Posted on 30 December 2024, 7:01

This is a continuation of the deposition of Vice-Admiral William Usborne Moore (bottom right photo), as explained and recorded in my blog of December 16.

Admiral Moore, before the break, you testified about much of your research in England and started to tell us about your research in America.  I understand you made three trips to the United States, beginning in late 1904 and continuing until 1912.  Let’s continue with that.

“[Yes.] I had seen every phenomenon worth seeing in England.  I had read every book worth reading on the subject of spiritism, and a good deal of trash, including The Confessions of a Medium, which bears internal evidence of being written by an anti-spiritualist, and which, though pure fiction, has been put forward as a true narrative. I knew that, owing to our unfortunate climate, it was useless to pursue my inquiries further in [England] and I resolved to return to America to complete my study in December 1908.  This time I determined to go inland, where I was wholly unknown, and I spent two and a half months in Rochester, New York, Toledo, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and Chicago, Illinois.  The evidence I obtained in these cities convinced me that I had been in direct communication with Iola, and with many relatives and friends through her influence, by the mediumship of professional and non-professional psychics.”

As I recall, Iola (top left photo) was a deceased relative of yours, but you gave her a pseudonym for family privacy purposes.  What phenomena did you observe?

“[Correct], but she adopted the name herself to avoid the unpleasant complications that may arise as to her identity among those of her friends and relatives who are not educated in spiritism….The phenomena consisted of automatic mirror-writing, materialization, direct writings, pictures precipitated by invisible intelligences, and the direct voice. The correlation of the evidence through different psychics who did not know one another, and in some cases had not even heard of one another, was striking, and – to me – conclusive of the genuineness of each.  I left the United States with an impression, not likely to be easily removed, that there was only one alternative to the spiritistic hypothesis – that of the continual presence of personating demons, able to read every thought of mortals, and to construct at will dramatic situations that answered every doubt and uncertainty in the mind of an investigator.  This is the Roman Catholic doctrine.  I reject it, not only because of its intrinsic improbability, but on account of the consideration of many incidents of a strictly private nature that cannot be here related.”

You reported on some very interesting phenomena with Joseph B. Jonson of Toledo, Ohio in 1909. Please tell us about that.

Moore testified that Jonson (upper right photo) was a powerful-looking man of 55, well educated, and of sober habits. The amount of light during his seances was always sufficient to see him outside the cabinet and that every precaution was taken to avoid confederates or any kind of fraud. Voices came via the direct voice, sometimes through a trumpet and other times without the amplification of a trumpet. Before his investigation of Jonson, Moore conferred with his friend, Homer Taylor Yaryan, who had served as chief of the secret service police under the presidency of Ulysses S Grant.  Yaryan had observed Jonson for years, even in Yaryan’s own house, and was certain that the phenomena were genuine. Jonson’s primary control was an Indian named Grayfeather, whose voice was not the same as Jonson’s. Moore further testified about his observations on January 6, 1909: 

“Including some repetitions, fifteen or sixteen materialized forms emerged from the cabinet and conversed with their friends while Jonson was out of it; six or eight came after Grayfeather had taken him inside – all of these in addition to the familiar spirits, the habitués of the cabinet.  One of the visitors was a nun, who had a very spiritual countenance and wore a bright silver cross about four inches long. She came especially for Mr. Z., but, at the request of the latter lady, she walked well into the light in order that I should be able to see her plainly. The effort was too much for her, and she doubled up, instead of gradually descending into the floor, which is the usual method of disappearance. Each member of the circle was visited by at least two friends who were recognized. Two or three men came to me whom I was not able to identify properly, one making semaphore signs with his arms.” (Grayfeather explained to Moore that they were attempting to materialize without his permission and thus were turned out.)

Your records show another sitting with Jonson on January 16. Please tell us about that one.

“In some respects this séance was better than that of January 6, for more forms appeared, but I did not like it so much, as the light allowed by the spirits in the cabinet was much less, no doubt on account of the [atmospheric conditions].  About twenty-five separate personalities manifested, counting the repetitions, there were over forty materialisations or etherialisations. For my part, I only saw the faces of two clearly enough for recognition.  These were Viola and Edna, the nun. Viola is a very lively girl of eighteen or nineteen, with long streaming hair; she touched my hand with hers. Edna came out four or five times, and gave me opportunities to see her face, dress, and cross quite plainly; Iola brought my father and mother. On one occasion, I went to the entrance of the cabinet, and saw two forms together, which I soon discovered were my parents, and the small form of Iola behind them.”

