Astrobiology

I
There is a man named W. J. Kilner. He is an electrician with a good knowledge of physics, and an excellent experimenter. He is also well-informed about various aspects of medicine, and has worked in electrotherapy at a London hospital. Kilner has developed a method to make visible the emanations of the human body, which I term bioradiation; and he has carried out extensive study of these rays which emanate from the living body. He has reported on his research in a remarkable book, The Human Atmosphere (The Aura), London 1920. Kilner’s book is entirely scientific, with no trace of mysticism or occultism.

Kilner has discovered that this energy, which emanates from the body and may be called life energy, behaves to some extent like electricity, and emanates especially from the tapered parts of the body: fingers, nose, etc.
First half of chapter I. omitted.

II
A Russian, Dr. Naum Kotik, a physician and psychologist, discovered that the human brain emits energy which behaves to some extent like electricity. He could pass this energy through a copper wire, and collect it on the surface of an object. Kotik made the highly important discovery that this energy, which can be stored on a sheet of paper, seeks to induce in other brains the brain-state that existed when the emanation took place. Kotik’s admirable treatise Die Emanation der psychophysischen Energie (The Emanation of Psycho-physical Energy), 1908, is also entirely scientific and free of any mysticism.

When we are aware of the research of Kilner and Kotik, we will be less surprised by what we hear of the Englishman V. N. Turvey, about whom an interesting article has been written in Icelandic (in the periodical Morgunn) by Professor Haraldur Níelsson. Turvey was a qualified engineer, conscientious, with a fine mind. The studies he reports in his book The Beginnings of Seership are confirmed by many witnesses. Turvey’s experiments demonstrate very clearly, and in absolute agreement with those of Kilner and Kotik, that from the human body emanates an energy which behaves like electricity.

Turvey makes most interesting experiments: lying in his room or resting in an easy chair, he could, through the voice of another, speak to people holding a séance four miles away: “On several occasions,” says Turvey (Beginnings, p. 54) “‘I’ have controlled a medium, and introduced myself through his organism to the people present, and have carried on a conversation with them.” This is what happened: the medium fell asleep, in the usual way. After a short time he began to speak in his sleep: not speaking from his own consciousness, but as if the consciousness of another is manifested in him – the consciousness of Turvey, precisely he who was seeking to induce his consciousness in the medium, although he was four miles away. When such phenomena have occurred – a person has fallen asleep at a séance and then begun to speak as if the consciousness of another were manifested in him – some people have believed that the medium was dissembling, others that the disembodied spirit of a deceased person had entered him, and yet others that it was the medium’s own subconscious – that asylum ignorantiae (refuge of ignorance) that is called the subconscious – which was manifested in him.

These experiments by Turvey are most interesting, but there is nothing mysterious about what happens. Kilner’s and Kotik’s research has shown that the body emits energy which behaves like electricity. And Turvey’s experiments reveal this even better. Just as a Marconi telegraphic station induces its electrical state in another station, the state of Turvey’s brain and nerves is induced in the brain and nerves of another person, even at a distance. The medium spoke as if he were Turvey; Turvey’s consciousness of being himself was manifested in the medium, instead of his own consciousness of himself. When asked to write his name, he wrote Turvey’s name, very much as Turvey himself would have done. This demonstrates how precisely Turvey’s nervous control or innervation was manifested in the medium. He coughed, as Turvey did, and felt pain where Turvey did. People will discover, when this is researched adequately, that this is the explanation for what are called “hysterical” ailments.

III
This account by Turvey is most remarkable. But he himself was far from understanding the highly-important significance of his experiments and studies. His given name was Newton, but in scientific gifts he was far behind his famous namesake. Turvey’s experiments show a very clear path to solving the puzzle of spiritualism. They demonstrate very neatly how the phenomenon I call bioinduction takes place. It is quite admirable how consistent his experiments are with what I had discovered. For many years I had explored most carefully the nature of sleep and dreams. I had discovered that a psychic’s trance is by nature very similar to normal sleep, and that the body, during sleep, is “charged” with a certain energy which comes from outside it. This is clearly received energy sent from afar, as the holy book Edda says. The same energy which in the beginning imbued the lifeless material of our earth with life, renews the life energy as we sleep. Those who have observed the best tendencies in philosophy and science, ever since ancient times, will clearly understand that this is the truth. The empowerment which takes place during sleep is accompanied by intellect and emotion, sleep-consciousness or dreams; and careful study reveals that these are the intellect and emotions of another person, as illustrated in such an interesting manner in Turvey’s experiments. I have discussed the nature of sleep and dreams in my essays in Nýall and elsewhere, and I will report further on my research on these matters in a separate essay.

