DOES SELF SURVIVE DEATH?

A Survey of Immortality and Spiritism

Ralph M. Lewis

The Rosicrucian Order

AMORC
San Jos, California
MJ-140

1173

MJ-140

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage One

DOES SELF SURVIVE DEATH?

by Ralph M. Lewis, Imperator
Over 2000 years ago Epicurus said, "Where we are, death is not. Where
death comes, there we are not." He meant to allay the ordinary fear
which men have of death. There is also in his words the indication
that consciousness is self. Therefore, what occurs when consciousness
may be absent from HTe body, or departs from it, cannot concern the
self because the self is not there to experience it. Simply put, self
cannot be separated from consciousness. Furthermore, Epicurus' statement was a direct acknowledgment of the duality of man. On the one
hand is the body and the gross material elements, and on the other hand,
the ego, the self. The horror with which some people look upon the disintegrating body need not concern man, because at such times, according
to the thought of Epicurus, self has departed. It is not there to
experience what is ordinarily attributed to death.
Some people have always believed that death definitely terminates the
consciousness that when we die, self ends ceases to be. According to
the remarks of Epicurus, this then would obviate the fear of death. If
self is no more upon the occasion of death, then nothing can disturb us
either here or elsewhere because we are not. Conversely, the opposite
is true. If consciousness leaves the body at death and resides somewhere else on some other plae, then death should not trouble us either,
for wherever we might be at least we would not be enduring the experience
of death.
This question as to whether self perseveres after death has not only con
cerned the ancients, but is also a polemic discussion today. It may be
summarized as: "Does self, the consciousness, survive death?" The only
distinction which we are ordinarily able to make between an animate body
and an inanimate one, or one that has just recently passed through death,
is that in the dead one there is a cessation of certain functions which
were natural to the living body. If we were to dissect the dead human
body, we would find that there are no organs missing; the heart, liver,
and kidneys are there. We would find as well that no members of the body
had vanished, and that everything in the inanimate or dead body is as it
was a few seconds, minutes, or hours before death occurred, insofar as
the substance is concerned. However, we would admit that some intangible,
invisible, motivating forc that had animated the parts of the living
body had disappeared, accounting for the cessation of the functions.
This motivating forc in itself is unknown. No one has ever seen it apart
from a living body. In fact, it can only be realized through its manifestations, the things that it accomplishes or causes a living body to
perform.
When a common clock, an alarm clock, ceases to function, that is, when it
no longer performs the purpose for which it was intended, the recording
of time, what has happened? We may examine the clock. We can remove its
face, and we can remove its back. When we look into it, we find that all
of the parts apparently are there, the hands, the myriad screws, and so

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Survive Death?

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Two

forth. Some mysterious entity, however, has escaped from it. We claim
that this mysterious entity is the potential energy of the coiled spring
in the clock. When a spring is wound up, accordng to the laws of physics, we say that there is in that coiled spring a potential energy, an
energy that has a capacity to produce and accomplish. In other words,
as the spring is unwound, this potential energy is dissipated in work,
namely, performing functions of the clock. However, with all of that
explanation, no one has ever seen this potential energy. No one can
describe its appearance. It is something which occurs under certain
conditions. We know the formula for producing it, that is, to wind the
clock, and when we do so we restore to the clock its functions again.
However, each of us, I am sure, is reluctant to believe that the energy
of the clock, that which causes it to function, exists apart from the
spring. We do not believe that by winding the spring, or by coiling it
up, we have in some miraculous way captured the energy or drawn it as
an entity from out of space.
Many persons, however, think that the ego, the self, exists in a manner
similar to the energy in a clock spring. They believe that self proceeds
in a mysterious manner from the parts of the body, from the mechanism of
the body itself. Consequently these persons hope to find some formula
whereby at death they can figuratively wind up the body so that once
again from its parts they will restore the functions of the animate body,
the consciousness and awareness of self. Obviously, these persons consider it ridiculous to hold that this consciousness of self can or does
exist apart from the mechanism of the body, from its organs and members.
To them, it is just as fantastic as to think that the harmony which comes
from the strings of a violin can or would exist apart from that instrument when it is not played, or that the sweet notes of a trumpet would
persist after the trumpet no longer exists.
On the other hand, there are millions of persons throughout the world
today who believe that the forc which animates a living body, namely
life and the consciousness of self, are one in other words, that the
life forc and our awareness of self are one and the same thing. They
believe that this life forc, which has as its attribute self, is like
the invisible wind which agitates the leaves and boughs of a tree. It
suddenly causes them to dance and flutter and gives them all of the ap
pearance of a living thing, and then just as suddenly ceases, and the
boughs become inert and deathlike in appearance.
They believe that this invisible life forc, which they also think is
self, enters the body at birth and departs again at death. Therefore,
it is independent, an immaterial entity, having no dependence upon the
body whatsoever. But when it enters, it animates it and at the same
time produces the State of self-consciousness. They contend, however,
that this ego or self is not the effect of life forc acting upon the
parts of the body. Consciousness of self is not like the tick of a
clock coming about from the movement of the parts, but rather the self
has existence and is an entity which enters the body as life forc. It
is, therefore, their conclusin that this ego is not encumbered by the

