Raymond, or, Life and Death (1916) is perhaps Lodge’s most renowned spiritualist work, written after the death of his son Raymond in World War I. The book explores Lodge’s experiences with mediums and his belief in communication with the afterlife, but it also contains a good deal of philosophy. This is an extract from page 300 (in my copy). I have changed some of the words and phrases to make it more comprehensible to a contemporary listener, as I was using it as a reading during our Divine Service. I learned my lesson some time ago when I read what I thought was a profound extract from an Emma Hardinge Britten book to be faced with blank looks! Victorian times were not that long ago but, the turn of phrase was quite different to ours.
Our experience of life, as we live it, is surprisingly narrow. We are only truly aware of a single moment at a time—the fleeting instant we call “now.” Like the click of a camera, it captures only a flash of the world around us. And yet, our true existence stretches far beyond this single moment.
The present, by itself, would be meaningless if not for our memory of the past and our anticipation of the future. Our lives are shaped by both — by where we have been, and by where we hope to go. Even the animals around us, in their own way, live with memory and expectation. We all eat, rest, and act with the future in mind.
Without a vision of what lies ahead, life would become mechanical, hollow, and unfulfilled. And so it is right and natural for us, as human beings, to seek answers to life’s greater questions: “Where have we come from?” and “Where are we going?”
Of course, we must be careful not to become so preoccupied with what’s next that we miss the meaning of the present. Life is lived best when we give our full attention to the here and now. But we are not meant to drift aimlessly. To be truly awake and aware, we must remember that the choices we make today shape the future we are heading toward.
So it is not foolish — it is deeply wise—to explore the question of what comes after death. For if death is not the end, if life continues in some form beyond this world, then it changes how we see everything. It gives depth to our history, and purpose to our present.
If the mind survives the body, then perhaps our thoughts and spirit continue to interact, to love, to learn—even beyond the veil we call death. Science has shown us that minds can communicate in ways that transcend the physical. And if that is true, then perhaps the soul can be even more fully alive when it is no longer bound by the limits of the body.
Let us not close our minds to such possibilities. Let us not allow fear or habit to block our search for truth. For if there is even a glimmer of evidence that life continues—if there is insight to be gained about the journey we are all on—then it is not only reasonable to look for it, but it is our responsibility to do so.
For in seeking the truth about what lies beyond, we may find richer meaning in the life we live now.
