Theos-Talk Archives (August 2006 Message tt00223)

8/5/2006 3:25 AM

	Re  DUGPAS  --  MORE REFERENCES   [ DTB ]

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The VOICE OF THE SILENCE


Dad-Dugpa clan, Brothers of the Shadow 56, (Dad-Dugpas appropriated Dorje
for sorcery 59fn),

DORJE:  59, (Viraga, repels evil as ozone does, also a Mudra, posture or
talisman 59, 59fn), 
	 (Close not thine eyes, nor loose thy sight of Dorje  59), 

GUARDIAN WALL:  74, (“Wall of Protection” from more evils 74fn), (salvation
of mankind influenced 	by 	Nirmanakayas 77fn), 


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2


DUGPAS (Tib.). Lit., “RED CAPS,” a sect in Tibet. Before the advent of 
Tsong-ka-pa in the fourteenth century, the Tibetans, whose Buddhism had 
deteriorated and been dreadfully adulterated with the tenets of the old 
Bhon religion,--were all Dugpas. 

>From that century, however, and after the rigid laws imposed upon the
GELUKPAS (yellow caps) and the general reform and purification of Buddhism
(or Lamaism), the Dugpas have given themselves over more than ever to
sorcery, immorality, and drunkenness. 

Since then the word Dugpa has become a synonym of “sorcerer”, “adept of
black magic” and everything vile. There are few, if any, Dugpas in Eastern
Tibet, but they congregate in Bhutan, Sikkim, and the borderlands generally.


Europeans not being permitted to penetrate further than those borders, the
Orientalists never having studied Buddho-Lamaism in Tibet proper, but
judging of it on hearsay and from 
what Cosmo di Köros, Schlagintweit, and a few others have learnt of it from
Dugpas, confuse both religions and bring them under one head. They thus give
out to the public pure Dugpaism instead of Buddho-Lamaism In short Northern
Buddhism in its purified, metaphysical form is almost entirely unknown.”
Glos  105-6


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3
				
					ELEMENTALS	

				      Article by H. P. Blavatsky 


				“SPIRITS’ OF THE DEPRAVED

After the death of the depraved and the wicked, arrives the critical moment.
If during life the ultimate and desperate effort of the inner self to
reunite itself with the faintly-glimmering ray of its divine monad is
neglected; if this ray is allowed to be more and more shut out by the
thickening crust of matter, the soul, once freed from the body, follows its
earthly attractions, and is magnetically drawn into and held within the
dense fogs of the material atmosphere of the Kâma Loka. Then it begins to
sink lower and lower, until it finds itself, when returned to consciousness,
in what the ancients termed Hades, and we--Avichî. The annihilation of such
a soul is never instantaneous; it may last centuries, perhaps; for nature
never proceeds by jumps and starts, and the astral soul of the personality
being formed of elements, the law of evolution must bide its time. Then
begins the fearful law of compensation, the Yin-youan of the Buddhist
initiates. 


		BROTHERS OF THE SHADOW -- DUGPAS

This class of spirits are called the "terrestrial," or "earthly
elementaries," in contradistinction to the other classes, as we have shown
in the beginning. But there is another and still more dangerous class. In
the East, they are known as the "Brothers of the Shadow," living men
possessed by the earth-bound elementaries; at times--their masters, but ever
in the long run falling victims to these terrible beings. 

In Sikkhim and Tibet they are called Dugpas (red-caps), in contradistinction
to the Geluk-pas (yellow-caps), to which latter most of the adepts belong.
And here we must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the
whole of Bûtan and Sikkhim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now
known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that
the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all
sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak
above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests,
"devil-dancers," and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites
are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population. 


Thus there are two classes of these terrible "Brothers of the Shadow"--the
living and the dead. Both cunning, low, vindictive, and seeking to retaliate
their sufferings upon humanity, they become, until final annihilation,
vampires, ghouls, and prominent actors at séances.


 These are the leading "stars," on the great spiritual stage of
"materialization," which phenomenon they perform with the help of the more
intelligent of the genuine-born "elemental" creatures, which hover around
and welcome them with delight in their own spheres. 

Henry Kunrath, the great German Kabalist, in his rare work, Amphitheatrum
Sapientæ Æternæ has a plate with representations of the four classes of
these human "elementary spirits." Once past the threshold of the sanctuary
of initiation, once that an adept has lifted the "Veil of Isis," the
mysterious and jealous Goddess, he has nothing to fear; but till then he is
in constant danger. 


		KAMA-RUPAS


Görres, describing a conversation he had with some Hindûs of the Malabar
coast, reports that upon asking them whether they had ghosts among them,
they replied: 

“Yes, but we know them to be bad bhûts [spirits, or rather, the "empty"
ones, the "shells"], . . . good ones can hardly ever appear at all. They are
principally the spirits of suicides and murderers, or of those who die
violent deaths. They constantly flutter about and appear as phantoms.
Night-time is favourable to them, they seduce the feeble-minded and tempt
others in a thousand different ways. 23 

Porphyry presents to us some hideous facts whose verity is substantiated in
the experience of every student of magic. He writes: 

“The soul, 24 having even after death a certain affection for its body, an
affinity proportioned to the violence with which their union was broken, we
see many spirits hovering in despair about their earthly remains; we even
see them eagerly seeking the putrid remains of other bodies, but above all
freshly-spilled blood, which seems to impart to them for the moment some of
the faculties of life. 25. 

