I've been reading Geraldine Cummins' 1935 book Beyond Human Personality, which bears on some of the issues discussed on this blog recently.
Cummins was a medium who produced several purportedly channeled books. The most famous and most evidential of these is Swan on a Black Sea, often cited as one of the best examples of channeling.
Decades before Swan, Cummins produced two books allegedly dictated to her by the deceased psychical researcher and psychological theorist F.W.H. Myers. The first was titled The Road to Immortality; the second, Beyond Human Personality. Both of them, as well as some of Cummins' other books, can be read online here.
In quoting this material, I don't mean to endorse all of its claims. I don't know if Cummins was in communication with Myers or not, though her track record as a medium was very good. I don't know if her unconscious mind altered whatever communications she may have received. I don't know if Myers - assuming he was the communicator - was correct in his understanding of these esoteric matters. And it's worth noting that some of "Myers' " claims have not stood the test of time. For instance, he makes much of the ether, a substance thought by an older generation of physicists to pervade the universe. Today's physicists have discarded the theory of the ether, though there are occasional attempts to revive it in modified form.
Still, much of what "Myers" had to say dovetails with other material provided by channelers, psychics, and mystics. For me at least, it has a ring of truth.
What follows is a series of excerpts from Chapter 3 of Beyond Human Personality, beginning with the subsection headed "Human Personality and Survival."
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It is true that when friends meet they build up the structure of each other, they create one another; they deepen and extend character, color the framework that has seemed bare and inexpressive and generally achieve a picture or creation of the self, that varies with the company.
I am, therefore, perplexed as to the use of the term "Personality" in relation to survival. It may be as elusive and ephemeral in the superficial sense, as images in water ...
"The state of existing as a thinking, intelligent being," such is the meaning of the word personality, if we follow the ruling of the dictionary. Unfortunately, many materialists would alter its signification and demand of personality not merely thought and intelligence; but the material attributes of face, features, figure and gesture. They would declare it to be an expression of the physical organism. For them, the physical structure alone is real. When, therefore, the student of psychical research argues with a materialist on the subject of the survival of human personality, the two are usually at cross purposes; the materialist maintaining that the personality does not continue when life no longer animates the body.
This argument rests upon an unsatisfactory basis. It is necessary, indeed, that a definition of this important word should be made once more. For it is the very kernel of the dispute between the protagonists of temporary and eternal life ...
[T]he state of existing as a thinking, intelligent being, does not necessarily imply physical characteristics. It may imply, however, association with a body. For that, in human thought, is suggestive of a presence which can react upon another presence or appearance. Therefore, when discussing the survival of human personality, the student should discard the idea of any bodiless creation. He should endeavor to imagine the possible conditions that prevail.
It is conceivable, he would argue, that there is a body vibrating at a slightly higher rate of intensity which accompanies the human being from birth till death -- a body invisible to the eye, which receives the soul or conscious intelligence during sleep -- a body which, at all times, acts as intermediary between the intellect, imagination and the physical shape.
Having accepted, as an hypothesis, this etheric shape, it would be well to describe it by the word "double" or, "unifying mechanism." For it is, in construction, just as automatic in its responses as the physical shape. Further, this double is in the likeness of the visible manifestation of the man. So similar are they in appearance, they might be described as twins if they could be visualised together. The double, indeed, reflects the impressions of its companion, receives the memories registered by the senses and imprints those impressions on its brain-substance, which connects it with the mental representations that are, indeed, the very stuff of memory.
It will be recognized therefore, that the word "double" in part expresses the meaning of this finer mechanism which serves the mind and bears the burden of communication between the higher centers and the physical brain. Actually, in order to complete the meaning, the word "unifying" seems essential, for it conveys the purpose of this etheric mechanism -- namely, that it serves to unite, to correlate, to harmonise, to bring together all the working parts of the human being.
On this basic structure the student may build up his arguments when he engages the materialist in discussion. He can account, for instance, for loss of memory in the ageing man or woman, by the fact that the soul can no longer effectively impress the deteriorating physical brain. The machine is too worn to be responsive. On the other hand, the memory of the individual is retained and registered very fully in the unifying body. This body does not imitate its companion and gradually decay as the years pass. In my previous book I have called it the "husk," for it contains and shelters the nascent manifestation which is to be eventually the body of the soul in the world after death.
