CHAPTER IX.

Mediumship.
A Medium is a way, an instrument ; and there are four ways, or classes of instruments, by means of which the dwellers in other forms of nature than our own come into this form of nature and make themselves known to dwellers here. These mediums are Physical, ^Mental, Psychic, Spiritual.
In physical mediumship, the physical nature is acted upon by some foreign force without the voli- tion of the subject. The manifestations are in- voluntary and hence the medium is irresponsible, having resigned the will, the executive of law and receded to the realm of disorder, the chance-world. Such persons are subject to powers of which they know nothing, and which may lead them any- where or nowhere. The medium gains nothing from such association ; for where there is no re- sponsibility there is no progress, no mental or moral growth. This is altogether foreign to the way of Regeneration. A human body vacated by mind and will is like an empty house which invites an occupant. Physical mediums are prepared for ob- session. In the New Testament such were said to 104
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be ''possessed of devils," a name for the denizens of the realm of disorder. In physical mediumship, the manifestations are almost wholly of a physical character, occasionally involving the mental nature to a small degree, and sometimes merging into mental mediumship.
In mental mediumship, the manifestations are chiefly of mind. The body and mind, soul and spirit, are so intimately related one to another, that all distinctions are somewhat arbitrary, as the whole being is to some degree involved in mani- festations of a foreign force, when the Master, the Self, has resigned the scepter of the will. Medi- umship is a condition where one force controls another : as, for example, the body is the medium of mind ; Mind being the controlling force. Mind is in turn a medium of spirit, and spirit is a me- dium of soul ; all intermingling and blending into a homogeneous whole.
However viewed, mediumship reveals three dis- tinct factors : A ruler, a subject ruled, and the means whereby the rule is effected. Mind is admitted to be this means, since it is the best known of the forces ruling our bodies and control- ling our actions.
The subject ruled is seldom estimated at its true value. In a general sense, man is the medium be- tween order and chaos; in a specific sense, that which connects mind and matter must be the me- dium, and that medium in man is the will.
I o6 R e genera Hon .
Man appears to be fashioned and molded, and his movement directed by fate. He appears to be the child of destiny, a means, a medium which an inscrutable intelligence uses to compass an un- known end. This seeming destiny is the conclu- sion of unripe intelligence, and is contradicted by the soul consciousness of the lowest order of being which has volition. The intellect believes ; the soul kfiozvs and affirms that the weal and woe of the race depend on individual effort toward a com- mon end. We know that to a certain extent w^e are free, for we feel the pulsations of elective power, and we know from experience that when we violate our nature we sink into a lower nature of inharmony and suffering. The medium of all ac- tion then is the Will.
It is said that God works through means, which means or mediums are not mankind alone, but the entire universe which God has created. Thus we have the absurd spectacle of a higher force work- ing in and controlling a lower, which persistently contests his supremacy. This opinion is the out- come of the assumption of a controlling force other than that which is controlled, while the truth is that only like controls its like. Intelligence con- trols intelligence ; and when it appears otherwise, a close analysis will reveal a factor common to both. Man controls the brute by virtue of the animal principle which they have in common, and not
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by reason of his higher human nature. The as- sumption of the superiority of one thing over an- other arises from the control which one thing exercises over another thing ; but rightly regarded the weak are as potent as the strong ; the small as the great, — for ''a chain is not stronger than its weakest link." And in God there is oneness — no differences at all.
Control springs from sympatJiy not from force. The body is controlled by the mind, not because the latter is greater, but because of the sympathy existing between them. The body derives its life from the mind, and the mind its sustenance from the body through the sympathy existing between all parts, which makes that oneness or individu- ality of expression we call man. One part is no greater than another. Disturb the sympathy which in normal conditions exists between the mind and every part of the body and paralysis, in- sanity, and countless forms of disease appear. Each atom of the body responds to intelligent care bestowed on it by mind in all the reactions of physical well-being and happiness.
