diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 4 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75900-0.txt | 4926 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75900-h/75900-h.htm | 5514 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75900-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 814703 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 75900-h/images/i_f003.png | bin | 0 -> 7732 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
7 files changed, 10457 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/75900-0.txt b/75900-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f60aa84 --- /dev/null +++ b/75900-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4926 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75900 *** + + +Transcriber’s Note. + +Italic text is indicated with _underscores_, bold text with =equals=. +Small/mixed capitals have been replaced with ALL CAPITALS. + + + + + THE ADVENTURES OF A MODERN OCCULTIST + + BY OLIVER BLAND + + [Illustration: decoration] + + NEW YORK + + DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY + + 1920 + + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1920 + BY DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, INC. + + =The Quinn & Boden Company= + + BOOK MANUFACTURERS + RAHWAY NEW JERSEY + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +The individual who deals with the by-paths and mysteries of that great +Science which we term loosely Occultism, courts neither personal +notoriety nor publicity for the strange proceedings in which he plays a +part. + +I have always been an energetic student of psychic matters, drawn +thereto by the possession of certain unusual gifts with which Nature +has endowed me. (Throughout the history of mankind there have always +been a certain number of individuals who have kept alive the sacred +fire and held the secret keys of many mysteries, and from time to time +an advance in general human knowledge or in an applied art or science +has revealed to the vulgar some small part of the outer mysteries that +have always been known to the initiates. These disclosures are hailed +as discoveries and set in their ordered place in the catalogue of human +knowledge.) + +There are in this book certain disclosures of hidden facts which are +given to the world simply because the time is ripe when they should be +more fully known and their revelation is counselled by wisdom. + +Human nature has always suffered from its lack of discrimination +between Prophets and False Prophets, and one of the greatest +difficulties that besets the Occultist is to know what is safe to +reveal. It is for this reason that secrets are hidden from the vulgar +and the charlatan, for these things must be hidden lest they are turned +to base ends. + +The revival of deep public interest in psychic matters is only a matter +of time, and then those things which have been of absorbing interest to +the few will become of vital interest to the many. + +The following chapters are simply transcripts of some of the +astoundingly interesting matters which have been reposing for years in +my diaries and note-books. + +They have been set out in conventional narrative form with no great +changes except of names and places and the elimination of the rather +involved scientific terminology of the psychologist and the laboratory. +In these days when men are turning from the crude materialism of the +nineteenth century and the true scientist is the last person to deny +the realities which were deemed mythical a few short years ago, they +may serve to fill a certain need. + +An interest in Occultism is common to most people, but a deep study +of its principles and its phenomena is attainable only by the few. It +is not advisable to seek transcendental experiences without a sound +working knowledge of the root-springs of these phenomena, and one of +the purposes of this volume is to render invaluable assistance to those +who possess psychic gifts in greater or lesser degree. + +The Spiritualist, the Theosophist, and the student of Psychic Research +will all find in these pages much to interest them and much to ponder. +It throws light in some of the dark places which have seemed obscure +to those of the modern schools of thought who have not studied ancient +knowledge. + +As it is impossible to expound an infinite mass of fact within the +limits of a slender volume, I have added footnotes here and there which +will direct any interested reader to further sources of information +than my condensed text affords, but the purpose of the book is directed +to the general reader rather than to the student or specialist who will +doubtless know more than these pages can tell him. + + OLIVER BLAND. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + I. THE DEAD RAPPER 1 + + II. THE AUTOMATIST 17 + + III. ASTRAL LIGHT AND PSYCHO-LASTROMETER 36 + + IV. AN EXPERIMENT ON THE THEORY OF PROTECTIVE VIBRATION 56 + + V. SEX IN THE NEXT WORLD 76 + + VI. THE REALITY OF SORCERY 93 + + VII. INCENSE AND OCCULTISM 117 + + VIII. BEASTS AND ELEMENTALS 141 + + IX. POSSESSION 157 + + X. SOME NEW FACTS AND THEORIES 171 + + XI. ORIENTAL OCCULTISM 194 + + + + + “_Read not to contradict and confute, + not to believe and take for granted + ... but to weigh and consider._” + + _Bacon’s Essays._ + + + + + CHAPTER I + + THE DEAD RAPPER + + +I had known Harry Carthew as a second-year man at Oxford. He never +completed his course or took a degree because family reasons, some +catastrophe of some kind or another--made it imperative for him +to earn a living at once. As an undergraduate he was an ardent +anti-Spiritualist. + +He dropped out of sight of our little world and I had only heard of him +casually as having something to do with oil wells in Mexico and had not +come into contact with him for years. I was therefore rather surprised +to receive a letter from him which showed that he was in London and +knew that I was working on research subjects. His letter was couched in +rather non-committal terms, and though he was a man whom I had never +known well, he expressed an anxiety to meet me again and lay before me +certain psychical problems that were puzzling him. + +I make it an invariable rule never to discuss psychic matters with +people who are ignorant or sceptical of them, unless the sceptics are +of a class sufficiently educated to be able to appreciate the absolute +facts of the phenomena associated with Spiritualism. + +It is impossible to convince a non-scientific person by facts, as +he can never assure himself that the possibility of fraud has been +absolutely eliminated. A scientist or an engineer can assure himself +fairly easily of the genuineness or otherwise of phenomena provided +that he is given every latitude for research. But it is difficult to +convince either a clergyman or an ordinary medical man of the reality +of any psychic phenomena because he is not mentally trained in the +same inexorably logical processes of thought as are the engineers and +scientists. + +Experience has taught me to mistrust the man who approaches with +indirect advances to the subject of Spiritualism. I prefer the +definite challenge of a critical journalist who demands facts and +judges on facts, for it is undoubtedly an axiom that the Seeker after +Truth, however sceptical he may be, has no hostile influence in a +properly constituted circle. + +It has ever been a matter of regret to me that the mass of +Spiritualists hold the fallacious idea that a sceptical influence can +hinder a séance. For it is not the lack of belief or disbelief of the +one or few sceptics that weakens the influence. It is the mass belief +of the whole circle in the hostile influence of the sceptic that does +the harm. + +After thinking matters over I decided that it might be wrong to +prejudice Carthew by his undergraduate views. After all, some years +had passed, and if every Oxford man held to the eccentric habits and +beliefs of his puppy days the world would be a sorry place. I wrote to +him asking him to dine with me at my club during the following week. + +He had changed so much that when he entered the smoking room I did not +recognize him. Tropical sunlight had bronzed and wrinkled his skin, his +eyes had the clear hard steel-grey fadedness of the blue iris that +comes to men who have gazed long across deserts. Malaria had thinned +down his form and his hands were big-veined and tremulous with quinine. + +Over the meal he told me a good deal about his life abroad, and I +realized something of the deadly loneliness of a white man’s life in +the dull oil fields of Mexico. Four other whites to speak to and for +the rest native peons, Indians and a sprinkling of Chinese coolies. + +A bottle of good wine is a splendid lubricant for the human tongue, and +the Burgundy--a “Clos du Poi,” ’84--soon eased him of all awkwardness. +Over the coffee and cigars he came to his point. + +“You still go on with Spiritualism, don’t you, Grey?” + +“Yes,” I answered him, “but I thought that you did not believe in it.” +His answer almost shocked me with its violence. + +“God! but I wish that I did not!” He was silent with emotion for a +moment, then resumed: “You know I never believed in it at the House. I +always thought you fellows were simply running it as a craze, but up +at Los Chicharras--that was the third big oil gusher that the Company +owned--there was a Cornish mining engineer, Bill Tregarthen. + +“He was a queer fish, a silent man; squat-shaped, broad as he was long +and full of queer fancies. He had a little planchette board that he +used to consult about everything, and I have seen him sit there in the +patio of the office building with the little jigger dancing about over +reams of paper. + +“I thought he was crazy, but he persuaded me to try the thing, _and I +got messages, too_. One day it spelt out a message from Ellen, and +Ellen has been dead for four years--she was my old nurse--Ellen---- + +“Even then I was only half convinced. One’s brain plays one strange +tricks down there in the Tierra Caliente, and I have seen an upturned +mountain standing on its head in the desert--mirage of course, and I +used to think the planchette mental mirage, subconscious stuff of some +kind--and I didn’t believe. + +“Then Tregarthen used to laugh at me for a fool, and one night he +blazed up into a strange bit of rage and stood there in the moonlight +shaking his fist at me. ‘We Cornish folk have known the unwrit lore for +all time,’ said he. ‘Old odd people we are and we know old odd things. +I tell you. I will tell you that I am right when I am dead. You will +not listen to me now, but you shall listen then, indeed.’ + +“Lots of the stuff he raved at us that night, but I and another man at +last calmed him down and got him off to bed. I thought little enough of +it at the time, and a week later I went back from Los Chicharras to the +Offices at Tampico. + +“I suppose it was a month later that I heard the first knock. It was +past midday, right in the heart of the siesta hour. Not a soul moving, +the very dogs silent in the streets, and the whole place a blinding +blaze of sunlight. + +“I knew at once--that’s the odd thing about it. _I knew instantly in +my heart that Tregarthen was dead._ + +“That was six months ago, and since then I keep on hearing the raps. +I know that Tregarthen is keeping his pledge, but I cannot answer him +back; I cannot get into touch with him. + +“Now tell me this--with all your knowledge of these things, can you +help me?” + +I asked him what he had done, and he told me a long chronicle of visits +to mediums in New York, of an attempt to talk through a voodoo woman +in New Orleans, and of honest, patient sittings in a little suburban +circle in London. + +Carthew was clearly desperate and absolutely in earnest. I knew without +his telling me what was at the back of his mind. + +The problem was a peculiar one, for here was a live man to all intents +haunted by a malicious spirit now on another plane. Carthew’s character +was a strong one, though of a low and violent type. This mental +persecution had produced a prodigious feeling of hatred for the dead +man--a feeling of hatred that had not existed when he was alive, for +then the hatred was all on Tregarthen’s side. + +There was also the possibility that the knock was pure hallucination +and not a genuine clairaudient phenomenon at all. + +I asked Carthew if he could give me particulars of how Tregarthen died, +and I was not surprised to learn that his end had been a violent one. + +A small oil gusher had broken out as an offshoot from the larger one. +In order to cut off the flow and waste of oil it is the practice to +force a dynamite cartridge into these small leads. This when exploded +breaks the natural channel of the oil and blocks the outlet. + +Tregarthen, through an accident or carelessness--he was a deep +drinker--had destroyed himself when preparing the charge. + +I asked Carthew if he was prepared to attend a séance or two and if +he would put himself completely in my hands. He assented readily, +reasserting his dominant desire to be able to talk back to Tregarthen. + +I was holding private séances twice a week then, but my little circle +was, though powerful enough for research work, quite unsuitable for +dealing with an abnormal case of undesired communication. During +the week I got into touch with a private medium whose faculty of +clairaudience was coupled with an excellent nervous system, and I +reinforced the circle by the addition of Dr. Miller,[1] who, though +not a professed Spiritualist, is no sceptic concerning occult phenomena +and is admittedly one of the most successful practitioners of curative +psychology that we have to-day. + +A few days later Carthew came to my chambers in the Temple and was +introduced to the members of the circle. I placed him on the left-hand +contact side of the medium and lowered the lights. + +The medium engaged in this case was under double controls, one a spirit +called “Louis,” the other a rather elusive and intermittent control +that answered to the name of “Montecatini.” + +The trance state was entered almost immediately and “Louis” took +control. I asked him to find Tregarthen and he showed considerable +reluctance, insisting that he was “not there.” The control “Louis” +was then dispossessed by “Montecatini,” who answered in an entirely +different voice and showed a distinct and separate personality. + +“I can find him,” said Montecatini, and almost on the echo of the words +a distinct audible rap came from the ceiling of the room. + +Carthew recognized it instantly and flinched as if it were a personal +blow at him. + +“Have you got Tregarthen there?” I asked. + +“No, they won’t let him come here,” was the answer. + +“Why won’t they let him come?” + +“Afraid of him.” + +“Who is it rapping, then?” + +“It’s a sent rap for somebody. I didn’t do it.” + +“Who is the rap for?” + +“For the brown man.” (Carthew was sunburnt.) + +“He wants to speak to the spirit who sends it.” + +“He can’t, it’s from a bad spirit.” + +“But you said you could find Tregarthen.” + +“I have found him, but I can’t bring him.” + +“Why not?” + +“He is too heavy.” + +“What do you mean?” + +“Too heavy--too low down--too much hatred.” + +“Can’t Louis help you bring him?” + +This was answered after a pause by the voice of Louis. + +“We will try if you all help--but the brown man is hindering us.” + +I then determined to break the circle and set Carthew on a chair +outside. “If you want to get through to Tregarthen,” I told him, “you +must subdue that hatred of yours. I am going to try for Tregarthen by +the direct voice method.” + +I placed an ordinary gramophone trumpet on a light table within the +circle, then we rejoined hands and concentrated. + +“Can you get Tregarthen now?” I asked. + +“Yes, he is coming--but he doesn’t want to come.” + +“I want him to speak to us through the trumpet,” I told them. + +Almost immediately there were three knocks on the table close by the +trumpet. Then the voice came out of the trumpet, not out of the medium, +but it was the voice of Montecatini. + +“He’s a bad spirit and he won’t talk,” said the control. + +“Ask him if he knows who’s here?” + +“Carthew!” blared the trumpet _in the voice of Tregarthen_. + +I heard the crash of Carthew’s chair falling back as he rose, and then +his words: + +“Tregarthen--at last!” + +The trumpet chuckled at him, a hard sardonic chuckle, and it was a +dreadful thing to hear. + +“Stop that, Tregarthen,” I said sharply. “Now listen to me. You must +stop sending these knocks. You have proved to Carthew that you were +right, and for the future there is no sense in it.” + +Again the trumpet began to chuckle. + +“I want Carthew--here,” said the voice of Tregarthen. “I want him to +keep me company where I am now.” + +The medium began to writhe uneasily, and I suddenly realized that +something dangerous had happened. The two normal controls, “Louis” +and “Montecatini,” whom we had sent to fetch Tregarthen’s spirit, had +disappeared _and Tregarthen himself had taken over control_. +Something of a spirit of uneasiness and a general sense of danger began +to spread through the circle. + +I called to Carthew to come into the circle again and to cross his +hands, grasping my wrist and Miller’s, so as not to break the chain +when entering. + +“Now man!” I told him, “here is your chance. We have Tregarthen here, +and we will help you all we can. You must fight him with the whole of +your will-power. Defy him, raise him to anger, and at the crucial point +I will do something which will destroy his power over you for ever! +Now!” + +Carthew’s grip burnt into my wrists as he took hold of himself, and +then all the bitter, dominant hatred that was in the man flamed out. + +He stood in the circle towering above us on our chairs and he poured +into that trumpet a breadth of bilingual Spanish and English invective +that would have led to murder anywhere. + +He paused for breath and from the trumpet came no chuckle, but a +spluttering, stammering, furious attempt to reply. I had no need to +prompt him to go on. He laced into his ghostly antagonist as if he had +the earthly body there in front of him. All the pent-up hatred of the +past months winged his words. The consciousness of his torment made his +quarrel just, and at the height of his peroration I concentrated the +whole of my psychic energies and made the four exorcism signs of the +martinist ritual, bidding Tregarthen begone, never to return and never +to be able to send a rap, and instantly broke the circle. I then roused +the medium from the trance with a couple of simple passes. + +The reaction from the violence of the séance left us all spent and +shaken. The medium recovered, remembering nothing, but feeling +unusually exhausted. Later experiments with her showed that the +domination by the Tregarthen control was purely temporary and that +“Louis” and “Montecatini” had reasserted command. + +My own opinion is that nothing but the intense “hate concentration” of +Carthew toward his ghostly antagonist could have enabled Tregarthen to +assume control at all. + +It was a duel of wills between the living and the dead, fought over the +narrow no-man’s land of the earth and spirit planes, and I am not sure +that it was not a duel which ended fatally for the soul of Tregarthen. +Carthew at any rate was free of all trouble afterwards, but wild horses +could not drag him to a séance. + +Miller was more convinced by this astonishing séance than by far more +material phenomena that he had seen. The following day, though, he sent +me an explanation of the whole affair argued out on his own lines. He +held that Carthew was the subject of an obsession and that the whole +of the phenomena were due to subconscious hypnotism of the medium +alternatively by me as a believer in Spiritualism and by Carthew. + +The direct voice he ascribed to unconscious or subconscious +ventriloquism by the medium, and he pointed out that the words uttered +by Tregarthen were precisely what one would expect Carthew to say if +Carthew were in Tregarthen’s place. In other words, we were present at +an amazing duel between Carthew’s conscious mind and an obsession of +his subconscious mind that had built itself into a malignant identity. + +It is interesting as a psychological theory, but in point of fact I +hold it to be entirely wrong. We argued it out a good deal together, +but experiments in psychic science can seldom be repeated, and, as +I say, Carthew refused to submit to any further attempt to evoke +Tregarthen. + +As a man I sympathize with him, and he was really very grateful to +us--but as a scientist I would have liked to try again in order to +attempt to convince Miller. + + + FOOTNOTE: + +[1] All names of people and places have been changed, but Dr. Miller’s +cures of “shell shock” during the war have shown that one’s estimate of +his powers was perfectly correct. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + THE AUTOMATIST + + +A well-known psychic investigator once jokingly complained to me that +the telephone service of the spirit world seemed to be as unreliable +and badly damaged as that of Great Britain. Certainly, communication is +often freakish and intermittent, and the ethical value of the teachings +received at great length and painstakingly transcribed is often +completely valueless. + +It must be remembered that we who are conducting research in psychic +matters have a poor range of instruments or tools to work with. There +must inevitably be the human medium, and long experience has taught me +that in the case of automatic writing one must be prepared to recognize +the intrusion of the medium’s own thought-processes into the record +received from the spirit world. + +That these interpolated writings are conscious frauds by the mediums +we can unhesitatingly deny, but they appear to be either unconscious +records of the medium’s own thoughts or else the re-transmitted +subconscious thought-processes of the medium echoed back by the control. + +I have hopes that in the future we shall be able to devise an appliance +for the recording of automatic writing in which the function of the +medium will be purely that of a bridge between the two planes and in +which the physical act of writing will be mechanically performed.[2] + +The difficulty in automatic writing lies in the association of ideas, +and one word written by a planchette or spelt out by an ouija traverser +leads to the stimulation of a train of thought in the subconscious mind +even though the conscious brain may be in the trance state. + +The difficulty is to piece together what can be termed the true spirit +messages out of the mass of pseudo-communications that surround them. +The analysis of the familiar examples of “cross-correspondence” are a +valuable guide in the complexities that are involved in the question. + +A popular idea of the difficulty of communication can be gained by +imagining a man in a telephone exchange in London trying to talk to +Newcastle. He can go from instrument to instrument and speak through, +but all the instruments keep on going out of order, so that only +disconnected fragments of communication pass over one wire. + +This would not matter if the person with whom he wishes to talk +were also in an exchange at Newcastle. He, too, could pass to other +instruments, but we must imagine the mortal recipient of spirit +messages as a subscriber with only one defective instrument.[3] + +Difficult as the subject of automatic writing is, it is from these +writings that the Spiritualist conception of life in the next world is +gleaned. + +Many a student has found eloquent, fluent, and convincing description +of the life beyond the veil flow from his pen when the spirit controls +were working well. Other writers have had accounts of terrors beyond +the veil: shocking and astonishing revelations of new concepts of +evil, exotic violences of the soul, and even direct incitements to the +commission of criminal acts in this plane. + +Spiritualists are accustomed to divide these spirits into classes of +good and bad, and it has been assumed on all too slender grounds that +only the “good” spirits tell the truth about the other planes. + +There are bad and lying spirits, just as there are wicked and +untruthful men, but latterly there has been a distinct tendency +to suppress all mention of the bad communicators and to attempt +the organization of Spiritualist and psychic investigation as an +unorthodox ascending sect organized as a distinct church or religious +body. This tendency would be fatal to the progress of occult +investigation. + +The professional mediums, on the other hand, realize that to attain +financial success, organization, and the establishment of a mediumistic +hierarchy is essential. Bad spirits are bad business and it is bad form +to mention them outside certain circles. + +Any investigator of experience will recognize at once that the spirits +of suicides are frequent communicators to private research circles, +private automatists and others, but it is an undeniable fact that in +public circles our leading exponents now never admit that any of the +spirits who communicate have been anything but mortals whose end was +normal, or more recently, those who were killed in battle. + +There is more in Spiritualism than the mere assurance to inquiries +that life on the other side is very beautiful, that vocations similar +to those on earth are followed there and that there is a steady upward +progression. + +These things dominate the minds of a certain section of the English +Spiritualists, and their tacit negation of the other darker side of +the revelations is entirely contrary to French, Russian, and certain +Latin-American schools of thought. + +The history of all religions and analysis of their tenets reveal one +great outstanding fact. There has always been an element of fear and +terror connected with all conceptions of the after-life. There is +nothing in revealed Spiritualism to suggest that abstract justice is +more prevalent on the next plane than on this imperfect earth. The +very fact of the admitted existence of bad and evil spirits capable of +malice, is in itself fatal to the bed of rose-leaves theories. + +In science it is the abnormal properties of a new gas, compound, or +element that lead scientists to study it, so in the realm of psychic +science it is only through close study of the abnormal that we can +attain to any clear idea of the normal. + +It has been cast at me as a reproach that I have pursued vain and +extraordinary paths of research, not disdaining to delve into dark +secrets of occultist ritual whose proceedings would be unorthodox +and blasphemous if laid bare to the orthodox and anæmic Spiritualist +circles of Balham. + +Yet Shamonnism is Spiritualism, and the old schools of sorcery and +art magic held psychic secrets that are still reproducible but yet +inexplicable in these twentieth-century days. + +One of the most wonderful automatists I ever met was the late Jules +Carrier. A tall, spare figure, black-bearded, aquiline-nosed, vividly +pale in complexion, he had dark hazel eyes with brown mottled rings +about the pupil that suggested in a vague way something feline or +leopard-like. + +I met him quite by chance in a bookshop in the Rue de Valenciennes +whose proprietor had written to me about some curious early +nineteenth-century manuscripts that had come into his possession. + +These books consisted of some rather commonplace manuscripts of certain +philosophical transactions dealing with occult phenomena. Paris in the +early thirties of the last century was seamed with secret organizations +devoted to scientific and political studies. The great impulse of +the Revolution had produced in turn Napoleon and then the Bourbon +reaction. The strong arm of the clerical party drove the philosophers +underground, and only from time to time can one find these peculiar +archives of occultist activity in odd booksellers’ shops and the +libraries of students. + +The proprietor of the shop knew my interest in these matters and had +before been at pains to secure me certain personal souvenirs from his +library of Eliphas Levi,[4] so whenever an odd “Grimoire,” or early +matter on occultism fell to his lot he would put it by against my next +visit. + +He it was who introduced Carrier to me as a fellow-student, but he made +it abundantly clear that Carrier was too poor to be a book buyer and +that he himself looked on him as a peculiar acquaintance rather than as +a customer. + +We fell into conversation, and I was delighted to find that Carrier had +a wide and erudite knowledge of early books on magical practice. +This he told me he had gained principally by spare-time study at the +Librairie de Paris, but also from the loan of books from friends. He +had, it appeared, catalogued several private collections of works on +psychic and supernormal subjects. + +I took him off to lunch with me at the Café Bastien, and he explained +that he was completing a catalogue or bibliography of books on magic +published previously to 1850. “There are,” said he, “a number of +missing works referred to by contemporary authors. Of these there is +little knowledge, but little by little I am rewriting them.” + +“Automatic writing or original deductive work?” I asked him. + +“Automatic--_pur et simple_,” he replied. “My control is called +Fernand de Féques and was a monk of the Abbey of Saint-Barnabe near +Blagues. Thanks to his help, I have recovered amazing things that were +lost.” + +He sank his voice as he told me and his leopard eyes seemed to glow +golden as the wine in his glass. “I know the secrets of the lost inner +ritual of the Illuminati,” he told me. “I have recovered Pietro +Zarantino’s invocation, and could I only master ancient Greek I could +lay the secrets of the Bacchæ bare. But their confused script paralyses +my hand and I must keep to French and Latin.” + +I knew too much of the vast breadth and heritage of knowledge that the +Hermetic philosophers inherited from the Gnostics to doubt his words. +Revealed knowledge may sometimes appear to be withdrawn for a while, +but it will inevitably be re-disclosed. + +Having an appointment to keep, I made a note of his address and +promised to resume our acquaintanceship on another day. + +A week later I had had leisure to go through my manuscripts. They were +very interesting, but verbose, and were full of curiously involved +obliquities of meaning and contained some peculiar Hebrew charms of +Kabbalistic significance. By either bad luck or the design of some +earlier owner, two pages of the invocatory ritual for the raising of +the spirits of the dead were missing. + +It occurred to me that Carrier might be able to fill the gap by means +of automatic writing, so I wrote to him suggesting the attempt +and asking him to my rooms. He replied by return, expressing his +willingness to help, and adding that his control had assented, but +desired me to visit him in his own rooms in order that he might not be +disturbed by novel surroundings. + +The next night I went to Carrier’s. He lived in one of those dull +meandering streets that rise from the mass of the city toward +Montparnasse. The house was an old tumble down warren, dirty and +ill-kept, the various floors let out in rooms or suites of apartments +to tenants who were none too particular in their choice of lodging. By +the light of a match I examined the grimy cards pinned in the hallway, +and at last located Carrier’s name as owner of the back room on the +third floor. + +He opened to my knock and I found myself in a room which made no +pretension to disguise the poverty of its tenant. Most of his furniture +was books. A globeless gas jet burnt feebly over a side table on which +were some dishes and there was an old and uncleanly box bed in the +corner. In the centre of the room was a heavy old fashioned circular +pedestal table and on this he had laid out glasses, a bottle of wine, +and paper. + +He showed me his books, and for a while we discussed Guldenstubbé.[5] +I looked at some of his automatic writings that gave interpretations +of some aspects of Etteilla and was in particular interested in a new +rendering of his Book of Thoth.[6] + +In the meantime Carrier was glancing through the imperfect MS. that I +had brought with me. + +“This is rather different from most of the books of the period,” said +he. “It is more like a note-book of lectures or a précis of an existing +magical ritual as performed by a small child. What do you make of it?” + +“That is just how it struck me,” I told him. “It is about the period +of the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. +The writer might have been one of the adepts trained by Francis Barret, +by Cagliostro, or by Dom Gerle, but it might even be as late as Madame +Lenormand.” + +“Hardly 1815, I think,” said Carrier, “but no matter. The interesting +thing is that this writer seems to have shorn his ritual of lots of the +inessential matters. For instance, in this matter of the invocation +of simple elements he has resolutely reduced his formula to mere +essentials. Two kinds of the wearisome Hebrew prayers are gone and the +actual mechanical adjuncts to the invocation are simplified. + +“His consecrations too are limited simply to the repetition of words of +power. This man had in his way reduced his art magic to what one may +term working formulæ.” + +“Sometime I will experiment with them,” I told him, “but for the +present let us see if we can recover the ritual on the missing pages.” + +Carrier soon passed under control. His mouth seemed to fall slack and +open in rather ghastly fashion and the eyeballs turned up under the +lids so that though he wrote with half-opened eyes; only the blue-tinted +white of the eyeballs could be seen under his heavy lids. His hand and +forearm began to twitch spasmodically, but the pencil stayed almost +immobile on the paper forming a little knot of scratches, but no +letters. Finally I saw that he had completely entered the trance state +and was directly under control. + +“Who is the author of these manuscripts?” I asked. + +Without a pause the pencil wrote rapidly in a sharp angular script: +“Marcel Theot, Adept and Minor Master of the Arcana.” + +“Under whom did you study?” + +“Under the divine Giuseppe Balsamo Count Cagliostro, the Grand Copt of +the Universe, and later under Doctor Jules Lemercier pupil of Lavater +and Cagliostro.” + +“Will you reveal to us the missing pages of your manuscript?” The +answer was unexpected. + +“To you two,” the pencil wrote, “I can reveal these secrets, for you +too are initiate and know what progress is permitted to the children +of men. This I say unto you. In the third decade of this century shall +there be a revival of art magic, but much that has been sealed to the +philosophers shall be known to the healers of men.”[7] + +The control revealed a complete and up-to-date knowledge of movements +in the world of psychic research and the refrain of the communications +was ever the same. “These things were known before, but mankind had not +the sense to apply the doctrines and practice.” + +At length the control took up the actual communication of the missing +portion of the ritual and Carrier’s automatic script changed entirely +from his own angular, large-lettered, trim, and straggly lettering to +the staid precise well-formed handwriting of the original manuscript. + +All went well until it came to the names of God, which had to be +written in Hebrew characters in the corners of the triangle within the +pentagon of the president of the air. Carrier’s hand struggled with +the attempt to produce the letters, but the characters would not form. +There was a moment of indecision, and then I saw hovering over the +table a small lambent sphere of bluish light. + +The room, remember, was lighted by a gas jet and we were not in +darkness, but clear and distinct the flickering globe of blue light +formed over the table, then descended to wrap round Carrier’s hand and +pencil. + +With it there seemed to come an impression of intense cold, then there +formed within the light a plainly visible hand bearing a curiously +wrought talismanic ring. This hand took the pencil and wrote the names +in Hebrew characters VEVAHLIAH, ANIEL, and MUMIAH, then withdrew again. + +While the rest of the ritual was being written the globe of light +into which the hand had redissolved hovered over the table, but at +the end of the script when Carrier’s hand fell idle it returned and +materializing again wrote in bold script in ordinary Latin characters: + +“The dead ye will summon, but Nahemah will answer, for I too am a +creature of the fire and it is only on the underplanes that I command.” + +Once again the globe of fire redissolved the hand, then the whole +ascending toward the ceiling appeared to expand, dissipate and vanish +away. Carrier came round and I boiled him up a glass of hot water, +which, with a liberal dash of wine, soon restored him to himself. + +Together we went over the script while I told him of the curious +phenomenon that I had witnessed. + +“That may account for the way my hand is aching,” he said. “I thought +it was more than usual,” and spreading his hand out in front of him we +both noticed for the first time that both the first joint of the thumb +and the nail and first joint of the forefinger were actually swollen +and bruised. + +“This Marcel Theot seems to be a terrible fellow,” said he ruefully. + +“It is the last part of the message that he has attached to the ritual +that puzzles me,” I said. “Assuming that he is actually a bad spirit, +he yet seems to be able to repeat the construction of a protective +circle of exorcism in which the names of God are frequently repeated +and which is in itself supposed to be demon-proof and then warns us +that Nahemah will answer. Nahemah is the spirit queen who presides over +the female devils of obsession--the Succubi. Thus Carrier, my friend, I +do not quite see what to expect.” + +“The Succubi,” said Carrier, “are known to be able to assume the forms +of the most desirable of women. This Marcel Theot studied thaumaturgy +and magic under Cagliostro and his followers, and you know to what +amazing practices the Grand Copt set his female devotees. It is +probable that the invocation in its peculiarly condensed style opens +the doors to dangers that are not present when the full ritual is +applied. You notice that he styles himself minor master.” + +I agreed, and later analysis of the ritual as compared to others showed +that in the process of condensation many of the safeguarding ceremonies +and propitiatory invocations had been discarded. + +My own opinion is that Marcel Theot was one of that numerous class of +people who undertook the study of magic only in order to obtain the +supernatural qualification of carnal desires. In any case I have deemed +his ritual unsafe for experiment and have taken steps so that it can +never fall into unsuitable hands. + +The actual materialism of a spirit hand to aid automatic writing is +such an unusual occurrence that to my mind it completely disposes +of any theory of other than spirit knowledge being applied in this +particular case. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[2] I carried out a long series of experiments with the idea of +developing an automatic recorder operating on the lines of the familiar +tape machine, and experimented at length both in London and in Paris, +where my work was done in connection with the student Du Plessis, +who was one of the heroes who gave his life at Verdun. Latterly we +abandoned the idea of an actual print-registering machine for a device +designed to register impulses on a wax cylinder, something on the lines +of a phonograph. Some results were obtained, but the machine was not +successful or reliable. + +[3] It is a saddening and depressing thought to think of a recently +passed over spirit racing from medium to medium in an attempt to get +through bits of messages to an individual on this plane. The spirit of +F. W. H. Myers had to communicate through mediums as distant as Mrs. +Holland in India and Mrs. Verrall at Cambridge. Later communications +were received in complex fashion from other sources and the whole had +to be collected by the Research Officer of the S.P.R. before they made +any sense at all. _Proceedings S.P.R._, Vols. XX to XXV inclusive. + +[4] The library and papers of Alphonse Louis Constant are, I believe, +still in existence but inaccessible. + +[5] Baron de Guldenstubbé. _La Réalité des Esprits et le Phénomène +Merveilleux de leur Ecriture Directe._ 1857. + +[6] _Les Sept Nuances de l’Œuvre Philosophique Hermétique._ Leçons +Théoriques et Pratique du Livre de Thot. 1786. + +[7] This would seem to point to the present research in psychology and +psychotherapeutics and its applications to cases of “shell shock” and +kindred mental disturbances. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + ASTRAL LIGHT AND THE PSYCHO-LASTROMETER + + +One of the commonest phenomena associated with Spiritualism is the +production of light. Many mediums possess this power of attracting or +emitting light and even small circles where there is in truth little +enough Light in the true psychic sense, yet produce this, the most +elementary of the phenomena. + +It is possibly because it is so easy to induce light phenomena of +various kinds that the production of any form of spirit luminosity +has been, so to speak, taken at face value as a criterion of +_goodness_. + +In actual point of fact at least two-thirds of the light manifestations +seen at Séances may be classed as dubious and a portion of them are +more than dubious, they are malevolent manifestations. + +To this blind belief in the “goodness” of spirit light in itself we +may trace certain disastrous mental calamities that have overtaken +too trustful searchers. The myth springs possibly from an acceptance +of early Bible teachings and a desire to identify these manifestations +with the Pentecostal tongues of fire and similar analogies. But among +the mass of humble practitioners of Spiritualism who follow the path of +the Light are many that are mistaking astral evils for psychic good. + +To the average Spiritualist the success of a small circle in the +production of spirit lights is a heartening message from the spirit +world. It is a testimony that life-after-death endures, and as such +the phenomena are welcomed as spirit visitors, sometimes identified +as actual spirit forms, and no doubt is raised in the minds of +those present concerning the innate and essential “goodness” of the +visitation. + +In order to avoid confusion I shall use the term astral light to +describe the usual spirit light. + +The light phenomena are customarily associated with the dark or +semi-dark séance because in the full light of day or under normal +conditions of artificial light it is almost impossible to see +the astral light at all, unless one is clairvoyant or unless the +concentration of spirit force is so marked that there is no possibility +of mistaking it. + +The normal appearance of astral light is that of indefinite globular or +pear-shaped masses of faint phosphorescence. These appear near sitters +or on objects in the room and frequently move about, wax and wane, or +gather into clouds before a materialism or in support of a particular +effort.[8] + +In other cases they take the form of direct rays and in certain +individuals have been known to occur as flashes like dull electric +discharges. Another not uncommon form is the projection from the body +of a distinctly defined aura or radiation of light which is faintly +luminous like the gases in a Geissler tube subjected to oscillant +discharges. + +We must go far back into history and indeed beyond the bounds of +history before we can come to a time when this manifestation of light +was not one part of the common stock in trade of the thaumaturge or +wonder worker. + +The manipulation and control of astral light phenomena were part of the +religious mysteries of the magicians of Chaldea who transmitted the +secret knowledge to the seers of Egypt. We find it in the myth of the +luminous bull in the Greek mysteries and again as an attribute of the +great healer Apollonius of Tyana. This mysterious radiance plays equal +parts in the records of the lives of the saints and in the terrible +archives of the trials for sorcery. + +Confusion exists because to the untrained eye of mankind all forms of +astral light are identical. + +The greater proportion of the astral light seen by circles is that +generated and given off by the human mental energy of the circle +itself. The spirit-forms are all too often thought-forms built up out +of the liberated psychoplasm or thought-matter given off by sitters. + +The physical nature of this psychoplasm has so far defied all attempts +at scientific research, but it appears to be something more substantial +than the mere emission of vibrations that it is commonly held to +be. It appears to be an all-penetrating imponderable emanation which +dissipates rapidly, but which under certain conditions is capable of +being energized by the intelligence of the living or by discarnate +intelligence. Under these conditions it becomes luminous and under +certain further conditions can be used as the vehicle for the +transmission of force. + +It can best be realized as being to the mind what ectoplasm[9] is to +the body of the medium, but the precise limitations of both the astral +body-matter ectoplasm, and astral mind-matter psychoplasm are not yet +ascertained. + +It is a conceivable hypothesis that both are functions of the vast +unknown mechanism of the subconscious self, but where the capacity for +the projection of ectoplasm is rare, the emission of psychoplasm is the +basis of most Spiritualist phenomena. + +It is to this radiation of psychoplasm that we must look for the +explanation of such a simple thing--and at the same time such a +complex thing--as psychic atmosphere. Do we not all know the peculiar +atmosphere which surrounds individuals and places? The phenomena +associated with apparitions have been ascribed to the penetration of +structure by violently liberated psychoplasm set free in moments of +passion and bloody violence. There too is the clue to its physical +source, for in some obscure way blood and the emanations from blood +play a vital and important part in psychic matters. + +Under normal circumstances psychoplasm is dissipated and the liberated +energy that animated it goes with it to return in the normal way of the +cycle of life. Under other circumstances the psychoplasm retreats back +into the mind whence it came, just as the materialized ectoplasm is +reabsorbed into the body of the medium. + +The dangers latent in assuming all astral light phenomena to be “good” +can be realized when it is considered what may occur to the projected +psychoplasm which is emotionally liberated beyond the confines of the +body and beyond its living human control. + +A party of some half-dozen form a circle in some provincial city. +They may know one another well or they may be, comparatively speaking, +strangers. However well they may know the public lives of the members +of the circle, can they fathom the secret soul of each sitter? Can they +say whose mind is a garden of purity or who may have some tendency to +some unknown enormity? + +Yet it is precisely this weakness that makes a soul-appalling danger of +the hideous mental promiscuity that is one of the essential things of +which all the more ingenuous and simple believers and a few clever evil +hypocrites among Spiritualists make a cult. + +They may unknowingly include among themselves an individual, man or +woman, who has somewhere a secret kink--a mental leaning--it need not +be an actually accomplished physical fact--but simply an inclination to +the obscene, the evil, or the cruel. + +The circle launches its prayer, concentrates on the attraction of the +discarnate spirits of those who have passed over--and what comes, who +comes? + +There is no gifted Spiritualist or student of matters psychic who has +not had either personal or absolutely credible second-hand experience +of the existence of bad or lying spirits. It is true that insistence +upon their existence has latterly become unfashionable in Spiritualist +circles--because it does harm to the professional medium, but not even +the most insistent of suppressive propaganda can live down the writings +and testimonies of the past and the ever-recurrent undeniable phenomena +of the present. + +It is not too much to say that in nine cases out of ten where a crude +and humble belief in Spiritualism is put in practice by a circle of +operators whose standard of education and intellectual attainment +is low, the etherealization of the psychoplasm of the believers is +mistaken for the materialization of the spirit.[10] + +So much for the visible luminous appearances of astral light. Now let +us consider the range of probabilities that may affect these. It must +be borne in mind that it is the process of their reabsorption into the +sitters after being charged with outside influences that introduces +the element of danger. + +Psychologists know that certain fixed laws govern mental processes. +There is the Law of Similarity, which evokes the association of +ideas; there is the Law of Integration, which splits memories and +picture memories into integral fragments; and there is the Law of +Redintegration, which enables the subconscious mind to reassemble the +part memories into one completed picture of a past scene or event. + +The astral light, once beyond the control of the sitter, is at the +command of (1) stronger human wills in the circle, (2) the lower or +baser forms of discarnate intelligence, (3) spirits of ex-mortals, (4) +higher spirits. + +It is the dominance of the human will that is the first positive +danger. Part of the accepted dogma of Spiritualism is that hostile +or unbelieving influences are antagonistic to the spirits. This is +by no means accurate, but can be classed for practical purposes as a +half-truth. The state of mental concentration and muscular relaxation +that is necessary to the séance bears a close and analogous resemblance +to the state of consent that the hypnotist demands of his subject. + +The first requisite of the Spiritualist is the question put to him or +her by others of the cult. + +“Do you believe in Spiritualism?” + +The honest sceptic, the unreasoning man-in-the-street observer is +soon converted by evidence, then faith in the inexplicable wonders of +Spiritualism is born. + +In other words the mind of the neophyte accepts the whole loose +doctrine of Spiritualism and is prepared to believe that all phenomena +are due to spirit influence, and does not attempt to further analyse +the accepted spirit influence. + +The mental or emotional state produced by the participation of a devout +believer in a séance, leaves the mind receptive of ideas, and the ideas +received back into the mind are those impressed upon the psychoplasm +that is liberated and is visible as astral light and is reabsorbed into +its sources after it has been beyond the control of its originator’s +consciousness. + +In a circle of ten or fewer people where the sexes are mixed, it is +impossible to say what suppressed desires may be latent in the minds +of those who compose it. Even in the case of circles confined to one +sex alone there is the possibility of sex perversion being a secretly +dominant mental force in the mind of someone there. + +It is an inexorable law that the conscious or subconscious will of the +most powerful and determined member of the circle dominates the minds +of the others through its influence on the psychoplasm or astral light. + +Even without the knowledge of the dominant influence his or her will or +thought-force emission will gain mastery over those of the others, and +if there is any violent sex disturbance at the bottom of the dominant +will, this will be communicated to the others or to the selected other +furthering the desire. + +The next stage occurs where passion or desire on the part of one member +of the circle for another is absent. Despite repeated statements that +the desire of the members of the circle is to meet pure spirits, there +may be members whose secret wishes are not those of the pathway of +light. Love for those who have passed over may be still carnal love +in the hearts of those who remain. Abélard may have passed beyond +passion into the realm of death, but Héloïse may refuse his plea of +impossibility and still pursue in the spirit that which escaped her in +the flesh. + +Carnality is not confined to this plane nor does it cease upon the +next, but the endeavour of mortals to get in touch with the spirit +world while there is latent in them either known or suppressed, and +unrecognized desire is fatal. + +Every sexual desire the mind has experienced is indexed or pigeon-holed +in the recesses of the subliminal mind. People whose conscious mind +is free of any vestige of such desire may go to a séance and under +the influence of the emotional forces of a séance liberate all the +repressed energy of their past ungratified sexual desires--without +knowing it. + +These forces attract low-grade spirits some of whom have never been +human and the lowest and most vicious of spirits whose human lives have +been a cycle of debauchery. Like attracts like, is one of the laws of +Nature. The Law of Similarity is one of the rules of psychology. + +The gateways of the soul are thrown open not to whoever may enter in, +but with an explicit mental invitation to those spirits that derive +gratification from the lusts and desires of mortals. + +The whole body of the psychoplasm of a circle is at the mercy of the +mind of the individual to whose call the spirits come. + +The practical results of these open-house invitations to the spirits +are devastating. The ideas of gratification become rooted not in the +conscious mind but in the subconscious mind, where they work slowly but +inevitably to the subversion of conscious “good.” + +The first step toward possession and obsession are often the result of +séances, where Truth has been sought with the tongue and Evil within +the heart of one present. It is not the guilty alone who suffer, but +the weak and innocent who sit beside them. + +There are no bounds to the malignancy of the impure spirits. They are +sly and notable liars--they can assume the form of mortals who have +passed over and they can assume personality and knowledge that was +known to the dead. By degrees they inculcate evil, predisposing the +victim to accept and yield to evil in particular forms. Frequently they +proceed by slow stages, advising and inspiring savage asceticism, but +seizing each stage of natural reaction from this unnatural régime to +further subvert their victim in wantonness. + +The obvious need is for some method of distinguishing between good and +bad projections of astral light. + +To the human eye alone there is no means of distinguishing between the +etherealizations of the psychoplasm of the believer and the identical +luminous phenomena which occur when there is a materialization of +the actual spirit. It is there that psychic science can come to our +assistance. + +The fluorescent bodies zinc sulphide, barium platino-cyanide, and +the preparation known as Sidot’s hexagonal blonde, are all intensely +susceptible to radioactivity. The rays of radioactive bodies have the +peculiar property of being able to penetrate the ether, and the mass +of spirit teaching tells us that this property is also common to the +disembodied spirits of those who have passed to other planes. + +The relative purity or potency of astral lights may be readily +ascertained by their effect upon a simple instrument that I have named +the Psycho-Lastrometer. + +This instrument is both cheap and easy to make in the simple form +in which I first used it. The later applications which make it a +registering instrument in addition to being a mere indicator are +necessarily costly, but these are only necessary to the expert +investigator and are of no value to the mere seeker after proof or +those who seek communion with the spirits of the dead for the purposes +of solace, quasi-religious conviction, or vulgar curiosity. + +To make a crude psycho-lastrometer all that is necessary is a +wide-mouthed glass jar whose walls should not be more than two +millimetres thick. The height of the jar should be some eight inches, +the width in proportion three and a quarter inches. + +I have found that an ordinary lipped beaker of Bohemian glass such +as is readily obtainable from any maker of laboratory apparatus is +admirably suited to the purpose. + +The neck of this jar must be fitted with a large cork or wooden bung +the whole of which is covered with tinfoil. The centre of this cork +should be pierced by a piece of brass wire five inches long, bent at +one end to form a hook. This end is inside the jar and from the hook +hangs the plate of the lastrometer. To the projecting end of the brass +wire outside the jar should be soldered a circular collecting disc of +brightly polished brass or tinplate three inches in diameter. This +should stand up vertically to the axis of the wire, being thus on edge +instead of forming a flat table. + +The plate of the lastrometer consists of a rectangle of thin aluminum +two and half inches wide by four inches deep. Half an inch from the +top edge three slits should be cut in the metal so that a portion of a +magnetized knitting needle three inches long may be threaded through +the breadth of the plate, projecting half an inch on each side. + +This needle forms a cross bar at the top of the plate and should be +accurately adjusted so that the broad surface of the plate is always in +the same plane as the axis of the needle. + +To the projecting ends of the needle is secured a loop of copper wire +four inches long whose other end is made fast to the other end of the +needle and whose centre passes over the hooked end of the wire through +the cork. The plate thus swings like a miniature signboard suspended +from the hook. + +The surface of one side of the plate is now painted with several +successive layers of a saturated solution of gum arabic in one ounce of +water to which has been added one and a half drachms of luminous zinc +sulphide or Sidot’s preparation (preferably the latter) and one liquid +drachm of a ten per cent. solution of barium platino-cyanide. The other +side of the plate should be painted with “optical black” or any other +suitable dead black varnish. + +Between the edge of the bung and the central wire should be inserted +at convenient intervals three or four sections of glass tubing whose +internal bore exceeds half an inch. These serve to admit external +influences to the interior of the lastrometer. + +When complete it will be found that the plate of the lastrometer is +highly fluorescent and can be energized into greater activity by +exposure to sun or artificial light. It is desirable that the plate +should be kept in a state of relatively low radiancy, as otherwise +spirit agency cannot raise its luminous powers to a higher degree. + +At a séance the instrument should be placed within the circle and the +jar rotated till the magnetized needle can oscillate freely in its +natural position pointing toward the North and South Poles. + +Concentrations of genuine spirit force will raise the luminosity of +the plate to double and treble its normal output of light. When the +force is concentrated in the lastrometer, questions can be answered by +the spirits by signaling in Morse or simple code by rotating the plate +through an angle of 90° against the surface force of the magnet.[11] + +It may be urged that this apparatus is not fraud-proof and that it +would respond to certain agencies such as the concealment of an +electromagnet in the room. To this it may be answered that an ordinary +pocket compass placed on the table by the lastrometer would also +respond to these forces and the fraud would be transparent to any +observer. + +So far as I can tell, no human mental effort conscious or subconscious +can affect this simple instrument. It is necessary to guard against +illusion by imagining that the lastrometer is gaining radiance, and +to this end it is advisable to prepare a stand and test-piece made of +aluminum and coated with precisely the same solution as is applied to +the plate. These should always be kept together and allowed to become +equally radiant. If this is placed on the table near the lastrometer, +any variations in the latter can be rapidly verified by comparison with +the non-insulated and non-oriented test-piece. + +Antipathy on the part of the presiding medium to the use of the +psycho-lastrometer is invariably a bad sign. Spirit messages objecting +to it are the most valid reasons for its retention, and such +communications should be viewed with the deepest suspicion. The cost of +the apparatus is a few shillings, it can be made by anybody in an hour +or so of spare time, and in actual point of fact there is nothing about +it that is offensive to the spirits of “good” or to the pure. + +To those who are learned in symbolism I may suggest that the receiving +disc at the top of the wire need not be in the form of a disc, but can +be cut or pierced with ornament such as sacred symbols or with any +decorative design. + +It is desirable, however, that the light surface be retained and that +the available metallic surface of the disc should not be diminished +more than is necessary. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[8] _Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena Called Spiritual._ William +Crookes, F.R.S., p. 91; Class VIII: Luminous Appearances. + +[9] For details concerning ectoplasm see _Ghosts in Solid Form_, +Gambier Bolton, etc. + +[10] Something of this view may be found in the chapter on “Pseudo +Spirit Phenomena” in _Borderland of Psychical Research_, H. J. Hyslop. +A book deserving of attention by all interested in Spiritualism. + +[11] The psycho-lastrometer was further perfected. The element selenium +is inordinately sensitive to all forms of light rays and according +to the light thrown upon it permits more or less electric current to +pass. I arranged the apparatus so that the light thrown out by the +psycho-lastrometer impinged upon a selenium cell whose resistance +varied from 50,000 ohms to 100,000 ohms, which was in its turn +connected to a cell and to a Deprex d’Arsonval mirror galvanometer. +This enables accurate readings of the actual waxings and wanings of +the light value of the lastrometer plate to be taken, and entirely +eliminates any possibility of visual illusion seeming to make the plate +more luminous than before. A series of plotted curves based on time +abscissæ and light co-ordinates will give an accurate scientific record +of any differences in the radiant value of the plate that occur during +the séance. