Isis Study, October 22, 2012.

Summary and comments on Isis study held on October 22, 2012 at Bangalore ULT 

 

Chapter XI : Realities and Illusions

Pages covered : p. 483-487 (Volume I)

Continuing the discourse on the phenomenon  of Suspended Animation and on the signs of real  death as distinguished from the apparent death, the teachings of the Occult philosophy is given by the Teachers, by which students can discern the vast hiatus between Occult Science and modern Science.

Many a remarkable  recorded cases of suspended animation in the 19^th century is given. No doubt numerous cases of the phenomenon are recorded in the contemporary times also. We only have to seek them and bring them to light.

The remarkable case of the wife of a wealthy merchant in Moscow is cited. She was in a cataleptic state for seventeen days and the civic authorities of Moscow made attempts to dispose off the body. But the family members were wiser in that, having noticed that the decomposition of the body had not set-in, averted the funeral ceremony. After seventeen days she spontaneously revived and lived

Even our modern day medical profession would have pronounced her dead. This only shows that the medical profession even today is unable to be absolutely certain when exactly a person is really dead, as the occult inner-life dynamics are out of the reach of the methods of modern empirical science. What are the occult laws in operation in such cases ?

In cases of spontaneous re-animation of the dead, the recovery is due to an effort of the spirit of the dead person, which may be provoked by numerous causes. In such cases, as well in those cases in which the dead is brought back to life by the exercise of the will power of the thaumaturgist :

The astral body of the dead person has not parted from the physical body; the external functions are simply suspended; the subject is not really dead but in a state of torpor, and restoration is nothing but  a recovery from it.

What do Kabalists say as contrasted with the views of modern medicine?

 They say that death occurs at the instant when both the astral body (or the life-principle) and the spirit part for ever. Those who can see without error on inner hidden planes of being can know it.

Modern science, confined to the physical laws alone, cannot know the moment of separation of the inner from the outer man. Moreover, modern science denies both the astral body and the spirit, but admits nothing more than the life-principle. It, therefore, judges death when life is apparently absent. So, the criteria by which modern science judges death are : cessation of the functions of the heart and the lungs; setting-in of rigor mortis; and setting-in of decomposition of the body.

But the annals of modern medicine is full of recorded cases of “suspended animation” of people pronounced dead due to asphyxiation by drowning, inhalation of gases and other causes. Persons apparently dead due to drowning, even after 12 hours, have recovered.

There is still a most remarkable phenomenon of clear signs of death of those who go into somnambulistic trance. In such cases all the signs of clinical death are apparent.. Breathing and pulse are extinct, body heat has disappeared, muscles are rigid, eyes glazed and body colourless. A case of one Colonel Townhend is cited. He had a remarkable gift of dying any instant and recovering from death. He threw himself into trance before three medical professionals, who, finding all signs of death clearly present, were persuaded that he was dead. He then slowly revived and came back to life.

It may be noted that this power of voluntary suspended animation and revival after days and months of apparent death is quite common among Indian Yogis and Fakirs. They know practically the science of Life in both the physical and the metaphysical aspects. 

Signs of Real Death

 A man is not dead when the body is cold, stiff, pulseless, breathless, and even when displaying signs of decomposition. A man is not dead when buried, not afterwards, until a certain point is reached. That point is : when the vital organs have become so decomposed, that if re-animated, they could not perform their customary functions; the mainspring and the cogs of the machine, so to speak, are so rusted that they would snap upon turning the key. Until that point is reached, the astral body may be caused, without miracle, to re-enter its former tabernacle : either by its own will, or under the resistless impulse of the will of the one who knows the potencies of nature and how to direct them.

Limits of suspended animation and revival

 How do Fakirs remain apparently dead for weeks and months and revive ?  What are the limitations ? Prof. William Gregory’s Letters on Animal Magnetism is cited in which is described cases of most profound  clairvoyant catalepsy, obtained by the famous 19^th century Mesmerist, Baron Du Potet. The spirit is so far disengaged from the body that it is impossible to re-enter it without the effort of the mesmerizer’s will. The subject is practically dead, and, left to itself, the spirit would escape for ever. But the half-freed spirit is still tied to the body by a magnetic cord. It is described by the clairvoyants as appearing dark and smoky by contrast with the ineffable brightness of the astral atmosphere through which they look.

