Mesmerism
“Each individual exists in an almost infinite superabundance of vitality, which is mostly indiscriminately wasted.”*
Wasted, because either improperly, or not at all directed. I know, by experience. That that superabundant vitality may be silently, and unknown to all but one's self, given off continuously in kind thoughts, and that it has then more than merely physical healing power. I make it, and strive to make it, ever more and more a habit, to silently give forth kind thoughts and wishes to whomsoever may cross my path anywhere and everywhere. I do not, mark you, strive to inoculate them with my opinions, but merely to call down blessings on them.
I never take the hand of a sick one without praying mentally that the contact may be of service to him. It is true one gets no credit for it, but what matters that, so long as the good is done, and that it is done I have had many (to me) proofs. To most, this will appear mere assertion, but to some it will be also a matter of experience, a practical application of the recommendation to ‘pray without ceasing.”
The diet recommended by J. K. I have followed for the last six years; abstinence from stimulants goes back to five times as many years, and every day brings me more and more proof of the soundness of the system. More than thirty years ago I used to allay rheumatic pains and give sleep by passes, as it seemed to me, to one suffering from rheumatism, but I could never, at that time, decide, with any certainty, that the benefit was due to my action, as I myself felt nothing, and was conscious of nothing but the wish to relieve. I had then come home on sick leave with my nervous system thoroughly upset. Now, hoverer, the case is different; I feel what I can only describe as “the fluid,” pouring from my fingers’ ends, while the patient feels burning, tingling, or pricking sensations. The feeling with me varies in intensity, sometimes streaming, at other times barely perceptible. I quite agree with J. K. as to the value of Miss Hunt’s manuscript, but I should like much to see it printed in good clear type, and published. I can also speak as to her readiness to answer all inquiries coming from those who have purchased her manuscript. Some of her experiments on animals I have put to the test with curious results. I fully agree with J. K. (whose contributions are the most usefull because the most practical, that have for somtime appeared in The Spiritualist) and with yourself in dislike to mystery and pledges. I prefer taking resolutions, making no secret of them, and acting up to them so long as conscience and common sense tell me to do so.
I can also speak to the difference between self-will power and prayer: (or in other terms) “Thu will be done power,” Dr. Wyld alludes to elsewhere. I find the former exhausts while the latter does not do so.
Bath, 11-7-81,
* J. K. in Spiritualist of July 1st, 1881.
The Demise of the Baron du Potet
Paris, Tuesday Night
The venerable Baron du Potet, the leading representative of mesmerism in France since the days of Mesmer and the Marquis de Puysegur, died at his residence in the Rue du Dragon, on the first of this month. This morning I made a brief call upon his widow, who is plunged in the deepest distress at her bereavement.
M. Jules Denis, better known as the Baron du Potet de Sennevoy, was rather more than eighty-five years of age at the time of his demise. About two years ago he had a fall upon a staircase, and seemed to have been internally injured by it, in the back, for inflammation set in. Last winter he went to Nice for the benefit of his health, and while there he performed some remarkable mesmeric cures, notwithstanding his own condition. On his return to Paris last April he grew worse, and had occasional fits of delirium and of fever. Nor did his health improve during May and June, and on the first day of the present month, at three o’clock in the morning, he passed peacefully to the higher life. His remains have been interred in the cemetery at Montmartre.
The last time I saw the Baron was some two years ago, when he was full of life and vivacity, and displayed much interest in the subject of a larger diffusion of the knowledge of mesmerism in England.
Errors of the Theosophists
Two foibles existing in undisciplined minds, both originating in a wrongful love of dominion, namely Utopianism, and a desire to command spirits, have given some experienced Hindoos the cue to bring themselves into notice. Hindoo mystification, acting on western credulity, brought out the Theosophical Society. Utopian sophistries for love of the romantic, and what is called “Hindoo Philosophy,” but which is rather mysticism, was the Hindoo stock in trade. They discoursed on the brotherhood of the human race, but in the rules of their Theosophical Society, they consider only those to be brothers who have joined their clique. These mild unselfish Hindoos preach equality and fraternity, but say—“First We, then the rest of the world. We only know, We alone can teach.” Verily but I tell you that from an inflated people comes no salvation. The absolute is universal, and is not merely left to those who have a tradition of it. It selects its own instruments and draws them to the soul-plane. “No one cometh unto me unless the father draw him.” Had the absolute been left to human tradition only, the secret thereof would long ago have been lost. But God Himself is continually actively propagating Himself and His knowledge in the soul of man. The spontaneous adept, he who, by earnest persistent striving, receives the absolute, irrespective of tradition, is the beloved of God, and there is no doubt, but that he is the most fit to receive the divine knowledge, or God would not have elected him to be his instrument; while those who receive the tradition of the divine knowledge (Gnosis) are not always fit to receive the knowledge itself; though they may have the letter, they have not always the spirit.
Theosophists go in quest of adepts exclusively among the traditions, and ignore the fact that self-taught adepts are of more consequence as these stand at the fountain head. Not so the latter. A craze for outlandish verbiage has also been inaugurated by the Theosophical Society; Moral and philosophical platitudes are supposed to become gems of occult wisdom if encrusted in hard words. Some individuals <... continues on page 11-148 >
* Man only becomes conscious of the activity of God. When united to God. The duality or man as semi-human and semidivine, which latter has in the unregenerate state become a diabolic being, is an unrecognised fact of our existence. The God idea of the unregenerate is a mere shadow. God is light without shadow. The old Adam-state must be utterly discarded before man can attempt to enter the Christ-state, and only in that state can he know God. In speaking of these subjects whereon very little has been made public, although I endeavour to make the language as little mystical as possible, I can only convey a fraction of the entire truth.
Editor's notes
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 465, July 22, 1881, pp. 43-4
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London Spiritualist, No. 464, July 15, 1881, p. 25
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London Spiritualist, No. 465, July 22, 1881, pp. 45-6