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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Second Sight, by Sepharial
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Second Sight
+       A study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance
+
+
+Author: Sepharial
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 16, 2008  [eBook #26633]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECOND SIGHT***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Ruth Hart
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+
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+
+
+
+SECOND SIGHT
+
+A Study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance
+
+by
+
+SEPHARIAL
+
+Author of "A Manual of Astrology," "Prognostic Astronomy," "A Manual
+of Occultism," "Kabalistic Astrology," "The Kabala of Numbers,"
+Etc., Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+William Rider & Son, Limited
+1912
+
+Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
+Brunswick Street, Stamford Street, S.E.,
+and Bungay, Suffolk.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Introduction                                 7
+Chapter I.     The Scientific Position      10
+Chapter II.    Materials and Conditions     21
+Chapter III.   The Faculty of Seership      29
+Chapter IV.    Preliminaries and Practice   39
+Chapter V.     Kinds of Vision              51
+Chapter VI.    Obstacles to Clairvoyance    59
+Chapter VII.   Symbolism                    67
+Chapter VIII.  Allied Psychic Phases        76
+Chapter IX.    Experience and Use           84
+Conclusion                                  93
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+Few words will be necessary by way of preface to this book,
+which is designed as an introduction to a little understood and
+much misrepresented subject.
+
+I have not here written anything which is intended to displace
+the observations of other authors on this subject, nor will it be
+found that anything has been said subversive of the conclusions
+arrived at by experimentalists who have essayed the study
+of clairvoyant phenomena in a manner that is altogether
+commendable, and who have sought to place the subject on a
+demonstrable and scientific basis. I refer to the proceedings of
+the Society for Psychical Research.
+
+In the following pages I have endeavoured to indicate the nature
+of the faculty of Second Sight or Clairvoyance, the means of its
+development, the use of suitable media or agents for this
+purpose, and the kind of results that may be expected to follow
+a regulated effort in this direction. I have also sought to show
+that the development of the psychic faculties may form an
+orderly step in the process of human unfoldment and perfectibility.
+
+As far as the nature and scope of this little work will allow, I
+have sought to treat the subject on a broad and general basis
+rather than pursue more particular and possibly more attractive
+scientific lines. What I have here said is the result of a personal
+experience of some years in this and other forms of psychic
+development and experimentation. My conclusions are given
+for what they are worth, and I have no wish to persuade my
+readers to my view of the nature and source of these abnormal
+phenomena. The reader is at liberty to form his own theory in
+regard to them, but such theory should be inclusive of all the
+known facts. The theories depending on hypnotic suggestion
+may be dismissed as inadequate. There appear to remain only
+the inspirational theory of direct revelation and the theory of the
+world-soul enunciated by the Occultists. I have elected in
+favour of the latter for reasons which, I think, will be
+conspicuous to those who read these pages.
+
+I should be the last to allow the study of psychism to usurp the
+legitimate place in life of intellectual and spiritual pursuits, and
+I look with abhorrence upon the flippant use made of the
+psychic faculties by a certain class of pseudo-occultists who
+serve up this kind of thing with their five o'clock tea. But I
+regard an ordered psychism as a most valuable accessory to
+intellectual and spiritual development and as filling a natural
+place in the process of unfoldment between that intellectualism
+that is grounded in the senses and that higher intelligence which
+receives its light from within. From this view-point the
+following pages are written, and will, I trust, prove helpful.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SCIENTIFIC POSITION
+
+It would perhaps be premature to make any definite pronouncement
+as to the scientific position in regard to the psychic phenomenon
+known as "scrying," and certainly presumptuous on my part
+to cite an authority from among the many who have examined
+this subject, since all are not agreed upon the nature and
+source of the observed phenomena. Their names are, moreover,
+already identified with modern scientific research and theory,
+so that to associate them with experimental psychology would
+be to lend colour to the idea that modern science has recognized
+this branch of knowledge. Nothing, perhaps, is further from
+the fact, and while it cannot in any way be regarded as derogatory
+to the highest scientist to be associated with others, of less
+scientific attainment but of equal integrity, in this comparatively new
+field of enquiry, it may lead to popular error to institute a connection.
+It is still fresh in the mind how the Darwinian hypothesis was utterly
+misconceived by the popular mind, the suggestion that man was descended
+from the apes being generally quoted as a correct expression of
+Darwin's theory, whereas he never suggested any such thing,
+but that man and the apes had a common ancestor, which makes
+of the ape rather a degenerate lemur than a human ancestor.
+Other and more prevalent errors will occur to the reader, these
+being due to the use of what is called "the evidence of the
+senses"; and of all criteria the evidence of sensation is perhaps
+the most faulty. Logical inference from deductive or inductive
+reasoning has often enough been a good monitor to sense-perception,
+and has, moreover, pioneered the man of science to correct
+knowledge on more than one occasion. But as far as we know
+or can learn from the history of human knowledge, our senses
+have been the chiefest source of error. It is with considerable
+caution that the scientist employs the evidence from sense
+alone, and in the study of experimental psychology it is the sense
+which has first to be corrected, and which, in fact, forms the great
+factor in the equation. A person informs me that he can see a vision in
+the crystal ball before him, and although I am in the same relation
+with the "field" as he, I cannot see anything except accountable
+reflections. This fact does not give any room for contradicting him or
+any right to infer that it is all imagination. It is futile to say the
+vision does not exist. If he sees it, it does exist so far as he is
+concerned. There is no more a universal community of sensation than of
+thought. When I am at work my own thought is more real than any
+impression received through the sense organs. It is louder than the
+babel of voices or the strains of instrumental music, and more
+conspicuous than any object upon which the eye may fall. These external
+impressions are admitted or shut out at will. I then know that
+my thought is as real as my senses, that the images of thought
+are as perceptible as those exterior to it and in every way as
+objective and real. The thought-form has this advantage,
+however, that it can be given a durable or a temporary existence,
+and can be taken about with me without being liable to impost
+as "excess luggage." In the matter of evidence in psychological
+questions, therefore, sense perceptions are only second-rate
+criteria and ought to be received with caution.
+
+Almost all persons dream, and while dreaming they see and
+hear, touch and taste, without questioning for a moment the
+reality of these experiences. The dreaming person loses sight of
+the fact that he is in a bedroom of a particular house, that he has
+certain relations with others sleeping in the same house. He
+loses sight of the fact that his name is, let us say, Henry, and
+that he is famous for the manufacture of a particular brand of
+soap or cheese. For him, and as long as it lasts, the dream is the
+one reality. Now the question of the philosopher has always
+been: which is the true dream, the sleeping dream or the waking
+dream? The fact that the one is continuous of itself while the
+other is not, and that we always fall into a new dream but
+always wake to the same reality, has given a permanent value to
+the waking or external life, and an equally fictitious one to the
+interior or dreaming life. But what if the dream life became
+more or less permanent to the exclusion of all other memories
+and sensations? We should then get a case of insanity in which
+hallucination would be symptomic. (The dream state is more or
+less permanent with certain poetical temperaments, and if there
+is any insanity attaching to it at all, it consists in the inability
+to react.) Imagination, deep thought and grief are as much
+anaesthetic as chloroform. But the closing of the external
+channels of sensation is usually the signal for the opening of the
+psychic, and from all the evidence it would seem that the
+psychic sense is more extensive, acuter and in every way more
+dependable than the physical. I never yet have met the man or
+woman whose impaired eyesight required that he or she should
+use glasses in order to see while asleep. That they do see is
+common experience, and that they see farther, and therefore
+better, with the psychic sense than with the physical has been
+often proved. Emanuel Swedenborg saw a fire in Stockholm
+when he was resident in England and gave evidence of it before
+the vision was confirmed by news from Sweden. A lady of my
+acquaintance saw and described a fire taking place at a country
+seat about 150 miles away, the incident being true to the
+minutest details, many of which were exceptional and in a
+single instance tragic. The psychic sense is younger than the
+physical, as the soul is younger than the body, and its faculty
+continues unimpaired long after old age and disease have made
+havoc of the earthly vestment. The soul is younger at a thousand
+years than the body is at sixty. Let it be admitted upon evidence
+that there are two sorts of sense perception, the physical and the
+psychical, and that in some persons the latter is as much in
+evidence as the former. We have to enquire then what relations
+the crystal or other medium has to the development and exercise
+of the clairvoyant faculty. We know comparatively little about
+atomic structure in relation to nervous organism. The atomicity
+of certain chemical bodies does not inform us as to why one
+should be a deadly poison and another perfectly innocuous. We
+regard different bodies as congeries of atoms, but it is a singular
+fact that of two bodies containing exactly the same elements in
+the same proportions the one is poisonous and the other
+harmless. The only difference between them is the atomic
+arrangement.
+
+The atomic theory refers all bodies to one homogeneous basic
+substance, which has been termed protyle (proto-hyle), from
+which, by means of a process loosely defined as differentiation,
+all the elements are derived. These elements are the result of
+atomic arrangement. The atoms have various vibrations, the
+extent of which is called the mean free path of vibration;
+greatest in hydrogen and least in the densest element. All matter
+is indestructible, but at the same time convertible, and these
+facts, together with the absolute association of matter and force,
+lead to the conclusion that every change of matter implies a
+change of force. Matter, therefore, is ever living and active,
+and there is no such thing as dead matter anywhere. The hylo-idealists
+have therefore regarded all matter as but the ultimate expression
+of spirit, and primarily of a spiritual origin.
+
+The somewhat irksome phraseology of Baron Swedenborg has dulled
+many minds to a sense of his great acumen and philosophical depth, but
+it maybe convenient to summarize his scientific doctrine of
+"Correspondences" in this place as it has an important bearing on the
+subject in hand. He laid down the principle of the spiritual origin of
+force and matter. Matter, he argued, was the ultimate expression of
+spirit, as form was that of force. Spirit is to force what matter is to
+form--its substratum. Hence for every spiritual force there is a
+corresponding material form, and thus the material or natural world
+corresponds at all points to the world of spirit, without being
+identical. The apparent hiatus between one plane of existence and the
+next he called a discrete degree, while the community between different
+bodies on the same plane he called a continuous degree. Thus
+there is community of sensation between bodies of the same
+nature, community of feeling, community of thought, and
+community of desire or aspiration, each on its own plane of
+existence. But desire is translated into thought, thought into
+feeling, and feeling into action. The spirit, soul (rational and
+animal in its higher and lower aspects), and the body appear to
+have been the principles of the human constitution according to
+this authority. All spirits enjoy community, as all souls and all
+bodies on their respective planes of existence; but between spirit
+and soul, as between soul and body, there is a discrete degree.
+In fine, mind is continuous of mind all through the universe, as
+matter is continuous of matter; while mind and matter are
+separated and need to be translated into terms of one another.
+
+Taking our position from the scientific statement of the atomic
+structure of bodies, atomic vibration and molecular arrangement,
+we may now consider the action exerted by such bodies upon
+the nervous organism of man.
+
+The function of the brain, which may be regarded as the
+bulbous root of a plant whose branches grow downwards, is
+twofold: to affect, and to be affected. In its active and positive
+condition it affects the whole of the vital and muscular
+processes in the body, finding expression in vital action. In its
+passive and negative state it is affected by impressions coming
+to it in different ways through the sense organs, resulting
+in nervous and mental action. These two functions are interdependent.
+It is the latter or afferent function with which we are now concerned.
+The range of our sense-perceptions puts us momentarily in relations
+with the material world, or rather, with a certain portion of it. For
+we by no means sense all that is sensible, and, as I have already
+indicated, our sense impressions are often delusive. The gamut of our
+senses is very limited, and also very imperfect both as to extent and
+quality. Science is continually bringing new instruments into our
+service, some to aid the senses, others to correct them. The
+microscope, the microphone, the refracting lens are instances. It used
+to be said with great certainty that you cannot see through a brick
+wall, but by means of X-rays and a fluorescent screen it is now
+possible to do so. I have seen my own heart beating as its image
+was thrown on the screen by the Rontgen rays. Many insects,
+birds and animals have keener perceptions in some respects than
+man. Animalculae and microbic life, themselves microscopic,
+have their own order of sense-organs related to a world of life
+beyond our ken. These observations serve to emphasise the
+great limitation of our senses, and also to enforce the fact that
+Nature does not cease to exist where we cease to perceive her.
+The recognition of this fact has been so thoroughly appreciated
+by thoughtful people as to have opened up the question as to
+what these human limitations may mean and to what degree
+they may extend.
+
+We know what they mean well enough: the history of human
+development is the sequel to natural evolution, and this
+development could never have had place apart from the hunger
+of the mind and the consequent breaking down of sense limitations by
+human invention. As to the extent of our limitations it has been
+suggested that just as there are states of matter so fine as to be
+beyond the range of vision, so there may be others so coarse as to be
+below the sense of touch. We cannot, however, assert anything with
+certainty, seeing that proof must always require that a thing must
+be brought within our range of perception before we can admit it as
+fact. The future has many more wonderful revelations in store for us,
+no doubt. But there is really nothing more wonderful than human
+faculty which discovers these things in Nature, things that have
+always been in existence but until now have been outside our
+range of perception. The ultra-solid world may exist.
+
+The relations of our sense-organs to the various degrees of
+matter, to solids, fluids, gases, atmosphere and ether, vary in
+different individuals to such a wide extent as to create the
+greatest diversity of normal faculty. The average wool-sorter
+will outvie an artist in his perception of colour shades. An odour
+that is distinctly recognizable by one person will not be
+perceptible to others. In the matter of sound also the same
+differences of perception will be noted. On a very still night one
+can hear the sugar canes growing. Most people find the cry of a
+bat to be beyond their range. The eye cannot discern intervals of
+less than one-fiftieth of a second. Atmospheric vibration does
+not become sound until a considerable frequency is attained.
+Every movement we make displaces air but our sense of touch
+does not inform us of it, but if we stand in a sunbeam the dust
+particles will show that it is so. Our sense of feeling will not
+register above certain degrees of heat or below certain degrees
+of cold. Sensation, moreover, is not indefinitely sustained, as
+anyone may learn who will follow the ticking of a watch for
+five minutes continuously.
+
+But quite apart from the sense and range of our perceptions, the
+equality of a sense-impression is found to vary with different
+persons, affecting them each in a different way. We find that
+people have "tastes" in regard to form, colour, flavour, scent,
+sound, fabric and texture. The experience is too general to need
+illustration, but we may gather thence that, in relation to the
+nervous system of man, every material body and state of matter
+has a variable effect. These remarks will clear the ground for a
+statement of my views upon the probable effect a crystal may
+have upon a sensitive person.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MATERIALS AND CONDITIONS
+
+The crystal is a clear pellucid piece of quartz or beryl,
+sometimes oval in shape but more generally spherical. It is
+accredited by Reichenbach and other researchers with highly
+magnetic qualities, capable of producing in a suitable subject
+a state analogous to the ordinary "waking trance" of the
+hypnotists. It is believed that all bodies convey, or are the
+vehicles of certain universal property called od or odyle
+(od-hyle), which is not regarded as a force but as an inert and
+passive substance underlying the more active forces familiar to
+us in kinetic, calorific and electrical phenomena. In this respect
+it holds a position analogous to the argon of the atmosphere,
+and is capable of taking up the vibrations of those bodies to
+which it is related and which it invests. It would perhaps not be
+amiss to regard it as static ether. Of itself it has no active
+properties, but in its still, well-like depths, it holds the
+potentiality of all magnetic forces.
+
+This odyle is particularly potent in certain bodies and one of
+these is the beryl or quartz. It produces and retains more readily
+in the beryl than in most other bodies the images communicated
+to it by the subconscious activity of the seer. It is in the nature
+of a sensitized film which is capable of recording thought forms
+and mental images as the photographic film records objective
+things. The occultist will probably recognize in it many of the
+properties of the "astral light," which is often spoken of in this
+connection. Readers of my _Manual of Occultism_ will already
+be informed concerning the nature of subconscious activity. The
+mind or soul of man has two aspects: the attentive or waking
+consciousness, directed to the things of the external world; and
+the subconscious, which is concerned with the things of the
+interior world. Each of these spheres of the mind has its
+voluntary and automatic phases, a fact which is usually lost
+sight of, inasmuch as the automatism of the mind is frequently
+confounded with the subconscious. All purposive action tends
+to become automatic, whether it be physical or mental, sensory
+or psychic.
+
+The soul in this connection is to be regarded as the repository of
+all that complex of emotions, thoughts, aspirations, impressions,
+perceptions, feelings, etc., which constitute the inner life of man.
+The soul is none the less a fact because there are those who
+bandy words about its origin and nature.
+
+Reichenbach has shown by a series of experiments upon sensitive and
+hypnotized subjects, that metals and other materials produce very marked
+effects in contact with the human body. The experiments further showed
+that the same substance affected different patients in diverse manners.
+
+The hypnotic experiments of the late Dr. Charcot, the well-known
+French biologist, also demonstrate the rapport existing between the
+sensitive subject and foreign bodies in proximity. A bottle containing
+a poison is taken at random from a number of others of similar appearance
+and is applied to the back of the patient's neck. The hypnotic subject
+at once begins to develop all the symptoms of arsenical, strychnine or
+prussic acid poisoning; it being afterwards found that the bottle
+contains the toxine whose effects have been portrayed by the subject.
+But not all hypnotic subjects are capable of the same degree of
+sensibility.
+
+Community of sensation is as common a phenomenon as community of
+thought between a hypnotizer and his subject, and what are called
+sympathetic pains are included in common experience. Sensitive persons
+will simulate all the symptoms of a virulent disease, _e.g._ mock
+measles. The phenomena of psychometry reveal the fact of bodies being
+able to retain records and of the human possibility of reviving these
+records as sensations and thought images, although there is no direct
+community of sensation between an inanimate object and the
+nervous organism of a sensitive. It need not, therefore, be a
+matter of surprise that the crystal can exert a very definite and
+sensible effect upon the nervous organism of a certain order of
+subjects. It does not affect all alike nor act in a uniform
+and constant manner on those whom it does so affect. The
+modifications of sensibility taking place in the subject or
+sensitive render the action of the agent a variable quantity.
+Where its action is more or less rapid and remarkable, however,
+the quartz or beryl crystal may be regarded as the most effective
+agent for producing clairvoyance.
+
+In other cases the concave mirror, either of polished copper or
+black japan, will be found serviceable. In certain cases where
+the faculty is already developed but lying in latency, any
+shining surface will suffice to bring it into activity. Ecstatic
+vision was first induced in Jacob Boehme by the sun's rays
+falling upon a bowl of water which caught and dazzled his eyes
+while he was engaged in the humble task of cobbling a pair of
+shoes. In consequence of this exaltation of the visual sense we
+have those remarkable works, _The Aurora, The Four Complexions,
+Signatura Rerum_, and many others, with letters and commentaries which,
+in addition to being of a spiritual nature, are also to be regarded
+as scholarly when referred to their source. In Boehme's case, as in
+that of Swedenborg, whose faculty did not appear until he was
+fifty-four years of age, it would appear that the faculty was
+constitutional and already developed, waiting only the conditions
+which should bring it into active operation.
+
+The agent most suitable for developing clairvoyance cannot
+therefore be definitely prescribed. It must remain a matter of
+experiment with the subject himself. That there are some
+persons in whom the psychic faculties are more prone to
+activity than in others is certain, and it would appear also that
+these faculties are native in some by spiritual or hereditary
+succession, which fact is evident from their genitures as
+interpreted by astrology. Many planets in flexed signs and a
+satellitium in the nadir or lower angle of the horoscope is
+a certain indication of extreme nervous sensibility and
+predisposition to telaesthenic impressions, though this
+observation does not cover all the instances before me. It is true,
+however, where it applies. The dominant influence of the planet
+Neptune in a horoscope is also to be regarded as a special
+indication of some form of psychic activity, as I have frequently
+observed.
+
+In cases where the subject is not prepared by evolutional
+process for the exercise of the psychic faculties, it will be found
+that the same or similar indications will tend to the simulation
+of such faculties, as by mediumism, conjuring, etc., while they
+may even result in chicanery and fraud.
+
+But among those who are gifted in the direction spoken of,
+all are not clairvoyant. The most common form of psychic
+disturbance is involuntary clairaudience, and telaesthesia is not
+perhaps less general. St. Paul indicates a variety of such
+psychic "gifts," _e.g._ the gifts of prophecy, of healing, of
+understanding, etc.; but these may also be regarded in quite a
+mundane sense. The development among the early Christians of
+spiritual gifts, visions, hearing, speaking in foreign tongues,
+psychic healing, etc., appears to have given rise to a variety of
+exceptional experiences by which they were induced to say "we
+cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard." "One star
+differs from another in glory," says St. Paul, and this diversity
+of spiritual gifts proceeds from the celestial world, and is so
+ordered that each may fulfil the part required of him in the
+economy of life.
+
+Psychic tradition is as important a fact as is physical heredity.
+The latter is a factor of immense importance as affecting the
+constitution and quality of the organism in and through which
+the soul is required to function. But psychic tradition is that
+which determines the power and faculty brought to bear upon
+the physical organism. Past evolution is not a negligible
+quantity, and its effects are never wasted or lost to the
+individual. We are what we are by reason of what we have
+already been, as well individually as racially. "The future is, the
+past unfolded" or "entered upon by a new door," as it has been
+well said. We do not suddenly acquire faculties, we evolve them
+by effort and successive selection. In our upward striving for
+liberty we specialize along certain lines which appear to us to be
+those offering either the least resistance or the most ready
+means of self-preservation, liberty and well-being. Hence some
+evolve a special faculty for money-making and, as schoolboys,
+will be expert traders of alley-taws, jack-knives, toffee and all
+sorts of kickshaws. Others of another bent or list will traffic in
+knowledge to the abounding satisfaction of their masters and the
+jealous pride of their form.
+
+So that psychic tradition while disposing some to the speedy
+revelation of an already acquired faculty, disposes others to the
+more arduous but not less interesting work of acquiring such
+faculty. And because the spiritual needs of mankind are ever of
+primary importance, there are always to be found those in
+whom the power of spiritual interpretation is the dominant
+faculty, such persons being the natural channels of intercourse
+between the superior and inferior worlds. The physical body of
+man is equipped with a corresponding order of microbic life
+which acts as an organic interpreter, translating the elements of
+food into blood, nerve, fibre, tissue and bone agreeably to the
+laws of their being. What I have to say in this place is addressed
+especially to those who would aspire to the faculty of clear
+vision and in whom the psychic powers are striving towards
+expression. Every person whose life is not wholly sunk in
+material and selfish pleasures but in whom the aspiration to a
+higher and better life is a hunger the world cannot satisfy, has
+within himself the power to see and know that which he seeks
+behind the veil of the senses. Nature has never produced a
+desire she cannot satisfy. There is no hope, however vague, that
+the soul cannot define, and no aspiration, however high, that the
+wings of the spirit cannot reach. Therefore be patient and strive.
+To others I would say: Be content. All birds cannot be eagles.
+The nightingale has a song and the humming bird a plumage the
+eagle can never possess. The nightingale may sing to the stars,
+the humming bird to the flowers, but the eagle, whose tireless
+eyes gaze into the heart of day, is uncompanioned in its lofty
+loneliness amid the mountain tops.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE FACULTY OF SEERSHIP
+
+Until quite recently the faculty of seership has been associated
+in occult literature with various magical formulae. There are in
+existence works by Tristemius, Francis Barrett, Ebenezer Sibley
+and others in which the use of the crystal is made by means of
+magical invocations and a variety of ceremonial observances. It
+is not within the scope of this treatise to determine the
+value of such rites or the desirability of invoking extraneous
+intelligences and powers by the use of magical practices; but I
+think we may conclude that communion of this order is not
+unattended by grave dangers. When the Israelites were ill-content
+with the farinaceous manna they invoked Heaven to send them meat. They
+got what they wanted, but also the dire penalty which it incurred; and
+it is quite likely that in invoking occult forces beyond one's power
+to control great evils may ensue. All action and reaction are equal
+and opposite. A child can pull a trigger but cannot withstand the
+recoil of a gun, or by moving a lever may set machinery in motion
+which it can by no means control. Therefore without strength and
+knowledge of the right sort it is foolish to meddle with occult
+forces; and in the education of the development of the psychic and
+spiritual faculties native in us, it is better to encourage their
+natural development by legitimate exercise than to invoke the action
+of a stimulus which cannot afterwards be controlled. Water will
+wear away a rock by continual fretting, though nobody doubts
+that water is softer than a rock, and if the barrier between this
+and the soul-world be like granite, yet the patient and persistent
+action of the determined mind will sooner or later wear it away,
+the last thin layer will break and the light of another world will
+stream through, dazzling our unaccustomed eyes with its bright
+effulgence.
+
+It is my object here to indicate by what means and by what
+persons the natural development of the clairvoyant faculty may
+be achieved. In regard then to the subject, medium or seer, there
+are two distinct temperaments in which the faculty is likely to
+be dominant and capable of high and rapid development. The
+first is the nervous temperament, characterized by extreme
+activity of body and mind, nervous excitability, dark complexion,
+prominent features, and wiry frame. Types of this temperament are
+to be seen in the descriptions of Dante, Swedenborg, Melancthon,
+Edgar A. Poe and others. This type represents the positive seers.
+
+The other temperament is of the passive type and is characterized
+by a full lymphatic habit, pale or delicate complexion, blue eyes,
+straight fine hair, small hands, tapering fingers, cold and fleshy to
+the touch; usually a thin or high voice and languid manner.
+
+These two types of seers--of which there are many varieties--
+achieve their development by quite opposite means. The positive
+seer projects the mental images by a psychic process impossible
+of description, but by a certain psychic metabolism by which the
+apperceptions of the soul are transformed into mental images of a
+purely symbolical nature. The psychic process of picture-production
+is involuntary and unconscious, but the perception of the
+mental pictures is a perfectly conscious process and involves
+the exercise of an introspective faculty. The passive seer, on the
+contrary, is effortless, and receives impressions by reflection, the
+visions coming imperceptibly and having a literal interpretation.
+The vision is not in this case of an allegorical or symbolic nature,
+as is the case with the positive seer, but is an actual vision of a
+fact or event which has already happened or as it will transpire in
+the future. Thus the positive vision consists in the projection of
+the mind towards the things of the soul-world, while the passive
+vision in the result of a propulsion of the soul-world upon the
+passive sense. Of the two kinds of vision, the passive is the more
+serviceable as being the more perspicuous and literal, but it has
+the disadvantage of being largely under the control of external
+influences and consequently of greater variability than the
+positive vision. It is, indeed, quite the common experience that
+the passive medium requires "conditions" for the proper exercise
+of the faculty and where these are lacking no vision can be
+obtained.
+
+The positive type of seer exercises an introspective vision,
+searching inwardly towards the soul-world whence revelation
+proceeds. The passive seer, on the other hand, remains in a static
+condition, open to impressions coming inwards upon the mind's
+eye, but making no conscious effort towards inward searching.
+Those who have experienced both involuntary and voluntary
+visions will readily appreciate the difference of attitude, which is
+difficult to convey to others in so many words.
+
+Now the exercise of this faculty does not exist apart from some
+definite use, and it may be of advantage to consider what that use
+may be. Primarily, I should be disposed to regard the mere
+opening up of a channel of communication between the material
+and psychic worlds as adequate reason for the exercise of the
+faculty. The Gates of Heaven have to be kept open by human
+endeavour and the exercise of the spiritual and psychic faculties,
+otherwise a complete lesion and cutting off of our source of
+inspiration would follow. Except we aspire to the higher world
+that world will come no nearer to us. Action and reaction are
+equal and opposite. It was never said that the door would be
+opened to others than those who knocked. The law of spiritual
+compensation involves the fact that we receive what we ask for.
+If we get it otherwise, there is no guarantee of its continuance or
+that its possession will be a blessing. But if we ask according to
+our needs and strive according to our strength there is no law
+which can prevent a commensurate response. The ignorance of
+our asking and the imperfection of our striving will modify the
+nature of the response, but they cannot be negative of results. We
+can trust nature and there is a spiritual law in the natural world as
+well as a natural law in the spiritual world, for they are
+interdependent.
+
+But even our daily life affords numerous instances wherein the
+use of the clairvoyant faculty is attended by beneficial results.
+How many people there are who have been warned in dreams--
+wherein all people are naturally clairvoyant--of some impending
+danger to themselves or those around them, must have struck any
+casual reader of the daily press; for during recent years much
+greater interest has been taken in psychological matters and we
+are continually in hearing of new facts which give us knowledge
+of the power of the soul to foresee danger, and to know what is
+determined upon the world for the greater ends of human
+evolution. Some experiences of this nature will no doubt form a
+fit subject for a subsequent chapter. The qualifications which
+should supplement and sustain the natural aptitude of the seer or
+seeress demand consideration in this place, and the following
+remarks may not be without value in this respect.
+
+Mental stability, self-possession and confidence in one's own
+soul-faculties must be the firm rock on which all revelation
+should rest. The element of doubt either negatives results or
+opens the door to the ingress of all manner of deceptive
+impressions.
+
+Integrity of purpose is imperative. The purer the intention and
+motive of the seer the more lucid will be the vision accorded. No
+reliable vision can be obtained by one whose nature is not
+inherently truthful.
+
+Any selfish desire dominating the mind, in regard to any thing or
+person will distort the vision and render it misleading, while a
+persistent self-seeking spirit will effectually shut the door to all
+revelation whatsoever.
+
+Therefore above all things it is essential for the investigator of
+psychic phenomena to have an unflinching love of truth, to be
+resigned to the will of Heaven, to accept the revelations accorded
+in a spirit of grateful confidence, and to dispel all doubt and
+controversy by an appeal to the eyes of one's own immortal soul.
+
+These are qualifications with which the seer or seeress should be
+invested, and if with these the quest of the vision is unsuccessful
+after a period of earnest trial, it must be taken as sufficient
+warrant that the faculty of clairvoyance is not in the category of
+one's individual powers. Haply the same qualifications brought to
+bear on some other psychic faculty will result in a rich recompense.
+
+As for those triflers who at odd moments sit for the production of
+what they call "phenomena," with no other object than the
+gratification of an inquisitive vanity, I would drive them with
+whips from the field of psychical research. They are people
+whose presence in this area of serious enquiry does no good
+either to the cause of truth or the service of the race, and this
+loose traffic of sorts in the hope of finding a new sensation would,
+were it transferred to another sphere of activity, deservedly
+receive a very ugly name.
+
+The suggestion that the clairvoyant faculty is latent in all of us
+has no doubt been responsible for much misunderstanding, and
+not a little disappointment; but I doubt if it is so far removed
+from the truth as that which makes the possession of the faculty a
+certain sign of a superior degree of evolution. Although the
+faculty of clear vision brings us into more intimate conscious
+relations with a new order of existence, where the past and future,
+the distant and the near, would seem to be brought into
+immediate perception, it does not therefore confer upon us a
+higher degree of spirituality. It may undoubtedly offer us a
+truer perspective than that we may derive from the ordinary
+circumstance of our lives, and may suggest good grounds for a
+more comprehensive ethical system, but it cannot compel one to
+do the right thing or to lead the virtuous life. Clairvoyance,
+indeed, is a faculty which has no direct moral relations. It is no
+more the gift or property of the wise or the good man than
+extraordinary muscular power is an adjunct of high intelligence.
+And yet it is a curious fact that in all the sacred writings of the
+world there is a suggestion that holy men, or "Men of God," have
+this and other transcendent faculties, such as clairaudience
+and the power of healing. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures
+clairaudience seems to constitute the peculiar authority of the
+teacher or prophet. Thus we have expressions such as: "The
+Word of the Lord came to me saying," etc., and "I heard a voice
+which said," etc., which is sometimes but not always associated
+with direct vision. But because holy men of old were distinguished
+by this power of direct vision it is not to be supposed that all who
+have it are equally sanctified. By natural gift or by such means we
+are here discussing, the faculty may be brought into active function,
+but we should not lose sight of the fact that the attainment of
+righteousness implies that "all these things shall be added unto you."
+
+I think it right, therefore, to regard the quest of clairvoyance as a
+legitimate occupation, providing that it is purposeful and carried
+out with a right spirit, while not being allowed to interfere with
+the proper performance of one's ordinary duties in life. For it is
+possible to become over-zealous and even morbid over these
+mysteries of human life, and to become so obsessed by the idea
+of their importance as practically to render oneself unfitted for
+any ordinary pursuits, thereby producing an isolation that is in the
+best sense unprofitable. Moreover, there are mental dangers as
+well as spiritual and social to be feared, and it is unfortunately
+not uncommon to observe that neuraesthenia, nervous corrosion,
+and even insanity attends upon the tireless efforts of the
+enthusiast in this direction.
+
+If we regard clairvoyance as a normal faculty we are more likely
+to treat it normally than if we give it a paramount and exceptional
+value and seek to beatify those in whom it appears. I am
+convinced from experience that it is both normal and educable
+though not usually active in the large majority of people. I am
+also of the opinion that it is not peculiar, except in its higher
+functions, to human beings. I have known animals to possess this
+faculty; in a higher degree I have seen humans in the exercise of
+it. Perhaps even the archangels are yet seeking their vision of
+God.
+
+But to us as normal beings clairvoyance should appear a
+potentially normal faculty, to be studied and pursued by methods
+that are efficient while yet harmless; and this is the purport of the
+present treatise. I will therefore ask the reader to follow me in
+these pages with a mind divested of all disposition to the
+supernatural.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PRELIMINARIES AND PRACTICE
+
+The first consideration by those who would develop clairvoyance
+by artificial aids is the choice of a suitable agent. It has been the
+practice for many years to substitute the original beryl or "rock
+crystal" by a glass ball. I admit that many specimens I have seen
+are very creditable productions, but they are nevertheless quite
+worthless from the point of view of those who consider material
+agents to be important factors in the production of clairvoyance.
+The glass ball may, however, very well serve the preliminary
+essential of concentration, and, if the faculty of clairvoyance is at
+all active, will be entirely effective as an agent.
+
+Those who have any experience at all in this matter will allow
+that the rock crystal exerts an influence of an entirely different
+nature to that observable in the use of glass. Indeed, so far as
+experiment serves us, it may be said that glass only produces
+negative results and never at any time induced clairvoyance. If
+this state followed upon the use of a glass ball I am sure that the
+patient must have been naturally clairvoyant, in which case a
+bowl of water, a spot upon a wall, a piece of polished brass or
+copper, or a spot of ink would have been equally efficacious in
+inducing the degree of hypnosis required. That glass spheres are
+equally efficient as those of crystal is true only in two cases,
+namely, when clairvoyance is natural, in which case neither need
+be used; and when no results are observable after due experiment,
+from which we may conclude either that the agent is unsuitable
+or that the faculty is entirely submerged in that individual.
