The Natural Order of Spirit; A Psychic Study and Experience

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV THE SCEPTICAL INTELLECT THIS LITTLE WORLD ALL THERE IS We have referred to a materialistic bias. And it is something to be taken account of; we can detect it in our thoughts as we come to the spiritual. The bald idea is--this little world is all there is, and anything assumed to transcend this is superstition, stands above. If any evidence for spirit is offered with some credentials of authority, this undisciplined bias assumes that the whole thing is reducible to matter. If there are those who find unspeakable personal assurance and comfort in spirit communion, this native bias may set them down as visionaries and not well-balanced. In its secret heart it is sceptical, unconsciously perhaps, of any spiritual interpretation of life at all. To some minds spirit and spirit philosophy seem to be inherently absurd, this world of matter is so familiarized to perception and so inwrought into their life and seemingly so indispensable, they think they cannot think out of it. Spirit is the last thing I will give in to, said Sir David Brewster. With a conventional ecclesiasticism or dogmatism which themselves involve a large heritage of materialistic elements and ordinances, this type of materialist may find himself in sympathy. But to religious mysticism it does not take easily, and in psychic research it has no interest, and spirit philosophy it may look upon as strange and repugnant. THE FATAL LACK OF IMAGINATION Now the fatal lack here is, of course, imagination. It needs to be emphasized that there is a function of the religious imagination in our search for truth which cannot well be too much magnified. The sweep and far-seeing of the imagination may be likened to a view from a mountain top, it keeps us from seeing only the things near our feet....