Sketch of Life in the Spirit-world

The news had reached America of Harriet Martineau's departure from earth―

The question asked was―

Would she come and describe her entrance into the next world through the medium―

Would she who believed there was no hereafter tell the world how she solved the problem of future existence?

She came like a soft moonbeam―her influence was that of a tranquil, satisfied nature in harmony with her spirit-life, glad to impart information, and rejoiced to live and speak again in the next world, and happy to undo the baneful influence of her theory of eternal death, though the views she expressed stimulated people to investigate and throw aside the rotten creeds of past ages.

In the latter portion of my life on earth, I accepted the theory of the non-existence of the soul, as expounded by those eminent investigators into natural causes, viz., Darwin, Huxley, Arnold, Comte and Herbert Spencer.

I sympathised more eagerly with their views inasmuch as I found that the creeds of theologians, concerning the soul and its Creator became but absurd fables when brought beneath the light of science. 

Many of the years that I lived in the body were passed in physical suffering, but I devoted them to study, seeking vainly to solve the enigma of existence.

In the early days of mesmerism, I became a subject of that marvellous agent, and I learned then of the action of one mind over another, and the power of will over matter, and I might probably have become a believer in the spiritual philosophy, which grew out of it if it had been possible to demonstrate to my senses the existence of spirit. 

The discoveries in clairvoyance I looked on as the subtle action of unrecognised forces of Nature, and the more I investigated, the more apparent it became to me that the so-called spirit and matter were identical, and, therefore, not immortal.

But now I find that the science of magnetic control, as discovered by Mesmer, and occult influences are as old as man and are the connecting link between the world of spirits and the world of matter. 

I now discover that the action of the mysterious passes, which produce such peculiar effects on the human frame is controlled by laws as wise and simple as those that govern the office of breathing.

The science of mesmerism is not fully understood in the present day, nor is it practised as effectually as it was centuries prior to the Christian era―if it were communication with the spirit-world would be of more frequent occurrence―it is now one of the lost arts, but it is being gradually restored.

Few persons understand the reason why disease is cured by magnetic passes―I will try and explain the cause. 

There is a force latent in man termed by the great investigator Reichenbach, Od Force, which appears like an electric light issuing from the body. 

The brain is the focus of this force and is capable by its will-power of extending―or contracting it. 

Disease causes a declension of the will-power and the non-emission of the light in certain portions of the body follows―the mesmeric physician infuses his aura and will-power into the negative portion of the patient's body, the Od Force becomes equally distributed, and health is the result.

But respecting these matters I only groped in the dark while on earth. 

Now all is changed, and how great is the change! 

Since I entered the spirit-world, my faculties of hearing and taste have been restored, and like a new being, I have commenced on a new sphere of existence.

How beautiful this spirit-world is no tongue can tell! 

I would fain describe the sensations I felt on closing my eyes on earth, expecting to sink back into utter darkness and annihilation, when I found myself conscious in an atmosphere of light and in the midst of a landscape of the most wonderful beauty!

In the distance rose the lofty pinnacles, towers and faint outlines of a vast city, which, sparkling in the morning light, appeared like alabaster, agate and pearl―real and yet unreal, like some gorgeous phantasmagoria!

I was taken to this city where I met Fourier, Shelley, Comte, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mesmer, Hume, Hugh Miller, Buckle, Paine, and many other thinkers of Europe and America. 

The earnest questioners of immortality while on earth, the humanitarians and socialistic reformers, I found here associated. 

They dwell in an Arcadian community, amidst flowers and fountains and cultivated fields, each adding his quota of work and knowledge to the whole.

I attended an entertainment held in a temple fashioned after a Greek model, adorned with paintings and statuary, and heard strains from an orchestra composed of the various instruments of music, which have been constructed in all ages of the world! 

Ravishing sounds filled my ear! 

It might truly be called the music of the spheres.

The surprise, which attended my entrance in this remarkable world has been so overwhelming that I feel scarcely able to do justice to the subject and can only hope to give a faint idea of the happiness I have realised in awakening to a second state.

My literary habits and ailments of body induced me to seek a retired life on earth. 

At Ambleside, I was pleased to see my friends and entertain my chosen associates, but I loved the seclusion of a country life and the quiet of my own study and avoided general society and the excitements of travel―but since I have entered the spirit-world, I have gladly resigned my habits of seclusion. 

