Category: Isis Unveiled: H. P. Blavatsky (1877)

"Gorres, the German philosopher, says to the same effect, that "God never created man as a dead corpse, but as an animal full of life. Once he had thus produced him, finding him ready to receive the immortal breath, He breathed him in the face, and thus man became a double masterpiece in His hands. [...]

"There is a phenomenon in nature , and therefore rejected by physiology and psychology in our age of unbelief. This phenomenon is a state of half-death. Virtually, the body is dead; and, in cases of persons in whom matter does not predominate over spirit and wickedness not so great as to destroy spiritually, if left [...]

"The spectre of a village herdsman, near Kodom, in Bavaria, began appearing to several inhabitants of the place, and either in consequence of their fright or some other cause, every one of them died during the following week. Driven to despair, the peasants disinterred the corpse, and pinned it to the ground with a long [...]

"There are interesting particulars to be gathered in relation to vampirism, since belief in this phenomenon has existed in all countries, from the remotest ages. The Slavonian nations, the Greeks, the Wallachians, and the Servians would rather doubt the existence of their enemies, the Turks, than the fact that there are vampires. The broucolak, or [...]

"One of the most important examples of vampirism figures in the private letters of the philosopher, the Marquis d'Argens; and, in the Revue Britannique, for March, 1837, the English traveler Pashley describes some that came under his notice in the island of Candia. Dr. Jobard, the anti-Catholic and anti-spiritual Belgian savant, testifies to similar experiences. [...]

"Pierart, whose doctrine was founded on that of the theurgists, exhibits a warm indignation against the superstition of the clergy which requires, whenever a corpse is suspected of vampirism, that a stake should be driven through the heart. So long as the astral form is not entirely liberated from the body there is a liability [...]

"The true doctrine of Buddha says that the demons, when nature produced the sun, moon, and stars, were human beings, but, on account of their sins, they fell from the state of felicity. If they commit greater sins, they suffer greater punishments, and condemned men are reckoned by them among the devils; while, on the [...]

"Another good reason why the Hindus should not worship the "Devil" is that they have no word to convey such a meaning. They call these spirits "puttam", which answers rather to our "spook", or malicious imp; another expression they use is "pey" and the Sanscrit pesasu, both meaning ghosts or "returning ones" - perhaps goblins, [...]

"That they are human spirits is shown by the fact that very often they try to humor and propitiate the "larvae" of their own daughters and relatives, when they have no reason to suspect that the latter did not die in the odor of sanctity and chastity. Such spirits they name "Kanni", bad virgins. The [...]

"As for the wonderful powers of prediction and clairvoyance possessed by certain Brahmans, they are well-known to every European resident of India. If these upon their return to "civilized" countries, laugh at such stories, and sometimes even deny them outright, they only impugn their good faith, not the fact. These Brahmans live principally in "sacred [...]