Theos-Talk Archives (October 2002 Message tt00202)

Oct 25 2002

Dear Peter and Gopi:

Thinking over this vision Gopi had that led him to a place hitherto
unvisited, I was reminded of some of the explanations Mr. Judge gives
in his article MESMERISM.

Let me reproduce it as it will give us all, I think an explanation as
to what aspect of the human constitution worked in doing this.

----------------------------


MESMERISM
This is the name given to an art, or the exhibition of a power to act
upon others and the facility to be acted upon, which long antedate the
days of Anton Mesmer. Another name for some of its phenomena is
Hypnotism, and still another is Magnetism. The last title was given
because sometimes the person operated on was seen to follow the hand
of the operator, as if drawn like iron filings to a magnet. These are
all used today by various operators, but by many different
appellations it has been known; fascination is one, and psychologizing
is another, but the number of them is so great it is useless to go
over the list.[PARA][PARA]Anton Mesmer, who gave greater publicity in
the Western world to the subject than any other person, and whose name
is still attached to it, was born in 1734, and some few years before
1783, or about 1775, obtained great prominence in Europe in connection
with his experiments and cures; but, as H. P. Blavatsky says in her
Theosophical Glossary, he was only a rediscoverer. The whole subject
had been explored long before his time - indeed many centuries
anterior to the rise of civilization in Europe - and all the great
fraternities of the East were always in full possession of secrets
concerning its practice which remain still unknown. Mesmer came out
with his discoveries as agent, in fact - though, perhaps, without
disclosing those behind him - of certain brotherhoods to which he
belonged. His promulgations were in the last quarter of the century,
just as those of the Theosophical Society were begun in 1875, and what
he did was all that could be done at that time.[PARA][PARA]But in
1639, one hundred years before Mesmer, a book was published in Europe
upon the use of mesmerism in the cure of wounds, and bore the title,
The Sympathetical Powder of Edricius Mohynus of Eburo. These cures, it
was said, could be effected at a distance from the wound by reason of
the virtue or directive faculty between that and the wound. This is
exactly one of the phases of both hypnotism and mesmerism. And along
the same line were the writings of a monk named Uldericus Balk, who
said diseases could be similarly cured, in a book concerning the lamp
of life in 1611. In these works, of course, there is much
superstition, but they treat of mesmerism underneath all the
folly.[PARA][PARA]After the French Academy committee, including
Benjamin Franklin, passed sentence on the subject, condemning it in
substance, mesmerism fell into disrepute, but was revived in America
by many persons who adopted different names for their work and wrote
books on it. One of them named Dods obtained a good deal of celebrity,
and was invited during the life of Daniel Webster to lecture on it
before a number of United States senators. He called his system
"psychology," but it was mesmerism exactly, even to details regarding
nerves and the like. And in England also a good deal of attention was
given to it by numbers of people who were not of scientific repute.
They gave it no better reputation than it had before, and the press
and public generally looked on them as charlatans and upon mesmerism
as a delusion. Such was the state of things until the researches into
what is now known as hypnotism brought that phase of the subject once
more forward, and subsequently to 1875 the popular mind gave more and
more attention to the possibilities in the fields of clairvoyance,
clairaudience, trance, apparitions, and the like. Even physicians and
others, who previously scouted all such investigations, began to take
them up for consideration, and are still engaged thereon. And it seems
quite certain that, by whatever name designated, mesmerism is sure to
have more and more attention paid to it. For it is impossible to
proceed very far with hypnotic experiments without meeting mesmeric
phenomena, and being compelled, as it were, to proceed with an enquiry
into those as well.[PARA][PARA]The hypnotists unjustifiably claim the
merit of discoveries, for even the uneducated so-called charlatans of
the above-mentioned periods cited the very fact appropriated by
hypnotists, that many persons were normally - for them - in a
hypnotized state, or, as they called it, in a psychologized condition,
or negative one, and so forth, according to the particular system
employed.[PARA][PARA]In France Baron Du Potet astonished every one
with his feats in mesmerism, bringing about as great changes in
subjects as the hypnotizers do now. After a time and after reading old
books, he adopted a number of queer symbols that he said had the most
extraordinary effect on the subject, and refused to give these out to
any except pledged persons. This rule was violated, and his
instructions and figures were printed not many years ago for sale with
a pretense of secrecy consisting in a lock to the book. I have read
these and find they are of no moment at all, having their force simply
from the will of the person who uses them. The Baron was a man of very
strong natural mesmeric force, and made his subjects do things that
few others could bring about. He died without causing the scientific
world to pay much attention to the matter.[PARA][PARA]The great
question mooted is whether there is or is not any actual fluid thrown
off by the mesmerizer. Many deny it, and nearly all hypnotizers refuse
to admit it. H. P. Blavatsky declares there is such a fluid, and those
who can see into the plane to which it belongs assert its existence as
a subtle form of matter. This is, I think, true, and is not at all
inconsistent with the experiments in hypnotism, for the fluid can have
its own existence at the same time that people may be self-hypnotized
by merely inverting their eyes while looking at some bright object.
This fluid is composed in part of the astral substance around every
one, and in part of the physical atoms in a finely divided state. By
some this astral substance is called the aura. But that word is
indefinite, as there are many sorts of aura and many degrees of its
expression. These will not be known, even to Theosophists of the most
