But, on the Contrary, Finds Himself Very Much Alive In Heaven.
Note: The theme of “Hell” in the title of this talk and that of another that occurred exactly one year later, relates both to Ingersoll’s frequent criticisms of theological conceptions of the hereafter as well as to his presumed locality in the infernal regions consequent upon a life of agnostic preaching. – DC
He Visits Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond at a Spiritualist Camp Meeting In Missouri.1
In The Progressive Thinker – August 5, 1899:
The Springfield Mo. Republican says: “Did you hear Robert G. Ingersoll’s spirit lecture at Zoo Park?
“This question was a byword all day yesterday on the streets, in the stores, shops and offices.
“This all-important subject was discussed pro and con hundreds of times over.
“The elite of Springfield was out in force and every word of Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, the noted medium, was listened to with great eagerness by the vast assemblage that was present. Mrs. Richmond, who has a splendid voice and wonderful presence, was at her best Sunday night.
“She held her audience spell-bound, and after she had finished her lecture a prominent citizen offered a motion thanking her for her effort and requesting that the Springfield Republican print Ingersoll’s message in full. The motion was unanimously adopted.”
The following lecture is from the spirit of the late Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, through Mrs. Richmond, and is in full reported especially for The Progressive Thinker:
Mr. Chairman and Friends: Through an unaccustomed brain, in manner of speech that is unusual, with a voice that is not my own, but borrowed for this occasion and from the confines of another world, into which I was ushered suddenly by the white, silent, messenger, I greet you at this hour.
All that was of me in the earthly state, from which I have just arisen, lies behind me; all that is has not been sufficiently in consecutive consciousness for me to declare, while all that is to be lies before me still unexplored, and the great realm of immortal life is still a mystery. But when suddenly that shock came which cut off as in a single instant, with a blade of lightning, my physical form, my spiritual and mental being was not even for one moment lost, not for one instant was there cessation of consciousness in the brain, not for one instant was there any lack of throbbing, pulsing life. It is true that before and beneath me I saw the mortal body, all that was known of me in human life was lying there, and to my great surprise I, conscious, thinking, living, wondering Robert Ingersoll stood outside of my body. There it was just the same as when I occupied it, excepting that it was prostrate and lifeless. In an instant I had been transferred into another body. There was the body that I knew to be mine, though not the “glass of fashion and mold of form.” there was the brain which I had supposed was the seat of all intelligence that I possessed, now powerless within that cranium, not a cell of which could give forth a thought; there were those lips with which I had been accustomed to respond to words of affection; now when those words called my name I could not answer with those lips: there were the eyes with which I had gazed upon the mysterious, boundless, wonderful universe of life utterly and absolutely without sight, and there was the heart pulseless and still.
“Oh!” I said, “is that you, that thing that lies there helpless and without possibility of speech or heart-throb, or language, or affection; is that the boasted thing that you called yourself lying there now so prone, so powerless?2
“Oh!” I said, “is that you, that thing that lies there helpless and without possibility of speech or heart-throb, or language, or affection; is that the boasted thing that you called yourself lying there now so prone, so powerless? Have we parted company then? Am I alive and conscious to go on without you? Why, you were my hands, and you were my feet, and you, tethered and encased in that clay, were my heart, and I thought you were my intelligence and my life. Poor body, what shall I do with you now? I cannot again reanimate those nerves, I cannot again cause that heart to pulsate, I cannot again think with that brain, I cannot again move that body to do my bidding. It is dead.”
But who am I then? What form is this that I possess? What is the semblance of this form? What is this that is thinking now? It is not the form that is cold and lifeless there, and what these heart throbs which go out with such ineffable and wonderful compassion? Oh, I am not dead.
There were the beloved, into whose presence I will not introduce you tonight, excepting to say, that they thought me dead. I myself had taught them that it would be so. Save for that ineffable hope, that divine and wonderful prompting in every heart that seems to yearn toward a higher and diviner life, did I know it? Now by all the powers of earth and air and sky I did not know it.
Mr. Chairman and friends, I have heard it said in this convention and in many, councils of Spiritualists while I was still on earth, that had I been true to my convictions I would have avowed a knowledge of spirit life and spirit communion. I did not know of it. I knew what Spiritualists think, I knew what they believe, I knew that there were many of them honest and true to their convictions. I spoke upon their platforms and in their camp-meetings, because we were engaged in a common cause, viz.: That of breaking down the errors and bigotry of a blind theology, but I did not know concerning the future life. However I will say now, as some of you may have heard me say in human speech in my own particular person, that I never stood before the lifeless form of a friend, never bent above that image of clay from which the breath had taken flight that all the yearning of my nature did not go out in one great hope for immortality. I never stood beside the casket containing a loved one that I did not remember that the great beneficent life of nature holds all life in her keeping, and I believed that somewhere and sometime those beautiful thoughts and images would be conserved, but I had no knowledge of the life beyond death. I had no evidence that appealed to me as many of you have. There were my affections, my intuitions if you please, that led me through the divine gifts of the imagination and poetry to dream of a future life. There was the intellect, however, and it was trained in such a school of logic and evidence that nothing could have.
