The Invisible Influence
By Alexander Cannon
Chapter II
Mind Over Matter
"WHAT is this all-powerful determining by the mind at a glance, so that others will obey your command?" I asked the sage. With words which were slow and deliberate, he made answer: "To understand the mind is to understand the life eternal; for to live in the physical body is to be imprisoned, but to be able at will to leave it and travel into worlds hitherto unknown, is a pure joy, and all this knowledge of the spirit is much more easily acquired than most people imagine. They do not realize that it is first necessary to have faith. Are we not told in your Bible that to him that believeth all things are possible; is it not a wise prayer to utter, "Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief!"
The Levitation Phenomenon
I then asked him if he had ever witnessed the levitation phenomenon, I having had an excellent trance subject who could actually, by mental determining between us, be raised without support at least a foot from the ground. He first of all laughed, and said: "Oh! yes; I have seen it at Maskelyne's Theatre, when I was in London many years ago, but you know that is an ingenious trick performed as no other [40] than those masters of Magic could present. But now let us get down to reality, away from illusion; and I tell you with truth, that I can produce this phenomenon at will." He thereupon called in one of our servants, hypnotized him into the trance state, without the least difficulty; then whilst the subject was in that state, commanded him to think only of floating on water, and that the water would rise and with it he would rise, rise! rise! . . . In a few moments, to my amazement, the subject was levitated at least four feet; and soon such a crowd gathered around our verandah, to which we had betaken ourselves in the cool of the evening, after the heat of the day, that we had momentarily to retire from view.
During our short stay at N., in consequence of this episode, we were looked upon as wizards, and natives came from far and wide to gaze upon us. Yes, indeed, the levitation phenomenon is not a trick like the rope trick: it is a great feat, in which the body is actually suspended in mid-air without support; and is an instance of the marvellous power of mind over the body and matter, of which the Yogi sect retains the secret. The man who says, "What is mind? Never matter! What is matter? Never mind!" is looked upon in despair by this learned cult, who prove to us by their deeds alone that matter is mind and mind is matter; and yet that mind is transcendent over matter. I will explain this later. The subject for the [41] real levitation phenomenon experiment is taught how to control his breath, so that the body by a certain process becomes lighter than air (just as the body can be made to become lighter than water in floating) in its anatomic proportions, and the mental influence of the operator by telepathy, in combination with the subject's telepathy with him (en rapport or mutual telepathy] can perform this amazing scientific feat in defiance of the laws of gravitation, so called: but the whole methods employed are the secrets of the Yogi.
And now the evening was far spent, and I hinted to my friend that I would shortly transport my body to the Land of Nod. To this I had the quaint retort, "Why not transport to Flamborough in England, to-night, and visit your relatives at White House; it will benefit you, and be a change!" At first I laughed; soon, however, I realized that the Adept was serious, and meant just what he said. I told him that I had now developed to the stage when I could, more or less, command my dreams; which I could make vivid and appear real. To which he responded that it was only a matter of another degree, to be actually able to go anywhere, in a flash, and to return as swiftly when the boy called one in the morning. This had not occurred to me; I had not viewed the dream state quite from that angle before. Still, I felt that there was food for much thought in his comment.
To take this a stage further, the common notion is that the Yogi can transport his own physical body from one place to another through space. There is historic testimony handed down, that this feat was performed by Apollonius of Tyana, who was commanded to appear before Domitian, and having done so, suddenly disappeared in the full sight of the assembly, to be seen again, shortly afterwards, at Puteoli near Mount Vesuvius. This incredible feat we find again recorded in the New Testament of the Bible, where we are told in the Acts of the Apostles (chapter 8, verses 39 and 40), that, "The Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, and he was found at Azotus." When one thinks of all these great feats which man has been capable of performing, and is now, generally speaking, unable to do, we are forced to regard in a new light the Parable of the Talents in the New Testament. How we have neglected these God-given talents, and how childish are we still in our ways! When shall we grow up out of this childish body and the limited game we play of work and sleep, to the full stature of that life which awaits each one of us if only we will learn at the feet of the great?
