Palingenesy
A term employed by the philosophers of the seventeenth century to denote the "resurrection of plants," and the method of achieving their astral appearance after destruction. In very early times, we find philosophers inclined to doubt if apparitions might not be accounted for on natural principles, without supposing that a belief in them was either referable to hallucinations, to human imagination, or to impositions that might have been practised. At length Lucretius attacked the popular notion entertained of ghosts, by maintaining that they were not spirits returned from the mansions of the dead, but nothing more than thin films, pellicles, or membranes, cast off from the surface of all bodies like the exuviæ or sloughs of reptiles.
An opinion, by no means dissimilar to that of the Epicureans, was revived in Europe about the middle of the 17th century. It had its origin in Palingenesy, or the resurrecyear." 66 Oupnekhat, The: The Oupnekhat or Oupnekhata (Book of the Secret) written in Persian, gives the following instructions for the production of visions. To produce the wise Maschqgui (vision), we must sit on a four-cornered base, namely the heels, and then close the gates of the body. The ears by the thumbs; the eyes by the forefingers; the nose by the middle; the lips by the four other fingers. The lamp within the body will then be preserved from wind and movement, and the whole body will be full of light. Like the tortoise, man must withdraw every sense within himself; the heart must be guarded, and then Brahma will enter into him, like fire and lightning. In the great fire in the cavity of the heart a small flame will be lit up, and in its centre is Atma (the soul); and he who destroys all worldly desires and wisdom will be like a hawk which has broken through the meshes of the net, and will have become one with the great being." Thus will he become Brahma- Atma (divine spirit), and will perceive by a light that far exceeds that of the sum. "Who, therefore, enters this path be Brahma must deny the world and its pleasures; must only cover his nakedness, and staff in hand collect enough, but no more, alms to maintain life. The lesser ones only do this; the greater throw aside pitcher and staff, and do not even read the Oupnekhata."
P Owen, Robert: An early convert to spiritualism. He had been for many years an advanced socialist, and though at the time he embraced the spiritualistic doctrines-1853he was already in his eighty-third year, he preached the new faith with undiminished vigour and with characteristic scorn of caution. Having first published his views in his periodical, the Rational Quarterty Review, he brought out, in 1854, the New Existence of Man upon Earth, at this period the only English paper devoted to the interests of spiritualism. Owen's view of the movement was that it was the inauguration of a sort of millennium, a social revolution, for which he had looked throughout his life. a tion of plants, a grand secret known to Digby, Kircher, Schot, Gafferel, Vallemont, and others. These philosophers performed the operation of Palingenesy after the following manner :-They took a plant, bruised it, burnt it, collected its ashes, and, in the process of calcination, extracted from it a salt. This salt they then put into a glass phial, and mixed with it some peculiar substance, which these chemists have not disclosed. When the compound was formed, it was pulverulent, and possessed a bluish colour. The powder was next submitted to a gentle heat, when its particles being instantly put into motion, there then, gradually arose, as from the midst of the ashes, a stem, leaves and flowers; or, in other words, an apparition of the plant which had been submitted to combustion. But as soon as the heat was taken away, the form of the plant, which had been thus sublimed, was precipitated to the bottom of the vessel. Heat was then re-applied, and the vegetable phœnix was resusitated; it was withdrawn, and the form once more became latent among the ashes. This notable experiment was said to have been performed before the Royal Society of England, and it satisfactorily proved to this learned body, that the presence of heat gave a sort of life to the vegetable apparition, and that the absence of caloric caused its death.
Cowley was quite delighted with the experiment of the rose and its ashes, and in conceiving that he had detected the same phenomenon in the letters written with the juice of lemons, which were revived on the application of heat, he celebrated the mystic power of caloric after the following manner :- Strange power of heat, thou yet dost show, Like winter earth, naked, or cloth'd with snow, But as the quick'ning sun approaching near, The plants arise up by degrees, A sudden paint adorns the trees, And all kind nature's characters appear.
So nothing yet in thee is seen, But when a genial heat warms thee within, A new-born wood of various lines there grows; Here buds an A, and there a B, Here sprouts a V, and there a T, And all the flourishing letters stand in rows.
