Published in 1906 | 212 pages | PDF reader required
FOREWORD
To understand things as they are the world must have truth. While it has made gigantic strides in all the arts and sciences, hardly a step has been taken in the way that leads to a knowledge of man's ultimate end.
Belief will not change natural law; Faith will not save or condemn one; Ignorance will not excuse one; Traditions stay progression, while doubt is the dawn of reason. Why not find now, if possible, some solution of this problem and what this life leads to? Long ago I became satisfied that nothing ever dies, that those who in dissolution pass from this earth-plane still live, and that, if the conditions were made right, they could talk with us voice to voice. Now, after fifteen years' scientific research and experiment, I have made a condition so perfect that, with the aid of Mrs. Emily S. French (whose psychic powers have been developed), I am able to carry on freely conversation with spirits out of the body.
Thousands who have passed through the change called Death, who live and labor in the world of thought around and about us, have told me something of the laws that govern all life beyond, what they find, how they live, have talked of their occupations and their progression. In this book I give instances of that which has thus been given to me, in many cases using their own words as marked in quotations. I have not given the names of the great men and women who have spoken, preferring at this time to let their teachings appeal to the reason of mankind.
I do not seek to prove that soul-life follows dissolution,—that is self-evident to all intelligent men and women,—but to give some information of the character and condition of that life among the spheres of progression. I would reach the thinkers, those who reason. Pearls of thought are for those who dive deep; in the shallows one finds only pebbles. These pages will not appeal to those who fear damnation as the penalty of searching for truth. But there are many who, working in the fields of knowledge, will welcome a co-labourer. Such would I join, bringing with me these teachings from planes beyond.
It is time that men who know that those out of the body can and do talk to men, put away fear of the speech of people, and lend the weight of personality to this philosophy of truth. I know many who acknowledge this fact in private but who are silent in public, fearing the arrows of criticism, poison-tipped with prejudice. It takes courage to stem the tide of public opinion, but when one knows he ought to be brave enough to stand up and be counted— no one can do his duty and do less.
No one can realize more than I do how great is this task. In the beginning the way was blazed; but later I travelled along uncharted ways through a wilderness of information. It is with difficulty that I clothe the philosophy that has been given me; but I have this satisfaction, that every page has been reviewed by spirits who have given me this knowledge, and that what is now given is true,—a message from the spirit to the material world.
I have no need of creeds nor use for faiths. Positive knowledge has displaced them both, and I have come to know there is no death: there are no dead. That change is one step only in life's progression, in the unceasing march of evolution, in which neither identity nor individuality is lost, and that life goes on and labour continues as the soul works toward perfection, for Progress is an absolute law that nothing can resist. I know that what to us seems space is filled with intelligent and comprehensive life, governed by laws more fixed and immutable than our own. I know that origin and destiny are no longer beyond the grasp of the human mind: that spirit which is life, when clothed with material, is visible to the physical eye; when separated, is invisible: that dissolution is not annihilation, but liberation and opportunity. I know that man has no Redeemer but himself; that God is universal good and dwells in the heart of all mankind.
Now we sail the intellectual seas, making soundings and charts on the farther shore. We are coming to understand and master the blind forces of Nature, as we open the windows in the chamber of thought, and to comprehend the economy of natural law. The higher peaks are being climbed, and lips grow rich with words of truth.
Edward C. Randall.
August 10, 1905.