Control is in the thing controlled, however small or vast, simple or complicated it may be. All things are mediums but not of foreign or alien forces. A hypnotist controls a subject by controlling himself. By an effort of will, through sympathy, he be- comes one with the self of the subject, projecting
1 08 Regeneration.
his will into the receptive will of the subject ; but no one can enter into and subdue another contrary to his will. The will truly in revolt is an armed guard which nothing alien can break through. Weak persons are deficient in will and therefore most easily become passive, or vacant. Nature truly '* abhors a vacuum," and a being vacant of its executive power invites a tenant. Such are the so-called spirit mediums.
Physical medium ship is generally induced by a mental state derived from desire. Desire always precedes the action of will, and must precede the being or doing of anything ; no person ever be- came a medium of any sort of force without the belief in the world of spirit and desire for contact with it. Belief in superior forces, or intelligences, is a pre-requisite to mediumship, and like all beliefs tends to induce the condition believed in. Belief in the control of force makes slaves ; belief in weakness results in weakness, for mental states in- duce physical conditions. He who fully believes in himself has little faith in the reality of the things that disturb or annoy, and knows little of opposing forces. Belief in a personal devil opens all the avenues of the mind and all the pores of the body for his entrance, since fear mingles with that belief and fear is weakness. Calmness and tran- quillity are safeguards against disorderly forms of mediumship. If all mankind were calm and peace-
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f ul, stonns and earthquakes — all physical dis- turbances — would cease, as would all bodily ills. Excitement vacates the whole being of the tran- quil presence of God, and disorder rushes in to fill the vacuum. WTien we close our eyes in sleep we are nearer to the Source of Life than at any other time. The external world with its excite- ment, its intoxication and allurements, is shut out ; entering into ouiself we find rest and renewed life. We are no longer mediums for this external rush of life that controls us. The day-time is hyp- notic; we sleep when we fancy ourselves wide awake. The dreams and nightmares that possess us ; the struggles of commerce and finance ; the bloody thrones ; the serried mobs, which we name armies, marching to the sound of drum and trumpet, with waving flags, and noise and tumult to rouse and keep active the excitement which we call courage — all this vacates the mind of peace and the body of healthful poise, inviting disorderly forces to take possession. The world of day is drunk with greed and pride and lust. Encroach- ing on the night it uses for revelry the hours con- secrated to peace, and man, stultified by the fumes of this potent liquor of hell, forsakes himself and dies loner before he has learned to live.
The exhaustion that succeeds stimulation is a condition that invites obsession and the fierce de- sire for intoxicating stimulants indicates the close
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proximity of those vampire forces that fasten on the weak. Saloons are doors which open to that lower nature of disorder and spirits other than those swallowed by their patrons issue therefrom.
Unreasoning impulse, produced by any cause, throws open the doors of the mind and the body for the ingress of spirits, who delight in disorder and inharmony, indifferent to the pain and de- struction which attend them. Consideration for others, an object, a motive for action, anything that rouses the mental forces and invigorates the will, closes the avenues that lead downward and gives wings to the soul.
The reality of reincarnation and of obsession is questioned by many and boldly denied by some, who afihrm that there is no proof of either doc- trine. Jesus asked his disciples : ''Whom do men say that I am } " and the answer he received shows conclusively that reincarnation was so thoroughly believed by the Jews, that Jesus was said to be one of their old prophets come again. Much of the notable work of Jesus and the early church was the casting out of devils, and the new gospel em- braced the philosophy and methods of performing this work. Those possessed of devils were the mediums of the disorderly forces, mouth-pieces for undeveloped beings from the chance world. Such manifestations are now classed as insanity, the ab- berations of a disordered mind, and because we have
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named the thing we fancy we understand and have fully described it.
It is claimed by the churches that Jesus is the great medium between God and man, the means, or way of salvation. He taught nothing of the kind. He emphasized equality, brotherhood, and the service of each for the other, rather than doing something for God (vain effort !), or exalting him- self above humanity. With him goodness and greatness were synonymous ; the desire to rule, or the abjectness of being ruled, was equally foreign to his nature. His mind was the medium which made manifest the God within, the Father, Saviour, or Server of his children. God needs neither ser- vice nor servants; the only possible service in connection with him is to take him into the soul and become him.
