Spirit Memory

A Series of Letters from the Spirit of a Well-known Lady —

Letter Number Ten

Now I, Madam —, want to say a word or two about spirit memory, and I really hope you will believe me. It will be much better for all if you do. I shall make an assertion, then afterwards try to prove it. The assertion is this – Spiritual beings remember with great distinctness all that ever happened to them in the earth life—they remember every thought that has ever been impressed upon the mind, every word that has ever been heard by the ears, everything which the eyes have ever seen, every person with whom they have ever come in contact, not the smallest detail that they have ever been conscious of in the earth life is forgotten; but on the contrary everything is remembered with vivid clearness.

This is my assertion.

That they cannot give all this with clearness through an earthly medium is true. A man cannot see his own image in muddy water, but when this water is clear and undisturbed the image is distinctly outlined. Mediums are at fault, but it is not often that the spirits are. They nearly always do the best they can through the instruments they make use of. If that which they wish to convey through the mind of a medium is distorted according to the bent of the mind of the medium it is not the fault of the spirits. If the medium cannot give one everything that the spirit remembers well, it is not the fault of the spirit, or lack of memory on his part, but the waters are muddy and disturbed, consequently do not reflect the image which the spirit wishes to cast upon it. Mediums should try to become calm, clear reflectors, and even then names and dates cannot always be given. Names and dates become very unimportant to spiritual beings who  have risen up out of and beyond days, weeks and months—aye, and years, too.

Persons on earth who have travelled long distances on deserts and prairies, with camels or oxen, often forget the time to that extent that they cannot tell how long they have been travelling and can only regain the time and dates on reaching their destination by asking what month or year it may be—what day of the week and the date of the month. This is often and often the case, consequently many take great care to mark each day as it passes, so that time may not slip out of the mind. Now on coming to the spirit life one enters upon an eternal journey, where there are no days, weeks or months, nor even years, for these only pertain to earths, and each earth is marked by a different time. One readily loses all sense of time and often cannot tell how long he or she has been in spirit life; and this is especially true of those who are far removed from earth.

Now when a spirit returns who has been for some time in the spirit world, and you say to him – Father, how long have you been in spirit life? he might truthfully say – I do not know, for he does not, but he wants you to know that it is he, and he will try to read from your mind or the mind of someone else, how many years, months or days he has been there, consequently will tell you what you already know. Then you say, This is not a test. The medium read it from the mind of the interlocutor. Then, again, one will say to a spirit – Won't you give your name and tell how old you were when you passed out of the body? Now, perhaps that person had been sick a long period of time before passing out, so weary and ill that he had not been conscious of time to any great extent, and many are entirely unconscious for days and days together before they cross the river called death, and they may have been in spirit life many more days, weeks, months or years, which do not exist for them; then how expect them to tell when they died, what they died of, and how long they have been in spirit life? 

Now I hope I have have been able to point out the rock on which so many split until they lose faith in spiritual communion. The fault is with themselves and not with the spirits. A spirit does not so readily forget the name he bore, still there are many instances when it is hard to tell even that. Few spirits in spirit life are called by the names they bore on earth. A child on earth is named or  christened shortly after its birth. A spirit is named shortly after arriving here unless it greatly desires to be called by the name it bore on earth. A great many people do not like the names they were called by on earth, and when they get here choose some pretty and appropriate name that suits and pleases them. The old name has fallen away from them like the old body, and it is often distasteful and hard for them to pick it up again, and small children do not even know what their names were.

It is very hard, even on earth, for a small child to tell you what his name is, or how old he may be. Some children of even eight or ten years often find it difficult to tell, and parents and guardians are drilling them continually on the subject. Yet, of course, it is far easier for a spirit to give his name than to tell time correctly; but, suppose he has been in spirit life fifty or more years, and has not in all that time even heard the name by which he was called on earth; one may see how hard it may be to recall it; besides he has passed through so many and exalted experiences, has visited so many other planets and worlds, that the old name, if not forgotten, is often recalled with much effort. Still if a spirit remains very near to earth and en rapport with his former relatives he does not find it so difficult.