Once the magnetic thread is snapped, nothing can make the spirit to reanimate the body it has left. As long as the cord is intact, strong will of the mesmerizer can force it back into the body.

The great French Occultist, Eliphas Levy, says that resuscitation is  possible while the vital organism remains undestroyed, and the astral spirit is within reach.

Making statues walk and talk.

  The same knowledge and control of occult forces, by which a Fakir can temporarily leave the body and re-enter it at will, or force the astral spirit of the dead person to re-animate the body it has quit, as did Jesus, Elisha, Hierophants can also animate statues, make them walk and talk like living men, and even prophecy.

 It is by the same knowledge and power that Paracelsus, the famous but misunderstood Occultist of 15^th century Europe, to animate mandrogora (mandrake plants), Moses to cover Egypt with frogs and other pets, Aaron to turn his rod into a snake and a budding branch. There is nothing miraculous in this any more than the modern bio-chemists is able to culture a given kind of bacteria in his laboratory. The difference between the two is that the field of research of the former extended far into metaphysics and the latter is limited to physical and biological laws.

While modern science speculates on artificial intelligence, and creates it in robotics, still the hiatus between it and the truly human consciousness is impassable. But the ancients had the knowledge of infusing life and superior consciousness in inanimate objects making them talk, move about like living beings, and impart knowledge, prognosticate future events.

Ancient Theurgists and prophets performed wondrous feats by a thorough knowledge of the god-like powers of man who is the Micrcosm of the Macrocosm :

 When the present perfected European civilization was yet in its formative years, Occult Philosophy, already hoary with age, speculated upon the attributes of man by analogy with those of the Creator, and great Occultists demonstrated to their pupils by the example of their own persons how far could the god-like powers can be developed in man, the Microcosmos.

  

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Isis Study - October 14, 2012

Summary and comments on Isis study held on October 14, 2012 at Bangalore ULT

Chapter XI : Realities and Illusions

Pages covered : p. 479 – 483

 

We have been considering the phenomenon of the re-animation of the apparently dead. There are no absolutely unambiguous answer with modern science to the question : When are the “Dead” dead ? Confessedly there are no certain signs of real death. They have only external evidence. But inner unseen forces at work are inaccessible to tools and methods of modern science.

 External evidences of death are not proofs of real death

 i. immobility of the body ; ii. Cadaverous aspect of the body ; iii. The coldness of body surface ; iv. Absence of respiration and pulsation ; v. the sunken state of the eyes.

These are the criteria by which modern medicine determines death. But these are not certain and definite criteria, since, with all such external evidence there have been, and there are occurring even at this moment in every part of the globe, cases of people pronounced dead and yet reviving from apparent death, even after days and weeks of so-called clinical death. There are hundreds upon hundreds of cases  of people pronounced clinically dead and buried but found upon exhumation signs of reanimation of the body in the coffin, struggle to come out of the dreadful situation and death due to asphyxiation.

 Ancients knew of this

 Democritus and Pliny both asserted that there are no certain signs of real death. Asclepiades, the most distinguished men of his days in Greece, held that it is still more difficult to ascertain real death in case of women.

 Remarkable cases of suspended animation

 Todd Thomson gives an account of many such cases of suspended animation. Francis Neville, a Norman gentleman, twice apparently died, twice in the act of being buried, and both the times, just at the moment of the coffin being lowered, he revived and came back to life.

The case of a 17^th century Lady Russel : she was pronounced dead, taken to the graveyard and about to be buried. When the church bells rang during the funeral service, she sat up in the coffin and exclaimed – “It is time to go to the church !”

Diemerbroese speaks of a peasant who gave no signs of life for 3 days, and when taken to the grave to be buried, revived and lived long thereafter.

A search in the google, listverse.com 20/10/02/02, show top ten of the many horrifying cases premature burial.

