THE

WORD

♉︎

GHOSTS

(Continued)

Physical Ghosts of Dead Men

NATURAL law controls the appearance or non-appearance of physical ghosts, as it controls all phenomena. Every living physical object has a form body within and around it. The physical body is composed of physical matter, and of this much is known. The form body of the physical is composed of lunar matter, matter from the moon, of which little is known. Physical and lunar matter are really the same in kind; they differ in that the particles of lunar matter are finer and lie closer together than those of physical matter, and that lunar and physical matter are to each other as opposite magnetic poles.

The earth is a great magnet; the moon is likewise a magnet. The earth has at certain periods a stronger pull on the moon than has the moon on the earth, and at other times the moon has a stronger pull on the earth than the earth has on the moon. These periods are regular and certain. They are proportionate and extend through all measures of universal physical time, from a fraction of a second to the dissolution of the world and universe. These constantly alternating pulls of the earth and moon cause constant circulation of lunar and physical matter and cause the phenomena which are called life and death. That which is circulated in the lunar matter and the physical matter are the life units from the sun. In the building up of a body the life units of the sun are conveyed by the lunar matter into physical structure. At the dissolution of the structure the life units are returned by the lunar matter to the sun.

The magnetic pull between the earth and the moon affects every living object. The earth pulls on the physical body and the moon pulls on the form within the physical body. These magnetic pulls cause the inhalations and exhalations of animals and plants and even of stones. During physical life and until the body has reached the mid-day of its power, the earth pulls on its physical body and the physical holds its form body, and the form body draws from the moon. Then the tide turns; the moon pulls on its form body and the form body draws from its physical. Then when the hour of death has come the moon pulls the form body out of its physical and death follows, as before described.

The earth pull on the physical body and the moon pull on the physical ghost continue until physical body and physical ghost have been resolved into their respective elements. These magnetic pulls on physical form cause what is called the decay; the chemical or other physical action is only the result of the magnetic pulls and the physical means to bring about the end.

When the earth pull is stronger than the moon pull, the physical ghost will be drawn close to its physical body underground or in its tomb, and is not likely to be seen by mere physical vision. When the moon pull is stronger than the earth pull, the physical ghost will be drawn away from its physical body. The pulsing or undulating movements of the physical ghost are usually caused by the magnetic action of the earth and the moon. Because of this magnetic action a reclining physical ghost will be a little above or below, but usually above the physical object on which it appears to lie.

The observer will notice that moving or walking ghosts do not seem to walk on the solid ground. The moon pull is strongest when the moon is brightest and is waxing. Then physical ghosts are most likely to appear. But in open moonlight they are not as likely to be seen or distinguished by the eye unused to see them, because then they are nearly of the color of the moonlight. They will be more easily seen under the shadow of a tree or in a room.

The ghost often appears as if in a shroud or robe, or in a favorite costume. Whatever clothing it appears to have is that which was most strongly impressed on it, the physical ghost, by the mind before death. One reason physical ghosts often appear as if in a shroud is that shrouds are the garments in which the bodies are laid at rest, and the astral body, or physical ghost, has been impressed by the thought of the shroud.

The physical ghost will take no heed of the living person unless the form body of that person attracts it. Then it may glide or walk toward that person and may even put out its hand and touch or take hold of the person. Whatever it does will depend on the thought and magnetism of the living person. The touch of the hand of the physical ghost will be like that of a rubber glove, or like the feeling of water when one puts his hand over the side of a moving boat, or it may feel like the flame of a candle when a moistened finger is passed quickly through it, or it may feel like a cool wind. Whichever feeling is produced by the touching of a physical ghost will depend on the state of preservation of its physical body.

A physical ghost only, cannot commit any acts of violence, cannot lay hold of any person with iron grip, cannot cause a living individual to do anything against his wish.

The physical ghost is only an empty automaton, without will or motive. It cannot even speak to the one who attracts it unless it is challenged and requested to speak, and then it will only be an echo, or a faint whisper, unless the living person furnishes the ghost with enough of his magnetism so that it may produce sound. If the necessary magnetism is furnished by the living, the physical ghost may be made to speak in whispers, but what it says will lack coherence and sense, unless the living gives it these or attaches undue importance to what is said. The voice of a ghost has a hollow sound or rather whispering sound, when the ghost is made to speak.

The odor of a physical ghost is that with which everyone is familiar, who has been in a death chamber or with any dead body or in vaults in which the dead have been placed. This odor is caused by the particles which are drawn off from the physical body and thrown off by the physical ghost. All living bodies throw off physical particles, which affect the living according to their sensitiveness to smell. The odor of a physical dead body and its ghost is disagreeable because there is no co-ordinating entity in the dead body, and the particles thrown off are, by the living organism, sensed through smell, to be opposed to its physical well being. There is an influence of unwholesomeness about it which is instinctively noticed.

