Dawn of the Awakened Mind

Is there life on the other side? This author knows there is! His communications with people that have crossed over were written down so the whole world would know. Interesting reprint of the author's research into the spirit world.

From the Author:

IT WAS in truth the Dawn of the Awakened Mind to me, when I first received and realized the truth, made known and proved to me through psychic revelations. The Testaments, both Old and New, contain much recorded evidence of spirit return and communication; and of numerous psychical phenomena, not miraculous, but as spirits themselves demonstrate and tell us, under the operation of natural laws, not yet fully understood. But as natural law may and does repeat itself today, why argue against the possibility of psychical phenomena? Surely no grander truth could ever be established by proofs, than communication between the two worlds. Beliefs are mostly hereditary, and may be right, or may sometimes be wrong.

So I reasoned, and determined to investigate; and in this book are recorded a few of the results among many hundreds I have had in the way of experiences, and evi-dences obtained in my devious, intricate and I may add unpopular pathway of psy-chical research, consuming a period of about twenty-five years. Like an explorer in an unknown country, without mortal guide; and fully realizing various dangers, and possibilities of attack by certain claimants of the territory, I followed no beaten path of investigation to reach the truth. Having a mental compass of impression or intui-tion pointing steadily in one direction, I traveled on my solitary way, ever hoping to reach the destination which I strove to attain, examining here and there at long or short intervals and minutely, what to me was new, or evidential of communication between the two worlds.

Excerpt

Have we not been taught from childhood up that he who preaches and teaches from the orthodox pulpit is a minister or ambassador from God, or, as some say, called of God to teach and preach the truth, and we must not question it? Orthodoxy asks us to have faith and believe. It demands acceptance of the statements by faith and belief, and promises salvation; or doubt, and it promises damnation.

In business, men exercise what is known as common sense. Why should not man exercise common sense in other matters, such as belief? Why shut their eyes to self-evident truth? Will it be denied that mankind of today knows, or ought to know more of the Infinite Spirit or Universal Spirit God, the fount of creation and of all spirit power, and of His laws, and their operation, than was known in bygone centuries? If they do not, is it not a sad reflection, not only upon man's development and intelligence, but also upon the teachers and priests who claim to be chosen of God to enlighten His people? Humanity appears at all times to be hungry for information and knowledge; and naturally selfish as to its being advantageous to the individual self. It is because of inquiring, examining, and analyzing minds that fresh knowledge is being gained from century to century, from year to year, and from day to day; as appertains to all things mundane in character, as well as to the invisible forces, physical and spiritual; and who will deny that mankind is the gainer thereby? In things material and physical, investigation seems to antedate discovery; and discovery antedates utilization.

This order seems to meet with general approbation or commendation. Is not the spiritual part of man paramount in interest to the physical? And if so are not all men warranted in seeking further Spiritual Knowledge? Did not Job (in Chapter XIV, Verse XIV) ask, If a man die shall he live again? It is a question which has doubtless suggested itself to the mind of nearly every individual member of the human race. It would appear not inconsistent that to pursue the study of life one must not stop with the death of the physical part of man, but follow after the spirit. The beginning and the ending of physical life, whether animal or vegetable, is but a change of elements in arrangement or in composition. The body returns to dust or its elements, while the spirit returns to the kingdom of spirit, from which it originally came. Eternal natural law rules the universe.

I am in accord with the declaration that we have no right to question or deny the existence of anything, or any condition, if we cannot disprove it. Actuated by this conviction, and feeling deeply interested in some features of psychical investigation, I have during the past few years become an investigator of the critical kind known as a psychical researcher; and lately found myself in contact with some new occult force, as mysterious as it was interesting. Of psychic or occult phenomena, though I have but recent knowledge, and as that knowledge is so new, so surprising, so convincing, and yet so entirely confirmatory of the intuitions and convictions of my boyhood life, I ask the reader to withhold judgment until I have narrated in detail the precautions taken, conditions found, and environments existing together with a description and analysis of a few of the phenomena; and until he or she adopts an hypothesis which can withstand all criticism, as accounting satisfactorily for the production of the phenomena now most generally classified as psychic or occult in character.

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