The mystery of death

 View of modern science : Men are aggregate of atoms temporarily united by a mysterious force called life-principle. The only difference between the living and dead body is : in one case the life-force is active, and in the other latent. When it is extinct, or entirely latent, molecules obey superior attraction which draws them asunder and scatters them in space. This dispersion is death. But in that process, the dead body is exhibiting intense activity of disintegration and dispersal, which activity is Life.

If death is stoppage of digesting, locomotive and thought grinding machine, how can death be actual and not relative before that machine is thoroughly broken up and its particles dispersed ? So long as any of them cling together, the centripetal vital force may overmatch the dispersive centrifugal action.

Eliphas Levi, the great Occultist of Mediaeval France said :

Change attests movement, and movement only reveals life. The corpse would not decompose if it were dead. All the molecules which compose it are living and struggle to separate. Would you think spirit frees itself first of all to exist no more ? That thought and love can die when the gross forms of matter do not die ? If change be called death, we die and are born again every day, for every day our forms undergo change.

Kabalistic doctrine

 Man is not dead when his body is entombed. Death is never sudden. Nothing goes in nature by violent transitions. Everything is gradual. As it required a long and gradual development to produce the living human being, so time is required to completely withdraw vitality from the carcass. Death can no more be an absolute end, than birth a real beginning. Birth proves the pre-existence of the being, as death proves immortality.

 All cases of reviving the dead by the power of the will are cases of suspended animation :

 Devout Christians believe in the so-called miracle of resurrection of the daughter of Jairus by the word of command of Jesus but they repudiate the same work done by Apollonius, because he is a pagan. In the case of the Gospel account it is ‘Miracle,’ but in the case of pagans it is either the devil or fraud. Scientist on the other hand maintains a uniform stand, and that is, it is all hallucination or trickery.

Scepticism of the scientist and the fanatical dogma of miracle of the church would both stand to benefit and see a glimmer of truth in the phenomena, if only they pay close attention to what both Jesus and Apollonius said when resurrecting the apparently dead. Jesus said of Jairus’ daughter : “She is not dead but sleepeth.” This is a significant expression. If it is ignored, then the Church Fathers will fall into a self-contradiction—force their god to break his own laws and grants unjustly what he denies to others.

Apollonius exclaimed when re-animating the girl who was dead, “She had seemed to die.”

Which means, these are cases of suspended animation. Biographer of Apollonius, Philostratus, says that when the dead girl was being carried to the funeral pyre it was raining fast and her face being turned up, being beaten by rain, must have been a factor in her revival. He never regarded it as a miracle but a natural  phenomenon.

All these go to demonstrate that Asclepiades, Apollonius and many such sages had the merit of distinguishing at a glance between the real death and apparent death.

Limits of suspended animation

 Resuscitation is possible as long as the the electric thread (or Magnetic cord) which links the inner vital body and the physical body is intact. It may remain intact long after so-called clinical death. But science with its narrow methods and theories cannot investigate the subtle realm. But the true scientists, the Occultists, can know by one simple glance, the actual situation, and are able to resuscitate the apparently dead with the power of their Will.

But once the magnetic cord is snapped, as it will, in the natural process of physical death, nothing or no one can resuscitate the dead; then death is irreversible. The soul will have to return back to reincarnation through the cyclic and Karmic law.

Resurrection of the dead by the word of command is a lost science

 Asclepiades, Apollonius enjoyed exceptional powers for discernment of actual death and were able to recall to life those who were seemingly dead back to life in an instant, with pronouncing a word of command. Should modern science deny and repudiate these well attested accounts because they are not amenable to its present methods of investigation ?                                                                                  It is not likely that they will get better of their prejudice and begin discover the lost science.

 There were colleges for teaching prophecy and Occult sciences

 In olden times Thaumaturgists were not called charlatans and Occult science were not derided. There were in those days colleges which taught prophecy and Occult sciences. Hillel had a regular academy, Socrates is said too have sent many students to study Manticism. The study of magic, or wisdom, included every branch of science, the metaphysical as well as the physical, psychology and physiology in their common and occult phases. Study of alchemy was universal since it was both physical and a spiritual science. Ancients studied nature in its double aspects and achieved discoveries which, to our modern day physicists, who study bur its dead letter, is a closed book.

