Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-18
THE SPIRIT WORLD.
How a Theosophist Explains All Its
So-Called Manifestations.
SPIRITUALISTS ARE MISTAKEN.
They See But Part of the Truth That Lies
Behind Deaths Veil.
MEDIUMS DON'T CONTROL SPIRITS
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.l

| Us nOQer0 Splr1tuauSm Is one OF tue peyoAo
logically significant facts of the age. De
spite its too evident admixture of trickerI
and fraud, there is yet in it a sufficient basil
of undeniable fact to rouse query In th'
minds of the most sceptical. The interpre
tation of this sub-strata of fact may diffel
radically, but neither Interpretation, ridl
cule nor denial can do away with its actual
ity. The old cry of humbug, generally ap
piled, is no longer admissible There ar'
mediums and mediums; swindlers and nat
ural psychics; clever deceivers and the self
deceived; trap door theatricals and un.
doubted phenomena. So every patient and
unpreiudiced investigator must grant
Explain them as you will, then, such
facts actually exist To the Spiritualist
| there is, of course, but one explanation
possible, viz: the return and mediumistic
manifestation of the so-called dead The
scientist, whenever unwillingly forced to
accept them as genuine, speaks vaguely Of
hypnotism, magnetism and other natural
laws as yet but imperfectly understood.
The churchman quotes Scripture with en-
phatic refegence'to certain evIl-minded ones
who do "peep and mutter" with malign
design against the peace and salvation of
men. The skeptic-such by choice or per
force-scoffs outright, and as often as not,
without reason. Church and science and
skeptic, therefore, content themselves with
denunciations, evasions or ridicule Chal-
lenged by the Spiritualistio camp, they
have as yet no adequate answer ready.
POSITION OF THE THEosoPHIsTS
But theosophy takes the challenge up
and replies to it at length. From the start
it has recognized the aotuality of all genu-
Inc spiritistic phenomena; it has also con-
tinuously and persistentlv opposed their
introduction and spread on lines of thought
peculiar to itself and based on q primarily
assumed knowledge of their laws and nature.
This knowledge, but part, and O very
small one, of that stream of teaching now
flowing from out the opened doors of the
Orient, westward, draws aside the veil con-
cealing the mysteries of the seance room
laying bare food of psychic mechanism as
unpalatable to the average spiritualist as it
is enlightening To give in detail the occult
doctrine on the subject, would require
volume by itself. Suffice it that there is
no phase of spiritistic phenomena that does
not find therein full and lucid explanation.
A general outline only will be herein at
tempted with the plea that the interested
will at least give it that attention worthy q
possible clew to one of the apparently most
battling problems of tha age. As a prelim-
mary statement, however, there must be
some elucidation of the theosophic teaching
regarding the constitution of man; for upon
this hinges the rationale of their premises
and deductions. There is truth in the old
Platonic saying, MAN, know thyselfP' for
he who understands the height and depth of
Gnd
what you will. Now, permit me to present
in brief the theosophist teaching:
SEVEN CARDINAL PRINCIPLES.
The occult number seven crops up at once;
the occulist recognizing sevendistinot prin-
ciples in man, nature and the univ erse.
Evolution is but the process of their devel-
opment Every principle in man has its
correspondent in nature. Of these human
principles the four lower are of the earth
earthly; the fifth and sixth alone partaking
of the divine essence of the seventh and
highest, the spark of divine fire or pure
spirit, the "God in us" Of the Scriptures.
These principles are known under the fol-
lowing names and in the following order:
1. Physical body. 2. Astral body or ethe-
rial duplicate. 3. The vital or life prin-
ciple, of which the astral body is the imme-
diate continent. 4. The animal soul seat of
the purely animal desires and passions. g.
The mental or strictly human principle. 6.
The spiritual soul-plane of spiritual de-
sires and aspirations. z. Pure spirit. The
four lower are common to the animal world;
by virtue of the three higher, man is man,
capable of becoming immortal and divine.
During life the lowest principle, the phys
ical body, is, of course, the continent of all.
Take, now, into consideration that the
lo, 1...lz
we'll; its % physical body, or matter as we
which is within it, even as the human astral
is within the human body, and both of
which, although intangible, are yet re-
fnedly material; 60 its vital, life-giving
principle, radient from the astral and it's
fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh principles
also, of which, however, we as yet know
little. Nor does it matter much, for it is
with
with which we have to do. Upon this plane
takes place all spiritistic phenomena. Here
is manifested all the thought or physlc life
of the globe and man. For this reason it is
the causal world, for all things are the
product of thought or physic power. Within
Its light and substance are formulated all
the mental and emotional life of its more
densely material counterpart. Every idea
has there Gin the astral world) its corre-
spending manifestation along the various
lines of force evidenced in shape, sonnd,
color, odor, etc.
The astral light, therefore, is the great
revealer and recorder Of all that transpires
on this mundane plane of effects. In char
acters practically imperishable is inscribed
each individual "book of life," the history
of nations, of world formations and of the
beginnings of life. 1t is that world into
which the clairvoyant sees but seldom reads
Alright; for long centuries of perverted
human thought have obscured and degraded
its fiery inscriptions into an almost indis-
tinguishable mass OF astral images and crea-
tions, and as each human soul stamps its
peculiar character and quality, so acts this
potent, albeit intangible. astral sphere
upon its material envelope. As the casual
world, it molds the world of effects, as is
the astral belt, therefore, so also, in time, is
its grosser duplicate, the former by involu-
tionary and evolutionary process objective
izing its forms upon the relatively less
plastic plane of the latter. Molding this
astral world, as he does by his inherent
power of thought, man thus literally creates
his own material environment; and, as a
consequence, until he realizes this potency
of Thoughts, iife's numerous woes and evils
may be expected to continue.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH.
Such, then, being in general the charac-
ter of this proxlmate sphere of causes, by
many wrongly called the spiritual world, %
and of mans corresponding astral nature,
it will be easier to understand something of
what must be the immediate post-mortem
of the particles composing his physical
BODY, the latter falls into decay, and with