THE statement
that prophecy is founded upon knowledge seems hardly the
truism
which it is, so accustomed are we to regard it as something
based upon the miraculous. The more extensive and accurate
our knowledge of the past, the more confidently we may predict
the future. Science, as yet, has no way to peer back into
vanished ages and perceive those tokens of their existence
which, in combination, would serve as keys to unlock the
gates of the future: but, by close and systematic observation
and recording of the facts of the present, thousands of its
trained disciples are founding therewith a past. which will
be of mighty potency to this end.
The oldest form of scientific prophecy known to us is that
by which astronomy unerringly predicts the movements of the
heavenly bodies; showing us exactly where they will be thousands
of years hence as well as where they were thousands of years
ago.
By a patient recording of the myriads of facts whereby Nature
manifests herself, we are tracing more and more clearly the
laws through which she operates. The science of meteorology
is rapidly establishing itself upon an exact prophetic basis.
It is but a few years since the system of weather-predictions
was established by the Government of the United States;
the electric telegraph, penetrating to nearly all parts of
the vast area of the country and the regions adjacent, making
possible the accumulation of numerous data bearing upon the
state of the weather at various points, as recorded by a
series of simultaneous observations. The character of the
weather is thus indicated in general outlines for a day,
or more, in advance, and warnings of notable chances are
occasionally given several days before they occur. These
weather predictions are already of immense economic value,
and as the meteorological laws upon which they are based
become more accurately known, the future may be covered to
a further extent, and mistakes will continually grow less
frequent.
A few years ago Professor N. S. Shaler, in one of those brilliant
papers which he has the gift of making entertaining as well
as edifying, advocated that there be instituted under Government
auspices elaborate and permanent observations of the Gulf
Stream as it sweeps through the comparatively narrow channel
between Florida and Cuba, with a view to ascertain its variations
in volume, etc., from year to year. This would be an indication
of the amount of heat [Page 2] received
by the earth from the sun in a given twelve month, the quantity
varying, as he holds, considerably in different years. The
climatic of a large part of the earth depending upon the
influence of the Gulf Stream, there might in time be accumulated
a sufficient amount of data to enable the prediction of the
general character of a season; whether it would be mild
or severe, warm or cold, a year in advance. Professor Shaler
would, of course, find other existing factors, by their interaction,
materially modifying the influence of the one set under consideration.
But these other factors, in turn, would by degrees be finally
determined, so that the desired results might be reached
with considerable
accuracy.
Observations thus far made indicate the existence of cyclic
laws governing the rainfall in various parts of the world,
the amount of precipitation increasing and diminishing with
apparent regularity in successions of wet and dry years.
If there really be such laws, patient observations over a
sufficient period, and extent of territory, will bring them
to light. We may assume that, through systematic observations
of this kind, made in all parts of the globe, meteorology
will eventually become a science so exact that the course
of the weather may be predicted for a year, and even for
years, with the greatest closeness and accuracy. A like future
may be predicated for other departments of natural science.
Every scientist becomes a prophet in his own department in
proportion to the scope of his knowledge.
There are indications
that other occurrences besides meteorological changes happen
in cycles. Should these indications have a substantial basis,
it is likely that persistent research will discover the laws
at their root. Starr King once told us about the “laws
of disorder". Many of the most casual of newspaper readers
have noticed how frequent it is that crimes and accidents
of the same description occur at nearly the same time, and
often in groups of certain numbers, as if the world were
periodically swept by waves of influences governing such
events.
Some of the most learned of modern astronomers find ground
for believing that the periodicity of the sun-spots is attended
by certain phenomena upon the earth, such as the recurrence
of wet and dry seasons, the spread of famine, pestilence,
etc. May it not be that a faith in astrology has its basis
in observations made by the ancients, extending over long
periods — that the cycles in which particular classes
of events occurred were coupled with certain aspects of the
firmament. That accurate observation of natural phenomena
is not a new habit, evolved by the European civilization
of the nineteenth century, is shown by the remarkable astronomical
knowledge possessed by nations of dim antiquity, knowledge
which could hardly have been attained otherwise than by long
and exact observations of facts and by deductions therefrom.
The admirable calendar possessed by the Aztecs, immensely
superior to the defective method of time measurement prevailing
in Europe at the time of the conquest of Mexico, must have
been based upon close scientific observation. Its possession
hardly accords with the semi-barbarous character of the Aztec
people.
