Chapter XII: The Celtic Doctrine of Re-Birth and Otherworld Scientifically Examined (5)

[558] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 24; also Bergier, _Dict. de Théol._, v. 405.

[559] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 32. But there is some disagreement in this matter of dates: Petrus Damianus, _Vita S. Odilonis_, in the Bollandist _Acta Sanctorum_, January 1, records a legend of how the Abbot Odilon decreed that November 2, the day after All Saints' Day, should be set apart for services for the departed (cf. Tylor, _Prim. Cult._,{4} ii. 37 n.).

[560] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 1 n.

[561] Part II, sec. 4; c. 4, par. 8; cf. Bergier, _Dict. de Théol._, iv. 322.

[562] P. 11{a}, l. 19; in Stokes's _Tripartite Life_, Intro., p. 194.

[563] _Enchiridion_, chap. cx; _Testament of St. Ephrem_ (ed. Vatican), ii. 230, 236; Euseb., _de Vita Constant._, liv. iv, c. lx. 556, c. lxx. 562; cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 30-1.

[564] St. Ambroise, _de Obitu Theodosii_, ii. 1197; cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 31 n.

[565] Cf. Godescard, _Vies des Saints_, xi. 31-2.

[566] I am indebted to Mr. William McDougall, M.A., Wilde Reader in Mental Philosophy in the University of Oxford, for having read through and criticized the first draft of this section; and while he is in no way responsible for the views set forth herein, nevertheless his suggestions for the improvement of their scientific framework have been of very great value. I must also express my obligation to him for having suggested through his Oxford lectures a good share of the important material interwoven into chapter xii touching the vitalistic view of evolution.

[567] Cf. C. Du Prel, _Philosophy of Mysticism_ (London, 1889), i. 7, 11.

[568] T. Ribot, _The Diseases of Personality_; cf. J. L. Nevius, _Demon Possession_ (London, 1897), pp. 234-5.

[569] _Proc. S. P. R._ (London), v. 167; cf. A. Lang, _Making of Religion_, p. 64.

[570] W. James, _Confidences of a 'Psychical Researcher'_, in _American Magazine_ (October 1909).

[571] A. Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_ (London, 1896), p. 35.

[572] According to Professor Freud, the well-known neurologist of Vienna, external stimuli are not admitted to the dream-consciousness in the same manner that they would be admitted to the waking-consciousness, but they are disguised and altered in particular ways (cf. S. Freud, _Die Traumdeutung_, 2nd ed., Vienna, 1909; and S. Ferenczi, _The Psychological Analysis of Dreams_, in _Amer. Journ. Psych._, April 1910, No. 2, xxi. 318, &c.).

[573] Du Prel, op. cit., i. 135.

[574] G. F. Stout, _Mr. F. W. Myers on 'Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death'_, in _Hibbert Journal_, ii, No. 1 (London, October 1903), p. 56.

[575] F. W. H. Myers, _Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death_ (London, 1903), i. 131.

[576] R. L. Stevenson, _Across the Plains_, chapter on Dreams.

[577] Stout, op. cit., p. 54.

[578] Freud, op. cit.; Ferenczi, op. cit.; E. Jones, _Freud's Theory of Dreams_, in _Amer. Journ. Psych._, April 1910, No. 2, xxi. 283-308.

[579] Freud, _The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis_, in _Amer. Journ. Psych._, April 1910, No. 2, xxi. 203.

[580] Du Prel, op. cit., i. 33.

[581] Myers, op. cit., i. 134.

[582] Fechner, _Zentralblatt für Anthropologie_, p. 774; cf. Du Prel, op. cit., i. 92.

[583] Haddock, _Somnolism and Psychism_, p. 213; cf. Du Prel, op. cit., i. 93.

[584] Perty, _Mystische Erscheinungen_, i. 305; cf. Du Prel, op. cit., ii. 63.

[585] Kerner, _Seherin v. Prevorst_, p. 196; cf. Du Prel, op. cit., ii. 65.

[586] Chardel, _Essai de Psychologie_, p. 344; cf. Du Prel, op. cit., ii. 64.