+
+In hypnotic clairvoyance the glass ball will be found as useful a
+"field" as the best rock crystal. Yet it does not follow that because
+the crystal is highly odylic and glass altogether negative the
+former will induce clairvoyance. My own first experience with
+the crystal was entirely disappointing, while very striking results
+followed immediately upon the use of a black concave mirror.
+
+The mirror is usually circular in shape and about one-quarter-inch
+curve to a six-inch diameter. This gives a long focus, so that the
+mirror may be hung upon a wall at about two yards distance from
+the subject. A greater degree of concavity proportionate to the
+diameter will produce a focus which allows the mirror to be held
+in the hand while resting in the lap.
+
+This disposes to a very easy and passive attitude and helps
+towards results. The base of the mirror may be of tin, wood or
+other material, and it is usually filled with a composition of a
+bituminous nature, the glass covering being painted with a
+preparation of coal-tar on its nether or convex side. The exact
+focus and consequent size of the mirror employed as most
+suitable to the individual is a matter of experiment. It is also to be
+observed that the distance of the mirror, as also the angle of
+vision, are matters of experiment. Beyond a certain distance it
+will be found that the mirror has no "draw" on the subject. If
+brought closer its pull is immediately felt.
+
+It is perhaps too early to theorize upon the _modus operandi_ of
+the "magic mirror," as it has been called. It appears to induce
+hypnosis and consequent elevation of nervous activity by
+refracting and throwing back the rays of magnetic energy which
+emanate from the subject.
+
+[Illustration of magic mirror]
+
+In the foregoing illustration let A-B be the mirror with F for its
+focus. Let the subject be stationed at S. Then the rays directed
+towards the surface of the mirror will be represented by RR-RR.
+These rays impinge upon a diamagnetic surface which is concave.
+The rays are therefore bent inwards and thrown back upon the
+person at S in the form of a cone of energy which has the effect
+of producing auto-hypnosis. There are other forms of agency,
+such as the zinc disc with the copper centre as used by Braid to
+induce the hypnotic sleep, but these appear to depend upon tiring
+the optic nerves and thus, through their action upon the thalami to
+produce temporary inhibition of the whole basilar tract of the
+brain.
+
+The mesmerist who throws streams of energy upon the patient
+would appear to be working on the same principle as that by
+which the person using the concave mirror induces self-hypnosis.
+Possibly the latter method may be found to be conducive to the
+phenomena arising from auto-suggestion, while the conditions
+induced by the action of the hypnotist may be less liable to the
+effects of auto-suggestion and more responsive to hypnotic
+suggestion, _i.e._ the mental action of the hypnotist.
+
+These, however, are considerations which need not trouble us
+overmuch, since by whatever agent the subject is made clairvoyant,
+the results are equally curious and informing. Auto-suggestion,
+at least, can hardly be regarded in the category of objections,
+since we cannot auto-suggest that which does not first of
+all arise as an image in the mind. It is in the spontaneous and
+automatic production of auto-suggested impressions that the
+phenomena of clairvoyance very largely consist; only we have to
+remember that the suggesting self is a more considerable quantity
+than the personality to which these suggestions are made, and is
+in touch with a world immeasurably greater and in every sense
+less limited than that to which the person is externally related.
+Looked at from whatever point of view we may choose, the
+phenomena of clairvoyance cannot be adequately explained
+without recourse to psychology on the one hand and occultism on
+the other. Psychology is needed in order to explain the nature and
+faculty of the human soul, and occultism to define for us the
+nature of that universal mirror in which the whole category of
+human events, both past and future, are reflected. Having decided
+upon a course of experiments with a crystal or mirror, the best of
+the kind should be obtained. A black velvet covering should be
+made in which to envelop the crystal when not in use. Mirrors are
+usually made with a suitable lid or covering. Care should be
+taken not to scratch the surface, and all cleaning should be done
+with a dry silk handkerchief kept for the purpose. Exposure to the
+sun's rays not only scores the surface of a crystal or mirror, but
+also puts the odylic substance into activity, distributing and
+dissipating the magnetic power stored up therein.
+
+And now a word or two about the disposition and attitude of the
+subject. The visions do not occur in the crystal itself. They may
+appear to do so, but this is due, when it occurs, to the projection
+and visualization of the mental images. The visions are in the
+mind or soul of the seer and nowhere else. It is a matter of
+constitutional psychism as to where the sense of clear vision will
+be located. Personally I find the sense to be located in the frontal
+coronal region of the brain about 150 to the right of the normal
+axis of vision, which may be regarded as the meridian of sight.
+Other instances are before me in which the sense is variously
+located in the back of the head, the nape of the neck, the pit of the
+stomach, the summit of the head, above and between the eyes,
+and in one case near the right shoulder but beyond the periphery
+of the body. The explanation appears to be that the nervo-vital
+emanations from the body of the seer act upon the static odyle in
+the agent, which in turn reacts upon the brain centres by means of
+the optic nerves. And this appears to be sufficient reason why the
+crystal or mirror should be kept as free as possible from
+disturbing elements. Water is extremely odylic and should never
+come in contact with the agent employed as it effectually carries
+off all latent or stored imports. I am forced to use a crude
+terminology in order to convey the idea in my mind, but I
+recognize that the whole explanation may appear vague and
+inadequate. It is of course at all times easier to observe effects
+than to offer a clear explanation of them. Yet some sort of
+working hypothesis is constructed when we collate our observations,
+and it is this that I have sought to communicate.
+
+For similar reasons, when in use the crystal or mirror should be
+shaded and so placed that no direct rays from sun or artificial
+light may fall upon it. The odyle, as Reichenbach so conclusively
+proved by his experiments, rapidly responds to surrounding
+magnetic conditions and to the vibrations of surrounding bodies,
+and to none more rapidly than the etheric vibrations caused by
+combustion or light of any kind. There should be no direct rays of
+light between the agent and the seer.
+
+The room in which the sitting takes place should be moderately
+warm, shady, and lit by a diffused light, such as may be obtained
+by a light holland blind or casement cloth, in the daytime. The
+subject should sit with his back to the source of light, and the
+illumination will be adequate if ordinary print can be read by it.
+
+It is important that all persons sitting in the same room with the
+seer should be at least at arm's length from him.
+
+Silence should be uniformly observed by those present, until the
+vision is attained.
+
+It will then be found convenient to have two persons present to
+act as Interrogator and Recorder respectively.
+
+The Interrogator should be the only person whose voice is heard,
+and it should be reduced to a soft but distinct monotone. The
+Recorder will be occupied in setting down in writing all questions
+asked by the Interrogator and the exact answers made by the
+seer. These should be dated and signed by those present when
+completed. It is perhaps hardly necessary to remark that
+precautions should be taken to prevent sudden intrusions, and as
+far as possible to secure general quiet without.
+
+I may here interject an observation which appears to me
+suggestive and may prove valuable. It has been observed that the
+inhabitants of basaltic localities are more generally natural
+clairvoyants than others. Basalt is an igneous rock composed
+largely of augite and felspar, which are silicate crystals of
+calcium, potassium, alumina, etc., of which the Moonstone is a
+variety. The connecting link is that clairvoyance is found to be
+unusually active during and by means of moonlight. What
+psycho-physical effect either basalt or moonlight has upon the
+nervous system of impressible subjects appears to be somewhat
+obscure, but there is little difference between calcium light and
+moonlight, except that the latter is moderated by the greater
+atmosphere through which it comes to us. It is only when we
+come to know the psychological values of various chemical
+bodies that we can hope for a solution of many strange phenomena
+connected with the clairvoyant faculty. I recollect that the
+seeress of Prevorst experienced positive pain from the near
+presence of water during her abnormal phases. Reichenbach
+found certain psycho-pathological conditions to be excited by
+various metals and foreign bodies when brought into contact with
+the sensitive. These observations are extremely useful if only in
+producing an awareness of possible reasons for such disturbance
+as may occur in the conditions already cited.
+
+At the outset the sittings should not last longer than at most
+half-an-hour, but it is important that they should be regular,
+both as to time and place. We are already informed from a number of
+observations that every action tends to repeat itself under similar
+conditions. Habits of life and mind are thus formed so that in
+time they become quite involuntary and automatic. A cumulative
+effect is obtained by attention to this matter of periodicity, while
+the use of the same place for the same purpose tends to dispose
+the mind to the performance of particular functions. In striving
+for psychic development of any sort we shall do well not to
+disregard these facts. For since all actions tend to repeat
+themselves and to become automatic, to pass from the domain of
+the purposive into the habitual, the psychic faculties will
+similarly, if actuated at any set time and place, tend to bestir
+themselves to the same effects as those to which they were first
+moved by the conscious will and intention of the seer. Until the
+clairvoyant faculty is fully assured and satisfactory results
+obtained without any inconvenience to the seer, not more than
+two persons should be present at the sittings. These should be in
+close sympathy with the seer and with each other.
+
+When the sitting is over it will be found useful to repair to
+another place and fully discuss the results obtained, the
+impressions and feelings of the seer during the seance, and
+matters which appear to have a bearing on the facts observed.
+
+A person should not be disheartened if at the first few sittings
+nothing of any moment takes place, but should persevere with
+patience and self-control. Indeed, if we consider the fact that for
+hundreds of generations the psychic faculties latent in man have
+lain in absolute neglect, that perhaps the faculty of clear vision
+has not been brought into activity by any of our ancestors since
+remote ages, it should not be thought remarkable that so few find
+the faculty in them to be practically dormant. It should rather be a
+matter of surprise that the faculty is still with us, that it is not
+wholly irresponsive to the behests of the soul. While in the course
+of physical evolution many important functions have undergone
+remarkable changes, and organs, once active and useful, have
+become stunted, impotent, and in some cases extinct, yet on the
+other hand we see that seeds which have lain dormant in arid soil
+for hundreds of years can spring into leaf and flower under the
+influence of a suitable climate.
+
+The vermiform appendix, so necessary to the bone eaters of a
+carnivorous age, has no part in the physical economy of a later
+and more highly-evolved generation. The pineal gland and the
+pituitary body are adjuncts of the brain whose functions have
+long been in latency. The _Anastatica hierochuntica_, commonly
+called the Rose of Jericho, is a wonderful example of functional
+latency. The plant will remain for ages rolled up like a ball of
+sun-dried heather, but if placed in water it will immediately open
+out and spread forth its nest of mossy green fronds, the transition
+from seeming death to life taking place in a few minutes. The
+hygrometric properties of the plant are certainly exceptional.
+They illustrate the responsiveness of certain natures to a
+particular order of stimulus, and in a sense they illustrate the
+functions of the human soul. The faculty of direct vision is like
+the latent life of the vegetable world. It waits only the conditions
+which favour its activity and development, and though for
+generations it may have lain dormant, yet in a few days or weeks
+it may attain the proportions of a beautiful flower, a thing of
+wonder and delight, gracing the Garden of the Soul.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+KINDS OF VISION
+
+There are two kinds of vision, and each of these may be
+perceived in two different ways. The two sorts of vision are
+called the Direct Vision and the Symbolic Vision.
+
+The first of these is an exact representation of some scene or
+incident which has taken place in the past or will subsequently be
+experienced in the future. It may have relation to the experience
+of the seer, or of those who are present at the sitting, or yet may
+have a general or public application.
+
+The second order of vision is a representation by ideograph,
+symbol or other indirect means, of events similar to those
+conveyed by direct vision. The visions of Ezekiel and John of
+Patmos are of the symbolic order, and although to the seers
+themselves there probably was a very clear apperception of their
+import, yet for others they require interpretation. In most cases it
+will be found that the nature of the vision has relation to that
+sphere of life and interest in which the seer or those for whom he
+is serving are concerned. But this is not always the case, for there
+are some peculiarly sensitive seers whose visions have a wider
+range and a more general application. In the first case it would
+seem that the impressions latent in the individual sphere of
+subconscious activity are brought into evidence, and in the other
+case the seer comes into relations with the world-soul or
+earth-sphere, so that political, social and cosmic events
+are brought out of latency into conscious perception. In most
+cases it will be found that answers to questions are conveyed
+by symbols, though this is not an invariable rule, as will
+appear from the following remarks.
+
+The vision, when it occurs, may be conveyed in one of two ways:
+first, as a vivid picture affecting the focus and retina of the eye,
+perfect in its outline and colouring, and giving the sense of
+nearness or distance; secondly, as a vivid mental impression
+accompanied by a hazy or dim formation in the "field" of vision.
+In this latter form it becomes an apperception rather than a
+perception, the mind receiving the impression of the vision to be
+conveyed before it has had time to form and define itself in the
+field.
+
+As already intimated, there appears to be a connection between
+the temperamental peculiarities of the two classes of clairvoyants
+and the kind of vision developed in them. Thus the direct
+vision is more generally found in association with the passive
+temperament. The direct vision is neither so regular nor so
+constant as the symbolic vision owing to the peculiarities of the
+negative or passive subject. When it does develop, however, the
+direct vision is both lucid and actual, and has literal fulfilment in
+the world of experience and fact. It is an actual representation of
+what has actually happened or will have place in the future, or yet
+may be presently happening at some place more or less distant.
+
+The symbolic vision, on the other hand, is more generally
+developed in the positive or active type of seer. It has the
+advantage of being more regular and constant in its occurrence
+than the direct vision, while at the same time being open to the
+objection that it is frequently misinterpreted. Nothing shows this
+better perhaps than the various interpretations which have been
+made of the Apocalypse.
+
+The positive temperament appears to throw off the mental images
+as speedily as they are developed in the subconscious area, and
+goes out to meet them in a mood of speculative enquiry. But the
+passive temperament most frequently feels first and sees
+afterwards, the visionary process being entirely devoid of
+speculation and mental activity. In a word, the distinction
+between them is that the one sees and thinks while the other feels
+and sees.
+
+The manner in which the visions appear to develop in the field
+requires some description, and for reasons which will presently
+appear it is essential that the earliest experiments should be made
+in the light of a duly informed expectancy.
+
+At first the crystal or mirror will appear to be overclouded by a
+dull, smoky vapour which presently condenses into milky clouds
+among which are seen innumerable little gold specks of light,
+dancing in all directions, like gold-dust in a sunlit air. The focus
+of the eye at this stage is inconstant, the pupil rapidly expanding
+and contracting, while the crystal or mirror alternately disappears
+in a haze and reappears again. Then suddenly the haze disappears
+and the crystal looms up into full view, accompanied by a
+complete lapse of the seer into full consciousness of his
+surroundings.
+
+This may be the only experience during the first few sittings. It
+may be that of many. But if it occurs it is an entirely satisfactory
+and hopeful symptom. For sooner or later, according to the
+degree of susceptibility or responsiveness in the subject, there
+will come a moment when the milky-looking clouds and dancing
+starlights will suddenly vanish and a bright azure expanse like an
+open summer sky will fill the field of vision. The brain will now
+be felt to palpitate spasmodically, as if opening and closing again
+in the coronal region; there will be a tightening of the scalp about
+the base of brain, as if the floor of the cerebrum were contracting;
+the seer will catch his breath with a spasmodic sigh and the first
+vision will stand out clear and life-like against the azure screen of
+space.
+
+Now the danger at this supreme moment is that the seer will be
+surprised into full waking consciousness. During the process of
+abstraction which precedes every vision or series of visions, the
+consciousness of the seer is gradually but imperceptibly
+withdrawn from physical surroundings. He forgets that he is
+seated in a particular place or room, that he is in the company of
+another or others. He forgets that he is gazing into a crystal or
+mirror. He knows nothing, sees nothing, hears nothing, save that
+which is being enacted before the senses of his soul. He loses
+sight for the time even of his own identity and becomes as it were
+merged in the vision itself.
+
+When, therefore, his attention is suddenly arrested by an
+apparition, startling in its reality and instantaneous production,
+the reaction is likely to be both rapid and violent, so that the seer
+is frequently carried back into full waking consciousness. When,
+however, the mind is previously instructed and warned of this
+stage of the process, a steady and self-possessed attitude is
+ensured and a subconscious feeling of expectancy manifests at
+the critical moment. I have known so many cases of people being
+surprised out of clairvoyance and so to have lost what has often
+been an isolated experience, that this treatise will be wholly
+justified if by the inclusion of this warning the novice comes
+successfully through his first experience of second sight.
+
+We come now to the point where it becomes necessary to consider
+other important reactions which the development of any psychic
+sense involves. To some favoured few these supernormal faculties
+appear to be given without any cost to themselves. Perhaps they
+are direct evolutional products, possibly psychic inheritances;
+but to such as have them no price is asked or penalty imposed.
+
+Others there are who are impelled by their own evolutional
+process to seek the development in themselves of these psychic
+powers; and to these a word of warning seems necessary, so that
+at the risk of appearing didactic I must essay the task. To some it
+may seem unwelcome, to others redundant and supererogatory.
+But we are dealing with a new stage in evolutional progress--the
+waking up of new forces in ourselves and the prospective use of a
+new set of faculties. It is of course open to anybody to
+experiment blindly, and none will seek to deter them save those
+who have some knowledge of the attendant dangers, and which
+knowledge alone can help us to avoid. I should consider the man
+more fool than hero who, in entire ignorance of mechanics and
+aeronautics, stepped on board an aeroplane and started the
+engines running. Even the most skilful in any new field of
+experiment or research consciously faces certain but unknown
+dangers. The victims of the aeroplane--brave pioneers of human
+enterprise and endeavour that they were--fell by lack of
+knowledge. By lack of knowledge also have the humane efforts
+of many physicians been cut short at the outset of what might
+have been a successful career. It was this very lack of knowledge
+they knew to be the greatest of all dangers, and it was this they
+had set out to remedy.
+
+It is not less dangerous when we begin to pursue a course of
+psychic development. The ordinary functions of the mind are
+well within our knowledge and control. There is always the will
+by which we may police the territory under our jurisdiction and
+government. It is another matter when we seek to govern a
+territory whose peculiar features and native laws and customs are
+entirely unknown to us. It is obvious that here the will-power, if
+directed at all, is as likely to be effectual for evil as for good.
+The psychic faculties may indeed be opened up and the unknown
+region explored, but at fatal cost, it may be, to all that constitutes
+normal sanity and physical well-being; in which case one may
+say with Hamlet it be better to "bear those ills we have, than fly
+to others that we know not of."
+
+Some of the conditions imposed upon those who, not being
+naturally gifted in this direction, would wish to experiment in
+clairvoyant development, may conveniently be stated and
+examined in another chapter.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+OBSTACLES TO CLAIRVOYANCE
+
+Various impediments stand in the way of inducing second sight,
+and certain others may be expected to arise in connection with
+the faculty when induced. Putting aside the greatest of all
+obstacles, that of constitutional unfitness, as having already been
+discussed in the preceding pages, the first obstacle to be
+encountered is that of ill health. It can hardly be expected that
+new areas can be opened up in the mind without considerable
+change and adjustment taking place by reflection in the physical
+economy. The reaction is likely to be attended by physical
+distress. But Nature is adaptable and soon accommodates herself
+to changed conditions, so that any results directly attributable to
+the development of the psychic centres of activity is not likely to
+be more than transient, providing that due regard has been given
+to the normal requirements of health.
+
+The importance of a moderate and nourishing diet cannot be too
+strongly urged upon those who seek for psychic development. All
+overloading of the stomach with indigestible food and addiction
+to alcoholic drinks tend to cloud the higher faculties. The brain
+centres are thereby depleted, the heart suffers strain, and the
+equilibrium of the whole system is disturbed. Ill health follows,
+the mind is centred upon the suffering body, spiritual aspiration
+ceases, and the neglected soul folds its wings and falls into the
+sleep of oblivion.
+
+But, on the other hand, one must not suppose that the adoption of
+a fruit and cereal diet will of itself induce to the development
+of the psychic powers. It will aid by removing the chief
+impediments of congestion and disease. Many good people who
+adopt this dietetic reform have a tendency to scratch one another's
+shoulder blades and expect to find their wings already sprouting.
+If it were as easy as this the complacent cow would be high up in
+the scale of spiritual aspirants.
+
+The consciousness of man works from a centre which co-ordinates
+and includes the phenomena of thought, feeling, and volition.
+This centre is capable of rapid displacement, alternating
+between the most external of physical functions and the most
+internal of spiritual operations. It cannot be active in all parts of
+our complex constitutions at one and the same moment. When
+one part of our nature is active another is dormant, as is seen in
+the waking and sleeping stages, the dream-life being in the
+middle ground between the psychic and physical. It will therefore
+be obvious that a condition in which the consciousness is held in
+bondage by the infirmities of the body is not one likely to be
+conducive to psychic development. For this reason alone many
+aspirants have been turned back from initiation. The constitution
+need not be robust, but it should at all events be free from
+disorder and pain. Some of the most ethereal and spiritual natures
+are found in association with a delicate organism. So long as the
+balance is maintained the soul is free to develop its latent powers.
+A certain delicacy of organization, together with a tendency to
+hyperaesthesia, is most frequently noted in the passive or direct
+seer; but a more robust and forceful constitution may well be
+allied to the positive type of seership.
+
+As a chronic state of physical congestion is altogether adverse to
+the development of the second sight or any other psychic faculty,
+so the temporary congestion following naturally upon a meal
+indicates that it is not advisable to sit for psychic exercise
+immediately after eating. Neither should a seance be begun when
+food is due, for the automatism of the body will naturally demand
+satisfaction at times when food is usually taken and the
+preliminary processes of digestion will be active. The best time is
+between meals and especially between tea and supper, or an hour
+after the last meal of the day, supposing it to be of a light nature.
+The body should be at rest, and duly fortified, and the mind
+should be contented and tranquil.
+
+The attitude of the would-be seer should not be too expectant or
+over-anxious about results. All will come in good time, and the
+more speedily if the conditions are carefully observed. It is
+useless to force the young plant in its growth. Take time, as
+Nature does. It is a great work and much patience may be needed.
+Nature is never in a hurry, and therefore she brings everything to
+perfection. The acorn becomes the sturdy oak only because
+Nature is content with small results, because she has the virtue of
+endurance. She is patient and careful in her beginnings, she
+nurses the young life with infinite care, and her works are
+wonderfully great and complete in their issues. Moreover, they
+endure. Whoever breathes slowest lives the longest.
+
+This statement opens up a very important matter connected with
+all psychic phenomena, and one that deserves more than casual
+notice. It has been long known to the people of the East that there
+is an intimate connection between brain and lung action, and
+modern experiment has shown by means of the spirometer that
+the systole and diastole motion of the hemispheres of the brain
+coincide exactly with the respiration of the lungs. The brain
+as the organ of the mind registers every emotion with unerring
+precision. But so also do the lungs, as a few common observations
+will prove. Thus if a person is in deep thought the breathing
+will be found to be long and regular, but if the mind is
+agitated the breathing will be short and stertorous, while if fear
+affects the mind the breathing is momentarily suspended. A
+person never breathes from the base of the lung unless his mind
+is engrossed. Hard exercise demands deep breathing and is
+therefore helpful in producing good mental reactions. It is said
+that the great preacher De Witt Talmage used to shovel gravel
+from one side of his cellar to the other as a preliminary to his fine
+elocutional efforts. It is this obvious connection between
+respiration and mental processes which is at the base of the
+system of psycho-physical culture known as _Hatha Yoga_ in
+distinction from _Râj Yoga_, which is concerned solely with
+mental and spiritual development. The two systems, which have
+of late years found frequent exposition in the New Thought
+school, are to be found in Patanjali's _Yoga sutrâ_. Some
+reference to the synchronous action of lung and brain will also be
+found in Dr. Tafel's translation and exposition of Swedenborg's
+luminous work on _The Brain_. In this work the Swedish seer
+frankly refers his illumination regarding the functions of the brain
+to his faculty of introspective vision or second sight, and it is of
+interest to observe that all the more important discoveries in this
+department of physiology during the last two centuries are clearly
+anticipated by him. The scientific works of this great thinker are
+far too little known by the majority, who are apt to regard him
+only as a visionary and a religious teacher.
+
+_Ad rem_. The vision is produced. The faculty of clairvoyance is
+an established fact of experience and has become more or less
+under the control of the mind. There will yet remain one or two
+difficulties connected with the visions. One is that of time
+measure, and another that of interpretation. The former is
+common to both orders of vision, the direct and the symbolic.
+The difficulty of interpretation is, of course, peculiar to the latter
+order of vision.
+
+The sensing of time is perhaps the greatest difficulty encountered
+by the seer, and this factor is often the one that vitiates an
+otherwise perfect revelation. I have known cartomantes and
+diviners of all sorts to express their doubt as to the possibility of a
+correct measure of time. Yet it is a question that follows naturally
+upon a clear prediction--When?
+
+It is sometimes impossible to determine whether a vision relates
+to the past, the present, or the future. In most cases, however, the
+seer has an intuitive sense of the time-relations of a vision which
+is borne in upon him with the vision itself. It will generally be
+observed that in ordinary mental operations the time sense is
+subject to localization, and a distinct throw of the mind will be
+experienced when speaking of the past and the future. Personally
+I find the past to be located on my left and the future on my right
+hand, but others inform me that the habit of mind, places the past
+behind and the future in front of them, while others again have
+the past beneath their feet and the future over their heads. It is
+obviously a habit of mind, and this usually inheres in the
+visionary state so that a sense of time is found to attach to all
+visions, though it cannot be relied upon to register on every
+occasion. But also it is frequently found that there is an automatic
+allocation of the visions, those that are near of fulfilment being in
+the foreground of the field, the approximate in the middle ground,
+and the distant in the background; position answering to time
+interval. In such case the vision has a certain definition or focus
+according to the degree of its proximity. These points are,
+however, best decided by empiricism, and rarely does it happen
+that the intuitive sense of the seer is at fault when allowed to have
+play.
+
+The other difficulty to which I have referred, that of interpretation
+of symbols when forming the substance of the vision, may
+be dealt with somewhat more fully. Symbolism is a universal
+language and revelation most frequently is conveyed by means
+of it. As a preliminary to the study of symbolism the student
+should read Swedenborg's _Hieroglyphical Key to Natural and
+Spiritual Mysteries_, one of the earliest of his works and
+in a great measure the foundation of his thought and teaching.
+The Golden Book of Hermes containing the twenty-two Tarots is
+open to a universal interpretation as may be seen from the works
+of the Kabalists, and in regard to their individual application may
+be regarded in a fourfold light, having reference to the spiritual,
+rational, psychic and physical planes of existence. It is by means
+of symbols that the spiritual intelligences signal themselves to
+our minds, and the most exalted vision is, as an expression of
+intelligence, only intelligible by reason of its symbolism.
+Something more may be said in regard to the interpretation of
+symbols which may possibly be of use to those who have made
+no special study of the subject, and this may conveniently form
+the material of another chapter.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SYMBOLISM
+
+Symbols formed the primitive language of the human race, they
+spoke and wrote in symbols. The hieroglyphic writings of the
+aborigines of Central America, of the ancient Peruvians, of the
+Mongolians, and of the ancient Copts and Hebrews all point to
+the universal use of the ideograph for the purpose of recording
+and conveying ideas.
+
+If we study the alphabets of the various peoples, we shall find in
+them clear indications of the physical and social conditions under
+which they evolved. Thus the Hebrew alphabet carries with it
+unmistakable evidence of the nomadic and simple life of those
+"dwellers in tents." The forms of the letters are derived from the
+shapes of the constellations, of which twelve are zodiacal, six
+northern and six southern. This implies a superficial intimacy
+with the heavens such as would result from a life spent in hot
+countries with little or no superstructure to shut out the view. The
+wise among them would sit beneath the stars in the cool night air
+and figure out the language of the heavens.
+
+It was God's message to mankind, and they sought not only to
+understand it but to make imitation of it. So they built an alphabet
+of forms after the pattern of things in the heavens. But when we
+come to the names of these forms or letters we come at once into
+touch with the life of the people. Thus _aleph_, an ox; _beth_, a
+tent; _daleth_, a tent-door; _lamed_, an ox-goad; _mem_, water;
+_tzadde_, a fish-hook; _quoph_, a coil of rope; _gimel_, a camel;
+_yod_, a hand; _oin_, an eye; _vau_, a hook or link; _heth_, a
+basket; _caph_, a head; _nun_, a fish; _phe_, a mouth; _shin_,
+a tooth; _resh_, a head; etc., all speaking to us of the
+ordinary things of a simple, wandering life. These symbols were
+compounded to form ideographs, as _aleph_ = a, and _lamed_ = l,
+being the first and last of the zodiacal circle, were employed for
+the name of the Creator, the reverse of these, _la_, signifying
+non-existence, negation, privation. In course of time a language
+and a literature would be evolved, but from the simple elements
+of a nomadic life. Knowledge came to them by action and the use
+of the physical sense. They had no other or more appropriate
+confession of this than is seen in the root [Hebrew letters] yedo--
+knowledge, compounded of the three symbols _yod_, _daleth_, _oin_--
+a hand, a door, an eye. The hand is a symbol of action, power,
+ability; the door, of entering, initiation; the eye, of seeing, vision,
+evidence, illumination.
+
+Hence the ideograph formed by the collation of these symbols
+signifies, opening the door to see, _i.e._ enquiry.
+
+The Chinese alphabet of forms is entirely hieroglyphic and
+symbolical in its origin, though it has long assumed a typal
+regularity. What were once curved and crude figures have
+become squared and uniform letterpress. But the names of these
+forms bring us into touch at once with the early life of the
+Mongolian race. We have, however, indications of a wider scope
+than was enjoyed by the primitive Semites, for whereas we
+find practically all the symbols of the Hebrews employed as
+alphabetical forms, we also have others which indicate artifice,
+such as _hsi_, box; _chieh_, a seal or stamp; _mien_, a roof;
+_chin_, a napkin; _kung_, a bow; _mi_, silk; _lei_, a plough, and
+many others, such as the names of metals, wine, vehicles, leather
+in distinction from hides, etc. But further, we have a mythology
+as part of the furniture of the primitive mind, the dragon and the
+spirit or demon being employed as radical symbols.
+
+Considered in regard to their origin, symbols may be defined as
+thought-forms which embody, by the association of ideas,
+definite meanings in the mind that generates them. They wholly
+depend for their significance upon the laws of thought and the
+correspondence that exists between the spiritual and material
+worlds, between the subject and object of our consciousness, the
+noumenon and phenomenon.
+
+All symbols therefore may be translated by reference to the
+known nature, quality, properties and uses of the objects they
+represent. A few interpretations of symbols actually seen in the
+mirror may serve to illustrate the method of interpretation.
+
+A foot signifies a journey, and also understanding. A mouth
+denotes speech, revelation, a message. An ear signifies news,
+information; if ugly and distorted, scandal and abuse.
+
+The sun, if shining brightly, denotes prosperity, honours, good
+health, favours.
+
+The moon when crescent denotes success, public recognition,
+increase and improvement; when gibbous, sickness, decadence,
+loss and trouble.
+
+The sun being rayless or seen through a haze denotes sickness to
+a man, some misfortune, danger of discredit. When eclipsed
+it denotes the ruin or death of a man. The moon similarly
+affected denotes equal danger to a woman. These are all natural
+interpretations and probably would be immediately appreciated.
+
+But every symbol has a threefold or fourfold interpretation and
+the nature of the enquiry or purpose for which the vision is
+sought will indicate the particular meaning conveyed. For if the
+enquiry be concerning things of the spiritual world the
+interpretation of the answering vision must be in terms of that
+world, and similarly if the question has relation to the intellectual
+or the physical worlds. Thus a pain of scales would denote in the
+spiritual sense, absolute justice; in the intellectual, judgment,
+proportion, comparison, reason; in the social, debt or obligation,
+levy, rate, or tax; and in the material, balance of forces,
+equilibrium, action and reaction. If the scales are evenly balanced
+the augury will be good and favourable to the purport of the quest,
+but if weighted unevenly it is a case of _mene, tekel, upharsin_;
+for it shows an erring judgment, an unbalanced mind, failure in
+one's obligations, injustice. A sword seen in connection with the
+scales denotes speedy judgment and retribution. This is an
+illustration of an artificial symbol.
+
+A ship is a symbol of trading, of voyaging, and is frequently used
+in the symbolical vision. If in full sail it indicates that
+communication with the spiritual world is about to be facilitated,
+that news from distant lands will come to hand, that trade will
+increase, that a voyage will be taken. If writing should appear on
+the sails it will be an additional means of enlightenment. If flying
+the pirate flag it denotes translation to another land, death. The
+land indicated may be the spiritual world itself, in which case the
+death will be natural; but if it should be a foreign country, then
+death will take place there by some unlooked-for disaster. The
+ship's sails being slack denotes a falling off of afflatus or spiritual
+influx, loss of trade, misfortune, delays and bad news, or if news
+is expected it will not come to hand.
+
+Black bread denotes a famine; spotted or mottled bread, a plague.
+This symbol was seen in June 1896, with other symbols which
+connected it with India, and there followed a great outbreak of
+bubonic plague in that country. This symbol, however, was not
+properly understood until the event came to throw light upon it.
+The following note is from a seance which took place in India in
+the spring of 1893: "A leaf of shamrock is seen. It denotes the
+United Kingdom or the Triple Alliance. It is seen to split down
+the centre with a black line. It symbolizes the breaking of a treaty.
+Also that Ireland, whose symbol is the shamrock, will be
+separated by an autonomous government from the existing
+United Kingdom and will be divided into two factions."
+
+In this way all symbols seen in the crystal or mirror may be
+interpreted by reference to their known properties and uses, as
+well as by the associations existing between them and other
+things, persons and places, in the mind of the seer. Nor is it
+always required that the scryer should understand symbology, for
+as already said, the meanings of most of the symbols will be
+conveyed to the consciousness of the seer at the time of their
+appearance in the field. Experience will continually throw new
+light upon the screen of thought, and a symbol once known will
+assume a constant signification with each seer, so that in course
+of time a language will be instituted by means of which constant
+revelations will be made.
+
+It will thus be obvious, I think, that symbolism is to a large extent
+subject to a personal colouring, so that the same symbol may, by
+different associations, convey a different meaning to various
+seers. This may arise in part from the diversities of individual
+experience, of temperament, and the order to which the soul
+belongs in the spiritual world. These dissimilarities between
+individuals may be noted from their highest intellectual
+convictions down to the lowest of their sensations, and it is
+difficult to account for it. We all have the same laws of thought
+and the same general constitution. Humanity comprehends us all
+within the bonds of a single nature. Yet despite these facts we are
+divided by differences of opinion, of emotion, of sympathy, of
+taste and faculty. It is probable that these differences obtain in
+spheres immeasurably higher than our own, the sole element of
+consent being the recognition of dependence upon a Higher
+Power. God is the co-ordinating centre in a universe of infinite
+diversity.
