SPIRITUALISM
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
By
----------------------
----------------------
PREFACE
This book is a serious attempt to understand the so-called miraculous and theophanic elements in the Old Testament.
When a thoughtful person hears a priest recite the words, "God spake these words, and said . . ." he naturally wants to know what is meant by the terms "God" and "spake." And if he is told that "God" means "The One Eternal God of the universe" and that "spake" means "uttered words," it is mere double-Dutch to him because no man can think in such terms.
And, if he is told that "The Lord" had a long conversation with Abram and dined with him,--he is quick to ask what is meant by the term "The Lord." He asks because such statements are meaningless to him if the term "The Lord" means "God."
How then, are we to understand such expressions as "God spake," "The Lord appeared," "The Angel said"? We must regard them either as the Easterner's pictorial way of describing his own intuitions and reasonings or as referring to spirit-messengers who were seen and heard.
The man who is well acquainted with physical science and biblical scholarship, but is ignorant of psychic science, is tied up to the "intuitions and reasonings" explanation.
No duly informed person to-day believes in miracles. There can be no arbitrary contravention of natural law. The Old Testament, then, is full of supernormal phenomena, not supernatural or miraculous.
The so-called supernatural of to-day is the natural of to-morrow. We live in a natural, spiritual world. The natural and the spiritual interpenetrate. Spiritual law is natural; natural law is spiritual. That is why no one can say where natural law ends and spiritual law begins. Sir Oliver Lodge writes: "Conspicuously does the Bible maintain the constant activity of divine agents everywhere as testified to by supernormal occurrences."
The author has been fortunate. For many years he has been in constant contact with discarnate human beings in what is called "The Other World." He, and tens of thousands like him, can therefore think in terms in which the average person cannot yet think.
Studying the Bible, with this new set of psychic terms in which to think, he has found that what men thought to be pictorial descriptions of intuitions and reasonings, are obviously meant to describe objective manifestations of spirit-guides.
He has also found that such terms as "God," "Angel," "Angel of the Lord," "Spirit" and "man" are sometimes used interchangeably.
He believes that "Yahweh" was the name of the supreme spirit-guide of the Patriarchs and the Hebrews. He was one of God's messengers whose aim it was to lead men to a true conception of God. In order to do this he had to act and speak with the authority of a vicegerent.
The Hebrews were an idolatrous people who needed "a human image to adore," a spirit-guide who could materialize and be seen and heard and spoken to. They could not, in the early stages, rise to the conception "God is Spirit." Later, however, when Yahweh had trained them sufficiently, they began to look beyond Yahweh the spirit-guide to Yahweh the One Eternal God.
One of the chief causes of the neglect of Bible-study has been, and still is, the Church's refusal to face facts. She will not face the facts of Spiritualism though she knows that vast numbers of the intelligent members of the Church are reading the writings of Lodge, Crookes, Barrett, and a host of other students of Pyschic Science.
Men are fast out-growing the cruder dogmas and doctrines of the Church, and its ignorant interpretation of the miraculous and theophanic elements in Scripture; and, having been brought up to regard the Church and the Bible as inseparable, they have little use for the Bible. They are not interested.
The Bible was written by Spiritualists--even though they did not call themselves by that name. It is a psychical or Spiritualistic book from cover to cover. Its narratives are mainly Spiritualistic. They deal with visions, voices, dreams, trance, materialization, dematerialization, levitation, automatic-writing, mediums, spiritual healings and so forth. This will become transparently clear to any one who will seriously study the Bible.
The author trusts that those who may honour him by looking into his book will bear in mind that it consists of a series of articles which appeared in Psychic News. Some slight alterations have been made, but the somewhat blunt and racy form remains.
Above all he trusts that his readers will be patient and tolerant of his serious attempt to understand the psychic narratives of the Old Testament.
It is not possible to thank all those from whose friendship and writings he has received instruction and enlightenment. But, when he remembers all that he owes to them, the words come into his mind, "What have I that I have not received."
----------------------
A spirit-guide speaks to Abram who was clairvoyant and
clairaudient--Abram did not live "by faith alone "--Living
by faith alone is unknown in the Bible--Why Abram was
"chosen."