Blessed with renewed life and vigour, I have accompanied my spirit-friends on many pleasant and instructive excursions.

Those of my friends who once looked on me as lost through my Infidelity have naturally been assiduous in showing me the advantages and beauties of this eternal home! 

Among these I will name Miss Bronte, Dickens, Mrs Gaskill, Robert Chambers and Wordsworth who were genuinely thankful to the Good Lord for permitting my doubting mind to taste the glories of this supernal state.

It were a tedious task to mention all the persons whom I have seen and conversed with―my old anti-slavery confederates hastened to welcome me to this land of freedom, but space and time constrain me to forego entering into further personal details.

The spirit-world, I am told, is many times larger than earth, and its cities are much more numerous and extensive. 

Many kind friends who have felt grateful for my public efforts to aid the poor working classes of England have joined together in erecting a dwelling for me here.

It is in a very beautiful locality known as the Victoria Garden Home and is surrounded by a few acres of land. 

Prince Albert is one of the founders of this community. 

The site is very fine and the land undulating and charmingly diversified.

Each homestead is endowed with numerous acres of land―more or less according to the occupant's ability to cultivate them. 

The party holding one of these domains is expected yearly to look after the comfort and happiness of homeless and hapless souls who may make their exit from earth during each year.

You will naturally inquire how Prince Albert became possessed of this estate since a prince on entering the spirit-world assumes no higher position than the humblest labouring man? 

It is true that his birth gave him no prerogative, but his efforts in behalf of the Queen's subjects, and the advancement and sympathy he gave to the fine arts and literature, instead of passing his time in idle pleasure, as too many princes do, raised for him in spirit-life a coterie of intelligent minds who determined to make him their leader.

The land chosen was unoccupied―the founders planted and embellished it in much the same manner that land on earth is beautified and made fruitful, and formed it into a garden home. 

The soil of the spirit-globe is of a greater depth of alluvial compound than that of your planet and deposits of slate and stone are rare. 

Its chemical constituents differ materially from those of earth, and the growth of vegetation is stimulated by the peculiar magnetic condition of our air to a degree unknown to the agriculturists of your world―so much so that mediums in describing our products frequently assert that they are produced by a mere effort of the mind, so miraculously rapid is their growth.

The residences are of various styles of architecture, but the Oriental and Grecian types prevail. 

Those persons who have brought with them a love for any particular homestead―or villa have erected facsimiles of the same, but in most cases, the designs are new and adapted to the salubrious climate with which we are blessed.

But the crowning glory of the place is a magnificent temple―grand in proportions and harmonious in design, which rises on a commanding eminence, like Jove on Mount Olympus―in it the great and wise and good congregate and send forth their inspirations to humanity―even as the gods did in the fabled ages of the world. 

In this temple we meet, converse and study, as students did in the golden days of Athens.

Here I have seen assembled many of England's greatest minds―Byron, Scott, Shelley, Mrs Browning, Coleridge, Charles Lamb, Leigh Hunt―also, Mesmer, Fourier, Faraday, Reichenbach, and hosts of agitators, statesmen and poets who have passed away from the old world dissatisfied with life and restless in their aims for a higher condition of humanity and who live here a happier and more harmonious life.

Here, too, I have met painters―Reynolds, Haydon, Blake and Turner―also, the sculptors, Canova, Powers and Thorwaldsen, and here, also, at stated times, convene the more advanced minds who have attained to a higher state of existence.

There is one peculiarity, which I have observed in spirit-life―spirits avoid living for any long period of time in one place. 

As a consequence, they interchange visits with neighbouring communities and organise settlements among spirit-lives of a different nation and language.

Spirit=lives carry with them into the next world their own peculiarities of dialect, for memory is strengthened by death, and what is known as the socialistic science of life prevails here.

When England's good sovereign, Queen Victoria, leaves her earthly sphere of existence, she will find a lovely home prepared for her by Prince Albert in this Victoria Home. 

As I have stated, there is no homage paid to rank here―only to worth. 

Victoria has always shown an appreciation of that spiritual fact. 

She is opposed to false pomp and unnecessary show, and is fitted beyond any sovereign on earth to enter into the full enjoyment of spirit-life.

Hoping that the industrious poor and intelligent artisans of earth may speedily understand the advantages of association and co-operation, I close my sketch of life in the spirit-world.

―Spirit Harriet Martineau