Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00404)

Part 1	PSYCHIC PHENOMENA in ISIS UNVEILED

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In reading ISIS UNVEILED one finds here and there interesting references
to the power of the will, and the mastery over the astral regions

The following events and stories may prove to be of interest

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In 1877, in ISIS UNVEILED, Vol. I, pp. 466... on, H P B gives us the
basis for this article which was published after her death (May 8th
1891) in August 1893 [ Courtesy of BLAVATSKY NET and THEOSOPHICAL
UNIVERSITY PRESS, Pasadena, CA. ] From the pages of ISIS UNVEILED
reproduced below, you will see how in some places the text is very
similar to the text of the article just posted a few days ago.

These pages from Vol. I of ISIS UNVEILED speak for themselves.

Among these will be found the official report to Queen Elizabeth of
England of a delegation she had sent to visit JEHANGHIR, THE MOGUL
EMPEROR OF INDIA IN 1615 -- some 400 years ago. (see p. 457 and p. 474)

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From:	ISIS UNVEILED, Vol. I, p. 466


"The unexplained mysteries of nature are many and of those presumably
explained hardly one may be said to have become absolutely intelligible.
There is not a plant or mineral which has disclosed the last of its
properties to the scientists. What do the naturalists know of the
intimate nature of the vegetable and mineral kingdoms? How can they feel
confident that for every one of the discovered properties there may not
be many powers concealed in the inner nature of the plant or stone? And
that they are only waiting to be brought in relation with some other
plant, mineral, or force of nature to manifest themselves in what is
termed a "supernatural manner." Wherever Pliny, the naturalist, A Elian,
and even Diodorus, who sought with such a laudable perseverance to
extricate historical truth from its medley of exaggerations and fables,
have attributed to some plant or mineral an occult property unknown to
our modern botanists and physicists, their assertions have been laid
aside without further ceremony as absurd, and no more referred to.

It has been the speculation of men of science from time immemorial what
this vital force or life-principle is. To our mind the "secret doctrine"
alone is able to furnish the clew. Exact science recognizes only five
powers in nature -- one molar, and four molecular; kabalists, seven; and
in these two additional ones is enwrapped the whole mystery of life. One
of these is immortal spirit, whose reflection is connected by invisible
links even with inorganic matter; the other, we leave to every one to
discover for himself. Says Professor Joseph Le Conte: "What is the
nature of the difference between the living organism and the dead
organism? We can detect none, physical or chemical. All the physical and
chemical forces withdrawn from the common fund of nature, and embodied
in the living organism, seem to be still embodied


467

in the dead, until little by little it is returned by decomposition. Yet
the difference is immense, is inconceivably great. What is the nature of
this difference expressed in the formula of material science? What is
that that is gone, and whither is it gone? There is something here that
science cannot yet understand. Yet it is just this loss which takes
place in death, and before decomposition, which is in the highest sense
vital force!"*

Difficult, nay impossible, as it seems to science to find out the
invisible, universal motor of all -- Life, to explain its nature, or
even to suggest a reasonable hypothesis for the same, the mystery is but
half a mystery, not merely for the great adepts and seers, but even for
true and firm believers in a spiritual world. To the simple believer,
unblessed with a personal organism, the delicate, nervous sensitiveness
of which would enable him -- as it enables a seer -- to perceive the
visible universe reflected as in a clear glass in the Invisible one,
and, as it were, objectively, there remains divine faith. The latter is
firmly rooted in his inner senses; in his unerring intuition, with which
cold reason has naught to do, he feels it cannot play him false. Let
human-born, erroneous dogmas, and theological sophistry contradict each
other; let one crowd off the other, and the subtile casuistry of one
creed fell to the ground the crafty reasoning of another one; truth
remains one, and there is not a religion, whether Christian or heathen,
that is not firmly built upon the rock of ages -- God and immortal
spirit.