IV
Let us now consider what happens at a séance. The medium prepares himself, and before long he is asleep, after a few stretches and twitches. If one sits near the medium, one can easily perceive how the energy which empowers him emanates from him. This seems less remarkable to us, having read in Kilner’s book about the effect of electrical energy upon a person’s normal aura, so that rays from the body may sometimes extend far beyond the usual extent of the aura.

The medium continues to sleep soundly for a while, and then begins to speak. He speaks in an altered voice. And he speaks as if with the consciousness of another person, just like the medium in Turvey’s experiments. In the case I have in mind, it is a girl who speaks: a child who died here in Reykjavík some years ago. Or, more precisely, the person who speaks through the medium claims to be she. I did not know the Reykjavík girl in life, but I have made her acquaintance somewhat by hearing her speak through a medium. Certainly it was clear that there are considerable difficulties in speaking, some arising from the influence of the sitters on the medium – I refer to effects of direct radiation – and others from the brain and thoughts of the medium himself. And it was very clear that most enlightening studies could be carried out on this matter. Despite the difficulties, the girl was unwaveringly consistent in her account, and always seemed to be a well-brought-up, pleasant youngster, with the memories of a Reykjavík child.

V
At this point, no doubt some of my readers have started to think that I have become a spiritualist. But that is far from being the case. No person on this earth has ever been as far from believing in spirits and the spirit world, as I. And, since I was a child, I have never for a moment believed in spirits and the spirit world. I say this because I have often observed that it is necessary to state this clearly, and not from any wish to oppose the leaders of that movement here among us. On the contrary, I am grateful to them for having brought spiritualism to us; and also to those who founded the theosophical movement here; for I have benefited in various ways in my research from the existence of these movements here. However, to explain what happens at a séance requires no spiritualism. Or, more precisely, while people believe in spirits and the spirit world they will, precisely, not understand what happens. For thousands of years people have communicated with deceased people, without gaining any better understanding of that communication. And the connection was even, in ancient times, rather more perfect than in modern times. In Greece, for instance, about 2,500 years ago, there was a famous holy place, where the deceased granted audiences. They proved themselves using the same methods that are used by spiritualists. One can read about this in Herodotus, who writes about Periander, the tyrant of Corinth.

VI
The truth is now beautifully clear. Spiritualists believe that the spirit of the deceased leaves that mysterious spirit world, which thinking people have such difficulty in believing in – because it is inconsistent with all our knowledge of nature – and visits a séance. But the girl I mentioned before gave quite a different account. She said, for example, on one occasion, that at the same time as she spoke through the medium, she was sitting at home and playing a musical instrument. And she made various interesting observations about the music she played. She said that she made some of the tones with her fingers, or by touch, and others without touching – so far as I understand, by rays from her fingers. This ceases to be mysterious when we know how Kilner has demonstrated bioradiation from the fingertips, and how objects were levitated by rays from the fingers of a medium studied by v. Schrenck-Notzing.

We see from what has been said that this being, who maintains that she is a deceased Reykjavík lass, is not a spirit, but a physical being. And it is consistent with this, that she said she lived, not in any spirit world, but on another planet. She said that the planet where she lived was in the third galaxy from here, with three suns in the sky: one white, one purple, and the third and largest bright red.

VII
We see that there are many similarities between the cases of the girl and Turvey. In both cases a physical being can emit energy in such a way that his/her consciousness and nerve control are manifested in another body. Admittedly there is a great difference in distance. Turvey induces his “soulˮ into a body only a few miles away, while the girl induces hers in a body many billions of miles away from her. But the difference of distance alone is not enough to make this “mystical.” Suffice to mention the story of wireless communications here on earth, which is not a long story as yet. Telegraphic communications are now sent thousands of times farther than when the early experiments were made.

There is admittedly the great difference, that Turvey was alive, while the girl said that she had died. But I can almost say I see this difference as irrelevant, in view of the great news of communication with a person on another planet. In due course, when it will be seen how communication with life on other planets will transform human life in a short time, in such a way that one might recall the brilliant poem of Þorsteinn Erlingsson, in which he says: “Ancient world, is this you, grown so beautiful?” Then people will understand how one can maintain that it is almost irrelevant whether the inhabitant of another planet, with whom a connection is established, is a deceased person from this earth, or not.

