D UKE UNIVERSIT Y 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 Gift of 
 
 Estate ofa 
 Geo fig & E. HaAtman 
 
G. E. HARTMAN, Dean 
 BECKLEY COLLEGE 
 BECKLEY, WEST VA. 
 
By the Same Author 
 
 FRONTIERS OF 
 THE AFTER-LIFE 
 
 On over seven hundred nights, covering a 
 period of twenty-two years, in my own home, 
 under scientific conditions, I talked voice to 
 voice with the Living Dead." 
 
 —Edward C. Randall 
 "Mr. Randall presents with the enthu¬ 
 siasm oj absolute belief. Yet he warns ear¬ 
 nestly against impostures. Whether or not the 
 reader shares or finds convincing Mr. Ran¬ 
 dall's belief, he will not doubt his sincerity. 
 Nor do his deductions clash materially with 
 the underlying truths of that great law of 
 nature ."—The Boston Transcript. 
 
THE DEAD 
 HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 EDWARD C. RANDALL 
 
 » 
 
 ® 
 
 _ ® 
 
 New York • Alfred A. Knopf * 1925 
 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2018 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/deadhaveneverdie01rand 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 I have had strange experiences in my Psychic in¬ 
 vestigations during the last twenty years. Refus¬ 
 ing to be limited by accepted laws, I have devoted 
 my thought to conditions prevailing beyond what is 
 generally termed the material, and by combining 
 and blending the mental and vital, with the tan¬ 
 gible or physical forces, I have been able to have 
 speech with those long thought dead. As a result 
 I have found an unknown country about and be¬ 
 yond this Earth, and I would not go from this 
 world of men without leaving a record of what 
 I have learned. We are but custodians of knowl¬ 
 edge as of wealth, and it is the duty of every 
 one to give to others that which he has acquired, 
 whenever it will add to human happiness. 
 
 There are certain people born with what is 
 known as “psychic” force who, when scientifi¬ 
 cally developed, become instruments by the aid of 
 which communication is established between the 
 two worlds. Such was Emily S. French. She was 
 a woman over 80 years of age at the time of her 
 death. Above the average in intelligence, she de- 
 
 vii 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 viii 
 
 voted her life to helping others, and as a result her 
 character was spiritualized and refined so that only 
 good could come within her environment. I was 
 indeed fortunate in my association with her. Even 
 with such help, however, it required many years 
 of work and experiment to obtain the exact condi¬ 
 tions whereby satisfactory speech could be had 
 with inhabitants of this unknown country, and from 
 them to secure direct information of the conditions 
 prevailing there. This, in a measure, I have ac¬ 
 complished. 
 
 That life continues beyond the grave, Lombroso, 
 Richet, Sir William Crookes, T. W. Stanford, Wil¬ 
 liam T. Stead, Sir Oliver Lodge,—all Psychic Sci¬ 
 entists,—and of late Sir Conan Doyle, have proved 
 beyond question. My efforts have been to dis¬ 
 cover by what law survival becomes possible; to 
 learn something of the death change, the character 
 of individual life as it continues, and the conditions 
 prevailing beyond the earth-plane. If the infor¬ 
 mation that I have obtained is reliable, and if my 
 deductions are correct, a discovery has been made 
 that takes from the human heart the awful fear of 
 death. No subject in the world is so important as 
 this, and none is less understood. 
 
 In this world-beyond there are men and women 
 just as here. Their bodies, Etheric in character, 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 IX 
 
 are composed of matter; therefore, they have form, 
 feature, and expression, neither less nor more in¬ 
 dividual than when they lived the earth-life. They 
 have homes as tangible to them as our homes are to 
 us, composed of Etheric material just as our homes 
 are made of physical substances, and in those 
 homes the family relation is ultimately continued. 
 They labour to increase their knowledge, and 
 under the great prevailing law in force there, en¬ 
 rich themselves by helping others. 
 
 These propositions, far beyond human experi¬ 
 ences, are not only hard to explain but are difficult 
 to grasp. In the chapters that follow, I have tried 
 to make the facts so plain that all may comprehend 
 them. I have faithfully described some of my ex¬ 
 periences, and given in substance the data as pre¬ 
 sented to me. Are my deductions warranted? 
 
 This research has been a source of great pleas¬ 
 ure and profit to me. In the beginning I looked 
 upon the death change with horror. I recall the 
 casket containing the mortal remains of my mother 
 lowered into a grave on a bleak April day, the piti¬ 
 less rain, the biting winds, the lowering clouds. 
 After the frozen earth had fallen into the open 
 grave, I, a boy, walked alone, and then and there 
 resolved that I would never rest content until I had 
 solved the problem there presented and come to 
 
X 
 
 FOREWORD 
 
 know,—if it was given man to learn,—something 
 of that great change. Whether I have succeeded or 
 not you must judge. I have, I think, demonstrated 
 that nothing in Nature is hidden from man; there 
 is no problem that cannot be solved; there is no 
 condition that cannot be understood, provided that 
 we labour long and earnestly for the goal desired. 
 
 Again one word to those who mourn. There is 
 no death; there are no dead. Those whom we love 
 and who loved us, in obedience to the great law of 
 evolution, have simply progressed to a new plane 
 of existence. Our eyes no longer behold them, 
 our hands and lips no longer touch them, but their 
 eyes behold and their hands touch us, though we 
 feel them not. They walk with us, know our trials, 
 help us by their mental suggestions, and comfort us 
 by tender, loving thoughts. Those who live in the 
 Etheric or Mental Plane are no less real to me than 
 those with whom I walk from day to day. 
 
 I have submitted this manuscript to a large 
 number of advanced thinkers both in America and 
 in Europe, and the general criticism has been that 
 it is so in advance of experience, so different from 
 the old teachings and beliefs, that few will grasp 
 or understand the new propositions presented. 
 This is without doubt true, but the facts as I have 
 gathered them cannot be changed; truth is infinite. 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 xi 
 
 Volumes have been written by the world’s fore¬ 
 most writers to prove the possibility of communica¬ 
 tion between this plane and the next, though few 
 have been privileged to enjoy direct and independ¬ 
 ent speech to the extent that I have. Those who 
 read the pages that I have written must assume 
 that speech is possible and that I have had the ex¬ 
 periences narrated. I do not attempt to enter the 
 elementary field; others have covered that branch. 
 I have tried to transmit facts as they have been 
 given me, and I expect many to accept them be¬ 
 cause they are in accordance with nature’s law and 
 appeal to reason. 
 
 It is a great privilege to be evolved out of the 
 mass of life, to obtain individuality with all its 
 possibilities not by a miracle, but through positive 
 law. But that privilege brings responsibilities, 
 among them the necessity of living a clean life, 
 of developing character to the utmost, of doing 
 something to make others happy, and of making the 
 world a little better because we have lived a day 
 within its confines. These things are not difficult 
 to accomplish if we are unselfish. To the new 
 thought, to the progress of the world, each may 
 give something. Great truths come from the ob¬ 
 scure. The night brings forth the stars. 
 
 Edward C. Randall. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter 1 
 Chapter 2 
 Chapter 3 
 Chapter 4 
 Chapter 5 
 Chapter 6 
 Chapter 7 
 Chapter 8 
 Chapter 9 
 Chapter 10 
 Chapter 11 
 Chapter 12 
 Chapter 13 
 Chapter 14 
 Chapter 15 
 Chapter 16 
 Chapter 17 
 Chapter 18 
 Chapter 19 
 
 Voices of the Living Dead 15 
 A Conscious Dissolution 23 
 Speech with the Dead 34 
 Told in the After-Life 44 
 The Life Mass 53 
 The Continuity of Life 63 
 A Universe of Matter 76 
 The Record of a Night 86 
 Atomic Life 97 
 Etheric Environment 105 
 So Little Change 116 
 Man’s Etheric Body 126 
 The Unknown Land 133 
 Personal Identity 140 
 Spheres in the After-Life 149 
 Their Daily Life 159 
 Facts Well to Know 170 
 From Death’s Sleep 181 
 The Imagination 194 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter 20 
 Chapter 21 
 Chapter 22 
 Chapter 23 
 Chapter 24 
 Chapter 25 
 Chapter 26 
 
 Power of Suggestion 206 
 Never a Secret in the World 215 
 Mental Activity 223 
 Future of a Child 233 
 Actualities of the After-Life 245 
 Rational Deductions 251 
 A Tribute 258 
 
THE DEAD HAVE NEVER 
 DIED 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 VOICES OF THE LIVING DEAD 
 
 T HE suggestion that the dead have never 
 died, when so little is known of that great 
 change, is beyond the comprehension of 
 the average mind. The fact that under scientific 
 conditions those in the after-life have had speech 
 with us in the earth-life taxes credulity, but such 
 is the fact. Sir William Crookes has had the ex¬ 
 perience of communicating with the dead and has 
 written concerning it. Stead’s bureau in London, 
 working with Mrs. Weidt, an American psychic, 
 has done so with great freedom. For many years 
 Daniel Bailey of Buffalo was able with the aid 
 of Mrs. Swaine to get the direct or independent 
 voice; he did a great work and has published the 
 results. 
 
 15 
 
16 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 I mention these instances to show that I am not 
 the first who has been able to obtain direct speech 
 with those in the next life. Thousands in other 
 ways have obtained messages from the great be¬ 
 yond, but only on rare occasions have conditions 
 been such that the dead could speak audibly. The 
 independent voice is unusual, but when heard, it 
 leaves nothing to conjecture. 
 
 “How is it possible,” one asks, “to talk with 
 dead people?” 
 
 I confess that such a proposition is beyond the 
 comprehension of many, and that a mere state¬ 
 ment on the subject means nothing to the aver¬ 
 age individual, for one can appreciate only those 
 things which he has experienced or of which he has 
 knowledge. It is only by understanding that the 
 spirit world is a part of this world, that it is here 
 and about us, that it is material, that all life force 
 finds expression only in the physical, and that peo¬ 
 ple beyond the grave still inhabit their etheric 
 bodies that one can appreciate the fact that speech 
 with the living dead is possible. Even with such 
 an understanding, it is necessary to create certain 
 scientific conditions if one would actually converse 
 with those of the spirit world. The conditions 
 permitting speech are very delicate. The atmos¬ 
 phere at times interferes with results. For exam- 
 
VOICES OF THE LIVING DEAD 17 
 
 pie, when the air is agitated before a storm, it is 
 impossible to do this work; hut on clear nights, 
 when the air is quiet, the manifestations are be¬ 
 yond power of description. Absolute darkness is 
 necessary to enable me to hear the direct speech of 
 those people who, present in my home in their own 
 spirit bodies, use their own tongues, and make 
 their own voice vibrations. To do this work re¬ 
 quires the aid of a person possessed of vital forces 
 out of the ordinary. The group of people in the 
 next life working with me utilized the vital force of 
 Mrs. Emily S. French in conjunction with their 
 own force, and created a new condition in which 
 the vibrations were slow. It was then possible for 
 the spirits to so clothe their organs of speech 
 that their words sounded in our atmosphere. If we 
 accept the hypothesis that spirit people have bodies, 
 and that they are around and about us in an in¬ 
 visible world, it does not require any stretch of 
 imagination to appreciate the possibility of speak¬ 
 ing with those beyond the earth-plane. When we 
 appreciate the fundamental fact that the Universe 
 is matter and that life itself is matter, new possi¬ 
 bilities open to us. 
 
 “Tell us of the conditions that enable you to 
 speak,” I asked one who spoke to us. 
 
 “There are in our group,” the spirit replied, 
 
18 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 “seven people,—all expert in the handling of the 
 electric and magnetic forces, and when you and the 
 psychic, Mrs. French, meet, the vital force that 
 emanates from her personality is gathered up. We 
 also take physical emanations—substances—from 
 you and the others with you, while we contribute to 
 the mass a certain spirit force. Now, that force 
 which we gather and distribute, is just as material 
 as any substance that you would gather for any pur¬ 
 pose; it is simply higher in vibration. We clothe 
 the organs of respiration of the spirit who is to 
 speak, so that his voice will sound in your atmos¬ 
 phere, and when this condition is brought about, it 
 is just as natural for a spirit as it is for you. 
 You then have what is known as the direct or inde¬ 
 pendent voice, that is, the voice of a spirit speaking 
 as in earth-life.” 
 
 Since mankind came up out of savagery, the 
 great problem has been and ever will he: What 
 is the ultimate end? What, if anything, waits on 
 the other side of death’s mysterious door? What 
 happens when the hour strikes that closes man’s 
 earth career, when, leaving all the gathered wealth 
 of lands and goods, he goes out into the dark alone? 
 Is death the end—annihilation and repose? Or, 
 does he awake in some other sphere or condition, 
 retaining individuality and identity? 
 
VOICES OF THE LIVING DEAD 19 
 
 Each must solve this great question for himself. 
 Dissolution and change have come to every form 
 of life, and will come to all that live. With op¬ 
 portunity knocking at the door, mankind has but 
 little more appreciation of it now than it had when 
 Phallic-worship swayed the destinies of empires. 
 It may be that, as a people, our development has 
 been such that we could heretofore grasp and com¬ 
 prehend only length, breadth, and thickness, the 
 three accepted dimensions of matter; that in our 
 progression we have but now become able to ap¬ 
 preciate and understand life forces that find their 
 expression beyond the physical plane. 
 
 Time was when all knowledge was handed down 
 from one generation to another by story, song, and 
 tradition. When the Persian civilization was 
 growing old, and ambition towered above the lofty 
 walls of Babylon; when Egypt was building her 
 temples on the banks of the Nile; when Greece was 
 the centre of art and culture, and Rome with its 
 wealth and luxuries held sway over the civilized 
 world, people did not dream of type and the print¬ 
 ing press, applied electricity, or navigation of the 
 air, and the many inventions that were to come. 
 They were not ready for such progression. 
 
 The world cannot stand still. The great law of 
 the universe is progress. Two or three genera- 
 
20 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 tions since, the idea that a cable would one day be 
 laid under the sea and that messages would be 
 transmitted under the waters and over the waters 
 from continent to continent, was laughed at as a 
 chimera. Only a little while ago, the world could 
 not understand how words and sentences could be 
 flashed across the trackless ocean from ship to ship, 
 and from land to land, without wires, in space. 
 And who shall now say that it is not possible to send 
 thoughts, words, sentences, voices even, and mes¬ 
 sages, out into the ether of the spirit world, there 
 to be heard, recorded, and answered? Has man 
 reached the end of his possibilities; will all pro¬ 
 gression stop with Marconi’s achievements and 
 telephoning without wires? This is the age of 
 man; we have passed the age of gods. If our de¬ 
 velopment is such that we can comprehend the life 
 and conditions following dissolution, it must be 
 within our grasp as surely as progress has been 
 possible at all times and among all people since the 
 world began. 
 
 Our age is one of sudden and rapid changes. 
 What was true yesterday assumes a different, one 
 could almost say, a diametrically opposite aspect 
 to-day. Our people are in a state of transition. 
 New views come with changing times and condi¬ 
 tions. Most minds are sensitive, alert, and versa- 
 
VOICES OF THE LIVING DEAD 21 
 
 tile, and the present is fraught with unrest and a 
 thirst for knowledge. This is a period that will 
 be fruitful in scientific discoveries, and in the 
 adaptation of the universal law of vibratory action. 
 We need not be afraid of investigation. All truth 
 is safe; nothing else will suffice, and he who holds 
 back the truth, through expediency or fear, fails 
 in his duty to mankind. 
 
 Some have come to know what awaits over the 
 great divide, have solved the great problem of dis¬ 
 solution, and with the confidence bom of knowl¬ 
 edge, based on facts proved and demonstrated, are 
 ready to speak with authority. As one among the 
 many, I again give the world the result of my con¬ 
 tinued research in the new field of psychic science. 
 
 We have looked upon the discarded physical 
 body, habitation or housing, occupied by one while 
 developing on the earth plane, and have said: “He 
 is dead; never again will his voice speak words of 
 tenderness, his hands touch, or eyes look upon us, 
 nevermore will we know his tender loving care; he 
 is no more.” Such is the most erroneous conclu¬ 
 sion ever reached by the human mind. When at 
 night we lay aside our clothing, we are the same. 
 When at the end of a short span we separate from 
 the flesh garment we have worn, we are not dead. 
 We are identically the same person, mentally, mor- 
 
22 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 ally, and spiritually as before, with the same 
 etheric body, with power to think and function as 
 in earth-life. I say with all the strength and force 
 at my command that there is continuity of all life; 
 that nothing is ever lost; that communication is 
 possible, and has been had with those in the after¬ 
 life in many ways. My effort has been to create a 
 condition in which it became possible for spirit 
 people to clothe with physical substance their or¬ 
 gans of respiration, so they could talk to us as when 
 in earth-life. It has been my privilege to hear 
 their voices, best of all methods, hundreds of times. 
 Thousands of individuals have spoken, using their 
 own vocal organs, and I have answered. From 
 this source has come great knowledge, facts beyond 
 the learning of men, not found in any books, and it 
 is my privilege to give them to you. 
 
 Lay aside preconceived notions, discard preju¬ 
 dice, be fair and unafraid, while in simple lan¬ 
 guage, I relate what has come to me from this won¬ 
 derful source. If you are not impressed with its 
 truth, discard it. If it appeals to reason, it will 
 be a help not only here but hereafter. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A CONSCIOUS DISSOLUTION 
 
 i ‘'W ^ES, I know that I am no longer an in- 
 habitant of the earth sphere, that I am 
 numbered among the dead; so because 
 I thoroughly understand the great change through 
 which I have passed, the group of spirit people 
 working with you, and controlling conditions on this 
 side, have asked me to speak to you, and through 
 you to all those who sorrow for their dead. You 
 know, of course, that in speaking I am now using 
 my own voice.” 
 
 Out of the silence, out of the darkness, in a room 
 devoted solely to psychic investigation came those 
 words; one whom the world calls dead was speak¬ 
 ing. I have never ceased to be startled when a 
 voice first speaks from the invisible world—so un¬ 
 usual, so marvellous, so wonderful, and yet to me 
 so natural. I know of but two psychics who are 
 able to contribute to conditions that make the di¬ 
 rect or independent voice possible. Emily S. 
 French, who devoted to my work the best years of 
 
 her life, was one of them, and on this occasion she 
 
 23 
 
24 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 was alone with me in the room in my own home de¬ 
 voted solely to such work. At this time the condi¬ 
 tions were such that it was possible for those out of 
 the earth body to so talk that their voices were audi¬ 
 ble. 
 
 The public wants to know, and I had always 
 wanted to know, the sensation involved in the death 
 change, in the awakening; what it is that the eyes 
 behold, or the ears hear when first consciousness 
 continues or returns. So when this man spoke so 
 clearly and strongly, I determined to get from one 
 who had made the change a comprehensive state¬ 
 ment of the mental state, not only before but after 
 the transition. 
 
 “So much,” I said, “of the information that we 
 get from the plane where you now live is general 
 in character, won’t you be specially specific and 
 tell us, first, something of your occupation and of 
 the conditions immediately preceding your dissolu¬ 
 tion?” 
 
 “I came,” he replied, “from a long line of sol¬ 
 diers. My ancestors fought in the American Revo¬ 
 lution, and were among those who aided in estab¬ 
 lishing your Republic; possibly I inherited a mar¬ 
 tial spirit. When the first shot was fired by the 
 Confederates, and Lincoln issued his call for vol¬ 
 unteers, I was possessed with a desire to enter the 
 
A CONSCIOUS DISSOLUTION 
 
 25 
 
 army. I had a wife and two children, to whom as 
 I now know, I owed a far greater duty than to my 
 country, hut the speech of people, the danger of 
 the nation, the condition of slavery prevailing in 
 the Southern States, and the preparation for war, 
 incited me. With forced words of good cheer, I 
 left the brave wife and little children, enlisted, and 
 became a soldier of the Union. 
 
 “I will not take the time to tell you of my life in 
 the army, except to speak of the nights in camp 
 when my thoughts went out to those at home, know¬ 
 ing as I did that funds were slowly diminishing. 
 Ever the idea was dominant that the war would 
 soon be over, then there would be the home com¬ 
 ing, and the plans I formed to make compensa¬ 
 tion for my long absence would come to fruition. 
 But the war did not end as battle after battle was 
 fought with success first on one side, then on the 
 other. I participated in many, seeming to hear 
 a charmed life, for while thousands about me fell, 
 I passed unharmed, and so grew fearless.” 
 
 “Under what circumstances did you meet your 
 end,” I asked. 
 
 “It was at Gettysburg,” he replied, “I can see 
 and feel it all again as my mind concentrates on 
 that tragic event. It was the second day of that 
 great fight. I was then a colonel and commanded 
 
26 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 a regiment in reserve; in front of us the battle 
 roared. Shot and shell filled the air and fell near 
 us, muskets belched forth their fire, the earth 
 seemed to tremble; wounded in great numbers were 
 carried to the rear, and we knew that countless dead 
 lay where they had fallen. We waited, knowing 
 it was only a matter of hours, possibly minutes be¬ 
 fore the order would come to advance. I looked 
 down the line at blanched faces, we all knew that 
 many would not answer the roll call at night. Still 
 we waited. Suddenly out of the smoke galloped an 
 officer from the general’s staff. ‘Forward,’ came 
 the command. 
 
 “There was no faltering now that the hour had 
 come. The column moved. Soon shot and shell 
 fell among us, on we went. All was excitement, 
 fear was gone; we had but one desire, and that to 
 kill; such is the lust of battle. I recall but little 
 more. We reached the front and saw the grey 
 line charging up the hill toward us; then, oblivion. 
 I now know that I was shot.” 
 
 “Tell me of returning consciousness and what 
 you saw,” I said. 
 
 “You must remember,” the spirit answered, 
 “that these tragic events occurred nearly half a 
 century ago, and that at that time it had not been 
 discovered that there is another life, a plane as ma- 
 
A CONSCIOUS DISSOLUTION 
 
 27 
 
 terial as the one you now inhabit, where life con¬ 
 tinues. I had no conception of a hereafter, for 
 with all my religious teaching I had no idea of what 
 or where the future life might be; nor was I at all 
 sure there was one; so you can imagine how startled 
 I was to awake as from a deep sleep; bewildered I 
 got to my feet, and looking down saw my body 
 among many others upon the ground. This was 
 startling. I made a great effort to collect my 
 thoughts and recall events. Then I remembered 
 the awful battle; still I did not then realize I had 
 been shot. I was apart from, still I seemed in 
 some way, held to the body I had so lately worn. 
 My mental condition was one of terrible unrest. 
 How was it I was alive, had a body and yet sepa¬ 
 rate and apart from the covering I had thought 
 constituted the body. 
 
 “I tried to think and realize my situation. I 
 looked about; others of the seeming dead moved, 
 seemed to stir. Then many of them stood up, and 
 like me seemed to emerge from their physical 
 bodies, for their old forms still lay upon the field. 
 I looked at other prostrate bodies, examined many; 
 from each something was gone. Going among them 
 again, I found other bodies inhabited, still living 
 as you would say, though wounded and uncon¬ 
 
 scious. 
 
28 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 “Soon I found myself among thousands in a 
 similar mental state. Not one among them knew 
 just what had happened. I did not know then as 
 I do now, that I always possessed a spirit body com¬ 
 posed of a material called Ether, and that the phys¬ 
 ical body was only the garment it wore while in 
 earth life.” 
 
 “What brought you to the full realization of 
 what had happened?” I asked. 
 
 “I am coming to that,” he said; “While the pass¬ 
 ing out of the old body was without pain, it is a 
 terrible thing to drive a strong spirit from a healthy 
 body, tear it from its coverings. It is unnatural, 
 and the sensation following readjustment is awful. 
 In a short time I became easier, but I was still be¬ 
 wildered. It was neither night nor day; about us 
 all was gloom, not a ray of light, nor a star. 
 Something like an atmosphere dark and red envel¬ 
 oped us all, and we waited in fear and silence; we 
 seemed to feel one another’s thoughts, or to be more 
 correct, hear one another think. No words were 
 spoken. How long we remained in this state I 
 cannot now tell, for we do not measure time as you 
 do. Soon there was a ray of light that grew 
 brighter each moment, and then a great concourse 
 of men and women with kindly faces came, and 
 with comforting words told us not to fear; that we 
 
A CONSCIOUS DISSOLUTION 
 
 29 
 
 had made the great change; that death so-called 
 only advanced our sphere of life; that we were 
 still living beings, inhabitants now of the first 
 plane beyond the earth; that we would live on for¬ 
 ever, and by labour reach a higher mental de¬ 
 velopment; that for us the war was over, we had 
 passed through the valley of death. 
 
 “I will not attempt to tell you of the sorrow that 
 came with such realization, not for myself, for I 
 soon learned that only through death could we 
 progress, and that the personal advantages beyond 
 the physical were greater than those in the phys¬ 
 ical; it was sorrow for the wife and the babies; 
 their great grief when they learned what had hap¬ 
 pened, bound me to their condition, and we sor¬ 
 rowed together. I could not progress or find hap¬ 
 piness until time had healed their sorrow. If only 
 those in earth life knew that their sadness binds and 
 holds us, stays our progress and development! 
 After coming with the aid of many friends to full 
 consciousness, and being able to move at will, I 
 followed at first the movements of both armies. I 
 saw the route of Lee’s army, the final surrender at 
 Appomattox, and I want to tell you of the great 
 effort the inhabitants of this land in which I live 
 put forth, not only to prevent war, but to bring 
 peace when nations or people are at war, for war 
 
30 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 has never been right. No taking of human life 
 is ever justifiable. 
 
 “This is the first time it has been my personal 
 privilege to get a message through to the world 
 I once inhabited. It has been a great pleasure to 
 tell you something of the sensations during and 
 after the change. There is one experience that I 
 want to relate, for it made a profound impression. 
 One day I saw many people passing into a build¬ 
 ing having the appearance of a great Temple of 
 Music. I was told I could go in if I desired—I 
 did. There were assembled, I should judge, five 
 thousand people. They sat with bowed heads in a 
 silence, so absolute that I marvelled; turning I 
 asked one beside me the object of the meeting, and 
 I was told they were concentrating their thoughts, 
 sending out peace vibrations to nations at war. I 
 did not comprehend, but, curious, I waited. Soon 
 above that great company arose a golden cloud that 
 formed and moved as if directed. Having learned 
 that I could go at will, I followed and found the 
 cloudy substance enveloping another battle field. 
 Again a dark condition with flashes of red, imme¬ 
 diately surrounding and above two great armies, 
 for the thoughts of those in battle give out emana¬ 
 tions producing such effect. It had substantially 
 the same appearance that prevailed on my awaken- 
 
A CONSCIOUS DISSOLUTION 
 
 31 
 
 ing. As I watched, the dark condition seemed to 
 change, to dissolve before the peaceful conditions 
 of the light that I had followed, just as mist dis¬ 
 solves before the sun. With the change a better 
 thought filled the minds of those engaged, an in¬ 
 clination to treat more humanly the wounded and 
 the prisoners. This is one of the ways those ex¬ 
 perienced among us help the mental, as those among 
 you aid the physical; both are equally real. 
 
 “Among us are the great who counsel together 
 and work to influence those in authority against 
 war, while others among us by thought suggestions 
 help and sustain those poor soldiers forced into 
 battle, either to satisfy the greed, selfishness, and 
 ambition of those in authority, or to defend a na¬ 
 tion or the integrity of their country. We know 
 neither the one side nor the other. We see only 
 the suffering of humanity, a mother’s mourning, a 
 wife’s heart breaking, a child’s sobbing. They 
 are all human, and without distinction or class we 
 labour to comfort and help them by mental sug¬ 
 gestion. In such work we enter their homes, a 
 great invisible host, and many a heart has been 
 cheered through our ministrations. Other wars 
 will come, unless the thought of those now in au¬ 
 thority changes; then a great work will be re¬ 
 quired of us, for which we are ready.” 
 
32 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 “This has been exceedingly interesting, but just 
 one word more. How does your earth-life appear, 
 after so many years?” I asked. 
 
 “How much do you remember of those first 
 years, when as an infant you gazed upon your 
 world?” the man replied. “So it is with me. I 
 have but an indistinct recollection of the events 
 that made up my earth-life, only a memory re¬ 
 mains, still enough to make me regret many lost 
 opportunities. I was not then a thinker, only a 
 drifter; I accepted what was told me without ques¬ 
 tion; the result was that I did not develop my men¬ 
 tal faculties. This life offers such splendid ad¬ 
 vantages, my joy of living in the present is so 
 intense, that I seldom think of the earth-life at all. 
 All the trials, sorrows, and sufferings incident to 
 birth and the few years in your physical world, 
 were necessary, and from my present vantage 
 ground the matter of living a few years more or 
 less, the manner of my going were unimportant; it 
 is all forgotten now in the wonderful reality about 
 me. As soon as I came to understand what death 
 was and to what it led, I immediately commenced to 
 complete my education, and build a home for the 
 wife and children, and I am happy to tell you that 
 again we dwell together, for they are all here in this 
 land of happiness and opportunity.” 
 
A CONSCIOUS DISSOLUTION 
 
 33 
 
 In the presence of such an experience, listening 
 to an individual speaking from the world beyond, 
 telling of another, an unknown land, where all the 
 so-called dead live, think, move, develop, and pro¬ 
 gress, the learned should understand and compre¬ 
 hend that three dimensions and five senses do not 
 explain the conditions beyond, 
 
 “The Spring blew trumpets of color; 
 
 Her Green sang in my brain. 
 
 I saw a blind man groping 
 ‘Tap-tap’ with his cane; 
 
 I pitied him his blindness; 
 
 But can I boast ‘I see’?; 
 
 Perhaps there walks a spirit 
 Close by, who pities me,— 
 
 A spirit who hears me tapping 
 The five-sensed cane of the mind, 
 
 Amid such unknown glories 
 I may be worse than blind.” 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 SPEECH WITH THE DEAD 
 
 I T was in the year 1892 that I met Emily S. 
 French. She was a woman then over 60 years 
 of age, in delicate health, and very deaf. 
 While she was conscious that she possessed powers 
 out of the ordinary, she had little more compre¬ 
 hension than I of that into which the force would 
 develop. At the suggestion of a number of 
 prominent citizens, I was asked to meet Mrs. 
 French and explain, if I could, the unusual phe¬ 
 nomena obtainable. 
 
 In one of our early investigations we sat in a dark 
 room, three of us forming a half circle, she facing 
 us. After a time, seeming whispers were faintly 
 heard, and the gentleman sitting with me insisted 
 that he recognized his wife’s voice. It was unsatis¬ 
 factory to me, but I was interested and immediately 
 made an investigation of the character of the psy¬ 
 chic. Finding her of good family and of more than 
 ordinary education, I determined to know how the 
 
 phenomenon was produced. Of course, at that 
 
 34 
 
SPEECH WITH THE DEAD 
 
 35 
 
 time I could not comprehend the direct voice, nor 
 the possibility of speech with the so-called dead. I 
 was then agnostic. As I look over the situation 
 now, I see that I had neither the experience nor 
 the ability to appreciate the facts, any more than 
 the average reader of this book can comprehend 
 some of the statements made in it. I had to learn, 
 first, that the after-life is etheric, and that people 
 take into the after-life the same spirit body which 
 they had in this life divested of the outer flesh gar¬ 
 ment. In those days I did not know that we have 
 etheric bodies. 
 
 I found in the beginning that Mrs. French stood 
 very much in awe of the play of this pyschic force. 
 One always fears things which he does not under¬ 
 stand, and not understanding the unusual phenom¬ 
 ena present, she was often veiy much afraid. I in¬ 
 vestigated far enough to find that she was possessed 
 of a vital force unknown to me.. She was just as 
 much in the dark regarding it as I, and just as much 
 interested. Accordingly she undertook to join me 
 in an investigation, to devote her time without 
 money and without price to the mastery of that 
 force in the hope that good might come. Out of 
 that compact came over twenty years of continued 
 work, and experiences which to me seem worthy 
 of record. 
 
36 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 It has been said that we have but five senses. 
 That is to say, the average individual has but five 
 senses developed; some persons, however, have 
 seven. To the five accepted senses I add “psychic 
 sight” and “psychic hearing.” Mrs. French pos¬ 
 sessed both of those. At times she could see peo¬ 
 ple moving in the after-life, not with her physical 
 eye, of course, but by means of psychic sight. She 
 could perceive them so acutely that they were just 
 as real to her as if an impression came upon the 
 retina. This is true, because she could see and 
 describe these people in the dark just as well as in 
 the light. Again, she had psychic hearing, for I 
 have been able on many occasions in the broad 
 daylight to carry on conversations with persons out 
 of the body (she repeating their words) as satis¬ 
 factorily as if they were still in their physical 
 bodies, and in such talks I have gone frequently far 
 beyond the knowledge of the psychic. 
 
 In the beginning spirit speech was faint from the 
 sphere beyond. I was able to get in touch with 
 only a very ordinary class of spirit people, and I 
 often became impatient that those I most desired 
 did not come. I did not then understand as I now 
 do my own limitations, for now I know that in¬ 
 struction was being given me as fast as I could 
 grasp it. When a new fact was stated, the law 
 
SPEECH WITH THE DEAD 
 
 37 
 
 and the conditions making such fact possible were 
 explained. The first propositions were very 
 simple, but as the years rolled by, we made great 
 progress. We learned how to form the required 
 environment; there was a whisper and then a 
 voice; then the voice took tone and individuality. 
 In course of time those of the group with whom I 
 was accustomed to have speech were easily recog¬ 
 nized. 
 
 There was one person in particular with whom 
 from the very first time I worked with Mrs. French 
 I was desirous of talking. This was my mother 
 who left this life in 1873. Time went on, and she 
 did not come. Finally she requested me to meet 
 with Mrs. French under the necessary conditions on 
 May 26, 1896, saying that she would come and go 
 over many things in which we were mutually inter¬ 
 ested. 
 
 About ten o’clock on the appointed morning the 
 Brown Building in Buffalo, then being repaired, 
 collapsed. The street was full of rumors that 
 many people had been killed. The number was 
 put, I think, at six or seven. Of course, there was 
 no way of ascertaining the truth until the debris 
 could be removed and this would require many 
 days. 
 
 Mrs. French and I were scarcely seated that 
 
38 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 evening when my mother greeted me in her own di¬ 
 rect voice, and said with great regret that owing to 
 the accident that morning she must forego the pleas¬ 
 ure of our visit until a later time, we could be of 
 great help to those whose lives had been crushed 
 out; they needed assistance. Of course, I readily 
 acquiesced in the suggestion. There was perhaps 
 ten minutes of silence; then a voice, choking and 
 coughing, broke the stillness and cried,— 
 
 “My God, the building is falling, the building is 
 falling. This way, this way.” The situation was 
 tense and startling. I half rose to my feet. An¬ 
 other voice answered in a strange tongue. The 
 words were not distinguishable, hut it seemed to me 
 as if some one was responding to the first call, 
 which was followed in a moment by a woman’s 
 voice crying out in great fear, “We will all be 
 killed! Help me, help me.” 
 
 This was the beginning of what we term our mis¬ 
 sion work, that is, helping to restore consciousness 
 to those who in leaving the old body are not readily 
 able to regain that condition. There was then, aid¬ 
 ing in this work, as I have since learned, a group 
 of seven spirit co-workers who had brought to us 
 these unfortunate people whose spirit-bodies had 
 been crushed out in the fall of this building. We 
 were to restore them to a normal mental condition, 
 
SPEECH WITH THE DEAD 
 
 39 
 
 and acting upon the suggestion of the spirit co¬ 
 workers I quietly talked with them. After a time 
 I told them what had occurred and brought them to 
 a realization of their situation. Eventually they 
 came to understand that in the fall of that building 
 their spirits had been forced from their physical 
 bodies, and when they came to realize that in the 
 catastrophe they had gone out of earth-life, their 
 sorrow was beyond words. One told me on that 
 evening that four people, namely: William P. 
 Straub, George Metz, Michael Schurzke, a Pole, and 
 Jennie M. Griffin, a woman, had lost their lives in 
 the fall of the building. This was verified some 
 days later. 
 