Possibly it may have been a heritage [Page
3] from
a high civilization. To trace the descent of knowledge which
could have hardly had its origin otherwise than in scientific
observation that seems ill-consistent with the low grade
of culture prevailing among races possessing that knowledge,
and vestiges of which are found even at the base of superstitious
beliefs and customs, is one of the most important and interesting
problems for ethnological research.
It may be said in general
terms that the future may be predicted in the same degree
in which we know the past; while, according to our knowledge
of the present condition of anything, we may, to the same
extent, judge what the past has been. Tyndall, in his lectures
on “Light” gave
fine expression to this idea in the words: — “Laying
the theoretic conception at the root of matters, we determine
by deduction what are the phenomena which must of necessity
grow out of this root. If the phenomena thus deduced agree
with those of the actual world, it is a presumption in favour
of the theory. If, as new classes of phenomena arise, they
also are found to agree with theoretic deduction, the presumption
becomes still stronger. If, finally, the theory confers prophetic
vision upon the investigator, enabling him to predict the
occurrence of phenomena which have never yet been seen, and
if those predictions be found on trial to be rigidly correct,
the persuasion of the truth of the theory becomes overpowering." In
the conclusion of the same lectures, Professor Tyndall relates
a remarkable instance of such prophecy.
The late Sir William Hamilton, taking up the theory of the
polarization of light where Fresnel had left it, arrived
at the conclusion that at four special points of the “wave
surface " in double-refracting crystals, the ray was
divided, not into two parts, but into an infinite number
of parts-forming at these points a continuous conical envelope
instead of two images.” No human eye had ever seen
this envelope when Sir William Hamilton inferred its existence.
He asked Dr. Lloyd to test experimentally the truth of his
theoretic conclusion. Lloyd, taking a crystal of arragonite,
and following with the most scrupulous exactness the indications
of the theory, cutting the crystal where theory said it ought
to be cut, observing it where theory said it ought to be
observed, discovered the luminous envelope which had previously
been a mere idea in the mind of the mathematician".
Another splendid example is that of Liebig, who, discovering
an important law of crystalization, predicted to his students
the achievement of a series of momentous discoveries in chemistry,
which discoveries in chemistry were afterwards made in the
exact order which the great chemist had given.
Turning from the assurance that the occurrences of natural
phenomena may, with the advance of science, be accurately
predicted, let us consider the possibility of applying the
same principles to humanity.
Man is an organism so complex
that it is hardly possible to consider, in their involved
relations, all the factors bearing upon the career of an
individual. Yet an experienced observer, given the requisite
data concerning the temperament, heredity, and environment
of a person, may gain a fairly trustworthy [Page
4] idea of what his past has been, and what his
future will be. If it were possible to attain an exact knowledge
of the facts bearing upon a person's career, with the faculty
of drawing correct conclusions from facts, we might look
back into the past and forward into the future of that person
with equal facility; we could perceive at once how his whole
life-course
may be changed by a call from across the street, a jog from
a passing elbow, a turn of the head to the right or the left.
To accomplish this result, however, there would be demanded
an equal knowledge of the lives of all those who are brought
into contact with this person; again of all affecting these
others, and so on to the conclusion of the entire human race
and all beings and things on and of the earth.
Were this knowledge possible, we might picture its source
as an immense fabric of countless interwoven threads. Taking
anyone thread at any one point, by tracing it backwards or
forwards, we should find through such a perfected faculty
of deduction, at each of the innumerable points of contact
with other threads, a picture of a certain moment in the
life, past or to come, of the individual represented by that
thread, and of all others represented by the intersecting
threads. Let us bear this figure in mind.
Meanwhile, to follow out the line of thought upon which we
have entered, we must change our field from the physical
to the psychical plane. Possibly, however, we may be brought
to see that there is no gulf lying between the two; that
there is only a shading off and merging, as in the prism
one colour shades and merges into that which is its natural
sequence.
We will first, however, note that whatever a man is today,
he has become by sharing the individuality of his fellow
men. All human progress — material, mental and spiritual — is
based upon this fact. In a certain sense, therefore, each
man is made up of all humanity — his predecessors and
his contemporaries — and the degree of completion of
the individual is measured by the degree to which he may
have assimilated the experiences of others, as well as learned
the lessons imparted by all things with which life has brought
him into contact.