During the whole of a man's life, this potential expression of personality is forming in the etheric womb, is growing during the span of twenty, fifty, seventy years, whatever may be the term of his sojourn on earth ...
Two, three or more discarnate souls as a rule assist the dying man, freeing him from that level of consciousness on which he dwells when he walks the planet Earth ...
The task of those beings, who attend upon the dissolution of the physical shape, requires considerable skill. They must gently sever the web that holds the double to the broken frame. In the case of illness they gradually break the threads, taking them one by one so that the soul meets with no sudden shock that might inhibit progress in the coming life for a time ...
During sleep, this body [i.e., the etheric double] receives the soul and feeds the physical shape with life units, with nervous force, and resembles in every particular the human form. All the organs are similar, and it is indeed as an image or reflection in a glass. But it vibrates with greater intensity; and when a man's life draws to a close the subliminal self commences its work of developing the etheric shape within the double. This again will resemble the man as he appears to his friends; but it will be in the prime of life, or will image youth, particularly if a man passes from the physical plane before he reaches his three score years and ten ...
The double holds the physical body within its grip and is a power for integration. Even when the human being sleeps and the former no longer occupies the material shape the latter is controlled by a fine web, by certain threads and two cords which unite it to its finer semblance.
Mind does not merely communicate through the mechanism of the brain. It is in indirect contact with other physical centers such as the ductless glands, the solar plexus and the sacral plexus. But the soul has to work through the medium of the double and never directly commands matter. Always there is this unifying body which comes between the self and his outward appearance in the material world ...
Now, when the ordinary man is fully awake, his unifying body rests within the physical shape. The two forms fit into each other and pervade each other exactly. But, as soon as a man becomes drowsy, the double tilts outwards; and one who can see with the inner eye will perceive a pale form which has, perhaps, half emerged from the actual material body. If a shock or noise rouses its owner, instantly it slips back within the physical manifestation of the individual.
Emotion may be said to be a force that is of an electrical type and can radiate outwards from the human being. The ductless glands are primarily related to the emotional nature and may be called the emotional brain. The soul, working through the double, affects these glands and they in their turn can change the chemical composition of the blood. When the mind fails to function adequately through the channel that connects it with a certain gland the character of the individual alters, and strange abnormalities occur. These are sometimes due to some weakness in the double, or, on occasions, to a fault in the soul when controlling mind. Usually, the soul should be held responsible for the vagaries of the glands, for inadequate or excessive secretions ...
[I]f the hypothesis of this subtle mechanism be accepted; if it be the medium between the soul and the brain, then an extension of the meaning of the word "personality" has to be made. For necessarily this other part, this delicate construction, affects and influences by its nature the outward appearance and shape, all that expresses the personality. The swift and sluggish mentalities may and do act thus because of the character of the channel through which mind operates. That is to say, the double can be a blocked filter, or it may be clear of all obstructions and perfectly convey the messages from the higher centers of the soul.
[Geraldine Cummins, Beyond Human Personality)
EW Silvertooth also did experiments on the discredited ether showing based on his experiments that it indeed exists.
http://www.unusualresearch.com/silvertooth/silvertooth.htm
"The Michelson-Morley experiment, which did not show any translational motion through an aether or other medium of propagation, was later shown to have a fundamental flaw: The standing waves that are reflected back onto a mirror become phase locked on the mirror, and hence to its motion through space. Silvertooth built a standing wave experiment that avoids the phase locking encountered in the Michelson-Morley setup. It uses a configuration similar to the Sagnac experiment, which many years ago did detect motion relative to an aether. Silvertooth's addition was a sensor capable of measuring the spacing between standing wave nodes".
Posted by: Leo MacDonald | June 22, 2009 at 02:06 PM
Very interesting, Leo. Thanks.
Googling "Silvertooth + ether" brings up a lot of hits. From what I can gather, there are renegade elements within the physics community who believe Silvertooth's results deal a major blow to relativity theory. But this is very much a minority view at present.
