CHAPTER
TWENTY
SAVED PROM SUICIDE
It may be asked, “What have
these experiences meant to me and the many who shared them?” The best
way to answer is, I think, by relating one of the scores of pathetic
cases that came to us.
A sitting had been arranged
through a society for one of its members. We were not told beforehand
the name of the sitter, or whether it would be a woman or a man.
A woman arrived and handed me
a letter of introduction which contained nothing that would reveal her
identity. We noticed how sad and worn she was, and we felt there was a
great bitterness in her heart.
To ease the strained
feelings, I asked if she had ever sat before, and she told me she had
not. I explained that it was impossible to guarantee results. If nothing
happened after fifteen minutes the sitting would be closed.
At the time, all our sittings
were held in the dark. We had not reached the stage where we could have
red light. I asked if she objected to sitting in the dark, or would in
any way be afraid, and she said, “No.”
We retired to our séance
room, and placed the visitor in a comfortable armchair, about four feet
away from the medium. I sat with the gramophone on the opposite side of
the room.
After Belle had greeted the
visitor, a voice, loud and strong, called out, “Mother! I am here,” and
gave his full name. “Mother, how glad I am that you have come here,” he
continued. “Mother darling, Father is with me. We are both here. Mother,
I am being helped to speak like this because I have something important
to say to you.
By this time he was very
excited and emotional. I suggested it would be better if he could calm
himself. “Who are you?” he asked. “I am talking to my mother. I don’t
know you.” I explained that I was trying to help.
“Mother!” said the boy.
“Father and I are terribly worried about you. We have had a hard task in
saving you from yourself. It is not your time to come over here, and if
you do what is in your mind, you won’t join us, as you think you will.
Promise me, Mother, that what you had in mind to do when you came here
this evening you will not do when you leave here. That is why I am here
tonight, and why I am being helped to speak like this.
“Darling Mother, we know you
are lonely, and how much you miss us. Don’t blame yourself about me. You
did all you could, but it was the wish of the Loving Father that I
should come over here. We are sorry that you have been left alone, but
we want you to know that we can come to you at home and bring our love
and help. You may not see us, but we are there all the same. Here,
Mother, take this from me with all my love and father’s, too.”
He handed his mother a rose
which had been taken from a vase, showed his spirit light and then
kissed his mother. Her husband and other relatives spoke to her much in
the same strain as her son had done.
When the sitting was over,
and we had adjourned to another room, our visitor thanked us. “Shall I
tell you to what my son was referring?” she said.
“If it will cause you any
distress, it would be as well not to mention anything,” I replied.
However, she insisted. She
explained her terrible grief and bitterness at the tragic loss of her
husband and her only son, and was of the opinion that no loving God
existed. She had tried several times to end it all, but somehow fate
stepped in and prevented her. She had fully made up her mind before
coming to us that our door would be the last one she knocked on before
throwing herself into the Thames.
It was a very different person
who left our house that evening. Incidentally, the Thames was robbed of
its victim.
The thought of rotting in the
grave after our demise makes us shudder. If our experiences have proved
nothing else, they have exploded one fallacy, that of lying in the grave
until Gabriel sounds the great reveille. But they have done more than
that. We have learned that the true value of life is in the service of
others, that by serving our fellow-man in the spirit of brotherhood and
good fellowship we are doing the will of God.
“By your works you will be
known, not by your religion,” is one of the statements often quoted by
those who come back to tell us what we must do. “To label yourself Roman
Catholics, Church of England, Nonconformists, Spiritualists or any one of
the many denominations does not afford you entry into the spiritual home
of love and understanding,” we are told.
There is no creed, dogma, class
distinction or colour bar in the other life. There is only one religion,
service to others.
It is against the spiritual
laws, we are told, that when God has provided His people with ample
supplies for their needs, a small section should enjoy the plenty while
the majority often have to go short. It is the selfishness and greed of
those people, whose only ambition in life is to attain power and position,
that are responsible for the chaotic state of the world.
Whatever our nationality,
colour or creed, we are all God’s children, and as such we should share
equally the bounty He has to offer. “What shall it profit a man if he gain
the whole world and lose his own soul?”
When I hear certain clergy say
that it is the Devil’s messengers whom we contact, I am forced to smile. I
know my mother was not an angel. Neither am I, nor anybody else for that
matter. But one thing I know. My mother would never advise me, from the
“other world,” to do anything wrong in the sight of God any more than she
would have done when she was on earth. |
