,transcriber's ,note4 ,italic text is indicated with underscores1 bold text with equals4 ,small_/mixed capitals have been replaced with ,,all ,,capitals4 ,,the ,,adventures ,,of ,a ,,modern ,,occultist ,,by ,,oliver ,,bland ,illustration3 decoration ,,new ,,york ,,dodd1 ,,mead ,,and ,,company #aibj ,,copyright1 #aibj ,,by ,,dodd1 ,,mead ,,and ,,company1 ,,inc4 ,the ,quinn ,boden ,company ,,book ,,manufacturers ,,rahway ,,new ,,jersey ,,introduction ,the individual who deals with the by-paths and mysteries of that great ,science which we term loosely ,occultism1 courts neither personal notoriety nor publicity for the strange proceedings in which he plays a part4 ,i have always been an energetic student of psychic matters1 drawn thereto by the possession of certain unusual gifts with which ,nature has endowed me4 7,throughout the history of mankind there have always been a certain number of individuals who have kept alive the sacred fire and held the secret keys of many mysteries1 and from time to time an advance in general human knowledge or in an applied art or science has revealed to the vulgar some small part of the outer mysteries that have always been known to the initiates4 ,these disclosures are hailed as discoveries and set in their ordered place in the catalogue of human knowledge47 ,there are in this book certain disclosures of hidden facts which are given to the world simply because the time is ripe when they should be more fully known and their revelation is counselled by wisdom4 ,human nature has always suffered from its lack of discrimination between ,prophets and ,false ,prophets1 and one of the greatest difficulties that besets the ,occultist is to know what is safe to reveal4 ,it is for this reason that secrets are hidden from the vulgar and the charlatan1 for these things must be hidden lest they are turned to base ends4 ,the revival of deep public interest in psychic matters is only a matter of time1 and then those things which have been of absorbing interest to the few will become of vital interest to the many4 ,the following chapters are simply transcripts of some of the astoundingly interesting matters which have been reposing for years in my diaries and note-books4 ,they have been set out in conventional narrative form with no great changes except of names and places and the elimination of the rather involved scientific terminology of the psychologist and the laboratory4 ,in these days when men are turning from the crude materialism of the nineteenth century and the true scientist is the last person to deny the realities which were deemed mythical a few short years ago1 they may serve to fill a certain need4 ,an interest in ,occultism is common to most people1 but a deep study of its principles and its phenomena is attainable only by the few4 ,it is not advisable to seek transcendental experiences without a sound working knowledge of the root-springs of these phenomena1 and one of the purposes of this volume is to render invaluable assistance to those who possess psychic gifts in greater or lesser degree4 ,the ,spiritualist1 the ,theosophist1 and the student of ,psychic ,research will all find in these pages much to interest them and much to ponder4 ,it throws light in some of the dark places which have seemed obscure to those of the modern schools of thought who have not studied ancient knowledge4 ,as it is impossible to expound an infinite mass of fact within the limits of a slender volume1 ,i have added footnotes here and there which will direct any interested reader to further sources of information than my condensed text affords1 but the purpose of the book is directed to the general reader rather than to the student or specialist who will doubtless know more than these pages can tell him4 ,,oliver ,,bland4 ,,contents ,i4 ,,the ,,dead ,,rapper #a ,,ii4 ,,the ,,automatist #ag ,,iii4 ,,astral ,,light ,,and ,,psycho-,,lastrometer #cf ,,iv4 ,,an ,,experiment ,,on ,,the ,,theory ,,of ,,protective ,,vibration #ef ,v4 ,,sex ,,in ,,the ,,next ,,world #gf ,,vi4 ,,the ,,reality ,,of ,,sorcery #ic ,,vii4 ,,incense ,,and ,,occultism #aag ,,viii4 ,,beasts ,,and ,,elementals #ada ,,ix4 ,,possession #aeg ,x4 ,,some ,,new ,,facts ,,and ,,theories #aga ,,xi4 ,,oriental ,,occultism #aid 8,read not to contradict and confute1 not to believe and take for granted 444 but to weigh and consider40 ,bacon's ,essays4 ,,chapter ,i ,,the ,,dead ,,rapper ,i had known ,harry ,carthew as a second-year man at ,oxford4 ,he never completed his course or took a degree because family reasons1 some catastrophe of some kind or another--made it imperative for him to earn a living at once4 ,as an undergraduate he was an ardent anti-,spiritualist4 ,he dropped out of sight of our little world and ,i had only heard of him casually as having something to do with oil wells in ,mexico and had not come into contact with him for years4 ,i was therefore rather surprised to receive a letter from him which showed that he was in ,london and knew that ,i was working on research subjects4 ,his letter was couched in rather non-committal terms1 and though he was a man whom ,i had never known well1 he expressed an anxiety to meet me again and lay before me certain psychical problems that were puzzling him4 ,i make it an invariable rule never to discuss psychic matters with people who are ignorant or sceptical of them1 unless the sceptics are of a class sufficiently educated to be able to appreciate the absolute facts of the phenomena associated with ,spiritualism4 ,it is impossible to convince a non-scientific person by facts1 as he can never assure himself that the possibility of fraud has been absolutely eliminated4 ,a scientist or an engineer can assure himself fairly easily of the genuineness or otherwise of phenomena provided that he is given every latitude for research4 ,but it is difficult to convince either a clergyman or an ordinary medical man of the reality of any psychic phenomena because he is not mentally trained in the same inexorably logical processes of thought as are the engineers and scientists4 ,experience has taught me to mistrust the man who approaches with indirect advances to the subject of ,spiritualism4 ,i prefer the definite challenge of a critical journalist who demands facts and judges on facts1 for it is undoubtedly an axiom that the ,seeker after ,truth1 however sceptical he may be1 has no hostile influence in a properly constituted circle4 ,it has ever been a matter of regret to me that the mass of ,spiritualists hold the fallacious idea that a sceptical influence can hinder a sance4 ,for it is not the lack of belief or disbelief of the one or few sceptics that weakens the influence4 ,it is the mass belief of the whole circle in the hostile influence of the sceptic that does the harm4 ,after thinking matters over ,i decided that it might be wrong to prejudice ,carthew by his undergraduate views4 ,after all1 some years had passed1 and if every ,oxford man held to the eccentric habits and beliefs of his puppy days the world would be a sorry place4 ,i wrote to him asking him to dine with me at my club during the following week4 ,he had changed so much that when he entered the smoking room ,i did not recognize him4 ,tropical sunlight had bronzed and wrinkled his skin1 his eyes had the clear hard steel-grey fadedness of the blue iris that comes to men who have gazed long across deserts4 ,malaria had thinned down his form and his hands were big-veined and tremulous with quinine4 ,over the meal he told me a good deal about his life abroad1 and ,i realized something of the deadly loneliness of a white man's life in the dull oil fields of ,mexico4 ,four other whites to speak to and for the rest native peons1 ,indians and a sprinkling of ,chinese coolies4 ,a bottle of good wine is a splendid lubricant for the human tongue1 and the ,burgundy--a 8,clos du ,poi10 '#hd--soon eased him of all awkwardness4 ,over the coffee and cigars he came to his point4 8,you still go on with ,spiritualism1 don't you1 ,grey80 8,yes10 ,i answered him1 8but ,i thought that you did not believe in it40 ,his answer almost shocked me with its violence4 8,god6 but ,i wish that ,i did not60 ,he was silent with emotion for a moment1 then resumed3 8,you know ,i never believed in it at the ,house4 ,i always thought you fellows were simply running it as a craze1 but up at ,los ,chicharras--that was the third big oil gusher that the ,company owned--there was a ,cornish mining engineer1 ,bill ,tregarthen4 8,he was a queer fish1 a silent man2 squat-shaped1 broad as he was long and full of queer fancies4 ,he had a little planchette board that he used to consult about everything1 and ,i have seen him sit there in the patio of the office building with the little jigger dancing about over reams of paper4 8,i thought he was crazy1 but he persuaded me to try the thing1 and ,i got messages1 too4 ,one day it spelt out a message from ,ellen1 and ,ellen has been dead for four years--she was my old nurse--,ellen---- 8,even then ,i was only half convinced4 ,one's brain plays one strange tricks down there in the ,tierra ,caliente1 and ,i have seen an upturned mountain standing on its head in the desert--mirage of course1 and ,i used to think the planchette mental mirage1 subconscious stuff of some kind--and ,i didn't believe4 8,then ,tregarthen used to laugh at me for a fool1 and one night he blazed up into a strange bit of rage and stood there in the moonlight shaking his fist at me4 #8,we ,cornish folk have known the unwrit lore for all time1' said he4 #8,old odd people we are and we know old odd things4 ,i tell you4 ,i will tell you that ,i am right when ,i am dead4 ,you will not listen to me now1 but you shall listen then1 indeed4' 8,lots of the stuff he raved at us that night1 but ,i and another man at last calmed him down and got him off to bed4 ,i thought little enough of it at the time1 and a week later ,i went back from ,los ,chicharras to the ,offices at ,tampico4 8,i suppose it was a month later that ,i heard the first knock4 ,it was past midday1 right in the heart of the siesta hour4 ,not a soul moving1 the very dogs silent in the streets1 and the whole place a blinding blaze of sunlight4 8,i knew at once--that's the odd thing about it4 ,i knew instantly in my heart that ,tregarthen was dead4 8,that was six months ago1 and since then ,i keep on hearing the raps4 ,i know that ,tregarthen is keeping his pledge1 but ,i cannot answer him back2 ,i cannot get into touch with him4 8,now tell me this--with all your knowledge of these things1 can you help me80 ,i asked him what he had done1 and he told me a long chronicle of visits to mediums in ,new ,york1 of an attempt to talk through a voodoo woman in ,new ,orleans1 and of honest1 patient sittings in a little suburban circle in ,london4 ,carthew was clearly desperate and absolutely in earnest4 ,i knew without his telling me what was at the back of his mind4 ,the problem was a peculiar one1 for here was a live man to all intents haunted by a malicious spirit now on another plane4 ,carthew's character was a strong one1 though of a low and violent type4 ,this mental persecution had produced a prodigious feeling of hatred for the dead man--a feeling of hatred that had not existed when he was alive1 for then the hatred was all on ,tregarthen's side4 ,there was also the possibility that the knock was pure hallucination and not a genuine clairaudient phenomenon at all4 ,i asked ,carthew if he could give me particulars of how ,tregarthen died1 and ,i was not surprised to learn that his end had been a violent one4 ,a small oil gusher had broken out as an offshoot from the larger one4 ,in order to cut off the flow and waste of oil it is the practice to force a dynamite cartridge into these small leads4 ,this when exploded breaks the natural channel of the oil and blocks the outlet4 ,tregarthen1 through an accident or carelessness--he was a deep drinker--had destroyed himself when preparing the charge4 ,i asked ,carthew if he was prepared to attend a sance or two and if he would put himself completely in my hands4 ,he assented readily1 reasserting his dominant desire to be able to talk back to ,tregarthen4 ,i was holding private sances twice a week then1 but my little circle was1 though powerful enough for research work1 quite unsuitable for dealing with an abnormal case of undesired communication4 ,during the week ,i got into touch with a private medium whose faculty of clairaudience was coupled with an excellent nervous system1 and ,i reinforced the circle by the addition of ,dr4 ,miller1#a who1 though not a professed ,spiritualist1 is no sceptic concerning occult phenomena and is admittedly one of the most successful practitioners of curative psychology that we have to-day4 ,a few days later ,carthew came to my chambers in the ,temple and was introduced to the members of the circle4 ,i placed him on the left-hand contact side of the medium and lowered the lights4 ,the medium engaged in this case was under double controls1 one a spirit called 8,louis10 the other a rather elusive and intermittent control that answered to the name of 8,montecatini40 ,the trance state was entered almost immediately and 8,louis0 took control4 ,i asked him to find ,tregarthen and he showed considerable reluctance1 insisting that he was 8not there40 ,the control 8,louis0 was then dispossessed by 8,montecatini10 who answered in an entirely different voice and showed a distinct and separate personality4 8,i can find him10 said ,montecatini1 and almost on the echo of the words a distinct audible rap came from the ceiling of the room4 ,carthew recognized it instantly and flinched as if it were a personal blow at him4 8,have you got ,tregarthen there80 ,i asked4 8,no1 they won't let him come here10 was the answer4 8,why won't they let him come80 8,afraid of him40 8,who is it rapping1 then80 8,it's a sent rap for somebody4 ,i didn't do it40 8,who is the rap for80 8,for the brown man40 7,carthew was sunburnt47 8,he wants to speak to the spirit who sends it40 8,he can't1 it's from a bad spirit40 8,but you said you could find ,tregarthen40 8,i have found him1 but ,i can't bring him40 8,why not80 8,he is too heavy40 8,what do you mean80 8,too heavy--too low down--too much hatred40 8,can't ,louis help you bring him80 ,this was answered after a pause by the voice of ,louis4 8,we will try if you all help--but the brown man is hindering us40 ,i then determined to break the circle and set ,carthew on a chair outside4 8,if you want to get through to ,tregarthen10 ,i told him1 8you must subdue that hatred of yours4 ,i am going to try for ,tregarthen by the direct voice method40 ,i placed an ordinary gramophone trumpet on a light table within the circle1 then we rejoined hands and concentrated4 8,can you get ,tregarthen now80 ,i asked4 8,yes1 he is coming--but he doesn't want to come40 8,i want him to speak to us through the trumpet10 ,i told them4 ,almost immediately there were three knocks on the table close by the trumpet4 ,then the voice came out of the trumpet1 not out of the medium1 but it was the voice of ,montecatini4 8,he's a bad spirit and he won't talk10 said the control4 8,ask him if he knows who's here80 8,carthew60 blared the trumpet in the voice of ,tregarthen4 ,i heard the crash of ,carthew's chair falling back as he rose1 and then his words3 8,tregarthen--at last60 ,the trumpet chuckled at him1 a hard sardonic chuckle1 and it was a dreadful thing to hear4 8,stop that1 ,tregarthen10 ,i said sharply4 8,now listen to me4 ,you must stop sending these knocks4 ,you have proved to ,carthew that you were right1 and for the future there is no sense in it40 ,again the trumpet began to chuckle4 8,i want ,carthew--here10 said the voice of ,tregarthen4 8,i want him to keep me company where ,i am now40 ,the medium began to writhe uneasily1 and ,i suddenly realized that something dangerous had happened4 ,the two normal controls1 8,louis0 and 8,montecatini10 whom we had sent to fetch ,tregarthen's spirit1 had disappeared and ,tregarthen himself had taken over control4 ,something of a spirit of uneasiness and a general sense of danger began to spread through the circle4 ,i called to ,carthew to come into the circle again and to cross his hands1 grasping my wrist and ,miller's1 so as not to break the chain when entering4 8,now man60 ,i told him1 8here is your chance4 ,we have ,tregarthen here1 and we will help you all we can4 ,you must fight him with the whole of your will-power4 ,defy him1 raise him to anger1 and at the crucial point ,i will do something which will destroy his power over you for ever6 ,now60 ,carthew's grip burnt into my wrists as he took hold of himself1 and then all the bitter1 dominant hatred that was in the man flamed out4 ,he stood in the circle towering above us on our chairs and he poured into that trumpet a breadth of bilingual ,spanish and ,english invective that would have led to murder anywhere4 ,he paused for breath and from the trumpet came no chuckle1 but a spluttering1 stammering1 furious attempt to reply4 ,i had no need to prompt him to go on4 ,he laced into his ghostly antagonist as if he had the earthly body there in front of him4 ,all the pent-up hatred of the past months winged his words4 ,the consciousness of his torment made his quarrel just1 and at the height of his peroration ,i concentrated the whole of my psychic energies and made the four exorcism signs of the martinist ritual1 bidding ,tregarthen begone1 never to return and never to be able to send a rap1 and instantly broke the circle4 ,i then roused the medium from the trance with a couple of simple passes4 ,the reaction from the violence of the sance left us all spent and shaken4 ,the medium recovered1 remembering nothing1 but feeling unusually exhausted4 ,later experiments with her showed that the domination by the ,tregarthen control was purely temporary and that 8,louis0 and 8,montecatini0 had reasserted command4 ,my own opinion is that nothing but the intense 8hate concentration0 of ,carthew toward his ghostly antagonist could have enabled ,tregarthen to assume control at all4 ,it was a duel of wills between the living and the dead1 fought over the narrow no-man's land of the earth and spirit planes1 and ,i am not sure that it was not a duel which ended fatally for the soul of ,tregarthen4 ,carthew at any rate was free of all trouble afterwards1 but wild horses could not drag him to a sance4 ,miller was more convinced by this astonishing sance than by far more material phenomena that he had seen4 ,the following day1 though1 he sent me an explanation of the whole affair argued out on his own lines4 ,he held that ,carthew was the subject of an obsession and that the whole of the phenomena were due to subconscious hypnotism of the medium alternatively by me as a believer in ,spiritualism and by ,carthew4 ,the direct voice he ascribed to unconscious or subconscious ventriloquism by the medium1 and he pointed out that the words uttered by ,tregarthen were precisely what one would expect ,carthew to say if ,carthew were in ,tregarthen's place4 ,in other words1 we were present at an amazing duel between ,carthew's conscious mind and an obsession of his subconscious mind that had built itself into a malignant identity4 ,it is interesting as a psychological theory1 but in point of fact ,i hold it to be entirely wrong4 ,we argued it out a good deal together1 but experiments in psychic science can seldom be repeated1 and1 as ,i say1 ,carthew refused to submit to any further attempt to evoke ,tregarthen4 ,as a man ,i sympathize with him1 and he was really very grateful to us--but as a scientist ,i would have liked to try again in order to attempt to convince ,miller4 ,,footnote3 #a ,all names of people and places have been changed1 but ,dr4 ,miller's cures of 8shell shock0 during the war have shown that one's estimate of his powers was perfectly correct4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,the ,,automatist ,a well-known psychic investigator once jokingly complained to me that the telephone service of the spirit world seemed to be as unreliable and badly damaged as that of ,great ,britain4 ,certainly1 communication is often freakish and intermittent1 and the ethical value of the teachings received at great length and painstakingly transcribed is often completely valueless4 ,it must be remembered that we who are conducting research in psychic matters have a poor range of instruments or tools to work with4 ,there must inevitably be the human medium1 and long experience has taught me that in the case of automatic writing one must be prepared to recognize the intrusion of the medium's own thought-processes into the record received from the spirit world4 ,that these interpolated writings are conscious frauds by the mediums we can unhesitatingly deny1 but they appear to be either unconscious records of the medium's own thoughts or else the re-transmitted subconscious thought-processes of the medium echoed back by the control4 ,i have hopes that in the future we shall be able to devise an appliance for the recording of automatic writing in which the function of the medium will be purely that of a bridge between the two planes and in which the physical act of writing will be mechanically performed4#b ,the difficulty in automatic writing lies in the association of ideas1 and one word written by a planchette or spelt out by an ouija traverser leads to the stimulation of a train of thought in the subconscious mind even though the conscious brain may be in the trance state4 ,the difficulty is to piece together what can be termed the true spirit messages out of the mass of pseudo-communications that surround them4 ,the analysis of the familiar examples of 8cross-correspondence0 are a valuable guide in the complexities that are involved in the question4 ,a popular idea of the difficulty of communication can be gained by imagining a man in a telephone exchange in ,london trying to talk to ,newcastle4 ,he can go from instrument to instrument and speak through1 but all the instruments keep on going out of order1 so that only disconnected fragments of communication pass over one wire4 ,this would not matter if the person with whom he wishes to talk were also in an exchange at ,newcastle4 ,he1 too1 could pass to other instruments1 but we must imagine the mortal recipient of spirit messages as a subscriber with only one defective instrument4#c ,difficult as the subject of automatic writing is1 it is from these writings that the ,spiritualist conception of life in the next world is gleaned4 ,many a student has found eloquent1 fluent1 and convincing description of the life beyond the veil flow from his pen when the spirit controls were working well4 ,other writers have had accounts of terrors beyond the veil3 shocking and astonishing revelations of new concepts of evil1 exotic violences of the soul1 and even direct incitements to the commission of criminal acts in this plane4 ,spiritualists are accustomed to divide these spirits into classes of good and bad1 and it has been assumed on all too slender grounds that only the 8good0 spirits tell the truth about the other planes4 ,there are bad and lying spirits1 just as there are wicked and untruthful men1 but latterly there has been a distinct tendency to suppress all mention of the bad communicators and to attempt the organization of ,spiritualist and psychic investigation as an unorthodox ascending sect organized as a distinct church or religious body4 ,this tendency would be fatal to the progress of occult investigation4 ,the professional mediums1 on the other hand1 realize that to attain financial success1 organization1 and the establishment of a mediumistic hierarchy is essential4 ,bad spirits are bad business and it is bad form to mention them outside certain circles4 ,any investigator of experience will recognize at once that the spirits of suicides are frequent communicators to private research circles1 private automatists and others1 but it is an undeniable fact that in public circles our leading exponents now never admit that any of the spirits who communicate have been anything but mortals whose end was normal1 or more recently1 those who were killed in battle4 ,there is more in ,spiritualism than the mere assurance to inquiries that life on the other side is very beautiful1 that vocations similar to those on earth are followed there and that there is a steady upward progression4 ,these things dominate the minds of a certain section of the ,english ,spiritualists1 and their tacit negation of the other darker side of the revelations is entirely contrary to ,french1 ,russian1 and certain ,latin-,american schools of thought4 ,the history of all religions and analysis of their tenets reveal one great outstanding fact4 ,there has always been an element of fear and terror connected with all conceptions of the after-life4 ,there is nothing in revealed ,spiritualism to suggest that abstract justice is more prevalent on the next plane than on this imperfect earth4 ,the very fact of the admitted existence of bad and evil spirits capable of malice1 is in itself fatal to the bed of rose-leaves theories4 ,in science it is the abnormal properties of a new gas1 compound1 or element that lead scientists to study it1 so in the realm of psychic science it is only through close study of the abnormal that we can attain to any clear idea of the normal4 ,it has been cast at me as a reproach that ,i have pursued vain and extraordinary paths of research1 not disdaining to delve into dark secrets of occultist ritual whose proceedings would be unorthodox and blasphemous if laid bare to the orthodox and anmic ,spiritualist circles of ,balham4 ,yet ,shamonnism is ,spiritualism1 and the old schools of sorcery and art magic held psychic secrets that are still reproducible but yet inexplicable in these twentieth-century days4 ,one of the most wonderful automatists ,i ever met was the late ,jules ,carrier4 ,a tall1 spare figure1 black-bearded1 aquiline-nosed1 vividly pale in complexion1 he had dark hazel eyes with brown mottled rings about the pupil that suggested in a vague way something feline or leopard-like4 ,i met him quite by chance in a bookshop in the ,rue de ,valenciennes whose proprietor had written to me about some curious early nineteenth-century manuscripts that had come into his possession4 ,these books consisted of some rather commonplace manuscripts of certain philosophical transactions dealing with occult phenomena4 ,paris in the early thirties of the last century was seamed with secret organizations devoted to scientific and political studies4 ,the great impulse of the ,revolution had produced in turn ,napoleon and then the ,bourbon reaction4 ,the strong arm of the clerical party drove the philosophers underground1 and only from time to time can one find these peculiar archives of occultist activity in odd booksellers' shops and the libraries of students4 ,the proprietor of the shop knew my interest in these matters and had before been at pains to secure me certain personal souvenirs from his library of ,eliphas ,levi1#d so whenever an odd 8,grimoire10 or early matter on occultism fell to his lot he would put it by against my next visit4 ,he it was who introduced ,carrier to me as a fellow-student1 but he made it abundantly clear that ,carrier was too poor to be a book buyer and that he himself looked on him as a peculiar acquaintance rather than as a customer4 ,we fell into conversation1 and ,i was delighted to find that ,carrier had a wide and erudite knowledge of early books on magical practice4 ,this he told me he had gained principally by spare-time study at the ,librairie de ,paris1 but also from the loan of books from friends4 ,he had1 it appeared1 catalogued several private collections of works on psychic and supernormal subjects4 ,i took him off to lunch with me at the ,caf ,bastien1 and he explained that he was completing a catalogue or bibliography of books on magic published previously to #ahej4 8,there are10 said he1 8a number of missing works referred to by contemporary authors4 ,of these there is little knowledge1 but little by little ,i am rewriting them40 8,automatic writing or original deductive work80 ,i asked him4 8,automatic--pur et simple10 he replied4 8,my control is called ,fernand de ,fques and was a monk of the ,abbey of ,saint-,barnabe near ,blagues4 ,thanks to his help1 ,i have recovered amazing things that were lost40 ,he sank his voice as he told me and his leopard eyes seemed to glow golden as the wine in his glass4 8,i know the secrets of the lost inner ritual of the ,illuminati10 he told me4 8,i have recovered ,pietro ,zarantino's invocation1 and could ,i only master ancient ,greek ,i could lay the secrets of the ,bacch bare4 ,but their confused script paralyses my hand and ,i must keep to ,french and ,latin40 ,i knew too much of the vast breadth and heritage of knowledge that the ,hermetic philosophers inherited from the ,gnostics to doubt his words4 ,revealed knowledge may sometimes appear to be withdrawn for a while1 but it will inevitably be re-disclosed4 ,having an appointment to keep1 ,i made a note of his address and promised to resume our acquaintanceship on another day4 ,a week later ,i had had leisure to go through my manuscripts4 ,they were very interesting1 but verbose1 and were full of curiously involved obliquities of meaning and contained some peculiar ,hebrew charms of ,kabbalistic significance4 ,by either bad luck or the design of some earlier owner1 two pages of the invocatory ritual for the raising of the spirits of the dead were missing4 ,it