A psychic manifestation "in the dark"--"Justification by
faith"--Paul cites Abram--What "faith" meant in
Abram's case--Habakkuk, the Medium--"The Just
shall live by faith"--What "faith" meant to Habakkuk--
A new translation of the Bible needed.
Angel, Lord, God, spirit, man, sometimes used inter-
changeably--Hagar, clairaudient and clairvoyant--A
family feud--Ishmael--Isaac: Prediction of his birth--
Materialization of three spirit-visitants.
Spirit-guides walk with Abram--Fate of Sodom--Two
spirit-guides save Lot--Spirit-voice warns Abimelech--
Spirit-guide speaks to Hagar.
Clairaudient message saves Isaac--What are "Angels"?--
Abram, by psychic means, finds a wife for Isaac--
Rebekah "inquires of the Lord"--Guide foretells
character of unborn twins.
Mediums were no better morally in Bible days than they
are to-day--Jacob cheats Esau and tells ingenious false-
hoods--The psychic ladder--Why Jacob was "chosen"--
Basis of revelation--Sacred stones--A crafty uncle warned
by spirit-guide--Purpose of revelation--Difficulty of
believing in Survival--Bishop and Burial Ground.
Joseph's dreams--Pharaoh impressed--The divining
cup--A psychic Prime Minister--The Hand of God--
The Church's view of "Angels."
Medium who united Israel--The warning voice--The
"Call" of Moses--Story of Moses incredible to all but
Spiritualists--Critics compelled to explain it away--
Clairaudience regarded as meditation--Insult to
intelligence Biblical mistranslations--Fact or Poetry?
A typical psychical researcher--Moses doubts and
questions his spirit-guide--The serpent--The leprous
hand--Yahweh's anger--Aaron appointed spokesman--
Why Moses was "chosen"--Pharaoh interviewed--
Israelites upbraid Moses--Yahweh's promise.
The Red Sea--Spirit-light--Revelation is continuous
The angry Pharaoh--Slaying of the First-born--Modern
psychic phenomena.
Moses was a great physical medium--The bones of
Joseph--The bones of Elisha--Paul's handkerchiefs and
aprons--The Pillars of cloud and fire: what were they?--
To-day even children think, and reason and ask questions
about the psychic stories in the Bible--Pious platitudes are
useless--Bible is left unopened and unread.
"Direct Voice," Spirit-writing, Clairaudience--The Ten
Commandments psychically given to Moses--Higher
Critics and spiritual myopia--The "Thick Darkness"--
The Trumpet--A psychic book must be psychically
interpreted.
Materialization of Israel's spirit-guide in the presence of
seventy-four persons--A long seance--Urim and
Thummim--The Ark--Yahweh's Presence Holy of Holies
a sacred seance room--Tent of Meeting.
Spirit-guide gives plan of Tabernacle and names of work-
men--Reason for the "Veil"--The sacred rules--
Heathen idolatry--"Appointed" Mediums--The test of
true mediums--Spirit-communication not forbidden in
the Bible.
Seventy mediums assist Moses--Eldad and Medad--
"Would that all the Lord's people were prophets"--
Jealousy of Aaron and Miriam--Miriam smitten with
leprosy--Moses intercedes--Moses criticizes Yahweh
and dissuades him from unwise action--Slaves of fear.
Purpose of psychic phenomena--Spiritualism's supreme
message--Joshua a great medium--Moses has heart-
breaking vision--His pathetic appeal--Clothes that
"grew."
Moses still clairaudient when 120 years old--His "swan
song"--Mystery of his burial--Balaam--What are
"blessings and curaes"?--Medium's fees--Did the Ass
speak?--The angel's advice.
Balsam has been grossly misjudged owing to a priestly
plot--The infamous story.
Spiritualism not forbidden in Deuteronomy xviii.--If all
the Deuteronomic laws were binding to-day--"Answer a
fool according to his folly."
God "Spake," The Lord "Said," An angel "Appeared,"
The Lord "Stood": What such expressions mean--"A
dead book"--The water of Jordan cut off--The walls of
Jericho--Materialization of a spirit-guide--A thief discov-ered by psychic means--Scholars destroy their own case.
