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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 48

Spiritual Teachings on the Mind or Soul of Man

Spiritual Teachings on the Mind or Soul of Man.

This important subject is also the most difficult of any within the range of spiritual investigation, inasmuch as we, spiritualists, have usually but little reliable outside data to compare with our own experience; however, I shall endeavour to relate what has been spiritually taught to me and that only because of its, to me, apparent feasibleness, leaving others to hold their own opinions on these points with as much freedom and goodwill as I do my own.

The reason given to me for there being duplicate organs of bodily generation and also corresponding phrenological bumps on either side of the brain was this; one side of each human being is male and the other female, and if the mind in the process of copulation impels a life spark down the spinal marrow either on the male side or the female, the current completing its circuit by returning to the brain on the reverse side from which it proceeded on its journey, should the current be positive or male, then the semen becomes vivified to that sex, and is then capable of causing the fertilisation of an ovum for the production of a male child; but some women rarely produce other than masculine, and others again generally female offspring. When such is the case the ova becomes capable of fertilisation usually only in the one direction, thus should the current come down on the male side of the woman's body, the ova is in that sex ready for fertilisation, but it is also usually necessary that the current should set in from the corresponding side with the man; and this was stated to me to be one of the reasons why some women have been so barren to certain men, whilst they were fertile to others; however, of course, I have no proof of this, further than it was given to me as a spiritual communication on a matter with which I am but little acquainted, and therefore unable to say authoritatively anything either for or against the theory, and another remark made was that whatever organs of the brain had been most recently exercised before the copulation process, were most likely to be strongly represented in the infant resulting from the union, provided the woman has sufficient of that portion of organ of the mind to be able to make a fair copy of her husband's disposition in that particular. Also where there is true love on the part of the wife, she will instinctively endeavour to photo her husband's mental peculiarities; but it is absolutely necessary for the purpose of making a sound mental photograph of her partner that she shall be able to physchologically comprehend him; thus, however beautiful, loving, and interesting a wife an intellectual man may have, still if she has not the brain power, she can hardly be able to render a good brain copy of her husband's mind, although she may produce a tolerably correct bodily likeness, and even then the likeness will not eventually be so perfect as that which a more intellectual woman would have been able to produce, inasmuch as that when the child grows up the difference in mind will show very strongly on the physiognomy sometimes, and almost obliterate the physical likeness that had existed in youth. They also stated that the showily intellectual women are generally not so good at this mental photography as the quietly thoughtful ones, page 6 the reverse holding good as to personal advantages. One intention of the Divine Being in the scheme of human procreation is this, that after death the positive and negative spirits (man and wife) shall unite together and form a dual individuality, not, however, destroying the self-consciousness of each one of the pair; that self-consciousness and absolute loving equality being one of the main sensations of joy to be experienced for never ending time, and this should be a most authoritative reason for acting with truth, love, and honour in this life, so as to have but few secrets to be revealed hereafter.

Where there is great difference in mind an earthly union is sometimes not consumated in spirit life, but such ultimate union, nevertheless, is the highest reward to be granted or rejected by the female at her desire, she not being prompted by mean motives, for such evils are buried in the earth from which they sprang.

One illustration given to me to show the necessity for male and female union in earth life, was this:—"What is the use of the right blade of a pair of shears without the left?" and for the purposes for which the shears were made the conclusion is obvious that without the two being joined almost as one, the end for which they were made is lost.

Again, they said that the highest intellectual condition of earthly humanity could have been better attained had God so willed it that the male and female spirits should exist in one body, but then for the purposes of procreation it would have been necessary to have had organs of male and female generation also, in the one organism; that difficulty has been overcome in some species, both of the vegetable and lower animal kingdoms, and means could have been found by the all-powerful spirit world to effect something similar with mankind; for the sake of the offspring the better plan was taken of creating the higher animals with their generative organs placed in separate bodies.