I shall recount in due course how it may be that a person, who was a dead body here on earth, appears as the inhabitant of another planet, and as a physical being, not as a disembodied spirit. And this is precisely the main fruit of my work this year, that I now know much better than when I wrote The Great Connection (Nýall pp. 7-89), how life continues. I have gained this knowledge mainly by comparing research carried out by others, who are in a better position than I to do so, but without understanding, or working out their significance, as one may do if keenly interested in practising scientific comparison.

Let us first consider some of what may be learned from the girl speaking through the medium, about life on other planets.

VIII
She tells us various things about the connection between the beings on that planet and on other planets. At the same time as she was communicating with us here on earth, she was also in contact with other planets. She told us of her connection with a society of people far more advanced than hers, although there were great wonders to recount from there also. It was very clear that she was trying to describe a human society which is well on the way to becoming what I have called a hyperzoon or superorganism, i.e. a being which demonstrates the continuation of the tendency which has created, from the billions of individuals equivalent to the individual cell, the being called the metazoon, or a creature such as man. She said that men walked there as if in a blue flame, and she said the movements in the blue luminance around each person were in harmony with each other. This point, that the movements were all in harmony, is in her own words. And this is consistent with Kilmer’s research on the aura of the human body. Kilmer discovered that the aura of a woman of inferior understanding and development was grey. But the aura was all blue in the case of a woman of above-average powers and understanding; and it also extended farther from the body.

The society in which the girl lives has beautiful upward connections. But it transpired that connections can also be downward, and to far worse places than our earth is. Once the medium whimpered and wept, and was clearly in torment. And when she began to speak, we heard that the girl had established such a connection with a woman in a dark, evil place, that she felt she had become that woman (cp. paranoia!). This appears to be a reference to some dark realm, such as those described in the essay The Great Connection. It emerged that, although the place where the girl lives is a place of happiness, people are not safe there, but are at risk of being participants in the misery of those who are tormented, and in evil places.

These evil places, the places where the way of increasing suffering is dominant, impede the progress of the world. There, the energy intended to guide the world unerringly all along the way which leads to becoming the higher being, is destroyed in torment. Such places are like a periphery, where the effort to imbue lifeless material with victorious life is doomed to failure. This is the huge obstacle which even the divine power cannot push out of the way of endless progress. And the reason is that here the divine power abandons its true nature, and makes itself like the misery which is to be destroyed.

I shall return to this, later in our story.

IX
Another connection was described by the lass, which was admittedly not upwards from that place, yet nonetheless with a good place. And that place was on another planet than where she was living. It was noticeable how glad the girl was to be able to tell us about this astronomical knowledge, which was so similar in character to what travellers to distant places tell of unknown continents; and so marvellously strange, precisely for that reason. And her delight was understandable. For that was the first time that it proved possible to teach such knowledge at a séance. For the first time pure natural science and geography were successfully transmitted across the expanses of space. For the first time, such knowledge could be transmitted across the expanses of space, to a level of existence as low as ours here on earth, where man has only just – so to speak – discovered the heavenly bodies, while knowledge of nature is otherwise so primitive that people are aware neither of the purpose of life, nor its continuation, or what may be termed the basics of existence; and where only a tiny minority have come to understand that the quest for knowledge has any value. While it appears insignificant, this was a world-changing event, which took place in a small room in one of the world’s smallest capitals. And both the medium and the sitters deserve that I should express my admiration for them, for what they achieved.

The lass said that she herself saw what she recounted; and that would be in such a way that a person on that planet gave her a share in his consciousness. And had conditions been better, all of us present could have shared in that consciousness, and ourselves seen what was recounted. Within a short time of people seeking in earnest to understand me, such demonstrations will become a common practice here on earth. And those people will not be deemed wise, who do not manage to understand that huge changes will be caused to the conditions and prospects of our mankind, when great and reliable knowledge will be available on a better, more perfect life, even if it does not entail direct increase in wisdom and powers – which will, however, be the case, when many minds are harmonised together. And Iceland will then be a true place of happiness, when the new science, which I term epagogics, is applied, and greater unity has been achieved with the perfect, which is vital to life. And then great palaces will rise in splendour, fairer than the dawn, like those to be described here.

