Chapter II - Imposition and Demonstration
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from the mind of the living, who, believing in this pro-
from the mind of the living, who, believing in this pro-
cess or yearning for this communion mentally call for it,
and this reaches the mind touched to response, and
brings on the mood called mediumship. All theories
and manifestations growing out of belief are error: and
the important era for this age is the awakening or res-
urrection of understanding through which the unreal
yields to the real, and 'isms are given up; the corrupti-
ble yields to the incorruptible, and the belief of Life in
matter or Soul in sense gives place to the understanding
of Life, that Wisdom, Love, and Truth, in which
there is no conscious matter.
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It follows not that in sleep we communicate with the
It follows not that in sleep we communicate with the
dreamer at our side, because of his proximity, or that
we both are dreamers wandering through the mazes of
thought. If Life has become real to the departed, they
cannot return to the unreal; or if they are at our side,
and Life goes on to them the same as before, we are not
in their conscious existence, nor they in ours, hence, we
are debarred intercommunion; our dreams being dis-
tinct they cannot blend, though we are side by side. If
those we call departed have gained a better understand-
ing of Life than ours, they have advanced beyond us;
in which case, we would not if we could draw them
back to our ignorance in order to meet us, and we could
not if we would; neither can we advance to their plane
of understanding except through their footsteps, and
these have not yet been taken. If one man dreams he
is crossing the Atlantic, and another the Andes, they
are not in communion, though they are side by side,
and dreamers both. This therefore represents the so‑
called dead and living who are on earthly planes of
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error, and have not become Spirit, but cannot communi-
error, and have not become Spirit, but cannot communi-
cate, because their beliefs of death have separated them.
Again, supposing one man is dreaming and another
awake, conscious of his friend's illusion, they certainly
do not meet mentally and mingle; even thus the dead
and living are parted, either through a belief that they
died, or the understanding of Life outside of matter.
Memory may repeat the alphabet, and mind here hold
the history of the dead, but if we can read, we never in
reality go back to the alphabet, or find pleasure in it;
thus the advanced mind cannot return to matter.
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Soul's vision is independent of optics; but the belief
Soul's vision is independent of optics; but the belief
that sight depends on the eye, and thought must have
sound to reach our apprehension, shuts out the under-
standing of mind, and reverses the order of science.
Destroy the belief that we owe to organization, our
hearing, seeing, feeling, etc., and we hear without an
auditory nerve or typanum, and see without optics.
We shall all ere long prove this, and that spiritual
senses are true, and the personal, false. An organ is
but the symbol of sight, hearing, etc., the expression
only of these; and to hold it thus, would be to retain
our faculties by right of Soul's ownership and gov-
ernment; and to hear, see, etc., with mind instead
of matter; which is the only scientific statement of
sense and the Principle of immortal man. The real re-
lation between Soul and body reveals the latter without
sensation or Intelligence, and the idea of Soul; to un-
derstand this opens to view the capabilities of being,
untrammeled by personal sense, explains the so-called
miracles, and brings out the infinite possibilities of Soul,
controlling matter, discerning mind, and restoring man's