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

"Accepting the whole of the above as a solid ground-work for his learned arguments, this is what Dr. Fuguier says:  "Toward the close of the seventeenth century, an old maid imports into Cevennes the spirit of prophecy. She communicates it (?) to young boys and girls, who transpire it in their turn, and spread it [...]

"Between the two champions - the materialist and the bigot - the unbiased student may glean a good harvest. We will begin with the Convulsionaires of Cevennes, the epidemic of whose astounding phenomena occurred during the latter part of 1700. The merciless measures adopted by the French Catholics to extirpate the spirit of prophecy from [...]

"To appreciate the timidity, prejudice, and superficiality which have marked the treatment of psychological subjects in the past, we propose to review a book which lies before us. It is the Histoire du Merveilleux dans les Temps Modernes. The work is published by its author, the learned Dr. Figuier, and teems with quotations from the [...]

"We witnessed once in India a trial of physical skill between a holy gossein and sorcerer, which recurs to us in this connection. We had been discussing the relative powers of the fakir's Pitris - pre-Adamite spirits, and the juggler's invisible allies. A trial of skill was agreed upon, and the writer was chosen as [...]

"This is so remarkable an instance of psychographic mediumship, and so thoroughly illustrates the principle we have above stated, that we cannot refrain from quoting a few lines from one of the Sanskrit writings, the more so as it embodies that portion of the Hermetic philosophy relating to the antecedent state of man, which elsewhere [...]

"Psychography, or the direct writing of messages by spirits, partakes of both forms of mediumship. The writing itself is an objective physical fact, while the sentiments it contains may be of the very noblest character. The latter depend entirely on the moral state of the medium. It does not require that he should be educated, [...]

"If from this believer we pass to the authority of an adept in that mysterious science, the anonymous author of Art-Magic, we find him stating the following: The reader may inquire wherein consists the difference between a medium and a magician? ...The medium is one through whose astral spirit other spirits can manifest, making their [...]

"It may be considered quite absurd to recall so often the facts of witchcraft, in the full light of the nineteenth century. But the century itself is getting old; and as it gradually approaches the fatal end, it seems as if it were falling into dotage; not only does it refuse to recollect how abundantly [...]

"Says Proclus:   "Many other of the ancients have collected a history of those that have apparently died, and afterward revived. Among these is the natural philosopher Demokritus. In his writings concerning Hades, he affirms that [in a certain case under discussion] death was not, as it seemed, an entire desertion of the whole life of [...]

"First in rank for wonders comes Proclus. His list of facts, most of which he supports by the citation of witnesses - sometimes well-known philosophers - is staggering. He records many instances in his time of dead persons who were found to have changed their recumbent positions in the sepulchre, for one of either sitting [...]