The Invisible Influence
By Alexander Cannon
Chapter III
The Mastery of the Mind Over Time and Space
ON the morrow we arose at an early hour and continued our discourse. Turning to my fellow-traveller I said: "Is it not a pity that so few people realize that the clairvoyant state, of which we can speak with experience, is full of interest in relationship to thought-transference, without either of the people concerned being aware of it? You will remember when I placed Colonel X in a profound trance state and by suggestions which I made to him, whilst in that state, made him follow with the eyes of his mind an eminent statesman on his travels for three whole hours. The Colonel all the time wrote down automatically, and without his conscious knowledge, exactly where the statesman was; to whom he spoke, what he said, what they said, and what the statesman thought of what his acquaintances said: he continued to do so until the statesman returned to his city residence. The Colonel remained during the whole seance or hypnotic sitting, in the chair, writing down the events which he observed during the whole of this [60] period. Neither the Colonel nor the statesman were previously aware of my intentions and did not know of them until I mentioned the matter afterwards, when I had carefully obtained a positive acknowledgement from the statesman that all that was recorded was true and all had been seen and heard, and not one item omitted. The Colonel did not even know that he had been asleep (incredible as this may seem to the uninitiated) and the statesman had no idea whatsoever that he was being followed by the invisible mind of the Colonel, who had for the time being completely conquered time and space, as distance was, to him, no object, and time did not exist in the mind which was greater and allied to Eternity. He saw with the eyes of his mind, and not with those of his body, which he used for writing down what the former were seeing. I need hardly mention that the statesman was so astonished that at first he accused me of using a super-spying system; and when he eventually began to realize that it was done, as he said, by uncanny means, he implored me, never again to carry out such an experiment upon him, even though he were at a great distance and knew not of its operation. The Colonel was not only astounded, but also intrigued. It was proof that the Colonel was in an abnormal state of mind, his ordinary consciousness being suspended whilst in the trance state. How great are the wonders of this World, how marvellous its workings, how amazing the vast territory [61] lying at our feet, that Hidden Treasure, which, for want of effort, we haves failed to explore."
Clairvoyance is the perception of things distant either in time or in space with complete mastery of time and of space, so that time and space for the time being do not, in fact, exist.
The Governor-General and the Seeing Through Cards Experiment
That evening the Governor-General came to dine with us, and at dinner asked to be shown, afterwards, the phenomenon known as "seeing through cards". Having dined both well and wisely, and talked of many strategic situations; also of enlisting our help with powers unseen, — we made our way to the western verandah, where we idly sat for a few moments whilst our chief boy obtained for us a pack of cards. To demonstrate the phenomenon clearly to the Governor-General, a series of experiments were necessary to explain the increasing complexity of this phenomenon. The Governor-General summoned his Aide-de-camp to take a seat with us, and then we hypnotized him as deeply as we could, for the first time, and tested him in the trance state; and succeeded very well indeed. As a new pack of cards were obtained, they had to be first made damp, otherwise the cards are just placed before the hypnotized subject in the ordinary way. The reason for them being made damp will be shortly explained. However, [62] the General did not like the idea of damping the cards, so an old pack was obtained and used. Our subject was asked to examine the pack and then choose a card; carefully looking at it, both back and front. This card was noted by the remainder of our little party We then returned it to the pack of cards which were well shuffled by the Governor, who then placed the whole pack of cards before the hypnotized subject, whose eyes had been closed in the meantime. The cards were placed face downwards so that only the backs of the cards could be seen. The subject was instructed to pick out without delay from the array of cards (all face downwards), the card which he had previously chosen. Without the least hesitation he did so, although usually this requires a little hypnotic training first.
The Governor-General said, "Oh! I know how it is done it is the extraordinary acute power of vision under hypnosis which enabled my Aide-de-camp to notice minute differences on the backs of the cards." I was, however, able to recall that on two occasions I had used two good somnambules, who under subsequent hypnosis, although carefully cross-examined, were quite emphatic that they could see through the actual cards in every case. I tested this afterwards; having chosen a card which they observed, by going into another room and marking the card on the playing side; then myself mixing it up with the other cards. The [63] subjects could, however, tell me not only which card it was, but also that it was strange that a mark had somehow got on it. The mark was described. This was quite impossible for them to ascertain by any other means than seeing through the card; if a new playing card is placed before them, they cannot see its face but only so many "air-bubbles"; therefore telepathy can in this case be reasonably excluded.
The General nodded assent as I continued to explain: "This is only really a furtherance of our normal powers, such as holding a thin envelope to the light and trying to read the wording on the paper inside it. The envelope can be made so thick that one cannot ordinarily do this, but during hypnosis the matter seems easy. It is interesting to note that, in this connection, if a very thick playing card is used, it cannot be read. If the reading of the card depended upon noticing small differences on the back of the card, as so many people believe, or pure telepathy, thick playing cards could be read just as easily as thin cards. Hence the wetting of new cards to make them more transparent would be unnecessary. It is difficult as yet to understand why there should be difficulty with such thicknesses of cards when the somnambulist can penetrate walls, towns, and miles of country to see something by command at a great distance: it is one of the phenomena which still requires further scientific investigation."