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ISIS STUDY - OCTOBER 8, 2012

Summary and comments on Isis study held on October 8, 2012 at Bangalore ULT

Chapter XI : Realities and Illusions

Pages covered : p. 470 – 479

 It was said in the Isis study report of 16^th Sept – 1^st October that for every discovery made by science there looms before it  a hundred unexplained mysteries. For instance, what is Life ? What is the nature of the difference between the living organism and the dead organism ? So far as chemical and physical forces are concerned there is none till a considerable decomposition of the latter has taken place. Yet  the difference is immense, inconceivably great. What is the nature of this different “something,” where has it gone ? This is a question on which there are speculations and controversies in the academies but nothing is known with certainty. This is because science confines itself merely to the physical, and Man and Nature is regarded as just physical machinery and no more. The Psyche and the Spirit of things are disbelieved in, and even ridiculed. Blind as it is to psychic and spiritual side of Nature and Man, it stands dumb before the mysteries of vital force, of mind, soul and spirit.              

 Only the ancient Oriental psychology has the answers with experimental proofs and ages of experience gathered from remotest past. For it there is no mystery of life remains to be  discovered. Yet modern academies should ignore these is a commentary on the power of bias and prejudice which human mind is generally infested with. Bias, prejudice and scepticism are stumbling blocks in the way of true progress.

This mysterious Life, or Vital Force, which give vital activity, intelligence and consciousness to the organism, and the absence of which makes the organism dead, is demonstrated in innumerable experiments in the phenomenon of :

Reanimation of apparently dead people

Ancient science repudiates the idea of miracle. There are no miracles as the Christian Church proclaims to, and fastens on, the minds of its credulous followers. Apparent miracle is due to the working of laws of Nature not generally known and hence called miracle. If a knowledge of the laws are known it would seem to be perfectly natural, demonstrable and replicable.

 In all ages and everywhere, and at the present time, there have been innumerable cases of reanimation of the dead. We have in the Gospels the story of Lazarus, who was dead, being restored to life by Jesus. Is it a miracle? Certainly not. Thousands of such revivals have been made and thousands, who were proclaimed dead, have naturally revived. Like Jesus, thaumaturgists have accomplished done it in all times.

 The chief difficulty of science to explain this lies in the following two vital points :

 1. The ultimate moment of separation of the Inner Man or Soul from the Outer Body, the casket, when the body is declared dead by science.

2. A prevailing unbelief in the existence of ether soul, or spirit, in Man.

Death results when the Inner Ethereal Soul, Inner Man, withdraws from the outer body, due to the body organism becoming too worn by disease or old age. But as long as the vital connection between the Inner Man and the outer body is not completely, irretrievably, ruptured, the Inner Man may re-enter its body, or made to re-enter it by the will power of the thaumaturgist.

 Will-power of man is so tremendously potential that it can re-animate a body apparently dead, by drawing back the flitting soul that has not yet quite ruptured the thread that through life had bound the two together.

 Experiments :

Many Fakirs in India have allowed themselves to be buried alive before thousands of witnesses, and weeks afterwards have been disinterred and resuscitated. The processes is analogous to hibernation. Jesus, Gymnosophists of India, Apollonius of Tyana and many other prophets and Seers knew the mysteries of life and death thoroughly, very much more than what modern science knows.

That Soul, the vital principle, which animates the body giving it life, vital activity, conscience and consciousness, the absence of which renders the body dead—what is it ? “Whence it came, whither it was going ?” asked Le Conte, the French scientist.

St. Paul, Jesus, Apollonius, Elsisha, ascetics and learned initiates might have recalled to life any man who “was not dead but sleeping” without any miracle.

The axiom is : If the molecules of the cadaver are imbued with the physical and chemical forces of the living organism what is it to prevent them from being set again in motion, provided we know the nature of the vital force, and who to command it.

 Three hypotheses reg. re-animation of the apparently dead are in currency:

Comparison and contrast of them reveals wherein lies the truth.

