CHAPTER V.

i?atlf

Invisible Helpers and Mediums.

There are two classes of people in the
world. In one class the vital and dense
bodies are so firmly cemented that the ethers
cannot be extracted under any circumstances
but remains with the dense body at all times
and under all conditions from birth to death.
Those people are insensible to any supersen-
suous sights or sounds. They are therefore
usually exceedingly sceptic, and believe noth-
ing exists but what they can see.

There is another class of people in whom
the connection between the dense and the
vital bodies is more or less loose, so that
the ether of their vital bodies vibrates at a
higher rate than in the first class mentioned.
These people are therefore more or less sen-
sitive to the spiritual world.

This class of sensitives may again be di-
vided. Some are weak characters, dominat-
136

LIFE AND DEATH 137

ed by the will of others in a negative manner,
as mediums, who are the prey of disembodied
spirits desirous of obtaining a physical body
when they have lost their own by death.

The other class of sensitives are strong
positive characters, who act only from with-
in, according to their own will. They may
develop into trained clairvoyants, and be
their own masters instead of slaves of a dis-
embodied spirit. In some sensitives of both
classes it is possible to extract part of the
ether which forms the vital body. When a
disembodied spirit obtains a subject of that
nature, it develops the sensitive as a mate-
rializing medium. The man who is capable
of extracting his own vital body by an act
of will, becomes a citizen of two worlds, inde-
pendent and free. These are usually known
as Invisible Helpers. There are certain other
abnormal conditions where the vital body and
the dense body are separated totally or in
part, for instance if we place our limb in an
uncomfortable position so that circulation of
the blood ceases. Then we may see the etheric
limb hanging down below the visible limb as
a stocking. When we restore circulation and
the etheric limb seeks to enter into place, an
intense prickly sensation is felt, due to the

138 THE KOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

fact that the little streams of force, which
radiate all through the ether, seek to per-
meate the molecules of the limb and stir them
into renewed vibration. When a person is
drowning, the vital body also separates from
the dense vehicle and the intense prickly pain
incident to resuscitation is also due to the
cause mentioned.

While we are awake and going about our
work in the Physical World, the desire body
and mind, both permeate the dense and the
vital bodies, and there is a constant war be-
tween the desire nature and the vital body.
The vital body is continually engaged in build-
ing up the human organism, while the impuls-
es of the desire body tend to tire and to break
down tissue. Gradually, in the course of the
day, the vital body loses ground before the
onslaughts of the desire body, poisons of de-
cay slowly accumulate and the flow of vital
fluid becomes more and more sluggish, until
at length it is incapable of moving the mus-
cles. The body then feels heavy and drowsy.
At last the vital body collapses, as it were,
the little streams of force which permeate
each atom seem to shrivel up, and the Ego
is forced to abandon its body to the restora-
tive powers of sleep.

LIFE AND DEATH 139

When a building had become dilapidated
and is to be restored and put in thorough re-
pair, the tenants must move out to let the
workmen have a free field. So also when the
building of a spirit has become unfit for fur-
ther use, it must withdraw therefrom. As
the desire body caused the damage, it is a
logical conclusion, that that also must be re-
moved. Every night when our body has be-
come tired, the higher vehicles are with-
drawn, only the dense and vital bodies are
left upon the bed.

Then the process of restoration commences
and lasts for a longer or a shorter time ac-
cording to circumstances.

At times however, the grip of the desire
body upon our denser vehicles is so strong
that it refuses to let go. When it has be-
come so interested in the proceedings of the
day, it continues to ruminate over them after
the collapse of the physical body, and is per-
haps only half extracted from that vehicle.
Then it may transmit sights and sounds of
the desire world to the brain. But, as the
connections are necessarily askew under such
conditions, the most confused dreams result.
Furthermore, as the desire body compels mo-
tion, the body is very apt to toss about, when

140 THE EOSICKUCIAN MYSTERIES

the desire body is not fully extracted, hence
the restless sleep which usually accompanies
dreams of a confused nature.