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + AN EXPERIMENT ON THE THEORY OF PROTECTIVE VIBRATION + + +Ghost phenomena do not come into the province of practising +Spiritualism. The average Spiritualist is content to follow the +Catholic doctrine of offering up a few devout prayers for the rest of +the uneasy spirit should circumstances throw him into contact with it. +Apparitions as a whole affect the Spiritualist with as much unreasoning +terror as falls to the lot of the non-Spiritualist mortal. + +The chance-met apparition of the dead is after all a fairly common +phenomenon. The theory of the veridic apparition of the recently dead +is explainable by various hypotheses, but there is little reason to +suppose that the human spirit still animates the astral body that +appears. + +The luminous quality or phosphorescence of astral light that enwraps +the astral body of the apparition is not necessarily a proof of the +survival of the identity of the soul whose astral body appears. The +phosphorescent radiance associated with certain kinds of fish survives +the death of the organism, and luminous bodies or glands extracted +from these creatures may be preserved for months after death and still +retain elements of luminosity. + +The thinking Spiritualist does not disregard the lessons and analogies +of science. The great names in the history of Spiritualism have been +those of scientists like Lodge and Crookes,[12] and it has ever been +their desire to translate the apparent miracles of the supernatural +into no less miraculous but more deeply understood parallels with the +natural. + +The great slogan of Spiritualism is that it is a perfectly natural +understandable thing; thus is it the duty of every Spiritualist to +reduce those things which non-Spiritualistic thought deems supernatural +to the realms of the understood, the explained and the known,--in a +word, to the state of the natural. + +It is no good to tell a materialistic world that owing to the +intervention of spirit force mechanical results contrary to all natural +laws were obtained. The sceptic, and above all the logical sceptic--who +is the easiest of all to convert, can you but once bring him to see the +fallacies that underlie his logic--demands proof, proof not in terms of +second-hand evidence, but proof in terms of cold matter-of-fact science. + +The missionary effort of Spiritualism must be made a crusade not into +the minds of the unintelligent but straight into the citadels of reason +of the men of science. It is necessary first of all to demonstrate the +spirit forces and then to _prove_ that they are forces of the +spirit and not natural, so far as the meaning of the term “natural” may +be held to imply limitation to the physical laws governing this mortal +earth. + +The spirit realm is the realm of the ether, the boundless range of +unknown interstellar space. Blindly, gropingly, the men of science +are putting out feelers--theories--pragmatical assumptions that serve +them as laws. Little by little it is being recognized that the physics +of the ether is the underlying superscientific structure of modern +Spiritualism. Little by little their discoveries fall into harmony with +our claims, and we must look upon science as the handmaiden rather than +the antagonist of our truth. + +The theories of apparition that are held vary according to the +classification of the apparition. There are numerous instances of +apparitions of the living[13] and there is an infinite mass of data +concerning veridical apparitions of the dead. A statistical analysis +of 17,000 cases collected by the Society for Psychical Research resulted +in the finding by the Committee that “Between deaths and apparitions +of the dying person a connexion exists which is not due to chance +alone.”[14] + +A clear distinction must, however, be drawn between apparitions which +may appear to relatives, friends, and acquaintances, and then disappear +for ever, and those definite and persistently recurring apparitions +that go by the name of haunts. + +The terminology of matters psychic is loose and inexact, but it is well +to have a clear mental distinction between the occasional “apparition” +and the periodic or repeating “ghost.” + +For purposes of scientific investigation the casual apparition +is almost valueless, but the established ghost is the nearest +approximation that we can get to a serious test standard for +experimental purposes. + +There are in England at least half a dozen ghosts whose periodical +manifestations are regular enough to serve as test instances. The +genuine ghost is so rare that from the point of view of psychical +research it is vitally important that the haunt should not be harried +by every party of sensation-avid amateurs who think they would “like to +see a ghost.” The amateur exorcists, the psychically gifted ladies, and +all the ragtag and bobtail of well-meaning idiots that disturb a haunt +once it becomes known, can only be compared to a set of egg-stealing, +bird-scaring boys who invade a woodland sanctuary and destroy the +fruition of the work of a painstaking observer of nature who has been +recording the life of the rare birds. + +In parenthesis it may be remarked that if the ghost is a full-blooded +manifestation it will take more than the well-meaning effort of some +anæmic amateur psychic to lay it. The very last person who should go +near a violent ghost is anyone whose capacity for mediumship is in +any way developed. Mediums should only be present when adequate and +experienced mortal controls are there also. + +In the West of England there is an excellent example of a genuinely +haunted house that has so far resisted all attempts to solve the origin +of the haunt, the precise nature of the supernatural intelligence that +directs the manifestation, or the motive of the phenomena.[15] + +It is now extremely difficult to get permission to carry out +investigations, as adequate precautions have been taken to safeguard +both the phenomena and the incautious dabbler in matters beyond the +veil. + +I may take occasion here to warn my readers against the legal risks +attached to stating that a house is haunted. In the eyes of the law +such a statement is actionable, as it tends to depreciate the market +value of the property. It is for this reason that stories concerning +haunted houses when printed in newspapers have to be obscured in their +indication of the precise locality and silent with regard to the name, +number, or address of the suspected dwelling. The verbal repetition of +such statements is also actionable and such cases as the bogus haunting +of a house by the tenants or by caretakers in order to avoid payment of +rent or the letting of the house are manifest reasons why the matter of +haunted houses should always be treated with the utmost discretion. + +Particulars concerning a reputed haunt can, however, be communicated +to a newspaper with safety. All communications to a journal are +privileged, and they can be trusted not to print anything which renders +them party to an action for damages. + +In 1913 a well-known student of occult matters announced his theory +of _Protective Vibrations_.[16] It was in effect an analysis of +the actual physical methods reported to be employed by spirit forces +in building up their visible and material forms. His theory contained +several assumptions which it is impossible to disregard and which +certainly do not admit of rejection. + +Taken in series he stated that “The presence of human beings was an +essential to the appearance of the ghost.” This admits of no disproof, +as unless human witnesses are present there can be no testimony to +the presence of the manifestation. A general consensus of opinion +discredits ghost photographs unless taken under the strictest test +conditions which again implies the presence of the human element. + +“The energy or thought-matter” (i.e. psychoplasm) “extended by the +mortals is the matter out of which the astral form is constructed. +They are, so to speak, the prime motors or the energy and material, +providing units out of which the discarnate intelligence builds its +carnate habit.” + +This conception embraces psychoplasm and ectoplasm as one, but the +researches of Schrenck-Notzing were not then known. These and other +similar experiments all point to the essential probability that the +broad sense of his reasoning is correct. + +From this point onward he traces the development of the material astral +body as a process of the conversion of the original vibrations into low +forms of actual energy which are able to manipulate the atoms of matter +and under the directing will of the intelligence or entity build up the +materialization. + +He makes one notable reservation, asserting that “there is no evidence +to prove that discarnate intelligence is the directing force. Pure +autosuggestion, due to concentrated belief and anticipation that a +specified ghost will appear, may achieve the same result.” + +But the purpose of his paper was not to argue concerning the reality of +spirits, but to put forward an ingenious scientific theory concerning +their mechanism. The sum-total of his theory is that the physical +structure of the hallucination-spirit or ghost-form in its early stages +of concentration is destructible by many forms of etheric vibration of +greater force or different wave-length. + +Ghosts and spirits are integrally bound up with the conditions of +darkness and dusk. The rays of solar light are admittedly inimical +to all these manifestations. In other words, materialization cannot +be performed under certain conditions of light which means certain +conditions of vibration. The light rays which are visible to the human +eye represent about one-tenth of the complete range of light rays known +to exist from ultra-violet to infra-red.[17] At other points in the +scale of ether waves come the vibrations associated with sound, with +electricity and magnetic phenomena and with radioactivity. + +The complexity of these wave-lengths of vibration is enormous, for +within the range of light rays there are rays of another kind of light, +so that the sum-total of two kinds of light is, paradoxically enough, +darkness.[18] + +Passing, logically enough, from stage to stage the “Theory of +Protective Vibrations” points out that assuming the existence of ghosts +or malevolent spirits, these cannot take material shape when opposed +by hostile vibrations. Certain kinds of light, sound (such as the +sonorous vibrations of church bells or gongs of special note), and +high-frequency electric currents all destroy the initial stages of +manifestation by purely mechanical means. Lastly he postulates that +“in the presence of a radium salt (of specified intensity) ... a ghost +cannot manifest.” + +Protection or exorcism by radium salts is undeniably a +twentieth-century possibility, for the terrific and incessant discharge +of ether waves consequent upon the disintegration of the radium atoms +is so powerful that even such a known and powerful force as electric +energy is completely destroyed by it. + +In the presence of a radium salt non-conductors of electricity become +conductors. Differences of potential cease to exist and electroscopes +and Leyden jars fail to retain their charges. + +Under these conditions, then, it was hardly conceivable that a +manifestation which depends, in its initial stages, upon the most +delicate of vibrations--the unknown vibrations of the psychoplasm could +take place. + +Truth is dependent upon experiment, upon patient repetition and trial +and error. In order to test the theory in actual practice, I determined +to pay a visit to the well-known and malignant ghost at X----[19] and +actually put to the test whether or not a ghost can manifest in the +presence of a radium salt. + +The rays of radioactive salts are unable to pass through lead, and pure +radium bromide, which is the nearest that we have got to the isolation +of the element radium, always has to be kept in a leaden box or cell, +as otherwise its rays would pass through and destroy the skin and flesh +of the man carrying it. Before the properties of radium were known, +this destructive faculty of radium vibrations caused several mishaps, +for unwary men of science carried these dangerous salts loose in glass +vials in their pockets. + +For the purposes of experiment I obtained the loan of a small supply of +a solution of a radium salt that gives out powerful emanations. This +was enclosed in a glass vial which was in turn encased in a leaden box. + +The haunted house is a peculiar old building of no particular +architectural beauty. It stands remote and deserted in its own +overgrown extended grounds, and over it breathes a generally depressing +atmosphere of damp, neglect, oppression, and decay. + +Viewed from the outside the house presents no outstanding features that +attract the eye. The lower windows are heavily barred by rusted iron +rails without and closed wooden shutters within. Even creepers seem to +have felt the blight that lies upon the mansion, for no patch of green +or rambling ivy tendril covers the bare surface of the brick. + +Three storeys high, mansard-roofed and turreted with a dozen contorted +Tudor chimney-stacks, the roof-line stands out against the sky and the +dull leaf masses of the surrounding trees. The higher windows are also +shuttered, but not even the small boys of the neighbouring village +have dared to break the grimy window frames that lie over the shutters. +Desolate and forbidding, the mansion and its grounds lie derelict, +shunned by all men. + +My key is that of the small back door, and it is used but once or twice +a year when the needs of the psychic call upon us to tread a path of +peril and hazard. + +Inside one steps into the cold stone-flagged passages that lead to the +empty kitchens and offices. The air is heavy and dank with that queer +smell of earth that one associates with crypts and graves rather than +with the clean new-turned furrow. The whole house is bare of furniture, +the paint of the woodwork dull and dirty. Spots of amorphous fungus +cling to the walls, and here and there wallpaper has peeled off in long +leprous strips, exposing the corpse-grey plaster behind. + +The door from the servants’ offices opens into the wide Georgian +hall, from which sweeps up a monstrous wooden staircase. Half-way +up the stair is a landing which marks the limit of activity of the +manifestation. In the rooms beyond that and on the landing itself the +presence is terribly powerful, but it seems that beyond that limit the +terror cannot go. + +The actual room where the presence is at its strongest is a chamber at +the end of the first floor. The room walls are outside walls on three +sides, the remaining partition wall is the one in which is the door to +the main corridor that runs through the house. In the centre of the +floor is a deep cavity. This has been a priest’s hiding hole or secret +treasure closet, and from signs in the woodwork it is manifest that the +trapdoor was once concealed beneath a big four-poster bed. + +The windows are barred with high shutters that let in no light. The +rays of my electric lantern disclose the mats of cobwebs that hang +from the rusted cross bars, and it is evident that no human hand has +disturbed the shutters for years. A trial shows me that some of the +bolts are indeed rusted home with age-old neglect. + +I unpacked my handbag, in which I carry the few simple necessities I +need on these occasions, and wrapping myself up in my travelling rug +composed myself to read by the light of my travelling candles until +the hour of ten was reached. + +At ten o’clock I closed my book, put out my candle, and composed +myself to watch for the manifestation, which I _knew_ by inner +consciousness would be forthcoming. + +It was a dark and moonless night and not a flicker or ray of external +light penetrated the dark stretches of the haunted room. No wind +stirred the trees or moaned in the chimney-tops and the qualities of +absolute dark and absolute quiet were all that could be desired. + +Slowly out of the darkness seemed to come pinpoints of bluish +light--mere specks of phosphorescence scintillant in the still air. +The specks thickened and multiplied till they floated like a maze of +dancing midgets; then too came the dark power of oppression, that sense +of the dread and the uncanny that seems to grip the very heart and the +base of the skull in a numbing grip of fear. + +Cold grew the room, colder and colder--that sense of freezing that +experienced psychics associate with the dread phenomena of malevolent +apparitions. It is a coldness of the soul as well as of the body, a +dull biting cold that suggests the limitless freezing eternities of +interstellar space. + +The blue specks spun their dance and slowly became more luminous. They +collected in little nebulæ of light like cigarette ends of intense blue +radiance. Every particle of the air was filled with this luminosity, so +that the room seemed to be filled with a dull moonlight. + +Slowly the nebulæ changed from their spinning movement to a slow +weaving motion. Strands and floating webs of phosphorescence drifted +like smoke wreaths about the room. + +The points of light gave place to clouds of luminous mist like softly +rolling, utterly silent globes of dull blue light. Little by little the +dance of the globes speeded up. They spun and whirled and wove in and +out among themselves till they had drawn into one mass all the luminous +matter in the room. + +Like a terror-charged cloud this mass hovered some eight feet high, a +clear two feet off the floor; its brilliance waxed and waned and its +confines drew in. Slowly the cloud was taking shape as a pillar and +within the pillar one could see the ghastly shaping of the rudimentary +form. + +Here before my eyes was the actual form of the stranger--for this ghost +is a malevolent strangling demon--on the very point of concentration. + +Carefully I stretched out my hand to the leaden box, unscrewed the +cylindrical lid, and threw into my right hand the precious vial of +radium salt. + +The energy-charged tube glowed in the dark with all the beauty of +intense phosphorescence, and as I held it at arm’s length toward the +pillar of semi-materialization that represented all the evil forces of +discarnate Hate--_the mists of vapour rolled away. As if by magic the +whole apparition was dissipated_, and in twenty seconds was as if it +had never been. + +There is little more to be said. The theory had been brilliantly +vindicated in practice, but it is impossible to generalize from one +particular instance. Physicists know the wide range of differences +that exist between the different radium salts,[20] and there the matter +must rest until opportunity for further experiments is available. + +The analogous protective vibrations that the author of the monograph +alleges would work are all probable, but require considerably more +apparatus. To my mind the use of radioactive salts as talismans with +which to exorcise a case of malignant haunting is at once a great +and practical step in the direction of relieving humanity of these +troublesome psychic intruders. The discovery and the theory are one of +the most remarkable contributions to psychic science in our time. + +Pitchblende, from which radium is extracted, does not appear to have +attracted the attention of the ancients and there is no trace of its +use in any process of alchemy or the allied sciences. Dr. Dee’s magic +mirror is reported to have been of a black substance and it is possible +that it may have been of radioactive material, although this quality +is not necessary for the purposes for which he required it.[21] + +It is after all only a few years since the theory of ether waves and +vibrations was formulated. Research into psychic phenomena gives us +a chain of disconnected phenomena which nevertheless are obviously +connected. The distance from telepathy or thought-transference to +exteriorized energy or power-transference is but a short one. Science +will soon enable us to understand the mechanism of phenomena, and when +we once know the true rules or laws governing these phenomena we shall +be able to establish spirit communication at will. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[12] Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is perhaps to-day an even greater name. But +he is not a scientist and is greater as a publicist than as a healer +despite his medical degree. But then too--all the Apostles were not of +one trade. + +[13] _Proceedings S.P.R._ + +[14] _Ibid._, Vol. X, p. 394. + +[15] This particular ghost has been exorcised without effect. The +house has been visited by psychic experts of considerable eminence, +including H. Barson and others. The results of all these investigations +were uniformly disastrous and disagreeable, and there is reason to +believe that in some cases the health and mentality of less experienced +investigators were adversely affected. + +[16] Capt. Hugh Pollard was the author of this theory. His monograph +was never printed, but typescripts of his sensational lecture before +the members of the now defunct Odic Club were circulated to certain +interested parties. He tells me that he had previously spent an +interesting night at a haunted house. He was in the company of Mr. +Eliott O’Donell and obtained a puzzling and unsatisfactory flashlight +photograph of the manifestation that occurred on that occasion. + +[17] A complete scale of all known ether waves, including the visible +spectrum, has been drawn by Professor Lebedeff and is given on page 383 +of the English edition of Kolbe’s _Electricity_. + +[18] This is a little-known fact, but nevertheless a commonplace of +physics demonstrable in any lecture room. + +[19] The actual locality of X---- will be clear to many investigators. + +[20] The solution used was a solution of radium emanations which gives +out α, τ, and γ rays together. It is not well known which ray affects +the dissolution of psychoplasm. + +[21] The mirror of Dr. Dee is still in existence, but the material the +mirror is made of is a surface of polished coal. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + SEX IN THE NEXT WORLD + + +There is in existence an enormous mass of recorded spirit communication +concerning life and death. The one outstanding feature concerning these +revelations is that they tell us extremely little. Sometimes the reason +given for this withholding of information is that it is forbidden by +higher spirits, and it is certainly remarkable that despite the great +enthusiasm shown for the principles of democracy in this world, there +have never been any revelations of a democratic principle on the higher +plane. + +The rule of the next world appears to be that of a benevolent +autocracy, working through a hierarchy of directing spirits controlling +other spirits on clearly defined planes. We know nothing of the +political system of the other world except that there is no such thing +as any form of elective system, no majority rule, and little social +structure. + +The great dominant factor of the hereafter as described by the +bulk of Spiritualistic literature appears to be the acceptance of +_authority_. The recently arrived spirit is taken in hand by +“guides” who instruct, and the spirit then passes from grade to grade +or plane to plane, until it achieves an eminence entirely beyond the +bounds of human thought. + +There is perhaps no limit to the speculation that can be indulged in +concerning the after-life, but there are certain aspects of it that +appear contradictory. There are good spirits and bad spirits, low +grades and high grades and all intermediate stages. There are also low +spirits that are said never to have been human and high spirits of the +same non-mortal nature. But badness and goodness exist on the spiritual +planes as much as on this earth. + +The spirits who visit séances retain many of their earthly +characteristics. They state that they are still male and female despite +the assumption on the part of many writers that sex does not exist +upon the spiritual plane. The least possible experience of spirit +communication in any form is quite sufficient to expose this amazing +fallacy. + +If the differentiation of sex has any purpose at all, it can only have +the same purpose in the next world as it has in this. Otherwise sex +distinction would be cast off just as is the human body after death. + +This brings us to the consideration of how and why the myth of the +sexlessness of spirits has passed into acceptance as a fact. + +The Spiritualist is open to human error and it is only human to +build into our theories those things which tend to prove them and to +disregard matters which are not in harmony with our ideas. Both in +Britain and in America there is a certain amount of false modesty that +amounts to pruriency concerning all matters of sex. + +As a result, the very limited moral doctrines of sexual relationship +as understood by certain Christian sects, have been tacitly held to by +those dominating the after-life. Sex, as understood in conventional +terms, has been seen to be such a danger to the construction of a +hypothetical but perfectly moral future state, that the whole sex +question has been squashed by a statement by Spiritualists that sex +does not exist in after-life. + +This is entirely wrong, for, as I have pointed out above, according to +spirit statement sex does exist and it is only fair to suppose that it +is there for the usual reason. + +There exists the further problem of the origin of spirits that have +never been mortal. These must come somehow from somewhere, and there +is no reason to suppose that the continuation of sex upon the astral +planes is not for this purpose. Its existence is indeed an absolute +answer to the theories of parthenogenesis held by believers whose minds +were clouded with a residuum of theological beliefs. + +To sum up, we have evidence of the continuation of sex--indeed it is +a cardinal point, for it is impossible to believe in continuation +of personality after death unless sex continues with it. One cannot +logically believe in the one without the other. + +The state of error has arisen through the confusion of sex with sin. +The would-be formulators of the new Spiritualistic dogmas, having been +unable to effect a mental compromise between the moral and monogamous +Christian and the moral and polygamous Mohammedan, attempted to solve +the whole business by a bland statement that there was no sex in the +other world. + +Some writers do indeed recognize this permanence of sex, but gloss it +over.[22] They ignore the fact that if a thing exists it exists for a +purpose and the fatal conception that the gratification of a sex desire +is a sin persists throughout their pages. + +On the other hand, gratification of other voluptuous sense desires +such as aural pleasures from music or self-abandonment to any of +the pleasures of the intellect, appears to be regarded not only as +permissible but as praise-worthy. In fact, any analysis of the reported +habits and customs of the next world, plunges us into a mass of +paradoxical contradictions. + +In point of fact it is impossible to draw a hard-and-fast line between +the actual spirit revelation and interpolated ideas by the medium. It +is also notorious that as soon as any new concept of the next world is +published in book form, the “revelations” from any different sources +seem to take on an unmistakable tinge according to the latest theories. +In fact, a literary psychoanalysis of reported next worlds shows the +unmistakable traces of books read in the past. + +Certain accounts of the spirit life obtained through Mohammedan mediums +by French investigators in Algiers show what may be called a peculiarly +active sexual life in the after-world. This may possibly be attributed +to either early religious belief in a sensuous Mohammedan paradise or +alternatively to the particular type of Arab spirits who furnished +the description. In any case, the accounts could not be published for +general or even private reading, but there is no conceivable reason why +they should be deemed more unreliable than other spirit communications. + +Some idea of the theme of these revelations can be gathered if I may +say that one of the communicators, called Sidi Aissa Ben S’dub, +prefaces his words by the cryptic statement: “Know then, O mortals, +that here are neither camels nor horses--nor virtuous women,--for +us virtue, as ye know it, exists not. And, as I have related, there +being neither camels nor horses nor virtuous women, what think ye then +occupies the time of us who were strong men?” + +Oriental imagery is rich in terms concerning sex, and the revelation +as taken down in Arabic is a document of some literary value. Its +translation into precise French leaves us under no misapprehension +as to the actual technique of sex gratification on the next plane. +Their methods appear to be our methods, but it is of course impossible +to arrive at any conception of relative degrees of pleasure. It is +also curious to note that in the Arab revelations given there was no +reference at all to any ensuing spirit birth, but one interpretation of +and obscure text might lead one to suppose that the offspring of these +unions were “djinni,” i.e. non-mortal and soulless spirits. + +Cases of intercourse between djinns and mortals are the basis of many +Moslem tales and legends in which the sex interest is paramount. But +it must be borne in mind that the Mohammedan idea of the invisible +world is so different from that prescribed either by Eastern or Western +thought that it is almost impossible to co-ordinate it with any of our +accepted theories. + +On the other hand, no Spiritualist revelation or theory is of value +unless it fits all lands and all creeds. Thus, when the number of +spirit visitants of African, Red Indian, or other origin, is taken into +account, it is manifest that no _abstract theory of morality which is +not in accordance with the known physical facts concerning the spirit +world, is likely to be practised there_. + +As time goes on, it will become increasingly impossible for the +practising Spiritualist to ignore the enormous fact of sex. At present +various beliefs are held. These range from the pure sexlessness theory, +which is manifestly untenable to variations like a “perfectly pure and +spiritual sex relationship in no way physical,” or some such platitude. + +This kind of expression is pure mental flatulence, for it is clear that +in the spirit world there is nothing _physical_ as we know it, +and that everything there is _psychical_--again as we know it. + +The conception of the spirit world that is most widely held does +away with all idea of penal restrictions. Hell, purgatory, and +the theological varieties of damnation are contrary to the whole +conception. Once again we are dependent on spirit teaching for our +visualization of life in the hereafter, and having established +the existence of sex, which would not exist unless it implied the +permanence of sexual attraction and sex gratification, we not +unreasonably desire to know what, if any, are the sex limits in the +next life. + +The realm of speculation thus opened up is enormous. It is possibly the +vision of a voluptuous sensualist heaven. It is possibly the vision +of a new theory of hell in which spirits are unable to obtain the +gratification of those desires which they are equipped to experience. + +There is no particular reason to suppose that the married state +continues--indeed, there is evidence to the reverse. Altogether the +problems raised are far too great for the little evidence we have yet +obtained from the spirit world to lead us to a true solution. + +As ever we come back to the point of: How much is real spirit +communication? How much is simply well-meaning but inaccurate +Spiritualist interpretation or interpolation? + +The answer of the Spiritualist to such a question is usually the +affirmation that “desire does not exist in the spirit world.” + +This may be good enough to hoodwink the amateur or the shallow thinker, +but it must be remembered that the whole of what we must admit is +the dark side of Spiritualism, the bad or lying spirits, the demons +of possession and the demons of obsession, all these are active +affirmations of the reality of desire persisting. + +It is not enough for us to affirm that the dark elements are either +non-existent or simply the effects of our subconscious minds. If these +rules apply to the dark side they must apply to the light side, too. +If this were the case the whole fabric of Spiritualism crumbles to the +ground. If we accept any spirit evidence we must accept _all_ +spirit evidence, and we have no right to reject as unsound statements +that do not fall in with the theories which we have accepted on the +strength of similar statements. + +The continuation of sexual activity on the psychic planes may be +a staggering conception to some people, but a little thought will +show that it is not half such a shattering idea as the perfectly +unjustifiable hypothesis that there is none. + +The existence of sex in the spirit world leads us to the supposition +that there are there some organized forces of law and order, otherwise +this conception of the next world would seem to be a field where a +highly intellectual, intelligent, and powerful individual soul might +enjoy a limitless orgy of psychic rape. + +There is no reason to think that such a thing is impossible, for cases +of demoniac or spirit possession are in effect cases of psychic rape +of a mortal and often present instances of the most amazing sexual +aberration owing to the terrible desires of the uninvited tenant of the +mind. + +The believing Spiritualist has built on slender grounds a wonderful +conception of the spirit world, but it is a one-sided structure, and +it is important to note that the “Everything in the garden is lovely!” +idea of the next world is not by any means borne out by the revelations +of its inhabitants. One can indeed ask oneself what ground is there for +optimism? + +What reasons other than self-deception, self-assurance, and +self-flattery are there for sweeping away the idea of terror, +punishment, and the inexorable law of Abstract Justice that has for +ages been held to be implicit in the life hereafter? + +The sceptic is indeed justified when, after reading reams of well-meant +pseudo-religious twaddle, he asks the supporters of the new revelation: +“And _why_ should it all be _couleur de rose_?” + +Faith may do many things, but Faith cannot make black white--even in +the realm of the spirit. + +There is good reason to suppose that in the past many revelations +concerning sex-life in the spirit plane have been suppressed or +destroyed. The well-meaning Spiritualist with mediumistic gifts or the +capacity for automatic writing does not always get the precise kind of +spirit teaching expected. On the other hand, there is a wide difference +between the meaningless obscenities that are sometimes sent and various +coherent statements that can be classed as definite revelations. The +private operator, knowing little of the matters with which he or she is +dealing, is frequently ashamed to let these strange, frank manuscripts +or records be seen by others. Often they are shown to a wrong person, +classed as evil spirit writings, and the great question that animates +the spirit world: “Should mortals be told?” again goes on. + +At a séance held in Paris some interesting statements concerning the +psychic world were vouchsafed by a spirit calling itself Zaza Guilbert. +There were five of us at the table and two of the party were practised +automatists. + +First came some personal particulars of the spirit. She was born near +Grenoble, in Dauphine, in 1826, but was in Paris when Napoleon the +Third was proclaimed Emperor (1852) and was employed with theatrical +dressmaking. She married and left two girl children. + +It was the question: “Is life in the spirit world as gay and +gallant[23] as it was in those days in this sphere?” that set the ball +rolling. + +A. That depends on how you look at things. We are men and women over +here in so far as that goes. + +Q. Is life on the spirit plane sexless? + +A. Certainly not! (Emphasis conveyed by violent knocking of the table.) + +Q. (By one of the ladies of the party.) Is there childbirth in the +spirit world? + +A. Not in the same way as on earth. (No answer was returned to some +further inquiries on this subject.) + +Q. Is there separation of the sexes? + +A. No; it would be intolerable. + +Q. Is morality of earth binding on the spirit plane? + +A. No; that would be still more intolerable. + +Q. Have you a husband there? + +A. No; several affinities. + +Q. Intellectual affinities only? + +A. By no means. + +Q. Can you compare the relationship to any earthly parallel? + +A. Yes. Living _une vie de demi-mondaine sans reproche_. + +Q. Do all spirits enjoy life in this manner? + +A. It is not obligatory. + +Q. (By one of the ladies.) Are there scandals in the spirit world? + +A. Sometimes. + +Q. Are they due to moral censure of higher spirits? + +A. No; jealousy, because higher spirits mix themselves up in it. + +Q. Can you describe one of these scandals? + +A. Not through the table. Write. + +Q. You will give it as automatic writing? + +A. Yes. + +One of the automatists left the circle to fetch pencil and paper. Then +we resumed. The power appeared to be instantly forthcoming, and the +writing stated that: + +“Benedetta Chiesole was the mistress of Théodule Affra and several +other spirits on our plane. + +“This intimacy became obnoxious to a spirit called du Paits Herbault, +who was a monk of Montpellier in the sixteenth century. He was not +on our plane but higher up, but was permitted to come down to us for +certain purposes. Being on a higher plane, there was no way of keeping +him out when he was not wanted, for he had the power of passing through +all psycho-material substances that serve us as material substances +serve you. + +“His persecution of Benedetta was remarkable, for he was astonishingly +enamoured of her. At length matters got to such a pitch that the others +protested through the guides. But they got cold comfort. They were told +not to interfere with the higher spirits or it would be the worse for +them, and Benedetta was told that it was natural for her to have to +expiate her earthly shortcomings in this manner.” + +The results of other sittings at which other spirits have made +communications are in some cases quite as detailed and a great deal +more startling than the above. In addition, a great mass of what may +be definitely termed abnormal sex literature has come from the pens of +people practising automatic writing--and it is an indubitable fact +that some of these writings have been written under control by people +of irreproachable life and character. + +The common-sense explanation is that these writings and communications +have nothing whatever to do with spirits and that these are, so to +speak, a seething up of illegal desires and ideas which have been +repressed by the conscious mind into the censorship of the subliminal +self. This theory is only tenable if the whole basic doctrine that +these things are communicated by spirits is given up. + +If, on the other hand, we hold that there is anything at all in +Spiritualism we are faced with the inevitable conclusion that, however +much we may desire to get rid of it, sex is as troublesome in the next +world as in this.[24] + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[22] “People live in communities as one would expect if like attracts +like, and the male spirit still finds his true mate though there is no +sensuality in the grosser sense and no childbirth.” Sir A. Conan Doyle, +Chapter III, _The New Revelation_. + +[23] The word “gallant” carries rather different implications in French +than are covered by the literal English rendering of “gallant.” + +[24] The notes and papers concerning the physiological side of sex in +the next world that have been collected are not suitable for general +reading. Experienced Spiritualists will have no difficulty in surmising +the general character of these records. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE REALITY OF SORCERY + + +I have often been asked by folk who were perfectly serious in their +inquiry if there “was anything in” latter-day sorcery, and whether +the practice actually existed outside the realm of fiction. It is a +difficult question to answer, for the average man mixes up witchcraft, +sorcery and necromancy, and one cannot be certain whether he is +alluding to the dark ceremony of the Black Sabbath, to the use of +occult knowledge for malevolent purposes, or whether he is thinking of +wax images and pine, incantations and night rides astride a broomstick. + +Put in a simpler form, the question comes to this: Can experienced +occultists utilize spirit or unknown natural forces for malevolent +uses? The answer is an unhesitating affirmative. Under certain +conditions, it can be done. + +Magic has always been divided into white or good magic, and black or +bad magic. Both have been liberally endowed with ritual observance, but +shorn of non-essentials the determining factor that decides whether +magic is black or white is the secret intent of the operating magician. + +In the past the great popular attribute of the magician was his +knowledge of healing. He was not only a seer of the future and a finder +of lost things, but also a healer. On the reverse side may be set +against his capacity for healing his power for casting spells or doing +harm; against his draughts of beneficent medicine, his vials of poison. + +The doctor who uses hypnotic treatment, practises suggestion or acts as +a psychotherapeutist, is to-day the direct twentieth-century descendant +of the magicians of the past. Apollonius of Tyana is his patron; Merlin +worked his wonders by the same rules. + +It is to the modern studies in psychic science that we must turn +to find the underlying mechanisms of magic practices, for a full +three-quarters of art magic is due to the little-known effects of +hypnotism or suggestion, and but a shadowy balance to the powers of +discarnate intelligences of evil. + +The discoveries of the existence of “animal magnetism” by Mesmer was +the first step which brought the psychic phenomena of will domination +out of the realm of the occult into the domain of medical knowledge. +For a century Mesmer’s theory has been discredited, but to-day modern +students of psychic science are beginning to pay attention to it again. + +It fell into discredit owing to the discoveries of Braid, the +Manchester physician, who discovered that Mesmer’s phenomena could be +produced independently of the theory of “animal magnetism” by plain +hypnosis. + +Braid’s theories were followed out by Chercot and the Paris School of +Hypnotists, and their theories were in turn demolished by Liébault +and Bernheim of the Nancy School, who held that all the phenomena of +hypnotism in their turn were produced by suggestion. + +In point of actual fact, advanced thinkers of to-day hold that the same +effect may be produced by all three methods of practice. In the same +way we may produce a given electrical phenomenon such as the lighting +of an incandescent lamp by the action of chemical solutions on metals +in a battery, or by the rotation of a coil of wire between magnetic +poles in a dynamo. The methods are different, but the forces evolved +and the effect obtained are identical. + +The lay mind will follow my argument better if I use the loose terms of +hypnotism and hypnosis than if I attempt a more scientific terminology. + +The first point that must be grasped is that the sorcerer or wizard +possesses psychic gifts or qualities of an entirely different order to +those claimed by Spiritualists. + +The sorcerer is a hypnotist--that is to say, he is an individual who +possesses the power of emitting or radiating an unknown psychic force. + +Most people are neutral, they neither radiate this force nor do they +oppose or resist its passage, but the individuals who are susceptible +to its action seem to possess the faculty of arresting this radiation +and converting it to mental energy within themselves. These are the +people who are what is known as good hypnotic subjects. + +In the histories of the great sorcerers of the past the _assistant_, +that is to say the subject, plays as important a rôle as does the mage +himself, for the subject is the instrument of the master. + +The average person who possesses mediumistic or psychic qualities in +the Spiritualistic sense, is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred in a +greater or lesser degree a sensitive hypnotic subject. + +The odd few who do not come in the above category may be classed as +hermaphroditic or doubly gifted individuals who possess both radiating +power and subjectivity. One or two noted materializing mediums of the +past have been thus endowed. + +In the usual circle there is the medium and the sitters. Some of these +may be neutral, but in an average circle there are one or more who +possess unknown to themselves a certain amount of radiant force. It is +this which passes along the chain of hands to the medium where it is +arrested and condensed to play its mysterious part in the liberation +of psychic elements that can be utilized by the unseen spirit workers. + +If there is present in the circle an individual who is greatly endowed +with this force--and whose mental desires approximate to black rather +than white magic, we have an instance of those dread dangers that beset +those who unwittingly pass beyond the threshold of the known. + +The trance state of the medium is akin to light hypnosis and the +subject or medium of a well-meaning little circle of Spiritualists may, +unknown to him or herself, become the slave of one or other of the +members of the circle. + +It is an asseveration with hypnotists that they have no power without +the _consent_ of the individual. But once they have won the entry +of the mind that entry is theirs for ever, and even the bodily presence +of the operator is not required to achieve this domination of the mind +of the subject.[25] + +The common instances where this kind of thing occurs cannot be classed +as true sorcery, for in most cases the operator is unconscious of how +or why the fulfilment of his desires comes about. The true sorcery only +comes in when an individual possessing the required psychic faculty, +and in addition, occult knowledge, exerts these of set purpose in order +to gratify his desires. + +Vengeance of an enemy, the subjugation of another’s will, the +satisfaction of a sex passion, all these are motives for sorcery. The +witch-doctor of West Africa, the voodoo priestesses of Cuba and Hayti +practise these accomplishments no less than their white brethren in +black magic. Sorcery lives to-day no less than it lived centuries ago. +There are several roads to its portals--but not a track leading back to +the regions of light for those that pass its gates. + +The first aim of the sorcerer is to get the victim in a state of +suggestibility. This can be accomplished in a dozen different ways well +known to the practised student. + +In the first, fumes of a special sort of incense played no +inconsiderable part in the rôle of sorcery. According to ritual +they are to propitiate the spirits--in actual practice they induce +relaxation on the part of the subject and assist in building up that +necessary atmosphere which is essential to suggestibility. + +The effect of darkness, of points of light gleaming amid surrounding +dark, the magic mirror or the crystal globe; all these were more than +stage properties--they are the mechanical implements of suggestion. + +Let us suppose that some weak and curious woman visits a sorcerer to +obtain his help in some affair of heart. The man of mystery seats her +in a comfortable chair; the lights are lowered and he tells her to gaze +at the crystal ball upon the table before her. + +Fumes of incense hang in the heavy air. The man’s voice is clear, +dominant, and sonorous; slowly it becomes soothingly monotonous. + +Gradually the client feels languor stealing over her. The crystal +becomes cloudy and in the globe appears something that she knows and +recognizes. + +Probably the crystal tells her nothing that means anything to her. +Certainly she has seen in it nothing but what she has known at some +time before,[26] or something that the magician has seen before. But +the net result is that she is convinced of the occult powers possessed +by him. + +This is the prelude to other visits and little by little her will +yields to that of the sorcerer and the suggestions that he has +implanted in her subconscious mind begin to take effect. If he is a +daring scoundrel, his domination may take any form. Unconscious that +she is not acting of her own free will, she may yet be brought to place +at his disposal everything and anything that he may require of her. + +He has invoked no spirit aids, but has caused the powers of hypnotism +and suggestion, taking advantage of the light condition of hypnosis +induced by the crystal-gazing. Police and press persecutions of the +Seers of Bond Street are not altogether unjustified in many cases. The +real facts may not be brought out at the court, owing to the shame that +publicity would inflict upon the dupes, but the prosecution is, in nine +cases out of ten, justifiable. + +The class of petty criminals above mentioned are again not true +sorcerers, in that they only use occult natural forces, summoning to +their aid no spirit attributes. In the lowest grade of the sorcerers we +find the necromancers. + +There are still a few of these in Paris and latterly there was one in +the West Country. It depends on the individual operator how much of his +ceremonial is for the purpose of inducing suggestibility or partial +hypnosis and how much is for the direct evocation of evil spirits. Very +often the necromancer himself is deluded enough to confuse natural with +supernatural power. + +There is a certain class of spirits to whom the ancients gave the name +of Lemures. These can be semi-materialized, made visible, and bound to +service by a comparatively simple ritual, for in place of needing the +material vehicle of ectoplasm, extended by a materializing medium, they +can take shape from the emanations of warm blood. + +This vital fluid plays an important part in all magical ceremony. We +find mention of it from the days when Ulysses poured blood and wine +into a trench to call up the spirits before he went down into hell. +In the dark history of Gilles de Retz[27] the blood ritual is seen in +all its ghostliest fluorescence. The calabash of blood of the “white +goat” is essential in obi and voodoo magic, and blood, fresh blood, not +necessarily but preferably human, is used by the necromancer of to-day. + +Those learned in occult matters will readily perceive the precious +function that blood emanations exercise, but on the contrary, the man +of science and the psychologist will not be able to understand the part +that blood plays in this peculiar alchemy. + +It must be clearly understood that experiment of this nature is +extraordinarily perilous and that any attempt at necromancy by +students whose knowledge is insufficient can have none but disastrous +results.[28] + +The elemental forces evoked by this ceremony may be compared to +gunpowder. Any fool can blow himself up with powder by setting a match +to it, but it takes a skilled artillerist to harness the forces and +make them propel a projectile to a given target. Experiment with +elemental forces is analogous and the greater part of the ritual deals +with the protection of the operator or sorcerer himself from those +dread spirits who obey his summons. + +In 1912 I attended the course of lectures on psychic science given at a +sub-school of the University of Jena. A fellow-student there gave me a +letter of introduction to Gottlieb Bentlemeyer, a professor of law at +one of the Hanover Hochschulen and an ardent student of black magic. + +At that time he had rooms in the Wiesenstrasse and had in his charge +one or two private pupils whom he was cramming for their necessary +examinations. One of these lads, a youngster from Stettin, in North +Prussia, was his assistant in the necromantic art, and was a most +highly gifted sensitive or hypnotic subject. + +It was not until we had had several ordinary séances and he had shown +me some astounding experiments in the externalization of sensibility +and clairvoyance under hypnosis that I deemed it fit to mention the +subject of necromancy. + +We were at that time in the Hanover Museum and had been examining +an exhibit of “Qualapparat”--racks, winches, and torturing-irons of +various descriptions. It was our discussion of the possible sending +of the spirit of his assistant, Walther Kraus, under hypnosis to +psychometrize these vile memorials of a brutal past that raised the +subject. We came to the conclusion that the experiment would be +extremely hazardous, but Bentlemeyer kindly offered to attempt to call +up the spirit of one or more of the men who had used these things. + +“It will not be an easy task to find them,” he said, “but being men of +blood it may be possible to find them by means of the blood elementals.” + +It took us three days to make our preparations, for although +Bentlemeyer had an excellent and systematically arranged cabinet of +magical requisites, one or two things had to be procured. + +His association with the Hochschule enabled him to obtain fresh blood +through the agency of one of his medical colleagues. + +We rehearsed the ritual carefully, in order that there should be no +fault, and I must confess that I prepared myself for the ordeal with +considerable trepidation. His ceremonial of evocation was slightly at +variance with accepted French practice, but the discrepancies were +not material and appeared to have crept in during the time of King +Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia. Bentlemeyer informed me that the original +MS. in German and Hebrew had been in the possession of the celebrated +Steinert.[29] + +It was a clear autumn night with a perfect moon; the air had a touch of +frost in it and the great town of Hanover was quiet and still. + +Bentlemeyer was already in his robes when one of the pupils admitted +me. I changed into the necessary garments, took the rod and girdle +which he had lent me, and placed the snake-hilted poniard in its belt +sheath. + +The circle of evocation had been marked out in chalk on the floor. The +prepared candles burnt in the angles of the pentacle and the saucers of +salt and the elements were in their appropriate places. The sorcerer +stood within his circle of protection facing the small tripod brazier +in which was a brazen plate glowing over the frame of a small spirit +lamp. + +I took my place within the _enceinte_ of a similar diagram, and +on a couch, lying between us, was Walther, the assistant. The candle +lights burnt in the draughtless atmosphere, the dull yellowish flames +standing up without a flicker, sending their faint tail of black smoke +toward the ceiling. Beyond the confines of our protective circles was a +grotesque bronze bowl or shallow basin. Bentlemeyer removed the black +velvet hood that covered it and the filmy crimson surface of fresh +blood gleamed in the light. + +At a sign we began the chanting of the preliminary invocations to the +guardians of the gates. The room was sonorous with the great Hebrew +names, and from time to time a fresh pinch of incense on the brazier +would send a wreath of pungent fume across the room. + +The boy on the couch breathed heavily, loosened the restriction of his +garments, and soon subsided into a definite state of trance. + +From invocation we changed to the ritual of evocation. And before the +echoes of the first summons had died down, a cold wind seemed to burst +out in the very heart of the room itself, making the candles flicker +and the shadows flit and dance in arabesques across the low ceiling. + +I felt for the poniard at my belt and drawing it from its sheath held +the naked blade ready.[30] + +The second and third utterances of the words of power intensified the +effect and the boy moaned pitifully. + +Bentlemeyer signed to me with his rod to look toward the blood bowl. + +The surface of the liquid was being slowly agitated, strong swirls +and broken wave motions appeared on the surface, sluggish, iridescent +bubbles floated for a while and burst, and at last the whole body of +fluid within the bowl was in a state of violent agitation. + +The sorcerer bent to a vessel on the ground and threw upon the brazier +some new essence--not an incense. The smoke wreathed itself above the +brazier, then seemed to take shape like a pillar and curve toward the +blood bowl. + +Slowly yet distinctly the vapours clustered above the blood and slowly +took semi-human shape. Incessantly they changed and melted--now +limb-like, here betraying the outline of a demon face, there a +pillared, smoothly working trunk. + +From the bowl came a noise like cats’ tongues lapping and now and then +the bowl itself would tilt and move a fraction of an inch or so about +the floor. For a moment we watched this monstrous manifestation in +silence. Then the sorcerer resumed his ritual and bound the spirits +present to do his bidding to the spell of the Three Known and One +Unknown elements. + +“What are your names?” he asked, and the elemental demons or spirits +speaking through the trance-bound boy gave them. + +“Who is your leader?” There was a momentary hesitation, and then a +spirit answering to the name of Amalik assumed the leadership. + +“Have you been a mortal?” + +“No, I was never mortal. I was an earth-spirit, serving the priests of +Odin till the Cross came.” + +“What brought you here to-night?” + +“The Blood Libation and the summons. What do you want of us? We wish to +depart.” + +“You are bound to do my bidding by the words of Might. You may not go. +I want you to find for me the spirit of one of the men of blood who +used the torture instruments in the Museum.” + +“I do not know the men.” + +“I command you to seek them. I command all of you by the powers that +are mine to seek and bring them.” + +For a moment there was silence, broken only by the laboured breathing +of the boy. Then he spoke again. + +“I have found one, O Masters.” + +“What is his name?” + +“Kurt Ettethurm.” + +“He is to answer my questions himself. Where did you live?” + +A new and harsher voice issued from the boy’s lips. + +“By Sachsenhausen, near Augsburg.” + +“When?” + +“In the time of Charles the Fifth of Spain.” + +“Were you one of his torturers?” + +“No, I served Count Anton of Tornen.” + +“Who were your victims?” + +“Criminals, bandits, and Lutherans.” + +“When did you die?” + +“At Muhlberg.” + +“When--not where?” + +“At Muhlberg--killed in the battle of Muhlberg.” + +“Where are you now?” + +“Why ask? I am in a lower state.” + +“Do you revisit this sphere unless summoned?” + +“I am always here, but you cannot see me.” + +“Where are you usually?” + +“By the slaughter houses.” + +“Do you move from place to place?” + +“Yes, I follow the Scharfrichter (headsman).”[31] + +“Why?” + +“To watch.” + +“Are you bound to?” + +“No, I like it.” + +“Can you show yourself to us?” + +“I do not think so. Help me and I will try.” + +“How can we help you?” + +“Place that bowl of blood at the northern corner of the pentacle.” + +I must have started to move forward, for Bentlemeyer shouted at me to +keep still, and I realized in a flash that I had nearly been trapped +into going beyond the protection of my circle. + +The boy began to chuckle horribly and then suddenly choked. Before our +eyes his face became empurpled, his eyes seemed to start from his head, +and the tongue protruded. His legs kicked and his hands beat feebly at +something solid--impenetrable--but invisible, that poised in the empty +air above him. + +“Stop it, for God’s sake!” I cried to Bentlemeyer. + +My voice awoke him from the creeping paralysis of terror that was +mastering him, and raising the scroll of the ritual he recovered +himself by an effort of will, and uttered the words of the spell of +release. + +A swirl of icy cold wind seemed to sweep about us, and I stabbed at the +invisible grasp that seemed to be plucking at my garments. Two of the +candles went out and the windows rattled violently in their frames. +Then with frightening suddenness the manifestations ceased. + +The boy was gasping for breath once more and the terror had passed. + +Not until the last of the valedictory phrases of the ritual had been +said did either of us dare leave our stations. Then both of us, shocked +and terrified by what we had seen, went over to the boy Walther. + +He was deeply entranced yet, breathing heavily; the colour had not +yet ebbed from his face and on his brow were beads and runnels of +perspiration. + +Bentlemeyer made a few passes, breathed on his eyelids, and brought him +round. But there on his uncollared neck was the dark, bruised imprint +of strangling fingers. + + * * * * * + +This experience was phenomenal. We examined the room carefully +afterwards and came to the conclusion that the couch on which Walther +was lying projected at one corner over the circuit of the diagram +that should have protected it. The identity of the spirit we could +not determine. Whether it was really the spirit of the executioner or +torturer, whether it was merely an impersonation by a demon elemental, +or what particular denizen of the realm of evil it was that came to the +summons and the blood bowl I cannot say. + +I learnt later that Bentlemeyer was, despite his learning and his +professional standing, a man of notoriously evil and depraved life. +There is no doubt that our experiences that evening thoroughly startled +him. A brother student of proven reliability told me later that +Bentlemeyer had assured him that he could and did evoke evil spirits, +and evoke them to execute malicious tricks upon his confrères in the +professional world. + +In this connection it is interesting to note that when looking +through his cabinet of magical instruments I saw two small nude waxen +models, male and female. I asked at the time the purpose of these and +he explained that they were used by him in a hypnotic experiment +with Walther. This was the phenomenon known as externalization of +sensibility. + +Under hypnosis Walther’s feeling of sensation could be transferred by +the operator to any object, such as a glass of water or a waxen doll. A +pin-prick on the surface of the water would be felt by him as an acute +pricking sensation all over the body. When the doll was used, pain was +felt by Walther in the precise place where the doll was pricked.[32] + +The hypothesis is that the sorcerer and wizard of the Middle Ages made +use of this phenomenon and that their victims were the unconscious +victims of hypnosis. Before this hypothesis can be dismissed by the +sceptic it should be remembered that sorcery flourished best in ages of +faith and superstition. An active belief in the powers of sorcery or +witchcraft facilitates not only direct suggestion, but also suggestion +on self-hypnosis. + +A point of interest is that the effects of sorcery or evil suggestion +are capable of being remedied by people who understand the subject. +Exorcism is valuable and is as real as sorcery, and it is by no means +a lost art among those occultists who have studied the dark side of +spirit phenomena in order to know all that we are allowed to know of +this dangerous subject. + +Above all things, the Spiritualist who has certain healing qualities in +connection with mediumistic gifts should avoid any attempt at exorcism. +Cases have been known when the attempt was successful, but only in +so far that the evil was transferred from the original victim to the +would-be healer. As a rule, the results are bad for both parties. The +mental and consequently physical dangers of this kind of thing are far +too serious to be lightly meddled with. One cannot insist on this too +strongly. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[25] Chapter X of Professor Boirac’s _Psychic Science_ “Experimental +Researches in Sleep Provoked at a Distance.” + +[26] See Proceedings of La Société Universelle d’Etudes Psychiques and +_Proceedings S.P.R._, V and VIII. + +[27] See “Gilles de Rais, dit Barbe Bleu.” Bonsard et Maulde, _History +of Magic_, Chapter VI: “Eliphas Levi.” In fiction, Huysman’s _La-Bas_. + +[28] For obvious reasons I have suppressed the detail of ritual. + +[29] Steinert was the chief adept in the Society of the Illuminati. See +_Essai sur la Secte des Illuminés_, Marquis de Lachet. + +[30] Elementals cannot face pointed steel. Probably because the latter +concentrates radiations of psychic force from the human body which are +destructive to them. + +[31] In Germany capital punishment is still carried out by the +headsman, who beheads with a sword. + +[32] Chapter II, _Psychical and Supernormal Phenomena_, by Dr. Paul +Joire; Chapter XV, _Psychic Science_, by Emile Boirac, and numerous +other works give details of this phenomenon. