Isis Study – October-December 2013 - Part 5: Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 612 - 617

The previous blog no. 4 ended with a note :

It will be shown that fanaticism of Christian Church and of modern scientist are a formidable barrier to advancement of true knowledge and enlightenment. This will be followed by an exposition of some of the astounding occult phenomena which ancient Theurgists produced, which are denied by modern science and denounced by Christian Church as diabolical.

Conceit and hypocrisy bar the sceptical scientists from exploring the realms of the unseen universe.

Says the great Teacher, the author of Isis Unveiled :

“Spheres unknown below our feet; spheres still more unknown and still more unexplored above us; between the two a handful of moles, blind to God’s great light, and deaf to the whispers of the invisible world, boasting that they lead mankind. Where? Onward, they claim; but we have a right to doubt it. The greatest of our physiologists, when placed side by side with a Hindu Fakir, who knows neither how to read nor write, will very soon find himself feeling as foolish as a school-boy who has neglected to learn his lesson.”

It is in vain that scientists try to prove that there is no soul or spirit in man and nature. It is not by vivisection of living animals that the physiologist assure himself of the existence of man’s soul. Sergeant Cox, then President of the London Psychological Society, questioned : which sane man, who knows nothing of magnetism or physiology, who had never witnessed an experiment nor learned its principles, would proclaim himself a fool by denying its facts and denouncing its theories. Yet two-thirds of our modern day scientists do precisely that. Few indeed are there among the scientific fraternity who are brave and honest to utter wholesome truths, however disagreeable. It would be impertinence on the part of one who would venture to pronounce judgment on a discipline in which he has no proficiency. Physical scientists do exactly that on questions of psychology and all that pertains to it without having witnessed any of its phenomena, and in entire ignorance of its principles and practices.

Universal beliefs rise from foundation of truth and fact.

Ancient magic is occult psychology, and belief in magic is universal. For a belief to have become universal it must have been founded on an immense accumulation of facts. Porphyry and Proclus asserted that even inanimate objects, such as statues of gods, could be made to move and exhibit factitious life for a few moments. Can those who have testified that they have seen tables and chairs move and walk, and pencils write, without contact deny the claims of Porphry and Proclus ?

Yet, modern progress rests on great achievements of ancients, whose ideas, even the very names, such as, ‘senate,’ ‘consuls,’ ‘perfects,’ etc. have been borrowed by moderns. It is admitted that Napolean the Great conquered three-fourths of Europe by applying the principles of war taught by Caesars and Alexanders, and yet they assume they know better than his preceptor, and they would commit believers in animated tables to lunatic asylum.

“I will pout my spirit upon all flesh,” writes Prophet Joel; “Verily I say unto you......greater works than these shall you do,” promises Jesus. These are no idle words. They are prophetic—of the fact that the world will return to the grand religion of the past : knowledge of those majestic systems which preceded by far, Brahmanism, and even the primitive monotheism of the ancient Chaldeans.

The religion of the ancients is the religion of the future.

A few centuries more, and there will linger no sectarian beliefs in either of the great religions of humanity, Brahmanism and Buddhism, Christianity and Mahometanism will all disappear before the mighty rush of facts.

Animated statues

The means by which the wise priests of old could impress upon the grosser senses of the multitude the idea of Omnipotence of the Creative Will, or FIRST CAUSE, was to practically demonstrate to them, by exercise of their own sovereign irresistible Will, animation of inert matter by infusing soul into it, and transport ponderous objects through space and material objects without physical contact; and thus show that all this could be done because Man is the microcosmic image of the great Architect of the Universe.

Phenomenon of liquefaction of blood

The coagulated blood of the Catholic saint at San Gearro, in Naples, is made to boil and fume in its crystal bottle, and from its jewelled shrine the martyr’s idol beams radian smiles and blessings at the Christian congregations. The Hindu priest plunges an arrow into the god’s breast, and produces his ‘miracles,’ for the blood gushes forth in streams, and water in changed into blood.  Devotees of followers of both fall in raptures at the sight of the phenomena. Yet, Christian clergy denounce and dismiss the pagan phenomena the work of the devil.