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Survive Death?

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Three

body, and at death it freely returns to that source from whence it carne.
Inasmuch as this ego is so independent, the personality after death, to
them, perseveres.
Let us look at the facts of experience. Self is far more real to us
than our own bodies. The fact that you are the realization which makes
you distinct to yourself and separate from all other persons and all
other things, is the most real experience of your being. One can lose
his arms in an accident, or he can lose his legs, or he may lose his
arms and legs, and perhaps an eye, and yet his self has not diminished.
He is just as real to himself as he ever was, regardless of the reduction of his body.
The sensations of self, the awareness of your own being, are far more
intense than the experiences you have of anything else. The realization
you have of your foot or your hair, through touch or sight, are not
nearly as intimate as the impulses, the impressions of your own conscious
existence. It is because of this that it is so difficult for so many
persons to believe that such a positive reality as self could cease to be,
could terminate, could vanish into nothingness at death; henee, the almost
universal innate conviction that the self, the personality, survives
death.
Scrates says in the Phaedo, that all men recognize that the body is composed of many elements, that it is compounded, in other words. Furthermore, he relates that it is the common experience that the body is dis
soluble. We have, many of us, had the misfortune of experiencing this
dissolution of the human form. Then he further relates how the ancient
Egyptians had achieved the art and Science of preserving the physical
body, so that it can endure for centuries intact. And he reasons that
the soul is not compounded of many elements but is one substance, and we
know the soul is immaterial since no one has ever been able to perceive
it objectively. If, therefore, a dissoluble substance such as the body,
composed of many elements, can be made to endure for a great length of
time, is it not logical to presume that which is immaterial, such as the
soul, should then be immortal and should endure for even greater periods
of time than the body?
Immortality has been a preferred doctrine with man, ever since he has
been able to give any thought to his being. There is a reason of
expedieney as well for the doctrine of immortality. Life is no utopia,
it is filled with disappointments, discouragement, grief, disillusion,
pain, and suffering. And in the sunset years, and sometimes before, men
come to realize how futile it is to undo injustices which they have
brought about due to their ignorance or malice. And, therefore, they
hope in another life to atone for their mistakes, to make retribution,
and to realize ideis for which there is not sufficient time in this
mortal span of existence. Consequently another existence for self is
desired after this one.

Does Self
Survive Death?

