< Spiritualism and Theosophy (continued from page 11-20) >
there has been an evolution in physical nature the crown and flower of which is physical man, so there has been a parallel evolution in the realm of spirit. The outcome of this is the psychic, or inner man; and, just as in this visible nature about us we see myriads of forms lower than ourselves, so the Theosophist finds in the terra incognita of the physicist—the realm of the “Unknownable”—countless minor psychical types, with man at the top of the ascending series. Physicists know of the elements only in their chemical or dynamic relations and properties; but he who has mastered the Occult Sciences finds dwelling in fire, air, earth, and water, sub-human orders of being, some inimical, some favourable to man. He not only comes to a knowledge of them, but also to the power of controlling them. The folk-lore of the world has embalmed many truths about this power, which is none the less a fact because the modern biologist turns up his nose at it. You who come from Ireland or the Scottish Highlands know that these beings exist. I do not surmise this, I know it. I speak thus calmly and boldly about the subject, because I have met these proficients of Asiatic Occultism and seen them exercise their power. This is why I ceased to call myself a Spiritualist in 1874, and why, in 1875, I united with others to found a Theosophical Society to promote the study of these natural phenomena. The most wonderful facts of mediumship I have seen produced at will and in full daylight by one who had learnt the secret sciences in India and Egypt. Under such circumstances I have seen showers of roses made to fall in a room; letters from people in far countries to drop from space into my lap; heard sweet music coming from afar upon the air, grow louder and louder until it was in the room, and then die away again out in the still atmosphere until it was no more. I have seen writing made to appear upon paper and slates laid upon the floor, drawings upon the ceiling beyond any one’s reach, pictures upon paper without the employment of pencil or colour, articles duplicated before my very eyes, a living person instantly disappear before my sight, jet-black hair cut from a fair-haired person’s head, had absent friends and distant scenes shown me in a crystal, and in America more than an hundred times, upon opening letters upon various subjects coming to me by the common post from my correspondents in all parts of the world, have found inside, written in their own familiar and, messages to me from men in India who possess the theosophical knowledge of natural law. Hay, upon one occasion I even saw summoned before me as perfectly ‘materialised’ a figure as any that ever stalked out of William Eddy’s cabinet of marvels. If it is not strange that the Spiritualist who sees mediumistic phenomena, but knows nothing of occult science, should believe in the intervention of spirits of the dead, is it any stranger that I, after receiving so many proofs of what the trained human will can accomplish, should be a theosophist and no longer a Spiritualist? I have not even half exhausted the catalogue of the proofs that have been vouchsafed to me during the last five years as to the reality of Asiatic psychological science. But I hope I have enumerated enough to show you that there are mysteries in India worth seeking, and men here who are far more acquainted with nature’s occult forces than any of those much-initiated gentlemen who set themselves up for professors and biologists.
It will be asked what evidence I offer that the intelligent phenomena of the mediums are not to be ascribed to our departed friends. In reply, I ask what unimpeachable evidence there is that they are. If it can be shown that the soul of the living medium can, unconsciously to his physical self, ooze out, and by its elastic and protean nature take on the appearance of any deceased person whose image it sees in a visitor’s memory; if all the phenomena can be produced at will by an educated psychologist; if, in the ether of science—the Akasa of the Hindus, the Anima Mundi of the theosophists, the Astral Light of the cabalists—the images of all persons and events, and the vibration of every sound, are eternally preserved—as these occultists affirm and experimentally prove—if all this is frau, them who is it necessary to call in the spirits of the dead to explain what may be done by the living? So long as no alternative theory was accessible, the Spiritualists held impregnable ground against materialistic science; theirs was the only possible way to account for what they saw. But, given the alternative, and shown the resources of psychology and the nature of the Unseen Universe, you see the Spiritualists are at once thrown upon the defensive without the ability to silence their critics. The casual observer would say it is impossible, for instance, for that aged Quaker lady’s figure to be anything but her own returning soul—that her son could not have been mistaken, and that if there were any doubt otherwise, her familiar knowledge of <... continues on page 11-22 >