Another spiritual communication was this, that polygamy, although countenanced by the spirit world in ancient times, almost as a necessity, on account of the constant wars and rapines carried on amongst barbarous tribes (and in which consisted the worst portion of their barbarism), is not now desired by God, more particularly amongst the more advanced races for this sufficient reason, that it prevents the woman from taking her fair half of the home governing power, and it is now the Divine wish that women shall occupy as high a position as men in all matters where reason shows to them and to honourable men that their influence would be both gratifying to themselves as free agents, and salutary to the general welfare. In the spirit world, however, the case is different, there polygamy may and is sometimes practised, although the happiness attained by the union of two is as complete and perfect as that of one male and several female spirits. The converse state of more than one male joined in union with female spirit or spirits, is unnatural according to the conditions necessary for happiness, and therefore never practised. The illustration given to me to show this, was that of several wheels joined together by one axle; the bond of union is the male principle or axle, there may be three or four wheels attached to it, there can be but one centre piece if the machine is to run smoothly; however, one of each sex is sufficient in spirit life to constitute a perfect dual, and there is no necessity for us to desire or hope for anything different.

The fact of the nearly agreeing numbers of the sexes at birth in different parts of the world would appear to partly corroborate this statement. From statistics that I have read it seems that male births rather outnumber the female; the spirit communication on this point, referred to the New Testament text about the unforgiven sin, he that outrages the affections of all the females with whom he is acquainted with in earth life, is in danger of never enjoying the perfect happiness of the dual state. I am now alluding to the vilest of men. A man may behave badly to one woman and yet retain the affections of another; but while, if just and right so to do, the female spirit may and can join in a union of three, two of whom being females, the male spirit has no such chance.

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However, if a man by ill-treatment and disloyalty, loses her that should be his partner, perhaps he may be accepted by the spirit of his mistress or the mistress of others; there is no need for me to argue the matter out to the fullest extent, let us endeavour to avoid its possibility. The punishment allotted to these crimes is not willingly inflicted by the spirit world, it arises rather from the necessities of the dual state; she who has been martyred all her life to please her hard task-master (who perhaps is also a man of infamous memories in other respects), we can hardly expect to show the virtues of total forgiveness when such would be productive in the dual state of a large amount of unpleasant thought and memory always present and to last for all time. No, no, that would never do; better for each, if possible, to choose suitable partners according to their mental and moral condition. I asked the question, would it not be possible to create fresh female spirits for ultimate union with such lost ones, and the answer was that "neither justice nor reason could permit of the union of the vile with the virtuous," that is with such spirits as I spoke of, who would of necessity be spotlessly pure; justice and reason being against it, mercy has to be silent.

There is no intentional punishment for any crime committed on earth, but on account of the fact that all that exists of the human being after what we call death, or rather spirit birth, is mind; capable of enormously strong powers of memory and sensation, both of pleasure and pain; therefore it is that ideas which we might often forget in earth life, can never be avoided for one moment in the eternal state, and it has been on account of this that all the best developed religions given from on high to humanity, have endeavoured to teach men to act well one towards the other, in order that they may have less to regret hereafter. The various schemes of salvation (so called) have been divinely appointed through various chosen men, to suit the condition of the races for whom it was intended; some few have been given to show other people what to avoid. Now most persons, not actually Mormons, would say at once that Joseph Smith, the Mormon leader, could never have received Divine help in his apostleship, because they say that even the Book itself was an ungrammatical fraud, from the commencement, and that had God wished to give a new religion to the world it would have surely at any rate have been as well worded as the more ancient affairs of the same kind. Now from my experience of Spiritualism, it would seem that the fact of bad grammar or error of any other kind is no certain disproof of spiritual origin; and, again, by means of Mormonism we are able to judge as to the advantages and disadvantages of a theocratic form of government; to see also, how mutual help caused Nauvoo and afterwards Salt Lake to be flourishing cities, also to show the real effects of polygamy, and thereby to let the European races choose as to which system they consider best adapted to their conditions of life, and all these experiments are made right under their own noses, by people of similar race. I can plainly see the advantages of the experiment, and also those of the Spiritualist Free Lovers, &c. Joseph Smith and all other religious inventors claim Divine assistance, and for my own part I shall neither deny nor affirm it; some may be swindlers, but not all. But of this I am thoroughly certain, that few, if any, spiritual communications are entirely free from errors either amongst ancient or modern religions; the ancient faiths are all greatly different, and therefore cannot all be literally true Anything from a Divine source that is free from defect of one sort or other from end to end, must almost certainly have been revised by the human brain of the medium or his sucessors. Paradoxical as it may seem, the error in a spiritually written communication is, to some extent, the proof that it is of Divine origin.

