Practical Psychomancy and Crystal GazingAtkinson, William Walker
Religion
Practical Psychomancy and Crystal Gazing
Atkinson, William Walker
Clairvoyance; Crystal gazing; Magic
Crystal Gazing, as a method for inducing Psychomantic vision, has been
quite common among all peoples, in all times. Not only the Crystal but
many other objects are similarly used. In Australia the native priests
use water and shining objects, or in some cases, flame. In New Zealand
some of the natives use a drop of blood. The Fijians fill a hole with
water, and gaze into it. Some South American tribes use the polished
surface of a black stone. The American Indians used water and shining
bits of flint or quartz. And so the story goes. As Lang states it,
people "stare into a crystal ball; a cup; a mirror; a blot of ink
(Egypt and India); a drop of blood (the Maoris of New Zealand); a bowl
of water (American Indians); a pond (Roman and African); water in a
glass bowl (Fez); or almost any polished surface, etc."
We quote a typical case of Crystal Gazing, related by Mr. Andrew Lang.
He says:
"I had given a glass ball to a young lady, Miss Baillie, who had
scarcely any success with it. She lent it to Miss Leslie, who saw a
large, square, old-fashioned red sofa covered with muslin (which she
afterward found in the next country-house she visited). Miss Baillie's
brother, a young athlete, laughed at these experiments, took the ball
into his study, and came back looking 'gey gash.' He admitted that he
had seen a vision--somebody he knew, under a lamp. He said he would
discover during the week whether he saw right or not. This was at 5:30
on a Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, Mr. Baillie was at a dance in a town
forty miles from his home, and met a Miss Preston. 'On Sunday,' he
said, 'about half-past five, you were sitting under a standard lamp, in
a dress I never saw you wear, a blue blouse with lace over the
shoulders, pouring out tea for a man in blue serge, whose back was
towards me, so that I only saw the tip of his moustache.' 'Why, the
blinds must have been up,' said Miss Preston. 'I was at Dulby,' said
Mr. Baillie, and he undeniably was."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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