September 1886, Page 2 (Supplement)

SPIRITUALISM

(By « P. C")

The study' of Spiritualism, and the hypotheses which Spiritualists have founded, have their followers as well as their opponents. To tho laltor, I say, weigh the facts and formulnq again beforo you finally decide, and to tho former, I address myself. Perhaps the most formidable difficulty that occultists meets with is, not to prove that tho phenomena ns exhibited by Spiritualism nro true and free from delusion and fraud, but rather to reconcile tho teachings of that scionce witli extremely intricate tenets of tho esoteric philosophy. The latter, based upon a sublime theory of evolution, the most logical and ordinary, of any other, claims for man that he is in a state of transition this lifo being only one of many that it is fate or destiny to pass through on this and many other worlds. The point ofdivergenco between Spirit- . uulism and the theories of occultists, at once rnggeshitself as being tho following viz:— Now,in Spiritualism we suppose that tho spirit entities of extinct human beings continue to hover atou.id tho earth, mostly in tho proximity of their former haun la, for an indefinite p'rioel, during which, by v careful observance of curium natural lawp, intercourse may be held with men and women in (his plane. Whereas, according to occult lore, those same entitles aro ever being hurried on« ards in tho great progress of devolopmont, from life to life, and from plane to plane, and from sphere to sphere, ench incarnation boing only Bcparatod from its preccJing and following ones by periods of rest and punishment or insensibility, viz , in ijcvaphan. I have know cases of earnest Spirftualisfs boing sutiously troubled in their attempts to reconcile tho conclusions which tho bjtiuly suggeots wi'h thoeo which every

t I render of occultism finally finds himself , espousing. And here I may say that 0 the study of Spiritualism ssldom confine* f itself for very long to the somewhat 8 primitive and scarcely enlighting comi, munications which aro received by t means of mediums or physical signs and c rappings. The mind that is led to en- • quire in'o these matters so far, is f impatient 8t being held back from the much greater progress and knowledge . that the occult studies afford, and in t most other. cases penetrates into the st'll 1 darker recesses of occllu teachings. It J is when the fresh mysteries thus taught 1 dawn upon the newly initiated that ho } finds himself reasoning, not upon the ; probabilities of Spiritualistic phenomena '. and teachings bning- true, or Iho reverse, but on the possility of reconciling in the >. most minute manner, the hypotheses of it and all other advanced theories. Though wo shall not have to dip very deeply into tho ancient and modern axioms.as regards Dovachan and Karma Loca, it trill ha necessary for me to cefer casually to thorn, and bo I may slate that my information has bacn obtained (and whose has not?) from tho various works on the subject, and therefore further acknowledgment will bo needless — All occultists agreo that the human being or life, or in fact man, is a compound structure, and resolvable into a certain elements or principles, or primary parts. Those are mostly statel as being Revon in number, tho lowest is "body 1 ' and tho highest, "spirit." It will now bo obvious, oven to tho oasual reader, -that tho occultists take far more minute viow of their subject than tho ordinary Spiritualist doeH ; and henco we may look for inoro reliablo and comprehensive results from tho former than from tho latter. Now the knowledge of this compound nature of man is most valuable, for it helps us to ox. plain what would otherwise remain a mystery. As an ordinary rule, when a person dies, the long account of his lifes' doings olosoh itself, nnd the complicated set of affinities which have been established during his lifetime, owing to his different propensities and desires and tendencies, are not capable of being extended to any further degree. That is to say, theconstituentparts referred tohave run their course, each one being finally exhausted, contemporarily with the rest. Tho end is pnaoe, nnd a natural separation of principles takeß place. We must conclude therefore that the spirit entity of a being whose life hid so run its natural course, aud had not been viollenlly terminated, would not be likely to give way to further esrthly attractions; if, indeed, it were susceptible to thoso accraclions. ' But with tho entities of those who have been suddenly hurried into another condition, before the necessary equilibrium has been assumed between its particles, the case is defferont. Hero as before we have a complete system of principles, each one of which interdependent on the rest, by reason of the strong and inseparable affinities with which it is originally constituted, and these are suddenly torn asunder, as the compound being passes into another state. Is it hard to beliovo that some attraction might still tend to draw those principles together after death? As a matter of fact wo are instructed that certain affinities do still survive the tranaition to the other state, and the compound body so adhering together is actually nothing less thnn a human being, complete in all its respects excepting that it has no body. In the true sensfl of the word, ho is not dead < at all. .Now, it is elementaries of this £ kind that may communicate very c effectually at the aeanccs of Spirit- j ualists, and it ia conclusion of occultists ■ that these are tho kind of entires that ' kcop tne mediums ongaged, and afford J •amusement (I use the word, advisedly, ' because I fear the ■odmmuriioaiions aro ! moro often amusing than instructive) to ( tho circles of Spiritualists. But the same authorities maintain ' that it is at a very heavy cost to them- > selves that spirit entities thus connect j themselves once more with tho earth. Though tho conditions are difforent, ' they still subject themselves to tho ' same influences ihat beset them when ( on earth in n physical state ; and tho faot of those conditions being altered, tells all against the unhappy entity who ' succumbs to that influence. ' Tho matter may be thus gummed up : . Of tho accuracy of the teachings of Spiritualism, there can bo no doubt, ; at least ao far as the general outlino of teaching is concerned, aud occult research only strengthens and supports tho hypotheses which Spiritualists believe, though it throws a richer and more brilliant light upon the teachings of the latter. [