I.Premature Cremation^[1], ^[2], ^[3]

PERHAPS many of the readers of the Occult Review residing in Switzerland will remember the death of Mr. H——, a well-known and prominent member of the Federal Council, who suddenly died at his office in the federal palace at Bern, about three years ago, and whose body was brought to Zürich to be cremated. Everybody at Zürich went to see the funeral procession on its way to the crematory. It took place with great pomp; the streets were crowded, musicians played solemn airs, and speeches were delivered. Among the spectators there was present a lady of a very sensitive nature, and in possession of certain mediumistic gifts, and as the coffin containing the corpse passed near her she felt a very curious sensation, and claimed that she had come in contact with the spirit (or aura) of the deceased. The procession went on, and the lady went to her lodging, where she was occupied with other things, and thinking no more of the funeral; but about an hour afterwards, presumably when the preliminary ceremonies at the crematory were ended, she began to suffer terribly from a burning heat overspreading all the left side of her body and face; the skin grew red, and cold water applications had to be applied for relieving the pain. After about a half-an-hour’s intense suffering, the pain left her entirely.

          Some time afterwards there was held a spiritualistic séance at the house of Mr. S——, a judge of the Court of Appeal, at which this lady was present. It may here be remarked, in parenthesis, that this Judge S—— was one of the witnesses for defence in the well-known trial of the medium Rothe, at Berlin, where he testified in favour of the actuality of so-called spiritualistic phenomena; but his experience and testimony availed nothing against the ignorance of the Court.

          At this séance there manifested an entity claiming to be the personality of Mr. H——. He said that he was unable to see any one of the persons present in the room, except that lady; and, among other things, he informed the company that his body had been cremated too soon, and before his soul had become fully separated from it, and that in consequence he had suffered intensely at the left side of his body. It then only occurred to that lady to bring the burning sensation which she had experienced into connexion with the cremation.

          Now, as concerns the identity of the “spirit” of Mr. H——, he was asked whether, during his life, he had known anything about the possibility of communicating with the spirits of the departed, and he answered that he had paid no attention to such matters, but had heard of it indirectly through Dr. A. P——. Nobody in the circle knew who this Dr. A. P——  was; but after some research in the register he was found to be a member of the National Council, residing at L——. Mr. S—— thereupon wrote to him, and Dr. A. P—— answered that he had spoken of such things to a friend of Mr. H——, and upon further inquiry it was found that this friend had a conversation with Mr. H—— about it.

          Now, in this case, any theory of collusion, telepathy, etc., is to be excluded, because none of the members of that circle knew anything about Dr. A. P——’s existence, nor of his conversation with the friend of Mr. H——; and it seems reasonable to believe that the explanation given by the “spirit” of Mr. H—— is the correct one, and that the ethereal body actually may suffer from injuries inflicted upon the physical body after its apparent death, as long as the soul has not entirely separated from it.

          It seems that a similar occurrence took place in the case of H. P. Blavatsky, whose body was burned. It is claimed that before the cremation took place her “spirit” manifested itself in two places: at Paris with the Duchess de P——, and at Hamburg at Professor S——’s, asking in each case that urgent telegrams should be sent to London to request a delay of the cremation, as she had not yet become free from her physical form. The telegrams were sent, but no notice was taken of these warnings by her friends, and the cremation took place at the previously appointed time.

          Moreover, at least three cases have come to my notice in which similar communications were received from “spirits” of persons prematurely dissected. One was a case of suicide by poisoning, another by shooting, and the third one that of a young lady who killed herself on account of a love affair, and whose body was exhumed three days after her burial, some suspicion having arisen as to her having been murdered. She was submitted to post-mortem examination and dissected, and the “spirit” claimed that she had felt every cut of the dissecting knife the same as if it had cut her living nerves. Whatever may be thought of such communications, it stands to reason to suppose that the ethereal form of a person dying prematurely a forcible death will find it more difficult to separate itself from the rest of the elementary^[4] body, than if the death occurs in a natural way in old age or after a sickness. We find a corresponding law in other departments of nature, for the shell of a ripe orange may easily be detached from the pulp, while from an unripe one it separates with difficulty. Cases of premature burial, cremation, dissection and suffering after forcible death will probably continue to occur until the world at large recognizes the fact that death is not, as public opinion goes, a cessation of the perceptible functions of life; but it takes place only at the final separation of the soul from the physical form.

II.Vagaries During Dreams Actually Realized.

Two English ladies stayed recently at Florence at the house of Mr. B——. One of these ladies, Mrs. S——, dreamed that she was in some other house, in a place unknown to her, and that she went into a room where she took the strange notion to upset the tables and overthrow the chairs, producing a general disorder among the furniture, which she accordingly did. In the morning she told Mrs. J—— of her dream, adding, moreover, it seemed strange that an otherwise reasonable person could commit such foolish tricks in her dream. This dream repeated itself twice more on two successive nights.

          Soon afterwards these ladies returned to London, where they visited their friends. On one such occasion Miss S—— accompanied Miss J—— on a visit to a friend of Miss J——, a lady whom Miss S—— had not seen before. They were ushered into a room to await the entrance of that lady, and while there Miss S—— was very much surprised to recognize that room as the one which she had seen in her dream, and in which she had overturned the furniture. After a few minutes waiting the lady of the house entered, and Miss S—— was introduced to her; but when she beheld her guest she started and grew pale, and, excusing herself under the pretense of a sudden illness, retired to her room, accompanied by Miss J——. To this lady she told that on three successive nights—the dates corresponding with those when Miss S—— had these dreams—all the furniture in that room had been put in disorder by an apparition; that upon hearing the noise she and some servants went to that room in the third night; that they all saw the ghost; and that she, upon seeing Miss S——, had recognized her as that ghost which had overturned the furniture.

          However interesting and amusing such occurrences may be, accounts of them are of little value if they do not serve to illustrate certain laws of nature, whose knowledge may be useful to us. We all know that even the most rational person may have very foolish dreams, and this for the obvious reason that understanding and will are attributes of the spirit, which retires within itself during the sleep of the personality, and leaves the dream body a helpless victim to its own instincts. But the important lesson which such an experience teaches is that it corroborates the teachings of the ancient Indian sage Sankaracharya concerning this state, and goes to show that the dream body is of a material kind. This again suggest the truth of a theory taught by the sages of olden times, that all the bodies of which the organism of man is composed are of the same substance, only differing from each other in their degrees of density or rarefaction from the gross material body up to the clarified body of the regenerated in spirit. And, in addition to this, a study of the dream bodies may prove that many of the foolish pranks played at spiritualistic séances may be caused by the irrational part of the animal souls of the dead.

          This, however, does not invalidate the theory that the dream body of a person may also act rationally during sleep, and this theory is moreover supported by many facts. The conclusion may therefore be drawn that the states of the souls and conditions of consciousness during sleep or after death may vary a great deal in different persons, and that some may be able to think and act rationally, while others are only guided by their instincts or possessed by some fixed idea; but it may also be possible that the dream body of a person during sleep may be observed by some other invisible entity, and this perhaps will explain the reason why persons in a state of somnambulism may perform some strange feats, which they never could or would undertake while they were in possession of their reasoning faculties.

III.The Souls of Ghosts.

“My mother died on the eighteenth of October, 1838, and my first child was born on the twenty-second of November of the same year. Her great desire was to live to see the child; but her wish was not gratified, and it may be supposed that she died with that thought in her mind. Now, after the child was born, the attendants put it into a cradle, when, to the surprise of all, my mother entered the room, walked up to the cradle, looked lovingly at the child, smiled with a joyful expression in her face, after which she disappeared, and never was seen again. All those present, the physician and the rest, saw her as plainly as they ever saw her when she was alive. It never occurred to me, when she entered the room, to think that she was dead, and that the apparition was only a ghost. I even called out to her, ‘Mother!’ None of us were frightened, but only surprised, and before we had time to recollect our thoughts, the apparition was gone.”

          The above account was given to me by my mother, and that first-born child was myself.

          Now, it may be supposed that if that ghost of my grandmother had been in possession of all the faculties of my grandmother before her death, she would probably have paid some attention to my mother and the rest; but she took no notice of them. The thought of seeing the child seemed to absorb her entirely and leave no room for any other desire. This circumstance seems to supply an answer to the question: What is the real nature or soul of a ghost?” By the term “soul” we understand a form of will combined with a thought which guides and controls it, and the shape which that form assumes would naturally be that of the person-as she appeared while alive—clothes and all, as she habitually used to appear—and as the image of herself existed in her own imagination, or as it was contained within her mind. In our dreams we do not see ourselves nude or in a dress which we never wear; but we sometimes dream of appearing in our night-clothes in society where we would not thus appear, and such dreams are evidently caused by the act of undressing at bedtime, impressing itself upon the subconscious mind.

          If the soul is a form of will impressed by a certain thought, the soul of a ghost would consequently only be a single thought projected by a corresponding desire, and forming an image which, under favourable conditions, may be semi-materialized or fully materialized and dense enough to become visible and tangible on the physical plane. Such an image would only last as long as the desire or thought which ensouls it exists. The “ghost” is thus what Sankaracharya calls the “dream body,” and such a form may be of long or short duration, according to the strength of the impression received by the mind of the dying personality.^[5] It is said that the dream bodies of suicides, executed criminals, or such as die during a fit of passion, are very enduring, and they continually perform and repeat the scenes which took place shortly before their death. The man who shoots himself repeats his act in his post-mortem dream-state; the executed criminal is continually tried and executed again, until the vibrations caused by the real act cease and the power is exhausted. But while this play takes place within the lower principles of his nature, his real soul, belonging to his higher nature, may be in an entirely different state (?).

IV.Life Saved by Telepathic Impression.

In the year 1871 I was practising medicine at S——, in the State of Louisiana. It was a beautiful winter night with the full moon shining in the cloudless heavens, and I was sitting on a chair in front of my office, enjoying the sight of the starry sky and smoking a cigarette. The night was cool and I wore over my shoulders a short cloak without sleeves, such as is called an “officer’s cape.” It was after eleven o’clock, when a negro came and asked me to go to see a patient, another negro, living a short distance from the town. I was not averse to taking a walk and went with him. He led me out of town towards a short tunnel over which the railway track was laid. We were about ten yards from this tunnel when I heard an interior voice speaking to me, which exclaimed, “Look out!” Instinctively I put my hand in my pocket and grasped a small pistol, which I used to carry therein. The next moment we entered the mouth of the dark tunnel and as we did so my guide ran away, while at the same time three masked fellows fell upon me, the first one grabbing me at the shoulders and saying he wanted to speak to me. As my coat was without sleeves and unbuttoned, it remained in his hands as I turned around, and pulling my pistol I pointed it at his head, ordering the three men to step back. They were not prepared for my resistance; the coat was dropped and they fled, while I returned home by another road. Only two years afterwards I found out who these fellows were and what was their object. They were hired to kill me and put my body upon the railroad track, so as to make it appear as if I had been run over by the train during the night.

          I was at that time a great believer in communications with “spirits,” “invisible helpers,” etc., and attributed my salvation to the interference of some of my spirit friends; but it seems to me now more plausible that the concentrated thought of the three men in the tunnel, whose full attention would naturally be directed towards my person, was by their will power, although without their intention, projected towards myself and entering into my subconsciousness awakened therein the sense of impending danger, which communicated itself to my external consciousness, and as words are the natural expressions of feelings, my hearing of the words “look out” may thus be explained. If, however, a more plausible explanation is presented to me, I shall be ready to accept it.

V.Thoughts of the Dying Acting at a Distance.

In the year 1877 I was at Llano (Texas); while an intimate friend of mine, Mrs. Th—— W—— was at Galveston, several hundred miles away. Some months had passed without my having received any letter from her; but as I had left her in perfect health, I had no cause for uneasiness. On the evening of November 10 I went to bed as usual after 10 p.m., but after extinguishing the candle I had a feeling as if somebody were in my room and wanted me to get up and write. I, therefore, rose again and went to my table, where I took a paper and pencil and wrote what came into my mind. I was not unconscious, but knew very well what I was writing. It was as if the words were dictated to me. It proved to be a letter from my friend Mrs. W——, addressed to me, in which she told me that she had died.

