[Page 7] ALTHOUGH what may be termed the psychic science has been known from the days of remote antiquity to the few, whose motto was “To keep silence," yet the interest in it, which has now been awakened in all parts of the civilized world, is of comparatively recent growth. The credit of drawing public attention in this direction is in a measure due to Professor Buchanan, of America, who in !849 wrote: [Journal of Man, Vol. I., p. ,51] — “About nine years since, in conversation with Bishop Polk, of the Episcopal Church, he informed me that his own sensibility was so acute, that if he should by accident touch a piece of brass, even in the night, when he could not see what he touched, he immediately felt the influence through his system, and could recognize the offensive metallic taste". This conversation suggested a line of inquiry to the Professor, who for some years pursued a series of experiments with the object of discovering the action of [Page 8] metals, drugs, and strongly flavoured substance upon persons of that sensitive temperament, which is the peculiar idiosyncrasy of psychometers and thought-readers. His results were given out from time to time in the "Journal of Man", and have more recently been embodied in a work entitled " Psychometry". At an early stage, the investigation was taken up by Professor Denton and his wife, who performed together a vast number of experiments, principally with objects of archaeological interest, and published a full account in 1863, in the well-known book, "The Soul of Things", which has now passed through a number of editions. The year 1882 witnessed the foundation, in London, of the Society for Psychical Research, who at once took up the subject of super-sensuous perception and the nature and laws of the direct action of mind on mind. An exhaustive series of experiments under test conditions has been carried on ever since by scientific members of that society, and recorded in the reports which have from time to time been issued by them, and have brought a large portion of the English reading public to, at any rate, a partial belief in what has been termed " thought - transference", or, more popularly, "thought-reading". English society was astounded at the spectacle of a number of her recognized scientists giving their attention to things which it had been customary to consider as merely the humbug of quacks and charlatans. Talk led to action, and before long in English drawing-rooms ladies and gentlemen were to be seen practising what is called the "Willing Game", or, blindfolded and hand in hand, wandering about the room in search of the hidden pin. Everywhere the question was asked:
Although the dual
title of Psychometry and Thought-transference has been
given to this pamphlet, these two subjects are, in reality,
branches of one and the same psychic science, to which
the name Psychometry — from the Greek ψυχή μέτρον,
soul as a measure — is as applicable as any other.
For an impression to pass from one person to another or from
a picture to a person, we may assume from analogy (1) that
there is some intervening medium through which that impression
can be transmitted; ( 2) that there is a force to give the
momentum necessary to convey it from one point to another;
and (3) that there is an apparatus capable of registering
the impression and converting it into terms of ordinary consciousness.
Let us take the familiar illustration of the electric telegraph.
The battery gives the necessary force, the impression is
transferred through the wire, and the instrument registers
it. But, it may be said, in many of the recorded cases of
thought-transference — the telegraphic appearance of
one person to another at a distance, for instance — there
is no wire to conduct the impression, so the analogy falls
to the ground. Not so. For
one of Edison's latest additions to applied electrical science
is an instrument by [Page 9] which a telegraphic message can
be shot from one point to another — within
certain limits of distance — with no more solid conducting
medium for its transmission than is afforded by the atmosphere
surrounding our globe.
Furthermore, the possibility of numerous telepathic vibrations
crossing in their transit, without interfering with each
other, has a close analogy in electrical science. For in
the Pall Mall Gazette for May 27, 1886, we read: —
“The
invention of the phonopore serves to remind us how small
a corner of the veil of nature we have lifted in matters
electrical. The duplexing, or even the quadruplexing of an
Atlantic cable, by means of which two or four messages can
be sent from each end of one cable at the same time without
conflict or confusion, is about as startling, when carefully
considered, as any purely material occurrence can be. But
the phonopore, the principle of which consists in employing
the electrical ”induction noises" as motive power
to work telegraphic instruments, or transmit the voice, or
do both at once, is far more remarkable. Mr. Langdon Davies
has proved the existence of this new special form of electrical
energy, and has constructed already a variety of instruments
to embody it practically. The mathematico - physical explanation
of the ‘phonophoric impulse' has yet to be found."
If
electrical messages can cross in a cable without interfering
with each other, why should not telepathic impulses betwixt
persons on opposite sides of the globe ? The one phenomenon
is not more remarkable than the other.
Now, the hypothesis of an ether filling all space, and even
interpenetrating solid bodies, has been maintained by philosophers
and scientists of diverse schools. To Descartes, who made
extension the sole essential property of matter, and matter
a necessary condition of extension, the bare existence of
bodies apparently at a distance was a proof of the existence
of a continuous medium between them. Newton accounted for
gravitation by differences of pressure in an ether, but
did not publish his theory, “ because he was not able
from experiment and observation to give a satisfactory account
of this medium, and the manner of its operation in producing
the chief phenomena of nature". Huygens propounded the
theory of a luminiferous ether to explain the phenomena of
light. Faraday conjectured that it might also be the agent
in electro-magnetic phenomena. “For my own part", he
says, “considering the relation of a vacuum to the
magnetic force and the general character of magnetic phenomena
external to the magnet, I am much more inclined to the notion
that in transmission of the force there is such an action
external to the magnet, than that the effects are merely
attraction and repulsion at a distance. Such an action may
be a function of the ether; for it is not unlikely that,
if there be an ether,
it should have other uses than simply the conveyance of radiation. [Experimental Researches, 3075] – [Page
10]
J. Clerk Maxwell says on this subject: “Whatever
difficulties we may have in forming a consistent idea of
the constitution of the ether, there can be no doubt that
the interplanetary and interstellar spaces are not empty,
but are occupied by a material substance or body, which is
certainly the largest and
probably the most uniform body of which we have any knowledge.
Whether this vast homogeneous expanse of isotropic matter
is fitted, not only to be a medium of physical interaction
between distant bodies, and to fulfil other physical functions,
of which perhaps we have as yet no conception, but also,
as the authors of the' Unseen Universe' seem to suggest,
to constitute the material organisms of beings exercising
functions of life and mind as high or higher than ours are
at present, is a question far transcending the limits of
physical speculation”.
We also find it stated in the works of this and other authors,
that their ether is elastic and has a definite density; and
that it is capable of transmitting energy in the form of
vibrations or waves. According to Fresnel, half this energy
is in the form of potential energy, due to the distortion
of elementary portions of the medium, and half in the form
of kinetic energy; due to the motion of the medium.
