LIFE AFTER DEATH - SpiritWritings.com

346 Pages·2004·0.62 MB·English

LIFE AFTER DEATH
Problems of the Future Life
and its Nature
BY
JAMES H. HYSLOP, Ph.D., LL.D.
Secretary of the American Society for Psychical Research
and formerly Professor of Logic and Ethics in Columbia
University
New York
1918
PREFACE
MOST of the material in this book is new. Two chapters and a
part of a third are reproductions of previously published matter,
and they are incorporated because they are so relevant to the main
object of the work. But the rest of it has been suggested by the
need of discussing some problems which are sequels of the
scientific collection of facts with which psychic research has so
long occupied itself in the effort to ascertain whether man survived
bodily death or not. I have not taken the pains in this work to
quote the facts which tend to prove such a claim. The material is
too plentiful and voluminous, as well as complex, to take the space
for it. The publications of the various Societies for Psychical
Research supply the evidence in such quantity and quality that it
would require a volume by itself to quote and explain its import. I
assume here sufficient intelligence on the part of most people who
have done critical reading to see the cogency of it and to accept the
proof of survival in it, though there are associated problems not so
well secured against difficulty. The trouble with most people is
that, in estimating the evidence, they take with them certain
preconceived ideas of what a spirit is and so adjudge the evidence
accordingly,
The scientific man, however, assumes nothing about a spirit
except that it is a stream of consciousness existing apart from the
physical body. How it may exist, he does not inquire, until he is
convinced that there is evidence of the fact of it, and then a large
number of associated problems arise. I have under
v
vi PREFACE
taken here to discuss these connected problems and so I assume
that survival has sufficient evidence for its acceptance to make a
tentative effort to satisfy some curiosity about the further
questions that have more interest than the purely scientific
problem of the continuity of life.
At the present day there is the usual, perhaps more than the
usual, passion to know whether, if a man die, he shall live again,
and it takes the form of an intenser interest in the nature of the life
after death than in the scientific question of the fact. This problem
is discussed at some length in this work. It is not easy to satisfy
inquirers on this point. Most of them suppose that, if we can
communicate with the discarnate, they can easily tell us all about
the transcendental world. But this is an illusion and the sooner that
we learn that there is a very large problem before us in that matter
the better for our intellectual sanity. It is comparatively easy to
prove survival, when you have once eliminated fraud and
subconscious fabrications. But it is a very different matter to
determine just what we shall believe or how we shall conceive the
nature of the existence beyond the grave. It will be a matter of long
investigation and all that I can hope to do in this work is to suggest
the considerations that must be taken into account when discussing
the problem.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PRIMITIVE CONCEPTIONS OF A
FUTURE LIFE
Herbert Spencer's theory, 1. Savage ideas, 3. Illustrations of savage
beliefs, 4. Relation to spiritualism, 10. Nature of the next life, 14.
Modern views, 17.
CHAPTER II
THE IDEAS OF CIVILIZED NATIONS
Culture and religion, 20. Chinese religion, 21. Taoism, 23. Buddhism,
24. Hindu beliefs, 25. Brahmanism, 27. Reincarnation, 28. Japanese
doctrines, 31. Philosophy, 33. Egyptian ideas, 35. Hebrew beliefs, 37.
Zoroastrianism, 39.
CHAPTER III
GRECO-ROMAN IDEAS
Early Greek conceptions, 42. Phirosophic period, 46. Ionian
thinkers, 48. Heraclitus, 49. Empedocles and Democritus, 50.
Pythagoras, 52. Plato, 53. Transmigration, 57. Aristotle, 58. Stoics,
60. Epicureans, 61. The Romans, 62. Cicero and Seneca, 63. Marcus
Aurelius, 63. Christian view, 64.
CHAPTER IV
CHRISTIANITY AND PSYCHIC RESEARCH
General observations, 65. The resurrection, 68. New Testament
incidents, 71. Miracles of healing, 75. Further incidents. 76. Meaning
of "Angel," 78. The Temptation, 80. St. Paul, 81. Relation to
psychic research, 85. Healing, 87. Science, 89.
vii
viii ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER V
MODERN AND SCIENTIFIC DOCTRINES
General characteristics, 92. Resurrection, 94. Materialism, 96. Greek
philosophy, 98. Christian philosophy, 99. Revival of science, 101.