willing mind, until the race as a whole has developed up to that
point. So the word will remain in use for the present.[PARA][PARA]This
aura, then, is thrown off by the mesmerizer upon his subject, and is
received by the latter in a department of his inner constitution,
never described by any Western experimenters, because they know
nothing of it. It wakes up certain inner and non-physical divisions of
the person operated on, causing a change of relation between the
various and numerous sheaths surrounding the inner man, and making
possible different degrees of intelligence and of clairvoyance and the
like.[PARA][PARA][PARA]NOTE THIS[PARA][PARA][PARA] It has no influence
whatsoever on the Higher Self, (1) which it is impossible to reach by
such means. Many persons are deluded into supposing that the Higher
Self is the responder, or that some spirit or what not is present, but
it is only one of the many inner persons, so to say, who is talking or
rather causing the organs of speech to do their office. And it is just
here that the Theosophist and the non-Theosophist are at fault, since
the words spoken are sometimes far above the ordinary intelligence or
power of the subject in waking state. I therefore propose to give in
the rough the theory of what actually does take place, as has been
known for ages to those who see with the inner eye, and as will one
day be discovered and admitted by science.[PARA][PARA]When the
hypnotic or mesmerized state is complete - and often when it is
partial - there is an immediate paralyzing of the power of the body to
throw its impressions, and thus modify the conceptions of the inner
being. In ordinary waking life every one, without being able to
disentangle himself, is subject to the impressions from the whole
organism; that is to say, every cell in the body, to the most minute,
has its own series of impressions and recollections, all of which
continue to impinge on the great register, the brain, until the
impression remaining in the cell is fully exhausted. And that
exhaustion takes a long time. Further, as we are adding continually to
them, the period of disappearance of impression is indefinitely
postponed. Thus the inner person is not able to make itself felt. But,
in the right subject, those bodily impressions are by mesmerism
neutralized for the time, and at once another effect follows, which is
equivalent to cutting the general off from his army and compelling him
to seek other means of expression.[PARA][PARA]The brain - in cases
where the subject talks - is left free sufficiently to permit it to
obey the commands of the mesmerizer and compel the organs of speech to
respond. So much in general.[PARA][PARA][PARA]NOTE
THIS[PARA][PARA][PARA]We have now come to another part of the nature
of man which is a land unknown to the Western world and its
scientists. By mesmerism other organs are set to work disconnected
from the body, but which in normal state function with and through the
latter. These are not admitted by the world, but they exist, and are
as real as the body is - in fact some who know say they are more real
and less subject to decay, for they remain almost unchanged from birth
to death. These organs have their own currents, circulation if you
will, and methods of receiving and storing impressions. They are those
which in a second of time seize and keep the faintest trace of any
object or word coming before the waking man. They not only keep them
but very often give them out, and when the person is mesmerized their
exit is untrammeled by the body.[PARA]They are divided into many
classes and grades, and each one of them has a whole series of ideas
and facts peculiar to itself, as well as centres in the ethereal body
to which they relate. Instead now of the brain's dealing with the
sensations of the body, it deals with something quite different, and
reports what these inner organs see in any part of space to which they
are directed. [PARA][PARA][PARA]NOTE THIS[PARA][PARA][PARA]And in
place of your having waked up the Higher Self, you have merely
uncovered one of the many sets of impressions and experiences of which
the inner man is composed, and who is himself a long distance from the
Higher Self. These varied pictures, thus seized from every quarter,
are normally overborne by the great roar of the physical life, which
is the sum total of possible expression of a normal being on the
physical plane whereon we move. They show themselves usually only by
glimpses when we have sudden ideas or recollections, or in dreams when
our sleeping may be crowded with fancies for which we cannot find a
basis in daily life. [PARA][PARA]Yet the basis exists, and is always
some one or other of the million small impressions of the day passed
unnoticed by the physical brain, but caught unerringly by means of
other sensoriums belonging to our astral double. For this astral body,
or double, permeates the physical one as colour does the bowl of
water. And although to the materialistic conceptions of the present
day such a misty shadow is not admitted to have parts, powers, and
organs, it nevertheless has all of these with a surprising power and
grasp. Although perhaps a mist, it can exert under proper conditions a
force equal to the viewless wind when it levels to earth the proud
constructions of puny man.[PARA][PARA][PARA]NOTE
THIS[PARA][PARA][PARA]In the astral body, then, is the place to look
for the explanation of mesmerism and hypnotism. The Higher Self will
explain the flights we seldom make into the realm of spirit, and is
the God - the Father - within who guides His children up the long
steep road to perfection. Let not the idea of it be degraded by
chaining it to the low floor of mesmeric phenomena, which any healthy
man or woman can bring about if they will only try. The grosser the
operator the better, for thus there is more of the mesmeric force, and
if it be the Higher Self that is affected, then the meaning of it
would be that gross matter can with ease affect and deflect the high
spirit - and this is against the testimony of the ages.[PARA][PARA]A
Paramahansa of the Himalayas has put in print the following words:
"Theosophy is that branch of Masonry which shows the Universe in the
form of an egg." Putting on one side the germinal spot in the egg, we
have left five other main divisions: The fluid, the yolk, the skin of
the yolk, the inner skin of the shell, and the hard shell. The shell
and the inner skin may be taken as one. That leaves us four,
