The herald., 1896-10-18

Rogers, other physicists have tried to
photograph the psychical images as
they are impressed on the retina by
the force of the imagination. 1t is slevi-
dent that such images are distinct from
those arising from immediate contact
with reality; but their real nature is the
same in essence. When Inglis Rogers
was gazing at the stamp he saw only
an image on the retina, and in reality
it was not on the material cells of the
retina itself that the image rested, but
it was on the tabula rasa of the mind.
1t was outward from the mind itsele,
not from the retina, that this was pro-
jected through the sensitive and re-
sponsive ether to the sensitive plate
of photography, an arrangement of un
stable cells which is the triumph of the
art of the chemist.
1t is therefore not necessary for this
experiment that one should gaze at an
individual stamp. To think of a stamp
will serve as well. Recognizing this
fact, Mr.. Cameron Lee, another English
experimenter, attempted to secure the
image of a thought. Placing his own
eye in the focus of a lens in absolute
darkness, he thought intensely of the
face of certain cat. After long ex-
posure, necessary on account of the
comparative grossness Of the photo
graphic materials, a picture was form
ed. The negative shows rounded out
pupil of the eye, and in it's center was
formed a faint image, which could be
mistaken for nothing other than a cat.
An account of this experiment was
given in the daily press, but its true
bearing was first seen at Alcalde.
At the meeting of the Astral Camera
club held in Alcalde on April 1st of this
current year. its president, Mr.. Asa
Marvin, read a paper on these discov-
cries. calling attention to their astral
significance. The supremacy of mind
over matter, already indicated in a
hundred ways, was thus splendidly IL
lustrated. AS thousand miles of ether
may be made to vibrate at the command
of the will of the psychical adept, 50
may the grosser forms of matter be
shaken or removed when this subtle
and resstless force acts upon it.
The famous legend of Odin and the
Golden Mead, as Mr.. Marvin went on to
show, is not myth, but was probably
an actual occurrence. 1t may be a re-
ality again when Odins descendants
rival their ancestor in that wisdom for
which the famous hero so freely gave
his right eye. 1t Is not unlikely that the
actual Niffelheim, or mist-home, where
he exchanged his right eye for wisdom,
Is to be sought in the Himalayas rather
than in Scandinavia. Odin, it will be re-
membered, after he had gained this wis
dom, wished a draught Of the golden
mead which the giant Suttung kept
locked up in his strong house of stone
near his castle of Spukheim. Odin HAD
arranged with the giant Bauge, whose
hay he had harvested, that he should
help him to secure this e-giving drink
And thus, the saga tells us, when they
had found the stone castle in which the
mead was hidden, Odin and Bauge sat
down all day before the stone wall and
gazed steadily upon it. BY this means,
hole through the stone large enough for
Odin in the astral form of an angleworm
to pass through, and by this means the
mead was gained and the strength Of
the giants passed over to mortals.
The essence of this story lies in its H.
lustration of the power of mind over
matter when it's forces are concen-
trated. BY psychic intensity the CO.
hesion of molecules of gross matter
may be overcome. 1t is well known to
physicists that these molecules nowhere
actually touch each other, nor do they
come near doing so. The spaces be-
tween them are filled up with ether.
easy for the odic force to introduce it.
self 1t is, in fact, unlikely that the
gross particles of stone exist at all; for,
as some physicists have shown, these
are but eddies or vortex-rings in the
ether itself, which is the only material
reality.
Mr.. Marvin showed very clearly that
this supposed legend was not lightly to
be set aside as mythology; or, rather.
that it is likely that mythology is the
only true history The same psychic
strength and wisdom which have caused
Odin to be remembered and revered as
q god by our ancestors. was the same
psychic force by which he overcame the
cohesion of matter. For us all to do this
is doubtless only question of time.
Many adopts are already able to do
more wonderful things than these.
In time the evolution of man will bring
these latent powers to light, suppressed
ing our common reason with astral In
tuition as reason has supplanted mere
animal instinct.
Having thus shown the broad princi-
pies on which studies in the new psyche
physics must rest, Mr.. Marvin described
a special contrivance or application of
these principles to the work Of the Cam
era club.
He had devised camera with lens
having curved facets arranged on the
plan of the eye of a fly. To each one of the
seven facets led an insulated tube pro-
vided with an electric connection, SO
that electric or odic impulses could be
transferred from the brain or retina
through the eve of each different OBJ
server to the many-faced lens. From
the lens these impulses would be con-
verged on a sensitive plate, as the rays
of light are gathered together in or
dinary photography
From the members of the Camera
club. seven of those having greatest an
imal magnetism and greatest power of
mental concentration were chosen for
the experiment. Connection was made
from the eye of these observers to the
corresponding parts Of the lens; then
all We're to remain in utter darkness and
perfect silence, each person fixing his
mind on cat They were not to think
of any particular cat, but of a cat as
represented by the innate idea of the
mind or ego itself. This was highly i'm
portant. for the purpose of Mr.. Marvin
was not simply to fix by photography
an ephemeral recollection, as Mr.. Rog-
ers and Mr. Lee had done; it was to
bring out the impression Of ultimate
feline reality. The innate image in the
mind was the object desired. One man s
ephemeral, recollection of some cat
by the minds eye would be seen again.
From seven ideals, sympathetically
combined, the true cat would be devel-
oped. This combination is the essence
of sympsychography. a term suggested
by Prof. Amos Gridley of Alcalde, as
distinct from the ordinary biography
of Rogers and Lee. The personal equa-
tion would be measurably eliminated
in sympsychography. while the cat Of
the human innate idea, the astral cat
the cat which never was on sea or
land" but in accordance with which all