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CHAPTER VIII.

LABORATORY OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD.

Spirit-clothing - Spontaneous formation of tangible objects - Modification of the properties of matter - Curative action of animal magnetism.

126. We have already said that spirits sometimes appear in flowing draperies, sometimes in ordinary human clothes. The former appear to be the general costume of the spiritworld; but, it will naturally be asked, whence do spirits get their clothing, clothing which is often precisely like what they wore on earth, and comprising all the ordinary accessories of the toilet? It is certain that, in dying, they did not carry those objects away with them; yet we see them before us, and can touch them with our hands whence do they come?

This problem has always been a puzzling one for observers. With many, it is simply a matter of curiosity, but it really involves a point of great importance; our search after its solution has set us on the track of a general law which is equally applicable to the spirit-world and to our corporeal world, and without a knowledge of which it is impossible to explain the complicated phenomena referred to.

In the case of a spirit who appears with the clothing he wore during life, we might explain the appearance as the result of an action of the spirit's memory, and as forming, so to say, a part of his individuality; but this could hardly be supposed to be the case as regards accessories, such, for instance, as the snuff-box of the old gentleman who visited the sick lady, as related above (127). And it is,

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moreover, to be remarked that, in the case alluded to, the apparition was not that of a dead person, but of a living one; and that this same old gentleman, when he afterwards visited the lady in his material body, brought with him a snuff-box similar, in every respect, to that which had been used by his spirit. Where did his spirit find the snuffbox that was in his hand when he sat at the foot of the lady's bed? A question that might be repeated in regard to a great number of cases which we could instance, in which the spirits of deceased as well as of living persons have appeared, carrying in their hands various objects, such as sticks, pipes, lanterns, books, etc.

It formerly occurred to us that inert bodies might possibly have their etherealised correspondents in the invisible world, and that the condensed matter which forms the objects of our world might have, in the spirit-world, a corresponding quintessence which our bodily senses are unable to perceive. This hypothesis was not devoid of probability, but it failed to account for all the facts that presented themselves, and of which one, especially, seemed to defy all our attempts at interpretation. Up to that time, there had occurred, in our experience, only instances of images or appearances; and although we had seen that the perispirit could acquire the properties of matter, and could become tangible, yet this tangibility had been only momentary, and the seemingly solid body thus produced had vanished like a shadow. That phenomenon was sufficiently extraordinary; but what was still more so was to see persistently solid matter produced by spirits, as has been done in a number of perfectly authentic cases, and, among others, in the phenomenon to which we have just referred, viz., that of direct writing. We shall treat of that phenomenon in a special chapter; but as it is intimately connected with the point we are now considering, we will, before proceeding farther, offer a few remarks in regard to it.

127. Direct writing, or pneumatography, is that which is produced spontaneously, that is to say, without the help of the medium’s hand, or a pencil. It is enough to provide

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a clean sheet of paper (which can be done with all due precautions, so as to assure ourselves that we have not been made the victims of trickery), to fold it up, and to put it into a drawer, or upon a table; after which, if conditions are favourable, we find, and perhaps in a very short time, various signs, letters, and even long communications, traced upon the paper, usually with some black or grey substance having the appearance of lead or crayon, sometimes as though traced with a red pencil, and sometimes, again, as though written with common ink or even with printer's ink. When a pencil is placed with the paper, we may suppose that the spirit has used it for writing; but when the paper only is left, without anything else, it is evident that the writing is done with some sort of material produced by the spirits themselves; but where do the spirits find that material? To this question, the snuff-box above-mentioned was the means of procuring for us an answer which appears to us to be conclusive.

128. It was the spirit of Saint-Louis who gave us, in reference to this problem, the solution referred to, and which is embodied in the following dialogue: - 1. We have laid before you the case of an apparition of the spirit of a person in the flesh. This spirit carried a snuff-box and took snuff; did he feel the sensation which we should feel in this act?

"No."

2. This snuff-box looked exactly like the one which he habitually used; but that real snuff-box was in his house. What was the snuff-box seen in his hand?

"An appearance; it was made to occur, in order both that the circumstance might be remarked, as, in fact, was the case, and also that the apparition might not be taken for an hallucination produced by the ill-health of the seer. The spirit desired that the lady should be convinced of the reality of his presence; he therefore assumed all the appearances of reality."

3. You say it was an appearance; but there is nothing real in an appearance, which is a sort of optical illusion.

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What we want to know is whether this snuff-box was only an image without reality, or whether there was not something of materiality in its nature?

"Certainly there was something material in its nature; it is by the aid of this materiality that the perispirit takes on the appearance of clothes like those which the spirit wore while on earth."

Remark. - It is evident that we must here understand the word "appearance" in the sense of aspect, or imitation. The snuff-box in its reality was not there; what the spirit held in his hand was only its representative; it was therefore an appearance as compared with the original, although formed of a sort of matter.