corresponding to the old divisions of fire, air, earth, and water.
Man, roughly speaking, is divided in the same manner, and from these
main divisions spring all his manifold experiences on the outer and
the introspective planes. The human structure has its skin, its blood,
its earthy matter - called bones for the moment, its flesh, and lastly
the great germ which is insulated somewhere in the brain by means of a
complete coat of fatty matter.[PARA][PARA]The skin includes the
mucous, all membranes in the body, the arterial coats, and so on. The
flesh takes in the nerves, the animal cells so-called, and the
muscles. The bones stand alone. The blood has its cells, the
corpuscles, and the fluid they float in. The organs, such as the
liver, the spleen, the lungs, include skin, blood, and mucous. Each of
these divisions and all of their subdivisions have their own peculiar
impressions and recollections, and all, together with the coordinator
the brain, make up the man as he is on the visible
plane.[PARA][PARA]These all have to do with the phenomena of
mesmerism, although there are those who may think it not possible that
mucous membrane or skin can give us any knowledge. But it is
nevertheless the fact, for the sensations of every part of the body
affect each cognition, and when the experiences of the skin cells, or
any other, are most prominent before the brain of the subject, all his
reports to the operator will be drawn from that, unknown to both, and
put into language for the brain's use so long as the next condition is
not reached. This is the Esoteric Doctrine, and will at last be found
true. For man is made up of millions of lives, and from these, unable
of themselves to act rationally or independently, he gains ideas, and
as the master of all puts those ideas, together with others from
higher planes, into thought, word, and act. Hence at the very first
step in mesmerism this factor has to be remembered, but nowadays
people do not know it and cannot recognize its presence, but are
carried away by the strangeness of the phenomena.[PARA][PARA]The very
best of subjects are mixed in their reports, because the things they
do see are varied and distorted by the several experiences of the
parts of their nature I have mentioned, all of which are constantly
clamouring for a hearing. And every operator is sure to be misled by
them unless he is himself a trained seer.[PARA][PARA]The next step
takes us into the region of the inner man, not the spiritual being,
but the astral one who is the model on which the outer visible form is
built. The inner person is the mediator between mind and matter.
Hearing the commands of mind, he causes the physical nerves to act and
thus the whole body. All the senses have their seat in this person,
and every one of them is a thousand-fold more extensive in range than
their outer representatives, for those outer eyes and ears, and sense
of touch, taste, and smell, are only gross organs which the inner ones
use, but which of themselves can do nothing.[PARA][PARA]This can be
seen when we cut off the nerve connection, say from the eye, for then
the inner eye cannot connect with physical nature and is unable to see
an object placed before the retina, although feeling or hearing may in
their way apprehend the object if those are not also cut
off.[PARA][PARA][PARA]NOTE THIS[PARA][PARA][PARA]These inner senses
can perceive under certain conditions to any distance regardless of
position or obstacle. But they cannot see everything, nor are they
always able to properly understand the nature of everything they do
see. For sometimes that appears to them with which they are not
familiar. And further, they will often report having seen what they
are desired by the operator to see, when in fact they are giving
unreliable information. For, as the astral senses of any person are
the direct inheritance of his own prior incarnations, and are not the
product of family heredity, they cannot transcend their own
experience, and hence their cognitions are limited by it, no matter
how wonderful their action appears to him who is using only the
physical sense-organs. In the ordinary healthy person these astral
senses are inextricably linked with the body and limited by the
apparatus which it furnishes during the waking state. And only when
one falls asleep, or into a mesmerized state, or trance, or under the
most severe training, can they act in a somewhat independent manner.
This they do in sleep, when they live another life than that compelled
by the force and the necessities of the waking organism. And when
there is a paralyzation of the body by the mesmeric fluid they can
act, because the impressions from the physical cells are
inhibited.[PARA][PARA]The mesmeric fluid brings this paralyzing about
by flowing from the operator and creeping steadily over the whole body
of the subject, changing the polarity of the cells in every part and
thus disconnecting the outer from the inner man. As the whole system
of physical nerves is sympathetic in all its ramifications, when
certain major sets of nerves are affected others by sympathy follow
into the same condition. So it often happens with mesmerized subjects
that the arms or legs are suddenly paralyzed without being directly
operated on, or, as frequently, the sensation due to the fluid is felt
first in the fore-arm, although the head was the only place
touched.[PARA][PARA]There are many secrets about this part of the
process, but they will not be given out, as it is easy enough for all
proper purposes to mesmerize a subject by following what is already
publicly known. By means of certain nerve points located near the skin
the whole system of nerves may be altered in an instant, even by a
slight breath from the mouth at a distance of eight feet from the
subject. But modern books do not point this out.[PARA][PARA]When the
paralyzing and change of polarity of the cells are complete the astral
man is almost disconnected from the body. has he any structure? What
mesmerizer knows? How many probably will deny that he has any
structure at all? Is he only a mist, an idea? And yet, again, how many
subjects are trained so as to be able to analyze their own astral
anatomy?[PARA][PARA]But the structure of the inner astral man is
definite and coherent. it cannot be fully dealt with in a magazine
article, but may be roughly set forth, leaving readers to fill in the
details.[PARA]Just as the outer body has a spine which is the column