X
The lass told us of a gathering held in a great and beautiful hall, of which she gives some description. The building stands on a high mountain, yet it is so large that 100,000 people are said to be gathered there. The building is for receiving visitors from other planets, and hence we can well understand why it is built in such a lofty location. A divine visitor appeared, she said, at the gathering, from a society which was far more advanced; and she did not say that there were any other religious services than such gatherings. Here on earth, where the evil path still predominates, we cannot imagine how good it must be to attend such a gathering, where people become more harmonised than is otherwise possible, and thus they can receive a higher energy than before, precisely because of the enhanced harmony. With greater physical energy and understanding, with enhanced joie de vivre, people leave such gatherings, fitter than before to follow the right path, and grow to resemble more and more the divine society with which they have had contact.

XI
The lass was asked how those who attended such gatherings reached the place. By aeroplanes, was the answer. And we learned that those aeroplanes make no noise, and that they give off a light as they fly. We also learned, I think to the surprise of all, that the aeroplanes were kept in the air while the gathering took place. A small machine like a watch was used to fix a place for each aeroplane in the air, and to call it down when needed. This is of course reminiscent of remote controls of unmanned boats, which exist here on earth. But it was not until after I had heard this that I learned that remote-controlled unmanned aircraft also exist here on earth, although they are less advanced than on the planet of which the lass spoke.

She was asked whether submarines were not far more advanced than here on earth. We received the unexpected answer that they were unknown there, but that people there could walk on the ocean floor. They had equipment which emitted radiation which repelled the sea water, and they walked as if in a dome, which they moved with them.

She said she saw towers, very tall and with exquisite equipment at the top. She said that here substances were captured from the air to make diverse healthy and delicious foods. Sea water was also used in this manner. This account is reminiscent of the famous and brilliant method used by Birkeland and Eyde to capture nitrogen from the air. And it may be interesting to note that it was William Crookes who first indicated that this could be done: that great chemist was also a pioneering researcher into several of the phenomena arising from connections with other planets. But Crookes never understood this, even though he was one of the greatest of scientists; and he did not draw the conclusions which have now become undeniable to anyone with sufficient intelligence and education, and the will to receive this truly great matter with respect and a positive attitude.

XII
This matter so much deserves that people should strive to understand it. And how clear is the view, how beautiful an overview may be achieved, when the nature of dreams, and the relationship between the psychic’s trance and normal sleep, has been discovered. A sleeping medium speaks. And lo! He speaks with the consciousness of another person. The consciousness of another is manifested in him. And that other says that he lives on another planet. The research has shown that in normal sleep the consciousness of another is always manifested in us. And a detailed study of sleep-consciousness shows unambiguously that the other, the dream-giver (oneiropoios) as I call him, lives on another planet. Each supports the other beautifully. Here, certainly, in the most beautiful way, the characteristics of a divine truth emerge.

Turvey’s experiments reveal that the “spirit” which enters the medium and speaks through him can be the soul of another person on the same planet. And the same is true of dreams in normal sleep, although sleep-consciousness more usually derives from inhabitants of other planets. The dream-giver may be of the same planet, and more-or-less of the same locality, as the dreamer. This is illustrated by an account of a dream in Tidskrift for Psysisk Forskning, 1906, pp. 14-15. Early one morning the director of Copenhagen Zoo, Julius Schiött, a well-known man, was standing by the polar bear’s cage, and the bear bit him in the finger. At the same time one of Schiött’s best friends, G. Pauli, dreamed that he was bitten by a polar bear in a zoo. Pauli experienced in a dream what Schiött experienced when awake. Schiött was in this case the dream-giver; and this may be partly attributable to Pauli being much under the influence of his colourful friend.

People are very surprised by such stories of dreams, not suspecting that bioradiation from another person is in fact the nature of dreams. There is no dream unless there is contact with the consciousness of another. If people devote sufficient effort to this, they may learn to pinpoint how an outside consciousness begins to be manifested when someone becomes sleepy. First there are images – like shadows – for there is no colour until later: the person who is falling asleep does not know what the images mean. Later, when he is asleep, he interprets the images according to his own brain environment, making from them only distortions; and he believes he is dreaming of familiar things from his waking life. But if the connection with the dream-giver becomes more perfect, people then realise that generally they dream of things completely unfamiliar from their waking life, and of which they have never thought before. I will discuss this further in another essay.