There are times of course, when dreams
are prophetic and come true, but such dreams
result only after complete extraction of the
desire body. Under circumstances where the
spirit has seen some danger perhaps, which
may befall, and then impresses the fact upon
the brain at the moment of awakening.

It also happens that the spirit goes upon a
soul flight and omits to perform its part of
the work of restoration, then the body will
not be fit to re-enter in the morning, so it
sleeps on. The spirit may thus roam afield
for a number of days, or even weeks, before
it again enters its physical body and assumes
the normal routine of alternating waking and
sleep. This condition is called trance, and
the spirit may remember upon its return
what it has seen and heard in the super-phy-
sical realm, or it may have forgotten, accord-
ing to the stage of its development and the
depth of the trance condition. When the
trance is very light, the spirit is usually
present in the room where its body lies all
the time, and upon its return to the body it
will be able to recount to relatives all they

LIFE AND DEATH 141

said and did while its body lay unconscious.
Where the trance is deeper, the returning
spirit will usually be unconscious of what
happened around its body, but may recount
experiences from the invisible world.

A few years ago a little girl by the name
of Florence Bennett in Kankakee, Illinois,
fell into such a trance. She returned to the
body every few days, but stayed within only
a few hours each time, and the whole trance
lasted three weeks, more or less. During the
returns to her body she told relatives, that
in her absence she seemed to be in a place
inhabited by all the people who died. But
she stated that none of them spoke about dy-
ing and no one among them seemed to realize
that they were dead. Among those she had
seen was a locomotive engineer who had been
accidentally killed. His body was mangled
in the accident which caused death. The lit-
tle girl perceived him there walking about
minus arms, and with lesions upon his head,
all of which is in line with facts usually seen
by mystic investigators. Persons who have
been hurt in accidents go about thus, until
they learn that a mere wish to have their
body made whole, will supply a new arm or

142 THE ROSICEUCIAN MYSTERIES

limb; for desire stuff is most quickly and
readily molded by thought.

Death.

After a longer or shorter time there comes
in each life a point, when the experiences
which a spirit can gain from its present en-
vironment, have been exhausted, and life
terminates in death.

Death may be sudden and seemingly unex-
pected, as for instance by earthquake, upon
the battle-field, or by accident, as we call it,
but in reality, death is never accidental or
unforeseen by Higher Powers. Not a spar-
row falls to the ground without divine Will.
There are along life's path, partings of the
way, as it were, on one side the main line
of life continues onward, the other path leads
into what we might call a blind alley. If the
man takes that path, it soon ends in death.
We are here in life for the sake of gaining
experience and each life has a certain harvest
to reap. If we order our life in such a man-
ner that we gain the knowledge, it is intended
we should acquire, we continue in life, and
opportunities of different kinds constantly
come our way. But if we neglect them, and
the life goes into paths which are not con-

LIFE AND DEATH 143

gruous to our individual development it
would be a waste of time to let us stay in
such environment. Therefore the Great and
Wise Beings, Who are behind the scene of
evolution, terminate our life, that we may
have a fresh start in a different sphere of in-
fluence. The law of conservation of energy
is not confined to the Physical World, but
operates in the spiritual realms also. There
is nothing in life, that has not its purpose.
We do wrong to rail against circumstances,
no matter how disagreeable, we should rather
endeavor to learn the lessons which are con-
tained therein, that we may live a long and
useful life. Some one may object, and say:
You are inconsistent in your teachings. You
say there is really no death ; that we go into
a brighter existence, and that we have to
learn other lessons there in a different
sphere of usefulness ! Why then aim to live
a long life here?

