THE NEW REVELATION

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I THE SEARCH
II THE REVELATION
III THE COMING LIFE
IV PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS



SUPPLEMENTARY DOCUMENTS

I THE NEXT PHASE OF LIFE
II AUTOMATIC WRITING
III THE CHERITON DUGOUT




THE NEW REVELATION




CHAPTER I.

THE SEARCH


The subject of psychical research is one upon which I have thought more
and about which I have been slower to form my opinion, than upon any
other subject whatever. Every now and then as one jogs along through
life some small incident happens which very forcibly brings home the
fact that time passes and that first youth and then middle age are
slipping away. Such a one occurred the other day. There is a column
in that excellent little paper, Light, which is devoted to what was
recorded on the corresponding date a generation--that is thirty
years--ago. As I read over this column recently I had quite a start as
I saw my own name, and read the reprint of a letter which I had written
in 1887, detailing some interesting spiritual experience which had
occurred in a seance. Thus it is manifest that my interest in the
subject is of some standing, and also, since it is only within the last
year or two that I have finally declared myself to be satisfied with
the evidence, that I have not been hasty in forming my opinion. If I
set down some of my experiences and difficulties my readers will not, I
hope, think it egotistical upon my part, but will realise that it is
the most graphic way in which to sketch out the points which are likely
to occur to any other inquirer. When I have passed over this ground,
it will be possible to get on to something more general and impersonal
in its nature.

When I had finished my medical education in 1882, I found myself, like
many young medical men, a convinced materialist as regards our personal
destiny. I had never ceased to be an earnest theist, because it seemed
to me that Napoleon's question to the atheistic professors on the
starry night as he voyaged to Egypt: "Who was it, gentlemen, who made
these stars?" has never been answered. To say that the Universe was
made by immutable laws only put the question one degree further back as
to who made the laws. I did not, of course, believe in an
anthropomorphic God, but I believed then, as I believe now, in an
intelligent Force behind all the operations of Nature--a force so
infinitely complex and great that my finite brain could get no further
than its existence. Right and wrong I saw also as great obvious facts
which needed no divine revelation. But when it came to a question of
our little personalities surviving death, it seemed to me that the
whole analogy of Nature was against it. When the candle burns out the
light disappears. When the electric cell is shattered the current
stops. When the body dissolves there is an end of the matter. Each
man in his egotism may feel that he ought to survive, but let him look,
we will say, at the average loafer--of high or low degree--would anyone
contend that there was any obvious reason why THAT personality should
carry on? It seemed to be a delusion, and I was convinced that death
did indeed end all, though I saw no reason why that should affect our
duty towards humanity during our transitory existence.

This was my frame of mind when Spiritual phenomena first came before my
notice. I had always regarded the subject as the greatest nonsense
upon earth, and I had read of the conviction of fraudulent mediums and
wondered how any sane man could believe such things. I met some
friends, however, who were interested in the matter, and I sat with
them at some table-moving seances. We got connected messages. I am
afraid the only result that they had on my mind was that I regarded
these friends with some suspicion. They were long messages very often,
spelled out by tilts, and it was quite impossible that they came by
chance. Someone then, was moving the table. I thought it was they.
They probably thought that I did it. I was puzzled and worried over
it, for they were not people whom I could imagine as cheating--and yet
I could not see how the messages could come except by conscious
pressure.