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Does Self Survive Death? by Ralph M. Lewis (AMORC)
Does Self Survive Death? by Ralph M. Lewis (AMORC)
Ralph M. Lewis
MJ-140 1173
MJ-140 Rosicrucian Order - AMORC -B-
ANALYTICAL DISCUSSIONS Page One
(Supplementary Lecture)
DOES SELF SURVIVE DEATH?
by Ralph M. Lewis, Imperator
Over 2000 years ago Epicurus said, "Where we are, death is not. Where
death comes, there we are not." He meant to allay the ordinary fear
which men have of death. There is also in his words the indication
that consciousness is self. Therefore, what occurs when consciousness
may be absent from HTe body, or departs from it, cannot concern the
self because the self is not there to experience it. Simply put, self
cannot be separated from consciousness. Furthermore, Epicurus' state-
ment was a direct acknowledgment of the duality of man. On the one
hand is the body and the gross material elements, and on the other hand,
the ego, the self. The horror with which some people look upon the dis-
integrating body need not concern man, because at such times, according
to the thought of Epicurus, self has departed. It is not there to
experience what is ordinarily attributed to death.
Some people have always believed that death definitely terminates the
consciousness— that when we die, self ends— ceases to be. According to
the remarks of Epicurus, this then would obviate the fear of death. If
self is no more upon the occasion of death, then nothing can disturb us
either here or elsewhere because we are not. Conversely, the opposite
is true. If consciousness leaves the body at death and resides some-
where else on some other plañe, then death should not trouble us either,
for wherever we might be at least we would not be enduring the experience
of death.
This question as to whether self perseveres after death has not only con
cerned the ancients, but is also a polemic discussion today. It may be
summarized as: "Does self, the consciousness, survive death?" The only
distinction which we are ordinarily able to make between an animate body
and an inanimate one, or one that has just recently passed through death,
is that in the dead one there is a cessation of certain functions which
were natural to the living body. If we were to dissect the dead human
body, we would find that there are no organs missing; the heart, liver,
and kidneys are there. We would find as well that no members of the body
had vanished, and that everything in the inanimate or dead body is as it
was a few seconds, minutes, or hours before death occurred, insofar as
the substance is concerned. However, we would admit that some intangible,
invisible, motivating forcé that had animated the parts of the living
body had disappeared, accounting for the cessation of the functions.
This motivating forcé in itself is unknown. No one has ever seen it apart
from a living body. In fact, it can only be realized through its mani-
festations, the things that it accomplishes or causes a living body to
perform.
When a common clock, an alarm clock, ceases to function, that is, when it
no longer performs the purpose for which it was intended, the recording
of time, what has happened? We may examine the clock. We can remove its
face, and we can remove its back. When we look into it, we find that all
of the parts apparently are there, the hands, the myriad screws, and so
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Survive Death? (Supplementary Lecture)
forth. Some mysterious entity, however, has escaped from it. We claim
that this mysterious entity is the potential energy of the coiled spring
in the clock. When a spring is wound up, accordíng to the laws of phys-
ics, we say that there is in that coiled spring a potential energy, an
energy that has a capacity to produce and accomplish. In other words,
as the spring is unwound, this potential energy is dissipated in work,
namely, performing functions of the clock. However, with all of that
explanation, no one has ever seen this potential energy. No one can
describe its appearance. It is something which occurs under certain
conditions. We know the formula for producing it, that is, to wind the
clock, and when we do so we restore to the clock its functions again.
However, each of us, I am sure, is reluctant to believe that the energy
of the clock, that which causes it to function, exists apart from the
spring. We do not believe that by winding the spring, or by coiling it
up, we have in some miraculous way captured the energy or drawn it as
an entity from out of space.
Many persons, however, think that the ego, the self, exists in a manner
similar to the energy in a clock spring. They believe that self proceeds
in a mysterious manner from the parts of the body, from the mechanism of
the body itself. Consequently these persons hope to find some formula
whereby at death they can figuratively wind up the body so that once
again from its parts they will restore the functions of the animate body,
the consciousness and awareness of self. Obviously, these persons con-
sider it ridiculous to hold that this consciousness of self can or does
exist apart from the mechanism of the body, from its organs and members.
To them, it is just as fantastic as to think that the harmony which comes
from the strings of a violin can or would exist apart from that instru-
ment when it is not played, or that the sweet notes of a trumpet would
persist after the trumpet no longer exists.