For the better information of later generations, it may be pointed out that I have, not infrequently, come across the view that dreams or fantasy, and the study of the nature of dreams, are the same. But these are two totally different things. And it is to be expected that it is difficult to put forward new ideas, especially if they are momentous, where such appalling lack of reasoning is seen – even though people are neither stupid nor uneducated.

XIII
It is generally an inhabitant of another planet who speaks through a medium in a trance. There is no doubt of this. I have, through the offices of a medium, spoken with those who live on other planets, billions of miles away. This is as certain, as that I exist.

One may, admittedly, hear it said that even a person’s strongest convictions need not be convincing to others. Even gifted and educated people make such assertions. But it is not so. The value of conviction varies greatly, according to whose conviction it is, and how it has been reached. A conviction on scientific matters, reached by a person who has little or no knowledge of science, is one thing. The conviction of one who has shown himself to be of the first order, both as a student and as a researcher, is something else. A conviction which has been reached rapidly, based on a quick perusal and brief thought, is one thing. A conviction reached through 20, 30 or 40 years of study and research, is another.

Most of my life has been spent in seeking to acquire knowledge. I have studied natural sciences, and also a little medicine, under the guidance of outstanding tutors. I have read a considerable amount of the best writings on philosophy and history, ancient and modern. Even as a child I had a great keenness to learn, and this has increased over the years. I have learned, better and better, to apply the correct scientific scepticism – the correct scepticism, I say, but there is a counterfeit known by that name, which is nothing but stupidity regarding new truths, and ill-will towards those who present them. For many years I have constantly been practising these studies, which are not easy. This is stated here in order that the reader may see that I have, at best, been in a position not to jump to major conclusions. And it is vital that people should trust me as much as I deserve. In my mind there is absolutely no doubt that the great puzzle has been solved. It has been solved, as puzzles are solved scientifically. That is to say, the way to greater knowledge has been found.

The principal factors of this matter are now beautifully clear. From humans emanates an energy which may be called bioradiation and psychoradiation. It behaves like electricity. And bio- and psychoradiation from one body may be induced in other bodies.

It was regarded as a great marvel, when Marconi and Oliver Lodge, not many years ago, succeeded in establishing “wireless” communication over a distance of one or two miles. Today telegraphic communications are exchanged over distances of thousands of miles.

The bioradiation from Turvey induced his mental and physical state in a person several miles away. Studies I have discussed in my essay Bioradiation and Bioinduction demonstrate that even the greatest possible distances here on earth do not preclude this “wireless connection” between nervous systems. Studies of normal sleep and psychic trance show, beyond a doubt, that this “wireless connection” between nervous systems can exist, in spite of the vast distances of space, between solar systems and even between galaxies.

There is absolutely nothing mystical about all this. But how extraordinarily important it is. And continuing upon the path of knowledge, of which this is the start, will within a short time transform conditions and prospects here on earth.

The next chapter will recount how it may be, that a person who dies can reappear on another planet, but as a physical being.

XIV
Plato’s Timaeus is, of ancient writings, that which most influenced the philosophy of the wisest and the most educated. According to that work, when a person dies he goes to the planet consistent with his nature, and his life continues there. Among the Romans, this belief that people live on, on other planets, appears to have been not uncommon, to judge from Gaston Boissier’s admirable work on Roman religion. He mentions, for instance, a medallion commemorating the Empress Faustina, who had been married to the philosopher Marcus Aurelius, stating that she had been received by the stars (“sideribus recepta” Religion romaine I, p. 134 ‒ but the great Latinist is

incorrect here, translating this as reçue au ciel: “received in the heavens”).

It is most remarkable to observe how the spirit of that race to whom the Greeks and Romans belong reaches such a height in its beliefs, in this vital matter, as to attain the truth. For, by applying scientific knowledge, we may clearly discern that this is precisely the truth: that after death on one planet, people live on, on another. And it is quite comprehensible that this must be so, when we know that life is precisely one aspect of the quest to achieve perfect organisation of the lifeless matter of which the planets and stars are composed.

By thinking thoroughly about what will now be said, one may gain a fairly clear understanding of this matter.

