The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1909-08-31
IN. OTHER DAYS
Mrs. Besant Says You Have
Lvsd Before Now.
SHE. TELLS ABOUT IT.

Every Time You Hit the Earth,
So That After While You Won't
Have to Bother About Coming
Back.
Mrs. Anna Besant. high priestess
Of the occult, leader of the Tbeoso-
phists of the world, is back ii this
country from India to give Ameri-
can audiences the latest dope on
what's going to be what in the next
few hundred years.
Mrs. Besant's general religious
system is well known-a kind of
modified Buddhism, teaching that
one lives again and again, accumu-
lating all the good deeds and all the
bad ones, but gradually weading out
the bad ones till perfection is at
tanned, after which one won't have
to bother about coming back any
more.
A criminal can't help being bad,
she says, because he has been bad
through so many lifetimes. But
every time he lives he gets better.
An ultra good man or a genius de-
serves little credit, for both are liv-
ing out their lives as they have be-
fore, living better and getting smart
er.
This time, however, Mrs. Besant
presents some startling news, fresh
from the innermost regions of the
occult.
Christ is coming back to earth,
she says, soon. He has lived sew
eral times, she declares. This time
he will appear in the specially pre-
pared body of some one in the mid
die west; perhaps woman, more
likely man.
"Will we know Him." she asks
and answers: Eyes, those who knew
will know. Those who understand
will understand"
With His coming will come a new
age of mantle sixth root-age IS
her phrasing of it.
1t will be an age Of advanced
Christian socialism, when all men
will be equal in the spirit. when
grabbing for gold and trusts and
taxes and tariffs and public office and
rents won't seem worth while striV-
ing for.
The industrial and social problems
that vex us now will disappear simp-
ly because people won't be Interested
in such things. Money will be the
cheaper thing in the world.
1t will be world where Budda,
the spirit, will dominate over Manas,
the mind. Mrs. Besant admits that
50 far Manas has pretty tight
cinch on things. But it won't be
long, is her reassuring announce
ment.
We are getting more sensitive,
more nervous, more susceptible ev-
cry year, she says. This Is the pre-
paration for the coming of the new
era.
The Rock efellers and Harrimans
and Morgans today are. in spite OF
themselves, laying the foundation of
the new age to come. They are
organizing the means of preserving
life so that the new state-selfish-
ness and self interest being killed
will be able to operate the big
organization without difficulty.
Curiously enough in her analysis
of the society of tomorrow, where
all will be equal and the brother
hood of man will become an actual
fact. Mrs. Besant admits that there
will be those who lead and those who
follow.
"The people who are most sensi-
tive, most closely in touch with the
spirit world, will rule" she says
"The rest must obey"
Mrs. Besant was born IN Englano
in 1847, was educated in England,
France and Germany, specializing IN
science. She took up radical and
free thought philosophy, advocated
socialism, encouraged union labor,
helped lead match strike in the
late '7Os, and became a pupil of
Madam Blavatsky, the former head
of the theosophical movement, IN
1889. Since then she has studied
and lectured continuously on the
osophy.
On the death of Colonel Olcott in
India, who succeeded Madame
Blavatsky, Mrs. Besant was advanced
to the presidency. Colonel Olcott
declared before his death that the
masters" had picked Mrs. Besant
for the place. She had some difficult
ty getting American members of the
sect to listen to "the masters
voice.
Mrs. Besant was very fond Of
croquet, checkers and horseback
riding. She married an Episcopal
rector in 1867. separating from him
six years later.