Though spiritualists discredit them ever so much, these nature-spirits--as
much as the "elementaries," the "empty shells," as the Hindus call them--are
realities. If the gnomes, sylphs, salamanders and undines of the
Rosicrucians existed in their days, they must exist now. Bulwer Lytton's
"Dweller on the Threshold" is a modern conception, modelled on the ancient
type of the Sulanuth of the Hebrews and Egyptians, which is mentioned in the
Book of Jasher. 26 


	EVOCATIONS

Magi and theurgic philosophers objected most severely to the "evocation of
souls." "Bring her (the soul) not forth, lest in departing she retain
something," says Psellus. "It becomes you not to behold them before your
body is initiated, since, by always alluring, they seduce the souls of the
uninitiated"--says the same philosopher, in another passage. 

They objected to it for several good reasons. 

1. 	"It is extremely difficult to distinguish a good Daimon from a bad
one," says Iamblichus. 

2. 	If the shell of a good man succeeds in penetrating the density of
the earth's atmosphere--always oppressive to it, often hateful--still there
is a danger that it cannot avoid; the soul is unable to come into proximity
with the material world without that on "departing, she retains something,"
that is to say, she contaminates her purity, for which she has to suffer
more or less after her departure. 

Therefore, the true theurgist will avoid causing any more suffering to this
pure denizen of the higher sphere than is absolutely required by the
interests of humanity. It is only the practitioners of black magic--such as
the Dugpas of Bhûtan and Sikkhim--who compel the presence, by the powerful
incantations of necromancy, of the tainted souls of such as have lived bad
lives, and are ready to aid their selfish designs.
 
Of intercourse with the Augœides, through the mediumistic powers of
subjective mediums, we elsewhere speak. 


		PROTECTION AND PURIFICATION

The theurgists employed chemicals and mineral substances to chase away evil
spirits. Of the latter, a stone called Mnizurin was one of the most powerful
agents. "When you shall see a terrestrial Daimon approaching, exclaim, and
sacrifice the stone Mnizurin"--exclaims a Zoroastrian Oracle (Psel., 40). 

These "Daimons" seek to introduce themselves into the bodies of the
simple-minded and idiots, and remain there until dislodged therefrom by a
powerful and pure will. Jesus, Apollonius, and some of the apostles, had the
power to cast out "devils," by purifying the atmosphere within and without
the patient, so as to force the unwelcome tenant to flight.

Certain volatile salts are particularly obnoxious to them; Zoroaster is
corroborated in this by Mr. C. F. Varley, and ancient science is justified
by modern. The effect of some chemicals used in a saucer and placed under
the bed, by Mr. Varley, of London, 12 for the purpose of keeping away some
disagreeable physical phenomena at night, are corroborative of this great
truth.  [I U --  Nitric acid ]

Pure or even simply inoffensive human spirits fear nothing, for having rid
themselves of terrestrial matter, terrestrial compounds can affect them in
no wise; such spirits are like a breath. Not so with the earth-bound souls
and the nature-spirits.
 
It is for these carnal terrestrial Larvæ, degraded human spirits, that the
ancient Kabalists entertained a hope of reïncarnation. But when, or how? At
a fitting moment, and if helped by a sincere desire for his amendment and
repentance by some strong, sympathizing person, or the will of an adept, or
even a desire emanating from the erring spirit himself, provided it is
powerful enough to make him throw off the burden of sinful matter. 

Losing all consciousness, the once bright monad is caught once more into the
vortex of our terrestrial evolution, and repasses the subordinate kingdoms,
and again breathes as a living child. To compute the time necessary for the
completion of this process would be impossible. Since there is no perception
of time in eternity, the attempt would be a mere waste of labour.
 
Speaking of the “elementary,” Porphyry says: 

“These invisible beings have been receiving from men honours as gods; . . .
a universal belief makes them capable of becoming very malevolent; it proves
that their wrath is kindled against those who neglect to offer them a
legitimate worship.” 13 

Homer describes them in the following terms: 

“Our gods appear to us when we offer them sacrifice . . . sitting themselves
at our tables, they partake of our festival meals. Whenever they meet on his
travels a solitary Phœnician, they serve to him as guides, and otherwise
manifest their presence. We can say that our piety approaches us to them as
much as crime and bloodshed unite the Cyclopes and the ferocious race of
Giants.” 14 

The latter proves that these Gods were kind and beneficent Daimons, and
that, whether they were disembodied spirits or elemental beings, they were
no "devils." 