+
+Therefore, despite the fact that symbolism is capable of a
+universal interpretation, it would appear that the images
+projected by the magical power of the soul must have different
+significations with each of us, the meanings being in some
+mysterious way in agreement with the nature of the person who
+sees them. Hence we may come to the conclusion that every
+person must be his own interpreter, there being no universal code
+for what are peculiarly individualized messages. For although
+every symbol has a general signification in agreement with its
+natural properties and uses, it yet obtains a particular signification
+with the individual.
+
+It is within common experience with those who have regard to
+the import of dreams, wherein the faculty of seership is acting on
+its normal plane, that a dream constantly recurring is found to
+have a particular meaning, which however is not applicable to
+others who have a similar dream. Every person is a seer in dream
+life, but few pay that attention to dreams which their origin and
+nature warrant. The crystal or mirror is an artificial means of
+bringing this normal faculty of dreaming into activity in waking
+life. Those who are capable of making the dream life normal to
+the working consciousness, rise to a higher plane when they sleep.
+
+But, as stated above, the differences of import or meaning, even
+in dream life, of any particular symbol is a common experience.
+One person will dream of wading in water whenever there is
+trouble ahead. Another will dream of a naked child, and yet
+another of coal, when similar trouble is in store. Butchers' meat
+will signify financial trouble to one person, to another the same
+will denote a fortunate speculation.
+
+The controlling factor in this matter would appear to be founded
+in the mental and psychic constitution conferred by physical
+heredity and psychic tradition, converging at the conception of
+the individual and expressed in the birth. Probably an argument
+could thence be made in regard to the influence of the planets and
+the general cosmic disposition attending upon birth: I have
+frequently found that dreams may be interpreted by reference to
+the individual horoscope of birth, and if dreams, possibly also
+visions, which are but dreams brought into the field of conscious
+reality. But any such argument, however tempting, would be
+beyond the scope of this work.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ALLIED PSYCHIC PHASES
+
+The faculty of second sight is not by any means the most
+common of the psychic powers. Psychometric impressions which
+proceed by the sense of touch into that of a superior order of
+feeling are far more general. We are affected much more than is
+generally recognized by the impressions gathered from the things
+we have contact with, and it is quite a common experience that
+very delicate and sensitive people take the "atmosphere" of places
+into which they go. I have in mind an instance of an extremely
+high-keyed person who invariably takes on the atmosphere of
+new localities, houses and even rooms. Going to view a house
+with the object of taking it on rental, she will as likely as not
+pronounce against the moment she enters on the ground that it is
+a "house of death" or a "quarrelsome house," full of sickness,
+intemperance or what not, and wherever enquiry has been
+possible it has invariably confirmed her impressions. On one
+occasion she had telegraphed to engage a room at an hotel in a
+seaside town, and on being shown to it by the maid found that it
+was locked. While the maid went to fetch the key the young
+lady tried the door and immediately received a psychometric
+impression. "Oh, M--," she said to her companion, "we cannot
+possibly have this room, there's a corpse in it!" This was
+confirmed, almost as soon as said, by the appearance of the
+proprietor, who explained that the maid had made a mistake in
+the number of the room, and then, feeling that there was a state of
+tension, confidentially informed his visitors that the locked room
+had really been booked to them but the old lady who was to have
+vacated it that morning had unfortunately died, and in order not
+to distress the other visitors the door had been locked pending the
+removal of the body, and even the servants had not been
+informed of it.
+
+The experiments of Denton recorded in his _Soul of Things_ are
+full of interest for those who would learn something more about
+the phenomena of psychometry.
+
+The suggestion is that every particle of matter has its own aura or
+"atmosphere" in which are stored up the experiences of that
+particle. What is said of the particle applies also to the mass of
+any body, and in effect we get the aura of a room, of a house, of a
+town, of a city; and so successively until we come to that of the
+planet itself. These stored-up impressions are not caused by the
+mental action of human beings in association with the material
+psychometrized, they appertain entirely to the associations of the
+material itself, and the psychometric sense consists in recovering
+these associations and bringing them into terms of human sense
+and consciousness. The experience seems to suggest a nexus
+between the individualized human soul and the world-soul in
+which the generic life is included; also that the human soul is a
+specialized evolution from the world-soul, and hence inclusive of
+all stages of experience beneath the human. I think it was Draper
+who suggested in his _Conflict_ that a man's shadow falling upon
+a wall produced an indelible impression which was capable of
+being revived. The cinematograph film is that brick wall raised to
+the nth power of impressibility. The occultist will point you to a
+universal medium as much above the cinema film as that is above
+the brick or stone, and in which are stored up the _memoria
+mundi_. It is this sensitized envelope of the planetary atom that
+your sensitive taps by means of his clairvoyant, psychometric and
+clairaudient senses.
+
+Clairaudience is far more general than second sight, but there is
+the same variability in the range of perception as is seen in
+clairvoyance and psychometry. Thus while one hears only the
+evil suggestions of "obsessing spirits" or discarnate souls being
+dinned into his ears, another will be lifted to the third heaven and
+hear "things unutterable." Brain-cell discharges will hardly
+account for the phenomena of clairaudience. A brain-cell
+discharge never goes beyond the repetition of one's own name in
+some familiar voice, or at most the revival of a phrase or the
+monotonous clang of a neighbouring church bell. These are not
+clairaudiences at all. Clairaudience consists in receiving auditory
+impressions of intelligible phrases not previously associated with
+the name of person or place involved in the statement. These
+impressions may be sporadic or may be continuous. In the case of
+a genuine development where the interior sense is fully opened
+up, the communication will be continuous and normal, as much
+so as ordinary conversation, and the translation of consciousness
+into terms of sense will be so rapid and unimpeded as to give the
+impression to an Englishman that he is listening to his native
+language and to a Frenchman that he is listening to French,
+though the communication may proceed from a source which
+renders this impossible. The universal language of humanity is
+neither Volapuk, nor Esperanto, nor Ido. It is Thought, and when
+thought proceeds from a point beyond the plane of differentiation
+it can be determined along the line which makes for English as
+readily as that which makes for French, or any other tongue. It is
+they of the soul-world who convey the thought, it is we of the
+sublunary world who translate that thought into our own
+language. The Hebrew prophets were almost uniformly instructed
+by means of clairaudience. But as I have already said there are
+degrees of clairaudience, as of any other psychic faculty. The
+danger is that a false value may be set upon the experiences,
+especially during the early stages of development when everything
+is very new and very wonderful.
+
+Telepathy is another and yet more general phrase of psychic
+activity. It may consist in the transmission from one person to
+another of a feeling or impression merely, which results in a
+certain degree of awareness to the state of mind in which the
+transmitter may be at the time, as when a mother has a "feeling"
+that all is not well with her absent child. Or it may yet take a
+more definite and perspicuous form, even to the transmission of
+details such as the names of persons and places, of numbers,
+forms and incidents. Telepathy commonly exists between persons
+in close sympathy; and when two persons are working along
+separate lines toward the same result, it is quite usual that they
+unconsciously "telepath" with one another, their brains being for
+the time in synchronous vibration. Spiritual communication in
+any degree is nothing more or less than sympathy--those who feel
+together, think together. The modern development of the aerial
+post is a step towards the universal federation of thought, but it is
+not comparable with the astral post which carries a thousand
+miles an hour. In this sort of correspondence the communication
+is written like any ordinary letter designed for transmission, but
+instead of stamping and posting it, a lighted match is applied to
+the finished work. The material part is destroyed, but the
+intangible and only real and lasting part remains behind. This is
+attached, by the direction of the will, to a particular person and
+set in a certain direction. If all the conditions have been properly
+observed it will not fail to reach its destination. I have fortunately
+been able to demonstrate this fact in public on more than one
+occasion. The phenomenon is repeated in a less striking
+form in every case of what is called "crossing," as when one
+correspondent feels suddenly called upon to write urgently to
+another and receives a reply to his enquiries while his letter is
+still in course of delivery.
+
+Nature is full of a subtle magic of this sort for which we have no
+organized science. It is said that if you put snails together and
+afterwards separate them, placing each upon a copper ground to
+which electric wires are attached, a shock given to one snail will
+be registered by the other at the same moment. I have not tried
+this theory, but the idea is fundamental to a mass of telepathic
+observations which have found practical expression in wireless
+telegraphy. Some thirty years ago, however, I made trial of the
+twin magnet theory and was entirely successful in getting
+wireless messages from one room to another. The performance
+was, however, clumsy and tedious, and I did not then know
+enough to see how it could be perfected. The idea is now in the
+very safe custody of the Patents Office.
+
+Community of taste can be demonstrated under hypnosis. It is not
+otherwise usually active in sensitives, and Swedenborg was
+hence of opinion that the sense of taste could not be obsessed.
+This, however, is incorrect. I have illustrated community of all
+the senses under hypnosis in circumstances which entirely
+precluded the possibility of feint or imposition on the part of the
+subject.
+
+Another phase of psychic activity is that illustrated in "dowsing"
+or water-finding by means of the hazel fork. It may be accounted
+a form of hyperaesthesia and no doubt has a nervous expression,
+but it is not the less psychic in its origin. I have already referred
+to the action of water upon psychic sensitives, and there seems
+little room for doubt that it is the psychometric sense which, by
+means of the self-extensive faculty inhering in consciousness,
+registers the presence of the great diamagnetic agent. Professor
+Barrett has written a most interesting monograph on this subject,
+and there are many books extant which make reference to and
+give examples of this curious phenomenon. The late British
+Consul at Trieste and famous explorer and linguist, Sir Richard
+Burton, could detect the presence of a cat at a considerable
+distance, and I have heard that Lord Roberts experiences the
+same paralyzing influence by the proximity of the harmless feline.
+If, therefore, one can register the presence of a cat, and another
+that of a dead body, I see no difficulty in others registering water
+or any other antipathetic. All we have to remember is that these
+things are psychic in their origin, and not ignorantly confound
+sensation with consciousness, or hyperaesthesia with the various
+psychopathic faculties we have been discussing. But it is
+necessary to return to our main subject and consider where our
+developed clairvoyant or second-sight faculty will lead us, and
+what sort of experience we may expect to gain by its use. These
+points may now be dealt with.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+EXPERIENCE AND USE
+
+First let us have the facts, we can then best see what use we can
+make of them. This I think is the correct position in regard to any
+abnormal claim that is made upon our attention. Everybody has
+heard of the prophecies of the Brahmin seer, most people
+have some acquaintance with the phenomena attending the
+clairvoyance of the seeress of Prevorst, while the experiences of
+Emanuel Swedenborg have been set forth in many biographies,
+but in none more lucidly and dispassionately than that by William
+White. Traditions have come to us concerning the clairvoyance of
+the Greek exponent of the Pythagorean teachings, Apollonius of
+Tyana, and the case of Cavotte, who predicted his own death and
+that of Robespierre and others by the guillotine, is on record. The
+illumination of Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie seer,
+and that of Thomas Lake Harris of Fountain Grove, are modern
+examples of abnormal faculty of a nature which places them
+outside the field of direct evidence. A prophecy made from the
+use of the super-sense which is followed by exact fulfilment
+appears to be the best criterion, though it is a very imperfect
+illustration of the scope of clairvoyance.
+
+The following instances are within my personal experience, and
+being already on record and well attested, will serve equally to
+illustrate the fact of clairvoyance as would numerous others
+within my knowledge.
+
+In June, 1896, a lady visited me in Manchester Square and, being
+anxious on several points, asked that I would scry for her. A blue
+beryl was used as agent. She was told that she would have news
+from a tropical country concerning the birth of a child, a boy,
+who would arrive in the following year in the month of February.
+That on a certain date while travelling she would meet with an
+accident to the right leg. Previous to this, in October she would
+have a welcome surprise connected with papers and a contest in
+which her son was engaged.
+
+Now here was a network of disaster for any would-be prophet
+who relied upon what is called the "lucky shot." If we enumerate
+the items of prediction, on any of which a fatal error could have
+been made, we shall find a very formidable list:--
+
+    A tropical country.
+    A birth.
+    A boy then unborn.
+    February, 1897.
+    A journey on a particular date.
+    The right leg.
+    The son.
+    October.
+    Papers.
+
+At least nine points on which the faculty could have been wholly
+at fault. The fulfilment, however, came in due course. The lady
+heard that her sister, then vicereine of India, was about to have a
+child, and in February, 1897, a son was born to Lord Elgin. In
+October the lady referred to was agreeably surprised to learn that
+her son had passed his examination for the military college with
+honours. Further, while boarding a train at Victoria station she
+had the misfortune to slip between the platform and the footboard,
+so that the shin of the right leg was badly damaged and severe
+muscular strain was also suffered, in consequence of which she
+was laid up for several days.
+
+Mrs. H. was consulted by an authoress, her profession being
+unknown to the scryer. She was told that she would go up a dingy
+staircase with a roll of papers under her arm; that she would see a
+dark man, thickset and of quiet demeanour. He would take the
+roll of papers and it would be a source of good fortune to her.
+The prediction was literally fulfilled.
+
+The first case cited is an example of the positive and symbolic
+type of vision; the second being of the passive and direct type.
+
+Mrs. A. was consulted by a lady of the writer's acquaintance and
+was told that she would not marry the man to whom she was then
+engaged as there was a certain other person, described, coming
+across the seas to claim her. She would meet him three years later
+in the month of January.
+
+The event transpired exactly as stated, though nothing at that time
+appeared less probable, and indeed the lady was not a little irate
+at the allusion to the breaking off of the engagement and of
+marrying a man whom she had never seen and for whom she
+could have no sort of regard. In fact, the whole revelation was
+very revolting to one so wholly absorbed as was she at the time.
+It cannot be argued that this was a case of suggestion working
+itself out, for one cannot auto-suggest the arrival of a person
+of a particular description from a distant land to one's own
+drawing-room at any time, and there is here a prediction as
+to the date which was duly fulfilled. This was a case of direct
+vision.
+
+Mrs. G. consulted a seer on September 27, 1894. She was told
+she would have sickness affecting the loins and knees; that she
+would be the owner of a house in the month of December; that a
+removal would be made when the trees were leafless; that there
+would be a dispute about a sum of money.
+
+This is positive or symbolical clairvoyance. The symbols seen
+were as follow: a figure with a black cloth about the loins, the
+figure stooping and resting the hands upon its knees. A house
+covered with snow, bare trees around it. A bird on a leafless
+branch; the bird flies away. Several hands seen grabbing at a pile
+of money.
+
+All the predictions were fulfilled.
+
+Interpretations of symbols when made during the vision are
+frequently far removed from what one would be led to expect.
+But we have to remember that the seer is then in a psychologized
+state, and there is reason to believe that interpretations made from
+the inner plane of consciousness are due to the fact that the
+symbols appear in a different light. Our ordinary dreams
+follow the same change. While asleep we are impressed by the
+importance and logical consistency of the dream incident, which
+assumes, possibly, the proportions of a revelation, but which
+dissolves into ridiculous triviality and nonsense as soon as we
+awake. The reason is that there is a complete hiatus between the
+visionary and the waking state of consciousness, and even the
+laws of thought appear to undergo a change as the centre of
+consciousness slides down from the inner to the outer world of
+thought and feeling.
+
+In the Eastern conception the three states of _jagrata_, waking,
+_swapna_, dreaming, and _sushupti_, sleeping, are penetrated by
+the thread of consciousness, the _sutrâtma_, a node of complete
+unconsciousness separating one state from the next. The centre of
+consciousness, like a bead on the thread, alternates between the
+three states as it is impelled by desire or will.
+
+[Illustration of the three states of jagrata]
+
+I have known sickness predicted, both as to time and nature of
+the malady; the receipt of unexpected letters and telegrams with
+indications of their contents and resulting incident; changes,
+voyages, business transactions, deaths, and even changes in the
+religious views of individuals, all by means of the crystal vision.
+
+It sometimes happens that the visionary state is induced by
+excessive emotion during which the prophetic faculty is
+considerably heightened. Some temperaments on the other hand
+will fall into the clairvoyant condition when engaged in deep
+thought. The thread of thought seems suddenly to be broken, and
+there appears a vision wholly unconnected with the subject but a
+moment ago absorbing the mind. It is as if the soul, while probing
+the depths of its inner consciousness, comes into contact with the
+thin partition which may be said to divide the outer world of
+reason and doubt from the inner world of intuition and direct
+perception, and breaking through, emerges into the light beyond.
+In trance there is generally a development of other super-senses,
+such as clairaudience and psychic touch, as well as clairvoyance.
+Examples might be multiplied and would but serve to show that
+the rapport existing between the human soul and the world soul,
+the individual consciousness and the collective consciousness, is
+capable of being actively induced by recourse to appropriate
+means and developed where it exists in latency by means of the
+crystal, the black concave mirror or other suitable agent. As yet,
+however, the majority are wholly ignorant of the existence of
+such psychic faculties, and even those who possess them are
+conscious of having but an imperfect control of them.
+
+As in the case of genius where nature is opening up new centres
+of activity in the mind, the casual observer notes an eccentricity
+hardly distinguishable from some incipient forms of insanity; so
+the development of new psychic faculties is frequently attended
+by temporary loss of control over the normal brain functions.
+Loss of memory, hysteria, absent-mindedness, unconscious
+utterance of thought, illusions, irritability, indifference,
+misanthropy and similar perversions are not infrequent products
+of the preliminary stages of psychic development. These,
+however, will pass away as the new faculty pushes through into
+full existence. Nature is jealous of her offspring and concentrates
+the whole of her forces when in the act of generation, and that is
+the reason of her apparent neglect of powers and functions,
+normally under her control, while the evolution of a new faculty
+is in process. Let it be understood therefore that the faculty of
+clairvoyance or any other super-sense is not to be artificially
+developed without some cost to those who seek it. "The universe
+is thine; take what thou wilt, but pay the price," says Emerson.
+This is the divine mandate. It is not merely a question of the price
+of a crystal or a mirror, the sacrifice of time, the exercise of
+patience: it may mean something much more than this. It is a
+question of the price of a new faculty. What is it worth to you?
+That is the price you will be required to pay. And with this
+equation in mind the reader must consider the use to which, when
+obtained, he will apply his faculty; for the virtue of everything is
+in its use. It is reasonable to presume that one's daily life can
+supply the true answer. To what use are we employing the
+faculties we already have, all of them acquired with as much pain
+and suffering, it may be, as any new ones we are ever likely to
+evolve? If we are using these faculties for the benefit of the race
+we shall employ others that are higher to even greater effect. In
+other case it is not worth the effort of acquiring, nor is it likely
+that anybody of a radically selfish nature will take the trouble to
+acquire it. Natural selection is the fine sieve which the gods use
+in their prospecting. The gross material does not go through.
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+The foregoing short treatise will gain some practical value by a
+statement of the conditions most suitable for scrying.
+
+A diffused natural light, preferably from the north, is always
+better than an artificial light.
+
+The subject should sit with his back to the source of light, at a
+distance from the mirror determined by its focus; or if the agent
+be a crystal it should be held in the hands, one supporting the
+other.
+
+Steady gazing in complete silence should be maintained for a
+quarter of an hour, which may be afterwards gradually extended
+to half or even a full hour. Success depends largely upon
+idiosyncrasy and temperamental aptitude. Seers are often to be
+found among men and women of imperfect education owing to
+fitness of temperament; seers of this order are born with the
+faculty. Others, seemingly non-sensitive at first, may develop the
+faculty after a few short sittings.
+
+The eyes should not be strained, but the gaze should be allowed
+to rest casually yet steadily on the agent as if one were reading a
+book.
+
+It will be found that the sight is presently drawn inwards to a
+focus beyond the surface of the agent. This opening up of the
+field of vision is the symptom of success. The next step is
+indicated by a change in the atmosphere of the field. Instead of
+reflecting or remaining translucent, the agent will appear to cloud
+over. This will appear to become milky, then to be diffused with
+colour which changes to black or murky brown, and finally the
+screen appears to be drawn away, revealing a picture, a scene,
+figures in action, symbolical forms, sentences, etc.
+
+The physiological symptoms are: first, a slight chill along the
+spine like cold water trickling from the neck downwards;
+secondly, a returning flush of heat from the base of the spine
+upwards to the crown of the head; thirdly, a gaping or spasmodic
+action of the brain; and lastly, a deep inward drawing of the
+breath, as if sobbing. When these symptoms follow closely upon
+one another, vision will be assured. It generally happens,
+however, that the various symptoms are separately developed by
+repeated sittings, only appearing in proper sequence when the
+experiment is finally successful.
+
+One of the most interesting phases of this development of second
+sight is the opening up of lost impressions, the revival of lapsed
+memories; "looking for one thing, you find another" is an
+experience in daily life which has a psychological application.
+The things which pass into the limbo of forgetfulness are never
+lost to us. They remain stored up in latency and are ready to
+spring into activity as soon as the depths of the mind are probed.
+Necessarily this experience is more generally interesting than
+pleasant, but it serves to give one a sense of the connectedness of
+life's incident and to show a certain sequential necessity in the
+course of events. The "whyness" of our various experiences is
+revealed when they are displayed in their true relations and given
+their true value in the scheme of individual evolution. As
+detached experiences they appear without reason or purpose,
+apparently futile, often painful and even cruel; but as a
+consecutive scheme, completed by the revival of all the
+connecting links, the wisdom, justice, kindness and beneficence
+of the Great Arbiter of our destinies are fully and conspicuously
+revealed. My own first suspicions of a former embodied existence
+were derived from psychic experiences, and later on were
+confirmed by the course of events. I saw myself reaping that
+which I had sown, and I observed that what was sown in ignorance
+might be reaped in the light of a fuller knowledge; only
+we must henceforth be wise in the sowing. I would say in
+conclusion that it is the duty of man to himself and humanity not
+only to hold himself in readiness, but also to fit himself for the
+reception of new light. Since evolution is the law of life and the
+glory of going on man's highest guerdon, and since we are all
+candidates for responsibility, asking as reward for work well
+done to-day a task of greater magnitude on the morrow, it appears
+that the development of the psychic faculties may well form an
+orderly step in the process of human perfectibility, and help to
+bring us nearer to the source of all good. If it serves only to keep
+open the door between the two worlds it will have filled a good
+purpose, and if in the writing of this little exposition, I may have
+contributed to the confidence and security of any who may
+adventure these obscure paths, I shall be well content.
+
+
+
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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Second Sight, by Sepharial</title>
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+<h1 align="center">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Second Sight, by Sepharial</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Second Sight</p>
+<p>       A study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance</p>
+<p>Author: Sepharial</p>
+<p>Release Date: September 16, 2008  [eBook #26633]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: Windows-1252</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECOND SIGHT***</p>
+<br><br><center><h3>E-text prepared by Ruth Hart</h3></center><br><br>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<center>
+<p>SECOND SIGHT</p>
+
+<p><i>A STUDY OF NATURAL AND INDUCED CLAIRVOYANCE</i></p>
+
+<p>BY</p>
+
+<p>SEPHARIAL</p>
+
+<p>AUTHOR OF "A MANUAL OF ASTROLOGY," "PROGNOSTIC ASTRONOMY," "A
+MANUAL OF OCCULTISM," "KABALISTIC ASTROLOGY," "THE KABALA OF NUMBERS," ETC.,
+ETC.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<br>
+<p>LONDON<br>
+WILLIAM RIDER &amp; SON, LIMITED <br>
+1912</p>
+
+<br>
+<p>Richard Clay &amp; Sons, Limited,<br>
+Brunswick Street, Stamford Street, S.E.,<br>
+and Bungay, Suffolk.<br>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+
+<br>
+<h3><span style="font-weight: 400">CONTENTS</span></h3>
+<br>
+<table>
+
+<tr>
+<td align="right">&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#1">Introduction</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;7</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter I.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#2">The Scientific Position</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;10</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter II.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#3">Materials and Conditions</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;21</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter III.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#4">The Faculty of Seership</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;29</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter IV.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#5">Preliminaries and Practice</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;39</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter V.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#6">Kinds of Vision</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;51</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter VI.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#7">Obstacles to Clairvoyance</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;59</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter VII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#8">Symbolism</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;67</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter VIII.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#9">Allied Psychic Phases</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;76</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">Chapter IX.&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#10">Experience and Use</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;84</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">&nbsp;&nbsp;</td><td><a href="#11">Conclusion</a></td><td align="right">&nbsp;93</td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+</center>
+
+<br>
+<a name="1"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+INTRODUCTION
+<br>
+
+
+<p>Few words will be necessary by way of preface to this book,
+which is designed as an introduction to a little understood and much
+misrepresented subject.</p>
+
+<p>I have not here written anything which is intended to displace
+the observations of other authors on this subject, nor will it be found that
+anything has been said subversive of the conclusions arrived at by
+experimentalists who have essayed the study of clairvoyant phenomena in a manner
+that is altogether commendable, and who have sought to place the subject on a
+demonstrable and scientific basis. I refer to the proceedings of the Society for
+Psychical Research.</p>
+
+<p>In the following pages I have endeavoured to indicate the nature
+of the faculty of Second Sight or Clairvoyance, the means of its development,
+the use of suitable media or agents for this purpose, and the kind of results
+that may be expected to follow a regulated effort in this direction. I have also
+sought to show that the development of the psychic faculties may form an orderly
+step in the process of human unfoldment and perfectibility.</p>
+
+<p>As far as the nature and scope of this little work will allow, I
+have sought to treat the subject on a broad and general basis rather than pursue
+more particular and possibly more attractive scientific lines. What I have here
+said is the result of a personal experience of some years in this and other
+forms of psychic development and experimentation. My conclusions are given for
+what they are worth, and I have no wish to persuade my readers to my view of the
+nature and source of these abnormal phenomena. The reader is at liberty to form
+his own theory in regard to them, but such theory should be inclusive of all the
+known facts. The theories depending on hypnotic suggestion may be dismissed as
+inadequate. There appear to remain only the inspirational theory of direct
+revelation and the theory of the world-soul enunciated by the Occultists. I have
+elected in favour of the latter for reasons which, I think, will be conspicuous
+to those who read these pages.</p>
+
+<p>I should be the last to allow the study of psychism to usurp the
+legitimate place in life of intellectual and spiritual pursuits, and I look with
+abhorrence upon the flippant use made of the psychic faculties by a certain
+class of pseudo-occultists who serve up this kind of thing with their five
+o'clock tea. But I regard an ordered psychism as a most valuable accessory to
+intellectual and spiritual development and as filling a natural place in the
+process of unfoldment between that intellectualism that is grounded in the
+senses and that higher intelligence which receives its light from within. From
+this view-point the following pages are written, and will, I trust, prove
+helpful.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="2"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER I.
+<br>
+<br>
+THE SCIENTIFIC POSITION
+<br>
+
+
+<p>It would perhaps be premature to make any definite pronouncement
+as to the scientific position in regard to the psychic phenomenon known as
+"scrying," and certainly presumptuous on my part to cite an authority from among
+the many who have examined this subject, since all are not agreed upon the
+nature and source of the observed phenomena. Their names are, moreover, already
+identified with modern scientific research and theory, so that to associate them
+with experimental psychology would be to lend colour to the idea that modern
+science has recognized this branch of knowledge. Nothing, perhaps, is further
+from the fact, and while it cannot in any way be regarded as derogatory to the
+highest scientist to be associated with others, of less scientific attainment
+but of equal integrity, in this comparatively new field of enquiry, it may lead
+to popular error to institute a connection. It is still fresh in the mind how
+the Darwinian hypothesis was utterly misconceived by the popular mind, the
+suggestion that man was descended from the apes being generally quoted as a
+correct expression of Darwin's theory, whereas he never suggested any such
+thing, but that man and the apes had a common ancestor, which makes of the ape
+rather a degenerate lemur than a human ancestor. Other and more prevalent errors
+will occur to the reader, these being due to the use of what is called "the
+evidence of the senses"; and of all criteria the evidence of sensation is
+perhaps the most faulty. Logical inference from deductive or inductive reasoning
+has often enough been a good monitor to sense-perception, and has, moreover,
+pioneered the man of science to correct knowledge on more than one occasion. But
+as far as we know or can learn from the history of human knowledge, our senses
+have been the chiefest source of error. It is with considerable caution that the
+scientist employs the evidence from sense alone, and in the study of
+experimental psychology it is the sense which has first to be corrected, and
+which, in fact, forms the great factor in the equation. A person informs me that
+he can see a vision in the crystal ball before him, and although I am in the
+same relation with the "field" as he, I cannot see anything except accountable
+reflections. This fact does not give any room for contradicting him or any right
+to infer that it is all imagination. It is futile to say the vision does not
+exist. If he sees it, it does exist so far as he is concerned. There is no more
+a universal community of sensation than of thought. When I am at work my own
+thought is more real than any impression received through the sense organs. It
+is louder than the babel of voices or the strains of instrumental music, and
+more conspicuous than any object upon which the eye may fall. These external
+impressions are admitted or shut out at will. I then know that my thought is as
+real as my senses, that the images of thought are as perceptible as those
+exterior to it and in every way as objective and real. The thought-form has this
+advantage, however, that it can be given a durable or a temporary existence, and
+can be taken about with me without being liable to impost as "excess luggage."
+In the matter of evidence in psychological questions, therefore, sense
+perceptions are only second-rate criteria and ought to be received with caution.</p>
+
+<p>Almost all persons dream, and while dreaming they see and hear,
+touch and taste, without questioning for a moment the reality of these
+experiences. The dreaming person loses sight of the fact that he is in a bedroom
+of a particular house, that he has certain relations with others sleeping in the
+same house. He loses sight of the fact that his name is, let us say, Henry, and
+that he is famous for the manufacture of a particular brand of soap or cheese.
+For him, and as long as it lasts, the dream is the one reality. Now the question
+of the philosopher has always been: which is the true dream, the sleeping dream
+or the waking dream? The fact that the one is continuous of itself while the
+other is not, and that we always fall into a new dream but always wake to the
+same reality, has given a permanent value to the waking or external life, and an
+equally fictitious one to the interior or dreaming life. But what if the dream
+life became more or less permanent to the exclusion of all other memories and
+sensations? We should then get a case of insanity in which hallucination would
+be symptomic. (The dream state is more or less permanent with certain poetical
+temperaments, and if there is any insanity attaching to it at all, it consists
+in the inability to react.) Imagination, deep thought and grief are as much
+anaesthetic as chloroform. But the closing of the external channels of sensation
+is usually the signal for the opening of the psychic, and from all the evidence
+it would seem that the psychic sense is more extensive, acuter and in every way
+more dependable than the physical. I never yet have met the man or woman whose
+impaired eyesight required that he or she should use glasses in order to see
+while asleep. That they do see is common experience, and that they see farther,
+and therefore better, with the psychic sense than with the physical has been
+often proved. Emanuel Swedenborg saw a fire in Stockholm when he was resident in
+England and gave evidence of it before the vision was confirmed by news from
+Sweden. A lady of my acquaintance saw and described a fire taking place at a
+country seat about 150 miles away, the incident being true to the minutest
+details, many of which were exceptional and in a single instance tragic. The
+psychic sense is younger than the physical, as the soul is younger than the
+body, and its faculty continues unimpaired long after old age and disease have
+made havoc of the earthly vestment. The soul is younger at a thousand years than
+the body is at sixty. Let it be admitted upon evidence that there are two sorts
+of sense perception, the physical and the psychical, and that in some persons
+the latter is as much in evidence as the former. We have to enquire then
+what relations the crystal or other medium has to the development and exercise
+of the clairvoyant faculty. We know comparatively little about atomic structure
+in relation to nervous organism. The atomicity of certain chemical bodies does
+not inform us as to why one should be a deadly poison and another perfectly
+innocuous. We regard different bodies as congeries of atoms, but it is a
+singular fact that of two bodies containing exactly the same elements in the
+same proportions the one is poisonous and the other harmless. The only
+difference between them is the atomic arrangement.</p>
+
+<p>The atomic theory refers all bodies to one homogeneous basic
+substance, which has been termed protyle (proto-hyle), from which, by means of a
+process loosely defined as differentiation, all the elements are derived. These
+elements are the result of atomic arrangement. The atoms have various
+vibrations, the extent of which is called the mean free path of vibration;
+greatest in hydrogen and least in the densest element. All matter is
+indestructible, but at the same time convertible, and these facts, together with
+the absolute association of matter and force, lead to the conclusion that every
+change of matter implies a change of force. Matter, therefore, is ever living
+and active, and there is no such thing as dead matter anywhere. The hylo-idealists
+have therefore regarded all matter as but the ultimate expression of spirit, and
+primarily of a spiritual origin.</p>
+
+<p>The somewhat irksome phraseology of Baron Swedenborg has dulled
+many minds to a sense of his great acumen and philosophical depth, but it maybe
+convenient to summarize his scientific doctrine of "Correspondences" in this
+place as it has an important bearing on the subject in hand. He laid down the
+principle of the spiritual origin of force and matter. Matter, he argued, was
+the ultimate expression of spirit, as form was that of force. Spirit is to force
+what matter is to form--its substratum. Hence for every spiritual force there is
+a corresponding material form, and thus the material or natural world
+corresponds at all points to the world of spirit, without being identical. The
+apparent hiatus between one plane of existence and the next he called a discrete
+degree, while the community between different bodies on the same plane he called
+a continuous degree. Thus there is community of sensation between bodies of the
+same nature, community of feeling, community of thought, and community of desire
+or aspiration, each on its own plane of existence. But desire is translated into
+thought, thought into feeling, and feeling into action. The spirit, soul
+(rational and animal in its higher and lower aspects), and the body appear to
+have been the principles of the human constitution according to this authority.
+All spirits enjoy community, as all souls and all bodies on their respective
+planes of existence; but between spirit and soul, as between soul and body,
+there is a discrete degree. In fine, mind is continuous of mind all through the
+universe, as matter is continuous of matter; while mind and matter are separated
+and need to be translated into terms of one another.</p>
+
+<p>Taking our position from the scientific statement of the atomic
+structure of bodies, atomic vibration and molecular arrangement, we may now
+consider the action exerted by such bodies upon the nervous organism of man.</p>
+
+<p>The function of the brain, which may be regarded as the bulbous
+root of a plant whose branches grow downwards, is twofold: to affect, and to be
+affected. In its active and positive condition it affects the whole of the vital
+and muscular processes in the body, finding expression in vital action. In its
+passive and negative state it is affected by impressions coming to it in
+different ways through the sense organs, resulting in nervous and mental action.
+These two functions are interdependent. It is the latter or afferent function
+with which we are now concerned. The range of our sense-perceptions puts us
+momentarily in relations with the material world, or rather, with a certain
+portion of it. For we by no means sense all that is sensible, and, as I have
+already indicated, our sense impressions are often delusive. The gamut of our
+senses is very limited, and also very imperfect both as to extent and quality.
