Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-05
rHEosorHY AND oCcULrIsm IN INDIA.
seme Account Of New and Remarkable
Movement.
gz Orente Luz

Delng mere 0e6cIlDSu has Dech 40 sio" anu
uncertain in it's advance as any OF its pre-
decessors. 1t may be said to have received
It's first positive stimulus in the intellect
ual agitation which accompanied the inves-
tipation of Mesmerism, or Animal Magnet
ism, more than half century ago. The
history of that agitation is in many ways
instructive. In 1854 the French Academy
was generally supposed to have condemned
the theories of Mesmer, and on the
strength of report, the real tenor of
which was unknown to the majority, ridi-
cule was freely cast upon all who ventured
to inquire anew into the subject In truth
the Academy did not pronounce against
Mesmerism, Though as learned bodies have
often done as foolish things). All it under
took to declare was that the existence of .
fluid by which the phenomena were produced
was not satisfactorily demonstrated. On
the other hand it expressly stated that it
has been proved to us, in clear and salts.
factory manner, by our inquiry into the
phenomena of mesmerism, that man can
act upon man, at all times and almost at
will, by influencing his Imagination that
the most simple signs and gestures may
produce the most powerful effect that the
action of man upon the imagination may
be reduced to an art, and conducted after a
certain method" This was really very
important concession under the circum.
stances, and the citation shows that though
scientific societies have frequently mani
tested anything but the scientific spirit
when called upon to examine new classes
of facts, yet public haste and ignorance
sometimes do less than justice in such
cases.
The earnest men who had reopened the
whole question, however, cared nothing
for the Nominations Of the Academy.
They had seen enough of the phenomena
to be convinced that important conse-
quences were involved in the exploitation
of the subject, and so they went to work
with energy and courage. The names of
Puysegur, Bertrand, Du Potet,. Dsleuze,
Gregory, Reichenbach, Elliotson, Ash
burner, Townshend, Rutter and Crooks,
will at once recall the extent and value of
the researches which have been made dur
ing the present century in this direction.
And the most remarkable results have
been attained. The usual opposition was
of course encountered. The medical pro.
fession, after its fashion, derided phe-
nomena which it could not comprehend.
The professors of medical science, which is
the most uncertain and empirical of all, are
naturally the most dogmatic, presumptu.
GUS and exclusive. So they prosecuted the
mesmerists, and preferred to kill their pa
tients with lethal drugs rather than admit
the possibility of curing them by what
they stigmatized as charlatanry. But in
spite of opposition, from doctors and phi.
losophers and physicists, mesmerism con-
tinued to make way. It was in fact dem
onstrated that it is therapeutic agent of
great power and almost universal applica-
bility that it can be employed as an
an@sthetic, in the place of ether and chic
reform, and that, unlike the latter, it
never kills its subjects; that in certain
sensitive constitutions it can develop a
power of comprehension SO far beyond all
ordinary experience that the facts of
Clairvoyance were for long time re-
garded with what they thought merely
intelligent skepticism, even by many
broad. minded men. But the truth of
these facts has been established
by an amount and quality of
evidence sufficient to demonstrate any
thing and those who continue to deny the
reality of the phenomena must be placed
in the category with Hume, who, after
showing that the most ample and we'll
attested evidence existed for the genuine.
ness of the phenomena occurring at the
tomb of the Able Paris, could draw no
wiser deduction from the premises than the
observation "Where shall we find such
number of circumstances, agreeing to the
confederation of one fact? And what have
we to oppose to such cloud of witnesses,
but the absolute impossibility of the events
which they relate ?" Hume thought that
this, Gin the eyes of all reasonable people
will alone be regarded as sufficient refu-
tation )" but modern Science, though it
does not always practice according to its
precepts, has the wisdom and the modesty
to declare, with Professor Tyndall "You
never hear the really philosophical de-.
tenders of the doctrine of Uniformity speak
ing of impossibilitieS in Nature"
Meantime constant investigation was re-
vealing the semblance of law in what had
at first appeared capricious and uncertain
to the last degree. Baron Reichenbach
discovered what he supposed to be new
natural force, and named it sod" This
was really but partial rediscovery of the
phenomena which had been familiar to the
ancients thousands of years before the
Christian era. Nevertheless, the researches
of Reichenbach were in the right direction,
for behind Animal Magnetism great natu.
raj force does stand. Later on Rutter in
vented the Magnetoscope, by which human
magnetism and that of external animate
and inanimate Nature could be tested and
compared. This was really as important
an invention in its way as the Radiometer
of Professor Crookes, but yet the time was
not sufficiently ripe for the further advance
of Animal Magnetism on that line, and the
chief use of these experiments was to
indicate the right direction for future
investigation in cognate subjects. 1t had
been noticed from the first development of
Clairvoyance, that the so-called "sensi.
tives occasionally professed to see what