          She also told me the nature of her disease, which was loss of vitality and exhaustion of nervous power from overexertion of “mediumship.” She expressed herself to be very glad to be rid of her suffering body, and among other things she said that she had asked her husband to cut a lock of hair from her head and to send it to me. Four days afterwards, I received a letter from her husband, containing the death notice and the promised lock of hair and confirming in all details the contents of that writing.

          My explanation of this case is that as the sympathy between that lady and myself was very strong, the mental vibrations caused by the thoughts of her dying brain were caught by my brain in a manner comparable to the reception of relative waves by means of wireless telegraphy. As to my feeling the presence of some invisible entity in the room, it may be accounted for by the fact that the spirit emanating from a person, i.e. his thought and will, is a part of the essence of the person from whom it emanates and bears the characteristics of that person, so that if I had been in a clairvoyant state, or if these thought vibrations had become more condensed or materialized, I might have seen the apparition of Mrs. W—— herself.

          This view may be confirmed by the following occurrence:

1. 1. 2. My father was at one time a medical student at L——. His father was at that time at D——, about 100 miles away, where he was lying ill of typhus fever. While he was in a delirious condition his nurse went for a moment out of the room. During the absence of the nurse my grandfather arose and fell through the window out into the street, where he died. At the very moment when this happened my father at L—— saw the apparition of his father walking solemnly through his room. Evidently the last thoughts of the dying man were directed toward his son.

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Parts VI-XI^[6]

VI. Thoughts of the Living Acting at a Distance

This year I stayed as a guest at the house of the Princess M. de R—— at R——, a suburb of the city of F——. One morning at 10 a.m. the Princess drove to the city, while I was occupied with writing. At about i p.m. I suddenly heard the Princess in a loud voice, calling twice my name at the door of my room, as if she were calling for help. I immediately jumped up from my desk and opened the door, but no one was there. I asked the servants whether the Princess had returned, but received a negative answer. Half an hour afterwards, the Princess drove up in her carriage; I went to meet her and asked her whether she had met with an accident, whereupon she answered that the horses had run away and that she had been terribly frightened and was thinking of me. However she had not pronounced my name.

          This would go to indicate that the inner personality has a consciousness and faculties separate from those of the outer one, and although the two are as one, nevertheless the inner man may exercise functions and send out vibrations without their coming to the consciousness of the external personality. That hearing my name called was a subjective experience is proved by the fact that none of the servants heard it, although they were near enough to hear it, if the sound had been physical instead of being astral.

          Still more remarkable is the following:

VII. Spiritual Healing at a Distance

When a child I was vaccinated and the consequence was such that I would by far have preferred to have the smallpox ten times. My blood was thus poisoned, and for thirty years I suffered from an eczema which rendered life almost intolerable to me. In vain I consulted the best known physicians and specialists in Europe and America. I recklessly swallowed all kinds of medicines which they prescribed, and submitted to all sorts of treatment, hoping thereby rather that this would put an end to my life, than to find any relief. The matter grew finally so bad that it was impossible for me to get an hour’s sleep without taking first large doses of chloral and then inhaling the vapours of chloroform. It was after the middle of December,

          1875, when I was at F——  (Texas) in this condition and thinking of suicide. By accident I heard of a Dr. Newton of New Orleans, who performed wonderful cures by treating patients at a distance without giving medicine. I wrote to him, but days passed without my receiving an answer and I thought no more of it.

          On the first day of January, 1876, I was called to a farm some forty miles from F—— to perform a surgical operation. After a sharp ride on horseback I arrived in the evening, and after attending to the patient made up my mind to stay at that farm over night, as it was already too late to return. After supper I sat on the porch, thinking of the sleepless night that would now be in store for me; when suddenly I received something like an electric shock which thrilled through my body. I immediately thought of Dr. Newton. I looked at my watch. It was 8.20 p.m. That night was the first one in many years that I slept soundly, and I have been perfectly well ever since. A few days after this occurrence I received a letter from Dr. Newton from San Francisco, he having in the meantime moved to that place. In this letter he said, “I send you at this moment an electric shock, which will cure you. No further treatment is necessary. The letter was dated at a time corresponding exactly with 8.20 p.m. when the difference of time between Texas and California is taken into consideration.

          I believe that in this case not merely mental, but spiritual (magical) vibrations were acting and that a person being in conscious possession of such a spiritual power might cure himself and others by an effort of will, but I am also certain that persons possessing such a power are very few and that all those who in their advertisements claim to cure for a certain amount of money people at a distance have no such powers at all, but that if perchance a cure follows such an imaginary treatment, it is merely due to the auto-suggestion of the patient himself and his faith in the doctor. This, however, was not the case with me, as I thought no further of Dr. Newton and had no faith in getting cured at all.

VIII. Mental Cure and Possession

In the year 1888 I was at W——  (N.Y.), having received an invitation from Mrs. H—— to visit the headquarters of “Christian science” and mental cure, which was established there and to study their methods. Among the “healers” were two young ladies, Miss M—— R—— and Miss J—— W——, with whom I soon became acquainted. I stated to them my belief that their cures by mental action were due merely to the faith of the patient; for even the Bible states that when Jesus performed a cure. He never said, “I cured thee,” but “Thy faith made thee whole.” To this those ladies objected and said that they often cured people without the patient knowing that he was treated, and as I was suffering from an aching tooth on that day, I thought I would try the experiment and told them of it, saying that if they would treat me for it they should do so later without telling me about it, and that I did not believe in it anyhow.

          Soon after that conversation I went with Miss R—— to a lecture, while Miss W—— went away. Now it is essential for my purpose to describe the appearance of Miss W—— . She was a very pretty girl, slender and small with dark hair and ringlets. She was dressed in white and had a red sash around her waist. I thought no more of her but listened attentively to the lecture, while Miss M——. R—— was sitting next to me.

          Suddenly a strange feeling came over me. I saw myself as being Miss J—— W——. I was a young, slender and delicate girl with black hair and ringlets, in a white dress and with a red sash around my waist. And not only did I see myself in that way, but I also had the feelings, which such a pretty young lady would probably have; for I thought of my appearance and whether my hair were in good order and whether I would be likely to be admired, etc. I must say that looking at myself with my physical eyes, I saw that I had not changed, and in my innermost consciousness I also knew who I was; but Miss J—— W—— had, so to say, taken possession of my astral self; astrally I was Miss W——. My toothache was gone.

          After the lecture Miss W—— appeared and told me that during the lecture she had been in her room and concentrated her thought upon me, and I may add that perhaps in consequence of this intense amalgamation Miss W—— and myself became very great friends.

          An explanation of this case seems to me unnecessary; it only goes to show that the physical body is only the house in which the mind, constituting the inner man, resides, and that if the inner man is drawn out of it by something which attracts his outward attention, his place may be occupied by the spirit of another person and perhaps even by the ghosts of the dead. It seems to me that for the purpose of investigating the mysteries of the inner life, we ought to seek the solution of such riddles rather within our own inner life than in speculating about external phenomena, and this was also the opinion of Miss J—— W——, for she wrote in my notebook the following verses:—

Why idly seek for outward things ?

The answer inner silence brings.

Thus to the mind disturb’d by nought

The uttermost of truth is taught.

IX.Daemoniacal Obsession

Numerous cases of daemoniacal obsession have come to my personal knowledge and our insane asylums are full of them. I should, therefore, not be at a loss to cite cases that have come under my personal observation, but I prefer to mention one which has been stated to me by a friend. I chose this case on account of its remarkable peculiarity.

          The Marchese N—— was an Italian nobleman of means living in Paris. He was a very sober and quiet gentleman, leading a retired life and occupying himself with reading books on mysticism, and it is also said that he indulged in certain occult practices, such as staring into a magic mirror and hypnotizing himself for the purpose of producing an “exteriorization” of his astral body and developing clairvoyance. This gentleman went to bed one evening in apparently perfect health and woke up a raving maniac during the night. He broke the furniture and made such a noise in the hotel where he lived as to disturb all the inhabitants. He had to be held down by force until the doctors came who put him into a strait-jacket and carried him to a hospital. Upon the advice of his relatives he was taken back to Italy and put into an insane asylum, where he occupied a cell and at intervals continued to rave.

          This state continued for several months, when the Marchese became suddenly reasonable again. He ate and spoke and acted like any other sane person, and no trace of insanity was noticeable about him any more. Therefore, after a few weeks of observation he was permitted to return to Paris, where he resumed his previous way of living.

          Now the remarkable thing in this matter is that after he had left the asylum his ghost was seen by many in the cell which he had occupied, and one of his friends while on a visit to Paris told him about this circumstance. Thereupon Mr. N—— became very curious to see himself his own ghost. Against the advice of others he went to Naples, visited the asylum, entered the cell and was at the next moment a raving maniac again and remained so until he died.

          The presumable explanation of this case is, that this person, owing to a want of self-possession and self-control, has created an “elemental being” within himself, constituting a second personality, a creation of his mind. Such “elementals” are the usual products of some suppressed desire and grow by attracting corresponding elements from the surrounding astral, mental and spiritual atmosphere. Everything in the world, be it visible or invisible, is the ultimate product of desire and imagination. A person may be obsessed by his own thought or idea if he allows it to grow. Ideas are germs within the mind, comparable to seeds in the soil, which grow by attracting to themselves from the ground elements corresponding to their own nature. All forms are representations of corresponding ideas; they are, so to say, materialized spirits. If there were no spirit of humanity in the world, there would be no men and women as its representations. If that spirit or “class-soul” of which a horse or dog are representatives were not in existence, there would be neither horses and dogs. So it is with everything, daemons included. A devilish idea in the mind of man attracts to itself daemoniacal influences for its own growth, and the more it is hidden and suppressed, the more will it grow, for every power grows by resistance. Thus it may grow at the expense of the vitality of its owner, until it becomes for the time being an apparently self-existing entity, capable of becoming objective and of manifesting itself in a form separate from its creator, as is shown by numerous instances known in the history of spiritualism and in the history of the lives of the saints. The account given above is an illustration of such possibilities.

X. Reincarnation

A very remarkable case which would go to show the truth of the doctrine of reincarnation came to my knowledge last autumn. My friends at F——, of whom I already made mention in a previous article, are in almost continual contact with the invisible world. They do not need to hold “sittings” for spiritistic phenomena, because they are already surrounded by such phenomena, very much against their wishes. There are often the most unearthly noises in their house, in daytime as well as at night; noises like the firing of guns, rolling of cannon ball» over the floor, moving of furniture, etc. What those evidently intelligent powers are I do not know; but there seem to be a great many “undeveloped and earth-bound spirits” who come for instruction and aid.

          Not long ago there came an entity, claiming to be the spirit of a cardinal D——. This cardinal asserted that in his past life he had committed a murder. He said that he had poisoned a certain person, and that this person was now reincarnated and living as a young boy at F——. He gave the age and the name of the boy as G—— P——, and described him. He said that he could not find peace until he had received          forgiveness from that boy for having murdered him in his past incarnation. He gave the street and the number of the house where the boy lived, and begged that our friends should hunt him up, tell him the story and ask his forgiveness. Research proved that a cardinal D—— had been living at the time stated. Thereupon our friends started to hunt for the boy, whom they finally found after some difficulties caused by the fact that he was an adopted son of a family, living in a tenement now occupied by many poor people, and that his real name was but little known. To make the matter still more interesting, this boy had a dream in which he witnessed the perpetration of the murder. After having been told the request of the cardinal, he, of course, freely pardoned him, and the spirit appeared only once more and expressed his gratitude.

          This case hardly admits of any other explanation, except that the whole thing was a comedy played by some “elemental.” It is surely more probable that the spirit of the cardinal was actually earth-bound and detained in purgatory until his conscience had found the relief desired, by being pardoned by his victim.