 After talking with me, voice to voice, they 
 realized that they had gone through the change 
 called death. Then their friends in the after-life 
 came, were recognized, and took them and gave 
 them such consolation as was possible under the 
 unfortunate circumstances. 
 
 I asked the leader of the spirit group how it was 
 that the voices when first heard seemed so strained, 
 and speech so broken, why there was so much 
 choking. He replied that a person, crushed out of 
 the physical body suddenly, finishes as soon as con¬ 
 sciousness and the mental condition are restored, 
 sentences left unuttered when dissolution came; 
 
40 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 that in the awakening he takes on the identical state 
 in which he passed out. 
 
 After they had gone Mrs. French said:— 
 
 “I see behind you a man probably fifty-five or 
 more years old, strong character I should judge, 
 who has been listening to this conversation. He 
 is looking at you with amazement. He does not 
 seem to understand.” 
 
 I said to her, “Does he know me?” 
 
 She replied, “He answers, ‘Yes’.” 
 
 “Does he give his name?” 
 
 “No, not yet.” 
 
 Of course, being in absolute darkness and not 
 possessing psychic sight or psychic hearing, I could 
 neither see nor hear him, but I asked, 
 
 “Did he reside in Buffalo?” 
 
 She answered, “No.” 
 
 I then inquired concerning other localities, and 
 named residents of a city where I had lived for 
 some years, asking, 
 
 “Was he a resident of that city?” and Mrs. 
 French replied saying: 
 
 “He says that he lived there.” 
 
 Then I repeated the names of many of my ac¬ 
 quaintances, trying to identify the individual who 
 was then present, with an idea that I might have 
 speech with him. Finally Mrs. French said: 
 
SPEECH WITH THE DEAD 
 
 41 
 
 “I see the letters H. G. B.” 
 
 I quickly recalled the individual described and 
 spoke his name. He had been a leading citizen 
 of a neighboring city, a large manufacturer. I re¬ 
 called many evenings spent at his house with his 
 family, and particularly did I recall his voice. On 
 Sunday evenings he enjoyed the gathering of young 
 people, and at such times there was often singing 
 of popular songs, and many of the old hymns. His 
 voice was unusual, deep, resonant, and he sang very 
 well. It was a voice which, having once been 
 heard, could never be mistaken. He had been out 
 of the body then about five years. After a little 
 time he moved around apparently to the side of 
 Mrs. French, and greeted me. That deep mascu¬ 
 line voice would have been recognized if he had 
 not given his name; there was no mistake. He 
 spoke my name as familiarly as he ever did in 
 earth life, and I greeted him as cordially as I ever 
 had in his home. 
 
 I had believed that this man had led an exem¬ 
 plary life, for this was the general impression 
 which prevailed in the community where he re¬ 
 sided, and I thought he, of all men, would find the 
 best conditions after dissolution. However, he did 
 not yet realize that he had separated from his 
 physical body. He knew some great change had 
 
42 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 taken place, but he had absolutely no conception 
 of what it was, although five years had elapsed 
 since it occurred. He told me that his wife and 
 children no longer recognized him in his own home, 
 that he spoke to them, that he called to them, that 
 he got on his knees and shrieked their names, but 
 he could not apparently touch them, he could not 
 make them realize his presence; they passed him 
 apathetically. His inability to make himself 
 known in the home where he had always been the 
 dominant personality, the indifference with which 
 he was treated not only by his own family but by 
 others with whom he came in contact, had driven 
 him nearly to desperation. He could not under¬ 
 stand the situation at all, and he was fearful that 
 he was verging on insanity, if not completely in¬ 
 sane. All was darkness about him, all things were 
 unnatural, and he had become frantic. It was a 
 delicate task to bring this man to a realization of 
 the great change that had taken place, because his 
 present condition was so intensely real. He was the 
 same man, he had the same intellect, the same per¬ 
 sonality, apparently the same body. Why should 
 he be ignored and overlooked by all whom he had 
 known? 
 
 It was only after many explanations that he came 
 to a realizing sense that he had left the physical 
 
SPEECH WITH THE DEAD 
 
 43 
 
 world of men. Having in mind the exemplary life 
 which he had led, I told him that I could not under¬ 
 stand why he should find himself in such a mental 
 state, and he replied that he had not lived the life 
 for which he had been given credit. 
 
 A member of the spirit group present said: 
 
 “The wrong done in earth-life binds him to the 
 earth condition. While he has left his physical 
 body, he has not left the earth and its environment, 
 and having no knowledge of the great beyond to 
 which he has journeyed, he has never progressed be¬ 
 yond the earth plane where he formerly lived, and 
 he cannot comprehend while in that mental state 
 the change that has come to him.” 
 
 It appeared that he had never left his home, and 
 the narrow environment about it, but in a half 
 awakened, half conscious state had wandered from 
 one to another until by good fortune he had been 
 told that if he would attend upon our work, he 
 would understand the change that had come into 
 his life. With this unusual experience we said 
 “Good Night” to our group of co-workers, and I 
 walked homeward in deep thought. 
 
 What shall be said of our civilization that teaches 
 nothing of the conditions prevailing in the after¬ 
 life? 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 TOLD IN THE AFTER-LIFE 
 
 I F there is one thing this world ought to know, 
 does not know, and wants to know, it is the 
 process in which and by which an inhabitant 
 of this plane of consciousness leaves the physical 
 body to become an inhabitant of the next or etheric 
 plane. I speak of the earth and the etheric plane, 
 of a here, and a hereafter that I may be under¬ 
 stood, but technically this, the next, and all planes 
 of existence are one, differing only in vibratory 
 activity, or modes of motion. The Universe is all 
 a part of one stupendous whole. 
 
 Only one who has made the great change, can 
 adequately describe conditions under which people 
 live in the sphere beyond. For many years I have 
 been exchanging with other psychic scientists re¬ 
 ports of conditions and lectures from this source. 
 T. W. Stanford of Australia sent me a communi¬ 
 cation from the after-life received by him, which 
 my group say is a statement of fact, and, therefore, 
 
 with his permission I quote it as follows: 
 
 44 
 
TOLD IN THE AFTER-LIFE 
 
 45 
 
 “In my weakness I became unconscious of all 
 around; but soon I became conscious of several 
 things. I realized that something that had held 
 me down and fatally gripped me was gone. I 
 was free, and in the place of weakness and pain 
 and sickness, I had a virility and a vigour which 
 I had never known upon the earth plane. I was 
 also aware that I was in new surroundings, most 
 beautiful. Then I became conscious that I was 
 in the midst of a company of fellow souls, whose 
 voices were filled with happiness, all welcoming 
 me, and others whom I had temporarily lost while 
 upon the earth plane. I then knew that some 
 great change had occurred which had taken from 
 me everything that I had desired to get rid of, or 
 some power, had given to me a delightful experi¬ 
 ence, which I had often in a measure imagined, 
 but dared scarcely believe that it could be possible. 
 
 Surrounded by an innumerable company, I was 
 quite dazzled with the appearance of some who, 
 it was explained to me, were exalted personages. 
 Then there approached one who seemed to be the 
 chief speaker. He said before me was the uni¬ 
 verse, that time was for me no more, that I was 
 henceforth an inhabitant of a new country. You 
 will ask me—was it all pleasant? Extremely so. 
 How can I illustrate it so that you will understand? 
 Have you ever after taking a long journey be¬ 
 come extremely tired and weary, and, at last, at 
 the end of much striving and traveling, come 
 to a house of rest? How you sank down upon 
 
46 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the downy couch. Oh, the delight of it! With 
 no dreams to disturb your rest, you awoke like a 
 giant refreshed! To me it was something like 
 that; although even that is a weak illustration. 
 But that which brought me greatest happiness was 
 the knowledge that I had gained what I had once 
 believed I had lost. I had health, strength, vital¬ 
 ity, friends, and relatives restored to me for ever¬ 
 more. 
 
 I have always been fond of the beautiful. I 
 have spent days, weeks, and months in the picture 
 galleries of Europe, looking at the work of the 
 old masters. Many of them lived hundreds of 
 years before I came upon the earth plane, and yet 
 I seemed to have known them all the days of my 
 life. I have dreamed about them. Da Vinci had 
 always been my companion, Murillo a choice com¬ 
 rade; for Giotto I had a deep, lasting friendship. 
 I loved the beautiful In all its forms. I loved 
 Nature-—the beautiful lakes of Italy and Switzer¬ 
 land, the glorious mountains, the everlasting hills. 
 My friends in spirit life said to me, “come and see 
 the House Beautiful.” Try and understand, if 
 you can, that not only are the landscapes spiritual, 
 but so is the beauty of all that there is on the other 
 side of life. The physical Is only the gross imi¬ 
 tation of the spiritual. There is no tongue which 
 can describe the beauty of the spiritual realms, 
 wherein are the souls of those who have just en¬ 
 tered on their progressive existence—souls who 
 have striven to do their best according to their 
 
TOLD IN THE AFTER-LIFE 
 
 47 
 
 light. I say that there is no tongue that can de¬ 
 scribe the beauties of that land. Take the best 
 that you have, and it is poor in comparison. Then 
 I came next to the spiritual houses, and theie I 
 met with more friends, more relatives, and, 
 greater, grander still, with those royal souls who 
 had been my affinities on earth—been companions, 
 comrades of the brush and palette, and others 
 whom I had deeply reverenced in my soul. 
 
 But I found them much greater, grander, nobler 
 than they ever were in their earth life, and I was 
 privileged to be one of their companions. Still I 
 pressed onward. I came next to a Rest House. 
 That will sound peculiar. You will say, how can 
 you have rest houses, if you don’t know what it is 
 to be weary? No, there is no weariness like that 
 you have experienced on earth; but there are rest 
 houses, where in the spiritual life we may rest and 
 have delightful intercourse with our friends. In 
 the spiritual rest houses, therefore, we entered, 
 and found there relatives and friends. Some were 
 not upon the same plane of existence as I was, but 
 they had been permitted to come down to my sphere 
 to meet me, so that in effect I could say, “He that 
 was dead is alive again, he that was lost for a 
 time is found.” And then memory—think of the 
 joy of memory! I had carried personality and 
 memory into the spirit world, and I compared the 
 existence in Rome with that which I was then en¬ 
 joying. I tell you that it was the expectancy of 
 what was still to be which gave me the greatest 
 
48 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 pleasure and the greatest joy. There is no joy on 
 earth like that which is in Heaven, for it is un¬ 
 alloyed. 
 
 I became conscious that I had to do something, 
 and that I should have to work, and it was a joy. 
 Could I be a messenger? I thought of some on 
 the earth plane I had loved so dearly, and remem¬ 
 bered that they were in spiritual darkness. I in¬ 
 quired,— Where is the Heaven of orthodoxy? 
 “It does not exist,” was the answer. Where is the 
 purgatory of which I have been told so often? 
 “It does not exist.” But my friends were in dark¬ 
 ness, and a yearning came that I might go to them 
 and tell them what I knew. I wanted to say, “Do 
 not be mistaken; there is something better, brighter, 
 grander, nobler for human souls than has been 
 taught you. I was told that I could return, and be¬ 
 came conscious that I could communicate with those 
 still on earth if I found a certain channel, an 
 avenue, an instrument. How could I find it? 
 “All things are yours,” is the promise. There¬ 
 fore I must find the way and the instrument. 
 This I did, and you have helped me. That is the 
 work which I am doing, and it gives me increased 
 happiness. 
 
 I was told that there were greater beauties of 
 the spiritual landscape which I had not yet seen, 
 and which I could not yet understand, because the 
 universe is illimitable. There is something over- 
 poweringly grand in the thought that you are not 
 cramped or shut up in a small space of a few 
 
TOLD IN THE AFTER-LIFE 
 
 49 
 
 millions of miles. No, this universe is vast, and 
 the field is mine to explore. It became mine by 
 right. I had worked for it, and I had yet to work 
 for it. Take special note of that. I was to work 
 and earn the right to explore God’s dominions, and 
 get happiness from every place, state, and condi¬ 
 tion of my spiritual existence. 
 
 Do you like grand architecture: From what 
 source do you think that the old Greeks got their 
 first designs? Phidias and Praxiteles were, no 
 doubt, the greatest of Greek sculptors. There were 
 wonderful architects in those days. When I was 
 upon the earth plane, I made a nine months’ tour 
 of Greece, Rome, and Sicily to make a study of 
 the architecture of the ancients. I visited every 
 temple, whether in ruins or in perfect order, and 
 I tell you they are heaps of stones, they are ut¬ 
 terly beneath contempt compared with the spiritual 
 architecture of the homes and houses in the spirit 
 world. If you have a spiritual body, there is no 
 reason why you should not have a spiritual house. 
 Get rid of the idea that you are a puff of wind in 
 the life hereafter. Even wind may be solidified, 
 for wind is atmosphere in motion, and it is possi¬ 
 ble to solidify the atmosphere. Then I came to 
 the inhabitants of that spirit world. I had never 
 previously believed or dreamed that these could 
 exist in such beautiful forms. To most people, 
 beauty of form is a source of joy and comfort. 
 The Greeks and the Romans loved beauty of form, 
 and I know that you do likewise. I saw the most 
 
50 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 exquisite forms as I progressed, and every day, 
 to use language which you will understand, I met 
 with some that I had previously known upon the 
 earth-plane, and what words can tell the joy of 
 it? To some of them I had done little acts of 
 kindness. And let me impress upon you that of 
 all the pleasure I have received on the spirit side 
 of life, the most came from those to whom I had 
 previously done some act of kindness. If I had 
 my earth life again, I would spend every hour in 
 doing good—I would spend my life in doing acts 
 of kindness. 
 
 In our spiritual rest houses we frequently meet, 
 not only with loved ones, but with those whom we 
 reverenced and adored. We make also new ac¬ 
 quaintances. We get a knowledge of great and 
 grand souls, and come in contact with them. After 
 a time, I was appointed by an Intelligence to do a 
 certain work. I was to help others to see the light, 
 and I had permission to come back to the earth 
 again. Then my instructor said, “That which will 
 give you the greatest pleasure, do.” Then I came 
 back. 
 
 I have met with many great and noble charac¬ 
 ters, who lived upon the earth plane. I am fre¬ 
 quently in the companionship of those whom I 
 loved, and I have never yet found cause for of¬ 
 fence, and never will. No one has entered into 
 my surroundings who has caused me a moment of 
 sadness. On the earth-plane even your best mo¬ 
 ments are clouded because some one in your midst 
 was objectionable to you; but each one on the 
 
TOLD IN THE AFTER-LIFE 
 
 51 
 
 spirit side has gravitated to a certain spiritual 
 level. If he be good, then his spiritual status 
 is good, his affinities will be good, and those who 
 come in immediate contact with him will be good 
 also. There will be no one to offend. 
 
 So vast are the realms or dominions of Nature 
 that in the few years I have been on the spirit side 
 of life, I have been able to explore hut little. 
 When I have been upon the etheric plane for some 
 billions of years I shall perhaps have seen a little 
 of it. But throughout the countless ages of eter¬ 
 nity I shall be evolving, developing, getting knowl¬ 
 edge and light and wisdom. I shall become in 
 tune with the Infinite. 
 
 What there is beyond I do not yet know. Even 
 on our side of life we are not given more knowl¬ 
 edge than we can make use of for the time being. 
 It is all a matter of progression. I have told you 
 that we all have to work. There are no drones. 
 But it is work that is congenial and satisfactory; 
 it is a labour of love. It is appointed by a Higher 
 Intelligence; it is given to you to do; and if you 
 do it, your progress and happiness are assured. 
 Realize that there is no coercion on the spirit side 
 of life, but the spiritual eyes are opened to their 
 responsibility. They see everything at a glance. 
 In the spirit side of life you are not left in any 
 doubt. You have full knowledge that to obey 
 is better than to sacrifice, and to do the will of God 
 is to bring happiness in your progressive existence, 
 throughout eternity. Mothers have had their chil¬ 
 dren taken away by death, and the bereaved ones 
 
52 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 say, “We have lost our children.” You have not 
 lost them. They may have been lost from vision 
 for a while. Perhaps there are some here to¬ 
 night who laid to rest in cold earth a little form, a 
 sweet child. I do not seek to stir up your feelings, 
 but you remember how the burning tears came to 
 your eyes; you rebelled in your soul when a child 
 was taken away. There was an aching void in 
 your heart and you murmured. That life was only 
 taken and planted in another garden, and when you 
 get on the other side, you will know your child. 
 But not as a babe, for all grow to full spiritual 
 stature, radiant, glorious in immortality, with soul 
 filled with love for you, nevermore to part. 
 
 Is it not worth striving for? There is no con¬ 
 demnation to those who are good, those who are 
 living the life, those who are seeking to do that 
 which is right. Let me tell you, that the time is 
 coming when all earth problems, religions, and 
 theology, will pass away. Men are tired of such 
 discussions. They are sick in their soul of be¬ 
 ing told to trust in another; they cannot fathom 
 the scheme or plan of salvation, but they do know 
 that around about them is a world of misery, of un¬ 
 happiness, of shortcomings. It is only the true 
 spiritual philosophy which teaches man to rely 
 upon himself and become his own saviour by be¬ 
 ing true to himself. There is no religion higher 
 than truth. To serve God he must serve man. 
 That pleases the Father and continues eternally. 
 We must become servants of each other.” 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE LIFE MASS 
 
 I HAVE thought a little and laboured long to 
 comprehend the economy of Nature. I have 
 found life everywhere, in trees and flowers 
 and growing grains, in rapid brooks, and lazy 
 streams, in the wind sweeping over the hills, and at 
 rest in lonely places, in the majesty and glory of the 
 dawn as the sun climbs the eastern sky, in the glow 
 of evening and in the purple solitude of night. I 
 see life seeking better expression and individual 
 growth in every birth, and rocked in every cradle. 
 I see Nature working out its destiny, reproducing, 
 increasing, and developing; and in such a presence 
 I know that nothing, not even death itself, can 
 diminish or stop the eternal progress of a single 
 life, all a part of one stupendous whole. 
 
 We speak of inert matter, but there is no such 
 thing in the Universe. Matter, the expression and 
 language of which we do not understand, we term 
 inert,—an error caused by our lack of knowledge. 
 
 Nothing dead exists. We have little knowledge of 
 
 53 
 
54 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the very small, and know nothing of the world of 
 life forms invisible to the human eye,—how they 
 live, what they do, or how they communicate with 
 one another. 
 
 There is a query in science as to whether every 
 living thing is capable of thinking, and I am free 
 to say that, in my judgment, wherever there is life, 
 there must be thinking. I care not whether science 
 accept or reject the theory; there is the power of 
 intelligent action in every seed that has a living 
 germ. The acorn has sense enough to send its 
 rootlets into the earth, and its trunk and foliage 
 branch up into the air, and select just such ele¬ 
 ments as will make the oak tree, and reject such as 
 would be proper only for the beech tree. And the 
 grass has the same kind of intelligence in choosing 
 proper nourishment for itself; and the power of 
 choice must involve the power of thought. Science 
 is on the material and rudimental plane yet, and 
 has much to ascertain. 
 
 Speaking of the life mass, one in the next life 
 has said: 
 
 “The basis of all matter is electricity; the basis 
 of all electricity, for there are many kinds, is ether, 
 —not that ether which is found in the atmosphere, 
 but a subtle ether of which men know little or noth¬ 
 ing. The basis of this subtle ether is spirit; there- 
 
THE LIFE MASS 
 
 55 
 
 fore, all that there is of whirling planets, of bril¬ 
 liant constellations, suns, moons, and satellites, all 
 that there is in the physical Universe is ether 
 clothed, in reality but an expression of spirit. It 
 is the physical in and through which spirit func¬ 
 tions, and in that way makes itself manifest to the 
 external sense. When we once realize how in¬ 
 finitely great is the universe, how wondrous, how 
 terrible, yet how beautiful in its simplicity, a feel¬ 
 ing not exactly of awe, but of benign thankfulness 
 must rise in our hearts at the knowledge that we 
 are part of that stupendous system. 
 
 “Until the discovery of lenses and magnifying 
 glasses, man had no idea of the world around him. 
 He could not scan the heavens by night, nor did he 
 know anything of the world in a drop of water or 
 in the ice gem. He knew nothing of atoms, nor of 
 micro-organisms. 
 
 “If one is interested in geology—in the various 
 rocks in the strata of the earth—let him take the 
 hardest of these rocks—basalt—and in the basaltic 
 rocks he will find a world of life. If he gets far 
 away in the polar seas at the extremes of the earth, 
 he will there find life also. Thousands of fathoms 
 down in the bed of the ocean there is life. In 
 everything throughout the Universe life is found, 
 and the germs of life are no less in the fire mists! 
 
56 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 Think of the specks of protoplasm floating in the 
 water. Look at them—examine them with a 
 microscope. Then realize that at last, a long way 
 off it is true, those specks of protoplasm develop 
 into a Shakespeare or a Dante, Thomas Paine or an 
 Ingersoll. Nature is veiy wonderful! 
 
 “The atmosphere that you are breathing to-night 
 contains organisms. You cannot see them with the 
 naked eye, and even the most powerful lenses would 
 fail to disclose some of them to you. There are 
 microbes floating in the atmosphere, some of which 
 produce disease. Most of them are unimportant. 
 But apart from the germs, there are floating 
 throughout this atmosphere, life forms which man 
 may never be able to discover with any instrument 
 that he may invent in the future. Near to Mount 
 Vesuvius there are a few pools or small lakes, which 
 the internal fires round about make very hot. If 
 to-night I could take one drop from those pools and 
 subject it to a close, rigid scrutiny by means of a 
 more powerful glass than exists, we should find that 
 in one drop of this hot water there is a world. We 
 should find life there evolving and progressing to¬ 
 wards perfection. Again, we should find in that 
 drop of water, or it might be in a speck of earth— 
 if we had the knowledge and power, and also the 
 sight of an advanced spirit to disintegrate it—we 
 
THE LIFE MASS 
 
 57 
 
 should find that the speck of matter branches away 
 into electric corpuscles. Searching deeper, we 
 should discover that even the electricity of the cor¬ 
 puscles is made up of a subtle ether, impenetrable, 
 something so rarefied that the sons of men cannot 
 by any means discern it. Had we the power and 
 the knowledge that we shall have some day in an 
 advanced spiritual state, we should find in the heart 
 of that subtle ether something of wondrous power 
 and influence—a continuous force which is indeed 
 the Spirit of God. 
 
 “Therefore, in the physical we have a universe 
 which at last touches the spiritual. In the infi¬ 
 nitely great we have a universe which is controlled, 
 inspired, kept steady, so to speak, and has its 
 foundation, its very existence, in that force called 
 Nature. And the spirit which you yourselves pos¬ 
 sess, is an emanation from God. This Spirit, 
 though manifest in many ways, and through many 
 forms, is eternal. Matter physical is constantly 
 changing, building up, disintegrating; it is scattered 
 and reformed in the birth, the growth, the life, and 
 the death of worlds innumerable. There is, in 
 reality, no such thing as death. Men enquire from 
 whence comes life? Life came from the Spirit, 
 and when the spirit passes through the subtle ether, 
 and the ether gets into the coarser electricity, it 
 
58 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 takes physical form—gross matter is then impreg¬ 
 nated with life. That life never ceases, because, as 
 I have said, it progresses and develops through the 
 physical and is re-absorbed into the Great Spirit, 
 the Source of all life—light, and power, and wis¬ 
 dom.” 
 
 Another from the great beyond has said:— 
 
 “In the whole universe right down to the micro¬ 
 scopic and beyond, life is found. There is no 
 part of the universe where there is no life, nor 
 where creatures do not live in companies. It is not 
 good for man, or anything to be alone; consequently 
 all are set in companies, and there has been given 
 to each individual a method and a way of under¬ 
 standing every other one, so that all may be happy 
 in one another’s company. Some will say that it 
 is ridiculous to speak of inanimate things in that 
 manner, but it is only ignorance which so asserts; 
 it is inability to realize that the Divine Spirit of 
 God is permeating everything. Walk upon the 
 sands of the sea-shore, examine the tiniest grain; it 
 is impregnated with that Divine Spirit which keeps 
 the whole universe sweet. 
 
 “I cannot say much concerning the manner of 
 communication that plants have, but I know from 
 my side of life that they have this power, and do 
 communicate. And the varieties of perfumes, how 
 
THE LIFE MASS 
 
 59 
 
 are they produced, and borne upon the breeze? 
 The present hypothesis is that it is through some 
 chemical atoms. First, the sun impregnated the 
 plant. In the flower are found chemical sub¬ 
 stances—electrons—which are given off and float 
 on the subtle ether. How do they float? Through 
 vibrations. We have been a long time getting a 
 little knowledge about vibrations, but the processes 
 of Nature are carried on through vibrations. We 
 have thought it most wonderful to set in motion elec¬ 
 trical vibrations, and convey to our friends a mes¬ 
 sage hundreds of miles away. That is but a child¬ 
 ish effort, a childish accomplishment in comparison 
 with what goes on daily around us, but of which we 
 are ignorant. Realize first that there is the life 
 of the plant, and there is the life of the animalcule, 
 the life of the insect, the life of the animal, the life 
 of man, and the life of creatures in the uttermost 
 parts of Nature of which most men have no concep¬ 
 tion. Then we come to the Sources of all Life,— 
 God. Cannot we understand that from Him flows 
 the entire life of the Universe? When we die, as 
 the expression is, though such a thing does not hap¬ 
 pen—when a dissolution of the material body and 
 the spirit occurs, what takes place is this: there 
 is a breaking up of a community—you and your 
 body are a community interdependent on each 
 
60 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 other,—and at death, or dissolution, a colony, a 
 company breaks up—I must for the time-being use 
 terms which will be understood—the etheric tenant 
 vacates and goes on to a more glorious, sublime 
 plane. Paul said to the Corinthians, “There is a 
 natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” It 
 is the earthly house of the tabernacle here which 
 dissolves. 
 
 The companies of insects, and of animals, 
 though they make war on each other and may exist 
 on each other, have a language. They know how 
 to communicate, and in a measure they are depend¬ 
 ent one upon the other. Is it not amusing to hear 
 some people say that man alone has speech, that is, 
 sound formed into certain words and syllables and 
 sentences through the vocal organs? Let us, for 
 instance, consider the birds. We see them and 
 hear them warble and sing. That is their way of 
 expressing joyousness; but that is not their lan¬ 
 guage. They have a way in which they communi¬ 
 cate with each other just as we have. Has the 
 reader ever visited India? In the Burning Ghaut, 
 where the Hindoos and others burn their dead, they 
 carry the bodies up a flight of stairs to a high plat¬ 
 form. The wood is already prepared, and the 
 body is placed upon the wood. Look up into the 
 heavens, calm and bright, the sun glaring down, 
 
THE LIFE MASS 
 
 61 
 
 not a speck in the sky. In two or three minutes 
 the place will be black with carrion birds. Can we 
 explain it? Yes, away perched on some high emi¬ 
 nence or tree is the sentinel bird; perhaps miles 
 away are his fellows. He speaks to them, the senti¬ 
 nel sounds the signal, and instantly they reply to 
 him, and fill the air. Most people think that the 
 world in which they live is a jumble. I grant that 
 there are things that are abhorrent, which we can¬ 
 not understand—the mystery of pain and suffering, 
 of evil, for example, but I realize now that out of 
 all that is evil, will finally come good. There is 
 no confusion or jumble in the Divine Order. 
 Everything is in its place, and ultimately it will be 
 seen that in Nature, God has set the solitary in 
 families, that His wondrous power is always recre¬ 
 ating matter, and that there is never annihilation. 
 
 There may, however, be change of form. Take, 
 for instance, the coral rocks on the seashore. 
 Little creatures once swam in the ocean in tiny 
 shells; they died in myriads, and the shells in time 
 formed certain rocks. Old forests fall in decay, 
 and the wisest man of the 20th century might 
 have said: “Show me the wisdom of God in this?” 
 But to-day the coal formed from these forests is 
 used to give warmth and light, and all the proc¬ 
 esses of commerce are carried on through it. 
 
62 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 There is no death! Everything gives place to new 
 forms of life. 
 
 And this is the fact that we must gather from 
 our teaching: that out of the life contained in the 
 mass, individuality has come; out of the mass of 
 life, through Nature’s process of constant change 
 and refinement, every living creature that will in¬ 
 habit this globe in the ages yet to come must be 
 evolved. The highest form of life that is evolved 
 from the mass is man—and to the highest, all lesser 
 forms contribute. Mankind is the final result of 
 evolutionary action. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE 
 
 ‘ 1 V 0 the so-called dead actually live be- 
 ■ yond the grave? If so, where? Can 
 M. J they communicate with us after they 
 have left their physical bodies? Have conditions 
 been perfected by which they can talk to those 
 living here, using their own voice? Do their 
 words sound the same in our atmosphere as they 
 did when they inhabited their physical bodies?” 
 These questions and many more have often been 
 asked me. I answer, “Yes”—but the abstract af¬ 
 firmative reply means so little that I propose to 
 give a detailed explanation of the facts. If I can 
 explain the principle involved, the result will be 
 understood, for the former is a condition depend¬ 
 ing upon the latter. 
 
 We were conducting our investigation as usual. 
 The room devoted to the purpose was in intense 
 darkness, as it always was, and the atmospheric 
 movement was slow. Mrs. French, my assistant, 
 the most perfect psychic then living, was with me. 
 
 63 
 
64 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 In the darkness appeared points of non-luminous 
 light, constantly in motion, cloudy, etheric sub¬ 
 stance, half-form, which moved with an effect of a 
 cool wind blowing across one’s face and hands, as 
 it passed and repassed. A strong influence seemed 
 to take some vital force from me. 
 
 From years of similar experience I knew that 
 aiding us was a group of workers in the after-life, 
 who were creating conditions by which it would be 
 possible for them, and those whom they would 
 bring, to converse with us; that etheric and physical 
 matter were being transformed into a state in which 
 they could be used to clothe the vocal organs of 
 spirit people. 
 
 “Do spirit people have bodies?” is a question 
 frequently asked. My answer is that they have, 
 and when in this world, it is clothed with a flesh 
 garment. In the change the etheric body discards 
 the flesh covering, but that act does not destroy the 
 individual, or his etheric body, or his organs of 
 speech, or change them in any way. The flesh cov¬ 
 ering of man’s etheric body makes possible exist¬ 
 ence in the physical world. Similarly, the absence 
 of the flesh garment makes possible his existence 
 in the spirit world. It is only by again clothing 
 organs of speech with matter slow in vibration 
 that the words of inhabitants of the etheric world 
 
THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE 
 
 65 
 
 may sound in our atmosphere, and after this has 
 been done, an individual in the after-life has no 
 more difficulty in speaking than he had when in the 
 earth-life. These were the conditions being ar¬ 
 ranged on the evening which I am about to de¬ 
 scribe. 
 
 As we waited, every faculty was alert. Though 
 I had had the same experience upon hundreds of 
 previous occasions, yet each occasion seemed 
 more interesting and different from the one pre¬ 
 ceding. I had long since ceased to demand tests, 
 or to insist on the coming of any particular in¬ 
 dividual. I asked for knowledge, and any one 
 who was in a position to give that would, I knew, 
 talk; so with patient expectation we waited, con¬ 
 versing easily, filling the room with voice vibra¬ 
 tions. Who out of the great beyond could take 
 on the physical condition which would make con¬ 
 versation possible? 
 
 There was absolute silence, save for a slight 
 movement as of soft garments, a moment of ex¬ 
 pectancy as we awaited the greeting of those from 
 the great beyond—was there ever a situation more 
 intensely interesting? 
 
 “Good evening, Mr. Randall. I am glad to 
 have the pleasure of greeting Mrs. French again.” 
 The voice was clear and distinct. “I have been 
 
66 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 asked to tell you something of the conditions that 
 make speech possible. 
 
 “First of all,” he continued, “I know that to 
 your physical eyes all is in intense darkness. 
 With us, however, who no longer live subject to 
 physicial vibrations, there is light, but not the light 
 of your day. To us in the etheric world, who are 
 not bound by earth conditions, all is light—a state 
 far different from the light you know. In our light 
 the physical is visible, and through it we pass as 
 easily as atoms pass through your solids, and here 
 let me say, as we have often said before, our 
 etheric bodies are just as perfect as when we in¬ 
 habited physical garments in the earth plane, or as 
 your bodies are to-night. When compared to 
 yours, our bodies appear transparent, and all things 
 in this life appear more transparent than did things 
 in the earth plane, but they are more real to us than 
 things physical are to you, because more intense. 
 It is difficult, I know, with all you have been told, 
 to comprehend matter, except it be tangible—but to 
 continue my account of the work being done here. 
 
 “From Mrs. French’s brain project magnetic 
 lines of force, to me perfectly visible, extending to 
 a point just over the table between you, while over 
 your head appears a bar of light from which other 
 lines of force reach out, meeting those first de- 
 
THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE 
 
 67 
 
 scribed, under which there appears to be a cup into 
 which the magnetic and electric forces so taken are 
 gathered. These substances, etheric in character, 
 are by chemists, skilled in such work, manipulated 
 to clothe my organs of speech; otherwise the sound 
 of my voice would not fall upon your ears. All 
 psychics possess a peculiar vital force that is used 
 by us; otherwise they would not be psychics, and 
 when I speak to you I am for the moment really an 
 inhabitant of your world, just as for the moment 
 you are in touch with the after-life. In the con¬ 
 ditions prevailing at this moment, there is no line 
 of demarcation between the so-called two worlds; 
 we are both in the same room, actually within a 
 few feet of each other; both have bodies; for the 
 moment, you sit in a chair, while I stand, and each 
 hears the other’s words. If I could gather just a 
 little more strength, I could touch you.” 
 
 “Just a moment,” I interrupted, “won’t you take 
 my hand in order that I may feel the tangibility of 
 an etheric body, re-clothed for the moment?” 
 
 “I will try,” was the answer. “Wait.” 
 
 Then in the darkness I held one hand to my 
 right, while across the table at right angles my left 
 held firmly both hands of my assistant. This was 
 in a room in my own residence; all light was ex¬ 
 cluded, and we were alone. Soon a hand took 
 
68 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 mine; there was no groping. I took the hand meet¬ 
 ing my own firmly, feeling the form and outline. 
 It was warm, and perfectly natural in all respects 
 with one exception; although it rested easily, yet it 
 seemed to move and to vibrate beyond any descrip¬ 
 tion I can give. As my hand closed, the other hand 
 seemed to dissolve. No word was uttered during 
 that particular time. Then the gentleman speak¬ 
 ing from a point very near his former position, 
 said: 
 
 “We do not like to use the material that we have 
 gathered with such great effort for physical demon¬ 
 strations, for so much can be accomplished in other 
 ways. Do you know there is no place in the world 
 to-day where such work can be done, as in your 
 home to-night? I mean that working with Mrs. 
 French and you so long, we have overcome many 
 crude conditions, and have reached such a state of 
 perfection that many of those in an advanced plane 
 can enter, can teach laws and explain conditions 
 unknown among men, touching the very foundation 
 of the physical. Then again, working in conjunc¬ 
 tion with you, we bring many persons into that 
 quasi-physical, quasi-etheric condition which is 
 necessary to restore them to a conscious state. 
 We do a work that is being accomplished in 
 no other place; here the physical and the etheric 
 
THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE 
 
 69 
 
 force blend as one, and here many of the dead, 
 so-called, are awakened in the conditions created. 
 We shall always feel the obligations we owe you, 
 for with your aid we have helped very, very many 
 in the years gone by, the extent of which you have 
 little idea.” 
 
 From this it would seem that physical vibra¬ 
 tions, working in conjunction with the etheric are 
 necessary to create a condition where some in the 
 after-life may be roused from an unconscious state. 
 If this be so 
 
 “Earth needs Heaven, but Heaven indeed 
 Of Earth has just as great a need.” 
 
 “We can help you, and you can help us in so 
 many ways,” he said. 
 
 “How do our physical bodies appear to you to¬ 
 night?” I inquired. 
 
