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Wallace D. Wattles Ultimate Collection — Chapter-95: New Light on Immortality
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- PDF pages: 398–401
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- Note: Work: New Science of Living and Healing, section 8 of 9.
NEW LIGHT ON IMMORTALITY. Table of Contents FINALLY, in the light of all the foregoing, what about the immortality of the individual? Well, the new physiology gives us, for the first time, a really scientific basis for the hope of a continued existence. You must remember that if the old physiology is true, immortality is simply impossible. If you get your vital power from food, then your soul comes from the beef trust; and when you cease to eat, that will be the end of you for time and eternity. The theory that the soul draws its vital power from God, while the body gets energy from corned beef and cabbage, is improvable; all the evidence goes to show that there are not two kinds of life, one of the body and one of the soul, but that there is only one life. The life of the soul and the life of the body are one, and come from the same source; therefore, if the old physiology is true, the death of the body is the end of all. To prove individual immortality we must demonstrate two things to be true: First, that there is a spiritual organism which the ego, or individual intelligence can inhabit after the dissolution of the physical body; and Second, that the ego can and will keep the spiritual organism so in harmony with the constructive principle of nature that it, in turn, shall not be dissolved. It is unthinkable that life should continue individualized without an organism. There must be a separate organism for every individual life; and when the life can no longer preserve its organism against the attacks of nature's destructive principle, then it must cease to be an individual life, and be merged into that Universal from whence it came. What evidence have we that there are spiritual bodies?
- We have the testimony of clairvoyants and other psychics who claim to see them. Take this evidence for what it is worth to you. Personally, I believe some of it.
- We are able to demonstrate mathematically that personality is not the result of functioning of the physical body. Mind is not produced by the physical body, for mind controls the physical body. Mind is not the result of functional action, for mind can and does control functional action. There is no organ of the body whose action is not controllable by mind, properly applied. To have mind control the machinery which produces it would be to make the effect become its own cause. If mind were the result of functional action, it could not cause or control functional action. There is no more evidence that the brain thinks than there is that the heart thinks, or that the liver thinks; the most we can say is that the brain appears to be the organ through which the ego applies thought to the physical body. It does not appear to be at all impossible that there is a spiritual organism, formed of finer material, in and through the physical body, permeating it as ether permeates the atmospheric air; and that this spiritual body may continue to exist after the dissolution of the physical body. But its continued existence must depend upon its power and willingness to co- operate with the constructive principle in nature. Look where we will, we see two principles in operation; all about us are the phenomena of construction and destruction, integration and disintegration, combination and dissolution, growth and decay, life and death. In our own bodies construction and destruction are continuous; and the length of physical life depends upon our living, so that the process of construction shall equal or exceed that of destruction. In the very nature of things, it is not possible that there should be any such thing as essential, inherent and intrinsic immortality for any living organism. Every living thing, whether spiritual or physical, must be subject to the same fundamental laws; and each must receive its vital energy from the same source. You know that you are not necessarily and inherently immortal, in so far as your physical body is concerned. You may have a long and merry life, or a short and miserable one, just as you choose. If you eat and drink and sleep and think in a constructive way, you will live a good while—I cannot undertake to say how long. You may achieve physical immortality, for all I can prove to the contrary, although I do not believe you can; and I do not know why you should want to unless you are afraid to pass out, and try the other plane. On the other hand, if you eat and drink so as to turn your constructive force into the destructive channel; if you do not give the constructive principle an opportunity by sleeping
under proper conditions, or if you think destructively, you can commit physical suicide in a very little while, or you can prolong the process over a number of years, but it will be suicide all the same. Permit me now to point out that the same must be true of your spiritual body. I believe that you have a spiritual body, for the reasons given above, and because I see phenomena in your life which I cannot possibly account for on any other hypothesis than that there is a personality which uses your brain but which is not produced by your brain. All that, however, is another story, and I shall not go into it now. But you will note now that it can be no more a necessity that your spiritual body shall live forever than it is that your physical body shall live forever. You are endowed with the power to commit physical suicide, and it necessarily follows that you must also have the power to commit spiritual suicide. The spiritual bodies of those who persist in thinking the destructive thought and living in the destructive way must eventually be dissolved into their original elements, and the life principle be merged into that Universal life from whence it came. They who persist in violation of the law must eventually vanish from the universe; the “soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Immortality is a privilege, but not a necessity. Conscious individual existence on either the physical 01 spiritual planes can be long continued only by working in harmony with the constructive principle; by intelligent and continuous co- operation with God. And this is the great, stern fact that underlies the New Physiology: That the individual cannot create or renew his own life, or vital power of soul or body; he must, therefore, so harmonize himself with the source of life as to receive from it, or he will inevitably perish.
How wonderful is Death! Death and his brother, Sleep. — PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Everything in nature contains all the powers of nature. Everything is made of one hidden stuff. — EMERSON