Every animal is more or less endowed with the faculty of perceiving, if
not spirits, at least something which remains for the time being
invisible to common men, and can only be discerned by a clairvoyant. We
have made hundreds of experiments with cats, dogs, monkeys of various
kinds, and, once, with a tame tiger. A round black mirror, known as the
"magic crystal," was strongly mesmerized by a native Hindu gentleman,
formerly an inhabitant of Dindigul, and now residing in a more secluded
spot, among the mountains known as the Western Ghauts. He had tamed a
young cub, brought to him from the Malabar coast, in which part of India
the tigers are proverbially ferocious; and it is with this interesting
animal that we made our experiments.

Like the ancient Marsi and Psylli, the renowned serpent-charmers, this
gentleman claimed to be possessed of the mysterious power of taming any
kind of animal. The tiger was reduced to a chronic mental numbness, so
to say; he had become as inoffensive and harmless as a dog. Children
could tease and pull him by the ears, and he would only shake himself
and howl like a dog. But whenever forced to look into the


468

"magic mirror," the poor animal was instantly excited to a sort of
frenzy. His eyes became full of a human terror; howling in despair,
unable to turn away from the mirror to which his gaze seemed riveted as
by a magnetic spell, he would writhe and tremble till he convulsed with
fear at some vision which to us remained unknown. He would then lie
down, feebly groaning but still gazing in the glass. When it was taken
away from him, the animal would lie panting and seemingly prostrated for
about two hours. What did he see? What spirit-picture from his own
invisible, animal-world, could produce such a terrific effect on the
wild and naturally ferocious and daring beast? Who can tell? Perhaps he
who produced the scene.

The same effect on animals was observed during spiritual seances with
some holy mendicants; the same when a Syrian, half-heathen and
half-Christian, from Kunankulam (Cochin State), a reputed sorcerer, who
was invited to join us for the sake of experimenting.

We were nine persons in all -- seven men and two women, one of the
latter a native. Besides us, there were in the room, the young tiger,
intensely occupied on a bone; a wanderoo, or lion-monkey, which, with
its black coat and snow-white goatee and whiskers, and cunning,
sparkling eyes, looked the personification of mischief; and a beautiful
golden oriole, quietly cleaning its radiant-colored tail on a perch,
placed near a large window of the veranda. In India, "spiritual" seances
are not held in the dark, as in America; and no conditions, but perfect
silence and harmony, are required. It was in the full glare of daylight
streaming through the opened doors and windows, with a far-away buzz of
life from the neighboring forests, and jungles sending us the echo of
myriads of insects, birds, and animals. We sat in the midst of a garden
in which the house was built, and instead of breathing the stifling
atmosphere of a seance-room, we were amid the fire-colored clusters of
the erythrina -- the coral tree -- inhaling the fragrant aromas of trees
and shrubs, and the flowers of the bignonia, whose white blossoms
trembled in the soft breeze. In short, we were surrounded with light,
harmony, and perfumes. Large nosegays of flowers and shrubs, sacred to
the native gods, were gathered for the purpose, and brought into the
rooms. We had the sweet basil, the Vishnu-flower, without which no
religious ceremony in Bengal will ever take place; and the branches of
the Ficus religiosa, the tree dedicated to the same bright deity,
intermingling their leaves with the rosy blossoms of the sacred lotos
and the Indian tuberose, profusely ornamented the walls.

While the "blessed one" -- represented by a very dirty, but,
nevertheless, really holy fakir -- remained plunged in
self-contemplation, and some spiritual wonders were taking place under
the direction of his will,


469	FEATS OF MAGIC -- BLACK AND WHITE.

the monkey and the bird exhibited but few signs of restlessness. The
tiger alone visibly trembled at intervals, and stared around the room,
as if his phosphorically-shining green orbs were following some
invisible presence as it floated up and down. That which was as yet
unperceived by human eyes, must have therefore been objective to him. As
to the wanderoo, all its liveliness had fled; it seemed drowsy, and sat
crouching and motionless. The bird gave few, if any, signs of
uneasiness. There was a sound as of gently-flapping wings in the air;
the flowers went travelling about the room, displaced by invisible
hands; and, as a glorious azure-tinted flower fell on the folded paws of
the monkey, it gave a nervous start, and sought refuge under its
master's white robe. These displays lasted for an hour, and it would be
too long to relate all of them; the most curious of all, being the one
which closed that season of wonders. Somebody complaining of the heat,
we had a shower of delicately-perfumed dew. The drops fell fast and
large, and conveyed a feeling of inexpressible refreshment, drying the
instant after touching our persons.

