{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_10773/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_10773","id":"gutenberg_10773","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10773","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Category: Science - Physics","Physics","Physics -- Philosophy"],"text":"ANCIENT AND MODERN PHYSICS\n\nby Thomas E. Willson\n\n\n\nContents\n\nPreface\nI.     Physical Basis of Metaphysics\nII.    The Two Kinds of Perception\nIII.   Matter and Ether\nIV.    What a Teacher Should Teach\nV.     The Four Manifested Planes\nVI.    One Place on Earth\nVII.   The Four Globes\nVIII.  The Battle Ground\nIX.    The Dual Man\nX.     The Septenary World\nXI.    Stumbling blocks in Eastern Physics\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\n\nThe Editor of the Theosophical Forum in April, 1901, noted the\ndeath of Mr. Thomas E. Willson in the previous month in an\narticle which we reproduce for the reason that we believe many\nreaders who have been following the chapters of \"Ancient and\nModern Physics\" during the last year will like to know something\nof the author.  In these paragraphs is said all that need be said\nof one of our most devoted and understanding Theosophists.\n\nIn March, 1901, The Theosophical Forum lost one of its most\nwilling and unfailing contributors.  Mr. T.E. Willson died\nsuddenly, and the news of his death reached me when I actually\nwas in the act of preparing the concluding chapter of his\n\"Ancient and Modern Physics\" for the April number.\n\nLike the swan, who sings his one song, when feeling that death is\nnear, Mr. Willson gave his brother co-workers in the Theosophical\nfield all that was best, ripest and most suggestive in his\nthought in the series of articles the last of which is to come\nout in the same number with this.\n\nThe last time I had a long talk with T.E. Willson, he said\"\n\n\"For twenty years and more I was without a hearing, yet my\ninterest and my faith in what I had to say never flagged, the\neagerness of my love for my subject never diminished.\"\n\nThis needs no comment.  The quiet and sustained resistance to\nindifference and lack of appreciation, is truly the steady\nballast which has prevented our Theosophical ship from aimless\nand fatal wanderings, though of inclement weather and adverse\nwinds we had plenty.\n\nFor many long years Mr. Willson was the librarian of the New York\n\"World.\"  In the afternoons he was too busy to see outsiders,\nbut, beginning with five o'clock in the afternoon until he went\nhome somewhere in the neighbourhood of midnight, he always was\nglad to see his friends.  He had a tiny little room of his own,\nvery near the top of the tremendous building, his one window\nlooking far above the roofs of the tallest houses in the\ndistrict.  There he sat at his desk, generally in his shirt\nsleeves, if the weather was at all warm, always busy with some\nmatter already printed, or going to be, a quiet, yet impressive\nand dignified figure.\n\nThe elevated isolation, both figuratively and literally speaking,\nin which T.E. Willson lived and worked, in the midst of the most\ncrowded thoroughfares of New York, always made me think of\nProfessor Teufelsdrockh on the attic floor of \"the highest\nhouse in the Wahngasse.\"  The two had more than one point of\nresemblance.  They shared the loftiness of their point of view,\ntheir sympathetic understanding of other folks, their loneliness,\nand, above all, their patient, even humorous resignation to the\nfact of this loneliness.\n\nYet in his appearance Mr. Willson was not like the great\nWeissnichtwo philosopher.  In fact, in the cast of his features\nand in his ways, Mr. Willson never looked to me like a white man.\nIn British India I have known Brahmans of the better type exactly\nwith the same sallow complexion, same quick and observant brown\neye, same portly figure and same wide-awakeness and agility of\nmanner.\n\nLast summer I heard, on good authority, that Mr. Willson had\nthought himself into a most suggestive way of dealing with the\nproblems of matter and spirit, a way which, besides being\nsuggestive, bore a great resemblance to some theories of the same\nnature, current in ancient India.  Consequently Mr. Willson was\noffered, for the first time in his life, a chance of expressing\nhis views on matter and spirit in as many articles and in as\nextensive a shape as he chose.  The way he received this tardy\nrecognition of the fact that he had something to say was highly\ninstructive.  He did not put on airs of unrecognized greatness,\nthough, I own, the occasion was propitious;  he did not say, \"I\ntold you so;\"  he simply and frankly was glad, in, the most\nchildlike way.\n\nAnd now that I have used the word, it occurs to me that\n\"childlike\" is an adjective the best applied to this man, in\nspite of his portliness, and his three score and more winters.\n\nMany a pleasant hour I have spent in the small bookroom of the\ngreat \"World\" building.  With Mr. Willson talk never flagged.  We\ndiscussed the past and the future of our planetary chain, we\nbuilt plans for the true and wholesome relation of sexes, we\ntried to find out--and needless to say never did--the exact\nlimit where matter stopped being matter and became spirit;  we\nalso read the latest comic poems and also, from time to time, we\ntook a header into the stormy sea of American literature in order\nto find out what various wise heads had to say, consciously or\nunconsciously, in favour of our beloved Theosophical views.  And\nall this, being interrupted every three minutes or so by some\nweary apparition from some workroom in the \"World\" with some such\nquestion:  \"Mr. Willson, how am I to find out the present\nwhereabouts of this or that Russian man-of-war?  Mr. Willson,\nwhat is the melting point of iron?  Mr. Willson, when was `H.M.S.\nPinafore' produced for the first time?\" etc., etc.  And every\ntime, Mr. Willson got up in the leisurely manner peculiar to him,\nreached for some book from the shelves that lined the room, gave\nthe desired information, and as leisurely returned to the \"pranic\natom,\" or to \"come and talk man talk, Willy,\" or to whatever our\nsubject chanced to be at the time.\n\nMr. Willson's gratitude to the Theosophical Forum for its\nrecognition was disproportionately great.  As he wrote to the\nEditor:  \"give me any kind of work, writing for you, reviewing,\nmanuscript or proof reading, I shall do anything, I shall\nundertake any job, even to taking editorial scoldings in all good\nnature, only give me work.\"  His devotion to Theosophical thought\nand work in all their ramifications was just as great, as was his\nfreedom from vanity, his perfectly natural and unaffected\nmodesty.\n\nAt the news of his death many a heart was sincerely sad, but none\nso sad as the heart of the editor of the Theosophical Forum.  For\na friend and co-worker like T.E. Willson, ever ready to give\nmaterial help and moral encouragement, is not easily replaced.\n\nFor a soul so pure of any kind of selfishness the transition from\nthe turmoil of life to the bright dreams of death must have been\nboth easy and enviable.\n--------------\n\n\n\n\nChapter One\n\nThe Physical Basis if Metaphysics\n\n\nThe Hindu system of physics, on which the metaphysical thought of\nthe East is based, does not in its beginnings differ widely from\nthe latest physics of the West;  but it goes so much farther that\nour physics is soon lost sight of and forgotten.  The Hindu\nconception of the material universe, taken from the Upanishads\nand some open teaching, will serve for an illustration.  They\ndivide physical matter into four kinds--prakriti, ether, prana,\nand manasa--which they call \"planes.\"  These differ only in the\nrate of vibration, each plane vibrating through one great octave,\nwith gulfs of \"lost\" octaves between.  The highest rate of\nvibration of prakriti is measured by the thousand, the lowest of\nthe ether by trillions, and the lowest of prana by--never mind;\nthey have, and we have not, the nomenclature.\n\nThe earth, they teach, is a globe of prakriti, floating in an\nocean of ether, which, as it has the sun for its center of\ngravity, must necessarily be a globe.  This etheric sun-globe has\na diameter of over 300,000,000,000 miles.  All the planets\nrevolve around the sun far within its atmosphere.  The etheric\nsun-globe revolves on its axis once in about 21,000 years, and\nthis revolution causes the precession of the equinoxes.  This\netheric sun-globe is revolving around Alcyone with other etheric\nglobes having suns for their centers and solar systems of\nprakritic globes within them in a great year of 5,640,000,000 of\nour common years.  Its orbit has a diameter of\n93,000,000,000,000,000 miles.\n\nBeyond the etheric globes, and between them, is a third form of\nmatter called prana, as much rarer and finer than the ether as\nthe ether is rarer and finer than prakriti.  As this prana has\nAlcyone for a center of gravity, it is necessarily a globe;  and\nthere are many of these pranic globes floating in a vast ocean of\nmanasa--a form of matter as much finer than prana as prana is\nfiner than ether, or ether than prakriti.  With this manasa\n(which is a globe) the material, or physical, universe ends;  but\nthere are spiritual globes beyond.  The material universe is\ncreated from manasa, downward, but it does not respond to or\nchord with the vibration of the globes above, except in a special\ninstance and in a special way, which does not touch this inquiry.\n\nThe physical universe of the ancient (and modern) Hindu physicist\nwas made up of these four kinds or planes of matter, distributed\nin space as \"globes within globes.\"\n\nProfessor Lodge in 1884 put forth the theory that prakriti\n(physical matter) as we call it, was in its atoms but \"whirls\" of\nether.  Since then speculative science has generally accepted the\nidea that the physical atom is made up of many cubic feet of\nether in chemical union, as many quarts of oxygen and hydrogen\nunite chemically to make a drop of water.  This is an old story\nto the Hindu sage.  He tells his pupils that the great globe of\nmanasa once filled all space, and there was nothing else.\nPrecisely as on this earth we have our elementary substances that\nchange from liquids into solids and gases, so on this manasic\nglobe there were elementary substances that took the form of\nliquids, solids and gases.  Its manasic matter was differentiated\nand vibrated through one octave, as the prakritic matter does on\nthe earth.  Its substances combined as that does.\n\nOne combination produced prana.  The prana collected, and formed\nglobes.  On these pranic globes the process was repeated, with\nether as the result, and the etheric globes formed.  Then the\nprocess was repeated on the etheric globes, as the modern\nscientists have discovered, and prakriti and prakritic globes\ncame into being.\n\nThe true diameter of the earth, the ancient Hindu books say, is\nabout 50,000 miles.  That is to say, the true surface of the\nearth is the line of twenty-four-hour axial rotation;  the line\nwhere gravity and apergy exactly balance;  where a moon would\nhave to be placed to revolve once in 86,400 seconds.  Within that\nis prakriti;  without is ether.  It is also the line of no\nfriction, which does exist between matter of different planes.\nThere is friction between prakriti, between ether, between prana;\nbut not between ether and prana, or ether and prakriti.  Friction\nis a phenomenon confined to the matter of each plane separately.\nWe live at the bottom of this gaseous ocean--on its floor\n--21,000 miles from the surface and only 4,000 miles from the\ncenter.  Here, in a narrow \"skin\" limited to a few miles above\nand below us, is the realm of phenomena, where solid turns into\nliquid and liquid into gas, or vice versa.  The lesson impressed\nupon the pupil's mind by Hindu physics is that he lives far\nwithin the earth, not on it.\n\nThere is a comparatively narrow \"skin\" of and for phenomena\nwithin the etheric sun-globe, say the Eastern teachers, where the\netheric solids, liquids, and gases meet and mingle and\ninterchange.  Within this \"skin\" are all the planets--the\n\"gaseous\" atmosphere of the etheric globe stretching millions of\nmiles beyond the outermost planetary orbit.  The earth is in this\nskin or belt of etheric phenomena, and its ether is in touch with\nthe ether \"in manifestation\" on the etheric globe.  The sun and\nother etheric globes are within the corresponding \"skin\" of\nphenomena of the pranic globes.  The prana, manifesting as solid,\nliquid, and gas, or in combination and in forms, is in perfect\ntouch with that of the etheric globe, and through that with the\nprana of the earth.  That our prana is in touch with that on the\npranic globe in all its manifestations means much in metaphysics.\nThe same is true of the manasic globe, and of our manasa.\n\nThe great lesson the Eastern physics burns into the pupil is that\nwe are living not only within the prakritic earth, but within\neach of the other globes as well in identically the same way and\nsubject to the same laws.  Our lives are not passed on one globe,\nbut in four globes.  It is as if one said he lived in Buffalo,\nErie county, New York, United States;  that he was a citizen of\neach and subject to the laws of each.\n\nThis question of the four globes, of the four planes of matter,\nof the four skins, and of the four conditions or states of all\nmatter and necessarily of all persons, from the purely material\nstandpoint, is not only the foundation of Oriental physics, but\nthe very essence of Oriental metaphysics--its starting-point and\ncorner-stone.  To one who carries with him, consciously or\nunconsciously, the concrete knowledge of the physics, the\nabstract teaching of the metaphysics presents no difficulty;  it\nis as clear as crystal.  But without the physical teaching the\nmetaphysical is not translatable.\n\nOur Western physics teaches that physical matter is divided into\ntwo kinds prakriti (commonly called \"physical matter\") and ether;\nthat the differences of each of the elementary prakritic\nsubstances (iron, copper, sulphur, oxygen) are in their\nmolecules, the fundamental atom being the same;  that each of\nthese elementary substances vibrates only through one octave,\nthough on different keys;  that it changes from solid to liquid\nand gas as the rate of vibration is increased and from gas to\nliquid and solid as its vibration is decreased within its octave;\nthat the ether obeys identical laws;  that it has elementary\nsubstances vibrating through one octave only, and that these are\nsolids, liquids, or gases on the etheric plane as prakriti is on\nthis;  that these etheric substances change and combine in every\nway that prakriti does;  and that while all our prakritic\nsubstances vibrate within (say) fifty simply octaves, the lowest\nvibration of etheric matter begins over one thousand octaves\nbeyond our highest, making a gulf to leap.  The Eastern physics\npresents this with a wealth of detail that dazes the Western\nstudent, and then adds:  \"But beyond the etheric plane (or\noctave) of vibration for matter there is a third plane (or\noctave) of vibration called prana and beyond that a fourth called\nmanasa.  What is true of one plane is true of the other three.\nOne law governs the four.  As above so below.  There is no real\ngulf;  there is perfect continuity.\"\n\nThe Western scientist teaches as the foundation of modern physics\nthat \"each and every atom of prakritic matter is the center of an\netheric molecule of many atoms;\"  that \"no two prakritic atoms\ntouch,\" although their etheric envelopes or atmospheres do touch;\nand that \"all physical phenomena are caused by the chording\nvibration of the prakritic atom and its envelope of ether,\" each\n\"sounding the same note hundreds of octaves apart.\"  The \"solid\nearth\" with its atmosphere represents the atom with its ether.