The medium between force and matter is mind, and, in a broad sense, all mediumship is mental, for it is by means of mind that rapport is estab- lished, even with the physical. Hearing, seeing, personating, automatic writing, trance and mate- rializing mediumship are all physical, with just so much mmd as is necessary to establish j-apport with physical nature. Teaching, lecturing, philos- ophizing, all efforts which come under what is usually termed inspiration, are really mental; and the higher, deeper, and broader the mind of the medium, the more intangible become the evidences of inspiration.
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On the confines, the utmost verge of mind, the spirit is felt, not seen or heard, for spiritual mediumship is feeling, not the sense of touch in activity but the felt sense of the person or object, something outside the range of the usual sense consciousness. The medium senses the aura of spirits, or of persons on the same plane; or of objects, all of which give off intangible emana- tions, the aura or life principle of the things. So, touching a stone the sensitive medium becomes aware of its life history, through coming en rap- port wdth its aura.
No one has seen a spirit at any time. Phan- toms are no more spirits than are other tangible objects. An object that dissolves and disappears in a moment is no more spirit than one which re- quires ages to effect a disappearance; but it is nearer to that unconditioned state which we term spirit. The disHnction between " spirit " and ''matter" is really arbitrary, since they are one; the elements blending, separating, interchanging, and antagonizing, but leaving no neutral ground between. The Will manipulates these elements and, in a spiritual medium, holds the positive pole of mental action, while Desire holds the negative or receptive pole of the mind. Psychometry is a form of spiritual mediumship.
A psychic, or soul medium, is one born of God, or Love — synonymous terms. He who feels an-
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other's woe as if it were his own, who holds him- self, in some sense, responsible for the weakness and failures of others, who longs to heal the sick, feed the hungry, rescue the oppressed ; he is the true psychic medium, for all these desires spring from the soul nature.
We speak of the different parts of ourselves as if we owned them ; my hands, my body, my mind, my soul ; or of the objects that conduce to well- being we predicate ownership, as my property, my coat, my house, etc. But all that I have or am is not I. I acquire by experience, by toil and trouble, and the things so gained enter into me and I am obsessed by them. My body often owns me, and my mind owns and rules over me.
Belief is being ; for I am stable and permanent, or weak and uncertain in proportion to my belief in myself. We are as we think ; provided always the thought be large enough to contain us. There is a vital difference between thought, and being wJiat we tJiink. I own the woodlands, the hills and valleys of my little farm ; my eye rests upon them lovingly and with a certain pride in their beauty and use, and they enter into me and be- come part and parcel of my material existence. If by thought I enter into the spirit of the wood- land and valley, with their blooming flowers and singing birds, their sheen and shadow in sun and rain, I am one with them and through them I
114 Regeneration.
enter into the Soul of all Nature, and become that which I think it to be. I believe in myself in proportion to my own truth, but *' I am the way, the truth and the life" only when I am that luhich I see, feel, 07' tJiink. If I can enter into the soul of the storm by virtue of that in me which is akin to it, I can restrain and control it ; for the soul in me calls out to the lesser storm-soul ; it obeys the law of the higher force and for the nonce is at one with my will. I hear in all nature the voice of God, because I believe in him and I am what I think God is. '' I am that I am."
The only control worthy of belief is the control of Love. To rule and to be ruled is both above and beneath the dignity of man. God controls the things he has made in tJie tilings themselves, and the truest and noblest form of mediumship is the control by him who is within you in all Love and Wisdom, by your highest self.
The desire to control springs from the selfish gettifig principle. Love of power and glory is the foundation of thrones, the incentive to war, the ruthless parent of speculation, usury, and oppres- sion. To get, to hold, giving little or nothing in exchange, is the spirit of rule, and the "control" of most spirit mediums, so-called, is of this char- acter. Why be a chariot for any to ride in save the spirit of Life, the One I feel and know myself to be.'' The medium gains nothing in his real self,
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even by doing a good work under the dictation and control of a spirit, or spirits. Sooner or later he is abandoned, broken machinery no longer fit for use, a wreck by the wayside of life, having given all and gained nothing in exchange. The powers that use the so-called spirit mediums do so for their own purposes, caring little about the con- sequences which are certain to ensue.