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + INCENSE AND OCCULTISM + + +The ancients possessed amazing secrets concerning psychic knowledge +of all kinds. Apart from the philosophical tenets held by the various +degrees of priestcraft there was a special secret knowledge of what may +be called the mechanical side. They knew how to produce phenomena. + +Then as now, the specially gifted were used in connection with the +service of mysteries, but in all the old cults which attained to +any degree of organization the arch-priests or hierophants were not +themselves mediums, but made use of mediums as instruments. The rôle +played by the medium was a more or less unimportant one just as to-day +the “psychics” used by the different sects of Tibetan Lamas are +relatively unimportant and insignificant members of the priestcraft. + +The priests had, however, other secrets--secrets which on occasion +conferred the gift of vision on the ordinary non-psychic person. +Sacerdotalism and royalty were closely allied not only in ancient +Egypt, but throughout the bulk of the mid-Oriental and Byzantine cults. +Then as now, people demanded proof of miracles and the proof had to be +forthcoming. + +Little by little, savants have recovered from hieroglyph and papyri, +from stone and manuscript, something of the great rituals and something +of both the outer and inner forms of these dead faiths. + +We know enough to realize that the adepts possessed the art of +releasing the spirit from the body and of producing the trance state +not only in individuals but in comparatively large congregations. + +The two hypotheses are the agency of hypnotism and the agency of some +mechanical or physiological factor such as a drug. + +The possibilities of hypnotism in the form of crowd suggestion cannot +be overlooked, but it does not entirely account for some of the +phenomena that tradition has handed down and which is substituted by +contemporary record. + +Analysis of some of these cults shows that the initiates partook of a +ceremonial drink or brew of some kind and that there is a more than +mystical use of the censer. Nine-tenths of the so-called propitiatory +ritual was symbolic, but there remains an unexplained tenth part whose +agency was primarily that of mechanical excitant of what one may term +“psychism”--those qualities of perception that we class as psychic +gifts. + +It is precisely these extraordinarily valuable secrets that were +among the deepest arts of the priestcraft. There was no record of +these--nothing direct is to be found in the writings, and although +it is possible to recover the philosophic bases of the myths these +rule-of-thumb mysteries still elude us. + +After all, many other similar secrets, and even fairly well-known +common facts of antiquity, have been lost to us. We do not know the +composition of the celebrated Roman fish sauce “garum.” We cannot tell +what are the ingredients of Stradivarius’ violin varnishes or some old +master’s colours. Nevertheless, it is unreasonable to suppose that the +necessary materials have vanished from the earth. We have the whole +known world to ransack for them where the ancients had only a limited +and circumscribed number of plants, beasts, and minerals from which to +gather their ingredients. + +The function of some drugs is to produce mental effects, visions, +hallucinations, dreams, and phantoms. The logical assumption is that +the ancients knew certain rule-of-thumb methods of utilizing some forms +of these drugs in such a way as to loosen the hold of the body (and the +consciousness) upon the mind, and to produce an artificial state of +clairvoyance. + +The wizard of the Middle Ages was also a doctor, and it is claimed that +the familiar that inhabited the sword of Paracelsus--which sword he +always had by him and could never be parted from--was none other than a +certain amount of opium concealed in the hollow pommel.[33] + +The function of hypnotic drugs is known to a point. That is to say, we +know what effect is produced on a normal individual by a given dose of +an unknown drug, but in nine cases out of ten we do not know precisely +how this effect is brought about and have few clues to the series of +physiological reactions that bring about the mental state. + +The connection between a physical draught and a mental state is +indicated throughout the history of magic. Ceremonial libations, ritual +consumption of potions or “devil’s brews” of one kind and another are +part and parcel of the traditions of necromancy and sorcery. + +The connection between these hypnotic draughts and the practice of +poisoning was not clearly perceived by most writers of the past. +Sorcery and poisoning were indeed twin practices of the Middle Ages, +for where the spell might fail white arsenic would succeed, but it +is not fair to class all magical potions as preparations of secret +poisons, although in point of fact most of the hypnotic drugs are toxic. + +The methods of administering the drugs are two--namely, by draught, +that is to say by direct consumption, and inhalation. The function +of the incense used in thaumaturgical ceremonies was primarily to +intoxicate the audience. + +Just as the Pythoness of the Delphic oracles inhaled the vapours of +the magic cave, so the Egyptians inhaled prepared incenses in their +temples. The casting of herbs upon the fire, the burning of prepared +sacrificial candles or flambeaux, all these play their part in the +mechanical induction of the psychic state. + +Frankincense and myrrh, and in particular gum benzoin, possess soothing +properties that affect the throat and nasal passages. Besides being +pleasant, these gums formed an excellent vehicle for disguising the +scent of other matters and preventing their spasmodic or instant action +on the throat. + +The kyphic or incense of ancient Egypt[34] was compounded of myrrh, +gum-mastic, aromatic rush roots, resin, and juniper berries. To these +aromatics were added small quantities of symbolic elements, such as +grapes, honey and wine, and a portion of bitumen or _asphateum_, +whose purpose might be either symbolic or to serve as a binding medium +for the mass. + +In addition to these, various spices and perfumes were used. Cinnamon +bark, sandalwood, cardamom, and even ambergris and musk. The influence +of scent upon the emotions is well known and the Egyptians favoured the +use of ambra and musk as definitely aphrodisiacal perfumes. To-day pure +essence of patchouli is used in the Orient to serve the same end, and +anybody who has ever smelt a vial of the pure oil will recognize the +instant disturbance of certain nerve centres that it produces. + +The clue to the secret of the ancient incense lies not in what we have +been able to recover from the papyri, but in the word itself. Kyphi +is recognizable to-day in “keef,” the popular name for the smokable +variety of the herb cannabis indica. + +Cannabis indica is none other than our old friend hashish, the +haseesh of the writers of the time of the Crusades, who gave us those +descriptions of the Old Man of the Mountains and his Hasch-hassins. +From them we get our commonplace word--assassin. + +It is not, after all, a far cry from the mysteries of Osiris in Egypt +to the Thammus or _Dumuri-absu_ of Syria and Babylon. + + “Thammuz came next behind + Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured + The Syrian damsels to lament his fate + In amorous ditties all a summer’s day,” + +says Milton. + +Osiris and Thammus “died” annually, and mimicry of the symbolic event +was the basis of all ritual. In the mysteries the initiates “died,” +too, but the death was no mere formula, but an actually induced state +of stupor of deep trance brought about by the fumes of the “keef.” + +These secrets lingered long in Lebanon, where to this day the +Crypto-christianity of the Druses may be identified with many of the +actual practices of magic. + +The master of the Assassins was a master hypnotist, using the dark +knowledge of certain parts of the mechanical ritual of magic to gain +his mastery over the Moslem youths he sent as fanatics to do his +bidding. + +There in the Lebanon he created his artificial paradise of sensuous +delight, drugged dreams and slumber. His commands laid upon his slaves +were no ordinary commands--but spells as black as any weaved by sorcery. + +The master lodge of this cult of the Assassins was at Cairo and the +mysteries were only transferred to their new setting in the Lebanon by +Hassan ibn Sabbah at the end of the eleventh century. Outwardly Moslem, +the inner mysteries had no connection with either Mohammedan or any +other religion, and indeed the cult seems to be in many ways a kind of +bastard Masonic organization. + +Nominally a Moslem sect of Ismailites, the organization was under a +commander, the _Sheik-al-Tebel_, or Chief of the Mountains, who +was served by minor chiefs or priors--the three _Dai-al-kirbal_. +Following these came the _Dais_ or adepts, and below them three +minor grades, _Refigos_, _Fedais_, and _Lasigos_.[35] + +The Fedais or “entered apprentice” grade furnished the rank and file of +the fanatical executants of the paramount will, and these Fedais, who +were customarily mentally and physically pathic, never rose above this +step in the mysteries. + +The Society of the Assassins was nominally suppressed by Halaga, +the Mogul invader of the middle of the thirteenth century, but the +knowledge, the secrets, and the traditions endured and still endure to +this day. + +The organization was undoubtedly an evil one; it also had nothing to +do with Masonry, but it is an interesting example of an occult society +whose powers affected the course of history, and methods of working +were essentially based upon mechanical rather than spiritual methods of +producing a certain state of mind. + +The effect of hashish is a very difficult thing to define. Essentially +a hypnotic--an annihilator of time and space and a stimulant of +hallucinations--it is also a drug largely dependent on the idiosyncracy +of the individual. The same does not necessarily produce equivalent +results in individuals of differing temperament, and for all practical +purposes the psychic value of the dose varies inversely with the +standard of intelligence of the recipient. Also, when dealing with +subjects of dual or multiple personality, it tends to liberate the more +violent and uncontrolled of the individualities. + +Hashish is absorbed rapidly. Cases have been known where a little of +the extract used as an anodyne in corn plasters has been absorbed and +produced hallucinatory state. As a smoke, veiled by incense or mixed +with tobacco, rapid intoxication results from its inhalation. This was +one of the keys--perhaps the greatest of the keys--to the storehouse of +those treasures of the mind which are the time Elixir, the True Gold of +the Magi. + +In actual practice there is a preliminary state of suggestibility under +the influence of hashish when the operator can exercise his will upon +that of the subject. This stage is soon passed over and in the later +dream states suggestion is inoperative. + +The modern pharmacist has lost the secret of the herb whose therapeutic +function is to control the action of the cannabis indica, so that the +subject remained in the suggestible state and did not pass on to the +later stages of hallucinatory visions. + +We may take it that so far as the old world is concerned, the half +of the secret has been recovered, but the balancing or deterrent +herb is still unrecognized by the pharmacopœia and known only to a +specialist few among experimental occultists. Just as hashish itself +is missing from the recipient, the Ebers papyri, so is the balancing +coefficient.[36] + +On the other hand, the same secret of priestcraft is known on the +other side of the Atlantic. We may or may not believe in the myth +of lost Atlantis and the transmitted ritual, but both the Zaquis of +Sonora and the Tamachecks of Guatemala possess a ritual observance in +which cannabis Americana, a new cousin of the cannabis indica, is the +stimulant agent. + +Other tribes use a brew of the mescal bean, but this is a purely +American species and the active principle anhalonium,[37] does not act +on precisely the same nerve centres as the cannabinote principle of the +hemps. + +In both cases the induction of a species of intoxication by means of +the sacred herbs gathered in certain lunar or astrological aspects +is held by the natives to be the basis of the communion with the +spirits of the departed dead. The Spiritualist believes that there are +spirits of the dead, the physiologist claims that the “spirits” are +hallucinatory or that they are merely reflex as from the subconscious +mind of the individual or of other individuals. This twin explanation +runs through all psychic phenomena, but not until all phenomena known +to be produced by Spiritualist circles can be produced under hypnosis +will the Spiritualist theory be finally disproved. + +The rank and file of Spiritualists are unaware that the scientific +world has a demonstrable answer to nine-tenths of the wonder that +the believing Spiritualist is convinced can only occur by means of +discarnate spirit intelligences. But the honest investigator should +bear in mind that only certain rare phenomena remain unchallenged and +are at present unattainable by practising psychologists. + +When the phenomena of materialization--the externalization of +force--are producible by hypnotists, then the whole spirit hypothesis +is imperilled, for the scientists will be able to produce these effects +not by spirit intervention but at the behest of human will. + +Still, for the moment, the uncritical white, like the barbarous Indian, +is justified in his belief in external spirit agency as the only +explanation for the apparently miraculous. + +A friend of mine who had been a member of an exploring expedition whose +mission was to trace a tributary of the river Usmacinta in Chiapas on +the Mexico-Guatemala border to its source in the volcanic country round +the unknown Lago de Peten, made a careful study of the ritual of the +Tamachacks. + +These people still carry out a pre-Columbian religion which antedates +that of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations both of Mexico and the +Yucatan peninsula. + +Essentially symbolic in that it takes into account primitive nature and +ancestor worship, the basis of the cult is the evocation of the spirits +of the departed dead for tribal and personal counsel and consultation. +The means employed in the production of the psychic state is the smoke +of the _cannabis americana_. The native name of this herb is +_marihuana_. + +The following is my friend’s description of one of the actual native +ceremonies at which he was present: + +“We were up in the Intamal country about four days’ hard river +travelling beyond the San Cristobal frontier. Little by little, +the isolated plantations disappeared, and soon we were deep in the +untouched jungle country where there are only native villages. + +“That day I was with the advance party, and as we were making a fairly +complete cadastral survey of our route, we deviated slightly toward a +largish jungle-covered hill that would furnish us with an excellent +commanding position for triangulation. + +“My native peons were carrying our little transit theodolite and we +were following a native track that led toward the hill when our party +was suddenly surrounded. + +“A whistle blew in the jungle and out from the bush came semi-nude +Indians variously armed. A few had trade guns, but the bulk carried the +inevitable machete, while a minority had short bows and long quivers of +obsidian-headed arrows. + +“They offered us no overt violence, but made it abundantly clear that +they resented any party attempting to scale their hill. Most of the +dialogue was in the native tongue, a debased agglutinative inflective +speech similar to Nanhatl. The leader, who wore a peculiar breastplate +of featherwork, could, however, talk Spanish comparatively fluently. + +“My greatest trouble was to induce him to understand that we were not +a prospecting party and were not after gold. Talk with our men who had +been with us some months finally reassured him. A chance compliment +of mine about his feather breastplate, which was of quetzal feathers, +opened the magic door to me. + +“It was astonishing to that Indian, who had probably not seen a hundred +white men, as distinct from Mexicans, in all his life, to find in me a +man who knew more about the mythological importance of the quetzal bird +than he knew himself. + +“My work on the ruined cities of Yucatan and my studies of the Mittall +codices and similar work had given me a sound knowledge of the worship +of Quetzalcoatl the god of the Morning Star, to whom the wonderful +emerald-plumaged quetzal bird is sacred. + +“To cut a long story short, I arranged things with the head-man so +that we could camp in his village that night. The people were kindly, +once they understood that we were not gold hunters and meant no harm, +and my friend the head-man, having introduced me to certain elders and +discussed with them my knowledge of their almost extinct faith, invited +me to be present as a participant in a religious feast to be held that +night. + +“The feast was that of the Cozca cuaptli--the feast of vultures, birds +as important in the Mayan underworld as in the Egyptian ceremonies. + +“Shortly after dusk I left the village with them, going alone and to +all external seeming unarmed. We made a long journey through the bush, +climbing higher all the time, and I realized that we were actually on +the sacred hill that they had forbidden us to ascend. + +“Here and there along the route we were stopped by sentries or guards, +but at last gained the top of the hill. Here, encircled by trees, was a +flat table top or plateau a few acres in extent. + +“Rising on the plateau was a series of three square terraces +culminating in a small ruined building, roofless yet sound as to its +walls. The lowest plateau was packed with Indians; on the second were +congregated the elect--the tribal seniors and the priests. Above them a +figure or two moved in the building. + +“My friends took some time explaining my presence, and it was obvious +that I was regarded with dark disfavour by the mass of the natives. +Soon it dawned on me that I was under guard, an unobtrusive guard, but +nevertheless under guard. At last I was taken to the high priest of the +ceremonial. + +“He was a wonderful old Indian who spoke the accented Latin Spanish of +forgotten generations. He examined me, and though I could not reply to +certain mysterious ritualistic questions that he put to me, he was at +length satisfied that I had an efficient working knowledge not only +of his ritual but of its underlying astronomical and philosophical +significance. Eventually he was satisfied, and on a word from him I +was taken in hand by two native youths who bound a fillet of red-dyed +wool worked with feather devices round my brow and gave me a peeled +rod surmounted by a vulture’s skull to hold as a wand of office. Over +my clothes was put a loose dark brown cotton robe sewn with charms and +trimmed at each shoulder with tufts of sombre plumage. + +“Thus dressed I took my place among the elders. For a while nothing +happened, then slowly the noise of the crowd died down and expectancy +gave place to clamour. From somewhere in the forest came the sudden +rhythm of native drums seemingly casual, inopportune, and meaninglessly +cadenced. + +“Little by little the monotony of the drum throbbing became more +insistent, more definitely rhythmical. A brazier in the temple building +began to glow red, and far below in the valley mists we could see a +group of flaring torches dancing like fireflies as their bearers scaled +the difficult trail. + +“Suddenly the voice of the chief priest rose in a high-pitched wailing +call, and as he hailed, a new and brilliant star seemed to spring into +being over the dark crest of a nearby hill. + +“The assemblage bowed to the star and broke into a wailing Indian chant +that kept time to the beating of the hidden throbbing drums. + +“After the prayer came the dance. To the centre of the second terrace +bearers carried what looked like a bundle of blankets; then nude +but for feather adornments, the young initiates came forward in +processional dance. Every tenth man held a torch, and the dancers +carried out a long ballet symbolical of the burial or consumption of +the mortal body of the vultures. + +“They hopped grotesquely like the ill-omened zopilotes or scavenger +vultures they initiated. A querulous clucking accompaniment was uttered +by the chorus of spectators and the files of bronze bodies advanced and +retreated, swayed and circled in slow-hopping processions around the +blanketed heap upon the ground that represented the body. + +“Suddenly the drum rhythm changed and a curious whistling pipe music +was heard. The heap of blankets stirred and rattled, from the heap +an arm flung out white bones, a skull rolled to the feet of the +spectators, then the blankets were flung aside and an Indian youth, +completely nude, but painted white and marked with ritual signs, leapt +from the pile. + +“Rising to his full height he donned a towering feather headdress of +humming bird and quetzal feathers which gleamed like a myriad jewels in +the torchlight. + +“Three times the spectators claimed him as the risen God, then the +drums broke out into a violent triumphant dance in an infectious +measure in which both dancers and spectators joined. + +“In the meantime a cloth or canvas housing had been drawn over the +roofless temple by minor priests. The brazier was carried inside, and +suddenly the Boy God, leaving the dancers, ascended the steps and +entered the prepared pavilion. + +“As suddenly the drums fell silent and the shrill pipes alone kept up +the eerie tune. + +“My friend touched me on the shoulder, the seated elders rose, and, +following the high priest, we made our way into the sanctuary. + +“Ranging ourselves along the walls we sat down in an open square. In +the centre was the youth stretched on a skin-covered native bedstead, +at its head the brazier. + +“Swiftly the door was sealed with skin mats; then to the accompaniment +of a muttered ritual and much raising and lowering of skull-tipped +wands, the priest cast herbs into the brazier. The heavy smoke wreathed +about in the close room and a sense of languor fell upon me. + +“Right and left I could hear the elders inhaling the vapour, then one +after another they succumbed to its influence. Then came an invocation +to the spirits, and the old men began to talk to spirits that they +alone could see among the hazy, drug-laden smoke of the lodge. + +“As if inspired, the boy uttered oracular wisdom, now answering +questions put to him, now declaiming what he had heard the spirits +say. Slowly the drug gained in its effect over me. The painted leather +screens on the rude walls became instinct with life, the crude stone +carving seemed alive and writhing, and all the air seemed charged with +flashing processions of colours and sonorous music. + +“I must have been overcome by the fumes, for I remember nothing more +till I came to in the dawn-light in one of the terraces outside the +building. They gave me a calabash of herb-scented goat’s milk to drink, +and in a moment or two my brain cleared.... I made it my interest to +get some of the marihuana herb, which I send you.” + +Analysis of the marihuana revealed that it contained about twenty-five +per cent. admixture of other herbs in addition to the main base of +_cannabis americana_. A gum or sap exudation of an aromatic nature +served to bind the mass together. + +A personal experiment carried out with a small portion of the mixture +proved that identical hallucinatory results could be induced by its +use in a London room as well as on the top of a Guatemalan Tescalli. +Of a party of four, three saw colour visions, two heard music, and one +described figures of Mazan mythology with some exactness. As, however, +we all know the origin of the incense and its connection, these latter +visions may be more properly ascribed to suggestion than held to have +objective existence as spirit phenomena. + +There is reason to believe that other plants, and possibly some +synthetic products, have the same peculiar properties of the liberation +of the “psyche.” In the same way, although consumption as a draught or +as an inhaled smoke veiled by incense are the ritual ways of achieving +a physiological result, the same might be achieved by spraying a +solution into the air, by absorption through the skin (this may have +been the _raison d’être_ of some “witch ointments”), or by +hypodermic injection. + +Needless to say, any attempt to experiment in these matters is +extremely unwise and dangerous. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[33] _Paracelsus_, Fr. A. Rufini. + +[34] See Ebers papyri. + +[35] See _Geschichte der Asassinen_. By T. von Hammer. Burgstall, _Un +Grand Maître des Assassins au Temps du Saladin_. Also _Ars Quatuo +Coronati_, Vol. ---- + +[36] The public interest would not be served by the revelation of the +second missing ingredient, but it is now known. + +[37] See monograph on _Mescal_ by Havelock Ellis. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + BEASTS AND ELEMENTALS + + +The apparitions customarily seen by those who are clairvoyant or +psychic are those that take human form. + +In many cases they represent known humans who have passed over, but +sometimes we are brought into contact with non-human apparitions. + +These may be semi-human or demoniac forms, they may be animal forms, or +they may be simply manifestations of elemental forces. Discarding the +trumpery attempts at classification that have been advanced by one or +two writers of so-called “ghost stories,” it must be recognized that +the occultist is faced with problems that cannot be readily reduced or +explained by any logical hypothesis. + +The Spiritualist approaches the question according to set theories. +“Spirits,” says he, “can do anything. They take what shape they will. +Why they do so is a mystery.” + +The woman Spiritualist is usually as open to believe that the spirit +of her beloved Pekingese or Pomeranian can return in astral form, and +ascribes it to the influences of love. “Love me, love my dog,” appears +to furnish as good an explanation of animal manifestation as any. + +On the other hand, when you get some absolutely extraordinary +manifestations such as the seal that appeared to Sir Garnet +Wolseley,[38] or the materialization of vampire bats, partially +developed monkeys or a full-sized goat,--and I have known all these to +occur,--then the love theory falls down badly, and we must seek a more +reasonable explanation. + +If we accept the idea of discarnate spirit intelligences we certainly +should not accept them all at face value as good. The bulk of humanity +that has passed over has not been good, or for the matter of that, +Christian. + +Assuming that these spirits were human, but took bestial form for +purposes of their own, we may find some glimmerings of support for a +new theory when we realize that in the past and in the present idolatry +prevails. The idols of savages are usually totemistic. And they held +that the identity of soul persisted after death, not in a new human +existence but as a rebirth in animal form. + +To a large extent, totemistic paganism was mixed up with licentious +and bestial festivals, useful in assuring the continuance and +multiplication of a savage tribe, but evolving practices repugnant to +Western ethics. + +The beasts that come back--are beastly. The ghost dog that scratches +and paws and leaps into its mistress’s lap is a very different thing to +that which it pretends to be. When we reach the foulness of the goat or +bat manifestations we feel with no shadow of doubt that we are in touch +with the unmasked spirits of evil. Not only visible form, but touch +and smell are present. We are brought into distinct contact with the +sardonic mocking terror that lies on the other side of life. + +The border between the brutal and blood-lusting savage and the demon, +is a slender one. The conception of a singularly evil earth-bound +negro spirit who has believed in an after-life in which his soul will +inhabit the body of an ape or a leopard, comes very close to the +accepted idea of a devil or demon. + +We get something of the same basic conception in the idea of the +wer-wolf or vampire, and there is a singular reinforcement of +this theory in that in the Dark Ages when paganism was yielding +reluctantly to the inroads of the Christian faith, the early fathers +explicitly identified such animal manifestations with the sorcery of +paganism. The fantastic gargoyles that ornament cathedrals are simply +traditionalizations of that period when these beast incarnations in all +their devilishness contended against the spread of a purer faith. + +Sometimes it chances that we, in this twentieth century, by accident +open a door through which a tenth-century devil can creep in. + +Other occultists, notably those of the Viennese school, hold that the +beast manifestations are not forms or shapes assumed by evil spirits +that have been mortal, but are, as it were, living evil thought-forms, +and are the incarnation of dead and evil cults on which a great deal +of human thought-energy had been expended during some time in the +world’s history. + +Proof is not possible, and it is not yet the time to marshal the facts +which would seem to indicate that a dead cultus can yet live on, +supported, as it were, by the emotional sin of the present-day world, +although the sin is divorced from its old ritual significance. This +theory of the continuation of the sacrificial value of sin is of course +one of the most serious aspects of the art of sorcery. Propitiation +and symbolism are often linked up in a way that perplexes the most +agile-witted student of the occult, and it may well be that certain +seemingly innocent ritual acts have contributed their quota to the +maintenance of life in certain forgotten cults--whose entities come +suddenly into being again in a most alarming manner. + +To the occultist who thinks this matter out, the identity of beast +materializations with incarnate prototypes of sin will probably be +manifest. + +As it is, the essential quality of the evil that these entities typify +and attempt to induce does not become apparent from a chance unsought +materialization, but the medium who sees “animals” is suspect. + +Repeated evocations of these entities lead to disaster. The beast +becomes an obsession and is to all intents and purposes the old +“familiar” of the days of witchcraft. + +For reasons which are hinted at above, but which cannot be more fully +expounded in a book of this nature, the beast materialization is a +phenomenon which should be avoided at all costs. If such occurs at a +séance, break off the sitting at once. If these phenomena appear to be +connected with any particular medium, there are the gravest reasons for +seeking another sensitive. Above all things, avoid people who claim +that the spirits of pet animals have come back to them. + +The cynic may contend that it is folly to be afraid of the spirits of +poor dumb animals and yet invite communication with the mortal dead. +The occultist and the mystic who know something of the mysteries will, +however, see the reasons. To-day, when thousands are interested in +psychical matters, knowledge has been forgotten or trampled underfoot. +The well-meaning, loud-voiced blind lead myriads to a new heaven, +acclaiming hell vanquished because in their rapturous exultation over +new discoveries of old things they have forgotten the absolute rule of +balance. Positive and Negative, Good and Bad, Strong and Weak, Plus or +Minus. + +There is balance in all things, and this sudden acclamation of the +Unseen World as all good, all easy, and quite safe, is perfectly +ridiculous. + +Occultism is not either good, safe, nor amusing for the vast majority +of people. Spiritualism as generally practised is a kind of beneficent +bobbing into the Tom Tiddler’s ground of the Unseen. There is a +pleasing conceit that if the Powers of Evil turn up it will be enough +to utter a Protestant prayer and say that because you are “good” a bogy +can’t touch you. + +This is a rather childish way of treating the Powers--in point of fact, +it does not work, it is very much like saying that lightning cannot +strike you because you have rubber heels to your boots. + +It is a melancholy reflection that the very people who go about reading +little handbooks on “Knowledge is Power,” never realize that it is the +right use of knowledge that means Power and that sometimes the coming +of Power without knowledge spells catastrophe for all concerned. + +Besides the dangerous and perplexing beast manifestations, there is a +third class of phenomenon which is manifestly neither human nor animal, +but bears a close relationship to Elemental Forces such as Fire, Air, +or Water. These phenomena are the only ones properly described as due +to elementals, but a certain confusion has arisen through the use of +this word as applied to all spirit phenomena which were not broadly +classifiable as human. + +Ghosts, giant appearances, and ferocious and evil spirits of all kinds +have been described as elementals, so that the word has lost its real +precision. Originally all these outside spirits not known as the souls +of mortals were classed as being spirits of Earth or Fire, Air, or +Water, and by this arbitrary relation to the elements became known as +Elementals. + +In effect only phenomena where no apparent organic or physical +materialization or incarnation of any kind occurs should be classified +as purely elemental. + +Of these the heat elemental is a phenomenon that is occasionally +observed. Air or wind phenomena are also known, but I know of no case +where earth or water phenomena apart from “apports” by a materialized +presence claiming to be an earth or water elemental, have been noted. +To my mind the organic presence destroys the evidential value of the +latter accounts due to the effect of elementals as distinct from +spirits. + +The elementals are properly those intelligences (the word spirits +conveys a wrong implication) that are termed in the old rituals the +Powers of Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. In magic it was held that these +Powers were served by spirits, but there is reason to suppose that this +view rose from the too literal interpretation of the old rituals and +maltranslation of the occult “Grimoires” of the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries. + +The appearance of these elementals is rare and sporadic, usually +associated with a place or an individual rather than with the sitting +of a séance. + +Sometimes the individual afflicted by the elemental is affected in +a negative manner--that is to say, he is immune to the effect of +fire or heat or has the power of inducing enormous draughts and air +disturbances in confined space without knowing why. + +These cases are difficult, and though a “fireproof” medium who can +carry live coals in his hand may claim it to be due to the effect of +a fire-elemental control, it must be remembered that in many cases +autosuggestion will induce an extension of the protective ecto- or +psychoplasm which is equally effective.[39] The South Sea and Indian +fanatics who walk across red-hot stones indubitably possess this +self-contained power. + +I have only a second-hand instance of a pure heat elemental to relate. +This was communicated to me by a very well-known mountain painter whom +we will call Calvin Muir. + +He had been down in the Welsh Marches where the low foothills of the +mountains just change into stretches of rocky moors above the low-lying +wooded valleys. + +Muir was by habit and training a keen observer. He was also a Frater +of the Rosicrucian Society and had a wide general knowledge of many +strange aspects of occultism. + +“I was staying down at Pwhyll-gor, a little hill village with a few +cottages and two inns of small attractiveness,” said he. “I had been +there some six weeks or so, sketching and wandering and doing a little +trout fishing when the mood took me. One evening I found the taproom +learnedly discussing the blight that was affecting an orchard in a +nearby farm. + +“According to them, half the affected trees appeared burnt or seared +and there was great discussion whether lightning could strike without a +concurrent storm or thunderclap. + +“Others held that it was probably a mischievous trick by small boys, +but one old man declared it had happened before in the same district +in his father’s time and that it was due to ‘owl blasting.’ + +“This, it seemed, was a form of witchcraft or magic, but more closely +related to the malevolent forces of nature than to mortal ill will. He +was not communicative, but disclosed enough to make me determine to +visit the farm next day. + +“I found it up on the hillside in a little natural valley or gap where +a few fertile acres had been reclaimed. It was a poor enough small +homestead, bleak and barren, and the wretched little orchard was poor +enough in all conscience without suffering supernatural violences. + +“The farmer’s wife received me and made no secret of her troubles. +Together we went out to view the damage, and I found two cider-apple +trees whose foliage and fruit had been literally burnt in an area as +large as a good-sized cart wheel. + +“That was the queer thing about it, the close circular or rather +spherical limits of the damage. It was just as if a red-hot round bite +had been taken out of the thick of the tree, and left the neighbour +twigs and leaves unsinged--unseared. + +“They had no explanation to offer except lightning, and it was manifest +they had no real belief in that. I suggested boys, but was told there +was but one about the farm--even as I made the suggestion I knew it was +futile; but what would you? + +“I asked when the calamity occurred, and they told me in full daytime +between dawn and lunch. In the morning all had been well in the +orchard--by noon two trees half ruined, and no one had seen sight of +smoke or flame, nor sound. + +“The suggestion of ‘owl blasting’ brought no response. They were +strangers to the country, having come some ten years ago from Swansea +way. + +“‘It’s the hills,’ said the woman. + +“‘Well,’ said I, ‘another watcher will do no harm. Can you give me a +shakedown, and to-morrow I will go out with my easel and stay sketching +the orchard.’ + +“She assented without enthusiasm, and I spent that night at the farm. + +“The farmer was no wiser and rather surlier than his wife, but both +were manifestly oppressed with fear. Their boy alone was cheerful and +unmoved. + +“The next day I rose at cock-crow, passed through the orchard and out +on to the hills to a patch of rock and heather some two hundred yards +away. + +“By seven o’clock I had watched in a good stretch of the farm and the +orchard in which not a soul had moved. All at once, I stood with my +brush poised in amazement, as there high above the trees was poised a +small, blue-yellow lambent flame that seemed to drift sideways in the +windless air. + +“For a moment I thought it was a fire balloon, then saw my error. +Without a thought I ran toward it just in time to see it settle down on +to a tree whose leaves in a moment turned from green to darkening brown +and burst almost immediately into crackling flame. My cries brought out +the boy and the woman from the house and on their coming it vanished +and we were left gazing at the damage it had done. + +“I told them what I had seen, and the woman suddenly put her apron +over her face and burst into tears. We sent the boy to fetch her +husband, who came in a marked state of worry and agitation. + +“I could not follow the quick interchange of Welsh words that ensued. +The man then asked me who had told me of ‘owl blasting,’ and together +we went to the village to find the old man. + +“It appeared that a month or so back the farmer had used some old +rocks which were part of the ring of a Cromlech to rebuild one of his +stone walls. This, according to the old man, had brought down the ‘owl +blasting’ upon him. + +“Painstakingly they dragged the stones back to their original place, +and I believe certain ceremonial was gone through at the next quarter +of the moon. + +“The precise things done were kept secret from me, for I was a stranger +and suspect, but I gathered enough to understand that a mercenary +destruction or disturbance of Druidic remains brought its own reward. + +“All that I can say is that a ball of fire came out of clear sky +quite slowly and destroyed part of the foliage of an apple tree under +conditions precluding any human agency.” + +The above is Calvin Muir’s account. To an occultist the connection +between the Power of Fire and the violation of a Cromlech is +convincing, but it is difficult to conceive in what manner the Powers +were propitiated. + +Scientific people have suggested slow-drying phosphorus solution as +an explanation of an apparently supernatural occurrence. Muir, on the +other hand, was positive that it was a true manifestation of a fire +elemental, and that the old man who knew about “owl blasting” was not +an interested or malevolent party in a peasant’s plot. + +So far, no hypothesis that will serve as a rational explanation of all +the facts has ever been advanced. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[38] Mr. Gambier Bolton, who was present, assures me of the reality of +this inexplicable incident. + +[39] The really genuine fire medium can hold a red-hot coal or glowing +asbestos from the gas fire on the palm of the hand for two minutes. No +shorter duration of time should be accepted. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + POSSESSION + + +From time to time we come across cases of demoniacal possession. In +these there is apparently the permanent or temporary domination of +the soul or mind of the victim by an evil spirit or demon of alien +personality. + +Cases of possession are invariably claimed as “proofs” of the existence +of spirit intelligence, and in cases where the possession is nominally +at least a mild one the possessed are sometimes quite proud of it. It +is, in fact, exhibited as quaint and dreadful deformity would be--the +phrase is exact. It is a mental deformity. + +Now, it must be understood that the psychologists have of late years +made enormous strides in their knowledge of the vagaries of the +subconscious mind. Possession, like “shell shock,” is in ninety-nine +cases out of a hundred a perfectly curable disease. It springs +from a perversion of the subconscious state, can be diagnosed by +psychoanalysis and eradicated by transference or by suggestion. + +The processes of Christian exorcism often attained the same result. +The wise priest was able to “cast out demons,” and medical science of +to-day, working by analytical methods rather than by rule-of-thumb, +achieves the same results. + +Whether one accepts the scientific theory that these “possessions” +are but multiple personalities and that there may be several mental +personalities in the one mind, or whether one believes the idea of +spirit influence, does not much matter. In any case the doors of +the mind can be firmly locked on either spirit or mental disease. +Possession is curable--if the patient really desires to be cured. + +Possession can be readily evoked in nearly all hypnotic subjects. Not +only one but several distinct personalities can be developed by the +psychologist. Janet’s experiments developed in Madame B. three separate +individuals: Léonie, known in the waking state as a “possessor”; +Léontine under the light stage of hypnosis, and Léonore in a deeper +condition.[40] + +Even a popular knowledge and comprehension of this peculiar disease +of the subconscious is difficult to attain without a sound elementary +grasp of the principles of psychology. The bulk of books on the subject +are written for the medical or scientific mind, but Coriat’s book is a +sound and easily grasped introductory manual.[41] + +The normal form of mental trouble is an obsession, the fear or “phobia” +of some perfectly normal thing, a desire to touch objects. There +are dozens of variations of these obsessions which spring to mind. +The state of possession can only be said to exist when the mind is +under the dominance of another individuality distinct from the normal +personality. + +It is curious to note that cases of possession by good spirits are +absolutely unknown. A medium may be “controlled” by spirits said to +be good, but this does not amount to a possession. In every case +where normal personality has been overthrown and another or other +personalities take possession we find--evil. + +This is to certain extent explicable if we realize that every thought +or wish that occurs to us, and which we _repress_ because it is +bad or evil, is not destroyed or wiped out of existence, but stays as a +suppressed desire or wish buried in the recesses of subconscious mind. + +When normal conscious control is overthrown, these subconsciously +stored desires or wishes come bubbling up--a fact that seems to explain +why the language used by nicely brought up girls recovering after the +administration of an anæsthetic would put a coal-heaver to flight. + +In the dream state, too, these repressed desires escape all mixed up +from their bondage, a fact which accounts for the peculiar medley of +dreams and their frequent lack of moral balance and accentuation of +sexual characteristics. + +The character of a “possessing” demon is in most cases determined by +experiences that the victim has passed through. Shock, neurasthenia, +illness, disappointment; all these may bring about the splitting of +the personality so that the secondary or possessing personality can +overthrow consciousness and take charge. + +The victim is often horrified to find his or her mind continually +filled with terrible desires, intolerable passions, and thoughts +utterly repugnant to the sedate conscious self. + +Sometimes the idea of possession is stimulated by messages received +through mediums or by automatic writing--this is one of the many +frequent cases where undigested, uneducated Spiritualism is often +abominably harmful. Anything that helps the idea of possession to grow +in the afflicted mind should be avoided. + +Gradually the nature of the possession becomes more acutely defined and +is recognized as a different personality--an evil personality resident +in the same body using the same mind. It is in all human probability +only the repressed wishes--all the pent-up unfulfilled evil of a +lifetime taking shape and urging gratification rather than repression +in a new and secondary personality. + +Possession by evil spirits is invariably connected with violence and +vice. Sometimes the attacks are periodic; always they are signs of +mental instability and psychic disease. A possessed person is a fit +subject for psychotherapeutic treatment by qualified medical men, but +a source of very real psychic danger in a séance or as a subject for +well-meaning experiments in faith healing by amateurs. + +In psychic healing the doctrine of sacrifice and the scapegoat had a +very literal interpretation. The healer often takes upon his own soul +the burden that he lifts from another. This psychic transference can +only be done in safety by certain and specific ways beyond the scope of +this work. It is sufficient to indicate the danger. + +Possession in its varying aspects has given rise to many myths and +legends. Larvæ, Incubi, and Succubi were all demons of temporary +possession that tempted man. In the Middle Ages and far later the Faith +strove lustily with them, and where exorcism failed the stake was found +effective. + +According to the older writers, Incubi were male demons who possessed +the bodies of mortal women; Succubi, she-devils who seduced the souls +and possessed the bodies of men. + +Sorcerers had the power of despatching these erotic demons to gratify +their associates or plague their enemies, and it is notable that this +doctrine of vicarious enjoyment or satisfaction reappears in the +Spiritualist belief in gross and earth-bound souls of sinners who haunt +drinking booths and houses of ill-fame, deriving vicarious satisfaction +from the sins of the living. + +The old demonographers give lurid and disgustful accounts of these +“possessions”[42] and insist on their contagious nature. Prosecutions +for sorcery, “possession,” and similar crimes raged throughout the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in the pages of the records we +can trace the Incubi and Succubi now hidden as familiar spirits, now +described as the devil himself, but curiously true in their nature to +the occasional demoniac possessions that trouble the twentieth century. + +Even if one admits that the average “possession” is one’s own evil +subconscious personality attempting to overthrow the conscious mind, +certain questions and possibilities arise. + +That the astral body or mind can make discarnate journeys is a +well-known fact to all Spiritualists. There is, then, no reason to +suppose that this faculty would be less material in a possessive +personality whose origin was specifically in the dream realm of the +subconscious. + +Indeed, it is far more plausible to suppose that the possessor or +demon mind would find it far easier to make the journey than the other +personality, for it is recognized that the release of the actual body +occurs in trance or dream state. + +We have here, then, some possible psychic explanation of many of the +cases of sorcery where the complaint of the sufferers was that they +were victimized during sleep by demons. In other words, they were the +recipients of undesired attentions by the astral body of either the +sorcerer or his followers or associates. + +This has been suggested to me in various forms by people who have +believed themselves the victims of discarnate spirits--and who were +at times possessed by them against their wills. It must, however, +be admitted that in all such cases which came under my notice there +had been connection with Spiritualist circles or with minor forms of +occultism, and it was impossible to exclude the possibility of previous +hypnosis, autosuggestion, or the little-known but common phenomena of +psychic invasion--by other members of the circle. + +Viewed from the psychical point of view, possession is an extremely +difficult problem. Real spirit possession might occur, suggestion or +psychic invasion is often indicated; and, as I have explained, multiple +personality and the concentration of evil repressed desires in the +secondary individuality furnishes a complete scientific explanation of +the phenomenon. + +These cases must be taken individually, and there are not yet grounds +for laying down a general explanation of all the phenomena. One of the +great difficulties is the natural reluctance of the victims to disclose +exact details, but no case of possession which was not either openly or +secretly erotic is known to be recorded. + +Possessions fall under two heads: those in which the possessing spirit +urges the victim to the commission of injurious acts in person, and +thereby derives direct satisfaction through the body; and those in +which a vicarious satisfaction is achieved through the astral body. The +possibility of intercourse between spirit and mortal has been held to +be a possibility since Biblical times, and the expulsion of the fallen +angels was due to this sin.[43] + +Stainton Moses held that much of the lower phenomena was caused by +spirits who had not yet reached man’s plane of intelligence, just as +some was produced by others who had proceeded further and returned +to enlighten man.[44] This belief occurs in folklore, in Oriental +religions, and in a myriad variations. + +The djinn of the _Arabian Nights_ is a very real thing to the +modern native, and a considerable literature exists in which the +intercourse between djinn and mortal is the main theme. In the same way +the belief in fairy wives or husbands is not so long dead in Europe and +alive to-day among the hill tribes of the Pamirs. + +The whole theory of spirit possession or demon possession is linked +with this idea. In the “possessed” state the victim is unconscious of +deeds done and words said. The blame is the blame of the demon. + +In nine cases out of ten frenzy or hysteria accompanies nominal +possession. There are gifts of strange tongues usually said to be +Eastern or Indian, and the possessed pour out streams of gibberish in +which a few dominant words or phrases bearing a slight resemblance to +some known tongue may be distinguished. + +Clairvoyance, the gift of prophecy, and other psychic qualities appear +at the time of the seizure. Often there is marked anæsthesia and +insensitiveness to pain. Hot objects may be handled with impunity, +electric shocks are not felt. + +These cases are not genuine cases of possession in its worst sense when +they begin, but very frequently the victim is urged by fools to develop +these wonderful powers and the Darker Powers accept the invitation and +step in. + +The occultist and the scientist agree about very few things, but both +agree that possession and surrender to possession are the first steps +to moral and physical disaster. The transferable or infectious quality +of possession is not so widely known as it should be, but with the +increase of Spiritualism its effects will in a year or so become +capable of perception by even the most unenlightened. + +A girl of my acquaintance, the daughter of wealthy and respectable +Midland parents, became interested in psychic matters. Her faith was +greater than her powers of discernment and she was, like all too many +Spiritualists, of neurotic and hysterical temperament. + +Her first actual essays were with automatic writing; then as she was +an art student she tried painting under spirit control. Some slight +success attended her efforts and she became interested in Egyptian +mythology because her spirit paintings were Egyptian in character. + +I did not see her frequently, but met her about a year after she had +taken up her Egyptian studies. She stated that in her was reincarnated +the soul of an Egyptian priest. This invading entity dominated her +entire mind and mode of life. + +Before, she had been a healthy, normal girl although inclined to be +neurotic, but once given over to this obsession she found that owing +to the psychic change of sex all men were repugnant to her. She was +possessed by a male mind in a female body, and with this extraordinary +inversion of normal feelings was obliged to break off her engagement. + +The remainder of her life was short but tragic. Her automatic writings +(which were destroyed after her unhappy death at her own hands) +showed the ascendancy of the possessing demon as it grew over her. +Interspersed with these records were the tragic outpourings of her +soul, her self-analysis of her psychic disaster. There were things +there terrible to read. + +It is not perhaps fair to blame psychic science for disastrous +tragedies such as these, but it must be openly admitted that occultism +is not for the multitude. + +There is nothing known to-day that was not known in the past, but +Spiritualists and other investigators have discovered a few of the +minor marvels that were known to, but wisely hidden by, the ancients. +Sometimes they are like children playing with a box of drugs, some of +which are active poisons. + +One message of consolation, one instance of subconscious telepathy with +a medium, and they are convinced of the truth of Spiritualism and will +not be warned that whatever truth it may hold it also holds Untruth and +Danger as well as Hope. + +The threshold between the innocent “control” and the malevolent “demons +of possession” is a very, very narrow one. Sometimes, indeed often, +there is no dividing line at all. The charges that Spiritualism is the +high road to lunacy have these unfortunate occurrences as their basis. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[40] Pierre Janet: _L’automatisme Psychologique_. + +[41] _Abnormal Psychology._ Isador H. Coriat. Rider, 1911. + +[42] See _Tableau de L’Inconstance des Démons_. Pierre de Lancre. + +[43] Jude VI, 7. + +[44] Stainton Moses, _Spirit Identity_, Appendix II. + + + + + CHAPTER X + + SOME NEW FACTS AND THEORIES + + +There are a number of peculiar phenomena that come under no specific +head or grouping at present; that is to say, they are infrequent or +isolated instances which cannot yet be relegated to a specific class +and labelled. + +I have frequently come across hearsay evidence and been unable to find +the original observer. In other cases the character or mentality of the +observer has been such as to render the account entirely valueless from +any point of view except that of sensationalism. + +The result is that we are faced with an unusual case which remains +mysterious, usually because opportunity for a thorough examination of +the phenomena is lacking. + +This is perhaps best illustrated by those cases of material phenomena +which we class as Poltergeists. + +The most recently recorded case was the Cheriton dugout,[45] but there +are many others recorded and a good many more details of which have +been suppressed for personal or economic reasons. + +Ronald Grey has some interesting notes under this heading to which I +will now turn. + +The distinguishing characteristics of a poltergeist haunting are +aimless violence and mischief accompanied by the displacement and +turning about of material objects and unaccompanied by any visible +materialization of the manifesting entity. + +In many cases these mischievous phenomena are associated directly or +indirectly with children or young persons. Sceptics usually attribute +the phenomena to pure mischief and a desire to mystify or be revenged +on somebody by the child, but I do not hold that this is the true +interpretation. + +The actual power of physical mediumship is a gift which is in some +strange way connected with physiological conditions. It is often more +marked in ill-health than when well and sometimes vanishes completely +or may return again after a year or two. + +It has now been ascertained that the site of the haunting is the +functioning factor and that one or other of the humans present is the +often unconscious medium. If a known physical medium is substituted for +the original one the phenomena will often be as effectively reproduced. +The doctrine held by Spiritualists that a poltergeist is a low type of +spirit essentially non-human and akin to the tree dryads or earth or +air elementals does not seem to be borne out in practice. + +Just as many people hold that the bulk of harmless as distinct from +malignant apparitions are “thought-impressions” on the surrounding +walls which become visible to people with the gift of clairvoyance, +so are there some grounds for believing that the poltergeist +manifestations are due not to any directing intelligence at all but to +the permanence of some old act or thought which still has in some cases +the power of influencing matter. + +Mind cannot affect matter without the influence of a human +intermediary. But the physical medium is a human intermediary and +serves as a dynamo or battery for the generation of a necessary force. + +Just as table levitations and similar phenomena are produced by +the extrusion of psychical rods or levers which are invisible,[46] +but which are directed to a definite task by intelligence, so the +poltergeist phenomena seem to be similar phenomena but without any +directing intelligence. + +This statement needs qualification in the cases where the child medium +has become partly aware that in some strange way he or she is the +prime motor for the phenomena. Then the child’s mind consciously or +subconsciously directing the impulse may focus the manifestation in the +way of impish, malicious tricks afflicting an individual. + +The “psychic force” or psychoplasm extended by the medium is very +closely akin to what is termed “animal magnetism”--it seems to be of +nervous origin and physiologically connected with internal secretory +organs. + +A slight nervous derangement of one of the many complexes associated +with the age of puberty may quite conceivably endow occasional children +with a transient power of physical mediumship. + +The next point is the accumulatory effect of surroundings. Here we +are very much in the dark, but the manifestations do not occur unless +physical limits, such as walls, are present. In a poltergeisted house +two unconscious agents of the activities may, particularly while +asleep, but also while awake, saturate the surroundings with this +peculiar form of energy. + +There is nothing to show that this vitality ceases with death; it +certainly continues during the state of sleep, and if it is borne in +mind that even when the soul has passed from the body after death, +life--that is to say, intense bacterial activity--continues, it is +conceivable that the continued extension of this force may continue +from unascertained physiological conditions, and so explain some of the +baffling and distressing phenomena that have occurred in vaults and +given rise to the theory of bodies being buried alive in a cataleptic +condition. + +More advanced students will see in the foregoing hypothesis the +explanation of certain obscure texts relative to the Egyptian +processes of embalming, and other religious rituals in connection with +the disposal of corpses. The ancients were keenly aware of certain +monstrous after-death possibilities which the moderns ignore. + +This, then, is where the theory of poltergeist manifestations splits. +They are often traceable to + + (_a_) Unconscious physical mediums, usually adolescents. + + (_b_) In certain difficult cases the human element has been + eliminated, and the only hypothesis is the sudden + manifestation of a latent force derived from the dead. + +It should be remembered that the graves of saints become shrines and +that miracles are attributed to them, and that certain most terrible +vampire phenomena are associated with some unsanctified graves. + +Just as the hair and nails of some corpses continue to grow to +extravagant lengths long after death, so in certain cases it seems as +if the corruption of the flesh were accompanied by a translation of +the residual vital force or nervous energy--as distinct from soul or +consciousness--into free psychic power. + +This energy can apparently be stored in matter such as walls, wood, +etc., and seems to have the quality of remaining latent until some +unknown cause begins to change it from a static to a “dynamic” +condition. + +The sorcerer who produces earth from a particular grave and who +treasures unholy mortal relics of evil man, is practising more than a +mere symbolism. He is using matter whose very body may be impregnated +with that peculiar essence or force which is the vehicle of all psychic +phenomena. + +People who are interested in serving the Powers of Evil have sedulously +propagated the idea that, however malignant astral powers may be, +there is a law that they cannot harm or injure mortals. This is one +of those dangerous statements that Spiritualists make use of without +knowing what they are talking about. These powers can be and often +have been applied to the most sinister purposes. Utilized by anyone +with occult knowledge and experience they are pregnant with soul- and +body-destroying capacities, and it is fair to say that certain other +occult powers are the least defence against them. + +I am inclined to favour the theory that in all cases of poltergeists, +where non-human sources of power are indicated, careful psychic +analysis will reveal some inanimate matter which has been in contact +with either evil-living mortality or the dead, and is serving as the +focus and reservoir of the force. The power appears to be sporadic and +cumulative, but it can be destroyed or dissipated both by material and +by occult means if it can be traced to its source. + +The latent cumulative effect of such an evil relic may possibly +stimulate the extension of psychoplasm by unconscious mediums brought +within its sphere of influence. This seems indicated where an exchange +of physical mediums in the one centre of inflection has produced +parallel results. There is also some ground for supposing that the +phases of the moon affect the manifestation. + +It is, of course, fashionable to deride the moon, but any seaside +doctor will admit that his patients die with the ebb of the tide; and, +further, it is highly illogical to suppose that an influence which can +affect the vast masses of the tides is without its influence on the +tenuous fluids of vitality. + +The lunar effect is probably due to a screening or projection of +specific solar or ethereal vibrations below the range which we see +as light and colour and above that which we recognize as electrical +phenomena. + +“The simple undirected energy display of a poltergeist phenomenon may +be converted into a specifically malignant phenomenon. The energy may +be used to form a vehicle for an evoked elemental succubus or incubus, +or might under certain different conditions be similarly utilized +to accommodate or materialize a ‘familiar’ of a higher order,” says +Duchesne, writing of some researches carried out in the Var, “but I am +still at a loss to know what induces the phenomena to appear with such +fulminant energy and purposeless commencement.” + + * * * * * + +A peculiar case of poltergeist occurred in Hertfordshire last +spring.