Chapter I: Preface: To Second Edition

Two problems in the script have engaged the serious attention of critics. The first and simpler of the two is that which is involved in the language and literary form of the messages. This is a curious patchwork of Low Latin, Middle English of mixed periods, and Modern English of varied style and diction. It is a mosaic of multi-coloured fragments cemented together in a strangely random fashion. This anomaly is the more remarkable from the contrast it presents to the sustained and consistent burden of the script itself, which, as though in obedience to some preordained intention and settled plan, seems to proceed to the presentment, line by line, of a completed whole, with absolute patience and indifference to interruptions. Lapse of time seems of no account. After a break of several hours, the thread is resumed at the point where it had been dropped. The unfinished communications about the Loretto Chapel in 1911 are picked up and spontaneously completed five years later. Nevertheless, the queer patchwork of language is again evident.

For this fact, the following explanation is offered. It will easily be conceded that whatever the source or inspiring influence of these messages, the language in which they are conveyed is the _mechanical side_ of the matter, the most assuredly conventional element in the process of transmission. But the obvious instruments are the brains of F.B.B. and J.A. The reasoning and reflective faculties are at the time in abeyance or are otherwise engaged,[1] their attention being entirely diverted: but the storehouse of memories and subconscious impressions latent within are being used, and quite independently used, though concurrently in point of time with the normal use of the thinking faculties on a wholly different subject.

[1] In the latest series of sittings, the rule has been for F.B.B. to read aloud to J.A. during the whole course of the writing, from a novel or other entertaining or amusing book, calculated to retain his attention, and the script resulting has proved to have nothing at all in common with the subject-matter of the book, but forms a related series of essays bearing upon the conquest of matter by spirit.

Consider for a moment the human brain as the repository of all impressions made on the mind from childhood upwards. Thus viewed, it becomes, as it were, an encyclopedia of all knowledge which the conscious mind has stored, each item recording an idea of a certain quality, in such language as circumstances may at the time have dictated. Suppose then--and it is not difficult to do so--that each of these records is responsive to the impulse of an Idea which is seeking expression, and whose instrument of expression is some sort of sympathetic vibration attuned to the original thought which recorded the particular memory or subject. The sympathetic vibration lays hold of the denser or physical particles of the record, causing them to respond and to emit their own proper voice.

In other words, the language of the script would be simply the product of the reaction of our brain-records to the sympathetic vibration of Idea, from whatever source arising.

Not that such conditions are always necessary or possible. There are, for example, many quite well-authenticated cases of automatic writing in which not only the idea conveyed is outside the consciousness of the writer, but the language itself is entirely unknown to him, or to her, as the case may be. Take, for example, the many recorded cases of automatic writing in languages unknown to the medium, and sometimes requiring special scholarship to appreciate.

The explanation seems in this case to be that the mind of the medium is plastic to a more direct spiritual influence which can therefore mould its particles and create a new record for itself. This must have been so in the Gift of Tongues at the Pentecost, and later in the history of the Primitive Church.

The second problem noted by critics is a more difficult one. It concerns the intelligent source of the messages. As to this, I have propounded the view of a Greater Memory transcending, and interpenetrating our own. This theory is suggestive rather than explanatory. It does not, and cannot, explain many things which in our present state of knowledge are inexplicable. Neither does it pretend to cover the whole ground. It is, as I say, merely suggestive. Its virtue is that it excludes no other possible agencies, hence leaving room not only for the exercise of transcendental faculty, such as clairvoyance, but for any variety of _primary_ impulse, and for any number or degree of directive agencies capable of employing it.

For as we are obliged by our own experience to acknowledge that our own latent memory is revived and brought out in these scripts by some intelligence working apart from our conscious minds; and to admit that telepathy between two is involved: so we are also bound to allow the possible presence of a further range of telepathic action working through our minds in the production of these messages. And if we are prepared to agree on the one hand that whereas the physical brain dissolves at death and its action ceases, yet, on the other hand, that a more inward and less material brain, the organ and vehicle of the subconscious or intuitive self, still persists and survives entirely the death of the physical body, and if we consider this more inward brain as composed of finer particles, responsive to the far more rapid movements of intuitive thought, then we shall have to allow that the memory-record of any defunct personality, if capable of response _to the same stimulus of spiritual Will and Idea which can actuate our own_, can be drawn upon in like manner by the energising Intelligence, and again, as in our own case, _without evoking the conscious "spirit" or personality proper to it_. This is surely the meaning of Johannes when he says (p. 95):

"Why cling I to that which is not? It is I, and it is not I, butt part of me which dwelleth in the past, and is bound to that which my carnal soul loved and called 'home' these many years. Yet I, Johannes, amm of many partes, and ye better part doeth other things--Laus, laus Deo!--only that part which remembreth clingeth like memory to what it seeth yet."

Thus it seems to me the problem of personality, in the sense of the conscious personal presence of individuals deceased, need not arise at all in connection with these writings. All that it seems vital to assume is the union of the deeper strata of our own latent mind or dream-consciousness with others of a kindred nature and tone, by virtue of their sympathetic and accordant motion in the presence of a greater and all-inclusive spiritual essence, Idea, or Will, omnipresent and all-permeating, waking into activity all dormant memory-records, and directing them into any channel of mind which by previous preparation on the conscious plane has become receptive and retentive of them.

Still small Voices from a distant Time!--thrilling through the void and stirring faint resonances within the deeps of our own being--the great Telepathy, the true Communion of Mind, the gate of the Knowledge, the Gnosis of the apostle, whose key is Mental Sympathy, the key that the lawyers took away, neither entering themselves, nor suffering others to enter.

