creation of a new and a spiritual realm above the facts of material
existence. By spiritual we understand feelings that are representative;
and we say that it is a new creation because it does not exist in the
isolated facts of the world. It is formed under special conditions.
It rises from certain combinations of facts; being built upon those
facts which produce in their co-operation the subjective state of
feeling. The activity of mind if methodically disciplined is called
science. Science attempts to make the mental representations correct:
it is the search for truth. The object of all the sciences and of
philosophy is to systematise knowledge, i. e., all the innumerable
data of experience, so that we can understand and survey the facts of
reality in their harmonious interconnection. The most important problem
of philosophy has always been the problem of the origin of mind; for we
are anxious to comprehend how it is possible that feeling can spring
up in a universe of not-feeling objects, and that thinking beings can
originate in a world of not-thinking elements.
Dualism assumes that the gulf between the two empires, the thinking and
feeling on one side and the not-thinking and not-feeling on the other
side, is insurmountable; Monism however maintains that there is no
gulf, for there is no reason for such an assumption. Both realms, the
feeling and thinking on the one hand, and the unfeeling and unthinking
on the other hand, are not at all distinct and separate provinces. The
transition from the one to the other takes place by degrees, and there
is no boundary line between them. The atoms of oxygen which we inhale
at present are not engaged in any action that is accompanied with
feeling, but some of them will be very soon active in the generation
of our best thought accompanied with most intense consciousness. After
that they are thrown aside in the organism and pass out as waste
products in the shape of carbonic acid.
#Telepathy.#
The spiritual originates from and disappears into the non-spiritual
not otherwise than light originates out of, and dissolves again into,
darkness. Light is usually considered as the emblem of mind, for
light also discloses to our eye those objects which are so far away
that we can never expect to touch them with our hands. So mind, the
representation of the objective world in feeling substance, unveils
the riddles of the universe and shows the secret connections of most
distant things and events.
Spiritualists discuss with great enthusiasm the problem of telepathy.
Telepathy means "far-feeling." Mental activity exhibits in all its
elements instances of telepathy in the literal sense of the word. We do
not feel our sense-organs; but in and through our sense-organs objects
outside of us are felt. In and through our eyes most distant stars are
seen. If telepathy has no other but its natural and proper meaning we
must confess that the whole activity of the mind rests upon telepathy.
However, we cannot recognise telepathy in the sense in which the word
is often employed by spiritualists. With many it denotes a process of
such far-feeling as is not caused in the natural way and as stands in
contradiction to the mechanical interconnection of causes and effects
in the universe. It is supposed to supersede the order of nature. We
recognise telepathy fully in the sense that feelings represent distant
events and that mind can thus penetrate into the remotest regions of
time and space, but not in any other sense that stands in contradiction
with the universal order of mechanical causation.
What is the soul but a telepathic machine! It is an organised totality
of representations in feeling substance employed for the purpose of
reacting appropriately upon the stimuli of external things. Man is a
part of the cosmos, he consists of a certain group of facts, belonging
to and being in intimate connection with the whole universe. Man's mind
is the cosmos represented in this special group of facts. A correct
representation of the cosmos includes a proper adaptation. Accordingly
the human soul is a microcosm and its function is the endeavoring to
conform to the macrocosm.
#Mind and light.#
Light is a most wonderful phenomenon; and yet we know that the
objective process taking place in luminous bodies and thence
transmitted through ether vibrations to our eye where it causes
the sensation of light, is a mode of motion that can be produced
mechanically by changing simple or mechanical motion (i. e., change
of place) through friction into molecular motion. As light originates
out of darkness, being a special mode of motion, so feeling originates
out of the not-feeling. The not-feeling accordingly contains the
conditions of feeling in a similar way as potential energy contains
the potentiality of kinetic energy, or as molar motion contains
potentially the molecular motion of heat, light, and electricity.