occurred to me that ,carrier might be able to fill the gap by means of automatic writing1 so ,i wrote to him suggesting the attempt and asking him to my rooms4 ,he replied by return1 expressing his willingness to help1 and adding that his control had assented1 but desired me to visit him in his own rooms in order that he might not be disturbed by novel surroundings4 ,the next night ,i went to ,carrier's4 ,he lived in one of those dull meandering streets that rise from the mass of the city toward ,montparnasse4 ,the house was an old tumble down warren1 dirty and ill-kept1 the various floors let out in rooms or suites of apartments to tenants who were none too particular in their choice of lodging4 ,by the light of a match ,i examined the grimy cards pinned in the hallway1 and at last located ,carrier's name as owner of the back room on the third floor4 ,he opened to my knock and ,i found myself in a room which made no pretension to disguise the poverty of its tenant4 ,most of his furniture was books4 ,a globeless gas jet burnt feebly over a side table on which were some dishes and there was an old and uncleanly box bed in the corner4 ,in the centre of the room was a heavy old fashioned circular pedestal table and on this he had laid out glasses1 a bottle of wine1 and paper4 ,he showed me his books1 and for a while we discussed ,guldenstubb4#e ,i looked at some of his automatic writings that gave interpretations of some aspects of ,etteilla and was in particular interested in a new rendering of his ,book of ,thoth4#f ,in the meantime ,carrier was glancing through the imperfect ,,ms4 that ,i had brought with me4 8,this is rather different from most of the books of the period10 said he4 8,it is more like a note-book of lectures or a prcis of an existing magical ritual as performed by a small child4 ,what do you make of it80 8,that is just how it struck me10 ,i told him4 8,it is about the period of the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century4 ,the writer might have been one of the adepts trained by ,francis ,barret1 by ,cagliostro1 or by ,dom ,gerle1 but it might even be as late as ,madame ,lenormand40 8,hardly #ahae1 ,i think10 said ,carrier1 8but no matter4 ,the interesting thing is that this writer seems to have shorn his ritual of lots of the inessential matters4 ,for instance1 in this matter of the invocation of simple elements he has resolutely reduced his formula to mere essentials4 ,two kinds of the wearisome ,hebrew prayers are gone and the actual mechanical adjuncts to the invocation are simplified4 8,his consecrations too are limited simply to the repetition of words of power4 ,this man had in his way reduced his art magic to what one may term working formul40 8,sometime ,i will experiment with them10 ,i told him1 8but for the present let us see if we can recover the ritual on the missing pages40 ,carrier soon passed under control4 ,his mouth seemed to fall slack and open in rather ghastly fashion and the eyeballs turned up under the lids so that though he wrote with half-opened eyes2 only the blue-tinted white of the eyeballs could be seen under his heavy lids4 ,his hand and forearm began to twitch spasmodically1 but the pencil stayed almost immobile on the paper forming a little knot of scratches1 but no letters4 ,finally ,i saw that he had completely entered the trance state and was directly under control4 8,who is the author of these manuscripts80 ,i asked4 ,without a pause the pencil wrote rapidly in a sharp angular script3 8,marcel ,theot1 ,adept and ,minor ,master of the ,arcana40 8,under whom did you study80 8,under the divine ,giuseppe ,balsamo ,count ,cagliostro1 the ,grand ,copt of the ,universe1 and later under ,doctor ,jules ,lemercier pupil of ,lavater and ,cagliostro40 8,will you reveal to us the missing pages of your manuscript80 ,the answer was unexpected4 8,to you two10 the pencil wrote1 8,i can reveal these secrets1 for you too are initiate and know what progress is permitted to the children of men4 ,this ,i say unto you4 ,in the third decade of this century shall there be a revival of art magic1 but much that has been sealed to the philosophers shall be known to the healers of men40#g ,the control revealed a complete and up-to-date knowledge of movements in the world of psychic research and the refrain of the communications was ever the same4 8,these things were known before1 but mankind had not the sense to apply the doctrines and practice40 ,at length the control took up the actual communication of the missing portion of the ritual and ,carrier's automatic script changed entirely from his own angular1 large-lettered1 trim1 and straggly lettering to the staid precise well-formed handwriting of the original manuscript4 ,all went well until it came to the names of ,god1 which had to be written in ,hebrew characters in the corners of the triangle within the pentagon of the president of the air4 ,carrier's hand struggled with the attempt to produce the letters1 but the characters would not form4 ,there was a moment of indecision1 and then ,i saw hovering over the table a small lambent sphere of bluish light4 ,the room1 remember1 was lighted by a gas jet and we were not in darkness1 but clear and distinct the flickering globe of blue light formed over the table1 then descended to wrap round ,carrier's hand and pencil4 ,with it there seemed to come an impression of intense cold1 then there formed within the light a plainly visible hand bearing a curiously wrought talismanic ring4 ,this hand took the pencil and wrote the names in ,hebrew characters ,,vevahliah1 ,,aniel1 and ,,mumiah1 then withdrew again4 ,while the rest of the ritual was being written the globe of light into which the hand had redissolved hovered over the table1 but at the end of the script when ,carrier's hand fell idle it returned and materializing again wrote in bold script in ordinary ,latin characters3 8,the dead ye will summon1 but ,nahemah will answer1 for ,i too am a creature of the fire and it is only on the underplanes that ,i command40 ,once again the globe of fire redissolved the hand1 then the whole ascending toward the ceiling appeared to expand1 dissipate and vanish away4 ,carrier came round and ,i boiled him up a glass of hot water1 which1 with a liberal dash of wine1 soon restored him to himself4 ,together we went over the script while ,i told him of the curious phenomenon that ,i had witnessed4 8,that may account for the way my hand is aching10 he said4 8,i thought it was more than usual10 and spreading his hand out in front of him we both noticed for the first time that both the first joint of the thumb and the nail and first joint of the forefinger were actually swollen and bruised4 8,this ,marcel ,theot seems to be a terrible fellow10 said he ruefully4 8,it is the last part of the message that he has attached to the ritual that puzzles me10 ,i said4 8,assuming that he is actually a bad spirit1 he yet seems to be able to repeat the construction of a protective circle of exorcism in which the names of ,god are frequently repeated and which is in itself supposed to be demon-proof and then warns us that ,nahemah will answer4 ,nahemah is the spirit queen who presides over the female devils of obsession--the ,succubi4 ,thus ,carrier1 my friend1 ,i do not quite see what to expect40 8,the ,succubi10 said ,carrier1 8are known to be able to assume the forms of the most desirable of women4 ,this ,marcel ,theot studied thaumaturgy and magic under ,cagliostro and his followers1 and you know to what amazing practices the ,grand ,copt set his female devotees4 ,it is probable that the invocation in its peculiarly condensed style opens the doors to dangers that are not present when the full ritual is applied4 ,you notice that he styles himself minor master40 ,i agreed1 and later analysis of the ritual as compared to others showed that in the process of condensation many of the safeguarding ceremonies and propitiatory invocations had been discarded4 ,my own opinion is that ,marcel ,theot was one of that numerous class of people who undertook the study of magic only in order to obtain the supernatural qualification of carnal desires4 ,in any case ,i have deemed his ritual unsafe for experiment and have taken steps so that it can never fall into unsuitable hands4 ,the actual materialism of a spirit hand to aid automatic writing is such an unusual occurrence that to my mind it completely disposes of any theory of other than spirit knowledge being applied in this particular case4 ,,footnotes3 #b ,i carried out a long series of experiments with the idea of developing an automatic recorder operating on the lines of the familiar tape machine1 and experimented at length both in ,london and in ,paris1 where my work was done in connection with the student ,du ,plessis1 who was one of the heroes who gave his life at ,verdun4 ,latterly we abandoned the idea of an actual print-registering machine for a device designed to register impulses on a wax cylinder1 something on the lines of a phonograph4 ,some results were obtained1 but the machine was not successful or reliable4 #c ,it is a saddening and depressing thought to think of a recently passed over spirit racing from medium to medium in an attempt to get through bits of messages to an individual on this plane4 ,the spirit of ,f4 ,w4 ,h4 ,myers had to communicate through mediums as distant as ,mrs4 ,holland in ,india and ,mrs4 ,verrall at ,cambridge4 ,later communications were received in complex fashion from other sources and the whole had to be collected by the ,research ,officer of the ,s4,p4,r4 before they made any sense at all4 ,proceedings ,s4,p4,r41 ,vols4 ,,xx to ,,xxv inclusive4 #d ,the library and papers of ,alphonse ,louis ,constant are1 ,i believe1 still in existence but inaccessible4 #e ,baron de ,guldenstubb4 ,la ,ralit des ,esprits et le ,phnomne ,merveilleux de leur ,ecriture ,directe4 #aheg4 #f ,les ,sept ,nuances de l'uvre ,philosophique ,hermtique4 ,leons ,thoriques et ,pratique du ,livre de ,thot4 #aghf4 #g ,this would seem to point to the present research in psychology and psychotherapeutics and its applications to cases of 8shell shock0 and kindred mental disturbances4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,astral ,,light ,,and ,,the ,,psycho-,,lastrometer ,one of the commonest phenomena associated with ,spiritualism is the production of light4 ,many mediums possess this power of attracting or emitting light and even small circles where there is in truth little enough ,light in the true psychic sense1 yet produce this1 the most elementary of the phenomena4 ,it is possibly because it is so easy to induce light phenomena of various kinds that the production of any form of spirit luminosity has been1 so to speak1 taken at face value as a criterion of goodness4 ,in actual point of fact at least two-thirds of the light manifestations seen at ,sances may be classed as dubious and a portion of them are more than dubious1 they are malevolent manifestations4 ,to this blind belief in the 8goodness0 of spirit light in itself we may trace certain disastrous mental calamities that have overtaken too trustful searchers4 ,the myth springs possibly from an acceptance of early ,bible teachings and a desire to identify these manifestations with the ,pentecostal tongues of fire and similar analogies4 ,but among the mass of humble practitioners of ,spiritualism who follow the path of the ,light are many that are mistaking astral evils for psychic good4 ,to the average ,spiritualist the success of a small circle in the production of spirit lights is a heartening message from the spirit world4 ,it is a testimony that life-after-death endures1 and as such the phenomena are welcomed as spirit visitors1 sometimes identified as actual spirit forms1 and no doubt is raised in the minds of those present concerning the innate and essential 8goodness0 of the visitation4 ,in order to avoid confusion ,i shall use the term astral light to describe the usual spirit light4 ,the light phenomena are customarily associated with the dark or semi-dark sance because in the full light of day or under normal conditions of artificial light it is almost impossible to see the astral light at all1 unless one is clairvoyant or unless the concentration of spirit force is so marked that there is no possibility of mistaking it4 ,the normal appearance of astral light is that of indefinite globular or pear-shaped masses of faint phosphorescence4 ,these appear near sitters or on objects in the room and frequently move about1 wax and wane1 or gather into clouds before a materialism or in support of a particular effort4#h ,in other cases they take the form of direct rays and in certain individuals have been known to occur as flashes like dull electric discharges4 ,another not uncommon form is the projection from the body of a distinctly defined aura or radiation of light which is faintly luminous like the gases in a ,geissler tube subjected to oscillant discharges4 ,we must go far back into history and indeed beyond the bounds of history before we can come to a time when this manifestation of light was not one part of the common stock in trade of the thaumaturge or wonder worker4 ,the manipulation and control of astral light phenomena were part of the religious mysteries of the magicians of ,chaldea who transmitted the secret knowledge to the seers of ,egypt4 ,we find it in the myth of the luminous bull in the ,greek mysteries and again as an attribute of the great healer ,apollonius of ,tyana4 ,this mysterious radiance plays equal parts in the records of the lives of the saints and in the terrible archives of the trials for sorcery4 ,confusion exists because to the untrained eye of mankind all forms of astral light are identical4 ,the greater proportion of the astral light seen by circles is that generated and given off by the human mental energy of the circle itself4 ,the spirit-forms are all too often thought-forms built up out of the liberated psychoplasm or thought-matter given off by sitters4 ,the physical nature of this psychoplasm has so far defied all attempts at scientific research1 but it appears to be something more substantial than the mere emission of vibrations that it is commonly held to be4 ,it appears to be an all-penetrating imponderable emanation which dissipates rapidly1 but which under certain conditions is capable of being energized by the intelligence of the living or by discarnate intelligence4 ,under these conditions it becomes luminous and under certain further conditions can be used as the vehicle for the transmission of force4 ,it can best be realized as being to the mind what ectoplasm#i is to the body of the medium1 but the precise limitations of both the astral body-matter ectoplasm1 and astral mind-matter psychoplasm are not yet ascertained4 ,it is a conceivable hypothesis that both are functions of the vast unknown mechanism of the subconscious self1 but where the capacity for the projection of ectoplasm is rare1 the emission of psychoplasm is the basis of most ,spiritualist phenomena4 ,it is to this radiation of psychoplasm that we must look for the explanation of such a simple thing--and at the same time such a complex thing--as psychic atmosphere4 ,do we not all know the peculiar atmosphere which surrounds individuals and places8 ,the phenomena associated with apparitions have been ascribed to the penetration of structure by violently liberated psychoplasm set free in moments of passion and bloody violence4 ,there too is the clue to its physical source1 for in some obscure way blood and the emanations from blood play a vital and important part in psychic matters4 ,under normal circumstances psychoplasm is dissipated and the liberated energy that animated it goes with it to return in the normal way of the cycle of life4 ,under other circumstances the psychoplasm retreats back into the mind whence it came1 just as the materialized ectoplasm is reabsorbed into the body of the medium4 ,the dangers latent in assuming all astral light phenomena to be 8good0 can be realized when it is considered what may occur to the projected psychoplasm which is emotionally liberated beyond the confines of the body and beyond its living human control4 ,a party of some half-dozen form a circle in some provincial city4 ,they may know one another well or they may be1 comparatively speaking1 strangers4 ,however well they may know the public lives of the members of the circle1 can they fathom the secret soul of each sitter8 ,can they say whose mind is a garden of purity or who may have some tendency to some unknown enormity8 ,yet it is precisely this weakness that makes a soul-appalling danger of the hideous mental promiscuity that is one of the essential things of which all the more ingenuous and simple believers and a few clever evil hypocrites among ,spiritualists make a cult4 ,they may unknowingly include among themselves an individual1 man or woman1 who has somewhere a secret kink--a mental leaning--it need not be an actually accomplished physical fact--but simply an inclination to the obscene1 the evil1 or the cruel4 ,the circle launches its prayer1 concentrates on the attraction of the discarnate spirits of those who have passed over--and what comes1 who comes8 ,there is no gifted ,spiritualist or student of matters psychic who has not had either personal or absolutely credible second-hand experience of the existence of bad or lying spirits4 ,it is true that insistence upon their existence has latterly become unfashionable in ,spiritualist circles--because it does harm to the professional medium1 but not even the most insistent of suppressive propaganda can live down the writings and testimonies of the past and the ever-recurrent undeniable phenomena of the present4 ,it is not too much to say that in nine cases out of ten where a crude and humble belief in ,spiritualism is put in practice by a circle of operators whose standard of education and intellectual attainment is low1 the etherealization of the psychoplasm of the believers is mistaken for the materialization of the spirit4#aj ,so much for the visible luminous appearances of astral light4 ,now let us consider the range of probabilities that may affect these4 ,it must be borne in mind that it is the process of their reabsorption into the sitters after being charged with outside influences that introduces the element of danger4 ,psychologists know that certain fixed laws govern mental processes4 ,there is the ,law of ,similarity1 which evokes the association of ideas2 there is the ,law of ,integration1 which splits memories and picture memories into integral fragments2 and there is the ,law of ,redintegration1 which enables the subconscious mind to reassemble the part memories into one completed picture of a past scene or event4 ,the astral light1 once beyond the control of the sitter1 is at the command of 7#a7 stronger human wills in the circle1 7#b7 the lower or baser forms of discarnate intelligence1 7#c7 spirits of ex-mortals1 7#d7 higher spirits4 ,it is the dominance of the human will that is the first positive danger4 ,part of the accepted dogma of ,spiritualism is that hostile or unbelieving influences are antagonistic to the spirits4 ,this is by no means accurate1 but can be classed for practical purposes as a half-truth4 ,the state of mental concentration and muscular relaxation that is necessary to the sance bears a close and analogous resemblance to the state of consent that the hypnotist demands of his subject4 ,the first requisite of the ,spiritualist is the question put to him or her by others of the cult4 8,do you believe in ,spiritualism80 ,the honest sceptic1 the unreasoning man-in-the-street observer is soon converted by evidence1 then faith in the inexplicable wonders of ,spiritualism is born4 ,in other words the mind of the neophyte accepts the whole loose doctrine of ,spiritualism and is prepared to believe that all phenomena are due to spirit influence1 and does not attempt to further analyse the accepted spirit influence4 ,the mental or emotional state produced by the participation of a devout believer in a sance1 leaves the mind receptive of ideas1 and the ideas received back into the mind are those impressed upon the psychoplasm that is liberated and is visible as astral light and is reabsorbed into its sources after it has been beyond the control of its originator's consciousness4 ,in a circle of ten or fewer people where the sexes are mixed1 it is impossible to say what suppressed desires may be latent in the minds of those who compose it4 ,even in the case of circles confined to one sex alone there is the possibility of sex perversion being a secretly dominant mental force in the mind of someone there4 ,it is an inexorable law that the conscious or subconscious will of the most powerful and determined member of the circle dominates the minds of the others through its influence on the psychoplasm or astral light4 ,even without the knowledge of the dominant influence his or her will or thought-force emission will gain mastery over those of the others1 and if there is any violent sex disturbance at the bottom of the dominant will1 this will be communicated to the others or to the selected other furthering the desire4 ,the next stage occurs where passion or desire on the part of one member of the circle for another is absent4 ,despite repeated statements that the desire of the members of the circle is to meet pure spirits1 there may be members whose secret wishes are not those of the pathway of light4 ,love for those who have passed over may be still carnal love in the hearts of those who remain4 ,ablard may have passed beyond passion into the realm of death1 but ,hlose may refuse his plea of impossibility and still pursue in the spirit that which escaped her in the flesh4 ,carnality is not confined to this plane nor does it cease upon the next1 but the endeavour of mortals to get in touch with the spirit world while there is latent in them either known or suppressed1 and unrecognized desire is fatal4 ,every sexual desire the mind has experienced is indexed or pigeon-holed in the recesses of the subliminal mind4 ,people whose conscious mind is free of any vestige of such desire may go to a sance and under the influence of the emotional forces of a sance liberate all the repressed energy of their past ungratified sexual desires--without knowing it4 ,these forces attract low-grade spirits some of whom have never been human and the lowest and most vicious of spirits whose human lives have been a cycle of debauchery4 ,like attracts like1 is one of the laws of ,nature4 ,the ,law of ,similarity is one of the rules of psychology4 ,the gateways of the soul are thrown open not to whoever may enter in1 but with an explicit mental invitation to those spirits that derive gratification from the lusts and desires of mortals4 ,the whole body of the psychoplasm of a circle is at the mercy of the mind of the individual to whose call the spirits come4 ,the practical results of these open-house invitations to the spirits are devastating4 ,the ideas of gratification become rooted not in the conscious mind but in the subconscious mind1 where they work slowly but inevitably to the subversion of conscious 8good40 ,the first step toward possession and obsession are often the result of sances1 where ,truth has been sought with the tongue and ,evil within the heart of one present4 ,it is not the guilty alone who suffer1 but the weak and innocent who sit beside them4 ,there are no bounds to the malignancy of the impure spirits4 ,they are sly and notable liars--they can assume the form of mortals who have passed over and they can assume personality and knowledge that was known to the dead4 ,by degrees they inculcate evil1 predisposing the victim to accept and yield to evil in particular forms4 ,frequently they proceed by slow stages1 advising and inspiring savage asceticism1 but seizing each stage of natural reaction from this unnatural rgime to further subvert their victim in wantonness4 ,the obvious need is for some method of distinguishing between good and bad projections of astral light4 ,to the human eye alone there is no means of distinguishing between the etherealizations of the psychoplasm of the believer and the identical luminous phenomena which occur when there is a materialization of the actual spirit4 ,it is there that psychic science can come to our assistance4 ,the fluorescent bodies zinc sulphide1 barium platino-cyanide1 and the preparation known as ,sidot's hexagonal blonde1 are all intensely susceptible to radioactivity4 ,the rays of radioactive bodies have the peculiar property of being able to penetrate the ether1 and the mass of spirit teaching tells us that this property is also common to the disembodied spirits of those who have passed to other planes4 ,the relative purity or potency of astral lights may be readily ascertained by their effect upon a simple instrument that ,i have named the ,psycho-,lastrometer4 ,this instrument is both cheap and easy to make in the simple form in which ,i first used it4 ,the later applications which make it a registering instrument in addition to being a mere indicator are necessarily costly1 but these are only necessary to the expert investigator and are of no value to the mere seeker after proof or those who seek communion with the spirits of the dead for the purposes of solace1 quasi-religious conviction1 or vulgar curiosity4 ,to make a crude psycho-lastrometer all that is necessary is a wide-mouthed glass jar whose walls should not be more than two millimetres thick4 ,the height of the jar should be some eight inches1 the width in proportion three and a quarter inches4 ,i have found that an ordinary lipped beaker of ,bohemian glass such as is readily obtainable from any maker of laboratory apparatus is admirably suited to the purpose4 ,the neck of this jar must be fitted with a large cork or wooden bung the whole of which is covered with tinfoil4 ,the centre of this cork should be pierced by a piece of brass wire five inches long1 bent at one end to form a hook4 ,this end is inside the jar and from the hook hangs the plate of the lastrometer4 ,to the projecting end of the brass wire outside the jar should be soldered a circular collecting disc of brightly polished brass or tinplate three inches in diameter4 ,this should stand up vertically to the axis of the wire1 being thus on edge instead of forming a flat table4 ,the plate of the lastrometer consists of a rectangle of thin aluminum two and half inches wide by four inches deep4 ,half an inch from the top edge three slits should be cut in the metal so that a portion of a magnetized knitting needle three inches long may be threaded through the breadth of the plate1 projecting half an inch on each side4 ,this needle forms a cross bar at the top of the plate and should be accurately adjusted so that the broad surface of the plate is always in the same plane as the axis of the needle4 ,to the projecting ends of the needle is secured a loop of copper wire four inches long whose other end is made fast to the other end of the needle and whose centre passes over the hooked end of the wire through the cork4 ,the plate thus swings like a miniature signboard suspended from the hook4 ,the surface of one side of the plate is now painted with several successive layers of a saturated solution of gum arabic in one ounce of water to which has been added one and a half drachms of luminous zinc sulphide or ,sidot's preparation 7preferably the latter7 and one liquid drachm of a ten per cent4 solution of barium platino-cyanide4 ,the other side of the plate should be painted with 8optical black0 or any other suitable dead black varnish4 ,between the edge of the bung and the central wire should be inserted at convenient intervals three or four sections of glass tubing whose internal bore exceeds half an inch4 ,these serve to admit external influences to the interior of the lastrometer4 ,when complete it will be found that the plate of the lastrometer is highly fluorescent and can be energized into greater activity by exposure to sun or artificial light4 ,it is desirable that the plate should be kept in a state of relatively low radiancy1 as otherwise spirit agency cannot raise its luminous powers to a higher degree4 ,at a sance the instrument should be placed within the circle and the jar rotated till the magnetized needle can oscillate freely in its natural position pointing toward the ,north and ,south ,poles4 ,concentrations of genuine spirit force will raise the luminosity of the plate to double and treble its normal output of light4 ,when the force is concentrated in the lastrometer1 questions can be answered by the spirits by signaling in ,morse or simple code by rotating the plate through an angle of #ij against the surface force of the magnet4#aa ,it may be urged that this apparatus is not fraud-proof and that it would respond to certain agencies such as the concealment of an electromagnet in the room4 ,to this it may be answered that an ordinary pocket compass placed on the table by the lastrometer would also respond to these forces and the fraud would be transparent to any observer4 ,so far as ,i can tell1 no human mental effort conscious or subconscious can affect this simple instrument4 ,it is necessary to guard against illusion by imagining that the lastrometer is gaining radiance1 and to this end it is advisable to prepare a stand and test-piece made of aluminum and coated with precisely the same solution as is applied to the plate4 ,these should always be kept together and