As stated before, it has been demonstrated that bodies emit bioradiation. Also that this radiation seeks to produce the state of the radiating body. And we can go yet farther here. The radiation does not only seek to produce the state of the radiating body, but continues, so far as to recreate the radiating body itself, or a similar body. People have observed how a mist or glow took on human form, or the form of a body part, and then became a tangible body of flesh and bone. And, while it is strange that a glow should be able to make such a thing; it is not so very much more strange than the well-known fact that the fluid named blood is transformed into tendons and flesh and bones.

I shall not waste words answering those who may maintain that it is due to gullibility and stupidity that people imagine that materialisations have been truly researched. I shall only mention how the excellent Herodotus dismissed in ancient times the claims of seafarers who said they had been where the sun moved in the northern sky (as is the case in the southern hemisphere). That was before people understood how the movements of the sun originate. And it is for precisely the same reason, i.e. ignorance, that people are so convinced that materialisations do not take place. But it may be deemed certain that the glow from which materialisations arise originates from a body; and that the spiritualists are incorrect in their belief that it is a disembodied spirit, which materialises as a body.

In the most recent issue of the periodical Morgunn is a most interesting account of materialisation, in an article translated by Ragnar H. Kvaran. Several of the materialisations described appear to be pathological in nature; but they remain, nonetheless, proof of the reality of materialisations.

XV
A little more must be added, in order to understand these matters. The radiation from a person is strongest and most powerful closest to the body, and one may speak of the body’s energy field, as physicists talk of energy fields (Faraday).

It appears to be in this field, where one bioradiation meets another from elsewhere, that the potential for creating a new body is apparently greatest. And this seems to be the origin of the “transfigurations” which the psychic sees, and which are sometimes captured on photographers’ plates. These transfigurations are stages towards materialisation. What has been said here is consistent with Kilner’s study: when one bioradiation meets another, the brightness increases, if the emanations are not too dissimilar. It appears that at a séance a common energy field may be formed from the radiation of the medium and the sitters; and that within this energy field materialisations are more likely than in the energy field of an individual.

Here on earth, common energy fields are few; and this is because people are in such disharmony. One may understand this by recalling an experiment in physics: iron filings are placed in a vial, and magnetised. All the iron filings together thus form a single magnet. If the vial is shaken, the magnetism is lost, and the iron filings are without energy. After magnetisation all the tiny pieces are harmonised together, and thus a common energy field can form. But when the vial is shaken, harmony is at an end; each tiny piece pulls in its own direction, each destroys the energy of the next, and no common energy field can exist.

The more developed humanity is, the closer it approaches to that magnificent goal of becoming one organism or hyperzoon, the greater the potential for a common energy field. We may recall here that the young girl spoke of the movements in the blue glow around each person she described, in harmony.

XVI
What is written here is natural science – with hypotheses here and there, as was to be expected. However, it is no hypothesis, but a certainty, that radiation from people on other planets is constantly directed towards our earth, and towards every individual living upon it. And from that we can deduce, and be quite sure, that from every individual on our earth, for as long as he/she lives, radiation is emitted to other planets.

Before long the persevering reader will discover that it is not for nothing that he has sat, seeking to understand what has been said before. For now we are approaching an understanding of this remarkable matter, that he who was a dead body here on earth, even burned to ashes, can some time later reappear, now as the inhabitant of another planet.

Throughout a person’s life, he/she emits radiation, which (is) manifest(ed)s and builds up in the energy field of a similar, but more advanced, or more harmonious, race of humanity. And that radiation has the continuous purpose of recreating a body like the one from which it originates. When the person then dies, energy is released by the dying body, and appears once again in that same place. Then the radiation creates for itself a new body: and according to various stories from the “spirit world” – which of course are not baseless, although greatly misinterpreted – this takes place with the aid of the more advanced people already on that planet. The man I mentioned in my essay Stjörnujarðfræði (Astrogeology) coined the excellent word skyndilíkami (temporary body) for this form of manifestation, as at a séance. The young girl spoke of the difficulties which could occur in creating the new body, e.g. if death had been painful. She said that this drained much of the energy which was required.

XVII
While much may seem unbelievable in these matters, there is nonetheless a way to realise that what is said is true. In diverse ways it may be demonstrated that the case made here is a continuation of mankind’s quest over the centuries to understand the world.

For a long time people looked at the lights in the sky which they called stars, without understanding the nature of that strange glow. But in due time they came to understand that these were suns, and other planets. And the continuation of that is to know that on those planets are living beings, as on this one, and that we can make contact with those beings.