Mind sheds light upon the interconnection of all things and gives
meaning to the world. If the world consisted of purely objective facts
only, it would remain a meaningless play of forces. Mind and the whole
realm of spiritual existence rises from most insignificant beginnings;
yet is it so grand and divine because it represents the world in its
wonderful harmony and cosmic order.
#Continuity in the transient.#
The function of spiritual activity appears to us as transient; but
mind is not as transient as it seems. The continuous light of a
flame depends in every instance upon the conditions of the moment.
But the continuity of mind shows a preservation of mind-forms, the
corresponding spiritual activity of which is called memory. Memory or
the mind-form of former states is the most important factor in the
determination of the representative value of present states of mind.
The continuity thus effected makes it possible for mind to represent
not only things and processes distant in space, but also those distant
in time.
The continuation of form in feeling substance, not merely in the life
of single individuals, but also in the life of the race, produces the
growth, the development, and evolution of mind. Thus facts can be
represented in their connections, and the necessity of their connection
can be understood. To use Spinoza's phrase: The world can be viewed
_sub specie æternitatis_.
#Mind and Eternity.#
The fulfilment of mind is truth, or a correct representation of facts,
not as they are now and here, but as, according to conditions which
constitute a given state of things, they must be here and everywhere.
Mind expands in the measure that it contains and reflects the eternity
of truth.
The activity of mind is in one respect as transient a process as is
the phenomenon of light. Yet in other respects mind is able to grasp
eternity within the narrow span of the moment.
PAUL CARUS.
THE MAGIC MIRROR.
The famous time-honored saying of Rabbi Ben Akiba, "There is nothing
new under the sun," has often been verified to our astonishment in the
history of the sciences. No observation is proclaimed that has not been
made before, no position upheld that has not been before maintained.
The more extensive the survey that one acquires over any given province
of science, and the more deeply one penetrates into the past history of
that science, the more surely will one arrive at the conviction, that
even that which is apparently very new is at bottom old.
But the unceasing progress of the natural and mental sciences, on the
other hand, is an indisputable fact; and the true characteristic of
this progress must consequently be sought in some other element than in
the accession of new material. The subject-matter with which science
deals, remains almost unchanged throughout prolonged periods of time;
the treatment of that material alone changes. Accordingly, the factor
that determines the extension of our knowledge is pre-eminently the
growing comprehension that proceeds from the illumination of that which
was before in our possession. Apples fell from trees in all ages, but
Newton was the first who placed the event in its proper light, thereby
creating a tangible principle by means of which a great number of other
phenomena were successfully apprehended. Our system of scientific
ideas was increased by the addition of one conception that illuminated
phenomena hitherto but half or not at all explained.
Even the most enthusiastic advocate of the present state of knowledge
cannot maintain that it is perfect. On the contrary, he will recognise
that an advance of the barriers that separate that which is now
understood from what is not understood, is not only possible, but even
on his part devoutly to be wished. Indeed, a very large province of
knowledge—that of superstition—still remains almost wholly unworked.
It is absurd to imagine that all the tales of magic and demonology are
founded entirely in deception. For how could it happen that in all
historical epochs, and among all the peoples of the earth, the same
phenomena should be uniformly reported, if something true and real
were not concealed behind it all! The illuminate, of course, looking
upon our present code of ideas as ultimate, shrugs his shoulders with
a superior air and banishes what to him is "supernatural" into the
realm of fables; the cautious observer, on the other hand, refrains
from passing judgment thus prematurely, for he knows that departments
formerly very extensive have passed out of the realm of superstition
into the kingdom of science, and that in the future the same will
also occur. Thus the divine summons in the mediæval trial by ordeal
have turned out to be effects of suggestion, and the majority of the
performances of witches have proved to be the effects of hysterical
temperament. So that we are now in a position to comprehend the tales
of the Magic Mirror[25] in their true light and to bring them, without
constraint, into accord with the doctrines of a developed science of
psychology.
[25] The Japanese "Magic Mirrors" consist of ingenious
physical contrivances and are in no way concerned with our
present subject.
