Class.

Book..

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSm

^Uncommon Sense
versus

Common

Sense.

By RAYON.
COPYRIGHTED BY
All

ADDRESS

P. 0.

M. RAYON, IN

THE YEAR

1900.

Rights Reserved.

BOX, 927

CHICAGO,

ILL., U. 5. A,

>46?5

0L.VO

CONTENTS.
Page

The Advantage

^N^

of Being

Acquainted with Yourself

Uncommon

Sense versus

ommcm

1 Sg.nsc
ben:
library mf Con^t

Plain Facts

3
5-

Some Naked Truths

OCT

C#ynfht

!900
tntry

Argument
Healing. Work
Healing.

Modern Surgery

The Dual Entity

9
14
23

SECOND COPY.
Or*>v*rt *

00t*

O CT

31

[MViStON,

22

1S0Q

Continuance of the HigherH*>e"lf

Explanation of Portraits

33
4i

A46

Valuable Testimony

47

Quotations

48

ILLUSTRATIONS.
Elfa.

Among

the People

Passing into Magnetic Sleep. Preparing

Elfa.
for the Separation of the Two Selves

The Physical Self Dormant.

The Higher Self away at work

A
B

Elfa.

Zo

all in

Search of ^rutb(Sreettn^

Comprehension of the Self embraces

mastery of all the secrets
worth knowing.

Do you know what your "Self" may

contain, besides what physical
science can tell you?


UNCOMMON SENSE
versus COMMON SENSE.
The dictionary says that the word "common,"
used as an adjective, means commonplace, ordinary,
I

mean, vulgar.

If the word common can be construed to designate anything other than inferior of poor quality
even when applied to sense, I fail to see by what
grammatical process it can be done; how the significance of the word can be twisted into an honorable distinction.
If a man himself, his child, his horse or his dog
were called common he would certainly not feel
flattered; but if credited with the possession of common sense he is expected to consider it a great

compliment.

The dictionary defines "uncommon" to mean not

common, not usual, remarkable, strange, rare,
scarce, unwonted, unusual.
If thus, we are not already misled at the very
outset of learning, by the book that is accepted as
authority for the meaning of words, Uncommon 3 2
Sense must assuredly be better than the common
kind.
Aside from a mere distinction of quality, there is
an Uncommon Sense that has been occulted by
materialism, by the brute selfishness of individuals,
by the greed of power and wealth of institutions
that, ostensibly established for the purpose oP'
enhancing the welfare of the people, oppose and do
their utmost to suppress all knowledge that threatens their sway over the public mind, or that presages
a diminution of their income.
3

"

Very little reflection will suffice to show that the

44 money so absorbed is too enormous for any estimate, and that this vast share taken from the earnto ings of the producer is, after all is said and done,
nothing more nor less than a crippling tax upon the
ignorance of those who furnish the means wherewith
*
they are successfully kept in bondage.
Herbert Spencer said (and he speaks for Huxley
and all the rest of the modern physicists)
"All physical inquiries pursued to the end bring us down to
metaphysics and face to face with an insoluble
.

problem.

That is to say your knowledge is confined to

material things, and there is no use looking further.
Is that common sense?
It certainly must be; no
other quality would adjust itself to an arrogant
4 philosophy that demands authoritive recognition,
and then confesses itself staggered by the first question relating to what is best worth knowing; to what,
^in fact, alone is worth knowing, because this knowing entails a cognition that is free from error and
confusion.
It is just such dead-lines as these that have held the
non-thinking
rabble in check for ages, and they
g4
have fully paid the penalty for their submission to
such factionistswith their health and their earnings,
jg dealing out incessant contributions to individuals and
institutions who promise to solve the problem of
their everlasting misery and ills, and who fail to fail
in
one thing onlyand that is, in the extortion of
g2
hard earnings under what is nothing short of false
pretense.
j

PLAIN FACTS.
There is no lack of proof that some persons possess faculties and powers that upset all theories of
so-called ''regular" science; that such persons are
capable of achievements that are inexplicable to ^J
those who possess only common sense.
The higher force of the mind, cultivated to a *
tangible potency, well developed magnetism and >
steadfast faith, are a triune of power that can not
be overestimated.
History, both secular and religious, confirmed
reports of groups of investigators celebrated for
their wisdom, voluminous authenticated records of
individual experiences, prove beyond the shadow of
any doubt, that an imponderable force, capable of
limitless application, has been known and utilized
in all ages; that wherever this potency is brought
under control through a corresponding affinitive
agency within the Self, it assumes the character of a,
curative principle that no disease can withstand,
and that can be exercised in various other ways
often fully as important as the dislodging of physibut ever incomprehensible to the
cal ailments,

->

ordinary understanding.
It is not difficult to make sure of the actuality of
^

this power if the mind of the inquirer is really open

to conviction; but the coveted, absolute certainty is
for those only who are able to arouse within them- 00
^J
selves the faculties necessary to such works
at least
sufficiently to cognize truth
despite apparent n2

variance with prior fixed beliefs.

Serious effort in this direction leads to the development of that "uncommon sense" through which,
5


alone, all the higher human attributes can find unrestrained expression; through which, alone, the tremendous force of concentrated thought can be
realized; through which, alone, the miraculous healing power can be conceived; through which, alone,
5 all other personal powers, erroneously termed supernormal and mystical, become intelligible.
Modern science has long pretended to maintain
20
an arrogant and contemptuous attitude toward the
exponents of these disputed higher human forces;
because, if the superior faculties and powers, innate
2I-in many individuals, were admitted to be what they
indiscriminate endowments from Nature,
really are
and the arousing and cultivation of
like the talents
higher
attributes had been thus encouraged,
~
these
7
the masses would assuredly be stimulated to a selfexamination that must result in the acquisition of
4g
"uncommon sense," and that would speedily and
plainly show them the absurdity and danger of, for
t
instance, the prevalent reckless use of drug poisons
and other fallacious endeavors to coerce Nature with
|-

artificial

expedients

The common-sense motive

for resistance to the

encroachment of such knowledge must be obvious

The vaunted "regular" systems in
to the dullest.
vogue would crumble under the light of truth
brought to bear upon them by a general recognition
of the suppressed powers of the Self.
That science did realize and anticipate an inevitable crisis is proven by the great ado made over Hypnotism. A clamor was raised that could no longer
be hushed by mere denial or a pretended air of
amusement; the demand for an explanation of the
personal powers, manifested with ever
6

increasing


frequency, was too vehement and widespread to be
ignored; hence, in its desperate straits,
Mesmerism, dissected and
seized upon
remodelled it to suit the limited capacity of its
"common sense" members, and calling it HypnoThe
tism, announced a wonderful new discovery.
usual proceeding.
The new science (?) was grasped at with all the
avidity displayed by an exhausted swimmer at sight
of a life preserver; every medic who sat out his
office hours in despondent contemplation of his
framed diploma, at once started to climb this slim
ladder to fame and fortune.
It is not intended to belittle Hypnotism as an art
per se as Kant would have it u das Ding an sich"
because a great amount of good has, indisputably,
resulted from the very extensive exploitation of this
scientific hybred but when science asserts that it has
solved the problems of Magnetism, Mesmerism,
etc., through Hypnotism, it only adds another error,
or misrepresentation, to its interminable list of
deceptions and self delusions.
Hypnotism is all right in the place where it
belongs; but in its best aspect it is a mere makeshift
to retard, as long as possible, the more and moreimperative demand of the people for a lucid and
conclusive explanation of those individual powers
that, however far they may be beyond the horizon
of the common-sense physicist, are now too well
attested, and too familiarly known to all independent investigators to be again subject to scientific *

further
science

occultation.

Many
terfuge,

are, of course, still

duped by this latest subawakened from the

but those w ho are

r

stupefication into which they had been

by the "common-sense" exposition
offered in Hypnotism, are rapidly realizing the fact
that Hypnotism, after all is said that can be said in
its favor, is but a futile attempt to produce the wonderful results achieved through Magnetism
without
scientific

"suggested"

Magnetism.

One excellent effect must be credited to the Hypnotic craze, and that is, that an enormous number of
y intelligent people were thereby led
to serious investigation, and to the discovery that the barriers
erected by the physicists are only further proof of
their incapacity to solve the all important problem
of bettering the condition of the - masses who are
forced to submit to their dictates, even to the extent
of being inoculated with animal corruption and
denied the choice of physicians who could cure them
when all the resources of the presumptuous "regular" have proved of no avail.

SOME NAKED TRUTHS.

The present

is called an age of startling discoverbut the majority of observers note progress in

material achievements only. The leaders in this
category of advancement are those who invent, construct and direct the operations of the most effective instruments of warfare machinery that slaughters
The admiration of the
at wholesale, at long range.
non-thinking rabble for this order of progressionists
is unbounded, and their material rewards are too
rich to bear comparison with any tribute to works
for the welfare of humanity.
The principal direction in which the lauded arts
and sciences are at a standstill is in that of the wellbeing of man individualized.
There is no difficulty in obtaining a consensus of
expert judgment on the all-important subject of
what is the best kind of a hole to make in a man to
place him hors du combat, but there, is an ever increasing diversity of scientific conclusions in regard
to what is good for the human biped.
If the most homeopathic rate of comparative
progress had been made in the art of curing ailments by the so-called "regular" schools of medicine that are so lavishly encouraged, so bounteously
supported and so assiduously protected, as that
achieved in the crippling and killing of men the
pick of nations, the men selected for their physical
perfection, the best specimens to improve the races
we would be a good deal nearer the long and anxiously awaited millennium.
Anent the shackling of the King of Sin, which is
the main feature of the promised universal release

ies,

from trouble, as stated in Revelation XX that

u
Satan will be bound one thousand years" there is
one striking similarity between that prophecy and
the predictions of modern sages who have announced the destruction of the earth and that is,
that it is a long time coming. The difference in
excellence of these prognostications must be
accorded to the ancients, but only because they
were not foolish enough to set a fixed date for the

occurrence.
With the devil still rampant and at large, and the
earth yet unshattered, we can not avoid the contemplation of cruel realities that persist in obtruding
themselves, and will do so, unless an improbable
miracle eliminates selfishness from the composition
of humanity as long as we continue to be whirled
around in our customary orbit, and without a more
definite assurance that the chains for the Regent of
Hades are being forged, and that they will suffice to
hold him when he is caught.
Despite all the wanton sacrifice of life under the
banner of the cross, and the ceaseless absorption of
incalculable wealth, religious beliefs are further
from unity than ever before. At no previous time
,have dissensions been so bitter and so general.
Doubt of the efficacy of ecclesiastical mediation is
and well it might! The ever
steadily increasing,
multiplying exposures of sinfulness and criminal
67
acts of the most heinous character, committed by
clergymen, the aggressive effrontery with which they
^strive to secure personal advantages, have opened
9 the eyes of the people to the fact that, at least a
goodly part of the so-called servants and ministers
of God are composed of the same inferior, tempta-