[47] The farm bailiff of a home farm complained that his +cottage, which looked out on the yard of the farmstead, had become +intolerable. Crockery was smashed on the dresser, pots and pans flew +about while nobody touched them, and when the whole family were at +midday lunch in their living-room a kettle of boiling water which was +simmering on the kitchener hob was brought through an adjoining open +door and slammed down among the diners at the table without spilling a +drop. + +Stones were thrown, windows broken, and even bedclothes snatched off. I +went down in response to an invitation by the owner of the estate and +soon convinced myself that the phenomena were authentic. + +The family consisted of the bailiff, his wife, a girl of fourteen, and +a son of twenty. The latter was not much in the house, being about on +the hills with the sheep, as it was lambing time. + +Previous experience led one to suspect the girl, who seemed quite +honest and very frightened at the occurrences. My host and I were +personal witnesses of flying stones and still more remarkable the +scattering of a big sheaf of straw. + +The sheaf was being carried from the barn to the cow-house by the +girl herself at about three in the afternoon. We were talking to the +bailiff’s wife. Suddenly the girl stopped and the big bundle of straw +seemed to be lifted out of her arms at least two feet above her head. +It balanced for a moment or two like a captive gas balloon, then +whirled into thousands of separate straws which flew all about the yard. + +No conceivable trick of wind--and it was a wettish, windless day--nor +any human effort could have accomplished it. The truss burst like +a shell, some of the straws flying right over the roofs of the +outbuildings. + +The terrified girl burst into tears and ran to her mother for comfort +and protection. + +That night we sent the girl away, and though manifestations continued +for another two days, these were of decreasing violence. + +The cottage was only a few years old and no deaths had occurred there, +but the farmstead was a very old one, the estate having a connected +history to pre-Tudor times. I was puzzled to find any clue to the +exciting cause of the trouble. + +I went over the whole place most carefully, but found nothing to guide +me, and at last turned my attention to the structure of the cottage. A +certain intuition or psychic susceptibility led me to suspect one of +the big kitchen rafters which supported the ceiling of the kitchen and +the floor of the girl’s room. + +On inquiry I found that the architect who had designed the new +buildings had employed a local contractor and used old red bricks and +old timber wherever possible in order to preserve the old fashioned +effect given by weathered colours. + +It was not difficult to trace the material; the local contractor’s +foreman told us at once where it had come from. + +“It stood in our yard here for ten years or more before we put it into +the new buildings,” said the foreman, “and it come to us when we pulled +down Blackley Old Grange.” + +“What kind of a place was that?” said I. + +“Private madhouse at the last,” he answered. “The owner was a doctor +and he went mad and hanged himself, he did, after killing one of the +patients a month before. He hanged himself just before the visitors was +expected to see the patient he had killed.” + + * * * * * + +Research carried us no further, except that I learnt that the murdered +patient lay for a month in the room in which she was killed before the +crime was found out, after the man’s suicide. It was impossible to +trace the beam to its position, but I gathered that the doctor hanged +himself from a window bar or curtain hook, not from the beam. + +I am inclined to believe that the absorption of force takes place from +prolonged contact with the emanation of the dead rather than from the +transient impression of conscious thoughts, but there was no further +recrudescence of the trouble when an iron girder was substituted for +the beam, and the girl, when brought back, was perfectly normal. + +I experimented with the girl later, but did not find that she possessed +any marked gifts, although she was indubitably a good hypnotic +subject. The beam, or rather a section of it, I secured for the +purposes of research, the remainder was burnt.[48] + + * * * * * + +Another puzzling if popular subject is that of spirit photographs. I +have handled scores of them, but have never yet come across one in +which all possibility of ingenious fraud has been entirely eliminated. + +Certain people have claimed peculiar gifts, but in no case has a +satisfactory result been obtained at a genuine test-séance, where +scientific precautions have been observed. + +If anyone has this gift it can be demonstrated easily. The studio must +be neutral ground--that is to say, the room must not be the claimant’s +habitual studio. The camera must be provided by the testers, as also +the dark slide and plates. The medium must be stripped perfectly naked +and the same rule should apply to the testing committee if it includes +anyone known to the medium. He should not be allowed to touch plates, +dark slide, or camera except when naked and under close scrutiny. + +Development should be carried out under test conditions at the nearest +chemist’s dark room. + +There is no known spiritual law which should lead us to think that +a psychograph or spirit photograph is a possibility, and until the +matter has been tested by a properly qualified body of men all such +photographs are open to the gravest suspicion. + +Money-making is not the only motive for fraud, and many of the fakers +are often more anxious to build up a bogus reputation for “mystery +working” than to make a direct profit on the transaction. + +The avenues of fraud are so numerous that it is only possible to +indicate a few of the methods adopted to deceive the credulous. + +The spirit photograph is deemed to be genuine if it is taken +under conditions which an average expert photographer holds to be +fraud-proof. The weakness of the whole case lies in the fact that they +cannot be obtained under genuine scientific, as opposed to amateur, +test conditions. + +In a word, the spirit image is imprinted on the negative under +conditions not normally suspected by the photographers. + +There are several methods of attaining the result, even when the +photographer brings his own plates and dark slides and his own camera. + +_First_ is the background trick. An acid solution of sulphate +of quinine is invisible to the eye, but shows in the photograph. +“Phenomena” painted on the wall or near by the objects appear in the +photograph though invisible to the eye. + +_Second_ is the contact process by which a small negative of +the “spirit” face is mounted on a background of card prepared with +radioactive salt solution. Many of these salts are rich in infra-red +rays which will project an image through a metal dark slide. The +“medium” has only to handle the dark slide during the sitting or the +plate in the dark room previous to development, in order to make a +contact image. + +A cruder variation of this, the electric pencil flashlight with a +rubber cup over the end containing the “spirit face” negative contact +with the exposed plate, is achieved in the dark room. The instrument +lies hidden in the medium’s sleeves. + +_The third method_ is that most commonly used. The “spirit image” +is projected through a minute lens in a hole in the wall of the studio. +The beam of light is sometimes passed through a prism series in order +to allow a room parallel to the studio to be used for the purpose of +projecting, and it is possible for the apparatus to be arranged inside +a piece of furniture in the studio. + +The sitter usually has his back to the source of the projection and the +“medium” takes the photograph and makes the exposure, so the fraud is +childishly easy. + +Even expert photographers are fooled by this trick, as they are +satisfied that if plates, slide, and camera are not tampered with, +fraud is impossible. + +When stereoscopic cameras with twin lenses are used the fraud is +manifest. Sometimes the fakers try hard to get an image into each half +of the plate, but never are the “spirit images” in the same relative +position or plane. + +If the sitters are well-known it is not difficult for photographs of +deceased relatives to be obtained and the spirit negative made from the +photograph. In many cases reproduction of newspaper halftone blocks +have been found on so-called spirit pictures. These show the diamond +patterns of the screen and are obvious fakes, but are accepted by many +uncritical believers. + +In the case of an unknown sitter, strange blurred faces or perfect +strangers are thrown on to the plate and excused as “guardian angels.” + +When the medium’s own apparatus or dark room is used there are endless +ways of faking, but it is these methods of faking an image without +raising the ordinary photographer’s suspicions that are interesting. + +The whole business is a cruel and heartless fraud, but the dupes are +not really deserving of pity. If there was a word of truth in the +claim of “spirit photographers” the testimony of an official test by a +reputable committee of the Royal Photographic Society would settle the +question once and for all. + +Myths and legend have grown up round spirit photographs till +Spiritualists have at last come to believe in their genuineness. +Yet the whole of their belief rests on nothing stronger than the +“miraculousness” of a conjuring trick. A good sleight-of-hand expert +can accomplish card or other tricks which seem perfectly inexplicable +to the layman, but we do not acclaim them as evidences of spirit power +because we are deceived by them. + +The spirit photographers deplore and avoid investigation by really +efficient scientific men. They welcome the amateur with half-knowledge, +as his very cocksureness renders him an easier dupe. He concentrates +on the obvious roads to fraud, ignoring those which lie without the +slender realm of his knowledge. + +The phenomena of what may be called lightless photography were long +ago described by Dr. Gustave le Bon,[49] who describes instantaneous +photography by “Black-light.” Incidentally a common incandescent gas +mantle possesses quite enough radioactive properties for ordinary +experiments. + +It is only by the destruction of fraudulent phenomena that the +phenomena will be rightly understood and generally accepted. The +Spiritualist who accepts and bolsters up dubious phenomena does far +more harm to his own cause than the most pronounced sceptic. + +The main point about spurious spirit photography is this. It claims +that mechanical chemical relations are produced by spirit agency--yet +though this chemical reaction is said to be produced with ease by +certain individuals and circles, it flinches from facing a simple test +which would, if proved to be true, convert the bulk of the sceptical +world to an acceptance of the truth of spirit photography. + +I have met many credulous folk who cherish blurred plates, obvious +double exposures, “accidents,” such as imperfectly cleaned plates +and even the most blatant swindles. Nothing can shake their +convictions--but credulity does nothing to _prove_ fact. + +Mr. Gambier Bolton has experimented for years with spirit photography, +but has so far obtained nothing except plates bearing indications +of a radiant energy similar to the N-rays of Becquerel. Many expert +photographers interested in psychic matters agree that the true spirit +photography does not exist and a canvass of both press and studio +photographers who are experts in their profession reveals the same +unhesitating expression of opinion. The same opinion is held not only +by the professional and technical lay element, but by occultists and +students of research whose standard of psychic knowledge is infinitely +higher than that of the Spiritualists. + + * * * * * + +The aura which surrounds the human form is visible to certain people, +but the faculty for seeing the aura does not necessarily involve the +possession of any psychic gifts at all and is often an indication of a +slight degree of colour-blindness. + +The ordinary photographic plate represents colours differently to their +relative values as seen by the human eye, and in order to get the true +effect certain dyes are mixed with the emulsion of the plates, or dyed +screens which eliminate certain rays are interposed between the lens +and the object. + +The normal individual cannot see the aura, but a simple chemical device +will put him on a par with the best natural aura discerner. + +If a narrow glass trough or an oblong clear crystal glass bottle is +filled with a dilute solution of the dye di-cyanin[50] which dissolves +readily in absolute alcohol; that is all the apparatus necessary. + +The subject whose aura is to be inspected should be placed against +a black or neutral background opposite a source of illumination, +preferably a north-facing window. + +The observer then takes the bottle of blue solution and gazes through +it at the clear sky for a period of some minutes. This serves to +eliminate the retinal impression of certain of the normal light rays +and renders the observer’s eyes sensitive to vibrations or rays not +normally perceptible and stimulates an abnormal acuteness of vision. + +The room should now be entirely darkened, and as soon as the eyes have +recovered their “owl sight” the body of the subject will be seen to be +surrounded by an envelope of vibratory exhalations whose colour varies +with different individuals and changes under stress of emotion. + +Suggestion or hypnosis exercises very peculiar effects on this aura, +which would seem to be, if not an ectoplasm a psychoplasm in itself, +yet the invisible vehicle which is capable of being separated from the +material body and forming the astral body. + +The aura vibration and the Becquerel or N-rays are closely connected, +and the scientific hypothesis suggests that these rays are in the scale +just above the infra-violet. + +The simple instrument indicated above has certain therapeutic values +in the diagnosis of illness, but is also invaluable for the psychic +analysis of hauntings, cases of unconscious mediumship, and other +matters. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[45] See _The New Revelation_. Sir A. C. Doyle. + +[46] For details of leverage, etc., see: _The Reality of Psychic +Phenomena and Experiments in Psychical Science_. By W. T. Crawford. + +[47] Author’s note, 1912. + +[48] Valuable data were gained by experiment with this disastrous +relic. They are not suitable for publication at this stage, and I +learnt recently of similar objectionable attributes associated with a +battlefield souvenir from near Ypres. + +[49] _The Evolution of Forces._ Gustave le Bon. + +[50] Used in colour screen making for photography, and poisonous. Some +glasses used in bottle making are not suitable, but a trial of one or +two suitably shaped ones will always reveal one that works all right. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + ORIENTAL OCCULTISM + + +The Orient hides many secrets of occultism, and it is almost a +platitude that the few secrets that the West has painfully deciphered +have been known for all time to the East--and are nothing remarkable. + +This is one of those large gestures of speech that contain a half-truth +and pass for a whole truth. It is on a par with the statement that all +Chinese business men are honest--which they are not. Oriental occultism +is far too vast a subject to be accepted or dismissed as summarily as +this, but one thing is certain and that is that Oriental occult systems +are not suitable to the Western man. + +There are one or two cardinal points that may be grasped at once. +Firstly, the exiled native in a Western country who claims occult +powers and the gift of being able to teach and transmit them is always +and invariably a fakir of the lowest kind. He is usually a low-caste +and disreputable native or half-breed, and it may be accounted to +his credit that after all he is not expected to know any better. His +dupes, on the other hand, the white men and women that listen to his +balderdash and sit at his séances, are even guiltier parties than he +is. They at least ought to know better than to listen to the first +black-and-tan “Swami” or “Guru” that establishes a bogus tabernacle in +the backwaters of Balham or Bayswater. + +The second point is that the true Eastern occultist, whatever his grade +of adeptship in his mysteries, never practises any of his arts or +knowledge for money or equivalent reward. This is a lesson which might +well be learned by the fraternity of mediums and so-called occultists +that infest London and other great cities at home and abroad. + +A medium in receipt of fees for séances or lectures will never and can +never develop his or her powers beyond the stage at which they have +arrived when it becomes possible to use them as a direct or indirect +means of making money. + +In the East this is realized, and the vow of poverty is more than a +metaphor, but they claim that it is a poverty of the body fully repaid +by riches of the soul. + +Practically the whole of Hindu occultism is best described as peculiar +methods of self-hypnosis with the object of provoking states of bliss +and ecstasy. It is upon the basis of the induction of these peculiar +phenomena that ninety per cent. of the Brahmin religious cults are +established. By one path or another the various beliefs attain earnest +of fulfilment, but the primary causes of these psychical phenomena are +physiological in origin. + +This material path to spiritual success is admitted and glossed over +as being but part of the mystery. None the less, there is little to +show that anything beyond these self-produced states of hypnotism or +suggested phenomena are ever attained by even the greatest of the +adepts, and there is no justification of their dogmatic religious +teachings even in the results attained. + +The Oriental mind is more easily freed from the shackles of the body +than is the Western organism. Just as the hold of the average native +upon life is inferior to a European’s, so is the native’s mastery of +conscious will far less. The faculties of clairvoyance can be created +by almost every dominant European in any young native, and they are +both physically and psychically an inferior race. + +It is because of their greater racial familiarity and acquaintance +with the occult that the myth of their spiritual supremacy has been +born. The unheeding deem every Easterner a potential mage, unknowing +that he only develops his psychic gifts, which are in point of fact +mental weaknesses, when in contact with a far more powerfully organized +Western will. + +The organized powers of occult India have loathed and hated British +rule since pre-Mutiny days. In a very few rare cases, black +magic--often allied with native poisons--has killed a white man, but on +the whole the result has been a pitiful demonstration compared to what +these magi should have been capable of. + +Occultism in India is built to serve but one end, the domination of +lesser castes by those who master its secrets and have aptitude to +impose their powers on others. In the past it stood for an amazing +tyranny, and for this reason--its lost criminal powers--it is opposed +to British rule. + +It is noteworthy that the English Society of Theosophists, whose +jig-saw religion is largely compounded of Oriental elements, is now +prominently identified with schemes for the political emancipation of +India, which will reinforce the tyrannous power of the Brahmin. + +The whole scheme of Oriental occultism is quite incomprehensible +without a sound basic knowledge of the religious systems of which it is +part and parcel. These enjoy a difficult and complex nomenclature, and +their words have been borrowed indiscriminately without due respect to +their precise meaning. + +Yoga conveys a certain popular meaning, but it must be remembered that +there are numberless Yogas, subdivided again into endless subvariants. + +The initiate undergoes a prolonged course of mental and physical +training designed to stimulate concentration of the will and subdue the +body. + +Little by little the faculties of surrender to ecstatic forms of +self-hypnosis are induced, Ananda or “bliss,” either material or +spiritual ecstasy, according to the Yoga practised, being the end of +the process. + +The full development of the powers of a Yogi is beset with all kinds +of dangers and difficulties. The physical strain is a severe one and +the psychic dangers encountered considerable. The evil spirits of the +West find their Oriental counterparts in Pisachas, Shahinis, Bhirtas, +Pretas, and Rakshashas, all malignant and terrible manifestations of +the demon world. + +In the end, certain types of Yogi appear to develop the full talents of +a materializing medium and are capable of producing the phenomena that +we associate with a medium of the power of Eusapia Palladino. But--and +it is a very important “but”--these phenomena are capable of production +in full tropic daylight. + +From the days of Jacolliot[51] to those of recent Theosophical +investigations, Oriental magic has never been brought to real test +conditions, but in the records gathered by independent students there +is ample ground for stating that the genuine occult phenomena (as +distinct from mere fakir’s conjuring tricks) occur independently of +darkness or special light conditions. + +When we consider the fuss made by European mediums over even twilight +conditions, it is remarkable that these offer no obstacle to the +Oriental “spirits.” + +These phenomena, too, are not confined to orthodox Hindu, Brahmin, +Tantvik, or Guru followers of any particular creed, race, or religion. +Certain Indian Moslem sects produce devotees capable of equivalent +phenomena, but variants of obscure Tibetan sects, Burmese, Malay, +Mohammedans, and followers of both theistic and pantheistic religions +have equal powers. + +The idolater, the Muslim, and the Christian medium all share the same +belief in “spirit” control and in certain states produce the same +results. Where we may learn something from the East is not in the line +of morals, for their morals are different from ours--and many of their +religious customs revoltingly beastly--but in the way of the physical +induction of the psychic state. + +The basis of a great many Yogas is the liberation of psychoplasm and +ectoplasm by a combination of concentration on certain internal centres +and the repetition of spells or sonorous magical evocations. + +These affect the breathing so that in effect the body is subjected +to a definite rhythmical vibration. It is physical exercise of mind +and brain, applying mind-force to the stimulation and excitement of +internal nerve centres. + +These six centres are visualized mentally as lotuses. They cannot be +precisely located in scientific anatomy, but correspond in most cases +with central nervous plexuses and they are as well known in Mohammedan +and Zoroastrian mystic cults, as they are in the Indian Upanishads and +Tantras, and are familiar to the Indians of Yucatan and Guatemala, +where ritual, combined with a species of physical massage, is employed +to initiate the hierophant into the tribal mysteries. + +The school of Western occultists who hold the theory of the +all-pervading astral or magic light or fire, hold that these “centres” +open, or act as concentrators of an exterior, all-prevailing force +which is thus conducted to the consciousness, enabling the operator to +make contact with another plane. + +In the Oriental theory this force is deemed to be always latent in +the body, and is aroused, evoked, or stimulated in particular ways. +The discussion of the relative values of these two main schools of +thought--static and dynamic light--or their variants is beyond the +scope of these notes. + +The lowest of the lotuses or centres is the nerve centre within the +body in the region of the prostatic gland, the next is midway between +this and the third which is the navel centre or solar plexus. The +fourth is nominally the heart, the fifth, that at the base of the +throat, the sixth, that between the eyebrows. In visualizing these +lotuses with the “mental eye,” the depth back in the body of each +centre is assumed to be close to the spine. + +Mind force is concentrated by the Yogi under the name Vogabala, and +in Oriental black magic this is concentrated on the lowest centre, +according to the ritual of the infamous Prayoga, with the result of +inducing sexual hallucinations. + +In the so-called white or mediumistic magic, the centre of energy +is apparently by the third centre (the navel), for materialization +phenomena, and the fifth, or base of the throat centre for +clairaudience. + +Those who can reach the sixth claim the power of astral voyaging in the +spirit world and perception of things on the mortal plane at a distance. + +The physiology of the process is not yet understood, but following on +the breathing processes or Pranayama, which relax the body and induce +certain rhythms, a progressive excitation and rigor of the centres is +induced by autohypnosis. The nerve centres control various limbs and +functions, and as each is “put to sleep” so the Yogi becomes rigid and +cataleptic. + +Yogis are able to hold out their arms for hours at a stretch without +apparent fatigue--so in the same way can a hypnotized subject be placed +in an attitude of rigidity by an operator. + +These progressive inhibitions of functions cannot be achieved by +the Western occultist without the most careful study and painstaking +preparations. The practices are both mentally and physically dangerous, +but when mastered either in part or in whole, they can be evoked by +systems entirely at variance with the accepted Indian methods. In fact, +certain nonsense rhymes of the same rhythm and breathing values as some +of the Tantric spells or mantras are equally efficacious. + +There was infinite wisdom in the old law of magic which said “Change +not the _barbaric_ names of evocation,” but if they were changed, +provided rhythm and breathing are preserved, the sense does not appear +to matter. If one verse of Macaulay’s “Horatius”[52] was a powerful +spell--almost any other verse in the same poem would produce the same +effect--if delivered in the same way. + +This argument is sometimes used by a sceptic, but after all it only +proves that the same result can be produced by analogous means. Salt +disappears when dissolved in water, but so it does in half a dozen +other liquids. + +The tales of life on other planes brought back by native spirits evoked +by Oriental magicians in no way tally with Western accounts, but as +phallic worship is integral with many Eastern beliefs, it is no matter +for wonder that some Eastern spirit evidence concerning the next plane +would make the most hardened Western libertine blush. They also affirm +with considerable emphasis that on the next plane nationalities and +colour lines are unknown, a point which is reinforced by the number of +ex-coloured spirits which frequent Western séances. + +It is indeed difficult to know what to believe. + +The Yogis can produce phenomena of materialization, prolonged trance +states, and can sometimes act as powerful hypnotists and seize the +Durga, literally citadel, of another’s body. On the other hand, the +net yield of all purely Indian occultism is very disappointing. This +may be due to the selflessness inculcated in their religious teaching, +which subdues love and hatred as equal enemies of spiritual progress. +If their magic were efficient, much more would be done with it, and +the consensus of general opinion is that despite its extraordinary +interest to the mystic and the scholar it has little to offer of +interest to the Spiritualist. + +Certain of lesser known Yogas which do produce astonishing phenomena +belong definitely to the domain of black magic and only parallel +certain well-known outbreaks of phallic sorcery that occurred in Europe +in the Middle Ages. + +The cult of evocation is held by some students to have spread from +India to the Arab races, but more recent investigations suggest that +the astonishing performances achieved by certain nominally Moslem sects +in the fastnesses of Tripoli and Morocco are due to the survivals from +the aborigines of those lands rather than to Oriental ideas. + +The Berbers are a distinct primitive race akin to the Basques, and +probably identical with the ancient Britons who built Stonehenge. +To-day they are fanatical Moslemin, but the old practices linger as +rituals of specific religious cults, such as the Sufi Senoussi and the +Aissouri of Morocco. They are racially strange folk and the Moslem +veneer is only a lay religion imposed on a mass of pagan folklore +closely connected with serpent worship and astronomical observances. +Their festivals of the solstices have an outward-seeming Muslim +connection, but the inner hidden occult religion is a far older thing. + +The Berbers are not of Arab stock; they are Semitic and they are +probably pre-Aryan. Some writers[53] trace their connection to the +original Firbolgs of Iceland, and the ethnology of this mysterious race +is still a matter of speculation and doubt. + +Pre-eminent among their distinctive differences from the ordinary Arab +is the esteem in which they hold women. Women are chieftainesses among +them, and above all the women are the repositories of the lost lore of +magic. It is to them that the tribesmen turn for the carrying out of +the mystic harvest ceremonies, the charming of unfruitful fields, and +the lighting of the magic Beltane fires. + +Fire plays no inconsiderable part in their rituals, and is only called +by its Arabic name el-aafeats (the comforter) when used for domestic +purposes. The sacrificial and ceremonial fires are always spoken of +either in the Shilluh or Schluch tongue--the true Berber language or +referred to as B’lnisac, a term whose philology is unknown, but which +apparently contains the age-old Bel or Baal motive. + +This fire cult, coupled with a still more mystical inner creed +symbolized by serpent worship, may be noted by the student explorer +among the Berber folk. Riffis, Mashed Hojja Tuareks of the Sahara, +certain Kabyles of Tripoli, and other tribes all belong to the same +strange race, and there are reasons for believing that the Berbers are +identical with the mystical Fairies--the Good People--so called from a +propitiatory irony because they were so amazingly bad. + +Berbers alone of savage folk raid and kill at night. They are +essentially a people of the dark, and he who sifts the mass of terrible +folklore about the earliest fairies in Britain will find a parallel +between these terrible unholy barbarians given to sorcery, necromancy +and unholy rites, the stealing of children for sacrificial purposes, +and other glossed horrors attributed to the Good People--and the Berber +races of to-day. + +The practices continue. + +In 1909 I was travelling in the Gharb country of Morocco, where there +is a large Berber element. The French occupation of the Shawiah and the +meteoric rise of Sultan Mulai Hafid had left the country unsettled and +dangerous. + +Beyond a war correspondent or two and a handful of German engineers--or +spies, employed by the firm of Marmesman--there were no Europeans in +the country outside of the coast towns. For the capital and Manahesh +the big cities of the South were closed, and a Christian’s life was +nowhere worth a moment’s purchase among the fanatics. + +I am but an indifferent Arabic scholar, but a certain knowledge of +classical Hebrew served one well, for there are many debased Jews in +Morocco. For the rest, as the high-class Moors are a fair race and +often blue-eyed, travelling in native clothes and well bronzed by the +sun I suffered no molestation and could rely on the fidelity of my four +body-servants. + +Some five days’ ride northwest of the argan forests of the coast belt, +I was well within Berber territory. This was mostly stony hill lands, +for Morocco is simply rock deserts and hills, interspersed with lightly +watered fertile valleys and occasional oases of poplar-sheltered walls. + +The holy city of Tarudant lay to the north of me, and I had crossed the +Wadi Sifan river and was going south from the Iber Kaken Pass on the +caravan route east into the Ait Jellal country. + +There, deep in the hills, lies the ruin of a Roman city of which +strange tales are told. It is even not certain that it is Roman, for a +volume of notes, painstakingly compiled for fifteen years by a resident +in a coast town, discloses unmistakable Phœnician characteristics, but +I at least cannot tell, for my expedition had to beat a swift retreat a +bare two days’ march from the nominal valley of the dead city. + +It was on the way there that my little troop of horsemen and pack +mules halted at the Berber village of M’Aerbil Ida and were received +as guests of honour for the night. The village was a curious medley of +thorn and cactus fences, cane-thatched huts, and deep caves cut in the +friable freestone rock of the mountain side. + +The men wore the close-knitted wool caps of the country and had the +curious snake-like head angles and the long, curving sidelock and thin +beards of coarse hair that just distinguish these strange, elf-like +folk. Something in their broad cheekbones and curious pale eyes +suggests the snake. + +Mohammed-el-Suissi, my horse boy, told me as he pitched my tent that +he did not like the village or the people; “they were,” he said, “not +good Moslemin.” As religious orthodoxy was not one of Mohammed’s +strong points, I did not worry much, but when Hassan-el-Askri, my +soldier muleteer, warned me to keep my arms about me I realized that my +Moors considered that not even the law of desert hospitality was held +inviolate among these folk. + +There is, however, a brotherhood of initiates of which I am a member, +whose signs are recognized in many parts of the globe. Gesticulation +is a feature of polite Arabic conversation, and I soon secured an +answering sign from one of the head-men of the tribe. Within half an +hour nobody in that village would have dared to steal the least of my +belongings. + +I had considerable difficulty in carrying on my conversation as my +Arabic, apart from ordinary needs of travel, was weak and classical +rather than popular. The Berbers, too, always spoke of these things in +their own tongue, Shilluh, and none of my entourage being initiate I +had no interpreter. + +My host was Sidi-el-Belarni, an old chieftain who was also a +_shereef_--that is, a lineal descendant of the Prophet and a +person of sanctity. He soon dropped the mask of orthodoxy and conversed +freely on the metaphysical side of his cult. I found it easier to +understand than to converse with him, but gained an easier appreciation +as I got used to it. + +I stayed a second day in the village, as one of our animals was badly +lamed and needed rest, and took occasion to ask him concerning the art +of reviving the dead to temporary life which the Berbers are commonly +held to possess. + +He made no objections to my questions, and, to my delight, offered +to give me a demonstration if the ritual of the women who held the +secrets would consent to exhibit them. At noon I was taken to a kind of +tribal palaver and the matter was put to a species of test or judgment +by lot. A young girl was blindfolded and given a basket containing +short and long sticks. Certain prayers and incantations were performed +and she passed into a semi-trance state. + +My permission depended on her selection of a majority of short sticks, +but as I could not see the sticks, and she was in a state of light +hypnosis, I made occasion to recite one or two resounding Hebrew charms +and laid my hands on her head; after that, all was easy. Her will +obeyed mine and she selected the sticks as I desired. It was almost an +unanimous election. + +When dusk fell with all its African suddenness, the rising moon hung +like a blazing buckler in the sky. Dogs barked in answer to the distant +hill jackals and the acrid smoke of the camel-dung fires hung like a +sour fog about the camp. + +We left the village and went about a quarter of a mile along the +hillside to the local buryingplace, following a stony track that was +little more than a dried watercourse. At the head of our little +procession were two men with flaming argan wood torches tied to long +canes, behind them came four men with long silver-decorated Remington +rifles, and then the little group of sorceresses followed by myself and +the elders. + +The burial ground was a scanty clearing among the scrub and dwarf oaks, +and bushes encroached upon the outer graves. Each tomb was marked by +a stone monolith or pillar, rough-hewn, with a knob at the top in +pursuance of the Muslim custom. The graves radiated in circles from the +central stone, whereon fluttered little bundles of rags and similar +votive offerings. + +We made our way to a recent grave, which was rapidly opened by the men, +disclosing, a bare two feet beneath the surface, the bent body of a man +buried in sitting posture. It was a ghoul-like business and the whole +air of the graveyard carried the tainted scent of the dreadful carrion +they were unearthing. + +In the meanwhile, the women were busy, and from behind the tombs +brought forth skulls which they anointed with some strange grease and +set on sticks in a circle round the central altar. + +At last the corpse, in its foul, earth-stained wrappings, was exhumed +and carried in a piece of sheeting to the altar. The men who had served +as guards and grave diggers then withdrew out of earshot, and the +ceremonies began. + +Fire was applied to the circle of skulls and they began to burn. I +noticed that the eyes and ear sockets were stuffed with old rags which +served as wicks for the unclean oil. They flared smokily, sending off a +foul-scented sooty smoke. + +The women began to chant their monotonous wailing rhymes, and their +leader rocked to and fro leading this strange chorus. + +Suddenly a power seemed to come upon her and she became frenzied, +dancing round the skull circle in time to the refrain, but undulating +her body in a strange, snake-like manner. Then she knelt down on the +ground, and from somewhere about her person produced something which +she rubbed on her hands. At first it resembled phosphorus, a quick, +flickering faint blue light, but gradually it grew in strength until +streamers of blue flame, some six inches long, seemed to project from +her fingers while her whole person seemed outlined in a faint shape of +flame. + +From the ground she picked up a short length of cane which in her grasp +seemed to project this blue emanation--then with a final chorus of +evocation, she leapt upon the altar and knelt astride of the dead man. + +With quick passes, she ran her hands the length of his slack limbs and +then poised both hands above the navel of the corpse, about a foot +higher than the shroud. + +The emanation curved down like a blue-green waterfall of flame +and seemed to enter the man. Incredible as it may seem, the dead +limbs slowly began to stretch out jerkily, uneasily, as if awaking, +yet--instinct with a new vitality. + +The ghastly, lolling head, stained with corruption and bound with the +jaw bandage, began to oscillate on the dreadful neck and the whole +corpse began to phosphoresce with a dull green luminosity. + +The chorus now ceased chanting and a small fire was lighted on a cairn +of stones. From this certain objects were taken and placed in the dead +man’s hands. The fingers slowly curled up and grasped them! + +The singing began again and the sorceress, still across the body, took +the cane she carried and, breaking the bandage that bound the dead +man’s jaw, inserted the end in his mouth. + +Then making certain passes and signs with her hands, she began to +exhale deep breaths into the body, seeming to make the mystic passes as +if to force the living breath down into the dead man’s lungs. + +Little by little life seemed to creep back into that unholy shell. +The dreadful contours of death sunk back, the form became more human +and the motions not the strange jerky rigors of the first part of the +ceremony, but the very signs of life. + +The eyelids flickered and retracted, the dreadful drawn lips relaxed +and in a minute or so the dead man sat up in his cerements--and spoke. + +Then followed the dread consultation of the dead. It was evident from +the awe and respect with which he was addressed that he was treated +not as a reanimated individual, but as an august visitant from another +world. + +Thin, high and shrill, the usually coarse gutturals of the Shilluh +tongue seemed strange from _Its_ lips. I suspected ventriloquy for +a while, but could see the slow movements of its throat muscles and +glottis and the rise and fall of the shroud over the sunken abdomen. +Nevertheless it was sheer horror to listen to and dreadful, monstrous +to see. + +I was only permitted to ask one question, and I asked would my quest be +successful. I received an unequivocal answer that it would fail, but +not through my fault, but because of the will of the spirits of the +departed and the curse of the dead that hung over the city. + +Incidentally this discounted the advice given by other spirit +communicants before the expedition was undertaken,--but later proved +true. + +The ritual of re-dissolution was shorter but far more terrible. Again +the sorceress made passes. The objects were taken from the hands of +the dead and slowly the life left the body, which swelled and twitched +as it returned to its original state of terrible decomposition. A thin +wailing chant seemed to symbolize the flight of the spirit back to its +own realms. + + * * * * * + +I pressed unsuccessful inquiry concerning the details of this +astounding piece of necromancy which was neither more nor less than +that terrible old mystery, the raising of the dead in the flesh. + +I could obtain no details of the objects placed in the man’s hands +or the material used to produce the astonishing outpouring of blue, +luminous matter. + +So far as I could ascertain, the life force of the sorceress herself +entered the body, but the ceremony of creating it was essential in +combination with the charms in the hands before the spirit could return. + +Neither could I ascertain that it was the soul of the departed or some +other spirit that entered into the reanimated corpse. + +Some powerful communities are able, it is said, to despatch these +dreadful reanimated dead on missions of evil. But their power only +lasts throughout the night and fails at sunrise. + +Here there is an undoubted suggestion of the practical possibility of +vampirism, but I could not learn that these folk possess the lost art +of imprisoning a human or spirit soul within the body of an animal.[54] + +I am nevertheless convinced that among the Berbers of North Africa will +be found the key to many legends that have come down to us from our +ancestors in Great Britain, and above all I counsel those good folk who +read the pleasant little fake stories of pretty little fairies in some +of the magazines of what passes for popular occultism to abandon the +delusion. + +The term good folk is a paradox. They were the demons or spirits of +the unholy aborigines working in contact with the savages themselves, +and it is good, exceedingly good, that there are no fairies loose in +Britain to-day and that the art of summoning them is well-nigh lost. + + * * * * * + +This chapter completes all that I have to say for the time being. +There is in this book much food for careful thought. Those who read +it carefully will find in it keys to much that has puzzled them, and +simple explanations of phenomena which have been greatly debated of +late. The general reader will doubtless find the incidents the most +interesting part of the book, but to the critical and those seriously +interested in psychic matters, I commend a careful and reasonable study +of the more scientific sections, for in this matter of things psychic +both Spiritualist and Sceptic are upon the same quest. From different +angles they are both seeking for the Great Truth. + + + FOOTNOTES: + +[51] _Occult Science in India and among the Ancients._ Louis Jacolliot. + +[52] _Lays of Ancient Rome._ Macaulay. + +[53] See _The Arabs of Tripoli_. Alan Ostler. + +[54] This practice is claimed to be possible of achievement by both +Finn and certain Red Indian wizards. But no facts susceptible of proof +have ever been adduced. + + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber’s notes. + +Two half-title pages (pages blank except for the book title) have been +omitted from the front matter. + +Minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected +silently. Ambiguous hyphenation has been removed or retained according +to the prevailing style for the period. Inconsistent hyphenation has +been normalised. + +Other than as indicated below, the authors spelling has been retained, +even where inconsistent. + +The word Balnam on page 23 has been corrected to Balham, a London +suburb suggested by the context. See also Balham or Bayswater on page +195. + +The two references to Thotn on page 28 (text and footnote) have been +amended to Thoth and Thot for the English and French respectively. + +The author misquotes Milton on page 123, where Thammur has been +corrected to Thammuz. + +A second instance of Thammur in the text has been changed to Thamus +to match the Authors alternate spelling in the following paragraph. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75900 *** diff --git a/75900-h/75900-h.htm b/75900-h/75900-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ceb4ad --- /dev/null +++ b/75900-h/75900-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5514 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The Adventures of a Modern Occultist | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +.pfoot {font-size:80%; font-weight:bold; text-align:center;} + + + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + + + +.table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right; vertical-align: top} + + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + visibility: hidden; + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} /* page numbers */ + +.titlepage { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 3em; + text-indent: 0 + } + + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + + + +.small { + font-size: 80% + } + +.xsmall { + font-size: 60% + } + +.block{ margin-left: 10%; text-indent: -25px;} + + + +/* Images */ + +img { + max-width: 100%; + height: auto; +} +img.w100 {width: 100%;} + +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: 1px dashed;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +/* uncomment the next line for centered poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry-container {text-align: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3em;} + +/* Illustration classes */ +.illow {width: 5em;} + + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75900 ***</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iii">[iii]</span></p> + +<h1>THE ADVENTURES OF<br> +A MODERN OCCULTIST</h1> + + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="small">BY</span><br> +OLIVER BLAND</p> + + +<figure class="figcenter illow" id="i_f003"> + <img class="w100" src="images/i_f003.png" alt="original_cover"> +</figure> + + +<p class="titlepage"><span class="small">NEW YORK</span><br> +DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY<br> +<span class="small">1920</span></p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_iv">[iv]</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap small">Copyright, 1920</span><br> +<span class="smcap">By DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Inc.</span></p> + +<p class="center p2">The Quinn & Boden Company</p> + +<p class="center small">BOOK MANUFACTURERS</p> + +<p class="center xsmall">RAHWAY   NEW JERSEY</p> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_v">[v]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</h2> +</div> + + +<p>The individual who deals with the by-paths and mysteries of that great +Science which we term loosely Occultism, courts neither personal +notoriety nor publicity for the strange proceedings in which he plays a +part.</p> + +<p>I have always been an energetic student of psychic matters, drawn +thereto by the possession of certain unusual gifts with which Nature +has endowed me. (Throughout the history of mankind there have always +been a certain number of individuals who have kept alive the sacred +fire and held the secret keys of many mysteries, and from time to time +an advance in general human knowledge or in an applied art or science +has revealed to the vulgar some small part of the outer mysteries that +have always been known to the initiates. These disclosures are hailed +as discoveries and set in their ordered place in the catalogue of human +knowledge.)</p> + +<p>There are in this book certain disclosures of hidden facts which are +given to the world simply<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vi">[vi]</span> because the time is ripe when they should be +more fully known and their revelation is counselled by wisdom.</p> + +<p>Human nature has always suffered from its lack of discrimination +between Prophets and False Prophets, and one of the greatest +difficulties that besets the Occultist is to know what is safe to +reveal. It is for this reason that secrets are hidden from the vulgar +and the charlatan, for these things must be hidden lest they are turned +to base ends.</p> + +<p>The revival of deep public interest in psychic matters is only a matter +of time, and then those things which have been of absorbing interest to +the few will become of vital interest to the many.</p> + +<p>The following chapters are simply transcripts of some of the +astoundingly interesting matters which have been reposing for years in +my diaries and note-books.</p> + +<p>They have been set out in conventional narrative form with no great +changes except of names and places and the elimination of the rather +involved scientific terminology of the psychologist and the laboratory. +In these days<span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">[vii]</span> when men are turning from the crude materialism of the +nineteenth century and the true scientist is the last person to deny +the realities which were deemed mythical a few short years ago, they +may serve to fill a certain need.</p> + +<p>An interest in Occultism is common to most people, but a deep study +of its principles and its phenomena is attainable only by the few. It +is not advisable to seek transcendental experiences without a sound +working knowledge of the root-springs of these phenomena, and one of +the purposes of this volume is to render invaluable assistance to those +who possess psychic gifts in greater or lesser degree.</p> + +<p>The Spiritualist, the Theosophist, and the student of Psychic Research +will all find in these pages much to interest them and much to ponder. +It throws light in some of the dark places which have seemed obscure +to those of the modern schools of thought who have not studied ancient +knowledge.</p> + +<p>As it is impossible to expound an infinite mass of fact within the +limits of a slender volume, I have added footnotes here and there which +will direct any interested reader to further sources<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">[viii]</span> of information +than my condensed text affords, but the purpose of the book is directed +to the general reader rather than to the student or specialist who will +doubtless know more than these pages can tell him.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Oliver Bland.</span><br> +</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">[ix]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> +</div> + + + +<table class="table"> + +<tr> +<td class="tdr">I.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Dead Rapper</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">II.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Automatist</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">III.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Astral Light and Psycho-Lastrometer</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IV.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">An Experiment on the Theory of Protective Vibration</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">V.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Sex in the Next World</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Reality of Sorcery</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Incense and Occultism</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_117">117</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">VIII.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Beasts and Elementals</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">IX.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Possession</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_157">157</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">X.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Some New Facts and Theories</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="tdr">XI.</td> +<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Oriental Occultism</span></td> +<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_xi">[xi]</span></p> + + + +<div class="poetry-container"> +<div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">“<i>Read not to contradict and confute,</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>not to believe and take for granted</i></div> + <div class="verse indent0"><i>... but to weigh and consider.</i>”</div> + <p class="right"><i>Bacon’s Essays.</i></p> + </div> +</div> +</div> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">[1]</span></p> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I<br> +<span class="small">THE DEAD RAPPER</span> +</h2> +</div> + +<p>I had known Harry Carthew as a second-year man at Oxford. He never +completed his course or took a degree because family reasons, some +catastrophe of some kind or another—made it imperative for him +to earn a living at once. As an undergraduate he was an ardent +anti-Spiritualist.</p> + +<p>He dropped out of sight of our little world and I had only heard of him +casually as having something to do with oil wells in Mexico and had not +come into contact with him for years. I was therefore rather surprised +to receive a letter from him which showed that he was in London and +knew that I was working on research subjects. His letter was couched in +rather non-committal terms, and though he was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">[2]</span> a man whom I had never +known well, he expressed an anxiety to meet me again and lay before me +certain psychical problems that were puzzling him.</p> + +<p>I make it an invariable rule never to discuss psychic matters with +people who are ignorant or sceptical of them, unless the sceptics are +of a class sufficiently educated to be able to appreciate the absolute +facts of the phenomena associated with Spiritualism.</p> + +<p>It is impossible to convince a non-scientific person by facts, as +he can never assure himself that the possibility of fraud has been +absolutely eliminated. A scientist or an engineer can assure himself +fairly easily of the genuineness or otherwise of phenomena provided +that he is given every latitude for research. But it is difficult to +convince either a clergyman or an ordinary medical man of the reality +of any psychic phenomena because he is not mentally trained in the +same inexorably logical processes of thought as are the engineers and +scientists.</p> + +<p>Experience has taught me to mistrust the man who approaches with +indirect advances to the subject of Spiritualism. I prefer the +definite<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">[3]</span> challenge of a critical journalist who demands facts and +judges on facts, for it is undoubtedly an axiom that the Seeker after +Truth, however sceptical he may be, has no hostile influence in a +properly constituted circle.</p> + +<p>It has ever been a matter of regret to me that the mass of +Spiritualists hold the fallacious idea that a sceptical influence can +hinder a séance. For it is not the lack of belief or disbelief of the +one or few sceptics that weakens the influence. It is the mass belief +of the whole circle in the hostile influence of the sceptic that does +the harm.</p> + +<p>After thinking matters over I decided that it might be wrong to +prejudice Carthew by his undergraduate views. After all, some years +had passed, and if every Oxford man held to the eccentric habits and +beliefs of his puppy days the world would be a sorry place. I wrote to +him asking him to dine with me at my club during the following week.</p> + +<p>He had changed so much that when he entered the smoking room I did not +recognize him. Tropical sunlight had bronzed and wrinkled his skin, his +eyes had the clear hard steel-grey<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">[4]</span> fadedness of the blue iris that +comes to men who have gazed long across deserts. Malaria had thinned +down his form and his hands were big-veined and tremulous with quinine.</p> + +<p>Over the meal he told me a good deal about his life abroad, and I +realized something of the deadly loneliness of a white man’s life in +the dull oil fields of Mexico. Four other whites to speak to and for +the rest native peons, Indians and a sprinkling of Chinese coolies.</p> + +<p>A bottle of good wine is a splendid lubricant for the human tongue, and +the Burgundy—a “Clos du Poi,” ’84—soon eased him of all awkwardness. +Over the coffee and cigars he came to his point.</p> + +<p>“You still go on with Spiritualism, don’t you, Grey?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” I answered him, “but I thought that you did not believe in it.” +His answer almost shocked me with its violence.</p> + +<p>“God! but I wish that I did not!” He was silent with emotion for a +moment, then resumed: “You know I never believed in it at the House. I +always thought you fellows were simply running it as a craze, but up +at Los<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">[5]</span> Chicharras—that was the third big oil gusher that the Company +owned—there was a Cornish mining engineer, Bill Tregarthen.</p> + +<p>“He was a queer fish, a silent man; squat-shaped, broad as he was long +and full of queer fancies. He had a little planchette board that he +used to consult about everything, and I have seen him sit there in the +patio of the office building with the little jigger dancing about over +reams of paper.</p> + +<p>“I thought he was crazy, but he persuaded me to try the thing, <i>and I +got messages, too</i>. One day it spelt out a message from Ellen, and +Ellen has been dead for four years—she was my old nurse—Ellen——</p> + +<p>“Even then I was only half convinced. One’s brain plays one strange +tricks down there in the Tierra Caliente, and I have seen an upturned +mountain standing on its head in the desert—mirage of course, and I +used to think the planchette mental mirage, subconscious stuff of some +kind—and I didn’t believe.</p> + +<p>“Then Tregarthen used to laugh at me for a fool, and one night he +blazed up into a strange bit of rage and stood there in the moonlight<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">[6]</span> +shaking his fist at me. ‘We Cornish folk have known the unwrit lore for +all time,’ said he. ‘Old odd people we are and we know old odd things. +I tell you. I will tell you that I am right when I am dead. You will +not listen to me now, but you shall listen then, indeed.’</p> + +<p>“Lots of the stuff he raved at us that night, but I and another man at +last calmed him down and got him off to bed. I thought little enough of +it at the time, and a week later I went back from Los Chicharras to the +Offices at Tampico.</p> + +<p>“I suppose it was a month later that I heard the first knock. It was +past midday, right in the heart of the siesta hour. Not a soul moving, +the very dogs silent in the streets, and the whole place a blinding +blaze of sunlight.</p> + +<p>“I knew at once—that’s the odd thing about it. <i>I knew instantly in +my heart that Tregarthen was dead.</i></p> + +<p>“That was six months ago, and since then I keep on hearing the raps. +I know that Tregarthen is keeping his pledge, but I cannot answer him +back; I cannot get into touch with him.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">[7]</span></p> + +<p>“Now tell me this—with all your knowledge of these things, can you +help me?”</p> + +<p>I asked him what he had done, and he told me a long chronicle of visits +to mediums in New York, of an attempt to talk through a voodoo woman +in New Orleans, and of honest, patient sittings in a little suburban +circle in London.</p> + +<p>Carthew was clearly desperate and absolutely in earnest. I knew without +his telling me what was at the back of his mind.</p> + +<p>The problem was a peculiar one, for here was a live man to all intents +haunted by a malicious spirit now on another plane. Carthew’s character +was a strong one, though of a low and violent type. This mental +persecution had produced a prodigious feeling of hatred for the dead +man—a feeling of hatred that had not existed when he was alive, for +then the hatred was all on Tregarthen’s side.</p> + +<p>There was also the possibility that the knock was pure hallucination +and not a genuine clairaudient phenomenon at all.</p> + +<p>I asked Carthew if he could give me particulars of how Tregarthen died, +and I was not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">[8]</span> surprised to learn that his end had been a violent one.</p> + +<p>A small oil gusher had broken out as an offshoot from the larger one. +In order to cut off the flow and waste of oil it is the practice to +force a dynamite cartridge into these small leads. This when exploded +breaks the natural channel of the oil and blocks the outlet.</p> + +<p>Tregarthen, through an accident or carelessness—he was a deep +drinker—had destroyed himself when preparing the charge.</p> + +<p>I asked Carthew if he was prepared to attend a séance or two and if +he would put himself completely in my hands. He assented readily, +reasserting his dominant desire to be able to talk back to Tregarthen.