+Science is continually bringing new instruments into our service, some to aid
+the senses, others to correct them. The microscope, the microphone, the
+refracting lens are instances. It used to be said with great certainty that you
+cannot see through a brick wall, but by means of X-rays and a fluorescent screen
+it is now possible to do so. I have seen my own heart beating as its image was
+thrown on the screen by the Rontgen rays. Many insects, birds and animals have
+keener perceptions in some respects than man. Animalculae and microbic life,
+themselves microscopic, have their own order of sense-organs related to a world
+of life beyond our ken. These observations serve to emphasise the great
+limitation of our senses, and also to enforce the fact that Nature does not
+cease to exist where we cease to perceive her. The recognition of this fact has
+been so thoroughly appreciated by thoughtful people as to have opened up the
+question as to what these human limitations may mean and to what degree they may
+extend.</p>
+
+<p>We know what they mean well enough: the history of human
+development is the sequel to natural evolution, and this development could never
+have had place apart from the hunger of the mind and the consequent breaking
+down of sense limitations by human invention. As to the extent of our
+limitations it has been suggested that just as there are states of matter so
+fine as to be beyond the range of vision, so there may be others so coarse as to
+be below the sense of touch. We cannot, however, assert anything with certainty,
+seeing that proof must always require that a thing must be brought within our
+range of perception before we can admit it as fact. The future has many more
+wonderful revelations in store for us, no doubt. But there is really nothing
+more wonderful than human faculty which discovers these things in Nature, things
+that have always been in existence but until now have been outside our range of
+perception. The ultra-solid world may exist.</p>
+
+<p>The relations of our sense-organs to the various degrees of
+matter, to solids, fluids, gases, atmosphere and ether, vary in different
+individuals to such a wide extent as to create the greatest diversity of normal
+faculty. The average wool-sorter will outvie an artist in his perception of
+colour shades. An odour that is distinctly recognizable by one person will not
+be perceptible to others. In the matter of sound also the same differences of
+perception will be noted. On a very still night one can hear the sugar canes
+growing. Most people find the cry of a bat to be beyond their range. The eye
+cannot discern intervals of less than one-fiftieth of a second. Atmospheric
+vibration does not become sound until a considerable frequency is attained.
+Every movement we make displaces air but our sense of touch does not inform us
+of it, but if we stand in a sunbeam the dust particles will show that it is so.
+Our sense of feeling will not register above certain degrees of heat or below
+certain degrees of cold. Sensation, moreover, is not indefinitely sustained, as
+anyone may learn who will follow the ticking of a watch for five minutes
+continuously.</p>
+
+<p>But quite apart from the sense and range of our perceptions, the
+equality of a sense-impression is found to vary with different persons,
+affecting them each in a different way. We find that people have "tastes" in
+regard to form, colour, flavour, scent, sound, fabric and texture. The
+experience is too general to need illustration, but we may gather thence that,
+in relation to the nervous system of man, every material body and state of
+matter has a variable effect. These remarks will clear the ground for a
+statement of my views upon the probable effect a crystal may have upon a
+sensitive person.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="3"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER II.
+<br>
+<br>
+MATERIALS AND CONDITIONS
+<br>
+
+<p>The crystal is a clear pellucid piece of quartz or beryl,
+sometimes oval in shape but more generally spherical. It is accredited by
+Reichenbach and other researchers with highly magnetic qualities, capable of
+producing in a suitable subject a state analogous to the ordinary "waking
+trance" of the hypnotists. It is believed that all bodies convey, or are the
+vehicles of certain universal property called od or odyle (od-hyle), which is
+not regarded as a force but as an inert and passive substance underlying the
+more active forces familiar to us in kinetic, calorific and electrical
+phenomena. In this respect it holds a position analogous to the argon of the
+atmosphere, and is capable of taking up the vibrations of those bodies to which
+it is related and which it invests. It would perhaps not be amiss to regard it
+as static ether. Of itself it has no active properties, but in its still,
+well-like depths, it holds the potentiality of all magnetic forces.</p>
+
+<p>This odyle is particularly potent in certain bodies and one of
+these is the beryl or quartz. It produces and retains more readily in the beryl
+than in most other bodies the images communicated to it by the subconscious
+activity of the seer. It is in the nature of a sensitized film which is capable
+of recording thought forms and mental images as the photographic film records
+objective things. The occultist will probably recognize in it many of the
+properties of the "astral light," which is often spoken of in this connection.
+Readers of my <i>Manual of Occultism </i>will already be informed concerning the
+nature of subconscious activity. The mind or soul of man has two aspects: the
+attentive or waking consciousness, directed to the things of the external world;
+and the subconscious, which is concerned with the things of the interior world.
+Each of these spheres of the mind has its voluntary and automatic phases, a fact
+which is usually lost sight of, inasmuch as the automatism of the mind is
+frequently confounded with the subconscious. All purposive action tends to
+become automatic, whether it be physical or mental, sensory or psychic.</p>
+
+<p>The soul in this connection is to be regarded as the repository
+of all that complex of emotions, thoughts, aspirations, impressions,
+perceptions, feelings, etc., which constitute the inner life of man. The soul is
+none the less a fact because there are those who bandy words about its origin
+and nature.</p>
+
+<p>Reichenbach has shown by a series of experiments upon sensitive
+and hypnotized subjects, that metals and other materials produce very marked
+effects in contact with the human body. The experiments further showed that the
+same substance affected different patients in diverse manners.</p>
+
+<p>The hypnotic experiments of the late Dr. Charcot, the well-known
+French biologist, also demonstrate the rapport existing between the sensitive
+subject and foreign bodies in proximity. A bottle containing a poison is taken
+at random from a number of others of similar appearance and is applied to the
+back of the patient's neck. The hypnotic subject at once begins to develop all
+the symptoms of arsenical, strychnine or prussic acid poisoning; it being
+afterwards found that the bottle contains the toxine whose effects have been
+portrayed by the subject. But not all hypnotic subjects are capable of the same
+degree of sensibility.</p>
+
+<p>Community of sensation is as common a phenomenon as community of
+thought between a hypnotizer and his subject, and what are called sympathetic
+pains are included in common experience. Sensitive persons will simulate all the
+symptoms of a virulent disease, <i>e.g.</i> mock measles. The phenomena of
+psychometry reveal the fact of bodies being able to retain records and of the
+human possibility of reviving these records as sensations and thought images,
+although there is no direct community of sensation between an inanimate object
+and the nervous organism of a sensitive. It need not, therefore, be a matter of
+surprise that the crystal can exert a very definite and sensible effect upon the
+nervous organism of a certain order of subjects. It does not affect all alike
+nor act in a uniform and constant manner on those whom it does so affect. The
+modifications of sensibility taking place in the subject or sensitive render the
+action of the agent a variable quantity. Where its action is more or less rapid
+and remarkable, however, the quartz or beryl crystal may be regarded as the most
+effective agent for producing clairvoyance.</p>
+
+<p>In other cases the concave mirror, either of polished copper or
+black japan, will be found serviceable. In certain cases where the faculty is
+already developed but lying in latency, any shining surface will suffice to
+bring it into activity. Ecstatic vision was first induced in Jacob Boehme by the
+sun's rays falling upon a bowl of water which caught and dazzled his eyes while
+he was engaged in the humble task of cobbling a pair of shoes. In consequence of
+this exaltation of the visual sense we have those remarkable works, <i>The
+Aurora, The Four Complexions, Signatura Rerum,</i> and many others, with
+letters and commentaries which, in addition to being of a spiritual nature, are
+also to be regarded as scholarly when referred to their source. In Boehme's
+case, as in that of Swedenborg, whose faculty did not appear until he was
+fifty-four years of age, it would appear that the faculty was constitutional and
+already developed, waiting only the conditions which should bring it into active
+operation.</p>
+
+<p>The agent most suitable for developing clairvoyance cannot
+therefore be definitely prescribed. It must remain a matter of experiment with
+the subject himself. That there are some persons in whom the psychic faculties
+are more prone to activity than in others is certain, and it would appear also
+that these faculties are native in some by spiritual or hereditary succession,
+which fact is evident from their genitures as interpreted by astrology. Many
+planets in flexed signs and a satellitium in the nadir or lower angle of the
+horoscope is a certain indication of extreme nervous sensibility and
+predisposition to telaesthenic impressions, though this observation does not
+cover all the instances before me. It is true, however, where it applies. The
+dominant influence of the planet Neptune in a horoscope is also to be regarded
+as a special indication of some form of psychic activity, as I have frequently
+observed.</p>
+
+<p>In cases where the subject is not prepared by evolutional
+process for the exercise of the psychic faculties, it will be found that the
+same or similar indications will tend to the simulation of such faculties, as by
+mediumism, conjuring, etc., while they may even result in chicanery and fraud.</p>
+
+<p>But among those who are gifted in the direction spoken of, all
+are not clairvoyant. The most common form of psychic disturbance is involuntary
+clairaudience, and telaesthesia is not perhaps less general. St. Paul
+indicates a variety of such psychic "gifts," <i>e.g. </i>the gifts of prophecy,
+of healing, of understanding, etc.; but these may also be regarded in quite a
+mundane sense. The development among the early Christians of spiritual gifts,
+visions, hearing, speaking in foreign tongues, psychic healing, etc., appears to
+have given rise to a variety of exceptional experiences by which they were
+induced to say "we cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard." "One
+star differs from another in glory," says St. Paul, and this diversity of
+spiritual gifts proceeds from the celestial world, and is so ordered that each
+may fulfil the part required of him in the economy of life.</p>
+
+<p>Psychic tradition is as important a fact as is physical
+heredity. The latter is a factor of immense importance as affecting the
+constitution and quality of the organism in and through which the soul is
+required to function. But psychic tradition is that which determines the power
+and faculty brought to bear upon the physical organism. Past evolution is not a
+negligible quantity, and its effects are never wasted or lost to the individual.
+We are what we are by reason of what we have already been, as well individually
+as racially. "The future is, the past unfolded" or "entered upon by a new door,"
+as it has been well said. We do not suddenly acquire faculties, we evolve them
+by effort and successive selection. In our upward striving for liberty we
+specialize along certain lines which appear to us to be those offering either
+the least resistance or the most ready means of self-preservation, liberty and
+well-being. Hence some evolve a special faculty for money-making and, as
+schoolboys, will be expert traders of alley-taws, jack-knives, toffee and all
+sorts of kickshaws. Others of another bent or list will traffic in knowledge to
+the abounding satisfaction of their masters and the jealous pride of their form.</p>
+
+<p>So that psychic tradition while disposing some to the speedy
+revelation of an already acquired faculty, disposes others to the more arduous
+but not less interesting work of acquiring such faculty. And because the
+spiritual needs of mankind are ever of primary importance, there are always to
+be found those in whom the power of spiritual interpretation is the dominant
+faculty, such persons being the natural channels of intercourse between the
+superior and inferior worlds. The physical body of man is equipped with a
+corresponding order of microbic life which acts as an organic interpreter,
+translating the elements of food into blood, nerve, fibre, tissue and bone
+agreeably to the laws of their being. What I have to say in this place is
+addressed especially to those who would aspire to the faculty of clear vision
+and in whom the psychic powers are striving towards expression. Every person
+whose life is not wholly sunk in material and selfish pleasures but in whom the
+aspiration to a higher and better life is a hunger the world cannot satisfy, has
+within himself the power to see and know that which he seeks behind the veil of
+the senses. Nature has never produced a desire she cannot satisfy. There is no
+hope, however vague, that the soul cannot define, and no aspiration, however
+high, that the wings of the spirit cannot reach. Therefore be patient and
+strive. To others I would say: Be content. All birds cannot be eagles. The
+nightingale has a song and the humming bird a plumage the eagle can never
+possess. The nightingale may sing to the stars, the humming bird to the flowers,
+but the eagle, whose tireless eyes gaze into the heart of day, is uncompanioned
+in its lofty loneliness amid the mountain tops.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="4"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER III.
+<br>
+<br>
+THE FACULTY OF SEERSHIP
+<br>
+
+<p>Until quite recently the faculty of seership has been associated
+in occult literature with various magical formulae. There are in existence works
+by Tristemius, Francis Barrett, Ebenezer Sibley and others in which the use of
+the crystal is made by means of magical invocations and a variety of ceremonial
+observances. It is not within the scope of this treatise to determine the value
+of such rites or the desirability of invoking extraneous intelligences and
+powers by the use of magical practices; but I think we may conclude that
+communion of this order is not unattended by grave dangers. When the Israelites
+were ill-content with the farinaceous manna they invoked Heaven to send them
+meat. They got what they wanted, but also the dire penalty which it incurred;
+and it is quite likely that in invoking occult forces beyond one's power to
+control great evils may ensue. All action and reaction are equal and opposite. A
+child can pull a trigger but cannot withstand the recoil of a gun, or by moving
+a lever may set machinery in motion which it can by no means control. Therefore
+without strength and knowledge of the right sort it is foolish to meddle with
+occult forces; and in the education of the development of the psychic and
+spiritual faculties native in us, it is better to encourage their natural
+development by legitimate exercise than to invoke the action of a stimulus which
+cannot afterwards be controlled. Water will wear away a rock by continual
+fretting, though nobody doubts that water is softer than a rock, and if the
+barrier between this and the soul-world be like granite, yet the patient and
+persistent action of the determined mind will sooner or later wear it away, the
+last thin layer will break and the light of another world will stream through,
+dazzling our unaccustomed eyes with its bright effulgence.</p>
+
+<p>It is my object here to indicate by what means and by what
+persons the natural development of the clairvoyant faculty may be achieved. In
+regard then to the subject, medium or seer, there are two distinct temperaments
+in which the faculty is likely to be dominant and capable of high and rapid
+development. The first is the nervous temperament, characterized by extreme
+activity of body and mind, nervous excitability, dark complexion, prominent
+features, and wiry frame. Types of this temperament are to be seen in the
+descriptions of Dante, Swedenborg, Melancthon, Edgar A. Poe and others. This
+type represents the positive seers.</p>
+
+<p>The other temperament is of the passive type and is
+characterized by a full lymphatic habit, pale or delicate complexion, blue eyes,
+straight fine hair, small hands, tapering fingers, cold and fleshy to the touch;
+usually a thin or high voice and languid manner.</p>
+
+<p>These two types of seers--of which there are many
+varieties--achieve their development by quite opposite means. The positive seer
+projects the mental images by a psychic process impossible of description, but
+by a certain psychic metabolism by which the apperceptions of the soul are
+transformed into mental images of a purely symbolical nature. The psychic
+process of picture-production is involuntary and unconscious, but the perception
+of the mental pictures is a perfectly conscious process and involves the
+exercise of an introspective faculty. The passive seer, on the contrary, is
+effortless, and receives impressions by reflection, the visions coming
+imperceptibly and having a literal interpretation. The vision is not in this
+case of an allegorical or symbolic nature, as is the case with the positive
+seer, but is an actual vision of a fact or event which has already happened or
+as it will transpire in the future. Thus the positive vision consists in the
+projection of the mind towards the things of the soul-world, while the passive
+vision in the result of a propulsion of the soul-world upon the passive sense.
+Of the two kinds of vision, the passive is the more serviceable as being the
+more perspicuous and literal, but it has the disadvantage of being largely under
+the control of external influences and consequently of greater variability than
+the positive vision. It is, indeed, quite the common experience that the passive
+medium requires "conditions" for the proper exercise of the faculty and where
+these are lacking no vision can be obtained.</p>
+
+<p>The positive type of seer exercises an introspective vision,
+searching inwardly towards the soul-world whence revelation proceeds. The
+passive seer, on the other hand, remains in a static condition, open to
+impressions coming inwards upon the mind's eye, but making no conscious effort
+towards inward searching. Those who have experienced both involuntary and
+voluntary visions will readily appreciate the difference of attitude, which is
+difficult to convey to others in so many words.</p>
+
+<p>Now the exercise of this faculty does not exist apart from some
+definite use, and it may be of advantage to consider what that use may be.
+Primarily, I should be disposed to regard the mere opening up of a channel of
+communication between the material and psychic worlds as adequate reason for the
+exercise of the faculty. The Gates of Heaven have to be kept open by human
+endeavour and the exercise of the spiritual and psychic faculties, otherwise a
+complete lesion and cutting off of our source of inspiration would follow.
+Except we aspire to the higher world that world will come no nearer to us.
+Action and reaction are equal and opposite. It was never said that the door
+would be opened to others than those who knocked. The law of spiritual
+compensation involves the fact that we receive what we ask for. If we get it
+otherwise, there is no guarantee of its continuance or that its possession will
+be a blessing. But if we ask according to our needs and strive according to our
+strength there is no law which can prevent a commensurate response. The
+ignorance of our asking and the imperfection of our striving will modify the
+nature of the response, but they cannot be negative of results. We can trust
+nature and there is a spiritual law in the natural world as well as a natural
+law in the spiritual world, for they are interdependent.</p>
+
+<p>But even our daily life affords numerous instances wherein the
+use of the clairvoyant faculty is attended by beneficial results. How many
+people there are who have been warned in dreams--wherein all people are
+naturally clairvoyant--of some impending danger to themselves or those around
+them, must have struck any casual reader of the daily press; for during recent
+years much greater interest has been taken in psychological matters and we are
+continually in hearing of new facts which give us knowledge of the power of the
+soul to foresee danger, and to know what is determined upon the world for the
+greater ends of human evolution. Some experiences of this nature will no doubt
+form a fit subject for a subsequent chapter. The qualifications which should
+supplement and sustain the natural aptitude of the seer or seeress demand
+consideration in this place, and the following remarks may not be without value
+in this respect.</p>
+
+<p>Mental stability, self-possession and confidence in one's own
+soul-faculties must be the firm rock on which all revelation should rest. The
+element of doubt either negatives results or opens the door to the ingress of
+all manner of deceptive impressions.</p>
+
+<p>Integrity of purpose is imperative. The purer the intention and
+motive of the seer the more lucid will be the vision accorded. No reliable
+vision can be obtained by one whose nature is not inherently truthful.</p>
+
+<p>Any selfish desire dominating the mind, in regard to any thing
+or person will distort the vision and render it misleading, while a persistent
+self-seeking spirit will effectually shut the door to all revelation whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore above all things it is essential for the investigator
+of psychic phenomena to have an unflinching love of truth, to be resigned to the
+will of Heaven, to accept the revelations accorded in a spirit of grateful
+confidence, and to dispel all doubt and controversy by an appeal to the eyes of
+one's own immortal soul.</p>
+
+<p>These are qualifications with which the seer or seeress should
+be invested, and if with these the quest of the vision is unsuccessful after a
+period of earnest trial, it must be taken as sufficient warrant that the faculty
+of clairvoyance is not in the category of one's individual powers. Haply the
+same qualifications brought to bear on some other psychic faculty will result in
+a rich recompense.</p>
+
+<p>As for those triflers who at odd moments sit for the production
+of what they call "phenomena," with no other object than the gratification of an
+inquisitive vanity, I would drive them with whips from the field of psychical
+research. They are people whose presence in this area of serious enquiry does no
+good either to the cause of truth or the service of the race, and this loose
+traffic of sorts in the hope of finding a new sensation would, were it
+transferred to another sphere of activity, deservedly receive a very ugly name.</p>
+
+<p>The suggestion that the clairvoyant faculty is latent in all of
+us has no doubt been responsible for much misunderstanding, and not a little
+disappointment; but I doubt if it is so far removed from the truth as that which
+makes the possession of the faculty a certain sign of a superior degree of
+evolution. Although the faculty of clear vision brings us into more intimate
+conscious relations with a new order of existence, where the past and future,
+the distant and the near, would seem to be brought into immediate perception, it
+does not therefore confer upon us a higher degree of spirituality. It may
+undoubtedly offer us a truer perspective than that we may derive from the
+ordinary circumstance of our lives, and may suggest good grounds for a more
+comprehensive ethical system, but it cannot compel one to do the right thing or
+to lead the virtuous life. Clairvoyance, indeed, is a faculty which has no
+direct moral relations. It is no more the gift or property of the wise or the
+good man than extraordinary muscular power is an adjunct of high intelligence.
+And yet it is a curious fact that in all the sacred writings of the world there
+is a suggestion that holy men, or "Men of God," have this and other transcendent
+faculties, such as clairaudience and the power of healing. Throughout the
+Hebrew Scriptures clairaudience seems to constitute the peculiar authority of
+the teacher or prophet. Thus we have expressions such as: "The Word of the Lord
+came to me saying," etc., and "I heard a voice which said," etc., which is
+sometimes but not always associated with direct vision. But because holy men of
+old were distinguished by this power of direct vision it is not to be supposed
+that all who have it are equally sanctified. By natural gift or by such means we
+are here discussing, the faculty may be brought into active function, but we
+should not lose sight of the fact that the attainment of righteousness implies
+that "all these things shall be added unto you."</p>
+
+<p>I think it right, therefore, to regard the quest of clairvoyance
+as a legitimate occupation, providing that it is purposeful and carried out with
+a right spirit, while not being allowed to interfere with the proper performance
+of one's ordinary duties in life. For it is possible to become over-zealous and
+even morbid over these mysteries of human life, and to become so obsessed by the
+idea of their importance as practically to render oneself unfitted for any
+ordinary pursuits, thereby producing an isolation that is in the best sense
+unprofitable. Moreover, there are mental dangers as well as spiritual and social
+to be feared, and it is unfortunately not uncommon to observe that
+neuraesthenia, nervous corrosion, and even insanity attends upon the tireless
+efforts of the enthusiast in this direction.</p>
+
+<p>If we regard clairvoyance as a normal faculty we are more likely
+to treat it normally than if we give it a paramount and exceptional value and
+seek to beatify those in whom it appears. I am convinced from experience that it
+is both normal and educable though not usually active in the large majority of
+people. I am also of the opinion that it is not peculiar, except in its higher
+functions, to human beings. I have known animals to possess this faculty; in a
+higher degree I have seen humans in the exercise of it. Perhaps even the
+archangels are yet seeking their vision of God.</p>
+
+<p>But to us as normal beings clairvoyance should appear a
+potentially normal faculty, to be studied and pursued by methods that are
+efficient while yet harmless; and this is the purport of the present treatise. I
+will therefore ask the reader to follow me in these pages with a mind divested
+of all disposition to the supernatural.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="5"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER IV.
+<br>
+<br>
+PRELIMINARIES AND PRACTICE
+<br>
+
+<p>The first consideration by those who would develop clairvoyance
+by artificial aids is the choice of a suitable agent. It has been the practice
+for many years to substitute the original beryl or "rock crystal" by a glass
+ball. I admit that many specimens I have seen are very creditable productions,
+but they are nevertheless quite worthless from the point of view of those who
+consider material agents to be important factors in the production of
+clairvoyance. The glass ball may, however, very well serve the preliminary
+essential of concentration, and, if the faculty of clairvoyance is at all
+active, will be entirely effective as an agent.</p>
+
+<p>Those who have any experience at all in this matter will allow
+that the rock crystal exerts an influence of an entirely different nature to
+that observable in the use of glass. Indeed, so far as experiment serves us, it
+may be said that glass only produces negative results and never at any time
+induced clairvoyance. If this state followed upon the use of a glass ball I am
+sure that the patient must have been naturally clairvoyant, in which case a bowl
+of water, a spot upon a wall, a piece of polished brass or copper, or a spot of
+ink would have been equally efficacious in inducing the degree of hypnosis
+required. That glass spheres are equally efficient as those of crystal is true
+only in two cases, namely, when clairvoyance is natural, in which case neither
+need be used; and when no results are observable after due experiment, from
+which we may conclude either that the agent is unsuitable or that the faculty is
+entirely submerged in that individual.</p>
+
+<p>In hypnotic clairvoyance the glass ball will be found as useful
+a "field" as the best rock crystal. Yet it does not follow that because the
+crystal is highly odylic and glass altogether negative the former will induce
+clairvoyance. My own first experience with the crystal was entirely
+disappointing, while very striking results followed immediately upon the use of
+a black concave mirror.</p>
+
+<p>The mirror is usually circular in shape and about
+one-quarter-inch curve to a six-inch diameter. This gives a long focus, so that
+the mirror may be hung upon a wall at about two yards distance from the subject.
+A greater degree of concavity proportionate to the diameter will produce a focus
+which allows the mirror to be held in the hand while resting in the lap.</p>
+
+<p>This disposes to a very easy and passive attitude and helps
+towards results. The base of the mirror may be of tin, wood or other material,
+and it is usually filled with a composition of a bituminous nature, the glass
+covering being painted with a preparation of coal-tar on its nether or convex
+side. The exact focus and consequent size of the mirror employed as most
+suitable to the individual is a matter of experiment. It is also to be observed
+that the distance of the mirror, as also the angle of vision, are matters of
+experiment. Beyond a certain distance it will be found that the mirror has no
+"draw" on the subject. If brought closer its pull is immediately felt.</p>
+
+<p>It is perhaps too early to theorize upon the <i>modus operandi
+</i>of the "magic mirror," as it has been called. It appears to induce hypnosis
+and consequent elevation of nervous activity by refracting and throwing back the
+rays of magnetic energy which emanate from the subject.</p>
+
+<center><img src="images/seph01.png" width="321" height="353" alt="[Illustration: seph01]"></center>
+
+<p>In the foregoing illustration let A-B be the mirror with F for
+its focus. Let the subject be stationed at S. Then the rays directed towards the
+surface of the mirror will be represented by RR-RR. These rays impinge upon a
+diamagnetic surface which is concave. The rays are therefore bent inwards and
+thrown back upon the person at S in the form of a cone of energy which has the
+effect of producing auto-hypnosis. There are other forms of agency, such as the
+zinc disc with the copper centre as used by Braid to induce the hypnotic sleep,
+but these appear to depend upon tiring the optic nerves and thus, through their
+action upon the thalami to produce temporary inhibition of the whole basilar
+tract of the brain.</p>
+
+<p>The mesmerist who throws streams of energy upon the patient
+would appear to be working on the same principle as that by which the person
+using the concave mirror induces self-hypnosis. Possibly the latter method may
+be found to be conducive to the phenomena arising from auto-suggestion, while
+the conditions induced by the action of the hypnotist may be less liable to the
+effects of auto-suggestion and more responsive to hypnotic suggestion, <i>i.e.
+</i>the mental action of the hypnotist.</p>
+
+<p>These, however, are considerations which need not trouble us
+overmuch, since by whatever agent the subject is made clairvoyant, the results
+are equally curious and informing. Auto-suggestion, at least, can hardly be
+regarded in the category of objections, since we cannot auto-suggest that which
+does not first of all arise as an image in the mind. It is in the spontaneous
+and automatic production of auto-suggested impressions that the phenomena of
+clairvoyance very largely consist; only we have to remember that the suggesting
+self is a more considerable quantity than the personality to which these
+suggestions are made, and is in touch with a world immeasurably greater and in
+every sense less limited than that to which the person is externally related.
+Looked at from whatever point of view we may choose, the phenomena of
+clairvoyance cannot be adequately explained without recourse to psychology on
+the one hand and occultism on the other. Psychology is needed in order to
+explain the nature and faculty of the human soul, and occultism to define for us
+the nature of that universal mirror in which the whole category of human events,
+both past and future, are reflected. Having decided upon a course of experiments
+with a crystal or mirror, the best of the kind should be obtained. A black
+velvet covering should be made in which to envelop the crystal when not in use.
+Mirrors are usually made with a suitable lid or covering. Care should be taken
+not to scratch the surface, and all cleaning should be done with a dry silk
+handkerchief kept for the purpose. Exposure to the sun's rays not only scores
+the surface of a crystal or mirror, but also puts the odylic substance into
+activity, distributing and dissipating the magnetic power stored up therein.</p>
+
+<p>And now a word or two about the disposition and attitude of the
+subject. The visions do not occur in the crystal itself. They may appear to do
+so, but this is due, when it occurs, to the projection and visualization of the
+mental images. The visions are in the mind or soul of the seer and nowhere else.
+It is a matter of constitutional psychism as to where the sense of clear vision
+will be located. Personally I find the sense to be located in the frontal
+coronal region of the brain about 150 to the right of the normal axis of vision,
+which may be regarded as the meridian of sight. Other instances are before me in
+which the sense is variously located in the back of the head, the nape of the
+neck, the pit of the stomach, the summit of the head, above and between the
+eyes, and in one case near the right shoulder but beyond the periphery of the
+body. The explanation appears to be that the nervo-vital emanations from the
+body of the seer act upon the static odyle in the agent, which in turn reacts
+upon the brain centres by means of the optic nerves. And this appears to be
+sufficient reason why the crystal or mirror should be kept as free as possible
+from disturbing elements. Water is extremely odylic and should never come in
+contact with the agent employed as it effectually carries off all latent or
+stored imports. I am forced to use a crude terminology in order to convey the
+idea in my mind, but I recognize that the whole explanation may appear vague and
+inadequate. It is of course at all times easier to observe effects than to offer
+a clear explanation of them. Yet some sort of working hypothesis is constructed
+when we collate our observations, and it is this that I have sought to
+communicate.</p>
+
+<p>For similar reasons, when in use the crystal or mirror should be
+shaded and so placed that no direct rays from sun or artificial light may fall
+upon it. The odyle, as Reichenbach so conclusively proved by his experiments,
+rapidly responds to surrounding magnetic conditions and to the vibrations of
+surrounding bodies, and to none more rapidly than the etheric vibrations caused
+by combustion or light of any kind. There should be no direct rays of light
+between the agent and the seer.</p>
+
+<p>The room in which the sitting takes place should be moderately
+warm, shady, and lit by a diffused light, such as may be obtained by a light
+holland blind or casement cloth, in the daytime. The subject should sit with his
+back to the source of light, and the illumination will be adequate if ordinary
+print can be read by it.</p>
+
+<p>It is important that all persons sitting in the same room with
+the seer should be at least at arm's length from him.</p>
+
+<p>Silence should be uniformly observed by those present, until the
+vision is attained.</p>
+
+<p>It will then be found convenient to have two persons present to
+act as Interrogator and Recorder respectively.</p>
+
+<p>The Interrogator should be the only person whose voice is heard,
+and it should be reduced to a soft but distinct monotone. The Recorder will be
+occupied in setting down in writing all questions asked by the Interrogator and
+the exact answers made by the seer. These should be dated and signed by those
+present when completed. It is perhaps hardly necessary to remark that
+precautions should be taken to prevent sudden intrusions, and as far as possible
+to secure general quiet without.</p>
+
+<p>I may here interject an observation which appears to me
+suggestive and may prove valuable. It has been observed that the inhabitants of
+basaltic localities are more generally natural clairvoyants than others. Basalt
+is an igneous rock composed largely of augite and felspar, which are silicate
+crystals of calcium, potassium, alumina, etc., of which the Moonstone is a
+variety. The connecting link is that clairvoyance is found to be unusually
+active during and by means of moonlight. What psycho-physical effect either
+basalt or moonlight has upon the nervous system of impressible subjects appears
+to be somewhat obscure, but there is little difference between calcium light and
+moonlight, except that the latter is moderated by the greater atmosphere through
+which it comes to us. It is only when we come to know the psychological values
+of various chemical bodies that we can hope for a solution of many strange
+phenomena connected with the clairvoyant faculty. I recollect that the seeress
+of Prevorst experienced positive pain from the near presence of water during her
+abnormal phases. Reichenbach found certain psycho-pathological conditions to be
+excited by various metals and foreign bodies when brought into contact with the
+sensitive. These observations are extremely useful if only in producing an
+awareness of possible reasons for such disturbance as may occur in the
+conditions already cited.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset the sittings should not last longer than at most
+half-an-hour, but it is important that they should be regular, both as to time
+and place. We are already informed from a number of observations that every
+action tends to repeat itself under similar conditions. Habits of life and mind
+are thus formed so that in time they become quite involuntary and automatic. A
+cumulative effect is obtained by attention to this matter of periodicity, while
+the use of the same place for the same purpose tends to dispose the mind to the
+performance of particular functions. In striving for psychic development of any
+sort we shall do well not to disregard these facts. For since all actions tend
+to repeat themselves and to become automatic, to pass from the domain of the
+purposive into the habitual, the psychic faculties will similarly, if actuated
+at any set time and place, tend to bestir themselves to the same effects as
+those to which they were first moved by the conscious will and intention of the
+seer. Until the clairvoyant faculty is fully assured and satisfactory results
+obtained without any inconvenience to the seer, not more than two persons should
+be present at the sittings. These should be in close sympathy with the seer and
+with each other.</p>
+
+<p>When the sitting is over it will be found useful to repair to
+another place and fully discuss the results obtained, the impressions and
+feelings of the seer during the seance, and matters which appear to have a
+bearing on the facts observed.</p>
+
+<p>A person should not be disheartened if at the first few sittings
+nothing of any moment takes place, but should persevere with patience and
+self-control. Indeed, if we consider the fact that for hundreds of generations
+the psychic faculties latent in man have lain in absolute neglect, that perhaps
+the faculty of clear vision has not been brought into activity by any of our
+ancestors since remote ages, it should not be thought remarkable that so few
+find the faculty in them to be practically dormant. It should rather be a matter
+of surprise that the faculty is still with us, that it is not wholly
+irresponsive to the behests of the soul. While in the course of physical
+evolution many important functions have undergone remarkable changes, and
+organs, once active and useful, have become stunted, impotent, and in some cases
+extinct, yet on the other hand we see that seeds which have lain dormant in arid
+soil for hundreds of years can spring into leaf and flower under the influence
+of a suitable climate.</p>
+
+<p>The vermiform appendix, so necessary to the bone eaters of a
+carnivorous age, has no part in the physical economy of a later and more
+highly-evolved generation. The pineal gland and the pituitary body are adjuncts
+of the brain whose functions have long been in latency. The <i>Anastatica
+hierochuntica, </i>commonly called the Rose of Jericho, is a wonderful example
+of functional latency. The plant will remain for ages rolled up like a ball of
+sun-dried heather, but if placed in water it will immediately open out and
+spread forth its nest of mossy green fronds, the transition from seeming death
+to life taking place in a few minutes. The hygrometric properties of the plant
+are certainly exceptional. They illustrate the responsiveness of certain natures
+to a particular order of stimulus, and in a sense they illustrate the functions
+of the human soul. The faculty of direct vision is like the latent life of the
+vegetable world. It waits only the conditions which favour its activity and
+development, and though for generations it may have lain dormant, yet in a few
+days or weeks it may attain the proportions of a beautiful flower, a thing of
+wonder and delight, gracing the Garden of the Soul.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="6"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER V.
