"Yes," said Paul, determined to follow up the original question, "but
what of a scene that occurred in this world some years ago, and whose
light vibrations would require but the fraction of a second to reach
our point of consciousness--no matter where situated on earth--and
which vibrations have long since passed beyond the reach of man, and
been lost in infinite space?"
"Nothing is ever lost, and infinite space is but a phase of infinite
mind. All that is necessary to review such a picture is to change our
point of consciousness from the brain to a point in space or mind,
where the vibratory movement is still in progress. In other words, to
overtake the scene by transposing our consciousness. Granted these
powers, which are born of the soul, and we may behold any event in
history with the clearness of its original force. Man is mind, and
mind is one; but all mind is not self-conscious. The consciousness of
mind is in spots, as it were, and here its consciousness is fixed in
a spot called brain, where with most men it remains until the will,
or some abnormal condition or the event called death, liberates it
from its prison. You believe that with your God, the scenes of
yesterday, to-day, and forever are alike visible?"
"Even admitting all that you say," answered Paul, "I can not see how
it was that I, who have no such power, could see clearly an event in
your life."
"Again the power of sympathetic vibration. The scene was reflected
from my mind to yours."
"But you just now said there was but one mind."
"Perhaps then it would be more correct to say, from my point of
consciousness to yours; or, to be still more accurate, to say that
the intensity of my thoughts struck a sympathetic chord in yours, and
vibrated through you as one consciousness. Without undue familiarity,
Mr. Henley, I have found in you a responsive temperament. There are
few men I can not influence, and with some the effort is trifling."
Paul was interested, and sat quietly reflecting upon what he had
heard. Naturally the ideas were not so clear as they would have been
had he given more thought to the conditions of spirituality, which
for so many years had been a part of Ah Ben's existence, and which
state was as familiar to him as the body in which he appeared. Time
and reflection alone, as this strange man had declared, could bring
one to comprehend and realize a condition of existence so totally
differing from that of our material plane. The inability of language
to express that of which we have no parallel, and of which we can not
conceive, is a grave obstacle to our understanding; but the man was
ever ready to exert himself to make the matter clear when he found
his listener interested.