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The Spirit World.WThere Is It? What Is It?

A LECTUR2E

BY

PROF. W. F. PECK,

OF ST. LOUIS, MO.,

DELIVERED AT

\ASHINGmTON, ID. C.,

Sunday hNorning, M~iarch 17, 1901.

REPORTED BY

I. C. I. EVANS.

Price io Cents, 3 Copies for 25 Cents.

ISSUED BY THE

NATIONAL SPIRITUALISTS ASSOCIATION,6oo PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE S. E. ,

WASHINGTON, D. C.

The demand for the publication of this lecture at the time of its deliverywas so great that the National Spiritualists Association officials decided tohave it put in type and circulated as a tract to supply the demand for scien-tifilc arguments in support of the spiritualistic hypothesis. This lecture

will go far to show that our claim that spiritualism and science go hand inhand has a logical foundation.

TRUTH CANNOT CONTRADICT ITSELF.

THE SPIRIT WORLD.

Where Is It? What Is It?

The third pioposition in the declaration of upon those subjects of which he has littleprinciples adopted by the First Church of scientific data, then the way is opened for aSpiritual Unity of St. Louis, of which I have vast diversity of opinion. The lack of a re-the honor at present to be settled speaker liable and solid foundation upon which toand pastor, reads as follows : " The spirit predicate a future world has rendered agree-world, the future home of the soul, is a real ment upon that question absolutely impos-world, varying in its nature and character sible, and until men have discovered a morefrom the gross to the refined ; from darkness solid foundation upon which to postulate suchto light ; from states of misery and suffering an existence than the mere dream of the poetto spheres of harmony and peace." This is and romancer we can never hope for anythe entire proposition,but we are to-day more unity of belief upon the question.particularly interested in the first part- While, as I said before, the very large ma-the first declaration of that article, namely, jority of mankind have accepted the doctrine" The spirit world, or future home of the of a future life almost without question, yetsoul, is a real world," as real, as tangible to there is a very large and respectable minor-the spiritual senses as earthly things and ity who not only entertain grave doubtsthis earth world are to our physical senses. upon the subject but absolute disbelief. And,

The acceptance of the theory that man is it must be admitted, this minority is largely" a soul and survives the dissolution of the made up of the most thoughtful and intelli-

body necessitates the further postulate that gent of the race ; to convince such peoplethere must be a spirit world or realm the will require the presentation of the most con-conditions of which are fitted to the needs vincing proof, the most unquestioned facts,and adapted to the requirements of the soul, and it is to such minds as that I want to ap-

' or spirit, when it has outgrown the physical peal this morning while I present the ques-body through which it manifested itself on tion of "The Spirit World. Where is it ?the earth plane. That there is another What is it ?" it such light as I trust will, at

(A orld, or spiritual sphere, of course there is least, appeal to their reason and judgment.no room for argument among believers in Last Sunday night, as many of you re-immortality, but when we endeavor to define member, I spoke from this platform uponthe nature, character and location of that the theory of evolution, and its bearinguponsphere, then the difficulty begins, the doctrine of immortality. In that discus-

It is worthy of note, that, although the sion I presented what I believe to be thebelief in a future world or home of the soul most logical and convincing evidence in fa-has been almost universal among mankind, vor of a continued existence. I presentedyet there are probably few questions upon what seems to me to be the most convincingwhich men have differed so widely as they argument that, if evolution is true, if thehave regarding the nature, character and lo- evolutionary theory is a fact, then therecation of that world. It must occur to the must be another world, another sphere ofthoughtful mind that the reason for this existence, adapted to the needs and require-difference lies in the lack of reliable infor- ments of the soul when it has outgrown thismation upon the subject. Men always dif- physical body, and today I want to presentfer most about those things of which they what I believe to be quite as convincing anknow the least, and, per contra, differ least argument in favor of the existence of suchabout those things of which they know the a world, and its location.most. The chemist, for instance, never I think you will all agree with me that in-quarrels with his brother chemist as to the asmuch as the spirit of man can only adaptamount of oxygen and hydrogen contained itself to this plane of existence by takingin water, nor as to the chemical constituents upon itself a physical body by and throughof common salt. These facts are unques which it is enabled'to come en raffjort withtionable. There is no room for any argu the things of earth; by and through whichment; but, when man begins to speculate it is enabled to manifest its desires, its will,