+<br>
+<br>
+KINDS OF VISION
+<br>
+
+<p>There are two kinds of vision, and each of these may be
+perceived in two different ways. The two sorts of vision are called the Direct
+Vision and the Symbolic Vision.</p>
+
+<p>The first of these is an exact representation of some scene or
+incident which has taken place in the past or will subsequently be experienced
+in the future. It may have relation to the experience of the seer, or of those
+who are present at the sitting, or yet may have a general or public application.</p>
+
+<p>The second order of vision is a representation by ideograph,
+symbol or other indirect means, of events similar to those conveyed by direct
+vision. The visions of Ezekiel and John of Patmos are of the symbolic order, and
+although to the seers themselves there probably was a very clear apperception of
+their import, yet for others they require interpretation. In most cases it will
+be found that the nature of the vision has relation to that sphere of life and
+interest in which the seer or those for whom he is serving are concerned. But
+this is not always the case, for there are some peculiarly sensitive seers whose
+visions have a wider range and a more general application. In the first case it
+would seem that the impressions latent in the individual sphere of subconscious
+activity are brought into evidence, and in the other case the seer comes into
+relations with the world-soul or earth-sphere, so that political, social and
+cosmic events are brought out of latency into conscious perception. In most
+cases it will be found that answers to questions are conveyed by symbols, though
+this is not an invariable rule, as will appear from the following remarks.</p>
+
+<p>The vision, when it occurs, may be conveyed in one of two ways:
+first, as a vivid picture affecting the focus and retina of the eye, perfect in
+its outline and colouring, and giving the sense of nearness or distance;
+secondly, as a vivid mental impression accompanied by a hazy or dim formation in
+the "field" of vision. In this latter form it becomes an apperception rather
+than a perception, the mind receiving the impression of the vision to be
+conveyed before it has had time to form and define itself in the field.</p>
+
+<p>As already intimated, there appears to be a connection between
+the temperamental peculiarities of the two classes of clairvoyants and the kind
+of vision developed in them. Thus the direct vision is more generally found in
+association with the passive temperament. The direct vision is neither so
+regular nor so constant as the symbolic vision owing to the peculiarities of the
+negative or passive subject. When it does develop, however, the direct vision is
+both lucid and actual, and has literal fulfilment in the world of experience and
+fact. It is an actual representation of what has actually happened or will have
+place in the future, or yet may be presently happening at some place more or
+less distant.</p>
+
+<p>The symbolic vision, on the other hand, is more generally
+developed in the positive or active type of seer. It has the advantage of being
+more regular and constant in its occurrence than the direct vision, while at the
+same time being open to the objection that it is frequently misinterpreted.
+Nothing shows this better perhaps than the various interpretations which have
+been made of the Apocalypse.</p>
+
+<p>The positive temperament appears to throw off the mental images
+as speedily as they are developed in the subconscious area, and goes out to meet
+them in a mood of speculative enquiry. But the passive temperament most
+frequently feels first and sees afterwards, the visionary process being entirely
+devoid of speculation and mental activity. In a word, the distinction between
+them is that the one sees and thinks while the other feels and sees.</p>
+
+<p>The manner in which the visions appear to develop in the field
+requires some description, and for reasons which will presently appear it is
+essential that the earliest experiments should be made in the light of a duly
+informed expectancy.</p>
+
+<p>At first the crystal or mirror will appear to be overclouded by
+a dull, smoky vapour which presently condenses into milky clouds among which are
+seen innumerable little gold specks of light, dancing in all directions, like
+gold-dust in a sunlit air. The focus of the eye at this stage is inconstant, the
+pupil rapidly expanding and contracting, while the crystal or mirror alternately
+disappears in a haze and reappears again. Then suddenly the haze disappears and
+the crystal looms up into full view, accompanied by a complete lapse of the seer
+into full consciousness of his surroundings.</p>
+
+<p>This may be the only experience during the first few sittings.
+It may be that of many. But if it occurs it is an entirely satisfactory and
+hopeful symptom. For sooner or later, according to the degree of susceptibility
+or responsiveness in the subject, there will come a moment when the
+milky-looking clouds and dancing starlights will suddenly vanish and a bright
+azure expanse like an open summer sky will fill the field of vision. The brain
+will now be felt to palpitate spasmodically, as if opening and closing again in
+the coronal region; there will be a tightening of the scalp about the base of
+brain, as if the floor of the cerebrum were contracting; the seer will catch his
+breath with a spasmodic sigh and the first vision will stand out clear and
+life-like against the azure screen of space.</p>
+
+<p>Now the danger at this supreme moment is that the seer will be
+surprised into full waking consciousness. During the process of abstraction
+which precedes every vision or series of visions, the consciousness of the seer
+is gradually but imperceptibly withdrawn from physical surroundings. He forgets
+that he is seated in a particular place or room, that he is in the company of
+another or others. He forgets that he is gazing into a crystal or mirror. He
+knows nothing, sees nothing, hears nothing, save that which is being enacted
+before the senses of his soul. He loses sight for the time even of his own
+identity and becomes as it were merged in the vision itself.</p>
+
+<p>When, therefore, his attention is suddenly arrested by an
+apparition, startling in its reality and instantaneous production, the reaction
+is likely to be both rapid and violent, so that the seer is frequently carried
+back into full waking consciousness. When, however, the mind is previously
+instructed and warned of this stage of the process, a steady and self-possessed
+attitude is ensured and a subconscious feeling of expectancy manifests at the
+critical moment. I have known so many cases of people being surprised out of
+clairvoyance and so to have lost what has often been an isolated experience,
+that this treatise will be wholly justified if by the inclusion of this warning
+the novice comes successfully through his first experience of second sight.</p>
+
+<p>We come now to the point where it becomes necessary to consider
+other important reactions which the development of any psychic sense involves.
+To some favoured few these supernormal faculties appear to be given without any
+cost to themselves. Perhaps they are direct evolutional products, possibly
+psychic inheritances; but to such as have them no price is asked or penalty
+imposed.</p>
+
+<p>Others there are who are impelled by their own evolutional
+process to seek the development in themselves of these psychic powers; and to
+these a word of warning seems necessary, so that at the risk of appearing
+didactic I must essay the task. To some it may seem unwelcome, to others
+redundant and supererogatory. But we are dealing with a new stage in evolutional
+progress--the waking up of new forces in ourselves and the prospective use of a
+new set of faculties. It is of course open to anybody to experiment blindly, and
+none will seek to deter them save those who have some knowledge of the attendant
+dangers, and which knowledge alone can help us to avoid. I should consider the
+man more fool than hero who, in entire ignorance of mechanics and aeronautics,
+stepped on board an aeroplane and started the engines running. Even the most
+skilful in any new field of experiment or research consciously faces certain but
+unknown dangers. The victims of the aeroplane--brave pioneers of human
+enterprise and endeavour that they were--fell by lack of knowledge. By lack of
+knowledge also have the humane efforts of many physicians been cut short at the
+outset of what might have been a successful career. It was this very lack of
+knowledge they knew to be the greatest of all dangers, and it was this they had
+set out to remedy.</p>
+
+<p>It is not less dangerous when we begin to pursue a course of
+psychic development. The ordinary functions of the mind are well within our
+knowledge and control. There is always the will by which we may police the
+territory under our jurisdiction and government. It is another matter when we
+seek to govern a territory whose peculiar features and native laws and customs
+are entirely unknown to us. It is obvious that here the will-power, if directed
+at all, is as likely to be effectual for evil as for good. The psychic faculties
+may indeed be opened up and the unknown region explored, but at fatal cost, it
+may be, to all that constitutes normal sanity and physical well-being; in which
+case one may say with Hamlet it be better to "bear those ills we have, than fly
+to others that we know not of."</p>
+
+<p>Some of the conditions imposed upon those who, not being
+naturally gifted in this direction, would wish to experiment in clairvoyant
+development, may conveniently be stated and examined in another chapter.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="7"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER VI.
+<br>
+<br>
+OBSTACLES TO CLAIRVOYANCE
+<br>
+
+<p>Various impediments stand in the way of inducing second sight,
+and certain others may be expected to arise in connection with the faculty when
+induced. Putting aside the greatest of all obstacles, that of constitutional
+unfitness, as having already been discussed in the preceding pages, the first
+obstacle to be encountered is that of ill health. It can hardly be expected that
+new areas can be opened up in the mind without considerable change and
+adjustment taking place by reflection in the physical economy. The reaction is
+likely to be attended by physical distress. But Nature is adaptable and soon
+accommodates herself to changed conditions, so that any results directly
+attributable to the development of the psychic centres of activity is not likely
+to be more than transient, providing that due regard has been given to the
+normal requirements of health.</p>
+
+<p>The importance of a moderate and nourishing diet cannot be too
+strongly urged upon those who seek for psychic development. All overloading of
+the stomach with indigestible food and addiction to alcoholic drinks tend to
+cloud the higher faculties. The brain centres are thereby depleted, the heart
+suffers strain, and the equilibrium of the whole system is disturbed. Ill health
+follows, the mind is centred upon the suffering body, spiritual aspiration
+ceases, and the neglected soul folds its wings and falls into the sleep of
+oblivion.</p>
+
+<p>But, on the other hand, one must not suppose that the adoption
+of a fruit and cereal diet will of itself induce to the development of the
+psychic powers. It will aid by removing the chief impediments of congestion and
+disease. Many good people who adopt this dietetic reform have a tendency to
+scratch one another's shoulder blades and expect to find their wings already
+sprouting. If it were as easy as this the complacent cow would be high up in the
+scale of spiritual aspirants.</p>
+
+<p>The consciousness of man works from a centre which co-ordinates
+and includes the phenomena of thought, feeling, and volition. This centre is
+capable of rapid displacement, alternating between the most external of physical
+functions and the most internal of spiritual operations. It cannot be active in
+all parts of our complex constitutions at one and the same moment. When one part
+of our nature is active another is dormant, as is seen in the waking and
+sleeping stages, the dream-life being in the middle ground between the psychic
+and physical. It will therefore be obvious that a condition in which the
+consciousness is held in bondage by the infirmities of the body is not one
+likely to be conducive to psychic development. For this reason alone many
+aspirants have been turned back from initiation. The constitution need not be
+robust, but it should at all events be free from disorder and pain. Some of the
+most ethereal and spiritual natures are found in association with a delicate
+organism. So long as the balance is maintained the soul is free to develop its
+latent powers. A certain delicacy of organization, together with a tendency to
+hyperaesthesia, is most frequently noted in the passive or direct seer; but a
+more robust and forceful constitution may well be allied to the positive type of
+seership.</p>
+
+<p>As a chronic state of physical congestion is altogether adverse
+to the development of the second sight or any other psychic faculty, so the
+temporary congestion following naturally upon a meal indicates that it is not
+advisable to sit for psychic exercise immediately after eating. Neither should a
+seance be begun when food is due, for the automatism of the body will naturally
+demand satisfaction at times when food is usually taken and the preliminary
+processes of digestion will be active. The best time is between meals and
+especially between tea and supper, or an hour after the last meal of the day,
+supposing it to be of a light nature. The body should be at rest, and duly
+fortified, and the mind should be contented and tranquil.</p>
+
+<p>The attitude of the would-be seer should not be too expectant or
+over-anxious about results. All will come in good time, and the more speedily if
+the conditions are carefully observed. It is useless to force the young plant in
+its growth. Take time, as Nature does. It is a great work and much patience may
+be needed. Nature is never in a hurry, and therefore she brings everything to
+perfection. The acorn becomes the sturdy oak only because Nature is content with
+small results, because she has the virtue of endurance. She is patient and
+careful in her beginnings, she nurses the young life with infinite care, and her
+works are wonderfully great and complete in their issues. Moreover, they endure.
+Whoever breathes slowest lives the longest.</p>
+
+<p>This statement opens up a very important matter connected with
+all psychic phenomena, and one that deserves more than casual notice. It has
+been long known to the people of the East that there is an intimate connection
+between brain and lung action, and modern experiment has shown by means of the
+spirometer that the systole and diastole motion of the hemispheres of the brain
+coincide exactly with the respiration of the lungs. The brain as the organ of
+the mind registers every emotion with unerring precision. But so also do the
+lungs, as a few common observations will prove. Thus if a person is in deep
+thought the breathing will be found to be long and regular, but if the mind is
+agitated the breathing will be short and stertorous, while if fear affects the
+mind the breathing is momentarily suspended. A person never breathes from the
+base of the lung unless his mind is engrossed. Hard exercise demands deep
+breathing and is therefore helpful in producing good mental reactions. It is
+said that the great preacher De Witt Talmage used to shovel gravel from one side
+of his cellar to the other as a preliminary to his fine elocutional efforts. It
+is this obvious connection between respiration and mental processes which is at
+the base of the system of psycho-physical culture known as <i>Hatha Yoga </i>in
+distinction from <i>Râj Yoga, </i>which is concerned solely with mental and
+spiritual development. The two systems, which have of late years found frequent
+exposition in the New Thought school, are to be found in Patanjali's <i>Yoga
+sutrâ. </i>Some reference to the synchronous action of lung and brain will also
+be found in Dr. Tafel's translation and exposition of Swedenborg's luminous work
+on <i>The Brain. </i>In this work the Swedish seer frankly refers his
+illumination regarding the functions of the brain to his faculty of
+introspective vision or second sight, and it is of interest to observe that all
+the more important discoveries in this department of physiology during the last
+two centuries are clearly anticipated by him. The scientific works of this great
+thinker are far too little known by the majority, who are apt to regard him only
+as a visionary and a religious teacher.</p>
+
+<p><i>Ad rem</i>. The vision is produced. The faculty of clairvoyance
+is an established fact of experience and has become more or less under the
+control of the mind. There will yet remain one or two difficulties connected
+with the visions. One is that of time measure, and another that of
+interpretation. The former is common to both orders of vision, the direct and
+the symbolic. The difficulty of interpretation is, of course, peculiar to the
+latter order of vision.</p>
+
+<p>The sensing of time is perhaps the greatest difficulty
+encountered by the seer, and this factor is often the one that vitiates an
+otherwise perfect revelation. I have known cartomantes and diviners of all sorts
+to express their doubt as to the possibility of a correct measure of time. Yet
+it is a question that follows naturally upon a clear prediction--When?</p>
+
+<p>It is sometimes impossible to determine whether a vision relates
+to the past, the present, or the future. In most cases, however, the seer has an
+intuitive sense of the time-relations of a vision which is borne in upon him
+with the vision itself. It will generally be observed that in ordinary mental
+operations the time sense is subject to localization, and a distinct throw of
+the mind will be experienced when speaking of the past and the future.
+Personally I find the past to be located on my left and the future on my right
+hand, but others inform me that the habit of mind, places the past behind and
+the future in front of them, while others again have the past beneath their feet
+and the future over their heads. It is obviously a habit of mind, and this
+usually inheres in the visionary state so that a sense of time is found to
+attach to all visions, though it cannot be relied upon to register on every
+occasion. But also it is frequently found that there is an automatic allocation
+of the visions, those that are near of fulfilment being in the foreground of the
+field, the approximate in the middle ground, and the distant in the background;
+position answering to time interval. In such case the vision has a certain
+definition or focus according to the degree of its proximity. These points are,
+however, best decided by empiricism, and rarely does it happen that the
+intuitive sense of the seer is at fault when allowed to have play.</p>
+
+<p>The other difficulty to which I have referred, that of
+interpretation of symbols when forming the substance of the vision, may be dealt
+with somewhat more fully. Symbolism is a universal language and revelation most
+frequently is conveyed by means of it. As a preliminary to the study of
+symbolism the student should read Swedenborg's <i>Hieroglyphical Key to Natural
+and Spiritual Mysteries, </i>one of the earliest of his works and in a great
+measure the foundation of his thought and teaching. The Golden Book of Hermes
+containing the twenty-two Tarots is open to a universal interpretation as may be
+seen from the works of the Kabalists, and in regard to their individual
+application may be regarded in a fourfold light, having reference to the
+spiritual, rational, psychic and physical planes of existence. It is by means of
+symbols that the spiritual intelligences signal themselves to our minds, and the
+most exalted vision is, as an expression of intelligence, only intelligible by
+reason of its symbolism. Something more may be said in regard to the
+interpretation of symbols which may possibly be of use to those who have made no
+special study of the subject, and this may conveniently form the material of
+another chapter.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="8"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER VII.
+<br>
+<br>
+SYMBOLISM
+<br>
+
+<p>Symbols formed the primitive language of the human race, they
+spoke and wrote in symbols. The hieroglyphic writings of the aborigines of
+Central America, of the ancient Peruvians, of the Mongolians, and of the ancient
+Copts and Hebrews all point to the universal use of the ideograph for the
+purpose of recording and conveying ideas.</p>
+
+<p>If we study the alphabets of the various peoples, we shall find
+in them clear indications of the physical and social conditions under which they
+evolved. Thus the Hebrew alphabet carries with it unmistakable evidence of the
+nomadic and simple life of those "dwellers in tents." The forms of the letters
+are derived from the shapes of the constellations, of which twelve are zodiacal,
+six northern and six southern. This implies a superficial intimacy with the
+heavens such as would result from a life spent in hot countries with little or
+no superstructure to shut out the view. The wise among them would sit beneath
+the stars in the cool night air and figure out the language of the heavens.</p>
+
+<p>It was God's message to mankind, and they sought not only to
+understand it but to make imitation of it. So they built an alphabet of forms
+after the pattern of things in the heavens. But when we come to the names of
+these forms or letters we come at once into touch with the life of the people.
+Thus <i>aleph</i>, an ox; <i>beth</i>, a tent; <i>daleth</i>, a tent-door; <i>
+lamed</i>, an ox-goad; <i>mem</i>, water; <i>tzadde</i>, a fish-hook; <i>quoph</i>,
+a coil of rope; <i>gimel</i>, a camel; <i>yod</i>, a hand; <i>oin</i>, an
+eye; <i>vau</i>, a hook or link; <i>heth</i>, a basket; <i>caph</i>, a head; <i>
+nun</i>, a fish; <i>phe</i>, a mouth; <i>shin</i>, a tooth; <i>resh</i>, a head;<i>
+</i>etc., all speaking to us of the ordinary things of a simple, wandering life.
+These symbols were compounded to form ideographs, as <i>aleph </i>= a, and <i>
+lamed </i>= l, being the first and last of the zodiacal circle, were employed for
+the name of the Creator, the reverse of these, <i>la</i>, signifying
+non-existence, negation, privation. In course of time a language and a
+literature would be evolved, but from the simple elements of a nomadic life.
+Knowledge came to them by action and the use of the physical sense. They had no
+other or more appropriate confession of this than is seen in the root
+<font FACE="Times New Roman (Hebrew)">&#1491;&#1506;</font>
+yedo--knowledge, compounded of the three symbols <i>yod</i>, <i>daleth</i>, <i>
+oin</i>--a hand, a door, an eye. The hand is a symbol of action, power,
+ability; the door, of entering, initiation; the eye, of seeing, vision,
+evidence, illumination.</p>
+
+<p>Hence the ideograph formed by the collation of these symbols
+signifies, opening the door to see, <i>i.e. </i>enquiry.</p>
+
+<p>The Chinese alphabet of forms is entirely hieroglyphic and
+symbolical in its origin, though it has long assumed a typal regularity. What
+were once curved and crude figures have become squared and uniform letterpress.
+But the names of these forms bring us into touch at once with the early life of
+the Mongolian race. We have, however, indications of a wider scope than was
+enjoyed by the primitive Semites, for whereas we find practically all the
+symbols of the Hebrews employed as alphabetical forms, we also have others which
+indicate artifice, such as <i>hsi, </i>box; <i>chieh, </i>a seal or stamp; <i>
+mien, </i>a roof; <i>chin, </i>a napkin; <i>kung, </i>a bow; <i>mi, </i>silk; <i>
+lei, </i>a plough, and many others, such as the names of metals, wine, vehicles,
+leather in distinction from hides, etc. But further, we have a mythology as part
+of the furniture of the primitive mind, the dragon and the spirit or demon being
+employed as radical symbols.</p>
+
+<p>Considered in regard to their origin, symbols may be defined as
+thought-forms which embody, by the association of ideas, definite meanings in
+the mind that generates them. They wholly depend for their significance upon the
+laws of thought and the correspondence that exists between the spiritual and
+material worlds, between the subject and object of our consciousness, the
+noumenon and phenomenon.</p>
+
+<p>All symbols therefore may be translated by reference to the
+known nature, quality, properties and uses of the objects they represent. A few
+interpretations of symbols actually seen in the mirror may serve to illustrate
+the method of interpretation.</p>
+
+<p>A foot signifies a journey, and also understanding. A mouth
+denotes speech, revelation, a message. An ear signifies news, information; if
+ugly and distorted, scandal and abuse.</p>
+
+<p>The sun, if shining brightly, denotes prosperity, honours, good
+health, favours.</p>
+
+<p>The moon when crescent denotes success, public recognition,
+increase and improvement; when gibbous, sickness, decadence, loss and trouble.</p>
+
+<p>The sun being rayless or seen through a haze denotes sickness to
+a man, some misfortune, danger of discredit. When eclipsed it denotes the ruin
+or death of a man. The moon similarly affected denotes equal danger to a woman.
+These are all natural interpretations and probably would be immediately
+appreciated.</p>
+
+<p>But every symbol has a threefold or fourfold interpretation and
+the nature of the enquiry or purpose for which the vision is sought will
+indicate the particular meaning conveyed. For if the enquiry be concerning
+things of the spiritual world the interpretation of the answering vision must be
+in terms of that world, and similarly if the question has relation to the
+intellectual or the physical worlds. Thus a pain of scales would denote in the
+spiritual sense, absolute justice; in the intellectual, judgment, proportion,
+comparison, reason; in the social, debt or obligation, levy, rate, or tax; and
+in the material, balance of forces, equilibrium, action and reaction. If the
+scales are evenly balanced the augury will be good and favourable to the purport
+of the quest, but if weighted unevenly it is a case of <i>mene, tekel, upharsin;
+</i>for it shows an erring judgment, an unbalanced mind, failure in one's
+obligations, injustice. A sword seen in connection with the scales denotes
+speedy judgment and retribution. This is an illustration of an artificial
+symbol.</p>
+
+<p>A ship is a symbol of trading, of voyaging, and is frequently
+used in the symbolical vision. If in full sail it indicates that communication
+with the spiritual world is about to be facilitated, that news from distant
+lands will come to hand, that trade will increase, that a voyage will be taken.
+If writing should appear on the sails it will be an additional means of
+enlightenment. If flying the pirate flag it denotes translation to another land,
+death. The land indicated may be the spiritual world itself, in which case the
+death will be natural; but if it should be a foreign country, then death will
+take place there by some unlooked-for disaster. The ship's sails being slack
+denotes a falling off of afflatus or spiritual influx, loss of trade,
+misfortune, delays and bad news, or if news is expected it will not come to
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Black bread denotes a famine; spotted or mottled bread, a
+plague. This symbol was seen in June 1896, with other symbols which connected it
+with India, and there followed a great outbreak of bubonic plague in that
+country. This symbol, however, was not properly understood until the event came
+to throw light upon it. The following note is from a seance which took place in
+India in the spring of 1893: "A leaf of shamrock is seen. It denotes the United
+Kingdom or the Triple Alliance. It is seen to split down the centre with a black
+line. It symbolizes the breaking of a treaty. Also that Ireland, whose symbol is
+the shamrock, will be separated by an autonomous government from the existing
+United Kingdom and will be divided into two factions."</p>
+
+<p>In this way all symbols seen in the crystal or mirror may be
+interpreted by reference to their known properties and uses, as well as by the
+associations existing between them and other things, persons and places, in the
+mind of the seer. Nor is it always required that the scryer should understand
+symbology, for as already said, the meanings of most of the symbols will be
+conveyed to the consciousness of the seer at the time of their appearance in the
+field. Experience will continually throw new light upon the screen of thought,
+and a symbol once known will assume a constant signification with each seer, so
+that in course of time a language will be instituted by means of which constant
+revelations will be made.</p>
+
+<p>It will thus be obvious, I think, that symbolism is to a large
+extent subject to a personal colouring, so that the same symbol may, by
+different associations, convey a different meaning to various seers. This may
+arise in part from the diversities of individual experience, of temperament, and
+the order to which the soul belongs in the spiritual world. These
+dissimilarities between individuals may be noted from their highest intellectual
+convictions down to the lowest of their sensations, and it is difficult to
+account for it. We all have the same laws of thought and the same general
+constitution. Humanity comprehends us all within the bonds of a single nature.
+Yet despite these facts we are divided by differences of opinion, of emotion, of
+sympathy, of taste and faculty. It is probable that these differences obtain in
+spheres immeasurably higher than our own, the sole element of consent being the
+recognition of dependence upon a Higher Power. God is the co-ordinating centre
+in a universe of infinite diversity.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, despite the fact that symbolism is capable of a
+universal interpretation, it would appear that the images projected by the
+magical power of the soul must have different significations with each of us,
+the meanings being in some mysterious way in agreement with the nature of the
+person who sees them. Hence we may come to the conclusion that every person must
+be his own interpreter, there being no universal code for what are peculiarly
+individualized messages. For although every symbol has a general signification
+in agreement with its natural properties and uses, it yet obtains a particular
+signification with the individual.</p>
+
+<p>It is within common experience with those who have regard to the
+import of dreams, wherein the faculty of seership is acting on its normal plane,
+that a dream constantly recurring is found to have a particular meaning, which
+however is not applicable to others who have a similar dream. Every person is a
+seer in dream life, but few pay that attention to dreams which their origin and
+nature warrant. The crystal or mirror is an artificial means of bringing this
+normal faculty of dreaming into activity in waking life. Those who are capable
+of making the dream life normal to the working consciousness, rise to a higher
+plane when they sleep.</p>
+
+<p>But, as stated above, the differences of import or meaning, even
+in dream life, of any particular symbol is a common experience. One person will
+dream of wading in water whenever there is trouble ahead. Another will dream of
+a naked child, and yet another of coal, when similar trouble is in store.
+Butchers' meat will signify financial trouble to one person, to another the same
+will denote a fortunate speculation.</p>
+
+<p>The controlling factor in this matter would appear to be founded
+in the mental and psychic constitution conferred by physical heredity and
+psychic tradition, converging at the conception of the individual and expressed
+in the birth. Probably an argument could thence be made in regard to the
+influence of the planets and the general cosmic disposition attending upon
+birth: I have frequently found that dreams may be interpreted by reference to
+the individual horoscope of birth, and if dreams, possibly also visions, which
+are but dreams brought into the field of conscious reality. But any such
+argument, however tempting, would be beyond the scope of this work.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="9"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER VIII.
+<br>
+<br>
+ALLIED PSYCHIC PHASES
+<br>
+
+
+<p>The faculty of second sight is not by any means the most common
+of the psychic powers. Psychometric impressions which proceed by the sense of
+touch into that of a superior order of feeling are far more general. We are
+affected much more than is generally recognized by the impressions gathered from
+the things we have contact with, and it is quite a common experience that very
+delicate and sensitive people take the "atmosphere" of places into which they
+go. I have in mind an instance of an extremely high-keyed person who invariably
+takes on the atmosphere of new localities, houses and even rooms. Going to view
+a house with the object of taking it on rental, she will as likely as not
+pronounce against the moment she enters on the ground that it is a "house of
+death" or a "quarrelsome house," full of sickness, intemperance or what not, and
+wherever enquiry has been possible it has invariably confirmed her impressions.
+On one occasion she had telegraphed to engage a room at an hotel in a seaside
+town, and on being shown to it by the maid found that it was locked. While the
+maid went to fetch the key the young lady tried the door and immediately
+received a psychometric impression. "Oh, M--," she said to her companion, "we
+cannot possibly have this room, there's a corpse in it!" This was confirmed,
+almost as soon as said, by the appearance of the proprietor, who explained that
+the maid had made a mistake in the number of the room, and then, feeling that
+there was a state of tension, confidentially informed his visitors that the
+locked room had really been booked to them but the old lady who was to have
+vacated it that morning had unfortunately died, and in order not to distress the
+other visitors the door had been locked pending the removal of the body, and
+even the servants had not been informed of it.</p>
+
+<p>The experiments of Denton recorded in his <i>Soul of Things </i>
+are full of interest for those who would learn something more about the
+phenomena of psychometry.</p>
+
+<p>The suggestion is that every particle of matter has its own aura
+or "atmosphere" in which are stored up the experiences of that particle. What is
+said of the particle applies also to the mass of any body, and in effect we get
+the aura of a room, of a house, of a town, of a city; and so successively until
+we come to that of the planet itself. These stored-up impressions are not caused
+by the mental action of human beings in association with the material
+psychometrized, they appertain entirely to the associations of the material
+itself, and the psychometric sense consists in recovering these associations and
+bringing them into terms of human sense and consciousness. The experience seems
+to suggest a nexus between the individualized human soul and the world-soul in
+which the generic life is included; also that the human soul is a specialized
+evolution from the world-soul, and hence inclusive of all stages of experience
+beneath the human. I think it was Draper who suggested in his <i>Conflict </i>
+that a man's shadow falling upon a wall produced an indelible impression which
+was capable of being revived. The cinematograph film is that brick wall raised
+to the nth power of impressibility. The occultist will point you to a universal
+medium as much above the cinema film as that is above the brick or stone, and in
+which are stored up the <i>memoria mundi. </i>It is this sensitized envelope of
+the planetary atom that your sensitive taps by means of his clairvoyant,
+psychometric and clairaudient senses.</p>
+
+<p>Clairaudience is far more general than second sight, but there
+is the same variability in the range of perception as is seen in clairvoyance
+and psychometry. Thus while one hears only the evil suggestions of "obsessing
+spirits" or discarnate souls being dinned into his ears, another will be lifted
+to the third heaven and hear "things unutterable." Brain-cell discharges will
+hardly account for the phenomena of clairaudience. A brain-cell discharge never
+goes beyond the repetition of one's own name in some familiar voice, or at most
+the revival of a phrase or the monotonous clang of a neighbouring church bell.
+These are not clairaudiences at all. Clairaudience consists in receiving
+auditory impressions of intelligible phrases not previously associated with the
+name of person or place involved in the statement. These impressions may be
+sporadic or may be continuous. In the case of a genuine development where the
+interior sense is fully opened up, the communication will be continuous and
+normal, as much so as ordinary conversation, and the translation of
+consciousness into terms of sense will be so rapid and unimpeded as to give the
+impression to an Englishman that he is listening to his native language and to a
+Frenchman that he is listening to French, though the communication may proceed
+from a source which renders this impossible. The universal language of humanity
+is neither Volapuk, nor Esperanto, nor Ido. It is Thought, and when thought
+proceeds from a point beyond the plane of differentiation it can be determined
+along the line which makes for English as readily as that which makes for
+French, or any other tongue. It is they of the soul-world who convey the
+thought, it is we of the sublunary world who translate that thought into our own
+language. The Hebrew prophets were almost uniformly instructed by means of
+clairaudience. But as I have already said there are degrees of clairaudience, as
+of any other psychic faculty. The danger is that a false value may be set upon
+the experiences, especially during the early stages of development when
+everything is very new and very wonderful.</p>
+
+<p>Telepathy is another and yet more general phrase of psychic
+activity. It may consist in the transmission from one person to another of a
+feeling or impression merely, which results in a certain degree of awareness to
+the state of mind in which the transmitter may be at the time, as when a mother
+has a "feeling" that all is not well with her absent child. Or it may yet take a
+more definite and perspicuous form, even to the transmission of details such as
+the names of persons and places, of numbers, forms and incidents. Telepathy
+commonly exists between persons in close sympathy; and when two persons are
+working along separate lines toward the same result, it is quite usual that they
+unconsciously "telepath" with one another, their brains being for the time in
+synchronous vibration. Spiritual communication in any degree is nothing more or
+less than sympathy--those who feel together, think together. The modern
+development of the aerial post is a step towards the universal federation of
+thought, but it is not comparable with the astral post which carries a thousand
+miles an hour. In this sort of correspondence the communication is written like
+any ordinary letter designed for transmission, but instead of stamping and
+posting it, a lighted match is applied to the finished work. The material part
+is destroyed, but the intangible and only real and lasting part remains behind.
+This is attached, by the direction of the will, to a particular person and set
+in a certain direction. If all the conditions have been properly observed it
+will not fail to reach its destination. I have fortunately been able to
+demonstrate this fact in public on more than one occasion. The phenomenon is
+repeated in a less striking form in every case of what is called "crossing," as
+when one correspondent feels suddenly called upon to write urgently to another
+and receives a reply to his enquiries while his letter is still in course of
+delivery.</p>
+
+<p>Nature is full of a subtle magic of this sort for which we have
+no organized science. It is said that if you put snails together and afterwards
+separate them, placing each upon a copper ground to which electric wires are
+attached, a shock given to one snail will be registered by the other at the same
+moment. I have not tried this theory, but the idea is fundamental to a mass of
+telepathic observations which have found practical expression in wireless
+telegraphy. Some thirty years ago, however, I made trial of the twin magnet
+theory and was entirely successful in getting wireless messages from one room to
+another. The performance was, however, clumsy and tedious, and I did not then
+know enough to see how it could be perfected. The idea is now in the very safe
+custody of the Patents Office.</p>
+
+<p>Community of taste can be demonstrated under hypnosis. It is not
+otherwise usually active in sensitives, and Swedenborg was hence of opinion that
+the sense of taste could not be obsessed. This, however, is incorrect. I have
+illustrated community of all the senses under hypnosis in circumstances which
+entirely precluded the possibility of feint or imposition on the part of the
+subject.</p>
+
+<p>Another phase of psychic activity is that illustrated in
+"dowsing" or water-finding by means of the hazel fork. It may be accounted a
+form of hyperaesthesia and no doubt has a nervous expression, but it is not the
+less psychic in its origin. I have already referred to the action of water upon
+psychic sensitives, and there seems little room for doubt that it is the
+psychometric sense which, by means of the self-extensive faculty inhering in
+consciousness, registers the presence of the great diamagnetic agent. Professor
+Barrett has written a most interesting monograph on this subject, and there are
+many books extant which make reference to and give examples of this curious
+phenomenon. The late British Consul at Trieste and famous explorer and linguist,
+Sir Richard Burton, could detect the presence of a cat at a considerable
+distance, and I have heard that Lord Roberts experiences the same paralyzing
+influence by the proximity of the harmless feline. If, therefore, one can
+register the presence of a cat, and another that of a dead body, I see no
+difficulty in others registering water or any other antipathetic. All we have to
+remember is that these things are psychic in their origin, and not ignorantly
+confound sensation with consciousness, or hyperaesthesia with the various
+psychopathic faculties we have been discussing. But it is necessary to return to
+our main subject and consider where our developed clairvoyant or second-sight
+faculty will lead us, and what sort of experience we may expect to gain by its
+use. These points may now be dealt with.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="10"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CHAPTER IX.