When the fakir had brought his exhibition of white magic to a close, the
"sorcerer," or conjurer, as they are called, prepared to display his
power. We were treated to a succession of the wonders that the accounts
of travellers have made familiar to the public; showing, among other
things, the fact that animals naturally possess the clairvoyant faculty,
and even, it would seem, the ability to discern between the good and the
bad spirits. All of the sorcerer's feats were preceded by fumigations.
He burned branches of resinous trees and shrubs, which sent up volumes
of smoke. Although there was nothing about this calculated to affright
an animal using only his natural eyes, the tiger, monkey, and bird
exhibited an indescribable terror. We suggested that the animals might
be frightened at the blazing brands, the familiar custom of burning
fires round the camp to keep off wild beasts, recurring to our mind. To
leave no doubt upon this point, the Syrian approached the crouching
tiger with a branch of the Bael-tree* (wood-apple sacred to Siva), and
waved it several times over his head, muttering, meanwhile, his
incantations. The brute instantly displayed a panic of terror beyond
description. His eyes started from their sockets like blazing
fire-balls; he foamed at the mouth; he flung himself upon the floor, as
if seeking some hole in which to hide himself; he uttered scream after
scream, that awoke a hundred responsive echoes from the jungle and the
woods. Finally, taking a last look at the spot from which his eyes had
never wandered, he made a desperate plunge, which snapped his chain, and




470

dashed through the window of the veranda, carrying a piece of the
frame-work with him. The monkey had fled long before, and the bird fell
from the perch as though paralyzed.
We did not ask either the fakir or sorcerer for an explanation of the
method by which their respective phenomena were effected. If we had,
unquestionably they would have replied as did a fakir to a French
traveller, who tells his story in a recent number of a New York
newspaper, called the Franco-American, as follows:

"Many of these Hindu jugglers who live in the silence of the pagodas
perform feats far surpassing the prestidigitations of Robert Houdin, and
there are many others who produce the most curious phenomena in
magnetism and catalepsy upon the first objects that come across their
way, that I have often wondered whether the Brahmans, with their occult
sciences, have not made great discoveries in the questions which have
recently been agitated in Europe.

"On one occasion, while I and others were in a cafe with Sir Maxwell, he
ordered his dobochy to introduce the charmer. In a few moments a lean
Hindu, almost naked, with an ascetic face and bronzed color entered.
Around his neck, arms, thighs, and body were coiled serpents of
different sizes. After saluting us, he said, 'God be with you, I am
Chibh-Chondor, son of Chibh-Gontnalh-Mava.'

" 'We desire to see what you can do,' said our host.

" 'I obey the orders of Siva, who has sent me here,' replied the fakir,
squatting down on one of the marble slabs.

"The serpents raised their heads and hissed, but without showing any
anger. Then taking a small pipe, attached to a wick in his hair, he
produced scarcely audible sounds, imitating the tailapaca, a bird that
feeds upon bruised cocoanuts. Here the serpents uncoiled themselves, and
one after another glided to the floor. As soon as they touched the
ground they raised about one-third of their bodies, and began to keep
time to their master's music. Suddenly the fakir dropped his instrument
and made several passes with his hands over the serpents, of whom there
were about ten, all of the most deadly species of Indian cobra. His eye
assumed a strange expression. We all felt an undefinable uneasiness, and
sought to turn away our gaze from him. At this moment a small chocra
(boy) whose business was to hand fire in a small brasier for lighting
cigars, yielded to his influence, lay down, and fell asleep. Five
minutes passed thus, and we felt that if the manipulations were to
continue a few seconds more we should all fall asleep. Chondor then
rose, and making two more passes over the chocra, said to it: 'Give



471 TURNING A CORPSE INTO GOLD

the commander some fire.' The young monkey rose, and without tottering,
came and offered fire to its master. It was pinched, pulled about, till
there was no doubt of its being actually asleep. Nor would it move from
Sir Maxwell's side till ordered to do so by the fakir.

