The Invisible Influence
By Alexander Cannon
Chapter IV
A Terrible Truth
WE had, on the evening of the visit to our castle of the Governor-General, burnt the candle far into the night, and had profited much by our discussion, as we were all adepts of the great cult. It was not for some days that we had a further opportunity of chatting over the things which were nearest and dearest to our hearts. The sun shone brightly this morning which was the Sabbath, for in the East we keep the Sacred Day just as we honour the Sunday at home. This morning we were looking forward to a last visit from the Governor-General, ere we travelled further into the unknown land of the Far East, on our quest in search of the greatest secret of all: the power to bring back the body from the grave and once more instil life into it; as the Nazarene Christ, named Jesus, did, in the days of long ago, when He said that if we had faith we could not only do the things which He did, but greater things: His own words were, "Greater things than these shall ye do, for I go unto My Father!"
It was by the careful adjustment of the vibrations of His body to the vibrations emanating from the fig tree that He was able to command and be obeyed; when He commanded the tree to wither, immediately it withered away.
The Governor-General arrived in all his pomp, and having partaken of light refreshment, we resumed our conversation. His Excellency said that seeing it was the Sabbath we should talk along the more sacred lines of our cult; so he commenced: "You will have long since realized that the doctrine of Christianity, shown by the teaching of the New Testament, is in close, exact accord and harmony with what hypnotism and telepathy have proved, by the duality of mind. It is therefore understood how the acceptance of the suggestion of the sacrifice of Christ by the unconscious mind, recreates, as it were, the birth of the belief in the soul; for logically we have now proved without a shadow of a doubt, that the acknowledgement only of the doctrine of Christianity as a supreme belief may only affect the physical consciousness, and as we have already proved, can die out or be destroyed. Therefore the one that only 'seemeth to have' is a very different one from the one who 'hath.' Ponder over this great thought in your mind. It is a great fact; the real active acceptance of a truth when accepted right home to the unconscious mind, persists through Eternity.
Proof of the Hereafter
"Therefore a terrible truth is manifested, when one really scientifically understands what acceptance of suggestion really means; because the soul must exist in this state of belief after death, exactly in accordance with what it has really made its own, in the normal state of consciousness, in its everyday life in this world we live in. Therefore this 'Kingdom of Heaven' within us (this unconscious self which survives our fleeting conscious self) is in our own hands, to be made in accordance with the mind of God or the mind of the Devil. Hence the hidden meaning of the great truth of old, 'As a man thinketh in his heart so is he'; and 'As a man sows, so shall he (also) reap.'
The Demonistic Theory
"The insane frequently have delusions that devils torment them and they see visual hallucinations or visions of these servants of the underworld, and hear their voices. This is another terrible truth which the Scriptures make quite clear but which the superficial scientists 'pooh-pooh', and say, 'humbug'! I sometimes wonder what madness really is; when I hypnotize a normal person into a trance state and then find that he can be made to see exactly the same visions, hear the same voices, and believe in the same evil forces, if so commanded. Surely this again is a question of [76] mastery over the individual vibrations which emanate from that particular individual: if I can produce these alterations in vibrations in the normal to make them abnormal, why cannot I persist in my endeavours to make the abnormal, normal, by a reversal of the process? If Devils, as it were, can get in, by suggestion, surely they can be turned out of the innermost consciousness of the mind of man, by suggestion also; for what can be suggested there, can be suggested away.
"It would, after all, almost appear, as if we were living in a material world, in which all the invisible powers are let loose, and in full force; just as the wireless transmission is in complete activity. Yet, without a wireless control-set, these waves of ether cannot be converted into sound waves of music and the like; and at will, we can also, as easily, cut off the wireless pick-up and so cease to hear the wireless, although the vibrations are still there. Perhaps, after all, it is our mental deficiency that is at fault and not those of the so-called insane, who often are in full possession of many of their faculties; they have in many cases insight, and because they produce phenomena which to us are grotesque, we, in our feebleness, cry aloud, 'Put this man away, for he is mad.'
"Some years ago, when I bought one of the first wireless sets, and allowed a certified person of unsound mind to 'listen in', I was intrigued with his remark: 'But do you mean to tell me, [77] Sir, that you cannot hear music in the air without a toy instrument like that? I have heard this music at will for the past fifteen years.' May I suggest that this remark of one alleged to be insane should be seriously considered and not ignored as the rambling of one who has lost his reason. How many have said unkindly that Sir Oliver Lodge is doting in his old age because he studied spiritualistic phenomena: although I am not a spiritualist I must strongly defend this great man of science who is many years ahead of his time; he will be shown in days that are to come to have fathomed and mastered truths which will never die and be only really appreciated then. Around us and about us are the Everlasting Arms, spirits good and evil; and telepathy is merely our present-day way of trying, in our ignorance, to explain the phenomena of wonders yet untold. I do not have visions; but because I cannot see visions, cannot hear 'imaginary voices', and because I cannot feel unseen influences as such, it would be utter pig-headedness on my part to take the attitude that because I was not capable of understanding such marvellous phenomena, such therefore could not exist. Let us ever remember that there are more things in Heaven, in Hell, and on Earth than ever we have dreamt of: a study of the unconscious mind from what I regard as the 'Kingdom of Heaven' point of view, should clearly show the most primitive thinker, how [78] Heaven, or Hell, can become a great reality and an everlasting state of mind, in the life after death.