THE SPIRIT WORLD-WHERE IS IT? WHAT IS IT?

its purpose, therefore it follows logicallythat when it has cast off this physical bodythrough which it manifested itself on thisplane, then the soul must exist in a spherewidely different from that in which the bodydwelt. This, it seems to me, is the logicalconclusion. The difficulty of conceivingfrom our present standpoint of a sphere ofexistence so widely different from the earthsphere has been the obstacle, and is thegreatest obstacle to-day in the way of theacceptance of the doctrine of a future life,a future world, on the part of the carefulthinker. And hence, the question whichthe doubter has ever hurled at the priest is,"If there isa spirit world, where is it located?Where is heaven ? What is the location ofhell ?" This, I say, has been a questionwhich the doubters have ever hurled at thepriest. Before the birth of science, or whileit was in its infancy this question was notregarded as a difficult one, science and the-ology went hand in hand. The church beingsupreme the priest simply fitted the factsof science to the dogmas of religion. TheBible was supposed to contain all that manneeded to know upon any subject. Mosesand th$ prophets were the only scientific au-thorities,and their glaring ignorance regard-ing the facts and phenomena of nature wasstill further distorted in order to make themfit the dogmas of religion.

According to the science of that day-science so called-the universe was con-structed in the form of a huge box (theJewish tabernacle was constructed a t ter thesupposed pattern of the universe). The skywas solid, it was the ceiling of the earth andthe floor of heaven, above it dwelt God andthe angels, while men occupied this floor ;hell and the devils occupied the cellar. Just'beneath the surface of the earth were helland the infernal regions.

Now we can easily understand how easyit was for mankind to arrive at this conclu-sion. The rumbling of the earthquakes, thepouring forth of boiling water from the hotsprings, the belching forth of fire from thevolcanoes were positive evidence to themthat hell lay just beneath the surface of theearth, and so the location of heaven and hellwas a very easy matter to them. But whenastronomy was born and swept the heavenwith its telescope it swept away the solidarch and yet failed to find the home of theblessed out there. When geology was bornand began with pick and spade to dig intothe depths of mother earth without discovering the regions of the damned, then skep-ticism took a new lease of life and flourishedwith increasing strength, and so the ques-tion recurs with even more force and persis-

tency, "Where is the spirit world? Whereis heaven? Where is hell ?"

It is a favorite theory, as you know, amonga certain class of metaphysicians, thatheaven and hell are merely conditions andnot localities; that the spirit world is purelysubjective and not an objective reality, and,therefore, it cannot be located-has no loca-tion. To my mind that conclusion is very unsatisfactory, for while I admit freely that, ina sense, heaven and hell are conditions, orstates of consciousness of pleasure or pain,happiness or sorrow, yet, nark you, theseconditions or states of consciousness mustexist in space somewhere, and therefore,must have location. If the human soul is areal individualized entity then it must bean objective personality, and being an ob-jective personality its environments, its re-lations must also be objective, and if theyare objective then they must have locality.It is impossible to avoid the conclusion.

We often hear people say that there is nosuch thing as time and space in the spiritworld. Now it seems to me that when aperson utters that statement he or she failsto comprehend the stupendous question in-volved; fails to comprehend the moment-ousness of that statement. Let us examinethat point logically. "No time nor space inthe spirit world." What is time? What isspace ? Time is distance between events.Time of itself is nothing, but it is a measureof distance between events. What is space?Space of itself is nothing, but it is a measureof distance between objects. Now, if thereare any objects in the spirit world, if thereare any events taking place there; there mustbe both space and time. (Applause.) Getaway from that logic if you can, I can't.(Applause.) If there is no time and nospace in the spirit world then there is noth-ing, there are no events and no objects, andyou can't get away from the logic to saveyou. Therefore, I say that the spirit worldis a real world, a natural world, far moresubstantial than this world, that it has bothtime and space and also that it has location.

