LIFE AFTER DEATH: problems of the future life and its nature
Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original hardcover edition for enjoyable reading.
an excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I - PRIMATIVE CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL AND A FUTURE LIFE
1. The Soul and its Discovery
IT is impossible in the compass of a chapter to present the various conceptions of an afterlife which have existed in the history of the human race. This would require several volumes by itself and hence I can but refer to them in the most general way. Even then I shall have in mind only the relation of these beliefs to their unity in psychic phenomena. It is probable that the differences of all the world religions can be unified in psychic phenomena. If that be true we are on the track of their origin, in spite of an evolution that has taken some of them so far away from the original as to have destroyed the traces of it, at least for any superficial observation. It is also true that the traces might actually be there, were we in possession of the knowledge that would enable us to see them.
I do not know any better proof of this last remark than Herbert Spencer's discussion of Ghosts and another life. One who is familiar with the phenomena that have come under the observation of psychic researchers will discover in the facts reported from savages of all types, widely separated in the world and without any connection either racially or geographically, distinct indications of characteristics that are quite intelligible to us but were not so to Mr. Spencer. He had supposed that it was so necessary to conceive the statements of savages in purely sensory forms that he made no allowance for their idealization and as he repudiated psychic research he was without a standard for estimating the possibilities in the reported ideas of savages. The traces of the real experiences of savages are actually present, but neither he nor anyone else, who was not familiar with actual human experience to-day, could see those traces.
Mr. Spencer's thesis is that religion originated in the phenomena of dreams and ghosts, but as he treated dreams and ghosts as hallucinations, he invalidated religion with them. Many critics do not accept his view of its origin and it is probable that other facts went with them among savages to originate the full content of what is meant by religion. But it is more than probable that the idea of immortality arose from dreams and ghosts in which the dead purported to appear. This is no place to examine his views, however, at any length. I wish only to call attention to his chapters for readers who may be interested in seeing for themselves the relation which he never saw nor admitted, if he did see it.
There is no doubt that the highly developed ideas of religion in the present day have no identity of a definite kind with this remote origin, but that would make no difference for the evolutionist who knew his problem. The method of thinking which is involved in setting up a transcendental world from ghost experiences and dreams, even supposing they were purely subjective phenomena, is the same as that which endeavors to etherealize nature by the methods of modern science, and all that religion has ever done, when setting up the spiritual, has been to suppose some sort of "double" necessary to explain things. It may be wrong, if you like, but the method of wrong thinking is the same as right thinking, and it will only be a question of evidence to distinguish the one from the other.
1025639591
an excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I - PRIMATIVE CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL AND A FUTURE LIFE
1. The Soul and its Discovery
IT is impossible in the compass of a chapter to present the various conceptions of an afterlife which have existed in the history of the human race. This would require several volumes by itself and hence I can but refer to them in the most general way. Even then I shall have in mind only the relation of these beliefs to their unity in psychic phenomena. It is probable that the differences of all the world religions can be unified in psychic phenomena. If that be true we are on the track of their origin, in spite of an evolution that has taken some of them so far away from the original as to have destroyed the traces of it, at least for any superficial observation. It is also true that the traces might actually be there, were we in possession of the knowledge that would enable us to see them.
I do not know any better proof of this last remark than Herbert Spencer's discussion of Ghosts and another life. One who is familiar with the phenomena that have come under the observation of psychic researchers will discover in the facts reported from savages of all types, widely separated in the world and without any connection either racially or geographically, distinct indications of characteristics that are quite intelligible to us but were not so to Mr. Spencer. He had supposed that it was so necessary to conceive the statements of savages in purely sensory forms that he made no allowance for their idealization and as he repudiated psychic research he was without a standard for estimating the possibilities in the reported ideas of savages. The traces of the real experiences of savages are actually present, but neither he nor anyone else, who was not familiar with actual human experience to-day, could see those traces.
Mr. Spencer's thesis is that religion originated in the phenomena of dreams and ghosts, but as he treated dreams and ghosts as hallucinations, he invalidated religion with them. Many critics do not accept his view of its origin and it is probable that other facts went with them among savages to originate the full content of what is meant by religion. But it is more than probable that the idea of immortality arose from dreams and ghosts in which the dead purported to appear. This is no place to examine his views, however, at any length. I wish only to call attention to his chapters for readers who may be interested in seeing for themselves the relation which he never saw nor admitted, if he did see it.
There is no doubt that the highly developed ideas of religion in the present day have no identity of a definite kind with this remote origin, but that would make no difference for the evolutionist who knew his problem. The method of thinking which is involved in setting up a transcendental world from ghost experiences and dreams, even supposing they were purely subjective phenomena, is the same as that which endeavors to etherealize nature by the methods of modern science, and all that religion has ever done, when setting up the spiritual, has been to suppose some sort of "double" necessary to explain things. It may be wrong, if you like, but the method of wrong thinking is the same as right thinking, and it will only be a question of evidence to distinguish the one from the other.
