Re: Theos-World A Strange Story (preferable to Zanoni or The Coming Race IMO)
Jan 12, 2009 09:56 AM
by Morten Nymann Olesen
Especially.
And especially the next one.
M. Sufilight
----- Original Message -----
From: Drpsionic@aol.com
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 7:03 AM
Subject: Re: Theos-World A Strange Story (preferable to Zanoni or The Coming Race IMO)
Especially on election day!
Chuck the Heretic
In a message dated 1/11/2009 6:07:33 P.M. Central Standard Time,
silva_cass@yahoo.com writes:
Well the dead walk amongst and through us
Cass
________________________________
From: Morten Nymann Olesen <_global-theosophy@global-thgl_
(mailto:global-theosophy@stofanet.dk) >
To: _theos-talk@yahoogrotheos-t_ (mailto:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com)
Sent: Sunday, 11 January, 2009 8:25:53 PM
Subject: Re: Theos-World A Strange Story (preferable to Zanoni or The Coming
Race IMO)
Yeah.
Sometimes I also get the exact same feeling, similar to Glyndon's.
I start shaking and huges sort of 'bliss' shivers goes up and down my spine.
The hairs moves around the neck etc. etc.
Something out of the ordinary is at play. Someone walk, as they say "past my
grave".
:-)
M. Sufilight
----- Original Message -----
From: Cass Silva
To: theos-talk@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 3:31 AM
Subject: Re: Theos-World A Strange Story (preferable to Zanoni or The Coming
Race IMO)
ThanksMorten
____________ _________ _________ __
From: Morten Nymann Olesen <global-theosophy@ stofanet. dk>
To: theos-talk@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Saturday, 10 January, 2009 9:13:05 PM
Subject: Re: Theos-World A Strange Story (preferable to Zanoni or The Coming
Race IMO)
Dear friends
My views are:
Here is a part from that book by Zanoni...
ZANONI
BOOK II.âART, LOVE, AND WONDER.
Diversi aspetti in un confusi e misti.
"Ger. Lib," cant. iv. 7.
Different appearances, confused and mixt in one.
CHAPTER I.
Centauri, e Sfingi, e pallide Gorgoni.
"Ger. Lib.," c. iv. v.
(Centaurs and Sphinxes and pallid Gorgons.)
One moonlit night, in the Gardens at Naples, some four or five gentleman
were seated under a tree, drinking their sherbet, and listening, in the
intervals of conversation, to the music which enlivened that gay and favourite resort
of an indolent population. One of this little party was a young Englishman,
who had been the life of the whole group, but who, for the last few moments,
had sunk into a gloomy and abstracted reverie. One of his countrymen observed
this sudden gloom, and, tapping him on the back, said, "What ails you,
Glyndon? Are you ill? You have grown quite pale,âyou tremble. Is it a sudden
chill? You had better go home: these Italian nights are often dangerous to our
English constitutions. "
"No, I am well now; it was a passing shudder. I cannot account for it
myself."
A man, apparently of about thirty years of age, and of a mien and
countenance strikingly superior to those around him, turned abruptly, and looked
steadfastly at Glyndon.
"I think I understand what you mean," said he; "and perhaps," he added, with
a grave smile, "I could explain it better than yourself." Here, turning to
the others, he added, "You must often have felt, gentlemen, each and all of
you, especially when sitting alone at night, a strange and unaccountable
sensation of coldness and awe creep over you; your blood curdles, and the heart
stands still; the limbs shiver; the hair bristles; you are afraid to look up, to
turn your eyes to the darker corners of the room; you have a horrible fancy
that something unearthly is at hand; presently the whole spell, if I may so
call it, passes away, and you are ready to laugh at your own weakness. Have
you not often felt what I have thus imperfectly described?âif so, you can
understand what our young friend has just experienced, even amidst the delights of
this magical scene, and amidst the balmy whispers of a July night."
"Sir," replied Glyndon, evidently much surprised, "you have defined exactly
the nature of that shudder which came over me. But how could my manner be so
faithful an index to my impressions? "
"I know the signs of the visitation," returned the stranger, gravely; "they
are not to be mistaken by one of my experience."
M. Sufilight
----- Original Message -----
From: Cass Silva
To: theos-talk@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Saturday, January 10, 2009 1:45 AM
Subject: Re: Theos-World A Strange Story (preferable to Zanoni or The Coming
Race IMO)
this may help the reading of Zanoni
Cass
No. I.