[587] Cf. Du Prel, op. cit., i. 88-9.

[588] Myers, op. cit., chapter vi.

[589] Stout, op. cit., pp. 64, 61-2.

[590] Lang, _Mr. Myers's Theory of 'The Subliminal Self'_, in _Hibbert Journal_, ii, No. 3 (April 1904), p. 530.

[591] The peculiar and often unique characteristics of the fairy-folk of any given fairy-faith, as we have pointed out in chapter iii (pp. 233, 282), are to be regarded as being merely anthropomorphically coloured reflections of the social life or environment of the particular ethnic group who hold the particular fairy-faith; and, as Mr. Lang here suggests, when they are stripped of these superficial characteristics, which are due to such social psychology, they become ghosts of the dead or other spiritual beings.

Our own researches lead us to the conviction that behind the purely mythical aspect of these fairy-faiths there exists a substantial substratum of real phenomena not yet satisfactorily explained by science; that such phenomena have been in the past and are at the present time the chief source of the belief in fairies, that they are the foundation underlying all fairy mythologies. We need only refer to the following phenomena observed among Celtic and other peoples, and attributed by them to 'fairy' or 'spirit' agency: (1) music which competent percipients believe to be of non-human origin, and hence by the Celts called 'fairy' music, whether this be vocal or instrumental in sound; (2) the movement of objects without known cause; (3) rappings and other noises called 'supernatural' (cf. pp. 81 n., 481-4, 488; also pp. 47, 57, 61, 67, 71, 72, 74, 88, 94, 98, 101, 120, 124, 125, 131, 132, 134, 139, 148, 156, 172, 181, 187, 213, 218, 220, &c.).

[592] It is our hope that this book will help to lessen the marked deficiency of recorded testimony concerning 'fairy' beings and 'fairy' phenomena observed by reliable percipients. We have endeavoured to demonstrate that genuine 'fairy' phenomena and genuine 'spirit' phenomena are in most cases identical. Hence we believe that if 'spirit' phenomena are worthy of the attention of science, equally so are 'fairy' phenomena. The fairy-belief _in its typical_ or _conventional aspects_ (apart from the animism which we discovered at the base of the belief) is, as was pointed out in our anthropological examination of the evidence (pp. 281-2), due to a very complex social psychology. In this chapter we have eliminated all social psychology, as not being the essential factor in the Fairy-Faith. Therefore, from our point of view, Mr. Lang's implied explanation of the typical fairy-visions, that they are due to 'suggestion acting on the subconscious self', does not apply to the rarer kind of fairy visions which form part of our x-quantity (see pp. 60-6, 83-4, &c.). If it does, then it also applies to all non-Celtic visions of spirits, in ancient and in modern times; and the animistic hypothesis now accepted by most psychical researchers, namely, that discarnate intelligences exist independent of the percipient, must be set aside in favour of the non-animistic hypothesis. If, on the other hand, it be admitted that 'fairy' phenomena are, as we maintain, essentially the same as 'spirit' phenomena, then the belief in fairies ceases to be purely mythical, and 'fairy' visions by a Celtic seer who is physically and psychically sound do not seem to arise from that seer's suggestion acting on his own subconsciousness; but certain types of 'fairy' visions undoubtedly do arise from suggestion, _coming from a 'fairy' or other intelligence_, acting on the conscious or subconscious content of the percipient's mind (cf. pp. 484-7).

[593] Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, pp. 208, 35.

[594] Sir Oliver Lodge, _Psychical Research_, in _Harper's Mag._, August 1908 (New York and London).

[595] Sir Oliver Lodge, _The Survival of Man_ (London, 1909), p. 339.

[596] James, op. cit., pp. 587-9.

[597] Readers are referred to such authoritative works as the _Phantasms of the Living_ (London, 1886), by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore; to the _Report on the Census of Hallucinations of Modern Spiritualism_, by Professor Sidgwick's Committee; to the _Naturalisation of the Supernatural_ (New York and London, 1908), by F. Podmore; to the _Survival of the Human Personality_, by F. W. H. Myers; and other like works, all of which originate from the _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_ (London).

