The Gate of Remembrance E-Book

Frederick Bligh Bond

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 167

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

As some readers of this remarkable book have thought it too incredible to be a record of fact, but rather deemed it a work of imagination, it may be useful to add my testimony to that given in the book as to the genuineness of the whole narrative. The author has, I am sure, with scrupulous fidelity and care, presented an accurate record of the scripts obtained through the automatic writing of his friend, together with all the archæological knowledge of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey that was accessible before the excavations were begun. In order to remove any doubt on this point, before further excavations were made, Mr. Bligh Bond has wisely asked representatives of certain societies to examine the later scripts which refer to the Loretto Chapel, note their contents, and see how far the further excavations may or may not verify any of the statements made in the later scripts.

Leseprobe

The Gate of Remembrance

The Gate of RemembrancePREFACE TO SECOND EDITIONNOTEGLASTONBURYPART I THE LOST CHAPELTHE LOST CHAPELDISCOVERY OF THE EDGAR CHAPEL, GLASTONBURY ABBEY:PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO ARCHÆOLOGICAL RESEARCHON AUTOMATISMSOME NOTES ON THE SCRIPT AND ITS PUBLICATIONNARRATIVE OF THE WRITINGSPART II THE CHILD OF NATURETHE CHILD OF NATURETHE STORY OF EAWULFPART III THE LORETTO CHAPELTHE LORETTO CHAPELTHE LORETTO CHAPELCONCLUSIONENVOIFOOTNOTES:Copyright

The Gate of Remembrance

Frederick Bligh Bond

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

Two problems in the script have engaged the serious attention of critics. The first and simpler of the two is that which is involved in the language and literary form of the messages. This is a curious patchwork of Low Latin, Middle English of mixed periods, and Modern English of varied style and diction. It is a mosaic of multi-coloured fragments cemented together in a strangely random fashion. This anomaly is the more remarkable from the contrast it presents to the sustained and consistent burden of the script itself, which, as though in obedience to some preordained intention and settled plan, seems to proceed to the presentment, line by line, of a completed whole, with absolute patience and indifference to interruptions. Lapse of time seems of no account. After a break of several hours, the thread is resumed at the point where it had been dropped. The unfinished communications about the Loretto Chapel in 1911 are picked up and spontaneously completed five years later. Nevertheless, the queer patchwork of language is again evident.For this fact, the following explanation is offered. It will easily be conceded that whatever the source or inspiring influence of these messages, the language in which they are conveyed is themechanical sideof the matter, the most assuredly conventional element in the process of transmission. But the obvious instruments are the brains of F.B.B. and J.A. The reasoning and reflective faculties are at the time in abeyance or are otherwise engaged,[1]their attention being entirely diverted: but the storehouse of memories and subconscious impressions latent within are being used, and quite independently used, though concurrently in point of time with the normal use of the thinking faculties on a wholly different subject.Consider for a moment the human brain as the repository of all impressions made on the mind from childhood upwards. Thus viewed, it becomes, as it were, an encyclopedia of all knowledge which the conscious mind has stored, each item recording an idea of a certain quality, in such language as circumstances may at the time have dictated. Suppose then—and it is not difficult to do so—that each of these records is responsive to the impulse of an Idea which is seeking expression, and whose instrument of expression is some sort of sympathetic vibration attuned to the original thought which recorded the particular memory or subject. The sympathetic vibration lays hold of the denser or physical particles of the record, causing them to respond and to emit their own proper voice.In other words, the language of the script would be simply the product of the reaction of our brain-records to the sympathetic vibration of Idea, from whatever source arising.Not that such conditions are always necessary or possible. There are, for example, many quite well-authenticated cases of automatic writing in which not only the idea conveyed is outside the consciousness of the writer, but the language itself is entirely unknown to him, or to her, as the case may be. Take, for example, the many recorded cases of automatic writing in languages unknown to the medium, and sometimes requiring special scholarship to appreciate. The explanation seems in this case to be that the mind of the medium is plastic to a more direct spiritual influence which can therefore mould its particles and create a new record for itself. This must have been so in the Gift of Tongues at the Pentecost, and later in the history of the Primitive Church.The second problem noted by critics is a more difficult one. It concerns the intelligent source of the messages. As to this, I have propounded the view of a Greater Memory transcending, and interpenetrating our own. This theory is suggestive rather than explanatory. It does not, and cannot, explain many things which in our present state of knowledge are inexplicable. Neither does it pretend to cover the whole ground. It is, as I say, merely suggestive. Its virtue is that it excludes no other possible agencies, hence leaving room not only for the exercise of transcendental faculty, such as clairvoyance, but for any variety ofprimaryimpulse, and for any number or degree of directive agencies capable of employing it.For as we are obliged by our own experience to acknowledge that our own latent memory is revived and brought out in these scripts by some intelligence working apart from our conscious minds; and to admit that telepathy between two is involved: so we are also bound to allow the possible presence of a further range of telepathic action working through our minds in the production of these messages. And if we are prepared to agree on the one hand that whereas the physical brain dissolves at death and its action ceases, yet, on the other hand, that a more inward and less material brain, the organ and vehicle of the subconscious or intuitive self, still persists and survives entirely the death of the physical body, and if we consider this more inward brain as composed of finer particles, responsive to the far more rapid movements of intuitive thought, then we shall have to allow that the memory-record of any defunct personality, if capable of responseto the same stimulus of spiritual Will and Idea which canactuate our own, can be drawn upon in like manner by the energising Intelligence, and again, as in our own case,without evoking the conscious "spirit" or personality proper to it. This is surely the meaning of Johannes when he says (p. 95):"Why cling I to that which is not? It is I, and it is not I, butt part of me which dwelleth in the past, and is bound to that which my carnal soul loved and called 'home' these many years. Yet I, Johannes, amm of many partes, and ye better part doeth other things—Laus, laus Deo!—only that part which remembreth clingeth like memory to what it seeth yet."Thus it seems to me the problem of personality, in the sense of the conscious personal presence of individuals deceased, need not arise at all in connection with these writings. All that it seems vital to assume is the union of the deeper strata of our own latent mind or dream-consciousness with others of a kindred nature and tone, by virtue of their sympathetic and accordant motion in the presence of a greater and all-inclusive spiritual essence, Idea, or Will, omnipresent and all-permeating, waking into activity all dormant memory-records, and directing them into any channel of mind which by previous preparation on the conscious plane has become receptive and retentive of them.Still small Voices from a distant Time!—thrilling through the void and stirring faint resonances within the deeps of our own being—the great Telepathy, the true Communion of Mind, the gate of the Knowledge, the Gnosis of the apostle, whose key is Mental Sympathy, the key that the lawyers took away, neither entering themselves, nor suffering others to enter.No discord can mar this communion, since love and understanding are its law. Death cannot touch it: rather is he Keeper of the Gate. Time, as we know it, here counts for naught, for to the deeper dream-consciousness, a day may be as a thousand years, and a period of trance or sleeping as one tick of the clock.