XI. The Foolishness of Trusting in Lying Spirit Communications

1. Last year a number of “theosophists,” and among them some well-known lecturers, received certain spirit communications through the mediumship of a lady in B——, in which they were advised to sacrifice all their worldly possessions, abandon their parents and to become “Chelas” of a certain Mahatma. They were requested to go to Madagascar, there to await “further orders.” This they accordingly did. They landed at Antanarivo and waited, but no “further orders” came. All of these ten persons took the swamp fever; five of them died, three returned, and the fate of two more is not yet known. It is believed that this is a case of black magic, and that some enemy of the theosophical movement made use of the credulity of these persons for the purpose of removing some of its advocates.
2. It is remarkable to what extent certain credulous people will believe even the greatest nonsense if it comes from the “other world.” A very prominent citizen of Vienna was told by the spirits that he must spend 30,000 florins for the purpose of establishing a factory for the manufacture of “planchettes,” so that the poor people might obtain them at cost price. He would have actually done so if he had not been prevented by his family, who caused a legal guardian to be appointed for him, although in every other respect he was quite reasonable. Such is the effect of an idea that becomes fixed in the mind when the mind becomes obsessed by it. This chapter of human folly might be continued ad infinitum.

(To be continued.)

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Parts XII-XVI^[7]

XII. Thought Forms

1. I had some friends at Chihuahua, Texas, Mr. D. M——, a lawyer, and his wife. They were great spiritists, but they held their sittings very secret. At my first visit at his house I was very much surprised to see (clairvoyantly) that the “spirit” of Napoleon and the Empress Josephine were present. I told my friends of it, and they then showed me whole heaps of manuscripts consisting of written communications which they had received from these two spirits.
2. I was once present at an examination of a school, and one young lady rehearsed Longfellow’s poem of Hiawatha and Minnehaha. The story of Minnehaha made a great impression upon my mind, but after a while I thought no more of it. Perhaps a year afterwards I went to see the well-known medium Charles Foster at Houston, Texas, for the first time, and as I entered the room, he immediately exclaimed: “Oh, what a beautiful Indian spirit comes here! Her name is Minnehaha. She sends you a message of love.”
3. For several years I received beautiful communications in prose and in verses through different mediums from a spirit giving its name as E——, and on one occasion this spirit appeared to me lifelike and most beautiful; it was a truly angelic vision. Finally I discovered that this apparition was caused by the thoughts of a dear friend of mine whose name was E——.

          All such experiences are very interesting and instructive; for they go to show that the thought forms, which we create by our willing or desiring and thinking, are real entities, having a life and intelligence of their own. Napoleon and the Empress Josephine would surely not have consented to be the constant companions of a lawyer at Chihuahua, and the princess Minnehaha never existed as a person, but was a creation of Longfellow’s brain. Many so-called “spirits” may have a similar origin; because, as one of the Adepts teaches: “Every thought having attained a certain maturity combines with a corresponding power from the astral plane, and forms a self-existing entity of shorter or longer duration according to the intensity of thought by which it has been formed.”

4. A few months ago the Countess B—— was taken ill. Within a few days her illness assumed a serious character, and shortly afterwards she died. On the evening before her disease became serious her husband and daughter, both, while standing at the window saw an ugly old woman in the yard. She was dressed like a gipsy; her hair was dishevelled, and she assumed a threatening attitude, shaking her fist towards the sick-room of the Countess. The Count immediately went to the door to investigate the matter, but when he opened it, nobody was there; the gipsy woman had disappeared.

          It may be supposed that this gipsy woman was a thought form created by the sick Countess, and that it was a representation of her own fears and of the state of her mind, for she was at that time not of a very sweet temper, but rather impatient. Perhaps many “unexplainable” premonitions may be explained in this way. Thus the study of spiritistic phenomena and their causes may be the cure for a great many superstitions.

5. While I was at Philadelphia in the year 1888 I was walking through Chestnut Street at 11 a.m., when suddenly I saw the image of my friend Mrs. B—— M—— floating in the air in the bright sunshine about ten feet above my head and in front of me. This lady was at that time in London, and I did not think of her at that time. About an hour afterwards I received a cable dispatch from her, urging me to come to London to meet her.
6. The Duchess of P—— imagined herself to be a reincarnation of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, and to be in constant communication with her “actual self.” While I was a guest at her palace at Paris I saw very unexpectedly (clairvoyantly) that “spirit” of “Mary Stuart,” which appeared to me a very material and substantial thing, probably owing to the fact that the Duchess had caused it to be so by her continual thoughts. The very gross aspect of this apparition also made it evident to my mind that there are certain astral forms which seem to be far more material and spiritless than anything on the physical plane; for while on our plane even a stone or rock appears to be endowed with latent life, such astral forms seem to be entirely lifeless.

          I have already alluded in this magazine to another case in point which occurred when I was at Philadelphia at the house of a friend of mine, Mr. W. F——, where I stayed for several weeks, being engaged in trying to investigate the secrets of Mr. J. W. Keeley. Here I was actually slapped in the face by the apparition of a woman who was not dead at all but was living in the same neighbourhood at the time.

          It seems clear that in all these cases the “occult phenomena” were not caused by the real spirits either of the living or the dead, but that they were astral forms or “false egos” created by the will and imagination of living people, and of the creative power of these two forces a great deal more may be known.

XIII. Gnomes at Work

1. The following case has been under my observation for about ten years. A lady of my acquaintance appears to have an attending “spirit,” occasionally manifesting itself in the shape of a dwarf, who seems to love to amuse himself by almost daily playing harmless tricks, such as causing things to disappear from places in which they have been deposited and where they are again to be found afterwards, displacing furniture and fetching small articles which may be wanted. On three occasions to my certain knowledge a broken golden watch-chain which was left on the table at bedtime was found mended in the morning, without anybody having entered the room. On two such occasions the chain was mended to perfection; the third time the work was badly done and had to be done over by a goldsmith. It would be impossible to describe all the tricks performed by this dwarf; but the following history of the case may be of interest to the reader.

          The said lady is of a noble family, well known in Germany, and in possession of a family record dating back several centuries. It is stated therein that to one of her ancestors, a lady of high estate, there appeared one evening a little dwarf and begged her to go with him, to render a certain service to his wife. This she did, and as a reward the dwarf emptied his apron, in which he carried what appeared to be shavings, into a comer of the room near the chimney, telling the lady that she would find it to be gold. Of this gold he advised her to cause to be made one golden fish, a golden spinning-wheel, and a certain number of gold coins. Sure enough, in the morning the lady found these supposed shavings to be gold of the purest kind and she acted according to the directions received. The dwarf moreover said, that as long as these treasures would remain in possession of her family, all would be well and prosper; but if they were to become separated, misfortune would follow.

          This actually came out as predicted. For centuries the fish, the spinning-wheel and the coins remained in the family; but after a while they were distributed among some of the members, and not long afterwards their goods and castles were taken by the King of Denmark, and one misfortune followed after another. The articles made of the gold furnished by the dwarf, however, are said to be still in existence: the fish in a museum at Dunkirk, the spinning-wheel in a museum at Copenhagen, and the gold coins in a castle in Schleswig Holstein, which still belongs to the family. I should be glad if some of the readers at Dunkirk and Copenhagen would investigate the matter, so as to verify these statements if possible. I have no other explanations for these facts except the existence of the elemental spirits of earth, called “Gnomes,” which are described by Theophrastus Paracelsus and others, and of which I have made mention in my book “Among the Gnomes of the Untersberg.”

2. This mountain, called “Untersberg,” situated near Salzburg in Austria, is celebrated for being inhabited by Gnomes, and I have myself on certain nights seen their lights wandering about in inaccessible places and precipitous walls of rocks, where not even a bird would have found a foothold. Rocks seem to be as penetrable to them as the air is to us. Moreover there are many of the peasant-folks that live near the Untersberg who have seen such dwarfs, not only solitary ones, but whole processions of them; for they seem to have a religious sentiment, and at certain times they go in procession to churches and chapels in the neighbourhood to hold their services. On such occasions the windows of the church are brilliantly illumined and music may be heard within; but when one opens the door, the music ceases and the lights disappear. The peasants in that country are very reticent in speaking about such matters to strangers for fear of scepticism and ridicule, but if a sincere inquirer once gains their confidence, he may be told some very interesting tales. At all events these phenomena would be worthy of investigation, as this may bring the realm of “elementary spirits of nature” within the reach of natural history.

XIV. Occult Phenomena before a Court of Justice

While I was in India I knew of a native who lost a bag of money by theft. He went to a “medium” for advice and this sorcerer took a stick (divining rod) in his hand, which then pointed in a certain direction. He then went, accompanied by other persons, in the direction indicated by the rod, and thus they came to a certain pond. In this pond was found submerged in the water a pot which contained the stolen bag with money. Thus the native recovered his treasure, but the matter was talked about, and the man with the divining rod was arrested for theft and brought before the court, where he was tried and sentenced to several years prison in the penitentiary; for it was said that he could not have found the place where the money was hidden, if he had not himself been connected with the robbery.

          It seems to be true that even judges and doctors should learn something about the “finer forces of nature” and the faculties of the “inner” or “astral” man and his relation to the external physical organism. The power of the divining rod, which only a short time ago was made an object of ridicule by academical science, begins to be recognized, since in the desert countries of Eastern Africa wells have been discovered by such means.

XV. The Divining Rod

I have not only seen the divining rod move in the hands of other persons, but it also moves in my own, and when it begins to turn, it is not in my power to prevent its turning, however firmly I may hold it. This would go to show that the turning is not caused by any unconscious muscular action, but rather by some invisible or “magnetic” influence acting upon the astral body of the holder and through his nervous system upon the rod. It would be interesting to know whether all the persons capable of finding water by means of a divining rod are born under a watery sign.

          On the other hand, those who are apt to find metals by means of the rod may be born under a fiery sign. There was a man in Colorado a few years ago who was very successful in locating mines by means of the rod. One day I hid a piece of gold, one of silver and one of copper, each in a different place. This divining rod led him to find first the gold, next the silver and lastly the copper. This would go to indicate that behind the mechanical action of the rod there must be an intelligent force to direct it.

XVI. Suicides

I do not know of any other way to find out anything regarding the fate of suicides after death, except by investigating the occult phenomena which frequently occur on such occasions. A number of such cases have come to my notice, from which it appears that the suicide exists after death in a semi-conscious dream-state, in which he continues to repeat that by which his mind was occupied during his last moments.

1. An English family traveling in Italy and being accompanied by a servant girl, stopped at a hotel at F——. The next morning the girl did not make her appearance at the usual hour, and upon search being made she was found in her bed, almost paralysed and unable to speak. After a while she recovered, and said that in the preceding night, after having gone to bed, she became clairvoyant and saw the body of an Italian officer lying on the floor with a pistol in his hand and the blood dripping from his forehead. After a while the officer became alive, arose, lifted the pistol to his head and shot himself again. This was repeated several times, and the girl, being terrified, stared at it until she was overcome by fear and lost her consciousness. Upon inquiry being made, it was discovered that such an Italian officer, answering to the description given by the girl, had committed suicide by shooting himself several days before that occurrence.

          It seems clear that the study of such cases would not merely serve to satisfy idle curiosity, but that it is of great importance; because if the fate and the deplorable condition of suicides after the death of their bodies were publicly known, it would help to diminish the number of suicides which seems now to be increasing every year.

          It furthermore appears that the separation of the soul from the body in cases of suicide may under certain circumstances not be very easy, but rather painful, because the soul being driven out of the body before her natural time and while still clinging to her house of nerves, muscles and bones can only forcibly be torn from it. External nature furnishes an illustrative example for the action of this law; because the peel of a ripe orange can easily be separated from the pulp, while with an unripe one the separation is difficult.

2. In 1872 while I was investigating the phenomena of spiritism, the “spirit” of a young lady, giving her name as Emma Melvina F——, manifested itself at first by giving raps and written communications, and afterwards visible and audible to the inner sense. She said: “I killed myself. I tried to get away from myself; but I was the same girl still. I went with my body to the grave and had to remain there. Three days after the burial my body was taken up again and carried to the police, where the dissection was made. I felt the dissecting knife just as much as if they had cut my living body to pieces,” etc.

