The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-07-16
DEATH VIEWED
BY THEOSOPHY
Thomas Primes Interesting
Lecture on the Gate
of Life.

tons existed in the popular mind. Re-
Iligion ought to have removed these
misconceptions, but it did not seem Il
have done so, and consequently Vas'
Iamount of utterly unnecessary sorrow
and suffering existed in the world. The
Theosophical teaching, however, was
absolutely clear and definite on these
points, and for anyone who found him.
self able to accept it. it would prove
exceedingly illuminative and helpful.
The first and most deadly of all
these misconceptions was the crude,
materialistic idea that death was the
end of all. Happily, this delusion was
much less common now than it used
to be forty years ago, but, unfortu-
lnately, a form of practical material
Iism which amounted to much the same
thing was painfully prevalent Many
people if asked would assert that they
believed in a future life, yet all their
actions showed that practically they
did not since everything they said and
thought was connected with this life
only.
| a second great misconceptiOn was
that nothing could ever be certainly
| known with regard to the states on
! the other side of the grave. People
| constantly spoke of death as 1.-THE
bourne from which no traveller re-
turns" which was a very remarkable
statement for the great poet to make
in view of the fact that ever since
the dawn of history and in every coun-
try of which we know anything traV-
elers had been returning from that
- u
the Theosophical teaching was that
man had not one only, but many sue
cessive lives on this earth, the theory
being that man was placed here to
learn certain lessons, that God intend
ed him to work at them until he did
learn them, and that one short life of
20 years was not sufficient for the pur-
pose: therefore he returned again and
again until his task was completed
OF course. this teaching of reincarna-
ton must not be COMPOUNDED with the
absurd idea of .transmigration, which
assumed that man might pass down
wards again into the animal kingdom
thing which could not possibly occur.
To those who were able to believe in
reincarnation it was evident that the
dead returned not once, but many
times.
But altogether apart from this there
was any amount of evidence to show
that the dead manifested themselves as
apparitions. Once it had been fashion
able to ridicule ghost stories; now it
was no longer so, since scientific men
like Sir William CroOkes, the discoverer
of the metal thallium and the inventor
of Crookes' radiometer, and Professor
oliver Lodge, the great electrician, and
eminent public men like Mr.. Arthur J.
Balfour the leader of the British
House of Commons, had joined a So
ciety which had been instituted for the
purpose of investigating such phenom-
ena, and which had declared that these
phenomena did actually occur. There
was a vast literal ure on this subject,
to which he must refer his hearers for
further particulars.
Another line of testimony to the life
after death was to be found in study
ing modern spiritualism. 1t was true
that there had been a good deal of
fraud and deception along this line, but
nevertheless there was evidence to be
found there by anyone who had the pa
thence and perseverance to seek for it,
in spite of all discouragements.
A third line of evidence was that of
direct investigation. He claimed that
every man had within himself latent
faculties, undeveloped senses, by which
the unseen world could be directly cog
nized, and to anyone who would take
the trouble to evolve these powers the
whole world beyond the grave would
lie open as the day. \ good many
among tn Theosophists had unfo.ded
these inner senses, and it was the evI-
dence thus obtained that he wished to
lay before his hearers.
The state of affairs disclosed as act
ually existing by these Investigations
was much more rational than the or
thodOx theory. 1t was not found thar
any sudden change took place in man
at death, or that he was spirited away
to some heaven beyond the stars. On
the contrary a man remained after
death exactly what he was before
the same in intellect, the same in his
qualities and powers, ard the condt-
tions in which he found himself were
those which his own thoughts and ae-
sires had created for him. There was
no reward or punishment from outside,
! but only the actual result of what the
man himself hdu done ana said and
| thought while here on earth. In fact.
/ the man was making his bed during
| his earth-life, and afterwards he had
to lie on 1t. All this was no matter
| of belief or of pious opinion; it was
known to many as an absolute certdtu-
| ~ based upon investigation on s.iea-
| tific lines.
| Further evil results of all this popu-
lar misunderstanding about death were
/ the dread of it so often felt by n,env.
/ and the mourning with which we SIR
round it. Such mourning was entire
| ly selfish, for it ignored the fact that
the dead man had passed into a higher
and more beg uCful life; and very often
/ our uncontrolled grief did positive nam
/ TO those whom we loved, causing in
them the same depression which we feI+
ourselves. Not that the theosopn.yaI
teaching COunseled US to forget our
dead-far from it; We could not remem-
Der them too strongly or too often. but
it should be not with selfish grief ana
despair but with loving and helpful
thought which would assist them on
their upward way.
Another mistaken theory which hal