Article October 13, 1906 Issue

AN OBJECT-LESSON

MYRA KING.

A short time ago I had an experience which greatly helped me to realize the falsity of material sense. In a large public building, at one of our seaside towns, is a room of the size, proportions, and appointments of a passenger car. On this occasion a man in uniform stood on a platform outside and announced that the car would now take a trip through Italy.

When the passengers were all aboard the conductor came in, the door was closed, and the journey began. The whistle blew, the car seemed to move, and in a moment, looking forward, we saw the bay of Genoa, Italy. Then we passed on through ancient cities and other historical places, went under bridges where people were hurrying to and fro, crossed rivers and saw the ships being loaded, climbed steep mountains, etc. Then the conductor announced that our trip was concluded, and so we stepped outside and found ourselves at our starting-point.

The illusion had been very perfect. Three of the five material senses, sight, hearing, and feeling, had been entirely deceived; neverthless, I realized all the time that the thinking, knowing part of me had never for a moment believed it to be other than an illusion. This little incident enabled me to see more clearly than ever before that material existence is but a passing panorama of human sense, a series of moving pictures which do not in any way shape or modify the facts of existence,—the eternal. unalterable truth. It helped me to know that reality is right here and now, though physical sense is taking no cognizance of it and that it is possible for us to realize this truth in the very presence of the most assertive sense testimony.

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