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T C Lethbridge – ESP Beyond Time and Distance

All tribes even the Eskimo, who had no belief in gods till quite recently, believe in the spirits of the dead and think that they can get in touch with them.

The only reasonable explanation that I can find to account for this belief in a future life, is that when living in a less hustled and more uncomplicated state men did keep in closer touch with their real minds than they do today. From these minds they could appreciate something which we do not now grasp. In fact they knew that when they died, they were not extinguished.

They became spirits.

They did not know much about this spirit existence; but they knew that it was there.

From this point, the whole totem system evolved, for of course, if they continued to live as spirits, the animals did so too. The belief in spirits would be added to naturally when somebody saw a ghost. But it seems improbable that the seeing of a ghost gave rise to the belief in spirits. The ghost could not communicate with them. It never spoke. But something else gave them visions of future events and showed them what they took to be another world.

One reason why I think the Palaeolithic hunters of France and Spain obtained their religious ideas by some kind of contact with their fourth-dimensional minds, is that they were obviously much devoted to the working of sympathetic magic. Everyone now knows of their painting of their animal neighbours deep inside caves. There has been such a spate of books stressing the artistic side of this painting that the magic purpose tends to be forgotten.  But the purpose was to secure the food supply by magic means. That is why there are so many bison on the roof of the Altamira cave in Spain.

The image of the bison was painted there with a kind of crayon made from its own fat. This is the magic of the Ages and we have seen that there is a link between a detached portion of a person and his own psyche-field. It is a property now used by radiesthetists to effect healing at a distance. But this was not always so. Something from the body of an enemy, blood, hair, nail or spittle, gave the magician a link to him and he could in theory work evil to him through this link. It was not the picture so much that was important as the substance with which it was drawn. Like would call to like and in theory the Palaeolithic hunter could call up a bison when one was needed. Other aspects of this early art suggest that fertility of man and beast was also desired and magic steps were taken at times to ensure it.