Dr. G. Encausse (Papus) was not the first to write about
the experiences of the Soul World, to which we all retire when
life on this planet is completed for any specific incarnation.
The renowned seer, Dr. P. B. Randolph, wrote prolifically on this
subject. Perhaps the best known of his works is Soul! The Soul
World. (1)
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(1) This is available from the Philosophical
Publishing Company, P.O. Box 220, Quakertown, PA 18951-0220.
1-800-300-5168
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For many years this book was considered Dr. Randolph's definitive word on this subject. Recently, however, a small volume has come to light that changes this supposition. Apparently, he had prepared the latter booklet just prior to his transition, and it is, to our knowledge, not only his last word on this subject but his last published work.
As was the custom of the day, the title, The Ghostly Land: The Medium's Secret, Being the Mystery of the Human Soul: Its Dwelling, Nature, and Power of Materialization, is flowery, but certainly invites interest. The work, published in 1874, predated the work of Papus by more than two decades.
In The Ghostly Land, Dr. Randolph described the Soul World from a slightly different aspect than did Dr. Encausse, but their two accounts are surprisingly similar.
Only that portion of the booklet germane to this subject is included here, and Dr. Randolph's original language remains intact. Footnotes are used to clarify when necessary rather than alter the flavor of the text.
Description Of The Soul World
He wrote: "Certain authorities affirm that man remains
after, just as he is at, death so far as shape and substance are
concerned. Yet in the same breath they speak of there being in
the upper world trees, forests, lakes, seas, islands, continents,
rivers, houses, statuary, gardens, palatial mansions, theaters,
museums, and hospitals. I was one who thus spoke, but failed to
qualify or fully and clearly explain. I do so now. All these things
imply substantialness, if not absolute solidity, which of course
is sheer nonsense if the upper world is but a figment, and man
a fleeting phantasma. If these things are mere appearances, and
mankind mere superhydrogenic(2) personalities, it is all well
enough; but we are more than that, and the time has come for me
to lift the veil, and show just exactly what that more really
is.
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(2) Superhydrogenic. The phrase is not in modern dictionaries,
but it no doubt referred to the thought of man's being even less
substantial than the lightest physical gas known.
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"The oxy-nitrogenous atmosphere surrounding Earth is
an ocean whose outer wavelets, fine, rarified, and exceedingly
attenuate, roll gently against the Pure Æth(3) of space
at a distance averaging about three hundred and fifty miles. A
revolving wheel or grindstone throws from its wet surface curved
lines of water; even so does this Earth in its double motion -
axial and orbital - throw from its periphery vast continuous streams
of highly rarified, highly sublimated electrical matter - what
may in fact be called the soul or spirit of material substances;
but there is neither silica, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, nor oxygen
in this evolved current, which by laws of its own moves from the
equator to, and ascends from, the poles of the Earth in spiral
rivers, gently undulating, sweet as the breath of a babe, and
softer than the down upon a ringdove's breast, and with a musical
murmur likened only to the distant echoes of the symphonies of
God!
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(3) Æth. This is the term Randolph and most other Western
Initiates applied to that inexhaustible Spiritual Force that permeates
every corner of the Universe and that may be used advantageously
by all who are willing to develop the skill and discipline necessary
for its mastering. The Earth's aura might be considered akin to
the Van Allen radiation belt, the intense ionizing radiation that
surrounds the Earth with outer atmosphere. Dr. Randolph described
this radiant area in l874. The Van Allen belt, named for the American
physicist born in l9l4, was not identified specifically until
the time of modern aviation and space travel.
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"I have seen this river. I have heard its delicious melody. Then, and only then, have I been able to smother my spirit of discontent, unrest, and resistance; smile at the rage of puny man, and rely wholly upon the absolute knowledge that - all would be right in the spring of the good time coming.