10

and selfish material that constitutes the personality of the vilest sinner to be found beyond the pale
ble

of the church.
While certainly fully aware of all this, as they
must be, if there is any, however common, sense
among them, churchmen still profess to wonder 4
why their congregations are dwindling away!
Only those who are unwilling to be disillusioned

fail to remark the difference between the laboriously

prepared, cold intellectual efforts heard in the
costly, up-to-date churches of a mongrel' aristocracy
that flaunts its ostentatious pomp in the faces of the
sorely stricken poor under the very shadow of the
cross of Christ,
and the fervent outbursts of true
inspiration that do penetrate even the flinty crust of
materialism; burning words from a surcharged soul
that partakes of all the misery of its kind; men who
are conscious of the true spirit within, who not only
preach Christ, but who do his chosen work among
the sick and desperate and sinful.
Despite the fact that millions of defenseless
creatures, horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs
all inoffensive, trustful and capable of great affection
have been slowly tortured to death; the helpless poor, in and outside the hospitals, abandoned
children in the asylums, the demented in the living
hells in which they are incarcerated, and from which
their remonstrances and cries of agony can not reach 1 5
the public ear,
have been subjected to scientific experimentations that rival the most blood-curdling
atrocities of that ineffacable nightmare of reality
the Inquisition,
despite all these legally sanctioned
horrors there are more and worse physical and men-

tal

disorders to-day than the world ever

11

knew

in its

profoundest ignorance. More abominable still,

is a long list of diseases that have their origin
in this art (?) of medication itself!
The administration of mercurial compounds alone, according to
the ablest exponents of the science (?), being
responsible for more permanent disablements and
unnatural deaths than all the wars and epidemics
combined. And this is but one of a hundred and
more virulent poisons in common daily use among
death-dealing subthe so-called regular physicians,
stances that any fledgling doctor, authorized by his
diploma, may give to, or order for patients. If
the drug kills, the error is buried with the cadaver;
the diploma shields the scientific murderer from all
unpleasant consequences. The certificate of death
he is authorized to issue as attendant physician
obliterates all traces of the fatal consequences of
ignorance, error and reckless experimentation.

44 there
l-

The

energies and capabilities of the

2 g sense" order of
hausted in the

"common-

medical men seem to have been exendeavor to secure laws that give

them the exclusive

right to practice; (practice is a

it is about all the majority do),
as they have been successful in many States,

well chosen word, as

and
through ignorant and corrupt politicians, in securing
protective legislative enactments that exclude all
those who could cure the many hopeless sufferers
upon whom this arrogant, jealous and greedy
science (?) has pronounced the paralyzing verdict
"incurable," there is every reason, from the "common
sense" point of view, why they should conclude that
there is no further occasion for them to make any
effort to improve themselves professionally,
12

Having secured the monopoly of the doctoring

and besides, exemption from legal punishment for whatever fatal mistakes they make in
dosing and cutting, why should they, always from
business,

common sense standpoint, of course, bother

about more effective methods for curing people?
The true aspect of all these common-sense busithe

ness philanthropies
in

is

fairly outlined in the follow-

:
.

reasonable to expect that an enterprising

undertaker, or as they now progressively style
themselves, "funeral director/' who has a hundred
or more horses eating their heads off, thousands of
dollars invested in fancy hearses and carriages, and
an extensive stock of caskets for the rich, and coffins
for the poor, and piles of mortuary frills besides,
should wear out the knees of his trousers praying
for a diminution of the death rate?
From every phase of existence, from that of the
child still in the womb until the grass grows over
the mortal remains, it will be found, with the exercise
of any kind of sense, that some one possessing
"common sense" is calculating upon a profit from
every personal inclination, requirement, intended
Is

it

chance happening; and a little more reflecone must be dull indeed not to discover
show that the heaviest tax imposed on
this earth is levied upon that particular branch of
ignorance which involves the incalculable cost and
misery due to a lack of understanding of the Self.

act, or

and
that will

tion

13

HEALING. ARGUMENT.
The highest aim anyone can

-'physical,

fix

upon

is

to aid the
less

mental and spiritual betterment of

favored fellow-men.
Histories, that are of any value from the point of
impartiality, as well as veracity in other respects,
10
and well attested individual evidences without limit,
.prove conclusively that there is a healing, or
restorative principle in Nature, that needs only to be
known and intelligently exploited to effect bene^ficial changes in the human organism that defy
enumeration and description; effects that are entirely beyond the power of art to achieve.
The innumerable well confirmed good results from
treatment of diseases, by a variety of methods and

processes other than medication, had in recent years

if any doubt were entertainable of the older testimonies makes it impossible longer to deny these
natural curative agencies.
S
Mental, magnetic and faith cures have been performed in all times; water-cure and massage are
natural modes of helping to restore health that anigtedate organized science by a good many centuries.
The movement cures are nothing more than elaboration and classification of the most primitive
methods for stimulating vitality by increasing the
2I
circulation of the blood, causing deeper breathing
and profuse perspiration. Hot air treatments have
g been in vogue with the aborigines as far back as
tribal customs can be traced.
All these modes of eradicating sickness are fully
proven as efficacious; they have undergone no
changes, in so far as the fundamental principles

14

In
are concerned, and none have been discarded.
these features the natural healing methods differ
from the medical syradically most radically
stems.
Those who deny these things must make choice
of assignment to one or the other of the following
groups: the first, the man-wolf who will deny any- 54
thing that presents a possibility of depriving him of ,*
a material advantage however much it might benefit
fellow-men the second, the incorrigible ignoramus
who resists truth because there is no other means
all

whereby he can make himself conspicuous;

The

this is a

much

to be pitied
hordes who have never been privileged to have
thoughts of their own, hence can not be blamed for 73
their ignorance.
The preponderance of human ailments are indisputably due to estrangement from -Nature. The
best proof of that is had in the rapid convalescence
of individuals who, as a last resort, leave the crowded
cities and live out of doors.
It is true that even in
this return to Nature for help, there may be a risk.
Some die at the seashore where many others revive;
some die on the mountains and in the forests, where
restoration to full health and vigor is common.
The usual professional verdict of those who ordered the change of whatever it was is, that those
who died were too far gone to be benefitted.
More often than not that is an error. It is less
seldom an error when the removal advised is the
well understood doctors' ruse to get rid of a patient
sceptic.

third class are the

whose deplorable condition is hurting his profes-57

sional reputation.
Very frequently the final collapse
is brought about only by the victim of science being
15

sent to a place just opposite in effect to the

one to

which he should have gone.

Mitigating reasons may be found for failures
that are free from suspicion of selfishness; but if
the adviser, with or without diploma, is afflicted with
fixed ideas as to the infallibility of some one particular method, and he rejects clear proof of the
virtue of other processes; then, without distinction,
all such who venture tb meddle with the disordered
organisms of other persons are bound to do more
killing than curing, and become as culpable as those
who induce fatal results by the reckless exhibition of
powerful drugs or the criminal practice of intentionally prolonging human suffering for gain.
The fanatics who ceaselessly rail against medication are of exactly the same calibre as the stupid or
mercenary medics who stuff their patients with
drugs, like the damnable wretches in Strassburg
stuff geese.
There are physicians who will receive golden
crowns, and play on jeweled harps, and rest on the
driest and fleeciest of clouds, if unselfish devotion
to suffering humanity is rewarded, as it is said and a
few natural healers will sit with them, and discuss
the mistakes both made in commendable efforts to
relieve mortals from pain.
Whoever attempts to pass critical judgment on
the merits and demerits of natural healing methods
should keep the following points distinctly in view:
So-called medical science has no excuses to offer for
its endless errors, on the ground of lack of encour;

agement and material

been granted
vivisection,

support. Everything has

even the unpardonable outrage of
experimentation on the defenseless
it,

16

poor and the ruthless desecration of the dead.

What have the exponents of natural healing methods had?
Never a favor from a government; never an important sum of money, from any source, wherewith
to establish an institution where the facts known to
them could be demonstrated; where the truths
assured could be freed from error, as must be from
all knowledge that has not been systematically set
All they have had is persecution
in order.

and who is responsible for

relentless persecution
this? Those to whom the care of the public health
is intrusted; who should welcome with open arms
any and every fragment of knowledge that may increase their competence to fulfill this sacred trust.
The plain truth is that the common-sense contingent that predominates so largely among regular
practitioners, takes a very common-sense view of
the situation, i. e., they see that the general recognition of the truths relating to natural healing would
mean the sweeping away of so large a part of the
drugging systems that not a vestige of reason would
remain upon which to rest a semblance of right to
the business monopoly now enjoyed by this gigantic
imposture.
The least intelligence must see the
one and only possible motive for the ever alert and
violent opposition to such encroachments. There
can be but one such motive and that is, a selfishness without parallel, because it entails a total disregard for the welfare of humanity.
When the fact is fairly considered that medical
science has had an uninterrupted and unlimited
moral support, as well as the most unstinted material help, and that, moreover, even the constitutional

17

rights of citizens

that

have been curtailed for

its benefit,

claims (not evidence) of alleged important discoveries have been, and are, given the widest
possible gratuitous publicity and fulsome praise,
before it is proven that these are deserved what
then should be said of the healers, and their undeniably superior showing, under exactly opposite
conditions?
My insistence on the necessity of clearing the
mind of all bias in order to reach the truth would
lose weight if the line were drawn abruptly at this
point. Another view is necessary to maintain my
asseveration of impartiality.
If we could be forced to believe the assertions of
advertising wonder-workers, who stop but little short
of professing to perform miracles as easily as a baker
makes loaves of bread, we must conclude that the
world is full of Mahatmas, Adepts, Magicians,
Necromancers, Sorcerers and witches; that there
are even more of those special agents and livinginstruments of the occult world now at large than
were presumed to exist in the most prolific period
all

of earlier so-called dark ages.

are asked to believe that these persons can
accomplish all sorts of wonderful things through
acquaintance with some one of a score of unorthodox
'isms that contain a fragment of a basic, but at the
same time elusive truth that, however undeniably
this truth has ever been in evidence, is unattainable
except to him who, first of all, understands himself.
It may be of service to some readers here to state
that any person who advertises himself as a Mystic,
Mahatma, Adept, or as a member of a brotherhood,
such as the Society of the Rose and Cross (Rosi-

We

18

crucian),

etc.,

may

be set

down

as a barefaced fraud.

