The Condition of Our Physical
Body Largely Depends on Our Will
Body Largely Depends on Our Will
Helena P. Blavatsky
some scientists have found, it is one vast magnet,
as Paracelsus affirmed some 300 years ago.”
Aethrobacy is
the Greek name for walking or being lifted in the air; levitation, so called, among modern spiritualists. It may be
either conscious or unconscious; in the one case, it is magic; in the other,
either disease or a power which requires a few words of elucidation.
A symbolical
explanation of aethrobacy is given in an old Syriac manuscript which was
translated in the fifteenth century by one Malchus, an alchemist. In connection
with the case of Simon Magus, one passage reads thus:
“Simon,
laying his face upon the ground, whispered in her ear, ‘O mother Earth, give
me, I pray thee, some of thy breath; and I will give thee mine; let me loose, O mother, that I may carry
thy words to the stars, and I will return faithfully to thee after a while.’
And the Earth strengthening her status, none to her detriment, sent her genius
to breathe of her breath on Simon, while he breathed on her; and the stars
rejoiced to be visited by the mighty One.”
The
starting-point here is the recognized electro-chemical principle that bodies
similarly electrified repel each other, while those differently electrified
mutually attract. “The most elementary knowledge of chemistry”, says Professor
Cooke, “shows that, while radicals of opposite natures combine most eagerly
together, two metals, or two closely-allied metalloids, show but little
affinity for each other.”
The earth is
a magnetic body; in fact, as some scientists have found, it is one vast magnet,
as Paracelsus affirmed some 300 years ago. It is charged with one form of
electricity - let us call it positive - which it evolves continuously by
spontaneous action, in its interior or centre of motion. Human bodies, in
common with all other forms of matter, are charged with the opposite form of
electricity - negative. That is to say, organic or inorganic bodies, if left to
themselves will constantly and involuntarily charge themselves with, and evolve
the form of electricity opposed to that of the earth itself. Now, what is
weight? Simply the attraction of the earth. “Without the attractions of the
earth you would have no weight”, says Professor Stewart;[1] “and if you had an earth twice as heavy as this, you would have
double the attraction.” How then, can we get rid of this attraction? According
to the electrical law above stated, there is an attraction between our planet
and the organisms upon it, which holds them upon the surface of the ground. But
the law of gravitation has been counteracted in many instances, by levitations
of persons and inanimate objects; how account for this?
The condition
of our physical systems, say theurgic philosophers, is largely dependent upon
the action of our will. If well-regulated, it can produce “miracles”; among
others a change of this electrical polarity from negative to positive; the man’s
relations with the earth-magnet would then become repellent, and “gravity” for
him would have ceased to exist. It would then be as natural for him to rush
into the air until the repellent force had exhausted itself, as, before, it had
been for him to remain upon the ground. The altitude of his levitation would be
measured by his ability, greater or less, to charge his body with positive
electricity. This control over the physical forces once obtained, alteration of
his levity or gravity would be as easy as breathing.
The study of
nervous diseases has established that even in ordinary somnambulism, as well as
in mesmerized somnambulists, the weight of the body seems to be diminished.
Professor Perty mentions a somnambulist, Koehler, who when in the water could
not sink, but floated. The seeress of Prevorst rose to the surface of the bath
and could not be kept seated in it. He speaks of Anna Fleisher, who being
subject to epileptic fits, was often seen by the Superintendent to rise in the
air; and was once, in the presence of two trustworthy witnesses (two deans) and
others, raised two and a half yards from her bed in a horizontal position.
The similar
case of Margaret Rule is cited by Upham in his History of Salem Witchcraft. “In ecstatic subjects”, adds Professor
Perty, “the rising in the air occurs much more frequently than with
somnambulists. We are so accustomed to consider gravitation as being a
something absolute and unalterable, that the idea of a complete or partial
rising in opposition to it seems inadmissible; nevertheless, there are
phenomena in which, by means of material forces, gravitation is overcome. In
several diseases - as, for instance, nervous fever - the weight of the human
body seems to be increased, but in all ecstatic conditions to be diminished.
And there may, likewise, be other forces than material ones which can
counteract this power.”
A Madrid
journal, El Criterio Espiritista, of
a recent date, reports the case of a young peasant girl near Santiago, which
possesses a peculiar interest in this connection. “Two bars of magnetized iron
held over her horizontally, half a metre distant, was sufficient to suspend her
body in the air.”
Were our
physicians to experiment on such levitated subjects, it would be found that
they are strongly charged with a similar form of electricity to that of the
spot, which, according to the law of gravitation, ought to attract them, or rather prevent their levitation. And, if some
physical nervous disorder, as well as spiritual ecstasy produce unconsciously
to the subject the same effects, it proves that if this force in nature were
properly studied, it could be regulated at will.
NOTE:
[1] “The Sun and the Earth”. (Helena P. Blavatsky)
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“The Process of Levitation” is a fragment from Helena Blavatsky’s work “Isis Unveiled”, Volume I, pp. xxiii-xxv. The article is available at the associated websites as an independent item since 26 July 2021. It is also part of the March 2020 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 6-7.
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“The Process of Levitation” is a fragment from Helena Blavatsky’s work “Isis Unveiled”, Volume I, pp. xxiii-xxv. The article is available at the associated websites as an independent item since 26 July 2021. It is also part of the March 2020 edition of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, pp. 6-7.
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Helena Blavatsky
(photo) wrote these words: “Deserve,
then desire”.
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