Some
of the recent papers on scientific subjects seem to indicate
that one ether is not sufficient to account for all different
phenomena of the manifestations of light, heat, electricity,
etc., attributed to its agency, but there must be several
ethers, unless, indeed, the one ether may be manifested in
a number of different ways.
The foregoing is a rough sketch
of the views of the physical scientists on the necessity
of there being a medium or mediums pervading space and capable
of transmitting energies of different kinds in the form of
vibrations. The teaching, however, of the Kabbalistic and
other schools, of what is wrongly termed occult science (for
there can be but one science, even if men may study different
parts of it, or see it from different points of view), as
given out in recent times in the works of Eliphas Levi and
in the publications of the Theosophical Society, has several
points of difference from that of the physical scientists.
They recognise a tenuous cosmic ether, which they call akaz,
which exists between one solar system and another, and it
is as infinite as the original cosmic matter.
It is the result of motion in that cosmic matter. They furthermore
state that there is in the solar system a tenuous substance
which they call the astral light, or astral fluid. This is
not akaz, but a different form of cosmic ether. Its existence
is based upon the fact that certain phenomena can only be
explained upon the assumption of such a substance. It is
an object of direct perception to persons possessing a highly-trained
psychic sense. It is that entity in the manifested solar
system which corresponds with what is called the Sooksma
Saririra in man. Though it exists uniformly throughout space
in the solar system, it is yet more dense around certain
objects by reason of their [Page 11] molecular action.
This is especially the case around the brain and spinal cord
of human beings, where it forms what is called the ‘aura'.
Where it still more closely surrounds the nerve cells and
nerve tubes, it is called the ‘nerve-aura', which is
not nerve fluid, but the aura of the nerve-fluid. This astral
fluid only comes into existence when differentiation takes
place in the original Mula Prakriti, or undifferentiated
cosmic matter, the one essence in its pralayic condition.
If the scientists recognise a distinction between bound ether
and free ether, it amounts to the same kind of distinction
as that between astral fluid and akaz. As, according to the
hypothesis of the scientists, ether can be thrown into vibration,
and in that form transmit the energies of light, heat, and
electricity, so in like manner is the astral fluid capable
of receiving, transmitting, and retaining impressions of
manifold kinds. [ For further information see Theosophist for March, 1885, Art. "Notes on
Occult Philosophy" by
T. Subba Row ]
But the attributes of the astral fluid are much more numerous
than those of the ether of the scientist. For the image of
every object in nature and every scene that takes place is
impressed upon it, and, once impressed, remains for all time,
and can be summoned up by the psychic sense of one who has
the gift of reading this universal medium. This fact is most
poetically illustrated by Professor Draper, where he speaks
of ganglionic impressions on the surface of polished metal
being registered and preserved for an indefinite space of
time. “A shadow," he says “never falls
upon a wall without leaving thereupon a permanent trace — a
trace which might be made visible by resorting to proper
processes. The portraits of our friends or landscape views
may be hidden from the eye on the sensitive surface, but
they are ready to make their appearance as soon as proper
developers are resorted to. A spectre is concealed on a silver
or glassy surface until by our necromancy we make it come
forth into the visible world. Upon the walls of our most
private apartments, when we think the eye of intrusion is
altogether shut out and our retirement can never be profaned,
there exist the vestiges of all our acts, silhouettes of
whatever we have done."
But beyond registering images, we are told that the astral
fluid registers every thought of man, so that it forms, as
it were, the book of nature, the soul of the Kosmos, the
universal mind, a history of the world and all its sciences
and schools of thought, from the day when the Parabrahmic
breath went forth and the eternal Logos awoke into activity.
Some men of science have come very near this truth; for Babbage,
and subsequently Jevons, have stated their conviction that
every thought, displacing the particles of the brain and
setting them in motion, scatters them throughout the universe,
and that “each particle of the existing matter must
be a register of all that has happened". [Page 12] The
following experience of Mrs. Denton may perhaps help to give
some idea of the astral world as it appears to a psychometer: — [ “Soul
of Things" Denton. Vol. iii.,
pp. 345-6 ] —
“I am in a different world
from any I have ever observed. I have become positive not
only to outward surroundings, but even to the psychometric
influences usually received, in order to distinguish this.
Yet it appears like a realm of real, substantial existences,
stretching back, and backward still, almost interminably
into both time and space.
”I see forms — people,
and the results of their labours; even the very effort that
produced the results. At first I thought it was a species
of mirage. It seemed like a picture of all that had ever
been; yet now it seemed to me that I could step from this
planet upon that world (I can call it nothing else), and
travel back through all the scenes that have ever transpired
in this.
“What a difference between that which we recognise
as matter here and what seems like matter there! In the one,
the elements are so coarse and so angular, I wonder that
we can endure it at all, much more that we can desire to
continue our present relation to it. In the other, all the
elements are so refined, they are so free from those great
rough angularities which characterise the elements here,
that I can but regard that as by so much more than this,
the real existence.
“Something appears to me to be passing continually
from our earth, and from all existences on its surface, only
to take on there the self-same form as that from which it
emanated here; as if every moment as it passed had borne
with it all eternal fixedness, not the record merely of our
thoughts and deeds, but the actual imperishable being, quick
with pulsing life, thinking the thought and performing the
deed, instead of passing away into utter nothingness; that
which is here and now for ever continuing, an eternized there and then.
“That portion of this realm which represents our earth
and her history appears to occupy that portion of space through
which the earth has heretofore passed — her entire
pathway since she became an independent member of the solar
system."
On that occasion Mrs. Denton probably saw more of the real
soul of things behind the material veil of Nature than in
any of her other recorded experiments.
To revert to the subject
of auras, which play an important part both in Thought-transference
and Psychometry, the theory is that every object, animate
and inanimate, has an aura — a specialization of the
astral fluid surrounding it, which varies in proportion to
its molecular activity. These auras and the images they contain
may be directly perceived by some sensitives. [Vide Reichenbach's experiments ] — But
unless the sensitive is thoroughly trained, and can carry his will-power
into that plane [Page 13] of matter, he cannot fix the images
which he sees sufficiently long to interpret
them into terms of the language of the normal human consciousness
of our race. But this applies rather to Psychometry than
to Thought-transference, for in the latter case the necessity
for will-power is on the side of the agent who transmits
the image or thought to the aura of the percipient. It is
the aura round the nerve-cells and nerve-tubes that enables
a man to catch the impression made upon the astral light
of the Kosmos. Adopting for the moment the division of the
mental-phenomena into the three divisions of modern psychologists — intellectual
images, emotions, and volition — we find that the intellectual
image makes itself felt by the impression of the image on
the aura; that emotion is manifested in a change of colour,
which corresponds with the change of feeling; and that volition
makes itself felt by an increase in vibration in the astral
aura.
