THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13857, 21 March 1907, Page 8

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

At a public meeting held in tlio rooms of the Theosophical Society, Liverpool street, 011 Wednesday evening, Mr A. W. Maurais delivered an' address on " The Life After Death." The speaker said that there existed an enormous literature dealing with the question of the survival of a conscious liuman entity after tho dentil of the physical body. Tho labours of the Society for Psychical ltesjarch had given the subject scientific interest, and 110 believed that the Theosophical Society would, by its world-wide propaganda amongst the educated classes, stimulate such a thorough inquiry into this important branch of knowledge .as would presently place tile survival of consciousness in the cataloguo of acknowledged and ascertained facts. The lecturer said that men actually lived at all times in thoso subtle worlds the existence of which discredited by so-called matter-of-fact people. The physical body in itself was incapable ot thought or consciousness proper, and was a congeries of atoms held together by forces from 'Subtler planes. All mental processes were carried on elsewhere, and tho brain and nerves were only essential in tho same way as wires and instruments were liecessnry to telegraphy. Even physical pain was a misnomer, the gross hotly being as incapable of feeling pain as it was of formulating an idea about -sensation. Tliero was, said the speaker, 110 "going" anywhere after death. When the lower body died ofi, the man " was" in another world, his experiences in which depended on his life and character. This was, or partly because, clarity of vision depended 011 the make-up of his astral and mental bodies, and that make-up depended on thought. Another reason was that a law 01" affinity drew unpleasant experiences to unpleasant people, and :i cosmic law of equal reaction ensured absolute justice to all. Man was launched on a sort of vortex of divine energy, which carried him round resistlesslv, alternately raising him to superior spheres and bringing him dov.il to hell, which was this earth. There was a good attendance. Mr C. Richardson oocuDied tho chair.