At the close of a lecture, Alex Erskine narrated that his friend and the children were once staying with their mother for the week-end, whilst their father spent the week-end in London. On Sunday, at midnight, the children were distressed to hear their mother give a [43] piercing shriek from her bedroom; and upon entering the room, they found their mother in a great state of agitation and grief. She stated that she had just seen their father standing before her, who had quietly announced to her that he was dead and then vanished into thin air. The children tried to comfort her, with the assurance that it was only a nightmare; at which their mother became angry, and averred that she had not even done her hair, let alone got into bed to sleep; moreover, she had had no foreboding before the vision occurred. To the amazement and horror of the household, a telegram arrived the next morning from the hotel where Lord X. was staying, stating that he had been found dead in bed by the chambermaid, early in the morning. Telepathy is a very real thing; no less so is the transportation phenomenon.
The Cannon Psychograph or Thought-Reading Machine
Man has come to recognize his relationship with mankind as a whole; his worldly responsibility, such as it is, and science, has taught him that all life is molecular and that he is part of all other life, though endowed with nobler faculties than the lower and brute creation. Through investigation and experimental activity, it has been discovered that thought is dynamic; it is both force and motion.
Under the auspices of the Medical Research [44] Council, the research with my psychograph records all types of thought in graph form. In the Medical World the results of 176 cases are recorded:
Attention of a fleeting nature is indicated by irregular and uneven zig-zag lines, the excursions being of large size.
Concentration produces small excursions of a regular type with fairly wide spacings between each zig-zag line and rounded tops.
Inattention shows very large respiratory excursions mixed up with small excursions and a tendency to flat tops.
Complete relaxation (mental and physical) produces large, slow excursions with pointed bottoms and flattened tops.
Dozing is simply a further stage of complete relaxation as indicated by the graph.
Sleep is a still further stage than the dozing state, and now the record tends to become smaller and more rapid as the sleep becomes deeper.
Hypnosis or artificial sleep is identical with that of complete relaxation.
Visual thought produces a regular even zig-zag record with sharp angles both top and bottom, and the graph in general gives an undulation of a larger nature not unlike a Traube-Hering curve.
Auditory thought (thinking only in terms of hearing) produces rather smaller respiratory excursions than those of visual thought (seeing things but not hearing them) and the tops are wider and the bottoms over a long record give the appearance of numerous arches, each arch being [45] formed by about twelve respiratory movements, and frequently are definitely irregular in type.
Kinaesthetic thought, or thinking in terms of movement as in playing a game, produces fast, jerky, undulating zig-zag lines. If the eyes are closed the excursions are reduced in size but of the same type.
Emotional thought is recorded on the Jung word reaction principle, the subject's reaction being noted to each word mentioned: in this way love, hate, suicidal tendencies, interest in certain things, and many other reactions can be recorded with a constancy which is very instructive.
Music of a good, rhythmic nature causes more rapid movements, and the zig-zag lines usually record the notes apart from the rhythm. The graph is very striking in comparison with other types of thought. A non-musical person appears to have good rhythm but no emotional response, and the findings are of great value in helping us to understand what it is that these people lack in thought processes.
Different rates of thought processes can be clearly demonstrated in all the various types of thought, by asking the subject to think and do calculations at various speeds which can be recorded by the various rates at which the subject breathes, breathing faster the faster he thinks, and slowing down with the psycho-motor retardation present in more difficult problems and when he deliberately thinks more slowly.
Prolonged concentration of thought gradually [46] reduces the respiratory excursion until after some hours the breathing becomes shallow: the importance of this observation need hardly be stressed when one reflects on the dangers of deficient lung expansion and the vicious circle which can so readily be set up.
Asthma and music: in five of my cases asthma was a chronic symptom and the breathing was unmistakably asthmatical. Music produced regular breathing after a period of from two to ten minutes: the music of a waltz time produced a more rapid normal reaction.
Telepathy can be demonstrated in the waking state by attaching two subjects to the psychograph, independently and synchronously, and then after a few standard results have been procured, subject one is told to think of something with his eyes closed, trying as it were to "push" the thoughts into subject two's head. Subject two also closes his eyes and does his utmost to think of what subject one is thinking about. The operator is not aware of what subject one transmits to subject two, but after a delay of from half to one minute, subject two "picks up" a similar type of chart to that which subject one has now produced, the similarity of the charts being often very striking. In more than ninety per cent of subjects, to my surprise, the subject two has been actually under these circumstances able to tell subject one and myself the exact thing or things which subject one was actually thinking of.