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Four

We must also not overlook the factor of the instinct of self-preservation. It is a compelling forc; it causes us to fight, to struggle,
and to live on here, to put up with all sorts of things so that we can
endure for a period of time in our present state and form. This same
instinct of self-preservation makes us reluctant to admit or to accept
the belief that all must end at death. This instinct finds gratification in the thought that death is but a change of residence, and, as
Epicurus so allegorically expressed it, a Crossing of a threshold from
one chamber into another and the closing of a door behind us.
Are There any facts which actually support the doctrine of immortality?
It is one thing to speculate, to resort to abstract reasoning about the
matter, and to reverence traditions and legends concerning it, and it
is still another to be able to find some evidential principies which
any reasoning mind can accept. There is an od aphorism, "the economy
of nature," which in essence means that nature never wastes either her
substance or her efforts. Floods may seem to be a waste of great energy
and of the efficacy of water; hurricanes, the dissipation of power as
well, but according to this aphorism all of these things fit into a whole
plan and contribute to a whole good.
Matter is never destroyed. It is an axiom of Science which has been
proven as fact. Forms may change. The things which we perceive as
color, shape, and as having other certain qualifications do constantly
change. If things are not lost in nature, what has occurred? Just their
expression has been altered. The causes of these expressions are im
mortal. The basic laws persist; the idea, if you conceive the cause as
mind,or the potentiality, if you conceive it merely as law they are
the immortal spirit of nature and of form. The ancients used to demn
strate this principie with the use of fire, the burning of an object.
An object appearing in one form when ignited will be changed into a
series of other expressions, such as the fame with its heat and light,
the ash, and then finally impalpable elements of the ash itself will
disappear. Change of form, yes, but there is always an immortality of
law and cause.
There is much evidence of immortality of a kind in physical science.
Biology affords us an excellent example. The child, through heredity,
inherits the characteristics of his parents. Certain physical and
mental characteristics are immortalized in the child. Everyone who
leaves a descendant is assured that his characteristics, that his family
stock, are preserved in them. Thus one may have the lips of his mother,
or the smile of a revered father. Again, one may display the determination of a father or the humility of the mother, or the scholastic inclinations of a grandfather. These are indications of biological im
mortality. Physical immortality is an ideal of marriage. Parents want
to perpetate in their offspring those characteristics, those traits,
which they admire in each other.
The protoplasm, the living substance, is like a time capsule. Several
years ago a university in the United States developed what was known as
a time capsule. It was constructed of special tempered Steel and substances to resist the ravages of time. In it there were posited objects

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Survive Death?

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Five

and articles representative of the culture, learning, and achievements

of our age, with the intention that they be preserved for posterity.
This time capsule was then hermetically sealed and placed in a specially
constructed vault to be opened centuries henee. The living cell is like
that. It contains the fruits of the moment, and immortalizes them in
the beings that evolve from it in the future.
There is also what may be termed an intellectual or a social immortal
ity. The thoughts and writings of those minds which have captured the
imagination of peoples of today are iinmortalized in the consciousness of
later humans. For example, Plato is far more alive today, far more a
vital spirit in thoughts, than he was during the period of his physical
existence. His words are so iinmortalized that they take him into more
homes, and they have reached far more hearts and consciousnesses than
those who heard him when he spoke in the academy.
As one writer has said, think of the lives today that are consecrated
to Buddha's Eightfold Path of living. This is a conception which has
been so immortalized that millions now have it as their ideal. Again,
think of the thousands of mortals who annually trek to Mecca, a custom
also immortalized by a doctrine. Even deplorable events of history are
immortalized. Each generation is made aware of the ravages of the
Assyrian hordes and of their brutality, and also of the horrors and
tortures of the Spanish Inquisition. It is good that even these be im
mortalized, for they tell us of the depravity of human nature. They
point out emphatically the weaknesses of man better than we could learn
by example.
William James, whose writings on psychology are a elassie, says we consider that the stream of thought can cease any time that we can stop
thinking. On the other hand, each of us is inclined to believe that
the soul is an incorruptible substance, and that it does not cease to
be, but rather persists into eternity. James further says that psychologically we support this belief in immortality by the moral vales
which we attach to the soul. In other words, if we think a substance is
worthy to be immortal, it therefore should be. By the same token, we
consider that any substance which is not worthy should perish. The soul,
according to this reasoning, having a moral valu, must therefore
persist.
James also points out that the average believer in immortality will not
recognize the consciousness as possibly being a single factor with two
attributes. The consciousness which perceives a world outside of ourselves may be also the same consciousness which causes us to realize
self. To use a simple analogy, the consciousness may be like a great
light, a searchlight if you will, which when it plays upon things out
side of us brings them into light, and we realize them; likewise we can
turn this consciousness around, invert it, and through introspection
become aware of self.
The argument against this of the believers in immortality is that if
self-consciousness and the objective consciousness are the same function,

Does Self
Survive Death?