If there be planes of existence higher
than that upon which we are living, they must of course be
characterized by conditions quite different from those of
our present life. One of the attributes of a higher plane
is believed by many to be a sharing of consciousness among
individuals; it is held that, in the progress of the soul,
this condition approaches completion more and more, until
the state is attained where individuality, as we usually
understand it, ceases, the consciousness of the one becoming
included in that of the many, while the collective consciousness
of the many becomes that of the one.
Considered in its true aspect, therefore, the attainment
of this state involves not the destruction, but the illimitable
expansion of the individuality. It is the becoming “ one
with God" of the Christian Bible, and it is the “Nirvana " of
the Orient. Under this conception, the end is a state of
omniscience, of which we, in our present condition, can have
hardly the faintest comprehension.
The fundamental factors
of a problem being given, the rest must follow of [Page
5] necessity, just as the beginning of a thread placed
in our hand argues the continuation of the same. Is there
not a beginning, or at least a point of departure, to indicate
that this state of universal consciousness may be something
more than a mystical fancy, but a possibility with an evident
basis of actuality ? Even some of those who have hitherto
most stoutly denied their actuality, now admit that investigations
in the field of psychical research have shown the existence
of the phenomena of “telepathy," or thought-transference.
And, assuming the truth of this fact of mind acting upon
mind through the agency of the will, more or less accurately
and intensely according to circumstances, we have therein
the example of a sharing of consciousness to a certain extent
between individuals not in physical communication with each
other.
Many materialistic scientists who have denied the possibility
of this action have done so because they could conceive of
no means by which a thing so imponderable as the mind could
directly produce tangible results; or, in other words, how
the operation of the brain of one person could by any possibility
affect the operation of the brain of another without communication
between the two by means of the operation of some one of
the five senses. They have, however, not to go beyond the
realm of their material science to find a key to the problem.
The universal ether, adopted as a hypothesis by which phenomena
such as light, heat, and electricity may alone be satisfactorily
accounted for, is now accepted by science as a really existing
substance, inconceivably more attenuated than the rarest
of gases, permeating all things, from the densest solid to
the extremest vacuum, so called, and extending through all
space. The extreme divisibility of matter is also set forth,
and in connection with the complicated activities of the
atom and the molecule there must be subtle modes of energy
not cognizable by ordinary methods.
A thing so inconsiderable as a piece of common wire has a
magnetic field extending about it to an indefinite distance.
An electric current sent through a wire stretched beside
a railway track may effect a telegraphic instrument in a
train twenty feet away, so that messages are transmitted
to and fro with the same facility as if direct contact between
wire and instrument were maintained. This is by the operation
of that kind of electrical action technically called "induction" The
magnetic field may be increased in the extent of its activity
according to the force of the current sent through the wire.
It might be called the “aura " of the wire. All
things in which activity of any kind is in operation. must,
it may be seen, have their “aura " or sphere in
which the force thereby generated may operate. For activity
necessarily causes an expenditure of force, and as all phases
of matter are conceded to be modes of motion, it follows
that all particles of matter must be constantly producing
energy in a greater or less degree, and consequently must
have more or less of a field in which energy is manifest,
and may be perceived according to the degree of its intensity
and the efficacy of the means applied for its detection.
Simply because no instrument has been devised that is susceptible
to the action of a certain force, it does not follow that,
that force has no existence. [Page 6]
As we ascend in the scale of vital organism, the field of
energy must naturally become more considerable according
to the energy expended by the life-processes
of the organism. It seems not unlikely that the sympathies
and antipathies of certain animals and human beings may be
accounted for through the different qualities of their respective
fields of energy. Considering these fields as portions of
the individuals whom they surround, it is evident that the
centres of force comprised in animals or persons may come
into mutual communication without near approach of their
respective bodies, and thus exert an influence whose operation
may not be perceived by the ordinary senses. Just as a person
may feel the heat radiating from the body of another in passing,
it is not unreasonable to suppose that the more subtle manifestations
of energy may be exerting an influence perceptible at a greater
or less distance by persons of acute sensibility. The fact
has often been observed that there are persons who are made
violently ill if certain animals chance to come into their
neighbourhood, although there appears nothing tangible to
the ordinary senses to tell that the objects of their aversion
are near. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in his last novel, finds
the existence of the human “aura", or this field
of energy, necessary to account for the strange antipathy
of the hero.