I formed the following conclusions:
1. A definite "pattern reaction" between thought processes and the act of respiration does exist.
2. The explanation of various mental states and their constant relationship to the act of respiration can now be studied with a view to a reverse reaction being produced, in that, by correcting the type of breathing the abnormal thought processes will be adjusted (viz., the very shallow breathing of the dementia praecox patient).
3. Seeing that the rate of thought processes can definitely be demonstrated, a person's alertness and power of reacting to various standard conditions can be used to classify the mentality of normal as well as abnormal subjects. The power of concentration, and the effect of various mental efforts can also be determined and be of use in the guidance of parents as to the future career of their children.
4. Crime, likes and dislikes, suicidal tendencies and other emotional factors can be readily demonstrated. This should prove of much value to the individual and to the community.
It can be demonstrated scientifically that two persons are in mental harmony during transference of thought between them; that, in fact, the communication of ideas does actually take place. Furthermore, it can be demonstrated not only in the hypnotic state, but recorded in the waking state on paper in graph form by my Psychograph; the thought being carried, so to speak, [48] by the magnetic current of one person to the other, through the invisible ether at the direction of the will, and sensed or understood in the same way that we understand a letter; which is only a kind of visible medium conveying sense impressions. Messages may be sent along "thought-waves" to be read by another mind quite as plainly as is the ordinary easily deciphered letter received from an intimate friend.
As it is the intelligence ruling in the mind that conveys the idea to certain brain centres through the agency of sensory nerves, to raise a hand or foot; so, by exactly the same law, are mind-currents or thought-waves sent out to others who are in affinity with the sender, the operator; that is to say, anyone who has the power of absolute concentration and the will to direct the magnetic force of thought.
The Wireless Brain
The next evening the Sage and I discussed the wireless brain. He remarked, "Wireless is an influence roaming at large through this vast world of ours; it does not have any visible effect, however, until it comes into contact with instruments specially prepared to receive it. Might not that analogy hold good in respect to the brain? Might not the brain be an instrument specially prepared to be acted upon by the Universal Mind?"
I replied, "I am trying by psychological and physiological means to do something to [49] straighten out the tangle into which our ideas concerning the mind have got. It would appear that the mind and the brain are not always in association, as is evidenced during sleep or under an anaesthetic, or even in hypnotic states. Therefore, there is a possibility that mind is, in reality, an outside influence only affecting the brain when the latter is in certain states.
"Aided by the power of darkness," I continued, "your wireless set produces auditory and rhythmic thought, with greater clarity than in the daytime, so in the still of the night can telepathy be practised even on those with whom the operator has no real conscious affinity. The mediaeval, so-called 'evil eye' and the 'casting of a spell' is no mere myth: it is a scientific reality.
"There is no doubt that, by patience and long practice two persons can, whilst their minds are in affinity that is, in a passive state whether asleep or awake direct by mental vibration a thought one to the other, even over a considerable distance just as the B.B.C. broadcasts; and if you correctly tune in your wireless set, through space you will pick up the vocal refrain. The sole difference between the wireless broadcast and the telepathizing of two individuals is this: the mind of one person accepts and receives the impressions by the force of thought-vibration, whilst with the wireless the set must be tuned in to the right wave-length vibration; distance in both cases [50] being completely ignored, as in clairvoyance. The wireless is mechanical electricity, carried upon the waves of ether: telepathy is thought-vibration, which is a dynamic reality; both motion and force being carried on the waves of a still finer ether or X, and conveyed to the mind in harmony with its own, by will or the intensified vibration of the thought force of the sender."
My friend interrupted, "I take it that the force that is manifested in the Universe around us is the same force as that which wells up in ourselves under the form of consciousness." — "Exactly," was my comment.
He continued, "Identity, then, exists between our inner-life, ourselves, and the outer-life; the universal force of the universe around us?"
"Therefore everywhere is mind; and mind is everywhere," I remarked. "It is interesting to note," I went on, "that the unconscious conception is quite hidden from the normal physical conscious mind of the mother who moulds the shape of her babe into the likeness that is most dominant in her mind; or else that which is in the embryo, carrying and faithfully producing that likeness, be it even to the grandparents. It is the mind that achieves this marvellous modelling of an image, not matter. Does this not help us to shape a better idea of God, the creator of all things ? He is not a human being, though He came down to Earth, once, in the form of man, that the simple mind [51] might understand Him: but to the man of science He is the Universal God, the electricity of life, the sum of all the invisible but real forces around us and about us — the very vibration of being!