Those best entitled to such distinctions are the very

last who would make use of them for selfish ends.
When these various 'isms are critically examined by investigators who are competent, hone-st and
(really free from mental bias, it is invariably proven
that, however astounding some attested results may

be, isolated achievements are claimed as proof of

ability to produce the whole kaleidoscope of phe-

nomena and miracles; also that the named method

by which the feat, of whatever nature it may have
been, was accomplished, is some resurrected single
idea, refurbished and elaborated into an inflexible
system or doctrine, calculated to impress the uninformed with an unparalleled magnitude of power.
It is not difficult to find all the evidence that can
be desired, of the fact that every craze or fad that is
at all well started, will very quickly have a large following; that it is very much easier to win renown as 4^
a miracle-worker than as a good tailor or shoemaker
sound reason for this otherwise inexplicable
credulity is found in the unhappy condition of
humanity as a whole, and the consequently natural
eagerness with which means are sought to banish, or
at least ameliorate physical suffering, mental misery
and spiritual non-ease.
However vehemently this readiness to believe in
alleged chimeras may be condemned, and ostentatiously derided by a certain class of alleged scientists whose chief claim to distinction rests upon being
"regular,'' and however vociferously it may be
inveighed against by orthodox theologians, it is
overwhelming proof of the failure of the endless
promises of the former to eradicate diseases of the

19

flesh,

and of the equally palpable

latter to set the

inability of the
rest on spiritual
all there is a testimony in
that, even without the

human mind

requirements. But above

these widespread beliefs

at

mass of proof of extraordinary

forces of the human mind, of psychic powers without
definable
limit, and
spiritual endowments
beyond the grasp of any intellect, certainly much
7^ more than outweighs the arrogant denials of the
greedy, jealous and ignorant horde of pretenders
who, by nothing more than the flaunting of an
empty title, expect to compel the submissive acquiesence of the multitude; and that testimony is, the
superabundant

ever present consciousness of, and unquenchable

faith in an uncommon sense, in a superlative human
power, that can be traced throughout all ages and
among all races as far back as research can be extended.
The foregoing will suffice to show how the views
of both sides are distorted.
Nothing need be said to
guide the judgment of the reader to a sensible conclusion; the true facts have been stated, I think, as
clearly as concisely.
One matter that is pregnant with importance is
jgthat the best men of the regular schools are giving
more and more attention to what they term the vis
medicatrix naturce, which, freely translated, means
curative force in Nature.
Many of the most justly
celebrated physicians admit that they place more
dependence on the arousing and stimulating of this
innate potency by simple, natural means, than upon
any of the devices of their art.

This being true, which it indisputably is what

can we infer from that but the full recognition, on
20

the part of the foremost men in medical science, of

the fundamental idea of all forms of natural healing?
There are many ways of starting a fire, each
effective in its way; but however expert we may be
in igniting any substance, the phenomenon, per se,

remains unknown.
The two points are analogous; the vital principle,
like the latent fire, may be compelled by various
processes, but sometimes the last one tried will produce the desired effect while those from which immediate results were confidently expected failed
utterly.

Much, of course, must remain unsaid in this little

volume for want of space, but I hope that despite
it wall help
many to realize that true
only possible where the mind is open to
all truth, even though such truth, at the first glance,
may seem totally at variance with all prior con-

its

brevity

progress

is

ceptions.
It must be borne in mind that all knowledge received from external sources is subject to modification by subsequent impressions of similar charac-

ter; that

what may seem proper

to

call

definite

conclusion at one time may, after all, prove of no

more worth than the most ephemeral opinion.
Only that primitive and now, in civilized man, almost occulted faculty called instinct in animals
and intuition in human beings when in a normal
state of activity, insures absolute certainty, definite
knowing (clearly distinguished from mere believing).
This is direct cognition knowing without reasoning.
This faculty is capable of a cultivation and development to so high a degree that ail ordinary
means of attaining knowledge shrink into n ^ignific-

21

ance beside it.

As soon as we return to Nature, truly penitent for
our desertion, the evidence of this truth presents
To go no further we have it
j itself on every hand.

works of the bee, the birds and the beaver;

it everywhere where the vain and egotistical
biped called man has not yet taken it upon himself
in the

we

find

to substitute his arts for thq natural gifts of the Almighty Architect of the Universe.
From whatever point we start in search of an unmistakable truth not an apparent verification se-

lected because it is in accordance with some rea basic truth we will find,
j* spected authoritive view
^however round about the path pursued, that we are
compelled to return to^the Self for final and satisfying proof.
If I have been clear
then it will be seen that absolute proof of truth is to be found within the
Self only, and those who are able to grasp this very
simple fact are not long in discovering a higher Self
that explains all else that is best worth knowing.
If we make the acquaintance of this dual Self we
learn how to live; we recognize our actual require-

ments, like animals in their original state; we live to

a natural end without fear of death because this ac-

quaintance dispels
future

all

lingering doubts about the

that Self has

beyond the grave with which

no concern whatever.

HEALING. WORK.
think it has been very plainly proven that there 10
is a basic healing factor in Nature, and that all that
3
is needed is to know how to arouse and use it.
of
If proof is desired it is easily obtainable
splendid results from each and every one of the
drugless methods of curing.
The sceptics professional and amateur attribute
all such cures to the imagination. Well and good. If
the imagination is capable of being worked upon to
the extent of making a sound, healthy and useful
being out of a bed-ridden cripple who has spent all
he had with Science only to be assured that he will
be a helpless wreck all the rest of his mortal days,
then. I think Science should be severely taken to
task for not investigating so tremendous an aid in
the restoration of health.
The human mind is no greater mystery to the unlearned than it is to the most erudite. Tons of books
have been written by men with a quarter alphabet
appended to their names as evidence of technical wis- 4 2
dom, purporting to explain mental action and power
without venturing beyond the bizzare barriers erected
by the physicists. The great bulk of these books are 3
of exactly the same degree of practical value to humanity as the observations of the astronomers who
sit in costly observatories to tell of distances to and
between celestial bodies said to be millions, and
even billions of miles remote from the earth.
This latter order of Scientists emphatically deny
a specific influence of the planets and stars upon
human kind on this globe, because they, themselves,
are too dull and material to sense anything, and
I

23

in

view of that fact it is certainly impossible to sec

utility in such work other than the gratification

any

of a professional vanity and the more substantial

one of being comfortably housed at somebody else's
expense and drawing a salary.
If the powerful instruments that are said to be
capable of determining the composition of a star
hundreds of millions of miles away could be turned
upon the interior of man, and give the physicists a
better idea of organic function, they would be of
some use; as it is they are of no human service
whatever. All that is of real use to know, in this
regard, from any practical point of view, was discovered ages ago by men who did not possess even
a common spy glass.
After asserting with the utmost vehemence, for
untold years, that no sight could penetrate opaque
substances, science received a great shock by the
discovery of Professor Roentgen's invention (the X
5y
ray). As this, to the physicist and materialist, however astounding discovery, is nothing more than
proof that under certain favorable conditions the
visual organs are capable of penetrating solid bodies,
is it not very presumptuous to insist that there is no
sight that can accomplish this without artificial

aid?

We

have ample and unqualified testimony of men

justly renowned for their immense learning, and also
for ttueir keenness of observation, to the effect that
there is a^ision that is entirely independent of the
common organ of sight, a perceptive sense that
knows no obstacle whatever, either as to distance or
density! See page 2j Ref. note du PreL
24

I am loath here to speak of my own work, anticipating a possible wrong impression that I am courting notoriety. That such an opinion would be an
error, is, I think, very conclusively proven by my
not taking advantage of the extensive publicity
given me at the time of my discovery of Elfa's extraordinary powers.
The sole motive that impels me to risk such a misconception is that in speaking of my work with Elfa
I am in no wise dependent on any foreign source of
information, and am able to state what I know to be
absolute facts from personal experience verified by
observations now extending over seven years. I
look upon the discovery of my famed Psyche as a
full reward for a lifetime of earnest
study and
devotion to a good cause; and those who have
searched the world over as I have for what I found

at last, will best, and perhaps only, understand my

profound gratitude, and also my reluctance to risk
being misjudged in the evening of my life.
I trust that this explanation will suffice as a good
reason for alluding to my own work.
Elfa is beyond doubt the most generously endowed Psyche of whom there is any available account. Her powers are of so wide a scope that
they embrace all the various phases of psychological
achievements.
Being thoroughly informed of all that has been
accomplished by de Puysegur, Wienholt, Rcichenbach, du Prel and others, with scores of .sensitives at
their command, I realize, as few others could, the
boldness of the foregoing assertion, but I am therefore no less conscious of my perfect right to make
this statement, and that without qualifying it in any
way whatever.
25

When

say that

some persons

are

endowed with

faculties that enable them to see and hear what is invisible and inaudible to others, I am stating so old
and well known a fact that it seems absurd to repeat
it here; but when I say that Elfa has made examinations of persons that described the entire interior

human structure in its most minute detail, and moreover, that she gave information that was at once recognized as indisputable, regarding the functions of
certain organs which Science can not explain, I expect a good deal of wise head shaking and denial.
And yet I have in this told but a mere fragment of
a great truth. As there is, however, no need of
more to be said here than what actually relates to the
subject in hand, I will only say that Elfa, in magnetic
sleep, is able to see every fibre in the human organization, describe its normal or abnormal state, and
what caused the change, if any; and also what is re-

quired to restore the affected parts to a natural condition.

have made such examinations through Elfa tor

physicians who prided themselves upon
their profound knowledge of anatomy, and to say
that they were astounded over what they heard
things far in advance of all their unquestionable
I

regular

knowledge of physical anatomy

will certainly not

Moreover,
give an adequate idea of their surprise.
some of these examinations were made for persons
who had long been on the roster of incurables, but

who clung to Science for palliation of their sufferings.