Telepathy A Reality
"To have your thoughts read is no mere illusion or delusion: when an insane person tells you that his thoughts are being read, you say impossible! Who is right? Don't forget the Scotland Yard demonstration. Don't therefore answer too quickly, but read on! The hypnotized subject tells the name of a town the thinker is thinking of. All that is required is for the person to concentrate his thoughts on the name of the town, which the subject, by mental telepathy, will read, at once. If the subject fails, it has been proved that it is entirely for the want of complete concentration on the part of the person's mind on the name of the town, and not the fault of the subject. Don't forget that mind telepathy was the first telegraph and telephone service in the world. It might reasonably be considered only a matter of degree between the experiments which I carry out on normal people and the delusions of the insane. Who knows?"
The Sage now stretched out his legs, drank some lemonade, and suggested that we must sift out the knowledge which is shallow from that which is deep.
Knowledge Which is Shallow and That Which is Deep
In a voice composed, dignified, and soothing, he embarked on his great philosophy: "It is well to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest these truths, of which we have just spoken. We must persevere in our efforts, bearing in mind that perseverance is the World's greatest ruler and is the price of success.
"Mushrooms spring up in a night and wither soon afterwards: so it is with shallow knowledge.
"The tree takes years and maybe centuries to grow, but its roots are deep and its branches are great: so be it with much knowledge!
"Cultivate the tree of knowledge of these precious fruits, telepathy and clairvoyance, now that you are aware that you have the root; prune, water, and be careful not to let it wither in solitude!
How Power and Knowledge Grow
"This subtle power comes through seeing the best in others, in heart and mind: the very way the magnetic man or woman shakes hands with another, instantly sends a stimulus of encouragement through the nerve centres of the brain and body; and the harmony of that vibration is in accord with happiness, confidence and health.
"Why is one actor greater than another? One has the power to feel what he says and does; the other merely parrots his words.
Wishing and Purpose
"Wishing is not attainment unless you add to it purpose. Willing is the act of concentration; it is the concentrated holding together of the whole conscious faculties of the mind and determining a result to be achieved.
"To know mind is to know God! Therefore respect all, but fear no man. Mind is greater than matter. Fear is the proof of a degenerate mind. Impossible is the adjective of fools. Note that the human conscious mind can only think of one subject at one time: the unconscious mind can think of many things.
The Master of Destiny
"The conscious mind may falter, but the unconscious mind never falters: perhaps it knows all things?
"The conscious mind is but the outside wall to the Palace of the Unconscious with its treasures of Memory, Music, Language, Love and Life its very self. The Key of Wisdom is in your hands: it alone can open the gate to this Palace of the inner man and the hereafter along the path into this strange Paragon of Truth and Power.
"Telepathy will grasp the mental difficulties of others and adjust them by a look: with a word they will understand, as if by magic. Telepathic repetition of a suggestion becomes a fixed idea in the mind and the waking and sleeping thoughts repeat it to the one influenced automatically and Unconsciously, until at last he becomes his thoughts and his thoughts become him. 'As a man thinketh in his heart (unconsciously); so is he!'
"Let us confess that the real origin even of the simplest of things we know not. Does anyone think that the skill of the beaver, the instinct of the bee, or the genius of man, arose by chance; that their presence is accounted for by transmission and by survival?
"We must know life as well as books: the bones and sinews do not make a man but just a corpse. Except for the mind, the body would be only a piece of mechanism. There is no purpose without mind, and there is no effect without cause, either in the creation of the universe or in man. No man or woman can afford to be without the consciousness of power, and no great man or woman is without such. The unconscious mind is indeed the SOUL OF MAN. This mighty power has conquered the destiny of man, making the word greater than the sword.
"Thousands fail where few win, for the only reason that they will not begin at the rudiments which lie at the bottom of all knowledge.
"Wisdom is only really understood when the mind is large enough to acknowledge that we know nothing; for the genius of man is only manifested in accordance with his tastes and requirements, from before the Stone Age to this very day.
"The mind of materialists are a facsimile of the partially blind. Ignorance is the want of real knowledge; stupidity is inability to acquire knowledge; obstinacy is miserable conceit. Both the materialists and the ignorant can not conceive any unseen reality that actually exists which makes no impression on their physical senses.