A brief recountal of the most important of the stories of this
kind, must be prefaced by the paradoxical statement that the Magic
Mirror need not by any means be a mirror. People are also reported
to have seen future and distant things in shining metal surfaces, in
rock-crystals, and in glasses filled with water. The Old Testament
mentions a divination made by the radiance of _gems_—where it speaks
of Urim and Thummim, the breast-ornament of six bright and six dark
stones which the high priest donned to receive revelations from
Jehovah. In a like manner, too, in _dactylomancy_ (divination by
rings) the abnormal condition is said to have been induced by fixedly
gazing at the stones of finger-rings. Likewise in the Bible we find an
instance of divination by means of polished metal cups; for according
to the Septuagint, the cup that Joseph caused to be placed in the sack
of Benjamin, was the cup from which he was wont to divine. Instead of
cups, use was also made of metal balls, arrows, swords, knives, and
metal mirrors. Even Jacob Böhme practised the art of clairvoyance by
the help of the "lovely jovial lustre" of a tin cup, "with the result
that he was now introduced into the innermost depths or centre of
recondite nature, and was enabled to look into the hearts and innermost
character of all creatures."
When gold and silver leaves marked with mysterious characters were
thrown into a basin filled with water, and it was sought by gazing at
the surface thus furnished, to arouse the "higher powers," the art was
called _lecanomancy_. If the surface of the water alone was gazed at,
it was called _hydromancy_; a method which communicated oracles by
means of the images that appeared in the water.
The only distinction between hydromancy and _gastromancy_ was, that in
the latter case the water was poured into distended vessels. Cardanus
has minutely described some gastromantic experiments that came under
his observation. A bottle filled with holy water was placed in the sun
upon a white-covered table; over the mouth of the bottle two olive
leaves were laid crosswise; three lighted wax candles were then placed
about the leaves and fumigated with incense, during which performance
a prayer to Saint Helena was uttered. Very soon the mantic adepts
standing in the background saw forms in the water; once a man with a
bald head, slightly inclined forward; a second time a man dressed in
scarlet. Cardanus himself could see nothing more than a disturbance in
the water, as if produced by the motes of a sunbeam, and a peculiar
generation of bubbles.
The same principle lies at the foundation of _onychomancy_, where
the thumb-nail of some suitable person, or the palm of the hand was
anointed with oil and soot, and the images appeared in the shining
surface illuminated either by the rays of the sun or by a candle.[26]
Ink was often poured into the palm of the bent hand and divination made
from the reflecting surface of the ink.
[26] The facts cited are taken from Karl Kiesewetter's
essay _Hypnotisches Hellsehen_, in _Sphinx_, I, 130, 1886.
Perty's work on the Magical Phenomena of Human Nature, and
Adolf Bastian's treatise _Psychische Beobachtungen bei
Naturvolkern_ in No. 2 of the _Schriften der Gesellschaft für
Experimental-Psychologie_ (Leipsic, Ernst Günther, 1890), may
also be consulted.
It will appear from the very enumeration of these multifarious methods
of procedure that the effect does not depend upon the especial
character or constitution of the "magic mirror." It is a remarkable
trait of human thought, however, that it first endeavors to trace all
phenomena back to external facts before it seeks the cause of the
same within itself: the child of nature sees in all his thoughts the
inspirations of good or evil spirits, and even the modern believer
finds the source of all extraordinary enlightenment not in himself
but in another—the Highest Being. A very high degree of culture is
requisite for man approximately to comprehend what marvellous forces
slumber within him, and to what a great extent, in the truest sense
of the word, he is the creator of his own perceptions and emotions.
And thus it was that throughout the long space of three thousand
years people did not clearly discover that in the case of magic
mirrors the most important factor was the _person that saw_, and not
the instruments of seeing. If we will use the word "superstition,"
therefore, we can justly do so with reference to the improper
disposition of the two factors involved.