The facts of spirit communion and control of mediums are beyond dispute, but the controlling power is quite other than the souls of our dear, departed friends. Occasionally, it may be a friend is permitted by the controlling powers to commu- nicate with the living, but it is only by permission. Murderers, thieves, drunkards, liars, savages, beings of disorder — void of conscience and love — hover close about this mundane sphere, held by reproduc- tive law, unconsciously waiting for reincarnation. Their dense aura is inhaled by the passive sensi- tive until his nervous system is saturated, his brain seized upon, his will paralyzed, and he becomes only a machine for some unknown irresponsible force to manipulate, subvert, and destroy. He is " under control." God and the good never inter- fere with freedom of the will. Life is educational and the influence of opposing circumstances de- velops wisdom and strength for self mastery. To get control of the animal in the man is the lesson of life, and it is the only control worth attaining.
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In the struggle is evolved the truth that all rights begin and end in control of self. To reach out for control of another is to assume that other's re- sponsibilities, leaving him vacant of incentive to action. Vacancy is a condition inviting obsession, which causes crime, imbecility, and insanity. To acquire more wealth than can be used for legiti- mate ends, is to deprive some one of the respon- sibility of wealth — the freedom to grow through wise use of money. He who deprives another of any form of freedom is a robber.
We are all spirits and our field of operation is in intercourse with our fellows. Each soul is hid- den from all penetrating eyes ; some may be in another sphere, possibly in another nature, but communication must go on constantly. What is the nature of these communications '^. For gain, for self-interest, do we lie 1 If so, the mind is vacant of truth ; that force which is like us rushes in and possesses us, and we become physical me- diums of greed and fraud. If the mind is full of truth, loving freedom for others as for ourselves, accepting responsibility with knowledge and with all material gains, the manifestations are of the in- terior spirit and we are spiritual mediums blessed of the Great Spirit whose name is Love.
There is no limit to the possibilities of man's nature. Immortality in the flesh will be an ac- complished fact when the general mind accepts
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it as such. Death is merely an unnecessary sep- aration of man from his outer covering by corrup- tion and decay. The chemical qualities of the elements have decomposed it ; the affinity of its atoms are reversed by the passing forth of the man, leaving the body vacant. Heat hastens the decomposition of the body and cremation dis- misses it altogether. This proves that corruption is not a necessary follower of death, that the sep- aration of the atoms of the body need not be a slow process. Intelligence is greater than all the elements it manipulates. Fire is its plaything ; the chemical action of fire is as nothing compared to the chemistry of Mind. When the mind once kjioius Iiozu, it will swallow up the body as the ris- ing sun absorbs the mists of morning, leaving no trace that it has ever been.
Life without change would be endless monot- ony, — the utter weariness of looking forever on a sun that never sets, even though it tell a story of immortal youth. A changeless existence is not conceived of by immortality in the flesh ; on the contrary, it implies an existence not limited by any locality nor by any form. The Will being master of all conditions within and without, makes life as free " to change form and condition as the wind that bloweth where it listeth." Paul caught a glimpse of the truth : *• We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. . . . For this corruptible
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must put on incorruption and this mortal must put on immortality." ^ This is bodily immortality. It does not signify that after the manner of thought of his age he placed the change at the "' last trump." His statement goes to show that the condition of the body is not fixed to mortality, nor so subject to decay and death that these cannot be outgrown. Jesus shows the way out of pain and loss ; the Christ makes all free, which is the opposite of me- diumship.
But honor where honor is due. The world has been forced upward by mediumship ; it has en- larged the possibilities of human nature and brought to the world of thought knowledge of other forms of life and nature, distinct from yet similar to our own. Through it the supernatural- ism and superstition of the past have found reasonable explanation, — and the truth demon- strated that it is neither the Great God nor his Sa- tanic Majesty that makes slaves of man, but rather the weakness and ignorance within man himself.
Nevertheless, the fact remains that mediumship is destructive to the medium, dwarfs soul growth, and brings about a condition of dependence which enslaves and effectually prevents all personal progress. In the end, the medium is generally abandoned when no longer of use to the control- ling powers.
^ I Corinthians xv.