+<br>
+<br>
+EXPERIENCE AND USE
+<br>
+
+<p>First let us have the facts, we can then best see what use we
+can make of them. This I think is the correct position in regard to any abnormal
+claim that is made upon our attention. Everybody has heard of the prophecies of
+the Brahmin seer, most people have some acquaintance with the phenomena
+attending the clairvoyance of the seeress of Prevorst, while the experiences of
+Emanuel Swedenborg have been set forth in many biographies, but in none more
+lucidly and dispassionately than that by William White. Traditions have come to
+us concerning the clairvoyance of the Greek exponent of the Pythagorean
+teachings, Apollonius of Tyana, and the case of Cavotte, who predicted his own
+death and that of Robespierre and others by the guillotine, is on record. The
+illumination of Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie seer, and that of Thomas
+Lake Harris of Fountain Grove, are modern examples of abnormal faculty of a
+nature which places them outside the field of direct evidence. A prophecy made from the use of the super-sense which
+is followed by exact fulfilment appears to be the best criterion, though it is a
+very imperfect illustration of the scope of clairvoyance.</p>
+
+<p>The following instances are within my personal experience, and
+being already on record and well attested, will serve equally to illustrate the
+fact of clairvoyance as would numerous others within my knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>In June, 1896, a lady visited me in Manchester Square and, being
+anxious on several points, asked that I would scry for her. A blue beryl was
+used as agent. She was told that she would have news from a tropical country
+concerning the birth of a child, a boy, who would arrive in the following year
+in the month of February. That on a certain date while travelling she would meet
+with an accident to the right leg. Previous to this, in October she would have a
+welcome surprise connected with papers and a contest in which her son was
+engaged.</p>
+
+<p>Now here was a network of disaster for any would-be prophet who
+relied upon what is called the "lucky shot." If we enumerate the items of
+prediction, on any of which a fatal error could have been made, we shall find a
+very formidable list:--</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A tropical country.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A birth.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A boy then unborn.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; February, 1897.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; A journey on a particular date.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The right leg.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The son.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; October.<br>
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Papers.</p>
+
+<p>At least nine points on which the faculty could have been wholly
+at fault. The fulfilment, however, came in due course. The lady heard that her
+sister, then vicereine of India, was about to have a child, and in February,
+1897, a son was born to Lord Elgin. In October the lady referred to was
+agreeably surprised to learn that her son had passed his examination for the
+military college with honours. Further, while boarding a train at Victoria
+station she had the misfortune to slip between the platform and the footboard,
+so that the shin of the right leg was badly damaged and severe muscular strain
+was also suffered, in consequence of which she was laid up for several days.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. H. was consulted by an authoress, her profession being
+unknown to the scryer. She was told that she would go up a dingy staircase with
+a roll of papers under her arm; that she would see a dark man, thickset and of
+quiet demeanour. He would take the roll of papers and it would be a source of
+good fortune to her. The prediction was literally fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>The first case cited is an example of the positive and symbolic
+type of vision; the second being of the passive and direct type.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. A. was consulted by a lady of the writer's acquaintance and
+was told that she would not marry the man to whom she was then engaged as there
+was a certain other person, described, coming across the seas to claim her. She
+would meet him three years later in the month of January.</p>
+
+<p>The event transpired exactly as stated, though nothing at that
+time appeared less probable, and indeed the lady was not a little irate at the
+allusion to the breaking off of the engagement and of marrying a man whom she
+had never seen and for whom she could have no sort of regard. In fact, the whole
+revelation was very revolting to one so wholly absorbed as was she at the time.
+It cannot be argued that this was a case of suggestion working itself out, for
+one cannot auto-suggest the arrival of a person of a particular description from
+a distant land to one's own drawing-room at any time, and there is here a
+prediction as to the date which was duly fulfilled. This was a case of direct
+vision.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. G. consulted a seer on September 27, 1894. She was told she
+would have sickness affecting the loins and knees; that she would be the owner
+of a house in the month of December; that a removal would be made when the trees
+were leafless; that there would be a dispute about a sum of money.</p>
+
+<p>This is positive or symbolical clairvoyance. The symbols seen
+were as follow: a figure with a black cloth about the loins, the figure stooping
+and resting the hands upon its knees. A house covered with snow, bare trees
+around it. A bird on a leafless branch; the bird flies away. Several hands seen
+grabbing at a pile of money.</p>
+
+<p>All the predictions were fulfilled.</p>
+
+<p>Interpretations of symbols when made during the vision are
+frequently far removed from what one would be led to expect. But we have to
+remember that the seer is then in a psychologized state, and there is reason to
+believe that interpretations made from the inner plane of consciousness are due
+to the fact that the symbols appear in a different light. Our ordinary dreams
+follow the same change. While asleep we are impressed by the importance and
+logical consistency of the dream incident, which assumes, possibly, the
+proportions of a revelation, but which dissolves into ridiculous triviality and
+nonsense as soon as we awake. The reason is that there is a complete hiatus
+between the visionary and the waking state of consciousness, and even the laws
+of thought appear to undergo a change as the centre of consciousness slides down
+from the inner to the outer world of thought and feeling.</p>
+
+<p>In the Eastern conception the three states of <i>jagrata, </i>
+waking, <i>swapna, </i>dreaming, and <i>sushupti, </i>sleeping, are penetrated
+by the thread of consciousness, the <i>sutr<font face="Times New Roman">â</font>tma, </i>a node of complete
+unconsciousness separating one state from the next. The centre of consciousness,
+like a bead on the thread, alternates between the three states as it is impelled
+by desire or will.</p>
+
+<center><img src="images/seph02.png" width="410" height="504" alt="[Illustration: seph02]"></center>
+
+<p>I have known sickness predicted, both as to time and nature of
+the malady; the receipt of unexpected letters and telegrams with indications of
+their contents and resulting incident; changes, voyages, business transactions,
+deaths, and even changes in the religious views of individuals, all by means of
+the crystal vision.</p>
+
+<p>It sometimes happens that the visionary state is induced by
+excessive emotion during which the prophetic faculty is considerably heightened.
+Some temperaments on the other hand will fall into the clairvoyant condition
+when engaged in deep thought. The thread of thought seems suddenly to be broken,
+and there appears a vision wholly unconnected with the subject but a moment ago
+absorbing the mind. It is as if the soul, while probing the depths of its inner
+consciousness, comes into contact with the thin partition which may be said to
+divide the outer world of reason and doubt from the inner world of intuition and
+direct perception, and breaking through, emerges into the light beyond. In
+trance there is generally a development of other super-senses, such as
+clairaudience and psychic touch, as well as clairvoyance. Examples might be
+multiplied and would but serve to show that the rapport existing between the
+human soul and the world soul, the individual consciousness and the collective
+consciousness, is capable of being actively induced by recourse to appropriate
+means and developed where it exists in latency by means of the crystal, the
+black concave mirror or other suitable agent. As yet, however, the majority are
+wholly ignorant of the existence of such psychic faculties, and even those who
+possess them are conscious of having but an imperfect control of them.</p>
+
+<p>As in the case of genius where nature is opening up new centres
+of activity in the mind, the casual observer notes an eccentricity hardly
+distinguishable from some incipient forms of insanity; so the development of new
+psychic faculties is frequently attended by temporary loss of control over the
+normal brain functions. Loss of memory, hysteria, absent-mindedness, unconscious
+utterance of thought, illusions, irritability, indifference, misanthropy and
+similar perversions are not infrequent products of the preliminary stages of
+psychic development. These, however, will pass away as the new faculty pushes
+through into full existence. Nature is jealous of her offspring and concentrates
+the whole of her forces when in the act of generation, and that is the reason of
+her apparent neglect of powers and functions, normally under her control, while
+the evolution of a new faculty is in process. Let it be understood therefore
+that the faculty of clairvoyance or any other super-sense is not to be
+artificially developed without some cost to those who seek it. "The universe is
+thine; take what thou wilt, but pay the price," says Emerson. This is the divine
+mandate. It is not merely a question of the price of a crystal or a mirror, the
+sacrifice of time, the exercise of patience: it may mean something much more
+than this. It is a question of the price of a new faculty. What is it worth to
+you? That is the price you will be required to pay. And with this equation in
+mind the reader must consider the use to which, when obtained, he will apply his
+faculty; for the virtue of everything is in its use. It is reasonable to presume
+that one's daily life can supply the true answer. To what use are we employing
+the faculties we already have, all of them acquired with as much pain and
+suffering, it may be, as any new ones we are ever likely to evolve? If we are
+using these faculties for the benefit of the race we shall employ others that
+are higher to even greater effect. In other case it is not worth the effort of
+acquiring, nor is it likely that anybody of a radically selfish nature will take
+the trouble to acquire it. Natural selection is the fine sieve which the gods
+use in their prospecting. The gross material does not go through.</p>
+
+<br>
+<a name="11"></a>
+<br>
+<br>
+CONCLUSION.
+<br>
+
+<p>The foregoing short treatise will gain some practical value by a
+statement of the conditions most suitable for scrying.</p>
+
+<p>A diffused natural light, preferably from the north, is always
+better than an artificial light.</p>
+
+<p>The subject should sit with his back to the source of light, at
+a distance from the mirror determined by its focus; or if the agent be a crystal
+it should be held in the hands, one supporting the other.</p>
+
+<p>Steady gazing in complete silence should be maintained for a
+quarter of an hour, which may be afterwards gradually extended to half or even a
+full hour. Success depends largely upon idiosyncrasy and temperamental aptitude.
+Seers are often to be found among men and women of imperfect education owing to
+fitness of temperament; seers of this order are born with the faculty. Others,
+seemingly non-sensitive at first, may develop the faculty after a few short
+sittings.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes should not be strained, but the gaze should be allowed
+to rest casually yet steadily on the agent as if one were reading a book.</p>
+
+<p>It will be found that the sight is presently drawn inwards to a
+focus beyond the surface of the agent. This opening up of the field of vision is
+the symptom of success. The next step is indicated by a change in the atmosphere
+of the field. Instead of reflecting or remaining translucent, the agent will
+appear to cloud over. This will appear to become milky, then to be diffused with
+colour which changes to black or murky brown, and finally the screen appears to
+be drawn away, revealing a picture, a scene, figures in action, symbolical
+forms, sentences, etc.</p>
+
+<p>The physiological symptoms are: first, a slight chill along the
+spine like cold water trickling from the neck downwards; secondly, a returning
+flush of heat from the base of the spine upwards to the crown of the head;
+thirdly, a gaping or spasmodic action of the brain; and lastly, a deep inward
+drawing of the breath, as if sobbing. When these symptoms follow closely upon
+one another, vision will be assured. It generally happens, however, that the
+various symptoms are separately developed by repeated sittings, only appearing
+in proper sequence when the experiment is finally successful.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most interesting phases of this development of second
+sight is the opening up of lost impressions, the revival of lapsed memories;
+"looking for one thing, you find another" is an experience in daily life which
+has a psychological application. The things which pass into the limbo of
+forgetfulness are never lost to us. They remain stored up in latency and are
+ready to spring into activity as soon as the depths of the mind are probed.
+Necessarily this experience is more generally interesting than pleasant, but it
+serves to give one a sense of the connectedness of life's incident and to show a
+certain sequential necessity in the course of events. The "whyness" of our
+various experiences is revealed when they are displayed in their true relations
+and given their true value in the scheme of individual evolution. As detached
+experiences they appear without reason or purpose, apparently futile, often
+painful and even cruel; but as a consecutive scheme, completed by the revival of
+all the connecting links, the wisdom, justice, kindness and beneficence of the
+Great Arbiter of our destinies are fully and conspicuously revealed. My own
+first suspicions of a former embodied existence were derived from psychic
+experiences, and later on were confirmed by the course of events. I saw myself
+reaping that which I had sown, and I observed that what was sown in ignorance
+might be reaped in the light of a fuller knowledge; only we must henceforth be
+wise in the sowing. I would say in conclusion that it is the duty of man to
+himself and humanity not only to hold himself in readiness, but also to fit
+himself for the reception of new light. Since evolution is the law of life and
+the glory of going on man's highest guerdon, and since we are all candidates for
+responsibility, asking as reward for work well done to-day a task of greater
+magnitude on the morrow, it appears that the development of the psychic
+faculties may well form an orderly step in the process of human perfectibility,
+and help to bring us nearer to the source of all good. If it serves only to keep
+open the door between the two worlds it will have filled a good purpose, and if
+in the writing of this little exposition, I may have contributed to the
+confidence and security of any who may adventure these obscure paths, I shall be
+well content.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" noshade>
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECOND SIGHT***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 26633-h.txt or 26633-h.zip *******</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Second Sight, by Sepharial
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: Second Sight
+       A study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance
+
+
+Author: Sepharial
+
+
+
+Release Date: September 16, 2008  [eBook #26633]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECOND SIGHT***
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+
+E-text prepared by Ruth Hart
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+
+
+SECOND SIGHT
+
+A Study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance
+
+by
+
+SEPHARIAL
+
+Author of "A Manual of Astrology," "Prognostic Astronomy," "A Manual
+of Occultism," "Kabalistic Astrology," "The Kabala of Numbers,"
+Etc., Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London
+William Rider & Son, Limited
+1912
+
+Richard Clay & Sons, Limited,
+Brunswick Street, Stamford Street, S.E.,
+and Bungay, Suffolk.
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+Introduction                                 7
+Chapter I.     The Scientific Position      10
+Chapter II.    Materials and Conditions     21
+Chapter III.   The Faculty of Seership      29
+Chapter IV.    Preliminaries and Practice   39
+Chapter V.     Kinds of Vision              51
+Chapter VI.    Obstacles to Clairvoyance    59
+Chapter VII.   Symbolism                    67
+Chapter VIII.  Allied Psychic Phases        76
+Chapter IX.    Experience and Use           84
+Conclusion                                  93
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+Few words will be necessary by way of preface to this book,
+which is designed as an introduction to a little understood and
+much misrepresented subject.
+
+I have not here written anything which is intended to displace
+the observations of other authors on this subject, nor will it be
+found that anything has been said subversive of the conclusions
+arrived at by experimentalists who have essayed the study
+of clairvoyant phenomena in a manner that is altogether
+commendable, and who have sought to place the subject on a
+demonstrable and scientific basis. I refer to the proceedings of
+the Society for Psychical Research.
+
+In the following pages I have endeavoured to indicate the nature
+of the faculty of Second Sight or Clairvoyance, the means of its
+development, the use of suitable media or agents for this
+purpose, and the kind of results that may be expected to follow
+a regulated effort in this direction. I have also sought to show
+that the development of the psychic faculties may form an
+orderly step in the process of human unfoldment and perfectibility.
+
+As far as the nature and scope of this little work will allow, I
+have sought to treat the subject on a broad and general basis
+rather than pursue more particular and possibly more attractive
+scientific lines. What I have here said is the result of a personal
+experience of some years in this and other forms of psychic
+development and experimentation. My conclusions are given
+for what they are worth, and I have no wish to persuade my
+readers to my view of the nature and source of these abnormal
+phenomena. The reader is at liberty to form his own theory in
+regard to them, but such theory should be inclusive of all the
+known facts. The theories depending on hypnotic suggestion
+may be dismissed as inadequate. There appear to remain only
+the inspirational theory of direct revelation and the theory of the
+world-soul enunciated by the Occultists. I have elected in
+favour of the latter for reasons which, I think, will be
+conspicuous to those who read these pages.
+
+I should be the last to allow the study of psychism to usurp the
+legitimate place in life of intellectual and spiritual pursuits, and
+I look with abhorrence upon the flippant use made of the
+psychic faculties by a certain class of pseudo-occultists who
+serve up this kind of thing with their five o'clock tea. But I
+regard an ordered psychism as a most valuable accessory to
+intellectual and spiritual development and as filling a natural
+place in the process of unfoldment between that intellectualism
+that is grounded in the senses and that higher intelligence which
+receives its light from within. From this view-point the
+following pages are written, and will, I trust, prove helpful.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE SCIENTIFIC POSITION
+
+It would perhaps be premature to make any definite pronouncement
+as to the scientific position in regard to the psychic phenomenon
+known as "scrying," and certainly presumptuous on my part
+to cite an authority from among the many who have examined
+this subject, since all are not agreed upon the nature and
+source of the observed phenomena. Their names are, moreover,
+already identified with modern scientific research and theory,
+so that to associate them with experimental psychology would
+be to lend colour to the idea that modern science has recognized
+this branch of knowledge. Nothing, perhaps, is further from
+the fact, and while it cannot in any way be regarded as derogatory
+to the highest scientist to be associated with others, of less
+scientific attainment but of equal integrity, in this comparatively new
+field of enquiry, it may lead to popular error to institute a connection.
+It is still fresh in the mind how the Darwinian hypothesis was utterly
+misconceived by the popular mind, the suggestion that man was descended
+from the apes being generally quoted as a correct expression of
+Darwin's theory, whereas he never suggested any such thing,
+but that man and the apes had a common ancestor, which makes
+of the ape rather a degenerate lemur than a human ancestor.
+Other and more prevalent errors will occur to the reader, these
+being due to the use of what is called "the evidence of the
+senses"; and of all criteria the evidence of sensation is perhaps
+the most faulty. Logical inference from deductive or inductive
+reasoning has often enough been a good monitor to sense-perception,
+and has, moreover, pioneered the man of science to correct
+knowledge on more than one occasion. But as far as we know
+or can learn from the history of human knowledge, our senses
+have been the chiefest source of error. It is with considerable
+caution that the scientist employs the evidence from sense
+alone, and in the study of experimental psychology it is the sense
+which has first to be corrected, and which, in fact, forms the great
+factor in the equation. A person informs me that he can see a vision in
+the crystal ball before him, and although I am in the same relation
+with the "field" as he, I cannot see anything except accountable
+reflections. This fact does not give any room for contradicting him or
+any right to infer that it is all imagination. It is futile to say the
+vision does not exist. If he sees it, it does exist so far as he is
+concerned. There is no more a universal community of sensation than of
+thought. When I am at work my own thought is more real than any
+impression received through the sense organs. It is louder than the
+babel of voices or the strains of instrumental music, and more
+conspicuous than any object upon which the eye may fall. These external
+impressions are admitted or shut out at will. I then know that
+my thought is as real as my senses, that the images of thought
+are as perceptible as those exterior to it and in every way as
+objective and real. The thought-form has this advantage,
+however, that it can be given a durable or a temporary existence,
+and can be taken about with me without being liable to impost
+as "excess luggage." In the matter of evidence in psychological
+questions, therefore, sense perceptions are only second-rate
+criteria and ought to be received with caution.
+
+Almost all persons dream, and while dreaming they see and
+hear, touch and taste, without questioning for a moment the
+reality of these experiences. The dreaming person loses sight of
+the fact that he is in a bedroom of a particular house, that he has
+certain relations with others sleeping in the same house. He
+loses sight of the fact that his name is, let us say, Henry, and
+that he is famous for the manufacture of a particular brand of
+soap or cheese. For him, and as long as it lasts, the dream is the
+one reality. Now the question of the philosopher has always
+been: which is the true dream, the sleeping dream or the waking
+dream? The fact that the one is continuous of itself while the
+other is not, and that we always fall into a new dream but
+always wake to the same reality, has given a permanent value to
+the waking or external life, and an equally fictitious one to the
+interior or dreaming life. But what if the dream life became
+more or less permanent to the exclusion of all other memories
+and sensations? We should then get a case of insanity in which
+hallucination would be symptomic. (The dream state is more or
+less permanent with certain poetical temperaments, and if there
+is any insanity attaching to it at all, it consists in the inability
+to react.) Imagination, deep thought and grief are as much
+anaesthetic as chloroform. But the closing of the external
+channels of sensation is usually the signal for the opening of the
+psychic, and from all the evidence it would seem that the
+psychic sense is more extensive, acuter and in every way more
+dependable than the physical. I never yet have met the man or
+woman whose impaired eyesight required that he or she should
+use glasses in order to see while asleep. That they do see is
+common experience, and that they see farther, and therefore
+better, with the psychic sense than with the physical has been
+often proved. Emanuel Swedenborg saw a fire in Stockholm
+when he was resident in England and gave evidence of it before
+the vision was confirmed by news from Sweden. A lady of my
+acquaintance saw and described a fire taking place at a country
+seat about 150 miles away, the incident being true to the
+minutest details, many of which were exceptional and in a
+single instance tragic. The psychic sense is younger than the
+physical, as the soul is younger than the body, and its faculty
+continues unimpaired long after old age and disease have made
+havoc of the earthly vestment. The soul is younger at a thousand
+years than the body is at sixty. Let it be admitted upon evidence
+that there are two sorts of sense perception, the physical and the
+psychical, and that in some persons the latter is as much in
+evidence as the former. We have to enquire then what relations
+the crystal or other medium has to the development and exercise
+of the clairvoyant faculty. We know comparatively little about
+atomic structure in relation to nervous organism. The atomicity
+of certain chemical bodies does not inform us as to why one
+should be a deadly poison and another perfectly innocuous. We
+regard different bodies as congeries of atoms, but it is a singular
+fact that of two bodies containing exactly the same elements in
+the same proportions the one is poisonous and the other
+harmless. The only difference between them is the atomic
+arrangement.
+
+The atomic theory refers all bodies to one homogeneous basic
+substance, which has been termed protyle (proto-hyle), from
+which, by means of a process loosely defined as differentiation,
+all the elements are derived. These elements are the result of
+atomic arrangement. The atoms have various vibrations, the
+extent of which is called the mean free path of vibration;
+greatest in hydrogen and least in the densest element. All matter
+is indestructible, but at the same time convertible, and these
+facts, together with the absolute association of matter and force,
+lead to the conclusion that every change of matter implies a
+change of force. Matter, therefore, is ever living and active,
+and there is no such thing as dead matter anywhere. The hylo-idealists
+have therefore regarded all matter as but the ultimate expression
+of spirit, and primarily of a spiritual origin.
+
+The somewhat irksome phraseology of Baron Swedenborg has dulled
+many minds to a sense of his great acumen and philosophical depth, but
+it maybe convenient to summarize his scientific doctrine of
+"Correspondences" in this place as it has an important bearing on the
+subject in hand. He laid down the principle of the spiritual origin of
+force and matter. Matter, he argued, was the ultimate expression of
+spirit, as form was that of force. Spirit is to force what matter is to
+form--its substratum. Hence for every spiritual force there is a
+corresponding material form, and thus the material or natural world
+corresponds at all points to the world of spirit, without being
+identical. The apparent hiatus between one plane of existence and the
+next he called a discrete degree, while the community between different
+bodies on the same plane he called a continuous degree. Thus
+there is community of sensation between bodies of the same
+nature, community of feeling, community of thought, and
+community of desire or aspiration, each on its own plane of
+existence. But desire is translated into thought, thought into
+feeling, and feeling into action. The spirit, soul (rational and
+animal in its higher and lower aspects), and the body appear to
+have been the principles of the human constitution according to
+this authority. All spirits enjoy community, as all souls and all
+bodies on their respective planes of existence; but between spirit
+and soul, as between soul and body, there is a discrete degree.
+In fine, mind is continuous of mind all through the universe, as
+matter is continuous of matter; while mind and matter are
+separated and need to be translated into terms of one another.
+
+Taking our position from the scientific statement of the atomic
+structure of bodies, atomic vibration and molecular arrangement,
+we may now consider the action exerted by such bodies upon
+the nervous organism of man.
+
+The function of the brain, which may be regarded as the
+bulbous root of a plant whose branches grow downwards, is
+twofold: to affect, and to be affected. In its active and positive
+condition it affects the whole of the vital and muscular
+processes in the body, finding expression in vital action. In its
+passive and negative state it is affected by impressions coming
+to it in different ways through the sense organs, resulting
+in nervous and mental action. These two functions are interdependent.
+It is the latter or afferent function with which we are now concerned.
+The range of our sense-perceptions puts us momentarily in relations
+with the material world, or rather, with a certain portion of it. For
+we by no means sense all that is sensible, and, as I have already
+indicated, our sense impressions are often delusive. The gamut of our
+senses is very limited, and also very imperfect both as to extent and
+quality. Science is continually bringing new instruments into our
+service, some to aid the senses, others to correct them. The
+microscope, the microphone, the refracting lens are instances. It used
+to be said with great certainty that you cannot see through a brick
+wall, but by means of X-rays and a fluorescent screen it is now
+possible to do so. I have seen my own heart beating as its image
+was thrown on the screen by the Rontgen rays. Many insects,
+birds and animals have keener perceptions in some respects than
+man. Animalculae and microbic life, themselves microscopic,
+have their own order of sense-organs related to a world of life
+beyond our ken. These observations serve to emphasise the
+great limitation of our senses, and also to enforce the fact that
+Nature does not cease to exist where we cease to perceive her.
+The recognition of this fact has been so thoroughly appreciated
+by thoughtful people as to have opened up the question as to
+what these human limitations may mean and to what degree
+they may extend.
+
+We know what they mean well enough: the history of human
+development is the sequel to natural evolution, and this
+development could never have had place apart from the hunger
+of the mind and the consequent breaking down of sense limitations by
+human invention. As to the extent of our limitations it has been
+suggested that just as there are states of matter so fine as to be
+beyond the range of vision, so there may be others so coarse as to be
+below the sense of touch. We cannot, however, assert anything with
+certainty, seeing that proof must always require that a thing must
+be brought within our range of perception before we can admit it as
+fact. The future has many more wonderful revelations in store for us,
+no doubt. But there is really nothing more wonderful than human
+faculty which discovers these things in Nature, things that have
+always been in existence but until now have been outside our
+range of perception. The ultra-solid world may exist.
+
+The relations of our sense-organs to the various degrees of
+matter, to solids, fluids, gases, atmosphere and ether, vary in
+different individuals to such a wide extent as to create the
+greatest diversity of normal faculty. The average wool-sorter
+will outvie an artist in his perception of colour shades. An odour
+that is distinctly recognizable by one person will not be
+perceptible to others. In the matter of sound also the same
+differences of perception will be noted. On a very still night one
+can hear the sugar canes growing. Most people find the cry of a
+bat to be beyond their range. The eye cannot discern intervals of
+less than one-fiftieth of a second. Atmospheric vibration does
+not become sound until a considerable frequency is attained.
+Every movement we make displaces air but our sense of touch
+does not inform us of it, but if we stand in a sunbeam the dust
+particles will show that it is so. Our sense of feeling will not
+register above certain degrees of heat or below certain degrees
+of cold. Sensation, moreover, is not indefinitely sustained, as
+anyone may learn who will follow the ticking of a watch for
+five minutes continuously.
+
+But quite apart from the sense and range of our perceptions, the
+equality of a sense-impression is found to vary with different
+persons, affecting them each in a different way. We find that
+people have "tastes" in regard to form, colour, flavour, scent,
+sound, fabric and texture. The experience is too general to need
+illustration, but we may gather thence that, in relation to the
+nervous system of man, every material body and state of matter
+has a variable effect. These remarks will clear the ground for a
+statement of my views upon the probable effect a crystal may
+have upon a sensitive person.
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+MATERIALS AND CONDITIONS
+
+The crystal is a clear pellucid piece of quartz or beryl,
+sometimes oval in shape but more generally spherical. It is
+accredited by Reichenbach and other researchers with highly
+magnetic qualities, capable of producing in a suitable subject
+a state analogous to the ordinary "waking trance" of the
+hypnotists. It is believed that all bodies convey, or are the
+vehicles of certain universal property called od or odyle
+(od-hyle), which is not regarded as a force but as an inert and
+passive substance underlying the more active forces familiar to
+us in kinetic, calorific and electrical phenomena. In this respect
+it holds a position analogous to the argon of the atmosphere,
+and is capable of taking up the vibrations of those bodies to
+which it is related and which it invests. It would perhaps not be
+amiss to regard it as static ether. Of itself it has no active
+properties, but in its still, well-like depths, it holds the
+potentiality of all magnetic forces.
+
+This odyle is particularly potent in certain bodies and one of
+these is the beryl or quartz. It produces and retains more readily
+in the beryl than in most other bodies the images communicated
+to it by the subconscious activity of the seer. It is in the nature
+of a sensitized film which is capable of recording thought forms
+and mental images as the photographic film records objective
+things. The occultist will probably recognize in it many of the
+properties of the "astral light," which is often spoken of in this
+connection. Readers of my _Manual of Occultism_ will already
+be informed concerning the nature of subconscious activity. The
+mind or soul of man has two aspects: the attentive or waking
+consciousness, directed to the things of the external world; and
+the subconscious, which is concerned with the things of the
+interior world. Each of these spheres of the mind has its
+voluntary and automatic phases, a fact which is usually lost
+sight of, inasmuch as the automatism of the mind is frequently
+confounded with the subconscious. All purposive action tends
+to become automatic, whether it be physical or mental, sensory
+or psychic.
+
+The soul in this connection is to be regarded as the repository of
+all that complex of emotions, thoughts, aspirations, impressions,
+perceptions, feelings, etc., which constitute the inner life of man.
+The soul is none the less a fact because there are those who
+bandy words about its origin and nature.
+
+Reichenbach has shown by a series of experiments upon sensitive and
+hypnotized subjects, that metals and other materials produce very marked
+effects in contact with the human body. The experiments further showed
+that the same substance affected different patients in diverse manners.
+
+The hypnotic experiments of the late Dr. Charcot, the well-known
+French biologist, also demonstrate the rapport existing between the
+sensitive subject and foreign bodies in proximity. A bottle containing
+a poison is taken at random from a number of others of similar appearance
+and is applied to the back of the patient's neck. The hypnotic subject
+at once begins to develop all the symptoms of arsenical, strychnine or
+prussic acid poisoning; it being afterwards found that the bottle
+contains the toxine whose effects have been portrayed by the subject.
+But not all hypnotic subjects are capable of the same degree of
+sensibility.
+
+Community of sensation is as common a phenomenon as community of
+thought between a hypnotizer and his subject, and what are called
+sympathetic pains are included in common experience. Sensitive persons
+will simulate all the symptoms of a virulent disease, _e.g._ mock
+measles. The phenomena of psychometry reveal the fact of bodies being
+able to retain records and of the human possibility of reviving these
+records as sensations and thought images, although there is no direct
+community of sensation between an inanimate object and the
+nervous organism of a sensitive. It need not, therefore, be a
+matter of surprise that the crystal can exert a very definite and
+sensible effect upon the nervous organism of a certain order of
+subjects. It does not affect all alike nor act in a uniform
+and constant manner on those whom it does so affect. The
+modifications of sensibility taking place in the subject or
+sensitive render the action of the agent a variable quantity.
+Where its action is more or less rapid and remarkable, however,
+the quartz or beryl crystal may be regarded as the most effective
+agent for producing clairvoyance.
+
+In other cases the concave mirror, either of polished copper or
+black japan, will be found serviceable. In certain cases where
+the faculty is already developed but lying in latency, any
+shining surface will suffice to bring it into activity. Ecstatic
+vision was first induced in Jacob Boehme by the sun's rays
+falling upon a bowl of water which caught and dazzled his eyes
+while he was engaged in the humble task of cobbling a pair of
+shoes. In consequence of this exaltation of the visual sense we
+have those remarkable works, _The Aurora, The Four Complexions,
+Signatura Rerum_, and many others, with letters and commentaries which,
+in addition to being of a spiritual nature, are also to be regarded
+as scholarly when referred to their source. In Boehme's case, as in
+that of Swedenborg, whose faculty did not appear until he was
+fifty-four years of age, it would appear that the faculty was
+constitutional and already developed, waiting only the conditions
+which should bring it into active operation.
+
+The agent most suitable for developing clairvoyance cannot
+therefore be definitely prescribed. It must remain a matter of
+experiment with the subject himself. That there are some
+persons in whom the psychic faculties are more prone to
+activity than in others is certain, and it would appear also that
+these faculties are native in some by spiritual or hereditary
+succession, which fact is evident from their genitures as
+interpreted by astrology. Many planets in flexed signs and a
+satellitium in the nadir or lower angle of the horoscope is
+a certain indication of extreme nervous sensibility and
+predisposition to telaesthenic impressions, though this
+observation does not cover all the instances before me. It is true,
+however, where it applies. The dominant influence of the planet
+Neptune in a horoscope is also to be regarded as a special
+indication of some form of psychic activity, as I have frequently
+observed.
+
+In cases where the subject is not prepared by evolutional
+process for the exercise of the psychic faculties, it will be found
+that the same or similar indications will tend to the simulation
+of such faculties, as by mediumism, conjuring, etc., while they
+may even result in chicanery and fraud.
+
+But among those who are gifted in the direction spoken of,
+all are not clairvoyant. The most common form of psychic
+disturbance is involuntary clairaudience, and telaesthesia is not
+perhaps less general. St. Paul indicates a variety of such
+psychic "gifts," _e.g._ the gifts of prophecy, of healing, of
+understanding, etc.; but these may also be regarded in quite a
+mundane sense. The development among the early Christians of
+spiritual gifts, visions, hearing, speaking in foreign tongues,
+psychic healing, etc., appears to have given rise to a variety of
+exceptional experiences by which they were induced to say "we
+cannot but speak the things we have seen and heard." "One star
+differs from another in glory," says St. Paul, and this diversity
+of spiritual gifts proceeds from the celestial world, and is so
+ordered that each may fulfil the part required of him in the
+economy of life.
+
+Psychic tradition is as important a fact as is physical heredity.
+The latter is a factor of immense importance as affecting the
+constitution and quality of the organism in and through which
+the soul is required to function. But psychic tradition is that
+which determines the power and faculty brought to bear upon
+the physical organism. Past evolution is not a negligible
+quantity, and its effects are never wasted or lost to the
+individual. We are what we are by reason of what we have
+already been, as well individually as racially. "The future is, the
+past unfolded" or "entered upon by a new door," as it has been
+well said. We do not suddenly acquire faculties, we evolve them
+by effort and successive selection. In our upward striving for
+liberty we specialize along certain lines which appear to us to be
+those offering either the least resistance or the most ready
+means of self-preservation, liberty and well-being. Hence some
+evolve a special faculty for money-making and, as schoolboys,
+will be expert traders of alley-taws, jack-knives, toffee and all
+sorts of kickshaws. Others of another bent or list will traffic in
+knowledge to the abounding satisfaction of their masters and the
+jealous pride of their form.