Experience teaches us not to take too literally every expression employed by spirits. By interpreting their expressions according to our own ideas, we run the risk of falling into serious errors; and we should therefore endeavour to ascertain the real meaning of their words, whenever these present the least ambiguity, as the spirits themselves constantly recommend us to do. For instance, without the explanation just given, the word appearance, frequently recurring in analogous cases, might give rise to false interpretations.

4. Can it be that inert matter has its "double?" Can it be that, in the invisible world, there is an essential matter which assumes the forms of the objects of our world? in other words, have the objects of the terrestrial world their ethereal counterparts in the invisible world, as spirits are the counterparts of men?

"That is not the case. A spirit exerts, over the material elements everywhere disseminated through space and in your atmosphere, a power such as you are far from suspecting. He can, by his will, concentrate those elements, and give them the apparent form required for his projects."

Remark. - The foregoing question, as will have been seen, was the translation of our own thought, that is to say, of the idea that we had formed in regard to the nature of those objects. If the answer had been, as some may surmise, the reflexion of our own thought, we should have received the confirmation of our own supposition, instead of receiving an explanation altogether contrary to the one which we had imagined.

5. We repeat our question, categorically, to avoid all ambiguity, and we again ask you: -

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Are the clothes, worn by spirits, something real?

"It appears to me that my previous answer replies to your question. Do you not know that the perispirit itself is something real?"

6. Your explanation seems to imply that spirits transform ethereal matter at pleasure, and that, consequently, with regard to the snuff-box, for example, the spirit did not find it ready made, but made it himself, at the moment when he wanted it, by an act of his will, and that he was able, afterwards, to unmake it. It must therefore be the same in regard to all other objects seen with spirits, whether clothes, jewels, or what not.

"Evidently so."

7. The snuff-box in question was visible for the lady, and so plainly as to make her think it real. Could the spirit have made it tangible for her?

"He could have done so."

8. Could the lady have taken the box in her hands, and, in that case, would it still have appeared to her to be a real snuff-box?

"Yes."

9. If she had opened it, she would probably have found snuff there; if she had taken a pinch, would it have made her sneeze?

"Yes."

10. A spirit, then, cannot only produce a form, but can give to that form the special properties of the object thus imitated?

"Yes, if he so wills it; it was in virtue of this principle that I gave affirmative replies to your preceding questions. You will have abundant proofs of the powerful action exercised by spirit over matter; proofs such as you little imagine at present, as I have already told you."

11. If a spirit had compounded a poisonous substance, and some human being should swallow it, would the latter be poisoned?

"Such a compound could be made; but no spirit could make it, for he would not be permitted to do so."

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12. Could he fabricate a substance that would be beneficial to health, and capable of curing a malady? has such a thing ever been done?

"Yes, very often."

13. If so, he could, no doubt, as easily fabricate all alimentary substance; suppose he made some fruit, or any other article of food, would it appease a man's hunger if he ate it?

"Yes, yes; but do not try so hard to find out what it is so easy to understand. A ray of sunlight suffices to enable your gross organs to perceive the material particles which fill the space in the midst of which you live. Do you not know that the air contains the vapour of water? Condense that vapour, and you bring it back to its normal state of water; deprive it of heat, and do! the impalpable and invisible molecules of that vapour have been changed into a solid body; and how many other substances are there, from which chemists will produce marvels even more astonishing! But spirits possess instruments more perfect than yours, viz., their will, and the Divine permission."

Remark. - This question of the appeasing of hunger by substances of the character we are considering is very important. If a substance has only temporary existence and properties, and is, so to say, only a sort of pretence, how can it appease the hunger of the material body? This substance, by its contact with the stomach, produces a sensation of satiety, but not the satiety which results from filling the stomach with its natural food. If such a substance can act on the bodily economy so as to modify a morbid state, it can just as well act on the stomach so as to produce the sensation resulting from the satisfaction of appetite. Nevertheless, those whose business it is to provide us with drugs and with dinners need not be jealous of spirit-power, nor imagine that the denizens of the other world are coming into competition with them.

Such cases of spirit-action are rare, exceptional, and independent of the human will; otherwise we should really be fed and cured too cheaply. *

* May it not be that "The Welsh Fasting-girl," and others who have lived without eating, have been nourished by the combined fluids of the spirits and mortals about them? It will be remembered that the former died within a week after her parents were removed from the room in which she had lain so long. - TR.

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14. Could objects that have been thus formed by spirits, and rendered tangible by their will, obtain the attributes of permanence and stability, and be made use of by men?

"The thing is possible in itself, but it is never done; it would be an infringement of the laws of natural order in the sphere of human life."

15. Do all spirits possess the power of producing tangible objects in the same degree?

"The higher the spirit, the more easily does he obtain this effect; but it also depends upon circumstances; inferior spirits sometimes have this power."