          Upon inquiry it was found out that a girl by that name had actually poisoned herself at Chicago, and that her body was taken up after three days, and examined, owing to a rumour having been spread that she had been poisoned by her lover.

          In 1872 a couple of lovers committed suicide at K——; the boy shot the girl through the head and then killed himself. The text of the communication which soon afterwards was received from his “spirit” is at present not in my hands, but it was a lamentable account of his sufferings and of the pains experienced while “one nerve after another” tore itself from the bleeding body.

          The conditions of suicides as well as those of other persons after the death of the body may be very different in different cases, and cannot all be judged according to one pattern; but it seems certain that suicide may in general be considered as one of the greatest acts of folly that a human being can commit. Moreover, such facts go to show that a painful disease preceding death may even be an advantage, as it gradually loosens the bonds which tie the soul to the flesh.

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Parts XVII-XIX^[8]

XVII. The Origin of “Spirit Communications’’^[9]

1. 1. There may be many different sources from which so-called spirit communications originate; but the following case seems to me very instructive in regard to the action of one subconscious mind upon the mind of another.

In 1882, while at Georgetown, Colorado, I was well acquainted with a certain Mrs. N. D. Miller, of Denver, one of the most remarkable mediums for spiritistic phenomena, of whose extraordinary faculties for producing visible and tangible “materialisations” I shall have occasion to speak further on. One day I went to Denver to visit her. It was a stormy day and we had a sitting together. Mrs. Miller held a slate, upon which a bit of a pencil was deposited, under the comer of the table, and within a minute I received a written message, supposed to be from my father and signed with his name, in which my father told me that he had something very important to communicate; but that he could not do so on this occasion, as the conditions were unfavourable, on account of the weather. He therefore requested me to call again the next day.

          This I did, and almost at once I received upon the slate another communication in the same to me well-known handwriting of my father, saying:—“My dear son! I find that you are not as well as you imagine. You ought to take good care of yourself, as otherwise you will soon join us in the spiritland.” He then gave me a prescription in Latin, which proved to be one for making black writing ink from extract of logwood with sulphate of iron, and of this I was directed to take one tablespoonful every two hours.

          The phenomenon was undoubtedly genuine, but I was not much edified at such nonsense and Mrs. Miller suggested that it might have been produced by some jocular spirit. I took leave, and as I went away I followed again the direction from which I had come, when, by turning the next comer, I found the riddle solved; for there was a big show-window of a stationery shop, in which, besides some other articles, there stood a lot of bottles containing black writing ink. It was now clear to me, that on coming, when I passed that window, the sight of these ink bottles made an impression upon my mind, although I had paid no attention and had not even noticed them. During my youth I had often amused myself by making chemical experiments and among other things preparing black ink. The prescription for it was therefore well known to me and although I did not think of it, it existed within my subconscious mind, or perhaps within my aura, and by the mysterious action of mental powers it became impressed upon the subconscious mind of the medium, which by some means unknown to me caused the handwriting upon the slate. Unsatisfactory and imperfect as this explanation may be, it seems to me far more reasonable than any of those theories of “trickery” or “imposture” which are frequently called to aid by ignorant sceptics, and which seem to me idiotic and usually far more incredible than the presumed action of unknown forces within the subconscious mind. Mediums and such sensitive persons may be compared to living mirrors, in which the thoughts of other persons, or even thought-currents and ideas existing in the astral light, may be reflected and produce suggestions, which will be carried out by the unconscious action of the will of the medium, as it takes place during dreams; for life on the astral plane seems to be even more of a dream-life than ours.

1. 2. In the year 1886, after my return from India, I made, accidentally, the acquaintance of the wife of a German labourer. This woman was without any better education than that of her class, but in possession of extraordinary occult powers. She could cure diseases at a distance, could heal wounds, ulcers, and sores, and could stop bleeding without seeing the patient, merely by “sympathetic” remedies, for instance by putting a blood-stained rag, coming from the patient, into a pot which contained sulphate of iron, after which the bleeding would cease. This woman had never heard of what is called “psychometry,” so I concluded to try an experiment. I gave her a letter which I had received in a mysterious manner in India. It was a so-called “occult” letter, supposed to come from a Mahatma in Tibet, and was received through H. P. Blavatsky. I asked the woman to hold the letter to her forehead and tell me what she saw. She did so and gave me a description of a Buddhist temple with a gilded roof, inscriptions, etc., and also of people whose dress she described. All this was afterwards published in the Theosophist and verified by Blavatsky. The event seemed very inexplicable to me, especially as I at that time had some cause to doubt the genuineness of at least some of the “occult letters” received by me at Adyar. I remembered afterwards, that, some months before, I had seen myself during a “dream” in a Buddhist temple in Tibet, and this vision was so vivid, that on the moment of awakening I still seemed to hear the voices of the white-robed persons with whom I had spoken in that place.

          Now my explanation is that the objects which I saw during that dream, vision, astral visit, or whatever it may be called, had impressed their images upon my mind and become impressed upon the mind of that woman, although I was not thinking of them.

1. 3. The following occurrence may have had a similar origin:—

          One night before falling asleep I saw a series of figures or letters before my eyes. They were very luminous and written upon the wall, as with some fiery substance. They were so plainly visible and stayed so long that I was able to copy them as they appeared one after another. They were as follows:—

I could not read these figures, but supposing them to be letters of some language unknown to me, I sent the writing to a professor of Oriental languages at Vienna and to a well-known German Egyptologist, Professor Lambert. Both of these persons expressed themselves unable to say what the characters meant. Perhaps a year afterwards, I had occasion to see some Tibetan writing and I was struck by its similarity to these letters. I therefore made two copies of them and sent them to two Tibetan scholars in India, one of whom was Mr. Dhammapala. In due time I received answers from both of these gentlemen, saying that it was Tibetan writing and that its translation was: “You are the witnesses of this work.” I should be glad, if some reader who knows Tibetan would verify it and send me the Tibetan text. Whether or not any foreign intelligence had anything to do with the production of this phenomenon, I am unable to say.

XVIII. “Materialisations” of Ghosts

The “materialisation” of so-called “spirits,” or, to speak more correctly, of actual forms or ghosts has, within the last twenty years, become so well known as a fact, that it seems to me unnecessary to bring forth further testimony; but it may interest the reader to know something regarding my own experience about it. Mrs. N. D. Miller, of Denver, used to visit me occasionally in 1879 at Georgetown,^[10] for the purpose of spending a few days of the hot summer months in some cool place in the Rocky Mountains. On such occasions I held sittings with her for spiritistic phenomena in my parlour. Sometimes we were alone; at other times some of my friends joined us upon invitation. At various times the most remarkable manifestations took place. Besides other phenomena, such as the bringing of fresh seaweed, dripping with seawater, although we were 2,000 miles away from the ocean, of flowers and other objects, there used to appear many fully materialised forms of human beings, men and women and children, tall ones, little ones, whites, negroes, Indians, etc. They were visible and tangible to every one present, the same as if they were people of this our physical world; nevertheless, walls, ceilings and floors seemed to be no obstacles to them, for they passed through such solid things as if they were thin air. I remember especially one big Hindu with a turban, who passed in and out through the open door of the adjoining room. He was much taller than the door, but he did not bend down. His body went through the opening and his head with the same ease through the solid wall above it. Nevertheless, he, like the other apparitions, appeared perfectly solid to the touch; he could speak and answer questions, shook hands, etc., the same as any living person. Some of those apparently material forms would sink through the floor until only the head was visible, and the head would speak until it too disappeared, only to let the whole figure appear again from behind the curtain, where Mrs. Miller sat in a deep trance. While these phenomena took place, the body of Mrs. Miller seemed to be lifeless; no pulse or heart-beat could be felt therein. The room was not entirely dark, but light enough to enable one to distinguish all the furniture therein.

          Among the forms which appeared, there was one of a lady dressed in white, who had a great resemblance to a friend of mine, Mrs. Katie Wentworth, whose funeral took place at Galveston on November 13, 1877. I offered my arm to that  “spirit” and led her into the next room. Closing the door behind us, we sat on the couch and talked about olden times. Katie spoke in a whisper and answered my questions, but she could not tell me anything that I did not already know. I felt her pulse and the beating of her heart. Both were like those of a living person. I put my arm around her waist and asked her to kiss me. This she did, and it then seemed to me that I held the astral form of Mrs. Miller in my arm. I led her back into the parlour and behind the curtain. There I could see the apparently lifeless form of Mrs. Miller sitting in her chair, and beside her stood the materialised form, which began to dissolve like a mist and entered the body of the medium. Thereupon Mrs. Miller awoke from her trance.

          Of the many materialisations of astral forms which I have seen in the course of my experience, this was the most interesting. There is no doubt that it was made of the astral body or “double” of Mrs. Miller, or perhaps of “astral matter” taken from her and formed in the shape of Katie Wentworth, whom Mrs. Miller had never known, but whose image existed in my mind. Now, who was the intelligence or what the power which caused that image to form and to become lifelike and material, if it was not an inhabitant of the astral plane, able to think and to act, and of which as yet very little is known? In 1885, while at Adyar, I told Mr. Richard Hodgson of this and others of my experiences in this line; but as he was not a believer in spiritistic phenomena at that time, he found the easiest explanation by judging all such accounts to be fables and lies. Afterwards he had occasion to change his mind and became one of the leaders of the spiritualists in America. Thus nothing, not even the declarations of scientific authorities, is enduring in this impermanent world of illusions.

XIX. My Experiences in “Telepathy”

The mutual action of thought in the distance between souls in sympathy with each other, has been known for centuries, if not for thousands of years, to almost everybody except to the representatives of modem orthodox science. There are probably few persons who have not had some experience in this line; they have known, for example, that such and such a letter from a friend would come, and the letter has arrived; or they have answered questions which were asked in a letter even before the questions came. To me and to many of my acquaintances these things are of almost daily occurrence; but the following case goes to show that this “telepathy” may be made of some practical use and that the length of distance between the sender of a message and the receiver is of no importance.

          Writers of books sometimes receive letters from some unknown admirers of their works, and as I am no exception to this rule, I received, among other communications in 1894, while at Hallein in Austria, a very interesting letter from a lady. Miss A—— of Philadelphia, and answered it. The consequence was a frequent correspondence between us, and very often the questions which Miss A—— asked were already answered in my letter to her, before her own arrived. This led us to try whether a direct communication of thought could be established, and we agreed that every Sunday at 5 p.m. Miss A—— would keep her mind passive, while I at 11 a.m. (the difference of time between Hallein and Philadelphia being about six hours) would try to send her some thoughts. I am not “clairvoyant” in the ordinary sense of that word, but on the first Sunday, after projecting my thoughts to Philadelphia, I knew that Miss A—— was sitting in a rocking chair in her parlour, that she wore a morning gown and that her hair was braided and tied on the top of her head. I willed her to unfasten the braid and let her hair fall upon her shoulders.

          About ten days afterwards I received a letter from Miss A—— which had been written on the evening of that Sunday, and in which she said:—“This afternoon, at the appointed time, I sat in a rocking chair in my parlour. I wore a morning gown and had my hair tied up on the top of my head. Suddenly the thought struck me to unfasten my hair and let it fall over my shoulders. This I did.”

          On the next Sunday I could not find anybody in that parlour; but I knew (intuitively) that there was a bedroom attached to it. Into this bedroom I went in my thoughts and saw therein some medicine bottles upon a table. In due time I received a letter from Miss A—— , written on the following Monday, in which she said:—“I could not come to our meeting yesterday, because I was ill and had to take medicine. . . .”

          After that I willed Miss A—— to send me an illustrated journal from America, and by the next mail I received a copy of the Arena.

Thus things continued for a while, but having sufficiently convinced ourselves of the possibility of such mental communication we abandoned the experiments.

          Now my explanation is that the thought of a person is a part of that person himself, and the mental vibrations of which it consists may be endowed with a certain amount of consciousness and perception. A ray of light issuing from a candle does not become separated from its source, however great the distance which it travels may be, and the thought of a person does not become separated from the mind from which it originates, even if it travels across the ocean. Thus thought constitutes, so to say, an organ by means of which the mind may reach from one continent to another and perceive what takes place there, according to the extent to which one has been able to endow that thought-ray with consciousness and the faculty of perception.

