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.

Don and Paul,

Don your question has prompted a message which comes from a series of questions and answers from a little known book. Paul related the joy of his discovery of his forgotten reference book which acts as a link to Howard E Lee preface and my finding of Lee’s book (my adventure in to Spiritualism). Paul’s generosity of spirit flowed in to various reading paths. Thanks for the present.

In a similar fashion I came across this little known book which arrived only yesterday by a chance mention. I followed the lead.

I started to explore it as I felt that it was important to our discussions. Don’s question showed me the relevance to discussions. This is a round about way of saying I sometimes get a heads up by the spirit team about the nature of future discussions. The information for Don is as follows:

Flashes of Light from the Spirit Land through the mediumship of Mrs. J.H. Conant
https://ia800804.us.archive.org/33/items/flashesoflightfr00putn/flashesoflightfr00putn.pdf
P 53

The foreword has the background of the band of spirits forming The Banner of Light magazine and the role of the medium Mrs Conant “It is said by those who know her well that she possesses no intellectual or literary abilities…But in this work are more than two hundred pages of impromptu answers, through Mrs. Conant, verbatim as they fell from her lips. And as such they are a prolonged miracle of correct grammar, of perspicuity and relevancy. Occasionally very good versification, bordering at times upon good poetry, flows forth from her lips; yet in her normal state nothing of the kind ever came from her tongue or pen.

Q. As human souls unfold in spirit-life, will they also pass farther away from our earth? If so, will the memory of having lived upon the earth finally become obliterated from their minds?
A.. The soul is not bound to any special locality. It exists independent of locality. It is not at all necessary that the soul should pass away from the earth and its conditions after it rises from a state of ignorance to a state of wisdom, or from unhappiness to happiness, for there are quite as many souls in the kingdom of wisdom on the earth as anywhere else ; and quite as many souls in the kingdom of heaven even, here upon earth, as in the farthest condition of human existence that you are able to conceive of. The soul is not governed by localities, or by the conditions of time. It is of itself a thing eternal. It belongs to eternity, and progresses according to the laws of eternal life.

Q. Was there ever a period in the history of man when his soul was not an immortal entity?
A. The soul we believe to be co-existent with God, and therefore eternal. We believe it ever had an existence as a distinct entity, and we believe it will ever continue to have an existence; but that it will perpetually change its form of manifestations so that while you recognize it by its external expressions, you will be apt to consider that it has changed states, has lost its priority ; but it is not so. It is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.

By William S. Channing, Oct. 10, 1887.

Thanks,
Bruce

Michael,

Another fascinating blog. It sounds like the spirit of clergyman Henry Ward Beecher was significantly influenced by his earthly attendance at Amherst College during the peak of the 2nd Great Awakening. He describes the nature of reality as a university setting in which one takes courses and advances further in her studies with endless opportunities for advancement.

Even the “realms of darkness” seem to be a place with levels of darkness. He speaks of planes and spheres and zones and phases with ranks and files. He even points out that he is using collegiate metaphors. “Some subjects are required and others are elective…One may skip a grade…and return for post-graduate work.”

May I ask if the nature of reality has changed from the infinite past prior to the invention of the university setting? Or did universities get invented because they are expressions of the fundamental way that life works? Wouldn’t neanderthal “spirits” have a very different way of enlightening us as to the nature of reality? Or how would “spirits” of Mesopotamia in 3,200 B.C. describe the nature of reality?

It seems to me that any alleged communications from the “dead” should be suspect, first for their authenticity alone, but then even if we are truly hearing from a surviving spirit, why would we assume he is telling the truth or that he knows what he’s talking about? We have brilliant and ignorant people here. It seems likely there are the same throughout the universe.

Anyway, I am grateful to you for all the work you put into these blogs and I look forward to the next one.

Gratefully,

Brian Anthony Kraemer
1310 Arbutus Ave. Unit 2
Chico, CA 95926-2632
(530) 321-3964 (cell)

Stafford Betty…

Interesting question. Any attempt to address the “where did it come from” aspect of the spirit-world is probably going to involve a dive into general impressions since, for the obvious reasons, we have no detailed input from predecessors who were actually there.

Whatever information we do have, starting with Swedenborg, later from Andrew Davis and the mid-1800’s crew, and so on, would seem to indicate a world of spirit that preceded the world of matter, having come into existence as an “emanation” from the original “Source” (the One, the All, God, Ein Sof, whatever name floats your own particular boat.

No matter how we look at it, our material world would seem to be the “effect” of the original “cause”(a thought of God) with the world of spirit being an “intermediary effect.” (All of which opinion is worth precisely what you paid for it…)

Mike – good blog.

I find it interesting that the author talks about balls of light as being spirits. I sometimes wonder whether some of the balls of light that are reported as part of the UFO experience are also not intelligence in a spirit form.

Mike S

Thanks for this rare gem, Michael. I did not know about it previously or it would have featured in my most recent documentary, ‘Spirits Talking: Can they be Trusted?’ which is all about spirits reporting on the nature of the Other Side. You are without doubt the best-read authority on this older and obscure material.

Beecher writes, “the spirit world is lighted by the radiance of its spiritual occupants.” I have long wondered where the spirit world came from. I’ve never thought it evolved like our planet or anything else grossly physical. But is there another way to look at the origin of the afterworld? I unthinkingly assumed it was created by some outside source.

Thanks, Michael for another interesting blog.  I feel that I have to comment about Hicks’ (Beecher’s) statement that, “[M]any times you have seen spirits, themselves manifesting only as lights, some time as pinpoints, some like flickering candle flames, some great balls of fire:”

I think it should be kept in mind that there are many ophthalmologic reasons for “pinpoints” and “flickering” light that one may see that are due to physiological reasons that may not have been considered by Mediums and others of years ago.  They are not manifestations of spirit entities.  I myself just sneezed and had several pinpoints of light (phosphenes) speed across my vision.  In addition, I am plagued by “scintillating scotomas” from time to time which are zig-zag arcs of colored lights which could be described as “flickering candle flames.”  They last about 20 minutes in my vision.  I have also seen flashes of light due to detaching or tugging vitreous in the past. There are other eye conditions such a detached retina and brain problems which produce a sensation of light.  And, recently I saw “ball lightning” inside of my house, but that was during a thunderstorm and there was no reason to believe that it was a spirit trying to contact me.

Just saying, but I think there is the possibility that when one sees these various physiological light sensations that one should not jump to the conclusion that they are spirits.  - AOD