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Looking again, I saw that the harvest moon, which had just risen over the trees, made a bright
and shining path across the lake, and as I watched the waters play and sparkle in that light I
was astonished to see a bridge from the farther shore across the narrow bay leading straight to
the point on which my cabin stood; it was as perfect in outline as the one suspended across
Niagara's Gorge, with the exception that while definite in outline, it was light and almost
transparent; the entire structure seemed made of soft, filmy, radiant material, definite yet
indefinite. As I watched, I saw some one approaching over the bridge. Soon I beheld the
outline of a woman's form, and beside her a young boy, holding her hand. Was this a dream?
Startled, I aroused myself, and beads of perspiration came out upon my forehead. I felt the
chair and tightened my hold, I looked up and dimly saw the stars and constellations in the sky,
and the islands in the lake. I saw again the bridge of light and those who were coming nearer.
I shut my eyes, and all the moonlight, the waters, and the islands in the waters were blotted
out, all gone but the bridge of light and those who were upon it.
I was alone in this great forest. Afraid? one asks - yes, at first until I appreciated that I saw not
with the physical eye, but through my senses. I was looking into the invisible. I had come to
know long ago that the dead so-called were my friends; so there was naught to fear, and I
waited for their coming. So distinct was the woman that I saw her dress of white-flowing
garments like the Greeks wore in the days of Pericles, - then her face, and as it became
visible, I half started to my feet, for it was the smiling face of my mother. I observed her
features - and how her hair fell in folds about her ears; her face was just as in the old days,
except that age and the lines of care had disappeared, and as I look she seemed to know that I
had recognized her and had noticed the child. As the two came nearer, a light different from
anything I had ever seen shone in the child's face and through his hair; he waved his hand
laughing, and still the two came toward me in the path of the moonlight.
I realized that I was having an experience entirely new and that it was important to make my
observations with great care. I took long deep breaths and waited. My mother and the child
reached the point on which the bridge rested and stepped upon the shore, and up the sandy
path toward the cabin, so near now that every detail of face and form was visible, and I knew
the child was my son, who went out into the afterlife in infancy, but who had now grown to
about the age of five years. My pulse was beating fast, as my heart pounded under the
excitement. I was no longer composed, for all my love and longing for my mother and my son
swept over me; I started to my feet and down the steps to meet those who came with laughing
eyes and smiling lips, my hands outstretched, but as I touched them, they seemed to dissolve
and were gone.
I was upon the shore alone; the soft wind stirred the branches. I walked down to the water
which was still sparkling in the path of the moonlight, but the bridge was gone, and those who
came upon it. This had been no dream, for not for one moment had I slept, nor did sleep come
before the dawn crept into the eastern sky.
78
Experiences little less strange come to others. While Mr. W., we will call him, - one of the
most brilliant lawyers in America,-was examining a woman as a witness in the trial of an
action some months ago in the Court House in Buffalo, she gasped, fell back in her chair, and
was dead. Mr. W., wholly without imagination and painfully material, told me, and I have not
the slightest doubt of his veracity, that when he saw his client gasp and fall back in her chair,
he rushed toward her, and as he did so, he saw, and plainly saw, a shadow-like substance
having the form and outline of the witness emerge from the body and move away. I cite this
fact to show that others have had experiences similar to my own, though perhaps not so
perfect in detail.
Months have elapsed since I sat upon the veranda about the log cabin in the Canadian
wilderness and saw the etheric bridge and two of the inhabitants of the afterlife, but the
impression the memory - will never be dimmed in the years to come. Today it is more distinct
than any incident of my life, and now you ask, as I have asked - "What was it?"
At a subsequent time when occasion was presented, I asked a member of our spirit-group to
give an explanation of what had occurred. In answer he said:
"I am familiar with the occurrence because I was present. It was an object lesson. We wanted
you to see something of the actual conditions prevailing in this afterlife, as you call it, so that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]