</p> + +<p>I was holding private séances twice a week then, but my little circle +was, though powerful enough for research work, quite unsuitable for +dealing with an abnormal case of undesired communication. During +the week I got into touch with a private medium whose faculty of +clairaudience was coupled with an excellent nervous system, and I +reinforced the circle by the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">[9]</span> addition of Dr. Miller,<a id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> who, though +not a professed Spiritualist, is no sceptic concerning occult phenomena +and is admittedly one of the most successful practitioners of curative +psychology that we have to-day.</p> + +<p>A few days later Carthew came to my chambers in the Temple and was +introduced to the members of the circle. I placed him on the left-hand +contact side of the medium and lowered the lights.</p> + +<p>The medium engaged in this case was under double controls, one a spirit +called “Louis,” the other a rather elusive and intermittent control +that answered to the name of “Montecatini.”</p> + +<p>The trance state was entered almost immediately and “Louis” took +control. I asked him to find Tregarthen and he showed considerable +reluctance, insisting that he was “not there.” The control “Louis” +was then dispossessed by “Montecatini,” who answered in an entirely +different voice and showed a distinct and separate personality.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">[10]</span></p> + +<p>“I can find him,” said Montecatini, and almost on the echo of the words +a distinct audible rap came from the ceiling of the room.</p> + +<p>Carthew recognized it instantly and flinched as if it were a personal +blow at him.</p> + +<p>“Have you got Tregarthen there?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“No, they won’t let him come here,” was the answer.</p> + +<p>“Why won’t they let him come?”</p> + +<p>“Afraid of him.”</p> + +<p>“Who is it rapping, then?”</p> + +<p>“It’s a sent rap for somebody. I didn’t do it.”</p> + +<p>“Who is the rap for?”</p> + +<p>“For the brown man.” (Carthew was sunburnt.)</p> + +<p>“He wants to speak to the spirit who sends it.”</p> + +<p>“He can’t, it’s from a bad spirit.”</p> + +<p>“But you said you could find Tregarthen.”</p> + +<p>“I have found him, but I can’t bring him.”</p> + +<p>“Why not?”</p> + +<p>“He is too heavy.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">[11]</span></p> + +<p>“Too heavy—too low down—too much hatred.”</p> + +<p>“Can’t Louis help you bring him?”</p> + +<p>This was answered after a pause by the voice of Louis.</p> + +<p>“We will try if you all help—but the brown man is hindering us.”</p> + +<p>I then determined to break the circle and set Carthew on a chair +outside. “If you want to get through to Tregarthen,” I told him, “you +must subdue that hatred of yours. I am going to try for Tregarthen by +the direct voice method.”</p> + +<p>I placed an ordinary gramophone trumpet on a light table within the +circle, then we rejoined hands and concentrated.</p> + +<p>“Can you get Tregarthen now?” I asked.</p> + +<p>“Yes, he is coming—but he doesn’t want to come.”</p> + +<p>“I want him to speak to us through the trumpet,” I told them.</p> + +<p>Almost immediately there were three knocks on the table close by the +trumpet. Then the voice came out of the trumpet, not out of the medium, +but it was the voice of Montecatini.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">[12]</span></p> + +<p>“He’s a bad spirit and he won’t talk,” said the control.</p> + +<p>“Ask him if he knows who’s here?”</p> + +<p>“Carthew!” blared the trumpet <i>in the voice of Tregarthen</i>.</p> + +<p>I heard the crash of Carthew’s chair falling back as he rose, and then +his words:</p> + +<p>“Tregarthen—at last!”</p> + +<p>The trumpet chuckled at him, a hard sardonic chuckle, and it was a +dreadful thing to hear.</p> + +<p>“Stop that, Tregarthen,” I said sharply. “Now listen to me. You must +stop sending these knocks. You have proved to Carthew that you were +right, and for the future there is no sense in it.”</p> + +<p>Again the trumpet began to chuckle.</p> + +<p>“I want Carthew—here,” said the voice of Tregarthen. “I want him to +keep me company where I am now.”</p> + +<p>The medium began to writhe uneasily, and I suddenly realized that +something dangerous had happened. The two normal controls, “Louis” +and “Montecatini,” whom we had sent to fetch Tregarthen’s spirit, had +disappeared<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">[13]</span> <i>and Tregarthen himself had taken over control</i>. +Something of a spirit of uneasiness and a general sense of danger began +to spread through the circle.</p> + +<p>I called to Carthew to come into the circle again and to cross his +hands, grasping my wrist and Miller’s, so as not to break the chain +when entering.</p> + +<p>“Now man!” I told him, “here is your chance. We have Tregarthen here, +and we will help you all we can. You must fight him with the whole of +your will-power. Defy him, raise him to anger, and at the crucial point +I will do something which will destroy his power over you for ever! +Now!”</p> + +<p>Carthew’s grip burnt into my wrists as he took hold of himself, and +then all the bitter, dominant hatred that was in the man flamed out.</p> + +<p>He stood in the circle towering above us on our chairs and he poured +into that trumpet a breadth of bilingual Spanish and English invective +that would have led to murder anywhere.</p> + +<p>He paused for breath and from the trumpet<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">[14]</span> came no chuckle, but a +spluttering, stammering, furious attempt to reply. I had no need to +prompt him to go on. He laced into his ghostly antagonist as if he had +the earthly body there in front of him. All the pent-up hatred of the +past months winged his words. The consciousness of his torment made his +quarrel just, and at the height of his peroration I concentrated the +whole of my psychic energies and made the four exorcism signs of the +martinist ritual, bidding Tregarthen begone, never to return and never +to be able to send a rap, and instantly broke the circle. I then roused +the medium from the trance with a couple of simple passes.</p> + +<p>The reaction from the violence of the séance left us all spent and +shaken. The medium recovered, remembering nothing, but feeling +unusually exhausted. Later experiments with her showed that the +domination by the Tregarthen control was purely temporary and that +“Louis” and “Montecatini” had reasserted command.</p> + +<p>My own opinion is that nothing but the intense “hate concentration” of +Carthew toward his ghostly antagonist could have enabled Tregarthen to +assume control at all.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">[15]</span></p> + +<p>It was a duel of wills between the living and the dead, fought over the +narrow no-man’s land of the earth and spirit planes, and I am not sure +that it was not a duel which ended fatally for the soul of Tregarthen. +Carthew at any rate was free of all trouble afterwards, but wild horses +could not drag him to a séance.</p> + +<p>Miller was more convinced by this astonishing séance than by far more +material phenomena that he had seen. The following day, though, he sent +me an explanation of the whole affair argued out on his own lines. He +held that Carthew was the subject of an obsession and that the whole +of the phenomena were due to subconscious hypnotism of the medium +alternatively by me as a believer in Spiritualism and by Carthew.</p> + +<p>The direct voice he ascribed to unconscious or subconscious +ventriloquism by the medium, and he pointed out that the words uttered +by Tregarthen were precisely what one would expect Carthew to say if +Carthew were in Tregarthen’s place. In other words, we were present at +an amazing duel between Carthew’s conscious mind and an obsession of +his subconscious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">[16]</span> mind that had built itself into a malignant identity.</p> + +<p>It is interesting as a psychological theory, but in point of fact I +hold it to be entirely wrong. We argued it out a good deal together, +but experiments in psychic science can seldom be repeated, and, as +I say, Carthew refused to submit to any further attempt to evoke +Tregarthen.</p> + +<p>As a man I sympathize with him, and he was really very grateful to +us—but as a scientist I would have liked to try again in order to +attempt to convince Miller.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"> + +<p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTE:</p> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1" class="label">[1]</a> All names of people and places have been changed, but Dr. +Miller’s cures of “shell shock” during the war have shown that one’s +estimate of his powers was perfectly correct.</p> +</div></div> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">[17]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br> +<span class="small">THE AUTOMATIST</span></h2> +</div> + +<p>A well-known psychic investigator once jokingly complained to me that +the telephone service of the spirit world seemed to be as unreliable +and badly damaged as that of Great Britain. Certainly, communication is +often freakish and intermittent, and the ethical value of the teachings +received at great length and painstakingly transcribed is often +completely valueless.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered that we who are conducting research in psychic +matters have a poor range of instruments or tools to work with. There +must inevitably be the human medium, and long experience has taught me +that in the case of automatic writing one must be prepared to recognize +the intrusion of the medium’s own thought-processes into the record +received from the spirit world.</p> + +<p>That these interpolated writings are conscious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">[18]</span> frauds by the mediums +we can unhesitatingly deny, but they appear to be either unconscious +records of the medium’s own thoughts or else the re-transmitted +subconscious thought-processes of the medium echoed back by the control.</p> + +<p>I have hopes that in the future we shall be able to devise an appliance +for the recording of automatic writing in which the function of the +medium will be purely that of a bridge between the two planes and in +which the physical act of writing will be mechanically performed.<a id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The difficulty in automatic writing lies in the association of ideas, +and one word written by a planchette or spelt out by an ouija traverser +leads to the stimulation of a train of thought in the subconscious mind +even though the conscious brain may be in the trance state.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">[19]</span></p> + +<p>The difficulty is to piece together what can be termed the true spirit +messages out of the mass of pseudo-communications that surround them. +The analysis of the familiar examples of “cross-correspondence” are a +valuable guide in the complexities that are involved in the question.</p> + +<p>A popular idea of the difficulty of communication can be gained by +imagining a man in a telephone exchange in London trying to talk to +Newcastle. He can go from instrument to instrument and speak through, +but all the instruments keep on going out of order, so that only +disconnected fragments of communication pass over one wire.</p> + +<p>This would not matter if the person with whom he wishes to talk +were also in an exchange at Newcastle. He, too, could pass to other +instruments, but we must imagine the mortal recipient of spirit +messages as a subscriber with only one defective instrument.<a id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">[20]</span></p> + +<p>Difficult as the subject of automatic writing is, it is from these +writings that the Spiritualist conception of life in the next world is +gleaned.</p> + +<p>Many a student has found eloquent, fluent, and convincing description +of the life beyond the veil flow from his pen when the spirit controls +were working well. Other writers have had accounts of terrors beyond +the veil: shocking and astonishing revelations of new concepts of +evil, exotic violences of the soul, and even direct incitements to the +commission of criminal acts in this plane.</p> + +<p>Spiritualists are accustomed to divide these spirits into classes of +good and bad, and it has been assumed on all too slender grounds that +only the “good” spirits tell the truth about the other planes.</p> + +<p>There are bad and lying spirits, just as there are wicked and +untruthful men, but latterly there has been a distinct tendency +to suppress all mention of the bad communicators and to attempt +the organization of Spiritualist and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">[21]</span> psychic investigation as an +unorthodox ascending sect organized as a distinct church or religious +body. This tendency would be fatal to the progress of occult +investigation.</p> + +<p>The professional mediums, on the other hand, realize that to attain +financial success, organization, and the establishment of a mediumistic +hierarchy is essential. Bad spirits are bad business and it is bad form +to mention them outside certain circles.</p> + +<p>Any investigator of experience will recognize at once that the spirits +of suicides are frequent communicators to private research circles, +private automatists and others, but it is an undeniable fact that in +public circles our leading exponents now never admit that any of the +spirits who communicate have been anything but mortals whose end was +normal, or more recently, those who were killed in battle.</p> + +<p>There is more in Spiritualism than the mere assurance to inquiries +that life on the other side is very beautiful, that vocations similar +to those on earth are followed there and that there is a steady upward +progression.</p> + +<p>These things dominate the minds of a certain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">[22]</span> section of the English +Spiritualists, and their tacit negation of the other darker side of +the revelations is entirely contrary to French, Russian, and certain +Latin-American schools of thought.</p> + +<p>The history of all religions and analysis of their tenets reveal one +great outstanding fact. There has always been an element of fear and +terror connected with all conceptions of the after-life. There is +nothing in revealed Spiritualism to suggest that abstract justice is +more prevalent on the next plane than on this imperfect earth. The +very fact of the admitted existence of bad and evil spirits capable of +malice, is in itself fatal to the bed of rose-leaves theories.</p> + +<p>In science it is the abnormal properties of a new gas, compound, or +element that lead scientists to study it, so in the realm of psychic +science it is only through close study of the abnormal that we can +attain to any clear idea of the normal.</p> + +<p>It has been cast at me as a reproach that I have pursued vain and +extraordinary paths of research, not disdaining to delve into dark +secrets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">[23]</span> of occultist ritual whose proceedings would be unorthodox +and blasphemous if laid bare to the orthodox and anæmic Spiritualist +circles of <a id="Balham"></a><ins title="original reads Balnam"> Balham.</ins></p> + +<p>Yet Shamonnism is Spiritualism, and the old schools of sorcery and +art magic held psychic secrets that are still reproducible but yet +inexplicable in these twentieth-century days.</p> + +<p>One of the most wonderful automatists I ever met was the late Jules +Carrier. A tall, spare figure, black-bearded, aquiline-nosed, vividly +pale in complexion, he had dark hazel eyes with brown mottled rings +about the pupil that suggested in a vague way something feline or +leopard-like.</p> + +<p>I met him quite by chance in a bookshop in the Rue de Valenciennes +whose proprietor had written to me about some curious early +nineteenth-century manuscripts that had come into his possession.</p> + +<p>These books consisted of some rather commonplace manuscripts of certain +philosophical transactions dealing with occult phenomena. Paris in the +early thirties of the last century was seamed with secret organizations +devoted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">[24]</span> to scientific and political studies. The great impulse of +the Revolution had produced in turn Napoleon and then the Bourbon +reaction. The strong arm of the clerical party drove the philosophers +underground, and only from time to time can one find these peculiar +archives of occultist activity in odd booksellers’ shops and the +libraries of students.</p> + +<p>The proprietor of the shop knew my interest in these matters and had +before been at pains to secure me certain personal souvenirs from his +library of Eliphas Levi,<a id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> so whenever an odd “Grimoire,” or early +matter on occultism fell to his lot he would put it by against my next +visit.</p> + +<p>He it was who introduced Carrier to me as a fellow-student, but he made +it abundantly clear that Carrier was too poor to be a book buyer and +that he himself looked on him as a peculiar acquaintance rather than as +a customer.</p> + +<p>We fell into conversation, and I was delighted to find that Carrier had +a wide and erudite knowledge of early books on magical practice. + +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">[25]</span> + +This he told me he had gained principally by spare-time study at the +Librairie de Paris, but also from the loan of books from friends. He +had, it appeared, catalogued several private collections of works on +psychic and supernormal subjects.</p> + +<p>I took him off to lunch with me at the Café Bastien, and he explained +that he was completing a catalogue or bibliography of books on magic +published previously to 1850. “There are,” said he, “a number of +missing works referred to by contemporary authors. Of these there is +little knowledge, but little by little I am rewriting them.”</p> + +<p>“Automatic writing or original deductive work?” I asked him.</p> + +<p>“Automatic—<i>pur et simple</i>,” he replied. “My control is called +Fernand de Féques and was a monk of the Abbey of Saint-Barnabe near +Blagues. Thanks to his help, I have recovered amazing things that were +lost.”</p> + +<p>He sank his voice as he told me and his leopard eyes seemed to glow +golden as the wine in his glass. “I know the secrets of the lost inner +ritual of the Illuminati,” he told me. “I have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">[26]</span> recovered Pietro +Zarantino’s invocation, and could I only master ancient Greek I could +lay the secrets of the Bacchæ bare. But their confused script paralyses +my hand and I must keep to French and Latin.”</p> + +<p>I knew too much of the vast breadth and heritage of knowledge that the +Hermetic philosophers inherited from the Gnostics to doubt his words. +Revealed knowledge may sometimes appear to be withdrawn for a while, +but it will inevitably be re-disclosed.</p> + +<p>Having an appointment to keep, I made a note of his address and +promised to resume our acquaintanceship on another day.</p> + +<p>A week later I had had leisure to go through my manuscripts. They were +very interesting, but verbose, and were full of curiously involved +obliquities of meaning and contained some peculiar Hebrew charms of +Kabbalistic significance. By either bad luck or the design of some +earlier owner, two pages of the invocatory ritual for the raising of +the spirits of the dead were missing.</p> + +<p>It occurred to me that Carrier might be able to fill the gap by means +of automatic writing,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">[27]</span> so I wrote to him suggesting the attempt +and asking him to my rooms. He replied by return, expressing his +willingness to help, and adding that his control had assented, but +desired me to visit him in his own rooms in order that he might not be +disturbed by novel surroundings.</p> + +<p>The next night I went to Carrier’s. He lived in one of those dull +meandering streets that rise from the mass of the city toward +Montparnasse. The house was an old tumble down warren, dirty and +ill-kept, the various floors let out in rooms or suites of apartments +to tenants who were none too particular in their choice of lodging. By +the light of a match I examined the grimy cards pinned in the hallway, +and at last located Carrier’s name as owner of the back room on the +third floor.</p> + +<p>He opened to my knock and I found myself in a room which made no +pretension to disguise the poverty of its tenant. Most of his furniture +was books. A globeless gas jet burnt feebly over a side table on which +were some dishes and there was an old and uncleanly box bed in the +corner. In the centre of the room was a heavy old fashioned circular +pedestal table and on this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">[28]</span> he had laid out glasses, a bottle of wine, +and paper.</p> + +<p>He showed me his books, and for a while we discussed Guldenstubbé.<a id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +I looked at some of his automatic writings that gave interpretations +of some aspects of Etteilla and was in particular interested in a new +rendering of his +<a id="Book_of_Thoth"></a><ins title="original reads Book of Thotn">Book of Thoth</ins>.<a id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>In the meantime Carrier was glancing through the imperfect MS. that I +had brought with me.</p> + +<p>“This is rather different from most of the books of the period,” said +he. “It is more like a note-book of lectures or a précis of an existing +magical ritual as performed by a small child. What do you make of it?”</p> + +<p>“That is just how it struck me,” I told him. “It is about the period +of the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. +The writer might have been one of the adepts trained by Francis Barret, +by Cagliostro, or by Dom Gerle, but it might even be as late as Madame +Lenormand.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">[29]</span></p> + +<p>“Hardly 1815, I think,” said Carrier, “but no matter. The interesting +thing is that this writer seems to have shorn his ritual of lots of the +inessential matters. For instance, in this matter of the invocation +of simple elements he has resolutely reduced his formula to mere +essentials. Two kinds of the wearisome Hebrew prayers are gone and the +actual mechanical adjuncts to the invocation are simplified.</p> + +<p>“His consecrations too are limited simply to the repetition of words of +power. This man had in his way reduced his art magic to what one may +term working formulæ.”</p> + +<p>“Sometime I will experiment with them,” I told him, “but for the +present let us see if we can recover the ritual on the missing pages.”</p> + +<p>Carrier soon passed under control. His mouth seemed to fall slack and +open in rather ghastly fashion and the eyeballs turned up under the +lids so that though he wrote with half-opened eyes; only the blue-tinted +white of the eyeballs could be seen under his heavy lids. His hand and +forearm began to twitch spasmodically, but the pencil stayed almost +immobile on the paper forming a little knot of scratches, but no +letters.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">[30]</span> Finally I saw that he had completely entered the trance state +and was directly under control.</p> + +<p>“Who is the author of these manuscripts?” I asked.</p> + +<p>Without a pause the pencil wrote rapidly in a sharp angular script: +“Marcel Theot, Adept and Minor Master of the Arcana.”</p> + +<p>“Under whom did you study?”</p> + +<p>“Under the divine Giuseppe Balsamo Count Cagliostro, the Grand Copt of +the Universe, and later under Doctor Jules Lemercier pupil of Lavater +and Cagliostro.”</p> + +<p>“Will you reveal to us the missing pages of your manuscript?” The +answer was unexpected.</p> + +<p>“To you two,” the pencil wrote, “I can reveal these secrets, for you +too are initiate and know what progress is permitted to the children +of men. This I say unto you. In the third decade of this century shall +there be a revival of art magic, but much that has been sealed to the +philosophers shall be known to the healers of men.”<a id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">[31]</span></p> + +<p>The control revealed a complete and up-to-date knowledge of movements +in the world of psychic research and the refrain of the communications +was ever the same. “These things were known before, but mankind had not +the sense to apply the doctrines and practice.”</p> + +<p>At length the control took up the actual communication of the missing +portion of the ritual and Carrier’s automatic script changed entirely +from his own angular, large-lettered, trim, and straggly lettering to +the staid precise well-formed handwriting of the original manuscript.</p> + +<p>All went well until it came to the names of God, which had to be +written in Hebrew characters in the corners of the triangle within the +pentagon of the president of the air. Carrier’s hand struggled with +the attempt to produce the letters, but the characters would not form. +There was a moment of indecision, and then I saw hovering over the +table a small lambent sphere of bluish light.</p> + +<p>The room, remember, was lighted by a gas jet and we were not in +darkness, but clear and distinct the flickering globe of blue light +formed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">[32]</span> over the table, then descended to wrap round Carrier’s hand and +pencil.</p> + +<p>With it there seemed to come an impression of intense cold, then there +formed within the light a plainly visible hand bearing a curiously +wrought talismanic ring. This hand took the pencil and wrote the +names in Hebrew characters <span class="smcap">Vevahliah</span>, <span class="smcap">Aniel</span>, and +<span class="smcap">Mumiah</span>, then withdrew again.</p> + +<p>While the rest of the ritual was being written the globe of light +into which the hand had redissolved hovered over the table, but at +the end of the script when Carrier’s hand fell idle it returned and +materializing again wrote in bold script in ordinary Latin characters:</p> + +<p>“The dead ye will summon, but Nahemah will answer, for I too am a +creature of the fire and it is only on the underplanes that I command.”</p> + +<p>Once again the globe of fire redissolved the hand, then the whole +ascending toward the ceiling appeared to expand, dissipate and vanish +away. Carrier came round and I boiled him up a glass of hot water, +which, with a liberal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">[33]</span> dash of wine, soon restored him to himself.</p> + +<p>Together we went over the script while I told him of the curious +phenomenon that I had witnessed.</p> + +<p>“That may account for the way my hand is aching,” he said. “I thought +it was more than usual,” and spreading his hand out in front of him we +both noticed for the first time that both the first joint of the thumb +and the nail and first joint of the forefinger were actually swollen +and bruised.</p> + +<p>“This Marcel Theot seems to be a terrible fellow,” said he ruefully.</p> + +<p>“It is the last part of the message that he has attached to the ritual +that puzzles me,” I said. “Assuming that he is actually a bad spirit, +he yet seems to be able to repeat the construction of a protective +circle of exorcism in which the names of God are frequently repeated +and which is in itself supposed to be demon-proof and then warns us +that Nahemah will answer. Nahemah is the spirit queen who presides over +the female devils of obsession—the Succubi. Thus Carrier, my friend, I +do not quite see what to expect.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">[34]</span></p> + +<p>“The Succubi,” said Carrier, “are known to be able to assume the forms +of the most desirable of women. This Marcel Theot studied thaumaturgy +and magic under Cagliostro and his followers, and you know to what +amazing practices the Grand Copt set his female devotees. It is +probable that the invocation in its peculiarly condensed style opens +the doors to dangers that are not present when the full ritual is +applied. You notice that he styles himself minor master.”</p> + +<p>I agreed, and later analysis of the ritual as compared to others showed +that in the process of condensation many of the safeguarding ceremonies +and propitiatory invocations had been discarded.</p> + +<p>My own opinion is that Marcel Theot was one of that numerous class of +people who undertook the study of magic only in order to obtain the +supernatural qualification of carnal desires. In any case I have deemed +his ritual unsafe for experiment and have taken steps so that it can +never fall into unsuitable hands.</p> + +<p>The actual materialism of a spirit hand to aid<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">[35]</span> automatic writing is +such an unusual occurrence that to my mind it completely disposes +of any theory of other than spirit knowledge being applied in this +particular case.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2" class="label">[2]</a> I carried out a long series of experiments with the +idea of developing an automatic recorder operating on the lines of +the familiar tape machine, and experimented at length both in London +and in Paris, where my work was done in connection with the student +Du Plessis, who was one of the heroes who gave his life at Verdun. +Latterly we abandoned the idea of an actual print-registering machine +for a device designed to register impulses on a wax cylinder, something +on the lines of a phonograph. Some results were obtained, but the +machine was not successful or reliable.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3" class="label">[3]</a> It is a saddening and depressing thought to think of a +recently passed over spirit racing from medium to medium in an attempt +to get through bits of messages to an individual on this plane. +The spirit of F. W. H. Myers had to communicate through mediums as +distant as Mrs. Holland in India and Mrs. Verrall at Cambridge. Later +communications were received in complex fashion from other sources and +the whole had to be collected by the Research Officer of the S.P.R. +before they made any sense at all. <i>Proceedings S.P.R.</i>, Vols. XX +to XXV inclusive.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4" class="label">[4]</a> The library and papers of Alphonse Louis Constant are, I +believe, still in existence but inaccessible.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5" class="label">[5]</a> Baron de Guldenstubbé. <i>La Réalité des Esprits et le +Phénomène Merveilleux de leur Ecriture Directe.</i> 1857.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6" class="label">[6]</a> <i>Les Sept Nuances de l’Œuvre Philosophique +Hermétique.</i> Leçons Théoriques et Pratique du + <a id="Livre_de_Thot"></a><ins title="original reads Livre de Thotn">Livre de Thot</ins>. 1786.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7" class="label">[7]</a> This would seem to point to the present research in +psychology and psychotherapeutics and its applications to cases of +“shell shock” and kindred mental disturbances.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">[36]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III<br> +<span class="small">ASTRAL LIGHT AND THE PSYCHO-LASTROMETER</span> +</h2> +</div> + + +<p>One of the commonest phenomena associated with Spiritualism is the +production of light. Many mediums possess this power of attracting or +emitting light and even small circles where there is in truth little +enough Light in the true psychic sense, yet produce this, the most +elementary of the phenomena.</p> + +<p>It is possibly because it is so easy to induce light phenomena of +various kinds that the production of any form of spirit luminosity +has been, so to speak, taken at face value as a criterion of +<i>goodness</i>.</p> + +<p>In actual point of fact at least two-thirds of the light manifestations +seen at Séances may be classed as dubious and a portion of them are +more than dubious, they are malevolent manifestations.</p> + +<p>To this blind belief in the “goodness” of spirit light in itself we +may trace certain disastrous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">[37]</span> mental calamities that have overtaken +too trustful searchers. The myth springs possibly from an acceptance +of early Bible teachings and a desire to identify these manifestations +with the Pentecostal tongues of fire and similar analogies. But among +the mass of humble practitioners of Spiritualism who follow the path of +the Light are many that are mistaking astral evils for psychic good.</p> + +<p>To the average Spiritualist the success of a small circle in the +production of spirit lights is a heartening message from the spirit +world. It is a testimony that life-after-death endures, and as such +the phenomena are welcomed as spirit visitors, sometimes identified +as actual spirit forms, and no doubt is raised in the minds of +those present concerning the innate and essential “goodness” of the +visitation.</p> + +<p>In order to avoid confusion I shall use the term astral light to +describe the usual spirit light.</p> + +<p>The light phenomena are customarily associated with the dark or +semi-dark séance because in the full light of day or under normal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">[38]</span> +conditions of artificial light it is almost impossible to see +the astral light at all, unless one is clairvoyant or unless the +concentration of spirit force is so marked that there is no possibility +of mistaking it.</p> + +<p>The normal appearance of astral light is that of indefinite globular or +pear-shaped masses of faint phosphorescence. These appear near sitters +or on objects in the room and frequently move about, wax and wane, or +gather into clouds before a materialism or in support of a particular +effort.<a id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>In other cases they take the form of direct rays and in certain +individuals have been known to occur as flashes like dull electric +discharges. Another not uncommon form is the projection from the body +of a distinctly defined aura or radiation of light which is faintly +luminous like the gases in a Geissler tube subjected to oscillant +discharges.</p> + +<p>We must go far back into history and indeed beyond the bounds of +history before we can come to a time when this manifestation of light +was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">[39]</span> not one part of the common stock in trade of the thaumaturge or +wonder worker.</p> + +<p>The manipulation and control of astral light phenomena were part of the +religious mysteries of the magicians of Chaldea who transmitted the +secret knowledge to the seers of Egypt. We find it in the myth of the +luminous bull in the Greek mysteries and again as an attribute of the +great healer Apollonius of Tyana. This mysterious radiance plays equal +parts in the records of the lives of the saints and in the terrible +archives of the trials for sorcery.</p> + +<p>Confusion exists because to the untrained eye of mankind all forms of +astral light are identical.</p> + +<p>The greater proportion of the astral light seen by circles is that +generated and given off by the human mental energy of the circle +itself. The spirit-forms are all too often thought-forms built up out +of the liberated psychoplasm or thought-matter given off by sitters.</p> + +<p>The physical nature of this psychoplasm has so far defied all attempts +at scientific research, but it appears to be something more substantial +than the mere emission of vibrations that it is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">[40]</span> commonly held to +be. It appears to be an all-penetrating imponderable emanation which +dissipates rapidly, but which under certain conditions is capable of +being energized by the intelligence of the living or by discarnate +intelligence. Under these conditions it becomes luminous and under +certain further conditions can be used as the vehicle for the +transmission of force.</p> + +<p>It can best be realized as being to the mind what ectoplasm<a id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> is to +the body of the medium, but the precise limitations of both the astral +body-matter ectoplasm, and astral mind-matter psychoplasm are not yet +ascertained.</p> + +<p>It is a conceivable hypothesis that both are functions of the vast +unknown mechanism of the subconscious self, but where the capacity for +the projection of ectoplasm is rare, the emission of psychoplasm is the +basis of most Spiritualist phenomena.</p> + +<p>It is to this radiation of psychoplasm that we must look for the +explanation of such a simple thing—and at the same time such a +complex<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">[41]</span> thing—as psychic atmosphere. Do we not all know the peculiar +atmosphere which surrounds individuals and places? The phenomena +associated with apparitions have been ascribed to the penetration of +structure by violently liberated psychoplasm set free in moments of +passion and bloody violence. There too is the clue to its physical +source, for in some obscure way blood and the emanations from blood +play a vital and important part in psychic matters.</p> + +<p>Under normal circumstances psychoplasm is dissipated and the liberated +energy that animated it goes with it to return in the normal way of the +cycle of life. Under other circumstances the psychoplasm retreats back +into the mind whence it came, just as the materialized ectoplasm is +reabsorbed into the body of the medium.</p> + +<p>The dangers latent in assuming all astral light phenomena to be “good” +can be realized when it is considered what may occur to the projected +psychoplasm which is emotionally liberated beyond the confines of the +body and beyond its living human control.</p> + +<p>A party of some half-dozen form a circle in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">[42]</span> some provincial city. +They may know one another well or they may be, comparatively speaking, +strangers. However well they may know the public lives of the members +of the circle, can they fathom the secret soul of each sitter? Can they +say whose mind is a garden of purity or who may have some tendency to +some unknown enormity?</p> + +<p>Yet it is precisely this weakness that makes a soul-appalling danger of +the hideous mental promiscuity that is one of the essential things of +which all the more ingenuous and simple believers and a few clever evil +hypocrites among Spiritualists make a cult.</p> + +<p>They may unknowingly include among themselves an individual, man or +woman, who has somewhere a secret kink—a mental leaning—it need not +be an actually accomplished physical fact—but simply an inclination to +the obscene, the evil, or the cruel.</p> + +<p>The circle launches its prayer, concentrates on the attraction of the +discarnate spirits of those who have passed over—and what comes, who +comes?</p> + +<p>There is no gifted Spiritualist or student of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">[43]</span> matters psychic who has +not had either personal or absolutely credible second-hand experience +of the existence of bad or lying spirits. It is true that insistence +upon their existence has latterly become unfashionable in Spiritualist +circles—because it does harm to the professional medium, but not even +the most insistent of suppressive propaganda can live down the writings +and testimonies of the past and the ever-recurrent undeniable phenomena +of the present.</p> + +<p>It is not too much to say that in nine cases out of ten where a crude +and humble belief in Spiritualism is put in practice by a circle of +operators whose standard of education and intellectual attainment +is low, the etherealization of the psychoplasm of the believers is +mistaken for the materialization of the spirit.<a id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>So much for the visible luminous appearances of astral light. Now let +us consider the range of probabilities that may affect these. It must +be borne in mind that it is the process of their reabsorption into the +sitters after being charged<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">[44]</span> with outside influences that introduces +the element of danger.</p> + +<p>Psychologists know that certain fixed laws govern mental processes. +There is the Law of Similarity, which evokes the association of +ideas; there is the Law of Integration, which splits memories and +picture memories into integral fragments; and there is the Law of +Redintegration, which enables the subconscious mind to reassemble the +part memories into one completed picture of a past scene or event.</p> + +<p>The astral light, once beyond the control of the sitter, is at the +command of (1) stronger human wills in the circle, (2) the lower or +baser forms of discarnate intelligence, (3) spirits of ex-mortals, (4) +higher spirits.</p> + +<p>It is the dominance of the human will that is the first positive +danger. Part of the accepted dogma of Spiritualism is that hostile +or unbelieving influences are antagonistic to the spirits. This is +by no means accurate, but can be classed for practical purposes as a +half-truth. The state of mental concentration and muscular relaxation +that is necessary to the séance bears a close and analogous resemblance +to the state<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">[45]</span> of consent that the hypnotist demands of his subject.</p> + +<p>The first requisite of the Spiritualist is the question put to him or +her by others of the cult.</p> + +<p>“Do you believe in Spiritualism?”</p> + +<p>The honest sceptic, the unreasoning man-in-the-street observer is +soon converted by evidence, then faith in the inexplicable wonders of +Spiritualism is born.</p> + +<p>In other words the mind of the neophyte accepts the whole loose +doctrine of Spiritualism and is prepared to believe that all phenomena +are due to spirit influence, and does not attempt to further analyse +the accepted spirit influence.</p> + +<p>The mental or emotional state produced by the participation of a devout +believer in a séance, leaves the mind receptive of ideas, and the ideas +received back into the mind are those impressed upon the psychoplasm +that is liberated and is visible as astral light and is reabsorbed into +its sources after it has been beyond the control of its originator’s +consciousness.</p> + +<p>In a circle of ten or fewer people where the sexes are mixed, it is +impossible to say what<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">[46]</span> suppressed desires may be latent in the minds +of those who compose it. Even in the case of circles confined to one +sex alone there is the possibility of sex perversion being a secretly +dominant mental force in the mind of someone there.</p> + +<p>It is an inexorable law that the conscious or subconscious will of the +most powerful and determined member of the circle dominates the minds +of the others through its influence on the psychoplasm or astral light.</p> + +<p>Even without the knowledge of the dominant influence his or her will or +thought-force emission will gain mastery over those of the others, and +if there is any violent sex disturbance at the bottom of the dominant +will, this will be communicated to the others or to the selected other +furthering the desire.</p> + +<p>The next stage occurs where passion or desire on the part of one member +of the circle for another is absent. Despite repeated statements that +the desire of the members of the circle is to meet pure spirits, there +may be members whose secret wishes are not those of the pathway of +light. Love for those who have passed over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">[47]</span> may be still carnal love +in the hearts of those who remain. Abélard may have passed beyond +passion into the realm of death, but Héloïse may refuse his plea of +impossibility and still pursue in the spirit that which escaped her in +the flesh.</p> + +<p>Carnality is not confined to this plane nor does it cease upon the +next, but the endeavour of mortals to get in touch with the spirit +world while there is latent in them either known or suppressed, and +unrecognized desire is fatal.</p> + +<p>Every sexual desire the mind has experienced is indexed or pigeon-holed +in the recesses of the subliminal mind. People whose conscious mind +is free of any vestige of such desire may go to a séance and under +the influence of the emotional forces of a séance liberate all the +repressed energy of their past ungratified sexual desires—without +knowing it.</p> + +<p>These forces attract low-grade spirits some of whom have never been +human and the lowest and most vicious of spirits whose human lives have +been a cycle of debauchery. Like attracts like, is one of the laws of +Nature. The Law of Similarity is one of the rules of psychology.</p> + +<p>The gateways of the soul are thrown open<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">[48]</span> not to whoever may enter in, +but with an explicit mental invitation to those spirits that derive +gratification from the lusts and desires of mortals.</p> + +<p>The whole body of the psychoplasm of a circle is at the mercy of the +mind of the individual to whose call the spirits come.</p> + +<p>The practical results of these open-house invitations to the spirits +are devastating. The ideas of gratification become rooted not in the +conscious mind but in the subconscious mind, where they work slowly but +inevitably to the subversion of conscious “good.”</p> + +<p>The first step toward possession and obsession are often the result of +séances, where Truth has been sought with the tongue and Evil within +the heart of one present. It is not the guilty alone who suffer, but +the weak and innocent who sit beside them.</p> + +<p>There are no bounds to the malignancy of the impure spirits. They are +sly and notable liars—they can assume the form of mortals who have +passed over and they can assume personality and knowledge that was +known to the dead. By degrees they inculcate evil, predisposing the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">[49]</span> +victim to accept and yield to evil in particular forms. Frequently they +proceed by slow stages, advising and inspiring savage asceticism, but +seizing each stage of natural reaction from this unnatural régime to +further subvert their victim in wantonness.</p> + +<p>The obvious need is for some method of distinguishing between good and +bad projections of astral light.</p> + +<p>To the human eye alone there is no means of distinguishing between the +etherealizations of the psychoplasm of the believer and the identical +luminous phenomena which occur when there is a materialization of +the actual spirit. It is there that psychic science can come to our +assistance.</p> + +<p>The fluorescent bodies zinc sulphide, barium platino-cyanide, and +the preparation known as Sidot’s hexagonal blonde, are all intensely +susceptible to radioactivity. The rays of radioactive bodies have the +peculiar property of being able to penetrate the ether, and the mass +of spirit teaching tells us that this property is also common to the +disembodied spirits of those who have passed to other planes.</p> + +<p>The relative purity or potency of astral lights<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">[50]</span> may be readily +ascertained by their effect upon a simple instrument that I have named +the Psycho-Lastrometer.</p> + +<p>This instrument is both cheap and easy to make in the simple form +in which I first used it. The later applications which make it a +registering instrument in addition to being a mere indicator are +necessarily costly, but these are only necessary to the expert +investigator and are of no value to the mere seeker after proof or +those who seek communion with the spirits of the dead for the purposes +of solace, quasi-religious conviction, or vulgar curiosity.</p> + +<p>To make a crude psycho-lastrometer all that is necessary is a +wide-mouthed glass jar whose walls should not be more than two +millimetres thick. The height of the jar should be some eight inches, +the width in proportion three and a quarter inches.</p> + +<p>I have found that an ordinary lipped beaker of Bohemian glass such +as is readily obtainable from any maker of laboratory apparatus is +admirably suited to the purpose.</p> + +<p>The neck of this jar must be fitted with a large cork or wooden bung +the whole of which is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">[51]</span> covered with tinfoil. The centre of this cork +should be pierced by a piece of brass wire five inches long, bent at +one end to form a hook. This end is inside the jar and from the hook +hangs the plate of the lastrometer. To the projecting end of the brass +wire outside the jar should be soldered a circular collecting disc of +brightly polished brass or tinplate three inches in diameter. This +should stand up vertically to the axis of the wire, being thus on edge +instead of forming a flat table.</p> + +<p>The plate of the lastrometer consists of a rectangle of thin aluminum +two and half inches wide by four inches deep. Half an inch from the +top edge three slits should be cut in the metal so that a portion of a +magnetized knitting needle three inches long may be threaded through +the breadth of the plate, projecting half an inch on each side.</p> + +<p>This needle forms a cross bar at the top of the plate and should be +accurately adjusted so that the broad surface of the plate is always in +the same plane as the axis of the needle.</p> + +<p>To the projecting ends of the needle is secured a loop of copper wire +four inches long whose<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">[52]</span> other end is made fast to the other end of the +needle and whose centre passes over the hooked end of the wire through +the cork. The plate thus swings like a miniature signboard suspended +from the hook.</p> + +<p>The surface of one side of the plate is now painted with several +successive layers of a saturated solution of gum arabic in one ounce of +water to which has been added one and a half drachms of luminous zinc +sulphide or Sidot’s preparation (preferably the latter) and one liquid +drachm of a ten per cent. solution of barium platino-cyanide. The other +side of the plate should be painted with “optical black” or any other +suitable dead black varnish.</p> + +<p>Between the edge of the bung and the central wire should be inserted +at convenient intervals three or four sections of glass tubing whose +internal bore exceeds half an inch. These serve to admit external +influences to the interior of the lastrometer.</p> + +<p>When complete it will be found that the plate of the lastrometer is +highly fluorescent and can be energized into greater activity by +exposure to sun or artificial light. It is desirable that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">[53]</span> the plate +should be kept in a state of relatively low radiancy, as otherwise +spirit agency cannot raise its luminous powers to a higher degree.</p> + +<p>At a séance the instrument should be placed within the circle and the +jar rotated till the magnetized needle can oscillate freely in its +natural position pointing toward the North and South Poles.</p> + +<p>Concentrations of genuine spirit force will raise the luminosity of +the plate to double and treble its normal output of light. When the +force is concentrated in the lastrometer, questions can be answered by +the spirits by signaling in Morse or simple code by rotating the plate +through an angle of 90° against the surface force of the magnet.<a id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">[54]</span></p> + +<p>It may be urged that this apparatus is not fraud-proof and that it +would respond to certain agencies such as the concealment of an +electromagnet in the room. To this it may be answered that an ordinary +pocket compass placed on the table by the lastrometer would also +respond to these forces and the fraud would be transparent to any +observer.</p> + +<p>So far as I can tell, no human mental effort conscious or subconscious +can affect this simple instrument. It is necessary to guard against +illusion by imagining that the lastrometer is gaining radiance, and +to this end it is advisable to prepare a stand and test-piece made of +aluminum and coated with precisely the same solution as is applied to +the plate. These should always be kept together and allowed to become +equally radiant. If this is placed on the table near the lastrometer, +any variations in the latter can be rapidly verified by comparison with +the non-insulated and non-oriented test-piece.</p> + +<p>Antipathy on the part of the presiding medium to the use of the +psycho-lastrometer is invariably a bad sign. Spirit messages objecting +to it are the most valid reasons for its retention,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">[55]</span> and such +communications should be viewed with the deepest suspicion. The cost of +the apparatus is a few shillings, it can be made by anybody in an hour +or so of spare time, and in actual point of fact there is nothing about +it that is offensive to the spirits of “good” or to the pure.</p> + +<p>To those who are learned in symbolism I may suggest that the receiving +disc at the top of the wire need not be in the form of a disc, but can +be cut or pierced with ornament such as sacred symbols or with any +decorative design.</p> + +<p>It is desirable, however, that the light surface be retained and that +the available metallic surface of the disc should not be diminished +more than is necessary.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8" class="label">[8]</a> <i>Notes of an Enquiry into the Phenomena Called +Spiritual.</i> William Crookes, F.R.S., p. 91; Class VIII: Luminous +Appearances.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9" class="label">[9]</a> For details concerning ectoplasm see <i>Ghosts in Solid +Form</i>, Gambier Bolton, etc.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10" class="label">[10]</a> Something of this view may be found in the chapter on +“Pseudo Spirit Phenomena” in <i>Borderland of Psychical Research</i>, +H. J. Hyslop. A book deserving of attention by all interested in +Spiritualism.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11" class="label">[11]</a> The psycho-lastrometer was further perfected. The +element selenium is inordinately sensitive to all forms of light +rays and according to the light thrown upon it permits more or less +electric current to pass. I arranged the apparatus so that the light +thrown out by the psycho-lastrometer impinged upon a selenium cell +whose resistance varied from 50,000 ohms to 100,000 ohms, which was +in its turn connected to a cell and to a Deprex d’Arsonval mirror +galvanometer. This enables accurate readings of the actual waxings +and wanings of the light value of the lastrometer plate to be taken, +and entirely eliminates any possibility of visual illusion seeming to +make the plate more luminous than before. A series of plotted curves +based on time abscissæ and light co-ordinates will give an accurate +scientific record of any differences in the radiant value of the plate +that occur during the séance.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">[56]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV<br> +<span class="small">AN EXPERIMENT ON THE THEORY OF PROTECTIVE VIBRATION</span> +</h2> +</div> + + +<p>Ghost phenomena do not come into the province of practising +Spiritualism. The average Spiritualist is content to follow the +Catholic doctrine of offering up a few devout prayers for the rest of +the uneasy spirit should circumstances throw him into contact with it. +Apparitions as a whole affect the Spiritualist with as much unreasoning +terror as falls to the lot of the non-Spiritualist mortal.</p> + +<p>The chance-met apparition of the dead is after all a fairly common +phenomenon. The theory of the veridic apparition of the recently dead +is explainable by various hypotheses, but there is little reason to +suppose that the human spirit still animates the astral body that +appears.</p> + +<p>The luminous quality or phosphorescence of astral light that enwraps +the astral body of the apparition is not necessarily a proof of the +survival<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">[57]</span> of the identity of the soul whose astral body appears. The +phosphorescent radiance associated with certain kinds of fish survives +the death of the organism, and luminous bodies or glands extracted +from these creatures may be preserved for months after death and still +retain elements of luminosity.</p> + +<p>The thinking Spiritualist does not disregard the lessons and analogies +of science. The great names in the history of Spiritualism have been +those of scientists like Lodge and Crookes,<a id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> and it has ever been +their desire to translate the apparent miracles of the supernatural +into no less miraculous but more deeply understood parallels with the +natural.</p> + +<p>The great slogan of Spiritualism is that it is a perfectly natural +understandable thing; thus is it the duty of every Spiritualist to +reduce those things which non-Spiritualistic thought deems supernatural +to the realms of the understood, the explained and the known,—in a +word, to the state of the natural.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">[58]</span></p> + +<p>It is no good to tell a materialistic world that owing to the +intervention of spirit force mechanical results contrary to all natural +laws were obtained. The sceptic, and above all the logical sceptic—who +is the easiest of all to convert, can you but once bring him to see the +fallacies that underlie his logic—demands proof, proof not in terms of +second-hand evidence, but proof in terms of cold matter-of-fact science.</p> + +<p>The missionary effort of Spiritualism must be made a crusade not into +the minds of the unintelligent but straight into the citadels of reason +of the men of science. It is necessary first of all to demonstrate the +spirit forces and then to <i>prove</i> that they are forces of the +spirit and not natural, so far as the meaning of the term “natural” may +be held to imply limitation to the physical laws governing this mortal +earth.</p> + +<p>The spirit realm is the realm of the ether, the boundless range of +unknown interstellar space. Blindly, gropingly, the men of science +are putting out feelers—theories—pragmatical assumptions that serve +them as laws. Little by little it is being recognized that the physics +of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">[59]</span> ether is the underlying superscientific structure of modern +Spiritualism. Little by little their discoveries fall into harmony with +our claims, and we must look upon science as the handmaiden rather than +the antagonist of our truth.</p> + +<p>The theories of apparition that are held vary according to the +classification of the apparition. There are numerous instances of +apparitions of the living<a id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> and there is an infinite mass of data +concerning veridical apparitions of the dead. A statistical analysis +of 17,000 cases collected by the Society for Psychical Research resulted +in the finding by the Committee that “Between deaths and apparitions +of the dying person a connexion exists which is not due to chance +alone.”<a id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<p>A clear distinction must, however, be drawn between apparitions which +may appear to relatives, friends, and acquaintances, and then disappear +for ever, and those definite and persistently recurring apparitions +that go by the name of haunts.</p> + +<p>The terminology of matters psychic is loose and inexact, but it is well +to have a clear mental <span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">[60]</span>distinction between the occasional “apparition” +and the periodic or repeating “ghost.”</p> + +<p>For purposes of scientific investigation the casual apparition +is almost valueless, but the established ghost is the nearest +approximation that we can get to a serious test standard for +experimental purposes.</p> + +<p>There are in England at least half a dozen ghosts whose periodical +manifestations are regular enough to serve as test instances. The +genuine ghost is so rare that from the point of view of psychical +research it is vitally important that the haunt should not be harried +by every party of sensation-avid amateurs who think they would “like to +see a ghost.” The amateur exorcists, the psychically gifted ladies, and +all the ragtag and bobtail of well-meaning idiots that disturb a haunt +once it becomes known, can only be compared to a set of egg-stealing, +bird-scaring boys who invade a woodland sanctuary and destroy the +fruition of the work of a painstaking observer of nature who has been +recording the life of the rare birds.</p> + +<p>In parenthesis it may be remarked that if the ghost is a full-blooded +manifestation it will<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">[61]</span> take more than the well-meaning effort of some +anæmic amateur psychic to lay it. The very last person who should go +near a violent ghost is anyone whose capacity for mediumship is in +any way developed. Mediums should only be present when adequate and +experienced mortal controls are there also.</p> + +<p>In the West of England there is an excellent example of a genuinely +haunted house that has so far resisted all attempts to solve the origin +of the haunt, the precise nature of the supernatural intelligence that +directs the manifestation, or the motive of the phenomena.<a id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p> + +<p>It is now extremely difficult to get permission to carry out +investigations, as adequate precautions have been taken to safeguard +both the phenomena and the incautious dabbler in matters beyond the +veil.</p> + +<p>I may take occasion here to warn my readers against the legal risks +attached to stating that a house is haunted. In the eyes of the law +such<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">[62]</span> a statement is actionable, as it tends to depreciate the market +value of the property. It is for this reason that stories concerning +haunted houses when printed in newspapers have to be obscured in their +indication of the precise locality and silent with regard to the name, +number, or address of the suspected dwelling. The verbal repetition of +such statements is also actionable and such cases as the bogus haunting +of a house by the tenants or by caretakers in order to avoid payment of +rent or the letting of the house are manifest reasons why the matter of +haunted houses should always be treated with the utmost discretion.</p> + +<p>Particulars concerning a reputed haunt can, however, be communicated +to a newspaper with safety. All communications to a journal are +privileged, and they can be trusted not to print anything which renders +them party to an action for damages.</p> + +<p>In 1913 a well-known student of occult matters announced his theory +of <i>Protective Vibrations</i>.<a id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> It was in effect an analysis of +the actual<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">[63]</span> physical methods reported to be employed by spirit forces +in building up their visible and material forms. His theory contained +several assumptions which it is impossible to disregard and which +certainly do not admit of rejection.