Death and Its Mystery Volume 2 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1922 edition. Excerpt: ... DEATH AND ITS MYSTERY THE POSITIVE METHOD Let us have eyes, that we may Bee; Minds, that we may judge. IN the exactions of the experimental method lies its force. The more rigorous we are in the admission and interpretation of facts, the more firmly will our proofs be established. As we proceed farther, let us leave no uncertainty behind us; let us ask ourselves if the foregoing three hundred pages have proved the existence of the soul as an entity independent of the body. We must determine whether the supernormal faculties, the manifestations of which we have described, --presentiments, the visioning of the future, the will acting without the spoken word and without outward sign, telepathy, things perceived at distances too great for the eye to reach, the functioning of the soul beyond the sphere of the physical senses, --whether all these could not be attributed, strictly speaking, to unknown properties of our vital organisms. Does Man know himself in his entirety? Has his evolution reached this limit? Could not these transcendental psychic faculties belong to the brain? We must investigate all freely, in full liberty of conscience, without preconceived ideas, unfettered by any system. The facts that are to follow will prove superabundantly the truth of our thesis, through manifestations observed round 3 and about death and after death. But it may be helpful to answer at once some possible objections. First, as to the debatable value of human testimony. We have more than once pointed out the scientific weakness of this sort of evidence, and we know that we must constantly challenge it. Such evidence is uncertain, varies with changes in weather, is self-contradictory even as to actual events about which it would seem that unanimity should.