An illustration will perhaps make this clearer: suppose that
the agent mentally conceives the idea of a circle. He forms
the image of the figure in his aura by means of a physical
alteration in his nervous fluid. Then by an act of volition
he converts the image into vibration, in which condition
it passes through the astral fluid to the aura of the percipient,
where the reverse process takes place. The vibration is the
substance of the image in a different form. So, if a certain
kind of vibration corresponds to a certain thought or image
in one man's mind, it can be reconverted into the same thought
or image in the sensorium of another. The metathesis of thought
is a natural process in transcendental chemistry. For the
fundamental basis of all occult science is that there is
but one essence, and that all things — concrete matter
in its various manifestations, forethought, and what is called
spirit — are but different forms of this cosmic matter,
the difference consisting in the distance separating the
molecules and in their arrangement. We see glimpses of this
law in some of the commonest phenomena of nature. The force
which drives a locomotive engine is steam. That steam can
be condensed to water, but it is still the same matter, the
principal differences being that the molecules are closer
together and move upon each other according to a different
plan. That water can then be frozen. The ice is still the
same matter as it was when it was manifested as steam or
force, for steam is invisible to the eye, but its molecules
have arranged themselves according to a mathematical plan
in assuming a crystal in form.
But this ice can again be converted into steam. So it is
with thought, although from the ethereal nature of the substances
occular demonstration is out of the question. This is no
new idea. We find traces of it in the earliest times of which
there is any written record. It would appear that the Egyptians
placed the eternal idea pervading the universe in the ether,
or the will going forth and becoming force and matter.[ See
Cory. “Ancient Fragments" page 240 ] In
our own time this same idea about the ether [Page 14 ] has been revived by the authors
of the “Unseen Universe", who
say that from ether have come all things, and to it all will
return; that the images of all things are indelibly impressed
upon it; and that it is the storehouse of the germs, or of
the remains of all visible forms, and even ideas. To summarise
the process of the transference of a thought or image, we
may say (1) that it is conceived in the mind of the operator
(the nature of that conception is too deep a subject to be
treated here); (2) that it passes into the nerve-fluid,
interpenetrating and surrounding the brain with its aura,
the nerve-aura; where (3) it is met by the will or odylic
fluid, which is generated in a different part of the body
(i.e.,about the solar plexus) and a chemical reaction takes
place, which results in (4) an image being formed in the
astral aura surrounding the agent's head, and (5) transmitted
in the form of waves through the astral fluid to (6) the
astral aura of the percipient, whence it is conducted through
his nerve-aura and nerve-fluid, and thus (7) reaching his
sensorium, is registered in terms of ordinary consciousness
as an image.
If the will of the operator or agent in a thought-transference
experiment is not sufficiently powerful to give direction
to the vibration generated in the astral fluid, touch is
required. Where there is magnetic sympathy, or at least absence
of repulsive tendency, the vibration immediately reaches
its destination.
A concrete representation of colour in the
aura or halo surrounding the head may be seen in any image
or painting of Sri Buddha, which is always depicted in a
number of layers of different colours. These coloured layers
of aura are called the “Rays". The nimbus, or
glory, is also associated with the illuminated personages
of all religions.
The aura of every particle of inanimate
matter is capable of taking, so to speak, a permanent astral
photograph of every occurrence and every scene which has
taken place in the neighbourhood.“It seems", says Professor Hitchcock, [ Religion
of Geology ] — speaking of the influence
of light upon bodies and of the formation of pictures upon
them by means of it, “that this photographic influence
pervades all nature, nor can we say where it stops. We do
not know, but it may imprint upon the world around us our
features, as they are modified by various passions, and thus
fill nature with daguerreotype impressions of all our actions;........
it may be, too, that there are tests by which nature, more
skilful than any photographist, can bring out and fix these
portraits, so that acuter senses than ours shall see them
as on a great canvas, spread over the material universe.
Perhaps, too, they may never fade from that canvas, but become
specimens in the great picture-gallery of eternity".
But
how, some one may object, can such a small particle of matter
hold such extensive images ? How can every particle reflect
every image ?
And how can so [Page 15 ] many images be photographed
in the same space without making a composite image, a mere
smudge ? The first two of these objections have been answered
:” If”, says
a writer on the subject, “one hold a drop of quicksilver
on a plate, the face is reflected in it (so are all the objects
in the room). If the drop be split up into a thousand drops,
each one reflects the face again." This may be carried
on to infinity, each particle reflecting surrounding objects.
[ See
Platonist for January, 1884. Art. “Psychometry",
by
W. Q. Judge] “If one erect a paper
screen, say five feet square, and stand behind it, he will
find, of course, that the view in front is completely obstructed.
But make a pin-hole in the right-hand upper corner, and place
the eye thereat. What follows ? He sees the objects that
were hitherto concealed. Make another pin-hole at the opposite
corner, five feet away, and the same objects or scene can
be viewed in their entirety. This can of course be repeated
in all parts of the screen.
If at the same time that he is looking through the right-hand
upper corner, a camera lens is put through a hole in the
centre of the screen, a photograph of all he is looking at
through the pinhole will be taken by the camera. This proves
that the image of the objects or scene is impressed on or
thrown against every part of the screen; and that upon the
minutest point, or rather, upon the smallest piece of the
screen, will be found a picture in its entirety of the whole
object or scene that is before it, as well as a complete
picture thrown over the whole body of the screen."
Again, “If five men stand in front of one man ten feet
away, each pair of eyes of the five sees the one man; proving
that there exists in each separate retina a separate and
complete image of the one object".
