“Miss [Roma] Lister has been a close student of the occult and knows well of what she is writing.
-Edith Katherine Harper
In order to shed a little more light on Roma Lister’s philosophical outlook, I’ve assembled a short selection of quotes from the second volume of her memoirs, Further Reminiscences: Occult and Social (1927).
PREDICTIONS FOR THE FUTURE
“Worse than the slavery of the body is the slavery of the will. There is far too much of this in occult experimentation. The human Psyche is always a temptation to any explorer of the human mind. In future years this crime will be prevalent. It will supersede the coarse and old-fashioned habit of assassination of the body. An easy and very simple method of holding captive the will of man will become general in spite of the barriers human laws will put up.”
“There is a certain danger in the wonderful new discovery of broadcasting. In a more perfect civilisation all hypnotic power and those who practise it will be placed under strict control. It will be treated in the same way in which deadly poisons are guarded from the ordinary citizen.”
ON LIFE
“There exists in the world a subtle harmony which links all souls together in superhuman chords fitted for superhuman purposes. These harmonies are the shadows of that which is sounding from everlasting time in the corridors of space.”
“Humanity is one, and we form part of the ONE. We share the joy, the sorrow of others. On this earth the fact is paramount that all life lives on life. Not one moment passes that our body does not destroy living creatures. Our happiness enters into the sorrow of others. In one sense, the earth must be looked at as a land of sorrow. All this is glossed over by the glamour of youth, but as the years tread on each other and youth fades away the joy of life disappears. Even to those whose lives are spent as benefactors of their species the final result is disillusion. One person may be happy, but one soul cannot suffice to help all the world. In our sad existence there is a joy that lightens life: it is the work we do for others.”
“We find ourselves in a shaded grove which seems entirely filled by illusion. The place is venerable from its great antiquity; you can explore the hidden parts of the earth and you will find everywhere a perfect faith in the power of certain words and certain rites to bridge the barrier between the spirit world and the world of the living.”
ON ILLUMINATION
“One day, humanity will throw down the barriers that have so long confined both his body and his spirit to the ways of this little planet. And then the eagle-freedom of the Empyrean, of the natural and the spiritual ego, will be the everlasting privilege of all humanity.”