allowed to become equally radiant4 ,if this is placed on the table near the lastrometer1 any variations in the latter can be rapidly verified by comparison with the non-insulated and non-oriented test-piece4 ,antipathy on the part of the presiding medium to the use of the psycho-lastrometer is invariably a bad sign4 ,spirit messages objecting to it are the most valid reasons for its retention1 and such communications should be viewed with the deepest suspicion4 ,the cost of the apparatus is a few shillings1 it can be made by anybody in an hour or so of spare time1 and in actual point of fact there is nothing about it that is offensive to the spirits of 8good0 or to the pure4 ,to those who are learned in symbolism ,i may suggest that the receiving disc at the top of the wire need not be in the form of a disc1 but can be cut or pierced with ornament such as sacred symbols or with any decorative design4 ,it is desirable1 however1 that the light surface be retained and that the available metallic surface of the disc should not be diminished more than is necessary4 ,,footnotes3 #h ,notes of an ,enquiry into the ,phenomena ,called ,spiritual4 ,william ,crookes1 ,f4,r4,s41 p4 #ia2 ,class ,,viii3 ,luminous ,appearances4 #i ,for details concerning ectoplasm see ,ghosts in ,solid ,form1 ,gambier ,bolton1 etc4 #aj ,something of this view may be found in the chapter on 8,pseudo ,spirit ,phenomena0 in ,borderland of ,psychical ,research1 ,h4 ,j4 ,hyslop4 ,a book deserving of attention by all interested in ,spiritualism4 #aa ,the psycho-lastrometer was further perfected4 ,the element selenium is inordinately sensitive to all forms of light rays and according to the light thrown upon it permits more or less electric current to pass4 ,i arranged the apparatus so that the light thrown out by the psycho-lastrometer impinged upon a selenium cell whose resistance varied from #ej1jjj ohms to #ajj1jjj ohms1 which was in its turn connected to a cell and to a ,deprex d',arsonval mirror galvanometer4 ,this enables accurate readings of the actual waxings and wanings of the light value of the lastrometer plate to be taken1 and entirely eliminates any possibility of visual illusion seeming to make the plate more luminous than before4 ,a series of plotted curves based on time absciss and light co-ordinates will give an accurate scientific record of any differences in the radiant value of the plate that occur during the sance4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,an ,,experiment ,,on ,,the ,,theory ,,of ,,protective ,,vibration ,ghost phenomena do not come into the province of practising ,spiritualism4 ,the average ,spiritualist is content to follow the ,catholic doctrine of offering up a few devout prayers for the rest of the uneasy spirit should circumstances throw him into contact with it4 ,apparitions as a whole affect the ,spiritualist with as much unreasoning terror as falls to the lot of the non-,spiritualist mortal4 ,the chance-met apparition of the dead is after all a fairly common phenomenon4 ,the theory of the veridic apparition of the recently dead is explainable by various hypotheses1 but there is little reason to suppose that the human spirit still animates the astral body that appears4 ,the luminous quality or phosphorescence of astral light that enwraps the astral body of the apparition is not necessarily a proof of the survival of the identity of the soul whose astral body appears4 ,the phosphorescent radiance associated with certain kinds of fish survives the death of the organism1 and luminous bodies or glands extracted from these creatures may be preserved for months after death and still retain elements of luminosity4 ,the thinking ,spiritualist does not disregard the lessons and analogies of science4 ,the great names in the history of ,spiritualism have been those of scientists like ,lodge and ,crookes1#ab and it has ever been their desire to translate the apparent miracles of the supernatural into no less miraculous but more deeply understood parallels with the natural4 ,the great slogan of ,spiritualism is that it is a perfectly natural understandable thing2 thus is it the duty of every ,spiritualist to reduce those things which non-,spiritualistic thought deems supernatural to the realms of the understood1 the explained and the known1--in a word1 to the state of the natural4 ,it is no good to tell a materialistic world that owing to the intervention of spirit force mechanical results contrary to all natural laws were obtained4 ,the sceptic1 and above all the logical sceptic--who is the easiest of all to convert1 can you but once bring him to see the fallacies that underlie his logic--demands proof1 proof not in terms of second-hand evidence1 but proof in terms of cold matter-of-fact science4 ,the missionary effort of ,spiritualism must be made a crusade not into the minds of the unintelligent but straight into the citadels of reason of the men of science4 ,it is necessary first of all to demonstrate the spirit forces and then to prove that they are forces of the spirit and not natural1 so far as the meaning of the term 8natural0 may be held to imply limitation to the physical laws governing this mortal earth4 ,the spirit realm is the realm of the ether1 the boundless range of unknown interstellar space4 ,blindly1 gropingly1 the men of science are putting out feelers--theories--pragmatical assumptions that serve them as laws4 ,little by little it is being recognized that the physics of the ether is the underlying superscientific structure of modern ,spiritualism4 ,little by little their discoveries fall into harmony with our claims1 and we must look upon science as the handmaiden rather than the antagonist of our truth4 ,the theories of apparition that are held vary according to the classification of the apparition4 ,there are numerous instances of apparitions of the living#ac and there is an infinite mass of data concerning veridical apparitions of the dead4 ,a statistical analysis of #ag1jjj cases collected by the ,society for ,psychical ,research resulted in the finding by the ,committee that 8,between deaths and apparitions of the dying person a connexion exists which is not due to chance alone40#ad ,a clear distinction must1 however1 be drawn between apparitions which may appear to relatives1 friends1 and acquaintances1 and then disappear for ever1 and those definite and persistently recurring apparitions that go by the name of haunts4 ,the terminology of matters psychic is loose and inexact1 but it is well to have a clear mental distinction between the occasional 8apparition0 and the periodic or repeating 8ghost40 ,for purposes of scientific investigation the casual apparition is almost valueless1 but the established ghost is the nearest approximation that we can get to a serious test standard for experimental purposes4 ,there are in ,england at least half a dozen ghosts whose periodical manifestations are regular enough to serve as test instances4 ,the genuine ghost is so rare that from the point of view of psychical research it is vitally important that the haunt should not be harried by every party of sensation-avid amateurs who think they would 8like to see a ghost40 ,the amateur exorcists1 the psychically gifted ladies1 and all the ragtag and bobtail of well-meaning idiots that disturb a haunt once it becomes known1 can only be compared to a set of egg-stealing1 bird-scaring boys who invade a woodland sanctuary and destroy the fruition of the work of a painstaking observer of nature who has been recording the life of the rare birds4 ,in parenthesis it may be remarked that if the ghost is a full-blooded manifestation it will take more than the well-meaning effort of some anmic amateur psychic to lay it4 ,the very last person who should go near a violent ghost is anyone whose capacity for mediumship is in any way developed4 ,mediums should only be present when adequate and experienced mortal controls are there also4 ,in the ,west of ,england there is an excellent example of a genuinely haunted house that has so far resisted all attempts to solve the origin of the haunt1 the precise nature of the supernatural intelligence that directs the manifestation1 or the motive of the phenomena4#ae ,it is now extremely difficult to get permission to carry out investigations1 as adequate precautions have been taken to safeguard both the phenomena and the incautious dabbler in matters beyond the veil4 ,i may take occasion here to warn my readers against the legal risks attached to stating that a house is haunted4 ,in the eyes of the law such a statement is actionable1 as it tends to depreciate the market value of the property4 ,it is for this reason that stories concerning haunted houses when printed in newspapers have to be obscured in their indication of the precise locality and silent with regard to the name1 number1 or address of the suspected dwelling4 ,the verbal repetition of such statements is also actionable and such cases as the bogus haunting of a house by the tenants or by caretakers in order to avoid payment of rent or the letting of the house are manifest reasons why the matter of haunted houses should always be treated with the utmost discretion4 ,particulars concerning a reputed haunt can1 however1 be communicated to a newspaper with safety4 ,all communications to a journal are privileged1 and they can be trusted not to print anything which renders them party to an action for damages4 ,in #aiac a well-known student of occult matters announced his theory of ,protective ,vibrations4#af ,it was in effect an analysis of the actual physical methods reported to be employed by spirit forces in building up their visible and material forms4 ,his theory contained several assumptions which it is impossible to disregard and which certainly do not admit of rejection4 ,taken in series he stated that 8,the presence of human beings was an essential to the appearance of the ghost40 ,this admits of no disproof1 as unless human witnesses are present there can be no testimony to the presence of the manifestation4 ,a general consensus of opinion discredits ghost photographs unless taken under the strictest test conditions which again implies the presence of the human element4 8,the energy or thought-matter0 7i4e4 psychoplasm7 8extended by the mortals is the matter out of which the astral form is constructed4 ,they are1 so to speak1 the prime motors or the energy and material1 providing units out of which the discarnate intelligence builds its carnate habit40 ,this conception embraces psychoplasm and ectoplasm as one1 but the researches of ,schrenck-,notzing were not then known4 ,these and other similar experiments all point to the essential probability that the broad sense of his reasoning is correct4 ,from this point onward he traces the development of the material astral body as a process of the conversion of the original vibrations into low forms of actual energy which are able to manipulate the atoms of matter and under the directing will of the intelligence or entity build up the materialization4 ,he makes one notable reservation1 asserting that 8there is no evidence to prove that discarnate intelligence is the directing force4 ,pure autosuggestion1 due to concentrated belief and anticipation that a specified ghost will appear1 may achieve the same result40 ,but the purpose of his paper was not to argue concerning the reality of spirits1 but to put forward an ingenious scientific theory concerning their mechanism4 ,the sum-total of his theory is that the physical structure of the hallucination-spirit or ghost-form in its early stages of concentration is destructible by many forms of etheric vibration of greater force or different wave-length4 ,ghosts and spirits are integrally bound up with the conditions of darkness and dusk4 ,the rays of solar light are admittedly inimical to all these manifestations4 ,in other words1 materialization cannot be performed under certain conditions of light which means certain conditions of vibration4 ,the light rays which are visible to the human eye represent about one-tenth of the complete range of light rays known to exist from ultra-violet to infra-red4#ag ,at other points in the scale of ether waves come the vibrations associated with sound1 with electricity and magnetic phenomena and with radioactivity4 ,the complexity of these wave-lengths of vibration is enormous1 for within the range of light rays there are rays of another kind of light1 so that the sum-total of two kinds of light is1 paradoxically enough1 darkness4#ah ,passing1 logically enough1 from stage to stage the 8,theory of ,protective ,vibrations0 points out that assuming the existence of ghosts or malevolent spirits1 these cannot take material shape when opposed by hostile vibrations4 ,certain kinds of light1 sound 7such as the sonorous vibrations of church bells or gongs of special note71 and high-frequency electric currents all destroy the initial stages of manifestation by purely mechanical means4 ,lastly he postulates that 8in the presence of a radium salt 7of specified intensity7 444 a ghost cannot manifest40 ,protection or exorcism by radium salts is undeniably a twentieth-century possibility1 for the terrific and incessant discharge of ether waves consequent upon the disintegration of the radium atoms is so powerful that even such a known and powerful force as electric energy is completely destroyed by it4 ,in the presence of a radium salt non-conductors of electricity become conductors4 ,differences of potential cease to exist and electroscopes and ,leyden jars fail to retain their charges4 ,under these conditions1 then1 it was hardly conceivable that a manifestation which depends1 in its initial stages1 upon the most delicate of vibrations--the unknown vibrations of the psychoplasm could take place4 ,truth is dependent upon experiment1 upon patient repetition and trial and error4 ,in order to test the theory in actual practice1 ,i determined to pay a visit to the well-known and malignant ghost at ,x----#ai and actually put to the test whether or not a ghost can manifest in the presence of a radium salt4 ,the rays of radioactive salts are unable to pass through lead1 and pure radium bromide1 which is the nearest that we have got to the isolation of the element radium1 always has to be kept in a leaden box or cell1 as otherwise its rays would pass through and destroy the skin and flesh of the man carrying it4 ,before the properties of radium were known1 this destructive faculty of radium vibrations caused several mishaps1 for unwary men of science carried these dangerous salts loose in glass vials in their pockets4 ,for the purposes of experiment ,i obtained the loan of a small supply of a solution of a radium salt that gives out powerful emanations4 ,this was enclosed in a glass vial which was in turn encased in a leaden box4 ,the haunted house is a peculiar old building of no particular architectural beauty4 ,it stands remote and deserted in its own overgrown extended grounds1 and over it breathes a generally depressing atmosphere of damp1 neglect1 oppression1 and decay4 ,viewed from the outside the house presents no outstanding features that attract the eye4 ,the lower windows are heavily barred by rusted iron rails without and closed wooden shutters within4 ,even creepers seem to have felt the blight that lies upon the mansion1 for no patch of green or rambling ivy tendril covers the bare surface of the brick4 ,three storeys high1 mansard-roofed and turreted with a dozen contorted ,tudor chimney-stacks1 the roof-line stands out against the sky and the dull leaf masses of the surrounding trees4 ,the higher windows are also shuttered1 but not even the small boys of the neighbouring village have dared to break the grimy window frames that lie over the shutters4 ,desolate and forbidding1 the mansion and its grounds lie derelict1 shunned by all men4 ,my key is that of the small back door1 and it is used but once or twice a year when the needs of the psychic call upon us to tread a path of peril and hazard4 ,inside one steps into the cold stone-flagged passages that lead to the empty kitchens and offices4 ,the air is heavy and dank with that queer smell of earth that one associates with crypts and graves rather than with the clean new-turned furrow4 ,the whole house is bare of furniture1 the paint of the woodwork dull and dirty4 ,spots of amorphous fungus cling to the walls1 and here and there wallpaper has peeled off in long leprous strips1 exposing the corpse-grey plaster behind4 ,the door from the servants' offices opens into the wide ,georgian hall1 from which sweeps up a monstrous wooden staircase4 ,half-way up the stair is a landing which marks the limit of activity of the manifestation4 ,in the rooms beyond that and on the landing itself the presence is terribly powerful1 but it seems that beyond that limit the terror cannot go4 ,the actual room where the presence is at its strongest is a chamber at the end of the first floor4 ,the room walls are outside walls on three sides1 the remaining partition wall is the one in which is the door to the main corridor that runs through the house4 ,in the centre of the floor is a deep cavity4 ,this has been a priest's hiding hole or secret treasure closet1 and from signs in the woodwork it is manifest that the trapdoor was once concealed beneath a big four-poster bed4 ,the windows are barred with high shutters that let in no light4 ,the rays of my electric lantern disclose the mats of cobwebs that hang from the rusted cross bars1 and it is evident that no human hand has disturbed the shutters for years4 ,a trial shows me that some of the bolts are indeed rusted home with age-old neglect4 ,i unpacked my handbag1 in which ,i carry the few simple necessities ,i need on these occasions1 and wrapping myself up in my travelling rug composed myself to read by the light of my travelling candles until the hour of ten was reached4 ,at ten o'clock ,i closed my book1 put out my candle1 and composed myself to watch for the manifestation1 which ,i knew by inner consciousness would be forthcoming4 ,it was a dark and moonless night and not a flicker or ray of external light penetrated the dark stretches of the haunted room4 ,no wind stirred the trees or moaned in the chimney-tops and the qualities of absolute dark and absolute quiet were all that could be desired4 ,slowly out of the darkness seemed to come pinpoints of bluish light--mere specks of phosphorescence scintillant in the still air4 ,the specks thickened and multiplied till they floated like a maze of dancing midgets2 then too came the dark power of oppression1 that sense of the dread and the uncanny that seems to grip the very heart and the base of the skull in a numbing grip of fear4 ,cold grew the room1 colder and colder--that sense of freezing that experienced psychics associate with the dread phenomena of malevolent apparitions4 ,it is a coldness of the soul as well as of the body1 a dull biting cold that suggests the limitless freezing eternities of interstellar space4 ,the blue specks spun their dance and slowly became more luminous4 ,they collected in little nebul of light like cigarette ends of intense blue radiance4 ,every particle of the air was filled with this luminosity1 so that the room seemed to be filled with a dull moonlight4 ,slowly the nebul changed from their spinning movement to a slow weaving motion4 ,strands and floating webs of phosphorescence drifted like smoke wreaths about the room4 ,the points of light gave place to clouds of luminous mist like softly rolling1 utterly silent globes of dull blue light4 ,little by little the dance of the globes speeded up4 ,they spun and whirled and wove in and out among themselves till they had drawn into one mass all the luminous matter in the room4 ,like a terror-charged cloud this mass hovered some eight feet high1 a clear two feet off the floor2 its brilliance waxed and waned and its confines drew in4 ,slowly the cloud was taking shape as a pillar and within the pillar one could see the ghastly shaping of the rudimentary form4 ,here before my eyes was the actual form of the stranger--for this ghost is a malevolent strangling demon--on the very point of concentration4 ,carefully ,i stretched out my hand to the leaden box1 unscrewed the cylindrical lid1 and threw into my right hand the precious vial of radium salt4 ,the energy-charged tube glowed in the dark with all the beauty of intense phosphorescence1 and as ,i held it at arm's length toward the pillar of semi-materialization that represented all the evil forces of discarnate ,hate--the mists of vapour rolled away4 ,as if by magic the whole apparition was dissipated1 and in twenty seconds was as if it had never been4 ,there is little more to be said4 ,the theory had been brilliantly vindicated in practice1 but it is impossible to generalize from one particular instance4 ,physicists know the wide range of differences that exist between the different radium salts1#bj and there the matter must rest until opportunity for further experiments is available4 ,the analogous protective vibrations that the author of the monograph alleges would work are all probable1 but require considerably more apparatus4 ,to my mind the use of radioactive salts as talismans with which to exorcise a case of malignant haunting is at once a great and practical step in the direction of relieving humanity of these troublesome psychic intruders4 ,the discovery and the theory are one of the most remarkable contributions to psychic science in our time4 ,pitchblende1 from which radium is extracted1 does not appear to have attracted the attention of the ancients and there is no trace of its use in any process of alchemy or the allied sciences4 ,dr4 ,dee's magic mirror is reported to have been of a black substance and it is possible that it may have been of radioactive material1 although this quality is not necessary for the purposes for which he required it4#ba ,it is after all only a few years since the theory of ether waves and vibrations was formulated4 ,research into psychic phenomena gives us a chain of disconnected phenomena which nevertheless are obviously connected4 ,the distance from telepathy or thought-transference to exteriorized energy or power-transference is but a short one4 ,science will soon enable us to understand the mechanism of phenomena1 and when we once know the true rules or laws governing these phenomena we shall be able to establish spirit communication at will4 ,,footnotes3 #ab ,sir ,arthur ,conan ,doyle is perhaps to-day an even greater name4 ,but he is not a scientist and is greater as a publicist than as a healer despite his medical degree4 ,but then too--all the ,apostles were not of one trade4 #ac ,proceedings ,s4,p4,r4 #ad ,ibid41 ,vol4 ,x1 p4 #cid4 #ae ,this particular ghost has been exorcised without effect4 ,the house has been visited by psychic experts of considerable eminence1 including ,h4 ,barson and others4 ,the results of all these investigations were uniformly disastrous and disagreeable1 and there is reason to believe that in some cases the health and mentality of less experienced investigators were adversely affected4 #af ,capt4 ,hugh ,pollard was the author of this theory4 ,his monograph was never printed1 but typescripts of his sensational lecture before the members of the now defunct ,odic ,club were circulated to certain interested parties4 ,he tells me that he had previously spent an interesting night at a haunted house4 ,he was in the company of ,mr4 ,eliott ,o',donell and obtained a puzzling and unsatisfactory flashlight photograph of the manifestation that occurred on that occasion4 #ag ,a complete scale of all known ether waves1 including the visible spectrum1 has been drawn by ,professor ,lebedeff and is given on page #chc of the ,english edition of ,kolbe's ,electricity4 #ah ,this is a little-known fact1 but nevertheless a commonplace of physics demonstrable in any lecture room4 #ai ,the actual locality of ,x---- will be clear to many investigators4 #bj ,the solution used was a solution of radium emanations which gives out 1 1 and rays together4 ,it is not well known which ray affects the dissolution of psychoplasm4 #ba ,the mirror of ,dr4 ,dee is still in existence1 but the material the mirror is made of is a surface of polished coal4 ,,chapter ,v ,,sex ,,in ,,the ,,next ,,world ,there is in existence an enormous mass of recorded spirit communication concerning life and death4 ,the one outstanding feature concerning these revelations is that they tell us extremely little4 ,sometimes the reason given for this withholding of information is that it is forbidden by higher spirits1 and it is certainly remarkable that despite the great enthusiasm shown for the principles of democracy in this world1 there have never been any revelations of a democratic principle on the higher plane4 ,the rule of the next world appears to be that of a benevolent autocracy1 working through a hierarchy of directing spirits controlling other spirits on clearly defined planes4 ,we know nothing of the political system of the other world except that there is no such thing as any form of elective system1 no majority rule1 and little social structure4 ,the great dominant factor of the hereafter as described by the bulk of ,spiritualistic literature appears to be the acceptance of authority4 ,the recently arrived spirit is taken in hand by 8guides0 who instruct1 and the spirit then passes from grade to grade or plane to plane1 until it achieves an eminence entirely beyond the bounds of human thought4 ,there is perhaps no limit to the speculation that can be indulged in concerning the after-life1 but there are certain aspects of it that appear contradictory4 ,there are good spirits and bad spirits1 low grades and high grades and all intermediate stages4 ,there are also low spirits that are said never to have been human and high spirits of the same non-mortal nature4 ,but badness and goodness exist on the spiritual planes as much as on this earth4 ,the spirits who visit sances retain many of their earthly characteristics4 ,they state that they are still male and female despite the assumption on the part of many writers that sex does not exist upon the spiritual plane4 ,the least possible experience of spirit communication in any form is quite sufficient to expose this amazing fallacy4 ,if the differentiation of sex has any purpose at all1 it can only have the same purpose in the next world as it has in this4 ,otherwise sex distinction would be cast off just as is the human body after death4 ,this brings us to the consideration of how and why the myth of the sexlessness of spirits has passed into acceptance as a fact4 ,the ,spiritualist is open to human error and it is only human to build into our theories those things which tend to prove them and to disregard matters which are not in harmony with our ideas4 ,both in ,britain and in ,america there is a certain amount of false modesty that amounts to pruriency concerning all matters of sex4 ,as a result1 the very limited moral doctrines of sexual relationship as understood by certain ,christian sects1 have been tacitly held to by those dominating the after-life4 ,sex1 as understood in conventional terms1 has been seen to be such a danger to the construction of a hypothetical but perfectly moral future state1 that the whole sex question has been squashed by a statement by ,spiritualists that sex does not exist in after-life4 ,this is entirely wrong1 for1 as ,i have pointed out above1 according to spirit statement sex does exist and it is only fair to suppose that it is there for the usual reason4 ,there exists the further problem of the origin of spirits that have never been mortal4 ,these must come somehow from somewhere1 and there is no reason to suppose that the continuation of sex upon the astral planes is not for this purpose4 ,its existence is indeed an absolute answer to the theories of parthenogenesis held by believers whose minds were clouded with a residuum of theological beliefs4 ,to sum up1 we have evidence of the continuation of sex--indeed it is a cardinal point1 for it is impossible to believe in continuation of personality after death unless sex continues with it4 ,one cannot logically believe in the one without the other4 ,the state of error has arisen through the confusion of sex with sin4 ,the would-be formulators of the new ,spiritualistic dogmas1 having been unable to effect a mental compromise between the moral and monogamous ,christian and the moral and polygamous ,mohammedan1 attempted to solve the whole business by a bland statement that there was no sex in the other world4 ,some writers do indeed recognize this permanence of sex1 but gloss it over4#bb ,they ignore the fact that if a thing exists it exists for a purpose and the fatal conception that the gratification of a sex desire is a sin persists throughout their pages4 ,on the other hand1 gratification of other voluptuous sense desires such as aural pleasures from music or self-abandonment to any of the pleasures of the intellect1 appears to be regarded not only as permissible but as praise-worthy4 ,in fact1 any analysis of the reported habits and customs of the next world1 plunges us into a mass of paradoxical contradictions4 ,in point of fact it is impossible to draw a hard-and-fast line between the actual spirit revelation and interpolated ideas by the medium4 ,it is also notorious that as soon as any new concept of the next world is published in book form1 the 8revelations0 from any different sources seem to take on an unmistakable tinge