Out of the Body
- Author:
James S. Pollock, M.A., Incumbent of St.
Albans, Birmingham Bivingtons, London, Oxford, and Cambridge.
In this work the author discusses the unanswerable question: What becomes of a human being immediately after death ? This is a prob- lem which, from the earliest ages, has agitated the minds of men. We cannot think that the author has succeeded in throwing any fresh light on the subject. He belongs to the new school of what is called Biblical Psychology. As this subject is better suited for the pages of a theological than a scientific journal, it would be out of place here to give a sketch of his speculations on ” The Spirit World,” ” Spirit Groups,” &c.; nevertheless, we cannot refrain from quoting the folloAving interesting and suggestive remarks on what he terms ” Dream Life.” ” The Bible calls death a sleep. Sleep is a state of unconsciousness ; the departed are unconscious. Let us consider this.
” The assumption here is that sleep is unconsciousness. This is a foregone conclusion with some men. They do not prove it; they do not enquire into it. The simple assertion is made; our assent is reckoned on as a matter of course.
” Hence they go on to demand our concurrence in a more important theory?the unconscious sleep of the departed spirit. In vain we protest against the conclusion, and maintain that no such doctrine is taught in the Bible. Holy Scripture, indeed, says that death is a sleep; it does not say that it is ‘ an unconscious sleep’?a ‘ period of the most utter and unbroken sleep, unvisited by a dream.
“It is clear that we cannot know what the ‘sleep of the soul’ is until Ave knoAv what sleep is. And here lies the difficulty. Men observe a veiling of the consciousness, as they think, in sleep. They are not careful to make further observations. They will not give due weight to facts that thrust themselves upon the notice of other men. Their assertion is, that sleep is a state of unconsciousness; they dare not say that the unconsciousness is total, for that they cannot know. But, on the other hand, they refuse to qualify the statement in deference to admitted facts.
” The facts to which I allude are simply these : Sleep is begun, con- tinued, and ended in consciousness. Waking and sleeping consciousness differ. The change of state suggests a change of consciousness. There is a change in kind if not in degree.
” Sleep is begun in consciousness. Those that ‘ fall asleep’ see and hear and feel things of which they were not conscious before slumber began to take possession of them. ‘ Falling asleep ‘ is the occasion of a new consciousness.
” Sleep is ended in consciousness. During the act of waking the mind is conscious of scenes and appearances which vanish at perfect wakefulness. “Waking from sleep is the occasion of a new con- sciousness.
” Sleep is continued in consciousness. I do not speak now of 1 mere dreams.’ It is undoubted that persons when 1 fast asleep ‘ are susceptible to certain sounds, can converse intelligibly with those that stand by their beds, can walk about, can work, and can even do difficult things that were beyond the powers of their waking consciousness.” The book will give our readers a good notion of what is meant by Biblical Psychology.
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