ALL over the world the Theosophical Society has from time to time attracted
persons of both sexes with abnormal gifts or faculties of some kind or
another. These occult faculties are of the most diverse nature, but it has become a
habit to refer in a general way to those possessing them as "psychics."
We propose to make a point of interviewing several of our psychic friends,
and to publish the results - with or without names. The facts we shall be able
to elicit cannot fail to interest and to instruct all students of psychology.
The first interview which is appended is with Mr. H. Wiedersehn, one of the
oldest T.S. members in Australia. Mr. Wiedersehn is known throughout the
Commonwealth, and has helped almost all our Lodges in turn in his ever-willing
and unostentatious way. He is a clairvoyant of no mean order, and even our very
brief talk elicited a number of facts which are of the greatest value to
students of the subject: -
Q.: Mr. Wiedersehn, we want you to tell us something about clairvoyance.
Perhaps we might begin with a personal question, and ask you what your own
earlier experiences of the faculty were?
A.: As a child, I was clairvoyant. My mother before me would occasionally
see things: it was a case with her, I think, of so-called second-sight.
Q.: With yourself, was clairvoyance occasional and accidental?
A.: It would come over me from time to time. Its effect at first was very
disagreeable, and created a feeling of terror. What I saw as a child was a
form, and in later years, when I read Lytton's "Zanoni," I found his description
of "The Dweller on the Threshold" exactly fitted the horror that I frequently
saw.
Q.: Then you are a believer in the reality of "The Dweller on the Threshold"?
A.: How can I help it? Often as a child the fear of the creature almost
drove me into convulsions. I once heard Mr. Leadbeater tell a meeting that he had
never seen such an object as Lytton's "Dweller," and doubted its existence.
There was no room for doubt with me, however. Subsequently one other member
of the T.S. has told me of a similar experience.
Q.: What was the next stage?
A.: Associated with the appearance of the "Dweller" were scenes of a vast
desert. This desert would respond to my own fear emotion by producing great and
oppressive-looking clouds of dust and smoke. Quite a fitting environment for
that awful "Dweller."
Q.: Did you grow out of that?
A.: At Sunday school I was, of course, taught to pray, and when I was about
five years old it oc-
--- 8
curred to me that Jesus could make me blind, so that I should not see these
things. I prayed very hard indeed for blindness, and it came. After that I
could feel the influence of the creature sometimes, though I did not see it.
Q.: What happened next?
A.: At an early stage I would have the feeling of leaving the physical body,
and did so consciously, seeing as I went. This would be followed by a sort
of waking up in the body with a recollection of all that I had experienced
while away from it. For several years I saw what I have since learned to
recognize as elementals of various descriptions - mostly like miniature humans or
fragments of them. Scenery: usually a replica of physical nature, often very
beautiful. With the sight came sounds which always appealed to my emotions;
quite sweet songs often came from the elementals. Often, too, when I was
perplexed about something or other, a panoramic scene would open before me,
something like the movies. In these there was life and color and sound, and even
fragrance, and these pictures always would solve my difficulty.
Q.: Could you describe one?
A.: Yes. When I was fifteen I was taken ill. The doctor gave my mother a
serious report, and she dutifully suggested to me the need of preparation for
death. I was at first delighted to think of release, and the close touch that
would follow with what had become to me an inner life full of attractions; but
then came the after-thought that I was an only son, and that my mother could
not spare me. In the moment of my perplexity, I saw myself in a
semi-tropical country, standing beside another European. Around us were a number of grass
huts like bee-hives, forming what appeared to be a native village, in
semi-tropical country, and many black-skinned inhabitants. I recognized myself as a
grownup and mature man, about thirty years of age. He wore a moustache,
which, at the time of my illness, was merely a boyish ambition with me. Clearly I
was not going to die. To me that was final: the picture was the answer to my
mental questioning.
Q.: Did you ever see the native village in later life?
A.: Yes. At the time of the vision I was in training for Lutheran mission
work in Africa. I never went to Africa, but when I was about twenty I came to
Australia. Some twelve years later I found myself on the Pusses River in North
Queensland. I was building for a sugar company that employed Kanakas. A
sickness broke out amongst the Kanakas, and they were isolated in their native
camp some distance away. One day I walked over to this camp to make some
enquiries, and met the European who was in charge. As I stood beside him the whole
scene of my vision of seventeen years before was there in front of me. Huts,
jungle, and natives to the life.
Q.: That experience should have been convincing. Did your pictures ever
suggest past experiences rather than future?