according to the latest theories4 ,in fact1 a literary psychoanalysis of reported next worlds shows the unmistakable traces of books read in the past4 ,certain accounts of the spirit life obtained through ,mohammedan mediums by ,french investigators in ,algiers show what may be called a peculiarly active sexual life in the after-world4 ,this may possibly be attributed to either early religious belief in a sensuous ,mohammedan paradise or alternatively to the particular type of ,arab spirits who furnished the description4 ,in any case1 the accounts could not be published for general or even private reading1 but there is no conceivable reason why they should be deemed more unreliable than other spirit communications4 ,some idea of the theme of these revelations can be gathered if ,i may say that one of the communicators1 called ,sidi ,aissa ,ben ,s'dub1 prefaces his words by the cryptic statement3 8,know then1 ,o mortals1 that here are neither camels nor horses--nor virtuous women1--for us virtue1 as ye know it1 exists not4 ,and1 as ,i have related1 there being neither camels nor horses nor virtuous women1 what think ye then occupies the time of us who were strong men80 ,oriental imagery is rich in terms concerning sex1 and the revelation as taken down in ,arabic is a document of some literary value4 ,its translation into precise ,french leaves us under no misapprehension as to the actual technique of sex gratification on the next plane4 ,their methods appear to be our methods1 but it is of course impossible to arrive at any conception of relative degrees of pleasure4 ,it is also curious to note that in the ,arab revelations given there was no reference at all to any ensuing spirit birth1 but one interpretation of and obscure text might lead one to suppose that the offspring of these unions were 8djinni10 i4e4 non-mortal and soulless spirits4 ,cases of intercourse between djinns and mortals are the basis of many ,moslem tales and legends in which the sex interest is paramount4 ,but it must be borne in mind that the ,mohammedan idea of the invisible world is so different from that prescribed either by ,eastern or ,western thought that it is almost impossible to co-ordinate it with any of our accepted theories4 ,on the other hand1 no ,spiritualist revelation or theory is of value unless it fits all lands and all creeds4 ,thus1 when the number of spirit visitants of ,african1 ,red ,indian1 or other origin1 is taken into account1 it is manifest that no abstract theory of morality which is not in accordance with the known physical facts concerning the spirit world1 is likely to be practised there4 ,as time goes on1 it will become increasingly impossible for the practising ,spiritualist to ignore the enormous fact of sex4 ,at present various beliefs are held4 ,these range from the pure sexlessness theory1 which is manifestly untenable to variations like a 8perfectly pure and spiritual sex relationship in no way physical10 or some such platitude4 ,this kind of expression is pure mental flatulence1 for it is clear that in the spirit world there is nothing physical as we know it1 and that everything there is psychical--again as we know it4 ,the conception of the spirit world that is most widely held does away with all idea of penal restrictions4 ,hell1 purgatory1 and the theological varieties of damnation are contrary to the whole conception4 ,once again we are dependent on spirit teaching for our visualization of life in the hereafter1 and having established the existence of sex1 which would not exist unless it implied the permanence of sexual attraction and sex gratification1 we not unreasonably desire to know what1 if any1 are the sex limits in the next life4 ,the realm of speculation thus opened up is enormous4 ,it is possibly the vision of a voluptuous sensualist heaven4 ,it is possibly the vision of a new theory of hell in which spirits are unable to obtain the gratification of those desires which they are equipped to experience4 ,there is no particular reason to suppose that the married state continues--indeed1 there is evidence to the reverse4 ,altogether the problems raised are far too great for the little evidence we have yet obtained from the spirit world to lead us to a true solution4 ,as ever we come back to the point of3 ,how much is real spirit communication8 ,how much is simply well-meaning but inaccurate ,spiritualist interpretation or interpolation8 ,the answer of the ,spiritualist to such a question is usually the affirmation that 8desire does not exist in the spirit world40 ,this may be good enough to hoodwink the amateur or the shallow thinker1 but it must be remembered that the whole of what we must admit is the dark side of ,spiritualism1 the bad or lying spirits1 the demons of possession and the demons of obsession1 all these are active affirmations of the reality of desire persisting4 ,it is not enough for us to affirm that the dark elements are either non-existent or simply the effects of our subconscious minds4 ,if these rules apply to the dark side they must apply to the light side1 too4 ,if this were the case the whole fabric of ,spiritualism crumbles to the ground4 ,if we accept any spirit evidence we must accept all spirit evidence1 and we have no right to reject as unsound statements that do not fall in with the theories which we have accepted on the strength of similar statements4 ,the continuation of sexual activity on the psychic planes may be a staggering conception to some people1 but a little thought will show that it is not half such a shattering idea as the perfectly unjustifiable hypothesis that there is none4 ,the existence of sex in the spirit world leads us to the supposition that there are there some organized forces of law and order1 otherwise this conception of the next world would seem to be a field where a highly intellectual1 intelligent1 and powerful individual soul might enjoy a limitless orgy of psychic rape4 ,there is no reason to think that such a thing is impossible1 for cases of demoniac or spirit possession are in effect cases of psychic rape of a mortal and often present instances of the most amazing sexual aberration owing to the terrible desires of the uninvited tenant of the mind4 ,the believing ,spiritualist has built on slender grounds a wonderful conception of the spirit world1 but it is a one-sided structure1 and it is important to note that the 8,everything in the garden is lovely60 idea of the next world is not by any means borne out by the revelations of its inhabitants4 ,one can indeed ask oneself what ground is there for optimism8 ,what reasons other than self-deception1 self-assurance1 and self-flattery are there for sweeping away the idea of terror1 punishment1 and the inexorable law of ,abstract ,justice that has for ages been held to be implicit in the life hereafter8 ,the sceptic is indeed justified when1 after reading reams of well-meant pseudo-religious twaddle1 he asks the supporters of the new revelation3 8,and why should it all be couleur de rose80 ,faith may do many things1 but ,faith cannot make black white--even in the realm of the spirit4 ,there is good reason to suppose that in the past many revelations concerning sex-life in the spirit plane have been suppressed or destroyed4 ,the well-meaning ,spiritualist with mediumistic gifts or the capacity for automatic writing does not always get the precise kind of spirit teaching expected4 ,on the other hand1 there is a wide difference between the meaningless obscenities that are sometimes sent and various coherent statements that can be classed as definite revelations4 ,the private operator1 knowing little of the matters with which he or she is dealing1 is frequently ashamed to let these strange1 frank manuscripts or records be seen by others4 ,often they are shown to a wrong person1 classed as evil spirit writings1 and the great question that animates the spirit world3 8,should mortals be told80 again goes on4 ,at a sance held in ,paris some interesting statements concerning the psychic world were vouchsafed by a spirit calling itself ,zaza ,guilbert4 ,there were five of us at the table and two of the party were practised automatists4 ,first came some personal particulars of the spirit4 ,she was born near ,grenoble1 in ,dauphine1 in #ahbf1 but was in ,paris when ,napoleon the ,third was proclaimed ,emperor 7#aheb7 and was employed with theatrical dressmaking4 ,she married and left two girl children4 ,it was the question3 8,is life in the spirit world as gay and gallant#bc as it was in those days in this sphere80 that set the ball rolling4 ,a4 ,that depends on how you look at things4 ,we are men and women over here in so far as that goes4 ,q4 ,is life on the spirit plane sexless8 ,a4 ,certainly not6 7,emphasis conveyed by violent knocking of the table47 ,q4 7,by one of the ladies of the party47 ,is there childbirth in the spirit world8 ,a4 ,not in the same way as on earth4 7,no answer was returned to some further inquiries on this subject47 ,q4 ,is there separation of the sexes8 ,a4 ,no2 it would be intolerable4 ,q4 ,is morality of earth binding on the spirit plane8 ,a4 ,no2 that would be still more intolerable4 ,q4 ,have you a husband there8 ,a4 ,no2 several affinities4 ,q4 ,intellectual affinities only8 ,a4 ,by no means4 ,q4 ,can you compare the relationship to any earthly parallel8 ,a4 ,yes4 ,living une vie de demi-mondaine sans reproche4 ,q4 ,do all spirits enjoy life in this manner8 ,a4 ,it is not obligatory4 ,q4 7,by one of the ladies47 ,are there scandals in the spirit world8 ,a4 ,sometimes4 ,q4 ,are they due to moral censure of higher spirits8 ,a4 ,no2 jealousy1 because higher spirits mix themselves up in it4 ,q4 ,can you describe one of these scandals8 ,a4 ,not through the table4 ,write4 ,q4 ,you will give it as automatic writing8 ,a4 ,yes4 ,one of the automatists left the circle to fetch pencil and paper4 ,then we resumed4 ,the power appeared to be instantly forthcoming1 and the writing stated that3 8,benedetta ,chiesole was the mistress of ,thodule ,affra and several other spirits on our plane4 8,this intimacy became obnoxious to a spirit called du ,paits ,herbault1 who was a monk of ,montpellier in the sixteenth century4 ,he was not on our plane but higher up1 but was permitted to come down to us for certain purposes4 ,being on a higher plane1 there was no way of keeping him out when he was not wanted1 for he had the power of passing through all psycho-material substances that serve us as material substances serve you4 8,his persecution of ,benedetta was remarkable1 for he was astonishingly enamoured of her4 ,at length matters got to such a pitch that the others protested through the guides4 ,but they got cold comfort4 ,they were told not to interfere with the higher spirits or it would be the worse for them1 and ,benedetta was told that it was natural for her to have to expiate her earthly shortcomings in this manner40 ,the results of other sittings at which other spirits have made communications are in some cases quite as detailed and a great deal more startling than the above4 ,in addition1 a great mass of what may be definitely termed abnormal sex literature has come from the pens of people practising automatic writing--and it is an indubitable fact that some of these writings have been written under control by people of irreproachable life and character4 ,the common-sense explanation is that these writings and communications have nothing whatever to do with spirits and that these are1 so to speak1 a seething up of illegal desires and ideas which have been repressed by the conscious mind into the censorship of the subliminal self4 ,this theory is only tenable if the whole basic doctrine that these things are communicated by spirits is given up4 ,if1 on the other hand1 we hold that there is anything at all in ,spiritualism we are faced with the inevitable conclusion that1 however much we may desire to get rid of it1 sex is as troublesome in the next world as in this4#bd ,,footnotes3 #bb 8,people live in communities as one would expect if like attracts like1 and the male spirit still finds his true mate though there is no sensuality in the grosser sense and no childbirth40 ,sir ,a4 ,conan ,doyle1 ,chapter ,,iii1 ,the ,new ,revelation4 #bc ,the word 8gallant0 carries rather different implications in ,french than are covered by the literal ,english rendering of 8gallant40 #bd ,the notes and papers concerning the physiological side of sex in the next world that have been collected are not suitable for general reading4 ,experienced ,spiritualists will have no difficulty in surmising the general character of these records4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,the ,,reality ,,of ,,sorcery ,i have often been asked by folk who were perfectly serious in their inquiry if there 8was anything in0 latter-day sorcery1 and whether the practice actually existed outside the realm of fiction4 ,it is a difficult question to answer1 for the average man mixes up witchcraft1 sorcery and necromancy1 and one cannot be certain whether he is alluding to the dark ceremony of the ,black ,sabbath1 to the use of occult knowledge for malevolent purposes1 or whether he is thinking of wax images and pine1 incantations and night rides astride a broomstick4 ,put in a simpler form1 the question comes to this3 ,can experienced occultists utilize spirit or unknown natural forces for malevolent uses8 ,the answer is an unhesitating affirmative4 ,under certain conditions1 it can be done4 ,magic has always been divided into white or good magic1 and black or bad magic4 ,both have been liberally endowed with ritual observance1 but shorn of non-essentials the determining factor that decides whether magic is black or white is the secret intent of the operating magician4 ,in the past the great popular attribute of the magician was his knowledge of healing4 ,he was not only a seer of the future and a finder of lost things1 but also a healer4 ,on the reverse side may be set against his capacity for healing his power for casting spells or doing harm2 against his draughts of beneficent medicine1 his vials of poison4 ,the doctor who uses hypnotic treatment1 practises suggestion or acts as a psychotherapeutist1 is to-day the direct twentieth-century descendant of the magicians of the past4 ,apollonius of ,tyana is his patron2 ,merlin worked his wonders by the same rules4 ,it is to the modern studies in psychic science that we must turn to find the underlying mechanisms of magic practices1 for a full three-quarters of art magic is due to the little-known effects of hypnotism or suggestion1 and but a shadowy balance to the powers of discarnate intelligences of evil4 ,the discoveries of the existence of 8animal magnetism0 by ,mesmer was the first step which brought the psychic phenomena of will domination out of the realm of the occult into the domain of medical knowledge4 ,for a century ,mesmer's theory has been discredited1 but to-day modern students of psychic science are beginning to pay attention to it again4 ,it fell into discredit owing to the discoveries of ,braid1 the ,manchester physician1 who discovered that ,mesmer's phenomena could be produced independently of the theory of 8animal magnetism0 by plain hypnosis4 ,braid's theories were followed out by ,chercot and the ,paris ,school of ,hypnotists1 and their theories were in turn demolished by ,libault and ,bernheim of the ,nancy ,school1 who held that all the phenomena of hypnotism in their turn were produced by suggestion4 ,in point of actual fact1 advanced thinkers of to-day hold that the same effect may be produced by all three methods of practice4 ,in the same way we may produce a given electrical phenomenon such as the lighting of an incandescent lamp by the action of chemical solutions on metals in a battery1 or by the rotation of a coil of wire between magnetic poles in a dynamo4 ,the methods are different1 but the forces evolved and the effect obtained are identical4 ,the lay mind will follow my argument better if ,i use the loose terms of hypnotism and hypnosis than if ,i attempt a more scientific terminology4 ,the first point that must be grasped is that the sorcerer or wizard possesses psychic gifts or qualities of an entirely different order to those claimed by ,spiritualists4 ,the sorcerer is a hypnotist--that is to say1 he is an individual who possesses the power of emitting or radiating an unknown psychic force4 ,most people are neutral1 they neither radiate this force nor do they oppose or resist its passage1 but the individuals who are susceptible to its action seem to possess the faculty of arresting this radiation and converting it to mental energy within themselves4 ,these are the people who are what is known as good hypnotic subjects4 ,in the histories of the great sorcerers of the past the assistant1 that is to say the subject1 plays as important a rle as does the mage himself1 for the subject is the instrument of the master4 ,the average person who possesses mediumistic or psychic qualities in the ,spiritualistic sense1 is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred in a greater or lesser degree a sensitive hypnotic subject4 ,the odd few who do not come in the above category may be classed as hermaphroditic or doubly gifted individuals who possess both radiating power and subjectivity4 ,one or two noted materializing mediums of the past have been thus endowed4 ,in the usual circle there is the medium and the sitters4 ,some of these may be neutral1 but in an average circle there are one or more who possess unknown to themselves a certain amount of radiant force4 ,it is this which passes along the chain of hands to the medium where it is arrested and condensed to play its mysterious part in the liberation of psychic elements that can be utilized by the unseen spirit workers4 ,if there is present in the circle an individual who is greatly endowed with this force--and whose mental desires approximate to black rather than white magic1 we have an instance of those dread dangers that beset those who unwittingly pass beyond the threshold of the known4 ,the trance state of the medium is akin to light hypnosis and the subject or medium of a well-meaning little circle of ,spiritualists may1 unknown to him or herself1 become the slave of one or other of the members of the circle4 ,it is an asseveration with hypnotists that they have no power without the consent of the individual4 ,but once they have won the entry of the mind that entry is theirs for ever1 and even the bodily presence of the operator is not required to achieve this domination of the mind of the subject4#be ,the common instances where this kind of thing occurs cannot be classed as true sorcery1 for in most cases the operator is unconscious of how or why the fulfilment of his desires comes about4 ,the true sorcery only comes in when an individual possessing the required psychic faculty1 and in addition1 occult knowledge1 exerts these of set purpose in order to gratify his desires4 ,vengeance of an enemy1 the subjugation of another's will1 the satisfaction of a sex passion1 all these are motives for sorcery4 ,the witch-doctor of ,west ,africa1 the voodoo priestesses of ,cuba and ,hayti practise these accomplishments no less than their white brethren in black magic4 ,sorcery lives to-day no less than it lived centuries ago4 ,there are several roads to its portals--but not a track leading back to the regions of light for those that pass its gates4 ,the first aim of the sorcerer is to get the victim in a state of suggestibility4 ,this can be accomplished in a dozen different ways well known to the practised student4 ,in the first1 fumes of a special sort of incense played no inconsiderable part in the rle of sorcery4 ,according to ritual they are to propitiate the spirits--in actual practice they induce relaxation on the part of the subject and assist in building up that necessary atmosphere which is essential to suggestibility4 ,the effect of darkness1 of points of light gleaming amid surrounding dark1 the magic mirror or the crystal globe2 all these were more than stage properties--they are the mechanical implements of suggestion4 ,let us suppose that some weak and curious woman visits a sorcerer to obtain his help in some affair of heart4 ,the man of mystery seats her in a comfortable chair2 the lights are lowered and he tells her to gaze at the crystal ball upon the table before her4 ,fumes of incense hang in the heavy air4 ,the man's voice is clear1 dominant1 and sonorous2 slowly it becomes soothingly monotonous4 ,gradually the client feels languor stealing over her4 ,the crystal becomes cloudy and in the globe appears something that she knows and recognizes4 ,probably the crystal tells her nothing that means anything to her4 ,certainly she has seen in it nothing but what she has known at some time before1#bf or something that the magician has seen before4 ,but the net result is that she is convinced of the occult powers possessed by him4 ,this is the prelude to other visits and little by little her will yields to that of the sorcerer and the suggestions that he has implanted in her subconscious mind begin to take effect4 ,if he is a daring scoundrel1 his domination may take any form4 ,unconscious that she is not acting of her own free will1 she may yet be brought to place at his disposal everything and anything that he may require of her4 ,he has invoked no spirit aids1 but has caused the powers of hypnotism and suggestion1 taking advantage of the light condition of hypnosis induced by the crystal-gazing4 ,police and press persecutions of the ,seers of ,bond ,street are not altogether unjustified in many cases4 ,the real facts may not be brought out at the court1 owing to the shame that publicity would inflict upon the dupes1 but the prosecution is1 in nine cases out of ten1 justifiable4 ,the class of petty criminals above mentioned are again not true sorcerers1 in that they only use occult natural forces1 summoning to their aid no spirit attributes4 ,in the lowest grade of the sorcerers we find the necromancers4 ,there are still a few of these in ,paris and latterly there was one in the ,west ,country4 ,it depends on the individual operator how much of his ceremonial is for the purpose of inducing suggestibility or partial hypnosis and how much is for the direct evocation of evil spirits4 ,very often the necromancer himself is deluded enough to confuse natural with supernatural power4 ,there is a certain class of spirits to whom the ancients gave the name of ,lemures4 ,these can be semi-materialized1 made visible1 and bound to service by a comparatively simple ritual1 for in place of needing the material vehicle of ectoplasm1 extended by a materializing medium1 they can take shape from the emanations of warm blood4 ,this vital fluid plays an important part in all magical ceremony4 ,we find mention of it from the days when ,ulysses poured blood and wine into a trench to call up the spirits before he went down into hell4 ,in the dark history of ,gilles de ,retz#bg the blood ritual is seen in all its ghostliest fluorescence4 ,the calabash of blood of the 8white goat0 is essential in obi and voodoo magic1 and blood1 fresh blood1 not necessarily but preferably human1 is used by the necromancer of to-day4 ,those learned in occult matters will readily perceive the precious function that blood emanations exercise1 but on the contrary1 the man of science and the psychologist will not be able to understand the part that blood plays in this peculiar alchemy4 ,it must be clearly understood that experiment of this nature is extraordinarily perilous and that any attempt at necromancy by students whose knowledge is insufficient can have none but disastrous results4#bh ,the elemental forces evoked by this ceremony may be compared to gunpowder4 ,any fool can blow himself up with powder by setting a match to it1 but it takes a skilled artillerist to harness the forces and make them propel a projectile to a given target4 ,experiment with elemental forces is analogous and the greater part of the ritual deals with the protection of the operator or sorcerer himself from those dread spirits who obey his summons4 ,in #aiab ,i attended the course of lectures on psychic science given at a sub-school of the ,university of ,jena4 ,a fellow-student there gave me a letter of introduction to ,gottlieb ,bentlemeyer1 a professor of law at one of the ,hanover ,hochschulen and an ardent student of black magic4 ,at that time he had rooms in the ,wiesenstrasse and had in his charge one or two private pupils whom he was cramming for their necessary examinations4 ,one of these lads1 a youngster from ,stettin1 in ,north ,prussia1 was his assistant in the necromantic art1 and was a most highly gifted sensitive or hypnotic subject4 ,it was not until we had had several ordinary sances and he had shown me some astounding experiments in the externalization of sensibility and clairvoyance under hypnosis that ,i deemed it fit to mention the subject of necromancy4 ,we were at that time in the ,hanover ,museum and had been examining an exhibit of 8,qualapparat0--racks1 winches1 and torturing-irons of various descriptions4 ,it was our discussion of the possible sending of the spirit of his assistant1 ,walther ,kraus1 under hypnosis to psychometrize these vile memorials of a brutal past that raised the subject4 ,we came to the conclusion that the experiment would be extremely hazardous1 but ,bentlemeyer kindly offered to attempt to call up the spirit of one or more of the men who had used these things4 8,it will not be an easy task to find them10 he said1 8but being men of blood it may be possible to find them by means of the blood elementals40 ,it took us three days to make our preparations1 for although ,bentlemeyer had an excellent and systematically arranged cabinet of magical requisites1 one or two things had to be procured4 ,his association with the ,hochschule enabled him to obtain fresh blood through the agency of one of his medical colleagues4 ,we rehearsed the ritual carefully1 in order that there should be no fault1 and ,i must confess that ,i prepared myself for the ordeal with considerable trepidation4 ,his ceremonial of evocation was slightly at variance with accepted ,french practice1 but the discrepancies were not material and appeared to have crept in during the time of ,king ,frederick ,wilhelm of ,prussia4 ,bentlemeyer informed me that the original ,,ms4 in ,german and ,hebrew had been in the possession of the celebrated ,steinert4#bi ,it was a clear autumn night with a perfect moon2 the air had a touch of frost in it and the great town of ,hanover was quiet and still4 ,bentlemeyer was already in his robes when one of the pupils admitted me4 ,i changed into the necessary garments1 took the rod and girdle which he had lent me1 and placed the snake-hilted poniard in its belt sheath4 ,the circle of evocation had been marked out in chalk on the floor4 ,the prepared candles burnt in the angles of the pentacle and the saucers of salt and the elements were in their appropriate places4 ,the sorcerer stood within his circle of protection facing the small tripod brazier in which was a brazen plate glowing over the frame of a small spirit lamp4 ,i took my place within the enceinte of a similar diagram1 and on a couch1 lying between us1 was ,walther1 the assistant4 ,the candle lights burnt in the draughtless atmosphere1 the dull yellowish flames standing up without a flicker1 sending their faint tail of black smoke toward the ceiling4 ,beyond the confines of our protective circles was a grotesque bronze bowl or shallow basin4 ,bentlemeyer removed the black velvet hood that covered it and the filmy crimson surface of fresh blood gleamed in the light4 ,at a sign we began the chanting of the preliminary invocations to the guardians of the gates4 ,the room was sonorous with the great ,hebrew names1 and from time to time a fresh pinch of incense on the brazier would send a wreath of pungent fume across the room4 ,the boy on the couch breathed heavily1 loosened the restriction of his garments1 and soon subsided into a definite state of trance4 ,from invocation we changed to the ritual of evocation4 ,and before the echoes of the first summons had died down1 a cold wind seemed to burst out in the very heart of the room itself1 making the candles flicker and the shadows flit and dance in arabesques across the low ceiling4 ,i felt for the poniard at my belt and drawing it from its sheath held the naked blade ready4#cj ,the second and third utterances of the words of power intensified the effect and the boy moaned pitifully4 ,bentlemeyer signed to me with his rod to look toward the blood bowl4 ,the surface of the liquid was being slowly agitated1 strong swirls and broken wave motions appeared on the surface1 sluggish1 iridescent bubbles floated for a while and burst1 and at last the whole body of fluid within the bowl was in a state of violent agitation4 ,the sorcerer bent to a vessel on the ground and threw upon the brazier some new essence--not an incense4 ,the smoke wreathed itself above the brazier1 then seemed to take shape like a pillar and curve toward the blood bowl4 ,slowly yet distinctly the vapours clustered above the blood and slowly took semi-human shape4 ,incessantly they changed and melted--now limb-like1 here betraying the outline of a demon face1 there a pillared1 smoothly working trunk4 ,from the bowl came a noise like cats' tongues lapping and now and then the bowl itself would tilt and move a fraction of an inch or so about the floor4 ,for a moment we watched this