+
+So that psychic tradition while disposing some to the speedy
+revelation of an already acquired faculty, disposes others to the
+more arduous but not less interesting work of acquiring such
+faculty. And because the spiritual needs of mankind are ever of
+primary importance, there are always to be found those in
+whom the power of spiritual interpretation is the dominant
+faculty, such persons being the natural channels of intercourse
+between the superior and inferior worlds. The physical body of
+man is equipped with a corresponding order of microbic life
+which acts as an organic interpreter, translating the elements of
+food into blood, nerve, fibre, tissue and bone agreeably to the
+laws of their being. What I have to say in this place is addressed
+especially to those who would aspire to the faculty of clear
+vision and in whom the psychic powers are striving towards
+expression. Every person whose life is not wholly sunk in
+material and selfish pleasures but in whom the aspiration to a
+higher and better life is a hunger the world cannot satisfy, has
+within himself the power to see and know that which he seeks
+behind the veil of the senses. Nature has never produced a
+desire she cannot satisfy. There is no hope, however vague, that
+the soul cannot define, and no aspiration, however high, that the
+wings of the spirit cannot reach. Therefore be patient and strive.
+To others I would say: Be content. All birds cannot be eagles.
+The nightingale has a song and the humming bird a plumage the
+eagle can never possess. The nightingale may sing to the stars,
+the humming bird to the flowers, but the eagle, whose tireless
+eyes gaze into the heart of day, is uncompanioned in its lofty
+loneliness amid the mountain tops.
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+THE FACULTY OF SEERSHIP
+
+Until quite recently the faculty of seership has been associated
+in occult literature with various magical formulae. There are in
+existence works by Tristemius, Francis Barrett, Ebenezer Sibley
+and others in which the use of the crystal is made by means of
+magical invocations and a variety of ceremonial observances. It
+is not within the scope of this treatise to determine the
+value of such rites or the desirability of invoking extraneous
+intelligences and powers by the use of magical practices; but I
+think we may conclude that communion of this order is not
+unattended by grave dangers. When the Israelites were ill-content
+with the farinaceous manna they invoked Heaven to send them meat. They
+got what they wanted, but also the dire penalty which it incurred; and
+it is quite likely that in invoking occult forces beyond one's power
+to control great evils may ensue. All action and reaction are equal
+and opposite. A child can pull a trigger but cannot withstand the
+recoil of a gun, or by moving a lever may set machinery in motion
+which it can by no means control. Therefore without strength and
+knowledge of the right sort it is foolish to meddle with occult
+forces; and in the education of the development of the psychic and
+spiritual faculties native in us, it is better to encourage their
+natural development by legitimate exercise than to invoke the action
+of a stimulus which cannot afterwards be controlled. Water will
+wear away a rock by continual fretting, though nobody doubts
+that water is softer than a rock, and if the barrier between this
+and the soul-world be like granite, yet the patient and persistent
+action of the determined mind will sooner or later wear it away,
+the last thin layer will break and the light of another world will
+stream through, dazzling our unaccustomed eyes with its bright
+effulgence.
+
+It is my object here to indicate by what means and by what
+persons the natural development of the clairvoyant faculty may
+be achieved. In regard then to the subject, medium or seer, there
+are two distinct temperaments in which the faculty is likely to
+be dominant and capable of high and rapid development. The
+first is the nervous temperament, characterized by extreme
+activity of body and mind, nervous excitability, dark complexion,
+prominent features, and wiry frame. Types of this temperament are
+to be seen in the descriptions of Dante, Swedenborg, Melancthon,
+Edgar A. Poe and others. This type represents the positive seers.
+
+The other temperament is of the passive type and is characterized
+by a full lymphatic habit, pale or delicate complexion, blue eyes,
+straight fine hair, small hands, tapering fingers, cold and fleshy to
+the touch; usually a thin or high voice and languid manner.
+
+These two types of seers--of which there are many varieties--
+achieve their development by quite opposite means. The positive
+seer projects the mental images by a psychic process impossible
+of description, but by a certain psychic metabolism by which the
+apperceptions of the soul are transformed into mental images of a
+purely symbolical nature. The psychic process of picture-production
+is involuntary and unconscious, but the perception of the
+mental pictures is a perfectly conscious process and involves
+the exercise of an introspective faculty. The passive seer, on the
+contrary, is effortless, and receives impressions by reflection, the
+visions coming imperceptibly and having a literal interpretation.
+The vision is not in this case of an allegorical or symbolic nature,
+as is the case with the positive seer, but is an actual vision of a
+fact or event which has already happened or as it will transpire in
+the future. Thus the positive vision consists in the projection of
+the mind towards the things of the soul-world, while the passive
+vision in the result of a propulsion of the soul-world upon the
+passive sense. Of the two kinds of vision, the passive is the more
+serviceable as being the more perspicuous and literal, but it has
+the disadvantage of being largely under the control of external
+influences and consequently of greater variability than the
+positive vision. It is, indeed, quite the common experience that
+the passive medium requires "conditions" for the proper exercise
+of the faculty and where these are lacking no vision can be
+obtained.
+
+The positive type of seer exercises an introspective vision,
+searching inwardly towards the soul-world whence revelation
+proceeds. The passive seer, on the other hand, remains in a static
+condition, open to impressions coming inwards upon the mind's
+eye, but making no conscious effort towards inward searching.
+Those who have experienced both involuntary and voluntary
+visions will readily appreciate the difference of attitude, which is
+difficult to convey to others in so many words.
+
+Now the exercise of this faculty does not exist apart from some
+definite use, and it may be of advantage to consider what that use
+may be. Primarily, I should be disposed to regard the mere
+opening up of a channel of communication between the material
+and psychic worlds as adequate reason for the exercise of the
+faculty. The Gates of Heaven have to be kept open by human
+endeavour and the exercise of the spiritual and psychic faculties,
+otherwise a complete lesion and cutting off of our source of
+inspiration would follow. Except we aspire to the higher world
+that world will come no nearer to us. Action and reaction are
+equal and opposite. It was never said that the door would be
+opened to others than those who knocked. The law of spiritual
+compensation involves the fact that we receive what we ask for.
+If we get it otherwise, there is no guarantee of its continuance or
+that its possession will be a blessing. But if we ask according to
+our needs and strive according to our strength there is no law
+which can prevent a commensurate response. The ignorance of
+our asking and the imperfection of our striving will modify the
+nature of the response, but they cannot be negative of results. We
+can trust nature and there is a spiritual law in the natural world as
+well as a natural law in the spiritual world, for they are
+interdependent.
+
+But even our daily life affords numerous instances wherein the
+use of the clairvoyant faculty is attended by beneficial results.
+How many people there are who have been warned in dreams--
+wherein all people are naturally clairvoyant--of some impending
+danger to themselves or those around them, must have struck any
+casual reader of the daily press; for during recent years much
+greater interest has been taken in psychological matters and we
+are continually in hearing of new facts which give us knowledge
+of the power of the soul to foresee danger, and to know what is
+determined upon the world for the greater ends of human
+evolution. Some experiences of this nature will no doubt form a
+fit subject for a subsequent chapter. The qualifications which
+should supplement and sustain the natural aptitude of the seer or
+seeress demand consideration in this place, and the following
+remarks may not be without value in this respect.
+
+Mental stability, self-possession and confidence in one's own
+soul-faculties must be the firm rock on which all revelation
+should rest. The element of doubt either negatives results or
+opens the door to the ingress of all manner of deceptive
+impressions.
+
+Integrity of purpose is imperative. The purer the intention and
+motive of the seer the more lucid will be the vision accorded. No
+reliable vision can be obtained by one whose nature is not
+inherently truthful.
+
+Any selfish desire dominating the mind, in regard to any thing or
+person will distort the vision and render it misleading, while a
+persistent self-seeking spirit will effectually shut the door to all
+revelation whatsoever.
+
+Therefore above all things it is essential for the investigator of
+psychic phenomena to have an unflinching love of truth, to be
+resigned to the will of Heaven, to accept the revelations accorded
+in a spirit of grateful confidence, and to dispel all doubt and
+controversy by an appeal to the eyes of one's own immortal soul.
+
+These are qualifications with which the seer or seeress should be
+invested, and if with these the quest of the vision is unsuccessful
+after a period of earnest trial, it must be taken as sufficient
+warrant that the faculty of clairvoyance is not in the category of
+one's individual powers. Haply the same qualifications brought to
+bear on some other psychic faculty will result in a rich recompense.
+
+As for those triflers who at odd moments sit for the production of
+what they call "phenomena," with no other object than the
+gratification of an inquisitive vanity, I would drive them with
+whips from the field of psychical research. They are people
+whose presence in this area of serious enquiry does no good
+either to the cause of truth or the service of the race, and this
+loose traffic of sorts in the hope of finding a new sensation would,
+were it transferred to another sphere of activity, deservedly
+receive a very ugly name.
+
+The suggestion that the clairvoyant faculty is latent in all of us
+has no doubt been responsible for much misunderstanding, and
+not a little disappointment; but I doubt if it is so far removed
+from the truth as that which makes the possession of the faculty a
+certain sign of a superior degree of evolution. Although the
+faculty of clear vision brings us into more intimate conscious
+relations with a new order of existence, where the past and future,
+the distant and the near, would seem to be brought into
+immediate perception, it does not therefore confer upon us a
+higher degree of spirituality. It may undoubtedly offer us a
+truer perspective than that we may derive from the ordinary
+circumstance of our lives, and may suggest good grounds for a
+more comprehensive ethical system, but it cannot compel one to
+do the right thing or to lead the virtuous life. Clairvoyance,
+indeed, is a faculty which has no direct moral relations. It is no
+more the gift or property of the wise or the good man than
+extraordinary muscular power is an adjunct of high intelligence.
+And yet it is a curious fact that in all the sacred writings of the
+world there is a suggestion that holy men, or "Men of God," have
+this and other transcendent faculties, such as clairaudience
+and the power of healing. Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures
+clairaudience seems to constitute the peculiar authority of the
+teacher or prophet. Thus we have expressions such as: "The
+Word of the Lord came to me saying," etc., and "I heard a voice
+which said," etc., which is sometimes but not always associated
+with direct vision. But because holy men of old were distinguished
+by this power of direct vision it is not to be supposed that all who
+have it are equally sanctified. By natural gift or by such means we
+are here discussing, the faculty may be brought into active function,
+but we should not lose sight of the fact that the attainment of
+righteousness implies that "all these things shall be added unto you."
+
+I think it right, therefore, to regard the quest of clairvoyance as a
+legitimate occupation, providing that it is purposeful and carried
+out with a right spirit, while not being allowed to interfere with
+the proper performance of one's ordinary duties in life. For it is
+possible to become over-zealous and even morbid over these
+mysteries of human life, and to become so obsessed by the idea
+of their importance as practically to render oneself unfitted for
+any ordinary pursuits, thereby producing an isolation that is in the
+best sense unprofitable. Moreover, there are mental dangers as
+well as spiritual and social to be feared, and it is unfortunately
+not uncommon to observe that neuraesthenia, nervous corrosion,
+and even insanity attends upon the tireless efforts of the
+enthusiast in this direction.
+
+If we regard clairvoyance as a normal faculty we are more likely
+to treat it normally than if we give it a paramount and exceptional
+value and seek to beatify those in whom it appears. I am
+convinced from experience that it is both normal and educable
+though not usually active in the large majority of people. I am
+also of the opinion that it is not peculiar, except in its higher
+functions, to human beings. I have known animals to possess this
+faculty; in a higher degree I have seen humans in the exercise of
+it. Perhaps even the archangels are yet seeking their vision of
+God.
+
+But to us as normal beings clairvoyance should appear a
+potentially normal faculty, to be studied and pursued by methods
+that are efficient while yet harmless; and this is the purport of the
+present treatise. I will therefore ask the reader to follow me in
+these pages with a mind divested of all disposition to the
+supernatural.
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+PRELIMINARIES AND PRACTICE
+
+The first consideration by those who would develop clairvoyance
+by artificial aids is the choice of a suitable agent. It has been the
+practice for many years to substitute the original beryl or "rock
+crystal" by a glass ball. I admit that many specimens I have seen
+are very creditable productions, but they are nevertheless quite
+worthless from the point of view of those who consider material
+agents to be important factors in the production of clairvoyance.
+The glass ball may, however, very well serve the preliminary
+essential of concentration, and, if the faculty of clairvoyance is at
+all active, will be entirely effective as an agent.
+
+Those who have any experience at all in this matter will allow
+that the rock crystal exerts an influence of an entirely different
+nature to that observable in the use of glass. Indeed, so far as
+experiment serves us, it may be said that glass only produces
+negative results and never at any time induced clairvoyance. If
+this state followed upon the use of a glass ball I am sure that the
+patient must have been naturally clairvoyant, in which case a
+bowl of water, a spot upon a wall, a piece of polished brass or
+copper, or a spot of ink would have been equally efficacious in
+inducing the degree of hypnosis required. That glass spheres are
+equally efficient as those of crystal is true only in two cases,
+namely, when clairvoyance is natural, in which case neither need
+be used; and when no results are observable after due experiment,
+from which we may conclude either that the agent is unsuitable
+or that the faculty is entirely submerged in that individual.
+
+In hypnotic clairvoyance the glass ball will be found as useful a
+"field" as the best rock crystal. Yet it does not follow that because
+the crystal is highly odylic and glass altogether negative the
+former will induce clairvoyance. My own first experience with
+the crystal was entirely disappointing, while very striking results
+followed immediately upon the use of a black concave mirror.
+
+The mirror is usually circular in shape and about one-quarter-inch
+curve to a six-inch diameter. This gives a long focus, so that the
+mirror may be hung upon a wall at about two yards distance from
+the subject. A greater degree of concavity proportionate to the
+diameter will produce a focus which allows the mirror to be held
+in the hand while resting in the lap.
+
+This disposes to a very easy and passive attitude and helps
+towards results. The base of the mirror may be of tin, wood or
+other material, and it is usually filled with a composition of a
+bituminous nature, the glass covering being painted with a
+preparation of coal-tar on its nether or convex side. The exact
+focus and consequent size of the mirror employed as most
+suitable to the individual is a matter of experiment. It is also to be
+observed that the distance of the mirror, as also the angle of
+vision, are matters of experiment. Beyond a certain distance it
+will be found that the mirror has no "draw" on the subject. If
+brought closer its pull is immediately felt.
+
+It is perhaps too early to theorize upon the _modus operandi_ of
+the "magic mirror," as it has been called. It appears to induce
+hypnosis and consequent elevation of nervous activity by
+refracting and throwing back the rays of magnetic energy which
+emanate from the subject.
+
+[Illustration of magic mirror]
+
+In the foregoing illustration let A-B be the mirror with F for its
+focus. Let the subject be stationed at S. Then the rays directed
+towards the surface of the mirror will be represented by RR-RR.
+These rays impinge upon a diamagnetic surface which is concave.
+The rays are therefore bent inwards and thrown back upon the
+person at S in the form of a cone of energy which has the effect
+of producing auto-hypnosis. There are other forms of agency,
+such as the zinc disc with the copper centre as used by Braid to
+induce the hypnotic sleep, but these appear to depend upon tiring
+the optic nerves and thus, through their action upon the thalami to
+produce temporary inhibition of the whole basilar tract of the
+brain.
+
+The mesmerist who throws streams of energy upon the patient
+would appear to be working on the same principle as that by
+which the person using the concave mirror induces self-hypnosis.
+Possibly the latter method may be found to be conducive to the
+phenomena arising from auto-suggestion, while the conditions
+induced by the action of the hypnotist may be less liable to the
+effects of auto-suggestion and more responsive to hypnotic
+suggestion, _i.e._ the mental action of the hypnotist.
+
+These, however, are considerations which need not trouble us
+overmuch, since by whatever agent the subject is made clairvoyant,
+the results are equally curious and informing. Auto-suggestion,
+at least, can hardly be regarded in the category of objections,
+since we cannot auto-suggest that which does not first of
+all arise as an image in the mind. It is in the spontaneous and
+automatic production of auto-suggested impressions that the
+phenomena of clairvoyance very largely consist; only we have to
+remember that the suggesting self is a more considerable quantity
+than the personality to which these suggestions are made, and is
+in touch with a world immeasurably greater and in every sense
+less limited than that to which the person is externally related.
+Looked at from whatever point of view we may choose, the
+phenomena of clairvoyance cannot be adequately explained
+without recourse to psychology on the one hand and occultism on
+the other. Psychology is needed in order to explain the nature and
+faculty of the human soul, and occultism to define for us the
+nature of that universal mirror in which the whole category of
+human events, both past and future, are reflected. Having decided
+upon a course of experiments with a crystal or mirror, the best of
+the kind should be obtained. A black velvet covering should be
+made in which to envelop the crystal when not in use. Mirrors are
+usually made with a suitable lid or covering. Care should be
+taken not to scratch the surface, and all cleaning should be done
+with a dry silk handkerchief kept for the purpose. Exposure to the
+sun's rays not only scores the surface of a crystal or mirror, but
+also puts the odylic substance into activity, distributing and
+dissipating the magnetic power stored up therein.
+
+And now a word or two about the disposition and attitude of the
+subject. The visions do not occur in the crystal itself. They may
+appear to do so, but this is due, when it occurs, to the projection
+and visualization of the mental images. The visions are in the
+mind or soul of the seer and nowhere else. It is a matter of
+constitutional psychism as to where the sense of clear vision will
+be located. Personally I find the sense to be located in the frontal
+coronal region of the brain about 150 to the right of the normal
+axis of vision, which may be regarded as the meridian of sight.
+Other instances are before me in which the sense is variously
+located in the back of the head, the nape of the neck, the pit of the
+stomach, the summit of the head, above and between the eyes,
+and in one case near the right shoulder but beyond the periphery
+of the body. The explanation appears to be that the nervo-vital
+emanations from the body of the seer act upon the static odyle in
+the agent, which in turn reacts upon the brain centres by means of
+the optic nerves. And this appears to be sufficient reason why the
+crystal or mirror should be kept as free as possible from
+disturbing elements. Water is extremely odylic and should never
+come in contact with the agent employed as it effectually carries
+off all latent or stored imports. I am forced to use a crude
+terminology in order to convey the idea in my mind, but I
+recognize that the whole explanation may appear vague and
+inadequate. It is of course at all times easier to observe effects
+than to offer a clear explanation of them. Yet some sort of
+working hypothesis is constructed when we collate our observations,
+and it is this that I have sought to communicate.
+
+For similar reasons, when in use the crystal or mirror should be
+shaded and so placed that no direct rays from sun or artificial
+light may fall upon it. The odyle, as Reichenbach so conclusively
+proved by his experiments, rapidly responds to surrounding
+magnetic conditions and to the vibrations of surrounding bodies,
+and to none more rapidly than the etheric vibrations caused by
+combustion or light of any kind. There should be no direct rays of
+light between the agent and the seer.
+
+The room in which the sitting takes place should be moderately
+warm, shady, and lit by a diffused light, such as may be obtained
+by a light holland blind or casement cloth, in the daytime. The
+subject should sit with his back to the source of light, and the
+illumination will be adequate if ordinary print can be read by it.
+
+It is important that all persons sitting in the same room with the
+seer should be at least at arm's length from him.
+
+Silence should be uniformly observed by those present, until the
+vision is attained.
+
+It will then be found convenient to have two persons present to
+act as Interrogator and Recorder respectively.
+
+The Interrogator should be the only person whose voice is heard,
+and it should be reduced to a soft but distinct monotone. The
+Recorder will be occupied in setting down in writing all questions
+asked by the Interrogator and the exact answers made by the
+seer. These should be dated and signed by those present when
+completed. It is perhaps hardly necessary to remark that
+precautions should be taken to prevent sudden intrusions, and as
+far as possible to secure general quiet without.
+
+I may here interject an observation which appears to me
+suggestive and may prove valuable. It has been observed that the
+inhabitants of basaltic localities are more generally natural
+clairvoyants than others. Basalt is an igneous rock composed
+largely of augite and felspar, which are silicate crystals of
+calcium, potassium, alumina, etc., of which the Moonstone is a
+variety. The connecting link is that clairvoyance is found to be
+unusually active during and by means of moonlight. What
+psycho-physical effect either basalt or moonlight has upon the
+nervous system of impressible subjects appears to be somewhat
+obscure, but there is little difference between calcium light and
+moonlight, except that the latter is moderated by the greater
+atmosphere through which it comes to us. It is only when we
+come to know the psychological values of various chemical
+bodies that we can hope for a solution of many strange phenomena
+connected with the clairvoyant faculty. I recollect that the
+seeress of Prevorst experienced positive pain from the near
+presence of water during her abnormal phases. Reichenbach
+found certain psycho-pathological conditions to be excited by
+various metals and foreign bodies when brought into contact with
+the sensitive. These observations are extremely useful if only in
+producing an awareness of possible reasons for such disturbance
+as may occur in the conditions already cited.
+
+At the outset the sittings should not last longer than at most
+half-an-hour, but it is important that they should be regular,
+both as to time and place. We are already informed from a number of
+observations that every action tends to repeat itself under similar
+conditions. Habits of life and mind are thus formed so that in
+time they become quite involuntary and automatic. A cumulative
+effect is obtained by attention to this matter of periodicity, while
+the use of the same place for the same purpose tends to dispose
+the mind to the performance of particular functions. In striving
+for psychic development of any sort we shall do well not to
+disregard these facts. For since all actions tend to repeat
+themselves and to become automatic, to pass from the domain of
+the purposive into the habitual, the psychic faculties will
+similarly, if actuated at any set time and place, tend to bestir
+themselves to the same effects as those to which they were first
+moved by the conscious will and intention of the seer. Until the
+clairvoyant faculty is fully assured and satisfactory results
+obtained without any inconvenience to the seer, not more than
+two persons should be present at the sittings. These should be in
+close sympathy with the seer and with each other.
+
+When the sitting is over it will be found useful to repair to
+another place and fully discuss the results obtained, the
+impressions and feelings of the seer during the seance, and
+matters which appear to have a bearing on the facts observed.
+
+A person should not be disheartened if at the first few sittings
+nothing of any moment takes place, but should persevere with
+patience and self-control. Indeed, if we consider the fact that for
+hundreds of generations the psychic faculties latent in man have
+lain in absolute neglect, that perhaps the faculty of clear vision
+has not been brought into activity by any of our ancestors since
+remote ages, it should not be thought remarkable that so few find
+the faculty in them to be practically dormant. It should rather be a
+matter of surprise that the faculty is still with us, that it is not
+wholly irresponsive to the behests of the soul. While in the course
+of physical evolution many important functions have undergone
+remarkable changes, and organs, once active and useful, have
+become stunted, impotent, and in some cases extinct, yet on the
+other hand we see that seeds which have lain dormant in arid soil
+for hundreds of years can spring into leaf and flower under the
+influence of a suitable climate.
+
+The vermiform appendix, so necessary to the bone eaters of a
+carnivorous age, has no part in the physical economy of a later
+and more highly-evolved generation. The pineal gland and the
+pituitary body are adjuncts of the brain whose functions have
+long been in latency. The _Anastatica hierochuntica_, commonly
+called the Rose of Jericho, is a wonderful example of functional
+latency. The plant will remain for ages rolled up like a ball of
+sun-dried heather, but if placed in water it will immediately open
+out and spread forth its nest of mossy green fronds, the transition
+from seeming death to life taking place in a few minutes. The
+hygrometric properties of the plant are certainly exceptional.
+They illustrate the responsiveness of certain natures to a
+particular order of stimulus, and in a sense they illustrate the
+functions of the human soul. The faculty of direct vision is like
+the latent life of the vegetable world. It waits only the conditions
+which favour its activity and development, and though for
+generations it may have lain dormant, yet in a few days or weeks
+it may attain the proportions of a beautiful flower, a thing of
+wonder and delight, gracing the Garden of the Soul.
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+KINDS OF VISION
+
+There are two kinds of vision, and each of these may be
+perceived in two different ways. The two sorts of vision are
+called the Direct Vision and the Symbolic Vision.
+
+The first of these is an exact representation of some scene or
+incident which has taken place in the past or will subsequently be
+experienced in the future. It may have relation to the experience
+of the seer, or of those who are present at the sitting, or yet may
+have a general or public application.
+
+The second order of vision is a representation by ideograph,
+symbol or other indirect means, of events similar to those
+conveyed by direct vision. The visions of Ezekiel and John of
+Patmos are of the symbolic order, and although to the seers
+themselves there probably was a very clear apperception of their
+import, yet for others they require interpretation. In most cases it
+will be found that the nature of the vision has relation to that
+sphere of life and interest in which the seer or those for whom he
+is serving are concerned. But this is not always the case, for there
+are some peculiarly sensitive seers whose visions have a wider
+range and a more general application. In the first case it would
+seem that the impressions latent in the individual sphere of
+subconscious activity are brought into evidence, and in the other
+case the seer comes into relations with the world-soul or
+earth-sphere, so that political, social and cosmic events
+are brought out of latency into conscious perception. In most
+cases it will be found that answers to questions are conveyed
+by symbols, though this is not an invariable rule, as will
+appear from the following remarks.
+
+The vision, when it occurs, may be conveyed in one of two ways:
+first, as a vivid picture affecting the focus and retina of the eye,
+perfect in its outline and colouring, and giving the sense of
+nearness or distance; secondly, as a vivid mental impression
+accompanied by a hazy or dim formation in the "field" of vision.
+In this latter form it becomes an apperception rather than a
+perception, the mind receiving the impression of the vision to be
+conveyed before it has had time to form and define itself in the
+field.
+
+As already intimated, there appears to be a connection between
+the temperamental peculiarities of the two classes of clairvoyants
+and the kind of vision developed in them. Thus the direct
+vision is more generally found in association with the passive
+temperament. The direct vision is neither so regular nor so
+constant as the symbolic vision owing to the peculiarities of the
+negative or passive subject. When it does develop, however, the
+direct vision is both lucid and actual, and has literal fulfilment in
+the world of experience and fact. It is an actual representation of
+what has actually happened or will have place in the future, or yet
+may be presently happening at some place more or less distant.
+
+The symbolic vision, on the other hand, is more generally
+developed in the positive or active type of seer. It has the
+advantage of being more regular and constant in its occurrence
+than the direct vision, while at the same time being open to the
+objection that it is frequently misinterpreted. Nothing shows this
+better perhaps than the various interpretations which have been
+made of the Apocalypse.
+
+The positive temperament appears to throw off the mental images
+as speedily as they are developed in the subconscious area, and
+goes out to meet them in a mood of speculative enquiry. But the
+passive temperament most frequently feels first and sees
+afterwards, the visionary process being entirely devoid of
+speculation and mental activity. In a word, the distinction
+between them is that the one sees and thinks while the other feels
+and sees.
+
+The manner in which the visions appear to develop in the field
+requires some description, and for reasons which will presently
+appear it is essential that the earliest experiments should be made
+in the light of a duly informed expectancy.
+
+At first the crystal or mirror will appear to be overclouded by a
+dull, smoky vapour which presently condenses into milky clouds
+among which are seen innumerable little gold specks of light,
+dancing in all directions, like gold-dust in a sunlit air. The focus
+of the eye at this stage is inconstant, the pupil rapidly expanding
+and contracting, while the crystal or mirror alternately disappears
+in a haze and reappears again. Then suddenly the haze disappears
+and the crystal looms up into full view, accompanied by a
+complete lapse of the seer into full consciousness of his
+surroundings.
+
+This may be the only experience during the first few sittings. It
+may be that of many. But if it occurs it is an entirely satisfactory
+and hopeful symptom. For sooner or later, according to the
+degree of susceptibility or responsiveness in the subject, there
+will come a moment when the milky-looking clouds and dancing
+starlights will suddenly vanish and a bright azure expanse like an
+open summer sky will fill the field of vision. The brain will now
+be felt to palpitate spasmodically, as if opening and closing again
+in the coronal region; there will be a tightening of the scalp about
+the base of brain, as if the floor of the cerebrum were contracting;
+the seer will catch his breath with a spasmodic sigh and the first
+vision will stand out clear and life-like against the azure screen of
+space.
+
+Now the danger at this supreme moment is that the seer will be
+surprised into full waking consciousness. During the process of
+abstraction which precedes every vision or series of visions, the
+consciousness of the seer is gradually but imperceptibly
+withdrawn from physical surroundings. He forgets that he is
+seated in a particular place or room, that he is in the company of
+another or others. He forgets that he is gazing into a crystal or
+mirror. He knows nothing, sees nothing, hears nothing, save that
+which is being enacted before the senses of his soul. He loses
+sight for the time even of his own identity and becomes as it were
+merged in the vision itself.
+
+When, therefore, his attention is suddenly arrested by an
+apparition, startling in its reality and instantaneous production,
+the reaction is likely to be both rapid and violent, so that the seer
+is frequently carried back into full waking consciousness. When,
+however, the mind is previously instructed and warned of this
+stage of the process, a steady and self-possessed attitude is
+ensured and a subconscious feeling of expectancy manifests at
+the critical moment. I have known so many cases of people being
+surprised out of clairvoyance and so to have lost what has often
+been an isolated experience, that this treatise will be wholly
+justified if by the inclusion of this warning the novice comes
+successfully through his first experience of second sight.
+
+We come now to the point where it becomes necessary to consider
+other important reactions which the development of any psychic
+sense involves. To some favoured few these supernormal faculties
+appear to be given without any cost to themselves. Perhaps they
+are direct evolutional products, possibly psychic inheritances;
+but to such as have them no price is asked or penalty imposed.
+
+Others there are who are impelled by their own evolutional
+process to seek the development in themselves of these psychic
+powers; and to these a word of warning seems necessary, so that
+at the risk of appearing didactic I must essay the task. To some it
+may seem unwelcome, to others redundant and supererogatory.
+But we are dealing with a new stage in evolutional progress--the
+waking up of new forces in ourselves and the prospective use of a
+new set of faculties. It is of course open to anybody to
+experiment blindly, and none will seek to deter them save those
+who have some knowledge of the attendant dangers, and which
+knowledge alone can help us to avoid. I should consider the man
+more fool than hero who, in entire ignorance of mechanics and
+aeronautics, stepped on board an aeroplane and started the
+engines running. Even the most skilful in any new field of
+experiment or research consciously faces certain but unknown
+dangers. The victims of the aeroplane--brave pioneers of human
+enterprise and endeavour that they were--fell by lack of
+knowledge. By lack of knowledge also have the humane efforts
+of many physicians been cut short at the outset of what might
+have been a successful career. It was this very lack of knowledge
+they knew to be the greatest of all dangers, and it was this they
+had set out to remedy.
+
+It is not less dangerous when we begin to pursue a course of
+psychic development. The ordinary functions of the mind are
+well within our knowledge and control. There is always the will
+by which we may police the territory under our jurisdiction and
+government. It is another matter when we seek to govern a
+territory whose peculiar features and native laws and customs are
+entirely unknown to us. It is obvious that here the will-power, if
+directed at all, is as likely to be effectual for evil as for good.
+The psychic faculties may indeed be opened up and the unknown
+region explored, but at fatal cost, it may be, to all that constitutes
+normal sanity and physical well-being; in which case one may
+say with Hamlet it be better to "bear those ills we have, than fly
+to others that we know not of."
+
+Some of the conditions imposed upon those who, not being
+naturally gifted in this direction, would wish to experiment in
+clairvoyant development, may conveniently be stated and
+examined in another chapter.
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+OBSTACLES TO CLAIRVOYANCE
+
+Various impediments stand in the way of inducing second sight,
+and certain others may be expected to arise in connection with
+the faculty when induced. Putting aside the greatest of all
+obstacles, that of constitutional unfitness, as having already been
+discussed in the preceding pages, the first obstacle to be
+encountered is that of ill health. It can hardly be expected that
+new areas can be opened up in the mind without considerable
+change and adjustment taking place by reflection in the physical
+economy. The reaction is likely to be attended by physical
+distress. But Nature is adaptable and soon accommodates herself
+to changed conditions, so that any results directly attributable to
+the development of the psychic centres of activity is not likely to
+be more than transient, providing that due regard has been given
+to the normal requirements of health.
+
+The importance of a moderate and nourishing diet cannot be too
+strongly urged upon those who seek for psychic development. All
+overloading of the stomach with indigestible food and addiction
+to alcoholic drinks tend to cloud the higher faculties. The brain
+centres are thereby depleted, the heart suffers strain, and the
+equilibrium of the whole system is disturbed. Ill health follows,
+the mind is centred upon the suffering body, spiritual aspiration
+ceases, and the neglected soul folds its wings and falls into the
+sleep of oblivion.
+
+But, on the other hand, one must not suppose that the adoption of
+a fruit and cereal diet will of itself induce to the development
+of the psychic powers. It will aid by removing the chief
+impediments of congestion and disease. Many good people who
+adopt this dietetic reform have a tendency to scratch one another's
+shoulder blades and expect to find their wings already sprouting.
+If it were as easy as this the complacent cow would be high up in
+the scale of spiritual aspirants.
+
+The consciousness of man works from a centre which co-ordinates
+and includes the phenomena of thought, feeling, and volition.
+This centre is capable of rapid displacement, alternating
+between the most external of physical functions and the most
+internal of spiritual operations. It cannot be active in all parts of
+our complex constitutions at one and the same moment. When
+one part of our nature is active another is dormant, as is seen in
+the waking and sleeping stages, the dream-life being in the
+middle ground between the psychic and physical. It will therefore
+be obvious that a condition in which the consciousness is held in
+bondage by the infirmities of the body is not one likely to be
+conducive to psychic development. For this reason alone many
+aspirants have been turned back from initiation. The constitution
+need not be robust, but it should at all events be free from
+disorder and pain. Some of the most ethereal and spiritual natures
+are found in association with a delicate organism. So long as the
+balance is maintained the soul is free to develop its latent powers.
+A certain delicacy of organization, together with a tendency to
+hyperaesthesia, is most frequently noted in the passive or direct
+seer; but a more robust and forceful constitution may well be
+allied to the positive type of seership.
+
+As a chronic state of physical congestion is altogether adverse to
+the development of the second sight or any other psychic faculty,
+so the temporary congestion following naturally upon a meal
+indicates that it is not advisable to sit for psychic exercise
+immediately after eating. Neither should a seance be begun when
+food is due, for the automatism of the body will naturally demand
+satisfaction at times when food is usually taken and the
+preliminary processes of digestion will be active. The best time is
+between meals and especially between tea and supper, or an hour
+after the last meal of the day, supposing it to be of a light nature.
+The body should be at rest, and duly fortified, and the mind
+should be contented and tranquil.
+
+The attitude of the would-be seer should not be too expectant or
+over-anxious about results. All will come in good time, and the
+more speedily if the conditions are carefully observed. It is
+useless to force the young plant in its growth. Take time, as
+Nature does. It is a great work and much patience may be needed.
+Nature is never in a hurry, and therefore she brings everything to
+perfection. The acorn becomes the sturdy oak only because
+Nature is content with small results, because she has the virtue of
+endurance. She is patient and careful in her beginnings, she
+nurses the young life with infinite care, and her works are
+wonderfully great and complete in their issues. Moreover, they
+endure. Whoever breathes slowest lives the longest.
