CHAPTER XVII FACTS WELL TO KNOW
Are you ever told by those in the after life anything you did not previously know?” I am often asked.
Yes, but future events have never been foretold, 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:
“You have been told that by the process of decomposition 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 electricity; magnetism is in fact negative electricity.
The tremendous power in Nature’s compounds called chemical affinity is due to the union or attempt at union of positive and negative electricity concentrated in the atoms composing the different so-called elements of the compound. Chemical affinity 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 electromagnetic is yet a greater degree of eliminated refined 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 various states of atomic activity. Electricity and magnetism 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 hydrogen 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 nitrogen 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, magnetic. 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 repulsion 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 inequilibrium, 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 repulsion of the discs carries the blood into the left auricle; thence by muscular action into the left 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 electricity and magnetism are the male and female elements 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 evening 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 destroy 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 electrocution passes through a body without serious injury. 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 treatment. The charge of electricity, as applied in our prisons, paralyzes the heart action, all the bodily functions, and the person is apparently dead. But you have probably observed that whenever and wherever a person is put to death under 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 surgeons 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 apparently 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 paralyzed, if the body were immediately stripped, laid upon the fresh earth and sprayed with water, the electricity would be drawn there from, 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 administered in time, there is no occasion for dissolution from electric shock.
Electricity is life, and life will not destroy life. In this day, where electricity 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 forbidden 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 various legislatures have not the right to prescribe the penalty of death. There is a limit to their sovereignty. What right have we as a people to electrocute 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 murdered. What right have we as a people to electrocute a depraved criminal and by so doing liberate him in another sphere where he may continue wrong-doing? If the public understood what dissolution leads to, they would stand aghast and horrified at the mere suggestion of electrocution.
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 considers 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 immortality. The fields, the fireside, the love, and companionship of his fellow beings all suggest Immortality. 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 tonight encouraging you to better efforts.”
“Ages were required to develop men so they could discuss rather than fight over the matters 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 continue 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 understand how important it is that people should be enlightened upon this subject while they are still upon earth.”
“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 Nature 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 spiritual 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 love and quickest sympathy between the earthplane and the spirit world, but we cannot make you understand what our lives really are, without becoming 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 be 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 sympathy 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 always be impossible for the finite to grasp the infinite. 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 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 today may not be the same tomorrow. 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.