On the other hand, there are millions of persons throughout the world
today who believe that the forcé which animates a living body, namely
life and the consciousness of self, are one— in other words, that the
life forcé and our awareness of self are one and the same thing. They
believe that this life forcé, which has as its attribute self, is like
the invisible wind which agitates the leaves and boughs of a tree. It
suddenly causes them to dance and flutter and gives them all of the ap
pearance of a living thing, and then just as suddenly ceases, and the
boughs become inert and deathlike in appearance.
They believe that this invisible life forcé, which they also think is
self, enters the body at birth and departs again at death. Therefore,
it is independent, an immaterial entity, having no dependence upon the
body whatsoever. But when it enters, it animates it and at the same
time produces the State of self-consciousness. They contend, however,
that this ego or self is not the effect of life forcé acting upon the
parts of the body. Consciousness of self is not like the tick of a
clock coming about from the movement of the parts, but rather the self
has existence and is an entity which enters the body as life forcé. It
is, therefore, their conclusión that this ego is not encumbered by the
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body, and at death it freely returns to that source from whence it carne.
Inasmuch as this ego is so independent, the personality after death, to
them, perseveres.
Let us look at the facts of experience. Self is far more real to us
than our own bodies. The fact that you are the realization which makes
you distinct to yourself and separate from all other persons and all
other things, is the most real experience of your being. One can lose
his arms in an accident, or he can lose his legs, or he may lose his
arms and legs, and perhaps an eye, and yet his self has not diminished.
He is just as real to himself as he ever was, regardless of the reduc-
tion of his body.
The sensations of self, the awareness of your own being, are far more
intense than the experiences you have of anything else. The realization
you have of your foot or your hair, through touch or sight, are not
nearly as intimate as the impulses, the impressions of your own conscious
existence. It is because of this that it is so difficult for so many
persons to believe that such a positive reality as self could cease to be,
could terminate, could vanish into nothingness at death; henee, the almost
universal innate conviction that the self, the personality, survives
death.
Sócrates says in the Phaedo, that all men recognize that the body is com-
posed of many elements, that it is compounded, in other words. Further-
more, he relates that it is the common experience that the body is dis
soluble. We have, many of us, had the misfortune of experiencing this
dissolution of the human form. Then he further relates how the ancient
Egyptians had achieved the art and Science of preserving the physical
body, so that it can endure for centuries intact. And he reasons that
the soul is not compounded of many elements but is one substance, and we
know the soul is immaterial since no one has ever been able to perceive
it objectively. If, therefore, a dissoluble substance such as the body,
composed of many elements, can be made to endure for a great length of
time, is it not logical to presume that which is immaterial, such as the
soul, should then be immortal and should endure for even greater periods
of time than the body?
Immortality has been a preferred doctrine with man, ever since he has
been able to give any thought to his being. There is a reason of
expedieney as well for the doctrine of immortality. Life is no utopia,
it is filled with disappointments, discouragement, grief, disillusion,
pain, and suffering. And in the sunset years, and sometimes before, men
come to realize how futile it is to undo injustices which they have
brought about due to their ignorance or malice. And, therefore, they
hope in another life to atone for their mistakes, to make retribution,
and to realize ideáis for which there is not sufficient time in this
mortal span of existence. Consequently another existence for self is
desired after this one.
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There are still others who conceive the soul as a kind of super sub
stance. Like some of the philosophers of ancient times, they look
upon the soul as consisting of atoms of intelligence, like the monads
of Leibnitz. Those monads or soul-atoms enter the human body to gather
there with the atoms of matter, and they constitute a finer substance
which is likened to the ego or soul. At death, these persons contend,
the atoms of intelligence or soul return to the stream of their source,
and they survive therein. Moreover, they retain the consciousness, the
personality which they acquired when they were ínherent in the body.
With these doctrines, with these speculations, with these legends and
traditions which have come on down to us through the centuries, the
stage was slowly being set for a very special advent, a doctrine that
was to challenge the imagination of man.
