In the following essay, Dr. F. Hartmann, an enlightened author of the Theosophical and Occult school, presents the mystic or Oriental view of man, in an interesting manner, deducing therefrom a philosophy of the healing art. My readers will no doubt be interested in his exposition, and, as the ancient doctrine differs materially from the results of experimental investigation, I take the liberty of incorporating my comments in publishing the essay. A RATIONAL SYSTEM OF MEDICINE.All lovers of truth, progress, and freedom of thought must be grateful to Dr. J. R. Buchanan for his discovery of the science of SARCOGNOMY. His system brings us nearer to a recognition of the true nature of man, his origin and his destiny, and of the relations which he bears to the Divine Source from which he emanated in the beginning, and to which he will ultimately return; for the enlightened ones of all nations agree that the real man, who resides temporarily in the physical human body, who feels through the instrumentality of the heart, and thinks through the instrumentality of the brain of the external body, does not originate in the womb of the mother from which the physical body is born, but is of a spiritual origin, again and again re-incarnating itself in physical masks and forms of flesh and blood, living and dying, and being reborn, until, having attained that state of perfection, which renders the inner man capable to exist in a state of spiritual consciousness without being encumbered by a gross earthly organization, which chains him to animal life. [It should here be remarked that the great majority of those who are considered enlightened, and to whom the world is indebted for the sciences which it now possesses, do not accept this theory of re-incarnation. As commonly stated, it is liable to many decisive objections, and these objections, which I have clearly stated in the Religio-Philosophical Journal, have not been, and I think will not be, removed by the teachers of re-incarnation.] It may perhaps not be premature to examine how far the doctrines of Dr. Buchanan correspond with the doctrines of occult science; that is to say, with that science which is based upon a perception and understanding of certain facts, which, to be perceived, require spiritual powers of perception, such as are not yet developed in the majority The ancient religions, as well as reason and logic, tell us that there is, and can be, only one supreme God, or First Cause of the universe, and that from this one first and fundamental Cause or Power every secondary power and everything that exists has come into existence, or been evolved within it and through its eternal activity. The whole of the universe with everything contained therein, man included, is and can be nothing else but a manifestation of this internal fundamental power, or, as it has been expressed by the ancient philosophers, the universe is the product of the Divine Imagination (thought) of the First Great Cause, thrown into objectivity by its eternal Will. We see, therefore, the great unmanifested One manifesting itself in its own Substance (Space) by means of two powers, Thought (imagination) and Will (the Word or Life); both powers being fundamentally identical and merely two different modes of activity or functions of the One Eternal, internal Principle, called God. According to the Bible, God said, “Let there be light,” and through the power of this outspoken “Word,” the world came into existence. This allegory, expressed in modern language, means that by the active Will of the universal First Cause, the images existing in its eternal memory were thrown into objectivity and thus produced the germs from which the worlds with all things existing therein were evolved and grew into the shapes in which we see them now. The Brahmins say that when Brahm awoke from his slumber after the night of creation (the great Pralaya) was over, he breathed out of his own substance, and thus the evolution of worlds began. If he in-breathes again, the worlds will be re-absorbed in his substance, and the day of creation will be over. [God being essentially and self-evidently inconceivable by man, all attempts of Brahmin, Christian, or any other theologians to explain his existence and his methods of creation can be recognized by the scientific mind only as hypotheses unsusceptible of verification, and, therefore, incapable of becoming a proper basis of Philosophy.] Thus we find, on examining the doctrines of all the greatest religions of the world, that they all teach the same truth, although they teach it in different words and in different allegories. They all teach that there exist two fundamental powers, originating from the absolute One, namely, Thought and Will; and it logically follows that if [The mode of expression used in this paragraph is rather misleading. One may have a complete mastery of his thoughts and will, while both thought and will are very feeble and ineffective. It requires great POWER in the will and thought to acquire such control over bodily functions, and any expression leading persons of feeble character to suppose they can attain such results would be delusive. Many persons of feeble character have been led by current speculations to aspire far beyond their ability.] Another fundamental doctrine of Occultism is that man is a Microcosm, in which is germinally (potentially) contained everything that exists in the Macrocosm of the universe. [An unproved hypothesis.] As the will and thought of that universal and divine internal power, which is called God, penetrates and pervades the whole of the universe; likewise the will and thought of man, if he has once attained perfect mastery over himself, extends through all parts of his organization, pervades every organ, and may be made to act consciously wherever man chooses to employ it. But in the present state of man’s condition upon this earth, no one but the adepts have acquired this power. In them thought and will act as one. In the vast majority of human beings thought and will are not yet in entire harmony, and do not act as one. In the regenerated one (the adept) heart and head act in perfect unison. The adept thinks what he wills, and wills what he thinks. In unregenerated humanity will and thought are divided and occupy two different centres. In them the will has its seat in the blood (whose central organ is the heart), and their thought or imagination has its seat in the brain. In them heart and brain are often not only not in perfect harmony, but even opposed to each other. But the will and life being