CHAPTER XLVII.
HEARING WITHOUT EARS.--"WHAT WILL BE THE END?"
A flood of recollections came over me, a vivid remembrance of myearth-learned school philosophy. "I rebel again," I said, "I deny yourstatements. We can neither be moving, nor can we be out of theatmosphere. Fool that I have been not to have sooner and better used myreasoning faculties, not to have at once rejected your statementsconcerning the disappearance of the atmosphere."
"I await your argument."
"Am I not speaking? Is other argument necessary? Have I not heard yourvoice, and that, too, since you asserted that we had left theatmosphere?"
"Continue."
"Have not men demonstrated, and is it not accepted beyond the shadow ofa doubt, that sound is produced by vibrations of the air?"
"You speak truly; as men converse on surface earth."
"This medium--the air--in wave vibrations, strikes upon the drum of theear, and thus impresses the brain," I continued.
"I agree that such is the teachings of your philosophy; go on."
"It is unnecessary; you admit the facts, and the facts refute you; theremust be an atmosphere to convey sound."
"Can not you understand that you are not now on the surface of theearth? Will you never learn that the philosophy of your former life isnot philosophy here? That earth-bound science is science only withsurface-earth men? Here science is a fallacy. All that you have said istrue of surface earth, but your argument is invalid where everycondition is different from the conditions that prevail thereon. You usethe organs of speech in addressing me as you once learned to use them,but such physical efforts are unnecessary to convey sense-impressionsin this condition of rest and complacency, and you waste energy inemploying them. You assert and believe that the air conveys sound; youhave been taught such theories in support of a restricted philosophy;but may I ask you if a bar of iron, a stick of wood, a stream of water,indeed any substance known to you placed against the ear will not do thesame, and many substances even better than the atmosphere?"
"This I admit."
"Will you tell me how the vibration of any of these bodies impresses theseat of hearing?"
"It moves the atmosphere which strikes upon the tympanum of the ear."
"You have not explained the phenomenon; how does that tympanic membranecommunicate with the brain?"
"By vibrations, I understand," I answered, and then I began to feel thatthis assertion was a simple statement, and not sufficient to explain howmatter acts upon mind, whatever mind may be, and I hesitated.
"Pray do not stop," he said; "how is it that a delicate vibrating filmof animal membrane can receive and convey sound to a pulpy organic massthat is destitute of elasticity, and which consists mostly of water, forthe brain is such in structure, and vibrations like those you mention,can not, by your own theory, pass through it as vibrations through asonorous material, or even reach from the tympanum of the ear to thenearest convolution of the brain."
"I can not explain this, I admit," was my reply.
"Pass that feature, then, and concede that this tympanic membrane iscapable of materially affecting brain tissue by its tiny vibrations, howcan that slimy, pulpy formation mostly made up of water, communicatewith the soul of man, for you do not claim, I hope, that brain materialis either mind, conscience, or soul?"
I confessed my inability to answer or even to theorize on the subject,and recognizing my humiliation, I begged him to open the door to suchknowledge.
"The vibration of the atmosphere is necessary to man, as earthy man issituated," he said. "The coarser attributes known as matter formationsare the crudities of nature, dust swept from space. Man's organism ismade up of the roughest and lowest kind of space materials; he issurrounded by a turbulent medium, the air, and these various conditionsobscure or destroy the finer attributes of his ethereal nature, andprevent a higher spiritual evolution. His spiritual self is enveloped inearth, and everywhere thwarted by earthy materials. He is insensible tothe finer influences of surrounding media by reason of the overwhelmingnecessity of a war for existence with the grossly antagonisticmaterialistic confusion that everywhere confronts, surrounds, andpervades him. Such a conflict with extraneous matter is necessary inorder that he may retain his earthy being, for, to remain a mortal, hemust work to keep body and soul together. His organs of communicationand perception are of 'earth, earthy'; his nature is cast in a mold ofclay, and the blood within him gurgles and struggles in his brain, awhirlpool of madly rushing liquid substances, creating disorder in theprimal realms of consciousness. He is ignorant of this inward turmoilbecause he has never been without it, as ignorant as he is of the rankodors of the gases of the atmosphere that he has always breathed, andcan not perceive because of the benumbed olfactory nerves. Thus it isthat all his subtler senses are inevitably blunted and perverted, andhis vulgar nature preponderates. The rich essential part of his own selfis unknown, even to himself. The possibility of delight and pleasure inan acquaintance with the finer attributes of his own soul is clouded bythis shrouding materialistic presence that has, through countlessgenerations, become a part of man, and he even derives most of hismental pleasures from such acts as tend to encourage the animalpassions. Thus it follows that the sensitive, highly developed,extremely attenuated part of his inner being has become subservient tothe grosser elements. The baser part of his nature has become dominant.He remains insensible to impressions from the highly developedsurrounding media which, being incapable of reaching his inner organismother than through mechanical agencies, are powerless to impress. Alas,only the coarser conditions of celestial phenomena can affect him, andthe finer expressions of the universe of life and force are lost to hisspiritual apprehension."
"Would you have me view the soul of man as I would a material being?"
"Surely," he answered; "it exists practically as does the more grossforms of matter, and in exact accord with natural laws. Associated withlower forms of matter, the soul of man is a temporary slave to theenveloping substance. The ear of man as now constituted can hear only bymeans of vibrations of such media as conduct vibrations in matter--forexample, the air; but were man to be deprived of the organs of hearing,and then exist for generations subject to evolutions from within,whereby the acuteness of the spirit would become intensified, orpermitted to perform its true function, he would learn to communicatesoul to soul, not only with mankind, but with beings celestial thatsurround, and are now unknown to him. This he would accomplish through amedium of communication that requires neither ear nor tongue. To anextent your present condition is what men call supernatural, although inreality you have been divested of only a part of your former materialgrossness, which object has been accomplished under perfectly naturalconditions; your mind no longer requires the material medium by which toconverse with the spiritual. We are conversing now by thought contact,there is no atmosphere here, your tongue moves merely from habit, andnot from necessity. I am reading your mind as you in turn are mine,neither of us is speaking as you were accustomed to speak."
"I can not accept that assertion," I said; "it is to me impossible torealize the existence of such conditions."
"As it is for any man to explain any phenomenon in life," he said. "Doyou not remember that you ceased to respire, and were not conscious ofthe fact?"
"Yes."
"That your heart had stopped beating, your blood no longer circulated,while you were in ignorance of the change?"
"That is also true."
"Now I will prove my last assertion. Close your mouth, and think of aquestion you wish to propound."
I did so, and to my perfect understanding and comprehension he answeredme with closed mouth.
"What will be the end?" I exclaimed, or thought aloud. "I am possessedof nearly all the attributes that I once supposed inherent only in acorpse, yet I live, I see clearly, I hear plainly, I have a quickenedbeing, and a mental perception intensified and exquisite. Why and howhas this been accomplished? What will be the result of this eventf
uljourney?"
"Restful, you should say," he remarked; "the present is restful, the endwill be peace. Now I will give you a lesson concerning the words Why andHow that you have just used."