Types of materialism, 104. Philosophic materialism, 108. Method of
disproof, 110. Conception of spirit, 115. Mental pictures and the
problem, 120. Professor James' reservoir theory, 121. Spinoza and
pantheism, 125. Telepathy, 129. Spiritistic theory, 134. Instances
against telepathy, 137. Argument and explanation, 140.
CHAPTER VI
THE POSSIBILITY OF A FUTURE LIFE
Introduction, 143. Epicureans, 145. Indestructibility of substance
147. Nature of survival, 150. Metchnikoff and survival, 152. Physical
resurrection, 153. Pauline doctrine, 154. Cartesian view, 155.
Professor James' transmission theory, 156. Nature of consciousness,
159. Metaphysical theories, 160. Scientific problem, 165. Atomic
doctrines, 167. Ether theory, 170. Conservation of energy, 171.
Mechanical and teleological views, 174. Idealism, 176. Physical
science, 178. Psychology, 182.
CHAPTER VII
DIFFICULTIES OF THE PROBLEM
The two problems, 189. Difficulties in the proof, 192. Hypotheses,
195. Mental pictures, 200. Differences in narratives, 202. Confusions
in the communications, 204.
CHAPTER VIII
THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATING
Illusions about the process, 206. Normal intercourse, 209.
Mediumistic trance, 211. Number of minds involved, 213. Double
control, 216. Interfusion, 218. Modus operandi, 221. Pictographic
process, 223. Telephonic analogies, 225. Rapport, 227. Iiabilities of
pictographic process, 229. Summary, 231.
ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER IX
NATURE OF THE FUTURE LIFE
Introduction, 933. Normal assumptions, 235. Two types of mind,
237. Conceptions of future life, 243. Idealistic or subjective view,
246. Objection, 249. Pictographic process again, 251. Creative
functions, 254. Conception of physical science, 255. Matter and
spirit, 257. Spirit houses, etc., 260. Communication, 264. Nature of
the evidence, 267. A mental world, 269. Application to concrete
cases, 271. Sir Oliver Lodge, 275, Explanation, 281. Idealistic
suggestion, 287.
CHAPTER X
SEQUELS OF PSYCHIC RESEARCH
Secondary personality, 289. Doris case, 291. Similar cases, 296. Cross
reference, 297. Cagliostro, 303. Obsession, 305. Relation to
medicine, 308.
CHAPTER XI
GENERAL QUESTIONS AND VALUES
Emotional aspects, 309. Natural and supernatural, 310. Conflicts with
Spiritualism, 313. The church, 315. Spiritualism, 317. Trivialities,
319. Pivotal beliefs and personality, 321. Ethics and the future, 323.
Social influence, 395. Problem of Theism. 327. Ethical tendencies,
329. Materialism, 334. Conclusion. 336.
LIFE AFTER DEATH
CHAPTER I
PRIMITIVE CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL
AND A FUTURE LIFE
1. The Soul and its Discovery
IT is impossible in the compass of a chapter to present the various
conceptions of an after life which have existed in the history of the
human race. This would require several volumes by itself and hence
I can but refer to them in the most general way. Even then I shall
have in mind only the relation of these beliefs to their unity in
psychic phenomena. It is probable that the differences of all the
world religions can be unified in psychic phenomena. If that be true
we are on the track of their origin, in spite of an evolution that has
taken some of them so far away from the original as to have
destroyed the traces of it, at least for any superficial observation.
It is also true that the traces might actually be there, were we in
possession of the knowledge that would enable us to see them.
I do not know any better proof of this last remark than Herbert
Spencer's discussion of Ghosts and another life. One who is
familiar with the phenomena that have come under the observation
of psychic researchers
2 LIFE AFTER DEATH
will discover in the facts reported from savages of all types, widely
separated in the world and without any connection either racially
or geographically, distinct indications of characteristics that are
quite intelligible to us but were not so to Mr. Spencer. He had
supposed that it was so necessary to conceive the statements of
savages in purely sensory forms that he made no allowance for
their idealization and as he repudiated psychic research he was
without a standard for estimating the possibilities in the reported
ideas of savages. The traces of the real experiences of savages are
actually present, but neither he nor any one else, who was not
familiar with actual human experience to-day, could see those
traces.