An inert organism would not have much of a field of energy
in comparison with an active one, and, just as the field
of the wire is expanded according to the strength of the
electric current sent through it, so the influence of the
human aura, there seems reason to believe, may be extended
and directed according to the will-force of the individual,
either consciously or unconsciously exerted. At least, this
appears to afford a good working hypothesis to account for
the operation of certain phenomena of thought-transference
which otherwise would seem exceedingly mysterious.
As the
vibrations caused by the action of the human voice upon the
transmitter of the telephone institute corresponding vibrations
in the receiver, miles away at the other end of the wire,
and as the vibrations of one musical instrument may be made
to produce similar vibrations in another instrument that
is in harmony therewith, so it may be assumed that the force
made active by the will of an individual causes a set of
vibrations in his own sphere of energy, and that these vibrations,
through the medium of the universal ether, are transmitted
to the field of another individual; if the latter be harmoniously
receptive, similar vibrations would be established therein,
thus transmitting the action of the brain of the former to
the brain of the latter.
May not this account for the mystery of “mind-reading," and
how one person, under certain conditions, may think the thoughts
of another as if they were his own ? After all, the transmission
of thought in this way seems no more wonderful than is the
transmission of speech along a ray of sunlight or lamplight,
instead of over a wire, by means of the photophone (or perhaps,
more properly, the radio-phone) and through the mediumship
of the same universal ether.
We may also conceive how it
is possible that all individuals cannot in this [Page
7] way affect the thoughts of other individuals, since all are
not in harmony with each other, just as all musical instruments
are not attuned to the same pitch.
It is difficult to comprehend the truth of the statement
often made, that on a higher plane of existence time, as
we understand it, is not — that there is neither past
nor future, but that all is one universal now — until
the idea of a community of consciousness as an attribute
of that plane is grasped. Then its meaning may become clearer.
We may perceive that under such conditions the mind is omniscient,
seeing past and future in the present very much as we may
behold a picture, unconscious of any difference in time in
our perception of the various parts composing it.
A perfect
memory would mean a perfect imagination, and if gifted with
that power we could summon back the past and give it over
again as vividly as though it were actually occurring. Thus
the past may, to all intents and purposes be
made present.
That the great drawback to the operation of
the imaginative faculty exists in the distracting influences
of the senses is demonstrated by the recent elaborate investigations
of the phenomena of hypnotism made by Dr. Charcot and his
colleagues in Paris, and by various other investigators.
The hypnotic subject, withdrawn from these external influences,
recalls most minutely past events which
had, seemingly, been wholly lost to the memory for years;
not only this, but the imagination is so exalted under these
conditions that the subject seems to behold
and experience whatever is suggested by the operator. It
appears likely that the phenomena of dreaming are largely
due to the involuntary workings of the imagination while
we are released from consciousness of external influences.
Could we voluntarily withdraw ourselves from the action of
these external influences, it follows that we might dream,
so to speak, while in the waking state; that is, that imagined
things might to our normal consciousness seem to be realities.
Is not all artistic activity — the work of poets, painters,
sculptors, composers — due to the possession of this
faculty to a greater or less degree, according to what we
call the genius of the individual ? What is known as creative
power appears to have its source in the imaginative, or image-making,
faculty.
If we, in our present state, could be conscious
of all laws governing certain events, we might trace those "events
back to their sources or forward to their consequences, and
frame a conception of the conditions existing at any given
moment along the path followed. In a minor way, this is the
method which the scientist follows with his special subject,
and the fulness of his knowledge is according to the completeness
with which be may adopt this course.
We may therefore conceive
that if there exists the universal mind, knowing
everything, it may with instant perception at once grasp
the workings of all laws and trace out their paths of action,
running swifter than light along any thread and along all
threads in the great fabric of life, beholding the careers
of all persons and things, ever conscious alike of all that
was, all that is, and all that is to be.
This mode of perception is what we call intuition, and its
source may, perhaps, [Page 8] be
defined as concentrated knowledge; the stored-up results
of the experiences
through aeons of myriads upon myriads of individuals.
Might not the faculty of intuition, therefore, be attained
by the individual according to the degree in which he brings
himself into harmony with the universal mind, thereby gaining
the power to draw from its store that which he truly wills
?
