CHAPTER VIII.
A LESSON IN MIND STUDY.
The door of the cabin was open when I awoke, the sun shone brightly, andmy friend, apparently happy and unconcerned, said: "Father, we must soonstart on our journey; I have taken advantage of your refreshing sleep,and have engaged breakfast at yonder farm-house; our meal awaits us."
I arose, washed my wrinkled face, combed my white hair, and shuddered asI saw in a pocket mirror the reflection of my figure, an aged,apparently decrepit man.
"Do not be disturbed at your feeble condition," said my companion; "yourinfirmities are not real. Few men have ever been permitted to drink ofthe richness of the revelations that await you; and in view of theseexpectations the fact that you are prematurely aged in appearance shouldnot unnerve you. Be of good heart, and when you say the word, we willstart on our journey, which will begin as soon as you have said farewellto former friends and acquaintances."
I made no reply, but silently accompanied him, for my thoughts were inthe past, and my reflections were far from pleasant.
We reached the farm-house, and as I observed the care and attentionextended me by the pleasant-faced housewife, I realized that, in onerespect at least, old age brought its compensation. After breakfast aman appeared from the farmer's barn, driving a team of horses attachedto an open spring-wagon which, in obedience to the request of my guide,I entered, accompanied by my young friend, who directed that we bedriven toward the village from which I had been abducted. He seemed toknow my past life as I knew it; he asked me to select those of myfriends to whom I first wished to bid farewell, even mentioning theirnames; he seemed all that a patient, faithful son could be, and I beganto wonder at his audacity, even as much as I admired hisself-confidence.
As we journeyed onward we engaged in familiar talk. We sat together onthe back seat of the open spring-wagon, in full sight of passers, noattempt being made to conceal my person. Thus we traveled for two days,and on our course we passed through a large city with which I wasacquainted, a city that my abductors had previously carried me throughand beyond. I found that my "son" possessed fine conversational power,and a rich mine of information, and he became increasingly interestingas he drew from his fund of knowledge, and poured into my listening earsan entrancing strain of historical and metaphysical information. Neverat a loss for a word or an idea, he appeared to discern my cogitations,and as my mind wandered in this or that direction he fell into thechannel of my fancies, and answered my unspoken thoughts, mymind-questions or meditations, as pertinently as though I had spokenthem.
His accomplishments, for the methods of his perception wereunaccompanied by any endeavor to draw me into word expression, made meaware at least, that, in him, I had to deal with a man unquestionablypossessed of more than ordinary intellect and education, and as thisconviction entered my mind he changed his subject and promptly answeredthe silent inquiry, speaking as follows:
"Have you not sometimes felt that in yourself there may existundeveloped senses that await an awakening touch to open to yourself anew world, senses that may be fully developed, but which saturate eachother and neutralize themselves; quiescent, closed circles which you cannot reach, satisfied circuits slumbering within your body and that defyyour efforts to utilize them? In your dreams have you not seen sightsthat words are inadequate to describe, that your faculties can notretain in waking moments, and which dissolve into intangiblenothingness, leaving only a vague, shadowy outline as the mind quickens,or rather when the senses that possess you in sleep relinquish the bodyto the returning vital functions and spirit? This unconscious conceptionof other planes, a beyond or betwixt, that is neither mental normaterial, neither here nor located elsewhere, belongs to humanity ingeneral, and is made evident from the unsatiable desire of men to pryinto phenomena latent or recondite that offer no apparent return tohumanity. This desire has given men the knowledge they now possess ofthe sciences; sciences yet in their infancy. Study in this direction is,at present, altogether of the material plane, but in time to come, menwill gain control of outlying senses which will enable them to step fromthe seen into the consideration of matter or force that is now subtleand evasive, which must be accomplished by means of the latent facultiesthat I have indicated. There will be an unconscious development of newmind-forces in the student of nature as the rudiments of these so-calledsciences are elaborated. Step by step, as the ages pass, the facultiesof men will, under progressive series of evolutions, imperceptibly passinto higher phases until that which is even now possible with someindividuals of the purified esoteric school, but which would seemmiraculous if practiced openly at this day, will prove feasible tohumanity generally and be found in exact accord with natural laws. Theconversational method of men, whereby communion between human beings iscarried on by disturbing the air by means of vocal organs so as toproduce mechanical pulsations of that medium, is crude in the extreme.Mind craves to meet mind, but can not yet thrust matter aside, and inorder to communicate one with another, the impression one mind wishes toconvey to another must be first made on the brain matter thataccompanies it, which in turn influences the organs of speech, inducinga disturbance of the air by the motions of the vocal organs, which, byundulations that reach to another being, act on his ear, and secondarilyon the earthly matter of his brain, and finally by this roundaboutcourse, impress the second being's mind. In this transmission of motionsthere is great waste of energy and loss of time, but such methods are anecessity of the present slow, much-obstructed method of communication.There is, in cultivated man, an innate craving for something morefacile, and often a partly developed conception, spectral and vague,appears, and the being feels that there may be for mortals a richer,brighter life, a higher earthly existence that science does not nowindicate. Such intimation of a deeper play of faculties is now mostvivid with men during the perfect loss of mental self as experienced indreams, which as yet man in the quick can not grasp, and which fade ashe awakens. As mental sciences are developed, investigators will findthat the medium known as air is unnecessary as a means of conveyingmind conceptions from one person to another; that material sounds andword pulsations are cumbersome; that thought force unexpressed may beused to accomplish more than speech can do, and that physical exertionsas exemplified in motion of matter such as I have described will beunnecessary for mental communication. As door after door in thesedirections shall open before men, mystery after mystery will bedisclosed, and vanish as mysteries to reappear as simple facts.Phenomena that are impossible and unrevealed to the scientist of to-daywill be familiar to the coming multitude, and at last, as by degrees,clearer knowledge is evolved, the vocal language of men will disappear,and humanity, regardless of nationality, will, in silence and even indarkness, converse eloquently together in mind language. That which isnow esoteric will become exoteric. Then mind will meet mind as my mindnow impinges on your own, and, in reply to your unuttered questionregarding my apparently unaccountable powers of perception, I say theyare perfectly natural, but while I can read your thoughts, because ofthe fact that you can not reciprocate in this direction, I must use myvoice to impress your mind. You will know more of this, however, at afuture day, for it has been ordained that you are to be educated with anobject that is now concealed. At present you are interested mainly inthe affairs of life as you know them, and can not enter into these purerspheres. We are approaching one of your former friends, and it may beyour pleasure to ask him some questions and to bid him farewell."