How Clairvoyance Works
The Governor-General was now deeply interested in this subject and asked my friend the Sage, "How does clairvoyance really work?" The Sage smiled benevolently and replied: "In normal life we form our opinions of other people from pure observation. We say that So-and-so looks clever; that Mr. A. is stupid; Mrs. B. is happy; and Miss C. is sad. Now consider for a moment how we come to these conclusions. Certain details of our impressions of these people derived through our senses, are unconsciously formulated in our minds and hence we arrive at our conclusions. In the hypnotic state all our senses and sense impressions are greatly increased, and hence many impressions which we would normally miss, are now too obvious to be missed: the hypnotized subject is so sensitive to touch, that he can clearly tell whether it is the hypnotist, or someone else who is touching him. Differences in strength of pressure, temperature, and even in the attitude of the person touching the hypnotized, including the ticking of a watch on that person and its particular position; or the sound of cuff-links, no two cuff-links giving exactly identical sounds, can be detected; hence extremely logical and accurate opinions can be formed which, to the uninformed, seem supernormal. But as my friend has just said, there is something more: this is one of the many problems we are still trying to solve."
At this point, having been so engrossed in the conversation that I had not awakened my hypnotic subject, I now proceeded to do so with a single command. Interrupting the conversation, I said, "You must remember that the predictions and prophecies of the deeply hypnotized are not infrequently based upon the logical use of such insignificant impressions, but there is also an x factor which I am now trying to discover.
"It might be stated that temporal clairvoyance or the seeing through time things which will happen in the future, is only a stage further of acuity of perception to the above more simple and less 'miraculous' phenomena.
Sir Charles Bell: the Lines on the Hand, and the Unconscious Mind
"Now take the hand, for example. Sir Charles Bell, the famous neurologist and scientist, in 1854 showed that the lines on the hand were imprinted often as long as ten years in advance and by their careful study the future can very accurately be told. It must be borne in mind that those lines are formed by the activities of the unconscious mind; those on the left hand being formed by the right brain, and those on the right hand by the left brain.
"Now I contend that the unconscious mind [66] which, through the nerves, produces lines ten years in advance, can surely keep as equally accurate information in the brain itself; and probably more accurate as well as for a greater length of time ahead, if only we know how to read it. It would seem that in temporal clairvoyance, the hypnotized subject can in some way read the workings of the unconscious mind, and so predict the future with great accuracy."
Crystal Gazing
"And what do you think of crystal gazing?" asked the General. This time I replied, "What happens is that the Clairvoyant on looking into the hand or at the crystal, and thereby so hypnotizing herself, now sees as in a dream, or through a dark glass dimly, the hidden dreams of the inquirer; and with such certainty that it would at times seem as if the door to the unknown had at last been flung wide open: the whole plan of life laid bare before us. So terrible is it for some to know of their future and, what it will bring forth, that I feel sympathetic with the teachings of the Scriptures that we should not unduly peer into the unknown. Many a brain has been unbalanced as a result. It can nevertheless be done, and we have even the Biblical evidence of Jesus Christ foretelling, 'What of the future?' We may be as yet too inexperienced to do it, without harm, and it [67] must be admitted that we know far too little about this most entrancing subject. But in search of the secrets of science we plod on."
Seeing Things Far Distant
Our conversation then turned to spatial clairvoyance, or the seeing of things which normally are not visible, as is instanced more elementarily in the "seeing through cards" experiments. It also demonstrates the seeing of things which are too far distant to be normally seen by any mechanical aid whatsoever. Then, it was related: "I have seen and witnessed an observer hypnotized who could see objects in a room which were not normally accessible to view. He could, as it were, see round corners, through tables, inside cupboards and desks.
"On one occasion, I witnessed a still greater feat. A hypnotized subject, on board ship, was able to see a town from the sea which was not visible through a powerful telescope, and yet in a few hours I was able to confirm with my own eyes all that he had seen some hours previously, in his trance state. He had never travelled this way before."
