Note[1]
Die Planetenbewohner, (The Inhabitants of the Planets) and the Nebular Theory, is the attractive title of an interesting book by the astronomer Dr. Carl du Prel, who has already become very favourably known by his previous Darwinistic writings. If one expects to find in this work a fancy sketch of the costumes and manners of the inhabitants of the planets, he will be disappointed as the work is purely scientific, demonstrating that the existence of other human beings than such as we know of, and endowed with peculiar organs, such as are adapted to their peculiar surroundings, is not only a possibility but a logical probability, if not a cosmical necessity. The author is a man of science and as such he deals with solid facts and mathematical deductions. His work forms the key-stone to the arch, which modern astronomy has erected.
According to the nebular theory our solar system was originally a gaseous firemist, which contracted, consolidated and turned with a certain velocity around its own centre, or axis. As this velocity increased, rings were thrown off from its surface, which kept the original movement, imparted to them by the parent body, the sun. These rings have been thrown off at various intervals of time and therefore differ in age, size and density. There are at present over 200 planets, moons and asteroids in our solar system, and originally there must have been a great many more; but the law of the survival of the fittest, which governs everything in nature is here in action too. Each planet by its attraction, (gravitation and tangential force) influences and modifies the movements of its neighbours, and causes perturbations, by which in the course of time a number of planets must have collided and consolidated into one or more. Therefore only those planets, whose perturbations equalize each other, whose periods of revolution are irrational—survive. The perturbations of our present planets are equalized, and those of the asteroids nearly so.
Space will not permit us unfortunately to follow the author into all the details of his interesting investigations of the physical nature, and the progress of planets, moons, asteroids, comets and meteors.
Spectral analysis proves that the elements composing the planets and stars are in their intrinsic nature the same as we know them on earth; but their states must differ very much according to the age and density of the planet and its distance from the sun. The conditions existing on the different planets for the development of organic life must vary accordingly, and therefore their vegetable and animal products must also vary. Only four planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars, exhibit conditions somewhat similar to each other, and thus their inhabitants may be more or less like man as we know him. But can all life be limited to such an insignificant small portion of the universe?
22 ½ millions of years are necessary for our solar system, to accomplish one of its grand revolutions around the star Alcyone in the constellation of the Pleiades and a ray of light from Alcyone has to travel for 715 years before it can reach our earth. There are stars whose light takes 5521 years to reach us. Is it reasonable to suppose that all this immense and incomprehensible space and time has been wasted, to give life only to one or four inferior planets, whose importance, is almost like nothing in comparison with the magnitude of the universe? Such a conclusion would prove the personal creator, if such a being could exist, to be unreasonable and unjust. But if we accept the theory that there are other modes of life and consciousness in the universe than those with which we are experimentally acquainted;—if we understand that organic beings can exist in other forms than the albuminous bodies which we know through our physical senses; it then becomes useless to base our speculations on the forms as we find them on earth. But even on our planet there is an almost infinite number of things, which are invisible to us, because we can only perceive things by our senses and those senses are by no means fully developed. In fact we do not know the things themselves at all, but only perceive them by their modes of action.
The constitution of the inhabitant of a planet is not a matter of arbitration, but a result of the correlation of forces which exist on that planet, modified by the conditions found therein. His organs must accordingly differ and be adapted to his surroundings. His size, weight, strength, quality of senses, duration of life, perceptive, mental and spiritual faculties must be in corresponding harmony; and to form a comprehensive idea how a man on a certain other planet may be constituted, we must not only take all these things into consideration, but also the variations of astronomical influences, such as gravitation, density, refraction of the rays of the sun, and the density of the atmosphere through which the rays of the sun must pass. A man for instance, weighing 60 Kilogrammes on earth, would weigh on the moon only 13, while on the Sun—he would weigh 1,762, &c.