\nAs all the oxygen and hydrogen do not combine to make the drop of\nwater, some remaining in mechanical union to give it an\natmosphere, and about one-fourth of its bulk being gas, so the\natom formed of the ether does not use all the ether in its\nchemical union, retaining some in mechanical union for its\nenvelope or atmosphere.\n\nThe Hindu physics goes much farther along this road.  It says\nthat, when the pranic globes were formed, each atom of prana had\nits manasic envelope--was the center of a manasic molecule.\nWhen the etheric globes formed, each atom of ether was the center\nof a pranic molecule, each atom of which was surrounded with\nmanasa.  When the prakriti was formed from the ether, each and\nevery atom of prakriti had the triple etheric-pranic-manasic\nenvelope.  \"Each and every prakritic atom is the center of an\netheric molecule,\" says our Western science;  but that of the\nEast adds this:  \"And each atom of that etheric molecule is the\ncenter of a pranic molecule, and each atom of prana in that\npranic molecule is the center of a manasic molecule.\"  The four\ngreat globes of matter in the material universe are represented\nand reproduced in each and every atom of prakriti, which is in\ntouch with each one of the four globes and a part of it.  The\nsame is true of any aggregation of prakriti--of the earth itself\nand of all things in it, including man.  As there are four\natoms in each one, so there are four earths, four globes,\nconsubstantial, one for each of the four elements, and in touch\nwith it.  One is formed of prakritic atoms--the globe we know;\nanother, of the ether forming their envelopes;  another, of the\nprana envelopes of ether, and a fourth of the manasa around the\npranic atom.  They are not \"skins\";  they are consubstantial.\nAnd what is true of atoms or globes is true of animals.  Each has\nfour \"material\" bodies, with each body on the corresponding globe\n--whether of the earth or of the Universe.  This is the physical\nbasis of the famous \"chain of seven globes\" that is such a\nstumbling-block in Hindu metaphysics.  The spirit passes through\nfour to get in and three to get out--seven in all.  The Hindu\nunderstands without explanation.  He understands his physics.\n\nThe Hindu physics teaches, with ours, that \"the ether is the\nsource of all energy,\" but, it adds, \"as prana is the source of\nall life, and manasa of all mind.\"\n\n\"When the prakritic atom is vibrating in chord with its etheric\nenvelope,\" say our textbooks, \"we have physical phenomena\n--light, heat, electricity.\"  \"Yes,\" says the Hindu teacher;  \"but\nwhen the atom and its ether and its prana are vibrating in chord,\nwe have life and vital phenomena added to the energy.  When the\natom and its ether, prana, and manasa are vibrating in chord, we\nhave mind and mental phenomena added to the life and energy.\"\nEach atom has energy, life, and mind in posse.  In the living\nleaf the prakriti, ether, and prana are sounding the threefold\nsilver chord of life.  In the animal, the manasa is sounding the\nsame note with them, making the fourfold golden chord of mind.\n  Even in the plant there may be a faint manasic overtone, for\nthe potentiality of life and mind is in everything.  This unity\nof the physical universe with the physical atom, and with all\nthings created--earth, animal, or crystal--is the physical\nbackbone of Oriental metaphysics.  Prakriti, ether, prana, and\nmanasa are in our vernacular the Earth, Air, Fire, and Water of\nthe old philosophers--the \"Four Elements.\"\n\nThe Oriental physics has been guarded most jealously.  For many\nthousands of years it has been the real occult and esoteric\nteaching, while the Oriental metaphysics has been open and\nexoteric.  It could not be understood without the key, and the\nkey was in the physics known only to \"the tried and approved\ndisciple.\"  A little has leaked out--enough to whet the appetite\nof the true student and make him ask for more.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Two\n\nThe Two Kinds of Perception\n\n\nTo the savage, matter appears in two forms--solid and liquid.\nAs he advances a step he learns it has three forms--solid,\nliquid and gas.  He cannot see the gas, but he knows it is there.\n\nA little further on he learns that matter as he knows it is only\na minute portion of the great universe of matter--the few chords\nthat can be struck on the five strings of his senses, and limited\nto one octave or key.\n\nWhether the particular matter he investigates has a solid, a\nliquid, or a gaseous form depends upon its rate of vibration.  If\nit is a liquid, by raising its rate of vibration one third it\nbecomes a gas;  by reducing it one third it becomes a solid.\n\nEach kind of matter has vibration only through one octave.  It is\nknown to us only by its vibration in that octave.  Each kind of\nmatter has a different octave--is set on a higher or lower key,\nso to speak, but all octaves of vibration are between the highest\nof hydrogen gas and the lowest of carbon.\n\nIn mechanical compounds, such as air or brass, the rate of\nvibration of the compound is the least common multiple of the two\nor more rates.  In chemical compounds, such as water or alcohol,\nthe rate is that of the highest, the others uniting in harmonic\nfractions.\n\nAll matter as we know it through our senses--prakriti, as it is\ncalled in the Secret Doctrine to distinguish it from non-sensual\nmatter--is the vibration of an universal Something, we do not\nknow what, through these different octaves.  The elementary\nsubstances (so-called) are one and the same thing--this\nSomething--in different keys and chords of vibration;  keys that\nrun into one another, producing all sorts of beautiful harmonies.\n\nTaking any one of these elements, or any of their compounds, all\nwe know of it is limited strictly to its changes during vibration\nthrough one octave.  What happens when the vibration goes above\nor below the octave has not yet been treated hypothetically.\n\nWhile some elements are vibrating on higher and some on lower\nkeys, we can consider them all as vibrating within one great\noctave, that octave of the universal Something which produces\nsensual matter, or prakriti.\n\nBut matter is not confined, we know, to this great octave,\nalthough our sensual knowledge of it is strictly confined to it.\nHow do we know it?\n\nKnowledge comes to us in two ways, and there are two kinds of\nknowledge.\n\n1. That which comes through our senses, by observation and\nexperience.  This includes reasoning from relation.\n\n2. That which comes through intuition--or, as some writers\ninaccurately say, \"through the formal laws of thought.\"\n\nAll the observation and experience of the rising and the setting\nof the sun for a thousand centuries could only have confirmed the\nfirst natural belief that it revolved daily around the earth;\nnor by joining this experience with other experiences could any\ndeduction have come from our reason that would have opposed it.\nNot our reason but our intuition said that the sun stood still\nand the earth revolved daily.  The oldest books in existence tell\nus that this axial revolution of the earth was not only known in\nthe very dawn of time but that it has been known to every race\n(except our own of European savages) from before the time thought\nwas first transmitted by writing.\n\nAsk the ablest living geographer or physicist to prove to you\nthat the earth revolves daily and he will reply that it would be\nthe job of his life.  It can be done at great expense and great\nlabor, but that is because we know the answer and can invent a\nway of showing it, not because there are any observations from\nwhich a deduction would naturally follow.\n\nNearly if not all our great discoveries have come to us through\nintuition and not from observation and experience.  When we know\nthe lines on which to work, when intuition has given us the KEY,\nthen the observation and experience men prize so highly, and the\nreason they worship so devoutly, will fill in the details.  The\nknowledge that flows from observation and the reasoning from the\nfacts it records, is never more than relatively true, it is\nalways limited by the facts, and any addition to the facts\nrequires the whole thing to be restated.  We never know all the\nfacts;  seldom even the more important;  and reason grasps only\ndetails.\n\nLamarck's theory of evolution, known to all Asiatic races from\ntime immemorial, was the intuitional and absolute knowledge that\ncomes to all men when they reach a certain stage of development.\nReason could never have furnished it from the facts, as Cuvier\nproved in the great debate in the French Academy in 1842, when he\nknocked Lamarck out, for the time being, because \"it did not\nconform to the facts, and did not follow from any relation of the\nfacts.\"\n\nDarwin's theory of the survival of the fittest in the struggle\nfor existence, as an explanation of the origin of species, was\nfrom observation and experience.  It was based on observed facts.\nBut Darwin was an evolutionist--a disciple of Lamarck.  He held\nthe Key.  He used the Key.  The value of Darwin's work does not\nlie in his discovering that some bugs have been derived from\nother bugs and that the intermediate bugs have died off.  Its\noverwhelming value to mankind was in showing that work on the\ntheory of evolution was correct work and that the theory was\ntrue.  When the intuition of man points out the way the reason of\nman can follow the path and macadam the road.  It usually does\nand claims all the credit for itself as the original discoverer.\n\nThis knowledge through intuition is absolute and exact.  It is\nnot relatively true.  It is absolutely and invariably true.  No\nadditional facts will ever modify it, or require a restatement.\n\nWhen Sir William Hamilton based his Logic on the dictum that \"All\nknowledge is relative, and only relatively true,\" the proposition\nwas self-evidently false.  It was in itself a statement of\nabsolute knowledge about a certain thing.  It was in itself\nknowledge that was not relative.  All knowledge could not be\nrelative if this knowledge was not.  This knowledge could not\nbe either absolute or relative without upsetting his whole\nproposition, for, if relative, then it was not always true;\nand if absolute, then it was never true.\n\nSir William did not know the distinction between the two kinds of\nknowledge, and what he meant to say was that \"All knowledge\nobtained by observation and experience is relative, and only\nrelatively true.\"\n\nHis knowledge of this relativity was not obtained by observation\nor from reason.  It could not possibly have been obtained in that\nway.  It came from intuition, and it was absolute and exact.  A\nman may have absolute and exact knowledge and yet not be able to\nput it into words that exactly express it to another.  Hamilton\nhad this knowledge.  But it was not clearly formulated even in\nhis own mind.  He had two separate and distinct meanings for the\nword \"knowledge,\" without being conscious of it.\n\nWe have yet to coin a proper word to express what comes to us\nthrough intuition.  The old English word \"wisdom\" originally did.\nThe old verb \"wis\" was meant what a man knew without being told\nit, as \"ken\" meant knowledge by experience.  Try and prove by\nreason that a straight line is the shortest distance between two\npoints, or that a part can never be greater than the whole, and\nyour reason has an impossible task.  \"You must take them for\naxioms,\" it says.  You must take them because you wis them, not\nbecause you know (ken) them.\n\nIntuitional knowledge must not be confounded with the relative\nknowledge that flows through the reason:  that \"If the sum of two\nnumbers is one and their difference is five,\" the numbers are\nminus two and plus three.\n\nThe point cannot be too strongly enforced that there is a\ndistinction between the sources of what we know, and that while\nall we know through our sensations is only relatively true, that\nwhich we know from intuition is invariably and absolutely true.\nThis is seen through a glass darkly, in theology, where intuition\nis called inspiration and not differentiated from reason.\n\nThe false notion that we can only learn by observation and\nexperience, that the concept can never transcend the observation,\nthat we can only know what we can prove to our senses, has\nwrought incalculable injury to progress in philosophy.\n\nBecause our sensual knowledge of matter begins and ends with\nvibration in one octave it does not follow that this ends our\nknowledge of it.  We may have intuitional knowledge, and this\nintuitional knowledge is as susceptible to reason as if we had\nobtained it by observation.\n\nThe knowledge that comes through intuition tells us of matter\nvibrating in another great octave just beyond our own, which\nScience has chosen to name the etheric octave, or plane.  The\ninstant our intuition reveals the cause of phenomena our reason\ndrops in and tells us it is the chording vibration of the matter\nof the two planes--the physical and etheric--that produces all\nphysical phenomena.  It goes further and explains its variations.\n\nThis knowledge of another octave or plane of matter comes from\nthe logical relations of matter and its physical phenomena;  but\nthere was nothing in the observation or experience of mankind\nthat would have led us to infer from reason an etheric plane of\nmatter.  It was \"revealed\" truth.  But the flash of revelation\nhaving once made the path apparent, the light of reason carries\nus through all the winding ways.  Our knowledge of the ether is\nnot guess-work or fancy, any more than our geometry is, because\nit is based on axioms our reason cannot prove.  In both cases the\nbasic axioms are obtained from intuition;  the structural work\nfrom reason.  Our knowledge of the ether may be as absolute and\nexact as our knowledge of prakriti, working on physical as we\nwork on geometrical axioms.\n\nThe recognition of the two sources of knowledge, the work of the\nspirit within us and of the mind within us, is absolutely\nnecessary to correctly comprehend the true significance of the\nresults of modern science and to accept the ancient.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Three\n\nMatter and Ether\n\n\nIt is not worthwhile translating Homer into English unless the\nreaders of the translation understand English.\n\nIt is not worthwhile attempting to translate the occult Eastern\nphysics into the language of our Western and modern physics,\nunless those who are to read the translation understand generally\nand broadly what our own modern physics teach.  It is not\nnecessary that they should know all branches of our modern\nphysics in all their minute ramifications;  but it is necessary\nthat they should understand clearly the fundamental principles\nupon which our scientific and technical knowledge of today rests.\n\nThese fundamental principles have been discovered and applied in\nthe past fifty years--in the memory of the living.  They have\nrevolutionized science in all its departments.  Our textbooks on\nChemistry, Light, Heat, Electricity and Sound have had to be\nentirely re-written;  and in many other departments, notably in\nmedicine and psychology, they have yet to be re-written.  Our\ntextbooks are in a transition state, each new one going a step\nfarther, to make the change gradual from the old forms of belief\nto the new, so that even Tyndall's textbook on \"Sound\" is now so\nantedated, or antiquated, that it might have been written in\ndarkest Africa before the pyramids were built, instead of twenty\nyears ago.\n\nAll this change has flowed from the discovery of Faraday that\nthere are two states or conditions of matter.  In one it is\nrevealed by one of our five senses, visible, tangible, smellable,\ntastable, or ponderable matter.  This is matter as we know it.\nIt may be a lump of metal or a flask of gas.\n\nThe second condition or state of matter is not revealed by either\nof our five senses, but by the sixth sense, or intuition of man.\nThis is the ether--supposed to be \"matter in a very rarefied\nform, which permeates all space.\"  So rare and fine is this\nmatter that it interpenetrates carbon or steel as water\ninterpenetrates a sponge, or ink a blotting pad.  