Very interesting, Admiral Moore.  Please tell us about your private sitting of January 29.

“It was an interesting experiment and I was much surprised that it was so successful.  Jonson passed into the trance state in about ten minutes. In less than five minutes later Iola rose slowly out of the floor in front of me, outside the cabinet, and passed in between the curtains, thus keeping her promise of January 25. I went into the opening with Mrs. Jonson, who invariably accompanies a sitter—to lend additional power to the manifestations – and asked the spirit, ‘Did you make that inscription on the picture?’ A whisper came, ‘With the help of others.’ [Iola] then sank into the floor.”

Will you explain what you are referring to as the picture and the inscription?

Moore explained that between sittings with Jonson, he had visited the Bangs sisters of Chicago (lower left photo), known for their precipitated paintings of spirits. When a picture of Iola was precipitated, Moore said he gave up all doubts about her identity, as this was definitely the relative she claimed to be.  There was no inscription on the painting when he saw it in Chicago, but it was there when he unpackaged it in Toledo. 

Thank you for explaining that, Admiral Moore.  Please continue by telling us more about that January 29 experiment.

“My father and mother materialized. In these there was no possibility of error.  My father had a nose like the Iron Duke, and I saw him in good light three feet outside the cabinet; his prominent feature was clearly distinguishable.  Three men came out whom I did not know, one said to be Mr. Marshall Fields, a wealthy merchant of Chicago, but as I never knew him nor heard of him before this evening, I cannot answer for his identity”

Moore went on to testify that Detective Yaryan had explained to him that they do not always recognize their friends every time by their features.  At times, they see the face distinctly and at other times it is very vague, much depended on the conditions of the sitting, which varied considerably, often dictated by atmospheric conditions.  Sometimes there was no phenomenon at all. Yaryan also pointed out that the Jonsons did not always know who would attend a sitting and therefore could not have pre-arranged for the spirits of their deceased relatives and friends to “materialize” for them.  In addition, the Jonson would have required dozens of confederates of all sizes and shapes, including children, to be hiding in some part of their home, ready to sneak into their upstairs room and impersonate a deceased friend or loved one, all the while offering veridical information. 

You reported an interesting séance on February 1, 1909,  Please tell us about that one.

“Nineteen separate spirits manifested. Some of them reappeared twice or three times, one four times.  I estimated that over forty forms actually appeared during the séance. Including the repetitions, ten were for me.  Iola came first.  I saw her profile plainly; the right eye was closed. She talked a little in whispers, saying she was ‘going with me.’ It was a good representation, the face a good likeness, and the height and dimensions of the figure was correct. She stopped at the entrance of the cabinet rather too long and dematerialized in an unnatural manner.  During this séance, I saw several spirits dematerialize. Some descended into the floor slowly and, so to speak, naturally.  It was possible to follow their heads with the eye until the shoulders were level with the carpet.  Others doubled up before they dissipated, and a few fell over on one side…..My father and mother came together, the former wearing spectacles.  Behind them, I could detect a third form, of the right height and size of Iola, but, as she was in the shadow of the cabinet, I was not able {to see her features}….One old relative appeared to me, whom I recognized.  I kissed her, as I would when she was in the earth life, and she returned it; but the effect was too much for her, and she fell over on the side and vanished.” 

I have heard that Jonson was accused of fraud. What do you say to that?

“It is hardly necessary for me to say that the Jonsons have been accused of fraud, like all other professional psychics, good, bad, and indifferent.  I have never heard of an instance where a definite charge has been brought against them and been proved.  All I know of are the usual slanders by other competing mediums, by well-intentioned friends of the sitters, and writing private and public, by authors of the arm-chair type.  As Jonson sits outside the cabinet for a part of every séance, and his wife scarcely ever goes near him, the only question that can be raised by the most rabid skeptic is that of several confederates at each séance.  I consider that this may be ignored, for the following reasons:  They could not enter from below or from outside the house without observation, nor could they come by the staircase without passing the members of the circle; in cases when the sitters were over nine in number, they would have to go through the circle…[Moreover,] the expense and the difficulty of finding the histrionic capacity in the neighborhood forbid such an explanation of the supernormal phenomena that take place at these séances.”

Thank you, Admiral.  Any final thought before we recess again.
 
