The Art And Science Of Personal Magnetism
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Leaving for the moment the phase of physical magnetism, or nerve-force, and entering into a consideration of the other phase, namely, that of mental magnetism or thought-force, let us first take a general glance at the report of the most advanced science of the day, upon the subject of the phenomena of mental radiation.

It will be well for you to feel fully convinced of the reality of this phenomenon, before you undertake to manifest the power. This not only to maintain consistency and mental honesty on your own part, but also that you may rid yourself of any doubt or unbelief in the matter, the result of such doubt or unbelief being to interpose a barrier or brake upon the will, as we have stated in a preceding chapter.

Listen to the following words from the pen of one of the world’s great scientists, Professor Ochorowicz, who has created such a wonderful stir here in Paris by his demonstrations of practical psychology, mental photography, etc. Professor Ochorowicz says: "Every living being is a dynamic focus."

"A dynamic focus tends ever to propagate the motion that is proper to it. Propagated motion becomes transformed according to the medium it traverses. Motion tends always to propagate itself."

"Therefore, when we see work of any kind – mechanical, electrical, nerve, or psychic – disappear without visible effect, then, of two things, one happens, either a transmission or a transformation. Where does the first end, and where does the second begin?"

"In an identical medium there is only transmission. In a different medium there is transmission. You send an electric current through a thick wire. You have the current, but you do not perceive any other force. But cut that thick wire and connect the ends by means of a fine wire; the fine wire will grow hot; there will be a transformation of a part of the current into heat."

"Take a pretty strong current and interpose a wire still more resistant, or a very thin carbon rod, and the carbon will emit light."

"A part of the current, then, is transformed into heat and light. This light acts in every direction around about, first visibly as light, then invisibly as heat and electric current." "Hold a magnet near it. If the magnet is weak and movable, in the form of a magnetic needle, the beam of light will cause it to deviate; if it is strong and immovable, it will in turn cause the beam of light to deviate."

"And all this from a distance, without contact, without special conductors."

"A process that is at once chemical, physical and psychical goes on in a brain. A complex action of this kind is propagated through the gray matter, as waves are propagated in water. Regarded on its physiological side, an idea is only a vibration, a vibration that is propagated, yet which does not pass out of a medium in which it can exist as such. It is propagates as far as other vibrations allow. It is propagated more widely if it assumes the character, which subjectively we call emotive. But it cannot go beyond without being transformed.

Nevertheless, like force in general, it cannot remain in isolation, it escapes in disguise."

"Thought stays at home, as the chemical action of a battery remains in the battery, it is represented by its dynamic correlate, called in the case of the battery a current, and in the case of the brain - I know not what; but whatever its name may be, it is the dynamic correlate of thought. I have chosen the term ‘dynamic correlate.’ There is something more than that; the universe is neither dead nor void."

"A force that is transmitted meets other forces, and if it is transformed only little by little it usually limits itself to modifying another force at its own cost, though without suffering perceptibly thereby. This is the case particularly with forces that are persistent, concentrated, well seconded by their medium. It is the case with the physiological equilibrium, nerve force, psychic force, ideas, emotions, and tendencies. These modify environing forces, without themselves disappearing. They are imperceptibly transformed, and, if the next man is of a nature exceptionally well adapted to them, they gain in inductive action."

Various other eminent scientists have testified to the general resemblance of the brain to an electrical or magnetic battery or cell group. Professor Bain has said: "The structure of the nervous substances, and the experiments made upon the nerves and nerve centers, establish beyond doubt certain peculiarities as belonging to the force that is exercised by the brain. This force is of a current nature; that is to say, a power generated at one part of the structure is conveyed along an intervening substance and discharged at some other part. The different forms of electricity and magnetism have made us familiar with this kind of action."

Professor Draper tells us that: "I find the cerebrum is absolutely analogous in construction to any other nervous arc. It is composed of centripetal and centrifugal fibers, having also registering ganglia. If in other nervous arcs the structure is merely automatic, and can display no phenomena of itself, but requires the influence of an external agent – the optical apparatus inert save under the influence of light, the auditory save under the impression of sound – the cerebrum, being precisely analogous in its elementary structure, pre-supposes the existence of some agent to act through it."

Dr. haddock says, in connection with his consideration of the idea that thought may be communicated though ether –vibrations: "The ether is accepted by science as a reality, and as a medium for light, heat electricity, magnetism, etc. The nervous system is certainly comparable to an electric battery with connecting wires. Communication of thought and feeling without the mediation of sense perception as commonly understood, is now established.