A little while ago I said to you that theconditions and environments of the spiritafter it has left the body must be widelydifferent from this, so the question occurs,Where can such conditions exist in this uni-verse of ours? conditions adapted to theneeds and requirements of the spirit ?Some speculators have theorized that theexcarnate spirit passes to another planet.Mars, Jupiter and Saturn have all been lo-cated as the home of the spirits, and the sun,because of its superlative brilliancy andpower, has been believed by thousands ofpeople to be the heavenly home of the ex-

THE SPIRIT WORLD-WHERE IS IT? WHAT IS IT?

carnate spirit. But science, that relentlessicnoclast, has shattered that belief byshowing that the sun and planets, through-spectrum analysis, are composed, practi-cally, of the same elements as the earth.And that, therefore, the same difficulties thatprevent the excarnate spirit dwelling uponearth also exist upon those bodies, and sodriven from their refuges one by one by theirresistible attacks of science, we are com-pelled to seek a solution of the question inaccordance with the facts of nature and thescience of the age.

Before I proceed to locate the world ofsouls as seems to me reasonable and scien-tific, I want to call your attention to a fewvery startling and suggestive facts in con-nection with the evolutionary process ofNature's laws as applied to the visible andnatural universe (and a consideration ofthese facts will surprise some of us, per-haps, because they indicate that the appar-ently wild vagary indulged in by manyreligionists of the final destruction of theuniverse is not so wide of the truth afterall).Ti consensus of opinion among astrono-

me- of to-day is that the trend of past andpresent points to the final extinguishmentand death of the visible universe; theelimination of all force, all power and alllife from the visible universe.

Trace the progress of the universe fromchaos up to man ; from the primal fire mistto the solidified worlds, and one fact be-comes apparent, viz: the original heat ofthe worlds and suns is fast being eliminatedand along with the heat, the power, theforce and energy which held them in theirrespective orbits, that, in fact, the visibleuniverse is running down. All the indica-tions are-and I think there is no astrono-mer on earth who denies it-tbat the planetswhich revolve around our sun are graduallybut slowly contracting their orbits witheach annual revolution, and that they aredestined eventually to fall into and be in-corporated with the sun. Long before thatshall take place, however, every planet willhave yielded up all its heat, all its life, andno living thing will exist upon it. It willroam through space, a barren desert waste,a spectral form, a ghost of the skies, a deadworld, a burnt-out cinder, what our moonis to-day.

As I said, this seems to be the evidentand necessary conclusion. The sun in itselfis gradually cooling off, but its fires will berenewed temporarily as each planet plungesinto its bosom, and for a time it will burnwith all its former splendor, but at length,at a period so far distant that figures utterly

fail to express the lapse of time, the lastplanet will be absorbed, the last bit of fuelexhausted and the sun, too, will be cold,barren, dead, and will probably be absorbedby some still greater orb, until at length, ata period so vast that no imagination canconceive the figures, the entire visible uni-verse will cease to live.

That is the conclusion which all physicistsadmit. There is no avoiding it. All theindications point that way.

I am not going to argue the question asto whether this conclusion is correct or not.I am going to accept the statement as afact that this physical universe of ours isactually running down, like a clock that hasbeen wound up and is ticking away itsstored energy.

Admitting all that, can any intelligent,reasoning being believe that this is to bethe end of conscious existence ? Can any-one believe for a moment that, after havingwrought through millions of millions of agesin order to produce the wonderful and stu-pendous results we find about us to-day,Nature is going to end her majestic work bysuch an abortion as that? To my mindsuch a conclusion is utterly irrational, ut-terly opposed to the doctrine or theory ofevolution, and I will tell you why.