 “Your bodies, I now speak of the flesh cover¬ 
 ing,” he said, “may be likened to a lighted pump¬ 
 kin on Hallowe’en night. Some give out more 
 light than others, depending on the development and 
 refinement of the life force. Generally speaking, 
 a physical covering appears dark, some darker than 
 others. The life force in many is fine, in others 
 undeveloped; there is as much difference as in the 
 arc light and the candle. 
 
70 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 “Your brain.” be continued, “appears to me like 
 a fine machine in constant motion. As suggestions 
 both spirit and physical, through movement of mat¬ 
 ter reach you, they pass into the brain machine, are 
 fashioned and changed, then flow out in new form, 
 and we of this world not only see them enter but 
 we see them emerge. All in the world is substance 
 and all is life; they are one and the same thing, for 
 life has never existed and never can exist without 
 substance; form cannot be without matter; so in 
 this way we illustrate how important it is to keep 
 the thought, the output of the brain clean, and men 
 and women will keep it clean when they come to 
 know that it is visible. But I am transgressing; 
 there are others who would speak—good night.” 
 
 “I have waited,” the voice of a woman then said, 
 “so long for just the conditions to prevail that 
 would enable me to speak. To-night, while the 
 gentleman was addressing you, I was told by those 
 having the work in charge that I might try. I was 
 asked to stand to the right of the table that sepa¬ 
 rates the psychic from you. This I did when the 
 chemist of the spirit group took from the cup in 
 which it had been gathered, a substance slow in vi¬ 
 bration and precipitated the material around and 
 about my organs of speech. I touched my mouth 
 and moved my tongue, both seemed in a way dif- 
 
THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE 
 
 71 
 
 ferent, but their use was not modified, and when I 
 spoke to you I realized that my voice sounded the 
 same as it did before I left your world. 
 
 “My passing out of the old body was so delight¬ 
 ful, so different from what I had expected, and the 
 plane in which I now live is so wonderful that I 
 have long been anxious to give to your world a de¬ 
 scription of my going and of what awaited me. I 
 now see that I lived a fairly good life. As occa¬ 
 sion presented, I did what little I could to make 
 those about me happier, helped those less fortunate 
 as opportunity offered, and tried to do right. I 
 had no knowledge of what followed the earth-life, 
 but I always had an abiding faith that if people 
 invariably did the best they could, all would be 
 well, and I was not disappointed. 
 
 “In my last illness, as the hour of dissolution 
 approached, I felt no fear. It seemed to me that 
 I was about to make a natural change, and that in 
 some place I should live on in the companionship 
 of those who had preceded me. There came over 
 me a weakness that I cannot describe; I seemed to 
 sleep. With great effort I aroused my faculties, 
 and plainly saw members of my household, some 
 kneeling about the bed sobbing. I wanted to speak 
 to them, but found I was unable to articulate. 
 Looking again I was for a moment startled, for I 
 
72 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 saw many faces of spirit people smiling. Look¬ 
 ing once more, I saw beside my bed my dear hus¬ 
 band, whose face was full of tenderness, and who 
 took my hand speaking words of welcome. Others 
 whom I now know help on such occasions, gathered 
 about me, their hands under my poor physical 
 body, encouraging me, and telling me all was well. 
 Soon, without any effort on my part, for I was far 
 too weak to make an effort, I seemed to be lifted 
 above and out of my old body, and stood among the 
 others referred to, startled at the reality. 
 
 “I turned and saw the old flesh body, white and 
 still, and heard the cry of anguish as the physician 
 said, ‘She is dead.’ I wanted to speak to the loved 
 ones who mourned, and tell them, as I do now that 
 I was not dead, but conscious and living. I was 
 informed, however, that my words would fall upon 
 deaf ears, and that in my present disturbed mental 
 state the wisest course would be for me to go with 
 my husband to a rest house for a little time, until 
 I should grow accustomed to the change. Later, I 
 was told, I should be shown the beauty of the after¬ 
 life, and in good season should come again into 
 the house of mourning. I was not for one mo¬ 
 ment unconscious in passing from one world to the 
 other. 
 
 “Many of those who had preceded me into the 
 
THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE 
 
 73 
 
 after-life, who came to help in the change, went 
 with us to the house of rest; there was great joy 
 among them, but my heart was filled with sorrow, 
 for many dear ones left in your world needed a 
 mother’s care. I could not at that time comprehend 
 the wisdom of the infinite, or realize that each 
 change in Nature means progress. I will not un¬ 
 dertake,” she continued, “to describe the joy of 
 meeting with those who had preceded me, or of the 
 coming and going of friends and acquaintances. 
 Their good cheer and happiness were a great com¬ 
 fort, but my thoughts were ever with those in the 
 old life who grieved so much. I felt that I must 
 go and tell them, but I was informed that the time 
 was not opportune, for they were without knowl¬ 
 edge. Further, I was assured that both they and I 
 must learn many things before help would be pos¬ 
 sible, except by suggestion, and that I should be in¬ 
 structed in good time. 
 
 “What impressed me most after a period of rest, 
 and my faculties had become alert, was the reality 
 of all things. I looked at my own body, which 
 seemed as tangible as before the change, although 
 it had perhaps a more etheric appearance. I 
 stood upon my feet, and moved my legs, arms, and 
 head; my senses of touch, smell, and sight were 
 more acute; I spoke to those about me, and they 
 
74 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 answered; I looked over a valley and saw running 
 brooks, and lakes, trees, grass, and flowers of many 
 kinds. I took long deep breaths of wonderfully 
 vitalizing air, and as the new conditions dawned 
 upon me, I turned to those about me questioningly. 
 
 “ T do not understand,’ I said. 
 
 “ ‘No,’ they answered, ‘as you have never been 
 taught anything concerning this life, how could you 
 understand? But let us tell you one fact: the life 
 you have now entered is just as material as the 
 one you have left. Stop for a moment and realize 
 that truth. Moreover, everything in the earth- 
 plane is only a poor imitation of a part of what ex¬ 
 ists in this plane.’ 
 
 “ ‘Did it never strike you as absurd,’ a spirit 
 said, ‘that houses, trees, flowers, and all animal life 
 should be limited to the physical plane; such a 
 proposition must assume that the universe is limited 
 to the earth planet?’ 
 
 “ ‘I could not grasp the suggestion,’ I said, and 
 I asked that I might rest for a while. Turning my 
 head, I saw the smiling face of my husband beck¬ 
 oning, and I went with him with confidence, as in 
 the days of youth. 
 
 “I am weary now,” she said, “the material 
 seems to be falling from my lips and throat; there 
 is so much that I want to say; I will come again.” 
 
THE CONTINUITY OF LIFE 75 
 
 Her strength was exhausted, with the experience 
 half told. 
 
 “You have said that in the world of spirit, you 
 have lands and waters, lakes and rivers, trees and 
 shrubs, vines and flowers; tell us of them in lan¬ 
 guage we may comprehend,” I said to another 
 spirit who greeted us. 
 
 “In the first place,” he answered, “you must 
 disabuse your mind of the idea that nothing ex¬ 
 isted before your poor earth-planet came into be¬ 
 ing, or that nothing exists beyond the physical. 
 The truth is that all things which in the ages have 
 found expression on the earth-plane, have existed 
 in the etheric world since the beginning. There 
 were rivers flowing down from mountains, and 
 lakes in the valleys among the hills, and lands and 
 trees and embracing vines, and flowers long before 
 this planet was fertile, and now only a few of the 
 wonderful things of our plane are able to find 
 expression in yours. Then again, there is much 
 vegetation developing in our etheric material that 
 the earth in its crude state cannot clothe, and your 
 inability to comprehend vegetation beyond or out¬ 
 side the earth lies in the fact that you have hereto¬ 
 fore had an erroneous idea that all life originated 
 in the physical.” 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 A UNIVERSE OF MATTER 
 
 A JUST and full appreciation of the fact 
 that the Universe is composed of Mat¬ 
 ter in varying degrees of activity is a 
 condition precedent to a true comprehension of 
 the great problem of life. Through it we can un¬ 
 derstand dissolution and learn something of the 
 conditions prevailing beyond the physical. 
 
 The suggestion that the whole Universe is Ma¬ 
 terial, and the different spheres are, in fact, sub¬ 
 stance with varying vibration and intensity, and 
 that individual life continues in those different 
 planes similar to life in our plane, is startling, but 
 no more so than the advancement of the Coper- 
 nican theory, or the discovery of the law of grav¬ 
 itation. It took hundreds of years for the ac¬ 
 ceptance of the first proposition, and upon the 
 enunciation of the second the jealous ones said that 
 the grand laws of universal gravitation deduced by 
 Newton were false. Much time will necessarily 
 
 elapse before the following propositions are ac- 
 
 76 
 
A UNIVERSE OF MATTER 
 
 77 
 
 cepted, that the whole Universe is material, and 
 that all space is filled and peopled. The reason 
 for this delay is that man’s mental process is 
 slow, and a new discovery is only accepted finally 
 after repeated demonstration. 
 
 It is an axiom in physics that matter only acts 
 on matter, so if mind acts on matter, mind itself 
 must be matter. One experiences great difficulty 
 in approaching a fact so new—there is difficulty 
 in finding words with which to express the proposi¬ 
 tion in simple language. Words are as limited as 
 knowledge on the subject; so when we go beyond 
 the beaten path, we must give new meaning to old 
 words or invent new ones. Matter, as that term 
 has been heretofore understood, is confined sub¬ 
 stantially to things tangible and physical. This is 
 too limited a use, for if the universe is material, 
 matter does not cease to be when it ceases to be 
 tangible. 
 
 I would put the facts in this way: 
 
 (a) Matter slow in action is subject to the law 
 of gravitation, and therefore physical. 
 
 (b) Matter so rapid in vibration as not to be 
 subject to the law of gravitation is etheric. 
 
 Matter when it ceases to be physical is only 
 changed in density. Certain forms of matter may 
 be changed by chemical action and advanced to 
 
78 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the spiritual state; then by the reduction of atomic 
 motion the same matter may be restored again to 
 its former condition, to hold once more physical 
 expression. Mind is matter raised to its highest 
 degree of atomic activity when it holds within itself 
 inherent power of intelligent direction. Every 
 atom, every electron and molecule has form, and 
 when those atoms, electrons, and molecules, by 
 attraction, are so closely drawn together as to be¬ 
 come tangible, they still have individual form. 
 When by Nature’s process they are advanced step 
 by step until they become etheric, they still have 
 form; the mind which is etheric has form, is sub¬ 
 stance; it is real, and its creations take definite 
 shape. Mind acts on matter, as we use the 
 homely phrase; that is to say, matter raised to its 
 highest degree of activity utilizes the tangible sub¬ 
 stances necessary to give physical expression. 
 This is demonstrated in each individual, for the 
 mind directs the body, and the physical body obeys 
 the will of the spirit. 
 
 When the statement is made that life continues 
 beyond the grave, the average thinking man doubts 
 it. When the suggestion is put forth that we have 
 now and here a spirit body, which in dissolution 
 only separates from the physical, the assertion is 
 not understood. When the statement is put forth 
 
A UNIVERSE OF MATTER 
 
 79 
 
 that there is continuity of this life, and that spirit 
 people have bodies, live in a material universe, and 
 have homes similar to our own, the words mean 
 nothing to the average person, for such conditions 
 are beyond comprehension. 
 
 In order that these propositions may be under¬ 
 stood, it is necessary to explain the conditions 
 which make such a state possible; we must know 
 the law through which life holds continuity. 
 Therefore, a just and true comprehension of the 
 following facts is essential, there is a material uni¬ 
 verse beyond the physical; there is an etheric uni¬ 
 verse within and outside the physical; and the en¬ 
 tire universe is composed of matter in different 
 states of vibration or modes of motion. These 
 truths must be understood before a single indi¬ 
 vidual can comprehend the continuity of life— 
 that the so-called dead have bodies, form, feature, 
 and expression, and that they live on intelligently 
 in a world as material as this, continuing their 
 progression. Everything that possesses the prop¬ 
 erty of gravitation or attraction is classed as mat¬ 
 ter. That is the most scientific definition of mat¬ 
 ter given by people in the world beyond this. 
 Matter is either solid, liquid, or gaseous. If solid, 
 it is strongly cohesive. If liquid, less so. If 
 gaseous, the atoms may be said to bump against 
 
80 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 each other and rebound. Molecules are made up 
 of several atoms. For instance, a molecule of 
 water is composed of three atoms, two of hydrogen 
 and one of oxygen. Atoms are smaller particles 
 of matter, possessed of forces so wonderful that 
 it is utterly impossible to trace them down and 
 examine them, for the reason that they are con¬ 
 tinually changing, so rapid is their passage through 
 the atmosphere. 
 
 There is much the scientists do not know about 
 atoms. About two hundred miles above this earth 
 plane extends what we call atmosphere at which 
 distance it becomes very rare. What then extends 
 throughout the universe, throughout the solar sys¬ 
 tem—throughout all solar systems? There exists 
 something which is not like the earth’s atmosphere, 
 which is called Ether, through which, with vibrat¬ 
 ing undulating motion, come waves of light, ulti¬ 
 mately reaching the earth plane, giving not only 
 light but life. These countless atoms are in con¬ 
 stant motion, passing through the Ether, with wave¬ 
 like undulatory motion, having perfect form, with 
 individual likes and dislikes. They have in¬ 
 telligence, are drawn together, or there is no af¬ 
 finity, for through affinity there is cohesion. Co¬ 
 hesion among the atoms, when slow, becomes phys¬ 
 ical and visible. That cohesion may be among 
 
A UNIVERSE OF MATTER 
 
 81 
 
 etheric atoms, where the vibration of the mass is 
 so rapid that it has to us no visibility. The 
 cohesion of atoms is not confined to the physical 
 world, for, through the universal law, these atoms 
 find expression not only in but beyond the physical. 
 The two planes of consciousness are closely inter¬ 
 woven. The same law that governs and controls 
 and directs the one, governs and controls and di¬ 
 rects the other. It is only, therefore, through the 
 law that we are able to advance out of the physi¬ 
 cal. 
 
 Every atom has force, and force wherever 
 found or however expressed is life, and every atom 
 has heat—heat so intense that all the furnaces of 
 this earth could not reproduce it. This Ether, 
 this subtile substance permeates all things physi¬ 
 cal. 
 
 One of the great impediments to our realization 
 of spirit presence and activity is our inability to 
 conceive force and matter in their more refined 
 forms not manifest to the physical senses or sus¬ 
 ceptible to touch or vision. Yet all the greatest 
 forces are unseen. Electricity, magnetism, and 
 steam are only cognizable to our vision by their 
 occasional manifestation of light and colour, or 
 through the vapour produced by the latter when it 
 meets with the atmosphere. 
 
82 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 Changing the vibratory condition or density of 
 water by heat illustrates in a simple way the prop¬ 
 osition herein stated. You take a basin of water 
 and put a fire under it; it commences to bubble, 
 its motion increases, its vibration is raised; it 
 changes to steam. By confining that steam, and 
 applying more heat, super-heated steam, which in 
 itself is invisible, results. This passes from our 
 vision, but is not lost or destroyed, for by another 
 process we can restore it to its original state. 
 Again, the sun causes evaporation of the waters; 
 they pass and become etheric and a part of the 
 world—invisible, but through Nature’s process of 
 condensation they fall again as rain. By that 
 process the water did not cease to be, but by that 
 change it ceased to be visible. While invisible, 
 its density was changed, its vibration slowed, and 
 it became once more subject to the laws of gravi¬ 
 tation. 
 
 Again, every atom that forms the mass has not 
 only form, but energy, and force, which is life. 
 Life may be so low as to be beyond our apprecia¬ 
 tion, or its development may be so high as to be 
 equally beyond our comprehension. In the co¬ 
 hesion of the atoms through their affinity and their 
 development, we find the varied expressions of 
 life. Evolution is a constant force, an inherent 
 
A UNIVERSE OF MATTER 
 
 83 
 
 desire for development, and that great law influ¬ 
 ences every form of life. It is not confined to the 
 physical, but acts upon the grosser substances, and 
 through it they develop and increase. 
 
 The Universe did not commence with the birth 
 of this planet; its birth was not the commencement 
 of creation. Our dissolution will not end our in¬ 
 dividuality. There is around and about us a great 
 universal force that we characterize as Good. That 
 force is a reality, a substance composed of mat¬ 
 ter, developed beyond the physical, and in every 
 instance where an atom of that force is clothed 
 with grosser material, Nature increases its sum 
 total. We do not have to go beyond the physical 
 universe to see spirit activity. We never see any¬ 
 thing else. 
 
 At the instant of man’s conception, an etheric 
 atom becomes clothed. It takes on through Na¬ 
 ture’s process, a flesh garment. The sensitive 
 spirit body, like the seed sown in the soil, com¬ 
 mences its development in the dark, where it grows 
 and increases in form and stature. The flesh gar¬ 
 ment is correspondingly increased, and at such 
 times as it becomes able to withstand the light there 
 is a natural birth. The process of growth that 
 commenced at the moment of conception is con¬ 
 tinuous, it attracts other atoms slow in vibration, 
 
84 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 it organizes the physical body so that the flesh gar¬ 
 ment may increase for its uses and purposes. 
 Further, the outer garment wastes from hour to 
 hour, day to day, and week to week, completely 
 changing once in every few years. But the in¬ 
 dividual having form, feature, and expression does 
 not change except to increase mentally and physi¬ 
 cally. 
 
 If the whole Universe is composed of matter, 
 man both spiritual and physical, is not an excep¬ 
 tion to the universal law. The physical eye can¬ 
 not see the etheric spirit in the body, nor can it 
 see the spirit out of the body. If the spirit in the 
 earth life is not composed of matter, how would 
 it he possible to hold form, feature, and expres¬ 
 sion? This is the keynote to understanding, for 
 with a comprehension of that proposition we can 
 appreciate what dissolution is, and we may finally 
 understand that every plane in which we live is a 
 reality, and composed of matter. 
 
 Within certain vibratory action, matter is phys¬ 
 ical, tangible, and visible, and subject to the law 
 of gravitation. When vibration is increased be¬ 
 yond that point, we are in the domain of spirit 
 where one is not subject to the laws of gravitation. 
 The line of demarcation, therefore, between the 
 spiritual and the physical is that point where the 
 
A UNIVERSE OF MATTER 
 
 85 
 
 law of gravitation ceases to have influence. The 
 whole spirit world, as well as the life force that 
 functions in the tangible in this world is made up 
 of etheric matter, as distinguished from physical 
 matter. When the gross matter is refined to a 
 certain point, it becomes and ever remains Ether, 
 but all is matter technically in different modes of 
 motion, or in different states of vibration. 
 
 This proposition is so new in physics, so beyond 
 the experience of men, that it is difficult to grasp, 
 but it can and will be understood through the re¬ 
 search of the physicist who without fear of the 
 criticisms of our world calls to his aid those few 
 psychics who have developed the sixth and seventh 
 senses, and are able to see and hear what is said 
 and done in the world beyond this—or who, as I 
 have done, have created a condition where the in¬ 
 habitants of the place beyond can speak to us voice 
 to voice. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE RECORD OF A NIGHT 
 
 A GAIN a night of experimental work. As 
 I closed the shutters, the stars shone with 
 unusual brilliancy. The atmospheric 
 conditions were perfect—clear, cold, dry, and 
 still. As I shut out the light, seating myself op¬ 
 posite Mrs. French, clouds within the room for a 
 moment seemed to form and roll like smoke from 
 a great fire. Soon they passed away, and non- 
 luminous points of light became apparent and 
 slowly floated. Then there appeared above my 
 head the ribbon or bar of magnetic substance that 
 is always present when the conditions are right for 
 speech with those beyond. Mrs. French through 
 her psychic sight saw a great number of people 
 passing and repassing, while chemists manipulated 
 the etheric and physical material into the exact 
 condition for use in speech. 
 
 While waiting for the work to begin, I recall 
 trying to fix the line of demarcation between the 
 
 two worlds. In a moment I should hear the voices 
 
 86 
 
THE RECORD OF A NIGHT 
 
 87 
 
 of those actually living in another plane, and they 
 would hear mine. I should speak to them and they 
 to me. They would see me perfectly, though I 
 could not see them. Sight is about the only quality 
 possessed by spirit people in the conditions pre¬ 
 vailing which is denied me. After a moment’s 
 reflection I realized the limitation of our sight at 
 all times. Such situations make one think deeply. 
 
 “Good evening, Mr. Randall.” A deep mascu¬ 
 line voice broke the stillness. It was not the voice 
 of Mrs. French, nor were her vocal organs of 
 speech used by another. She being deaf, often 
 failed to hear the voices of spirit people and spoke 
 while others were speaking, such interruption 
 sometimes causing confusion. “We have,” the voice 
 of one of the directors of our group continued, “a 
 great work to do to-night, and as atmospheric con¬ 
 ditions are unusual, we have gathered a great 
 throng in substantially the same mental attitude, 
 and have brought them here for help. You have 
 done this work so long that you, of course, under¬ 
 stand that these people do not as yet know that 
 they have separated from their old physical bodies 
 and are no longer inhabitants of Earth. Won’t 
 you talk to them? They are living so much in 
 your plane as yet that you can secure and hold 
 their attention more closely than we can.” 
 
88 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 This was not a new experience. My records 
 show upwards of 700 nights when this particular 
 character of work had been done. As requested, 
 I commenced to talk easily and naturally. I 
 could not see, but Mrs. French could always see 
 spirit people gather about listening, and some 
 would come close watching me intently, while 
 others would discuss among themselves softly so 
 as not to interrupt my talk; they were evidently 
 trying to comprehend the situation. I had long 
 ago learned that those whom we were endeavour¬ 
 ing to help must not be startled or frightened, as 
 such shock would break the conditions that enabled 
 them to speak; and therefore on this night I dis¬ 
 cussed generally the unusual situations presented 
 at this particular meeting, leading slowly up to the 
 great change that had taken place. Had I bluntly 
 told those assembled that they were all dead, the 
 shock would probably have ended the work for the 
 night. I have often known this to occur. 
 
 It had been my observation that some man 
 among those assembled could take on material that 
 would enable him to talk, and in that manner rivet 
 the attention of all those who listened, and this 
 night was no exception to the rule. 
 
 “I have,” a strong voice remarked, “been deeply 
 impressed with what you have said, but I do not 
 
THE RECORD OF A NIGHT 
 
 89 
 
 comprehend its import. Death is a subject that 
 I did not like to think about; people generally give 
 the subject little if any attention, and of course 
 enter the next life ignorantly. I am afraid I am 
 no exception to the rule. If I am to infer that 
 such a change has come into my life, I am wholly 
 unprepared.” 
 
 “Tell me,” I answered, “what you now observe, 
 for I assume your vision is clear.” 
 
 “For sometime I have been watching the prepara¬ 
 tions being made. Substance appearing like bars 
 of light about you and the lady opposite was being 
 worked and woven into place. Then I looked 
 about and saw a great company gathered. One of 
 those who seemed directing affairs asked me to 
 permit material to be precipitated upon me so that 
 I might talk to you. This was done without my 
 understanding the process or import. Tell me the 
 meaning of this procedure, if you please.” 
 
 “I am deeply interested,” I said, “in the prog¬ 
 ress of man, after death so-called, and with the 
 aid of this lady and the group you saw working 
 with us I am able, when conditions are favourable, 
 to have speech with those beyond the earth-plane.” 
 
 “I gathered that from your first talk,” he an¬ 
 swered, “but all is so natural with me that it is 
 hard to believe we are not in the old body, for we 
 
90 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 are like yet unlike. Those who seem to control 
 the situation have bodies from which radiates 
 light, while my own and those of all who are 
 gathered listening, seem enveloped in something 
 like a mantle of darkness; not that exactly, for we 
 are surrounded by what I should describe as a 
 dark, intangible substance carried by the individual 
 as he moves. If, as you say, all these whom I see 
 except this lady and yourself are living in the 
 world of spirit, why do we differ so much?” 
 
 “The appearance,” 1 replied, “is the result of 
 a process of refinement. I don’t mean in manner 
 or speech, but in soul or spirit development. In 
 the life you now live, the law of attraction holds 
 full dominion, and all those who enter are irresist¬ 
 ibly drawn into that mental state or condition that 
 will accord with their own. That is what I am 
 told. You will find, the intellectual, the high 
 minded, the spiritual, the selfish, the wicked and 
 the immoral, all of them in different groups and 
 in conditions as varying as character. There is 
 no progress from one to another except by a purify¬ 
 ing process through labour and suffering until the 
 individual is qualified for advancement. This is 
 a very natural and a very just process, is it not?” 
 
 “The suggestion is very new,” he remarked. “I 
 cannot say that it is not just, but I do say it is novel. 
 
THE RECORD OF A NIGHT 
 
 91 
 
 I never thought of things in that way. If what you 
 say is true, why has it never been taught before?” 
 
 “I could answer your question in many ways,” 
 I said. “Knowledge is the one thing in the world 
 we have to work for. You can’t steal, buy, in¬ 
 herit, or beg it; it must be acquired by effort. 
 Now, as the world generally speaking has never 
 made any genuine effort to obtain knowledge of the 
 conditions prevailing beyond, it is not surprising 
 that men and women don’t know. Again,” I 
 added, “the average mentality would not, could 
 not, and will not understand, even if I should re¬ 
 late what is being done and accomplished this min¬ 
 ute; but there are some thinkers, and their num¬ 
 ber is fast increasing, who can and will accept a 
 plain statement of fact when it appeals to their 
 reason.” 
 
 “I am thinking,” he said, “as I never did be¬ 
 fore, and I don’t believe I could have compre¬ 
 hended that the death-change could be so natural, 
 and so simple. What is beyond I don’t, of course, 
 know. I seem to be just waking, I realize that I 
 am a living entity in no way changed. I now 
 see I am no longer like you. While you have been 
 talking, those whom I knew in earth-life have come 
 and told me I have made a great change. That is 
 about all I know now.” 
 
92 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 At this moment another spirit speaking said; 
 “Yon, my friend, have much to learn. Come with 
 me for a little time for reflection; I want you to 
 appreciate that with all your wealth you were a 
 selfish man. The world was not enriched by your 
 journey through it, and this accounts for the gloom 
 that envelops you and all those who come with you. 
 The first task that you must learn to do is to live 
 for and help others, a process which humanizes and 
 broadens the soul, and develops the man.” 
 
 Again the silence as the voice ceased. I had 
 an easy discussion with Mrs. French for a time. 
 Then there was a whisper; involuntarily I leaned 
 forward, listening intently that no word from out 
 of the unknown land should be lost, and with a 
 slow and measured voice scarcely above a whisper, 
 a woman said:— 
 
 “I cannot understand the wisdom of creation. 
 It seems with my limited experience so unnecessary 
 that there should he so much sorrow and suffering 
 in my world as well as in yours. I am told by 
 teachers greatly advanced that humanity, in work¬ 
 ing out its destiny, having become selfish, has lost 
 sight of the great object of earth-life. Dominated 
 too much by greed, mankind has wandered away 
 from the path of purpose. You come in contact 
 with so much unhappiness in your work,—for only 
 
THE RECORD OF A NIGHT 
 
 93 
 
 the unfortunate need the help that you, working 
 with the wonderful groups, can give, that I am per¬ 
 mitted to come and speak to you, and to others 
 through you, of the beauty of this land in which 
 we live, to enable you and others to avoid erro¬ 
 neous impressions of all conditions prevailing 
 among us. I came here as an infant before mem¬ 
 ory recorded events. Like all who live among us 
 I came up from the mass of life and obtained my 
 individuality through conception and birth. My 
 first recollection is of a home similar to yours, ex¬ 
 cept more beautiful; I was mothered by those de¬ 
 nied motherhood while living among you. It was 
 all very sweet and tender, without discord or in¬ 
 harmony of any character, but I was taken while 
 yet a baby to the earth-mother, and in her arms 
 while she slept, I absorbed the real mother love. 
 If mothers could only know how children though 
 gone cling to them, how happy they would be, and 
 how glad we are when an earth-mother feels our 
 presence and responds in word or thought! As I 
 grew to girlhood, I was given teachers who helped 
 my mental growth, similar to what I see in your 
 life, except that we are not taught by rule. The 
 capabilities of each are ascertained, and each is 
 helped and directed along the lines of his adapta¬ 
 bility, and so life as it is unfolded grows more 
 
94 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 wonderful and beautiful each day. But I must 
 visit you from time to time and by coming in touch 
 with physical conditions obtain that experience 
 which was lost in leaving your world so young. 
 
 “Let me impress upon you the charm of our land 
 by saying that I have never yet found a single one 
 who had emerged and come up out of the earth 
 conditions who wanted to go back, inhabit a flesh 
 garment again, and live among you,—and this re¬ 
 gardless of earth ties.” 
 
 “Tell me more of the actualities of your daily 
 life,” I asked. 
 
 “You think,” she answered, “that you have vis¬ 
 ion, but your eyes have never looked upon life it¬ 
 self. You think you have hearing, but your dull 
 ears have never heard one strain of our divine 
 music. You have taste, but your tongues have 
 never touched the essence. You have smell, and 
 the aroma of roses carried by etheric atoms fills the 
 nostrils, but you cannot appreciate the perfumes 
 of this land of ours. You feel the touch of the 
 coarse covering of living form without having any 
 conception of the delight of touching life itself. 
 In this sphere we have opportunities for education, 
 joys, and happiness unthought of by you in the 
 earth-land, but these are only for those who have 
 come out of the gross material condition in which 
 
THE RECORD OF A NIGHT 
 
 95 
 
 they were born. We live in homes largely in 
 groups where harmony of thought and action is 
 perfect, but we too have as many grades of people 
 as do you, and in our earth-condition is found deg¬ 
 radation as great as that which you know. Here 
 are found the ignorant, the wicked, the immoral, 
 and the vile. Dissolution does not improve or up¬ 
 lift character; that must come from the germ of 
 good in the heart of every living creature. 
 
 “Tell those who fear the end,” the voice said, 
 “that what they call death is very wonderful and 
 beautiful; that with us, as with you, though you 
 know it not, love is the one great force in the uni¬ 
 verse; it is the motor that drives the world and 
 causes action. All things are done in and through 
 it, and because of it. Affinity so-called is the proc¬ 
 ess through which the love-force finds expres¬ 
 sion. But in this connection let me suggest that 
 love is good, and of God, and walks in the path 
 of honour, never into dishonour. It never brought 
 unhappiness; it is never ‘bom of lust?’ 
 
 “It has been a joy and a privilege to speak to 
 you to-night, for if any words of mine can help or 
 make happier a single soul, that joy is reflected 
 about me, and I am happier for having made 
 others happy. Such is the law of God, and the se¬ 
 cret of the world. Good night.” 
 
96 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 What am I to do with such teachings? Shall 
 I, coward-like, fearing the censure of this little 
 world, hide from men what has been given me? 
 Such actual experiences have convinced me that 
 this individual life continues on and on, through 
 the ages. If this be so, no tongue should be tied, 
 voice hushed, or hand fail to write of facts so im¬ 
 portant to the peace and happiness of the human 
 race. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 ATOMIC LIFE 
 
 I N the mentalogical research for the discovery 
 of the life principle, investigators are going 
 far. Surpassing wonderful is the Carl Zeiss 
 ultra-microscope, which uses only the radiating 
 energy within the portion of the solar spectrum 
 which is beyond the violet. These waves are so 
 rapid they do not affect the retina and are hence 
 invisible, but they do activate silver emulsions on 
 highly sensitive plates. Inconceivable minute 
 life, living atoms, or bodies in motion are photo¬ 
 graphed on rapidly moving films. The result is 
 beyond imagination. When these long strips of 
 successive radiographs are illuminated by strong 
 electric light, under a powerful projecting lens, 
 uncounted thousands of unknown kinds of living 
 atoms are seen moving with intense activity. 
 
 De Vries designates these minute particles con¬ 
 cealed in living matter, “pangens,” and says that 
 “they are quite another order than chemical mole¬ 
 cules; that each must grow and multiply by self- 
 
 97 
 
98 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 division.” These pangens are probably units con¬ 
 taining mind, and if so, his opinion gives a mind 
 cast to the Universe and all that it includes. 
 
 I cite these two scientists to show the tendency 
 of the modern investigator, and to illustrate how 
 far beyond the comprehension of man is the life 
 pangen. Those learned investigators living and 
 working beyond the physical plane, having had 
 greater opportunity to carry on research, go far 
 beyond earthly experiences, because they have had 
 a greater opportunity to acquire knowledge of the 
 fundamental principles of Nature, and it is from 
 this source that I have gathered the information that 
 forms the basis of this work. 
 
 It is very difficult at the coming of dawn to say 
 just when the night ends and the day begins. It is 
 impossible to say where one color ends and another 
 begins in the rainbow. It is likewise very diffi¬ 
 cult to draw the line of demarcation between the 
 physical or tangible, and the etheric or the spirit¬ 
 ual. The one is tangible and the other intangible; 
 the one is measured by three dimensions and com¬ 
 prehended by the five senses; the other is demon¬ 
 strated by clairvoyancy and clairaudiency, the sixth 
 and seventh senses. 
 
 I deal now with the part the physical atom plays 
 in the economy of Nature, leaving the etheric, no 
 
ATOMIC LIFE 99 
 
 less material but higher in its vibratory action and 
 functions, to the discussion of etheric form. 
 
 We now know that what appears to be solid mat¬ 
 ter, tangible and dense, which we can see and feel 
 is but an aggregation of physical atoms and mole¬ 
 cules slow in vibration, and that within and back of 
 all material is a directive force. One cannot con¬ 
 ceive a directive force that does not possess intelli¬ 
 gence. Within every atom going to make up the 
 tangible mass is that something called inherent en¬ 
 ergy or force, which science readily admits, because 
 it is possible to feel and to see the expression 
 of that force. We now go one step further and 
 say that force or energy wherever found, 
 or however expressed, is life, so that we cannot, 
 if we would disassociate energy from life, or force 
 from life, or life from force or energy, simply be¬ 
 cause they are one and the same thing. 
 
 Nature abhors stagnation. Life cannot for one 
 moment be absolutely still; its vibration is so high 
 that there is no inactive substance in the world. 
 That is, every substance has more or less move¬ 
 ment, which causes continual change of form and 
 expression. The great law that we call Evolution, 
 influences every atom in the physical world. It is 
 the parent of progress; it is that something inher¬ 
 ent in everything from which springs the desire to 
 
100 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 increase, reproduce, and reach a higher state of 
 development, and that influence is as strong in the 
 atoms and molecules making up what we errone¬ 
 ously call the inanimate mass, as in the animate 
 mass or the individual. We have no conception 
 of the maximum or minimum of motion or move¬ 
 ment. The higher the development of the mass, 
 the more rapid its vibration. The lower the mass 
 development, the lower its vibration, the more dark 
 the substance as shown by the spectrum. 
 
 It is most difficult to treat a subject so beyond 
 our experience. It is very difficult to explain a 
 condition so far beyond our comprehension, but if 
 we had never interested ourselves in these great 
 unknown forces of Nature, we should not have made 
 the wonderful progress already attained. 
 
 It is easy to demonstrate that there is this some¬ 
 thing called force in all substance going to make up 
 the tangible mass. We take coal, liberate the 
 energy and force therein contained, and utilize it in 
 our industries. We go down into the earth and 
 liberate the gas, bring it to the surface, let it come 
 in contact with fire, that is a substance higher in vi¬ 
 bration than the gas itself, and through chemical 
 action we have what we know as combustion; we 
 have released the life-force or the energy; we have 
 dissociated the life-force from the tangible gar- 
 
ATOMIC LIFE 
 
 101 
 
 ment. We take water, with heat increase its vibra¬ 
 tion and convert it into steam, and we have released 
 the energy or life-force contained in the water from 
 its physical garment. And so we could take, were 
 we possessed of greater knowledge, any substance 
 found in the earth, and if we knew how to break 
 down its tangible covering, we would have what 
 science terms “energy,” but what I term “life.” 
 The life-force, clothed with tangible substance in 
 the process of the alteration that is continually tak¬ 
 ing place through its affinity for other life-atoms, is 
 constantly changing form, through likes and dis¬ 
 likes, increasing vibratory action to the end that the 
 life-force in the mass may through such continual 
 development and progress reach the highest per¬ 
 fection possible in the physical world, i.e., ultimate 
 physical expression in mankind. In other words, 
 by natural laws, these individual atoms through a 
 process of refinement, through association and dis¬ 
 sociation, through likes and dislikes, through 
 chemical combinations and growth, ultimately find 
 expression in the individual. 
 