Inanimate objects exert, now and then, ‘strange influences.’ People certainly carry with them a personal atmosphere. The representation of the condition of these facts by a psychic field, compared to the magnetic or electric field, becomes, therefore, if not plausible, at least convenient. As such a ‘field’ exists surrounding the sun, so may a ‘field’ be assumed as surrounding each human individual. ‘We have already strong grounds for believing that we live in a medium which conveys to-and-fro movements to us from the sun, and that these movements are electro-magnetic, and that all the transformation of light and heat, and indeed the phenomena of life, are due to the electrical energy which comes to us across the vacuum which exists between us and the sun – a vacuum which is pervaded by the ether, which is a fit medium for the transmission of electro-magnetic wares.’ By means, then, of a similar theory applied to mind and brain and body, we may find reasonable explanations of many otherwise insoluble mysteries of life, and, which is of more importance, deduce certain suggestions for the practical regulation of life in the greatest individual interest."

Haddock also approvingly quotes the following from Dr. M. P. Hatfield, an authority with whom I, personally, am not familiar: "The arrangement of the nerve-envelopes is so like that of the best constructed electrical cables that we cannot help thinking that both were constructed to conduct something very much alike. I know that there are those who stoutly maintain that nerve-force is not electricity, and it is not, in the sense that an electrical battery is the same things as a live man; but nevertheless nerve-force is closely allied to that wonderful thing that for the want of a better and clearer understanding we agree to call electricity."

Haddock adds: "All states of body and mind involve constant molecular and chemical change. The suggestion arises that the brain, with its millions of cells and its inconceivable changes in substance, may be regarded as a transmitting and receiving battery. The brain being a kind of battery, and the nerves conductors of released stored-energy to different parts of the body, by a kind of action similar to the actions of electricity and magnetism, it is suggested that, either by means of the ether, or of some still finer form of matter, discharges of brain energy may be conducted beyond the limits of the body. If the nerve-track corresponds to wires, this refined medium may correspond to the ether-field supposed to be employed in wireless telegraphy. As electrical movements are conducted without wires, or other visible media, so may brain-discharges be conveyed beyond the mechanism of the battery, without the intervention of nerves – except, as they may constitute a part of the battery. Generally speaking, such discharges would originate in two ways: by direct mental action, or by mental or physical states – perhaps by a combination."

In the above quotations, there will be found constant reference to vibrations in the universal ether. That there is a place, and plenty of room, in the scale of etheric vibrations for the vibrations of mental-force, may be seen by a reference to the following quotations from eminent authorities:

Professor Gray has said: "There is much food for speculation in the thought that there exists sound waves that no human ear can hear, and color waves of light that no eye can see. The long, dark, soundless space between 40,000 and 400,000,000,000,000 vibrations per second, and the infinity of range beyond 700,000,000,000,000 vibrations per second, where light ceases, in the universe of motion, makes it possible to indulge in speculation."

Professor Williams has said: "There is no gradation between the most rapid undulations or trembling that produce our sensation of sound, and the slowest of those which give rise to our sensations of gentlest warmth. There is a huge gap between them, wide enough to include another world of motion, all lying between our world of sound and our word of heat and light. And there is no good reason whatever for supposing that matter is incapable of such intermediate activity, or that such activity may not give rise to intermediate sensations, provided there are organs fro taking up and sensifying these movements."

A recent writer in the "London Post" says, "The knowledge we gain by experiment brings home to us what a miserably imperfect piece of mechanism our bodies are. The ear can detect the slow-footed sound vibrations that come to us at the rate of between 40 and 40,000 a second. But the whole of space may be quivering and palpitating with waves at all sorts of varying speeds, and our senses will tell us nothing of them until we get them coming to us at the inconceivable speed of 400,000,000,000,00 a second, when again we respond to them and appreciate them in the form of light."

Another writer, an American psychologist, carries on the tale from this point, as follows: "The first indications of warmth comes when the vibrations reach the rate of 35,000,000,000,000 per second. When the vibrations reach 450,000,000,000,000 the lowest visible light ray manifests. Then comes the orange rays, the golden yellow, the pure yellow, the greenish yellow, the pure green, the greenish blue, the ocean blue, the cyanic blue, the indigo, and finally the violet, the highest degree of light which the human eye can register, and which occurs when the vibrations reach the rate of 750,000,000,00,00 per second. Then come the ultra-violet rays, invisible to human sight, but registered by chemical media. In this ultra-violet region lie the ‘X Rays’ and the other recently discovered high-degree rays; also the actinic rays which, while invisible to the eye, register on the photographic plate, sunburn one’s face, blister one’s nose, and even cause violent explosions in chemical substances exposed to them, as well as acting on the green leaves of plants, causing the chemical change of transforming carbonic acid and water into sugar and starches. These forms of ‘dark light,’ that is, light too fine to be perceived by the human eye, are but faint indications of the existence of still higher and finer vibrations – the ‘finer forces of nature.’"

Oh, yes! There is plenty of space and room in Nature’s scale of forces, for the vibrations of mental energy, nerve-force, and personal magnetism, which combines the two. I trust that the foregoing statements of scientific fact have cleared your mind of any lurking doubts on the subject.