No discord can mar this communion, since love and understanding are its law. Death cannot touch it: rather is he Keeper of the Gate. Time, as we know it, here counts for naught, for to the deeper dream-consciousness, a day may be as a thousand years, and a period of trance or sleeping as one tick of the clock.

BRISTOL,

_May, 1918_.

NOTE

BY SIR WILLIAM BARRETT, F.R.S.

As some readers of this remarkable book have thought it too incredible to be a record of fact, but rather deemed it a work of imagination, it may be useful to add my testimony to that given in the book as to the genuineness of the whole narrative.

The author has, I am sure, with scrupulous fidelity and care, presented an accurate record of the scripts obtained through the automatic writing of his friend, together with all the archæological knowledge of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey that was accessible before the excavations were begun. In order to remove any doubt on this point, before further excavations were made, Mr. Bligh Bond has wisely asked representatives of certain societies to examine the later scripts which refer to the Loretto Chapel, note their contents, and see how far the further excavations may or may not verify any of the statements made in the later scripts.

From any point of view the present book is of great interest. To the student of psychology, who ignores any supernormal acquisition of knowledge and yet accepts the good faith of the author, the problem presents many difficulties. Chance coincidence may be suggested, but this does not carry us far. The question therefore arises, where did the veridical or truth-telling information given in some of these scripts come from? As is so often the case in automatic writing a dramatic form is taken, and messages purport to come from different deceased people. The subconscious or subliminal self of the automatist, doubtless, is the source of much contained in the scripts, and may possibly be responsible for all the insight shown. But in that case we must confer upon the subconsciousness of the automatist faculties hitherto unrecognised by official science. The author has pointed out, on p. 156, some of the powers the subconscious mind must be assumed to possess; to these we may add a possible telepathic transfer of information between the author and the automatist, and also occasionally the faculty of _clairvoyance_, or a transcendental perceptive power; for, according to the investigations of the author, some of the statements made in the script were unknown to any living person, and not found in historical records, prior to their verification in subsequent excavation. We must, however, be on our guard against the too facile use of words such as "telepathy" and "subliminal consciousness" as a cloak to our ignorance. The history of physical science shows how progress has often been retarded by the use of phrases to account for obscure phenomena--words such as "Phlogiston," "Catalysis," etc., which explained nothing, and now are ridiculed, but which were once used by scientific authorities as unquestionable axioms. It is wiser to acknowledge our ignorance and convey our thanks to the author and his friend for the patient and laborious care with which they have furnished valuable material for future psychological explanation. Nor must we omit to recognise the courage shown by Mr. Bligh Bond in the publication of a work which might possibly jeopardise the high reputation he enjoys.

_GLASTONBURY_

_Grey among the meadows, solitary, bare:
Thy walls dismantled, and thy rafters low,
Naked to every wind and chilly air
That steeps the neighbouring marsh, yet standest thou,
Great cloistral monument of other days!
Though marked by all the storms that beat thee through,
A radiant Parable of heavenly ways
That scarce thy lordly builders guess'd or knew!
Vanishing image of great service done,
Smiling to God under the open sky:
Even in thy translation, stone by stone,
Keeping thy spirit-grace and symmetry,
Through ruined clerestory and broken rood
Our chastened souls with tears ascend to God._

A. M. BUCKTON: from _Songs of Joy_.

"_Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church._

"_Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret._

"_For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful._

"_What is it then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also._"

I COR. xiv. 12-15.

CONTENTS

PART PAGE I. THE LOST CHAPEL 1 (_a_) INTRODUCTORY 3 (_b_) DOCUMENTARY 6 (_c_) PSYCHOLOGICAL METHODS APPLIED TO RESEARCH 17 (_d_) ON AUTOMATISM 22 (_e_) NOTES ON THE AUTOMATIC SCRIPT 26 (_f_) NARRATIVE OF THE WRITINGS 32 (_g_) TABLE OF VERIDICAL PASSAGES 70 (_h_) TESTIMONIES 79

II. THE CHILD OF NATURE 83 (_a_) JOHANNES GOES A-FISHING 86 (_b_) THE VAT OF GOOD ALE 89 (_c_) MEMORIES OF HIS HOUSE 93 (_d_) THE BURDEN OF THE FLESH 96 (_e_) THE GARGOYLE 98 (_f_) STORY OF EAWULF 105

III. THE LORETTO CHAPEL 109 (_a_) DOCUMENTARY 111 (_b_) STORY OF BERE'S VOW (1911 SCRIPT) 119 (_c_) CAMILLUS THESIGER SPEAKS (1916 SCRIPT) 125 (_d_) ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS DESCRIPTIVE OF THE ITALIAN CHAPEL 128 (_e_) REVIEW 142 (_f_) THE 1917 SCRIPT 144 (_g_) RECONSTRUCTIONS 151 (_h_) CONCLUSION 155 (_i_) APPENDIX: TABLE OF DATA AND CONSTRUCTIVE ARGUMENT 160

IV. INDEX AND SYNOPSIS 169

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE PAGE

I. RUINS OF GLASTONBURY ABBEY VIEWED FROM NORTH TRANSEPT, LOOKING TOWARDS THE BROKEN ARCH OF QUIRE. (F.B.B.) _frontispiece_

II. FOUNDATIONS OF THE EDGAR CHAPEL, AS RESTORED (FROM WEST) _to face_ 56

III. RECONSTRUCTION OF THE INTERIOR OF BERE'S TIME (EARLY SIXTEENTH CENTURY) FROM THE SAME POINT AS PLATE I. (F.B.B.) (_frontispiece to