 1. Theory of science :

For the materialist there is no question of re-infusion of the soul for soul has no existence for him. Human body is looked upon as a vital engine—a locomotive which will start upon the application of heat and force, and stop when they are withdrawn.

2. The Christian Theological view :

To the theologian death cuts asunder the tie which binds the soul and the body, and one no more be returned into the other without a miracle than the born infant can be compelled to resume its foetal life after parturition and the severing of the umbilicus.

3. The doctrine of the Hermetic philosopher

He stands between the above two irreconcilable antagonists, master of the situation. He knows the nature of the soul—a form composed of nervous fluid and atmospheric ether—and knows how the vital force can be made active or passive at will, so long as there is no final destruction of some necessary organ.

The 4 of the 10 axioms of ancient psychology, given in the previous study class blog notes, may be referred to. They throw clear light on the phenomenon and show the relative merits of the forgoing three views.

Experiments to show that Astral Soul is distinct and separable from the body :

 1. Presence of the Astral form in the ashes of the burnt body of plants.

 It was not unknown to European science as far back as 16^th century that the ethereal form of plants were retained in the ashes of the plants and which could be resuscitated. Ashes of burned plants contained in vials, when heated, exhibited their forms. Du Chesne, eminent chemist, assured himself of the fact.

If the astral form of a plant still lingers in its ashes when the plant is dead and burned, could the soul of man, the inner Ego, disappear when the human body is dead ? It must persist and, given proper conditions, should be capable of re-entering and re-animating the body it had cast off. Philosophers say that at death one body exudes the other, by osmose and through the brain. It is held near its old garment by a  double attraction, physical and spiritual, till the physical is decomposed. If before decomposition, if proper conditions are furnished, the soul can re-inhabit the body and resume suspended life. It happen in sleep, in trance, and an Adept in Occultism, by the exercise of his Will, can force it back into the body, like Jesus is reported to have done, in the Gospels, in the case of Lazarus. Such Adepts are “full of God,” says Iamblichus. All the subordinate spirits of the upper sphere are at his command, as he no longer a mortal, but a god.

2. Telepthy and Astral projection or travel

 Proposition no. 9 says :

One of the phases of magical skill is voluntary withdrawal of the inner man from the outer body, at will, and cause it to perform long  journeys.

Numerous unimpeachable evidences are on record of persons having witnessed such performances. Hermotinus, according to Pliny and Plutarch, could at will fall into trance, and his second soul proceeded to any distant place he chose.

Abbe Fretheim in 17^th century could converse with friends, irrespective of great distance that separated them, by the power of his will, convey his thoughts to whomsoever he wished, even caused dreams to be seen by others far away whatever he wished them to dream. He also caused his double to appear to several persons, far away, at the same time. His power to project his double was demonstrated without doubt.

3. Burial and resuscitation of Fakirs in India

 Thousands of witnesses testify to this. Fakirs allow their bodies to be buried for as much as 6 feet under the ground for an indefinite period and come back alive when disinterred. In the book, “Camp and Court of Ranjit Singh,” Osborne describes such a feat by a Fakir in the court of the Prince Ranjit Singh. The Fakir was buried for 6 weeks under ground. Care was taken to ensure that no deception was practiced. When he was disinterred his body was clinically dead, as ascertained by a physician. There was no heat in the body and no pulse, but there was some warmth in the region of the brain. After treatment, such as, pouring hot water in the body, friction, removal of wax and pledgets from ears and nostrils etc. pulse returned, he slowly recovered and spoke to people around. His tongue had been thrust back to block the gullet. The Fakir explained that this was done to prevent air from entering the body interior which, otherwise, would have caused germs of decay to enter the bodily organ and destroy organs.

What do these phenomena prove ?

 That there is a vital principle and a soul in, and separable from the body, that at death separation of the two take place, and that one can learn this science and be able to consciously withdraw from the body and re-enter it at will.

Another question it raises is ; When is dead really dead ?  What is the criteria for declaring a person who has died that he is really dead ? Modern medicine has certain criteria but there have been innumerable cases of resuscitation long after clinical death has been pronounced. There is no certain standard test by which modern medicine can say that a person is really dead despite the fact that by its known clinical tests death has occurred. Are there not innumerable revivals inside the grave after the persons were declared dead and buried ?