 It has been said that everything in the physical 
 world pays tribute to mankind. It might better be 
 said that everything in Nature, obeying the great 
 universal law of Evolution, when it reaches its high¬ 
 est physical development, finds expression in man. 
 
102 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 Every living creature on the face of this globe, was 
 originally an atom, or aggregation of atoms. 
 When it was first clothed, it was so small that no 
 physical eye could discern it, and no magnifying 
 glass could discover it. Its inception was in the 
 dark where the rapid light vibrations could not im¬ 
 pede its development. Through the process of 
 growth it was evolved. Vegetables, plants, grains, 
 animals, fish, and many of the birds of the air, 
 through digestive action were utilized to clothe and 
 furnish the physical garment which the individual 
 required in its growth and development. That 
 physical garment is entirely constructed from those 
 tangible substances furnished by the mass, which 
 is necessary for that special purpose, so that we 
 say that the physical form is being constructed out 
 of the mass of matter. 
 
 Let us go a step lower, and we find that the 
 physical garment that clothes the vegetable king¬ 
 dom is taken from the earth-substance still lower. 
 All animal life is constantly taking from the mass 
 the substance which will aid its physical growth. 
 It is all one splendid process of change and growth 
 and progression, all tending toward the apex where 
 stands man the most perfect physical being that 
 Nature seeks to produce in this world. 
 
 Looking in the mirror we see reflected not the 
 
ATOMIC LIFE 
 
 103 
 
 individual, but the outer garment of the individual 
 constructed of animal and vegetable matter. In 
 dissolution we simply give back to the fields and to 
 the common earth that which we have temporarily 
 borrowed. The gross material composing our 
 bodies has served its purpose, and it goes back to 
 mother-earth, back into the retort to continue its 
 progression until at some time the substance which 
 covered our etheric form shall reach individuality 
 and then continuity. 
 
 Through the labyrinth of creation there is no 
 rest. Vibration is the pulse of Nature. Super¬ 
 ficial observation teaches that matter never moves 
 unless acted upon. The sailing ship is propelled 
 by the winds, the engine by steam; there are in 
 Nature endless manifestations of force in moving 
 planets and constellations, in growing vegetation, 
 and in man himself. Motion belongs to the atom. 
 The Universe is but an aggregation of atoms, and 
 its motions are just what those of a single atom 
 placed in its orbit would be. Each atom must be 
 its own motor, and the combined influence of all is 
 the influence of the earth. Mathematical demon¬ 
 stration and deductive reasoning justify this sup¬ 
 position. The agency of an Almighty constantly 
 propelling them, does not meet the demands of 
 reason. Life is bom of motion. It is first trace- 
 
104 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 able in the mutual attraction between atoms in solu¬ 
 tion arranging themselves in definite forms; in af¬ 
 finity and the repulsion of particles. It may ap¬ 
 pear startling that the forces which create the crys¬ 
 tal are living forces; but the data available by 
 known and accepted laws justify the statement. 
 
 I would direct attention to the energy contained 
 in the atom. I would impress on the public mind 
 that energy is life, and that all life is material; that 
 is, it is made up of that substance we know as Ether, 
 which is so high in vibration, and so refined that it 
 is not evidential unless clothed with heavier sub¬ 
 stance which we term physical; moreover, from 
 the life contained in the atom, by evolutionary law, 
 man has evolved. We cannot understand life as 
 expressed in the individual, without knowing at 
 least something of its origin, and the law through 
 which it finds expression in man. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 ETHERIC ENVIRONMENT 
 
 D ESIRING a clear comprehension of the 
 etheric spheres outside the physical, and 
 having opportunity to speak with one 
 very learned and advanced in the after-life, I said: 
 
 “Describe, if you please, the spheres in which 
 you live, with special reference to their tangibility 
 and materiality.” 
 
 The gentleman answered: 
 
 “There are seven concentric rings called spheres. 
 The region nearest the earth is known as the first 
 or rudimental sphere. It really blends with your 
 earth’s sphere. It is just one step higher in vibra¬ 
 tion. Growing more intense and increasing in 
 action are six more, distinguished as the spiritual 
 spheres. These are all concentric zones or circles 
 of exceedingly fine matter encompassing the earth 
 like belts or girdles, each separated from the other 
 and regulated by fixed laws. They are not shape¬ 
 less chimeras or mental projections, but absolute 
 
 entities, just as tangible as the planets of the solar 
 
 105 
 
106 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 system or the earth upon which you reside. They 
 have latitude and longitude, and an atmosphere of 
 peculiarly vitalized air. The undulating currents, 
 soft and balmy, are invigorating and pleasurable.” 
 
 “How does the landscape appear to you?” I 
 asked. 
 
 He answered: “The surface of the zone is di¬ 
 versified. There is a great variety of landscape, 
 some of it most picturesque. We, like you, have 
 lofty mountain ranges, valleys, rivers, lakes, for¬ 
 ests, and the internal correspondence of all the 
 vegetable life that exists upon your earth. Trees 
 and shrubbery covered with most beautiful foliage, 
 and flowers of every color and character known to 
 you, and many that you know not give forth their 
 perfume. The physical economy of each zone dif¬ 
 fers from every other. New and striking scenes of 
 grandeur are presented to us, increasing in beauty 
 and sublimity as we progress.” 
 
 “Do the seven concentric rings, or spheres, move 
 with the earth as the earth moves?” I asked. 
 
 “Although the spheres revolve,” he said, “with 
 the earth on a common axis, forming the same 
 angle with the plane of the ecliptic, and move with 
 it about your sun, they are not dependent upon 
 that sun for either light or heat; they receive not a 
 perceptible ray from that ponderable source.” 
 
ETHERIC ENVIRONMENT 
 
 107 
 
 “From what source do you receive your light?” 
 I then asked. 
 
 “We receive our light emanations,” he said, 
 “wholly from an etheric sun, concentric with your 
 sun, from which central luminary there comes un¬ 
 interrupted splendour, baffling description. We 
 have, therefore, no division of time into days, 
 weeks, months, or years, nor alterations of season 
 caused by the earth’s annual revolution, for the 
 reason that we have no changing season as you 
 have, caused by the action of the sun of your solar 
 system. We, like you, are constantly progressing 
 from day to day, but our ideas of time and seasons 
 differ widely from yours. With you, it is time. 
 With us, it is eternity. In your sphere your 
 thoughts, necessarily bounded by time and space, 
 are limited, but with us thoughts are extended in 
 proportion as we get rid of those restrictions, and 
 our perception of truth becomes more accurate.” 
 
 “How do you use matter, change its form and 
 condition?” I asked. 
 
 “Matter,” he said, “with us is only tangible as 
 the mind concentrates upon the object. Then the 
 force of the mind or thought sends its vibration 
 around the object, holding it in a measure tangible. 
 Of course, this is something very different from 
 what you call tangibility. Without this mental 
 
108 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 concentration the vibration pulses indifferently. 
 That is the natural condition of matter in our zone. 
 It requires the thought to change its form and con¬ 
 dition. The vibrating action of matter is measured 
 by the space necessary for the volume.” 
 
 “How can this material condition in which you 
 live be demonstrated?” I asked. 
 
 “One cannot prove,” he said, “to a child that 
 steam, that pretty fascinating substance, is harm¬ 
 ful until the finger is burned; neither can one in¬ 
 still the truth into an older mind until it is not only 
 opened but has the capacity to comprehend. That 
 all is material in different states of vibration is 
 easily grasped by the thinker. It is impossible to 
 prove by your laws, to actually demonstrate the 
 existence of matter in the higher vibrations in which 
 we live so that men may comprehend. When you 
 deal with matter in the physical, you apply physical 
 laws. When you deal in matter spiritual, you ap¬ 
 ply spiritual laws, practically unknown among 
 men. The best possible evidence is the vision of 
 the clairvoyant together with deductive reasoning, 
 which, as we have said, is really the highest order 
 of proof. 
 
 “Have you ever thought,” he said, “that the 
 result of every physical demonstration reaches the 
 consciousness through the avenue of reason? The 
 
ETHERIC ENVIRONMENT 
 
 109 
 
 mentality in a higher state of development compre¬ 
 hends a fact in Nature without physical proof.” 
 
 “Tell us something of your social life, your 
 scientific research, and religious teaching in the 
 plane in which you reside,” I asked. 
 
 “With regard to the social constitution of the 
 ‘spheres’ each is divided into six circles, or societies, 
 in which kindred and cogenial spirits are united 
 and subsist together under the law of affinity. Al¬ 
 though the members of each society unite as near 
 as may be on the same plane, agreeing in the 
 most prominent moral and intellectual features; yet 
 it will be found on careful analysis, that the varie¬ 
 ties of character in each society are almost infinite, 
 being as numerous as the persons who compose the 
 circle. Each society has teachers from those 
 above, and not infrequently from the higher 
 spheres, whose province is to impart to us the 
 knowledge acquired from their experience in the 
 different departments of science; this, we in turn 
 transmit to those below. Thus by receiving and 
 giving knowledge, our moral and intellectual facul¬ 
 ties are expanded to higher conceptions and more 
 exalted views of Nature, the power of which is no 
 less displayed in the constitution of spirit worlds 
 than in the countless resplendent orbs of space. 
 Our scientific researches and investigations are ex- 
 
110 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 tended to all that pertains to the phenomena of uni¬ 
 versal truth; to all the wonders of the heavens and 
 of the earth, and to whatever the mind of man is 
 capable of conceiving. All of these researches ex¬ 
 ercise our faculties and form a considerable part 
 of our enjoyments. The noble and sublime 
 sciences of astronomy, chemistry, and mathe¬ 
 matics engage a considerable portion of our at¬ 
 tention, and afford us an inexhaustible subject for 
 study and reflection. 
 
 “Nevertheless, there are millions of spirits who 
 are not yet sufficiently advanced to take any inter¬ 
 est in such pursuits. The mind being untram¬ 
 melled by the gross material body, and having its 
 mental and intellectual energies and perceptions 
 improved, can by intuition, as it were, more cor¬ 
 rectly and rapidly perceive and understand the 
 principles and truths on which the sciences are 
 based. In addition to our studies, we have many 
 other sources of intellectual, moral, and heartfelt 
 enjoyment, from which we derive the most ineffable 
 pleasures, some of which are social reunions 
 among children and parents where the liveliest emo¬ 
 tion and tenderest affections of our nature are ex¬ 
 cited, and the fondest and most endearing reminis¬ 
 cences are awakened; where spirit meets in union 
 with spirit, and heart beats responsive to heart. 
 
ETHERIC ENVIRONMENT 
 
 111 
 
 “We have no sectarian or ecclesiastical feuds, 
 no metaphysical dogmas; our religious teachers be¬ 
 long to that class of persons who were noted during 
 their probation on earth for their philanthropy and 
 deeds of moral bravery; who, regardless of the 
 scoffs and sneers of the time-serving multitude, 
 dared to promulgate and defend the doctrines of 
 civil and religious liberty. They urge upon us, 
 too, the necessity of co-operation in the reforma¬ 
 tion and advancement of our more degraded breth¬ 
 ren by instructing them in the divine principles of 
 love, wisdom, and benevolence. They instruct 
 them in the soul-inspiring and elevating doctrines 
 of universal and eternal progression, and in the 
 sublime truth that evil is not an indestructible and 
 positive principle, but a negative condition, a mere 
 temporary circumstance of existence; and further¬ 
 more, that suffering for sin is not a revengeful and 
 malevolent infliction of God, but a necessary and 
 invariable sequence of violated law. 
 
 “They teach also that, according to the divine 
 moral economy, there is no such thing as pardon for 
 sins committed—no immediate mercy—no possible 
 escape from the natural results of crime, no matter 
 where or by whom committed; no healing of a dis¬ 
 eased moral constitution by any outward appli¬ 
 ances, or ceremonial absurdities; and finally, that 
 
112 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the only way to escape sin and its consequences, is 
 by progressing above and beyond it.” 
 
 “What is spirit, as that term is used?” I asked. 
 
 “Spirit,” he said, “is the one great power in the 
 Universe. The combination of spirit forces is the 
 great power for good, and through the absence of 
 that force many undesirable conditions develop in 
 your world,-—all in the Universe is but an expres¬ 
 sion of this great force, and if this spirit force 
 were not material, were not a substance, how could 
 it take form and have growth in the physical plane? 
 Those still in your world make a great mistake 
 when they for one moment imagine that our world 
 is not a material one; it is foolish to think of an 
 existence without substance. How can there be a 
 world beyond the physical unless it is material? 
 Without it there could be no after-life. Strong 
 invisible bands of force hold the great system of 
 spheres in proper place. It is all mind-force, and 
 all force is life, mighty, unchanging, unyielding, 
 and this mind-power is increased by every indi¬ 
 vidual life that is developed in your creative 
 sphere. It has become a part of the individual life 
 force of the Universe, and each day it adds some¬ 
 thing to that force called Good. This addition is 
 made, not at dissolution, but from hour to hour, as 
 the mentality increases.” 
 
ETHERIC ENVIRONMENT 
 
 113 
 
 Such teachings appeal to reason, and I accept 
 them. Our earth is still very young; before it 
 took form and shape and a definite place in the pro¬ 
 cession of world, other planets and solar systems 
 were growing old. It was but yesterday in the 
 calendar of time that the convulsions and eruptions 
 of this earth in its effort to take definite form 
 threw up the mountains, made valleys for the seas, 
 and destroyed in its labour the peopled continent 
 of Atlantis. It was but a little time ago that the 
 pyramids were built and temples were erected upon 
 the banks of the Nile, that Belshazzar in the temple 
 of Babylon saw invisible hands write upon the 
 wall. Grecian and Roman splendour, Moham¬ 
 medan culture and refinement, Napoleon’s con¬ 
 quest, and religious freedom are all things of to¬ 
 day. Time is no more measured by the calendar 
 than a grain of sand measures the extent of the 
 desert. 
 
 There are so many things which we as a people 
 do not know! We have gone into the depths of the 
 earth and learned just a little of geology; we have 
 done something in botany; we have searched the 
 skies, discovered planets, measured distances, and 
 learned just a little about astronomy. We have 
 succeeded in putting a single harness on electricity 
 without knowing what it is. and have developed our 
 
114 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 individual selves in about the same proportion. 
 But we have really no conception of space or of the 
 thousands of suns and solar systems connected with 
 ours, or of the medium between them. Science has 
 no conception of the nature and origin of the elec¬ 
 tric force, and knows absolutely nothing of the 
 magnetic force, the part that it plays in Nature, or 
 the influence it has in this world of ours. The 
 world has little conception of matter except in its 
 grossest expression. It knows nothing of solar 
 space. It has not developed sufficiently to com¬ 
 prehend that the Universe is material, and that the 
 different planes are similar, except in density. 
 The race has not yet developed sufficiently to un¬ 
 derstand what life is, or the source from whence 
 this atom that develops self has come. Nor do w r e 
 yet appreciate or understand the duties and re¬ 
 sponsibilities that rest upon the individual, and his 
 relation to society and to himself. Certain ele¬ 
 mentary propositions have been enunciated and 
 demonstrated, and many so-called great minds say 
 that beyond them we cannot go. Life force is as 
 much of a mystery to science to-day as it was be¬ 
 fore the Christian era. 
 
 The primary propositions which must be under¬ 
 stood are these: the earth is one of many creative 
 planets; progress has only commenced; nothing in 
 
ETHERIC ENVIRONMENT 
 
 115 
 
 this physical world has or will reach perfection; all 
 present knowledge is elementary; there are no 
 limitations; life is eternal and will continue to de¬ 
 velop, expand, and increase through the untold ages 
 yet to come beyond man’s comprehension of time. 
 Our beginning we cannot know with our present 
 development; knowledge of our end is equally im¬ 
 possible, but the present is ours. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 SO LITTLE CHANGE 
 
 H OW can people be dead and not know it? 
 
 This was the most difficult proposition 
 that was ever presented to me. All or¬ 
 thodox teaching has been such that it is difficult 
 for any one to comprehend the natural conditions 
 about them. In my first years of this most inter¬ 
 esting research, I talked with many who did not 
 know that they had left the earth-life at all. Why 
 did they not know that they had left the physical 
 body? 
 
 Let me give a stenographic account of our work 
 on the evening of May 10, 1897, illustrative of the 
 point referred to and reported by Miss Gertrude 
 Spaulding, now secretary to one of the United 
 States senators from Minnesota. 
 
 The spirit controlling our work said: “To¬ 
 night, we must bring into your presence a neces¬ 
 sity, bring one who needs help more than you need 
 
 words of instruction. In this regular work, do not 
 
 116 
 
SO LITTLE CHANGE 117 
 
 change conditions; if you want to invite strangers, 
 take another night.” 
 
 A strange spirit voice said: 
 
 Q. I am interested to know what you are doing 
 here. I don’t want that woman sitting there to 
 take down what I say. 
 
 A. She is not here to take down your confes¬ 
 sion, if you make one. The work we are doing is 
 of sufficient importance to be taken stenographi- 
 cally; that is what the stenographer is here for. 
 Well, sir, how can we serve you? 
 
 “I don’t want you to call me ‘friend,’ but as I 
 am here, I will present a business proposition. 
 You like money, don’t you? I suppose the rest 
 of you like money too. It does lots of things.” 
 
 Q. Have you a speculation that you want us to 
 join in? 
 
 A. I have a certain block of stock I want to 
 sell. 
 
 Q. What kind of stock? 
 
 A. Mining stock. It is mining stock. 
 
 Q. Is that the most important thing in your 
 mind? 
 
 A. That’s the most important. 
 
 Q. Why do you wish to sell it? 
 
 A. I have a good reason, but I don’t say very 
 much about it to strangers. 
 
118 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 Q. How did you get it? 
 
 A. Never mind that. I have it and want to 
 sell it. 
 
 Q. How long have you had that stock for sale? 
 
 A. I have had it for about five years. Have 
 not sold it because everybody seems afraid of it. 
 
 Q. Now, hasn’t it occurred to you that if you 
 have not sold it, there is something about that 
 stock that isn’t right? 
 
 A. I know all about that stock. Are you 
 afraid of it? 
 
 Q. No, I am not afraid of it. You have of¬ 
 fered it very cheap, I suppose? 
 
 A. Not so very. I don’t believe in cheap 
 stocks. 
 
 Q. You have traveled? 
 
 A. Traveled? Traveled from one end of the 
 earth to the other. I have even been to Europe. 
 
 Q. Now, does it not seem strange to you that 
 you have traveled so far and not sold your stock? 
 
 A. I’ll tell you. It is strange to me because 
 everybody that I have offered it to, has turned away 
 after looking at it. People think I am a little 
 “off.” 
 
 Q. Now, where is your family? 
 
 A. You want my wife to sign the papers? 
 
SO LITTLE CHANGE 
 
 119 
 
 Q. Will she sign? 
 
 A. It is not necessary. 
 
 Q. Where is she? 
 
 A. Home. 
 
 Q. Where is home? 
 
 A. I will tell you, if you want to know. She 
 is at San Jose, California. 
 
 Q. You have traveled a good way. Did you 
 ever hear of the city of Buffalo? 
 
 A. Yes, who hasn’t? 
 
 Q. It is a good city, isn’t it? 
 
 A. Very good, very good. 
 
 Q. Now, I live in Buffalo. I am in my own 
 home now. 
 
 A. You don’t mean to say that I am in Buf¬ 
 falo? 
 
 Q. Yes. 
 
 A. Your home? 
 
 Q. Yes. You have been brought here for 
 some purpose other than selling mining stock. 
 You have traveled a long way. Now, my friend, 
 where did you get those papers? Be honest with 
 me. Have they not been a burden to you for 
 years? 
 
 A. That will do, gentlemen. 
 
 Q. Did you get that stock honestly? 
 
120 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 The voice of the control interrupted, speaking 
 with great force; “The man you stole the papers 
 from, shot you.” 
 
 Q. Who is that? How does he know? How 
 does he know? 
 
 The control speaking to us said: 
 
 “He was shot while stealing those papers. 
 When we cannot reach spirits of his kind, we find 
 it necessary to bring them into the conditions pre¬ 
 vailing here now; we want your help. In this con¬ 
 dition their mental activities are quickened, and 
 they are brought out of mental darkness.” 
 
 I said to the spirit: “If you will come and touch 
 me, possibly you will gather more strength.” 
 
 A. You will put handcuffs on me. 
 
 Q. You are among friends. 
 
 A. I don’t trust in friends or strangers. 
 
 Q. I want you to listen to what I have to say. 
 You are nearly three thousand miles from San 
 Jose, California. When you were stealing that 
 stock from that other man, you heard the click of a 
 revolver, didn’t you? 
 
 A. Yes. 
 
 Q. Did you hear the explosion? 
 
 A. No. 
 
 Q. There was one. 
 
 A. I should have heard it if there had been. 
 
SO LITTLE CHANGE 
 
 121 
 
 Q. There was a revolver fired at that time, I 
 am told, and that ball penetrated your body. 
 When that occurred, you passed out of the phys¬ 
 ical body. You live right on; that life is so like 
 the life here, that you and thousands of others 
 go right on without being conscious of the change; 
 they find conditions so similar, and whatever was 
 in the mind when the change occurred is held some¬ 
 times indefinitely. You have been wandering over 
 the face of the earth holding the thought that that 
 stock was in your hands. You are not as you were 
 before you took that stock; a great alteration has 
 taken place, but you are not dead. 
 
 A. Am I a ghost? 
 
 Q. Let me explain. Every week we sit in a 
 dark room as are now doing, and understanding 
 the laws that govern speech between the spiritual 
 and the physical planes, we are able to talk with 
 people who have passed on, just as we are talking 
 to you to-night. Now, you are in a situation which 
 you fail to comprehend. You must work out of 
 your present condition and undo the wrong that 
 you have done. You will be able in time, much 
 time probably, to progress, and those who have 
 progressed farther and understand your condition, 
 have brought you to-night into this condition for 
 the purpose of having us demonstrate to you the 
 
122 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 change that has come, and teach you how to com¬ 
 pensate for the wrong that you did. If you will 
 listen, you will be told. 
 
 A. I believe none of that. 
 
 Q. Do you understand that there is actually no 
 death? 
 
 A. No, I do not. 
 
 Q. The majority of people in the physical world 
 do not understand that change at all. One leaves 
 the old, physical body as one leaves an old coat. 
 But the etheric body, the individual self, with its 
 tendencies and desires, goes on and on. Now, 
 don’t you think there has been a change with you in 
 some way? Do you want me to demonstrate that 
 to you? 
 
 A. I am just like you. 
 
 Q. That cannot be, for your body is composed 
 of ether only. I lift my hand to my face. Can 
 you see my face through my hand? 
 
 A. No. 
 
 Q. Now, lift up your hand. Don’t you see 
 there is a difference? 
 
 A. Yes, I can see through my hand. 
 
 Q. What do you think of that? 
 
 A. If you think I am crazy, I had better go. 
 
 Q. We are not trying to do you harm. 
 
 A. Talk then in reason. 
 
SO LITTLE CHANGE 
 
 123 
 
 The control interrupted again, saying: 
 
 “We will bring a spirit that shall teach you what 
 is reasonable, and he shall prove to you that you 
 too are a spirit.” 
 
 Q. Do you know that the man talking to you 
 now, is S-, once a citizen of much prominence? 
 
 A. He is dead. 
 
 Q. He is talking to you. Is he dead if he can 
 talk? 
 
 A. You are a queer lot of people. 
 
 Q. Possibly, hut if you will listen to what he 
 says, if you will earnestly seek the truth, you will 
 find it. Things are not satisfactory with you, are 
 they? 
 
 A. Not very. 
 
 Q. Now, you would like to get out of your pres¬ 
 ent condition, would you not? 
 
 A. I don’t like to be called dead. 
 
 Q. We will help you all we can. We want 
 you to listen. I tell you again, there is no death. 
 
 A. But you said I was a spirit. 
 
 Q. Yes, I say that you are now in the after¬ 
 life, and that you have an etheric body, almost 
 identical with the old physical. 
 
 A. Don’t you know that the spirit is nothing 
 but dust? 
 
 Q. I do not; on the contrary, it is as material 
 as before dissolution? 
 
124 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 A. Where are your ministers? Why don’t they 
 so teach if it is a fact. 
 
 Q. Because the great majority don’t know; and 
 the few who do know have not the courage. 
 
 A. I will go and ask Father Spencer if this be 
 true. 
 
 Q. Do you want to see Father Spencer right 
 here? Is it possible at this time to bring Father 
 Spencer here to-night? I asked the control. 
 
 A. I am sending messengers for Father Spen¬ 
 cer, who has also passed on since his going, he re¬ 
 plied. 
 
 Q. Now, if Father Spencer can come here and 
 talk to you as a spirit— 
 
 A. Then I will believe every word you said. 
 
 Q. Either to night, or at some other time, you 
 shall talk with Father Spencer as you are talking 
 now with us. 
 
 A. I will wait. 
 
 Some years elapsed before this strange spirit 
 came again, and then only to say that he had 
 found Father Spencer, and had come to under¬ 
 stand the terrible condition which, by a life ill- 
 spent, he had made for himself. He then ap¬ 
 preciated that he must meet again every wrong act 
 of his earth-life, live it again and live it right, 
 and by labour make retribution for all the wrong 
 
SO LITTLE CHANGE 
 
 125 
 
 he had done. He further said that no man, if he 
 understood the result of evil or its effect in the 
 after-life, would do wrong. 
 
 At the time this work was being carried on, I 
 did not fully appreciate the fact that one could 
 be dead, so-called, and not know it, I had first to 
 learn that there is individual life beyond the grave. 
 Then I was taught: 
 
 (a) —That here and now we have spirit bodies 
 composed of etheric material, as much matter as 
 the flesh garment that covers them. 
 
 (b) —That dissolution is simply the passing of 
 the etheric out of the physical covering. 
 
 (c) —That the after-life is just as tangible and 
 material as this, intense and real beyond compre¬ 
 hension, differing from this life in vibration only. 
 
 (d) —That the so-called dead have bodies as real 
 and tangible to them as ours are to us. 
 
 (e) —That many of the dead, so-called, move 
 about even among us, little realizing that any 
 change has been made, unless developed spirit¬ 
 ually. When I had learned these things, the 
 teachers of the etheric world took up with me the 
 character and conditions surrounding and govern¬ 
 ing life in the next sphere of development. Then 
 I understood. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 man’s etheric body 
 
 T HE ancients thought that Ether filled the 
 sky, and was the home of the Gods. It 
 was contended by Aristotle that it ex¬ 
 tended from the fixed stars down to the moon. 
 Modem science has heretofore contended that all 
 space is filled with a substance having rigidity and 
 elasticity, with a density equal to our atmosphere at 
 a height of about 210 miles—easily displaced by 
 any moving mass—compared to an all-prevailing 
 fluid or derivative of gases through which heat 
 and light are constantly throbbing. 
 
 In “Modem views on Electricity,” Sir Oliver 
 Lodge, speaking the last word concerning Ether, 
 says: 
 
 “It is one continuous substance filling all space; 
 which can vibrate as light, which, under certain 
 unknown conditions, can be modified or analyzed 
 into positive and negative electricity; which can 
 constitute matter; and can transmit, by continuity 
 
 and not by impact, every action and reaction of 
 
 126 
 
MAN’S ETHERIC BODY 
 
 127 
 
 which matter is capable. This is the modem view 
 of the Ether and its functions. The most solid 
 substance in the world is not iron, is not lead, is not 
 gold, is not any of the tilings that impress our 
 sense as extremely dense. The most solid thing 
 in existence is the very thing which for genera¬ 
 tions has been universally regarded as the lightest, 
 the most imperceptible, the most utterly tenuous and 
 evanescent beyond definition or computation; it is 
 the Ether. The Ether is supposed to permeate 
 everything, to be everywhere, to penetrate all ob¬ 
 jects, to extend throughout all space. The Earth 
 moves through it; the sun and all the stars have 
 their being and their motion in and through the 
 Ether; it carries light and electricity and all forms 
 of radiation. Nobody has ever seen it, or rend¬ 
 ered it evident to touch or to any other sense. It 
 escapes all efforts to feel it, to weigh it, to subject 
 it to any kind of scientific experiment. It plays 
 no part in mechanics. It neither adds to nor takes 
 away from the width or substance of any known 
 substance. We are assured by some of the highest 
 authorities that the ether is millions of times more 
 dense than platinum, one of the most solid metals 
 known.” 
 
 Surrounding us and filling what we know as 
 space and permeating all things, is that substance 
 
128 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 termed Ether. It is a subtile essence hard to define 
 that is in the atmosphere we breathe, highly sensi¬ 
 tive, through which the light of the sun travels in 
 undulating waves, but just as much a substance as 
 the very rocks and stones. There is a gross Ether 
 and there is also a refined Ether. Through the 
 medium of the grosser Ether we send our ether- 
 grams, but of the finer, more sensitive ether, we 
 know but little. 
 
 The suggestion that all life has etheric form is 
 entirely new. Whether we are advanced enough to 
 appreciate a proposition so beyond our experience, 
 is a question, but a moment’s reflection, and we do 
 comprehend that all life comes from the invisible, 
 and ultimately goes back to the invisible. The un¬ 
 seen then is the real, and the seen, the result of in¬ 
 visible causes. There is a world within a world, 
 all contained in this wondrous universe. We see 
 and touch only the outer garment of the etheric uni¬ 
 verse which, temporarily clothed with gross ma¬ 
 terial, is working out its development. A directive 
 intelligence has made all Nature’s laws, through 
 which each inhabited planet moves and has its be¬ 
 ing, has its domain in the invisible. The invisible 
 then becomes a legitimate field of inquiry. 
 
 I am assured by those versed in the physics of the 
 after-life, with whom I have speech, that all life, 
 
MAN’S ETHERIC BODY 
 
 129 
 
 down to the atom, and beyond, has etheric form; 
 that every atom that makes up the mass of rock; 
 that every molecule of earth that covers the barren 
 stone; that every grain of sand that forms the ocean 
 shore; that every seed, and plant, and shrub, and 
 tree; that every drop of water that flows in creeks, 
 falls as rain, or constitutes the lakes and seas—all 
 have etheric form. The etheric requires for 
 growth a covering of matter lower in vibration than 
 itself, the same as the seed planted in the earth, 
 and in that outer garment it increases and reaches 
 a higher development. No life force can exist in 
 the physical unless it has a garment suitable for 
 that purpose. Dissociate the etheric form from die 
 outer garment, and the individual can no longer 
 remain an inhabitant of this sphere, dissolution has 
 taken place. Could we follow into the conditions 
 beyond we would ultimately find that every star 
 and constellation has etheric as well as physical 
 form, and that they are visible only because they 
 are clothed with gross material, the same as our 
 own planet, for all laws hold continuity throughout 
 the Universe. 
 
 It is the etheric body that sees, hears, feels, 
 smells, and tastes, evidenced by the fact that the 
 physical body has none of the five senses when 
 separated from the etheric. The ear, for instance, 
 
130 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 with its complicated chamber and auditory nerves, 
 really hears through the etheric brain. Sever the 
 nerves, destroy the tympanum, and you destroy the 
 communication; put any of the very fine mechanism 
 of the auditory chamber out of commission, and 
 you either cannot hear at all, or at best very im¬ 
 perfectly. Every concussion causes an ever widen¬ 
 ing circle in the atmosphere, that is, in the ether of 
 the atmosphere, which at last reaches the auditory 
 chamber, communicates with those fine nerves and 
 with the brain. By that wonderful process we 
 understand the difference between harmony and in¬ 
 harmony, between sweet sounds and discords. 
 Similarly, through a disturbance set up in the 
 ether we understand language. 
 
 Horses, cattle and sheep will exist and wax fat 
 on grass and water. Put them all together in an 
 enclosed field in a tropical country and keep them 
 there indefinitly, what happens? They feed on 
 identically the same food, and multiply; the flesh 
 covering wastes and is from day to day replaced, a 
 complete change being ultimately brought about. 
 Why do they not inter-breed, why does each hold 
 individual form? It is solely because each has an 
 invisible form, that is a form composed of matter 
 in a very high state of vibration which holds con¬ 
 tinuity, having reached the state termed etheric, at 
 
MAN’S ETHERIG BODY 
 
 131 
 
 which point the life form neither disintegrates nor 
 enters into new combinations. Man differs from 
 the animal only in development. At the moment 
 of conception, he possesses an etheric body, minute 
 and perfect beyond comprehension, and if per¬ 
 mitted to inhabit the physical body for the usual 
 period of time, attains a normal growth. 
 
 When by heat we break down the outer garment 
 of a lump of coal, when the physical will no longer 
 hold the energy, the life, or the etheric form, the 
 two are dissociated; in other words, the energy or 
 life-form escapes, to pass into some other state; 
 the outer garment, the cinder or ash on the other 
 hand returns from whence it came, ultimately to 
 be taken up by another form of life, until in time 
 it shall have been so refined that it will hold con¬ 
 tinuity because it has become etheric. And all this 
 to demonstrate that man is a part of one stupendous 
 whole, evolved from the etheric life in the mass, re¬ 
 fined to the point where he holds individuality. 
 Death, so-called, is the passing out of the individual 
 spirit or etheric body from the flesh covering. Re¬ 
 leased from that outer garment it becomes an in¬ 
 habitant of a plane where all is etheric, but to the 
 etheric sense and touch all things are just as tang¬ 
 ible, real, and natural as when in earth life. 
 
 It is utterly impossible for a human being to un- 
 
132 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 derstand the change in which death so-called occurs 
 unless he realizes that every individual possesses 
 a spirit form composed of etheric atoms, just as 
 much matter as the flesh garment that is visible 
 and tangible. Knowing that fact, he can then un¬ 
 derstand that dissolution is simply the separation 
 of the physical from the etheric body when the 
 former by accident, disease, or age can no longer 
 obey the will of the occupant. When the physical 
 body can no longer do its part, the spirit or etheric 
 body, by a natural law, abandons the flesh garment, 
 and by that act ceases to be an inhabitant of the 
 earth-plane. This is all that occurs at the time of 
 dissolution. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE UNKNOWN LAND 
 
 I NTO the frozen north, into the terrible cold, 
 at the cost of human life many explorers 
 from time to time have gone on voyages of 
 discovery, have braved the crags and climbed 
 mountains of ice, have faced famine and desola¬ 
 tion, until at last upon the bleak and barren plane, 
 a man has reached the Pole and stood upon the top 
 of the earth. Not satisfied that one place upon 
 the earth’s surface should remain unknown, other 
 explorers equally courageous have faced the 
 storms and cold, have crossed the crevasses, have 
 braved famine, until at last they have found the 
 Southern Pole. Man has gone to the ends of the 
 earth, has sounded the seas, mapped the wilder¬ 
 ness, and now all lands are said to have been ex¬ 
 plored. But no! there is another land, an unknown 
 land, tangible, material, actual, real, and more in¬ 
 tense and beautiful than any now known; this is the 
 next field for exploration. 
 
 Into that land all the countless dead of all the 
 
 ages past have gone, all the living and all those 
 
 133 
 
134 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 who will in the ages yet to come inhabit for a little 
 time this physical world will go. This being a 
 self-evident truth, what more important field of in¬ 
 vestigation can there be? Compared with it the 
 discovery of the Poles or the opening of the Dark 
 Continent is insignificant. 
 
