Page 34 (part 3)

Most of them reject actio in distans (one of the fundamental principles in the question of AEther or Akasa in Occultism), while, as Stallo justly observes, there is no physical action, [[Vol. 1, Page]] 488 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. "which, on close examination, does not resolve itself into actio in distans "; and he proves it. Now, metaphysical arguments, according to Professor Lodge ( Nature , vol. xxvii. , p. 304), are "unconscious appeals to experience." And he adds that if such an experience is not conceivable , then it does not exist, etc. In his own words: -- ". . . If a highly-developed mind or set of minds, find a doctrine about some comparatively simple and fundamental matter absolutely unthinkable , it is an evidence . . . that the unthinkable state of things has no existence , etc." And thereupon, toward the end of his lecture, Professor Lodge indicates that the explanation of cohesion, as well as of gravity, "is to be looked for in the vortex-atom theory of Sir William Thomson" (Stallo). It is needless to stop to inquire whether it is to this vortex-theory, also, that we have to look for the dropping down on earth of the first life-germ by a passing meteor or comet (Sir W. Thomson's hypothesis). But Mr. Lodge might be reminded of the wise criticism on his lecture in the same "Concepts of Modern Physics." Noticing the above-quoted declaration by the London Professor, the author asks "whether . . . the elements of the vortex-theory are familiar , or even possible, facts of experience? For, if they are not, clearly that theory is obnoxious to the same criticism which is said to invalidate the assumption of ACTIO IN DISTANS" (p. xxiv). And then the able critic shows clearly what the Ether is not , nor can ever be, notwithstanding all scientific claims to the contrary. And thus he opens widely, if unconsciously, the entrance door to our occult teachings. For, as he says: -- "The medium in which the vortex-movements arise is, according to Professor Lodge's own express statement (NATURE, vol. xxvii., p. 305), 'a perfectly homogeneous, incompressible, continuous body, incapable of being resolved into simple elements or atoms: it is, in fact, continuous, not molecular.' And after making this statement Professor Lodge adds: ' There is no other body of which we can say this , and hence the Properties of the aether must be somewhat DIFFERENT from those of ordinary matter .' It appears, then, that the whole vortex-atom theory, which is offered to us as a substitute for the 'metaphysical theory' of actio in distans , rests upon the hypothesis of the existence of a material medium which is utterly unknown to experience , and which has properties somewhat different* from those of ordinary matter. Hence this theory, instead of being, as is claimed, a reduction of an unfamiliar fact of experience to a familiar fact, is, [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * " Somewhat different!" exclaims Stallo. "The real import of this 'somewhat' is, that the medium in question is not , in any intelligible sense , material at all , having none of the properties of matter." All the properties of matter depend upon differences and changes, and the "hypothetical" aether here defined is not only destitute of differences, but incapable of difference and change -- (in the physical sense let us add). This proves that if aether is "matter" it is so only as something visible, tangible and existing, for spiritual senses alone; that it is a Being indeed -- but not of our plane: Pater AEther, or Akasa. [[Vol. 1, Page]] 489 THE PHYSICAL "PHANTOM." on the contrary, a reduction of a fact which is perfectly familiar, to a fact which is not only unfamiliar, but wholly unknown, unobserved and unobservable. Furthermore, the alleged vortical motion of, or rather in, the assumed ethereal medium is . . . impossible, because "motion in a perfectly homogeneous, incompressible, and therefore continuous fluid, is not sensible motion." . . . . It is manifest, therefore, that wherever the vortex-atom theory may lead us, it certainly does not lead us anywhere in the region of physics , or in the domain of verae causae.* And I may add that, inasmuch as the hypothetical undifferentiated** and undifferentiable medium is clearly an involuntary re-ification of the old ontological concept pure being , the theory under discussion has all the attributes of an inapprehensible metaphysical phantom. " A "phantom" indeed, which can be made apprehensible only by Occultism. From such scientific metaphysics to Occultism there is hardly one step. Those physicists who hold the view that the atomic constitution of matter is consistent with its penetrability, need not go far out of their way to be able to account for the greatest phenomena of Occultism, now so derided by physical scientists and materialists. Cauchy's "material points without extension" are Leibnitz's monads, and at the same time the materials out of which the "Gods" and other invisible powers clothe themselves in bodies ( vide infra , " Gods , Monads and Atoms ") . The disintegration and reintegration of "material" particles without extension as a chief factor in phenomenal manifestations ought to suggest themselves very easily as a clear possibility , at any rate to those few scientific minds which accept M. Cauchy's views. For, disposing of that property of matter which they call impenetrability by simply regarding the atoms as "material points exerting on each other attractions and repulsions which vary with the distances that separate them" -- the French theorist explains that: "From this it follows that, if it pleased the author of nature*** simply to modify the laws according to which the atoms attract or repel each other, we might instantly see the hardest bodies penetrating each other , the smallest particles of matter occupying immense spaces , or the largest masses reducing themselves to the smallest volumes, the entire universe concentrating itself, as it were, in a single point." ( Sept lecons de physique Generale , p. 38 et seq. , ed. Moigno.) And that "point," invisible on our plane of perception and matter , is quite visible to the eye of the adept who can follow and see it present on other planes. [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * Verae causae for physical science are mayavic or illusionary causes to the Occultist, and vice versa. ** Very much "differentiated," on the contrary, since the day it left its laya condition. *** For the Occultists who say that the author of nature is nature itself , something indistinct and inseparable from the Deity, it follows that those who are conversant with the occult laws of nature, and know how to change and provoke new conditions in ether, may -- not modify the laws, but work and do the same in accordance with those immutable laws.