--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Smith, Joseph F. collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 13 number: 4 published: 1910-02 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Smith, Joseph F., "Editor’s Table: The Spiritists’ Heaven," *Improvement Era* 13, no. 4 (February 1910): 366–367.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1304unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1304unse start_page: 366 end_page: 367 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1910-02) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1304unse publication_year: 1910 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1910, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Editor’s Table: The Spiritists’ Heaven Editor's Table. The Spiritists' Heaven. Seeking the occult is unprofitable. Spiritual light comes b means of the Spirit of God, through messengers of the Lord, and through the Holy Ghost who measure upon is conferred in full those who obey the commandments The truth is not of God. whispered through veils of necromancy, nor has any message of light ever yet been revealed through so-called spiritualistic mediums. When spirits of just men made perfect are sent with a message from on high, they come in glory, for that is the only way they can appear; and it is contrary to the order of heaven for them to deceive. They deliver their message in light, and that message tends to the practical uplifting, progress and advancement of men. It is not given to satisfy the cravings of morbid curiosity. On this subject the following editorial re- cently appeared in the Portland Oregonian: It is wrong to discourage the pursuit of truth, even when there is no prospect of its attaining anything else, and small prospect of attaining even truth. Upon the whole, no species of intellectual athletics is so profitable all around as the investigation of the unknown. It is so immeasurably beneficial, both to him who investigates and to those who merely stand and look on, that few feel much like blaming an eager speaker when he diverges from the realm of the unknown to the unknow- able. Still it is sad to see an earnest prospector squander his time, strength and grub following up leads which are sure to end in nothing. We do not, of course, mean to assert positively that the leads which our va- rious psychical researchers have been following for the last fifty years have been absolutely barren, but, aside from some facts of mere terres- trial psychology, what have they yielded? To say nothing of material EDITOR'S TABLE. 367 advantages, leaving increased health, happiness and longevity out of the question entirely, what is the harvest of pure truth that the spiritists have reaped? It is doubtful if fifty years of effort, as sincere and zeal- ous, in any other field of research have ever proved so nearly fruitless. In deriding psychial research, therefore, one would not necessarily be discouraging the pursuit of truth, since it is highly questionable whether that radiant angel lies concealed anywhere in the country the lovers of the occult have invaded. But we do not wish to deride it. Our sole purpose is to point out how little it has accomplished, and this is done not by any means with unholy hilarity, but rather with melancholy reverence. Although thousands of people, including such men as W. T. Stead, Professor William James, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Sir Oliver Lodge, have held more or less constant converse with spirits for many years, it is safe to say that they have not elicited from their celestial visitants a any particular importance concerning either single fact of this world or the other. As the Independent observes, in commenting upon this subject, "We would have learned more by the discovery of a new tribe of South Sea Islanders than we have by getting into communi- tion with the spirits of the mighty dead." From all this fuss and parade neither literature, science, philosophy nor religion has profited one atom. The so-called poetry which the spirits sometimes vouchsafe to trans, mit through the mediums is always the most depressing gibberish. Not a single line of it has ever been worth remembering. Although spirits are supposed to live a larger and freer life than we, and are said to know all the facts of nature by intuition, nevertheless they have not told us one truth about electricity, aviation, or any other significant subject of human interest. Philosophy stands exactly where it would if the spirits had never been heard of, while religion they have seriously injured. They have harmed it by making the future life repulsive, and to many people ridiculous. Granting the untenable proposition that spirit com- munications prove there is a future life, who would want to live it if we must become the half-witted creatures the returning ghosts invariably seem to be? If we are doomed to lose our intelligence when we become discarnate souls, would not annihilation be preferable? Who wants to spend eternity as a chattering idiot? The Christian belief is that all our faculties will be brightened when we get to heaven. The spirits who deliver themselves through Eusapia,Paladino,and the other mediums, are said to come from heaven for that purpose. They must represent the average intelligence of that blest abode. Have their faculties been brightened much? Shakespeare