CHAPTER XIV

MAGNETISM

The terms Magnetism and Vitality are often used interchangeably, but this is an error. Vitality is an etheric element, drawn from the Sun, through the etheric counterpart of the spleen. The etheric body feeds upon this element (vitality), and so builds up and repair the gross physical body. Vitality is an necessary to us as the air we breathe, or the food we eat. It is this fluid which keeps up the constant circulation of etheric matter along the nerves, corresponding to the circulation of blood through the arteries and veins; and as oxygen is conveyed by the blood to all parts of the body, so vitality is conveyed along the nerves by this etheric current.
(The Hidden Side of Things, Vol. I, p. 64. C. W. Leadbeater.)

Now, Magnetism is not Vitality, nor it is what we commonly speak of as electricity. Magnetism is a life-force, generated within one's own Self. The magnetic healer by an effort of the will, generates within himself a great deal of this magnetism, and throws it into the subject, pushing back the patient's etheric nerve fluid and temporarily filling the place with his own. The outflow may be increased or diminished somewhat by the will, and it is colored with the good or evil tendencies of the healer, and so affects helpfully or injuriously all people within its radius. If the healer charges these magnetic radiations with love, sympathy, strength, self-reliance, harmony, then by the very law of radiation the essence of those virtues interpenetrate and help the body to which is is sent.

Magnetism, then, being an essence connected with the life, rather than with the form, cannot be measured or weighed as a remedy, but the results are plainly apparent in physical healing as the following case will illustrate. The gentleman was not a professional healer, but was well read in Anatomy, and had studied much on healing lines.

He says: "My sister was very ill and as the result of an examination we were told that an operation for Hysterectomy was imperative. The operation was performed by one of the best surgeons in the country with three physicians and two trained nurses in attendance. The exploratory incision revealed a condition far worse than was expected, so much so that the surgeon hesitated to perform the operation, saying she could never live through it, but our family physician insisted that it be done as arranged for. The operation was performed under protest. For three days and night my sister gradually sank, and on the fourth the doctors gave up all hope of saving her, and she herself had no hope.

"At this time I said to her, 'I want you to do just as I say, and everything will be all right.' I had the nurse get water as hot as the patient could drink, and had her take all she could. She soon vomited and within a few minutes she felt ready to sleep. The first obstacle I met with was that every time she tried to get out of the body in sleep, she would take the etheric physical with her, and in a moment would come back in to the body with such a shock as to momentarily stop the heart action. I sat beside her and told her to go right to sleep again. After two unsuccessful attempts, on the third, she went into a sound sleep for nearly five hours, during part of which time my treatment was given.

"There was no hypnotic thought used in the case. I called myself within myself, and became at perfect peace within and without, realizing that the channel made between myself and the deva builders whose work it is to rebuild the bodies, would bring the healing life down through them, through me, to the patient.

'I had their assistance from that moment as I helped them with the pure forces of Nature to build new material into the broken body, and so the turning point from death to life was passed." (Here follows a description of the treatment given with his own hands, recognizing positive and negative in their movements as he sent the force through the great nerve plexuses of the body.) "When she awakened she was perfectly refreshed and free from pain. From that time there was a steady improvement, so that at the end of two weeks the nurse was allowed to go. The surgeon and the doctor were so surprised at the change in the case that they could scarcely believe that it was true.

"Some time later our family physician asked me for an outline of my treatment, and of how the etheric body acted, and how it had to be brought back so that it would stay with the physical, the anaesthetic having weakened the link between it and the physical.
(The Hidden Side of Things, Vol. I, p. 341, C. W. Leadbeater.)
In a few days he came to me and said: 'I have a case at the hospital in the same condition that your sister was, and if she cannot be relived I am going to lose her.' I told him I would do what I could, and did so. At his next visit to his patient he found her much improved."

The description of the gentleman's own personal impressions in the matter is illuminating: "In addition to making myself a channel for the forces, I was permitted to experience in my own consciousness the part I was taking in the treatment, and to guide and direct the work done; this reality of the inner activities was much more real than the physical work I was doing. I became so absorbed in the workings of my own consciousness and the activities of the inner planes, that the physical was lost sight of. None of this was done through clairvoyance of any kind that I know of. It all seemed to be done through intuition."

