Investigations Into the Superphysical

As evolution steadily carries on the mass of humanity, the crest of its wave must ever be advancing towards new and hitherto unexplored — or only partially explored — regions. Great religious teachers have laid down certain doctrines, far-reaching in their consequences, drawn from a knowledge of super-physical worlds, and their followers have accepted these doctrines on faith, since they were incapable of acquiring for themselves the knowledge of the facts on which they were based.

The doctrines of reincarnation and karma, of man's immortality, of the existence of super-physical worlds and their inhabitants — all these recommended themselves to the reason; anyone of fair intelligence could grasp them, but their claim to acceptance rested more on authority than on proof. Reincarnation, for instance, may be shown to be the most reasonable hypothesis for man's continual life. Intuition is sufficient for the person in whom its light is burning, but that light is useful only to its possessor; intuition in A cannot satisfy the demand of the reason in B for proofs, and no firm edifice can be built on the foundation of another's intuition.