In fact, each\natom of \"physical\" matter--by which is meant matter in the first\ncondition--floats in an atmosphere of ether as the solid earth\nfloats in its atmosphere of air.\n\n\"No two physical atoms touch,\" said Faraday.  \"Each physical atom\nis the centre of an etheric molecule, and as far apart from every\nother atom as the stars in heaven from one another.\"  This is\ntrue of every form of physical matter, whether it is a lump of\nmetal, a cup of liquid, or a flask of gas;  whether it is a\nbronze statue or a living man;  a leaf, a cloud, or the earth\nitself.  Each and every physical atom is the centre of an etheric\nmolecule made up of many atoms of the ether.\n\nThis duality of matter was a wonderful discovery, revolutionizing\nevery department of science.  It placed man in actual touch with\nthe whole visible universe.  The ether in a man's eye (and in his\nwhole body) reaches in one unbroken line--like a telegraph wire\n--from him to the sun, or the outermost planet.  He is not\nseparate and apart from \"space,\" but a part of it.  Each physical\natom of his physical body is the centre of an etheric molecule,\nand he has two bodies, as St. Paul said, a visible physical and\nan invisible etheric body;  the latter in actual touch with the\nwhole universe.\n\nFaraday went one step further.  He demonstrated that all\nphysical phenomena come from the chording vibration of the\nphysical atom with the surrounding etheric atoms, and that the\nlatter exercise the impelling force on the former.  Step into the\nsunshine.  The line of ether from the sun is vibrating faster\nthan the ether in the body, but the higher impels the lower, the\ngreater controls the lesser, and soon both ethers are in unison.\nThe physical atoms must coincide in vibration with their etheric\nenvelopes, and the \"note\" is \"heat.\"  Step into the shade, where\nthe ocean of ether is vibrating more slowly, and the ether of the\nbody reduces its vibration.  \"The ether is the origin of all\nforce and of all phenomena.\"\n\nThis etheric matter follows identical laws with prakritic matter,\nor, accurately, the laws of our matter flow from the etheric\nmatter from which it is made.  The ether has two hundred or more\nelementary substances, each atom of our eighty or ninety\n\"elements\" being the chemical union of great masses of two or\nmore of the etheric elements or their combinations.  These\netheric elementary substances combine and unite;  our elementary\nsubstances simply following in their combinations the law which\nthey inherit from their parents.  They take form and shape.  They\nvibrate through one octave, and take solid liquid or gaseous form\nin ether, as their types here in our world take it in prakriti,\nas their vibrations are increased or diminished.  In short, the\nether is the prototype of our physical or prakritic world, out of\nwhich it is made and a product of which it is.\n\nAs this ether is \"physical\" matter, the same as prakriti, one\nharmonic law covering both, and as this ether fills all space,\nModern Science divides physical matter into two kinds, which, for\nconvenience in differentiation, are here called prakritic and\netheric.\n\nMatter is something--science does not know or care to know what\n--in vibration.  A very low octave of vibration produces\nprakriti;  a very high octave of vibration produces ether.  The\nvibration of prakriti ends in thousands;  that of ether begins in\nbillions.  Between them there is a gulf of vibrations that has\nnot yet been bridged.  For that reason science divides matter\ninto two \"planes,\" or octaves, of vibration--the matter of this\nvisible and tangible plane being called prakriti and that of the\ninvisible and intangible plane being called etheric.  Across this\ngulf the two planes respond to each other, note for note, the\nnote in trillions chording when the note in thousands is struck.\nNote for note, chord for chord, they answer one another, and the\nminutest and the most complex phenomena are alike the result of\nthis harmonic vibration, that of the ether supplying Force and\nthat of the prakriti a Medium in which it can manifest.\n\nThis knowledge of ether is not guesswork or fancy, and, while it\nis as impossible of proof as the axioms of geometry, it is worthy\nthe same credence and honor.  We are working on physical axioms\nexactly as we work on geometrical axioms.\n\nModern science represents each and every prakritic atom as a\nglobe like the earth, floating in space and surrounded by an\natmosphere of ether.  \"The subdivision of prakritic matter until\nwe reach etheric atoms chemically united to make the physical\nunit\" is the correct definition of an atom.  The prakritic\nphysical atom has length, breadth and thickness.  And it has an\natmosphere of ether which not only interpenetrates the atom as\noxygen and hydrogen interpenetrate the drop of water, but\nfurnishes it with an envelope as the oxygen and hydrogen furnish\nthe drop of water with one.\n\nEach physical atom is the centre of an etheric molecule composed\nof many etheric atoms vibrating at a greater or lesser speed and\ninterpenetrating the atom.  Each may be considered a miniature\nearth, with its aerial envelope, the air, penetrating all parts\nof it.\n\nThe etheric plane of matter not only unites with this prakritic\nplane through the atom but it interpenetrates all combinations of\nit;  beside the atom as well as through the atom.  The grain of\nsand composed of many prakritic atoms is also composed of many\ntimes that number of etheric atoms.  The grain of sand is etheric\nmatter as well as prakritic matter.  It exists on the etheric\nplane exactly the same as it exists on the prakritic, and it has\netheric form as well as prakritic form.\n\nAs each atom of this physical world of ours--whether of land, or\nwater, or air;  whether of solid, liquid or gas--is the centre\nof an etheric molecule, we have two worlds, not one:  a physical\nworld and an etheric one;  a visible world and an invisible\nworld;  a tangible world and an intangible world;  a world of\neffect and a world of cause.\n\nAnd each animal, including man, is made in the same way.  He has\na prakritic body and an etheric body;  a visible body and an\ninvisible body;  an earthly body and one \"not made with hands,\"\nin common touch with the whole universe.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Four\n\nWhat a Teacher Should Teach\n\n\nLet us suppose that a certain wise teacher of physics places a\nrow of Bunsen burners under a long steel bar having a Daniell's\npyrometer at one end, and addresses his class (substantially) as\nfollows:\n\n\"At our last lecture we found that the matter of the universe\npermeated all space, but in two conditions, which we agreed to\ncall physical and etheric, or tangible and intangible.  It is all\nthe same matter, subject to the same laws, but differing in the\nrate of vibration, the physical matter vibrating through one\ngreat octave or plane, and the etheric vibrating through another\ngreat octave or plane one degree higher--the chording vibration\nof the matter of the two planes in one note producing what we\ncall energy or force, and with it phenomena.\n\n\"This is a bar of steel 36 inches long.  It is composed of\nphysical atoms but no two physical atoms touch.  Each physical\natom is as far apart from every other atom as the stars in heaven\nfrom one another--in proportion to their size.  The atoms and\nthe spaces between them are so small to our sight that they seem\nto touch.  If we had a microscope of sufficient power to reveal\nthe atom, you would see that no two atoms touch, and that the\nspaces between them are, as Faraday says, very great in\nproportion to their size.  I showed you last term that what\nappeared to be a solid stream of water, when magnified and thrown\nupon a screen, was merely a succession of independent drops that\ndid not touch.  I can not yet give you proof of the bar of iron\nbeing composed of independent atoms, but that is the fault of our\ninstruments, and you must take my word for it until the proof is\nsimplified and made easy of application.\n\n\"Each one of these physical atoms is a miniature world.  It is\nthe center of an ocean of ether, composed of many atoms;  and\nwhile no two physical atoms touch, their etheric atmospheres do\ntouch, and any change in the vibration of the etheric atmosphere\nof one will be imparted to that of the next.  As the vibration of\nthe physical atom must be in harmony with that of its etheric\natmosphere, any change coming to one will be imparted to the\nnext, and the next, through the ether surrounding them.\n\n\"You can see that the index at the end of the bar has moved,\nshowing that it is now longer.  That means the etheric atoms are\nnow vibrating faster, taking more space, and have necessarily\nforced each physical atom farther apart.  The bar is not only\nlonger, but softer, and as the vibrations increase in rapidity\nthe time will come when it will bend by its own weight, and even\nwhen it will become a liquid and a gas.\n\n\"If you put your hand anywhere near the bar you will feel a\nsensation called heat, and say it has become hot.  The reason for\nthat is that you are in actual and literal touch with the bar or\niron through the ether.  It is not alone each atom of the bar of\niron that is surrounded by the ether, but each atom of the air,\nand each atom of your body.  Their etheric atmospheres are all\ntouching, and the increase in the vibration of the ether\nsurrounding the atoms of iron is imparted to those of the air\nsurrounding it, and these in turn raise the rate of vibration in\nthe etheric atoms surrounding the physical atoms of your hand.\nThis rate of vibration in your nerves causes a sensation, or\nmental impression, you call \"heat.\"  Consciousness of it comes\nthrough your sense of touch;  but after all it is merely a \"rate\nof vibration\" which your brain recognizes and names.\n\n\"The bar has now reached a temperature of about 700 degrees, and\nhas become a dull red.  Why do you say the color has changed, and\nwhy do you say red?\n\n\"Because the rate of vibration of the etheric atoms in the bar is\nnow about 412 trillions per second, and this rate of vibration\nhaving been imparted to the ether of the air, has in turn been\nimparted to the ether of your eye, and this rate of vibration in\nthe ether of the nerves of your eye your brain recognizes and\ncalls 'red.'\n\n\"The heat still continues and increases.  You now have both heat\nand light.  So you see that the ether is not vibrating in a\nsingle note, but in two chording notes, producing light and heat.\nThere are two kinds of ether around the iron atom.  There is\nsound also, but the note is too high for one's ears.  It is a\nchord of three notes.\n\n\"Professor Silliman, of Yale, discovered over twenty years ago,\nthat the ether could be differentiated into the luminiferous, or\nlight ether, and the sonoriferous, or sound ether.\n\n\"Other great scientists since then have found a third ether--the\nheat ether.\n\n\"Their discoveries show that the atmospheric etheric envelope of\neach etheric atom is made up of etheric atoms of different\nvibratory powers.  As the atmosphere of the earth is made up of\natoms of oxygen and nitrogen and argon, so that of an atom is\nmade up of three kinds of ethers, corresponding to three of our\nsenses.  That it consists of five ethers, corresponding to our\nfive senses, as the ancient Hindus assert--who can say?\n\n\"I mention this subject of the differentiation of the ether\nmerely that you may not suppose that the ether is a simple\nsubstance.  For the present we will treat it as a simple\nsubstance, but next year we will take it up as a compound one.\n\n\"This steel bar before you is not one bar, but two bars.  There\nis a visible bar and an invisible bar, the visible bar being made\nof physical atoms, and the invisible bar of etheric atoms.  The\netheric bar is invisible, but it is made of matter, the same as\nthe visible bar, and it is just as real, just as truly a bar as\nthe one we see.\n\n\"More than this.  The etheric, invisible bar is the source and\ncause of all phenomena connected with the bar.  It is the real\nbar, and the one we see is merely the shadow in physical matter\nof a real bar.  In shape, strength, color, in short, in\neverything, it depends on the invisible one.  The invisible\ndominates, governs, disposes.  The visible is merely its\nattendant shadow, changing as the invisible, etheric bar changes,\nand recording for our senses these invisible changes.\n\n\"The invisible change always comes first;  the invisible\nphenomena invariably precede the visible.\n\n\"In all this physical world--in all this universe--there is\nnothing, not even a grain of sand or an atom of hydrogen, that is\nnot as this bar of iron is--the shadow cast on a visible world\nby the unknown and mysterious work of an invisible world.\n\n\"Land or water, mountain or lake, man or beast, bird or reptile,\ncold or heat, light or darkness, all are the reflection in\nphysical matter of the true and real thing in the invisible and\nintangible world about us.  \"If we have a visible body we have an\ninvisible one also,\" said Saint Paul.  Modern science has proven\nhe was right, and that it is the invisible body which is the real\nbody.\n\n\"If this earth and all that it is composed of--land or ocean or\nair;  man or beast;  pyramid or pavement--could be resolved into\nthe physical atoms composing everything in it or on it created by\nGod or man, each atom of this dust would be identical physically.\nThere would not be one kind of atom for iron and another for\noxygen.\n\n\"The differentiation between what are called elementary\nsubstances is first made apparent in the molecule or first\ncombination of the atoms.  It is not in the atom itself, unless\nit be in the size, as may not be improbable.  The atoms combine\nin different numbers to make differently shaped molecules, and it\nis from this difference in the shape of the molecule that we get\nthe difference between gold and silver, copper and tin, or oxygen\nand hydrogen.\n\n\"In all chemical compounds, such as water and alcohol, the\nmolecules at the base of the two or more substances break up into\ntheir original atoms and form a new molecule composed of all the\natoms in the two or more things combined.  To make this chemical\ncombination we must change the rate of vibration of one or the\nother or both until they strike a common chord.  As we saw last\nterm, oxygen and hydrogen have different specific heats, and no\ntwo other elements have the same specific heat, while heat raises\nthe rate of vibration.  Any given amount of heat raises the\nvibration of one more than another.  Apply heat, and the rate of\none will rise faster than that of the other until they reach a\ncommon chord.  Then they fall apart and recombine.\n\n\"If we pass a current of electricity through this sealed jar\ncontaining oxygen and hydrogen in mechanical union, the spark\nthat leaps across the points furnishes the heat, and a drop of\nwater appears and falls to the bottom.  A large portion of the\ngases has disappeared.  It has been converted into water.  What\nis left of the gases will expand and fill the bottle.\n\n\"The drop of water but for local causes, but for a certain\nattraction of the earth, would float in the centre of the jar at\nthe centre of gravity, as the earth does in space.  But the\ncentre of gravity of the two bodies is far within the earth, and\nthe drop gets as close to it as it can.  The earth's 'pull' takes\nit to the bottom.  If the jar were far enough away in space the\ndrop would float, as the earth floats, at a point where all pulls\nbalance, and the drop of water would have enough pull of its own,\nenough gravity within itself to hold all the gas left in the jar\nto itself as an atmosphere.  It would be a centre of energy, a\nminature world.\n\n\"The drop of water is not a homogenous mass.  About one third of\nthe bulk of the drop of water is made up of independent oxygen\nand hydrogen atoms interspersed through it, as any liquid is\nthrough this piece of blotting paper.  