 If there is a tangible and material, yet unknown 
 land beyond the physical, inhabited by people, why 
 has it not already been discovered? The answer 
 is simple. Ignorance and superstition have been 
 barriers more difficult to climb over than mountains 
 of ice and snow, and notwithstanding the millions 
 who have gone into that unknown land, little effort 
 has been made to ascertain anything concerning it. 
 An illustration may help to explain the reason for 
 such indifference. Before language was written 
 and largely before the advent of the printing press, 
 knowledge was transmitted by word of mouth, and 
 legends and traditions were handed down from 
 one generation to another. Some of these were in¬ 
 corporated in books, and on account of being in 
 print they found acceptance as facts. Chief 
 among them were the stories of the creation and of 
 the conditions following dissolution, and men with¬ 
 out thinking for themselves or requiring proof, have 
 blindly accepted legends and traditions in place of 
 facts based on laws that appeal to reason. Herein 
 
THE UNKNOWN LAND 
 
 135 
 
 lies, in part, an explanation of the indifference. 
 
 When man becomes satisfied that beyond the 
 physical there is another world, inhabited by all 
 the countless so-called dead, where those whom he 
 has loved and lost, live and work, the purse-strings 
 will be loosened, means will be provided, the spirit 
 of exploration will be revived, and others as brave 
 as Columbus, as reckless as Cortez, as heroic as 
 Livingston, as fearless as Perry, will become 
 pioneers in the unmapped wilderness of the Un¬ 
 known Land. By their discoveries the world will 
 be enriched a thousand times more than by the ex¬ 
 plorations of the ages past into the waste places of 
 the Poles. But until the public intellect is startled, 
 until the thought of the world is aroused, a few of 
 us unaided must work alone. 
 
 In the after-life I have father, mother, brother, 
 and son. Others similarly situated may be satis¬ 
 fied with the orthodox teaching as to where they are 
 and their condition, but I have not been, and I 
 have laboured to know something of their daily life 
 and how and where in the vast Universe they live 
 and work. Much has been written about spirits 
 and spirit-life, of a Heaven and a Hell where the 
 so-called dead exist, but it is so hazy, indefinite, 
 and theoretical that it has not appealed to my reason 
 or satisfied my desire for facts. 
 
136 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 Do the dead live in houses? Why not? The 
 plane where they live being material, why should 
 they not build homes, furnish and beautify them? 
 All the material in the universe is not confined to 
 the earthland. Are they clothed? Why not? 
 Their bodies being no less visible than when in the 
 earth-life, they, having suitable material adapted to 
 their necessities, make and clothe their nakedness, 
 for modesty does not cease with dissolution. Do 
 they require food? Why not? Their digestive 
 organs were not destroyed in making the change. 
 True the process is in a great measure refined so 
 that they take the essence instead of the substance, 
 as mortals do. In dissolution, do those addicted to 
 opiates, liquors, or tobacco, lose the desire, is an¬ 
 other question. No; in earth life, it was not the 
 flesh tissue that craved opiates, but the nervous sys¬ 
 tem, the etheric body, and there being no change 
 in the etheric body, the craving continues and must 
 ultimately be overcome. The physical cannot en¬ 
 ter the etheric kingdom of God. Are the so-called 
 dead homeless in going into the next life? A very 
 natural query. Some people I am told have lived 
 such degenerate lives that they find nothing wait¬ 
 ing in the great beyond. A home may have been 
 constructed by those who have preceded them, but 
 they may be unable to reach it for years to come. 
 
THE UNKNOWN LAND 
 
 137 
 
 However, those in the after-life ordinarily work 
 and labour to create a home and make it ready 
 for those whom they love to enter at once when 
 the great change comes, just as preparation is made 
 when the new-born child is expected into this world 
 of men. 
 
 I know something of the difficulty of compre¬ 
 hending that the invisible can possibly contain any¬ 
 thing real and tangible. We are in the habit of 
 thinking, generally speaking, that nothing outside 
 the visible exists; one has never seen that sub¬ 
 stance of which life is composed; one has never 
 seen life because such substance is beyond our 
 vision. We ordinarily cannot see the very great 
 or the very small, only matter where movement is 
 between certain fixed points, and we know little 
 of what lies above or below. With the microscope 
 and a drop of water it was first possible to discover 
 minute matter; with the telescope we have discerned 
 millions of stars and constellations, composing the 
 family of the Universe, which move with perfect 
 order and precision. The possibilities have not 
 been exhausted, and all the secrets of the Universe 
 will not be discovered by the inhabitants of this 
 plane of consciousness. All discoveries, and all 
 progress are the result of research for knowledge, 
 and are gained by effort. 
 
138 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 When I was first told that those in the after-life 
 were real people and lived in a world as tangible 
 as this, the subject was beyond my mental grasp, 
 for I had been taught that the world of spirit was 
 intangible, and existed in space, with no suggestion 
 that what we call matter existed beyond the visible; 
 and I never could grasp its reality until I was 
 taught that in this, our present plane of existence, 
 we realize matter only in a certain mode of motion 
 when it may be said to have three dimensions— 
 length, breadth, and thickness. If others must 
 undergo the process which I have needed, they 
 should adopt the same method, and not attempt to 
 grasp conditions prevailing in the after-life until 
 by research and deductive reasoning they have come 
 to comprehend matter in its higher and more re¬ 
 fined forms and in its different modes of motion. 
 After reaching that point they will not find it diffi¬ 
 cult to appreciate a condition, beyond this crude 
 plane in which people, once inhabitants of this 
 world, live similar lives, with similar environment. 
 Having cast off the slow vibrating flesh garment 
 called the body they find everything as material 
 as before. I am trying to explain this subject in a 
 simple manner, so that any mind capable of reason¬ 
 ing and thinking may understand. I find it even 
 then difficult, for the proposition is entirely new in 
 
THE UNKNOWN LAND 
 
 139 
 
 physics. When this fact is finally accepted, think¬ 
 ing minds will work it out in detail and present it 
 in a thousand provable ways of which I have not 
 thought, and then people will wonder that the facts 
 were never worked out before. In time all will 
 come to know that this, like all other natural 
 changes, is extremely simple. 
 
 Knowledge of the environment of the next plane, 
 and of the conditions there prevailing can only 
 come from those who are there, and it is from such 
 that I have obtained my information. Let those 
 who challenge the statement that I have had speech 
 with the inhabitants of the after-life remember this 
 fact—that on an average of once a week for 20 
 years, under scientific conditions, I have done 
 that identical thing and have had speech with thou¬ 
 sands of diff erent individuals who have proved their 
 identity. Any one who would deny that fact should 
 have had equal experience, in order to be qualified 
 to speak on the subject. So far as I know no man 
 has ever had the opportunity or received the in¬ 
 formation as to the actual conditions prevailing in 
 the after-life to a greater extent than I have. 
 
 It is a fact to be noted, that the information as 
 to the conditions prevailing in the after-life, ob¬ 
 tained by all careful psychic researches substan¬ 
 tially agrees. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 PERSONAL IDENTITY 
 
 P ERSONAL identity has been the stumbling 
 block of psychic investigators. In my 
 work, on account of the darkness re¬ 
 quired, I have to depend upon the voice and the in¬ 
 formation given for proof of identity of the indi¬ 
 vidual. I have had in this regard some very re¬ 
 markable proofs. 
 
 It is only by showing that people in the after¬ 
 life have material bodies and live under material 
 conditions that we can appreciate how they may 
 speak with direct voice and prove their identity. 
 Assuming that they have bodies, that they retain the 
 same etheric form that was clothed with the flesh 
 garment, and that they live in a material world, 
 we do not find the fact that they speak to us and 
 communicate with us in various ways startling; 
 on the contrary, it is reasonable and natural not 
 only that they should do so, but that they should 
 be just as anxious to communicate with us as we are 
 
 to communicate with them. 
 
 140 
 
PERSONAL IDENTITY 
 
 141 
 
 I recall an incident that will appeal to the purely 
 materialistic. I was one of my father’s executors, 
 and after his dissolution and the settlement of his 
 estate, speaking to me from the next plane, he 
 told me one night that I had overlooked an item that 
 he wanted to mention to me. 
 
 I replied: “Your mind was ever centered on 
 the accumulation of money. Why take up the 
 time that is so limited with the discussion of your 
 estate. It has already been divided.” 
 
 “Yes,” he answered, “I know that, but I worked 
 too hard for my money to have it lost, and there is 
 an asset remaining that you have not discovered.” 
 
 “Well,” I said, “if that be true, tell me about 
 it.” 
 
 He answered.—“Some years before I left, I 
 loaned a small sum of money to Susan Stone, who 
 resided in Pennsylvania, and I took from her 
 a promissory note upon which under the laws of 
 that State I was entitled to enter a judgment at once 
 without suit. I was somewhat anxious about the 
 loan; so before its maturity, I took the note and 
 filed it with the prothonotary at Erie, Pennsylvania, 
 and he entered judgment, which became a lien on 
 her property. In my books of account there was 
 no reference to that note or judgment. If you will 
 go to the prothonotary’s office in Erie, you will find 
 
142 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the judgment on record, and I want you to collect 
 it. There are many things that you don’t know 
 about, and this is one of them.” 
 
 I was much surprised at the information thus 
 received and naturally sent for a transcript of that 
 judgment. I found it entered October 21, 1896, 
 and with that evidence of the indebtedness I col¬ 
 lected from the judgment debtor $70 with interest. 
 I question if any one knew of that transaction be¬ 
 sides the makers of the note, and the prothonotary 
 at Erie. Certainly I did not know about it. I had 
 no reason to suspect it. The psychic present at 
 that interview could not have known about the 
 matter, and I certainly collected the money. My 
 father’s voice was clearly recognizable on that occa¬ 
 sion, as it has been on hundreds of others, and I 
 cite this instance for the benefit of those who meas¬ 
 ure everything from a monetary standpoint. 
 
 Dr. Isaac J. Funk, a man of much learning, spent 
 forty years in psychic research. He published the 
 result of his investigation and many of his con¬ 
 clusions, but he always lived in awe of the criticism 
 of science. I spent many hours with Dr. Funk go¬ 
 ing over the details of my own work, and I discussed 
 with him many of the problems with which we had 
 to deal. He was much interested in the investiga¬ 
 tions that I was making with Mrs. French, and for 
 
PERSONAL IDENTITY 
 
 143 
 
 that reason I arranged for her to go to New York 
 where she spent eleven days with him and his as¬ 
 sociates. There, under conditions that he desired, 
 she demonstrated the work she was doing with me. 
 The result he published in his “Psychic Riddle.” 
 
 He was always anxious for proof that the voices 
 which he heard were independent, and he wanted 
 evidence of the identity of those with whom I had 
 speech. These points he regarded as important to 
 prove the continuity of life, and in his work he was 
 unable to satisfy himself concerning them. His 
 method was to attempt to prove a fact by the proc¬ 
 ess of elimination, that is, to prove truths by dem¬ 
 onstrating their opposite. He, like all other scien¬ 
 tific men, attempted to rear a structure by tearing 
 the structure down. This process has impeded 
 the progress of nearly all psychic investigators, and 
 I often said to him that one should seek what he 
 wanted to find with open and receptive mind, al¬ 
 ways having in his thought that conditions cannot be 
 changed to satisfy any one’s particular notion; that 
 we must accept conditions as we find them and 
 make them better, to enable us to gain the end de¬ 
 sired. In all of Dr. Funk’s published works he 
 left a loophole in his conclusions, that he might 
 avoid criticism should he be found in error. 
 
 Some time ago the doctor left his physical body, 
 
144 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 and one night soon after, during one of the last 
 sessions I had with Mrs. French, a man’s voice 
 spoke my name. The tone was familiar, but I 
 could not associate the voice with any one whom I 
 had known in the earth-life, although I knew a spirit 
 was speaking. 
 
 I replied, “Your voice is familiar, but I do not 
 recognize it.” 
 
 He replied, “I am Dr. Isaac Funk. I have been 
 out of the body but a short time and being interested 
 in your work, I have been permitted to come.” 
 
 I then said: “You may be Dr. Funk, as you 
 claim, but we cannot permit you to consume our 
 time unless you establish your identity. This is 
 one of the rules that we adopted some time since, 
 for the reason that, knowing the person, we can 
 form some judgment as to the value of what he 
 may say. If you are Dr. Funk and desire to con¬ 
 tinue this conversation, you must establish that 
 fact.” 
 
 He quickly responded: “You are entirely right 
 about that; what you ask is fair. I ought to be able 
 to establish my identity.” 
 
 I said: “Certainly, if you are Dr. Funk you 
 can give us some proof of your identity. During 
 your earth life you always made a great point 
 of establishing identity.” 
 
PERSONAL IDENTITY 
 
 145 
 
 Then he enquired: “How shall it be done?” 
 
 I answered: “That is not for me to suggest. 
 You know how technical the body of scientific 
 gentlemen to which you belong always is. If you 
 are going to have a test here, we want it to be evi¬ 
 dential. If you are going to prove your identity, 
 you must do it without suggestion from me.” 
 
 He replied, after a pause: “Identity was what 
 I invariably wanted satisfactorily proved. I re¬ 
 call a conversation I had with you in my private 
 office at which no one was present but ourselves.” 
 
 “Yes,” I suggested, “we had many such inter¬ 
 views.” 
 
 He then said: “I refer to one at which I asked 
 you to make a special test at one of your meetings 
 with Mrs. French. I asked that when some one 
 with an independent voice was speaking, you put 
 your hand upon the table and have Mrs. French 
 put her mouth upon your hand; you were then to 
 place your free hand over her head, holding it 
 firmly, and in that situation see if you could hear 
 the independent voice. I wanted such evidence to 
 demonstrate that Mrs. French did not do the talk¬ 
 ing. No one knew of that conversation but our¬ 
 selves, and that ought to be proof to you that I am 
 Dr. Funk.” 
 
 I replied: “Yes, I do recall that conversation 
 
146 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 at the time and place. I now recognize your voice, 
 and your proof is satisfactory.” 
 
 I then put my hand on the table. Mrs. French 
 at my suggestion put her mouth upon the back of 
 my hand, I put my free hand over the back of her 
 head, holding it firmly, and then I said: 
 
 “Is this what you asked me to do?” 
 
 Dr. Funk replied: “Yes.” 
 
 I immediately said: “Dr. Funk, you do the 
 talking, and we will demonstrate that your voice is 
 independent.” 
 
 Afterward there was a general talk between Dr. 
 Funk, certain of my group of co-workers upon his 
 side of life, and me, and some plain things were 
 said. I told Dr. Funk that because of his promi¬ 
 nence, and as one who had investigated this im¬ 
 portant subject for many years, he could have been 
 a great force for good; that many people in this 
 world of men were interested in him and his writ¬ 
 ings and were guided by his conclusions, but that 
 he never published them in full, for which reason 
 his readers could not reach a better conclusion 
 than he did. I told him that he had failed at the 
 crucial moment, and had nullified the good he 
 could have done. I added that I regarded this as 
 a great misfortune not only to him, but to the world 
 at large. 
 
PERSONAL IDENTITY 
 
 147 
 
 He replied: “I realize that now more than 
 ever. It is a fact that I was afraid of the criticism 
 of men of science. I now regret very much that 
 I did not fully publish my conclusions. In my 
 own mind there was no doubt.” 
 
 A spirit answered and said to him:— 
 
 “You were the custodian of much knowledge. 
 Through your investigations you learned many 
 things. By reason of your position you could 
 have done much good. That was your stumbling 
 block, and before you can progress, you must be¬ 
 come strong where you were weak.” 
 
 In my investigations, covering many years, in 
 the room in my own home devoted to such work 
 thousands of men whom I have known personally 
 have talked with me, using their own tongues. I 
 have recognized their voices; they have recalled 
 and related countless facts and incidents of their 
 daily life and have proved beyond question their 
 identity, no less convincing than in the two cases 
 to which I have referred. 
 
 Again, I have talked with many whose personal 
 acquaintance I did not enjoy when they were in 
 this life, but through this intercourse I have come 
 to know them well, and admire them much. I have 
 heard on many occasions the speech of Robert G. 
 Ingersoll, which no man could imitate, speech as 
 
148 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 eloquent as when in his lectures he held great au¬ 
 diences spellbound. Henry Ward Beecher has 
 honoured me with his friendship and delivered 
 many lectures on conditions prevailing beyond the 
 physical. DeWitt Talmage has talked on various 
 occasions of the duties of the ministry, and of the 
 conditions resulting to the individual though 
 teaching things that were unknown. He found 
 that there was no progress possible in the after¬ 
 life for one occupying the position of spiritual 
 leader when here, until he had searched out in 
 his plane all those who had followed his teaching, 
 and had brought them to the truth; moreover he 
 found that he must stand and wait until the com¬ 
 ing of those still in the earth-life in order that 
 his error should be corrected at the earliest possi¬ 
 ble moment. 
 
 To promulgate unknown or impracticable teach¬ 
 ings while on this earth-plane is a serious matter, 
 and results in punishment in the after-life. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 SPHERES IN THE AFTER-LIFE 
 
 E ARLY in my research I understood that 
 life continued beyond the grave; that 
 personality was not lost; that when one 
 had compensated for all wrongs and made them 
 right, he would progress; but it has taken many 
 years to reach these advanced spirits, and from 
 them learn just what was beyond the first sphere, 
 where our work had hitherto largely been con¬ 
 fined. We have often asked what was beyond, or 
 to what progression led, and have as often been 
 told to have patience, that when we were prepared 
 to receive and to understand, the knowledge would 
 be given. 
 
 At last the knowledge that has long been de¬ 
 sired has been revealed, and we find that the fu¬ 
 ture life has seven spheres, each containing many 
 planes; they are as follows: 
 
 1. Restitution. 
 
 2. Preparation. 
 
150 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 3. Instruction. 
 
 4. Trial and Temptation. 
 
 5. Truth. 
 
 6. Harmony. 
 
 7. Exaltation. 
 
 I have written of the conditions in the first 
 sphere as I know them from work done there and 
 general information given me by spirit people; 
 but in taking up the spheres beyond the first, I am 
 now able to give the language of those who live in 
 them and who describe them. One said: 
 
 “I know what we all know,—that there are 
 seven spheres. I have just reached the third. 
 Sometimes a spirit can speak from his sphere to 
 the next higher, as you do while in the body, but 
 only in the same way. I mean that there is no 
 mingling together. When a spirit goes from one 
 sphere to another, it is quite unlike dissolution 
 in earth-life. He is warned that the change is near 
 and has time to put his mind into a higher plane 
 of thought so that he will be prepared to meet 
 the new life. He says farewell to all his friends. 
 They join in a general thanksgiving and celebra¬ 
 tion, all congratulating and helping him on his 
 way by strong uplifting thoughts. When the 
 time comes, he is put quietly to sleep, with the 
 
SPHERES IN THE AFTER-LIFE 151 
 
 thought dominant in his mind that he is to make 
 the change. When he awakes, he is in his new 
 home in the next higher sphere. He has disap¬ 
 peared from the old. There is no old body to bury 
 and decay. Each change is for a higher and bet¬ 
 ter life, and the home awaiting is more beautiful, 
 as he builds with a surer, wiser hand, or, rather, 
 spirit. His home ceases to be among his former 
 friends when this change comes. Thought has 
 fitted him to progress, and when that thought which 
 held him to the lower plane has ceased, the embodi¬ 
 ment of the spirit, which is held together by his 
 thought, is visible no longer. 
 
 “Each new change is more difficult to explain 
 to you than the one preceding. It is simply a 
 higher life and a busy one in which to develop our¬ 
 selves along all lines, especially the ones suitable 
 to the individual’s taste. In this way, each spirit 
 becomes better fitted to be a teacher and helper. 
 It is a very active, pleasant life, and sometimes 
 seems like a big university town or country, with 
 busy students hurrying from lecture to lecture 
 and class to class. All are congenial and light¬ 
 hearted there. 
 
 “In the lower sphere one sees much suffering 
 among those still earth-bound. They, too, are 
 busy working out past faults and they are often 
 
152 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 heavy-hearted. Generally speaking, the first 
 sphere is the one where restitution must be made, 
 and where the final wrenching away from earth 
 conditions takes place. The second is one of in¬ 
 struction, a period of study, during which the 
 spirit gains knowledge of self and natural law. 
 The third is one of teaching those in the lower 
 spheres, as I have said. The fourth sphere is one 
 of trial and temptation. The fifth is truth, where 
 error and falsehood are unknown. In the sixth, 
 all is harmony. In the seventh, the spirits reach 
 the plane of exaltation and become one with the 
 great spirit that rules the universe. 
 
 “There are others, more advanced than I, who 
 can better tell you of the spheres beyond. I have 
 not been to the fourth, and only know of it as you 
 do, by the teaching of those who are there. We 
 are told that the spirits in the sphere of exaltation 
 do not even there lose individuality. They are em¬ 
 bodied in all the beauty and good of the universe. 
 I do not know that I can make my meaning clear. 
 Although they keep individuality, they permeate 
 the universe. They have become so great and 
 universal, we sometimes think they go beyond and 
 must lose their personality; but we have no definite 
 knowledge, and it is generally accepted they do 
 not. It is difficult to understand or appreciate 
 
SPHERES IN THE AFTER-LIFE 153 
 
 what this last sphere is, the development is so be¬ 
 yond our comprehension. Those in the second 
 sphere do little, except to fit themselves for a 
 broader and better work. Before reaching this 
 condition they have freed their spirit from the 
 burden of wrong done in the body, repaid every 
 debt due mankind, dispelled the darkness of the 
 first sphere. They work with open eyes and clear 
 spiritual vision, and are at peace with all. This 
 must precede the sphere of study and development. 
 I have classes on purity, beauty, and patience, and 
 there are classes on every conceivable subject,— 
 music, chemistry, everything. They are different 
 from those in earth-life, and one has to adopt dif¬ 
 ferent ideas. One of our engineers magnetizes 
 your room each time you hear our voices. It is 
 easier for those who have advanced to higher life 
 to reach us than for us to reach you; there are not 
 so many barriers. Yes, we always have places 
 that resemble homes. Thought is not indefinite, 
 and that makes our homes, and while we keep that 
 thought, our homes are permanent. You ask 
 where is that home located. I would say to you 
 that all that is space is peopled with spirits.” 
 
 This lecture gave to us the spheres of progres¬ 
 sion. As you see, we were told not only their 
 names, but something of the occupations that are 
 
154 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 pursued in the higher life. Not much can he 
 told, I assume, but possibly all that a finite mind 
 can grasp. I believe what I have written, not only 
 because I know the one who talked, but because it 
 appeals to reason, and is in harmony with natural 
 law, as I understand it. 
 
 True, it is hard to understand where these 
 spheres are, but there are many things quite as 
 difficult of comprehension. Astronomical instru¬ 
 ments have shown that it is ninety-three millions 
 of miles to the sun, but this really conveys noth¬ 
 ing to the mind, because one cannot comprehend 
 such a distance. We know that light travels at 
 the rate of one hundred and eighty-six thousand 
 miles a second, but what that rate of speed is we 
 cannot understand, for there is nothing tangible 
 with which to compare it. Our actual knowledge 
 of electricity, of magnetism, or even of gravitation 
 is limited, as are all of Nature’s laws. Then, is it 
 strange that one finds difficulty in appreciating 
 what space is and how it is peopled? This thought 
 of ours is even now free and can pass through space, 
 but it goes with closed eyes, hears no sounds, and 
 feels no touch. At dissolution, each sense is quick¬ 
 ened, and all life that fills space is visible to the 
 spiritual senses and tangible to spiritual touch and 
 brain. Space must then take form, substance, and 
 
SPHERES IN THE AFTER-LIFE 155 
 
 reality,—in a world of thought, boundless and 
 endless. 
 
 One in the after-life gave me a description of 
 the spirit home of a great, splendid mother, built 
 by the labour of love and ceaseless charity,—in the 
 physical as well as in the spirit plane in which she 
 now resides,—one who worked long and earnestly 
 to make women understand the truth so that they 
 might live nearer to the best in nature. Here is 
 the description as it was given me: 
 
 “Before me is the interior of a splendid home, 
 the home made by a spirit, created and huilded by 
 the thoughts, acts, and works of one who, thirty- 
 two years ago, lived on the material plane. The 
 room opening before me seems like pure white 
 marble with lofty ceilings; around the four sides 
 runs a broad balcony supported by columns grace¬ 
 fully turned; from a point beyond the centre is a 
 broad stairway curving outward; at its foot, on 
 each side, are niches filled with beautiful statuary. 
 Going up the stairs now, I find each step a different 
 colour, yet all blending into one; on all sides of 
 this upper gallery are windows through which come 
 soft rays of light. Opening off the sides are 
 rooms; and, as I look, a door opens and a beauti¬ 
 ful spirit comes out, taking on, as she enters, the 
 old material condition that she may be recognized. 
 
156 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 She has reached maturity in years, and has a face 
 of rare gentleness—the beauty of purity,—she 
 smiles as we describe her and her home to you. 
 With her is a daughter just reaching womanhood; 
 one that never lived the earth-life but was prema¬ 
 turely bom. These two, drawn by the invisible 
 bond of affection, have builded this home and made 
 it rich with love. 
 
 “Passing down the corridor now, the mother’s 
 arm about the daughter, they approach the other 
 end of the building and descend a stairway similar 
 to the first, and go out upon a broad terrace, along 
 walks bordered with flowers, into the garden of 
 happiness. Turning now and looking toward a 
 valley, I see many trees heavy with foliage, and 
 through them I behold the waters of a lake, rich as 
 an emerald in colour. 
 
 “About the vaulted room which I have de¬ 
 scribed are many others of like material, filled 
 with all that this mother loves. Books that she 
 uses in her work are seen; pictures, created by acts 
 of tenderness, adorn the walls. Musical instru¬ 
 ments unlike those of earth await spirit-touch. 
 This is a home where girls, just budding into 
 womanhood, are taught purity—this is a mother’s 
 home, and suggests to you the possibility of spirit¬ 
 ual surroundings. It was not builded in a day, 
 
SPHERES IN THE AFTER-LIFE 157 
 
 but is the result of labour in the earth and in 
 spheres of progression, where the surroundings are 
 in harmony with spiritual development; the home 
 of a good woman, builded by helping others.” 
 
 I said to one of my friends in the after-life, at 
 another time: “Tell me of the homes of spirit 
 people,” and, in reply, he said: 
 
 “That is a most difficult thing to do, because 
 earth people expect to find everything so different, 
 while, in reality, the homes here are practically the 
 same as in earth-life, except that there is in the 
 advanced spheres no discord, no lack of harmony, 
 nothing but light, beauty, music, laughter, blended 
 with earnest, thoughtful study. I am describing 
 the home of a spirit who has grown to know the 
 life-principle. There are many poor, struggling 
 souls wilfully, or ignorantly, looking down instead 
 of upwards into the great possibility of the future, 
 who are living in squalid huts which their deeds 
 und thoughts in earth-life have made for them. 
 Very few have beautiful homes ready for them 
 when they enter spirit-life, for most people live in 
 such ignorance of natural laws that they find in¬ 
 sufficient shelter awaiting them, but the wise ones 
 start to build by perfecting their way of thinking 
 and by undoing wrongs on earth, and also, by help¬ 
 ing others. No actual physical touch is given 
 
158 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 these homes, but, as the soul grows in beauty of 
 thought and deed, the home grows to perfection.” 
 
 “Are these homes as real to you as ours are to 
 us?” I asked. 
 
 “They are the abiding places of spirits who 
 gather into them the objects of beauty they love, 
 and there harmonious spirits come and go, as in 
 earth-life. They are as real to them as yours are 
 to you. But we look at things differently; we 
 think them, and the thought is expressed in waves 
 that are visible and real as long as we hold the 
 thought.” 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THEIR DAILY LIFE 
 
 I N my investigation I was always anxious to 
 obtain a description of the occupation and 
 daily life of those who live in the plane be¬ 
 yond, and asked many practical questions. 
 
 “What is this death change that seems so hor¬ 
 rible to the average mind?” I inquired. 
 
 “Death change,” one answered, “is simply the 
 liberation of the spirit form from the physical 
 body, composing the outer flesh garment, perfectly 
 natural and painless. Every change in Nature is 
 beautiful, and dissolution is no exception to the 
 rule. One simply ceases to be an inhabitant of 
 your world, and in an instant one becomes an in¬ 
 habitant of the world in which we now live. The 
 second world or plane is just as natural to us 
 as the first, but, of course, we live under different 
 conditions. We pass our daily life as before. 
 Our spirit is just as perfect a human form as it 
 ever was. For your clear understanding of the 
 
 modus operandi of the death change to this plane 
 
 159 
 
160 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 we may say one parts with the physical body only. 
 We lose none of our intelligence; neither is any¬ 
 thing added to our understanding.” 
 
 “What of your daily life?” I asked. 
 
 “Our days are very busy,” he said. “There is 
 no stagnation, but on the contrary intense activity 
 among every one, that is, when we have emerged 
 from the earth conditions. There are countless 
 millions of children unborn physically who are 
 plunged into this world of ours, and there are mil¬ 
 lions of women here who have never known 
 motherhood in earth life, who take and care for 
 them, watch and aid their growth, mentally and 
 physically, and in that manner satisfy the craving 
 of motherhood. 
 
 “The insane pass from the earth-life insane 
 still, and countless numbers of our people are re¬ 
 quired to care for them and give them proper 
 treatment so that their mentality may be restored 
 to the normal. Murderers at war with humanity, 
 hanged or electrocuted on the earth-plane, are lib¬ 
 erated in this community, and we are obliged to do 
 what the world of men failed to do—control and 
 educate them. Then, again, we have the ignorant 
 and vicious. The atom of Good that has found 
 expression in them must be developed and directed. 
 Few people come into this life with any conception 
 
THEIR DAILY LIFE 
 
 161 
 
 of what or where it is, or of the controlling laws. 
 The ignorance of the masses is pitiful. They enter 
 our portals as helpless as the babe enters yours. 
 So you see dissolution making no mental change, 
 and life being material and continuous, there is 
 just as great need for schools, colleges, and uni¬ 
 versities as exists with you. In fact, it may be 
 said that everything you have in your earth life is 
 but a poor imitation of what exists here and is 
 largely the result of spirit influence and power.” 
 
 “What of your homes?” I asked. 
 
 “We have houses in which the family relation 
 is continued, where every member-spirit is seeking 
 enlightenment. The law of attraction is the domi¬ 
 nant force here. We have a great number of 
 thoughtful men seeking to discover and develop the 
 hidden forces of Nature; we have great lecture 
 halls where those who are learned discourse upon 
 the hidden forces; we have teachers who develop 
 the spirituality, and discourse upon that great force 
 called Good and its function in the universe. It is 
 a busy world where every one is doing his or her 
 part. We do not have any strife for money or 
 need for money; so you see the occupation of the 
 great majority of your people is gone. It is only 
 by helping others in this life—and this is equally 
 true of the earth-life—that one betters his con* 
 
162 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 ditions and enriches himself. This is the law. 
 The only happiness that the inhabitants of earth 
 really get is through being charitable, doing good, 
 and making the world happier. The only wealth 
 that any man carries beyond the grave is what he 
 gives away before he reaches the grave.” 
 
 “Tell us something of your foods. Do you re¬ 
 quire nourishment?” I asked. 
 
 “Yes,” he answered, “but not in the manner or 
 in the way that you do. Our digestive organs con¬ 
 tinue their functions, and we require food, but we 
 take the essence while you take the substance. 
 You take food day by day in earth life. The sub¬ 
 stance is absorbed in the physical garment, but it is 
 the essence of the food that nourishes the spirit 
 body from day to day. The substance is no longer 
 necessary, but the essence is necessary just as it 
 was before. So you see there is very little change 
 in physical necessities.” 
 
 ‘Tell me of your political economy,” I asked. 
 
 “There is,” Dr. Hossock answered, “no aristoc¬ 
 racy in this land of ours, but mind and merit. The 
 law of Nature which is the Supreme Force, called 
 Universal Law, has to be obeyed, in order that each 
 sphere may be reached. Every individual re¬ 
 mains upon the plane for which he is fitted, until 
 he subjects his will to the Universal Law. As he 
 
THEIR DAILY LIFE 
 
 163 
 
 progresses, he learns new laws, but they are funda¬ 
 mentally the same, only they grow more intense 
 and vital, until he becomes a part of that law him¬ 
 self. 
 
 “The political economy of the spheres has refer¬ 
 ence only to wealth, which being unbounded and 
 free as air and light, can, of course, be appropri¬ 
 ated by each and every member of society, accord¬ 
 ing to his or her capacity of reception, the supply 
 being equal to the demand. Hence it will be seen 
 that we have no occasion for gold and silver which 
 perish with the using; but the currency of moral 
 and intellectual worth, coined in the mint of divine 
 Love, and assayed by the standards of purity and 
 truth, is ncessary for each one.” 
 
 “Tell me something of your social life,” I said. 
 
 “With regard to the social constitution of the 
 spheres,” he answered, “each is divided into six 
 circles or societies in which congenial people live 
 together agreeably according to the law of attrac¬ 
 tion. Although the individuals composing such 
 society unite as near as may be in thought, agreeing 
 in the most important moral and intellectual fea¬ 
 tures, yet upon careful analysis we find that the 
 varieties of character in each society are almost 
 without number. They are perfectly analogous to 
 the numerous members of the different societies on 
 
164 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the earth-plane. Each group has teachers more 
 advanced than the members of the group, and 
 teachers often come from higher spheres. They 
 impart to us the knowledge that they have acquired 
 in their progression in the different departments of 
 science, which we, in turn, transmit to those below 
 us, just in the same manner as we are transmit¬ 
 ting knowledge to you now. Thus, by receiving 
 and teaching, our intellectual faculties are ex¬ 
 panded to higher conceptions and more exalted 
 views of Nature’s laws. Our scientific researches 
 are extended to all that pertains to Nature, to the 
 wonders of the heavens and of earth and to what¬ 
 ever the mentality is capable of conceiving and 
 comprehending. In this manner we get our pro¬ 
 gression and enjoyment. The sciences of astron¬ 
 omy and mathematics engage our attention. 
 These subjects are inexhaustible. Chemistry is 
 the most interesting of any of our studies, as it 
 would be to you if you only appreciated the fact 
 that all change in Nature is the result of chemical 
 action.” 
 
 “You do not mean to say that all of your in¬ 
 habitants are sufficiently advanced to do that 
 work?” 
 
 “No,” he answered, “there are millions of in¬ 
 habitants of this life who are not sufficiently ad- 
 
THEIR DAILY LIFE 
 
 165 
 
 vanced to take any interest in such studies. As we 
 have passed beyond the rudimentary sphere, our 
 intellectual energy is increased, our perception 
 improved, and we can by intuition, as it were, 
 more correctly and rapidly conceive and under¬ 
 stand those principles and truths which are the 
 basis of all scientific work. 
 
 “In addition to our research we have our diver¬ 
 sion from which we obtain great pleasure. We 
 come together in social intercourse, just as you do. 
 Families meet and have reunions, just as you do. 
 Not one particle of love is lost, but rather it is in¬ 
 tensified. Everything is intensified to a degree 
 that you cannot imagine. Your pleasure and 
 amusements can in no way compare to those which 
 we are privileged to enjoy.” 
 
 “What of the religious movement among your 
 people?” I asked. 
 
 “In the lowest of the spheres, that is, in the 
 earth-bound spheres sectarian strife and religious 
 movement are just as strenuous among the people 
 as they were before these persons left the physical 
 body. That state of transition is but little re¬ 
 moved from the physical, for, while the majority 
 there know they have left the body, others have 
 such an imperfect appreciation of the change, or 
 have led such immoral lives that they are not con- 
 
166 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 scious of the fact. Here the dogmas of orthodoxy- 
 are dominant, and the old religious teachings are 
 promulgated, and the priesthood still holds power. 
 One would think that an individual having passed 
 through the portal called death and finding nothing 
 as he had been taught, or as he had believed, would 
 give up the old notions and try to comprehend the 
 economy of the natural law under which he con¬ 
 tinued to live; but, strange as it may seem, 
 many even then cling to the old beliefs as if in 
 fear, as if to doubt were sacrilege, and in many 
 ways excuse their failure to find what they ex¬ 
 pected. They go into your churches and mingle 
 with other people, a great invisible host, hear the 
 same old teachings, say the same creeds and con¬ 
 tinue in the same mental attitude until some condi¬ 
 tion is brought about them that guides them into 
 the avenue of knowledge, and as time goes on, one 
 by one they break the shackles about their men¬ 
 talities, and by progression, through individual ef¬ 
 fort, become inhabitants of the first spirit sphere. 
 
