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within the science -- it will be found to contain possibilities the nature of which has never been
even dreamt of by the oldest and most learned professors of the orthodox physical science. The
latter, "authorities" so-called, are no better, indeed, than innocent bald infants, when brought face
to face with the mysteries of antediluvian "mesmerism." As stated repeatedly before, the
blossoms of magic, whether white or black, divine or infernal, spring all from one root. The
"breath of Cybele" -- Akasa tattwa, in India -- is the one chief agent, and it underlay the so-called
"miracles" and "supernatural" phenomena in all ages, as in every clime. As the parent-root or
essence is universal, so are its effects innumerable. Even the greatest adepts can hardly say
where its possibilities must stop.
The key to the very alphabet of these theurgic powers was lost after the last gnostic had been
hunted to death by the ferocious persecution of the Church; and as gradually Mysteries,
Hierophants, Theophany and Theurgy became obliterated from the minds of men until they
remained in them only as a vague tradition, all this was finally forgotten. But at the period of the
Renaissance, in Germany, a learned Theosophist, a Philosopher per ignem, as they called
themselves, rediscovered some of the lost secrets of the Phrygian priests and of the Asclepieia. It
was the great and unfortunate physician-Occultist, Paracelsus, the greatest Alchemist of the age.
That genius it was, who during the Middle Ages was the first to publicly recommend the action
of the magnet in the cure of certain diseases. Theophrastus Paracelsus -- the "quack" and
"drunken impostor" in the opinion of the said scientific "bald infants" of his day, and of their
successors in ours -- inaugurated among other things in the seventeenth century, that which has
become a profitable branch in trade in the nineteenth. It is he who invented and used for the cure
of various muscular and nervous diseases magnetized bracelets, armlets, belts, rings, collars and
leglets; only his magnets cured far more efficaciously than do the electric belts of to-day. Van
Helmont, the successor of Paracelsus, and Robert Fludd, the Alchemist and Rosicrucian, also
applied magnets in the treatment of their patients. Mesmer in the eighteenth, and the Marquis de
Puysegur in the nineteenth century only followed in their footsteps.
In the large curative establishment founded by Mesmer at Vienna, he employed, besides
magnetism, electricity, metals and a variety of woods. His fundamental doctrine was that of the
Alchemists. He believed that metals, as also woods and plants have all an affinity with and bear a
close relation to, the human organism. Everything in the Universe has developed from one
homogeneous primordial substance differentiated into incalculable species of matter, and
everything is destined to return thereinto. The secret of healing, he maintained, lies in the
knowledge of correspondences and affinities between kindred atoms. Find that metal, wood,
stone, or plant that has the most correspondential affinity with the body of the sufferer; and,
whether through internal or external use, that particular agent imparting to the patient additional
strength to fight disease -- (developed generally through the introduction of some foreign
element into the constitution) -- and to expel it, will lead invariably to his cure. Many and
marvelous were such cures effected by Anton Mesmer. Subjects with heart-disease were made
well. A lady of high station, condemned to death, was completely restored to health by the
application of certain sympathetic woods. Mesmer himself, suffering from acute rheumatism,
cured it completely by using specially-prepared magnets.
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STUDIES IN OCCULTISM
25
In 1774 he too happened to come across the theurgic secret of direct vital transmission; and so
highly interested was he, that he abandoned all his old methods to devote himself entirely to the
new discovery. Henceforward he mesmerized by gaze and passes, the natural magnets being
abandoned. The mysterious effects of such manipulations were called by him -- animal
magnetism. This brought to Mesmer a mass of followers and disciples. The new force was
experimented with in almost every city and town of Europe and found everywhere an actual fact.
About 1780, Mesmer settled in Paris, and soon the whole metropolis, from the Royal family
down to the last hysterical bourgeoise, were at his feet. The clergy got frightened and cried --
"the Devil"! The licensed "leeches" felt an ever-growing deficit in their pockets; and the
aristocracy and the Court found themselves on the verge of madness from mere excitement. No
use repeating too well-known facts, but the memory of the reader may be refreshed with a few
details he may have forgotten. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]