"This grand river, rife with the quintessence of matter,
is mainly composed of what I call Magnetime(4) - not magnetism
- by which I mean that mysterious essence or imponderable, whose
poles antagonize those flowing north and south, itself moving
from the opposite quarters; in a word, the cross- magnetic fluids
of the terraqueous globe. When this river reaches the confines
of the Earth's cushion, it flows in curved lines towards the center
of what may be compared to an enormous shell, zone, or belt, the
under side of which it strikes and instantly fuses therewith.
This is the concave or under side of the mystic land, upon whose
upper surface man resides for a term proportioned to his mental,
moral, and spiritual growth. Some remain but comparatively short
periods; others have been there more centuries than they had days
upon the Earth.(5)
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(4) Magnetime. This probably was a word of Dr. Randolph's creation
and should be taken to mean whatever he indicates. Some older
dictionaries define the word "magnetine" as a hypothetical
imponderable substance assumed to be the medium of magnetic phenomena.
(5) Much in this statement agrees with the writings of Dr. Encausse.
The major consideration is that the stay in the Soul World is
different for each being and depends on each one's desires and
the consequences of previous lives.
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"It is almost a hollow sphere, with Earth, like the
kernel of a nut, far away in its center; and but for two large
open spaces at its poles, it would be a complete sphere. Its surface
is reached over a ridge of vast mountains, surrounding these open
spaces, like the scoria(6) hillocks on the edge of a crater. Its
material differs from matter as we know it here, for on Earth
heat and moisture are the only twin productive potencies; there
heat and water, as we know them, have no existence. A spirit cannot
get wet or cold; hence its labor is not for money or food or raiment,
and consequently the compound hells which those necessities create
on Earth are not known up there - and yet there are hells abounding
even in the spaces; but they have a different nature and genesis
from those on Earth!(7)
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(6) Scoria are fragments of lava.
(7) The hells of the Soul World are mainly those that come from
regrets for not having done as we should have when we were on
Earth. Once we enter the Soul World, we are stripped clean of
all pretension and rationalization. We know ourselves as we really
are. In the Soul World life, we recognize all the things we did
but should not have done in our last incarnation. We know all
the kindness and graciousness we should have extended but did
not. We know and weep, for now it is too late. We can do nothing
to correct our debits until once again we are able to return to
Earth and take upon ourselves the mantle of mortality.
This inability to change what we have done previously can
make the Soul World such a hell. Can you really imagine any more
distressing situation than one in which you know you have committed
a wrong but there is no possible way you can correct it at this
time? Remember, there can be no suicide in the Soul World. In
this state of remorse such a person must live for many years,
as we know them. The prevention? So live this life on Earth that
you will have a minimum of regrets in the next!
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"The material of that land, being not of coarse matter,
does not obstruct stellar, solar, or lunar light, nor do its people
see through aqueous humors, as do we preceding death, save when
gifted, or cursed, with second sight or clairvoyance. (8)
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(8) Dr. Randolph was considered one of the most gifted clairvoyants
of his day. He was never sure, however, whether this was a curse
or a gift, as he suggests in the present text. Many times he felt
he had been shown more than he desired to know. This, of course,
is the albatross around the neck of every true seer.
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"Nor does that land alter, change, deflect, refract,
or in any way disturb the chemic rays which pass through it any
more than a belt of fine, clear glass would. Indeed, an ancient
writer in the New Testament compared this self-same `New Jerusalem'
to a sea of glass. As the upper land is constantly supplied with
new material on its under side, even so its upper surface is continually
giving off its most sublimated particles, which, together with
that supplied from the Sun's planetary family, goes to constitute
another and vaster belt elsewhere, of which more hereinafter.
Of course, this constant drain would one day exhaust the Earth,
were not that result provided against, and this world actually
growing larger instead of being wasted away. How? Simply ask any
astronomer and he will tell you that from seven to twenty million
meteors strike the Earth every twenty-four hours. Some are so
burnt as to be impalpable dust; others, tons in solid weight.