It is very true that we make these claims,
and they are perfectly consistent with the
other assertions just mentioned, but there
are lessons to be learned here which cannot
be learned in the other worlds, and we have
to bring up this physical body through the
useless years of childhood, through hot and

144 THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

impulsive youth, to the ripeness of manhood
or womanhood, before it becomes of true
spiritual use. The longer we live after ma-
turity has been attained ; when we have com-
menced to look upon the serious side of life,
and started to truly learn lessons which make
for soulgrowth, the more experience we shall
gather and the richer our harvest will be.
Then, in a later existence, we shall be so much
more advanced, and capable of taking up
tasks that would be impossible with less
length of life and breadth of activity. Be-
sides, it is hard to die for the man in the
prime of life with a wife and growing family;
whom he loves ; with ambitions of greatness
unfulfilled; with hosts of friends about him,
and with interests all centered upon the ma-
terial plane of existence. It is sad for the
woman whose heart is bound up in home and
the little ones she has reared, to leave them,
perhaps without anyone to care for them ; to
know that they have to fight their way alone
through the early years when her tender care
is needed, and perhaps to see those little ones
abused, and she unable to lift a hand, though
her heart may bleed as freely as it would in
earth life. All these things are sad, and
they bind the spirit to earth for a much long-

LIFE AND DEATH 145

er time than ordinarily, they hinder it from
reaping the experiences it should reap upon
the other side of death, and they make it
desirable along with other reasons already
mentioned, to live a long life before passing
onwards.

The difference between those who pass out
at a ripe old age, and one who leaves this
earth in the prime of life, may be illustrated
by the manner in which the seed clings to a
fruit in an unripe state. A great deal of
force is necessary to tear the stone from a
green peach; it has such a tenacious hold
upon the fruit that shreds of pulp adhere to
it when forcibly removed, so also the spirit
clings to the flesh in middle life and a cer-
tain part of its material interest remain and
bind it to earth after death. On the other
hand, when a life has been lived to the full,
when the spirit has had time to realize its
ambitions or to find out their futility, when
the duties of life have been performed and
satisfaction rests upon the brow of an aged
man or woman; or when the life has been
misspent and the pangs of conscience have
worked upon the man, and shown him his
mistakes ; when, in fact, the spirit has learn-
ed the lessons of life, as it must have to come

146 THE ROSICBUCIAN MYSTERIES

to old age ; then it may be likened to the seed
of the ripe fruit which falls out clean, with-
out a vestige of flesh clinging thereto, at the
moment the encasing pulp is opened. There-
fore we say, as before, that though there is
a brighter existence in store for those who
have lived well, it is nevertheless best to live
a long life and to live it to the fullest extent
possible.

We also maintain, that no matter what may
be the circumstances of a man's death, it is
not accidental; it has either been brought
about by his own neglect to embrace oppor-
tunities of growth, or else life has been lived
to the ultimate possible. There is one excep-
tion to that rule, and that is due to man's
exercise of his divine prerogative of inter-
ference. If we lived according to schedule,
if we all assimilated the experiences design-
ed for our growth by the Creative Powers,
we should live to the ultimate length, but
we ourselves usually shorten our lives by not
taking advantage of opportunities, and it also
happens that other men may shorten our
lives and cut them off as suddenly as the so-
called accident whereby the divine rulers
terminate our life here. In other words, mur-
der, or fatal accidents brought about by hu-

LIFE AND DEATH 147

man carelessness, are in reality the only ter-
mination to life not planned by invisible lead-
ers of humanity. No one is ever compelled
to do murder or other evil, or there could not
come to them a just retribution for their acts.
The Christ said that evil must come but woe
unto him by whom it cometh, and to har-
monize that with the law of divine justice:
"as a man soweth, so shall he also reap,"
there must at least be absolute free will in
respect to evil acts.

There are also cases where a person lives
such a full and good life of such vast benefit
to humanity and to himself, that his days are
lengthened beyond the ultimate, as they are
shortened by neglect, but such cases are of
course too few to allow of their being dwelt
upon at length.

