Foreword
By Mrs. Hewat McKenzie

Dr. Vivian affirms at once her belief in survival proved by means of psychic powers, in this case her own receptivity of written inspirational communications. Many years of personal investigation through other channels, that have provided her with much personal evidence, give her assurance and confidence in her own writings and contacts with a friend on the Other Side, a soldier who, like so many others, caught up in your manhood, has been among the most successful bringers of news from the next world. They have assuredly not left their friends comfortless and have frequently, as in this case, described their new life and occupations, giving us a sense of a real life and real surviving persons. We cannot have enough of such experiences to enrich our conception of a future life.

Those who expect news from the Other Side to have a religious flavour may be disappointed in this soldier’s communications, which are eminently practical. He reminds us that he and others are for a considerable time after death very much themselves, and not angels. But he tells us of work voluntarily undertaken and of kindly service to needy souls, of study and exploration and of his many attempts to reach his friends on earth. His chosen job is a unique one. An animal lover when on earth, he found his attention drawn to bewildered dogs in spirit life, bereft of their masters, and sick and sorry as they can be on earth. He made friends with them, placed them in proper care, and even established a heavenly canine defense league on their behalf. And why not? There is good evidence for animal as for human survival, and if men and women can grieve at separation from earthly friends, so may sensitive and loved dogs.

An interesting chapter on astral travel tells of the soldier’s efforts to bring his friend to his new land in her sleep state in her astral body; for such travel we have much evidence, although the memory may fail to record the experience on waking. He claims that in her waking hours, when she lends herself to receive messages from him in writing, these memories are revived and recorded. The Rev. George Vale Owen, who in several volumes published similar communications: that in the sleep-state he had been over there and experienced all that his hand subsequently recorded.

Many questions that rise at once to the lips of inquirers were asked and answered in the course of Dr. Vivian’s writing, and at times prophecies on world events were volunteered. Though no infallibility was claimed, they proved correct, and there were prognostications, even against the mind of the psychic, of the parlous state of civilisation and the danger of war, the folly of which as a means of settling differences was constantly emphasised.

Many who are not Spiritualists could enjoy this book; it is neither over-sentimental nor platitudinous, but conveys the sense of a robust personality who has taken the trouble to study his new life and to transmit as much as possible as much earthy folk can grasp of an existence in which neither a physical body nor material conditions play any part, but in which an active thought life, with powers almost unknown to us, holds the field. The lesson the communications enforce is that it is wise for us, while still in the physical body, to make acquaintance with those who have gone on, who can give us this new knowledge so that we may not arrive as bewildered travelers in our future dwelling-place. Only psychic powers can provide the means of this instruction.

Introduction

“ This is an exact account of our life here, so far as it can be understood by those on earth. I prefer to omit what would be unintelligible to you, and which readers would in consequence denounce as rubbish. That might discredit the whole book.”

So wrote Fred, my soldier friend, when discussing the writing of this book. In the original script he has repeated some statements with a view, I feel sure, to emphasising their importance. Often, for instance, he has asserted than when we die we do not at once become either angels or devils. We are just as we were five minutes before death, and those who never troubled to study the question of survival are puzzled and often cannot believe that they have died. “ Newcomers who desire the pleasures of earth can have them for the asking, and for a short time some do lead a life that differs very little from the one they have left.” This statement may help those who were shocked when they read of cigars, whisky and soda and so forth, as described by Raymond Lodge.

In this connection, Fred wrote as follows: “ Occasionally I smoke a cigarette with a newcomer, merely in order to make him feel at home. It is exactly like a child playing with its toys; a grown-up may play with a doll in order to amuse a child, but he does not do so when he is alone. So, as we progress, we discard childish things.”

Another point emphasised by Fred is that the idea of an angry deity punishing us for our sins is false. What we call a sinner is merely an uninvolved soul. All of us have been sinners, and most of us will intimately become saints, but in the meantime we may have to reincarnate many times before we reach the stage where we can be happy in the Summerland. Punishment is simply the automatic result of conduct which teaches us not to transgress again. A burnt child dreads the fire. As a man soweth, so shall he reap, and so forth.

A large part of the book is devoted to describing how the inhabitants of the Summerland occupy themselves, and the author repeatedly asserts that it is just as difficult to make us understand his life as it would be for us to explain our mode of living to a savage. How, for instance, could we make him understand about our wireless, our motor cars, or even our rate of exchange?

