Any attempt at a scientific explanation of the phenomenon of “crystal seering,” to use an
irregular but comprehensive term, would perhaps fall short of completeness, and certainly would
depend largely upon the exercise of what Professor Huxley was wont to call “the scientific
imagination.” The reasons for this are obvious. We know comparatively little about atomic
structure in relation to nervous organism. We are informed to a certain degree upon atomic
ratios; we know that all bodies are regarded by the physicist as a congeries of atoms, and that
these atoms are “centres of force.” Primarily, the atomic theory would refer all heterogeneous
bodies to one homogeneous substance, from which substance, by means of a process loosely
referred to as “differentiation,” all the elements are derived. These elements are the result of
atomic arrangement, and the atoms of each are known to have various vibrations, the extent of
which is called the “mean free path of vibration.” The indestructibility of matter, the fact that all
nature is convertible, and the absolute association of matter and force, lead to the conclusion that
since every change in matter implies a change of force, matter must be ever living and active,
and primarily of a spiritual nature. The great Swedenborg, no less a scientist than a spiritual seer,
laid down his doctrine of “Correspondences” upon the primary concept of the spiritual origin of
all force and matter. Matter, he argued, was the ultimate expression of Spirit, as Form was that of
Force. Spirit was to Force what Matter was to Form—our ideas of Matter and Form being
closely related. Hence, for every Spiritual Force there is a corresponding Material Form, and the
material or natural world corresponds at all points with the world of spirit, without being
identical. This, in brief, is the conclusion to which the “scientific imagination” of the present
day, extending as it does from the known into the unknown, is slowly but surely leading up.
Taking as our postulate the scientific statement of the atomic structure of bodies, atomic
vibration and molecular arrangement, we turn to consider the action exerted by such bodies upon
the nervous organism of man.
The function of the brain—which must be regarded as the bulbous root of a nervous plant whose
branches grow downwards—is twofold; to affect, and to be affected. In its active or positive
condition it affects the whole of the vital and muscular processes in the man, finding expression
in vital action. In its passive or negative state it is affected by impressions coming to it in
different ways through the sense-organs, resulting in nervous and mental action. It is this latter
phase of brain-function with which we are immediately concerned.
The range of our sense-perception puts us momentarily and continually in relation with the
material world, or rather with a certain portion of it. We say a certain portion because we know
from scientific experience that the scale or gamut of sense-perception is limited, both as to its
extent and as to its quality. Many insects, birds, and quadrupeds have keener perceptions in some
respects than man. The photographic plate can register impressions which are beyond the
perception of our highest sense of sight. The Röntgen rays have put us into relations with a new
order of impression—records quite beyond the range of our normal vision. The animalcule and
microbic life, itself microscopic, has yet its own order of sense-organs related to a world of
vitality beyond our ken. These, and a host of other observations, serve to show that our normal
perceptions are extremely limited, and, further, that nature does not cease to exist where we
cease to perceive her.
The relation of our sense-organs to the several degrees of matter, to solids, fluids, gases,
atmospheric and etheric motions, vary in different individuals to such a wide extent that the
average wool-sorter leaves many an artist behind in his perception of colour-shades. The same
odour is perceptible by one person and unrecognisable by another. In the gradation of sound, too,
the same differences of perception will be commonly noticed. But quite apart from the scale or
range of perception, the quality of a sense-impression is found to vary with different persons. By
this we mean that the same body will affect different persons in dissimilar manner. Hence arises
the variety of “tastes” in regard to forms, colours, flavours, scents, sounds, fabrics, etc., what is
agreeable to one being highly objectionable to another. The experience is to common to need
illustration; but the conclusion to which we are led is that, in relation to the nervous system of
man, every material body has a variable effect. And this clears the ground for a statement of our
views in regard to the Crystal and its effects upon the seer.
The Crystal itself is a clear pellucid piece of quartz or beryl, sometimes oval in shape, but more
generally spheroidal. It is accredited by Reichenbach and other researchers with highly magnetic
qualities capable of producing in a suitable subject a state analogous to the ordinary waking
trance of the hypnotists. It is believed that all bodies convey, or are the vehicles of, a certain
universal magnetic property, variously called Od, Odyle, etc., which is regarded as an inert and
passive substance underlying the more active forces familiar to us in kinetic, calorific, and
electrical phenomena. In this respect it bears a position analogous to the Argon of the
atmosphere. It is capable of taking up, sympathetically, the vibrations of those bodies or
elements to which it is temporarily related. But of itself it has no activity, although in its still,
well-like, and calm depths it holds the potentiality of all magnetic forces. This Odyle, then, is
particularly potent in the quartz or beryl, when brought into activity by the intention of the seer.
