The herald., 1893-07-16
WHAT COMES AFTER DEATH,
Some Curious Stories About the
Other Side.
Interesting Stories for Those Inter
ested in Psychical Research.
A Man at Fallbrook Describes His SEN
satiOns Whom He Was Drowned.
An Engineer and His Warm
ing About a Bridge.

Ventura Observer: The question of
future life has. and ever must be, OF in
tense interest to man. Thousands OF
years ago Job asked "If a man die
shall he live again ?" and answered the
question by fully expressing his belief
in future existence. The Bible repre-
sents man as three-fold being, COM
posed of body. soul and spirit. Science
in Its highest Interpretation admits this
fact, and declares that man ia concur.
rent power of monads or ultimate parti-
Gle more or less refined; that the body
is composed of the coarser monads, the
soul of moro refined and the spirit OF
the most refined monads. At death the
body and soul die. just as the body and
soul of beasts die, but the spirit which
is the pre-eminent life referred TO in
Gen. 2, 7, flames on forever. In the'New
Testament the curtains are lifted more
than 40 times, in which we are shown
men living, acting, suffering and enjoy.
ing IN the world of spirits.
Paul was permitted to visit the
spirit world, and IA years afterward re-
corded the fact. 1t was so real to him
that he was unable to determine
whether he was in his body or out of it
but he saw and heard things that he
could not lawfully relate to others. 1t
is not surprising that man should try to
peer into the future and desire to come
in friendly contact with come one who
has returned from the border land and
can "tell what's doing OF the other
side" This subject is engaging the
most intelligent minds OF the age, and
matters are being continually brought to
light which at least amount to strong
presumptive evidence of the genuineness
of scripture teaching in regard to O fu-
ture life. We append two or three in
stances or experiences which will doubt
less interest the reader.
EXPERIENCE IN DROWNING.
We took down the following state
ment from the lips of A. ]. Clark, MD,
now living at Fall Brook. CAL, of his ex-
perience in drowning when a young
man, as follows:
In 1857, with a party of friends in
Stark county, Ind, I was in Koontz's
lake bathing. / had personal friend
named Martin Thomas, who bantered
me to swim across the lake, which was
about half mile wide and three miles
long. We had not gone far, being in
the lead. when 1 shouted to him:
"Why don't you swim" Receiving
no answer, I turned around and
discovered my companion sinking.
l hastened to try to rescue him,
and reached him just as he came up.
He threw his arms around me and
as q consequence we both sank to the
bottom, where the water was about Is
feet deep. The struggle in drowning
was very brief. A new world appeared
to me. l saw great number of strange
faces that had never met before, and
none of whom recognized. A beautiful
woman came up to Thomas, and throw
ing her arms about his neck exclaimed !:
"Oh, my boy. my boy, you have come to
me-" After the first embrace my COM
panion introduced me to his mother, and
then to his two sisters. We moved
about and contemplated the new world.
Though still young, my past life came
before me like q panorama. will not
try to relate all that 1 saw; it would
require to much space. Preparations
were made on the shore to come
to our rescue, which we saw plainly.
Thomas's father and older brother
were wild with excitement. Two skiffs
put out, but had some difficulty in locat-
ing us. | tried to tell them, and shouted
as 1 supposed at the top of my voice,
Here we are." Finally boat came
over the spot where our bodies lay,
when there was parley, one saying this
was the place where the bodies went
down, another pointing out a place
some distance away. A man named Abe
Shafsr dove to the bottom and secured
the body of Thomas. When it was be-
ing taken to the surface, Thomas
shouted: ''Good bye, old body, 1 want
you no MORE" Henry Steel. who is still
living near Waikertown, Ind, dove
down and took hold of my body
starting with it to the surface. 1 was
still attached to. my body and seemed to
be drawn after it by an irresistible cord
and could not free myself from it. They
put our bodies in the boat and we fol-
lowed, Thomas saying to me. "If you are
going, I will 60 with you" We saw
crowd collecting on the shore, and two
men running with barrels, on which our
bodies were afterward placed and rolled.
l heard the conversation of the parties
present, which related to them after
wards. Presently it began to grow dark
and Thomas grasped my hand and said
"Good-hy; if your must leave me, but
prefer to stay bere." l will not relate
the terrible struggle l passed through
in being brought back to my body,
which was anything but pleasant.
l will not impinge upon your time or
space in relating my experience in the
world of spirits. 1t was simply grand
beyond description. To me it is proof
positive of the doctrine of the existence
and immortality of the astral man. 1
met and talked with those who had
lived on the earth as now live. And
the fact that the ''silver cord" having
been broken in Mr.. Thomas case and
remained intact in mine marks the sill
yer cord that binds us to this earth. See
Ecclesiaetes 1916. That which we call
death is simply thin vail, msre
shadow. That our friends are near us,
and see us, and take an interest in our
welfare, is to me poeitive fact. But
that which is evidence to me in this
case is not to others, except 80 far as we
accept the testimony of our fellow man.
am not g spiritualist in the common
acceptation OF the term. At the time of
drowning was priest in the Catholic
church.
sIMILAR EXPERIENCE.
A minister living in this county, who
is unwilling at this time to make
statementfor publication, had similar
experience to the above. When about
16 years OF age he passed through the