Here we have the magnetism, the self-generated power of the man himself, coming as a great healing energy directed through his own super-physical consciousness out through his hands, and this made a mighty channel for the Healing Life. Such a super-power, sent out through the tips of the fingers into the great nerve centers of the patient's body could be likened to the use of an X or N-ray upon them as compared to ordinary magnetic manipulation. Hence its enormously increased power.

It is interesting to note the preparation which he made; that by "calling myself within myself" he gradually raised his consciousness by methods familiar to the occultist, to a point where the magnetic forces were not only of a higher, a superior order, but they rayed out through finer matter with what may be termed, for the moment for lack of a better term, cosmical light.

Again, the fact of the existence of an etheric body, which forms the connecting link between the physical and the astral body, and so its severance from the physical meant death to it, was apparent to even the family doctor, as also that it could be controlled. The astral and mental bodies also have their etheric doubles, and ether links them all together.

Magnetized water has not been explained upon any purely physical basis, therefore it has been set aside as unscientific, and the cures made by it have been frequently derided, covered up or denied. But the cures continue. Many instances are on record. We have previously ref erred to the Biblical record, of the angel stepping down into the pool periodically, for the healing of the people. In the school of Nancy and the Hospital San Salpetriere, in France, water under many experiments has been found to be a special conveyor of magnetism. Sir Frederick Treves, of London, has discovered a cure for sclerosis of the arteries in "radium" water, and cases on both sides of the Atlantic attest its virtues. The recent reopening of the discussion in regard to the healing power of the water at Lourdes, France, offers a proof that occult healing of this matter are coming to the front for consideration. Many springs of so-called sacred water, due to their healing virtues, have been found in centuries past. Some in America located by American Indians, still maintain their good repute. So far as known to us the cures from these American springs are progressive.

In the cases of the apparently fully-attested cures at Lourdes, the novelist Zola, himself a sceptic, was an eye witness to astounding instantaneous cures; cases which he saw entering the spring, with diseased lungs, broken legs, dislocated joints, and terrible cancers, came out of the water well, fully restored to health. Zola, commenting on the claim of the priests who said it was done by God, said there could be but one source, and that was "the only Mother, serene and impassive Nature." So again, in modern times, Nature, as the outer expression of the One, in the role of Health Intelligence, in command of all power to heal by any agency, is being recognized. Now, although the waters of the Lourdes spring are said to show on ordinary chemical analysis cannot reasonably be considered fully conclusive unless it has included a very definite and accurate test for "radium," or still finer elements.

The question arises whether, in any healing water, there may not be etheric, or X and N powers, which when aroused into activity by some powerful magnetizer, seen or unseen, will reach the subtle etheric body of the patient and accomplish the cure. It is not impossible that such etheric vibrations passing out as X or N ray waves could in a moment's time cure otherwise incurable diseases.

Who will, with open mind, investigate such healing springs to find if radium, with its etheric electronic potential acting as a channel for the healing power, may be hidden there in the ethers of the waters, and which acts as a conveyor of the Health Life to sufferers? The forces of magnetism are as yet obscure and scarcely glimpsed. They seem to be identical with Ojas, which in Hindu books is described as "the essence of strength, of vigor, of energy, of virility, of power. It is radiant and full of light. Through ten etheric ducts attached to the heart, it is carried to every part of the body. Without it, the life of all creatures would become extinct."

An interesting occurrence in connection with healing by magnetized water is here cited. Others of like nature have come to our notice.

"I discovered that I possessed remarkable healing powers, and realized that I could relive pain and cure disease by magnetizing water; or, in other words, could impart to the water the healing properties that the person needed and so heal in that manner. In ----- I went to Michigan. While there I looked astrally after such patients as needed my care. I went in this way to a friend in Philadelphia and found her ill in bed. I was seen by her and two others who where in the room with her. I asked for water and a bottle of it was brought to me. I magnetized the water, gave her a dose, and then bottled up the balance and told them how to administer it. She quickly recovered. This occurrence was later attested to by those present.

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