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

"Descartes was one of the few who believed and dared say that to occult medicine we shall owe discoveries "destined to extend the domain of philosophy"; and Brierre de Boismont not only shared in these hopes but openly avowed his sympathy with "supernaturalism", which he considered the universal "grand creed."   "...We think with Guizot", [...]

"Before venturing to decide the question whether the spectral animal forms so frequently seen and attested are the returning spirits of dead beasts, we most carefully consider their reported behavior.   Do these spectres act according to the habits and display the same instincts, as the animals during life? Do the spectral beasts of prey [...]

"Pausanias writes that four hundred years after the battle of Marathon, there were still heard in the place where it was fought, the neighing of horses and the shouts of shadowy soldiers. Supposing that the spectres of the slaughtered soldiers were their genuine spirits, they looked like "shadows", not materialized men.   Who, then, or [...]

"To these assertions may be opposed a fact well known among spiritualists: The writer has publicly certified to having seen such materialized forms. We have most assuredly done so, and are ready to repeat the testimony.   We have recognized such figures as the visible representations of acquaintances, friends, and even relatives. We have, in [...]

"If this philosophy is wrong, if all the "materialized" forms emerging in darkened rooms from still darker cabinets, are spirits of men who once lived upon this earth, why such a difference between them and the ghosts that appear unexpectedly - ex abrupto - without either cabinet or medium?   Who ever heard of the [...]

"Upon rare occasions the spirits are able to subdue and control these soulless beings, which are ever ready to assume pompous names if left to themselves, in such a way that the mischievous spirit "of the air", shaped in the real image of the human spirit, will be moved by the latter like a marionette, [...]

"Further on we will give abundant proofs from ancient authors concerning this neglected truism. We will now only again assert that no spirit claimed by the spiritualists to be human was ever proved to be such on sufficient testimony.   The influence of the disembodied ones can be felt, and communicated subjectively by them to [...]

"This is not our philosophy, but that of the numberless generations of theurgists and magicians, and based upon their practical experience. The testimony of antiquity is positive on this subject: Δαιμονιοιν φοναι αναρΘροι εισι.... The voices of spirits are not articulated.   The spirit-voice consists of a series of sounds which conveys the impression of [...]

"We are far from believing that all spirits that communicate at circles are of the classes called "Elemental", and "Elementary". Many - especially among those who control the medium subjectively to speak, write, and otherwise act in various ways - are human, disembodied spirits.   Whether the majority of such spirits are good or bad, [...]

"The lives of Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, and Philalethes are too well known to repeat the old, sad story. If spiritualists are anxious to keep strictly dogmatic in their notions of the "spirit-world", they must not set scientists to investigate their phenomena in the true experimental spirit. The attempt would most surely result in a partial [...]