LITMIR.BIZ

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of the ancients--who knows!

      Perhaps some critical reader may object that sound travels by means of

      atmospheric and not etheric waves; but is he prepared to say that it

      cannot produce etheric waves also. The very recent discovery of

      transatlantic telephoning tends to show that etheric waves can be

      generated by sound, for on the 20th of October, 1915, words spoken in

      New York were immediately heard in Paris, and could therefore only have

      been transmitted through the ether, for sound travels through the

      atmosphere only at the rate of about 750 miles an hour, while the speed

      of impulses through ether can only be compared to that of light or

      186,000 miles in a second. It is therefore a fair inference that etheric

      vibrations can be inaugurated by sound.

      Perhaps the reader may feel inclined to say with the Irishman that all

      this is "as dry as ditch-water," but he will see before long that it has

      a good deal to do with ourselves. For the present what I want him to

      realize by a few examples is the mathematical accuracy of Law. The value

      of these examples lies in their illustration of the fact that the Law

      can always be trusted to lead us on to further knowledge. We see it

      working under known conditions, and relying on its unchangeableness, we

      can then logically infer what it will do under other hypothetical

      conditions, and in this way many important discoveries have been made.

      For instance it was in this way that Mendeléef, the Russian chemist,

      assumed the existence of three then unknown chemical elements, now

      called Scandium, Gallium and Germanium. There was a gap in the orderly

      sequence of the chemical elements, and relying on the old maxim--"Natura

      nihil facit per saltum"--Nature nowhere leaves a gap to jump over--he

      argued that if such elements did not exist they ought to, and so he

      calculated what these elements ought to be like, giving their atomic

      weight, chemical affinities, and the like; and when they were discovered

      many years later they were found to answer exactly to his description.

      He prophesied, not by guesswork, but by knowledge of the Law; and in

      much the same way radium was discovered by Professor and Madame Curie.

      In like manner Hertz was led to the discovery of the electro-magnetic

      waves. The celebrated mathematician Clerk-Maxwell had calculated all

      particulars of these waves twenty-five years before Hertz, on the basis

      of these calculations, worked out his discovery. Again, Neptune, the

      outermost known planet of our system was discovered by the astronomer

      Galle in consequence of calculations made by Leverrier. Certain

      variations in the movements of the planets were mathematically

      unaccountable except on the hypothesis that some more remote planet

      existed. Astronomers had faith in mathematics and the hypothetical

      planet was found to be a reality. Instances of this kind might be

      multiplied, but as the French say "à quoi bon?" I think these will be

      sufficient to convince the reader that the invariable sequence of Law is

      a factor to be relied upon, and that by studying its working under known

      conditions we may get at least some measure of light on conditions which

      are as yet unknown to us.

      Let us now pass on to the human subject and consider a few examples of

      what is usually called the psychic side of our nature. Walt Whitman was

      quite right when he said that we are not all included between our hat

      and our boots; we shall find that our modes of consciousness and powers

      of action are not entirely restricted to our physical body. The

      importance of this line of enquiry lies in the fact that if we do

      possess extra-physical powers, these also form part of our personality

      and must be included in our estimate of our relation to our environment,

      and it is therefore worth our while to consider them.

      Some very interesting experiments have been made by De Rochas, an

      eminent French scientist, which go to show that under certain magnetic

      conditions the sensation of physical touch can be experienced at some

      distance from the body. He found that under these conditions the person

      experimented on is insensible to the prick of a needle run into his

      skin, but if the prick is made about an inch-and-a-half away from the

      surface of the skin he feels it. Again at about three inches from this

      point he feels the prick of the needle, but is insensible to it in the

      space between these two points. Then there comes another interval in

      which no sensation is conveyed, but at about three inches still further

      away he again feels the sensation, and so on; so that he appears to be

      surrounded by successive zones of sensation, the first about an

      inch-and-a-half from the body, and the others at intervals of about

      three inches each. The number of these zones seems to vary in different

      cases, but in some there are as many as six or seven, thus giving a

      radius of sensation, extending to more than twenty inches beyond the

      body.

      Now to explain this we must have recourse to what I have already said

      about waves. The heart and the lungs are the two centres of automatic

      rhythmic movement in the body, and each projects its own series of

      vibrations into the etheric envelope. Those projected by the lungs are

      estimated to be three times the length of those projected by the heart,

      while those projected by the heart are three times as rapid as those

      projected by the lungs. Consequently if the two sets of waves start

      together the crest of every third wave of the rapid series of short

      waves will coincide with the crest of one of the long waves of the

      slower series, while the intermediate short waves will coincide with the

      depression of one of the long waves. Now the effect of the crest of one

      wave overtaking that of another going in the same direction, is to raise

      the two together at that point into a single wave of greater amplitude

      or height than the original waves had by themselves; if the reader has

      the

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