The information obtained through Elfa enabled some
physicians for whom such diagnosis were made to arand it is but right to state
of these cases were noted medical puzzles

rest disorders promptly,

that

some

26

over which the resources of the Science had been

fully exhausted.
If any man ever made a thorough and exhaustive
study of the higher human faculties and forces that
man is Carl du Prel, the celebrated German savant.
He says: "Somnambulic clairvoyance, already
known to Plato and Aristotle, in the temple-sleep
and in the old mysteries, and in recent times established by a w hole succession of experiments, is
now a fact which must be reckoned with, and to
which our systems " (medical) " must adapt themr

"

selves.
well developed Psyche sees into the human body
as clearly as a person with perfect sight sees into a
glass case.
When this higher perceptive sense is trained in a
specific direction, and there is a natural inclination
on the part of the Psyche to that particular class of
work, there is absolutely no limit to the information

that

may

Having

be thus obtained.

advantage I have been able tc

things upon which I dared not claim,
even to myself, the right to assert that I had
reached an acceptable conclusion.
However I regret to end this subject here, the
necessary brevity is apparent in the measure of this
volume. I may on that account find myself in the
peculiar predicament of having either said too
much or too little. If it is the latter, the difficulty
will be easily overcome by those who are seriously
interested.
With the opinion of those who neither
do, nor want to understand, I do not concern myself
:n the least.
I am so thoroughly conscious of the truth of all I

verify

this rare

many

27

have said, that I feel sure that those at least who

have made efforts in the same direction, will believe
that assurance, however much a lack of experience
may prevent others from benefitting from my intention to the degree hoped for.
To sum up the practical parts of Natural Heal-

ingwe commence with

the material part of the

Cleanliness, plenty of fresh
air, sufficient exercise, and a sensible choice of food
taken in moderation, are the chief factors in maintaining health.
When physical disorders are occasioned by violation of the simple hygienic laws we resort to simple
natural methods of re-establishing harmony.
As the body is composed of substances that are
all taken into the stomach, that organ is first to be
considered. It is here where nearly all of the human
ailments have their origin. The elimination of accumulated wastes in the alimentary canal is the first
process in the restoration to a normal state. It requires but little sense to understand that all attempts
to relieve the stomach and bowels by artificial expedients are dangerous. In the first place every addition to the troublesome contents of the alimentary
passages is liable to complicate matters. If such
Self

the body proper.

does not become immediately apparent it is

almost certain to demonstrate itself in some local
trouble through a chemical change in the secretions.

evil

It is

thus that

all

sorts of difficulties are created,

subsequently specifically treated by the

Medics without regard to the first cause. In view of
this indisputable fact it is certainly plain that every
particle of drug must add to the complication already existing.
28
that

are

Enemas

are hardly less unnatural than drugs, and

an emergency does seem to justify their employment it should be with as much caution as ought to
be exercised in the taking of prescribed medicines
of which the composition is unknown.
The sequent consideration is, that where these
artificial aids become a habit, you are enslaved to
their continuance, and the functions that should be
natural, automatic and performed without incon*'
venience, become more and more troublesome un f
a crisis is reached that is bound to lead to dire consequences.
The effect of the mind upon the dige^. :ve process
is also to be well considered with the first cause of
organic discord. Powerful as an unconsciously produced mental effect may prove in creating an abif

normal state

the counter-effect as when mind cure,

suggestive therapeutics or any similar mode of

treatment is relied upon for relief must necessarily
be a conscious action of greater potency than the

one that produced or helped create the evil, and

must be understandingly exercised.
While in nowise disposed to under-rate any of the
methods that act through the mind upon the physical organism, I maintain that they are all, without
exception, of but limited service where the first requisite, obviously, is purification that demands physical processes, and where nothing else will serve.
Here then, we find our best friend in water-cure
f the various forms of baths, the sweating-out processes with hot air, steam and the solarium.
Massage is one of the most helpful adjuncts to
Natural Healing, and together with the movement
29

indispensible in all cases where the trouble is

by stagnation of the blood. Magnetism
is the superlative potency that will dislodge disease
when everything else has failed, but like with Mind
Cure, or any other mode of treatment, a thorough
knowledge of the primary physical requisites will
multiply its beneficent offices.
I will state here for the benefit of those who have
^already made a serious study of these matters that I
discovered through Elfa a complete magnetic system
as full of details as the circulatory, the nervous and
the lymphatic, with distinct centers, poles and
plexuses, all of which become invisible when rigor
mortis sets in, an-d that of course defy search with
the scalpel and microscope.

cure

is

caused

Much good has been done through Hypnotism

in this much lauded specialty we have the best

and

effort of

Science to deal with the imagination." I

this point will not be overlooked by

hope that
students.

As Hypnotism is but a pretext of knowledge to

cover the lack of understanding of the magnetic
principle in our composition and its relation to a universal power, I do not deem it necessary to say
more on

that subject.

All the foregoing in a nut-shell is that there is

abundant good in all of the various healing methods,
medicine not excepted by any means, but to expect
to perform miracles through any one method alone
is about as sensible as to claim a thorough knowledge of harmony because one can strum out the
musical scale in one key.
30

MODERN SURGERY.
However

difficult

it

may

real progress in medicine,

surgery has

When

it

be to find evidence of
not to be denied that

it is

made gigantic strides.

known that abnormal growths have

is

been removed from living persons, that weighed

almost as much as the persons from whom they
were taken, it gives a good deal to think about.
When serious dislocations, and bad fractures of
bones are encountered, the natural healer who will
undertake to replace the former or set the latter
must be more than bold. Broken bones are sometimes successfully united by healers, and troublesome inflammations, that refuse to yield to art, have
frequently been quickly reduced by natural processes.
There can be no questioning the fact that many have
been spared from amputation of a member by the
intervention of an untitled healer, but it is also no
less certain that a good many others would have

become deformed

or crippled for

surgical aid
not to be denied
that there is altogether too much indiscriminate
cutting a reckless slashing that has surpassed all
bounds of sense and reason.
The morbid desire
to carve and the temptation to exact the always
considerable honorarium for an operation, are two
features that have been the causes of untold mischief.
Unsexing women has become an almost common
practice, while the truth is that not one case in
twenty justifies the removal of the ovaries.
How

had not been sought.

Again,

life if

is

it

far

reaching

mania

this

mated by those who

is

to bear children,

is

can

who

in
31

only

be

esti-

woman's mission
turn become mothers and

reflect that a

If one woman is deprived of the faculty of

propagation, how many lives are thus indirectly
prevented from coming into existence say, only in
five generations?
The appendicitis craze is another surgical fad
that has become a serious menace.
Not a day
passes that does not record fatal results from this

fathers.

scientific delusion.

The victims of the knife who have been operated

upon for cancer are beyond enumeration. Science
insists that there is no help for those afflicted with
dreadful disease, except that given on the
operating table, and despite that assertion there is
no end of proof that great numbers who had been
told they could not live unless they submitted to
this scientific butchering, were fully cured by the socalled "cancer quacks."
It is indisputable that there are natural means by
which abnormal growths can be checked, dispersed
and eliminated from the system, and if that
complete; whereas,
is properly done the cure is
there are but few cases where a bad cancer was cut
out, and the person survived the operation, that
another did not soon form, and few survive a second
this

surgical ordeal.

The

time

is inocuanimals
of
Science has labeled this
into the human organism!
future generation of scihorrible filth "serum/'
entists will, no doubt, discover that their predecessors were monomaniacs.
No two classes could be more helpful to each
other than the surgeon and the healer.

lation;

scientific folly of the present

injecting

the

rotted

32

blood

THE DUAL ENTITY.

Without the least desire to offend, I must say
anyone who still doubts the actuality of a dual

that

personality can not lay claim to much progress in 54

psychical research.
There is no end of proof that Sensitives in magnetic sleep have described localities, houses, the
interior of dwellings, their furnishings and odd
objects; also persons and their actions at specifically
stated times, all of which was proven to be exactly
as stated. It is, of course, understood that those 5"
giving such descriptions had no prior knowledge of
the places and persons so reported, and that all possible collusion was carefully and completely guarded
against.

Only those who are too lazy or too ignorant to

inform themselves in regard to matters that concern
them most will doubt or deny this statement. This
is intended for students more particularly who are
wont to air their knowledge of psychological impossibilities.

We have here to do with well confirmed facts.

All we need to consider is was the distant locality,
house, furnishings, a lot of bric-a-brac, and a score
of people transported to the apartment of the
sleeper (a most ridiculous view), or was this sleeper,
or a part of him or her, conveyed to the scene in
question? The person per se was there before the
investigators in trance or sleep, whichever term
The question is, what
is preferred
motionless.
It
part of this person obtained the information?
could certainly not be gathered by any miraculous
extension of a faculty, because it required an intelligence to make the observation and report. In some

33


more than vision was involved, because
sounds and conversations were described
Here is
where all halt. The sole reason why this problem
has not been solved heretofore is that the still
higher perception of the perfect Psyche was lacking.
It is by no means as rare a thing as the uninformed believe, to meet with persons who are capable of such feats, although the Sensitives employed,
are themselves unconscious of the process by which
their work is accomplished.
I solved that problem through Elfa, and in this,
above all else, I had the fullest proof of her wonderinstances

and versatility as a Psyche.

solution is as simple as it must be astounding
to those who are unprepared to hear it.
All will agree that lands, houses and people can
not be moved several hundred miles, or more, in
five minutes or less, even with the aid of the whitest
or the blackest of magic; neither will the extension
of one, or even two perceptive senses, without a
directing intelligence, be accepted as a rational
explanation of the phenomenon-- by any one capable of independent thought. If then, these obvious
impossibilities are rejected, what is the sole remaining explanation? Clearly that a part of the Self
entire in itself
a thing that is competent to observe,
judge, reason and report, left the sleeper and
made the journey to the place described
The fact that such persons are unable to account
for the manner in which they obtained such information does not detract from the importance of the
performance. (Such achievements have been too
often verified to be doubted). All that has been
ful perfection

The

34

wanting to make the matter intelligible

is

a satisfac-

tory elucidation of the process.

All these things are so plain, so simple and so
natural to me that I am surprised when reminded
that all this will probably sound like extravagant 7 1
perhaps even to a majority of those
fiction to many
who read this book. If it has been my good
fortune to discover an occulted truth, it is evidently
also my plain duty to speak of it without hesitation, 4
without fear of any consequences to myself from
that common sense which I know to be the chief
obstacle to that particular progress that alone can,
and ultimately must insure the much needed betterment of conditions for humanity.
Before giving my own very simple explanation I
want to say that the Society for Psychical Research in
England has done more to enlighten the world on
all these obscured subjects in a strictly scientific and
rational manner than all other organized bodies and
educational institutions together, also that few are
able to estimate the magnitude of the debt owing to
those tireless, unselfish plodders, for the grand work
they are doing for the benefit of mankind. In this
association there are no moral cowards who are
afraid to relate what they discover beyond the hedge
of common sense; all are striking proofs of the vast
difference between the common order of sense and
the uncommon.
In order to bridge the great gap between socalled exact science that peremptorily demands facts
ithat can be demonstrated to anybody with any kind
of sense, and the freer knowledge of things that are'"*
best worth knowing but that are scientifically in the

35

limbo called the "unknowable," the S. P. R. pioneers

are obliged to go slow and prove the absolute certainty of their advance step by step under strictly
scientific methods which they are also compelled to
formulate and perfect as they press onward. That
is a herculean task, but it is being done.
Gurney,
Barrett, Meyers, Podmore and Bramwell opened the
quarry and dugout the solid blocks for the foundation and laid it too, so no earthquake will unsettle
it, while Hodgson kept busyhuntingup material that
could not be blown away by even a skeptical tornado.
Sir William Crookes, as brave as alert, is already
forging the golden spike that will nail down the last
plank that will enable the exact and the orthodox
to cross the chasm without danger of being swept
off their feet by the rush of the empirical tidal
wave that is now surging about the worm eaten
underpinning of the dungeons where the scientific
"Don't know's" are hidden from public view.
If coffifent to plan every forward stride by a scientific rule, and be assured that you are making no
mistake, and running no risk, and you are not in a
hurry then by all means get the back numbers of
the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research

and digest them

well.