And it has, and keeps, by\nits own attraction, an atmosphere of the gas.  Each molecule of\nwater has a thin layer, or skin, of the gas;  even as it comes\nfrom this faucet.\n\n\"Let us return again to the physical dust, the atom.  Why should\nit form by fives for iron, by nines for hydrogen?  Where did the\natom come from?  What is it?  We know that like the drop of\nwater, it is a miniature world with an atmosphere of ether;  and\nthe natural inference is that it is made from ether as the drop\nof water was made from gas.  Many things confirm this inference,\nand it may be accepted as 'a working hypothesis' that it is made\nfrom ether as the drop of water is made from gas, by the chemical\nunion of a large amount of ether of different kinds, the etheric\nmolecules of which consist of 2 and 3 or 5 and 4 etheric atoms,\nand that the tendency to combine in this or that number in\nphysical matter is an inherited tendency brought with it from the\netheric world of matter on which, or in which, each element of\nthis world is two or more.  There is no kind of matter in this\nphysical world, that has not its prototype in the etheric, and\nthe laws of its action and reaction here are laws which it\ninherits and brings with it.  They are not laws made here.  They\nare laws of the other world--even as the matter itself is matter\nof the other world.\n\n\"In 1882, Professor Lodge, in a lecture before the Royal\nInstitution on 'The Luminiferous Ether' defined it as:\n\n\"'One continuous substance, filling all space, which can vibrate\nas light, which can be sheared into positive and negative\nelectricity, which in whirls constitutes matter, and which\ntransmits by continuity and not impact every action and reaction\nof which matter is capable.'\n\n\"This reads today like baby-talk but at that time (eighteen years\nago), it was considered by many timid conservative scientists as\n'a daring movement.'  It is noteworthy in that it was the first\npublic scientific announcement that the physical matter is a\nmanifestation or form of the ether.  And it was made before\ngeneral acceptance of the division of the ether into soniferous,\nluminiferous and tangiferous.\n\n\"'Which in whirls constitutes matter.'  Professor Lodge believed\nthat 'some etheric molecules revolved so rapidly on their axis\nthat they could not be penetrated.'  Watch the soap-bubbles that\nI am blowing.  Each and every one is revolving as the earth\nrevolves, from west to east.  What I wish to call your attention\nto is the fact that can be proven, both mathematically and\ntheoretically, that at a certain rate of speed in the revolution\nthey could not be penetrated by any rifle-ball.  At a higher rate\nof speed they would be harder than globes of solid chilled steel,\nharder even than carbon.  Professor Lodge believed that the\netheric molecule revolved so rapidly that, thin as it was in its\nshell, it gave us the dust out of which worlds were made.  There\nis one fatal error in this idea, although it is held even now by\nmany.  It is based entirely on gravity, and gravity is alone\nconsidered in its problems.  There are two great forces in the\nuniverse, not one, as many scientific people fail to remember\n--Gravity and Apergy, or the centrifugal and centripetal forces.\nThe pull in is and must be always balanced by the pull out.\nThere is in the universe as much repulsion as attraction, and the\nformer is a force quite as important as the latter.  The bubble's\nspeed kept increasing until apergy, the tendency to fly off,\novercame gravity, and it ruptured.\n\n\"Professor Lodge failed to take into account this apergic force,\nthis tendency to fly off, when he gave such high revolutionary\nspeed to the etheric molecules, a speed in which apergy would\nnecessarily exceed gravity.  The failure to take apergy into\nconsideration has been the undoing of many physicists.\n\n\"Today we know that the ether is matter, the same as our own,\nonly finer and rarer and in much more rapid vibration.  We know\nthat this ether has its solids, liquids and gases formed from\nmolecules of its atoms, even as our own are formed.  We know that\nits atoms combine as ours do, and while we have but eighty\nelementary combinations, it must have more than double the\nnumber.  We know that every form and shape and combination of\nthese elements from this plane flows from inherited tendencies\nhaving their root in the etheric world.\n\n\"The two worlds are one world--as much at one with ours as the\nworld of gas about us is at one with our liquids and solids.  It\nis 'continuity, not impact.'  They not only touch everywhere and\nin everything, but they are one and the same in action and\nreaction.\"\n\nThus spake a certain wise teacher of physics.  To his wise\nutterances, we can only add that such as we are today \"we see\nthrough a glass, darkly.\"  Yet there will come a day when the\nphysical bandages will be removed from our eyes, and we shall see\nface to face the beauty and grandeur and glory of this invisible\nworld, and that in truth it 'transmits by continuity and not\nimpact every action and reaction of which matter is capable,'\nforming one continuous chain of cause and effect, without a link\nmissing.  There are no gulfs to cross;  no bridges to be made.\nIt is here;  not there.  It is at one with us.  And we are at one\nwith it.  One and the same law controls and guides the etheric\natom and the physical atom made from its molecules, whether the\nlatter are made in \"whirls,\" as at first supposed, or by orderly\ncombination as now believed.\n\nIn fact, this visible world of ours is the perfect product of the\nother invisible one, having in it its root and foundation, the\nvery sap of its life.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Five\n\nThe Four Manifested Planes\n\nThe oriental idea of the universe does not differ fundamentally\nin its general conception, from that of modern science, but it\ngoes farther and explains more.  The physics of the secret\ndoctrine are based upon a material universe of four planes of\nvibration and a spiritual universe of three planes of vibration\nbeyond matter.  This Something in vibration may be given the\nEnglish name, Consciousness--without entering upon its nature.\n\nSpirit is consciousness in vibration and undifferentiated.\n\nMatter is consciousness in vibration and differentiated.\n\nAs we divide the seven octaves of a piano into Treble and Bass\nfor clearness of thought and writing, so the Hidden Knowledge\ndivides the seven octaves of vibration, or planes, into Spirit\nand Matter.  In their ultimate analysis they are one and the same\nthing, as ice and water are the same thing;  but for study they\nmust be differentiated.\n\nThe material and physical universe consists of four planes of\nmatter, or four great octaves of vibration, each differentiated\nfrom the other as in our physics prakriti is differentiated from\nether.  The material universe, the ancient physics teach, was\noriginally pure thought, Manasa, the product of the spiritual\nplanes above.  This manasic world was differentiated, a real\nworld.  That is to say it was given elementary substances by the\nunion of its atoms in different sized molecules.  Some of its\nelements combined and formed Prana.  The prana gathered and\nformed other worlds, pranic worlds.  Then in the pranic world\netheric worlds were formed;  and finally in the etheric worlds,\nprakritic globes like the earth were formed.  The earth is the\ncentre of a prakritic globe, revolving in ether around the sun.\nThe sun is the centre of a solar globe of ether, revolving in\nprana around Alcyone.  Alcyone is the centre of a stellar globe\nof prana revolving in manasa around the central and hidden sun of\nthe great manasic globe.  These four conditions of matter\nprakriti, ether, prana, and manasa are the earth, water, fire,\nair of the Ancient Metaphysics, the four elements of matter, and\nare present in every atom of prakriti.  When the atom of prana\nwas formed, it had an envelope of manasa.  When the atom of ether\nwas formed it had an envelope of pranic-manasic atoms.  When the\nprakritic atom was formed it had an envelope of etheric-pranic-\nmanasic atoms, each of its encircling etheric atoms being the\ncentre of a pranic molecule, and each pranic atom of that\nmolecule being the centre of a manasic molecule.\n\nEach atom of prakriti was the material universe in miniature.  It\nheld the potentialities of mind, life, and phenomena.  In every\naggregation of atoms, there were the four planes, each in touch\nthrough the Cosmic Mind, its manasa, with other atoms in the\nuniverse, with every other globe of whatever kind.  \"As above, so\nbelow,\" was the secret Key-word.  The unity of all the material\nuniverse in its prakriti, ether, prana and manasa, was the corner\nstone of this knowledge.  The three planes above prakriti were\ncalled Astral, and in common speech there was the ordinary\ndivision into two planes, visible and invisible, or \"Spirit,\" as\nthe invisible was called, and \"Matter,\" as the visible was\ncalled.  Only in the hidden secret doctrine of physics, and in\nthe open metaphysics which were a \"stumbling block\" and\n\"foolishness\" to those who had not the \"inner light\" of the\nphysics, were the three divisions of the \"astral\" made known, and\nthe true distinction between the spirit of the three higher\nplanes and the matter of the four lower was kept out of the\nmetaphysics, or only vaguely alluded to.\n\nThere is no \"oriental science\" because the oriental does not\nattach the same value to merely physical knowledge that we do.\nBut that must not be understood to imply that there is no\noriental physics.  In all the matters that interest us now, as\nfar as principles are concerned, the oriental knew all that we\nknow.  He knew it thousands of years ago, when our ancestors were\nsleeping with the cave bears.\n\n\"That is all the good it did him,\" the scientist says.  No.  That\nis not true.  It is perfectly true that the oriental, the\nBabylonian who carved on the Black Stone now in the British\nMuseum the five moons of Jupiter, exposing himself to the\nderision of our astronomers prior to their own discovery of the\nfifth moon in 1898, did not care particularly whether there were\nfour moons or five, and had no sale for any telescopes he might\nmake, for no one else cared particularly.  But it was not true\nthat he did not care for any and all knowledge that would improve\nhis spiritual condition by giving him correct ideas of the\nuniverse and of his own part in it.  To him life was more than\nmeat and the body more than raiment.  He was more afraid of sin\nthan of ignorance.  We are more afraid of ignorance than of sin.\nHe preferred to better men's moral condition;  we prefer to\nbetter their physical condition.\n\nIf one of the Sages of the East could be called up and put on the\nstand to be questioned, he would say, substantially:\n\n\"You are right in regard to your ether, and to prakriti being\nether that has been dropped a great octave in vibration.  Your\nphysical atom is surrounded by a molecule of ether, this molecule\ncontaining many atoms of ether.  The chording vibration does\nproduce all physical phenomena.\n\n\"But where did the ether atom come from?  How can you explain how\nand whence life comes, or what it is?  This explains physical,\nbut how do you explain vital phenomena?\n\n\"You are wrong in assuming that all the matter of the universe\napart from the earth or planets is ether and only ether.  The\netheric world in which you are interested ends with your solar\nsystem.  It ends with each solar system, to the people of that\nsystem.  Between each solar system and another there is another\nform of matter that is not ether.\n\n\"This etheric solar world of ours is very large, many billions of\nmiles in diameter;  but it is not the whole universe.  You know\nthat the sun and all its planets are revolving around the star\nAlcyone.  Your astronomers told you that years ago, and they have\nrecently given you the rate of speed as 4,838 miles per hour.\n\n\"Did you not see and know that if they had this revolution around\na central sun it must be within a solar globe?\n\n\"Did you think that the sun and its planets, and other suns and\ntheir planets, were tearing their way through the ether like so\nmany fish on a dipsy-hook from a Marblehead fishing smack running\nbefore the wind?\n\n\"Did it never occur to you that the ether of this solar system\nmust be revolving around this central sun?  The whole solar\nsystem, ether and planets, are revolving around Alcyone, and the\nreason why their minor revolution around the sun is not affected\nby it is because the solar system is a vast globe of ether,\nhaving a thinner and rarer medium to revolve in, the same as our\nearth has.  It is the motion of a fly in a moving car.\n\n\"Now fix your attention on this globe of ether, this solar globe.\nYou must do it to get the concept before you.  You have known of\nit all your life without once really apprehending it, for you\nhave never learned to think, or to utilize the knowledge that was\ngiven you.  The idea is as new and as strange as if you had never\nknown it.\n\n\"What lies beyond the surface of the solar globe?  Something\nmust;  something as much rarer and thinner than the ether as the\nether is rarer and thinner than prakriti.  Can you not guess?\n\n\"It is Prana, the life force of the universe.  As prakriti is\nmade from ether, so ether is made from prana.  It is made in the\nsame way.  Each atom of the ether is the centre of a molecule of\nprana, surrounded by an atmosphere of pranic atoms, exactly as\nyour prakritic atom is surrounded by an atmosphere of etheric\natoms.  You say that each atom of prakriti is the centre of a\nmolecule of ether.  So it is.  But each atom of that etheric\nmolecule is the centre of a pranic molecule.  Each atom of your\nphysical matter is triple, not double.\n\n\"You say that all physical phenomena come from the chording\nvibration of the etheric and prakritic atoms of the two planes of\nmatter.  Yes.  But do you not see that all vital phenomena come\nfrom the chording vibration of the pranic, etheric, and prakritic\natom of the three planes of matter which are in each atom?\n\n\"In the living leaf the three planes are sounding in chord in each\natom of it.  In the dead leaf, drying up and falling to pieces,\nonly the lower two are sounding in chord.  The silver chord has\nbeen broken.\n\n\"Each atom of prakriti you say has the potentiality of some kind\nof phenomenon.  We add 'and of life also.'  The potentialities of\nlife are in every atom of prakriti.  Even the atom of iron may\nlive in the blood.  It cannot become a part of any living\norganism until its prana is sounding the chord of life in unison\nwith the ether and prakriti--the threefold silver chord.\n\n\"What is the centre of this prana?  It is Alcyone.  There are\nother solar globes beside ours circling around Alcyone, and we\nhave been considering only our own solar globe of ether.  Alcyone\nis the centre of the prana in which they revolve as the sun is\nthe centre of our ether in which the planets revolve.  As this\nprana has a centre around which we revolve with other solar\nsystems, then it must have a center of gravity.\n\n\"Then this prana is a globe.\n\n\"The prana does not then fill this material universe.  There must\nbe yet another form of matter rarer and finer than prana, from\nwhich prana is made, as ether is made from prana and prakriti\nfrom ether.  Have we any other class of phenomena to explain,\nexcept vital and physical?  Yes, there is a very important class,\nmental.  And here we have the explanation, if we exercise our\nreason.\n\n\"These pranic globes are floating in an ocean of manasa, matter\nin its rarest form.\n\n\"Each atom of prana is formed from manasa, exactly as ether was\nformed from prana, and each pranic atom in the universe is the\ncentre of a manasic molecule, having an atmosphere of manasic\natoms.\n\n\"So we are not exact in giving the prakritic atom three planes or\noctaves of vibration.  It has four.  