Isis unveiled, Volume 1 (of 2), Science : $b A master-key to mysteries of ancient and modern science and theologyBlavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Religion
Isis unveiled, Volume 1 (of 2), Science : $b A master-key to mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology
Blavatsky, H. P. (Helena Petrovna)
Theosophy
Every objective manifestation, whether it be the motion of a living
limb, or the movement of some inorganic body, requires two conditions:
will and force—plus _matter_, or that which makes the object so moved
visible to our eye; and these three are all convertible forces, or the
force-correlation of the scientists. In their turn they are directed
or rather overshadowed by the Divine intelligence which these men so
studiously leave out of the account, but without which not even the
crawling of the smallest earth-worm could ever take place. The simplest
as the most common of all natural phenomena,—the rustling of the
leaves which tremble under the gentle contact of the breeze—requires
a constant exercise of these faculties. Scientists may well call them
cosmic laws, immutable and unchangeable. Behind these laws we must
search for the intelligent cause, which once having created and set
these laws in motion, has infused into them the essence of its own
consciousness. Whether we call this the first cause, the universal
will, or God, it must always bear intelligence.
And now we may ask, how can a will manifest itself intelligently and
unconsciously at the same time? It is difficult, if not impossible, to
conceive of intellection apart from consciousness. By consciousness {199}
we do not necessarily imply physical or corporeal consciousness.
_Consciousness is a quality of the sentient principle, or, in other
words, the soul; and the latter often displays activity even while the
body is asleep or paralyzed._ When we lift our arm mechanically, we
may imagine that we do it unconsciously because our superficial senses
cannot appreciate the interval between the formulation of the purpose
and its execution. Latent as it seemed to us, our vigilant will evolved
force, and set our matter in motion. There is nothing in the nature
of the most trivial of mediumistic phenomena to make Mr. Cox’s theory
plausible. If the intelligence manifested by this force is no proof
that it belongs to a disembodied spirit, still less is it evidence that
it is unconsciously given out by the medium; Mr. Crookes himself tells
us of cases where the intelligence could not have emanated from any
one in the room; as in the instance where the word “however,” covered
by his finger and unknown even to himself, was correctly written by
planchette.[327] No explanation whatever can account for this case; the
only hypothesis tenable—if we exclude the agency of a spirit-power—is
that the clairvoyant faculties were brought into play. But scientists
deny clairvoyance; and if, to escape the unwelcome alternative of
accrediting the phenomena to a spiritual source, they concede to us the
fact of clairvoyance, it then devolves upon them to either accept the
kabalistic explanation of what this faculty is, or achieve the task
hitherto impracticable of making a new theory to fit the facts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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