________________
220 DIVINATION & AUGORY IN A MODERN LIGHT
disuse his own judgment, and, consequently, his reasoning powers and conscience deteriorated from misuse: secondly, it is impossible to tell always who is the operator on the other side: and mankind, ignorant that the unseen operators were often only humatı beings possibly less advanced than themselves in intelligence and morality, thought the workers of oracles were Gods, omniscient and kindly disposed, and took to worshipping them. This had a very evil effect on excarnated humanity. Spirits of unprogressed intelligence and unbounded conceit set themselves up as gods and pretended to omniscience and power: more than this, they kept up after death their earthly bias of personality, nationality and sectarianism. Now the spirit world has to progress from the personal and finite to the universal and infinite conceptions of individuality, and any practices that bound one down to the ties of bodily limitation were to be avoided. No wonder the higher organizing intelligence checked the practice of fortune-telling, though they keep up the warning voice of conscience and genius.
The spiritualists assert further belief than enen this, Not only are their unseen personalities influencing us by impression for better or worse, and these personalities excarnated human beings of every grade of progression from the lowest depths of animalism to the highest perfection of purity, but also these beings can, under extraordinary circumstances, gather material from living bodies and make their astral bodies
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