The supply, everywhere except in domestic and financial matters,
is always equal to the demand.(9)
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(9) Dr. Randolph wrote many books on marriage and love; therefore,
his little dig at the lack of affection in these affairs. Also,
he was always, it seems, in a precarious state of financial balance,
and the comment concerning the lack of supply here is understandable.
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"The surface of that electro-Æthic zone(10) is
far more diversified than the Earth, with multitudinous seas,
rivers of living water, brooks, hills, vales, cities, towns, etc.,
just as here, only on an immeasurably vaster and more sublime
scale. Its cities - I have seen one; its lakes - I have scanned
their silvery tides; its towers, mosques, minarets, and domes;
its glowing beauty; its flowers, fruits, gardens are, each and
all, incomparably superior to any actually witnessed here, and
far more gorgeous than the gardens of Irem or Poe's splendid `Domain
of Arnheim.'
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(10) Dr. Randolph's euphenism for this part of the Soul World.
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"In the early days of the present spiritualism (11)
we often had mediumistic drawings of some of the strange flora
of that better land. But such things are rare now, having been
superseded by higher and far more significant phenomena; but even
they were but pictures of things upon the deserts of the land
beyond.
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(11) At the time Dr. Randolph wrote (1840-1870), spiritualism
was the rage, and such comments did not have the same extreme
character they might have today. At that time not only were educated
men and women allowed to discuss spiritualism, they were considered
ignorant if they did not.
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"It is clear that the purpose of the God of this Universe
is the immortalizing of the homos.(12) Selection means just that;
evolution proclaims it, the Bible and all human history and development
point right there. Only that which is consciously earned belongs
to us eternally. Hence, in view of it all we declare that only
some men are immortal.
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(12) By this is meant that God's purpose in creating and perpetuating
the world is to give His creations the ability to emulate Him
and to become as perfect, by their own efforts, as is He. Man
as now constituted had his beginning in many other forms. For
this reason, Dr. Randolph used the word "homos" to include
the entire history of the creature we now call man.
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"This is not difficult to accept if we realize, by allegory, that among trees intended as fruit-bearers, not one-tenth of the fruit reaches ripeness and is able to reproduce itself. Only one seminal drop in fifty billions, in man, brute, fish, fowl, insect, reptile, or analid ever develops into the possible being mystically contained within it. The rest are wasted. Is man's immortality an exception to the awful rule? I think not. Did not the Nazarene state rather unequivocally, ‘Many are called, few are chosen'? Is there any reason to feel that this does not apply to our matter here? In order to allow a few beings to become consciously immortal it is necessary to give billions the opportunity exactly in the same way that only one sperm can fertilize the egg but billions are sent on the journey. This is God's way, we have little to say in the matter.
The Reality Of The Individual
"At this point the justice of reincarnation becomes
apparent. God does give to each of us innumerable opportunities
to become immortal. We are given life after life, and there is
no end to the time allowed for our quest as long as we do not
destroy the spiritual essences necessary for such development.(13)
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(13) This subject is thoroughly discussed in the book, A Guide
for the New Renaissance, published by the Philosophical Publishing
Company, P. O. Box 220, Quakertown, PA, 18951-0220.
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"It requires no argument to prove that the upper world, or any other locus in quo for that matter, must be adapted to the needs and wants - which are not identical - of its denizens. And it follows that no phantasmal or vaporous condition, either of the zone of or its peoples, could ever fill the bill of the imperative requirements of the human being, for, dead or alive, these last are solid and enduring. But the supernal worlds are not phantasmal, vapory affairs. Nor are their citizens thin, ghostly, and therefore ghastly personages, but solid, substantial, gravitative, though far less so than here below in this badly ruled baby world of ours.
"Nor is that further land a mere picture gallery, phantomesque, magical, evanescent, dependent for its formativeness upon impossible projectional mental states and forces; it has cities and palaces that have stood for ages and will endure for countless centuries yet, struggling for birth within the womb of mother Time!
"Its citizens are entirely human still, but it is a modified humanity, differing somewhat from that we realize here; yet, nevertheless, marked and stamped ‘strictly human!'