"We then examined the cobras. Paralyzed by magnetic influence, they lay
at full length on the ground. On taking them up we found them stiff as
sticks. They were in a state of complete catalepsy. The fakir then
awakened them, on which they returned and again coiled themselves round
his body. We inquired whether he could make us feel his influence. He
made a few passes over our legs, and instantly we lost the use of these
limbs; we could not leave our seats. He released us a easily as he had
paralyzed us.
"Chibh-Chondor closed his seance by experimenting upon inanimate
objects. By mere passes with his hands in the direction of the object to
be acted upon, and without leaving his seat, he paled and extinguished
lights in the furthest parts of the room, moved the furniture, including
the divans upon which we sat, opened and closed doors. Catching sight of
a Hindu who was drawing water from a well in the garden, he made a pass
in his direction, and the rope suddenly stopped in its descent,
resisting all the efforts of the astonished gardener. With another pass
the rope again descended.

"I asked Chibh-Chondor: 'Do you employ the same means in acting upon
inanimate objects that you do upon living creatures?'

"He replied, 'I have only one means.'

" 'What is it?'

" 'The will. Man, who is the end of all intellectual and material
forces, must dominate over all. The Brahmans know nothing besides this.'
"

"Sanang Setzen," says Colonel Yule,* "enumerates a variety of the
wonderful acts which could be performed through the Dharani (mystic
Hindu charms). Such were sticking a peg into solid rock; restoring the
dead to life; turning a dead body into gold; penetrating everywhere as
air does (in astral form); flying; catching wild beasts with the hand;
reading thoughts; making water flow backward; eating tiles; sitting in
the air with the legs doubled under, etc." Old legends ascribe to Simon
Magus precisely the same powers. "He made statues to walk; leaped into
the fire without being burned; flew in the air; made bread of stones;
changed his shape; assumed two faces at once; converted himself into a
pillar; caused closed doors to fly open spontaneously; made the vessels
in a house move of themselves, etc." The Jesuit Delrio laments


472

that credulous princes, otherwise of pious repute, should have allowed
diabolical tricks to be played before them, "as for example, things of
iron, and silver goblets, or other heavy articles, to be moved by
bounds, from one end of the table to the other, without the use of a
magnet, or of any attachment."* We believe WILL-POWER the most powerful
of magnets. The existence of such magical power in certain persons is
proved, but the existence of the Devil is a fiction, which no theology
is able to demonstrate.

"There are certain men whom the Tartars honor above all in the world,"
says Friar Ricold, "viz., the Baxitae, who are a kind of idol-priests.
These are men from India, persons of deep wisdom, well-conducted and of
the gravest morals. They are usually with magic arts . . . they exhibit
many illusions, and predict future events. For instance, one of eminence
among them was said to fly; but the truth, however, was as it proved,
that he did not fly, but did walk close to the surface of the ground
without touching it; and would seem to sit down without having any
substance to support him.**

This last performance was witnessed by Ibn Batuta, at Delhi," adds
Colonel Yule, who quotes the friar in the Book of Ser Marco Polo, "in
the presence of Sultan Mahomet Tughlak; and it was professedly exhibited
by a Brahman at Madras in the present century, a descendant doubtless of
those Brahmans whom Apollonius saw walking two cubits from the ground.
It is also described by the worthy Francis Valentyn, as a performance
known and practiced in his own day in India. It is related, he says,
that 'a man will first go and sit on three sticks put together so as to
form a tripod; after which, first one stick, then a second, then a third
shall be removed from under him, and the man shall not fall but shall
still remain sitting in the air! Yet I have spoken with two friends who
had seen this at one and the same time; and one of them, I may add,
mistrusting his own eyes, had taken the trouble to feel about with a
long stick if there were nothing on which the body rested; yet, as the
gentleman told me, he could neither feel nor see any such thing.' " We
have stated elsewhere that the same thing was accomplished last year,
before the Prince of Wales and his suite.