NOTE

By SIR WILLIAM BARRETT, F.R.S.As some readers of this remarkable book have thought it too incredible to be a record of fact, but rather deemed it a work of imagination, it may be useful to add my testimony to that given in the book as to the genuineness of the whole narrative.The author has, I am sure, with scrupulous fidelity and care, presented an accurate record of the scripts obtained through the automatic writing of his friend, together with all the archæological knowledge of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey that was accessible before the excavations were begun. In order to remove any doubt on this point, before further excavations were made, Mr. Bligh Bond has wisely asked representatives of certain societies to examine the later scripts which refer to the Loretto Chapel, note their contents, and see how far the further excavations may or may not verify any of the statements made in the later scripts.From any point of view the present book is of great interest. To the student of psychology, who ignores any supernormal acquisition of knowledge and yet accepts the good faith of the author, the problem presents many difficulties. Chance coincidence may be suggested, but this does not carry us far. The question therefore arises, where did the veridical or truth-telling information given in some of these scripts come from? As is so often the case in automatic writing a dramatic form is taken, and messages purport to come from different deceased people. The subconscious or subliminal self of the automatist, doubtless, is the source of much contained in the scripts, and may possibly be responsible for all the insight shown. But in that case we must confer upon the subconsciousness of the automatist faculties hitherto unrecognised by official science. The author has pointed out, on p. 156, some of the powers the subconscious mind must be assumed to possess; to these we may add a possible telepathic transfer of information between the author and the automatist, and also occasionally the faculty ofclairvoyance, or a transcendental perceptive power; for, according to the investigations of the author, some of the statements made in the script were unknown to any living person, and not found in historical records, prior to their verification in subsequent excavation. We must, however, be on our guard against the too facile use of words such as "telepathy" and "subliminal consciousness" as a cloak to our ignorance. The history of physical science shows how progress has often been retarded by the use of phrases to account for obscure phenomena—words such as "Phlogiston," "Catalysis," etc., which explained nothing, and now are ridiculed, but which were once used by scientific authorities as unquestionable axioms. It is wiser to acknowledge our ignorance and convey our thanks to the author and his friend for the patient and laborious care with which they have furnished valuable material for future psychological explanation. Nor must we omit to recognise the courage shown by Mr. Bligh Bond in the publication of a work which might possibly jeopardise the high reputation he enjoys.