+
+This statement opens up a very important matter connected with
+all psychic phenomena, and one that deserves more than casual
+notice. It has been long known to the people of the East that there
+is an intimate connection between brain and lung action, and
+modern experiment has shown by means of the spirometer that
+the systole and diastole motion of the hemispheres of the brain
+coincide exactly with the respiration of the lungs. The brain
+as the organ of the mind registers every emotion with unerring
+precision. But so also do the lungs, as a few common observations
+will prove. Thus if a person is in deep thought the breathing
+will be found to be long and regular, but if the mind is
+agitated the breathing will be short and stertorous, while if fear
+affects the mind the breathing is momentarily suspended. A
+person never breathes from the base of the lung unless his mind
+is engrossed. Hard exercise demands deep breathing and is
+therefore helpful in producing good mental reactions. It is said
+that the great preacher De Witt Talmage used to shovel gravel
+from one side of his cellar to the other as a preliminary to his fine
+elocutional efforts. It is this obvious connection between
+respiration and mental processes which is at the base of the
+system of psycho-physical culture known as _Hatha Yoga_ in
+distinction from _Raj Yoga_, which is concerned solely with
+mental and spiritual development. The two systems, which have
+of late years found frequent exposition in the New Thought
+school, are to be found in Patanjali's _Yoga sutra_. Some
+reference to the synchronous action of lung and brain will also be
+found in Dr. Tafel's translation and exposition of Swedenborg's
+luminous work on _The Brain_. In this work the Swedish seer
+frankly refers his illumination regarding the functions of the brain
+to his faculty of introspective vision or second sight, and it is of
+interest to observe that all the more important discoveries in this
+department of physiology during the last two centuries are clearly
+anticipated by him. The scientific works of this great thinker are
+far too little known by the majority, who are apt to regard him
+only as a visionary and a religious teacher.
+
+_Ad rem_. The vision is produced. The faculty of clairvoyance is
+an established fact of experience and has become more or less
+under the control of the mind. There will yet remain one or two
+difficulties connected with the visions. One is that of time
+measure, and another that of interpretation. The former is
+common to both orders of vision, the direct and the symbolic.
+The difficulty of interpretation is, of course, peculiar to the latter
+order of vision.
+
+The sensing of time is perhaps the greatest difficulty encountered
+by the seer, and this factor is often the one that vitiates an
+otherwise perfect revelation. I have known cartomantes and
+diviners of all sorts to express their doubt as to the possibility of a
+correct measure of time. Yet it is a question that follows naturally
+upon a clear prediction--When?
+
+It is sometimes impossible to determine whether a vision relates
+to the past, the present, or the future. In most cases, however, the
+seer has an intuitive sense of the time-relations of a vision which
+is borne in upon him with the vision itself. It will generally be
+observed that in ordinary mental operations the time sense is
+subject to localization, and a distinct throw of the mind will be
+experienced when speaking of the past and the future. Personally
+I find the past to be located on my left and the future on my right
+hand, but others inform me that the habit of mind, places the past
+behind and the future in front of them, while others again have
+the past beneath their feet and the future over their heads. It is
+obviously a habit of mind, and this usually inheres in the
+visionary state so that a sense of time is found to attach to all
+visions, though it cannot be relied upon to register on every
+occasion. But also it is frequently found that there is an automatic
+allocation of the visions, those that are near of fulfilment being in
+the foreground of the field, the approximate in the middle ground,
+and the distant in the background; position answering to time
+interval. In such case the vision has a certain definition or focus
+according to the degree of its proximity. These points are,
+however, best decided by empiricism, and rarely does it happen
+that the intuitive sense of the seer is at fault when allowed to have
+play.
+
+The other difficulty to which I have referred, that of interpretation
+of symbols when forming the substance of the vision, may
+be dealt with somewhat more fully. Symbolism is a universal
+language and revelation most frequently is conveyed by means
+of it. As a preliminary to the study of symbolism the student
+should read Swedenborg's _Hieroglyphical Key to Natural and
+Spiritual Mysteries_, one of the earliest of his works and
+in a great measure the foundation of his thought and teaching.
+The Golden Book of Hermes containing the twenty-two Tarots is
+open to a universal interpretation as may be seen from the works
+of the Kabalists, and in regard to their individual application may
+be regarded in a fourfold light, having reference to the spiritual,
+rational, psychic and physical planes of existence. It is by means
+of symbols that the spiritual intelligences signal themselves to
+our minds, and the most exalted vision is, as an expression of
+intelligence, only intelligible by reason of its symbolism.
+Something more may be said in regard to the interpretation of
+symbols which may possibly be of use to those who have made
+no special study of the subject, and this may conveniently form
+the material of another chapter.
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+SYMBOLISM
+
+Symbols formed the primitive language of the human race, they
+spoke and wrote in symbols. The hieroglyphic writings of the
+aborigines of Central America, of the ancient Peruvians, of the
+Mongolians, and of the ancient Copts and Hebrews all point to
+the universal use of the ideograph for the purpose of recording
+and conveying ideas.
+
+If we study the alphabets of the various peoples, we shall find in
+them clear indications of the physical and social conditions under
+which they evolved. Thus the Hebrew alphabet carries with it
+unmistakable evidence of the nomadic and simple life of those
+"dwellers in tents." The forms of the letters are derived from the
+shapes of the constellations, of which twelve are zodiacal, six
+northern and six southern. This implies a superficial intimacy
+with the heavens such as would result from a life spent in hot
+countries with little or no superstructure to shut out the view. The
+wise among them would sit beneath the stars in the cool night air
+and figure out the language of the heavens.
+
+It was God's message to mankind, and they sought not only to
+understand it but to make imitation of it. So they built an alphabet
+of forms after the pattern of things in the heavens. But when we
+come to the names of these forms or letters we come at once into
+touch with the life of the people. Thus _aleph_, an ox; _beth_, a
+tent; _daleth_, a tent-door; _lamed_, an ox-goad; _mem_, water;
+_tzadde_, a fish-hook; _quoph_, a coil of rope; _gimel_, a camel;
+_yod_, a hand; _oin_, an eye; _vau_, a hook or link; _heth_, a
+basket; _caph_, a head; _nun_, a fish; _phe_, a mouth; _shin_,
+a tooth; _resh_, a head; etc., all speaking to us of the
+ordinary things of a simple, wandering life. These symbols were
+compounded to form ideographs, as _aleph_ = a, and _lamed_ = l,
+being the first and last of the zodiacal circle, were employed for
+the name of the Creator, the reverse of these, _la_, signifying
+non-existence, negation, privation. In course of time a language
+and a literature would be evolved, but from the simple elements
+of a nomadic life. Knowledge came to them by action and the use
+of the physical sense. They had no other or more appropriate
+confession of this than is seen in the root [Hebrew letters] yedo--
+knowledge, compounded of the three symbols _yod_, _daleth_, _oin_--
+a hand, a door, an eye. The hand is a symbol of action, power,
+ability; the door, of entering, initiation; the eye, of seeing, vision,
+evidence, illumination.
+
+Hence the ideograph formed by the collation of these symbols
+signifies, opening the door to see, _i.e._ enquiry.
+
+The Chinese alphabet of forms is entirely hieroglyphic and
+symbolical in its origin, though it has long assumed a typal
+regularity. What were once curved and crude figures have
+become squared and uniform letterpress. But the names of these
+forms bring us into touch at once with the early life of the
+Mongolian race. We have, however, indications of a wider scope
+than was enjoyed by the primitive Semites, for whereas we
+find practically all the symbols of the Hebrews employed as
+alphabetical forms, we also have others which indicate artifice,
+such as _hsi_, box; _chieh_, a seal or stamp; _mien_, a roof;
+_chin_, a napkin; _kung_, a bow; _mi_, silk; _lei_, a plough, and
+many others, such as the names of metals, wine, vehicles, leather
+in distinction from hides, etc. But further, we have a mythology
+as part of the furniture of the primitive mind, the dragon and the
+spirit or demon being employed as radical symbols.
+
+Considered in regard to their origin, symbols may be defined as
+thought-forms which embody, by the association of ideas,
+definite meanings in the mind that generates them. They wholly
+depend for their significance upon the laws of thought and the
+correspondence that exists between the spiritual and material
+worlds, between the subject and object of our consciousness, the
+noumenon and phenomenon.
+
+All symbols therefore may be translated by reference to the
+known nature, quality, properties and uses of the objects they
+represent. A few interpretations of symbols actually seen in the
+mirror may serve to illustrate the method of interpretation.
+
+A foot signifies a journey, and also understanding. A mouth
+denotes speech, revelation, a message. An ear signifies news,
+information; if ugly and distorted, scandal and abuse.
+
+The sun, if shining brightly, denotes prosperity, honours, good
+health, favours.
+
+The moon when crescent denotes success, public recognition,
+increase and improvement; when gibbous, sickness, decadence,
+loss and trouble.
+
+The sun being rayless or seen through a haze denotes sickness to
+a man, some misfortune, danger of discredit. When eclipsed
+it denotes the ruin or death of a man. The moon similarly
+affected denotes equal danger to a woman. These are all natural
+interpretations and probably would be immediately appreciated.
+
+But every symbol has a threefold or fourfold interpretation and
+the nature of the enquiry or purpose for which the vision is
+sought will indicate the particular meaning conveyed. For if the
+enquiry be concerning things of the spiritual world the
+interpretation of the answering vision must be in terms of that
+world, and similarly if the question has relation to the intellectual
+or the physical worlds. Thus a pain of scales would denote in the
+spiritual sense, absolute justice; in the intellectual, judgment,
+proportion, comparison, reason; in the social, debt or obligation,
+levy, rate, or tax; and in the material, balance of forces,
+equilibrium, action and reaction. If the scales are evenly balanced
+the augury will be good and favourable to the purport of the quest,
+but if weighted unevenly it is a case of _mene, tekel, upharsin_;
+for it shows an erring judgment, an unbalanced mind, failure in
+one's obligations, injustice. A sword seen in connection with the
+scales denotes speedy judgment and retribution. This is an
+illustration of an artificial symbol.
+
+A ship is a symbol of trading, of voyaging, and is frequently used
+in the symbolical vision. If in full sail it indicates that
+communication with the spiritual world is about to be facilitated,
+that news from distant lands will come to hand, that trade will
+increase, that a voyage will be taken. If writing should appear on
+the sails it will be an additional means of enlightenment. If flying
+the pirate flag it denotes translation to another land, death. The
+land indicated may be the spiritual world itself, in which case the
+death will be natural; but if it should be a foreign country, then
+death will take place there by some unlooked-for disaster. The
+ship's sails being slack denotes a falling off of afflatus or spiritual
+influx, loss of trade, misfortune, delays and bad news, or if news
+is expected it will not come to hand.
+
+Black bread denotes a famine; spotted or mottled bread, a plague.
+This symbol was seen in June 1896, with other symbols which
+connected it with India, and there followed a great outbreak of
+bubonic plague in that country. This symbol, however, was not
+properly understood until the event came to throw light upon it.
+The following note is from a seance which took place in India in
+the spring of 1893: "A leaf of shamrock is seen. It denotes the
+United Kingdom or the Triple Alliance. It is seen to split down
+the centre with a black line. It symbolizes the breaking of a treaty.
+Also that Ireland, whose symbol is the shamrock, will be
+separated by an autonomous government from the existing
+United Kingdom and will be divided into two factions."
+
+In this way all symbols seen in the crystal or mirror may be
+interpreted by reference to their known properties and uses, as
+well as by the associations existing between them and other
+things, persons and places, in the mind of the seer. Nor is it
+always required that the scryer should understand symbology, for
+as already said, the meanings of most of the symbols will be
+conveyed to the consciousness of the seer at the time of their
+appearance in the field. Experience will continually throw new
+light upon the screen of thought, and a symbol once known will
+assume a constant signification with each seer, so that in course
+of time a language will be instituted by means of which constant
+revelations will be made.
+
+It will thus be obvious, I think, that symbolism is to a large extent
+subject to a personal colouring, so that the same symbol may, by
+different associations, convey a different meaning to various
+seers. This may arise in part from the diversities of individual
+experience, of temperament, and the order to which the soul
+belongs in the spiritual world. These dissimilarities between
+individuals may be noted from their highest intellectual
+convictions down to the lowest of their sensations, and it is
+difficult to account for it. We all have the same laws of thought
+and the same general constitution. Humanity comprehends us all
+within the bonds of a single nature. Yet despite these facts we are
+divided by differences of opinion, of emotion, of sympathy, of
+taste and faculty. It is probable that these differences obtain in
+spheres immeasurably higher than our own, the sole element of
+consent being the recognition of dependence upon a Higher
+Power. God is the co-ordinating centre in a universe of infinite
+diversity.
+
+Therefore, despite the fact that symbolism is capable of a
+universal interpretation, it would appear that the images
+projected by the magical power of the soul must have different
+significations with each of us, the meanings being in some
+mysterious way in agreement with the nature of the person who
+sees them. Hence we may come to the conclusion that every
+person must be his own interpreter, there being no universal code
+for what are peculiarly individualized messages. For although
+every symbol has a general signification in agreement with its
+natural properties and uses, it yet obtains a particular signification
+with the individual.
+
+It is within common experience with those who have regard to
+the import of dreams, wherein the faculty of seership is acting on
+its normal plane, that a dream constantly recurring is found to
+have a particular meaning, which however is not applicable to
+others who have a similar dream. Every person is a seer in dream
+life, but few pay that attention to dreams which their origin and
+nature warrant. The crystal or mirror is an artificial means of
+bringing this normal faculty of dreaming into activity in waking
+life. Those who are capable of making the dream life normal to
+the working consciousness, rise to a higher plane when they sleep.
+
+But, as stated above, the differences of import or meaning, even
+in dream life, of any particular symbol is a common experience.
+One person will dream of wading in water whenever there is
+trouble ahead. Another will dream of a naked child, and yet
+another of coal, when similar trouble is in store. Butchers' meat
+will signify financial trouble to one person, to another the same
+will denote a fortunate speculation.
+
+The controlling factor in this matter would appear to be founded
+in the mental and psychic constitution conferred by physical
+heredity and psychic tradition, converging at the conception of
+the individual and expressed in the birth. Probably an argument
+could thence be made in regard to the influence of the planets and
+the general cosmic disposition attending upon birth: I have
+frequently found that dreams may be interpreted by reference to
+the individual horoscope of birth, and if dreams, possibly also
+visions, which are but dreams brought into the field of conscious
+reality. But any such argument, however tempting, would be
+beyond the scope of this work.
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+ALLIED PSYCHIC PHASES
+
+The faculty of second sight is not by any means the most
+common of the psychic powers. Psychometric impressions which
+proceed by the sense of touch into that of a superior order of
+feeling are far more general. We are affected much more than is
+generally recognized by the impressions gathered from the things
+we have contact with, and it is quite a common experience that
+very delicate and sensitive people take the "atmosphere" of places
+into which they go. I have in mind an instance of an extremely
+high-keyed person who invariably takes on the atmosphere of
+new localities, houses and even rooms. Going to view a house
+with the object of taking it on rental, she will as likely as not
+pronounce against the moment she enters on the ground that it is
+a "house of death" or a "quarrelsome house," full of sickness,
+intemperance or what not, and wherever enquiry has been
+possible it has invariably confirmed her impressions. On one
+occasion she had telegraphed to engage a room at an hotel in a
+seaside town, and on being shown to it by the maid found that it
+was locked. While the maid went to fetch the key the young
+lady tried the door and immediately received a psychometric
+impression. "Oh, M--," she said to her companion, "we cannot
+possibly have this room, there's a corpse in it!" This was
+confirmed, almost as soon as said, by the appearance of the
+proprietor, who explained that the maid had made a mistake in
+the number of the room, and then, feeling that there was a state of
+tension, confidentially informed his visitors that the locked room
+had really been booked to them but the old lady who was to have
+vacated it that morning had unfortunately died, and in order not
+to distress the other visitors the door had been locked pending the
+removal of the body, and even the servants had not been
+informed of it.
+
+The experiments of Denton recorded in his _Soul of Things_ are
+full of interest for those who would learn something more about
+the phenomena of psychometry.
+
+The suggestion is that every particle of matter has its own aura or
+"atmosphere" in which are stored up the experiences of that
+particle. What is said of the particle applies also to the mass of
+any body, and in effect we get the aura of a room, of a house, of a
+town, of a city; and so successively until we come to that of the
+planet itself. These stored-up impressions are not caused by the
+mental action of human beings in association with the material
+psychometrized, they appertain entirely to the associations of the
+material itself, and the psychometric sense consists in recovering
+these associations and bringing them into terms of human sense
+and consciousness. The experience seems to suggest a nexus
+between the individualized human soul and the world-soul in
+which the generic life is included; also that the human soul is a
+specialized evolution from the world-soul, and hence inclusive of
+all stages of experience beneath the human. I think it was Draper
+who suggested in his _Conflict_ that a man's shadow falling upon
+a wall produced an indelible impression which was capable of
+being revived. The cinematograph film is that brick wall raised to
+the nth power of impressibility. The occultist will point you to a
+universal medium as much above the cinema film as that is above
+the brick or stone, and in which are stored up the _memoria
+mundi_. It is this sensitized envelope of the planetary atom that
+your sensitive taps by means of his clairvoyant, psychometric and
+clairaudient senses.
+
+Clairaudience is far more general than second sight, but there is
+the same variability in the range of perception as is seen in
+clairvoyance and psychometry. Thus while one hears only the
+evil suggestions of "obsessing spirits" or discarnate souls being
+dinned into his ears, another will be lifted to the third heaven and
+hear "things unutterable." Brain-cell discharges will hardly
+account for the phenomena of clairaudience. A brain-cell
+discharge never goes beyond the repetition of one's own name in
+some familiar voice, or at most the revival of a phrase or the
+monotonous clang of a neighbouring church bell. These are not
+clairaudiences at all. Clairaudience consists in receiving auditory
+impressions of intelligible phrases not previously associated with
+the name of person or place involved in the statement. These
+impressions may be sporadic or may be continuous. In the case of
+a genuine development where the interior sense is fully opened
+up, the communication will be continuous and normal, as much
+so as ordinary conversation, and the translation of consciousness
+into terms of sense will be so rapid and unimpeded as to give the
+impression to an Englishman that he is listening to his native
+language and to a Frenchman that he is listening to French,
+though the communication may proceed from a source which
+renders this impossible. The universal language of humanity is
+neither Volapuk, nor Esperanto, nor Ido. It is Thought, and when
+thought proceeds from a point beyond the plane of differentiation
+it can be determined along the line which makes for English as
+readily as that which makes for French, or any other tongue. It is
+they of the soul-world who convey the thought, it is we of the
+sublunary world who translate that thought into our own
+language. The Hebrew prophets were almost uniformly instructed
+by means of clairaudience. But as I have already said there are
+degrees of clairaudience, as of any other psychic faculty. The
+danger is that a false value may be set upon the experiences,
+especially during the early stages of development when everything
+is very new and very wonderful.
+
+Telepathy is another and yet more general phrase of psychic
+activity. It may consist in the transmission from one person to
+another of a feeling or impression merely, which results in a
+certain degree of awareness to the state of mind in which the
+transmitter may be at the time, as when a mother has a "feeling"
+that all is not well with her absent child. Or it may yet take a
+more definite and perspicuous form, even to the transmission of
+details such as the names of persons and places, of numbers,
+forms and incidents. Telepathy commonly exists between persons
+in close sympathy; and when two persons are working along
+separate lines toward the same result, it is quite usual that they
+unconsciously "telepath" with one another, their brains being for
+the time in synchronous vibration. Spiritual communication in
+any degree is nothing more or less than sympathy--those who feel
+together, think together. The modern development of the aerial
+post is a step towards the universal federation of thought, but it is
+not comparable with the astral post which carries a thousand
+miles an hour. In this sort of correspondence the communication
+is written like any ordinary letter designed for transmission, but
+instead of stamping and posting it, a lighted match is applied to
+the finished work. The material part is destroyed, but the
+intangible and only real and lasting part remains behind. This is
+attached, by the direction of the will, to a particular person and
+set in a certain direction. If all the conditions have been properly
+observed it will not fail to reach its destination. I have fortunately
+been able to demonstrate this fact in public on more than one
+occasion. The phenomenon is repeated in a less striking
+form in every case of what is called "crossing," as when one
+correspondent feels suddenly called upon to write urgently to
+another and receives a reply to his enquiries while his letter is
+still in course of delivery.
+
+Nature is full of a subtle magic of this sort for which we have no
+organized science. It is said that if you put snails together and
+afterwards separate them, placing each upon a copper ground to
+which electric wires are attached, a shock given to one snail will
+be registered by the other at the same moment. I have not tried
+this theory, but the idea is fundamental to a mass of telepathic
+observations which have found practical expression in wireless
+telegraphy. Some thirty years ago, however, I made trial of the
+twin magnet theory and was entirely successful in getting
+wireless messages from one room to another. The performance
+was, however, clumsy and tedious, and I did not then know
+enough to see how it could be perfected. The idea is now in the
+very safe custody of the Patents Office.
+
+Community of taste can be demonstrated under hypnosis. It is not
+otherwise usually active in sensitives, and Swedenborg was
+hence of opinion that the sense of taste could not be obsessed.
+This, however, is incorrect. I have illustrated community of all
+the senses under hypnosis in circumstances which entirely
+precluded the possibility of feint or imposition on the part of the
+subject.
+
+Another phase of psychic activity is that illustrated in "dowsing"
+or water-finding by means of the hazel fork. It may be accounted
+a form of hyperaesthesia and no doubt has a nervous expression,
+but it is not the less psychic in its origin. I have already referred
+to the action of water upon psychic sensitives, and there seems
+little room for doubt that it is the psychometric sense which, by
+means of the self-extensive faculty inhering in consciousness,
+registers the presence of the great diamagnetic agent. Professor
+Barrett has written a most interesting monograph on this subject,
+and there are many books extant which make reference to and
+give examples of this curious phenomenon. The late British
+Consul at Trieste and famous explorer and linguist, Sir Richard
+Burton, could detect the presence of a cat at a considerable
+distance, and I have heard that Lord Roberts experiences the
+same paralyzing influence by the proximity of the harmless feline.
+If, therefore, one can register the presence of a cat, and another
+that of a dead body, I see no difficulty in others registering water
+or any other antipathetic. All we have to remember is that these
+things are psychic in their origin, and not ignorantly confound
+sensation with consciousness, or hyperaesthesia with the various
+psychopathic faculties we have been discussing. But it is
+necessary to return to our main subject and consider where our
+developed clairvoyant or second-sight faculty will lead us, and
+what sort of experience we may expect to gain by its use. These
+points may now be dealt with.
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+EXPERIENCE AND USE
+
+First let us have the facts, we can then best see what use we can
+make of them. This I think is the correct position in regard to any
+abnormal claim that is made upon our attention. Everybody has
+heard of the prophecies of the Brahmin seer, most people
+have some acquaintance with the phenomena attending the
+clairvoyance of the seeress of Prevorst, while the experiences of
+Emanuel Swedenborg have been set forth in many biographies,
+but in none more lucidly and dispassionately than that by William
+White. Traditions have come to us concerning the clairvoyance of
+the Greek exponent of the Pythagorean teachings, Apollonius of
+Tyana, and the case of Cavotte, who predicted his own death and
+that of Robespierre and others by the guillotine, is on record. The
+illumination of Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie seer,
+and that of Thomas Lake Harris of Fountain Grove, are modern
+examples of abnormal faculty of a nature which places them
+outside the field of direct evidence. A prophecy made from the
+use of the super-sense which is followed by exact fulfilment
+appears to be the best criterion, though it is a very imperfect
+illustration of the scope of clairvoyance.
+
+The following instances are within my personal experience, and
+being already on record and well attested, will serve equally to
+illustrate the fact of clairvoyance as would numerous others
+within my knowledge.
+
+In June, 1896, a lady visited me in Manchester Square and, being
+anxious on several points, asked that I would scry for her. A blue
+beryl was used as agent. She was told that she would have news
+from a tropical country concerning the birth of a child, a boy,
+who would arrive in the following year in the month of February.
+That on a certain date while travelling she would meet with an
+accident to the right leg. Previous to this, in October she would
+have a welcome surprise connected with papers and a contest in
+which her son was engaged.
+
+Now here was a network of disaster for any would-be prophet
+who relied upon what is called the "lucky shot." If we enumerate
+the items of prediction, on any of which a fatal error could have
+been made, we shall find a very formidable list:--
+
+    A tropical country.
+    A birth.
+    A boy then unborn.
+    February, 1897.
+    A journey on a particular date.
+    The right leg.
+    The son.
+    October.
+    Papers.
+
+At least nine points on which the faculty could have been wholly
+at fault. The fulfilment, however, came in due course. The lady
+heard that her sister, then vicereine of India, was about to have a
+child, and in February, 1897, a son was born to Lord Elgin. In
+October the lady referred to was agreeably surprised to learn that
+her son had passed his examination for the military college with
+honours. Further, while boarding a train at Victoria station she
+had the misfortune to slip between the platform and the footboard,
+so that the shin of the right leg was badly damaged and severe
+muscular strain was also suffered, in consequence of which she
+was laid up for several days.
+
+Mrs. H. was consulted by an authoress, her profession being
+unknown to the scryer. She was told that she would go up a dingy
+staircase with a roll of papers under her arm; that she would see a
+dark man, thickset and of quiet demeanour. He would take the
+roll of papers and it would be a source of good fortune to her.
+The prediction was literally fulfilled.
+
+The first case cited is an example of the positive and symbolic
+type of vision; the second being of the passive and direct type.
+
+Mrs. A. was consulted by a lady of the writer's acquaintance and
+was told that she would not marry the man to whom she was then
+engaged as there was a certain other person, described, coming
+across the seas to claim her. She would meet him three years later
+in the month of January.
+
+The event transpired exactly as stated, though nothing at that time
+appeared less probable, and indeed the lady was not a little irate
+at the allusion to the breaking off of the engagement and of
+marrying a man whom she had never seen and for whom she
+could have no sort of regard. In fact, the whole revelation was
+very revolting to one so wholly absorbed as was she at the time.
+It cannot be argued that this was a case of suggestion working
+itself out, for one cannot auto-suggest the arrival of a person
+of a particular description from a distant land to one's own
+drawing-room at any time, and there is here a prediction as
+to the date which was duly fulfilled. This was a case of direct
+vision.
+
+Mrs. G. consulted a seer on September 27, 1894. She was told
+she would have sickness affecting the loins and knees; that she
+would be the owner of a house in the month of December; that a
+removal would be made when the trees were leafless; that there
+would be a dispute about a sum of money.
+
+This is positive or symbolical clairvoyance. The symbols seen
+were as follow: a figure with a black cloth about the loins, the
+figure stooping and resting the hands upon its knees. A house
+covered with snow, bare trees around it. A bird on a leafless
+branch; the bird flies away. Several hands seen grabbing at a pile
+of money.
+
+All the predictions were fulfilled.
+
+Interpretations of symbols when made during the vision are
+frequently far removed from what one would be led to expect.
+But we have to remember that the seer is then in a psychologized
+state, and there is reason to believe that interpretations made from
+the inner plane of consciousness are due to the fact that the
+symbols appear in a different light. Our ordinary dreams
+follow the same change. While asleep we are impressed by the
+importance and logical consistency of the dream incident, which
+assumes, possibly, the proportions of a revelation, but which
+dissolves into ridiculous triviality and nonsense as soon as we
+awake. The reason is that there is a complete hiatus between the
+visionary and the waking state of consciousness, and even the
+laws of thought appear to undergo a change as the centre of
+consciousness slides down from the inner to the outer world of
+thought and feeling.
+
+In the Eastern conception the three states of _jagrata_, waking,
+_swapna_, dreaming, and _sushupti_, sleeping, are penetrated by
+the thread of consciousness, the _sutratma_, a node of complete
+unconsciousness separating one state from the next. The centre of
+consciousness, like a bead on the thread, alternates between the
+three states as it is impelled by desire or will.
+
+[Illustration of the three states of jagrata]
+
+I have known sickness predicted, both as to time and nature of
+the malady; the receipt of unexpected letters and telegrams with
+indications of their contents and resulting incident; changes,
+voyages, business transactions, deaths, and even changes in the
+religious views of individuals, all by means of the crystal vision.
+
+It sometimes happens that the visionary state is induced by
+excessive emotion during which the prophetic faculty is
+considerably heightened. Some temperaments on the other hand
+will fall into the clairvoyant condition when engaged in deep
+thought. The thread of thought seems suddenly to be broken, and
+there appears a vision wholly unconnected with the subject but a
+moment ago absorbing the mind. It is as if the soul, while probing
+the depths of its inner consciousness, comes into contact with the
+thin partition which may be said to divide the outer world of
+reason and doubt from the inner world of intuition and direct
+perception, and breaking through, emerges into the light beyond.
+In trance there is generally a development of other super-senses,
+such as clairaudience and psychic touch, as well as clairvoyance.
+Examples might be multiplied and would but serve to show that
+the rapport existing between the human soul and the world soul,
+the individual consciousness and the collective consciousness, is
+capable of being actively induced by recourse to appropriate
+means and developed where it exists in latency by means of the
+crystal, the black concave mirror or other suitable agent. As yet,
+however, the majority are wholly ignorant of the existence of
+such psychic faculties, and even those who possess them are
+conscious of having but an imperfect control of them.
+
+As in the case of genius where nature is opening up new centres
+of activity in the mind, the casual observer notes an eccentricity
+hardly distinguishable from some incipient forms of insanity; so
+the development of new psychic faculties is frequently attended
+by temporary loss of control over the normal brain functions.
+Loss of memory, hysteria, absent-mindedness, unconscious
+utterance of thought, illusions, irritability, indifference,
+misanthropy and similar perversions are not infrequent products
+of the preliminary stages of psychic development. These,
+however, will pass away as the new faculty pushes through into
+full existence. Nature is jealous of her offspring and concentrates
+the whole of her forces when in the act of generation, and that is
+the reason of her apparent neglect of powers and functions,
+normally under her control, while the evolution of a new faculty
+is in process. Let it be understood therefore that the faculty of
+clairvoyance or any other super-sense is not to be artificially
+developed without some cost to those who seek it. "The universe
+is thine; take what thou wilt, but pay the price," says Emerson.
+This is the divine mandate. It is not merely a question of the price
+of a crystal or a mirror, the sacrifice of time, the exercise of
+patience: it may mean something much more than this. It is a
+question of the price of a new faculty. What is it worth to you?
+That is the price you will be required to pay. And with this
+equation in mind the reader must consider the use to which, when
+obtained, he will apply his faculty; for the virtue of everything is
+in its use. It is reasonable to presume that one's daily life can
+supply the true answer. To what use are we employing the
+faculties we already have, all of them acquired with as much pain
+and suffering, it may be, as any new ones we are ever likely to
+evolve? If we are using these faculties for the benefit of the race
+we shall employ others that are higher to even greater effect. In
+other case it is not worth the effort of acquiring, nor is it likely
+that anybody of a radically selfish nature will take the trouble to
+acquire it. Natural selection is the fine sieve which the gods use
+in their prospecting. The gross material does not go through.
+
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+The foregoing short treatise will gain some practical value by a
+statement of the conditions most suitable for scrying.
+
+A diffused natural light, preferably from the north, is always
+better than an artificial light.
+
+The subject should sit with his back to the source of light, at a
+distance from the mirror determined by its focus; or if the agent
+be a crystal it should be held in the hands, one supporting the
+other.
+
+Steady gazing in complete silence should be maintained for a
+quarter of an hour, which may be afterwards gradually extended
+to half or even a full hour. Success depends largely upon
+idiosyncrasy and temperamental aptitude. Seers are often to be
+found among men and women of imperfect education owing to
+fitness of temperament; seers of this order are born with the
+faculty. Others, seemingly non-sensitive at first, may develop the
+faculty after a few short sittings.
+
+The eyes should not be strained, but the gaze should be allowed
+to rest casually yet steadily on the agent as if one were reading a
+book.
+
+It will be found that the sight is presently drawn inwards to a
+focus beyond the surface of the agent. This opening up of the
+field of vision is the symptom of success. The next step is
+indicated by a change in the atmosphere of the field. Instead of
+reflecting or remaining translucent, the agent will appear to cloud
+over. This will appear to become milky, then to be diffused with
+colour which changes to black or murky brown, and finally the
+screen appears to be drawn away, revealing a picture, a scene,
+figures in action, symbolical forms, sentences, etc.
+
+The physiological symptoms are: first, a slight chill along the
+spine like cold water trickling from the neck downwards;
+secondly, a returning flush of heat from the base of the spine
+upwards to the crown of the head; thirdly, a gaping or spasmodic
+action of the brain; and lastly, a deep inward drawing of the
+breath, as if sobbing. When these symptoms follow closely upon
+one another, vision will be assured. It generally happens,
+however, that the various symptoms are separately developed by
+repeated sittings, only appearing in proper sequence when the
+experiment is finally successful.
+
+One of the most interesting phases of this development of second
+sight is the opening up of lost impressions, the revival of lapsed
+memories; "looking for one thing, you find another" is an
+experience in daily life which has a psychological application.
+The things which pass into the limbo of forgetfulness are never
+lost to us. They remain stored up in latency and are ready to
+spring into activity as soon as the depths of the mind are probed.
+Necessarily this experience is more generally interesting than
+pleasant, but it serves to give one a sense of the connectedness of
+life's incident and to show a certain sequential necessity in the
+course of events. The "whyness" of our various experiences is
+revealed when they are displayed in their true relations and given
+their true value in the scheme of individual evolution. As
+detached experiences they appear without reason or purpose,
+apparently futile, often painful and even cruel; but as a
+consecutive scheme, completed by the revival of all the
+connecting links, the wisdom, justice, kindness and beneficence
+of the Great Arbiter of our destinies are fully and conspicuously
+revealed. My own first suspicions of a former embodied existence
+were derived from psychic experiences, and later on were
+confirmed by the course of events. I saw myself reaping that
+which I had sown, and I observed that what was sown in ignorance
+might be reaped in the light of a fuller knowledge; only
+we must henceforth be wise in the sowing. I would say in
+conclusion that it is the duty of man to himself and humanity not
+only to hold himself in readiness, but also to fit himself for the
+reception of new light. Since evolution is the law of life and the
+glory of going on man's highest guerdon, and since we are all
+candidates for responsibility, asking as reward for work well
+done to-day a task of greater magnitude on the morrow, it appears
+that the development of the psychic faculties may well form an
+orderly step in the process of human perfectibility, and help to
+bring us nearer to the source of all good. If it serves only to keep
+open the door between the two worlds it will have filled a good
+purpose, and if in the writing of this little exposition, I may have
+contributed to the confidence and security of any who may
+adventure these obscure paths, I shall be well content.
+
+
+
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