Making the Blind from Birth See
"The materialist will say that this is impossible, yet Jesus Christ made the blind from birth see; and we are told that what He did we can also do, if only we have faith in ourselves, to be able to do it. There was a man who had been born blind and through medical skill at a late age was given sight for the first time in his life; and he gazed upon a new world. The first thing which he saw was something that he could not understand, but it was the physician-hypnotist or hypnologist's face; when he had passed his fingers several times over this face, he at last exclaimed excitedly, 'Oh! it must be a face, a face! a face!' He only learnt this through his sense impressions, which in his case was, the sense [83] of touch, as he could not, as yet, interpret the sense of sight now given to him. He had to learn how to use this gift.
The Great Lesson Which the Once Blind Teach Us
"When we grasp the great truth that a human being has not been outside the field of his five senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting, which is his normal consciousness; that he has in reality only beholden the reflection of things upon what we call the Earth on to the mirror of the mind or retina inside the eye; that his nerves are as feelers which convey sense impressions which become ideas, construed into thought by certain faculties of the mind which these are summed up, rightly or wrongly, and called this, that and the other; and by deduction, by concepts of the faculty of reason, realized and determined as facts, as far as the mind, through these sense impressions, can determine anything as a fact. We then come to the wall which separates the known from the hitherto unknown. It is to a great extent even to the scientist of the most advanced ability only speculation when he dares to say that he has arrived on the other side of the 'wall', and can account for all life and that which appertains to it.
"Matter has no power to reach the thoughts of the mind, unless matter is mind also. The greatest men of science to-day, are men who [84] rely on imagination, and the more they prove the finite the more are they forced into wonder at the marvels of the infinite.
The Lesson of the Eye
"Do you know that the human eye was formed with a full knowledge of light, and is the most perfect optical instrument extant, created to receive light although it was made in great darkness? What a parable of life this is!
"Do you remember Mr. Norman Mills who impersonated 'John Bull' and was a well-known music-hall artist? He had definite Roman numbers on the edges of the iris, so that his wife told him he had 'clock eyes.'
"These extraordinary facts are pregnant with meaning, and in one sense may account for the extraordinary countenance and features of both the Chinese and Japanese races, whose women-folk habitually worship their angular slit-eyed idols. The effect of beholding such may naturally and scientifically produce, in their offspring, a resemblance of what has made so deep a telepathic impression on the mind, through the medium of the eye.
The Story of Jacob, the Great Psychologist of Old
"And this reminds me of the old story of Jacob who got the better of his father-in-law. [85] Jacob was clever and understood in a measure the power of suggestion, even to the creative mind in cattle; for do we not read in the Book of Genesis, chapter 30, 'And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel, and chesnut tree, and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white strakes appear, which was in the rods, and he set the rods which he pilled before the flocks in the gutters and in the watering troughs where the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink; and the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle, ringstraked, speckled and spotted.'
"All mind is a part of the greater mind, the Universal mind whose essence is God, and even the animal world, the lower creation, are a part of such, and may eventually be absorbed at death in the greater; but, as there appears no consciousness of the existence of self manifested by reflection in the animal's mind, one must conclude that no further conscious existence will be given to such: the opposite of man with his faculty of reason, reflection in memory and conscious experience, which make him an individuality, and a responsible one, has been debarred to the animal world. As nothing even in matter is ever really lost, but only undergoes a change chemically, it is not unreasonable to suppose that mind is not totally destroyed, even in the animal, at the death of its body.
Wisdom in Things Invisible Which Vibrate in Life: The Objective Mind and the Subjective Mind
"If we do not understand the invisible things which appear to our objective mind or the invisible which vibrate on our subjective mind, and refuse to learn from Nature the great lessons of life, light and love, how is it that we expect to know anything of the higher spheres of human ethics or the immortal psyche? To understand a picture, one must be sure of the central figure: to mistake the central figure is to mistake the picture itself.
"The doctrine that life alone can produce life is victorious along the whole line at the present day. It is well to recall the fact that all the sciences being related, there can be no complete knowledge of any science without the thorough knowledge of them all.
The World's Greatest Need
"At this very hour, the World is seething with unrest in its search for, not a specialist in this, that or the other, but a specialist in mankind as such, who views man as combined of spirit, soul and body; and recognizes that the inter-action of the three is so close that they can never touch one without touching all three.
The Mystery of Disease
"Cancer is sometimes cured spontaneously. Why? Surgeons must admit and do admit it. How does the invisible process of cure come about? Sir Clifford Allbutt of Cambridge and Leeds, said, 'Probably no limb or viscus is so far a vessel of dishonour as to lie wholly outside the renewals of the spirit.'"
The dawn of another day was almost upon us as we arose that early morning, having gained much in knowledge, truth and light: as the Governor-General passed my gates to the click of the bayonets, the sunrise on the Monday morn was upon us, indicative of a new day, a new birth of reality, and a new power from on high.
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