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Six

then, when the consciousness is introspected, we should be aware of the

existence of our own brain and should be conscious of its individual
cells. Since we are not conscious of the brain but just of self, there
fore, they contend, the self-consciousness is separate and apart from
that consciousness which causes us to realize the external world.
The soul is conceived by many persons to be of the universal essence, a
forc that is ubiquitous and eternal. The essence is thought to be
drawn into or to pass through mortals, whereby they become conscious
beings, and their ego is thereby established. Upon death, this uni
versal essence or consciousness is drawn out of the body and absorbed
back again into its source, the whole. This mystical conception is
called absorption into the Absolute.
We may liken it to water flowing from a pitcher into a glass. As the
water passes into the glass, it acquires an identity, a distinction, a
personality, if you will. It still keeps its identity as water unchanged. At death, or when the glass is shattered, disintegrates, disappears, the water returns to its source, flowing back again into the
pitcher. If one were to look into the pitcher, he would not be able
to determine from the quantity of water therein what part, or portion,
of it has been in the glass. The same water would still be there, but
it would have merged with the whole, ready again to enter another glass
which might be prepared for it. Its distinction would not exist after
the destruction of the glass, after its return to the whole.
In general, without going into the specific doctrinal aspects of the
Rosicrucian teachings, which cannot be dealt with here, we can say
that the Rosicrucian conception of soul is similar. Rosicrucians con
tend that soul is an extensin of Divine Consciousness, a mind, if you
will, or a universal soul which permeates everywhere. When the laws
of nature have created a living form, such as the human body, the uni
versal soul extends itself into that body, and the body becomes a
conscious soul and has personality and ego.
In its absolute State, the Rosicrucians say, this universal soul may be
compared to sunlight, which is the harmony of all colors. The separateness of each color does not exist in the harmony of the white light;
however, when sunlight is made to pass through a prism, it is so dispersed and refracted that its wavelengths fall into an order which we
know as the spectrum, and we then have the various colors with which we
are familiar. These colors have personality. They seem quite distinct
from each other under such circumstances, but when we remove the prism
they again merge into the whole harmony of white light. They are not
lost; they are there, ever ready to appear when another prism is made
to refract them. The Rosicrucians contend that the mortal body's relation to the soul personality is like that the body gives expression to
an aspect of this universal soul and the consequent personalities upon
death merge again into the whole universal soul. They are not lost, and
they are ever ready to make their reappearance, or manifest again when
another body has been provided.

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Survive Death?