 “Everyday matters are no different in our sphere 
 than in your sphere. You do not progress and ob¬ 
 tain knowledge and advancement until you break 
 away from the old beliefs and creeds. Neither 
 do those out of the body in that earth-bound condi¬ 
 tion. You see there is but one law for you and 
 
THEIR DAILY LIFE 167 
 
 one law for us. All of nature’s laws are uni¬ 
 versal. 
 
 “Our laws are meted out on a scale of exact 
 justice. All Nature’s laws are exact laws, and 
 from their award there is no appeal. Punish¬ 
 ments are but the natural consequences of violated 
 laws, and are invariably commensurate with the 
 offence, and have reference to the reformation of 
 the offender as well as to the prevention of future 
 crimes.” 
 
 “What are the best results that will come to 
 mankind through communication with your peo¬ 
 ple?” I asked an inhabitant of the after-life. He 
 answered: 
 
 “I will briefly call your attention to a few of the 
 most prominent of the beneficial results which will 
 flow from spiritual intercommunion. It will settle 
 the important question, ‘If a man die, shall he live 
 again?’ It will reduce the doctrine of the im¬ 
 mortality of the human spirit to certainty, so that 
 the world’s knowledge of the fact will not be the 
 result of a blind faith, but a positive philosophy. 
 It will show the relation existing between mind and 
 matter; it will make men thinking and rational be¬ 
 ings. It will establish a holy and most delightful 
 intercourse between the inhabitants of the ter¬ 
 restrial world and the departed spirit friends. It 
 
168 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 will expand and liberalize the mind far beyond 
 your present conceptions. It will fraternize and 
 unite all the members of the human family in an 
 everlasting bond of spiritual union and harmonious 
 brotherhood. It will establish the principle of 
 Love to God. and your fellows. It will do away 
 with sectarian bigotry. It will show that many of 
 the so-called religious teachings are but imposi¬ 
 tions on the credulity of mankind.” 
 
 “I am always anxious for a further description 
 of yourselves, your pleasures, your intercourse 
 with each other, and it is difficult for us who have 
 only had experience with matter in its physical 
 state in any way to comprehend life in another 
 state,” I said. 
 
 “We derive much pleasure,” was the reply, 
 “from the exercise of our talents in vocal and in¬ 
 strumental music, which far excels the noblest ef¬ 
 forts of musical genius on earth. When we con¬ 
 vene to worship God in our temples, whose halls 
 and columns beam with inherent light, our voices 
 are blended together in songs of praise and adora¬ 
 tion to the Almighty author of our existence. 
 
 “We are moral, intellectual, and sensitive crea¬ 
 tures. Instead of being, as many of you imagine, 
 mere shadowy and unsubstantial entities, we are 
 possessed of definite, tangible, and exquisitely 
 
THEIR DAILY LIFE 
 
 169 
 
 symmetrical forms, with well rounded and grace¬ 
 ful limbs, and yet so light and elastic that we can 
 glide through the atmosphere with almost electrical 
 speed. The forked lightnings may flash, and the 
 thunders roll in awful reverberation along the vault 
 of heaven, and the rain descend in gushing torrents, 
 hut we can stand unharmed by your side. 
 
 “We are, moreover, endowed with all the beauty, 
 loveliness, and vivacity of youth, and are clothed 
 in flowing vestments of effulgent nature suited to 
 the peculiar degree of refinement of our bodies. 
 Our raiment being composed of phosphorescent 
 principles, we have the power of attracting and 
 absorbing or reflecting the rays evolved, according 
 as our condition is more or less developed. This 
 accounts for our being seen by clairvoyants in dif¬ 
 ferent degrees of brightness, from a dusky hue to 
 an intensity brilliant light.” 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 FACTS WELL TO KNOW 
 
 4 4 A RE you ever told by those in the after- 
 /jk life anything you did not previously 
 
 A J1L know?” I am often asked. 
 
 Yes, but future events have never been fore¬ 
 told, for the simple reason that the future is no 
 more known to them than to us. I have been told 
 many things I did not know, and some beyond my 
 comprehension now. 
 
 One speaking of the human heart said, “it is the 
 chief organ of the body. It pumps blood every 
 second to the extremities, to the feet as well as to 
 the brain. Every thought breaks down tissues, 
 every movement produces waste. Let it stop for 
 one moment, and dissolution takes place. It is 
 sending life to every part of the body.” 
 
 “We all know,” I replied, “that it takes energy 
 to keep anything in motion, and whenever there 
 is motion there is waste. What then supplies 
 energy that keeps the heart in motion?” 
 
 Michael Faraday coming in said: 
 
 170 
 
FACTS WELL TO KNOW 
 
 171 
 
 “You have been told that by the process of de¬ 
 composition of water you obtain electricity. This 
 proposition you can demonstrate to be a fact. 
 Now oxygen is one form of electricity; hydrogen is 
 another form of electricity called negative elec¬ 
 tricity; magnetism is in fact negative electricity. 
 
 The tremendous power in Nature’s compounds 
 called chemical affinity is due to the union or at¬ 
 tempt at union of positive and negative electricity 
 concentrated in the atoms composing the different 
 so-called elements of the compound. Chemical af¬ 
 finity is the affinity of electricity and magnetism 
 for each other. Electricity and magnetism are 
 both matter in its simplest yet highest or greatest 
 degree of atomic activity. But beyond the electro¬ 
 magnetic is yet a greater degree of eliminated re¬ 
 fined atomic activity which is the realm of spirit. 
 
 Electro-magnetism in true equilibrium is etheric, 
 the dwelling place of spirit and the connecting link 
 between spirit and the material compounds in vari¬ 
 ous states of atomic activity. Electricity and mag¬ 
 netism are the male and the female elements in the 
 universe. From the oxygen of the air by pulmonic 
 process the blood gets electricity. From the hy¬ 
 drogen of the water by the digestive process the 
 blood gets magnetism. The oxygen of the water 
 is absorbed by the iron of the blood. By the nitro- 
 
172 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 gen of the air partly mixed with the blood at the 
 lungs, and partly by the nitrogen of the food taken 
 into the stomach, the flesh compound is formed. 
 
 Hydrogen and carbon form fatty compounds. 
 One set of blood discs are electric, the other, mag¬ 
 netic. The electric discs have an affinity for the 
 magnetic discs when out of equilibrium. But at 
 the lungs they are in equilibrium and hence repel 
 each other to the left auricle, then into the left 
 ventricle, the valves preventing back-flow; this re¬ 
 pulsion of the discs to each other must carry the 
 whole crimson mass forward while the equilibrium 
 is maintained to the capillaries. 
 
 The electro-magnetic equilibrium of the two 
 sets of discs is lost in the capillaries and becomes 
 less and less to the right auricle. Of these discs 
 the set nearer the heart because of the inequili¬ 
 brium, attracts the ones next behind, all the way 
 from the capillaries to the right auricle where, by 
 electric action from the brain in moving the heart 
 to contraction, the equilibrium is again partially 
 established. 
 
 Now the two sets of discs repel each other to the 
 lungs and through the pulmonary capillaries where 
 the equilibrium is more perfected so that the re¬ 
 pulsion of the discs carries the blood into the left 
 auricle; thence by muscular action into the left 
 
FACTS WELL TO KNOW 
 
 173 
 
 ventricle and by further muscular action into the 
 aorta. The heart being in equilibrium to arterial 
 blood and positive to venous, attracts.” 
 
 The scientists have not yet discovered that elec¬ 
 tricity and magnetism are the male and female ele¬ 
 ments in the Universe. 
 
 Knowing as I do that everything in the Universe 
 is composed of matter varying in vibration only, 
 and that the spirit-body is composed of ether, 
 electric, and magnetic in its composition, one even¬ 
 ing I inquired of one in the plane beyond the 
 physical, one versed in the action of electricity, 
 how it was that electricity could by its action de¬ 
 stroy life, and I recall very distinctly his answer. 
 
 “You are aware,” he said, “of the voltage used 
 in the various prisons when they put a criminal 
 to death. You are also aware that frequently a 
 current with many times the voltage used in electro¬ 
 cution passes through a body without serious in¬ 
 jury. It may startle you to know that any person 
 who has been electrocuted, or who has suffered a 
 lightning shock, or who by accident has received 
 a charge of electricity that has apparently produced 
 death, could be restored to life by proper treat¬ 
 ment. The charge of electricity, as applied in 
 our prisons, paralyzes the heart action, all the 
 bodily functions, and the person is apparently 
 
174 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 dead. But you have probably observed that when¬ 
 ever and wherever a person is put to death un¬ 
 der sentence of the law, a post-mortem follows. 
 Death was and is produced by the post-mortem and 
 not by the electric shock. In the beginning sur¬ 
 geons were anxious to note the effect of the force, 
 and undoubtedly made very careful post-mortems. 
 You would be astounded to know as we know, that 
 post-mortems have lost interest and that frequently 
 they now consist of jabbing a knife into the ap¬ 
 parently dead body and passing it on for burial. 
 
 When a person receives an excessive charge of 
 electricity, either by accident or design, and the 
 bodily functions are thereby temporarily para¬ 
 lyzed, if the body were immediately stripped, laid 
 upon the fresh earth and sprayed with water, the 
 electricity would be drawn therefrom, and would 
 pass into the earth. If then artificial movement 
 of the arms and stimulants were resorted to, the 
 heart action would be resumed, and one apparently 
 dead would get up and walk away. Persons die 
 from electric shock because they are not properly 
 treated. When the bodily functions are paralyzed 
 and the electricity is not immediately drawn from 
 the body and the action of the heart is not started 
 by artificial means, death will, of course, ensue 
 in a short time. If the treatment described is ad- 
 
FACTS WELL TO KNOW 
 
 175 
 
 ministered in time, there is no occasion for dissolu¬ 
 tion from electric shock. Electricity is life, and 
 life will not destroy life. In this day, where elec¬ 
 tricity is in such common use, countless lives could 
 be saved if the facts that I am now giving you 
 were known and the treatment applied.” 
 
 I received this information some years ago and 
 thereafter arranged with one of the wardens of a 
 prison in New Jersey to undertake to resuscitate a 
 convict who was to be electrocuted, but the plan 
 came to the attention of the authorities and was for¬ 
 bidden upon the ground that it was interfering with 
 the due execution of the law. 
 
 Society must of course have protection from the 
 acts of the vicious, and laws are properly made to 
 imprison those who cannot be controlled, but the 
 representatives of the people assembled in the vari¬ 
 ous legislatures have not the right to prescribe the 
 penalty of death. There is a limit to their sover¬ 
 eignty. What right have we as a people to electro¬ 
 cute one who has committed murder? The life of 
 every individual comes from God and though it 
 may have strayed far from the path of rectitude, 
 yet the people have no more right to take that life 
 than the murderer has to take the life of the mur¬ 
 dered. What right have we as a people to electro¬ 
 cute a depraved criminal and by so doing liberate 
 
176 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 him in another sphere where he may continue 
 wrong-doing? If the public understood what dis¬ 
 solution leads to, they would stand aghast and 
 horrified at the mere suggestion of electrocu¬ 
 tion. 
 
 Again I am asked, “Do you get teachings from 
 the invisible world that are worth while?” Let 
 me answer by giving just a few among thousands 
 received: 
 
 “Immortality is the first promise of which man 
 is conscious; but, as he acquires that which he con¬ 
 siders worldly knowledge, he tries to rid himself 
 of this promise. It stays with him, however, and, 
 no matter how often he may deny the fact, his 
 everyday life keeps before him the claims of im¬ 
 mortality. The fields, the fireside, the love, and 
 companionship of his fellow beings all suggest Im¬ 
 mortality. The very thought that death ends all, 
 causes him to shudder. Life would, indeed, be a 
 hollow mockery if the earth-life, with its joys and 
 sorrows, its lights and shadows, were the end. 
 Every heart-throb is a protest against such thought. 
 Nature not only promises eternal life, but fulfils 
 that promise, else we would not be here to-night 
 encouraging you to better efforts.” 
 
 “Ages were required to develop men so they 
 could discuss rather than fight over the mat- 
 
FACTS WELL TO KNOW 177 
 
 ters concerning which they differ, and adjust them 
 in the forum instead of on the battlefield.” 
 
 “If you live a good life, the day of your death 
 will be a great day; for, it will be a day of liberty; 
 but, if you do not live as you should, the day of 
 death will find you in bondage, bound by fetters 
 of your own making. The manacles of earth are 
 not nearly so binding as these will be. Follow 
 where the light of spiritual guidance beckons, and 
 do the things you find to do, upon the way. Many 
 tasks will be disagreeable and not to your liking, 
 but they will be the very tasks you will need to 
 perform.” 
 
 “I feel that it is my duty to help those who try 
 to help themselves. There are many on the spirit 
 side of life who are so densely ignorant that they 
 have no ambition to become better. They con¬ 
 tinue on in the same old rut in which they were 
 when on earth. Such spirits are of no benefit to 
 the people on earth as they cannot bring useful 
 knowledge to them. If you were able to see and 
 know the conditions of the spirits in the lower 
 spheres and could contrast their condition with 
 that of spirits in the higher spheres, you would un¬ 
 derstand how important it is that people should 
 be enlightened upon this subject while they are 
 still upon earth.” 
 
178 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 “Friends, there is one God, the God of Nature; 
 or rather, the God Nature. This God permeates 
 everything and has absolute dominion over all 
 that exists. You are all children of this one God 
 under whose dominion you are here; and you are 
 here, because you could not help yourselves. You 
 had no say as to that part of your destiny; and you 
 will leave the earth-life under the same dominion 
 —Nature—and you cannot change the destiny Na¬ 
 ture has marked out for you. Nature’s mode of 
 reform is development.” 
 
 “What is the use of pictures to a person who 
 cannot see, or of descriptions to those who cannot 
 understand? The description of the higher spirit¬ 
 ual spheres, even if it were given by one of the 
 highest spirits, would be unintelligible to mortal 
 mind.” 
 
 “It affords me pleasure and joy unspeakable to 
 know that I am still a man and can disclose in my 
 weak way to some on earth the great fact that life 
 continues, and that mere theories cannot stand out 
 successfully against eternal fact. I was ignorant 
 and weak when I came into this unknown country, 
 and was not prepared to advance, until I had 
 learned here what I should have known before.” 
 
 “What you have gained, what you need will be 
 yours in the spirit spheres. There is the closest 
 
FACTS WELL TO KNOW 
 
 179 
 
 love and quickest sympathy between the earth- 
 plane and the spirit world, hut we cannot make you 
 understand what our lives really are, without be¬ 
 coming exact counterparts of each other. You will 
 each find a different home, suited to you and your 
 work. Your sphere now lies upon the earth-plane, 
 and it is for you to perform the duties allotted to 
 you. You may not he able to give the ignorant 
 learning or the hungry food, but you can inspire 
 their spirits to nobler and better deeds, while some 
 one else, who is able, provides food and shelter. 
 Let them feel that they have your love and sym¬ 
 pathy and let them see that, even if the clouds of 
 adversity hang low, your soul is able to ascend to 
 higher spheres. It is good to know that you do 
 not travel the stony path of life alone; to feel that, 
 no matter how rough or dark the way may grow, 
 you can, if you will, stretch forth your hand and 
 feel an answering clasp—a clasp that makes your 
 heart grow braver. The Creator seems so far away 
 to most that, unless they can have the love and 
 help of each other, they feel deserted. It will al¬ 
 ways be impossible for the finite to grasp the in¬ 
 finite. There are thousands who walk secure in 
 the consciousness of ‘leaning on the strong arm of 
 the Lord’ when, in reality, they are cheered and 
 guided by some unseen friend. It is this spirit 
 
180 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 that gives to them the feeling of sympathy and 
 strength that so ably assists them through life. 
 The inhabitants of the spirit world are not bound 
 by dogmas or creeds,—that is, those who have 
 been there long enough to get rid of their earth 
 ideas; and they go forth to do good wherever they 
 find opportunity. The main thing is to be honest 
 with yourself, and just to others. Your ideas of 
 good to-day may not be the same to-morrow. 
 Therefore, do not attempt to lay down a rule for 
 your friends to follow. Let each be a law unto 
 himself; for each must answer for his own actions 
 and not for the actions of others.” 
 
 “It is not what a man does that makes him great, 
 but what he is. Action is merely thought dressed 
 in visible garb. Being must ever precede doing.” 
 
 In this manner I answer the two questions so 
 often propounded. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 FROM DEATH’S SLEEP 
 
 4 4 "I \ Y what right do you presume to compel 
 1—C my presence in this house?” The 
 * * room was in absolute darkness; the 
 voice of one called by the world, “dead,” trem¬ 
 bling with anger broke upon the stillness of the 
 night. 
 
 “Do you understand the situation in which you 
 find yourself?” I asked. 
 
 “I do not, and will not allow any man to dic¬ 
 tate to me,” he replied. 
 
 “You are not afraid?” I said. 
 
 “Afraid! I am not afraid of God or man, and 
 I will not remain here.” 
 
 “It might be to your advantage if you would,” 
 I answered. “I did Dot force you to come. You 
 are as much a stranger to me as I am to you.” 
 
 “Who did force me to come?” he asked. 
 
 “I do not know; tell me about it.” 
 
 “As it comes to me now,” he answered, “an irre¬ 
 sistible force seemed to urge me from a dream-like 
 
 181 
 
182 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 condition. Suddenly I was awake, in your pres* 
 ence, and immediately concluded that in some man¬ 
 ner you controlled my conduct. That I cannot 
 permit.” 
 
 “You are mistaken there, but does it not occur 
 to you that some great good may come of this 
 meeting?” I inquired. 
 
 “I cannot in any way understand your sug¬ 
 gestion,” the stranger said, “or see how any good 
 can come of an enforced conference. If you did 
 not bring me, who did? I had no desire to come, 
 nor do I wish to remain. This house and its sur¬ 
 roundings are unfamiliar to me. With your per¬ 
 mission, I will retire.” 
 
 “Before you go,” I said, “I should like to have 
 you know something of the work we are doing, 
 which may account for your coming.” 
 
 “Well, sir, finding myself in this unfamiliar sit¬ 
 uation I will not be lacking in courtesy,” he said. 
 
 “For many years,” I replied, “I have been en¬ 
 gaged in psychical research, with this psychic who 
 sits opposite me, trying to obtain a practical solu¬ 
 tion of that great physical change called death.” 
 
 “What has that to do with me? I am not dead 
 nor am I interested in the subject,” he answered. 
 
 “Wait a moment, please. You will be inter¬ 
 ested when I tell you that I have discovered some- 
 
FROM DEATH’S SLEEP 
 
 183 
 
 thing of the daily life and environment of the in¬ 
 dividual after he has ceased to he an inhabitant 
 of the earth-plane.” 
 
 “You are entirely mistaken in your statements; 
 there is no survival—no continuity of life. Death 
 is the end.” 
 
 “Are you sure?” 
 
 “Absolutely,” he replied. 
 
 “Suppose,” I answered, “I could prove to you 
 here and now, that death, so-called, is but a phys¬ 
 ical change, the separation of the life-force from 
 the flesh garment, that substance with which it is 
 clothed during its journey on this plane—suppose 
 I could demonstrate here and now that the indi¬ 
 vidual has a spirit body composed of matter with 
 form, features, and expression during his entire 
 earth-life, and at dissolution simply becomes an 
 inhabitant of the next plane of consciousness with 
 the same spirit body, is in short, the same identical 
 man.” 
 
 “There is no such thing as life after death,” he 
 said. 
 
 “I am going to try to explain what life is, before I 
 give you the absolute proof of what I state. Now 
 follow me. At the moment of conception, an Atom 
 of the Universal Force called ‘Good’ is clothed 
 with substance vibrating more slowly than the life- 
 
184 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 force clothed. The individual is as perfect at 
 that moment as the giant oak in the heart of the 
 acorn. We cannot see the individual or the oak 
 tree before or after birth and growth. Life-force 
 vibrates so fast that it is not visible to the phys¬ 
 ical eye, hut ultimately we see the outer covering, 
 that substance which makes both possible. This 
 outer garment of the individual is composed largely 
 of water. The physical body of ours changes once 
 in seven years at least, but with such change we re¬ 
 tain individuality, form, and feature. How is this 
 done?” I asked. 
 
 “I don’t know, and I don’t care,” he answered. 
 
 “Follow me a little farther, please. This en¬ 
 tity, this life-force, this individuality, this soul, 
 this 4 us,’ if you like, is composed of matter, differ¬ 
 ing only from the flesh substance in its vibratory 
 condition. This accounts for its permanency of 
 form, but no physical eye ever saw or ever will see 
 this self, this spirit form, this soul, so-called, unless 
 possessed of the psychic sight with which, speaking 
 generally, few are endowed. Without it one in¬ 
 dividual can never see the spirit form of another 
 while an inhabitant of this earth. We are con¬ 
 scious only of physical expression, and sound. 
 Now in dissolution from accident or physical weak¬ 
 ness, the body covering that is visible to us is no 
 
FROM DEATH’S SLEEP 
 
 185 
 
 longer fit for habitation; then the separation, dis¬ 
 solution—death so-called—occurs; the individual 
 through a natural process releases itself from the 
 flesh garment, and stands forth the same man or 
 woman as before, though invisible to the inhabit¬ 
 ants of earth. They see but the old flesh body that 
 housed the spirit. They could not, as I have said, 
 see the true self before, nor can they see it after 
 dissolution, because of the intensity, because of the 
 rapidity of the vibration of the etheric body, for 
 our eyes are limited as to motion, as well as to 
 distance.” 
 
 “That is all very well, but what has it to do with 
 me? I am not dead,” he answered. 
 
 “If you will be patient I will lead up to the 
 personal application. When one has gone through 
 this death change, one of two conditions may fol¬ 
 low; we may never for a moment lose conscious¬ 
 ness—it is then just good night to the old and good 
 morning to the new environment. This usually 
 follows a respectable life. The man is the same 
 still, nothing subtracted from or added to his per¬ 
 sonality, and in the mirror of Nature he sees him¬ 
 self with the same outlines, the same expression, 
 the same thoughts, the same attachments, still a 
 material body dissociated from the flesh covering, 
 the same spirit form that has been his during his 
 
186 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 journey in the world. But he then appreciates 
 that his body is lighter and more transparent than 
 the flesh substance he has been accustomed to look 
 upon, and he does not resist muscular effort as he 
 did in the old covering; then but for the assurance 
 of friends and relatives who assist in the change, 
 as at earth-birth, and explain to the quickening 
 consciousness, many would he afraid. There is 
 this great difference in the two births. When this 
 atom of life-force first becomes individual, an in¬ 
 habitant of the earth plane, it possesses instinct but 
 no intelligence; it continues to develop, with no 
 knowledge of its previous existence. It could have 
 none, for it came from the mass of universal life 
 forces. The next great change is similar except 
 that the individual retains all previous develop¬ 
 ment; he knows little more of the laws governing, 
 and the means available to aid his progression than 
 an infant. 
 
 On the other hand, those who have led unclean 
 earth-lives, who have been selfish, immoral, and 
 have committed crimes against man and Nature, 
 may not soon awaken; if they do, they find them¬ 
 selves in mental darkness, in a prison of their own 
 building, and there they remain until a desire 
 comes from within for better things. Then the 
 way will he shown by spirit people engaged in such 
 
FROM DEATH’S SLEEP 
 
 187 
 
 charitable work. At the beginning, each awaken¬ 
 ing spirit is told that each wrong act done in earth- 
 life must be lived over, that as he works he will 
 encounter like conditions under which the wrong 
 was done, and in the new life he must correct the 
 error in the old in order to advance. I recall that 
 an inhabitant of the next plane once said:— 
 
 “ ‘The justice that meets a naked soul on the 
 threshold of the after-life is terrible in its com¬ 
 pleteness.’ 
 
 “I cannot accept a word you say about a life 
 after death. There is no other life—there can be 
 none—a man dies like a dog,” said the visitor. 
 
 “That is true in a sense,” I said, “for the life 
 force and individuality both go on. You can¬ 
 not destroy an atom of matter, you will admit; 
 so if life-force is matter, that cannot be destroyed.” 
 
 “This is all very strange talk, but why speak 
 on such a subject to me? I am not dead; if I were 
 and there is life beyond the grave, I should not be 
 here talking to you.” 
 
 “I have talked just as I am talking to you with 
 many who have made that change,” I said. 
 
 “Do you mean to tell me you have talked to 
 dead people?” 
 
 “I did not say that; I said that I had talked to 
 those who have made the change called death. 
 
188 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 There is, in reality, no death; there are no dead.” 
 
 “Talk sense,” he retorted, “we have all seen 
 dead people, have seen their bodies buried, and 
 you tell me there are no dead.” 
 
 Again I said, “You fail to understand what I 
 have been telling you. We bury the physical 
 bodies but not the spirit bodies; one is just as ma¬ 
 terial as the other.” 
 
 “I don’t comprehend you, and I don’t care to 
 continue the discussion. I think I will say good¬ 
 night.” 
 
 “Just a moment, and I will demonstrate the fact. 
 Did I not tell you a moment ago that I had talked 
 with many so-called dead?” 
 
 “Yes,” he answered, “but I did not take what 
 you said seriously; I made up my mind on that 
 subject long ago.” 
 
 “Now to begin the proof—do you know where 
 you are at this moment? Tell me if you know.” 
 
 “I don’t seem to know. This is not my home; 
 the room is strange to me; you are strange too. 
 It is all unreal. Can you explain the situation in 
 which I find myself? 
 
 “Listen to me. This frail little woman, over 
 eighty years old, who sits opposite me, is the most 
 gifted psychic in the world. More than twenty 
 years ago it was discovered that under favourable 
 
FROM DEATH’S SLEEP 189 
 
 psychic conditions such as prevail to-night we could 
 have speech with spirit people.” 
 
 “It can’t be possible,” he said. 
 
 “The suggestion,” I replied, “is so far beyond 
 the experience of man, that I am not surprised 
 at your inability to comprehend the fact. Wait! 
 Having such means of communication, we have not 
 only learned much of the future state, hut, acting 
 in conjunction with a group of people in the next 
 life, we have been able to bring many to a state of 
 consciousness, after the death change, in quasi¬ 
 material, quasi-spiritual conditions, such as pre¬ 
 vail here to-night; and when we are doing work of 
 this character, many out of the body are brought 
 for help by their friends, as you have been, that 
 they may comprehend their situation.” 
 
 “But I am not one of these; the suggestion is 
 absurd, I tell you. I am as much alive as you, and 
 my body is quite as substantial as yours,” he said. 
 
 “Hold up your hand as I do mine, and see if 
 there is any difference between the two.” 
 
 “Yes,” he answered, “there is a difference, I 
 now discover. Yours is opaque, but mine is trans¬ 
 parent. I can see right through my hand. Is 
 this hypnotic suggestion?” 
 
 “No,” I said, “you are facing new conditions 
 to-night. Do you know that we sit in intense dark- 
 
190 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 ness—and cannot see you, although we hear your 
 voice distinctly?” 
 
 “I know,” he answered, “that it is not dark, for 
 I can see you, and if I can see you, you can see me; 
 but never mind that; what is the matter with my 
 body? I think now I have been very ill, and one 
 always looks as I do after long sickness,” he re¬ 
 plied. 
 
 “Speaking of illness, what do you recall about 
 your last illness?” 
 
 “My memory seems hazy, but it is coming back 
 to me. I recall lying on a bed, the physician wait¬ 
 ing, my wife and children sobbing. The doctor 
 said, ‘he is passing now.’ That did give me a 
 start; there were some who would like to see me 
 dead—but I fooled them—for I did not die. If 
 I had died, how could I be here?” 
 
 “What do you know about death?” I said. 
 
 “I don’t know anything about it, and I don’t 
 want to.” 
 
 “But when that time comes to you, you will be 
 obliged to know, whether you desire to or not,” I 
 replied. 
 
 “Well, I am willing to wait, and I don’t want to 
 talk about it. I never did.” 
 
 “Suppose I tell you that you have already made 
 that change,” 
 
FROM DEATH’S SLEEP 191 
 
 “It would be foolish to tell me such a thing 
 when I am here talking to you.” 
 
 “Suppose I now prove it to you. Those in spirit 
 life co-operate with me in this work and are often 
 able to bring to the stranger those whom he has 
 known in earth-life, and face to face and voice to 
 voice, the proposition proves itself.” 
 
 “I tell you,” he said, “there are no dead people, 
 and if there were, I don’t want to see them.” 
 
 “You are not afraid?” 
 
 “No,” he answered, “but I don’t want to see 
 them. I have enough trouble with the living with¬ 
 out bothering with the dead.” 
 
 “Is there no one in the next life with whom you 
 would like to talk if you could? Remember that 
 your sickness may have ended in dissolution; your 
 body is different, and you know you find your¬ 
 self in a strange city.” 
 
 “Things have changed, but I don’t want to see 
 or talk to dead people.” 
 
 “You find life so material, so like the earth life, 
 that I believe no method but actual experience will 
 convince you that you have left the mortal state, 
 and that lesson must be learned. You have been 
 so intent on our conversation, I think that you have 
 not looked around—look, what do you see?” 
 
 “My God! People, people, people! All 
 
192 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 strangers, and all looking at me, all with bodies 
 like my own; what strange hallucination is this? 
 Where am I? What am I?” 
 
 “You are no longer an inhabitant of this world 
 but are actually living in the after-life. Are there 
 none you know among those you see, who, to your 
 knowledge, are counted among the dead, so- 
 called?” I asked. 
 
 “Not one, but wait, there comes—John—my old 
 partner. Why does he, of all men, come? He is 
 dead. I helped bury him. I was his executor. 
 Take him and that woman and the boy away. I 
 won’t see them, I tell you. They are dead, all 
 dead. They are coming to arrest me. How can 
 they, when they are all dead? Tell me, tell me 
 tell me quick.” 
 
 “What wrong did you do?” I asked. 
 
 “Wrong? Who said I did them any wrong? 
 I was faithful to the trust.” 
 
 In answer another spirit spoke. “No, you were 
 not faithful. You stole the money entrusted to 
 you for my wife and child, and left them to suf¬ 
 fer. There never was, and never can be a secret 
 in the world. When you kept from my loved ones 
 that which I left for their support and let them die 
 in want, I saw, and all your friends in spirit life 
 saw your act and the working of your mind.” 
 
FROM DEATH’S SLEEP 
 
 193 
 
 “No secret in the world? My crime known! 
 The dead alive! Have I, too, left my physical 
 body to find life when I thought to find oblivion? 
 Am I to meet all those I have wronged? I cannot 
 face the future! Darkness is gathering! I am 
 falling! God help me!” 
 
 The voice faltered, struggled for further speech, 
 and was lost. The gross material that clothed his 
 organs of respiration, disintegrated, and he spoke 
 no more. 
 
 We had participated in one of the most re¬ 
 markable experiences that it has been the privilege 
 of man to have. We had talked with one who 
 had left the physical body, and witnessed his 
 awakening. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE IMAGINATION 
 
 A BOUT me is the Canadian wilderness, vast 
 and impenetrable. I have come across 
 the American border into the forest as I 
 always do when the days grow long. I am far 
 from the trodden ways of men in a place where 
 one can feel the heart beat of the Universe. In 
 the splendid silence I am able to think deeply and 
 clearly. 
 
 The house of logs, surrounded by broad ver¬ 
 andas, is built upon a point of land extending some 
 little way into the lake; about the cabin, pines 
 and silver birch trees give grateful shade when the 
 sun is high. To the left are islands covered with 
 hemlock and embracing vines; to the south and 
 across the neck of the deep bay is the rock-bound 
 shore of the mainland; and to the northwest there 
 are woods and ragged rocks, lakes and rivers, and 
 beyond, prairies just as Nature left them before 
 men came out of savagery. The winds, enriched 
 
 among the trees with those properties that give 
 
 194 
 
THE IMAGINATION 
 
 195 
 
 health, sweep across the point on which the cabin 
 stands on their way down the great valley of the 
 St. Lawrence. Long deep breaths of such pure 
 air fill one’s blood with oxygen, purifying it till 
 it grows red, and the nerve fluid ceases to be agi¬ 
 tated. 
 
 There are voices in these silent places. One 
 may not understand them, but knowing that life 
 whenever found has intelligence, the fact of lan¬ 
 guage must stand admitted. The furtive folk are 
 no less dumb than the deaf-mute; yet who can say 
 that they, denied a speaking tongue, do not com¬ 
 municate by motion with as much freedom as our 
 own deaf-mutes? The ability to communicate 
 each with the other is not denied the insect life or 
 the furtive folk. The wild flowers upon the river 
 bank, the reeds in the marshes, the young trees, 
 children of the parent pine, and the oak and maple 
 rearing their heads into the concave sky must have 
 language or means of communicating with each 
 other; otherwise the scheme of the Universe is a 
 failure. Why should life be created, allowed to 
 develop and progress, and be denied speech? I 
 cannot comprehend life in any form without lan¬ 
 guage. With my conception of life-force the en¬ 
 vironment is wonderful. 
 
 In the stillness of the night, the forest awakes. 
 
196 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 The lazy sound of bees, those workers of the day, 
 is no longer heard. The gulls that have sailed 
 through the blue sky from early mom searching 
 for food have gone hack into the little lakes, far 
 from the presence of man, and rest on the bosom 
 of the waters with their young. But the workers of 
 the night are awaking; there is a splash, a mink 
 is swimming around the point playing; there is a 
 breaking of branches as the deer come down to 
 drink. I hear a soft foot fall, as the denizens of 
 the forest range for food. Now comes the night 
 song of the whip-poor-will, and I feel in my face 
 the wind made by the black bat’s wings. The frogs 
 croak and call to one another from pool and marsh 
 and from the river bank, and then comes the stir 
 among the trees and growing shmbs and embracing 
 vines. 
 
 No, I don’t understand their speech, nor could I 
 understand the speech of the ancient Chaldeans, 
 but if they talked in my presence I should know 
 it. I know that as the winds sough through trees 
 and vines, swaying the branches and needles of 
 the majestic pines, the sounds produced are as 
 varying as the speech of man. 
 
 How beautiful is the morning near to Na¬ 
 ture’s heart! Every blade of grass that grows in 
 the clearing as well as the undergrowth in the 
 
THE IMAGINATION 
 
 197 
 
 forest is wet with dew and glistens in the sun. All 
 is still, the waters mirror the rocks and trees along 
 the wooded shore, the loon gives a startled cry, 
 goes down into the deep, and sets in motion upon 
 the surface of the waters circles which we are told 
 never cease. 
 
 I went by canoe with my guide to explore some 
 distant lakes. We had crossed the divide and 
 fished in waters that had seldom mirrored the face 
 of man, and as we glided along the indented shore, 
 deer feeding in the rushes leaped from the water 
 and disappeared; from the hushes a fox with cun¬ 
 ning eyes and upraised foot watched us as we 
 passed; from the deep, the black bass leaped, and 
 down in the clear waters the muskellunge swam 
 lazily over the bars. A dinner on the shore among 
 the sturdy pines and hemlocks, the crackling fire, 
 savory bacon and aromatic coffee to satisfy the 
 appetite, made strong with effort—such was yester¬ 
 day—and returning home as the sun disappeared 
 in the golden West, having taken a plunge in the 
 waters of the lake, I sat down in a great chair on 
 the veranda to rest. Soon the purple twilight 
 came, and with it the silence like the benediction 
 that falls between toil and sleep, and then the 
 psychic hour when one sends his thoughts out into 
 the great beyond. 
 
