All the phenomena we see are not objective; but the agents who "will"
that we should see them are objective--they are the unknown brains. It
is a mistake to think that these unknown brains can only exert their
influence on a few of us. We are all subject to them, though we do not
all see their manifestations. Were it not for the lower order of spirit
brains, there would be comparatively few drunkards, gamblers,
adulterers, fornicators, murderers, and suicides. It is they who excite
man's animal senses, by conjuring up alluring pictures of drink, and
gold, and sexual happiness. By the aid of the higher type of spirit
brains (who, contending for ever with the lower forms of spirit brains,
are indeed our "guardian angels") I have been enabled to perceive the
atmosphere surrounding drinking-dens and brothels full of all kinds of
bestial influences, from elementals, who allure men by presenting to
their minds all kinds of attractive tableaux, to the earth-bound spirits
of drunkards and libertines, transformed into horrors of the sub-human,
sub-animal order of phantasms--things with bloated, nude bodies and
pigs' faces, shaggy bears with fulsome, watery eyes; mangy dogs, etc. I
have watched these things that still possess--and possess in a far
greater degree--all the passions of their life incarnate, sniffing the
foul and vitiated atmosphere of the public-houses and brothels, and
chafing in the most hideous manner at their inability to gratify their
lustful cravings in a more substantial way. A man advances along the
road at a swinging pace, with no thought, as yet, of deviating from his
course and entering a public-house. He comes within the radius of the
sinister influences, which I can see and feel hanging around the saloon.
Their shadowy, silent brain power at once comes into play and gains
ascendancy over his weaker will. He halts because he is "willed" to do
so. A tempting tableau of drink rises before him and he at once imagines
he is thirsty. Soft and fascinating elemental hands close over his and
draw him gently aside. A look of beastly satisfaction suffuses his eyes.
He smacks his lips, hastens his steps, the bar-room door closes behind
him, and, for the remaining hours of the day, he wallows in drink.
But the unknown brain does not confine itself to the neighbourhood of a
public-house--it may be anywhere. I have, intuitively, felt its presence
on the deserted moors of Cornwall, between St Ives and the Land's End;
in the grey Cornish churches and chapels (very much in the latter);
around the cold and dismal mouths of disused mine-shafts; all along the
rocky North Cornish coast; on the sea; at various spots on different
railway lines, both in the United Kingdom and abroad; and, of course, in
multitudinous places in London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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