“I do not deny that communication with the spirit world is full of perplexities.  Answers to questions put to spirits are often contradictory and apparently misleading.  Generally, this is owing to the difficulty experienced in describing to beings who are functioning in three dimensions what is taking place in a region inhabited by those who are functioning in four or more.  But the essential points are gained quickly by the earnest investigator; he soon learns that he is destined to live again; that immortality is a fact; that he can commune without much difficulty with those whom the world calls dead….The difficulty of our spirit visitors in communicating at all must be enormous.  We ply them with questions, the majority of which they are not able to answer because they have not yet reached the higher spheres; they make the attempt by stating what they have heard from others, and are, doubtless, often incorrect…[Further,] the higher spirits are hampered by the personality of the medium.  To us, it is highly important that the medium should be an ignorant person, unable to form any theories for herself, so that we shall receive the undiluted message.  But here is another side to the question.  When the psychic is densely ignorant it appears to be impossible, at times, for the spirit to get through any lofty ideas.  I have watched this often.”

The deposition of Admiral Moore will continue on January 13.

Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, and Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I.
His latest book, No One Really Dies: 25 Reasons to Believe in an Afterlife is published by White Crow books.

Posted on 16 December 2024, 6:14

In my essay for the Bigelow contest of 2021, I presented a simulated present-day court trial in which The Survival School contends that consciousness survives death in a greater reality, while arguing that the evidence for such survival was overwhelming before 1920.  It offered the testimony of 11 pre-1920 scholars and/or scientists, including three chemists, two physicists, a biologist, a judge, a lawyer, a theologian, a philosopher, and a physician.  Those not familiar with that trial summary/essay can find it, along with those of other award winners.

Prior to the trial, a number of other witnesses had been deposed, but because the presiding judge put a time limit on the trial, only those 11 testified. The testimony of, Professor James Hyslop, a psychologist, would have been the 12th witness and Dr. Gustave Geley, a physician, the 13th.  Hyslop’s testimony from his deposition was presented in my blog of December 6, 2021, while Geley’s was offered in my blog of September 11, 2023.  The 14th witness would have been Vice-Admiral William Usborne Moore. (below)  He was a British naval officer who commanded six surveying vessels, becoming a psychical researcher upon his retirement from the navy.  He studied dozens of mediums in both Great Britain and the United States and reported on them in two books.  His “deposition” involves his exact words from those books. Glimpses of the Next State (1911) and The Voices (1913). Moore concluded that as a surveyor, interested in detail and exactness, he was as qualified as anyone to investigate the subject matter.

Except for words in brackets, inferred and added to permit a proper flow or transition, the words are his verbatim. The questions have been tailored to fit the responses. After introducing him to the jury, attorney Edward Randall put various question to him, including those below:

Admiral Moore, in your 1904 book, “The Cosmos and the Creeds,” you attacked the teachings of the churches and expressed doubt as the reality of a future life. Do I understand that correctly?

“[You do.]” At the time I thought that such immortality as man possessed lay in the influence his actions, words, or writings had upon those who were his contemporaries, or who came after him; but that he himself, as an individual conscious entity, disappeared forever, not to be recognized again.”

It is my understanding that you have changed your views concerning the future life. Would you mind explaining?
 
“To be brief, I found that the deeper I went into the study of spiritism the more apparent it became that, whether he wished it or not, man’s individuality was not extinguished at death. I read books, visited clairvoyants, and attended séances for materialization.  Through all I was constantly reminded of the existence of a near and dear relative [Iola], older than myself, who passed away thirty-seven years ago in the prime of her life.  Her continued reappearances could only lead me to one conclusion: I was being guided to a reconsideration of the problem of immortality.”

As I further understand it, you were attracted to psychical research by Sir William Crookes’ book, “Researches into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism.”  When did you have your first sitting with a medium?

“In September 1904, I sat in Portsmouth with Mrs. Crompton of Bradford; she clairvoyantly saw a spirit form near me that answered very nearly to Iola as I remember her, and Mr. Vango described her to me two or three times, giving her name. These were the first intimations I received of the desire of my relative to get in touch with me.” 

And you then sat with other mediums, including Cecil Husk?
   
“[True], the blind medium, Cecil Husk, the psychic more frequently engaged for these séances, was then at his best.  The phenomena which took place were the materialization of the heads and busts of discarnate entities, spirits singing, whispers and the flight of a musical instrument round the rooms, over the heads of the sitters, all the while playing a definite tune…Husk sat in the circle at the table in every case.  I soon saw and heard a number of things that could not be explained away by any system of juggling or deception of any sort.  The principal control or familiar spirit of Husk is the famous buccaneer of the time of Charles II, Sir Henry Morgan, who now calls himself ‘John King.’  Often I have heard his stentorian voice and have seen him materialize above the medium’s head and dematerialize through the table.” 