          It seems to me idle to dispute whether or not thought-transfer is possible. It is possible for those who can do it consciously and it takes place unconsciously everywhere. Thoughts are, as the ancients said, like birds. We do not know wherefrom they come, nor where they will roost. Every human brain may be compared to a flame or a storage battery from which currents of thought stream out in all directions and enter into receptive minds, where they leave their “eggs,” to be hatched out by the receiver and perhaps give birth to a corresponding act. People do not create their own thoughts out of nothing; they only elaborate the ideas which they receive, and in this way some person may receive and carry out an idea born in the brain of another unknown to him. A serious consideration of this law might perhaps be in different ways of great utility for the progress of civilisation.

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Parts XX-XXI^[11]

XX. The Sources of Inspiration

THE following experience may seem to be insignificant, but to me it appears very instructive: Some years ago my friend Hugo Wolf of Vienna, the well-known composer of music, asked me to write for him the libretto of a comic opera. I began this work and after having finished the first act, I read the same to a gentleman of my acquaintance, Dr. K——, who happened to come and see me. A few days afterwards I met Dr. K—— again and he said to me: “I would advise you to go this evening to the Leopoldstadt theatre, where they are playing your opera.” This I did, and to my great surprise I found them playing a comic opera entitled “Madame Venus,” in which was represented the very piece that I was writing. The words were not exactly the same, but the action was identical. Of course my manuscript was consigned to the fire.

          Now this may be called a case of unconscious reading in the astral light and goes to show that a person may be deemed guilty of plagiarism, though innocent in all respects, and such things happen perhaps oftener than may be supposed. It is known that among the poems of Goethe there is one which was originally written by another poet and of which Goethe knew nothing. There are many inventions and discoveries which have been made almost simultaneously by different persons unknown to each other. To such belong the invention of the sewing machine and telephone, the discovery of certain planets and satellites, etc. H. P. Blavatsky has been accused of plagiarism, although I am certain that she never was in possession of the books from which she was said to have copied. She had simply the power of reading consciously the records existing in the astral light, proof of which I received many times during my two years’ intercourse with her.

          Moreover, this case may furnish a clue to the understanding of certain phenomena which are still a puzzle to psychological science. Whenever a person in a trance speaks a language unknown to him in his normal condition, or discourses learnedly about subjects of which he has learned nothing, it is usually believed by scientists that he must have somehow or somewhere heard of such things and that they impressed themselves upon his memory. If, for instance, an uneducated person in a trance delivers a discourse in latin and it is afterwards found out that he has heard here or there a few Latin words, the secret is believed to have been explained, however inexplicable this explanation may be. Would it not be far more reasonable to seek a solution in the fact that every thing which takes place on this physical plane makes an impression and is recorded and retained in the “astral light,” the sensorium of the world, and that the things existing there may be reflected and their images mirrored forth in sensitive minds, capable of receiving corresponding vibrations?

XXI. “Miraculous”

Cures I have chosen the word “miraculous” because this term, being derived from “mirare,” does not signify to my mind anything supernatural or contrary to the laws of nature, but merely something to be “admired ” or wondered at, because it is out of the common line of experience; and all surprising effects, of which we do not know the causes, may therefore in a certain sense be called “miraculous” or admirable. Among my experiences in regard to occult phenomena, none have been more surprising and incomprehensible to me than certain cures which have been performed—not by my own volition,—but apparently by some unknown power acting through my organism.

          I do not claim any occult powers; but having observed in India that scorpion bites are cured by employing magical signs, I tried for fun the same method for the cure of certain ailments, such as toothache, ischias, local inflammations, etc., and I found to my surprise that the relief was often instantaneous and permanent. In this way I gained, without desiring it, a reputation for being able to perform miraculous cures, and my aid was asked even in serious cases, of which I may mention the following.

          (1) One day, while I was staying at R—— on one of the Italian lakes, a friend of mine, Baron B——, living at T——, a neighbouring village, distant one hour’s walk, came to see me and asked me to visit his sister-in-law, Signora P——, to find out what was the matter with her. He said that she had been ill for several days, that all the doctors of the neighbourhood had met and held a consultation and that they declared the case to be past help. I went to T—— and found the lady in an unconscious state, apparently at the point of death. Of course I could do nothing; but merely for the sake of satisfying those present, I made the sign of the Pentagon with the point of my finger over her neck, saying that if it would do no good, it would do no harm. I went home in the afternoon and had no doubt that the lady would die. I thought of her the following night, and on the next morning I expected every moment to receive the notice of her death. No such notice came and growing impatient to know whether she was still living, I walked to T—— at 10 a.m. Turning around the comer I expected to find crape at the door, according to the custom; but there was none. The house door was open; I went upstairs and knocked. Somebody called in a loud voice—“Come in !” I entered, and there stood the lady perfectly well and dressed, trying on a hat before the mirror. On that afternoon she walked on foot to R—— in my company.

          This could not have been a case of hypnotism or suggestion, because the patient was unconscious when I saw her; it was no “magnetism,” because I exerted no will; it was no faith-cure, for I had no faith in it myself.

          (2) Mr. K—— P—— came to me all the way from Sweden to Italy, for the purpose, as he said, of putting himself for two months under my treatment for the cure of some spinal affection from which he had suffered for years, and by which he was rendered powerless to bend his back. I told him that I had abandoned practising medicine long ago, and that I could do nothing for him; but out of curiosity I consented to examine his spine, to see what was the matter with it. I did so and found an irritated spot over which it then struck me to make the sign of the Pentagon. Immediately the patient arose and, all the pain having left, he bent his back in every direction, declaring himself perfectly well. Instead of remaining two months, he went next morning on his return journey to Sweden. This was somes even years ago, and Mr. K—— P—— appears to be still in good health.

          (3) Four years ago I came to H—— on a lecturing tour, and not seeing my friend Mr. W—— , I inquired where he was. I was then told that he was dying at a hospital and not expected to survive the following night. A surgical operation had been made on his thigh-bone and now it was impossible to stop the bleeding, as he was of that peculiar constitution which physicians call “a bleeder.” If they had known it before, they would not have operated. Next morning his wife came to see me, telling me that Mr. W—— was still alive and she begged me to go with her to see him. I went with her to the hospital, but the physician in charge refused to admit us, saying that it would be useless to see the patient, as he would surely die within an hour or two, and that a visit would only cause an excitement, which would be injurious to him. Nevertheless his wife insisted and the nun in charge of the patient admitted us after the doctor had left. I found Mr. W——, pale as a sheet, with blood still oozing through the bandages on his leg. He thanked me for coming to see him, expressed himself prepared to die and said that he knew there was no hope of recovery. I told him that I would try some “hocus pocus” with his leg, adding that he need not believe in it, that I did not believe in it myself, but that it could do no harm. I then made the sign of the Pentagon over the bandages. The bleeding stopped immediately, and in less than a week’s time Mr. W—— left the hospital to the great surprise of the physicians.

          (4) One day, while driving through a narrow lane from N—— to A—— with the Princess R—— , the overhanging branch of a tree caught at the lantern of the carriage and on becoming free, struck the Princess over the face, producing a scarlet streak and swelling. I passed my hand over it, making a certain sign, when immediately the streak disappeared and all pain left.

          I might continue the list of such cases, but the above will be sufficient to show that the application of certain magical signs appears to have an efficacy. I may however add that the performance of these cures does not depend upon my own will and pleasure; it only succeeds when I feel an interior impulse to try these as a cure, and unless this impulse arises I never attempt it. My explanation is, that there exists within my organism some power by which an impression may be made upon the astral body of a patient and through that upon his physical form; but whether there is an intelligence from which the impulse comes, or whether this intelligence belongs to my inner self, I am not able to tell. I am, however, quite sure that such treatments can only be made gratuitously, and that if the power were employed with any selfish motive, it would soon be lost.

(To be continued)

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Parts XXII-XXIV^[12]

XXII. Glimpses of the Spiritual World.

THE following experience seems to me highly instructive:^[13]

          My mother died on October 26th, 1881 in Germany, while I was at that time in Colorado. On December 27th, 1881, while riding through a gorge of the Rocky Mountains, my interior vision became suddenly opened and I saw her surrounded by friends and relations who had died some years before. They all seemed to be bright spirits in luminous forms, and appeared to welcome her to a new and glorious life. The whole scene was most beautiful and of a character which I cannot describe. I may add that I had not been thinking of her and that this vision was unexpected and very surprising to me. It was afterwards explained to me that the post mortem unconsciousness sometimes lasts for months before the soul of the dead awakens to the realization of its higher existence. It was this awakening which I was permitted to witness; the impressions which the soul of my mother received were communicated to me, owing to the bonds of sympathy existing between us.

XXIII. Historical Ghosts.

I. The Lady in Black.

Owing to the connexions which I had, during my youth, with the Court of Bavaria, I was personally acquainted with the actors in the following story and am enabled to give the following details:

          (1) King Ludwig I, having abdicated his throne owing to the revolution of 1848, retired to Aschaffenburg with his spouse, the Queen Thérèse, to seek protection from the ravages of cholera, which at that time prevailed at Munich. There he received visits frequently from his son-in-law, the Grandduke Ludwig II of Hessen, residing in Darmstadt. They used to have tea together, subsequently playing cards, and the General Du Jarrys de la Roche took part in the game.

          It was once a stormy night when they met in this manner.

          The rain was pouring down, rattling at the windows, the thunder was rolling, and lightnings illuminated the room. All at once one of the large doors of the apartment opened, a lady dressed in black entered and posted herself behind the chair of the Queen. King Ludwig and both of his guests saw that lady and exchanged looks of surprise; the Grandduke arose and went to the anteroom, where he asked the officer in charge:

“How could you permit an unknown lady to enter the apartment of their majesties, without having her properly announced?”

“Your Highness will excuse me?” was the answer; “I have been in attendance here for three hours, and no one has passed through the ante-room except their majesties and the General de la Roche.”

          The Grandduke returned to his chair, but the lady in black had disappeared. The Queen Thérèse noticed by his looks that something was taking place, and as she begged to have the matter explained, the Grandduke told her about the apparition and the answer of the officer. The Queen tinned pale and with a trembling voice exclaimed: “This concerns me.”

          The cholera at Munich subsided and having been assured that there was no danger, the Court returned to the “Wittels-bach Palace.” In a couple of weeks the Queen Thérèse was dead.

          (2) King Maximilian of Bavaria returned one evening from one of his daily horse-back rides through the royal park and was about to dress for dinner, when a slight indisposition induced him to retire to his rooms.

          At about eleven o’clock that night the officer of the bodyguards in charge made his usual round of inspection at the quarters where the princes and princesses resided. As he came near the rooms of the ladies of the Court, where the Countess Fugger and the Baroness Redwitz slept, he saw a lady dressed in black, and with a black veil covering her head, issuing from one of these rooms and walking slowly along the corridor. Thinking that she was returning from a visit to one of these ladies, the Captain called to her, as she was passing by the only staircase which led to the street door, and told her that the way out was there.

          The lady in black paid no attention to him, but continued her way through several apartments. She finally descended the stairs slowly, passed by one of the sentinels and disappeared at the entrance of the chapel. The officer, feeling some suspicion, ran quickly down stairs, calling to the sentinel to stop the stranger. The guard swore that he had seen no one. Next morning, the King was dead.

          (3) similar case is the one of

The Lady White,

who is said to appear in the royal castle of Stockholm whenever a death at the Court is about to take place. The following is an account of such an occurrence given by the Princess Eugénie, a sister of King Oscar:

          “During one of the last days of the month of March 1871, and a short time before the death of Queen Louisa, I had been spending the evening with my mother the Queen-widow Josefina. We both were glad that the illness of the Queen had taken a favourable turn, and that the physicians expected a speedy recovery. It was late at night and I was about to retire, when the servant entered, informing us that a big fire had broken out in the vicinity of the castle. My mother desired to look at it, so we went to the great hall, where it could be seen from the windows.

