April 1st, 1915.
Received by:James Padgett
Washington D.C.
I am here, a man who has lost his soul and can't find it.
What would I not give to have it again, and so be able to receive the love that you write about? But I lost it and no one can help me find it. I have tried and sought for it everywhere, but it has left me, and I am a spirit without a soul, only my poor inefficient mind remains with me, and such happiness as I can conjure up by thinking of what might have been or what might be, if I had a soul.
Tell me, can you help me find it? If so, please do so, and I will bless you forever. I am in a condition of not knowing whether I am living, or only dreaming, or dead. As I seem to be alive, I wonder who and what I am; as I dream, I see that I am a son of God; and as a dead man I know nothing. But I don't know what I am, and no one will tell me.
You are to me a very real man with a soul, as I can see, but I have no soul. Tell me where to find it, for I must have it. I lost it in trying to find that my intellect was the only thing in all the spirit world that is real, and when I thought that I had found that to be true, my soul had left me, and I can't find it. Oh, tell me where it is, and I will never lose it again.
You must know something about it, for the other spirits say that you help to save souls, and if you can do that, you surely can find a lost one. Why don't you tell me where to find it, and not keep me in this condition of not knowing whether I am living or dead? Come, be kind to me, and find my soul. It will not run away from you, as you will treat it kindly, I know. Your soul will know, if you will only ask it, and when it tells you, you can find mine.
I am neither spirit nor mortal nor anything created by God until I get my soul again. My mind is nothing but an abstract nothing without my soul, and I have no love or happiness. Oh, if I had only cared for my soul instead of for my mind, how different I would be now, and I would not be a wanderer looking for his lost soul.
I was a man of great intellect when on earth, and lived in the city of New York, and passed over in 1864, a much honored man. I was a lawyer, and well-known to my immediate community, and I died a mere man without a soul. So, you see, I am so lonely without my soul and love. I was not a very bad man, and did not barter my soul for filthy lucre, but I thought that the soul was a myth, and the mind was everything; and when I passed over and found that I needed a soul, I could not find mine, and have never had it since. Tell me, I pray, where it is, and I will thank you through all eternity.
Won't you tell me?
Yes, I will do anything that you say that will help me get it.
I know that I had a soul because, before I had given my years of hard study to make my intellect the great thing that it became, I loved, and felt sympathy for the unfortunate and poor, and especially loved children. And I know that if I had not had a soul I would not have had these feelings and emotions. But after I became a man of great mind, I may say with only a mind, none of these feelings ever came to me - only the knowledge that I had a powerful intellect. My soul died and never has come to me since.
Yes, only tell me quickly that I may commence the search.
Yes, I see many beautiful spirits who look very happy. Yes, she says that she is your grandmother, and how beautiful she is. Yes, I will go with her, and do as you say, and try to believe what she may tell me.
Yes, I certainly will, and oh, if I do, how I shall thank you.
Your grandmother calls me, and I must go.
So, good-night.