THEOSOPHY.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11366, 6 September 1897, Page 3

THEOSOPHY.

The Art Gallery was filled to its utmost capacity last night on the occasion of Colonel Olcott’s first appearance before a Christchurch audience. After a brief introduction by Mr J. O’Bryen Hoare, the Colonel began his address on the subject of “ Divine Healing.” He said that, as a student of eastern science and one identified with the Theosophical Society, he was glad to see that none of the great modern discoveries on the constitution of matter and the nature cf man militated in the slightest degree against the views of the ancient writers on these subjects; but, on the contrary, he had been able to trace, , during , the last twenty years especially, a tendency on the part of the Western world to get nearer the threshold of the ancient occult science. In medical science this Was particularly noticeable. In discussing the subject of Divine healing, it was very necessary to consider the healer. On this matter, the views of the moderns and ancients were found to be very sharply opposed, but he was glad to note a tendency on the part of modern men to come into line with Eastern thought, and this was strikingly shown in last year’s address of Dr Taylor (president of the International Medical Congrt ss, held at Melbourne). From Dr Taylor’s remarks, he judged that doctors were beginning to acknowledge that a man cannot be considered in perfect health so long as his spiritual being is troubled —and that was a great advance. It was owing to the impulse given by such considerations as these (for which the Theosophical Society was in a Large measure responsible) that the ancient, Aryan books of medical science were now being translated for the first time. The science expounded in the books had two points which distinguished it from the Western materia medica. The first was the care bestowed on the choice of the men who were to exercise the art of healing, and the second the recognition of the connection between human vital force and the universal force in the midst of which it was placed. Recognising that these universal forces were in a large degree dependent on planetary aspects, it was the custom of the Aryan practitioners of the science of divine healing to have the horoscope of every subject taken. By this means they discovered the temperament of the patient and its relation to the universal force. Hence it was that Aryan medical science did not give all people the same remedies for the same diseases, knowing that the vital force in a certain person could respond only to certain treatment. Turning then to Western medical science, homoeopathic treatment was seen to lie gaining ground and securing the bestresults. Now homoeopathy, as he knew bv personal observation, cured disease by the administration of such minute quantities of drugs as could have no effect on the physical body. It was his conviction that the homoeopathic drugs acted directly ou the inner, or astral, body, and this, reacting on the physical body, produced the cure. s regarded the training of Western medical men, this left, much to be desired. When one had seen, as he had, medical students at a lecture of the utmost importance involving future issues of life and death, playing cards, reading novels and doing anything rather than pay attention to the lecturer, they would' acknowledge this to be the case. Such students "got a “crammer” for (heir degrees, and, after they _ had slaughtered a certain number of patients, perhaps obtained some of the saving knowledge which they should have had from their student days. The lecturer weut ou to illustrate the progress of Western medicine from materialistic conceptions, by citing the adoption of mesmerism, clairvoyance and mental suggestion as healing agents - nil this had not been done without a great struggle on the part of the exponents of the new ideas. The Rontgen rays were also now being used by medical men, but the credit of the discovery of those rays should rest with an Austrian scientist, Herr You Reichcnhach, whose discovery ,of Gdic force clearly anticipated the later one. The lecturer illustrated ■ his method of treatment for a supposed case of paralysis of the arm. This treatment consisted in establishing a circuit of “vital force” through the affected part by means of touch, and so, the lecturer claimed, transferring this force from his own body, or from the atmosphere, to tho patient. In all the methods of higher medical treatment, at which he rapidly glanced, the great point to ho observed was the concentration -of the minds cf both healer and pa-unit on the desired effect. All the paraphernalia of dress and action with which, the hypnotist sometimes invested himself were used for this reason, Tho lecturer explained the so-called miracle cures, such as those at Lourdes and elsewhere, as due to mental suggestion. He defended hypnotists from the charge of charlatanism, and claimed that the results of hypnotic, mental or divine healing were such as to claim serious and reverent attention from the mind of every man who regarded with sympathy the welfaie and progress of his fellow-beings.