The evolution, growth, form and number of organs is a natural consequence of the necessities of their existence. The surroundings of man called them into life, and his organs become developed or disappear, in accordance with the necessity for their use. An organ that may be very useful on one planet may he useless on another. Plants, animals and men project the organs they need, the same is the case with still higher and more complex bodies, such as the body politic of a town or state, church or any other social organization. Here and there principles and men are combined for a common purpose. Each man as each organ has a certain purpose to fulfil. An organ that is affected, makes the body diseased, a person or a body of men that act contrary to the laws of the country, hinder its development and affect the health of the whole. In man as well as in the organisation of state, like everywhere else in nature, the different organs and limbs, to become useful as well as beautiful, must be according to the rules of the “golden circle,” which means the division of a whole into unequal parts, of which the smaller part bears the same proportions to the larger one, as the larger one to the whole. Only when this rule is observed, works of art become perfect, and as in art, which is only an imitation of the master works of nature, so through the whole of nature the workings of this law can be traced.
This can only be explained, if we admit that a universal principle pervades the whole of nature, or is identical with nature, which alone is capable of shaping the forms which it evolves according to that rule. This principle having grown into consciousness in man stands before its own works and admires the beauty of its own creations, and the unity of nature and spirit is revealed to us.
We have undoubtedly the right to draw our conclusions as to the form of organic products by observing the products of the human mind, the unity of the universe further permitting us to extend our conclusions to the organisms of other planets. Nature and spirit are radiations from one common point, and the formative principles of both are identical. Ideas become developed, unfolded and differentiated like organic products. The History of the human mind is a process of adapting itself to the conceptions of reality. Here like everywhere we find competition, elimination of error, survival of truths. Goethe says “each age floats in an atmosphere of common ideas and thoughts, and it is just as natural that the same discoveries or inventions should be made at the same time by different persons, as that indifferent orchard fruits of the same kind should ripen and fall at the same time.”
Mind (spirit) and nature are one, but we see many inventions that nature has made, while the human mind has not been yet able to imitate them, such, for instance, is the problem of flying, which nature has solved in the construction of birds. Whatever is possible to nature must be possible to man, and as long as man has not succeeded to produce the works which nature produces, as long as he is surpassed by nature in his abilities, he is not yet perfect. If we wish to form an idea of the nature of the inhabitants of other planets, we must look through the book of inventions, and compare the realm of organic nature with the products of technical activity. Where the former surpasses the latter, there we are afforded a glimpse of the possibilities of the inhabitants of other planets or of our own future. If we for instance should make the acquaintance of an inhabitant of another planet, whose brain would have the inherent power to perceive the chemical qualities of matter, a power which we technically possess in the spectroscope; the existence of such a being would be less miraculous than the fact that nature should form a brain, which is capable of inventing such an instrument.
If we agree that there may have been a time, when man could not see or hear, we may also conclude that the inhabitants of other planets may have certain senses of which we as yet know nothing and that are able to perceive such vibrations of ether as cannot be perceived by our senses, and of which we can therefore form no comprehensive idea; while again others may be deficient in such senses as we possess. What appears to us as color may appear to them as sound, etc. Amongst, a hundred persons about five are found to be colorblind, and some people cannot hear sounds, which are fully perceptible to others. One and the same object may he either felt, seen or heard, according to the character of its movements or vibrations.
Suppose a metallic rod to be suspended in a dark room and let the same be connected with some mechanical contrivance, by which it can be made to vibrate and increase the vibrations gradually to a certain extent, and we will have the following result: At first the rod can only be perceived by the mechanical resistance it presents to our touch; but when the vibrations rise to the number of more than 32 in a second, an action at the distance commences. The drum of our ear then begins to vibrate in consonance with the rod and we hear a sound of deep sonorous bass. As the vibrations increase the sound increases in pitch and runs up through the musical scale to the highest note, when at 36,000 vibrations per second all sound ceases and the rod becomes imperceptible to our senses. All through the long interval from 36,000 up to 18 millions of vibrations per second we can neither hear nor see the rod; but at this point it begins to affect our sense of feeling, by emitting radiant heat. At a still higher rate the heat ceases, a dull red glow appears which becomes perceptible to our sight, and runs up through all the colours of the solar spectrum through yellow, green, blue, purple and violet, until at 8 billions of vibrations per second, all light disappears and the rod as far as our senses are concerned has ceased to exist, although its presence can still be proved by its exhibition of chemical action. Experiments like the above may be varied in various ways; they show that all we know of our surroundings, is only the impressions which they make upon our senses. The rays of the sun are not all visible to us. On the one side of the solar spectrum there are rays, which can only be felt (heat rays), on the other side they may produce chemical action (chemical rays). There may be men on other planets, who perceive sound as we do light, and others whose sense of hearing is affected by what is to us inaudible motion, and to such “the music of the spheres” may be more real than the poetical idea implies. We pity the blind and the deaf, but there may be superior beings, to whom we may appear as blind and deaf and we may be looked upon with pity by them.
