The Saint Paul globe., 1897-12-05
owe KNOW THAT WE CANNOT
KNOW

Looking into a mirror which forms
panel in a wall of a room so deftly
placed as to make it seem a window,
it is difficult for one, not knowing it
is mirror, to convince himself that he
is not looking through translucent glass
into the beyond. Even after knowledge
comes that it is but mirror the de-
lusion remains and the gazer finds him
self readily falling again subject to it.
Add to the mirror one who assumes to
speak by authority, who tells you what
he sees in that beyond; given willing
ness to believe in the one and that
mysterious thought mastery in the
other which we call hypnotism, and we
have in the conditions a plausible solu-
ton of what men call the occult, the
visions of the Mahatma, the various
manifestations of spiritism, the predic-
tions of the palmist, the horoscopes of
the astrologer.
Each is but mirror giving back
only a reflection of the environment,
while the veil remains unified and un-
rent. 1t is only into a mirror that re-
fleets ourselves, our lives, our sur
roundings, that we gaze when we imag-
inc we are seeing into the beyond and
having communication with those who
have gone before. The master of the
mirror deludes us, sometimes deludes
n holt fhnf hot
and hear is from behind the bright sur
face, using, consciously or not, his
singular power of thought mastery to
make us see what he would have us
see, hear what he or we would hear,
yield up our treasures of memory to
him without our volition or conscious
act. We merely see there a reflection Of
ourselves, our past, our earthly sur
roundings, deceived to believe them
revelations of life beyond the grave.
Two English travellers in India mar
rate their experience with one of those
men of rare powers whom they In In
Ola term fakirs and we here call hyp-
notists and mediums They tell how
one of these occultists came into the
village and began to manifest his pow
ers. The villagers gathered in a circle
about him, with the travellers interest
ed and curious spectators. They saw
the fakir plant a mango seed in the
ground; heard him repeat his incanta-
tiCns over it.: saw it's leaves appear
above the ground; watched it grow into
a tree, and all within the space of a
few moments. The Englishmen saw
the process from beginning to end, con-
affecting their senses of seeing or of
thought. The whole scene was as
veritable to their senses as were the
mountains that hedged in the valley,
the sun that shone upon them, or the
human beings that formed the circle.
But one of them had a kodak, and it
the aid of the camera to assist him in
overcoming the incredulity of his home
friends to whom he would narrate the
wonderful affair. When the tree was at
it's full growth he took a snap shot at
the group, the natives, the fakir and
the mango tree. Later he developed
the negative, and, to his astonishment,
while it revealed the crowd and the
fakir in it's center, no mango tree
appeared upon the plate. The
camera could not be hypnotized.
The fakir had compelled all the minds
about him to see what he willed them
to see, and that without the methods
of our bungling hypnotists who have to
announce their purpose of producing
subjection. With the fakir, and with
all these pretended communications
with the mysterious after life, we do
nothing but gaze into a mirror, seeing
oply the things of this earth. After
all Socrates was right. We only know
that we cannot know.