GLASTONBURY

Grey among the meadows, solitary, bare:Thy walls dismantled, and thy rafters low,Naked to every wind and chilly airThat steeps the neighbouring marsh, yet standest thou,Great cloistral monument of other days!Though marked by all the storms that beat thee through,A radiant Parable of heavenly waysThat scarce thy lordly builders guess'd or knew!Vanishing image of great service done,Smiling to God under the open sky:Even in thy translation, stone by stone,Keeping thy spirit-grace and symmetry,Through ruined clerestory and broken roodOur chastened souls with tears ascend to God.A. M. Buckton: fromSongs of Joy"Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church."Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret."For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful."What is it then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also."I Cor. xiv. 12-15.

PART I THE LOST CHAPEL

Since the last issue of this work, the foundations of the Chapel of the Loretto at Glastonbury have been partly excavated, and are found to accord, so far, with the statements received in automatic writing. This discovery sets the seal upon the veridical nature of the writings, and emphasizes the importance of the method employed by the author for the recovery of latent knowledge.

THE LOST CHAPEL

The green isle of Glaston, severed as it was from the outer world by its girdle of marsh and mere, was from old time a haunt of peace. Its history as a religious foundation goes back into the mists of antiquity, and is lost in legend and fable. To this quiet retreat, this secluded stronghold of a more ancient faith, the footsteps of the first Christian missioners were guided, and the company of Eastern pilgrims found rest in its green recesses and a well-guarded focus for the great work of evangelising the isle of Britain.Successive waves of pagan immigration flooded the land, yet never was the lamp of truth extinguished here; and, stranger still, those who came, though of alien race and custom, cherished the older landmarks and sought not to destroy; for the heritage of Glaston was not the heritage of any individual race, but of all—a trust for Christendom.Within the sacred precincts the dust of many holy men was preserved, and the church enshrined their relics. She grew great through the pious benefactions of kings and nobles whose memory she kept green. Among these the gifts of the great Saxon King, Edgar, "yclept The Peaceable,"2were always gratefully remembered. In the great Abbey Church there was a chapel to his honour, well endowed, and, we doubt not, sumptuously furnished. But it was not esteemed sufficient, and in the day of Richard Bere, the last great building Abbot, it was decided that a new and more glorious monument should be erected to his memory. So we learn from Leland, who saw the chapel as it stood, a completed work, but a few years before the dissolution and ruin of the monastery. Then came, in 1539, the forced surrender, the barbarous execution of the last Abbot, Whiting, the violation of the shrines, and the dispersal of all the treasures of art and learning stored within the Abbey walls. But of the Edgar Chapel nothing more is heard, save that we can infer from a document we quote that it was standing in the days of Elizabeth. Yet it is doubtful whether it can have lasted through half her reign. And perhaps it was one of the first of the buildings to be utterly destroyed, since even its memory had perished and its form and grandeur were alike forgotten. Those who have seen the delicate and beautiful work at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle, or that masterpiece of stonecraft, the Chapel of King Henry VII. at Westminster, may form some idea of the general character of this Chapel of Edgar in its finished state.Local memory and tradition generally preserve some traces, however dim or distorted, of an architectural work of great magnitude and beauty, but it is a strange fact that this one had utterly faded out of knowledge save for some scattered and obscure notes in the pages of the old county antiquaries, which contained no hint of its identity.Fig. 1.—Plan from Phelps's "Somerset," reproduced in Warner's "Glastonbury."Shewing in dotted lines the reminiscence of an eastward Lady's, or Retro-Chapel, thought to have been built by Abbot Adam de Sodbury in the early part of the fourteenth century. Two different states are shewn, both lettered 'F' by these authors, and here numbered 1 and 2. No. 1 shews by scale a projection from the retro-choir of 30 feet; whilst No. 2 gives a total length of 95 feet. This is called by Warner, "the chapel according to its original proportions." The two measurements are approximately harmonised by Leland's record of the lengthening of the choir by Abbot Monington to the extent of two bays, and the throwing out of his new retro-choir to the east, which would absorb about two-thirds of the length of this chapel.