Was it all in the dark?

“[Yes, but] when a spirit materialized it showed itself by aid in an illuminated slate, prepared and lying on the table.  Sometimes they spoke while in sight, but more often in the dark after they had dropped the slate; when in sight, the lips could be seen to move.  Except in the case of John King, who was life-size, the faces and busts were about two-thirds of life size.  The singing was remarkable; the voices would join with us, and also execute solos.  I have heard as many as eight different male voices, from tenor to deep bass, singing at different times during one séance; and at different séances, I have heard twelve languages spoken in direct voice.”

I recall reading somewhere that Husk was caught cheating on one occasion.
 
“Mr. Cecil Husk’s séances have been the theme of many discussions amongst spiritists.  I have sat with him over forty times, and have only once suspected fraud.  On that occasion the conditions were bad, and I am by no means sure that my doubts were reasonable.  Even supposing my first ideas were correct, there were good reasons for attributing the trick I thought I had witnessed to unconscious fraud. ...[Moreover,] the manifestations that occur through the mediumship of Husk when in private rooms are far better than those which happen in his own house. …The materializations which represent the sitters’ friends are less than life-size.  If frauds, they must be dummies.  But, if dummies, how is it the lips are seen to move when they speak?  And, if dummies, they would appear more natural.  I have seen faces even half life-size – for they vary very much – but none that I can remember which looked fresh and good color, such as you would expect from a face intended to simulate that of a human being.  There was a parchment appearance about all that came to me, and there is an undefinable look of Husk in some.  This ‘Husky’ appearance is just what we ought to expect, unless we are to suppose that the medium through whom they manifest has imparted nothing of individuality to the form and face. ...[As I earlier mentioned], I have heard twelve languages spoken at different séances [with Husk].”

Did you otherwise encounter much fraud?

“There is a great deal of fraud in the practice of spiritism – fraud intentional and conscious, and unconscious fraud.  There is no doubt that the trickery imposed here and in America had deterred thousands of people from investigation of the subject. ...The temptations of these psychics are great; whatever powers they possess are sporadic and cannot be summoned at will; they find this out early in their development, and, in order to maintain regular séances, they learn the art of jugglery to ‘help out’ their particular gift at times when they feel they have not got their usual power.  People travel long distances to sit with them.  They have not the moral courage to say, ‘I have little or no power today; come another time.’  Possibly they do not know how much power they have, nor how far their guides can assist them, until they go into trance.  If they turn their patrons away from the door, a murmur is soon circulated that they are not reliable, and sitters fail to attend; their income, never large, dwindles away, and they are stranded without means of a livelihood.  Having surrendered themselves for two or three years to the trance condition, they cannot adapt any of the ordinary wage-earning occupations of life, and they become destitute.  Competition is keen, and they see others prospering by keeping up their séances with artificial assistance.  Though we cannot defend, we can at least understand the causes of fraud in mediumship.” 

Would you mind explaining what you mean by unconscious fraud?

“All psychics are in danger of losing their power at a séance from the mental action of hostile sitters.  They are usually in a state of self-imposed hypnosis.  A man sits down in the circle and impresses them with a perpetually recurring suspicion, ‘You are going to deceive me.’  Eventually the thought becomes an active dynamic force, and the medium senses strongly, ‘I am going to deceive him.’…Some investigators imagine that if a medium is in trance he cannot commit fraud.  This is an error.  If the intention is in his mind before entering the hypnotic state, he may or may not carry it out.” 

As I recall, you traveled to New York in 1904 and sat with various mediums there.
 
“[Correct], I arrived on Christmas day, a Sunday.  That evening I attended a materialization séance; Mr. de Witt Hough was the medium.  The female figures were veiled, but one appeared at the opening of the cabinet, after some six or seven materializations had taken place, which was precisely the right height and figure of Iola, and gave her earth name.  I approached the cabinet; the figure advanced to meet me with outstretched hands; she was trembling excessively, and could utter only a few words.  I saw her twice after that through Hough’s mediumship, and communicated with her many times through psychics in New York and Boston.  On one occasion she said, ‘I did not know I was dead until I saw someone cut off a lock of my hair from behind my right ear.’  I was ignorant of this as I was in the Indian Ocean when my relative died in Scotland, but on inquiry, I found the statement to be correct: after her death a lock of hair had been cut off from behind her right ear.”

