CLAIRVOYANCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13543, 16 March 1906, Page 8

CLAIRVOYANCE.

TO THE EDITOK. Slli,-In your issue of the 10th inst. Mr Maiu-ais states that my charge against the Theosophical Society of using hypnotism is both ridiculous and untrue. At. '-ho same time, he confesses the society explains the methods and effects of hypnotism, and hi another part of his letter he says Iho Advaita philosophy of India bears a closer resemblance to the ancient Wisdom religion we teach than any other extant. Well, Sir, no less an authority than Mr T. W. Rhys Davids, LL.D., Ph.D., professor of Pali and Buddhist literature at University College, London, emphatically declares that the study of self-induced trance is common to all Indian schools. All that is taught on the subject is accessible in handbooks, rnr.d the teachers, practised themselves in such things, arc willing to teach them to anyone who will submit to the necessary discipline. If these words of so eminent a Hindu scholar do not prove my contention 1 may well ask, AVhat is proof? for no man- or woman can throw him or herself into a self-induced trance without tho power known as hypnotism. Here, again, I reiterate the statement that, onco deprived of self-hypnotised clairvoyants, who produce pictures having no objective existence before the eyes of otners. both Hindu philosophy and Theosophy would collapse like the proverbial rope of sand.

Mr Maurais is extremely anxious to discredit my knowledge of hypnotism and clairvoyance, and would thrust upon mo and your readers an explanation (as ho terms it) of t.liese subtle forpes from Hindu text-books, written by sages for the express purpose of making others believe that

" they are. the people, and that wisdom will die with them."

Briefly stated, a hypnotist is a person who can exercise a personal influence on others, cither by contact or at a distance, and the can also .self-induce particular psychical states in himself, and if he possesses the clairvoyant faculty his powers of sight arc extended. AA'hilst I write we. liavo in this city a hypnotist and a clairvoyant. The former hypnotises the latter, and after the latter finds a tldrd jjerson en rapport with himself, and who is in possession of tho knowledge as to wiiere a certain knife is secreted, the clairvoyant, through his extended visionary powers, reads the mind of tho third party, and so is able to locate and find the hidden knife. All the rest of the show, "hypnotism extraordinary," is simply what theatrical people style " gag." Notwithstanding Air Maurais's refusal to discuss tho matter further, as a matter of fact it is by tho self-same means that bcSli black and white fakirs the world over maintain their nosition. Yet another fact: almost every Theosophical Society has at least one member who practises self-induced trance: otherwise the sooiety would dissolve through sheer inanition. In this connection lot me add right here that it is high time, for the sake of the youth of our Empire, that a statutory law was passed to_ prevent a clairvoyant or any other person being enslaved by a hypnotist." I trust tJiismatter will be ventilated in the forthcoming session of our Parliament, for the game _ is being carried on in New Zealand sometimes when people arc on their deathbeds. Tho writer remembers distinctly another story told by Colonel Olcott " with a twinkle in his eye": A certain fakir was able to produce a picture showing a todc flung into space, and a man climb from the bottom and disappear at the top end. When I referred to this in a previous letter Mr Maurais, in his reply, classed it as belonging to Indian jugglery, whereas tho colonel related the story to prove that disembodied spirits could be materialised. I venture to suggest the lack of knowledge is elsewhere.

Tho meanest crime of the Theosophists is this: the name of Buddhism has been absolutely rejected by the leading expounders of Theosophy; and yet, Sir, we have them boasting of leading the Cingalese back to tho faith of their fathers, and doing all this because of aggressive missionary enterprise, assisted by machine suns. The meanness of theosophical missionary enterprise is double-shotted. In the first place, manv of them' know as well as I do that the teachings of Christ (Whose words are spirit and they are life), if followed, can raise a man (as, for instance, Count Tolstoi) to a higher plane than can any extant system of philosophical ethics. But not only would the Theosophists (if they could) subvert the kingdom of God-on their own. admission they are doing their level best to subvert British rule in India. No better scheme to precipitate a second Indian. mutiny could possibly be devised than the promulgation among the Hindus that they have .been robbed of the religion of their fathers by aggressive missionary enterprise, assisted by machine guns—in other terms, the Theosophists are wolves in shonp's clothing. Mr Maurais's remark about the Ceylon Government having to face a deficit owing to the decrease in tho sale of intoxicating liquors—presumably among newly-fledged Buddhists —is not authenticated. I take leavo to sav that the removal of the naval station of the East Indian squadron from i Trinoomalee has had a .good deal mqre..t<>

; do with the decreased consumption of ini toxicants on the island than tho efforts of > the Theosophists anions the natives. And still another word, Sir, for Mr i Maurais would have us believe that two blacks make one white. To quote Mr ; John Campbell Oman: " Some sects (Christians) holding opinions entirely subi vcrsivo of morality, as we understand it, i cmiio into existence very early." No sano .person denies it was otherwise, and tho i apostles warned both their contemporaries . and us that such things would happen. ; Tho question is, Where aro those sects ; now? Mr Maurais, with his clairvoyance, may "seo" them in tho historic past, but they are not to bo found, even in Hindustan. The corruption of ideals in India . is entirely due to tho practice of selfinduced trance, for just as surely as water I finds its own level, so surely do clairvoy- ' ance and hypnotism in combination gravitate towards bestiality; and no "chemical bath" mixed by Mrs Annie Besant will cleanse the words and lives of those who delude themselves and others with abominable idolatry.—l am, etc.. D. Wisiurt.