The Philosophy Which Shows the Physiology of Mesmerism and Explains the Phenomenon of Clairvoyance

Part 1

THE PHILOSOPHY

WHICH SHOWS THE

PHYSIOLOGY OF MESMERISM,

AND EXPLAINS THE

PHENOMENON OF CLAIRVOYANCE.

T. H. PASLEY.

To form a just opinion of a novel mode of philosophising, we should study the subject, and not condemn without being able to prove it erroneous.

He is not an Esculapian who is unacquainted with the Philosophy of the Animal Economy.

LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS.

1848.

TYLER & REED, PRINTERS, BOLT-COURT, FLEET STREET.

DEDICATION.

The following trite sketch of the Philosophy of Nature, dedicates itself to the most noble Champions of Mesmerism, Doctor ELLIOTSON and Doctor ASHBURNER of London, and Doctor ESDAILE of Calcutta, in compliment and grateful acknowledgment for having rescued from the fangs of ignorance, envy, and self-conceit, the science of health and knowledge--the science of Mesmerism, which unfolds the hitherto unknown wonders of the Animal system; and will unfold the wonders of the entire universe, when the telescope and microscope are familiarly used by the Clairvoyant.

ADVERTISEMENT.

It is not the intention of the present work, that what is herein described should be received as the philosophy of Nature according to the precision of Nature; but, through exemplification, on principles deduced from the Natural Inertia of Matter, to point out the mode by which the philosophy, which should govern all illustration of physical phenomena, is discoverable,--the Philosophy of Mechanical Nature.

JERSEY, July 1, 1848.

CONTENTS.

PAGE DEDICATION iii ADVERTISEMENT v TABLE OF CONTENTS vii MESMERISM AND ESTABLISHED PHILOSOPHY 1 ATTRACTION 10 PHILOSOPHY, EXPERIMENTAL 13 PHYSIOLOGY AND FUNCTION OF THE SENSES 15 MATTER 23 MOTION 24 MEDIUM OF SPACE 28 MINUS-PRESSURE MATTER 31 FIRE 34 MEDIUM OF FIRE 37 EXPANSION 39 OXYGEN AIR 41 THE USE OF OXYGEN IN PROMOTING COMBUSTION 42 COMBUSTION 43 WATER 47 SOLVENCY 53 GASTRIC SOLVENCY 54 USE OF THE INSPIRED OXYGEN WITHIN THE SYSTEM 56 SPLEEN, ITS USE 59 DIAPHRAGM, HOW RAISED 60 CORRELATIVE ELEMENTS 61 MAGNETISM 62 NATURAL SLEEP 65 COMATOSE FLOW 66 MESMERIC SLEEP 68 VISION 70 TRANSPARENCY 77 OPACITY 77 THE NERVOUS FLUID 78 CLAIRVOYANCE 81 LONG VISION 82 OPAQUE VISION 83 RIGIDITY 86 PAIN 86 MESMERISM, CURATIVE 87 ETHERS 87 REPORT 88 VOLUNTARY DE-ELECTRISATION 91 WILL, THE NATURE AND POWER OF 92 APPLICATION OF MESMERISM 95 CONTINUOUS MOTION 97 ASCENDING AND DESCENDING MOTION 99 CENTRIPETAL FLOW 99 FORMATION OF A PLANET 100 ---- AND USE OF A COMET 103 TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE

PHILOSOPHY,

ETC., ETC.

MESMERISM AND ESTABLISHED PHILOSOPHY.

Long as clairvoyance has remained the riddle, jest and wonder of the world, it is questioned by none why the established philosophy of this superiorly enlightened age is incompetent to account for this or any other mesmerically produced phenomenon, or afford the least glimmer of light by which it were possible to arrive at the physiology. Why the philosophy of Aristotle, Bacon, Newton, Des Cartes, Davy, Liebig--honoured names, and most justly, as the ancient and modern fathers in science--can afford no scintillation whereby to lessen the obscurity in which this most interesting subject is involved, should appear strange and unaccountable to all lovers of philosophy. By Professors the question should be answered. To consider it unworthy of being looked into, would be a tacit confession that Professors are indifferent to the natural truth; which proves all such to be but half reasoners, and not philosophers, notwithstanding all their mathematical learning and experimental experience.

