HPB-SB-8-241

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vol. 8, p. 241

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

vol. 8 (September 1878 - September 1879)

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The Materialisation of Spirits

An interesting article by Mr. C. C. Massey, in another column, describes a good test materialisation seance with Mrs. Elgie Corner (Florence Cook).

From evidence which has long been accumulating, there is reason for supposing that what takes place at such seances is this:—A phantom form, the duplicate of the medium and her clothes, comes off from the medium, and is at first not visible to normal eyesight. It gradually clothes itself with more matter from the medium, until a solid head, shoulders, arms, and hands are formed, and at this stage we have the living half-length forms which sometimes show themselves at dark circles, while the hands of the mediums are held. They are covered with common-place drapery, as at the Amsterdam seance. By a continuation of the process a duplication of the full-length form of the medium is produced; both forms arc solid to the touch, and both, we think, half the normal weight of the human instrument. The process may then go on, until most of the weight is in the spirit form, and the medium gradually becomes more ethereal, then invisible, and finally is altogether amalgamated with the materialised spirit, which at this stage is but the entranced medium. This accounts for the occasional freeing of mediums from bonds, without the cutting of the knots or ligatures. The whole process sometimes goes on with such rapidity that the observers consider the manifestation to be merely the freeing of the medium from bonds in the twinkling of an eye. In the case of death-bed apparitions, probably the same changes take place. The spirit, in a distant house, draws enough materiality from its dying body to make itself visible.

The Supernatural

I Think that the general idea that Spiritism is supernatural is a great mistake. If men have souls, and these souls are the real men, and can exist independently, and prove the fact that they do exist after the body is dead and is lost in the elements, feeding the grass or cast about by the winds as the case may be, surely we have a fact in nature recognized by the senses and not a supernatural exhibition. It may be a puzzle beyond our comprehension, but what of that? Conceivability is not the criterion of truth. I cannot account for instinct, for the sense of distance, for the light passing through the window on to this paper, for the feeling of the pen as in the hand when we know that it is no such thing, but a sensation of the brain: yet without the illusion I could not write these lines; it is all illusion and incomprehensible, yet not supernatural. If I possess or am a living, independent, and immortal soul, be it so; and if it can appear in dur rooms and materialize itself (or rather, as in life, envelope itself in matter oven to the clothing) the wonder is but in the novelty, for the growth of a blade of grass is just as much a puzzle. It is rather that the facts of Spiritualism go to show that that is perfectly natural which has all along been referred to the supernatural, and, in fact, that the idea of the supernatural is but superstitious nonsense.

<Untitled> (John was a nice boy...)

John was a nice boy. He prac-ticed self-de-ni-al. Do you know what it is to prac-tice self-de-ni-al? No, you say. Well, I will tell you. John and his kind aunt went to church one day. Aunt Jane gave John a dime to put in a box for the hea-then. She also gave John a loz-enge. John liked loz-enges. Some boys would have ea-ten the loz-enge right up. But John did not. He prac-ticed self-de-ni-al. He put the loz-enge in the box. He kept the dime in his pock-et. So you see, by prac-tic-ing self- de-ni-al and going with-out his loz-enge that day, John could buy all the loz-enges he wanted the next day. He could buy a top and some mar-bles also. Now you know what self-de-ni-al is.—Boston Transcript.

The Divine Afflatus of the Hindoos

The following interesting narrative is from the Dublin University Magazine, of December, 1849:—

THE ORACLE OF RAMESHWURU.

From the established village oracles we advance, by an easy gradation, to another development of the same system, where, conducted with more order, and clothed with more dignity, it exerts a proportionate influence on the middle and higher orders. This development is to be found in temples of a superior order, which have attained a celebrity for. the oracular or sanatory afflatus supposed to be locally confined to their precincts. They are visited by many from afar, have, in consequence, grown rich, and are conducted with a certain degree of regularity and pomp.

Of these temples, boasting a permanent Waren, there are, as before hinted, several in the Conkan, where the whole system of Waren is perhaps more prevalent than in any other part of India. The Waren at each of these shrines has generally a distinct character, in some being purely oracular, in others chiefly sanatory. The shrine of Rameshwuru, at Malwun, in the Southern Conkan, is the most celebrated as an oracle; that of Hur-hureshwuru, which lies nearer to Bombay, is the most famous for its cures. A short description of these two will servo to give a general idea of all the rest.

The temple of Rameshwuru is of considerable size. In the inner sanctuary is a raised pediment of masonry, in the centre of which is a rude, uncut stone; a portion of this is embedded in the ground, and a portion emerges above the surrounding masonry. This stone is reported to have been cast up, or arisen spontaneously, from the earth some ages ago, and is the object of worship. It is, in fact, a Lingum, the phallic emblem of the god Shivu; and to him this temple, was dedicated under the title of Rameshwuru, or Lord of Ramu, from a tradition that this stone was installed there by Rumu during his sojourn in the forests of the south, on his way to Lunka or Ceylon. Whether any hollow exists under the stone, the Bramhins of the temple alone can tell—whether the tradition of its strange origin may have been derived from some real natural fact, such as partial earthquake, oi- the fall of an aerolite, must equally remain a matter of mere conjecture. The temple has a regular and rather numerous establishment of Bramhins, one of whom is the habitual recipient of the afflatus. It has an endowment of land attached to it, and is under the superintendence of the Patell or headman of the township, whose ancestors had some connection with founding or enlarging it. When any party is desirous of having an answer from the oracle, he must first obtain the sanction of the Patell, who proceeds with him to the temple, and tells the head priest that the stranger is desirous of consulting the god. The arrangements are then made, and a day and hour appointed for his attendance; for it is only on certain days of the week or month, and at certain times of the day, that he can be consulted. During one month in the year, indeed, that of Poushu(a), corresponding with our January and February, the oracle is wholly dumb: —no afflatus can then be obtained, because, as the priests state, the gods are not at home in that month. There are certain conditions in the way of preparation which must be complied with, both by the Bhuktu or priest who is to be the recipient of the afflatus, and the party consulting: these, according to the general analogy of the Waren system in other parts, consist chiefly in ablutions, fasting or abstinence from certain kinds of food, continence, and, on the part of the questioner, the offering of a cocoa-nut, besides such additional free-will offering of money, &c., as he may choose. On the appointed day, at noon, all the parties, who have to consult the oracle, repair to the temple. Fresh lustrations take place there under the direction of the chief Bramhin. The ceremony then begins. The Bramhins and the Patell stand <... continues on page 8-242 >

Editor's notes

Sources

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  London Spiritualist, No. 353, May 30, 1879, p. 253