You merely surround it with\netheric atoms, and this is correct so far as it goes.  You only\nwish to explain physical problems.  But there are other problems\nto be explained, problems of life and mind, and the same\nknowledge you have explains them as well as the others, if you\nsimply avail yourself of it.  That you do not consider the atom\nas four-fold instead of two-fold is your own fault.  I have not\ntold you anything you did not already know.  I have only asked\nyou to apply your present knowledge of physics to these problems\nof life and mind, and apply your reasoning powers.\n\n\"The chording vibration in an atom of matter of\n\n\"The two planes produces Force, or phenomena\n\n\"The three planes produces Life--the silver chord\n\n\"The four planes produces Mind--the golden chord.\n\n\"You say there is no gulf between the prakritic and etheric\nworlds;  that it is one continuous world;  and all its phenomena\nare by continuity and not impact.  That is true, but it is not\nthe whole truth.\n\n\"There is no gulf to cross between the prakritic and etheric\nworlds;  none to cross between that and the manasic.  The four\nworlds are one great world, continuous, interchangeable.  Through\nthe four as well as through the two, there is continuity and not\nimpact.  Whether it is an atom or a world, the four are there.\nNothing, no combination of atoms, no matter of any kind, however\nsmall or large, can exist in this prakritic world unless it has\nthe four elements, which from time immemorial our philosophers\nhave called Earth, Water, Fire, Air, meaning the four globes or\nforms of matter in the universe.  We do not have to leave the\nearth to live in the etheric globe.  It is here.  Nor do we have\nto go millions of miles to reach the pranic globe.  It is here.\nThe problems of light and heat are no easier than the problems of\nbirth and death.  The pranic globe is within us;  within\neverything.  So is the manasic.\n\n\"It is here on these higher planes that the chances for worthy\nstudy are greatest.  At least we think so, though you may not.\nWe live on the manasic--pranic--etheric globe on precisely the\nsame terms that we live on this of prakriti, and the problems of\nthe three are equally open to us.\n\n\"If there are any who care to follow up the line of thought I\nhave opened, who care for the questions that interest us of the\nEast, I will talk as long as they care to listen, provided they\nwill not ask for knowledge that will give them power over others,\nwhich cannot fail to be used for evil.\"\n\nThis is but a glimpse of Hindu physics, yet it has helped us in\nthe metaphysics.  We now understand the chain of globes--in\npart.  The earth is fourfold.  As each atom of the earth is\nfourfold, so their aggregations give us prakritic earth, an\netheric earth, a pranic earth, and a manasic earth--in\ncoadunition and not like the skin of an onion.  They are separate\nand distinct globes, each on its own plane.  It is four down and\nthree up for the Angel entering matter, whether from the outmost\nboundary of manasic matter, or the surface of the earth, or the\ncover of a baseball.  The \"chain of globes\" in the Secret\nDoctrine represents the unity of the material universe.\n\nThe three-fold nature of the astral model is revealed, and the\nunity of all prakritic things.  But more than that, to many\nminds, will be the explanation it gives of why there are but four\nplanes of vibration in matter;  that the highest form of\ndevelopment in prakriti shows only four elements, prakriti or\nbody, sensation or force, life, and mind, and that these last\nthree, present in all things in esse, become present in posse\nwhen they work together harmonically.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Six\n\nOur Place on Earth\n\n\nThe next time our wise man from the east was asked to \"say a few\nwords and make his own topic,\" he spoke, perhaps, as follows:\n\n\"How large do you think the earth is?  You answer promptly, 7,912\nmiles in diameter.  You are as far out of the way as you were in\nsupposing that our sun could be a centre of gravity of a lot of\nplanets revolving around it and around Alcyone without being a\nglobe of ether.  Now that it has been mentioned, you see very\nclearly for yourself that it must be a solar globe of ether.  It\nfollows from one of your physical axioms.  When I tell you why\nthe earth is and must be about fifty thousand miles in diameter,\nyou will see that it must be so, and that you knew it all the\ntime, but never stopped to formulate your knowledge.  You have\nhad the knowledge for three centuries without applying it.\n\n\"It was in 1609 that your greatest astronomer, John Kepler,\nannounced as one of three harmonic laws by which the universe was\ngoverned, that the squares of the times of the planets were\nproportional to the cubes of their distances from the sun;  and\nthat this law was true in physics and everywhere.  No one of your\nscientists has had the wisdom to study out what it meant, and for\nthree centuries, for 291 years, you have repeated his words like\nso many parrots, instead of using the key he gave you to unlock\nthe mysteries of the universe.  A corollary of his law is that\nthe planets move in their orbits because they are impelled\nthereto between the two forces, and move in a mean curve between\nthem;  but it was not until 1896 that you discovered that the\nmean between two forces is always a curve and never a straight\nline.  You have not a text book in a school today that does not\nrepeat this fundamental and absurd error--which you have known\nfor three centuries to be an error--that the motion resulting\nfrom a mean between forces is \"in a straight line.\"  The curves\nresulting here are not to be measured easily, and are so large\nthat small segments appear straight lines;  and it was not until\nCarpenter demonstrated it mathematically that any one could\nbelieve it true.\n\n\"There are two great forces in this universe.  Your grandfathers\ncalled them Centripetal and Centrifugal forces;  your fathers\ncalled them Gravity and Apergy, names which still cling to them;\nand you call them Attraction and Repulsion.\n\n\"It was Kepler, not Newton, who discovered that Attraction or\nGravity was in inverse proportion to the square of the distance.\n\n\"You know the meaning of this mystic phrase, 'as the squares of\nthe distance.'  You understand that it means the attraction at\ntwo feet is only one-fourth the attraction at one foot;  at four\nfeet only one-sixteenth;  at eight feet, only one sixty-fourth.\n\n\"But who knows or cares for Kepler's great law of Repulsion, or\nApergy?  That was that the 'square of the times are as the cubes\nof the distance.'  It has lain fallow for centuries.  No one of\nyour western physicists has ever studied it, or tried to explain\nit.  It remains just where Kepler left it, as the mere law of\norbital revolution of the planets only.\n\n\"It is the key to the proper understanding of the universe.\n\n\"'The squares of the times are as the cubes of the distance'\nmeans that all motion is the result of two forces acting upon\nprakriti, and that where the two forces are balanced, or equal,\nthe result in motion is a circle or ellipse, the square of the\nRepulsion being equal to the cube of the Attraction to make them\nequal and produce a circle.  In other cases they produce\nhyperbola and parabola.\n\n\"This is a little dry--nearly all fundamental knowledge is--but\nthe reward of patience is great.\n\n\"The orbital speed of the earth is about 60,000 miles per hour.\nThe attraction of the sun exactly equals the repulsion created by\nthe motion;  more accurately, the speed created by the repulsion.\nThe result of the two forces working together at exact balance is\na circle.  An ellipse is a circle bent a little, and the ellipse\nin which the earth actually moves comes from varying attraction\nand repulsion.  Kepler's second law covers that.\n\n\"If the orbital speed of the earth were a mile less per hour, or\neven a foot less, then the earth would wind up around the sun as\na dog gets wound up with his chain around a tree.  If this speed\nwere a mile more per hour, then the earth would wind out, each\nyear getting farther and farther away, until finally it would be\nlost.  When the speed is exactly proportional to the pull--that\nis, when it is as 1.6 is to 2,--the result is a circular orbit,\nthe eccentricity of which is caused by certain fluctuations in\nthe attraction and repulsion.\n\n\"Suppose a planet were to be placed so that it would have a time\nof two years.  Its distance from the sun would be 1.6 that of the\nearth.  Why?  Because to get the time doubled we would have to\ntake the square root of 4;  and to get the distance the cube root\nof the same number, 4.  If you wish to be very exact the cube\nroot is 1.5889, but 1.6 is near enough for all ordinary work.\n\n\"If you wanted to find out the distance of a planet revolving in\nsix months you would divide the earth's distance by 1.6.\n\n\"In proportion you get any time or distance you may desire with\nabsolute accuracy.  The distance of any planet from the sun gives\nits time, or its time gives its distance--when that of any of\nthe others is known.  This law applies throughout the universe;\nin everything and everywhere.  It is not a law of orbital\nrevolution alone, but a law of all motion.\n\n\"Our moon has a time of 29 days and a speed of about 50,000 miles\nper day.  If the speed were greater it would leave us, if less it\nwould wind up, falling to the earth in the form of a spiral.\n\n\"At what distance would it have to be to have a time of fourteen\ndays? Divide 240,000 miles by 1.6.  A seven-day moon, would be\n1.6 that distance.  And the exact distance for a one-day moon,\nfor a moon that would always be in the same place in the heavens,\nmoving as the earth revolved on its axis, would be about 24,998\nmiles.\n\n\"This gives us the line of 24-hour axial rotation, the true\nsurface of the earth, and the sheer-line of prakritic matter.\nBeyond that line is the ether;  within that line is prakriti.\n\n\"It is the line of no weight, where gravity and apergy exactly\nbalance.  Inside that line gravity exceeds apergy and everything\nrevolving in less time, or that time, must fall to the centre.\nIt is the true surface of any 24-hour globe of this size and\nweight.  A moon to revolve around the earth in less than one day\nmust move faster than the earth to develop enough apergy to\novercome the attraction.  That phenomenon we see in the moons of\nMars, which are within its atmosphere;  within the planet itself.\n\n\"We of the East learned this true size of the earth over six\nthousand years ago, from observing the moons of Jupiter.  The\ntimes of the first three are doubled.  We asked ourselves what\nthis meant and found that their distance was increased by the\ncube root of 4 when their times were increased by the square root\nof 4;  that time was to distance as 1.6 was to 2.  Then we\napplied the key, and found it unlocked many mysteries.\n\n\"The first lesson this taught us was that we did not live on the\nearth, but within the earth, at the line of liquid and gaseous\nchanges, where the three forms of matter meet and mingle and\ninterchange with each other.  We lived at the bottom of a gaseous\nocean 21,000 miles above us, and 4,000 miles from the centre of\nthe globe.  It gave us an entirely new conception of the earth,\nand of our place in it.\n\n\"We saw that we lived in a narrow belt, or skin, of the earth,\nnot more than 100 miles thick, perhaps not more than ten miles.\nWithin this belt the prakritic elementary substances varied their\ncondition, combined, and made forms by increasing or decreasing\nvibration.  It was the creative and destructive zone, the\nevolutionary \"mother\"--the liquid level of the prakriti--the\nseat of all physical phenomena.  Fifty miles above, the masses of\nnitrogen and oxygen and argon were too cold to change their rate\nof vibration.  Fifty miles below the surface of the earth all\nthings were too hot for changes in vibration.  In this kinetic\nbelt, between two static masses our bodies had been made, and\nalso, in all probability, all combinations of the elementary\nsubstances.  It was four thousand miles to the centre of the\nstatic prakritic mass beneath us;  twenty-one thousand miles to\nthe surface of the static prakritic mass above us, and the small\nkinetic belt between was only one hundred miles thick.  But we\nhad one consolation, the prakriti we had was all kinetic, and the\nbest in the whole mass.\n\n\"The second lesson it taught us was that as the earth had been\nmade in the etheric globe, in a corresponding skin or plane of\nkinetic etheric energy, with our ether the best of the solar\noutput, that we ourselves were subject through our ether to the\nphenomena of that kinetic solar plane in precisely the same way\nwe now are to the phenomena of the kinetic prakritic plane.  Once\nrid of the fallacious notion that we were creatures of the\nsurface of the earth, once clearly conscious that we were\ncreatures of the interior, of the bottom of this gaseous ocean,\nthen we could understand not only how the earth could be created\nin this etheric globe, but how we could be creatures of the solar\nglobe living on it.\n\n\"When we learned that lesson, and learned it well, it dawned upon\nus that we were living in the pranic globe at the same kinetic\nlevel or plane of that globe, the line where its solids and\nliquids and gases mingled and passed from one state to another,\nthe kinetic belt in which our solar globe has been made, and that\nwe were living as truly on that globe as we were on this\nprakritic globe.  Our position on each globe was the same.\n\n\"And then the great truth came that we lived in the manasic\nglobe, at the same kinetic level;  and that we lived our lives on\nthe four globes simultaneously.  Our bodies are fourfold.  Every\natom is fourfold, ready to respond in our minds to the vibrations\nof the Manasic world, in our vitality to the pranic vibrations of\nthe pranic world, in our nerves to the etheric vibrations of the\netheric world, and in our prakriti to vibrations of the prakritic\nworld.  Each one of our bodies lived on its own earth globe, for\nthere were four globes of this earth--in coadunition--in its\ncorresponding kind of globe.\n\n\"The four earth globes became one globe, as our four bodies were\none body;  and the chain of four kinds of globes in matter became\none globe, as the manasic with the others on it.\n\n\"These four kinds of globes were the beginning and the end of\nmatter, as we distinguish and know matter.  They were not the end\nof vibration;  or of planes of vibration;  or of realms beyond\nthis material universe;  but they were the limits of all that is\ncommon to each and every atom of this lower plane of vibration.\n\n\"It is upon this solid and perfect foundation of physics, that\naccounts for and explains every kind of phenomena, we have\nconstructed our metaphysics.  All that belongs to these four\nlower planes we consider and treat as physics.  All that relates\nto the planes beyond we consider metaphysics.  Can you teach a\nchild equation of payments before he knows the first four rules?\nYou would not attempt such a task.  The first four rules are the\nphysics of arithmetic;  all beyond is the metaphysics of\narithmetic.  It flows out of them.  Can you comprehend our system\nof metaphysics until you have clearly and completely mastered our\nphysics?  Would you not get into a fog at the very start?\n\n\"There can be no system of metaphysics without a solid foundation\nof physics.  The idea is unthinkable.  The one grows out of the\nother.  It is its life;  its fruit, its flower.\n\n\"You have no western system of physics.  Your physics are without\nform and void;  patchwork, constantly changing.  There is no\nsubstantial foundation for any system of metaphysics.  What you\nsay or do in physics is fragmentary or chaotic.\n\n\"It is perfectly true, so far as you have gone through the first\ninvisible world of ether, you are much more masters of detail\nthan we are.