That a physical ghost is not seen near a dead body is no evidence that it is not present. If the ghost is not clinging to its body it may lack cohesion of form, but it may be felt by one sufficiently sensitive. The disbeliever in ghosts may deny the existence of a ghost, even while its shapeless form may be clinging around or oozing through his body. The evidence of this is an empty feeling at the pit of the stomach, a creepy feeling up his spine or on his scalp. Something of this feeling may be caused by his own fear, and picturing or fancying the possibility of existence of that which he denies to exist. But the one who continues to look for ghosts will eventually have no difficulty in distinguishing between a ghost and his own apprehension or fancies of a ghost.

Although a physical ghost is without volition and can do no intentional harm, yet a ghost may harm the living by the baleful and unwholesome atmosphere which its presence causes. The presence of a physical ghost may cause peculiar diseases to a person living near the place where the physical body of the ghost is buried. These peculiar diseases are not merely the result of the noxious gases which affect the physical body of the living, but diseases which will affect the form body of the living. Not all living persons will be thus affected, but only those whose own form body within the physical attracts the physical ghost and yet has not the positive magnetism to repel the ghost, whether it is or is not visible. In that case the physical ghost of the dead preys upon and draws the vital and magnetic qualities off from the form body of the living person. When this is done, the physical body has not enough vitality to perform its own physical functions and wastes and droops as the result. Those who live in the neighborhood of a burial ground and who have wasting diseases which physicians cannot account for nor cure, may scout this suggestion as to the possible cause. But it may be to their advantage to remove to a more wholesome place.

A physical ghost may be repelled by willing it to go away. But it cannot by such willing be driven a great distance from its own physical body, nor can the physical ghost of the dead be broken up or dissipated and disposed of as it is possible to dispose of desire and thought ghosts. The way to get rid of the physical ghost, if one will not get out of its neighborhood, is to locate its physical body and burn that physical body or have it removed to some distant place, and then to let in the sunshine and air.

It is well for everyone to understand what physical ghosts are, but it is unwise for most people to hunt for them or have anything to do with them, unless it be their duty so to do. Most people have a dread of ghosts whether they do or do not believe that ghosts exist, and yet some take a morbid satisfaction in hunting for ghosts. The ghost hunter is usually repaid according to the spirit which prompts him. If he is diligently looking for thrills he will get them, though they may not be such as he had planned to have. If he hopes to prove that ghosts do not exist he will be dissatisfied, because he will have experiences which he cannot weigh or measure. Although these will not be evidences of ghosts, they will leave him in suspense; and, he will be further dissatisfied because, even if there are no such things as ghosts, it is impossible for him to prove it.

Those whose duty it is to deal with ghosts are of two kinds. To the one belong those who know of or are appointed to their work, as they fill a certain position and do a necessary kind of work in the economy of nature. To the other kind belong those who appoint themselves to the work. The one who knows his work is an occultist born; he comes into this knowledge as the result of his work in former lives. The one who is appointed to deal with ghosts is an advanced student of occultism, accepted and consciously working in a certain school of occultism, one of the degrees and duties of which is to understand and deal justly with the ghosts of dead men. He performs a necessary service for the body of nature. He also guards the living from the ghosts of dead men, in so far as the living will permit. Dealing with the physical ghosts of dead men is the least important of his work. What he does with regard to the desire and thoughts ghosts of dead men, will be shown later.

He who appoints himself to deal with the ghosts of the dead runs great risks, unless the motive which prompts him is his interest in the welfare of a cause and unless he has no selfish interest, such as desire for sensation; that is to say, his researches and investigation into the phenomena of ghosts must be undertaken to add to the sum of human knowledge for the welfare of humanity and not merely to satisfy a morbid curiosity, nor to achieve the questionable reputation of being an authority about things occult; nor should his motive be to communicate with what are indiscriminately called “spirits of the dead,” or with relatives and friends who have departed this life. Unless the motive of one who deals with ghosts of the dead is serious, and to perform an unselfish action for the greater knowledge and good of all, he will be unprotected against unseen forces; and, the more energetic his search the more likely he will be to suffer from the living as well as from the dead.

Scientists who have attempted the work have met with various results. The motive which prompts a scientist to try to prove the immortality of the soul is good. But the demonstration that physical and desire and thought ghosts exist, will not prove the immortality of the soul. Such demonstration will prove—to whom proof is possible—that such ghosts exist; but physical and desire and thought ghosts will be dissipated. Each ghost has its period of duration. Immortality is for man, and not for his ghosts.

(To be continued)