whereon the being sustains itself with the brain at the top, so the
astral body has its spine and brain. It is material, for it is made of
matter, however finely divided, and is not of the nature of the
spirit.[PARA][PARA]After the maturity of the child before birth this
form is fixed, coherent, and lasting, undergoing but small alteration
from that day until death. And so also as to its brain; that remains
unchanged until the body is given up, and does not, like the outer
brain, give up cells to be replaced by others from hour to hour. These
inner parts are thus more permanent than the outer correspondents to
them. Our material organs, bones, and tissues are undergoing change
each instant. They are suffering always what the ancients called "the
constant momentary dissolution of minor units of matter," and hence
within each month there is a perceptible change by way of diminution
or accretion.[PARA][PARA][PARA]NOTE THIS[PARA][PARA][PARA]This is not
the case with the inner form. It alters only from life to life, being
constructed at the time of reincarnation to last for a whole period of
existence. For it is the model fixed by the present evolutionary
proportions for the outer body. It is the collector, as it were, of
the visible atoms which make us as we outwardly appear. So at birth it
is potentially of a certain size, and when that limit is reached it
stops the further extension of the body, making possible what are
known today as average weights and average sizes. At the same time the
outer body is kept in shape by the inner one until the period of
decay. And this decay, followed by death, is not due to bodily
disintegration per se, but to the fact that the term of the astral
body is reached, when it is no longer able to hold the outer frame
intact. Its power to resist the impact and war of the material
molecules being exhausted, the sleep of death
supervenes.[PARA][PARA]Now, as in our physical form the brain and
spine are the centres for nerves, so in the other there are the nerves
which ramify from the inner brain and spine all over the structure.
All of these are related to every organ in the outer visible body.
They are more in the nature of currents than nerves, as we understand
the word, and may be called astro-nerves. They move in relation to
such great centres in the body outside, as the heart, the pit of the
throat, umbilical centre, spleen, and sacral plexus. And here, in
passing, it may be asked of the Western mesmerizers what do they know
of the use and power, if any, of the umbilical centre? They will
probably say it has no use in particular after the accomplishment of
birth. But the true science of mesmerism says there is much yet to be
learned even on that one point; and there is no scarcity, in the
proper quarters, of records as to experiments on, and use of, this
centre.[PARA][PARA]The astro-spinal column has three great nerves of
the same sort of matter. They may be called ways or channels, up and
down which the forces play, that enable man inside and outside to
stand erect, to move, to feel, and to act. In description they answer
exactly to the magnetic fluids, that is, they are respectively
positive, negative, and neutral, their regular balance being essential
to sanity. When the astral spine reaches the inner brain the nerves
alter and become more complex, having a final great outlet in the
skull. Then, with these two great parts of the inner person are the
other manifold sets of nerves of similar nature related to the various
planes of sensation in the visible and invisible worlds. These all
then constitute the personal actor within, and in these is the place
to seek for the solution of the problems presented by mesmerism and
hypnotism.[PARA][PARA]Disjoin this being from the outer body with
which he is linked, and the divorce deprives him of freedom
temporarily, making him the slave of the operator. But mesmerizers
know very well that the subject can and does often escape from
control, puzzling them often, and often giving them fright. This is
testified to by all the best writers in the Western
schools.[PARA][PARA]Now this inner man is not by any means omniscient.
he has an understanding that is limited by his own experience, as said
before. Therefore, error creeps in if we rely on what he says in the
mesmeric trance as to anything that requires philosophical knowledge,
except with rare cases that are so infrequent as not to need
consideration now. For neither the limit of the subject's power to
know, nor the effect of the operator on the inner sensoriums described
above, is known to operators in general, and especially not by those
who do not accept the ancient division of the inner nature of man. The
effect of the operator is almost always to colour the reports made by
the subject.[PARA][PARA]Take an instance: A. was a mesmerizer of C., a
very sensitive woman, who had never made philosophy a study. A. had
his mind made up to a certain course of procedure concerning other
persons and requiring argument. But before action he consulted the
sensitive, having in his possession a letter from X., who is a very
definite thinker and very positive; while A., on the other hand, was
not definite in idea although a good physical mesmerizer. The result
was that the sensitive, after falling into the trance and being asked
on the question debated, gave the views of X., whom she had not known,
and so strongly that A. changed his plan although not his conviction,
not knowing that it was the influence of the ideas of X. then in his
mind, that had deflected the understanding of the sensitive. The
thoughts of X., being very sharply cut, were enough to entirely change
any previous views the subject had. What reliance, then, can be placed
on untrained seers? And all the mesmeric subjects we have are wholly
untrained, in the sense that the word bears with the school of ancient
mesmerism of which I have been speaking.[PARA][PARA]The processes used
in mesmeric experiment need not be gone into here. There are many
books declaring them, but after studying the matter for the past
twenty-two years, I do not find that they do other than copy one
another, and that the entire set of directions can, for all practical
purposes, be written on a single sheet of paper. But there are many
other methods of still greater efficiency anciently taught, that may
be left for another occasion.[PARA][PARA]WILLIAM Q.
JUDGE[PARA][PARA]Lucifer, May, 1892[PARA][PARA](1) Atma, in its
vehicle Buddhi. [Ed.] [PARA][PARA]