A belief in spirits was prevalent for a long time both in physics and chemistry – or the forerunners of those sciences which people had at the time. But today spiritualism in those disciplines has now vanished so utterly that people tend to forget that it was ever there. In the field of biology, belief in spirits persists among the majority of those who live on this earth; while a small minority subscribe to the opposite error, which minimises the difference between the living and the lifeless, thus hampering the development of true biology. But through what is said here, spiritualism will come to an end, in the field of biology also. The connection is found; the harmonisation, the way to true science. Science will now be able to explain all these phenomena in the field of life, which over the centuries have been the subject of religion and superstition.

XVIII
At one time, nobody knew that we humans already live in the heavens. Nobody knew that our home, the earth, is but a tiny speck in the kingdom of the heavens, a planet among other planets, a twinkling heavenly body in the sky, like the others.

And much the same is still true with respect to the continuation of life. The vast majority of mankind have, down the ages, believed in an afterlife. But people believed this continuation of life to be outside of nature, or supernatural: something so utterly unlike the life we live here on earth, that it appeared entirely incomprehensible. And some people abandoned all attempts to believe in any continuing life, because they could see no reasonable way to do so.

But now it has been demonstrated here, as has invariably been the case, that the more we learn about nature, the stranger it becomes. Most strange is the continuation of life here on earth, in a series of new individuals. And it is under 90 years since people began to understand what really happens. For that could not occur until the cell was discovered: the basic unit of animal and plant life.

During my years as student I learned to examine various aspects of this renewal of life. I saw, for example, how a sea urchin comes into being, from the point where a tiny speck from the body of the male merges with another from the female. It is a bizarre story. But the sea urchins know nothing of it. They know nothing of life, or the continuation of life. And even if we consider the most intelligent creatures in the sea, seals, they know very little of life. They have little understanding, for instance, of these strange land-bound creatures who seek to examine and understand seals, and are often, alas, dangerous enemies to them. By the same token, humans here on earth are unaware that in other places are intelligent creatures, which study life on our planet with keen interest, and have certainly long harboured the wish that the most unfortunate and suffering creatures on earth should gain such wisdom that they could be granted the help so sorely needed. And I believe it is not unlikely that there will be great joy in the heavens when, due to enhanced knowledge, it proves possible to establish such a connection with the more advanced inhabitants of other planets, that life here on earth can embark upon the path to victory. And it will not be long to wait.

XIX
Quite extraordinary is the continuation of life here on earth, as mentioned above. However, one may discover, when nature is studied with sufficient interest in throwing off misleading preconceptions of various kinds, that on other planets the continuation of life takes place in an even more extraordinary manner. Not only light, heat, electricity and magnetism are transmitted in waves through the vastness of space, from planet to planet, but also bioradiation. The bioradiation of a person who lives on one planet creates for itself a new body in a similar energy field on another planet, as has been partially explained here. And here we may foresee a hugely important law of biology. A human race which is not far advanced and little harmonised, as here on earth, can only increase its numbers by birth. But in places where humanity is more advanced, and harmony is greater, numbers increase by materialisations from bioradiation from similar beings. The new inhabitants of such a planet are manifested fully formed. It is rather as if they are washed up on the shores of space, and hence the word alluunt [“they wash,ˮ from alluo] used by Swedenborg to refer to the arrival of spirits in the spirit world, is not inapt. Yet the excellent Swede understood nothing of these matters, which have become natural science.

He who dies and leaves this earth does not necessarily reappear in a better place. He simply appears in a similar place, but more harmonious. And it is possible that the people there are more harmonised in evil. But it will be easy to learn more about this important matter by further research, when the correct methods are applied.

XX
On a planet where mankind is backward and in disharmony, all the inhabitants of the planet originate there. But where human life is advanced and harmonious, some of the inhabitants of the planet have come from elsewhere, by the way described above. The planet is, for the newcomers, “another world” or “the other side,” of which so much is said, and with so little understanding, on planets where biology is not far advanced. Even for some centuries after cosmology has progressed to such a point that people have become aware of other solar systems, so numerous as to be uncountable, they cling stubbornly to the ancient misconception known as the “spirit world” or “the other side,” and initially they greet the great discovery in biology not unlike the way the great discovery in cosmology had been received some generations earlier, even though people are no longer seized and literally tortured to death for thinking new thoughts, as is the case while science is establishing itself.

Chapters XXI through XXVIII omitted.