one, and identical, we see that the central seat of life is not, as has been maintained by Dr. Buchanan, the brain, but the primary source of all life is the heart. We see, therefore, a discrepancy between the doctrines of Dr. Buchanan and the occult doctrines in regard to Anthropology; but this discrepancy is of no serious consequence; because the moon (the intellect) is in our solar system as necessary as the sun (the will), and as the vast majority of people have a considerably developed intellect, but only a very little developed will, and live, so to say, more in their brains than in their hearts, they may be looked upon as receiving their powers and energies from their brains, while the brain receives its stimulus from the heart. The ancient Rosicrucians compared the heart to the sun, the intellect, or brain, to the moon. The moon receives her light from the sun, the centre of life of our solar It is not to be supposed that the above truths will be at once accepted by every reader of the Journal, except by such as have given deep thought to the true nature of man. Neither are they a subject for scientific controversy or disputation. A knowledge of the truth is not produced by disputations and quarrels, but only by direct perception, experience, and understanding. The conclusions which man arrives at by logic are merely productive of certain opinions, and these opinions are liable to be changed again as soon as the basis from which his logic started, changes. A real knowledge of spiritual truths requires a power of spiritual perception, which few men possess. Nevertheless, even our logical deductions, taking as a starting point that which we know to be true, will help us to arrive at the same conclusions at which the Hermetic philosophers arrived by the power of spiritual perception. [In the foregoing passage, Dr. H. professes to state doctrines derived from intuition or spiritual perception by the ancients, and also recognized to-day by spiritual perception. To me they appear as the results only of that sort of ancient SPECULATION, which recognized earth, air, fire, and water as the four chemical elements of all things. I do not find them sustained by the spiritual perception of those who have the intuitive powers to-day, nor by scientific investigation. The substance of the heart is not the seat of life. It is a merely muscular substance, and ceases all action when separated from its controlling ganglia. The vitality of the heart lies in its ganglia—in other words, in the nervous system, in which alone is life, and of which the brain is the commanding centre. That life resides exclusively in the nervous system is one of the established principles of physiology, which cannot be disturbed by any theories descending from antiquity, before the dawn of positive science. That the will resides in the blood and the heart, is about as near the truth as Plato’s doctrine that the prophetic power belonged to the liver. If the region of Firmness in the brain be large, it will If we believe in one great spiritual cause of all, and conceive of it as the great spiritual Sun of the universe (of which our terrestrial sun is merely an image or reflection), we find that spiritual man (the image of God) can be nothing else but an individual ray of that spiritual sun, shining into matter, becoming polarized and forming a centre of life in the developing human foetus, and causing this foetus to grow in a living form of human shape, according to the conditions presented to it by the maternal organism, and when it is born, and becomes conscious, the illusion of self is created within that individual form. Besides the gross, visible, external form, more ethereal internal forms are evolved, which are of a longer duration than the outward physical form, but of which it is not necessary to speak at present. At all events, all that we positively know of man, is that he is an invisible internal power, which evolves an outward shape, which we call a human being. The material through which the organism is built up is the blood, and the centre from which the blood flows into all parts of the body and to which it returns from all parts, is the heart. [This is quite incorrect. The heart may cease acting, as in apparent death while the processes of thought and feeling are going on, and the individual is conscious that he is going to be buried, but incapable of giving the alarm. On the other hand the action of the brain may be suspended, as in apoplexy, while the heart is beating vigorously. In such cases, though the action of the cerebrum is suspended, the physiological brain or cerebellum sustains physical life. We cannot say that the heart is superior to the brain, because it supplies the brain with blood for its growth, any more than we could say the same of the lungs, which supply oxygen, without which the action of the brain is speedily arrested. We might even extend the remark to the stomach and thoracic duct, which supply the material for making a brain, which certainly does not prove their superiority. The action of the brain is far more important, for the quickest death is produced by crushing the brain, or by cutting it off from the body in the spinal cord of the neck, when heart, lungs, and stomach are promptly arrested by losing the help of the brain. If prior development in growth proved a superiority of rank, the ganglionic system which accompanies the arteries and precedes the evolution of the convoluted cerebrum would hold the highest rank, although it is destitute of consciousness and volition, which belong to the brain alone.] But what is this power which emanates from the brain, and which guides the organizing activity of the soul, but the power of life which is transmitted to the brain from the heart, and which is modified in its activity by the peculiar organization of the latter? Man in his present state does not think with his heart, but with his brain; nevertheless, the heart is superior to the brain, for the brain has been built up by the power which came from the heart; and it is a universal law of nature, that no thing can produce anything superior to itself. During its foetal existence the brain of the child is built up by the blood of the mother; after man is born his brain receives its power of life through the heart, and in spiritually developed man the thought-force created in the brain reacts again upon the will in the heart, controlling its desires and entering into harmonious We see, therefore, in man two centres of life, the heart and the brain, and it may properly be said that the brain