monstrous manifestation in silence4 ,then the sorcerer resumed his ritual and bound the spirits present to do his bidding to the spell of the ,three ,known and ,one ,unknown elements4 8,what are your names80 he asked1 and the elemental demons or spirits speaking through the trance-bound boy gave them4 8,who is your leader80 ,there was a momentary hesitation1 and then a spirit answering to the name of ,amalik assumed the leadership4 8,have you been a mortal80 8,no1 ,i was never mortal4 ,i was an earth-spirit1 serving the priests of ,odin till the ,cross came40 8,what brought you here to-night80 8,the ,blood ,libation and the summons4 ,what do you want of us8 ,we wish to depart40 8,you are bound to do my bidding by the words of ,might4 ,you may not go4 ,i want you to find for me the spirit of one of the men of blood who used the torture instruments in the ,museum40 8,i do not know the men40 8,i command you to seek them4 ,i command all of you by the powers that are mine to seek and bring them40 ,for a moment there was silence1 broken only by the laboured breathing of the boy4 ,then he spoke again4 8,i have found one1 ,o ,masters40 8,what is his name80 8,kurt ,ettethurm40 8,he is to answer my questions himself4 ,where did you live80 ,a new and harsher voice issued from the boy's lips4 8,by ,sachsenhausen1 near ,augsburg40 8,when80 8,in the time of ,charles the ,fifth of ,spain40 8,were you one of his torturers80 8,no1 ,i served ,count ,anton of ,tornen40 8,who were your victims80 8,criminals1 bandits1 and ,lutherans40 8,when did you die80 8,at ,muhlberg40 8,when--not where80 8,at ,muhlberg--killed in the battle of ,muhlberg40 8,where are you now80 8,why ask8 ,i am in a lower state40 8,do you revisit this sphere unless summoned80 8,i am always here1 but you cannot see me40 8,where are you usually80 8,by the slaughter houses40 8,do you move from place to place80 8,yes1 ,i follow the ,scharfrichter 7headsman740#ca 8,why80 8,to watch40 8,are you bound to80 8,no1 ,i like it40 8,can you show yourself to us80 8,i do not think so4 ,help me and ,i will try40 8,how can we help you80 8,place that bowl of blood at the northern corner of the pentacle40 ,i must have started to move forward1 for ,bentlemeyer shouted at me to keep still1 and ,i realized in a flash that ,i had nearly been trapped into going beyond the protection of my circle4 ,the boy began to chuckle horribly and then suddenly choked4 ,before our eyes his face became empurpled1 his eyes seemed to start from his head1 and the tongue protruded4 ,his legs kicked and his hands beat feebly at something solid--impenetrable--but invisible1 that poised in the empty air above him4 8,stop it1 for ,god's sake60 ,i cried to ,bentlemeyer4 ,my voice awoke him from the creeping paralysis of terror that was mastering him1 and raising the scroll of the ritual he recovered himself by an effort of will1 and uttered the words of the spell of release4 ,a swirl of icy cold wind seemed to sweep about us1 and ,i stabbed at the invisible grasp that seemed to be plucking at my garments4 ,two of the candles went out and the windows rattled violently in their frames4 ,then with frightening suddenness the manifestations ceased4 ,the boy was gasping for breath once more and the terror had passed4 ,not until the last of the valedictory phrases of the ritual had been said did either of us dare leave our stations4 ,then both of us1 shocked and terrified by what we had seen1 went over to the boy ,walther4 ,he was deeply entranced yet1 breathing heavily2 the colour had not yet ebbed from his face and on his brow were beads and runnels of perspiration4 ,bentlemeyer made a few passes1 breathed on his eyelids1 and brought him round4 ,but there on his uncollared neck was the dark1 bruised imprint of strangling fingers4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this experience was phenomenal4 ,we examined the room carefully afterwards and came to the conclusion that the couch on which ,walther was lying projected at one corner over the circuit of the diagram that should have protected it4 ,the identity of the spirit we could not determine4 ,whether it was really the spirit of the executioner or torturer1 whether it was merely an impersonation by a demon elemental1 or what particular denizen of the realm of evil it was that came to the summons and the blood bowl ,i cannot say4 ,i learnt later that ,bentlemeyer was1 despite his learning and his professional standing1 a man of notoriously evil and depraved life4 ,there is no doubt that our experiences that evening thoroughly startled him4 ,a brother student of proven reliability told me later that ,bentlemeyer had assured him that he could and did evoke evil spirits1 and evoke them to execute malicious tricks upon his confrres in the professional world4 ,in this connection it is interesting to note that when looking through his cabinet of magical instruments ,i saw two small nude waxen models1 male and female4 ,i asked at the time the purpose of these and he explained that they were used by him in a hypnotic experiment with ,walther4 ,this was the phenomenon known as externalization of sensibility4 ,under hypnosis ,walther's feeling of sensation could be transferred by the operator to any object1 such as a glass of water or a waxen doll4 ,a pin-prick on the surface of the water would be felt by him as an acute pricking sensation all over the body4 ,when the doll was used1 pain was felt by ,walther in the precise place where the doll was pricked4#cb ,the hypothesis is that the sorcerer and wizard of the ,middle ,ages made use of this phenomenon and that their victims were the unconscious victims of hypnosis4 ,before this hypothesis can be dismissed by the sceptic it should be remembered that sorcery flourished best in ages of faith and superstition4 ,an active belief in the powers of sorcery or witchcraft facilitates not only direct suggestion1 but also suggestion on self-hypnosis4 ,a point of interest is that the effects of sorcery or evil suggestion are capable of being remedied by people who understand the subject4 ,exorcism is valuable and is as real as sorcery1 and it is by no means a lost art among those occultists who have studied the dark side of spirit phenomena in order to know all that we are allowed to know of this dangerous subject4 ,above all things1 the ,spiritualist who has certain healing qualities in connection with mediumistic gifts should avoid any attempt at exorcism4 ,cases have been known when the attempt was successful1 but only in so far that the evil was transferred from the original victim to the would-be healer4 ,as a rule1 the results are bad for both parties4 ,the mental and consequently physical dangers of this kind of thing are far too serious to be lightly meddled with4 ,one cannot insist on this too strongly4 ,,footnotes3 #be ,chapter ,x of ,professor ,boirac's ,psychic ,science 8,experimental ,researches in ,sleep ,provoked at a ,distance40 #bf ,see ,proceedings of ,la ,socit ,universelle d',etudes ,psychiques and ,proceedings ,s4,p4,r41 ,v and ,,viii4 #bg ,see 8,gilles de ,rais1 dit ,barbe ,bleu40 ,bonsard et ,maulde1 ,history of ,magic1 ,chapter ,,vi3 8,eliphas ,levi40 ,in fiction1 ,huysman's ,la-,bas4 #bh ,for obvious reasons ,i have suppressed the detail of ritual4 #bi ,steinert was the chief adept in the ,society of the ,illuminati4 ,see ,essai sur la ,secte des ,illumins1 ,marquis de ,lachet4 #cj ,elementals cannot face pointed steel4 ,probably because the latter concentrates radiations of psychic force from the human body which are destructive to them4 #ca ,in ,germany capital punishment is still carried out by the headsman1 who beheads with a sword4 #cb ,chapter ,,ii1 ,psychical and ,supernormal ,phenomena1 by ,dr4 ,paul ,joire2 ,chapter ,,xv1 ,psychic ,science1 by ,emile ,boirac1 and numerous other works give details of this phenomenon4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,,incense ,,and ,,occultism ,the ancients possessed amazing secrets concerning psychic knowledge of all kinds4 ,apart from the philosophical tenets held by the various degrees of priestcraft there was a special secret knowledge of what may be called the mechanical side4 ,they knew how to produce phenomena4 ,then as now1 the specially gifted were used in connection with the service of mysteries1 but in all the old cults which attained to any degree of organization the arch-priests or hierophants were not themselves mediums1 but made use of mediums as instruments4 ,the rle played by the medium was a more or less unimportant one just as to-day the 8psychics0 used by the different sects of ,tibetan ,lamas are relatively unimportant and insignificant members of the priestcraft4 ,the priests had1 however1 other secrets--secrets which on occasion conferred the gift of vision on the ordinary non-psychic person4 ,sacerdotalism and royalty were closely allied not only in ancient ,egypt1 but throughout the bulk of the mid-,oriental and ,byzantine cults4 ,then as now1 people demanded proof of miracles and the proof had to be forthcoming4 ,little by little1 savants have recovered from hieroglyph and papyri1 from stone and manuscript1 something of the great rituals and something of both the outer and inner forms of these dead faiths4 ,we know enough to realize that the adepts possessed the art of releasing the spirit from the body and of producing the trance state not only in individuals but in comparatively large congregations4 ,the two hypotheses are the agency of hypnotism and the agency of some mechanical or physiological factor such as a drug4 ,the possibilities of hypnotism in the form of crowd suggestion cannot be overlooked1 but it does not entirely account for some of the phenomena that tradition has handed down and which is substituted by contemporary record4 ,analysis of some of these cults shows that the initiates partook of a ceremonial drink or brew of some kind and that there is a more than mystical use of the censer4 ,nine-tenths of the so-called propitiatory ritual was symbolic1 but there remains an unexplained tenth part whose agency was primarily that of mechanical excitant of what one may term 8psychism0--those qualities of perception that we class as psychic gifts4 ,it is precisely these extraordinarily valuable secrets that were among the deepest arts of the priestcraft4 ,there was no record of these--nothing direct is to be found in the writings1 and although it is possible to recover the philosophic bases of the myths these rule-of-thumb mysteries still elude us4 ,after all1 many other similar secrets1 and even fairly well-known common facts of antiquity1 have been lost to us4 ,we do not know the composition of the celebrated ,roman fish sauce 8garum40 ,we cannot tell what are the ingredients of ,stradivarius' violin varnishes or some old master's colours4 ,nevertheless1 it is unreasonable to suppose that the necessary materials have vanished from the earth4 ,we have the whole known world to ransack for them where the ancients had only a limited and circumscribed number of plants1 beasts1 and minerals from which to gather their ingredients4 ,the function of some drugs is to produce mental effects1 visions1 hallucinations1 dreams1 and phantoms4 ,the logical assumption is that the ancients knew certain rule-of-thumb methods of utilizing some forms of these drugs in such a way as to loosen the hold of the body 7and the consciousness7 upon the mind1 and to produce an artificial state of clairvoyance4 ,the wizard of the ,middle ,ages was also a doctor1 and it is claimed that the familiar that inhabited the sword of ,paracelsus--which sword he always had by him and could never be parted from--was none other than a certain amount of opium concealed in the hollow pommel4#cc ,the function of hypnotic drugs is known to a point4 ,that is to say1 we know what effect is produced on a normal individual by a given dose of an unknown drug1 but in nine cases out of ten we do not know precisely how this effect is brought about and have few clues to the series of physiological reactions that bring about the mental state4 ,the connection between a physical draught and a mental state is indicated throughout the history of magic4 ,ceremonial libations1 ritual consumption of potions or 8devil's brews0 of one kind and another are part and parcel of the traditions of necromancy and sorcery4 ,the connection between these hypnotic draughts and the practice of poisoning was not clearly perceived by most writers of the past4 ,sorcery and poisoning were indeed twin practices of the ,middle ,ages1 for where the spell might fail white arsenic would succeed1 but it is not fair to class all magical potions as preparations of secret poisons1 although in point of fact most of the hypnotic drugs are toxic4 ,the methods of administering the drugs are two--namely1 by draught1 that is to say by direct consumption1 and inhalation4 ,the function of the incense used in thaumaturgical ceremonies was primarily to intoxicate the audience4 ,just as the ,pythoness of the ,delphic oracles inhaled the vapours of the magic cave1 so the ,egyptians inhaled prepared incenses in their temples4 ,the casting of herbs upon the fire1 the burning of prepared sacrificial candles or flambeaux1 all these play their part in the mechanical induction of the psychic state4 ,frankincense and myrrh1 and in particular gum benzoin1 possess soothing properties that affect the throat and nasal passages4 ,besides being pleasant1 these gums formed an excellent vehicle for disguising the scent of other matters and preventing their spasmodic or instant action on the throat4 ,the kyphic or incense of ancient ,egypt#cd was compounded of myrrh1 gum-mastic1 aromatic rush roots1 resin1 and juniper berries4 ,to these aromatics were added small quantities of symbolic elements1 such as grapes1 honey and wine1 and a portion of bitumen or asphateum1 whose purpose might be either symbolic or to serve as a binding medium for the mass4 ,in addition to these1 various spices and perfumes were used4 ,cinnamon bark1 sandalwood1 cardamom1 and even ambergris and musk4 ,the influence of scent upon the emotions is well known and the ,egyptians favoured the use of ambra and musk as definitely aphrodisiacal perfumes4 ,to-day pure essence of patchouli is used in the ,orient to serve the same end1 and anybody who has ever smelt a vial of the pure oil will recognize the instant disturbance of certain nerve centres that it produces4 ,the clue to the secret of the ancient incense lies not in what we have been able to recover from the papyri1 but in the word itself4 ,kyphi is recognizable to-day in 8keef10 the popular name for the smokable variety of the herb cannabis indica4 ,cannabis indica is none other than our old friend hashish1 the haseesh of the writers of the time of the ,crusades1 who gave us those descriptions of the ,old ,man of the ,mountains and his ,hasch-hassins4 ,from them we get our commonplace word--assassin4 ,it is not1 after all1 a far cry from the mysteries of ,osiris in ,egypt to the ,thammus or ,dumuri-absu of ,syria and ,babylon4 8,thammuz came next behind ,whose annual wound in ,lebanon allured ,the ,syrian damsels to lament his fate ,in amorous ditties all a summer's day10 says ,milton4 ,osiris and ,thammus 8died0 annually1 and mimicry of the symbolic event was the basis of all ritual4 ,in the mysteries the initiates 8died10 too1 but the death was no mere formula1 but an actually induced state of stupor of deep trance brought about by the fumes of the 8keef40 ,these secrets lingered long in ,lebanon1 where to this day the ,crypto-christianity of the ,druses may be identified with many of the actual practices of magic4 ,the master of the ,assassins was a master hypnotist1 using the dark knowledge of certain parts of the mechanical ritual of magic to gain his mastery over the ,moslem youths he sent as fanatics to do his bidding4 ,there in the ,lebanon he created his artificial paradise of sensuous delight1 drugged dreams and slumber4 ,his commands laid upon his slaves were no ordinary commands--but spells as black as any weaved by sorcery4 ,the master lodge of this cult of the ,assassins was at ,cairo and the mysteries were only transferred to their new setting in the ,lebanon by ,hassan ibn ,sabbah at the end of the eleventh century4 ,outwardly ,moslem1 the inner mysteries had no connection with either ,mohammedan or any other religion1 and indeed the cult seems to be in many ways a kind of bastard ,masonic organization4 ,nominally a ,moslem sect of ,ismailites1 the organization was under a commander1 the ,sheik-al-,tebel1 or ,chief of the ,mountains1 who was served by minor chiefs or priors--the three ,dai-al-kirbal4 ,following these came the ,dais or adepts1 and below them three minor grades1 ,refigos1 ,fedais1 and ,lasigos4#ce ,the ,fedais or 8entered apprentice0 grade furnished the rank and file of the fanatical executants of the paramount will1 and these ,fedais1 who were customarily mentally and physically pathic1 never rose above this step in the mysteries4 ,the ,society of the ,assassins was nominally suppressed by ,halaga1 the ,mogul invader of the middle of the thirteenth century1 but the knowledge1 the secrets1 and the traditions endured and still endure to this day4 ,the organization was undoubtedly an evil one2 it also had nothing to do with ,masonry1 but it is an interesting example of an occult society whose powers affected the course of history1 and methods of working were essentially based upon mechanical rather than spiritual methods of producing a certain state of mind4 ,the effect of hashish is a very difficult thing to define4 ,essentially a hypnotic--an annihilator of time and space and a stimulant of hallucinations--it is also a drug largely dependent on the idiosyncracy of the individual4 ,the same does not necessarily produce equivalent results in individuals of differing temperament1 and for all practical purposes the psychic value of the dose varies inversely with the standard of intelligence of the recipient4 ,also1 when dealing with subjects of dual or multiple personality1 it tends to liberate the more violent and uncontrolled of the individualities4 ,hashish is absorbed rapidly4 ,cases have been known where a little of the extract used as an anodyne in corn plasters has been absorbed and produced hallucinatory state4 ,as a smoke1 veiled by incense or mixed with tobacco1 rapid intoxication results from its inhalation4 ,this was one of the keys--perhaps the greatest of the keys--to the storehouse of those treasures of the mind which are the time ,elixir1 the ,true ,gold of the ,magi4 ,in actual practice there is a preliminary state of suggestibility under the influence of hashish when the operator can exercise his will upon that of the subject4 ,this stage is soon passed over and in the later dream states suggestion is inoperative4 ,the modern pharmacist has lost the secret of the herb whose therapeutic function is to control the action of the cannabis indica1 so that the subject remained in the suggestible state and did not pass on to the later stages of hallucinatory visions4 ,we may take it that so far as the old world is concerned1 the half of the secret has been recovered1 but the balancing or deterrent herb is still unrecognized by the pharmacopia and known only to a specialist few among experimental occultists4 ,just as hashish itself is missing from the recipient1 the ,ebers papyri1 so is the balancing coefficient4#cf ,on the other hand1 the same secret of priestcraft is known on the other side of the ,atlantic4 ,we may or may not believe in the myth of lost ,atlantis and the transmitted ritual1 but both the ,zaquis of ,sonora and the ,tamachecks of ,guatemala possess a ritual observance in which cannabis ,americana1 a new cousin of the cannabis indica1 is the stimulant agent4 ,other tribes use a brew of the mescal bean1 but this is a purely ,american species and the active principle anhalonium1#cg does not act on precisely the same nerve centres as the cannabinote principle of the hemps4 ,in both cases the induction of a species of intoxication by means of the sacred herbs gathered in certain lunar or astrological aspects is held by the natives to be the basis of the communion with the spirits of the departed dead4 ,the ,spiritualist believes that there are spirits of the dead1 the physiologist claims that the 8spirits0 are hallucinatory or that they are merely reflex as from the subconscious mind of the individual or of other individuals4 ,this twin explanation runs through all psychic phenomena1 but not until all phenomena known to be produced by ,spiritualist circles can be produced under hypnosis will the ,spiritualist theory be finally disproved4 ,the rank and file of ,spiritualists are unaware that the scientific world has a demonstrable answer to nine-tenths of the wonder that the believing ,spiritualist is convinced can only occur by means of discarnate spirit intelligences4 ,but the honest investigator should bear in mind that only certain rare phenomena remain unchallenged and are at present unattainable by practising psychologists4 ,when the phenomena of materialization--the externalization of force--are producible by hypnotists1 then the whole spirit hypothesis is imperilled1 for the scientists will be able to produce these effects not by spirit intervention but at the behest of human will4 ,still1 for the moment1 the uncritical white1 like the barbarous ,indian1 is justified in his belief in external spirit agency as the only explanation for the apparently miraculous4 ,a friend of mine who had been a member of an exploring expedition whose mission was to trace a tributary of the river ,usmacinta in ,chiapas on the ,mexico-,guatemala border to its source in the volcanic country round the unknown ,lago de ,peten1 made a careful study of the ritual of the ,tamachacks4 ,these people still carry out a pre-,columbian religion which antedates that of the ,aztec and ,toltec civilizations both of ,mexico and the ,yucatan peninsula4 ,essentially symbolic in that it takes into account primitive nature and ancestor worship1 the basis of the cult is the evocation of the spirits of the departed dead for tribal and personal counsel and consultation4 ,the means employed in the production of the psychic state is the smoke of the cannabis americana4 ,the native name of this herb is marihuana4 ,the following is my friend's description of one of the actual native ceremonies at which he was present3 8,we were up in the ,intamal country about four days' hard river travelling beyond the ,san ,cristobal frontier4 ,little by little1 the isolated plantations disappeared1 and soon we were deep in the untouched jungle country where there are only native villages4 8,that day ,i was with the advance party1 and as we were making a fairly complete cadastral survey of our route1 we deviated slightly toward a largish jungle-covered hill that would furnish us with an excellent commanding position for triangulation4 8,my native peons were carrying our little transit theodolite and we were following a native track that led toward the hill when our party was suddenly surrounded4 8,a whistle blew in the jungle and out from the bush came semi-nude ,indians variously armed4 ,a few had trade guns1 but the bulk carried the inevitable machete1 while a minority had short bows and long quivers of obsidian-headed arrows4 8,they offered us no overt violence1 but made it abundantly clear that they resented any party attempting to scale their hill4 ,most of the dialogue was in the native tongue1 a debased agglutinative inflective speech similar to ,nanhatl4 ,the leader1 who wore a peculiar breastplate of featherwork1 could1 however1 talk ,spanish comparatively fluently4 8,my greatest trouble was to induce him to understand that we were not a prospecting party and were not after gold4 ,talk with our men who had been with us some months finally reassured him4 ,a chance compliment of mine about his feather breastplate1 which was of quetzal feathers1 opened the magic door to me4 8,it was astonishing to that ,indian1 who had probably not seen a hundred white men1 as distinct from ,mexicans1 in all his life1 to find in me a man who knew more about the mythological importance of the quetzal bird than he knew himself4 8,my work on the ruined cities of ,yucatan and my studies of the ,mittall codices and similar work had given me a sound knowledge of the worship of ,quetzalcoatl the god of the ,morning ,star1 to whom the wonderful emerald-plumaged quetzal bird is sacred4 8,to cut a long story short1 ,i arranged things with the head-man so that we could camp in his village that night4 ,the people were kindly1 once they understood that we were not gold hunters and meant no harm1 and my friend the head-man1 having introduced me to certain elders and discussed with them my knowledge of their almost extinct faith1 invited me to be present as a participant in a religious feast to be held that night4 8,the feast was that of the ,cozca cuaptli--the feast of vultures1 birds as important in the ,mayan underworld as in the ,egyptian ceremonies4 8,shortly after dusk ,i left the village with them1 going alone and to all external seeming unarmed4 ,we made a long journey through the bush1 climbing higher all the time1 and ,i realized that we were actually on the sacred hill that they had forbidden us to ascend4 8,here and there along the route we were stopped by sentries or guards1 but at last gained the top of the hill4 ,here1 encircled by trees1 was a flat table top or plateau a few acres in extent4 8,rising on the plateau was a series of three square terraces culminating in a small ruined building1 roofless yet sound as to its walls4 ,the lowest plateau was packed with ,indians2 on the second were congregated the elect--the tribal seniors and the priests4 ,above them a figure or two moved in the building4 8,my friends took some time explaining my presence1 and it was obvious that ,i was regarded with dark disfavour by the mass of the natives4 ,soon it dawned on me that ,i was under guard1 an unobtrusive guard1 but nevertheless under guard4 ,at last ,i was taken to the high priest of the ceremonial4 8,he was a wonderful old ,indian who spoke the accented ,latin ,spanish of forgotten generations4 ,he examined me1 and though ,i could not reply to certain mysterious ritualistic questions that he put to me1 he was at length satisfied that ,i had an efficient working knowledge not only of his ritual but of its underlying astronomical and philosophical significance4 ,eventually he was satisfied1 and on a word from him ,i was taken in hand by two native youths who bound a fillet of red-dyed wool worked with feather devices round my brow and gave me a peeled rod surmounted by a vulture's skull to hold as a wand of office4 ,over my clothes was put a loose dark brown cotton robe sewn with charms and trimmed at each shoulder with tufts of sombre plumage4 8,thus dressed ,i took my place among the elders4 ,for a while nothing happened1 then slowly the noise of the crowd died down and expectancy gave place to clamour4 ,from somewhere in the forest came the sudden rhythm of native drums seemingly casual1 inopportune1 and meaninglessly cadenced4 8,little by little the monotony of the drum throbbing became more insistent1 more definitely rhythmical4 ,a brazier in the temple building began to glow red1 and far below in the valley mists we could see a group of flaring torches dancing like fireflies as their bearers scaled the difficult trail4 8,suddenly the voice of the chief priest rose in a high-pitched wailing call1 and as he hailed1 a new and brilliant star seemed to spring into being over the dark crest of a nearby hill4 8,the assemblage bowed to the star and broke into a wailing ,indian chant that kept time to the beating of the hidden throbbing drums4 8,after the prayer came the dance4 ,to the centre of the second terrace bearers carried what looked like a bundle of blankets2 then nude but for feather adornments1 the young initiates came forward in processional dance4 ,every tenth man held a torch1 and the dancers carried out a long ballet symbolical of the burial or consumption of the mortal body of the vultures4 8,they hopped grotesquely like the ill-omened zopilotes or scavenger vultures they initiated4 ,a querulous clucking accompaniment was uttered by the chorus of spectators and the files of bronze bodies advanced and retreated1 swayed and circled in slow-hopping processions around the blanketed heap upon the ground that represented the body4 8,suddenly the drum rhythm changed and a curious whistling pipe music was heard4 ,the heap of blankets stirred and rattled1 from the heap an arm flung out white bones1 a skull rolled to the feet of the spectators1 then the blankets were flung aside and an ,indian youth1 completely nude1 but painted white and marked with ritual signs1 leapt from the pile4 8,rising to his full height he donned a towering feather headdress of humming bird and quetzal feathers which gleamed like a myriad jewels in the torchlight4 8,three times the spectators claimed him as the risen ,god1 then the drums broke out into a violent triumphant dance in an infectious measure in which both dancers and spectators joined4 8,in the meantime a cloth or canvas housing had been drawn over the roofless temple by minor priests4 ,the brazier was carried inside1 and suddenly the ,boy ,god1 leaving the dancers1 ascended the steps and entered the prepared pavilion4 8,as suddenly the drums fell silent and the shrill pipes alone kept up the eerie tune4 8,my friend touched me on