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Seven

There are still others who conceive the soul as a kind of super sub
stance. Like some of the philosophers of ancient times, they look
upon the soul as consisting of atoms of intelligence, like the monads
of Leibnitz. Those monads or soul-atoms enter the human body to gather
there with the atoms of matter, and they constitute a finer substance
which is likened to the ego or soul. At death, these persons contend,
the atoms of intelligence or soul return to the stream of their source,
and they survive therein. Moreover, they retain the consciousness, the
personality which they acquired when they were nherent in the body.
With these doctrines, with these speculations, with these legends and
traditions which have come on down to us through the centuries, the
stage was slowly being set for a very special advent, a doctrine that
was to challenge the imagination of man.
From the earliest times, reports by word of mouth and in writing have
related the experiences which men have had with apparitions, commonly
known as ghosts. These ghosts are related to be shadowlike beings,
sometimes of humans, a kind of intangible substance, and yet one which
the peripheral senses can detect. There are many physical causes to
suggest to primitive minds the existence of apparitions. A combination
of moonlight and shadows in a forest will cause a strange pattern to
form upon the ground; a slight movement of the leaves will alter the
pattern and actually give it animation as well as form, and then, again,
cause it to suddenly vanish. This has a very definite reality to the
mind. Reflections on water and on sand, like mirages, can account psychologically for the belief in ghosts. I hardly believe that there is
anyone who has not experienced a shock, been startled at least, upon
awakening at night to discover over against the wall or near a window
what appeared to be a form, a man, or grotesque creature. If he collected himself sufficiently to examine it, he would find it was merely
the manner in which the draperies hung. Then again, persons who have
carelessly tossed their clothes upon a chair would be horrified on a
sleepless night to look across the darkened room and seem to see a
human figure seated in a chair near the bed, with perhaps a dog at his
feet. If such a person were not too terrified, he would switch on the
light and discover that it was merely the arrangement of the clothes
which had assumed a fearful shape.
Mental aberrations, hallucinations, and obsessions have also caused
persons to imagine such things as apparitions, but it must be admitted
that genuine psychic phenomena have been experienced at times in the
past, even by primitive minds. However, so simple were the minds, and
so inexperienced with the laws involved, that they could not comprehend
what they perceived, and thus were terrified and gave vent to their
unbridled imagination.
In 1846 strange incidents occurred. In all probability similar incidents occurred many times before, but these attracted exceptional attention, and they seemed to integrate into an explanatory theory all the
speculations that had gone before with respect to the survival of con
sciousness after death and apparitions. One by the ame of Michael

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Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Eight

Weakman occupied a small house in the town of Hydesville in New York.

One night he heard strange noises apparently coming from immediately
outside. He went out and made a careful investigation but could not
detect their cause. The noises continued, unabated, for a considerable
time. Weakman, not being able to account for them and being so disturbed, finally left Hydesville. The house was then occupied by John
Fox and his two daughters, Kate and Margaret, respectively eleven and
fourteen years of age. One night they, too, heard the noises, and they
continued to experience them. Finally in December of 1847, they discovered that the noises seemed to reveal an intelligence. They had a
sequence in periodic intervals, in the form of a code of signaling. A
neighbor, named Isaac Post, suggested that the alphabet be used in
endeavoring to communicate with these purported intelligences. The
result, according to the testimony of a number of witnesses, was a disclosing of secrets which had been known by many persons in the community who had departed from this earth some time before, and so it
was assumed that the origin of these raps and taps which were heard in
the home were departed beings endeavoring to communicate with mortals.
The spectacular accounts then received considerable publicity.
The first scientific inquiry into the theory of communicating with the
dead is believed to have been made in the city of St. Louis, Missouri,
in June of the year 1882. Interest in the phenomena grew rapidly and
in 1885, 14,000 persons in America petitioned the United States Senate
to commission a scientific inquiry to determine whether there was any
basis in fact for these strange occurrences. From such inquiries and
out of such public interest, a new religin was born, namely, Spirit
ism, or as it is commonly called, spiritualism. Seance circles were
established throughout the United States and also spread to Europe
where numerous persons participated in the experiments and gathered to
witness the demonstrations. Likewise, there was a spread of journals
devoted to the topic, purporting to relate accounts of the experiences
of persons who had crossed into the beyond, and of the methods used to
communicate with them, and so forth.
What is spiritualism? What did its followers actually believe? What
practices did they have, and from them what doctrines developed? The
first simple, concise theory of what spiritism is, what it hopes to
accomplish, and what its ends are strangely enough was proclaimed by
a medical physician, a Dr. L.H.D. Rivail. He was not renowned in his
practice, though he was a reputable physician; perhaps he was unheard
of except in his immediate circles, but his intense interest in psychic
phenomena compelled him to write under the pen ame of Alian Kardec,
and his writings by that ame were read throughout the world. He
defined spiritism and its ends as this: the soul, the ego, that part
which is you, does not die. It survives death as an intangible entity.
It is a disembodied intelligence (as if you could think of mind existing
without body or form), and this disembodied intelligence he referred to
as spirit. These spirits of the departed seek to manifest after death
in various material ways here on earth, in ways that can even be objectively seen or heard. They principally manifest and communicate