[598] C. Flammarion, _Mysterious Psychic Forces_, pp. 441, 431.

[599] Sir Wm. Crookes, _Notes of an Enquiry into Phenomena called Spiritual, during the years 1870-73_ (London), Part III, p. 87.

[600] See _Quart. Journ. Science_ (July 1871).

[601] Cf. Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, p. 281; and for other cases of objects moved without contact see ib., pp. 50, 52, 53, 58, 122 ff. See also F. Podmore's article on _Poltergeists_, in _Proceedings S. P. R._, xii. 45-115; and his _Naturalisation of the Supernatural_, chapter vii.

[602] Sir Wm. Crookes, op. cit., Part III, p. 100.

[603] Ib., p. 94.

[604] Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, pp. 60, 81, 139, &c.

[605] Using as a basis the data of Professor Sidgwick's Committee and the results earlier obtained by Gurney, Myers, and Podmore (see _Phantasms of the Living_), Mr. William McDougall shows concisely the probability of an apparition appearing within twelve hours of the death of the individual whom it represents. He says:--'... of all recognized apparitions of living persons, only one in 19,000 may be expected to be a death-coincidence of this sort. But the census shows that of 1,300 recognized apparitions of living persons 30 are death-coincidences, and that is equivalent to 440 in 19,000. Hence, of recognized hallucinations, those coincident with death are 440 times more numerous than we should expect, if no causal relation obtained.' And Mr. McDougall concludes: '... since good evidence of telepathic communication has been experimentally obtained, the least improbable explanation of these death-apparitions is that the dying person exerts upon his distant friend some telepathic influence which generates an hallucinatory perception of himself' (_Hallucinations_, in _Ency. Brit._, 11th ed., xii. 863).

[606] Myers, op. cit., ii. 65, 45 ff., 49 ff., &c.

[607] Nevius, _Demon Possession_, Introduction, pp. iv, vii; pp. 240-2, 144-5. In accordance with all such phenomena, psychical researchers have logically called spirits manifesting themselves through the body of a living person possessing spirits. And as in the case of Chinese demon-possession, the phenomena of mediumship often result in the moral derangement, insanity, or even suicide on the part of 'mediums' who so unwisely exhibit it without special preparation or no preparation at all, and too often in complete ignorance of a possible gradual undermining of their psychic life, will-power, and even physical health. All of this seems to offer direct and certain evidence to sustain Christians and non-Christians in their condemnation of all forms of necromancy or calling up of spirits. The following statement will make our position towards mediumship of the most common kind clear:

In Druidism, for one example, disciples for training in magical sciences are said to have spent twenty years in severe study and special psychical training before deemed fit to be called Druids and thus to control daemons, ghosts, or all invisible entities capable of possessing living men and women. And even now in India and elsewhere there is reported to be still the same ancient course of severe disciplinary training for candidates seeking magical powers. But in modern Spiritualism conditions are altogether different in most cases, and 'mediums' instead of controlling with an iron will, as a magician does, spirits which become manifest in _séances_, surrender entirely their will-power and whole personality to them.

[608] Cf. Sigmund Freud, _The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis_, in _Amer. Journ. Psych._, xxi, No. 2 (April 1910).

[609] The fact that all matter is capable of assuming a gaseous or invisible state furnishes good scientific reasons for postulating the actual existence of intelligent beings possessed of an invisible yet physical body. There may well be on and about our planet many distinct invisible organic life-forms undiscovered by zoologists. To deny such a possibility would be unscientific.

[610] Cf. _Communication adressée au D{r} J. Dupré_, p. 382 of an essay on _La Métempsycose basée sur les Principes de la Biologie et du Magnétisme physiologique_, in _Le Hasard_ (Paris, 1909), by P. C. Revel. Cases of regeneration among the aged are known, and these show how the subliminal life-forces try to renew the physical body when it is worn out (cf. Revel, ib., p. 372).

[611] Cf. Revel, op. cit., p. 295 ff.