Such feats as the above are nothing in comparison to what is done by
professed jugglers; "feats," remarks the above-quoted author, "which
might be regarded as simply inventions if told by one author only, but
which seem to deserve prominent notice from being recounted by a series
of authors, certainly independent of one another, and writing at long
intervals of time and place. Our first witness is Ibn Batuta, and



473 THE ACME OF ILLUSION.

it will be necessary to quote him as well as the others in full, in
order to show how closely their evidence tallies. The Arab traveller was
present at a great entertainment at the court of the Viceroy of Khansa.
'That same night a juggler, who was one of the Khan's slaves, made his
appearance, and the Amir said to him, "Come and show us some of your
marvels." Upon this he took a wooden ball, with several holes in it,
through which long thongs were passed, and laying hold of one of these,
slung it into the air. It went so high that we lost sight of it
altogether. . . . (We were in the middle of the palace-court.) There now
remained only a little of the end of a thong in the conjurer's hand, and
he desired one of the boys who assisted him to lay hold of it and mount.
He did so, climbing by the thong, and we lost sight of him also! The
conjurer then called to him three times, but, getting no answer, he
snatched up a knife as if in a great rage, laid hold of the thong, and
disappeared also! By and bye, he threw down one of the boy's hands, then
a foot, then the other hand, and then the other foot, then the trunk,
and last of all the head! Then he came down himself, puffing and
panting, and with his clothes all bloody kissed the ground before the
Amir, and said something to him in Chinese. The Amir gave some order in
reply, and our friend then took the lad's limbs, laid them together in
their places, and gave a kick, when, presto! there was the boy, who got
up and stood before us! All this astonished me beyond measure, and I had
an attack of palpitation like that which overcame me once before in the
presence of the Sultan of India, when he showed me something of the same
kind. They gave me a cordial, however, which cured the attack. The Kaji
Afkharuddin was next to me, and quoth he, "Wallah! 't is my opinion
there has been neither going up nor coming down, neither marring, nor
mending! 'T is all hocus-pocus!" ' "

And who doubts but that it is a "hocus-pocus," an illusion, or Maya, as
the Hindus express it? But when such an illusion can be forced on, say,
ten thousand people at the same time, as we have seen it performed
during a public festival, surely the means by which such an astounding
hallucination can be produced merits the attention of science! When by
such magic a man who stands before you, in a room, the doors of which
you have closed and of which the keys are in your hand, suddenly
disappears, vanishes like a flash of light, and you see him nowhere but
hear his voice from different parts of the room addressing you and
laughing at your perplexity, surely such an art is not unworthy either
of Mr. Huxley or Dr. Carpenter. Is it not quite as well worth spending
time over, as the lesser mystery -- why barnyard cocks crow at midnight?

What Ibn Batuta, the Moor, saw in China about the year 1348, Colonel
Yule shows Edward Melton, "an Anglo-Dutch traveller," witnessing


474 Magical Performances before Emperor Jehanghir [ 1615 A D]

in Batavia about the year 1670: "One of the same gang" (of conjurers),
says Melton,* "took a small ball of cord, and grasping one end of the
cord in his hand slung the other up into the air with such force that
its extremity was beyond reach of our sight. He then climbed up the cord
with indescribable swiftness. . . . I stood full of astonishment, not
conceiving where he had disappeared; when lo! a leg came tumbling down
out of the air. A moment later a hand came down, etc. . . . In short,
all the members of the body came successively tumbling from the air and
were cast together by the attendant into the basket. The last fragment
of all was the head, and no sooner had that touched the ground than he
who had snatched up all the limbs and put them in the basket, turned
them all out again topsy turvy. Then straightway we saw with these eyes
all those limbs creep together again, and, in short, form a whole man,
who at once could stand and go just as before without showing the least
damage! . . . Never in my life was I so astonished . . . and I doubted
now no longer that these misguided men did it by the help of the Devil."


