HPB-SB-10-129

T i

vol. 10, p. 129

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

vol. 10

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The Soul of Things

The Soul of Things

, by William Denton. In this extraordinary book the author, who Is a Professor of Geology in America, employed clairvoyants to reveal to him by vision events connected with the early history of geological specimens. These sensitives thus saw the Masodon and other extinct animals as if living and moving before them; they likewise saw the scenes by which these prehistoric animals were surrounded. The author also sent his clairvoyants to examine portions of different planets, and they gave descriptions of the inhabitants, physical geography, and vegetation of each. The book is illustrated with numerous engravings, drawn by the sensitives as the visions passed before their eyes. The substance of a review of this hook in “The Spiritualist” was to the effect that there is no doubt as to the integrity of the author, who also possesses sufficient intelligence to select clairvoyants who would not cheat him. The question as to the reliability of the narratives therefore narrows itself down to the question of the reliability of clairvoyance, which, when employed to gain information about distant places on earth, has been found sometimes to give accurate results and sometimes inaccurate results. The review further expresses the opinion that if ever interplanetary communication should ho established, it will be by means of clairvoyance or some other of the latent and little understood spiritual powers in man. Three vols. 24 s.; or 8s. per single volume. The Spiritualist Newspaper Branch Office, 33, British Museum-street, London, W.C.

A Curious Presentiment

By C. C. Massey.

The following extract from a private letter records a case of presentiment belonging to a large and peculiar class; much larger, it may be surmised, than is likely to be generally known, owing to the very peculiarity which gives it special interest and significance. The trivial is not often recorded, and, unfortunately, triviality in the matter of occult communications is considered a reason for neglecting them, instead of being recognised, on that very ground, as the more suggestive. I can only say of the writer of the following that she is a lady very well known to me, of quite exceptional education and intelligence, and of the most scrupulous veracity. Her letter is dated December 2nd, and I received it the following day.

“Ten days ago there came to me a conviction that I should find in the Echo—the name of the paper came to me clearly—an announcement of the illness of the Queen. I mentioned this presentiment to—on the instant; and the forecast continuing to oppress me, I have daily told various persons of my expectation, the source of which I could not trace, for I could not recollect the Royal family having been in any way called to my mind at any recent date. Moreover, we take the Times and Daily News, as well as the Echo; so why should, the Echo be my medium of information? However, that was the first paragraph I saw on taking up the Echo, which reached us by this morning’s post.”

Now what I find suggestive in the above and similar cases is this. There is an utter absence of purpose'' in the anticipation or any trace of a motive which we would ascribe to a foreign intelligence. No conceivable object could be served by this lady knowing ten days before that she would see a particular piece of intelligence which did not concern her more than any other subject of Her Majesty. Does it not rather point (1) to the fact, so often insisted upon by Dr. Wyld, that our own souls or spirits are organs of powers unsuspected in our normal consciousness? and (2) to the Kantian principle that time is only the form of our consciousness, not an absolute, objective condition of all existence? This form, if and when we can in any way transcend it, would no longer condition our knowledge, in which events, phenomenally future, would he revealed as present. It is a fact much to be regretted that the attention of Spiritualists is almost exclusively directed to the evidences of disembodied soul, and that thus many most significant facts, which are in reality the strongest possible confirmations of our own supersen-suous being, are either misinterpreted or neglected. “Occultism” and theosophy seek to discover our own latent powers. That these are veræ causæ'' such facts as the above seem to prove, to the extent that they <... continues on page 10-130 >

Editor's notes

Sources

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  London Spiritualist, No. 381, December 12, 1879, p. 277