</p> + +<p>Taken in series he stated that “The presence of human beings was an +essential to the appearance of the ghost.” This admits of no disproof, +as unless human witnesses are present there can be no testimony to +the presence of the manifestation. A general consensus of opinion +discredits ghost photographs unless taken under the strictest test +conditions which again implies the presence of the human element.</p> + +<p>“The energy or thought-matter” (i.e. psychoplasm) “extended by the +mortals is the matter out of which the astral form is constructed. +They are, so to speak, the prime motors or the energy and material, +providing units out of which the discarnate intelligence builds its +carnate habit.”</p> + +<p>This conception embraces psychoplasm and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">[64]</span> ectoplasm as one, but the +researches of Schrenck-Notzing were not then known. These and other +similar experiments all point to the essential probability that the +broad sense of his reasoning is correct.</p> + +<p>From this point onward he traces the development of the material astral +body as a process of the conversion of the original vibrations into low +forms of actual energy which are able to manipulate the atoms of matter +and under the directing will of the intelligence or entity build up the +materialization.</p> + +<p>He makes one notable reservation, asserting that “there is no evidence +to prove that discarnate intelligence is the directing force. Pure +autosuggestion, due to concentrated belief and anticipation that a +specified ghost will appear, may achieve the same result.”</p> + +<p>But the purpose of his paper was not to argue concerning the reality of +spirits, but to put forward an ingenious scientific theory concerning +their mechanism. The sum-total of his theory is that the physical +structure of the hallucination-spirit or ghost-form in its early stages +of concentration is destructible by many forms of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">[65]</span> etheric vibration of +greater force or different wave-length.</p> + +<p>Ghosts and spirits are integrally bound up with the conditions of +darkness and dusk. The rays of solar light are admittedly inimical +to all these manifestations. In other words, materialization cannot +be performed under certain conditions of light which means certain +conditions of vibration. The light rays which are visible to the human +eye represent about one-tenth of the complete range of light rays known +to exist from ultra-violet to infra-red.<a id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> At other points in the +scale of ether waves come the vibrations associated with sound, with +electricity and magnetic phenomena and with radioactivity.</p> + +<p>The complexity of these wave-lengths of vibration is enormous, for +within the range of light rays there are rays of another kind of light, +so that the sum-total of two kinds of light is, paradoxically enough, +darkness.<a id="FNanchor_18" href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">[66]</span></p> + +<p>Passing, logically enough, from stage to stage the “Theory of +Protective Vibrations” points out that assuming the existence of ghosts +or malevolent spirits, these cannot take material shape when opposed +by hostile vibrations. Certain kinds of light, sound (such as the +sonorous vibrations of church bells or gongs of special note), and +high-frequency electric currents all destroy the initial stages of +manifestation by purely mechanical means. Lastly he postulates that +“in the presence of a radium salt (of specified intensity) ... a ghost +cannot manifest.”</p> + +<p>Protection or exorcism by radium salts is undeniably a +twentieth-century possibility, for the terrific and incessant discharge +of ether waves consequent upon the disintegration of the radium atoms +is so powerful that even such a known and powerful force as electric +energy is completely destroyed by it.</p> + +<p>In the presence of a radium salt non-conductors of electricity become +conductors. Differences of potential cease to exist and electroscopes +and Leyden jars fail to retain their charges.</p> + +<p>Under these conditions, then, it was hardly<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">[67]</span> conceivable that a +manifestation which depends, in its initial stages, upon the most +delicate of vibrations—the unknown vibrations of the psychoplasm could +take place.</p> + +<p>Truth is dependent upon experiment, upon patient repetition and trial +and error. In order to test the theory in actual practice, I determined +to pay a visit to the well-known and malignant ghost at X——<a id="FNanchor_19" href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> and +actually put to the test whether or not a ghost can manifest in the +presence of a radium salt.</p> + +<p>The rays of radioactive salts are unable to pass through lead, and pure +radium bromide, which is the nearest that we have got to the isolation +of the element radium, always has to be kept in a leaden box or cell, +as otherwise its rays would pass through and destroy the skin and flesh +of the man carrying it. Before the properties of radium were known, +this destructive faculty of radium vibrations caused several mishaps, +for unwary men of science carried these dangerous salts loose in glass +vials in their pockets.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">[68]</span></p> + +<p>For the purposes of experiment I obtained the loan of a small supply of +a solution of a radium salt that gives out powerful emanations. This +was enclosed in a glass vial which was in turn encased in a leaden box.</p> + +<p>The haunted house is a peculiar old building of no particular +architectural beauty. It stands remote and deserted in its own +overgrown extended grounds, and over it breathes a generally depressing +atmosphere of damp, neglect, oppression, and decay.</p> + +<p>Viewed from the outside the house presents no outstanding features that +attract the eye. The lower windows are heavily barred by rusted iron +rails without and closed wooden shutters within. Even creepers seem to +have felt the blight that lies upon the mansion, for no patch of green +or rambling ivy tendril covers the bare surface of the brick.</p> + +<p>Three storeys high, mansard-roofed and turreted with a dozen contorted +Tudor chimney-stacks, the roof-line stands out against the sky and the +dull leaf masses of the surrounding trees. The higher windows are also +shuttered, but not even the small boys of the neighbouring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">[69]</span> village +have dared to break the grimy window frames that lie over the shutters. +Desolate and forbidding, the mansion and its grounds lie derelict, +shunned by all men.</p> + +<p>My key is that of the small back door, and it is used but once or twice +a year when the needs of the psychic call upon us to tread a path of +peril and hazard.</p> + +<p>Inside one steps into the cold stone-flagged passages that lead to the +empty kitchens and offices. The air is heavy and dank with that queer +smell of earth that one associates with crypts and graves rather than +with the clean new-turned furrow. The whole house is bare of furniture, +the paint of the woodwork dull and dirty. Spots of amorphous fungus +cling to the walls, and here and there wallpaper has peeled off in long +leprous strips, exposing the corpse-grey plaster behind.</p> + +<p>The door from the servants’ offices opens into the wide Georgian +hall, from which sweeps up a monstrous wooden staircase. Half-way +up the stair is a landing which marks the limit of activity of the +manifestation. In the rooms beyond that and on the landing itself the +presence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">[70]</span> is terribly powerful, but it seems that beyond that limit the +terror cannot go.</p> + +<p>The actual room where the presence is at its strongest is a chamber at +the end of the first floor. The room walls are outside walls on three +sides, the remaining partition wall is the one in which is the door to +the main corridor that runs through the house. In the centre of the +floor is a deep cavity. This has been a priest’s hiding hole or secret +treasure closet, and from signs in the woodwork it is manifest that the +trapdoor was once concealed beneath a big four-poster bed.</p> + +<p>The windows are barred with high shutters that let in no light. The +rays of my electric lantern disclose the mats of cobwebs that hang +from the rusted cross bars, and it is evident that no human hand has +disturbed the shutters for years. A trial shows me that some of the +bolts are indeed rusted home with age-old neglect.</p> + +<p>I unpacked my handbag, in which I carry the few simple necessities I +need on these occasions, and wrapping myself up in my travelling rug +composed myself to read by the light of my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">[71]</span> travelling candles until +the hour of ten was reached.</p> + +<p>At ten o’clock I closed my book, put out my candle, and composed +myself to watch for the manifestation, which I <i>knew</i> by inner +consciousness would be forthcoming.</p> + +<p>It was a dark and moonless night and not a flicker or ray of external +light penetrated the dark stretches of the haunted room. No wind +stirred the trees or moaned in the chimney-tops and the qualities of +absolute dark and absolute quiet were all that could be desired.</p> + +<p>Slowly out of the darkness seemed to come pinpoints of bluish +light—mere specks of phosphorescence scintillant in the still air. +The specks thickened and multiplied till they floated like a maze of +dancing midgets; then too came the dark power of oppression, that sense +of the dread and the uncanny that seems to grip the very heart and the +base of the skull in a numbing grip of fear.</p> + +<p>Cold grew the room, colder and colder—that sense of freezing that +experienced psychics associate with the dread phenomena of malevolent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">[72]</span> +apparitions. It is a coldness of the soul as well as of the body, a +dull biting cold that suggests the limitless freezing eternities of +interstellar space.</p> + +<p>The blue specks spun their dance and slowly became more luminous. They +collected in little nebulæ of light like cigarette ends of intense blue +radiance. Every particle of the air was filled with this luminosity, so +that the room seemed to be filled with a dull moonlight.</p> + +<p>Slowly the nebulæ changed from their spinning movement to a slow +weaving motion. Strands and floating webs of phosphorescence drifted +like smoke wreaths about the room.</p> + +<p>The points of light gave place to clouds of luminous mist like softly +rolling, utterly silent globes of dull blue light. Little by little the +dance of the globes speeded up. They spun and whirled and wove in and +out among themselves till they had drawn into one mass all the luminous +matter in the room.</p> + +<p>Like a terror-charged cloud this mass hovered some eight feet high, a +clear two feet off the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">[73]</span> floor; its brilliance waxed and waned and its +confines drew in. Slowly the cloud was taking shape as a pillar and +within the pillar one could see the ghastly shaping of the rudimentary +form.</p> + +<p>Here before my eyes was the actual form of the stranger—for this ghost +is a malevolent strangling demon—on the very point of concentration.</p> + +<p>Carefully I stretched out my hand to the leaden box, unscrewed the +cylindrical lid, and threw into my right hand the precious vial of +radium salt.</p> + +<p>The energy-charged tube glowed in the dark with all the beauty of +intense phosphorescence, and as I held it at arm’s length toward the +pillar of semi-materialization that represented all the evil forces of +discarnate Hate—<i>the mists of vapour rolled away. As if by magic the +whole apparition was dissipated</i>, and in twenty seconds was as if it +had never been.</p> + +<p>There is little more to be said. The theory had been brilliantly +vindicated in practice, but it is impossible to generalize from one +particular<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">[74]</span> instance. Physicists know the wide range of differences +that exist between the different radium salts,<a id="FNanchor_20" href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> and there the matter +must rest until opportunity for further experiments is available.</p> + +<p>The analogous protective vibrations that the author of the monograph +alleges would work are all probable, but require considerably more +apparatus. To my mind the use of radioactive salts as talismans with +which to exorcise a case of malignant haunting is at once a great +and practical step in the direction of relieving humanity of these +troublesome psychic intruders. The discovery and the theory are one of +the most remarkable contributions to psychic science in our time.</p> + +<p>Pitchblende, from which radium is extracted, does not appear to have +attracted the attention of the ancients and there is no trace of its +use in any process of alchemy or the allied sciences. Dr. Dee’s magic +mirror is reported to have been of a black substance and it is possible +that it may have been of radioactive material, although<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">[75]</span> this quality +is not necessary for the purposes for which he required it.<a id="FNanchor_21" href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a></p> + +<p>It is after all only a few years since the theory of ether waves and +vibrations was formulated. Research into psychic phenomena gives us +a chain of disconnected phenomena which nevertheless are obviously +connected. The distance from telepathy or thought-transference to +exteriorized energy or power-transference is but a short one. Science +will soon enable us to understand the mechanism of phenomena, and when +we once know the true rules or laws governing these phenomena we shall +be able to establish spirit communication at will.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12" class="label">[12]</a> Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is perhaps to-day an even greater +name. But he is not a scientist and is greater as a publicist than as a +healer despite his medical degree. But then too—all the Apostles were +not of one trade.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13" class="label">[13]</a> <i>Proceedings S.P.R.</i></p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14" class="label">[14]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Vol. X, p. 394.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15" class="label">[15]</a> This particular ghost has been exorcised without effect. +The house has been visited by psychic experts of considerable eminence, +including H. Barson and others. The results of all these investigations +were uniformly disastrous and disagreeable, and there is reason to +believe that in some cases the health and mentality of less experienced +investigators were adversely affected.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16" class="label">[16]</a> Capt. Hugh Pollard was the author of this theory. His +monograph was never printed, but typescripts of his sensational lecture +before the members of the now defunct Odic Club were circulated to +certain interested parties. He tells me that he had previously spent +an interesting night at a haunted house. He was in the company of Mr. +Eliott O’Donell and obtained a puzzling and unsatisfactory flashlight +photograph of the manifestation that occurred on that occasion.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17" class="label">[17]</a> A complete scale of all known ether waves, including the +visible spectrum, has been drawn by Professor Lebedeff and is given on +page 383 of the English edition of Kolbe’s <i>Electricity</i>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_18" href="#FNanchor_18" class="label">[18]</a> This is a little-known fact, but nevertheless a +commonplace of physics demonstrable in any lecture room.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_19" href="#FNanchor_19" class="label">[19]</a> The actual locality of X—— will be clear to many +investigators.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_20" href="#FNanchor_20" class="label">[20]</a> The solution used was a solution of radium emanations +which gives out α, τ, and γ rays together. It is not well known which +ray affects the dissolution of psychoplasm.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_21" href="#FNanchor_21" class="label">[21]</a> The mirror of Dr. Dee is still in existence, but the +material the mirror is made of is a surface of polished coal.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">[76]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V<br> +<span class="small">SEX IN THE NEXT WORLD</span> +</h2> +</div> + + + +<p>There is in existence an enormous mass of recorded spirit communication +concerning life and death. The one outstanding feature concerning these +revelations is that they tell us extremely little. Sometimes the reason +given for this withholding of information is that it is forbidden by +higher spirits, and it is certainly remarkable that despite the great +enthusiasm shown for the principles of democracy in this world, there +have never been any revelations of a democratic principle on the higher +plane.</p> + +<p>The rule of the next world appears to be that of a benevolent +autocracy, working through a hierarchy of directing spirits controlling +other spirits on clearly defined planes. We know nothing of the +political system of the other world except that there is no such thing +as any form of elective system, no majority rule, and little social +structure.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">[77]</span></p> + +<p>The great dominant factor of the hereafter as described by the +bulk of Spiritualistic literature appears to be the acceptance of +<i>authority</i>. The recently arrived spirit is taken in hand by +“guides” who instruct, and the spirit then passes from grade to grade +or plane to plane, until it achieves an eminence entirely beyond the +bounds of human thought.</p> + +<p>There is perhaps no limit to the speculation that can be indulged in +concerning the after-life, but there are certain aspects of it that +appear contradictory. There are good spirits and bad spirits, low +grades and high grades and all intermediate stages. There are also low +spirits that are said never to have been human and high spirits of the +same non-mortal nature. But badness and goodness exist on the spiritual +planes as much as on this earth.</p> + +<p>The spirits who visit séances retain many of their earthly +characteristics. They state that they are still male and female despite +the assumption on the part of many writers that sex does not exist +upon the spiritual plane. The least possible experience of spirit +communication<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">[78]</span> in any form is quite sufficient to expose this amazing +fallacy.</p> + +<p>If the differentiation of sex has any purpose at all, it can only have +the same purpose in the next world as it has in this. Otherwise sex +distinction would be cast off just as is the human body after death.</p> + +<p>This brings us to the consideration of how and why the myth of the +sexlessness of spirits has passed into acceptance as a fact.</p> + +<p>The Spiritualist is open to human error and it is only human to +build into our theories those things which tend to prove them and to +disregard matters which are not in harmony with our ideas. Both in +Britain and in America there is a certain amount of false modesty that +amounts to pruriency concerning all matters of sex.</p> + +<p>As a result, the very limited moral doctrines of sexual relationship +as understood by certain Christian sects, have been tacitly held to by +those dominating the after-life. Sex, as understood in conventional +terms, has been seen to be such a danger to the construction of a +hypothetical but perfectly moral future state, that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">[79]</span> the whole sex +question has been squashed by a statement by Spiritualists that sex +does not exist in after-life.</p> + +<p>This is entirely wrong, for, as I have pointed out above, according to +spirit statement sex does exist and it is only fair to suppose that it +is there for the usual reason.</p> + +<p>There exists the further problem of the origin of spirits that have +never been mortal. These must come somehow from somewhere, and there +is no reason to suppose that the continuation of sex upon the astral +planes is not for this purpose. Its existence is indeed an absolute +answer to the theories of parthenogenesis held by believers whose minds +were clouded with a residuum of theological beliefs.</p> + +<p>To sum up, we have evidence of the continuation of sex—indeed it is +a cardinal point, for it is impossible to believe in continuation +of personality after death unless sex continues with it. One cannot +logically believe in the one without the other.</p> + +<p>The state of error has arisen through the confusion of sex with sin. +The would-be formulators of the new Spiritualistic dogmas, having<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">[80]</span> been +unable to effect a mental compromise between the moral and monogamous +Christian and the moral and polygamous Mohammedan, attempted to solve +the whole business by a bland statement that there was no sex in the +other world.</p> + +<p>Some writers do indeed recognize this permanence of sex, but gloss it +over.<a id="FNanchor_22" href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> They ignore the fact that if a thing exists it exists for a +purpose and the fatal conception that the gratification of a sex desire +is a sin persists throughout their pages.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, gratification of other voluptuous sense desires +such as aural pleasures from music or self-abandonment to any of +the pleasures of the intellect, appears to be regarded not only as +permissible but as praise-worthy. In fact, any analysis of the reported +habits and customs of the next world, plunges us into a mass of +paradoxical contradictions.</p> + +<p>In point of fact it is impossible to draw a hard-and-fast line between +the actual spirit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">[81]</span> revelation and interpolated ideas by the medium. It +is also notorious that as soon as any new concept of the next world is +published in book form, the “revelations” from any different sources +seem to take on an unmistakable tinge according to the latest theories. +In fact, a literary psychoanalysis of reported next worlds shows the +unmistakable traces of books read in the past.</p> + +<p>Certain accounts of the spirit life obtained through Mohammedan mediums +by French investigators in Algiers show what may be called a peculiarly +active sexual life in the after-world. This may possibly be attributed +to either early religious belief in a sensuous Mohammedan paradise or +alternatively to the particular type of Arab spirits who furnished +the description. In any case, the accounts could not be published for +general or even private reading, but there is no conceivable reason why +they should be deemed more unreliable than other spirit communications.</p> + +<p>Some idea of the theme of these revelations can be gathered if I may +say that one of the communicators, called Sidi Aissa Ben S’dub,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">[82]</span> +prefaces his words by the cryptic statement: “Know then, O mortals, +that here are neither camels nor horses—nor virtuous women,—for +us virtue, as ye know it, exists not. And, as I have related, there +being neither camels nor horses nor virtuous women, what think ye then +occupies the time of us who were strong men?”</p> + +<p>Oriental imagery is rich in terms concerning sex, and the revelation +as taken down in Arabic is a document of some literary value. Its +translation into precise French leaves us under no misapprehension +as to the actual technique of sex gratification on the next plane. +Their methods appear to be our methods, but it is of course impossible +to arrive at any conception of relative degrees of pleasure. It is +also curious to note that in the Arab revelations given there was no +reference at all to any ensuing spirit birth, but one interpretation of +and obscure text might lead one to suppose that the offspring of these +unions were “djinni,” i.e. non-mortal and soulless spirits.</p> + +<p>Cases of intercourse between djinns and mortals are the basis of many +Moslem tales and legends in which the sex interest is paramount.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">[83]</span> But +it must be borne in mind that the Mohammedan idea of the invisible +world is so different from that prescribed either by Eastern or Western +thought that it is almost impossible to co-ordinate it with any of our +accepted theories.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, no Spiritualist revelation or theory is of value +unless it fits all lands and all creeds. Thus, when the number of +spirit visitants of African, Red Indian, or other origin, is taken into +account, it is manifest that no <i>abstract theory of morality which is +not in accordance with the known physical facts concerning the spirit +world, is likely to be practised there</i>.</p> + +<p>As time goes on, it will become increasingly impossible for the +practising Spiritualist to ignore the enormous fact of sex. At present +various beliefs are held. These range from the pure sexlessness theory, +which is manifestly untenable to variations like a “perfectly pure and +spiritual sex relationship in no way physical,” or some such platitude.</p> + +<p>This kind of expression is pure mental flatulence, for it is clear that +in the spirit world there<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">[84]</span> is nothing <i>physical</i> as we know it, +and that everything there is <i>psychical</i>—again as we know it.</p> + +<p>The conception of the spirit world that is most widely held does +away with all idea of penal restrictions. Hell, purgatory, and +the theological varieties of damnation are contrary to the whole +conception. Once again we are dependent on spirit teaching for our +visualization of life in the hereafter, and having established +the existence of sex, which would not exist unless it implied the +permanence of sexual attraction and sex gratification, we not +unreasonably desire to know what, if any, are the sex limits in the +next life.</p> + +<p>The realm of speculation thus opened up is enormous. It is possibly the +vision of a voluptuous sensualist heaven. It is possibly the vision +of a new theory of hell in which spirits are unable to obtain the +gratification of those desires which they are equipped to experience.</p> + +<p>There is no particular reason to suppose that the married state +continues—indeed, there is evidence to the reverse. Altogether the +problems raised are far too great for the little evidence<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">[85]</span> we have yet +obtained from the spirit world to lead us to a true solution.</p> + +<p>As ever we come back to the point of: How much is real spirit +communication? How much is simply well-meaning but inaccurate +Spiritualist interpretation or interpolation?</p> + +<p>The answer of the Spiritualist to such a question is usually the +affirmation that “desire does not exist in the spirit world.”</p> + +<p>This may be good enough to hoodwink the amateur or the shallow thinker, +but it must be remembered that the whole of what we must admit is +the dark side of Spiritualism, the bad or lying spirits, the demons +of possession and the demons of obsession, all these are active +affirmations of the reality of desire persisting.</p> + +<p>It is not enough for us to affirm that the dark elements are either +non-existent or simply the effects of our subconscious minds. If these +rules apply to the dark side they must apply to the light side, too. +If this were the case the whole fabric of Spiritualism crumbles to the +ground. If we accept any spirit evidence we must accept <i>all</i> +spirit evidence, and we have no right to reject as unsound statements +that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">[86]</span> do not fall in with the theories which we have accepted on the +strength of similar statements.</p> + +<p>The continuation of sexual activity on the psychic planes may be +a staggering conception to some people, but a little thought will +show that it is not half such a shattering idea as the perfectly +unjustifiable hypothesis that there is none.</p> + +<p>The existence of sex in the spirit world leads us to the supposition +that there are there some organized forces of law and order, otherwise +this conception of the next world would seem to be a field where a +highly intellectual, intelligent, and powerful individual soul might +enjoy a limitless orgy of psychic rape.</p> + +<p>There is no reason to think that such a thing is impossible, for cases +of demoniac or spirit possession are in effect cases of psychic rape +of a mortal and often present instances of the most amazing sexual +aberration owing to the terrible desires of the uninvited tenant of the +mind.</p> + +<p>The believing Spiritualist has built on slender grounds a wonderful +conception of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">[87]</span> spirit world, but it is a one-sided structure, and +it is important to note that the “Everything in the garden is lovely!” +idea of the next world is not by any means borne out by the revelations +of its inhabitants. One can indeed ask oneself what ground is there for +optimism?</p> + +<p>What reasons other than self-deception, self-assurance, and +self-flattery are there for sweeping away the idea of terror, +punishment, and the inexorable law of Abstract Justice that has for +ages been held to be implicit in the life hereafter?</p> + +<p>The sceptic is indeed justified when, after reading reams of well-meant +pseudo-religious twaddle, he asks the supporters of the new revelation: +“And <i>why</i> should it all be <i>couleur de rose</i>?”</p> + +<p>Faith may do many things, but Faith cannot make black white—even in +the realm of the spirit.</p> + +<p>There is good reason to suppose that in the past many revelations +concerning sex-life in the spirit plane have been suppressed or +destroyed. The well-meaning Spiritualist with mediumistic gifts or the +capacity for automatic writing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">[88]</span> does not always get the precise kind of +spirit teaching expected. On the other hand, there is a wide difference +between the meaningless obscenities that are sometimes sent and various +coherent statements that can be classed as definite revelations. The +private operator, knowing little of the matters with which he or she is +dealing, is frequently ashamed to let these strange, frank manuscripts +or records be seen by others. Often they are shown to a wrong person, +classed as evil spirit writings, and the great question that animates +the spirit world: “Should mortals be told?” again goes on.</p> + +<p>At a séance held in Paris some interesting statements concerning the +psychic world were vouchsafed by a spirit calling itself Zaza Guilbert. +There were five of us at the table and two of the party were practised +automatists.</p> + +<p>First came some personal particulars of the spirit. She was born near +Grenoble, in Dauphine, in 1826, but was in Paris when Napoleon the +Third was proclaimed Emperor (1852) and was employed with theatrical +dressmaking. She married and left two girl children.</p> + +<p>It was the question: “Is life in the spirit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">[89]</span> world as gay and +gallant<a id="FNanchor_23" href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> as it was in those days in this sphere?” that set the ball +rolling.</p> + +<p>A. That depends on how you look at things. We are men and women over +here in so far as that goes.</p> + +<p>Q. Is life on the spirit plane sexless?</p> + +<p>A. Certainly not! (Emphasis conveyed by violent knocking of the table.)</p> + +<p>Q. (By one of the ladies of the party.) Is there childbirth in the +spirit world?</p> + +<p>A. Not in the same way as on earth. (No answer was returned to some +further inquiries on this subject.)</p> + +<p>Q. Is there separation of the sexes?</p> + +<p>A. No; it would be intolerable.</p> + +<p>Q. Is morality of earth binding on the spirit plane?</p> + +<p>A. No; that would be still more intolerable.</p> + +<p>Q. Have you a husband there?</p> + +<p>A. No; several affinities.</p> + +<p>Q. Intellectual affinities only?</p> + +<p>A. By no means.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">[90]</span></p> + +<p>Q. Can you compare the relationship to any earthly parallel?</p> + +<p>A. Yes. Living <i>une vie de demi-mondaine sans reproche</i>.</p> + +<p>Q. Do all spirits enjoy life in this manner?</p> + +<p>A. It is not obligatory.</p> + +<p>Q. (By one of the ladies.) Are there scandals in the spirit world?</p> + +<p>A. Sometimes.</p> + +<p>Q. Are they due to moral censure of higher spirits?</p> + +<p>A. No; jealousy, because higher spirits mix themselves up in it.</p> + +<p>Q. Can you describe one of these scandals?</p> + +<p>A. Not through the table. Write.</p> + +<p>Q. You will give it as automatic writing?</p> + +<p>A. Yes.</p> + +<p>One of the automatists left the circle to fetch pencil and paper. Then +we resumed. The power appeared to be instantly forthcoming, and the +writing stated that:</p> + +<p>“Benedetta Chiesole was the mistress of Théodule Affra and several +other spirits on our plane.</p> + +<p>“This intimacy became obnoxious to a spirit<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">[91]</span> called du Paits Herbault, +who was a monk of Montpellier in the sixteenth century. He was not +on our plane but higher up, but was permitted to come down to us for +certain purposes. Being on a higher plane, there was no way of keeping +him out when he was not wanted, for he had the power of passing through +all psycho-material substances that serve us as material substances +serve you.</p> + +<p>“His persecution of Benedetta was remarkable, for he was astonishingly +enamoured of her. At length matters got to such a pitch that the others +protested through the guides. But they got cold comfort. They were told +not to interfere with the higher spirits or it would be the worse for +them, and Benedetta was told that it was natural for her to have to +expiate her earthly shortcomings in this manner.”</p> + +<p>The results of other sittings at which other spirits have made +communications are in some cases quite as detailed and a great deal +more startling than the above. In addition, a great mass of what may +be definitely termed abnormal sex literature has come from the pens of +people practising automatic writing—and it is an indubitable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">[92]</span> fact +that some of these writings have been written under control by people +of irreproachable life and character.</p> + +<p>The common-sense explanation is that these writings and communications +have nothing whatever to do with spirits and that these are, so to +speak, a seething up of illegal desires and ideas which have been +repressed by the conscious mind into the censorship of the subliminal +self. This theory is only tenable if the whole basic doctrine that +these things are communicated by spirits is given up.</p> + +<p>If, on the other hand, we hold that there is anything at all in +Spiritualism we are faced with the inevitable conclusion that, however +much we may desire to get rid of it, sex is as troublesome in the next +world as in this.<a id="FNanchor_24" href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_22" href="#FNanchor_22" class="label">[22]</a> “People live in communities as one would expect if like +attracts like, and the male spirit still finds his true mate though +there is no sensuality in the grosser sense and no childbirth.” Sir A. +Conan Doyle, Chapter III, <i>The New Revelation</i>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_23" href="#FNanchor_23" class="label">[23]</a> The word “gallant” carries rather different implications +in French than are covered by the literal English rendering of +“gallant.”</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_24" href="#FNanchor_24" class="label">[24]</a> The notes and papers concerning the physiological side +of sex in the next world that have been collected are not suitable for +general reading. Experienced Spiritualists will have no difficulty in +surmising the general character of these records.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">[93]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI<br> +<span class="small">THE REALITY OF SORCERY</span> +</h2> +</div> + + +<p>I have often been asked by folk who were perfectly serious in their +inquiry if there “was anything in” latter-day sorcery, and whether +the practice actually existed outside the realm of fiction. It is a +difficult question to answer, for the average man mixes up witchcraft, +sorcery and necromancy, and one cannot be certain whether he is +alluding to the dark ceremony of the Black Sabbath, to the use of +occult knowledge for malevolent purposes, or whether he is thinking of +wax images and pine, incantations and night rides astride a broomstick.</p> + +<p>Put in a simpler form, the question comes to this: Can experienced +occultists utilize spirit or unknown natural forces for malevolent +uses? The answer is an unhesitating affirmative. Under certain +conditions, it can be done.</p> + +<p>Magic has always been divided into white or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">[94]</span> good magic, and black or +bad magic. Both have been liberally endowed with ritual observance, but +shorn of non-essentials the determining factor that decides whether +magic is black or white is the secret intent of the operating magician.</p> + +<p>In the past the great popular attribute of the magician was his +knowledge of healing. He was not only a seer of the future and a finder +of lost things, but also a healer. On the reverse side may be set +against his capacity for healing his power for casting spells or doing +harm; against his draughts of beneficent medicine, his vials of poison.</p> + +<p>The doctor who uses hypnotic treatment, practises suggestion or acts as +a psychotherapeutist, is to-day the direct twentieth-century descendant +of the magicians of the past. Apollonius of Tyana is his patron; Merlin +worked his wonders by the same rules.</p> + +<p>It is to the modern studies in psychic science that we must turn +to find the underlying mechanisms of magic practices, for a full +three-quarters of art magic is due to the little-known effects of +hypnotism or suggestion, and but a shadowy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">[95]</span> balance to the powers of +discarnate intelligences of evil.</p> + +<p>The discoveries of the existence of “animal magnetism” by Mesmer was +the first step which brought the psychic phenomena of will domination +out of the realm of the occult into the domain of medical knowledge. +For a century Mesmer’s theory has been discredited, but to-day modern +students of psychic science are beginning to pay attention to it again.</p> + +<p>It fell into discredit owing to the discoveries of Braid, the +Manchester physician, who discovered that Mesmer’s phenomena could be +produced independently of the theory of “animal magnetism” by plain +hypnosis.</p> + +<p>Braid’s theories were followed out by Chercot and the Paris School of +Hypnotists, and their theories were in turn demolished by Liébault +and Bernheim of the Nancy School, who held that all the phenomena of +hypnotism in their turn were produced by suggestion.</p> + +<p>In point of actual fact, advanced thinkers of to-day hold that the same +effect may be produced by all three methods of practice. In the same +way we may produce a given electrical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">[96]</span> phenomenon such as the lighting +of an incandescent lamp by the action of chemical solutions on metals +in a battery, or by the rotation of a coil of wire between magnetic +poles in a dynamo. The methods are different, but the forces evolved +and the effect obtained are identical.</p> + +<p>The lay mind will follow my argument better if I use the loose terms of +hypnotism and hypnosis than if I attempt a more scientific terminology.</p> + +<p>The first point that must be grasped is that the sorcerer or wizard +possesses psychic gifts or qualities of an entirely different order to +those claimed by Spiritualists.</p> + +<p>The sorcerer is a hypnotist—that is to say, he is an individual who +possesses the power of emitting or radiating an unknown psychic force.</p> + +<p>Most people are neutral, they neither radiate this force nor do they +oppose or resist its passage, but the individuals who are susceptible +to its action seem to possess the faculty of arresting this radiation +and converting it to mental energy within themselves. These are<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">[97]</span> the +people who are what is known as good hypnotic subjects.</p> + +<p>In the histories of the great sorcerers of the past the +<i>assistant</i>, that is to say the subject, plays as important a rôle +as does the mage himself, for the subject is the instrument of the +master.</p> + +<p>The average person who possesses mediumistic or psychic qualities in +the Spiritualistic sense, is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred in a +greater or lesser degree a sensitive hypnotic subject.</p> + +<p>The odd few who do not come in the above category may be classed as +hermaphroditic or doubly gifted individuals who possess both radiating +power and subjectivity. One or two noted materializing mediums of the +past have been thus endowed.</p> + +<p>In the usual circle there is the medium and the sitters. Some of these +may be neutral, but in an average circle there are one or more who +possess unknown to themselves a certain amount of radiant force. It is +this which passes along the chain of hands to the medium where it is +arrested and condensed to play its mysterious<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">[98]</span> part in the liberation +of psychic elements that can be utilized by the unseen spirit workers.</p> + +<p>If there is present in the circle an individual who is greatly endowed +with this force—and whose mental desires approximate to black rather +than white magic, we have an instance of those dread dangers that beset +those who unwittingly pass beyond the threshold of the known.</p> + +<p>The trance state of the medium is akin to light hypnosis and the +subject or medium of a well-meaning little circle of Spiritualists may, +unknown to him or herself, become the slave of one or other of the +members of the circle.</p> + +<p>It is an asseveration with hypnotists that they have no power without +the <i>consent</i> of the individual. But once they have won the entry +of the mind that entry is theirs for ever, and even the bodily presence +of the operator is not required to achieve this domination of the mind +of the subject.<a id="FNanchor_25" href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>The common instances where this kind of thing occurs cannot be classed +as true sorcery,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">[99]</span> for in most cases the operator is unconscious of how +or why the fulfilment of his desires comes about. The true sorcery only +comes in when an individual possessing the required psychic faculty, +and in addition, occult knowledge, exerts these of set purpose in order +to gratify his desires.</p> + +<p>Vengeance of an enemy, the subjugation of another’s will, the +satisfaction of a sex passion, all these are motives for sorcery. The +witch-doctor of West Africa, the voodoo priestesses of Cuba and Hayti +practise these accomplishments no less than their white brethren in +black magic. Sorcery lives to-day no less than it lived centuries ago. +There are several roads to its portals—but not a track leading back to +the regions of light for those that pass its gates.</p> + +<p>The first aim of the sorcerer is to get the victim in a state of +suggestibility. This can be accomplished in a dozen different ways well +known to the practised student.</p> + +<p>In the first, fumes of a special sort of incense played no +inconsiderable part in the rôle of sorcery. According to ritual +they are to propitiate<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">[100]</span> the spirits—in actual practice they induce +relaxation on the part of the subject and assist in building up that +necessary atmosphere which is essential to suggestibility.</p> + +<p>The effect of darkness, of points of light gleaming amid surrounding +dark, the magic mirror or the crystal globe; all these were more than +stage properties—they are the mechanical implements of suggestion.</p> + +<p>Let us suppose that some weak and curious woman visits a sorcerer to +obtain his help in some affair of heart. The man of mystery seats her +in a comfortable chair; the lights are lowered and he tells her to gaze +at the crystal ball upon the table before her.</p> + +<p>Fumes of incense hang in the heavy air. The man’s voice is clear, +dominant, and sonorous; slowly it becomes soothingly monotonous.</p> + +<p>Gradually the client feels languor stealing over her. The crystal +becomes cloudy and in the globe appears something that she knows and +recognizes.</p> + +<p>Probably the crystal tells her nothing that means anything to her. +Certainly she has seen in it nothing but what she has known at some<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">[101]</span> +time before,<a id="FNanchor_26" href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> or something that the magician has seen before. But +the net result is that she is convinced of the occult powers possessed +by him.</p> + +<p>This is the prelude to other visits and little by little her will +yields to that of the sorcerer and the suggestions that he has +implanted in her subconscious mind begin to take effect. If he is a +daring scoundrel, his domination may take any form. Unconscious that +she is not acting of her own free will, she may yet be brought to place +at his disposal everything and anything that he may require of her.</p> + +<p>He has invoked no spirit aids, but has caused the powers of hypnotism +and suggestion, taking advantage of the light condition of hypnosis +induced by the crystal-gazing. Police and press persecutions of the +Seers of Bond Street are not altogether unjustified in many cases. The +real facts may not be brought out at the court, owing to the shame that +publicity would inflict upon the dupes, but the prosecution is, in nine +cases out of ten, justifiable.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">[102]</span></p> + +<p>The class of petty criminals above mentioned are again not true +sorcerers, in that they only use occult natural forces, summoning to +their aid no spirit attributes. In the lowest grade of the sorcerers we +find the necromancers.</p> + +<p>There are still a few of these in Paris and latterly there was one in +the West Country. It depends on the individual operator how much of his +ceremonial is for the purpose of inducing suggestibility or partial +hypnosis and how much is for the direct evocation of evil spirits. Very +often the necromancer himself is deluded enough to confuse natural with +supernatural power.</p> + +<p>There is a certain class of spirits to whom the ancients gave the name +of Lemures. These can be semi-materialized, made visible, and bound to +service by a comparatively simple ritual, for in place of needing the +material vehicle of ectoplasm, extended by a materializing medium, they +can take shape from the emanations of warm blood.</p> + +<p>This vital fluid plays an important part in all magical ceremony. We +find mention of it from the days when Ulysses poured blood and wine +into a trench to call up the spirits before he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">[103]</span> went down into hell. +In the dark history of Gilles de Retz<a id="FNanchor_27" href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> the blood ritual is seen in +all its ghostliest fluorescence. The calabash of blood of the “white +goat” is essential in obi and voodoo magic, and blood, fresh blood, not +necessarily but preferably human, is used by the necromancer of to-day.</p> + +<p>Those learned in occult matters will readily perceive the precious +function that blood emanations exercise, but on the contrary, the man +of science and the psychologist will not be able to understand the part +that blood plays in this peculiar alchemy.</p> + +<p>It must be clearly understood that experiment of this nature is +extraordinarily perilous and that any attempt at necromancy by +students whose knowledge is insufficient can have none but disastrous +results.<a id="FNanchor_28" href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>The elemental forces evoked by this ceremony may be compared to +gunpowder. Any fool can blow himself up with powder by setting a match +to it, but it takes a skilled artillerist to harness <span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">[104]</span>the forces and +make them propel a projectile to a given target. Experiment with +elemental forces is analogous and the greater part of the ritual deals +with the protection of the operator or sorcerer himself from those +dread spirits who obey his summons.</p> + +<p>In 1912 I attended the course of lectures on psychic science given at a +sub-school of the University of Jena. A fellow-student there gave me a +letter of introduction to Gottlieb Bentlemeyer, a professor of law at +one of the Hanover Hochschulen and an ardent student of black magic.</p> + +<p>At that time he had rooms in the Wiesenstrasse and had in his charge +one or two private pupils whom he was cramming for their necessary +examinations. One of these lads, a youngster from Stettin, in North +Prussia, was his assistant in the necromantic art, and was a most +highly gifted sensitive or hypnotic subject.</p> + +<p>It was not until we had had several ordinary séances and he had shown +me some astounding experiments in the externalization of sensibility +and clairvoyance under hypnosis that I deemed it fit to mention the +subject of necromancy.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">[105]</span></p> + +<p>We were at that time in the Hanover Museum and had been examining +an exhibit of “Qualapparat”—racks, winches, and torturing-irons of +various descriptions. It was our discussion of the possible sending +of the spirit of his assistant, Walther Kraus, under hypnosis to +psychometrize these vile memorials of a brutal past that raised the +subject. We came to the conclusion that the experiment would be +extremely hazardous, but Bentlemeyer kindly offered to attempt to call +up the spirit of one or more of the men who had used these things.</p> + +<p>“It will not be an easy task to find them,” he said, “but being men of +blood it may be possible to find them by means of the blood elementals.”</p> + +<p>It took us three days to make our preparations, for although +Bentlemeyer had an excellent and systematically arranged cabinet of +magical requisites, one or two things had to be procured.</p> + +<p>His association with the Hochschule enabled him to obtain fresh blood +through the agency of one of his medical colleagues.</p> + +<p>We rehearsed the ritual carefully, in order<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">[106]</span> that there should be no +fault, and I must confess that I prepared myself for the ordeal with +considerable trepidation. His ceremonial of evocation was slightly at +variance with accepted French practice, but the discrepancies were +not material and appeared to have crept in during the time of King +Frederick Wilhelm of Prussia. Bentlemeyer informed me that the original +MS. in German and Hebrew had been in the possession of the celebrated +Steinert.<a id="FNanchor_29" href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + +<p>It was a clear autumn night with a perfect moon; the air had a touch of +frost in it and the great town of Hanover was quiet and still.</p> + +<p>Bentlemeyer was already in his robes when one of the pupils admitted +me. I changed into the necessary garments, took the rod and girdle +which he had lent me, and placed the snake-hilted poniard in its belt +sheath.</p> + +<p>The circle of evocation had been marked out in chalk on the floor. The +prepared candles burnt in the angles of the pentacle and the saucers of +salt and the elements were in their appropriate places. The sorcerer +stood within<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">[107]</span> his circle of protection facing the small tripod brazier +in which was a brazen plate glowing over the frame of a small spirit +lamp.</p> + +<p>I took my place within the <i>enceinte</i> of a similar diagram, and +on a couch, lying between us, was Walther, the assistant. The candle +lights burnt in the draughtless atmosphere, the dull yellowish flames +standing up without a flicker, sending their faint tail of black smoke +toward the ceiling. Beyond the confines of our protective circles was a +grotesque bronze bowl or shallow basin. Bentlemeyer removed the black +velvet hood that covered it and the filmy crimson surface of fresh +blood gleamed in the light.</p> + +<p>At a sign we began the chanting of the preliminary invocations to the +guardians of the gates. The room was sonorous with the great Hebrew +names, and from time to time a fresh pinch of incense on the brazier +would send a wreath of pungent fume across the room.</p> + +<p>The boy on the couch breathed heavily, loosened the restriction of his +garments, and soon subsided into a definite state of trance.</p> + +<p>From invocation we changed to the ritual of evocation. And before the +echoes of the first<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">[108]</span> summons had died down, a cold wind seemed to burst +out in the very heart of the room itself, making the candles flicker +and the shadows flit and dance in arabesques across the low ceiling.</p> + +<p>I felt for the poniard at my belt and drawing it from its sheath held +the naked blade ready.<a id="FNanchor_30" href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a></p> + +<p>The second and third utterances of the words of power intensified the +effect and the boy moaned pitifully.</p> + +<p>Bentlemeyer signed to me with his rod to look toward the blood bowl.</p> + +<p>The surface of the liquid was being slowly agitated, strong swirls +and broken wave motions appeared on the surface, sluggish, iridescent +bubbles floated for a while and burst, and at last the whole body of +fluid within the bowl was in a state of violent agitation.</p> + +<p>The sorcerer bent to a vessel on the ground and threw upon the brazier +some new essence—not an incense. The smoke wreathed itself above the +brazier, then seemed to take shape like a pillar and curve toward the +blood bowl.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">[109]</span></p> + +<p>Slowly yet distinctly the vapours clustered above the blood and slowly +took semi-human shape. Incessantly they changed and melted—now +limb-like, here betraying the outline of a demon face, there a +pillared, smoothly working trunk.</p> + +<p>From the bowl came a noise like cats’ tongues lapping and now and then +the bowl itself would tilt and move a fraction of an inch or so about +the floor. For a moment we watched this monstrous manifestation in +silence. Then the sorcerer resumed his ritual and bound the spirits +present to do his bidding to the spell of the Three Known and One +Unknown elements.</p> + +<p>“What are your names?” he asked, and the elemental demons or spirits +speaking through the trance-bound boy gave them.</p> + +<p>“Who is your leader?” There was a momentary hesitation, and then a +spirit answering to the name of Amalik assumed the leadership.</p> + +<p>“Have you been a mortal?”</p> + +<p>“No, I was never mortal. I was an earth-spirit, serving the priests of +Odin till the Cross came.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">[110]</span></p> + +<p>“What brought you here to-night?”</p> + +<p>“The Blood Libation and the summons. What do you want of us? We wish to +depart.”</p> + +<p>“You are bound to do my bidding by the words of Might. You may not go. +I want you to find for me the spirit of one of the men of blood who +used the torture instruments in the Museum.”</p> + +<p>“I do not know the men.”</p> + +<p>“I command you to seek them. I command all of you by the powers that +are mine to seek and bring them.”</p> + +<p>For a moment there was silence, broken only by the laboured breathing +of the boy. Then he spoke again.</p> + +<p>“I have found one, O Masters.”</p> + +<p>“What is his name?”</p> + +<p>“Kurt Ettethurm.”</p> + +<p>“He is to answer my questions himself. Where did you live?”</p> + +<p>A new and harsher voice issued from the boy’s lips.</p> + +<p>“By Sachsenhausen, near Augsburg.”</p> + +<p>“When?”</p> + +<p>“In the time of Charles the Fifth of Spain.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">[111]</span></p> + +<p>“Were you one of his torturers?”</p> + +<p>“No, I served Count Anton of Tornen.”</p> + +<p>“Who were your victims?”</p> + +<p>“Criminals, bandits, and Lutherans.”</p> + +<p>“When did you die?”</p> + +<p>“At Muhlberg.”</p> + +<p>“When—not where?”</p> + +<p>“At Muhlberg—killed in the battle of Muhlberg.”</p> + +<p>“Where are you now?”</p> + +<p>“Why ask? I am in a lower state.”</p> + +<p>“Do you revisit this sphere unless summoned?”</p> + +<p>“I am always here, but you cannot see me.”</p> + +<p>“Where are you usually?”</p> + +<p>“By the slaughter houses.”</p> + +<p>“Do you move from place to place?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I follow the Scharfrichter (headsman).”<a id="FNanchor_31" href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>“Why?”</p> + +<p>“To watch.”</p> + +<p>“Are you bound to?”</p> + +<p>“No, I like it.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">[112]</span></p> + +<p>“Can you show yourself to us?”</p> + +<p>“I do not think so. Help me and I will try.”</p> + +<p>“How can we help you?”</p> + +<p>“Place that bowl of blood at the northern corner of the pentacle.”</p> + +<p>I must have started to move forward, for Bentlemeyer shouted at me to +keep still, and I realized in a flash that I had nearly been trapped +into going beyond the protection of my circle.</p> + +<p>The boy began to chuckle horribly and then suddenly choked. Before our +eyes his face became empurpled, his eyes seemed to start from his head, +and the tongue protruded. His legs kicked and his hands beat feebly at +something solid—impenetrable—but invisible, that poised in the empty +air above him.</p> + +<p>“Stop it, for God’s sake!” I cried to Bentlemeyer.</p> + +<p>My voice awoke him from the creeping paralysis of terror that was +mastering him, and raising the scroll of the ritual he recovered +himself by an effort of will, and uttered the words of the spell of +release.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">[113]</span></p> + +<p>A swirl of icy cold wind seemed to sweep about us, and I stabbed at the +invisible grasp that seemed to be plucking at my garments. Two of the +candles went out and the windows rattled violently in their frames. +Then with frightening suddenness the manifestations ceased.</p> + +<p>The boy was gasping for breath once more and the terror had passed.</p> + +<p>Not until the last of the valedictory phrases of the ritual had been +said did either of us dare leave our stations. Then both of us, shocked +and terrified by what we had seen, went over to the boy Walther.</p> + +<p>He was deeply entranced yet, breathing heavily; the colour had not +yet ebbed from his face and on his brow were beads and runnels of +perspiration.</p> + +<p>Bentlemeyer made a few passes, breathed on his eyelids, and brought him +round. But there on his uncollared neck was the dark, bruised imprint +of strangling fingers.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>This experience was phenomenal. We examined the room carefully +afterwards and came<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">[114]</span> to the conclusion that the couch on which Walther +was lying projected at one corner over the circuit of the diagram +that should have protected it. The identity of the spirit we could +not determine. Whether it was really the spirit of the executioner or +torturer, whether it was merely an impersonation by a demon elemental, +or what particular denizen of the realm of evil it was that came to the +summons and the blood bowl I cannot say.</p> + +<p>I learnt later that Bentlemeyer was, despite his learning and his +professional standing, a man of notoriously evil and depraved life. +There is no doubt that our experiences that evening thoroughly startled +him. A brother student of proven reliability told me later that +Bentlemeyer had assured him that he could and did evoke evil spirits, +and evoke them to execute malicious tricks upon his confrères in the +professional world.</p> + +<p>In this connection it is interesting to note that when looking +through his cabinet of magical instruments I saw two small nude waxen +models, male and female. I asked at the time the purpose of these and +he explained that they<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">[115]</span> were used by him in a hypnotic experiment +with Walther. This was the phenomenon known as externalization of +sensibility.</p> + +<p>Under hypnosis Walther’s feeling of sensation could be transferred by +the operator to any object, such as a glass of water or a waxen doll. A +pin-prick on the surface of the water would be felt by him as an acute +pricking sensation all over the body. When the doll was used, pain was +felt by Walther in the precise place where the doll was pricked.<a id="FNanchor_32" href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>The hypothesis is that the sorcerer and wizard of the Middle Ages made +use of this phenomenon and that their victims were the unconscious +victims of hypnosis. Before this hypothesis can be dismissed by the +sceptic it should be remembered that sorcery flourished best in ages of +faith and superstition. An active belief in the powers of sorcery or +witchcraft facilitates not only direct suggestion, but also suggestion +on self-hypnosis.</p> + +<p>A point of interest is that the effects of sorcery or evil suggestion +are capable of being<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">[116]</span> remedied by people who understand the subject. +Exorcism is valuable and is as real as sorcery, and it is by no means +a lost art among those occultists who have studied the dark side of +spirit phenomena in order to know all that we are allowed to know of +this dangerous subject.</p> + +<p>Above all things, the Spiritualist who has certain healing qualities in +connection with mediumistic gifts should avoid any attempt at exorcism. +Cases have been known when the attempt was successful, but only in +so far that the evil was transferred from the original victim to the +would-be healer. As a rule, the results are bad for both parties. The +mental and consequently physical dangers of this kind of thing are far +too serious to be lightly meddled with. One cannot insist on this too +strongly.