The language of Porphyry, who was himself a direct disciple of Plotinus, is
still more explicit as to the nature of these spirits. 

“Daimons are invisible; but they know how to clothe themselves with forms
and configurations subjected to numerous variations, which can be explained
by their nature having much of the corporeal in itself. Their abode is in
the neighbourhood of the earth . . . and when they can escape the vigilance
of the good Daimons, there is no mischief they win not tare commit. One day
they will employ brute force; another, cunning.” 15 

Further, he says: 

“It is a child's play for them to arouse in us vile passions, to impart to
societies and nations turbulent doctrines, provoking wars, seditions, and
other public calamities, and then tell you "that all of these are the work
of the gods." . . . These spirits pass their time in cheating and deceiving
mortals, creating around them illusions and prodigies; their greatest
ambition is to pass as gods and souls (disembodied spirits).” 16 

Iamblichus, the great theurgist of the Neoplatonic school, a man skilled in
sacred magic, teaches that: 

“Good Daimons appear to us in reality, while the bad ones can manifest
themselves but under the shadowy forms of phantoms.”
 
Further, he corroborates Porphyry, and tells how that: 

“The good ones fear not the light, while the wicked ones require darkness .
. . The sensations they excite in us make us believe in the presence and
reality of things they show, though these things be absent.” 17 

Even the most practised theurgists sometimes found danger in their dealings
with certain elementaries, and we have Iamblichus stating that: 

“The gods, the angels, and the Daimons, as well as the souls, may be
summoned through evocation and prayer . . . But when, during theurgic
operations, a mistake is made, beware! Do not imagine that you are
communicating with beneficent divinities, who have answered your earnest
prayer; no, for they are bad Daimons, only under the guise of good ones! For
the elementaries often clothe themselves with the similitude of the good,
and assume a rank very much superior to that they really occupy. Their
boasting betrays them.” 18 


	FIVE ELEMENTS

The ancients, who named but four elements, made of ether a fifth. On account
of its essence being made divine by the unseen presence, it was considered
as a medium between this world and the next. They held that when the
directing intelligences retired from any portion of ether, one of the four
kingdoms which they are bound to superintend, the space was left in
possession of evil. 


		PURITY AN ESSENTIAL IN MOTIVE


An adept who prepared to converse with the "invisibles," had to know his
ritual well, and be perfectly acquainted with the conditions required for
the perfect equilibrium of the four elements in the astral light. 

First of all, he must purify the essence, and within the circle in which he
sought to attract the pure spirits, equilibrize the elements, so as to
prevent the ingress of the Elementals into their respective spheres. But woe
to the imprudent enquirer who ignorantly trespasses upon forbidden ground;
danger will beset him at every step. He evokes powers that he cannot
control; he arouses sentries which allow only their masters to pass. For, in
the words of the immortal Rosicrucian: 

“Once that thou hast resolved to become a cooperator with the spirit of the
living God, take care not to hinder Him in His work; for, if thy heat
exceeds the natural proportion, thou hast stirr'd the wrath of the moyst 19
natures, and they will stand up against the central fire, and the central
fire against them, and there will be a terrible division in the chaos.” 20 

The spirit of harmony and union will depart from the elements, disturbed by
the imprudent hand; and the currents of blind forces will become immediately
infested by numberless creatures of matter and instinct--the bad demons of
the theurgists, the devils of theology; the gnomes, salamanders, sylphs, and
undines will assail the rash performer under multifarious aërial forms. 

Unable to invent anything, they will search your memory to its very depths;
hence the nervous exhaustion and mental oppression of certain sensitive
natures at spiritual circles. The Elementals will bring to light
long-forgotten remembrances of the past; forms, images, sweet mementoes, and
familiar sentences, long since faded from our own remembrance, but vividly
preserved in the inscrutable depths of our memory and on the astral tablets
of the imperishable "Book of Life." 

The author of the Homoiomerian system of philosophy, Anaxagoras of
Clazomene, firmly believed that the spiritual prototypes of all things, as
well as their elements, were to be found in the boundless ether, where they
were generated, whence they evolved, and whither they returned from earth.
In common with the Hindûs who had personified their Âkâsha, and made of it a
deific entity, the Greeks and Latins had deified Æther. Virgil calls Zeus,
Pater Omnipotens Æther, 21 Magnus, the Great God, Ether.  These beings, the
elemental spirits of the Kabalists, 22 are those whom the Christian clergy
denounce as "devils," the enemies of mankind! 


						III

	SPHERES OF LIFE

Every organized thing in this world, visible as well as invisible, has an
element appropriate to itself. The fish lives and breathes in the water; the
plant consumes carbonic acid, which for animals and men produces death; some
beings are fitted for rarefied strata of air, others exist only in the
densest. Life to some is dependent on sunlight, to others, upon darkness;
and so the wise economy of nature adapts to each existing condition some
living form. These analogies warrant the conclusion that, not only is there
no unoccupied portion of universal nature, but also that for each thing that
has life, special conditions are furnished, and, being furnished, they are
necessary. 