So what was your overall view of the matter after your first trip to the U.S.?

“I remained in America one month, and saw and heard quite enough to convince me that those whom I had thought of as dead were very much alive.  I returned to England in a frame of mind read to receive the truths of spiritualism if I could find them in any honest quarter…I endeavored to persuade others that this spiritism was no vain delusion, but a hypothesis which had come to stay, and was not to be disregarded. [I arranged for private séances, but] I found they could not see as I did, could not hear as I heard.  Their minds were unprepared.  Some were considerably impressed at the moment, but the next day thought themselves the victims of jugglery on the part of the medium or some confederate…Speaking generally their view was, ‘We are not experts in juggling, and we do not know what may be possible in that line; this contrary to all human experience; we cannot believe it.’  I remember, especially, one electrical engineer and one lady who could see or hear hardly anything.  They were both hostile to the subject, and their eyes and ears were open only to what their minds expected – which was nothing – or fraud.”

I know what you mean.  It seems that there is a will to disbelieve.

“[Exactly.]  No man can give to another the understanding to assimilate facts new to ordinary human experience.  Nor do I imagine that science will prove anything in either the mental of physical aspects of spiritism.  Mortals know of only three dimensions.  They may suspect that, outside their ken, there are beings operating in four or more, but all they see is the effect of these operations…When it comes to the passage of matter through matter, and others of the higher forces of spiritism that can only be witnessed under favorable mental and atmospheric conditions, it is difficult to see how science can prove anything.”

Admiral Moore’s testimony will continue in the next blog on December 30.

Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, and Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I.
His latest book, No One Really Dies: 25 Reasons to Believe in an Afterlife is published by White Crow books.

Posted on 02 December 2024, 7:57

American clergyman Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) is said to have communicated through the mediumship of Marcella De Cou Hicks (1888-1942), author of the book titled Eternal Verities, providing some indications as to what the afterworld is like.  Much of what Beecher (below) had to communicate was recorded in the January 10, 1940 issue of “The Psychic Observer” and was set forth in my blog of September 9, 2024. The Psychic Observer article was continued in its January 25, 1940 issue, which I could not find.  Thanks to David Chilstrom for providing the article from that issue. This blog quotes part of that issue.  The final part will follow in a future blog. 

The Spirit World Explained

“Now MAN is essentially SPIRIT wherever he may be and however he may be expressing himself.  Man, on the earth plane, is immortal spirit expressing himself in a physical body, enduring the hampering circumstances, the limitations, the hindrances of the flesh. The earth and its environs constitute an elementary testing laboratory of spirit in which spirit-man works on the alchemy of that attribute known as character. And on passing out of mortality the spirit-soul gravitates to that spirit group and into that spirit phase to which his earth life has adapted his vibration rate.

“The second plane of spirit life is in and all about the earth itself, not in some remote part of space.  It has no definite boundaries in the sense of being separated or divided off from other planes. It gradually merges into other phases.  I might say it has boundaries in the sense that your states have boundary lines.  One does not see them as he travels from state to state and is not conscious of any change in landscape. Nevertheless what may be permitted and lawful in one state may not be permitted or lawful in another.  Likewise each and every phase of spirit life has certain privileges and certain taboos. For instance those inhabiting the realms of darkness may not, and cannot, visit the higher phases and mingle with the dwellers therein.

“Because even in its lowest aspects the conditions of the second plane vibrate with so much greater velocity than matter or substance, its habitants and environment are invisible to human sight and can only be seen through clairvoyant vision. Also, because of vibratory velocity the second plane can coexist in the same place as matter and not interfere with, or be interfered with, by substance.”

Spirit Progression

“This statement raises a question in your mind, doesn’t it.  Well, consider this fact – in the cubic content of your living room, for instance, there can exist at one and the same time air, light, heat, and or, sound.  These elements can and do occupy the same space at the same time due to the fact that their differing vibration velocities do not interfere with each other. Moreover, none of these elements are any more visible to the human eye than spirit is visible. So you see that since spirit conditions vibrate with even greater velocity than these intangibles, they can coexist with substance.