"Hence, they consume food, hate, love, aspire, curse like troopers, and pray like saints; get pleased, jealous, angry, holy, and obstreperous, as humans do everywhere; and they laugh full many a loud guffaw when people sing and pray to them and put on long faces and play Holy Willie generally. They wouldn't be human if they didn't!
"Knowledge there, as everywhere else, is the result of continued effort, and a dunce, dolt, or fool here must have the ears of his wit cropped by experience ere he can pass muster there as his congeners do here. Ambition has its fields, too, and God is just as inscrutably mysterious beyond as He is to anyone on Earth - except that no one can successfully assume to be His appointed agents there, at a round salary, and laugh at ‘how he sells them,' as is done among us.
"Of course, the zone is vastly larger in area than
this Earth. I said its under surface was about three hundred and
fifty miles - I did not mean above the earth's crust, but the
outer edge of its atmosphere. The thickness of the zone from its
foot to the general plane of its surface in the thinnest, or polar
parts, is not less than one thousand miles; its equatorial depth
is five times that. Figure on this, and you will see what a vast
world indeed it is. For vast it must be, seeing that daily arrivals
of the dead are at least three each second of the clock; and I
compute its numbers to exceed, say, an hundred trillions of human
beings, who are constantly departing thence, however, to other
and still fairer climes.(14)
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(14) Here, as in the work of Dr. Encausse, are allusions to other
planes and worlds. These will not be examined in this work, as
they go beyond the scope of this book. Once man has conquered
the vicissitudes of this life and environment, there will be time
to consider others.
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"All of us emit a sphere, aura, or halo, impregnated with the very essence of ourselves. Sensitives know it; so do our dogs and other pets; so does a hungry lion or tiger; ay, even flies, mosquitoes, and the insectivora, as we learn to our aggravation.
"Some of us are magnetic, some electric, others mixed; some are warm, attractive, love-inspiring, and friendship-making; others are cold, intellectual, electric, but not attractive. Let a learned speaker of the latter make-up harangue an audience, and though charmed with his brainy valuting and glittering verbal pyrotechnics, they will soon tire, exhibit impatient or somnolent symptoms, forget next day every word he uttered, and in a week wonder what it was all about. He talked at them, but not into them. He made them think, which is a tiresome piece of business with most folks; and few speakers can succeed who do that!
"He'd do better to make them laugh ‘fit to kill.' People will pay well for being tickled, but they grudge a dime for real instruction. Curious fact, but true as the gospels.
"Pitted against such a man let there be a half-taught, but very loving, ripe, and mellow man, with rich, round tones, with soul in every word, but with not one-tenth the logic and erudition of the pundit, yet he carries the crowd with perfect ease, and everyone is wide awake, treasuring up every good thing that falls from his lips. The reasons are palpable and plain! It is heart against head, Soul against logic; and Soul is sure to win.
"Still other persons are diamagnetic and exhale a sphere or aura as a flower does perfume, and like that, too, capable of being gathered and utilized by those who understand the matter; and some of the disembodied people do.
"Certain houses, dwellings, and localities have the
same characteristics. The individual is a natural physical medium.
The places are considered haunted. The causes are the same in
each case, i.e., both emit something capable of being used by
disembodied spirits.(15) It is far easier to obtain exhibitions
of the occult force in such chambers habitually devoted to that
purpose, simply because the apartment becomes permeated with the
specific aura required. It is also easier to mesmerize in some
places than in others, on the same principle that one can more
productively sing, act, orate, pray, or recite in some halls than
others.
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(15) Disembodied spirits are beings who, though dead, are not
yet able to leave the environs of the Earth due to various bonds
to this globe. The most common of these is their strong love for
the grosser passions of this Earth. They remain Earthbound until
this attraction gradually wears off. During their disembodied
stay they often attempt to operate through living humans. It is
these beings that most mediums or channels contact in their desire
to reach the other world. In general, these beings are as deceptive
and untruthful in their new form as they were in their last.