Now, assuming that there is an invisible side to the universe, the fixed
habit of nature warrants the conclusion that this half is occupied, like the
other half; and that each group of its occupants is supplied with the
indispensable conditions of existence. It is as illogical to imagine that
identical conditions are furnished to all, as it would be to maintain such a
theory respecting the inhabitants of the domain of visible nature. 

That there are "spirits" implies that there is a diversity of "spirits"; for
men differ, and human "spirits" are but disembodied men. 

To say that all "spirits" are alike, or fitted to the same atmosphere, or
possessed of like powers, or governed by the same attractions--electric,
magnetic, odic, astral, it matters not which--is as absurd as though one
should say that all planets have the same nature, or that all animals are
amphibious, or that all men can be nourished on the same food. 

To begin with, neither the elementals, nor the elementaries themselves, can
be called "spirits" at all. It accords with reason to suppose that the
grossest natures among them will sink to the lowest depths of the spiritual
atmosphere--in other words, be found nearest to the earth. Inversely, the
purest will be farthest away. In what, were we to coin a word, we should
call the "psychomatics" of Occultism, it is as unwarrantable to assume that
either of these grades of ethereal beings can occupy the place, or subsist
in the conditions, of the other, as it would be in hydraulics to expect that
two liquids of different densities could exchange their markings on the
scale of Beaume's hydrometer. 


	
	NATURE SPIRITS -- ELEMENTALS

The Christians are very wrong to treat them indiscriminately, as "devils,"
"imps of Satan," and to give them like characteristics names. The elementals
are nothing of the kind, but simply creatures of ethereal matter,
irresponsible, and neither good nor bad, unless influenced by a superior
intelligence. 

It is very extraordinary to hear devout Catholics abuse and misrepresent the
nature-spirits, when one of their greatest authorities, Clement the
Alexandrian, has described these creatures as they really are. Clement, who
perhaps had been a theurgist as well as an Neoplatonist, and thus argued
upon good authority, remarks, that it is absurd to call them devils, 27 for
they are only inferior angels, "the powers which inhabit elements, move the
winds and distribute showers, and as such are agents and subject to God." 28


Origen, who before he became a Christian also belonged to the Platonic
school, is of the same opinion. Porphyry, as we have seen, describes these
daimons more carefully than any one else. 


	MAN-SPIRIT

The Secret Doctrine teaches that man, if he wins immortality, will remain
for ever the septenary trinity that he is in life, and will continue so
throughout all the spheres. The astral body, which in this life is covered
by a gross physical envelope, becomes--when relieved of that covering by the
process of corporeal death--in its turn the shell of another and more
ethereal body. 

This begins developing from the moment of death, and becomes perfected when
the astral body of the earthly form finally separates from it. This process,
they say, is repeated at every new transition from sphere to sphere of life.
But the immortal soul, the "silvery spark," observed by Dr. Fenwick in
Margrave's brain (in Bulwer Lytton's Strange Story), and not found by him in
the animals, never changes, but remains indestructible "by aught that
shatters its tabernacle." 


--  From:  an H P B  unpublished incomplete MSS  ----------

	LUCIFER, August, 1893 (Published posthumously)

Pub:  LUCIFER,    1893 as ELEMENTALS	by H. P. Blavatsky 

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4


		THE SUBSTANTIAL NATURE OF MAGNETISM

				H. P. Blavatsky


MATERIALISTS who arraign the Occultists and Theosophists for believing that
every Force (so called) in Nature has at its origin a substantial NOUMENON,
an Entity, conscious and intelligent, whether it be a Planetary (Dhyan
Chohan) or an Elemental, are advised to fix their attention, first of all,
on a far more dangerous body than the one called the Theosophical Society. 