Suddenly in the midst of the great, solemn silence of death, in the midst of the whirling thoughts that went surging through the brain into a shadowy something unknown, in the midst of the pulsing tides of affection that sought to reach the loved ones who were left behind, in the midst of this which shut off the mortal breath came the surpassing glory of spirit life. This sun of splendor rose suddenly, clear and cloudless, there was nothing that could mar its beauty or its perfection and sweet strains of music, like those that Apollo might have given on his harp of light among the stars, floated toward my consciousness and seemed to upbear me from the mortal thought.3
That is why I am here: that is why the first moment it is possible, I come to declare that I was mistaken. I was not mistaken, or I have not found that I was mistaken in my estimate of what was not true, because I have found that the future life was not guarded by wardens upon either side who were waiting to conduct me either to hades or heaven, I have not found a yawning abyss opening to receive and devour me with its everlasting flame in the midst of torturing devils; I have not found a far-off heaven with walls and gates of precious stones, with an alabaster throne upon which a personal God is set, whose angels forever sing his praise and play upon harps of gold; I have not found any condemnation from any angel or spirit with whom I have come in contact since the cessation of my mortal breath, but I have found, oh! joy ineffable, such a light as comes to the mariner when out upon the storm-tossed sea he has battled with the elements and has almost been engulfed by the waves and no star shining above to guide him, when the polar light refuses to shed its radiance across his pathway and then in the gray dawn of the morning, over the mysterious, beckoning, storm-tossed waves a ray of light is seen, at first through the long, gray, trailing mist of gloom, then one by one piercing shafts of light rise toward the zenith and at last the world is thrilled and the waters are pervaded with a sense of the approaching day; and then from the great throbbing bosom of the sea, from the storm-crested waves, from the billows which seemed to blend the earth and sky at last the chariot of the day is seen, and Phoebus, the mighty god of light, rises in triumph above the waves, and the world rejoices that it is day. Suddenly in the midst of the great, solemn silence of death, in the midst of the whirling thoughts that went surging through the brain into a shadowy something unknown, in the midst of the pulsing tides of affection that sought to reach the loved ones who were left behind, in the midst of this which shut off the mortal breath came the surpassing glory of spirit life. This sun of splendor rose suddenly, clear and cloudless, there was nothing that could mar its beauty or its perfection and sweet strains of music, like those that Apollo might have given on his harp of light among the stars, floated toward my consciousness and seemed to upbear me from the mortal thought.
Wonderful thoughts came pulsing like argosies of light freighted with dreams of prophecy and hopes of immortality, and these bore the images of loved ones whom I had known in childhood…4
Wonderful thoughts came pulsing like argosies of light freighted with dreams of prophecy and hopes of immortality, and these bore the images of loved ones whom I had known in childhood, those who had gone into the white silence of death and from whom I had heard no more. They came toward me, not as strangers, but as those who were aware of my coming and hastened to welcome me.
We did not pass through space, we traveled to no distant land, we did not enter any sphere that I am aware of, but right there in the ineffable and wonderful awakening of all our attributes and powers. Instead of fading when the senses faded, it seemed to me that every pulse was quickened, every nerve was performing it thousandfold more duty. I could hear the voices of the loved ones saying softly and with hushed and tremulous voices, “Is he really dead?” I could also hear their hearts beat and feel the throbbings of their minds as, with great intensity of love; they asked the man of medicine if he could cure me.
Ah! but I could hear more plainly that music of the bending spheres, that sound of beloved ones calling and winning me unto this wonderful realm, and those whom I had loved in restored youth and wonderful delight, welcoming me unto the land or realm of spirit.5
Was it a dream, could this be another phantasy of the brain? Was it possible that my indisposition has taken on such shape and form? Was I really not out of my body, but imagining all this? Sometimes it would flash upon me; this is not music I hear, these are not my friends who have died that I see before me, but only the memory of them, my brain is diseased and I will be restored, and I will be again among the members of my household and my friends on earth as before. But as soon as this thought would come to me there would be the body lying there prepared or being prepared for sepulcher; and there those spirits pointing me to that form and saying, “No, you will no longer rehabilitate yourself with that form, you will no longer pervade that brain; you are alive in the realm of spirit.” Then oh! such vast areas as seemed to sweep before my vision, the sun-kissed rainbow that crowned the universe seemed throbbing and pulsing with light, and thoughts greater than I had dared to think in that house of clay came through my teeming brain as I realized that I was no longer an inhabitant of the dust, but an immortal human spirit.