The rationale of this famous experiment made on the ashes of roses was attempted by Kircher. He supposed that the seminal virtue of every known substance, and even its substantial form, resided in its salt. This salt was concealed in the ashes of the rose. Heat put it in motion. The particles of the salt were quickly sublimed, and being moved about in the phial like a vortex, at length arranged themselves in the same general form they had possessed from nature. It was evident, then, from the result of this experiment, that there was a tendency in the particles of the salt to observe the same order of position which they had in the living plant. Thus, for instance, each saline corpuscle, which in its prior state had held a place in the stem of the rose-slip, sympathetically fixed itself in a corresponding position when sublimed in the chemist's vial. Other particles were subject to a similar law, and accordingly, by a disposing affinity, resumed their proper position, either in the stalk, the leaves, or the flowers, and thus, at length, the entire apparition of a plant was generated.
The next object of these philosophers was to apply their doctrine to the explanation of the popular belief in ghosts. As it was incontestably proved that the substantial form of each body resided in a sort of volatile salt, it was perfectly evident in what manner superstitious notions must have arisen about ghosts haunting churchyards. When a dead body had been committed to the earth, the salts of it, during the heating process of fermentation, were exhaled. The saline particles then each resumed the same relative situation they had held in the living body, and thus a complete human form was induced, calculated to excite superstitious fear in the minds of all but Palingenesists. It is thus evident that Palingenesy was nothing more Lucretius had made, with regard to the filmy substances than a chemical explanation of the discovery which that he had observed to arise from all bodies.
Yet, in order to prove that apparitions might be really explained on this principle, the experimentum crucis was still wanting. But this deficiency was soon supplied. Three alchemists had obtained a quantity of earth-mould from St. Innocent's Church, in Paris, supposing that this matter might contain the true philosopher's stone. They subjected it to a distillatory process. On a sudden they perceived in their vials forms of men produced, which immediately caused them to desist from their labours. This fact coming to the knowledge of the Institute of Paris, under the protection of Louis XIV., this learned body took up the business with much seriousness, and the result of their labours appears in the Miscellania Curiosa. Dr. Ferrier, in a volume of the Manchester Philosophical Transactions, went to the trouble of making an abstract of one of these French documents, which we prefer giving on account of its conciseness, rather than having rceourse to the original dissertation.
Palingenes y A malefactor was executed, of whose body a grave physician got possession for the purpose of dissection. After disposing of the other parts of the body, he ordered his assistant to pulverize part of the cranium, which was a remedy at that time admitted in dispensatories. The powder was left in a paper on the table of the museum, where the assistant slept. About midnight he was awakened by a noise in the room, which obliged him to rise immediately. The noise continued about the table, without any visible agent; and at length he traced it to the powder, in the midst of which he now beheld, to his unspeakable dismay, a small head with open eyes staring at him; presently two branches appeared, which formed into arms and hands; then the ribs became visible, which were soon clothed with muscles and integuments; next the lower extremities sprouted out, and when they appeared perfect, the puppet (for his size was small) reared himself on his feet; instantly his clothes came upon him, and he appeared in the very cloak he wore at his execution. The affrighted spectator, who stood hitherto mumbling his prayers with great application, now thought of nothing but making his escape from the revived ruffian; but this was impossible, for the apparition planted himself in the way, and, after divers fierce looks and threatening gestures, opened the door and went out. No doubt the powder was missing next day."
