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Lesson Ten
The Evidence of
Experience
Were the phenomenon of the spirit,
which is non-material in all its aspects, to be made the subject of experimentation,
so that its autonomous existence became fully proven, despite its remoteness
from sense perception, it would have a profound effect in causing men to
believe more fully in the spirit. This would be the case particularly with
those who are unable to understand subtle and complex questions and who
are more inclined to accept empirical scientific data than they are the
truths of philosophy.
* (1) *
Spiritualism, the practice of communicating with the spirits of the dead,
reached its highpoint in the nineteenth century when it became codified
as a science. Numerous personalities throughout the world have observed
the possibility of such communication, which may be counted as a living
proof for the autonomy and immortality of the spirit.
Divesting themselves of all partiality and prejudice and impelled by genuinely
scientific motives, a number of scholars have devoted themselves to painstaking
research and study in order to discover the truth of the matter. With their
achievements they have been able to demonstrate that the existence of the
spirit is no longer a theoretical matter but something clear and straightforward.
Carefully executed experiments have shown that it is definitely possible
to establish communication with the spirits of the dead. One may engage
in conversation with them and ask their help in solving difficult problems.
It often happens, indeed, that people who are utterly unable to solve the
most complex problems confronting them are able to solve them through communication
with the spirits of the dead.
Spirits have also been shown to possess the remarkable capacity of raising
bodies from ground without the intervention of any material cause or bodily
energy. (Alam-i Pas az Marg, section 11)
One of the prominent traits of those who enter a trance to communicate
with the dead is that they function both as receivers and as transmitters.
It may sometimes happen that while in that state they speak in languages
they had never learned. They may also find themselves divulging secrets
they were not in a position to know.
Still more remarkable is the fact that mediums are able while in a trance
to read and to copy inscriptions on objects contained in sealed boxes,
although they are quite illiterate!
In short, mediums engage in such inexplicable acts that we are obliged
to follow them into the invisible realm of the spirit in our attempt to
find an answer.
All we have mentioned has been proved by experiment and it constitutes
a refutation of the claims of the materialists, for if the spirit were
simply an effect of matter, a physicochemical property of the brain, it
would be impossible to explain all these varied phenomena that have been
verified experimentally.
We can escape the impasse to which materialist thought leads only when
we admit the existence of a supramaterial force that creates such phenomena,
for it is not conceivable that they should be the product of material factors.
Although age is not an important consideration for those who establish
communication with spirits, those who enter on this path generally choose
mediums from among children to receive messages from spirits. This removes
the likelihood of trickery, deceit, and recourse to various contraptions,
and thus puts an end to all possible objection.
At the same time, experienced and specialized researchers also take part
in the sessions where contact is established with spirits. Repeated and
careful experiments are carried out in order to remove any lingering doubts,
to clarify all ambiguity, and to dispel any notion of autosuggestion on
the part of the participants.
Although we can accept the matter under discussion as an established reality,
it is like many other truths and realities exploited
by those whose trade is trickery and deceit; they demean and dishonor it.
One cannot therefore either trust all who claim to be able to communicate
with spirits, or reject them with inappropriate arguments; both courses
would be contrary to logic. It is a careful examination of the matter that
will lead to a perception of the truth and the ability to distinguish the
illusory from the real.
Farid Wajdi, author of the Twentieth Century Encyclopedia, lists
the names of a handful of European and American scientists from among the
many thousands that have worked in this field, and cites the clear evidence
provided by the objective experiments they carried out. Many of them were
skeptical or negative about the possibility of communicating with the spirits
of the dead until it was proven to them; in fact they first entered the
field with the intention of totally disproving its bases.
If someone had insisted on the possibility of proving scientifically communication
with the spirits of the dead, they would have dismissed it unhesitatingly
as an absurdity. But when they saw that whatever experiment was undertaken
ended up supporting the claims of their opponents, they surrendered and
accepted the facts. Earlier scholars had never taken the trouble to test
the claims of the spiritualists, they even regarded the idea of conducting
experiments on the subject with repugnance.
Farid Wajdi adds that specialists in the field believe in the principle
that the spirit is not annihilated with the death of the body, because
they are unable to explain the extraordinary phenomena that take place
in their sessions except in terms of activity by the spirits of the dead.