The ancient and modern religions have all of them numerous examples of unreliability; opponents constantly cite them as absolutely overthrowing the possibility of their being of Divine origin. Is it not, however, possible that these so-called schemes of salvation have been given, not so much for purposes connected with the future, but rather to cause men to learn how to govern themselves in earth life while making history to teach page 8 future generations, and that even the errors themselves have been so accurately arranged by the spirit world that when civilisation and science should have advanced to a certain pitch, the religions would fall down of their own weight, as did the walls of Jericho, according to the Old Book; and whether that be true or not, at any rate the scientific trumpets blown at the present day must, ere long, destroy the old superstitions so as to make way for a true and wholesome worship of the Supreme Being. When the higher intellects of the various more advanced races shall take it fairly on their own shoulders to establish systems whereby man's inner desire for something to venerate shall be thoroughly satisfied, and a correct system of morals being taught at the same time with little advice to the godhead on things we don't understand. When this occurs, we shall have fairly passed over this transition state that at present gives so little satisfaction to many thinking minds. There are plenty of materials at hand of Divine and human origin, the Hebrew Scriptures, and also much that is excellent from other inspired sources; retain the good, reject the evil and useless. The spirit world cares but little whether we worship or not, and most certainly, as a rule, will not alter the laws of God or nature at our foolish requests. To us, however, belongs the right and duty of worship towards our Maker, that worship often rendering great service to ourselves; he who promises (as he justly believes in the presence of God) to endeavour to check an evil habit, has really done much towards helping himself to keep his good intention, and in fact answers his own prayer by calling up all his energies to carry it out. I do not deny or affirm that prayer has never been answered in any other sense, in that sense it is potent and that is quite sufficient for the present purpose.

If I were to die before you, reader, would your worship of my spirit give me any pleasure? No, certainly not; but rather pain; and it is just the same with all those who have departed thousands of years before us. However, to worship the spirit world in Unity, as what it really is, viz., the Most High God, the benevolent Ruler of the Universe, is evidently a proper and grateful act. Let our higher civilisations take heed to it on their own heads, for after the thousands of years of training for that and other grand purposes, if we in earth life cannot carry it out thoroughly, then has that training been in vain. Nature teaches many of us that He is unvarying, and never errs; if so he cannot have blundered in this most essential point.

It is well that there are several noble men of advanced views holding office in many of the Christian churches at the present day; they and kindred minds in the scientific world, are the salt of the earth, necessary in preparing the minds of men towards what must come, viz., a religion based on sound scientific as well as religious fact; and to them we must look for help in the present evil day, when men are wandering about as sheep having no shepherd, not because they will not, but because they cannot believe some of the teachings of old times, and therefore feel impelled to reject the whole, in some instances muddling themselves about spirit writing and table rappings when totally unsuited for such enquiries, and thus instead of advancing in religious thought, are apt to become mere recorders of dancing mahogany and small beer chronicle generally. The spiritual intercourse granted to mankind during the last thirty years has not been intended by the Supreme Ruler to be the means of founding a new religion (as was the case with the olden forms of revelation), but rather to assist the men of science and thought in pulling down the old buildings, thus clearing the ground for a noble offering to Deity in the shape of a voluntary system of worship avowedly planned and carried out by man in the flesh. As to the scientific thinkers, their work has been well done and borne excellent fruit, resulting perhaps in this, that very few intelligent ministers or members of Church of England congregations would like to deliberately avow their unreserved belief in all the Thirty-nine Articles of Mother Church; but the vast mass of the people is not so easily moved by mere words from men they are not capable of appreciating, therefore for this and other reasons a novel system of spiritual converse was carried out page 9 in our generation, by means of which any member of the spirit world is allowed (his perfected reason, and no other, telling him what to do) to give communications, but so as not to leave men in the flesh a chance of founding a new priest-ridden or superstitious religion; because we are now fairly out of leading strings, and those who have gone before us do not wish to re-enslave us; so the spiritual assistance to science takes the form of communications most convincing to the person who receives it, and but little capable of being imparted to others as an article of faith; still the result arrived at by them is of course, as might be expected, thoroughly gained, and people who otherwise would, in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary, stick to their unreasoning faith like limpets to a rock, are by the gentle influence of Spiritualism, gradually weaned from the old superstitions, and at present have nothing of much importance to put in place of thereof, therefore the sooner true reformers of genius take the matter fairly in hand, the better for the interests of all humanity.