Most of the repetitions have been deleted, but a few have been left, in order to emphasise the importance of the teaching therein contained.

Here is a further quotation from the script: “ Our book is going to be a great success. I am anxious to strike a new note with it, and I hope that it is not boring. I should hate to be a bore now that I am reappearing in your world, for I want to awaken interest in what you call the future life. Please cut out and alter what I give you if you feel that it is dull. By ruthless, and cut and re-shape it. So not let us be dull, and be sure, when the great work is published, that you choose a gay and attractive cover. I have looked through our pages, and I think, with a little rearrangement, they will be O.K.”

CHAPTER I Arrival

It was at Colenso, during the South African war, when I was

twenty-seven years old, that I made the change that brought me here. Some guns were in danger of falling into the hands of the Boers, and we rushed forward to save them. Several of us were shot down, and I was pinned down, fatally wounded, under my dead horse. At first I did not realise that I was dying, but gradually I found that my real self was being separated from my body, until I was floating in the air above it. I tried to free myself from the cord that still held me to my useless body, and it became gradually thinner until at last it snapped. The pain of my wounds ceased and I succeeded in assuming an erect position, floating in the air just above the ground.

 

I spoke to a man who was trying to help my physical body, but he did not seem to hear me, and then I caught sight of some of my friends who had been dead some time, but now stood near me. I lost consciousness, and when I woke, I found myself lying in a hospital bed. I was puzzled, having no idea that I had been killed, and I asked a nurse where I was. It was some time before I understood what had happened, and all I remember is that I woke for short intervals and then slept again. Each time I woke, I felt drawn towards the earth, but when I struggled to get up, I was told to go to sleep and not worry about the fighting.

 

At first I was sad at finding myself cut off from my friends and from the normal occupations, and it was in order to get over this period, caused by the shock of a sudden death, that I was kept asleep for so long. That is why in your prayer-books you pray to be delivered from sudden death, in spite of the fact that it has some obvious advantages. I do not know how long I remained in the rest home, but one day when I woke I was told that I was now well enough to go home. I was puzzled, and said: “ But you say I am dead; how then can I go home?”

 

“ It is only your physical body that is dead,” was the reply, “ and here comes your grandmother, who will take you to the home that has been prepared for you.” So I left the hospital in her company, and soon found myself standing at the gate of a bungalow surrounded by a large garden, in which were flowers and fruits unlike any that I had ever seen, as well as those that you have on the earth. I was interested but bewildered, feeling rather like a small boy in a new school. Everything was strange, and I felt that it must be a dream from which I should wake and find myself back in the army. My grandmother tried to explain the conditions of this strange, new life, but in spite of feeling a marvelous health and vigour, I am not sure that at this stage I might not have chosen to return to my physical body if such a chance had been offered me.

My grandmother promised to stay with me until I had become acclimatised to my new life, and though she was almost a stranger, having passed on when I was a very small child, I was glad of her company, as I still felt lonely and confused. There were times when I was perfectly satisfied with my surroundings, as for instance when I received an exuberant welcome from my horses and dogs, but there were moments when I felt an almost irresistible attraction drawing me back to the earth. Whenever I gave way to this desire, I found myself wandering through a thick mist. Occasionally I caught sight of some of my old friends, like wraiths in a fog, but I could not make them see or hear me, and it was so disheartening that I began to resist the earthward pull, and made up my mind to do my best to settle down in my new surrounding.

It was all so different from what I had been taught: no harps or angles with wings. It was as if I had been transported during sleep to a strange land, where all the customs were new to me, and only a few friends were available to initiate me into the mysteries of this new life. I was a very material young man, brought up in the orthodox way. I had attended church parade as a matter of army routine, and with the strangely indifferent attitude towards religious matters displayed by most normal individuals, who are neither religiously-minded not agnostic, I had given little thought to what lay beyond death. Eventually I made friends with some men who were more or less in a similar state of bewilderment, and we arranged to meet at regular intervals in order to discuss this new state in which we found ourselves.

It was pleasant to experience the freedom of traveling anywhere at will, and to practice the new power that we possessed. I was surprised to find that I could travel in any direction without any preparation, and that I had only to wish to be in a certain place in order to find myself there – a method that you will admit makes all your speed records snail-like in comparison. Another useful faculty is that of making oneself invisible at will, and if you could develop it you would be able to avoid many boring conversations.