As knowledge increases, the attitude of science towards the things of
the invisible world is undergoing considerable modification. Its
attention is no longer directed solely to the earth with all its variety
of objects, or to the physical worlds around it; but it finds itself
compelled to glance further afield, and to construct hypotheses as to
the nature of the matter and force which lie in the regions beyond the
ken of its instruments. Ether is now comfortably settled in the
scientific kingdom, becoming almost more than a hypothesis. Mesmerism,
under its new name of hypnotism, is no longer an outcast. Reichenbach's
experiments are still looked at askance, but are not wholly condemned.
Röntgen's rays have rearranged some of the older ideas of matter, while
radium has revolutionised them, and is leading science beyond the
borderland of ether into the astral world. The boundaries between
animate and inanimate matter are broken down. Magnets are found to be
possessed of almost uncanny powers, transferring certain forms of
disease in a way not yet satisfactorily explained. Telepathy,
clairvoyance, movement without contact, though not yet admitted to the
scientific table, are approaching the Cinderella-stage. The fact is
that science has pressed its researches so far, has used such rare
ingenuity in its questionings of nature, has shown such tireless
patience in its investigations, that it is receiving the reward of those
who seek, and forces and beings of the next higher plane of nature are
beginning to show themselves on the outer edge of the physical field.
"Nature makes no leaps," and as the physicist nears the confines of his
kingdom he finds himself bewildered by touches and gleams from another
realm which interpenetrates his own. He finds himself compelled to
speculate on invisible presences, if only to find a rational explanation
for undoubted physical phenomena, and insensibly he slips over the
boundary, and is, although he does not yet realise it, contacting the
astral plane.
One of the most interesting of the highroads from the physical to the
astral is that of the study of thought. The Western scientist,
commencing in the anatomy and physiology of the brain, endeavours to
make these the basis for "a sound psychology." He passes then into the
region of dreams, illusions, hallucinations; and as soon as he
endeavours to elaborate an experimental science which shall classify and
arrange these, he inevitably plunges into the astral plane. Dr Baraduc
of Paris has nearly crossed the barrier, and is well on the way towards
photographing astro-mental images, to obtaining pictures of what from
the materialistic standpoint would be the results of vibrations in the
grey matter of the brain.
It has long been known to those who have given attention to the question
that impressions were produced by the reflection of the ultra-violet
rays from objects not visible by the rays of the ordinary spectrum.
Clairvoyants were occasionally justified by the appearance on sensitive
photographic plates of figures seen and described by them as present
with the sitter, though invisible to physical sight. It is not possible
for an unbiassed judgment to reject _in toto_ the evidence of such
occurrences proffered by men of integrity on the strength of their own
experiments, oftentimes repeated. And now we have investigators who turn
their attention to the obtaining of images of subtle forms, inventing
methods specially designed with the view of reproducing them. Among
these, Dr Baraduc seems to have been the most successful, and he has
published a volume dealing with his investigations and containing
reproductions of the photographs he has obtained. Dr Baraduc states that
he is investigating the subtle forces by which the soul--defined as the
intelligence working between the body and the spirit--expresses itself,
by seeking to record its movements by means of a needle, its "luminous"
but invisible vibrations by impressions on sensitive plates. He shuts
out by non-conductors electricity and heat. We can pass over his
experiments in Biometry (measurement of life by movements), and glance
at those in Iconography--the impressions of invisible waves, regarded by
him as of the nature of light, in which the soul draws its own image. A
number of these photographs represent etheric and magnetic results of
physical phenomena, and these again we may pass over as not bearing on
our special subject, interesting as they are in themselves. Dr Baraduc
obtained various impressions by strongly thinking of an object, the
effect produced by the thought-form appearing on a sensitive plate; thus
he tried to project a portrait of a lady (then dead) whom he had known,
and produced an impression due to his thought of a drawing he had made
of her on her deathbed. He quite rightly says that the creation of an
object is the passing out of an image from the mind and its subsequent
materialisation, and he seeks the chemical effect caused on silver salts
by this thought-created picture. One striking illustration is that of a
force raying outwards, the projection of an earnest prayer. Another
prayer is seen producing forms like the fronds of a fern, another like
rain pouring upwards, if the phrase may be permitted. A rippled oblong
mass is projected by three persons thinking of their unity in affection.
A young boy sorrowing over and caressing a dead bird is surrounded by a
flood of curved interwoven threads of emotional disturbance. A strong
vortex is formed by a feeling of deep sadness. Looking at this most
interesting and suggestive series, it is clear that in these pictures
that which is obtained is not the thought-image, but the effect caused
in etheric matter by its vibrations, and it is necessary to
clairvoyantly see the thought in order to understand the results
produced. In fact, the illustrations are instructive for what they do
not show directly, as well as for the images that appear.
It may be useful to put before students, a little more plainly than has
hitherto been done, some of the facts in nature which will render more
intelligible the results at which Dr Baraduc is arriving. Necessarily
imperfect these must be, a physical photographic camera and sensitive
plates not being ideal instruments for astral research; but, as will be
seen from the above, they are most interesting and valuable as forming a
link between clairvoyant and physical scientific investigations.
At the present time observers outside the Theosophical Society are
concerning themselves with the fact that emotional changes show their
nature by changes of colour in the cloud-like ovoid, or aura, that
encompasses all living beings. Articles on the subject are appearing in
papers unconnected with the Theosophical Society, and a medical
specialist[1] has collected a large number of cases in which the colour
of the aura of persons of various types and temperaments is recorded by
him. His results resemble closely those arrived at by clairvoyant
theosophists and others, and the general unanimity on the subject is
sufficient to establish the fact, if the evidence be judged by the usual
canons applied to human testimony.
The book _Man Visible and Invisible_ dealt with the general subject of
the aura. The present little volume, written by the author of _Man
Visible and Invisible_, and a theosophical colleague, is intended to
carry the subject further; and it is believed that this study is useful,
as impressing vividly on the mind of the student the power and living
nature of thought and desire, and the influence exerted by them on all
whom they reach.
[Footnote 1: Dr Hooker, Gloucester Place, London, W.]