Now I hear some one say – Why, you are proving that spirits do forget instead of the contrary, according to your first assertion. No; I am simply explaining how it is that to you of earth it appears as though they had forgotten or do forget. But as I said at first, the soul forgets nothing, yet it often takes some time to recall unimportant events, or impressions that were not assimilated by the person enough to have become a part of his being, and what might seem of the utmost importance to a questioner might to the spirit have little or no interest, might, in fact, be extremely distasteful and irritating; besides the questioner and the spirit might be antagonistic.

A highly progressed, wise and good spirit, might want to give some great universal truths to a questioner, something of importance to the world at large, and the questioner, in the narrowness of his material earthly mind, might insist on asking silly or selfish questions, and because the spirit might not in its higher and broader wisdom reply to these questions just to suit the small mind of the questioner, immediately the questioner might say that the spirit forgot, or that it was a wicked or lying spirit and so forth, ad nauseam; moreover, a spirit likes far better to impress directly the mind of some loved one than to work through a foreign instrument, one, perhaps, not to its liking. Many mediums are very distasteful to some spirits, and they do not come en rapport with them at all, although for the money which is paid them the mediums pretend that they do, and give fraudulent messages which, of course, are false, then the blame is laid to Spiritualism or to the spirits, when the fault is entirely with the mediums.

There are not nearly as many evil spirits as some suppose, and when all this is better understood we shall hear less about lying, wicked spirits, and more about goodness, virtue and truth, but—and now I expect to prove that spirits cannot and do not forget anything. Can the Infinite forget? Can a mother forget her child? The Infinite is the father and mother of the Finite. Can the Infinite forget its children? The Finite becomes the Infinite. Can the Infinite forget? An Immortal Spirit is Infinite, for Immortality constitutes Infinity. The spirit may apparently forget for a season, but the Infinite restores all that seemed to be lost. The Finite may not understand but the Infinite does.

Now before closing this letter I want to say a few words about astronomy. The heavenly bodies are very deceptive in their appearance, and what is at present, on the earth, supposed to be entirely correct will at length be found to be quite erroneous. New laws will be discovered that will change the aspect of that which is now the accepted theory regarding the worlds in space. So be very chary about calling the spirits bad names because they are already giving an inkling of the truth. Hear them gravely and ponder well what they tell you, for by so doing you may be the one to discover some great, eternal truth not known before.

Galileo said that the earth moved. Astronomers thought they knew better, but you see he was right and they were wrong. It has been but a short time since it was discovered that what was before thought to be void was really ether and that this ether filled all space, penetrated in and through all things, and knowledge will not stop here; other things and laws will be discovered that will upset many of the present ideas about the heavenly bodies. So do not be too sure of anything, but, as I said before, listen gravely to what the spirits have to tell you if you desire aid in any direction.

Perpetual motion has been laughed to scorn, but it is a great truth, as true as that the earth and all the worlds in space are in perpetual motion, and it will not be long before this great fact will be given to the world for its untold benefit. Some sensitive will listen to the voice of a spirit or spirits and it will be whispered within the soul; possibly it has already been done, for, let me tell you, we know all about it here and have only to wait to find the right one to give it to earth.

It has not been very long since the stars, in thousands of instances have been found to be double, and fifty years ago if one had pointed to a star and said – That is not one star, but two, he would have been called luny.

Now when Professor Petersilea tells you that the sun is dual in its nature, he is called—well, never mind what. It so grieved his noble, truthful soul that he had to leave the earthly atmosphere for awhile to regain his equilibrium.

Now I, Madam —, a spirit, tell you the same thing. You may laugh me to scorn, you may call me a—well never mind what, but it will not change the fact one iota. You had better hear me with gravity, listen to what I say, and some other one of you may become a Galileo to be remembered as one of the world's great discoverers, and this discovery will mark an epoch in the history of the earthly world.

Again, the Professor told the world that animal life existed in the spiritual realm as well as man's. He was not the first to tell the world this for others had believed and said so, and in consequence been adjudged insane; but now a large portion of the world believe this great fact, and soon all will know it to be true. Be very cautious, friends and enemies, how you laugh or sneer, for you may be slapping one of the greatest and grandest truths in nature directly in the face. Examine everything gravely, minutely, without prejudice, for who can tell that beautiful Truth may not be hidden there simply waiting to be unveiled. 

Yours truly,

MADAM