"The mind can even, by the projecting of an idea, destroy life itself, as in the practice of Black Magic. It can influence the body so as to produce organic changes. When a woman saw a heavy weight fall and crush her child's foot, she instantly fainted; restored to consciousness, she was found to have on her own foot, an injury identical to that sustained by her child. Not only was there a wound, stranger still, it went through the various stages of suppuration, and healed eventually by granulation tissue."
"You see," smiled my friend, "the power of the mind is transcendent over everything in this world. We are so accustomed to the mysteries of life, the working of Nature's miracles, that we are often hardly conscious of them. Human intelligence is frail and finite, whereas life is infinite."
The Vibrations of Life
At this moment a gale rose, and none but those who have been in a typhoon (which not only can be felt at sea, but also on land), could possibly realize with what speed wind can travel. The table rocked, the verandah creaked; in fact, the whole building seemed to vibrate. I commented upon this to my learned friend, [52] who quietly interrogated: "Do you realize what significance the word 'vibration' really has? When we talk of this place, that branch of a tree, or of the motor-car vibrating, we are hinting, in elementary language, at a great truth which underlies all nature. Many years have passed since I first read that marvellous work of Pythagoras (to which I have made earlier reference). Pythagoras was really the first man to tell us that the Earth was but round and not flat; he gave us a yet greater truth by far that everything in this world, both the visible and the invisible, vibrates. Some vibrations can be felt or detected by ordinary physical and sensory means, such as the vibration of an engine, or of a person himself; for note, that as one gently touches the fingers of another person with one's own, a distinct vibration can be felt passing from one hand to the other. In this way, the man who is both blind and deaf can know one individual from another, because no two persons have the same vibration, just as no two have the same identification finger-mark. Our whole life is one vibration, and our bodies will vibrate until our eyes shall close in Death, when our earthly lives shall do so no more on this our Mother Earth. Electricity itself is vibration; music is vibration. Hence, how strains of melody, when harmony with one's own vibrations, can soothe the wounded breast, and calm the troubled mind.
"The power of music upon the insane is but a forceful demonstration of these vibrations being able to assist Nature in adjusting the vibrations of the human mind and body which have lost their rhythm, and therefore lack mental harmony.
"Colours have vibrations, and that explains why some colours are pleasing to certain people, and other colours are very annoying; the latter clash in vibrations with those of the receptive subject. It has long since been shown that music and colours can be blended and so still further improve the marvellous effect of music upon the troubled mind. Disease (dis-ease) is but a disharmony of the vibrations of the human body, and mental disorder is the lack of harmony in the vibrations of the mind. Even certain localities have their own vibrations, and hence some people feel happy in some localities, but not in others. To live in surroundings and work under conditions which are in harmonic vibration with those of the subject makes for a happiness which is lasting; but to live in unpleasant surroundings and work under unsuitable conditions which are not in harmony with the subject, leads to a lasting misery; for in the subject, leads to a lasting misery; for in time those vibrations which are different to ours, as it were, tend to demagnetize us, and so our mind and body suffer accordingly.
"This leads us to a still greater truth, that the world itself vibrates, and is in fact magnetic. No one will deny that the Earth has magnetic [54] North and South poles to which the compass points, apart from the geographical ones. We also know that owing to the composition of the Strata of the Earth's crust, that different parts of the Earth's surface are more magnetic than others, or rather throw out different vibrations; for magnetism itself is a form of vibration. Therefore, it can be easily understood why one place suits one person more than another and why certain diseases are more prevalent in one place than another. Also some people sleep better when the bed faces East-West than when it faces North-South, and vice versa. Consider for one moment the simple fact that the magnetic power of the Earth's surface varies from place to place, and that the human body is magnetic; as can be proved by certain scientific instruments, and noted by the very vibrations which we can detect in the fingers of each other; all these being manifestations of an invisible influence which pervades our lives and the whole Universe. As there is more iron ore and other conductive metals unevenly distributed below the Earth's surface in some places than others, so the magnetic vibrations will vary from point to point.
"The power of thought itself is but a vibration, and by training, the sender can make it travel in the ether any distance whatsoever, by pure mental determining. Mind manifests itself through various grades of fineness, produced by vibration.