DISCOVERY OF THE EDGAR CHAPEL, GLASTONBURY ABBEY:

AN ACCOUNT OF A PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTThe following is the story of the discovery which, in 1908, caused a good deal of public interest, and provided the archæological world with an object of attention.Although known to a small circle of friends of the writer and his colleague in the research, and to the Secretary of the Society for Psychical Research, who was intimately acquainted with both, and in touch with them at the time, no publication of the circumstances has yet been made, and this was withheld largely for reasons more or less personal to the writer, though the intention had always been to make known the facts whenever the time should seem ripe for the disclosure.The entire record has been preserved, and the testimony of both the writer and his friend being available, as well as the contemporary evidence of the Secretary of the S.P.R., it will be seen that the matter stands on a fairly good basis in respect of documentary witness.For reasons of convenience, initials will be used in the ensuing account. F.B.B. will denote the writer, and J.A. his friend, John Alleyne.In anticipation of an appointment to the position of Director of Excavations at Glastonbury Abbey on behalf of the Somerset Archæological Society, of which he was a member, F.B.B. had, during 1907, devoted considerable time to the study of the ruins and their history, and to that of the older religious foundations, and in this J.A. assisted him. Most of the surviving accounts of the Abbey were gone through, both the works of the mediæval writers and those of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, with the fragments collected by them from older sources. Among the first, the works of William of Malmesbury, Adam de Domerham, William Wyrcestre, and John of Glaston, were examined, whilst Leland was not overlooked, and the later antiquaries, Hearne, Dugdale, Hollar, and Stukeley, had their share of attention. Following these, Browne-Willis, Britton, Carter, Collinson, Phelps, Kerrich, and Warner, were consulted, and finally some careful attention was bestowed on the modern antiquaries, Parker, Freeman, and last, but not least in importance, Professor Willis, whoseArchitectural Historywas the standard book of reference on the subject during the latter half of the nineteenth century, and still remains of the greatest usefulness to students.Glastonbury Abbey having passed out of private hands into the custody of a body of Trustees, acting on behalf of the National Church, it was hoped that a greatly increased opportunity for research and excavation would ensue. All published plans of the Great Church had been necessarily very incomplete, in the absence of visible remains and the lack of trustworthy evidence from documents. In particular the following features were in doubt:1. The form of the retro-quire, and eastward termination of the Abbey Church.2. The question of a north porch to the nave, and its probable position, if it existed.Retro-quire and Chapels.In 1866 Professor R. Willis published his invaluableArchitectural History, being the substance of a communication he had made to the Archæological Institute in the year previous. He devotes two pages (40, 41) to a discussion of the number and arrangement of the chapels east of the processional path in the retro-quire, and arrives at the conclusion that they were five in number. And in his plan (Fig. 2), which appears as a frontispiece to his work, he shows these five, the central one projecting about 12 feet. On p. 43 he says:"As Bere is also said to have built Edgar's Chapel at the east end of the church, it is probable that this chapel was one of those that we are considering, and that Bere fitted it up and completed it. The complete eradication of the east wall of the church in the centre may be accounted for by supposing that the central chapel projected eastward, as I have shown in the plan, and that this chapel was Edgar's; for if it had been only one of the ordinary chapels it would not have been worth mentioning as a distinct building."3Fig. 2.—Professor Willis's Plan.Professor Willis's conjecture represents the largest or most liberal interpretation yet placed by any antiquary upon the passage from Leland—which, it may be said, is the only known contemporary evidence of this work of the last two Abbots.Parker,4who reviewed the whole subject of the plan in his work for the Somerset Archæological Society (see his article in theirProceedingsfor 1880), does not support Willis's conclusions, inclining rather to the view that the Edgar Chapel was in the south transept, to the east of thenave, but it is within the writer's knowledge that Professor Freeman believed that the original quire, which, before Monington's addition of a fifth and sixth bay, must have been shorter by some 39 feet, was furnished with a large eastern chapel, probably a Lady-chapel, and that this may have been of quite considerable dimensions and even co-extensive in total length with the plan as given by Willis. But this view does not appear to have gone farther than a mere expression of opinion verbally given at a meeting in the Abbey, and the writer only heard it quoted as a reminiscence some time after the discovery of the Edgar Chapel.It appears to have been put forward as an explanation of the curious diagram given in Phelps'sSomerset