however, the progressive spirit is too strong

for your patience to be curbed to that extent, and
the wings of your higher Self warrant the attempt
of a flight before the S. P. R. bridge is finished, and
proved safe, the following brief recital of some
points in my experience will be helpful for a start
into a realm as yet free from Scientific sign posts
that so often point the wrong way.
If,

36

The state
work is

in

which Elfa performs her wonder-

a most carefully induced

well as degree, of Magnetic Sleep. She
unconscious; the mental processes are
muscular relaxation is complete.
ful

form,

as ^
totally^
arrested;

is

So far I followed a method known more than a

century ago. I knew that I had a lucide (or somnambule) but that was not all I wanted. I lapsed
into a complete passive state from an intense concentration on the essence of my desire, and all at
once the riddle was solved. So sure was I that the
proper direction had come to me that I did not hes-59
itate to apply the process indicated instanter.
Within twenty minutes I was in communication
with the real personality the higher individuality
of Elfa, a distinct entity as much so as if it were an
entirely different person.
And here, by the way, a
certain author who wrote a quite plausible and
apparently logical treatise on Hypnotism, and
whose book came to market at a (for him) very
opportune time, and who was very rashly accepted
and widely quoted as an infallible authority, among
many other mistakes made the very grievous one of
stating that somnambules are incapable of inductive
reasoning. If he had stated that somnambules developed through Hypnotism are incapable of inductive reasoning I would have no occasipn to refer to
this matter, but as the assertion remains unqualified,
it would be wrong to let
this serious error stand
without correction.
In the first place a perfect Psyche (as distinguished from the Hypnotist's somnambule) has no
need of the reasoning process because in this state, 6
if it is perfect, cognition is direct,
positive and in-

37

controvertible as I found to my chagrin when expecting full confirmation of pet preconceptions.

Moreover, 2 met a most determined opponent at
many points where I thought my knowledge unassailable, and got all the inductive and deductive
reasoning the most exacting reasoner could hope
for from any source.
I said something about being chagrined.
I confess
to bsing so at being taught facts about Magnetism and
the higher life by a mere child; facts that, in some
instances, at least, proved her the master and I the
pupil.
I am amenable to reason and open to truth,
'but do not yield easily when I feel sure of my right
fair showI fought hard to make a
to an opinion.
ing for my lifetime of hard thinking, hard study,
long journeys and money expended in the exploitabut I was beaten on the
tion of this vast subject

very qiound

by a

was born upon, and

that, as

said

rr.ere child!

PL-^it and submissive to truth as we may be, when

our h^ir is well silvered it is a rude awakening to
have our cherished certainties blown to the winds by
the breath of a youngster not out of the teens by a
being without any experience in the world, without,
as then, but not now, a particle of knowledge (in the
ao termed normal state) of the matter so masterfully
put, and proven by the aroused dual Self.
Never in my long and eventful life was the conceit,
so completely taken out of me as during these in-'
Instigations.
But there were heads behind tha<t
passive mask of unconscious mortal substance that
centered a united wisdom upon this exceptional
instrument that would make the proudest mind bow
low and wonder at the meagerness of human knowledge in the real light of the unchangeable truth.

38

at times at the thought of years

labor wasted, fortunately I had no vanity to
wound. I say fortunately, because if a pricked
pride had prompted me to resent the almost total
destruction of a knowledge so laboriously acquired,
and at the cost of so many sacrifices, the portals of
that universal source of light would have closed.
When I had been taught the truth of the lesson
that Shakespeare gave us through Puck, "what fools
these mortals be;" when I was purged of the admiration of my own wisdom, I received information,
knowledge, practical instruction that would have
been beyond the capacity of any mind to grasp if
it had not been for the simplicity of causes assigned,
the astounding directness and brevity of thought
when stripped of false reasoning, of theoretical
deductions. Even at that I would have failed if the
same factors had not renewed the energies of that
Self within myself that had been so nearly asphyxiated by that thief of true sense
called common

Although pained

of

sense.

When

I
became competent to undertake the
separating the higher from the physical
Self, I was instructed how to project the former to
any point from which I might desire information. I
commenced with near by points, gradually increasing distances, until my psychic messenger made a
visit to a Yoga friend at the exactly opposite point
of the earth from where we then resided.
Not a
single trial was a failure; every report made to me
in that way was immediately written out and mailed
and invariably the correctness of these accounts
was verified by return post or telegraph.

task

of

39

"

It is of course neither possible nor expected that I

go into details of this work in these few pages.
I would certainly not have gone to this length if
the purpose of this little publication were not to
throw a helpful light to those who are seeking from
external sources what is solely to be found within

the Self.
^

One fact must, however

may save many from

be noted here, as
untold misery. Spirit
mediumship is an indisputable actuality. Where
I once but wondered, I now shudder at the reckless
ness of persons who place their bodies at the disposal of the scum of discarnate life. To cultivate
mediumship without an absolute foreknowledge of
the possible sequences to lapsing into the defenseless state of a surrendering passivity is worse, by far,
than anything conveyed by the saying, "it is the
height of folly.
I might have lived another half century without
becoming thoroughly convinced of the truth of
mediumship if I had not learned the modus
operandi of the exit and re-entrance of the immortal Self into the mortal body.
Balzac most truly said: u The simple produces
the marvelous.
All these things are simple and natural, All
there is mystical, occult, magical, is an artificial
confusion of the mind a chaos of false and fixed
it

briefly,

,,

ideas.
7c
'

All the wonders and real treasures are contained

within the Self.

40

THE CONTINUANCE
OF THE HIGHER 5ELF.
All that has recently been publicly stated about
the certainty of communication with individuals released from their mortal bodies, by such men as
Alfred Russell Wallace, the friend and associate of
Darwin, Sir William Crookes, the leader of Science
Professor William James of Harvard
in England,
University, who has also been president of the Society for Psychical Research,
Dr. Richard Hodgson, the indefatigable representative of the S. P. R.
in America,
Rev. Minot J. Savage, and other men
of that calibre, obviates the necessity of comment on
my part on the progress of true Spiritism.
I will therefore make my few brief notations without any preamble, trusting that these practical observations, short as they are, may prove of some
service in spanning the imagined abyss between
earth life and the other.
I believe myself right in stating that the principal
reason why no more perfect intercourse is had between incarnate and discarnate individuals is because
of the lack of savoir faire on the part of the intelligence in the body.
If a perfect magnetic relation (permanent rapport) and psychological affinity are established
between the higher Selves of persons who are familiar with the simple process of receiving thoughts
without vocal expression, there is no reason why
such communication should cease, or become more
difficult when one is released from the material part
of the Self.

41


mutual

accordance embraces the three

mental, magnetic and psychical
concord, and it is brought to as high a state of
attunement as I know to be possible while still in
the flesh, there should be no perceptible difference
in ability to communicate when one or the other
higher Entity is released.
If I (as I am) am able to separate the two entities, and, at any distance, maintain perfect correspondence with the one projected, I fail to see what
difference it can make if the Magnetic connection,
which under these circumstances, is all that unites
the higher Entity with the physical personality, is
finally
severed,
providing nota-bene that
the
desire for continuance of the terrene relationship is
mutual. There should, if a variation is had, be
fewer obstacles with one physical organism out of
the way, because however completely such persons
j may also have been in harmony physically the mortal self is always bound to hamper the other more
or less, if in no other way than in unavoidable
variations of magnetic strength and quality which,
after disembodiment, is perfect and not subject to
any changes.
While I am not prepared as yet to make this a
positive assertion, I am sure that I will be able to
prove this conception to be as stated through Elfa,
after I make my cheerful exit from my corporeal
If

the

essential requisites

habitat.

The

about full, but I must add a

not only facilitate progress in
these studies, but also lend courage to many who
have had proof in themselves of an undefinable
something that seems, by occasion, temporarily to
assert itself, only to be again lost to cognition.

few

little

book

lines that

is

may

42

does not give up its treasures without

and work, why should we expect to find
much more valuable possessions within ourselves 75
If the earth

a search

without an effort?

The

successful agriculturist

studies his

soil,

cli-

mate and his seedings. He does not expect to harvest a huge crop of grain or fruit from reading a
few books. The miner trudges up hill and down
dale, and follows watercourses for "signs," outcroppings or colors, which he must have learned to cogWhen he finds these he washes out dirt, or
nize.

may be. He does not expect Providence to pour gold into his lap without a bend of
the back or a stroke of the pick on his part.
But
most people have an idea that if there was anything
digs as the case

inside of them that is uncommon it ought to come

to the surface and show itself without an effort.
The human body, whatever its form, color, ornament or lack of it, may contain priceless gifts, but
that body may carry these from the cradle to the
grave without discovery if no effort is made to find 75
them and to make them grow.

An

ignorant or shiftless farmer will have a plenty

at all, and the same kind of a
prospector may sleep on ground, that covers a
bonanza and never know it and so thousands dawdle
through life reaping no crops, finding no treasure
unconsciously carrying talents, extraordinary faculties, wonderful powers
all the time deploring that
Nature or God had done nothing more for them
than put them on earth to live without a satisfying

of

weeds or no crops

enjoyment.
A few illustrations and I am done. A doctor
came to me a splendid specimen of manhood, both

13

in

He was

mind and body.

dissatisfied;

he had

all

the knowledge the medical curriculum could give

him. He realized its exact value. If he could only
become clairvoyant! If he could only see into the
living organism!
few lessons and some magnetic
manipulations and he had all he wanted and that
without clairvoyance.
He developed intuition to
such an extent that his hand will go to the part diseased without any direction from his mind, and he
diagnoses perfectly without a mental effort. Did
this man get all he wanted?
got
I know that he
more than he ever dared hope for, because with the
arousing of his intuition came a magnetic healing
power that is more effective than all his arts.
and
I placed a scarabeus in the hand of a man
closed his fist without him seeing the object. If he
could distinguish its form by the contact it would
He closed his eyes and said:
feel like a large bean.
"This thing came from Egypt. It is a bug; it came
from a grave." All true to the letter. That is psy-

chometry.

woman takes an old glove in her hand; it makes

her shudder. She sighs and says: "Oh, how she suffered" (meaning the owner of the glove), adding,
"it is a good thing she was released," and then gives
a description of the person.
This is another phase of psychometry, of a sympathetic emotional character.
fortune was spent in the endeavor to find water
in a dry stretch of land where it was badly needed.
All the well diggers available had tried boring and
digging in vain. I had a rather uncouth but faithful
North-countryman (English) to care for my horses.
I had never tried him for any qualities other than as a

44

groom. He said to me: "If you let me take a horse

in two
if there is any,
for a day I will find water

go. The
moment he spoke I "sensed" his quality. He returned at dawn the following day with a few hazel

hours

after

come back."