A.: Oh yes. As far back as I can remember - and I may say I can remember
learning to walk - I seemed to live in the continuation of a past. This past was
a definite memory just like the memory of the last few years of my present
life. I had been a bigger boy, and also a man. I remembered a different mother
and different surroundings. I knew, indeed, how I had been dressed in what I
always sensed - nay, knew - was a previous life.
Q.: How did this sense develop as you grew up?
A.: You may imagine for yourself the difficulties that beset one who came
back to earth life with but a partially broken memory. I had to learn to be
cautious; to avoid being regarded as non compos mentis. I not only held my
tongue, but strove to suppress both memory and sight. Occasionally, in spite of
this effort, glimpses of what Schiller describes as his cruel, cruel gift,
would occur to me; but I got on quite normally until I was about twenty-four.
Then I read "Zanoni." That book was to me a revelation, as you may well imagine,
if you have read it. I promptly got hold of Lytton's other books. At this
period I was busy making a fortune on the then newly-discovered Broken Hill
mining field. It rather absorbs one to get the gold fever. I spent some time in
making fifty thousand pounds, and another year or two in losing it, which I
did in the Melbourne land boom. Then I was free once more to think, and even
to enjoy life, for, as I
look back, that money stage is a nightmare. Having to set out once more, I
met on a small mining field a man who had had psychic experiences somewhat
similar to my own. I found myself a butt for his many questions. These set me
thinking, but I had no answers to many of his enquiries. I became a voracious
reader, and my friend had some rare books - translations of Hindu literature
and several mystic treatises.
Q.: Did you discover Theosophy then?
A.: In a way, but not in name. I relaxed my restraint of the inner seeing,
and having no further dread of the "Dweller," I found it possible to explore
many avenues of speculation and enquiry by moving around in what I have since
learned to call the astral world.
Q.: Could you control your going and coming in the astral world?
A.: Entirely. The will to project myself was all that was ever necessary. Of
course, a few physical precautions must be taken. I have stood up and left
my body, but that is not wise, as the body may fall in a heap. One just lies
down and consciously moves off. It was soon after this period, about 1891, that
--- 9
I came across a copy of the "Voice of the Silence." That was my real
introduction to Theosophy. I joined the T.S. a couple of years later, and
thenceforward contacted the literature of the Society. The "Secret Doctrine" has been
my chief study, but naturally all the books by other psychic writers have
been of great interest. Much of what these record corresponds with my own
experiences, though it seems to be demonstrated that psychics do not all see just
the same things. Perhaps they do not see them in quite the same way.
Q.: Can you give an illustration?
A.: Well, a lady who sees astrally, a member of the T.S., I believe, came to
me the other day in great trouble. She had been attending service at a
certain church where angels are reported to take a prominent part, and are
apparently seen by other psychics who attend. The trouble of my visitor was, that
instead of seeing the angels, she saw the church full of ugly little
elementals; in fact, she described them to me as little devils. She was very much
shocked.
Q.: How do you account for different psychics seeing different things at the
same time?
A.: An adequate answer would take a long time. Had you not better leave it
to another occasion? I am simply recording a fact common to the experience of
psychics. The inner world is a fairly vast one, as is this, and we only
compass a scrap of it at a time with our pair of eyes.
Q.: How do you proceed if you want to investigate some specific subject?
A.: To investigate consecutively, one needs to be first of all capable of
concentration. By concentration I mean the real thing. Few can sufficiently
stop their normal thinking to see with clearness on the other planes. The first
thing, then, with me, is deliberately to stop thinking; that is, to get
behind that which H.P. Blavatsky describes as "the slayer of the real." This
procedure does not involve going
------------ --------- --------- --------- ---
- Cole's Book Arcade
- 346 George Street is the Sydney Depot for " DAWN "
- Single Copies, Price Ninepence
------------ --------- --------- --------- ---
out of the body, as I have previously described it. One does it while
retaining normal physical consciousness.
Q.: I suppose there are other ways of doing it?
A.: Certainly. There are methods, for instance, known to spiritualists which
I would describe as entirely negative. There are also certain Hatha Yoga
methods against which our literature warns us, because of their accompanying
dangers. Of course, in acquiring faculties like this one must learn to walk
before he can run.
Q.: I suppose you can get about best at night when the body is asleep? Have
you any difficulty in bringing back the memory of night work?
A.: There is no difficulty about remembering everything on awakening if I
pass out with full self-consciousness. If I lay down casually and go to sleep,
as I often do, I should not look for any memory on awaking. Occasionally some
memory would impinge itself even in that case. When one goes forth
consciously at night, one experiences a sequence of events much as when awake.
Q.: Do you meet your friends?