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_25" href="#FNanchor_25" class="label">[25]</a> Chapter X of Professor Boirac’s <i>Psychic Science</i> +“Experimental Researches in Sleep Provoked at a Distance.”</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_26" href="#FNanchor_26" class="label">[26]</a> See Proceedings of La Société Universelle d’Etudes +Psychiques and <i>Proceedings S.P.R.</i>, V and VIII.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_27" href="#FNanchor_27" class="label">[27]</a> See “Gilles de Rais, dit Barbe Bleu.” Bonsard et Maulde, +<i>History of Magic</i>, Chapter VI: “Eliphas Levi.” In fiction, +Huysman’s <i>La-Bas</i>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_28" href="#FNanchor_28" class="label">[28]</a> For obvious reasons I have suppressed the detail of +ritual.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_29" href="#FNanchor_29" class="label">[29]</a> Steinert was the chief adept in the Society of the +Illuminati. See <i>Essai sur la Secte des Illuminés</i>, Marquis de +Lachet.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_30" href="#FNanchor_30" class="label">[30]</a> Elementals cannot face pointed steel. Probably because +the latter concentrates radiations of psychic force from the human body +which are destructive to them.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_31" href="#FNanchor_31" class="label">[31]</a> In Germany capital punishment is still carried out by the +headsman, who beheads with a sword.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_32" href="#FNanchor_32" class="label">[32]</a> Chapter II, <i>Psychical and Supernormal Phenomena</i>, +by Dr. Paul Joire; Chapter XV, <i>Psychic Science</i>, by Emile Boirac, +and numerous other works give details of this phenomenon.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">[117]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII<br> +<span class="small">INCENSE AND OCCULTISM</span> +</h2> +</div> + + +<p>The ancients possessed amazing secrets concerning psychic knowledge +of all kinds. Apart from the philosophical tenets held by the various +degrees of priestcraft there was a special secret knowledge of what may +be called the mechanical side. They knew how to produce phenomena.</p> + +<p>Then as now, the specially gifted were used in connection with the +service of mysteries, but in all the old cults which attained to +any degree of organization the arch-priests or hierophants were not +themselves mediums, but made use of mediums as instruments. The rôle +played by the medium was a more or less unimportant one just as to-day +the “psychics” used by the different sects of Tibetan Lamas are +relatively unimportant and insignificant members of the priestcraft.</p> + +<p>The priests had, however, other secrets—secrets<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">[118]</span> which on occasion +conferred the gift of vision on the ordinary non-psychic person. +Sacerdotalism and royalty were closely allied not only in ancient +Egypt, but throughout the bulk of the mid-Oriental and Byzantine cults. +Then as now, people demanded proof of miracles and the proof had to be +forthcoming.</p> + +<p>Little by little, savants have recovered from hieroglyph and papyri, +from stone and manuscript, something of the great rituals and something +of both the outer and inner forms of these dead faiths.</p> + +<p>We know enough to realize that the adepts possessed the art of +releasing the spirit from the body and of producing the trance state +not only in individuals but in comparatively large congregations.</p> + +<p>The two hypotheses are the agency of hypnotism and the agency of some +mechanical or physiological factor such as a drug.</p> + +<p>The possibilities of hypnotism in the form of crowd suggestion cannot +be overlooked, but it does not entirely account for some of the +phenomena that tradition has handed down and which is substituted by +contemporary record.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">[119]</span></p> + +<p>Analysis of some of these cults shows that the initiates partook of a +ceremonial drink or brew of some kind and that there is a more than +mystical use of the censer. Nine-tenths of the so-called propitiatory +ritual was symbolic, but there remains an unexplained tenth part whose +agency was primarily that of mechanical excitant of what one may term +“psychism”—those qualities of perception that we class as psychic +gifts.</p> + +<p>It is precisely these extraordinarily valuable secrets that were +among the deepest arts of the priestcraft. There was no record of +these—nothing direct is to be found in the writings, and although +it is possible to recover the philosophic bases of the myths these +rule-of-thumb mysteries still elude us.</p> + +<p>After all, many other similar secrets, and even fairly well-known +common facts of antiquity, have been lost to us. We do not know the +composition of the celebrated Roman fish sauce “garum.” We cannot tell +what are the ingredients of Stradivarius’ violin varnishes or some old +master’s colours. Nevertheless, it is unreasonable to suppose that the +necessary materials<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">[120]</span> have vanished from the earth. We have the whole +known world to ransack for them where the ancients had only a limited +and circumscribed number of plants, beasts, and minerals from which to +gather their ingredients.</p> + +<p>The function of some drugs is to produce mental effects, visions, +hallucinations, dreams, and phantoms. The logical assumption is that +the ancients knew certain rule-of-thumb methods of utilizing some forms +of these drugs in such a way as to loosen the hold of the body (and the +consciousness) upon the mind, and to produce an artificial state of +clairvoyance.</p> + +<p>The wizard of the Middle Ages was also a doctor, and it is claimed that +the familiar that inhabited the sword of Paracelsus—which sword he +always had by him and could never be parted from—was none other than a +certain amount of opium concealed in the hollow pommel.<a id="FNanchor_33" href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>The function of hypnotic drugs is known to a point. That is to say, we +know what effect is produced on a normal individual by a given dose of +an unknown drug, but in nine cases out<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">[121]</span> of ten we do not know precisely +how this effect is brought about and have few clues to the series of +physiological reactions that bring about the mental state.</p> + +<p>The connection between a physical draught and a mental state is +indicated throughout the history of magic. Ceremonial libations, ritual +consumption of potions or “devil’s brews” of one kind and another are +part and parcel of the traditions of necromancy and sorcery.</p> + +<p>The connection between these hypnotic draughts and the practice of +poisoning was not clearly perceived by most writers of the past. +Sorcery and poisoning were indeed twin practices of the Middle Ages, +for where the spell might fail white arsenic would succeed, but it +is not fair to class all magical potions as preparations of secret +poisons, although in point of fact most of the hypnotic drugs are toxic.</p> + +<p>The methods of administering the drugs are two—namely, by draught, +that is to say by direct consumption, and inhalation. The function +of the incense used in thaumaturgical ceremonies was primarily to +intoxicate the audience.</p> + +<p>Just as the Pythoness of the Delphic oracles<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">[122]</span> inhaled the vapours of +the magic cave, so the Egyptians inhaled prepared incenses in their +temples. The casting of herbs upon the fire, the burning of prepared +sacrificial candles or flambeaux, all these play their part in the +mechanical induction of the psychic state.</p> + +<p>Frankincense and myrrh, and in particular gum benzoin, possess soothing +properties that affect the throat and nasal passages. Besides being +pleasant, these gums formed an excellent vehicle for disguising the +scent of other matters and preventing their spasmodic or instant action +on the throat.</p> + +<p>The kyphic or incense of ancient Egypt<a id="FNanchor_34" href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> was compounded of myrrh, +gum-mastic, aromatic rush roots, resin, and juniper berries. To these +aromatics were added small quantities of symbolic elements, such as +grapes, honey and wine, and a portion of bitumen or <i>asphateum</i>, +whose purpose might be either symbolic or to serve as a binding medium +for the mass.</p> + +<p>In addition to these, various spices and perfumes were used. Cinnamon +bark, sandalwood, cardamom, and even ambergris and musk. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">[123]</span> influence +of scent upon the emotions is well known and the Egyptians favoured the +use of ambra and musk as definitely aphrodisiacal perfumes. To-day pure +essence of patchouli is used in the Orient to serve the same end, and +anybody who has ever smelt a vial of the pure oil will recognize the +instant disturbance of certain nerve centres that it produces.</p> + +<p>The clue to the secret of the ancient incense lies not in what we have +been able to recover from the papyri, but in the word itself. Kyphi +is recognizable to-day in “keef,” the popular name for the smokable +variety of the herb cannabis indica.</p> + +<p>Cannabis indica is none other than our old friend hashish, the +haseesh of the writers of the time of the Crusades, who gave us those +descriptions of the Old Man of the Mountains and his Hasch-hassins. +From them we get our commonplace word—assassin.</p> + +<p>It is not, after all, a far cry from the mysteries of Osiris in Egypt +to the <a id="Thammus"></a><ins title="original reads Thammur">Thammus</ins> or <i>Dumuri-absu</i> of Syria and Babylon.</p> + +<div style="text-align: center;"> +<div style="display: inline-block; text-align: left; font-size: smaller;"> + “<a id="Thammuz"></a><ins title="original reads Thammur">Thammuz</ins> came next behind<br> + Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured<br><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">[124]</span> + The Syrian damsels to lament his fate<br> + In amorous ditties all a summer’s day,” +</div> +</div> + +<p>says Milton.</p> + +<p>Osiris and Thammus “died” annually, and mimicry of the symbolic event +was the basis of all ritual. In the mysteries the initiates “died,” +too, but the death was no mere formula, but an actually induced state +of stupor of deep trance brought about by the fumes of the “keef.”</p> + +<p>These secrets lingered long in Lebanon, where to this day the +Crypto-christianity of the Druses may be identified with many of the +actual practices of magic.</p> + +<p>The master of the Assassins was a master hypnotist, using the dark +knowledge of certain parts of the mechanical ritual of magic to gain +his mastery over the Moslem youths he sent as fanatics to do his +bidding.</p> + +<p>There in the Lebanon he created his artificial paradise of sensuous +delight, drugged dreams and slumber. His commands laid upon his slaves +were no ordinary commands—but spells as black as any weaved by sorcery.</p> + +<p>The master lodge of this cult of the Assassins was at Cairo and the +mysteries were only transferred<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">[125]</span> to their new setting in the Lebanon by +Hassan ibn Sabbah at the end of the eleventh century. Outwardly Moslem, +the inner mysteries had no connection with either Mohammedan or any +other religion, and indeed the cult seems to be in many ways a kind of +bastard Masonic organization.</p> + +<p>Nominally a Moslem sect of Ismailites, the organization was under a +commander, the <i>Sheik-al-Tebel</i>, or Chief of the Mountains, who +was served by minor chiefs or priors—the three <i>Dai-al-kirbal</i>. +Following these came the <i>Dais</i> or adepts, and below them three +minor grades, <i>Refigos</i>, <i>Fedais</i>, and <i>Lasigos</i>.<a id="FNanchor_35" href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a></p> + +<p>The Fedais or “entered apprentice” grade furnished the rank and file of +the fanatical executants of the paramount will, and these Fedais, who +were customarily mentally and physically pathic, never rose above this +step in the mysteries.</p> + +<p>The Society of the Assassins was nominally suppressed by Halaga, +the Mogul invader of the middle of the thirteenth century, but the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">[126]</span> +knowledge, the secrets, and the traditions endured and still endure to +this day.</p> + +<p>The organization was undoubtedly an evil one; it also had nothing to +do with Masonry, but it is an interesting example of an occult society +whose powers affected the course of history, and methods of working +were essentially based upon mechanical rather than spiritual methods of +producing a certain state of mind.</p> + +<p>The effect of hashish is a very difficult thing to define. Essentially +a hypnotic—an annihilator of time and space and a stimulant of +hallucinations—it is also a drug largely dependent on the idiosyncracy +of the individual. The same does not necessarily produce equivalent +results in individuals of differing temperament, and for all practical +purposes the psychic value of the dose varies inversely with the +standard of intelligence of the recipient. Also, when dealing with +subjects of dual or multiple personality, it tends to liberate the more +violent and uncontrolled of the individualities.</p> + +<p>Hashish is absorbed rapidly. Cases have been known where a little of +the extract used as an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">[127]</span> anodyne in corn plasters has been absorbed and +produced hallucinatory state. As a smoke, veiled by incense or mixed +with tobacco, rapid intoxication results from its inhalation. This was +one of the keys—perhaps the greatest of the keys—to the storehouse of +those treasures of the mind which are the time Elixir, the True Gold of +the Magi.</p> + +<p>In actual practice there is a preliminary state of suggestibility under +the influence of hashish when the operator can exercise his will upon +that of the subject. This stage is soon passed over and in the later +dream states suggestion is inoperative.</p> + +<p>The modern pharmacist has lost the secret of the herb whose therapeutic +function is to control the action of the cannabis indica, so that the +subject remained in the suggestible state and did not pass on to the +later stages of hallucinatory visions.</p> + +<p>We may take it that so far as the old world is concerned, the half +of the secret has been recovered, but the balancing or deterrent +herb is still unrecognized by the pharmacopœia and known only to a +specialist few among experimental<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">[128]</span> occultists. Just as hashish itself +is missing from the recipient, the Ebers papyri, so is the balancing +coefficient.<a id="FNanchor_36" href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p> + +<p>On the other hand, the same secret of priestcraft is known on the +other side of the Atlantic. We may or may not believe in the myth +of lost Atlantis and the transmitted ritual, but both the Zaquis of +Sonora and the Tamachecks of Guatemala possess a ritual observance in +which cannabis Americana, a new cousin of the cannabis indica, is the +stimulant agent.</p> + +<p>Other tribes use a brew of the mescal bean, but this is a purely American +species and the active principle anhalonium,<a id="FNanchor_37" href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> does not act on +precisely the same nerve centres as the cannabinote principle of the +hemps.</p> + +<p>In both cases the induction of a species of intoxication by means of +the sacred herbs gathered in certain lunar or astrological aspects is +held by the natives to be the basis of the communion with the spirits +of the departed dead. The Spiritualist believes that there are spirits +of the dead, the physiologist claims that the</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">[129]</span></p> + +<p>“spirits” are hallucinatory or that they are merely reflex as from +the subconscious mind of the individual or of other individuals. This +twin explanation runs through all psychic phenomena, but not until all +phenomena known to be produced by Spiritualist circles can be produced +under hypnosis will the Spiritualist theory be finally disproved.</p> + +<p>The rank and file of Spiritualists are unaware that the scientific +world has a demonstrable answer to nine-tenths of the wonder that +the believing Spiritualist is convinced can only occur by means of +discarnate spirit intelligences. But the honest investigator should +bear in mind that only certain rare phenomena remain unchallenged and +are at present unattainable by practising psychologists.</p> + +<p>When the phenomena of materialization—the externalization of +force—are producible by hypnotists, then the whole spirit hypothesis +is imperilled, for the scientists will be able to produce these effects +not by spirit intervention but at the behest of human will.</p> + +<p>Still, for the moment, the uncritical white, like the barbarous Indian, +is justified in his belief<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">[130]</span> in external spirit agency as the only +explanation for the apparently miraculous.</p> + +<p>A friend of mine who had been a member of an exploring expedition whose +mission was to trace a tributary of the river Usmacinta in Chiapas on +the Mexico-Guatemala border to its source in the volcanic country round +the unknown Lago de Peten, made a careful study of the ritual of the +Tamachacks.</p> + +<p>These people still carry out a pre-Columbian religion which antedates +that of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations both of Mexico and the +Yucatan peninsula.</p> + +<p>Essentially symbolic in that it takes into account primitive nature and +ancestor worship, the basis of the cult is the evocation of the spirits +of the departed dead for tribal and personal counsel and consultation. +The means employed in the production of the psychic state is the smoke +of the <i>cannabis americana</i>. The native name of this herb is +<i>marihuana</i>.</p> + +<p>The following is my friend’s description of one of the actual native +ceremonies at which he was present:</p> + +<p>“We were up in the Intamal country about<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">[131]</span> four days’ hard river +travelling beyond the San Cristobal frontier. Little by little, +the isolated plantations disappeared, and soon we were deep in the +untouched jungle country where there are only native villages.</p> + +<p>“That day I was with the advance party, and as we were making a fairly +complete cadastral survey of our route, we deviated slightly toward a +largish jungle-covered hill that would furnish us with an excellent +commanding position for triangulation.</p> + +<p>“My native peons were carrying our little transit theodolite and we +were following a native track that led toward the hill when our party +was suddenly surrounded.</p> + +<p>“A whistle blew in the jungle and out from the bush came semi-nude +Indians variously armed. A few had trade guns, but the bulk carried the +inevitable machete, while a minority had short bows and long quivers of +obsidian-headed arrows.</p> + +<p>“They offered us no overt violence, but made it abundantly clear that +they resented any party attempting to scale their hill. Most of the +dialogue was in the native tongue, a debased agglutinative<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">[132]</span> inflective +speech similar to Nanhatl. The leader, who wore a peculiar breastplate +of featherwork, could, however, talk Spanish comparatively fluently.</p> + +<p>“My greatest trouble was to induce him to understand that we were not +a prospecting party and were not after gold. Talk with our men who had +been with us some months finally reassured him. A chance compliment +of mine about his feather breastplate, which was of quetzal feathers, +opened the magic door to me.</p> + +<p>“It was astonishing to that Indian, who had probably not seen a hundred +white men, as distinct from Mexicans, in all his life, to find in me a +man who knew more about the mythological importance of the quetzal bird +than he knew himself.</p> + +<p>“My work on the ruined cities of Yucatan and my studies of the Mittall +codices and similar work had given me a sound knowledge of the worship +of Quetzalcoatl the god of the Morning Star, to whom the wonderful +emerald-plumaged quetzal bird is sacred.</p> + +<p>“To cut a long story short, I arranged things with the head-man so +that we could camp in his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">[133]</span> village that night. The people were kindly, +once they understood that we were not gold hunters and meant no harm, +and my friend the head-man, having introduced me to certain elders and +discussed with them my knowledge of their almost extinct faith, invited +me to be present as a participant in a religious feast to be held that +night.</p> + +<p>“The feast was that of the Cozca cuaptli—the feast of vultures, birds +as important in the Mayan underworld as in the Egyptian ceremonies.</p> + +<p>“Shortly after dusk I left the village with them, going alone and to +all external seeming unarmed. We made a long journey through the bush, +climbing higher all the time, and I realized that we were actually on +the sacred hill that they had forbidden us to ascend.</p> + +<p>“Here and there along the route we were stopped by sentries or guards, +but at last gained the top of the hill. Here, encircled by trees, was a +flat table top or plateau a few acres in extent.</p> + +<p>“Rising on the plateau was a series of three square terraces +culminating in a small ruined<span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">[134]</span> building, roofless yet sound as to its +walls. The lowest plateau was packed with Indians; on the second were +congregated the elect—the tribal seniors and the priests. Above them a +figure or two moved in the building.</p> + +<p>“My friends took some time explaining my presence, and it was obvious +that I was regarded with dark disfavour by the mass of the natives. +Soon it dawned on me that I was under guard, an unobtrusive guard, but +nevertheless under guard. At last I was taken to the high priest of the +ceremonial.</p> + +<p>“He was a wonderful old Indian who spoke the accented Latin Spanish of +forgotten generations. He examined me, and though I could not reply to +certain mysterious ritualistic questions that he put to me, he was at +length satisfied that I had an efficient working knowledge not only +of his ritual but of its underlying astronomical and philosophical +significance. Eventually he was satisfied, and on a word from him I +was taken in hand by two native youths who bound a fillet of red-dyed +wool worked with feather devices round my brow and gave me a peeled +rod surmounted by a vulture’s skull to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">[135]</span> hold as a wand of office. Over +my clothes was put a loose dark brown cotton robe sewn with charms and +trimmed at each shoulder with tufts of sombre plumage.</p> + +<p>“Thus dressed I took my place among the elders. For a while nothing +happened, then slowly the noise of the crowd died down and expectancy +gave place to clamour. From somewhere in the forest came the sudden +rhythm of native drums seemingly casual, inopportune, and meaninglessly +cadenced.</p> + +<p>“Little by little the monotony of the drum throbbing became more +insistent, more definitely rhythmical. A brazier in the temple building +began to glow red, and far below in the valley mists we could see a +group of flaring torches dancing like fireflies as their bearers scaled +the difficult trail.</p> + +<p>“Suddenly the voice of the chief priest rose in a high-pitched wailing +call, and as he hailed, a new and brilliant star seemed to spring into +being over the dark crest of a nearby hill.</p> + +<p>“The assemblage bowed to the star and broke into a wailing Indian chant +that kept time to the beating of the hidden throbbing drums.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">[136]</span></p> + +<p>“After the prayer came the dance. To the centre of the second terrace +bearers carried what looked like a bundle of blankets; then nude +but for feather adornments, the young initiates came forward in +processional dance. Every tenth man held a torch, and the dancers +carried out a long ballet symbolical of the burial or consumption of +the mortal body of the vultures.</p> + +<p>“They hopped grotesquely like the ill-omened zopilotes or scavenger +vultures they initiated. A querulous clucking accompaniment was uttered +by the chorus of spectators and the files of bronze bodies advanced and +retreated, swayed and circled in slow-hopping processions around the +blanketed heap upon the ground that represented the body.</p> + +<p>“Suddenly the drum rhythm changed and a curious whistling pipe music +was heard. The heap of blankets stirred and rattled, from the heap +an arm flung out white bones, a skull rolled to the feet of the +spectators, then the blankets were flung aside and an Indian youth, +completely nude, but painted white and marked with ritual signs, leapt +from the pile.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">[137]</span></p> + +<p>“Rising to his full height he donned a towering feather headdress of +humming bird and quetzal feathers which gleamed like a myriad jewels in +the torchlight.</p> + +<p>“Three times the spectators claimed him as the risen God, then the +drums broke out into a violent triumphant dance in an infectious +measure in which both dancers and spectators joined.</p> + +<p>“In the meantime a cloth or canvas housing had been drawn over the +roofless temple by minor priests. The brazier was carried inside, and +suddenly the Boy God, leaving the dancers, ascended the steps and +entered the prepared pavilion.</p> + +<p>“As suddenly the drums fell silent and the shrill pipes alone kept up +the eerie tune.</p> + +<p>“My friend touched me on the shoulder, the seated elders rose, and, +following the high priest, we made our way into the sanctuary.</p> + +<p>“Ranging ourselves along the walls we sat down in an open square. In +the centre was the youth stretched on a skin-covered native bedstead, +at its head the brazier.</p> + +<p>“Swiftly the door was sealed with skin mats;<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">[138]</span> then to the accompaniment +of a muttered ritual and much raising and lowering of skull-tipped +wands, the priest cast herbs into the brazier. The heavy smoke wreathed +about in the close room and a sense of languor fell upon me.</p> + +<p>“Right and left I could hear the elders inhaling the vapour, then one +after another they succumbed to its influence. Then came an invocation +to the spirits, and the old men began to talk to spirits that they +alone could see among the hazy, drug-laden smoke of the lodge.</p> + +<p>“As if inspired, the boy uttered oracular wisdom, now answering +questions put to him, now declaiming what he had heard the spirits +say. Slowly the drug gained in its effect over me. The painted leather +screens on the rude walls became instinct with life, the crude stone +carving seemed alive and writhing, and all the air seemed charged with +flashing processions of colours and sonorous music.</p> + +<p>“I must have been overcome by the fumes, for I remember nothing more +till I came to in the dawn-light in one of the terraces outside the +building. They gave me a calabash of herb-scented goat’s milk to drink, +and in a moment or<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">[139]</span> two my brain cleared.... I made it my interest to +get some of the marihuana herb, which I send you.”</p> + +<p>Analysis of the marihuana revealed that it contained about twenty-five +per cent. admixture of other herbs in addition to the main base of +<i>cannabis americana</i>. A gum or sap exudation of an aromatic nature +served to bind the mass together.</p> + +<p>A personal experiment carried out with a small portion of the mixture +proved that identical hallucinatory results could be induced by its +use in a London room as well as on the top of a Guatemalan Tescalli. +Of a party of four, three saw colour visions, two heard music, and one +described figures of Mazan mythology with some exactness. As, however, +we all know the origin of the incense and its connection, these latter +visions may be more properly ascribed to suggestion than held to have +objective existence as spirit phenomena.</p> + +<p>There is reason to believe that other plants, and possibly some +synthetic products, have the same peculiar properties of the liberation +of the “psyche.” In the same way, although consumption<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">[140]</span> as a draught or +as an inhaled smoke veiled by incense are the ritual ways of achieving +a physiological result, the same might be achieved by spraying a +solution into the air, by absorption through the skin (this may have +been the <i>raison d’être</i> of some “witch ointments”), or by +hypodermic injection.</p> + +<p>Needless to say, any attempt to experiment in these matters is +extremely unwise and dangerous.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_33" href="#FNanchor_33" class="label">[33]</a> <i>Paracelsus</i>, Fr. A. Rufini.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_34" href="#FNanchor_34" class="label">[34]</a> See Ebers papyri.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_35" href="#FNanchor_35" class="label">[35]</a> See <i>Geschichte der Asassinen</i>. By T. von Hammer. +Burgstall, <i>Un Grand Maître des Assassins au Temps du Saladin</i>. +Also <i>Ars Quatuo Coronati</i>, Vol. ——</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_36" href="#FNanchor_36" class="label">[36]</a> The public interest would not be served by the revelation +of the second missing ingredient, but it is now known.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_37" href="#FNanchor_37" class="label">[37]</a> See monograph on <i>Mescal</i> by Havelock Ellis.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">[141]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII<br> +<span class="small">BEASTS AND ELEMENTALS</span> +</h2> +</div> + + +<p>The apparitions customarily seen by those who are clairvoyant or +psychic are those that take human form.</p> + +<p>In many cases they represent known humans who have passed over, but +sometimes we are brought into contact with non-human apparitions.</p> + +<p>These may be semi-human or demoniac forms, they may be animal forms, or +they may be simply manifestations of elemental forces. Discarding the +trumpery attempts at classification that have been advanced by one or +two writers of so-called “ghost stories,” it must be recognized that +the occultist is faced with problems that cannot be readily reduced or +explained by any logical hypothesis.</p> + +<p>The Spiritualist approaches the question according to set theories. +“Spirits,” says he,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">[142]</span> “can do anything. They take what shape they will. +Why they do so is a mystery.”</p> + +<p>The woman Spiritualist is usually as open to believe that the spirit +of her beloved Pekingese or Pomeranian can return in astral form, and +ascribes it to the influences of love. “Love me, love my dog,” appears +to furnish as good an explanation of animal manifestation as any.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, when you get some absolutely extraordinary +manifestations such as the seal that appeared to Sir Garnet +Wolseley,<a id="FNanchor_38" href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> or the materialization of vampire bats, partially +developed monkeys or a full-sized goat,—and I have known all these to +occur,—then the love theory falls down badly, and we must seek a more +reasonable explanation.</p> + +<p>If we accept the idea of discarnate spirit intelligences we certainly +should not accept them all at face value as good. The bulk of humanity +that has passed over has not been good, or for the matter of that, +Christian.</p> + +<p>Assuming that these spirits were human, but took bestial form for +purposes of their own, we<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">[143]</span> may find some glimmerings of support for a +new theory when we realize that in the past and in the present idolatry +prevails. The idols of savages are usually totemistic. And they held +that the identity of soul persisted after death, not in a new human +existence but as a rebirth in animal form.</p> + +<p>To a large extent, totemistic paganism was mixed up with licentious +and bestial festivals, useful in assuring the continuance and +multiplication of a savage tribe, but evolving practices repugnant to +Western ethics.</p> + +<p>The beasts that come back—are beastly. The ghost dog that scratches +and paws and leaps into its mistress’s lap is a very different thing to +that which it pretends to be. When we reach the foulness of the goat or +bat manifestations we feel with no shadow of doubt that we are in touch +with the unmasked spirits of evil. Not only visible form, but touch +and smell are present. We are brought into distinct contact with the +sardonic mocking terror that lies on the other side of life.</p> + +<p>The border between the brutal and blood-lusting savage and the demon, +is a slender one.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">[144]</span> The conception of a singularly evil earth-bound +negro spirit who has believed in an after-life in which his soul will +inhabit the body of an ape or a leopard, comes very close to the +accepted idea of a devil or demon.</p> + +<p>We get something of the same basic conception in the idea of the +wer-wolf or vampire, and there is a singular reinforcement of +this theory in that in the Dark Ages when paganism was yielding +reluctantly to the inroads of the Christian faith, the early fathers +explicitly identified such animal manifestations with the sorcery of +paganism. The fantastic gargoyles that ornament cathedrals are simply +traditionalizations of that period when these beast incarnations in all +their devilishness contended against the spread of a purer faith.</p> + +<p>Sometimes it chances that we, in this twentieth century, by accident +open a door through which a tenth-century devil can creep in.</p> + +<p>Other occultists, notably those of the Viennese school, hold that the +beast manifestations are not forms or shapes assumed by evil spirits +that have been mortal, but are, as it were, living evil thought-forms, +and are the incarnation of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">[145]</span> dead and evil cults on which a great deal +of human thought-energy had been expended during some time in the +world’s history.</p> + +<p>Proof is not possible, and it is not yet the time to marshal the facts +which would seem to indicate that a dead cultus can yet live on, +supported, as it were, by the emotional sin of the present-day world, +although the sin is divorced from its old ritual significance. This +theory of the continuation of the sacrificial value of sin is of course +one of the most serious aspects of the art of sorcery. Propitiation +and symbolism are often linked up in a way that perplexes the most +agile-witted student of the occult, and it may well be that certain +seemingly innocent ritual acts have contributed their quota to the +maintenance of life in certain forgotten cults—whose entities come +suddenly into being again in a most alarming manner.</p> + +<p>To the occultist who thinks this matter out, the identity of beast +materializations with incarnate prototypes of sin will probably be +manifest.</p> + +<p>As it is, the essential quality of the evil that these entities typify +and attempt to induce does<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">[146]</span> not become apparent from a chance unsought +materialization, but the medium who sees “animals” is suspect.</p> + +<p>Repeated evocations of these entities lead to disaster. The beast +becomes an obsession and is to all intents and purposes the old +“familiar” of the days of witchcraft.</p> + +<p>For reasons which are hinted at above, but which cannot be more fully +expounded in a book of this nature, the beast materialization is a +phenomenon which should be avoided at all costs. If such occurs at a +séance, break off the sitting at once. If these phenomena appear to be +connected with any particular medium, there are the gravest reasons for +seeking another sensitive. Above all things, avoid people who claim +that the spirits of pet animals have come back to them.</p> + +<p>The cynic may contend that it is folly to be afraid of the spirits of +poor dumb animals and yet invite communication with the mortal dead. +The occultist and the mystic who know something of the mysteries will, +however, see the reasons. To-day, when thousands are interested in +psychical matters, knowledge has been<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">[147]</span> forgotten or trampled underfoot. +The well-meaning, loud-voiced blind lead myriads to a new heaven, +acclaiming hell vanquished because in their rapturous exultation over +new discoveries of old things they have forgotten the absolute rule of +balance. Positive and Negative, Good and Bad, Strong and Weak, Plus or +Minus.</p> + +<p>There is balance in all things, and this sudden acclamation of the +Unseen World as all good, all easy, and quite safe, is perfectly +ridiculous.</p> + +<p>Occultism is not either good, safe, nor amusing for the vast majority +of people. Spiritualism as generally practised is a kind of beneficent +bobbing into the Tom Tiddler’s ground of the Unseen. There is a +pleasing conceit that if the Powers of Evil turn up it will be enough +to utter a Protestant prayer and say that because you are “good” a bogy +can’t touch you.</p> + +<p>This is a rather childish way of treating the Powers—in point of fact, +it does not work, it is very much like saying that lightning cannot +strike you because you have rubber heels to your boots.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">[148]</span></p> + +<p>It is a melancholy reflection that the very people who go about reading +little handbooks on “Knowledge is Power,” never realize that it is the +right use of knowledge that means Power and that sometimes the coming +of Power without knowledge spells catastrophe for all concerned.</p> + +<p>Besides the dangerous and perplexing beast manifestations, there is a +third class of phenomenon which is manifestly neither human nor animal, +but bears a close relationship to Elemental Forces such as Fire, Air, +or Water. These phenomena are the only ones properly described as due +to elementals, but a certain confusion has arisen through the use of +this word as applied to all spirit phenomena which were not broadly +classifiable as human.</p> + +<p>Ghosts, giant appearances, and ferocious and evil spirits of all kinds +have been described as elementals, so that the word has lost its real +precision. Originally all these outside spirits not known as the souls +of mortals were classed as being spirits of Earth or Fire, Air, or +Water, and by this arbitrary relation to the elements became known as +Elementals.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">[149]</span></p> + +<p>In effect only phenomena where no apparent organic or physical +materialization or incarnation of any kind occurs should be classified +as purely elemental.</p> + +<p>Of these the heat elemental is a phenomenon that is occasionally +observed. Air or wind phenomena are also known, but I know of no case +where earth or water phenomena apart from “apports” by a materialized +presence claiming to be an earth or water elemental, have been noted. +To my mind the organic presence destroys the evidential value of the +latter accounts due to the effect of elementals as distinct from +spirits.</p> + +<p>The elementals are properly those intelligences (the word spirits +conveys a wrong implication) that are termed in the old rituals the +Powers of Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. In magic it was held that these +Powers were served by spirits, but there is reason to suppose that this +view rose from the too literal interpretation of the old rituals and +maltranslation of the occult “Grimoires” of the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries.</p> + +<p>The appearance of these elementals is rare<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">[150]</span> and sporadic, usually +associated with a place or an individual rather than with the sitting +of a séance.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the individual afflicted by the elemental is affected in +a negative manner—that is to say, he is immune to the effect of +fire or heat or has the power of inducing enormous draughts and air +disturbances in confined space without knowing why.</p> + +<p>These cases are difficult, and though a “fireproof” medium who can +carry live coals in his hand may claim it to be due to the effect of +a fire-elemental control, it must be remembered that in many cases +autosuggestion will induce an extension of the protective ecto- or +psychoplasm which is equally effective.<a id="FNanchor_39" href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> The South Sea and Indian +fanatics who walk across red-hot stones indubitably possess this +self-contained power.</p> + +<p>I have only a second-hand instance of a pure heat elemental to relate. +This was communicated to me by a very well-known<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">[151]</span> mountain painter whom +we will call Calvin Muir.</p> + +<p>He had been down in the Welsh Marches where the low foothills of the +mountains just change into stretches of rocky moors above the low-lying +wooded valleys.</p> + +<p>Muir was by habit and training a keen observer. He was also a Frater +of the Rosicrucian Society and had a wide general knowledge of many +strange aspects of occultism.</p> + +<p>“I was staying down at Pwhyll-gor, a little hill village with a few +cottages and two inns of small attractiveness,” said he. “I had been +there some six weeks or so, sketching and wandering and doing a little +trout fishing when the mood took me. One evening I found the taproom +learnedly discussing the blight that was affecting an orchard in a +nearby farm.</p> + +<p>“According to them, half the affected trees appeared burnt or seared +and there was great discussion whether lightning could strike without a +concurrent storm or thunderclap.</p> + +<p>“Others held that it was probably a mischievous trick by small boys, +but one old man declared it had happened before in the same district<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">[152]</span> +in his father’s time and that it was due to ‘owl blasting.’</p> + +<p>“This, it seemed, was a form of witchcraft or magic, but more closely +related to the malevolent forces of nature than to mortal ill will. He +was not communicative, but disclosed enough to make me determine to +visit the farm next day.</p> + +<p>“I found it up on the hillside in a little natural valley or gap where +a few fertile acres had been reclaimed. It was a poor enough small +homestead, bleak and barren, and the wretched little orchard was poor +enough in all conscience without suffering supernatural violences.</p> + +<p>“The farmer’s wife received me and made no secret of her troubles. +Together we went out to view the damage, and I found two cider-apple +trees whose foliage and fruit had been literally burnt in an area as +large as a good-sized cart wheel.</p> + +<p>“That was the queer thing about it, the close circular or rather +spherical limits of the damage. It was just as if a red-hot round bite +had been taken out of the thick of the tree, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">[153]</span> left the neighbour +twigs and leaves unsinged—unseared.</p> + +<p>“They had no explanation to offer except lightning, and it was manifest +they had no real belief in that. I suggested boys, but was told there +was but one about the farm—even as I made the suggestion I knew it was +futile; but what would you?</p> + +<p>“I asked when the calamity occurred, and they told me in full daytime +between dawn and lunch. In the morning all had been well in the +orchard—by noon two trees half ruined, and no one had seen sight of +smoke or flame, nor sound.</p> + +<p>“The suggestion of ‘owl blasting’ brought no response. They were +strangers to the country, having come some ten years ago from Swansea +way.</p> + +<p>“‘It’s the hills,’ said the woman.</p> + +<p>“‘Well,’ said I, ‘another watcher will do no harm. Can you give me a +shakedown, and to-morrow I will go out with my easel and stay sketching +the orchard.’</p> + +<p>“She assented without enthusiasm, and I spent that night at the farm.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">[154]</span></p> + +<p>“The farmer was no wiser and rather surlier than his wife, but both +were manifestly oppressed with fear. Their boy alone was cheerful and +unmoved.</p> + +<p>“The next day I rose at cock-crow, passed through the orchard and out +on to the hills to a patch of rock and heather some two hundred yards +away.</p> + +<p>“By seven o’clock I had watched in a good stretch of the farm and the +orchard in which not a soul had moved. All at once, I stood with my +brush poised in amazement, as there high above the trees was poised a +small, blue-yellow lambent flame that seemed to drift sideways in the +windless air.</p> + +<p>“For a moment I thought it was a fire balloon, then saw my error. +Without a thought I ran toward it just in time to see it settle down on +to a tree whose leaves in a moment turned from green to darkening brown +and burst almost immediately into crackling flame. My cries brought out +the boy and the woman from the house and on their coming it vanished +and we were left gazing at the damage it had done.</p> + +<p>“I told them what I had seen, and the woman<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">[155]</span> suddenly put her apron +over her face and burst into tears. We sent the boy to fetch her +husband, who came in a marked state of worry and agitation.</p> + +<p>“I could not follow the quick interchange of Welsh words that ensued. +The man then asked me who had told me of ‘owl blasting,’ and together +we went to the village to find the old man.</p> + +<p>“It appeared that a month or so back the farmer had used some old +rocks which were part of the ring of a Cromlech to rebuild one of his +stone walls. This, according to the old man, had brought down the ‘owl +blasting’ upon him.</p> + +<p>“Painstakingly they dragged the stones back to their original place, +and I believe certain ceremonial was gone through at the next quarter +of the moon.</p> + +<p>“The precise things done were kept secret from me, for I was a stranger +and suspect, but I gathered enough to understand that a mercenary +destruction or disturbance of Druidic remains brought its own reward.</p> + +<p>“All that I can say is that a ball of fire came<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">[156]</span> out of clear sky +quite slowly and destroyed part of the foliage of an apple tree under +conditions precluding any human agency.”</p> + +<p>The above is Calvin Muir’s account. To an occultist the connection +between the Power of Fire and the violation of a Cromlech is +convincing, but it is difficult to conceive in what manner the Powers +were propitiated.</p> + +<p>Scientific people have suggested slow-drying phosphorus solution as +an explanation of an apparently supernatural occurrence. Muir, on the +other hand, was positive that it was a true manifestation of a fire +elemental, and that the old man who knew about “owl blasting” was not +an interested or malevolent party in a peasant’s plot.</p> + +<p>So far, no hypothesis that will serve as a rational explanation of all +the facts has ever been advanced.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_38" href="#FNanchor_38" class="label">[38]</a> Mr. Gambier Bolton, who was present, assures me of the +reality of this inexplicable incident.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_39" href="#FNanchor_39" class="label">[39]</a> The really genuine fire medium can hold a red-hot coal +or glowing asbestos from the gas fire on the palm of the hand for two +minutes. No shorter duration of time should be accepted.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">[157]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX<br> +<span class="small">POSSESSION</span> +</h2> +</div> + + +<p>From time to time we come across cases of demoniacal possession. In +these there is apparently the permanent or temporary domination of +the soul or mind of the victim by an evil spirit or demon of alien +personality.</p> + +<p>Cases of possession are invariably claimed as “proofs” of the existence +of spirit intelligence, and in cases where the possession is nominally +at least a mild one the possessed are sometimes quite proud of it. It +is, in fact, exhibited as quaint and dreadful deformity would be—the +phrase is exact. It is a mental deformity.</p> + +<p>Now, it must be understood that the psychologists have of late years +made enormous strides in their knowledge of the vagaries of the +subconscious mind. Possession, like “shell shock,” is in ninety-nine +cases out of a hundred a perfectly curable disease. It springs +from a perversion<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">[158]</span> of the subconscious state, can be diagnosed by +psychoanalysis and eradicated by transference or by suggestion.</p> + +<p>The processes of Christian exorcism often attained the same result. +The wise priest was able to “cast out demons,” and medical science of +to-day, working by analytical methods rather than by rule-of-thumb, +achieves the same results.</p> + +<p>Whether one accepts the scientific theory that these “possessions” +are but multiple personalities and that there may be several mental +personalities in the one mind, or whether one believes the idea of +spirit influence, does not much matter. In any case the doors of +the mind can be firmly locked on either spirit or mental disease. +Possession is curable—if the patient really desires to be cured.</p> + +<p>Possession can be readily evoked in nearly all hypnotic subjects. Not +only one but several distinct personalities can be developed by the +psychologist. Janet’s experiments developed in Madame B. three separate +individuals: Léonie, known in the waking state as a “possessor”; +Léontine under the light stage of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">[159]</span> hypnosis, and Léonore in a deeper +condition.<a id="FNanchor_40" href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> + +<p>Even a popular knowledge and comprehension of this peculiar disease +of the subconscious is difficult to attain without a sound elementary +grasp of the principles of psychology. The bulk of books on the subject +are written for the medical or scientific mind, but Coriat’s book is a +sound and easily grasped introductory manual.<a id="FNanchor_41" href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>The normal form of mental trouble is an obsession, the fear or “phobia” +of some perfectly normal thing, a desire to touch objects. There +are dozens of variations of these obsessions which spring to mind. +The state of possession can only be said to exist when the mind is +under the dominance of another individuality distinct from the normal +personality.</p> + +<p>It is curious to note that cases of possession by good spirits are +absolutely unknown. A medium may be “controlled” by spirits said to +be good, but this does not amount to a possession. In every case +where normal personality has been overthrown and another or <span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">[160]</span>other +personalities take possession we find—evil.</p> + +<p>This is to certain extent explicable if we realize that every thought +or wish that occurs to us, and which we <i>repress</i> because it is +bad or evil, is not destroyed or wiped out of existence, but stays as a +suppressed desire or wish buried in the recesses of subconscious mind.</p> + +<p>When normal conscious control is overthrown, these subconsciously +stored desires or wishes come bubbling up—a fact that seems to explain +why the language used by nicely brought up girls recovering after the +administration of an anæsthetic would put a coal-heaver to flight.</p> + +<p>In the dream state, too, these repressed desires escape all mixed up +from their bondage, a fact which accounts for the peculiar medley of +dreams and their frequent lack of moral balance and accentuation of +sexual characteristics.</p> + +<p>The character of a “possessing” demon is in most cases determined by +experiences that the victim has passed through. Shock, neurasthenia, +illness, disappointment; all these may bring about the splitting of +the personality so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">[161]</span> that the secondary or possessing personality can +overthrow consciousness and take charge.</p> + +<p>The victim is often horrified to find his or her mind continually +filled with terrible desires, intolerable passions, and thoughts +utterly repugnant to the sedate conscious self.</p> + +<p>Sometimes the idea of possession is stimulated by messages received +through mediums or by automatic writing—this is one of the many +frequent cases where undigested, uneducated Spiritualism is often +abominably harmful. Anything that helps the idea of possession to grow +in the afflicted mind should be avoided.</p> + +<p>Gradually the nature of the possession becomes more acutely defined and +is recognized as a different personality—an evil personality resident +in the same body using the same mind. It is in all human probability +only the repressed wishes—all the pent-up unfulfilled evil of a +lifetime taking shape and urging gratification rather than repression +in a new and secondary personality.</p> + +<p>Possession by evil spirits is invariably connected with violence and +vice. Sometimes the attacks are periodic; always they are signs of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">[162]</span> +mental instability and psychic disease. A possessed person is a fit +subject for psychotherapeutic treatment by qualified medical men, but +a source of very real psychic danger in a séance or as a subject for +well-meaning experiments in faith healing by amateurs.</p> + +<p>In psychic healing the doctrine of sacrifice and the scapegoat had a +very literal interpretation. The healer often takes upon his own soul +the burden that he lifts from another. This psychic transference can +only be done in safety by certain and specific ways beyond the scope of +this work. It is sufficient to indicate the danger.</p> + +<p>Possession in its varying aspects has given rise to many myths and +legends. Larvæ, Incubi, and Succubi were all demons of temporary +possession that tempted man. In the Middle Ages and far later the Faith +strove lustily with them, and where exorcism failed the stake was found +effective.</p> + +<p>According to the older writers, Incubi were male demons who possessed +the bodies of mortal women; Succubi, she-devils who seduced the souls +and possessed the bodies of men.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">[163]</span></p> + +<p>Sorcerers had the power of despatching these erotic demons to gratify +their associates or plague their enemies, and it is notable that this +doctrine of vicarious enjoyment or satisfaction reappears in the +Spiritualist belief in gross and earth-bound souls of sinners who haunt +drinking booths and houses of ill-fame, deriving vicarious satisfaction +from the sins of the living.</p> + +<p>The old demonographers give lurid and disgustful accounts of these +“possessions”<a id="FNanchor_42" href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> and insist on their contagious nature. Prosecutions +for sorcery, “possession,” and similar crimes raged throughout the +sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and in the pages of the records we +can trace the Incubi and Succubi now hidden as familiar spirits, now +described as the devil himself, but curiously true in their nature to +the occasional demoniac possessions that trouble the twentieth century.</p> + +<p>Even if one admits that the average “possession” is one’s own evil +subconscious personality attempting to overthrow the conscious mind, +certain questions and possibilities arise.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">[164]</span></p> + +<p>That the astral body or mind can make discarnate journeys is a +well-known fact to all Spiritualists. There is, then, no reason to +suppose that this faculty would be less material in a possessive +personality whose origin was specifically in the dream realm of the +subconscious.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it is far more plausible to suppose that the possessor or +demon mind would find it far easier to make the journey than the other +personality, for it is recognized that the release of the actual body +occurs in trance or dream state.</p> + +<p>We have here, then, some possible psychic explanation of many of the +cases of sorcery where the complaint of the sufferers was that they +were victimized during sleep by demons. In other words, they were the +recipients of undesired attentions by the astral body of either the +sorcerer or his followers or associates.</p> + +<p>This has been suggested to me in various forms by people who have +believed themselves the victims of discarnate spirits—and who were +at times possessed by them against their wills. It must, however, +be admitted that in all such cases which came under my notice there +had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">[165]</span> been connection with Spiritualist circles or with minor forms of +occultism, and it was impossible to exclude the possibility of previous +hypnosis, autosuggestion, or the little-known but common phenomena of +psychic invasion—by other members of the circle.</p> + +<p>Viewed from the psychical point of view, possession is an extremely +difficult problem. Real spirit possession might occur, suggestion or +psychic invasion is often indicated; and, as I have explained, multiple +personality and the concentration of evil repressed desires in the +secondary individuality furnishes a complete scientific explanation of +the phenomenon.</p> + +<p>These cases must be taken individually, and there are not yet grounds +for laying down a general explanation of all the phenomena. One of the +great difficulties is the natural reluctance of the victims to disclose +exact details, but no case of possession which was not either openly or +secretly erotic is known to be recorded.</p> + +<p>Possessions fall under two heads: those in which the possessing spirit +urges the victim to the commission of injurious acts in person, and +thereby derives direct satisfaction through the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">[166]</span> body; and those in +which a vicarious satisfaction is achieved through the astral body. The +possibility of intercourse between spirit and mortal has been held to +be a possibility since Biblical times, and the expulsion of the fallen +angels was due to this sin.<a id="FNanchor_43" href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a></p> + +<p>Stainton Moses held that much of the lower phenomena was caused by +spirits who had not yet reached man’s plane of intelligence, just as +some was produced by others who had proceeded further and returned +to enlighten man.<a id="FNanchor_44" href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> This belief occurs in folklore, in Oriental +religions, and in a myriad variations.</p> + +<p>The djinn of the <i>Arabian Nights</i> is a very real thing to the +modern native, and a considerable literature exists in which the +intercourse between djinn and mortal is the main theme. In the same way +the belief in fairy wives or husbands is not so long dead in Europe and +alive to-day among the hill tribes of the Pamirs.</p> + +<p>The whole theory of spirit possession or demon possession is linked +with this idea. In the “possessed” state the victim is unconscious <span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">[167]</span>of +deeds done and words said. The blame is the blame of the demon.</p> + +<p>In nine cases out of ten frenzy or hysteria accompanies nominal +possession. There are gifts of strange tongues usually said to be +Eastern or Indian, and the possessed pour out streams of gibberish in +which a few dominant words or phrases bearing a slight resemblance to +some known tongue may be distinguished.</p> + +<p>Clairvoyance, the gift of prophecy, and other psychic qualities appear +at the time of the seizure. Often there is marked anæsthesia and +insensitiveness to pain. Hot objects may be handled with impunity, +electric shocks are not felt.</p> + +<p>These cases are not genuine cases of possession in its worst sense when +they begin, but very frequently the victim is urged by fools to develop +these wonderful powers and the Darker Powers accept the invitation and +step in.</p> + +<p>The occultist and the scientist agree about very few things, but both +agree that possession and surrender to possession are the first steps +to moral and physical disaster. The transferable or infectious quality +of possession is not so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">[168]</span> widely known as it should be, but with the +increase of Spiritualism its effects will in a year or so become +capable of perception by even the most unenlightened.</p> + +<p>A girl of my acquaintance, the daughter of wealthy and respectable +Midland parents, became interested in psychic matters. Her faith was +greater than her powers of discernment and she was, like all too many +Spiritualists, of neurotic and hysterical temperament.</p> + +<p>Her first actual essays were with automatic writing; then as she was +an art student she tried painting under spirit control. Some slight +success attended her efforts and she became interested in Egyptian +mythology because her spirit paintings were Egyptian in character.</p> + +<p>I did not see her frequently, but met her about a year after she had +taken up her Egyptian studies. She stated that in her was reincarnated +the soul of an Egyptian priest. This invading entity dominated her +entire mind and mode of life.</p> + +<p>Before, she had been a healthy, normal girl although inclined to be +neurotic, but once given over to this obsession she found that owing +to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">[169]</span> the psychic change of sex all men were repugnant to her. She was +possessed by a male mind in a female body, and with this extraordinary +inversion of normal feelings was obliged to break off her engagement.</p> + +<p>The remainder of her life was short but tragic. Her automatic writings +(which were destroyed after her unhappy death at her own hands) +showed the ascendancy of the possessing demon as it grew over her. +Interspersed with these records were the tragic outpourings of her +soul, her self-analysis of her psychic disaster. There were things +there terrible to read.</p> + +<p>It is not perhaps fair to blame psychic science for disastrous +tragedies such as these, but it must be openly admitted that occultism +is not for the multitude.</p> + +<p>There is nothing known to-day that was not known in the past, but +Spiritualists and other investigators have discovered a few of the +minor marvels that were known to, but wisely hidden by, the ancients. +Sometimes they are like children playing with a box of drugs, some of +which are active poisons.