\n\n\"We have not cared particularly for the minor details by which\nexplosives are made, or metals obtained from oxides.  We have\npreferred to push on into realms beyond as fast as we could,\nseeking first the Kingdom of Heaven and its Righteousness,\nknowing that when it was found all these things would be added\nunto us.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Seven\n\nThe Four Globes\n\n\nThat we live in the earth, not on the earth, is one of the most\nimportant of the facts of eastern physics in the study of its\nmetaphysics.  The mathematical and physical proof that the\nphysical earth is 50,000 miles in diameter should not be\npassed over lightly in our haste to get on, for the perfect\nunderstanding of all this fact implies makes easy the\ncomprehension of how we live etherically in the solar etheric\nglobe, of how we live pranically in the stellar pranic globe, and\nhow we live manasically in the manasic globe.\n\nAs we live within the narrow \"skin\" of phenomena, not more than\n100 miles thick, of this prakritic globe, with the whole earth\nwithin the corresponding skin of phenomena of the solar etheric\nglobe, within the kinetic belt in which it was made, the ether\nwhich surrounds each prakritic molecule is not merely any and\nevery kind of ether, but that particular kind of kinetic ether,\nwhich, by changing its rate of vibration through an octave,\ncreates phenomena.  The ether of all prakritic matter belongs to\nthe kinetic or creative belt of the solar etheric globe.  It is\nnot static ether.  The ether in our prakriti is in touch with all\nthe prakritic kinetic ether of the solar globe, subject to all\nsolar laws of change;  and all our prak-solar laws of change;\nand all our prakritic matter, a mere detail of it, is a part of\nthe solar phenomena.  \"Our father, the sun,\" or \"Dyaus pitar\"\n(\"heavenly father\"--Latin, Jupiter) meant more once than it does\nnow.  Then the solar globe was the first heaven, and to live\nunder its laws, puttings off the coat of skin, was an object\nwhich men believed to be worth striving for.  They recognized, as\nwe do not, that our prakritic laws were not all they had to obey;\nthat the higher law of the solar globe on which they lived, of\nwhich the lower prakritic laws were merely an outcome and detail,\nwas worthy of the closest study.  And they recognized that these\nhigher laws of the etheric globe were metaphysical as well as\nphysical;  that our moral law flows out of the moral law of the\nsolar etheric world, as our physics flow from and out of solar\nphysics.  Religion is correct in its assumption of this higher\nlaw of morals;  incorrect only in its grasp and explanation.\nScience is correct in holding only in its assumption that it is\nphysical science;  incorrect only in its assumption that it is\nphysical science of this plane and globe only.  There is no\nquarrel between science and religion when the full knowledge of\none stands beside the full knowledge of the other.  They are\ntwin-sisters.\n\nThis solar-etheric globe in which we are interested revolves\naround Alcyone within that kinetic belt or skin of prana which is\nsubject to phenomena or vibration through one octave--else it\nwould never have been formed.  All prana in the solar-etheric\nglobe is of this particular kind of kinetic prana, which creates\nlife of all kinds--which is subject to vibration through one\noctave.  The solar globe is a detail of kinetic prana only, one\nof its phenomena.  Necessarily, all our prana is of this kinetic\nkind, and our earth a minor detail of it in the Alcyone globe.\nAll the changes and combinations possible in kinetic prana on the\npranic globe are possible here, in our kinetic prana, as all the\nphenomena of the etheric world are possible here in our kinetic\nether.\n\nAs our earth is a globe of ether and a globe of prana as well as\na globe of prakriti;  we are actually living on a small \"cabbage\"\nof that pranic globe, and subject to all its laws.\n\nIn the vast manasic globe that includes this whole material\nuniverse there is the same kinetic belt or skin of \"phenomena\" or\nvibration similar to that kinetic belt in which we live on the\nearth, and the manasa which permeates the Alcyonic globe, the\nsolar globe, and the earth is that kinetic manasa which is\ninvolving and evolving.  This involving and evolving kinetic\nmanasa of the Alcyonic globe is that which surrounds every atom\nof ether of the solar globe and every atom of prakriti of this\nearth globe.  In the great manasic globe this earth of ours is a\nminute village of Helios (sun) county, in the state of Alcyone.\nWe are actually and literally living in this manasic globe\nprecisely as we live in this earth, and as in the village we are\nsubject to all the laws of the manasic world, we can study them\nhere in this village as well as we could elsewhere.  We can study\nthem as easily as we study our prakritic village laws, or our\netheric county laws, for all the forms of manasa subject to them\nanywhere are here with us.  We are not limited to a study of the\nprakritic laws of the village fathers, nor yet to the etheric\nlaws of the supervisors of Helios county, as scientists say, nor\neven to the state laws of Alcyone;  only the manasic laws of the\nUniverse limit our material studies in that direction.  As some\nmen on this earth never leave their native village and never know\nor care for any matters outside of it, so in this little earth\nvillage, in the kinetic belt of the manasic globe, there are men\nwho do not care to know anything which relate to matters outside\nits boundaries.  As some men may pass the boundaries of their\nvillage, but not of their county, caring only for the matters\nconcerning it, so the western scientists of this earth village on\nthe manasic globe do not pass the boundaries of Helios county,\ncaring only for etheric matters.  The philosophers and wise men\nof the East are broader minded and from time immemorial have\ntaken greater interest in the pranic affairs of Alcyone and the\nmanasic condition of the universe in which Alcyone is a state\nthan in the rustic murmur of their village or the gossip of their\ncounty.\n\nThere is nothing lacking in our manasic earth-village, nothing\nthat is in more abundant measure in our county, state, and\nnation.  We are of the best.\n\nWe of this village may imagine, if we like, that there is nothing\nbeyond the village limits, and nothing in it but that which\nrelates to the village.  We have the right to be silly, if we\nwish to be.  And it is no sign of wisdom to say that there is a\ncounty beyond, but that the county boundaries end all, and only\nvillage and county politics may be studied.  The European who\nbelieved--no Asiatic or African or American could have believed\n--that the earth rested on an elephant and the elephant on\na turtle was wise, in comparison.  Nor is it any sign of\nintelligence to say that we may learn something of the village\nand county while we live, but that to learn anything about the\nstate and nation we must wait until we are dead.  There are too\nmany in the village who are familiar with both state and nation,\nand who have studied their laws, for this to be anything but\nidiotic.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Eight\n\nThe Battle Ground\n\n\nEach and every one of our eighty-odd elementary substances owe\ntheir condition--whether solid, liquid, or gas--to their rate\nof vibration.  We have reduced all gases to a liquid and nearly\nall to a solid form.  Conversely, we have raised all solids to a\nliquid and nearly all to a gaseous condition.  This has been done\nby reducing or raising the vibration of each within one octave\n--each one of the eighty odd having a special octave, a tone or\nhalf-tone different from any other.  Normally, the solids,\nvibrating in the lower notes, gather together under Attraction;\nwhile the gases, vibrating in the higher notes, diffuse under\nRepulsion.  Between them, created by the interchange of these two\nforces, is our \"skin\" of phenomena, or kinetics.\n\nBroadly, the attraction of the universe comes from its vibration\nat certain centres in the three higher notes;  the repulsion\ncomes from its vibration everywhere else in the three higher\nnotes.  The central note, D of the scale, represents the battle\nground between the field of kinetics.  This in simple\nillustration is water turning into gas.\n\nThis is the great battle ground, the only one worth considering\nin a general view.  There are minor \"critical stages\" which the\nchemist studies, but for us, in this broad sketch of the\nuniverse, the important battle-ground is that between solid and\nliquid on one side representing gravity, and gas on the other,\nrepresenting apergy.\n\nAll the solids and liquids of this earth of ours gather at the\ncentre, in a core, each of the elements (or their combinations)\nin this core vibrating in their three lower notes, producing the\nattraction, which is \"in proportion to the mass\" and which\ndecreases from the surface of the core \"as the square of the\nsubstance.\"\n\nAround this central core gather all the elements vibrating in the\nthree higher notes of their octave as gases, producing repulsion\nwhich increases by 1.6 for each doubled time.  It is worth while\nmaking this clear.  It has never before appeared in print.\n\nLet the amount of apergy, or repulsion, or centrifugal force at\nthe surface of the earth be represented by x.  This is the result\nof motion at the rate of 1,000 miles per hour.  Make this motion\n2,000 miles per hour, and the apergy is increased 1.6.  Four\nthousand miles above the surface of this earth the rotation\nis at the rate of 2,000.  It is the globe of 48,000 miles in\ncircumference revolving in 24 hours, and the speed is doubled.\nThis apergy has increased by 1.6.  As the apergy increases at\nthis rate every time the speed is doubled, at a distance\nof 21,000 miles the speed is 7,000 miles per hour and the\ncentrifugal force has been increased nearly four times what it\nwas at the surface of the ocean.  The attraction has been\ndecreased to about one-thirtieth.  At the surface it is equal to\n120 x.  At 4,000 miles to one-quarter, or 30 x;  at 16,000 miles\nto one-sixteenth, or 7 x;  and at 21,000 miles to 4 x.\n\nIf \"equatorial gravity is about 120 times that of the equatorial\napergy,\" at the ocean level, then at the distance of 21,000 miles\nfrom it, in a revolving globe, the two forces would be equal;\nthe \"pull\" of each being 4 x, and an anchor will weigh no more\nthan a feather, for weight is the excess of gravity or apergy.\n\nIf the pyramids had been built of the heaviest known material on\nthe gases 21,000 miles above us, and so that they should revolve\nin the same time, 7,000 miles per hour, they would remain there.\nAll the attraction of the solid core of the earth that could be\nexerted on them at that distance would not be enough to pull them\nan inch nearer to it through our gaseous envelope.  Their gaseous\nfoundation there would be as firm as igneous rock here.\n\nThe force of repulsion created by the three higher notes of an\noctave means just as much at the attraction created by the three\nlower notes, whether it is in a chemical retort, within this\nearth, or within this universe.  The two forces balance, and are\nexactly equal.  They fight only within kinetic zones.\n\nGiven the vast manasic globe of differentiated matter, its atoms\nuniting in different numbers to form molecules as the bases of\nelementary substances, manasic substances, of course.  The thrill\nof vibration is sweeping through it from the spiritual plane\nabove, and the elements (and their combinations) which answer in\nthe lower notes gather and form a core, the Invisible Central\nSun, with its attraction.  The elements answering in the higher\nnotes gather around it with their repulsion.  So the two opposing\nforces were born, with a vast kinetic skin for a battle-ground\nbetween them.\n\nThe attraction of the invisible central sun manifests itself to\nus in prakriti as Light.  The repulsion of its covering, or the\nhigher static vibration of manasa, manifests itself to us as\nDarkness.  The first creative act in or on matter was the\ncreation of Light and its separation from the Darkness.  The next\ncreative act was the establishment of a kinetic skin or zone\nbetween them, a firmament in which the two forces of Light and\nDarkness could strive for mastery.  \"And God called the firmament\nHeaven.\"  The third creative act was the gathering of the solids\nand liquids together, and the beginning of the kinetic work in\nthe creation of forms and shapes, by the cross play of the two\nforces in their combinations of solid with gases.\n\nAll this had to happen before the manasa combined and dropped in\nvibration to prana--and before the pranic globes were formed and\nthe Light could be manifested to us through them.  It may be well\nto read the first chapter of Genesis over and ask forgiveness for\nour ignorance, from the writer who records this creation of the\npranic globes as the fourth act of creation, and the creation of\nthe etheric sun and prakritic moon to follow that.  That record\nis mutilated, fragmentary;  but the writer of it knew the facts.\nIf we had the full story, instead of a sentence here and there,\ntaken from an older story not to tell of creation but to hide\nanother tale for the priest, the writer of Genesis would laugh\nlast.\n\nBut let us return to the kinetic skin of energy between Light and\nthe Darkness--the firmament which God calls Heaven--the battle\nground for gravity and apergy, or attraction and repulsion, or\ngood and evil, or the powers of light and darkness.  This skin is\nlike that of an onion, thickest at the equator and thinnest at\nthe poles--not only on this earth but in the solar, alcyonic,\nand manasic globes.  The equatorial belt, where phenomena are\nrichest in the manasic globes, we call the Milky Way;  in the\nsolar globe we call it the plane of the ecliptic;  and on the\nearth, the tropics.  Modern science has not yet found it in\nAlcyonic globe--because it has never thought of looking for it.\n\nThis division of the Light from the Darkness was all that was\nrequired for evolution on the manasic globe within the kinetic\nbelt.  This evolution was not confined to the making of a few\nalcyonic or pranic globes.  It was (and is) a great and wonderful\nevolution beyond words and almost beyond imagination.  It is the\nHeaven which mankind has longed to see and know.  The writer of\nGenesis mixed it with the creation of this earth, using earthly\nmetaphors.  Before finding fault, we should better his language.\nWe have not the words in physics to do it, and must wait for our\nmetaphysics.  But of one thing we may be sure, that the pranic-\nalcyonic globes here and there at the \"sea level\" of the manasic\nglobe--in what God calls Heaven--amount to no more on that\nglobe, or in Heaven, than so many balls of thistle-down blown\nacross a meadow do on this earth of ours.  Everything that can be\ncreated in thought must be there.  It is in thought only, but in\nthought it is differentiated as sharply as anything in prakriti.\nThe manasic world, the Heaven of the Bible, is as real as our own\nworld can possibly be;  in fact, more real, for when ours is\nresolved back into its final elements, it will be but \"the dust\nof the ground\" of the manasic world.\n\nThe pranic globes created in this manasic skin by Sound, or the\nLogos, or vibration, evolved in identically the same way--with a\ncentral static core and an outer static envelope, of low and high\nvibration in prana, creating attraction and repulsion, or gravity\nand apergy.  The kinetic skin between, in which these forces play\nin the pranic world, makes a real, not an imaginary pranic world,\nthough but a faint reflection of the manasic.  When our father,\nthe Central Invisible Sun, transfers his attraction to these\nalcyonic suns, the Light has something in which to manifest\nitself, and we \"see\" this manifesting core and call it Alcyone,\nand its manifestation Light;  but light in its last material\nanalysis is but the static mind or thought vibrating in the three\nlower notes of the octave.