Physiologists admit
that images reflected on the retina may somehow be impressed
upon the matter of the brain, and remain there for the rest
of the life of the owner of that brain, who can at any time
call them up as images. In like manner they can be and are
impressed around inorganic matter outside the human body
everywhere throughout nature, and those images remain there,
though it may not be in the form of images, but in some specialized
condition of astral-light, capable of being converted again
into pictures, and there they remain for all time. This is
an adequate answer to the first two queries. In answer to
the last we can only postulate that the conditions of space
are quite different on a higher plane, which corresponds
in a sense with what has been called the fourth dimension
of space; and that energy expended on that plane is far more
enduring in its effects, than energy expended on the ordinary
plane. But the proof lies on the plane in question, and can
only be demonstrated to one who has developed his senses
on that plane.
A good psychometer can look forward or backward in time,
though he does not speak of it as if it were the same thing
that it is in our everyday life, as [Page 16] measured
by chronometers and clocks, but more as different points
separate from one another. According as he goes backward
or forward in this sense, he can describe one after another
scenes which have taken place from a remote antiquity up
to the present day, all such scenes, in fact, as have been
reflected by the object psychometrized. The following illustration
will give an idea of the way a psychometer sees and describes
scenes: [Soul of Things by Denton-
Vol. i., p. 110 ] —
“An experiment made with a tertiary fossil, obtained
near Calabayal in Cuba object to be psychometrized wrapped
,in paper and placed on the subject's head. Mrs:
Denton, the psychometer, said:
“I see streams of water running down the side of a
hill; the water is very much charged with foreign matter.
There are rocks visible that seem to have been formed by
deposit from the water. There are fossils in the rocks, but
they differ from any I ever saw before.
“I go back in time, and see a volcano and a shower
of fire. There is along, dark strip of rock from the low
ground up to the volcano. The land seems very unstable, rocking
and heaving up and sinking down; sometimes appearing above
the water and sometimes vanishing beneath. I seem to be on
an island. The eastern part is less stable than the western.
All the western part is under water now. The island is longer
from east to west than from north to south. I think it is
south from here. The coast is very angular. I see what would
probably be called a barrier reef along the coast, and so
regular is a portion of it that it looks artificial.
“The climate is delightful. I seem to be on the north
side of the island, west of the centre, and somewhat inland.
“I have a glimpse of a grove, with vines stretching
from tree to tree, and naked boys climbing on them.
“Farther south and east is a strip of land richer than
here. This seems to have been washed by the sea. There is
a kind of point here, and I see what looks like an artificial
ditch."
At the time when this examination was made — writes
the professor — I did not know on what part of the
island of Cuba the specimen was obtained; but on writing
to Mr. McDonald, Madison, Wisconsin, from whom I received it,
he informed me that "Calabayal is twelve miles south
of the city of Havanah, at a point where a railroad crosses
a stream, half way between Havanah and Santiago". Then
follows an identification of the place described by Mrs.
Denton, with the spot from which the specimen had been obtained.
The following is another good case from the same book :—
“Out
of nearly two hundred specimens of various kinds, from different
parts of the world, wrapped in paper, Mrs. Denton took one,
not knowing which it was. She said: — [Page 17]
”I seem to oscillate between the city and a country
which is rough and rocky. The buildings in the city being
high and the streets being narrow, they look dark. There
is a good deal of grandeur about them. The people seem to
be busy, and move about as if they had great interest in
what was going on. It is not merely an interest in physical
matters, either. There seems to be two or three influences
in this somewhat different from our own time.
“Now
I seem to be in a long room of a large building. At one end
the ceiling comes down lower, and is supported by pillars
or columns, some of which have broad capitals, that are ornamented
by deeply-cut figures.
“I see a large temple. I am standing, I think, in front
of it. The entrance is at some distance under a great archway;
there are some steps in front going up for some distance.
This end of the building seems to be much higher than the
other. After passing through the door, I see a part of a
very rich building. It seems to be a place of a great deal
of ceremony. I feel the influence of the persons about, but
they are not as much here as in other parts. The impression
I received from this place comes nearer to my idea of a Jewish
Synagogue than any other buildings. I feel the influence
of priests with long robes on. What a great deal of ceremony
there is; but I do not obtain a very strong sense of devotion.
They seem to have lost the true devotion in the form of it.
"On one side is a place that, I judge, is for the priest.
All the work about it seems plain, but grand. There are no
little ornaments, but all are substantial. A great effect
seems to be produced here by different colours; but it does
not seem like paint. I cannot tell what it is. It seems to
be inherent in the material itself. In one place I see a
gold colour. It seems pure enough to be gold itself. There
are either precious stones, or something resembling them.
If artificial, there is a great deal of purity about them.
“ I see three places that seem made for people to stand
in. They are near each other, but separated. Persons seem
to stand in them and talk to some one on the other side.
I believe this is a Catholic place of worship after all.
I feel that influence now. Yes, that is it. There is a place
connected with this that is very little ornamented, and seems
gloomy. It is very massive and prison like. I see a great
many people outside. From this I obtain an idea of what may
be done with architecture with sufficient means.
"On examining the paper in which the specimen had been
wrapped, I found it marked — Modern Mosaic, Rome. From
what part of the eternal city it came from, I am sorry to
say I do not know."
This case would not, of course, be sufficient by itself to
establish psychometry. For it is impossible to verify most
of what the psychometer said. But there is a certain amount
of circumstantial evidence contained in it. In the first
place, Mrs. D. took the specimen out of a large number, all
[Page 18] similarly wrapped in several layers of paper.
Many of them were fossils, bones and geological formations.
But she at once became en rapport with city buildings. She
also described colour effects which seemed not to be produced
by paint, but by colour intrinsic in the materials. Furthermore,
the place being Rome, it is not improbable that the mosaic
should have been in a Catholic place of worship. There is
no statement made by the psychometer which can be disproved,
or is radically in conflict with what we may conceive to
be the probable truth. One such case is not sufficient to
prove the truth of psychometry. But there are hundreds of
similar cases bearing intrinsic evidence of truth; and they
are sufficient to justify us in accepting the theory of psychometry
as a working hypothesis on which we may further investigate
the subject, and may perchance at length establish it on
a scientific basis.
One point which the case in question
shows is that not only does the psychometer behold scenes
as they appeared in the past, but also the actors as they
flitted across the stage, and acts which they performed.