A.: Well, yes; but one does not find them quite as normal as when they are
awake. Some are quite unconscious of one's presence, and cannot hear when one
addresses them. Others are more awake. Some, indeed, seem always quite all
there in every way. I suppose it is a case of some being more capable than
others of functioning consciously outside the physical body.
Q.: I suppose you often contact invisible helpers such as are described in
our books?
A.: Yes. Our older T.S. members seem to be used on the other side. Many,
however, though they seem able to carry out directions, do not appear to be
self-conscious there. A lot of good useful work is done in that way all the same.
But now I must go. We can have another talk later on if you wish.
------------ --------- --------- --------- -
_http://theosophy._ (http://theosophy./) katinkahesselink .net/dawn/
Vol-1-1-DAWN. htm
____________ _________ _________ __
From: kpauljohnson <kpauljohnson@ yahoo.com>
To: theos-talk@yahoogro ups.com
Sent: Saturday, 10 January, 2009 6:54:48 AM
Subject: Theos-World A Strange Story (preferable to Zanoni or The Coming
Race IMO)
Zanoni was written in 1842, and is awfully didactic. A Strange Story
appeared twenty years later and is far more worthwhile. I also
prefer it to The Coming Race. I would highly recommend to Cass to
start with this because going to Australia is a pivotal plot element
and is the setting for a good part of the book.
--- In theos-talk@yahoogro ups.com, Drpsionic@.. . wrote:
>
> I've read it once, fell asleep 14 times in the process.
>
> BL was very influential in Euro occult circles. He was one of
Eliphas
> Levi's sources of inspiration and a lot of the stuff in the Golden
Dawn comes
> right out of his work.
>
> Chuck the Heretic
>
>
> In a message dated 1/9/2009 6:56:21 A.M. Central Standard Time,
> silva_cass@. .. writes:
>
>
>
>
> Yes Paul, I would be very interested in reading those extracts.
My first
> teacher pointed me to Bullwer Lytton's Zanoni, but still haven't
read it.
> Perhaps this is the cue I needed
>
> Cass
>
> ____________ _________ _________ __
> From: kpauljohnson <_kpauljohnson@ kpauljohn_
(mailto:kpauljohnso n@...)
> >
> To: _theos-talk@ yahoogrotheos- t_ (mailto:theos-
talk@yahoogroups. com)
> Sent: Friday, 9 January, 2009 6:51:55 PM
> Subject: Theos-World Bulwer-Lytton and Bunsen
>
> Hello all but especially Cass and Frank,
>
> I have noticed the recent references to Edward Bulwer-Lytton and
Ernest
> Bunsen, and while these were made in other contexts I want to
point out
> that there is an important connection between these individuals
and the
> founding of the Theosophical Society. The first two books
published by
> a Founder of the TS, in the first year of its existence, were Art
Magic
> and Ghost Land by Emma Hardinge Britten. Robert Mathiesen's
monograph
> The Unseen Worlds of Emma Hardinge Britten is an amazing tour de
force,
> establishing beyond reasonable doubt that Bunsen was
the "Chevalier
> Louis" of those two books, and that the "Orphic Circle" depicted
in
> them was a genuine occult research group whose most eminent member
was
> Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Emma and Bunsen first met as adolescent
trance
> mediums used in the experiments of this group around 1840; then
renewed
> acquaintance years later after the emergence of the Spiritualist
> movement.
>
> When I read Marion Meade's HPB biography years ago, I found
ridiculous
> her assertion that a primary basis for HPB's description of the
Masters
> was the novels of Bulwer-Lytton. Why, I thought, would someone
with
> such vast documented experience with so many authentic teachers
have to
> rely on silly Victorian novels for her inspiration? What Meade and
I
> both missed was that it wasn't B-L's *novels* that inspired HPB,
it was
> the man himself and his nearly lifelong devotion to occultism. In
a
> letter written NOVEMBER 16, 1875, THE DAY BEFORE THE INAUGURAL
ADDRESS
> OF OLCOTT, HPB wrote to Stainton Moses of Bulwer-Lytton that "He
was an
> *adept* [italicized in the book, presumably underlined in the
letter]
> and kept it secret-- first for fear [of] ridicule..and then
because his
> vows would not allow him to explain himself plainer than he did."
> (Letters I:202) At the moment I'm reading Leslie Mitchell's 2003
> biography of Bulwer-Lytton, and if any here is interested will
share
> some excerpts about his occult preoccupations. HPB was very
accurate
> about his fear of ridicule over his occult involvements.
>
> Paul
>
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