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Nine\n\nThe Dual Man\n\n\nWithin the alcyonic globes of differentiated pranic-manasic atoms\nthe vibration divided them also into solid-liquid cores and\ngaseous envelopes, and a kinetic skin of phenomena.  And then a\nnew world--a world of Life, came into material existence.  All\nthe atoms of thought or manasa, surrounding each and every pranic\natom, and making its molecule of energy, so to speak, were that\nparticular kind of kinetic manasa ready to change its rate of\nvibration within an octave, and the forms prana assumes from the\naction of thought within the kinetic belt were living and\nthinking.  Each pranic globe, which was a small state of product\nof the manasic, consisted of two globes in coadunition--two in\none.  Each pranic atom was the centre of a manasic molecule and\nrepresented the universe.  All things were two in one, created by\nharmonic vibration between them, and existence by the greater\nstrength of the lower notes, or attraction.  It was at once less\nand more wonderful than the manasic world--a specialized form of\nit.\n\nWhen within this kinetic belt of the prana the etheric solar\nglobes formed here and there, they were three fold, each atom of\nthe new plane of matter having its surrounding envelope of prana-\nmanasa--a specialization of the pranic world in which (what we\ncall) force had been added to life and mind.  The static ether,\nvibrating in each of its elements through one octave, divided\ninto central core (our sun, and other suns) and outer covering,\nwith a skin or belt of kinetic energy, \"as above\" which developed\nan etheric world.  All things on this etheric world were caused\nby the harmonic vibration between the etheric atoms and their\nsurrounding envelopes, except that while all things in this\netheric world must have life, not all need have mind.  The chord\nof three was not necessary to create;  the chord of two was\nenough, and the manasic atoms might cease to vibrate in chord\nwith the prana and ether without affecting the creation.  Only in\nthe etheric world (and below it) could there be living mindless\nones.  To the etheric globes the stellar pranic cores transferred\ntheir light, which manifested itself in the solid static ether as\nAttraction and in the gaseous static ether as Repulsion, within\nthe kinetic skin of each etheric world more specialized and less\nvaried than the pranic.\n\nOur sun is not of prakriti, but of static ether, composed of the\nseparate and individual elementary substances of the ether, and\ntheir compounds vibrating in the lower notes of their octaves.\nIt is our father, not our elder brother.  Its envelope of static\nether in which the planet revolves is composed of the elementary\nsubstances and combinations vibrating in the higher notes of\ntheir octave.  The light transferred to this etheric globe from\nits mother, Alcyone, manifests itself in the lower vibration of\nthe sun as Attraction;  in the higher vibrations of its envelope\nas Repulsion, and within the kinetic skin wherein these forces\nplay, the prakritic globes, planets, were born.\n\nTake our earth.  Each atom is fourfold--whether of the static\ncore or of the static gaseous envelope.  Creation on it is\nlimited to the kinetic skin, wherein the attraction of the lower\nand repulsion of the higher notes in each octave of vibration\nhave full play.  All things on it must have come from the\nchording vibrations of the atoms of the prakritic elementary\nsubstances and their envelope of ether.  They may or may not have\nlife or mind the ether atom may have lost its chord with its\npranic envelope, or the pranic envelope may have lost its chord\nwith the manasic;  but the combination must have force or energy\nwithin it.  It may have lost Mind and Life in acquiring it, or\nafter acquiring it;  but it had to have life before it could\nbecome prakriti.\n\nAll things in the prakritic world flow from the Life of the\netheric and the Mind of the pranic worlds.  Everything in the\netheric world has life, and our unconscious personification or\n\"vivification\" of etheric life transferred into fauna or flora,\nor into force of any kind, has a natural explanation.  The\nthrill of vibration in one octave through the differentiated\nconsciousness of the universe by which the light was separated\nfrom the darkness, the lower from the higher, was all that was\nrequired to create each star and sun, and world, and all that in\nthem is.  And it was all good.\n\nEach thing on every lower world was but the translation into form\nof the type of the next world (or plane) above.  As each element\non this prakritic type, so each combination of those elements\ninto crystal or tree or animal is but the translation.  The\nnormal earth from the crystal to (the animal) man was pure, and\nclean, and holy.  Sin had not entered.\n\nHow did it come?\n\nOn the vast manasic world there was \"a special creation\"--that\nof the Angel Man.  The three planes of Spirit above were\nundifferentiated consciousness, but they were in different\noctaves of vibration, and these working on the three highest\nforms of differentiated consciousness (manasic matter) brought\nthem to chording Vibration so that when they combined and reached\ntheir highest point in evolution they \"created\" the Angel (or\nmanasic) man.  He was the product in kinetic manasa of the three\nspiritual planes above him, precisely as the animal man was the\nproduct in kinetic prakriti of the three material planes above\nhim.  The latter was the \"shadow\" of the other.\n\nThe Angel-man had a material (manasic) body, but his energy life,\nand mind were spiritual.  The animal man had a prakritic body,\nwith energy, life and mind that were material.\n\nSo far all was good.\n\nThe animal man has four bodies--one of prakriti, one of ether,\none of prana, and one of manasa.  It may be true, and probably\nis, that his manasic body is not sounding in chord with his\nprakritic body, but only with those atoms of it which are in his\nbrain and nerves;  but that is immaterial--for future\nconsideration.\n\nThe Angel man had but one body, of manasa, in which the spirit\ndwelt;  but that body was identical in substance with the body\nthat made the mind of the animal man.  His manasic body joined\nthe manasic body of the animal man, joined with it by entering\ninto the animal man's mind, as easily as water from one glass is\nadded to water in another glass, and the animal \"man became a\nliving soul,\" endowed with speech, while the Angel-man was given\n\"a skin coat.\"\n\nThe prakritic body of the animal man was the result in prakriti\nof an etheric-pranic-manasic, or \"astral\" body, formed in\naccordance with the Universal Law.  For what he was by nature, he\ncould not be blamed.  He stood naked and not ashamed before the\nRadiance.  He did not make his astral body;  he was the mere\ntranslation of it into prakriti, as all other created things\nwere, and that invisible astral self (figuratively) stood at his\nright hand, moulding and shaping him.\n\nBut when the Angel-man entered his mind, all this was changed.\nHe \"knew Good from Evil.\"  To his mind of manasa had been added\nthe Spirit--the Atma-Buddhi's Consciousness of the three\nSpiritual planes.  He has become \"as one of us,\" said the Angel-\nmen of the firmament, of Heaven.  He now held the seven planes\nand was a creator.  Each thought and desire that, when an animal\nonly, fell harmless, now created on the pranic and etheric world.\nSoon beside him, at his left hand (figuratively) there grew up a\nsecond etheric or astral body, that of his desires;  and his\nprakritic body was no longer the product of the astral body on\nhis right hand.  It was the joint product of the left-hand Kamic\nastral body he had created, and the right hand normal astral\nbody.  He was no longer in harmony with the Radiance.  He could\nno longer face it.  He had created discord--Sin.\n\nThe pretty legend of the two \"Angels,\" one on the right hand and\none on the left, has its physical basis in this truth, but, of\ncourse, as a matter of actual fact, the normal and abnormal\nastral bodies are in mechanical union.  It is the Kamic self-made\nastral body that remains from one incarnation to another,\nproducing in joint action with a new normal astral body, a new\nphysical body for the Inner-Self, or Angel taking the pilgrimage\nthrough the lower world.\n\nAll the Angel-men did not enter the animal men on the pranic\netheric-prakritic globes;  only a few.  It was a pilgrimage\nthrough matter in which those who make it are meeting many\nadventures, but the legends are many, and have no place in the\nphysics, although the legends are all founded on the facts of the\nphysics.\n\nOf the number of monads, willing to undertake the pilgrimage,\nonly a few of those within the kinetic belt of the manasic globe\nhave reached the pranic.  Only a few of those within the pranic\nkinetic belts reached the etheric.  And of all who have reached\nthis earth, only a few may win their way back before the great\nday Be-With-Us.\n\nThe problem of man, and his relations to the universe, are an\nentirely different line of study from that of the Spiritual\nMonad, the over-soul of every prakritic atom.  Each prakritic\natom has what may be called a soul, its three-fold astral cause;\nand an over-soul, or the three-fold spiritual archetype, or\ncauseless cause.\n\nEvery combination of these atoms, whether a knife, a leaf, an\nanimal, an earth, a sun, or a star, has this soul and oversoul.\n\nOnce the idea of what is meant by these terms becomes clear, the\ndifficulty in understanding them vanishes.  The study of man is\nphysical in its lower branches;  metaphysical only in its highest\nand last analysis.  The study of the Monad is metaphysical from\nstart to finish.  The two studies are apt to be confused, because\nmetaphysically they are often joined for study, the teacher\ntaking it for granted that the pupil fully understands the simple\nand easy physics of the problem of humanity.\n\nThis, in crude and bold outline, is the story of creation to the\nfall of man according to the ancient physics, translated into the\nwords and phrases of modern physics.  The latter, in the latest\ndiscoveries of modern science, seem to have stolen a shive\nfrom the ancient loaf in the expectation that it would not be\ndetected.  Each and every step forward that modern science has\nmade in the past twenty years, each and every discovery of every\nkind in the physical field, has been but the affirmative of some\nancient doctrine taught in the temples of the East before \"Cain\ntook unto himself a wife.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Ten\n\nThe Septenary World\n\n\nIn the physical universe we have the four informing physical\nglobes, so that as a whole or in its parts, it is \"a string of\nseven globes,\" reaching from the highest spirit to the lowest\nmatter.  The awakened Universal Consciousness in vibration\n--undifferentiated in the three globes above, differentiated in\nthe four globes below--in its last analysis is all one.  But there\nis a gulf between matter and spirit, radically dividing them, and\nin the physical universe we are concerned only with physics and\nphysical laws, until we reach its outmost boundaries and come in\ntouch with the spiritual planes beyond.\n\nThis is the view of the universe at first glance, as in the\nsmaller universe of this earth we at first see only its solid and\nliquid globes.  And even after the discovery of the gas, we do\nnot apprehend its important work in and behind the others until\nit has been pointed out to us.  Nor do we at first apprehend the\nwork of the spiritual in the material, and the object of\nmetaphysics is to show, through the physics, the connection\nbetween them that the spirit works through matter;  that where we\ncan see but four there are seven beads on each material string;\nand that the last bead of each string is itself a chain of beads,\nthe \"chain of seven\" applying only to the seventh manifestation,\nor prakriti, while the \"strings\" apply to the way in which they\ncome.\n\nOn each unraveled string leading from our central sun down to a\nplanet there are seven beads corresponding to the seven globes in\nthe chain of each planet, each to each, yet not the same.  There\nis a distinction, and it is no wonder there should have been\nconfusion at first and a mixing of \"strings\" with \"chains.\"  The\nphysics as they progress will clear this confusion away.\n\nIn the manasic globe, which is the first differentiation of that\nwhich forms the spiritual globes above, the resulting mind or\nmanasa is mainly the differentiated Divine Mind of the highest.\nIt has a \"chain\" of two globes only, itself and the Divine Mind\nglobe, although its \"string\" of globes is four.\n\nIt is the perfected differentiation of the Buddhi in manasa\nthat causes the formation of the pranic globes, which have\nchains of four and strings of five, and the full and perfect\ndifferentiation of the Atma in manasa-prana that causes the\nformation of the etheric globes, which have chains of six and\nstrings of six.  Consciousness, Buddhi and Atma are practically\nthe same as the manasa, prana, and ether, each to each, only the\nlatter are differentiated and the former are not.\n\nEach of the three astral globes is the reflection in matter of\nthe three spiritual globes beyond, each to each, and all to all.\n\nThe difference between matter and spirit is a difference in\nMotion only.  Both are vibrating, so that both are in mechanical\nmotion, from force without, like the waves of the ocean, but only\nthe matter has what we may properly call motion of its own, or\nthat produced from within--from the atom and each organism of it\nup to the ALL, as the vibration is from the ALL down to the atom.\nIt is this centre of force in an atom, this motion outside of\nvibration, or rather beside it, which we call \"differentiation.\"\nBrinton's \"daring psychological speculation\" that \"mind was\ncoextensive with motion\" (from organization) was but a repetition\nof one of the most ancient axioms.\n\nTake our solar etheric globe.  It has two other globes of matter,\nconsubstantial;  a globe of prana and a globe of manasa.  They\nare not beyond it, or beside it, but one with it, atom for atom.\nBut what are they in reality?  Globes of Atma, Buddhi, and\nConsciousness in which the atoms, having organized, are in\nmotion, are they not?\n\nLet this motion in this material universe cease, and matter would\nmelt away and resolve into spirit.  From spirit it came, to\nspirit it belongs, and to spirit it returns.\n\nBehind each and every astral globe, whether the globe be but an\nastral atom, or an astral planet, or an astral world;  beyond its\nphysics there is a meta-physical globe, its cause, and that\nis the real globe, of which the astral is but a temporary\nphenomenon.  Take a spiritual globe and differentiate it.  The\nMotion resulting produces a material astral globe.  Stop the\nmotion;  bring it to a state of rest.  The astral shadow\ndisappears.  It was merely spiritual phenomena.\n\nEach and every astral atom is a model in miniature of the\nmaterial and spiritual universe.  Each and every prakritic atom\nis the joint result of spirit and matter united and working\ntogether--of physics and metaphysics;  and in its last analysis\npure spirit;  pure metaphysics.\n\nBehind each and every prakritic atom of our earth there are six\nother atoms (or globes), three material shadows and three\nspiritual realities, so that it is a string of seven--the whole\nuniverse in miniature--material and spiritual.  And all things\ncombined and formed on a prakritic base are a chain of seven\n--whether a peach or a planet.\n\nThe \"chain\" belongs to the prakritic plane.  The lines of descent\nfrom the Light through the star and sun to planet are \"strings.\"\nThe \"chains\" are beads of the same size strung on a thread.  The\nstrings are beads of different sizes strung on a thread.  The\nbeads of the chain are in coadunition--in the same space, as gas\nin water and the water in a sponge.