It produces and retains more readily in that form the various images communicated to it from the
soul of man. And the soul, in this connection, must be regarded as the repository of all that
complex mass of emotions, thoughts, impressions, perceptions, feelings, etc., included in the
inner life of man; for the soul of man is not the less a scientific fact because there are those who
bandy words concerning its origin and nature. Reichenbach has shown by a series of experiments
upon sensitive and hypnotised subjects that metals and other substances produce very marked
effects in contact with the human body. Those experiments showed, too, that the same substance
affected different patients in diverse manner. The hypnotic experiments of Dr. Charcot, the wellknown
French biologist, also demonstrate the rapport existing between the sensitive patient and
foreign bodies when in proximity or contact; as for example, when a bottle containing a poison
was taken at random from among a number of others of exactly similar appearance, and applied
to the back of the patient’s neck, the hypnotised subject would once develop all the symptoms of
poisoning by arsenic, strychnine, prussic acid, etc., it being afterwards ascertained that the bottle
thus applied actually contained the toxine whose effects had been portrayed by the subject.
It need not, then, be a matter of surprise to learn that the Crystal exerts a very definite and
sensible effect upon the nervous system of a certain order of subjects. It does not affect all alike,
nor act in exactly the same way on those whom it does so affect. Where its action is more or less
rapid and remarkable, the quartz or beryl Crystal may be taken as the most effective medium for
producing the vision. In other cases the concave mirror, either of polished copper or black japan,
will be found serviceable for inducing the clairvoyant state. In some other cases, again, a bowl of
water is sufficient. The ecstatic vision was first induced in the case of Jacob Boehme by the sun’s
rays falling upon a bowl of water which caught and dazzled his eyes while he was engaged in the
humble task of cobbling a pair of shoes. As a consequence of this exaltation of the sense of sight
we have those remarkable works, “The Aurora,” “The Four Complexions,” “The Signatura
Rerum,” and many others, together with a volume of letters and commentaries which, in addition
to being of a highly spiritual nature, must also be regarded as scholarly when referred to their
authorship.
In cases like the above it may be said that the clairvoyant faculty is constitutional and already
fully developed, waiting only the circumstances which shall serve to bring it into active play,
Emanuel Swedenborg, if we remember rightly, was 54 years of age before he awoke to the
consciousness of his spiritual vision.
The medium employed for inducing the clairvoyant state cannot be definitely prescribed. It must
remain a matter of experiment for each investigator. This, however, may be said: Every person
whose life is not wholly sunk in selfish and material pleasures, but in whom the aspiration to a
nobler and purer life is a hunger the world cannot satisfy, has within himself the power to see
and know that which he seeks behind the veil of his earthly senses. Nature has never produced a
desire she could not satisfy. There is no hope, however vague, that the soul cannot define, and no
aspiration, however high, that the wings of the spirit cannot reach. Therefore be patient and
strive.
That there are some in whom the psychic faculties are more prone to activity than in others is
certain, as also some in whom these powers are native, by spiritual or hereditary succession; all
of which may be determined from their genitures by the astrological art. In others, the
determination of the natural powers takes a more practical and mundane tendency, making them
more successful in the affairs of daily life than in aught of a spiritual nature St. Paul has spoken
of a diversity of gifts. “One star differeth from another in glory,” he says, in very truth. This
distribution of natural gifts proceeds from the celestial world, and is so ordered that each person
born on this earth may fulfil his part in the economy of life. And because the spiritual needs of
mankind are of primary importance, there are those born in whom the power of spiritual
interpretation is the dominant faculty, such persons being the natural channels of intercourse
between the superior and inferior worlds. These are to mankind what a certain order of microbic
life is to the body of man—organic interpreters, translating the elements of food into blood,
nerve, fibre, tissue, etc., agreeably to the laws of their being.
For those who would aspire to the gift of pure vision, and in whom the faculty is striving for
expression, the following pages are written. To others we would say, Be content. All birds are
not eagles. The nightingale has a song, the humming-bird a plumage which the eagle will never
possess. The nightingale may sing to the stars, humming-bird to the flowers, but the eagle,
whose tireless eyes gaze into the heart of day, is uncompanioned in its lofty loneliness in the
barren mountain-tops.
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