From the earliest times, reports by word of mouth and in writing have
related the experiences which men have had with apparitions, commonly
known as ghosts. These ghosts are related to be shadowlike beings,
sometimes of humans, a kind of intangible substance, and yet one which
the peripheral senses can detect. There are many physical causes to
suggest to primitive minds the existence of apparitions. A combination
of moonlight and shadows in a forest will cause a strange pattern to
form upon the ground; a slight movement of the leaves will alter the
pattern and actually give it animation as well as form, and then, again,
cause it to suddenly vanish. This has a very definite reality to the
mind. Reflections on water and on sand, like mirages, can account psy-
chologically for the belief in ghosts. I hardly believe that there is
anyone who has not experienced a shock, been startled at least, upon
awakening at night to discover over against the wall or near a window
what appeared to be a form, a man, or grotesque creature. If he col-
lected himself sufficiently to examine it, he would find it was merely
the manner in which the draperies hung. Then again, persons who have
carelessly tossed their clothes upon a chair would be horrified on a
sleepless night to look across the darkened room and seem to see a
human figure seated in a chair near the bed, with perhaps a dog at his
feet. If such a person were not too terrified, he would switch on the
light and discover that it was merely the arrangement of the clothes
which had assumed a fearful shape.
Mental aberrations, hallucinations, and obsessions have also caused
persons to imagine such things as apparitions, but it must be admitted
that genuine psychic phenomena have been experienced at times in the
past, even by primitive minds. However, so simple were the minds, and
so inexperienced with the laws involved, that they could not comprehend
what they perceived, and thus were terrified and gave vent to their
unbridled imagination.
In 1846 strange incidents occurred. In all probability similar inci-
dents occurred many times before, but these attracted exceptional atten-
tion, and they seemed to integrate into an explanatory theory all the
speculations that had gone before with respect to the survival of con
sciousness after death and apparitions. One by the ñame of Michael
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with mortals through certain privileged beings, and under certain condi-
tions. These privileged beings are known as médiums. Kardec further
contended that the soul reincarnates again, but in the interim, before
it takes up residence in another body, it may materialize on the earth
plañe many times, to be perceived by many mortals.
The object of spiritism, as Kardec defined it, is that man should turn
to these spirits, especially those who are good, that is, of moral
excellence, as mentors. Just as humans will consult authorities here,
or will try to emulate persons of moral excellence on this plañe, they
should turn to these departed beings to be guided as well. However, he
admonishes that there are also malevolent spirits which will resort to
trickery and deception and, as they did on the earth plañe, will lead
mortals astray if they are not cautious. Consequently, by this Kardec
implies that the departed consciousness or soul takes with it all of
its characteristics, all of its weaknesses, all of its moral deficiencies,
if it has any, and can and will, if given the opportunity, display them
in the hereafter to the detriment of unwary mortals.
It should not be presumed that such a doctrine and such reasoning or
lack of it, as you will, applied only to gullible and credulous persons.
It should not be thought that the believers in these spiritualistic
doctrines were ignorant of the inner workings of the human mind and of basi<
psychological principies. This phenomenon seriously attracted the
attention of scientists of repute; for example, it attracted Alfred
Wallace, naturalist, whom many considered the precursor of the Darwinian
Theory. Again, William Crookes, renowned physicist (one of his many
contributions to Science being the discovery of the element thallium),
after investigating the phenomena for some time, wrote a scientific
analysis of his findings, and he summed them up by saying: "I do not
say these things are possible. ][ say they exist." Subsequently, his
reputation in Science was at stake. He was not only ridiculed by the
layman or public at large, who were in no position to take a stand
because of their lack of knowledge and actual experience with the phe
nomena, but also by his own colleagues.
In 1900 another éminent scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge, was drawn into
this field of research. He was professor of mathematics at the Univer-
sity of London, and in the field of physics he contributed much original
work to the discovery of the speed of the ion, and much data on the
knowledge of electromagnetic waves, the basis of radio transmission. In
1910 he became the foremost investigator of psychic phenomena and wrote
a number of books on the subject, one of which is a classic, The Survival
of Man, which definitely established his acceptance of the idea that
the consciousness of man does survive death.
Scores of scientists now became interested, some possibly for the pur-
pose of disproving others, but the majority were seriously convinced
of the possibility, remóte as it might be, that consciousness in some
manner did not cease when death occurred. Giovanni Schiaparelli,
Italian astronomer, was one of these. It was he who had discovered
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the geometric pattern or lines, if you will, on the planet Mars, which
he called canals and which instigated an investigation into that field
of speculation and exploration.
Psychical research societies were now being formed. The first of these
was in London, England. The President was Sir Oliver Lodge. Another
was formed in New York City; the former Imperator of AMORC, Dr. H.