"The elements differ, not in substance, but only in the rate of vibrations. Note the piece of ice which changes into water and hence into steam, vapour and gas, not changing its substance (H2O), being still two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen, but only increasing the rapidity of its atomic (and electronic) vibrations."
I agreed with what the Sage had said and continued the conversation: "You realize that thought-reading or mental telepathy is only developed by the sixth sense of what we might call faith, that by the evidence of things created, we understand that the invisible mind brought the same into actual form and for our edification and made a reality to our consciousness on this level. It will manifest to the conscious mind when separated from the body, what we can, by faith, see as it were, now. Surely this is not only logical but reasonably scientific. Therefore on the lower plane we are given knowledge sufficient to develop this sixth sense of faith; and that is all. Beyond this we are peering into the secret of Divinity, the Master Mind Itself, from which all vibrations emanate.
To Him That Hath
"To him that desireth wisdom, let him put himself into that condition that he knoweth nothing. Then he shall have wisdom more abundantly; but not until then will he receive it. 'To him that hath, more shall be given, [56] but to him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he "seemeth" to have.' This latter is a picture of a man's consummate conceit who often only seemeth to have that which he never did have, and that is why it shall be 'taken away'. I therefore beseech you to study carefully this theory of vibration which I am inclined to think is a fact and is indeed a subject worthy of consideration.
Memory and Telepathy
"The mystery of that hitherto unknown faculty of memory has defied all scientific investigation as regards the relation of thoughts and actions of our lives, from childhood to old age, but telepathy opens up new rays of light which penetrate its hidden mysteries.
Scotland Yard Enlightened
"You once told me of your interview with Sir Edward Henry, the Commissioner of Police at the time of the Crippen Murder Investigation. Taking with you a suitable subject you were prepared to assist Scotland Yard by revealing through the power of telepathy whether or not Crippen committed the crime and if so how he did it; but our narrow law forbade such reasonable investigation on scientific lines. However, Sir Edward was prepared to have the power demonstrated, so you hypnotized your subject and soon placed him in a profound sleep. In the Chief's room, at [57] Scotland Yard, there was the subject in a deep hypnotic sleep and soon reading the thoughts of the Chief very accurately; which feat astounded him. When your subject was asked, 'What is Sir Edward thinking of now?' your subject replied, 'He thinks you are mad.' It was perfectly true, Sir Edward did think so! Then you proceeded to allow the Chief to make a series of scrutinizing tests and I believe that you soon convinced Sir Edward that hypnosis was a science which could be used for the benefit of the country in the investigation of crime, but that the Commissioner was powerless, as he could not, and dare not, act: the law forbade him so to do."
"That is perfectly true,' remarked the Adept, "and just think in how many other directions we could make use of this power. Remember that it is not necessary to hypnotize the criminal or suspected criminal party, but a third person who is a very good trance subject. In this way one could have the subject previously hypnotized behind a screen, unknown to the authorities, and unknown to the criminal party. The record could afterwards be made of what the clairvoyant stated regarding the guiltiness of the party; and this could be used for further investigation of the crime if the evidence itself could not be used, as at present, in a Court of Law. The clairvoyant can do more than read the immediate thoughts of the party during interrogation, and actually form a picture of [58] the scene of the crime from the picture which is unconsciously reformed in the mind of the criminal; he can relate minute details connected therewith which could be used in the ordinary legitimate channels of investigation and then brought in later, as evidence on investigation. You see that in many spheres of life other than the Police and allied investigations, it is of untold value.
"Now the next fact of importance to note is that the deeper the somnambulic state of the hypnotic sleep the less important is the distance between the two people in mental communication with each other, only one person being hypnotized. The subject in the light stage of hypnosis needs to be fairly close to the person whose thoughts are to be read, but as the sleep becomes deeper the distance can be lengthened, until in the trance state the mind has completely mastered distance, and then distance as such does not exist. This is the starting point of spatial clairvoyance, the seeing through space as it were, where no opacity of material objects is apparent until the desired distance is reached, when the place becomes visible to the eye of the mind. How great are the wonders of man's mind: how much greater the marvels of the Master Mind!"
The night was now far spent, and so we retired to the world-of-dreams which comes to us in the state of sleep, which also links us with Eternity.
Return to Auric Research index.