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Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Nine

with mortals through certain privileged beings, and under certain conditions. These privileged beings are known as mdiums. Kardec further
contended that the soul reincarnates again, but in the interim, before
it takes up residence in another body, it may materialize on the earth
plae many times, to be perceived by many mortals.
The object of spiritism, as Kardec defined it, is that man should turn
to these spirits, especially those who are good, that is, of moral
excellence, as mentors. Just as humans will consult authorities here,
or will try to emulate persons of moral excellence on this plae, they
should turn to these departed beings to be guided as well. However, he
admonishes that there are also malevolent spirits which will resort to
trickery and deception and, as they did on the earth plae, will lead
mortals astray if they are not cautious. Consequently, by this Kardec
implies that the departed consciousness or soul takes with it all of
its characteristics, all of its weaknesses, all of its moral deficiencies,
if it has any, and can and will, if given the opportunity, display them
in the hereafter to the detriment of unwary mortals.

It should not be presumed that such a doctrine and such reasoning or

lack of it, as you will, applied only to gullible and credulous persons.
It should not be thought that the believers in these spiritualistic
doctrines were ignorant of the inner workings of the human mind and of basi<
psychological principies. This phenomenon seriously attracted the
attention of scientists of repute; for example, it attracted Alfred
Wallace, naturalist, whom many considered the precursor of the Darwinian
Theory. Again, William Crookes, renowned physicist (one of his many
contributions to Science being the discovery of the element thallium),
after investigating the phenomena for some time, wrote a scientific
analysis of his findings, and he summed them up by saying: "I do not
say these things are possible. ][ say they exist." Subsequently, his
reputation in Science was at stake. He was not only ridiculed by the
layman or public at large, who were in no position to take a stand
because of their lack of knowledge and actual experience with the phe
nomena, but also by his own colleagues.
In 1900 another minent scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge, was drawn into
this field of research. He was professor of mathematics at the University of London, and in the field of physics he contributed much original
work to the discovery of the speed of the ion, and much data on the
knowledge of electromagnetic waves, the basis of radio transmission. In
1910 he became the foremost investigator of psychic phenomena and wrote
a number of books on the subject, one of which is a classic, The Survival
of Man, which definitely established his acceptance of the idea that
the consciousness of man does survive death.
Scores of scientists now became interested, some possibly for the purpose of disproving others, but the majority were seriously convinced
of the possibility, remte as it might be, that consciousness in some
manner did not cease when death occurred. Giovanni Schiaparelli,
Italian astronomer, was one of these. It was he who had discovered

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Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Ten