Have you ever been in the confines of a closed room, or possibly in the mines in the depths of the earth scarcely able to breathe from an atmosphere so close and damp? Have you ever been shut up in a noisome place where many persons were congregated and not able to breathe, the air so vitiated? Have you ever felt tethered and fettered by your environment of dust? If you have, you know what it is when you set your feet upon the broad, green earth and can breathe the air of heaven and see the mountains beyond and all the bright verdure and know that you are free. Not one thousandth part of this freedom did I ever feel before! not one millionth part of this great joy. I seemed to be let loose from the fetters of the dust; I seemed to let something fall that was a clod, and I entered the realm that was my native element. Have you ever let a bird free from the cage where it was reluctant to sing its song, and then heard it warble in its native air? Have you set free a spirit that was in sorrow or in bondage in the earth life, weighted down with human cares and, perhaps, with poverty and want? Then you know something of the great tide of freedom that swept in and through my consciousness.
It seemed to me that the chain of thought was limitless; it seemed to me that retrospect and prophecy were one; it seemed to me that all the things that I saw or did were before my consciousness…6
It seemed to me that the chain of thought was limitless; it seemed to me that retrospect and prophecy were one; it seemed to me that all the things that I saw or did were before my consciousness, and each unworthy, act burned into my spirit with a bitter pang, and much that I had done was brought to my consciousness with added joy, for there were those who seemed to think I had done them good. Whomsoever I had helped in any way came toward me with added love, and upon whomsoever there had been bestowed a benefaction, even with my feeble earth hands and brain, that benefaction seemed doubled a thousand fold.
Do not deceive yourselves, friends. I did not think that I was perfect, and my human imperfections came out to meet me in the most distinct and glaring manner; everything that had bordered upon unworthiness, everything that bordered upon selfishness, everything in human life whatsoever that I had thought or done came before me as a part and portion of my spiritual inheritance, came before me like children saying, “l am yours, you have thought me, you have acted me,” and if it is not worthy it proves a shadow and a barrier to my further joy in this realm of the spirit.
I have not fully confronted that retrospect yet, dear friends, and the time is still coming when we must meet that introspection, which I understand must come to every spirit, I must meet the deeds, the thoughts and words of my mortal existence. But, friends, I am not afraid to meet them, they are mine and I am responsible for them; I am willing to suffer for them if need be. I shall require to have this introspection before I can take up this vast thread of life, which opens up before me, and intelligently bear it forward to its fruition. I shall require to understand who I am in this realm which is freer and greater than human life. I shall require to comprehend more and more of the great relations of life to life and mind to mind.
But friends, it is not appalling, I find nothing before me that is discouraging; one of the least of those souls that are set free, of these spirits that surge and throng around me in the kingdom of immortal life, I still put my feet firmly upon the foundations of spirit life and I am not afraid. There is nothing in this spirit life that can appall or make afraid; you enter upon your own inheritance, and, I am happy to say, that of all the things I may have committed that were wrong, of all the thoughts that may have been unworthy. I have tried to think and act with integrity and justice to my fellow-man.
So I find myself here upon the threshold of immortal life, not with any great spiritual possessions, for I did not have them with much understanding of the life that opens up before me, for I did not have it. But I find that the dreams that I dreamed, even from early youth and manhood, and the great tides of hope that have uplifted me even in the hour of contact with mortal death are realities, and this the fulfillment of that hope in the reunion of beloved friends, and the fulfillment of that aspiration and dream in the great world or realm upon which I have entered.
I cannot tell you; as other spirits can, of added experiences in the spirit state, they must come to me. I must wait until the last sorrow has been hushed, until the tears over the casket are dried, which as yet are not fully parted from me. I must wait until I can take up the great inheritance of spirit life worthily and understand its true value and meaning.
But friends, I realize at this moment, in this the first hours of my spiritual existence, that I am not separated from the great bond of sympathy, am not separated from my kind because I am dead, and I hasten to remove any barrier that a word or thought of mine may have placed upon the mind of any of you concerning that future life. If there is one let it be removed from this hour.
I hasten to tell you that, unbelief, although sincere and honest, is not the correct attitude for an intelligent mind which may not have knowledge, for, without knowledge, what right have we to disbelieve?