Hermes on Theopoea : talking and walking statues of gods and saints

Hermes Trismegistus propounded a universal axiom when he said as the Highest One is the father of the celestial gods, so is man the artisan of the gods who reside in the temples, and who delight in the society of mortals. Man can imitate the divine powers of the Deity. Father Creator has made in His image the eternal gods ; so mankind in its turn makes its gods in its own image. Here Hermes spoke of the statues of gods mankind make, that these statues are endowed with reason, that they are animated with a soul, and that they can operate greatest prodigies, such as, predicting the future when forced to do so by magical spells. Thus man invented and created gods. Goes on Hermes :

“Powerless to create soul and spirit, they evoke the souls of angels and demons in order to introduce them into the consecrated statues; and so make them preside at their Mysteries, by communicating to idols their own faculty to do good as well as evil.”

A historical account of walking and talking statue at Lourdes and Rome

Exhibition of intelligence and locomotive powers of man made gods—idols—is not a part of prehistoric legends  but have their witnesses in modern  Christian  western world also. The statue of the Madonna of Lourdes runs away several times to the woods adjoining her usual residence, the parish church. The official in charge of the church had to hunt after the runaway and bring her home more than once. News papers of the place in the summer and autumn of 1876 reported the incidents. Then began a series of “miracles”—healing, prophesying, letter dropping from on high, and so on. These “miracles” are accepted by millions of Roman Catholics, a number of whom belonging to the intelligent and educated classes. Why then discredit and doubt historical accounts of the phenomena of the same character by accredited and esteemed historians, such as, Titus Livy ? He reports that upon a Roman soldier, after the conquest of that city,  requesting the statue of goddess of Rome, Juno, to leave the abode of Veii, and change this abode to for that of Rome, Juno nods her head in acquiescence, saying, “I will.” Upon receiving the consent of the goddess, when her statue of immense weight was lifted to transport it, it seemed to instantly lose its weight¸ and that the statue seemed to follow them than otherwise. (Tite.Livy, v. Dec, i—val. Max., cap. Vii)

De Mousseaux lists numerous instances of Christian and pagan phenomena

He recorded instances of walking statues of saints and Madonnas, who lose their weight and move about like living men and women. He also presents unimpeachable evidences of similar phenomena narrated by classical authors who describe their “miracles.” True to his Christian calling de Mousseaux, after giving facts, supporting the same with his arguments and reflections, makes bare his motive in his conclusions. According to him the Christian “miracle” is produced by God, and the pagan one by the Devil. Why did he do so, as Christian missionaries to this day ? He himself answers:

“The Holy Roman Catholic and Apostolical Church declares the miracles wrought by her faithful sons produced by the will of God; and all others the work of the spirits of Hell.” He shows an endless list of holy writers :
“Your idols, your consecrated statues, are the abode of demons,” exclaims St. Cyprian. “Yes, it is these spirits who inspire your divines, who animate the bowels of your victims, who govern the flight of birds, and who, mixing incessantly falsehood with truth, render oracles, and ....operate prodigies, their object being to bring you invincibly to their worship.” (De Idol., lib. i. P. 452)

Animation of inert matter with life and intelligence by the potent Will of the Hierophant

From remotest ages there has existed an awful and mysterious science under the denomination, Theopoea. It is the art of endowing various symbols of gods with temporary life and intelligence under the potential Will of the Hierophant.  Left to itself, the life-principle will blindly follow the laws of nature, producing health or causing death and dissolution. But, guided by the Will of the Adept, its currents  obediently restores the equilibrium in organic bodies, fill waste, and produce physiological and psychological prodigies, miscalled miracles, well known to mesmerizers. Infused in inert matter they create an appearance of life and motion. The operator may even infuse his Astral Spirit into it and endow it with intelligence and a personality. Alternately, he may force one of the nature spirits by the power of his Will into the marble, wood or metal; he may even be helped by the human spirits. Of the class of human spirits, only the earth-bound vicious ones infuse their essence into the objects, not the higher, holy ones. The Holy human spirits will leave the lower class to infuse similitude of life and animation, and send a ray of the divine light from their supernal spheres through the intervening spheres, for the purposes of public good. Such phenomena of truly spiritual kind is possible under the condition of purity of motive,  purity of surrounding magnetic atmosphere, and personal purity of the operator. Thus the pagan “miracle” may be far holier than a Christian one, and this is Magic of the ancients.