To be continued in the next installment.

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Isis Study of 16th September to 1st October 2012

Sunday, September 16^th, 23^rd and October 1st 2012, at the Bangalore ULT

Chapter XIII :  Realities and Illusions
Pages covered : 466 to 474

The propositions one to five of Asiatic Psychology, out of the ten propositions, state as follows :

Proposition 1 : There are no miracles. Everything that happens is the result of law—eternal, immutable, ever active.

Proposition 2 : Nature is triune; there is a visible, objective nature; and invisible, indwelling, energizing nature, the exact model of the other, and its vital principle; and above these two, spirit, source of all forces, alone eternal, and indestructible. The lower two constantly change; the higher third does not.

Proposition 3 : Man is also triune : he has his objective, physical body; his vitalizing astral body (or soul), the real man; and these two are brooded over and illuminated by the third—the sovereign, immortal spirit. When the real man succeeds in merging himself with the latter, he becomes an immortal entity.

Propositions 4 : Magic, as a science, is the knowledge of these principles, and the way by which the omniscience and omnipotence of the spirit and its control over nature’s forces may be acquired by the individual while still in the body. Magic as an art, is an application of this knowledge in practice.

 Proposition 5 : Arcane knowledge misapplied, is sorcery; beneficently used, true magic or WISDOM.

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 The propositions show that the modern learning and research is confined to the outer Nature, and modern science ignores the inner psychic and still deeper spiritual aspects of Man and Nature. The ancient  Science, on the other hand, had penetrated the hidden mysteries of Occult Nature, discovered the potent creative laws and powers, and applied them in practice. Science, by its methods, can know only physical and chemical properties of things, and is unaware of their hidden occult potencies. Science studies only the body of man but is ignorant of the psycho-physiological, psycho-spiritual and divine powers and faculties latent in Man.

Hence to science there are innumerable unexplained mysteries, and those presumably explained hardly one may be said to have become absolutely intelligible. There is not a plant or mineral which has disclosed the last of its properties to scientists. How can they be sure that for every one of the discovered properties there may not be many powers concealed in the inner nature of the plant or stone? And that they are waiting to be brought in relation with some other plant, mineral, or force of nature to manifest themselves in what is called a “super-natural manner.”

Pliny, the ancient naturalist, Aelian, Diodorus, through their own researches into the hidden meaning in ancient fables and extricated from them the truth that some plants and minerals occult properties unknown to moderns. But our modern day schools dismiss such claims as absurd and ignore them.  

The mystery of vital principle

Professor Joseph Le Conte posed a question to his fellow-scientists : what is the difference between a living and a dead organism? He says he can detect none so far as physical and chemical properties are concerned, till the dead body is gradually disintegrated. He asks, can the nature of the difference expressed in formula of material science? What is that is gone and whither is it gone? There is something here science cannot yet understand.. Yet it is this loss which takes place at death. It is the Vital Force.

This Vital Force is the universal motor of all – Life. To explain its nature, even to suggest a reasonable hypothesis, the mystery is but a half mystery, not only for the great Adepts and Seers, but to the believer in a spiritual world too.

Divine Faith, unerring Intuition

To the simple believer there remains divine Faith, which is rooted in his inner senses. It is his unerring intuition with which cold reason has noting to do. It is ineradicable from human psyche.

Experiments which prove that animals possess clairvoyance

Every animal is more or less endowed with the faculty of perceiving things which are not visible to common men, and which can only be discovered by a clairvoyant. H.P.B., in her long study and research all over the world, said she witnessed hundreds of experiments being done with cats, dogs, monkeys, and once with a tamed tiger. Two experiments were done in India—one by a holy mendicant and the other by a sorcerer. Besides confirming possession of clairvoyant faculty by the tiger, the experiments also brought out the difference between White Magic and Black Magic, as the experiments were performed one after the other by the two Magicians. A black mirror known as “magic crystal” was strongly mesmerized by the Hindu Fakir and the tiger made to look into it. The animal’s sight was transfixed to the image, invisible to others, which it saw, unable to take its sight off it, its eyes following the movements of the image.