198 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 I was weary, and musing on the marvellous ex¬ 
 periences that had been mine, my thoughts went 
 out to my own, in the after-life, and to the many 
 new friends and acquaintances I have made among 
 such people. There was harmony between the 
 eye and brain, the tints between earth and sky be¬ 
 come neutral. I looked lazily upon the waters, 
 at the islands and down the long bay, and as I 
 mused, there fell upon my senses music so distant 
 as hardly to be perceptible. Was it music at all? 
 I listened again; it seemed to be in a valley among 
 the hills. I could not believe my senses; it was 
 distinct yet not distinct; it sounded like a great 
 orchestra of string and reed instruments played by 
 master hands, and with it the gentle wind among 
 the trees and all the voices of Nature seemed to 
 blend in one great whole; it approached with soft 
 cadence and then receded, passing back into the 
 silence where it was lost. 
 
 Looking again, I saw that the harvest moon, 
 which had just risen over the trees, made a bright 
 and shining path across the lake, and as I watched 
 the waters play and sparkle in that light I was 
 astonished to see a bridge from the farther shore 
 across the narrow bay leading straight to the point 
 on which my cabin stood; it was as perfect in out¬ 
 line as the one suspended across Niagara’s Gorge, 
 
THE IMAGINATION 
 
 199 
 
 with the exception that while definite in outline, it 
 was light and almost transparent; the entire struc¬ 
 ture seemed made of soft, filmy, radiant material, 
 definite yet indefinite. As I watched, I saw some 
 one approaching over the bridge. Soon I beheld 
 the outline of a woman’s fonn, and beside her a 
 young boy, holding her hand. Was this a dream? 
 Startled, I aroused myself, and beads of perspira¬ 
 tion came out upon my forehead. I felt the chair 
 and tightened my hold, I looked up and dimly 
 saw the stars and constellations in the sky, and 
 the islands in the lake. I saw again the bridge 
 of light and those who were coming nearer. I 
 shut my eyes, and all the moonlight, the waters, 
 and the islands in the waters were blotted out,— 
 all gone but the bridge of light and those who 
 were upon it. 
 
 I was alone in this great forest. Afraid? one 
 asks—yes, at first until I appreciated that I saw 
 not with the physical eye, but through my senses. 
 I was looking into the invisible. I had come to 
 know long ago that the dead so-called were my 
 friends; so there was naught to fear, and I waited 
 for their coming. So distinct was the woman that 
 I saw her dress of white—flowing garments like 
 the Greeks wore in the days of Pericles,—then her 
 face, and as it became visible, I half started to my 
 
200 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 feet, for it was the smiling face of my mother. I 
 observed her features—and how her hair fell in 
 folds about her ears; her face was just as in the 
 old days, except that age and the lines of care 
 had disappeared, and as I look she seemed to 
 know that I had recognized her and had noticed 
 the child. As the two came nearer, a light dif¬ 
 ferent from anything I had ever seen shone in the 
 child’s face and through his hair; he waved his 
 hand laughing, and still the two came toward me 
 in the path of the moonlight. 
 
 I realized that I was having an experience en¬ 
 tirely new and that it was important to make my 
 observations with great care. I took long deep 
 breaths and waited. My mother and the child 
 reached the point on which the bridge rested and 
 stepped upon the shore, and up the sandy path 
 toward the cabin, so near now that every detail of 
 face and form was visible, and I knew the child 
 was my son, who went out into the after-life in 
 infancy, but who had now grown to about the age 
 of five years. My pulse was beating fast, as my 
 heart pounded under the excitement. I was no 
 longer composed, for all my love and longing for 
 my mother and my son swept over me; I started 
 to my feet and down the steps to meet those who 
 came with laughing eyes and smiling lips, my 
 
THE IMAGINATION 201 
 
 hands outstretched, but as I touched them, they 
 seemed to dissolve and were gone. 
 
 I was upon the shore alone; the soft wind stirred 
 the branches. I walked down to the water which 
 was still sparkling in the path of the moonlight, 
 but the bridge was gone, and those who came upon 
 it. This had been no dream, for not for one mo¬ 
 ment had I slept, nor did sleep come before the 
 dawn crept into the eastern sky. 
 
 Experiences little less strange come to others. 
 While Mr. W., we will call him,—one of the most 
 brilliant lawyers in America,—was examining a 
 woman as a witness in the trial of an action some 
 months ago in the Court House in Buffalo, she 
 gasped, fell back in her chair, and was dead. 
 Mr. W., wholly without imagination and painfully 
 material, told me, and I have not the slightest 
 doubt of his veracity, that when he saw his client 
 gasp and fall back in her chair, he rushed to¬ 
 ward her, and as he did so, he saw, and plainly 
 saw, a shadow-like substance having the form and 
 outline of the witness emerge from the body and 
 move away. I cite this fact to show that others 
 have had experiences similar to my own, though 
 perhaps not so perfect in detail. 
 
 Months have elapsed since I sat upon the ver¬ 
 anda about the log cabin in the Canadian wilder- 
 
202 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 ness and saw the etheric bridge and two of the 
 inhabitants of the after-life, but the impression— 
 the memory—will never be dimmed in the years 
 to come. To-day it is more distinct than any in¬ 
 cident of my life, and now you ask, as I have asked 
 —“What was it?” 
 
 At a subsequent time when occasion was pre¬ 
 sented, I asked a member of our spirit-group to 
 give an explanation of what had occurred. In 
 answer he said: 
 
 “I am familiar with the occurrence because I 
 was present. It was an object lesson. We 
 wanted you to see something of the actual condi¬ 
 tions prevailing in this after-life, as you call it, 
 so that you could more clearly describe it, and 
 through you, others could obtain some little ap¬ 
 preciation of what waits beyond the physical. 
 Before I answer your question in detail, I want to 
 say again, and it cannot be repeated too often, 
 that the body that you see and touch is but the 
 housing, or garment worn by another body, the 
 etheric or spirit body, which is just as much sub¬ 
 stance as the flesh, but so refined, intense, and so 
 high in vibration that the physical eye cannot see 
 it or the hand feel it. Now in death, so-called, 
 the etheric body leaves the physical housing, 
 ceases to live on the physical plane, and becomes 
 
THE IMAGINATION 
 
 203 
 
 an inhabitant of this plane where everything is 
 etheric, matter simply vibrating more rapidly than 
 such substance as is seen ordinarily by men. We 
 repeat this proposition to you, and you should re¬ 
 peat it to others as often as occasion is presented, 
 because it is entirely new in physics, and so be¬ 
 yond the world’s teaching that even with oft-re¬ 
 peated telling it will be found difficult of compre¬ 
 hension. It was with this end in view that great 
 effort was made to give you the demonstration 
 which we did. 
 
 “In further answer to your question,” said the 
 member of the spirit group, “you must know, that 
 there is no such thing as imagination, as that word 
 is generally used. Your dictionaries define it as 
 ‘the image-making power of the mind; the power 
 to create or reproduce ideally an object previously 
 perceived; the power to call up mental images.’ 
 There must exist the sun before there can be the 
 shadow, the real must precede the imitation, there 
 must be the original before the copy, the subject 
 before the photograph. One cannot imagine 
 something that has no existence in Nature. The 
 imagination must have something basic. The 
 etheric mental lines or waves of the mind ordi¬ 
 narily move at will in and about the unknown land, 
 and through the sub-conscious brain get impres- 
 
204 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 sions and suggestions, usually intangible and in¬ 
 definite. Such wandering of the mind not being 
 understood, an entirely false conception is ob¬ 
 tained of the mental operation. Everything in 
 the Universe is real, is material, and the groping 
 of the mind in the mental plane, is called im¬ 
 agination, the word itself being derived from 
 image, reflection, the likeness of something else. 
 All this leads up to your personal experience. 
 What you saw actually existed, the bridge was 
 real, and the mother and the little son actually 
 crossed, and came to you as you relate. 
 
 But you did not see with your physical eye; 
 you were alone in the great forest, and around 
 you all was natural; there was perfect harmony 
 between you and your environment; your thought 
 was passive, and we, coming in close contact with 
 your brain, touched and quickened or rather sen¬ 
 sitized your psychic sense, and by that process 
 you saw more surely than would have been possi¬ 
 ble with the physical eye. It is only on rare oc¬ 
 casions that it is given to one without psychic 
 sight fully developed to look into the invisible, 
 and it may never come to you again. The bridge 
 you saw was composed of etheric substance, ac¬ 
 tual and real, constructed by mental operations, 
 rather than by the hands. The mind can only 
 
THE IMAGINATION 
 
 205 
 
 fashion gross matter into form by use of the 
 hands, but etheric forms may be fashioned and 
 changed by mental operation alone, and those 
 whom you saw were your own; they had bodies, 
 etheric bodies, and they were clothed in etheric 
 garments. As you know, they are not lost, but 
 live and progress in this, the mental sphere, wait¬ 
 ing until the period of your development in the 
 physical is completed. Then will come the reun¬ 
 ion, the meeting, and, together, life everlasting.” 
 
 When will the mind grasp the proposition that 
 all natural changes planned by the Master Intelli¬ 
 gence mean progress—when shall we as a peo¬ 
 ple be able to look upon the last great change un- 
 derstandingly, when shall we become big enough 
 to think of the opportunity given to the one who 
 goes forth, instead of thinking of our temporary 
 loss? If the world would only comprehend that 
 death means living on in more splendid environ¬ 
 ment, and that those who have gone forth con¬ 
 tinue to live in a world no less material than this, 
 the burden of sorrow and the awful fear of what 
 is called death would pass from the human heart. 
 Ignorance is the parent of fear. What matters it 
 whether one goes out this year or next? In the 
 after-life time does not exist, and progress is 
 eternal. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 POWER OF SUGGESTION 
 
 T HE inhabitants of this invisible world in¬ 
 fluence and in some measure control the 
 thought and conduct of every individual. 
 They are more progressive than we, and having no. 
 incentive to accumulate money, devote themselves, 
 to the acquisition of knowledge. They delve’ 
 deeply into the forces of Nature, and dealing with 
 matter in greater refinement, make from time to 
 time discoveries, some of which are utilized on 
 the physical plane. 
 
 Faraday, who first made practical the force 
 known as electricity, did not cease his investiga¬ 
 tions with dissolution, but has been a potent fac¬ 
 tor in its development through suggestion to those 
 who devote their time to the utilization of that 
 force. Raphael did not cease to portray upon 
 canvas his wonderful creations, nor did Michael 
 Angelo lose his ability to chisel marble into forms 
 
 of beauty when he ceased to inhabit this plane. 
 
 206 
 
POWER OF SUGGESTION 
 
 207 
 
 The years that have elapsed since they went on, 
 have been years of opportunity and progress. 
 Mozart, Beethoven, and all the other musicians 
 who gave us our great compositions, have they 
 gone down into the silent and relentless darkness, 
 or have they continued their work, impressing on 
 others from day to day new music that enriches 
 the world? Milton, Dry den, Pope, Goldsmith, 
 Moore, Wordsworth, Bums, Browning of modem 
 times, Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Epicte¬ 
 tus, Tacitus and Cervantes, of an earlier period, 
 were all their wonderful writings and philosophies 
 produced without suggestion from the master 
 minds in the more advanced spheres? I know this 
 one fact, that people in the after-life are so close, 
 so in touch with our thoughts that it is difficult for 
 any one to say that this or that is the product of 
 his own intellect. Progress owes much to the in¬ 
 visible. 
 
 Robert G. Ingersoll, well known to me in the 
 after life, speaking on this subject said: 
 
 “Let me give the most remarkable illustration 
 of spirit suggestion—the immortal Shakespeare. 
 Neither of his parents could read or write. He 
 grew up in a small village among ignorant people, 
 on the banks of the Avon. There was nothing in 
 the peaceful, quiet landscape on which he looked, 
 
208 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 nothing in the low hills, the undulating fields, 
 nothing in the lazy flowing stream to excite the 
 imagination. Nothing in his early life calculated 
 to sow the seeds of the subtlest and sublimest 
 thought. There was nothing in his education or 
 lack of education to account for what he did. It 
 is supposed that he attended school in his home 
 village, hut of that there is no proof. He went 
 to London when young, and within a few years 
 became interested in Black Friars Theatre, where 
 he was actor, dramatist, and manager. He was 
 never engaged in a business counted reputable in 
 that day. Socially he occupied a position below 
 servants. The law described him as a “ sturdy 
 vagabond.” He died at 52. 
 
 How such a man could produce the works which 
 he did has been the wonder of all time. Not sat¬ 
 isfied that one with such limited advantages could 
 possibly have written the master pieces of litera¬ 
 ture, it has been by some contended that Bacon 
 was the author of all Shakespeare’s comedies and 
 tragedies. 
 
 It is a fact to be noted that in none of this 
 man’s plays is there any mention of his contem¬ 
 poraries. He made reference to no king, queen, 
 poet, author, sailor, soldier, statesman, or priest 
 of his own period. He lived in an age of great 
 
POWER OF SUGGESTION 
 
 209 
 
 deeds, in the time of religious wars, in the days 
 of the armada, the edict of Nantes, the massacres 
 of St. Bartholomew, the victory of Lepanto, the 
 assassination of Henry III of France, and the exe¬ 
 cution of Mary Stuart; yet he did not mention a 
 single incident of his day and time. 
 
 The brain that conceived “Timon of Athens” 
 was a Greek in the days of Pericles and familiar 
 with the tragedies of that country. The mind that 
 dictated “Julius Caesar” was an inhabitant of the 
 Eternal City when Caesar led his legions in the 
 field. The author of “Lear” was a Pagan; of 
 “Romeo and Juliet,” an Italian who knew the 
 ecstasies of love. The author of those plays must 
 have been a physician, for he shows a knowledge 
 of medicine and the symptoms of disease; a mu¬ 
 sician, for in “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” he 
 uses every musical term known to his contempo¬ 
 raries. He was a lawyer, for he was acquainted 
 with the forms and expressions used by that pro¬ 
 fession. He was a botanist because he named 
 nearly all known plants. He was an astronomer 
 and a naturalist and wrote intelligently upon the 
 stars and natural science. He was a sailor, or 
 he could not have written “The Tempest.” He 
 was a savage and trod the forest’s silent depths. 
 He knew all crimes, all regrets, all virtues, and 
 
210 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 their rewards. He knew the unspoken thoughts, 
 desires and ways of beasts. He lived all lives. 
 His brain was a sea on which the waves touch all 
 the shores of experience. He was the wonder of 
 his time and of ours. 
 
 Was it possible for any man of his education 
 and experience to conceive the things which he 
 did? All the Shakespearean works were, beyond 
 a doubt, the product of his pen, but the concep¬ 
 tions, the plays, the tragedies were the work of 
 many brains, given Shakespeare by spirit sugges¬ 
 tion. He was but the sensitive instrument through 
 which a group of learned and distinguished schol¬ 
 ars, inhabitants of many lands when in earth-life, 
 gave to posterity the sublime masterpieces of the 
 Bard of Avon.” 
 
 The writings of Swedenborg were produced in 
 the same way. Sardeau wrote by spirit sugges¬ 
 tion, and as a fact many of the best works of so- 
 called great men have been in part the action of 
 the minds of those beyond our earthly plane, who, 
 working in conjunction with man, do something 
 for the uplift of the human race. 
 
 Knowing as I do the potent influence of spirit 
 people upon the world’s thought, and how in every 
 way they seek to enlighten us as to the change 
 
POWER OF SUGGESTION 211 
 
 called death, I have wondered what spirit im¬ 
 pressed this poem on a mortal mind,— 
 
 “As the faint dawn crept upwards, grey and dim, 
 He saw her move across the past to him— 
 
 Her eyes as they had looked in long-gone years, 
 Tender with love, and soft with thoughts of tears, 
 
 Her hands, outstretched as if in wonderment. 
 Nestled in his, and rested there, content.” 
 
 “Dear wife,” he whispered, “what glad dream is 
 this? 
 
 I feel your clasp—your long-remembered kiss 
 Touches my lips, as when you used to creep 
 Into my heart; and yet, this is not sleep— 
 
 Is it some vision, that with night will fly?” 
 “Nay, dear,” she answered; “it is really I.” 
 
 “Dear heart, it is you I know! 
 
 But I knew not the dead could meet us so, 
 
 Bodied as we are—see, how like we stand!” 
 “Like,” she replied, “in form, and face, and 
 hand.” 
 
 Silent awhile, he held her to his breast 
 As if afraid to try the further test— 
 
212 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 Then, speaking quickly, “Must you go away?” 
 
 “Husband,” she murmured, “neither night nor 
 day!” 
 
 Close to her then, she drew his head, 
 
 Trembling, “I do not understand,” he said. 
 
 “I thought the spirit world was far apart . . .” 
 
 “Nay,” she replied, “it is not now, dear heart! 
 
 “Quick, hold fast my hand, lean on me . . . 
 so ... 
 
 Cling to me, dear! . . . ’tis but a step to go!” 
 
 The white-faced watchers rose, beside the bed; 
 
 “Shut out the day,” they sighed, “our friend is 
 dead.” 
 
 This is a substantial description of what is 
 actually occurring from hour to hour. In the 
 change as the individual catches his breath in the 
 etheric atmosphere, and his vision is clarified as 
 a result of throwing off the flesh tissue, he sees 
 spirit people, “like in form and face and hand,” 
 so natural, so unlike what one has been led to be¬ 
 lieve that it is hard to understand. But let us re¬ 
 member that the change is a natural one, that all 
 Nature’s changes are for our good, planned by 
 the Master Intelligence, in order that our oppor¬ 
 tunity for development may be increased, and we 
 may grow more God-like. Knowing this we can 
 
POWER OF SUGGESTION 213 
 
 meet the dawn of the new conditions with confi¬ 
 dence and courage. 
 
 Man is a part of Nature; his intelligence being 
 developed and refined to a greater or less degree, 
 he is an integral portion of that force which we 
 term God. It is not necessary that we bend the 
 knee and worship at any shrine or altar, but know¬ 
 ing that we are part of that intelligent force which 
 holds dominion in Nature, it is incumbent upon 
 us to do no act unworthy of our position, to live 
 where the best thoughts grow, day by day to strive 
 to maintain the integrity and standard set for us, 
 and ultimately to do our utmost to increase that 
 force called good, or God. 
 
 In all ages Man has pursued happiness by 
 countless paths and innumerable roads. Some 
 have thought that within the hollow crown that 
 rounds the mortal temples of a king, it kept its 
 seat; some have thought that on the throne it sat 
 and smiled, and have waded through seas of blood 
 to reach it; some have thought that behind the 
 walls of splendour it made its home; others, de¬ 
 spairing of finding it there, have pictured a world 
 beyond, where happiness could be found perfect 
 and complete. But let us realize that there is only 
 one royal road which leads to happiness, and that 
 is to practise the plain, old, yet incomparable 
 
214 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 maxim, “Do unto others as you would have them 
 do unto you.” These sacred words uttered in dif¬ 
 ferent form six hundred years before the alleged 
 birth of Christ, fell from the lips of the great Con¬ 
 fucius, and are to-day found in nearly every sa¬ 
 cred volume of the world. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 NEVER A SECRET IN THE WORLD 
 
 T HERE never has been and never can be a 
 secret in this world. This is an entirely 
 new proposition, which, if understood, 
 would prevent much crime and unhappiness, and 
 would enrich all mankind. There has always 
 been an idea that many things can be done se¬ 
 cretly; that, for instance, one can lie, and it will 
 never be known; that one can cheat and defraud 
 another, and not be found out; that a thief can 
 enter a home without detection; that immorality 
 can be carried on without society being the wiser. 
 All these wrongs are being done under the belief 
 that they can be accomplished secretly, and most 
 of them are done in this manner so far as our 
 world is concerned. Mankind has been taught 
 that God sees all and knows all, hut men and 
 women do not believe it; otherwise crimes would 
 not be committed, and the moral code would not 
 he violated. 
 
 Pride and the speech of people have a great in- 
 215 
 
216 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 fluence on conduct. Now, suppose the thief knew 
 that if he took the property of another, his act 
 would, beyond peradventure, be exposed in the 
 morning paper, and he would be under immediate 
 arrest. With conviction absolutely certain, would 
 he commit the crime? 
 
 Suppose the business man, or captain of finance, 
 knew that if he formed unlawful combinations 
 and defrauded the public, he would certainly be 
 imprisoned; suppose men and women knew that 
 violations of the moral code would be known and 
 censured within the hour—would wrong and 
 crime go rampant through the land? Men and 
 women do these acts in the belief that they are 
 discreet enough to so cover them, that they will 
 never be known. Such people have little idea 
 that every act—I will go further—everything is 
 known by those in the after-life who are inter¬ 
 ested in our welfare. But they are far away one 
 says. No, they touch elbows and walk beside us 
 day by day. One cannot comprehend God as a 
 personality witnessing each act and knowing the 
 individual thought of over 400,000,000 of people, 
 but one can comprehend the fact that the after¬ 
 life is inhabited by those who have passed through 
 the earth-life, that they improve their condition by 
 helping those in need of assistance, that by their 
 
NEVER A SECRET IN THE WORLD 217 
 
 silent suggestion through the sub-conscious brain, 
 they try to aid us, keep in touch with our thought, 
 and are silent witnesses of all the wrong in the 
 physical world. 
 
 I do not mean that all the inhabitants of the 
 after-life know each wrong act. What I do mean 
 is that every man, woman, or child has loved ones 
 in the after-life who take a deep interest in his 
 or her welfare, be their position high or low. In 
 other words, the ties of blood, the bonds of love, 
 the interest of friends are not severed by dissolu¬ 
 tion. As the father, mother, brother, sister, wife, 
 or child, know by experience the awful effect of 
 wrong-doing, and are able to come about us and 
 witness our conduct, note our mental vibrations 
 and so read our thoughts, is it not the most natural 
 thing in the world that they should try to stay 
 our evil acts? If mankind knew this fact—that 
 nothing is ever really done in secret—would 
 wrong be committed at all? 
 
 Men and women are restrained often by pride; 
 they only stray from the path of rectitude when 
 they think that they go in secret. Teach men the 
 truth, and it will help to make the home sacred, 
 to empty the prisons; it will add more than any 
 other one thing to the sum total of human happi¬ 
 
 ness. 
 
218 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 Again, the churches teach in substance that 
 though our sins be scarlet, yet we can become 
 as white as snow, and that there is forgiveness 
 for all sin. One sect goes so far as to vest that 
 power in the church. The practical result of 
 such teaching has been—and is—to license wrong 
 and crime. 
 
 Men do wrong under the impression that in 
 some way they will escape the just consequences 
 of their wrongful act. I have said before, and 
 I will say again, that the world is not a jumble, 
 but controlled by law; for every effect there is a 
 cause, and that cause is governed by law. Every 
 act produces a result. Every thought being ma¬ 
 terial creates a condition about us, and is 
 retained in one of the sixteen or more million 
 cells of the brain. When, therefore, any one 
 goes out of this life and enters the etheric where 
 everything, the good and bad, is intensified be¬ 
 yond mind-measure, the storehouse of the brain 
 is opened, and he or she is confronted with 
 the record which has been made. Nothing is for¬ 
 gotten; the good get reward, otherwise courage 
 would be lost; punishment for wrong-doing is 
 terrible beyond words. Every one must bear his 
 own burden, must meet again every wrongful act 
 and make in ways that are provided complete 
 
NEVER A SECRET IN THE WORLD 219 
 
 restitution. This is very difficult, and the way is 
 very long. 
 
 One who believes that the world of men marks 
 the beginning or the end has no more com¬ 
 prehension of the true situation than the mole, fol¬ 
 lowing the path which it has made under the dead 
 grass in the meadow-lands, knows of the physical 
 world. 
 
 I have been told two most important truths by 
 those who have honoured me by their teaching: 
 that there never has been and never can be a se¬ 
 cret in the world: that man has no saviour but 
 himself, and that the wrong which he does, he 
 must undo. Whatever obligations he contracts, he 
 must meet. I have had other teachings that have 
 appealed most strongly to reason. One of these 
 is “do no worry,” but fit yourself to meet situa¬ 
 tions from day to day. The obstacles which we 
 meet are of our own creation, the troubles we 
 have are of our own making. If we possessed all 
 wisdom, we would then be Gods, and not make 
 mistakes. No one is perfect in this world or has 
 reached full development, and until such time 
 every one as a result of lack of wisdom and judg¬ 
 ment will continue to make mistakes and create 
 obstacles over which he will stumble. But that 
 is not misfortune; mistakes are necessary, and it 
 
220 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 is only by creating and overcoming them that we 
 gain wisdom, and know how to avoid the same 
 conditions again. They are the stepping stones to 
 the heights of understanding, and are good for us. 
 Let us meet them cheerfully and appreciate the 
 lesson each teaches. Ordinary errors ought not to 
 cause us anxiety, for it is only through them that 
 we make progress. A just and full appreciation 
 of this fact would take from the mind the use¬ 
 less burden of worry. Calamity is Nature’s spur; 
 trials are not only essential, but are disciplinary; 
 misfortune is opportunity. 
 
 Other desirable things which I have learned 
 from this unusual source are: “We have no right 
 to burden others with our sorrows”; all Nature is 
 optimistic, all tending toward good; as one thinks, 
 so he is. There are some men so pessimistic 
 that given the choice of two evils, they insist upon 
 taking both; they see no good in anything and 
 are ever looking upon the dark side, anticipat¬ 
 ing misfortune. The mind is a wonderful force, 
 its influence extending much further than we have 
 any idea of, and one can do very much to make 
 the world happier. On the other hand, one can do 
 much to make others unhappy by throwing upon 
 them one’s own mental condition, and many people 
 by force of habit do this, unmindful of the result. 
 
NEVER A SECRET IN THE WORLD 221 
 
 I recall not long ago a morning in the spring¬ 
 time. The sun was warm, the air balmy, dande¬ 
 lions bared their velvety bosom to the sky, tulips 
 and daffodils fringed the borders. The lawns 
 were carpeted with green, birds had returned from 
 the south and were building nests and singing. 
 It was a morning when a temperament that could 
 not respond to environment was poor indeed. As 
 I stepped out upon the avenue on my way to my 
 office, I saw a prominent citizen approaching. 
 His head was bent, his eyes were fixed on the stone 
 walk, his mouth was set; dissatisfaction and un¬ 
 rest showed in his face. The impression, as his 
 mental condition touched my own, was most de¬ 
 pressing. I knew the man well; involuntarily 
 turning as I met him, I said:— 
 
 “Don’t take that down into the city to-day.” 
 
 “Take what?” he answered quickly. 
 
 “The countenance you are wearing this morn¬ 
 ing,” I replied. 
 
 He looked at me in amazement for a moment 
 and inquired: “What is the matter with it?” 
 
 I spoke with kindness, saying: “It is full of 
 discontent, unrest, and worry; you look at war with 
 all mankind. You will make miserable every 
 man, woman, and child who sees you with your 
 present expression.” 
 
222 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 “Have I made that impression on you?” he 
 asked. 
 
 “Yes,” I answered. 
 
 “I would not like to create that impression,” 
 was the reply. “I have never thought that my 
 mental attitude affected those with whom I came 
 in contact. That is a new idea to me.” 
 
 “Have you observed the morning?” I asked. 
 
 “No,” he answered, “I have been so engrossed 
 in thought that I have not observed the day.” 
 
 I then said: “I want you to forget the things 
 you are worrying about. Look up and see how 
 beautiful the world is, and feel what a privilege is 
 ours to be a part of it. Listen to the songs of the 
 robins, watch the blue birds, respond to the flowers, 
 get in harmony with it all, and as we meet those 
 we know greet them cordially, and watch the ef¬ 
 fect on them and on yourself.” 
 
 He walked for a little way in silence; the sug¬ 
 gestion was working, his jaws were relaxed, the 
 frown had left his face; his eyes had kindled, his 
 lips smiled. With his expression wholly changed, 
 he walked, a different man, and as he met his 
 friends and acquaintances with a cheery “good 
 morning,” his joy and happiness radiated. Others 
 caught the charm of his personality, the world was 
 happier, and so was he. 
 
CHAPTER XXII 
 
 MENTAL ACTIVITY 
 
 T HOUGHTS are things. If not things they 
 are nothings, which is tantamount to say¬ 
 ing that thought does not exist. If you 
 design a house, your drawing is an image of the 
 thought-house which was in your mind before you 
 made the draft. You see a certain vessel which is 
 used for holding water, and you name the vessel a 
 bucket. The image of that bucket is in your mind, 
 and when you hear the word bucket, your mind 
 recognizes the vessel either because you have seen 
 it or heard it described. You use the word bucket 
 in the hearing of a thousand people who have seen 
 or known of the same bucket, and every person of 
 that thousand will perceive in his mind the exact 
 image of that bucket. The word bucket is not in 
 the image of the object, but when spoken refers 
 the mind of the hearer who has seen it to the image 
 of the bucket as it is indelibly printed on or in his 
 psychic ether. Drawings are things, images are 
 
 things—emblems of other things. From these 
 
 223 
 
224 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 drawings, images, and emblems of tilings the mind 
 constructs the particular thing in psychic ether, 
 and this psychic house, bucket, or other thing, is 
 the thought, and wrought in material form is the 
 shape and counterpart of the spiritual thought. 
 
 It is absolutely impossible for the mind to be 
 inactive for one single moment whether in sleep or 
 awake. The matter composing the mind is in a 
 state of constant activity, so intense in its vibratory 
 action that it is impossible for that substance to be 
 inactive for one instant. The brain in which ideas 
 are fashioned is a perfect machine in constant 
 motion. The creations or product emanating from 
 such instrument are never visible unless physically 
 clothed, and only a very few mental conceptions 
 ever find expression in this world of ours. The 
 mental products from millions of minds in active 
 operation vary as do the products that come from 
 the machines in the countless factories. The men¬ 
 tal emanations flowing from a brain highly devel¬ 
 oped appear to spirit people as lines of force ex¬ 
 tending and undulating from the soul-center, the 
 longer those lines of force, the more active the sub¬ 
 stance composing them, and the lighter their ap¬ 
 pearance. 
 
 The electric or gas light, as we use that term, is 
 simply burning substance in a high degree of act- 
 
MENTAL ACTIVITY 
 
 225 
 
 ivity, and the greater the activity the more perfect 
 the light. The mental emanations going out from 
 great, generous souls are light. Those from one 
 selfish and cruel are slow in action and necessarily 
 have a dark appearance. It is like comparing the 
 flame of a tallow candle to the incandescent lamp. 
 Thoughts again may emanate from a brain so un¬ 
 developed as to give out but little light, in reality 
 casting a shadow in the etheric atmosphere. 
 
 There are millions of those lines of force or 
 emanations going out from mentalities continu¬ 
 ously, and they make up what has ordinarily been 
 termed the auras of individuals. Much talk of 
 the aura surrounding each individual has been 
 practically meaningless because of the failure to 
 comprehend that mind is matter, and that thoughts 
 have form and substance. Admitting this hy¬ 
 pothesis, we can see at once how every individual 
 is surrounded with thought emanations that go out 
 from his mentality as the perfume goes out from 
 the rose. It may be sweet and intoxicating or it 
 may be sickly and offensive. There is scarcely a 
 state in which man finds himself that has not its 
 counterpart in vegetable life. Those emanations 
 or lines of force are perfectly visible to the in¬ 
 habitants in the after-life who know from actual 
 observation the character as well as the thought of 
 
226 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the individual. We in the physical world, not hav¬ 
 ing eyes developed to catch those emanations, be¬ 
 cause of their very high potency, know very little 
 concerning them. If we knew, our knowledge 
 would revolutionize the conduct of men. But we 
 feel the effect of those lines of force when we 
 come in contact with them; instinctively we feel 
 the personality of others. Thought emanations 
 from others, both in and out of the physical body, 
 make an impression upon our sub-conscious brain, 
 and these with our own suggestions are continually 
 entering our brain machine, are weighed, are either 
 rejected or accepted, and are expressed, so that 
 there is a continual taking in and throwing off in 
 our mental operations. It is a process as natural 
 as the heart action and as little understood. Few 
 people are able to tell the process through which 
 and by which they reach their conclusions, but 
 mental lines of force strike our mentality, come in 
 contact with our own emanations so that uncon¬ 
 sciously we receive an impression and arrive at a 
 conclusion as to the personality of another. The 
 first impression that we unconsciously get is always 
 the one which should guide us. 
 
 These thought-lines, as I have said, have colour, 
 depending upon their length, and as there is no 
 stagnation in Nature their general condition is con- 
 
MENTAL ACTIVITY 
 
 227 
 
 stantly changing; that is to say, they are progres¬ 
 sing toward the light or becoming darker. As the 
 individual self reaches a high state of spirituality 
 with good thoughts and aspirations, the graceful 
 lines of force reach far, the personality is lighted 
 up, and we feel the presence of a good man or a 
 good woman. The ignorant who live for self, with 
 uncontrolled temper and unlicensed passion have 
 little spiritual development, live in darkness day 
 by day, and their surroundings are exactly in ac¬ 
 cord with their mental state, for every man occu¬ 
 pies just that position in society which he is quali¬ 
 fied to occupy. That must be so, or the law of 
 cause and effect would be a failure. 
 
 So we see that in our daily life we are creating a 
 condition about us and around us, spiritually as 
 well as physically. We are making a physical 
 condition in which we live from day to day and a 
 spiritual one as well, and into the latter we pass 
 at the moment of dissolution. When divested of 
 the flesh garment, we continue in just that mental 
 state which we have created and from which there 
 is no escape, until we, by great individual effort, 
 change our mental state and acquire new and 
 higher aspirations and thereby create a better en¬ 
 vironment. 
 
 There are some individuals who bring into a 
 
228 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 home peace, happiness, and joy. There are other 
 pessimistic individuals who cast a gloom wherever 
 they go. In the presence of the last-named the 
 laughter of children stops. There are individuals 
 whose personality is so offensive that we avoid 
 them whenever possible. The physical outlines, 
 clothing the personality, are indicative also of the 
 true character of the individual. Men living on 
 the earth-plane are, with our present understand¬ 
 ing of these things, very apt to be judged according 
 to their outward or physical appearance. In the 
 after-life, divested of the flesh garment, character 
 is apparent to all those with whom intercourse is 
 held, and many will stand before the mirror of 
 Nature in their nakedness; in truth, our person¬ 
 ality has always been visible to the inhabitants of 
 the after-life, because they too are living a ma¬ 
 terial existence, and being etheric, all etheric or 
 mental action is visible to them when they come 
 within the zone of our thought action. 
 
 The very proper desire of mankind is to enrich 
 itself, but the difficulty is that we have yet to learn 
 of what true riches consist. True, money is neces¬ 
 sary during this little journey on earth, but true 
 wealth consists of happiness, and that is found in 
 leading a chaste, upright, just life, in doing some¬ 
 thing for others, and being true to oneself. Lives 
 
MENTAL ACTIVITY 
 
 229 
 
 of that character grow rich indeed, and they do not 
 have to wait until the after-life to enjoy the wealth 
 so gathered. Upon the other hand, the captain of 
 finance who, with ruthless hands, has taken from 
 others what they have earned and has accumulated 
 a great horde, having no lofty aspirations, goes out 
 into the next world a pauper indeed, for his bet¬ 
 ter self has not been developed, and the lines of 
 force that have emanated from his mentality are 
 short and dark. 
 
 Those who pass out having led fairly good lives, 
 find a condition where it is light, a condition of 
 their own making; in the change they seldom lose 
 consciousness, but pass into an environment where 
 to the limit of their capacity, everything is under¬ 
 stood, where without the loss of a day they are 
 ready to continue to labour, to comprehend the 
 economy of Nature’s law, to better understand their 
 duties and their responsibilities, and to continue 
 a part of the active force. Those who have led 
 narrow and selfish lives find just the condition that 
 they have been from day to day making, and that 
 condition is a grossly material one. If you were 
 to build a house without windows, how could you 
 expect light to penetrate? The position of men in 
 the state referred to is not one to be desired. If 
 the world would only learn that true wealth and 
 
230 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 happiness are found in doing the best we can under 
 all circumstances, and that wealth righteously gath¬ 
 ered is not only enjoyed here, but is taken into the 
 after-life, the ambition and desire of humanity 
 would be changed in an instant. It is a misfortune 
 to have been wrongly educated, and especially to 
 have been taught that money can purchase happi¬ 
 ness, or that money is the one goal that all should 
 seek. 
 
