Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net THE NEW AVATAR and The Destiny of the Soul THE FINDINGS OF NATURAL SCIENCE REDUCED TO PRACTICAL STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY By JIRAH D. BUCK, M.D. Author of "Mystic Masonry," "A Study of Man," "Christos," "The Genius of Freemasonry," "Constructive Psychology," "The Lost Word Found," "Browning's Paracelsus," and other MSS. SECOND EDITION 1916 INDO-AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY (Not Inc.) 5705 SOUTH BOULEVARD CHICAGO ILL. COPYRIGHT STEWART & KIDD CO. 1911 Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England All Rights Reserved TO THE GREAT FRIENDS THE HELPERS--VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE--WHOSE DEEPEST MOTIVE AND HIGHEST AIM ARE TO ENCOURAGE, UPLIFT, AND INSPIRE THOSE WHO NEED; THAT ALL, AT LAST, MAY STAND TOGETHER IN THE MIDST OF THE RADIANT SPLENDOR OF ETERNAL TRUTH CONTENTS FOREWORD xi INTRODUCTION xvii SECTION ONE STUDIES IN PSYCHOLOGY I. CLASSIFICATION OF FACULTIES, CAPACITIES, AND POWERS 3 II. EMPIRICAL AND SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE 9 III. MEDIUMSHIP, SEERSHIP, AND HYPNOSIS 18 IV. THE MEASURE OF VALUES 29 V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 50 VI. THE CROSS IN RELIGION AND THE CRUX IN SCIENCE WITH THE GREAT WORK IN AMERICA 68 VII. THE MODULUS OF NATURE AND THE THEOREM OF PSYCHOLOGY 93 SECTION TWO THE NEW AVATAR OF NATURAL SCIENCE VIII. OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO ANCIENT INDIA 111 IX. HERO WORSHIP AND FOLKLORE 136 X. CORROBORATIVE EVIDENCE 146 XI. CONCEPTIONS AND PORTENTS OF AN AVATAR 151 XII. PORTENTS OF THE PRESENT TIME 164 XIII. THE SEPARABLE SOUL IN FOLKLORE 171 XIV. FROM CONFUSION TO CONSTRUCTION 191 XV. THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A KNOWLEDGE OF THE HUMAN SOUL 208 XVI. THE NEW AVATAR 218 NOTES 223 FOREWORD The reader who is willing to give the following pages a careful reading, and a courteous hearing, is entitled to know the basis of study, observation or experience from which the suggestions, inferences and conclusions proceed, in order that he may fairly estimate their value. At the age of seventy-two, my egotism is at least softened by the discovery of the many things I do not know; and my dogmatism, so far as it ever existed, is equally relaxed by the realization that it is a bar to light and knowledge, which rest so largely on demonstration.