Challenger, Professor (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Spiritualism -- Fiction
The natural objection is that, granting the honesty of the
investigators, the whole experience may be in some way subjective and
have no relation to real facts. Dealing with this the Admiral says: “I
made enquiries as to whether any of the spirits thus brought to
understand that they had entered a new state of consciousness had been
satisfactorily identified. The reply was that many had been discovered,
but after several had been verified it was considered useless to go on
searching for the relatives and places of abode in earth life of the
remainder. Such enquiries involved much time and labour, and always
ended with the same result.” In one of the cases cited (_op. cit._ p.
524) there is the prototype of the fashionable woman who died in her
sleep as depicted in the text. In all these instances the returning
spirit did not realise that its earth life was over.
The case of the clergyman and of the sailor from the “Monmouth” both
occurred in my presence at the circle of Mr. Tozer.
The dramatic case where the spirit of a man (it was the case of several
men in the original) manifested at the very time of the accident which
caused their death, and where the names were afterwards verified in the
newspaper report, is given by Mr. E. G. Randall. Another example given
by that gentleman may be added for the consideration of those who have
not realised how cogent is the evidence, and how necessary for us to
reconsider our views of death. It is in “The Dead Have Never Died” (p.
104).
“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 centred 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 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.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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