THE LAND OF MYSTERY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20922, 11 July 1931, Page 8 (Supplement)

THE LAND OF MYSTERY.

TIBET FROM' WITHIN.

" For many Westerners Tibet is wrapped in an atmosphere of mystery. The "Land of Snows" is for them the country of the unknown, the fantastic and the impossible. What superhuman powers have not been ascribed to the various kinds of lamas, magicians, sorcerers, necromancers and practitioners of the occult who inhabit those high tablelands? . . And how/readily are the strangest legends about tliem accepted as indisputable truths. ... It is, therefore, quite natural that scholars accustomed to the strict discipline of experimental methods should have paid to these stories merely the condescending and amused attention that is usually given to fairy-tales." Such was the attitude of Dr. D'Arsonval, a professor of the College de trance before he came into contact with Madame David-Neel, the author of " My Journey to Lhasd," and the volume under review, " With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet." This lady, "an accomplished linguist, with books to her credit in English, French, German and Spanish,, is also a courageous explorer. She has spent fourteen consecutive years in Tibet, writes and speaks fluently all the dialects, and though a professed Buddist has remained a Westerner, a disciple of Descartes, practising the philosophic scepticism which distinguishes the Scientific observer. Madame DavidNeel, therefore, as the professor points out in the introduction, possesses all the physical, moral and intellectual qualities that could be desired in one "who is to examine a subject of this kind.

Land of Intense Silence. . Though the author, then, is not primarily concerned with the physical aspects of the country, we find; scattered through the book brilliant little pictures such as this of the entrance to the Himalayas : " Shrouded in the moving fogs, a fantastic army o! trees, draped in livid green moss, seems to keep watch along the narrow tracks, warning or threatening the traveller with enigmatic gestures. From the low valleys, buried under the 'exuberant jungle, to the mountain summits covered with eternal snow, the whole country is bathed in occult influences." Higher up, " the azalea and rhododendron thickets were still decked with their bright spring garment. A shimmering torrent of blossoms submerged the, valley and seemed to be pouring out on the neighbouring slopes a resistless flood of purple, yellow, red and pure white waves. Seen from a distance my porters, whose heads only emerged from the bushes, seemed to be swimming in a sea of flowers." But the road winds ever upward and s.. i the travellers reach the heart of Tibet, the region of majestic solitudes, of intense silence—a silence so insistent that, as the author puts it, it may almost be heard above the purling of the brooks or the roar of a waterfall.

Practice of "Magic. Madame David-Neel relates many strange things she has seen in this land of mystery, 'appearances and disappearances, instances of telepathy and of psychic phenomena generally, but she emphasises the fact that by the most revered mystics efforts to acquire super-normal powers are considered as uninteresting childish sports. In any case, communications from mystics to their disciples through, gross material means such as letters falling from the ceiling are unknown in lamaist mystic circles. " When questions regarding such facts arOvPut to contemplative hermits or erudite lamas they can hardly believe that the inquirer is in pal-nest and not an irreverent joker.'.' On hearing that some Englishmen believed in such ways of communicating with the departed, a _ lama exclaimed in amazement at such simplicity: " And these are the men who have conquered India!" Psychic experiences come unsought to those who, aided by silence and solitude, practice the contemplative life. " Mind and senses develop their sensibility. ... . .

Does one become a visionary, or rather is it not that one has been blind till then ?"

The dominant note of. the book is sanity and a calm reasonableness. The writer sums up her conclusions with the wish that " my account may awaken in some scientists, more qualified than myself for such work, the desire to undertake serious investigations of the phenomena which I have briefly mentioned in this book. Psychic research may be guided by the same spirit as any scientific study. The discoveries which can be made in that field have nothing of supernatural, nothing which may justify, the superstitious beliefs and ramblings in which some have indulged regarding the matter. On the contrary, such research may help to elucidate the mechanism of so-called miracles, and once explained, the miracle is no more a miracle." " With Mystics and Magicians in Tibet," by Alexandra David-Neel. {Bodley Head).