the shoulder1 the seated elders rose1 and1 following the high priest1 we made our way into the sanctuary4 8,ranging ourselves along the walls we sat down in an open square4 ,in the centre was the youth stretched on a skin-covered native bedstead1 at its head the brazier4 8,swiftly the door was sealed with skin mats2 then to the accompaniment of a muttered ritual and much raising and lowering of skull-tipped wands1 the priest cast herbs into the brazier4 ,the heavy smoke wreathed about in the close room and a sense of languor fell upon me4 8,right and left ,i could hear the elders inhaling the vapour1 then one after another they succumbed to its influence4 ,then came an invocation to the spirits1 and the old men began to talk to spirits that they alone could see among the hazy1 drug-laden smoke of the lodge4 8,as if inspired1 the boy uttered oracular wisdom1 now answering questions put to him1 now declaiming what he had heard the spirits say4 ,slowly the drug gained in its effect over me4 ,the painted leather screens on the rude walls became instinct with life1 the crude stone carving seemed alive and writhing1 and all the air seemed charged with flashing processions of colours and sonorous music4 8,i must have been overcome by the fumes1 for ,i remember nothing more till ,i came to in the dawn-light in one of the terraces outside the building4 ,they gave me a calabash of herb-scented goat's milk to drink1 and in a moment or two my brain cleared4444 ,i made it my interest to get some of the marihuana herb1 which ,i send you40 ,analysis of the marihuana revealed that it contained about twenty-five per cent4 admixture of other herbs in addition to the main base of cannabis americana4 ,a gum or sap exudation of an aromatic nature served to bind the mass together4 ,a personal experiment carried out with a small portion of the mixture proved that identical hallucinatory results could be induced by its use in a ,london room as well as on the top of a ,guatemalan ,tescalli4 ,of a party of four1 three saw colour visions1 two heard music1 and one described figures of ,mazan mythology with some exactness4 ,as1 however1 we all know the origin of the incense and its connection1 these latter visions may be more properly ascribed to suggestion than held to have objective existence as spirit phenomena4 ,there is reason to believe that other plants1 and possibly some synthetic products1 have the same peculiar properties of the liberation of the 8psyche40 ,in the same way1 although consumption as a draught or as an inhaled smoke veiled by incense are the ritual ways of achieving a physiological result1 the same might be achieved by spraying a solution into the air1 by absorption through the skin 7this may have been the raison d'tre of some 8witch ointments071 or by hypodermic injection4 ,needless to say1 any attempt to experiment in these matters is extremely unwise and dangerous4 ,,footnotes3 #cc ,paracelsus1 ,fr4 ,a4 ,rufini4 #cd ,see ,ebers papyri4 #ce ,see ,geschichte der ,asassinen4 ,by ,t4 von ,hammer4 ,burgstall1 ,un ,grand ,matre des ,assassins au ,temps du ,saladin4 ,also ,ars ,quatuo ,coronati1 ,vol4 ---- #cf ,the public interest would not be served by the revelation of the second missing ingredient1 but it is now known4 #cg ,see monograph on ,mescal by ,havelock ,ellis4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,,beasts ,,and ,,elementals ,the apparitions customarily seen by those who are clairvoyant or psychic are those that take human form4 ,in many cases they represent known humans who have passed over1 but sometimes we are brought into contact with non-human apparitions4 ,these may be semi-human or demoniac forms1 they may be animal forms1 or they may be simply manifestations of elemental forces4 ,discarding the trumpery attempts at classification that have been advanced by one or two writers of so-called 8ghost stories10 it must be recognized that the occultist is faced with problems that cannot be readily reduced or explained by any logical hypothesis4 ,the ,spiritualist approaches the question according to set theories4 8,spirits10 says he1 8can do anything4 ,they take what shape they will4 ,why they do so is a mystery40 ,the woman ,spiritualist is usually as open to believe that the spirit of her beloved ,pekingese or ,pomeranian can return in astral form1 and ascribes it to the influences of love4 8,love me1 love my dog10 appears to furnish as good an explanation of animal manifestation as any4 ,on the other hand1 when you get some absolutely extraordinary manifestations such as the seal that appeared to ,sir ,garnet ,wolseley1#ch or the materialization of vampire bats1 partially developed monkeys or a full-sized goat1--and ,i have known all these to occur1--then the love theory falls down badly1 and we must seek a more reasonable explanation4 ,if we accept the idea of discarnate spirit intelligences we certainly should not accept them all at face value as good4 ,the bulk of humanity that has passed over has not been good1 or for the matter of that1 ,christian4 ,assuming that these spirits were human1 but took bestial form for purposes of their own1 we may find some glimmerings of support for a new theory when we realize that in the past and in the present idolatry prevails4 ,the idols of savages are usually totemistic4 ,and they held that the identity of soul persisted after death1 not in a new human existence but as a rebirth in animal form4 ,to a large extent1 totemistic paganism was mixed up with licentious and bestial festivals1 useful in assuring the continuance and multiplication of a savage tribe1 but evolving practices repugnant to ,western ethics4 ,the beasts that come back--are beastly4 ,the ghost dog that scratches and paws and leaps into its mistress's lap is a very different thing to that which it pretends to be4 ,when we reach the foulness of the goat or bat manifestations we feel with no shadow of doubt that we are in touch with the unmasked spirits of evil4 ,not only visible form1 but touch and smell are present4 ,we are brought into distinct contact with the sardonic mocking terror that lies on the other side of life4 ,the border between the brutal and blood-lusting savage and the demon1 is a slender one4 ,the conception of a singularly evil earth-bound negro spirit who has believed in an after-life in which his soul will inhabit the body of an ape or a leopard1 comes very close to the accepted idea of a devil or demon4 ,we get something of the same basic conception in the idea of the wer-wolf or vampire1 and there is a singular reinforcement of this theory in that in the ,dark ,ages when paganism was yielding reluctantly to the inroads of the ,christian faith1 the early fathers explicitly identified such animal manifestations with the sorcery of paganism4 ,the fantastic gargoyles that ornament cathedrals are simply traditionalizations of that period when these beast incarnations in all their devilishness contended against the spread of a purer faith4 ,sometimes it chances that we1 in this twentieth century1 by accident open a door through which a tenth-century devil can creep in4 ,other occultists1 notably those of the ,viennese school1 hold that the beast manifestations are not forms or shapes assumed by evil spirits that have been mortal1 but are1 as it were1 living evil thought-forms1 and are the incarnation of dead and evil cults on which a great deal of human thought-energy had been expended during some time in the world's history4 ,proof is not possible1 and it is not yet the time to marshal the facts which would seem to indicate that a dead cultus can yet live on1 supported1 as it were1 by the emotional sin of the present-day world1 although the sin is divorced from its old ritual significance4 ,this theory of the continuation of the sacrificial value of sin is of course one of the most serious aspects of the art of sorcery4 ,propitiation and symbolism are often linked up in a way that perplexes the most agile-witted student of the occult1 and it may well be that certain seemingly innocent ritual acts have contributed their quota to the maintenance of life in certain forgotten cults--whose entities come suddenly into being again in a most alarming manner4 ,to the occultist who thinks this matter out1 the identity of beast materializations with incarnate prototypes of sin will probably be manifest4 ,as it is1 the essential quality of the evil that these entities typify and attempt to induce does not become apparent from a chance unsought materialization1 but the medium who sees 8animals0 is suspect4 ,repeated evocations of these entities lead to disaster4 ,the beast becomes an obsession and is to all intents and purposes the old 8familiar0 of the days of witchcraft4 ,for reasons which are hinted at above1 but which cannot be more fully expounded in a book of this nature1 the beast materialization is a phenomenon which should be avoided at all costs4 ,if such occurs at a sance1 break off the sitting at once4 ,if these phenomena appear to be connected with any particular medium1 there are the gravest reasons for seeking another sensitive4 ,above all things1 avoid people who claim that the spirits of pet animals have come back to them4 ,the cynic may contend that it is folly to be afraid of the spirits of poor dumb animals and yet invite communication with the mortal dead4 ,the occultist and the mystic who know something of the mysteries will1 however1 see the reasons4 ,to-day1 when thousands are interested in psychical matters1 knowledge has been forgotten or trampled underfoot4 ,the well-meaning1 loud-voiced blind lead myriads to a new heaven1 acclaiming hell vanquished because in their rapturous exultation over new discoveries of old things they have forgotten the absolute rule of balance4 ,positive and ,negative1 ,good and ,bad1 ,strong and ,weak1 ,plus or ,minus4 ,there is balance in all things1 and this sudden acclamation of the ,unseen ,world as all good1 all easy1 and quite safe1 is perfectly ridiculous4 ,occultism is not either good1 safe1 nor amusing for the vast majority of people4 ,spiritualism as generally practised is a kind of beneficent bobbing into the ,tom ,tiddler's ground of the ,unseen4 ,there is a pleasing conceit that if the ,powers of ,evil turn up it will be enough to utter a ,protestant prayer and say that because you are 8good0 a bogy can't touch you4 ,this is a rather childish way of treating the ,powers--in point of fact1 it does not work1 it is very much like saying that lightning cannot strike you because you have rubber heels to your boots4 ,it is a melancholy reflection that the very people who go about reading little handbooks on 8,knowledge is ,power10 never realize that it is the right use of knowledge that means ,power and that sometimes the coming of ,power without knowledge spells catastrophe for all concerned4 ,besides the dangerous and perplexing beast manifestations1 there is a third class of phenomenon which is manifestly neither human nor animal1 but bears a close relationship to ,elemental ,forces such as ,fire1 ,air1 or ,water4 ,these phenomena are the only ones properly described as due to elementals1 but a certain confusion has arisen through the use of this word as applied to all spirit phenomena which were not broadly classifiable as human4 ,ghosts1 giant appearances1 and ferocious and evil spirits of all kinds have been described as elementals1 so that the word has lost its real precision4 ,originally all these outside spirits not known as the souls of mortals were classed as being spirits of ,earth or ,fire1 ,air1 or ,water1 and by this arbitrary relation to the elements became known as ,elementals4 ,in effect only phenomena where no apparent organic or physical materialization or incarnation of any kind occurs should be classified as purely elemental4 ,of these the heat elemental is a phenomenon that is occasionally observed4 ,air or wind phenomena are also known1 but ,i know of no case where earth or water phenomena apart from 8apports0 by a materialized presence claiming to be an earth or water elemental1 have been noted4 ,to my mind the organic presence destroys the evidential value of the latter accounts due to the effect of elementals as distinct from spirits4 ,the elementals are properly those intelligences 7the word spirits conveys a wrong implication7 that are termed in the old rituals the ,powers of ,fire1 ,air1 ,earth1 and ,water4 ,in magic it was held that these ,powers were served by spirits1 but there is reason to suppose that this view rose from the too literal interpretation of the old rituals and maltranslation of the occult 8,grimoires0 of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries4 ,the appearance of these elementals is rare and sporadic1 usually associated with a place or an individual rather than with the sitting of a sance4 ,sometimes the individual afflicted by the elemental is affected in a negative manner--that is to say1 he is immune to the effect of fire or heat or has the power of inducing enormous draughts and air disturbances in confined space without knowing why4 ,these cases are difficult1 and though a 8fireproof0 medium who can carry live coals in his hand may claim it to be due to the effect of a fire-elemental control1 it must be remembered that in many cases autosuggestion will induce an extension of the protective ecto- or psychoplasm which is equally effective4#ci ,the ,south ,sea and ,indian fanatics who walk across red-hot stones indubitably possess this self-contained power4 ,i have only a second-hand instance of a pure heat elemental to relate4 ,this was communicated to me by a very well-known mountain painter whom we will call ,calvin ,muir4 ,he had been down in the ,welsh ,marches where the low foothills of the mountains just change into stretches of rocky moors above the low-lying wooded valleys4 ,muir was by habit and training a keen observer4 ,he was also a ,frater of the ,rosicrucian ,society and had a wide general knowledge of many strange aspects of occultism4 8,i was staying down at ,pwhyll-gor1 a little hill village with a few cottages and two inns of small attractiveness10 said he4 8,i had been there some six weeks or so1 sketching and wandering and doing a little trout fishing when the mood took me4 ,one evening ,i found the taproom learnedly discussing the blight that was affecting an orchard in a nearby farm4 8,according to them1 half the affected trees appeared burnt or seared and there was great discussion whether lightning could strike without a concurrent storm or thunderclap4 8,others held that it was probably a mischievous trick by small boys1 but one old man declared it had happened before in the same district in his father's time and that it was due to #8owl blasting4' 8,this1 it seemed1 was a form of witchcraft or magic1 but more closely related to the malevolent forces of nature than to mortal ill will4 ,he was not communicative1 but disclosed enough to make me determine to visit the farm next day4 8,i found it up on the hillside in a little natural valley or gap where a few fertile acres had been reclaimed4 ,it was a poor enough small homestead1 bleak and barren1 and the wretched little orchard was poor enough in all conscience without suffering supernatural violences4 8,the farmer's wife received me and made no secret of her troubles4 ,together we went out to view the damage1 and ,i found two cider-apple trees whose foliage and fruit had been literally burnt in an area as large as a good-sized cart wheel4 8,that was the queer thing about it1 the close circular or rather spherical limits of the damage4 ,it was just as if a red-hot round bite had been taken out of the thick of the tree1 and left the neighbour twigs and leaves unsinged--unseared4 8,they had no explanation to offer except lightning1 and it was manifest they had no real belief in that4 ,i suggested boys1 but was told there was but one about the farm--even as ,i made the suggestion ,i knew it was futile2 but what would you8 8,i asked when the calamity occurred1 and they told me in full daytime between dawn and lunch4 ,in the morning all had been well in the orchard--by noon two trees half ruined1 and no one had seen sight of smoke or flame1 nor sound4 8,the suggestion of #8owl blasting' brought no response4 ,they were strangers to the country1 having come some ten years ago from ,swansea way4 8#8,it's the hills1' said the woman4 8#8,well1' said ,i1 #8another watcher will do no harm4 ,can you give me a shakedown1 and to-morrow ,i will go out with my easel and stay sketching the orchard4' 8,she assented without enthusiasm1 and ,i spent that night at the farm4 8,the farmer was no wiser and rather surlier than his wife1 but both were manifestly oppressed with fear4 ,their boy alone was cheerful and unmoved4 8,the next day ,i rose at cock-crow1 passed through the orchard and out on to the hills to a patch of rock and heather some two hundred yards away4 8,by seven o'clock ,i had watched in a good stretch of the farm and the orchard in which not a soul had moved4 ,all at once1 ,i stood with my brush poised in amazement1 as there high above the trees was poised a small1 blue-yellow lambent flame that seemed to drift sideways in the windless air4 8,for a moment ,i thought it was a fire balloon1 then saw my error4 ,without a thought ,i ran toward it just in time to see it settle down on to a tree whose leaves in a moment turned from green to darkening brown and burst almost immediately into crackling flame4 ,my cries brought out the boy and the woman from the house and on their coming it vanished and we were left gazing at the damage it had done4 8,i told them what ,i had seen1 and the woman suddenly put her apron over her face and burst into tears4 ,we sent the boy to fetch her husband1 who came in a marked state of worry and agitation4 8,i could not follow the quick interchange of ,welsh words that ensued4 ,the man then asked me who had told me of #8owl blasting1' and together we went to the village to find the old man4 8,it appeared that a month or so back the farmer had used some old rocks which were part of the ring of a ,cromlech to rebuild one of his stone walls4 ,this1 according to the old man1 had brought down the #8owl blasting' upon him4 8,painstakingly they dragged the stones back to their original place1 and ,i believe certain ceremonial was gone through at the next quarter of the moon4 8,the precise things done were kept secret from me1 for ,i was a stranger and suspect1 but ,i gathered enough to understand that a mercenary destruction or disturbance of ,druidic remains brought its own reward4 8,all that ,i can say is that a ball of fire came out of clear sky quite slowly and destroyed part of the foliage of an apple tree under conditions precluding any human agency40 ,the above is ,calvin ,muir's account4 ,to an occultist the connection between the ,power of ,fire and the violation of a ,cromlech is convincing1 but it is difficult to conceive in what manner the ,powers were propitiated4 ,scientific people have suggested slow-drying phosphorus solution as an explanation of an apparently supernatural occurrence4 ,muir1 on the other hand1 was positive that it was a true manifestation of a fire elemental1 and that the old man who knew about 8owl blasting0 was not an interested or malevolent party in a peasant's plot4 ,so far1 no hypothesis that will serve as a rational explanation of all the facts has ever been advanced4 ,,footnotes3 #ch ,mr4 ,gambier ,bolton1 who was present1 assures me of the reality of this inexplicable incident4 #ci ,the really genuine fire medium can hold a red-hot coal or glowing asbestos from the gas fire on the palm of the hand for two minutes4 ,no shorter duration of time should be accepted4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,,possession ,from time to time we come across cases of demoniacal possession4 ,in these there is apparently the permanent or temporary domination of the soul or mind of the victim by an evil spirit or demon of alien personality4 ,cases of possession are invariably claimed as 8proofs0 of the existence of spirit intelligence1 and in cases where the possession is nominally at least a mild one the possessed are sometimes quite proud of it4 ,it is1 in fact1 exhibited as quaint and dreadful deformity would be--the phrase is exact4 ,it is a mental deformity4 ,now1 it must be understood that the psychologists have of late years made enormous strides in their knowledge of the vagaries of the subconscious mind4 ,possession1 like 8shell shock10 is in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred a perfectly curable disease4 ,it springs from a perversion of the subconscious state1 can be diagnosed by psychoanalysis and eradicated by transference or by suggestion4 ,the processes of ,christian exorcism often attained the same result4 ,the wise priest was able to 8cast out demons10 and medical science of to-day1 working by analytical methods rather than by rule-of-thumb1 achieves the same results4 ,whether one accepts the scientific theory that these 8possessions0 are but multiple personalities and that there may be several mental personalities in the one mind1 or whether one believes the idea of spirit influence1 does not much matter4 ,in any case the doors of the mind can be firmly locked on either spirit or mental disease4 ,possession is curable--if the patient really desires to be cured4 ,possession can be readily evoked in nearly all hypnotic subjects4 ,not only one but several distinct personalities can be developed by the psychologist4 ,janet's experiments developed in ,madame ,b4 three separate individuals3 ,lonie1 known in the waking state as a 8possessor02 ,lontine under the light stage of hypnosis1 and ,lonore in a deeper condition4#dj ,even a popular knowledge and comprehension of this peculiar disease of the subconscious is difficult to attain without a sound elementary grasp of the principles of psychology4 ,the bulk of books on the subject are written for the medical or scientific mind1 but ,coriat's book is a sound and easily grasped introductory manual4#da ,the normal form of mental trouble is an obsession1 the fear or 8phobia0 of some perfectly normal thing1 a desire to touch objects4 ,there are dozens of variations of these obsessions which spring to mind4 ,the state of possession can only be said to exist when the mind is under the dominance of another individuality distinct from the normal personality4 ,it is curious to note that cases of possession by good spirits are absolutely unknown4 ,a medium may be 8controlled0 by spirits said to be good1 but this does not amount to a possession4 ,in every case where normal personality has been overthrown and another or other personalities take possession we find--evil4 ,this is to certain extent explicable if we realize that every thought or wish that occurs to us1 and which we repress because it is bad or evil1 is not destroyed or wiped out of existence1 but stays as a suppressed desire or wish buried in the recesses of subconscious mind4 ,when normal conscious control is overthrown1 these subconsciously stored desires or wishes come bubbling up--a fact that seems to explain why the language used by nicely brought up girls recovering after the administration of an ansthetic would put a coal-heaver to flight4 ,in the dream state1 too1 these repressed desires escape all mixed up from their bondage1 a fact which accounts for the peculiar medley of dreams and their frequent lack of moral balance and accentuation of sexual characteristics4 ,the character of a 8possessing0 demon is in most cases determined by experiences that the victim has passed through4 ,shock1 neurasthenia1 illness1 disappointment2 all these may bring about the splitting of the personality so that the secondary or possessing personality can overthrow consciousness and take charge4 ,the victim is often horrified to find his or her mind continually filled with terrible desires1 intolerable passions1 and thoughts utterly repugnant to the sedate conscious self4 ,sometimes the idea of possession is stimulated by messages received through mediums or by automatic writing--this is one of the many frequent cases where undigested1 uneducated ,spiritualism is often abominably harmful4 ,anything that helps the idea of possession to grow in the afflicted mind should be avoided4 ,gradually the nature of the possession becomes more acutely defined and is recognized as a different personality--an evil personality resident in the same body using the same mind4 ,it is in all human probability only the repressed wishes--all the pent-up unfulfilled evil of a lifetime taking shape and urging gratification rather than repression in a new and secondary personality4 ,possession by evil spirits is invariably connected with violence and vice4 ,sometimes the attacks are periodic2 always they are signs of mental instability and psychic disease4 ,a possessed person is a fit subject for psychotherapeutic treatment by qualified medical men1 but a source of very real psychic danger in a sance or as a subject for well-meaning experiments in faith healing by amateurs4 ,in psychic healing the doctrine of sacrifice and the scapegoat had a very literal interpretation4 ,the healer often takes upon his own soul the burden that he lifts from another4 ,this psychic transference can only be done in safety by certain and specific ways beyond the scope of this work4 ,it is sufficient to indicate the danger4 ,possession in its varying aspects has given rise to many myths and legends4 ,larv1 ,incubi1 and ,succubi were all demons of temporary possession that tempted man4 ,in the ,middle ,ages and far later the ,faith strove lustily with them1 and where exorcism failed the stake was found effective4 ,according to the older writers1 ,incubi were male demons who possessed the bodies of mortal women2 ,succubi1 she-devils who seduced the souls and possessed the bodies of men4 ,sorcerers had the power of despatching these erotic demons to gratify their associates or plague their enemies1 and it is notable that this doctrine of vicarious enjoyment or satisfaction reappears in the ,spiritualist belief in gross and earth-bound souls of sinners who haunt drinking booths and houses of ill-fame1 deriving vicarious satisfaction from the sins of the living4 ,the old demonographers give lurid and disgustful accounts of these 8possessions0#db and insist on their contagious nature4 ,prosecutions for sorcery1 8possession10 and similar crimes raged throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries1 and in the pages of the records we can trace the ,incubi and ,succubi now hidden as familiar spirits1 now described as the devil himself1 but curiously true in their nature to the occasional demoniac possessions that trouble the twentieth century4 ,even if one admits that the average 8possession0 is one's own evil subconscious personality attempting to overthrow the conscious mind1 certain questions and possibilities arise4 ,that the astral body or mind can make discarnate journeys is a well-known fact to all ,spiritualists4 ,there is1 then1 no reason to suppose that this faculty would be less material in a possessive personality whose origin was specifically in the dream realm of the subconscious4 ,indeed1 it is far more plausible to suppose that the possessor or demon mind would find it far easier to make the journey than the other personality1 for it is recognized that the release of the actual body occurs in trance or dream state4 ,we have here1 then1 some possible psychic explanation of many of the cases of sorcery where the complaint of the sufferers was that they were victimized during sleep by demons4 ,in other words1 they were the recipients of undesired attentions by the astral body of either the sorcerer or his followers or associates4 ,this has been suggested to me in various forms by people who have believed themselves the victims of discarnate spirits--and who were at times possessed by them against their wills4 ,it must1 however1 be admitted that in all such cases which came under my notice there had been connection with ,spiritualist circles or with minor forms of occultism1 and it was impossible to exclude the possibility of previous hypnosis1 autosuggestion1 or the little-known but common phenomena of psychic invasion--by other members of the circle4 ,viewed from the psychical point of view1 possession is an extremely difficult problem4 ,real spirit possession might occur1 suggestion or psychic invasion is often indicated2 and1 as ,i have explained1 multiple personality and the concentration of evil repressed desires in the secondary individuality furnishes a complete scientific explanation of the phenomenon4 ,these cases must be taken individually1 and there are not yet grounds for laying down a general explanation of all the phenomena4 ,one of the great difficulties is the natural reluctance of the victims to disclose exact details1 but no case of possession which was not either openly or secretly erotic is known to be recorded4 ,possessions fall under two heads3 those in which the possessing spirit urges the victim to the commission of injurious acts in person1 and thereby derives direct satisfaction through the body2 and those in which a vicarious satisfaction is achieved through the astral body4 ,the possibility of intercourse between spirit and mortal has been held to be a possibility since ,biblical times1 and the expulsion of the fallen angels was due to this sin4#dc ,stainton ,moses held that much of the lower phenomena was caused by spirits who had not yet reached man's plane of intelligence1 