Mr. Spencer's thesis is that religion originated in the phenomena
of dreams and ghosts, but as he treated dreams and ghosts as
hallucinations, he invalidated religion with them. Many critics do
not accept his view of its origin and it is probable that other facts
went with them among savages to originate the full content of what
is meant by religion. But it is more than probable that the idea of
immortality arose from dreams and ghosts in which the dead
purported to appear. This is no place to examine his views,
however, at any length. I wish only to call attention to his chapters
for readers who may be interested in seeing for themselves the
relation which he never saw nor admitted, if he did see it.
There is no doubt that the highly developed ideas of religion in
the present day have no identity of a definite kind with this remote
origin, but that would make no difference for the evolutionist who
knew his problem. The method of thinking which is involved in
setting up a transcendental world from ghost experiences and
dreams, even supposing they were purely subjective phenomena,
is the same as that which endeavors to etherealize nature by the
methods of modern
PRIMITIVE CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL 3
science, and all that religion has ever done, when setting up the
spiritual, has been to suppose some sort of "double" necessary to
explain things. It may be wrong, if you like, but the method of
wrong thinking is the same as right thinking, and it will only be a
question of evidence to distinguish the one from the other.
But I am not concerned especially with the views of Mr.
Spencer. They are wholly secondary to the ideas recorded of
savages which he quotes. The facts are that dreams and ghosts,
whether subjective hallucinations or veridical ones, seem to have
been a source, among primitive peoples, of their ideas of another
life, and with savages it would be natural to conceive it in purely
materialistic terms, made so, perhaps, by the absence in our own
language of the abstract and spiritualized meaning of the terms by
which savage ideas have been translated. It is a psychological
problem to determine exactly what savages thought.
The limitations of their language were probably greater than their
ideas, as is the case in all language whatsoever, and no doubt the
limitations of their ideas were greater than those of highly civilized
people. Translations of savage ideas into the language of civilized
people must inevitably be exposed to illusions. This is true even in
the translations of civilized ideas. The ideas of two separate
nations, however identical their habits and knowledge generally, are
not coterminous so to speak, so that translations may carry less or
more than the original. It is this that has led to so many
misunderstandings of foreign philosophies.
Hence, to return to the conceptions of primitive people, we
might easily mistake their real ideas by the extremely simple nature
of their language. They do not develop manifest evidences of
abstract thinking as in the more cultured races. Hence when
translated into their literal equivalents in civilized languages, they
4 LIFE AFTER DEATH
seem exceedingly materialistic and concrete, when a careful and
critical examination of their psychology, far more critical than has
ever been made, might reveal idealizations of terms and concepts
that do not appear on the surface. That abstraction of concrete
sense meaning is not apparent because of the low degree of
intelligence shown generally and the necessity of remaining by the
literal meaning of their terms, or the common use of them. It is the
light of later knowledge and critical study that brings out what was
probably there.
Let me take a few examples which will make the case clearer.
Spencer and Tylor mention Bobadilla's examination of the Indians
of Nicaragua, Tylor making the incident much clearer. Bobadilla
asked: "Do those who go upwards live there as they do here, with
the same body and head and the rest?" The reply was: "Only the
heart goes there." Further questioning brought out the belief that
there were two hearts in man, and "that the heart which goes is
what makes them live." Among the Chancas of Peru the word for
"soul" was also "heart."
Now for one not familiar with the habits of man's mind when
using language the word "heart" would be taken in the natural sense
of the language in which a translation made it a substitute for
"soul," and civilization has specialized the term so that it means a
physical organ. But it is noticeable here that when the savage had it
intimated that there was something really or apparently
contradictory in his belief he made the distinction of two hearts
just as we should make the distinction between the two meanings
of the same word. One "heart" was "spiritual," the other physical.
The distinction here made by the savage was the same that the
spiritualists make between the physical and the astral body, or that
even modern physics now makes between matter and its ethereal
supporter or "double."