Those who do not have any serious arguments to offer try to explain these
experimentally tested realities in terms of the unconscious.
Can we reasonably accuse all the scholars and experts who work in the field
of having been straightforwardly duped by the tricks of swindlers and of
placing the seal of scientific approval on a series of delusions? Of affirming
the correctness this science without exercising any caution, under the
influence of the mediums?
It would be completely irrational and illogical to attribute error to all
those scholars.
Alfred Russell Dulles, Darwin's partner in discovering the law of natural
selection, declared his view on the matter as follows:
When I began investigating the mysteries of communication with the
spirits of the dead, I was an absolute materialist and denier of the spirit.
No trace existed in my mind of non-material entities or a supranatural
world. On the contrary, it was my intention to prove by scientific means
the incorrectness of all belief in such things. But as I confronted the
experiments that had taken place and the realities they had proven, I gradually
came to believe in them myself. The reality of the spirit came to have
such an effect on me that I came to believe in it firmly before I was able
to find any explanation for it in my mind. I can neither turn away from
it in denial nor can I find any material cause for it. (Ibid.,
p. 72)
Krokis (?) the head of the Royal Academy of Science in England, writes
the following in his book entitled Spiritual Phenomena:
Since I do indeed believe in the existence of these phenomena, it
would be a kind of fear or literary cowardice if I concealed my testimony
from fear of the criticism of mockers who know nothing at all of the subject
and are unable to free themselves of their illusions. I will set forth
in my book as clearly as I can what I have seen with my own eyes and tested
repeatedly through careful experimentation.
From all the experiments that have taken place in sessions for summoning
up the spirits of the dead and the conclusions scholars have drawn from
them, it is plain that man possesses an energy and personality that outlive
his death. That energy undertakes various activities without any need of
the physical body. Under certain special circumstances it is possible for
the inhabitants of this world to establish communication with the spirits
of the departed.
* (2) *
Another scientific advance that has contributed to the understanding of
the autonomy and immortality of the spirit is hypnotism. This consists
of concentrating the gaze for a lengthy period of a point of light to the
accompaniment of prolonged suggestion, with the result that the subject
enters an artificial dream state, quite distinct from ordinary dreams.
After the subject has fallen asleep, he hears out of all sounds that surround
him only those produced by the hypnotist all of whose commands he obeys
in his extreme impressionability.
The English scholar James Breed (?) was able to build on the investigations
of his predecessors to turn hypnotism into a fully fledged science by clarifying
the principles according to which hypnotism functions.
After him other scholars in America and Europe devoted their efforts to
further developing this science; we can mention in particular Richet, Emile
Kue, Van Ouls and Charcot (?). The most important achievement of the last
of these was his classification of the different degrees and stages of
hypnotic sleep.
In artificial sleep, the hypnotist is able to make the subject submit to
his will in such a way that he unhesitatingly executes his commands. The
senses of the sleeper cease functioning; he shows no sign of being able
to see or to hear, and his senses of touch and taste lack their customary
power. Finally, the one thus put to sleep is so overcome by weariness and
lassitude that he feels no pain, however much pressure be brought to bear
on his body. (Usul-i Ravankavi-yi Freud)
Dr. Philip Carrot, a British anesthesiologist and specialist on hypnotism,
wrote the following in the British Journal of Public Health:
Many patients needing surgery have been successfully anaesthetized
through the use of hypnotism. He went on to state his belief that
it is easier and better to use hypnotism on patients undergoing surgery,
because it is a simpler and less dangerous procedure than drugging them.
One of the advantages of hypnotism is that it is possible to keep the patient
unconscious for many hours without his feeling any pain. (Ittila'at
for 23/6/43)
* (3) *
Magnetism is another branch of knowledge pointing to the autonomy of the
spirit. It consists of a mysterious force present in everyone to different
degrees. Magnetism differs from hypnotism in that when a person cultivates
the magnetic force within him he will be able to influence animals as well
as human beings. In addition, magnetic force can be exploited directly,
whereas hypnotism requires the use of certain means in order to become
effective. The power of magnetism is so effective in man that it enables
one to render one's prey or enemy motionless.