The doctrine of the conservation and cor-relation of forces has gotten beyond thetheoretic stage, and it is admitted to be afact. As matter is indestructible and can-not be annihilated, so force, energy, whichis its inherent quality, is also indestructible.Matter may change into various forms, vis-ible and invisible, so force may change itsnature, its character and mode of motion,light, heat, electricity, and perhaps thou-sands of other modes of motion, but not themost minute particle of energy can be de-stroyed. It continues to exist in some oneor more of its many modes of motion. Thatbeing accepted, and you will admit thatthere is not a scientist on earth to-day thatdenies it, then the question occurs, What isto become of these mighty forces that aremanifested in the material universe, at thedeath of these worlds and suns? That stu-pendous force which manifests itself in thelight and heat of the sun, which hurled theseponderous globes through space, whichmanifests itself in the growth of the vege-table and animal, in the thousands of meth-ods and chemical action? Is it to be de-stroyed? If the doctrine of the conserva-tion of energy is a fact it must exist some-where-but where?

Now, I am going to offer what some ofyou may think is a rather novel theory. Butfirst, let me' say, there is no such thing in

THE SPIRIT WORLD-WHERE IS IT? WHAT IS IT ?

the universe as empty space. Matter insome form fills all space. There was a timewhen it was supposed that outside of theatmosphere of the earth and the other plan-ets there existed an absolute vacuum. Now.it is conceded by all scientists that a veryattenuated and sublimated form of matteror substance fills all space between the heavenly bodies. For want of a more specificterm it has been designated as "ether". Ihave not time, if it were necessary, to giveyou the evidences and reasons why scientistshave arrived at this conclusion. I can onlysay that they have reached that conclusionbecause they cannot avoid it; because thereis no other way to explain many of the phe.nomena such as the transmission of light,heat, electricity and that wonderful andmarvelous force called " Gravity."

The existence of this hypothetical ether ofspace is as thoroughly accepted and believedin by scientists as is the existence of thisearth on which we dwell. Finer than anyknown form of matter on the earth, moresublimated than any gas of which we haveany knowledge; what its constituents arethey cannot tell. But I am going to ventureeven at the risk of illustrating that old say-ing that " fools walk in where angels fearto tread." I am going to tell you that it isspirit substance. (Applause.) That is whatit is. Finer than any known matter on theearth; apparently defying the ordinary lawsof gravity and the laws that govern ordinarymatter. It is found through all space, notonly through space between planets, butthrough every particle of matter that existson this old earth of ours. The earth moveson through the ether and the ether throughthe earth. Everywhere, all space, all inter-stices, are filled with this spiritual matter,this spiritual substance.

Now can anybody believe for a momentthat that matter, filling All space with itssublimated essence, is lifeless ? that it isunoccupied ? that it is a merebarren wasteunoccupied by intelligence ? unoccupied byliving, intelligent beings? Why, it wouldbe folly to so conclude.

And that brings me back to the questionI asked a while ago, what has become ofthose mighty forces that manifested them-selves in these old worlds? Have they beendestroyed? No, not for one instant, forthese forces cannot be annihilated. Backinto that fathomless space from whencethey came. Back to the source from whencethey were derived; out into that mighty ex-panse, permeating the atoms afloat in space,developing and revealing a universe so

: immense in extent, so wondrous in beauty

and grandeur, that in comparison all thatwhich has gone before is as nothing.

Now, so far as we can observe, all life andactivity are confined to a limited portion ofthe universe; the visible world and sunoccupy the merest space, leaving all the vastdomain outside useless, lifeless, inert, ifwe are to believe the materialistic theory;but who has a right to determine that alllife is confined to a comparatively insignifi-cant portion of the universe? On the con-trary with that mighty expanse of spacefilled with spirit matter and with the activeforces of light, heat and electricity permeat-ing it through and through, what wonder-ful scenes may be revealed to the eye thatis sufficiently developed to perceive them?