There are often manifested, in various individuals, what
seem like abnormal faculties. How is it that certain persons
have the gift of instantly solving intricate mathematical
problems, giving the answer at a flash, as it were ? Many
of us have had the experience of jumping unerringly at conclusions,
seeming to bridge over, in an instant, the gap ordinarily
filled by an elaborate process of reasoning to reach the
result. It may be that the reasoning is nevertheless gone
through with, but so rapidly as to be imperceptible, like
the operation of certain mechanical devices which accomplish
by a simple movement results formerly reached only by a slow
and complicated process of manipulation. What is known as
instinct appears to be the working of the intuitive faculty;
that marvellous instrument, the physical organism, having
been trained by the activities
of generations to respond with instant obedience to the needs
of its operator, activities once consciously exercised having
become habitual, by practice, and
therefore automatic.
May not the abnormal human faculties alluded to likewise
be the result of experiences acquired by the individual — or
that power which stands behind and above the physical instrument — if
not in this life, then perhaps in some other ? The person
may not remember the processes by which he attained such
knowledge, but he has the result of processes which must
have been gone through with somewhere and at some time.
Possibly
a hint of how this faculty of intuitive perception is acquired
may be obtained from the history of a famous conjurer, who,
in giving his experiences, told how, when a boy, a favourite
amusement pursued by himself and his brother was to run past
shop windows in the city streets, and then see who could
best describe the number and character of the articles displayed
therein. A marvellous facility was acquired by this practice;
scores of various articles filling a window would be accurately
described after a swift passing glance, and it is related
how, after a look of a second or so into a gentleman's library,
the conjuror enumerated every volume on the shelves! This
shows the possibility of acquiring, in a measure, practically
instantaneous perception.
There are facts that point to the existence of a mysterious
law of perception which enables glimpses of the future, more
or less vivid, to be caught by certain persons, and under
which, to many others, coming events cast their shadows before
in the shape of premonitions.
According to the testimony
of those who have experienced them, such visions are distinct
from common dreams in the vividness with which they impress
themselves on the memory, not as sports of the fancy when
reason has relinquished the reins, but as events which seem
actually to occur in logical sequence, and which are afterwards
realized. History has recorded many instances of such glimpses
into the future, one of the most familiar being the celebrated
prophecy of [Page 9] Cazotte, who predicted with accuracy
the fate which in the French Revolution would overtake various
members of the brilliant company assembled with him one evening
in a certain salon. The writer personally knows two gentlemen
of high scientific reputation who have, in this way, beheld
exact presentations of important moments in their lives,
experienced years afterwards.
May not the operation of this
law be accounted for by supposing the instance of natural
conditions, akin to the hypnotic state, during which the
individual mind, withdrawn from external influences, comes
into harmony with the universal mind, sharing its consciousness
?
Afterwards, through some contiguity of events producing associations
of ideas similar to those by which memories are recalled,
the material veil that hides the future is lifted for the
moment, revealing some particular phase of that which exists
in the universal mind, which, as we have seen, must behold
all things, in the future as in the past, appertaining by
association to the physical condition of the moment. It may
be likened to the magical operation of some chance physical
combination, or adjustment; as, by the casual bringing
about of certain chemical combinations, results that seem
marvellous, because hitherto unattained, are reached. It
seems, in fact, to be the operation, under exceptional conditions,
of the same general law of memory, all events being contained
in the storehouse of the universal mind, whether to us they
be past or future.
In the same way a more common phenomenon
might be accounted for — that of feeling that one has
experienced the events of certain moments before — generally
moments of little consequence; and the experience quickly
vanishes and leaves no trace. This explanation seems more
rational and satisfactory than the ingenious but far-fetched
theory of the unequal operation of double cerebration, devised
to account for the same phenomenon.
In the present stage
of the world's development it is, of course, well that these
principles of prediction or prevision are not capable of
universal application.
Like all other attainments of mankind, their possession as
universal attributes of the race would have to be the product
of gradual evolution. It may readily be perceived that their
consequence would involve an organization of human institutions
entirely different from anything which we may now conceive.
Possibly, as the world ripens, the faculty of prescience
may become an attribute more and more common to individuals.
Appearing now to be hereditary in certain families, and more
common with certain nationalities — for instance, as “second-sight" among
the Scotch — it seems reasonable to suppose that in
the gradual course of evolution it may extend to larger groups
and even to entire races. As we may safely assume a time,
perhaps less than a century distant, when the occurrence
of a wide variety of natural phenomena may be foreseen for
long periods with exactness, so there may ultimately come
an epoch, untold ages hence, when the processes of intellection
shall be resolved into intuition, and the faculty of scientific
prophecy become the property of all humanity.
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