          “After a while we returned, and as we passed through a room that was connected with the rooms of the Queen by means of a staircase, I saw a tall lady standing in the middle of the apartment right below the lighted chandelier. She was dressed in white silk, and wore a large collar of lace reaching down upon the shoulders. I felt quite certain that she was one of the ladies of the Court ordered to wait for the return of my mother and to inform her about the condition of the Queen. However, the lady in white looked at both of us without stirring and without showing us any attention. I had never seen that lady before, and I thought at first to ask my mother whether she was acquainted with her; but I did not, because I expected my mother would speak to her and tell me her name. Great was my surprise when my mother did not seem to see the lady while we passed her. Still I never suspected anything uncanny about it; I merely thought that my mother did not wish to notice her because she had not yet been presented. Nevertheless the fact that none of us had seen that lady before seemed strange to me; but as my mother said nothing, I kept silent about it.

          “Before we stepped out of the room, I turned around once more and saw the lady still standing at the same place, like a statue of marble. After a few moments she made a few steps in advance, as if she wanted to come nearer. We entered into the next room and I immediately asked my mother:

          “ ‘Who was she?’

          “ ‘She?—What she?’ asked my mother in surprise.

          “ ‘She, the lady in a white dress, who stood there without saluting us.’

          “My mother stopped and asked in a voice trembling with fear: ‘Did you see a white-dressed lady in the room that leads to the apartments of the Queen?’

          “ ‘Most certainly I did,’ was my answer. ‘She stood just below the chandelier. Did you not notice her? I will open the door again to see whether she is still there.’

          “My mother caught my hand. ‘Don’t tell anybody at present of what you have seen,’ she said. ‘You have perhaps seen the “Lady in White,” and that means the Queen’s death.’

          “I went to bed, but I could not sleep for a long time. I prayed for Queen Louisa and for the King, who was perhaps soon to experience such a loss. Next morning the physicians sent word that the Queen was worse, and in three days she died.”

          This account was given by the Princess to Pastor Wadström and was published in his “Memoirs.” The explanation in regard to such cases is that an “elemental” or thought image had been formed for the purpose of giving warnings of approaching death. Further particulars about the nature of such appearances may be found in my book on The Life and Writings of Theophrastus Paracelsus. (Kegan Paul and Co.).

XXIV. Vampirism.

It is said that cases of vampirism are now exceedingly rare in civilized countries; but this question is difficult to decide, as the secrets of the grave are not always open to inspection. I believe that one such case has come under my observation.

          A certain lawyer at L——, known as a great sensualist, died of apoplexy, and twenty years afterwards his grave at the cemetery was opened. The body was found to be without sign of putrefaction, and exhibited a healthy colour as if it were still alive. The preservation could not be attributed to the condition of the soil; because all the bodies in the neighbouring graves were decomposed. It may therefore be supposed that this was a genuine case of vampirism, and that the animal astral part of that man kept the physical body in a state of vegetative life by means of the nervous force which it abstracted from living beings, and infused it through the unbroken astral cord into the corpse.

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Parts XXV-XXVI^[14]

XXV – Supposed “Spirit Communications”

NOT very many years ago it was generally believed among the followers of spiritualism that most of the phenomena occurring at séances were caused by the personal spirits or ghosts of departed human beings; more recent discoveries have caused a modification of this opinion to a certain extent and while it seems to be quite certain that some such entities, especially earthbound ghosts of suicides and victims of premature death can, under certain circumstances, communicate with mortals, it is also established beyond doubt that such phenomena may have other causes which have nothing to do with the personalities of the dead. It is now admitted even in scientific quarters, although such a statement would have been ridiculed a few years ago, that thoughts are substantial things, notwithstanding their invisibility, and that a thought or a current of ideas brought into existence by somebody may outlive the personality of that person and continue to exist as a substantial force in the invisible world even after that somebody’s death. If such a thought current enters the mind of a sensitive person, such a person may become a medium for the expression of the same current of thought, although the departed originator of that current has nothing whatever to do with it. The following occurrence goes to confirm the truth of this statement.

1. 1. During my investigations of spiritualism in New Orleans, La., it repeatedly happened that what claimed to be the spirit of a Catholic priest delivered a sermon through the mouth of a medium; it was always the same sermon, but it always ended abruptly in the midst of a sentence and no amount of persuasion could induce that priest to continue it further. It was finally discovered that the said priest had actually, while living, delivered the same sermon and was struck by apoplexy at the very point where that sermon stopped. Death having interrupted his speech also made an end to his current of thoughts and there was no more of it to be impressed upon the mind of a medium.

          The ignorance of ghosts in regard to things that happened after they left this mundane life and their inability to reason correctly is also shown in the following case:

1. 2. In an old castle in Tirol, which is partly in ruins, while some parts of it are still inhabited, frequent disturbances took place, which were caused by the apparition of a ghost in the shape of an old man with a white beard and wearing a long fur-lined coat with wide sleeves and a skull cap on the head. He claimed to be the proprietor of the castle and his desire was that some documents which he had hidden away in a certain place in his cellar should be recovered and delivered to his daughter. He indicated the place, which after some troublesome research was finally found. There was a half rotten wooden box, but the documents were destroyed by mice and there was nothing left to indicate that they had been deposited there except the still intact seals which were attached to them. As a matter of course, the daughter of that knight had died long ago. From the records of that family it appeared that the castle had once been besieged and the old man been murdered. The hiding place of the documents and the desire to have them delivered to his daughter was probably foremost on his mind at the time of his death; but his ghost had not the power to see that the papers were destroyed, nor to know that his daughter was dead. This kind of ghosts may be classified among the “shells” from which the spirit and with it the power of reasoning has departed, but in which still an automatically acting current of thought remains, such as we may often observe in the life of our dreams. The life of a spook is a dream-life in which free will and judgment is absent; these powers belonging to the higher principles of the departed soul, and for this reason such empty remnants of departed people often make the most unreasonable demands.^[15]

XXVI – Obsession and Possession

The literature of the mediaeval age is full of accounts of cases of obsession and permanent possession by demons, evil spirits and other entities, and such cases are by no means rare in our modem times. In fact, there are many obsessed people to be found in our lunatic asylums, even if they are not recognized as such by modem academical science, which rejects the belief in the existence of invisible intelligent entities; but every one who is under the dominion of a fixed idea over which he has lost his power to control it, may be said to represent a case of possession, for he is himself possessed by the products of his thought; he has himself by his own imagination created the object which has gained dominion over him and, as there is no such thing as a creation out of nothing, he has himself attracted the elements for building that object, be it consciously or unconsciously, from the invisible world. Every case of “hypnotism” is a case of obsession, and as there are people living who can by the power of their will hypnotise and obsess others, so there are also invisible entities who may do the same, be it consciously or by means of unconscious instinctive attraction. Really everybody who is influenced by the will or thought, belief, opinion or doctrine of some one else, is to that extent obsessed by it, and whether it is a temporary obsession or becomes a permanent possession is a mere matter of degree. However, only such cases are now called “obsession” in which the personality seems to have become changed into another person, or when several personalities seem to exist in one individual. Modem books on psychology speak about a “splitting of consciousness,” but it is not explained why and how such a division occurs. Many cases of obsession have come to my personal knowledge, of which the following are some examples:

1. Hallucinations.

In April, 1907, my friend, Mr. A. G—— in Dresden, committed suicide by drowning. He was a virtuous and intelligent man, occupying himself a great deal with reading philosophical and metaphysical literature. By some means he took it into his head that he was persecuted by the masonic fraternity and his fear caused the unconscious action of his mind to create phantoms, which soon became manifested as (to him) audible voices. Henceforth he was continually molested and annoyed by hearing insulting and offensive remarks about his person which apparently came from persons in his surroundings. He was sent to an insane asylum, where he remained for several months, but could not be cured and, being driven to despair, he put an end to his life.

          Now as far as I am aware of it, official medical science gives no reasonable explanations about such cases, although it endows them with the high-sounding name of “hallucination of hearing”; occult science teaches that the mind of man is the creator of thought forms and that these forms are substantial, even if they are only subjective and invisible, and that fear is a great agent in the production of such imaginary but nevertheless actually existing forms. These forms receive their life and substance from the person who created them and constitute his false Egos, which, when they are allowed to grow strong enough, overpower his reason and judgment, and the best cure of this condition is the awakening of the true self-consciousness, by means of which one realizes the presence of that higher Self in whose light all the creations of ignorance disappear like mists in the light of the rising sun.

2. Astral Obsession.

Mademoiselle L——, a young French lady visiting Florence, was apparently obsessed by what seemed to be the spirit of an actor who had recently died and who before his death was deeply enamoured of the celebrated actress, Sarah Bernhardt. The young lady herself knew nothing of Sarah Bernhardt, she had never seen her and cared nothing for her, she even was greatly annoyed by the extravagant expression of admiration which the actor who had taken possession of her body made regarding the object of his love, and what seems most curious is the fact that this obsessing spirit did not seem to understand that he was inhabiting the body of another person, but imagined himself to be still alive and in his own physical form. He gave his name and the address of the place where he lived and where he still imagined himself to live and his statements were found to be correct upon investigation. At last, after a great deal of persuasion and argumentation, he began to realize his situation and wept bitterly, but was finally comforted by the instruction which he received from the friends of the lady and left her organism, to return no more.

          The presumable explanation for such cases is that the soul of a person who, during his life has not yet arrived at true self-consciousness of his own higher nature, leads a sort of a dream-life when he enters the astral plane and blindly follows the law of instinctive attraction. Some of the elements in the mind of that lady may have corresponded to elements existing in the mental sphere of that actor and, as like attracts like if there is no resistance, the obsession took place.

3. Demoniacal Obsession.

Cases of demoniacal obsession have occurred at all times and among all nations and are occurring at present. Many atrocious crimes are taking place under the influence of such obsession and the criminal is their victim. He may then be regarded as a diseased person, whose misfortune is that he has at such a moment lost his power of self-control. An understanding of this law would probably change the present mode of legal treatment of criminals. Materialistic science knows nothing of such obsession and some of the would-be wise deny the possibility of such things; because the existence of demons and thought forms endowed with will and intelligence is beyond their grasp and cannot be tangibly demonstrated in the laboratory of the universities. Metaphysical science teaches the existence of demoniacal powers and explains how a demon may grow in man. In a well-known letter of an adept written to Mr. Sinnett it is said: “Every thought of man having attained a certain maturity attracts from the invisible world certain elements corresponding to its own nature; thus creating a being with a will and intelligence of its own and having an independent life for more or less time according to the intensity of the desire which called it into existence.”^[16] The seed of a tree, planted into suitable ground, attracts from its surroundings the necessary elements for growing into a corresponding tree and a thought germinating in the mind of a person ultimately produces a living thought form; while such thought forms, or “elementals,” are again attracted to other persons, in whose minds they find some element corresponding to their own nature. Hate, fear, jealousy, envy, greed, etc., cause corresponding monsters to grow, and thus momentary obsession (as in some cases of epilepsy) or even permanent possession by “evil spirits” takes place and causes lasting insanity.

          The fact that everybody peoples his own subjective world by the products of his own imagination may be known to every one who examines his own mental condition; but these products are visible to those who are endowed with astral sight and therefore also perceptible to animals, as the following case goes to show: Professor Sch——, well known as a vivisectionist, who had to leave Florence owing to the indignation of the people on account of his atrocious cruelties towards the animals which he tortured, was also hated and feared by all the dogs. Even the most gentle dogs grew excited at his approach; they barked at him furiously and snapped at him and had to be removed when he entered a room. It seems that his cruelty attracted corresponding influences from the astral plane, and for all we know the astral images of the murdered animals took perceptible forms in his mental sphere.

          It is furthermore stated that this Professor Sch—— in his later years was subject to hallucinations; that he was tortured by visions of his mutilated victims and hearing their pitiful cries. That thought forms may become very permanent is shown by the fact that murderers are sometimes driven to despair and suicide by seeing the shape of the murdered person in their own mental sphere. It is also said that Lord Lytton in old age saw the shapes of the heroes of his novels, which were the products of his own fancy, and that they were to him living realities.