=====================

I think you will find in this rather technical explanation of the
nature of the ASTRAL BODY and its relation to the Physical that
explanation which Theosophy would offer on this

Best wishes,

Dallas

==========================

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter M
Sent: Friday, October 25, 2002
To: study
Subject: [study] Re: Manas and Buddhi

GOPI WROTE:

>>> However, I want to give you one of my experiences. This experience
is a
fact and illustrates Manas (Lower and Higher) and Budhi. I know that
the
members of this study group are sophisticated enough (and I can share
this
pearl) that they will not question the facts or analyze the facts
(Analysis
is Paralysis per JK). I wish to participate in the Theosophical
interpretation of the experience. There are several other experiences
(mine
and my friends) that are even more interesting!<<<

------------------------------------------------


Dear Gopi,

Actually, I don't agree with Krishnamurti that "analysis is
paralysis". I
think 'analysis is just analysis', sometimes very valuable, sometimes
limited in its value. One can see many occassions where Krishnamurti
used
analysis when speaking to individuals and audiences. I wonder how
many
aspiring students of the spiritual path with the ideal of 'the Master'
in
their hearts have felt paralysed by Krishnamuti's teachings and his
public
denials of these things?

I found your description of your experience of trying to find your way
to an
unknown destination an interesting one. I also wondered why described
your
'knowing the way to a Jamboree' as the faculty of Buddhi, which is a
highly
spiritual faculty. What would lead you to put aside an explanation in
terms
of psychic or extra sensory functioning at that time? What made
finding you
way to the Jamboree a 'spiritual experience', which is the
characteristic of
Buddhi?

best,

...Peter