We mean the Society in the U.S. of America whose members call themselves the
Substantialists. We call it dangerous for this reason, that this body,
combining in itself dogmatic Church Christianity, i.e., the anthropomorphic
element of the Bible--with sterling Science, makes, nevertheless, the latter
subservient in all to the former. This is equivalent to saying, that the new
organization, will, in its fanatical dogmatism--if it wins the day--lead on
the forthcoming generations to anthropomorphism past redemption. It will
achieve this the more easily in our age of Science-worship, since a show of
undeniable learning must help to impart additional strength to belief in a
gigantic human god, as their hypotheses, like those of modern materialistic
science, may be easily built to answer their particular aim. The educated
and thoughtful classes of Society, once set free from ecclesiastical
thraldom, could laugh at a St. Augustine's or a "venerable" Bede's
scientific data, which led them to maintain on the authority and dead letter
of what they regarded as Revelation that our Earth, instead of being a
sphere, was flat, hanging under a crystalline canopy studded with shining
brass nails and a sun no larger than it appears. But the same classes will
be always forced by public opinion into respecting the hypotheses of modern
Science--in whatever direction the nature of scientific speculation may lead
them. They have been so led for the last century--into crass Materialism;
they may be so led again in an opposite direction. The cycle has closed, and
if Science ever falls into the hands of the Opposition--the learned
"Reverends" and bigoted Churchmen--the world may find itself gradually
approaching the ditch on the opposite side and be landed at no distant
future in crass anthropomorphism. Once more the masses will have rejected
true philosophy--impartial and unsectarian--and will thus be caught again in
new meshes of their own weaving, the fruitage and results of the reaction
created by an all-denying age. The solemn ideal of a universal, infinite,
all-pervading Noumenon of Spirit, of an impersonal and absolute Deity, will
fade out of the human mind once more, and will make room for the MONSTER-GOD
of sectarian nightmares. 
Now, modern official science is composed--as at present--of 5 per cent of
undeniable axiomatic truths and facts, and of 95 per cent of mere
speculation. Furthermore, it has laid itself open to endless attacks, owing
to its numerous mutually contradictory hypotheses, each one as scientific,
in appearance, as the other. On the other hand, the Substantialists, who
rank, as they boast, among their numbers some of the most eminent men of
Science in the United States, have undeniably discovered and accumulated a
vast store of facts calculated to upset the modern theories on Force and
Matter. And once that their data are shown correct, in this conflict between
(materialistic) Science and (a still more materialistic) Religion--the
outcome of the forthcoming battle is not difficult to foresee: modern
Science will be floored. The Substantiality of certain Forces of Nature
cannot be denied--for it is a fact in Kosmos. 

No Energy or Force without Matter, no Matter without Force, Energy or
Life--however latent. But this ultimate Matter is--Substance or the Noumenon
of matter. Thus, the head of the golden Idol of scientific truth will fall,
because it stands on feet of clay. Such a result would not be anything to be
regretted, except for its immediate consequences: the golden Head will
remain the same, only its pedestal will be replaced by one as weak and as
much of clay as ever. Instead of resting on Materialism, science will rest
on anthropomorphic superstition--if the Substantialists ever gain the day.
For, instead of holding to philosophy alone, pursued in a spirit of absolute
impartiality, both materialists and adherents of what is so pompously called
the "Philosophy of Substantialism" work on lines traced by preconception and
with a prejudged object; and both stretch their facts on the Procrustean
beds of their respective hobbies. It is facts that have to fit their
theories, even at the risk of mutilating the immaculate nature of Truth. 

Before presenting the reader with extracts from the work of a
Substantialist--those extracts showing better than would any critical review
the true nature of the claims of "The Substantial Philosophy"--we mean to go
no further, as we are really very little concerned with them, and intend to
waste no words over their flaws and pretensions. Nevertheless, as their
ideas on the nature of physical Forces and phenomena are curiously--in some
respects only--like the occult doctrines, our intention is to utilize their
arguments--on Magnetism, to begin with. These are unanswerable, and we may
thus defeat exact science by its own methods of observation and weapons. So
far, we are only acquainted with the theories of the Substantialists by
their writings. It is possible that, save the wide divergence between our
views on the nature of the "phenomena-producing causes"--as they queerly
call physical forces--there is but little difference in our opinions with
regard to the substantial nature of Light, Heat, Electricity, Magnetism,
etc., etc., perhaps only one in the form and terms used. 

No Theosophist, however, would agree to such expressions as are used in the
New Doctrine: e.g., "If its principles be true, then every force or form of
Energy known to science must be a substantial Entity." For although Dr.
Hall's proofs with regard to magnetic fluid being something more than "a
mode of motion" are irrefutable, still there are other "forces" which are of
quite a different nature. As this paper, however, is devoted to prove the
substantiality of magnetism--whether animal or physical--we will now quote
from the Scientific Arena (July, 1886) the best arguments that have ever
appeared against the materialistic theory of modern Science. 

------------------------------------	QUOTE
---------------------------------------------


"To admit for one moment that a single force of nature, such as sound,
light, or heat, is but the vibratory motion of matter, whether that material
body be highly attenuated as in the case of the supposed ether, less
attenuated as in the case of air, or solid as in the case of a heated bar of
iron, is to give away to the rank claims of materialism the entire analogy
of nature and science in favour of a future life for humanity. And well do
the materialistic scientists of this country and Europe know it. And to the
same extent do they fear the spread and general acceptance of the
Substantial Philosophy, knowing full well that the moment the forces of
nature shall be recognised and taught by the schools as real substantial
entities, and as soon as the mode-of-motion doctrines of sound, light, heat,
etc., shall be abandoned, that soon will their materialistic occupation have
gone for ever. . . . 
"Hence, it is the aim of this present paper, after thus reiterating and
enforcing the general scope of the argument as presented last month, to
demonstrate force, per se, to be an immaterial substance and in no sense a
motion of material particles. In this way we purpose to show the absolute
necessity for Christian scientists everywhere adopting the broad principles
of the Substantial Philosophy, and doing it at once, if they hope to break
down materialistic atheism in this land or logically to defend religion by
scientific analogy, and thus prove the substantial existence of God as well
as the probable substantial existence of the human soul after death. This
they now have the privilege of doing successfully, and of thus triumphantly
re-enforcing their scriptural arguments by the concurrent testimony of
nature herself. 