[612] If scientists discover, as they probably will in time, what they call the secret of life, they will not have discovered the secret of life at all. What they will have discovered will be the physical conditions under which life manifests itself. In other words, science will most likely soon be able to set up artificially in a laboratory such physical conditions as exist in nature naturally, and by means of which life is able to manifest itself through matter. Life will still be as great a mystery as it is to-day; though short-sighted materialists are certain to announce to an eager world that the final problem of the universe has been solved and that life is merely the resultant of a subtle chemical compound.

[613] Professor Freud, after long and careful study, arrived at the following conclusion:--'The child has his sexual impulse and activities from the beginning, he brings them with him into the world, and from these the so-called normal sexuality of adults emerges by a significant development through manifold stages.' And Dr. Sanford Bell, in an earlier writing entitled _A Preliminary Study of the Emotions of Love between the Sexes_ (see _Amer. Journ. Psych._, 1902), came to a similar conclusion (cf. Freud, op. cit., pp. 207-8).

[614] Cf. Hans Driesch, _The Science and Philosophy of the Organism_ (London, 1908); and Henri Bergson, _L'Évolution créatrice_ (Paris, 1908).

[615] This Celtic view of non-personal immortality completely fits in with all the voluminous data of psychical research: after forty years of scientific research into psychics there are no proofs yet adduced that the human personality as a self-sufficient unit of consciousness survives indefinitely the death of its body. Granted that it does survive as a ghost for an undetermined period, generally to be counted in years, during which time it seems to be gradually fading out or disintegrating, there is no reliable evidence anywhere to show that a personality _as such_ has manifested through a 'medium' or otherwise after an interval of one thousand years, or even of five hundred years. We have, in fact, no knowledge of the survival of a human personality one hundred years after, and probably there are no good examples of such a survival twenty-five years after the death of the body. Such an eminent psychical researcher as William James recognized this drift of the data of psychics, and when he died he held the conviction that there is no personal immortality (see p. 505 n. following).

[616] Though not inclined toward the vitalistic view of human evolution, M. Th. Ribot very closely approaches the Celtic view of the Ego (or individuality) as being the principle which gives unity to different personalities, but he does not have in mind personalities in the sense implied by the Celtic Esoteric Doctrine of Re-birth:--'The Ego subjectively considered consists of a sum of conscious states' (comparable to personalities).... 'In brief, the Ego may be considered in two ways: either in its actual form, and then it is the sum of existing conscious states; or, in its continuity with the past, and then it is formed by the memory according to the process outlined above. It would seem, according to this view, that the identity of the Ego depended entirely upon the memory. But such a conception is only partial. Beneath the unstable compound phenomenon in all its protean phases of growth, degeneration, and reproduction, there is a something that remains: and this something is the undefined consciousness, the product of all the vital processes, constituting bodily perception and what is expressed in one word--the _coenæsthesis_.' (_The Diseases of Memory_, pp. 107-8).