This incorrect interpretation of the phenomenon, as being necessarily
dependent in its origin upon the material object employed, then called
forth the fables regarding some particularly rare and miraculous
mirror which was kept in a certain family as a holy relic, and whose
possession admitted people to a knowledge of the secrets of nature and
of the future. Countless sacrifices of money and human life have been
made to these extravagant fancies. Indeed, even to-day, certain English
business-houses deal in magic mirrors "manufactured after the best
prescripts," and certainly derive much profit from their traffic. In
all the treatises upon occult science, in those of ancient Egypt as
well as in those of the present time,—and the literature of divination
by mirrors (catoptromancy) fills whole libraries,—in all I say are
found directions for the manufacture of especially effective glass
or metal mirrors. True, in addition to this, there is now and then a
presentiment to be detected of the importance of personality. Tradition
prefers in such experiments chaste maidens, pure boys, or pregnant
women—a choice that despite its material faultiness at any rate
pursues the correct principle of emphasising individual character.
Mirror-gazing was formerly, and is to-day, most extensively practised
in the Orient. We possess an account written by Lane in 1834 of an
adventure he had in Egypt in company with the English Consul Salt.
The magician in charge of the ceremonies first wrote upon a slip of
paper invocations summoning his two Genii; and then a few verses from
the Koran, "to open the boy's eyes in a supernatural manner, ... to
make his sight pierce into what is to us the invisible world." The
slip of paper was thrown into a chafing-dish containing live charcoal,
frankincense, coriander seed, and benzoin. A boy eight or nine years
of age had been chosen at random from a number who happened to be
passing in the street, and the magician, taking hold of his right hand,
drew in the palm of it a magic square, that is to say, one square
inscribed within another, and in the space between certain Arabic
numerals; then, pouring ink in the centre, bade the boy look into it
attentively. At first the boy could only see the face of the magician,
but proceeding with his inspection, while the other continued to drop
written invocations into the chafing-dish, he at length described a
man sweeping with a broom, then a scene in which flags and soldiers
appeared, and finally when Lane asked that Lord Nelson should be called
for, the boy described a man in European clothes of dark blue, who
had lost his _left_ arm, but added, on looking more intently, "No, it
is placed to his breast." Lord Nelson generally had an empty sleeve
attached to the breast of his coat, but as it was the _right_ arm he
had lost, Lane, without saying that he suspected the boy had made a
mistake, asked the magician whether the object appeared in the ink
as if actually before the eyes, or as if in a glass, which makes the
right appear left. He answered they appeared as in a mirror; and this
rendered the divination faultless.
A counterpart to this in more recent times may be cited. When
Seringapatam was stormed by General Harris and Sir David Baird, the
unfortunate Tippoo Saib retired to discover by means of divination
by a cup what the future prospects were for the continuance of his
rule. After he had remained seated for a long time deeply absorbed
in meditation, he suddenly sprang up and in despair rushed into the
foremost ranks of the combatants and fell covered with wounds; so
deeply had the fatal aspect of the image in the cup moved him.
In Europe, during the period of classic antiquity, hydromancy was
especially practised. The Byzantine Andronicus Comnenus also put his
faith concerning the knowledge of future things, in water. Christianity
denounced the practice of these magic arts as the work of the devil.
St. Thomas Aquinas says that the gift of seeing visions possessed by
children, is not to be ascribed to any power of innocence but to evil
influences. Despite this however the art did not perish. Indeed, in the
sixteenth century, under the protection of physicians and University
professors, it attained the acme of its development.
The celebrated humanist Pico de Mirandola was firmly convinced of the
power of magic mirrors, and declared that it was sufficient in order to
read in a magic mirror the past, the present, and the future, simply
to construct one under a favorable constellation and at the proper
temperature.