          Such things may be called “obsessions”; but they are harmless in comparison with demoniacal obsessions; these having quite a different origin. Cases of this kind are caused by entities inhabiting the astral world, whose orders may be as varied as the combinations which may be invented by the imagination of man, representing all possible instances of passions and mental qualities together with their external expression in corresponding semi-animal forms. Hysterical or sensitive persons without much self control may apparently be obsessed by the “spirits” of animals, dogs, cats, etc., and imitate their actions, barking, howling, mewing and even undertaking gymnastic feats (climbing of walls), etc., of which they are incapable in their normal condition. Moreover, such usual obsessions may show human intelligence, making use of the organs of speech of the obsessed person.

          In Japan, China, Korea and other countries in the East, such a demon is known by the name of “the Fox” (in Japan “sune”) and its obsessions are exceedingly frequent. Professor E. v. Baelz, who lived in Tokio, gives a description of such a case in the Vienna Medical Weekly, of which the following is an extract: The patient was for four weeks treated at the university hospital at Tokio. She was a strong peasant woman of forty-seven years of age, of a wealthy family. Eight years before she entered the hospital she was told that such a demon had been cast out from a certain person and that he was seeking another habitation.^[17] It seems that her fear was excited and that this made her open for the obsession. At first the “fox took possession of her chest and rising upwards to the head it began to talk through her, to criticise her own thoughts, ridicule her ideas, use obscene, abusive and blasphemous language and mix itself into her conversation with others, turning her life into an actual hell. In vain she applied for help to priests, missionaries and exorcisers, spending nearly all her means on such experiments.”

One of these spells is described as follows: “While she was telling us the history of her case, she began to beat her left breast with her fist; exclaiming: Oh, sir! Now he begins to move again in my breast.’ Then suddenly a strange voice began to speak through her mouth, saying: ‘Yes, I am here, you stupid goose, and do not think that you can prevent it. I know as much as these doctors.’ In a short time the obsession became complete and it was then only the demon who spoke through her. After ten minutes the talk of the fox became less coherent and the woman was able to reproach the intruder and to beg him to leave. Such attacks took place six or ten times a day and even oftener. The demon in his conversations showed an intelligence and wit superior to that of the patient. Whether she was ever cured is not known.”

          To give a reasonable explanation of such occurrences is only possible if we admit the existence of intelligent entities, demons or devils, inhabiting the invisible world, which however is visible enough for those who have the power to see it, and the only rational cure for it is that these spiritual influences are to be driven out by a superior spiritual power and the organism of the patient made strong enough to resist them. If the obsessed person cannot attain himself the intellectual and spiritual strength to cure himself, a cure may be effected by the spiritual will of another; but persons having that superior power are at the present day very rare and therefore in our insane asylums and prisons for criminals many such incurable cases may be found. This state will continue until the practice of medicine is not based merely upon external research and intellectual speculation, but becomes a divine art, and the most necessary prerequisite of the true physician of the future will be—not sanctimoniousness—but sanctity; spiritualisation and the knowledge of the occult powers hidden in the constitution of man.

(To be continued.)

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 Parts I-II.[1]

Transfigurations

SOME of the most remarkable occult phenomena are the transfigurations of living beings, or what is commonly called the “supernatural change in the personal appearance of human beings,” such as, for instance, is mentioned in the Bible, Matt.

• where it is said that Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John: “His face did shine as the Sun and His raiment was white as the light.” While we admit the correctness of this account, we do not look upon the fact of transfiguration as being anything “supernatural” or beyond the laws of nature; but the study of such phenomena is very liable to cause a change in the popular opinion concerning the constitution of what we call “matter,” and to show that all “matter” consists of vibrations of something which in another aspect may also be called “mind,” and that therefore material forms may be made to assume instantaneously other aspects, if these vibrations are changed by the magical influence of some superior spiritual

          Such powers belong to the soul and we find them enumerated and explained in Patañjali’s “Yoga Philosophy.” In that philosophy we are taught how we can become masters of nature and the elements, make our body glorified and indestructible, light or heavy, luminous or invisible, and change its form at our pleasure, if we have attained the “eight Siddhis” or powers. The well-known phenomena of so-called “spirit materialization” also go to show that the astral body can change its form at will, and that through the change of the astral body of a person a change of appearance of the physical body can be produced. If this is understood and admitted, it becomes dear that not only the transfiguration told in the Bible may have taken place as described, but that moreover popular stories about “werwolfs,” and the temporary change of men or women into animals, may not be without a foundation of truth. My own experiences in this line are somewhat limited, but I will say what I saw myself and what came to my personal knowledge:

1. Glamour.

In 1872, while at New Orleans, La., I was acquainted with a gentleman, who had the power to transfigure his face by throwing a glamour over it. Whether he did so consciously, or whether he was merely a medium for certain invisible entities acting through him, I do not know; but the way in which he acted was that he covered his head for a moment with some cloth, shawl or veil, and after lifting the covering an entirely different face was to be seen. For instance, he himself was a young man without any beard. After veiling himself and unveiling again, there was the face of an old man with a long beard. The next was a beautiful woman’s face, then the face of a negro or an Indian with headdress of feathers, etc., etc.; and once the face was only half materialised, so that it appeared as if half of it were eaten away. I omit the customary remarks about the absence of any apparatus and the impossibility of trickery; because arguments would not convince any sceptic, and no one can be certain of anything, unless he has experienced it himself.

2. Lycanthropy.

During the Middle Ages cases of lycanthropy and cynanthropy are said to have been very common. “In 1600 multitudes were attacked with the disease in the Jura, imitated the destructive habits of the wolf, murdered and devoured children, howled, walked, or attempted progression on all fours, so that the palms of the hands became hard and horny.”2 This is a description given of that peculiar form of insanity called “lycanthropy,” and the explanation may be that in those times of poverty many poor people were made insane by starvation, and their desire for food caused them to assume the habits of hungry wolves and ravage the country. From this form of insanity to the assuming the bodily form of a real wolf, there seems to be only one step; because a passion may change a man’s astral body into an animal and this reflect its image upon the visible corporeal form. Some persons may have the power to thus change themselves consciously and in others it may be done unconsciously or during sleep.

          During the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 my friend M. S—— was captain in the Bavarian Cavalry, and had taken up his quarters in the house of an old woman in Alsace, who, as was discovered afterwards, had the reputation of being a witch.

          This woman, whom I will call Madame Scoff, was of a very disagreeable, quarrelsome and revengeful disposition, so that the captain, who loved to have his peace, preferred to change his quarters after a week’s time, not, however, without giving the old lady a piece of his mind, for which she swore to “get even” with him. He moved to another house, a few blocks from the first. In his new lodging he was night after night annoyed by the howling and scratching of a dog at the door of his sleeping-room, although there was no dog in the house and the street door was locked and bolted, so that no strange dog could have come in. The noise began usually towards midnight; but when the door of the sleeping-room was opened, it ceased and nothing could be seen. One night M. S——, being thus greatly annoyed, took his sword and opening the door suddenly gave a quick stroke at the invisible animal. The noise ceased and no animal was to be seen, but next morning some bloody spots were discovered upon the floor. A couple of days afterwards it was found that Madame Scoff was suffering from a severe cut in her arm, which she said had been caused by her hurting herself with a broken window-pane. No more howling and scratching took place after that night.

          Was this a case of transfiguration? Perhaps a more rational explanation may be invented; but whether such an explanation would be the true one, I have reason to doubt.

          I see no reason why the following story, which has been told to me by a friend, should be considered incredible. Physical and intellectual powers are not the exclusive property of the pious, and likewise the exercise of spiritual or magical powers may be within the reach of devils as well as of saints. My informant was the daughter of an Italian officer, who at his death left his family in somewhat reduced circumstances, and she accepted the position of a teacher of music in the harem of a Turkish Pasha with whom her father had been acquainted.

          I will let her tell her story in her own words:—

“At the time when I took up my employment at A———, the greatest harmony existed between the Pasha and his legitimate wife, whom I will call Miriam. She was very beautiful, having Greek features, exceedingly long black hair and black eyes. She was of a fiery temper, very emotional and easily enraged, but wonderfully capable of controlling herself. She was a great lover of music and often, when I played, her tall and slender form began to sway rhythmically to the sound of the music, causing me to think of the graceful movements of a snake. We soon became friends, and she made no secret to me of her passionate love for her husband.

“But one day the harem received another occupant in the shape of a little Jewess named Alice, whose beauty had attracted the attention of the Pasha and captivated his senses. It soon became clear that she was to be his favourite, and as Miriam could not entirely hide her feelings of jealousy, which annoyed the Pasha, his visits became rare and finally ceased entirely, while he spent his time almost exclusively in the apartments of the Jewess.

          “Terrible were the outbursts of rage when Miriam was alone with me. She accused Alice of having used black magic arts for the purpose of alienating the Pasha’s affections, and she swore to take revenge upon that girl by the same means; for she herself was not entirely ignorant of such arts and had been instructed therein by a negro woman who was reputed to be a witch. This woman claimed that it was possible for a person, during sleep, to leave the material body and to assume at will some other form.

          “According to Miriam’s wish, I now became her room-mate, and I often watched her when she slept. On such occasions it sometimes seemed to me as if her sold had left her body; for she ceased to breathe, and I could no more discover any beating of her heart. However, I was told not to be alarmed by it.

          “I shall never forget the 15th day of May, 18—. The night was cool and beautiful, but I could not sleep; it was as if a feeling of impending danger kept me awake; some invisible horror seemed to hover in the air of the room. I arose and went to Miriam’s couch, where I found her in the condition above described.

          Suddenly a scream was heard coming from the apartments occupied by the Jewess, and almost immediately afterwards Miriam awoke. ‘Allâh! Allah! Umcha!’ she whispered; ‘I have succeeded in killing her.’

          “Noises were heard from the other part of the harem; servants came running in, and we were told that Alice had been bitten by a poisonous snake. She had grasped the snake with her hands and flung it away upon the floor, and the Pasha, who was startled by her scream, had himself seen the snake as it disappeared under the divan. Immediate search was made. But no snake could be found, nor any hole by which it could have escaped. The medical services of the Hakim Effendi were fruitless, the Jewess was bitten in the breast and died within two hours. How that snake entered into the harem, or how it escaped, has never been explained. The Pasha is an enlightened gentleman, not given to superstitions; he has received an academical education and does not believe in magic arts. For my part, I kept silent, but I took my departure at the earliest opportunity.”

3. “Exposures” of “Materializing Mediums.”

If such transfigurations and materializations of the astral body are possible, may it not also be possible that some of the phenomena which took place at some so-called exposures of well-known mediums for materialization, were really genuine, and that the appearance of “fraud” was due only to the ignorance of the “exposers,” in regard to certain natural laws? If the atoms composing the astral form of a “materialized spirit” can return to the physical body of the medium, why should it be considered impossible that the atoms composing the physical body should fly to unite with the materialized astral form, if this form is prevented from returning? We have seen in the article about “Metathesis,” which appeared in this journal, that closed doors and solid walls are no obstacles to the penetration by a human physical body under certain conditions, and these conditions have been alluded to in my book on “Magic, White and Black” (Kegan Paul & Co., London).

          When the so-called exposure of the medium “Bastian” took place in the presence of the Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, the materialized astral form was separated from the physical body of the medium by means of a quickly closing trap- door, and the materialized form which was thus caught proved to be Mr. Bastian himself in his physical body and in a dazed, semi-conscious condition of mind.

Similar so-called “exposures” have taken place with other mediums whose previous conduct had never given any occasion to doubt their honesty, and it may therefore not be out of place to recommend to learned sceptics a thorough study of the laws of metaphysics, instead of ignorantly jumping to conclusions of their own, which in the end may injure their reputation as “experts in psychology”; because science progresses at present, and it is undoubtedly true, as Paracelsus says, that “what is looked upon as a superstition in one century may be regarded as the apex of all human knowledge in the next, and what is considered to-day the highest academical wisdom may be exposed to-morrow as arrant tomfoolery.”