Spencer Lewis, was its president. These societies were composed of
eminent men of science and literature. They were not illiberal. They
were there to find out what basis there was for the phenomena and try
to determine the cause of the results or the demonstrations. The New
York Psychical Research Society included such eminent personages as
Isaac Funk of Funk & Wagnalls Dictionary fame.
The proof of spiritism was contingent upon whether there was such a
faculty of mediumship. If mediumship really existed, then the results
therefrom would have factual basis. A médium is one who is defined as
an intermediary between this world and the next. Psychical research
societies found that a great number of these médiums were common frauds.
Their fraudulence was often exposed. Sometimes it was very crude, but
in most instances the ingenuity displayed by these fraudulent médiums
was amazing. It showed misdirected intelligence and ability, and con-
stitutes a separate field of inquiry and discussion.
The motive of these charlatans was almost always monetary. They hoped
to enrich themselves by preying upon the grief-stricken who hoped to
bridge the void between this life and a possible other one and thereby
communicate with and enjoy an intimate relationship with their departed
loved ones, even if but momentarily. Notwithstanding the examples of
fraudulent mediumship, many, many incidents that occurred in these
seances were verified methodically and critically. Such verifications
revealed that humans, or certain ones at least, upon occasion did dis-
play or exhibit strange faculties or powers, which could not be over-
looked and must be proved for further understanding.
A médium of note during this early period of research, one who all
authorities agreed was sincere and whose phenomena did display unusual
innate powers, was a Mrs. Piper. Dr. Hyslop, an authority on psychic
phenomena, and whose work Enigmas of Psychic Phenomena is a classic on
the subject, often interviewed her-cTunng her seances. To cite a few
examples, upon one occasion she described in detail a collection of
canes which Dr. Hyslop had, and which he had locked in a chest in this
country and had not used for years. Some of them were even badly
damaged. Upon another occasion, Dr. Hyslop was supposed to be com-
municating through a médium with his deceased father and, in accordance
with his tests and investigations, he asked the purported voice of his
father what had happened to a certain mutual friend and whether this
friend, who resided in a foreign country, continued to attend church.
The voice of the purported deceased replied that the friend no longer
attended church because of an organ. After considerable effort, Dr.
Hyslop was able to communicate by correspondence with this friend, who
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was now an aged man, and he learned he had just recently severed his
connections with the church over a dispute with the officials in con-
nection with the installation of an organ.
Another serious and reputable investigator was Yza Trisk. On one oc-
casion, he was attending a seance conducted by a renowned médium in
Stockholm. Suddenly the médium spoke in a strange voice and uttered
the words, "I left earth twenty-four hours ago." And thereupon the
médium, while in the trance, drew a sketch which was immediately
recognized by Mr. Trisk as the portrait of a French poet. He cabled
at once, and after some time was able to verify that the French poet
had died within the 24-hour period. In fact, at the time that the
médium related this information, the death of this French poet was not
even generally known in his own country.
Psychology has an explanation for that type of mediumship whereby a
person assumes a foreign character, that is, a character that is not
his own. Sometimes these médiums claim to be speaking in the voice of
an Indian guide, or some Greek sage who had passed away centuries ago.
Again, they will assume the character of some eminent man of the im-
mediate or distant past. James calis this type of phenomenon the
secondary personality of an individual. He explains it thus. We like
to imagine ourselves as other persons. We like to emulate people.
The lives and accomplishments of others impress us. Imitating and
mimicking are instinctive with humans, and so we imitate the voices,
gestures, and manners of others.
In a trance State, this character which we emulate and which is a sub-
jective ideal dominates the subjective mind. The médium therefore
speaks as he heard the voice of the one whom he idolizes, or as he
imagines the voice sounded from what he has read or heard described to
him. The words he speaks in this trance State are thus his secondary
personality. When the médium returns to the state of objective con
sciousness, frequently he will not remember what has occurred, and when
he is informed he will believe that he has communicated with these dead
personages and that the words which carne from his own lips were theirs.
Messages which are purported to come from the dead through médiums often
strangely show the environmental influences of the médium. Thus the
vocabulary of the so-called departed speaking through the médium will
often contain idioms and slang, and display the culture or lack of
culture and education which constitutes the background of the médium
himself. For example, a departed being speaking through a médium in
Brooklyn will often have a very definite Brooklyn accent, regardless of
how long ago the being departed from this earth. Again, departed beings,
speaking through a médium in Alabama, will have a very strong Southern
accent. This would indicate the messages are a product of the médium's
mind.