Fanaticism in science and religion

Fanaticism blinds our senses. It is futile to argue with a fanatic. Sergeant Cox spoke words of wisdom on this question in a lecture. He said that it is a fatal policy to expect that the truth will prevail by its own force, that it has to be seen to be  embraced ; that desire for truth exists in very few minds; when men say they are seeking the truth, they actually mean that they are looking for evidence to support some prejudice or prepossession; that their beliefs are moulded to their wishes; that they are blind as bats to whatever tells against them; and that scientists are no more exempt from this common failing than others.

In the next blog, 6th, achievements of ancient India will be recounted and shown that every modern discovery is found anticipated in Indian history. All the world religions and philosophies are traceable to that Mother of civilizations.

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Isis Study – July-September 2013 – Part 4 : Summary and discussions

Isis unveiled, vol. I

Chapter XV –INDIA THE CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION

Pages 606 – 611

The previous blog  no. 3 ended with a note :

In the next blog, number 4, the so-called superstitions of native peoples so unceremoniously dismissed by materialistic sceptics and agnostics will be discussed. It will be shown that open-minded and unbiased  investigation and understanding of these out-of-the-ordinary phenomena on the principles of ancient psychology will greatly extend the horizon of modern science.

Shark and wild beast charmers of India and Ceylon

Marcopolo has recorded in his travelogue the enterprise of pearl fishery of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). He describes how pearl merchants engaged certain   communities living on the coast to bring up pearls by diving into the sea infested with sharks with the help of shark and wild beast charmers, who, by exercising their psychic powers, prevented the sharks from harming the divers. He called fish charmers Abraiman, probably meaning Brahmans.  He said that  the charmers exercised the power over the sharks to be effective only for the day, and that at the expiry of the period the sharks, freed from the spell, roamed freely in their habitat. These charmers, he said, had the powers to charm from a distance, beasts, birds and every living thing.

While sceptical readers of Marco Polo received his accounts with incredulity, charging him with concocting fictitious tales, Colonel Yule, in his work, Ser Marcopolo, reports that his investigations showed that narrations of Marco Polo were substantially correct. He reported that certain Brahmins were employed in the diamond mines of northern Circars to propitiate tutelary genii. Shark charmers were called Hai Bandi, or “shark binders.” The chief operator was paid by the government, besides receiving ten oysters from each boat during the fishery. The remarkable feature of the power of charms these natives exercised was that not more than one authenticated accident from sharks had taken place during the whole period of the British occupation. It is well known that that off the coast of Sri Lanka the sea is inhabited by sharks of the most voracious kind that it is dangerous to bathe in the sea, let alone to dive for oysters. Col. Yule was even prepared to give the names of the British Officers of highest rank in the Indian service, who resorted to native “magicians” and “sorcerers” to assist them in recovering things lost, or in unravelling vexatious mysteries of one kind or another, and after obtaining the object of their search, expressed privately to the native charmers their gratitude, but, out of fear of being ridiculed and laughed at by their peers, denied truth of magic and led the jest against Hindu “superstition.”

Image of the murdered man imprinted on the retina of the murderer

Scientists at one time believed that the retina of the murdered person retains the image of the murderer, and that the likeness could be made still more striking by subjecting the murdered man to certain fumigations, etc. An American News Paper of March 26, 1877 reported that the theory then held was that the last effort of vision materialized itself and remained as an object imprinted on the retina of the eye after death, and that this had been proved as a fact by an experiment tried in the presence of Dr. Gamgee, F.R.S., of Birmingham, England and Prof. Bunsen, the subject being a rabbit. The eyes, it was reported, were placed near an opening in a shutter, and retaining the shape of the same after the animal had been deprived of life.

