The Pensacola journal., 1907-06-13

10 many people one mas only 10
mention the word ghosts to provoke
a storm of ridicule and contempt.
Well. do not say that there is no
justification for this skepticaI atti-
tude.
To begin with. there has unfortun-
ately been great deal of impOsture
either actually fraudulent or Of the
practical Joking type. in connection
with haunted houses.
Then nervous. excitahle people
have rushed 10 proclaim as SupGTnat-
Ural. phenomena which on investiga-
tiOn proved To be due to perfectly
natural cause.-the vagaries of sound.
the tricks OF light and shade-and
thus brought ridiculC upon themselves
and the genuine manifestations OF
spirits.
And Yet. again. | am the last TO
deny that in many apparently genuine
cases Of ghost seeing in all prObabil-
ity what was seen was not q spirit
form, but a mind form: in other
words. that the peTCipient was a vic
tim Of one Ct these pUzzlinE but by
no means uncommon transient hallu-
CiratiOns of the sane.
Indeed, l do not pay much attention
W SuBStS CtGH bN ttHt4 lrDffl
for ], of course. could not mistake
mind form fer spiTit-mless they
are seen by different people at diff
feTCnt times. or communicate some
knowledge or perform some action
which could not possibly have origi-
mated in the mind Of the percipient
But when every allowance has been
made for imposture, for imagination,
of for haliUcinatiOn. there remain
any number Of cases Of ghOst-SeGing
which are not to be explained by any
of these hypCtheses.
Such cases are met by the un0e-
lever either by a fat denial that they
ever occurred or by a request for
some. to the mind of the inquirer
indubitabie sign that the ghost was
indeed a spirit form.
Now it is not worth while wasting
time on the former class Of slleptic,
but | understand and sympathize with
the difficulties Of the latter. especially
as these difficulties are. as a rule, self
created
And ! have my own difficulties in
attempting to convince YOU that spir-
its can and do manifest themselves
to the living, for in some ways il is
almost as hopeless d task as trying
10 tell a person blind from birth what
a color is like. As a clairvOyant
have sense of vision given only to a /
few, which enables me to see much /
that is hidden from ordinary people. /
For example, I can see around every /
person his or her aura, the subtle /
cloudy emanaJiOn which surrounds us
all, but which only a clairYOyant can /
perceive.
I know that the skeptic will say the |
aura does not exist because he cannot |
see il. But does any one deny that
every human being has his distinct |
i've smell by which, although Il is i'm /
percepitble TO him or his fellows, he |
is distinguished from all other men |
by his dog? The dog, indeed, smells /.
the aura, but cannot see it, while |
see it, but cannot smell ii.
And just as the aura is as clear TO /
me as a persons face or clothes, so /
do ! see the spirits which are all |
around us. and | nave seen them and |
talked with them ever since l was /
child
This brings ME to one question Of /
ten pat by skeptics: If spirits can /
return to earth. how is it they cannot |
tell us anything of the spirit world? |
Well. in that question you have the |
miS-cOnceptiCn which gives rise 10 80 /
much doubt and unbelief in spirit f.
manifestations.
This kind of spirit does net return +.
TO earth. for it has never left IL, and, /
as a, fact, when the body dies me
spirit does not az once fly away 10
some unknown, mysterious region. II
remains near the spot where il was
.ooscd, and often it never quits il.
1t is a mistake to suppose that On
leaving the body the spirit at once 7
becomes endowed with divine powers,
5nOwing all that there is 10 be known,
and forever finished for good or evil.
AS was the living man. so 20 a
yreat extent is the spirit. good or bad,
strong or weak. intelligent or stupid,
and at first it has no greater powers
han it had in life Many remain, so |
% speak. in state Of suspended ami
nation. Incapable Of improving the
lnowledgc they already possessed,
and the majority are as limited in
heir power Of knowledge about. spirit
ife as we are limited in our earthly
,ower and knowledge. Some have no
lesire for knowledge; therefore, only
ne great minds progress in the spirit
ife, and as they progress to higher
they become more ana
more detached from earthly interests,
INA we hear no more OF them
But the average spirit, if / may so
peak without iTTeveTence, remains
led to earth, and living in a sort of
wilieht. which explain. why their
-isiOn OF the after life is but little
Iearer than our own And there they
cmain until the time when the
Weakening to consciousness gives
hem d desire for higher develop
aent. This is often done by persons
n this side who can talk 70 them
bout their state. which they can do
" the interchansins CT thought;
therefore, If more people knew this,
instead of being troubled with these