just as some was produced by others who had proceeded further and returned to enlighten man4#dd ,this belief occurs in folklore1 in ,oriental religions1 and in a myriad variations4 ,the djinn of the ,arabian ,nights is a very real thing to the modern native1 and a considerable literature exists in which the intercourse between djinn and mortal is the main theme4 ,in the same way the belief in fairy wives or husbands is not so long dead in ,europe and alive to-day among the hill tribes of the ,pamirs4 ,the whole theory of spirit possession or demon possession is linked with this idea4 ,in the 8possessed0 state the victim is unconscious of deeds done and words said4 ,the blame is the blame of the demon4 ,in nine cases out of ten frenzy or hysteria accompanies nominal possession4 ,there are gifts of strange tongues usually said to be ,eastern or ,indian1 and the possessed pour out streams of gibberish in which a few dominant words or phrases bearing a slight resemblance to some known tongue may be distinguished4 ,clairvoyance1 the gift of prophecy1 and other psychic qualities appear at the time of the seizure4 ,often there is marked ansthesia and insensitiveness to pain4 ,hot objects may be handled with impunity1 electric shocks are not felt4 ,these cases are not genuine cases of possession in its worst sense when they begin1 but very frequently the victim is urged by fools to develop these wonderful powers and the ,darker ,powers accept the invitation and step in4 ,the occultist and the scientist agree about very few things1 but both agree that possession and surrender to possession are the first steps to moral and physical disaster4 ,the transferable or infectious quality of possession is not so widely known as it should be1 but with the increase of ,spiritualism its effects will in a year or so become capable of perception by even the most unenlightened4 ,a girl of my acquaintance1 the daughter of wealthy and respectable ,midland parents1 became interested in psychic matters4 ,her faith was greater than her powers of discernment and she was1 like all too many ,spiritualists1 of neurotic and hysterical temperament4 ,her first actual essays were with automatic writing2 then as she was an art student she tried painting under spirit control4 ,some slight success attended her efforts and she became interested in ,egyptian mythology because her spirit paintings were ,egyptian in character4 ,i did not see her frequently1 but met her about a year after she had taken up her ,egyptian studies4 ,she stated that in her was reincarnated the soul of an ,egyptian priest4 ,this invading entity dominated her entire mind and mode of life4 ,before1 she had been a healthy1 normal girl although inclined to be neurotic1 but once given over to this obsession she found that owing to the psychic change of sex all men were repugnant to her4 ,she was possessed by a male mind in a female body1 and with this extraordinary inversion of normal feelings was obliged to break off her engagement4 ,the remainder of her life was short but tragic4 ,her automatic writings 7which were destroyed after her unhappy death at her own hands7 showed the ascendancy of the possessing demon as it grew over her4 ,interspersed with these records were the tragic outpourings of her soul1 her self-analysis of her psychic disaster4 ,there were things there terrible to read4 ,it is not perhaps fair to blame psychic science for disastrous tragedies such as these1 but it must be openly admitted that occultism is not for the multitude4 ,there is nothing known to-day that was not known in the past1 but ,spiritualists and other investigators have discovered a few of the minor marvels that were known to1 but wisely hidden by1 the ancients4 ,sometimes they are like children playing with a box of drugs1 some of which are active poisons4 ,one message of consolation1 one instance of subconscious telepathy with a medium1 and they are convinced of the truth of ,spiritualism and will not be warned that whatever truth it may hold it also holds ,untruth and ,danger as well as ,hope4 ,the threshold between the innocent 8control0 and the malevolent 8demons of possession0 is a very1 very narrow one4 ,sometimes1 indeed often1 there is no dividing line at all4 ,the charges that ,spiritualism is the high road to lunacy have these unfortunate occurrences as their basis4 ,,footnotes3 #dj ,pierre ,janet3 ,l'automatisme ,psychologique4 #da ,abnormal ,psychology4 ,isador ,h4 ,coriat4 ,rider1 #aiaa4 #db ,see ,tableau de ,l',inconstance des ,dmons4 ,pierre de ,lancre4 #dc ,jude ,,vi1 #g4 #dd ,stainton ,moses1 ,spirit ,identity1 ,appendix ,,ii4 ,,chapter ,x ,,some ,,new ,,facts ,,and ,,theories ,there are a number of peculiar phenomena that come under no specific head or grouping at present2 that is to say1 they are infrequent or isolated instances which cannot yet be relegated to a specific class and labelled4 ,i have frequently come across hearsay evidence and been unable to find the original observer4 ,in other cases the character or mentality of the observer has been such as to render the account entirely valueless from any point of view except that of sensationalism4 ,the result is that we are faced with an unusual case which remains mysterious1 usually because opportunity for a thorough examination of the phenomena is lacking4 ,this is perhaps best illustrated by those cases of material phenomena which we class as ,poltergeists4 ,the most recently recorded case was the ,cheriton dugout1#de but there are many others recorded and a good many more details of which have been suppressed for personal or economic reasons4 ,ronald ,grey has some interesting notes under this heading to which ,i will now turn4 ,the distinguishing characteristics of a poltergeist haunting are aimless violence and mischief accompanied by the displacement and turning about of material objects and unaccompanied by any visible materialization of the manifesting entity4 ,in many cases these mischievous phenomena are associated directly or indirectly with children or young persons4 ,sceptics usually attribute the phenomena to pure mischief and a desire to mystify or be revenged on somebody by the child1 but ,i do not hold that this is the true interpretation4 ,the actual power of physical mediumship is a gift which is in some strange way connected with physiological conditions4 ,it is often more marked in ill-health than when well and sometimes vanishes completely or may return again after a year or two4 ,it has now been ascertained that the site of the haunting is the functioning factor and that one or other of the humans present is the often unconscious medium4 ,if a known physical medium is substituted for the original one the phenomena will often be as effectively reproduced4 ,the doctrine held by ,spiritualists that a poltergeist is a low type of spirit essentially non-human and akin to the tree dryads or earth or air elementals does not seem to be borne out in practice4 ,just as many people hold that the bulk of harmless as distinct from malignant apparitions are 8thought-impressions0 on the surrounding walls which become visible to people with the gift of clairvoyance1 so are there some grounds for believing that the poltergeist manifestations are due not to any directing intelligence at all but to the permanence of some old act or thought which still has in some cases the power of influencing matter4 ,mind cannot affect matter without the influence of a human intermediary4 ,but the physical medium is a human intermediary and serves as a dynamo or battery for the generation of a necessary force4 ,just as table levitations and similar phenomena are produced by the extrusion of psychical rods or levers which are invisible1#df but which are directed to a definite task by intelligence1 so the poltergeist phenomena seem to be similar phenomena but without any directing intelligence4 ,this statement needs qualification in the cases where the child medium has become partly aware that in some strange way he or she is the prime motor for the phenomena4 ,then the child's mind consciously or subconsciously directing the impulse may focus the manifestation in the way of impish1 malicious tricks afflicting an individual4 ,the 8psychic force0 or psychoplasm extended by the medium is very closely akin to what is termed 8animal magnetism0--it seems to be of nervous origin and physiologically connected with internal secretory organs4 ,a slight nervous derangement of one of the many complexes associated with the age of puberty may quite conceivably endow occasional children with a transient power of physical mediumship4 ,the next point is the accumulatory effect of surroundings4 ,here we are very much in the dark1 but the manifestations do not occur unless physical limits1 such as walls1 are present4 ,in a poltergeisted house two unconscious agents of the activities may1 particularly while asleep1 but also while awake1 saturate the surroundings with this peculiar form of energy4 ,there is nothing to show that this vitality ceases with death2 it certainly continues during the state of sleep1 and if it is borne in mind that even when the soul has passed from the body after death1 life--that is to say1 intense bacterial activity--continues1 it is conceivable that the continued extension of this force may continue from unascertained physiological conditions1 and so explain some of the baffling and distressing phenomena that have occurred in vaults and given rise to the theory of bodies being buried alive in a cataleptic condition4 ,more advanced students will see in the foregoing hypothesis the explanation of certain obscure texts relative to the ,egyptian processes of embalming1 and other religious rituals in connection with the disposal of corpses4 ,the ancients were keenly aware of certain monstrous after-death possibilities which the moderns ignore4 ,this1 then1 is where the theory of poltergeist manifestations splits4 ,they are often traceable to 7a7 ,unconscious physical mediums1 usually adolescents4 7b7 ,in certain difficult cases the human element has been eliminated1 and the only hypothesis is the sudden manifestation of a latent force derived from the dead4 ,it should be remembered that the graves of saints become shrines and that miracles are attributed to them1 and that certain most terrible vampire phenomena are associated with some unsanctified graves4 ,just as the hair and nails of some corpses continue to grow to extravagant lengths long after death1 so in certain cases it seems as if the corruption of the flesh were accompanied by a translation of the residual vital force or nervous energy--as distinct from soul or consciousness--into free psychic power4 ,this energy can apparently be stored in matter such as walls1 wood1 etc41 and seems to have the quality of remaining latent until some unknown cause begins to change it from a static to a 8dynamic0 condition4 ,the sorcerer who produces earth from a particular grave and who treasures unholy mortal relics of evil man1 is practising more than a mere symbolism4 ,he is using matter whose very body may be impregnated with that peculiar essence or force which is the vehicle of all psychic phenomena4 ,people who are interested in serving the ,powers of ,evil have sedulously propagated the idea that1 however malignant astral powers may be1 there is a law that they cannot harm or injure mortals4 ,this is one of those dangerous statements that ,spiritualists make use of without knowing what they are talking about4 ,these powers can be and often have been applied to the most sinister purposes4 ,utilized by anyone with occult knowledge and experience they are pregnant with soul- and body-destroying capacities1 and it is fair to say that certain other occult powers are the least defence against them4 ,i am inclined to favour the theory that in all cases of poltergeists1 where non-human sources of power are indicated1 careful psychic analysis will reveal some inanimate matter which has been in contact with either evil-living mortality or the dead1 and is serving as the focus and reservoir of the force4 ,the power appears to be sporadic and cumulative1 but it can be destroyed or dissipated both by material and by occult means if it can be traced to its source4 ,the latent cumulative effect of such an evil relic may possibly stimulate the extension of psychoplasm by unconscious mediums brought within its sphere of influence4 ,this seems indicated where an exchange of physical mediums in the one centre of inflection has produced parallel results4 ,there is also some ground for supposing that the phases of the moon affect the manifestation4 ,it is1 of course1 fashionable to deride the moon1 but any seaside doctor will admit that his patients die with the ebb of the tide2 and1 further1 it is highly illogical to suppose that an influence which can affect the vast masses of the tides is without its influence on the tenuous fluids of vitality4 ,the lunar effect is probably due to a screening or projection of specific solar or ethereal vibrations below the range which we see as light and colour and above that which we recognize as electrical phenomena4 8,the simple undirected energy display of a poltergeist phenomenon may be converted into a specifically malignant phenomenon4 ,the energy may be used to form a vehicle for an evoked elemental succubus or incubus1 or might under certain different conditions be similarly utilized to accommodate or materialize a #8familiar' of a higher order10 says ,duchesne1 writing of some researches carried out in the ,var1 8but ,i am still at a loss to know what induces the phenomena to appear with such fulminant energy and purposeless commencement40 99 99 99 99 99 ,a peculiar case of poltergeist occurred in ,hertfordshire last spring4#dg ,the farm bailiff of a home farm complained that his cottage1 which looked out on the yard of the farmstead1 had become intolerable4 ,crockery was smashed on the dresser1 pots and pans flew about while nobody touched them1 and when the whole family were at midday lunch in their living-room a kettle of boiling water which was simmering on the kitchener hob was brought through an adjoining open door and slammed down among the diners at the table without spilling a drop4 ,stones were thrown1 windows broken1 and even bedclothes snatched off4 ,i went down in response to an invitation by the owner of the estate and soon convinced myself that the phenomena were authentic4 ,the family consisted of the bailiff1 his wife1 a girl of fourteen1 and a son of twenty4 ,the latter was not much in the house1 being about on the hills with the sheep1 as it was lambing time4 ,previous experience led one to suspect the girl1 who seemed quite honest and very frightened at the occurrences4 ,my host and ,i were personal witnesses of flying stones and still more remarkable the scattering of a big sheaf of straw4 ,the sheaf was being carried from the barn to the cow-house by the girl herself at about three in the afternoon4 ,we were talking to the bailiff's wife4 ,suddenly the girl stopped and the big bundle of straw seemed to be lifted out of her arms at least two feet above her head4 ,it balanced for a moment or two like a captive gas balloon1 then whirled into thousands of separate straws which flew all about the yard4 ,no conceivable trick of wind--and it was a wettish1 windless day--nor any human effort could have accomplished it4 ,the truss burst like a shell1 some of the straws flying right over the roofs of the outbuildings4 ,the terrified girl burst into tears and ran to her mother for comfort and protection4 ,that night we sent the girl away1 and though manifestations continued for another two days1 these were of decreasing violence4 ,the cottage was only a few years old and no deaths had occurred there1 but the farmstead was a very old one1 the estate having a connected history to pre-,tudor times4 ,i was puzzled to find any clue to the exciting cause of the trouble4 ,i went over the whole place most carefully1 but found nothing to guide me1 and at last turned my attention to the structure of the cottage4 ,a certain intuition or psychic susceptibility led me to suspect one of the big kitchen rafters which supported the ceiling of the kitchen and the floor of the girl's room4 ,on inquiry ,i found that the architect who had designed the new buildings had employed a local contractor and used old red bricks and old timber wherever possible in order to preserve the old fashioned effect given by weathered colours4 ,it was not difficult to trace the material2 the local contractor's foreman told us at once where it had come from4 8,it stood in our yard here for ten years or more before we put it into the new buildings10 said the foreman1 8and it come to us when we pulled down ,blackley ,old ,grange40 8,what kind of a place was that80 said ,i4 8,private madhouse at the last10 he answered4 8,the owner was a doctor and he went mad and hanged himself1 he did1 after killing one of the patients a month before4 ,he hanged himself just before the visitors was expected to see the patient he had killed40 99 99 99 99 99 ,research carried us no further1 except that ,i learnt that the murdered patient lay for a month in the room in which she was killed before the crime was found out1 after the man's suicide4 ,it was impossible to trace the beam to its position1 but ,i gathered that the doctor hanged himself from a window bar or curtain hook1 not from the beam4 ,i am inclined to believe that the absorption of force takes place from prolonged contact with the emanation of the dead rather than from the transient impression of conscious thoughts1 but there was no further recrudescence of the trouble when an iron girder was substituted for the beam1 and the girl1 when brought back1 was perfectly normal4 ,i experimented with the girl later1 but did not find that she possessed any marked gifts1 although she was indubitably a good hypnotic subject4 ,the beam1 or rather a section of it1 ,i secured for the purposes of research1 the remainder was burnt4#dh 99 99 99 99 99 ,another puzzling if popular subject is that of spirit photographs4 ,i have handled scores of them1 but have never yet come across one in which all possibility of ingenious fraud has been entirely eliminated4 ,certain people have claimed peculiar gifts1 but in no case has a satisfactory result been obtained at a genuine test-sance1 where scientific precautions have been observed4 ,if anyone has this gift it can be demonstrated easily4 ,the studio must be neutral ground--that is to say1 the room must not be the claimant's habitual studio4 ,the camera must be provided by the testers1 as also the dark slide and plates4 ,the medium must be stripped perfectly naked and the same rule should apply to the testing committee if it includes anyone known to the medium4 ,he should not be allowed to touch plates1 dark slide1 or camera except when naked and under close scrutiny4 ,development should be carried out under test conditions at the nearest chemist's dark room4 ,there is no known spiritual law which should lead us to think that a psychograph or spirit photograph is a possibility1 and until the matter has been tested by a properly qualified body of men all such photographs are open to the gravest suspicion4 ,money-making is not the only motive for fraud1 and many of the fakers are often more anxious to build up a bogus reputation for 8mystery working0 than to make a direct profit on the transaction4 ,the avenues of fraud are so numerous that it is only possible to indicate a few of the methods adopted to deceive the credulous4 ,the spirit photograph is deemed to be genuine if it is taken under conditions which an average expert photographer holds to be fraud-proof4 ,the weakness of the whole case lies in the fact that they cannot be obtained under genuine scientific1 as opposed to amateur1 test conditions4 ,in a word1 the spirit image is imprinted on the negative under conditions not normally suspected by the photographers4 ,there are several methods of attaining the result1 even when the photographer brings his own plates and dark slides and his own camera4 ,first is the background trick4 ,an acid solution of sulphate of quinine is invisible to the eye1 but shows in the photograph4 8,phenomena0 painted on the wall or near by the objects appear in the photograph though invisible to the eye4 ,second is the contact process by which a small negative of the 8spirit0 face is mounted on a background of card prepared with radioactive salt solution4 ,many of these salts are rich in infra-red rays which will project an image through a metal dark slide4 ,the 8medium0 has only to handle the dark slide during the sitting or the plate in the dark room previous to development1 in order to make a contact image4 ,a cruder variation of this1 the electric pencil flashlight with a rubber cup over the end containing the 8spirit face0 negative contact with the exposed plate1 is achieved in the dark room4 ,the instrument lies hidden in the medium's sleeves4 ,the third method is that most commonly used4 ,the 8spirit image0 is projected through a minute lens in a hole in the wall of the studio4 ,the beam of light is sometimes passed through a prism series in order to allow a room parallel to the studio to be used for the purpose of projecting1 and it is possible for the apparatus to be arranged inside a piece of furniture in the studio4 ,the sitter usually has his back to the source of the projection and the 8medium0 takes the photograph and makes the exposure1 so the fraud is childishly easy4 ,even expert photographers are fooled by this trick1 as they are satisfied that if plates1 slide1 and camera are not tampered with1 fraud is impossible4 ,when stereoscopic cameras with twin lenses are used the fraud is manifest4 ,sometimes the fakers try hard to get an image into each half of the plate1 but never are the 8spirit images0 in the same relative position or plane4 ,if the sitters are well-known it is not difficult for photographs of deceased relatives to be obtained and the spirit negative made from the photograph4 ,in many cases reproduction of newspaper halftone blocks have been found on so-called spirit pictures4 ,these show the diamond patterns of the screen and are obvious fakes1 but are accepted by many uncritical believers4 ,in the case of an unknown sitter1 strange blurred faces or perfect strangers are thrown on to the plate and excused as 8guardian angels40 ,when the medium's own apparatus or dark room is used there are endless ways of faking1 but it is these methods of faking an image without raising the ordinary photographer's suspicions that are interesting4 ,the whole business is a cruel and heartless fraud1 but the dupes are not really deserving of pity4 ,if there was a word of truth in the claim of 8spirit photographers0 the testimony of an official test by a reputable committee of the ,royal ,photographic ,society would settle the question once and for all4 ,myths and legend have grown up round spirit photographs till ,spiritualists have at last come to believe in their genuineness4 ,yet the whole of their belief rests on nothing stronger than the 8miraculousness0 of a conjuring trick4 ,a good sleight-of-hand expert can accomplish card or other tricks which seem perfectly inexplicable to the layman1 but we do not acclaim them as evidences of spirit power because we are deceived by them4 ,the spirit photographers deplore and avoid investigation by really efficient scientific men4 ,they welcome the amateur with half-knowledge1 as his very cocksureness renders him an easier dupe4 ,he concentrates on the obvious roads to fraud1 ignoring those which lie without the slender realm of his knowledge4 ,the phenomena of what may be called lightless photography were long ago described by ,dr4 ,gustave le ,bon1#di who describes instantaneous photography by 8,black-light40 ,incidentally a common incandescent gas mantle possesses quite enough radioactive properties for ordinary experiments4 ,it is only by the destruction of fraudulent phenomena that the phenomena will be rightly understood and generally accepted4 ,the ,spiritualist who accepts and bolsters up dubious phenomena does far more harm to his own cause than the most pronounced sceptic4 ,the main point about spurious spirit photography is this4 ,it claims that mechanical chemical relations are produced by spirit agency--yet though this chemical reaction is said to be produced with ease by certain individuals and circles1 it flinches from facing a simple test which would1 if proved to be true1 convert the bulk of the sceptical world to an acceptance of the truth of spirit photography4 ,i have met many credulous folk who cherish blurred plates1 obvious double exposures1 8accidents10 such as imperfectly cleaned plates and even the most blatant swindles4 ,nothing can shake their convictions--but credulity does nothing to prove fact4 ,mr4 ,gambier ,bolton has experimented for years with spirit photography1 but has so far obtained nothing except plates bearing indications of a radiant energy similar to the ,n-rays of ,becquerel4 ,many expert photographers interested in psychic matters agree that the true spirit photography does not exist and a canvass of both press and studio photographers who are experts in their profession reveals the same unhesitating expression of opinion4 ,the same opinion is held not only by the professional and technical lay element1 but by occultists and students of research whose standard of psychic knowledge is infinitely higher than that of the ,spiritualists4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the aura which surrounds the human form is visible to certain people1 but the faculty for seeing the aura does not necessarily involve the possession of any psychic gifts at all and is often an indication of a slight degree of colour-blindness4 ,the ordinary photographic plate represents colours differently to their relative values as seen by the human eye1 and in order to get the true effect certain dyes are mixed with the emulsion of the plates1 or dyed screens which eliminate certain rays are interposed between the lens and the object4 ,the normal individual cannot see the aura1 but a simple chemical device will put him on a par with the best natural aura discerner4 ,if a narrow glass trough or an oblong clear crystal glass bottle is filled with a dilute solution of the dye di-cyanin#ej which dissolves readily in absolute alcohol2 that is all the apparatus necessary4 ,the subject whose aura is to be inspected should be placed against a black or neutral background opposite a source of illumination1 preferably a north-facing window4 ,the observer then takes the bottle of blue solution and gazes through it at the clear sky for a period of some minutes4 ,this serves to eliminate the retinal impression of certain of the normal light rays and renders the observer's eyes sensitive to vibrations or rays not normally perceptible and stimulates an abnormal acuteness of vision4 ,the room should now be entirely darkened1 and as soon as the eyes have recovered their 8owl sight0 the body of the subject will be seen to be surrounded by an envelope of vibratory exhalations whose colour varies with different individuals and changes under stress of emotion4 ,suggestion or hypnosis exercises very peculiar effects on this aura1 which would seem to be1 if not an ectoplasm a psychoplasm in itself1 yet the invisible vehicle which is capable of being separated from the material body and forming the astral body4 ,the aura vibration and the ,becquerel or ,n-rays are closely connected1 and the scientific hypothesis suggests that these rays are in the scale just above the infra-violet4 ,the simple instrument indicated above has certain therapeutic values in the diagnosis of illness1 but is also invaluable for the psychic analysis of hauntings1 cases of unconscious mediumship1 and other matters4 ,,footnotes3 #de ,see ,the ,new ,revelation4 ,sir ,a4 ,c4 ,doyle4 #df ,for details of leverage1 etc41 see3 ,the ,reality of ,psychic ,phenomena and ,experiments in ,psychical ,science4 ,by ,w4 ,t4 ,crawford4 #dg ,author's note1 #aiab4 #dh ,valuable data were gained by experiment with this disastrous relic4 ,they are not suitable for publication at this stage1 and ,i learnt recently of similar objectionable attributes associated with a battlefield souvenir from near ,ypres4 #di ,the ,evolution of ,forces4 ,gustave le ,bon4 #ej ,used in colour screen making for photography1 and poisonous4 ,some glasses used in bottle making are not suitable1 but a trial of one or two suitably shaped ones will always reveal one that works all right4 ,,chapter ,,xi ,,oriental ,,occultism ,the ,orient hides many secrets of occultism1 and it is almost a platitude that the few secrets that the ,west has painfully deciphered have been known for all time to the ,east--and are nothing remarkable4 ,this is one of those large gestures of speech that contain a half-truth and pass for a whole truth4 ,it is on a par with the statement that all ,chinese business men are honest--which they are not4 ,oriental occultism is far too vast a subject to be accepted or dismissed as summarily as this1 but one thing is certain and that is that ,oriental occult systems are not suitable to the ,western man4 ,there are one or two cardinal points that may be grasped at once4 ,firstly1 the exiled native in a ,western country who claims occult powers and the gift of being able to teach and transmit them is always and invariably a fakir of the lowest kind4 ,he is usually a low-caste and