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"We die of disease, age, suicide, accident, or violence - no matter how -but before our bodies are fairly cold, the electrical inner being oozes out like sweat through the pores. The cerebral sutures expand on the same principle as the pelvic bones do in maternity, to permit the egress of the death-defying tenant, and lo! We are dead! No! We just begin to really live!
"But the process is not yet complete. Sometimes, the
newborn spirit's disgust of Earth and Earthly friendships, rivalries,
and unrequited toils, the hollowness of its loves, its selfishness,
its hard and ill luck(16) inclines that spirit to a prompt departure
and instant deliverance, and it anxiously looks about for someone
like itself to indicate the where, the way, and the how.
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(16) Under the Divine Law there really is no such thing as luck.
All must come under the action of the Law which tells us that
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
This positive Law leaves no place for luck. So-called bad luck
is no more than the reaping of previous sowing.
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"On the contrary, in life it may have been oppressed, badgered, lied about, envied, thwarted, and its conditions may have developed a perverted phase of desire for justice - in modern parlance, revenge. That desire may cause its departure to be deferred, or its frequent return (as one form of disembodied spirit) after it has left, in both cases bent on giving a Roland for an Oliver, and making things unpleasant for those who have maliciously wronged it in the life below. There are thousands now on Earth who are tortured daily to the very quick; foiled and thwarted at every step by the viewless dead whom they have previously injured. A phase of COMPENSATION.
"But at last the time comes, sooner or later, when this Soul must realize the difference between Earth existence and its present state, and it soon finds thousands around just like itself - recently dead - on their way through Boreal or Astral Avenue, towards the polar crowns (where auroral and astral moons are now forming), and forthwith it launches itself upon the celestial river which ascends speedily toward the mighty world above.
"This world revolves axially, as does the Earth, but
is several days in making one turn. It, of course, also flights
through space with the Earth about the Sun, and accompanies that
glowing orb in its tremendous journey around the dark sun, alluded
to in a previous work of mine, to be amplified upon in Beyond
the Spaces,(17) if I live to finish it. The ascending Soul
arrives at the gorge where the river debouches through a thousand
channels across the vernal plains of upper land, but does not
go ashore until either its accompanying friends say, ‘Now,'
or it is hailed from the flowery banks by loving ones long gone
before.
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(17) Unfortunately, to our knowledge, Dr. Randolph did not have
the opportunity to write this work.
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"Thank God, every one of us have friends up there in the bending sky where God's Name is engraved upon the Æth in glittering, starry letters, even if we have none but fair-weather ones here! The rate at which the Soul traveled thither was probably not much faster than three and a half miles per minute.
"It is, of course, visible to all there, but is astonished to find that no sooner had it passed the limits of the Earth's envelope, than it strangely began to solidify. The face is fairer in all cases; the wounds, scars, deformities, deafness, blindness, lameness are all gone forever, and the lungs breathe a delicious aromal air, which thrills the being like the touch of lips of glowing love!
"It has all the organs it had here, but has additional
power, qualities, and sense - whereof more in my larger volume.(18)
It exults in a new life, rejoices in a new liberty, revels in
new sensations, finds itself in the midst of people perfectly
assimilable to itself, in which it has enormous advantages over
us here, who by force of circumstances are compelled to associate
with those whom, if hate be not reciprocal, approaches nigh thereto.
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(18) Again, this never came about, but it is interesting to note
the close coordination with the book by Papus.
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"There's no tide or stream running all one way. Bore ever so fine a hole in a door or shutter, and two currents of air will pass each other through it constantly - one above, one below. Just so is there a double current flowing betwixt the two worlds - one going up, the other down - the latter bearing to us spiritual love, life, and light all the time, in consequence of which the world is better than it once was, and is gaining all the time.
"The people cannot look through their ‘soil' and see us, because the Æth and not solar light is the vehicle of vision. Therefore, they must go to the poles and look down, else cast themselves upon the hither tides and float to us.