This will be more clearly brought out by another case related
to me by a friend which also shows how a psychometer goes
forward and backward in time :—
A Theosophist dug up near Sihor in Kathiawar some fragments
of a skull, in one of which was a round hole. This he wrapped
in paper and placed it on the head of a friend, who did not
know that he had any psychometric faculty, and indeed ridiculed
such things. However, he presently said that he saw a temple
by a lake, and described the surrounding scenery. When told
to go inside the temple, he described a lingham. He was told
to go back (in time), and also to come forward. He described
a town at a short distance, and several other things. He
then gave an account of an affray which he saw going on,
and described the costumes and accoutrements of the combatants,
and arrows flying through the air. Then he saw a man fall
struck through the head with an arrow, and asked if it was
not something from that man which had been put on his head.
The existence of fossil fish-bones and other objects testified
to the former existence of a lake in the neighbourhood, and
there is considerable probability about the story, but it
is useless for scientific purposes, as the man who placed
the bone on his friend's head knew what it was, and may have “suggested" by
thought-transference his own ideas to his friend. The fact
that the surface of bone was not exposed at the time of the
fight does not count for anything, as there is a thick layer
of astral light surrounding the brain of a man and forming
his aura. Some of this might easily have adhered to the fragment
of bone, and carried the impress of his latest visions and
thoughts.
When a letter is placed on a psychometer's forehead,
in his hands, or in some way in contact with him, three things
may occur: — ( 1) He may see and describe the personal
appearance of the writer; (2) He may feel and describe [Page 19] the emotions which animated him when
he penned the epistle; and (3) He may read the letter itself, though
it be outside the field of vision of his eyes.
The first is what is commonly called clairvoyance. The letter
puts the sensitive en rapport with the writer, and he evokes
the reflection of his image in the astral light, where space,
as we understand it, does not exist. A good instance of this
happened in the north of India. A party of friends were talking
about psychometry, and one of them, a lady, volunteered to
try an experiment. A bundle of letters was brought, and one
of them placed on the lady's head. She looked for a few moments
intently, as if gazing into space, and all of a sudden burst
out laughing. When asked what she was laughing at, she said
she saw just the top of a man's head covered with short,
dark hair sticking straight up. Presently she saw the rest
of him, and said: “Why ! It's
little—", naming a professor, who was personally
known to her, but whom she had not seen for a long time.
She was quite right. Of the second phenomenon a number of
cases are given by Dr. Buchanan in his book. [ "Psychometry” ] But
the objection may justly be raised that the doctor knew the
contents and who were the writers of the letters. However,
the following has been selected as bearing evidence of not
having been transmitted through the doctor's mind, but direct
from the writer's aura which clung about the letter. The
subject himself wrote an account of his sensations on the
spot in his memorandum-book in the following words: —
“He
(Dr. B.) placed a folded letter with the sealed side only
seen on the table, and requested me to place my right hand
upon it. The experiment seemed to me preposterous; but I
remarked that whatever, if any, sensation followed I should
truly communicate it. I felt nothing in my frame at the moment,
but very soon an increasing, unusual heat in the palm of
my hand; this was followed by a prickling sensation, commencing
in my fingers' ends, and passing gradually over the top of
my hand and up the outside of my arm.
I felt for nearly a minute no change in my mental condition,
and stated this. Dr. Buchanan had given no hint of the nature
or author of any letter he had with him — and I had
no bias or subject on my mind from the day's experience to
influence me. A rush of sadness, solemnity, and distress
suddenly came over me; my thoughts were confused and yet
rapid — and I mentioned there is trouble and sorrow
here. I could not have remembered anything more than a general
impression of it after the letter was removed.
“Another
letter was laid upon the table under my hand. My first sensations
were sharper and stronger than before, passing up in the
same manner
from my fingers' ends. In less than a minute my whole arm
became violently agitated, and I yielded to an irresistible
impulse to give utterance to my thoughts and feelings. A
determined, self-confident, daring, and triumphant feeling
suggested the language I used, and it seemed to me that I
could have [Page 20] gone on triumphantly to the accomplishment
of any purpose, however subtle or strong might be the opposition
to be overcome. My whole frame was shaken, my strength wrought
up at the highest tension, my face and arm burned, and near
the close of my description (which was also taken down as
in other hands), when I retouched the letter after repeated
removals of my hand by Dr. B. in consequence of my great
excitement, it was like touching fire which ran to my very
toes."
The former letter was one written by a person in great grief
at the loss of a relative. The latter was an important political
letter written by General Jackson. Probably the vibration
in the aura of the letters was taken up by the nerve-aura
of the sensitive — as one tuning-fork takes up the
vibration of another in its immediate neighbourhood — and
was conducted by the aura surrounding the nerves of his arm
to that of the spinal cord, and thence to the head, where
the brain in its capacity of a sensory ganglion registered
the vibration in terms of moral sensation, and as such made
it manifest to the normal consciousness.
The third case-reading
the letter itself — is (a) a power possessed by occultists,
(b) it can be done by some sensitives when in the somnambulic
trance. Both these cases are beside the subject of the present
paper.
Mrs. Buchanan psychologized many letters correctly.
She preferred to hold them in her hands without an envelope,
as a sealed letter conveyed impressions of suspicion on the
part of the sender. In some instances, however, she
psychometrized closed letters under fair test conditions.
On one occasion she received a letter to psychometrize sealed
with five seals, and at first declined to try it; but, subsequently
consenting, she gave a minute description, which she sent
with the sealed letter to her correspondent, who wrote a
long letter detailing the minuteness of her description.
One curious point about it was that it was written by two
people; and Mrs. B. said, “I am constantly taken to
the sphere of another person who is interested in the writer;
there is such a blending that I am unable to feel clearly
each distinct individuality."
Human hair is highly charged with the aura of the head from
which it was cut, and is thus more powerful in producing
impressions than a letter.
Some persons have the faculty
of seeing panoramic views of society in days gone by pass
rapidly before them when holding some personal object, such
as a ring, article of dress (mummy-cloth, for instance),
or a fragment of furniture, or an ancient weapon. But more
conclusive experiments than are at present available are
required before we can make a full analysis of this branch
of the subject. A friend of the writer has this faculty developed
to such an extent that, in passing through some of the older
London streets, which were once fashionable, but are now
devoted to lodging-houses and the residences of small tradesmen,
he sometimes sees gay equipages drive up to the doors, and
discharge their shadowy occupants, powdered and wigged, and
decked in the finery of past periods, A weapon will bring
back before the eyes the deeds which [Page 21] have been committed
by its agency. But it may sometimes cause most unpleasant sensations.