disreputable native or half-breed1 and it may be accounted to his credit that after all he is not expected to know any better4 ,his dupes1 on the other hand1 the white men and women that listen to his balderdash and sit at his sances1 are even guiltier parties than he is4 ,they at least ought to know better than to listen to the first black-and-tan 8,swami0 or 8,guru0 that establishes a bogus tabernacle in the backwaters of ,balham or ,bayswater4 ,the second point is that the true ,eastern occultist1 whatever his grade of adeptship in his mysteries1 never practises any of his arts or knowledge for money or equivalent reward4 ,this is a lesson which might well be learned by the fraternity of mediums and so-called occultists that infest ,london and other great cities at home and abroad4 ,a medium in receipt of fees for sances or lectures will never and can never develop his or her powers beyond the stage at which they have arrived when it becomes possible to use them as a direct or indirect means of making money4 ,in the ,east this is realized1 and the vow of poverty is more than a metaphor1 but they claim that it is a poverty of the body fully repaid by riches of the soul4 ,practically the whole of ,hindu occultism is best described as peculiar methods of self-hypnosis with the object of provoking states of bliss and ecstasy4 ,it is upon the basis of the induction of these peculiar phenomena that ninety per cent4 of the ,brahmin religious cults are established4 ,by one path or another the various beliefs attain earnest of fulfilment1 but the primary causes of these psychical phenomena are physiological in origin4 ,this material path to spiritual success is admitted and glossed over as being but part of the mystery4 ,none the less1 there is little to show that anything beyond these self-produced states of hypnotism or suggested phenomena are ever attained by even the greatest of the adepts1 and there is no justification of their dogmatic religious teachings even in the results attained4 ,the ,oriental mind is more easily freed from the shackles of the body than is the ,western organism4 ,just as the hold of the average native upon life is inferior to a ,european's1 so is the native's mastery of conscious will far less4 ,the faculties of clairvoyance can be created by almost every dominant ,european in any young native1 and they are both physically and psychically an inferior race4 ,it is because of their greater racial familiarity and acquaintance with the occult that the myth of their spiritual supremacy has been born4 ,the unheeding deem every ,easterner a potential mage1 unknowing that he only develops his psychic gifts1 which are in point of fact mental weaknesses1 when in contact with a far more powerfully organized ,western will4 ,the organized powers of occult ,india have loathed and hated ,british rule since pre-,mutiny days4 ,in a very few rare cases1 black magic--often allied with native poisons--has killed a white man1 but on the whole the result has been a pitiful demonstration compared to what these magi should have been capable of4 ,occultism in ,india is built to serve but one end1 the domination of lesser castes by those who master its secrets and have aptitude to impose their powers on others4 ,in the past it stood for an amazing tyranny1 and for this reason--its lost criminal powers--it is opposed to ,british rule4 ,it is noteworthy that the ,english ,society of ,theosophists1 whose jig-saw religion is largely compounded of ,oriental elements1 is now prominently identified with schemes for the political emancipation of ,india1 which will reinforce the tyrannous power of the ,brahmin4 ,the whole scheme of ,oriental occultism is quite incomprehensible without a sound basic knowledge of the religious systems of which it is part and parcel4 ,these enjoy a difficult and complex nomenclature1 and their words have been borrowed indiscriminately without due respect to their precise meaning4 ,yoga conveys a certain popular meaning1 but it must be remembered that there are numberless ,yogas1 subdivided again into endless subvariants4 ,the initiate undergoes a prolonged course of mental and physical training designed to stimulate concentration of the will and subdue the body4 ,little by little the faculties of surrender to ecstatic forms of self-hypnosis are induced1 ,ananda or 8bliss10 either material or spiritual ecstasy1 according to the ,yoga practised1 being the end of the process4 ,the full development of the powers of a ,yogi is beset with all kinds of dangers and difficulties4 ,the physical strain is a severe one and the psychic dangers encountered considerable4 ,the evil spirits of the ,west find their ,oriental counterparts in ,pisachas1 ,shahinis1 ,bhirtas1 ,pretas1 and ,rakshashas1 all malignant and terrible manifestations of the demon world4 ,in the end1 certain types of ,yogi appear to develop the full talents of a materializing medium and are capable of producing the phenomena that we associate with a medium of the power of ,eusapia ,palladino4 ,but--and it is a very important 8but0--these phenomena are capable of production in full tropic daylight4 ,from the days of ,jacolliot#ea to those of recent ,theosophical investigations1 ,oriental magic has never been brought to real test conditions1 but in the records gathered by independent students there is ample ground for stating that the genuine occult phenomena 7as distinct from mere fakir's conjuring tricks7 occur independently of darkness or special light conditions4 ,when we consider the fuss made by ,european mediums over even twilight conditions1 it is remarkable that these offer no obstacle to the ,oriental 8spirits40 ,these phenomena1 too1 are not confined to orthodox ,hindu1 ,brahmin1 ,tantvik1 or ,guru followers of any particular creed1 race1 or religion4 ,certain ,indian ,moslem sects produce devotees capable of equivalent phenomena1 but variants of obscure ,tibetan sects1 ,burmese1 ,malay1 ,mohammedans1 and followers of both theistic and pantheistic religions have equal powers4 ,the idolater1 the ,muslim1 and the ,christian medium all share the same belief in 8spirit0 control and in certain states produce the same results4 ,where we may learn something from the ,east is not in the line of morals1 for their morals are different from ours--and many of their religious customs revoltingly beastly--but in the way of the physical induction of the psychic state4 ,the basis of a great many ,yogas is the liberation of psychoplasm and ectoplasm by a combination of concentration on certain internal centres and the repetition of spells or sonorous magical evocations4 ,these affect the breathing so that in effect the body is subjected to a definite rhythmical vibration4 ,it is physical exercise of mind and brain1 applying mind-force to the stimulation and excitement of internal nerve centres4 ,these six centres are visualized mentally as lotuses4 ,they cannot be precisely located in scientific anatomy1 but correspond in most cases with central nervous plexuses and they are as well known in ,mohammedan and ,zoroastrian mystic cults1 as they are in the ,indian ,upanishads and ,tantras1 and are familiar to the ,indians of ,yucatan and ,guatemala1 where ritual1 combined with a species of physical massage1 is employed to initiate the hierophant into the tribal mysteries4 ,the school of ,western occultists who hold the theory of the all-pervading astral or magic light or fire1 hold that these 8centres0 open1 or act as concentrators of an exterior1 all-prevailing force which is thus conducted to the consciousness1 enabling the operator to make contact with another plane4 ,in the ,oriental theory this force is deemed to be always latent in the body1 and is aroused1 evoked1 or stimulated in particular ways4 ,the discussion of the relative values of these two main schools of thought--static and dynamic light--or their variants is beyond the scope of these notes4 ,the lowest of the lotuses or centres is the nerve centre within the body in the region of the prostatic gland1 the next is midway between this and the third which is the navel centre or solar plexus4 ,the fourth is nominally the heart1 the fifth1 that at the base of the throat1 the sixth1 that between the eyebrows4 ,in visualizing these lotuses with the 8mental eye10 the depth back in the body of each centre is assumed to be close to the spine4 ,mind force is concentrated by the ,yogi under the name ,vogabala1 and in ,oriental black magic this is concentrated on the lowest centre1 according to the ritual of the infamous ,prayoga1 with the result of inducing sexual hallucinations4 ,in the so-called white or mediumistic magic1 the centre of energy is apparently by the third centre 7the navel71 for materialization phenomena1 and the fifth1 or base of the throat centre for clairaudience4 ,those who can reach the sixth claim the power of astral voyaging in the spirit world and perception of things on the mortal plane at a distance4 ,the physiology of the process is not yet understood1 but following on the breathing processes or ,pranayama1 which relax the body and induce certain rhythms1 a progressive excitation and rigor of the centres is induced by autohypnosis4 ,the nerve centres control various limbs and functions1 and as each is 8put to sleep0 so the ,yogi becomes rigid and cataleptic4 ,yogis are able to hold out their arms for hours at a stretch without apparent fatigue--so in the same way can a hypnotized subject be placed in an attitude of rigidity by an operator4 ,these progressive inhibitions of functions cannot be achieved by the ,western occultist without the most careful study and painstaking preparations4 ,the practices are both mentally and physically dangerous1 but when mastered either in part or in whole1 they can be evoked by systems entirely at variance with the accepted ,indian methods4 ,in fact1 certain nonsense rhymes of the same rhythm and breathing values as some of the ,tantric spells or mantras are equally efficacious4 ,there was infinite wisdom in the old law of magic which said 8,change not the barbaric names of evocation10 but if they were changed1 provided rhythm and breathing are preserved1 the sense does not appear to matter4 ,if one verse of ,macaulay's 8,horatius0#eb was a powerful spell--almost any other verse in the same poem would produce the same effect--if delivered in the same way4 ,this argument is sometimes used by a sceptic1 but after all it only proves that the same result can be produced by analogous means4 ,salt disappears when dissolved in water1 but so it does in half a dozen other liquids4 ,the tales of life on other planes brought back by native spirits evoked by ,oriental magicians in no way tally with ,western accounts1 but as phallic worship is integral with many ,eastern beliefs1 it is no matter for wonder that some ,eastern spirit evidence concerning the next plane would make the most hardened ,western libertine blush4 ,they also affirm with considerable emphasis that on the next plane nationalities and colour lines are unknown1 a point which is reinforced by the number of ex-coloured spirits which frequent ,western sances4 ,it is indeed difficult to know what to believe4 ,the ,yogis can produce phenomena of materialization1 prolonged trance states1 and can sometimes act as powerful hypnotists and seize the ,durga1 literally citadel1 of another's body4 ,on the other hand1 the net yield of all purely ,indian occultism is very disappointing4 ,this may be due to the selflessness inculcated in their religious teaching1 which subdues love and hatred as equal enemies of spiritual progress4 ,if their magic were efficient1 much more would be done with it1 and the consensus of general opinion is that despite its extraordinary interest to the mystic and the scholar it has little to offer of interest to the ,spiritualist4 ,certain of lesser known ,yogas which do produce astonishing phenomena belong definitely to the domain of black magic and only parallel certain well-known outbreaks of phallic sorcery that occurred in ,europe in the ,middle ,ages4 ,the cult of evocation is held by some students to have spread from ,india to the ,arab races1 but more recent investigations suggest that the astonishing performances achieved by certain nominally ,moslem sects in the fastnesses of ,tripoli and ,morocco are due to the survivals from the aborigines of those lands rather than to ,oriental ideas4 ,the ,berbers are a distinct primitive race akin to the ,basques1 and probably identical with the ancient ,britons who built ,stonehenge4 ,to-day they are fanatical ,moslemin1 but the old practices linger as rituals of specific religious cults1 such as the ,sufi ,senoussi and the ,aissouri of ,morocco4 ,they are racially strange folk and the ,moslem veneer is only a lay religion imposed on a mass of pagan folklore closely connected with serpent worship and astronomical observances4 ,their festivals of the solstices have an outward-seeming ,muslim connection1 but the inner hidden occult religion is a far older thing4 ,the ,berbers are not of ,arab stock2 they are ,semitic and they are probably pre-,aryan4 ,some writers#ec trace their connection to the original ,firbolgs of ,iceland1 and the ethnology of this mysterious race is still a matter of speculation and doubt4 ,pre-eminent among their distinctive differences from the ordinary ,arab is the esteem in which they hold women4 ,women are chieftainesses among them1 and above all the women are the repositories of the lost lore of magic4 ,it is to them that the tribesmen turn for the carrying out of the mystic harvest ceremonies1 the charming of unfruitful fields1 and the lighting of the magic ,beltane fires4 ,fire plays no inconsiderable part in their rituals1 and is only called by its ,arabic name el-aafeats 7the comforter7 when used for domestic purposes4 ,the sacrificial and ceremonial fires are always spoken of either in the ,shilluh or ,schluch tongue--the true ,berber language or referred to as ,b'lnisac1 a term whose philology is unknown1 but which apparently contains the age-old ,bel or ,baal motive4 ,this fire cult1 coupled with a still more mystical inner creed symbolized by serpent worship1 may be noted by the student explorer among the ,berber folk4 ,riffis1 ,mashed ,hojja ,tuareks of the ,sahara1 certain ,kabyles of ,tripoli1 and other tribes all belong to the same strange race1 and there are reasons for believing that the ,berbers are identical with the mystical ,fairies--the ,good ,people--so called from a propitiatory irony because they were so amazingly bad4 ,berbers alone of savage folk raid and kill at night4 ,they are essentially a people of the dark1 and he who sifts the mass of terrible folklore about the earliest fairies in ,britain will find a parallel between these terrible unholy barbarians given to sorcery1 necromancy and unholy rites1 the stealing of children for sacrificial purposes1 and other glossed horrors attributed to the ,good ,people--and the ,berber races of to-day4 ,the practices continue4 ,in #aiji ,i was travelling in the ,gharb country of ,morocco1 where there is a large ,berber element4 ,the ,french occupation of the ,shawiah and the meteoric rise of ,sultan ,mulai ,hafid had left the country unsettled and dangerous4 ,beyond a war correspondent or two and a handful of ,german engineers--or spies1 employed by the firm of ,marmesman--there were no ,europeans in the country outside of the coast towns4 ,for the capital and ,manahesh the big cities of the ,south were closed1 and a ,christian's life was nowhere worth a moment's purchase among the fanatics4 ,i am but an indifferent ,arabic scholar1 but a certain knowledge of classical ,hebrew served one well1 for there are many debased ,jews in ,morocco4 ,for the rest1 as the high-class ,moors are a fair race and often blue-eyed1 travelling in native clothes and well bronzed by the sun ,i suffered no molestation and could rely on the fidelity of my four body-servants4 ,some five days' ride northwest of the argan forests of the coast belt1 ,i was well within ,berber territory4 ,this was mostly stony hill lands1 for ,morocco is simply rock deserts and hills1 interspersed with lightly watered fertile valleys and occasional oases of poplar-sheltered walls4 ,the holy city of ,tarudant lay to the north of me1 and ,i had crossed the ,wadi ,sifan river and was going south from the ,iber ,kaken ,pass on the caravan route east into the ,ait ,jellal country4 ,there1 deep in the hills1 lies the ruin of a ,roman city of which strange tales are told4 ,it is even not certain that it is ,roman1 for a volume of notes1 painstakingly compiled for fifteen years by a resident in a coast town1 discloses unmistakable ,phnician characteristics1 but ,i at least cannot tell1 for my expedition had to beat a swift retreat a bare two days' march from the nominal valley of the dead city4 ,it was on the way there that my little troop of horsemen and pack mules halted at the ,berber village of ,m',aerbil ,ida and were received as guests of honour for the night4 ,the village was a curious medley of thorn and cactus fences1 cane-thatched huts1 and deep caves cut in the friable freestone rock of the mountain side4 ,the men wore the close-knitted wool caps of the country and had the curious snake-like head angles and the long1 curving sidelock and thin beards of coarse hair that just distinguish these strange1 elf-like folk4 ,something in their broad cheekbones and curious pale eyes suggests the snake4 ,mohammed-el-,suissi1 my horse boy1 told me as he pitched my tent that he did not like the village or the people2 8they were10 he said1 8not good ,moslemin40 ,as religious orthodoxy was not one of ,mohammed's strong points1 ,i did not worry much1 but when ,hassan-el-,askri1 my soldier muleteer1 warned me to keep my arms about me ,i realized that my ,moors considered that not even the law of desert hospitality was held inviolate among these folk4 ,there is1 however1 a brotherhood of initiates of which ,i am a member1 whose signs are recognized in many parts of the globe4 ,gesticulation is a feature of polite ,arabic conversation1 and ,i soon secured an answering sign from one of the head-men of the tribe4 ,within half an hour nobody in that village would have dared to steal the least of my belongings4 ,i had considerable difficulty in carrying on my conversation as my ,arabic1 apart from ordinary needs of travel1 was weak and classical rather than popular4 ,the ,berbers1 too1 always spoke of these things in their own tongue1 ,shilluh1 and none of my entourage being initiate ,i had no interpreter4 ,my host was ,sidi-el-,belarni1 an old chieftain who was also a shereef--that is1 a lineal descendant of the ,prophet and a person of sanctity4 ,he soon dropped the mask of orthodoxy and conversed freely on the metaphysical side of his cult4 ,i found it easier to understand than to converse with him1 but gained an easier appreciation as ,i got used to it4 ,i stayed a second day in the village1 as one of our animals was badly lamed and needed rest1 and took occasion to ask him concerning the art of reviving the dead to temporary life which the ,berbers are commonly held to possess4 ,he made no objections to my questions1 and1 to my delight1 offered to give me a demonstration if the ritual of the women who held the secrets would consent to exhibit them4 ,at noon ,i was taken to a kind of tribal palaver and the matter was put to a species of test or judgment by lot4 ,a young girl was blindfolded and given a basket containing short and long sticks4 ,certain prayers and incantations were performed and she passed into a semi-trance state4 ,my permission depended on her selection of a majority of short sticks1 but as ,i could not see the sticks1 and she was in a state of light hypnosis1 ,i made occasion to recite one or two resounding ,hebrew charms and laid my hands on her head2 after that1 all was easy4 ,her will obeyed mine and she selected the sticks as ,i desired4 ,it was almost an unanimous election4 ,when dusk fell with all its ,african suddenness1 the rising moon hung like a blazing buckler in the sky4 ,dogs barked in answer to the distant hill jackals and the acrid smoke of the camel-dung fires hung like a sour fog about the camp4 ,we left the village and went about a quarter of a mile along the hillside to the local buryingplace1 following a stony track that was little more than a dried watercourse4 ,at the head of our little procession were two men with flaming argan wood torches tied to long canes1 behind them came four men with long silver-decorated ,remington rifles1 and then the little group of sorceresses followed by myself and the elders4 ,the burial ground was a scanty clearing among the scrub and dwarf oaks1 and bushes encroached upon the outer graves4 ,each tomb was marked by a stone monolith or pillar1 rough-hewn1 with a knob at the top in pursuance of the ,muslim custom4 ,the graves radiated in circles from the central stone1 whereon fluttered little bundles of rags and similar votive offerings4 ,we made our way to a recent grave1 which was rapidly opened by the men1 disclosing1 a bare two feet beneath the surface1 the bent body of a man buried in sitting posture4 ,it was a ghoul-like business and the whole air of the graveyard carried the tainted scent of the dreadful carrion they were unearthing4 ,in the meanwhile1 the women were busy1 and from behind the tombs brought forth skulls which they anointed with some strange grease and set on sticks in a circle round the central altar4 ,at last the corpse1 in its foul1 earth-stained wrappings1 was exhumed and carried in a piece of sheeting to the altar4 ,the men who had served as guards and grave diggers then withdrew out of earshot1 and the ceremonies began4 ,fire was applied to the circle of skulls and they began to burn4 ,i noticed that the eyes and ear sockets were stuffed with old rags which served as wicks for the unclean oil4 ,they flared smokily1 sending off a foul-scented sooty smoke4 ,the women began to chant their monotonous wailing rhymes1 and their leader rocked to and fro leading this strange chorus4 ,suddenly a power seemed to come upon her and she became frenzied1 dancing round the skull circle in time to the refrain1 but undulating her body in a strange1 snake-like manner4 ,then she knelt down on the ground1 and from somewhere about her person produced something which she rubbed on her hands4 ,at first it resembled phosphorus1 a quick1 flickering faint blue light1 but gradually it grew in strength until streamers of blue flame1 some six inches long1 seemed to project from her fingers while her whole person seemed outlined in a faint shape of flame4 ,from the ground she picked up a short length of cane which in her grasp seemed to project this blue emanation--then with a final chorus of evocation1 she leapt upon the altar and knelt astride of the dead man4 ,with quick passes1 she ran her hands the length of his slack limbs and then poised both hands above the navel of the corpse1 about a foot higher than the shroud4 ,the emanation curved down like a blue-green waterfall of flame and seemed to enter the man4 ,incredible as it may seem1 the dead limbs slowly began to stretch out jerkily1 uneasily1 as if awaking1 yet--instinct with a new vitality4 ,the ghastly1 lolling head1 stained with corruption and bound with the jaw bandage1 began to oscillate on the dreadful neck and the whole corpse began to phosphoresce with a dull green luminosity4 ,the chorus now ceased chanting and a small fire was lighted on a cairn of stones4 ,from this certain objects were taken and placed in the dead man's hands4 ,the fingers slowly curled up and grasped them6 ,the singing began again and the sorceress1 still across the body1 took the cane she carried and1 breaking the bandage that bound the dead man's jaw1 inserted the end in his mouth4 ,then making certain passes and signs with her hands1 she began to exhale deep breaths into the body1 seeming to make the mystic passes as if to force the living breath down into the dead man's lungs4 ,little by little life seemed to creep back into that unholy shell4 ,the dreadful contours of death sunk back1 the form became more human and the motions not the strange jerky rigors of the first part of the ceremony1 but the very signs of life4 ,the eyelids flickered and retracted1 the dreadful drawn lips relaxed and in a minute or so the dead man sat up in his cerements--and spoke4 ,then followed the dread consultation of the dead4 ,it was evident from the awe and respect with which he was addressed that he was treated not as a reanimated individual1 but as an august visitant from another world4 ,thin1 high and shrill1 the usually coarse gutturals of the ,shilluh tongue seemed strange from ,its lips4 ,i suspected ventriloquy for a while1 but could see the slow movements of its throat muscles and glottis and the rise and fall of the shroud over the sunken abdomen4 ,nevertheless it was sheer horror to listen to and dreadful1 monstrous to see4 ,i was only permitted to ask one question1 and ,i asked would my quest be successful4 ,i received an unequivocal answer that it would fail1 but not through my fault1 but because of the will of the spirits of the departed and the curse of the dead that hung over the city4 ,incidentally this discounted the advice given by other spirit communicants before the expedition was undertaken1--but later proved true4 ,the ritual of re-dissolution was shorter but far more terrible4 ,again the sorceress made passes4 ,the objects were taken from the hands of the dead and slowly the life left the body1 which swelled and twitched as it returned to its original state of terrible decomposition4 ,a thin wailing chant seemed to symbolize the flight of the spirit back to its own realms4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i pressed unsuccessful inquiry concerning the details of this astounding piece of necromancy which was neither more nor less than that terrible old mystery1 the raising of the dead in the flesh4 ,i could obtain no details of the objects placed in the man's hands or the material used to produce the astonishing outpouring of blue1 luminous matter4 ,so far as ,i could ascertain1 the life force of the sorceress herself entered the body1 but the ceremony of creating it was essential in combination with the charms in the hands before the spirit could return4 ,neither could ,i ascertain that it was the soul of the departed or some other spirit that entered into the reanimated corpse4 ,some powerful communities are able1 it is said1 to despatch these dreadful reanimated dead on missions of evil4 ,but their power only lasts throughout the night and fails at sunrise4 ,here there is an undoubted suggestion of the practical possibility of vampirism1 but ,i could not learn that these folk possess the lost art of imprisoning a human or spirit soul within the body of an animal4#ed ,i am nevertheless convinced that among the ,berbers of ,north ,africa will be found the key to many legends that have come down to us from our ancestors in ,great ,britain1 and above all ,i counsel those good folk who read the pleasant little fake stories of pretty little fairies in some of the magazines of what passes for popular occultism to abandon the delusion4 ,the term good folk is a paradox4 ,they were the demons or spirits of the unholy aborigines working in contact with the savages themselves1 and it is good1 exceedingly good1 that there are no fairies loose in ,britain to-day and that the art of summoning them is well-nigh lost4 99 99 99 99 99 ,this chapter completes all that ,i have to say for the time being4 ,there is in this book much food for careful thought4 ,those who read it carefully will find in it keys to much that has puzzled them1 and simple explanations of phenomena which have been greatly debated of late4 ,the general reader will doubtless find the incidents the most interesting part of the book1 but to the critical and those seriously interested in psychic matters1 ,i commend a careful and reasonable study of the more scientific sections1 for in this matter of things psychic both ,spiritualist and ,sceptic are upon the same quest4 ,from different angles they are both seeking for the ,great ,truth4 ,,footnotes3 #ea ,occult ,science in ,india and among the ,ancients4 ,louis ,jacolliot4 #eb ,lays of ,ancient ,rome4 ,macaulay4 #ec ,see ,the ,arabs of ,tripoli4 ,alan ,ostler4 #ed ,this practice is claimed to be possible of achievement by both ,finn and certain ,red ,indian wizards4 ,but no facts susceptible of proof have ever been adduced4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's notes4 ,two half-title pages 7pages blank except for the book title7 have been omitted from the front matter4 ,minor typographical and punctuation errors have been corrected silently4 ,ambiguous hyphenation has been removed or retained according to the prevailing style for the period4 ,inconsistent hyphenation has been normalised4 ,other than as indicated below1 the authors spelling has been retained1 even where inconsistent4 ,the word ,balnam on page #bc has been corrected to ,balham1 a ,london suburb suggested by the context4 ,see also ,balham or ,bayswater on page #aie4 ,the two references to ,thotn on page #bh 7text and footnote7 have been amended to ,thoth and ,thot for the ,english and ,french respectively4 ,the author misquotes ,milton on page #abc1 where ,thammur has been corrected to ,thammuz4 ,a second instance of ,thammur in the text has been changed to ,thamus to match the ,authors alternate spelling in the following paragraph4