Excerpt from an online paper that reports the controversy without taking sides:
"Some scientists say that the ether exists and that the M- M experiment didn't measure it. One such scientist is H. Aspden, who claims that the ether is attached to the earth--it is a 'localized ether.' Consequently the M-M experiment didn't measure the ether because it was only designed to measure the linear motion of the earth through space, not rotational motion of the earth through space. Another scientist is E. W. Silvertooth, who claims that any laser interferometer experiment analogous to the M-M experiment would give a null result. His idea is that the frequencies of the interfering beams are themselves dependent upon velocity relative to a fixed frame. Therefore the frequency will adjust exactly to cancel any effect due to the motion through the light-reference frame, and a null result is an inevitable consequence....
"Other scientists say that an ether doesn't exist, but that a better explanation must exist for the appearance of light as waves in many situations (one example is double-slit experiments)....
"The question is also important with relation to absolute frames of reference in physics. An ether signifies a fixed frame of reference that scientists can use in their measurements of the universe. Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity says that no such frame of reference exists, i.e. all motion is relative. The finding of an ether would shatter that hypothesis."
http://ldolphin.org/graps.html
Posted by: Michael Prescott | June 22, 2009 at 04:13 PM
For instance, he makes much of the ether, a substance thought by an older generation of physicists to pervade the universe. Today's physicists have discarded the theory of the ether, though there are occasional attempts to revive it in modified form. -- MP
It's possible that the "ether" consistently referred to by "etherians" (afterlife spirits) is not exactly the same ether discarded by scientists.
I'm speculating, but it seems to me that, if we give some credibility to afterlife messages, then the ether referred by them is possibly existent as an spiritual component instead of a physical entity/substance.
In any case, regarding the doubts about the Ether having been debunked definitively, in the Alternative Science website yopu may read an article entitled "Ether - a null result, or an anulled result?" that deals with this controversy:
http://web.archive.org/web/20041011213350/www.alternativescience.com/ether.htm
On this basic structure the student may build up his arguments when he engages the materialist in discussion. He can account, for instance, for loss of memory in the ageing man or woman, by the fact that the soul can no longer effectively impress the deteriorating physical brain. The machine is too worn to be responsive. On the other hand, the memory of the individual is retained and registered very fully in the unifying body. This body does not imitate its companion and gradually decay as the years pass. In my previous book I have called it the "husk," for it contains and shelters the nascent manifestation which is to be eventually the body of the soul in the world after death.
This reminds me of the debate on the "Rovin" post. That paragraph confirms some version of the transmission hypothesis, modified by the operation of the etheric body on the physical body.
During sleep, this body [i.e., the etheric double] receives the soul and feeds the physical shape with life units, with nervous force, and resembles in every particular the human form. All the organs are similar, and it is indeed as an image or reflection in a glass. But it vibrates with greater intensity; and when a man's life draws to a close the subliminal self commences its work of developing the etheric shape within the double. This again will resemble the man as he appears to his friends; but it will be in the prime of life, or will image youth, particularly if a man passes from the physical plane before he reaches his three score years and ten ...
This is amazingly consistent with the information gotten by Arthur Findlay in his "nights of intructions", as explained in the book On the Edge of Etheric:
http://www.thegreatquestion.com/books/On_the_Edge_of_Etheric.pdf
Mind does not merely communicate through the mechanism of the brain. It is in indirect contact with other physical centers such as the ductless glands, the solar plexus and the sacral plexus. But the soul has to work through the medium of the double and never directly commands matter. Always there is this unifying body which comes between the self and his outward appearance in the material world ...
From the perspective of the transmission theory, if that paragraph is true, it adds some qualifications to that theory.
The brain is not transmitting consciousness directly, but indirectly (through the etheric body).
This aspect is important because, if true, we (our souls) have at least two embodied minds:
-A physical embodied mind.
-An etheric embodied mind.
When living on earth, we use both of them for our mental functioning. They do analogous and simultaneous functioning, but in different levels or dimensions of reality (the etheric one and the physical one) according to the evolutive spiritual needs of each soul.
