MATERIALIZATION AND REPERCUSSION.
On meeting with a story such as this, students often enquire whether
the invisible helper is perfectly safe amidst these scenes of deadly
peril--whether, for example, this boy who was materialized in
order to save another from a burning house was not himself in some
danger--whether his physical body would not have suffered in any
way by repercussion if his materialized form had passed through the
flames, or fallen from the high ledge on the edge of which he walked so
unconcernedly. In fact, since we know that in many cases the connection
between a materialized form and a physical body is sufficiently close
to produce repercussion, might it not have occurred in this case?
Now this subject of repercussion is an exceedingly abstruse and
difficult one, and we are by no means yet in a position fully to
explain its very remarkable phenomena; indeed, in order to understand
the matter perfectly, it would probably be necessary to comprehend the
laws of sympathetic vibration on more planes than one. Still, we do
know by observation some of the conditions which permit its action,
and some which definitely exclude it, and I think we are warranted in
saying that it was absolutely impossible here.
To see why this is so we must first remember that there are at least
three well-defined varieties of materialization, as any one who has at
all an extended experience of spiritualism will be aware. I am not
concerned at the moment to enter upon any explanation as to how these
three varieties are respectively produced, but am merely stating the
indubitable fact of their existence.
1. There is the materialization which, though tangible, is not visible
to ordinary physical sight. Of this nature are the unseen hands which
so often clasp one’s arm or stroke one’s face at a _séance_, which
sometimes carry physical objects through the air or make raps upon
the table--though of course both these latter phenomena may easily be
produced without a materialized hand at all.
2. There is the materialization which though visible is not
tangible--the spirit-form through which one’s hand passes as through
empty air. In some cases this variety is obviously misty and
impalpable, but in others its appearance is so entirely normal that
its solidity is never doubted until some one endeavours to grasp it.
3. There is the perfect materialization which is both visible and
tangible--which not only bears the outward semblance of your departed
friend, but shakes you cordially by the hand with the very clasp that
you know so well.
Now while there is a good deal of evidence to show that repercussion
takes place under certain conditions in the case of this third kind
of materialization, it is by no means so certain that it can occur
with the first or second class. In the case of the boy-helper it is
probable that the materialization would not be of the third type, since
the greatest care is always taken not to expend more force than is
absolutely necessary to produce whatever result may be required, and
it is obvious that less energy would be used in the production of the
more partial forms which we have called the first and second classes.
The probability is that only the arm with which the boy held his little
companion would be solid to the touch, and that the rest of his body,
though looking perfectly natural, would have proved far less palpable
if it had been tested.
But, apart from this probability, there is another point to be
considered. When a full materialization takes place, whether the
subject be living or dead, physical matter of some sort has to be
gathered together for the purpose. At a spiritualistic _séance_
this matter is obtained by drawing largely upon the etheric double of
the medium--and sometimes even upon his physical body also, since cases
are on record in which his weight has been very considerably decreased
while manifestations of this character were taking place.
This method is employed by the directing entities of the _séance_
simply because when an available medium is within reach it is very
much the easiest way in which a materialization can be brought
about; and the consequence is that the very closest connection is
thus set up between that medium and the materialized body, so that
the phenomenon which (although very imperfectly understanding it) we
call repercussion, occurs in its clearest form. If, for example, the
hands of the materialized body be rubbed with chalk, that chalk will
afterwards be found on the hands of the medium, even though he may have
been all the time carefully locked up in a cabinet under circumstances
which absolutely preclude any suspicion of fraud. If any injury be
inflicted upon the materialized form, that injury will be accurately
reproduced upon the corresponding part of the medium’s body; while
sometimes food of which the spirit-form has partaken will be found to
have passed into the body of the medium--at least that happened in one
case at any rate within my own experience.
It would be far otherwise, however, in the case which we have been
describing. Cyril was thousands of miles from his sleeping physical
body, and it would therefore be quite impossible for his friend to draw
etheric matter from it, while the regulations under which all pupils
of the great Masters of Wisdom perform their work of helping man would
assuredly prevent him, even for the noblest purpose, from putting
such a strain upon any one else’s body. Besides, it would be quite
unnecessary, for the far less dangerous method invariably employed by
the helpers when materialization seems desirable would be ready to
his hand--the condensation from the circumambient ether, or even from
the physical air, of such an amount of matter as may be requisite.
This feat, though no doubt beyond the power of the average entity
manifesting at a _séance_, presents no difficulty to a student of
occult chemistry.
But mark the difference in the result obtained. In the case of the
medium we have a materialized form in the closest possible connection
with the physical body, made out of its very substance, and therefore
capable of producing all the phenomena of repercussion. In the case of
the helper we have indeed an exact reproduction of the physical body,
but it is created by a mental effort out of matter entirely foreign
to that body, and is no more capable of acting upon it by repercussion
than an ordinary marble statue of the man would be.
Thus it is that a passage through the flames or a fall from a high
window-ledge would have had no terrors for the boy-helper, and that on
another occasion a member of the band, though materialized, was able
without any inconvenience to the physical body to go down in a sinking
vessel (see p. 77).
In both the incidents of his work that have been described above, it
will have been noticed that the boy Cyril was unable to materialize
himself, and that the operation had to be performed for him by an older
friend. One more of his experiences is worth relating, for it gives
us a case in which by intensity of pity and determination of will he
_was_ able to show himself--a case somewhat parallel to that
previously related of the mother whose love enabled her somehow to
manifest herself in order to save her children’s lives.
Inexplicable as it may seem, there is no doubt whatever of the
existence in nature of this stupendous power of will over matter of
all planes, so that if only the power be great enough, practically
_any_ result may be produced by its direct action, without any
knowledge or even thought on the part of the man exercising that will
as to _how_ it is to do its work. We have had plenty of evidence
that this power holds good in the case of materialization, although
ordinarily it is an art which must be learnt just like any other.
Assuredly an average man on the astral plane could no more materialize
himself without having previously learnt how to do it than the average
man on this plane could play the violin without having previously
learnt it; but there are exceptional cases, as will be seen from the
following narrative.