When it was the sorcerer’s turn, he too went though similar magnetization of the mirror. The tiger howled, groaned and terrified by the image it saw, and at last, breaking the chain with which it was bound, dashed out of the open window.

They demonstrated that animals possess naturally the clairvoyant faculty, and even able to discern between good and bad spirits.

Both these magicians possessed masterly control over animals. They would make the most ferocious beast like a tiger as harmless as a kitten in their presence, such that even children could tease and pull their ears and so on, and the animal would just submit itself.

Demonstration of sovereign Will of man in controlling forces of Nature

HPB quotes from a report of a French traveller  which was published in a New York news paper called Franco American.

One Indian Fakir, Chib Chondar, demonstrated his magical skills. Ten deadly cobras were entwining the limbs of his body. He took out a small pipe tuck in his hair and produced sounds  resembling the call of a bird. The serpents uncoiled themselves from his body, came on the ground, raised one-third of their body and kept time with their master’s music. The Fakir drops his instrument and makes several passes over the serpents which became motionless and rigid like a stick. His eyes assume a strange expression. The French reporter and others who were witnessing the performance felt uneasy and sought to turn away from his gaze, and they later said that if continued his gaze for some more time they would have succumbed to irresistible sleep which came over them. The monkey, his companion, which was trained by him to bring him fire in a brazier, had fallen asleep. He ordered the sleeping monkey to fetch him fire. Obeying the master it does so, even though in a fit of sleep, and then lay down asleep again. The witnesses pulled pinched the monkey to ensure it was really asleep, yet in sleep it obeyed its master’s orders.

They examined the snakes. They all lay in a cataleptic state, like hard wooden sticks. Fakir then awakens them with a few mesmeric passes, and they all slither towards him and coil themselves round his limbs as before.

The  Fakir made mesmeric passes over the limbs of witnesses and suddenly they lose control over their own limbs, nor could they raise from their seats. He makes some more passes and they regain control.

He then went on to show the power of will on inanimate objects.  By mere passes of his hands in the direction of the objects he acted on them without moving from his seat. He paled and extinguished lights in the room, moved furniture without touching them, catching sight of gardener outside who was drawing water from a well he makes passes in the direction and the rope which was being lowered in to the well stopped moving to the astonishment of the gardener. He makes another pass and the rope obeys the gravity and descends into the well.

When asked how he performed such feats, his answer was simple : “I have only one means. ..The will. Man, who is the end of all intellectual and material forces, must dominate over all. The Brahmans know nothing besides this.”

DHARANI – the Hindu mystic charm

Colonel Yule (google search will tell information about him) speaks of this charm. Such feats are produced :
-Sticking pegs into hard rock.
-restoring dead to life.
-turning a dead body into gold.
-penetrating everywhere as air does (in astral form).
-flying.
-Catching wild beasts by hand.
-reading thoughts.
-Making water flow backward.
-eating tiles.
-sitting in the air with legs doubled under. Etc.

Simon the Magus, the contemporary of St. Paul, the Apostle, is credited to have performed all these feats. Of course, the Roman Catholic Church denounced him and accused him of performing his phenomena with the help of the “Devil”—a theological invention.

HPB says in answer :
“We believe WILL-POWER the most powerful of magnets. The existence of such magical power in certain persons is proved, but the existence of the Devil is a fiction which no theology is able to demonstrate.”

A detail account of trustworthy witnesses if given of the famous Indian rope trick : The juggler throwing one end of a rope high into the air, sends a boy up the rope, who disappears in the sky. The juggler call his down. Not coming down in obedience to his order, the infuriated juggler takes a knife and climbs up the rope so high as to disappear from sight. Then fall on the ground one by one bloody limbs and flesh and severed head of the boy on the ground. The juggler climbs down, puts all the limbs together and the boy comes alive as before to the astonishment of audience.

This is again an exhibition of power of Imagination and Will by which the performer can make people see what he wills them to see. 

Next the phenomenon of reanimation of the apparently dead and the rational of it will be considered.