II. Black Magic and Astral Delusions

The unfortunate remnants of that expedition that went to Madagascar in search of divine wisdom and of which mention was made in the March number of the OCCULT REVIEW, have returned, infected with malaria poison, but certainly to a certain extent wiser, if not better, men. Their case is undoubtedly very instructive, as it goes to prove that devils may parade in the garb of angels and talk like saints. It shows how even highly intelligent, but in metaphysical matters inexperienced, persons may be easily misled by spiritual phenomena and astral delusions. The following account is from one of those who were fortunate enough to escape:—

          They were twelve persons, Austrians, Germans and Hungarians, nine men, two ladies and one child, all of them highly educated, some wealthy and one of them, Mr. B——, well known in Germany as a public speaker on theosophical subjects. They met at the house of a well-known spiritualist, Dr. R—— , at Budapest, who was himself clairaudient, while his wife was in possession of clairvoyant powers, and both of them seem to have had the elements necessary for the production of semi-materialized spectral forms. Through the mediumship of those persons they received the most unctuous and high-sounding sermons, in which they were admonished that they must give up the world and devote themselves completely to the service of God. They were informed that they had been chosen as the elect vessels for divine grace, and, being as such superior to all mundane matters and relations, they must abandon all inferior things, such as their parents and families, money and other worldly possessions, social connections, business obligations, etc., and go to a place designated hereafter, where they would be removed from the harmful influence of western civilization and where they would find no obstacles to hinder their rapid spiritual progress, but where further instructions would await them.

          Moreover, these communicating spirits were not of a common kind; they revealed themselves as the twelve apostles, and each of these twelve apostles took one of those twelve seekers for wisdom under his special care and protection and accepted him as his disciple. Mr. L—— thus became the favourite disciple of St. Peter, Mr. K—— of St. Paul, Mr. B—— of St. John, and so forth, and to make a climax the Lord Jesus Christ himself appeared in person and gave them special advice. All the theosophical teachings, such as are contained in the books of the ancient sages and rehearsed at the meetings of H. P. Blavatsky and her followers, were now authoritatively declared to be rubbish and trash, and the true doctrine was said to be found only within the ranks of the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church.

Incredible as it may appear, those persons who heretofore considered it to be the object of their life to spread the doctrine of liberty of thought and freedom of investigation now believed it their duty to repudiate the truths which they had already grasped, and they easily fell victims of those astral delusions, a circumstance which can only be explained by the fact that they were completely hypnotized and under the influence of a foreign will and suggestion. Mr. K——, having regained his normal state of mind, assures me that when the letters written by him at that period of time were shown to him after his return, he could not believe that he had ever written such letters himself. We may, perhaps, wonder at the power of such suggestions; but men easily believe things which they wish to be true, especially if they are supposed to come from a higher plane. Great is the power of vanity when it takes possession of the human heart, and who would not be tickled at the prospect of being taken under the special protection of a Mahatma, an apostle, or even of the historical Christ? Thus our friends were easily persuaded that they had been exceptionally shown the one way of salvation for their own respectable personalities, and they wanted to get all the benefits of this favour for themselves. They were ordered to go to Madagascar, and they were only too willing to “give up their self-will” and to obey. Moreover, they received orders to keep everything very secret, the evident object being to prevent any one giving them contrary advice, or to enlighten them in regard to the nature of the influences to which they submitted.

          These influences not only manifested themselves through the senses of hearing and sight; but K—— assures me that when he and his friends were sitting for meditation, they often distinctly felt astral hands passing through their bodies and manipulating their internal organs, kidneys and heart, as if these “apostles” intended, not only to reform their mental qualities but also remodel their physical forms. In addition to this they were told that they were to become redeemers of the world, but that they must first become redeemed themselves, before they could redeem others, and that for this purpose they must give up all self-will and self- thought and implicitly obey the instructions received from their invisible “guides” and unknown superiors.

          The following is an extract from one of the letters written by one of our deluded friends to his parents, and goes to show the trap in which they were caught by these Jesuitical influences; which are the more dangerous, because the views expressed therein are undoubtedly correct, if properly understood; while if they are misunderstood, as they naturally will be by those incapable of grasping their true meaning, they will open the door to idiocy and insanity.

 “My dear parents, brothers and sisters,

“I have made up my mind to become a labourer in the vineyard of the Lord and to abandon myself entirely to the will of God for the purpose of saving my soul and to become a redeemer of others. I have found the true way. It is the way of giving up all worldly things, all personal possessions, powers, knowledge, desires, hopes and aspirations, intentions and fears, and to surrender myself entirely to God. Do not worry about me. I am in good care. When you receive this letter I shall already be far away, and you will probably never hear of my personality,” etc.

          It may be asked: If any one wishes to abandon his self-will entirely to God and trust himself entirely to His guidance, why then should he exercise his own self-will for the purpose of gratifying his selfish desire for personal advancement and spiritual superiority, or become a blind tool for waylaying spirits and unknown “masters,” whose real nature he does not know? Can any one do the will of God, unless the will of God becomes manifest in his own heart?

          Heretofore our friends had been addicted to a vegetable diet, abstained from alcoholic drinks and other pleasures; but now the “masters” told them that all asceticism was harmful, that it would be an exercise of self-will if they were to control their nature, and that they were consequently at liberty to let their nature have its own way. It is clear that such teaching is exceedingly pernicious; for although it is true that for the purpose of obtaining true self-control we need the influence and assistance of the divine power that comes to us from our higher self, to expect that God would drive away our passions and overcome our lower nature without our consent, would be the same as expecting God to become our servant and to fulfil the duties which we are destined to accomplish ourselves.

          To make the matter short, our friends arrived at Antananarivo and there they exercised their self-will by hiring a cottage, because God did not hire it for them. Leaving, however, everything, even the care of their health, as much as possible to God, they lived in a way not at all suitable to the climate of Madagascar and soon became the victims of swamp fever. One of the party had the good sense to escape with his wife and returned to Europe.

          Mr. L—— died first, and B—— soon after followed him to the grave; Dr. R —— became insane and died, and his wife departed this life on board ship while returning to Europe with her child. The rest of the emigrants returned to Europe, some of them with ruined health, and, wonderful to relate, some even now, in spite of their experiences, not yet cured of their illusions. There is also no doubt that if a similar opportunity were offered again, there would be multitudes willing and anxious to go to Madagascar and be led by the nose.

          The explanation of such cases seems clear to every one acquainted with the conditions existing on the super-terrestrial planes. There are not only the powers of light but also the powers of darkness, endowed with intelligence and cunning for the purpose of misleading mankind. All the mystics and occultists speak of these “powers of the air” (inhabitants of the astral plane), and Lord Lytton describes some of them in his Zanoni as being possessed of extreme malice. They are naturally opposed to the spiritual evolution of humanity, and it is not improbable that they should be highly inimical to the “theosophical movement” and try all means to ruin those who are prominently active in the spreading of theosophical teachings.

          Moreover, the above cited case is by no means a solitary example. From certain sects in Russia who delight in mutilating themselves “for the greater glory of God,” down to the latest outgrowths of so-called “Christian Science,” where attempts are made to drag divine powers down and debase them for the purpose of serving material and selfish purposes, the world is full of sectarian bodies and secret societies in which intelligent and well-meaning, but in spiritual things ignorant, persons are unconsciously under the dominion of the powers of darkness and misled by astral delusions.

          The door through which these powers find entrance into the human mind is personal vanity, and many of the best public speakers and leaders of progressive thought have already fallen victims to it, while others are about to follow. The Kingdom of Heaven cannot be obtained by dragging it down to earth, we must rise up to it, if we wish to enter it; darkness cannot come into possession of light; but when the light becomes manifest, darkness must disappear. Selfishness and spirituality are incompatible, and if we desire to obtain some particular favour for ourselves, such a motive is selfish, even if we wish that the good things expected should also be shared by our friends. Paracelsus says: “He who asks of God some service for himself or his friends, loves himself or his friends better than God. He is like the peasant who loves his cow only on account of the milk he receives from her, and if he were to receive no milk he would not care for the cow.”

          Where the seed of selfishness is hidden within the fruit, there putrefaction begins. “Self” cannot overcome “self”; this can only be done through the power of the Divinity in man which belongs to the real self, and the consciousness of the real self begins only where the illusion of “self” with all its selfish desires sinks into forgetfulness. But this doctrine is difficult to understand for those who have not yet learned to distinguish within their hearts between the eternal reality and the temporal illusion of self. This may also be expressed in other words by saying: “The realization of divine truth can take place within the heart and mind only by the grace and the light of God.” Without the arising of this interior light nothing can be accomplished in a spiritual way and therefore the saintly Thomas à Kempis truly says: “There is nothing real in this world except the love of God (the light of truth in the soul).”

          There are numerous would-be seekers of truth, who, having obtained a glimpse of the light of wisdom, imagine themselves to be the possessors of all of it and suppose themselves to be called upon to reform the world. Being, perhaps, in possession of eloquence, they are soon surrounded by flatterers and admiring crowds. Then enters the devil of vanity, ambition and love of power, and is followed by jealousy, envy, intolerance and sectarian quarrels, and the higher they have risen, the deeper will be their fall.

(To be continued.3)

1 Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Second Series. Parts I-II. Franz Hartmann. Occult Review 6, no. 5 (November 1907), 249-258. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

2 Chambers’ Encyclopaedia.

3 {This was the last article of the series. I could not find any continuance.—Robert Hutwohl}

---

Notes:

^[1] Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Occult Review, vol. 4, no. 11 (Nov. 1906), 241-248; vol. 5, no. 3 (Mar. 1907), 138-144; vol. 5, no. 4 (Apr. 1907), 199-205; vol. 5, no. 5 (May 1907), 280-286; vol. 5, no. 6 (Jun. 1907), 330-33; vol. 6, no. 1 (Jul. 1907), 14-17; vol. 6, no. 2 (Aug. 1907), 100-106; vol. 6, no. 5 (Nov. 1907), 249-258 {These articles were reformatted from the originals, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2020}

^[2] Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Parts I-V. Franz Hartmann, M.D. Occult Review 4, no. 11 (November 1906), 241-248.

^[3] The names of some of the persons mentioned in these notes, and whose initials are given, were sent to the Editor. {Many of these stories can be attributed to Dr. Franz Hartmann, due to initial descriptions of the event and my knowing about his personal history.—Robert Hutwohl}

^[4] {physical}

^[5] Further explanations may be found in Sankaracharya’s Tattwa Bodha, German translation (Liepzig: A. Weber).

^[6] Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Parts VI-XI. Franz Hartmann. Occult Review 5, no. 3 (March 1907), 138-144. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

^[7] Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Parts XII-XVI. Franz Hartmann. Occult Review 5, no. 4 (April 1907), 199-205. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

^[8] Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Parts XVII-XIX. Franz Hartmann. Occult Review 5, no. 5 (May 1907), 280-286. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

^[9] This is Dr. Hartmann’s personal experiences, as some of this can be found in his “Denkwürdige Erinnerungen aus dem Leben des Verfassers der “Lotusblüten” and “Aus meinem Leben” [From My Life] both of which I have published, a translation from German to English.—Robert Hutwohl

^[10] [R.H.—The house in which these events occurred, is still standing at Rose Street. See my translation of

^[11] Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Parts XX-XXI. Franz Hartmann. Occult Review 5, no. 6 (June 1907), 330-333. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

^[12] Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Parts XXII-XXIV. Franz Hartmann. Occult Review 6, no. 1 (July 1907), 14-17. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

^[13] {R.H.—Dr. Hartmann was living in Georgetown, CO UsA during the entire year of 1881. This is probably his story.}

^[14] Remarkable Occurrences and Presumable Explanations. Parts XXV-XXVI. Franz Hartmann. Occult Review 6, no. 2 (August 1907), 100-106. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}

^[15] {I found Dr. Hartmann’s example and explanation to be accurate.—Robert Hutwohl}

^[16] Quoted from memory.

^[17] Compare Matthew viii. 31.