For instance, in an experiment performed in the Odessa branch
of the Theosophical Society, a fragment of rope on which
a man had hanged himself was given to the sensitive. This
produced such a painful and repulsive influence on the mind
of the psychometer, who was entirely ignorant of the nature
of the object, that the experiment had to be discontinued.
A good example of clothing psychometrized is given by a writer
before alluded to. [“ Platonist”, “Psychometry", by
W. Q. Judge.) —
" I received from a friend, in the year 1882, a piece
of the linen wrapping of an Egyptian ibis found on the breast
of a mummy. I handed it wrapped up in tissue paper to a friend,
who did not know what, if anything, was in the paper. He
put it to his forehead, and soon began to describe Egyptian
scenery; then an ancient city; from that he went on to describe
a man in Egyptian clothes, sailing on a river; then this
man went ashore into a grove, where he killed a bird; then
that the bird looked like pictures of the ibis, and ended
by describing the man as returning with the bird to the city,
the description of which tallied with the pictures and descriptions
of ancient Egyptian cities."
The case of Bishop Polk,
who tasted brass or other metals from contact with his hand,
has already been alluded to. This faculty of tasting by contact
is not confined to metallic substances. Acid and alkali,
sweet and sour, can be readily distinguished by a psychometer,
and in many cases substances named,
when held in the hand — if solids, wrapped in paper,
if liquids, contained in phials, — such, for instance,
as sugar, vinegar, salt, pepper, mustard, cloves, and other
spices. All such substances have their appropriate auras,
which act through the nerve-aura of the sensitive. A number
of instances might be quoted, but the case of the Bishop
sufficiently illustrates this branch of the subject.
The subject of taste naturally leads us on to that of medicines,
which is one of the most interesting branches of psychometry,
as it has an important bearing on the science of Therapeutics.
Also, considerable attention has of late been devoted to
it. It has even gained the notice of French physicians, who
may be said to lead the fashion in Europe in the electro-biological
branches of medicine, as the Germans do in physiology, and
the English in surgery.
The first record which we find of
this Therapeutic action of the aura of drugs is in Dr. Buchanan's
book, which contains a document signed by forty-three out
of a class of about one hundred and thirty medical students,
who psychometrically experienced impressions of the actions
of different materia medica specimens enveloped in paper,
and held in the hand, whilst they sat listening to a lecture.
The substances were in most cases well-known drugs with powerful
actions — such as emetics, cathartics, and soporifics;
and it was necessary that they should be, for if the students
had not previously experienced their [Page 22] actions
upon their own bodies, they could not be expected to recognise
them psychometrically.
In "La Semaine Médicale" for August, 1885, there
is an article on this subject by Doctors Bourru and Burot,
of the French Marine Hospital at Rochefort, and in a pamphlet
published by them in 1886 under the title La Grande Hystérie
chez l’ Homme, there is a further account of their
researches. In making experiments in metalloscopy, or the
action of metals applied to the body of a patient they discovered
that with a certain hystero-epileptic patient suffering from
partial paralysis and loss of sensation, gold caused a burning,
not only when in contact with the body, but also from a distance
of some inches; and that iodide of potassium caused sneezing
and yawning.
They tried other metals, and found that a plate
of copper on the right forearm caused first a trembling of
the forearm, then of the whole arm; that platinum on the
side of the patient which was paralysed caused a violent
itching and made him scratch himself; that steel caused a
transfer of the paralysis from one side to the other, with
accelerated and laboured respiration. Continuing their experiments
they found certain substances produced a marked effect, others
did not. Amongst the latter were silver, lead, zinc, glass,
etc. Amongst the former were the metals alluded to above.
Then they tried vegetable drugs, and found that opium applied
to the head produced profound sleep. At first they made their
experiments with the drugs in contact with the skin, but
subsequently found that their results were more reliable
without contact, as the application of many of the drugs
to the skin caused a local action which masked the general
action.
The following method was adopted: — The medicinal substance,
whether solid or liquid, was placed in a test-tube, which
was then enveloped in paper, so that neither the doctors
nor the patient could see what was contained in it. The tube
thus prepared was placed two or three inches from some part
of the body, generally the hand or nape of the neck, but
sometimes covered parts of the body, such as the back. The
action of the drug could also be determined by placing it
beneath the patient's pillow. When the experiments were made
the subject was in his normal state of consciousness. As
the experimenters did not know what drug they were giving, “suggestion" was
impossible.
The action of a drug generally commenced about
two or three minutes after the test-tube was placed near
the part of the body chosen for the experiment. It was found
necessary to dilute powerful drugs, for they caused toxic
symptoms, and their action was so violent as to make it impossible
to watch the medicinal effect. Most drugs were found to produce
first of all a more or less violent reaction of the nervous
system, which soon passed off; the symptoms due to the specific
action of the drug then appeared.
Narcotics — all produced sleep, but each had its own
appropriate character. Opium caused immediately a deep sleep
with regular breathing and normal [Page 23] pulse.
The patient could not be awakened. Chloral produced a snoring
sleep, from which the patient could easily be aroused by
blowing on his eyes. Morphine was similar in its action to
opium. Several other narcotics were tried; and the symptoms
they occasioned were recorded.
Emetics and Purgatives — were
tried, and produced the symptoms characteristic of the drugs
used.
Alcohols — produced very distinct symptoms. Ethyl-alcohol
almost immediately brought on immobility. The patient's eyes
were half closed and his body swayed about. He got up and
hiccupped, walking with stumbling gait, dancing, and singing
bacchanalian songs in a drunken voice. Presently he laid
himself at full length on the ground, eructated and vomited.
At last he fell into a deep and heavy sleep. On awakening,
he hiccupped, complained of headache and the taste of brandy,
and said that he must have been drunk. He had not been accustomed
to strong drinks. In the case of a woman who was used to
alcohol the drunkenness was not so pronounced. Champagne
caused a merry intoxication, with skipping and sexual excitement.
Pure amyl-alcohol brought on furious drunkenness. The subject
beat his breast and tried to bite. His rage lasted twenty
minutes, and could not be stopped by compression of the eyes,
camphor, or ammonia. He believed that he was fighting with
brigands who were trying to cut his throat. Pure absinthe
tried with a female caused some excitement at first. Then
she tore her hair like a mad woman. Then she raised herself
up and wanted to walk, but could not, as her legs were paralysed.
Antispasmodics produced a very different effect. Orange flower
water caused the patient to fall suddenly into a calm and
tranquil sleep, which came on naturally, and without fatigue.