"We could select any one of several of the physical forms of force as the
crucial test of the new philosophy, or as the touchstone of Substantialism.
But to save circumlocution and detail of unnecessary explanation as much as
possible, in this leading and paramount demonstration, we select what no
scientist on earth will question as a representative natural force or
so-called form of energy--namely, magnetism. This force, from the very
simple and direct manifestation of its phenomena in displacing ponderable
bodies at a distance from the magnet, and without having any tangible
substance connecting the magnet therewith, is selected for our purpose,
since it has well proved the champion physical puzzle to modern
mode-of-motion philosophers, both in this country and in Europe. 

"Even to the greatest living physicists, such as Helmholtz, Tyndall, Sir
William Thomson, and others, the mysterious action of magnetism, under any
light which modern science can shed upon it, admittedly affords a problem
which has proved to be completely bewildering to their intellects, simply
because they have, unfortunately, never caught a glimpse of the basic
principles of the Substantial Philosophy which so clearly unravels the
mystery. In the light of these principles such a thinker as Sir William
Thomson, instead of teaching, as he did in his opening address on the five
senses before the Midland Institute, at Birmingham, England, that magnetism
was but the molecular motion, or as he expressed it, but the 'quality of
matter' or the 'rotation of the molecules' of the magnet, would have seen at
a glance the utter want of any relation, as cause to effect, between such
moving molecules in the magnet (provided they do move), and the lifting of
the mass of iron at a distance. 

"It is passing strange that men so intelligent as Sir William Thomson and
Professor Tyndall had not long ago reached the conclusion that magnetism
must of necessity be a substantial thing, however invisible or intangible,
when it thus stretches out its mechanical but invisible fingers to a
distance from the magnet and pulls or pushes an inert piece of metal! That
they have not seen the absolute necessity for such a conclusion, as the only
conceivable explanation of the mechanical effects produced, and the manifest
inconsistency of any other supposition, is one of the astounding results of
the confusing and blinding influence of the present false theories of
science upon otherwise logical and profound intellects. 

And that such men could be satisfied in supposing that the minute and local
vibrations of the molecules and atoms of the magnet (necessarily limited to
the dimensions of the steel itself) could by any possibility reach out to a
distance beyond it and thus pull or push a bar of metal, overcoming its
inertia, tempts one to lose all respect for the sagacity and profundity of
the intellects of these great names in science. At all events, such manifest
want of perspicacity in modern physicists appeals in a warning voice of
thunder tones to rising young men of this country and Europe to think for
themselves in matters pertaining to science and philosophy, and to accept
nothing on trust simply because it happens to be set forth or approved by
some great name. 

"Another most remarkable anomaly in the case of the physicists to whom we
have here referred is this: while failing to see the unavoidable necessity
of an actual substance of some kind going forth from the poles of the magnet
and connecting with the piece of iron by which to lift it and thus
accomplish a physical result, that could have been effected in no other way,
they are quick to accept the agency of an all-pervading ether (a substance
not needed at all in nature) by which to produce light on this earth as mere
motion. and thus make it conform to the supposed sound-waves in the air! 

In this way, by the sheer invention of a not-needed material substance, they
have sought to convert not only light, heat, and magnetism, but all the
other forces of nature into modes of motion, and for no reason except that
sound had been mistaken as a mode of motion by previous scientists. And
strange to state, notwithstanding this supposed ether is as intangible to
any of our senses, and just as unrecognised by any process known to
chemistry or mechanics as is the substance which of necessity must pass out
from the poles of the magnet to seize and lift the bar of iron, yet
physicists cheerfully accept the former, for which no scientific necessity
on earth or in heaven exists, while they stolidly refuse to recognise the
latter, though absolutely needed to accomplish the results observed! Was
ever such inconsistency before witnessed in a scientific theory? 

"Let us scrutinize this matter a little further before leaving it. If the
mere 'rotation of molecules' in the steel magnet can produce a mechanical
effect on a piece of iron at a distance, even through a vacuum, as Sir
William Thomson asserts, why may not the rotation of the molecules of the
sun cause light at a distance without the intervening space being filled up
with a jelly-like material substance, of 'enormous rigidity,' to be thrown
into waves? It must strike every mind capable of thinking scientifically
that the original invention of an all-pervading 'material,' 'rigid,' and
'inert' ether, as the essential cause of light at a distance from a luminous
body, was one of the most useless expenditures of mechanical ingenuity which
the human brain ever perpetrated--that is, if there is the slightest truth
in the teaching of Sir William Thomson that the mere 'rotation of molecules'
in the magnet will lift a distant bar of iron. 

