Materializations
In Spiritualism the word signifies the objective appearance of the so‐called “Spirits” of the dead, who reclothe themselves occasionally in matter; i.e., they form for themselves out of the materials at hand, which are found in the atmosphere and the emanations of those present, a temporary body hearing the human likeness of the defunct as he appeared, when alive. Theosophists accept the phenomenon of “materialization”; but they reject the theory that it is produced by “ Spirits”, i.e., the immortal principles of the disembodied persons. Theosophists hold that when the phenomenon is genuine—and it is a fact of rarer occurrence than is generally believed—it is produced by the larvæ, the eidola or Kamalokic “ghosts” of dead personalities. (See “Kâmadhâtu”, “Kâmaloka” and “Kâmarupa”.) As Kâmaloka is on the earth plane and differs from its degree of materiality only in the degree of its plane of consciousness, for which reason it is concealed from our normal sight, the occasional apparition of such shells is as natural as that of electric balls and other atmospheric phenomena. Electricity as a fluid, or atomic matter (for Theosophists hold with Maxwell that it is atomic), though invisible, is ever present in the air, and manifests under various shapes, but only when certain conditions are there to “materialize” the fluid, when it passes from its own on to our plane and makes itself objective. Similarly with the eidola of the dead. They are present, around us, but being on another plane do not see us any more than we see them. But whenever the strong desires of living men and the conditions furnished by the abnormal constitutions of mediums are combined together, these eidola are drawn— nay, pulled down from their plane on to ours and made objective. This is Necromancy ; it does no good to the dead, and great harm to the living, in addition to the fact that it interferes with a law of nature. The occasional materialization of the “astral bodies” or doubles of living persons is quite another matter. These “astrals” are often mistaken for the apparitions of the dead, since, chameleon‐like, our own “Elementaries”, along with those of the disembodied and cosmic Elementals, will often assume the appearance of those images which are strongest in our thoughts. In short, at the so‐called “materialization” seances it is those present and the medium, who create the peculiar likeness of the apparitions. Independent “apparitions” belong to another kind of psychic phenomena. Materializations are also called “form‐manifestations” and “portrait statues”. To call them materialized spirits is inadmissible, for they are not spirits but animated portrait‐statues, indeed (TG).
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