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">[170]</span></p> + +<p>One message of consolation, one instance of subconscious telepathy with +a medium, and they are convinced of the truth of Spiritualism and will +not be warned that whatever truth it may hold it also holds Untruth and +Danger as well as Hope.</p> + +<p>The threshold between the innocent “control” and the malevolent “demons +of possession” is a very, very narrow one. Sometimes, indeed often, +there is no dividing line at all. The charges that Spiritualism is the +high road to lunacy have these unfortunate occurrences as their basis.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_40" href="#FNanchor_40" class="label">[40]</a> Pierre Janet: <i>L’automatisme Psychologique</i>.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_41" href="#FNanchor_41" class="label">[41]</a> <i>Abnormal Psychology.</i> Isador H. Coriat. Rider, +1911.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_42" href="#FNanchor_42" class="label">[42]</a> See <i>Tableau de L’Inconstance des Démons</i>. Pierre de +Lancre.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_43" href="#FNanchor_43" class="label">[43]</a> Jude VI, 7.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_44" href="#FNanchor_44" class="label">[44]</a> Stainton Moses, <i>Spirit Identity</i>, Appendix II.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">[171]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X<br> +<span class="small">SOME NEW FACTS AND THEORIES</span> +</h2> +</div> + + +<p>There are a number of peculiar phenomena that come under no specific +head or grouping at present; that is to say, they are infrequent or +isolated instances which cannot yet be relegated to a specific class +and labelled.</p> + +<p>I have frequently come across hearsay evidence and been unable to find +the original observer. In other cases the character or mentality of the +observer has been such as to render the account entirely valueless from +any point of view except that of sensationalism.</p> + +<p>The result is that we are faced with an unusual case which remains +mysterious, usually because opportunity for a thorough examination of +the phenomena is lacking.</p> + +<p>This is perhaps best illustrated by those cases of material phenomena +which we class as Poltergeists.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">[172]</span></p> + +<p>The most recently recorded case was the Cheriton dugout,<a id="FNanchor_45" href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> but there +are many others recorded and a good many more details of which have +been suppressed for personal or economic reasons.</p> + +<p>Ronald Grey has some interesting notes under this heading to which I +will now turn.</p> + +<p>The distinguishing characteristics of a poltergeist haunting are +aimless violence and mischief accompanied by the displacement and +turning about of material objects and unaccompanied by any visible +materialization of the manifesting entity.</p> + +<p>In many cases these mischievous phenomena are associated directly or +indirectly with children or young persons. Sceptics usually attribute +the phenomena to pure mischief and a desire to mystify or be revenged +on somebody by the child, but I do not hold that this is the true +interpretation.</p> + +<p>The actual power of physical mediumship is a gift which is in some +strange way connected with physiological conditions. It is often more +marked in ill-health than when well and sometimes<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">[173]</span> vanishes completely +or may return again after a year or two.</p> + +<p>It has now been ascertained that the site of the haunting is the +functioning factor and that one or other of the humans present is the +often unconscious medium. If a known physical medium is substituted for +the original one the phenomena will often be as effectively reproduced. +The doctrine held by Spiritualists that a poltergeist is a low type of +spirit essentially non-human and akin to the tree dryads or earth or +air elementals does not seem to be borne out in practice.</p> + +<p>Just as many people hold that the bulk of harmless as distinct from +malignant apparitions are “thought-impressions” on the surrounding +walls which become visible to people with the gift of clairvoyance, +so are there some grounds for believing that the poltergeist +manifestations are due not to any directing intelligence at all but to +the permanence of some old act or thought which still has in some cases +the power of influencing matter.</p> + +<p>Mind cannot affect matter without the influence of a human +intermediary. But the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">[174]</span> physical medium is a human intermediary and +serves as a dynamo or battery for the generation of a necessary force.</p> + +<p>Just as table levitations and similar phenomena are produced by +the extrusion of psychical rods or levers which are invisible,<a id="FNanchor_46" href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> +but which are directed to a definite task by intelligence, so the +poltergeist phenomena seem to be similar phenomena but without any +directing intelligence.</p> + +<p>This statement needs qualification in the cases where the child medium +has become partly aware that in some strange way he or she is the +prime motor for the phenomena. Then the child’s mind consciously or +subconsciously directing the impulse may focus the manifestation in the +way of impish, malicious tricks afflicting an individual.</p> + +<p>The “psychic force” or psychoplasm extended by the medium is very +closely akin to what is termed “animal magnetism”—it seems to be of +nervous origin and physiologically connected with internal secretory +organs.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">[175]</span></p> + +<p>A slight nervous derangement of one of the many complexes associated +with the age of puberty may quite conceivably endow occasional children +with a transient power of physical mediumship.</p> + +<p>The next point is the accumulatory effect of surroundings. Here we +are very much in the dark, but the manifestations do not occur unless +physical limits, such as walls, are present. In a poltergeisted house +two unconscious agents of the activities may, particularly while +asleep, but also while awake, saturate the surroundings with this +peculiar form of energy.</p> + +<p>There is nothing to show that this vitality ceases with death; it +certainly continues during the state of sleep, and if it is borne in +mind that even when the soul has passed from the body after death, +life—that is to say, intense bacterial activity—continues, it is +conceivable that the continued extension of this force may continue +from unascertained physiological conditions, and so explain some of the +baffling and distressing phenomena that have occurred in vaults and +given rise to the theory of bodies being buried alive in a cataleptic +condition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">[176]</span></p> + +<p>More advanced students will see in the foregoing hypothesis the +explanation of certain obscure texts relative to the Egyptian +processes of embalming, and other religious rituals in connection with +the disposal of corpses. The ancients were keenly aware of certain +monstrous after-death possibilities which the moderns ignore.</p> + +<p>This, then, is where the theory of poltergeist manifestations splits. +They are often traceable to</p> + +<p class="block"> +(<i>a</i>) Unconscious physical mediums, usually adolescents. +</p> + +<p class="block"> +(<i>b</i>) In certain difficult cases the human element has been +eliminated, and the only hypothesis is the sudden manifestation of a +latent force derived from the dead.</p> + +<p>It should be remembered that the graves of saints become shrines and +that miracles are attributed to them, and that certain most terrible +vampire phenomena are associated with some unsanctified graves.</p> + +<p>Just as the hair and nails of some corpses continue to grow to +extravagant lengths long after death, so in certain cases it seems as +if<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">[177]</span> the corruption of the flesh were accompanied by a translation of +the residual vital force or nervous energy—as distinct from soul or +consciousness—into free psychic power.</p> + +<p>This energy can apparently be stored in matter such as walls, wood, +etc., and seems to have the quality of remaining latent until some +unknown cause begins to change it from a static to a “dynamic” +condition.</p> + +<p>The sorcerer who produces earth from a particular grave and who +treasures unholy mortal relics of evil man, is practising more than a +mere symbolism. He is using matter whose very body may be impregnated +with that peculiar essence or force which is the vehicle of all psychic +phenomena.</p> + +<p>People who are interested in serving the Powers of Evil have sedulously +propagated the idea that, however malignant astral powers may be, +there is a law that they cannot harm or injure mortals. This is one +of those dangerous statements that Spiritualists make use of without +knowing what they are talking about. These powers can be and often +have been applied to the most sinister purposes. Utilized by anyone<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">[178]</span> +with occult knowledge and experience they are pregnant with soul- and +body-destroying capacities, and it is fair to say that certain other +occult powers are the least defence against them.</p> + +<p>I am inclined to favour the theory that in all cases of poltergeists, +where non-human sources of power are indicated, careful psychic +analysis will reveal some inanimate matter which has been in contact +with either evil-living mortality or the dead, and is serving as the +focus and reservoir of the force. The power appears to be sporadic and +cumulative, but it can be destroyed or dissipated both by material and +by occult means if it can be traced to its source.</p> + +<p>The latent cumulative effect of such an evil relic may possibly +stimulate the extension of psychoplasm by unconscious mediums brought +within its sphere of influence. This seems indicated where an exchange +of physical mediums in the one centre of inflection has produced +parallel results. There is also some ground for supposing that the +phases of the moon affect the manifestation.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">[179]</span></p> + +<p>It is, of course, fashionable to deride the moon, but any seaside +doctor will admit that his patients die with the ebb of the tide; and, +further, it is highly illogical to suppose that an influence which can +affect the vast masses of the tides is without its influence on the +tenuous fluids of vitality.</p> + +<p>The lunar effect is probably due to a screening or projection of +specific solar or ethereal vibrations below the range which we see +as light and colour and above that which we recognize as electrical +phenomena.</p> + +<p>“The simple undirected energy display of a poltergeist phenomenon may +be converted into a specifically malignant phenomenon. The energy may +be used to form a vehicle for an evoked elemental succubus or incubus, +or might under certain different conditions be similarly utilized +to accommodate or materialize a ‘familiar’ of a higher order,” says +Duchesne, writing of some researches carried out in the Var, “but I am +still at a loss to know what induces the phenomena to appear with such +fulminant energy and purposeless commencement.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">[180]</span></p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>A peculiar case of poltergeist occurred in Hertfordshire last +spring.<a id="FNanchor_47" href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> The farm bailiff of a home farm complained that his +cottage, which looked out on the yard of the farmstead, had become +intolerable. Crockery was smashed on the dresser, pots and pans flew +about while nobody touched them, and when the whole family were at +midday lunch in their living-room a kettle of boiling water which was +simmering on the kitchener hob was brought through an adjoining open +door and slammed down among the diners at the table without spilling a +drop.</p> + +<p>Stones were thrown, windows broken, and even bedclothes snatched off. I +went down in response to an invitation by the owner of the estate and +soon convinced myself that the phenomena were authentic.</p> + +<p>The family consisted of the bailiff, his wife, a girl of fourteen, and +a son of twenty. The latter was not much in the house, being about on +the hills with the sheep, as it was lambing time.</p> + +<p>Previous experience led one to suspect the girl, who seemed quite +honest and very frightened<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">[181]</span> at the occurrences. My host and I were +personal witnesses of flying stones and still more remarkable the +scattering of a big sheaf of straw.</p> + +<p>The sheaf was being carried from the barn to the cow-house by the +girl herself at about three in the afternoon. We were talking to the +bailiff’s wife. Suddenly the girl stopped and the big bundle of straw +seemed to be lifted out of her arms at least two feet above her head. +It balanced for a moment or two like a captive gas balloon, then +whirled into thousands of separate straws which flew all about the yard.</p> + +<p>No conceivable trick of wind—and it was a wettish, windless day—nor +any human effort could have accomplished it. The truss burst like +a shell, some of the straws flying right over the roofs of the +outbuildings.</p> + +<p>The terrified girl burst into tears and ran to her mother for comfort +and protection.</p> + +<p>That night we sent the girl away, and though manifestations continued +for another two days, these were of decreasing violence.</p> + +<p>The cottage was only a few years old and no deaths had occurred there, +but the farmstead<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">[182]</span> was a very old one, the estate having a connected +history to pre-Tudor times. I was puzzled to find any clue to the +exciting cause of the trouble.</p> + +<p>I went over the whole place most carefully, but found nothing to guide +me, and at last turned my attention to the structure of the cottage. A +certain intuition or psychic susceptibility led me to suspect one of +the big kitchen rafters which supported the ceiling of the kitchen and +the floor of the girl’s room.</p> + +<p>On inquiry I found that the architect who had designed the new +buildings had employed a local contractor and used old red bricks and +old timber wherever possible in order to preserve the old fashioned +effect given by weathered colours.</p> + +<p>It was not difficult to trace the material; the local contractor’s +foreman told us at once where it had come from.</p> + +<p>“It stood in our yard here for ten years or more before we put it into +the new buildings,” said the foreman, “and it come to us when we pulled +down Blackley Old Grange.”</p> + +<p>“What kind of a place was that?” said I.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">[183]</span></p> + +<p>“Private madhouse at the last,” he answered. “The owner was a doctor +and he went mad and hanged himself, he did, after killing one of the +patients a month before. He hanged himself just before the visitors was +expected to see the patient he had killed.”</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Research carried us no further, except that I learnt that the murdered +patient lay for a month in the room in which she was killed before the +crime was found out, after the man’s suicide. It was impossible to +trace the beam to its position, but I gathered that the doctor hanged +himself from a window bar or curtain hook, not from the beam.</p> + +<p>I am inclined to believe that the absorption of force takes place from +prolonged contact with the emanation of the dead rather than from the +transient impression of conscious thoughts, but there was no further +recrudescence of the trouble when an iron girder was substituted for +the beam, and the girl, when brought back, was perfectly normal.</p> + +<p>I experimented with the girl later, but did not find that she possessed +any marked gifts,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">[184]</span> although she was indubitably a good hypnotic +subject. The beam, or rather a section of it, I secured for the +purposes of research, the remainder was burnt.<a id="FNanchor_48" href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>Another puzzling if popular subject is that of spirit photographs. I +have handled scores of them, but have never yet come across one in +which all possibility of ingenious fraud has been entirely eliminated.</p> + +<p>Certain people have claimed peculiar gifts, but in no case has a +satisfactory result been obtained at a genuine test-séance, where +scientific precautions have been observed.</p> + +<p>If anyone has this gift it can be demonstrated easily. The studio must +be neutral ground—that is to say, the room must not be the claimant’s +habitual studio. The camera must be provided by the testers, as also +the dark slide and plates. The medium must be stripped perfectly naked +and the same rule should apply to the testing committee if it includes +anyone known<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">[185]</span> to the medium. He should not be allowed to touch plates, +dark slide, or camera except when naked and under close scrutiny.</p> + +<p>Development should be carried out under test conditions at the nearest +chemist’s dark room.</p> + +<p>There is no known spiritual law which should lead us to think that +a psychograph or spirit photograph is a possibility, and until the +matter has been tested by a properly qualified body of men all such +photographs are open to the gravest suspicion.</p> + +<p>Money-making is not the only motive for fraud, and many of the fakers +are often more anxious to build up a bogus reputation for “mystery +working” than to make a direct profit on the transaction.</p> + +<p>The avenues of fraud are so numerous that it is only possible to +indicate a few of the methods adopted to deceive the credulous.</p> + +<p>The spirit photograph is deemed to be genuine if it is taken +under conditions which an average expert photographer holds to be +fraud-proof. The weakness of the whole case lies in the fact that they +cannot be obtained under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">[186]</span> genuine scientific, as opposed to amateur, +test conditions.</p> + +<p>In a word, the spirit image is imprinted on the negative under +conditions not normally suspected by the photographers.</p> + +<p>There are several methods of attaining the result, even when the +photographer brings his own plates and dark slides and his own camera.</p> + +<p><i>First</i> is the background trick. An acid solution of sulphate +of quinine is invisible to the eye, but shows in the photograph. +“Phenomena” painted on the wall or near by the objects appear in the +photograph though invisible to the eye.</p> + +<p><i>Second</i> is the contact process by which a small negative of +the “spirit” face is mounted on a background of card prepared with +radioactive salt solution. Many of these salts are rich in infra-red +rays which will project an image through a metal dark slide. The +“medium” has only to handle the dark slide during the sitting or the +plate in the dark room previous to development, in order to make a +contact image.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">[187]</span></p> + +<p>A cruder variation of this, the electric pencil flashlight with a +rubber cup over the end containing the “spirit face” negative contact +with the exposed plate, is achieved in the dark room. The instrument +lies hidden in the medium’s sleeves.</p> + +<p><i>The third method</i> is that most commonly used. The “spirit image” +is projected through a minute lens in a hole in the wall of the studio. +The beam of light is sometimes passed through a prism series in order +to allow a room parallel to the studio to be used for the purpose of +projecting, and it is possible for the apparatus to be arranged inside +a piece of furniture in the studio.</p> + +<p>The sitter usually has his back to the source of the projection and the +“medium” takes the photograph and makes the exposure, so the fraud is +childishly easy.</p> + +<p>Even expert photographers are fooled by this trick, as they are +satisfied that if plates, slide, and camera are not tampered with, +fraud is impossible.</p> + +<p>When stereoscopic cameras with twin lenses are used the fraud is +manifest. Sometimes the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">[188]</span> fakers try hard to get an image into each half +of the plate, but never are the “spirit images” in the same relative +position or plane.</p> + +<p>If the sitters are well-known it is not difficult for photographs of +deceased relatives to be obtained and the spirit negative made from the +photograph. In many cases reproduction of newspaper halftone blocks +have been found on so-called spirit pictures. These show the diamond +patterns of the screen and are obvious fakes, but are accepted by many +uncritical believers.</p> + +<p>In the case of an unknown sitter, strange blurred faces or perfect +strangers are thrown on to the plate and excused as “guardian angels.”</p> + +<p>When the medium’s own apparatus or dark room is used there are endless +ways of faking, but it is these methods of faking an image without +raising the ordinary photographer’s suspicions that are interesting.</p> + +<p>The whole business is a cruel and heartless fraud, but the dupes are +not really deserving of pity. If there was a word of truth in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">[189]</span> +claim of “spirit photographers” the testimony of an official test by a +reputable committee of the Royal Photographic Society would settle the +question once and for all.</p> + +<p>Myths and legend have grown up round spirit photographs till +Spiritualists have at last come to believe in their genuineness. +Yet the whole of their belief rests on nothing stronger than the +“miraculousness” of a conjuring trick. A good sleight-of-hand expert +can accomplish card or other tricks which seem perfectly inexplicable +to the layman, but we do not acclaim them as evidences of spirit power +because we are deceived by them.</p> + +<p>The spirit photographers deplore and avoid investigation by really +efficient scientific men. They welcome the amateur with half-knowledge, +as his very cocksureness renders him an easier dupe. He concentrates +on the obvious roads to fraud, ignoring those which lie without the +slender realm of his knowledge.</p> + +<p>The phenomena of what may be called lightless photography were long +ago described by Dr. Gustave le Bon,<a id="FNanchor_49" href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> who describes instantaneous<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">[190]</span> +photography by “Black-light.” Incidentally a common incandescent gas +mantle possesses quite enough radioactive properties for ordinary +experiments.</p> + +<p>It is only by the destruction of fraudulent phenomena that the +phenomena will be rightly understood and generally accepted. The +Spiritualist who accepts and bolsters up dubious phenomena does far +more harm to his own cause than the most pronounced sceptic.</p> + +<p>The main point about spurious spirit photography is this. It claims +that mechanical chemical relations are produced by spirit agency—yet +though this chemical reaction is said to be produced with ease by +certain individuals and circles, it flinches from facing a simple test +which would, if proved to be true, convert the bulk of the sceptical +world to an acceptance of the truth of spirit photography.</p> + +<p>I have met many credulous folk who cherish blurred plates, obvious +double exposures, “accidents,” such as imperfectly cleaned plates +and even the most blatant swindles. Nothing can shake their +convictions—but credulity does nothing to <i>prove</i> fact.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">[191]</span></p> + +<p>Mr. Gambier Bolton has experimented for years with spirit photography, +but has so far obtained nothing except plates bearing indications +of a radiant energy similar to the N-rays of Becquerel. Many expert +photographers interested in psychic matters agree that the true spirit +photography does not exist and a canvass of both press and studio +photographers who are experts in their profession reveals the same +unhesitating expression of opinion. The same opinion is held not only +by the professional and technical lay element, but by occultists and +students of research whose standard of psychic knowledge is infinitely +higher than that of the Spiritualists.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>The aura which surrounds the human form is visible to certain people, +but the faculty for seeing the aura does not necessarily involve the +possession of any psychic gifts at all and is often an indication of a +slight degree of colour-blindness.</p> + +<p>The ordinary photographic plate represents colours differently to their +relative values as seen by the human eye, and in order to get the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">[192]</span> true +effect certain dyes are mixed with the emulsion of the plates, or dyed +screens which eliminate certain rays are interposed between the lens +and the object.</p> + +<p>The normal individual cannot see the aura, but a simple chemical device +will put him on a par with the best natural aura discerner.</p> + +<p>If a narrow glass trough or an oblong clear crystal glass bottle is +filled with a dilute solution of the dye di-cyanin<a id="FNanchor_50" href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> which dissolves +readily in absolute alcohol; that is all the apparatus necessary.</p> + +<p>The subject whose aura is to be inspected should be placed against +a black or neutral background opposite a source of illumination, +preferably a north-facing window.</p> + +<p>The observer then takes the bottle of blue solution and gazes through +it at the clear sky for a period of some minutes. This serves to +eliminate the retinal impression of certain of the normal light rays +and renders the observer’s eyes sensitive to vibrations or rays not<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">[193]</span> +normally perceptible and stimulates an abnormal acuteness of vision.</p> + +<p>The room should now be entirely darkened, and as soon as the eyes have +recovered their “owl sight” the body of the subject will be seen to be +surrounded by an envelope of vibratory exhalations whose colour varies +with different individuals and changes under stress of emotion.</p> + +<p>Suggestion or hypnosis exercises very peculiar effects on this aura, +which would seem to be, if not an ectoplasm a psychoplasm in itself, +yet the invisible vehicle which is capable of being separated from the +material body and forming the astral body.</p> + +<p>The aura vibration and the Becquerel or N-rays are closely connected, +and the scientific hypothesis suggests that these rays are in the scale +just above the infra-violet.</p> + +<p>The simple instrument indicated above has certain therapeutic values +in the diagnosis of illness, but is also invaluable for the psychic +analysis of hauntings, cases of unconscious mediumship, and other +matters.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_45" href="#FNanchor_45" class="label">[45]</a> See <i>The New Revelation</i>. Sir A. C. Doyle.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_46" href="#FNanchor_46" class="label">[46]</a> For details of leverage, etc., see: <i>The Reality of +Psychic Phenomena and Experiments in Psychical Science</i>. By W. T. +Crawford.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_47" href="#FNanchor_47" class="label">[47]</a> Author’s note, 1912.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_48" href="#FNanchor_48" class="label">[48]</a> Valuable data were gained by experiment with this +disastrous relic. They are not suitable for publication at this stage, +and I learnt recently of similar objectionable attributes associated +with a battlefield souvenir from near Ypres.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_49" href="#FNanchor_49" class="label">[49]</a> <i>The Evolution of Forces.</i> Gustave le Bon.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_50" href="#FNanchor_50" class="label">[50]</a> Used in colour screen making for photography, and +poisonous. Some glasses used in bottle making are not suitable, but a +trial of one or two suitably shaped ones will always reveal one that +works all right.</p> + +</div> +</div> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">[194]</span></p> + +<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI<br> +<span class="small">ORIENTAL OCCULTISM</span> +</h2> +</div> + + +<p>The Orient hides many secrets of occultism, and it is almost a +platitude that the few secrets that the West has painfully deciphered +have been known for all time to the East—and are nothing remarkable.</p> + +<p>This is one of those large gestures of speech that contain a half-truth +and pass for a whole truth. It is on a par with the statement that all +Chinese business men are honest—which they are not. Oriental occultism +is far too vast a subject to be accepted or dismissed as summarily as +this, but one thing is certain and that is that Oriental occult systems +are not suitable to the Western man.</p> + +<p>There are one or two cardinal points that may be grasped at once. +Firstly, the exiled native in a Western country who claims occult +powers and the gift of being able to teach and transmit them is always +and invariably a fakir of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">[195]</span> lowest kind. He is usually a low-caste +and disreputable native or half-breed, and it may be accounted to +his credit that after all he is not expected to know any better. His +dupes, on the other hand, the white men and women that listen to his +balderdash and sit at his séances, are even guiltier parties than he +is. They at least ought to know better than to listen to the first +black-and-tan “Swami” or “Guru” that establishes a bogus tabernacle in +the backwaters of <a id="Balham_or_Bayswater"></a>Balham or Bayswater.</p> + +<p>The second point is that the true Eastern occultist, whatever his grade +of adeptship in his mysteries, never practises any of his arts or +knowledge for money or equivalent reward. This is a lesson which might +well be learned by the fraternity of mediums and so-called occultists +that infest London and other great cities at home and abroad.</p> + +<p>A medium in receipt of fees for séances or lectures will never and can +never develop his or her powers beyond the stage at which they have +arrived when it becomes possible to use them as a direct or indirect +means of making money.</p> + +<p>In the East this is realized, and the vow of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">[196]</span> poverty is more than a +metaphor, but they claim that it is a poverty of the body fully repaid +by riches of the soul.</p> + +<p>Practically the whole of Hindu occultism is best described as peculiar +methods of self-hypnosis with the object of provoking states of bliss +and ecstasy. It is upon the basis of the induction of these peculiar +phenomena that ninety per cent. of the Brahmin religious cults are +established. By one path or another the various beliefs attain earnest +of fulfilment, but the primary causes of these psychical phenomena are +physiological in origin.</p> + +<p>This material path to spiritual success is admitted and glossed over +as being but part of the mystery. None the less, there is little to +show that anything beyond these self-produced states of hypnotism or +suggested phenomena are ever attained by even the greatest of the +adepts, and there is no justification of their dogmatic religious +teachings even in the results attained.</p> + +<p>The Oriental mind is more easily freed from the shackles of the body +than is the Western organism. Just as the hold of the average native +upon life is inferior to a European’s, so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">[197]</span> is the native’s mastery of +conscious will far less. The faculties of clairvoyance can be created +by almost every dominant European in any young native, and they are +both physically and psychically an inferior race.</p> + +<p>It is because of their greater racial familiarity and acquaintance +with the occult that the myth of their spiritual supremacy has been +born. The unheeding deem every Easterner a potential mage, unknowing +that he only develops his psychic gifts, which are in point of fact +mental weaknesses, when in contact with a far more powerfully organized +Western will.</p> + +<p>The organized powers of occult India have loathed and hated British +rule since pre-Mutiny days. In a very few rare cases, black +magic—often allied with native poisons—has killed a white man, but on +the whole the result has been a pitiful demonstration compared to what +these magi should have been capable of.</p> + +<p>Occultism in India is built to serve but one end, the domination of +lesser castes by those who master its secrets and have aptitude to +impose their powers on others. In the past it stood for an amazing +tyranny, and for this<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">[198]</span> reason—its lost criminal powers—it is opposed +to British rule.</p> + +<p>It is noteworthy that the English Society of Theosophists, whose +jig-saw religion is largely compounded of Oriental elements, is now +prominently identified with schemes for the political emancipation of +India, which will reinforce the tyrannous power of the Brahmin.</p> + +<p>The whole scheme of Oriental occultism is quite incomprehensible +without a sound basic knowledge of the religious systems of which it is +part and parcel. These enjoy a difficult and complex nomenclature, and +their words have been borrowed indiscriminately without due respect to +their precise meaning.</p> + +<p>Yoga conveys a certain popular meaning, but it must be remembered that +there are numberless Yogas, subdivided again into endless subvariants.</p> + +<p>The initiate undergoes a prolonged course of mental and physical +training designed to stimulate concentration of the will and subdue the +body.</p> + +<p>Little by little the faculties of surrender to ecstatic forms of +self-hypnosis are induced,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">[199]</span> Ananda or “bliss,” either material or +spiritual ecstasy, according to the Yoga practised, being the end of +the process.</p> + +<p>The full development of the powers of a Yogi is beset with all kinds +of dangers and difficulties. The physical strain is a severe one and +the psychic dangers encountered considerable. The evil spirits of the +West find their Oriental counterparts in Pisachas, Shahinis, Bhirtas, +Pretas, and Rakshashas, all malignant and terrible manifestations of +the demon world.</p> + +<p>In the end, certain types of Yogi appear to develop the full talents of +a materializing medium and are capable of producing the phenomena that +we associate with a medium of the power of Eusapia Palladino. But—and +it is a very important “but”—these phenomena are capable of production +in full tropic daylight.</p> + +<p>From the days of Jacolliot<a id="FNanchor_51" href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> to those of recent Theosophical +investigations, Oriental magic has never been brought to real test +conditions, but in the records gathered by independent<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">[200]</span> students there +is ample ground for stating that the genuine occult phenomena (as +distinct from mere fakir’s conjuring tricks) occur independently of +darkness or special light conditions.</p> + +<p>When we consider the fuss made by European mediums over even twilight +conditions, it is remarkable that these offer no obstacle to the +Oriental “spirits.”</p> + +<p>These phenomena, too, are not confined to orthodox Hindu, Brahmin, +Tantvik, or Guru followers of any particular creed, race, or religion. +Certain Indian Moslem sects produce devotees capable of equivalent +phenomena, but variants of obscure Tibetan sects, Burmese, Malay, +Mohammedans, and followers of both theistic and pantheistic religions +have equal powers.</p> + +<p>The idolater, the Muslim, and the Christian medium all share the same +belief in “spirit” control and in certain states produce the same +results. Where we may learn something from the East is not in the line +of morals, for their morals are different from ours—and many of their +religious customs revoltingly beastly—but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">[201]</span> in the way of the physical +induction of the psychic state.</p> + +<p>The basis of a great many Yogas is the liberation of psychoplasm and +ectoplasm by a combination of concentration on certain internal centres +and the repetition of spells or sonorous magical evocations.</p> + +<p>These affect the breathing so that in effect the body is subjected +to a definite rhythmical vibration. It is physical exercise of mind +and brain, applying mind-force to the stimulation and excitement of +internal nerve centres.</p> + +<p>These six centres are visualized mentally as lotuses. They cannot be +precisely located in scientific anatomy, but correspond in most cases +with central nervous plexuses and they are as well known in Mohammedan +and Zoroastrian mystic cults, as they are in the Indian Upanishads and +Tantras, and are familiar to the Indians of Yucatan and Guatemala, +where ritual, combined with a species of physical massage, is employed +to initiate the hierophant into the tribal mysteries.</p> + +<p>The school of Western occultists who hold the theory of the +all-pervading astral or magic light<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">[202]</span> or fire, hold that these “centres” +open, or act as concentrators of an exterior, all-prevailing force +which is thus conducted to the consciousness, enabling the operator to +make contact with another plane.</p> + +<p>In the Oriental theory this force is deemed to be always latent in +the body, and is aroused, evoked, or stimulated in particular ways. +The discussion of the relative values of these two main schools of +thought—static and dynamic light—or their variants is beyond the +scope of these notes.</p> + +<p>The lowest of the lotuses or centres is the nerve centre within the +body in the region of the prostatic gland, the next is midway between +this and the third which is the navel centre or solar plexus. The +fourth is nominally the heart, the fifth, that at the base of the +throat, the sixth, that between the eyebrows. In visualizing these +lotuses with the “mental eye,” the depth back in the body of each +centre is assumed to be close to the spine.</p> + +<p>Mind force is concentrated by the Yogi under the name Vogabala, and +in Oriental black magic this is concentrated on the lowest centre, +according<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">[203]</span> to the ritual of the infamous Prayoga, with the result of +inducing sexual hallucinations.</p> + +<p>In the so-called white or mediumistic magic, the centre of energy +is apparently by the third centre (the navel), for materialization +phenomena, and the fifth, or base of the throat centre for +clairaudience.</p> + +<p>Those who can reach the sixth claim the power of astral voyaging in the +spirit world and perception of things on the mortal plane at a distance.</p> + +<p>The physiology of the process is not yet understood, but following on +the breathing processes or Pranayama, which relax the body and induce +certain rhythms, a progressive excitation and rigor of the centres is +induced by autohypnosis. The nerve centres control various limbs and +functions, and as each is “put to sleep” so the Yogi becomes rigid and +cataleptic.</p> + +<p>Yogis are able to hold out their arms for hours at a stretch without +apparent fatigue—so in the same way can a hypnotized subject be placed +in an attitude of rigidity by an operator.</p> + +<p>These progressive inhibitions of functions<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">[204]</span> cannot be achieved by +the Western occultist without the most careful study and painstaking +preparations. The practices are both mentally and physically dangerous, +but when mastered either in part or in whole, they can be evoked by +systems entirely at variance with the accepted Indian methods. In fact, +certain nonsense rhymes of the same rhythm and breathing values as some +of the Tantric spells or mantras are equally efficacious.</p> + +<p>There was infinite wisdom in the old law of magic which said “Change +not the <i>barbaric</i> names of evocation,” but if they were changed, +provided rhythm and breathing are preserved, the sense does not appear +to matter. If one verse of Macaulay’s “Horatius”<a id="FNanchor_52" href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> was a powerful +spell—almost any other verse in the same poem would produce the same +effect—if delivered in the same way.</p> + +<p>This argument is sometimes used by a sceptic, but after all it only +proves that the same result can be produced by analogous means. Salt +disappears when dissolved in water, but so it does in half a dozen +other liquids.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">[205]</span></p> + +<p>The tales of life on other planes brought back by native spirits evoked +by Oriental magicians in no way tally with Western accounts, but as +phallic worship is integral with many Eastern beliefs, it is no matter +for wonder that some Eastern spirit evidence concerning the next plane +would make the most hardened Western libertine blush. They also affirm +with considerable emphasis that on the next plane nationalities and +colour lines are unknown, a point which is reinforced by the number of +ex-coloured spirits which frequent Western séances.</p> + +<p>It is indeed difficult to know what to believe.</p> + +<p>The Yogis can produce phenomena of materialization, prolonged trance +states, and can sometimes act as powerful hypnotists and seize the +Durga, literally citadel, of another’s body. On the other hand, the +net yield of all purely Indian occultism is very disappointing. This +may be due to the selflessness inculcated in their religious teaching, +which subdues love and hatred as equal enemies of spiritual progress. +If their magic were efficient, much more would be done with it, and +the consensus of general<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">[206]</span> opinion is that despite its extraordinary +interest to the mystic and the scholar it has little to offer of +interest to the Spiritualist.</p> + +<p>Certain of lesser known Yogas which do produce astonishing phenomena +belong definitely to the domain of black magic and only parallel +certain well-known outbreaks of phallic sorcery that occurred in Europe +in the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>The cult of evocation is held by some students to have spread from +India to the Arab races, but more recent investigations suggest that +the astonishing performances achieved by certain nominally Moslem sects +in the fastnesses of Tripoli and Morocco are due to the survivals from +the aborigines of those lands rather than to Oriental ideas.</p> + +<p>The Berbers are a distinct primitive race akin to the Basques, and +probably identical with the ancient Britons who built Stonehenge. +To-day they are fanatical Moslemin, but the old practices linger as +rituals of specific religious cults, such as the Sufi Senoussi and the +Aissouri of Morocco. They are racially strange folk and the Moslem +veneer is only a lay religion imposed on a mass of pagan folklore +closely connected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">[207]</span> with serpent worship and astronomical observances. +Their festivals of the solstices have an outward-seeming Muslim +connection, but the inner hidden occult religion is a far older thing.</p> + +<p>The Berbers are not of Arab stock; they are Semitic and they are +probably pre-Aryan. Some writers<a id="FNanchor_53" href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> trace their connection to the +original Firbolgs of Iceland, and the ethnology of this mysterious race +is still a matter of speculation and doubt.</p> + +<p>Pre-eminent among their distinctive differences from the ordinary Arab +is the esteem in which they hold women. Women are chieftainesses among +them, and above all the women are the repositories of the lost lore of +magic. It is to them that the tribesmen turn for the carrying out of +the mystic harvest ceremonies, the charming of unfruitful fields, and +the lighting of the magic Beltane fires.</p> + +<p>Fire plays no inconsiderable part in their rituals, and is only called +by its Arabic name el-aafeats (the comforter) when used for domestic +purposes. The sacrificial and ceremonial<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">[208]</span> fires are always spoken of +either in the Shilluh or Schluch tongue—the true Berber language or +referred to as B’lnisac, a term whose philology is unknown, but which +apparently contains the age-old Bel or Baal motive.</p> + +<p>This fire cult, coupled with a still more mystical inner creed +symbolized by serpent worship, may be noted by the student explorer +among the Berber folk. Riffis, Mashed Hojja Tuareks of the Sahara, +certain Kabyles of Tripoli, and other tribes all belong to the same +strange race, and there are reasons for believing that the Berbers are +identical with the mystical Fairies—the Good People—so called from a +propitiatory irony because they were so amazingly bad.</p> + +<p>Berbers alone of savage folk raid and kill at night. They are +essentially a people of the dark, and he who sifts the mass of terrible +folklore about the earliest fairies in Britain will find a parallel +between these terrible unholy barbarians given to sorcery, necromancy +and unholy rites, the stealing of children for sacrificial purposes, +and other glossed horrors attributed to the Good People—and the Berber +races of to-day.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">[209]</span></p> + +<p>The practices continue.</p> + +<p>In 1909 I was travelling in the Gharb country of Morocco, where there +is a large Berber element. The French occupation of the Shawiah and the +meteoric rise of Sultan Mulai Hafid had left the country unsettled and +dangerous.</p> + +<p>Beyond a war correspondent or two and a handful of German engineers—or +spies, employed by the firm of Marmesman—there were no Europeans in +the country outside of the coast towns. For the capital and Manahesh +the big cities of the South were closed, and a Christian’s life was +nowhere worth a moment’s purchase among the fanatics.</p> + +<p>I am but an indifferent Arabic scholar, but a certain knowledge of +classical Hebrew served one well, for there are many debased Jews in +Morocco. For the rest, as the high-class Moors are a fair race and +often blue-eyed, travelling in native clothes and well bronzed by the +sun I suffered no molestation and could rely on the fidelity of my four +body-servants.</p> + +<p>Some five days’ ride northwest of the argan forests of the coast belt, +I was well within Berber territory. This was mostly stony hill<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">[210]</span> lands, +for Morocco is simply rock deserts and hills, interspersed with lightly +watered fertile valleys and occasional oases of poplar-sheltered walls.</p> + +<p>The holy city of Tarudant lay to the north of me, and I had crossed the +Wadi Sifan river and was going south from the Iber Kaken Pass on the +caravan route east into the Ait Jellal country.</p> + +<p>There, deep in the hills, lies the ruin of a Roman city of which +strange tales are told. It is even not certain that it is Roman, for a +volume of notes, painstakingly compiled for fifteen years by a resident +in a coast town, discloses unmistakable Phœnician characteristics, but +I at least cannot tell, for my expedition had to beat a swift retreat a +bare two days’ march from the nominal valley of the dead city.</p> + +<p>It was on the way there that my little troop of horsemen and pack +mules halted at the Berber village of M’Aerbil Ida and were received +as guests of honour for the night. The village was a curious medley of +thorn and cactus fences, cane-thatched huts, and deep caves cut<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">[211]</span> in the +friable freestone rock of the mountain side.</p> + +<p>The men wore the close-knitted wool caps of the country and had the +curious snake-like head angles and the long, curving sidelock and thin +beards of coarse hair that just distinguish these strange, elf-like +folk. Something in their broad cheekbones and curious pale eyes +suggests the snake.</p> + +<p>Mohammed-el-Suissi, my horse boy, told me as he pitched my tent that +he did not like the village or the people; “they were,” he said, “not +good Moslemin.” As religious orthodoxy was not one of Mohammed’s +strong points, I did not worry much, but when Hassan-el-Askri, my +soldier muleteer, warned me to keep my arms about me I realized that my +Moors considered that not even the law of desert hospitality was held +inviolate among these folk.</p> + +<p>There is, however, a brotherhood of initiates of which I am a member, +whose signs are recognized in many parts of the globe. Gesticulation +is a feature of polite Arabic conversation, and I soon secured an +answering sign from one of the head-men of the tribe. Within half an<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">[212]</span> +hour nobody in that village would have dared to steal the least of my +belongings.</p> + +<p>I had considerable difficulty in carrying on my conversation as my +Arabic, apart from ordinary needs of travel, was weak and classical +rather than popular. The Berbers, too, always spoke of these things in +their own tongue, Shilluh, and none of my entourage being initiate I +had no interpreter.</p> + +<p>My host was Sidi-el-Belarni, an old chieftain who was also a +<i>shereef</i>—that is, a lineal descendant of the Prophet and a +person of sanctity. He soon dropped the mask of orthodoxy and conversed +freely on the metaphysical side of his cult. I found it easier to +understand than to converse with him, but gained an easier appreciation +as I got used to it.</p> + +<p>I stayed a second day in the village, as one of our animals was badly +lamed and needed rest, and took occasion to ask him concerning the art +of reviving the dead to temporary life which the Berbers are commonly +held to possess.</p> + +<p>He made no objections to my questions, and, to my delight, offered +to give me a demonstration<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">[213]</span> if the ritual of the women who held the +secrets would consent to exhibit them. At noon I was taken to a kind of +tribal palaver and the matter was put to a species of test or judgment +by lot. A young girl was blindfolded and given a basket containing +short and long sticks. Certain prayers and incantations were performed +and she passed into a semi-trance state.</p> + +<p>My permission depended on her selection of a majority of short sticks, +but as I could not see the sticks, and she was in a state of light +hypnosis, I made occasion to recite one or two resounding Hebrew charms +and laid my hands on her head; after that, all was easy. Her will +obeyed mine and she selected the sticks as I desired. It was almost an +unanimous election.</p> + +<p>When dusk fell with all its African suddenness, the rising moon hung +like a blazing buckler in the sky. Dogs barked in answer to the distant +hill jackals and the acrid smoke of the camel-dung fires hung like a +sour fog about the camp.</p> + +<p>We left the village and went about a quarter of a mile along the +hillside to the local buryingplace, following a stony track that was +little<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">[214]</span> more than a dried watercourse. At the head of our little +procession were two men with flaming argan wood torches tied to long +canes, behind them came four men with long silver-decorated Remington +rifles, and then the little group of sorceresses followed by myself and +the elders.</p> + +<p>The burial ground was a scanty clearing among the scrub and dwarf oaks, +and bushes encroached upon the outer graves. Each tomb was marked by +a stone monolith or pillar, rough-hewn, with a knob at the top in +pursuance of the Muslim custom. The graves radiated in circles from the +central stone, whereon fluttered little bundles of rags and similar +votive offerings.</p> + +<p>We made our way to a recent grave, which was rapidly opened by the men, +disclosing, a bare two feet beneath the surface, the bent body of a man +buried in sitting posture. It was a ghoul-like business and the whole +air of the graveyard carried the tainted scent of the dreadful carrion +they were unearthing.</p> + +<p>In the meanwhile, the women were busy, and from behind the tombs +brought forth skulls which they anointed with some strange grease<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">[215]</span> and +set on sticks in a circle round the central altar.</p> + +<p>At last the corpse, in its foul, earth-stained wrappings, was exhumed +and carried in a piece of sheeting to the altar. The men who had served +as guards and grave diggers then withdrew out of earshot, and the +ceremonies began.</p> + +<p>Fire was applied to the circle of skulls and they began to burn. I +noticed that the eyes and ear sockets were stuffed with old rags which +served as wicks for the unclean oil. They flared smokily, sending off a +foul-scented sooty smoke.</p> + +<p>The women began to chant their monotonous wailing rhymes, and their +leader rocked to and fro leading this strange chorus.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a power seemed to come upon her and she became frenzied, +dancing round the skull circle in time to the refrain, but undulating +her body in a strange, snake-like manner. Then she knelt down on the +ground, and from somewhere about her person produced something which +she rubbed on her hands. At first it resembled phosphorus, a quick, +flickering faint blue light, but gradually it grew in strength until +streamers of blue flame, some six<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">[216]</span> inches long, seemed to project from +her fingers while her whole person seemed outlined in a faint shape of +flame.</p> + +<p>From the ground she picked up a short length of cane which in her grasp +seemed to project this blue emanation—then with a final chorus of +evocation, she leapt upon the altar and knelt astride of the dead man.</p> + +<p>With quick passes, she ran her hands the length of his slack limbs and +then poised both hands above the navel of the corpse, about a foot +higher than the shroud.</p> + +<p>The emanation curved down like a blue-green waterfall of flame +and seemed to enter the man. Incredible as it may seem, the dead +limbs slowly began to stretch out jerkily, uneasily, as if awaking, +yet—instinct with a new vitality.</p> + +<p>The ghastly, lolling head, stained with corruption and bound with the +jaw bandage, began to oscillate on the dreadful neck and the whole +corpse began to phosphoresce with a dull green luminosity.</p> + +<p>The chorus now ceased chanting and a small fire was lighted on a cairn +of stones. From this certain objects were taken and placed in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">[217]</span> the dead +man’s hands. The fingers slowly curled up and grasped them!</p> + +<p>The singing began again and the sorceress, still across the body, took +the cane she carried and, breaking the bandage that bound the dead +man’s jaw, inserted the end in his mouth.</p> + +<p>Then making certain passes and signs with her hands, she began to +exhale deep breaths into the body, seeming to make the mystic passes as +if to force the living breath down into the dead man’s lungs.</p> + +<p>Little by little life seemed to creep back into that unholy shell. +The dreadful contours of death sunk back, the form became more human +and the motions not the strange jerky rigors of the first part of the +ceremony, but the very signs of life.</p> + +<p>The eyelids flickered and retracted, the dreadful drawn lips relaxed +and in a minute or so the dead man sat up in his cerements—and spoke.</p> + +<p>Then followed the dread consultation of the dead. It was evident from +the awe and respect with which he was addressed that he was treated +not as a reanimated individual, but as an august visitant from another +world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">[218]</span></p> + +<p>Thin, high and shrill, the usually coarse gutturals of the Shilluh +tongue seemed strange from <i>Its</i> lips. I suspected ventriloquy for +a while, but could see the slow movements of its throat muscles and +glottis and the rise and fall of the shroud over the sunken abdomen. +Nevertheless it was sheer horror to listen to and dreadful, monstrous +to see.</p> + +<p>I was only permitted to ask one question, and I asked would my quest be +successful. I received an unequivocal answer that it would fail, but +not through my fault, but because of the will of the spirits of the +departed and the curse of the dead that hung over the city.</p> + +<p>Incidentally this discounted the advice given by other spirit +communicants before the expedition was undertaken,—but later proved +true.</p> + +<p>The ritual of re-dissolution was shorter but far more terrible. Again +the sorceress made passes. The objects were taken from the hands of +the dead and slowly the life left the body, which swelled and twitched +as it returned to its original state of terrible decomposition. A thin +wailing chant seemed to symbolize the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">[219]</span> flight of the spirit back to its +own realms.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>I pressed unsuccessful inquiry concerning the details of this +astounding piece of necromancy which was neither more nor less than +that terrible old mystery, the raising of the dead in the flesh.</p> + +<p>I could obtain no details of the objects placed in the man’s hands +or the material used to produce the astonishing outpouring of blue, +luminous matter.</p> + +<p>So far as I could ascertain, the life force of the sorceress herself +entered the body, but the ceremony of creating it was essential in +combination with the charms in the hands before the spirit could return.</p> + +<p>Neither could I ascertain that it was the soul of the departed or some +other spirit that entered into the reanimated corpse.</p> + +<p>Some powerful communities are able, it is said, to despatch these +dreadful reanimated dead on missions of evil. But their power only +lasts throughout the night and fails at sunrise.</p> + +<p>Here there is an undoubted suggestion of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">[220]</span> practical possibility of +vampirism, but I could not learn that these folk possess the lost art +of imprisoning a human or spirit soul within the body of an animal.<a id="FNanchor_54" href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + +<p>I am nevertheless convinced that among the Berbers of North Africa will +be found the key to many legends that have come down to us from our +ancestors in Great Britain, and above all I counsel those good folk who +read the pleasant little fake stories of pretty little fairies in some +of the magazines of what passes for popular occultism to abandon the +delusion.</p> + +<p>The term good folk is a paradox. They were the demons or spirits of +the unholy aborigines working in contact with the savages themselves, +and it is good, exceedingly good, that there are no fairies loose in +Britain to-day and that the art of summoning them is well-nigh lost.</p> + +<hr class="tb"> + +<p>This chapter completes all that I have to say for the time being. +There is in this book much food for careful thought. Those who read +it carefully will find in it keys to much that has<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">[221]</span> puzzled them, and +simple explanations of phenomena which have been greatly debated of +late. The general reader will doubtless find the incidents the most +interesting part of the book, but to the critical and those seriously +interested in psychic matters, I commend a careful and reasonable study +of the more scientific sections, for in this matter of things psychic +both Spiritualist and Sceptic are upon the same quest. From different +angles they are both seeking for the Great Truth.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><p class="pfoot">FOOTNOTES:</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_51" href="#FNanchor_51" class="label">[51]</a> <i>Occult Science in India and among the Ancients.</i> +Louis Jacolliot.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_52" href="#FNanchor_52" class="label">[52]</a> <i>Lays of Ancient Rome.</i> Macaulay.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_53" href="#FNanchor_53" class="label">[53]</a> See <i>The Arabs of Tripoli</i>. Alan Ostler.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a id="Footnote_54" href="#FNanchor_54" class="label">[54]</a> This practice is claimed to be possible of achievement by +both Finn and certain Red Indian wizards. But no facts susceptible of +proof have ever been adduced.</p> + +</div> +</div> + +<hr class="full"> + +<div class="transnote"> + +<p class="center">Transcriber’s notes.</p> + +<p>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to +the public domain.</p> + +<p>Two half-title pages (pages blank except for the book title) have been +omitted from the front matter.</p> + +<p>Minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected +silently. Ambiguous hyphenation has been removed or retained according +to the prevailing style for the period. Inconsistent hyphenation has +been normalised.</p> + +<p>Other than as indicated below, the authors spelling has been retained, +even where inconsistent.</p> + +<p>The word <a href="#Balham">Balnam</a> on page 23 has been corrected to Balham, a London +suburb suggested by the context. See also <a href="#Balham_or_Bayswater">Balham or Bayswater</a> on page +195.</p> + +<p>The two references to Thotn on page 28 (text and footnote) have been +amended to <a href="#Book_of_Thoth">Thoth</a> and <a href="#Livre_de_Thot">Thot</a> +for the English and French respectively.</p> + +<p>The author misquotes Milton on page 123, where Thammur has been +corrected to <a href="#Thammuz">Thammuz</a>.</p> + +<p>A second instance of <a href="#Thammus">Thammur</a> in the text has been changed to Thamus +to match the Authors alternate spelling in the following paragraph.</p> + + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75900 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/75900-h/images/cover.jpg b/75900-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2cfbed0 --- /dev/null +++ b/75900-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/75900-h/images/i_f003.png b/75900-h/images/i_f003.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..809e0a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/75900-h/images/i_f003.png diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b5dba15 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this book outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..44daab8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +book #75900 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75900) |