LIFE AFTER DEATH: problems of the future life and its nature
Scanned, proofed and corrected from the original hardcover edition for enjoyable reading.
an excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I - PRIMATIVE CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL AND A FUTURE LIFE
1. The Soul and its Discovery
IT is impossible in the compass of a chapter to present the various conceptions of an afterlife which have existed in the history of the human race. This would require several volumes by itself and hence I can but refer to them in the most general way. Even then I shall have in mind only the relation of these beliefs to their unity in psychic phenomena. It is probable that the differences of all the world religions can be unified in psychic phenomena. If that be true we are on the track of their origin, in spite of an evolution that has taken some of them so far away from the original as to have destroyed the traces of it, at least for any superficial observation. It is also true that the traces might actually be there, were we in possession of the knowledge that would enable us to see them.
I do not know any better proof of this last remark than Herbert Spencer's discussion of Ghosts and another life. One who is familiar with the phenomena that have come under the observation of psychic researchers will discover in the facts reported from savages of all types, widely separated in the world and without any connection either racially or geographically, distinct indications of characteristics that are quite intelligible to us but were not so to Mr. Spencer. He had supposed that it was so necessary to conceive the statements of savages in purely sensory forms that he made no allowance for their idealization and as he repudiated psychic research he was without a standard for estimating the possibilities in the reported ideas of savages. The traces of the real experiences of savages are actually present, but neither he nor anyone else, who was not familiar with actual human experience to-day, could see those traces.
Mr. Spencer's thesis is that religion originated in the phenomena of dreams and ghosts, but as he treated dreams and ghosts as hallucinations, he invalidated religion with them. Many critics do not accept his view of its origin and it is probable that other facts went with them among savages to originate the full content of what is meant by religion. But it is more than probable that the idea of immortality arose from dreams and ghosts in which the dead purported to appear. This is no place to examine his views, however, at any length. I wish only to call attention to his chapters for readers who may be interested in seeing for themselves the relation which he never saw nor admitted, if he did see it.
There is no doubt that the highly developed ideas of religion in the present day have no identity of a definite kind with this remote origin, but that would make no difference for the evolutionist who knew his problem. The method of thinking which is involved in setting up a transcendental world from ghost experiences and dreams, even supposing they were purely subjective phenomena, is the same as that which endeavors to etherealize nature by the methods of modern science, and all that religion has ever done, when setting up the spiritual, has been to suppose some sort of "double" necessary to explain things. It may be wrong, if you like, but the method of wrong thinking is the same as right thinking, and it will only be a question of evidence to distinguish the one from the other.
an excerpt from the beginning of:
CHAPTER I - PRIMATIVE CONCEPTIONS OF THE SOUL AND A FUTURE LIFE
1. The Soul and its Discovery
IT is impossible in the compass of a chapter to present the various conceptions of an afterlife which have existed in the history of the human race. This would require several volumes by itself and hence I can but refer to them in the most general way. Even then I shall have in mind only the relation of these beliefs to their unity in psychic phenomena. It is probable that the differences of all the world religions can be unified in psychic phenomena. If that be true we are on the track of their origin, in spite of an evolution that has taken some of them so far away from the original as to have destroyed the traces of it, at least for any superficial observation. It is also true that the traces might actually be there, were we in possession of the knowledge that would enable us to see them.
I do not know any better proof of this last remark than Herbert Spencer's discussion of Ghosts and another life. One who is familiar with the phenomena that have come under the observation of psychic researchers will discover in the facts reported from savages of all types, widely separated in the world and without any connection either racially or geographically, distinct indications of characteristics that are quite intelligible to us but were not so to Mr. Spencer. He had supposed that it was so necessary to conceive the statements of savages in purely sensory forms that he made no allowance for their idealization and as he repudiated psychic research he was without a standard for estimating the possibilities in the reported ideas of savages. The traces of the real experiences of savages are actually present, but neither he nor anyone else, who was not familiar with actual human experience to-day, could see those traces.
Mr. Spencer's thesis is that religion originated in the phenomena of dreams and ghosts, but as he treated dreams and ghosts as hallucinations, he invalidated religion with them. Many critics do not accept his view of its origin and it is probable that other facts went with them among savages to originate the full content of what is meant by religion. But it is more than probable that the idea of immortality arose from dreams and ghosts in which the dead purported to appear. This is no place to examine his views, however, at any length. I wish only to call attention to his chapters for readers who may be interested in seeing for themselves the relation which he never saw nor admitted, if he did see it.
There is no doubt that the highly developed ideas of religion in the present day have no identity of a definite kind with this remote origin, but that would make no difference for the evolutionist who knew his problem. The method of thinking which is involved in setting up a transcendental world from ghost experiences and dreams, even supposing they were purely subjective phenomena, is the same as that which endeavors to etherealize nature by the methods of modern science, and all that religion has ever done, when setting up the spiritual, has been to suppose some sort of "double" necessary to explain things. It may be wrong, if you like, but the method of wrong thinking is the same as right thinking, and it will only be a question of evidence to distinguish the one from the other.
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LIFE AFTER DEATH: problems of the future life and its nature
LIFE AFTER DEATH: problems of the future life and its nature
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Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940011947759 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | OGB |
| Publication date: | 11/03/2010 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 372 KB |
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