I hasten to tell you that, unbelief, although sincere and honest, is not the correct attitude for an intelligent mind which may not have knowledge, for, without knowledge, what right have we to disbelieve? Doubt is the great agitator of thought and the commencement of wisdom, and the doubts of the past have enabled man to explore the avenues of human science and knowledge to the fulfillment of the laws of an all bountiful nature. But to say that there should be active disbelief in a thing which one knows nothing of is now revealed to me as being unworthy an intelligent mind. I here retract or retrace any word or footstep that I may have taken in the realm of mind against the knowledge of a future life.
The difference between the theological heaven and hades and this realm into which I have now entered is the difference between darkness and light, between death and life, between annihilation and existence forever.
I take back no word that I ever spoke concerning the degrading nature of theological fear. I take back no word that I ever spoke against that fear that, enthralls mankind and refuses to let him go free in the realm of thought and active human life. But the difference between the theological heaven and hades and this realm into which I have now entered is the difference between darkness and light, between death and life, between annihilation and existence forever. I still say, as I often said when in human life, that between the hades of orthodox theology and the limited heaven into which only a privileged few could enter, give me hades, for my friends would be there. But we are not there, we are neither in hades or the burning pit, nor are we in the heaven that would dwarf our hearts’ sensibilities by a selfish immortality based upon the foundation of perishing souls. We are in the midst of the universe of boundless life, we are in the midst of all the souls in the universe which are related to us. We clasp hands with infinite and eternal possibilities, we approach the great mountains of life, which are spiritual thoughts and there sun-kissed and sun-crowned with the immortal splendor of truth stretching far away before my vision and ever and anon turning earthward for the consolation of those that are in human life, stretching far away are those wonderful legions of spiritual consciousness, I see them rank and file in serried columns of invincible thought advance, not like armies of might upon an unsuspecting world, but with messages of peace and joy, and love divine.
I hail you, brother chairman, and friends, for the light that is being shed upon human pathways concerning this spiritual realm. I wish it could be broadened and deepened and opened into every human consciousness. In my feeble way at this time and at this hour I promise you that I will enjoy no heaven; that I will depart to no far-off realm; that I will not separate myself from human existence until I too, have made people aware that death is not death, but eternal life.
But for the time come with me unto this all-bountiful, affluent, universal life and light where your hopes are enshrined and those who have left your mortal sight, and whom you think as I have thought were dead, come into the gardens of this paradise that opens before my vision and that has restored to my arms those whom I thought dead and gave to my consciousness the ministration of my loved ones. Come to me you, who as orphans have wandered up and down the earth seeking somewhat that would assuage the pain of your human grief when the mother’s eyes were closed in the slumber of death and the father’s hand was cold and lifeless, come to where you can know they are restored; that life is life forevermore; that the mother’s love poured out upon the heart of the weeping child binds up the wounds of the aching heart.
Come with me, weary man of the world, plodding day by day in the pursuit of worldly wealth, let me show you how your energies may be quickened, how your mind may be uplifted from the dreary treadmill of seeking for your daily bread; let the consciousness of this life, which I find has been closed to the world, uplift and strengthen your hearts that you may follow your daily vocations with stronger hands and more willing hearts, and know that life immortal is not far away.
Come with me, my intellectual friend, you who have endeavored to cope with the problems of material life, let me show you where behind this thin film of the senses, behind this glamour of the intellect that binds you today as it blinded me through my life, is the great spiritual solution of all problems.
Come to those who lead men’s souls unto a knowledge of a higher life, and if you dare to know the great problems of immortality, come and prove, not through the change called death, not through that great master stroke which has come to me, but by your firesides, through the instrumentality of little children, where the voice of your loved ones may be heard, make a shrine and altar there, and let that shrine and altar be the place of communion. Meanwhile I must not longer hold the instrument, which I have never before used. I might jar upon those sensitive, tender chords. But let me invite you in the name of Death, that beautiful, white, tender Mother who closes the eyes of the sorrowing and the lips of those who mourn, who uplifts the voices and hearts of those who are discouraged; oh! beautiful, white Mother Death, I have come into thy presence, I have felt thy divine uplifting breath, I have seen the whiteness of thy form, the glory of thy countenance, the wonder of thine image, I have entered into thine embrace, thou primal mother, I have seen that thou art all-beautiful.
Oh! thou beautiful angel, misnamed Death; thou art the mother of life; thou art the inheritance of all souls; thou art the baptism, the supreme, eternal comfort; thou art the enfolding glory when on earth; thou art named Death, men behold not thy rare countenance, see not thine image of loveliness, but thou art all of the stars and worlds of the universe of life; beautiful angel of life, I am thine forever.