William James, the greatest psychologist of our epoch, after a long and faithful life consecrated to the search after a true understanding of human consciousness, finally arrived at substantially the same conviction as Fechner did, that there is no personal immortality, but that the personality 'is but a temporary and partial separation and circumscription of a part of a larger whole, into which it is reabsorbed at death' (W. McDougall, _In Memory of William James_, in _Proc. S. P. R._, Part LXII, vol. xxv, p. 28). He thus virtually accepted the mystic's view that the personality after the death of the body is absorbed into a higher power, which, to our mind, is comparable with the Ego conceived as the unifying principle behind personalities. In one of his last writings, James explained his belief in such a manner as to make it coincide at certain points with the view held by modern Celtic mystics which has been presented above; the difference being that, unlike these mystics, James was not prepared to say (though he raised the question) whether or not behind the 'mother-sea' of consciousness there is, as Fechner believed, a hierarchy of consciousnesses (themselves subordinate to still higher consciousnesses, and comparable with so many Egos or Individualities) which send out emanations as temporary human personalities. The organic psychical forms (if we may use such an expression) of such temporary human personalities would have to be regarded from James's point of view as being built up out of the psychical elements constituting the 'mother-sea' of consciousness, just as the human body is built up out of the physical elements in the realm of matter:--'Out of my experience, such as it is (and it is limited enough) one fixed conclusion dogmatically emerges, and that is this, that we with our lives are like islands in the sea, or like trees in the forest. The maple and the pine may whisper to each other with their leaves, and Conanicut and Newport hear each other's foghorns. But the trees also commingle their roots in the darkness underground, and the islands also hang together through the ocean's bottom. Just so there is a continuum of cosmic consciousness, against which our individuality' (used as synonymous with personality and not in our distinct sense) 'builds but accidental fences, and into which our several minds plunge as into a mother-sea or reservoir. Our "normal" consciousness' (the personality as we distinguish it from the Ego or individuality) 'is circumscribed for adaptation to our external earthly environment, but the fence is weak in spots, and fitful influences from beyond break in, showing the otherwise unverifiable common connexion. Not only psychic research, but metaphysical philosophy and speculative biology are led in their own ways to look with favour on some such "pan-psychic" view of the universe as this.' (W. James, _The Confidences of a Psychical Researcher_, in _The American Magazine_, October 1909). Again, James wrote:--'The drift of all the evidence we have seems to me to sweep us very strongly towards the belief in some form of superhuman life with which we may, unknown to ourselves, be co-conscious.' (_A Pluralistic Universe_, New York, 1909, p. 309.)

[617] W. James, _Varieties of Religious Experience_ (London, 1902), pp. 511, 236 n.

[618] M. Th. Ribot, in _Diseases of Memory_ (London, 1882), pp. 82-98 ff., gives numerous examples of such loss and recovery of memory.

[619] Cf. Freud, op. cit., pp. 192, 204-5, &c.

[620] Cf. A. Moll, _Hypnotism_ (London, 1890), pp. 141 ff., 126.

[621] Cf. A. Moll, _Hypnotism_ (London, 1890), pp. 141 ff., 126.

[622] Cf. Freud, op. cit., p. 192.

[623] Freud, _Die Traumdeutung_, 2nd ed. (Vienna, 1906); cf. S. Ferenczi, _The Psychological Analysis of Dreams_, in _Amer. Journ. Psych._ (April 1910), xxi, No. 2, p. 326.

[624] A similar state of high development is to be assumed for a great Celtic hero like Arthur, who were he to be re-born would (as is said to have been the case with King Mongan, the reincarnation of Finn) bring with him memory of his past: unlike the consciousness of the normal man, the consciousness of one of the Divine Ones is normally the subconsciousness, the consciousness of the individuality; and not the personal consciousness, which, like the personality, is non-permanent _in itself_. This further illustrates the Celtic theory of non-personal immortality.

[625] Ribot, op. cit., p. 100 ff.

[626] Cf. Lang, _Cock Lane and Common Sense_, pp. 217 ff. _Blackwood's Magazine_, cxxix (January 1881), contains a remarkable account of a child who remembered previous lives. Lord Lindsay, in his _Letters_ (ed. of 1847, p. 351), refers to a feeling when he beheld the river Kadisha descending from Lebanon, of having in a previous life seen the same scene. Dickens in his _Pictures from Italy_ testifies to a parallel experience. E. D. Walker, in his interesting work on _Reincarnation_ (pp. 42-5) has brought together many other well-attested cases of people who likewise have thought they could remember fragments of a former state of conscious existence. In his diary, under date of February 17, 1828, Sir Walter Scott wrote as follows:--'I cannot, I am sure, tell if it is worth marking down, that yesterday, at dinner-time, I was strangely haunted by what I would call the sense of pre-existence, viz. a confused idea that nothing that passed was said for the first time.' Lockhart, _Life of Scott_ (first ed.), vii. 114. Bulwer Lytton in _Godolphin_ (chapter xv), and Edgar Allen Poe in _Eureka_, record similar experiences. Mr. H. Fielding Hall, in _The Soul of a People_{4} (London, 1902), pp. 290-308, reports several very remarkable cases of responsible natives of Burma who stated that they could recall former lives passed by them as men and women. Mr. Hall has carefully investigated these cases, and gives us the impression that they are worthy of scientific consideration.