\n\nIn metaphysics this earth can only be regarded as a chain of\nseven globes, its three astral globes in coadunition having their\nthree spiritual doubles.  Of course no one of the higher globes\ncan be seen by the prakritic eye, but that is not to say the\nastral world cannot be seen by the astral eye in sleep, or by the\nperson who qualifies himself for the astral world, through the\ndevelopment of his astral body.  \"No upper globes of any chain in\nthe solar system can be seen,\" says H.P. Blavatsky in the Secret\nDoctrine (vol. I, p. 187), yet she means by astronomers, not by\nsages.  And she does not mean the upper globes in the stellar\nsystem of Alcyone and its companions.\n\nIn pure physics the earth can only be regarded as a chain of four\nglobes consubstantial and in coadunition--four in and three out.\nThis makes seven, and the metaphysician when talking physics uses\nthe metaphysical terms interchangeably and speaks of \"the chain\nof seven globes\" meaning in one sentence the four material globes\nmaking this earth;  in another meaning the line of descent or\nstring of beads of different sizes reaching down from the Divine\nConsciousness;  and in still another the seven beads or globes of\nthe same size in coadunition to form this earth chain.  To the\nstudent who is thoroughly grounded in the eastern physics this\ninterweaving of the physical and metaphysical presents no\ndifficulties;  but to the western mind just beginning the study\nit is a tangle.\n\nWe can now see what is meant by illusion, or Maya, and understand\nwhy such stress is laid upon it by every teacher.\n\nTake the physical side first.  The motion of a top gives it bands\nof color to our eyes that it does not have at rest.  They are\ntemporary and not permanent, a result of motion merely;  illusion\nand not reality.\n\nThe motion of the material atoms of the four planes, in harmony\nwith their vibration, a motion the spiritual world does not have,\nproduces all material phenomena.  This is of course within the\nkinetic belts, for above or below them there is no change, and\nits phenomena are the mere change in relation of one atom to\nanother caused by motion.  The changes are not real.  They\ndisappear when the motion stops.  They have no existence in\nmatter above or below the belt.\n\nAll phenomena of every kind are as much an illusion as the\nsupposed bands of colour around the top.  The illusion is the\nresult of changes of relation in differentiated atoms caused by\ntheir motion.  Without this motion the four material globes would\ndissolve into the atomic dust of the manasic world, with all that\nis within them.  The whole material universe is all illusion;  a\nmere temporary relation of its atoms through motion, without\nReality or permanence.\n\nWhat then is real?  What is not illusion?  That which is beyond\nthe physical, that which is its cause and root;  broadly, the\nmetaphysical, which is not the result of differentiated atoms\nthrough relation.  What was real in the top is real here.  What\nwas illusion in the top is illusion here.\n\nThe meta-physical or spiritual (the terms are interchangeable)\ndoes not have to pass beyond the manasic globe to get on the\nsolid ground of reality.  The spiritual world is here in every\nphysical atom and in every aggregation of them;  in every planet,\nsun, and star;  for they are seven, each and every one, not four.\nBehind the illusion of one atom or many, whether here or on\nAlcyone, there is reality and permanency in the undifferentiated\ncause, the spiritual archetype, the three higher beads on the\nstring which are the proper study of metaphysics.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Eleven\n\nStumbling Blocks in Eastern Physics\n\n\nThe Western student of the ancient Eastern physics soon meets\nserious stumbling-blocks;  and one at the very threshold has in\nthe last half century turned many back.  In beginning his study\nof the solar system, the pupil is told:\n\nThe first three planets--Mercury, Venus, and the moon--are dead\nand disintegrating.  Evolution on them has ceased.  The proof of\nthis is found in the fact, that they have no axial rotation,\nMercury and Venus always presenting the same surface to their\nfather, the sun, and the moon the same surface to its daughter,\nthe earth.\n\nThis is a concrete statement of physical fact at which the\nWestern student protests.  If in the whole range of Western\nastronomical science there is any one fact that he has accepted\nas absolutely proved, it is that Mercury revolves once in 24h.,\n5m., 30.5s., and Venus once in 23h., 21m., 22s.  He would as soon\ncredit a statement that the earth has no axial rotation as that\nMercury or Venus has none;  and if he continues his study of\nEastern physics it is with no confidence in its accuracy, and as\na matter of curiosity.\n\nThe statement that Mercury, Venus, and the moon \"are dead\nand disintegrating,\" the former two \"always presenting the\nsame surface\" to the sun, is the basis for an elaborate\nsuperstructure, both in the physics and the metaphysics of the\nEast.  It is used in physics to explain how the \"evolutionary\nwave\" came to an end at the perfection of the mineral on Mercury\nwith the loss of its axial rotation;  how the \"wave\" then passed\non to Venus with the seed of the vegetable kingdom, where the\nvegetable evolution ended with the loss of axial rotation;\nhow from Venus it leaped to the moon, mother of animals and\ncontroller of animal life, with the seed of animal life in the\nvegetable;  and how finally it came to the earth, when the moon\nceased to revolve, bringing in the animal the seed of man.  Here\nman will be evolved and perfected.  Man has not yet been \"born\"\non this earth, they say.  He is still in a prenatal or embryonic\ncondition within the animal.\n\nThe lunar Pitris, the men-seed, have a physical reason for being,\nif this evolutionary theory be true;  none if it is not.  Axial\nrotation is necessary in evolution, the ancient physics teaches,\nwhich must cease with it.  The reasons for this are too lengthy\nto give here.  Briefly, the rotation makes the electrical flow\nand a thermopilic dynamo of each planet.\n\nThe ancient astronomical teaching is absolutely true.  There will\nnot be a work on astronomy published in Europe or the United\nStates this year, or hereafter, that will not state that \"Mercury\nand Venus revolve on their axes in the same time that they\nrevolve around the sun,\" which is another way of saying that\n\"they have no axial rotation, always presenting the same face to\nthe sun,\" and an inaccurate way of presenting the truth.  The\nscrew that holds the tire at the outer end of the spoke does not\nrevolve \"once on its axis\" each time the wheel revolves.  Run a\ncane through an orange and swing it around; the orange has not\nrevolved \"once on its axis.\"  Nor does the stone in a sling\nrevolve \"once on its axis\" for each revolution around the hand.\nThe motion of Mercury is identically that of the impaled orange\nor the stone in the sling.  It has no axis and no axial rotation.\nThe modern astronomers, detected in pretenses to knowledge they\nnever possessed, let themselves down easy.\n\nThis \"discovery,\" of no axial rotation by the interior planets,\nmade by Schiaparelli and confirmed by Flammarion in 1894, has\nsince been fully verified by our Western astronomers.  All the\nnew astronomies accept it.  But the admission of astronomical\n\"error,\" to speak politely, comes too late for the student it\nturned back from his study of Eastern physics.  He cannot regain\nhis lost faith and lost ground.\n\nThirty years ago Proctor made it clear to Western students that\nthe orbit of the moon was a cycloidal curve (a drawn-out spring)\naround the sun, the earth's orbit being coincident with its axis;\nand that the moon was, astronomically and correctly, a satellite\nof the sun, not a satellite of the earth.  This has been the\nEastern view and teaching from time immemorial.\n\nThe Eastern distinction between father Sun and mother Moon, and\nthe classification of the latter as a planet, did not disturb the\nWestern student.  He understood that.  It was the \"absolute\naccuracy\" of modern astronomers in regard to the length of the\nday on Mercury or Venus, which the astronomers declared had\nbeen corrected down to the fraction of a second, that made it\nimpossible for him to accept the Eastern physics when the latter\nsquarely contradicted his own.\n\nThis was but the first of many similar stumbling-blocks in the\npath of the student of Eastern physics.\n\n     \"Few were the followers, straggling far,\n     That reached the lake of Vennachar;\"\n\nand when they did, this was what they had to face:\n\n\"The planets absorb and use nearly all the solar energy--all\nexcept the very small amount the minor specks of cosmic dust may\nreceive.  There is not the least particle of the sun's light, or\nheat, or any one of the seven conditions of the solar energy,\nwasted.  Except for the planets, it is not manifested;  it is\nnot.  There is no light, no heat, no form of solar energy, except\non the planets as it is transferred from the laya center of each\nin the sun to them.  The etheric globe is cold and dark, except\nalong the lines to them--the \"Paths of Fohat\" [solar energy].\nSix laya centers are manifested in the sun;  one is laid aside,\nthough the wheels [planets] around the One Eye be seven. [This\nalludes to the moon, whose laya center in the sun is now also\nthat of the earth;  but it is considered as a planet].  What each\nreceives, that it also gives back.  There is nothing lost.\"\n\n\"That settles it,\" says one student;  and the others agree.  Of\nthe hundred who started,\n\n     \"The foremost horseman rode alone,\"\n\nbefore the next step was won.\n\nIn the light of the tardy but perfect justification of the first\nstumbling-block, this statement may be worth following out, \"to\nsee what it means,\" and how \"absurd\" it can be.  An etheric\nglobe;  cold as absolute zero, dark as Erebus, with here and\nthere small pencils of light and heat from the sun to the planets\n--just rays, and nothing more--is a very different one from the\nfiery furnace at absolute zero of the modern physicist.\n\nOn a line drawn from the center of the earth to the center of the\nmoon there is a point where the \"weights\" of the two bodies are\nsaid in our physics exactly to balance, and it lies, says our\nphysics, \"2,900 miles from the center of the earth, and 1,100\nmiles from the surface.\"  This is the earth's \"laya center\" of\nthe Eastern physics.  It is of great importance in problems of\nlife;  but it may be passed over for the present.\n\nBetween the earth and the sun--precisely speaking, between this\nlaya center and the sun--there is a \"point of balance,\" which\nfalls within the photosphere of the sun.  This point in the sun\nis the earth's solar laya, the occult or hidden earth of the\nmetaphysics.\n\nA diagram will make this clearer.  Draw a line from the laya\ncenter in the sun to that in the earth.  Draw a narrow ellipse,\nwith this line as its major axis, and shade it.  At each end of\nthe axis strike the beginning of an ellipse that will be tangent.\nIf positive energy is along the shaded ellipse, negative energy\nis in each field beyond--earth and sun.  This is a very crude\nillustration of a fundamental statement elaborated to the most\nminute detail in explanation of all astronomical phenomena;  but\nfor the moment it will do.\n\nThe point is that along this axial line connecting the\nlaya centers play all the seven solar forces--light, heat,\nelectricity, etc.--that affect the earth, and on every side of\nthis line is the \"electric field\" of these forces.  To this line\nany escaping solar energy is drawn, as the electricity of the air\nis drawn to a live wire or magnet.  But there is little or none\nto escape.  From the laya point in the sun to the laya point in\nthe earth, the solar energy is transferred as sound is carried\nalong a beam of light (photophone), or electricity from one point\nto another without a wire.\n\nTo the advanced student of electricity the ancient teaching is\neasily apprehended;  to others it is difficult to make clear.\nThese laya centers, it says, are \"the transforming points of\nenergy.\"  From the earth laya to the solar laya centre, the\nenergy, we may say, is positive;  beyond both the solar and the\nearth laya centre, in the fields touching at them, it is negative\n--or vice versa.  The line connecting the layas is the \"Path of\nFohat\"--the personification of solar energy.\n\nThis is a very crude and brief way of putting many pages of\nteaching, but the important point is that this line between the\nlayas is one of solar energy, with a dynamic \"field\" of solar\nenergy, elliptical in shape, connecting with the reverse fields\nat the laya points.  These \"dead points\" are the limits of each\nelectric field, which \"create\", we say in electrical work,\nopposing fields beyond them.\n\nEach one of these planets has its laya centre inside the sun's\nphotosphere.  Each planet has a line of solar energy with its\n\"field\" of solar energy--not only a wireless telegraph, but a\nwireless lighting, heating, and life-giving system.  These six\nsolar laya points are the six \"hidden planets,\" the earth and\nmoon being one, of the ancient metaphysics.  The moon is the one\n\"laid aside.\"  In their reception of energy from the sun, it is\nas if the planet were at the solar laya point, or connected with\nit by a special pipe-line.  The position of these six planetary\nlaya points in the sun is indicated by the position of the\nplanets in the heavens, and they may often influence or modify\none another.  If Mars, Jupiter, or Saturn is anywhere near\nconjunction with the earth, not only will a part of their\n\"fields\" be joined, but their laya points in the sun will be\nmodified.\n\nThe physical basis of the old astrology was the physical\ninterferences of these fields of solar energy;  and what it\ndepended on mainly in its work was the position of the six hidden\nplanets, or laya centers, which was shown by the position of the\nplanet with reference to the earth.  That the planets themselves\naffected any one or anything on this earth, no real astrologer\never believed;  that their position in the heavens indicated\ncertain changes and modifications of the flow of solar energy to\nthe earth, they knew from their knowledge of physics.  \"The\ntwelve houses are in the sun,\" says Hermes, \"six in the north and\nsix in the south.\"  Connect them with the zodiac, and the\nposition of the planets shows the interferences of the solar\ncurrents.\n\nThe one objection to this ancient theory is that it does not\npresent enough difficulties.  The present value to science of the\nmany theories in relation to the sun is the impossibility of\nreconciling any two of them, and the fact that no two theorists\ncan unite to pummel a third.  This ancient theory does not call\nfor any great amount of heat, light, or energy in any condition\nto keep the Cosmos in order--not even enough for two persons to\nquarrel over.  It merely turns the sun into a large dynamo\nconnected with smaller dynamos, and these with one another with\nreturn currents by which \"there is nothing lost.\"  In its\ndetails, it accounts for all facts--neatly, simply, and without\nexclamation points.  It is so simple and homespun, so lacking in\nthe gaudiness that makes (for example) our light and heat less\nthan the billionth part wasted on space always at absolute zero,\nthat we may have to wait many centuries to have it \"verified\" and\n\"confirmed\" by our Western Science.  That it will be \"verified\"\nin time, even as the first stumbling-block has been removed at\nthe end of the nineteenth century, its students may at least\nhope.\n\nThe lesson, if there is one, is that the Western student of\nEastern physics does not ride an auto along asphalted roads.\nHe must own himself and not be owned by another man, or even\nby \"Modern Science.\"","title":"Ancient and Modern Physics","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":22264}