"Suppose they do the latter. Then a strange phenomenon occurs, for they cannot reach Earth as they quit the zone, for no sooner do they reach the outer limits of the Earth's atmosphere than they begin to lose their former solidity, which transudes away by a process analogous to perspiration. All the semisolidity disappears (to be resumed on their arrival at the outer limits of Earth's air), and they come among us invisible, intangible, precisely as they were immediately after death; and
‘Viewless millions round us hie,
‘The bright phalanxes of the hither sky.'
"Most of them have lost all special attractions towards the Earth, and only come ‘for fun' - and they find it. After their special friends, direct relatives, and personal acquaintances are dead, their interests in Earth become merely general, very seldom personal. Here and there they find a physically qualified person, and they place themselves close to him. Consequently, they are clothed upon by the peculiar diamagnetic emanation or evolvement from them, and become tangible, visible, capable of physical effort and sonorous speech, just as long as the supply lasts, or until they withdraw from the place, parties, or person evolving the precious aura.
"If the supply in quality or quantity is inadequate
to produce the effects of materialization, they manifest in some
other, if less convincing, manner. Some persons are entranced
by them; others go into a semitrance by the simple presence of
a spirit, and in that state utter lots of profound - nonsense(19)
- which they themselves, the auditors and overlooking spirits
marvel at, and the latter often feel like breaking into a loud
guffaw at the ridiculous stuff thought to be purely spiritual.
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(19) Before we scorn the naivete of that day we should recall
that this same thing is now going on in respectable areas of this
country and many wealthy and influential people are being hoodwinked
daily by those who profess to be a channel for some "ancient
being" who is, of course, only one of these disembodied beings
blabbering forth its usual nonsense and enjoying every minute
of it. Old con men never die; they just come back to work through
new channels. It must gall them to know that it is the channel
- and not themselves - who ends up with all the proceeds of this
scam.
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"I once spent a month beneath the same roof with an Irishman, who, besides being a clever trickster, was at times quite sensitive both to female sweetness and spiritual presences, and at such times no sooner did a spirit approach any of the parties who regularly met there to be instructed, and amused, than Mr. Mick would begin to bellow and pour forth great streams of words, barren of a single idea, empty sounds signifying noise, and nothing more.
"I tried to teach poor Mick the laws of genuine spirit intercourse, but it was too much of an uphill affair, and the last I heard of Mick he was still roaming and ranting about, like a bull of Bashan, uttering avalanches of the compound and quintessence of stupid folderol, which the ears - yes, the ears, for they had ears - not the hearts of his auditors drank in as gospel truth. The fellow might have been a real medium but for two facts: he had no magnetism, only a stupendous penchant for simulating real phenomena.
"Spirits of a scientific or persistent turn endeavor
to develop materializing conditions, and, if well seconded by
Earthly friends, are pretty sure to triumphantly achieve it on
principles indicated in The New Mola. (20)
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(20) The New Mola is certainly an interesting and provocative
title. Unfortunately, this work is long out of print. Most of
its teachings are, however, to be found in the work by Dr. Randolph,
The Immortality of Love, available from the Philosophical Publishing
Company, P.O. Box 220, Quakertown, PA 18951-0220. 1-800-300-5168
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"After a while, through a process analogous to death,
the people of this zone of the Soul World quit it, and migrate,
not into space, but to a far vaster area surrounding the Sun.
Its dimensions I cannot here give, for want of room. To that zone
all the planetary spirits go after their terra and terra-zonal
experiences are over. The number of people there is incomputable.
From there again they migrate to the tremendous girdle of the
entire solar system. I cannot here enlarge - I simply state a
stupendous fact. In all there are seven zones - the solar, general,
and five surrounding the Soul-bearing planets of the system; only
five have yet borne man. In Beyond the Spaces all these mysteries
will be made plain."(21)
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(21) It is possible that these concepts were not to be made known
at this time. This no one can say. We do know that the work, Beyond
the Spaces, never saw the light of day.
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