Why cannot the rotation of the sun's molecules just as easily produce light
at a distance? 
"Should it be assumed in sheer desperation by the mode-of motion
philosophers that it is the ether filling the space between the magnet and
the piece of iron, which is thrown into vibration by the rotating molecules
of the steel, and which thus lifts the distant iron, it would only be to
make bad worse. If material vibration in the steel magnet, which is wholly
unobservable, is communicated to the distant bar through a material
substance and its vibratory motions, which are equally unobservable, is it
not plain that their effects on the distant bar should be of the same
mechanical character, namely, unobservable? Instead of this the iron is
lifted bodily and seen plainly, and that without any observed tremor, as if
done by a vibrating 'jelly' such as ether is claimed to be! 

Besides, such bodily lifting of a ponderable mass is utterly incongruous
with mere tremor, however powerful and observable such tremor or vibration
might be, according to every principle known to mechanics. Common sense
ought to assure any man that mere vibration or tremor, however powerful and
sensible, can pull or push nothing. It is impossible to conceive of the
accomplishment of such a result except by some substantial agent reaching
out from the magnet, seizing the iron, and forcibly pulling and thus
displacing it. As well talk of pulling a boat to the shore without some rope
or other substantial thing connecting you with the boat. Even Sir William
Thomson would not claim that the boat could be pulled by getting up a
molecular vibration of the shore, or even by producing a visible tremor in
the water, as Dr. Hamlin so logically shewed in his recent masterly paper on
Force. (See Microsm, Vol. V., p. 98). 

"It is well known that a magnet will lift a piece of iron at the same
distance precisely through sheets of glass as if no glass intervened. The
confirmed atheist Mr. Smith, of Cincinnati, Ohio, to whom we referred in our
papers on Substantialism, in the Microcosm (Vol. III, pages 278,311), was
utterly confounded by this exhibition of the substantial force of magnetism
acting at a distance through impervious plates of glass. When we placed a
quantity of needles and tacks on the plate and passed the poles of the
magnet beneath it, causing them to move with the magnet, he saw for the
first time in his life the operation of a real substance, exerting a
mechanical effect in displacing ponderable bodies of metal in defiance of
all material conditions, and with no possible material connection or free
passage between the source and termination of such substantial agency. And
he asked in exclamation, if this be so, may there not be a substantial,
intelligent, and immaterial God, and may I not have a substantial but
immaterial soul which can live separately from my body after it is dead? 

"He then raised the query, asking if we were certain that it was not the
invisible pores of the glass plate through which the magnetic force found
its way, and therefore whether this force might not be a refined form of
matter after all? He then assisted us in filling the plate with boiled
water, on which to float a card with needles placed thereon, thus to
interpose between them and the magnet the most imporous of all known bodies.
But it made not the slightest difference, the card with its cargo of needles
moving hither and thither as the magnet was moved beneath both plates and
water. This was sufficient even for that most critical but candid
materialist, and he confessed that there were substantial but immaterial
entities in his atheistic philosophy. 

"Here, then, is the conclusive argument by which we demonstrate that
magnetism, one of the forces of nature, and a fair representative of all the
natural forces, is not only a real, substantial entity, but an absolutely
immaterial substance:l thus justifying our original classification of the
entities of the universe into material and immaterial substances. 

"1. 	If magnetism were not a real substance, it could not lift a piece of
metal bodily at a distance from the magnet, any more than our hand could
lift a weight from the floor without some substantial connection between the
two. It is a self-evident truism as an axiom in mechanics, that no body can
move or displace another body at a distance without a real, substantial
medium connecting the two through which the result is accomplished,
otherwise it would be a mechanical effect without a cause--a self-evident
absurdity in philosophy. Hence, the force of magnetism is a real,
substantial entity. 

"2. 	If magnetism were not an immaterial substance, then any practically
imporous body intervening between the magnet and the attracted object would,
to some extent at least, impede the passage of the magnetic current, which
it does not do. If magnetism were a very refined or attenuated form of
matter, and if it thus depended for its passage through other material
bodies upon their imperceptible pores then, manifestly, some difference in
the freedom of its passage, and in the consequent attractive force of the
distant magnet should result by great difference in the porosity of the
different bodies tested, as would be the case, for example, in forcing wind
through wire-netting having larger or smaller interstices, and consequently
offering greater or less resistance. Whereas in the case of this magnetic
substance, no difference whatever results in the energy of its mechanical
pull on a distant piece of iron, however many or few of the practically
imperious sheets of glass, rubber, or whatever other material body be made
to intervene, or if no substance whatever but the air is interposed, or if
the test be made in a perfect vacuum. The pull is always with precisely the
same force, and will move the suspended piece of iron at the same distance
away from it in each and every case, however refined and delicate may be the
instruments by which the tests are measured." 