is the seat of life, only it may perhaps be added, that it is the secondary seat, while the principal seat is, or ought to be, in the heart. [Dr. H. identifies will with life, yet every one knows that all acts of volition proceed from the brain alone, and never from the heart; hence by his own statement the brain is the seat of life.] According to the doctrines of the Hermetic philosophers, God is the invisible central fire in the universe from which the Light of the Logos (Christ or the celestial Adam) emanated in the beginning. Man being a Microcosm, contains in his heart the image of that internal and invisible central fire of Love, which sends the light of thought to the brain and illuminates the mind of the seer. We are at present not living in the age of Love, but in the age of Thought (not the age of Reason, but the age of Reasoning and Speculation), and by the law of heredity, life has become pre-eminently concentrated in the brain; while in a more advanced age, when the principle of universal Love and Benevolence will be generally recognized, life will become more strongly concentrated at the heart. Men will then not only think, but feel and become able to recognize the truth by that power which is known to us in its rudimental state as Intuition, but which, if developed, will be far superior to that uncertain feeling called Intuition, and become a Sun within the heart, sending its rays far up into the regions of thought. Then, as their Love for the supreme Good increases, will their knowledge increase, and as their knowledge expands will their Will become powerful and free. [The physiology of this passage is all erroneous. In the ages of animalism and barbarism the heart is more powerful, like the rest of the muscular system to which it belongs. In a more humane and refined condition the brain is more predominant. The female heart is not as well developed as the male. The moral superiority of women is due not to the heart but to the superior region of the brain, to which we owe all elevation of individuals and society.] It has been said above that Will and Life are identical, and there are sufficient facts to prove that they are one. A man may prolong his life by an effort of will, or he may cease to live if he wills to die. A loss of will-power in a limb is identical with paralysis of the latter. If the will (conscious or unconscious will) ceases to act, man ceases to live. No amount of thought exercised by the brain will raise a limb of a person, unless the person has the will to raise it; no amount of imagination on the part of the brain will execute an act, unless the will guided by the imagination causes the act to be executed. In the blood,—the representative of the animal life-principle (Kama-rupa) is the seat of the will, its central office is the heart. There the will or life-power acts consciously or unconsciously, sending its rays to the brain, where they become more refined, and from thence they radiate again back through the organism, causing A consideration of the above will go to prove that Love (Will or Life) and Thought (Imagination or Light) are the forces by which the soul forms and regenerates the external body, and that he who obtains mastery over these forces within his own organism will be able to change and remodel his body and to cure it of all ills. The fountain of life is the will, and if the will is good and pure and not poisoned by the imagination, a pure blood and a strong and healthy body will be the result. If the imagination (thought) is pure, it will purify the will and expel from the latter the elements of evil. The fundamental doctrine of the most rational system of medicine is therefore the purification of the Will and the Imagination, and every one carries within his own heart the universal panacea, which cures all ills, if he only knows how to employ it. The purification and strengthening of the will by acts of love and human kindness and by leading a pure and unselfish life, should be the principal object of all religious and scientific education. The Bible says: “If the salt (the will) of the earth is worthless, wherewith shall it be salted?” If the fountain from which all life springs is poisoned by evil thoughts, how can the soul and body be healthy? The best blood-purifier is a pure will, rendered pure by pure and holy thoughts. This fundamental and self-evident truth is continually overlooked in our present age. The education of the intellect for the purpose of attaining selfish interests is made of paramount interest and the heart is neglected and left to starve.1 The life-energy which ought to be employed to educate the heart and to render the will good and pure, is wasted in the top story of the temple of man in idle speculations about external and worthless things, in scientific quarrels and Hoping that with the appearance of the Journal of Man a new era of truly rational medicine will begin in progressive America, I am yours truly and fraternally, Kempten, Bavaria, April 7, 1887. [While reaching my conclusions in a different manner by careful and prolonged experimental investigation, and expressing them differently, I agree with Dr. Hartmann in his most important principle,—the importance of love as the best element of life, in sustaining health and intelligence, and the necessity of its culture in education, which has been so long neglected, and which I have endeavored to enforce in the “New Education.” The structure and functions of the brain demonstrate that its love region is the chief support of its life, that it supports both will and intelligence, and that it not only sustains the highest health of him in whom it is developed and exercised, but ministers also to the health of all whom he meets, and is the great healing power in those whose presence or touch relieves the sick. The existence of this beneficent power in the human constitution, more restorative and pleasant than all medicines when present in sufficient fulness, is rapidly becoming known throughout our country, and is made intelligible as to its origin, nature and application by Sarcognomy, as I am teaching in the College of Therapeutics. Medical colleges, in their ignorance and jealousy, unwisely exclude and war against this nobler and more ethical method of healing, thus compelling its development and practice as a distinct profession, which is rapidly undermining their influence and diminishing their patronage by showing that, in many cases where drug remedies have totally failed as applied by colleges, the psycho-dynamic faculty of man may accomplish wonders.] |