Since the most ancient times, people have been aware to some extent of
the effects of this mysterious power. It was however at the end of the
eighteenth century that it was put forward for the first time as a scientific
discovery. Specialists began to use magnetic waves as a means for curing
the sick, and as research progressed, it became apparent that hypnotic
trances might be induced by means of magnetism.
Psychiatrists make use of artificially induced dreams to discover the causes
for certain psychiatric disorders; they attempt to plunge into the depths
of the mind and to discover the true thoughts of the unconscious, the thoughts
that the patient would be reluctant to tell the doctor while in a waking
state, out of embarrassment or other reasons. Likewise, the patient frankly
confesses to certain things that he would never reveal while in a waking
state.
The one sent into a trance is so fully subject to the influence of the
magnetic force that he does whatever he is told by the one who puts him
in the trance, without his own will having the least power to decide.
At more advanced stages, the body itself becomes totally numb, and if one
of its limbs is rubbed it will be unable to move, resembling an entirely
motionless body. The subject will be unable to hear sounds surrounding
him; he sees and hears only the one in whose power he stands.
This passivity sometimes goes so far that he feels the pain of a needle
inserted in by the one who controls his trance; and likewise if the controller
begins to feel happy, so too will the subject! Other emotions anger,
nervousness, excitement will be similarly reflected.
Persons in a magnetic trance are able to speak in languages they have not
learned; they know of things that lie beyond the range of their knowledge;
and their spirits travel to distant regions. Materialists attempt to explain
all this in terms of suggestion and the loss of customary will on the part
of the subject. However, their explanations are not convincing. For in
addition to that which the material sciences attempt to explain there is
a reality within man capable of accomplishing acts that are inexplicable
in terms of material criteria. Anyone who tries to discover the truth of
the matter will be led to accept this conclusion, step by step. (Farid
Wajdi, Da'irah al-Ma'arif, Vol. X, p. 420)
What energy is it that can thus subdue the will of another person and rob
his limbs of motion and feeling?
If man reflects carefully, will he not be convinced that his existence
includes a spirit that is both mysterious and eternal? (Alam-i Pas az
Marg, p. 46)
Is it not the method of science to base general laws on objective observations
and to strive against delusion?
Without any doubt, every new discovery in the fields discussed above decreases
still further any appeal the materialistic distorters of reality might
have.
* (4) *
Although men have been aware of telepathy at least
to some degree for a long time, no careful scientific study of the subject
was undertaken before 1882. Beginning with that date, the English Society
for Psychic Research has carried out numerous experiments and proven the
reality of the phenomenon.
The communication of thoughts between two people is possible over both
long and short distances. Communication over short distances takes place
by means of the two people standing opposite each other and transmitting
their thoughts to each other without speaking or making any gestures.
As for communication over a long distance and the size of the distance
is of no importance at all it is enough for the two persons, at a prearranged
time, to concentrate their thoughts on a single point in order to transmit
their mental messages to each other.
These phenomena have been repeatedly tested and proven by specialists and
they can be regarded as another remarkable manifestation of the spirit,
acting in utter independence of the body.
Ought we not then to believe that the energy ruling over the mechanism
of our body is fundamentally different from material energy and the phenomena
it produces? As the psychiatrist Kennington puts it, for the brain
to exist and function a few centimeters outside the body is just as impossible
as it would be for digestion or the circulation of the blood to take place
outside the body.
Henri Bergson writes: The phenomena declared to exist by psychic
science, at least some of which must be regarded as true, cause us to ask
why we have waited so long to undertake such a study.
We will not repeat the subjects we have already discussed, but instead
restrict our discussion to a point that appears more certain than anything
else. If after the accumulation of thousands of testimonies consistent
with each other concerning manifestations of telepathy scientists still
insist on denying the reality of this phenomenon, then we can only conclude
that human testimony is unacceptable to science and rejected by it.
It is true of course that we have to choose among the various results
that psychic science presents to us; that science itself does not regard
all its results as equally conclusive; and that it distinguishes between
what is certain and what is merely probable or possible.
But if we take into consideration only that part which psychic science
regards as definite, it suffices to give us a sense of a vast and unknown
realm that psychic science has only just begun to explore. (Du Sarchishma-yi
Akhlaq va Din, p. 354)