Andrew Jackson Davis, the grandest seerof the nineteenth century, and many otherclairvoyants, have seen and described to usthe wonderful scenes over there. Moun-tains, valleys, rivers, lakes, forests and plains,as real and as tangible to the spirit sensesas earthly things are to the mortal senses.Is there any good reason why that shouldnot be true? Shall we doubt that the activeforces operating upon that abundart re-fined matter may develope scenes of beautyfar eclipsing anything known on earth ?Cascades and fountains, whose silvery spraywould dim the brightest diamond; forestsand plains, trees and shrubs, fruits andflowers, fairer even than the poet's dream.Indeed a veritable fairy-land which by vir-tue of its greater diversity is so muchgrander, lovelier and more enjoyable thanthis.. I know there are some who will sneerat this. I know there are those who willsay : " Moonshine"! "Moonshine"! Tatis so vague. That is so mystical. That isunscientific That is "impossible." But Itell you, my friends, it behooves us to bevery cautious how we pronounce upon thepossible and impossible in the realm ofphysics.

A great scientist has said that he wouldnot venture to pronounce anything impossi-ble outside of the domain of mathematics.Twice two will always equal four, it couldnot equal five, but outside of the domain ofmathematics he would not pronounce any-thing impossible, and it behooves us to becautious how we pronounce anything possi-ble or impossible.

We should remember that all conditionsare relative, comparative, that although theether of space seems too attenuated to per-mit of the results we have mentioned, it isbecause we judge from our own standpoint,our own conditions. Water is a very treach-erous element upon which to set one's foot,yet the fish navigates the water with ease

THE SiPIRIT WORLD-WHERE IS IT WHAT IS IT

and comfort. Take that fish out of the waterAnd require it to float in the air and it willfall to the earth at once, and yet a bird willfloat in the air with the same ease and com-"ort as a fish floats in the water. If you hadnever seen a fish swim in the water or a fowllying in the air you would declare either tobe impossible.

You probably remember the story of thetraveler who visited one of the savage mon-archs in the interior of Africa and told him oftue marvels of the world. The savage wasvery much interested in the story that thetraveler told him about the things at home,and the traveler told him some pretty bigstories, but he believed them all, until atlength he told the king that at a certainsason of the year in his country the water

aeame so hard people could walk on it.That was enough for that savage. He couldbelieve everything else the traveler told himbut he could not conceive how water couldbecome solid enough to walk upon.

Now, a drop of water is a very small thingto us, but it may contain a world of life allunknown until the microscope reveals it.What myriads of forms of life are all aboutus to-day which the most powerful glass can-not discover? And so with this celestialether, the realms of space. Our dim visioncannot discover life there, it cannot be cog-nized by our physical senses, yet our failureto do so does not prove that it does notexist there. And right here science, mate-rialistic science, comes in to support our as-sertions. Comes right in here to support ourstatements by declaring that this ether ofspace which seems to us so attenuated isreally more solid and substantial than anyknown form of matter on this earth.

Prof. J. Stanley Jevons, probably thegreatest authority to-day on physics, tells usthat this ether of space ' is infinitely moresolid and elastic than steel." Think of that!Who can comprehend it? Sir John Herschell,I think it was, calculated that this invisiblesubstance exerts a pressure upon the earthof seventeen billions of tons per square inch,f and yet," says Prof. Jevons, "we live andmove without appreciable resistance throughthis medium infinitely harder and more elas-tic than adamant." Talk about the bigstories the spiritualists tell, there is nothinga spiritualist ever told regarding his experi-ence that is so difficult to comprehend andrealize as this frank and outspoken state-ment of this physical scientist. (Applause.)Nothing that ever occurred in a spiritualseance was so difficult to accept and compre-hend as this. Why is it? How is it thatit can be so solid and yet you cannot realize

it? You can't teel it simply because of itsinfinite elasticity.

