Page 41 (part 6)

Under these conditions, is it unreasonable to suppose that, if this flow were kept up, and the body thus robbed of its element, it would in time disappear entirely? All bodies are formed primitively from this highly tenuous ether, animal, vegetable, and mineral, and they are only returned to their high gaseous condition when brought under a state of differential equilibrium." . . . "As regards odour, we can only get some definite idea of its extreme and wondrous tenuity by taking into consideration that a large area of atmosphere can be impregnated for a long series of years from a single grain of musk; which, if weighed after that long interval, will be found to be not appreciably diminished. The great paradox attending the flow of odorous particles is that they can be held under confinement in a glass vessel! Here is a substance of much higher tenuity than the glass that holds it, and yet it cannot escape. It is as a sieve with its meshes large enough to pass marbles, and yet holding fine sand which cannot pass through; in fact, a molecular vessel holding an atomic substance. This is a problem that would confound those who stop to recognize it. But infinitely tenuous as odour is, it holds a very crude relation to the substance of sub-division that governs a magnetic flow (a flow of sympathy, if you please to call it so). This sub-division comes next to sound, but is above sound. The action of the flow of a magnet coincides somewhat to the receiving and distributing portion of the human brain, giving off at all times a depreciating ratio of the amount received. It is a grand illustration of the control of mind over matter, which gradually depreciates the physical till dissolution takes place. The magnet on the same ratio gradually loses its power and becomes inert. If the relations that exist between mind and matter could be equated and so held, we would live on in our physical state eternally, as there would be no physical depreciation. But this physical depreciation leads, at its terminus, to the source of a much higher development -- viz., the liberation of the pure ether from the crude molecular; which, in my estimation, is to be much desired." -- (From Mrs. Bloomfield-Moore's paper, " The New Philosophy .") It may be remarked that, save a few small divergencies, no Adept nor Alchemist could have explained the above any better , in the light of modern Science , however much the latter may protest against the novel views. This is, in all its fundamental principles, if not details, Occultism pure and simple , yet withal, modern natural philosophy as well. This "New Force," or whatever Science may call it, the effects of which are undeniable -- admitted by more than one naturalist and physicist who has visited Mr. Keely's laboratory and witnessed personally its tremendous effects -- what is it? Is it a "mode of motion," also, " in Vacuo ," since there is no matter to generate it except Sound -- another "mode of motion," no doubt, a sensation caused like [[Vol. 1, Page]] 566 THE SECRET DOCTRINE. colour by vibrations? Fully as we believe in these vibrations as the proximate -- the immediate -- cause of such sensations, we as absolutely reject the one-sided scientific theory that there is no factor to be considered as external to us, other than etheric or atmospheric vibrations.* There is a transcendental set of causes put in motion -- so to speak -- in the occurrence of these phenomena, which, not being in relation to our narrow range of cognition , can only be traced to their source and their nature, and understood by the Spiritual faculties of the Adept. They are, as Asclepios puts it to the King, "incorporeal corporealities" -- such as "appear in the mirror," and "abstract forms" that we see , hear , and smell , in our dreams, and visions. What have the "modes of motion," light, and ether to do with these? Yet we see, hear, and smell, and touch them, ergo they are as much realities to us in our dreams, as any other thing on this plane of Maya. ------- [[This page continued in next section]] [[Footnote(s)]] ------------------------------------------------- * In this case the American "Substantialists" are not wrong (though too anthropomorphic and material in their views to be accepted by the Occultists) when arguing through Mrs. M. S. Organ, M.D., that "there must be positive entitative properties in objects which have a constitutional relation to the nerves of animal sensations, or there can be no perception. No impression of any kind can be made upon brain, nerve, or mind -- no stimulus to action -- unless there is an actual and direct communication of a substantial force." ("Substantial" as far as it appears in the usual sense of the word in this universe of illusion and MAYA, of course; not so in reality. ) "That force may be the most refined and sublimated immaterial Entity (?). Yet it must exist; for no sense, element, or faculty of the human being can have a perception, or be stimulated into action, without some substantial force coming in contact with it. This is the fundamental law pervading the whole organic and mental world. In the true philosophical sense there is no such thing as independent action: for every force or substance is correlated to some other force or substance. We can with just as much truth and reason assert that no substance possesses any inherent gustatory property or any olfactory property -- that taste and odour are simply sensations caused by vibrations; and hence mere illusions of animal perceptions. . . ."