16. Does a spirit always comprehend the way in which he makes his garments and the other objects he shows us?

"No, he often determines their formation by an instinctive act which, if he is not sufficiently enlightened, he does not understand." *

17. If a spirit can draw from the universal element the materials for making all sorts of things, and if he can give to each of those things a temporary reality and peculiar properties, it is evident that he can draw from this element the matter necessary for writing; and your explanations would therefore appear to give us the key to the phenomenon of direct writing; is it so?

"Ah! you've found that out, at last, have you?"

Remark. - All our preliminary questions had been put with a view to arriving at the solution just given. The spirit's exclamation proves that he had read our thought.

18. If the matter employed by the spirit be not permanent, how is it that the traces of direct writing do not disappear?

"Do not strain at words; I did not say that spirit-formations are never permanent. I have been speaking of voluminous objects; but writing consists merely of signs that have been traced, and which it may be useful to preserve; and they are accordingly preserved. I meant to say

* As we constantly build up for ourselves successive bodies, during life, without understanding how we convert food into blood, brain, muscle, bone, &c. - TR.

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that the objects thus composed by spirits could not become objects of common use, because there is, in them, no real aggregation of matter such as there is in your solid bodies."

129. The explanation just given may be thus summed up: Spirit has the power of acting upon matter. Individual spirits draw, from the universal cosmic matter, the elements necessary to form, according to their wishes, objects having the appearance of the various bodies existing on the earth. They can also, by their will, effect the particular transformation of elementary matter which gives to it certain determinate properties. This faculty is inherent in the nature of spirits, who often exercise it instinctively, when necessary, without being able to explain how they do it. Objects formed by a spirit have only a temporary existence, subordinate to his will, or to the necessity of the case; he can make and unmake them at pleasure. These objects may, in certain cases, be made to present to us all the appearances of reality; that is to say, they may become, for the time being visible and tangible. In such action there is formation, but not creation; for no spirit can evolve something out of nothing.

130. The existence of a unique elementary matter is now generally admitted by science, and is confirmed, as we have seen, by spirits. This matter gives birth to all natural bodies; and, by the transformations which it undergoes, it also produces the different properties of those bodies. It is thus that a salutary substance may be rendered poisonous by a simple modification of its molecular arrangement; a fact of which chemistry offers a vast number of examples. As every one knows, two substances, each of which is in itself innocuous, may produce, when combined in certain proportions, a new substance which is deleterious. One equivalent of oxygen and two equivalents of hydrogen (both, in themselves, inoffensive bodies) combined, become water; add another equivalent of oxygen, and you obtain a corrosive liquid. Moreover, without changing the proportions of chemical equivalents, a mere change in the mode of their molecular aggregation is often sufficient to

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change the properties of a substance; thus an opaque body may be made transparent, and vice versa. Since a spirit possesses, in his will, so powerful an instrument of action upon the elements of matter, it is easy to understand that he may be able, not only to form substances, but also to change the properties of substances; the spirit's will, in such cases, producing the effect of a chemical re-agent.

131. This theory explains a fact well known in mesmerism, but hitherto unexplained, viz., that of the changes effected in the properties of water by the action of the will. The acting spirit, in this case, is that of the mesmeriser, who is frequently assisted by a disincarnate spirit, and who effects a transformation of the water by means of what, for want of a better term, we call the animalised-magnetic fluid, which, as we have said, is the substance that approaches most nearly to the cosmic matter, or universal element. If the mesmeriser can modify the properties of water, he can also effect an analogous modification of the fluids of the human organism; hence the curative effect of the mesmeric action, when properly directed.

We know the important part that is played by the will in the production of all the phenomena of animal-magnetism; but how are we to explain the action of so subtle an agent on matter? The will is not a being, not a substance; * it is not even a property of the most etherealised matter. True; but will is the essential attribute of the spirit, that is to say, of the thinking being. With the aid of this instrument, a spirit acts on the elements of matter; and, by the same action, exercised on the elements of the compound bodies formed from that matter, he is able to modify the properties of those bodies.

The term substance is loosely employed in the text as synonymous with matter. But subsequent spirit-communications have declared that the universe consists of three distinct, yet eternally-related substances, viz., Soul, Force, Matter; the interaction of these elementary substances constituting, under the Divine impulsion, all the beings of the universe. Vide The Spirits' Book, footnote, p. 33. - TR.

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Will is the attribute of the incarnate spirit, as well as of the disincarnate spirit wandering in space; hence the power of the mesmeriser, a power which, as we know, is proportioned to his force of will. The incarnate spirit being able to act upon elementary matter, he can also vary its properties within certain limits. We are thus enabled to explain the faculty of healing by the imposition of hands a faculty possessed by many persons in a greater or less degree.