An account of a semi-magical séance in Paris

India is tirelessly projected by the Christian missionaries in the West as a country inhabited   by people given to idolatry and superstition. In Paris, a centre of civilization, a semi-magical soiree was held. It had all the features of  occult practices which the civilized West would look upon as superstition.

A detail report of the phenomena was furnished to HPB by John L. Sullivan, Ex-Minister  Plenipotentiary  of the U.S.A. to Portugal, who attended the semi-magical séance.

It was in Paris, in the house of a highly respectable physician, whose name he did not divulge as he had no authority to do so. He is referred to in the narration as Dr. X. Mr. Sullivan  was introduced there by an English friend of his, a well known Spiritualist, by name Gledstanes. There were about ten observers who witnessed of the phenomenon.

Dr, X had investigated occult mysteries  for some twenty five years, which he exhibited to the assembled people. His object in exhibiting the phenomenon was to provoke scientific community to take up the investigation of the mysterious powers and faculties latent in man, which would extend the horizon of scientific knowledge into the domain of the hidden forces of Nature and of man. He intended to write a book on his discoveries and experiments.

The players in the exhibition of the phenomenon were two ladies, one was his wife, Madam X, and the other was whom O’ Sullivan called Madam Y. Madam Y was a sensitive, or, a Medium, who had worked closely with Dr. X in his experiments. The following performances were exhibited :

1. Both the ladies had their eyes closed, and apparently in trance. He had them stand at the opposite end of a grand piano, which was shut. He asked them to place their hands upon the piano. Sounds began to issue from its chords which were sounds of marching, galloping, drums, trumpets, rolling musketry, cannon, cries and groans. It lasted for five to ten minutes.

2. Before the two mediums were brought in, Mr. Sullivan had written in pencil on a small piece of paper the names of three objects—known only to himself : the name of the great composer, Beethoven (deceased), name of a flower, daisy, and a French cake, plombieres. He rolled the paper into a pellet and kept in his hand. None knew what he had written other than himself.

He was asked to hand in the rolled paper to madam Y. She held it unopened in between her fingers, placing her hand on her lap. The room was brilliantly lit from chandeliers from two sides of the room. After a while she dropped the paper on the floor, and Mr. Sullivan picked it up.

Dr. X directed her to make an “evocation of the dead.” He placed in her hand a steel rod of some four or five feet in length, the top of which was crowned with a short cross-piece—the Egyptian Tau. With it, the Tau at the free end, she drew a circle round her of about six feet in diameter and handed it back to Dr, X. She stood there for some time. Her lips began to move, muttered some sounds, which after a while became distinct in articulation, sounding like a litany. It sounded like some Oriental language, then loudly cried out “Beethoven !” and fell backwards, prostrate on the floor.

Dr. X leaned over her, made magnetic passes about her face and neck, propped her shoulders and neck with cushions. She laid there as a sick person for about half  an hour during which she seemed to pass through phases of gradual death. Her pulse ceased, heart beat stopped, her hands, arms and arms pit, feet and legs became cold. Dr. X invited the assembled to examine these details. Her gasping for breath came at longer intervals and grew more and more feeble. At last her end came, head falling sideways. She was dead.

Dr. X hastened to revive her. He produced two snakes (from where O Sullivan said he did not notice), huddled them about her neck and down to her bosom, and made eager transverse passes about her neck and head. She slowly revived, and servants carried her off into a private apartment. After a while she returned in good shape. The doctor said she was critical and that but for the exercise in reviving her she would not have survived. It was not any trickery as it was witnessed by eminent people, among whom were respectable physicians, and under the glaring light in a drawing room.

3. Madam Y returned. Mr. O sullivan still held the unopened pellet of paper containing the three words privately written by him. Name Beethovan was the first word. She sat for some time, began to move restlessly, and cried, “Ah, it burns, it burns,” her face showing signs of pain. She raised one of her hands, and it contained the daisy flower. Mr. O Sullivan received it from her. The assembled examined the flower. How the flower happened to come into her hands remained an unsolved puzzle for the observers—whether it was produced under her arms or was an apport, as happens in spiritualistic  phenomena.

