Our world shown in heaven From ages past , As a film .. In a
globe .. Mother of rev Owen vale in 1913.
Taken from life beyond the veil .volume 1 . Page 47. Starting
demonstration would be made for our benefit in order that we might get some idea of
the use to which these things were put.
We sat there waiting, and at length a blue mist began to fill the central space.
Then a ray of light swept round the hall and rested on the globe which represented the
earth. As it hovered about it the sphere appeared to absorb the ray and became
luminous, and after a time, the ray being withdrawn, we saw the earth globe was
shining as from within. Then another ray was sent on to it of a deeper and different
kind, and the globe slowly left the pedestal, or pivot, or whatever it rested on, and
began to float out from of the wall.
As it approached the centre of the space it entered the blue mist and
immediately on contact began to enlarge until it became a great sphere glowing with
its own light and floating in the blue space. It was exceedingly beautiful. Slowly, very
slowly, it revolved on its axis, evidently in the same way the earth does, and we were
able to see the oceans and continents. These were flat patterns, like those on the
terrestrial globes used on earth. But as it revolved they began to assume a different
aspect.
The mountains and hills began to stand out, and the waters to sway and ripple;
and presently we saw minute models of the cities, and even details of the buildings.
And still more detailed grew the model of earth, till we could see the people
themselves, first the crowds and at last the individuals. This will be hard for you to
understand, that on a globe of some, perhaps, eighty to a hundred feet in diameter we
were able to see individual men and animals. But that is part of the science of this
institution-the enabling of these details being seen individually.
Still more distinct grew these wonderful scenes, and, as the globe revolved, we
saw men hurrying about the cities and working in the fields. We saw the wide spaces
of prairie and desert and forest and the animals roaming in them. And as the globe
slowly circled we saw the oceans and seas, some placid and others tossing and
roaring, and here and there a ship. And all the life of earth passed before our eyes.
We looked at this a long time, and our friend who belonged to this settlement
spoke to us from below where we sat. He told us that what we were looking at was the
earth as it was at that moment. If we wished he would now show us the retro-progress
of the ages from the present time to the beginning of man as an intelligent being. We
replied that we would indeed be glad to see more of this wonderful and beautiful
phenomenon, and he left us to go, I suppose, to the apparatus by which these things
were controlled.
I may here pause to explain a matter which I see is in your mind. The place
was not dark, it was light everywhere. But the globe itself shone with such extra
intensity that, without any unpleasant sensation whatever, it obscured everything
which was outside the blue cloud, which cloud seemed to be the circumference of the
radiating beams shed by the globe.
Soon, then, the scenes began to change on the revolving sphere, and we were
taken back through the thousands of years of the life of the earth and the generations
of men and animals and plant life which had been from the present to the ages when
men were just emerging from the forest to settle in colonies on the plains.
Now, I must explain here that history was not followed as historians follow it.
These phenomena were not of nations and centuries, but of æons and species. The

geologic periods passed before us, and it was intensely interesting to watch what men
called the iron age and the stone age, the ice age, the floods, and so on. And those of
us who understood enough to follow it noticed that these ages were rather arbitrarily
named. For the ice age, for example, might correctly describe the state of things in
one or two regions of the earth, but there was by no means ice everywhere, as we saw
as the sphere revolved. Also we noticed that very frequently one continent was in one
age and another continent in another age at the same time. The exhibition ended,
however, when the earth was well progressed, and, as I have said, the advent of man
was already an accomplished fact. When we had satisfied our eyes for awhile looking
on the beauty of this many-coloured and ever-changing jewel, and had realised that
this was indeed no other than the old earth we thought we knew so well, and found we
knew so little, the globe gradually became smaller and floated back to the niche in the
wall, and then the light faded our from it and it looked like an alabaster carving, just
as we had seen it at first set there as an ornament.
We were so interested in what we had seen that we questioned our kind guide,
and he told us many things about this hall. The earth sphere which had just been used
could be made to serve other purposes than the one we had seen. But that had been
selected because its picturesqueness was suited to us who were not scientifically
trained. Among other uses was that of illustrating the relation of the heavenly bodies
one to another, and their evolution into their present state. In this, of course, the globe
we had just seen played its appropriate part.
The animals about the walls were also used for a like purpose. One would be
vivified by these powerful rays and brought forth into the centre of the hall. When so
treated it could walk of itself like a live animal, which it was temporarily, and in a
certain restricted way. When it had ascended a platform in the centre space, then it
was treated with the enlarging rays-as I may call them, not knowing their scientific
name-and then with others which rendered it transparent, and all the internal
organism of the animal became plainly visible to the students assembled. Those who
were of that settlement said that it was a very beautiful sight to see the whole
economy of the system of animal or man at work so displayed.
Then it was possible to bring over the living model a change, so that it began
to evolve backward-or should I say "involve"?-towards its simpler and primal state
as a mammal, and so on. The whole structural history of the animal was shown in that
life-like process. And often when the first period of its separate existence as a separate
creature was reached, the process was reversed, and it passed through the different
stages of development, this time in their correct order and direction, until it became
again as it is to-day. Also it was possible for any student to take charge and continue.