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vol. title: vol. period: 1879-1880 pages in vol.: 577 |
A physiological Result of Mesmerism
I am undergoing a course of psychopathic treatment at the hands of Mr. Ashman. My pulse was heating 84, hut after five or six days treatment is reduced to 75. After every operation of mesmerising my pulse came down to 62, while Mr. Ashman’s, which is usually 75, rose to 110. These facts, incomprehensible to me, may perhaps interest some of your readers.
Spiritualistic Nomenclature
Sir,—Will the Rev. Mr. Tomlinson or any of your correspondents have the goodness to tell me the difference between soul and spirit. The mind or understanding, I suppose, was the immortal principle or spirit manifesting itself through the cerebral organs, and that a man’s capacity of intellect depended upon cerebral development. The conflicting views of Spiritualists, the contradictory and untruthful messages from supposed spirits, shako my belief in Spiritualism, which I now earnestly wish was as strong as it once was. Some of your able and earnest correspondents might do very much to inspire belief in those who are perplexed.
Edinburgh.
Statuvolence
Sir,—I am highly gratified to know that my account of Statuvolence has attracted the attention of Mr. Atkinson. His article on the subject in the Spiritualist of July 2nd, contains little that I cannot freely assent to. I fully agree that the phenomena developed by Mesmerism and Statuvolence respectively are essentially the same, and that both should be put in the category with many spontaneous psychological experiences. It is undeniable that Dr. Fahnestock’s theory does not account for all the facts. That is the grand defect, indeed, of all theories of mental phenomena. What Miss Martineau said in her “Letters on Mesmerism,” many years ago, on the insufficiency and absurdity of extant psychological theories, is just as true now as it was then. But men are prone to make theories, and, considered as temporary expedients for stringing facts together, theories serve a good turn, however fallacious they may ultimately be shown to be from some higher standpoint. My purpose has simply been to show that the method of psychological investigation which postulated the will of the subject as the primary factor had led to more varied and interesting experiments, and was likely to lead to higher results than any other method. We sadly need a generalisation which will cover all the facts and harmonise antagonistic theories. I am conducting my own limited experiments with that end in view, and hope to have something to say by-and-by in aid of the development of a genuine philosophy of the trance.
Mr. Atkinson refers to my use of the indefinite word “condition;” but a reference to my articles will show that I am merely quoting from a newspaper account instead of choosing my own words. Dr. Fahnestock speaks in a conversational way of “the condition,” which is simply an elliptical form of “the statuvolic condition.”
Like Mr. Atkinson, I began mesmeric experiments thinking that I must put forth a violent exertion of the will to produce the greatest results. Results soon weakened my theory and eventually demolished it. I found harmonious conditions the all-important requisite. A few passes or a simple touch sometimes did more than an hour’s hard work. One day, while making passes over a subject, my attention was suddenly drawn aside, and my hands automatically continued their work. I then made the surprising discovery that if I would simply let them alone, they would move themselves in the proper manner without the least result of fatigue, mental or physical. At the time it seemed to me to be a final proof of the doctrine of spirit-control which I had but partially accepted. But, after following this method of letting the thing do itself for some years, I do not feel so sure of the spirit-control as I then did. While I am not able to eliminate belief in it altogether, many of my mesmeric experiences suggest that the power is as purely automatic as the vital actions of the body. The “Philosophy of the Unconscious” is yet a trackless sea, though Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann have bravely launched their barque upon its fathomless depths.
Towanda, Pennsylvania, August 14th, 1880.
Speculations About the Perpetuation of the Material Body
Sir,—In your paper of the 3rd instant, Herr Von Teulsdroch invites correspondence on the subject of indefinite existence.
I beg leave to submit that “the laws of nature cannot be contradicted, but are we certain that we understand all nature’s laws,” is a syllogism as sound in its philosophy as it is aphoristic in its expression. The laws of nature cannot be contradicted, but there is no one of nature’s laws we thoroughly understand. There is a trite truism, none the less true because of its triteness, which says “nothing is impossible.” If—which I think no one will deny—the great design of the universe is life, the possibility of retaining the Creator’s great design can scarcely be counted an impossibility. It is a well known fact amongst those who study the psychic forces of nature, that the unseen part of man can return and appear in his habit as he lived, and can pass through the process technically termed materialisation. If that is possible, how much easier should it be to keep that material it already has about it from decaying, the means being at hand. What are the means?
In the ages that have passed there were men, ever seeking for and ever gaining knowledge, and knowledge is the means, and the means are ever at hand. But where man in time past could gain spiritual knowledge with comparative ease, man now is too much engaged in grovelling after things earthly to look for knowledge which is heavenly.
Paracelsus, spoken of by Herr Von Teulsdroch, aimed at the formation of a race of beings. Frankenstein also endeavoured to form a man. These men aimed only at possibilities. Is it less possible to retain life, having it created?
Any student of the scarce writings of the brethren of the Rosy Cross cannot have failed to observe with what an amount of faith they looked forward to the accomplishment of their hopes, and of the many cases reported by them, in which life in the human body was sustained for ages, not alone with full use of all faculties, but with a development of those faculties which would appear marvellous to us, but in reality following only a law of nature, that they who live the longest shall know the most.
It is, as Herr Von Teulsdroch has it, true philosophy to endeavour to solve instead of to deny that which we cannot comprehend, therefore, I say in conclusion that, instead of treating as mythological the effusions of <... continues on page 10-432 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ A physiological Result of Mesmerism by Damiani, G., London Spiritualist, The, No. 420, September 10, 1880, p. 127
- ↑ Spiritualistic Nomenclature by Truthseeker, London Spiritualist, The, No. 420, September 10, 1880, p. 127
- ↑ Statuvolence by Tupper, Frank P., London Spiritualist, The, No. 420, September 10, 1880, p. 127
- ↑ Speculations About the Perpetuation of the Material Body by Rea, John, London Spiritualist, The, No. 420, September 10, 1880, pp. 127-28
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 420, September 10, 1880, p. 127