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

"Being unsupplied with any philosophy of their own to account for the lesions, the pathologists, true to professional instinct, resort to negation. "That such deformity may be produced by mental impressions on pregnant women there is an absence of positive proof", they say. "Moles, mothers' marks, and cutaneous spots as ascribed to morbid states of [...]

"The great English authority upon the subject of malformation is The Science and Practice of Medicine, by Wm. Aitken, M. D., Edinburgh, and Professor of Pathology in the Army Medical School; the American edition of which, by Professor Meredith Clymer, M. D., of the University of Pennsylvania, has equal weight in the United States. At [...]

"Magendie acknowledges that, despite scientific researches, comparatively little is known of foetal life. At page 518 of the American edition of his Precis Elementaire de Physiologie he instances "a case where the umbilical cord was ruptured and perfectly cicatrized", and asks "How was the circulation carried on in this organ?" On the next page, he [...]

"Cornelius Gemma tells of a child that was born with his forehead wounded and running with blood, the result of his father's threats toward his mother "... with a drawn sword which he directed toward her forehead"; Sennertius records the case of a pregnant woman who, seeing a butcher divide a swine's head with his [...]

"The power of imagination upon our physical condition, even after we arrive at maturity, is evinced in many familiar ways. In medicine, the intelligent physician does not hesitate to accord to it a curative or morbific potency greater than his pills and potions. He calls it the vis medicatrix naturae, and his first endeavor is [...]

"In a work published in London, in 1659, a powerful argument is made in refutation of the materialists by showing the potency of the human mind upon the subtile forces of nature. The author, Dr. More, views the foetus as if it were a plastic substance, which can be fashioned by the mother to an [...]

"When Iamblichus, Herodotus, Pliny, or some other ancient writer tells us of priests who caused asps to come forth from the alter of Isis, or of thaumaturgists taming with a glance the most ferocious animals, they are considered liars and ignorant imbeciles. When modern travelers tells us of the same wonders performed in the East, [...]

"Many believe that all such snakes are prepared and trained for the purpose, and that they are either deprived of their fangs, or have their mouths sewed up. There may be, doubtless, some inferior jugglers, whose trickery has given rise to such and idea. But the genuine serpent-charmer has too well established his claims in [...]

"Music is delightful to every person. Low whistling, a melodious chant, or the sounds of a flute will invariably attract reptiles in countries where they are found. We have witnessed and verified the fact repeatedly. In Upper Egypt, whenever our caravan stopped, a young traveler, who believed he excelled on the flute, amused the company [...]

"Bruce, Hasselquist, and Lempriere, testify to the fact that they have seen in Egypt, Morocco, Arabia, and especially in the Senaar, some natives utterly disregarding the bites of the most poisonous vipers, as well as the stings of scorpions. They handle and play with them, and throw them at will into a state of stupor. [...]