You know that spiritualists have beenteaching ever since Spiritualism began thatspirit is the real substance and that thesevisible, material things are only shadows ofthat substance. That is what we have beenteaching right along, and here comes thescientist now to back us up. Let me tellyou right here, that it is in the facts anddiscoveries of science that the doctrines andteachings of Spiritualism are based. (Ap-plause.) Every new discovery in scientificresearch is an added support to what ourmediums and teachers have been giving usthrough the decades of the past. So, I re-peat, here we have science coming in tosupport the statement that spirit is the realsubstance, and what we call matter, visiblematter, is only the shadow of that substance,by saying that this invisible, intangiblesubstance, the ether, is infinitely more solidthan the most solid matter of which wehave any knowledge on this earth. Cananybody accept that and then deny ourproposition that all space is full of life andfilled with intelligent beings? Why, to denyone and accept the other is simply to strainat a gnat and swallow a camel.

Doctor Young, the discoverer of the un-dulatory theory of light, has fairly com-mitted himself to the belief that there arespheres inhabited by intelligent beings allaround us in the invisible realms of space.Let us remember this, friends, that the dif-ference between perception and non-per-ception is only a difference of a few vibra-tions. An owl or a cat will see very clearlywhen to a man all is darkness. A dog willsmell odors that make no impression what-ever upon man's olfactory nerves, and so thefact that we are unable to see those thingsand realize them is no evidence that they donot exist. It simply proves that we havenot reached that higher plane of vibration,and when the medium clairvoyantly seesthese things, as hundreds and thousandsdo, it means that they have gotten up to thespiritual plane of vibration, and are seeing,spiritually, the real things as they exist.Mankind, for ages, has cherished a faith ina life apart from this, in a world separatefrom this world in which we live. Dreams,visions, strange messages, have come in va-rious ways from that realm; there are manywho claim to have seen it, to have seen itsinhabitants, and to have recognized in themthe faces of those they had consigned to thegrave. The testimony of the people of allages points to a life separate from this; pointsto beings unclothed with visible forms. Thestories of a land of fairies blossoming in per-

THE SPIRIT WORLD-WHERE IS IT ? WHAT IS IT ?

petual beauty, haloed by constant rainbows,inhabited by beings of wondrous loveliness,have come down to us through the ages andhave been implicitly believed in by millionsof people. Are we to conclude that allthese stories were simply vagaries of theimagination ? That they had no basis orfoundation in fact ? He who would un-qualifiedly say yes is a bigot. Your truescientists will not say so, but they will say," I don't know," and plod on in searchof facts. There is not a scientist onthe face of the earth to-day who willsay the conditions I have described areimpossible. Not one. If, then, these mysticstories, these half-waking dreams, thesevisions more or less distinct have had afoundation in fact-a fact, by the way,which has been demonstrated to millions ofpeople through the phenomena of Spiritual-ism (applause); if there is, I repeat, an-other world, another sphere of existence,where i% it located if not in the bound-less realm of space ? I tell you no narrowand contracted "City of Gold" can be-gin to contain all the emancipated souls ofmen and'women. (Applause.) The heaven,the future world of Christianity, was im-agined before science had demonstrated that

this little earth on which we dwell is only aspeck of dust, instead of being the center ofthe universe, and is only one of myriads ofworlds floating in the ocean of infinity.Heaven will have to be immensely enlargedto meet the requirements of science (Ap-plause.) Nothing less than the whole ex-panse of space will answer. (Continuedapplause.) And that is where it is. Outin that mighty expanse; that wondrousrealm stretching from star to star andsun to sun ; that mighty expanse intowhich the escaping forces of the mate-rial worlds have gone, developing and re-vealing scenes of beauty far eclipsing evena poet's dream. Indeed a veritable fairylandwhich, as I said before, by virtue of its vastdifferentiation, is so much grander and morebeautiful than this. A land of perpetualsunshine, a land where the emancipatedspirit will wander with its chosen com-panions, reveling in joys of which we havenot the remotest conception in this life ;soaring out into the infinite, through aneternity of time, where beauty and harmonywill continue to increase; where joy andpleasures will multiply as the ages roll onlike the waves in the ocean of eternity.(Great applause.)

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