EMPEROR JEHANGHIR PERFORMANCE


In the memoirs of the Emperor Jahangire, the performances of seven
jugglers from Bengal, who exhibited before him, are thus described:
"Ninth. They produced a man whom they divided limb from limb, actually
severing his head from the body. They scattered these mutilated members
along the ground, and in this state they lay some time. They then
extended a sheet over the spot, and one of the men putting himself under
the sheet, in a few minutes came from below, followed by the individual
supposed to have been cut into joints, in perfect health and condition.
. . . Twenty-third. They produced a chain of fifty cubits in length, and
in my presence threw one end of it toward the sky, where it remained as
if fastened to something in the air. A dog was then brought forward and
being placed at the lower end of the chain, immediately ran up, and
reaching the other end, immediately disappeared in the air. In the same
manner a hog, a panther, a lion, and a tiger were successively sent up
the chain, and all equally disappeared at the upper end of the chain. At
last they took down the chain, and put it into the bag, no one ever
discovering in what way the different animals were made to vanish into
the air in the mysterious manner above described."**

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I am inserting paragraphs from ISIS UNVEILED, Vol. I, pp. 457-8.

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

As we always like to strengthen our arguments by testimonies other than
our own, it may be well to present the opinion of a daily paper, the
Boston Herald, as to phenomena in general and mediums in particular.
Having encountered sad failures with some dishonest persons, who may or
may not be mediumistic, the writer went to the trouble of ascertaining
as to some wonders said to be produced in India, and compares them with
those of modern thaumaturgy.

"The medium of the present day," he says, "bears a closer resemblance,
in methods and manipulations, to the well-known conjurer of history,
than any other representative of the magic art. How far short he still
remains of the performances of his prototypes is illustrated below. In
1615 a delegation of highly-educated and distinguished men from the
English East India Company visited the Emperor Jahangire. 

While on their mission they witnessed many most wonderful performances,
almost causing them to discredit their senses, and far beyond any hint
even of solution. A party of Bengalese conjurers and jugglers, showing
their art before the emperor, were desired to produce upon the spot, and
from seed, ten mulberry trees. They immediately planted ten seeds,
which, in a few minutes produced as many trees. The ground divided over
the spot where a seed was planted, tiny leaves appeared, at once
followed by slender shoots, which rapidly gained elevation, putting out
leaves and twigs and branches, finally spreading wide in the air,
budding, blossoming and yielding fruit, which matured upon the spot, and
was found to be excellent. And this before the beholder had turned away
his eyes. Fig, almond, mango, and walnut trees were at the same time
under like conditions produced, yielding the fruit which belonged to
each. Wonder succeeded wonder. The branches were filled with birds of
beautiful plumage flitting about among the leaves and singing sweet
notes. The leaves turned to russet, fell from their places, branches and
twigs withered, and



458 

finally the trees sank back into the earth, out of which they had all
sprung within the hour.
"Another had a bow and about fifty steel-pointed arrows. He shot an
arrow into the air, when, lo! the arrow became fixed in space at a
considerable height. Another and another arrow was sent off, each fixing
itself in the shaft of the preceding, until all formed a chain of arrows
in the air, excepting the last shot, which, striking the chain, brought
the whole to the ground in detachments.

"They set up two common tents facing each other, and about a bow-shot
apart. These tents were critically examined by the spectators, as are
the cabinets of the mediums, and pronounced empty. The tents were
fastened to the ground all around. The lookers-on were then invited to
choose what animals or birds they would have issue from these tents to
engage in a battle. Khaun-e-Jahaun incredulously asked to see a fight
between ostriches. In a few minutes an ostrich came out from each tent
rushed to combat with deadly earnestness, and from them the blood soon
began to stream; but they were so nearly matched that neither could win
the victory, and they were at last separated by the conjurers and
conveyed within the tents. After this the varied demands of the
spectators for birds and animals were exactly complied with, always with
the same results.

"A large cauldron was set, and into it a quantity of rice thrown.
Without the sign of fire this rice soon began to boil, and out from the
cauldron was taken more than one hundred platters of cooked rice, with a
stewed fowl at the top of each. This trick is performed on a smaller
scale by the most ordinary fakirs of the present day.

"But space fails to give opportunity for illustrating, from the records
of the past, how the miserably tame performances -- by comparison -- of
the mediums of the present day were pale and overshadowed by those of
other days and more adroit peoples. There is not a wonderful feature in
any of the so-called phenomena or manifestations which was not, nay,
which is not now more than duplicated by other skilful performers, whose
connection with earth, and earth alone, is too evident to be doubted,
even if the fact was not supported by their own testimony."

End of insert DTB

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Part II follows

Dallas