The Aide-de-camp then questioned the Sage as to his theories regarding spatial clairvoyance, in view of these extraordinary statements. He responded: "That they do exist there is no doubt, but to answer your question might appear [68] even more difficult. It may be explained in this way:
The Theory of Clairvoyance
"Normal vision is accounted for assuming that in the retina at the back of the eye, there are two main types of cells, the rods and the cones, as described in all the standard works on anatomy. The function of these rods is to see in the dark, but only to see in terms of black and and white and not in colours, whereas the cones which see in the light see in terms of colour. Let me illustrate. You go out of doors from a brightly lit drawing-room into the night, when there is no moon, but the stars can be seen; at first you see nothing, owing to the cones being insensitive to darkness, and the rods having been exhausted by the bright light of the drawing-room. Very soon the rods regain their function; you can just see the outline of objects, and can detect light and shade, but no colour, as everything looks various shades of black and white. The rods respond to stimulation more slowly than do the cones; hence the delay in accommodation from light to darkness, but ready adaptation from darkness to light; only with almost soreness of the eyes for the moment, as the rods are rapidly exhausted by over-stimulation, and the cones quickly again take up their work in the light. Now I suggest that, in the hypnotic trance state, there is at least one layer of the retina of which we do not as yet [69] know the function (in fact there are several layers regarding which we know not their function): it is possible that the rods and the cones are blotted out with the ether or x exhaustion, when the super-rods come into play. It must also be remembered that we do not really see with our eyes, as the images there are upside down as in the camera, but that the back of our brains (the occipital lobes of the cerebrum) interpret what we see, as being what we term, the right way up. I think it is reasonable to assume that under profound hypnosis sensations from the super-rods are possible of interpretation by the brain; or at any rate by the mind even apart from the brain as such; hence the apparent or real ignoring of space and enormous increase in power of vision."
The Eyes of the Skin
"Schopenhauer stated that in transposition of the senses," commented the Governor-General, "stimuli which would normally only affect a particular organ of sense, or some particular part of the body (as for example, letters) can be read by means of the skin instead of the eyes, without heightening the sense of touch.
"Moll believed that the part of the skin concerned is stimulated by light rays, even without direct contact, and when no hyperaesthesia of touch prevailed. You believe that there may be certain 'sense organs' which we [70] have not as yet discovered, because they are only active during the state of hypnosis. Can we account for all the organs seen in the anatomy of the skin? There is only one answer: No!"
Water Diviners
In this part of the world water diviners abound and, in fact, are very useful people. Therefore, it was quite expected that the Aide-de-camp would lay before us the question, "And how do water diviners work?"
It was a fitting reply, in view of our discussion on seeing through space, to state: "Water diviners are, in our opinion, clairvoyants; and it may even yet be shown, much as we pat ourselves on the back at having long since washed out the so-called idea of animal magnetism, which Mesmer (an M.D. of Vienna) so faithfully preached from the house-tops, that, after all, he may be right: not only does animal magnetism exist but it is in some way, which we have not as yet discovered, linked up with earth magnetism. This would strengthen the link which we pointed out before between the vibration theory of Pythagoras and animal and earth magnetism: in fact they are inseparable. No one can deny the magnetic state of the Earth, as shown by the compass; and no one, of any standing in the world of science, will deny the magnetic force which can be demonstrated [71] to emanate from the human body: as cannot only be shown by Joire's instrument, but demonstrated by the experiments of Kilner (a medical graduate of Cambridge and M.R.C.P. Lond.) on making the aura of human beings visible in daylight by the use of certain screens (which will be discussed later on).
"We are now on the eve of a new era in the psychic sphere, as shown by the experiments on the psychograph, psycho-galvanometer, the pulse tracings in the hypnotic states and other physiological records; which are so essential to make those of unbelief know and realize that animal magnetism, and earth magnetism, are real things; that the body does vibrate in unison with the mind of man. As we have implied, the World vibrates, we vibrate; telepathy and clairvoyance are forms of vibration, as is music, noise and the like. When our lives on this earth vibrate no more, physical death, but psychical victory, will be our fate.
"It is true that our knowledge works round in cycles, every so many years; it is evident that we are now going to return to the magnetic theory, only with renewed light given by the toll of the years; and new knowledge which will lead us on past one more milestone in the annals of science. Why does mercury (a heavy metal) relieve syphilis? Why does iron (a heavy metal) improve the state of the blood? These are matters for serious thought, especially in relationship to the magnetic influence theory, [72] especially seeing that they are powerful electrical conductors.
"Those of us who know the Yoga philosophy — and, by the way, I wish people would not call it Yoga when it is really pronounced 'Yogue', — realize that by training in clairvoyance, one can be made to actually see the workings of his own bodily organs. Not only this, but one can be trained to see the inner organs of other people. Ridiculous as this may seem, we well remember an occasion when a colleague of ours was saved from impending disaster by such a person, who diagnosed an almost perforated ulcer of the pylorus (part of the stomach) which had been 'missed' by the surgeon owing to atypical signs and symptoms. The patient was operated upon by the same surgeon, who was sporty enough to do a laparotomy (which you know is the opening of the abdominal wall), and who confirmed, at operation, the diagnosis of the clairvoyant. It is difficult nowadays to distinguish the charlatan from the real genuine clairvoyant, but we can assure you that many such persons do exist."
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