After death, we don't have the physical embodied mind anymore, but we conserve the etheric embodied mind. If correct, it would explain why memories, skills and other mental components gotten in life will persist after death.
The etheric brain carries this information.
The soul has an etheric body and, when functioning in the physical realm, a physical body too (a duplicated of the etheric body). So the soul is not transmitting a direct signal on the physical brain, but operating it indirectly by mediation of the etheric body.
The introduction of an etheric body modififies, partially, the transmission hypothesis as usually discussed or interpreted.
Another problem is: Is there independent evidence for the existence of an etheric body?
I'd suggest this:
Some alternative medicine (specifically, "energetic medicines", like acupunture or homeopathy) supposedly works directly on the "energetic body", not on the physical body.
For the sake of the argument, let's assume that these medicines works. If true, it suggests that the existence of a etheric (energetic) body is real, and it could be reached and changed (by several means) in ways favoring or damaging the physical body.
So, energetic medicines, assuming some of them actually works, provide us as some independent evidence in favor of the existence of an etheric body (a non-physical body underlaying, supporting and controling the physical one).
Also, some of these medicines use the ancient concepts of "chakras", and this seems to be consistent with this paragraph:
Emotion may be said to be a force that is of an electrical type and can radiate outwards from the human being. The ductless glands are primarily related to the emotional nature and may be called the emotional brain. The soul, working through the double, affects these glands and they in their turn can change the chemical composition of the blood. When the mind fails to function adequately through the channel that connects it with a certain gland the character of the individual alters, and strange abnormalities occur. These are sometimes due to some weakness in the double, or, on occasions, to a fault in the soul when controlling mind. Usually, the soul should be held responsible for the vagaries of the glands, for inadequate or excessive secretions ...
In some alternative medicine literature, the chakras are presented as connecting the energetic body with specific emotions and glands. So, each chakra corresponds to some gland, to some emotions and to some organs too.
There is, at the bottom, an interesting consistency between the most reliable afterlife messages and some alternative medicine literature. But this connection hasn't been explored in depth, as far I know.
Finally, in Arthur Findlay's book On the Edge of Etheric, when he asked "What is the mind? Is it something apart of the brain?", he got the following reply:
"Certainly it is. You bring your mind over here with you. You leave your physical brain on earth. Our mind here acts on our etheric brain and through it on our etheric body, just as your physical brain acts on your physical body"
In addition to confirming mind-body dualism, the paragraph is intriguing because it asserts that our etheric body includes a etheric brain too (bear in mind the etheric body is a perfect duplicate of the physical one) and that our mind and soul are different of the etheric body too.
So, our soul is not reducible to our etheric brain either. We wouldn'd be our etheric bodies.
If all of these afterlife messages are correct, or point out to some real information, then many of the philosophical debates on mind-body connections and dualism are misguided.
The simplistic and crude Cartesian view of an "immaterial soul" interacting with a "material body" wouldn't be representative of the real states of the things.
We have to add to the equation the etheric body, as an intermediary between the soul and the (physical) brain.
And the idea of a disemboided mind surviving death is misleading too, because in afterlife, we survive with another kind of emboided mind: a mind embodied in an etherical brain, which carries on the information stored in the physical brain.
And being the etherical body an spiritual and non-biological (but solid and tangible) substance, then the idea of a purely immaterial substance or ego surviving death wouldn't be accurate.
Perhaps some of us have to reconsider our dualistic positions in the face of the evidence (if it exists) suggesting the existence of an etheric body.
The soul could be immaterial in a Cartesian sense; but maybe it is not the immediate and definitive condition of the soul after physical death; the etherical body would be just another (much more subtly) of the instruments that the soul uses for their ends and experiences in different dimensions.
Maybe a new "mind-brain etherical dualism" is needed.
(Maybe in 150 years, we'll find Keith Augustine in the afterlife defending the idea that our soul "is" produced by our etherical brain, and that if you destroy the latter, the former perishes too, confirming an slightly modified version of the production hypothesis and the close dependence of conciousness on a brain, making him right after all... just a joke Keith :-)
Posted by: Jime | June 22, 2009 at 11:44 PM