let

him

branches. He took one (forked) in both hands and

walked over the ground with eyes closed. After
walking slowly awhile among the holes that had
been dug, he suddenly stopped, wheeled about and
went to within ten feet of the furthest excavation.
A tremor went all through him, and the twig bended
toward the earth. "Here is water and a plenty," he
said.
By that time the station was aroused, and
how every mother's son of them did laugh and gibe.
But finally they decided to dig. At eight feet they
found moisture; at ten they struck gravel and got a
wet bottom; at twelve they struck a slaty crust and

bubbling water. At about fourteen, feet, nearly ten

less than the depth of any other hole, the diggers
made a rush for the surface with the water after
them. Next morning the hole was full to within
four feet of the top. It proved to be a spring pure,
wholesome and inexhaustible.
Here I had what in England is called a " Dowser."
He had never tried water-finding before, but had
often heard of its being done in the " old country."
The impression (?) came to him while we were
looking down a dry hole that if he could find a hazel
wand he would discover water. He staid right
there.
There were great holdings of lands of little
value only because no water was available. The
news spread like wildfire. Terms were of no object.
He kept right on finding water where thousands
upon thousands of dollars had been wasted in vain

45

search. All the great mining camps furnish evidence

of finding rich deposits by intuition, where the most
experienced prospectors and geologists had gone
over every foot of ground and condemned it as

and some tenderfoot who could not distinguish country rock from pure quartz, happened
along, dug a hole and became a millionaire.
There are a hundred and more out-branchings of
this power.
Sometimes a " gift " (?) like that will
2
manifest itself spontaneously, but the manifestation
is not understood or heeded.
The unconscious possessor does not know the difference between ordinary thought and the voice of his higher Self which
is thrust back because common sense declares that
these things are all nonsense.
Who said " Seek and ye shall find " ?
is
the substance of things
said " Faith
hoped for; the evidence of things not seen " ?
barren

Who

* * *

My
^r

is:
Take a vacation from
Sense and explore your interior for the

closing admonition

Common
great and
you.

good things

that

may

lie

dormant within

VALUABLE TESTIMONY.
As

this little

book

go to many persons who

will

places remote from the great centers of

information, and who are not likely to have the
opportunity to learn the real inner opinion of truly
great men on these vital issues, I decided to add the
following extracts from the recorded sayings of
some of the great leaders of thought, whose names
adorn the sciences and professions with which they
are identified.
As my own comments are as mild as milk and
honey compared with the vigorous and scathing
arraignment of their own schools, by the worldrenowned authorities quoted, this addition will serve
to attest my moderation as well as my close adherlive

in

ence to truth.

NOTE. The numbers on margins of the preceding

pages refer to the following quotations. This arrangement is intended to facilitate the search for proof of
the correctness and solidity of opinions expressed
in this volume.
Although some may think this an unnecessary
labor,

many

others will appreciate the plan, espec-

ially older students

to

them

in the

who

order

in

what
which the matter

like to verify

sented.

47

is
is

new
pre-

QUOTATIONS.
Earnest investigators, no less than younger students beginning search for the higher truths
pure
truth
will do well to make a close study of the
following excerpts.
There is a fund of information in this collection
of opinions that surpasses half a lifetime of individual research.
More than that we have in this
accumulation of well defined conclusions the gist of
great tomes of knowledge that could never be
mastered single handed unless direct cognition is
had.
Those who are capable of direct cognition do not
need books or any other helps of this order, but
such are few.
This little monitor is intended for seekers of
truth in whom this grand faculty is still dormant,
who do need the help herewith extended. I hope
they will profit thereby.

"As the sun does not first shine when it escapes

1.
the clouds, but is constant, only seeming dark and
invisible to us by reason of the vapors, so also the
soul does not first obtain the faculty of seeing the
future when it emerges from the body as from a
cloud, but already now possesses it, but is blinded by
Plutarch.
union with the mortal part of us."

2.

"A

miracle does not happen in contradiction to

nature, but in contradiction to that

to us of nature."

"All truths are old, and

cognize them anew."
3.

48

all

which

is

known

Augustine.

we have

to

do

is

Goethe.

to

4.

"The young anthropologists and psychologists

will soon have full occupancy of the stage w ill

who

how

great a scientific scandal it

we have felt,
has been to lqave a great mass of human experience
to take its chances between vague tradition and
credulity on the one hand and dogmatic denial at
long range on the other, with no body of persons
extant who are willing and competent to study the
matter with both patience and vigor. There have
been isolated experts, it is true, before now. But our
society has for the first time made their abilities
*
*
mutually helpful. "
"If I were asked to give some sort of dramatic
unity to our history, I should say first that we
started with high hopes that the hypnotic field
would yield an important harvest, and that these
hopes have subsided with the general subsidence of
*
*
what may be called the hypnotic wave."
''Science means, first of all, a certain dispassionate
method. To suppose that it means a certain set of
results that one should pin one's faith upon and hug
forever, is sadly to mistake its genius, and degrades
the scientific body to the status of a sect."
Prof. William James.

feel, as

From address

as President of Society of Psychical Research, Seventy-seventh

General Meeting, January

31, 1896.

"Antipathies also form a part of Magic, falsely

5.
so-called.
Man naturally has the same instinct as
the animals which warns them involuntarily against
the creatures that are hostile or fatal to their existence.
But lie (man)so often neglects it that it
becomes dormant. Not so the true cultivator of the
great Science."
Trismegistus the Fourth',

(A Rosier ucian
49

"This law (gravitation) assumes that there exists

between all masses of matter in the universe, a
mutual attraction, in consequence of which they
tend towards each other with a force which varies
directly as their mass and inversely as the square of
the distance between them. Assuming this, all the
facts are explained; and it is quite logical to conclude, that the assumption which explains all the
facts, and enables us even to predict them, is true.
But does this law of the force of gravitation, the
law according to which it varies, account for or
explain the fact of gravitation?
Why do two masses
of matter tend toward each other?
Why do they do
so with a force varying as above described? The
only answer to this question is, that there is an atmutually
traction
between them,
that
they
But this, it will be perceived,
attract each other.
is merely stating, in other words, the fact itself, and

6.

The law of gravitation as laid

whe?i once admitted, explains or
accounts for the facts of gravitation, but does not
touch the cause of them. It shows the shape and
limits of the force, but leaves us in the dark as to its
real nature.
And the same is true of all natural
laws; of the laws of heat, light, electricity, galvanism,
magnetism proper, chemical action, etc."
Prof. William Gregory,
not the cause of

it.

down by Newton,

(University of Edinburgh).

"The ultimate source of allenergy is to be found

only in the Divine Power which created and upholds
the stars in their courses, and is at work in the chemical, physical and vital activities about us and in us
the infinite intelligence which "is all, and in all."
Dr. J. H. Kellogg.
7.

50

"Scientific men almost invariably assume that in

this inquiry (Spiritism) they should be permitted at

8.

the very outset to impose conditions, and if under

such conditions nothing happens, they consider it
proof of imposture or delusion. But they well
know, in all other branches of research, Nature,
not they, determines the essential conditions, without a compliance with which no experiment will
succeed. These conditions have to be learned by
patient questioning of Nature, and they are different
for each branch of Science.
How much more must
they be expected to differ in an inquiry which deals
with subtile forces of Nature of which the physicist
To ask to be
is wholly and absolutely ignorant.
allowed to deal with these unknown phenomena as
he has hitherto dealt with known phenomena is
practically to prejudge the question, since it assumes
that both are governed by the same laws."
Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace,
" True science was never esteemed by contemg.
poraries, but on the contrary was for the most part
rejected.
And it could not be otherwise. True
science shows people their errors, and points out to
them new and untried paths of life. And both the
one and the other are disagreeable to the ruling
class of society.
But the present science not only
does not run counter to the tastes and demands of
the ruling class of society; but rather corresponds to
them completely; it satisfies idle curiosity, astonishes people, and promises them an increase of
pleasures.
And therefore, while everything truly
great is silent, modest, inconspicuous, the science of
our time knows no bounds to its self-gratulations."
Count Leo N. Tolstoy.

51

"If these things are not true, Christianity is not

ourif it and they are true, the fault lies in
selves if we lack the power we have not vital faith
William Howitt.
and are only half Christians. "
10.

true;

"Nine-tenths of the public life of Christ was spent

curing diseases of the mind and body. To truly
follow Christ is to do the same thing, moved to it by
the same spirit of love and all conquering faith. He
who does this is in the genuine apostolic succession,
although no lordly prelate has ever laid his impotent hands upon his head. He who can not do it
is only half a christian minister, and that a small
half, though he may have been ordained by the pope
or even St. Peter himself."
Comment on above quotation by Rev. Evans.
1 1

in

"The cures wrought by Jesus were no miracles,

12.
or departures from the established order of Nature, as
he himself avers. They exhibit the action of a
higher law, the dominion of mind over matter.
Everything that is done is effected in harmony with
some law of Nature some law of Mind or Matter,
and has in it the relation of cause and effect. To
understand the law by which it is done is to be able
to do it.
Hence Jesus declares respecting his wonderful works, which were mostly those of healing
the bodies and minds of the people who flocked to
him from every part of the land of the Jews "The
works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works
than these shall ye do, because I go to my Father."
This is as true as any promise that his lips ever
uttered.
He commissioned and instructed his apostles to cure all
manner of disease and sickness
among the people."

Rev. W. F. Evans.

"

"Manifestly there are invisible, imponderable

13.
agencies of great power in this world, other than
those which modern science recognizes, and it is a
source of no little annoyance and mortification that
thus far we have failed to bring them within the field
At present the whole
of scientific investigation.
matter is involved in doubt and perplexity, but we
have faith to believe that a future age will solve the
great mystery and roll away the dark clouds which
Dr. Nichols,
obscure our vision.

Editor Boston Journal of Chemistry.

"The perfect observer in any department of Sci14.

ence will have his eyes, as it were, opened, that they
may be struck at once by any occurrence which,
according to received theories, ought not to happen, for
these are the facts which serve as clues to new disSir John Herschell.
coveries."

15.