However, James makes a frank admission. He says that oddly enough
persons who have never been exposed to spiritualistic traditions, who
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know nothing about them, have read nothing of the subject, when in a
trance state will often speak in the ñame of a departed person. When
a scientist says, "oddly enough," he means that he has no explanation
to account for it. Such persons will often explain the death agony of
the one who is deceased, and such has often been verified by the
relatives of the deceased. Such persons will also frequently describe
what are purported to be the experiences of the one residing in another
world or región.
Médiums often relate what has occurred thousands of miles distant from
where they are located. Thus they will describe incidents happening
in Cairo, Egypt, perhaps, when they themselves are located in Boston,
or they may describe something which occurs in some little town in the
interior of a South American country, when they are residing in Seattle.
In their objective state, such médiums will often admit that the places
they have mentioned in the trance are not known to them objectively.
They even have no knowledge of them geographically. These are example
of the proof of mental telepathy.
Early psychologists would not recognize the then theory of mental tele
pathy, because as it was promulgated in the past, it seemed not to be
based upon any natural or physical laws and was associated solely with
supernaturalism. As they understood mental telepathy from those who
expounded it at the time, the mind as an independent entity could be
transmitted, leave the body intact, in other words, and travel to a
distant mind, communicate with it, and then return to enter the sender's
body again. This was so fantastic that it was dispensed with by psy-
chology as being outside the bounds of rationalism. But with the
development of neurology, the science of the nervous system, and with
intensive expenmentation in high-frequency electrical currents and
electromagnetic waves, and, further, with the more recent experiments
in encephalograph, it was proven that the brain neurons or cells
generate an electrical current which is measurable.
There was a probability, therefore, that under some conditions or cir-
cumstances these cells might produce transmissible electric waves,
such as in radio, and that another mind could attune to such wave-
lengths and that therefore there would be established in the receiving
brain sensations corresponding to the transmitting brain. In other
words, the receiver would be conscious of the sender's ideas. With
this physical probability, science then became interested in telepathic
performances of médiums.
Mediumship may be divided into two classes: one of these, the psychic,
relates to purported Communications with departed intelligences in
another world, or on another plañe. The Rosicrucians say, with respect
to this, that if the consciousness of an individual survives death, if
it is liberated from its confinement in the physical body, it certainly
would not desire to seek the mundane immediately and to limit itself to
the physical world again. Further, it would not want to resort to those
petty, by comparison, activities and interests of a finite world. It
would seem logical that the Cosmic perspective would be far more
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appealing to a liberated self after death than what this world could
offer it. It would not want, in the interim, to degrade or deprecí
ate its advantages by returning to earth in any form or manner to play
banjos, blow trumpets, and do other childlike things in the dark and
dingy rooms of a médium. It is generally recognized psychologically
that one of the greatest bonds between individuáis is the emotion of
love. Certainly, then, this would be the closest affinity or nexus
between souls as well. Therefore, liberated souls, beings who might
reside in the hereafter, would be more bound to their loved ones whom
they left behind and would be inclined, if this were possible, to com
municate with them rather than through any strangers, any médium, for
example, who resorted to strange practices motivated in many instances
by the desire for fees.
The proof that love is a strong and intense emotion that binds persons
together becomes more apparent from the phenomena that occur under the
stress of wartime conditions. It is not uncommon for us to hear or
read of mothers suddenly becoming conscious of a son's passing through
transition on a distant battlefield or combat zone. A subsequent
comparison of facts shows that the mother's reception of the impres-
sion occurred two or three minutes after death was supposed to have
taken place. The son's intense love for his mother, accompanied by
his visualization of her, resulted in the phenomenon of a projected
consciousness of himself which the mother perceived. Then again, if
there is the possibility of communication between the living and the
dead, is it not plausible to believe that those on the Divine plañe,
those who are freed from physical limitations, would not reach down to
the objective, temporal world to communicate and make themselves ap
parent to the limited objective faculties of mortals? Is it not more
probable that we mortals would be obliged to transcend our objective
consciousness, to rise above this world by another consciousness, to
elevate ourselves to the plañe of consciousness upon which the departed
is presumed to exist? It is logical not to expect the Divine con
sciousness of a departed soul to cloak itself in material substance
and make itself so grossly manifest that individuáis here on earth can
see, feel, or hear it.
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