“When a spirit-soul tells you that he has progressed to the third, four, or fifth plane, he must mean – of the first sphere of the first zone of which earth itself is the first plane.  Because any spirit-soul qualified to work in any plane of the second sphere will probably have lost all desire to contact mortality and its problems.  Unless he be one of the Great Mentors – and the rank and file do not contact such. They come only to earth who has been charged ‘from the high’ with a great mission.

“One must pass through all the planes of all the spheres of all the zones before he can take up extra-cycle work but he need not go through all the phases of all the planes.  The system may be compared to the regime that obtains in school and college courses of earth.  In order to graduate one must make certain points but he need not take every subject in the curriculum.  Some subjects are required and others are elective.  Also, one may ‘skip a grade’ and after graduation, if he chooses, he may return for a post-graduate work.”

The Good and the Bad

“Similarly, in spirit life one may be so adept at absorbing knowledge that while he has been studying one course or phase, he may have absorbed so much of another that he will be permitted to skip it if, after examination, it is proved that he does not require it.  Also, after passing on to a higher phase one may return to a lower for review or for some study he has not chosen to take previously.  In this connection, bear in mind that earth world is just as much a plane of spirit as any of these realms of the disembodied, and many do not learn its lessons well.  However, I think we had better not go into that.  I well remember the letters of abuse you received some time ago when you let slip a remark or two about reincarnation. Wel, well – the vagaries of the mortal mind!

“The second plane of spirit life, in which most spirit-souls gravitate upon leaving the body, is as conglomerate as the earth itself.  It harbors in its various phases every sort and type of consciousness.  It might well be called the clearing house or kindergarten of spirit.  The bad are there because they vibrate only into the lowest phases of spirit life.  The good are there because they come, knowing nothing of the facts of spiritual progress or the plan of progression, and must start at the beginning and learn the fundamentals before they can qualify to take up the work of advancement.  But make no mistake, my dear, the good and the bad are not harbored in the same phases. No, no, they do not vibrate into the same condition.

“In this second plane of spirit life are the places of darkness.  These also have their gradations and phases to take care of the manifold and varied stages of spiritual degeneration, disintegration, and ignorance. To one or another of these phases the deliberate wrongdoers, and each spirit-soul is placed according to his irrevocable responsibility in the matter of his wrong-doing.  This darkness, together with remorse, constitutes a soul’s punishment.  Black darkness, silence, solitude, and remorse can be very terrible things.  Form any point of view in darkness a spirit-soul, through coming to a full realization of his misdeed and repenting fully therefor, and becoming possessed of a sincere desire to rectify his wrong doing and start on his journey or progression, may finally emerge from the blackest dark into phases of less darkness until finally he is permitted to follow some ministering spirit out into the light.”

Soul Culture

“The reason that these places of punishment are in darkness is that the spirit-souls inhabiting them have no effulgence, no light. You understand, child, that the spirit world is lighted by the radiance of its spiritual occupants.  You have experienced this gorgeous effulgence when sitting in the silence in your own home.  Many times, in the dead of night, your room has lighted up with a radiance whose beauty you cannot describe and many times you have seen spirits, themselves manifesting only as lights, some tine as pinpoints, some like flickering candle flames, some great balls of fire: every shade and hue from the palest mauve-violet to the deepest purple, from the faintest pink to the deepest rose, from the frailest yellow to the most flamboyant orange.  Is it not so?

“In the realms of spirit, soul culture is made manifest by the color and brightness of a spirit-soul’s light and those of a high degree of development radiate lovely, vivid colors.  As one progresses spiritually his light and color become more glorious and intense until it becomes difficult for those in his own phase to look upon his blazing radiance.  He is then about to pass on into the next higher phase or plane.

“As a spirit-soul qualifies through works of progress to advance from phase and plane to plane, his vibration rate is immeasurably accelerated and and his soul-body becomes more and more refined as to the ethereal substance that composes it, until in his final expression of being, he becomes pure consciousness without the need of anything but spirit-mind with which to satisfactorily demonstrate personality. He may, of course, retain the soul-body of his last expression, if for any reason he wishes to do so.”
___________________

(The final part, including “No Spirit Graveyards,” Requirements of Spirit,” Nothing to be Feared” and “Mistaken Concepts” will appear in a future blog.”

Michael Tymn is the author of The Afterlife Revealed: What Happens After We Die, Resurrecting Leonora Piper: How Science Discovered the Afterlife, and Dead Men Talking: Afterlife Communication from World War I.
His latest book, No One Really Dies: 25 Reasons to Believe in an Afterlife is published by White Crow books.