But the most successful of all in the practice of crystallomancy was
Dr. Dee, who flourished from 1527 to 1608. His seer or scryer was a man
named Kelly, who could hardly be described as "unpolluted" or as "one
that had not known sin," for he had been the perpetrator of so many
villainies that as a testimony of his character both his ears had been
cut off. A crystal served as the vehicle of the ecstatic revelations,
to which according to the conception of the times numerous spirits
were attached, who made themselves intelligible to Kelly by dramatic
scenes and often by sounds. The Shew-Stone, or Holy Stone, was round
and rather large; it is said to have come into Dee's hands in a very
wonderful manner. The large folio volume of the English mathematician
upon crystallomancy was very probably used later by Cagliostro,
although the latter practised a somewhat different method and used a
carafe of water instead of the stone. The prophecy of the magician who
predicted the regency of the Duke of Orleans through the death of the
Prince, is to be noticed as the last historical case of the use of the
magic mirror.
In our century Courts and Universities no longer form the stage upon
which the drama of crystal-gazing is enacted, but almost exclusively
the circles of the Spiritists, or, as they are commonly called,
Spiritualists. Spiritualism has artfully confiscated a great quantity
of psychological data, and has made an impartial examination of
phenomena very difficult by always presenting the data to the novice
in connection with spirit-theories. Having learned much from evil
experience, the public has assumed a sceptical position with regard
to everything that comes from spiritualistic quarters, and easily
overlooks what is actual and real beneath the cover of uncritical
drivel. I shall also introduce here one or two instances which plainly
show that after the stupendous advances which made chemistry an exact
science the cause of these phenomena was no longer sought in the
properties of stones and mirrors, but was attributed to ghosts and
spirits, by which still greater confusion was produced.
In Justinus Kerner's "Magikon" we read: "Questions are put to the
unsubstantial beings that appear in shining objects and the seer hears
the answer in dull tones. These beings also make signs and often appear
in great numbers, but again only three at a time,—and within five or
ten minutes in the case of practised scryers, but in the case of the
unpractised not until a longer space has elapsed. The objects described
appear in a few seconds and vanish when they are no longer needed.
In Athens a female seer of this description is said to have seen a
sick person in Vienna and everything described in minutest detail was
confirmed by the next post. A boy who beheld absent persons and their
acts in a medicine glass filled with water is said to have discovered
by this means unknown thieves."
Barth gives the following directions for crystal-gazing: "When the
crystal has been ground and polished it is dedicated to some spirit
or other; this is called its consecration. Before being used it is
'charged'; that is, an invocation is made to the spirit, wherein a
vision is requested of the things that one wishes to experience.
Ordinarily a young person is chosen to look into the glass and behold
the prayed for vision. After a little time the crystal becomes
enveloped in a cloud, and a tiny vision appears which represents in
miniature the persons, scenes, and things that are necessary to supply
the required information. When the information has been obtained the
crystal is 'discharged,' and after receiving thanks for the services he
has performed the spirit is dismissed."
Perty from whom I take this citation aptly adds, "One's own spirit,
accordingly, is here invoked as a stranger."
The recent reports of Anglo-American Spiritualists are less crude, yet
are similarly permeated by ghost-hypotheses. For example, a Mr. Rogers
relates that he had put a crystal into the hands of a lady who knew
nothing at all of its magical powers, yet who a short time afterwards
very minutely described a scene in which a lecturer, evidently of
English nationality, was addressing a foreign audience, while behind
his chair the shade of a North-American Indian stood—the source of his
inspiration. A few months later the lady was by chance introduced to
the United States Consul at Trebizond whom she immediately recognised
as the principal character of her vision, and who upon being questioned
declared that at the time mentioned he had given an address at that
place, and moreover, that according to the declaration of Spiritualist
mediums he was controlled by the spirit of a North-American Indian.
In Germany the best known work is probably the "Visionen im
Wasserglass," by Frau Adelma Von Vay, née Countess Wurmbrand. She
reports in her little book some ninety experiments that were made in
the years from 1869 to 1875. Frau Von Vay sees her pictures without
difficulty, at times in their natural colors, at times in shades
between white and black; often they are of only momentary duration,
then again they persist for some time or gradually melt into confused
and nebulous spots. The lady dictates to her husband the description of
what is presented to her gaze; the "Spirit" furnishes commentaries and
supplementary interpretations, and the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of
the prophecies and divinations is carefully noted down.
* * * * *