Camphor caused, first, contraction of all the muscles, then
complete relaxation of them with sleep. Cherry-laurel water
had a most extraordinary effect on a woman. She fell at once
into a state of religious ecstasy, which lasted more than
a quarter of an hour. She raised her eyes and stretched her
hands towards the heavens, her whole attitude being one of
beatitude. Her eyes were suffused with tears. She fell on
her knees, bowed her head and clasped her hands before her
lips in an attitude of prayer. Soon she prostrated herself
in adoration, and wept with her head touching the ground; her expression varied in accordance with her posture,
portraying adoration, supplication, repentance, and prayer. Then she
fell on her back, and convulsive movements of the chest came
on, her face expressing pain. At last she fell into a calm
sleep.
On being somnambulized and questioned, she said that she
had seen Mary the Holy Virgin, clothed in a blue robe with
stars of gold. Her hair was fair and her figure plump. She
looked so good and sweet that she would like always to see
her, that unfortunately she was not of her religion. The
Virgin reproached her for leading a disorderly life and told
her to pray that she might change her conduct; then gave
her a blessing, and lastly threw her on her back for being
[Page 24] a sinner. On awakening, the woman, who was
a Jewess of loose morals, mocked those who spoke to her of
the Virgin. When the experiment was repeated it always produced
a similar result. It was found to be the essential oil in
the cherry-Iaurel which produced the ecstasy and the hydrocyanic
acid which produced the convulsions. Many other drugs were
tried with marked success; amongst others valerian, which
caused in two patients great excitement and strange symptoms
similar to those which it produced in cats. The subject capered
about and loudly snuffed up the air through the nostrils;
then scratched a hole in the ground with both hands and tried
to put his face in it. If the valerian was hidden he found
it by snuffing; and having found it threw himself on it,
scratching and biting the ground.
In their experiments with drugs the doctors were able to
distinguish two distinct actions, psychical and physical
or bodily. The former consisted in hallucinations of a variable
nature, which were probably special to the patient; the
latter were constant, and consisted in salivation, vomiting,
sleep, intestinal contraction, sweating, etc., etc., etc.,
the appropriate symptoms of the drugs employed.
Experiments
with medicinal substances are extremely interesting and will
probably prove of service in the advancement of medical science,
but they should never be attempted by any but a medical man
who is well versed in the physiological actions and uses
of drugs. Otherwise a great danger would be incurred. Besides,
the experiments would be valueless from a scientific point
of view, for no one without special training can accurately
record symptoms, any more than a man who is not an engineer
can manage the engines of a ship, and understand in what
respect they are out of order when they go wrong.
It would
appear from the foregoing account that it was the aura of
the drugs which acted upon the patients through their aura,
or astral body, which, according to the testimony of clairvoyants
and sensitives, is always deranged or weak, frequently paler
than is normal, or of a different colour, in places where
the physical body is diseased or weak. It is claimed for
mesmeric healing that it restores tone to these weak or discoloured
portions of the astral body,
and that the physical body soon recovers, following the changes
that take place in the astral counterpart. This suggests
the idea that in homeopathic medicines, triturated to an
extreme decimal, it is the aura of the drug which operates
on the patient's aura. Certainly a number of sensitive persons
have told the writer that homeopathic remedies suited their
constitutions, whereas strong-bodied people with no physical
sensitiveness have told him that no homeopathic dose ever
produced the slightest symptom in them.
It would be very interesting if Indian medical men would
report the results of testing psychometrically the auric
influences of Kusa grass, pepul, tulsi, and other grasses,
leaves, and woods connected with religious ceremonies. [Page 25]
As the physiological
actions of drugs have been discussed, a few words on certain extremely unpleasant effects
which may be produced in a psychometer by shells may not
be out of place. The fact in question was discovered by a
Mr. Jones, of London, who verified his results by experiments
with four different sensitive subjects. He says [ See "Mesmerism" by
Dr. Williams, M. A.] that he was first drawn
to the inquiry by the circumstance of a female, to whom his
son was showing his conchological collection, complaining
of pains while holding one of the shells. His method of experimenting
was simply to place one in the subject's hand: the Purpura
cocolatum in about four minutes produced contraction of the
fingers and painful rigidity of the arm, which effects were
removed by quick passes without contact from the shoulder
off at the fingers. One day he purchased about thirty shells.
In the evening he tried twelve of them, one of which caused
acute pain in the arm and head, followed by insensibility.
He removed the patient to a sofa, took the shells off the
table, and placed them on a side-board. In a short time,
to his astonishment, the patient, while still insensible,
gradually raised her clasped hands, turning towards the shells
on the side-board, and pointing at them with outstretched
arms. He put down her hands, but she raised them again. He
had her removed to another room, separated from that containing
the shells by a nine-inch wall, a passage, and a lath and
plaster wall; yet, strange to say, the phenomenon of raising
the hands and bending the body in the direction of the shells
was repeated.
He then had the shells removed to a back room, and subsequently
to three other places, one of which was out of the house.
At each removal the position of the hands
altered according to the new position of the shells. The
patient continued insensible with a short intermission till
the evening of the fourth day. On the third day, the arm
of the hand that had held the shells was swollen, spotted,
and dark-coloured. On the morning of the next day, those
appearances had gone, and only a slight discolouration of
the hand remained. The shells that acted most powerfully
were the Cinder murex and the Chama macrophylla. Mr. Jones
experimented with another sensitive shortly after this occurrence,
but did not use the most powerful shells. She was similarly
affected, but not so severely; and only remained in a state
of torpor for a few hours — in her own words, she “felt
cold, contraction of the hand, shiver right through me, pain
up the arm, pain in the eyes and head, dizzy feeling".
On
the use of psychometry in the diagnosis of disease, much
has been written, but mostly by people who were ignorant
of medical science; consequently their testimony is of but
little evidential value. However, we may take two hypotheses
to work upon, but whether they will stand the test of further
and more critical investigation it is at present impossible
to say: —
(1) That a psychometer can, by holding a
patient's hand or some object belonging to him, by deep and
benevolent sympathy subjectively identify himself [Page
26] with the sick man and vibrate in consonance with
him, so to speak, to the extent of feeling in his own body
the pains felt by the patient; and by this method can say
what organ is perverted from performing its normal function.
