Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 49.djvu/539

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
"SPIRIT" WRITING.
519

Impe odode inguru lalele
Omdo resene okoro pododo
Igme odkondo nefulu kelala
Nene pokonto ce folodelu
Impete la la feme olele
Igdepe kindo raog japate
Relepo oddo og cene himano."

After the utterance in a "tongue" a "translation" was usually given in the same way, and the "translation" of the above poem, although somewhat incoherent, is of a distinctly higher order than most of the prose utterances. Witness one stanza:

"The coming of man from the roar of the ages
Has been like the seas in the breath of the storm;
His heart has been torn and his soul has been riven,
His joy has been short and his curse has been long.
But the bow of my promise still spreads in the heavens;
I have not destroyed the great sign of my love.
I stand at the door of the ark of creation,
And take in thy world like a storm-beaten dove,
And press to my bosom the world that I love."

Mr. Le Baron has shown traces of sensory automatism, hut very seldom. Once, in a sleeper returning from Chicago, he was awakened by a voice in his ears saying, "Enthusiasm shall fill the hearts of the multitude in the place of the hours of the day." He has also seen flashes of light.

As an illustration of automatic "prophecy" I may quote the following: "I have heard the wail of the dying and I have heard the wail of the man whose heart was broken. I have heard the voice of mirth and I have heard the voice of woe. I have heard the voice of him who is darkness and I have heard the voice of him who is light. I have heard the roar of the ocean and I have heard the song of the bird. I have heard the triumph of peace and I have heard the triumph of woe. I have heard the tears of the nations as they fell and I have heard the songs of the nations as they rose. I have heard the roar of cities and I have heard the music of the woodlands. I have heard the roar of the death of the man who was slain in battle and I have heard the shout of the victor. I have heard the new word and I have heard the old word," etc.

Mr. Le Baron never publicly admitted any belief in the veridical character of these utterances. As he says himself: "All this involved such an unscientific view of things, and was, moreover, so horribly egotistic and full of gall," impudence, and assumption, that I said nothing about it save to the few who had been throwing fuel upon the fire of my reincarnation conceptions and who were ready to believe anything in support of the hypothesis."