 A spirit speaking on this general subject has 
 said: 
 
 “You all give off an aura, and if you knew the 
 conditions emanating from some people, you would 
 very quickly eject them from your home. In those 
 whose lives are not strictly upright we find the aura 
 very bad, mixed, cloudy, confused. The emana¬ 
 tions of people of good health vary in shade from 
 white, pale pink, to rose colour. When the auras 
 approach the dark colours, browns, greys, and 
 blacks, we know that the person is wrong in some 
 way. Now this aura is influenced by passions such 
 as hate, envy, malice, evil speaking, anger, and 
 when one sets out to do an injury to another, let 
 me assure you that he injures himself far more 
 than the other person. 
 
 The power of thought for good or ill is demon- 
 
MENTAL ACTIVITY 
 
 231 
 
 strated in various ways. Let a number of persons 
 concentrate an evil thought upon another, and the 
 effect will be found most disastrous. Again, when 
 a band of people concentrate their thought upon 
 one who is ill, they thereby send him vital force 
 and strength and power. The result is restoration 
 to health. This is the basis of the health that 
 comes through Christian Science practice. It is 
 all the result of concentrating the lines of force at 
 a specified point. The result is good or bad de¬ 
 pending upon the character of the force that is 
 projected and concentrated at a given point. 
 
 I have been told that a clean, highly de¬ 
 veloped thought goes out into the ether with the ap¬ 
 pearance of a search light, starting from a central 
 point and radiating through space. Mind is mat¬ 
 ter, and thoughts are things, and so wonderfully 
 active is the operation, that we are continually 
 forming our mental creations in such refined sub¬ 
 stance. 
 
 With all our development, and it has been great, 
 we are able to hear only a few of the sounds that 
 vibrate in our atmosphere. With all our achieve¬ 
 ments we are unable to see motion except it be slow 
 in movement and in physical garment. 
 
 On this subject one said:— 
 
232 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 We can also read the thoughts of another—con¬ 
 ditions being favourable—as readily as you can 
 gain a knowledge of the characters of symbols of 
 a language not your own. Thoughts being mo¬ 
 tions of the mind, assume specific and definite 
 forms, and when distinct in the mind, can be clearly 
 perceived and understood by any spirit who is 
 in sympathy with the mind in which they are gen¬ 
 erated. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 FUTURE OF A CHILD 
 
 T HE orthodox teachings make no attempt to 
 tell us what becomes of children who go 
 out of the earth-plane in infancy. How 
 many millions of mothers have had babies too 
 young for speech, hoys and girls just able to talk 
 and walk, sink into a dreamless sleep, and having 
 kissed for the last time the lips of love, have seen 
 the little bodies lowered with tender hands into 
 the grave, and as the earth fell upon the casket 
 have heard from the lips of ignorance “ashes to 
 ashes, and dust to dust.” With hearts without 
 hope they have gone back to the house of sorrow, 
 the toys, the little bed, the vacant chair, the ache in 
 the heart, the tears that fall in countless thousands 
 of homes, and the cries that go out in the night to 
 know where in the vast universe the baby is, if it 
 lives at all. 
 
 “What becomes of those who go out in infancy,” 
 you ask? “Do they develop in mind and body? 
 
 Shall we know them and meet them again? Will 
 
 233 
 
234 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 they know ns? Is there any one to comfort and 
 care for them, and teach them? Do they miss and 
 seek the mother love?” These and a thousand 
 more questions have been asked in the countless 
 ages that have gone, and are being asked in every 
 desolate home in the world to-day. 
 
 Let me tell what I have learned of those condi¬ 
 tions through many years of speech with those in 
 the after-life. 
 
 I repeat what I have said before and shall say 
 again, for it is the key to comprehension, that the 
 infant at conception possesses an etheric form, at 
 that moment clothed in a physical garment or flesh 
 body. This etheric form is material, composed of 
 matter, and as matter cannot be destroyed; it fol¬ 
 lows that etheric child-body cannot by any possi¬ 
 bility be annihilated. 
 
 The infant etheric form by the process of disso¬ 
 lution passes out of the physical garment which it 
 took on at the moment of conception, the same gar¬ 
 ment that it wore at birth, and becomes an in¬ 
 habitant of the next plane of consciousness, where 
 all is etheric, where nothing physical can enter. 
 This change may be likened to an earth-birth. 
 There are thousands of childless women, who never 
 in earth-life found expression for the mother-love. 
 These, with countless others who find their greatest 
 
FUTURE OF A CHILD 
 
 235 
 
 happiness in doing good together with those of 
 blood relation, attend at such a time and take and 
 care for the little stranger in the new environment. 
 
 Let me give an instance that came under my per¬ 
 sonal investigation. It is a well known fact that 
 children up to about three years of age are able 
 to, and do see spirit people; some have spirit play¬ 
 mates. The instance I am about to relate was the 
 passing of a little boy, only one week old, who 
 had a sister a little under three years of age, with 
 whom I was privileged to make an experiment. 
 This little girl night after night saw the baby boy, 
 and described him; he was in the same room with 
 two spirit nurses in attendance, while another 
 woman was from time to time described as being 
 present. Again, this three year old sister often 
 saw the spirit-baby when she was away from her 
 home. On various occasions I verified these state¬ 
 ments by inquiry from those in the after-life dur¬ 
 ing our investigation, and found that what the little 
 sister related had actually taken place. The 
 woman who appeared from time to time was the 
 grandmother; she, assisted by two nurses, cared for 
 the little stranger, and on several occasions, be¬ 
 fore he could articulate plainly, prior to his fourth 
 birthday, I heard him speak to me. This was a 
 most valuable experience. 
 
236 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 Children in the after-life are cared for very 
 much as they are here. There are those who find 
 their greatest delight in mothering the motherless, 
 and teaching them words of speech and wisdom; so 
 under such unselfish care the children reach mental 
 and bodily maturity just the same as they would if 
 they had remained in this world. 
 
 The etheric process of development is interest¬ 
 ing; children need mother-love no less in spirit 
 than in earth life, and as the mother sleeps, 
 those in charge place the etheric baby-form close 
 to her heart, where it rests absorbing the love so 
 necessary to its existence. We little know how 
 close the after-life is, how close its inhabitants come 
 to us, the influence they exert on us, or the result 
 of our thought vibrations upon them. Then again, 
 as the children grow, they keep in touch with us 
 from day to day, and when we go out into the after¬ 
 life, they know and greet us as we enter the life that 
 has no night. 
 
 There are in the next life kindergartens, schools, 
 colleges, and universities of learning just as we 
 have here, and what is more, the inhabitants do not 
 cease to study and increase their store of knowl¬ 
 edge when they reach a certain age, but there are 
 great lecture halls where the advanced ones teach 
 the supreme laws of Nature, where all are welcome 
 
FUTURE OF A CHILD 
 
 237 
 
 and all go, and so the secrets of the Universe are 
 understood. There is but one aristocracy in the 
 life to come, and that is founded on the refinement 
 and development of character. Measured by this 
 standard, how very poor are our very rich! I 
 have often written that the aristocrats of the after¬ 
 life have gained their position by helping others 
 less fortunate. They rise by raising others. 
 Those alone stand erect who stoop above the lowly. 
 
 Here is what a sojourner in the next plane has 
 said of the little ones: 
 
 “Many people have puzzled as to the state and 
 condition of young children in the spirit world, 
 and it is on that subject that I desire to speak, 
 more particularly, to-night. There are millions 
 of young children of all ages passing into the 
 spirit world every year. Some of them are of 
 very tender age, while others know right from 
 wrong. It is an interesting subject to inquire as 
 to what they do in the spirit life. At the outset, 
 I must tell you that there is a divine law in the 
 spirit world, that whosoever passes into that king¬ 
 dom before he has reached to man’s estate upon 
 the earth-plane, shall grow mentally to the stature 
 of a man. You can gather from that that the 
 youngest child, even the infant which has been 
 taken from you, will grow mentally and spiritually 
 on the other side of life. Clairvoyants and others 
 have often described young children in the spirit- 
 
238 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 life, who have been recognized by mothers and 
 fathers; they perhaps years after, have been some¬ 
 what astonished to hear of the child looking much 
 older, and they have not been able to account for 
 it. You will understand that the presentation of 
 the spiritual form is in order that those in the flesh 
 may be able to see them through the physical 
 senses, and to note that they appear to be grow¬ 
 ing toward manhood and womanhood. I am 
 afraid that many people upon your earth-plane to¬ 
 day are neglectful of their responsibilities to their 
 children. If God has given you such a flower as 
 a child, it is incumbent upon you by example and 
 precept to train that child in spiritual things, so 
 that ultimately he will be with you in the kingdom 
 of Heaven and will rejoice in the knowledge that 
 you guided him spiritually when an infant. But 
 how careless are many people with their children! 
 They forget that the child is all the time taking 
 note, not of what they are saying, but of what they 
 are doing. I assure you that if you are unmind¬ 
 ful of your responsibilities toward your children, 
 you will undoubtedly have to pay the penalty when 
 you reach the spirit side of life.” 
 
 Too little attention has been paid to the going 
 out of children; the world has little knowledge on 
 that subject. No greater blessing can come to the 
 fathers and mothers of every nation and tribe than 
 to know that children with bodies too frail to carry 
 them through the earth-life are not lost in going 
 
FUTURE OF A CHILD 
 
 239 
 
 from among us, but in the other life go right on 
 with their growth and development under the care 
 and guidance of good men and women who for love 
 of humanity do the necessary work, and so enrich 
 themselves. 
 
 I am impressed not to leave this subject without 
 a word of warning to do no murder. Know that 
 at the moment of conception out of the mass of the 
 universal good, out of the life mass, an etheric 
 atom, a body infinitesimal in size and perfect in 
 form is clothed, and no matter whether the phys¬ 
 ical birth is natural or premature, that life-force so 
 individualized has commenced its journey back to 
 God, and all the power in all the Universe cannot 
 change its ultimate destiny. 
 
 I am told that into the after-life countless mil¬ 
 lions of children have come and are coming who 
 have never had the advantage of a natural phys¬ 
 ical birth and earth experience so necessary to their 
 development, but that heartless mothers by abortive 
 acts and with the aid of dastard physicians have 
 done and are doing countless murders, more ter¬ 
 rible in result than the taking of the life of a 
 man, because the unborn infant is so weak and 
 helpless. If this knowledge shall cause any 
 mother to spare the life of her unborn child, blood 
 of her blood, and bone of her bone, or the physi- 
 
240 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 ician to pause in his criminal act, sorrow untold 
 will pass both by. 
 
 Ella Wheeler Wilcox described perhaps better 
 than she knew in her “Ballade of the Unborn 
 Dead” the natural and logical result of child mur¬ 
 der 
 
 “They walked the valley of the dead, 
 
 Lit by a weird half light, 
 
 No sound they made, no word they said. 
 
 And they were pale with fright. 
 
 Then suddenly from unseen places came, 
 
 Loud laughter, that was like a whip of flame, 
 They looked, and saw, beyond, above, 
 
 A land where wronged souls wait 
 Those spirits called to earth by love, 
 
 And driven back by hate. 
 
 And each one stood in anguish, dumb and wild. 
 As she beheld the phantom of her child. 
 
 Yea, saw the soul her wish had hurled 
 Out into night and death, 
 
 Before it reached the Mother world, 
 
 Or drew its natal breath. 
 
 And terrified, each hid her face and fled 
 Beyond the presence of her unborn dead. 
 
 And God’s Great Angel, who provides 
 Souls for our mortal land, 
 
 Laughed, with the laughter that derides, 
 
 At that fast fleeing band 
 Of self-made barren women of the earth. 
 
 Hell has no curse that withers like such mirth. 
 
FUTURE OF A CHILD 
 
 241 
 
 ‘Oh, Angel, tell us who were they, 
 
 That down below us fared; 
 
 Those shapes with faces strained and grey, 
 
 And eyes that stared and stared; 
 
 Something there was about them, gave us fear; 
 
 Yet are we lonely, now they are not here.’ 
 
 Thus spake the spectral children; thus 
 The Angel made reply: 
 
 ‘They have no part or share with us, 
 
 They were but passers by.’ 
 
 ‘But may we pray for them?’ the phantoms 
 plead; 
 
 ‘Yea, for they need your prayers,’ the Angel 
 said.” 
 
 “I want to tell you,” a teacher in the after-life 
 said, “of a little waif that came to us in infancy. 
 We taught and carefully guarded, and schooled her 
 in the pure conditions of our sphere until she ap¬ 
 proached womanhood, but she had no contrasts, 
 therefore she could not judge of the relative purity 
 and delights of her environment. In order that she 
 should be able to enjoy her home and the glories 
 of our world, it was necessary for her to have a 
 knowledge of earthly conditions. And so I was 
 instructed to conduct this child back to earth from 
 time to time. When this child first returned to 
 earth and was among your people, she could hardly 
 endure even to examine the gross conditions, and 
 
242 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 could not understand how people could exist in 
 such dark, crude elements. But, as I led her along 
 from one condition to another, over the road she 
 would have gone had she remained on earth for 
 the ordinary allotted period, I said to her: ‘Had 
 you lived your time in the body, you would have 
 been in the condition in which you see these peo¬ 
 ple.’ I also told her that they would look gross 
 to her when they reached the spirit state, but 
 that in course of time they would improve enough 
 to assume the state of purity and peace that she 
 enjoyed. And as we journeyed on, we met one 
 whose earthly experience had unfolded, and the 
 little lady said: ‘That one looks different.’ And 
 I told her that this one had received a higher train¬ 
 ing. And we passed along to another place in the 
 earth-life where there were children of the poor 
 and ignorant, as well as of the rich and learned. 
 And we tarried until my little charge thoroughly 
 learned the different environments of children on 
 earth, and the great contrast between their homes, 
 daily life, and schooling and those in spirit-life. 
 This child had never known anything but innocence 
 and purity, and she was far removed from the 
 ordinary conditions of the childhood of earth. It 
 was long before she could, in any degree, recog¬ 
 nize it as a reality. 
 
FUTURE OF A CHILD 
 
 243 
 
 “And, having learned of the methods of train¬ 
 ing in the institutions of earth, we pursued our in¬ 
 vestigations farther along; and, finally we came 
 to where there was a great orthodox church; and 
 there, unseen, we mingled with the congregation. 
 She said: ‘This churchhouse is not like ours at 
 all. What is taught here?’ Presently the serv¬ 
 ices began. I told her to listen attentively to the 
 minister, for here she would get the average expe¬ 
 rience of the church methods and be able to see 
 wherein a great work, in brave hands, is greatly 
 needed on the spirit side. Then, the minister pro¬ 
 ceeded with his discourse in his regular methodical 
 manner, telling the people all he thought essential 
 to prepare them to enter higher realms of the 
 spirit. But the girl, now grown to nearly woman¬ 
 hood, could not accept the dicta of the minister, for 
 she had up to now been raised in the spirit world 
 and had learned nothing that was in harmony with 
 methods attempted by the church to enlighten the 
 people and prepare them for future realities. 
 Therefore the teachings of the minister seemed to 
 her so gross, so false, so out of line with all she 
 had ever seen, heard, or read of in the land which 
 had always been her home that she hesitated to re¬ 
 main, but I told her that her future work and wel¬ 
 fare required that she learned as much as possible 
 
244 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 of the earth conditions in which your people live, 
 and the kind of preparation such earth conditions 
 make for their inheritance in our life. But the 
 more the young lady heard of the sermon the more 
 she disbelieved it. In fact, it was so much opposed 
 to what she knew of the conditions on this side, 
 and so different from what preparation while on 
 earth for entrance to and enjoyment of spirit life 
 should consist that at my suggestion she resolved to 
 visit those who had just left the earth-plane, 
 schooled under its teaching, and witness the effect 
 of it; we, therefore, journeyed on.” 
 
CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 ACTUALITIES OF THE AFTER-LIFE 
 
 A FTER birth, death is the greatest privilege 
 that comes to mankind. If death did 
 not occur, there would be old age, 
 feebleness, poverty, pain, and suffering forever; 
 with it, splendid life on through the ages, prog¬ 
 ress, perpetual youth and vigour. Such is the 
 heritage of all who have lived, or who shall live in 
 the ages to come as inhabitants of this plane; such 
 are the benefits coming through dissolution. 
 
 “Physically considered, in the final separation 
 of the soul or spirit body from the flesh garment 
 there are no discomforts. As the etheric form goes 
 out through the process called death, pain ceases, 
 and then for a short period comes what is usually 
 called unconsciousness. During the passing of the 
 soul, when the individual leaves the tenement of 
 flesh, when the spirit of man hurries forth from the 
 old housing, there is no sensation. That period of 
 time may be characterized as a sleep; then comes 
 
 the awakening the return of sensation, conscious- 
 
 245 
 
246 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 ness. Such is the true resurrection, and the possi¬ 
 bility of that perfect life, unattainable to an in¬ 
 habitant of earth. After leaving the earth-plane 
 the immortal has been divested of the physical, and 
 progress is unlimited.” 
 
 Again, it was my privilege to have speech with 
 those living beyond my vision. The room in my 
 house in which I carried on my experimental work 
 was intensely dark; as usual only Mrs. French and 
 I were present. The thought, before so tense, had 
 for a moment become passive; then from out of the 
 silence came the deep-toned voice of him who spoke 
 the above quoted words. 
 
 Ever alert to obtain the personal observations of 
 those who have gone on, I said: 
 
 “I have been told that the after-life is intensely 
 real and that with you everything is just as tangible 
 as it was when you lived among us. Tell me some¬ 
 thing of matter surrounding and composing the 
 plane in which you live.” 
 
 “The most learned scientist,” he replied, “among 
 the inhabitants of earth has practically no con¬ 
 ception of the properties of matter, the substance 
 that makes up the Universe—visible and invisible. 
 I did not when I lived among you, though I 
 made a special study of the subject. That which 
 you see and touch, making up the physical or tang- 
 
ACTUALITIES OF THE AFTER-LIFE 247 
 
 ible, having three dimensions, is the lowest or 
 crudest expression of life force, and notwithstand¬ 
 ing my long study of the subject, the idea that the 
 physical had permanent etheric or life-form, that 
 that which you call space was composed of mat¬ 
 ter filled with intelligent and comprehensive life 
 in higher vibration never occurred to me; so when 
 I became an inhabitant of the plane where I now 
 reside, I was wholly unprepared to grasp or com¬ 
 prehend the material conditions of the environment 
 in which I found myself.” 
 
 “Tell me,” I asked, “of your awakening, and 
 how things appeared to you as consciousness was 
 restored.” 
 
 “Of course,” he replied, “there was the meet¬ 
 ing and greeting of my own who came to welcome 
 me, as naturally as one returning after a long 
 journey in the earth-life would be welcomed. 
 Their bodies were not so dense as when they were 
 inhabitants of earth, but they were like my own. 
 Then I was told that my body and the bodies of all 
 those in that life were actually the identical bodies 
 which we had in earth life, divested of the flesh 
 covering. I was also told that that condition is a 
 necessary precedent to entering the higher life, 
 and that such bodies during earth life had con¬ 
 tinuity and, further, that in leaving the old, I had 
 
248 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 come into a plane where all was etheric, that is 
 matter vibrating in perfect accord with my spirit 
 or, technically speaking, etheric self. To me 
 everything seemed perfectly natural to sense, sight, 
 and touch.” 
 
 “Again, let me tell you,” he said, “that the outer 
 flesh garment is not sufficiently sensitive to feel; 
 the etheric body alone has sensation. This I have 
 said as leading up to a clear understanding of what 
 I experienced in meeting the new conditions here. 
 I found little body-change—I had sensation and 
 vision—and my personal appearance was in no way 
 changed except that my body was less dense, more 
 transparent as it were, but the outline of my form 
 was definite, my mind clear, the appearance of age 
 gone, and I stood a man in the fullness of my men¬ 
 tality-nothing lost or gained mentally. 
 
 What impressed me most after the meeting with 
 my own was the reality and tangibility of every¬ 
 thing and every one. All those with whom I came 
 in contact had bodies like my own, and I recog¬ 
 nized friends and acquaintances readily. Now I 
 will tell you of the one thing that impressed me 
 most on coming here,—that was that matter in its 
 intense refinement, in its higher vibration, was 
 capable of intelligent thinking and direction. 
 Shape and grasp this proposition if you can; I 
 
ACTUALITIES OF THE AFTER-LIFE 249 
 
 could not in the beginning—nor could I compre¬ 
 hend at once that all in the Universe was life and 
 nothing else. This fact, which we now know, will 
 overturn all the propositions of science. 
 
 In all the orthodox teachings of nearly two thou¬ 
 sand years not one law has been given tending to 
 show how it was possible for individual life to 
 hold continuity. Theology has claimed it with¬ 
 out explaining how or where. This no longer 
 satisfies the human heart or mind, a fact which ac¬ 
 counts for the great unrest among your people in 
 every land. For this reason it has been our aim 
 to explain the law through which life is continued, 
 and so simply to state the facts and explain the con¬ 
 ditions that all may understand. The key to com¬ 
 prehension is first to realize that your Earth does 
 not contain all the matter of the Universe, that all 
 that you see and touch is but the substance used by 
 life in growth. When one leaves the earth-condi¬ 
 tion, divests himself of the physical housing, he, 
 through such change, ceases to be mortal. By be¬ 
 coming a resident of the new sphere he is said to 
 take on immortality, but in reality he has always 
 been immortal.” 
 
 “You regard the telephone as wonderful,” he 
 said, “wireless telegraphy more wonderful still— 
 but we communicate with each other by simple 
 
250 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 ^thought projection. You regard the phonograph 
 as a marvellous instrument, but it is crude beside 
 the instruments in use among us. When you ap¬ 
 preciate the truth that we live in a state no less ma¬ 
 terial than your own, you will understand that with 
 our greater age and experience we are much in ad¬ 
 vance of you, and make and use appliances and in¬ 
 struments that could hardly be explained to mortal 
 mind. At some other time I may be permitted to 
 discuss this subject more fully.” 
 
CHAPTER XXV 
 
 RATIONAL DEDUCTIONS 
 
 T HERE is not in the universe a single great 
 problem that man can truthfully say he has 
 mastered, that nothing remains to be found 
 out concerning it. The laws that control this 
 world are universal and in force in other spheres 
 as well as in this; they control all solar systems 
 and worlds in space; therefore, a complete com¬ 
 prehension of those laws and their application re¬ 
 quires more than mortal life. If this were not so, 
 perfection would be practically immediate and 
 without process, and men would become gods here 
 and now. The most brilliant men who ever lived, 
 knew but little of natural laws and of the origin 
 and destiny of man. Until now little effort has 
 been made to find them out. 
 
 The earth is yet so crude, our senses are so dull 
 and our vision so limited, that we fail to realize 
 those emanations and movements of refined matter 
 about us, or the subtle and incessant play of forces 
 around us. From a single ray of light shoot mil¬ 
 lions of electrons and corpuscles, the basic constit- 
 
 251 
 
252 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 uents of matter, smaller than the atom of hydro¬ 
 gen; these, striking blow upon blow, pass by and 
 through us in their incessant warfare with the 
 night, but we feel them not. 
 
 We do not realize the quivering and bending of 
 the earth’s crust under our feet, caused by changes 
 of temperature or the pressure of atmospheric 
 waves, nor do we hear the fermentations and oxida¬ 
 tions of the soil in the changing seasons. We do 
 not even yet know the exact nature of that ether 
 which a recent investigator considers omnipresent 
 and omnipotent. We see the action of gravitation, 
 but know nothing of the medium through which it 
 operates. We hear the wind soughing among the 
 trees; but we do not hear the roar of sap up trunk 
 and branch, the bursting of the buds as they bom¬ 
 bard the air, or the speech of growing trees and 
 flowers and grass among themselves; yet life, wher¬ 
 ever found, has language. 
 
 The vibrations from out the abyss of space would 
 reach our ears if they had more and higher octaves, 
 or if our capacity for catching sound were immeas¬ 
 urably intensified; we do not hear the clang of the 
 planets as they ring down through their orbits, the 
 explosive detonations of the sun, the wild dance 
 and chant of the Nebulae, the comets’ note of warn¬ 
 ing, or the rush of wandering matter of which 
 
RATIONAL DEDUCTIONS 
 
 253 
 
 worlds are made, which must send out impulses and 
 tremblings through the ether to this planet of ours. 
 We are at all times in a great sea of intensely active 
 forces and potentialities governed by a law of 
 which we have little conception. 
 
 About us, but invisible to most, a nation, or 
 rather many nations, of spirit-people, “live and 
 move and have their being,” more industrious, 
 more active, more intellectual, and more ener¬ 
 getic, than we; so intense is their vibration 
 that we do not ordinarily feel their touch, hear 
 their voices, or see their forms; but conditions 
 can be made, and have been made, whereby, not¬ 
 withstanding our limitations, we may have speech 
 with them, and know at least something of how 
 and where they live, and what they are doing. 
 
 There is so much in nature that we do not un¬ 
 derstand, is it any wonder that, having kept our 
 eyes so close to the ground, we have not discovered 
 this spirit world before? We have made condi¬ 
 tions in which it became possible for us to know 
 a little of those other people, and, even though 
 many have not had this evidence, that does not 
 derogate from the truth of the discovery, which 
 must forever stand as another fact added to the 
 sum total of human knowledge. The possibility 
 of communication between mortals and those in 
 
254 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the world of spirits, has been proven beyond doubt; 
 and it now remains for men of genius to discover 
 new methods, and to bring into this new field of re¬ 
 search, the same intelligent action that is applied 
 to the lower sciences, thereby increasing our knowl¬ 
 edge of the spirit as they have of the material 
 world. 
 
 Those who, through ignorance or prejudice, de¬ 
 cry a new discovery, and so prevent fair considera¬ 
 tion, are enemies of civilization. The time has 
 come for man to be free and to think alone. 
 Neither the teachings of the so-called dead, nor the 
 conclusions of the living, can change facts or nul¬ 
 lify a single natural law. Truth has neither youth 
 nor age; it is, and ever has been, a brother to 
 reason; it does not need the assistance of fame or 
 science; it has never been in the keeping of any 
 particular class of men; it is the heritage of all 
 who live. 
 
 Let this fact sink deep into every human heart: 
 the individual thought must at all times be kept 
 clean and pure, for this wondrous and ever active 
 mind of ours is from day to day throwing the 
 shuttle through the web of life, incessantly weaving 
 the fabric of the condition that will clothe the naked 
 soul on the threshold of the after-life, and those in 
 the great beyond watch beside the loom. 
 
RATIONAL DEDUCTIONS 
 
 255 
 
 From this great source, I have learned and know 
 that the bridge of death no longer rests upon the 
 clouds of hope, but upon great piers of knowl¬ 
 edge, and the heart applauds the brain when one 
 works to increase the force of universal good. 
 Matter is eternal, only form is new, and one who 
 but yesterday in the flush of health faced the 
 storms of life with splendid courage, and whose 
 body lies to-night in the embrace of mother earth, 
 is no exception to the rule. All that was matter, 
 as we use the term, the outer garment, all that gave 
 him physical expression, will mingle with the sub¬ 
 stance from which it was formed; but his spirit is 
 eternal, his progression will be unbroken, and his 
 horizon will widen as he reaches the sphere be¬ 
 yond. I know that to the limits of that plane in 
 which he lives at first, the human voice will carry, 
 the thought will reach. The so-called dead live 
 here about us, know our sorrows, and grieve with 
 us. They share our happiness, they know our 
 hopes and ambitions, and, by suggestion, through 
 our subconscious brain, they influence our daily 
 conduct. I know that every hope, ambition, and 
 desire of earth is continued beyond this life, as is 
 also the burden of wrong. I know that we are as 
 much spirit now as we ever shall be; that in death, 
 so-called, we simply vacate and discard the gross 
 
256 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 material that gives us expression in this physical 
 plane. All about this material world of ours, and 
 in it there exists, in fact, the psychic or spiritual 
 universe, more active and real than this, peopled 
 with all the so-called countless dead, who have 
 never died, who, no longer burdened with a phys¬ 
 ical body, move at will within the boundaries of 
 their sphere, and ours in what appears as space to 
 mortal man. 
 
 Their life is an active one. All the new con¬ 
 ditions, all the great laws by which they are to be 
 governed, must be learned, and only by individual 
 effort can they live intelligently and well. I know 
 that a wrong act in earth-life must be lived over 
 again in the next, and lived right, before advance¬ 
 ment is possible; that the labour is often long, but 
 that families and friends are, in time, reunited and 
 take up the thread where it was broken. I have 
 heard them talk among themselves and to me; 
 many eminent men and women, upon my invita¬ 
 tion, have heard the same that I have heard in the 
 material conditions that we have made. I know 
 something of the democracy of death, and that all 
 mankind is beginning to hear and march to the 
 silent music of reason. I know, too, that the high¬ 
 est duty of every one is to contribute what he can to 
 the prosperity of the many; one rich in worldly 
 
RATIONAL DEDUCTIONS 
 
 257 
 
 goods, may be mentally poor in a land of oppor¬ 
 tunity, and this individual life of ours, whether it 
 has had birth within the palace or the hut, no mat¬ 
 ter how it turns and curves and falls among the 
 hills as it courses from the mountain-tops, through 
 valley-lands, lying at times in stagnant pools of 
 ignorance and vice, festering in the sun, must some 
 day reach the great ocean of eternal life, from 
 whence it came, clean and pure. We should ever 
 look with eager eyes for gems of truth, and what 
 we find, we should have have the courage to ex¬ 
 press. 
 
 Some mortal lives are so lived that they stand 
 out like trees aflame along the green and wooded 
 shore where waters beat with endless wave; others, 
 like undergrowth within the endless forest, remain 
 unknown, but each must, according to the immut¬ 
 able laws of progression, at some time, obtain per¬ 
 fect development, which is the heritage of all: 
 this is the law of life. 
 
 I know that in the kingdom of the mind there can 
 be no personal dictation; that there is no God but 
 universal good; no Saviour but one’s self; no trinity 
 but matter, force, and mind. 
 
 I see good in every act of kindness, in all the 
 words of wisdom that fall from human lips, and to 
 me all the good in all the world is God. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 A TRIBUTE 
 
 O N June 24, 1912, at her home in Roches¬ 
 ter, New York, Emily S. French, the 
 most perfect psychic of modem times, 
 left this world of ours. She had passed on life’s 
 highway the stone that marked four score and 
 more, and weaiy with the burden of good deeds 
 and many years, she crossed the golden bridge 
 from life to life. 
 
 On that June day as I stood where all that was 
 mortal of my friend was being put away, memory 
 flashed back to a previous time. I saw the open 
 grave of my mother, I felt again the biting winds, 
 and the chill of another death,—a sensation bom 
 of ignorance,—and I recalled my early resolution 
 to solve the problem of dissolution. Again I stood 
 apart, about me hills and valleys crowned and car¬ 
 peted with green, winding roads, lakes and streams, 
 trees and shrubs and flowers, and when the casket 
 was lowered, the sun’s rays, rich and warm, fell 
 upon it, and birds sang merrily in the trees. With 
 
 268 
 
A TRIBUTE 
 
 259 
 
 joy in our hearts, we among the many who came to 
 bid Mrs. French God-speed, turned homeward, for 
 this good woman—one among millions—had gone 
 to the next life with absolute knowledge of what 
 conditions were to come. She knew that death was 
 not the end, but the open door. 
 
 “Glad,” one asks, “that she has gone?” Yes, 
 for it is the most glorious privilege possessed by 
 mankind, after a long and eventful career, when 
 the shadows lengthen, to pass to more intense and 
 comprehensive life. 
 
 Mrs. French was bom possessed, of what Crookes 
 has termed, “Psychic Force”; from infancy she 
 had unusual abilities. She could not remember a 
 time when she was unable to see people and hear 
 voices which were neither seen nor heard by others; 
 for this reason she was in childhood thought pe¬ 
 culiar. There came a period in her young woman¬ 
 hood when, with a pencil in each hand, she would 
 write on different subjects simultaneously, easily 
 conversing at the same time. Automatic writing 
 was not then known or understood, and the sug¬ 
 gestion that the beyond was inhabited by people, 
 just as this world is, had not dawned upon our men¬ 
 tality. Afterward there came in her presence, 
 under certain conditions, independent voices, that 
 is, a way was found by which the vocal organs of 
 
260 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 the dead, so-called, could be and were clothed, 
 so that they spoke audibly in our atmosphere, and 
 in this manner came the discovery of another plane 
 inhabited by all the countless dead, where indi¬ 
 viduality is actually continued—a world as real 
 and tangible as this. 
 
 It was my good fortune to meet Mrs. French 
 early, and the compact then formed was faith¬ 
 fully kept to the end. She was as anxious as 
 I was to understand the play of forces in her pres¬ 
 ence, and without payment she freely gave her time 
 and strength that through her instrumentality good 
 might come, not only to those living here but also 
 to those in the great beyond. The idea of accept¬ 
 ing money for such service was abhorrent to her, 
 and she devoted her life to the liberation of the 
 mind, that the mental bonds of superstition might 
 be broken, and that mankind might become better 
 by living more intelligently. 
 
 Her work gave the world a new discovery, and 
 her labour opened the door to the Unknown Land. 
 Her love went out to those in sorrow—to the un¬ 
 fortunate, the rich, the poor, and the ignorant, and 
 yet with her great power she was a child, sincere 
 and frank and full of hope as spring, and she ever 
 borrowed sunshine of to-morrow to make the pres¬ 
 ent glad. She saw into the great beyond where 
 
A TRIBUTE 
 
 261 
 
 the modes of motion were too rapid for physical 
 sight; she knew the needs of others, and her chari¬ 
 ties encompassed them, and as the years passed, 
 and the results became more apparent, the censure 
 of this little world failed to sting. Her span of 
 earth’s life was exceedingly long. For many years 
 her physical ear failed to catch sounds; she grew 
 refined and delicate as her life force ebbed. Some 
 years before her dissolution she became blind, and 
 all the beauty of the physical world was shut out, 
 but still our wonderful work went on. Toward the 
 end she became weary with well-doing, and met the 
 change with confidence and courage. 
 
 Mrs. French passed into the next world gladly, 
 for her physic sight had already beheld the glories 
 of her new home; she had more friends there than 
 here, and she had often heard the voices of the 
 husband, who gave his life that the union might 
 be preserved, and of her son who passed just as 
 manhood touched the noon of life. She went not 
 as a stranger into an unknown land, but as one 
 familiar with the way, for just across the border, 
 there waited with outstretched hands and words 
 of welcome countless thousands who had been 
 helped through her effort. 
 
 The memory of Emily S. French comes like a 
 benediction. Over every cradle Nature bends 
 
262 THE DEAD HAVE NEVER DIED 
 
 and smiles, and at this second birth it does the 
 same. She made me her friend by being honest; 
 I made her my friend by being fair, and so we 
 worked for twenty years and more to learn how to 
 expel the fear of death from the human heart. 
 She grew old as we count time, feeble in body and 
 blind; yet her courage and devotion never waned, 
 and at the end she smiled and met the dawn of 
 everlasting life. 
 
 She was an instrument through which a great 
 group worked. In her presence with the neces¬ 
 sary conditions the people in the next plane spoke, 
 and never again can it be said, “The dead know 
 not anything.” 
 
 I cannot give out the knowledge gained through 
 Mrs. French’s instrumentality without paying this 
 tribute to her. She was the noblest woman I have 
 known; she was both honest and brave; she en¬ 
 riched herself by aiding others. She helped to 
 stay the tears that fell from furrowed cheeks and 
 looked with pity on ignorance and superstition. 
 She came to know that all wretchedness and pomp 
 lose distinction in the democracy of death and that 
 only character survives. To her in the great be¬ 
 yond where she now resides I send my love.—We 
 shall meet again. 
 
 THE END