If we examine into the nature of our organs of sensation and their commencement, the first question which meets us, is “how can dead matter become conscious?” We answer, “Dead matter can never become conscious; because matter is never dead.”[2] Sensation is a principle, which may be latent or become developed. It may be difficult for us to imagine sensation without a nervous system, but it is more difficult to imagine that a nervous system could become developed without having in its atoms the inherent capacity for sensation. Physiologists know that there can be sensation without consciousness and many plants especially creepers exhibit it. Sensation may be found perhaps to a great extent lower in the scale of nature, but we cannot detect it; because we have to measure it by our own sensation and there all similarity is lost.
Whenever our senses come in contact with the vibrations of ether or matter, the senses communicate them to the brain and there the various sensations are excited. The visible color rays of the sun differ from the invisible heat rays only by the different size of the waves put into vibration. If we talk of the sun as a hot and luminous body, we express no opinion whatever in regard to the condition of his objective existence, but refer only to our own subjective sensations. There is neither light nor sound, nor color in nature; we do not perceive the objective changes in nature, but only those subjective changes, which are produced in the centres of sensation of our brain. We have no other experience than an internal one.
Our world is consequently only our own Illusion. We know nothing of any existence of things but that which coincides with our ability to perceive. People usually consider the eye as a mirror in which external things are reflecting their images; but experimental physiology teaches that these things must first be formed by the optic nerve. We do not see the actual images of things as they are, but only their symbolic figures. “Sight”—says Berkeley—“is a language, which speaks to the eye, and we are not conscious of having learned it, because from our earliest day we have learned it continually.”
The external world is a phenomenal world. It is a perception of our mind, and not the real nature of things; but only the semblance of reality is impressed on our senses. Wc call these qualities of things and imagine to grasp an external world, while in reality we never leuve our subjectivity by observing them and we only learn to know the mode of their reactions upon our senses. There is no such thing as a cheating of nature. Organic bodies absolutely require for the purpose of their existence such senses and the development of such an intellect to define our own position in regard to the external world. How we obtain this knowledge is practically immaterial, and whether we receive true pictures of objects or only their symbolic representations, is for our purposes one and the same thing. It is not necessary for our purposes that the objects and their representations should be identical. If our senses were constructed differently, we would have an entirely different conception of the world. But whether a book is written in Latin, Greek or Sanskrit letters—what does it matter so long as we can read the letters and understand their meaning; provided the meaning of the same word does not change?
The world, as we imagine it to be, is only a phenomenon, whose condition is dependent on our organisation and ceases to exist with that. This is an old philosophical doctrine and modern Physical and Physiological sciences have proved its truth by experiment. Heat and Light, sound, color, taste and smell are not things but only affections of our senses, and whatever we perceive is only the sum of our subjective conditions of consciousness. We perceive only a part of those things that exist and not all that we believe to perceive does exist in reality.
All those different impressions upon our senses would not enable us to define our position, if we did not concentrate or focalise them to a single centre in which the various impressions are kept together by the tie of memory. This centre consists in our personal consciousness. With the same scepticism, with which we accept the testimony of our senses, must we also mistrust the deductions of our intellect, which being the collective focus of our sensuous impressions must be equally liable to error and equally subject to the laws of development. We see therefore very different degrees of intelligence among animals. If the sensuous perceptions of the inhabitants of other planets vary from ours, their intellect must also vary accordingly; for as every organ has passed through several changes in the course of evolution, so the centre of our impressions, the intellect, must have changed accordingly. A being whose intellect would be so very different from ours, would probably perform actions which would astonish us very much, and which we would call miracles, because we could not understand them.