It should have been questioned long since, whether the philosophy be not untrue which leaves all mankind in the dark, in a mere physical case, however mysterious the psychological result, the effect of manual application, and in the power of almost every person to produce. The mesmerising operation and effect includes nothing of necromancy or trick; is openly performed, and produced mechanically; and although the passes make a living being appear as if in a novel state of existence, the immediate effect, polarisation of the extremities of the body, is the same precisely as is effected on the iron bar when passed along the poles of a loadstone. This, and numerous other physical phenomena, which to the present day remain unexplained, and as if inexplicable, afford much reason for at least the conjecture, that modern philosophy is not the philosophy of physical nature; which, if not, it must be false and misleading, inasmuch as there can be but one philosophy, by reason of there being but one species of matter throughout all nature, and but one cause of action,--the general pressure. From which it follows, that as the philosophy of nature is that of matter universally, there can be no physical phenomenon which it does not explain. Therefore, the phenomena which modern philosophy has neither laws nor rules competent to explain, are so many proofs that the established philosophy of the age is false philosophy; which is provable throughout all its particulars, however rash and adventurous may appear the announcement. Besides, at the present day, there are several different philosophies maintained; every profession has its own; which is proof of the strongest nature that not one is true, dissent from the truly natural being impossible, so universally is it applicable. Eventually it will be admitted that the philosophy of the nineteenth century is founded on the crude ideas of the imperfectly learned in the earliest days of science, ever since adopted, and never investigated, instead of being deduced solely from the INERT NATURE OF MATTER, the only true basis. On modern philosophy, Davy makes the shrewd remark, that "it is no better than a mere compilation of isolated facts and circumstances, differently accounted for, and leading to no general theory:" such is not the philosophy of nature.

That matter is inert, is made manifest in there being nothing whatever throughout the whole of inanimate nature which can act or move of itself. Matter does nothing, cannot act; it is the passive patient of the general pressure, which alone can act; and pressure is universal, because of matter being inert. Matter is not only inert, but unalterable; on which principles the constancy of the order and laws of nature depend. Inert, unalterable matter can suffer no change but of a local nature--change of place, which implies motion, for which there is no analogous cause but impulsive pressure. These unquestionable physical truisms are stated in advance, from being intimately connected with every physical change, in order to serve as a standard of comparison from which to form an opinion while canvassing the principles and laws by which the scientific world has been for centuries not only governed, but misled.

Newton admits the principle of inertia, but considers it an innate passive power, which enables a body to resist against being moved; and when in motion, enables it to resist that which would put it out of motion. Inertia, a passive power, is as death, being passive animation; and inertia enabling a body to act against force, is nothing short of active inertia, or vis inertiæ, which means the force of inability. This monstrous perversion of a natural fundamental principle, and by such high authority, pervades the whole of the established philosophy. It makes the planets, which are but clumps of deadly inert matter, gravitate themselves through space; and makes inert atoms competent to perform attraction on each other wherever they exist. A more absurd article of belief has no place in the Athanasian code of mind-perverting dogmas; yet admitted as true by the most eminently talented and highly learned of the present age. While such inconsistent principles of common-place use are gravely defended, the known facts of mesmerism are obstinately and ignorantly denied; and only because of not being understood; that, were it not for the good sense and philanthropic perseverance of the enlightened, noble-minded Elliotsons, Ashburners, and Esdailes, of the British empire--honourable, heroic champions and victors in the cause of truth, humanity and science, in despite of the self-conceit which affects the knowledge of the limits of possibility; that, were it not for the magnanimity of those superiors belonging to the learned profession, this heaven-bestowed boon, carrying healing on the wing to suffering humanity, would have been contemptuously received, ungratefully acknowledged, and long since consigned to the rubbish of oblivion. Yet all have claim to the common apology, false scientific education, excepting those who have assented to what they have seen with wonder, and afterwards denied their admission.

The established philosophy cannot account for the boy's marble going farther through the air than the fullest extent of the impelling thumb. The proposition may appear trifling and insignificant, yet is it worthy the consideration of the Chair of Knowledge, from which it has never been explained nor there understood, as involving the cause of planetary motion; for, in all nature there are not two causes of motion. That the marble "partakes" of the force, and "partakes" of the motion of that by which it is impelled, is an absurd idea; the force and motion of a body were not, and cannot become, the force and motion of any other body.

The established philosophy cannot account for the splinters of a stone having motion out of the direction of impulse, nor for having motion in every direction but that of the stone-breaker's impelling hammer, which appears at variance with the natural, immutable dynamic law, which says, that as a body cannot move itself, so must it have motion in the direction only of that by which it is being moved. Neither is there any philosophy extant, which explains why the stone at Texteth of one hundred tons should rise, as if of itself, six inches in the air, under which the quarrymen could have shoved a hand and withdrawn it safely, before the immense mass fell crushingly on the former bed.

Continue reading The Philosophy Which Shows the Physiology of Mesmerism and Explains the Phenomenon of Clairvoyance free in the Wunder reader →