THE SEVEN PURPOSES
The
SEVEN PURPOSES
An Experience in
Psychic Phenomena
BY
MARGARET CAMERON
Harper & Brothers Publishers
New York and London
The Seven Purposes
Copyright, 1918, by Harper & Brothers
Printed in the United States of America
Published October, 1918
“That is what we hope to establish as a recognized truthin your life there; that a force as yet unknown to scienceis operating between the planes, and can be developed andused in your life.”
“A force compared to which electricity is spring water.”
“Some day your scientists will discover and prove byexperiment certain laws now unrecognized.”
“If you will only believe and know that I am not dead.”
“Come, all ye who struggle and strive! Perceive onceand forever the purpose of life. Join now the forces ofconstruction, and bring to all men brotherhood.”
“A great brotherhood is only possible when its componentparts are great.”
“Forget the class and remember the man. Forget theprice and remember the pearl. Forget the labor and rememberthe fruit. Forget the temple and remember God.”
INTRODUCTION
Twenty-five years or more ago my attentionwas attracted to the entertaining possibilitiesof a planchette, and, like other youngpersons, I played with one at intervals forseveral years. Like others, also, I speculatedconcerning the source of the remarkable statementssometimes obtained in this way, but theassumption that these statements were dictatedby disembodied personalities alwaysseemed to me rather absurd.
At no time has my interest in the matterbeen sufficient to lead me to read anythingdescribing or discussing psychic phenomena,with the exception of an occasional magazinearticle. Neither have I read philosophies toany extent. I have been always a busy person,taking life at first hand, without muchregard to what students have said about it.Such faith as I have had in anything, humanor divine, has been based upon works, and,without convincing demonstration, it has beenimpossible for me to be sure that individuallife continued.
After the beginning of the war, however,when interest in the possible survival of theindividual was so suddenly and patheticallyincreased, and one heard on every hand ofattempts to establish communication with thosegone before, I resolved to experiment againwith planchette; but it was not until ourfriend V—— expressed a desire to try it withme, sometime in 1917, that I really boughtone. For almost a year it lay untouched inits box, and when finally we found opportunityto test it we had no success. It did not movefrom the spot where we placed it, and I madeno attempt to try it alone.
Several weeks later, two friends, Mrs. Wylieand Miss Gaylord, told me that they had beenmaking efforts, through some one near theirhome, to get into touch with their brotherFrederick, with results they thought promising.A day or two later we tried planchettetogether, with some success. It moved briskly,wrote “Frederick ... mother ... love ...happy ...” and other detached words. Italso persisted in making little circles, perhapstwo inches in diameter, the pencil tracing thecircumference again and again. This was so