the geometric pattern or lines, if you will, on the planet Mars, which
he called canals and which instigated an investigation into that field
of speculation and exploration.
Psychical research societies were now being formed. The first of these
was in London, England. The President was Sir Oliver Lodge. Another
was formed in New York City; the former Imperator of AMORC, Dr. H.
Spencer Lewis, was its president. These societies were composed of
eminent men of science and literature. They were not illiberal. They
were there to find out what basis there was for the phenomena and try
to determine the cause of the results or the demonstrations. The New
York Psychical Research Society included such eminent personages as
Isaac Funk of Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary fame.
The proof of spiritism was contingent upon whether there was such a
faculty of mediumship. If mediumship really existed, then the results
therefrom would have factual basis. A mdium is one who is defined as
an intermediary between this world and the next. Psychical research
societies found that a great number of these mdiums were common frauds.
Their fraudulence was often exposed. Sometimes it was very crude, but
in most instances the ingenuity displayed by these fraudulent mdiums
was amazing. It showed misdirected intelligence and ability, and constitutes a separate field of inquiry and discussion.
The motive of these charlatans was almost always monetary. They hoped
to enrich themselves by preying upon the grief-stricken who hoped to
bridge the void between this life and a possible other one and thereby
communicate with and enjoy an intimate relationship with their departed
loved ones, even if but momentarily. Notwithstanding the examples of
fraudulent mediumship, many, many incidents that occurred in these
seances were verified methodically and critically. Such verifications
revealed that humans, or certain ones at least, upon occasion did display or exhibit strange faculties or powers, which could not be overlooked and must be proved for further understanding.
A mdium of note during this early period of research, one who all
authorities agreed was sincere and whose phenomena did display unusual
innate powers, was a Mrs. Piper. Dr. Hyslop, an authority on psychic
phenomena, and whose work Enigmas of Psychic Phenomena is a classic on
the subject, often interviewed her-cTunng her seances. To cite a few
examples, upon one occasion she described in detail a collection of
canes which Dr. Hyslop had, and which he had locked in a chest in this
country and had not used for years. Some of them were even badly
damaged. Upon another occasion, Dr. Hyslop was supposed to be communicating through a mdium with his deceased father and, in accordance
with his tests and investigations, he asked the purported voice of his
father what had happened to a certain mutual friend and whether this
friend, who resided in a foreign country, continued to attend church.
The voice of the purported deceased replied that the friend no longer
attended church because of an organ. After considerable effort, Dr.
Hyslop was able to communicate by correspondence with this friend, who

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Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Eleven

was now an aged man, and he learned he had just recently severed his
connections with the church over a dispute with the officials in connection with the installation of an organ.
Another serious and reputable investigator was Yza Trisk. On one occasion, he was attending a seance conducted by a renowned mdium in
Stockholm. Suddenly the mdium spoke in a strange voice and uttered
the words, "I left earth twenty-four hours ago." And thereupon the
mdium, while in the trance, drew a sketch which was immediately
recognized by Mr. Trisk as the portrait of a French poet. He cabled
at once, and after some time was able to verify that the French poet
had died within the 24-hour period. In fact, at the time that the
mdium related this information, the death of this French poet was not
even generally known in his own country.
Psychology has an explanation for that type of mediumship whereby a
person assumes a foreign character, that is, a character that is not
his own. Sometimes these mdiums claim to be speaking in the voice of
an Indian guide, or some Greek sage who had passed away centuries ago.
Again, they will assume the character of some eminent man of the immediate or distant past. James calis this type of phenomenon the
secondary personality of an individual. He explains it thus. We like
to imagine ourselves as other persons. We like to emulate people.
The lives and accomplishments of others impress us. Imitating and
mimicking are instinctive with humans, and so we imitate the voices,
gestures, and manners of others.
In a trance State, this character which we emulate and which is a subjective ideal dominates the subjective mind. The mdium therefore
speaks as he heard the voice of the one whom he idolizes, or as he
imagines the voice sounded from what he has read or heard described to
him. The words he speaks in this trance State are thus his secondary
personality. When the mdium returns to the state of objective con
sciousness, frequently he will not remember what has occurred, and when
he is informed he will believe that he has communicated with these dead
personages and that the words which carne from his own lips were theirs.
Messages which are purported to come from the dead through mdiums often
strangely show the environmental influences of the mdium. Thus the
vocabulary of the so-called departed speaking through the mdium will
often contain idioms and slang, and display the culture or lack of
culture and education which constitutes the background of the mdium
himself. For example, a departed being speaking through a mdium in
Brooklyn will often have a very definite Brooklyn accent, regardless of
how long ago the being departed from this earth. Again, departed beings,
speaking through a mdium in Alabama, will have a very strong Southern
accent. This would indicate the messages are a product of the mdium's
mind.
However, James makes a frank admission. He says that oddly enough
persons who have never been exposed to spiritualistic traditions, who

Does Self
Survive Death?