Mr. Frederick Treves, who

is

without doubt one

of the greatest surgeons, says:

"Some

years ago

performed sundry experiments

upon the

intestines of dogs, but such are the differences between the human and the canine intestines
that when I came to operate upon man I found that

was much hampered by my new experience, and

I had everything to unlearn.
My experiments
upon dogs had done little but unfit me to deal
I

that

human intestines. Vivisection is, in my

opinion, one of the greatest delusions that has ever
fastened upon the medical profession.
It is a blot
on the fair name of science, and an incentive to experimental outrages upon the sick poor."

with the

53

"God knows

the prodigious quantity of mediharmful to their patients, that have been prescribed by the physicians. How many stomachs
have been ruined, how many constitutions destroyed
by these barbarous drugs. Let us pity the poor
patients victims of official science.
In medicine it
is the same as in a lottery: for one favored one, how
many are ruined, how many untimely deaths, how
many disabled for the remainder of their days.
Medicine is, however, necessary, and there is need of
physicians to relieve the sufferings of humanity; but
since the former is insufficient, and the latter do not
possess the qualities or the means proper to
accomplish the purpose, we must seek for the means
in some other direction, and we find in Magnetism
a balm for our sufferings, a consolation for our souls.
Considering the vast number of sick people who,
after having consulted the most renowned physicians, and having taken to no purpose their noxious
drugs have obtained relief always and often a
radical cure, from the treatment of the untitled
we are confident that the day will soon
healers,
come when the free exercise of the medical art will be
and that will be the day of salvation
a necessity,
for suffering humanity.
It is my firm conviction that to the sick should
be granted full liberty to entrust the care of his
health to the one possessing his confidence, whether
In a word the
that one have a diploma or not.
practice of the art of healing should be free."
Dr. Gasto?i de Rionx de Messimy.
consciousness of what he is, and
the
man
"Give
17.
he will soon be what he ought/'
16.

cines,

Schelling.

51

"We

have seen that the influence of the mind

is no transient power; that in health
it may exalt the sensory functions, or suspend them
altogether; excite the nervous system so as to cause
the various forms of convulsive action of the
voluntary muscles, or depress it so as to render them
powerless; may stimulate or paralyze the muscles
18.

upon the body

organic life, and the processes of nutrition and

secretion, causing even death; that in disease it may
restore the functions which it takes away in health,
re-enervating the sensory and motor nerves, exciting

of

healthy vascularity and nervous power, and assisting the Vis Medicatrix Naturae to throw off diseased action or absorb morbid deposits."
Dr. Daniel Hack Tnke.

to be within the power of

Meantime a great body of evidence
is accumulating which must force men of Science
more and more strongly toward those conclusions
19.

"All this

Mind and

is

admitted

Will.

they have been so long reluctant to approach. In

the phenomena of hypnotic suggestion an avenue is
opened through which Western Science may approach the positions so long held by the sages of
the East.
In the medico-legal aspects of Animal

Magnetism, as in the phenomena of telepathy, will

be found the finger-posts which point to the operation of Mind and Will at a distance.
"In all the inquiries now proceeding into obscure
psychical and quasi-neural phenomena, the indications point in the same general direction. Nor need
those who have long since satisfied themselves of
the psychological knowledge of the Orient, be impatient or intolerant of the slow and unfriendly

progress of Western Science towards affiliation with

elder sister. For no greater triumph of Truth,
no stronger proof of the genuineness of the conclusions of Eastern Occult Science can be had than the
confirmation of its doctrines by the body of students working from contrary directions, by opposed
."
methods, and in a skeptical and hostile spirit
George Frederick Parsons.
its

(Comment on

the ioregoing citation

Tuke.)

"A

long chapter might be written on the creduThe hypotheses that they

lity of men of Science.
have chased out of the door complacently fly in at
the window. Many scientists, fresh from apparently
important discoveries in narrow fields, need to be
reminded of the lesson contained in the legend of
St. Augustine, who when walking on the shore one
day, absorbed in meditation, suddenly perceived a
child that with a shell was ladling the sea into a
hole in the sand. 'What are you doing, my child?'
asked St. Augustine. T am emptying the ocean,
was the reply, 'into this hole/ 'That is impossible/
'Not more impossible than for you to empty the
Universe into your intellect/ said the child and van20.

ished."

Nicholas Murray Butler,

"The transmission of impressions from one

part of the nervous system to another, or from the
nervous system to the muscular and glandular
structure, has a nearer resemblance to the effects
produced by the imponderable agents than to anything else. It seems very probable indeed that the
nervous force is some modification of that force which
produces the phenomena of electricity and magnetism/
Sir Benjamin Br die.
21.

56

"

"

"

"Beyond the limits of this visible anatomy commences another anatomy whose phenomena we cannot perceive; beyond the limits of this external
physiology of forces, of action, and of motion exists
another invisible physiology, whose principles,
effects and laws, it is of greater importance to know;
and beyond the limits of these material and volumin22.

ous therapeutics there are other therapeutics still

far more important to know and far more useful to

Laplace.

practice.

"It has been irrefutably proved that the most

23.
active agents in Nature are imperceptible entities,

which like electricity, magnetism, heat and light,

have neither odor, savor, color, volume, dimension,
determinate shapes, nor definite proportions; which
pervade all things without being anywhere perceptible; which govern all things without being seen
themselves; which penetrate everywhere, but whose
essence we can not penetrate.
Amador.

"For the true springs of our organization are

not those muscles, those veins, those arteries, which
are described with such exactness and care. There
exist in organized bodies internal forces which do
not follow the gross mechanical laws we imagine,
and to which we would reduce everything.
24.

Buffon.

"This age that blots out life with question

marks; this nineteenth century with its knife and
glass that makes thought physical and thrusts far
off the heaven so neighborly with man of old,
to
voids sparse-sown with alienated stars."
Lowell.
25.

57

"

"

then,
we may believe we
But, says some objector, it is said a
thousand times, printed in the reviews, spoken of in
lectures,
How can we think without the brain? Is
not the brain the only organ of thought? Prof.
James, of Harvard, whom I quoted last Sunday,
gave a lecture not long ago on two phases of this
problem of the other life; and one of them was this,
and he one of the best expert authorities in the
world takes the ground that that objection about
the brain is foolish, sophistical, shallow, and utterly
worthless. In other words, one of the functions of
the brain at the present time may be thinking. The
back of the brain, or above it, may use it as the
organ of thought and the communication of my
thoughts to others in my present condition. But
ceases to exist,
that does not prove at all that the
and that there is no thinking done when this brain
gets tired and goes back to dust. To resort to a
crude illustration, you may attach a dynamo for a
time to some particular machine. When you remove that machine, you have not destroyed the
dynamo. You may attach it to some other machine
and find that you have there all the old-time power.
"The best scientific men of the world have told us
that this objection is of no value. /Thought is not
There acthe product of the brain in that sense
companies every effort of mind certain molecuThat is all, but it is
lar movements in the brain.
not a case of cause and effect; it is only concomitance. Thought coincides with the movements of
Rev. MinotJ. Savage.
the brain.
26.

"The

intelligence,

carry with us.

"Only great minds are capable

the magnitude of little things.

27.

58

of estimating

Rayon.

28.
"Whatever may be the design of the bill it will
not protect the public health. If statistics are to be
relied on the death rate in Colorado is as low as it
ever was, and lower than in some of the States which

have enacted measures of legislation similar to this.

of surgery excepted, medicine is
not a science. It is a series of experiments more or
less successful, and will become a science when the
laws of health and disease are fully ascertained and
understood. This can be done, not by arresting the
progress of experiment, and binding men down to
hard and fast rules of treatment, but by giving free
rein to the man who departs from the beaten highway
and discovers hidden methods and remedies by the
wayside. It is through these means that the public
health is promoted and thereby protected, that the
members of the medical profession are enabled to
minister with success to human ailments and bodily
suffering.
Nearly every advance in the treatment

The department

of diseases, in the method of their detection and in

the prevention of their occurrence, has been made
by physicians in disregard of the regulations of the
order; and the great body of their brethren, after

denouncing and enduring, have ultimately accepted

the unquestionable results of these researches and
discoveries, and made them respectable by adding
them to the category of the recognized and the regular.
But for this, the leech, the lancet and the pillbox would still be the regulators of the public health,
and licenses to practice would be confined to these,
and these only, who used them. This is but to say
that medical progress in general has not been made
by, but notwithstanding the great body of its professors.

* *
59

"The

title

of the

bill,

as

it

relates to the public,

is

misnomer. This is a common subterfuge; all measures designed to promote a specific interest or protect an existing evil are ostensibly labeled 'for the
benefit of the people.'
The fact that the people do
not seek the protection, ask for the benefit, nor suspect the existence of the alleged danger is wholly
immaterial."
Governor Thomas, of Colorado.

(From

his veto of the Medical Bill.)

" If

the action of imperceptible agents is

opposed to so-called common sense, that is as much
as to say that experience is opposed to it,
but as
common sense and experience are not, and can not
be, contradictory, if common sense refuses to believe
in the action of all imperceptible agents, common
sense stands in need of a thorough reform which
experience will be able to effect.
"True science, which is nothing else than the
reflection of experience, has in this manner reformed
common sense many times."
29.

Prof. U Amador..

(Address

to

Medical College, France)

"The so-called Science

of our day has followed

30.
the materialistic lines so exclusively that the paths
of real knowledge have been missed. Teachers of
broad, general culture have been sorely needed to
direct the current of learned investigation into the
right channels."
Edward Stanton.

"The greatest objection I have to the book is,

31.
that the author uses the accurate knowledge he possesses (for what reason I can not tell), to teach

Prof. Brockett.

error."

(In review of a book.)

60

He who sets out honestly in search of Truth

must not allow himself to be appalled by the splendor of names and authorities, however great and
imposing. The paramount interests of science demand that we should boldly endeavor to beat down
all the barriers by which her progress might be im32.

Colqhoan.

peded."

"Before experience itself can be used with adis one preliminary step to make which
depends wholly on ourselves; it is, the absolute dis33.

vantage, there

missal and clearing the mind of all prejudice, and

the determination to stand or fall by the result of a
direct appeal to facts in the first instance, and of
strict logical deductions from them afterwards."
Sir John Herschcll.

"With regard to the miracle question, I can only

34.
say that the word 'impossible' is not, to my mind,
applicable to matters of philosophy. That the possibilities of Nature are infinite is an aphorism with
which

am wont

to

worry

my

friends/'
Professor Huxley.

"I have sought the Truth in the desert, in cities,

35.
in the universities, in communities and cloisters; I

have sought

it

at the court of the

and found it not.

to be infallible,
it

discovered

Pope,

At

who

last I

claims
did find

myself."
within
Bishop WillieIm Bedell (1507).

it

"The

truth can always be had by those who debut each one must seek it for himself. That
only which we have within can we see without. If
we meet no gods it is because we harbor none."
36.
sire

it,

Emerso?i.

61

'

37-

"Believe me, miracles are

in us,

not without

us.

Here natural facts occur which men call supernatural.

God would have been strangely unjust had he
confined the testimony of his power to certain generations and peoples and denied them to others.

The brazen rod belongs to all. Neither Moses, nor

Jacob, nor Zoroaster, nor Paul, nor Pythagoras, noi
Swedenborg, not the humblest messenger nor the
loftiest Prophet of the most High are greater than
you are capable of being.'
Balzac.