(2) That a psychometer, when more or less abstracted from
surrounding objects and concentrating his attention on the
patient, can with his psychic eye — " the eye
of Rudra" of
the Eastern mystic writings, said to be situated above and
in front of the space between the eyes — see the astral
counterpart of his patient's body, and from that form a diagnosis
concerning the nature and location of the disease.
In most
of the recorded cases, such as those of Puysegur, Du Potet,
and Cahagnet, the psychometer was previously psychometrized,
or thrown into a state of trance. A further difficulty is
in the fact that the character of medical science has changed,
that the fashion, if we may so call it, in disease, drugs,
and medical terminology has passed through many phases since
the day when these old adepts in psychology gave out the
results of their researches. No new works on the subject
have been written of late years by men whose testimony is
worthy of credence.
One reliable case is known to the writer,
in which both the psychometer and the sensitive were acquaintances
of his. The former, a private gentleman, who had trained
for some years the psychic senses which he had possessed
all his life, saw the aura of the patient as a pale blue
ethereal substance. Without knowing the seat of disease,
he described the aura of that locality as appearing to him
yellowish and muddled. At best this but shows the seat of
disease — not the nature of it.
Psychometry must do much more than that if it is to supersede
the accepted methods of medical diagnosis, which its more
devoted adherents claim that it should, and will eventually
do.
A good plan for ascertaining who does and who does not
possess the psychometric faculty is to place a number of
letters in plain envelopes and distribute them to a number
of friends who are interested in the subject and willing
to assist in the experiments. Tell them to hold the letters
given to them on the top of the head, on the forehead, or
in the hand, and to sit quietly for a few minutes — with
the mind as far as possible made negative. Tell them if any
thought or emotion bubbles up, so to speak, in the mind,
that they are to describe it. Take, say, half-a-dozen of
those whose results are the best, and, by a process of natural
selection and survival of the fittest, the best two or three
psychometers may be selected.
As a general rule, persons
of highly strung nervous organization make the
best psychometers. It is important to select persons of intelligence
and education, as the ignorant cannot always clearly express
what they feel or see. For the most part, women are better
for the purpose than men, but this is far from being a universal
rule. Persons of a very positive disposition can seldom "sense" things.
An intelligent child makes a good psychometer for the simpler [Page 27] experiments, if not too restless and fidgety.
If persons on the first trial do not succeed as well as might
be desired, it may be due to the strangeness and novelty
of the experiment, which distracts their thoughts and prevents
them from becoming passive and impressionable. If they manifest
any signs of possessing the faculty, it is worth while to
try them every day for some time, as practice may develop
their power to a remarkable degree. It is often necessary
for them to find out how to use their psychic sense. This
also applies to thought-transference. Psychic organs, if
we may so call them, may be developed and made strong by
regular and appropriate exercise and training for their sphere
of action, as the limbs of an athlete for running, jumping,
and the like.
And, similarly, no amount of training will make a really
good athlete or psychometer
of a man who is not born with a physique suited to the one
or the other. Furthermore, in both cases, a suitable diet
is a matter of importance.
To develop receptivity, a light
diet is advisable. It is better to give up alcohol and butcher's
meat. This is no great hardship to a psychometer as a rule,
for many psychics have a natural aversion to strong meats
and strong drinks. Some letter or personal object, strongly
imbued with the writer's or owner's magnetism, does very
well to begin with, and gradually the psychometer may be
led on to objects which have not so strong an influence.
A quarter to half an hour with several intervals is quite
long enough for a sitting. And this may be done every day
for a considerable time. But psychics should be carefully
watched, and, if any suspicious symptoms occur, all experiments
should at once be broken off for a time, however interesting
they may be, and the sensitive should be urged to lead an
energetic life, taking an active interest in the pursuit
of daily life, never allowing his or her mind to be passive.
For, if receptivity be carried too far, the door may be opened
to outside influences of an evil tendency.
The following rules for conducting experiments may possibly
be found useful by the reader who wishes to put the question
to a practical test; —
1) The best number of persons is three, one to psychometrize,
one to hand the objects, and one to record in a notebook
everything as it occurs.
2) The psychometer should sit in a comfortable chair, his
own if possible, as otherwise he may psychometrize some one
who sat in it previously; the back of it should be long enough
to support his head. If he can work with bandaged eyes, So
much the better, as it prevents distraction by surrounding
objects. Many prefer to work in this way.
3) Wrap a number of the objects to be used in paper, making
them look as much alike as possible, So that no one in the
room can distinguish one from the other. The paper should
be new, just taken from a packet, as otherwise some person
who has handled it may be psychometrized.
4) It is a good plan for the one whose duty it is to pass
the objects to sit or stand behind the psychometer's chair,
and to place the objects on the top of [Page 28] the
subject's head, holding them there until he takes them in
his own hand and disposes them according to his fancy.
5) If no effect is produced by one object, take a rest for
a few minutes, then try another object.
6) Do not talk while the experiments are actually going
on; but between them it is good to talk sufficiently to keep
the psychometer from getting wearied, the objects already
psychometrized being the best subject for conversation.
7) A warm dry climate is the best for psychical experiments;
and there should be no metal ornaments on the psychometer,
or objects in his immediate vicinity.
It is not always easy
to think of objects for experimentation, so perhaps the following
list may be found useful as a groundwork, the particulars
being filled in according to circumstances.
a) Personal: — as letters, hair, apparel, jewellery.
b) Antiquities: — as fabrics, ornaments, manuscripts
(papyri, black-letter books, etc.), ancient weapons and musical
instruments, etc., etc.
c) Fossils: — of animals and plants from different
places, the localities being known.
d) Geological objects of different periods and localities: — as stones, metals, lava, etc. ; also
stones from buildings.
e) Coins: — old and new.
f) Books: — [ it is claimed that every book has its
aura. If so it is probably imparted by the people who read
the book. If an old book were found to have an effect on
a psychometer, it would be interesting to try if a new, unread
one would equally affect him.]
g) Photographs: — of persons, of paintings, and of
views. [They should not, however, have been handled, or even
looked at by a number of people.]
It is of the utmost importance
that everything should be recorded as it occurs. For the
human memory is treacherous. It would take a Stokes or Loisette
to carry in his head the details of a whole series of similar
experiments; and hearsay evidence is of no practical value.
It is of the utmost importance that no one in the room should
know the object of the experiment, in order to preclude the
possibility of “suggestion", which may be employed
unintentionally.
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