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Twelve

know nothing about them, have read nothing of the subject, when in a
trance state will often speak in the ame of a departed person. When
a scientist says, "oddly enough," he means that he has no explanation
to account for it. Such persons will often explain the death agony of
the one who is deceased, and such has often been verified by the
relatives of the deceased. Such persons will also frequently describe
what are purported to be the experiences of the one residing in another
world or regin.
Mdiums often relate what has occurred thousands of miles distant from
where they are located. Thus they will describe incidents happening
in Cairo, Egypt, perhaps, when they themselves are located in Boston,
or they may describe something which occurs in some little town in the
interior of a South American country, when they are residing in Seattle.
In their objective state, such mdiums will often admit that the places
they have mentioned in the trance are not known to them objectively.
They even have no knowledge of them geographically. These are example
of the proof of mental telepathy.
Early psychologists would not recognize the then theory of mental tele
pathy, because as it was promulgated in the past, it seemed not to be
based upon any natural or physical laws and was associated solely with
supernaturalism. As they understood mental telepathy from those who
expounded it at the time, the mind as an independent entity could be
transmitted, leave the body intact, in other words, and travel to a
distant mind, communicate with it, and then return to enter the sender's
body again. This was so fantastic that it was dispensed with by psychology as being outside the bounds of rationalism. But with the
development of neurology, the science of the nervous system, and with
intensive expenmentation in high-frequency electrical currents and
electromagnetic waves, and, further, with the more recent experiments
in encephalograph, it was proven that the brain neurons or cells
generate an electrical current which is measurable.
There was a probability, therefore, that under some conditions or circumstances these cells might produce transmissible electric waves,
such as in radio, and that another mind could attune to such wavelengths and that therefore there would be established in the receiving
brain sensations corresponding to the transmitting brain. In other
words, the receiver would be conscious of the sender's ideas. With
this physical probability, science then became interested in telepathic
performances of mdiums.
Mediumship may be divided into two classes: one of these, the psychic,
relates to purported Communications with departed intelligences in
another world, or on another plae. The Rosicrucians say, with respect
to this, that if the consciousness of an individual survives death, if
it is liberated from its confinement in the physical body, it certainly
would not desire to seek the mundane immediately and to limit itself to
the physical world again. Further, it would not want to resort to those
petty, by comparison, activities and interests of a finite world. It
would seem logical that the Cosmic perspective would be far more

Does Self
Survive Death?

Rosicrucian Order - AMORC

ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS
(Supplementary Lecture)

-BPage Thirteen

appealing to a liberated self after death than what this world could
offer it. It would not want, in the interim, to degrade or deprec
ate its advantages by returning to earth in any form or manner to play
banjos, blow trumpets, and do other childlike things in the dark and
dingy rooms of a mdium. It is generally recognized psychologically
that one of the greatest bonds between individuis is the emotion of
love. Certainly, then, this would be the closest affinity or nexus
between souls as well. Therefore, liberated souls, beings who might
reside in the hereafter, would be more bound to their loved ones whom
they left behind and would be inclined, if this were possible, to com
municate with them rather than through any strangers, any mdium, for
example, who resorted to strange practices motivated in many instances
by the desire for fees.
The proof that love is a strong and intense emotion that binds persons
together becomes more apparent from the phenomena that occur under the
stress of wartime conditions. It is not uncommon for us to hear or
read of mothers suddenly becoming conscious of a son's passing through
transition on a distant battlefield or combat zone. A subsequent
comparison of facts shows that the mother's reception of the impression occurred two or three minutes after death was supposed to have
taken place. The son's intense love for his mother, accompanied by
his visualization of her, resulted in the phenomenon of a projected
consciousness of himself which the mother perceived. Then again, if
there is the possibility of communication between the living and the
dead, is it not plausible to believe that those on the Divine plae,
those who are freed from physical limitations, would not reach down to
the objective, temporal world to communicate and make themselves ap
parent to the limited objective faculties of mortals? Is it not more
probable that we mortals would be obliged to transcend our objective
consciousness, to rise above this world by another consciousness, to
elevate ourselves to the plae of consciousness upon which the departed
is presumed to exist? It is logical not to expect the Divine con
sciousness of a departed soul to cloak itself in material substance
and make itself so grossly manifest that individuis here on earth can
see, feel, or hear it.

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