Where death is not sudden as in the case
of accidents, but occurs at home after an
illness, quietly and peacefully, dying persons
usually experience a falling upon them as of
a pall of great darkness shortly before ter-
mination of life. Many pass out from the
body under that condition, and do not see the
light again until they have entered the super-
physical realms. There are many other cases
however, where the darkness lifts before the

148 THE KOSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

final release from the body. Then the dying
person views both worlds at once, and is cog-
nizant of the presence of both dead and liv-
ing friends. Under such circumstances it
very often happens that a mother sees some
of her children who have gone before, and she
will exclaim joyously: "Oh, there is Johnny
standing at the foot of my bed ; my but hasn't
he grown! The living relatives may feel
shocked and uneasy, thinking the mother suf-
fering from hallucinations, while in reality
she is more clear-sighted than they, she per-
ceives those who have passed beyond the veil,
who have come to greet and assist her to find
herself at home in the new world she is en-
tering.

Each human being is an individual, sepa-
rate and apart from all others, and as experi-
ences in the life of each differ from those of
all others in the interval from the cradle to
the grave, so we may also reasonably infer
that the experiences of each spirit vary from
those of every other spirit, when it passes
through the gates of birth and death. We
print what purports to be a spirit message
communicated by the late professor James of
Harvard at the Boston spirit temple, and in
which he describes sensations which he felt

LIFE AND DEATH 149

when passing through the gate of death. We
do not vouch for its authenticity as we have
not investigated the matter personally.

Professor James had promised to com-
municate after death with his friends in this
life, and the whole world of psychic research
was and still is on watch for a word from
him. Several mediums have claimed that
Professor James has communicated through
them, but the most remarkable are those
given through the Boston spirit temple as
follows :

"And this is death, only to fall asleep, only to
awaken in the morning and to know that all is well.
I am not dead, only arisen.

********

"I only know that I experienced a great shock
through my entire system, as if some mighty bond
had been rent asunder. For a moment I was dazed
and lost consciousness. When I awakened I found
myself standing beside the old body which had
served me faithfully and well. To say that I was
surprised would only inadequately express the sen-
sation that thrilled my very being, and I realized
that some wonderful change had taken place. Sud-
denly I became conscious that my body was sur-
rounded by many of my friends, and an uncontrol-
lable desire took possession of me to speak and
touch them that they might know that I still lived.
Drawing a little nearer to that which was so like

150 THE ROSICRUCIAN MYSTERIES

and yet unlike myself, I stretched forth my hand
and touched them, but they heeded me not."
********

"Then it was that the full significance of the
great change that had taken place flashed upon my
newly awakened senses ; then it was that I realized
that an impenetrable barrier separated me from my
loved ones on earth, and that this great change
which had taken place was indeed death. A sense
of weariness and longing for rest took possession
of me. I seemed to be transported through space,
and I lost consciousness, to awaken in a land so
different and yet so similar to the one which I had
lately left. It was not possible for me to describe
my sensations when I again regained consciousness
and realized that, though dead, I was still alive.

"When I first became conscious of my new en-
vironment I was resting in a beautiful grove, and
was realizing as never before what it was to be at
peace with myself and all the world."

********

"I know that only with the greatest difficulty
shall I be enabled to express to you my sensations
when I fully realized that I had awakened to a new
life. All was still, no sound broke the silence. Dark-
ness had surrounded me. In fact, I seemed to be
enveloped in a heavy mist, beyond which my gaze
could not penetrate. Soon in the distance I dis-
cerned a faint glimmer of light, which slowly ap-
proached me, and then, to my wonder and joy, I
beheld the face of her who had been my guiding
star in the early days of my earth life."

LIFE AND DEATH 151

One of the saddest sights witnessed by the
seer at a death-bed is the tortures to which
we often subject our dying friends on account
of ignorance of how to care for them in that
condition. We have a science of birth; ob-
stetricians who have been trained for years
in their profession and have developed a
wonderful skill, assist the little stranger into
this world. We have also trained nurses at-
tendant upon mother and child, the ingenuity
of brilliant minds is focused upon the prob-
lem of how to make maternity easier, neither
pains nor money are spared in these benefi-
cent efforts for one whom we have never seen,
but when the friend of a lifetime, the man who
has served his kind well and nobly in pro-
fession, state, or church, is to leave the scene
of his labors for a new field of activity; when
the woman — who has labored to no less good
purpose in bringing up a family to take its