4. The third word Mr. Sullivan had written was the name of the cake—plombieres. She went through the motion of eating though no cake was visible, and asked Mr. Sullivan whether he would go with her to Plombiere. Mr. Sullivan thought this could be a simple case of mind-reading.

5. This was followed by another scene in which Madam X seemed to be possessed by the spirit of Beethoven. Mr. Sullivan called out the name Beethoven but she did not hear him, until he called it out loudly in her ears. She responded with a slight bow. He remembered that Beethoven was deaf. He begged her to play on the piano. She sat at the piano and performed magnificently which was recognized by the company as in Beethoven’s style, though Madam Y was known to be only a very ordinary amateur performer.  She played and conversed for half an hour in the character of Beethoven. Her facial expression and tumbled hair strangely resembled Beethoven’s.

Mr. Sullivan placed in her hands a sheet of paper and a cryon and asked her to sketch the face of the person she saw before her. She rapidly sketched a head and face resembling Beethoven’s bust, as a young man, and dashed off a signature under it, which resembled the signature of the Composer.

The performance came to end. Mr. Sullivan conversed with his spiritualist friend, Mr Gledstanes about the phenomena they witnessed. Mr Gledstanes admitted action of spirits, as he was an experienced spiritualist, and besides, having studied occult mysteries of the Orient, was of the opinion  that it was something more than spiritualistic phenomena. He said that Madam Y was possessed by  priestess of one of the ancient Egyptian temples. The origin of  it was : Madam Y had received from a friend, who had come into possession of an Egyptian mummy, some of the linen swathing with which the muumified was enveloped. From the contact of this cloth of 2000 to 3000 years old, devotion of her whole existence to this occult relation, and twenty years of seclusion from the world, had developed mediumistic powers. The language she spoke was the sacred language of the temples in which she had been instructed. He said the French Orientalist, Jacolliot, had heard her in a similar scene and recognized the ancient language she spoke in temples of India. Mr. Gledstanes is reported by Mr. Sullivan to have remarked that the snake Dr. X had used in restoring Madam Y to life from near death condition had a strange relation to the phenomenon of life and death.

Mr. Sullivan learned from Mr. Gledstanes that Dr. X had given up further exhibitions of the  occult phenomena and powers  having been disgusted with the prejudice and scepticism of the scientific community and their refusal to impartially investigate the same.

This is an interesting case spiritualism transcending its limits and stepping into the domain of magic. In the phenomena features of mediumship are present, in the double life lived by Madam Y, in the subordination of her will to a foreign will, in the way priestess of Egyptian temples did, in the cataleptic condition into which she fell. Elements of magic is seen in the will-power exhibited by Dr. X upon his sensitive, in tracing the mystic circle, evocations, materialization of the flower, seclusion and education of Madam Y, use of wand, creation and use of serpents and evident control of Astral forces.

Such experiments are of value to science but liable to abuse in the hands of the less conscientious practitioners. A true Oriental Kabalists would not recommend their duplication.

What is it that bars scientific community to take up investigation of psychic phenomena ?

It is scepticism and agnostic denial of everything other than the material world and corporeal frame of man-animal. Yet science, in her explorations, meets at every step, with mysteries, which her methods are powerless to resolve. Science is honeycombed with metaphysics which stare her in the face at every turn as her investigations lead her on to the borders of the Occult World which she shrinks from daring to cross over into the vistas of the unknown. Scientists fool themselves in explaining away the occult mysteries by mechanical theories or denying them altogether.

In the next blog, number 5, this peculiar conceited and hypocritical traits of modern western scientists will be commented upon from theosophical perspective. This will be followed by an exposition of some of the astounding occult phenomena which ancient Theurgists produced, which are denied by modern science and denounced by Christian Church as diabolical. It will be shown that fanaticism of Christian Church and of modern scientist are a formidable barrier to advancement of true knowledge and enlightenment.

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