A Woman-Medium as great as Joan of Arc--Deborah,
Judge, Teacher, Patriot and Military Chieftain who heard
"Voices"--King Jabin--Barak--Sisera, Gideon, clair-
audient, clairvoyant and materializing medium--Proof by
fire Gideon under spirit-control--The Fleece of wool--
Gideon's skepticism--The 30,000 and the 300--The cake
of barley bread--A bloodless victory--Judge Jephthah:
Why he was "chosen," and his vow.
Materialization of spirit-guide--Samson--"No open
vision"--The Boy-medium Samuel--Priest subordinate
to Prophet--Prophecy fulfilled--The Power of the Ark--
People clamour for a king--Samuel consults his spirit-
guide--Saul's asses--Medium's fee--Samuel anoints
SAUL--"Sign" given.
Saul among the prophets; he hides and is found by
psychic means--Why he was "chosen"--Untrue to his
trust--is rejected--Saul's eldest son not "chosen" to
succeed him--The one essential--Spirit-guide leads
Samuel to the young medium David--Saul's jealousy--
Spirit-guide saves David--Conversing with a spirit-guide
through the medium of a "leaf."
The "Woman" of Endor, not "witch--The real story--A good and highly-gifted medium--Bigoted and ignorant criticism--Testimony of famous men--Mental prisons.
David steals another man's wife--David was "perfect
with the Lord," the meaning and reason--Solomon,
clairvoyant and clairaudient--Automatic-writing--
Elijah's spirit-writing--"In thick darkness"--If it
happened to-dayl--No "signs and wonders" in the
Church.
Spirit-message prevents a battle--Shemaiah the medium
--An amazing prediction--Jeroboam's hand paralysed
when about to strike a medium--The Altar splits--The
lying prophet--The blind Seer--Elijah's psychic power
--Spirit-guide saves Elijah--Fed by Ravens--The
multiplication of the "meal."
The "vanishing" medium--Elijah opposes a king and
queen--A hunted man--A clairaudient message
Obadiah saves a hundred mediums--Elijah challenges
450 priests--Trial by fire--Elijah victorious--Jezebel
enraged--Elijah flees--The Juniper tree and the Angel--
The still small voice Spirit-guide's threefold commission.
Elijah hears clairaudiently of "Naboth's vineyard"--
Jezebel's lie--Elijah pronounces doom of Ahab's House
--Prediction fulfilled--King Ahaziah falls out of a window
--Elijah's prediction fulfilled--Fire from heaven--Did
Elijah die or did he "dematerialize"? "Chariots and
horsemen": Mrs. St. Clair Stobart's explanation--
Elijah's mantle.
Can material objects be impregnated with psychic power?
Elisha smites the waters--Leader of "The Guilds of the
Prophets"--A Royal seance--Music aids trance Spirit-
guide's prediction--The multiplication of the widow's
store of oil--The Feeding of the Hundred--A dead man
restored to life--Naaman healed--The lost axe-head--The
enemy's plans revealed psychically to Elisha--Vision
of Elisha's servant--The Syrians struck blind--Elisha
predicts "cheap food" in spite of famine--Medium's fee
refused--HAZAEL: Elisha's prevision of his atrocities.
Spirit-guide instructs Elisha to dethrone Jehoram--Why
Jehu was "chosen" to be king; He weeps at Elisha's
death-bed--Elisha clairvoyant to the end--Hezekiah's
illness--Isaiah and "the shadow on the sun-dial"--Sir
William Crookes' experiments.
Girl-medium acknowledged Head of the nation--
Huldah--Hilkiah and The Book--King Josiah consults
Huldah--Subjection of Women--Paul's reasons--Church
frustrates spirit and intention of Jesus--Bible dangerous
when wrongly interpreted--Harmful Texts--Ordination
confined to men by men--"Your daughters shall
prophesy"--Quenching the Spirit.
A psychic story--Book of Jonah--What the "Great
Fish" stands for--Jonah rebuked by spirit-guide--The
Gourd.
A psychic story--Book of Daniel--Daniel and his three
friends--A dream test--The fiery furnace--Nebuchad
Nezzar sees an angel--Belshazzar's Feast--The
"Writing on the Wall"--Daniel defies Darius--The
lion's den--Deliverance by an angel.