The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-01-30

LecturIng before large audience at
the Alexander Young hotel on Satur-
day evening. Mr.. Charles Webster
Leadbeater of London, whose subject
was Life After Death" said:
Death is naturally a subject of para
mount interest to everybody, because
the one and only certain fact in the
future biography of each one of us is
that one day he must die. Yet there
is perhaps no other subject about
which there hovers so much uncer-
tainty in the popular mind. no subject
upon which there are so MANY and
such serious misconceptions. Religion
ought to have cleared up these doubts,
and removed these misconceptions, but
it does not seem to have done so. and
consequently a vast amount of utter
unnecessary sorrow and suffering
exists in the world.
The TheosophicaI teaching however
is absolutely clear and definite on
these points, and for any one who finds
himself able to accept it, it proves ex-
ceedingly illuminative and helpful.
In some minds there still exists a
doubt as to whether there is a life
after death at all. The crude mate
realistic delusion is much less common
now than it used to be forty years ago
but unfortunately there is a form of
practical materiaIism still painfully
prevalent which amounts to much the
same thing. Many people if asked will
assert that they believe in a future
life, while all their actions show that
practically they do not, since every
thing they say and think is connected
with this earth-life only
But even those who are prepared to
admit that there is a life after death
often hold to the theory that nothing
can ever be certainly known about
states on the other side of the grave.
People constantly speak of death as
1.-The bourne from which no traveller
returns" That statement was a very
remarkable one for the great poet to
make, in view of the fact that ever
since the dawn of history, and in every
country of which We know anything,
travellers have always been returning
from that bourne, and this in two
senses. First. the theosophical teach
ing is that man has not one life only,
but many successive lives on this
placed here to learn certain les
sons. that God intends him to work
at them until he does learn them
and that one short life of seventy
years is not enough for the purpose;
therefore he returns again and again
until his task is completed. Of course
this teaching of reincarnation must not
be COMPOUNDED with the old idea of
- ,;.~-., fscr1 hi
man might pass downwards again into
the animal kingdom-a thing which
cannot possibly occur To those who
are able to believe in reincarnation it
is evident that the dead return, not
once, but many times.
But altogether apart from this there
is any amount of evidence to show
that the dead constantly manifest
themselves as apparitions. Once it was
fashionable to ridicule ghost stories;
now it is no longer so, since scientific
men like Sir William Crookes, the dis
coverer of the metal thallium and the
inventor of CroOkes'S radiometer, and
Sir Oliver Lodge, the great electrician,
and eminent public men like Mr. Ar
thur J. Balfour, the English premier,
have joined a society which was in
stituted for the investigation of such
phenomena, and which has declared
that these phenomena do actually occur.
There is a vast literature on this sub
ject, to which I must refer those who
desire further particulars.
Another line of testimony to the life
after death is to be found in studying
modern spiritualism. 1t is true that
there has been a good deal of fraud
and deception along this line, but
nevertheless there is evidence to be
found there by anyone who has the
patience and perseverance to seek for
it in spite of all discouragements.
a third line of evidence, which seems
to me much more satisfactory, is that
of direct investigation.
Every man has within himself latent
faculties, undeveloped senses. by which
the unseen world can be directly cog
nized. as 1 explained last night, and
to anyone who will take the trouble to
evolve these powers the whole world
beyond the grave Will lie open as the
day. A good many among Theoso-
phical students have already unfolded
these inner senses. and it is the evil
dence thus obtained that I wish to lay
before you.
The state of affairs disclosed as ac-
tualIy existing by these Investigations
is much more rational than most of
the current theories. It is not found
that any sudden change takes place in
man at death. or that he is spirited
away to some heaven beyond the stars.
On the contrary man remains after
death exactly what he was before it
the same intellect. the same in his
qualities and powers; and the condi-
lions in which he finds himself are
those which his own thoughts and de-
sires have already created for him.
There is no reward or punishment from
outside, but only the actual result OF
what the man himself has done and
said and thought while here on earth.
In fact, the man is making his bed
during his earth-life. and afterwards
he has to lie on it. All this is no mat
ter of belief or pious opinion to US who
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