But older analogous results are on record, indicating that the blood was the chief part of the human frame in which those saline particles resided, the arrangements of which gave rise to the popular notion of ghosts. Dr. Webster, in his book on witchcraft, relates an experiment, given on the authority of Dr. Flud, in which this very satisfactory conclusion was drawn. 66
A certain chymical operator, by name La Pierre, near that place in Paris called Le Temple, received blood from the hands of a certain bishop to operate upon. Which he setting to work upon the Saturday, did continue it for a week with divers degrees of fire. But about midnight, the Friday following, this artificer, lying in a chamber next to his laboratory, betwixt sleeping and waking, heard a horrible noise, like unto the lowing of kine, or the roaring of a lion; and continuing quiet, after the ceasing of the sound in the laboratory, the moon being at the full, and, by shining enlightening the chamber suddenly, betwixt himself and the window he saw a thick little cloud, condensed into an oval form, which, after, by little and little, did seem completely to put on the shape of a man, and making another and a sharp clamour, did suddenly vanish. And not only some noble persons in the next chambers, but also the host with his wife, lying in a lower room of the house, and also the neighbours dwelling in the opposite side of the street, did distinctly hear as well the bellowing as the voice; and some of them were awaked with the vehemency thereof. But the artificer said, that in this he found solace, because the bishop, of whom he had it, did admonish him, that if any of them from whom the blood was extracted should die, in the time of its putrefaction, his spirit was wont often to appear to the sight of the artificer, with perturbation. Also forthwith, upon Saturday following, he took the retort from the furnace, and broke it with the light stroke of a little key, and there, in the remaining blood, found the perfect representation of an human head, agreeable in face, eyes, nostrils, mouth, and hairs, that were somewhat thin, and of a golden colour."
Regarding this narrative Webster adds :-" There were many ocular witnesses, as the noble person, Lord of Bourdalone, the chief secretary to the Duke of Guise; and he (Flud) had this relation from the Lord of Menanton, living in that house at the same time, from a certain doctor of physic, from the owner of the house, and many others." Palladino, Eusapia: The most famous physical medium of recent years, and one whose phenomena, investigated at length by some of the most distinguished scientists of Britain, France, and Italy, have led many to conclude that they are genuine manifestations from the spirit world, or that they illustrate the workings of some unknown force. Eusapia was a Neapolitan peasant woman who from her childhood had shown herself possessed of mediumistic powers. In 1892 a group of scientists-Professors Schiaparelli, Brofferio, Geroso, the well-known spiritualist M. Aksakoff, and others-held a series of sittings at Milan, with Eusapia as medium. Some of the séances were also attended by Professors Richet and Lombroso. The phenomena consisted of raps, materialisation of hands, levitation of the table and other furniture within a radius of three or four feet, and fluctuation of the medium's weight in the balance, to the extent of some 17lbs. It was evident even then that Eusapia would not lose an opportunity of using fraud. Nevertheless Professor Richet was so impressed that in 1894 he organised a further series of sittings with the same medium at his house on the Ile Rouband, and on this occasion were present Professornow Sir Oliver-Lodge, Mr. Myers, Dr. Ochorowicz, and at a later stage, Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick. The séances were held in darkness or semi-darkness, but the medium's hands and feet were controlled by the investigators. Mrs. Sidgwick, indeed, declared that Eusapia herself might easily have produced the phenomena, if she had the use of her hands, but Professor Lodge and others were inclined to attribute them to some external agency. In the following year further séances were held at Mr. Myer's house at Cambridge, and when it became evident that Eusapia frequently freed a foot or a hand Mr. Myer's own faith in the phenomena was temporarily though only temporarilydestroyed. Professor Richet and Sir Oliver Lodge, however, retained their convictions unshaken. Dr. Hodgson, who had already suggested that Eusapia might use some such method, was also present at the Cambridge sittings.
Besides those already mentioned, many prominent Continental scientists investigated Eusapia's manifestations among them being M. Camille Flammarion, Professor Morselli, and M. and Mme. Curie. The two last mentioned were members of a committee of the Institut Général Psychologique of Paris, which held an important series of sittings with the medium in 1905, 1906, and 1907. In 1908 and 1909 again, the Society for Psychical Research instituted a fresh enquiry into Eusapia's methods. On the whole, scientific opinion is still much divided as to the genuineness or otherwise of the phenomena. Some authorities, taking into consideration the many times the Italian medium has been caught cheating, and the absence of really conclusive tests, incline to the belief that Eusapia is merely a clever conjurer. Such were Dr. Hodgson, Mr. Podmore, Professor and Mrs. Sidgwick. Others, again, such as Professors Richet and Lombroso, M. Camille Flammarion and Sir Oliver Lodge, are of the opinion that the instances of fraud are mere incidents in the career of a true medium, whose performances plainly demonstrate the operation in the material world of strange, unknown forces.