" Be not ignorant of yourself, my friend, and do

38.
not commit the error which the majority of men commit, for most men, though they are eager to look
into the affairs of others, give no thought to the examination of their own. Do not you neglect this
duty, but strive more and more to cultivate a knowl-

Socrates.

edge of thyself."
39.

O ye who seek to solve the knot,

Ye live in God, yet know him not.
Ye sit upon the river's brink,
"

Yet crave

in vain a drop to drink.

dwell beside a countless store,
Yet perish, hungry at the door/'

Ye

Sufi Philosophy.

When asked, "What do you know about the

40.
depths of the Divine Being? Jacob Boehme replied:
"True, I do not know anything about the Divine
,,

Being, but the spirit in me does, and I speak only

what the spirit says."
"But who made nature? " ask the would be wise;
41
" My God, not yours! " each devotee replies.

Easton.

62

"Text books are mostly misleading. I get mad

42.
with myself when I think I have believed what was
There are more frauds
so learnedly set out in them.
in Science tlian

them

that

anywhere

can

Take

else.

name and you

a whole pile of
will find uncertainty,
they state as scientific

if not imposition, in half of what

They have time and again set
truth.

ments as done oy them, curious,

down experiout-of-the way

experiments, that they never did, and upon which

they have founded scientific truths. I have been
thrown off my track often by them, and for months

You see a great name and you believe in

Try the experiment yourself and you find the

at a time.
it.

*
*
I tell you
would rather know nothing about a thing in Science, nine times out of ten, than what the books
w ould tell me for practical purposes, for applied
result altogether different.
I

Science, the best Science, the only Science.

"I'd rather take the thing up and go through with
it myself.
I'd find out more about it than any one
could tell me, and I'd be sure of what I knew. That
is the thing.
Professor this or that will controvert
you out of the books, and prove out of the books
that it can't be so, though you have it right in the
hollow of your hand all the time and could break
his spectacles with it."
Thos. A. Edison,

(From an interview

in

"N. Y. Herald," Dec.

31, 1879).

"The habit of accepting whatever comes to us

with the endorsement of Science causes men to
think they comprehend such statements, whereas in

43.

truth no story of a miracle can possibly be harder

to grasp by the reason alone.
Science not only
employs the imagination freely, but requires from
its votaries a constant exercise of faith."
George Fredrick Parsons.

63

"

"The disgrace of medicine has been that collossystem of self-deception in obedience to which
mines have been emptied of their cankering minerals,
the entrails of animals taxed for their impurities, the
poison bags of reptiles drained of their venom and
all the inconceivable abominations thus obtained
44sal

down

the throats of human beings suffering

organization, nourishment or
vital stimulation.
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
thrust

from some

fault of

"Medicine

an incoherent assemblage of incoperhaps, of all the physiological

sciences, that which best shows the caprice of the
human mind. It is a shapeless assemblage of
inaccurate ideas, of observations often puerile and of
formulae as fantastically conceived as they are tediously arranged."
Prof. Bichat.
45.

is

herent ideas and

is,

46. When the Rev. Thos. W. Beecher was present

one day,it was remarked that he had officiated at over
2,000 funerals. "Yes," he said sadly, shaking his
head while a twinkle was seen in his eyes, "but there
were only three who died natural deaths." Upon
being asked the meaning of his very strange statement he replied: "Those three did not employ a

physician."
" Mankind has been drugged to death, and the
world would be better if the contents of every apothecary shop were emptied into the sea, although the
consequences to the fishes would be lamentable."
Oliver Wendell Holmes.
47.

64

"The past fifteen years have been rife in medical

delusions, and each in its turn for the time being
has served to addle the brains of the "profession"
and injure the health and deplete the pockets of the
credulous dupes. During the period mentioned we
have had the "purging craze, " the "sweating craze,"
the "vomiting craze," the "blue glass craze," the
"Brown-Sequard Elixir of Life craze," the "Inhalation craze," the "Cod Liver Oil craze," and last, but
not least, the "Koch Tuberculosis craze." 0, temporal 0, mores! What fools we are!"
Dr. Alexander M. Ross, F. R. S.
48.

"I am incessantly led to make apology for the

instability of the theories and practice of physic.

49.

Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of

disease, and cause us to blush at our own prescriptions.
What mischief have we not done under the
belief of false facts and false theories?
have
assisted in multiplying disease
we have done more
we have increased their fatality."

We

Dr. Benjamin Rush.

of medicine on the one hand is

50.
nothing less than a history of variations, and on the
other, only a still more marvelous history of how
every successive variation has by medical bodies
been furiously denounced then bigotedly adopted."
Sir William Hamilton.

"The history

"No systematic or theoretical classification of

51.
diseases or therapeutic agents ever yet promulgated is
true, or anything like truth, and none can be adopted
as a safe guidance in practice."
Sir John Forbes.

Royal College of Physicians, London, Physician

65

to the

Queen's household,

"A

London would seem

Redvers Buller, now Commander in Chief in South Africa, is possessed of the
strange gift of second sight, a singularly valuable
gift for a General.
It seems he was at Cape Town
at the time of Sir George Colley's disastrous route
at the battle of Majuba Hill.
On the day of the
battle, although he was many hundreds of miles
away, he saw vividly before him the scene of Colley's defeat and death.
So strong was the impression which this species of vision created upon his
mind that he immediately rode out as fast as he
could to the suburban residence of the Cape Premier, Sir James Sibewright, imparting to him his
fears, and entreating him to get at once in telegraphic communication with the British base at
52.

curious story current in

to indicate that Sir

Mount

Prospect.
"Sir James complied with his wishes, and whilst
Buller and the Premier were sitting together, reassuring replies were received, and Major Buller was
bantered by Sir James on the subject of his apprehensions. Yet before evening had arrived the news
of General Colley's defeat and death on Majuba
Hill was flashed across the wires, and it was then
seen that the disaster to British arms had already
taken place at the time when Buller called upon
the Cape Premier, although nothing was known
about it then at Mount Prospect, the British base
of operations against the Boers.
"It is likewise recalled in military circles in London that Sir Redvers seemed to be aware of the
death of the French Prince Imperial and of the fall of
66

also of the death of Gordon at the

occurrence, and long before news of
the events arrived. Buller is such a strange,
silent, saturnine looking man, so repellent in his
manner, and so uninviting as far as familiar conversation and discussion are concerned, that no one has
ever been known to question him about these matters.
But the fact is on record that he has on at
least three occasions given marvelous demonstrations of the possession of a second sight, which
enables him to know important events that are in
progress hundreds and even thousands of miles away
from him.
"Never before has a commander of a big army
embarked upon a campaign thus mentally equipped."
Marquise de Fo?itenoy.

Khartum and

hour of

"No one can doubt that phenomena like these

53.
deserve to be observed, recorded and arranged; and
whether w e call by the name of Mesmerism, or by any
other name, the Science which proposes to do this,
is a mere question of nomenclature.
Among those
who profess this Science there may be careless
observers, prejudiced recorders, and rash sympar

thizers; their errors and defects may impede the

progress of knowledge, but they will not stop it.
And we have no doubt that, before the end of this
century, the wonders which now perplex, almost
equally those who accept and those who reject
modern Mesmerism, will be distributed into defined
classes, and found subject to ascertained laws
in
other words will become the subjects of a Science."
Nassau William Senior.

67

54-

Of

all

the weaknesses which

little

men

rail

against, there is none that they are more apt to ridicule than the tendency to believe.
And of all the
signs of a corrupt heart and a feeble head, the tendency of incredulity is the surest."
Sir Bulwer Lytton.

55.

"Havingexperienced the revelation of the higher

inner consciousness he distributed his extensive

and valuable library among the students, books
being of no further use to him."

Said ofjohann Baptiste von Helmont {1577).

"The faculties of man are manifested through

56.
the effects of Magnetism, just as the properties of
other bodies are developed by the elevation of heat
which chemistry supplies."
Mesmer.
u
The fallibility of man's
57.
liability to
deceive himself

Truth never

will deceive him.

judgment

exists in his

regard to Truth.
Truth is incapable of

in

Elfa.

deception."

"Thought is as distinctly one of the forces of

58.
Nature as electricity and magnetism, and together
with will power it dominates the Universe."

Balzac.

"One good experiment is of more value than the

59.
ingenuity of a brain like Newton's
Facts are more
useful when they contradict, than when they support
received theories."

Sir Humphrey Davy.

" Intuition is usually defined as direct cognition

or knowing, independent of any mediate or reasoning process."
Henry Wood.

60.

68

"The emotions powerfully excite, modify, or

suspend organic functions, causing changes in nutrition, secretion and excretion and thereby affecting
the development and maintainance of the body."

6i.

Dr. Da?iiel Hack Tuke.

62.

"In their zeal to do good, physicians have done

much harm. They have hurried thousands to the

grave who would have recovered if left to Nature/'

Prof. Alonzo Clark,

New York

College of Physicians.

"This excellent man belonged to that category

of distinguished sceptics, who content themselves
with denying whatever they have no knowledge of
Flammarion.
or do not understand."

63.

" I never could believe tnat Providence had sent

64.
a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred
to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be
Rumbald.
ridden."

65.

"There

nothing

is

near the gods

other men."

as

in

which men approach so

when they

try to

give health to

Cicero.

"A scorner seeketh wisdom and findest it not;

but knowledge is easy unto him that understandeth."

66.

Bible.
67.

"

He was

court of

Heaven

man who stole the livery of the

to serve the Devil in."
Robert Pollok.

"

"

" I am attacked by two classes of persons

the
learned and the ignorant. Both of them treat me
with ridicule, and say that I am only fit to be a dancing master for frogs, and yet I think that I have discovered one of the grandest forces in Nature.
Galvani.
" The physician, the priest and the scientist, are
69.
equally loud in the assertion that they are perfectly
unbiased and open to reason, and they are equally
prejudiced and dogmatic should any one be so foolish as to accept their invitation, and attempt to
" Light of Egypt."
reason with them."

68.

"The followers of false leaders should realize

70.
that there is nothing supernatural. All so-called
miracles are the result of natural laws, the action of
which are unrecognized by the observers, and conseRayon.
quently misinterpreted.

"As soon as we seek to penetrate the secrets of

Nature, where nothing is secret, and where it is only
necessary to have the Eyes to see, we perceive that
Balzac.
the Simple produces the Marvelous/'
71.

"Wisdom is a right understanding, a faculty of

72.
discerning good from evil, a judgment grounded on
the value of things and not the common opinion
of them/'

Seneca.

"A presumptuous skepticism that rejects facts

73.
without examination of their truth, is, in some respects, more injurious than unquestioning credulity."
Humboldt.
74.

"

Our doubts

And make

are traitors,

us lose the good

70

we

might win."
Shakespeare.
oft

"b

n-

Hn

flDan!

IRnow Zbyself

tbee is biooen tbe {Treasure of

treasures."

Abipili.

Finis.

LBJl'19