Kant, in his “Kritik der reinen Vernunft”[3] has demonstrated that space is nothing but a mode of perception of our reason and dependent on its specific nature. This is already proved by the fact that all the estimation of the extension of space rests simply upon our comparison. If every thing in nature, ourselves included, would during our sleep suddenly become immensely large or microscopically small, after waking up in the morning, we would never know that any change had taken place, provided we had been ourselves included in the change. Height, breadth and depth, are only subjective. If we were a globular eye without a body, all dimensions of space would be perceived by us as only one dimension.
The mathematician Riemann speaks of the possibility of the existence of a space whose lines do not continue in direct lines, but return into themselves. Such a dimension, would not be infinite, but globular. But if space, with its three dimensions, continuing in straight lines into infinity, is only a subjective form of contemplation, then it will also from an intellectual point of view be permissible to ask whether the existence of a fourth dimension of space is possible. The mathematician Jauss does not doubt its possibility and demonstrates the three dimensional extension of space to be a specific quality of the human soul. Further more, if we can prove that our present three dimensional perception of space is a result of an evolution of our mind during the past, the possibility of a still continued evolution to a four dimensional perception would be presented.
Physiology proves that the appearance of a simple plane in the field of our eye is not a function of our senses, but a psychic act to whose completion the sense of sight simply furnishes the material to the reasoning faculty. For thousands of years man looked upon the starry sky as a plane, to which the stars were fastened, and the stereometric conception of space is of a comparatively recent date. The aspect of our two hands, which are both alike and yet differ—because the right one cannot be replaced by the left, nor the left by the right—indicates that there must be a fourth dimensional perception of space.
As space is subjective, so time is subjective! We cannot imagine a time which will end, neither can we imagine an endless time. Time is nothing unless in connection with our association of ideas. Life passes slow or quick, according to the number of sensations of which we become conscious during a certain astronomical time. To a fly that lives one day, life may perhaps seem longer than fifty years to the dull comprehension of a turtle. The yellow sunray causes 509 billions of vibrations of ether in a second. If we were able to perceive each single undulation, instead of only the sum of these, a single day would appear to us like eternity; while if our mind could only receive one single impression per minute, life would seem extremely short. The existence of both kinds of beings, who have either such quick or slow perceptions, is not unthinkable.
We only know of one mode of consciousness, which is our own; but we have no right to maintain, that this is the only possible mode. We are under the logical necessity of either to believe in the unintelligence of the universe or in our own ignorance. Which of the two is the more probable theory?—
Not one realm of nature has ever been discovered, in which the products of reality have not far surpassed the creations of our imagination. Should it be different, where life and consciousness are concerned?—At present we cannot judge of the quality of things, that lie beyond our horizon, but to suppose that a time will arrive, when we shall be able to obtain knowledge of the inhabitants of other planets, does not seem to be more absurd than the presumption which prevailed only a short time ago, which declared it impossible that we should ever know anything about the chemical composition of the stars.
Our investigations finally teach us, not to look upon the universe as an aggregation of dead matter, combined to mechanical systems; which is the prevailing idea of our age of materialism; but we do not believe to err, if we predict that before many years have passed away, scientists will consider themselves unable to explain the mechanism of the universe, without taking into consideration the phenomena of consciousness and morals.
American Buddhist.
Notes:
[1] The Inhabitants of the Planets. American Buddhist [Franz Hartmann] The Theosophist 5, no. 7 (Apr. 1884), 173-175. {This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos, by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025}
[2] And this is a cardinal doctrine of occultism. Our Masters say: We recognize no such thing as “dead matter.” Every atom is organic—and to deny this is the greatest mistake of modern science.—Ed.
[3] {R.H.—Critique of Pure Reason}