----------------------------	    end of quote
---------------------------

HPB

The above quoted passages are positively unanswerable. As far as magnetic
force, or fluid, is concerned the Substantialists have most undeniably made
out their case; and their triumph will be hailed with joy by every
Occultist. It is impossible to see, indeed, how the phenomena of
magnetism--whether terrestrial or animal--can be explained otherwise than by
admitting a material, or substantial magnetic fluid. This, even some of the
Scientists do not deny--Helmholtz believing that electricity must be as
atomic as matter--which it is (Helmholtz, "Faraday Lecture"). And, unless
Science is prepared to divorce force from matter, we do not see how it can
support its position much longer. 

But we are not at all so sure about certain other Forces--so far as their
effects are concerned--and Esoteric philosophy would find an easy objection
to every assumption of the Substantialists--e.g., with regard to sound. 

As the day is dawning when the new theory is sure to array itself against
Occultism, it is as well, perhaps, to anticipate the objections and dispose
of them at once. 

The expression "immaterial Substance" used above in connection with
magnetism is a very strange one, and moreover, it is self-contradictory. If,
instead of saying that "magnetism . . . is not only a real substantial
entity but an absolutely immaterial substance," the writer should have
applied this definition to light, sound or any other force in its effects,
we would have nothing to say, except to remark that the adjective
"supersensuous" would have been more applicable to any force than the word
"immaterial." 2 But to say this of the magnetic fluid is wrong, as it is an
essence which is quite perceptible to any clairvoyant, whether in
darkness--as in the case of odic emanations--or in light--when animal
magnetism is practised. Being then a fluid in a supersensuous state, still
matter, it cannot be "immaterial," and the expression becomes at once as
illogical as it is sophistical. With regard to the other forces--if by
"immaterial" is meant only that which is objective, but beyond the range of
our present normal perceptions or senses, well and good; but then whatever
Substantialists may mean by it, we Occultists and Theosophists demur to the
form in which they put it. Substance, we are told in philosophical
dictionaries and encyclopedias, is that which underlies outward phenomena;
substratum; the permanent subject or cause of phenomena, whether material or
spiritual; that in which properties inhere; that which is real in
distinction from that which is only apparent--especially in this world of
maya. It is in short--real, and the one real Essence. But the Occult
sciences, while calling Substance the noumenon of every material form,
explain that noumenon as being still matter--only on another plane. That
which is noumenon to our human perceptions is matter to those of a Dhyan
Chohan. As explained by our learned Vedantin Brother--T. Subba Row--

Mulaprakriti, the first universal aspect of Parabrahma, its Kosmic Veil, and
whose essence, to us, is unthinkable, is to the LOGOS "as material as any
object is material to us" (Notes on Bhag. Gita). Hence--no Occultist would
describe Substance as "immaterial" in esse. 

Substance is a confusing term, in any case. We may call our body, or an ape,
or a stone, as well as any kind of fabric--"substantial." 

Therefore, we call "Essence" rather, the material of the bodies of those
Entities--the supersensuous Beings, in whom we believe, and who do exist,
but whom Science and its admirers regard as superstitious nonsense, calling
fictions alike a "personal" god and the angels of the Christians, as they
would our Dhyan Chohans, or the Devas, "Planetary Men," Genii, etc., etc.,
of the Kabalists and Occultists. 

But the latter would never dream of calling the phenomena of Light, Sound,
Heat, Cohesion, etc.--"Entities," as the Substantialists do. They would
define those Forces as purely immaterial perceptive effects--without, of
substantial and essential CAUSES--Within: at the ultimate end of which, or
at the origin, stands an ENTITY, the essence of the latter changing with
that of the Element3 it belongs to. (See "Monads, Gods, and Atoms" of Volume
I "Secret Doctrine," Book II.) Nor can the Soul be confused with FORCES,
which are on quite another plane of perception. It shocks, therefore, a
Theosophist to find the Substantialists so unphilosophically including Soul
among the Forces. 

Having--as he tells his readers--"laid the foundation of our argument in the
clearly defined analogies of Nature," the editor of the Scientific Arena, in
an article called "THE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE OF A FUTURE LIFE," proceeds as
follows: 

---------------	quote	---------------------------

"If the principles of Substantialism be true, then, as there shown, every
force or form of energy known to science must be a substantial entity. We
further endeavoured to show that if one form of force were conclusively
demonstrated to be a substantial or objective existence, it would be a clear
departure from reason and consistency not to assume all the forces or
phenomena-producing causes in nature also to be substantial entities. But if
one form of physical force, or one single phenomenon-producing cause, such
as heat, light, or sound, could be clearly shown to be the mere motion of
material particles, and not a substantial entity or thing, then by rational
analogy and the harmonious uniformity of nature's laws, all the other forces
or phenomena-producing causes, whether physical, vital, mental or spiritual,
must come within the same category as nonentitative modes of motion of
material particles. Hence it would follow in such case, that the soul, life,
mind, or spirit, so far from being a substantial entity which can form the
basis of a hope for an immortal existence beyond the present life, must,
according to materialism, and as the mere motion of brain and nerve
particles, cease to exist whenever such physical particles shall cease to
move at death." 

	[ unfinished by HPB ?]		HPB Art  [U  L  T]   II  p. 127


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