[627] Cf. Ferenczi, op. cit., p. 316, &c. Professor Freud's theory of dreams supports entirely, but does not imply our hypothesis that some (and probably many) abnormal dreams of a rare kind, whether good or bad in tendency, may be due to the latent content of subconsciousness, out of which they undoubtedly arise, having been collected and carried over from a previous state of consciousness parallel to our present one. In respect to our present life Professor Freud holds, as a result of psycho-analysis of thousands of dream subjects, that the latent content of every dream in the adult is directly dependent upon mental processes which frequently reach back to the earliest childhood; and he gives detailed cases in illustration. In other words, there is always a latent dream-material behind the conscious dream-content, and probably a part of it was innate in the child at birth, and hence, according to our view, was pre-existent. (Cf. Ernest Jones, _Freud's Theory of Dreams_, in _Amer. Journ. Psych._, April 1910, xxi, No. 2, pp. 301 ff.)

[628] Cf. Du Prel, _Philosophy of Mysticism_, ii. 25 ff., 34 ff.

[629] _The Dream of Ravan_, in _Dublin Univ. Mag._, xliii. 468.

[630] Myers, in _Proc. S. P. R._, vii. 305.

[631] James, _Varieties of Religious Experience_, p. 483.

[632] The esoteric teaching in many of the mystic schools of antiquity was that the atoms of each human body transmigrate through all lower forms of life during the long period supposed to intervene between death and re-birth of the individuality. This doctrine seems to be one of the main sources of the corruption which crept into the ancient re-birth doctrines and transformed many of them into doctrines of transmigration of the human soul into animal and plant bodies; and some unscrupulous priesthoods openly taught such corrupted doctrines as a means of making the ignorant populace submissive to ecclesiastical rule, the theological theory expounded by such priesthoods being that the evil-doer, but not the keeper of the letter of the canonical law, is condemned to expiate his sins through birth in brute bodies. The pure form of the mystic doctrine was that after the lapse of the long period of disembodiment the individuality reconstructs its human body anew by drawing to itself the identical atoms which constituted its previous human body--these atoms, and not the individuality, having transmigrated through all the lower kingdoms. Such an esoteric doctrine probably lies behind the exoteric Egyptian teaching that the human soul after the death of its body passes through all plant and animal bodies during a period of three thousand years, after which it returns to human embodiment. Some scholars have held that the exoteric interpretation of this theory and its consequent literal interpretation as a transmigration doctrine led the Egyptians to mummify the bodies of their dead. Cf. Lucretius, _De Rerum Natura_, Book III, ll. 843-61; and Herodotus, Book II, on Egypt.

[633] Cf. Dr. L. S. Fugairon's _La Survivance de l'âme, ou la Mort et la Renaissance chez les êtres vivants; études de physiologie et d'embryologie philosophiques_ (Paris, 1907); cf. Revel, _Le Hasard_, p. 457.

[634] Darwin never considered or attempted to suggest what it is that of itself really evolves, for it cannot be the physical body which only _grows_ from immaturity to maturity and then dissolves. Darwin thus overlooked the essential factor in his whole doctrine; while the Druids and other ancients, wiser than we have been willing to admit, seem not only to have anticipated Darwin by thousands of years, but also to have quite surpassed him in setting up their doctrine of re-birth, which explains both the physical and psychical evolution of man.

Transcriber's Notes:

Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_.

Superscripted letters are indicated by {superscript}.

The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

Some quotes are opened with marks but are not closed. Obvious errors have been silently closed while those requiring interpretation have been left open.

Other punctuation has been corrected without note.

The following misprints have been corrected:
"Fortelling" standardized to "foretelling" (page 213)
"fom" corrected to "from" (footnote 342)
"Name" corrected to "Names" (Index)

Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.

The following symbols were substituted for images on pages 272 and 273:
Maltese cross = [C]
Triangle = [T]
Jupiter = [J]
Mercury = [M]
Venus = [V]
Saturn = [S]
Moon = [Mo]
Sun = [O]
Large Asterisk [*]

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